Drink A Little. Lose A Lot
Local troopers welcome a new state law
lowering the blood alcohol content needed
to convict drunken drivers. Page 15- A.
Stallions Broken
West Brunswick's Trojans roll to
a 45-0 rout in the club's 2A/3A
Conference opener. Page 8-3.
New Citizen On Main...
Pioneer Savings becomes First Citizens
Bank. The staff remains, with two new
additions. Page 9-c
THE
12/31/99
HOAG & SONS BOOK BINDERY
P.O. BOX 162
SPR I NGF'ORT
Thirty-First Year, Number 45
? lt*l IMC ttUNIWKK MACON
MI 49284
Shallotte, North Carolina, Thursday, September 30, 1 993
? - * ? ST* ! '/
STATF PHOTOS BY LYNN CARLSON
CRITTERS GALORE await their turn to get rabies shots
Saturday at Brunswick Animal Hospital in Supply. At right,
Robert Beck of Bolivia shelters his sister's kitten Misty. At
I top above, Scrub the albino ferret sits in the palm of owner
Matt Ruff. Directly above, a family 's dogs and cat wait with
their master.
MORE THAN 1 .000 VACCINATIONS GIVEN
Pet Owners Flock To Area Rabies Clinics
BY LYNN C ARLSON
Veterinarians' parking lots became a sea of
creatures great and small Saturday, after two
confirmed cases of rabies in raccoons scared
owners of more than 1,000 dogs and cats into
having their pets vaccinated.
l ocal vets inoculated 200 to 400 animals
each, at $5 per injection, in four clinics held
throughout Brunswick County.
By 9 a.m., more than a hundred dog and cat
owners were waiting at Brunswick Animal
Hospital in Supply, signing up for shots for
everything from barn cats to show dogs.
Four-year-old Robert Beck of Bolivia stayed
wedged between grown-ups. protectively
clutching his sister's steel-gray kitten Misty to
his chest. On down the line, an edgy Doberman
pinscher wet on a stranger's leg. The blood red
eyes of an albino ferret named Scrub peered out
from its nest inside the T-shirt of owner Matt
Ruff of Holden Beach.
Over in the grass. Heather Potter of Southport
and Harriet Spellman of Long Beach lounged
with two Afghan hounds and two Labrador re
trievers, one a chocolate-colored show dog and
the other, a black lab "who'd like to be."
In the bed of a pickup a dozen yards away
slept a pit bull with an ear chewed off in some
recent altercation. Beagles yapped sharply from
their pens in the back of a dozen hunter's trucks
while cats dozed nonchalantly in the back win
dows of cars.
It was utter chaos, reflected Dr. Jim Rabon on
Monday, but somehow it all went off without a
single human or animal fight and with no feline
or canine escapees.
"People were willing to stand in line for hours
with a cat in their arms," Rabon said. "Everyone
seemed to be concerned about the rabid rac
coons. It was on everybody's mind."
The rabies clinics, which the Brunswick
County Health Department sponsors periodical
ly, had been planned for several weeks when
word came Sept. 21 that a raccoon killed by an
Ash area resident had tested positive for the dis
ease. It was the first officially confirmed case of
rabies in Brunswick County since the most re
cent epidemic of the disease began.
More than 50 cases of rabies rabies have been
confirmed in North Carolina this year, more
than double that of 1992. In South Carolina 1 10
infected animals have been reported, 12 of them
in neighboring Horry County.
Two days after the first confirmed report here,
another raccoon in the Ash area was attacked
and killed by two unvaccinated dogs. The dead
raccoon, which later was confirmed to have
been rabid, was handled by three children and
two adults, according to Brunswick County
Health Director Michael Rhodes. Both dogs had
to be destroyed, and some or all of the people
who came in contact with the raccoon may re
quire a series of shots to protect them against
the disease.
The harsh reality of rabies in the wildlife pop
ulation sent pet owners packing to the Saturday
clinics, said Don Aldifer, acting Brunswick
County Animal Control supervisor.
"They were jam-packed," Aldifer said
Monday. He's glad. "If a pet is vaccinated and
comes in contact with rabies, you can give him a
booster shot and send him home to be kept un
der observation. If he's not, you have no choice
but to have him officially quarantined for six
months or to destroy him."
That prospect hit too close to home for many
Ash area residents who brought dogs and cats to
(See RABIES, Page 2-A)
Holden Beach OKs
Impact Fees To Fund
Future Stormwater,
Sewer System Needs
BY DOUG RUTTER
Building a home or business at
({olden Beach will he more expen
sive starting Oct. 22, when the town
begins charging impact fees to raise
money for sewer and stormwater
runoff systems.
After two months of discussion,
town commissioners last week ap
proved an impact fee ordinance that
I will raise at least $50,000 per year if
current building trends continue.
Owners of new houses will be
charged 50 cents per heated square
foot, with a minimum fee of SI, (KM).
Commercial fees will be SI per
square foot with a $2,000 minimum.
The residential fees will apply to
additions on existing homes and
homes that are moved to Holden
Beach from outside the town limits.
Fees will not apply to island homes
that are moved from one lot to an
' other.
People who build driveways or
, parking lots out of asphalt, concrete
or any similar material will be
charged 50 cents per square foot.
"I would call it a significant move
by the board," Mayor Wally Ausley
said of the new fees. "It seems to me
i a perfectly reasonable one. I think
it's significant any time you ask peo
ple to pay because of an impact
they're making on something."
The ordinance says Holden Beach
will need sewer and stormwater sys
tems in the future because rapid
growth has led to increased septic
system waste and stormwater runoff.
Town officials want the owners of
new homes and businesses to help
pay for the systems because they are
helping create the need.
Ausley said town officials still
haven't decided if they will build a
sewer system or stormwater runoff
system. He said the town will proba
bly hold a public referendum before
: making a decision.
All impact fees collected by the
| town will be placed in a special
"Sewer and Stormwater Drainage
Fund" to be used for planning and
construction of those systems.
Interim Town Manager Gus
Ulrich said approximately 50 homes
I have been built each year at Holden
Beach over the last two years.
Commissioners adopted the ordi
nance on a unanimous vote last
Wednesday, but have given builders
j and property owners 30 days to plan
for the new fees before they take ef
fect.
Commissioner Gay Atkins sug
gested the waiting period be extend
ed to 90 or 1 20 days to give contrac
tors more time to prepare. However,
other town board members said the
30-day grace period is long enough.
"Everybody knows that this has
been on the menu for some time,"
David Sandifer said. "Every day that
we don't do it is lost revenue."
Commissioner Jim Fournier, who
1 worked on the impact fee proposal
with Sandifer, said he doesn't want
town hall to be flooded with build
ing permit applications before the
fees take effect.
"They've already had two months
and we're giving them another one,"
he said. "That's 90 days right there."
Fees will have to be paid before a
building permit is issued.
Town officials wiil review the fee
schedule every year as part of the
budget process and may make
changes following a public hearing.
If Holden Beach has not commit
ted to the construction of a sewer or
stormwater system by the year 2003, ,
the ordinance will be repealed and
all fees that have been collected will
be refunded.
Ausley said Holden Beach's sew
er committee is gathering informa
tion on how much a system would
cost, which type would be best for
the community and if loans or grants
are available.
On Sept. 1, committee secretary
Jim Lowell made a presentation to
the N.C. Division of Environmental
Management in an effort to improve
Holden Beach's position on the
state's loan priority list.
The town also paid $300 to
Houston and Associates, a Shallotte
engineering firm, for a letter it wrote
in support of Holden Beach moving
higher on the loan priority list.
Sewer Committee Chairman Jim
Griffin said last week that the town
is about 36th on the list. "I think we
stand a very good chance of moving
up to around 10," he said.
In his report to the state, Lowell
said the island is about 50 percent
developed and will be fully devel
oped by the year 2013 if the present
growth rate is accelerated by the ad
dition of a sewer system.
The town has about 1,700 con
structed units and 1.7(H) vacant lots.
Lowell indicated in his report that
the town would need a sewer treat
ment capacity of 2.5 million gallons
of water per day when the island is
fully developed.
Inside...
Birthdays 2B
Business News 9C
Calendar IOC
Church News 12A
Classified 1-8C
Crime Report 12C
Fishing 11C
Golf 7B
Obituaries 13A
Opinion 4-5A
People In The News 6B
Plant Doctor 3B
Sports 7-11B
Television 4-5B
Local Health Care Providers Speak Out On Clinton's Reform Plan
BY MARJORIE MEGIVERN
Brunswick and Dosher Hospitals may dis
appear; emergency rooms everywhere could
be swamped; all Americans are apt to inherit
bad socialized medicine; or nothing at all
could come of President Clinton's health
care reform plan.
These are among the reactions of
Brunswick County health care professionals
quizzed Monday about their reaction to the
much-ballyhooed makeover of American
health care the president touted to Congress
and the public on Sept. 22. Along with his
overview of the plan, Clinton asked
Congress to pledge that legislation putting a
reform plan in place would be forthcoming
before adjournment.
The new proposals, researched by First
Lady, Hillary Clinton and her task force,
may be extensively revised and when the fi
nal produce it implemented, it will affect
every individual American as well as health
care professionals and the insurance, phar
raceutical and hospital industries.
Brunswick Countians representing these
groups were asked for their responses to
Clinton's plan.
Expressing the most commonly-heard
fear. Dr. Kendall Suh, a Brunswick Hospital
emergency room physician, said, "I'm not
sure where the funding will come from, and
I'm not sure the plan is workable."
Suh spoke of "too many middlemen" in
health care, pointing to emergency providers
like Coastal Emergency Physicians as an ex
ample. This group supplied the Brunswick
Hospital emergency room for ten years, pri
or to the current administration. "They're
now a multi-million-dollar corporation,"
Suh said.
He said insurance companies are the cur
rent big winners in health care. "They make
a tremendous amount of money." Suh de
clared. "This new plan might mean lower
rates for some, but ultimately costs will go
up."
In his own field he saw emergency rooms
awash with non-emergency patients if ac
cess to this service were increased. "Our
county would probably be affected less than
"If our room rates were
apples we were selling
for 35 cents and
everyone paid for their
apple , we could reduce
charges for everyone by
50 percent tomorrow. "
? Dosher Administrator
Edgar Haywood
others, though," he conceded.
Susan Gibble of Holden Beach, physi
cians' assistant and wife of internist Dr.
Timothy Gibble, focuses her concern on em
ployers. "We're more worried about our sta
tus as small business owners," she said.
With only two employees, she wondered
how big a bite health insurance will take
from the office budget. "Not only is the gov
ernment asking us as physicians to take less
money in fees, and for more services," she
said, "but as employers we're also asked to
pay more in health care."
While she acknowledged that an empha
sis on preventive care will prove a long-term
benefit, Gibble said, "Many people who
need health care the most are those who are
irresponsible with their lives. They just
don't take care of themselves."
On the subject of managed competition,
she sees small rural offices and hospitals on
the endangered list. "Brunswick Hospital
and others like that will not survive," she in
sisted. "You have to send someone out to
employers to make bids for health care; it
requires more time and employee time than
our office would have."
Gibble laughed as she recalled listening to
President Clinton's description of the pre
sent health care system in Wednesday's tele
vised speech. "He was calling it "bureaucrat
ic, inefficient and fraudulent,' and I turned
to my husband and said, 'Why, he's describ
ing the government.!"
Dr Lxe Langston's question was very
specific. "We need to try and cover basic
health needs," he said, "but if we don't say
exactly what we'll cover, the bill could be
astronomical."
The Shallotte physician recalled his
tenure with a health maintenance organiza
tion (HMO). "It charged a flat fee for all
medical care," he said, "so people figured
everything was covered, but it wasn't. We
need to spell out precisely what is covered
under this new plan."
Ed Thomas sees the issue from his per
spective behind a pharmacy counter. He
owns Thomas Drugs in Shallotte and is du
bious that a complete plan will ever emerge.
"It hasn't gone to Congress yet, and the spe
cial interests haven't gotten into it," he said.
"It will be two years before it's written, if it
ever is."
Thomas said health care advocates must
fight the cigarette industry, the American
(See LOCAL HEALTH, Page 2-A)