Newspapers / The Brunswick Beacon (Shallotte, … / Jan. 30, 1992, edition 1 / Page 2
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CRC Rejects Plan (Continued From Page 1-A) handed going on here and there's not." Rhett also asked the town to delete a policy statement supporting a jetty at the cast end of the island, which he said cannot be included in the plan because it's inconsistent with state policy. "I can clearly tell them that it would be in their best interest to go ahead and make the changes," Rhett said. "1 can't understand why they're balking at this." Holden Beach Commissioners in dicated at their meeting last week that they arc frustrated with the land use plan update process and fed up with Rhett. "1 feci betrayed by the whole thing," Commissioner David Sand i|cr said. "I think Haskell Rhett has soccn a master of misinformation and created more problems for the town than he's solved." The letter from the town board described the plan as "perhaps the most scrutinized and discussed issue ever to be approved by our town." Commissioners also pointed out all of the work put into the plan. 'This product represents much hands on work by our planning and zoning board. They have physically driven and walked each property shown on the maps." Parker said at last week's town meeting he had talked with Rhett earlier this month about the number of corrections state officials have re quested. "You could spend a lifetime going over this word by word and para graph by paragraph," Parker said. "We' ve been through a loi on this thing, and it's iiarii iu uelicvc we're not over with it ycL" Holdcn Beach officials have been working on the land use plan update since November 1989, when Henry Von Ocscn md Associates of Wilmington was hired to act as con sulting engineer. Three separate town boards and four town managers have dealt with the plan in one lorm or another dur ing the update process, which was expected to be finished in mid- 1990. Commissioners adopted the plan for the first time last August, but it was returned when state officials found conflicts between the land classification and town zoning maps. It asked the town to make the two consistent and resubmit. Following several revisions, the town board adopted an updated ver sion of the plan in Dccembcr. Several of those later revisions prompted recommendations from Rhea. Commissioners made several changcs before adopting the plans, but not the changcs Rhctt had sug gested. Besides the new faces at town hall, Rhcu said staff changcs at Von Ocscn also contributed to the delays. Four different consulting planners have worked on the plan since fall 1 989. Holdcn Bcach officials will have to wait at least another two months to get their plan before the CRC for final certification. The coastal commission's next meeting will be March 26 and 27 at Wrightsvillc Bcach. Holdcn Beach's 1985 land use plan will remain in effect until the 1990 plan is certified. Fire Victim Betty Harrelson Still In Serious Condition (Continued From Page 1-A) now is her respiratory system." Mrs. Harrelson, of Bluff Drive, was admitted to the burn ccntcr Jan. 20 with first- and sccond-dcgree bums over approximately 20 percent of her body. She sustained the burns when her car rolled backward off an embankment adjoining the family's carport and caught fire. Tuesday Mrs. Harrelson was be ing treated for a touch of pneumo nia," which Harrelson said is not that uncommon in such cases. 'The injury to the lungs is worse than they had expected and the u. ~ ? 11 AMn t. ? i 1. uui iij vii 4* oiiiaii iuva \j i i iv- i uatn ait worse than they had first thought," he continued. He said his wife is be ing kept heavily sedated and that her condition is "still serious". Last Wednesday she was taken off the ventilator that had been in place sincc her admission, but was reconnected to it about 24 hours lat er. Her condition turned critical in an episode last Friday in which her pulse rale "went out of sight" and her blood pressure fell to near zero. "They didn't know what hap pened," said Harrelson. "The doc tors were very frustrated. They didn't know what to do." A heart catheter now allows clos er monitoring of her condition. "Tell people that we're very grateful for all the cards and the concern everybody's expressed and to jiisl keep us in your prsycrs, scud Harrelson. "I'm trying to be opti mistic. They think she's about on schedule in terms of progress. Hope fully she will begin to respond more to ucauTicr.i sccr.. Harrelson is also spending lime with Frank Mogyorosi Jr., a 16- year old county resident who was admit ted to the bum center Saturday night following a fire at Bricklanding in which two other teen-agers were killed. Mogyorosi is also in serious condition. "He's doing good, loo," said Harrelson. Weather Returning To Normal The South Brunswick Islands should be settling in to a more nor ma! pattern of temperatures and rainfall in the next week, said Jackson Canady, local meteorolo gist. Temperatures should remain near normal, while precipitation will be "somewhat above average," Canady said. He expects about three-fourths of an inch of rain to fall in the next week. Temperatures should be in the mid 3Cte at night and in the mid SOs during the day, said Canady. "We won't be seeing anything unusual for this time of year." For the period Jan. 21 through 27, the rnnxinvjm dsyiimc ternpenuure was 65 degrees, recorded on Jan. 23, and the minimum evening tempera ture was 24 degrees, recorded on Jan. 25. The daytime average temperature was 59 degrees and the evening av erage was 35 degrees, for a daily av erage temperature of 47 degrees. That reading is two degrees above average, Canady said. Canady measured .36 of an inch of rain at his Shallotte Point resi dence. r HOW TO SUBSCRIBE TO i THE BRiiNSWICK&BEACON | POST OFFICE BOX 2558 SHALLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA 28459 ^NOTICE: Reliable or consistent delivery cannot be ii guaranteed since this newspaper must rely on the U.S. Postal Service for delivery. We can only guarantee that \your newspaper will be submitted to the post office in Shallotte on Wednesday of the week of publication, in time for dispatch to out-of-town addresses that day. ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL; Sr. Citizen In Brunswick County ?6.30 Q5.30 N.C. Sales Tax .38 .32 Postage Charge 3.68 3.68 TOTAL 10.36 9.30 Elsewhere In North Carolina ;J6.30 U5.30 N.C. Sales Tax .38 .32 Postage Charge 8.18 8.18 TOTAL 14.86 13.80 Outside North Carolina ^6.30 115.30 Postage Charge 9.65 9.65 TOTAL 15.95 14.95 Complete And Return To Above Address I Name I Address J City, State I Zip I County Gears Up For 1 994 Tax BY TKRRY POPE Brunswick County Commission ers will decidt~ne*4-?nonth whether lo conduct an in house 1994 property tax v revaluation or to contract the A ? work out to a M ^ private firm. I'# 0' It is a long w and complicated two-year pro cess that must begin in March, said Brunswick WILLIAMSON County Tax A(j. ministrator Boyd Williamson. Tax values will likely increase for county property owners in 1994, but the cost of performing an eight-year revaluation will also rise, he predict ed. The 19H6 revaluation conducted by W.P. Ferris Inc. cost the county S400,0tX). The second lowest bid that year was S575,(MX). "The likelihood that we can do an in-housc evaluation for S400.000 is slim," said Williamson. "That some one would bid a contract at $400,000 is unlikely today." County officials are also con cerned about shrinking space at the goverrjr.er.t ccr.tcr in Col i via. Those hired to do the rcvaluauon need of fice spacc that is not available. Portable trailer spacc may be need ed. "We don't have room to function under normal circumstances," said Williamson. Commissioners are expected to solve the puzzle in February when Williamson is to attend the commis sioners' regular meetings to explain the advantages and disadvantages of both in-housc and contracted revalu ations. Although the county tax office has never conducted its own revalu ation, it now has the capability, if additional personnel and computer equipment is also purchased, said Williamson. Some work would still have to be subcontracted. "I don't think there's anybody in Brunswick County that may be able to do an appraisal on Du Pont," said Williamson. "There's no one here that qualified." Corps: No Plans To ? BY DORI COSGROVF. GURGANUS The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers doesn't plan to dredge Shallotie Inlet any time in the near future, but the town of Ocean Isle Beach isn't giving up its efforts to sec that the inlet is dredged. Representatives of the Corps' Wilmington District Planning Division Tuesday told town of ficials the project doesn't have an acceptable cost-benefit ratio for users at this time. The Corps cannot consider recreation-related bene fits in computing those ratios. The Town of Ocean Isle Beach had asked the Corps to consider the project due to the difficul ty boats have in navigating the inlet As an alternative, engineer Beverly McKim told the commissioners that they could go ahead and get permits for the inlet dredging project then wait until the annua! dredging of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway begins next time. Then, she said, the town could contract on an in dependent basis with the dredging company while it is in the area and save the cost of mov ing equipment to the area. Bill Nicsen, a Corps engineer who broke down the cost-benefit ratios, said that the the Corps looks for the expense of a project to at least pay the community back no less than one dollar for every dollar spent, and hopefully more than that. According to the Corps' calculations, dredg jptg of Shallotie Inlet would yield sbout ?.2 cents of economic benefit for every dollar spent in dredging. Niesen said the Corps considered such factors as the availability ot the nearest inlet, the time !--? ?- ? 1 k..?nAoo fr?m uiiu iiiv;iicj 1UM IvJ iwai 11.M11115 uujiiiCo.) num travel time and size of catch in alternate areas. Researchers also talked to local commercial fishermen to get a feel for their situation. Ms. McKim said the Corps had to look at not only the initial cost of the project, but also the year to year maintenance costs involved. "It's not a one-time dredging," she said, "we'll have to come back almost annually, espe cially in this area." "If you take away that access to the ocean , the island is hurt economi cally. ? Kendall Suh OIB Commissioner To dredge Shallotte Inlet to a depth of 6 1/2 feet and a width of 90 feet, said Ms. MeKim, would cost $424,000. Annual maintenance would cost another SI 96,000 a year. Dredging the inlet to a depth of 9 1/2 feet would cost around $713,000, an annual mainte nance expense of $406,000. These were the shallowest and deepest mea surements respectively considered, she said, along with several depths in between. The Corps also has the option of tying the project in with the nearly-annual dredging of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, which would save the cost of mobilization, that is, transferring the necessary equipment to the Shallotte Inlet area. The intracoastal waterway project was begun this week, Ms. McKim said, with a mobilization cost of $224,000, and around S2.64 per yard for dredging. The waterway has about 277,000 cu bic yards of material to be dredged, she said. About S200.000 could be saved by combining the mobilization costs of both projects, Ms. McKim said. Niesen said a study of boat traffic and com mcrcc through the inlet, in comparison to neigh boring Lockwood Folly, simply doesn't justify the Corps undertaking the job. Lockwood Folly, he said, has more boat traf fic, and is on the Corps' list for regular dredging. The Corps is not allowed by federal regula tion to look at the financial benefits of recre ational boating for the community, Niesen said, but could only investigate the commercial im pact of such a project. 'Report Card ' Rates County Schools Near Bottom (Continued From Page 1-A) to compare itself with school sys tems having similar levels of advan tagement, demographic features and economic characteristics. Much of the data used in the re port is tied to the state's 28 accredi tation standards. A system must meet a minimum of 21 standards, 75 percent, fully or at level 1 to be eli gible for accreditation. Brunswick County met 22 standards ? 14 (51.9 percent) fully, or in excess of the state's minimum expectations, and eight others (29.6) at level 1. Its performance rated a "warning" level on three standards ? third grade science. United States history and a subject added to the card this year, geometry. While performance in those areas met the criterion for level 1 , no improvement was shown. Progress must be made next year or credit for the standard will be lost. The county did not meet the minimum criterion for two standards ? Algebra I and average daily atten dance. The state standard called for stu dent performance in Algebra I at the 40th to 50th percentile range; Bruns wick County students fell just short, at the 37.8 percentile. In attendance the school system scored at 93.5 percent, compared to a state standard of 94 percent. The school system exceeded the slate standard on the California Achievement Test (CAT) at grades 3, 6 and 9, and on the writing essay for 6th and 8th graders. It also ex Victim's Family Circulatinq Petition | (Continued From Page 1-A) I Mrs. Smith and Gene Smith and | Ted Smith, two brothers of her late j husband, have been circulating the j petition in the Shallotte area for j about two weeks. Petitions have pri I marily been left at area businesses. Ted Smith said Tuesday he al I ready has 15 to 20 pages with at , least 40 signatures on each page. Some pages have as many as 80 names on them. "I've only had two people who wouldn't sign it," he said. "Every body I've met wants to sign it and wants a copy of the petition too." Gene Smith said the family wants something positive to come out of the death of his brother, who was a popular Shallouc businessman. "Unless his death means some thing, in saving other people, then I feel it wa- in vain," he said. "We're interested in this not happening again to anybody, much less a school bus full of children." J Gene Smith said he has seen a lot " We're interested in this not happen ing again to any body, much less a school bus full of children " ?Gene Smith, brother of accident victim of support for the petition. "Every where I go there's one and they're filling them up as fast as they can get them." The N.C. Board of Transportation is scheduled to meet at Sea Trail Plantation at Sunset Beach on April 30 and May 1 . Mrs. Smith said she hopes local officials would be willing to present the petition to the stale board al that Revaluation State law mandates a revaluation at least every eight years. Some counties choose to perform one cv eiy iwo years. "If 11 lake 15 to 18 months to do it, at least," he said. "We have to vis it every parcel in Brunswick County." Ferris also conducted the county's 1978 revaluation. The N.C. Property Tax Commission suggested that Brunswick County conduct another thorough evaluation ? a horizontal adjustment ? four years later, in 1982, which Ferris also performed. Fifteen days after property own ers received their 1982 notices, com missioners threw the new values out when angry residents protested. The company was paid S150,(XK) to per form that four-year update. Williamson said he can't predict how commissioners will want to handle the 1994 revaluation, but if his officc is chosen, he says, it is ready to do the job. Workers will conduct field evaluations on every parcel to show residents that the tax officc wants to list fair market val ues for homes and land. Some com panies choosc to rely on computer statistics to reach those values. "The bottom Fine is, we can't do it thai way, ' vtiu V,' i ! ' i arn sori . "If it's done in this county, there'll be a door hanger on every home in this county to let people know that we've visited that parcel." Tax appraisers and listers hired to evaluate parcels look for new con struction, alterations to homes and other improvements not noted in building inspection reports. It will take eight to nine additional tax of fice employees to conduct an in housc revaluation, Williamson esti mates. The program should be fully staffed by June. Field workers will then conduct parcel visits through December 1992. Workers then enter data onto computers from January to October 1993. Property owners will receive their noliccs in November 1993. Hearings and informal discus sions will be held on the revaluation in January 1994. Commissioners will then have until June 1994 to ac cept or reject the proposal Dredge Shallotte Inlet With less commercial activity in the Shallottc Inlet, he said, the user benefits were not as high as Lock wood Folly Inlet. Ocean Isle Commissioner Kendall Suh point ed out that since commercial boats cannot pass through Shallottc Inlet, it would naturally have less traffic than Lockwood Folly Inlet. The only factor in recreational costs ihe Corps can legally consider is the potential damage to recreational vessels that run aground due to the navigational danger of the inlet. Niescn said the federal government decided several years ago "not to use recreational income as a primary tool to justify public works pro jects." Said Suh, "Our economy of this island is so dependent on that inlet, and we have a lot of folks who are buying real estate in this area be cause we haw this great canal sysiem. and we have access to the ocean. But if you take away that access to the ocean, the island is hurt eco nomically." "We're talking about real estate," Suh said, "arid vacationers, people who spend SI, 500 a week just to stay in a house." However, Niesen said, he and the other engi neers arc not allowed to look at that sort of eco nomic situation in their study since it is consid ered recreational. Audience member Rozcll Hewett of Shallottc Point asked if the Corps could return the inlet to its condition before Hurricane Hazel struck in 1954, and then let natural dredging take place from there as it had in the past. He said that he is not able to get his boats through the inlet and has in i?n through other channels. The printed version of the Corps' study would be sent to the commissioners in a few days, Ms. McKim said. Maps outlining the study were left for the town board to examine. While thanking the Corps for its work with the town. Mayor Betty Williamson said the town will continue to pursue other outlets, "even as far as the federal level," to sec that the inlet is dredged. ceeded minimum standards for stu dent performance. jn compctcncy in reading, compensatory reading, biol ogy, the number of students qualify ing for entry to University of North Carolina institutions, seniors earning five units of credit for graduation, seniors qualifying for tl>c North Carolina Scholars Program and the acceptable drop-out rate. Its vocational education unem ployment rate also met the state standard, registering at less than the county youth unemployment rate and getting a follow-up survey re sponse well in excess of the mini mum required. While scoring below standard in third grade science performance, the system exceeded the standard for lime. "Hopefully the board of educa tion will show some support," she said. Mrs. Smith, who heads the Eng lish department at West Brunswick, also said she hopes to have ninth graders at the school write essays giving reasons for an overpass. Doug Bowers, division engineer with the N.C. Department of Trans portation, said this week that the de sign study on the overpass is in the preliminary stages. "I suspect in the next month something might come out about construction cost estimates and right of way cost estimates," Bowers said Tuesday. AT SUNSET HARBOR BRING HOME THEtKACON On Sal* At SUNSET GROCERY eighth grade scicncc. Schools were not ranked by the state department. Instead it created graphics that showed each system in relation to the state average and to par ? the performance of similar schools ? in the four subject areas examined. INSURANCE REVIEW Handled with CARE-! 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The Brunswick Beacon (Shallotte, N.C.)
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Jan. 30, 1992, edition 1
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