Volume LLIV - No. 7
THE CHOWAN HERALD
Published In The Most Beautiful Little City On The North Carolina Coast
Single Copies 25 Cents
Edenton, North Carolina, Thursday, February 18,1988
PARKING DILEMMA - Edenton's downtown business area lacks sufficient parking
according to merchants. Only one available space can be seen in this view from the roof of
Byrum s Hardware Tuesday afternoon. Byrum's manager, Jack Evans said, "We've had lots
?of customers come in and say they’d like to not found a parking place.”
Rose's Plans
Opening Store Here
v
Confirmation was obtained
Wednesday that a new Rose's
store will be coming to Eden
^ ton.
Lois Williams of Rose's
Toward Super
Politically, things seem to
be going about as expected at
i the national level. Senator
Bob Dole and Rep. Dick
Gephardt came out on top in
the Iowa caucuses and, by the
time this is in print, have
made a good enough showing
in New Hampshire to enable
both of them to hit the ground
running for Super Tuesday.
Iowa was a big disappoint
» ) ment on the Republican side
for Vice President George
Bush, who was pushed into
third place by Pat Robertson,
the televangelist. But New
Hampshire turned the tables,
pushing Bush into first place,
with Dole dropping to second.
Jack Kemp was a distant
^ third, Pierre DuPont, fourth
*' and Robertson, fifth.
But among the Democrats,
Senator Paul Simon and Gov.
Mike Dukakis made good
enough showings in Iowa to
enable them to go for broke in
New Hampshire. And that's
what Dukakis did, taking
' first place with 16 percentage
points over Gephardt. Simon
V
I
held on to third, and all three
are thus positioned to continue
to test the waters in other
states. The other four
Democrats trailed with eight
percentage points or less.
Meanwhile, Senator Albert
Gore, who alone among the
Democrats chose to forgo the
i Iowa freeze-out, where only 46
delegates were at stake, con
tinued to campaign in the
south, where more than 1,000
delegates are to be named in
the March Super Tuesday
primaries.
We met Senator Gore for
the first; time last Thursday
|prhen he took his southern
Simpaigh to Iredell County,
here an a day's notice he
was met by a crowd of more
than 500 at a cattle farm west
of Statesville. And, although
,»e television cre.ws con
sumed most of his time shoot
ing scenes of the candidate
wnth the cattle and a stray
dhnkey led into the scene,
Continued On ffege 4
real estate department in
Henderson, N.C. said in a
telephone interview that a
lease with Westminister
Corp. of Jacksonville, N.C.
had been signed "about a
month ago.'1
The shopping center is be
ing developed on property be
hind McDonald's on Vir
ginia Road which is owned by
Judy Earnhardt Adams of
Greenville and formerly
from Edenton. The developer,
Westminister, is a subsidiary
of the Weyerhouser group.
Mrs. Williams said that
the Rose's store will have
45,495 square feet and will
carQ^the full Rose'd’line in
cluding automotive and toy
departments. She said it will
be in the smaller of three
categories of company stores.
Concerning Edenton, she
commented, "We like that
little town."
While unsure when
ground would be broken, she
said that opening was
planned for the fall.
No one from the Westmin
ister company was available
Wednesday to talk about other
stores planned for the shop
ping center.
Kelvin Anderson of Lat
Purser and Associates of
Charlotte was also reached
Wednesday by telephone. His
company owns and leases the
Edenton Village Shopping
Center where an Ames store
might locate.
He said that no lease had
bean signed and "Ames will
review that site along with
several others during a meet
ing in March." He said that
he did not know if the Rose’s
decision would affect location
of Ames here.
PARK BULKHEADING - Steel bulkheading is driven into
place for the town’s new park. The work is being done by Waff
Brothers Construction Co., reportedly at an unusually good
price.
Town Park Gets Help
Construction contractors
have been lending their sup
port to building a new park for
Edenton.
Edenton Construction pro
vided equipment and person
nel at no charge last fall to
clear large chunks of con
crete, pilings and other refuse
from the site behind the police
Station.
The company has also made
arrangements for other com
panies to help. McDevitt and
Street Company of Charlotte
donated some 30 truckloads of
good topsoil to the park several
weeks ago. McDevitt and
Street is the prime contractor
fbr the new Pood Lion store at
the Edenton Village Shopping
Center.
Waff Brothers Construction
Co. has donated 150 cubic
yards of sand to backfill the
steel bulkhead it is placing at
the park. The sand was
dredged by Waff from the site
of the new Albemarle Sound
bridge.
Outerbanks Construction ]
Co. has donated trucks to
move the sand to the
bulkheading operation.
With this kind of help, as
well as volunteer labor from
others and contributions to the
"Build the Park" drive, the
park is nearing reality.
Lat Purser is currently
building a new store at the
center for Food Lion. Ander
son confirmed that the cost of
that construction would ap
proach $1 million. McDevitt
and Street Company of Char
lotte is the general contractor
for that job.
Parking Solution Sought
By JACK GROVE
Edenton businessmen have
been concerned for years
about an apparent lack of
parking downtown for shop
pers. This concern surfaced
at a town council meeting on
January 26 when Ollin Sykes,
a CPA, said the relocation of
municipal offices to the old
Peoples Bank building would
eliminate customer parking.
The Edenton-Chowan
Chamber of Commerce col
lected signatures of downtown
business persons last week
seeking support for a proposal
to increase parking.
The chamber's Merchants
Committee has proposed that
Jackson's Radio and T.V.,
located on Eden Street, "be
purchased to solve the prob
lem. The building could be
demolished and a parking lot
constructed. This lot would tie
in to an existing parking lot,”
according to a letter request
ing the signatures.
John Cuthrell, chamber
president said that the town's
Finance Committee would be
approached about the purchase
with an additional suggestion
that the town and county
jointly develop the site for
parking.
Current plans are for the
radio and T.V. business to
relocate. Thomas Jackson,
owner of the property, has it
listed with Century 21, Dowd
Real Estate for a sale price of
$99,500.
The Chowan Herald did a
physical count of parking
spaces in the downtown area.
There are a total of 575 spaces
in on and off-street parking
from the new courthouse to the
municipal building. Of those
ten are reserved spaces and
108 are special purpose park
ing for Peoples Bank, the
courthouse, Home Federal
Savings and Loan and *the
ABC store.
The chamber’s executive
director, Richard Bunch, tab
ulated the number of persons
working in the downtown
area and arrived at a total of
507. This (if each drove a car
to work) subtracted from the
total of parking places, leaves
68 parking slots for shoppers.
Complaints Received
Some local postal authori
ties have begun receiving
complaints due to curtailed
window hours at their facili
ties. The U.S. Postal Service
has been forced to institute
deep budget cuts due to federal
budget deficit cutbacks man
dated by Congress.
While the majority of cut
backs have been internal for
the postal service, area post
offices have been forced to re
duce retail window service
hours an average of ten per
cent in low-usage periods.
Post offices in Tyner and
Hobbsville have eliminated
window service on Saturdays
with no change to weekday
hours.
Window service at Tyner
through the week is 7:15 - 11
a.m. and 1 - 4:45 p.m.
Hobbsville daily hours are
from 8 a.m. to noon and 1-5
p.m.
An article in last week's
edition of the Chowan Herald
incorrectly listed Saturday
hours at the Edenton Post
Office as 9-11 a.m. The
correct Saturday hours are
from 10 a.m. to noon.
Window service hours
only are affected.
Some merchants have
complained about on-street
parking being taken up by
employers or employees.
They feel that business is lost
when shoppers can’t park in
front of their stores.
Russell Davis of Davis
Jewelers feels that many
shoppers from out of town do
not know about parking lots
behind the stores. He said that
some of his customers have
had to circle the business area
"two or three times” to find a
parking space.
He said that a new lot "is
absolutely needed." Many of
his customers are from
Columbia and Creswell and
"they come in and say there's
nowhere to park."
Cuthrell said Tuesday,
"This parking situation has
gotten worse for the last sev
eral years. I can see where
people haven't come in on a
particular day because they
couldn't find a parking
place." He said it was espe
cially acute for the elderly
who can't walk very far.
The town has an ordinance
that has a time limit of two
hours for on-street parking in
the business district. Viola
tion brings a citation requir
ing the payment of a $5
penalty.
Police Chief John Parrish
said that when his officers is
sue citations, an average of 8
10 employees and employers
are ticketed. He believes that
many more move their cars
after seeing their tires
chalked.
Other "red-line" spaces
behind the county office
building and Belk Depart
ment Store are two-hour limit
spaces and will draw cita
Continued On Page 4
Deadline Is Nearing
Nominations are still com
ing in for The Chowan Her
ald's "Pride of Edenton and
Chowan County" promotion to
recognize local people who
have made outstanding con
tributions in the community.
Response so far has been good,
but there are still many de
serving people whose names
have not yet been placed in
nomination.
If you know of someone
whose actions and good deeds
have really made a difference
and would like to see them
honored for it, simply bring a
clear, good quality photograph
of the person, along with a
brief explanation of what they
have done to merit receiving
this recognition, to the Herald
office on South Broad Street
prior to February 29.
For further information,
call Chowan Herald Associ
ate Editor Rebecca Bunch at
482-4418.
Offices Receive Water Damage
It was raining outside
Monday evening when it
seemed to begin raining in
side on the first floor of the
county office building. The
source of the building's
"rain" was discovered by
Keith Renner in the Social
Service conference room. A
capped pipe had ruptured at the
fitting.
The building, a former ho
tel, is honeycombed with pip
ing behind the walls that ser
viced bathrooms. When the
building was occupied by the
county in 1967, the plumbing
fixtures were removed and the
pipes sealed.
After the water was shut off
at the street, a cleanup effort
jot underway with power vacs
to suck up moisture from
soaked carpeting. Edenton
fireman Paul Stallings,
Melvin Lane of Sentry Ser
vices, Allen Worrell, county
naintenance supervisor and
>uilding inspector John
Sunch worked on the cleanup.
In addition to floors, ceiling
,iles in a hallway, a restroom
ind Bunch's office were
lamaged. A damage estimate
vas not available Wednesday
ifternoon.
Nancy Morgan in the
county manager's office said
that this was not the first time
that pipes had burst in the
bpilding. Worrell said that
all the remaining piping was
under water pressure and that
"it's possible" that the prob
lem could reoccur.
SOAKED - Allen Worrell uses a power vac to remove water
from soaked rugs after a water pipe burst at the county office
building Monday evening. The location of the pipe failure
(inset) was in a second floor conference room.