Sports
South Brunswick girls and
boys defeat cross-county
rival North Tuesday -- 1C
Neighbors
It’s a lot like Christmas all
over Brunswick with lights,
parades, good cheer - IB
Our Town
New government is sworn
to duty in Southport-Oak
Island this week — Page 2
Convicted crack cocaine dealer Michael White
presented a riveting account of the horrors of prison
life last week at the Brunswick Learning Center,
Photograph by Holly Edwards
and warned students with misdemeanors on their
records that they could quickly find themselves in
his shoes.
Doing time
By Holly Edwards
Feature Editor
Students sat in rapt attention as convicted cocaine dealer
Michael White powerfully described his fall from a successful
Army captain, husband and father to an inmate at New Hanover
Correctional Center who lives in fear and anguish and cries
himself to sleep each night.
“I’ve been in jail four and a half years now and I hate this
stinking hole,” White told Brunswick Learning Center students
last week. “You guys think it’s a joke. They don’t show you what
happens in prison on the evening news. I hate this place.”
White, 34, said he quickly lost his “tough-guy attitude” when
he was first incarcerated at Central Prison in Raleigh and
discovered that he could be killed or seriously injured by another
inmate and the event could be written off as an accident.
“I saw a big guy throw a little guy down four flights of stairs
head first, and he was killed on impact,” he said. “But nobody said
See Time, page 8
‘You guys that
think you’re cool
gotta start
thinking smart,
because I see the
cool guys crying
all the time in
prison. ’
Michael White
A drop in the bucket
Asking CP&L's help
might not be a waste
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Local governments can build
wastewater treatment plants, but
‘We’re accountable
for what is
discharged through
the canal. The
responsibility and
liability is ours.’
Mac Harris
CP&L spokesman
does the answer to the biggest prob
lem facing local wastewater manage
ment efforts lie with local industry?
Is the area's largest industrial concern
willing to come to local governments’
aid?
Yaupon Beach found it relatively
easy to build a wastewater treatment
plant and put a sewage collection sys
tem in the ground. Even financing the
biggest public works project that town
will ever face was a mostly comfort
able proposition.
Likewise, the Southeast Brunswick
Sanitary District has for six years be
lieved it could find money to build
and support a public wastewater man
agement system, but, as late as last
week, found itself unable to move a
project forward.
The problem both local govern
See CP&L, page 11
SBSD plan
may not fly
By Jim Harper
Staff Writer
Southeast Brunswick Sani
tary District commissioners last
week set their sights on the
Brunswick County Airport as a
primary depository for treated
wastewater, but indications are
that their overtures might not be
welcomed, and certainly they
would not be accepted soon.
“We’re down to two possible
See Plan, page II
Schools’ 'Report Card'
Scores up, but county
is failing to keep pace
By Holly towards
Feature Editor
Student performance in Brunswick
County is improving but lags farther
behind state average, results of the
Brunswick County school system’s
1995 report card indicate.
While Brunswick County student
performance improved in half of the
16 areas used for comparison, the
county scored below state average in
all but two areas — dropout rate and
eighth grade writing.
And, despite gains made locally,
Brunswick County is not keeping
pace with gains made by others in
North Carolina.
When compared with average
scores statewide, in surrounding
counties and in counties with similar
socioeconomic conditions, student
performance in Brunswick County is
“decreasing rather than increasing,”
testing coordinator Bill Detrie told the
Brunswick County school board
Monday night.
School board member Billy Carter
compared the county’s report card re
sults to economic inflation.
“It’s like inflation. We’re falling
behind even though we’re improving
year to year,” he said. “It’s good we’re
improving, but we have to ask our
selves at what rate are we improving
Neighboring County Comparison
CORE SCORES
NORTH
CAROUNA
COLUMBUS
COUNTY
BRUNSWICK
COUNTY
compared to the rest of the state?”
Board member Pat Brown noted
that some decreases in county student
performance listed in the report
amounted to only a few tenths of a
percentage point, but vice-chairman
Glenda Browning said state gains
compounded the county’s loss.
“If we have decreased while the
state has increased, that's a much
greater loss,” Browning declared.
The report card is released each
year by the state Department of Pub
lic Instruction and lists the percent
age of students in each school system
that are deemed “proficient” in key
areas of study, including reading,
writing, math, science and the high
school core courses (algebra I, biol
ogy, economics, legal and political,
English I, physical science and U. S.
history).
Proficiency is a state standard de
See Scores, page 8
Forecast
The extended forecast calls
for seasonal weather with a
chance of showers and highs
each day in the mid 60's.
INSIDE
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'Business as usual' for retiring mayor
Holden has seen Southport rebound from 70s
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
On December 13,1979, Norman Holden swore the oath of office and was
seated as a member of the board of aldermen of the City of Southport from
Ward I.
Immediately, he was thrown into the fire of local government.
It was at that meeting of the board of Aaldermen, with mayor Eugene B.
Tomlinson presiding, that Holden was called on to make his Erst decision as
a public official.
The issue presenting itself that night before the august panel of city fathers
was whether or not to reimburse resident Gene Hart the $938.70 he said he
had spent to replace carpet in his home, damaged when a blocked city collec
tion line forced sewage to back up into the structure.
The issue was complicated by promises made to Hart by the previously
seated board one month earlier, but Holden sided with two other aldermen in
voting “no” to Hart’s request.
Mayor Tomlinson overrode that decision with his tie-breaking vote for com
promise.
That was just the first of hundreds of decisions Norman Holden would
make as an elected official of the City of Southport. Over the course of the
next 16 years, Holden would make decisions and participate in the planning
and execution of plans that have largely crafted the quality of life citizens of
Southport experience today.
Holden ends his latest period of service to the city Thursday night when he
will swear-in Bill Crowe as his successor.
The voters of the City of Southport have elected Holden to serve them five
times - once as an alderman and four times as their mayor. He has never lost
an election in the City of Southport.
It was in his first attempt at gaining elective office that he may have forged
his style of tough, personal-contact, campaigning.
On November 7,1979, The State Port Pilot reported: “Holden, who cam
paigned hard, ran away from the five-member field to win one of the seats
from Ward I.”
That five-member field had not a slouch in it, either. Other candidates vy
See Mayor, page 10
HOLDEN