Phone 910-457-4568/Fax 910-457-9427/e-mail pilot@southport.riet Volume 67, Number 37
Playoff chase
Cougars still in the hunt -
Strip mall
On N.C. 211 near Cutoff
Health Fair
Dosher hosts community
Published every Wednej
COCA
art, NC
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Election
Turnout
low, vote
expected
By Terry Pope
County Editor
In what may be a record low
turnout at the polls Tuesday,
“ Brunswick County voters supported
the incumbents and pulled no real
surprises in the primary election.
Incumbent sheriff Ronald Hewett
was the easy winner over
Democratic challenger Ken Messer,
3,389 votes to 536. Hewett captured
86 percent of the vote and now
faces Republican nominee Mike
Allen in November.
Incumbent District 1 county com
missioner Don Warren ran neck-ten
neck with a candidate who official
ly withdrew from the race after the
ballots were already printed. Warren
captured 54 percent of the vote to
Randy Stanley’s 45 percent, or
1,933 votes to 1,595, in the
Democratic race.
Warren will face Republican nom
inee Debbie Rupp, who easily
defeated Jeffrey Milliken in
Tuesday’s race, 988 to 403. Rupp
captured 71 percent of the GOP
votes in her race.
In the District 2 Democratic race
for county commissioner, Allan
Dameron defeated K. C. Rogers,
1,898 to 1,434. Dameron, whose,
name had been misspelled on the
ballots as Damerson, will face
Republican incumbent David
Sandifer in November.
Only 12.8 percent of the county’s
See Election, page 6
% Photo by Jim Harper
Five-yea»old Zachary Brown filled the air with popcorn and laughing gulls as he and his family enjoyed a
visit to Southport’s Waterfront Park Saturday evening.
Trash collection
Long Beach
to j oin plan,
add extras
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Each month, $10.98 of Long
Beach property owners’ county ad
valorem tax payment will be used
. by Brunswick County to purchase
once-weekly refuse collection from
Waste Industries Inc., beginning
July 1.
Additionally, Long Beach solid
waste customers will be billed
$5.87 per month--$17.61 per quar
ter - by the town to cover the cost
of additional solid waste services.
That decision of town council to
. do business with Brunswick County
ends a months-long standoff
between the town and county over
solid waste removal. The decision
by town council last Wednesday to
do business with Brunswick County
did not come easily. Several mem
bers of council still appeared embit
tered over Brunswick County’s
foray into a traditionally municipal
service. In a 5-1 vote, councilor
Horace Collier was the last of coun
cilors to contend Long Beach
should break from Brunswick
See Long Beach, page 6
Commercial
Landfill
remains
an option
By-Terry Pope
County Editor
Commercial garbage cus
tomers say they don’t want a
negotiated contract with Waste
Industries Inc. and have asked
the county instead to aggres
sively pursue the siting and
construction of a lined county
landfill within six years.
A committee studying options
for commercial accounts voted
hot to ask Brunswick County
commissioners to negotiate a
See Commercial, page 6
__i.
SBSD: Business not as usual
Chairman, board member
resign; no reason is given
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Three Southeast Brunswick
Sanitary District commissioners
were shocked to find the resigna
tions of their chairman and board
secretary waiting for them when
they arrived for the board’s regular
monthly meeting Monday morning.
Chairman James W. (Bubba)
Smith and commissioner Lucille
Laster have resigned >from the
SBSD board without explanation.
But, commissioners Gene
Formyduval and Tommy Bowmer
rejected commissioner Ginger
Harper’s motion to accept the resig
nations Monday. Formyduval,
elected acting district chairman,
and Bowmer said they wanted to
know Smith’s and Laster’s reasons
for leaving before accepting their
resignations.
Contacted Tuesday afternoon at
her place of business, Ms. Laster
would offer no explanation for the
dual resignation.
“No comment,” was Laster’s
response when -asked why she had
left the board she had served for
over seven years.
A telephone message left at
Smith’s homd Tuesday was not
returned.
Acting district manager Barbara
Stein said a single letter of resigna
tion was hand-delivered to the dis
trict office about 35 minutes prior
to the 8 a.m. regular monthly board
meeting. She did not say who deliv
ered the letter addressed to the dis
trict board.
“James W. Smith Chairman of the
Southeast Brunswick Sanitary
District and Lucille Laster
Secretary and Finance Officer for
the Southeast Brunswick Sanitary
District offer this letter as notice of
our resignation, effective immedi
ately,” the letter begins.
“We have served this board and
our community for the past eight
See Resign, page 7
*11*1
Is incorporation
talk of the town?
By Richard Nubei
Municipal Editor
What is left of the Southeast Brunswick Sanitary District
Board of Commissioners is divided on a response to a Yaupon
Beach proposal to annex land along Long Beach Road and
Fish Factory Road.
With the resignations of district chairman James W. (Bubba)
Smith and commissioners secretary Lucille Laster Monday,
commissioners appeared at odds to tell district residents what
to expect from the governing body now in charge of utilities,
and land use regulation along the Long Beach Road corridor.
“I’m in favor of incorporating, if that’s what we have to do,”
commissioner Tommy Bowmer said Monday. By forming a
new town he hopes to block the Yaupon Beach annexation
attempt. Legislators refer to creation of towns to prevent
annexation as “defensive incorporation,” a practice that is not
encouraged by the present N. C. General Assembly,
“I am totally against us becoming a town,” commissioner
Ginger Harper said. “I so move we not consider becoming a
town anymore.”
Commissioner Harper’s motion died for lack of a second and
Gene Formyduval, acting as the board’s chairman, did not
See Ibwn talk, page 7
County, town
corridor ideas
in committee
By Terry Pope
County Editor .
County planners say they won’t
give up planning control over the
second bridge to Oak Island corri
dor from the Midway community to
Long Beach and- will ask for
changes in the town’s land use plan
that was to go before the state
Coastal Resources Commission
later this month for approval.
At a special meeting last week, the
Brunswick County Planning Board
refused to endorse the proposal and
indicated there are more problems
with the document than just who
will serve as lead agency for corri
dor planning. A joint committee,
made up of two county planning
board members and some Long
Beach officials, will work out differ
ences the two sides have in what has
developed into a “turf war” over
local control and planning authority
along the second-bridge route.
Long Beach last month asked the
county planning board to endorse its
document in hopes of making the
town lead agency in territory that
lies outside the town’s extraterritor
ial jurisdiction (ETJ). Planning
board members say they were not
even aware of the proposal until
March and wished that county staff
had been involved earlier.
“I have a difficult time with the
county giving up its planning role in
that corridor or not serving as lead
agency,” said Alan Lewis, vice
chairman of the Brunswick County
Planning Board. “We need to be
working together. I think whichever
corridor is chosen we will have time
to study this corridor. The bridge is
not going to be built overnight. 1
feel there are a few sticky points and
we need to be working together.”
Planning board chairman Ricky
See Corridor, page 7
Tax district could come to the rescue
By Tern PoP«
County Editor
County commissioners have adopted a reso
lution asking state legislators to establish a
special countywide district to boost funding
levels for fire and rescue services.
“This,gets the ball rolling,” said District 1
commissioner Don Warren of Shallotte.
Local volunteer fire and rescue squads have
been told to expect the same level of funding
for the 1998-99 fiscal year as was received last
year while the county continues to work
towards a permanent funding solution.
By unanimous vote Monday, the board of
commissioners, agreed to seek a special district
where the county can charge property owners
fees for fire and rescue services rather than
fund the programs through ad valorem tax dol
lars. State legislator must approve local bills
in the N. C. General Assembly which allows
counties to do so.
County attorney Huey Marshall said he has
studied local bills that have allowed Union
County and Columbus County to charge fire
and rescue district fees but that a district for
Brunswick County would be a bit different.
“In Brunswick County, the entire county
would be the district,” said Marshall. “I don’t
know how that will play before'the legislators’
rules.” t
Last month, the recommendation from a
study committee to the Brunswick County
Board of Commissioners was to,fund the fire
and rescue squads at the proposed level for a
two-year period, recognizing that it,will take
that time to develop and put in place a perma
nent financing source - such as a special fire
and rescue district or establishment of com
munity service districts.
Monday’s resolution will be sent to state
representatives David Redwine (D-Ocean isle
See Rescue, page 5
What’s inside
Police report 9
Obituaries 11
Church 4B , -
Business 6B
Calendar 7B
Schools 10B
District Court - 5C
TV schedule 6C
Classifieds 8C
jT Notices , '11C :||
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