Trojans Are At Home I I // * * I 8 Local Youths Crowned The West Brunswick Trojans, fresh from I M A I Eight local youths were crowned at the a 26-7 drubbing of North Myrtle Beach, I m M i?/gMMjg ? I second annual Varnamtown Pageant entertain southwest Onslow Friday I # rrrw I Saturday night at Shallotte Middle School. night in their home opener. Page 8-B. | * supplement Inclufled In this Issue 7 | For the storv'see pa9e 9A "NSWICK* Twenty-eighth Year, Number 41 cimothe bhunswckuwcon jhallotte, North Carolina, Thursday, August 30,1990 25c Per Copy 94 Pages, 4 Sections, 2 Inserts CONVICTED KILLER TO BE ELIGIBLE: FOR PAROLE iN 60 YEARS Victims' Relatives Happy With Life Sentence For Tavlor BY BOB 1IORNK Relatives of Marion Mcci/c, Ginccr Mccl/ and Michcllc Arnold were prepared for anything. Perhaps for that reason, they were not disappointed when Michael Taylor received three life-imprisonment sentences for the October 1988 murders of their three loved ones. "I'm satisfied, as long as the boy is out of circula tion." said Odas Rankin, of Easlcy, S.C., the father of Ginger Mectze and grandfather of Michelle Arnold "Maybe it will give him a chance to get his life straight ened out." Rankin, who was carrying his daughter's worn Bible, in the hopes "justice would be done," said he could have accepted cither sentence: life imprisonment or the death penalty. He did express appreciation for Judge Wiley Bowen's decision to impose the three life scntcnccs consccutivcly instead of concurrently, mean ing Taylor will serve the sentences one at a time instead of serving all at the same time. Assistant District Attorney Poli Barefoot said the consecutive sentences will mean it will be 60 years before the 24-year-old Taylor will be eligible for parole. However, Bowen ruled that a 14-year sentence for armed robbery would be served concurrently. "I was hoping it would be consccutive, so he wouldn't be out in 20 years and still be a young man," Rankin said. Taylor was sentenced on what would have been Michelle Arnold's 12th birthday, Rankin said. Rankin's wife, Eudora, said she believes the life scntcnccs "could be just as good or better" than the death sentence for Taylor. "If he had received the death sentence, there would have been appeals and appeals and appeals," she said. "As long as he is put away where he can't kill anybody else. "Ihere is no way he can make amends," Mrs. Rankin said. "He took three precious lives. And I know it's hard on his parents. They still think he's innoccnl, it's going to be hard on them to find out he's not." Milliccnt Cobb, Marion Mcct zc's sister, said, "I'd rather he died but I'm happy" with the sentence. V 0ETO WS "i know I'd rather be dead than in Taylor jail for 60 years." Assistant District Attorney Barefoot, who along with Assistant DA Thomas Hicks was seeking the death penalty, said, "The jury's the jury. The aggravating fac lors were there, but you can't argue with the jury." That same jury found Taylor guiliy of the murders Thursday. The trial then entered the sentencing phase, to determine whether Taylor would be sentenced lo death or life imprisonment for shooting die three mem bers of the Meetze family with different weapons and then attempting to burn the house down. The jury first had to determine if one or more aggra vating factors existed in the deaths. The prosecution had submitted two aggravating factors: that the murders were committed during a robbery; Taylor also was con victed of the armed robbery of a gun. The second ag gravating factor submitted was that the murders were part of a course of conduct in which Taylor engaged and did that coursc of conduct in the commission of other crimes of violence against other persons. (See VICTIMS, Page 2-A) 2 Killed C rJ % a i i iuuy v-/1 i County Roads Two people died on Brunswick County highways last Friday, ac cording to North Carolina Highway Patrol reports. Aimcc Clara Couvillon, 25, of Shallottc, was killed in a one-vehi cle crash early Friday morning and 12-ycar-old Anthony Noel Russ of Lcland was killed Friday evening when he rode his bicycle in front of a pickup truck. Ms. Couvillon was traveling north on Rural Paved Road 1183 at 1 hjoh r;ilr of c-vNvt cs|i(n:'!'Vt 'it VO mph. according to a report. Al about 2:30 a.m., her 1987 Su/uki Samurai ran off the right side of the road about 6.5 miles south of Ocean Isle Beach and out of control, striking a tree, spinning off and striking an other tree and coming to rest in a ditch, according to the report. She v,'2S dc3(J a! ihc sccnc lie* cording to the report. Trooper T.W. Cauldcr estimated 57,(XX) damage to her vehicle. Russ was riding his bicycle west on Rural Paved Road 1487 at 7:40 p.m., when he rode through a stop sign into the path of a 1989 Nissan pickup driven by Dale Roberts, 25, of Leland, who was traveling north on Rural Paved Road 1438, accord ing to a report. Russ was transported to New Hanover Memorial Hospital, where he died al 9:02 Saturday morning, according to the report. No chargcs were filed in the acci dent. Trooper T.W. Cauldcr estimat ed damages at S2,000 to the Nissan and $75 to the bicycle. The deaths brought the total to 11 in Brunswick County this year, two more than the nine who died last year through the month of August, according to N.C. Highway Patrol spokesperson Ruby Oakley. STAfF mora BY DOUG HUTTCH Scientist Becomes Sculptor Louis Ileidel of Stephens City, Va., (right) attracted crowds at Ocean Isle Beach last week with his magnificent sand castles. Ileidel, a soil scientist who is used to getting his hands dirty, used a shovel, spatula and plusiic molds to sculpt the sand. He is pictured last Thursday with his sons, Matthew and Adam. Ileidel has vacationed at Ocean Isle Beach each of the last 10 years. Brunswick Plant Technicians Disciplined; Unit 2 Due Back On Line Today Or Friday Carolina Power & Light Co. Monday took disciplinary action against two technicians who falsified records in an attempt to cover up an er ror that led to the Aug. 19 automatic shutdown of one unit of the Brunswick Nuclear Plant. CP&L spokesman Elizabeth Bean said com pany personnel policies do not provide for re lease of die technicians' identities or the nature of the action taken, hut that firing was one of the options. "I can assure you it was appropriate action," she said in a telephone interview Tuesday. She said the company "will not tolerate" falsification of records or failure to follow procedures by its nuclcar workers. This was die first instance in which a plant technician had violated procedure and then falsi fied documents, she had indicator! in an interview last week. The two technicians had first been retained for questioning, then placed on administrative leave pending completion of the investigation. NRC officials will review the agency inves tigative team's report on the incident and then decide if CP&L will be cited for any violations, indicated spokesman Ken Clark, lie said there was no evidence of damage to the reactor and no detectable release of radioactive material to the environment as a result of the event. Unit 2, meanwhile, was expected to return on-line today or Friday, after employees com plete maintenance and testing that was begun af ter the unit shut down, Ms. Bean said. At a news conference Saturday at the plant near Southport, officials with the utility company and with the Nuclear Regulatory Agency outlined the incidents that led up to the shutdown and other findings of their respective investigations. The routine monthly testing of four electrical circuits is a two-person assignment. However, Ms. Bean said, one technician actually tested the circuits while the other was in an adjoining room helping to repair a piece of equipment. When performed correctly, the circuits arc tested in sequence, with one reset before the next is opened. "The technician did not follow those steps," Mrs. Bean said. "He was sending test sig nals to two circuits at the same time." As a safety precaution, the Brunswick plant is designed so that a unit will shut down automat ically, or "scram," when the plant monitoring system detects anything abnormal. Alter the reactor shut down on Aug. 19, the first technician summoned the second technician and the two falsified records to show that they had independently verified cach step of die cir cuit test as diey went, which they had not done, Ms. Bean said. After investigators determined what had actually happened, the two technicians admitted making the mistake and attempting to cover it up. The NRC has two resident inspectors as signed to the Brunswick Nuclear Plant. It dis* patched six additional officials from its Atlanta and Washington, D.C. offices to investigate the Aug. 19 event and rcach a better understanding of what had happened. CP&L also conducted its own investigation of the incident. At the press confcrcnce Saturday, A1 Bclisle, leader of the NRC's investigative team and NRC regional section chief, said each of the techni cians had approximately seven years of experi ence and had received adequate training. The maintenance test is performed by well-defined procedures with which they were familiar, but did not follow precisely on Aug. 19. As the reactor was cooling following the au tomatic shutdown, another problem surfaced. Of ficials initially suspected that several safety relief valves had tailed to release steam at certain pres sure levels as they were supposed to do. However, Ms. Bean said Tuesday that one steam valve has been sent to a lab in Alabama for testing. In the meantime it has been replaced. Ms. Bean said that no figures have been com piled on the cost of the shutdown. However, she said the scram occurred during a period of non peak usage and when the company's other nucle ar and fossil fuel plants were all operating. "The (See PLANT, 1'age 2-A) Commissioners Renew Search For Manager ItV" BOB IIOKNK The Brunswick County Board of Commissioners decided Monday night to go through the 47 four month-old applications the county has for county manager and begin the screening proccss to fill that po sition. The decision followed a 1 1/2 hour executive session on personnel and came just as the commissioners were about to ad journ. Vicc-Chairman Frankic Rabon made a motion dial the county com missioners look into the applica tions for county manager "and be gin the screening proccss." The mo tion called for Rcgina Alexander, clerk to the county commissioners, to make copies of each application and forward them to each commis sioner promptly and to set up a workshop for 5 p.m. next Thursday to begin the screening proccss. Commissioner Kciiy Hoiden ob jected, saying, "With the time that has elapsed, 1 feel it's imperative that we readvcrtisc for the position and not jump into this group." To that, Rabon answered, "I just don't see the time delay or the ex pense to rcadvcrtisc." Rabon sug gested that each commissioner come to the workshop with his or her top five choices, saying "we might have five or 25," but that it would be a starting point. Board Chairman Gene Pinkcrton said his father, who is in an Ashe villc hospital, might have open heart surgery on that day and want ed to ensure that it would be OK if he called in his five choices, if he needed to. The board then approved die motion on a 4-1 vote, with Hoiden opposing. Brunswick County has been wiuioiit a permanent county niana^~ cr since the commissioners asked John Smith to resign in December. An attempt to hire William A. Kopp as county manager without taking applications was rescinded and County Attorney David Clegg has served as Interim County Manager since December. In an unrelated action, the com missioncrs unamimously agreed to award a contract to W&S Under ground of Florence of S524.565.85 for construction of water lines for Special Assessment Districts 7,9,16 and 18. Jay Houston of Houston and Associates engineers told the com missioners the price was exception ally low and speculated that the bids were submitted when oil prices were at their lowest point. "All four bidders knocked our es timate in the head," Houston said. However, Houston advised the commissioners to place a ceiling on the current practicc of lumping SADs to lower construction costs. "if you go much higher, you will eliminate some of the iocai contrac tors, bccausc of the bonding re quirements," he said. "When you pass a half a million, you're getting to a different level." The commissioners also unani mously agreed to schedule a public hearing for Oct. 8 at 7 p.m., as the Utility Operations Board recom mended, for the grouping of SADs 12,13,14,15,18,21 and 22. Rabon explained that the public hearing did not mean the commissioners would combine all those SADs, be cause the county doesn't have the water lines to construct them yet, anyway. In a separate action, the commis sioners, on a 3-2 vote, approved the hiring of a temporary planner to help implement the Oil emergency telephone system. The 517,906-per ycar position is to be deleted Jan. 1, inni mi ~ l. : 1774. unci 7ii ia iu uc implement cd. Commissioner Kelly Holden's motion included a stipulation that the position be funded from contin ue SEARCH, Page 2-A) Chapel Roast Is On Again BY SUSAN USHER The roast is on again al Dixon Chapel United Methodist Church in Vamamtown?but with a few changes this time around. The daie wiii be moved forward and a new addition to iast year's menu, fried fish, will remain, spokesman Marlene Vaniam said Monday. Last Octobcr, organizers of the roast announced that, after more than 20 consecutive years, the 1989 event could well be the last They cited difficulty in obtaining locally hoi vested oysters because of fiequeut clos ings of local waters and smaller overall harvests. Instead of the traditional third Saturday of Octobcr?a date that now conflicts with the N.C. Oyster Festival?this year's roast will be held Nov. 3, the first Saturday in November. Hours will remain at 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. "What we're aiming for is to try to get local oysters," Mrs. Varnam said. "A later date might give us that." Any time in Octobcr is "too risky" any more, she said. "We think we'll fare better in the long run. The first week of the season is hectic, with everybody trying to get oysters to take home to their families and to their neighbors. You can't get people to sell them to you even if the river is open." Mrs. Varnam said sponsors won't set tickct prices until after oyster season opens. Although roast sponsors were a little fearful iast year about offering fried fish, Mrs. Vaniam said, the experiment was a success. "A lot of people were tickled with the fish, because some don't eat oysters any way." The oysters, which are roasted over an open fire, are served with homemade fried bread, pickles and sauces. Soft drinks, hot dogs and baked goods are also offered for sale. Proceeds benefit the church. More information about the roast is available from Mrs. Varnam, 842-6425, or from Nicky Varnam at Garland's Seafood, 842-6492.

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