Newspapers / The Brunswick Beacon (Shallotte, … / Jan. 4, 1990, edition 1 / Page 12
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THE HOLDEN BEACH WEST DISPUTE began in mid-1985 when individuals protested the public closing of Ocean View Boulevard West. MACON FILE PHOTOS LOCAL HURRICANE EVACUEES gather around a television to watch news reports about Hurricane Diana in September 1984. A RETROSPECTIVE The ' 80s In Brunswick County: A lurbuieht Decade Of Growth BY RAHN AI>AMS "Dedicated lo the continued pro gress of Brunswick County," pro claimed the masthead of The Rrunx wick Beacon in 1980. Over the next 10 years, that pledge proved to be prophetic, as the theme of tl.e decade could be summed up in one word: progress. Brunswick County came of age in the 1980s. Its "greening" was evi dent not only in terms of its break neck population growth ? 35,000 in 1980 compared to 53,000 in 1989 ? but also where progress in provid ing complex and often costly ser vices to an increasingly urban com munity was concerned. A countvwide water system was built; new businesses and shopping centers sprang up; and many agri cultural lands were converted into iush golf courses, iu liieei the grow ing and changing demands of the county's permanent and seasonal populations. In the 1980s, headway also was made here in a war that continues to be wage<i in Bninswick County ana across the nation. If the melody of the decade was one of "progress," its counterpoint was "drugs," as the county contended with the discord that came with being the state's "gateway" for marijuana and later cocaine traffic. At the close of nearly every year during the decade, the Beacon news staff looked back at each preceding 12-month period and pieced togeth er patchwork quilts of events for the newspaper's "Year in Review" arti cles. Now, as those quilts are laid out for inspection, their patterns are surprisingly similar, despite the dif ferent hands thai touched diem aiiu the different materials that were used in their makings. 1980 It was another year of growth for Brunswick County. 1980 saw sever al changes upward, but as always they were accompanied by growing pains and offset by controversy and struggle. There were two basic issues ? "continuing news refrains," as Bea con staff member Marjorie McGiv em put it ? that dominated local news that year land use and drug trafficking. One. "struggle" that caused great concern was the county's land use plan update. Mandated by the Coastal Area Management Act, the document was hardly a routine up date, as county planners discovered again five years later. The 1980 update changcd about 35,000 acres of land along the Cape Fear River to industrial classifica tion, to clear the way for construc tion of a proposed oil refinery. Citizen and environmental groups fought the plan and caused the Coastal Resources Commission to send it back to the county for revi sion. From February to December 1980 authorities seized about 40 tons of marijuana and a million Quaaludes in Brunswick County. In one Bea con photograph, Sheriff Herman Strong ? who later proved to be a player in drug conspiracies ? was shown with five tons of marijuana that were found in 2 DC -4 airplane seized at the Brunswick County Airport. Ms. MeGivem also noted a con cern that foreshadowed problems that the COuniy fiOw SccS fiiOfc clearly. "Solid waste disposal looms as the number one problem of the coming year...Objeciions (to a cen tral landfill site) includc the fear of contaminating nearby Lockwood Folly River..." 1981 the year 1981 might well be looked upon as a year in which some of the weightiest decisions in Brunswick County's history were made. Perhaps the most far-rcaching de cision to which Beacon writer Rich Nubel referred in his year-end re view was county voters' passage of a S37 million bond referendum that would allow the county to either participate in the Lower Cape Fear Water and Sewer Authority's re gional water project, or to build its own countywide water system. We now know that the county pursued the latter option, due to initial fail ure of the regional water system concept. County voters also went to the polls and soundly defeated a refer endum that would have permitted the sales of beer and wine in unin corporated areas of the county. That decision would stand until Novem ber 1989, when a countywide ABC referendum passed with surprising ease. Ironically, the issue that had spurred the land use plan controver sy in 1980 ? the proposed oil refin ery ? was negated in 1981, when Brunswick Energy Corporation an nounced it would abandon plans for the refinery. Marijuana smuggling investiga tions continued, setling the tone for drug probes in years to come: No one was above the law. Among in dividuals conviticu wcie N.C. ma rine Fisheries officers Duane Mor ton and John Kiniaw, who were linked to a case involving the at tempted importation of S6.2 million worth of marijuana. A year of vacillation and a year of promise; a year of compromise and a year of challenge. Thai was 1982, wrote the Beacon's Susan Usher. But through all the growing pains a single thread of silver sparkled like sands in the beach: a vision of a better Brunswick County in which to live and work and plan. Again, the main concerns were water and drugs. Brunswick County stepped forward and signed on as the Lower Cape Fear Water and Sewer Authority's first official cus tomer ? a distinction the county he 'd until late in the decade. Also, Leland Sanitary District res idents anuioved a multi-million dol lar bond referendum to finance a water distribution system that would eventually hook onto the county water line. The county's reputation as a haven for drug smugglers was offset somewhat, as prosecutions got un der way in several marijuana traf ficking cases. But drug busts con tinued ? most notably, the seizure of 33,000 pounds of marijuana and 158 pounds of hashish from the Brixham //, a trawler that was seized at the mouth of the Shallotte River. And then, the county's drug traf ficking puzzle came together... 1983 For residents who had hoped to remember 1983 as another continu ing year of growth and progress for Brunswick County. "Operation Gateway" clouded the picture. The year was perhaps the most unsettled period in the county's re cent history. As Beacon writer Terry Pope noted, "Growth and future vi sions of a better county took a tem porary back seat to a year ot drug smuggling investigations and the downfall of political powers in Brunswick County." Residents were shocked to learn that among the 21 men indicted on federal dnig charges were some of the county's highest-ranking offi cials, including Sheriff Strong, for mer County Commission Chairman Steve Vamam, Shallotte Police Chief Hoyal "Red" Vamam and for mer Holden Beach Police Commis sioner Roger Morton. In Strong's much-publicized trial, county Dcl Paul Campbell testified that the sheriff had told him, "We can't fight them (drug smugglers), so we might as well join them." Strong was convicted. Chief Det John Carr Davis was appointed sheriff, following Strong's resigna tion. Other county concerns that year included: a change in the county's five electoral districts, so that each district would contain about 7,000 residents for fairer representation; the start of installation work on the county's new water system; and at tention to severe erosion problems on the east ends of Ocean Isle Beach and Holden Beach. 1984 1984 will be remembered in Brunswick County as the year of Diana, the first hurricane to make landfall in Brunswick Coun:y since Hazel 30 years earlier. Just as local residents were re minded of the powers of nature again five years later. Hurricane Diana caused millions of dollars worth of damage. 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The Brunswick Beacon (Shallotte, N.C.)
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Jan. 4, 1990, edition 1
12
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