i
May 10,1995
The State Port
PILOT
„ 3-sttS. '%■>, „ -i
VOLUME 64/ NUMBER 37
SOUTHPORT, N.C.
50 CENTS
Sports
The Brunswick Dolphins
will take to the hardwood
with Gene Doane as coach
Neighbors
Dosher Memorial Hospital
hosts its annual Health Fair
for Smithville Township
J
Our Town
Southport annexation map
will be first presented to
aldermen Thursday night
Yaupon
seeking
answer
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Yaupon Beach officials and their
consultants will take three separate
proposals to remedy wastewater dis
posal problems to a meeting with state
regulators Friday.
While the town's treatment plant
can treat up to 400,000 gallons of
wastewater per day, its rapid-infiltra
tion basin effluent disposal system
will only permit percolation of
250,000 gallons per day, because of
poor soils and changes made in its
engineering design. This inability to
dispose of treated effluent efficiently
foTced the state's Division of Environ
mental Management to impose a
moratorium on new sewer taps in
July, 1994. That has cost the town an
estimated $2,000 per week in lost rev
enues.
Consulting engineer Robert Gra
ham of Boney and Associates told
commissioners Monday night they
could expect to spend $306,993 to
repair the existing rapid-infiltration
basin with washed sand hauled from
Wilmington, but the basin would still
only treat 250,000 gallons per day.
He also proposed converting to a
spray irrigation disposal system on
the wastewater treatment plant's Fish
Factory Road site at an estimated cost
of $277,200, if the elevation of the
property does not have to be in
creased.
A third proposal involves pumping
treated effluent to the Oak Island Golf
and Country Club course to be used
for irrigation at an estimated cost of
$371,000.
The Oak Island golf course has not
specifically asked the town for the
water, but operators of the course
See Answer, page 9
Photo by Jim Harper
Isn’t it always the way? You catch the curl just
right, hit a homer, turn a terrific land deal, grow
beautiful tailfeathers (or possibly a mane), finish
first in the election, crow louder than anybody else
and then, just at that perfect moment ... your
audience walks away.
Auditor:
Problems
were there
By Holly Edwards
Feature Editor
When a performance audit
of the Brunswick County
school system revealed serious
weakness in control of school
finances, school board mem
bers wondered why some of
these problems were not
flagged sooner by their inde
pendent auditor.
Accountant Charles Flowers
Jr., who has audited the school
system for ten years, told the
See Problems, page 6
School audit justifies
concern, officials say
By Terry Pope
County Editor
Not many of the former county
leaders who called for a school per
formance audit last year are in office
today to see the results.
However, the impact of the audit
and its revelations about the financial
condition of the schools' central of
fice in a way eases the minds of
county leaders who first demanded
the study.
"I thought it was a good move for
the audit," said former county com
mission chairman Don Warren, who
lost his seat in District I in the No
vember election.
"I just wish the present board would
have waited for the audit to return
before settling the lawsuit with the
school board. 1 think they reacted too
quickly."
What prompted the audit was a dis
pute between commissioners and the
former school board over how much
money is needed to operate the school
system. It led to a lawsuit filed against
the county seeking $14 million.
An out-of-court settlement reached
this year will allocate the schools
most of what they have asked for.
Warren said if he had won re-elec
lion no one would have settled un
til the audit was revealed. The em
barrassing results might have been
used as leverage to reduce the
amount demanded by the schools,
he said.
"I thought we believed from the
very start that they had problems
with asset controls and fiscal ac
countability," said Warren, "espe
cially with the misuse of vehicles.
And now we hear of misuse of cel
lular phones. But being personally
involved with the school system
See Audit, page 11
Superintendent says he got B
By Holly Edwards
Feature Editor
Assume a stronger leadership role and
spend more time in county schools.
These were the primary directives
given Brunswick County superintendent
of schools Ralph Johnston during his
annual evaluation Monday afternoon.
The evaluation came just weeks after
release of a state performance audit in
V dicating serious weakness in control of
school finances and resources, as well
f . as inefficiencies in central office organi
zational structure.
However, both Johnston and school
board members said the performance
audit played little part in Johnston's
evaluation.
Instead, he was evaluated based on ob
jectives set for him by the newly elected
school board members in December:
Improve test scores, bring school facili
ties up to par and serve as a strong leader
for the school system.
School board members refused to
comment on the evaluation and referred
all questions to Johnston.
"They said that there are obviously
weaknesses that need to be improved,"
Johnston said of his evaluation. "They
told me they want me to take charge,
and be more assertive in those areas."
Overall, Johnston said the board gave
him the equivalent of a B- grade.
"I think they gave me a very satisfac
tory rating overall," he said. "Their criti
cism was constructive, and they pledged
to continue to support me and work with
the.";
On the positive side, Johnston said the
See Superintendent, page 6
Community Building
25-year lease
of Army land
is anticipated
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
An offer of a 25-year lease of the
Cape Fear River site of the former
Southport Community Building to the
city may be good enough to assure a
like building will be placed there.
Aldermen are scheduled to discuss
Community Building replacement
when they meet in regular session
Thursday.
In a memorandum to board mem
bers this week, city manager Rob
Gandy for the first time disclosed the
lease-term it appears the U. S. Army
is willing to offer.
"They have indicated that the long
term lease period would be 25 years
and would commence when our
present lease expires in April, I99X,"
Gandy wrote.
The Southport Community Build
ing, built in 1941 as a USO center,
burned to the ground in January. The
Most who said
they want to build
on another site said
they did not wish to
commit city funds
to a building on
property owned by
the government
building had been the site of numer
ous social, cultural and civic events
in the city's post-World War II history.
Since its burning, debate of how,
or if, to replace it has been vigorous
in Southport. In a survey conducted
by city officials, 66 percent of respon
See Lease, page 10
District future
in limbo, plan
changes again
By Jim Harper
Staff Writer
The future of the Southeast
Brunswick Sanitary District project
remains in doubt as commissioners
and their technicians search for a
place and manner of disposal for
treated waste.
Plans have been changed twice
since February, and last Thursday a
hydrologist indicated the board may
still be barking up the wrong tree.
Ed Andrews, the same hydrologist
Yaupon Beach is relying on in its
sewage woes, told the SBSD board
that only 70 percent of a suggested
150-acre site might be suitable for
spray application of treated waste
water.
Only after soil samples of the acre
age are examined sometime this
week will Andrews be able to say if
the site is capable of taking on
400,000 gallons of treated wastewa
ter daily, and he did not give high
hopes of the soil's suitability.
And almost as if he were presag
ing another setback, the district's
engineer proposed yet another solu
tion: Spraying wastewater on the
district's present proposed treatment
site, then pumping out the percolated
water to the head of Calf Gully
Creek, and thence to the CP&L
wildlife canal.
Engineer-consultant Finley
Boney's suggestion was an effective
return to square one, for when he first
started advising the district some five
years ago the bank of the canal was
seen as the most suitable site for dis
trict wastewater treatment and dis
posal.
Andrews said he felt the plan to
spray wastewater onto the 150-acre
site west of Sea Pines and north of
Oakwood Glen subdivisions would
be approved by the state.
"The state's going to find a way to
make this thing work," Andrews told
the commissioners. "They've been
working with us, and they know they
owe us one."
One aspect of the proposed wood
land spraying would be that "the wet
lands get wetter," said Andrews, "but
the state knows it's going to happen
and they're going to let us do it."
Not so confident, Boney said he
wanted to get a final "buy-in" by state
regulators before he started working
up his disposal site plans.
And he said, "I want the district to
have some feeling of fallback posi
tion on this second alternative."
Thus he described a system which
See District, page 9
* orecast
The extended forecast calls for a
chance of showers of thunderstorms
for the period of Thursday through
Saturday with highs in the 70's and
lows in the 50's.
Tide table
HIGH LOW
THURSDAY, MAY 11
5:20 a.m. 11:44 a.m.
6:04 p.m. -p.m.
FRIDAY, MAY 12
6:17 a.m. 12:25 a.m.
6:58 p.m. 12:36 p.m.
SATURDAY, MAY 13
7:12 a.m.
7:51 p.m.
8:07 a.m.
8:44 p.m.
9:01 a.m.
9:37 p.m.
SUNDAY, MAY 14
MONDAY, MAY 15
TUESDAY, MAY 16
1:20 a.m.
1:28 p.m.
2:12 a.m.
2:18 pm
3:04 a.ip.
3:09 p.m.
3:56 a.m.
4:01 p.m.
9:56 a.m.
10:31 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 17
10:53 a.m. 4:48 a.m.
11:26 p.m. 4:54 pjn.
The following adjustments should be made:
Bald Head Island, high -10, low -7; Caswell
Beach, high -5, low -1; Southport, high +7,
low +15; Locksipod Folly, high -22, low -8.