Today's News

SHALLOTTE—Although the town’s 10-year vision plan hasn’t been officially adopted yet, the planning board is looking into the feasibility of applying for state permits allowing the creation of an urban waterfront district.

Obtaining the required permits from the N.C. Division of Coastal Management would require a lot of planning and paperwork, but Shallotte officials say it would be worth it. The planning board and board of aldermen will most likely be working on the permits for the next several months, said town administrator Paul Sabiston.

SUNSET BEACH—It was just a routine pier repair, or so Tommy Perry thought.

When the longtime Oak Island dock builder went to the town of Sunset Beach to outline minor repairs he planned to make to an Intracoastal Waterway pier for a client on West Canal Drive, he was told his plans would have to be approved by a civil engineer.

It was the first time in his 22 years of building docks with his father for American Fish Marine Construction and Boat Yard that Perry said he was required to obtain an engineer’s approval to do minor repairs on a privately owned pier.

Twelve or more years of hard work and hassle came to a dramatic, yet simple conclusion last week as hundreds of Brunswick County graduates picked up their tassels and moved them from one side of their mortarboards to the other.

In that gesture, often accentuated by the ceremonial tossing of the mortarboard into the air, students made the transition from being kids to almost, but not quite, grown up. After pomp and circumstance, they now find themselves lingering on the outskirts of the “real world.”

According to the Consumer Price Index, in the last year, the cost of living has increased more than 4 percent. A leading factor in that increase has been the cost of gas. We’re seeing the rising cost of fuel affecting most areas of our lives—from travel and energy to food prices.