Community News

 BY LAURA LEWIS

STAFF WRITER

SUNSET BEACH—In trying economic times, the town of Sunset Beach is holding its own and in one instance doing better than last year.

Town finance director Donna Rogers, speaking at the Sunset Beach Town Council meeting Monday night, said the town’s local-option sales tax is 26 percent higher in the first quarter than last year, while accommodations tax is a “little less than 1 percent” higher than the previous fiscal year.

VARNAMTOWN—Varnamtown celebrated its 20th anniversary as an incorporated town Saturday.

Mayor Judy Galloway said the town has accomplished a lot in its 20 years, including the building of Jesse R. Caison Park, installation of streetlights and Christmas lights, a new town hall and construction of the town boat ramp and parking.

“None of this would have happened if we would not have incorporated,” she said.

State Sen. R.C. Soles helped the town with its incorporation in 1988 and was invited to Saturday’s celebration.

GRISSETTOWN—For nearly 30 years, Helen Lund had been feeding a colony of feral cats behind a building on U.S. 17.

Using her own money, Lund would trap the cats and pay a veterinarian to have them spayed or neutered and treated for rabies before releasing them back into the wild.

She bought medicine to treat the wild felines for assorted illnesses and eye problems.

She erected houses for them on the feral colony site on a vacant lot behind a Dumpster.

Sometimes, she’d take a cat or kitten home where she would tame it into a pet of her own.

At least four local bicyclists are getting in gear for Cycle North Carolina, a cross-state ride that begins Sunday in Black Mountain and concludes the following Saturday on Oak Island.

The participants include Steve and Stephanie Bruce, Harvey Camp and Peter Lewis of Island Hoppers Bicycle Repair on U.S. 17 at N.C. 904.

Cycle North Carolina (online at www.ncsports.org) is touted as a “mountains to the coast” ride of about 425 miles that includes nightly stops at host towns along the way.