Funds Are
Sought For
Scout Hut
Published In The Most Beautiful Little City On The North Carolina Coast
|| EDENTON, WORTH CAROLINA, THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 1993
Single Copies 35 Cents
Nature Prevails
A mysterious vine threatens to engulf the front yard of The Tredwell House on West Eden
• Street, the home of Mr. and Mrs. Olin Sykes and family. Amid professional landscaping, the
J plant began to grow and grow and grow. Neighbors believe it might be a pumpkin, seeded from
last Halloween's jack-o-lantems. Whatever might issue from the creeping wonder should soon
be apparent, when blooms turn to fruit. (Staff photo by E.N. "Pete" Manning.)
Four Cent Increase Proposed
f By MARGUERITE MCCALL
The proposed budget for the
Town of Edenton for fiscal
year 1993-94 is based on a tax
rate of $ .42, which represents
a four cent tax increase.
Prior to adoption, the Town
Council Finance Committee
will preview and discuss the
O document on Tuesday, June
15, and a public hearing will
be held on Tuesday, June 22,
at 7 p.m.
If adopted by the Council at
its Committees' Meeting on
Monday, June 28, the budget
would reflect the first tax in
crease since July 1988, said
ft* Town Manager Anne-Marie
Kelly last week.
"It is significant," she
said, "that there has been no
increase in five years in spite
of the state of the economy."
Ms. Kelly said the sales tax
has been flat, as well as other
taxes such as the beer~ajuL
wine tax. Also, the bad budget
crunch experienced two years
ago by the state curtailed
reimbursements to the Town.
"Intangible tax growth was
taken away," she said, "and
interest earnings have de
creased. Three years ago, we
were earning 7 to 8 percent on
our investments, now we are
earning 3 percent.
"If it were not for our capi
tal outlay needs, I dare say no
increase would be needed.
But,” she stressed, "we have
held the line, deferred, and
delayed capital expenditures
over the last year or two and
-.our needs.eontinue to grow."
Capital needs funded in
clude Police Department --
two vehicles ($28,000), seven
walkie talkie radios and ten
mobile radios ($33,825); Rec
reation Department - a van
($18,000) and replacement of
lights at the Armory ($12,000);
Fire Department — safety
equipment ($19,000); and
Continued On Page 11-A
Commissioners Approve Budget
By MARGUERITE MCCALL
The Chowan County Board
of Commissioners approved
| Monday night the !FY 1993-94
budget, which includes a five
cent tax increase in the tax
rate. That amount will pro
duce additional revenue of
$235,125.
Items receiving an in
crease in the budget total
$275,715. These are:
, H • County Office Building --
$25,643 for new wiring, a
r
safety issue, said County
Manager Cliff Copeland.
• Emergency Medical
Services - $15,000 for a new
ambulance. Copeland said
each of the two present ambu
lances record over 105,000
miles.
• Social Services - Aid For
Dependent Children (AFDC),
$10,967, mandated; Medicaid,
$50,000, mandated; Special
Assistance Aid $14,785, man
dated.
1
Commencement This Friday
d.
Commencement exer
cises for the John A. Holmes
High School graduating
class of 1993 will be held on
Friday, June 11, at 7 p.m. in
the John A. Holmes High
School Athletic Complex.
Co - Salutatorian Stephen
Lowe will welcome the gra
duates and guests and pre
sent a "Senior Salute” to the
Class of1993.
Valedictorian Shannon
Robertson and Senior Class
President Darrell Arm
stead will each present an
address to the graduating
class.
Id, assistant
ohn A. Hol
ds recogni
evements
g seniors
confirm
and
ils for this year's
intent exercises
McArthur, Laura
Traci Huffman,
tckson, Amanda
ill, Ruth Mitch
Mitchener III, board chair
man.
Class Co • Salutatorian
Lee Mayo will present the
"Graduate Challenge" and
the Turning of the Tassels.
Special music will be
provided by the John A.
Holmes Band under the di
rection of Otis Strother, the
John A. Holmes Concert
Choir directed by Shelby
Strother, and a rendition of
"We Will Stand" by gra
duating seniors Darrell
Armstead and Tangie
Copeland said the amount in
cludes six air conditioning
units for John A. Holmes
High School, two classrooms
at White Oak School, addi
tional lines at D.F. Walker
School for heating, scheduled
furniture, and roofs at Cho
wan Middle School and the
Fine Arts Building.
Continued On Page 11-A
CMS Target
Of Another
Bomb Threat
By MARGUERITE MCCAL^
Chowan Middle School was
the target of yet another bomb
threat Friday.
Chowan County Sheriff
Fred Spruill said the call,
which came into the school at
12:40 p,m., was traced to a
telephone booth in Edenton.
He said Center Hill-Cross
Roads Fire Department Res
cue Squad and school person
nel sealed the building.
"Nothing was found,"
Spruill said. "The regular
school schedule resumed."
• Industrial Development -
-$12,500.
• Education — $146,820.
Manhunt Continues
By JEANETTE WHITE
News Editor
Bertie Ledger-Advance
WINDSOR - An east-coast man
hunt is underway fora self-proclaimed
ex-cop who calmly and methodically
executed three people and wounded
two others during the robbery of a
Windsor grocery store early Sunday
evening.
One man in the store was not physi
cally injured after he convinced the
robber he did not know and could not
identify his attacker.
“Tall man, this is your lucky day,”
the robber told the survivor, who was
then bound with a piece of dog leash
or chain from the store shelf.
Residents in the Town of Windsor
remained in shock this week, trying to
understand how such brutality could
take place in their friendly commu
nity with neighbors unaware of what
was happening until it was too late to
stop the hand that wielded such hor
ror.
Belo, a chain of 33 stores in North
Carolina and Virginia owned by
Camellia Food Stores, Inc., is offer
ing a $5,000 reward for information
leading to the arrest and conviction of
this assailant There may also be a
$2,500 reward from the governor’s
office, but that possibility had not
been confirmed at press time.
The Town of Windsor will also
participate in the reward and amount
will be determined when Town Coun
cil meets this week.
When the robbery was over, Belo
Manager Grover Lee Cecil, Jr., 48,
Country Club Drive, Ayden; cashier
Joyce Cobum Reason, 36, Cobum
Road, Windsor; and Johnny Rankins,
Jr., 48, Albemarle Street, Edenton, a
member of the store’s cleaning crew,
were dead.
Ms. Reason and Cecil were shot
once in the head and Rankins was shot
in the back.
Other members of the cleaning
crew survived, but were listed in criti
cal condition Monday at Pitt Memo
rial Hospital in Greenville, where they
were flown by East Care Sunday night
The survivors are Sylvester Welch,
Jr., 39, Route 2, Hertford, who was
shot in the back; and Thomas Earl
Hardy, 48, Granville Trailer Park,
Edenton, whose throat was cut and a
knife was broken off in his back.
The handle of the knife has not
been found.
Jasper Hardy, Jr., 51, Albemarle
Trailer Park, Edenton, was the man
whom the attacker did not physically
harm. Hardy was badly shaken by the
attack. He was treated and released at
Bertie Memorial Hospital.
Officers investigating the attack
believe the triple murders and robbery
happened this way:
The attacker went inside the store
and browsed before closing time. Just
before the store closed at 6 p.m., he
hid inside the store until there were no
customers. Then he walked toward
Continued On Page 3-A
Law enforcement officers confer in front of the Be-Lo Market in Windsor, site of the Sunday
night robbery, murder of two store employees and an Edenton man, and the wounding of an
Edenton man and a Hertford man. (Courtesy of Laura Harrell, The Bertie Ledger-Advance.)
Man Fatally Injured In Wreck
Ernie Ashley Swain, 72, of
Soundshore Drive died in Pitt
Memorial Hospital in Green
ville Friday as the result of
injuries sustained in an auto
mobile accident Thursday
afternoon at 3:10.
Sgt. C.D. Gould of the
North Carolina Highway Pa
trol in Elizabeth City said
Swain and Jhis wife, Doris
Clifton Swain, 72, were trav
eling South on NC 32 one and
one-half miles South of Eden
ton when the accident oc
curred.
Mrs. Swain was driving
the couples' 1990 Cadillac
passenger car, Gould said.
"As the vehicle approached
the bridge," he said, "it ran
off on the right and struck the
concrete bridge rail end, spun
around, and came to rest in
the middle of the bridge."
As of Monday afternoon,
no charges had been filed,
Gould said.
Both Swain and Mrs.
Swain were transported to
Chowan Hospital for evalu
ation by the Edenton-Chowan
EMS, Unit One.
Gould said the investigat
ing officer, Trooper W.F.
Whitley, pulled muscles in
his back trying to extricate
Swain from the vehicle and,
Continued On Page U-A