Bottom line
We can adjust to minor problems if county
government is making an effort to provide
equal service to one and all
The six-year solid waste contract approved by county commissioners
Monday was never presented as the answer to all of our garbage concerns.
Questions still linger, and they ark important ones, over the $5-million
annual deal with Waste Industries Inc. and how 18 municipalities and
county government can coordinate a plan that will please everyone. The
contract does not address commercial accounts, and an appointed commit
tee must study this issue after the bam door has already been shut.
Some fear yet another breakdown, like the Vedco Co. incineration deal
which got us into the business of shipping our trash to Sampson County in
the first place. As District 2 commissioner David Sandifer stated, as long
as our waste is being handled by somebody other than Brunswick County,
we place ourselves at that company’s mercy.
It shouldn’t be difficult to compare what local business owners are will
ing to pay for garbage service with what Waste Industries has to offer.
(Chances are, with a $10.98-per-month credit from the county for commer
cial accounts, price won’t be the committee’s main issue. Some commis
aoners claim the bargaining power is gone, while others state there is
value when dealing in large numbers. Who’s right, and who’s wrong?
1 The bottom line is that there emerged from this trash episode the start of
something — perhaps the start of offering rural folks a chance to obtain
better service for the tax dollars they pay for garbage collection, too.
■Door-to-door service will be viewed as an anomaly in the unincorporated
4reas and will require changes, welcomed changes for those not accus
tpmed to the county offering anything that’s actually convenient.
; If this contract is the starting point and not the final product, we can live
\yith what’s been offered. We can live with changes. We can adjust to
ipinor problems if county government is making an effort to provide equal
service to one and all.
Deregulation
The judgments of the debt-filled 1970s and
1980s were the judgments of all North
Carolinians
Some serious debate over approaches to deregulation of the electricity
industry was begun locally late last week at a public hearing conducted by
a legislative study commission of the General Assembly.
' The commission met in Wilmington and several local leaders attended. -
From that session, we think it is pretty safe to say this serious issue of
electricity deregulation is one that is going to be vigorously promoted and
enormously oversimplified by some of its advocates.
In theory, in a deregulated electricity market, electricity customers
would be able to pick and choose their electricity providers much like they
now pick long distance telephone companies. The customer would be free
to shop for the best electricity rate available among many providers.
Again, in theory, deregulated companies in the electricity business
would specialize, some opting to be generators of electricity, some brokers
of electricity, some distributors of electricity. Free of regulation, large
power brokers wiii be free to purchase minute-by-minute the cheapest
available electricity via a vast network of producers and deliverers. The
electricity markets will become just like markets serving other commodi
ties, so the theory goes.
Those who would oversimplify the deregulation process would have
North Carolina strip the industry of all regulation today.
There’s just one hitch. A good segment of the state, its cities, its citizens,
have a stake in electricity industry debt. Moje than 50 cities in North
Carolina share over $6 billion of debt assumed to help ailing power gener
ators build -- indeed overbuild -- expensive nuclear power plants in the
late 1970s and early 1980s. Until now, their markets have been protected
and they have been able to slowly pay on this mountain of debt. Their
markets, however, will be severely eroded, they fear, when deregulation
comes.
Those who would oversimplify will tell you these cities made bad
investments and can now shoulder their bad fortune as they will.
In reality, however, the debt of the cities is everyone’s debt. The debt
which built nuclear power reactors at Carolina Power and Light Co. near
Southport and Raleigh, and also built Duke Energy Company reactors,
came as cities used their unique standing to sell state-endorsed general
obligation bonds. These bonds are backed by the full faith and credit of all
, North Carolinians. r
Will the state allo& default on these obligations?
Noway.
The next time someone tells you deregulation of the electricity industry
in this state is a ticket to cheap and plentiful electricity, remind him that
the judgments of the debt-filled 1970s and 1980s were the judgments of
all North Carolinians. All North Carolinians must stand by those judg
ments today.
The State Port Pilot
USPS 520-280
Published every Wednesday by The State Port Pilot Inc.
Ed Harper
Diane McKeithan
Richard Nubel
Terry Pope
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Editor
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EVERY
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--
news
3!
;>■%%. *&:s?:. . V;:- •;
“That’s why ... they play ... the game,” is what
Chris Berman of ESPN dramatically says about
lesser teams winning over big-time favorites, and
his observation is right on the money this week.
Imagine Rhode Island defeating top-seeded
Kansas for the right to meet Valparaiso -- yep,
Valparaiso — and the winner of that game just one
victory away from going to the Final Four. That’s
what’s so great about NCAA tournaments:
Anybody has the chance to win in this sport
where, except for the two hours it takes to play
the g;:me, attention is focused almost entirely on
the Carolinas, Dukes and Kentuckys of the col
lege basketball world... We still look for the Blue
Devils and Tar Heels to advance to the Final Four,,
but Duke must be wary of Kentucky if the two
should meet. North Carolina must get past
Michigan State and probably Connecticut to get
there.
There is new construction going on in down
town Southport, most notably at the corner of
Howe and West streets where Larry and Laurie
Driver are building a two-story structure that will
house, among other things, another antique shop.
Farther downtown, between the former AmUzu
Theater and the present Security Savings Bank, a
narrow storefront is being erected. We don’t
know the purpose of that orie... And out the road,
work is nearing completion! on a new, improved
and larger parking lot for River Run Shopping
Center, as pace is kept with the new Hannaford
project underway across the street... And still far
ther out the road, another phase of St. James
Plantation has opened along the Intracoastal
Waterway, best viewed from the area of East 20th
Street in Long Beach.
We had occasion to be with Maynaru Owens,
operator of the self-service blueberry farm on
Highway 211 near Supply, as he tried to save his
budding crop during last week’s record-setting
cold by sprinkling with water, and we checked
with him Monday to see how he’d come out. Not
good, by his judgment. “I feel about all the buds
were killed,” he said, “and a lot of my bushes
were broken down by the ice. I normally prune
twice in a year ~ in July or August and again in
January. This time I’ve pruned in March, too.”...
In the dozen years Owens has been in the blue
berry business — supplementing his retirement
income — he’s been done in by weather two other
times: Once in another hard freeze, and five years
ago — to the day — when the March Storm of
1993 coated his bushes and the rest of Brunswick
County’s foliage with deadly salt. We‘cbm'mend
ed him on his spirit in this thoroughly dispiriting
time, and he replied, “If I had 100 acres of bush
es and my whole livelihood depended on it, I’d be
a lot more downcast than I am.”
Everybody is familiar with the umpire holding
up a ball game to ceremoniously sweep off home
plate (though nobody except the occasional
baserunner approaching from third ever look - for
the thing), but the other day at a South Brunswick
softball game we saw ritual taken to a whole new
level as the base umpire walked to the center of
the diamond and swept the pitcher’s plate clean...
Yet another fine moment in the Odell Williamson
Auditorium entertainment year comes Friday
with the appearance of the Preservation Hall Jazz
Band. The echoes from Mardi Gras will be just
grand... Baseball season is drawing nigh for
Southport’s Quinton McCracken. He’ll be in cen
terfield Tuesday, March 31, when the Tampa Bay
Devil Rays open their inaugural season against
the Detroit Tigers.
Public opinion
L
Conflict
To the Editor:
Do you suppose commissioner
Dick Marshall has more than a
passing interest in the development
of a resort hotel in Yaupon Beach?
He has been quoted in the Pilot as
saying he "saw no wrong" in reduc
ing the town sewer impact fees for
this one developer as an induce
ment to build. Fortunately other
board members seem reluctant to
agree.
Last I knew, Dick Marshall
and/or his wife worked for and
owned the Coldwell Banker
Southport-Oak Island Realty firm.
Not long ago I believe that I
observed their “for sale” signs on
most of the large, empty lots on
Ocean Drive near Barbee
Boulevard. Does his firm still serve
as agent for the property owner(s)
or perhaps act on behalf of the
potential developer? If so, it seems
that commissioner Marshall would
have a clear conflict of interest with
his proposal.
To put forth such a plan for a sin
gle project is, in my opinion, doing
a disservice to the taxpayers of
Yaupon Beach. Marshall should
consider resigning.
Dave Durr
Yaupon Beach
Racial clarity
To the Editor:
Conspiracy is a judgmental word
which titillates readers of mystery
books, and on the other hand can
threaten the suspicious. I am told
that my recent letter to the newspa
per caused some of our citizens to
feel suspected of racist collusion
and resentful. My object was the
planning board.
I wish to clarify my feelings
about racism. To me it is the “origi
nal sin.” We all should share in its
guilt and power. M6st of us are
“fearfully taught” from childhood
to beware of strangers. The North
practiced this superiority just as
firmly as the racist Southern “Jim
Crow” laws. It was even more
insidious in its real estate “red-lin
ing,” school segregation and job
opportunities — and still is. We
know our churches have been made
by us the most separated “holiness”
in existence with real racial barriers
left from slavery.
Follow Jesus to the cross. See the
risks He takes to invade every
human barrier, comforting always
the weak and fearful and speaking
truth to power and status. It is in
this context that I accuse us all of
being weak-kneed in our own hap
pily growing churches and in our
community planning of Southport
and Oak Island.
Springing from the Martin Luther
King breakfast on January 19, the
National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People,
the Southport-Oak Island
Interchurch Fellowship and the City
of Southport are engaged in a sev
eral-month peace project. Each
church will plan joint intergenera
Letters to the Editor...
The State Port Pilot invites its readers to share opinions on matters of
public interest. Letters should be limited to 25Q words; longer letters
will be edited for space, or will be returned to the writer if editing would
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numbers will not be published.
tional service projects. Children
and adults will design events of
Easter life and peace far beyond the
bunnies and the eggs.
All who wish to join in can come
to the diversity and multicultural
workshop at the I LA Hall on Lord
Street on March 24-26 from 6:30 to
8:30 p.m. Help bring a new kind of
peace to our community.
Walter Welsh
Southport
Horse ride
To the Editor:
Many thanks to all of those who
supported our Long Beach
Volunteer Fire Department horse
ride last week. We had many volun
teers who gave their time and tal
ents to make this ride a real suc
cess.
Local merchants and businesses
in the Oak Island and Southport
area donated generously to make it
a trtie community project. The par
ticipants had a great time and look
forward to returning next year to
enjoy the hospitality of our beach.
Please join us in thanking the fol
lowing “Friends of the Horse
See Letters, next page
Winner of more than 170 NCPA awards this decade