CHOWAN
Volume LVI - No. 14
Edenton, North Carolina, Thursday, April 5,1990
Single Copies 25 Cents
*
Needed,
A Better Way
Gov. Jim Martin wants the
state to borrow some $500 mil
lion with which to construct
enough jails to provide 9,500
additional beds. And a leg
islative committee wants to
modify our penal process by
sentencing enough lesser of
fenders to "house arrest" to
provide some 3,500 more beds.
Surely there is a better way
than either of these proposals.
To begin with, this is an
odd time to be proposing that
the state borrow money when
it it is not producing enough
revenues to meet the everyday
cost of running the govern
ment. Borrowing money un
der such circumstances would
duplicate at the state level
what the federal government
has been doing for the past
decade, creating a national
» debt which requires $200 bil
lion each year just to pay the
interest.
But, aside from that, the
governor's proposal would
cost about $50,000 dollars for
each new bed created, with an
additional cost of more than
$12,000 a year to keep it occu
0 pied. That is just another way
of saying that federal stan
dards have made the cost of
prison construction and oper
ation almost prohibitive. And
there is always an eager
beaver , federal judge ready to ~
enforce these standards, even
pre-empting state legislative
^ authority when necessary.
Since the average space
provided for prisoners across
the nation in 1988 was 50.9
square feet, Gov. Martin's
proposal would cost almost
$1,000 per square foot ~ or $833
per square foot if built to fed
eral standards, which call for
60 square feet for each in
mate. That is start-up costs
before a single prisoner is
admitted.
The legislative commit
tee's proposal isn’t much bet
Continued On Page 8
Suspect
Pursued
What would have been a
routine stop for speeding turn
ed into a high speed chase for
Edenton Police Officer T.F.
Hickman Sunday, March 25.
Hickman was operating a
stationary radar in his patrol
car on Coke Ave. at 5:45 p.m.
when a 1978 Mercury Cougar
passed him exceeding the
limit. When Hickman at
tempted to stop the car, it accel
erated and turned onto Free
mason Street.
In pursuit, the officer saw
the car veer onto the railroad
right of way and travel about a
quarter of a mile before it
jumped the tracks and came to
a stop with both right tires ru
ined. Hickman called for
backup.
When officers approached
the car, it was abandoned,
gear shift in the park position
and the car keys missing. A
search of the area failed to
turn up the driver.
The car was towed away
and impounded.
Iij his report, Hickn^an
said that shortly after 9 p.m.,
he met Richard Armstead, of
25 Davis Place, at the central
dispatch office who reported
his car stolen. Armstead said
that a Virginia man had bor
rowed his 1978 Cougar earlier
in the day.
Police are continuing an
investigation.
New Canine On The Job
By MARGUERITE MCCALL
Like most 15 month-olds,
Buddy is playful, enjoys at
tention, gets in to everything
and cons you with his big
friendly eyes. Unlike the av
erage youngster his age, he
has made an arrest and par
ticipated in at least a half
dozen actual drug searches.
The yellow Labrador re
triever arrived in Edenton
last month, following autho
rization from Town Council
for the Edenton Police De
partment to initiate a K-9
Corps.
Master and dog met for the
first time when Edenton Po
lice Officer Donald Harris
traveled to Sentinel K-9s in
Fayetteville to undergo train
ing with his new charge.
"Buddy's training’ in nar
cotic detection includes find
ing cocaine, heroin, mari
juana and methaqualone,”
Harris said. "He's trained,
too, as a trail dog. He can run
drop, split and contaminated
trails."
Harris explained that a
contaminated trail occurs
when an area where an arti
cle is dropped is walked all
over by those other than the
article's owner. He also
admitted that weather condi
tions play a large part in the
dog's successful run of the
trail.
"A tracking dog follows
disturbed vegetation, ” Harris
said. "Buddy follows fresh
human scent. He would trail
the scent of the owner of the
dropped article. Another as
pect of his abilities is article
search, a thrown-away gun,
*vi «nvfcnTvwt
Buddy demonstrated his
sniffing talents by quickly
AMH THANKS—Representative R.M. (Pete) Thompson re
ceived a plaque from Albemarle Mental Health in appreciation
for his efforts in the General Assembly to obtain funds for men
tal health facilities. George Jones, (right) AMH's board chair
man, made the presentation.
Rep. Thanked For Effort
Representative R.M. (Pete)
rhompson has been honored
by Albemarle Mental Health
for his efforts to obtain state
funding for local mental
health needs.
Thompson had requested $3
million from the General As
sembly for a mental health
addition to Albemarle Hospi
tal in Elizabeth City and a fa
sility at Chowan Hospital.
In the legislature's budget
making process, this request
was scaled back to $400,000 for
;he region.
George Jones, Chairman of
.he Board of Directors of Al
jemarle Mental Health, had
made repeated trips to Raleigh
;o see Dept, of Human Re
sources Secretary David Fla
lerty in search of funds for a
more viable program in this
irea.
He said that he and Thomn
son went to the see the gover
nor for funds during the re
cent "Capital for a Day" in
Elizabeth City. They also met
with Flaherty and his staff
again. Due to the state's cur
rent budget deficit, all they
could do was make a pitch for
future funds.
Jones said that the AMH
board split the $400,000 with
Chowan receiving $135,000
and Pasquotank receiving the
remainder.
Chowan's portion will go
toward a separate building
next to the psychiatric unit
now under construction at the
hospital. The building will
house AMH offices and ad
ministrative offices and out
patient facilities for the psy
chiatric unit.
Jones presented Thompson
with a plaque from AMH for
lornclntivp support.
locating 4 grams of cocaine
hidden beneath furniture and
distinguishing the suitcase,
among three, that contained
55 grams of marijuana.
The 45 pound canine
showed-off his agility by run
ning an obstacle course of
walls, fences and barrels.
A tug-of-war playtime with
Harris, who tosses a four by
six inch canvas bag (a "dum
my bag") for him to retrieve,
is Buddy's only reward.
Barring an accident or ill
ness, the animal's effective
ness should last for about
seven years, Harris said.
The officer's patrol car
back seat is equipped with a
kennel cage and a small
window fan. The latter acti
vates automatically at a cer
tain temperature to ensure
Buddy’s safety and comfort.
Winn-Dixie donates his
food, compliments of store
manager Stan Woodliff.
"The department waited a
long time to get the K-9
Corps," Harris said. "Now
that we have it, we want to go
as far as we can with it.
"Eventually, we want to
use Buddy in public school
drug education programs,
along with the department's
current drug and drug para
phernalia identification pro
gram.
"As for me, I love working
with Buddy. It’s more like
play than work. He's won
derful."
Programs Studied
Fifteen school systems or
ganized a Small Rural
Schools Consortium this past
summer to address the
disparity in funding between
small, poor, rural counties
and larger, wealthy counties.
At Monday evening's
Board of Education meeting,
Dr. John Dunn, Superinten
dent of Edenton-Chowan
Schools, said, "There cer
tainly is a distinct advantage
to being small. We have 2,500
students in Edenton-Chowan
schools. It is the inadequacies
in the state's funding formula
that creates problems for us.
"The program is funded on
the 'bigness' system. They
should look at a school as a
school, and at what it takes to
run a school: The present
formula gives us fractions of
positions. How do you have a
secretary and a-third?"
Dr. Dunn illustrated his
point with transparencies
showing a breakdown of per
sonnel at each of the system's
schools. By shifting around,
some of the fractional posi
tions are combined to try and
fill some of the very basic
personnel needs.
Board chairman Cecil Fry
recommended that "we work
with the Small School Con
sortium."
The board approved the
motion.
Commenting on the state
Study Panel Report of the
Task Force on Excellence in
Secondary Education, Dr.
Dunn, who is a member of the
panel, noted that there are
only six states in the United
States that don’t have fiscal
independence of school
districts.
"North Carolina and South
Carolina are two of these, and
they have the lowest SAT
scores in the nation," he said.
Fry told the board about a
meeting to be held on May 17
in Greenville, regarding
teaching "about religion" in
public schools.
"I would like to encourage
board members to attend this
meeting," he said. "We don't
have a policy on this matter.
We need to hear what they
have to say."
Dunn agreed. "It is im
portant that we give some
consideration to this," he
said.
Continued On Page 8
Local Vets To Be Honored
Veterans Seek Memorial Location
By JACK GROVE
Local veterans have form
ed a committee to construct a
memorial for the veterans of
Chowan County, both the dead
and the living.
George Stokes, Cape Colony
resident and member of the
American Legion and the
Veterans of Foreign Wars,
heads the committee. He said
that the three goals set out for
the group were finding a site,
design of a fitting memorial
and raising funds for con
struction.
His committee has formu
lated a preliminary design.
Central to the memorial is a
five-pointed star, flush with
the ground, constructed of
brick. At each point of the star
will be a granite marker for
each of the five services:
Army, Navy, Air Force, Ma
rine Corps and Coast Guard.
The star will be 30 feet across.
In the center of the star will
be a flag pole flying the Stars
and Stripes which at night
will be lighted.
Stokes is currently seeking
a location for the memorial.
Various sites suggested have
included the green in front of
the old courthouse, in front of
the old armory, the new court
ON TARGET — Buddy, the Edenton Police Department's K
9 Corp, scarcely sniffed the two cases in the background before
focusing his attention on the case containing 55 grams of
marijuana. His handler is Officer Donald Harris.
Committee Topics
Will Be Discussed
The committees of Edenton
Town Council held their reg
ular- monthly* meetings on
March 26. Some of the discus
sion items will be placed on
council's agenda for formal
action while others remain in
committee for further discus
sion. Town Council's month
ly meeting will be held next
Tuesday at 8 p.m.
Finance Committee - Un
der consideration is a 1990
1995 Capital Improvements
Plan. The five year plan is
expected to be used as a fiscal
planning tool. Town Man
ager Anne-Marie Kelly ex
plained, "It should be under
stood that the scheduling of a
project in the CIP does not
commit the town to pursue the
project, if, upon closer study,
the project cannot be justified
or if funding is not avail
able."
Budget amendments will
be forwarded for council ac
• tion that will provide a sepa
rate line item in next year's
budget to cover holiday pay for
police.
Ms. Kelly said that reve
nue for the item will come
from over-budgeted unem
ployment charges, a surplus
from a furnishings account
for the police department and
an excess in intangible tax
revenues.
Public Works - The town
has solicited contractors' bids
for maintenance of the Beaver
Hill and Vine Oak Cemeter
ies. Town crews have main
tained them in the past.
Buddy's Cleaning Service
of Elizabeth City was the suc
cessful bidder at $27,733. Ms.
Kelly said that this year's cost
to the town with town employ
Continued On Po^e 8
house lawn*, the open space
adjacent to the jail, Colonial
Park at the foot of Broad Street
and the park across from the
Masonic Temple.
In his search, Stokes said
that he has run into obstacles
at each site except for the one
least desirable to his commit
tee, Colonial Park. Objections
to that site include being adja
cent to a kiddy park and the
fact that the area is used an
Continued On Page 8
sign. Stokes' committee is now looking for a place in Edenton
to place it.