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PERQUIMANS COUNTY LIBRARY
514 S CHURCH ST
HERTF ORD NC 27944
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Scholarship winners, 6-7
"News from Next Door”
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25, 2018
75 cents
Superintendent passed over for N.D. job
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
Perquimans Schools Superin
tendent Matthew Cheeseman was
one of two men named as finalists
for a similar job in North Dakota,
but last week he was passed over
in favor of someone with more ex
perience as a superintendent.
The process in Dickinson start
ed in January when the current su
perintendent announced he would
be retiring at the end of the school
CHEESEMAN
year.
At the start,
the Dickinson
Public Schools
had 39 applicants
for the job, and
then narrowed it
to four semi-final
candidates. The
names were not
released earlier
in the process because of a new
North Dakota law that prohibits it
until the list is narrowed to two or
three final choices, according to
the Dickinson Press, a daily news
paper there.
But it wasn’t until April 12 that
the two names were released.
Cheeseman could not be
reached for comment, but Lisa
Lane, the spokeswoman for the
school district, shared some of
the text he sent back to staff in the
schools.
“I think you for your full and
understanding as my family and
I investigated this opportunity. I
look forward to being back and
work Monday and beside you as
we continue to move Perquimans
County forward.”
Amy Spaugh, the chairman of
the Perquimans School Board,
said she became aware Cheese
man was in the running on April 2.
But at the time, it was far from a
done deal. Spaugh said a recruiter
sought out Cheeseman for the po
sition and he is not actively look
ing to leave.
The advertised salary for the
North Dakota job is $210,000.
Cheeseman makes $127,000
thanks to a $7,000 raise last year.
At that time the Perquimans
School Board also extended his
contract to June 2021. His original
contract would have expired at
the end of the 2019 school year.
Dr. Shon Hocker, the man who '
got the job, is the current super
intendent in the Big Horn School
District in Crowley, Wyo. He has
See CHEESEMAN, 2
Riverbash coming this weekend
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Far a
schedule of Riverbash events,
please see page 7.)
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
The Indian Summer Festival
may be gone, but Perquimans
County has a new event this
year — Riverbash.
The two-day event starts Fri
day and runs through Saturday.
Sharon Smith, the county’s
tourism director, came up with
the idea of Riverbash after meet
ing with local groups.
She stressed that Riverbash is
not a replacement for the Indian
Summer Festival. Historic Hert
ford Inc. still has the rights to the
Indian Summer Festival name
and officials with HHI have not
ruled out bringing it back in
some fashion. The last one was
in 2016.
For the most part, Riverbash
is not a fundraiser for one group,
she said.
“It’s also not really a county-
sponsored event,” Smith said.
“It’s a template of how the com
munity can run a festival.
“The one thing we all know is
that smaller areas are known for
their festivals. When I got here I
heard people were missing the
fact that the Indian Summer Fes
tival had been put on pause for
now or gone entirely.
“I thought about how could
we start a new event. But there
were some concerns that people
were burnt out, that putting on
a festival would put too much
responsibility on one group and
See RIVERBASH, 2
Serious assaults on prison workers continue
The Associated Press
RALEIGH — North Carolina’s
understaffed prisons remain a
dangerous place for employees
six months after the bloodiest
escape attempt in state history
left four workers dead, accord
ing to agency data and separate
case reports.
About three dozen workers at
the state’s correctional facilities
have been assaulted so badly
that they have lost work time,
prison officials said in response
to a public records request from
The Associated Press. Leading
STAFF PHOTO BY PETER WILLIAMS
Top, Sara Winslow (center)
and Murielle Harmon (right) of
Citizens for the Preservation
and Growth of Hertford, talk
to volunteers Saturday before
a cleanup campaign at the
Hertford Town Docks. The effort
was timed so the town could
look nice for the upcoming
Riverbash this weekend.
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Left, as part of Riverbash, the
Chrome To The Bone Challenge
will feature remote-controlled
monster truck racing at the tennis
courts on Grubb Street Saturday
from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m.
“Our department has gotten extremely dangerous in
recent years. ”
Deborah Ezuma
Correctional officer, Polk Correctional Institution
the official list of assaults is the
Pasquotank Correctional Insti
tution in Elizabeth City, where
eight workers have been badly
harmed since the fat^l breakout
attempt there on Oct. 12.
The list provided to the AP,
which covered 34 assaults
through March 27, did not in
clude an attack at a Morganton
prison that hospitalized a worker
with stab or slash wounds. Offi
cials from the state Department
of Public Safety did not say why
when asked Monday or during
the previous two weeks.
On March 28, three more
workers were assaulted in two
attacks at Maury Correctional
Institution in Greene County. It’s
not clear whether any of them
were injured badly enough to
miss work.
Correctional Officer Debo
rah Ezuma said the frequency
of inmates assaulting workers
has grown more common in the
past two or three years than at
any time in her 20-year prisons
career.
“Our department has gotten
See PRISONS, 2
Early
votes
trickle in
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
As of the close of business Mon
day, 66 Perquimans County voters
had cast an early ballot for the May
primary race.
That is a tiny fraction of the 9,700
voters in the county, but the largest
slice of them — 4,000 are Demo
crats and the only thing on the May
ballot they can vote for is a school
board race with no challengers.
Unaffiliated voters come in sec
ond with 3,100 and Republicans to
tal about 2,600. There were only 31
libertarians registered as of March
7.
One-stop early voting runs until
on May 5. The hours are: April 19-
May 2, 8 a.m. until 5 p.m., May 3-4,
8 a.m. until 7 p.m and May 5, 9 a.m.
until 1 p.m.
One-stop early voting will be held
at the Perquimans County Board
of Elections office 601 S. Edenton
Road St. in Hertford.
The only local race that will be
decided in May is for Perquimans
County School Board. But in that-
case, there are three people running
for three seats, so unless there are
a large number of write-in ballots,
they stand a good chance of win
ning.
Running this year are incumbents
Anne White and Amy Spaugh and
challenger Matt Peeler. Peeler has
served on the Perquimans County
Commission before, but opted not
to run again when his term expired
two years ago. This is his first try
running for the school board. While
there are three people and three
seats, voters can only cast a ballot
for one of them.
Also a three-way race for U.S.
Congress will be decided in May
because there is no Democrat chal
lenging them.
Republican Congressman Walter
Jones is being challenged by Repub
licans Phil Law and Scott Dacey for
the District 3 Seat.
Incumbent Commissioners Wal
lace Nelson, a Republican, and
Fondella Leigh, a Democrat, filed,
as did Alan Lennon, who’s running
in November as a Libertarian. Like
the school board race, there are
three people running for there seats
so short of a huge write-in vote, all
three should win in November.
See VOTES, 2
Swim program wraps up eighth year
From Staff Reports
Eight years and 1,250 stu
dents ago, The Perquimans
County Schools Foundation
sought out to provide two
weeks of swim lessons to
all kindergarten students at
tending Perquimans County
schools.
The Water Turtles pro
gram has now served stu
dents in grades K-7. This
year it was sponsored by
the Vidant Health/Chowan
Hospital Foundation, Avan-
grid Foundation and North
Carolina Community Foun
dation’s Women Giver’s of
Northeast North Carolina.
Each year, sponsors pro
vide funding to ensure the
water safety program is
available to all kindergarten
students in the county.
“Perhaps with the excep
tion of wearing seatbelts
or checking smoke alarms,
one of the most important
things we could ever do
for a child in terms of their
safety is to teach them how
to swim,” said Perquimans
County Schools Foundation
Executive Director Brenda
Lassiter. “I am so thankful
for the continued sponsor
ships to the School Founda
tion for the past eight years.
We will never know the true
impact this program has had
for the 1,250 students who
have already completed the
course.
“Parents probably rec
ognize that teaching their
children to swim is of great
importance but due to time
and/or financial restraints, it
may not be realistic for ev
eryone.
According to statistics,
drowning is the nation’s
second leading cause of ac
cidental death for children
under 14 years of age. Ac
cording to the U.S. Consum
er Product Safety Commis
sion, in summer 2012, there
were 137 child drowning
deaths in the United States.
In 2009, the American Acad
emy of Pediatrics found that
children enrolled in formal
swimming lessons had an
88 percent reduced risk of
drowning.
See SWIM, 2
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Thad Woodard and Caryss White work hard to make
the swim across the pool with the assistance of a
YMCA instructor as part of the Water Turtles program
this year.