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50 CENTS
VOLUME 66/ NUMBER 25 SOUTHPORT, N.C.
■ebruary 12,1997
Sports
Wrestling is a big sport at
South, especially when Brad
McLean’s on the mat — 1C
Yaupon
seeking
tax hike
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Taxes will likely be raised to 13
percent of motel bills and cottage
rental fees in Yaupon Beach begin
ning in January, 1998, commission
ers decided Monday night.
By a 3-1 vote of the board of com
missioners, a resolution asking the N.
C. General Assembly to raise the
town’s occupancy tax from three to
six percent was approved. Only com
missioner Dick Marshall, a real es
tate agent and property manager,
voted in opposition to the occupancy
tax hike.
The resolution will be forwarded to
14th House District Rep. E. David
Redwine, of Brunswick County, who
will be asked to introduce the accom
modations tax hike as a local bill be
fore the General Assembly in its cur
rent session.
The resolution adopted Monday
night notes the three-percent tax on
short-term lodging rentals in Yaupon
Beach which was authorized by the
General Assembly in 1992 no longer
provides adequate revenue for the
town.
"... even though the revenue from
this tax levy has helped Yaupon
Beach improve its beach, recreation
art as and services to its visitors and
tourists, the financial burden of pro
viding such services has exceeded the
financial resources of the town,” the
resolution notes.
Yaupon Beach is among the small
est — if not the smallest — coastal
municipality to levy an occupancy
tax. The one-square-mile town is also
more residential in character than
other coastal communities and has
fewer rental units than most, the reso
lution notes.
Earlier in the evening, commission
ers heard from/epresentatives of the
Southport-Oak Island Chamber of
Commerce who, with the South
Brunswick Islands Chamber of Com
merce, have asked Redwine to spon
sor a local bill establishing a one-per
cent countywide occupancy tax to
support the promotional and market
ing efforts of Brunswick County
Travel Pack, a joint venture of the two
See Yaupon, page 9
Murder
charge
is filed
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
It was a drug deal gone sour that
left a former South Brunswick High
School standout athlete dead of five
gunshot wounds sustained during a
dispute on a rural road near Bolivia.
It was a murder to which there were
at least two eye-witnesses, sheriff
Ronald E. Hewett confirmed Tuesday.
Aaron Thomas (Petey) Swain, of
732 North Lord Street, Southport,
| died in the Dosher Memorial Hospi
tal emergency room early Saturday
: • morning, 19 days after his 28th birth
11 day.
iy3 “Homicide was over a dope deal
!' that went bad,” Capt. Phil Perry of the
sheriff’s major crime unit reported to
\[ sheriff Hewett. A .22 caliber handgun
was located 75 feet from the scene of
. the shooting and a quantity of a white
* powdery substance believed to be
cocaine was also recovered nearby on
: Rutland Road, Bolivia.
See Murder, page 6
VALENTINE
Addie Taylor displays the Valentine’s Day card she made for mom la
branch. The Brunswick County Parks and Recreation Department spon
grams for children at libraries throughout the county.
Photo by Holly Edwards
week at (tie Southport library
red Valentine’s Day crafts pro
Long Beach Horse-a-Thon
Town tightens reins
on VFD fund-raiser
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Horse-a-Thon, the annual fund-raiser for the Long
Beach Volunteer Fire Department, may have no more
than 250 participants this year, town council ruled in a
specially called meeting TUesday morning.
Breaking with tradition, council chose also to dictate
other conditions of the March 21-23 event to the fire
department volunteer, ('ouncil ruled by unanimous vote
the fire departmeni i- ’>> charge a fee of $ 100 per horse
and $25 per ridei lloi-.es, when not being ridden on the
beachfront, will he re .iricted to an area bounded by East
Oak Island Drive .m the north, 46th and 58th streets on
the west and east atul Beach Drive on the south.
Volunteer fire . t ' I im Pittman, in discussions with
town manager J, 'A liters, had proposed to limit the
event to 300 hoi > . aid charge $65 per horse and $25
v stl l-und-raiser, page 9
■ TOP STORIES ON THE INTERNET www.soul
VjSp i f
Commissioners retreat
Long-range
plan group
how history
By Terry Pope
County Editor
County commissioners say long
range planning won’t stop with the
sudden 3-2 vote Saturday to disband
a committee which last year drafted
the county’s plan to deal with growth
over the next 25 years.
The Long-Range Planning Over
sight Committee was appointed in
1995 and developed a list of 16 rec
ommendations to handle projected
growth. It was kept intact to track
implementation of its goals and ob
jectives and had recently hired a pro
fessional planner to study ways to
protect the Castle Hayne aquifer.
“They have done a great job,” said
commission chairman JoAnn
Bellamy Simmons of District 4. “It’s
not something that we’re planning to
do away with completely. We have
plenty of recommendations on what
we need to do. We just felt like the
‘We have plenty of
recommendations on
what we need to do.
We just felt like the
time had come that
we wanted to get
some of these things
done.’
JoAnn Bellamy Simmons
Board chairman
time had come that we wanted to get
some of these things done.”
When the issue was raised by Ms.
See Long-range, page 6
No 'surprises,'
county board
tells member
By Terry Pope
County Editor
Leslie Collier says she is just a jour
nalist at heart and as the District 3
county commissioner isn’t shy about
asking questions during a public
meeting.
Other board members say they
don’t like to be surprised by non
agenda items. At a board retreat Fri
day they questioned her motives
stemming from a January 21 board
meeting where she asked about the
use of county emergency vehicles for
the filming of a movie in New
Hanover County last October. V
"It all came up, and it was a shock,”
said chairman JoAnn Bellamy
Simmons of District 4. “I felt like it
was an embarrassment to the staff. I
See Surprises, page 8
Bolivia. Belville. Leland
Year-round schools suggested
By Holly Edwards
Feature Editor
Principals of Lincoln Primary, Belville Elemen
tary and Leland Middle schools will seek com
munity support to implement a year-round school
program, superintendent of schools Marion Wise
told the school board Monday night.
Parent forums are tentatively scheduled at 7 p.m.
at the following locations and dates: Belville El
ementary, Thursday, February 27; Lincoln Pri
mary, Monday, March 3; Leland Middle, Tues
day, March 4.
The principals say a year-round school calen
dar would offer 180 school days just like the cur
rent calendar, but would provide students with
more frequent and shorter vacations.
Instead of a long summer vacation, students
would attend school for nine weeks and have three
‘What we’ve seen in other
areas, and we have research
to back this up, is that year
round schools have a
positive effect on student
achievement.’
Diana Mintz
Leland principal
iveeks off for three cycles, then attend school for
line weeks and have fi\e weeks otf.
Students who are having academic trouble could
he targeted for remediation every nine weeks
rather than at the end of the school year, the prin
cipals say, and students would retain more of what
they learn with shorter breaks rather than a long
summer vacation.
•‘What we've seen in other areas, and we have
research to back this up, is that year-round schools
have a positive effect on student achievement,”
said Leland Middle principal Diana Mintz. “Be
cause students and teachers get a break more fre
~ quently. they come back refreshed and ready to
work. And when you have students who are eager
to be here and refreshed, learning is going to be
more significant.
in addition to the parent forums, principals will
gather parent input through surveys sent home with
students.
"We want the public to have a clear understand
See Schools, page 8
‘... I reserve the
right to question
why staff made a
decision. I just have
a hard time deciding
which questions can
be asked in public
and which ones
can’t be asked in
public.’
Leslie Collier
District 3 member
Forecast
The extended forecast calls for a
chance of showers on Thursday &
Friday with highs mid 50's to mid
60's. Saturday will be fair and cooler
with highs in the 40's to mid 50's.
INSIDE
Police report ... 7
Business.. 13
Schools ...14
Obituaries . 15
Calendar «»»»«« 3B :
Church........ 7B
TV schedule_4C
District Court « . 6C