i No Fish Ta
Samplers conducting a r
survey lor the state are a
8,000 anglers to tell the
catches. Page 9-C.
Twenty-seventh Year, Numb
Calabash
New Coui
Ed Rice is the newest member of
the Calabash Town Council.
Rice was appointed Tuesday night
and will be sworn in at the June 13
meeting.
He will fill one of the two seats on
the town board that have been vacant
since March 14 when former council
members Ronnie Pittman and Sonia
Stevens resigned.
Rice, 62, is a political newcomer
who has lived in the Village Green
subdivision in Calabash for the past
four years. He worked 38 years for
the New Jersey Department of
Transportation before moving to the
area.
Six Suspects
In Ocean lsl<
BY RAHN ADAMS
A Supply area man and five out-ofcounty
residents were arrested by
local and state authorities Friday in
a drug raid at an Ocean Isle Beach
motel.
Rmincuriplr Pniinfn
ui uiujnivn V^UUIllJ UIIC1 Ul a V^cJJJl.
Phil Perry identified the suspects as
Robert Douglas Gore, 26, of Route 2,
Supply; Donald Ray Mercer, 34, of
Durham; Sidney Lamar Glo"er, 21,
Eric M. Gore, 22, and Steven Henderson,
22, all of Warren, Ohio; and
Robert L. Brown, 22, of Seaside,
Calif.
All six men were charged with
felonious possession of cocaine, and
possession with intent to sell and
deliver cocaine, Perry said. He added
that Robert Gore was also charged
with maintaining a vehicle for
keeping a controlled substance, and
Robert Brown was charged with
maintaining a residence for keeping
a controlled substance.
According to Perry, the arrests
were made Friday afternoon, after
Ocean Isle Beach Police Officer Gene
Hardee alerted county Narcotics
Squad Lt. David Crocker and SBI
Special Agent Kelly Moser about
suspicious activity reported at the
Woman Recc
Leap
BY DOUG RUTTER
A woman who jumped 60 feet into
the inland waterway from the top of
the Hoi den Beach Bridge Friday
night was released from a Wilmington
hospital Monday in good condition.
Linda McGrady Johnson, 31, of Rt.
3, Supply, was released from New
Hanover Memorial Hospital Monday.
Meanwhile, Holden Beach police
were still trying to determine what
prompted Ms. Johnson's plunge from
the center of the high-rise Holden
Beach Bridge into the Atlantic Intracoastal
Waterway last Friday
shortly after 7 p.m.
Police Chief Raymond Simpson
said the woman jumped at about 7:06
p.m. last Friday. He said she went
directly into the water from the top of
the bridge, avoiding pilings that run
under the span and project from
either side.
After being pulled from the water
by an unidentified boater, Ms.
Johnson, who was conscious, was
taken to marina docks on the
mainland side of the bridge, said
Simpson.
Coastline Volunteer Rescue Squad
members treated the victim and
rushed her to The Brunswick
Hospital in Supply, where she was
admitted in serious condition. Late
Friday, she was transported to New
Hanover Memorial Hospi. ..
Simpson said Monday he was not
I
les, Please
ecrealional sporlfishing
isking approximately
truth about their
ST 27 IA89 IHt BRUNSWICK BEACON
Names
ncilmon jj
He is presently serving on a town |
committee that has been negotiating "
a proposed merger with officials of g
the Carolina Shores subdivision. i
Rice said he supports the growth of
Calabash, but he did not want to talk |
specifically about the merger proposal.
"We need to expand," he said. |
"If we don't grow, we'll die."
He received 11 votes as a write-in P
candidate during the last municipal |
election in 1987.
Rice was the only person
nominated for the council seat Tues- |
day. The fifth seat on the board remains
vacant
Arrested
e Drug Raid '
motel, which Perry declined to identify.
Lawmen began surveillance outside
the suspects' motel room and
observed two suspects?Robert Gore
and Glover?in a Toyota Celica
allegedly purchase a substance from
one of the men staying in the room,
Perry said. The car was stopped
after it left the motel.
Afto: gettiig the nair's permission
to search the car, officers found four
grams of cocaine inside, the captain
stated. Gore and Glover were taken ^
into custody, and the vehicle was 1
seized by Ocean Isle Beach Police. U
Perry said authorities then obtain- d
ed a warrant to search the motel
room. Eight town, county and state r
lawmen were involved in the raid, E
which turned up 12 grams of cocaine, r
two pistols and $701 in cash. Eric
Gore, Mercer, Henderson and Brown
were arrested inside the room
without incident.
All of the suspects except Brown
remained in the Brunswick County
Jail Monday. He was released Saturday
on a $40,000 bond. Other bonds
/tMA ? * ?OA AAA f T"> 1 -A A _
wcic act at $ou,uuu ior nouori Vjrore,
and $25,000 each for Eric Gore,
Glover, Henderson and Mercer.
)ver/ng After
lolden Bridge
sure how Ms. Johnson got to the top
of the bridge. He said there was no
vehicle abandoned there, but that she
could have been riding in a car with
someone else shortly before getting
out and jumping.
He said he planned to talk to the
woman's relatives to see if they could
provide any insight as to why she
jumped. (
F
Police also said they had no idea of I
her condition at the time of the inci- (
dent. "After she jumped and was ?
pulled out of that water, you can't tell v
what her condition was beforehand,"
said town Patrolman Gary Dancy.
He said the victim suffered injuries ]
that included bruises along the left y
side of her body. However, a New j
Hanover Memorial Hospital ]
spokesperson refused to discuss the \
nature of the woman's injuries. (
At the time of the jump, the tide
was nearing its highest point. ]
The distance between the bottom of ]
the highest point of the bridge and the (
waterway at mean sea level is 65 <
feet, according to Wayne Elliott, i
head of the bridge project planning j
section of the state Department of <
Traasportation. t
Elliott said the water level in the j
waterway varies two or three feet <
between high tide and mean sea
level. ?
Friday's tide was an astronomical ]
high tide. (
It's Their
Eighteen Brunswick Coui
won recognition Monday
contributions at a banqui
Business Week, May 7- lc
umii
"
' ' "V"' .\
THE HOOF OF 'SALTY WATERS' 01
ween Monroe and Fairmont streets Sa
Winds D
No Injurs
BY KAHN ADAMS
Ocean Isle Beach property owner
d Berry used one sentence to sum up
he wind damage from a
hunderstorm that hit the island Frilay
night: "I've seen it a lot worse."
That statement proved to be corect
in more ways than one. Berry, a
tennettsville, S.C., resident, had
Waters Reopened
To Shellfishing
All shellfish beds that had been
temporarily closed to harvesting
over the past two months were
reopened to clammers Saturday.
"Everything is back to
normal," said Bob Benton, head
of the state Shellfish Sanitation
branch. "All the areas that were
temporarily closed went back to
heinp nrwn "
? -o "f"?
Benton said rainfall on Friday,
Saturday and Tuesday was not
heavy enough to force the state to
close any shellfishing waters due
to pollution.
Holden B<
BY RAHN ADAMS
Eighteen months after a Superior
^ourt judge upheld the rights of prolerty
owners in the private Holden
Jeach West subdivision, the N.C.
?ourt of Appeals next week will hear
irguments over public access to the
iioclnrn nnrl nf U a1 T~> ? V.
iwokvui V.HU VI 11U1UC11 OCdCII.
The appeal will be heard on
iVednesday, May 17, at 1 p.m., at the
Vew Hanover County Courthouse in
Wilmington, according to attorneys
nvolved in the case. They said it is
lot unusual for the appellate court to
lold a session outside Raleigh on oc}asion.
In November 1987, Judge Bruce
3riggs ruled in favor of Holden
3each Enterprises Inc., the defenlant
in the lawsuit brought by a
;roup called Concerned Citizens of
Brunswick County Taxpayers
\ssociation and the N.C. Department
)f Natural Resources and Communiy
Development. The non-jury trial
asted 1 Vt days in Brunswick County
Superior Court.
The developer is represented by
ihallotte attorney Nancy Guyton.
Durham lawyer James Maxwell is
counsel for the citizens group, and
Week!
nly small businesses
night for their
et saluting National
1. Page 7-B. \
day, May 11, 1989
l Monroe Street rests in the canal betturday
morning. The summer cottage,
a mage Oc
es In Frida
seen the destruction of killer storms
near his home five years ago.
Also, the National Weather Service
office in Wilmington reported this
week that the damage at Ocean Isle
Beach came from a wind downburst,
not from a tornado.
Weather Service Specialist Chuck
Holtzinger told the Beacon Tuesday
that he surveyed storm damage Monday
and found evidence of only
straight-line winds, which he describarl
OP o ' ' ?
\-u uu u OUUUCII gu.ni KJl clll CUIIlIIlg
from a thunderstorm.
But in the aftermath of Friday's
storm, individuals like Berry felt
they had experienced a twister. It
would have been difficult to convince
Berry and his wife, daughter and
four guests otherwise Friday at 11:20
p.m., when high winds ripped off the
front half of the roof of their Wilmington
Street house.
Fortunately, no one was hurt. "The
damage is small, just as long as
everybody is safe," Berry said Saturday.
"I don't see anything that can't
be replaced."
Of six Ocean Isle Beach dwellings
with roofs extensively damaged, the
Berry house was the only one oceach
West
Assistant Attorney General Allen
Jernigan represents the state.
The suit, which was originally filed
in 1985, involves the plaintiffs' contention
that Ocean View Boulevard
West through the subdivision is a
public right-of-way to Shallotte Inlet,
even though the developer has constructed
a gate and guardhouse at
the entrance to Holden Beach West to
restrict public traffic.
A fundamental issue in the case is
the theory of prescriptive easement:
whether or not access rights were
established by what the plaintiffs
maintain was a continuous and
uninterrupted use of Ocean
Boulevard West over at least a
20-year period.
However, in his judgment, Briggs
found that the public did not travel
the road without interruption for 20
years, because the subdivision
developer erected various barriers
beginning in 1963 to block the road.
Also, the judge decided that public
use "has not been confined to a
definite and specific line of
travel"?another key factor needed
to prove that a prescriptive casement
exists. "It would appear they drove
I Don't For
?
See what area busincsse
Business Expo, which op
continues through 8 p.ni
Guard Armory. Admissio
Pulv
25c Per Copy 36 Pages,
owned by Joe Waters of Florence, S.C
hit the island Friday night.
3an Isle Dw
y Night Sto
cupied during the storm, according
to town Building Inspector Druid
Roberson.
No storm-related injuries were
reported Friday at Ocean Isle Beach
or elsewhere in Brunswick County.
After sunrise Saturday, Roberson
found 24 instances of damage from
Laurinburg Street to Scotland Street,
including damage to roofs, porches
and floating docks.
Debris?including sections of
roofs?littered several of the canals
between those streets.
The building inspector estimated
total damage on the island at
$150,000, with about $40,000 of that
amount being water damage to
household property. He noted that
mainly older houses were damaged.
Laurinburg Street residents were
without electrical service throughout
the night due to a downed power line,
Roberson said. Power also was out on
Wilmington Street for approximately
three hours after the storm.
Roberson said damage on the canal
streets in Friday's downburst was
comparable to damage that occurred
there during Hurricane Diana in
September 1984 and during a severe
Appeal Set
anywhere they needed to go," Briggs
said in open court.
Maxwell told the Beacon last
Thursday that the plaintiffs' basic
position in the appeal will be that
their line of travel was "close
enough" to the same route for more
than 20 years, due to the changing
nature of beach property. The course
deviated by only about 60 feet, he
said.
"The state's position is the same as
it was in the trial," Jernigan said Friday,
later adding, "We will argue
that the trial judge erred by failing to
find a prescriptive easement and by
failing to find that the public accepted
dedication of the
right-of-way."
The state's intent is "to try to
preserve a public access that is
established," and to keep developers
from increasing the value of their
property at the public's expense
through the creation of "private"
beaches, Jernigan said.
However, in the Holden Beach
West case, the developer consistently
has pointed out tliat the western end
of the island still can be accessed by
walking the beach. "We don't profess
get To Go
s have to offer at the Small
)ens today at 12 noon and
i. at the Shallotte National
m is free.
3 Sections, Plus Supplement
T i3?ae6aMaruaBB^ H iiwsgrKHTf H* IWfl imeggn
STAFF PHOTOS BY RAHN ADAMS
was vacant when a wind downburst
/el lings;
rm
thunderstorm in July 1987.
Brunswick County Emergency
Management Coordinator Cecil
Logan said the three- to four-mile
line of damage from the downburst
started near Seaside, then moved
eastward near Gause Landing and
across the island to Shallotte Inlet.
Holtzinger confirmed Tuesday that
damage resulted from straight-line
winds blowing from west to east. He
pointed out that mainly the western
sides of roofs were lifted off.
Logan said mainland
damage?estimated at up to
$50,000?consisted of uprooted trees,
overturned storage buildings, and
blown-off shingles and roof vents
mainly in the Seaside area.
No major wind damage was
reported at Holden Beach or
anywhere else in the county, according
to Holden Beach Building Inspector
Dwinht Carroll and
Brunswick County Building Inspector
Billy Ingram.
While Logan admitted no one saw a
funnel cloud in the darkness, he noted
that several Ocean Isle residents said
they heard tornado-like sounds.
(See WINDS, Page 2-A)
May 17
to have any control over the strand,"
Holden Beach Enterprises President
Jim Griffin said Friday.
In response to that position,
Citizens spokesman Raymond Cope
noted last Thursday that "80 or 90
percent of the people in our organization
are senior citizens ... It would
be ludicrous to ask som body with a
cane to walk a half mile" to reach
ShallotU Inlet.
Cope, a Davidson County resident,
said the group now has 15 to 20 active
members. None of them owns property
in Holden Beach West?a fact
which Judge Briggs said kept the
case from being a "more definitive
matter."
Griffin said he feels the Superior
Court decision will be upheld. "I hope
this ends it," he said. "We're going to
defend our right of private ownership."
Jernigan indicated that if the appellate
court upholds Briggs' ruling,
the state probably will petition the
N.C. Supreme Court to hear the case.
Ms. Guyton, the defendant's attorney,
did not return the Beacon's
telephone calls Friday and Monday,
and could not be reached for comment.
s