The State Port
50 CENTS
I VOLUME 67/NUMBER 5 SOUTHPORT N.C.
Sports
West Brunswick shows
why it’s one of the top 2A
schools in state — Page 1C
t
JUSTICE
I
1
Canine Rocco of the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Department looks
on as deputies attempt to crack a small safe found at a Southport home
Tip delivers
drug dealer
to the law
By Richard Niibel
News Editor
In what law enforcement
called “one of the largest” mari
juana confiscations ever made in
the City of Southport, Brunswick
County sheriff’s deputies teamed
with city police, New Hanover
County sheriff’s detectives and
United Parcel Service employees
Monday to seize 18 pounds of
high-quality pot from a city man.
“1 definitely consider it a ma
jor pop,” said an ebullient sher
iff Ronald E. Hewett, as his depu
ties continued their search of the
home on Southport’s west side.
David Ingram, 38, of 412 West
Owens Street was arrested at his
home approximately 2 p.m. that
day after a Brunswick County
sheriff’s deputy disguised as a
UPS delivery man conned his
way to Ingram’s doorstep. The
deputy-come-UPS man deliv
ered to Ingram an 18-inch cubi
cal package containing 11.2
pounds of marijuana.
Ingram signed for the package
addressed to “Judy Marshall”
and was served with a warrant by
‘By the time
someone has the
means to deal in
this way, he” can be
considered a
major dealer in the
area.’
Sheriff Ronald Hewett
the same deputy. Judy Marshall
does not exist, authorities said.
“He brought more than a pack
age, he brought a search war
rant,” sheriff Hewett said of the
county deputy dressed in the fa
miliar brown, short-pants UPS
uniform.
The sheriff referred to
Ingram’s arrest as a “reverse
sting.”
Searching Ingram’s modest
Owens Street home, deputies of
See Drug dealer, page 7
Photo by Richard Nubel
controlled by David Ingram. Rocco reacted to the safe after deputies |
found it in a storage shed acQacent to the home on Owens Street.
Teens charged
in brutal dehth
.-/v' ”• 1 f »• f v- .1 , ...
By Richard Nubel
News Editor
Two 16-year-old Southport boys were charged with first
degree murder Monday for the killing of a part-time city
resident found beaten, stabbed and strangled in a cottage near
downtown.
Freeman Scott Ireland and Steven Sauls, both of whom
claimed 313 Herring Drive as their residence, were also
charged with one count of armed robbery. Southport police
chief Bob Gray said the Herring Drive address is the family
home of Ireland and Sauls had recently begun to live there.
Gray said police were led to the boys when they visited a city
See Death, page 6
IRELAND
SAULS
Department response:
Prison labor
ideas in need
of correction
By Richard Nubel
News Editor
If any safety concerns linger, the
coordinator of the Community Work
Program for the New Hanover
County state prison unit has offered
to come to Long Beach to assuage
them.
Sgt. Robert Barnhill, responding to
councilor Helen Cashwell’s concerns
of last week, said in a Friday letter to
Long Beach mayor Joan Altman the
benefits to communities of inmate
labor far outweigh the risk of misbe
havior by those who are incarcerated
at minimum custody levels. Long
Beach has reaped the benefit of in
mate labor in the past and the inmate
work program has benefited also, he
said.
“To get this far, it was necessary
for government agencies to partici
pate,” Barnhill wrote. “Without reluc
tance, Long Beach stepped forward
and offered us the chance to prove
ourselves.”
‘Without reluctance,
Long Beach stepped
forward and offered
us the chance to
prove ourselves.’
Sgt. Robert Barnhill
Inmates attached to the Community
Work Program have performed
17,824 man-hours of work for Long
Beach in the three years of the
program’s existence.
As town council discussed “condi
tions at Middleton Park” at councilor
Cashwell’s request September 16, she
asserted she had received at least three
See Prison, page 9
Posher hospital
Settlement near
for beds appeal
By Holly Edwards
Feature Editor
A proposal to settle an appeal filed
by Magnolia Health Care against the
state’s decision to grant Dosher Me
morial Hospital certification to oper
ate 60 skilled nursing beds is expected
to be approved by the state this week,
hospital administrator Edgar
Haywood told his board of trustees
Monday.
Magnolia Health Car.e also applied
for the bed allocation, proposing to
include them in a larger retirement
community at Supply.
In anticipation of state approval of
the settlement, the hospital has di
rected Coldwell Banker Southport
Oak Island Realty to take necessary
steps to vacate residents from Cape
Harbor Apartments by November 1,
Haywood added.
The apartment building wil1 be de
molished by early 1998 to make room
for a parking lot. The skilled nursing
facility would be constructed where
the current parking facility is located.
If the state approves the settlement
proposal this week, Haywood said the
hospital would he ready to begin con
struction of the $4-mi!lion nursing
home in six months and would have
a functional facility by August, 1999.
In the proposed settlement, Dosher
agrees to give Magnolia ten of the 60
skilled nursing beds it received from
the state and to drop its application
filed last month for state certification
to operate an additional ten skilled
nursing beds.
In return, Magnolia agrees to drop
its appeal and to pay Dosher $25,000
to cover legal costs associated with
fighting the appeal, as well as addi
tional costs associated with preparing
the settlement document. Magnolia
also will pay Dosher $3,500 to cover
costs associated with applying last
month for ten additional beds, the
settlement reads.
Dosher originally planned to con
struct a facility including 60 skilled
nursing beds and four home for the
aged beds, which require a lower level
of medical care.
If the settlement is approved by the
state and Dosher gives Magnolia ten
of the beds, Haywood said Dosher
will construct a facility housing 50
See Appeal, page II
U.S. Open next week
Anglers just want to have fun
This year the U. S. Open King Mackerel Tournament is going
to be fun.
Oh, the tournament was fun... Well, sorta, maybe, last year.
But when the 1997 U. S. Open begins with a captain’s meet
ing and party with refreshments and disc jockey at Southport
Marina next Thursday, October 2, the emphasis will turn
squarely to fishing and fun.
“What we really need is a little more fun in this year’s tour
nament,” said Karen Sphar, executive vice-president of the
Southport-Oak Island Chamber of Commerce. The U. S. Open
King Mackerel Tournament was begun in 1979 as the major
annual fund-raising event for the chamber. It has grown from
its modest beginnings to become the oldest and most respected
saltwater fishing tournament in the Carolinas.
The 1997 U. S. Open registration tent will open for business
October 2 at 10 a.m. Registration will continue through mid
night.
The real fun begins at 7 a m. next Friday when the scores of
fishing boats race to outside waters from Cape Fear, Lockwood
Folly and Masonboro inlets.
Last year at this time, U. S. Open King Mackerel Tournament
officials were busy battling rumors of the U. S. Open King Mack
erel Tournament’s cancellation for bad weather. No fun at all,
that was.
Foul weather and Hurricane Fran three weeks earlier had
forced the cancellation of scheduled king rpackerel tournaments
in Atlantic Beach and Wrightsville Beach as the U. S. Open
committee made final arrangements for Southport’s fall clas
sic.
But through some difficult weather conditions, the U. S, Open
King Mackerel Tournament of 1996 was held with 418 boats
and crews vying to take home a share of the tournament’s
$100,000 cash purse.
Despite tossy and turny conditions, Charlie Wilson of Yaupon
Beach had fun at the 1996 U. S. Open. He and the Wilson fam
See Anglers, page 11
TOP STORIES ON THE INTERNET www.southport.net
INSIDE
Opinion 4
Police report 10
Obituaries 11
Church 4B
Calendar 6B
TV schedule 8B
District Court 10B
Notices 11B
NASCAR 3C
Grid contest 5C
Business 12D