P The
ERQUIMANS
J_WE E K LY
"News from Next Door" WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5, 2015
Photographers to exhibit at library, 3
AUG 0 ; ^
50 cents
Parksville club honored by DOT
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Jarod Lowery (right) with
Gov. Pat McCrory’s office
congratuates members of the
Forrestburg Ruritan Club for
20 years with the Adopt-A-
Highway program. Pictured are
Bobby Eure, Keith Matheson,
Kristie Matheson, Curtis Eure,
Faye Eure, Hunter Umphlett,
Yvonne Sawyer, Suzy Fennell
and Dave Fennell. Not pictured
are David Abshire, Joe Parker,
Janet Parker and
Gail White.
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
A Perquimans County Ruritan Club
was honored last month as the county’s
longest serving participant in the state’s
Adopt-A-Highway program.
For 20 years, Forestburg Ruritans have
picked up more than 10 tons of trash from
along roads. The statewide program was
established in 1988.
Mike Causey, the state coordinator for
the N.C. Department of Transportation,
said the recognition is a big deal. The
state currently has about 5,000 groups in
the program.
“Only a small percentage of groups
reach this milestone,” Causey said.
Over the years, 39 different groups or
individuals have participated in Adopt-
A-Highway in Perquimans County. Cau
sey said the Jaycees were the first. They
signed a contract in October 1988 and
participated until March 1997. ,
“It looks like in the early years of
the program, Perquimans had 12 or 13
groups participating at any one time
— double the number of groups that
See HONORED, 2
Fields
ready for
new role
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
‘Love PQ Week’
Bridge
The way Melissa Fields
views it, she won’t be a
stranger when she takes the
helm at Perquimans County
High School this month.
She already knows the
students.
“They’re just bigger now,”
she said.
Fields
worked
with most
of this
year’s high
school
class when
they were
young chil
dren. She
FIELDS
spent 12 years as media
coordinator at Perquimans
Central and the past four
and half years as principal.
“Many of the students
at the high school now I’ve
known since they were
in Pre-K,” Fields said last
week. “I’ve worked with
STAFF PHOTOS BY PETER WILLIAMS
Benjamin Mummert uses a sledge
hammer to knock off the roof
over a porch of a home on Market
Street last week. It was part of an
effort by Bagley Swamp Wesleyan
Church during “Love PQ Week.”
See full story and more photos
in next week’s edition of The
Perquimans Weekly.
land was
them, their siblings and
their families.”
Fields will be replacing
Chante Jordan who resigned
to take a position with the
Gates County Schools.
That’s not the only change.
Both high school assistant
principals are gone, one
resigned to take a job near
Charlotte. The other, Laura
Moreland, will become
See NEW ROLE, 7
A woman
and some
children paint
the restrooms
at the
Perquimans
County High
School athletic
complex last
week.
offered
to DOT
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
The previous owner of a
key piece of property in two
of the three scenarios to re
place Hertford’s S-Bridge of
fered to sell the house to the
state in 2008 to make way
for a new bridge.
The letter, dated Sept. 8,
2008, was from Ned Nielsen
to the N.C. Department of
Transportation. It was just
one page in a 161-page doc
ument that made up a Coast
Guard report released July
24. . 1
The Coast Guard docu
ment concludes that remov
ing the S-Bridge will have
an adverse impact on the
historic district and calls for
parties to find ways to miti
gate the situation.
Nielsen died in March
2009, but he saw the po
tential for the property on
Phelps Street.
Nielsen’s letter was ad
dressed to the previous DOT
project engineer as well as
Teresa Gresham, a consul
tant for Kimley-Horne, an
engineering firm working
with DOT.
“As you may be aware,
the 103 Phelps St., prop
erty presents an ideal ter
minus for the proposed new
See LAND, 2
Standout athlete Whidbee turns to art
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
Football may have gotten Lamar
Whidbee into college, but it his art that
is propelling him to the next level.
Whidbee was three-sport athlete at
Perquimans County High School. As a
junior and a senior he was all-confer
ence and all region in football.
In 2007 and 2008, Whidbee was
named The Daily Advance’s top male
track and field athlete of the year. His
senior year he won the state champi
onship in the 200-meter.
Whidbee, now 25 and living in Dur
ham, graduated high school in 2008
and went to Winston-Salem State Uni
versity on a football scholarship. He
later transferred to N.C. Central Uni
versity where he graduated.
Now his sights are set on a master’s
degree in art from UNC-Chapel Hill.
“I wasn’t as interested in art in high
school, I was leaning more towards
sports,” he said. And in that he ex
celled. The 6-foot-3 wide receiver
was red-shirted his first year at WSSU
but the following year he started all
11 games for the Rams in 2009. He
finished the season ranked second
on the team in receptions (16) and re
ceiving yards (208).
“In the spring of 2011 I sat aside
my helmet and cleats after 13 years,
picked up a brush for the first time
and refused to look back,” he said. “I
never thought of it as at an option. I
didn’t know what I was going to do
and art sort of fell into my lap.”
Whidbee credits a lot to Beverly
McIver, an art teacher at N.C. Cen
tral. She has since been named the
See WHIDBEE, 2
SUBMITTED
PHOTO
Lamar
Whidbee,
a former
standout
athlete at
Perquimans
County High
School, is
now focused
on art.
Perquimans man selected to lead COA’s Edenton-Chowan campus
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
A Durant’s Neck man who
got his start at a community
college has been named to
lead the College of the Al-
89076
47144
bemarle’s Edenton-
Chowan campus as
the new dean.
Charles Purser
took the position ef
fective Monday.
Purser was born
in New Bern and
lived in Gates Coun
ty before moving to
PURSER
of The Albemarle
for more than 14
years and was most
recently the de
partment chair of
design, manufactur
ing, and industrial
technology and an
associate profes
sor of architectural
Perquimans County about
10 years ago. He has been
employed with College
technology.
Purser has spent most
of his time working out
of COA’s main campus in
Elizabeth City, but for the
past two years he’s basically
worked out of the new COA
facility in Currituck Coun
ty. As a department chair,
some of his responsibilities
included programs run at
the Chowan campus.
Purser got his first de
gree, an associate’s degree
in drafting and design, from
Tidewater Community
College. He then earned a
bachelor’s degree in tech
nology education from Old
Dominion University and a
master’s degree in adult ed
ucation and leadership from
East Carolina University.
Purser was chosen as
the college’s State Board of
Community Colleges and R.
J. Reynolds Teacher of the
Year in 2012. He’s also a li
censed general contractor.
COA has had a presence
in Chowan County since
1989 when an adult educa
tion program was estab
lished to increase literacy.
It’s since added culinary
technology, air condition-
ing/heating/refrigeration
and electrical systems tech
nology programs.
He said one of his goals
See PURSER, 2
6
2
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