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Published every Wednesday in Southport, NC
Fourth
in gear
The N. C. Fourth of July Festival
officially begins today (Wednesday)
with a 7 p.m. opening ceremony.
The program, presided over by 1998
festival president Bette Leggett, will be
preceded at 6 p.m. by the Brunswick
Concert Band and followed immediate
ly by a naturalization ceremony during
which scores of immigrants will
become United States citizens.
The festival, North Carolina’s official
observance of Independence Day, will
continue through Sunday. Thursday,
Beach Day activities will center at the
Long Beach cabana and Middleton
Park and culminate with a free beach
music concert featuring the Embers.
Friday activities will swing back to
Southport, where the Freedom Run and
children’s events will be held in the
morning, waterfront entertainment will
continue through the afternoon and a
street dance with the Spontanes will
top-off the evening. Saturday’s high
lights will include the 11 a.m. parade
and 9 p.m. fireworks display over the
Cape Fear River. Southport events,
including the arts and crafts show in
Franklin Square Park, will be held all
three days.
The annual Firemen’s Competition
will be held Sunday at 2 p.m. behind
Southport City Hall.
A complete festival program was
mailed to State Port Pilot subscribers in
the June 24 edition; single-copy sales
of today’s edition also include tSffi 84
page supplement, thousands more of
which are bsirg distributed by the N.
C. Fourth of July Festival
Committee.Police chief Bob Gray esti
mates more than 40,000 persons will be
in Southport during the three-day cele
bration and says the keyword is
“patience.”
Traffic after the fireworks display
will be congested as usual. It is sug
gested that persons wishing to return to
Oak Island after the fireworks park on
the east side of Howe Street as they
will be directed along Howe Street and
N. C. 211. Those leaving for other parts
of Brunswick County should park on
the west side of Howe Street as they
will be directed along Moore Street and
Jabbertown Road to N. C. 87/133.
FINAL TOUCHES
c
Photo by Jim Harper
Decorations and spirits went up in Southport this week as the community prepared
for the N. C. Fourth of July Festival, which commences this (Wednesday) evening at
6 pan. with a Brunswick Concert Band performance and naturalization ceremony at
the Fort Johnston Garrison.
County reading, math scores up
End-of-grade results reflect ‘high expectations’
By Laura Kimball
Feature Editor
When Beverly Hewett discovered how well
her third grade students performed in the
state end-of-grade tests, she wasn’t so sur
prised.
“My expectations are high, and I really
work them hard,” she said.
Preliminary results from school districts in
southeastern North Carolina reveal that most
students, including those in Brunswick
County schools, showed dramatic improve
ment in reading and math for the 1997-98
school year.
Achievement is measured by assessing how
many students scored a three or four on the
test, which means that, according to state
standards, they are proficient in that subject
The test scores are used in the state ABC’s of
Public Education school reform plan to
assess whether or not a school met its goals
for the year.
In Brunswick County, reading scores were
up as much as 10.5 percent and math scores
rose as much at 13.5 percent.
A specific example of improvement is
Southport Elementary, where 77 percent of
third graders scored proficient on die reading
test, compared to 63.8 percent for the 1996
97 school year. Third grade math scores rose
from 71.7 percent to 77 percent.
Mary McDuffie. Brunswick County’s assis
tant superintendent for curriculum, attributed
the county’s success to a combination of fac
tors, including excellent teachers and staff
and a staff development program.
“This is a result of several years of effort,”
she said. “We’re really excited and elated
about the progress of our students.”
Hewett, who has taught at Southport
Elementary for 18 years, said she and other
teachers have learned a lot of different strate
gies over the past few years, and after con
stant use they are starting to pay off.
“We’ve implemented some different strate
gies, but I attribute our success mostly to just
See Scores, page 6
Williamson to fund scholarships
‘No Empty Seats’ for community college
By Laura Kimball
Feature Editor
Thanks to Brunswick County developer LaDane
Williamson, poor attendance at'last weekend’s “No Empty
Seats” festival didn’t affect the overall goal of the event:
To have no empty seats at Brunswick Community College
because of financial need.
In cooperation with the college’s commitment to elimi
nate all barriers to higher education, Williamson
announced Sunday that she will provide a program to
offer 100-percent funding for young people to attend the
college.
‘1 believe that every Brunswick County schools gradu
ate, GED graduate and adult high school graduate should
be offered an opportunity to attend Brunswick Community
College,” Ms. Williamson said.
Her scholarship will fund tuition, books and supplies for
students graduating from Brunswick County high schools,
for those who have graduated from the college's adult
high school program and for those who complete the GED
See College, page 7
WILLIAMSON
State agency review
Island bridge
facing detour
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
N. C. Department of Transportation is
being pressured by reviewing agencies of
state and federal governments to perform
a detailed study of a second bridge to
Oak Island route through Sunset Harbor.
If that study is undertaken, the timeline
for construction of a second Oak Island
bridge will be pushed back another two
years.
And, more importantly, Long Beach
mayor Joan Altman says, if the Sunset
Harbor route alternative is forced on
DOT, the transportation value of a second
bridge to Oak Island will be all but lost.
“A western route to Sunset Harbor
Road will not suit the purpose of having
a second bridge to Oak Island,” Altman
said. '“We would rather have no bridge at
all than a route through Sunset Harbor.’
That’s the response I get most frequently
from people.”
The recent logjam of information
regarding routing of the second bridge to
Oak Island corridor was broken this week
when mayor Altman visited DOT offi-"
cials in Raleigh and received copies of
review agency response to the depart
ment’s Environmental Assessment (EA)
of second bridge to Oak Isla nd corridor
alternatives.
Of the ten agencies responding, all but
the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers have
rejected DOT’S Finding of No Significant
Impact (FONSI) for alternatives A, B and
C, the most direct routes between a
‘It is my job to let
e commenting
tgencies know the
Jlwn’s position and
to relay the people’s
-support for a route to
the Midway Road
area.’
f|oan Altman
»ng Beach mayor
bridge at Middleton Street and the area of
N. C. 211 at Midway Road. Many have
suggested two western routes - alterna
tives D and E -- would be superior. Some
have called for additional route alterna
tives to be developed. Some have called
for performance of a lengthy
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)
before a corridor is selected.
Alternatives D and E through Sunset
Harbor were the first alternatives rejected
by DOT in its Environmental Assess
ment. DOT found those routes to be most
environmentally disruptive and most
See Bridge, page 12
Across waterway
Yaupon expands
area it proposes
for annexation
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
A greater piece of the mainland stands
to become part of Yaupon Beach now
that commissioners of that town have
added about 60 acres in two planned res
idential and commercial subdivisions to
the area proposed for annexation.
Reviewing mainland property owners’
comments on the town’s original annexa
tion proposal Monday night, Yaupon
Beach commissioners rescinded their
resolution of intent to annex 483 acres
along Long Beach Road, Airport Road
and Fish Factory Road.
After doing so, commissioners adopted
a second resolution of intent to annex
553.66 mainland acres, expanding the
area proposed for annexation by adding
to it the proposed Barnes Bluff subdivi
sion and the former Standard Products
tract at the old menhaden processing
plant site on the Intracoastal Waterway.
The addition of the two subdivisions to
the annexation proposal may have the
added benefit of keeping Yaupon Beach
out of court.
The tracts added to the proposed area
of mainland annexation are owned by
Point Associates LLP, which had sued
Yaupon Beach over its inability to pro
vide it wastewater service, as the town
and developer had agreed. Standard
Products, the parcel’s former owner, had
agreed to .give the town six acres of land
for wastewater plant site development in
exchange for sewer service at a residen
tial subdivision and marina it hoped to
‘We started out with
iHS
'just protecting our
property. When we
got to thinking about
it, we also have to be|
concerned about our ,
economic future.’
Dot Kelly
Yaupon Beach mayor
BHn
develop.
When Point Associates bought the
property from Standard, it assumed,
rights to sewer service from Yaupon
Beach. The town, however, was preclud
ed from providing sewer service to out
of-town customers by state regulatory
agencies when the town’s wastewater
management system disposal capacity
was found to be less than it was designed
to be.
Mayor Dot Kelly said Point Associates
partner Ed Burnett is eager for his prop
erty to become part of Yaupon Beach
Federal loan and grant funding provi
sions for Southeast Brunswick Sanitary
District will not permit that aeencv tn
See Yaupon, page 6 y
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