Had Enough?
Both the 10- and 30-day
forecasts call for above
average rainfall. Story.
Page 2-A.
Players, coaches of Year
Bryan Fleming. Scott Gore and Coach
Mike Alderson are honored for
leading West's baseball team to a
successful year. Page 8-B.
What A Fish Story!
It was the first fish Billy Patterson Jr.
ever caught, and it won the Shallotte
Point VFD Flounder Tournament.
Story and pictures, Page 11-C.
Mr,""""CIC#ftACON
? SF'R I NGPORT MI 49":f-;4 ? m ^?r/ WW M M I WM
Thirtieth Year, Number 33 ei*?>n???u*?nc* macon Shallotte, North Carolina, Thursday, June 1 8, 1 992 50< Per Copy 36 Pages, 3 Sections, 2 Inserts
Sheriff, Officers Criticize
Cut In Proposed Raises
BY ERIC CARLSON
Brunswick County Sheriffs per
sonnel Thursday criticized county
commissioners for "misplacing their
priorities" after the board made a
last-minute cut in their expected pay
raise.
"I would say morale is not too
high right now," said Sheriff John
Carr Davis.
The draft 1992-93 county budget
called for a lump-sum payment to
the sheriffs and register of deeds'
departments to provide a 5-percent
across-the-board pay hike. A 2.5
percent raise was proposed for other
county employees.
During its Final meeting on the
budget June 8, commissioners voted
4 to 1 to reduce the sheriffs depart
ment salary allocation by half and to
commission a study of all county
government positions and salaries.
Commissioner Frankie Rabon
dissented in the vote, asking the
board to consider a 5-percent raise
for all county employees.
The board further agreed to abide
by the study's findings and to give
the sheriff and register of deeds the
other 2.5 percent when new salary
recommendations are adopted.
Sheriff Davis told the commis
sioners he did not want his depart
ment included in the study, saying
the board had failed to follow the
recommendations of the last salary
study done in 1986.
'7 think the
commissioners
have got their
priorities messed
up a bit "
? Capt. Phil Perry
"Mr. Holden gave me the assur
ance that this board would imple
ment the findings of any salary
study," Davis said in an interview
Thursday. "But how can he assure
me of anything when three members
of the board won't be there in
January?"
Board Chairman Kelly Holden
and Commissioners Gene Pinkerton
and Rabon arc not seeking re-elec
tion this fall.
Davis declined to elaborate on his
reasons for not taking part in the
salary study, saying only that he was
afraid such an effort would become
mired in "personalities and politics."
He said he felt a legitimate study
would recommend an increase in his
department's salaries.
The sheriff said he had "asked for
a 15-percent raise, hoped for 10-per
cent and got 2.5 percent" He said
that due to a 6.75-perccnt increase in
health insurance premiums, some
deputies would see a reduction in
take-home pay.
"I guess we compromised," Davis
said.
As news of the salary cut spread
through the sheriffs department,
deputies complained that they were
"not getting a fair shake" from the
commissioners. One detcctivc with
five years in the department said that
his family size and pay rate would
allow him to qualify for food
stamps.
Captain of Detectives Phil Perry
Thursday criticized the commission
ers for their final-meeting votes to
cut law enforcement salaries and ap
propriate 5150,000 for new baseball
fields while reducing the tax rate by
a half cent.
"Why did they have to do that?
People were used to that rate," said
Perry. "They could have left it like it
was and given all county employees
a proper raise.
"1 think the commissioners have
got their priorities messed up a bit,"
he said. "It's another case of sports
overriding education. This county is
covered with ball fields already. It
means extra work for us because
we've got to patrol the ball fields to
keep the parents from fighting."
Perry said he did not feel his de
partment had been unfairly singled
out in the budgeting. He said
Brunswick County boards tradition
ally overlook employee salaries
(.See RAISE, Page 2-A)
Board Trims Schools Budget
To Match County Allocation
BY MARJORIE MEGIVERN
In some creative financial moves, the Brunswick
County Board of Education approved a budget resolu
tion Monday, cutting $262,541 from the requests it pre
viously submitted to the Brunswick County Board of
Commissioners.
The lauer board agreed to appropriate only
$7,875,000, including capital outlay, necessitating some
budget trimming.
Cuts camc from three places. A hoped-for 6 per
cent salary increase for teachers is expected to be cut to
3 percent by the General Assembly, which would save
the county $125,000.
The contingency fund was reduced from $45,000
to $20,000. Rudena Fallon, finance officer, explained
that this fund was, indeed, critically inadequate to take
care of any possible emergencies throughout the year,
but she said the county commissioners would come to
the rescue of schools if necessary.
"Also, we always have an unappropriated fund
balance," she said. The current balance, for example, is
$800,000, but Fallon said she would know the figure for
next year only after closing the books on this fiscal year.
A third cut was made by decreasing an energy line
item from $100,000 to $10,000.
The school system requires a total budget of $41
million for a year of operation, including every expendi
ture from telephone bills to band instruments to insur
ance, as Fallon said, "the whole basket of fruit."
The local current expense fund is S9.6 million
and the state school fund appropriation S25.3 million.
Federal grants for special programs amount to SI. 9 mil
lion and the child nutrition fund appropriation is S2.5
million. A capital outlay total of S2.8 million includes
three categories: Category I, land and buildings,
S2, 045, 000; Category II, furniture and equipment,
$442325; and Category III, motor vehicles, $130,000.
Also included is computer hardware, a special
project, costing $250,000, that will put computers in
every county school. Fallon said this item would be
funded by the state half-cent sales tax allotted to the
schools.
Although the board regretfully shelved plans for
construction this year of a new central office in the gov
ernment center in Bolivia, it set aside $550,000 in the
new capital outlay budget toward the $1.2 million cost
of the office.
Funding of the school system comes from several
sources, including the county, state and federal appropri
ations, the 1/2 cent sales tax, and revenues from the
Alcohol Beverage Control store sales.
-vr -t " T ~ It'Jl "p ? VNMftfeaM*. ?k ?
STAFF FHOTO BY DOUG RUTTI*
Salt Water Scooper
Kelly Keaton of Medina, Ohio, scoops up some sail water at Ocean
Isle Beach Saturday. The 4-year-old and her brothers were busy
filling a hole on the strand with water.
Engineers To Begin Dye
Tests At Sunset, Calabash
BY SUSAN USHER
An engineering Firm working wiih the towns of Calabash and
Sunset Beach on a proposed regional wastewater system is preparing to
begin dye and other tests in both areas.
Joseph Tombro, engineer with Powell & Associates, said the Finn
plans several types of studies in an effort being coordinated with the en
vironmental management, health and shellFish sanitation ofFices of the
N.C. Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources, and
the Brunswick County Health Department
Over the next 30 to 40 days, during the height of the tourist season
when usage is heaviest, non-toxic fluorescent dyes will be flushed down
toilets into septic systems and then used to track the flow of waste from
the system, looking for leachate where it may enter the stormwater sys
tem, estuaries, currents or may reach the surface. Fluorescent red and
fluorescent orange dyes will be used in testing.
The Firm also will have a series of approximately 10 groundwater
monitoring wells dug 15 to 18 feet deep. The wells will be checked to
see if dye is entering the groundwater table. Also, samples will be taken
to check for fecal coliform bacteria.
"We're meeting with the county now," said Tombro, in determining
where to locate the wells, with sites desired along both waterfront and
farther inland. The wells will remain in place approximately six months.
As part of its work for the towns, Powell & Associates is compiling
data regarding the need of the proposed system.
Both Calabash and Sunset Beach property owners have offered
mixed support for central sewer services, with cost concerns cited as a
major factor and some concerns raised regarding the actual need for a
system in terms of pollution abatement Sunset Beach has proposed pro
ceeding with both the sewer system and a system for managing
stormwater runoff, another major source of pollution associated with in
creased density of development
River News
Disappoints
Supporters
BY SUSAN USHER
Leaders of a grassroots group or
ganized more than two years ago to
help preserve Lockwood Folly River
left a status meeting with local, state
and federal officials last week frus
trated and confused.
While several speakers reported
progress-and frustrations of their
own- in state and local efforts to re
duce pollution entering the river and
to set land use controls in place, the
news most of the 60-plus-member
audience wanted to hear wasn't
forthcoming.
"I think most of us are disap
pointed we didn't get a better an
swer on Eastern Channel," said
Wallace Smith, a local attorney
working with Save Our Shellfish
(SOS) to protect what has tradition
ally been the county's richest shell
fish waters ? waters important
enough to qualify for special state
protection.
SOS members had hoped a study
commissioned by the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers would demon
strate that reopening Eastern
Channel, a former channel closed
with the dredging of the waterway,
and closing manmadc Lockwood
Folly Inlet, would improve water
How in the river and help reduce a
pollution problem that has led to fre
quent closure of the river mainly be
cause of pollution from stormwater
runoff and septic tank leachate.
The limited-scope computer mod
el study conducted over the past
year and a half didn't answer all
those questions.
But, said Corps representative
Tom Jarrett, "It
didn't make a
hill of beans of
difference" in
the amount of
water going into
the river which
channel configu
ration was used
in the model,
said Corps rep- jarrftt
rescntatives Tom J
Jarrett .
Said Project Coordinator Michael
Wutkowski, "We just couldn't get
any more water going into the
Lockwood Folly River no matter
what we tried."
When the model used a small
channel around Sheep Island into
Eastern Channel, the water wanted
to go straight instead of making the
tum.
With new Congressional autho
rization and more money, Jarrett
said the Corps could do more exten
sive studies using more actual field
data. If those studies were to show
the Corps made a mistake in its
dredging operations, it can get au
thorization "to go back and fix it,"
(See LOCKWOOD, Page 2-A)
Proposed New Zoning
BY ERIC CARLSON
Law To Be Discussed By Boards
A proposed ordinance to establish zoning throughout
Brunswick County will be discussed at a joint meeting
of the county commissioners and the county planning
board scheduled for July 6 at 4 p.m.
A single copy of the draft zoning law was presented
to the commissioners at their regular meeting Monday
night The ordinance was not discussed and extra copies
of the 1 1 3-page document were not made available to
the commissioners or to the press.
The board agreed to the joint meeting after
Commissioner Gene Pinkcrton suggested that the com
missioners and the planning board "have it explained to
us" by County Planner John Harvey. The planning board
also will get its first look at the ordinance at the joint
meeting.
Commissioners first directed the planning department
to draft a zoning law more than two years ago. In
February the board gave Harvey 120 days to complete
the ordinance, a deadline that passed earlier this month.
The draft ordinance establishes zones for agriculture,
residential strip development, low-density residential,
high-density residential, commercial low-density and
rural industrial areas. Varying usage and lot size require
ments are included in each zone.
A map establishing zoning boundaries has yet to be
completed, Harvey said Tuesday. The formal zones can
not be drawn until an agreement is reached on what will
be allowed in cach area.
The agricultural zone is intended to preserve and en
courage the continued use of land for agriculture, forest
and such open-space purposes as swamps and other wet
lands. Scattered commercial and industrial uses arc dis
wr^wf
STVF moio BY E*IC CARLSON
PORTABIJi SIGNS like this one at Oak Grove Baptist Church on N.C. 130 would be prohibited out ?
side town limits under a proposed zoning ordinance presented to the county commissioners Monday.
There are about 30 such signs along the road between Shallotte and the H olden Beach bridge.
20 years. Development would be kept at a low density
so as to create the least possible friction with abutting
couraged in these areas, although golf courses, camp
grounds, clubs, stables and produce stands also would be
allowed.
Single-family dwellings in the agricultural zone
would be required to have a lot size of five acres with a
minimum width of 250 feet.
Residential strip zones arc designed for frontage
along paved public roads in areas not expected to be
come part of an urban or suburban area within the next
. ? ? e
agricultural districts. Permitted commercial uses would
include home occupations and retail sales of produce
grown on premises.
The minimum lot size for dwellings in a residential
strip zone would be one acre, with a minimum width of
200 feet.
Low density residential areas arc intended for single
family dwellings in areas with the attributes of a neigh
borhood. Modular and class A manufactured (mobile)
homes also would be allowed.
Class A manufactured homes are defined as those
manufactured after July 1, 1976, with minimum dimen
sions of 22 feet by 20 feet They would be required to
have a continuous permanent masonry foundation or
masonry curtain and a poured concrete footer.
In areas with water and sewer service, the required lot
size for low density residential zones would be 7,500
square feet with a minimum width of 75 feet. Lots
would have to be 20,000 square feet in area and 100 feet
wide if located in areas with no water and sewer service.
Medium density residential areas would have a mix
ture of conventional stick-built construction and class A
manufactured housing. The character of these areas
would be the same as low density areas, but with some
what smaller lots of 6,000 square feet and 60 feet wide
with water and sewer service.
Heights of buildings in all residential areas would be
limited to 35 feet.
Low-density commercial areas would be located pri
marily in outlying areas adjacent to major thoroughfares
with yards and other provisions for reducing conflict
with adjaccnt residential uses. Among the businesses
permitted in these zones would be retail stores, service
establishments, hotels, motels, boarding houses, eating
and drinking establishments, theaters, marinas and fill
ing stations. Dwellings would be allowed only as an ad
junct to the primary business usage.
The minimum lot size for low-density commercial
(See ZONING, Page 2-A)