Sports South Lady Cougars fin ish second in tourney, face Wildcats Wednesday — 1C January 3, ?< Neighbors Southport couple finds sanctuary in renovated Sacred Heart church - IB Our Town Long Beach will ‘retreat’ Thursday to make plans for coming year — Page 2 Registrar salary cut is possible By Terry Pope County Editor A last-minute resolution approved along party lines by Brunswick County commissioners Tuesday will cut the registrar of deeds’ salary by $21,000. Or will it? Introduced by District 3 Repub lican commissioner Leslie Collier of Long Beach, the measure passed 3 2 with Republicans voting in favor and two Democratic board members voting no. It came at the conclusion of a meeting where the board also voted to formally accept an out-of-court lawsuit settlement with registrar Robert J. Robinson filed in part over a salary dispute. “Our feeling on that is if a person is elected,” said Ms. Collier, “then a* $63,000 salary is out of proportion for someone just starting. In my opinion, this was not done as a threat to the register of deeds’ salary. It was done as an attempt to clear up the bookkeeping.” If a newcomer is elected to Robinson’s seat, up for election this year, then his or her salary will be set at $43,702 by the resolution. Another resolution M^.- Collier introduced rescinds a July, 1988, vote the county commissioners took that tied the registrar’s and sheriff’s salary to the same state scale as the clerk of court. It places both positions within the Brunswick County pay plan and eliminates adjustments based on the See Registrar, page 7 Incumbents are among early filers Among those who filed for public office Tuesday are two incumbents and a former county commissioner defeated in his bid for reelection in 1994. Don Warren of District 1, former chairman of the Brunswick County Board of Commissioners, lost to Re publican Doug Simmons in the 1994 race. Warfen, 47, filed to run for his old seat Tuesday, the first day for fil ing at the Brunswick County Board of Elections office near Bolivia. Warren, a Democrat, lives at Bent Tree Plantation just south of Shallotte while Simmons lives in Calabash. District 5 incumbent commissioner Bill Sue of Sue Circle, Leland, also filed for reelection. The Democrat is See Early filers, page 7 HARBOR ESCORT Photo by Jim Harper A squadron of pelicans escorts the gill-netter Down Homer to its mooring at the Willis boat yard, hope ful of receiving a tasty morsel as the decks are cleared of bycatch. These days the regular fare is a fat menhaden, with an occasional hickory shad as a real prize. School violence Are we learning a lesson? By Holly Edwards Feature Editor Incidents of violence and drug possession in Brunswick County schools dropped significantly during the past school year but still placed the county among the state’s most unruly school districts. Of 119 school districts surveyed, only 37 reported rates of violence and drug possession higher than Brunswick County's. Still, results indicate an improvement in school disci pline in the year ending in June, 1995; the pervious year Brunswick County had the third highest rate of violence and drug possession in the state. The rate dropped from 12.8 incidents per 1,000 stu dents to 7.2 incidents this past school year. And, while there were 32 cases of drug possession and 87 violent acts reported in 1993-94, last school year there were 20 cases of drug possession and 48 violent acts reported — including eight assaults inflicting seri ous injury, seven assaults on school officials, one as See Violence, page 6 Late msh expected Property taxes due on Friday Vb listings also go out this week By Terry Pope County Editor The rush is on - to pay 1995 prop erty taxes before the deadline on Fri day. “January 1st is the magic date, it seems,” said Boyd Williamson, Brunswick County tax supervisor. “Obviously, lots of people wait to pay after December." Although tax bills are mailed to property owners four months in ad vance, in September, tax department employees are bracing for a big week at the office. Tax collector Nancy Moore estimates payments are run ning about usual this year. If paid at the government center near Bolivia, payments must arrive at the tax department there by 5 p.m. on Friday, or be postmarked on or be fore January 5, to avoid a late pen alty. “We expect our office to be quite busy on the fifth of January,” said Ms. Moore. “I tell them not to put it off See Property, page 7 The top ten... There is one change in the top ten taxpayers in Brunswick County for 1995. $ea Trail Corp. of Sunset Beach has moved to ninth place on the list with a total valuation of $28.8 million and taxes due of $197,656. The golf course development and convention center is the only newcomer to the list. International Paper Co. has fallen out of the top ten this year. The only individual on the list is Ocean Isle Beach developer Odell Williamson. The list includes: 1. Carolina Power and Light Co., value $853,934,133; taxes $6,189,134 2. DuPont Co., value $265,611,925; taxes $1,819,441 3. N. C. Eastern Municipal Power Agency, value $227,631,756; taxes $1,650,330 4. Archer Daniels Mkfland Co., value $147,839,189; taxes $1,071,834 5. Odell Williamson, value $54,202,318; taxes $400,7% 6. Brunswick Electric Membership Corp., value $43,207 676; taxes $299,191 7. Bald Head Island Ltd., value $31,907,588; taxes $231,458 8. Cogentrix of North Carolina Inc., value $31,021,030; taxes $224,902 9. Sea Trail Corp., value $28,854,942; taxes $197,656 10. Federal Paper Board, value $24,870,210; value $170,374 What does ‘96 hold for us? By Richard Nubel Municipal Editor City manager Rob Gandy says he has a “wish list” for the City of Southport in early 1996. “There are some projects I want to see cranked up,” Gandy said. First among the wishes is to see more movement towards rebuilding the Southport Community Build ing, burned virtually to the ground in a January 30, 1995, fire. Reconstruction of the building, erected as a USO center in 1941, was first slowed by an effort to build community consensus for its recon struction and later by red tape. As the building sat on U. S. Army-owned land and was listed on the National Register of Historic Buildings, each step of the reconstruction effort must be approved by a number of agencies. Gandy said the committee charged with develop See Southport, page 6 Southport ‘They must review virtually everything we propose and that’s going to take some time.’ City manager Rob Gandy, on rebuilding the community building By Richard Nubel Municipal Editor As the Town of Long Beach begins 1996, the immediate focus of municipal government will be on completing a number of capital projects begun in 1995 — some set in the planning stage even'ear lier. '' “It’s important we focus on those things first,” town manager Jerry "Waltere said. “Those are the things to which a lot of energy has already been devoted.” The on-going municipal projects are also the things of community life to which funding has al ready been committed. Town council has signaled its willingness to begin early its planning for the new fiscal year to begin in July. Council has already adopted an aggressive budget preparation calendar for the coming year by which department heads will See Long Beach, page 6 Long Beach ‘It’s up to the council to bring that back to the table. That’s one of the issues still to be dealt with.’ Town manager Jerry Walters, on the stormwater and wastewater management study Forecast A cold front moves through the area bringing with it winter weather. Highs each day only in the 40's. INSfPE §1 H9 |J m » .***♦ ,4^ FJJot IV . ■ $, %#&&' Ol.'attJSUrtoS* »■» . « » ' Jtiyl, . 3gj iKi * * * * J^l ? %'.v i >.^

Page Text

This is the computer-generated OCR text representation of this newspaper page. It may be empty, if no text could be automatically recognized. This data is also available in Plain Text and XML formats.

Return to page view