The State Port
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Football season comes to a
close for North, West; hoops
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Southport
City audit
report not
shocking
By Richard Nubel
News Editor
With a greater than 1.5 percent
increase in tax collections over the
prior fiscal year, independent audi
tors’ chief complaint about the
financial accounts of the City of
Southport in the year completed
June 30 was the much-debated elec
tric fund deficit.
In an October 2 management let
ter to mayor Bill Crowe and the
Southport Board of Aldermen,
Brock, Padgett and Chandler, the
city’s auditors, found little of which
to be critical outside of the cash
poor city electric fund.
Aldermen have been provided
complete copies of the audit of city
accounts for the fiscal year 1996-97
and a formal presentation by auditor
Menton Padgett has been scheduled
for the board’s meeting on
December 11.
City manager Rob Gandy said this
year’s audit shows solid improve
ment in other accounts.
“Outside of our well-publicized
and well-discussed electric fund
deficit, everything looks good,”
Gandy said of the audit report. The
full report is to be released to the
public when it is placed before the
board of aldermen in December.
“Our other enterprise funds
appear strong and our general fund
is healthy,” Gandy said. Enterprise
funds, like the electric fund, are
funds of city government that are
self-sustaining by the sale of a prod
uct or service. The city also has a
water and sewer enterprise fund and
a solid waste enterprise fund. The
general fund gets its revenues from
a variety of taxes and fees, includ
ing the city property tax and sales
and use taxes collected by the state.
Gandy said he is particularly
proud of the finding at audit of a
1.53-percent increase in property
tax collections over fiscal year
1995-96. Southport collected 93.72
percent of property taxes, according
to the audit report. That number is
lowered somewhat by motor vehi
cle taxes collected by Brunswick
County. If real property tax collec
tions were calculated alone, the col
lection rate would be higher, the
See Audit, page 8
Early printing
This week’s edition of The
State Port Pilot is being printed
on Tuesday to allow delivery to
area subscribers and counter
sale outlets prior to the
Thanksgiving holiday.
The newspaper office will be
closed Thursday and Friday,
except for the period 9 a.m. to
noon on Friday.
TEEN
Photo by Holly Edwards
Providence Home youth shelter opened last week on Dosher Cutoff Road and is currently housing three local teens.
Shelter director Debra Ing (center) and house parents David and Derinda Thrift will operate the facility. Ing stressed that
services provided at the shelter are confidential and that the facility is closed to the general public.
Southport-Oak Island
Christmas-by-the-Sea
plans are unwrapped
By Holly Edwards
Feature Editor
Holiday activities will flourish in the
Southport-Oak Island area in December as
the annual Christmas-by-the-Sea Festival
gets underway.
The celebration begins Friday, December
5, 7 p.m., when the Town of Long Beach
lights the holiday tree at Middleton Park.
The Brunswick Concert Band Brass
Ensemble will perform holiday classics and
light refreshments will be served.
On Saturday, December 6, 3 p.m., the
Christmas-by-the-Sea Parade will proceed
through Yaupon Beach and Long Beach.
Highlights of the parade include Shrine
units, the South Brunswick High School
marching band, homemade floats, beauty
queens, horses and police, fire and rescue
units.
Parade applications are still available at
the Southport-Oak Island Chamber of
Commerce office on Long Beach Road.
Also Saturday, the Oak Island Elks Lodge
will hold its annual fund-raising barbecue
at Middleton Park beginning at 11 a.m. and
continuing as long as supplies last.
Six of Oak Island’s most attractive homes
will be showcased in the Oak Island Tour of
Homes on Sunday, December 7, 1 to 5 p.m.
Tickets cost $5 and proceeds will be used
throughout the year to fund projects spon
sored by the Oak Island Beautification
- See Christinas, page 6
Board trims
some items
from school
By Holly Edwards
Feature Editor
Facing a possible $1.2-million
budget shortfall, the Brunswick
County Board of Education
reviewed a list of project reductions
. Monday to reduce the estimated
$9.3-raillion price tag on the new
elementary school at Winding River
Plantation.
The school site is located just off
N. C. 211 and is bordered by Zion
Hill Road and the Winding RiVer
Plantation golf course development. |
Four project reductions have thus
far been approved: Reducing the
size of the entrance canopy, using
vinyl flooring rather than carpeting :
in the classrooms, deleting addition
al parking spaces and reducing the
size of perimeter fencing.
The school system has $8.1 mil
' lion in state construction bond
funds available and will likely seek
See School, page 6
Geologist:
Dewatering
jeopardizes
area supply
By Richard Nubel
News Editor
A quarrying effort like
the one proposed by
Martin Marietta Aggre
gates north of Southport
could have far-reaching
effects on the well
being of the Castle
Hayne Aquifer, a North
Carolina State
University hydrogeolo
gist told county com
missioners last week.
Borrow pits, like the
one dug in the Sunny
Point buffer zone in
apparent contravention
of state regulations, can
also cause contamina
tion of the huge body of
‘People con
cerned about
the effect of
that project on
the Castle
Hayne
Aquifer ~
their concern
was well
placed.’
groundwater beneath Brunswick County, Dr. Kalph
Heath said in his comments before commissioners.
Heath appeared before county commissioners to
present an aquifer sensitivity map, developed in con
junction with the Brunswick County Planning
See Geologist, page fc
Long Beach
Dune project
may enhance
land values
By Richard Nubel
News Editor
Should the sea turtle habitat restoration project pro
posed at Long Beach be funded and completed, the tax
able value of the nourished beachfront property it
would create would more than double its present tax
able value.
Long Beach commissioners learned that last'week in
the third of a series of presentations by Long Beach
Preservation Trust board member Dara Royal, who,
with the Long Beach Erosion Control Committee,
recently completed an assessment of the impact of ero
sion on oceanfront land values.
Today, Royal said, the roughly two miles between
19th and 61st streets, which include the tapers of the
See Land values, page 6
The state has offered slightly
under $1 million to match a
federal contribution to the
project, but the federal gov
ernment has not committed
funds for construction
Bradshaw resigns as Bald Head mayor
By Richard Nubel
News Editor
Reorganization of the Bald Head Island
Village Council on December 6 may include
naming a replacement for mayor Thomas
Bradshaw, whose resignation from office is to
become effective that day.
Bradshaw surprised those attending coun
cil’s November 15 meeting with his resigna
tion, an action for which he gave no explana
tion.
“He announced it at the end of the meeting,”
said Bald Head Island village clerk Josann
Campanello. “There wasn’t a reason stated.
He just highlighted some of the accomplish
ments made during the years leading up to the
first election in 1995 and some since that
time.”
Bradshaw, also a former Raleigh mayor, was
the first mayor to serve the village since Bald
Head Island began electing village council
members directly. Prior to 1995, members of
village council and the mayor were appointed
either by the Bald Head Island Property
Owners Association or by Bald Head Island
Management Inc., under terms of an initial bill
of incorporation.
Ms. Campanello said it is likely a replace
ment for Bradshaw will be elected by village
council after newly elected members are seat
ed December o at the board’s biennial reorga
nizational meeting. Peter T. Taussig and Andy
Sayre, who each captured 62 votes in the
November 4 election, are to be seated at that
meeting. Kathlyn (Kitty) Henson, who gar
nered 79 votes in the election, is to be seated
to fill the two-year unexpired portion of a
vacated term of office.
With other council members, those three
will chose a new mayor and mayor pro-tem.
Members will also have the opportunity that
See Bald Head, page 12
NEWS on the NET: www.southport.net
What’s inside
Opinion
Police report
Obituaries
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Santa’s agenda
Church
Calendar
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TV schedule
Real estate
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