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Fourth
of July
Festival events
start on Sunday
Festival Fever has struck
Southport-Oak Island with its annual
show of force.
The N. C. Fourth of July Festival
begins in earnest next week, but there
are still a number of teaser events
between now and then the locals es
pecially will want to note.
Tonight (Wednesday) the U. S.
Marine Band will offer a 7 o’clock
concert on the Garrison at Fort
Johnston. Be sure to bring along a
lawn chair or a blanket for this patri
otic performance.
There will be plenty of festival-re
lated things to do Sunday, starting
bright and early at 8 a.m. when the
festival sponsors its one-mile Fun
Run. The 1997 N. C. Freedom Run,
the five-kilometer competitive run
through the streets of Southport, will
follow at 8:30 a.m. Both races will
begin and end at Waterfront Park on
Bay Street.
The Firemen’s Competition will be
held at 2 p.m. Sunday on Nash Street,
between City Hall and the emergency
services building. The games, which
test many skills required in
firefighting, will include volunteer
organizations from throughout
Brunswick County.
Sunday night Southport-Oak Island
neighbors are invited to gather at
Southport Baptist Church on Howe
Street for the Community Worship
Service. Worship is to begin at 7 p.m.
The festival begins in all its splen
dor Tuesday morning, July 1, with the
opening of festival headquarters, the
See Fourth, page 6
Early
edition
“ Next week’s edition of The
State Port Pilot will be pub
lished early for distribution
before noon on Wednesday.
Mail will be placed in the post
office that afternoon for delivery
Has usual.
The N.C Fourth of July
Festival program will be
included in newsstand and
counter sales of the July 2
edition; the program was mailed
to all Pilot subscribers in this
issue, and festival volunteers
will begin distribution to key
locations this weekend.
- Classified advertising
deadlines will remain un
changed. Display advertising for
the July 2 edition must be in the
newspaper office by noon next
Monday.
Photo by Jim Harper
Yes, that Star-Spangled Banner still waves on the Southport waterfront, and will wave gloriously for the
next ten days as the N. C. Fourth of July Festival presents a full program for the Independence Day obser
vance. It starts Sunday with the 8 a.m. Freedom Run, followed by the Firemen’s Competition at 2 p.m. and
the Community Worship Service at 7 p.m.
Town elections
filing period
opens July 4
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
For the politically inclined, July 4 may be a bigger day this year than in
years past.
July 4 marks the first day residents of towns and cities in North Carolina
may file notice of candidacy for election to municipal office.
Although neither town halls nor the Brunswick County Board of Elections
office will be open July 4, the state has set noon that day as the opening of the
filing period for municipal offices nonetheless. For a $5 fee, those who would
serve their towns and cities may file notice of candidacy at any time before
noon August 1.
In Brunswick County that means 18 municipalities, two sanitary districts,
See Elections, page 10
Water
supply
down
Customers of the City of
Southport water system are
asked to help conserve water,
particularly in afternoons for
the next few days.
As the city prepares this year
to locate another well in the city
to assure an adequate supply of
drinking water, Southport
remains dependent on the
Brunswick County water
system for some of its drinking
water needs. This is particularly
true in summer months when
water consumption is highest.
For the next several days,
See Water, page 6
Long Beach issue
Not just fine,
but principle
of the thing
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
No sea turtle was ever endangered
when the Town of Long Beach
pushed sand in May, 1996.
The town will contest a $700 pen
alty the state has assessed it for the
sand-pushing effort, mayor Joan
Altman said Tuesday.
Roger Schecter. director of the Di
vision of Coastal Management of the
N. C. Department of Environment.
Health and Natural Resources, June
12 ruled Long Beach had willfully
and intentionally violated a ban
against sand pushing during sea turtle
nesting season and doubled a $350
base civil penalty he assessed the
town.
“We will appeal," mayor Joan
Altman said Tuesday. “We do not
agree any fine is warranted. The Town
of Long Beach did not do anything to
endanger ser. turtles.”
The dispute between the Town of
Long Beach and the Division of
Coastal Management has been fester
'It is not our fault
they couldn’t get
information from
another agency and I
will not agree to pay
any fine because of
it.’
Joan Altman
Long Beach mayor
ing since June, 1996, when DCM
field representative Edward Brooks
proposed a $2,500 civil penalty be
assessed Long Beach for pushing
sand between Mth and 58th streets
SF from May 15 to May 22, 1996.
Although the town has a general
See Principle, page 9
Brunswick County
'Lean' budget
gives schools
more funding
By Terry Pope
County Editor
A revised budget presented to
Brunswick County commissioners
Monday is $2.3 million leaner, and
increases spending to public schools
by $732,225.
That is still less than the extra $1
million school officials told commis
sioners they need to operate the
schools during the 1997-98 fiscal
year. The school board requested
$15.3 million while the total alloca
tion under the revised plan would be
approximately $14.7 million.
County fiscal operations director
Lithia Horne said Monday the extra
funds would come from the $2.3-mil
Second floor, other amenities cut
Community Building is scaled down
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
As expected, Southport aldermen rejected all bids for re
building the Southport Community Building, the waterfront
structure lost to fire in January, 1995.
Although the four-member committee charged with re
building the structure on the city’s behalf had expected con
struction costs to be between $87 and $95 per square foot,
actual bids set cost at $157 per square foot, alderman Paul
Fisher, a member of the committee, said.
A $ 1.102-million apparent low bid last week for the
project, designed by architect John Thompson under the
committee’s direction, was more than $380,000 over the
‘I was as surprised as anyone. I was just
astonished, the way the bids came in.’
Paul Fisher
Ward I alderman
committee’s fund-raising goal of $720,000. It was even farthvi beyond
the $650,000 a local contractor had predicted bids would be -*fter re
viewing the project for the committee.
Alderman Meezie Childs, another member of the commu
nity building reconstruction committee, said Thompson has
been instructed to scale-down the project severely. He has
been instructed to remove from the project a second story,
decks, landscaping and all things non-essential to the basic
structure.
“We didn't feel we could negotiate down with the lowest
bidder, because the changes will be so significant,” aider
man Childs said. In essence, what Thompson has been di
rected to deliver to the committee today (Wednesday) is a
new project entirely.
Aldermen Thursday said building costs were not what they
were “led to believe,” but didn’t say how they were mislead.
See Building, page 6
lion cuts in various departments and
by adjusting the projected county tax
base to $6.15 billion at a 95.5 percent
tax collection rate instead of 94.4 per
cent as previously figured. The prop
erty valuation was $6.10 billion in the
first draft.
The revised spending plan would
set aside 24 cents instead of 23 cents
of the proposed 68.5 cents per $100
of property valuation tax rate for
county schools. Last month, the
school board asked commissioners to
increase its allocation from a recom
mended $14 million ($12.3 million in
ad valorem dollars plus other funds)
to $15.3 million, and a majority of
commissioners agreed to study the
issue.
Faced with heavily tapping the
county fund balance, commissioners
last week ordered county manager
Jim Varner to trim another $1 million
from the $84.3-million budget. They
received their first look at Varner's
See Schools, page 6
INSIDE
Opinion 4
Police report 7
Obituaries 10
Church 3B
TV schedule 6B
Business 9B
Schools 10B
Calendar 11B
NASCAR 4C
Classifieds 7D
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