Opinion

Come September, Calabash will be the site of the Lions Club’s Oktoberfest. The event, planned for Sept. 20, will feature music, a beer tent, people and food. During their Feb. 13 meeting, the town board of commissioners agreed the town could assist with the club’s needs like tables, a stage and donated maintenance time.

The event promises to be a good time in the town, but it belongs to the club, not the town.

We think it is time Calabash had a festival to call its own, and a proposed seafood festival is a splendid idea.

During the past two months, residents in Carolina Shores have rallied to defend town recycling center employee Jerry Franklin,who they feel is being treated like trash.

The residents say it all started when Franklin received a reprimand from town maintenance supervisor Tom Donlon based on a single complaint: Someone told Donlon that Franklin failed to provide proper assistance at the recycling center.Now, they say, Franklin is no longer allowed to assist residents with their garbage and anyone who needs assistance must alert him by pointing at their bag of garbage.

The National Weather Service forecast early last week for Brunswick County was dire. Meteorologists guaranteed a dusting of snow to cover about an inch or more of ice that would not only blanket the area, but also not thaw completely in 48 hours of mostly below-freezing temperatures, beginning Jan. 28.

The insurance hits just seem to keep coming for homeowners in Brunswick County.

Thanks to the federal Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act passed in July 2012, flood insurance premiums rose by an average of 10 percent with policy renewals after Oct. 1 last year. That was coupled with a Federal Emergency Management Agency surcharge on policies amounting to 5 percent of those premiums. North Carolina’s legislators at both the state and federal level are still trying to resolve the unintended, unreasonably expensive consequences of the Biggert-Waters Act.

One of the side effects few considered in the wake of last week’s polar vortex was the impact on the availability of blood.

According to the American Red Cross, 280 blood drives across 25 states were canceled because of the snow and extreme cold. The blood drive cancellations resulted in a shortfall of nearly 8, 400 blood and platelet donations since Jan. 2.

The end of 2013 signaled the deadline for people to make charitable contributions of cash or property in time to claim it on their next tax filings.

The recently released 2012-2013 North Carolina Secretary of State Charitable Solicitation Licensing Division Annual Report shows charities collected $32,160,894.49 from North Carolinians as reported by professional solicitors during the 12-month period.

The annual report does not look at all charitable and nonprofits operating in North

The Coastal Resources Commission in February is expected to re-examine a proposal to lift a hazard designation for Mad Inlet near Sunset Beach.

Mad Inlet closed naturally in 1997, ending a watery separation between the Sunset Beach island and Bird Island, and is not expected to re-open, according to a news release issued Oct. 31 by the North Carolina Department of Environmental and Natural Resources.

Eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York’s Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history’s most reprinted newspaper editorial.

Last week’s edition of the Beacon featured a story about West Brunswick High School senior Meg Fletcher, a state finalist in the Wendy’s High School Heisman Award competition. Award applicants are judged on their academic achievements, athletic accomplishments, community leadership and involvement in extracurricular activities, among other criteria. Fletcher maintains a grade point average higher than 4.0 while participating — and excelling — at many sports. She even helped institute her school’s swim team.