Newspapers / The Perquimans Weekly (Hertford, … / May 22, 1986, edition 1 / Page 1
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THE PERQUIMANS WEEKLY Volume 53. No.21 USPS 42S-080 Hertford, Perquimans County, N.C., Thursday, May 22, 1986 25 CENTS County dedicates Winf all Water Plant By NANCY T. SMITH On Monday, May 19, hours of planning and work came to frui tion as the Winfall Water Treat ment Plant was dedicated. Plant manager, Wayne Winslow, opened the ceremonies with an invocation. rerquimans county officially accepted the new Winfall Water Treatment Plant on Monday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The Home Extension Service provided refreshments to those touring the new plant (top). Participating in the ribbon cutting ceremonies were: (Bottom Photo, left to right) Randy Keaton; W.R. Chappell; Wayne Winslow; "Welly" White; Marvin Howell with FmHA; Lester Simpson; Hubert Hollis of FmHA; Carson Brinkley, FmHA Community Programs Chief; Melvin Howell, FmHA County Supervisor; Don Norman, FmHA Dis trict Representative; and Thomas Nixon. (Photos by Tim Bry ant.) Chairman of the County Com missioners, W.W. "Welly" White, Jr. welcomed those as sembled for the occasion. He rec ognized Mr.F.A. McGoogan who got the water system started. lje recognized members of the Chamber of Commerce and County Commissioners present. Mr. White stated that without the financial support of FmHA, tht facility may not have been com pleted. The $1,270,000 structure was financed by a $560,000 grant and a $230,000 clean water grant. The remainder of the construc tion price, $480,000, was made up by a loan from FmHA. Mr. White further state that he looked for ward to working with FmHA on the renovation-construction pro ject at Perquimans County High School. Mr. White then recognized Mr. Russ Chappell the Water Depart ment Supervisor and thanked the Home Extension Department for preparing refreshments for the occasion. Mr. White then turned the pro gram over to Mr. Carson Brink ley, Chief of Community Pro-' grams for FmHA. Mr. Brinkley told the group that the water plant is a good example of rural development. It was not so long ago that a shallow well was the only source of water that a rural family could depend on. Water systems such as the one installed at Winfall were reserved for the .arger communities. He pointed out that it is now the exception, rather than the norm, to find a shallow well to be a family's only source of water. Mr. Brinkley credited Mr. Don Norman, Dis trict Director for FmHA, for put ting in many hours to get sys tems like the one in Winfall in many rural communities. Officials from FmHA and Per quimans County officials joined in a ribbon cutting ceremony with Mr. "Welly" White doing the honors of cutting the ribbon and opening the Water Treat ment Facility. Refreshments and a tour of the plant rounded out the morning's activities. Roads for the Future meeting set for Tuesday Residents of the Albemarle Area will have the opportunity next Tuesday to discuss their feelings regarding highway needs in the district. Jake Alexander, Deputy Secre tary of the Department of Trans portation will be in Elizabeth City to head a disucssion on high way needs and the Governor's Roads to the Future program. The meeting, which will be held at 7 :00 p.m. on May 27 at the COA Lecture Auditorium will also fea ture D.O.T. Board Member Earl Rountree from Gates County. Public input is essential to proper planning for the future. All community leaders and citi zens are encouraged to attend this meeting. ^9untY Commissioners hear budget increase requests By J AINU ?. WILLIAMS Perquimans County Commis sioners faced a large task when they sat' down at the budget table last night to begin preparation of the Fiscal Year 1986-87 County Budget. Budget requests from the coun ty's volunteer fire departments and social services department submitted on Monday would re quire more than $66,000 in addi tional county funding over last year's budget. Danny Gregory, chief of Inter County Volunteer Fire Depart ment, led a delegation of county fire chiefs and officers in a re quest for an additional $1,000 per department for the upcoming fis cal year. Gregory pointed out that each department currently receives $4,000 from the county, and indicated that the additional money would help to defray the increasing costs involved in oper ating a fire station. Gregory expressed the concern of the departments over inade quate funds to make replace ment of equipment possible. De partments in the county rely heavily on fund-raising activites and donations throughout the year to finance their budgets, some of which are more than four times the amount allotted to the department by the county. The departments in Perqui mans County are manned solely by volunteers, who in addition to their regular jote, put in numer ous hours of fire training and ac tual firefighting during the year. Aside from those responsibili ties, the volunteers also must conduct regular fund-raising ac tivities to insure that their de partment will generate enough funds to stay in operation. Gregory told the commission ers that the Are departments would support them in the initia tion of a county-wide fire tax pro posal. Revenues acquired by such a tax would aid in keeping the county's fire departments solvent. County Manager Randy Kea ton described to the board two methods of creating tax revenue for fire service. Keaton stated that a fire tax could be incoropo rated into the county's ad val orem tax, and monies then would be dispersed to the departments. Woman recovering following assault An attempted rape last week in] the Bethel area left an 85-year old woman in satisfactory condi tion in Chowan Hospital. She had been beaten and stabbed during the incident. Information obtained by the Daily Advance from Perquimans County Sheriff Julian Broughton shows that the assailant appar ently cut telephone lines leading to the mobile home of the victim and turned the power off at the pole. The assailant entered the victim's home shortly before midnight. The mobile home of the victim is located a mile off U.S. Highway 17 in Bethel Com munity. Left unconscious after the at tack, the victim regained con sciousness and went across the road to her brother's home seek ing help. The sheriffs department re ceived the call for help at 12:06 a an.. An officer arriving on the line and the electrical power cut off. No conclusive evidence was uncovered by bloodhounds brought to the scene but finger prints have been lifted from the woman's home. Repeated attempts to obtain updated information from the Sheriffs Department by this newspaper were unsucessful. Dwight Ransome of the State Bu reau of Investigation, who is helping with the case, could not be reached by press time. The condition of the victim has kept her from making identifica tion of the assailant or giving a description. At last report, the victim was in the progressive care unit at Chowan Hospital , Residents are advised to call their local law cnforecement agency if they see anything sus picous. They are advised to keep Keaton stated that this type of action could be approved through a county-wide referendum. He also told the board that the county could request approval of a fire service fee by the North Carolina General Assembly that would tax only improved real es tate in the county, thus exempt ing farm land. Gregory told the board that the departments had survived "years and years by raising money, but it's getting harder." He pointed out that there is a lot of old equipment in the county departments that will eventually need replacing, and he added that there needed to be some long range plans for that replace ment. Board Chairman W.W. (Welly) White, Jr. told the group that the board would take the request for additional funds into consider ation during their budget meet ings. White did warn, however, that the budget for fiscal year 1966-87 "is going to be tight." The budget rendered by the county's social services director, Paul Gregory, constituted a $60,930 request for additional funding this year. The county's share of the total budget before subtracting revenues from state and federal sources totals $920,287. That department's total projection of operating costs for fiscal year 86-87 is in excess of $4 million. Perquimans County's share of that expense totals $404,158. The remainder of the budget is financed through fed eral and state funds. The highest categories of ex pense faced by that department are the AFDC Program (Aid for families with dependant chil dren) at $600,965; Medicaid at $2,083,096; Food Stamps at $609,487; and department admin istration and overhead at $397,057. All of those programs receive county, state and federal funding with the exception of the food stamp program, which is to tally funded by the federal gov Gregory told the board that the budget could be cut, but that he was certain if cuts were made be would be back before the board to ask for additional appropriations during the year. In defense of the program Gre gory stated that if the office closed it would hurt the economy of the county considerably. He queried, "If this office closed to morrow, how long would it take Perquimans County to get back on its feet after losing $4-mil lion?" The board members told Gre gory that his requests would be taken into consideration during ? their budget meetings. In other business the board: -approved a request from The Open Door for the donation of an old county typewriter to the orga nization; -approved tax refund for Rich ard Bleil; -approved a request for two new typewriters by the Tax Of fice; -voted to make an offer of $5,000 for a well at the new water plant that was not previously ac cepted by the county ; -agreed to pay Peters and White $2,318.50 to finish out their contract. Extension Week Observed Perquimans Homemakers displayed their works last Friday on the courthouse lawn in commemoration of extension week. (Top) An example of quilting; (Be low)Fashion belts, quilt ing, Armenian needle lace and weaving with mac reme' were some of the crafts exhibited during the celebration. (Photos by Nancy Smith.)
The Perquimans Weekly (Hertford, N.C.)
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May 22, 1986, edition 1
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