THE PERQUIMANS WEEKLY
Volume 37, No. 1 "^>'3 USPS 428-000 Hertford, Perquimans County, N.C., Thursday, January 8, 1961
20 CENTS
Winter landscape
The sun sets over a frozen field between
New Hope and Woodvffle. A bare tree
reminds as that winter is here, u if
recent cold weather would allow us to
forget. (Photo by MIKE MCLAUGHLIN)
Chill chases PCHS
students from class
Old man winter blew a chilly breath of
air on Perquimans County early this
week and the cold weather caused an
early dismissal at Perquimans High
School on Monday .
Schools superintendent Pat Harrell
said that trouble with the heating system
in the new addition to the building
required the closing of the school after
lunch.
Harrell said that maintenance per
sonnel tried all morning to get the
temperature up in the building but to no
avail. "It was cold," said Harrell of a
situation tht saw temperatures hovering
at between 45 and 50 degrees in the
building.
The heat pump system in the addition
is tied in with the boiler that heats the old
two-story portion of the building. It was
installed at a total cost to the county of
$64,000 by Coastal Refrigeration, and has
required some adjustment since then.
"The contractors have been down to
make adjustments," confirmed Harrell.
"It's not unusual for a new system to
need adjustments but the contractor has
been slow in responding," he said. The
system is still under warranty.
Harrell told school board members
Monday night that the problem might be
that the boiler is too small to handle the
system in extremely cold weather.
And the weather in the early part of the
week could easily have been labeled
extreme. Elizabeth City Flight Service
recorded a low of 13 degrees on Monday
night, but according to flight service
attendant Sam Long, a brief respite from
the chill was expected Tuesday af
ternoon, with some percipitation that
night.
But by this aftereoon (Thursday), the
mercury is expected to begin another
downward trek. Long said the weather
would probably be even colder this
weekend than it had been in the early
part of the week.
In the event of snow, Harrell said that
every effort would be made to have
announcements on area radio stations
WCDJ, WBXB, WGAI, and WCNC by
6:30 a.m.
In deciding whether or not to close
schools, Harrell takes an early morning
ride on area roads with school tran
sportation supervisor W.O. "Red" Elliot.
He also contacts the weather bureau in
Norfolk, the Coast Guard, and the N.C.
Highway Patrol.
Town of Hertford may soon tune in to cable TV
Hertford residents will be afforded the
opuoa of tuning into a total of 23
television channels and their choice of
current hit movies within a year.
Representatives of a cable television
franchise appeared before the Hertford
Town Council at their regular monthly
meeting Monday. And although the town
took no formal action because contract
details have yet to be resolved, it appears
that cable TV is on its way to town.
Representing the Compass Cor
poration, out of Erie, Pennsylvania, was
Vincent T. Ridikas, who promised
commissioners that cable service could
I
be a realilty in less than a year.
The corporation has recently been
awarded the cable franchise for the town
of Edenton, and Ridikas said extending
service to the town of Hertford would
"only involve extending our trunk
cable."
Ridikas told the council that the town
of Hertford could stadb to earn some
$3,000 a year from the corporation in
franchise fees and pole rental.
He explained that the fee consisted of 3
percent of the corporation's gross
revenue, as well as $5 a year rent for
each telephone pole utilized. The system
is designed to connect to telephone lines
and Ridikas explained that the television
cable was adaptable to above as well as
underground phone lines.
Cable TV will offer customers an op
tion of four levels of service, according to
Ridikas. Level one, or "basic service,"
will provide the cable customer with 11
channels, at a cost of 16.95 per month.
Level two, or "Miniplus," will provide
reception of independent television
stations from all over the country, as
well as the 11 channels offered in the
basic service. Level two will cost the
consumer $9.85 a month.
Marching band to
play for governor
The Perquimans County High
School Marching Band will high-step
it to the state capital Saturday, Jan.
10, where they will march in Governor
James B. Hunt's 1981 Inaugural
Parade.
According to county band director
David Ziemba, Perquimans is one of
several North Carolina high school
marching bands invited to perform
for the governor and other state of
ficials during the inaugural
ceremonies.
The 90-minute parade will begin at
1:15 p.m., following noon inaugural
ceremonies during which oaths of
office will be administered to the
governor and the council of state. The
swearings-in will also be followed by
the inaugural address, as well as a 19
gun salute to Hunt.
The parade is expected to move
south along Wilmington Street from
Lane Street to Martin Street where it
will head west onto Martin, then north
onto Salisbury Street and proceed
back to the state legislative building
along Salisbury.
Gov. Hunt and the Council of State
will review the parade as it passes the
east side of the Capitol on Wilmington
Street.
Ziemba, hopeful that many
Perquimans County residents will
turn out for inaugural ceremonies,
said that the band had added a new
score and flag routine to its reper
toire.
"The kids are really excited about
going (to Raleigh)," said Ziemba,
"and have been working hard."
Following the parade, Gov. Hunt
will hold a reception at the Governor's
Mansion where the public will be
greeted by Hunt, the Lt. Governor,
and other members of the Council of
State.
Hunt said the inaugural festivites
had been planned around a weekend
to allow for the participation from
school children and working people.
"We want this to be a 'people's
inaugural,' " said Hunt in a recent
news release urging statewide at
tendance at the inauguration.
County hears expensive
river monitoring plan
The price tag appeared a little too
Iteep on an East Carolina University
proposal for monitoring area rivers
preferred at a Monday meeting of the
Perquimans County Board of Com
missioners.
Dr. Charles Oreor, a professor at ECU,
estimated that the cost of running a year
nog monitoring program in Perquimans
bounty would be from $20,000 to $90,000.
An Elisabeth City State University
mfessor had maintained at a prior
netting that a testing program such as
bat described by Oreor could be run for
mne 18,000, utilising manpower and a
mat volunteered by the district health
lepartment.
The price estimate from the East
^aroUna professor appeared to catch the
ward by surprise.
"We're very coaceraed about our
tvers but It's Just beyond our means to
k> something about it," said com
equipment and capability of running the
other two tests as well.
Perkins volunteered his services in
running the tests, and the board ex
pressed an interest in having his findings
over the past five years analysed as well.
Asked if he had noted extreme changes
in water quality in the river over the past
five years, Perkins responded in the
negative. "From all the tests I've run ?
all of our tests are real good. They are
well within the limits established by the
Environmental Protection Agency," he
said.
Oreor had said, however, that for
monitoring purposes water samples <
must be taken at specific times, such as <
after storms. "In a thunderstorm, you'd
have to monitor tiie initial flush of water,
then follow it over the peak," said Oner.
"It's feared to water flow patient
rather than a strict time basis," he said.
Oreor said that if ECU were contracted
to do the study, he would utilise all
available information, as well as results \
of mooMoriag. to provide a digestabie ,
package of information en the rivers. "I i
would ?m afl the help I could get to I
preset you as complete a picture as
Simpson, however, said that the county
could not afford to take on such a project
on its own, and advocated getting more
counties involved in the study.
Albemarle Regional Planning and
Development Commission planner Bill
Phillips said the board should contact
those persons involved in the Chowan
River study to find out where their
funding is coming from.
The county has been promised a state
grant that is expected to be in the neigh
borhood of $5,000.
But even if a study of the rivers is
initiated, it will be no more than a first
step in a long road to improving water
quality. Oreor stressed that the
monitoring program would only show the
cooditon of the river during the period of
study. Water samples would have to be
taken threeor four times i year over the
next several years to indicate any
gradual changes taking place.
Commissioner Marshall Caddy put the
problem in perspective. "The real easy
job is what we're doing now. What's
going to be hard is after we find out what
the trouble tow"
(Continued oa ^
Level three consists of Home Box
Office, which affords TV viewers an
opportunity to select from a package of
current motion pictures each month.
Both level one and level two advantages
are also included in level three, at a
monthly cost of $15.85.
The fourth level, or "Super Service,"
will provide customers with a com
bination of levels one, two, and three, as
well as "Cinemax," a feature which
allows for the reception of 23 channels in
all.
Other services to be provided by the
cable corporation include the rental of
optional converters, auxiliary tuners,
remote control devises, and FM cables
which will expand radio reception to
some 20 stations, according to Ridikas.
In other business, the town council
agreed to apply for a $25,000 grant from
the Agency on Aging which would allow
the town to hire a director for the senior
center for one year.
"I see it as a great opportunity to get
this senior center active in the com
munity," said Hertford Mayor Bill Cox to
the commissioners.
While county recreational director
Mac Sligh supervises all activites at the
senior center, Cox said that there was
definitely a need for a "professional
director who could devote all time to the
senior center."
It was announced that the town
councils of both Hertford and Winfall
would meet with the county com
missioners on Monday, Jan. 12, at 7 p.m.
at the Courthouse, in order to discuss the
matter of funding the recreational
program.
The council also appointed Robert
Riddick to the Planning Board, and
tabled the appointment of an alternate to
that board until the next meeting.
Fire extinguishers
Sawyer of the Hartford Vebetw Fin
OapartMak ham dowa ? ehteaey fire
altmitW DavUPMHip* 1>?
Are occurred it the burnt of Mm Fettaa
of 212 Grubb Street oa Moaday afterMOft.
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