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iQUIMANS COUNTY LIBRARY
S CHURCH ST
!TFORD NC 27944-1225
E E KLY
Library to offer curbside pickup, A5
"News from Next Door”
THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2020
$1.00
Town Council Closer to Adopting Budget
BY MILES LAYTON
Editor
Hertford Town Council’s ongo
ing multi-hour marathon budget
deliberations have been often
been heated contentious, but the
end result remains the same - put
the town’s finances in order for fis
cal year 2020/21.
Council is working through the
draft budget proposal of more
than $9.6 million that increases
spending by at least $2.6 million
- if there are no
modifications -
from last year’s
budget of around
$7 million.
In order to
fund the draft
budget at the
current level - no
HODGES modifications^
Town Hall worth!
need to raise the funds necessary
to generate $2.6 million more in
revenue, according to the budget
proposal.
Mayor Pro Tern Ashley Hodges
said fiscal change, perhaps pain
ful, is necessary to maintain local
control.
“The reason we’re looking at
such drastic changes is if we don’t
make them and fall below the min
imum fund balance mandated by
the NC Department of State Trea
surer Local Government Commis
sion, the State can actually take
over the town and mandate the
changes they believe are required.
At that point there would be no lo
cal input into the process - we’d
be at the complete mercy of the
state,” he said.
Council’s Travel and Training
budget has been reduced from
$35K to $10K, but rather than lose
the reader by going line by line
through the budget to uncover the
changes, the Perquimans Weekly
adopted a Rolling Stone magazine
question-and-answer approach
with Hodges to preparing this ar
ticle.
“Pro Tern Hodges’s response is
thorough and informative to the
citizens, in terms of the complex
ities we face to resolve Hertford’s
revenue vs expenditures issues
moving forward,” Mayor Earnell
Brown said. “I am very happy and
impressed with his analytical abil
ities, his gift to articulate findings
and his unselfish desire to help
our town.”
Hodges offered a lot of
See BUDGET, A2
Hertford
residents
arrested
Face drug charges after
search of Plymouth home
BY STAFF REPORT
PLYMOUTH — Three
Hertford men were among
several people arrested
and charged after a search
warrant was served at a
Plymouth residence.
Washington County
Sheriff Johnny Barnes an
nounced that the Washing
ton County Sheriff’s Office
and Plymouth Police De
partment served a search
warrant on Sunday, May
17,' at 117 Bateman St.,
Plymouth.
Three Hertford resi
dents — Tyler Land, 18;
Dquan Prebble, 35; and
James Brooks, 19 — were
arrested and charged in
connection to the search
warrant.
Yahsha Humphry, 27,
and Zabah “Monster” Hum
phrey, 31, both of Eden
ton, were arrested.
Yahsha Humphrey, a fu
gitive from Pennsylvania
wanted for robbery with
dangerous weapon and pa
role violation, also faces
additional charges of pos
session of firearm by a fel
on. Zabah Humphrey also
faces an addition charge
of possession of firearm
by a felon.
Others arrested include
Dinah Mathews, 19, of
Greenville; Khayyan Gales,
19, of Raleigh; and Plym
outh residents Charmaine
Coffield, 20; Cessquam
Simpson, 33; and Cedric
Young Jr., 23.
All were charged with
trafficking heroin; pos
session with intent to
manufacture, sell and de
liver a control substance;
maintaining a dwelling for
the sale of a control sub
stance; conspiracy to sell
and deliver cocaine; con
spiracy to traffic heroin;
possession of marijuana;
possession of drug para
phernalia; possession of
pyrotechnics; and posses
sion of stolen firearms.
The search warrant
yielded 12.1 grams of
crack cocaine, 22.2 grams
of marijuana, 637 grams
of heroin, five firearms
(three of which were sto
len and various drug para
phernalia and illegal pyro
technics and currency.
More charges are pos
sible, as the case is still
under investigation, ac
cording to the Washington
County Sheriffs Office.
6 ' 89076 47144
2
Picture Perfect Perquimans
PHOTO BY SARA WINSLOW
At the end of the day in Perquimans County, paradise is measured moment to moment, perhaps
becoming memories that are forever etched in the mind’s eye.
Albemarle Plantation Women’s
Club Awards Scholarships
BY STAFF REPORTS
Thanks to annual fundraising
efforts, the Albemarle Plantation
Women’s Club awards scholar
ships to graduating Pirates’ se
niors.
Despite the ongoing pandem
ic, in late March applications
were submitted to the Communi
ty Giving Committee for review.
By teleconference the committee
members selected seven deserv
ing recipients from Perquimans
High School who will receive
$1,000 each.
Normally the recipients would
have been introduced and hon
ored at the Women’s club meet
ing held at the Albemarle Plan
tation Clubhouse in May. This
event was cancelled and each
recipient was asked to write a
brief statement and send a photo
which will appear in the Planta
tion’s Soundings newsletter in
June.
Following are highlights about
the seven recipients:
ORDAZ-RIOS’ GOALS r
Claribel Ordaz-Rios has com
mitted to UNC-Chapel Hill as
an Honors Carolina student and
proud to be a Tar Heel! She will
be majoring in
business ad
ministration
with a minor in
Spanish for the
Professions. At
submission of
her application,
Ordaz-Rios was
ELIZABETH
STORY
MALLORY
Vol. 86, No. 21
@2020 Perquimans Weekly
All Rights Reserved
ranked #1 in her CLARIBEL
class. She is a ORDAZ-RIOS
member of the
National Beta
Club and the National Society of
High School Scholars.
Ordaz-Rios received the Vir
ginian Pilot Scholastic Achieve
ment Award, Hertford Rotary
Student of the Month award,
was named Perquimans Week
ly’s Student of the Month for
February, and has been on
COA’s President’s List since
grade 11. Ordaz-Rios will re
ceive an Associate of Arts de
gree from COA in June.
Ordaz-Rios is a member of the
Perquimans High School Soccer
Team and an active participant
in the school’s Lead Club. Cur
rently, Ordaz-Rios has taken over
the role of home schooling her
See SCHOLARSHIPS, A3
MADISON
JENNINGS
JENNA
ABIGAIL
SAWYER
O’NEAL
SHARBER
Round-up
Charter
School
and Rotary
BY MILES LAYTON
Editor
A round-up of all things
Perquimans County...
Pending state approv
al, Elaine Riddick Charter
School is poised to open its
doors for the first time in the fall.
School seeks students grades K-3
to enroll at the new school locat
ed at 1054 Harvey Point Road.
School leaders met recently
with the State Board of Educa
tion Charter School Advisory
Committee to discuss their
plans. Committee told school
administrators to return in June
to provide an update on prog
ress as to meeting enrollment
goals, hiring a teaching staff and
completing other pressing issues
related to the facility’s needs that
demand attention before any
school bells can ring in the fall.
Perquimans Weekly reached
out to school leaders for com
ment and has collected a trea
sure trove of documents, all pub
lic record, related to the school’s
founding. More on this story will
appear in the next edition.
Met Hertford Rotary Club’s
leadership Jacqueline Kretzer
and Winfield Boyer at Albemar
le Plantation. Food was excellent
and I recommend what my wife
Nicole had for lunch, the oyster
po’ boy sandwich from the Club-
house Restaurant.
Learned that Kretzer retired
a couple of years ago after a
long impressive career with
the US Postal Service. Boyer
has embraced a storied life that
included stints as a high school
history teacher, ad sales and
businessman.
Being that lunch took place
at Albemarle Plantation, I asked
about how to bridge the divide
between those folks and Hert
ford because I want to break
away from the perception that
the Perquimans Weekly is pri
marily a newspaper just for folks
See ROUND-UP, A2
Folwell: Economic virus taking its toll
BY MILES LAYTON
Editor
Ever busy and putting
in long days as state Trea
surer, Dale Folwell took
a few moments to talk to
the Perquimans Weekly/
Chowan Herald about
reopening the economy
and how leadership in Ra
leigh needs to address the
COVID-19 pandemic, par
ticularly as scientific data
becomes more readily
available.
“People are very
stressed out right now be
cause of the unknown, but
every time someone chal ¬
FOLWELL
lenges a
mathe
matical
assumption,
w h e t h -
er it is at
the local
or state
level, you
can’t just
dismiss
that and say they are be
ing political. It’s not about
politics or emotion - it is
about mathematics,” he
said. “Right now, people
don’t care what political
party you are a member
of, they just want their
problems solved. Their
problem right now is how
are they going to buy food
and how are they going to
remain employed.”
Folwell said North
Carolina should be able
to recover from the eco
nomic toll brought about
by COVID-19 because of
the state’s strong financial
position. The state he said
has $2 billion in unappro
priated state budget funds;
$4 billion in its unemploy
ment fund; and $1.5 billion
in its rainy-day fund. The
state also received $4 bil
lion in federal relief from
the CARES Act, $2 billion
of which the state hasn’t
yet allocated.
“As the state Treasurer, I
don’t know of any state in
the country, as large as we
are, that’s in a better finan
cial position to come out
of this quicker and stron
ger than anyone else,” he
said.
Folwell spoke from
the heart as he sought to
inspire hope about the
future, reopening and
challenging assumptions
about how to contend
with the pandemic. Day to
day, more data compiled
from scientific analysis
indicates a flat or down
ward trend to the spread
of COVID-19. He said deci
sions should not be based
on assumptions, fear or
politics, but from an ap
plied analysis of the facts.
“I say this from the heart
and from the stomach
as much as I do from the
mind. In order to be suc
cessful, we have to be will
ing to challenge assump
tions,” he said. “Anytime
you challenge assump
tions, everybody calls it
political. But the fact is
that your readers don’t
care what political party
anybody is a member of,
See FOLWELL, A3