July 29, 1998
Phone 910-457-4568/Fax 910-457-9427/e-mail pilot@southport.net
Volume 67, Number 49
50 ce ; •
----r
Strong found l ft
New support for area : •. , j,
off to a good financial , , n;
the help of former NF ‘ r
quarterback Roman C
Scramble
Yachting fun takes n
Published every \V
outhport, NC
Long Beach
Town effort
aims to get
The Point
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
While several west-end property
owners objected to all or part of the
Fragile Area Management Plan for
public access development at The
Point, Long Beach Town Council
Tuesday night acknowledged FAMP
was a document in transition.
By adopting the plan for public
access development of The Point,
approximately 40 acres bordering
the Atlantic Ocean, Montgomery
Slough and Lockwood Folly Inlet
the town will be better positioned to
compete for grants needed to foot
the assumed $300,000 to $1 million
purchase price of the land the
objecting Kings Lynn property own
ers that night repeatedly called
"pristine."
Council's vote to adopt the plan
was unanimous, but several mem
bers voiced objection to certain plan
provisions, including some that
bothered Kings Lynn owners the
most.
Mayor Joan Altman said most
people at least favored municipal
purchase of the land. Those who
objected to some of the proposed
public access development plans
contained in the plan, differed only
little with supporters of the entire
plan in some instances.
"Listening to the comments
See Long Beach, page 15
County hospital
offer withdrawn
By Terry Pope
County Editor
Columbia/HCA Tuesday with
drew its offer to sell a long-term
lease at the Brunswick Community
Hospital at Supply to New Hanover
Regional Medical Center in
Wilmington for $36 million.
The decision came following a
meeting with representatives of the
Brunswick County Hospital
Authority and county commission
ers, who asked for concessions
regarding the payback of the $36
million by NHRMC and stipula
tions on where that money should
be invested.
The decision to withdraw the
offer ends several months of nego
tiations between Columbia/HCA.
the county and NHRMC.
Columbia/HCA Properties holds a
40-year lease on the hospital but
agreed in May to offer that lease to
NHRMC as part of a four-state.
$1.2-billion sell-off of its hospital
holdings.
Also involved in the deal was
Cape Fear Memorial Hospital in
Wilmington.
“We feel like it is the best thing
to Brunswick County right now,"
See Hospital, page 15
Photo hy Jim Harper
Officers search the Lockwood Folly River for the body of Bolivia res
ident Vicki Benino.
SETTING SAIL
Photo by Jim Harper
Chris Schnell pilots his Madness I at the start of the Yacht Basin Wooden Boat Shop Sailboat
Scramble, one of two sailing events which kept harborwatchers excited all day long on
Saturday.
Fire fund
District
options
get call
By Terry Pope
County Editor
County officials will study three rural
fire response districts to see how a flat
rate fee for fire and rescue funding would
help or hinder department budgets.
That decision came after a two-hour
workshop by the Brunswick County
Board of Commissioners Monday in
which the board also discussed, but sided
against, two methods to fund the county's
21 volunteer fire units by levying a special
countywide property tax.
The board has asked tax administrator
Boyd Williamson to determine the number
of dwellings and lots in the Waccamaw,
Civietown and Northwest fire districts that
could be assessed under a flat-fee sched
ule. Commissioners are interested in see
ing the benefits if the money stayed home,
to be returned to the fire and rescue units
responding to calls inside those service
districts.
District 2 commissioner David Sandifer
proposed a fee of. $25 per home. $2.50 per
vacant lot and a rate of 2.5 cents per
square fool for commercial or mdu >r.
buildings up ’o 10.000 square feet and one
cent per square foot for buildings larger
than 10.000 square feet. Sandifer said if
small, rural fire departments like
Civietown can benefit under his proposal,
then other larger departments should have
no objection either. Fees would be the
same in all districts.
County fire marshal Cecil Logan has
asked for operating budgets from fire
departments and should have them in hand
by the end of August. That will allow
commissioners to determine how much
See Options, page 12
Mining control plea renewed
Martin Marietta threat continues in area
By Terry Pope
County Editor
A request to protect the underground Castle
Hayne aquifer and other areas of the county from
man-induced sinkholes through zoning control
was once again presented to the Brunswick
County Board of Commissioners last week.
Members of the Brunswick Mining Awareness
Committee petitioned commissioners for action
and presented documents containing signatures
from residents who feel the same way.
Zoning overlays to protect the aquifer, a local
source for potable drinking water that supplies
the Southport city wells and the county's N. C.
211 water treatment plant, has been a topic of
debate for three years. However, the county plan
ning staff and elected leaders have not actively
pursued the issue.
Commissioners accepted the petition from
Brunswick Mining Awareness Committee coor
dinator Marcia Whiting but offered no comment.
The Brunswick County Long-Range Planning
Committee in 19‘>5 also recommended that the
county zoning ordinance be amended to establish
a protective '•overlay" for the unconfined area of
the Castle Hayne aquifer to protect well water in
the Southport-Oak Island area.
The Mining Awareness Committee was formed
in opposition to Martin Marietta Aggregates' plan
to open a large limestone quarry north of
Southport near Bethel Church Road. The latest
petition is needed, said Ms. Whiting, as a result
of the issuance of a borrow pit permit expansion
to Martin Marietta in the vicinity of the Military
Ocean Terminal Sunny Point ammunitions depot
and the Carolina Power and Light Co. rail lines
that supply fuel rods for twin nuclear reactors at
See Mining, page 8
Bolivia slaving
Man is charged
in parent deaths
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
A 28-year-old Bolivia man was
arrested early Friday morning and
charged with two counts of first
degree murder in the shotgun-shoot
ing deaths of his parents.
Christopher John Benino, who
lived with his parents in a small
home at 2619 Goose Marsh Court at
Bolivia, stands accused of shooting
Anthony Frank (Tony) Benino, 50,
and Vicki Lyons Benino, 40. and then
dumping his mother's body off the
Gilbert Road bridge into a branch of
the Lockwood Folly River.
Tony Benino's body was found
lying in a pool of coagulated blood in
the living room at the family home.
Christopher Benino made first
appearance before District Court
judge Ola Lewis Bray Friday. He was
returned to Brunswick County jail
without privilege of bond. James
See Murder, page 14
Schools open
next Tuesday
By Laura Kimball
Feature Editor y
■ . ; ' v • \ h. V
Fresh coats of paint shine on the walls, clean and imtouched.
New carpet, yet to be introduced to lines of shoes ail 1 the grind
of a school year, awaits the rush. ,
The halls are quiet, but not for long.... ?
It’s time for school to start.
The first day of the 1998-99 school year will be Tuesday,
August 4, making the past few weeks a short summer vacation.
Since the 1997-98 school year ended the first week of June,
schools — and, of course, students —r haven’t had much time to
prepare for a new year, but schools have worked quickly to get *
everything in order.
Carolyn Williams, principal of Southport Elementary, said that
See Schools, page 15
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