Newspapers / The Perquimans Weekly (Hertford, … / Feb. 26, 2020, edition 1 / Page 2
Part of The Perquimans Weekly (Hertford, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
A2 THE PERQUIMANS WEEKLY, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26,2020 BOE Continued from Al “I think my age and hav ing children in the schools is a huge advantage to me also,” he said. “Parents and teachers alike are around my age as are people who I interact with often. These folks really keep me in formed of what is going on in the schools. Stuff the av erage board member would not know.” Winslow said if elected, there are a number of things that he hopes the board can accomplish including supporting Superintendent Tanya Turner’s policies to improve the school system. A top notch administrator, educator, talented runner and photographer with a powerful work ethic, Turn er grew up, taught and coached in the Perquimans school system. “I believe this board’s biggest accomplishment to date was to hire Superinten dent Tanya Turner,” he said. “Who knew we would find ourselves in a nationwide superintendent search just three years into a new su perintendent. We have an effective, highly intelligent superintendent. Turner will need the board’s support to continue moving our dis trict forward.” Winslow said school safe ty is a matter of concern too. “I feel like we cannot do enough to ensure school safety. That will be an ongo ing effort,” he said. “Some of our schools have some hot spots of negative data. Superintendent Turner is working hard to correct this but it is something I am well aware of and monitor ing-” Lassiter of Belvidere, a retired federal planner for aircraft carriers, was first elected to the BOE in 2016 and has many ties to the school system. Born and raised in Perquimans County, Lassiter graduated from PCHS in 1979 and his wife, Brenda, PCHS Class of 1982, served the school sys tem 20+ years as public in formation officer. Presently, she is now executive direc tor of the Perquimans Coun ty Schools Formdation. The Lassiter’s three chil dren attended Perquimans schools and three of their eight grandchildren began school last fall. Worth not ing, Lassiter’s middle son John is principal at Hertford Grammar School. Lassiter said if re-elected, he will be work hard to en sure that children get a qual ity education. “I want to ensure that the public education system in Perquimans County contin ues to thrive and provide children with the knowl edge and tools they need to be successful in life,” he said. “Educating students is two-fold: 1) education that comes from the school system; and 2) education that comes from within the home. The partnerslup is critical to the success of our children.” Yates of Winfall was first elected to the BOE in 2008, has served three terms and has children and grandchil dren attending Perquimans schools. She is the owner of the childcare facilty, Learn ing Center of Perquimans County. Yates said if she is re-elected, she will be a strong advocate for salary increases and academic achievement. “I hope to increase the salary for all bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria work ers, maintenance and in crease supplements for our teachers,” she said. “There fore, I am committed to closing the achievement gaps among students.” Courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard, Joseph Sil va of Winfall came to the area 25 years where he has raised a family with two children who graduated from Perquimans Coun ty High School along with two sons who are currently enrolled as students in the school system. Silva works as a technical photographer in the engineering division at the Coast Guard Avia tion Logistics Center and his wife Ellen is a speech pathologist for Perquimans Central School. Silva said if elected, he will work with others to pursue the smart choices needed to provide the best education. “Rural schools have many challenges,” he said. “Since the 2008 recession edu cation funding has slowly trickled back to pre-reces sion levels but it’s a struggle to get resources. Raleigh is not coming to help us. Our elected officials are in a cage match over budgets and that leaves us uncertain about future challenges. We can’t make more mon ey fall from the sky but we can make smart choices to ensure our teachers and ad ministrators can focus on our children and not stress about resources. We have an obligation to ensure that every child, regardless of the challenges they may carry, has available, the best education we can deliver. To that end, I think I have some talent for working with people on complicated problems.” Last note needed to top off this election story: Per quimans County Commis sioners running unopposed who are seeking re-election are Kyle Jones, a Republi can, and Democrats Joseph Hoffler and Charles Wood ard. Democratic Register of Deeds Jacqueline Frierson is also running re-election. LAYTON Continued from Al Sid Eley and Dick Schul ze, a longtime prominent Pennsylvania congressman, now retired. Congratulations goes to Hertford Rotary’s Students of the Month Ashante Griffin and Matthew Gregory. Forensic Files II premiered Sunday on HLN. The series delves into the world of forensic science profiling intriguing crimes, accidents and outbreaks of disease from around the world. Distributed nationally and internationally, the show has ties to Hertford’s Gary Lico of Albemarle Plantation. Yep. A local, Lico of GaryLico.TV is the show’s distributor and so much more. In other news, Lynne Raymond (See her col- Hertford Rotary’s Students of the Month are Pirates’ Ashante Griffin and Matthew Gregory. umn page A5) shared this quote about the S-Bridge that comes from Hert ford’s newspaper, which sarcastically reported on July 27, 1892: “We can justly claim the only float bridge in the world and we can also remark that we are the only people in the world that want one.” Maybe, but many people consider the S-Bridge a unique part of Hertford’s history and a tourist attraction if ever there was one. A few years back, our family made a special trip to Hertford just to cross the bridge. Later, I took a solo trip to kayak around and under the bridge. Pretty neat. Now, for whatever reason, every time I cross the big US 17 Bridge, I instinctively look over at the tall cranes that are doing the bridge work. The bridge replace ment is part of the N.C. Department of Trans portation’s $57 million project to upgrade and improve U.S. Highway 17 Business/N.C. Highway 37 between Hertford and Winfall in the northern of the county. Besides the bridge replacement, the project also includes improving the cause- way north of the bridge, which has been damaged by settling of the ground underneath it. McLean Contracting of Chesapeake, Va., was awarded the contract for the project, which is scheduled to be complete in December 2021. Wonder if the turtles will approve of the new bridge. A few quick announce ments: Saturday, April 25th: Week of the Young Child Children’s Festival and Safe Kids Day The 12th Annual Festi val will be held 10 a.m. — 2 p.m. at the Perquimans Recreation Center, hosted by Chowan/Perquimans Smart Start Partnerslup and Safe Kids Chowan. This FREE admission and activities event is funded by donations from the local community and pro vides children a chance to learn through play and new experiences. For more information, contact Sarah Williams at 252-482- 3035. Perquimans Library: Feb. 29,10 a.m. - Power of Positive Community with Vin Ajwani Beginning March 1, we will have a Kids Chess Club on Tuesdays at 4 p.m. March 3,4 p.m. - ecoEX- PLORE Botany Holiday Island Yacht Club News: March 14th 5 p.m. Corned Beef and Cabbage Dinner; Members $12/Non-Members $15; We will just be selling 64 tick- ets/Call 426-5522 for tickets Perquimans Arts Hosts Shamrock Soiree: Join us on Ttiesday, March 17 foradin- ner of Corned Beef & Cab bage, Irish Soda Bread and yummy desserts! This event will be held at the former Carriage House Restaurant, 108 Dobbs St in Hertford. Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for children 12 and under and may be purchased at the gallery at 109 N. Church St. All proceeds benefit the PAL Building Fund. For more information, call the gallery at 426-3041. Miles Layton can be reached at mlayton@ ncweeklies. com FARM Continued from Al year after the Great Reces sion, says John Newton, American Farm Bureau chief economist and author of the study. “It’s a perfect storm of events. Bad weather, hur ricanes, storms, excessive rain, and then you compile that with low commodity prices,” said David Corum, president of the N.C. loan agency AgCarolina Farm Credit. “And on top of that, you add insult to injury, the trade wars.” Congress created the Chapter 12 bankruptcy in 1986 to help beleaguered family farmers. It offers a range of benefits, including flexible monthly debt pay ments, limited protection from high interest rates, and the potential of a “hardship discharge” — which frees farmers beset with medical illnesses or natural disasters from paying down loans. But only a narrow group of farmers qualify for such relief. At least half of farm ers’ income and debt must be tied to the farm, and their debts cannot exceed a $5 million cap. That’s why what looks like a slight uptick in bankrupt cies can spell trouble for the whole farm economy, said Scott Marlow, N.C. nonprofit Rural Advancement Foun dation International senior policy specialist, who takes calls from farmers in danger of losing their farms. Agriculture and agribusi ness combined still make up the largest sector of North Carolina’s economy, and the state ranked 13th in the na tion for its exports in 2017, shows data from the U.S. Trade Representative. But two years of a trade war among the United States, China, Canada, and Mexico slapped farmers with heavy tariffs. The tariffs hit North Carolina’s top agri cultural products, shriveling the state’s tobacco and soy bean exports to China. “There’s also a self-inflict ed wound here, and that’s the trade wars,” said Scott Lincicome, Cato Institute ad junct scholar. “Trade uncer tainty has become a mqjor factor in the global econom ic slowdown.” The U.S. and China signed a trade deal in January, eas ing the tensions of the last two years. But the agree ment didn’t lift U.S. tariffs on $370 billion in Chinese goods, which were left for later negotiations. The agreement has made farm ers cautiously optimistic, said Shawn Harding, N.C. Farm Bureau president. “There’s a bit of optimism that is coming back. We’re calling this a recovery year ... Farmers are eternally op timistic,” Harding said. “All of us liked hearing that we’re getting some of these trade deals signed.” But that optimism is dampened by new fears over the outbreak of the corona virus and the possibility of quarantines in China. And while the economic damage to farmers might have im proved with the slowdown of the trade war, its effects will linger. “During the trade war, they developed new sup pliers. They’re going to use those to diversify and to hedge their bets,” Lincicome said. “We’re not at the bot tom of the barrel. But there are some headwinds out there, and that uncertainty still weighs on tilings.” Making things worse, farmers are struggling after years of hard weather in eastern North Carolina, Co rum said. “It’s been a stretch year after year. That happens with farming,” Corum said. “They’re burning through their equity each year. Some of them hit the wall, run out of options, and file bankrupt cy. ... Some farmers have lost money for four years in a row, and it gets to a point where they can’t go on.” The General Assembly tried to mitigate farmers’ losses by appropriating $240 million to farmers affected by Hurricane Florence with the Agricultural Disaster Program of 2018. “The number one topic of conversation since Flor ence has of course been the weather-related losses,” Rep. Jimmy Dixon, R-Duplin, said. GUN RIGHTS Continued from Al the Second Amendment right to bear and use arms was taken away, other amendments would also be erased, and with them the entire Constitution, he said. “We’re taking a stand to say that we support the Constitution as it is written now,” he said. Commissioner Bob Kirby, the board’s vice chairman, said he was torn on the res olution. He said he voted against a similar resolution in 2019 because it wouldn’t have had any impact on Chowan County. But he said things have changed since then. Referring to the General Assembly in nearby Virgin ia, Kirby said lawmakers there have “made no secret of their intent to institute many and varied... limits on the rights afforded by the Second Amendment,” add ing that Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam “has pledged to support these Second Amendment limits.” Kirby noted that other states like California also have restrictive gun laws. He said his son-in-law, a Navy Seal, recently asked him to keep his personal weapons for him after being assigned to a duty station in California. “You see, despite the fact that California lives under the same Second Amendment as Virginia and North Carolina, they have instituted laws which erode our Constitution to the point where even ac tive duty military officers, whose very lives depend on their proficiency with handheld firearms, are prohibited from privately possessing such weapons,” “We always welcome new patients.” . COMFORT • QUALITY • EXPERIENCE Modern Dentistry in a relaxed environment for the entire family. RE-ELECT RUSSELL LASSITER he said. McLaughlin said while he’s a gun owner who be lieves in the right to own firearms, he found the reso lution to be superfluous. “The oath we took to up hold the Constitution of the United States and the Con stitution of North Carolina distinctly points out in the Second Amendment that we have the legal right to bear arms,” he said. “This resolution won’t do much to change anything.” McLaughlin said as much as he agreed with the reso lution, it was “meaningless to me because we already have the protection that the U.S. Constitution provides.” Kirby agreed that Chow an’s resolution was “purely symbolic,” but said he still planned to vote for it any way. “I fear there will come a time when certain elements of our society will come to tell us that there is no longer a God-given right to keep and bear arms,” he said. Announcement from Neil DeNunzio, MD Perquimans Medical Center. It has been my pleasure to serve our community for the past 35 years. I will be retiring on April 15, 2020. Copies of patient records can be optained by request up until that date by calling the office at 426-9172 or mailing a request to ALBEMARLE DENTAL ASSOCIATES Qenelal and Cosmetic ^kentishy DR. CHRIS KOPPELMAN, DDS DR. ETHAN NELSON, bDS 482-5131 103 Mark Dr. Edenton, NC (behind Chowan Hospital) Perquimans County Schools Board of Education on March 3rd 4 Years Experience 1979 PCHS Graduate US Government Retiree (36 Years) Life-Time Resident of Perquimans County Common-Sense Approach Public School Advocate
The Perquimans Weekly (Hertford, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Feb. 26, 2020, edition 1
2
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75