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THE
'CLASH OF CULTURES' CITED
Soles Plans Bill To Separate
Carolina Shores, Calabash
STAFF PHOTO BY ERIC CARLSON
CAI^ABASH COMMISSIONER George Anderson (left) questions State Sen. R.C. Soles after his an
nouncement last week that he will introduce legislation to split the town into two municipalities.
County To Grade
BY ERIC CARLSON
Responding to requests from the school board and
parents, the Brunswick County Board of Commissioners
Tuesday agreed to a one-time grading of all roads where
school buses have been ordered not to travel bccause of
muddy conditions.
And in an apparent first step toward a restructuring of
county departments and staff, the board asked County
Manager David Clegg to review all unfilled positions in
county government and to hire personnel only for those
jobs deemed "essential" to county operations.
After hearing complaints about impassable roads
from a standing-room-only crowd of Deerfield Estates
Residents, the board voted unanimously to approve the
following motion:
"Due to the recent inclement weather, at the request
of the board of education, for reasons directly related to
school bus routes and students' ability to attend school,
Impassable Roads
the county will grade a road one time only, if the road is
in process of being added to the state maintained system.
Grading is the only work to be done. No other activity is
authorized."
No estimate was given of how many miles of road
might need to be graded or how much the operation
would cost. The motion did not specify a line item in the
current budget from which the funds will be allocated,
so the money will have to come from the county's unap
propriated fund balance.
Commissioners Chairman Don WarTcn said the ccun
ly would ask the school board for a list of "roads that the
school buses can't get down" and have diem graded
with county equipment. Roads specifically mentioned
were Bear Branch Trail and those in Shingletree Acres
and Deerfield Estates.
(See COUNTY, Page 2-A)
BY ERIC CARLSON
Citing a "clash of cultures" be
tween natives and new residents,
State Sen. R.C. Soles says he will
introduce a bill to resurrect the old
town of Calabash and create a new
municipality out of the Carolina
Shores golf and retirement commu
nity.
But residents of bo'h areas, who
may be asked to decide the question
in a referendum, have mixed feel
ings about the proposed split, saying
it may cause more problems than it
solves.
Legislators may get some indica
tion of how such a vote might fare
later this month when the Carolina
Shores Property Owners Association
polls its membership on the propos
al.
Soles announced his intention to
draft the legislation at a meeting of
municipal officials and state repre
sentatives last week. He said that
since Carolina Shores was incorpo
rated into the town of Calabash in
1990, "there hasn't been a week" in
which he did not receive a call com
plaining about the merger.
"If I live to get to Raleigh, I will
introduce a bill to divide the two
towns," Soles told the group.
Soles confirmed Monday that his
bill would go beyond restoring the
town of Calabash to its former sta
tic. It would also creatc a new tcvn
of Carolina Shores on its border,
confining Calabash to a small area
along the state line, a situation Soles
sought to avoid when he supported
legislation to combine the two.
The ink was barely dry on that
bill when complaints about the
merger began to surface. Most op
position camc from business owners
in the old downtown restaurant dis
trict after Carolina Shores used its 5
to-2 majority on the town board to
enforce sign regulations and voted
to discontinue commercial garbage
pickup.
"They tried to change things too
fast," said Lloyd Milliken, a restau
rant owner who is fighting the town
in court over a non-conforming sign.
"Carolina Shores is filled with peo
ple from up north who arc retired
and have nothing to do but sit on
that town board and make laws.
Most of them have their livings
made, while we're still trying to
make ours.
"They're killing Calabash, cutting
as down to a rinky-dink little town,"
he said. "I say let them go ahead and
nin Carolina Shores any way they
want to and stay out of our litdc
fishing community."
Milliken was one of about 30
downtown business owners who met
with Soles and N.C. Rep. David
Rcdwinc sevcal months ago to
complain about the town the two
legislators helped to create.
Rcdwinc said he also has heard
complaints, but wants more input
from bvjui sides before deciding
whether to support Soles' bill. Such
local legislation is rarely passed
without the united support of local
representatives. Rep. Dewey Hill,
who also attended last weeks gather
ing, said he has not made up his
mind r.bout the bill.
So'.es said he has heard enough
and is ready to push the legislation
without a referendum. But Rcdwinc
said he may want to see a poll of
residents from the two areas before
he could support the bill.
Both legislators say they person
ally would like to sec the town slay
as it is. So do several members of
the town board, including Doug
Simmons, a lifelong resident, down
town business owner and Mayor of
both "old" and "new" Calabash for
more than 11 years.
"I don't like it," Simmons said of
Soles' bill. "He's probably playing
politics. I think we've begun to get
things leveled out between District 1
(downtown) and District 2 (Carolina
Shores). But there arc always going
(Sec SPLIT, Page 2-A)
Authorities Silent On Shallotte Case
Federal law enforcement officers were in Shallotte Tuesday, continu
ing an investigation involving the Pyramid Computers store.
Shallotte Policc Chief Rodney Gause said Tuesday the FBI had asked
that information on the case be withheld from the media.
Publishing or broadcasting details about the case could jeopardize the
investigation, he said.
Gause said the FBI investigation may involve .ndividuals in other
counties and states.
Inside...
Birthdays.......... 2B
Business News 12B
Calendar of Events 6A
Church News SB
Classified ????MM*********** 1-7C
Court Docket..., 9-IOC
Crime Report 3A
Entertainment ? .2B
Fishing 8B
Golf ..SB
Obituaries .SB
Opinion 4-5A
People In The News 9A
Plant Dvuui' 3B
Sports.................... ~.8-12B
Television Listings. 6-7B
Students To Be
Kept Home
Until Buses Can Reach Them
BY SUSAN USHER
Students from Shinglctrcc Acres subdivi
sion near Calabash may not be in their classes
come Friday morning because that's the day
three Brunswick County school buses are to
be pulled from scrvice to their neighborhood
unless the roads arc repaired.
Represented by Robert Gore, approximately
50 parents and their children piled into the
JROTC building at West Brunswick High
School last Wednesday night to appeal to the
Brunswick County Board of Education to help
get their roads improved. A row of 18 young
sters sal cross-legged along one wall, trying to
be quiet as the board conducted its business.
Gore wants the N.C. Dcpaiuucni of
Transportation to lake over maintenance of
roads in the subdivision. However, the state
says the roads are private. Gore contends it
shouldn't matter that the roads don't qualify
for state takeover under guidelines that also
apply to numerous other roads in subdivisions
across Brunswick County.
Wants Roads 'Grandfathered'
"We cannot qualify under the new rules,"
he told The Brunswick Beacon. "These roads
should be grandfathered in under the rules that
existed before 1975. The reason they weren't
taken over by the state in the first place was
bccause of someone's oversight There were
roads in here before this area was developed
as a subdivision. We deserve to be grandfa
thered."
Gore describes the dilemma as a "Catch 22
situation. When the county maps were devel
oped what happened was the people making
maps didn't care about black people ^nd they
didn't bother including our roads. They put on
the maps what ihcy wanted on them for their
own purposes."
Neither county maps of the period nor sur
vey maps prepared for a previous owner.
Canal Wood Corp., document that the roads
now in use in the subdivision existed prior to
1975, though other roads or cartways are
shown across the tracts in question.
Gore says Shinglctree Acres should be con
sidered as a unique case, not lumped with oth
er subdivisions. He hopes new information
that shows evidence of homes and roads in the
area prior to development of the subdivision
will be enough to sway state transportation of
ficials to his way of thinking.
Over the past nine or 10 years Gore and
other community residents have taken their ar
guments to churches, political organizations,
county commissioners and slate officials.
According 10 Gore, residents have also made
efforts of their own to maintain the road, up
until this latest incident.
'Trying Everything We Can'
"We're trying everything we can to find a
way for them to qualify, " said Jim Cook,
Division 3 Engineer for DOT, last week,
"we've asked ihcm 10 help us identify mads
and show that there were people and houses
there before then. So far they haven't."
'There have been roads in there, but we
haven't been able to tic those roads to the
roads that are in there now," he said. "We're
trying to do that."
A 400-foot section of roadway in the subdi
vision is maintained and has been "upgraded a
little" by DOT bccause it showed up on Canal
Wood maps.
ilzA)
KING DAY OBSERVANCE AT BCC
Hawkins Urges Return To Non-Violent
Approach In Dealing With Inequities
BY SUSAN USHER
"Everything has changed, but
nothing is different," Charlotte civil
rights leader Reginald A. Hawkins
told a full house at Brunswick Com
munity College's Student Center
Friday night as he reflected on the
civil rights movement of the 1960s.
He urged a return to uie nonvio
lent approach of the late Dr. Martin
LuiitCi Kills JI. in viColifig wiui iiiuii
crn-day inequities.
"All we were asking for was a
piece of the pie," he said in a pro
gram punctuated with music by The
Christian Sisters and BCC Visiting
Artist Jon Thorton. "The right to
vote, respect for human dignity, the
respect due a child of God. If you
deny the right for a person to be
come what God intended him to be,
then you deny humanity."
Today's racism is the "worst
racism ever," he asserted, because
"now it is so subtle we can't identify
it Before we knew the enemy.
"We arc a marked people. That is
what Martin knew. That's why he
was killed. Thai's what happens
when you try to help the poor, black
or white."
Saying he was there not to make
the audience comfortable but to "up
set you the way Dr. King did,"
Hawkins questioned the complacen
cy of black and white, individuals
and government.
"Dr. King would be turning in his
grave to see us so comfortable and
complacent with inequities," said
Hawkins, who was shot at 13 times,
janea tnrcc umes ana saw nis house
bombed. In 1964 he was jailed as
UlC hCuu of a VOiCiS I i?i i u-> ui gilnK ti
tion that managed to register 16,000
blacks in the Mecklenburg County
area in six weeks. He was charged
with registering five persons who
could not read and write.
Hawkins urged a renewal of con
cern for fellow blacks, saying mem
bers of the black community once
knew one another and worked for
the betterment of all. "We need to
get back to that," he said, citing
black-on-black crime as an example
of how blacks arc hurting them
selves. "We can't blame everything
that happens to us on somebody
else," he added. "We've forgotten
from whence we came."
Hawkins urged turning to King's
nonviolent approach in addressing
current ills, including weaknesses in
education. Itawkins said he'd like to
see North Carolina follow the route
once taken by California, offering
tuition scholarships to state colleges
and universities for all high school
graduates.
Questioning the priorities of state
government, he urged, "We can
build more prisons and jails but we
cannot build schools to educate our
young people."
"You need to rise up and I will
!c?u the march or. Raleigh :c gel
more money for our schools. Before
desegregation, he said, "we (blacks)
were denied an education. "Now
they're denying everybody. We can
not survive in a high-tech world be
cause we don't have the brainpow
er."
King was scheduled to join Haw
kins on April 4, l%8, for a fly-in to
12 cities, including Wilmington,
during Hawkins' campaign for gov
ernor. Two days earlier, however,
his schedule was changed in re
sponse to garbage workers' unrest in
Memphis, Tenn. On April 4, Haw
kins was notified the trip woulu be
held in two weeks.
"Six o'clock that same day, he
(39-year-old-King) was dead, but
his dream did not die. They thought
it would kill the civil rights move
ment as well, but they were wrong."
stah rnoro by susan ushii
BCC TRUSTEES Jim Rabon and Lewis Stanley were the first to approach speaker Reginald Hawkins
following the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. birthday observance at Brunswick Community College
Eriday night, longtime Cedar Grove N \ACP leader Jesse Bryant is in the background.