Local News

Tuesday night, Holden Beach Commissioners approved, by a 3-1 vote, spending an additional $184,000 to finish the new Emergency Operations Center.

The money the previous town board had allocated for the project was just for the shell of the building and did not address paying for furnishings, communications or parking, current commissioners said Tuesday.

Commissioner Gary Staley, who was also on the previous board, questioned why the on-site wastewater facility tab had gone from $6,000 to $50,000.

SHALLOTTE—The town alderman who accused developers of the San Rio project of potentially harming the Shallotte River has denied the town “harassed” developers during the development’s planning and approval process.

Last week, vice president Jim Wiseman of Wakefield Coastal, the developers of the San Rio project, withdrew the company’s petition for annexation and rezoning of a portion of land off Gray Bridge Road after learning alderman John Kinlaw had accused them of creating a potential pollution hazard.

SUNSET BEACH—Town council last week discussed a payback period for the town’s estimated $33 million sewer project slated to launch next year, with completion by 2011.

Town attorney Michael Isenberg said, following recent discussion with Brunswick County Attorney Huey Marshall, there is no way it could be done for more than 10 years.

He said at the Aug. 4 meeting a new act allowing for 30 years “doesn’t apply in our situation.”

A tax district could be set up in which people pay a separate tax.

In 1720, both pirates and Native Americans were virtually eliminated from the Ocean Isle Beach area. Most of the pirates were hanged in 1720 in Charleston, S.C., and most of the Cape Fear Indians had left the area during the Tuscarora Indian War.

In 1720, the Ocean Isle Beach area was ripe and vacant for pioneers to begin settlements and try to make a living. Families such as Gause, Frink, Brooks and Moore settled here and started large plantations.