Top Ten Taxpayers, 1993
Value Tptai Tax
CP&L ................?.???$6*1,966,915 $4,909,067
duPont 244,965,460 1,665,765
N.C. Eastern Munic. Power.... 170,296,547 1,226,135
Archer Daniels Midland 109,086,404 785,422
Cogentrix of N.C. Inc 35,066,214 252,477
Odell Williamson 30,584,610 207,975
Bald Head Island lid 27.596>7?6 ?ft2;rtl4
Brunswick Electric 27,256,485 187,250
Federal Paper Board................ 24,684,200 167,866
International Paper Co 20,839,859 141,830
SOURCE: BRUNSWICK COUNTY TAX ASSESSOR
Tax Office Busy With Receipts, Listings, Revaluation
BY ERIC C'ARI-SON Those who missed the deadline will he charged firms dominating the roster. This year. Bald Head
The ghosts of taxes past, present and future are a 2 percent penalty during the month of January. Island Ltd. jumped from ninth to sixth on the list,
keeping the Brunswick County Tax Office busy Taxpayers who file lelurns after Feb. 1 will face while Federal Paper Board fell from seventh to
these days, as workers began counting last year's an additional '/? percent each month until taxes are ninth. Again. Ocean Isle Beach developer Odell
tax receipts, mailed out more than 17,000 person- paid. Williamson was the only individual taxpayer to
al property tax listing forms and conducted infor- As a first step toward enforcing tax payment, make the top-ten list.
mal hearings with people who have questions the names of everyone who fails to pay their taxes Carolina Power and Light Company last week
about their new tax revaluation. be published in local newspapers in April. Under brought Moore a check for just under $5 million.
As the deadline for paying personal property a [x>licy adopted in 1991, the county has the right which she expects to be about one-sixth of the
taxes passed last week. T<i* Cuiiectoi Nancy to ^afnish :hc wages of delinquent taxpayers or year's total tax levy The value of the company's
Moore estimated that about 85 percent of attach their bank account to recover the money, holdings at the Brunswick Nuclear Plant jumped
Brunswick County property owners will have No warning of such action is required. by more than $22 million this year, increasing its
paid on time and avoided a penalty. She said that With minor exceptions, the names and order of tax bill by more than $150,000.
collection rate was "about average." and expects the county's ten largest taxpayers remained the Meanwhile, tax officials want people to re
another 10 percent to pay their taxes by June. same for 1993, with the area's large industrial (See DEADLINE, Page 2-A)
Tl' IS""" )WICK<
Thirty-Second Year, Number 11 ci^mmunswickkacon Shallolle, North Carolina, Thursday, January 13, 1994 50$ Per Copy 36 Pages, 3 Sections, Plus Inserts
Hospital
Lease Good
For 40 Years,
Judge Rules
BY SUSAN USHER
After 10 years of uncertainty, a
judge ruled Tuesday morning in
Brunswick County Superior Court
that the company managing The
Brunswick Hospital has a 40-year
lease.
Tuesday morninc. Judge Bradford
Tillerv of Wilmington directed attor
ney Henry Foy of Southport to draft
an order to that effect for his signa
ture.
Since the order had not yet been
signed. Mark Gregson. new chief
executive officer of The Brunswick
Hospital, was hesitant to comment
on the ruling's impact Tuesday, hut
confirmed the judge's favorable rul
ing.
The authority and HealthTrust de
cided last summer to seek the ruling,
in order to clarify their relationship
and provide a sounder legal footing
for future decision-making.
The hospital's administrator at
that time. Earl Tamar, said that there
were numerous capital improve
ments nc.'rU'd at the hospital that
HealthTrust was hesitant to invest
in, given thai a 10-year lease would
end in less than a year, on May 17,
1994.
The lease issue was the second of
two motions Tillery ruled on after
hearing oral arguments Monday.
On Monday he granted a motion
filed by Brunswick County, dismiss
ing it as a second defendant in the
suit.
Sharing news of both rulings,
county attorney Michael Ramos
said, "That sounds pretty good for
both the county and the authority."
Ramos is also the regular attorney
for the Brunswick County Hospital
Authority, which hired Foy as spe
cial counsel for what was termed a
"friendly" legal action.
The hospital authority was creat
ed by the Brunswick County Board
of Commissioners as a separate le
gal entity to own and operate the
hospital. By law it has sole control
over hospital affairs and is not re
sponsible to county government,
though its members are appointed
the county board of commissioners.
Initial hospital construction was
financed by general obligation
bonds issued by the county in the
mid-1970s, with approximately
$925,000 still outstanding.
If Tillery had ruled that the hospi
tal lease was for only 10 years, the
lease would have expired May 17,
!<)t)4 Under the terms of that lease
?He aiithnritv would have had 30
days in which to pay Hospital Cor
poration of North Carolina for the
lessee's assets or capital improve
ments, accounts receivable, cash or
cash equivalent investments, sup
plies and other expenses. HCNC as
sets alone had been valued in excess
of $4 million.
Even without the judge's dis
missal ot the county as a defendant,
Ramos said he didn't believe the
county held any liability for the au
thority's obligations under the lease.
An unfavorable ruling would also
have launched the Brunswick Coun
ty tiospiiai Authority into a bidding
(See HOSPITAL, Page 2-A)
Offices To Close
For King Holiday
The Brunswick County Gov
ernment Center in Bolivia will be
closed Monday in observance of
Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Brunswick County Schools.
Brunswick Community College,
local banks and post offices also
will be closed Monday.
All town halls in the South
Brunswick Islands area will be
open normal business hours.
ruttei
Blaze Destroys Shallotte Home
Civietown Hire Chief Richard Evans (front) leaves a Madison Street mobile home that was destroyed
by fire last Thursday. A local service club is raising money to help the burned-out family. Another
home almost directly across the street was damaged the same day, and both originated as kitchen fires.
Story on Page J-A.
TASK FORCE FAVORS BOLIVIA
Crowd Opposes
Proposed Landfill
Sites Near River
BY DOUG RUTTER
A new county landfill needed by
1998 won't be built anywhere near
the Lock wood Folly River if the
crowd that shewed up at a public
meeting in Bolivia Tuesday night
has its way.
Residents of the Supply and
Bolivia areas flocked to 'he Public
Assembly Building to tell the
Landfill Siting Study Committee in
no uncertain terms that they don't
want the new dump near their
homes.
"In a county of 650.000 acres
there should be some site that's not
next to somebody's back yard,'' said
Maynard Owens of Shallotte.
Owens and others suggested the
county build the new landfill in a
less populated area and forget about
the five sites in the Supply-Bolivia
area that are being considered.
Besides protecting their neighbor
hoods, audience members sa'd they
ill Miuiiiu'ii; uit iuuuii'il in tut
expansive LockwOod Folly River
watershed.
Residents fear the landfill might
leak, contaminating their drinking
water and adding more pollution to
the river. Lockwood Folly has been
closed to shelltishing trequently
over the past decade because of pol
lution.
"I plead with you folks, seek an
alternative," said John Holden of
Holden Beach. "Preserve what you
got. I have seen too many things de
pleted in my lifetime. We don't need
any more."
In addition to hearing comments
from 20 of the estimated 100 people
who packed the meeting hall, the
committee received a report from a
state task force Tuesday night.
The Inter-Agency Solid Waste
Task Force studied the five sites in
central Brunswick County that the
local committee had earlier recom
mended for further investigation.
Tom Austin, project manager with
consulting engineers Dewberry and
Davis, said the task force is made up
of officials from various agencies
that review permit applications tor
new landfill sites.
The group visited the five Supply
Bolivia sites in October and com
pleted its report last week. Austin
said the task force did not rank the
sites, but did list positive and nega
tive points for each.
Based on those comments, Austin
said the state panel thinks the most
suitable site is a 570-acre tract bor
dered on the north by a tributary of
the Lockwood Folly River along
Gilbert Road and about 1.8 miles
east of Antioch.
Rated as the second-best site was
a 300-acre tract located north of
U.S. 17, west of N.C. 211 and south
of Little Macedonia Roau. It is bor
dered on the west by the Middle
River and on the south by Royal
Oak Swamp.
"Beyond that there was a break
off." Austin said of the task force's
findings. "They felt those two sites
were desirable and the other thrrc
sites were somewhat undesiraoie."
The five cenii ally-located sites
were among 13 potential sites iden
tified last year by the committee
based on a set of criteria that took
into account various engineering,
socio-political and environmental is
sues. The eight other sites were lo
cated in the northeast section of the
county near Leland.
The Landfill Siting Study
Committee made no decisions
Tuesday night. The five members
present said they wanted to consider
the public comments and new infor
mation presented by the task force
before making a final recommenda
tion to county commissioners. The
committee will meet again Jan. 25.
"1 think it's something that we
need to study," said committee
member Wilton Harrelson of
Shallotte. "I'm deliberate in my
thinking, and when I make a deci
sion I like to think I'm right and it's
something I can back up."
"We're gonna have to build one
somewhere," said Paul Austin of
(See LANDFILL, Page 2-A)
Report Card Signals Need For 'High Expectations, Bold Action'
BY SUSAN USHER
How do you turn an entire school
system around?
That's the question Brunswick
County School officials were trying
to answer even before receiving an
other below-standard report card
from the state last week.
The report card is prepared annu
ally by the N.C. Department of
Public Instruction to meet the re
porting requirements of 'he School
Improvement and Accountability
Act, an effort to hold school systems
more accountable for how well they
serve children bv looking at overall
performance.
Ian Calhoun, assistant superinten
dent for instruction, is convinced the
answer lies in a goal embraced this
past year by school system lead
ers?a unified effort to upgrade
standards and expectations, but by
"taking bold actions," focusing on
fewer priorities and recognizing that
change begins in the school system
and at the top, and can be painful.
"It's really important that we
come together and decide what's im
portant," he told school board mem
bers Monday night.
He said the school system needs
to stop using a "shotgun approach,"
Stop doing some things ;m<l heroine
more efficient.
"I'm pretty sure this board agrees
with that," school hoard Chairman
Donna Baxter tolil Calhoun. You
need to Dring tnose things to use.
You've got to tell us what these
things are."
"A lot comes from the parents,
hut I think we need to he pro-ac
tive," Calhoun explained in an earli
er interview. "We need to focus on
what one thing we could do to im
prove schools the most. What be
haviors tin school administrators
have that communicate higher ex
pectations?"
Any effort to improve student
performance "in one sense comes
down to the number and quality of
teachers in the classrooms and what
they are doing to challenge stu
dents," Calhoun said last week "But
there are things we can do to help or
support that."
These include encouraging "good,
solid" innovations based on sound
planning, implementation and evalu
ation rather than "shots in the dark."
Calhoun said he sees his job "as
giving principals and teachers a
chance to do some things that arc in
novative and bold" through site
based management plans. Some
schools may be looking at year
round school, schools within
schools, apprenticeship opportuni
ties, or new ways of grouping stu
dents.
"We're not unique," he said.
"A?i- - ? .i. i . .j:_ . i:(f
villi I XIIUVII> till VII >ltl?; VII I I V. I W III
llllllg> iiuili liciuic hwCiiu.>v .>tuvjv*ito
are different."
Other ways to ntove the system
forward include continuing the high
er level of in-services to help teach
ers improve in the classroom, pro
viding teachers time for planning,
and aligning the curriculum?mak
ing sure that what is actually taught
in Brunswick County classrooms is
the same material that students must
he tested on at year's end.
It also includes providing alterna
tive learning experiences for middle
and high school students who aren't
successful in school.
liic most "telling" fact Calhoun
said last week, is the low number of
county graduates earning N.C.
Scholars recognition?12.3 percent
compared to 24.2 percent statewide.
Scholars receive a seal of recogni
tion on their diplomas for complet
ing an academically challenging
high school program.
"That indicates we need to raise
our expectations." he said. "The
state is dismally low. and we're even
lower, and have dropped even from
last year." Fifteen percent of 1992
graduates were N.C Scholars
The push for hiuher expectations
by and of students needs to begin
not at the high school level, but
much earlier, he said, at least sixth
fl.* *? I ? ??? I ?j ? ?, ?. .r>l< I fttlli \rt
it mrvc ?> it kwwiuiuutku viu'ii
of gUidlilC! COUHftfl'V* n*:n*hers :tn?l
parents to channel students into the
most difficult classes they can take."
One effort in that direction is a new
systematic guidance plan being de
veloped for all schools under the
leadership of Assistant Superinten
dent Oscar Blanks.
I he I'W stale assessment uses a
different format, making a direct
comparison with the 1992 report
card impossible. But Calhoun said
he thinks the new approach is better.
Before, average performance for
each school system and the state was
recalculated every year. That meant
a school svstem needed to make
gains in achievement at rates greater
than the state as a whole in t.rder to
show improvement on the report
card.
No more. Starting this year infor
mation about student performance is
presented in terms of a set stan
dard?"grade level" tor elementary
and middle school end-of-grade lest
indicators and "proficient level" for
high school end-of-course test indi
cators. Those performance standards
were based upon the collective judg
ment of teachers who administered
the tests in 1993, and are expected to
continue as a constant standard tor
comparison purposes for several
years.
On the 1993 Report Card.
Brunswick County Schools showed
improvement in only three cate
gories, while performance on other
indicators fell. In all three major
testing areas (core high school
courses, reading and math in grades
3-K) performance was below the
state standard, and all writing scores
were below the state standard.
Reading scores are improving, he
(Sec SCHOOLS, Page 2-A)
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