June 9, 1999
THE STATE PORT
50 cents
Summer play
It’s baseball season, but basketball
action highlighted the week - ICi * h.
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The N. C. Baptist A
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Phone 910-457-4568/Fax 910-457-9427/e-mail pilot@southport.net
Volume 68. Number 42
Published e’
JSR
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k ; • ! in Southport, NC
BELVILLE ELEMENTARY
Students in Gloria Faye Lloyd’s third- and fourth-grade class at Belville
Elementary covered their teacher with gobs of whipped cream on Friday.
Photo bv Jim Harper
Lloyd offered herself as a target its incentive for her '.indents to excel on
the N. C. Writing Test
‘Topping’
to the test
By Diana D’ Abruzzo
Staff Writer
rmed with cans of whipped cream,
s % Selville students showed no mercy
.Z ^toward their teacher Friday as they let
cream pies fly, coating her with the sticky
sweet substance.
After all, the chance to throw pies at a school
teacher doesn’t come along every day.
Gloria Faye Lloyd, a third and fourth grade
teacher at Belville Elementary, offered herself
as a target as incentive for kids to excel ott the
N. C. Writing Test.
And it worked. Ten of her 12 fourth graders
received a three u;: a . '■ or' i le.-A. ’io press,
a student must get at least ,< ?.5.
Across the e;,, \n.."i ; aide at Belville.
42.7 percent p.r-vd the test tats year, up from
35.8 percent la •< year.
Having promised to let her students “cream”
her with a whipped cream pie if they scored
well, Lloyd had to put up.
So on Friday, the group of kids gathered at
the year-round school, making mini-pies by
See Test results, page 13
L
Hampton Inn
project eould
be grounded
5 v Terry Pope
ItatT Writer
A proposed hotel and marina project
adjacent to Brunswick County Airport
property could he grounded under a
new height control ordinance that won
approval from county commissioners
Monday.
Developers want to build a hotel and
mar ina, with diy storage for boats, adja
cent to the airport on Long Beach Road.
But part of the 43 acres would be ren
dered unusable tor such a project under
restrictions which also are subject to
approval by Southeast Brunswick
Sanitary District and municipalities
w here the'height limit is mapped.
The Brunswick County Board of
Commissioners on Monday adopted
the ordinance tor property that .lies
within the county's jurisdiction, mostly
the area north of N. C. 211- The hotel
and marina project'would lie entirely
within sanitary district boundaries.
Gary Lawrence, representing the
developers, said the height limit will
make a third of the 43-acre tract his
clients plan to develop not suitable lor
the project, which also would include
some restaurants arid shops along the
tracoastal Waterway.
"We felt' this would be a benefit to the
lunty, community and the airport,
id Lawrence. "If this ordinance is
Lssed, that project would not be leasi
e. It would cut it down to a scope that
just would not be feasible.
Lawrence said the developed have
lied on the current height limit to plan
eir project and that the site was select
1 because of the airport hvat.on.
'hat's at stake, he said. is. a S25-to
10-million investment and a|jpnw
See Project, page 6
Photo by Jim Harper
Up in flames
Area firefighters tested their skill in extinguishing LP gas fires in a drill conducted at Southirort Elementary School.
‘Lean’ Southport budget
requires 49-cent tax rate
By Richard Nubel
Staff Writer
Sitting as the city’s budget committee
for fiscal year 1999-2000, aldermen
Paul Fisher, Meezie Childs and Wayne
He welt have recommended a $7.09
million budget for the City of
Southport in the year to begin July I.
The committee has proposed a prop
erty tax rate of 49 cents per $100 valu
ation, four cents less than the property
tax rate in this year of county revalua
tion. Electric rates are proposed tc
increase for about 55 percent ot resi
dential customers and decrease margin
(2.70%)
Admin (15 30%)
Part* & Recreation (8.00%)
Reecue (2.00%)
8traat (8.50%)
Fha (5.70%)
Poire* (26.50%)
ally for about 45 percent. No water or
sewer rate changes have been pro
posed, and monthly solid waste collec
tion fees will be cut $2.38.
This lean budget is withoul trills. The
only significant budget increase out
lined in the document is a doubling of
costs for the city communifttsions cen
ter to return to 24-hour local dispatch ot
police, fire and rescue.
In his budget message, city manager
Rob Gandy issued a warning to alder
men that the city 's badly depleted unap
propriated general fund and and elec
tric fund balances are likely to tall
under scrutiny of the N. C. Local
Government Commission, the ruin ol
the state treasurer's office charged with
See Southport, page 13
Rescue s<
o tfh-r.
•r 'fc- ■
cr k r
.JStS
Oaklsl
Caswell
S X
says
ould
pay equal share
By Richard Nubel
Staff Writer
Emergency medical service fees the
Town of Oak Island may charge start
ing in July could raise the proposed tax
rate in Caswell Beach by as much as
four and a half cents.
At a budget workshop last
Wednesday, Long Beach councilors
and Yaupon Beach commissioners said
the rescue fee town manager Jerry
Walters had proposed to charge
Caswell Beach in fiscal year 1999
2000 was too low. Councilors and com
missioners said residents of the Town
of Oak Island next budget year would
pay the equivalent of 4.5 cents on that
town’s tax rate to suppprt its rescue
squad; Caswell Beach residents should
pay that much, too. „
Councilors and commissioners also
agreed that paid rescue personnel will
be on-duty around the clock next year.
This fiscal year, professional rescue
personnel worked only daytime hours
and volunteers responded to nighttime
calls. Volunteers will remain members
of the town rescue squad and will sup
port paid personnel.
The Town of Oak Island will be cfe
Budaet hearings
■ Council for the Town of
Oak Island continued its
review of department budgets
last Wednesday. Page 3.
■ The next budget work
shop will be held today
(Wednesday) at 6 p.m. at the
Long Beach Recreation
Center.
‘Look at the tax
valuations.... Break it
into who is paying
for these services....
The people at this
end of the island
are.’
Jeff Ensminger
Oak Island councilor
ated July 1 by consolidation of tile
towns of Long Beach and Yaupon
Beach. For several years. Yaupon
Beach and Caswell Beach have paid a
percentage of Long Beach Rescue
Squad costs equal to the- percentage of
the < >ak island population hv:r, : c
those two town.- in his budget pvopiw
al for the fiscal year w hich aL negats
Lay 1. Wallers had once ag. n used
peivenlage-i'i-population as ae basis
lor formulating a Caswell Be. eh rest-!;,
lee tor I999-2(XK) in supjxxr: ':>;al
$309.31 I rescue budget (so,hi- •••
Under Walters' proposal, f A a ell
Beach would have paid the Jhwn of
Oak Island $7,463 for rescue service
next year. Under the parallel tax rate
payment proposal commissioners and
councilors fashioned Wednesday.
Caswell Beach will be asked to pay
between $50,000 and SbO.(XX). bach
See Oak Island, page 6
, State press awards
Pilot’s ad staff
in win column
The State Port Pilot advertising staff Friday matched the news department's ear-*
lier achievement, earning the most North Carolina Press Association awards of any
newspaper in the 3.500-to-10,000-circulation division.
Signifying the honor was the Metro Plus Business Award, given on the basis of
first-, second- and third-place awards received. This year, the •Pilot advertising
department was presented 11 first-place awards among the 35 categories, three
second-place awards and six third-place awards for a total of 20.
In January, Pilot writers and photographers received 16 NCPA awards, more
than twice the number of the runner-up newspaper.
“The advertising staff has done a remarkable job," noted Pilot editor Ed Harper,
See Awards, page 15
Pilot ad representatives (left to right) Sabrina Rabon, Diane McKeithan and
Kim Adams display some of the 20 awards the newspaper received from the
North Carolina Press Association Friday in Raleigh.
NEWS on the NET: www.southport.net
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