Shop At Home
The Hometown Holidays
promotion is in full swing. See
Pages 3-A and 12-c
Happy
Thanksgiving
Trojans Keep Going
West Brunswick prepares to
meet Farmville in the Eastern
Semifinals. Page 9-B
THLai&f VICK#BEACON
Thirty-First Year, Number 4 own* macon Shallotte, North Carolina, Wednesday, November 25, 1992 50C Per Copy 40 Pages, 3 Sections, 4 Inserts
STAFF PHOTO BY EKIC CAJUSOM
High Wire Act
Workers from Towercom, Inc., of Raleigh spent two days last week dangling from the 490-foot central
communications radio tower behind the Brunswick County Emergency Services building in Bolivia.
They were replacing the main cable for the county's fire and rescue transmitter. The old half-inch
line, which had been damaged by lightning, was replaced with a 1.25-inch diameter cable in hopes of
eliminating "dead spots" in the transmitter's coverage.
Former Candidate Said Missing
Patricia "Patty" Quinn Young, 44, the Winnabow
businesswoman who was recently defeated in a race for
Brunswick County Board of
Commissioners, has been reported
missing by her husband, police said
Monday.
"We have no reason to suspect
foul play at this time," said Detective
Li. Donnell Marlowe, who is head
ing the investigation into Young's
disappearance.
Her husband of 20 years, David
Young, reported Mrs. Young miss
ing shortly after noon Sunday. She
was last seen at about 8:30 Saturday morning, when she
left Winnabow to buy a turkey at a Shallotte supermar
ket, Marlowe said.
YOUNG
The Youngs are co-owners of an agricultural equip
ment dealership in Winnabow. She was last seen driving
a white 1985 GMC Jimmy truck. With her in the vehicle
was her bulldog and a pet parrot, Marlowe said.
Authorities have no evidence to suggest that Mrs.
Young was abducted. They say she may have left the
area voluntarily. She reportedly has friends in the
Ashcvillc area, Marlowe said.
A bulletin has been issued on the police computer net
work asking other law enforcement agencies to be on
the lookout for Mrs. Young and her vehicle. Mrs. Young
is 5 feet, 2 inches tall with a small build, brown hair and
blue eyes.
Anyone with information regarding her whereabouts
is urged to call Marlowe at the Brunswick County
Sheriffs Department by calling (919) 253-4321 or (800)
672-6379.
WIVES TRAPPED under overturned hull
Two Couples Rescued
After Boat Capsizes
BY ERIC CARLSON
Two Lumbcrton women narrowly escaped drowning
and one remained hospitalized with pneumonia Monday
after spending more than an hour trapped under a boat
that overturned in five-foot seas off Shallolte Inlet
Saturday morning.
One of their husbands was thrown from the boat when
it capsized. The other managed to escape moments Be
fore the craft settled upside-down on a sandbar about
300 yards off the west end of Holden Beach.
A small navy of rescuers on boats and in the water
was able to flip the boat upright and free the women,
who were huddled inside a small, partially flooded cud
dy cabin on the 21-foot fiberglass fishing boat.
Wesley and Barbara Britt were aboard the boat be
longing to his cousin, Alfred Britt and his wife Melba.
The two couples had gone out the inlet at about 10 a.m.
to fish for trout and Spanish mackerel, according to
Boatswain's Mate Eric Floyd of the U.S. Coast Guard
Oak Island Station.
A short way off Holden Beach they encountered
heavy surf and decided to turn back. As the boat turned
broadside to the sea it was hit by a wave that flipped the
boat over, Floyd said.
Alfred Britt said he was thrown into the water.
Wesley Britt told rescuers he was momentarily trapped
under the aft end of the boat. As the craft settled onto
the bottom, he said he saw a sliver of light, dove for it
and was able to swim out from under the boat before it
went hard aground on the sandbar.
In a lucky coincidence, water rescue teams from the
Coast Guard and Holden Beach Water Rescue had al
ready been mobilized to answer a call at Lockwood
Folly Inlet, where another small sportfishing boat had
gone aground on a bar and was swamped. 1 he teams ar
rived to find that the boat owner had been picked up by
a local fisherman and was safe ashore.
Just then another radio call went out saying that a
homeowner at the west end of Holden Beach had report
ed an overturned boat in the surf with two people on the
hull. Rescuers on land and water immediately raced to
ward the other end of the island.
"It was pretty rough riding. We were in the air as
much as we were on the water," said Danny Liebl of
Holden Beach Water Rescue. He and Keith Sawyer and
Ronnie Rabon headed for the west end aboard the unit's
rigid-hull inflatable boat along with a similar Coast
Guard craft
They arrived to find only one person waving from the
overturned boat. He was not wearing a life preserver.
"We got to within 20 feet of him and started hitting
bottom, so we put one person off to wade toward him
with a PFD (personal floatation device)," Liebl said.
(See LOCAL RESCUERS, Page 2-A)
More Shellfish Wafers Closed
BY DOUG RUTTER
Brunswick County fishermen were dealt another seri
ous blow last week when the state closed to shellfishing
approximately 1 VO acres of waters at Bald Head Island.
Bald Head Creek, located on the
northeast side of the island, was
closed last Tuesday because of high
levels of fecal coliform bacteria,
which make shellfish unsafe for hu
man consumption.
The bactcrial pollution was detect
ed in a reccnt sanitary survey of the
Bald Head Island area, according to
an N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries
proclamation.
The closure of Bald Head Creek is
the second major shellfish closure
this month in Brunswick County. On
Nov. 6, state officials shut down 150
acres of oyster and clam waters in the
Sunset Beach and Gause Landing
area.
Carson Varnam, an oyster dealer in
V am am town, said the Bald Head
area is often harvested by local com
mercial fishermen, especially when the Lockwooa Foiiy
and Shalloue rivers are temporarily closed.
"It wouldn't be considered a hot spot, but that area is
worked," Vamam said. "I would say it's about average
as far as harvesting goes."
North Carolina's shellfish sanitation branch recom
mended that Marine Fisheries close Bald Head Creek
due to recent bacteriological samples taken from the
creek.
The U.S.- Food and Drug Administration also had
asked that the creek be closed to shellfishing. Until re
cenUy, the slate did not have any sampling stations up
stream of the creek's mouth.
"We didn't have any bacteriological data justifying
that it should be open," said Bob Benton, head of shell
fish sanitation. "You just can't have sampling stations
everywhere. We had just never established a station
there."
George Gilbert, assistant director
of shellfish sanitation, said the creek
would have been closed regardless of
the FDA's request. Samples taken
over a two-year period at the mouth
indicated the creek was polluted.
In 1980 , 16,330
acres of shellfishing
waters were closed
in Brunswick
"It was not arbitrarily closed just
County. The number because the FDA objected because
" we didn't have sampling stations "
currently stands at
12,723 acres. The
state has shut down
306 acres in the
past two years.
he
said.
Gilbert also said he thinks the
biggest source of pollution in Bald
Head Creek is stormwater runoff.
"The whole island drains into that
creek," he said.
Based on recent samples upstream
of the mouth, Gilbert said it's unlike
ly the entire creek will ever reopen.
He said a portion of Uie creek could reopen near the
mouth in extremely dry periods.
"There's always a possibility, but it doesn't look like
it," Gilbert said. "Certainly we don't treat it as a lost
cause. We'll continue looking at it"
Despite the two recent closures, Gilbert said local
fishermen have more oyster and clams beds to work
now than they did 12 years ago.
In 1980, 16,330 acres of shellfishing waters were
closed in Brunswick County. The number currently
stands at 12,723 acres. The state has shut down 306
acres in the past two years.
Hostile Crowd Voices Opposition To Sewer
Authority Proposal
BY ERIC CARLSON
A vocal and at times hostile
crowd of Carolina Shores residents
packed a public hearing last week to
tell the Calabash Board of
Commissioners and its hired
engineering consultants that they
want no part of a plan to form a
joint water and sewer authority with
Sunset Beach.
Despite assurances that the
proposed "management entity"
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could not borrow or spend money
unless the system is approved in a
referendum, the crowd of more than
200 made it clear that they want the
idea scrapped. Most of those who
spoke said they feared that once
formed, a water and sewer authority
could become too powerful and
could expand the system beyond the
wishes of Calabash residents.
Only one person spoke in favor
of the proposal. He was shouted at
and booed by the audience and
finally left the stage, unable to
complete his remarks.
Most homes in Carolina Shores
are served by a central sewage
system owned by the Carolina
Blythe company of Florence, S.C.
But other areas of the town, notably
the downtown restaurant district,
reiy on private septic systems.
Septic tank failures and over
flows are blamed for pollution in
the Calabash River, which remains
closed to shcllfishing. State
inspectors recently issued new
closure orders for waters near
Sunset Beach.
The two towns have begun
preliminary studies for creating a
joint system to extend sewer service
to new areas and prevent additional
septic contamination. Forming the
authority would make the towns
more likely to qualify for state and
federal grants and low-interest
loans, said consulting engineer Jim
Billups of Powell and Associates.
"The problem is that we have a
few people who need sewer. But we
don't need a water and sewer
authority because we've already got
one," said Jack Brady, president of
the Carolina Shore Property Owners
Association. The POA had
distributed leaflets urging its
members to attend the Thursday
night (Nov. 18) public hearing.
Brady cautioned that the
authority would become
"autonomous" and could enter inio
contracts, issue bonds and assess
(See SEWER, Page 2- A)
' STAF^HOT^^^T^A*LSOf?
CAIABASH COMMISSIONER John Sanborn polls the audience at a public hearing last week regarding a proposal to re-zone a six-acre
tract near Carolina Shores from residential to commercial. The crowd of more than 200 people hy? overwhelmingly opposed to the
change.