Living the Mermaid Life!
All Mermaid Merchandise is 15% OFF! Deal Expires 6/13/16
8211 W Market St #BB Wilmington, NC (910) 319-7693
Kids pier fishing fun
POST Voice The Pender-Topsail
Registration is now underway for the Surf City Ocean Pier annual Children’s Fishing Competition held July 4. The event is limited to the first 300 who sign up. Read more about it on page 1B.
&
513 Roland Ave Surf City, NC (910) 328-2105 www.shopthebee.com
Pirates fall short The Topsail High baseball team lost to the defending state champions Marvin Ridge in a three-game series last weekend in Burlington. Read more in sports on page 8A.
Thursday, June 9, 2016
Volume 45, No.36
50 Cents
The Media of Record for the People of Pender County
Not enough money going to the west
Kids and animals
Board approves new budget over Keith’s objections By Barbara Hazle Post & Voice Staff Writer At the annual budget public hearing during the June 5 Pender County Board of Commissioners meeting, Commissioner Demetrice Keith expressed her frustration with the proportion of funds going to District 4. “T his whole budg et is skewed the eastern side of the county, “said Keith. “Out of a $55 million dollar budget my district is getting $8,200. In my opinion this is not a fair tax representation to that community. Nobody complained about the tax increase, they pay their taxes. We aren’t offering them anything.” Chairman George Brown noted that none of the three entities Keith had concerns
Commissioner Demetrice Keith about, the Greater Currie Community, Willard Outreach and the Atkinson Library had any “skin in the game,” “The library refuses to be a part of the Pender County system because they want to be
Continued on page 2A
Pender’s lottery money goes ,KIV for school bond payments
$67
Cb`m Staff photo by Katie H. Pettigrew Children are aways attracted to animals, as this little one pets a pony at Old River Farms during the Cape Fear BBQ Festival last weekend. DYf Acbh\
$ :]bUbW]b[
Heroin growing problem
Violent crime down in Pender By Barbara Hazle Post & Voice Staff Writer Pender County Sheriff Carson Smith presented an update on his department at the request of the Pender County Board of Commissioners at the June 6 board meetingmeeting. Using graphs to chart out the trends for not only the state, but surrounding counties, Sheriff Carson noted that Pender County per capita has consistently been under the average state crime rate. “We have our fair share of property crime,” Smith said. “But as far as violent crime we are well below the state average.” Smith also noted that in the cases where a violent crime has been committed, the department has a high arrest rate. “It is often someone the vic-
Heroin use is the most problematic situation for the county at this time.
Find us on DYf Acbh\ Facebook $ :]bUbW]b[
www.facebook.com/PostVoice
Pender County will receive $1.62 million in North Carolina Education Lottery funds soon. The large check is due to not drawing the lottery proceeds designated to Pender County from the state for several years. Pender County Manger Randell Woodruff says the county receives about $700,000 a year in lottery funds. Lot-
2014. The $1.62 million represents lottery funds from 2015 and 2016. Lottery funds are drawn from the state by joint request of the Pender County Board of Commissioner’s chairman and the Pender County Board of Education chairman. The lottery funds are used for
Continued on page 3A
Sheriff Carson Smith
tim knows so the perpetrator can be identified and found. With property crime it is unseen, harder to track down the criminal so we don’t have as high an arrest percentage.” He also said that car burglaries often came in streaks, and encouraged the public to lock their cars even if they are parked in driveways. Tools, ZTR lawn mowers and items left on construction sites also were attractive targets for theft. Sheriff Smith discussed drug use in the county saying that the increased use of heroin had “come out of nowhere” in the county during recent months. He did not have exact numbers of deaths
because not all potential overdose cases are examined by the county, but he put the approximate amount at seven from the end of last year. “Heroin use is the most problematic situation for the county at this time. We can get to a call and the person is already dead directly associated with heroin. I’ve never seen that before. Heroin filled the gap of prescription pills because of the crackdown on pill dispensing and control by doctors and pharmacies. Heroin is much cheaper to get compared to what pills on the street cost now,” said Smith. The 911 system handled 29,728 phone calls in 2015. In early August, Smith expects
RV RKAIB 0>SB > RKAIB
,KIV
Cb`m
First bonds for new projects set to sell this week By Andy Pettigrew tery money has not been sent -BO *LKQE Post & Voice Publisher to Pender County since the ǝ #FK>K@FKD county received $2,079,249 in
$67
-BO *LKQE ǝ #FK>K@FKD
Sheriff Carson Smith
YT42 DXLS 350 BT 223L Trimmer
an updated 911 system to be in place and a backup Public Safety Answering Point room to be built at the Pender County Emergency Operations Center. “If we have an emergency and our primary PSAP goes out then we can walk right Staff photo by Andy Pettigrew into this room and regain contact with the public in a matter The Gospel Lites perform on the Courthouse Square on a beautiful Saturday evening at the monthly gospel sing. of minutes,” said Smith.
BuyRegularly A Bundle, $3179.85 Save A Bundle
YT42 DXLS 350 BT 223L Trimmer Bundle and SAVE $254.39 Regularly $3179.85, Bundle and SAVE $254.39 Spring Sales Price $2925.46. 0% FINANCING 48 Mo. W.A.C.
Spring Sales Price $2925.46 WHITE TRACTOR INC. 0% FINANCING 48 Mo.CO. W.A.C. whitetractorcompany.com (WY "Y 0ASS 3 "URGAW s
© 201* Husqvarna AB. All rights reserved.