>?f >5i
What's Up?
Check our calendar on 8-B
to find out about fun-filled
Labor Day activities.
Til
m
supplement inciuaea in tnis issue.
Oh. September!
So begins the time of year
all anglers anticipate. Read
Capt. Jamie, Page6-D.
in/? i p
wiuv
Thirty-Second Year, Number 44
ETCM,UN
hollotte. North Carolina, Thursday, September 1. 1994 ~50c Per Copy 98 Pages, 5 Sections Including Supplement, Plus Inserts
Going To -To -Toe
A toe-to-toe confrontation is the only nay to describe thi\ battle between Sorth Brunswick's Grey
Smith (left) and Wirvf Brunswick's Jay McRoberts. West prevailed. The sto'y is on Page l-B.
Man's Tragic Obsession Ends
i_ r. /^_ i J _ a r\
if i ouiuu t? inter uune
BY ERIC CARLSON
Roger Dean Armbrustcr just couldn't seem to get over
the break-up with his former wife. Since May, he had
been writing suicide notes addressed to his mother but
left unposted in his mobile home off Kirby Road in
Holden Beach
Last month he left a another note under a windshield
wiper of Margaret Ann Martin's car. parked outside her
Home in Supply Aher Jour years of marriage, she recog
nized the handwriting of her ex-husband and understood
his message Unfolding the paper, she found a bullet and
the words "Boy's got a death wish?"
Last week, Martin found a bag of red hair on her
porch that she recognized as Armbrustcr 's. With it was
another note that said, "Now there won't be no mistake
about which Roger it is."
Last Friday, Armbrustcr walked into The Bruns^-uk
Beacon lobby and wrote a check for a quarter-page ad
vertisement. He handed one of the office managers a
photograph of a smiling couple, standing arm-in-arm
He wrote down the message to go with it.
The ad, with the words "Because I love you Margie,"
was supposed to run in today's paper
Early Saturday moming. after pounding on Martin's
front door and firing a pistol from the porch, Armbruster
drove his van over the Holden Beach bridge and onto
the sand at the cast end of the paved road, in the pitch
darkness, he swam across Lockwood Folly Inlet and
watched the sunrise from the west end of Oak Island
Flying overhead in search of the armed suspect who
had eluded police several hours earlier, a Brunswick
County Sheriff's deputy saw a man sitting on the inlet
beach with his feet dangling in the water Circling back,
the pilot saw the man walk across the dune Then he
suddenly collapsed.
Dropping foi a cioscr look, iiic ucpuiy saw a message
scrawled in large letters in the sand
"I love you Margie," it said.
That was how sheriff's deputies and court documents
described the relent lev. obsession and the long down
ward spiral that ended when Roger Armbrustcr put a
380 caliber pistol to his heart and pulled the trigger
Saturday morning
"From the looks of things, he had this planned for
quite a while," Armbrustcr 's sister Rencc Nellcr of
Jacksonville, Fla., said Monday on the porch uf his neat
ly maintained mooik home in the honest Hills subdivi
sion. "I don't think he wanted anyone to talk him out of
it or to change his mind."
His mother. Rosemary Armbrustcr described her son
as a hard-working, "happy -go lucky guy" who had
seemed to be enjoying life, until just recently He ran a
successful business as a licensed electrician and had
made lots of friends in the area since he and Martin
moved here from Charlotte in IW(), she said
That was shortly after their marriage, which Mrs
Armbrustcr found puzzling, even though the two had
been seeing each other for several years
"1 was surprised when he called and told me." she
said "It seemed like they fought more than anything
else. And she was 20 years oider than him."
The two "started from scratch." buying some land to
develop a mobile home p?rV. near Holdcn Beach, Mrs
Armbrustcr said But after a couple of years together,
things apparently turned sour They signed a separation
agreement in April, 1W2 Their divorce was finalized
last December
Living in Charlotte, Mrs Armbrustcr said she didn't
realize how profoundly the break-up had affected her
son. Even after their divorce, Roger and Margaret
seemed to maintain an off-and-on relationship and even
flew to the Bahamas together last February for a vaca
tion
Then last week, Mrs Armbrustcr got a call from
(See SIJ1CIDK, Page 2-A)
Inside...
Birthdays ,2B
Business News 10D
Calendar ?????????????????????a .8B
Church News 11 A
Classified 1-12C
Crime Report 7D
Court Docket 8-9D
Fishing 6D
Golf 4D
Obituaries 11A
Opinion 4-5A
People In The News ...10B
Plant Doctor JB
Television 6-7B
GOP Nominates Leonard
For County Commissioner
Theron "Woody" lxonard Jr. of
Winnabow will be the Republican
challenger facing incumbent Demo
crat Tom Rabon in the District 4
County commissioners' race this fall.
The Brunswick County Repub
lican Party Executive Committee
voted unanimously last week to
name Leonard as the party's nomi
nee for District 4 county commis
sioner.
Shirley Babson, county chairman
of the GOP, said the 29-year-old res
ident of Town Creek Road was the
only person nominated at the execu
tive committee meeting last Wed
nesday night at party headquarters.
I x:onard will replace Pete Bar
nette of Leland, who earlier with
drew from the commissioners' race.
Babson said she nominated Leo
nard after interviewing him for
about an hour. "I was very impres
sed with him. He had a great knowl
edge of local issues," she said.
Leonard is a county native who
recently completed a seven-year
stint in the military. He has a wife
and one child.
Tough Classes Will Help
Students Improve SAT
Scores: Superintendent
BY SUSAN USIIKR
Brunswick County's 1994 gradu
ating seniors scoring an average of
30 points lower on the SAT than
their counterparts a year ago, a sign,
says Superintendent of Schools
Ralph Johnston, that local students
need to enroll in more rigorous aca
demic courses
"The students who rank in the top
10 percent do well, but other stu
dents taking the test do not do well,"'
said Johnston.
The SAT. recently changed from
Scholastic Aptitude Test to Scho
lastic Assessment Test to better re
flect that it is an evaluation of
learned verbal and mathematical
skills, is used by most college and
university admissions offices as one
predictor of how well high school
students will perform as college
freshmen
tountywidc. 17ft seniors took the
SAT last school year, for a participa
tion rate of 39 4 pcrccnt While most
college-bound students take the bat
tery for the first time during their ju
nior year, some relest during their
senior year with the hope of improv
ing their score
tountywidc results show a big
disparity between students' verbal
and math scores, and between scores
tor black and white students the
average math scorc for all county
students was 408, 60 points higher
than the average verbal score of 3ft8
Brunswick County Schools
Unit Verbal Math Total
West High 373 413 786
South High 379 428 807
North High 343 365 708
Brunswick County . .368 408 776
1994 SAT Total Scores
System Score Rank*
Brunswick Co 776 15
Columbus Co 769 17
Whiteville City 817 7
Bladen Co 774 16
New Hanover Co 863 1
North Carolina 860
United States 902
*in Southeast N.C. region
South seniors stored highest on the middle, 5 points lower than
both the verbal and math sections. South on verbal, and 15 points lower
arvi North students scorcd lowest on than South on math.
both sections, with a 36-point ditter- Also ot concern to local t4vcMoti
cnce in verbal averages and a 63- is the 144-point difference between
point difference in math averages. average scores of black students and
West Brunswick students fell in
(S*e BRUNSWICK, Page 2-A)
STAW PHOTO BY EIOC CAJU SON
Just A Few More Pages
A rising tide threatens to wash over Pauline Kingry as she enjoys
the final chapter of a book she was reading on the strand at
Holden Beach last week. The Kingry family was vacationing on the
Brunswick Isles from their home in Charleston, W.Va.
County, Schools
To Argue Over
$14 Million Jury
Award Today
BY ERIC CARLSON
Brunswick County commission
ers and the board of education are
scheduled to face off in court again
today (Sept. 1) to argue over the
county's request for a new trial in
last month's jury award of $14 mil
lion for schools.
The county has filed three mo
tions asking the court to reverse the
decision, which would give the
board of education $4.8 million
more than was earmarked for
schools in the county's 19^4-95
budget.
Commissioners say the award, if
upheld, will force the county to raise
taxes by 10 cents per $100 valua
tion.
Trial Judge Jack Thompson was
scheduled to hear the county's mo
tions Monday morning, but agreed
to postpone the hearing due to a
death in the family of school board
attorney Glen ^eterson.
If the jud ,e denies the motions,
the county vill have one m6nth to
decide whether or not to appeal the
ruling and/or the verdict to the N.C.
Court of Appeals. The commission
ers say they will wait for the judge's
ruling before discussing a possible
appeal.
The county's first motion requests
a "stay of execution" to delay
awarding the additional school fund
ing until the other two questions are
(See SCHOOLS', Page 2-A)
COUNTY. SHALLOTTE TO MEET
Merged ABC Systems Could Build Liquor Store In Supply
nvcDirrADicnu " ' " -L ' '
BY ERIC CARLSON
State Alcoholic Beverages Control (ABC) officials
have been asked to attend a joint meeting of the
Shallotte and Brunswick County ABC boards to dis
cuss a merger of the two systems that would allow the
construction of a liquor store in the Supply area.
At its regular semi-monthly meeting Aug. 24, the
county ABC board agreed to hold off on tentative plans
for an ABC store in Ash, pending the outcome of
negotiations aimed at merging the county system with
Shallotte 's.
Characterizing the idea as a "win-win situation for
both sides," county ABC board Chairman John
Ramsey said the merger would not only increase proiits
for both partners, but it would open up the possibility
of building new stores that are currently prohibited by
law.
Special legislation sponsored a few years ago by
State Rep. David Redwine prohibits the county ABC
board from building a store within seven miles of a
town that already has a liquor outlet. Brunswick is the
only county in the state that has such a iaw.
With 1 1 municipal ABC systems in the county, the
legislation prevents the construction of any liquor
stores on the U.S. 17 Bypass trom New Hanover
County to the South Carolina line. As a result, the
county has been considering the construction of a store
in Ash, which one ABC board member described as
"the last frontier" for expanding the system.
The county currently has liquor stores near Holdcn
Beach rnd on U.S. 74/76 near the Columbus County
line. Shallotte has one ABC store on Main Street.
By merging the Shallotte and county ABC systems,
the joint operation w^uld no longer be prohibited from
building a store within seven miles of Shallotte, open
ing up the bypass east of the town to a point about one
mile beyond Supply.
Due to the special legislation, no ABC stores can be
built on the bypass between there and the Lanvale area
tecause that portion of the highway falls within seven
miles of the Boiling Spring Lakes town limits From
Lanvale north, U.S. 17 is within seven miles of
Belville. South of Shallotte, the highway remains with
(See ABC MERGER, Page 2-A)