September 20.1995
Sports
South Brunswick tops
Laney and the Scorpions
win their third straight -- 1C
SOUTHPORT, N.C.
| VOLUME 65/NUMBER 4
50 CENTS
Neighbors
Middle school football is
not just a game, it’s an
event for the students — IB
Our Town
Big Sweep ‘95 nets a vari
ety of trashy items, but now
the coast is clear — Page 2
The State Port Pilot
Pilot Line
THE TALKING NEWSPAPER
Network
answers
the call
Spreading the word about church
activities can now be easier with a
telecommunications service provided
by The State Port Pilot.
Pilot lane, which provides easy
access to pre-recorded messages, is
available without charge to any
church that can use either the 457- or
253- exchange, according to an an
nouncement this week by Ed Harper,
editor.
The service has been in use almost
two years. A primary function has
been to provide student and parent
access to homework assignments at
South Brunswick Middle and South
Brunswick High schools.
Harper said provision of free
church lines is a natural extension of
the public service the system can pro
vide.
“We have had some churches us
ing Pilot Line, but there are dozens
of others that would like to be on-line
but could not because of budgetary
constraints,” Harper said. “That bur
den has been lifted.”
He said a church line can be pul to
a variety of uses: sermon topics, daily
devotionals, prayer lists, special ac
tivities.
“It’s really up to the church,”
Harper explained. “The message can
be changed as often as they wish.”
This is how it works:
■ A church is assigned an exten
sion on Pilot Line. The pastor or his
designee is instructed how to record
and change the church message. A
touch-tone phone is required to access
the system.
■ The caller accesses either of two
Pilot [line numbers — 457-5084 or
253-8427 — and, when instructed,
accesses the extension that has been
assigned the church. The church can
inform its congregation of the access
and extension numbers.
Becoming part of the network,
Harper said, will take some commu
nication, too.
“We will depend on churches to tell
of us of their interest in joining Pilot
Line,” he said. “We will gladly pro
vide the necessary information to
make the service available to them.”
The initial contact should be with
Diane McKeithan, business manager,
at 457-4568 or 253-7733.
Forecast
The extended forecast calls for
partly cloudy skies and a chance of
thunderstorms. Highs each day in the
mid 70's to 80.
Tide table
HIGH LOW
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21
12:01 a.m. 7:30 a.m.
12:25 p.m. 8:06 p.m.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22
2:16 a.m. 8:21a.m.
2:50 p.m. 9:02 p.m.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 23
3:09 a.m. 9:15 a.m.
3:44 p.m. 10:00 p.m.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 24
4:04 a.m. 10:10 a.m.
4:38 p.m. 10:57 pirn.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 25
4:59 a.m. 11:04 a.m.
5:29 p.m. 11:49 p.m.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26
5:51a.m. lt:55a.m.
6:17 p.m. -p.m.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27
6:39 a.m. 12:36 a.m.
7:01a.m. 12:43 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.
One of Long Beach’s most distinctive architectural
features — and a benchmark for the vagaries of
beach erosion — went under the wrecker’s claw last
week, ending long speculation about whether the
Photo by Jim Harper
structure would be moved. The 11-unit Sea Horse
Apartments just east of the cabana had been under
condemnation and vacant since February, 1994.
Caseload management
New court procedure
is tried in Brunswick
By Terry Pope
County Editor
Nobody wants to spend more time
in court than they really have to — not
the trial lawyer, defendant, victim,
judge nor prosecutor.
A new case management program
court officials adopted in June has
improved order inside the courtroom.
It has placed the county’s legal sys
tem on a tighter deadline. So far, it’s
working.
“The sheer number of cases that we
See Court, page 11
‘It will introduce a little more
predictability of when cases will be tried.
The only way to get that predictability is
to make sure youyve done everything you
could to dispose of a case short of trial. ’
Rex Gore
District attorney
NCAE wants a hearing
Schools 'early release'
rejection under attack
By Holly Edwards
Feature Editor
Did the Brunswick County Board of Education
violate state law when it abandoned its Wednesday
early-release policy?
The North Carolina Association of Educators
(NCAE) has requested a “hearing” with the school
board to discuss the matter, and a state Department of
Public Instruction representative suggests the school
board obtain an opinion from the state attorney
general’s office.
“There are some legal questions and this is a very
delicate stage of the process,” said NCAE attorney Tom
Stem. “But 1 want to feel hopeful we can work out our
differences.”
Last year, students were released early on Wednes
days to allow teachers and principals time for staff
development and to plan for site-based management
which essentially hands responsibility to each school to
create its own means to achieve academic goals.
However, upon assuming office last December,
school board members received a flood of parent
See Attack, page 6
Long Beach
Weapons ban
is approved on
town property
By Richard Nubcl
Municipal Editor
Addressing an agenda packed
with 36 separate items of business
Tuesday night, Long Beach Town
Council voted to ban the carrying of
concealed weapons at seven town
owned properties, sent proposals to
charge water system impact fees and
to construct a 500,000-gallon water
storage tank hack to staff for refine
ment, gave owners of 14 corner lols
abutting Yacht Drive a full year to
pay paving assessments, blasted the
town’s recycling contractor and
made it illegal to feed the town's
alligators.
Two separate sidewalk projects
which will link 20th Street SE with
Town Hall were approved for con
struction, notice of intent to close
Pelican Drive between 46th and
See Long Beach, page 12
Paperwork to do
Yaupon sewer
plans delayed
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Where two weeks ago they pre
dicted bids for the town’s wastewa
ter disposal conversion project could
be let by January, consulting engi
neers to Yaupon Beach this week said
bids now cannot be advertised until
April, 1996.
The news means yet another delay
in town plans to replace a faulty dis
posal system built in 1992.
In a letter to mayor May Moore and
the board of commissioners Wednes
day, consulting engineer Robert Gra
ham of Boney and Associates Inc.
said the new time-frame for convert
ing the town wastewater treatment
system disposal technique to spray
irrigation of the Oak Island Golf and
Country Club golf course came at a
September 12 meeting with state
regulators.
According to the regulators, most
of the engineering work required of
the country club will have to be com
pleted before Yaupon Beach may ap
ply for permits to modify its waste
water treatment system.
“We were also told that the speci
fications of the golf course work (stor
age volume, irrigation rate, acreage
irrigated, buffers, etc.) must be in
cluded in the (town's) preliminary
engineering report,” Graham wrote.
“A large part of the work by (golf
course engineers and hydrogeologist)
will have to be done in order for us to
include this information in the re
port.”
Two weeks ago, the Town of
Yaupon Beach and directors of the
Oak Island Golf and Country Club
executed agreement whereby the dub
See Sewer, page 6
ADM
appeals
value
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Archer Daniel Midland Cor
poration has appealed the as
sessed value of its food addi
tive production facility on the
Cape Fear River to the N. C.
Property Tax Commission,
saying Brunswick County has ,
overvalued its property north
east of Southport by over $6
million.
If ADM's appeal is success
ful, it will realize an annual
property tax reduction of about
$43,000, or over $300,000 for
See Appeals, page 11
Deadline Friday
for Pilot fall tab
Advertising material for The State Port Pilot’s fall vacation
guide must be in hand by this Friday noon.
Businesses that may not have been contacted for the special
publication are encouraged to call the Pilot advertising depart
ment, 457-4568, immediately.
The fall edition of the popular vacation guide will be included
in the October 4 issue. Another 5,000 copies will be printed for
distribution through businesses and other outlets.
The publication will feature special events such as the U. S.
Open King Mackerel Tournament, Wilmington’s Riverfest and
the N. C. Oyster Festival. Other events include the Festival-by
the-Sea at Holden Beach, the Robert Rtiark Festival in Southport
and Christmas-by-the-Sea activities sponsored by the Southport
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