Wednesday, June 17,1998
Published in the most beautiful little city on the North Carolina Coast
Vol. LXV, No. 24 50e
Businesses looking
at potential impact
of Wal Mart here
Chamber forms
task force, while
downtown plans
separate meeting
BY REBECCA BUNCH
Editor
While no firm deal has yet
been made, the prospect that
Wal Mart may locate a store in
Chowan County already has
local businesses discussing the
pros and cons.
Elizabeth City dentist Dr.
Lloyd Griffin, Jr., owner of the
property in question, said in a
telephone interview Monday
night that about two months
ago he granted a North Caro
lina-based development com
pany a six-month option on the
land. Griffin owns almost 70
acres of farmland on “B” Lane
adjacent to Albemarle Motor
Company in Edenton.
Dr. Griffin, who grew up in
Edenton, said he was not aware
that Wal Mart was looking at
the site until two weeks ago
when he received a telephone
call from Edenton-Chowan
Chamber of Commerce Presi
dent Jim Chesson in which
Chesson told him someone from
Wal Mart had been out to look
at his land.
However, at this point, Dr.
Griffin said, he has not made a
deal to sell any part of his prop
erty to Wal Mart, nor has he
been asked to.
He said that since word has
begun to spread throughout the
local community, he has re
ceived calls from several con
cerned Chowan County resi
dents asking about the sale of
his land, something he said
came about because of the in
crease in his property taxes
that followed the recent revalu
ation.
“Ya’ll have tripled my prop
erty taxes, just raised taxes like
crazy on it,” he said. “It’s just a
little piece of farmland that’s
been sitting there for 20 years.
There’s no way it’s worth what
(tax) they put on it.”
According to the Chowan
County Tax Department, the
appraised value of the 68 acres
owned by Griffin, both before
See IMPACT On Page 9-A
Love of books provides bond
BY REBECCA BUNCH
Editor
Take some interested adult
volunteers, and some elemen
tary school students who share
a love of books, and what do
you have? A winning combi
nation, thanks to the hard work
of Rosalie Boyd, head librar
ian at the Shepard-Pruden Li
brary in Edenton.
D.F. Walker Elementary
School Principal Ralph Cole,
whose second, third and fourth
graders will be spending time
over the next few weeks of
summer school honing their
reading skills with the help of
community volunteers re
cruited by Boyd, said she had
been “great” to work with on
this very important project.
“We are having summer
school for about 70 students in
grades two through four, try
ing to help them improve their
reading, writing and math
comprehension skills,” he
said. “Rosalie said she could
help us, and she did.”
What Boyd did was to ar
range for adult volunteers to
join the kids at the public li
brary on Tuesdays, Thurs
days, and Fridays and spend
an hour reading together.
“These volunteers have been
helping them with their read
ing comprehension, and it’s
working out really well,” Cole
Volunteer Gail Miller listens as D.F. Walker fourth grader Jalisa Sessoms reads from her book
said. “She has done a tremen
dous job of providing volun
teers to read to the children or
to listen to them read.”
Cole said that in addition to
helping the children learn bet
ter reading skills, he hoped that
the “Book Buddies” project
would also serve another pur
pose: encouraging children to
want to visit the library when
they are out of school.
“I think it is very important
for them to develop an inter
est in visiting the library on
their own," he said. “That’s
See BOND On Page 3-A
County says
^ax rate will
be reduced
BY SEAN JACKSON
Staff Writer
County residents will experi
ence no increase in service fees
and a 14 percent reduction in
the tax rate, according to the
county’s proposed 1999 budget.
Still, it remains to be seen if
school officials will be smiling
i next fall when they return to
work with only half of the
school system’s requested bud
| get increase approved.
Copeland, Chowan’s county
manager, unveiled his FY 1999
budget last Monday morning
(June 8) during the regular
monthly meeting of the Chowan
County Board of Commission
ers. The budget was unani
mously approved by commis
sioners at a public hearing last
Tuesday evening.
The $13,400,356 budget in
cludes an 11-cent rate reduc
tion in ad valorem taxes (from
80 cents per $100 to 69 cents
per $100), a $15,000 increase in
the Inspections Department’s
budget for either an assistant
inspector or a county planner,
a three percent cost of living
increase for county employees,
and an eight percent budget
increase for the Edenton
Chowan Schools System.
The county’s $66.9 million tax
base rose 17 percent as a result
from the increase in real estate
values that is attributed to the
recent revaluation.
The county’s general fund,
which currently totals
$10,429,229, rose 2.6 percent —
$273,396 - over last year’s bud
get. Most of that increase,
Copeland said, went toward the
increase in school funding. The
Edenton-Chowan Board of Edu
cation had asked for a 15 per
cent increase in funding for its
Exceptional Children’s Pro
gram and general technology
needs. Although Copeland said
those programs were worthy
of additional increases in fund
ing, the county simply did not
have the financial resources to
budget more than a $176,979
increase.
The school system had asked
for a $331,835 increase.
“This year, they felt like the
See NOD On Page 9-A
Accused drug dealer Arthur "Big Bud" Privott (in wheelchair) is helped from
the courtroom by an EMS technician and a court official. (Staff photo by Sean
Jackson)
Suspect collapses at
family bond hearing
BY SEAN JACKSON
Staff Writer
ELIZABETH CITY — Just
moments before a scheduled
bond hearing was to take place
relating to a number of federal
drug charges he was facing,
Arthur William “Big Bud”
Privott collapsed in a federal
courtroom here on Thursday.
Privott, his wife, and their
two daughters each face life
imprisonment and minimum
fines of $8 million if convicted
on drug charges stemming
from their arrests last week.
After leaving the courtroom
in the care of Pasquotank
County EMS personnel, Privott,
50, was taken to Albemarle
Hospital for treatment. Upon
his release from the hospital
approximately two hours later,
Privott was returned to the
courtroom.
Privott and his wife Janice
Lee Moore Privott, 49, both of
352 Cofield Rd., Edenton, were
each charged last Tuesday
morning with conspiracy to dis
tribute and to possess with in
tent to distribute cocaine and
cocaine base (crack), along with
six counts of distribution of
cocaine base. If convicted, the
Privotts face life in prison and
maximum fines of $28 million.
Their daughter, Jennifer
Anne Privott, 25, was charged
See SUSPECT On Page S-A
Hospital oversight committee
chooses two among its bidders
BY SEAN JACKSON
Staff Writer
Hoping to complete a deal to
lease/sell Chowan Hospital by
Oct. 1, a commitee charged with
overseeing the process has nar
rowed the list of prospects to
two health care providers.
During the closed session
portion of its meeting at
Chowan Hospital Monday, the
oversight commitee in charge
of reviewing the lease/sell pro
cess selected Pitt County Me
morial Hospital (PCMH) and
Province Healthcare as the only
two survivors of the ongoing
bidding war.
Both PCMH and Province
offered bid proposals at a pub
lic hearing last month along
with HealthCarolina, a joint
venture between Albemarle
Hospital and Sentara Health
System, Community Health
Systems (CHS) and New Ameri
can Health Corporation.
According to attorney Bob
Wilson, legal counsel for
Chowan County and Chowan
Hospital, the oversight
commitee elected to choose one
non-profit agency as well as
one for-profit agency from the
list of five bid proposals
PCMH and HealthCarolina
are non-profit agencies, while
Province, CHS and New Ameri
can — all three based in
Brentwood, TN—are for-profit
agencies.
“The oversight commitee
wanted to choose a representa
tive from both styles of health
care delivery,” said Wilson.
As to why the oversight
commitee chose PCMH over
HealthCarolina, Wilson said the
commitee felt Chowan resi
dents had a stronger relation
ship with PCMH where health
care needs were concerned.
“It just made more sense not
to disrupt those (Chowan
PCMH) relationships. In their
(oversight dbmmitee) view,”
Wilson said,”it (choosing
PCMH over HealthCarolina)
would be a continuum of the
same type of pattern.”
“The existing referral rela
tionships of the Chowan County
medical community and the
preferences of the residents of
Chowan County are more ori
ented toward Pitt County Me
morial Hospital than toward
Sentara Health System, located
in Norfolk, or toward Albe
marle Hospital in Elizabeth
City,” the official statement of
the oversight commitee, re
leased Monday afternoon,
stated. “In addition, the finan
cial consideration offered by
Pitt exceeded that offered by
HealthCarolinh.”
At last month’s public hear
ing, PCMH proposed to spend
$19.1 million in up-front money
for a 30-year lease, along with
$ 10 million for capital improve
ments, for a total financial of
fer of $35.8 million.
Province, considered to have
offered the best financial pro
posal to the Chowan County
See BIDDERS On Page 9-A
HONORING A DEDICATED PUBLIC SERVANT
Chowan County Sheriff Fred Spruill, left, and Edenton Police Chief Gregory Bonner, right, present
gifts on behalf of their respective departments to retiring Edenton Police Officer Joe Norman.
Norman, a sergeant on the EPD, is retiring after 28 years on the job. The presentations were made
during a dinner in his honor at the American Legion. (Staff photo by Rebecca Bunch)