July 15, 1998
THE STATE PORT
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Phone 910-457-4568/Fax 910-457-9427/e-mail pilot@southport.net
Volume 67, Number 47
Published every
Southport, NC
Mining
victory
Supreme Court
reverses lower
hearing matter
By Terry Pope
County Editor
Mining opponents and county officials
view last week’s N. C. Supreme Court
decision as a minor victory in their battle
to keep Martin Marietta Aggregates-Inc.
from opening a large limestone quarry
north of Southport.
The Supreme Court reversed a 1996
appellate court decision that refused to
hear arguments over the legality of
Brunswick County’s safety ordinance,
which prohibits mining with explosives
and dewatering techniques within five
miles of the Military Ocean Terminal
Sunny Point ammunitions depot and
Carolina Power and Light Co.’s
Brunswick nuclear plant.
That would include all of the 1,000
acre tract owned by Martin Marietta near
Bethel Church Road, the site of the com
pany’s proposed mining operation which
is expected to yield enough limestone to
supply the company’s local demand for
the next 40 years.
The N. C. Court of Appeals ruled in
July, 1996, the issue was moot and not
ripe to be heard since Martin Marietta
did not hold a state mining permit. The
ruling was appealed by the Brunswick
County Board of Commissioners, which
claims there are issues that need to be
decided now over the county’s right to
safeguard the underground aquifer from
mining operations and to protect twin
nuclear reactors from possible sinkhole
formation.
Brunswick County attorney Huey
Marshall said the Court of Appeals erred
when it overlooked the important issues
involved in the case simply because the
mining company had not yet obtained a
state mining permit. Martin Marietta
withdrew its mining application amid
questions from various state agencies
that reviewed the company’s plan to dig
at depths of 150 feet below the surface
and into the Castle Hayne aquifer to
extract rock deposits.
' “It is true the trial court didn’t dispose
of all outstanding issues,” said Marshall,
“but the county does have substantial
rights affected by the ruling on this one
issue. The Court of Appeals should hear
See Mining, page 8
Southport yard
waste collected
Yard waste will be collected in
Southport each Wednesday,
according to Waste Industries Inc.
“Please put waste in the old
black roll-out carts, or bag and
bundle it,” the announcement stat
ed. “Bags and bundles must not
exceed 50 pounds. Bundles must
be tied in lengths no more than
four feet long. Do not use the new
roll-out carts for yard waste.”
Photo by-Jim Harper
Long Beach assistant (ire chief Rodney Brock directs the deluge gun from atop a Yaupon
Beach purapec. Heavy, weapons like this, along with air-dropped water from Forest Service
planes and hand lines manned by other firefighters, helped preserve Dutchman Acres.
SAVING
Dutchman Acres
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Quick action by N. C. Forest Service
and volunteer firefighters from through
out Brunswick County likely saved the
Dutchman Acres community from
destruction by fire Tuesday afternoon.
Dutchman Acres residents evacuated
their homes Friday around 4 p.m. as
flames from what began as a controlled
bum east of the community whipped up
in strong winds and spread toward the
subdivision of about 40 homes.
Forestry service officials used plows to
cut a fire line near a dirt extension of
Bayview Road in Dutchman Acres.
Though fire eventually jumped the line
and burned northwest of that road, the
blaze was stalled somewhat by 5:15 p.m.
Forestry service airplanes joined in the
attack, dumping water from above and
slowing the fire’s westward progress
toward the neighborhood.
In all, about 80 acres surrounding
Dutchman Acres had been involved by
8:30 p.m. when the fire was declared
under control.
Fire officials were first alerted to a
report of a controlled bum gone awry at
See Saving, page 6
Fire departments from throughout Brunswick
County converged on Dutchman Acres on Tuesday
to preserve that community from a raging woods
fire.
Oak Island rescue service
Yaupon still balking at contract
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Mayor Dot Kelly and commissioner Dick
Marshall both laughed Monday night when a
request for payment from neighboring Long
Beach was placed before the Yaupon Beach
Board of Commissioners.
Later in his report, Marshall said his business
was inconvenienced by the town’s move to once
weekly garbage collection this year and public
funds should be used to pay for a Saturday trash
pick-up.
Long Beach town manager Jerry Walters wrote
Yaupon Beach officials June 29 acknowledging
commissioners’ had only paid 60 percent of the
Yaupon Beach share of Long Beach Rescue
Squad costs last year, or $5,154.
Yaupon Beach at the beginning of 1997-98 had
agreed to pay over $7,200, or a proportional share
of Long Beach Volunteer Rescue Squad costs that
year equal to the 14 percent of Oak Island popu
lation residing in Yaupon Beach. But, when vol
unteers were unable to answer an estimated 40
percent of calls to Yaupon Beach, commissioners
cut payment, leaving Long Beach taxpayers to
foot the bill.
"1 have a problem with it,” mayor Kelly liaid o(
Walters request for balance of payment. "You go
See Contract, page 8
Southport
City’s system
in worse shape
than expected
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Stormwater infiltration of the City
of Southport's wastewater collection
system is even worse than city offi
cials imagined and once it enters the
system, flow must pass through a
maze of broken pipeline, knotted
with tree roots.
Worse news may be forthcoming,
public services director Ed
Honeycutt told aldermen Thursday.
This bad-enough news comes after
consulting engineers conducted an
examination of the city wastewater
collection system in dry weather.
Engineers want to reexamine the
system when it rains.
"I caution you,11 Honeycutt said.
"What is going to happen is, they
are going to recommend a lot more
repairs when they survey this sys
tem wet."
The oldest part of the city collec
tion system, which serves the his
toric district and waterfront, was put
to three tests which were completed
last week, Honeycutt said — a phys
ical analysis, a test using smoke
‘It's obvious we
are not going to do
this with money in
the city. We are
going to need
grants and loans
from (other levels
of) government.’
Ed Honeycutt
Public services director
injected into the system and an
inspection below ground using cam
eras.
The physical inspection found
manhole covers with holes that
See Southport, page 9
Live oak trees
are threatened
By Laura Kimball
Feature Editor
Southport's live oak trees are sick
and dying.
The tremendous, leafy trees that
shade parks, sidewalks and porches
are being attacked by an insect
known as a live oak kermid.
The scale insect is round, brown
ish-black and about the size of a
large pearl. It attaches itself to the
outer shafts of branches and sucks
sap from a tree.
According to David Nash,
Brunswick County cooperative
extension agent, the insects basical
ly suck life out of a tree. Also, they
produce a black, sooty resin that
coats the leaves and keeps the tree
from photosynthesizing.
Nash has never seen an outbreak
as bad as this one, he said, and the
problem is only occurring in
Southport.
Nash met with city manager Rob
Gandy, professor and extension
forestry Specialist at N. C. State
University James McGraw and
Southport resident Elbert Felton
Friday at City Hall to discuss the
problem and what to do about it.
Felton is one of many Southport
See Live oak, page 6
Photo by Jim Harper
James McGraw examines one of two gigantic live oaks on the
front lawn of Southport’s City Hall. The affliction of kermids is
clearly shown on dead oak bough limbs throughout the community.
NEWS on the NET: www.southport.net