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STAFF PHOTO BY PETER WILLIAMS
Volunteers help load large boxes of donations headed
to Florida on Saturday at Wal-Mart in Elizabeth City.
Hurricane relief on the way
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
A truck carrying 20 tons
of hurricane supplies left
Perquimans County Mon
day and headed south.
The goods were went to
a place in Florida most peo
ple may never have heard of
— Alva — for people they
probably never met.
James Spaugh, pastor of
Bagley Swamp Wesleyan
Church, said he was sure
the community could col
lect items after watching
Hurricane Irma hit Florida’s
gulf coast. Getting them
there was the hitch.
“Everybody wants to give
something,” Spaugh said.
“The problem is getting
diapers you can get them
for $20 a pack, but it would
cost you half that to ship
it. When Michael sent me a
text that he was willing to
donate a truck that made it
possible.”
Michael is Michael Stall
ings, a member of the
church, and owner of Stall
ings Farm Trucking in Win
fall.
While he was willing to
pay the cost of sending a
tractor-trailer and driver
to Florida, Stallings wasn’t
sure just how many supplies
they’d get.
“I really didn’t think we’d
fill the truck,” Stallings said.
But that changed.
“By Friday (Sept. 22) we
saw an outpouring,” Stall
ings said. “We had dona
tions come to the shop all
day Friday, one right after
another.”
See HURRICANE, 2
Mayday
program
coming
Saturday
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
TOAST TRE Perquimans
The second annual May-
day — a day-long regional
event to highlight addiction
awareness and prevention
— will be held Saturday
at the Perquimans County
Recreation Center.
“The
event is
growing,
that’s for
sure,” said
Connie
Riddick,
the orga
nizer of
PHOTOS BY PAULA FITZPATRICK
Top, people mingle near the Hertford
Town Docks during “Toast The
Perquimans.” Nearly 400 tickets
were sold for the event sponsored
by Historic Hertford, Inc. Right,
Participants attending Toast The
Perquimans pose at the event last
Saturday.
RIDDICK Mayday.
“We have
more speakers, more exhib
its and more music. I guess
we learned a lot from last
year and this year we’re try
ing to perfect everything.”
The one thing the event
didn’t have a lot of last year
was members of the public
attending. Riddick said she
understands. There remains
a stigma about addiction
and some people are leery
to go public with it.
“I get all of that, but our
big mission is to help people.
We have people dying every
day, and lives being ruined.
Children don’t have parents
to raise them in an environ
ment that teaches them the
core values.”
The event starts with a 5-
K “Run for Hope” run spon
sored by an anti-substance
abuse group at John A., Hol
mes High School. It starts at
8 am. with pre-registration
at 7:30 am. The cost is $30.
The actual Mayday pro
gram runs from 10 am. until
4 p.m.
Speakers are scheduled
to talk from 10 am. until
noon when a breakout ses
sion will be held. Education-
Hertford polling place moving
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
Hertford voters who are used to casting
a ballot at Hertford Grammar School will
be in for a change starting in November.
Instead they will be voting at Louise’s
Event Center, 1132 Don Juan Road.
The change is designed to eliminate
conflicts, including parking at the school,
said Sydni Banks, the director of the local
board of elections. The switch had to be
approved by the N.C. State Board of Elec
tions,
“We’ve had complaints,” she said.
Parking is limited at HGS even on good
See MAYDAY, 4
See POLLING, 4
Candidate jailed for failure to appear
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
A candidate for the Hert
ford Town Council was ar
rested last week and jailed
for failing to appear in court
on Sept. 18. He spent three
nights in Albemarle District
Jail because his bond was
$3,000.
Frank Norman, 60, ad
mits failing to appear in
court was his fault. He
thought the court date was
Sept. 19.
“I got my days mixed up
when I entered it (the court
date) into my phone,” he
said Monday.
The situation started
when Norman was ar
rested in the fall of 2016 by
the N.C. Highway Patrol
for resist-obstruct-delay
outside his home in Wynne
See NORMAN, 4
New solar
farm rules
proposed
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
The Perquimans County Com
mission will hold a public hearing
Monday night to get input on chang
es to the county’s solar farm rules.
The county imposed a morato
rium on accepting any new solar
projects this spring so it would
have time to review the rules. The
original 120-day moratorium was
extended this summer for another
120 days and is set to expire on Oct.
31.
Monday’s public hearing is set for
7 p.m.
Individually commissioners had
expressed concern the county
might get a massive solar project,
like one near Moyock that covers
2,000 acres. There were also con
cerned that rules about buffering
solar farms from the view of neigh
bors or people passing by. . There
were also worries that an aban
doned solar project might be an
eyesore.
The revised solar rules take care
of those concerns, said Perquimans
County Commission Chairman Kyle
Jones.
“We are grateful for the Planning
Board’s time and effort in getting
this going, especially Chairman An
toine Moore, and members Brenda
Lassiter and Paul Kahl, who came
and worked through the draft with
us at a meeting,
“The board of commissioners
has been particularly effective at
finding common ground on this
matter, and moving forward from
there. I think the final product is a
fair and reasonable compromise,
balancing a respect for private
property rights with the desire to
both maintain farmland and ensure
any future solar energy projects are
aesthetically-pleasing and minimal-
lyinvasive.”
The new rules set a 100-foot set
back from the project line, a 150
setback from wetlands, and a half-
mile setback from the property line
of another solar energy project.
It also sets limits the size of any
one solar project to 100 acres. Un-
See SOLAR, 4
Historic tour coming Saturday
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
If you want to talk to Ju
lie Phelps about her home,
be prepared to listen for a
while.
“I can go on for a couple
of days about the house,”
she said.
The home she and hus
band Mark own is part of
the “Jollification” event be
ing held by the Perquimans
County Restoration Asso
ciation on Sept. 30. It’s the
second annual event and
designed to raise money the
association and awareness.
There will be home tours,
and a dinner and music at
the Newbold-White House.
Julie Phelps calls the last
22 years a “journey.”
The home is at 118 Halsey
Bay Road, about six miles
down Harvey Point Road
from US 17.
The Edmund Blount Skin
ner House was built around
1845 and is part of a family
of homes with similar fea
tures which include Lands
End, Cove Grove, Somerset
in Washington County and
Athol in Edenton.
“Edmund Skinner died
shortly after the house was
finished, and since his son
already owned a farm fur
ther down Harvey Point,
the house passed to his wife
and four daughters, one of
whom married Judge Eure
and the house and farm was
mostly known as the “Eure
Farm,” she said.
After the Civil War, the
See JOLLY, 2
ALS Walk Saturday
FILE PHOTO
More than
200 walkers
start off
walking from
Perquimans
County High
School at
a past ALS
Walk in
Hertford. The
event will be
held again
on Saturday
starting at 9
a.m.