THE CHOWAN HERALD Pub*shed In The Most Beautiful Little City On The North Carolina Coast Volume LVII - No. 7 Edenton, North Carolina, Thursday, February 14,1991 Single Copies 35 Cents ELECTRONIC MONITORING-Chowan Probation and Pa role Officer Bob Roberson demonstrates the placement of the ankle sensor for the EHA system. The monitoring unit sits on the desk, connected to a push button telephone. • Citizens Concerns Are Quickly Acted On _ _ . j . C il. . J m/vaam A CnwAwnl rtAAt-\l a nf f Vi A moof- of t*Anf c Tn AAmimpf iAn uri 4- V Town oinciais wasted no time in taking action on con cerns voiced by citizens at the first Town Meeting held last week at Swain Auditorium. Town Manager Anne-Ma jie Kelly provided a list of Things done as a result of the meeting. They included: • Harry Smith had asked about a street light promised at the intersection of Fish Hatch ery Road ancf West Queen St. extended. The light was in stalled Friday. ^ • Jesse Badham had pointed out a misspelling on a street sign at the intersection of Freemason and Oakum Sts. The sign read "Freeman son." The town manager commented, "We took that down immediately." Since a replacement sign in stock was also misspelled, she said ; *a new one had to be ordered. • Snooky Bond pointed to a traffic hazard on Dickinson St. where cars entering the street from parking lots of S&R and M.G. Brown were not stopping. Police Capt. G.K. Bonner obtained agree ment from both companies to ®allow the street department to I install stop signs on their property. The signs have been I installed. • Jeannette Dowd had indi cated the need for trash re ceptacles on Broad Street from Hardees to the Post Office. Ms. Kelly said that perma nent enclosures for trash cans had been ordered and that Bloodmobile Scheduled ' 1 The Edenton Jaycees are hosting a Bloodmobile at the Edenton United Methodist Church on Monday, Febru ary 18, from 2-7 p.m. With so many service personnel who have been regular blood donors now stationed in the Persian Gulf, the Red Cross is ur gently seeking to make up these donations. All eligible blood donors are encouraged to come out Monday afternoon and give a unit of blood. Banquet will hono the troops in the Gi: "Keep the Troops in Your outuv VI KUV UVITHWV 1 VVV(# w . V. f<vvr “ tacles would be replaced as ing expressed concern about well. speed limits on various Fourth Defendant Released On Bond By JACK GROVE After 17 months in prison awaiting trial in the Little Rascals Day Care case, Kath ryn Dawn Wilson, 24, was re leased on bond Thursday. She joins three other defendants in the case out on bond: Shelley Alyce Stone, Robin Boles Byrum and Dar lene Harris. Mrs. Wilson, the mother of a three-year-old, is charged with sexually abusing 11 small children at the day ams has filed a motion for a .hearing on whether attorney Jeffery L. Miller should be al lowed to assist Robert Kelly’s attorney, W. Michael Spivey, in his defense. Judge McLel land assigned Miller to Kel ly's defense last month in a court order. Miller is also the attorney for Robin Boles Byrum. In his motion, Williams asks the court to determine if Continued On Page 8 Bill Skinner, street depart ment director, a street survej was done by the police de partment and a map posted ir the Town Hall lobby indicat ing suggested speed limits These will be discussed at th< Public Works Committee meeting on Monday, Febru ary 25 at 7 p.m. in the counci chamber. • Louise Smith said tha piles of tree limbs and deai flower arrangements hai been left at the cemetery am that some tombstones were ly ing on the ground. Ms. Kell; said that town officials me with the contractor responsi ble for cemetery maintenanc and he removed the piles c material and promised to rt move any trash collected i Continued On Page At a hearing in December, Mrs. Wilson's bond was re duced from $800,000 to $200,000. The lesser bond was met by surety bonds on prop erty owned by family mem bers. At the December hearing, her attorney, Edward B. Sim mons, asked Superior Court Judge D. Marsh McLelland to set a "reasonable bond" of from $50,000 to $100,000. He told the judge that it would "obviously be a year or more before my client can be tried." He said there was no evidence that she wouldn't appear for trial. In arguing against the bond reduction, prosecutor Nancy Lamb said that alleged child victims, currently in therapy, felt safe while she was locked up. Mrs. Wilson, "poses a threat of intimida tion to them" if they saw the defendant on the street. As a special condition of the reduced bond, the judge or dered that, if released, she re main out of Chowan County. Three other defendants re main jailed. They are Robert F. Kelly, Jr., his wife, Eliza beth T. Kelly, and Willard Scott Privott. Robert Kelly is scheduled to be tried first in Farmville on April 8. No trial dates have been set for the others. Court records indicate that District Attorney H.P. Willi Public Hearings Lead Council Agenda Town council led off its Tuesday evening meeting with four public hearings. No public comments were re ceived. After each hearing was closed, council promptly passed the measure. The first consisted of amendments to the town's 1988 Albemarle St. Commu nity Development Block Grant program. It was ex plained that three houses, originally scheduled for de molition, would be trans ferred to rehabilitation status. Also, surplus funds are available from the program which will be used to rehabil itate ten additional homes of families that qualify finan cially. One of the criteria to be used is proximity to the Albe marle St. target area. Planning Board Chairwo man Gail Gieseke reported on refinements to the town's zon ing map. She said that the "downtown commercial" zoning line would be moved to exclude two residences. Concerning the Unified Development Ordinance, Mrs. Gieseke explained that minor changes and adjust ments were made and in some sections the ordinance was "maybe too wordy." She said that the UDO committee was meeting at least three times a month to ensure the ordinance was current and applicable. After the final hearing, Chowan Hospital was given a green light to temporarily place a trailer on its property to house the oncology clinic. The clinic has been located in a section of hospital rooms for two years. Hospital Admin istrator Barbara Cale told the council, "We need the patient rooms.” Mrs. Gieseke said the Planning Board approved the placement for two years with the option of an additional six months. Mayor John Dowd brought up the issue of possible con solidation of town and county Continued On Page 8 HONORED--E.N. "Pete" Manning (left) and A.B. Harless were presented awards from the N.C. League of Municipalities Tuesday night by Mayor John Dowd. The awards recognized the service of the two former town councilmen. p If Heart" Chamber Ut Commerce Annual .banquet Saturday, February 16,1991 - 6:30 p.m. Tickets Available at the Chamber office or from Chamber Board members Electronics Used In Justice System By JACK GROVE A new tool in the North Carolina criminal justice system was put into effect in Chowan County this month for the first time. That tool is Electronic House Arrest (EHA). The system allows judges an alternative to incarcera tion in less serious cases. The program is designed for mis demeanants, those convicted of DWI and some felons, based on suitability for the program. Probation and parole offi cers supervise and monitor the system for those sentenced to house arrest. In an interview this week Chowan County Probation and Parole Officer Bob Rober son described the system and outlined its advantages. As an alternative to incar ceration, it is intended to ease overcrowding of local jails and the prison system. It also saves the justice sys tem a lot of money. Figures from the Dept, of Crime Con trol and Public Safety show that imprisonment in state institutions costs $47.50 a day per inmate. Chowan Chief Jailer Walt Linhardt said the local cost per day per prisoner is $37. Cost per day for EHA is $4.60 for the first year and less than $2 a day thereafter. The system consists of a monitor, hooked by telephone line from the home to a com puter in Raleigh, and a small sensor strapped to the leg of the probation office's "client." If the person moves a cer tain distance (kept confiden tial) away from the monitor, an automatic signal is sent tc Raleigh. The computer there immediately notifies Rober son's field supervisor in Windsor and Roberson is in turn notified. The Chowan officer saic that if the client left the prem ises, it would be considered t probation violation, an arresl warrant would be obtainec and a court probation viola tion hearing would be held. There are several checks built into the system. The cli ent must first provide a voic< sample via telephone to th< Raleigh computer. In subse quent phone checks, the com puter would be able to recog nize his voice. "The voice is as accurate as a fingerprint," Roberson noted. The computer automatical ly makes these voice checks during the day. If the phone is busy, the caller is notified to get off the line immediately in order for the check to take place. Clients are allowed to hold jobs and the computer is pro grammed accordingly for the periods of authorized absence. Roberson makes weekly checks to the home to ensure the equipment has not been tampered with. He also must make a weekly check with the employer to verify the client has been on the job. The ankle sensor is worn 24 hours a day and is attached so that it cannot be easily re moved. It is completely water proof, Roberson said. Each EHA unit costs about $2,000. However, "the unit can Continued On Page 8 Man Caught At Scene Break-In Cases Solved Edenton Police caught a would-be thief in the act last Wednesday night during a break-in at George Chevrolet after receiving a telephone call from someone in the neighborhood. Police Chief C.H. Willi i ams said that Officers Wayne Forehand, Chris Joyner and Sgt. Joe Norman responded to > the call and arrested Gerald Williams, 26, of Edenton, in side the building. Williams had gained en try by breaking a window into a restroom, then crossed the repair shop and broke another window to gain access to the showroom. According to the police chief, Williams then went to the second floor and walked a beam across the repair area to a floor above the parts depart 1 ment. It was there that he was taken into custody. The sus I pect hadn't had time to take anything of value and was t charged with breaking and i entering. He is in the Chowan 1 Banquet Flans bet t The public is invited to join - the Edenton-Chowan Cham * ber of Commerce at its annual f banquet Saturday, February - 16. i The theme for the banquet 8 will be "Keep the Troops in Your Heart," in honor of the servicemen and women ser ving in Operation Desert Storm. Tickets are available at the Chamber office or from any Chamber board member. County Jail in lieu of $10,000 bond. Two other break-ins occur red early Friday morning. An officer on routine patrol discovered a broken side win dow at Golden Corral around 3 a.m. Chief Williams said Continued On Page 8 POW Flag Is Donated A special ceremony will be held at noon Monday in front of the new courthouse for a presentation of a POW flag to the county, Nancy Morgan of the County Manager's office announced yesterday. The flag will be presented by Tom Hall, a pilot in Viet nam, who was a POW there for seven years. Hall is a resident of Center Hill. The flag will fly under the American flag at the court house.

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