*
Casting a ballot
A Hertford resident checks off
his ballot in the Perquimans
County Courthouse on
Tuesday. Voter turnout was
termed light for the 1980
presidential primary. (Phoito
by NOEL TODD
MCLAUGHLIN)
Parking debate rages on
Margaret Stowe Garrison
^appeared before the Hertford
Town Council Monday night
with a second plea for en
forcing the ordinance which
forbids vehicles to park to the
left of the curb in Hertford's
business district.
Ms. Garrison, who appeared
before the board qome months
ago, said that the parking
Situation "has not changed,"
and added, "Since it (the
ordinance) is on your books, it
should be enforced."
Hertford Police Chief
Marshall Merritt reported
that, although he and other
officers have issued several
warning tickets, his force was
too small to keep up with all
offenders. "We are a small
^department and a small
department has to make
priorities," said Merritt, "I
just dont have the manpower
or. the time."
Crime has tripled in the
area, according to Merritt,
and be voiced his concern over
spending unwarranted time on
the necessary paper work
involved with the issuance of
tickets.
Councilman T. Erie Haste,
Jr. asked Merritt when he
anticipated having his force
up to the capacity needed to
police the patting ordinance.
"I don't," was Merritt's
reply, "and I've had a full
force for two weeks now."
Following discussion, it was
established that most parking
to the left of curb violations
occurred in front of J.C.
Blanchard's and the
Municipal Building, and that
those parking illegally in front
of the Municipal Building
were often repeat offenders.
Ms. Garrison again
reitetated her point. "A $27
fine each time you violate
would make a difference. I
know I would think twice
before I'd park illegally if I
had to pay $27," she said.
Tax collections
expectations fall
the projected collection of 1979
taxes to 92 per cent, said tax
supervisor Keith Haskett
The 92 per cent figure is an
kesdmftte of the total tax levy
"that will actually be collected
by the county. It will be used
in figuring the 1900 tax rate, as
well as the 191041 county
B s ? * .
1979-90 budget was
on a 95 percent
but low grain
a budget comparable to that of
the present fiscal year, a tax
increase of a quarter of a cent
per |100 valuation would
compensate for the three
percent adjustment in ex
pectations.
Anticipated increases in
county stipends to Social
Services, schools, and
governmental departments
will probably have more
impact on the tax rate county
citizens will pay on their
personal property for 1900.
The fact that tax collection
expectation* have been ad
justed downward does not
mean that 8 per flent of the tax
levy will go unpaid, Haskett
said. The county does,
however, expect payment to
be be slower is some cases
because of the state of the
economy* * J
TIM tax department will
befo collected
Haste pointed out that
strongly enforcing the or
dinance could be harmful to
downtown trade. "If
somebody parked in front of
your store gets a $27 ticket,
you're going to hear about it,"
he said.
Hertford Mayor and City
Manager Bill Cox was in
agreement. "People who
come into town who get a
ticket might not come back,"
said Cox, "and we are too
small of a town to be knit
picky about parking."
Several possibilities to
counter the illegal parking
were discussed, including the
erection of a sign in front of
the Municipal Building for
bidding parking to the left of
the curb, and also erasing the
ordinance from the books
altogether.
But town attorney William
Bentley was against
eradicating the law. "For
safey's sake, the law needs to
be enforced," he said.
It was finally decided that
the police department should
continue to issue warning
tickets for the first violation,
and to write tickets only to
habitual offenders.
In another matter, the
council decided to give the
U.S. Highway 17 Association,
of which fiie town of Hertford
is a member, $500 out of the
upcoming budget. Although
councilmen Billy Winslow and
Jesse Harris were against
appropriatiag the money until
the new budget had been
worked out, Cox cast a tie
breaking vote in favor of the
funding, along with Haste and
councilman John Beers.
It was Winslow's and
Harris' contention that the
upcoming fiscal year would be
a difficult one, and that con
tributing the money, at this
point, would be nowise.
Primary elections, 1980
Towe gets schools seat, Ward
endorsed for commissioner
An unusually low number of
voters sent one incumbent
county commissioner down to
defeat and endorsed a new
member for the board of
education in Perquimans
County's primary elections on
Tuesday.
Democrats had 38 different
candidates for local, state and
national office to choose from
and Republicans 11, but only
about 45 percent of the
county's registered voters
took advantage of the op
portunity to exercise their
choices.
According to William
"Buddy" Tilley's unofficial
tally, 1,713 persons cast
ballots at seven polling places
across the county.
"There was no interest in
the presidential election. I'm
going to tell it like it is," said
Tilley, chairman of the county
board of elections. "Usually
the vote is over 50 per cent.
One time it was 65 per cent,"
he said, characterizing the
primary turnout as "very
disappointing."
In general, Tilley said that
interest is stronger during a
presidential primary year,
and that voting in the county is
heavier in the spring primary
than in the fall, indicating that
the general election turnout
may be even more disap
pointing.
Tilley said, however, that
.smmy weather and dry con
ditions probably contributed
to the low turnout, keeping
farmers in the fields and away
from the polling places.
The non-partisan county
school board races were the
only balloting for which
results were final, and Clifford
W. Towe edged out Janice
Boyce and Ed Brown to
become the only new-comer to
the board.
Towe scored heavily in the
two Hertford precincts, and
tallied 714 votes to 564 for
Janice Boyce and 401 for Ed
Brown.
Incumbent Preston
Stevenson rolled to an im
pressive victory in the Hert
ford Township in a race
against three opponents.
Stevenson captured all but
the East Hertford precinct
and polled 625 votes, to 359 for
Gil Underwood, 357 for George
White and 284 for Ed Nixon.
Nixon had announced that he
was withdrawing from the
race some time ago but had
not had his name taken off the
ballot.
Emmett Long was the sole
Bethel Township candidate for
the board of education and
polled 1307 votes.
Three democratic can
didates were to be selected for
three seats on the Perquimans
County Board of Com
missioners, and the hottest
race took place in the Second
District, where Charles Ward
snuck by incumbent Waldo
Winslow to secure one of two
nominations for two seats.
Winslow's 488 votes placed
him fourth in a field, of four
candtdiles, with Joe Novell
collecting 855 votes, Ward 750,
and Billy Pierce 635.
Ward and Pierce ran neck
and neck in six of the seven
precincts, but the Bethel
precinct spelled the dif
P.H.S, students
hold mock vote
Students at Perquimans
High School think a little more
of democratic presidential
hopeful Edward kennedy than
do their elders, that is if a
comparison of Tuesday's
primary results and a recent
mock election conducted at
the school is any indication.
While Carter still carried
the school, he had to fend off a
strong challenge by Kennedy
to win by an eight vote
margin, 33-25.
Edmund "Jerry" Brown got
one vote.
The students also appear to
think a great deal of Governor
Jim Hunt. They gave him an
incredible 78-8 bulge in his
race with challenger Bob
Scott.
The mock-primary was
conducted by the Teen
Democrats and government
teacher Earl Willis.
Teacher slots
may not change
The Perquimans County
Board of Education approved
tentative teacher allocations
that reflect no reduction in
staff for next school year at a
meeting Monday night.
The allocations avoid ex
cessive combination
classrooms (such as 5th-6th
grades) ,and hold down
classroom student-teacher
ratios, said Pat Harrell,
county schools superin
tendent.
The system had anticipated
toeing positions (based on
average daily membership)
but Harrell said that tentative
allocation will be "reflected in
the lcoal budget."
The school board elected to
purchase some $34,500 in
furnishings for the high school
library in the most time
consuming item of business of
the evening.
Board members inspected
several different bids on
different types and styles of
furniture before accepting the
The library is being
be inspected by board
members on June 1.
The board also moved to
allow Hertford resident Pete
Riddick to farm 9.1 acres of
crop land for one-third of the
net proceeds after an ad
vertisement for bids on ren
ting the land netted no
response.
Riddick is employed as a
mechanic with the school
system but Harrell said that
consultations with an attorney
for the Institute of Govern
ments had determined there
would be no conflict of in
terest, particularly in light of
the fact that the board had
advertised for bids.
Another matter saw the
-board pass a resoloution
memorialising Raleigh
Dingman, the former
Executive Director of the
North Carolina School Boards
Association who passed away
April 11.
The board was scheduled to
meet Tuesday night with the
Perquimans County Board of
Commissioners to discuss its
budget for the coming fiscal
ference, as Ward out-paced
Pierce by 75 votes, 121-46.
Incumbent Lester Simpson
ran away with the district one
democratic nomination for
commissioner, tallying 824
votes to soundly defeat
challengers John London-372
votes, Lee Brabble-230 votes,
and Margaret Stowe Garrison
215 votes.
County voters gave their
present delegation to Raleigh
a nod of approval as the en
dorsed all four incumbents for
first district House and Senate
seats.
In the Senate race, in
cumbent Vernon James,
Pasquotank, collected 1,187
votes, followed by incumbent
Charles Evans, Dare, with 925
votes and Lenoard Overman,
Perquimans, with 687 votes.
Melvin Daniels,
Pasquotank, led the Senate
ticket with 1,264 votes,
followed by Monk Harrington,
Northampton, with 762 votes,
and Winnie Wood, Camden,
with 649 votes.
On the national level,
Perquimans County voters
endorsed President Jimmy
Carter by a three to one
margin over his challenger for
the democratic nomination,
Edward Kennedy.
Carter polled 1024 votes
while Kennedy could muster
only 333 votes. But 276 voters
checked no preference when
confronted with a choice
between the two candidates.
Few republicans turned out
to vote in a primary election
that featured no local
republican candidates, but 49
endorsed Ronald Reagan as
the their candidate for
president, and 9 voted for
Bush. Other votes were
scattered among candidates
who have withdrawn from the
race.
Governor James B. Hunt,
Jr. overwhlemed challenger
Bob Scott in his bid for the
democratic gubernatorial
nomination, 1184 to 507.
Beverly Lake polled 43 votes
in his bid for the republican
candidacy, while C.J. Car
stens received 13 votes.
Incumbent lieutenant
governor Jimmy Green
collected more Perquimans
County votes than did
challenger Carl Stewart, 883
620.
In the race for democratic
candidate for secretary of
state, Perquimans voters
proved that they were not
quite ready to "give a young
man a chance," as George
Breece had urged them to do
in his bid to upset elder
statesman Thad Eure. Breece
was handed a walloping 1.069
507 defeat.
(Continued on page 2 )
t wm mm i
Preston Stevenson
Clifford Towe
mwuamamm tarn*
Charles Ward
Joe Nowell
I V *, ?.
Lester Simpson
W ater rules altered
The Perquimans County
Board of Commissioners is
raising its fee for re-installing
water meters from $15 to $50
in an effort to avoid any hike
in water usage rates.
Their action, effective July
1, was taken upon recom
mendation by Tom Harwell,
an engineer with Rivers and
Associates, in a user survey
report to the commissioners
on Monday.
Harwell told the board
meeting that it stood to lose
some 213 "resort type"
customers unless it took ac
tion to make disconnecting
from the water system on a six
month basis less economically
feasible.
The Perquimans County
Water Department had
planned to charge $15 to
reconnect to the water system
after the customer had paid
$200 through monthly billing,
and many customers using
from 0 to 1000 gallons of water
per month would have
qualified in December.
Harwell had been asked by
the county to do a survey and
recommend ways that ex
penses could be cut back in an
effort to keep water system
cost-revenue on an even keel.
In his report, he projected a
slight profit for the system in
the coming year, with ex
penses running some $215,000
and revenue $225,000.
County accountant D.F.
Reed, Jr., however, took issue
with Harwell's projections,
saying they did not adequately
reflect the present rate of
Inflation. Reed's own figuring
projected a mild deficit for the
system.
But Harwell said that the
current financial condition of
the water system is fairly
standard for the amount of
time it has been in operation.
Other recommendations
aprroved by the board raised
the base rate that would be
paid by trailer court users
from $4 to $7, the same level
that any other users would pay
(there are currently no trailer
courts connected to the
system), raised the penalty
for reinstalling a meter
removed due to delinquency of
account from $15 to $50, and
added a monthly charge of 50
cents per fire protection
sprinkler head for any
businesses that might connect
to the system in the future
(does not apply to farms).
In another matter, the
commissioners heard from
N.C. Natural Resources and
Community Development
planner John Ciew on options
it faces in completing its
abandoned land use plan
update.
The plan, required by the
Coastal Area Management
Act, was left unfinished after
it was determined that ARPD
C planner Dan Tew would be
unable to meet a June 30
deadline.
Crew said that the county
could either seek an extension
of the deadline and hire a
private consulting firm in the
immediate future to finish up
the plan, or begin on Sept. 1
and shoot for next year's
deadline.
The county is currently in its
fourth year of a plan that
requires updating every five
years.
The commissioner* chose to
initiate work on the plan in
September and will consider
several private firms
mm
Jt i
recommended by Crew.
The planner promised that
the state would come up with
additional matching grant
monies to finish up the update
project, and said that the 40
per cent of the work thus-far
completed by Tew could be be
utilized.
Crew said that the county
still retains some $4,500 of its
original $7,200 grant intended
to pay for 90 per cent of the
cost of the update, as the state
will only pay for work actually
completed.
Another item of discussion
centered on what may be a
future shortage of revenue
sharing funds. County ac
countant Reed told the board
that in a phone call to the U.S.
Treasury he was told that that
beyond a payment in the
summer and another in the
fall, the county should "by no
means" budget revenue
sharing funds for the coming
fiscal year.
If no additional revenue
sharing payments were for
thcoming it would mean a
reduction in funding from
$175,000 to $95,000 in the <
coming year, Reed said.
In other action, the board :
?Heard from attorney John
Matthews that contributions
to Operation Overcharge
would be illegal, based on an
opinion from the state At
torney General's office, and;
?Heard from commissioner
Welly White that the county
recreation department would
need some $4,000 to finish up
the fiscal year. White said that
the recreation board had
proposed a SO-SO split between
the county and the town of
Hertford. No action was
taken.
& ? ? &*</?
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