2 TABOR-LORIS TRIBUNE WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012

Consignment AuctionAnother Man’s Treasure

Brown’s Bid To Buy Auction CompanyFirm License: 8875

Location: 1025 South Madison Street(Old Goodyear Building)

Whiteville, N.C. 28472

August 25, 2012Registration & Viewing 8 a.m.- 9.a.m.

Sale will begin promptly at 9 a.m.

Antique Furniture, Glassware, Jewelry and Lots & Lots of other Treasures!!!

Additional Information & several photos of Items to be sold: Log on to: auctionzip.com

and enter ID # 27865

Lions prideMembers of the Loris High School Marching Band took a soggy field during halftime Friday, to the delight of home team fans. (Deuce Niven photo)

Audit brings a smile, wrecker policy reviewed

Loris Council

A positive audit report and talk of revising the po-lice department’s wrecker rotation policy were high-lights of two quick meetings of Loris City Council on Monday.

Auditor Robin Poston told council the city’s financ-es “are stronger than ever,” Mayor David Stoudenmire said. “Our general fund has improved. Last year she told us we needed to improve the water and sewer fund, and we have. Both the general fund and water and sewer fund have moved in a posi-tive direction. “We were all happy.”

Discussion of the city’s wrecker rotation policy was brought to the Public Safety Committee by Police Chief Joseph Vaught earlier in the evening. Though the department has a wrecker rotation policy, Vaught asked that the city consider some modifications, including a look at response times and the rotation system in place by Horry County. “We want to see if we can mirror them,” Stoudenmire said of the county’s policy. Vaught is to bring a more formal recommendation to council later, Stoudenmire said.

Tax incentives OKd for DMA’s Hart & Cooley acquisition

By DEUCE NIVEN Tax incentives worth more than $25,000 on an $823,000 in-vestment in Tabor City were ap-proved for DMA (Direct Market Access) by Columbus County Commissioners on Monday. Described by county Eco-nomic Development Director Gary Lanier as a “major dis-tributor of replacement auto parts, mostly struts, shocks, suspension items,” DMA is working to relocate a distribu-tion center from Florida to Tabor City. Lanier said DMA has filled the former Planter’s Tobacco Warehouse facility on Pire-way Road, and late last month purchased the former Hart & Cooley/Penn Ventilation facil-ity on U.S. 701 Bypass. “They are already in the building and doing work,” Lanier said. Once renovations and improvements are com-plete, the distribution facility will bring seven new jobs to Tabor City, Lanier said. Commissioners agree to

follow the county’s incentive policy, and assuming the in-vestment and jobs promised come true, DMA would receive $25,488.31 in tax incentives spread out over five years, pay-able as a percentage of taxes paid each year beginning in 2014.

Rural grant Closed since Hart & Cooley moved its Tabor City operation to Mexico in 2009, the building built in 1970 needs significant improvements to meet building and safety codes, Lanier said. Commissioners approved a resolution supporting DMA in its application to the North Carolina Rural Center for a Building Reuse and Restora-tion grant to help make those renovations. Columbus County must match the grant, if awarded, with a five percent contribu-tion, Lanier said. The tax incentives approved Monday will meet that requirement, he said.

Fair Bluff voters may yawn at ABC issue Voters in Fair Bluff will soon decide if on-premise sales of mixed alcoholic beverages can take place in the river town, Mayor Randy Britt says. He’s not expecting great interest, just 18 months after a relative handful of voters approved malt beverage sales in restaurants. “The last time we only had about 100 votes,” Britt said Tuesday. There are about 800 registered voters in Fair Bluff, and typical municipal elections

draw about 300 to the polls, Britt said. “Basically, the last time, if they drove by and noticed an election going on, they came in and voted,” Britt said. Town commissioners voted last week to ask the Columbus County Board of Elections to conduct that referendum. That should be held within 60 to 120 days, but cannot be held during the general election, Britt said. Costs will be higher, up to $2,800, to hold the referendum

separately from the scheduled Nov. 6 balloting this year. Com-missioners would like North Myrtle Beach, SC businessman H. Lee Brown, who has asked for the mixed drink sales vote, to pay for it. Britt said he hasn’t ap-proached Brown yet, but “I hope to have that conversation in the next few days.” There is no provision in state law to require that Brown pay for the vote, Britt said. Brown is in talks to purchase

the former Masonic Lodge on Riverside Drive, Britt said, and wants to open an upscale restaurant there. That won’t happen without a mixed drink permit, Britt said. Voters approved malt bever-age sales in a February 2011 vote in hopes that it would bring a pizza restaurant to town. Britt said that while the pizza place is in place, it does not yet sell beer. “They are still working on those permits,” Britt said.

Dr. W. Thomas Cot-tingham, Jr., presi-dent of Southeastern Community College from 1969 through 1973, died on Aug. 14 in Douglas, Ga., the college announced this week. Cottingham was 96. His presidency was marked by ac-c o m p l i s h m e n t s that included the implementation of an extensive devel-opmental program to meet the needs to low-achieving students, securing federal grant fund-ing for the effort, and establishing the Retired Senior Vol-unteer Program.

Former SCC president dies

Fraud complaint names trash-to-diesel figureBy DEUCE NIVEN

A fraud complaint has been filed against the former chairman of a company that proposed building a $35 million trash-to-diesel fuel pyrolysis facility in Columbus County earlier this year. While the Aug. 9 filing by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission does not appear to involve the Columbus County proposal, or any business dealings in North Carolina, there has no public movement

on that effort since Ronald D. Brooks stepped down as CEO and Chairman of Standard Oil Company USA, Inc., the com-pany spearheading the project. In the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Brooks is accused of committing fraud while at Standard Oil, claim-ing on SEC forms that he had no prior criminal convictions, though he had been convicted in at least three different felony cases and sentenced to prison each time.

Brooks’ problem history was detailed in a June 4 story in The News Reporter of Whiteville. That night county commis-sioners, with just one dissent-ing vote from member Ricky Bullard, approved a letter of intent with Standard Oil to begin the process of bringing the pyrolysis project to a parcel of land at the former Columbus County Landfill site. Brooks, through interme-diaries including Whiteville resident and project proponent Melvin Ezzell, indicated that

the man named in the news-paper story was not the same Ronald Brooks, and that an at-torney would be in touch with The News Reporter to bring clarity to the issue. That never happened, the newspaper reported last week. Ezzell subsequently resigned from Standard Oil, which he said has abandoned the effort while he continues to seek financial backers.

That letter of intent was re-turned to the county, unsigned.

Former lake mayor apparently drowns there The body of former mayor David B. Goldston Jr. was recovered from Lake Wacca-maw Monday evening, about 24-hours after his small jon boat was discovered travelling in circles, and capping a full day of searching, Town Manager Darren Currie said. Despite sonar aided efforts that began after dusk Sunday, and continued throughout Monday, it was eyes that were successful in locating the 64-year-old surveyor, Currie said. “It was the state parks boat,” Currie said. “They were on their way out to where a grid-search was going on, and they thought they same something and called everyone else over.” Family members were noti-

fied quickly, and there was no question that the man who was found was Goldston. Goldston had been fishing on the 9,000 acre lake Sunday afternoon, Currie said. Calls to 911 reported someone slumped over the two-man jon boat, but rescuers found no one on board, and anchored the boat where it was found, circling in the water. A life jacket hanging on the boat, from a distance, looked like someone slumped over, Currie said. It wasn’t clear where Goldston might have fell out of the boat, or why, though there is no indication of foul play. An autopsy will be con-ducted, Currie said.

Long-term alderman

Goldston served for about 16-years on the Lake Wacca-maw Board of Alderman, and was appointed mayor in the spring of 2005 when Bo McNeill resigned. He served as mayor until that December, and was defeated in November 2005 when he ran again for his old Alderman seat. Goldston owned and oper-ated David B. Goldson Survey-ing, Currie said. “He surveyed everything in the world at Lake Waccamaw,” Currie said. “He was a forester too. He was the mayor when I was hired. He will be missed.

Multi-agency search Sonar equipped from the Ta-bor City Fire Department, State Parks, and Lake Waccamaw

Fire and Rescue searched the area near where the boat was found Sunday evening. A Columbus County Sher-iff ’s Office boat joined the search on Monday, and another from the Bladen County Water Rescue team brought more advanced technology. Side-looking sonar array, towed by a Bladen County Water Rescue boat, allowed a different, clearer look at the lake, Currie said. The Colum-bus based boats all had sonar equipment mounted to the vessel that looks down, he said, while side-looking sonar can be more effective.

Despite the technology, it was human eyes, not sonar, that located Goldston.

No detour for scheduled NC 904 bridge replacement Replacement of the bridge on NC 904 near Dothan Road, east of Tabor City, will begin as early as Aug. 27 and take more than a year to complete, an announcement from N.C. Department of Transporta-tion Secretary Gene Conti. For motorists, the good news is there will be no detour. “They are going to straight-en out that curve,” District En-gineer Drew Cox said Tuesday.

“They will build a new bridge, and use the old one until con-struction is complete.” T.A. Loving Co. of Golds-boro has been awarded the $1.2 million project to replace the bridge over Juniper Swamp, Conti said. Under terms of the contract construction must be complete by November 2013. Built in 1948, the bridge is considered structurally obso-lete

“This does not mean the bridge is unsafe, but its lay-out no longer meets current design standards for width, shoulders or rails,” a DOT news release said. “The new bridge will be able to accom-modate larger vehicles than the current bridge.” Though there will be no de-tours because of this project, motorists can expect plenty over the next three years,

when some 53 bridges are scheduled for replacement, Cox said.

Those on major highways, like NC 904, typically are con-structed without detours. But it’s cheaper to detour, and most bride replacements on second-ary roads, like one on Peacock Road near Beaverdam just recently completed, require motorists to use another route.

Ribbon cutting for CC Dept. of Aging is Thurs. A formal ribbon cutting ceremony for the new 51,000 square foot headquarters build-ing for the Columbus County Department of Aging is scheduled for 10 a.m. tomorrow (Thursday) at the facility just off Chad-bourn Hwy and Legion Drive in Whiteville. Construction on the $484,000 project, funded with a $450,000 federal grant, began last November. Housing the offices for the county’s De-partment of Aging, the facility will also serve as the Senior Center for Whiteville. Those activities have been moved elsewhere in Whiteville during construction.