Edward M. Sweatt and Carolyn H. Sweat t Publishers
Edward M. Sweatt Editor
Susan Usher News Editor
Doug Rutter and Terry Pope Staff Writers
Johnny Craig Sports Editor
Peggy Earwood Office Manager
Carolyn H. Sweatt Advertising Director
Timber ley Adams & Cecelia Core JUiuertlslng Representatives
Tammie Galloway & Dorothy Brennan Graphic Artists
William Manning Pressman
Brenda Clemmons Photo Technician
Lonnle Sprinkle Assistant Pressman
Phoebe Clemmons and Frances Sweatt Circulation
PAGE 4-A, THURSDAY. MAY 16, 1991
Committee Of 1 00
Could Help Balance
Local Economy
Past efforts to establish a "Committee of 100" in the South
Brunswick Islands have never gotten past the talking stages. The
latest push ? by a steering committee of 17 that would welcome
more help ? looks like it will succeed where others have failed.
With one of the highest unemployment rates in the state,
Brunswick County needs not only more jobs to offer its people,
but better jobs.
Tourism has been very good to the South Brunswick Islands
and to all of Brunswick County. Many of the visitors it draws to
the area return later to live, sometimes bringing businesses or
other family members with them.
It has boosted sales tax revenues and provided jobs in the
food service, hospitality and recreational fields to replace those
lost in agriculture and on the water.
But the blessing is mixed. Tourism also increases demand on
the local infrastructure ? roads, water systems, law enforcement,
fire and rescue, solid waste collection. Local towns have used
accommodations tax revenues to help offset some of these
added costs, while at the same time promoting more tourism.
While there are continuous efforts to expand the "shoulder"
seasons, tourism is primarily a seasonal venture, as were fishing
and farming for the most part. And many of the associated jobs
don't pay the kind of wages on which one could support a fami
ly
And, in the wake of a natural disaster such as a hurricane, a
local economy based heavily on tourism could be in disarray for
some time.
No community should rely to heavily on a single indus
try ? be it the local towel factory or tourism.
That is why efforts to establish a Committee of 100 warrant
the community's enthusiastic support. Light industry that takes
nothing away from the area's natural beauty and doesn't harm
the environment is very much needed here to create a more bal
anced economy.
Young people ? as well as their parents and grandparents ?
need more employment alternatives if we want them to consider
staying in Brunswick County. And too many of our residents
must commute to jobs outside our borders.
Can a Committee of 100 make a difference? You bet.
The Committee of 100 steering committee suggests taking a
look at Columbus county, where an ailing agriculture-based
economy and out-migration have been a more serious problem
than here.
Since its formation in 1983, that county's Committee of 100
has assisted its Economic Development Committee with most of
the 19 new manufacturing firms that have located there, it has
purchased land for two shell buildings and is purchasing land for
a third one. More than 1,300 new jobs have resulted since 1983.
The numbers also talk on a national level.
According to a 1985 study by the U.S. Department of
Commerce, addition of just 100 manufacturing jobs can make a
big difference in a community. In the U.S. it can mean, on aver
age:
? 64 new non-manufacturing jobs, as follows: 45 in whole
sale, retail, entertainment and recreation; seven in transportation;
three in finance, insurance and real estate; three in business re
pairs and service; three in construction; and three in public ad
ministration.
? A $13 per person reduction in the tax burden;
? Seven new retail establishments;
? A 202 increase in population if all 100 employees are
brought in from outside;
? $1,477,453 in new retail sales; and
? A $245,000 new property tax increase.
Truth Is A Whole Lot Stranger Than Fiction
There's an old saying thai truth is
stranger than fiction.
After three long years in the news
paper business, I'm beginning to be
come a big believer in that statement.
I've never read any fiction that
was stranger than the stuff I read
each week in local newspapers.
If you don't believe me, take a
peak at our crime report. Some of the
stuff in there is just too weird for
somebody to make up.
I've been wanting to write some
thing on this topic for several weeks,
and reading last week's paper was
the straw that broke the proverbial
camel's back.
It seems beavers, the buck-toothed
blue collar workers of the animal
kingdom, are causing big problems
in Brunswick County.
The eager beavers have been
building dams and lodges, stopping
the flow of water in drainage ditches
and causing considerable flooding.
Rutter
Doug
I i
Milton Coleman, director of the
Brunswick County Cooperative
Extension Service, says local people
have reported flooded fields, blocked
canals and timber loss.
Those industrious little rodents
have even built a beaver lodge, not
to be confused with a Moose Lodge,
alongside U.S. 17 near Grisscttown.
When it rains, the highway is flood
ed.
1 thought beavers only did that
kind of stuff in cartoons when they
wanted to get back at humans who
ruined their habitat in the name of
progress, i! apparently happens in re
al life too.
Anyway, officials from
Brunswick, Bladen and Columbus
countics have comc together to form
an alliance against beavers. They
want contributions from the federal
and state governments and timber
companies to control these furry
creatures.
One option under the so-called
"Beaver Pact" is to put a bounty on
the head of every troublesome
beaver in the tri-county area.
No lie. Our elected leaders are ac
tually considering paying hunters
and trappers $25 for each beaver
they catch or kill. 1 haven't been able
to find out if that's S25 with or with
out the pell.
Another alternative being consid
ered is contracting with a trapper to
get rid of the destructive pests. Who
are they going to call? Beaver
Busters?
If you ask me, this whole thing
sounds like a bad episode of
Bonanza, maybe one of the lost
episodes.
1 can see it now. An unshaven
man rides into town on a stately
white horse. A dusty, wide-brimmed
hat casts dark shadows across his
face.
The townsfolk file out of the sa
loon and form a semicircle around
his horse. The man drops a heavy
load of beaver pells at the sheriff's
feet, lips his lid and rides into the
sunset.
"Who was that kindly gent?" asks
Jim the barber.
"That was no kindly gent," the
sheriff mutters. "That was Trapper
Jake, meanest beaver man this side
of the Pecos. He's cleaned up anoth
er county."
You see what I mean. Truth is
stranger than Fiction.
Learning To Play It By Ear Is Never Easy
When mosl people see an ear,
they think of hearing. When they
see a nose, they think of smelling.
Last September, 1 took my ears
and nose in for a 30, 000-mile
checkup. Sneezing fits, sinus
headaches and a bum right ear were
getting the best of me. Some eight
months later, I can write a book
about the nose, ear and faulty
Eustachian tubes.
The doctor stuck things up my
nostrils and shined a light into my
ear. His instruments allowed him to
visit places that I've never even
seen.
They pumped in air to put pres
sure on my ear canal and got this
reading of vibrations behind the
eardrum. My head felt like it would
pop. My fingers dug crevices into
the armrests, brave soul that I am.
They taped both ears forward and
made me hold my cheek against the
glass on an X-ray machine. The ra
diologist ran and hid behind a wall
as the machine took pictures of my
head. That made me feel comfort
able.
I quickly found out that noses
and ears do far more than just smell
and hear. They are complicated and
Terry
Pope 1- .?-+
delicate devices.
To relieve the sinus pressure and
to correct the inner ear problem
would take several steps, two opera
tions and a third one to come.
Hopefully, that will do it.
Brunswick County may be a
beautiful spot, but unfortunately its
climate doesn't do much for sinus
or allergy sufferers. One day last
month, I learned my next door
neighbor had had enough. She has
lived in Maco for over 30 years.
She and her husband suddenly
packed up and moved to Florida, all
because of her sinus condition.
1 called a friend in Chapel Hill
last week and his wife answered the
phone. I thought she was crying un
til I heard her sneeze, twice. Then
she explained how her allergies had
r*
r
her in bed.
These people know about the oth
er things that noses and cars can do.
They can make a grown man cry.
They can make a nature lover curse
Mother Nature herself.
There are ways to fight back.
My doctor showed me a model of
the inner ear and explained in baby
talk just what he planned to do. In
medical terminology, it was a septo
plasty, turbinate extraction and tym
panoplasty with mastoidectomy that
he scheduled for two trips to the
hospital. Some of the procedures
were done only to aid the healing of
other procedures, he said.
But back to the baby talk. There
is a set of canals that connects the
ear, nose and throat running through
the head. When they work right,
fluid in the canals should drain and
the head should feel okay.
When they don't, you've got con
stant pressure. You've got a
headache this big, as the man on the
television commercial says. You
will also have clogged up
Eustachian tubes that can affect the
hearing in your ears, your equilibri
um and finally, when you're just
tired of it all, your personality.
This spring, the pollen returned.
The winter weeks spent with a
plugged up nose and car have been
worth it, as far as the nose is con
cerned. Spring months can be a
nightmare for people with sinus
conditions.
I've also discovered that there are
many more sinus sufferers out there
than I ever knew existed, acting as
an informal support group. Some
share their success stories with me
while others say they haven't the
nerve to fight back. They always
ask if it is worth it. Let me answer
that by describing this brief moment
in May.
While driving home last week, I
crossed the run of Pinch Gut
Swamp, an appropriate name, just
south of Bolivia on U.S. 17. 1 had
my car windows rolled down and in
swept this aroma of sweet wildflow
ers, possibly honeysuckles, growing
by the thousands along the creek
there.
Normally, I probably would have
started sneezing. My eyes would
have watered, blurring my vision of
the highway.
However, this time I kept my
sight on the road ahead.
After All, What's In A Name?
There was a time when I wished
desperately (seems kind of silly
now) to live near where my mother
grew up on Midway Road, between
Bolivia and Southport.
Then, 1 could draw myself up
straight at the question "Where do
you live?" and answer, "Half Hell."
They could then quip something
smart back, like, "That figures" or
"I should have known better than to
ask."
While it wouldn't do in market
ing a fancy resort, truth is, I liked
the name, just as my mother liked
wandering down to the branch and
playing there as a young girl.
Up in Caswell County there's a
place locals call Hell's Half Acre.
Makes you wonder, doesn't it.
I've never been there, but it's just
one of the fascinating place names
preserved in William Powell's The
North Carolina Gazeteer. 1 took a
course in North Carolina history
from Powell in 1971, the year
Smithville Township contemplated
Susan
Usher
becoming the state's 101st county.
We had lively class discussions that
year, to say the least
He was a witty, wise and a thor
ough researcher, so I jumped for the
book at first sight. There, in dictio
nary form, are names of North
Carolina places, past and present ?
all that he could come up with and
that is a considerable number.
You can tell there were no cham
bers of commerce or tourism bu
reaus around in the stale's early
days. Otherwise, surely we
wouldn't have places named A ho
(Watauga County) or Worry (Burke
County). There's even a place
called Rabbit Shuffle.
But Sampson County has its Easy
Street, which sounds like an invit
ing place to visit. But what about
Matrimony Creek (because it was
"noisy and impetuous") or Bach
elor's Delight Swamp.
There are also 13 towns, creeks
or rivers called New Hope.
An early circuit rider named one
rough Buncombe County communi
ty Sodom Hollow, but the state also
has a Faith, a Hope and a Charity,
not to mention Wit, Candor and
Intelligence.
Beavers, now making a whale of
a comeback locally, must have been
very abundant at some point in the
Tar Heel State's past. What else ex
plains there being at least 102
places named after beaver? Of the
animal kingdom, only bears have
them beat, with 148 places.
We have ? pull out your maps
and start counting ? 64 Beaver
dams, the nearest I know of being in
Columbus County. Of these 64, 28
are Beaverdam Creeks. Wake
County alone has four of those.
It's something to think about.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Fire/ Rescue Tax , Whose Idea ?
To the editor:
After seeing the May 9 edition of the Beacon , the
main headline struck home with mixed emotions.
"County Likes Southport's Idea On Fire/Rescue Tax
Districts." I feel that tax districts are the way of the fu
ture for our fire/rescue departments. Increased revenues
from forming tax districts are vital to our future needs.
Building is increasing, our elderly population is
growing, and tourism is booming. Residents and visi
tor alike deserve improved emergency protection.
Unlike some taxes that residents see little or no effect
from, improvement in the fire departments alone can
reduce home insurance premiums by as much as SI 50
per household. Not to mention lives saved by being
able to buy new modern medical equipment. That
would definitely show results from tax dollars.
I have sat on the board of directors of the
Fire/Rescue Association for the past TA years and am
in my second term as president. In all that time I can't
remember even once that one of the county commis
sioners joined our board meetings. Even attempted
meetings with them were either put off or we were
politely put aside. Explanations like "it won't work"
or they won't go for it" are heard from county offi
cials when we mentioned tax districts.
With 31 fire and rescue departments and over 600
volunteers, we have plenty of good ideas that should
be heard. These dedicated men and women have been
protecting their communities for decades. They have a
wealth of knowledge and experience that is unequaled
in Brunswick County. Just below that headline was a
photo of three firefighters from Civietown (my de
partment) and Tri-Beach VFD. They had just put out a
blaze from an 18-whccler. This photo didn't show the
eight or ten firefighters or equipment that was sup
porting them. Since this call was around 3:30 in the
afternoon, most of these men (including myself) left
their jobs to answer this alarm. If the hourly wages
lost by all the volunteers in a year's time were added
up, I'm sure the total would make the next big head
line. And this docs not include the hundreds of hours
of training. The $13,500 we get from the county
won't even pay the bills so more hours are spent fund
raising just to make ends meet.
No, ihe idea of tax districts may not be new to us,
but the fact that the county "likes" it is good news.
Please encourage your area officials to support it. And
if they need a few good ideas just call 754-9024. We
would be glad to help.
A1 Nord, President
Brunswick County Fire/Rescue Association
(Letters Continue On Following Page)