Published every Wednesday in Southport, NC
Up, up a
Miss Brunswi*
flyers at Satu
’ *nts
'Local golfei
tournament at Pantnei a Ai
p- v. •; • . ‘ < : .
Wastewater treatment
District system
draws interest
of Oak Island
By Richard Nubel
Staff Writer
With Brunswick Electric Member
ship Corporation legally jilted, South
east Brunswick Sanitary District has a
new suitor'— the Town of Oak Island.
Long Beach town councilors and
Yaupon Beach commissioners voted
unanimously Thursday to direct staff to
prepare a proposal by which the Town
of Oak Island would assume responsi
bility for the Southeast Brunswick
Sanitary District wastewater manage
ment system. The Town of Oak Island
will be created July 1 by the consolida
tion of Yaupon Beach and Long Beach.
The idea that the new town should
offer to take over in some manner
Southeast Brunswick Sanitary
District’s wastewater system came
from Yaupon Beach town attorney
Roger Lee Edwards, Yaupon Beach
mayor Dot Kelly said.
“(Edwards’) thought was that they
were under the gun from USDA,”
mayor Kelly said. “It might help the
annexation to go down a bit.”
The U. S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA) has loaned or granted SBSD
virtually the entire $11.3-million cost of
wastewater management system con
struction. The federal agency has
‘I think it’s time to
get down to specifics
and explore what we
can do. And, that can
be a combination of
a lot of things.’
Joan Altman
Long Beach mayor
threatened to call loans to the district if
management is not improved, SBSD
chairman Gene Formy-Duval said
recently.
A substantial portion of Southeast
Brunswick Sanitary District served by
its wastewater management system
will become part of the Town of Oak
Island in September. Yaupon Beach ini
tiated annexation of about 500 acres
bounded by Long Beach Road, Airport
Road and Fish Factory Road in
September, 1998, and a court upheld
See Oak Island, page 7
Festival to ‘rest’
Sunday, July 4
North Carolina will save its biggest Fourth celebration ‘til the fifth this year, as
Southport hosts the official state observance of Independence Day.
The N. C. Fourth of July Festival will hold its parade and fireworks display on
Monday, July 5, preserving a more solemn atmosphere on the Fourth. Events on
Sunday will include gospel singing on the Southport waterfront, ceremonial activ
ities at Old Smithville Burying Ground and a wreath-laying at The Moving Wall,
a replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on display at the city waterfront There
will be children’s entertainment in Keziah Park, and the art and craft exhibits will
remain open in Franklin Square.
Festival-goers may need that day of rest
The festival officially begins Thursday with the opening program and natural
ization ceremony, then accelerates Friday with the opening of art and craft exhibits
in Southport and Beach Day in neighboring Oak bland. Saturday activities will
include die 5K Freedom Run and children’s events in the morning, exhibits and
tours throughout the day, and a street dance that evening.
Monday, July 5, is a Ml day.
The festival parade begins at 11 a.m., to be followed by a regatta on the Cape
Fear River, entertainment throughout the afternoon on two park stages, a Sea Notes
Choral Society and Brunswick Concert Band program, continued art and craft
exhibits, and a beach music concert featuring The Embers. The fireworks display
over the river at dusk will bring the 1999 festival to a close.
The Moving Wall will continue on display through July 8.
mmmrw.
ISLAND GIRLS
Caribbean sounds
pleased young and
old alike Monday
evening as Sons of
Steel entertained the
Memorial Day crowd
in Waterfront Park.
The Greensboro
group will appear
again June 12 in a
Beach Day celebra
tion at the Long
Beach cabana.
Photo by Jim Harper
County
spending
evaluated
Brunswick faces
25-percent hike
By Terry Pope
Staff Writer
Somewhere in the county's proposed
$104-million budget, there might be
areas to cut spending and reduce the
60-cent tax rate.
Maybe.
Brunswick County commissioners
on Thesday began trying to do just that
while sifting through the sheriff's
department and emergency medical
services budget requests. That’s where
23 of the 62 new full-time employees
that county manager Jim Varner wants
to hire would go to work.
“Each time you cut out a little bit of
money, you cut out a little tax,” said
commission chairman JoAnn Bellamy
Simmons. “You can look at the larger
items, but there are a lot of smaller
items that have increased, too.”
So page by page, commissioners are
questioning how last year’s $83.3-mil
lion budget has suddenly grown to
$104 million in one year. Varner’s pro
posed 1999-2000 budget would
increase spending 25 percent, he says,
in an effort to get a handle on the coun
ty’s substantial growth. Very few full
time workers have been added to
departments during the past four years.
A public hearing will be held on the
budget this Thursday, June 3, at 7:30
pm in the commission chambers in
the public assembly building at the
county government center near
Bolivia. The board has also scheduled
three more workshops for June 8, 10
and 14, all at 3 p.m.
It will meet with the Stormwater
Management Oversight Committee
and chairman May Moore at 6 p.m. on
June 14. Commissioners can adopt a
budget anytime following Thursday’s
public hearing but must do so before
July 1.
Brunswick Community College olti
cials plan to address commissioners
June 8, when the board also will review
the budgets for operation services,
solid waste management and the coun
ty landfill.
The budget is based on an assess
ment of 60 cents per $100 valuation
and on an estimated tax base of $8.9
billion. A revaluation earlier this year
increased property values tin average of
57 percent countywide over last year,
when the tax rate was 68.5 cents per
$100 valuation.
Brunswick County sheriff Ronald
Hewett requested $3.83 million to run
his department while Varner has rec
ommended that amount be trimmed to
$3.53 million, a reduction of about
$298,000. Hewett told commissioners
Monday he needs four more deputies, a
bailiff, secretary, domestic violence
See County, page 7
tit nilr 'HTnir'i - ~
Photo by Diana D'Abruno
Brunswick Learning Center graduate Shaun Brown gives mom Mary Daniels a kiss after the graduation ceremony
Thursday. Area graduations are reported extensively in the Neighbors section this week.
Budget review continues
New town still looking at 36-cent rate
By Richard Nubel
Staff Writer
A proposed $113,000 program by which the Town of Oak
Island street department would acquire equipment and per
sonnel to do street widening and new paving “in-house was
nixed by Long Beach town councilors and Yaupon Beach
commissioners at a joint budget planning workshop
Thursday.
The Town of Oak Island will be created by consolidation of
the towns of Long Beach and Yaupon Beach on July 1, also
the first day of the new fiscal year for local governments in
North Carolina
Public works director John Olansen said the paving pro
posal was aimed at expanding the ability of the town work
force to create bicycle and pedestrian paths and to widen
streets. That “in-house” ability would cut down on the
amount of paving work fo^ which the town must contract
with private firms. He estimated the in-house paving capabil
ity would save Oak Island between $400,000 and $500,000
over the course of ten years.
Though the expensive program was scrapped by budget
makers, Olansen said the proposed $990,649 street depart
ment budget could not be pared by a like amount. Contract
costs of doing the paving work he anticipated the town work
force would do must now be plowed-back into the street
department budget.
Commissioners and councilors said they were dissuaded to
begin an in-house paving program this year, as they were not
sure how much paving would have to be done in the 500-acre
mainland annexation area which is to become part of Oak
Island on September 30.
The axing of the “in-house” paving capability was com
missioners’ and councilors’ first major policy decision in this
second of six anticipated budget workshops. Elected officials
See Budget, page 8
NEWS on the NE1: www.southport.net