October 21, 1998
Phone 910-457-4568/Fax 910-457-9427/e-mail pilot@southport.net
Volume 68, Number 9
50 cents
Bye-bye, By
North Brunswick’s oi
running back piles up
Scorps move to first
On the Spot
It’s fall, and that mes
time along Brunswic
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CROP WALKERS
PnAn nr 11 it • _ , rnuiu oy jim narper
CKOF Walk participants begin a three-mile walk to raise money for the cause't>f local and world hunger.
By Laura Kimball
Feature Editor
Feet hit the street at 2 p.m. Sunday, but they
weren’t competing with each other.
In fact, the annual CROP Walk was a team effort
to combat local and world hunger. The CROP Walk
is a national event sponsored by the nondenomina
tional Church World Service to raise money and
awareness of poverty issues faced by millions of
people around the world.
CROP walkers gathered sponsors who agreed to
contribute money to the cause if the walker complet
ed a three-mile route, which began at Stevens Park
in Southport.
More than 175 walkers participated this year and
almost $10,000 was raised, according to Jim Bartlett,
treasurer of the Southport-Oak Island Interchurch
Fellowship, a group of 18 area churches that orga
nized the event.
Last year there were just over 100 walkers and
$5,600 was raised, he said.
Bartlett also pointed out that the area CROP Walk
has come a long way since it started 18 years ago
when $300 was raised.
Each year, 25 percent of the money raised by the
walk goes to local organizations involved in fighting
hunger at the community level. The remaining 75
percent will be used by the Church World Service
and for outreach, which includes assisting poverty
and disaster-stricken areas.
The 25 percent that stays in the area will be dis
tributed by the human needs division of the
See CROP Walk, page 10
‘It was one of
those outstand
ing events that
brings the
whole commu
nity together,’
Jim Bartlett
Interchurch Fellowship
7
SBSD challenges annexation
i>v nicnaru i>uuei
Municipal Editor
The Town of Yaupon Beach has
failed to follow procedures set out
in state law in its attempt to annex
property on Long Beach Road, Air
port Road and Fish Factory Road,
Southeast Brunswick Sanitary Dis
trict’s Board of Commissioners con
tend in a lawsuit filed October 13.
SBSD commissioners, on behalf
or tne district, have asked the
Superior Court in Brunswick Coun
ty to declare the Yaupon Beach
annexation ordinance of September
14 null and void and to declare the
Long Beach Road tract ineligible
for annexation. If the court is unable
to make that ruling, SBSD has
asked the court to order Yaupon
Beach to revamp its annexation
ordinance to comply with state law.
The entire tract proposed for
annexation lies within the Southeast
Brunswick Sanitary District, a gov
ernment agency created in 1989 to
establish a wastewater treatment
system along the Long Beach Road
corridor.
Wilmington attorney John Rich
ard Newton filed suit for SDSD
commissioners one day before the
deadline for objections to the annex
ation were eligible to be lodged,
under state law.
The suit challenges elements of
both the Annexation Feasibility
Study the Town of Yaupon Beach
performed, and adopted on July 20,
and the annexation ordinance
Yaupon Beach commissioners
adopted September 14, several days
after a required public hearing on
the proposed annexation. If the
challenge to the annexation action
fails , the area targeted for annexa
See SBSD, page 11
LONG B
Sewer project
wins approval
from council
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
A 15,700-linear-foot wastewater
collection system — phase I of a
Long Beach sewer system — may be
completed as early as September 30,
1999, under a plan submitted by a
Southern Pines engineering firm.
Town council Tuesday night voted
unanimously to engage engineering
consultants Hobbs, Upchurch &
Associates P.A. (HUA) from among
six firms which initially responded
to the town's request for proposals
and three which were eventually
- interviewed. The successful firm
proposed to do preliminary design
work, design the collection system,
coordinate bidding by construction
contractors and perform administra
tive and inspection work during
construction for a fee of $90,580.
Construction is to begin April 1,
1999, under a project schedule sub
mitted in response to the town's
request for proposals.
"We made it clear we are in a fast
track process...,' town manager
Jerry Walters told councilors. He
said three of the firms initially
Phase I will serve
the business district
and commercial
areas along Oak
Island Drive
responding to the town’s request for
proposals were disqualified because
they could not guarantee phase I
sewer system development at the
pace the town desired.
The first phase of what will be a
Long Beach wastewater collection
system, and later likely a segment of
a regional wastewater management
system, was made possible last
month when Yaupon Beach com
missioners announced they would
make 30,000 gallons of daily waste
water flow available to Long Beach
immediately for treatment at the
Yaupon Beach wastewater treat
See Long Beach, page 12
Get to ‘The Point’
Road widening
gains approval
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Road shoulder improvement at the
two streets accessing “The Point”
are two elements of the Long Beach
Fragile Area Management Plan
which are both agreeable and can be
done quickly with cash on hand.
Tuesday night, town council
approved $1,309 from the town's
streets department budget to
improve road shoulders along the
westernmost sections of West Beach
Drive and Kings Lynn Drive. The
tandem road shoulder projects were
the first recommendations to coun
cil from The Point committee it
appointed recently.
The large committee is charged
with recommending and refining
elements of a Fragile Area
Management Plan (FAMP) devel
oped for the town by consulting
planner William Farris. While some
elements of the FAMP have been
criticized as "overdevelopment" by
neighboring property owners, town
council has pledged to develop
amenities with little impact on the
environment.
The Point committee is composed
of representatives of the town's
planning board, recreation advisory
board and erosion control commit
tee. A representative of the Long
Beach Preservation Trust Advisory
Committee sits on the committee, as
do two residents of The Harbor at
Kings Lynn.
Councilor Horace Collier, who
chairs The Point committee, said
road shoulder improvements came
as a recommendation from the com
mittee at its first session. At least
See The Point, page 12
ST. JAMES PLANTATION
I
Development’s fast pace continues
By Terry Pope
County Editor
Heavy trucks were still moving dirt around,
and a green fuzz had sprouted on the four
newest golf holes, as project manager Mark
Brambell inspected progress of phase III in
development of St. James Plantation last week.
This rapidly growing golf course community
west of Southport officially opens its third
phase of development this weekend on a new
nine holes for The Members Club golf course
with 100 acres and 140 new building lots ready
for marketing.
“If you’d seen this place four and a half
months ago, it was just virgin woods,” said
Brambell. “It’s gone from a rural state to a not
finished product. But everything is in but the
final improvements.”
St. James Plantation keeps growing and
growing. Phase III also includes a new seven
acre marina on the Intracoastal Waterway also
under construction by E&T Construction Co. of
Southport, It is slated to open in late 1999.
Now plans for a new fire department to serve
the community have been endorsed by the
Brunswick County Board of Commissioners,
See Fast pace, page 8
‘We’ve done our best
to leave trees standing.
We’ve even redesigned
areas to leave trees.’
Mark Brambell
Project manager
County to help fund
new fire department
By Terry Pope
County Editor fc
When the call first went out, 88 residents of St. James Plantation answered
and said they want to become part of a new volunteer fire and rescue depart
ment at the golf course community west of Southport.
Those numbers and the experience of some organizing members convinced
the Brunswick County Board of Commissioners Monday to recognize the unit
as the county’s 22nd and to appropriate $38,750 to help it get started.
“Having met with them, and seeing the progress that they have made, I want
See Fire fund, page 8
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