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Published every ’
August 11,1999
THE STATE PORT
Phone 910-457-4568/Fax 910-457-9427/e-mail pilot@southport.net
Volume 68, Number 51
Southport, NC
GOOD SPORT
McCRACKEN
McCracken
is honored
for service
By Terry Pope
Staff Writer
The secret is out on Southport native Quinton
McCracken Now the world knows what
Brunswick County folks have known all along:
He's a good guy.
According to The Sporting News’ August 2
issue which hit the newsstands last week, the
Tampa Bay Devil Rays outfielder is a “Good
Guy." someone to admire from the world of pro
fessional sports at a time when many athletes are
labeled as greedy, self-centered and uncaring
individuals.
The former South Brunswick High School
baseball star and Duke University graduate was
chosen by TSN senior writer Paul Attner as one
of the best people pro sports has to offer. Attner’s
article profiles San Antonio Spurs forward
David Robinson and Washington Redskins cor
See McCracken, page 6
New Lowe’s
super-sized
By Richard Nubel
Staff Writer
A new fleet of earth-moving equipment buzzed
through an 11-acre tract on N. C. 211 near its Beach
Road intersection this week, clearing the way for con
struction of a new 100,000-square-fopt Lowe’s Home
Improvement Warehouse.
The new store, to be completed in early 2000, will
be built at an estimated cost of $ 15 million and will be
more than eight times the size of Lowe's 12,000
square-foot store now located on Beach Road. That
store will be closed when warehouse superstore con
struction is completed, Lowe's Companies Inc. said in
a statement from its Wilkesboro headquarters this
week. ... .
The new Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse
on N. C. 211 behind Bank of America (formerly
NationsBank) will employ between 175 and 200
people, about 120 more than are employed at Lowe s
See Lowe’s, page 13
Villas owners want to join Oak Island
Officials say future goals would be better met
By Richard Nubel
Staff Writer
Consolidation isn’t likely to be an election issue that Oak
Island Beach Villas Owners’ Association can influence with its
largely out-of-town membership ineligible to vote in Caswell
Beach, two directors of that association told Oak Island Town
Council. .
So, Oak Island Beach Villas (OEBV) directors say, they
would like to secede from Caswell Beach and join Oak Island.
Owners' association vice-president Dwight Hinnant and trea
surer David Wilson presented town council Tuesday night with
a letter from association directors requesting annexation by
Oak Island.
Flattered, but placed in an indelicate position by the request,
councilors authorized co-mayors Dot Kelly and Joan Altman to
engage in conversations with Caswell Beach officials and
OIBV.
In other business brought before Oak Island Town Council
Tuesday night, a staff proposal to finance $572,000 for con
struction of bridges over Davis Canal at SW 18th Street and
SW 28th Street was approved. The project to replace earthen
dams with bridges will cost about $720,000, but the town has
some grant funds for the project in-hand and hopes to secure
additional grants to pay down the loan council authorized. The
$520,000 loan will come at 5.3-percent interest for ten years.
Councilors and the association directors agreed that for
OIBV to become part of Oak Island, Caswell Beach would
have to agree to a redrawing of corporate lines. All considered
that event unlikely.
‘T understand and empathize with you,” councilor Marty
Wozniak told Hinnant and Wilson. “If we start taking from
Caswell Beach and gobbling them up piecemeal, that’s not
really a good, neighbor thing to do."
Wozniak urged the OIBV directors to work with Caswell
Beach officials to seriously consider consolidation of Caswell
Beach with Oak Island.
Though the directors said they had received little encourage
ment that consolidation would be considered by Caswell
Beach officials, mayor Joe O'Brfen earlier Tuesday said he
would ask that town’s board of commissioners to first examine
the fiscal feasibility of consolidation and then to schedule a
series of public information hearings on the issue. (See related
story, page 2). Caswell commissioners are to discuss the con
solidation issue more at a retreat today (Wednesday) and at
their monthly business meeting on Thursday.
“I would hope that the Town of Caswell Beach, understand
See Villas, page 6
SUNNY POINT
Photo by Jim Harper
Col. George R. Montgomery assumed command of Sunny Point with his acceptance of the “colors” in a
Garrison ceremony Monday afternoon. He received the flag from former Sunny Point commander Col.
Donald D. Parker alter it was relinquished by Col. Michael J. Toal (right), who is moving to duty at Fort Lee.
Montgomery takes command
By Laura Kimball
Staff Writer
With the boom, boom, boom of three cannons over
the Garrison at Fort Johnston on Monday, the change of
command at Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point was
official.
Colonel George R. Montgomery is the new comman
der of Sunny Point, the laigest ammunition terminal in
the United States and the only Department of Defense
port designed to handle containerized ammunition ship
merits.
"He's handing me a well-oiled machine,"
Montgomery said of his predecessor. “All I have to do
is take control.”
Montgomery follows Col. Michael J. Toal as com
mander of Sunny Point. Toal served a two-year term,
the customary tenure for a commander at the terminal.
The ceremony, accompanied by music by the 282nd
Army Victory Band of Fort Jackson, S. C.. included the
traditional passing of the unit colors from Col. Toal to
See Command, page 5
Buffer zone
hearing held
in Bmnswick
By Richard Nubel
Staff Writer
A proposed 30-foot buffer .between public trust waters turd
new construction in the state's 20 coastal counties drew mostly
supportive comment at a public hearing at Bolivia.
Six persons spoke at the second public hearing held in
Brunswick County on the proposal bv the N. C Coastal
local government officials
who spoke Wednesday asked
representatives of the Divi
sion of Coastal Management
— staff to CRC — to reeval
uate costs of administering
the buffer rule and to see that
those costs were not passed
on to local governments.
Oak Island co-mayor Joan
Altman estimated CRC and
its staff have understated the
cost of the rule to local gov
ernments by 50 percent or
more. Brunswick County
planning director Leslie Bell
asked DCM officials to
"assure an accurate assess
ment of fiscal responsibilities
to enforce this buffer.”
A representative of an envi
‘We need to
do this. We
need to work as
hard as we can
to change what
has been done
wrong for the
last 50 years.’
Betty Hupp
Oak Island resident
ronmental group urged quick adoption of the 30-foot butler, but
asserted the buffer was only the least that could be done to
enhance water quality along the state's coastline.
Bruce Porter, of Brunswick Environmental Action Team
(BEAT), said the State of Maryland has established a 1 .(XX)-foot
buffer between development and public mist waters of
Chesapeake Bay.
"Those people are much more serious than we arc." Porter
said. "This 30-foot butter is nowhere near enough, but... it is a
beginning”
The 30-foot butter zone along public trust waters comes as a
compromise measure. On March 26. under pressure from local
government and economic development interests in the state.
CRC abandoned its much larger Coastal Shoreline Initiative and
said it would push only for passage of the 30-foot buffer.
At the same time, CRC appointed a panel of 27 citizen "stake
holders” — those with interests in coastal issues — to develop
a comprehensive package of recommendations for water quali
See Buffer, page 12
Public Education 1998-99 results
Belvitie Elementary 3-5
Bolivia Elementary K'5
Wand Middle 6-8
Lincoln Primary
North Brunswick High 9-12
Shallotte Middle 5'8
South Brunswick High 9-12
South Brunswick Middle 6-8
Southport Elementary PK-S
Supply Elementary PK-5
jjnton Elementary PK4
Waccamaw Elementary K-8
yvnst Brunswick High 9-11
62.3
84.5
78.8
n/a
53-3
82.3
63.2
82.4
75.0
71-5
68.9
82.6
59.2
Expected
Exemplary, School ot Distinction
... Exemplary
Expected
Exemplary ’
Exemplary, School of Distinction
.. 'Exemplary ^
Exemplary, School of Distinction
Expected
No Recognition
. Expected Wm.
Exemplary, School of Dlafinction
Exemplary
a
Ul MI ' 1
Sssssrsssss'isr*—
ABCs spell ‘success’ for schools
By Diana D’Abruzzo
Staff Writer
South Brunswick High School teachers
poured chocolate syrup and sprinkles
over vanilla ice cream, then used their
sugar-coated spoons to toast their success
— another school year down, another
year named “exemplary” by the State of
North Carolina.
It was a happy occasion and one cele
brated across the state by many high
schools that showed improvement in the
state ABCs of Public Education account
ability program.
■ All three Brunswick County high
schools were deemed “exemplary” by
the state, meaning they not only met their
performance goals but exceeded them.
At South, principal James McAdams
tr eated his staff to some cold dessert after
school on Tuesday and commented
about his hope for the new school year.
“I’m just tickled to death,” he said on
his school’s status. “Now we’re just try
ing to improve for next year. We're going
to try to make 70 next year, and then
• we re going up to the top."
More than 63 percent of South students
scored at or above grade level this past
year.
Former South Brunswick High princi
pal Sue Sellers said she was a bit worried
about what the school's status would be
— scores went down on six of the 11
end-of-course exams.
“I was concerned,” she said. “We had
done so well the year before and then
went down in some areas. You just have
to hold your breath and hope.”
Also labeled "exemplary" for the sec
See Scores, page 8
D
INSIDE
■ What is means when
a school is considered
‘exemplary’ — Page 8
■ Success stories are
told at Bolivia, North
and SBMS — Page 9