s marks Wersary . 14^.16-A wrestlers ,-.. * '^4sg9S3Kg6 A Chowan County coupfe watched this sea! on the beach from their home on the A!bemar!e Seal is spotted on sound in county BY HELEN K.OUTLAND S;a/y IVrtfer A Chowan County couple were enjoying a lazy Satur day morning when his wife walked to the window and spotted a seal laying on the beach in front of their home. "When she told me what she had seen my initial response was "yeah, right"," he says. But. upon his wife's insistence he went and took a look. Sure enough, right there on the edge of the Albemarle Sound lay a sea lion. "We have been getting lots of reports of sightings," says Kathy Rawis, Marine Biologist for the North Carolina Marine Fisheries in Elizabeth City. "We have had reports of Mana tees being seen in the Roanoke River." Rawls says that these sightings are highly unusual, but that recent environmental changes have had a lot to do with the sightings. "Waters in these areas that are not normally salty are salty now." she says. High winds and seas, lack of rain fall, and shifts in the winds See SEAL On Page 13 A Town looks at budget cuts State (grab of funds cause for concern BY HELEN K. OUTLAND For the second time Gover nor Mike Easley is withhold ing reimbursements from counties and municipalities. Easley plan is to hold $64 mil lion in inventory tax reim bursement, $9.6 million from liquor sales, and $6 million for other reimbursements. The governor's decision will cost Edenton $153, 669 or 5.5 percent of this 2001-2002 bud get, "It's not fair that the State is doing this to us," says Edenton City Manager, Anne Marie Knighton. "Where can I cut. what services can we re duce to make up for nearly $154 thousand? "The Fire Chief was waiting for me Friday morning when I got to work," Knighton says. "He had gotten the memo I had sent about freezing all capital outlay purchases, but he was still concerned." According to the city manager the chief wanted to proceed in the pur chase of ten new pagers, that are in the budget, for the vol unteer firemen. The old ones are wearing out and are ready to be replaced. "Of course I said ok, but it .irked me to no end that the State is grabbing our money to deal with their revenue short falls." Knighton says she is con templating delaying the pur chase of two new police cars. "1 am going to meet with the Po lice Chief, Public Works Direc tor and the Garage Supervisor to assess the impact of a delay on the police fleet." She added that tentative plans being looked at include cutting by 5 percent allocations from the town to the Edenton Historical Commission, the Chowan Arts Council, the Edenton-Chowan Chamber of Commerce and Albemarle Hopeline. Chowan County's is suffer ing a double whammy with the See CUTS On Page 13-A Chowan continues elicits to work on resolving OLF issue i Public meeting is held here to inform on issue (Editor's Note: To share your views on the OLF site issue, e mail Sen. Jesse Helms, jessehelms@helms.senate.gov; Sen. John Edwards, sena tor@edwards.senate.gov; or Rep Walter Jones at cong jonesfa mail.house.gov) BY HELEN K. OUTLAND