Questions To Be Posed In
Optional Exit
Polling
by 1 1 Kin rori:
County residents heading to the poll
Nov. 5 may choose 1101 to vote on the three
non-binding questions Brunswick County
Conunissioners want answers to
Votes on county zoning, lire and rescue
tax districts ami non-partisan school hoard
elections will be counted by hand in an exit
poll, rather than cast on the official ballots.
"No person is under any obligation to
complete the poll." said Lynda Britt.
Brunswick County Board ol Elections su
pervisor.
Ms. Britt said placing non-binding issues
on an official ballot concerned both her and
County Attorney David Clcgg. The
Brunswick County Board of Elections de
cided Monday to have jxill workers give
the non-binding ballots only to those who
want thorn.
On the official ballot, voters will elect
municipal candidates and vote on two
binding issues one asking il commission
ers' terms should be shortened from lour
years to two ami another asking voters to
approve a redistricting plan chosen last
week.
Alter voters have marked their official
ballots and put them in the machines, they
may choose to take a ballot containing the
three non-binding questions.
Commissioners are not required to abide
by the outcome of the non-binding vote.
"They're calling it a non-binding refer
endum," said Ms. Britt. "In reality, it's a
poll."
A table will be marked with a sign at
each polling place indicating where to ob
" They're calling it a
non-binding referendum.
In reality, it's a poll."
Lynda Britt, Supervisor
B.C. Board of Elections
lain the exit poll. The non-binding issues
will be printed on oversized ballots so vot
ers cannot accidentally place thein in the
machines that automatically count votes,
said Ms. Brill.
Instead, those ballots will be dropped in
to a locked box and counted by hand, alter
the official votes are all in. Like the regular
ballots, residents will be asked to draw hi
an arrow indicating their vole.
"We could not really figure out another
way," said \1s. Brilt. "It's almost locked 111
where our (poll) workers are going to have
to deal with this issue."
(Slcnda Walker, Hoard at Elections
chairperson, said her main concern with an
exit poll in |>ossible public criticism billow
ing the vote. People may claim they didn't
see the exit poll, or that they became loo
contused at the time to vole, she said.
Fortunately, the polls should be less con
tusing during a municipal election year,
added Ms. liriti.
"Turnout will not be like it is in a maior
election," said Ms. Brill. "Normally, in this
type ol election, we don't have a line, ex
cept maybe at Calabash or Long Beach."
t ummissioners want input on whether
(lie county should enact a countywide zon
ing ordinance to regulate land use in all
unincorporated areas ol Brunswick County,
effective on or before Jan. I. I 'W.V
Other lion binding questions will ask.
voters it members to the Brunswick
County Board ol l-ducation should be cho
sen m non-partisan elections, as they were
at one nine.
Another question asks it commissioners
should establish live countv service dis
tricts to fund lire protection, ambulance
service, rescue service and emergency
medical services ellecuve July 1. 1W2.
Such districts would allow the county to
levy taxes on property value within a dis
trict, w ith the money earmarked for volun
teer uniLs in that particular district.
THE RD'imcw/ick# BEACON
Twenty-ninth Year, Number 47
cim ursdoy, September 26, 1991 50c Per Copy 38 Pages, 3 Sections, 1 Insert
1 1 " f Sunset Bridge Repairs Strand
iJ; " Union Driver. Three Students
M ? 'Wiiifl. ^ Ml
?i
SIAH PHOTO oy sus?m USMIR
H ETWEES 50 and 60 vehicles leave Sunset Beach around 6:30 p.m. Monday after the bridge was
shut down iihont three hours for renairs. It was the first time a school has had been stranded on the is
land since January J 9 '15.
Calabash Planners Ignore Pleas To Return
my not <; ui ri'KR
Calabash Planning Board Vice
Chairman Pali Lewellyn has agreed
to serve on the board a month alter
signing her name to a joint letter ol
resignation submitted by seven
planning board members.
But the six other appointees who
resigned clue to con 11 ic is between
the planning board and town com
missioners have apparently ignored
recent pleas to return to the board.
At a joint meeting last Wednes
day, Mayor Pro Tcm George And
erson and town commissioners
asked planning board members who
resigned en masse Aug. 27 to put
aside past differences and continue
serving to the board.
Anderson, who is acting as may
or in the absence ol Mayor Doug
Simmons, gave planners until the
end ol last week to decide whether
they would return or slick with their
earlier decision to resign.
Anderson said Tuesday that Mrs.
Lewellyn was the only board mem
ber who responded. "Outside that, 1
haven't heard from a soul," he said.
In their three-page letter of resig
nation, planning board members
Local Big
BY DOUG R UTTER
Volunteers who took part in the
Big Sweep Saturday found local
beaches littered witii hundreds of
beverage containers and, by one es
timate, enough cigarette bulls to fill
a tobacco barn.
More than 250 people turned out
to bag litter in the South Brunswick
Islands alone Saturday morning
during the statewide cleanup of
coastal beaches and inland lakes
and streams.
"We were really pleased with the
response that came from those
beaches," said Lundie Spencc, ma
rine education specialist with UNC
Sea Grant who help coordinate the
cleanup.
Based on early estimates from
state and local organizers, volun
teers collected more than two tons
of trash in Brunswick County, one
of 90 North Carolina counties that
took part in this year's event.
The 150 volunteers at Ocean Isle
Beach bagged approximately 2,(*K)
pounds of trash, according to c?*?r
dinator Hayden O'Neil.
Sunset Beach attracted 71 volun
teers who turned in 37 partially-lull
'7 don t see any
change in the faith
that you have in us
and I have in you."
? Tom Brendgord, chairman
Calabash Planning Board
said there was a lack of support and
guidance from the town commis
sioners who appointed them and
ptxir communication between the
two groups.
Commissioners haven't formally
accepted the resignations of
Chairman Tom Brendgord, Vice
Chairman Lcwellyn and planning
board members Warren Pienack,
Frank Chancier, Bruce Bunt, Forrest
King and Jack llannaway.
In response to the letter, however,
commissioners adopted a "state
ment of direction" earlier tins
month setting forth new policies
and guidelines for the two boards.
At last week's joint meeting.
Commissioner Ray Card encour
aged planning board members to
continue serving lor 120 days to see
if the two boards could \sork out
their differences.
"There's a lot of gotnl people,
and I would hate to see il all go
down the drain over a lew words,"
he said.
Card said the boards would have
to keep in close communication and
hold joint meetings to keep in touch
and work out problems as soon as
they arise. "We don't wail until it
festers like a mushroom and e.\
pkxles," he said.
However. Brendgord said last
week that the "statement of direc
tion" was a work direction program
and didn't address the basic issues
in the planning hoard's letter ol rcs
ignation.
"I don't see any change in the
faith that you have in us and 1 have
in you," Brendgord said.
Based on discussion last week,
commissioners and planning board
members agreed that poor commu
nication between lioards has been
the biggest problem.
(See I'LANNKKS, Page 2-A>
BY SI SAN I SHI R
Union Primary School bus driver Cynthia Mill was
near the end ol her route Monday when she and the
three remaining children on Bus 174 ran into a de
lay ? an adventure of sorts, though not the kind she'd
care to see repeated.
Alter making two stops on the island at Sunset
Beach, the bus was stopped short at the pontoon bridge
to the mainland. Before the bridge opened again, the
line would grow to more than 50 vehicles transporting
vacationers and day workers.
Bridgetender Howard M in was closing the span
around 3 p.m. when the cable jammed on its "shiv," or
pulley and wouldn't budge, said Buddy Scoggins ol the
bridge maintenance office. The pulley had to be re
placed. which ttx>k about two hours ol work, plus travel
time for Scoggins' crew of six men.
Headlights were shining through a heavy drizzle by
the lime traffic began to move across the bridge again
around 6: V) p.m.
The bus sUmxI empty, its driver and passengers tem
pi 'ran ly away.
Jell Potter was anxious. Here was the bus. but
where was his daughter.' When the bus was I 1/2 hours
late he had called the school bus garage, the first to no
tify them of the overdue bus.
Suddenly Bus 174 cranked up and headed across the
bridge, with Potter hurrying behind through the rain
with the child's knapsack he had taken a lew minutes
earlier from the bus. He met the bus at the foot of the
r
bridge.
Ms. Hill was near the end ol the route. Her seven
year-old son Mane/ and two other children were the
only passengers involved in the delay.
"it wasn't too had." said Ms. Hill, who began driv
ing a seliix)! bus nine years ago as a high school sopho
more and is on the Sunset Beach route lor the fifth year
"it was kids I knew from last year. It makes a difference
when you know them and thev are used to being with
you.
"I just talked to the children arx>ui it and then 1
helped them with their homework. Then they started to
gel restless and wanted to leave the bus."
She and her charges stretched and walked around a
lew minutes. B\ then the youngsters were beginning to
wonder when they would get home and il it would eet
dark be lore they left the island.
Stranded on the causeway just south of the bridge.
Ms, Hill couldn't leave the youngsters to make her way
back to the island to call anyone. She had to wait for a
rule that could carry all four v I Uieni.
About that utile workers .ma island lesiuenls *.a.
to their aid.
A Sunset Beach police officer got the hus number
and radioed the county ol its whereabouts. A man
named "Mike" from Elheridge Pest Control Co. in
quired about their well-being and bought a round of soft
drinks and a big bag of potato chips.
After supper Carol Pessolano and her children were
(See DKIVKK. Page 2- A)
Lewis Replaced On
Jcrrv Lewis of Shallotte has been replaced alter
serving 14 years as a member of the N.C. Envi
ronmental Management Commission.
Gov. Jim Martin last week ap|x)intcd Lawrence R.
Zucchino of Raleigh to replace
Lewis on the state panel, which
establishes rules to protect water
ami air resources.
"1 didn't pursue it," Lewis
said of the appointment. "If I had
been re-appointed, 1 probably
would have resigned in a year or
two anyway."
The semi-retired engineer said v\vis
he enjoyed serving on the state ' * '
panel but was "relieved" that he wasn't re-appointed.
He lix>ks forward to doing more traveling and fishing
now that has has the time.
"I have no problem with it a! all," he said. "It's a
vers time-consuming commission, a lot more so than
it used to be."
Lewis said he was hoping someone from
State Commission
Brunswick County would be chosen to take his place
on the commission because main of the issues it tack
les affect the coast.
During his years on the panel, some of the accom
plishments include adoption of air quality regulations,
rules for underground gas storage tanks and stormwa
ter runoff regulations that ha.e el fee ted coastal devel
opment.
Lewis' replacement. Zucchino. is a landscape ar
chitect and former member of the EMC. He is a mem
ber of the Ecological Society of America, the
American Society of Landscape Architects and the
Urban Land Institute.
Commission Chairman Charles L. Maker, an engi
neer from Charlotte, was the only member who was
re-appointed last week.
Other appointees are newcomers F.dwin Andrews
III. a hydrologist from Raleigh: Dennis Lollin. a
tanner from Denton: and Richard W'atkins. director of
the Environmental Policy and Studies Center at
Catawba Valley Community College in Hickory.
All ol die appointees will serve until June >0. I4W7,
except Andrews, whose term expires in ll?"s.
Sweep Volunteers Find Bottles, Cans And Butts
" There aren't this
many butts in a
cigarette factory."
? Winnie Riley
Big Sweep volunteer
hays of liner. The Holden Beach
Bcaulilicaiion Committee had 37
volunteers who gathered about 828
pounds of trash during its private
cleanup.
Sunset Beach
Sunset Beach drew about 61 vol
unteers who helped clean up the
strand and another 10 who picked
up the hags of litter and prepared a
hot dog lunch for participants, said
coordinator Clctus Waldmiller.
Richard and Winnie Riley, who
recently moved to the Calabash area
from Stony Point, N.Y., were
among those who found a lot of
cigarette bulls.
"We want to keep it fresh for our
grandchildren," Mrs. Riley said as
she scoured the beach on her hands
and knees. 'There aren't this many
butts in a cigarettc factory. "
Another volunteer, Dorothy
Wilson of Calabash Acres, said she
grew tired of counting all the
cigarette bulls and recording them
on her data card. "I finally gave up.
I just put hundreds. It's ridiculous."
State coordinators don't know the
number of cigarette butts that were
lound Saturday, but they do know
they were a common find.
Ms. Spcnce said most people
think cigarette butts are pa|>er and
will go away if they are left in the
sand. Bui filters arc actually made
from plastic and can be dangerous
to wildlife.
Waldmiller said volunteers filled
five bags w ith bottles, cans and oih
er trash ai one s|h>i thai apparently
has been used for partying. "Ii was
kind of hidden behind the frontal
dune," he said.
Olher finds ai Sunset Beach in
cluded candy wrappers, a home
made shovel found and a current
driver's license that was turned over
to the police department. I he owner
of the license is a Mooresville man.
Waldmiller said nine people
(See VOI.l'NTKKRS, Page 2-\)
mam photo h* Susan ush??
VV/.VY//- RILEY h as one of about 60 volunteers who picked up cigarette butts, plastic and other litter
at Sunset Reach Saturday.