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Volume 68, Number 1
Published every Wednesday in Southport, NC
Taking the hit... again
Bonnie
lingers
awhile
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Oh, was she slow.
Hurricane Bonnie failed to take
her predicted northward turn
Tuesday night and made landfall
in the Cape Fear region early
Wednesday morning.
Though damage apparently is
light in both Southport and on
Oak Island, residents of the area
sweated through more than five
hours of relative stillness
Wednesday afternoon and evening
as Bonnie’s eye moved over the
region and the hurricane — which
once packed winds of 120 miles
per hour -- stalled.
About 7 p.m. Wednesday,
Bonnie again began to move
slowly northward at about five
miles per hour, and Southport-Oak
Island and Brunswick County
were subjected to the back side of
a somewhat weakened storm.
Winds on the back side of the
storm were only calculated to be
between 45 and 55 miles per hour.
Power was restored to Southport
residents just after 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday and police chief Bob
Gray said reentry to the city
would be unrestricted as long as
power remained available.
Long Beach mayor Joan Altman,
who returned to Oak Island
Wednesday afternoon, character
ized damage there as minor. She
said damage to structures on Oak
Island was slight. Debris volume
was about as great as that downed
by Hurricane Bertha in July, 1996,
she said.
Oak Island mayors were to meet
at 8 a.m. Thursday to discuss
reentry. Brunswick County would
order the Oak Island bridge
opened only with the mayors’
okay.
"With damage as light as it
apparently is, I am hopeful reentry
can be ordered very quickly,”
mayor Altman said Wednesday
night, as the back side of
See Bonnie, page 11
hf.m:h
- ,~ST^
„ Photo by Jim Harper
At the height of Wednesday’s storm Freddie Smartley rushed into Howe Street to wrestle a limb from
a power line — and succeeded. Damage in Southport was less than in either of the 1996 hurricanes,
which also dragged their eyes directly over town.
Late edition
Hurricane Bonnie’s pounding of
southeastern North Carolina,
including Whiteville where The
State Port Pilot is printed, caused
delay in delivery of this week’s
edition.
"Most content was prepared in
advance of the storm but printing
of the newspaper on the normal
schedule was impossible,” said
Pilot editor Ed Harper.
INSIDE
Opinion 4
police report 10
Obituaries 12
Calendar 9B
Church 10B
Legal notices 11B
TV schedule 6B
District Court 8B
Classifieds 9B
Land use policies
Protection for aquifer
has several approaches
By Terry Pope
County Editor
Three sides have emerged in the
effort to protect the underground
Castle Hayne aquifer from mining
and other disturbances through
Brunswick County land use poli
cies.
A citizens group wants stronger
measures in place, including draft
ing of special protective overlay
zoning maps as recommended by a
county long-range planning com
mittee two years ago.
A consultant preparing the land
use plan update has advised no
change to reflect special protection
of Carolina Power and Light Co.’s
Brunswick Nuclear Plant, its rail
lines and power transmission lines
north of Southport and the Walden
Creek estaurine system, all of which
could be damaged by sinkholes if
the aquifer were disturbed.
Somewhere in between are county
commissioners, who refused last
week to endorse the planning docu
ment until the Brunswick County
Planning Board and consultant
Glenn Harbeck consider input from
the Brunswick Environmental
Action Team (BEAT). At question is
how far should the county land use
plan go to protect the underground
aquifer which is also threatened
with possible mining activities north
of Southport and intrusion of salt
water from draining the mine to
See Aquifer, page 5
‘We need to make
sure that the same
ordinance passed
three boards ago
applies to the same
restrictions now in
that specific area.’
BiU Sue
District 5 commissioner
Yaupon annexation
Triple threat
of taxation
still concern
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Much as they had done at a first
public hearing June 23, residents
and property owners in the area sur
rounding southern Long Beach
Road Wednesday night asked
Yaupon Beach commissioners not to
annex them.
Annexation is the legal process by
which municipalities expand their
boundaries to take in new areas.
Speaker after speaker told com
missioners they already enjoyed
most of the services Yaupon Beach
could offer. Speaker after speaker
noted the potential burden of triple
property taxation — by Brunswick
County, by Southeast Brunswick
Sanitary District and by Yaupon
Beach.
Barbara Willis, owner of Barb's
Seafood, said the tax burden would
be enough to send small businesses
reeling.
"I’m seeing triple taxation," Ms.
Willis said. "I don’t see that the san
itary district is going to rescind any
of its tax. We have the added cost by
Brunswick County of $120 a month
‘I see ten busi
nesses in (existing)
Yaupon Beach that
are totally empty.
Maybe this needs
to be concentrated
on in Yaupon
Beach. I don't want
to become an
empty business.’
Barbara Willis
Long Beach Road
fur solid waste. We will have a
sewer hill. How much can a busi
ness stand'.'
"I can't pass that cost on to you
See Concern, page 9
Hampton Inn?
Airport board
has reservations
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Prospects for a hotel and restau
rant complex on the Intracoastal
Waterway near the Oak Island
bridge may not be enough incentive
for Brunswick County Airport com
missioners to give away publicly
owned land.
Representatives of C3 Investment
Co., of Charleston, SC. appeared
before the county airport commis
sion last week seeking an easement
across airport property to facilitate
access to a Hampton Inn and
Perkins’ Family Restaurant they
said are planned on a parcel just
south of the airport and west of the
bridge.
The parcel of land is now owned
by three local individuals.
The potential developers of the
restaurant and hotel, in seeking the
easement to allow an exit from the
southbound lane of Long Beach
Road to the property, apparently
have rejected the option to direct
traffic down Bridge Point Road off
the northbound side of the road and
under the bridge to the planned
complex.
"That doesn't give them a front
end access,” airport commission
chairman Ken Stewart said of the
Bridge Point Road option. "They
want a permanent easement that
would take some of the airport park
ing lot, which they would replace
further on down the ramp."
Members of the Brunswick
County Airport Commission will
consider the easement request fur
See Hampton, page 11
Redwine to weigh
new incorporations
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
St. James Plantation’s recently expressed interest in becomb g a town
or city may trigger a hold on new municipal incorponttions in
Brunswick County while government structure and urban service deliv
ery here is studied further.
Rep. E. David Redwine of Ocean Isle Beach this week said he shortly
expects Brunswick County commissioners to present him with a resolu
tion calling for establishment of a blue-ribbon panel to examine the pro
liferation of municipal corporations here and to study ways to provide
urban services to areas wanting and needing them.
New incorporations, and possibly annexations by existing municipali
See New towns, page 8 /