The State Port
VOLUME 67/ NUMBER 10 SOI JTHPORX N.C
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Sports
South Brunswick hosts
Whiteville with the winner
likely in the playoffs — 1C
Municipal elections are scheduled Ttiesday
By Richard Nubel
News Editor
Voters of Southport-Oak Island, Bald Head Island and
Boiling Spring Lakes will be among those in 18 munic
ipalities in Brunswick County who will go to the polls
Tuesday to choose leaders for at least the next two years,
and in most instances four years.
In addition, voters of Southeast Brunswick Sanitary
District will be asked to send three of their commission
ers back to the governing board Tuesday and voters of
Dosher Memorial Hospital tax district will be asked to
reelect three hospital trustees.
Boiling Spring Lakes voters will not only elect city
Candidate profiles, opinions inside
officials, they will vote FOR or AGAINST the “Board
of commissioners pursuing a central "Water system for
Boiling Spring Lakes.” That referendum questipn will
be non-binding, but should prove an indication of
whether or not city residents are willing to support a
public water delivery system.
Polls in all jurisdictions Tuesday will open at 6:30 a.m.
and will remain open until 7:30 p.m. Deadline for cast
ing absentee ballots is Friday and all absentee ballots
must be cast at the Brunswick County Board of
Elections office at the government center near Bolivia.
The most highly contested races in the Southport-Oak
Island area are poised to take place in Long Beach and
in Boiling Spring Lakes.
While Long Beach mayor Joan Altman has no oppo
nent in her bid for election to a third term of office, there
will be 12 candidates seeking election to jjjx seats on
Long Beach Town Council. Six of those candidates are,
or have been, affiliated with Long Beach United For
Progress, a registered political action committee which
has opposed Altman and those councilors who have^
agreed with her during her six-year tenure. Six of those
candidates are either incumbents or supporters of mayor
Altman and like-minded councilors.
This is the last time all six councilors will stand for
election at one time in Long Beach. Four-year, staggered
terms of office will begin with this election. The candi
dates winning the three highest vote totals will be seat
ed for four-year terms. Candidates receiving the fourth,
fifth and sixth highest vote totals will be seated for two
year terms. In 1999, three commissioners will be elect
ed to four-year terms.
In Boiling Spring Lakes, voters may chose from
See Election, page 5
Developer
sues town
for breach
By Richard Nubel
News Editor
Yaupon Beach is in breach of a con
tract to treat up to 50,000 gallons of
wastewater generated by a housing
development to be located on the
Intracoastal Waterway, new develop
ers of the property formerly owned
by Standard Products Inc. say.
Point Associates, a limited liability
company which now owns the former
Standard parcel, filed suit Monday,
asking the Superior Court in
Brunswick County to return to it
more than 11 acres of land Standard
had conveyed to Yaupon Beach in
exchange for the town’s agreement to
treat wastewater generated by its
planned housing development.
Yaupon Beach intended to spray
the 11 acres of land with treated
effluent from its adjacent wastewater
treatment plant on Fish Factory
Road. The town has never obtained
permits from state regulatory agen
cies to do this, however; it now has
consulting engineers examining other
wastewater disposal means.
If the court refuses to order the land
reconveyed to Point Associates, the
firm has asked to be compensated for
its loss in cash.
Point Associates has asked in the
alternative for more than $10,000 for
the breach of contract by Yaupon
Beach that it alleges.
Or, Point has also asked the court to
. award it more than $10,000 as com
pensation for the town’s unjust
enrichment from the property.
In stating its claim, Point
Associates points to a January 7,
1993, agreement between Standard
Products Inc. and the Town of
See Lawsuit, page 5
Nat Parker
loses fight
to cancer
By Holly Edwards ”
Feature Editor
Brunswick County civil rights
leader Nathaniel Parker Sr. lost his
ten-month battle with cancer
Saturday. He was 44 years old.
The two-term president of the
Brunswick County chapter of the
National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) was remembered by
friends and family as a man who
* cared deeply about others.
“I hope he will be remembered as
a loving person who was always
willing to help someone in need,”
said 19-year-old daughter Monica
Parker.
Parker also i< survived by his wife
See Parker, page 6
mam
Photo by Jim Harper
Repair work continues this week on the approach wings leading underneath the Oak Island bridge. Periodic
maintenance is required on the wooden structures which ensure that watercraft passing beneath the span do
not touch structural parts of the bridge.
Electric deregulation
Who bears the load?
By Richard Nubel
News Editor
Who will pay for the municipal debt acquired to build nuclear reac
tors in North Carolina, if customers flee municipal power agencies
when the electric distribution industry is deregulated?
That question stands as the single greatest obstacle to deregulation of
the electric industry in North Carolina, and elsewhere, delegates to the
N. C. League of Municipalities convention last week were told!*
The question is an important one for the City of Southport especial
ly. Southport is one of 32 cities which in the 1970s and 1980s formed
N. C. Eastern Municipal Power Agency, a consortium which bought
ownership interests in nuclear power-generating facilities operated by
Carolina Power and Light Co.
Two power agencies in North Carolina — formed by 51 cities -
assumed more than $6 billion in debt to finance nuclearpdwer plant
See Electric, page 6
‘I got the Impression
from the Duke Power
representative'that it
was not for uniform
stranded cost. I did not
hear that from CP&L.’
Rob Gandy
Southport manager
Posher hospital
State okays
beds appeal
settlement
By Holly Edwards
Feature Editor
An appeal filed against the
state’s decision to grant Dosher
Memorial Hospital certification to
operate 60 skilled nursing beds
was settled Monday.
Dosfier administrator Edgar
Haywood told hospital trustees
Monday night the hospital will be
ready to begin construction of the
J>4-million nursing home in
approximately six months and will'
have a functional facility by fall
1999.
Dosher will
construct a
facility housing
50 skilled nurs
ing beds and
14 home for
the aged beds
In a settlement approved by the Certificate of Need Section ot
the state Department of Human Resources, Dosher"agrees to give
Magnolia Health Care ten of the 60 skilled nursing beds it
See Appeal, page 5
Long Beach
Oceanfront
values erode
By Richard Nubel
News Editor
Property on the oceanfront in
Long Beach is now valued at
about half of what it would be if
erosion had not taken its toll
over the years, town council was
told last week.
The value of Long Beach
oceanfront property — exclusive
of any structures or other
improvements — is approxi
mately $28 million, said Dara
Royal, a member of the town’s
erosion control committee and a
member of the Long Beach
Preservation Trust advisory
committee.
Royal recently undertook an
assessment of the impact of ero
sion on the beachfront in which
it was determined only 26 per
cent of oceanfront land is now
valued at between 70 and 100
percent of its potential or origi
nal value. Another 53 percent
has lost half its value, either
because it could not be
improved if structures now on it
were destroyed, or because no
structure can be placed on the
land due to setback regulations
and septic requirements.
“You can see that we have
already lost about 50 percent of
what the original tax base value
was,” Royal told council.
The 26 percent of oceanfront
property in Long Beach that has
maintained all, or nearly all, of
its original value accounts for
some 11,000 linear feet of sandy
soil between 79th Street and the
point at King’s Lynn. Its total
value is estimated at $15.4 mil
lion, or about 44 percent of the
entire oceanfront, or first row,
value.
The 53 percent of all ocean
front property which has lost 50
percent of its value due to ero
sior acc ounts for approximately
22,1 ,0 linear feet of beachfront.
Top .value of this property is
just V'ver $12.3 million, or 36
percent of the total oceanfront
valuation.
Another 14 percent of the
oceanfront at Long Beach is
either town-owned like the
cabana property, in commercial
use like the two piers, or in a
non-traditional oceanfront use,
See Erosion, page 6
NEWS on the NET: www.southport.hef1