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Wednesday in Southport, NC
DADDY’S GIRL
I —---M.
Carmen Hilliard gives a big hug.
Four-year-old
to the rescue
By Diana D’Abruzzo
Staff Writer
Despite the injuries that keep his arm bandaged
and in a sling, Mike Hilliard can still perform daddy
duties, like tying the loose laces of his daughter’s
shoe.
“If you hadn’t saved Daddy, he wouldn’t be able
to tie your shoe,” he said to 4-year-old Carmen as he
fumbled with the laces.
“You’re silly, Daddy,” Carmen said, giggling.
Silly, maybe, but Hilliard isn’t exaggerating. Car
men, a Southport Baptist Preschool student, proved
her maturity on Friday when she ran for help and
saved her dad from what could have been a serious
injury to his arm.
Hilliard was changing a flat tire on Rusty, his
1980 brown Chevy van, when the jack slipped in
the sand and trapped his arm between the tire and
the van.
Carmen had just awaken from a nap and was
watching her dad change the tire at their Yaupon
Beach home when the accident happened. With her
mom gone — Wendy was taking a walk in the
neighborhood — Carmen was the only one who
could help.
“My dad told me to yell up the street, to try to find
my mom,” Carmen recounted Saturday afternoon,
gasping excitedly as she told the tale. “I ran up the
street and I couldn’t find my mom, so I went back
and told my dad I couldn’t find her.”
When Carmen couldn’t find Wendy, Hilliard
instructed her to go back out to a busier Oak Island
Drive and find help.
“I told her, this is against all I’ve taught you about
See Help, page 6
SBSD weighs
sale to utility
By Richard Nubel
Staff Writer
Southeast Brunswick Sanitary District commissioners
apparently were to discuss sale of die district’s 500,000-gallon
per-day wastewater treatment system today (Wednesday).
BEMC’s
January offer
came when
commissioners
asked the City
of Southport to
consolidate with
the district as
one municipal
entity
Commissioners Lucille
Laster, James W, (Bubba)
Smith and Charles Welling
called a special 10 a.m.
meeting to do so, district
chairman Gene Formy
Duval said. He said the
meeting agenda, presented
by commissioner Laster in
a memorandum delivered
to the district office at 9
a.m. Monday, called for
the board to discuss a
number of items tabled at
a tumultuous regular
monthly session last week.
“The second item said
. BEMC,” Formy-Duval
said.
The district chairman
said he telephoned Bruns
wick Electric Membership
Corporation district manager Don Hughes to find out what
business the district would discuss with BEMC.
“He said Lucille (Laster) had been talking to them and want
See SBSD, page 6
Long Beach council meets
Davis Canal access dock approved
By Richard Nubel
Staff Writer
A floating dock for canoes and kayaks
will be boilt on Davis Canal at SW 20th
Street, Long Beach Town Council reaf
firmed Tuesday night.
Councilor Jeff Ensminger called a Davis
Creek Preservation Association proposal to
delay its construction “totally unaccept
able."
In other business brought before town
council at its regular monthly meeting,
council reaffirmed its commitment to pro
vide a local cash match of federal funds to
build the long-awaited Sea Turtle Habitat
Restoration project on the eastern section of
the Long Beach strand. The local match
could range from $680,000 to $1:25 million
and could be raised by a number of means,
mayor Joan Altman said.
Councilor En^minger restated his motion
of last month directing staff to design a dock
for installation on Davis Canal at 20th
Street. He said his motion of last month
instructed staff to seek neighboring property
owners’ input on design options for the
dock. Instead, the newly formed Davis
Creek Preservation Association advocated a
substantial change in the project itself..
"I want that dock put in at 20th Street,'1
Ensminger said.
During council's agenda meeting, Davis
Creek Preservation Association member Ed
Kivett presented council with a detailed pro
posal calling for Long Beach to postpone
the kayak and canoe dock at SW 20th Street
until after it built another floating dock for
which grant funds have been awarded at
Middleton Street. He said this counter-pro
posal was developed by association mem
bers after a March 19 meeting called to dis
cuss design of the proposed SW 20th Street
facility.
Kivett said building the facility at
Middleton Street, where no nearby property
owners had objected, would allow die town
to monitor the frequency of its use. If the
town determined a second dock was need
ed, it could then proceed with the SW 20th
Street facility, Kivett said.
"Neighbors around 20th Street still are
unconvinced the 20th Street dock is justi
fied," Kivett said, adding "nine out of ten" of
those residents were opposed to the project.
He said if, after building the rest station
proposed on the Davis Canal at Middleton
Street, the preservation association recom
mended an eight-by-ten-foot dock with no
See Access, page 6
AIRBORNE
Photos by Jim Harper
Mike and Catherine Anderson get their signals straight in Waterfront Park as they film downtown Southport from a
remote-control helicopter. More on their Hoveringbird operation in the Neighbors section.
County school redistricting
Oak Island students stay
at Southport Elementary
By Diana D’Abruzzo
Staff Writer
After months of drawing, erasing and redrawing attendance lines for
Brunswick County schools, a final redistricting plan was adopted by the board
of education on Monday.
And yes, all children on Oak Island will remain at Southport Elementary
School.
Attendance lines had to be redrawn to make room for the new Virginia
Williamson Elementary School at Winding River near Supply, which will
open to children in the fall. The goal was to alleviate crowded conditions at
Southport, Supply, Bolivia and Union elementary schools by rerouting some
children to the new school.
In the original plan presented to parents in March, children on the west end
of Oak Island were to be moved from Southport Elementary to Williamson
Elementary. The move was based solely on the second bridge to Oak Island
See Redistricting, page 6
‘We have to do what’s
best for our schools to
keep the numbers low.
That’s why we built the
new school. Education,
not socialization, is
what’s important.’
Joyce Parker Hewett
Board chairman
Pogy ban
is opposed
by county
By Terry Pope
Staff Writer : r
County officials want to sink state Rep. David
Redwine’s bill to ban pogy fishing from inshore
, waters.
By a 4-1 vote Monday, the Brunswick County
Board of Commissioners adopted a resolution in
opposition to House Bill 571 after receiving feed
back from the Brunswick County Marine Fisheries
Advisory Board. That bill would ban fishing for
menhaden (pogies) and Atlantic Thread Herring
within one and a half miles from the Brunswick
County shoreline between May 1 and September
30.
“Fifty jobs would be affected in Brunswick
County by this,” said board
chairman JoAnn Bellamy
Simmons. “This is Bruns
wick County people."
Although beach munici
palities have endorsed the
bill, the county’s marine
advisoiy board sees it as a
threat to local fishermen
and their livelihoods too. District 2 commissioner
David Sandifer of Holden Beach opposed District
3 commissioner Leslie Collier’s motion to adopt a
resolution opposing the bill.
“Every town along our coast has supported this
bill,” said Sandifer.
“That doesn't mean I agree with them,” Ms.
Collier replied.
Marine advisory board chairman J, Walton Willis
advised commissioners Redwine’s bill would
“result in only negative impact to the state and
county fishermen” and would create no positive
impact for the public.
"The elimination of one type of net from an area
will make easier for the prohibition of other nets
because there will be fewer fishermen remaining to
defend their livelihood and heritage,” stated Willis.
The bill is aimed at helping prevent a net spill and
to keep boats from battling with recreational fisher
men inshore during the peak summer tourist sea
See Menhaden, page 6
‘Way It Was’
1935 edition
is reprinted
Whether you’re a native whose memory
needs tweaking, or a newcomer who needs
reminding that locals weren’t bom yesterday,
you’ll find this week’s best reading in a special
eight-page reprint of our April 24, 1935, edi
tion.
That was the first Slate Port Pilot published
under current family management, and while
64 years is not a significant milestone, the end
of die century is. This week also marks the fifth
anniversary of the death of James M. Harper Jr.,
publisher of.this newspaper for 59 years whose
front-page article in that first edition is notable
not only for what it said about Southport then,
but what it means to us now.
We hope our reabers enjoy this special “Way
It Was” feature.
NEWS on the NET: wwwjsouthport.net -