VOLUME 64/ NUMBER 52 SOUTHPORT, N.C. 50 CENTS
Neighbors
Public schools throughout
Brunswick County open
today — ready or not — IB
Our Town
Bald Head weighs its options
for beach renourishment -
fingers crossed - Page 2
Oak Island
post office
is canceled
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Oak Island will not receive a post
office upgrade as part of the U. S.
Postal Service’s five-year improve
ment plan, a postal official told Sen.
Lauch Faircloth in an August 15 let
ter.
The USPS communication to
Faircloth was spurred by a letter the
senator forwarded postal officials
from Yaupon Beach mayor May
Moore, who called the present con
tract post office on Oak Island a
“dilapidated storefront with next to
no parking.”
The Yaupon Beach Board of
- Commissioners has continued to
press for establishment of a first
class post office on Oak Island — a
drive that dominated Oak Islanders’
attention last year.
”... Mid-Carolinas District facili
ties officials advise that they have
no current plans to replace the con
tract post office” on Oak Island,
USPS Manager of Legislative
Affairs Anthony W. Conway wrote
Faircloth.
In July, Moore wrote Faircloth,
Sen. Jesse Helms and Congressman
Charles G, Rose,- seeking to enlist
their support in convincing postal
officials to upgrade facilities on Oak
Island. Last year postal officials
inspected the Oak Island contract
postal facility and the only improve
ment made was the location of a
mailbox with a snorkel shoot into
which mail can be deposited with
out leaving a vehicle.
Moore said Oak Island is due a
first-class postal facility in light of
postal service plans to further
upgrade the existing first-class post
office in Shallotte. Island officials
have also cited the first-class postal
facility at Supply, saying Oak Island
deserves no less.
A postal official told the Shallotte
Board of Aldermen in June that a
new facility with additional parking
spaces would be built there in 1996.
He said 43 other post office facili
ties were targeted for construction
or upgrade in 1995-96. The
Shallotte facility is expected to cost
USPS $500,000.
“When does Oak Island’s turn
come for an adequate post office?”
Moore wrote the area’s federal leg
islative delegation. “Oak Island has
a permanent population of 5,000
See Post office, page 11
horecast
Continued hot, with highs
between 85 and 90, but with an
increasing hope of late afternoon
thunderstorms as the weekend
approaches.
Tide table
HIGH LOW
THURSDAY, AUGUST 24
7:24 a.m. 1:20 a.m.
7:43 p.m. 1:28 p.m.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 25
8:05 a.m. 2:01 a.m.
8:22 p.m. 2:11p.m.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 26
8:45 a.m. 2:40 a.m.
. 8:59 p.m. 2:53 p.m.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 27
9:24 a.m. 3:18 a.m.
9:36 p.m. 3:34 p.m.
MONDAY, AUGUST 28
10:04 a.m. 3:55 a.m.
10:14 p.m. 4:17 p.m.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 29 i
10:47 a.m. 4:34 a.m.
10:56 p.m. 5:02 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30
lt:34a.m. , 5:16a.m.
t1:42p.m. 5:51 p.m.
The following adjustments should be made:
Bald Head Island, high -10, low -7; Caswell
Beach, high -5, low -1; Southport, high +7,
low +15; Lockwood Folly, high -22, low -8.
SUMMER SALT
msmm
Oak Island beachgoers will have an opportunity to
kick up their heels this Sunday as the final Beach
Day gets underway at the Long Beach cabana.
Photo by Jim Harper
Musical entertainment begins at 1 p.m. and activi
ties will include volleyball, beach games and sand
carving.
Classes start today
1 v(
School bells
ring an end
to summer
By Holly Edwards
Feature Editor
Summer came to an end today for
approximately 8,800 Brunswick
County students.
Many changes — ranging from
freshly painted walls to new acade
mic programs -- greeted students as
they returned to school.
“The air is electric with excite
ment,” declared Supply Elementary
School principal Cafolyn Williams.
Principals throughout the county
said they were ready for the stu
dents, although there were lingering
personnel vacancies and supply
shortages reported in some schools.
School officials say local funding
for supplies is not yet allocated
because the Finance officer’s posi
lion has been vacant much of the
summer. Superintendent Ralph
Johnston served as finance officer
until Mary Ha/el Small was hired to
fill the position last month.
Small said schools should receive
their supply funding within the next
two weeks. She said additional local
funding for school equipment and
vehicles should he available after
she meets with county finance offi
cer Lithia Hahn
Small told the school board last
week that she was unable to locate
some money promised hy the coun
ty for capital outlay expenditures.’
but could not say how much more
she expects the schools to receive.
Students will no longer have a
half-day off on Wednesdays.
See School b«41s, page 11
Civil rights inquiry
focus on ‘extremes’
By Holly Edwards
Feature Editor
If the U. S. Department of
Education decides to conduct a civil
rights audit of Brunswick County
schools it will focus on established
patterns of discrimination and
extreme cases of racial harassment,
not on more subtle forms of racial
bias.
“We wouldn’t make any recom
mendations unless there were real
extreme situations,” said Roger
Mills, audit coordinator of the U. S.
Department of Education's Office of
Civil Rights. "Our job is not to jump
at each instance in which people are
offended, but to call it what it is —
the informal give and take that goes
on in all interpersonal relation
ships."
Mills requested information from
the school system detailing how stu
dents are "ability grouped," the
number of students by race in the
cducable mentally handicapped cat
egory and the gifted and talented
program, and the number and race
See “Extremes', page 11
A candidate last time around
Varner new county manager
VARNER
By Terry Pope
County Editor
It’s a job Jimmy Varner sought
two years ago, but he lost out then
on a split vote by the Brunswick
County Board of Commissioners.
This time Varner is the top choice
to become the new county manager
and will start work here September
5.
“My heart’s always been with the
coast,” said Varner, who called com
mission chairman Jerry Jones
Tuesday and accepted an offer made
Saturday following a second round
of interviews.
“I am familiar with the area,”
Varner added. “I’ve always liked the
coast, and I’ve always liked
Brunswick County.”
Varner has served as Yadkin
County manager for four years.
Previously he had served eight years
as Davidson County manager and
stints as city manager for York, SC,
and Gatlinburg, TN. He obtained a
business administration degree from
Central University in New Mexico
in 1962 and has also worked with
the state’s probation and parole
office.
Final details about his employ
ment will be announced at a special
meeting of the board of commis
sioners Monday, August 28, at 6
p.m. The board hasn’t officially
taken a vote to hire Varner or to set
his salary.
District 2 commissioner Jerry
Jones said Varner was his top choice
during the interviews in 1993, when
Wyman Yelton of Rocky Mount was
hired instead by a split vote as three
Democrats controlled a majority on
the board. Last November,
Republicans regained the majority
and Jones was elected chairman.
Yelton was fired in March.
Varner becomes the fourth manag
er in four years to fill the seat. He
said the turnover rate was some
thing to ponder before he made his
decision.
“Definitely, you always do that.”
said Varner. “But I thoroughly
See Manager, page 11
Assistant manager also is selected
Brunswick County’s first assistant county manager will start work
Monday with his main duties to oversee a new central purchasing depart:
ment.
Robert C. Hyatt, town manager of Clayton in Johnston County for seven
years before he resigned in March, was hired Tuesday at a salary of $58,564
per year.
In the 1995-96 budget the Brunswick County Board of Commissioners
agreed to fund the assistant’s position for the first time as part of restructur
ing, county government. Hyatt will manage central purchasing for all coun
ty departments, the schools and Brunswick Community College.
His office will tentatively be the former commission chambers in the
county administration building.
Interim county manager Charles McGinnis hired Hyatt on Tuesday, the
same day Jimmy Varner of Yadkin County accepted an offer to become
manager. Hyatt earned $48,500 per year'in Clayton, where he resigned
March 10 at the request of a majority of council.
While there, Hyatt directed and supervised all departments, including
finance, library, planniAg and inspections, police, recreation, streets, sanita
tion, water and sewer. He also served as budget officer Of a $ 10-million
yearly budget.
In Brunswick County he will coordinate social services, public health,
See Assistant, page 11
Sales tax
revenues
disbursed
Brunswick County and its
18 municipalities shared a
local government sales and
use tax distribution of over
$2.8 million in the quarter
ended June 30, the N. C.
Department of Revenue
announced this week.
Brunswick County gov
ernment received the largest
share of the distribution,
$2,113,165. Distribution to
municipalities was:
■ Bald Head Island $3,157
■ Belville $3,306
■ Boiling Sp. Lakes $69,119
■ Bolivia $9,545
■ Calabash $49,360
■ Caswell Beach $7,317
■ Holden Beach $27,039
■ Leland $73,762
■ Long Beach $162,677
■ Navassa $18,013
■ Northwest $24,439
Ocean Isle Beach$22,433
■ Sandy Creek $9,842
■ Shallotte $42,006
■ Southport $92,480
■ Sunset Beach $27,930
* Vamamtown $16,862 I
■ Yaupon Beach $30,493
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