May 12,1999
THE STATE PORT
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Volume 68, Number 38
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BEACH SAND
Council
‘interest’
expressed
By Richard Nubel
Staff Writer
Even without critical cost informa
tion finalized, Long Beach Town
Council Tuesday night said it has ah
interest in nourishing the Oak Island
beachfront with sand from the U. S.
Army Corps of Engineers' Wilmington
Harbor Project.
Council voted unanimously to send a
"letter of interest" to the corps through
the Brunswick Beaches Consortium, a
coalition of seven beach towns and
Brunswick County that has formed to
facilitate beach nourishment projects.
"It's a big public works project,"
mayor Joan Altman said.
Corps officials two weeks ago spoke
to a meeting of Brunswick Beaches
Consortium representatives, saying up
to 7.75 million cubic yards of beach
quality sand could be removed from
Jaybird Shoal, near the mouth of the
Cape Fear River, during the
Wilmington Harbor Project. The pro
ject calls for the widening and deepen
ing of the Cape Fear River channel
from a point above Wilmington to a
point offshore’ of the river's mouth. The
shipping channel will be relocated
through Jaybird Shoal between
Caswell Beach and Bald Head Island.
It is believed most of the sand
deposited on Jaybird Shoal migrated
from eastern sections of Oak Island.
Corps officials two weeks ago laid
out preliminary cost figures for the
placement of 150 cubic yards of sand
per linear foot of beachfront from Bald
See Sand, page 10
YAUPON
Annexation
of mainland
tract okayed
By Richard Nubd .
Staff Writer '
Southeast Brunswick Sanitary
District was without standing to
challenge the annexation of nearly
500 acres along Long Beach Road,
Fish Factory Road and Airport
Road, resident Superior Court
judge William C. Gore Jr. said in a
written ruling issued April 14.
Yaupon Beach commissioners
reviewed judge Gore’s ruling
Monday with town attorney Roger
Lee Edwards. Judge Gore earlier
had said he would rule in Yaupon
Beach’s favor. He heard arguments
in the case March 18.
The Yaupon Beach annexation
of mainland acreage becomes
See Yaupon, page 16
GIMME A BREAK!
Photo by Jim Harper
It was The Agony and Ecstasy Revisited in the second Communities In Schools putting tournament at Oak
Island Golf and Country Club. Last Saturday’s competition raised blood pressure, but it also raised funds for
various supplemental education projects at schools throughout the county.
03 Q
Crt'M
Sanitary district
Statute stops
BENIC, SBSD
system sale
By Richard Nubel
Staff Writer
A sketchy proposal of Thursday by which
Southeast Brunswick Sanitary District would
have sold its wastewater management system to
Brunswick Electric Membership Corporation
was shattered Monday when officials of the U. S.
Department of Agriculture declared the deal ille
gal.
SBSD commissioners were directed to hire a
professional manager for the district and were
told they stood to have federal loans made for
construction of the $ 11.3-million wastewater
management system called, if management of
the district were not improved.
“The message, basically, we got was: ‘Get your
act together or we call the notes,'” SBSD chair
man Gene Formy-Duval said of the warning
delivered to district officials by Willard Dean,
director of business and utilities development for
the N. C. Office of Rural Development, a branch
of USDA. It was this agency that provided the
bulk of all funds used to build the SBSD waste
water managemen t system in a combination of
See District, page 9
‘We’ve still
got a lot of
work to do.
We’ve got a
lot of coming
together to
do... We’ve
basically got
50 days to get
something
done.’
Gene Formy-Duval
District chairman
Willard Dean and Gene Formy-Duval talked Monday about how well the
new Southeast Brunswick Sanitary District treatment plant is operating,
then met again later at the sanitary district office where Dean expressed
an entirely different view of SBSD management
ADM, county tax case continued
By Terry Pope
Staff Writer
Round two is scheduled for June.
A dispute over valuation of real prop
erty at the Archer Daniels Midland
Corp. plant near Southport wasn’t
decided by the N. C. Property Tax
Commission last week. Instead, the
commission will reconvene June 22-23
in Wilmington to hear final arguments
and to make a ruling.
Evidence was presented by ADM and
Brunswick County at the four-day hear
ing last week that was adjourned Friday
• morning so members could return to
their families for the weekend. They left
with a mountain of data, facts and fig
ures to ponder while attorneys for both
ADM and the county prepare tor final
arguments next month.
“It was a very direct hearing about
replacement costs,” said- Brunswick
County attorney Huey Marshall.
“We're going through our revaluation
process now, and we'd like to know
what the appraised value of the proper
ty will be."
ADM officials do not agree with
Brunswick County Tax Department's
assessment of taxes due on structures at
See Company, page 11
State school official visits
Kirk says programs provide ‘focus’
By Diana D’Abruzzo
Staff Writer
In a whirlwind tour of Brunswick County
schools Friday, Phil Kirk passed out shiny
red apples to teachers, sneaked French fries
from kids eating in the cafeteria and held a
dialogue with educators about the ABC
plan and upcoming end-of-year tests.
Kirk, chairman of the State Board of
Education, visited classrooms at Union
Elementary, Shallotte Middle and Supply
Elementary schools in the morning before
meeting with adults later in the day.
Walking into the Supply Elementary
cafeteria around 11:30 a.m., Kitk was
greeted by the smell of hamburgers and
fries ond the sound of kids engaged in chat
ter and laughter.
Lunch in our school is a time when you
can talk and make some noise,” principal
Carolyn Williams explained to Kirk.
‘Good, good that s even okay in the
classroom sometimes,” he said, moving
toward youngsters eating at a nearby table.
Sitting down in a small chair, Kirk asked
the girl next to him, “What grade are you
inr
“Second,” she replied.
“Well, 1 thought you were at least in
fourth grade,” he said, smiling, and grab
bing one of her fries.
Moving next to a computer classroom
where third-graders worked on 'thinking
maps,” Kirk leaned over shoulders and
chatted with children as they w orked won
ders on computer screens.
One boy turned to Kirk and asked a ques
tion about the computer program.
“You’d better ask her, Kirk said, point
ing to the teacher. “I'm afraid 111 tell you
See Schools, page 7
Photo by Diana D'Abruzzo
Phil Kirk, chairman of the State Board of Education, sits with
third-graders at Supply Elementary School on Friday. Kirk
paid special attention to this lesson, where children were dis
cussing how to write a story on “Why Mom Is Special.”
Wal-Mart
to blame
ferrates?
By Terry Pope
Staff Writer
Southport residents want to know if
Wal-Mart is responsible for higher
electric and sewer rates proposed in the
next fiscal year budget.
Several questioned the board of
aldermen at a preliminary budget hear
ing Thursday held to obtain input from
citizens on how to allocate funds in the
1999-2000 city budget. They asked if a
new Wal-Mart shopping center being
built northwest of the city on N. C. 211
will force officials to spend more to
accommodate the business.
Southport alderman Paul Fisher said
to expect a three-percent increase in
electric rates, but he doesn't attribute
the increase to Wal-Mart's arrival but
to being locked into the city’s current
utility contract through the year 2026.
Rumors circulated last week that $2.5
million was needed to upgrade the
city's water aid sewer system to please
the department store were also put to
Sye Southport, page!6
NEWS on the NM: wwwjsouthportnet