October 7, 1998
THE STATE PORT
Phone 910-457-4568/Fax 910-457-9427/e-mail pilot@southport.net
Volume 68. Number 7
50 cents
Conference win
South Brunswick tops Red
Springs; to host Vikings,
Force in homeco]
* iPi
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U. S.Open compet:
right down to busi
Published every W<
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‘I live on Oak Island. It's got a ring
Caswell to ponder
‘profound change’
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Yaupon Beach and Long Beach have begun the
march to consolidation as the Town of Oak Island, but
what of the third municipal presence on the island’s
east end?
Will Caswell Beach join the consolidation effort and
expand the Town of Oak Island to the entirety of Oak
Island?
“Ultimately, that decision will have to be made by
the citizens,” Caswell Beach mayor Joe O’Brien said
Monday morning. “A lot of things council can decide,
but this is such a profound change.”
The Caswell Beach Board of Commissioners will get
its first opportunity Thursday to publicly assess the
‘I agree it
makes sense
for Yaupon
Beach and
Long Beach
to consoli
date, but it
goes back to
the vision of
what the town
wants to be.’
Joe O’Brien
Caswell mayor
Yaupon Beach and Long
Beach consolidation plan
and to weigh its meaning
to Caswell Beach. The
board is to meet in regu
lar monthly session at 5
p.m. at Town Hall.
“We’ve thought about
it to some extent,” mayor
O’Brien said.
The mayor said options
for Caswell Beach range
from joining the consoli
dation, to opposing it if it
appears not in that
town’s interest. He plans
to ask commissioners to
set a public hearing on
the subject of Caswell
Beach participation in
Oak Island consolidation
and to charge the town’s
planning board with
investigating the issue.
“We have to look at it
as, what does this con
soiiaauon mean to us as
far as services?” O’Brien
said. He noted Caswell Beach now contracts with
Lpng Beach for rescue and emergency dispatch ser
vices. It contracts with Yaupon Beach Volunteer Fire
See Caswell, page 13
CONGRATULATIONS
Photo by Jim Harper
Mayors Dot Kelly (right foreground) and Joan Altman received congratulations from Constituents
after their two towns agreed to combine as the Town of Oak Island.
‘After all these years..
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
A new date in the history of southeastern North
Carolina: July 1, 1999, the founding of the Town of
Oak Island.
And, if any of the approximately 70 individuals
who attended a joint meeting of Yaupon Beach
Board of Commissioners and Long Beach Town
Council Thursday night opposed consolidation of
those two towns, they were keeping it to them
Process underway
for consolidation
i;r iviviiin u nuuci
Municipal Editor
The "process" °f con
solidating the towns of
Yaupon Beach and Long
Beach to become the
Town of Oak Island was
began Thursday when
governing boards of the
two towns authorized
their mayors to notify the
area's legislative delega
tion of the two towns'
desire to consolidate.
The notification letters
ask legislators to submit a
local bill enabling consol
idation in the next session
of the General Assembly.
It is expected that bill
will be introduced — like
ly by Rep. E. David
Redwine of Brunswick
A transition
al governing
board made
up of both
mayors and
both boards
will begin
presiding over
the new town
on July 1,
1999
County — before the IN. C..
House of Representatives 'in January. 1999. Adoption
of that local bill creating the Town of Oak Island is
expected no later than March, 1999, and the consoli
dation is to become effective July 1, 1999.
The new municipal corporation will be a significant
one. Long Beach mayor Joan Altman told about 70
persons attending a Thursday night meeting at which
the consolidation effort was announced.
"We will be in the top 100 towns in North Carolina
i in size," mayor Altman said. "The Town of Oak
Island w ill be the largest in Brunswick County and by
far the largest beach community in North Carolina.
With the growth we anticipate, we have even bigger
things to look forward to."
A transitional governing board made up of mayor
Dot Kelly and all presently elected Yaupon Beach
commissioners and mayor Joan Altman and all
presently elected Long Beach town councilors will
begin presiding over the new town on July 1. 1999.
Elections for a single mayor and new governing
board will be held in November. 1999. Both the size
of the board and the manner of election wilt be out
See Process, page 13
Aquifer change,
no corridor plan
in use statement
By Terry Pope
County Editor
Some last-minute changes to the
county’s land use plan cover action
taken recently to protect the under
ground Castle Hayne aquifer from
mining that could lead to sinkholes
and saltwater intrusion into private
wells.
The plan approved by the
Brunswick County Board of Com
missioners on Monday, and for
warded to the Coastal Resources
Commission for adoption in
November, is thinner than originally
planned because it does not include
Oak Island’s second bridge corridor
plan nor the Cape Fear River
Corridor Plan.
County planners had indicafed
earlier that both should serve as
attachments to the county’s CAMA
(Coastal Area Management Act)
land use update, but neither is ready
to be fully implemented. The Oak
Island bridge corridor plan, which
shares planning responsibilities
between Long Beach officials and
the county for development control
along the second bridge route near
Midway, remains under review by
county planners. It has been adopted
by Long Beach.
County commissioners officially
See Land use, page 10
Coast Guardsmen prepare to tow the damaged boat in which Carl Lee
died away from downed day marker 7 on Friday morning. The naviga
Pholo by Jim Harper
tional aid stood on three pilings on the south side of the Intracoastal
Waterway, east of the CP&L canal crossing. See story, page 7.
Rough weather, few fish, but still it’s $43,900
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Carolina Beach skipper Larry W. Nash and the crew of
Pyzonnya were the first to weigh any fish at the U. S.
Open King Mackerel Tournament weigh station Friday
morning.
An early bird, Nash weighed his 37.75-pound king at
11 a.m. on the tournament’s first day, then exercised
captain’s choice to sit Saturday out, as competitors in the
1998 U. S. Open King Mackerel Tournament were
rocked by rough outside waters, whipped up by strong
winds. But, the Pyzonnya entry hitng tough, besting the
next biggest tournament fish by 1.8 pounds, to capture
first prize in the 20th anniversary U. S. Open King
Mackerel Tournament.
“I sweated it out for two days,” Nash said. “That's a
pretty small fish for that tournament.”
Small it was, but big enough. Saturday night, U. S.
Open chairman Bill Owens handed Nash a check for
$43,900, the sum of the tournament's $25,000 top prize,
$17,250 as first-place winnings for the Tournament
Within a Tournament pool and $750 for the largest catch
taken aboard a craft with a Suzuki engine.
"I took him right there at the Lockwood Folly Inlet,
just a little downwind of the buoy." Nash recalled of his
winning catch.
Nash and his crew members Garrett Aired of Cary and
Joe Broome and John Farrow of Carolina Beach had set
out of the Lockwood Folly checkpoint around 7:30 a.m.,
alter picking up some bait.
The crew of Pyzoiiiiyii set a first round of baits about
7:40 a.m., saw no action for about a half-hour and decid
ed to change baits, opting for a chartreuse skirt instead
of the blue ones they had started with.
"About 8:30 I heard the biggest splash'” Nash said.
"When he nailed in to that hook, he realized he was
hooked and took off. I fought him for 40 minutes.
"1 never saw the fish until I went to gaff him."
Sensing he had a money fish on board, the Pyzonnya
crew headed for the tournament weigh station, which
was just opening when Nash and crew pulled into
Southport Marina.
See U. S. Open, page 11
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