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Thirtieth Year, Number 1 3
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C1WITH! MUNS WICK MACON
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Shallotte, North Carolina, Thursday, January 30, 1992
50c Per Copy
30Pages, 3 Sections, 2 Inserts
Two Teens Die In Bricklanding Fire
a lire that swept through an aban
doned home near Bricklaniling Satu
rday morning killed two teen-age
brothers who were asleep inside.
A third teen-ager managed to c.>
cane ihoiipli he was harllv burned
I ? ? o ' J - -
and later transported to the N.C.
Jaycccs Bum Center at UNC Hos
pitals in Chapel Hill. His condition
was listed as serious Tuesday, ac
cording to Liz Baker, public affairs
officer.
Killed in the blaze were Michael
Henry Tate, 13, and Gary Wayne
Tate, 14, both of Route 9, Shallotlc.
A third occupant, Frank Mogyorosi
Jr., 16, managed to flee the structure.
According to Brunswick County
Sh-fifY's S<7! Charles N4!l!cr's rc
porv, Uic v'jCuiiis wlic liic sons ul
JaKe and Sara Jane Clem, of Route
9.
The three boys had spent the
night in the 50-year-old fishinc
shack that caught fire sometime
Saturday moming, possibly from a
small fire the boys had set to keep
warm.
The building was located on
Goose Creek Road (S.R. 1155),
about .2 of a mile from Bricklanding
Road (N.C. 179), arid adjaccnt to
Stanley's Mobile Home Park. The
community is loeated between
Shallotte and Ocean Isle Beach.
A neighbor. Don Kelly, saw
llames coming from the building
around 10 a.m.. Miller reported, and
told his wife, Susan, to call the fire
department. Kelly jumped a fence
and rushed to the building where
Mogyorosi was standing outside
screaming, "Help me get my friends
out."
"The house was fully engulfed
when the fire department arrived,"
said Miller.
Kelly told deputies that he tried to
Kn{ {ho fl??rr*r?v
too hot. He >aid N'ogyoro&i was
badly burned and was incoherent
when he arrived.
Neighbors took the teen-ager to
the highway, where they attended to
him and waited for the Shalloue
Volunteer Rescue Squad to arrive.
Miller stated.
Volunteers from Shallotte Point
Volunteer Fire Department battled
the blaze. The badly-bumed bodies
were found at what appeared to be
the front of the three-room fishing
shack, said Miller.
The bodies were transported to
The Brunswick Hospital in Supply
around 1 2r n m., where dental
records were used to identify the
victims.
Mogyorosi can be reached at the
N.C. Jaycccs Bum Center, UNC
Hospital, Manning Drive, Chapel
Hill, NC 27514.
Fire Victim Still In
Serious Condition
BY SUSAN USHKR
More than n week after her escape
from a burning automobile, Shal
lottc resident Betty Harrelson re
mains in serious condition at the
N.C. Jaycccs Bum Center at UNC
Hospital in Chapel Hill.
"Everything is going about as
good as can be expected," said her
husband, W Iton Harrelson, Tuesday
afternoon fr >m the center's family
wailing room. "Their main concern
(See FIRE, Page 2- A)
Planning Board's New Policy
BY TERRY POPE
Brunswick County's Planning Board now has a for
mal policy thai restricts the backing of cars from pri
vate driveways and onto the county's busiest streets.
The board had previously judged new subdivisions
individually to sec if lots along busy roads should have
turnaround areas to help avoid future traffic accidents.
Although it had been a controversial requirement
placed on certain subdivisions for a number of years, it
had never been approved in writing as an official plan
ning board policy.
"We haven't ever formalized it in the sense of vot
ing on it," said Michael Schaub, planning board chair
man. "From a consumer's standpoint in the county, it
makes sense to me."
In December, former county commissioner Benny
Ludlum challenged a 1986 turnaround restriction the
planning board placed on a subdivision he is develop
ing along Oxpen Road near Holden Beach.
Commissioners voted 4-1 to override the planning
board and to lift the deed restriction but later reversed
its vote. Although commissioners admitted they had
acted too quickly in lifting the requirement, their sec
ond vote came too late to affect Ludlum's Lakeside
project.
Ludlum argued that the county's subdivision ordi
nance states nothing about a turnaround provision and
that the planning board was discriminating against cer
tain developers by requiring it of some and not requir
ing it of others.
Planning Director John Harvey said he met with
County Attorney David Clcgg shortly alter that De
cember controversy to help draft the policy statement
that affects direct frontage lots on either a major or mi
nor thoroughfare street as noted on the county's most
recent thoroughfare plan.
Highways N.C. 130, N.C. 133, N.C. 87, U.S. 17,
Midway Road, N.C. 211, N.C. 904 and Old George
town Road are outlined on the plan as major thorough
fares.
Minor thoroughfares include N.C. 179, Ocean Isle
Beach Road, Village Point Road, Gray Bridge Road,
Sea Shore Road, Stone Chimney Road, Stanbury Road,
CRC Rejects Holden Land Use Plan
BY DOUG RUTTKR
Holden Bcach officials will prob
ably feel like throwing a party when
they finally gel the bugs worked out
of their land use plan update.
For now, though, they're not in a
partying mood.
The planning document that was
supposed to be finished and
approved 18 months ago is
causing them as much ag
gravation as ever.
Last Thursday, the N.C.
Coastal Resources Com
mission rejected the plan af
ter town commissioners re
fused to make three changes
requested by the state.
Town Manager Gary Parker said
the coastal commission wants the
town to make the revisions oudmcd
by its staff and resubmit the plan in
March.
Asked to make the three revi
sions, town commissioners voted at
their meeung last Wednesday to
stick with the document adopted in
i>ec ember.
Immediately after the meeting,
Parker left for Atlantic Bcach, where
he read and presented a letter from
the town board to the CRC's plan
ning and special issues committee
Thursday.
Signed by Mayor Wally Ausley,
the letter said the town board feels
"We've been through a lot
on this thing , and it's hard
to believe we're not over
with it vet."
? Town Manager Gary Parker
the land use plan update "accurately
reflects the desires of the town" and
asks for "favorable consideration"
by the commission.
Haskell Rhett, planning and ac
cess coordinator with the N.C.
Division of Coastal Management in
Wilmington, had recommended re
visions to the plan in a Jan. 15
memo to the town manager.
Two of the suggested changes re
late to the definition of the Conser
vation land category and the need
for a new category called Conser
vation Special Use.
The plan adopted by the town,
said Rhett, would prohibit develop
ment along the cstuarinc shoreline
except for piere, docks and
ga/.ebos. Those are the only
forms of building allowed in ar
eas classified as Conservation.
Rhett said the plan would
stop building within 75 feet of
the mean high water mark
along the Atlantic Intracoastal
Waterway and finger canals.
He suggested a second class
known as Conservauon Special Use
which would allow construction of
homes and other structures in those
areas of environmental concern
(AECs) where building is permitted.
"I don't feci they are understand
ing," Rhett said after last week's
CRC meeting. "I think they feel
there is something sinister or under
(SeeCRC. Page 2-A)
LOWER GRADES SHOW GAINS
'Report Card ' Rates County
Schools Near Bottom Aqain
HY SUSAN USHER
For the second consecutive year, Brunswick County
Schools rate below state average in student achievement
and below par overall when compared with similar
schools statewide.
The local school system received its sccond "report
card" from the N.C. Department of Public Instruction
this week. Out of 133 school systems it was one of 17 to
score below average and below par in 1991 Last year it
was one of 12 such systems statewide.
"We did move, we did improve, but just not as much
as I had hoped," said Donna
Baxter, chairman o! the
Brunswick County Board of
Education. She met with
Superintendent PR. Hankins
and other school system ad
ministrators Monday to re
view the report card results.
"We can't fix it overnight."
"It's heartbreaking." she
said. "We have the money, the facilities, the teachcrs.,.1
think we have to change the attitude. It has to be a 'we
can,' not a maybe' and we have to stop making excus
es."
The system's greatest problems arc at the high school
level, she said, where students did not show the gains in
performance seen at the elementary level.
System administrators reviewed report card results
with all principals Monday.
"We told them some things are going to change." she
said. "They're being asked to look at classes and see
where the teachers need help."
If the changes needed aren't forthcoming, she predict
ed, comparing the school system's situation to a student
who's received a bad report card, "There's going to be
some groundings."
Ms. Baxter said she believes that report card results
will show even greater improvement next year and be
yond when new efforts such as outcome-based educa
tion, Reading Recovery and the new school improve
ment team approach begin bearing more fnnt.
"These things arc working," she said. "We moved at a
snail's pace. I'd like to think we are like cenujxde
grass? the first year it's just there, the second year it
creeps and the third year it
leaps. Tliis past year we have
crept."
When the school board
meets next Monday night,
Ms. Baxter said the school
system administration will
present its plan for making
gains. Possibilities may be
using higher-ability students
in a peer tutoring program or offering teachers addition
al incentives for improved student performance The re
port card is an annual assessment of each local system's
efforts to improve student performance, the state depart
ment's response to Senate Bill 2, the School
Improvement and Accountability Act. A school gets a
comprehensive summary of its current and overall (past
three years) level of achievement in four subject areas,
reading/language, math, social studies and science, and
how that achievement relates to state accreditation stan
dards.
An "index of lujvantapement" allows a school system
(See REPORT. Page 2-A)
'7 think we have to change
the attitude . It has to he a
'we can,' not a maybe."
? Donna Baxter, Chairman
Board of Education
Victim's Family Circulating
Petition For Local Overpass
HY DOUG RUTTER
The family of a man who died
ihr^P mnnlho orrr* i r* a {rnfftf 0.C*! .
VS Iliuiiuu UbV< 1*1 U UW >
e'ent on the U.S. P Shalloue bypass
is circulating a petition calling for an
overpass at the site of the wreck.
They hope the petition, which is
reportedly receiving strong commu
nity support, will be presented by lo
cal officials to the N.C. Board of
Transportation when it meets this
spring at Sunset Beach, said Hilda
Smith of Ash.
Her husband, Steve Smith, was
killed Nov. 1 in a tragic accident
where the bypass intersects N.C.
130 West Wost Rnmswick Hi?h
School student Misty Dawn Car
michael also was killed.
The accident happened when a
log truck traveling south on the by
pass allegedly failed to stnn for a red
light and struck the Smith and Car
michael vehicles as they were cross
ing the bypass on N.C. 130.
The fatal wreck revived talk in
the community of the need for an
overpass at the intersection, w hich is
near the high school.
An overpass was discussed when
the hvmss w;*s horns' designed, hut
stale officials never included it in
th'e plans becausc it would have
been costly and caused delays in
construction.
Since the fatal accident, the N.C\
Department of Transportation hits
made several safety improvements at
the intersection. It also has started a
design study that will help state offi
cials decide if an overpass is needed.
(See VICTIM'S, ra?e 2-A)
Outlines Controversial Rule
Sunset Harbor Road, Pea Landing Road, Ash-Little
River Road, Daw's Creek Road, Lanvale Road, Village
Road, Cedar Hill Road, Navassa Road, Mt. Misery
Road and Northwest Road.
The policy states that the planning board "will
make a determination as to whether the Iols are big
enough so as to allow for a production passenger vehi
cle to complete a three-point turn within the perimeters
of the lots."
A three-point turn provision must allow for vehicle
backing space as defined in the driver's handbook of
the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles. On smaller lots,
turnarounds take up room that could be used as build
ing or septic tank space.
The planning board had the option of approving the
requirement either as part of the the 1992 Brunswick
County Subdivision Ordinance or as part of new zon
ing laws. By law, Clegg determined the planning board
was "well within its right to make such requirement"
under the subdivision rules.
However, as pan of the subdivision ordinance the
county has less power to enforce the requirement.
Clcgg noicd. A subdivision ordinance is "pro-active in
nature, rather than prohibitive in nature," the attorney
noted.
Pro-active means it focuses on the positive rather
than the negative, explained Harvey.
Local governments cannot regulate deed restric
tions. However, property owners associations or land
owners in a subdivision have the courts to turn to when
a deed restricuon is ignored by an individual property
owner.
"If it were a requirement of a zoning ordinance,"
noted Harvey, "it could be enforced."
Commissioners have instructed the planning stall
to develop a countywidc zoning ordinance for adoption
in 1992.
Saying it was never intended as a law, but rather as
a consumer protection measure, the planning board
voted unanimously to approve the policy as part of its
subdivision review procedure.
Board member Alfonza Roach, who is co-develop
er of the Lakeside project with Ludlum. was absent at
last Wednesday's meeting.
STAff PHOTO BY DOUG RUTH It
Welcomed Visitors
Mr. and Mrs. Hilly Kay Matthews of Holden Beach were guaranteed as warm welcome Saturday as
they arrived on the strand with a loaf of bread to share. The couple found this sunny spot near
Surfsule Pavilion just right.