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Tessari
to serve
11 years
Holly Edwards
Feature Editor
Former Southport entrepreneur
Michael Tessari was sentenced last
week in federal court in Harrisburg,
PA, to 11 years and five months in
prison and ordered to pay restitution
totaling more than $9.6 million.
Federal sentencing laws do not al
low for parole so Tessari will serve
the full sentence. Upon release, he
will appear before the Pennsylvania
Board of Parole and likely be returned
to prison for an additional term, said
Pennsylvania Department of Parole
supervisor Bob Largent.
Tessari, 40, was paroled in 1988
after serving three years on convic
tion of 64 counts of theft by decep
tion involving more than $900,000.
“Because his conviction is a viola
tion of parole, when he is released he
will serve additional time as a parole
violator,” Largent said.
Tessari pled guilty in February to
charges of money laundering and wire
fraud involving a scam in which fed
eral investigatofs confirmed 120 per
sons throughout Pennsylvania in
vested more than $15 million.
Tessari presented himself as an ex
pert with ten years’ experience in the
packaging materials business, and
promised investors huge returns on
their investments.
When the scheme collapsed in the
fall of 1995, 86 ot the victims suf
fered losses totaling $9,626,093, as
sistant U. S. attorney Martin Carlson
stated in documents presented to U.
S. District Court judge Sylvia Rambo.
While more than $9.4 million was
used by Tessari to promote the fraud,
Carlson said, large sums of money
also were used to support his “ex
travagant personal lifestyle” in the
Southport area.
Carlson stated that these expenses
included more than $678,000 in real
estate purchases, about $407,000 in
home construction and improve
ments, more than $607,000 in busi
ness venture promotion in the area
including a karate studio, health club
and pizza parlor, $247,000 for a cor
porate aircraft, cash contributions and
gifts totaling more than $125,00(Xand
See Tessari, page 8
Mailing
change
Pilot delivery
may be slowed
Subscribers to The State Port Pilot
may be affected by changes mandated
by the U. S. Postal Service.
Newspapers have been required to
submit their mailing lists for review
by the postal service, which uses a
computer-generated CASS program
to make changes it says are appropri
ate. In many cases, postal delivery of
the Pilot has been interrupted.
“It wasn’t broke,” said Pilot editor
Ed Harper. “And the postal service
"tix' may inconvenience some of our
subscribers for some time.”
For example, Harper said, the
proper address of a subscriber at Villa
Nova Trailer Park, Lot 71, on Long
Beach Road was changed to R O. Box
1479, Southport, and placed in the
post oil ice bundle.
Out-ot-county subscribers may be
affected by the changes also.
We have worked diligently to im
prove delivery to subscribers who live
See Change, page 8
Photo by Jim Harper
Having been driven through a couple of times this season, by hurricanes bertha and Frail, it was time last
week for the golden arches sign at the River Run McDonald's to get refurbished. Clean-up, including pick
up and prop-up of a number of other dajnaged business signs, continued throughout the community this
week.
BRUNSWICK COUNTY
Long-range committee
to meet Thursday night
By Terry Pope
County Editor
The invitation to county commissioners was short,
sweet and well-received.
No questions were raised about funds, and the lack of
communication alluded to during a recent Brunswick
County Long-Range Oversight Committee meeting was
never mentioned.
Instead, committee chairman Michael Royal of Boil
ing Spring I akc ■> put a different light on (he workshop
Thursday, September 19, that will bring together offi
cials from IS municipalities and numerous county agen
cies for the second countywide planning meeting at Bo
livia Hlement.m School from 5 to 7 p in.
Describing m as a “goal-setting meeting," Royal ad
dressed comma oners on Monday and encouraged them
to once again b > one a part of the process of helping to
plan lor tremeu ous county growth projected over the
See Committee, page 6
Corps violation ?
Ocean debris
hurts shrimp,
tourist trades
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Since 1987, the U. S. Army Corps
of Engineers has, in violation of an
Environmental Protection Agency
permit, dumped an estimated 31 mil
lion cubic yards of dredge spoil, lit
tered with huge stumps, tractor tires
and solidified mud, on a site about
three miles off Yaupon Beach,
Caswell Beach and Bald Head Is
land, a representative of the
Brunswick County Fisherman’s As
sociation charges.
Shrimper Billy Hickman, who
spoke before Yaupon Beach commis
sioners last week, told Caswell
Beach commissioners Thursday con
taminants from the dump site have
broken free, ruining a prime white
and brown shrimp dragging ground.
The debris now clogging and tear
ing shrimpers’ nets is beginning to
float ashore, cluttering the beaches
which lure tourists to this area.
This is coming to
the beach. It’s going
to cover us up.
We’ve got to join
forces as a coalition
to stop the Corps of
Engineers.’
Billy Hickman
Oak Island shrimper
“This is something we’ve all got to
address," Hickman told Caswell
Beach commissioners, “because this
is going to be an ecological and eco
See Debris, page 6
Lons Beach
street-end steps
will be provided
By Richard Nubcl
Municipal Editor
Staff was directed to develop a
plan to build steps to the
Intracoastal Waterway skirl front 21
municipally owned street-end bulk
heads Tuesday night as Long Beach
Town Council met m regular month
ly session.
In other matters brought before
council’s monthly meeting, council
balked at adopting a policy limiting
smoking to designated areas ol pub
lic buildings and determined to send
letters to relevant agencies seeking a
review ol U. S. Aimy Corps ol
Engineers' dredge spoil dumping
procedures.
Commissioners Helen Cash-well
and Doris Hertel opposed the direc
tive to add staircases to the 21 tovvn
ou ned street ends - - a v enture w Inch
town manager Jerry Wallers esti
County to keep cost-cutter
But could savings be achieved in-house?
By Terry Pope
Couniv Editor
Hiring an outside consultant to examine the
county's spending practices has saved the county
$240,786 to date. Another $200,000 has been
saved bv putting chemical supplies for the water
department out to bid.
County commissioners were split 4-1 Monday
on whether to continue hiring outside consultants
to search for wavs to cut costs, with District 4
commissioner Tom Rabon Sr. of Winnabow dis
senting.
“My reason for voting to hire an assistant county
manager was not to assist the county manager but
to save the countv money as a purchasing agent,”
said Rabon "All of this 1 was for. I was instru
mental in bringing tin- 'bout. But I don’t think
we need that anymoie
Rabon said he insu s' wants to see assistant
county manager Rots t Hyatt earn his pay by
cutting costs in the pun basing department on lus
own. When the born a "ted to hire an assistant
county manager, it tu- ' "Ured the position would
virtually pay for itselt
Hyatt earns $60,dot1 i'L'r year, third highest paid
ot all county employees oehind county manager
Jim Varner's $72.7 s -ai try and long-time social
services director Jaime Orrock’s salary ot
$64,567.
Ol the $240,7N<> sac I to date Robert Segal, an
expense reduction consultant, will receive half ol
that amount under ho 'greernent with commis
sioners.
I hus l.t:
amounts a
can lineo
$21.SOS. \
penalties.
$47.37.4, t
mnims. $'
maintenan
tinned set
ilsle spemli
lax. yvoo
( ounlx
anticipate
$o3tl.S,sd
lo puielu
m e t H x e 111 •
the countv has saved the following
, a result of Segal’s recommendations:
.. $2,273; milk, $ 1.211,S; gasoline,
ending, $2.8,73; Brunswick Electric
si vh4d; life and disability insurance,
hicrine. $8,713, health insurance pre
r “M on PPO and $23,680 on PCP;
,. s2.6IW; At'antic lelephone discon
■ $820; cost report, $12,008; tle.x
,,, account, $ 1.4(10; and federal excise
11s,.al operations director luthia Horne
, i,.tal sax nuts this xear will reach
M that amount, $37s,()()() w ill be used
.... j generator for the county govern
, near Bolivia that will be used to help
See Cost-cutter, page 6
mated will cost Long Beach
$ I 2,600 fur materials alone. Walters
is to report hack to council on a plan
to initiate the work in the most effi
cient manner and to pay for it.
Funds for the street-end steps
were not budgeted this year.
"1 think we should pursue all 21
street-ends," councilor Jeff
Fnsimnger said, offering a motion
to do so. "We've got a policy that
says well will have steps and we got
away Irom it. I think we should do
each one of them."
The bulkheaded street-ends matter
was brought before council last
month when councilor Horace
Collier reminded council and
Walters a policy had been enacted
mandating steps from all street-end
bulkheads the town develops. For
some reason. Collier said, the town
See Long Beach, page 9
Forecast
The first day of Autumn is Sunday
but we will continue to have tempera
tures in teh >SO's. Also, expect a chance
of showers and thunderstorms.
INSIDE -
Opinion ....... 4
Police report ... 9
District Court . * 12
Business ....... 13
Obituaries ..... 15
Church ..SB
TV schedule .... 6B
Classifieds ..... ID
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