November 25, 1998
Phone 910-457-4568/Fax 910-457-9427/e-mail pilot@southport.net
i.; i
Volume 68, Number ] 4
Beachcombi
‘She sells seashells b
shore;’ say that fast t
... and enjoy the be
n
honors
Outstanding players
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Published every Wedncsuay
■Southport, NC
Dosher
decision
Board ponders
possible razing
of old hospital
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Dosher Memorial Hospital trus
tees have a decision to make —
maybe a tough one.
Whether or not Dosher hospital
trustees choose to tear down Dr. J.
Arthur Dosher’s original 1930
structure to make way for new
facilities, no work will begin for 18
months or more and completion of
any new facilities are up to three
years off.
But, trustees must decide: Does
the old building go, or does it stay?
Architects with Wilkerson Asso
ciates appeared before trustees
Monday afternoon to lay out the
options for expansion:
■ Scheme I — Keep the original
structure and surround “challeng
ing”* new construction with an
awkward 12-inch fire wall. The
plan will cost about $4 million, but
will end construction on-site forev
er.
■ Scheme II — Tear down the old
building and replace it with mod
em new facilities, oversized to
allow growth. A second fkxfirwiil
allow administration and other
non-patient services to make way
for new in-patient and out-patient
services. Growth beyond that
which is built in a first phase is
possible with this $6-million
option.
Regardless of which “scheme” is
selected, architects say the hospital
will also need a $1-million, 9,000
square-foot physical therapy unit
and another $400,000 structure on
the west side of Howe Street.
Although the hospital’s potential
to accommodate growth without
See Dosher, page 8
The State Port Pilot office will
be open regular hours
Wednesday but will be closed
Thanksgiving Day. The office
will be open Friday from 9 a.m.
until noon, the normal deadline
for real estate advertising for the
following week’s edition.
Regular office hours will resume
Monday.
The newspaper staff wishes you
a safe and enjoyable holiday
weekend.
COMING DOWN
I'holo by Jim Harper
Tim Carter moved his backhoe into place and the walls started tumbling down at the former county
schools headquarters (and former county home site) in Smithville Township District Park. The prop
erty reverted to parks and recreation department control when the school administration moved, but
there are no immediate plans to incorporate it into .the township athletic complex.
Long Beach Road at NC 211
Development may hurt
plan for connector road
By Terry Pope
County Editor
County planners are worried that
rapid commercial development
could detour plans to build an exten
sion to Long Beach Road west of
Southport.
The roadway is mapped as a future
need in the current Brunswick
County Thoroughfare Plan to help
relieve congestion along the Dosher
Cutoff Road corridor. However,
commercial rezoning and proposed
development at the Long Beach
Road and N. C. 211 intersection
threaten to gobble up any right-of
way required for the road that would
lead to the Sunriy Point intersection
between Southport and Boiling
Spring Lakes.
Another rezoning request for 79.3
acres was recommended for change
from residential to commercial use
by the Brunswick County Planning
Board last week. The tract lies adja
cent to 93 acres previously rezoned
where a proposed Wal-Mart shop
ping center may be built.
‘I think, because
of the recent rezon
ings and projected
activities in the
area, we might
want to urge DOT
to be more aggres
sive with that
plan.’
John Thompson
Planning board member
The new tract, also managed b>
Tri-City Inc. of Rockingham, lies
behind NationsBank on N. C. 211
and clearly in the path of where the
county had earlier mapped the Lone
: Beach Road extension.
Although the connector road has
been, described a> a need by county
planners, N. (. Department of
Transportation officials have yet to
include it as a priority item on the
state's Transponation Improvement
Program (Til l for 2000-2006.
Planning board members are
becoming a bi: antsy with the recent
changes and development plans for
the busy intersection, but they have
no reason to deny property owners'
requests.
“I think, because of the recent
rezonings and projected activities in
the area,” said county planning
board member John Thompson, "we
might want to urge DOT to be more
aggressive with that plan."
Southport attorney Susan Darby
said her client, Tri-City Inc.,
requested a rezoning “so the proper
ty can be used in ways that are more
compatible with the surrounding
area.” Another rezoning change to
commercial use was approved to the
east for Tri-City last month. Another
See Connector, page 11
Drive still on
Delay, review
are impacting
bridge project
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
A proposed five-year delay of all
state transportation projects and
regulatory uncertainty about siting
of a roadway corridor threaten to set
back the schedule for construction
of a second bridge to Oak Island.
Members of Long Beach Town
Council last week said it was time
for the public to join elected offi
cials in their demand that the second
Oak Island bridge project remain on
schedule. Members also said those
who favor location of a second
bridge at North Middleton Street
and a roadway corridor to N. C. 211
at Midway Road should be willing
to tell transportation officials and
environmental regulators.
“You need to write now,” mayor
Joan Altman told citizens attending
last week's council meeting. “The
citizens need to tell the agencies
what we want and make them
responsible for their actions.”
Once again last week, representa
tives of the 17 federal and state reg
ulatory agencies which review N. C.
Department of Transportation pro
jects failed to select a roadway cor
ridor for a second Oak Islam,
bridge. Although DOT has focusci
its attention on three roadway alter
natives between North Middled)!
and the Midway area, the review in
agencies have asked Iransportatio
‘One of these
(reviewers) lives in
Atlanta and has
never been here.
Yet, he can look at
a map and tell us
where our bridge
should go.’
Joan Altman
Long Beach mayor
officials to further justify their
rejection of two western corridor
alternatives which would take trav
elers from western Oak Island on a
circuitous route' following Sunset
Harbor Road to a point on N. C. 211
more than five miles west of
Midway Road. One alternative
involves construction of a bridge off
western Oak Island Drive. At other
times, agency representatives have
i talked of a bridge leaving Oak
Island at 12th or 13th streets NW.
i The most direct route between
l Middleton and Midway is about
i See Bridge, page 12
Brunswick County
Planners want
zoning restart
By Terry Pope
County Editor
For four years, county planners feel they have been patching up a zoning
ordinance and correcting its mistakes.
But in the process, county control over development may have weakened.
“I’d like to look at recapturing control over zoning again,” said
Brunswick County Planning Board member Sharon Marshall of Long
Beach. “We need to redefine where we're going to take this county through
our zoning ordinance.”
She has asked that the planning board schedule a series of workshops to
totally rewrite the zoning ordinance adopted in 1994. The ordinance was
See Zoning, page 10
Hometown Security branches upstate
Merger with Randleman bank means no changes here
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Southport’s oldest and only remaining
home-grown financial institution has
reached out to expand.
Security Savings Bank and Randleman
Savings Bank Monday announced an
agreement and plan to merge. Both are
state-chartered savings banks.
Randleman Savings, of Randleman, near
Greensboro, will operate as a division of
Security Savings Bank. Randleman
Savings operates one office in that city.
Security Savings Bank officials say
customers of its branches in Southport,
Long Beach, Leland, Shallotte and
Calabash will have a stronger institution
working for them, but won’t notice any
change in services to which they have
become accustomed.
“Customers here won’t notice any dif
ference in operations,” said Ken Mabe,
Security Savings Bank’s vice-president
of operations. “Randleman typically does
80 percent of its business in mortgage
loans and CDs (certificates of deposit).
We should be able to expand their ser
vices like we have here.”
New banking products and services
Security will offer to Randleman cus
tomers will include home equity loans,
consumer loans, commercial real estate
loans, a variety of personal and commer
cial checking and. savings account
options, individual retirement accopnts
and automatic teller machine cards.
“We should be able to give them addi
tional products and services all around,”
Mabe said.
The combined resources will provide
each division of the new institution the
financial strength to become more com
petitive and more responsive to the needs
of customers in their local communities,
the savings banks say.
The merger is subject to regulator and
member approval. As part of the combi
nation process, members of Security
Savings Bank and and Randleman
Savings Bank will be asked to approve
the merger at special member meetings
of the two banks in January.
Application for merger was filed with
the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation (FDIC) on Monday.
Applications with state banking officials
were also filed. Approval is expected to
be announced in late June, 1999.
Mabe said the merger announcement of
Monday capped nearly four months of
negotiations between principals of the
See Merger, page 10
Security headquarters in downtown Southport.
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