VOLUME 64/ NUMBER 46
SOUTHPORT, N.C.
50 CENTS
_3te_
Sports
Post 10 walks to a 5-4 vic
tory, but Brunswick Post 68
still leads the series — 1C
Neighbors
Help is on the way from
Long Beach lifeguards, who
take the job seriously — IB
Our Town
Southport aldermen will
be asked to support fire and
rescue tax district — Page 2
Long Beach
Panel says
more sewer
study needed
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
There will be no ringing endorse
ment for construction of a sanitary
sewer system when the town’s long
empaneled wastewater management
and water quality study committee
reports to Long Beach Town Council
next Tuesday.
Instead the committee, which has
worked alongside consulting engi
neers McKim and Creed since last
winter, will formally endorse an ex
ecutive summary of the engineering
report calling for more study of waste
water and stormwater issues and ad
ditional groundwater monitoring ef
forts.
Town manager Jerry Walters said
the committee — Troy Davis, chair
man, and members Lew Erway, Jim
Griffin, Tom Gray and Martha Moe -
- left deliberation of sanitary sewer
to be the last of its considerations.
“Essentially, they agreed to that
point that there is a need for additional
education on the wastewater issue and
there is a need to continue monitor
ing water quality and to pursue
stormwater management,” Walters
said.
Tihese points are outlined in the
executive summary of the report
McKim and Creed will present to
council. That report, with revisions
authorized by the committee last
week, had not been delivered to Town
Hall Tuesday, Walters said.
Walters said the committee encoun
tered a “difference of opinion” among
its members as to how to address the
issue of “how to deal with wastewa
ter.” Some favored construction of a
See Sewer, page 11
Deeds controversy
Affidavit
supports
claim
By Terry Pope
County Editor
Yaupon Beach attorney Tom Heller
has filed an affidavit supporting
claims made in a petition which at
tempts to have registrar of deeds Rob
ert Robinson removed from office.
In the sworn statement, Heller says
his office also tried to file important
documents just before closing on May
5 but was denied.
Heller says he was in the registrar’s
See Claim, page 8
POWER TALK
It was all smiles as NRC regional administrator
Stewart Ebneter talked with CP&L board chair
man Sherwood Smith and president William
» ■w .....
Photo by Jim Harper
Cavanaugh after Monday’s SALP conference, at
which the federal agency gave the Brunswick
nuclear plant superior grades in all areas.
Municipal elections
Filing period opens;
Holden will not run
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Among the familiar Southport-Oak Is
land area political faces that will not seek
office this municipal election year is
Southport mayor Norman Holden.
For everyone else, however, the filing
period for notice of candidacy for election
to municipal office opened Friday at noon.
The filing period will remain open until
August 4 at noon.
To qualify to run for municipal office
one need only be a registered voter of the
jurisdiction for which he seeks office, said Brunswick
County supervisor of elections Lynda Britt.
“It’s like getting married,” Britt said. “It seems it should
be harder to do, but it isn’t.”
Holden said this week he will not seek reelection as
city mayor. Holden was first elected to the board of al
dermen of the City of Southport in 1979.
He was elected mayor in 1983 and was
reelected every other year since then, ex
cept 1989 when he chose not to face a chal
lenge by fellow alderman C. B. Caroon.
“I think after 14 years and only missing
two meetings, it’s time to turn the mayor
alty over to someone else,” Holden said.
Long-time Caswell Beach mayor Jack
Cook may also be missing from the politi
cal landscape this year. Cook has repeat
edly said he will not seek reelection to the
post he has held since 1979.
Holden, though, said his political life is
not over. He said he will be “actively” involved in an
other campaign come January, 1996. He would not name
the office he would seek, however.
“After the first of the year I plan to be actively engaged
in a campaign,” Holden said. “Being a state employee, I
See Filing, page 10
HOLDEN
'World class' in sight
GP&L plant
commended
by regulator
By Jim Harper
Staff Writer
In an atmosphere of celebration and
bonhomie the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission officially commended
Carolina Power and Light Co. and the
Brunswick nuclear plant staff Mon
day for superior performance at the
plant over the last 18 months.
The Systematic Assessment of Lic
ensee Performance (SALP) report
marked the end of a remarkable
comeback from April, 1992, when the
plant was closed by the company “for
at least a week.”
That occasion triggered a profound
shakeup both in local operations and
top CP&L management, sentencing
of Brunswick to the NRC “watch list”
and severe scrutiny from the federal
regulators who came regularly to re
view Brunswick’s repair and rena
scence.
On Monday NRC regional admin
istrator Stewart Ebneter, who had
been chief scrutinizer and goad, vir
tually pronounced the Brunswick fa
cility reborn.
“When Mr. Cavanaugh (William
Cavanaugh, CP&L chief operating
officer since August, 1992) came on
board, he stated his objective was for
Brunswick to be ‘world class’ by
1996,” Ebneter said. “You are pretty
much on track from our standpoint.”
Brunswick continued out of service
See CP&L, page 6
'Bed-in-fill' system
County, state
will square off
on septic issue
By Terry Pope
County Editor
Local health officials are fighting
the state over the ban on bed-in-fill
septic systems, innovative on-site
sewage treatment units commonly
used along the Brunswick County
coast where other conventional tanks
won’t function.
The state has ordered health inspec
tors to stop permitting the systems but
to honor more than 100 outstanding
permits the Brunswick County Health
Department has already issued.
Most of those permits are held by
developers or property owners on Oak
Island and Holden Beach. The recent
ban has halted construction and
placed real estate agents in limbo over
the sale of lots with bed-in-fill ap
proval.
A head-to-head meeting Monday
with Steve Steinbeck, chief of the N.
C. Department of Environment,
Vocational education report:
Workforce is in place
but not well prepared
By Holly Edwards
‘ Feature Editor . ' A
■ ; v. ..v.■- . . „ /
While local business and industry com-.
. plains it cannot find skilled labor), over 30
percent of Brunswick County youths are
unemployed and actively seeking full-time
jobs.
Nearly one-third of county residents age
: 25 and older do not have a high school /
See Workforce, page 6
,. .. ....
‘We need more technology
oriented programs to move
students into the 21st century
with jobs that are relevant, and
not just menial laborjobs. ’
William Furpless
Vocational coordinator
One-stop permits
win national honor
ny terry rope
County Editor
County employees who organized
a one-stop permitting office at Bolivia
will be in Atlanta July 24 to accept a
national award.
The central permitting program has
received the highest honor by the Na
tional Association of Counties. It has
been given the top achievement
award as one of the best new county
programs in the nation.
Central permitting was ordered by
the board of commissioners 14
months ago, and interim county man
ager Charles McGinnis proceeded to
pull department managers together to
work out a plan. It opened doors for
business six months ago inside the
planning department.
“It has decreased the time it takes
to get a permit,” said county planning
director Wade Home. “It is a better
mechanism than what we had before.
At the very least, it will benefit the
public to not have to walk so much to
go through the permitting process.”
In the past, a person would have to
obtain a septic tank permit from the
health department, a building permit
from building inspections and water
connections from public utilities - in
three separate buildings. It left resi
dents wandering through a maze at
the county government center.
One office now can issue all per
mits needed in less time. The depart
ments are linked through a computer
See Permits, page 8
Health and Natural Resources’ on-site
wastewater section, produced no new
agreement on future permits. It has
Brunswick County Board of Health
members ready to fight the state in
court.
“I think we’ve got a serious issue,
long-term, on this bed-in-fill, because
I didn’t like what 1 heard up there to
day,” said Pat Newton, health board
chairman." “I heard someone who
likes to talk and doesn’t want to lis
ten. I believe we need to rebuke this
one.”
At issue is the health department’s
reading of state regulations for this
See Septic, page 8
Forecast
Summer months always bring the
chancy of severe thunderstorms, as
we saw this past week. This pattern
will continue throughout the weekend
with temperatures ranging from 85 to
low 90's.
Tide table
HIGH LOW
THURSDAY, JULY 13
9:26 a.m. 3:19 a.m.
9:58 p.m. 3:29 p.m.
FRIDAY, JULY 14
10:20 a.m. 4:09 a.m.
10:49 p.m. 4:20 p.m.
SATURDAY, JULY 15
11:12 a.m. 4:57 a.m.
11:38 p.m. 5:11p.m.
SUNDAY, JULY 16
-a.m. 5:45 a.m.
12:04 p.m. 6:03 p.m.
MONDAY, JULY 17
12:27 a.m. 6:33 a.m.
12:56 p.m. 6:56 p.m.
TUESDAY, JULY 18
1:16 a.m. 7:22 a.m.
1:48 p.m. 7:50 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 19
2:06 a.m. 8:12 a.m.
2:41 p.m. 8:47 p.m.
The following adjustments should be made:
Bald Head Island, high -10, low -7;'Caswell
Beach, high -5, low -1; Southport, high 47, low
+15; Lockwood Folly, high -22, low -8.