July 28, 1999
Phone 910-457-4568/Fax 910-457-9427/e-mail pilot@southport.net Volume 68. Number 49
Sgs1" -
*
U) 1 *
CO-4^^
& H
U'i
o
50 cents
sweets
’es grown right
;'lV>ck County
*T) <S>
t ' ‘X
some
Ur
nmer days, but
J. Haw Hill - 1C
Published every Wednesday in Southport, NC
v. •• ■' ,V •• Photo by Jim Harper
Turn me Up, Buttercup
One of the summer’s coolest maneuvers came on the summer’s hottest day— Yaupon Exxon wrecker (and a little body-english from bystanders) at the
at 10:30 a.m. Friday when an overturned ice cream truck was righted by a Sacred Heart Catholic Church comer.
HARGROVE
Hargrove
new Union
principal
By Diana D'Abruzzo
Staff'Writer
There will be no familiar faces
in the principal’s office at South
Brunswick High School this year.
The last of its time-honored
administrators, assistant principal
William Hargrove, has taken a
job in the other end of the county.
Hargrove will lead Union
Elementary School as its princi
pal this year, taking over for
Zelphia Grissett, who left to take
a job in the central office as
human resources supervisor.
He follows the exits of princi
pal Sue Sellers, who was trans
See Principal, page 7
BRUNSWICK SCHOOLS
iid
Year-end scores mixed
By Diana D’Abruzzo
Staff Writer
There are ups and downs — that we know.
We know that more students in Brunswick County are excelling in subjects like
chemistry, physics and civics, but I ewer arc passing state tests in biology and
freshman English.
We know that despite major decreases at South Brunswick High this year and
major increases at North Brunswick High. South still exceeds Noith in the num
ber of students passing overall.
But what does that metin'? That we don't know — at least not yet.
Preliminary test results released from Brunswick County schools this week show
no pattern of ups or downs at county high schools on state end-of-course tests,
though as a whole the county saw growth on eight of ten tests.
"We're seeing positive growth in the majority of our Subjects, but we still have
See Scores, page 6
‘You will have
spikes and fluctua
tions in the high
schools because
you are not dealing
with the same
group of kids every
year.’
Supt Marion Wise
How safe are schools?
By Diana D’Abruzzo
Staff Writer
Teachers know what steps to take if a tornado warning goes
off in school. They know how to shuffle their kids out of the
classroom when the lire alarm rings. But there's no step-by
step practiced plan in place if gunfire should erupt in a
Brunswick County school.
And that's what teachers and ptirents want, according to the
prevailing opinion at a Safe Schools Workshop for school
officials and community members last Wednesday.
"I know what to do with my kids if there is a tornado or a
lire, but what do 1 do if a situation like in Columbine occurs
— 1 want step one, step two. step three," said La Verne
Hargrove, a teacher at South Brunswick Middle School.
The workshop was a chance for folks — teachers, princi
pals, city officials, sheriff’s deputies, parents and high school
students —- to brainstorm ways to make schools safer.
“Our primary focus is on academics," said Marion Wise,
superintendent of Brunswick County schools. "They came to
school to leant, and they have a right to learn, but we can't
teach them until they feel good about where they are.
“If students feel good about their school, good things will
happen. If they don’t feel good about it, bad things will hap
pen."
Elaine Wright, a teacher at Shallotte Middle School, told the
group about her recent trip to Colorado, where she visited
Columbine High School where two students opened fire on
their classmates, killing many before taking their own lives.
"It was so quiet and so sobering to look at it and say. "There
it is,'" Wright said. “To see it on the news, it looked so tar
See Safe schools, page 7
County thoroughfares
Billboards sign of things to come
By Terry Pope
Stall Writer
Mary Hawes owns 6<X) feet of mad frontage along
busy U. S. 17 three miles north of Bolivia.
Her son owns an outdoor billboard business,
Hanover Sign Co., but zoning regulations won't allow
him to place a sign on his mother's property.
Another company rushed to obtain sign permits for
adjacent land after the county's moratorium on bill
boards was lifted. The Brunswick County , zoning
ordinance regulates the placement of billboards and
won't allow them within certain distances ol one
another on major thoroughfares such as the tour-lane
Highway 17.
“We feel that it was unfair that we were skipped
over, and now they have a monopoly,” said Ms.
Hawes.
The competitor’s billboards can be erected on each
side of Ms. Hawes' MX) feet of property, but her son
can t place one on the family parcel. She told the
Brunswick County Bo;trd of Commissioners last
week that she carefully kept up w ith action regarding
the county s bilUxnud ordinance but wasn’t informed
when county officials decided to start issuing permits
again.
We were assured there would be no binding deci
sions,” said Ms. Hawes.
Commissioners asked county attorney Huey
Marshall to investigate how the billboard battle
aimed and to report back on the complaint filed by
the Hawes family.
11 is just one example of what county planners and
commissioners expect to face in the growing battle
o\er billboards, especially along U. S. 17 and N. C.
211 from Supply to Southport. Officials are bracing
lor a wave of new permit applications.
County planning director Leslie Bell has recom
mended the county’s sign ordinance be restudied as
more land between Supply and Southport becomes
ezoned from rural or residential to commercial low
density, which opens the door for mom requests lor
billboards. Those requests for C-LD zones have
included acreage near the entrance to St. James
See Billboards, page 9
Voters must help
Dosher opens
key campaign
for expansion
By Richard Nubel
Staff Writer
Freshly armed with legislation that may allow
most favorable financing options, Dosher
Memorial Hospital trustees Monday said they
would set in motion procedures necessary to a
major upgrade and expansion of Smithville
Township's hospital.
Hospital administrator Edgar Haywood reported
he would next week begin, with a consultant,
drafting a certificate of need application for the
planned $4.5-to-$7-million Dosher expansion.
Certificates of need (CON) are issued by the N. C.
Department of Health's Division of Facility
Services to health care facilities authorizing capi
tal expenditures of $2 million or more.
The facility upgrade — the biggest at Dosher
since the new patient care and administrative areas
of the hospital were added in 1980 — will afford
the hospital more space in four critical areas:
surgery, emergency room, rehabilitative services
and imaging.
Haywood said he would meet Tuesday with
hospital volunteers and challenge them to take the
lead in a petition drive needed before county com
missioners can call a public referendum to
approve continuation of the hospilai district’s tax
ing authority.
The administrator said he thought Smithville
See Dosher, page 9
The most
important
thing is the
vote. If
you’ve got
the (certifi
cate of need)
in hand, it
clears up
some of the
murkiness.’
1
HAYWOOD
Consolidation
Caswell voters
may have a say
By Richard Nubel
Staff Writer
A desire to "deannex" Oak Island
Beaeh Villas from Caswell Beaeh and
have the 172-unit condominium com
plex annexed by the Town of Oak
Island may have propelled the issue of
■'consolidation" at Caswell Beaeh into a
bona fide election year issue.
Incumbent mayor Joe O'Brien thinks
“We will be electing three commis
sioners and a new mayor this fall and I
am certain consolidation will be an
election issue." O'Brien said this week
in a statement on the Oak Island Beach
Villas and consolidation issues. "It is
vital that we let the public-debate
process take its normal course."
O'Brien, who will not seek reelection
this year, says he opposes the "dean
nexation" of OIBV, but is willing to
hear debate of consolidating Caswell
Beach and Oak Island as one munici
pality.
But Arboretum resident Frank
Bausch, the only declared mayoral can
didate in Caswell Beach, says he flatly
See Caswell, page 3
moto by Jim Harper
Summertime
Creatures great and small — from bypassers to honeybees — appreciate the
Brown farm sunflower patch on Highway 211 these days.