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Lumina News Yo u r C o a s ta l C o m m u n i t y N e w s pa p e r S i n c e M ay 2 0 0 2

July 2–8, 2015

Volume 14 | Issue 27 | 25¢

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If in doubt, don’t go out

CAM offers Connections Tours

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Wrightsville girls who rip Page 12

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Mystery and history By Emmy Errante Staff Writer

The stories behind Wrightsville’s unique landmarks uncloak the mystery that sometimes shrouds the history, and more often the whimsy, of beach-town living.

Palm Tree Island

Beachgoers crossing the Heide Trask Drawbridge into Wrightsville Beach might notice a lone palm tree and a single parking meter sprouting out of the Intracoastal waterway to the north. Only at low tide is Palm Tree Island revealed, drawing a regular crew of boaters in the know. One of those boaters, Dr. Bill Salling, said the palm tree first appeared around the year 2000. “Local lore has it ... some folks were debating which was better: Wrightsville Beach or the Bahamas,” Salling stated in a June 25 email. “Wrightsville Beach was hands down the winner, except the Bahamas have little tiny islands with palm trees.” The locals realized they did have a small island in the ICWW, at low tide, so all they needed was a palm tree. In the middle of the night, they planted the palm and it — or one of its successors — has been there ever since. “The parking meter came later, compliments of an eccentric engineer from Middle Sound,” Salling added. “He figured there were n See mystery Page 5

Staff photo by Emmy Errante

Boaters enjoy Palm Tree Island near the entrance to Lees Cut, at Wrightsville Beach, Tuesday, June 30.

Stiff fines await July Fourth lawbreakers By Emmy Errante Staff Writer

Lumina News file photo

Large and small craft anchor in Banks Channel behind U.S. Coast Guard Station Wrightsville Beach on the Fourth of July, 2014.

As about 25,000 Fourth of July revelers converge on Wrightsville’s 4-mile beach strand and surrounding waters, a considerable force of lifeguards, law enforcement and environmental conservationists prepare to keep celebrations safe and the island clean. Several law enforcement agencies, which include the Wrightsville Beach Police Department, Emergency Medical Services, the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office, the New Hanover County Fire Department and the North Carolina Wildlife Commission, will again conduct joint operations from a unified command center at the U.S. Coast Guard Station Wrightsville Beach. As in past years, the agencies’ n See fines Page 5

Black skimmer nests reach record high at Wrightsville Beach By Pam Creech Staff Writer

One of Wrightsville Beach’s iconic shorebirds, the black-and-orange beaked black skimmer, is breaking records during this summer’s nesting season. Bird nest numbers at the south end have increased significantly over 2014. “We did the black skimmer census and we counted 175 nests. ... That’s the highest count we’ve had at Wrightsville Beach,” said Lindsay Addison, a coastal biologist for Audubon North Carolina. Addison said this accounts for about 21 percent of the state’s black skimmers. In 2014, Audubon counted 101 black skimmer nests in the colony. “It’s been a good site for skimmers over the past five or six years. ... When they do well at a site, they tend to come back the nest year because those are

probably many of the same individuals that were there last year,” Addison said. “They’re also very social birds, so when they see other black skimmers start landing in an area and start nesting and doing courtship behavior, other birds will join up because they’re colonial.” Other bird species have increased in number, as well. In 2014, only three least tern nests were on the south end. This year, Audubon has counted 232 nests. “Last year, the numbers were down ... because we had a disturbance at the site because of the dredging project that was going on there. That project started April 4 and unfortunately that’s when bird nesting season starts — early April. ... This year, the habitat is undisturbed. It’s the habitat they like, open sand with sparse vegetation, so they’re back in good numbers.”

Police Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 For the record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

For daily updates visit LuminaNews.com

n See Nests Page 5

Staff photo by Emmy Errante

One of this year’s least tern chicks calls out in the bird sanctuary at the south end of Wrightsville Beach Wednesday, June 24.

Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Sports/Marine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

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Senate

budget drops driver education requirement By Tricia Vance Staff Writer

Teenage drivers no longer would have to sit through 30 hours of classes or have six hours of teacher-supervised instruction to get their first license under the N.C. Senate’s proposed budget, a provision that worries educators and safety advocates. The Senate’s budget bill eliminates the driver education requirement for teens under 18. Driver education courses would no longer be available through the public schools, becoming optional rather than required, and by 2016 instruction would shift to community colleges. Teens would have to complete more hours of supervised driving with a parent or guardian and would need a score of at least 85 on the written test to qualify for a provisional license. The state House and Senate reached a temporary budget deal this week that does not include funding for driver education. The 45-day continuing resolution will be in place until a conference committee can reach a budget compromise. Meanwhile, at least 43 school districts have suspended their driver education programs, including Brunswick, Columbus, Duplin and Onslow counties in southeastern North Carolina. New Hanover and Pender counties will continue their programs n See driver Page 5

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July 2–8, 2015

Lumina News — Your Coastal Community Newspaper since May 2002

Town has options for improving drinking water By Emmy Errante Staff Writer

Wrightsville Beach’s well system can produce enough water to meet the town’s needs, but improving the quality of that water will require expensive upgrades to the system, the town’s ad hoc water and sewer committee learned during a June 30 meeting. The committee heard a presentation from hydrogeologic and engineering consulting firm Groundwater Management Associates (GMA) with several options to provide better quality water to residents in the future. Currently, a few of the wells have levels of chloride close to the legal limit for drinking water, GMA hydrogeologist James Holley said. The wells have high chloride concentrations because the aquifer the system draws from is so close to the ocean. The town could choose to simply turn its water system over to Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, in which case it would have no further decisions to make. If the town continues to manage its own system, it must first repair or replace failing pipes. Then, it has several options to improve the water quality long term. The town could replace several of the lower-performing wells around town, engineer William Lyke said. That, combined with a campaign to reduce

Get ready to celebrate the Fourth

nonessential water usage throughout town, is one solution to consider. Aquifer storage and recovery, or ASR, involves purchasing large quantities of pretreated water from CPFUA and injecting the water into the aquifer. Lyke said the town might be able to buy water during the offseason at a lower rate to sell during the summer at higher rate, making that choice more affordable. “And when you go to recover that water from underground, you’re going to see a significant [improvement] change in the water quality in your system. … People would taste the difference,” Lyke said. The town could also employ reverse osmosis techniques, which would involve filtering water through a semipermeable membrane to reduce chloride and other compounds compromising water quality. All of GMA’s solutions to improving the town’s water system will require some sort of water rate increases, town manager Tim Owens said. But GMA owner Dr. Richard Spruill pointed out Wrightsville residents currently pay less for water than inland communities with better systems and source water. “It’s amazing to me that you’ve been able to operate this system and keep the rates at that level for your customers,” Spruill said. “I’m not sure it’s sustainable.”

Left: Children of all ages in the 2014 Hanover Seaside Club Fourth of July parade hold American flags high as they make a pass on the beach strand in front of the club. Below: Beachgoers pack the beach strand from Crystal Pier to Johnnie Mercer’s Pier on the Fourth of July, 2014.

email emmy@luminanews.com

Lumina News file photos

Holiday drivers to catch break from construction, pay less for gas By Tricia Vance Staff Writer

More people will be on the road during the upcoming Fourth of July weekend than traveled last year, and state transportation officials say they shouldn’t be too inconvenienced by road construction. The N.C. Department of Transportation typically halts construction projects during busy holidays, and this year is no exception. Beginning at 4 p.m. July 2 until 9 a.m. July 6, most construction crews will take a break, and lane closures will be kept to a minimum, reports Steve Abbott, a spokesman with the DOT in Raleigh. However, some exceptions apply. North Third Street in Wilmington will remain closed during the holiday and for the next year. The bridge on that street is being replaced. Bridge replacements on N.C. 211 in Brunswick County will

“South Beach deserves praise for putting out such a quality menu for affordable prices” — Wilmington Star News

www.southbeachgrillwb.com 100 South Lumina Ave., Wrightsville Beach Reservations accepted 910-256-4646

By Tricia Vance Wilmington’s Transportation Advisory Committee has formally approved the State Transportation Improvement Program for 2016-25 and is setting a plan for regional priorities through 2040.

LIVING WITH LUNG DISEASE Did you know? According to the National Institutes of Health, about 12 million U.S. residents are diagnosed with a type of lung disease called Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). An additional 12 million people likely have the disease and don’t know it. COPD is currently the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. Those living with advanced lung disease may also qualify for additional in-home services.

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public relations manager for AAA Carolinas. Those who do drive will be paying about 90 cents less per gallon for gas than last year. The average price per gallon in North Carolina is $2.65, although Wilmington’s average is higher at $2.69. In 2014 the state’s average was $3.56, while people who filled up in Wilmington paid an average of $3.59 a gallon. The price is a bit higher than earlier this year, but “we are still paying the lowest gas prices in at least five years,” Wright said. Locally, the Independence Day weekend is the biggest holiday weekend for tourism, said Connie Nelson, communications and public relations director for the Wilmington & Beaches Convention and Visitors Bureau. Many hotels and vacation rentals are already booked, and those with vacancies will probably be at or near capacity by the time the weekend gets here, Nelson said. email tricia@luminanews.com

Transportation overhaul wins local approval Staff Writer

Serving Lunch & Dinner

also require continuous lane closures. Although construction on Interstate 40 between Cary and south Raleigh will cease, travel will be restricted to three lanes moving in each direction because crews have torn out the lanes to replace and fortify them, Abbott said. Suggested detours include I-40 to I-95 and then to I-440 or I-540. The route is longer, but is probably quicker in heavy traffic, Abbott said. But where possible, construction should not affect traffic. “Lanes that can be open should be open,” he said. AAA Carolinas estimates 1.183 million people will travel more than 50 miles for the Fourth of July weekend, which the automobile club defines as the period from July 1 to July 5. Eighty-five percent of those travelers will go by car. The numbers represent a slight increase over last year, said Tiffany Wright,

You Matter!

The action, taken June 24, solidifies projects funded for the next three years, said Mike Kozlosky, executive director of the Wilmington Metropolitan Planning Organization, which includes the transportation group. Longer-range projects may be tweaked, moved or dropped, depending on funding and changing circumstances. Major projects definitely going forward include the completion, by spring 2018, of the longawaited Interstate 140 bypass of Wilmington. The most expensive and complex piece of the project is the bridge over the Cape Fear River. The $624 million project has been planned for more than two decades, and its completion may provide some relief from traffic congestion on the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, at least for drivers headed around Wilmington. Traffic tie-ups are frequent on the aging bridge, which carries more and more cars each year — in part because of growth in Brunswick County and southern New Hanover County. The widening of the U.S. 17/74/76 corridor between Wilmington and Leland has worsened — adding accidents and bridge openings to the congestion. The bypass will offer an alternate, circuitous route for drivers trying to commute between New Hanover and Brunswick counties.

Utility work and design already have begun, and a heritage live oak tree that was saved during a previous widening of Market Street was cut down to make room for a reconfigured intersection at Kerr and Market streets in preparation for the widening of Kerr Avenue from Randall Parkway to Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway. Construction is expected to begin in October after a contract is awarded. The $67 million project will take about three years to complete, and work likely will affect traffic. Brian Rick, spokesman with the N.C. Department of Transportation’s division office at Castle Hayne, said the short-term pain will result in a better road in the long run. “When you do a widening on any road, what you are doing is increasing capacity and increasing safety,” he said. The Third Street bridge replacement already underway will continue to have an impact on traffic for the next year. The street is closed to all traffic. The TAC represents Wilmington and the surrounding area, including New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties. Among the group’s duties is the recommendation of projects for roads, mass transit, and pedestrian/bicycle travel. In addition to the 2016-25 plan, transportation officials are working on the final Cape Fear

Transportation Plan through 2040. Among the priorities in the report is a new bridge across the Cape Fear River south of the memorial bridge. That project is not funded, and planning is in the early stages, with at least 12 potential locations to be studied. Suraiya Rashid, a senior transportation planner with the agency, said the plan includes suggestions from local residents during the public comment period. The TAC is expected to approve the plan in July, with final state approval by December. The board also approved a resolution calling for an agreement among the MPO, the city of Wilmington, the DOT and the Cape Fear Public Transportation Authority on the long-planned multimodal center in downtown Wilmington. The facility ultimately would include connections for rail and many other types of transportation but for the immediate future it would be mostly used as a transfer station for Wave Transit buses and commercial bus lines, as well as taxis. The land necessary for the project already has been acquired. Resident Andy Koppel, a longtime advocate of the multimodal center, thanked the TAC for continuing to work on the plan. “We are getting closer and closer to the day we can break ground on this,” he said. email tricia@luminanews.com

July 2–8, 2015

Lumina News — Your Coastal Community Newspaper since May 2002

For The Record Question and photographs by Henry Burnett and Emily Pierce

How would you feel if North Carolina joined other Southern states in banning the Confederate flag? Why?

Alec Griffiths Charlotte, N.C.

“I think they should keep the flag. It’s a big part of Southern pride.”

James Noble

Geannie Heath

“Originally it wasn’t a racial thing. … I think it’s feasible to ban the Confederate flag.”

“I don’t think it should be done. It’s a part of our history. It’s a part of the black community’s history, as well.”

Charlotte, N.C.

Veronica and Mark Johnson

Wilmington, N.C.

Gwen and Elijah Sheppard Raleigh, N.C.

Hickory, N.C.

“If you ban one thing to defend one group, where does it stop?”

WB parking rules go into effect

“Probably would be a good thing under the circumstances to make things peaceful for everybody.”

Candidate filing period opens July 6 Filing begins at 8 a.m. Monday, July 6 for political office in Wilmington and the three New Hanover County beach towns and ends at noon Friday, July 17. The offices open for election in November and the cost to file for office are: • Mayor of Wilmington, $125 • Wilmington City Council (three seats), $95 • Mayor of Carolina Beach, $18 • Carolina Beach Town Council (two seats), $18 • Mayor of Kure Beach, $24 • Kure Beach Town Council (two seats), $2 • Mayor of Wrightsville Beach, $10 • Wrightsville Beach Board of Aldermen (two seats), $10 Paperwork must be received during the filing period; any notices arriving after July 17 will not be accepted. Candidates wishing to file in person should go to the New Hanover County Board of Elections office in the government complex off South College Road. The address is 230 Government Center Drive, Suite 38, Wilmington. — Tricia Vance

IMPORTANT DATES Tuesday, July 7

Staff photo by Emmy Errante

A boat trailer parked on Pelican Drive July 1 earns a parking ticket.

By Emmy Errante Staff Writer

Wrightsville Beach’s new parking ordinance should be fully implemented by July 6, town manager Tim Owens said. Some of the new rules, which apply to Pelican Drive, are already being enforced. Parking on that road is now exclusively residential between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, through Sept. 15. Residents may park along the road

with a current residential hangtag or a parking decal. Boat trailers attached to vehicles are banned through the same date and detached trailers are banned year round. Meters on nearby Old Causeway Drive will go into effect July 6. The meters will be enforced during the hours of 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. through Sept. 15. No boat trailers, attached or detached, are allowed to park in the marked spaces. email emmy@luminanews.com

Weekend Police Report Friday, June 26 Citations • Sara Lauren Nussman-Snead was cited for not having insurance. • Dorian Pazcual Luviano was cited for driving without a license. • Luis Diego was cited for driving without a license. • Kathleen Myers was cited for expired registration. • Courtney Titus was cited for a collision. • Nelson Andrew Pope was cited for speeding.

Warning Tickets • Darren Robert Gaul was warned for expired registration and an inspection violation. • Brianna Michelle Canty was warned for speeding. • Madeleine Buren was warned for a headlight violation.

Civil Penalties • Jeffrey Matthew Pyles was penalized for littering. • Two people were penalized for glass on the beach. • Seven people were penalized for human waste.

Reports • Alicia Patrice Smith reported found property. • Elizabeth Harding Cooker reported breaking and entering and larceny. • Marjorie Elizabeth Creasey reported property obtained by false pretense. • Tucker Hull reported found property. • Rachel Moore reported found property.

Saturday, June 27 Arrests • William Joseph Cooke was arrested for driving while intoxicated.

Citations • Christine Howard was cited for driving without a license. • Malique Akeil Sandy was cited for driving without a license. • Felicia Wells was cited for driving without a license. • Javier Trujullo was cited for driving without a license. • Micaela Cleary was cited for a collision. • William Joseph Cooke was cited for reckless driving and speeding.

• Sierra Rose Hosler was warned for a oneway violation.

• Linda Carney was warned for expired registration

Wrightsville Beach Planning Board meeting, 6 p.m., Town Hall Chambers

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• Michael Debruhl was penalized for an open container. • Elizabeth Steward was penalized for a dog on the beach. • Five people were penalized for human waste.

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Sunday, June 28 Citations • Brenaza Stephens was cited for a child restraint violation. • Zachary Hotz was cited for a registration violation. • Jonnie Michelle Castillo was cited for driving without a license and an inspection violation. • Phan Ngoc Thi Nhu was cited for driving without a license.

Warning Tickets • Jeremy Gray Rowland was warned for expired registration.

Civil Penalties Warning Tickets

New Hanover County Board of Education meeting, 5 p.m., Board of Education Center, 1805 S. 13th St.

• Three people were penalized for open containers. • Two people were penalized for glass on the beach.

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July 2–8, 2015

Lumina News — Your Coastal Community Newspaper since May 2002

Editorial/Opinion My thoughts B y P at B r a d f o r d

As we rolled into July and the big holiday weekend, phones along the Carolina coast were ringing with loved ones calling about the uptick in shark attacks locally. The national media spotlight focus on these attacks coincides with June’s 40th anniversary of the movie “JAWS.” Heading into the Discovery Channel Shark Week 2015 on Sunday July 5, more than seven people were bitten by sharks on the coast of the Carolinas in a matter of three weeks, some seriously, at least one critically. Wrightsville, Carolina and Kure beaches — thankfully — have been spared: no shark encounters. Conversation veers to why sharks have attacked swimmers to the north and south but not here. There are a great number of theories as to why these attacks are happening. “This confluence is rare,” Wrightsville Beach town manager Tim Owens said this week. He has no theory about why we have had so many, or what is causing them, but he said, “It could happen here, too.” The latest, on June 27, an 18-year-old was attacked and seriously injured on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore near Rodanthe after seeing a shark “while swimming with others.” His injuries were to the right calf, buttocks and both hands. He is reportedly “in serious condition,” upgraded from “in critical risk of dying.” He did not lose his leg. On the previous day, a 47-year-old man near the same area, in Avon, N.C. was bitten on his right leg and lower back. Two days earlier, a child had minor injuries from a shark bite at Surf City. In June there were seven documented shark/human encounters in the two Carolinas. On June 11, a teenage girl at Ocean Isle Beach came away from her encounter with minor injuries, although her boogie board had bites taken out of it. Three days later, two separate teenagers swimming at Oak Island, a 13-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy, lost limbs in separate shark attacks, 90 minutes apart. In South Carolina Friday morning June 26, a 43-year-old man saw a shark at Hunting Island State Park, 90 miles south of Charleston, yelled shark, and was then bitten by a second shark. Referring to the two Oak Island attacks June 15, Owens said, “Both situations are obviously tragic and hopefully isolated. It is very unique. I have been surfing on the coast since I was 15 probably and I cannot recall a summer like this, particularly in North Carolina. Not six in two weeks.” Representatives from Wrightsville’s hotels, Holiday Inn and Blockade Runner, said the media frenzy has not affected occupancy, but the reports have impacted the number of people in the water. Last year was a record-setting one for visitors to the Carolina Coast and the numbers for the first half of 2015 suggest the record setting continues. UNCW’s biological oceanographer Larry Cahoon said the Discovery Channel usually scares people with dramatic Shark Week footage and tall tales. “From a scientific point of view, six [seven in two states] attacks in three weeks, although it is dramatic,

is not a lot of data, it is not so many dots so you can connect them all and draw a pattern,” he said. He said two attacks, the little girl at Ocean Isle Beach and Surf City, were pretty classic mistaken identity attacks, where a smaller shark bit someone on the ankle or foot, causing minor wounds. “This is the typical pattern we see in most beachtype shark attacks. The two at Oak Island where each child lost an arm, and the two on the Outer Banks were real attacks. They were mid-body attacks to arms or torso, those sharks bit them multiple times, they were bigger animals and they pressed home their attacks. So that’s different. I am a whole lot more concerned about that kind of attack than I am the mistaken identity attacks,” he explained. Cahoon said the vast majority of people are close to the beach when they are swimming and these attacks have occurred in the surf zones. The 16-year-old boy attacked at Oak Island said in a television interview he was in waist-deep water. “Their sense of hearing is very good, sharks hear us in the water,” Cahoon said. “They are very good at low frequencies that we can’t hear. They can hear the struggling fish on the end of the line. They can hear us wading and swimming. They know we are there. When you look at the numbers of people in the water and the number of sharks nearby, there’s millions of contact hours there, every year.” Cahoon said there are five to 10 sharks per mile. “That is thousands, maybe tens of thousands” along the coast, he said. He said these recent attacks were not at dusk or dawn, the time typically attributed to the predator’s feeding time. He said there are no hard rules there; most of these people were attacked in the middle of the day, which is good news for Wrightsville Beach Mayor Bill Blair and Mayor Pro Tem Darryl Mills who have not given up their daily afternoon swim in the 5:30 to 6 p.m. range. “The odds are very, very small,” Cahoon said. “The fact is it’s extremely rare, even the cluster we have had. There are lots of people in the water; most of these attacks have been on the weekends, when the beaches are crowded. It’s been real hot the last couple of weeks, so if you are at the beach and it is 95 degrees, what are you going to do? Get in the water. A higher proportion of people who have gone to the beach are actually in the water.” “Hopefully it is a one-year thing,” Owens said. During the nine previous years, just 25 shark incidents occurred in North Carolina, none fatal. The same period in Florida, that number was 219, two of which were fatal. The Florida Museum of Natural History cites probability of a shark attack as “one in 11.5 million” chances. “Rip currents kill a lot more people than sharks do, every year we lose a half a dozen up and down the coast,” Cahoon said. “They’re much more at risk driving down here.” For me, July is not really the best time to swim in the ocean, there are way too many people in the water, peeing. I’ll wait for August.

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“Praise be to Jesus, all Glory and Honor is Yours.”

July 2–8, 2015

n fines

Continued from Page 1

Staff photo by Emmy Errante

A mailbox maintained by the University of North Carolina Wilmington Student Ambassadors sits at the north end of Wrightsville Beach Wednesday, June 24.

n mystery Continued from Page 1

parking meters everywhere else, so there might as well be one with a boat cleat on a sandbar.” The island is known as The Diminishing Republic, and every Memorial Day Saturday, as the tide recedes and the tiny spot of sand appears, locals gather to celebrate the start of summer. “The idea is to fill it with enough people to eventually sink the island, hence the name, The Diminishing Republic. Happens every time — twice a day,” Salling said.

Following the trolley

More than a century separates modern-day Wrightsville Beach from the moment the electric trolley first clattered over the Causeway Bridge, bringing visitors to sunbathe on the beach strand or to dance at Lumina Pavilion. But today, signs along the trolley route, now South Lumina Avenue, inconspicuously mark the seven stops the trolley made on its journey south.

Each colorful sign includes a plaque describing which hotel, restaurant or club stood near the station, offering present-day island visitors a glimpse into the culture and landscape of the beach in the early 1900s. Asphalt has replaced trolley tracks and a slew of new landmarks and residences now grace the island, but, Wrightsville Beach Museum Executive Director Madeline Flagler noted, the houses are still numbered between the trolley stops rather than the cross streets.

In the Loop

Every morning in Wrightsville Beach, the John Nesbitt Loop is filled with a steady stream of walkers and joggers. The 2.45-mile sidewalk serves as a community hub for the island, and, decades ago, it was a community effort that created it. John Nesbitt started working as the Wrightsville Beach public works director in 1979, Flagler said during a June 25 interview. He knew the town needed a sidewalk around Harbor Island and

the beach strand, but there wasn’t money budgeted the project. Nesbitt built the sidewalk, square by square, at almost no cost to the town. As construction workers finished other projects around the island, Nesbitt asked them to use their leftover cement to create the Loop sidewalk, section by section, Flagler said. Nesbitt retired from his job as public works director in 1999. In 2006, after his death, the Loop was officially named for him.

Leave a note

Easter Sunday, 2003, Bernard and Sidney Nykanen trekked out to the north end of Wrightsville Beach and installed a 7-inch tin mailbox near the dunes. A message on the front of the mailbox encouraged passersby to “Leave a note” on the pages of the journal within. For over a decade, the mailbox clung to the tip of the island, collecting 125 journals of confessions, prayers and thoughts inspired by the secluded stretch of sand. It withstood multiple hurricanes over the years, but

n driver Continued from Page 1

through the summer and then reevaluate them after the budget is final, information from the N.C. Department of Public Instruction states. The Senate would allow school systems to charge the full cost of driver education programs, which ranges from $300 to $400 per student, this coming year. Current law requires school boards to cap the fee at $65. Once the courses move to community colleges, parents probably would have to pay the full cost of instruction. The budget bill requires the programs be self-supporting. Senate sponsors say eliminating the program could save millions of dollars to use for road construction and other transportation projects. Other states have dropped or considered dropping driver education. Debates have occurred over its effectiveness because there has been no national standard for instruction. But educators and driver advocates say it would be a huge mistake to eliminate a program that has been shown to make roads safer. In 2012 the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, an insurers group, reported graduated driver license programs, such as the one that’s been standard in North Carolina, have helped reduce automobile deaths among teenagers. Driver education is a component of that program but would not be if the conference committee that will negotiate the final budget accepts the Senate’s provision. “I just don’t see the thinking,” said Alan Sewell, who has been teaching driver education at

Lumina News — Your Coastal Community Newspaper since May 2002

Supplied photo courtesy of Alan Sewell

A car full of driver education students and their instructor was hit from behind while waiting at a stoplight April 29.

Laney High School for 31 years. He has contacted the state Senate and state House to object to the proposal. Over the years, he’s helped avert many accidents by inexperienced drivers, he said. Unlike parents, driver education cars feature a set of brakes on the passenger’s side, allowing teachers to stop the car if necessary to prevent a collision. Teachers also are trained to take control of the wheel from the passenger side in an emergency. Taking the program through schools makes it more convenient, but the real benefit is the quality of instruction they receive, Sewell said. Classes

cover assorted safety and driving etiquette issues along indoctrination into the rules of the road. Many families may have difficulty affording the full cost of a driving program, Sewell said, which may mean fewer students will take the classes. It also can be difficult for parents to teach their own children, and realistically speaking, he said, some parents will sign off without the required hours of driver supervision. “And they will eventually cost us all, through higher insurance and probably a lot of injuries and fatalities,” Sewell said. Teens who have not completed a driver education course, either

its undoing was, in the end, manmade. The Nykanens removed the mailbox in 2014 after another one of their projects, a wooden bench built from 300-year-old Cape Fear River wood planks, was vandalized. Less than two months later, University of North Carolina Wilmington students decided to carry on the Nykanens’ efforts. Sunday, April 27, 2014, the UNCW Student Ambassadors planted a new mailbox in the exact location of the old one, with the same scrawled invitation on the front: “Leave a note.” The 60 members of the organization plan to maintain the mailbox and stock it with fresh journals to collect thoughts and wishes for years to come. Meanwhile, the original mailbox and its first 125 journals have found a final resting place at the Wrightsville Beach Museum of History on West Salisbury Street. email emmy@luminanews.com

through their school or privately, must wait until they are 18 to apply for their license; no special training is required other than demonstrating the ability to pass the written and driving tests. If the budget ultimately drops the driver education requirement, Sewell said, “We’re all going to lose.” New Hanover County is consistently ranked the most dangerous or second-most dangerous county for motorists in North Carolina by AAA Carolinas. Crash and fatality rates affect auto insurance rates for all drivers. AAA is on record against removing driver education from the graduated drivers license program, said Tiffany Wright, public relations manager for AAA Carolinas. “We didn’t want to see funding eliminated for driver education — we want funding to be restored,” she said. “Eliminating driver education is not going to help teens, it’s not going to help the entire driving public.” There is a benefit to getting instruction from teachers who have experience working with children, Sewell said. Teens with learning disabilities need someone who is trained to work with them. One of his instructors, Dale Miller, is an elementary school teacher who specializes in working with children with autism and other disabilities. But in addition to turning out safer drivers, Sewell, who has a college minor in driver education, said many teachers count on these classes to supplement their paychecks. “If they drop driver education, I’m retiring,” he said. email tricia@luminanews.com

efforts will focus on nearby Masonboro Island, but, for the first time, a force of 10 deputies will be assigned to monitor Mason Inlet as well. “We’ve had some people that were kind of roving over there [in past years],” Wrightsville Beach Police Chief Dan House said June 30, “but we didn’t have them permanently assigned.” House said the need for more manpower in the northern inlet, which separates Wrightsville Beach and Figure Eight Island, was prompted by an increase in boaters anchoring there in recent years. House said in 2014, the number of boaters at Masonboro Island decreased while crowds in Mason Inlet increased, leading him to believe there was a correlation. “Word got out that we were pretty proactive over [at Masonboro Island],” he said. “We dispersed a lot of it from Masonboro and it went over there, so now we’re having issues over there.” Those incidents sent at least one person to the hospital last year, New Hanover County Sheriff’s Public Information Officer Lt. J. Brewer said. “We had an issue with two boats colliding at Mason Inlet last year, and there was an incident where a boy was so intoxicated that he coded twice going to the hospital from alcohol poisoning,” Brewer said June 29. The 20,000 visitors expected to pack the beach strand between Mason Inlet and Masonboro Island will be watched by WBPD beach officers and Wrightsville Beach Ocean Rescue. Two guards will man each of the 13 Wrightsville stands and the rest of the staff will patrol the town’s beach in four ATVs and two trucks. One of the most frequent issues encountered by Wrightsville’s ocean rescue personnel on holiday weekends is missing children, WBOR Capt. Jeremy Owens said, but if beachgoers are concerned about ocean conditions he encouraged them to approach the guards and ask questions. A majority of the law enforcement and cleanup efforts will be focused south of the beach strand, in the water around Masonboro Island. Thirty deputies from the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Department will patrol the area, Brewer said. Officers will especially be on the lookout for underage alcohol consumption, he added. “The biggest shift that the sheriff’s office is doing this year is enforcing alcohol laws,” House said. “Last year, they gave a lot of warnings ... but the sheriff has

n nests

Continued from Page 1

Audubon staff and volunteers have also been monitoring the young birds. “Both the skimmers and the terns started hatching out their chicks during the first week of June. They’re both doing very well — a lot of chicks on the ground,” Addison said. Addison said the fence of string around the nesting site and the signs asking people to keep out have been successful. “Primarily, what we want to accomplish with the bird posting and the volunteers and all the work we do is that if the chicks don’t do well, they don’t succeed for natural reasons,” she said. “It’s hard to be a bird. It’s hard to raise your young on the beach — it’s a harsh environment.” Addison said extreme heat can cause hatching numbers to dwindle. “There’s heat stress. Sometimes you get a pair that isn’t very good at being parents yet. ... Maybe they don’t shade the chicks well enough and the chicks overheat and die,” she said. Periods of heavy rain can also be detrimental to the birds because

kind of put his foot down and said enough is enough, before someone really gets hurt.” Law enforcement is also trying to put a stop to unauthorized water taxying, House added, and officers will pull over any boats that appear to be ferrying people to or from Masonboro Island. “They’ll sit out on Wynn Plaza . . . and there will be one person lined up after another with their own coolers with them ... waiting in line for a water taxi,” House said. “Somebody with a boat will come up and say ‘I can take five guys’ or whatever, and charge them 50 or 75 bucks ... and they’re making a killing.” Accepting payment in return for ferry services to Masonboro Island is against Wrightsville Beach ordinances and punishable by a $100 fine, House said, if the boat driver does not have a captain’s license or master’s license. If that boater continues to ferry people even after being cited by the town, Coast Guard Petty Officer Eric Tucker said the Coast Guard would step in and levy up to a $27,500 fine. Unauthorized water taxying poses safety hazards, he said. People hitching rides with strangers don’t have a guaranteed ride back to the mainland, leaving them in danger of getting stranded. After a day of partying on the island, those people might try to swim back, he said. Even with the increased law enforcement efforts, House said he still expects several thousand boaters around Masonboro Island July 4. The North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (NCDENR) Division of Coastal Management, with help from Masonboro.org, is working to ensure the masses don’t leave a mark on the uninhabited barrier island. NCDENR’s Michelle Walker said Masonboro.org volunteers will be on Masonboro Island July 4 handing out trash bags to island partyers, and Sunday, July 5, NCDENR DCM staff will visit the island to clean up any leftover garbage. After the sun sets July 4, a different set of issues emerges, House said. While the bar district will have police presence, house parties are a bigger concern over holiday weekends, he said. “And of course, at house parties, people have to shoot off fireworks, and that causes a whole bunch of problems,” he added. Personal fireworks are illegal on Wrightsville Beach and officers enforce the ban. House encouraged visitors celebrating the holiday on Wrightsville Beach to have a good time, but be smart and safe too. “The biggest thing is, just use some common sense,” he said. email emmy@luminanews.com

they can get hypothermia. Human activity can be harmful to birds, too. “There have been skimmer colonies in Florida where fireworks set off too close to them caused the abandonment of the colony, so the eggs and chicks were left and the adults didn’t come back,” Addison said. “If fireworks are set off in close proximity to a nesting colony, the noise and the flashes of light will spook the birds. The chicks will run — often, they’ll run out of the posting. . . .They’re separated from their parents when they’re depending on their parents for food.” Fortunately, Addison has not witnessed this problem at Wrightsville’s south end. “In the past five years or so, we haven’t had anybody come down to the south end and set off fireworks,” she said. Addison is also grateful for the Wrightsville Beach Bird Stewards — a group of Audubon volunteers who lead educational bird walks around the nesting colony. “It’s been a really great season. We’ve had a lot of people coming to the bird walks. Our volunteers have been talking to a lot of people on the beach. Folks have been enjoying the birds,” she said. email pam@luminanews.com

July 2–8, 2015

Lumina News — Your Coastal Community Newspaper since May 2002

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July 2–8, 2015

Lumina News — Your Coastal Community Newspaper since May 2002

Solutions Making a Difference in the Cape Fear Region

By Emmy Errante and Marimar McNaughton, Staff Writers Transcriptions by Emily Pierce and Henry Burnett, Interns

Beachgoers beware

If in doubt, don’t go out

“

very time you walk over that beach access path, the first thing you should do is look at the surf,” said Steve Pfaff, the warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Wilmington. “How big are the waves; are there flags flying … what does the flag mean?” Pfaff is more than a weatherman. He’s an active participant in Wrightsville Beach Fire and Ocean Rescue Department’s hurricane season training. He collects data twice daily from Wrightsville and Carolina beach lifeguards with contributions from Myrtle Beach and its surrounds, accumulating the secondlargest base of rip current data nationwide. Those daily entries — broken down into wave components — help forecast rip current conditions. The breakdown of the wave components supplied by human observers is enhanced by hard empirical data collected from offshore buoys. “We’re looking at buoy data and we’re looking at lifeguard reports,” Pfaff said. “What we’ve been able to find was what we’re calling a wave window, a spectral wave window.” Three wave components have led to rip current events, he said. “We’re finding the angle of the wave is very important, the height of the wave is also very important,” Pfaff said. The wave period refers to intervals of time between wave crests. Short sets of three small surface waves may come to shore in eight-second intervals, while bigger, rolling waves produced from groundswells may break in longer wave periods. “We were looking specifically at a different wave period than what we’re looking for now,” Pfaff said, “so we’ve opened up the range of wave periods that have led to rip current events we might have missed had we not done the study. Certain windows of tides, around low tide, are important; but the actual range in tides isn’t as important as we thought it was originally.” Since 2000, North and South Carolina have shared 105 rip current fatalities. “One out of four of the drownings were from a bystander who went in to make a rescue,” Pfaff said. Lowering the number of fatalities has led to the study of the ocean’s waves. In addition to wave angle, height and frequency, another water formation has been tossed into the stew: circulation cells.

In 2014, Spencer Rogers, North Carolina SeaGrant’s coastal construction and erosion specialist, worked with University of North Carolina Wilmington grad student Cobi Christiansen. “They actually put buoys into a rip current to see if the circulation cell was complete — in other words, if it came back to the shore,” Pfaff said. The research was based on the work of Jamie MacMahan, associate professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. During the East Coast experiment in the summer of 2014, Rogers said the question asked was, “If these circulation cells exist, and we were pretty sure they did, how regular are they and how frequently does someone get ejected into deeper water? Compared to what he was finding on the West Coast we found much more irregular performance with large numbers of ejections eventually.” The rip currents were measured with drifter buoys. Described by Rogers, each is about two feet tall, made of 8-inch diameter PVC pipe, with perforated caps at each end to allow water to pass through. A flotation ring is glued to the top and a 5-pound barbell weight is fixed to the bottom. A waterproof box is strapped to the top, a water-resistant GPS unit inside. Such an elaborate device would have cost $25,000 a decade ago but Rogers said the price of the GPS unit has dropped to $140, and the entire cost of the unit is less than $250 today. Rogers explained he and Christiansen worked with local lifeguards to identify areas where they suspected rip currents would be present before deploying the drifters. “We throw them in the area inside the sandbar,” Rogers said. “If there is a rip current present they will move to usually one spot and then get ejected or into circulation. … The drifters will sit around for 10 or 20 minutes and nothing happens. All of a sudden everything gets ejected. So it’s very difficult to visibly predict the risk of a rip current. … And these things record continuously so we just throw them in, multiple units at a time.” The drifter buoys were deployed on 12 days and received good rip current data from three of those days, typically the day of or day after an offshore storm. Had Rogers and Christiansen’s drifters demonstrated a regular pattern of East Coast circulation cells that were complete, n See Beware Page 8

Photo by Kurt Christiansen/North Carolina Sea Grant

Above: Spencer Rogers and Cobi Christiansen load drifter buoys after a day of deployment on Carolina Beach in 2014. Center: The drifter bouys are each made of PVC pipe with perforated caps at each end to allow water to pass through. Top: Christiansen retrieves a drifter that was ejected by a rip current on Carolina Beach.

W h at ’ s c o m i n g d o w n t h e p i p e l i n e t h i s w e e k e n d ?

Independence Day Bash

Patriotic Performance

Celebratory Songs

North Carolina July Fourth Festival Southport, N.C., waterfront Wednesday, July 1 to Saturday, July 4, Admission varies per event

North Carolina Symphony Stars and Stripes Concert UNCW’s Kenan Auditorium Thursday, July 2, 7:30 p.m., $10-$27

Independence Day with the 2nd Marine Division Band Mayfaire Town Center event lawn Friday, July 3, 6-8 p.m., Free

Southport’s July Fourth festival is one of the largest in the state, featuring arts and crafts vendors, a race, food and drink, live entertainment, kids’ activities, a naturalization ceremony and more. For a full schedule of events, visit www.nc4thofjuly.com

Warm up for July Fourth with the North Carolina Symphony’s classic tunes like George Frederick Root’s “The Battle Cry of Freedom” and pieces from the Civil War era. To purchase tickets, call the box office, 910-962-3500.

Celebrate America’s Independence Day as the 30-plus-piece Camp Lejeune band plays a selection of patriotic songs. The free show is part of the Music on the Town Concert Series. For details, call 910256-5131 or email paigekon@mayfairetown.com

Hooray For the Red, White and Blue Battleship Blast Downtown Wilmington Saturday, July 4, 9:05 p.m., Free The USS North Carolina Battleship serves as a launching point for Wilmington’s fireworks show over the Cape Fear River. Downtown Wilmington hosts a celebratory street fair from 5-9 p.m., leading up to the pyrotechnics.

Lumina News — Your Coastal Community Newspaper since May 2002

July 2–8, 2015

n beware Continued from Page 7

Pfaff said, the warning model may have changed. “The message would be for people to focus on staying afloat. In California they found the circulation cell was mainly complete so you had a better chance of the current taking you back to shore after some time,” he said. Rogers said rip currents are the most dangerous thing on the beach, “an area that is otherwise fairly safe for recreation,” he added. “They’re highly irregular, they’re on many beaches every single day, but they’re only rarely dangerous depending on the location.” Dividing the beach into permanent and semipermanent locations where rip currents form, Pfaff said, “You’re going to have fixed rip currents that are near piers but they’re fixed on permanent structures.” Wrightsville Beach Ocean Rescue Capt. Jeremy Owens said the reason there is a no-swimming zone within 200 feet of the piers is because there has always been a deep washed-out area underneath the pilings.

Semi-permanent rips form on beaches without structures, Pfaff said. “The semi-permanent ones might be more controlled by the configuration of the sand bars. … A storm comes by and it might change the whole configuration of the shoreline,” he said. “We’ve had many of these events where the weather is beautiful but the surf is roughed up from a distant storm and we can’t equate good weather to good surf. It doesn’t work that way.”

Tips from the experts:

• Carry a flotation device to the beach. • Pay attention to the flags. • If you see someone in trouble, find a lifeguard or call 911. • Try to direct the person to swim out of the rip current with hand signals. • Don’t panic. If caught in a current, swim parallel to the shoreline for 20-50 feet. • If in doubt, don’t go out. email emmy@luminanews.com email marimar@luminanews.com

Cameron Art Museum offers free private Connections Tours

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Photo by Kurt Christiansen/North Carolina Sea Grant

Rob Brander, a coastal geomorphologist from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, from left, on Carolina Beach 2014 with Spencer Rogers, North Carolina Sea Grant coastal construction and erosion specialist and University of North Carolina Wilmington graduate student Cobi Christiansen.

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By Pam Creech Staff Writer

Nine senior citizens from Spring Arbor of Wilmington — an assisted living facility — made their way through Hiroshi Sueyoshi’s ceramics exhibit during a private tour of the Cameron Art Museum Monday, June 29. The museum offers free tours, known as Connections Tours, for elderly or disabled visitors each Monday, while it is closed to the general public. “We do them on Monday so we can take over the museum without worrying about being quiet or a group of school children roaring through,” said Martha Burdette, the museum’s curator of education. “We try to limit it to 10 visitors per tour. … It’s not a high-volume program.” Burdette said the docents who volunteer to lead the Monday tours go through an extensive eight-session training program to learn how to interact with visitors with Alzheimer’s disease and other memory disorders. Beverly Turner has been a docent on the Connections Tours since the program’s inception in 2011. “My dad had Alzheimer’s, so I had a very selfish inclination to want to learn as much as I could about it to get an idea of what to expect,” she said. Turner said docent training for the Connections Tours helped her understand the disease. “It was very involved. It was as if I were being trained to be an active caregiver for someone. It allowed me the opportunity to know how these people thought,” she said. The docent-to-visitor ratio during the tours is two to one. Turner said she enjoys interacting with the Connections Tours visitors on a personal level. “The person with me today kept repeating a story. The paintings were reminding her of a beach house she had. She remembered the specific things her family did there. … She went down memory lane. … It prompted memories in here that she was so happy to talk about,” Turner said. The docents help the visitors pass through the exhibits, if necessary, by offering an arm to hold on to or by pushing their wheelchairs. “This program has meant a lot to everyone who’s been a part of it and certainly to the people who participate. The docents carry the people through; it gives the caregivers a

Staff photo by Allison Potter

Docent Beverly Turner, left, and Dura Carter talk in front of Claude Howell’s paintings during a tour of the Cameron Art Museum Monday, June 29.

break,” Turner said. The only requirement for signing up for a Connections Tour is two weeks’ notice. No disability documentation is required. “They don’t need proof,” Burdette said. “It’s open to anybody with a disability.” Burdette also said an individual with a mental disability can enjoy a free tour with his or her family.

is now at

MAYFAIRE! Board-Certified Pediatricians Drs. Danny Ott and Pamela Taylor are seeing Pediatrics patients at Mayfaire. Call 910.796.7598 today to schedule an appointment with Pediatrics at Mayfaire. PEDIATRICS 6781 Parker Farm Drive, Wilmington

“We have been really pleased by the positive feedback we get from the visitors and from their caregivers. We have a lot of return visitors. Every time the show changes, they come back,” she said. Each tour lasts approximately 45 minutes. To learn more, call 910-395-5999 or visit cameronartmuseum.org email pam@luminanews.com

July 2–8, 2015

Lumina News — Your Coastal Community Newspaper since May 2002

Wilmington hosts two-day rugby tournament By Pam Creech Staff Writer

One of the largest rugby sevens tournaments on the East Coast will take place July 4-5 at Ogden Park. The Cape Fear men’s and women’s rugby clubs will play teams from all over the southeast region during the Cape Fear Sevens Tournament. Each sevens game consists of two seven-minute halves and both teams have seven players in the game at a time. Leah Stilwell, president of the Cape Fear Women’s Rugby Club, hopes the tournament will motivate more women to play rugby. “We’re a growing team, and we’d love to have anyone who’s interested come out. Even if they don’t know what a rugby ball looks like, now is the time to try it. … We have people who the first time they touched a rugby ball was at practice,” she said. Stilwell started playing rugby when she was a senior at North

Mecklenburg High School in Charlotte, North Carolina, when a friend encouraged her to join the school’s club team. “She kept talking about how awesome it was,” Stilwell said. “I ended up quitting soccer and playing rugby the second semester of my senior year.” Stilwell went on to start a club rugby team during her freshman year at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She encouraged her roommate, Mindy Benincasa, to try the sport. Benincasa is now the vice president of the Cape Fear Women’s Rugby Club. “Once you finish up with high school and college, there aren’t many sports you can play and hang out with a great group of girls,” Benincasa said. Benincasa encourages both novice and experienced athletes to try rugby. “We have positions for any body type and any skill level,” she said.

Stilwell said the players range in age from 18 to mid-40s. “UNCW plays with us for the summer season,” she said. “We’ve also had players in their mid-40s come out and they’ve been amazing players.” Stilwell said she and her 29 teammates will travel as far as Chattanooga, Tenn., for a tournament during the sevens season, while still looking to expand their roster. “We also play in Georgia and South Carolina,” she said. The Cape Fear Sevens Tournament will take place 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, July 4 and Sunday, July 5. For more information about the Cape Fear Women’s Rugby Club, visit www.capefearwomensrugby. org To learn more about the Cape Fear Sevens Tournament, go to www.fear7s.com email pam@luminanews.com

Lumina News file photo

Matthew Williams of Cape Fear Blue runs past the defense of the Georgia Collegiate All-Stars during the Cape Fear Sevens Rugby Tournament in Ogden Park June 2, 2011.

Nonsmoking beach list names Wrightsville among Top 10 in U.S. Wrightsville Beach, N.C., became the first beach in the state to ban smoking in 2012. That distinction placed it on the list of 10 Best U.S. Beaches Where Smoking is Banned by The Active Times. The online e-zine published its list June 10. The story cites the New Hanover County Tourism Development Authority when it mentions “more than half of the town’s residents voted in favor of the ban and community members work hard to maintain a clean, family-oriented beach. Visitors continue to rave about the natural beauty Wrightsville has to offer, praising the ocean destination for its family-friendly nature, miles of beautiful sand, clear blue waters and … continued cleanliness.” Also named were: • Ogunquit Beach, Maine • Race Point Beach, Mass. • Dewey Beach, Del. • Magen’s Bay, St. Thomas, V.I. • La Jolla Cove, Calif. • Newport Beach, Calif. • Waikiki Beach, Oahu, Hawaii • Waimanalo Bay Beach Park, Oahu, Hawaii • Alki Beach, Wash. This spring, The Annex, one of five local surf shops, found its name on the Surf Collective NYC as one of the world’s top 22 surf shops. The all-American surf town has also been named to Surfer Magazine’s Top 10 Lumina News staff photo U.S. Surf Towns and National Geographic’s The Active Times, an online e-zine, has named Wrightsville Beach on its list of the 10 Best U.S. Beaches Where Smoking is World’s 20 Best Surf Towns. Banned.

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July 2–8, 2015

Lumina News — Your Coastal Community Newspaper since May 2002

The Good News Church Services

NEAR the Beach

Little Chapel On the Boardwalk Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Rev. Patrick Thomas Rabun, pastor 2 W. Fayetteville St., 910-256-2819, ext. 100 www.littlechapel.org Worship at Wrightsville Beach Public Access No. 4: 8 a.m. Sunday School: 9:15 a.m. Traditional Worship: 10:30 a.m. Children’s Church: 10:45 a.m. Nursery provided. St. Andrew’s On-The-Sound Episcopal The Rev. Richard G. Elliott, rector 101 Airlie Road, 910-256-3034 7:45 a.m., 9 a.m., 11 a.m. Wrightsville Beach Baptist church Keith Louthan, church pastor 601 Causeway Drive, 910-256-3682 Traditional Service: 9-10 a.m. Sunday School: 10:10-11 a.m. Celebration Services: 11:10 a.m to 12:20 p.m. Wrightsville United Methodist Church Bob Bauman, senior pastor 4 Live Oak Drive, 910-256-4471 Worship Services: 8:30, 9:45, 11:15 a.m. Sunday School: 9:45 a.m. St. Therese Catholic church Father Joe Vetter 209 S. Lumina Ave., 910-256-2471 Mass: Saturday, 5:30 p.m., Sunday, 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.; Monday, noon; Tuesday, 6 p.m.; Wednesday – Thursday noon; Thursday noon followed by Eucharistic Adoration St. Mark Catholic Church Father Patrick A. Keane 1011 Eastwood Road, 910-392-0720 Vigil Mass: Saturday 5 p.m. Sunday Masses: 7:30 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. en Español Monday Mass: 8:30 a.m. Tuesday Masses: 8:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Wednesday Mass: 8:30 a.m. Thursday Mass: 8:30 a.m. Friday Mass: 8:30 a.m. followed by Adoration with Benediction at 9 p.m. Beth Simcha Messianic Jewish Congregation Congregational Leader/ Rabbi Marty Schilsky 7957 Market St. Wilmington, N.C. 28411 910-681-0117 Shabbat Services 10:30 a.m. Saturday

Living H2O

June 2, 2015, 7:59 p.m. Fellowship

You come together in My name to fellowship and worship together as one A single family sharing in unity the baptism of Jesus My Son Putting aside the worries of your day and looking to Me for grace In abundance I will pour out on this fellowship power that transcends space Worship with abandon and leave nothing behind as you seek My face All honor and glory will flow to this city because of the faith of this place Receive the cleansing of your soul as you worship from your heart tonight The freedom of your fellowship draws near those who are open and willing to fight For the lost and bring to them the salvation of Jesus that they need To bring them into fellowship and love one another to be freed Stand against all evil that comes against you for you will succeed In overcoming the bindings placed on this city and plant new seed

C a r l Wat e rs Seed for the grand harvest that stands before you as you fellowship together in one accord Take up your shield and advance My kingdom with the power of the sword Speak the truth of My word and no one can deny the honor of your heart As you fellowship with the lost you will impart My grace that will not depart (Acts 2:41 - 42 NRSV) 41 - So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added. 42 - They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. (1 Cor 1:9 NRSV) God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 John 1:3 NRSV) we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. (1 John 1:6 – 7 NRSV) If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; 7 - but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

ANDREW WOMMACK MINISTRIES

One year with Jesus in the Gospels

teaching God’s unconditional love and grace

www.awmi.net

July 2 GOD’S PEACE Luke 10:5 - “And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house.” LUKE 10:5 Peace is the result of casting our care upon the Lord through prayer and thanksgiving. However, many people are asking God to give them peace so that their cares will leave. It doesn’t work that way. Through faith we cast our cares on the Lord, and then God’s peace comes. Christians who are lacking God’s peace have not taken their cares to the Lord and left them there. All Christians have peace. It is a fruit of the Spirit that is always present in our born-again spirits. Cares will blind us to God’s peace. When we eliminate the cares, peace flows. Being carnally minded doesn’t just tend toward death, it is death.

Likewise, being spiritually minded doesn’t just tend toward life, it is life and peace. A person who says he or she is spiritually minded and yet is experiencing death is deceived. If we would just dominate ourselves with the spiritual truths of God’s Word, we would receive only life and peace. True peace, which comes from God, only comes by grace through faith. No one who seeks to obtain right standing with God by his own effort will ever have God’s peace. Human peace is only experienced in the absence of problems. Those who only know human peace don’t experience it very often and to a lesser degree. But God’s peace is independent of circumstances and infinitely greater in supply than any problem we could ever have. God has given us His supernatural peace to enjoy. What a blessing!

Andrew’s Gospel Truth television broadcasts air M-F @ 6:30 a.m. ET on Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). Help/Prayer Line: 719-635-1111

Classified

Classified and display deadline: Friday noon • Call 910-256-6569 ext 100 • classifieds@luminanews.com L E G A L NOTI C ES this property. 15 SP 234 NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE NORTH CAROLINA, NEW HANOVER COUNTY Under and by virtue of a Power of Sale contained in that certain Deed of Trust executed by Mark A. Thomas to TRSTE, Inc., Trustee(s), which was dated December 21, 2007 and recorded on January 17, 2008 in Book 5269 at Page 1539, New Hanover County Registry, North Carolina. Default having been made of the note thereby secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Trustee Services of Carolina, LLC, having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust, and the holder of the note evidencing said default having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will offer for sale at the courthouse door of the county courthouse where the property is located, or the usual and customary location at the county courthouse for conducting the sale on July 7, 2015 at 10:00AM, and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following described property situated in New Hanover County, North Carolina, to wit: ALL that real property situated in the County of New Hanover, State of North Carolina: BEING the same property conveyed to the Grantor by Deed recorded 05/25/1989 in Book 1457, Page 1130 New Hanover County Registry, to which deed reference is hereby made for a more particular description of

And being more particularly described as follows: BEING all of Lot 80 in Long Leaf Hills, Section II Subdivision recorded in the Office of the Register of Deeds of New Hanover County, Map Book 5, Page 114. SUBJECT recorded Register Hanover Page 34.

TO the restrictions in the Office of the of Deeds of New County in Book 563,

Save and except any releases, deeds of release or prior conveyances of record. Said property is commonly known as 124 Pine Cone Road, Wilmington, NC 28409. A cash deposit (no personal checks) of five percent (5%) of the purchase price, or Seven Hundred Fifty Dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, will be required at the time of the sale. Following the expiration of the statutory upset bid period, all the remaining amounts are immediately due and owing. THIRD PARTY PURCHASERS MUST PAY THE EXCISE TAX AND THE RECORDING COSTS FOR THEIR DEED. Said property to be offered pursuant to this Notice of Sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS WHERE IS.” There are no representations of warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at, or relating to the property being offered for sale. This sale is made subject to all prior liens, unpaid taxes, any unpaid land transfer taxes,

special assessments, easements, rights of way, deeds of release, and any other encumbrances or exceptions of record. To the best of the knowledge and belief of the undersigned, the current owner(s) of the property is/are Mark A. Thomas. An Order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to G.S. 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold. Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may, after receiving the notice of sale, terminate the rental agreement upon 10 days’ written notice to the landlord. The notice shall also state that upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination. If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in their sole discretion, if they believe the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit. The purchaser will have no further remedy.

Trustee Services of Carolina, LLC Substitute Trustee Brock & Scott, PLLC Attorneys for Trustee Services of Carolina, LLC 5431 Oleander Drive Suite 200 Wilmington, NC 28403 PHONE: (910) 392-4988 FAX: (910) 392-8587 File No.: 14-06605-FC02 June 25 and July 2, 2015 15 SP 285 NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE NORTH CAROLINA, NEW HANOVER COUNTY Under and by virtue of a Power of Sale contained in that certain Deed of Trust executed by Michael L. Thompson and Yvetta A. Thompson to Lenders First Choice, Trustee(s), which was dated January 20, 2007 and recorded on February 9, 2007 in Book 5139 at Page 2796, New Hanover County Registry, North Carolina. Default having been made of the note thereby secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Trustee Services of Carolina, LLC, having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust, and the holder of the note evidencing said default having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will offer for sale at the courthouse door of the county courthouse where the property is located, or the usual and customary location at the county courthouse for conducting the sale on July 7, 2015 at 10:00AM, and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following described property situated in New Hanover County, North Carolina, to wit:

Being all of Lot 56, as the same is shown on the Map of Phase 2, Ocean Forest Lakes, which is recorded in Map Book 25 at Page 22, New Hanover County Registry, reference to which is hereby made for a more particular description. Save and except any releases, deeds of release or prior conveyances of record. Said property is commonly known as 409 Tahoe Road, Wilmington, NC 28412. A cash deposit (no personal checks) of five percent (5%) of the purchase price, or Seven Hundred Fifty Dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, will be required at the time of the sale. Following the expiration of the statutory upset bid period, all the remaining amounts are immediately due and owing. THIRD PARTY PURCHASERS MUST PAY THE EXCISE TAX AND THE RECORDING COSTS FOR THEIR DEED. Said property to be offered pursuant to this Notice of Sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS WHERE IS.” There are no representations of warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at, or relating to the property being offered for sale. This sale is made subject to all prior liens, unpaid taxes, any unpaid land transfer taxes, special assessments, easements, rights of way, deeds of release, and any other encumbrances or exceptions of record. To the best of the knowledge and belief of the undersigned, the current owner(s) of the property is/are Michael L. Thomp-

son wife, Yvetta A Thompson. An Order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to G.S. 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold. Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may, after receiving the notice of sale, terminate the rental agreement upon 10 days’ written notice to the landlord. The notice shall also state that upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination. If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in their sole discretion, if they believe the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit. The purchaser will have no further remedy. Trustee Services of Carolina, LLC Substitute Trustee Brock & Scott, PLLC Attorneys for Trustee Services of Carolina, LLC 5431 Oleander Drive Suite 200 Wilmington, NC 28403

PHONE: (910) 392-4988 FAX: (910) 392-8587 File No.: 13-19261-FC02 June 25 and July 2, 2015 15 SP 281 NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE NORTH CAROLINA, NEW HANOVER COUNTY Under and by virtue of a Power of Sale contained in that certain Deed of Trust executed by James D. Savage and Marie J. Savage to Scott R. Valby, Trustee(s), which was dated January 11, 2007 and recorded on January 18, 2007 in Book 5130 at Page 2274, New Hanover County Registry, North Carolina. Default having been made of the note thereby secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Trustee Services of Carolina, LLC, having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust, and the holder of the note evidencing said default having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will offer for sale at the courthouse door of the county courthouse where the property is located, or the usual and customary location at the county courthouse for conducting the sale on July 7, 2015 at 10:00AM, and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following described property situated in New Hanover County, North Carolina, to wit: Being all of Lot 48, Pine Cliff Subdivision, as shown on plat recorded din Map Book 7, Page 39, New Hanover County Registry, reference to which is hereby made for a more particular

July 2–8, 2015

Lumina News — Your Coastal Community Newspaper since May 2002

Classified

Classified and display deadline: Friday noon • Call 910-256-6569 ext 100 • classifieds@luminanews.com

L E G A L NOTI C ES description. Save and except any releases, deeds of release or prior conveyances of record. Said property is commonly known as 217 Shamrock Drive, Wilmington, NC 28409. A cash deposit (no personal checks) of five percent (5%) of the purchase price, or Seven Hundred Fifty Dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, will be required at the time of the sale. Following the expiration of the statutory upset bid period, all the remaining amounts are immediately due and owing. THIRD PARTY PURCHASERS MUST PAY THE EXCISE TAX AND THE RECORDING COSTS FOR THEIR DEED. Said property to be offered pursuant to this Notice of Sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS WHERE IS.” There are no representations of warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at, or relating to the property being offered for sale. This sale is made subject to all prior liens, unpaid taxes, any unpaid land transfer taxes, special assessments, easements, rights of way, deeds of release, and any other encumbrances or exceptions of record. To the best of the knowledge and belief of the undersigned, the current owner(s) of the property is/are James D. Savage. An Order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to G.S. 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold. Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may, after receiving the notice of sale, terminate the rental agreement upon 10 days’ written notice to the landlord. The notice shall also state that upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination. If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in their sole discretion, if they believe the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit. The purchaser will have no further remedy. Trustee Services of Carolina, LLC Substitute Trustee Brock & Scott, PLLC Attorneys for Trustee Services of Carolina, LLC 5431 Oleander Drive Suite 200 Wilmington, NC 28403 PHONE: (910) 392-4988 FAX: (910) 392-8587 File No.: 15-08025-FC01 June 25 and July 2, 2015 NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE 15 SP 210 Under and by virtue of the power of sale contained in a certain Deed of Trust made by Joseph Willis Judkins and Marilyn Small Judkins (PRESENT RECORD OWNER(S): JH & JL, LLC) to Thomas E. Medlin, Trustee(s), dated the 9th day of July, 1999, and recorded in Book 2608, Page 0078, in New Hanover County Registry, North Carolina, default having been made in the payment of the note thereby secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Substitute Trustee Services, Inc. having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust by an instrument duly recorded in the Office of the Register of Deeds of New Hanover County, North Carolina and the holder of the note evidencing said indebtedness having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will offer for sale at the courthouse door in the City of Wilmington, New Hanover County, North Carolina, or the customary location designated for foreclosure sales, at 12:00 PM on July 7, 2015 and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following real estate situated in the County of New Hanover, North Carolina, and being more particularly described as follows: BEING all of Lot 3 of McCormick Place as per map thereof recorded in Map Book 32 at Page 335, New Hanover County Registry, to which map reference is made for a more particular description. Together with improvements located thereon; said property being located at 204 McCormick Lane, Wilmington, North Carolina.

Trustee may, in the Trustee’s sole discretion, delay the sale for up to one hour as provided in NCGS §45-21.23. Should the property be purchased by a third party, that party must pay the excise tax, as well as the court costs of FortyFive Cents ($0.45) per One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) required by NCGS §7A-308(a)(1). The property to be offered pursuant to this notice of sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS, WHERE IS.” Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust/security agreement, or both, being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property being offered for sale, and any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition expressly are disclaimed. Also, this property is being sold subject to all taxes, special assessments, and prior liens or encumbrances of record and any recorded releases. Said property is also being sold subject to applicable Federal and State laws. A cash deposit or cashier’s check (no personal checks) of five percent (5%) of the purchase price, or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, will be required at the time of the sale. An order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to G.S. 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold. Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may after receiving the notice of sale, terminate the rental agreement upon 10 days’ written notice to the landlord. Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination. If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in their sole discretion, if they believe the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit. The purchaser will have no further remedy. SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE SERVICES, INC. SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE P.O. Box 1028 4317 Ramsey Street Fayetteville, North Carolina 28311 https://sales.hutchenslawfirm. com Case No: 1149436 (FC.FAY) June 25 and July 2, 2015 NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE 14 SP 984 Under and by virtue of the power of sale contained in a certain Deed of Trust made by Leilani C. Capone (PRESENT RECORD OWNER(S): Leilani C. Capone Collins) to Henry V. Cunningham, Jr., Trustee(s), dated the 11th day of September, 2008, and recorded in Book 5346, Page 1813, in New Hanover County Registry, North Carolina, default having been made in the payment of the note thereby secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Substitute Trustee Services, Inc. having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust by an instrument duly recorded in the Office of the Register of Deeds of New Hanover County, North Carolina and the holder of the note evidencing said indebtedness having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will offer for sale at the courthouse door in the City of Wilmington, New Hanover County, North Carolina, or the customary location designated for foreclosure sales, at 12:00 PM on July 14, 2015 and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following real estate situated in the County of New Hanover, North Carolina, and being more particularly described as follows: BEING all of Lot 22, BRANDYWINE Subdivision, SECTION 1, as the same is shown on map thereof recorded in Map Book 10, Page 50, New Hanover Coun-

ty Registry, reference to said map being hereby made for a more particular description. Together with improvements located thereon; said property being located at 159 East Brandywine Circle, Wilmington, North Carolina. Trustee may, in the Trustee’s sole discretion, delay the sale for up to one hour as provided in NCGS §45-21.23. Should the property be purchased by a third party, that party must pay the excise tax, as well as the court costs of FortyFive Cents ($0.45) per One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) required by NCGS §7A-308(a)(1). The property to be offered pursuant to this notice of sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS, WHERE IS.” Neither the Trustee nor the holder of the note secured by the deed of trust/security agreement, or both, being foreclosed, nor the officers, directors, attorneys, employees, agents or authorized representative of either the Trustee or the holder of the note make any representation or warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at or relating to the property being offered for sale, and any and all responsibilities or liabilities arising out of or in any way relating to any such condition expressly are disclaimed. Also, this property is being sold subject to all taxes, special assessments, and prior liens or encumbrances of record and any recorded releases. Said property is also being sold subject to applicable Federal and State laws. A cash deposit or cashier’s check (no personal checks) of five percent (5%) of the purchase price, or seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, will be required at the time of the sale. An order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to G.S. 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold. Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may after receiving the notice of sale, terminate the rental agreement upon 10 days’ written notice to the landlord. Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination. If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in their sole discretion, if they believe the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit. The purchaser will have no further remedy. SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE SERVICES, INC. SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE P.O. Box 1028 4317 Ramsey Street Fayetteville, North Carolina 28311 https://sales.hutchenslawfirm. com Case No: 1150082 (FC.FAY) July 2 and 9, 2015 15 SP 113 NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE NORTH CAROLINA, NEW HANOVER COUNTY Under and by virtue of a Power of Sale contained in that certain Deed of Trust executed by Amy B. Jerrard to Neal G. Helms, Trustee(s), which was dated September 25, 2009 and recorded on September 30, 2009 in Book 5440 at Page 2906, New Hanover County Registry, North Carolina. Default having been made of the note thereby secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, Trustee Services of Carolina, LLC, having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust, and the holder of the note evidencing said default having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will offer for sale at the courthouse door of the county courthouse where the property is located, or the usual and customary location at the county courthouse for conducting the sale on July 14, 2015 at 10:00AM, and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following described property situated in New Hanover

County, North Carolina, to wit: Being all of 201 as shown on map of Phase 14, Tifton Park at Merestone recorded in Map Book 39, Page 170 of the New Hanover County Registry, reference to which is hereby made for a more particular description. Save and except any releases, deeds of release or prior conveyances of record. Said property is commonly known as 904 Shelton Court, Wilmington, NC 28412. A cash deposit (no personal checks) of five percent (5%) of the purchase price, or Seven Hundred Fifty Dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, will be required at the time of the sale. Following the expiration of the statutory upset bid period, all the remaining amounts are immediately due and owing. THIRD PARTY PURCHASERS MUST PAY THE EXCISE TAX AND THE RECORDING COSTS FOR THEIR DEED. Said property to be offered pursuant to this Notice of Sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS WHERE IS.” There are no representations of warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at, or relating to the property being offered for sale. This sale is made subject to all prior liens, unpaid taxes, any unpaid land transfer taxes, special assessments, easements, rights of way, deeds of release, and any other encumbrances or exceptions of record. To the best of the knowledge and belief of the undersigned, the current owner(s) of the property is/are Amy B. Jerrard. An Order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to G.S. 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold. Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may, after receiving the notice of sale, terminate the rental agreement upon 10 days’ written notice to the landlord. The notice shall also state that upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination. If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in their sole discretion, if they believe the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit. The purchaser will have no further remedy. Trustee Services of Carolina, LLC Substitute Trustee Brock & Scott, PLLC Attorneys for Trustee Services of Carolina, LLC 5431 Oleander Drive Suite 200 Wilmington, NC 28403 PHONE: (910) 392-4988 FAX: (910) 392-8587 File No.: 15-03383-FC01 July 2 and 9, 2015

are that the real property hereinbefore described will be sold for cash to the highest bidder. A deposit of five percent (5%) of the amount of the bid or Seven Hundred Fifty Dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, is required and must be tendered in the form of certified funds at the time of the sale. The successful bidder shall be required to pay revenue stamps on the Trustee’s Deed, any Land Transfer Tax and costs of recording the Trustee’s Deed. The real property hereinabove described is being offered for sale “AS IS, WHERE IS” and will be sold subject to all superior liens, unpaid taxes, and special assessments. Other conditions will be announced at the sale. The sale will be held open for ten (10) days for upset bids as by law required. If for any reason the Trustee is unable to convey title to this property or the sale is set aside, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Furthermore, if the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the Trustee, in its sole discretion, if it believes the challenge to have merit, may declare the sale to be void and return the deposit. In either event the purchaser will have no further recourse against the Mortgagor, the Mortgagee, the Mortgagee’s attorney or the Trustee. Additional Notice Where the Real Property is Residential With Less Than 15 Rental Units: An order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to G.S. 45-21.29 in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold. Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may, after receiving the notice of sale, terminate the rental agreement upon 10 days’ written notice to the landlord. Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination. Goddard & Peterson, PLLC, Substitute Trustee 3803B Computer Dr., Ste 103, Raleigh, NC 27609-6507 (919)755-3400 113081-06628 P1144981 7/2, 07/09/2015

NOTICE TO CREDITORS Having qualified as Ancillary Administratrix of the Estate of Marvin B. Murphy, III, late of Duval County, Florida, the undersigned does hereby notify all persons, firms and corporations having claims against the estate of said decedent to exhibit them to the undersigned, c/o Jill L. Peters, 300 N. Third Street, Suite 301, Wilmington, North Carolina 28401, on or before the 14th day of September, 2015, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons, firms and corporations indebted to the said estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This the 11th day of June, 2015. Demmi Jo Murphy, Ancillary Administratrix of the Estate of Marvin B. Murphy, III Jill L. Peters Smith Moore Leatherwood LLP 300 N. Third Street, Suite 301 Wilmington, NC 28401 June 11, 18, 25, July 2, 2015 STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA COUNTY OF NEW HANOVER IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE BEFORE THE CLERK OF SUPERIOR COURT

15-SP-294

EXECUTOR’S NOTICE

NOTICE OF SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEE’S FORECLOSURE SALE OF REAL PROPERTY

The undersigned having qualified as Executor of the Estate of John Marshall Licari of New Hanover County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons having claims against said estate to present them to the undersigned at the address shown below on or before the 11th day of September 2015, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned.

Under and by virtue of the power and authority contained in that certain Deed of Trust executed and delivered by Merle L. Fitzwater, David E. Fitzwater, dated February 20, 2009 and recorded on March 2, 2009 in Book No. 5383 at Page 918 in the Office of the Register of Deeds of New Hanover County, North Carolina; and because of default in the payment of the indebtedness secured thereby and failure to carry out and perform the stipulations and agreements contained therein and, pursuant to demand of the holder of the indebtedness secured by said Deed of Trust, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will place for sale, at public auction, to the highest bidder for cash at the usual place of sale at New Hanover County Courthouse, Wilmington, North Carolina on July 15, 2015 at 11:00AM that parcel of land, including improvements thereon, situated, lying and being in the City of Wilmington, County of New Hanover, State of North Carolina, and being more particularly described in the above referenced Deed of Trust. Address of property: 4849 Stillwell Rd, Wilmington, NC 28412-7631. Tax Parcel ID: R07507-003-007000 Present Record Owners: Merle L Fitzwater and David E Fitzwater. The terms of the sale

This is the 11th day of June 2015. Charles J. Licari, Executor 343 Shannon Ct. Ft. Walton Beach, FL 32548 6/11, 6/18, 6/25, 7/2/2015 STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA COUNTY OF NEW HANOVER IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE

undersigned on or before September 18, 2015, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons, firms and corporations indebted to said estate please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This is the 18th day of June 2015. Kelly D. Kaler 434 Upshire Circle Gaithersburg, MD 20878 W. Talmage Jones Hogue Hill, LLP Attorneys at Law PO Box 2178 Wilmington, NC 28402 6/18, 6/25, 7/2, 7/9/2015

indebted to said estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This is the 25th day of June 2015. Dorothy Jordan, Executrix 5437 Ridgewood Heights Drive Wilmington, NC 28403 6/25, 7/2, 7/9, 7/16/2015 STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA COUNTY OF NEW HANOVER IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE BEFORE THE CLERK OF SUPERIOR COURT

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA

EXECUTRIX’S NOTICE

COUNTY OF NEW HANOVER

The undersigned having qualified as Executrix of the Estate of Richard Spencer Pindell, III of New Hanover County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons having claims against said estate to present them to the undersigned at the address shown below on or before the 2nd day of October 2015, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned.

IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE BEFORE THE CLERK OF SUPERIOR COURT EXECUTOR’S NOTICE The undersigned having qualified as Executor of the Estate of Ethel H. Carlough of New Hanover County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons having claims against said estate to present them to the undersigned at the address shown below on or before the 18th day of September 2015, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This is the 18th day of June 2015. Kenneth R. Carlough Jr., Executor 7301 Hollister Drive Wilmington, NC 28411 6/18, 6/25, 7/2, 7/9/2015

This is the 2nd day of July 2015. Elizabeth Pindell White, Executrix 221 Bradley Drive Wilmington, NC 28409 7/2, 7/9, 7/16, 7/23/2015 STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA COUNTY OF NEW HANOVER IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE BEFORE THE CLERK OF SUPERIOR COURT ADMINISTRATOR’S NOTICE

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA COUNTY OF NEW HANOVER IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE BEFORE THE CLERK OF SUPERIOR COURT EXECUTRIX’S NOTICE The undersigned having qualified as Executrix of the Estate of George O. Smith II of New Hanover County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons having claims against said estate to present them to the undersigned at the address shown below on or before the 25th day of September 2015, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This is the 25th day of June 2015. Stephanie Smith, Executrix 201 Hammond Drive Greensboro, NC 27406 6/25, 7/2, 7/9, 7/16/2015 STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA COUNTY OF NEW HANOVER IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE BEFORE THE CLERK OF SUPERIOR COURT EXECUTRIX’S NOTICE The undersigned having qualified as Executrix of the Estate of Billy Jordan of New Hanover County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons having claims against said estate to present them to the undersigned at the address shown below on or before the 24th day of September 2015, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons

The undersigned having qualified as Administrator of the Estate of Betsy Fowler of New Hanover County, North Carolina, does hereby notify all persons having claims against said estate to present them to the undersigned at the address shown below on or before the 2nd day of October 2015, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This is the 2nd day of July 2015. Gary Shallo, Administrator 1011 W Peace Street Raleigh, NC 27605 7/2, 7/9, 7/16, 7/23/2015

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SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION 15 E 762 EXECUTRIX NOTICE Having qualified as Executrix of the Estate of James Llewellyn Kaler, Jr., late of Wilmington, New Hanover County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons, firms and corporations having claims against the estate of said decedent to exhibit them to the

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July 2–8, 2015

Lumina News — Your Coastal Community Newspaper since May 2002

Sports/Marine Hook, Line & Sinker Summer doldrums taking toll on anglers By Skylar Walters

It’s not often June fishing slows down as quickly as it did this year. Extremely hot temperatures, thunderstorms, rough sea conditions and the moon phase have all been blamed for the recent fishing slowdown. Water temperatures are reading in the lower to mid 80s – which is not something that’s normally seen so early in the summer, especially considering that these readings were fairly consistent for last two weeks of June. Unfortunately, not much of a reprieve is on the horizon as weather conditions look to stay hot and even to deteriorate for the upcoming holiday weekend. If fishing is in your game plan for the coming days, inshore, pier or surf looks to be your best bet, but that’s not all bad because that seems to be where the better fishing is being found right now. We’ll get the offshore fishing report done rather quickly this week as there’s not much to report, namely because anglers haven’t been venturing out mainly in the weather. When conditions improve, expect the kings to be feeding from right on the beach out to around 10 miles or so. Some nearshore dolphin action should be picking up around the 10 mile mark, not to mention the chance at a sailfish here or there in the same vicinity. As always, find the bait and you’ll more than likely find the fish feeding on them. Inshore, the red drum action continues to be good with anglers reporting good bites from fish along the deeper channels and around the creek mouths. Both live minnows fished on Carolina Rigs and cut bait soaked in the area should draw some

interest. High water falling is a good time to set up along the creek mouths as the fish will congregate waiting to ambush their prey being forced out by the current. If the water is rapidly exiting the creek or channel, near an oyster bed or other obstruction that’s breaking up the current is also a good spot to try. Flounder fishing also continues to be very good with some anglers reporting more keepers than in previous weeks. The inlets are good spots to soak a bait as are the same creeks and channels where you are targeting red drum. There’s plenty of live bait readily available if you can throw a cast net but if not, artificial baits will also draw some interest if the fish are around. There are those anglers who fish strictly artificial baits and they do very well, but it’s just hard to beat a natural, live bait when it’s available. If you are looking for something else to catch, there have been lots of black drum caught around the bridges as well as in the surf by anglers using fresh cut shrimp. These fish can also be found in the creeks and waterways; however it’s difficult to keep the bait on your hook because of all the other small fish, namely pinfish, which are extremely plentiful. Surf anglers are finding some Virginia mullet and black drum along with a few small spots and croakers in the deeper sloughs along the beach. Some flounder, red drum and bluefish have been reported, caught on both cut bait and live minnows. Pier anglers are reporting much of the same with a few Spanish mackerel being caught on Got-Cha Plugs.

Latitude 34° 11’ N, Longitude 77° 49’ W

Time

ht(ft)

Time

ht(ft)

By Emmy Errante Staff Writer

TIDES Masonboro Inlet Date

Wrightsville girls who rip

Time

ht(ft)

Time

ht(ft)

7/2 Thu

02:15 AM -0.3 L

07:57 AM 3.8 H

02:16 PM -0.48 L

08:30 PM 5.03 H

7/3 Fri

03:02 AM -0.47 L

08:46 AM 3.92 H

03:05 PM -0.52 L

09:19 PM 5.02 H

7/4 Sat

03:47 AM -0.57 L

09:40 AM 4.03 H

03:54 PM -0.49 L

10:10 PM 4.94 H

7/5 Sun

04:33 AM -0.59 L

10:37 AM 4.14 H

04:46 PM -0.36 L

11:03 PM 4.8 H

7/6 Mon

05:22 AM -0.55 L

11:33 AM 4.25 H

05:43 PM -0.16 L

11:56 PM 4.62 H

7/7 Tue

06:16 AM -0.46 L

12:29 PM 4.35 H

06:49 PM 0.04 L

7/8 Wed

12:49 AM 4.4 H

07:15 AM -0.38 L

01:24 PM 4.41 H

08:00 PM 0.15 L

While the sandy surf breaks along the coast of Wrightsville Beach are not renowned for delivering epic waves, the island is home base for several young surfers who are racking up impressive results in regional competitions. In 2015, four wahines, 13-yearold Madeline Eckel, 14-year old Leah Thompson, 15-year-old Julia Eckel and 16-year-old Carly Carter have represented Wrightsville Beach at regional and national contests held in New Smyrna Beach, Fla., the Outer Banks, N.C., Virginia Beach, Va., and southern California. The Eckel sisters’ dad, Brian Eckel, said the four girls are often grouped in the same age bracket during competitions, and they end up surfing against each other in the finals. They compete in both longboard and shortboard categories, excelling at the two different styles of wave riding. In May, Thompson won the shortboard division and placed second in the longboard division of the same event, the Gnarly Charley Surf Contest. The victory came just weeks after she won the 2015 mid-Atlantic Regionals Surfing Championships in barreling, overhead conditions on the Outer Banks. Wrightsville Beach was well represented in that event, with Julia Eckel also taking home first prize in her age group. “Six states, from Delaware to Georgia, were represented there at that contest,” said Thompson’s dad, Daniel Thompson. “That was a big accomplishment for Leah.” Thompson’s recent results are even more impressive given her inexperience in contest surfing. Her dad taught her to surf when she was young, but she only began competing two years ago. Before competing on the water, she dominated the gymnastics arena, earning a top-five statewide ranking. “She’s just a good little athlete,” her dad said. “It seems like she does well at any sport she tries.” The Eckel sisters also learned to surf as kids. Unlike Thompson, their first contest experiences came not long after their first pop-ups. In 2008, when Madeline was 6 years old and Julia was 8, the grommets entered the East Coast Wahine Championships. Now, they are both team riders for Sweetwater Surf Shop, and Julia is one of 12 East Coast female surfers on the Eastern Surfing Association AllStar Team. While the sisters favor different styles of surfing — Madeline prefers shortboarding, Julia longboarding — they still have a bit of friendly sibling rivalry, their dad said, which has elevated their surfing over the years. More often,

Staff photo by Emmy Errante

Photo courtesy of Brian Eckel

Above: Madeline Eckel rides a wave during the 2014 Wrightsville Beach Wahine Classic. Top: Carly Carter, Julia Eckel and Madeline Eckel ride a wave at Wrightsville Beach Sunday, June 28.

though, contests pit the two longboarders, Julia Eckel and Carly Carter, against each other. In three major regional competitions this year — the Virginia Beach Steel Pier Classic, the midAtlantic Regional Championships and the 2015 NSSA East Coast Championships in New Smyrna Beach — Carter and Eckel both advanced to the long board final. But, Brian Eckel said, they leave the rivalry out in the water. “They travel together, so they’re literally best friends,” Eckel said, “but they’re very, very competitive when it comes to heat time.” The girls’ performance in the East Coast Championships earned them a trip to California in midJune to compete in the national championships. The competition was extremely tough, Carter said, and the waves at Seaside Beach

were closing out. The girls didn’t win their heats, but Carter said surf trips are about more than just scoring contest results. “We know it’s going to be a super hard contest,” she said. “We like to go out there and make a girls’ trip out of it.” Their moms traveled with them to California, and Julia Eckel recently took a solo trip to Hawaii with the ESA All-Stars, but most surfing adventures involve the girls and their dads. When Leah Thompson first started competing, her dad took her to contests, and he also competed. “To try to help her feel more comfortable competing, I just started doing it with her, so we’ve been doing that together for the last few years,” he said. With his daughter’s recent results, he acknowledged he

probably wouldn’t need to enter contests alongside her much longer. However, Daniel Thompson, Brian Eckel and Michael Carter will likely still join their daughters out in the water on freesurfing trips. They have traveled together to multiple countries, gaining knowledge of big waves and different cultures. In Hawaii, the girls met some of the stars of their sport, like world champion Carissa Moore and big-wave charger Garrett McNamara. In El Salvador, they built confidence paddling into lineups with high surf and higher testosterone levels. Most lineups around the world are dominated by men, the girls agreed, including their own local surf breaks. Male surfers tend to be more aggressive, Julia Eckel added, so when they see other women out in the water, the girls gravitate toward them. The girls are competitive and driven to improve their surfing, but they say equally important to them is the enjoyment of riding waves alongside friends. While they are tempted by the prospect of surfing professionally, Julia Eckel and Carly Carter, who are now in high school, agree a more realistic goal for their surfing careers would be to join a college surf team. “We put in 110 percent effort, but if it doesn’t end up working out, that’s OK,” Carter said. “We do it mostly for fun,” Eckel added. email emmy@luminanews.com

Staff photo by Emmy Errante

Photo courtesy of Brian Eckel

Above: Julia Eckel rides a wave in El Salvador at age 13. Top: Leah Thompson rides a wave at Wrightsville Beach Sunday, June 28.