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Volume 68, Number 2
Bonnie
bye-bye
Towns intact;
inland areas
most affected
By Richard Nubel . t .
Municipal Editor
She was messy. She was wet. She
took too long to get here and
refused to leave.
Say what you will about
Hurricane Bonnie but, thankfully,
she was not the devastating storm
many believed she would be.
Southport-Oak Island, Boiling
Spring Lakes and Bald Head Island
residents discovered Thursday
morning they had survived
Hurricane Bonnie in extremely
good condition. Damage estimates
in southeastern Brunswick
County’s municipalities were light.
In Yaupon Beach, for instance,
the $65,000
hurricane dam
age estimate is
less than, the
cost of the aver
age home in
town.
“It was messy
and inconve
nient,” Yaupon
Beach mayor
Dot Kelly said, summarizing the
experience of Hurricane Bonnie.
Municipal officials in all of south- '
eastern Brunswick County were
relieved Thursday morning as dam
age assessments were compiled
quickly. Damage to public property
was minimal. Damage to private
property most often was lost shin
gles or lost siding.
Residents, who Thursday morn
ing began returning to their homes
Other
reports
pages
2 & 3
in Southport and on Oak island
after evacuation was ordered, were
relieved to find little damage to
their homes. The Oak Island bridge
was reopened for all to return just
after 8:30 a.m. Thursday.
Most importantly, no discernible
damage was done to area beaches.
In fact, hurricane Bonnie actually
may have deposited more sand on
some eroded sections of Oak Island
, beachfront.
“The beachfront appears to have
fared very well,” Long Beach town
manager Jerry Walters said. “As far
as we can tell... we had a change in
the profile of the beach, but the
dunes we built and pushed-up fared
very well.”
Some overwash of the dune line
did occur in the critically chal
lenged sections of East Beach
Drive, but overwash was novmore
severe than it has been during non
tropical storms.
Damage assessment teams
returned to Oak Island at first light
Thursday morning. Damage asses
sors were amazed to find no sand
cover on Beach Drive in Long
Beach, on Ocean Drive in Yaupon
Beach nor along Caswell Beach
Drive.
Caswell Beach residents were
See Bonnie, page 6
INSIDE
Opinion 4
Police report 11.1
Obituaries 13
District Court 16
Church 3B
Calendar 4B
TV schedule 6B
NASCAR 7C
Classifieds 9C
UP IN ARMS
Photo by Jim Harper
South Brunswick cheerleaders, performing here at the recent BB&T Jamboree, were flying high
again Monday night as the Cougars met Hoggard in a storm-delayed football game. The new Cougar
Rhythm dance team also joined in the festivities. Details of the game in the Sports section.
Community Building
Aldermen okay
finance package
By Richard Nubel —
Municipal Editor ■
A $350,000 loan from Security Savings Bank was approved at a special
noon meeting of the Southport Board of Aldermen on Monday.
The loan completes finance arrangements for reconstruction of the
Southport Community Building, a project expected to cost the city just
under $1 million.
Security Savings Bank offered the better of two proposals advanced by
local lending institutions. The ten-year loan will be offered at 4.43-percent
interest. It will be set up as a construction loan and no interest will accrue
until funds are drawn.
Security has also waived financing costs and attorney fees. There will be
no penalty for early pay-off.
The proposed loan package Was subniitted to the N. C. Local
, Government Commission for approval at a meeting in Raleigh Tuesday.
LGC is an agency of the state treasurer’s office which monitors the credit
matters of city and county governments in North Carolina.
The $350,000 loan from Security will be coupled with $137,798 in
donations the city has received for replacement of the Southport
See Building, page 14
Lakes
system
Municipal Editor \ \
A long-planned November refer
endum on whether or not to estab
lish a public water distribution sys
tem in Boiling Spring Lakes will
not be held, commissioner Jack
Redmond announced Tuesday
night.
Redmond said city attorney Elva
Jess and Brunswick County Board
of Elections supervisor Lynda Britt
have determined the city is Without
statutory authority to ask voters the
open-ended question, ‘Do you
want the board to proceed with
plans for a water system?”
Referenda may only be conducted,
Jess says, on specific issues defined
See Lakes, page 7
Possible $10 million
The verdict:
County needs
a courthouse
By Terry Pope
County Editor
Architects were given the go
ahead Monday for design of a new
county courthouse to eliminate a
space crunch at the county govern
ment center near Bolivia.
A preliminary building study
shown by Grier-Fripp Architects of
Charlotte to the Brunswick County
Board of Commissioners indicates
the new courthouse should be either
two or three stories tall and sit adja
cent to the current building and
sheriff’s department. It also would
look more like a traditional court
house with columns in front and a
secure main entrance.
Grier-Fripp just completed a
study of county needs that shows
the present courthouse is terribly
inadequate with its 14,155 square
feet of space.
The new building would require
85,565 square feet of space to meet
needs for the next 20 years. That
design wbuld also be open-ended to
‘The general feel
ing is that we all do
the best we can
with what we’ve
got, but they’re
starting to wear
out.’
Steve Allen
Grier-Fripp Architects
allow expansion by another-20,270
square feet after that time.
“The general feeling is that we all
do the best we can with what we’ve
got, but they’re starting to wear
out,” said Steve Allen of Grier
See Courthouse, page 16
Height of stofm
Hospital closing
concerns board
ByTerryPope
County Editor
A decision to close Brunswick
Community Hospital during the
height of Hurricane Bonnie last
week hasn’t set well with county
officials.
It was the topic of a closed ses
sion by the Brunswick County
Board of Commissioners on
Monday to discuss “possible? litiga
tion.” However, with the reopening
of the facility earlier in the day, all
that was left to debated was the judg
ment call of hospital adnuHstrator
Paul Schulte to shut dov after
winds ripped off a 2.5-ton abla
tion unit and part of the roof during
the storm.
“They have not taken any partic
ular action,” said county attorney
Huey Marshall on commissioners’
decision. “I think they are all
deeply concerned.”
The decision to transfer 23
patients to Grand Strand Regional
Medical Center in Myrtle Beach
‘He was looking
after us also. The
criticism he got
really has angered
us.’
Glenda Warren
Brunswick nurse
,nc others to New Hanover
Reg onal Medical Center in
Wiln ington in the midst of the
storm has drawn heated criticism.
Brunswick emergency operations
did not respond to the call to evac
uate or close the facility.
Marshall said county officials
were very concerned about “weath
See Hospital, page 14
Photo by Jim Harper
Southport alderman Wayne Hewett was in great demand after
Hurricane Bonnie passed, plying his usual trade with his bucket-hoe,
and here clearing a toppled oak bn Rhett Street Generally, broken
limbs and dropped trees did not cause great delay in restoration of
power.
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