Newspapers / The Perquimans Weekly (Hertford, … / Nov. 19, 2014, edition 1 / Page 1
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V P The ERQUIMANS Weekly Cooper signs with Chowan, 7 "News from Next Door" NOVEMBER 19, 2014 - NOVEMBER 25, 2014 50 cents Food drive meets need BY PETER WILLIAMS News Editor A food drive conducted last week by a Hertford church has helped a ton — literally — toward the holiday food needs of the Winfall-based Open Door Food Pantry. Over a three-day period, Hertford United Methodist Church was able to collect 103 turkeys weighing 1,532 pounds, 700 of pounds of holiday food and another 307 pounds of day-to-day food. The “Turkey Drop” campaign also raised $225 in cash and gift cards. Rosemary Smith, the director of the food pan try, said it all comes at a perfect time. Last year the pantry helped 275 families at Thanksgiving so when it came to ordering turkeys in September, that’s how many she ordered. However given the lo cal economy, she estimates now there will be a need to help 375 families this year. “If they hadn’t have done this, we would have been short,” Smith said. It’s the first time the Hert ford church has tried a “Tur key Drop” event and Vera Harrell, one of the organiz ers, said it all came together in about two weeks. See FOOD DRIVE, 2 Cheaper Option ^ 1 9 WED STAFF PHOTO BY PETER WILLIAMS More than 100 people packed the meeting room at the Perquimans County Recreation Center last week for a hearing on bridge plans. DOT to move forward on bridge BY PETER WILLIAMS News Editor The N.C. Department presented upgraded plans last week for two options to replace the S-Bridge in Hertford, but the state seems steadfast in moving ahead with the cheaper op tion. The purpose of Thurs day’s meeting was to satis fy a request from residents who wanted to see more detailed plans for an op tion known as Alternative B. B involves another swing span similar to the S-Bridge and carries a price tag of $31.9 million. That’s $12.6 million more than Alternative D-Mod, a fixed span that would also extend off of Church Street. DOT favors D-Mod in part because of the lower construction cost and partly because it wouldn’t require the $100,000 a year in operations and mainte nance costs that a swing ing bridge would. “The big difference in construction costs is a con cern but so is the ongoing maintenance cost,” said Jay McInnis, DOT’s project engineer. Either option will re quire the demolition of a Phelps Street home owned SUBMITTED PHOTO A rendering shows what Alternative B would look like from in front of a house on Church Street looking toward the Perquimans River. The insert in the upper right-hand corner shows what the scene looks like now. Under the new plan the sidewalk would be moved next to the road instead of next to the houses. See BRIDGE, 3 Firearm gets student in trouble BY PETER WILLIAMS News Editor What could have been a simple citation for having a loud muffler ended Wednes day with a Perquimans County High School senior arrested on two weapons charges for bringing a weap on onto school property. Both police and school officials say there is no indi cation Donald Wesley Morse Jr. had any intention to hurt anybody with the hunting rifle. However Morse also faces a possible 365-day sus pension from school. Morse, 17, was arrested Wednesday afternoon by Hertford Police who had been patrolling the parking lot of the high school be cause of complaints of loud music and drivers squealing their tires. Police Chief Douglas Freeman said Morse had walked out of school, got in his truck but when he saw officers he got out of the truck and walked away. Later he came back out, started the truck and pulled away from the school and officers stopped the vehicle on Edenton Road Street for having a loud muffler. The officer then saw the .270-caliber rifle hidden un der a pile of clothes. “I don’t think there was ill intent whatsoever, but I did call the District Attorney’s office to get their recom mendation” Freeman said. • See FIREMARM, 2 Goodwin pitches programs, answers questions STAFF PHOTO BY PETER WILLIAMS North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Wayne Godwin addresses a crowd Friday at an event at the Winfall Town Hall. BY PETER WILLIAMS News Editor Perquimans County resi dents used the opportunity last week to talk to Insur ance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin face-to-face to voice their concerns about insurance companies rais ing their rates or canceling their policies altogether. Goodwin was making the rounds in eastern North Car olina to talk about what his office does and how it helps consumers. On Thursday he made a stop in Elizabeth City and on Friday he was at Winfall Town Hall. “You’ve heard some hor ror stories, and this one is mine,” one Albemarle Plan tation resident told Good win. After decades with the same insurance firm, the man said his company sent him a non-renewal letter saying it would no longer write policies in this area. “What is being done to stop this exodus?” Goodwin said that is a problem. “It’s a balancing act,” Goodwin said. While his office regulates insurance rates, it can’t force compa nies to write policies in cer tain areas. Most companies write policies for a number of states and their corporate office may determine North Carolina isn’t a good fit. North Carolina has man aged to keep a variety of companies in the state and that’s a good thing for con sumers, Goodwin said. Competition, he said, al ways brings prices down. “Florida is an example of what not to do,” Goodwin said. Many insurance com panies won’t write policies at all in that state. Even in North Carolina some companies won’t write policies for property owners east of U.S. 17. Some won’t write them for areas east of 1-95. There are some legal rem edies that can be adopted by the General Assembly, Goodwin said. “There are some changes in the law that need to take place here,” he said. “But if insurance companies what to raise rates too high, I will reject that.” Another Plantation prop erty owner, a man who has lived there 16 years, See INSURANCE, 2 Cherry speaks at vet’s event New Marina BY REGGIE PONDER Chowan Herald Retired Army Chaplain Corbin Lee Cherry told those who attended a Viet nam Veterans memorial cer emony in Edenton Saturday that their attendance was a way of being there both for those who died in Vietnam and those who returned home. The notion of ‘being there’ was imbued with par ticular poignance by Cher 6 89076 47144 2 ry’s recollection of a young soldier who died in his arms in the wake of a firefight in Vietnam. The dying sol dier, grateful that he didn’t have to die alone, looked into Cherry’s eyes and said “I knew that you would be here” just before he died on the battlefield. “He was an American,” Cherry said of that young soldier. “He did not want to die. But even unto his death, he loved this country.” The news of negative attitudes among some at home reached those serv ing in Vietnam, Cherry said. He said that he was in his 30s and tended to become angry when he heard about some of the things going on at home. Cherry recalled com ing across an encampment where the Viet Cong had just evacuated, and seeing cardboard boxes that had been shipped from Califor nia to Hanoi with foodstuffs for the North Vietnamese forces. “And the box said, ‘From your friends across the sea,” he said. “The effect it had on me was anger,” Cherry said. But for the 18-year-olds he served alongside, the dominant effect was depres sion, he said. And when a soldier left See CHERRY, 2 STAFF PHOTO BY PETER WILLIAMS Workers attach one of the side rails to a nine-slip Marina behind Hertford Town Hall last week. The pilings started going in on Nov. 10 and the work could be complete within a matter of a few weeks.
The Perquimans Weekly (Hertford, N.C.)
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Nov. 19, 2014, edition 1
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