Vol. LXXII, No. 37
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Single Copies 50<
Burglar
is caught
on tape
Drug suspects
also charged
BY SEAN JACKSON
The Chowan Herald
A Durham man was ar
rested Sept. 15 on burglary
charges after Edenton police
recognized him from a local
eatery’s surveillance video
tape that showed the man al
legedly robbing the restau
rant after
hours.
Police
Chief Greg
Bonner said
Monday that
his officers
tracked down
David Wayne Richardson
Richardson,
37, at an Edenton motel after
recognizing him from the
tape. Richardson was char
ged with felony breaking and
entering, felony larceny, and
felony possession of stolen
property.
He was jailed at the
Chowan County Detention
Facility under a $50,000 se
cured bond. He was also
placed under a $5,000 bond
stemming from charges filed
against him in Orange
County, Bonner added.
“I just commend the offic
ers for a job well done,” the
chief Monday of the investi
gating officers, which in
cluded Det. Sgt. Rhonda
Copeland, Det. Aaron Da
vidson, and Sgt. Tim Hick
man.
Bonner said Richardson
had been staying at the Colo
nial Motel for about a month,
and had allegedly robbed a
number of local businesses.
Stolen property, including
cash and coins, was recov
ered during the arrest.
Richardson has already
had his first court appear
ance and is now awaiting a
probable cause hearing, the
chief added.
Chief Bonner also said
Monday that a two men were
cently arrested on drug-re
lated charges. The arrests
came after routine check by
Edenton police of a trio of
men hanging out at Tyler
Run. The third man was not
charged by police.
Marcus Antonio Logan, 18,
of 234-F Happy Home Road,
Tyner, and Dexter Jermell
White, also 18, of Edenton,
were arrested on Sept. 8 after
police Officer Joseph Felton
See CHARGED On Page A3
INSIDE
Calendar.C2
Church.......C5
Classifieds.D1 -4
Editorials..:.A6
Obituaries....C6
Society..C3
Sports.B1-4
Football Contest B4
Rose named Teacher of the Year
BY GLENDA JAKUBOWSKI
Edenton-Chowan Schools
The Edenton-Chowan school
system is proud to name
Chowan Middle School teacher
Molli Rose as its 2005-2006
Teacher of the Year.
“I know the selection panel
members must have found it
Local residents have responded to the fervent pleas for help
along the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
F orward
BY AMELIA T. REIHELD
& FATHER AL NARVAEZ
Special to The Chowan Herald
l*!» Lsyw'-i:jr
Imagine, if you will, that a Cat
egory 5 hurricane has barreled up
the Albemarle Sound, and slammed
into Edenton, pushing a 35-foot
storm surge ahead of its 200 mph
winds.
Imagine further, that the entire historic dis
trict is leveled, with not a single building left on
its foundations from Water Street to Queen
Street. Imagine that there’s not a single usable
building for as far back as Albemarle Street.
Imagine that everything left standing, even miles
inland, has extensive damage from wind, rain,
contaminated floodwater, mold, and mildew. The
remaining houses shelter several families each.
Nearly all the stores, gas stations, and churches
and hospitals are closed or severely damaged.
Most tapwater is undrinkable. There are few air
conditioners working. Now, imagine this sort of
damage in a swath extending all the way from
Elizabeth City to Rocky Mount, to the Virginia
state line and beyond.
That’s what the people of coastal Mississippi
are dealing with. A hundred thousand people
have lost everything they owned, from baby pic
tures to bowling trophies, from family heirlooms
to the brand new car. The insurance settlements
will take weeks, perhaps months. Many people
lacked sufficient insurance coverage, and many
will find what they thought was wind damage
ruled to be flood damage, and thus not covered
by their homeowner’s policy. Worse yet, just be
cause the house is gone and the car destroyed,
doesn’t mean the payments for them aren’t still
Mimi Reiheld Photos: (at left) Larry McLaughlin and Father Al Narvaez of Edepton build a door for the
Mississippi clinic's new storage building; (at right) A lifetime's work and memories, gone with the wind. This
resident has just rescued all that's left of his small electrical contracting business - a hammer and a step ladder.
Staff photo by Earline White
A message on the marquee lets passersby know that Taylor
Theatre has closed for repairs once again. The theatre hopes to
reopen within the next two weeks.
hard to pick just one teacher
from the pool of exceptional
candidates they met with,”
said Edenton-Chowan Schools
superintendent Allan T. Smith.
“We were guaranteed, with
these candidates, to have the
best of the best represent us as
Teacher of the Year. Molli will
bring her love of children and
her phenomenal teaching
skills with her as our school
system ambassador as she
moves forward in the Teacher
of the Year selection process.
We are very proud of her.”
Rose’s fellow candidates for
the county Teacher of the Year
See ROSE On Page A3
due on the first of the month.
It was a heartbreaking scene that greeted the
sixteen Edenton residents who went to Long
Beach, Mississippi last week. In a trip organized
by St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and St. Anne’s
Catholic Church, the group went to help out in
a relief center operated by Mississippi’s
Lutheran-Episcopal Disaster Relief organiza
tion. We saw hundreds of people filing into the
Coast Episcopal School, each hoping to find
some basic toiletries, some food, and medical
care, as their homes, doctors’ offices, drugstores,
and grocery stores were flattened.
The elementary school had opened its doors
almost before the rain had quit, to house a clinic
staffed by doctors and nurses from Duke Uni
versity. The word had gone out around the na
tion, and donations were pouring in by the 18
wheeler-load. Diapers, paper towels, and toilet
paper were stacked to the ceiling. Canned goods,
toys, snacks, breakfast foods, baby foods, soap,
shampoo, tooth brushes, used and new clothing,
cleaning supplies, rakes and shovels, all arrived
faster than they could be sorted and distributed.
Volunteers from as far away as northern
Canada came with sleeping bags and work boots,
to sleep on classroom floors, to help clear brush,
to help with the food distribution, and to help
those who were wearing all they had left in the
world, find a pair of shoes that fit.
Clergy from all over the U.S. were there offer
ing prayers, hugs and consolation. And in many
cases, the workers who were there from dawn
to dusk, helping to unpack and distribute the do
See KATRINA On Page A2
Taylor Theatre down, not out
BY EARLINE WHITE
The Chowan Herald
It took them over a year to
recover from Hurricane Isabel
and it seemed that things at the
Taylor Theatre were well on
their way to normal. But one
year after their long-awaited
reopening Taylor Theatre’s
marquee is once again dark.
Moviegoers may have taken
notice that over the past few
weeks Hollywood’s premiering
movies were being shown on
only one of the theatre’s two
screens. The roofing that had
been peeled back like a sardine
can during Isabel had once
>
again been shaken loose by
strong winds. The ceiling had
fallen in on one side of the the
atre, Chowan County Planning
Director Elizabeth Bryant
said, therefore posing a pos
sible threat to patrons. The
screening room on the left of
the theatre was then closed for
repairs while the one on the
right remained operational for
the showing of summer block
busters.
Last week the repair work
on the left screening room Was
complete and ready for ap
proval when Inspector Holly
Columbo pointed out that the
plaster on the original ceiling,
Supt. Allan
Smith, left, con
gratulates
Teacher of the
Year Molli Rose
(beside Smith)
and her fellow
nominees.
GLENDA
JAKUBOWSKI
PHOTO
Chowan tax
rates to rise
County faces first re
evaluation since 1998
BY SEAN JACKSON
The Chowan Herald
Property owners in Edenton and Chowan
should brace for a rise in the tax value of their
homes and farmlands next year.
Dinring a presentation to the Edenton Town
Council during that board’s Sept. 13 regular
meeting, County Tax Supervisor Lynda
Hendricks told town officials that a recently com
pleted revaluation of all real property in the
town and county indicated that prices for homes
sold is outrunning the current tax values estab
lished in 1998.
■ Hendricks pointed out the disparity in sale and
tax value numbers by showing council the costs
of 19 homes and business properties sold over
the past couple of years.
“Sometimes it’s close,” Hendricks said, “some
times it’s a tremendous difference.”
Examples of that difference included:
• A home on Twiddy Avenue with a tax value
of $50,606 that sold for $91,000, or 44 percent
higher than the tax value;
• A Boswell Street home sold in September 2003
with a tax value of $44,411 that sold for $85,000, a
48-percent difference;
• A home in the Cotton Mill Village valued at
$72,518 that sold for $145,000, a 50-percent differ
ence;
• A Queen Street home valued at $44,000 that
sold for $150,000, a 71-percent difference;
The tax value/sales cost range was only 15
percent different at a North Broad Street resi
dence (valued at $59,328) that sold for $70,000.
“That person (who sold the home) was stay
ing pretty close to the tax value,” Hendricks
added.
Hendricks said that local governments —
which impose property tax rates under state stat
utes —could lower the tax rate after revaluations
of fair market value rates boost the value of
homes and farmlands.
Notices of the new property value schedule
could begin being sent out by Nov. 3, Hendricks
said. The new appraisal values, set to be “on the
books” by Jan. 1, would be due on Jan. 5, 2007,
she added.
Pearson Appraisal Services Inc. of Richmond
Va. conducted the revaluation.
The new property values are expected to put
similar homes at similar values throughout
Edenton and Chowan County, Hendricks said.
“It equalizes the tax burden,” she added.
The revaluation process is required under
state law.
“It’s not because we want to,” perform re
evaluations, Hendricks said, “it’s because we
have to.”
• In other business, council took no action of a
request for a conditional use permit by Lloyd
Griffin Jr. to have his property on Whitemon
Lane designated for the subdivision of commer
cial lots.
which stretches the expanse of
the entire theatre, also needed
repairs above the neighboring
screening room. Currently,
crews are working on repair
ing the other screening room
as well as completing some
measures of preventative
maintenance.
As of press time the owner
of the theatre, Bob Krochmal,
had not asked for a follow-up
inspection on the repairs, and
could not be reached for com
ment. However Taylor Thea
tre’s answering service states
that a reopening should take
place within the next two
weeks.
V