« Volume XLi
V T C!*
No.
...1_
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Edenton, North Carolina, Thursday, April 4, 1985
Single Copies 25 Cents
A Dog In The Fight
We doubt that Mayor Roy Har
"Vell needs our help in defending
his position on operation of the
North Carolina Eastern Municipal
-Power Agency. Whether Julian F.
t Warren’s letter was an over
| reaction to the mayor’s statement
j we are willing to leave to the judg
ement of those along the Public
-’Parade.
But, in a way, we do have a dog
in the fight, since the public in
terest will be affected by the out
come of Edenton’s dispute with
the power agency.
i We were in the legislature when
‘legislation was passed enabling
North Carplina municipalities to
- become joint owners with the
public utilities of power
generating stations. Up until then,
* the constitution prohibited cities
from being anything other than
the sole owners of such facilities.
We handled the legislation for
the group of western cities which
had formed the first municipal
power agency and sought authori
ty to purchase 75 per cent of a
nuclear power station then under
construction by Duke Power
Company.
Members of the legislature
were told by spokesmen for the
western agency that, although
i they would own 75 per cent of the
' station, they would, not try to
l manage it, but would contract
| with Duke Power for its manage
. ment skills to keep the station go
; ing. The agency then would take
the electricity at cost and
distribute it through its municipal
systems directly to the customers.
i But soon after the purchase was
I completed and the contract
L became^ operative, the agency
( began loading up with r——
nuurneya, (tccuunituivs,
analysts and public relation ex
perts, many of them duplicating
services already being performed
by Duke Power. And now, every
time Duke puts into effect a
’ Wholesale rate increase, the aeen
cy has to call its experts together
to see how this can be passed most
profitably on to its customers. Ob
viously, the retail municipal con
sumer is still tied to the rate struc
ture of the former owner of the
generating facility; and all the ex
perts and administrative
overhead added at the agency
level merely tend to push up the
cost of current to us all.
We want the agencies to stick to
their original plan. We want them
to pay the power companies to
manage their facilities, take the
electricity at cost and distribute it
to their customers without adding
another layer middlemen between
generation and distribution.
If this is what Mayor Harrell is
talking about with respect to the
eastern agency, he would seem to
Continued On Page 4 '
PILGRIMAGE— Members of Edenton’s Woman’s Club travelled to Raleigh recently to meet with Rep.
Vernon James and appear before the Senate and House to promote the 17th Biennial Pilgrimage to be
held on April 12,13 and 14. Pictured are: (from left to right) Mary Peele, Terry Waff, Vernon James
Ruby Leary and Cyndy DeVine.
Boyce Participates In Management Course
Rob Boyce, John A. Holmes
High School, is among a group of
public school principals from
throughout the state who are par
ticipating in a new professional
level management course for
principals. The Principals’ Ex
ecutive Program, which began in
September 1984, is offered by the
Institute of Government at The
University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill.
The program is designed to
teach the skills and provide the
knowledge that will help public
school principals in managing
their schools. The curriculum is
organized around thirteen major
phases of school management, in
eluding such areas as long-range
planning, leadership, personnel
management, effective com
munication, policy-making, cur
riculum analysis, and financial
management.
The current course is the third
one offered and is being taught in
Chapel Hill during four week-long
sessions from March through
June. Another identical course
will provided during the summer.
The principals will attend i03 ses
sions during the twenty days and
several evenings they spend in the
class-room. The program is the
longest in-service residence pro
gram for principals in the United
States.
The program is being taught by
a faculty of fifty-five including in
structional staff from the Institute
of Government, the School of
Business Administration, the
School of Education, and the Col
lege of Arts and Sciences at
UNC-Chapel Hill as well as ex
perts from the Department of
Continued On Page 4
Area Permits
Cancelled
Effective immediately, the
State forestry Service has
cancelled all burning permits in
Chowan County due to low rain
win^rinMiw* wWtUwe
humidity. These are ali factors
which are conducive to making
fires very easy to start and very
difficult to control.
With this in mind, the Forestry
Service will appreciate the
public’s cooperation in refraining
from doing any type of burning
until after the next rainfall occurs.
Anyone having questions con
cerning burning permits is urged
to contact Forest Ranger Roger
Spivey at 482-4554.
DITSTCaus^
Forces Residents’ Evacuatioh
An eariy-morning fire in a local
nursing home Tuesday caused lit
tle structural damage, but 30
residents in C wing were moved to
the ambulatory wing to escape
heavy smoke conditions and a
nurse was taken to the hospital
and treated for smoke-inhalation.
Edenton Fire Chief Lynn Perry
said an employee at Britthaven
Nursing Home on Paradise Road
was drying sheets in a large
clothes dryer at 2:41 a.m. when
she noticed the sheets were on
fire. -
George Robertson, a licensed
practical nurse, attemped to put
out the fire with a fire ex
tinguisher while another
employee notified the Edenton
Fire Department by pulling the
direct alarm system connected to
the fire department.
Robertson was not able to ex
tinguish the fire, but the building’s
sprinkler system kept the fire
from spreading.
The smoke was so heavy when
firefighters arrived, they called in
the Centerhill Crossroads Fire
Department and the Edenton
Chowan Rescue Squad.
When firemen saw Robertson’s
Continued On Page 4
County District Court Session
Chowan County District Court
was in session April 2; the
Honorable J. Richard Parker
presiding over the criminal
calendar.
Stewart Elliott Anthony was
found guilty of DWI. He was
sentenced to 90 days suspended
for 1 year on the condition he pay
a fine of $125 and cost of court. He
is to perform 48 hours of com
munity service, attend ADET
school and surrender his
operator’s license; he appealed.
Grace Holly was pleaded guilty
to two counts of passing worthless
checks. She was ordered to pay
court costs in each case and pay
$90 in restitution to A&P stores;
she appealed.
Brenda Coston pleaded guilty to
a charge of passing worthless
checks. She was sentenced to 30
days suspended for 1 year on the
condition she pay cost of court and
make restitution of $ 15 for the
benefit of S&R.
called
James Carroll Fleming was
found guilty of driving 56 in a
35mph zone and reckless driving.
The two charges were con
solidated for judgement
Fleming was sentenced to 60
suspended for 1 year on the con
dition he pay a fine of $75 and ci
of court; he was ordered
render his driver’s license
Edward Lane Beals was
biit failed to show on a charg
improperly loading his true!
Charlie W. Paylib pleaded guil
ty to two counts of passing wor
thless checks. He was sentenced
to 60 days suspended for 1 year on
condition he pay court costs in
each case and make restitution of
$175 to Winn Dixie; he appealed.
Mathew Albert Cooper was
found guilty of shoplifting. He
received a 4 day commitment, but
received credit for 4 days spent in
jail.
st was found guil
l a threat. He
1 to 30 days suspend- I
on the condition he I
; he is not to1
Gov. Gives
Support
Gov. Jim Martin said he’s com
mitted to the construction of two
interchanges that will connect
Highway 17 with city streets in
Edenton and pledged that the pro
ject will be completed as schedul
ed, according to two Edenton men
who talked with the governor last
week.
Concerned with the twice
delayed interchange project,
Edenton attorney Peter Rascoe
and agribusinessman John Wood
met with the governor, Sen. Marc
Basnight, D-Dare, and Transpor
tation Secretary James Harr
ington on Tuesday, March 26.
Rascoe said Martin realized the
project had been delayed under
the previous administration but,
“is committed to seeing it not
delayed again.” He said the
governor realizes the importance
of the interchanges which will im
prove access to existing
businesses and help attract new
industry to the area.
Local residents became alarm
ed in February when a state
Department of Transportation
property acquisition deadline had
not been met. The DOT had also
failed to meet other deadlines.
But Rascoe said the governor’s
commitment to the project should
“allay any fears people around
here have about it.” Rascoe add
ed that Martin is looking forward
to coming here to dedicate the in
terchanges when they are
completed.
Construction of the project that
will connect Albemarle Street and
Paradise Road to the bypass and
eventurally be cloverleaf inter
changes at the two crossovers is
scheduled to begin the first part of
1986. Total cost for the project is
$6.7 million.
DOT officials said the first
phase of the project - the acquisi
- tion of land and construction of the
first quadrant - will cost approx
imately $800,000. Land acquisition
is to begin in May.
Continued On Page 1
Sandy Webster
Local Youth
Program Set
Perquirnans-Chowan Partners
with Youth, a Governor’s One-on
One program which uses adult
volunteers to work with troubled
children, officially began in the
two county area on February 1. It
is the thirty-third program of its
kind in the state.
The One-on-One program had
its beginnings in 1981 when Gov.
James B. Hunt Jr. began working
on a plan to promote and expand
the existing one-on-one court
volunteers program. The recent
program has been called one of
the state’s most successful com
munity based alternative efforts.
Heading up the program local
ly is executive director Sandy
Webster, a Washington state
transplant who recently moved to
the area when her husband, Glen,
became production manager at
Edenton’s Bayliner plant. A
Western Washington College
graduate with a degree in special
education and physical education,
Webster worked, two years as a
child welfare worker in
Washington.
Webster explained that the in
Continued On Page 4
Farless Elected Vice President
Rural Water Association, Inc.
Graham Farless, director,
Chowan County Water System,
was elected vice president of the
North Carolina Rural Water
Association, Inc., at the organiza
tion’s annual meeting held in
Raleigh last week.
“I consider it an honor,” said
Farless. “When you get elected by
your peers, it means a lot to you.”
This is not the first time Farless
has been honored by the organiza
tion. For the past two years he has
been director of the Northeast sec
tion of the association and in 1981,
he was named Operator of the
Year.
The North Carolina Rural
Water Association, Inc., made up
Df 310 members, is an association
if non-profit water works agen
cies working together to improve
>perations of public water
systems throughout the state.
The North Carolina association
is a division of the National Rural
Water Association headquartered
in Duncan, Oklahoma. Thirty
three states are represented in the
national association’s
membership.
Farless said the rural water
works association was formed
“because a need existed in the
1970’s when counties started get
ting into the waterworks
business.”
As director of the county water
system, Farless is in charge of the
department’s three water plants,
208 miles of pipe and 6 employees.
But he is more than just director
of the system; he is a licensed B
well water plant operator. Farless
said there are two other licensed
water plant operators in the coun
ty department - Merrill Perry and
Bill Perry, who both hold C well
water plant operators licenses.
ELECTED — Graham Farless, director, Chowan County Water
tepartment, was elected Vice President of the North Carolina Rural
iTater Association, Inc. in Raleigh last week.