Investigation Continues Into 'Suspicious' Southporf Fire BY BOB HOKNE Investigation is continuing into a Friday night Southport fire that "is of a suspicious nature," according to Brunswick County Sheriff's Del. Gary Shay. The fire, which Shay says appar ently began before 6:30 p.m., de stroyed five businesses, three of which were owned by Brunswick County Board of Commissioners Chairman Gene Pinkerton, who also owned ihe 20,000-squarc-fool building that housed the Nice N Pretty Inc. shopping center. The building was located on the Long Beach Road at the entrance to the Sea Gate subdivision. Destroyed were the Nice N Pretty furniture store, the Clothes Horse women's clothing store and the Wicker Place furniture store, all owned by Pinkcrton, and Beach vicw Florist & Gifts and Carolina Security Insurance Group. Although estimates of about S 700 ,000 and more than $500,000 in damages have been published, Pinkcrton told The Beacon Tuesday that he has no estimate on the amount of damages and that it will be a few days before he has an esti mate. The fire started in a warehouse located at the rear of the building, on the northeast comer according to Shay, and was reported by James Melton Warren Sr. of Yaupon Ex xon, who saw the fire and made'thc call from a cellular phone in his wrecker while on a service call. Six firefighters ? two from South port, two from Yaupon Beach, one from Long Bcach and one from the Sunny Point Fire Department ? were taken to Dosher Memorial Hospital for treatment for smoke in halation, according to Shay. All were released and there were no other injuries, he said. Shay, who is heading the investi gation, requested assistance from the State Bureau of Investigation and the United States Division of Alcohol. Tobacco and Firearms. * Firefighters from five fire depart ments ? Long Beach. Southpon, Yaupon Beach, Sunny Point and Boiling Spring lakes fought the blaze, under the direction of South port Fire Chief Greg Cumbcc, Shay said. Two rescue units from South port and one from Long Beach were on the scene, he said. Tires Dumped On 2 Farms (Continued From Page 1-A) loaded, Williams said, which was sometime around 5:30 p.m. Tires were mounded at the edge of the one field and spilled over into the dirt roadway, the only access road serving several fields on the farm. The truck that dumped the load of tires had driven over a section of the field that had been planted in corn only a few days earlier, Williams said, pointing to the tracks. Susan Carroll, Chip Carroll's wife, said she saw a delivery-type truck with a stripe on the side com ing out of the access road on the farm Wednesday evening. She said she thinks it probably came from nearby Wilmington. "I could identify it if 1 saw it again," she continued. But without a license tag number or company name, she said, "there's not much the Sheriff's Department or anyone else can do about it." The incident left the Carrolls with the chore and expense of having to arrange for legal disposal of the ille gally dumped tires at an "extremely active" time on the farm ? planting season ? Mrs. Carroll said. The tires were to have been removed by Fri day morning, because crews needed acccss to the field to continue plant ing corn. Another Northwest area farmer, H.O. Peterson, in mid-March re ported to local authorities a similar incident that occurred on the Harry Perkins farm across from his own farm. "Somebody slipped in (and dumped some tires, right across from my house; there is a branch between here and there. ...Right where those tires arc, there's a big pond stocked with fish and it has geese and ducks and all," he said. "There's no telling what might hap pen if those tires caught fire." Perkins could not be reached for comment; a message indicated the telephone had been disconnected. The tires on the Perkins farm were dumped along a right-of-way that services a natural gas pipeline, as well as water pipelines running from King's Bluff in Bladen County to Brunswick County's Northwest Treatment Plant and to the city of Wilmington's treatment plant. The same lines run along the field on the Carroll farm where the other tires were dumped. Peterson said he guessed the pile at the Perkins farm held about 1,000 tires. However, he said Martha Har per, litter control officer for the Brunswick County Solid Waste Department, estimated the figure at between 1,500 tires and 2,000 tires when she came out to check the site approximately one week after the dumping occurred. As litter control officer, Mrs. Harper investigates incidents of ille gal dumping and prosecutes when ever possible. Both Mrs. Carroll and Mrs. Peterson described the tire-dumping as a "very serious" situation that is becoming more widespread with time. "Something needs to be done about it," Mrs. Carroll said. "People need to at least be aware that it is happening." Storms Disrupt Electricity (Continued From Page 1-A) Scattered extended outages also occurred in the Supply-Bolivia area along U.S. 17, Sunset Beach, Long Beach and Sunset Harbor. Colum bus County customers experienced similar levels of service interrup tion. Woodard said the storm interrupt ed both ATMC's cable television and telephone services. By mid-day, microwave cable television trans mission from Shallotte to outlying service areas had been generally re stored, but service remained down in Shallotte. "We've had several hits at the head end," Woodard said, as well as some damage to the lines between the head end and Shallotte. The "head end" is the central receiving point for satellite transmissions to the cable system, he said. From the head end, signals are sent directly to Shallotte.. then relayed by micro wave to substations at Seaside, Longwood, Bolivia and Holden Beach. Those relays have been re stored, but crews also were check ing for damage at each substation. In addition to blown fuses, both the telephone and cable television operations sustained some equip ment damage, although not as se vere as in some past storms, Wood ard said. However, one cable chan nel won't return to the air until new equipment arrives from California. Otherwise, he said, "by around 5 o'clock we should be close to hav ing everything back up." Jackson Canady of Shallotte Point, an amateur meteorologist and an official "weather watcher" for the National Weather Service office in Wilmington, likened the four groups of thunderstorms to a "string of pearls," and said the last of the storms was also the most severe. C.B. Marcom, a spokesman with the National Weather Service office in Wilmington, said a Wilmington television station reported a sighting of a waterspout approximately eight miles off the Brunswick County beaches at about 12:10 a.m. Tues day. As of mid-day Tuesday, the Brunswick County Agricultural Ex tension Service had received no re ports of crop-related damage, a spokesman indicated. Also, Brenda Freeman of the Brunswick County Emergency Management office said she had re ceived no reports of lightning strikes, fires or other storm -related damage. "We were real lucky," she said. "TJJe- Charter tBoat "Restaurant Si 1(aw 2Jar Seafood ? Prime Rib ALL ABC Permits live Entertainment. . . Banana Jack Murphy Friday & Saturday 10-2 Ice Cream Shop open next door Fri., Sat. & Sun. Ocean Isle Beach, across from the waterslide Phone 579-9068 School Board Chairman Calls, Cancels 'Emergency' Meeting A noon Tuesday "cmcrgcncy" meeting of the Brunswick County Board of Education called by Chairman Dot Worth was abruptly canceled Tuesday morning. "It was resolved," she said Tuesday. "We resolved that the need was not an cmcrgcncy." If the meeting had been con ducted, at least one board member would have boycotted it, if former board Chairman Doug B ax ley of District 1 held to Monday night comments. Baxlcy said he didn't consider ihc meeting to be legal. "I've not been made aware of anything that would constitute an cmcrgcncy, nothing that would warrant that short of notice," he said. "It's another attempt to oper ate the school system by ambush. I don't plan to be there unless I hear before noon tomorrow of something that qualifies as an emergency." Mrs. Worth said Monday the board needed to meet to discuss personnel and attorney/client mat ters. "We want what we decide to be in this week's paper," she added. However, on Tuesday, Mrs. Worth said she had since dis cussed the matter ? which she identified as "pending litigation" against board members ? with an attorney other than board Attorney Glen Pete Ron and dccidcd a meeting was not ncccssary after all. After he was fired last month by the school board on a 3-2 vote, Superintendent John Kaufhold an nounced his intent to file suit against the board collectively and individually against Mrs. Worth, Donna Baxter and Robert Slockett ? the members who voted not to renew his contract. As of mid-afternoon Tuesday, the Brunswick County Clerk of Court's office had no record of those suits having been filed. In addition to discussing pend ing litigation behind closed doors Tuesday, Mrs. Worth said the school board had also planned to take up at least two other items in open session at the same meeting: adoption of the final budget pro posal for 1990-91 and a report on how the school system has cut its current budget in order to return $304,524 to the state as part of a $40 million statewide cost-cutting effort Under the N.C. Open Meetings Law, for a meeting to qualify as an "emergency," two criteria must be met: It must concern "generally unexpected circumstances" and those circumstances must require "immediate consideration" by the public body. Generally, the meet ing may be held as quickly as the public body's members can gath er. "At best," suggested Baxlcy, who is a practicing attorney in Shallottc, the circumstances he knew of regarding Tuesday's meeting might have warranted a special meeting, for which a mini mum of 48 hours' notice is re quired. Budgeting Begins At Calabash Meet BY DOUG RUTTER Calabash Commissioners got the ball rolling on nexi fiscal year's budget by reviewing more than 50 individual line items during a three hour workshop Tuesday night. When the dust settled, the iiiciliud of handling residential and commercial trash pickup emerged as the major item that town officials will have to decide before adopting the budget later this spring. Currently, a contractor goes door to-door in Calabash's District 1 to pick up trash at residences and com mercial establishments. In District 2, residents dump their trash at community green boxes. District 1 Commissioner Ed Rice said Tuesday the pickup should con tinue in his area and that people pay taxes so they can have their trash picked up for free. But Commissioner George Taubel and others from District 2 said the amount of taxes paid in District 1 doesn't cover the cost of trash pickup. Taubel suggested that all town residents use the communi ty dumpsters on Persimmon Road or sign a contract with a sanitation firm for weekly pickup. He also said taxpaying residents should not help pay for daily pickup of trash at businesses. For the purpose of the budget workshop, the sanitation fund was left alone. Commissioner Jon San bom said the two sides will have to "fight it out" next Tuesday when commissioners meet in regular ses sion at 7 p.m. Meanwhile, commissioners antic ipate receiving $42,500 in state Powell Bill money and at least $100,000 in state sales tax in the general fund next fiscal year. The town budgeted $4,400 in Powell Bill money and $16,000 for sales lax revenue this fiscal year. Commissioners expect the in creases based on the addition of about 15 miles of non-state roads in the town and the higher population that camc as a result of last year's consolidation of Calabash and Car olina Shores. On the expenditure side, commis sioners tentatively budgeted 530,000 for expansion of town hall, $20,500 for street lights and $18,000 lor the purchase of a com puter system. Citing personnel reasons, commissioners met in ex ecutive session to discuss possible changes in salaries. The board has also proposed set ting up a new emergency fund that would be used in the event of a hur ricane of other natural disaster. Offi cials discussed putting $2,000 in the fund next fiscal year and adding to it each year the money is not used. No major changes are proposed in the area of public safety, where the town board is looking at minor increases in the amount of money donated to the fire and rescue squads. Mayor Pro Tcm George Ander son asked if any board members wanted to budget funds for police protection to supplement the law enforcement the town already re ceives from the Sheriff's Depart ment. But none of the commission ers indicated an interest in hiring off-duty deputies or setting up a town police force. Throughout the workshop, com missioners referred to budgets from the towns of Shallotte and Boiling Spring Lakes, which have popula tions and tax bases similar to the en larged town of Calabash. Calabash officials used rough es timates in starting the budget pro cess, but that didn't keep them from pinching pennies when given the opportunity. To save about $500 in postage, commissioners agreed to have property owners send self-ad dressed stamped envelopes with their 1990 tax payments if they want receipts mailed to them. In the past, the town has covered the postage bill. I iebby w. iniirc COUNTY COMMISSIONER 2 -Year Term Sought (Continued From Page l-A) adopted at the convention. In other convention action, coun ty Democrats elected 29 delegates to their 7th Congressional District and state conventions and appointed members to various committees. Those delegates are as follows: Jim Poole, Janet Simmons, Ronald Hewett, Hobson Bryant, Ouida Hewett, Jimmy Moore, Eileen Kellagher, Crawford Hart, Eugene Gore, Moses Stanley, Julius Adams, Roscoc Butler, Tom Simmons, Nor man Bellamy, Jesse Bryant, Bill Stanley, Mary Stevens, Ethcrinc Butler, Sue Franks, A.J. Williams, Walter Reinhcimer, Glen Peterson, Franklin Randolph, Felccia Stanley, John McMillian, Dcbra Thomas, Barbara Holcombe and Julia Strick land. Committee appointments were as follows: Sylvia Ludlum and Tom Simmons, judicial district; Donna Baxter and Elizabeth Dameron, state senatorial executive commit tee; Ouida Hewctt and Moses Stanley, state house district. The 75 to 100 party members present heard from keynote speaker Everett Ward, executive director of the N.C. Democratic Party, and from several candidates for state of fice. Candidates of local office in troduced themselves to tlie group in 15-second time slots. Large Voter Turnout Forecast (Continued From Page 1-A) percent rule is "good, fair and legit imate." Two other races to watch are those in which the winners face no opposition in November: the Demo cratic primaries for the 14th District House scat and the 13th Judicial District judgeship. Names of the primary winners will be placed on the ballot, because of the provision for write-in candidates, Ms. Britt said. In the House race, former Brunswick County Schools Superintendent Ralph King of Ash is challenging incumbent E. David Redwine. In the 13th Judicial race, incumbent David G. Wall is being challenged by Wayne Long. Republicans will choose nomi nees for four November races: U.S. Senate, 7th Congressional District, Brunswick County sheriff and District 2 county commissioner seats. Democrats must nominate can didates for nine races: U.S. Senate, Court of Appeals judge, district at torney, sheriff. District 2 and District 5 county commissioner, and District 2 and District 5 sets on the county Board of Education. Candidates for the Board of Education and Board of County Commissioners run from a specific district and represent that district. However, they are elected county wide. District 2 includes Shallotte Point, all of the town of Shallotte, Holden Beach and Supply. District 5 includes Northwest Township plus the Olde Townc community and south to Goodman Road. After the polls close Tuesday at 7:30 p.m., votes will be tallied in the Public Assembly Building at Bolivia, where the Brunswick County Board of Elections will tal ly results. One race not covered in the can didate profiles inside is the Democratic primary for Judge of Court of Appeals. Seeking the nom ination arc Eugene H. (Gene) Phillips and Ellen Bradshaw Scouten. Near-Normal Weather Expected South Brunswick Islands resi dents can expect near-normal rain fall and temperatures over the next few days, Shallotte Point meteorol ogist Jackson Canady said Tuesday. The forecast calls for tempera tures to range from around 60 at night to around 80 during the day time, with about one-half inch of rainfall. For the period April 24 through 30, Canady recorded a minimum low of 47 degrees, which occurred on the 24th, and a maximum high of 91 degrees, which occurred on the 26th. A daily average high of 83 de grees combined with a nightly aver age low of 56 degrees for a daily average temperature of 69 degrees, which Canady said was approxi maicly two degrees above average. For the period he measured .26 inch of rainfall. The measurement period ended at 5 p.m. Monday, before a series of thunderstorms moved through the area (sec related story in this issue.) LUDLUM'S UPHOLSTERY Free Estimates Free Delivery mm mm i Exum liwy.( Ash The Healthy Habits Center , Inc. Next Medifast Classes Start June 5 Call today to sign up. Marilyn J. Boehm, M.D., Ph. D. Village Pines, Shallotte 919-754-558) 919-754-9949 OilUSK ?UK M( ilflSK )tnK tlWOilflSK *MC M"| <