Today's News

BOLIVIA—Even before being appointed sheriff in May, John Ingram had plans to streamline the sheriff’s office and its staff.

Last week, Ingram and chief deputy Charlie Miller put their plan into action, restructuring the sheriff’s office through promotions and transfers.

“The one thing we wanted to accomplish was to have a defined chain of command,” Ingram said.

Miller added the restructuring of staff “clearly defined” that chain of command.

CALABASH—Commissioner Forrest King has suggested deleting the Calabash EMS and the Calabash Fire Department as separate budgetary line items.

Instead, he said the two could be combined as a general “donations” item under the public safety section of expenditures in the town’s 2008-2009 fiscal budget.

King’s suggestion came at a workshop Tuesday as commissioners discussed a draft of the proposed $1,022,950 budget. Commissioners are expected to vote on adopting the budget at 4 p.m. Thursday (June 26) at town hall.

CAROLINA SHORES—Planning and zoning board members say they need better details from applicants who want to guide improvements of the town’s land use ordinance.

While the town has received four applications for the consulting position, board chairman Jim Hartnett said the board does not have enough information from most of them.

At the board’s June 18 workshop, “we all came to the conclusion there is not enough information to make an affirmative recommendation to the board of commissioners,” Hartnett said Monday.

On a hot mid-June morning, 73-year-old William Gause relaxes on a picnic table in the shade of an old oak tree while nine middle-school-aged girls tear up his front lawn with garden trowels and cultivators.

A green cap casts a shadow over Gause’s face as he watches the girls at work. He spends most of his days like this, sitting under the oak tree and listening to church music. Gobs of Spanish moss hang from the tree’s limbs, giving it a weeping quality.

“I hung that moss,” he says, his voice soft and proud.