| VOLUME 64/NUMBER 33SOUTHPORT. N.C._ 50 CENTS | Neighbors A nature lover with a flair for the artistic has found his perfect retirement — 2B ft Jj| Sports South Brunswick started the conference season 2-0, then met Whiteville — 16B Our Town Aldermen will meet Thurs day to consider annexation of certain areas — Page 2 Occupancy tax measure before Senate By Richard Nubel Municipal Editor A bill now before the N. C. Senate would force collectors of local occu pancy taxes approved after March 1, 1995, to spend no less than two-thirds of those revenues on marketing. Southport-Oak Island officials, no tified of the bill this week by Long Beach town manager Jerry Walters, fear the state will move to make this ' marketing expenditure the rule for their towns, which have collected occupancy or accommodations taxes for years. They say the impact on ser vices the towns provide tourist popu lations would be drastic. "Somebody is ram-rodding this through that you've got to spend two thirds of this money for advertising," Yaupon Beach mayor May Moore told her board of commissioners Monday night. "That's insane." Moore and Walters have both said they would direct letters opposing the bill and its marketing provision to the area's legislative delegation. Caswell Beach and Southport elected officials are to get a Erst chance to react pub licly to the bill Thursday. "I just don't see spending two-thirds See Occupancy, page 6 services, schedules An Easter sunrise service for the Southport-Oak Island community will be held Sunday, 6:30 a.m., at the N. C. Baptist Assembly. The Southport-Oak Island Inter church Fellowship decided this year to organize one service for the whole community rather that two separate services for Southport and Oak Island. An Easter egg hunt for children will be held Saturday, 10 a.m., at Middleton Park in Long Beach. Brunswick County government of fices will close for the Easter holiday on Friday while all municipal offices will close Monday. County libraries will close Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but will reopen at 9 a.m. Monday. The U. S. Postal Service will not close for the holiday. Photo by Jim Harper A new day dawning By Wallace H. Harding Special to the Pilot The celebration had already begun when we awoke at 5 a.m. on that early April mom ing. A soft chorus of melancholy coo-coo cooing from several pairs of mourning doves joined with the happy, light-hearted, shrill background mu sic of spring peepers and the chirping notes of a choir of well-rehearsed crickets to perform the prelude to the day's ceremonies. Although our windows were closed, we had little trouble hearing the beautifully clear music amplified by the pre-dawn stillness that embraces this fleeting time of day like good memories embrace the soul. Evidence of the elaborate preparations for this spe cial day surrounded us as we ate our breakfast on the small, screened back porch that also served as a box seat to the going-ons in our backyard. The music was See Sunrise, page 8 Preliminary plat King’s Lynn development to be allowed By Richard Nubel Municipal Editor Likely developers of a proposed 14-parcel subdivision on the westernmost portion of King’s Lynn won reluctant approval of their preliminary subdivision plat at a repeat appearance before Long Beach Town Council Tuesday night. The subdivision, known as The Harbor at King's Lynn, has been platted west of any existing housing at King’s Lynn and its 14 lots average 50 front-feet and run from 399 feet to 599 feet deep from the oceanfront to King’s Lynn Drive. Commissioners on March 21 refused to act on developers’ request to approve the preliminary plat, saying they required additional in formation of the plat which is located near an area of environmental concern and an inlet hazard area. Moreover, council last month said See Long Beach, page 8 Basin repair top priority for Yaupon By Richard Nubel Municipal Editor Beginning this week, repair of the ill-constructed rapid-infiltra tion basin component of the Yaupon Beach wastewater treat ment system becomes top prior ity, mayor May Moore and the town’s board of commissioners said Monday night. Although the state's Division of Environmental Management re laxed its moratorium on addi tional sewer taps last week, that moratorium will not be com pletely lifted until the rapid-infil tration basin is repaired. More importantly, state regu lators will hold up action on the town's application to expand treatment plant and basin capac ity until the rapid-infiltration ba sin is repaired. And, timing is critical. The threat of summer crowds increas ing the amount of flow to the town's wastewater treatment sys tem forces the town into a rigid time schedule for basin repair. "As much as possible we need to push putting sand in the basin before the summer flow," mayor Moore told fellow commission ers. She said town work crews will begin scraping the basin bot tom — removing decayed algae and inferior quality sand placed in the basin by a rogue contrac tor in 1992 — by week's end. All town public works and utility employee schedules have been rearranged to accommodate the basin work. "I've been pushing the town See Yaupon, page 6 Prosperity, unemployment do mix Jobless figures taken to task By Terry Pope County Editor Figures can be confusing, as in how can the third fast est-growing county in the state also be one of just six with double-digit unemployment? Job experts maintain Brunswick County has a unique situation that contributes to higher-than-average numbers, at 11.1 percent in February. The Employment Security Commission office in Shallotte says it has plenty of jobs available that it is try ing to fill. "We've got job openings galore,” said Mazie Prink, county ESC director. "We are recruiting job applicants. We've got lots of jobs to fill.” According to the state, the county listed 3,090 persons out of work and actively seeking jobs in February. State average is 4.6 percent unemployment. A five-percent rate is considered as near-full employment. "We have more people employed than at any time in our history,” said James Smith, a professor of finance at .UNC-Chapei Hill. ”It is the first time since 1979 it has fallen below five percent in the South.” Given its growth rate and the building boom that has continued in the 1990s, how is it that the county's jobless rate is so high? Officials say it is based on the types of jobs that cycle workers on and off the payroll, such as ■ ■ In-Commuters County of Number of Residence Commuters Bladen 253 Columbus 904 New Hanover 2,114 Pender 275 Out-Commuters County of Number of Employment Commuters Bladen 10 Columbus 466 New Hanover 4,481 Pender 108 coastal dredging operations, the seafood industry with its winter seasons, longshoremen who have occasions! lulls and the tourist-oriented jobs in res taurants and shops. There are 420 nuclear decontaminators who live in Brunswick County who are called to work out of state as needed on certain jobs. When they are in a lull, they file unemployment claims with the ESC office in Shallotte. And there are many people who simply pack up their belongings and move to the county with the hope of landing a job once they get here. They fall in love with the county while on vacation or visiting, see tremen dous growth m the area and believe they will easily land a professional job. They will spend part of their first weeks standing in the unemployment line. "We've been growing in Brunswick County close to four percent per year,” said Tom Monks, executive director of the Brunswick County Economic Development Commis sion. "We're still exporting about 4,000 more jobs out of this county than we're importing per day." The commuting pattern is based on how rapidly the county is growing. Few take into consideration the county ranks in the top two percent of all rural counties in the nation in industrial recruitment. Monks said his EDC of fice is doing all jt can to match the swelling population. It simply cannot keep pace with such a huge demand. "I get calls all the time demanding that we recruit new industries," said Monks. "I don't see how this growth is going to stop." In 1993 six manufacturing plants chose Brunswick County, directly adding 19S jobs and 205 spin-off jobs % indirectly related to the business or for support services. Seven new companies were recruited by the county EDC in 1994, adding 357 jobs directly and 340jobs indirectly to the workforce. C During the first three months of 1995 three companies ■ have announced plans to locate here or to expand, adding 170 direct jobs and 160 indirect jobs. Four other corapa See Jobless, page 8 Forecast We can expect partly cloudly but otherwise nice weather for the period of Thursday-Saturday. Highs each will be in the high 60's with lows in the 40's. Tide table HIGH LOW THURSDAY, APRIL 13 6:51 a.m. 12:52 a.m. 7:24 p.m. 1:10 p.m. FRIDAY, APRIL 14 7:41a.m. 1:43 a.m. 8:13 p.m. 1:56 p.m. SATURDAY, APRIL 15 8:30 a.m. 2:32 am. 9:02 p.m. 2:42 p.m. SUNDAY, APRIL 16 9:20 am. 3:21a.m. 9:53 p.m. 3:29 p.m. MONDAY, APRIL 17 10:11a.m. <»:!! am. 10:45 p.m. 4:18 p.m. TUESDAY, APRIL IS 11:04 a.m. , 5:02 a.m. 11:39 p.m. 5:09 p.m. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19 -am. 5:56 a.m. 12:01pm. 6:04 p.m. The following adjustments should be made: Bald Head bund, high -10, low -7; Caswell Beach, high -5. low -1; Southport, high +7, low +15; Lockwood Polly, high -22, low -8.

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