Come Home
Fresh off a big win, the
Trojans face West Columbus
for homecoming. Page 9-B.
ACOM
Thirtieth Year, Number 50
Shollotte, North Carolina, Thursdoy, October 15,
50? Per Copy
54 Pages, 4 Sections, 2 Inserts
They're Back!
Big spots are back in full force,
making local anglers and
eaters happy. Page 10-C.
Welcome...
...to the 12th Annual North Carolina Oyster
Festival. Read all about the food, fun and
competition in store for you. Section D.
SWF mOTO BY DOUG (UTTER
ELECTION OFFICIALS Elwood Benton (seated) and Chester
Stevens count ballots at the Brunswick Electric Membership Corp.
annual meeting Saturday.
School System Critic
Unhappy After Plan
To Visit WBHS Nixed
BY SUSAN USHER
A Calabash retiree and "con
cerned taxpayer" is displeased with
a local principal's refusal to let him
make an investigative tour of a
school, while the principal says he is
working on a system to allow all in
terested persons to tour the school in
groups.
Warren "Bud" Knapp Sr. said his
request to look around West
Brunswick High School was con
veyed through Brunswick County
Board of Education member Robert
SlocketL He said Slockett called him
Friday to notify him that the request
had been turned down.
West Brunswick High School
Principal Ed Lemon said Monday
that the school is working on a plan
to provide giuup tours to create as
little disruption of classes as possi
ble.
"Our school and community com
mittee is working on that," he said,
modeling the school's program on
one instituted in Currituck County
last school year. Schools in that
county, he said, provide guided
lours for community leaders, resi
dents who do not have children in
the schools and officials from other
county agencies.
The school "is not in the business
of tours, especially of people wan
dering about on campus wherever
they want," said Lemon. "Here we
are pressing our own people not to
disrupt classes or come in late. 1
jgn't see how we can open it to the
general public to do thaL We need to
have control of that somehow."
However, he said it is important
for the school to find a way to honor
such requests from taxpayers, coun
ty officials and others who want to
visit (he school to see how students
are being taught and how their tax
dollars are being spent, but don't
have children enrolled there.
"We think it is valid enough
we're working on it," he said. "We
don't want to put on a show. We un
derstand they want to look at normal
operations.
"If a taxpayer is interested in see
ing how we spend tax dollars, then
we want him to see that and he
might miss it on his own."
Lemon acknowledged that the
school has had very lew requests
similar to Knapp's in past years. A
more typical request is for a parent
to sit in on one or more of his or her
child's classes.
The principal said it wasn't made
clear to him why Knapp wanted to
visit West Brunswick. "I don't know
what Bud Knapp wants since he
hasn't talked to me," he said.
Slockett could not be reached for
comment However, Lemon said
Slockett had advised him that
Knapp, a retired engineer, is "an ex
pert on atmosphere" and wanted to
observe the school's atmosphere.
Knapp, who has been urging the
county school board to hire an out
side firm to conduct a management
audit of the entire system, said he is
"acting as an investigative reporter"
and wants to collect information to
use in a report he intends to make at
the Thanksgiving weekend meeting
of the Sunset Beach Taxpayers'
Association.
"If I make a report and recom
mendations to them 1 ought to be
able to do it intelligenUy. At this
point I'm not making recommenda
tions. I just want to find out if what
people arc saying is true."
He said he wants to check out ru
mors he has heard about how the
school handles student discipline,
among other things, but that he had
no plans to approach Lemon directly
to request a visit
Knapp asserts that student perfor
mance is proof that the school sys
tem is "a large, expensive, ineffi
(S et SCHOOL, Page 2-A)
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MORE THAN 7 ,200 ATTEND MEETING
Members Oust 5 Incumbents
In BEMC Directors' Election
BY DOUG RUTTER
Apparent concerns over dispro
portionate representation on the
Brunswick Electric Membership
Corp. Board of Directors spurred
members to elect five directors
Saturday who had been nominated
by petition.
In doing so, a majority of BE
MC's members ignored nominating
committee recommendations and
voted for change at an annual meet
ing characterized by election-year
politics.
In the two Brunswick County dis
tricts up for election this year, both
candidates who had been nominated
by petition handily defeated incum
bent directors.
JoAnn Bellamy Simmons of Ash
unseated W.T. Bowen 690-445 in
District 2, while D.V. Jones Jr. of
Long Beach defeated incumbent
Kenneth Bellamy 632-494 in the
District 8 race.
Another candidate nominated by
petition, incumbent Robert G. Ward
of Winnabow, was re-elected to
Brunswick's at-large seal. Ward was
the top vote-getter Saturday as he
defeated Boyd Evans of Ash 704
404.
Members voted the same way in
the race for two Columbus County
district seats, opposing the candi
dates recommended by the Bruns
wick Electric nominating commit
tee.
Jack Miller of Guidcway edged
Ray Canady 598-504 for the District
1 seat, and incumbent Frederick
Tedder of Hallsboro defeated Jim
Sessions 621-459.
Supporters of the five winners
were encouraging voters to elect
them as a group Saturday, distribut
ing printed cards to the large, annual
meeting crowd at Shallotte Middle
School.
Jones, one of the local winners,
said ihe five candidates decided to
run as a group because they hoped
they would get more support than
they could as individuals.
"I wanted to do more for my
church and more for my community,
and that's why I ran" Jones said in a
phone interview following the meet
ing.
As a candidate, however, Jones
said he learned prior to the election
that some members are disturbed by
the apparent disproportionate repre
sentation on the board.
Although Brunswick County has
about 29,500 BEMC members and
Columbus County has around 7,500,
the board of directors is pretty even
ly balanced with members from both
counties.
Seven of 13 scats on the board of
directors arc designated for Bruns
wick County residents, while Co
lumbus has the remaining six.
Each county had six scats until
April, when the board of directors
voted to split the Shallottc area into
two districts.
Jones said Tuesday he expects the
board of directors to consider more
changes in representation after the
new directors take office in
December.
"I don't know how the districts
are organized," Jones said. "I'm sure
it will be looked at. I'm just going to
wait and see."
Jones also said he ran for election
because he was concerned members
haven't been kept well-enough in
formed.
"Not that that hasn't been done in
the past, but you can always do a
better job, he said.
BEMC General Manager David
Batten said the newly-elected direc
tors will take office at the regular
board meeting in December.
Meetings arc usually held the last
Thursday of each month, but Batten
said December's meeting will prob
ably be changed due to Christmas.
Batten said he wasn't involved in
the board of directors election and
didn't know reasons for the vote.
"All through the campaign, we do
not get involved in any of the politi
cal issues at all," he said. "We just
put on the meeting."
Batten described the annual meet
ing as "extremely good." He said
1,234 members registered and be
tween 1,100 and 1,150 people voted.
"Normally it's somewhere around
800 people that vote," he said. "We
had somewhere in the neighborhood
of 3,000 people there based on our
name tags."
Batten said the cooperative easily
reached uie minimum number ot
members it needed for a quorum,
which is 2 percent.
"We had a good crowd that par
ticipated," Batten said. "We felt like
it ran as smoothly as we had
planned."
BEMC Seeks Appeals Court
Review Of NLRB Decision
BY SUSAN USHER
Brunswick Electric Membership Corp. has chosen not to comply
with a ruling by the National Labor Relations Board in a three-year la
bor dispute.
Instead, the co-op's labor relations lawyer, W. Britton Smith Jr. of
Charlotte, confirmed Tuesday that BEMC is asking the U.S. 4th Circuit
Court of Appeals to review the order.
By the lime both parties file briefs and responses, make oral argu
ments before the court and the court deliberates on the evidence it hears,
"it could be April, May or June before a decision is reached," said
Britton. "That's just a wild guess."
In the three-member panel's decision announced in September, the
NLRB affirmed earlier findings by an administrative law judge and
adopted his recommended order. That order would require BEMC to
step certain types of "threatening" or "coercive" behavior by its man
agers. to resume negotiations with the union, and to rehire George
Douglas (Doug) Smith Jr. of Whiteville. At the time of his tiring, Smith
was president of Local No. 495 of the International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers. The local represents about 60 co-op employees.
"I talked it over with management and with the board (of directors)
and everyone felt that the NLRB still hadn't got it right," said Smith.
"We wanted a disinterested party ? the court ? to review the facts and
how they applied the law."
The NLRB panel had ruled on the findings of its own administrative
law judge.
Smith said the NLRB's order is not "self-enforcing." That means
that by BEMC not choosing voluntarily to comply with the order, its en
forcement would have to come through the court of appeals.
FIVE CANDIDATES GO ON RECORD
Election Will Decide Fate Of Zoning Law
BY ERIC CARLSON
When Brunswick County voters close the cur
tains on election booths next month, they will de
cide whether or not to close the book on recent ef
forts to establish county-wide zoning.
The Brunswick County Board of
Commissioners is expected to enact a zoning or
dinance before the Nov. 3 election. A majority of
the board ? Commissioners Kelly Holden, Gene
Pinkerton and Jerry Jones ? are on record as sup
porting the law.
Commissioner Frankie Rabon has said he will
vote against zoning. Commissioner Donald Shaw
has not publicly announced his position on the or
dinance.
But with Holden and Pinkerton not seeking re
election, many have wondered if the fledgling law
might be repealed by three new commissioners
who could swing the voting balance against zon
ing. Rabon also has declined to seek another term.
In telephone interviews this week, both District
1 candidates said they were in favor of zoning
and would work to implement the ordinance.
One District 4 candidate said she would defi
nitely vote to throw out the zoning ordinance. The
other gave the zoning effort lukewarm support
and would not rule out a possible vote to repeal
the law.
Which leaves the possible deciding vote to
District 3, where one candidate said he would
vote to keep the law and the other failed to re
spond to numerous requests tor nis comments.
The candidates were asked three questions: Do
you support the concept of county-wide zoning
for Brunswick County? How do you feel about
the current zoning law as drafted? Would you
vote in favor of a motion to repeal the zoning or
dinance?
DISTRICT 1? BRUST
District 1 Republican candidate Joe Brust said
a county zoning ordinance is "absolutely essen
tial" to protect property values.
"I am very much in favor of zoning," Brust
said. "We have a county of 53,000 people that is
projected to grow to 80,000 by the year 2010.
With such enormous growth, there is a com
pelling need for land-use
planning and zoning.
"We simply have to have
zoning to make intelligent de
cisions about our schools, wa
ter lines, recreational facili
ties, etc. Families thinking
aoout moving 10 orunswicic
County will want to know if
their property will be protect
ed by zoning."
Brust said the current ordi
nance was a "good base document" that he ex
pects to be modified over the years. He said the
law "seems to strike a reasonable balance" in cre
ating land-use districts. He feels there is a "silent
majority" of voters that supports zoning and said
parts of the law have been misunderstood.
"Some folks who live in smaller, single-wide
(See ZONING, Page 2-A)
BRUST
. _ _ STAff PHOTO IV EMC GMISON
A Dream Destroyed
m uream uestroyed
Iris Bellamy (left) looks down on her late husband's newly restored 1946 Piper PA-12 shortly after it crashed into the ltracoastal Waterway
near her Windy Point home Wednesday afternoon. With her is her sister, Ruby Jane Balint. The story is on Page 3-A.
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