The State Port Pilot
OUR TOWN
Boiling Spring Lakes
City Hall will be closed Tuesday through Thursday
of this week in observance of the Christmas holiday.
The New Year holiday will be observed next
Wednesday. The regularly scheduled meeting of the
city’s board of commissioners on January 7 will not
be affected by the holidays.
Commissioners and city staff will seek the assis
tance of the Brunswick County Mosquito Control
Department in designing and executing a drainage
control project in the Vista Lee subdivision. That area
is prone to flood in times of heavy rains and mosqui
toes proliferate there. Several ditches need to be cut
and culvert must be installed. Water drained from the
area is to be directed into Big Lake.
Having already commissioned and received an engi
neering report on the feasibility of constructing a pub
lic drinking water system, commissioners have said
they want to explore the feasibility of a sewer system
also. Commissioners will seek preliminary estimates
to determine if costs can be contained by placing
sewer lines at the same time water lines are installed.
Long Beach
The state’s Division of Coastal Management has
awarded Long Beach a $45,000 grant to build an
oceanfront access — similar to the scenic walkway on
20th Street SE — from 30th Street, behind the recre
ation center, to the strand area.
Town staff proposes to get an early start on budget
making for 1997-98. A schedule approved by council
last week directs staff to begin the budget process for
next year on February 10 with the distribution of bud
get worksheets to department heads. Outside agencies
are to submit budget requests by April 18. Council is
to conduct budget hearings in April and May. On May
16, the manager’s recommended budget will be pre
sented to council. A public hearing on council’s pro
posed budget will be conducted June 17. The budget
may be adopted any time after the public hearing and
before midnight June 30.
Want to serve your town?
Here’s an opportunity, but it’s not for the faint of
heart. Council decided last week to start accepting
resumes from those interested in replacing councilor
Doris Hertel as a member of town council. Resumes
and letters of interest will be accepted by the town
clerk. Hertel last month announced her intention to
resign her post effective February 1. She did not
attend council’s meeting of last Tuesday.
Council will conduct a special work session January
2 at 9 a.m. at the recreation center. The topic will be a
personnel position and classification plan.
Yaupon Beach
If your morning shower seems that much wetter, it’s
because water pressure lately has been higher. Town
officials were forced to switch to the Brunswick
County water delivery system when contractors began
work to repair and paint the town’s water tower on
Trott Street. The county water system provides water
at about 70 pounds per square inch. The town’s well
system provides water at about 50 pounds per square
inch. Pressure is expected to drop again when work
on the water tower is completed and the town begins
pumping water from its well system again.
The town will collect Christmas trees from curbside
on January 6 and January 10. The used trees will go to
a worthy cause. They will be deposited at the dune
line on the beachfront to trap sand and, it is hoped, to
stabilize the dunes.
Caswell Beach
Police responded to 41 calls for assistance in the
month of November, chief Paul Osborne reported
recently. In the month, officers from Caswell Beach
assisted Yaupon Beach police officers in two criminal
arrests. Nine criminal complaints were filed with the
department in November, two domestic disputes were
reported and 11 animal control complaints were
received.
Police officers committed 720 man-hours to service
and vehicles were driven 5,036 miles, burning 341
gallons of fuel.
TWelve single-family building permits were awarded
for new construction, renovation and repair work val
ued at over $475,000, building inspector Charles Britt
reported. In the month, 12 construction inspections
and three electrical, one plumbing and three mechani
cal inspections were made.
About 47 percent of the town’s 1996-97 property tax
levy had been paid by the end of November, tax col
lector Linda Bethune reported. She said the majority
of the levy should be paid by January 6, the deadline
for payment without incurring a penalty. Total levy for
1996-97 is just over $163,000. About $76,500 had
been paid through the end of November.
Southport
The city has been awarded $20,979 in public assis
tance disaster aid for damages it suffered during hurri
cane Fran, the state’s Department of Crime Control
and Public Safety announced December 17. The check
was mailed to the city this week. Money from this
relief fund “reimburses agencies for the costs of
responding to the storm, for debris removal and for
repair or replacement of damaged buildings or infra
structure,” the state department said.
Southport is one of 450 agencies in a 55-county
region which applied to the fund for relief. Awards to
ten cities and non-profit public agencies were
announced last week. The ten agencies shared
$767,853 made available when President Clinton
approved Gov. James Hunt’s September 6 request for
a disaster declaration.
Bags filled with gifts and food were distributed last week at the Brunswick
County school bus garage to more than 1,200 needy county residents. The
Volunteer and Information Center coordinated the effort through its Tree oA|
Photo by Terry Pope
Hope program, Adopt-a-Family program and food drives conducted at grocery
stores and county schools.
^ Long Beach
Manager: ‘ETJ’ building
inspection worth keeping
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
In the year ended June 30, 1996, Long
Beach recovered 92.8 percent of the cost
of doing all building inspections through
fees established for them.
This year, however, that percentage is
expected to drop to under 48 percent,
town manager Jerry Walters told town
council December 17. Council’s decision
not to do CAMA permit inspections, a
tapering off of needed fire code inspec
tions and rising operating costs con
tributed to the decline.
Yet, Walters said, it is still beneficial to
the town to inspect construction in the
Long Beach extraterritorial jurisdiction,
the one-mile area from town limits. Most
building activity in the ETJ area now is in
St. James Plantation.
Walters’ report was ordered up after
‘I still feel like where
we’re sitting now, that
we probably give (St.
James Plantation)
more grief than we do
benefit. I just don’t
see the benefit.’
Helen Cashwell
Town councilor
some council members last month ques
tioned the wisdom of providing services
in the ETJ. Building inspection is the
most costly service provided in the ETJ,
but, in addition to its building code, the
town is also able to enforce its zoning and
subdivision ordinances there.
That’s important to sound planning,
Walters said.
Justifying continued enforcement of
ETJ rights, Walters said:
■ Long Beach would remain posi
tioned to control future development
through its subdivision, zoning and build
ing ordinances.
■ It would maintain the ability to plan
for development compatible with Long
Beach in the event the town annexes por
tions of the ETJ area in the future.
■ ETJ allows an area to become part of
the community.
■ Long Beach can control development
in such a way as to allow it to receive
See Inspection, page 7
SILT now
near goal,
deadline
By Jim Harper
Staff Writer
Organizers of the project to pre
serve developable land at Cape
Fear in its natural state expected to
reach the $800,000 level early this
week, on their way to a $l-million
“must” mark by December 31.
“And I don’t feel that Bald Head
Islanders are going to let the cape
go for lack of $200,000,” said
Smith Island Land Trust chairman
Nancy Maguire on Friday.
Maguire said that SILT plans a
post-Christmas telephone blitz to
make sure every island property
owner has an opportunity to con
tribute to preserving 28 acres of
dune and woodland at an ultimate
cost of $6.5 million.
One of the SILT arguments for its
project is that property values will
increase across the island if the
See SILT, page 9
Ferry gets
Blue Devil
paint job
The motor vessel Southport is receiving a
facelift for the holidays.
The North Carolina Department of
Transportation's Ferry Division is adding the
first North Carolina private university color
scheme to its collection of 16 state-support
ed college and university color schemes
already displayed on ferries. The blue and
white colors of Duke University will adorn
the MV Southport along with emblems and
information about the school.
"Interest has grown in our ferries since the
adoption of the university color scheme,"
said transportation secretary Garland
Garrett. "Our state's outstanding institutions
offer great opportunities to our citizens, and
the ferries display the great pride we have
for these schools."
Special meeting January 2
Classification, pay plan
on Long Beach agenda
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
A newly proposed employee job
classification and pay plan and a pro
posed new personnel ordinance will
be the subjects of a special meeting
of Long Beach Town Council on
January 2.
Meeting December 17, council
received a 40-page review of the
town’s present employee pay and
classification plan and recommenda
tions for its overhaul. The study was
performed by the MAPS Group, a
company which has performed
numerous such studies for public
agencies and local governments in
North Carolina.
The study has recommended a
major realignment of the Long Beach
employee compensation structure,
setting new class specifications and
new salary grades within each classi
fication.
Becky Veazey, of MAPS Group,
said the recommended plan would
bring greater equity to the town’s
compensation program, helping it to
both better recruit good employees
and to retain strong performers.
The group’s recommendations also
include a new personnel ordinance.
“Changes to the old policy were too
severe just to amend it,” Veazey told
council.
One significant recommendation
contained in the report is to establish
a position of assistant town manager.
It is recommended the individual
selected to hold the position of assis
tant town manager be a person well
versed in human resources matters.
The assistant town manager would be
charged with implementing the new
pay and classification plan and new
personnel ordinance.
The study also recommends the
addition of one more paid holiday for
employees each year and the estab
See Agenda, page 9