Newspapers / The Brunswick Beacon (Shallotte, … / Oct. 4, 1990, edition 1 / Page 4
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Opinion Page THE BRUNSWICKnfe BEACON Edward M. Sweatt anil Carolyn H. Sweatt Publishers Edward M. Sweatt Editor Susan Usher News Etiitor Doug Kutter and Terry Pope Sf<!// WrUirs Johnny Craig S/x)ris Editor Pcggv Earwood Office Manager Carolyn H. Sweatt Ad in"rt using Director Tlinberiev Adams & Cecelia Gore Advertising Representations Tammie Galloway ft Dorothy Brennan Typesetters William Manning Pressman Hrenda Clemmons Photo Technician Lonnfe Sprinkle Assistant Pressman Phoebe Clemmons and Frances Sweatt Circulation DAGE 4 A THURSDAY. OCTOBER <1 1990 Cleaning Up Sign Mess Calabash's Brave Goal Calabash commissioners envision a growing little town where visitors still drive from miles away for its world famous seafood and an evening stroll along the riverfront. Huge bill boards. Hashing arrows and misplaced signs, thank goodness, are not a part of that vision. Since February, the town has been fighting to keep its sign ordinance enforced, an ordinance that has been on the books since 19S2 but had been virtually ignored. Things were getting ugly until the town appointed a code enforcement officer earlier this year to help clean up the mess. Someone forgot to tell Ed Schaack to look the other way. that sign regulations are a confusing bunch of garbage meant to be ignored. He has had the nerv e to do his job and to cite people for violating the sign ordinance. Judging from the four lawsuits filed against owners of ille gal signs, you would think the town is trying to protect some thing. like maybe the beauty of the town and its residents' right not to be bombarded with tasteless billboards and portable signs obstructing the view of drivers. They won't allow off-premises signs when it clearly states in the zoning ordinance. "Off-premises signs are prohibited." They won't allow signs mounted on rooftops when the ordi nance clearly states "roof signs" are prohibited. Have you ever heard of such ambiguous wording? At least 70 signs were found to be in violation of the town ordinance. Considering the size of Caiabash. that number is alarming. The town's tougher stance against such violations is the only way to pull everyone in line with the law. It's a little embarrassing now for the town to admit it has failed to enforce its own sign ordinance for eight years. Still, those who took advantage of the system should now be made to comply with the law. Sign regulations are for everyone to fol low. It is a brave fight the commissioners are waging in an effort to save Calabash from becoming the "Seafood Capital of the World" to the "Sign Capital of the World." Boards Missing Chance To Be County Leaders The Brunswick County Board of Health did not hold its reg ular monthly meeting in September. Neither did the Board of Social Serv ices. Belter luck this month. Those appointed to serve on the two boards are having trou ble getting enough people together to make up a quorum People are reneging on the oaths they took when joining the boards. A backlog of business could start to weigh heavily on the minds of Health Director Michael Rhodes and Social Services Director Jamie Orrock. They are caught in a tough position of having to manage departments where policy is established by board members who, through their own inactive participation, offer no support to county programs. The last time the social services board had a quorum, it changed its meeting time from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. to make it easier for board members who work later hours to attend. Two meetings have since passed, and stiil no quorum. Serving on a county board can be a thankless job at times. Those who serve, for the most part, are volunteers. Some reim bursements are made for travel expenses. However, if a person accepts an appointment, then he or she should accept the re sponsibility that goes along with such an appointment or else pass up the opportunity to serve to someone else. A strong board that becomes involved in the department it watches over will also be a strong and positive sign to the com munity it serves. A lot of county residents are served by the health and social services departments. The board members who serve those departments are missing their chance to be the kind of strong leaders we want them to be. Study On Tourism Should Be Interesting An interesting study presented to ihc N.C. Rural Economic Devel opment Center in Raleigh last week should tell us a lot about the cITect tourism has on employment in Brunswick County. Unfortunately, as bureaucracy would have it. that report won't be released by the center until later in the year, in the winter, when the tourism season is over temporarily. But then again, maybe we'll need the dead of winter to digest what two professors from Western Car olina University have to say about our beautiful coast. John Wade and Steve Jarrell. eco nomic professors at Western Caro lina. were given a $12.(XK> grant from the RfcD center earlier this year to study the effects of tourism on local economies in two tourist heavy counties in North Carolina. The professors chose Brunswick County on the coast and Macon County in the mountains. Macon County is the home of Franklin, a town nestled deep in the Terry Pope ( - Appalachians, and a coupic of the most photographed waterfalls in the south. Dry ( alls and Brutal Veil Falls along U.S. 64. It's relatively close to Cullowhcc, home of Western Carolina and, no doubt, the professors' homes. To chtx>sc Brunswick County as the other spot to survey among 1(X) North Carolina countics is worth noting. No doubt it was chosen be cause of its rapid coastal growth and already thriving tourism indus try. It's also not a bad way for two highlandcrs to spend the summer at the beach, and get paid for it to boot. Their study includes a survey of tourist-related businesses. They were linking at employment issues, suc h as wages and benefits of sea sonal workers, and how the season al nature of the tourist business af fects the local economies of the two counties. Personal interviews were conducted with area businessmen and the RED center established a committee from our county to re view their preliminary findings. "We arc studying the impact of tourism on employment to see whether tourism has created jobs that arc compatible with other in dustries or arc a p<x>r cousin to de velopment in those counties," Wade said. "We're trying to answer the question, is tourism a viable em ployment strategy for these counties versus factory jobs?" Well, 1 wonder if Wade and Jarrell strayed tar enough from the sandy shores to take a look at other parts of Brunswick County? Our county is unique in one aspect in that it has some of the most accessi ble family beaches along the entire East coast. It also has those factory jobs, with more being added each year, thai Wade mentioned. To com pare coastal tourism with the indus try in Brunswick County would chew up an entire suite grant alone it would scent. Their goal is to develop an "econometric model" for each county that can be used to deter mine how to make tourism more of a year-round business, if that's what local people want. Wade adds. When I heard that their report was complete and had been present ed to the RED center last week, I jumped at the chance to find out what all the fuss was about. I'm ea ger to see how the highlanders treat ed our county. However, Jackie Langston at the RED center said the data is still in its raw form and will need to be compiled before a'leased to the public. About seventy pages of informa tion were presented to the center, that much I do know. What's on those pages, well, we'll have to wait until winter. Wmo'* C THIS IS THE DEADLINE FOR \ i FE6I.SI tRlN&TO V/OTF IN THE NEXT ELECTION. IT'S ALSO THE LAST DAY I'LL PUT UP WITH COMPLAINTS ABOLfTLOUSY Politicians unless you go do it! ! Please Don't Ask Me To Spell It I'm glad I wasn't selected to rep resent The Brunswick Beacon in the Brunswick County Literacy Council's spelling bee last month. Spelling just isn't my cup of tea. There arc several dictionaries floating around the newsroom. But I'm the only staffer with a Bad Speller's Dictionary on my desk. News Editor Susan Usher gave it to me shortly after I started working for the paper She has the first crack at editing anything I write. 1 think she was trying to tell me something by giving me that Bad Speller's Dictionary. Right on the cover of the book, it say.,, ' How do you look up a word in a dictionary if you can't spell it? You find it here among thousands of words listed by their wrong spelling." Here's how it works. Let's say you're Hipping through the Bad Speller's Dictionary and run across the word "numbskull." On the right side of the page, they give you the correctly-spelled version, which is "numskull." lhen, you can look in a regular dictionary and find out that a num skull is a dull or stunid person or a Doug Rutter dunce. Sec how ii works? In the introduction of the Bad Speller's Dictionary, it says every one has trouble w ith spelling at one time or another, even doctors, lawyers, teachers and presidents. "This book is designed for those of you who arc bright, educated, and hold responsible positions, but who arc?let's face it?bad spellers." They're talking about people just like me. The Bad Speller's Dictionary says it's not my fault I'm a bad speller, which is something I knew all along. "It's due to the fact that very often there is no rhyme or rea son for the spelling of a great many words in the English language," the dictionary says. Anyhow. I wasn't really sur prised when publishers Eddie and Carolyn Swealt didn't threaten to fire me if I refused to compete in the literacy council spelling bee. There's a certain amount of pride involved in these friendly competi tions, you know. No sir, the team of Susan Usher and Tammie Galloway was just fine with me, even if they didn't get very far. You see, 1 had a had experience in a filth-grade spelling bee that still haunts me to this day. I was so psyched up for this class spelling bee, and so disappointed when I missed my first word and had to take a seat While other kids were getting easy words like "ridiculous," "labyrinth" and "disestablishmen tarian," my first word was "ugh." Don't worry, 1 looked it up just to make sure 1 got it right this time. 1 can sympathize with the team from Atlantic Telephone Membership Corp., die first team eliminated from the literacy spelling bee. There's nouiiug worse dian being the first z.v knocked out of a spelling bee and having to sit there while everyone else gets words you could spell with your eyes closed and one arm tied behind your hack. By the way, Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines "ugh" as an interjection used to in dicate the sound of a cough or grunt or to express disgust or honor. It's also the sound Charlie Brown makes each year on his Thanksgiving special. Charlie runs toward the football and that dastard ly Lucy pulls the ball away just as poor Charlie is about to kick it. When Lucy pulls the ball away, it causes Chuck to miss the ball, do a backflip and land flat on his back That's when he makes the "ugh" sound. Write Us The Beacon welcomes letters to the editor. All letters must be signed and include the writer's address. Under no circumstances will un signed letters be printed. Letters should be legible. The Beacon re serves the right to edit libelous com ments. Address letters to The Bruns wick Beacon, P. O. Box 2558, Shallotte, N.C. 28459. Getting Away Is Good For You Susan _ Usher .. . _ Getting away is good for body and soul: there's no doubt in my mind. Those feelings were con firmed Sunday by a business columnist who cited more vacation time as a highly welcomed benefit by employees of small businesses who work long hours and don't routinely get to take comp time. lX>n and 1 certainly appreciate vacations. We just spent a very restful week enjoying the "off sea son" in the North Carolina moun tains. We got away, but not loo lar away to be reminded of home rather frequently. From our two-story unit at Smokctrec in the Foscoc/ Grand father community near Linvillc, we had a marvelous view of Grand father's profile, with a massive tree in the foreground just falling into glorious shades of gold. We also had a good view of ve hicles winding slowly up a steep grade along N.C. 105, a two-lane road where movement slows to a virtual craw! behind any heavy ve hicle, or when the leaves turn in the fall. Coming out of Boone the road is being widened to four lanes, what DOT calls "improvements." We got to wail, just like at home. N.C. 105 was a good reminder that this mountain area, like our own South Brunswick Islands, is a popular place to visit much of the year. For the locals, growth there is a mixed blessing as well. The com munity we were visiting, Foscoe/ Grandfather, has just taken two bold steps. First, it's working with Watauga County to develop zoning for the area, with the hope of "sct ung an example" for other areas of the county. The community council has just compiled a petition seeking incor poration sometime next year after the General Assembly convenes. These people want some control over their luture; they don't want Watauga County, Boone, Linvillc or ioca! development groups mak ing most, if not all, growth-related decisions for them. Among other things, they plan to prohibit multi family housing along the N.C. 905 business area. There were other reminders of back home, marked by trees. Driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway we saw visible reminders of Hurricane Hugo's path one year ago to the week. Parkway employ ees said that more than 200 miles of the roadway looked like a disas ter area after Hugo slashed his way across the mountains, uprooting trees or snapping them into from Linvillc to Peaks of Otter, Va. Damage was estimated at SI.5 mil lion. While the clean-up began imme diately in primary visitor areas, Hugo will have long-term effects on the parkway, just as it will on other woodlands across the Caro linas. How? First, clean up in oth er aiea.s will be limited, because iiic parkway is supposed to be man aged with as little interference with natural processes as possible. Threat of fire will increase because of the burnable fuel left on the for est floor, especially along the steep east-facing slopes where the most tree-fall occurred. To a lesser ex tent, there's the possibility of dead or leaning trees falling over in the backcountry areas on windy days. There were other reminders of home, and how we're all linked to gether. At Blowing Rock, the town manager had just returned from a stint with the U.S. Army Reserves in Wilmington, loading ships bound for the Middle East. In an interview in an area paper there, he said the State Port in Wilmington lost about two months' worth of cargo shipments mainly because of the performance of the local Inter national Longshoreman's Union's. A Brunswick County man is chief of the union, and a lot of local men are members. When the Army thought that work should be going faster, the Union balked, the reservist said, and instead of upping production, members threatened to strike. In stead of bending, the Army simply uprooted itself, moving its ship ments of equipment on down to Charleston, S.C., he said. For safe ty reasons, ammunition continues to be shipped out of Sunn; Point. There was one last link to note. Motoring along among the trees bordering a back road above the community of Romingcr, we en countered a car bearing a Holden Beach lag on its front. Whether he was a Watauga County man who enjoys fishing at the beach, or a Brunswick County man who likes the mountains, one thing's pretty certain: The man behind the wheel of that car likes to gel away once in a while, too. Rest and a change of perspective are gtxid for all of us.
The Brunswick Beacon (Shallotte, N.C.)
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Oct. 4, 1990, edition 1
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