Looking To Crow Calabash wants help In side stepping lengthy involuntary annexation procedures in order to expand the town's limits?and tax base. The story's on Page 10-C. Lights Out? | sports In Review Holden Beach officials are looking at rules I Sports Editor Johnny Craig highlights the resurgence aimed at protecting sea turtles from sources of I of prep basketball as he looks back at the Brunswick artificial light that could lure them off-course. I county sports scene during 1990. His review Is on Page Details are on Page 8-A. ? 7-b. THE BRUNSWICK* Our Twenty-ninth Year, Number 8 cmotmib day, December 27, 1990 25<t Per Copy 28 Pages, 3 Sections, 1 Insert Girl Dies From Moped Accident A Holden Bcach area girl died early Monday morning from in juries sustained in a moped accident that occurred near her home Satur day afternoon. Crystal Crabtrcc, 14, was riding a moped near the family home in Holiday Ranches, a subdivision near Holden Bcach, when she ap parently ran off the hard surface, fell and hit her head. "Apparently, her head struck the concrete," said Connor Cox, a friend of the family. Crystal was the daughter of Rich ard and Jackie Crabtrcc. Mr. Crab trcc is employed by Cox at Bruns wickland Realty at Holden Bcach. The accident apparently occurred around 4 p.m. As related by Cox, a girlfriend inside the Crabtrecs' house said she heard a scream and ran out to check. Crystal and her moped were down. Crystal told the friend to get help right away, said Cox, and she did so. It is not known if the moped flip ped or what caused the rider to fall from the bike. No cars were involv ed. "She never regained conscious ness," said Cox, who stayed with the family at the hospital Sunday. A spokesperson at the State Highway Patrol office in Wilming ton said no report was filed on the accident. Miss Crabtrcc was taken to The Brunswick Hospital in Supply then transferred to New Hanover Mem orial Hospital in Wilmington. "All I know at this point is that she died sometime this morning," said Iris Baker, a public affairs offi cer at New Hanover Memorial. Ms. Baker said Monday that in formation was still not available from a medical examiner's report. STAFF FHOTO BY DOUG tlJTTEt Feeding Time Hi'Uy Mai .in and her mother, Clevie Capps, both of Gaslonia,feed a flock of hungry gulls at II olden It each Sunday. Mild, spring-like temperatures over the weekend made it difficult to believe it was the first weekend of winter. Water Director Asking County For Workers To Handle Growth BY TKRRY POPE mcnt, Webb says the need for addi Brunswick County Commission- tional employees is "an area requir crs have received two reports from ing immediate attention." the water department, one asking At its December meeting, the for more employees to handle the Brunswick County Utility Opera growth brought on by water system lions Board passed a resolution expansion. praising Webb for the report. Board Director of Public Utilities Jerry members also acknowledged the Webb said the number of water cus- need to add more workers to the tomcrs served by the department staff. UOB members oversee county has increased tremendously since projects for water line extensions 1987 while the number of new cm- and make recommendations to ployccs during the same period can county commissioners. be counted on one hand. Last week, the new board of In a yearly "Brunswick County commissioners received Webb's re Water System Historical Data" re- port and one that outlines water ex port compiled by the water depart- tension projects to the year 2010. The Brunswick County Water Dis tribution System Markctplan was drafted by Daniels and Associates of Cary. That master plan uses an ticipated population increases and industrial growth to recommend where future water lines should go. The first phase of expansion is scheduled for 1991. However, com missioners did not discuss either re port at their meeting last week. They carried copies home with them in stead. "We simply cannot continue to operate this system on what I consider to be knee-jerk operations (See WATER, Page 2-A) Paving Contractor Delays 17 Detour 'Til Spring BY SUSAN USHKR ihc. closed-off area and return traffic A planned detour of traffic at the to U.S. 17. north end of Shallottc to accommo- "He needs to have as good a wea datc work on the U.S. 17 Shallotte ther as he can to meet that sched bypass will be delayed until spring. ulc," said Boyleston. "He had a lit Conccrned about winter weather tie bit of trouble with his asphalt conditions, Propst Construction Co. and didn't want to pursue his 90 of Concord has decided to postpone days in the middle of the winter's the work until sometime in March, cold, wet weather." said Dave Boyleston, the N.C. Dc- Instead Propst Construction will partment of Transportation resident "winterize" the work that as been engineer overseeing the project. completed and shut down opcra Propst had initially expected to tions until around March. Workers divert traffic from U.S. 17 to Red will cover stone with asphalt binder, Bug Road and the Holdcn Beach which will be covered with surface Road shortly after the Thanksgiving material to seal it. Erosion control holidays. Red Bug Road was resur- measures such as seeding and mul faccd and a traffic control light in- ching must also be completed be stallcd at its intersection with N.C. fore the project shuts down for the 130 to accommodate the rerouted winter. traffic. While the detour will be in effcct However, once traffic is detour- during the Easier holidays, Boylcs ed, the contractor will have only 90 ton said the contractor is obligated days in which to complete work in by contract to turn traffic on to the Shallotte bypass by the Memorial Day holiday weekend or else go in to a stiff penalty situation. The final completion date for all work relating to the bypass is Aug ust 1991, according to the S3.9 mil lion contract awarded to the firm last Dec. 1. Propst was contracted to pave the 4.8-mile bypass from west of S.R. 1316 to east of S.R. 1136 north of Shallotte. The bypass is part of a project to four lane U.S. 17 to the South Caro lina staielinc. The initial contract for building the bypass was awarded in October 1987 to Vcccllio & Grogan Inc. of Beckley, W.Va., for grading and drainage work on 2.3 miles of the bypass. In July 1988 BMCO Con struction Inc. of Lumberton receiv ed a $1.4 million contract to grade the final 2.5 miles of the bypass. Divided County Leadership Prompts Vote For Change BY THE NEWS STAFF The first day of filing for political office in Brunswick County was brisk, serving as a barometer of the public's concerns heading into 1990. It was a year in which resi dents were determined to make an impact on county government and its divided leadership. Nowhere was their dissatisfaction more heavily felt than at the ballot box where voters elected two new commissioners, giving Republicans complete control over the board for the first time since 1972. Voters also elected two first-time candidates to the Brunswick County Board of Ed ucation, unsealing one incumbent in the primary and the other in the general election. Large crowds spoke at county water hearings and budget talks. A record number of people signed up to vote and the candidate list quick ly grew heavy. By May, the cam paigns were heated and incumbents sweated it out. In the primary. State Rep. E. David Redwine of Ocean Isle nar rowly defeated his opponent, Ralph King of Ash, by about 600 votes in what Redwine dubbed a general election style campaign. More than 26,000 voters went to the primary polls, an early hint that residents were ready to elect new local lead ership. Meetings Reveal Infighting The fight had only just begun. Meetings of the county commis sioners and county school board showcased just how divided the county leaders had become. In an unexpected move in Febru ary, Commissioners Grace Beasley, Frankie Rabon and Gene Pinkerton voted to hire William Kopp, a Boli via native, as new county manager. However, 11 days later the board re scinded the action in the face of public outcry over how the manager was chosen: The position wasn't ad vertised. No applications were ac cepted. No formal interviews were held. Kopp had been interviewed se cretly by at least two board mem bers, but Commissioner Kelly Hold en said he was kept in the dark about the hiring coup until the night of the meeting. Holden and Com missioner Benny Ludlum, who vol YEAR IN REVIEW cd against the hiring, were slunned. Despite the board's change of heart, the political scars ran deep. The hiring Fiasco alone may have cost District 5 incumbcnt Grace Bcasley her seat on the hoard. It was a vote that challenger Donald Shaw referred to as a "betrayal of public confidence." "It's very obvious they wanted a change," said the newly-elected Shaw in November. Change is what voters got, both on the county board of commission ers and board of education. Holden, the man in the dark just 10 months earlier, emerged as chair man of the board of commissioners in December, replacing Pinkerton. Newly-elected District 2 commis sioner Jerry Jones of Shallotte be came vice chairman. On the board of education, Don na Baxter, considered a mediator during the previous term, was elect ed chairman in December on unani mous vote, making her the third person to hold that seat during the 1990 calendar year. Doug Baxley was elected vice chairman on a 3-2 vote. In January, bowing to pressure from several board members, Bax ley had resigned as chairman, clear ing the way for Dorothy Worth's election on a motion by Ms. Baxter. The board also voted to begin elect ing officers each December rather than only following election of new board members. On the same 3-2 split vote by which Mrs. Worth was electcd, the board in April took advantage of a technical error in his contract and fired Superintendent John A. Kauf hold effective June 30?only 15 months after voting to extend his contract by two years to June 30, 1992. fS*l t ?i BEACON Fill rHOTO ELECTION OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Donald Shaw of District 5 (left) and Jerry Jones of District 2 in November gave Republicans complete control of the board for the first time since 1972. Kaufhold, in turn, sued the board as a whole and the members who voted for his dismissal ? Mrs. Worth, Ms. Baxter and Robert Slockeu ? specifically. The board settled out of court in June, paying Kaufhold $30,000. In turn Kaufhold agreed to pay any sum he might owe the board following a special audit of administrators' expense ac counts ordered as part of the deal. Kaufhold's former assistant su perintendent, longtime administra tor P.R. Hankins, served as interim superintendent and then was named superintendent effective Oct. 1. The county's first black superin tendent, he was elected on a 4-1 vote by the board on Sept. 1. Slock eu voted against the hiring, having committed himself earlier to candi date Barbara D. Rogers, who ap peared to be top contender for the post until questions were raised about her past record and the vote was delayed pending further inves tigation. Results of the special expense re port audit were not made public un til mid-November, when it was learned that Kaufhold would be bil led for approximately $700. After a year of trying to straight en out its financial records, in mid Deccmbcr the school board finally adopted a budget for the 1990-91 school year and its 1989-90 fiscal year audit report was due any time. Meanwhile the board continued with plans to begin construction of a new elementary school at Supply in early 1991. Mrs. Worth lost the May Demo cratic primary to childcare center owner Polly Russ of Shallottc and moved her official residence to the Worths' Longwood farm, saying she might challenge Baxlcy for his District 1 scat in two years. In a voter turnout that rivaled that of a presidential election year, ap proximately 62.5 percent of eligible Brunswick County voters cast bal lots in November. Longtime District 5 school board member and vice chairman James Clcmmons was unseated by Repub lican Yvonne Lewis Bright, a for mer Democratic candidate for the same officc, in the surprise vote of the season. Mrs. Russ won election to the District 2 scat. BEACON FILE PHOTO GROWING PAINS at the Brunswick County Government Center in Bolivia stirred the county to build a new $13 million Department of Social Services building. A new 911 emergency medical services building will be constructed in 1991. In the county commissioners' races, Shaw's campaign slogan of, "Let's do away with the good ole' boy style of politics in Brunswick County," struck a familiar note. Ms. Beasley had defeated Shaw in 1986, but on this night she came up about 800 votes short In District 2, Jones was elected to fill the seal held by Ludlum, who had chosen not to run for re-elec tion. Both Jones and his opponent, Joseph Stevenson of Supply, ran a gentleman's campaign, focusing on the issues instead of race. Stevenson was the only black candidate for the county board; Clemmons was the only black candidate for the school board. But Jones' clear victory was overshadowed by the resignation of five black Democratic party leaders from their posts. They vowed to seek black voting districts and said they would no longer work to elect white Democratic candidates if vot ers failed to support black candi dates. Complex Situation County Attorney David Clegg served as interim county manager for the year. Although 47 applica tions were accepted in April, com missioners refused to hire a new manager. The new board readver tised the position in December, vowing 10 hire someone. Clegg worked efficiently to help stabilize departments at a county government complex which was un dergoing change in 1990. The en hanced 911 emergency communica tions system got off the ground with the public's overwhelming approv al. Set to begin in January 1992, the 911 program coincided with the county's decision to fund an Emer gency Medical Services program, hiring Southport Attorney Doug Ledgctt as supervisor. Surcharges to fund 911 appeared on resident tele phone bills starting in August. The construction of a $1.3 mil lion new Department of Social Ser vices building began with hopes of easing some of the growing pains. Through lease-purchasing agree ments with private businesses, the county planned $25 million in capi tal improvement bonds over a 15 year period, taking advantage of a special state law which eliminated the need for voters' approval. At year's end, departments were not sure who'd get what at the complex when added space became avail able. The sheriff's department got add ed jail space through a SI 16,000 ex pansion and the county purchased a $1.1 million facility from Landmark (See BRUNSWICK, Page 6-A)

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