We'// Soon We/come Folks In Style! BY MARJORIE MEGIVERN It's just a mailer of months until visitors will cross Brunswick County's state line and find an immediate, tangible welcome. A stylish building with friendly help and hospitality for the traveler is now rising on the Shallotte by pass with a target completion date of January, 1992. BMCO Construc tion Co. broke ground in December, 1990, at the intersection of U.S. 17 and Hwy. 130 on the bypass. Susanne Sartelle, executive vice president of the South Brunswick Island Chamber of Commerce, said the welcome center will occupy about 1,400 square feet and will cost approximately $80,000 just for construction. Sartelle is one of eight county people who serve as the board of di rectors for the project, with Dean Walters as president Talk of the fa cility has been in progress for sever al years. 'The DOT (Department of Transportation) made the decision years ago as to the location of this center," she said. "Before making it, they held meetings for public inpuL" Funding for the project comes from the South Brunswick Islands, Southport-Oak Island, and Greater Wilmington chambers of com merce, as well as the Cape Fear BEACON FILE PHOTO THE VISITORS CENTER got off the ground literally , last Nov. I, when Department of Transportation Secretary Tommy Harrelson, cen ter right, and Dean Walters, member of the Visitors Center board, wielded a shovel together. Other board members look on. Coastline Visitors Bureau. Bruns wick County Board of Commission ers also contributed to the two county chambers for this purpose. "That's just construction money,'' Sartelle pointed cut. "We depend on individual and business donations for the furnishings." The center will include a large lobby with a desk and counter, an office, storage room, loft and out side restrooms. According to Sartelle, the board will soon hire a director for the cen ter who will, in turn, hire a support staff of four, both full and part-time. Excessive Easter Traffic; BY MARJORIE MEGIVERN If you veterans of the Shallotte "creepway" can endure one more indignity over the Easter holiday, a rare treat is in store for you by Memorial Day. Hardy survivors of bumper-to bumper holiday processions through Shallotte, impossible left-turns and claustrophobia that accompanies that crawl along U.S. 17, can take heart. Relief is at last in sight! D.W. Boylston, resident engineer for the state Department of Trans portation, while warning of a new and frustrating snarl over Easter weekend, has assured us that by Memorial Day traffic will sail along the completed by-pass. 'For about 90 days, beginning in Mirch, we'll have to turn U.S. 17 triffic at the north end of the bypass onto Red Bug Rd. (State Road 1156)," he explained. "The detour will take traffic to the light at Hwy. 130, then on 130 brck to intersect with 17 on the south side." Boylston pointed out that pa tience would be required, because the detour road is not as wide as 17 and its shoulders are narrow, too. "It amounts to about VA mile longer than going straight down 17," he said. The good news is that by late May the bypass work necessitating the detour will be complete and so will the 4.8-mile bypass. Well, al Lu/wo IS PUBLISHED AS A SUPPLEMENT TO / THE BRUNSWICIffeBEACON SHALLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA STAFF Edward M. & Carolyn H. Sweatt Publishers Edward M. Sweatt Editor Marjorie Megivern Associate Editor Will Cockrell Golf Editor Carolyn H. Sweatt Advertising Director P?99Y Earwood Office Manager Timberley Adams & Cecelia Gore ...Advertising Representatives Tammie Galloway & Dorothy Brennan Typesetters William Manning Pressman Lonnie Sprinkle Assistant Pressman Brenda Clemmons Photo Technician Cover Photograph by Steve Smith, Photographic Concepts. L.T.D. Then Memorable Memorial Day most. "We'll still have a few things to do, but we can put traffic on the bypass and no one will know we're working on the road," Boylston said. A sizeable difference in grade at the northern entrance to the bypass required the re-routing of traffic so that two tall banks could be tied to gether. When completed, motorists coming from Bolivia can turn right onto a level access road. Boylston said the project, costing $3.86 million and begun in 1987, is about on schedule. By July of this year all the "odds and ends" will be completed. Another part of the package is the four-laning of U.S. 17 from north of Bolivia to the South Carolina line. This is still in progress, with only "EtmcU "H Park Piaza 1451-C Highway 17 South North Myrtle Beach, SC 29S82 Tel. (803) 272-1719 ^ Mini Blinds ? Micro Rhrw-tc - h Vertical Blinds ? Shutters Pleated Shades ? Wood Blindsdi Custom Roller Shades - Silk Arrangements ? Bedspreads? ' ~ Draperies ? Wallpaper RESIDENTIAL ^ COMMERCIAL CONTRACT See us lor special savings ?Free Measuring ?Stock Verticals *69?? HAZEL & BtLL^ASjn^ OWNERS two sections due for completion this year. Boylston's office said the sec tion from Bolivia to Supply will be finished in September and the seg ment from Bolivia north to the Hwy. 87 intersection has a Decem ber completion date. Right-of-way engineer, Gordon Bordeaux, acknowledged that a number of buildings, both business and residential, are being relocated in the process. For the two sections remaining in the plan, the one from Hwy. 211 to Shallotte requires that ten residences and nine businesses be moved; the final, longer seg ment, from Shallotte to the South Carolina line, will result in the relo cation of 43 residences and 29 busi nesses. "You must keep in mind," he said, "that some of those businesses are housed in the same building. The total number of businesses does not reflect the correct number of buildings moved." kimberly Jo's Boutique Ladies' Clothing ? Wolff Tanning FASHIONS by... Ambitions ? Outback Red Forenza ? Koret and more! SWIMWEAR by... Jantzen ? Catalina ? Robbie Len Rose Marie Wolff Tanning -m ? Jk. mm 10 Sessions~$ 25 ? ? HOURS: M-F 8 AM Unitl, Sat. 10 AM Until "flame Brand Ladies' Fashions At Affordable Prices' If wy. 1 79 in the Coastal Mechanical Bldg. Ocean Isle ? 579-7670 or 579-6290

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