Phone 910-457-4568/Fax 910-457-9427/e-mail pilot@southport.net
Volume 68. Number 10
Published every Wednesday in Southport, NC
October 28, 1998
Stallioj
South Brut
one of the I
visiting Sc
w
User’s gt
for next
Record number are eligible for Tuesday’s vote
School, county board seats up for grabs
By Terry Pope
County Editor
Next Tuesday’s election'marks a welcomed return
to staggered four-year terms for seats on the school
board and county commission after a trial run with
two-year terms'.
That’s why only two seats to each five-member
board will be filled along with other local, state and
national positions on the November 3 ballot. The
other three seats on the county boards are for four
years and won’t be up for election until the year
2000. But there are other changes that voters will
notice, too.
New voting machines are ready for their first real
test, and a record number of registered county vot
ers are eligible to participate in the democratic
process which begins when polls open Tuesday at
6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m. at 23 precincts
throughout the county.
There are close to 42,000 active voters on the
books at the Brunswick County Board of Elections
office. According to the latest totals, about 21,300
are registered as Democrats and 14,800 as
Republicans. Another 5,700 are unaffiliated, but
those voters could play a huge role in deciding
Tuesday outcomes
County commission
Two incumbent county commissioners are trying
for anothei term, this time for four years.
Commissioners aie elected by voters countywide
but they represent specific electoral districts.
In District T. Democrat Don Warren. 49, of Ocean
Isle Beach is seeking reelection but faces
Republican challenger Debbie Rupp, 44, of Ocean
Isle Beach. Warren was. voted out of office in 1994
but was voted back to the board in 1996. He is an
See Election, page 9

Signs of the time have sprung up around Brunswick County.
Airport
funding a
‘Lauch’?
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Notice that a federal spending
Dill, with money for Brunswick
bounty Ajrport’s runway extension,
was on its way to President
Clinton’s desk was delivered via fax
:o Brunswick County Airport
Dauber 6, but airport officials were
old not to release that information
rntil Tuesday, airport manager
Howard Franklin said.
The announcement on the Senate
stationery of U. S. Sen, Lauch
Faircloth says only that the spend
ing bill headed to the president
‘includes a special provision to
fund a runway extension at
Brunswick County Airport.”
The announcement does not spec
ify how much money will be on its
way for a proposed $7.3-million
plan to extend the airport runway
from 4,000 to 5,000 feet and to
widen it to 100 feet. Construction of
a parallel taxi way and completion
of a precision instrument approach
for all-weather use of the
Brunswick County facility are also
elements of the local plan.
“This airport money will ensure
that- Brunswick County Airport
stays ahead of the growth curve and
continues to fuel regional prosperi
ty,” Faircloth said in the October 6
release embargoed until Tuesday.
Although airport officials were
notified 21 days earlier that the run
way extension project would
receive funding, Franklin said nei
ther he nor airport commissioners
See Airport, page 13
-——:-! ; ;-:— —I •■■■■■ -
Photo by Ed Harper
Steel roof supports and cinderblocks await construction crews, who were back at work Monday
morning at the Winding River elementary school site. Damage from Hurricane Bonnie set contrac
tors’ schedule back some, but completion still is expected sometime in the fall of 1999.
Oak Island
Second bridge
effort resumes
tsy Kicnaru i\uoei
Municipal Editor
N. C. Department of Transportation
staff will visit Long Beach and the sur
rounding area this week, apparently to
shore up arguments for siting a road
corridor from N. C. 21i at Midway
Road to a second Oak Island bridge at
Middleton Street.
Long Beach mayor Joan Altman said
she was to meet today (Wednesday)
with DOT officials and consultants
with DSAtlantic, a Raleigh engineer
ing firm which performed an environ
mental assessment of three proposed
corridor routes -- known as alterna
tives A. B and C — between the
Midway Road intersection and a point
on the mainland opposite Middleton
Street.
DOT has scheduled a meeting
November 12 in Raleigh with repre
sentatives of 17 state and federal agen
cies which, by law, must review and
comment on roadway plans. When the
three corridor alternatives found
acceptable by DOT were distributed to
the commenting agencies earlier in the
year, several were critical ot the trans
portation department's decision to
eliminate from consideration two
western routes to a second Oak Island
bridge. A proposed corridor
Alternative D would cross the
Intracoastal Waterway at Middleton
Street, then dogleg west to connect
with Sunset Harbor Road, which inter
sects with N. C. 211 about five miles
west of Midway Road. A corridor
Alternative E would have the second
‘If (A, B or C not
chosen), we may be
in for another \ &
months to two years
of study. '
Joan Altman
Long Beach mayor
Oak Island bridge built at the western
terminus of Oak Island Drive at
Schuster Park. The bridge would span
the Intracoastal Waterway to Howell's
Point, then link with Sunset Harbor
Road.
In rejecting Alternative D and
Alternative E last February, DOT cited
higher costs of the two western alter
natives and the possibility of more
extensive environmental disruption.
“Based on the higher potential wet
land impacts, higher right-of-way and
construction costs, higher relocation
impacts and lower traffic use, alterna
tives D and E were determined not rea
sonable and feasible and were elimi
nated from further consideration,"
DOT concluded.
The commenting agencies, however,
appeared particularly concerned with
the secondary development a second
See Oak Island, page II
Skilled care bids are due
Further review if Dosher costs too high
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Bid opening today (Wednesday) will
determine whether or not Dosher
Memorial Hospital may proceed
immediately to begin construction of
its planned 40-bed skilled nursing
facility, new dietary center and new
front entrance, or wait another 90 days
or more as the three-part project is sub
jected to further state review.
In short, the bid for the skilled nurs
ing facility component alone of the
proposed hospital expansion project
must cost Dosher less that $3.27 mil
lion total. If construction bids, to be
opened at 2 p.m. today, come in higher
than that, Haywood said state regula
tors will require Dosher to submit an
application for a second certificate of
need (CON). Processing that request
for a second CON would take at least
90 days to complete.
“The problem is, we are dealing with
two-year-old numbers now,” Haywood
siid.
Cost of public health care facilities in
North Carolina are regulated by the
state Department of Health’s Division
of Facility Services which issues cer
tificates of need for public projects.
The function of DFS is to control cost
and to see that services in an area are
not duplicated. DFS also assures
providers do not overbuild as that
would drive the cost of health care for
the public higher.
When Dosher submitted its certifi
cate of need application and was
awarded the 40-skilled-nursing-bed
allocation two years ago, it estimated
the cost of the nursing facility alone to
be $2,834 million. The state will allow
that cost to be exceeded by 15 percent,
See Bids due, page 8
‘If we come in over
($3.27 million),
we’ve got to get a
determination ti'om
the certificate of
need division on
what their position
will be.’
Edgar Haywood
Hospital administrator
HEADSTONES
Monuments
are to honor
Howe, Smith
By Laura Kimball
feature Hditor
Two new marble monuments, each
weighing about 150 pounds, were
placed near the entrance to Old
Smithville Burying Grounds on
Monday.
The monuments, engraved with
the names of Benjamin Smith and
Robert Howe, are to recognize two
of Southport's important ancestors.
In 1792. Southport, formerly
Smithville, was chartered and named
to honor Smith, one of five commis
sioners. During the Revolutionary
War. Smith served under George
Washington and later became gover
See Markers, page II
McNeill Williamson, Wayne Strickland and Jim
McKee help install the new monuments.
NEWS on the NET: www.southport.net