March 31, 1999
THE STATE PORT
Phone 910-457-4568/Fax 910-457-9427/e-mail pilot@southport.net Volume 68, Number 32
50 cents
Easter activity
Last weekend it was egg
this week the Chili
South Brunswick sprinter
the
Published every Wednesday in Southport, NC
Photo’iv Jim Marper
Scores of youngsters celebrated the Easter season Saturday in the annual egg hunt held by Southport Parks and Reciealiou i H partment
in Franklin Square. More information on Easter observances is in the Neighbors section.
Southport still facing tough
DECISIONS
By Richard Nubel
Staff Writer
Aldermen may have solidified their policy stand on
the “Wal-Mart” annexation, but a full plate of deci
sions waiting-to-be-made still'lies before Southport’s
governing board.
Among the board of aldermen’s unmade decisions
are possible sale of the city electric system to
Brunswick Electric Membership Corporation and a
merger request from Southeast Brunswick Sanitary
Distr ict, plus several key infrastructure matters.
For the past month, aldermen have appeared to do
little more than address the outcry associated with
annexation of 31.7 acres of land between the
Carolina Power and Light Co. canal and Sandfiddler
Restaurant — the proposed Wal-Mart development
site. A committee is now being formed to address per
ceived deficiencies in land use and development pol
icy.
With that issue in abeyance for the time being, it is
likely the board will return to infrastructural matters
from which its attention has been diverted.
BEMC offer
City and coop officials will meet today
(Wednesday) to further consider a BEMC offer of
February to buy the city-owned electric distribution
system. *
Since receiving that February 19 offer from BEMC
general manager David Batten, the city has provided
BEMC officials with a good deal of financial infor
mation relative to city electric operations. The coop
has also been provided with a copy of the contract
that exists between the City of Southport and N. C.
Eastern Municipal Power Agency.
Southport became a member of NCEMPA in 1982
and, in return for a power allotment, assumed a share
of debt the agency acquired while purchasing owner
ship interests in Carolina Power and Light Co. gener
ating facilities, including three of the most costly
nuclear units the company operates.
City manager Rob Gandy said Monday the con
See Decisions, page 14
The issues
■ Should Brunswick
Electric Membership
Corporation’s offer to
purchase the city elec
tric system be pursued?
■ Should the City of
Southport accept
Southeast Brunswick
Sanitary District’s offer
to somehow merge?
■ Should the city devel- ■»
op additional overhead
water storage capacity
and build an additional
well?
■ Should the city pro
ceed to repair areas of
its wastewater collection
system that allow
groundwater to infil
trate?
■ Should the city
attempt to finance and
construct a new waste
water treatment plant?
‘Partnership’renewed
CRC steps back,
takes second look
at coastal rules
By Richard Nubel
iiarr writer
A controversial set of rules aimed at improv
ing the state's coastal water quality was tabled
by the N. C. Coastal Resources Commission
Friday and a facilitator will be directed to
impanel “stakeholders” to draft sweeping
water quality regulations.
The move apparendy has ended a stand-off
between the CRC and local government offi
cials and has breathed life again into their part
nership for coastal management.
“This is the coastal partnership of the Hunt
administration,” CRC chairman Eugene B.
Tomlinson of Southport said Tuesday. “By
going this route, we are going to get every
body involved and probably come up with a
better course of action than we had to begin
with.”
By unanimous vote Friday in Morehead
City, the CRC tabled other provisions of its
proposed coastal shoreline water quality initia
See Coastal, page 15
‘By getting the
General Assembly and
the Environmental
Management
Commission involved,
we have a better chance
of realizing the water
quality improvements
we all desire.’
Eugene Tomlinson
CRC chairman
Commissioners' retreat
Schools funding
may go to public
By Terry Pope
Staff Writer
The largest funding issue the county has
ever faced could be decided by voters in the
fall — whether to approve close to $90 million
in bonds for new construction and renovation
of county schools and at Brunswick Com
munity College.
The Brunswick County Board of Commis
sioners voted Friday to support holding a bond
referendum to pay for nearly $77 million in
building needs for schools and another $ 12.8
million bond issue for the college, which plans
to construct a new continuing education cen
ter on its Supply campus.
Consultants estimate the schools need $77
million for new buildings and to renovate out
dated facilities to meet projected enrollment
figures over the next ten years and to bring
classrooms up to standards. Lithia Home,
county fiscal operations director, has recom
mended that the sale be broken into at least
three phases over the next ten years so it won’t
be too much of a burden on taxpayers all at
once.
“If we do this, it will fundamentally change
the way we’ve been financing our school cap
ital projects,” said Ms. Home.
In the past, new elementary schools at
Winding River. Belville and Supply have been
funded through installment financing deals
with private banks and repaid through half
cent sales tax revenues renamed to the county
and earmarked for school construction. That
would change under the sale of bonds, but a
plan which spreads that volume over ten years
could be just as affordable yet not raise the
county tax rate, Ms. Home indicated.
Commissioners say they want to meet with
the school board to work out agreements on
how to frame the bond referendum which may
go before voters this November. Preliminary
work has the sale broken down into three
phases: $44.1 million, $ 16.2 million and $ 16.4
million over ten years.
The first $44.1-million phase would include
See Funding, page 10
Redwine
honored
by NCAE
Rep. E. David Redwine was honored
Thursday by the North Carolina Asso
ciation of Educators with its Friend of
Education award.
The award was presented by NCAE
president Joyce Elliott at the awards ban
quet of the association's annual conven
tion in Raleigh.
Redwine, a seven-term veteran of the
N. C. House of Representatives, was
hailed as a "champion of parents and
teachers who want to make North
Carolina the best place to raise and edu
cate young people."
"Rep. Redwine has proven time and
time again, when the tide was with him
See Redwine, page 10
Among three in state
Southport Elementary
bus driver earns grant
By Diana D’Abruzzo
Staff Writer
Children already know Margaret Hughes is special_
that’s why they bring her gifts of pink azalea branches,
leaves coated with frost, unique rocks picked up at the
bus stop.
She’s “Miss Margaret" to them: A familiar face who’s
been driving bus 237 to Southport Elementary School
every day for 14 years; the lady who faithfully makes
sure they get to school and back home again unharmed.
Now the State of North Carolina knows Hughes is spe
cial. Last week, she was recognized as one of three bus
drivers across the state to receive a $3,000 renewable
scholarship from Thomas Built Buses.
The money will go a long way to fulfill Hughes' dream
of becoming an elementary school teacher, something
she has been working toward for more than three years.
“I've enjoyed working with the kids," said Hughes, 37,
who was a teacher assistant at Southport Elementary for
a number ot years. “Watching when they grasp a concept
and helping them experience different ideas in science
and writing and reading has been wonderful.”
’ When Hughes took the job as a bus driver in the mid
1980s, she also started working in Southport's cafeteria
because there were no other school jobs available. Soon,
she slipped into a teacher assistant job, working over the
years in kindergarten through third grades.
In the classroom, Hughes couldn’t dismiss the joy she
See Bus driver, page 11
NEWS on the NET: www.southport.net
i