Public parade
k For Kitty
‘Tis the season to b» jolly and far
giving gifts. Two generous gifts
were left in our typewriter
Tuesday morning. They were in
the form of checks to the Kitty
Evans Barringer Fund.
One was from Edward G. Bond
Post 40, American Legion. The
other from D.F. Walker, retired
principal of die school along the
Public Parade which bears his
name.
As a trustee of the fimd, we have
accepted checks and turned them
over to Peoples Bank & Trust
Company. We motion these two
here because they come at a time
when Edenton United Methodist
Church, in cooperation with this
newspaper and WCDJ, are
gearing up for* radio-thon for the
young accident victim.
The benefit will take {dace
December 21. Beginning at 6 A.M.
the radio-thon will be conducted
WCDJ’s entire broadcast
day, ending at S P.M. During this
time people from throughout the
community will have an op
portunity to help the church raise
at least SIO,OOO to defray mounting
medical bills. It comes die day
before Mrs. Barringer is allowed
to return home from Pitt
Memorial Hospital in Greenville
for the Christmas holidays.
We hope there will be a lot of
“For Kitty” callers and others
who want to donate through other
means as away of saying “Merry
Christmas” to a lovely person who
met with misfortune on October 1.
To show that our heart is in the
right {dace, we have agreed to
listen to the radio next Thursday.
-■We’re doing it all for Kitty.
Design Not Accident
Chowan County commissioners
have a track record of supporting
public education along the Public
Parade. That record is now in
jeopardy. And it is happening by
design rather than by accident.
Hie guardians of our coffers
: may have become spoiled. They
system and a free courthouse and
detention facility, placed on a site
they purchased.
These were two priority items,
with the schools being next in line.
Taxes were increased con
siderably in order to obtain a block
in downtown Edenton for the
courthouse detention facility
project, only to be healthily reduced
this year.
A $3.9-million school bond
Referendum was defeated in
September and it is apparent
everyone, save the Edenton-
Chowan Board of Education,
thought that was behind us. The
board is committed to con
solidation. An alternate plan
approved prior to the bond
referendum was reaffirmed last
month. i
The “best alternate” to new
construction was a plan to
renovate and purchase mobile
classrooms. The cost, including
two new buses, is $150,000. The
school board is looking to their
guardians for relief.
At Tuesday’s joint meeting to
discuss the school board’s request,
a petition in opposition to con
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Gilliam Woed Mias Belay Warren a.F. Mcßorie
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Cai 482-2104 Next Thursday, 6 A.M. to SPM For Kitty'
Armed Robbery Suspect Is Sought
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SEARCH FOR CLUES Frank Nixon, colter, Edenton store
manager and Max Mercer, general manager of the S&R Super
Market chain, are pictured here outside die office talking with
Capt. C.H. Williams and Patrolman D.E. Jethro (back to
camera). An armed robber took an unidentified amount of cash
from the store Tuesday night.
THE CHOWAN HERALD
Volume XLIV—No 49
School Board Awaiting Decision
Chowan County commissioners
will make a decision by January 1
on a request from Edenton-
Chowan Board of Education for
$150,000 to finance a school con
solidation (dan. The plan requires
renovations to existing buildings,
the purchase of 10 mobile
classrooms, and two new buses.
The plan as approved by the
Chowan River Is ‘Dead’
The Chowan River is dead and
the Albemarle Sound is extremely
sick. There was an admission here
f <pib»lr
cure for the situation as it exists.
Even if the State of North
Carolina can prove a discharge, or
unusual discharges of nitrogen
into the algae-choked river it is
doubtful it could be stopped, ac
cording to the state’s top en-
Change Requested
Tarheel Bank & Trust Company
has made application to change
the location of the approved, but
unopened branch in Edenton.
Originally the branch was to be
located at 1108 North Broad Street
but is now proposed at the corner
of North Broad and Coke Avenue
in Edenton Village Shopping
Center.
The bank has approval of the
N.C. Banking Commission as well
as the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation to open a branch in
Edenton.
On June 30,1978, the Gatesville
based bank had assets of nearly
$33-million and operated branches
in Lewiston, Winton, Mur
freesboro and Ahoskie.
The branch would give Edenton
three banking institutions.
Edenton, North Carolina, Thursday, December 14, 1978
school board in May, 1978, and
reaffirmed following defeat of a
$3.9-million bond referendum, calls
for discontinuing the use of Ernest
A. Swain Elementary School for
school purposes.
Dr. John Dunn, superintendent,
told commissioners at a meeting
Tuesday morning that he is of the
opinion the school board will
vironmental engineer, A.F. Mc-
Rorie of Raleigh.
Some 200 people crowded Into
jChowan County .Courthouse .. to
hear the state’s first quarterly
report on what has been found
through a stepped up monitoring
system in the river.
Mcßorie and his aides said
hundreds of pounds of nitrogen is
entering the river in the vicinty of
the CF Industries plant at Tunis.
However, they cannot pinpoint any
discharge other than what is
allowed by permit.
In fact, a spokesman for the
state said the plant is putting back
less nitrogen on a daily basis than
it is withdrawing from the river.
This prompted Charles A.
Creighton, president of Edenton-
Chowan Chamber of Commerce to
observe with a tongue-in-cheek
comment that CFI appeared to be
helping clean up the river.
Studies by state officials in
dicate that an estimated 1,200
pounds of nitrogen per day is
entering the river in the CFI area.
As of Monday night they had not
determined how it is getting there.
It was stated that the Chowan
River has been targeted as top
priority by the Divison of En
vironmental Management with
more money and time allocated to
the project than any other in the
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Alton G.~Elmore Dr. Gus Witherspoon W B Gardner
A masked gunman Tuesday
night robbed S&R Super Market
on West Queen Street and shot an
assistant manager prior to
escaping with an undetermined
amount of cash.
Police Chief J.D. Parrish said
the robber hid in the store prior to
the 10 P.M. closing. The gunman
and Paul Blake Stokly, 22, Route 3,
Hertford, the assistant manager,
scuffled in the store’s office before
Stokly was taken at gun-point to a
rest room where he was shot and
locked up with Wayne Chappell,
the teen-age bag boy. He was not
seriously injured.
Chief Parrish said the Edenton
Police Department was notified of
the robbery at 10:45 and all
available law enforcement in the
area responded. Chief Parrish and
Capt. C.H. Williams headed the
investigation at the site and
members of Chowan County
Single Copies 15 Cents
perfect a consolidation plan even
if the request for funding is not
approved. He said he could
recommend an alternate plan
which would require placing the
ninth grade at a campus other
than John A. Holmes. (There will
be approximately 224 students in
this grade next year.)
Strongest opposition to the
board’s plan came from Chairman
C.A. Phillips and Commissioner
J.D. Peele. Phillips is opposed to
spending money on temporary
measures. Peele “cannot see
taxing people for money with the
school board sitting on money.”
.Bus was ia referoce to $500,000 in
state bond money which Dr. Dunn
said can only be spent on new
construction.
Commissioner Alton G. Elmore
said consolidation was in the back
of people’s minds more than a
decade ago when he headed a
citizens committee that was
successful in obtaining a favorable
vote on merger of administrative
units in Edenton and the county.
He said the commissioners
recognized a need with regards to
the courthouse project and levied
for it. He added: “I believe we
have such a need here...” and
should “levy for what we have to.”
A fourth commissioner, Lester
Copeland asked his colleagues to
put “selfish motives and per
sonalities aside” and put “our
children’s needs first.” He
suggested possible means of ob
taining the money, none of which
was looked on with sufficient favor
to get action.
Dr. Dunn admitted that the
board has $60,000 in operating
funds which could be made
available for the capital im
provement project, but only if the
county changed its method of
funding the school budget.
Continued on Page 4
Sheriff’s Department and the
State Highway Patrol responded.
SBI Agent Ken Inscoe of
Williamston joined in the in
vestigation Wednesday morning.
Chief Parrish said the in
vestigation had thus far turned up
little evidence.
This is the chain of events of the
crime, as pieced together from
police reports:
Stokly was in the office checking
up. Chappell was cleaning floors.
Chappell went to the area next to
the meat market to put up a
bucket and mop. The robber was
standing in the doorway, wearing
gloves, a ski mask and pointing a
pistol at Chappell.
The teenager was ordered to get
into the rest room. He was asked
several times who else was in the
store.
The gunman then went to the
office where he confronted Stokly.
The assistant manager knocked
the pistol from the man and they
had a scuffle. The gun went off and
stokly was unable to get the gun.
Stokly was told to go to the rest
room and enroute was told several
time: “I ought to shoot you.”
When he was put into the rest
room with Chappell he was shot.
Hie bullet hit his little finger and
went into his right leg.
The gunman then went back to
the office and took the un
determined amount of cash from a
floor safe which was open. It is
believed that he returned to the
Continued on Page 4
Hours Extended
Stores in downtown Edenton will
stay open until 7 P.M. beginning
Friday and continuing until
Christmas, according to the
Edenton-Chowan Chamber of
Commerce.
Robert Moore, executive vice
president, said the majority of
the local stores will be closed
December 25 and 26 for the
holiday, This Is the same schedule
being observed by the Town" 5f
Edenton, Chowan County and
financial institutions in the area.
The decision to extend the hours
stores will be open was made
Wednesday in order to make it
more convenient for the shoppers,
it was noted.
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Leaders from throughout the Albemarle Area were in at
tendance at Monday night’s public meeting here.
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A.F. Mcßorie Eddie Dick Pete Whitley
Employee Shot At Scene
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AT CRIME SCENE Police
Chief J.D. Parrish is shown in
the blood-stained rest room at
S&R Super Market where
Blake Stokly, assistant
manager, was shot by a robber
Tuesday night. Stokly and
Wayne Chappell, a teenage
bag boy, were locked in the
rest room but escaped after the
armed robber had left through
a side door.
Relief Expected
The howl raised by Vepco
electric customers in Eastern
North Carolina is expected to
result in some rate relief and the
utility firm’s “lemonade” ads
have drawn a parallel of
mismanagement.
Furthermore, heated discussion
of the rate question and what
higher utility rates do or don’t do
to economic development caused
the chairman of Operation
Overcharge to declare that a Vepco
official “came close to calling our
governor a liar.”
Richard S. Coiner was
discussing in a newsletter Vepco »
response to Gov. Jim Hunt’s
charge that the high utility rates
adversely affected economic
development in the 22 counties
Vepco serves in this state.
Stanley Hege. a member of the
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