Sports
Two former South cagers
squared off in Division I
basketball Saturday — 1C
Neighbors
The offensive turned the
Vietnam War and changed
Sgt. Willie Gore’s life — IB
Our Town
Bald Head Island started
pumping sand and cost may
exceed $3 million - Page 2
Hospital
may seek
'authority'
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
How Dosher Memorial Hospital
was chartered may determine whether
it should pay property taxes to
Brunswick County and to the City of
Southport, a lawyer for the hospital
and Brunswick County tax supervi
sor Boyd Williamson say.
Hospital trustees learned Monday
night their attorney, Michael
Murchison of Wilmington, and
Williamson will meet to discuss
Dosher’s potential property tax liabil
ity the first week in February. Under
discussion will be whether some $1
million of real estate owned by the
hospital and rented to doctors and oth
ers at fair market value is subject to
property taxation.
Williamson, in a January 10 inter
view with The State Port Pilot, sug
gested property used for purposes
other than those directly associated
with the public hospital are subject
to property taxation, under the N. C.
Machinery Act, the body of law gov
erning property taxation in this state.
“Buildings on hospital property that
are being rented and the doctors are
making a profit and paying rent, that’s
taxable,” Williamson said on January
10.
The county tax supervisor said if
the Dosher Memorial Hospital prop
erties are “discovered” — added to the
county tax scrolls -- the hospital could
be liable to pay property taxes for the
years 1991-95 with penalties gradu
ating ten percent for each year of ar
rears.
In a January 15 letter to hospital
administrator Edgar Haywood and
finance officer James Shomaker,
Murchison countered Williamson’s
contention, saying there are “two ex
emptions for real property taxes in
North Carolina which arguably may
apply to Dosher.”
Murchison told hospital adminis
See Hospital, page 6
‘Dosher is in the
real estate business.
They’re creating a
market force....
They can potentially
rent cheaper by not
paying taxes.’
Boyd Williamson
Tax supervisor
Forecast
It's cold again. We can expect
winter temperatures for the pe
riod of Thursday-Sunday. Highs
only reaching into the 40's.
^7^
# INSIDE i
Opinion
lusiness
* 'i* ♦ ♦ 4 * |
4
110
Obituaries . *.,. II
phurch.2B
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phools; ♦*i\
A grackle can work up a powerful thirst just now
eating chinaberries, and other delicious stuff that
might be found under the bleak winter sun. How nice
Photo by Jim Harper
to be able to drop over to the nearby neighborhood
gutter for refreshment.
Wastewater management
Yaupon, state finally
to discuss alternative
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Just shy of 18 months after declar
ing a moratorium on new taps to the
Yaupon Beach wastewater manage
ment system because its method of
disposing treated effluent was defi
cient, N. C. Division of Environmen
tal Management officials have called
town leaders and their engineers to
Raleigh to discuss “alternatives.”
Mayor Dot Kelly and commission
ers Dick Marshall and Roy Johnson
will keep that appointment Monday,
but have not been told which “alter
natives” will be on the table.
DEM’s Wilmington regional su
pervisor Rick Shiver said Tuesday
DEM staff has three treated effluent
disposal options to put before
Yaupon Beach officials.
“Obviously, the option we have
See Yaupon, page 11
Do recycling
charges equal
a double tax?
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Commencement of Brunswick
County’s contract to dispose of gar
bage in partnership with a solid-waste
to-energy company near Fayetteville
leaves municipal officials here with
two policy questions to face in bud
get deliberations this spring:
■ Are municipal residents paying
twice to recycle?
■ Is that bad?
Town manager Jerry Walters of
Long Beach and city manager Rob
Gandy of Southport say they will
bring those policy questions to their
respective governing boards shortly,
as the budget preparation process for
FY 1996-97 progresses. They may
also be questions for Caswell Beach
and Boiling Spring Lakes, both of
which operate recycling stations, and
Yaupon Beach, which pays Caswell
Beach so its residents may use a recy
cling center there.
Under terms of Brunswick County’s
contract with BCH Energy Limited
Partnership Inc., trash is hauled 90
miles by a private carrier to BCH’s
‘The likelihood is,
we’ll reevaluate the
need for a recycling
center in the
community. The
$2,000 a month we
pay for the center is
a significant
amount. ’
Jerry Walters
Long Beach manager
bubbling fluid bed incinerator where
trash is burned, converted to steam
and sold to a Dupont plant nearby.
But first, recyclable items are re
moved from the waste stream by
BCH, under terms of its contract with
See Double tax, page 6
Leland opts
for regional
sewer study
By Terry Pope
County Editor
Leland officials have broken off
negotiations with the Town of Belville
and will instead pursue a regional ap
proach to sewer service.
The unanimous vote of council last
week halts current talks with Belville
over a proposed contract to tap onto
that neighboring town’s sewer treat
ment plant.
It also officially endorses a Lower
Cape Fear Water and Sewer Author
ity study which may take six to seven
months to complete. That draft will
also include recommendations for all
of northern Brunswick County.
“The number-one priority now is
regionalization, and the number-one
See Leland, page 8
‘I will bend over
backwards to get
Belville in the
process. We want
them in the process.
But if we must, we
will go on without
them.’
Kurt Taube
LCFWSA director
Units permitted by county zoning
We’re a ’mobile’ society
By Terry Pope
County Editor
Figures show Brunswick County was on the move in
1995. So were a number of mobile homes.
Mobile homes outnumbered new stick-built houses in
the county by almost a four-to-one margin last year, ac
cording to figures released by the Brunswick County
Building Inspections Department.
One reason is the county’s open-door zoning policy
for mobile units.
“Eighty-five percent of the county has mobile homes
available to it by zoning,” said Brunswick County plan
ning director Wade Home.
Last yfear, 916 permits were issued for mobile homes,
up 18 percent from the 773 permits issued in 1994. An
average of 76 mobile homes are moved into the county
each month, but building inspections doesn’t attach a
value to the units for its yearly report.
Also last year, 256 permits were issued for single-fam
ily dwellings, an increase of 34 percent from 1994’s to
tal of 191 permits.
It was another building boom for the county with the
value of new construction at $32.4 million in 1995, up
61 percent over the previous year’s estimate of $20.2
million. The county ranks second in the state in growth.
Mobile homes are welcomed into the county because
all residential zones now allow them in some form --
singlewides in higher density zones, and doublewides
in medium density zones.
“That is a rarity,” said Horae. “In my opinion, that is
not good for the county.”
In other counties the reverse is true - mobile homes
are restricted to certain zones. Most residential areas do
not normally allow them. County commissioners are
See ‘Mobile’, page 9
BUILDING PERMIT SUMMARY