482-4418
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
50*
Local Boys & Girls Club
celebrates second anniversary
Community; C1
Local man stabbed during
Sunday fight at town's
public basketball courts
Inside, A2
Local Relay
for Life sets
lofty goal
BY REBECCA BUNCH
Editor
Organizers for the Chov^an
Perquimans Relay for Life
have set an ambitious goal for
2007 — they expect to raise
$140,000.
That announcement was
made last Thursday evening
during a kickoff dinner at
First Presbyterian Church in
Edenton.
Local Relay Chair Debbie
Burroughs acknowledged that
a lot of hard work, organizing
and par
INSIDE
Community
raises money for
local mother
who has cancer.
Page A2.
' ticipation
would be
required to
achieve
that level.
But she ex
pressed
confidence
that it
could be
done.
"I know it sounds like a lot
of money and it is," she said, i
“But it’s doable. We’ve got j
some new teams, and we’ve j
also gotten off to a good start.
I think we’ll make it.”
Events planned include bake j
sales, spaghetti lunches, and !
musical performances by the I
cast of the Rocky Hock Opry. |
Another very special activity j
will be a raffle where the win- j
ner will take home a framed !
drawing of a blue crab by j
Chowan County artist Ashlee j
Birckhead.
Birckhead’s artistic ability
is even more extraordinary
given that she ha# Down syn
drome.
In sharing her talent with
the public, her parents, Susan,
and Thomas, have said, “We
hope Ashlee’s art inspires you
to celebrate abilities rather
than disabilities.”
The artwork has been do
nated in honor of Birckhead’s
grandparents, both of whom
are cancer survivors.
See RELAY, Page A2>
INDEX
A Local
Land Transfers...A4
Opinion........ A6
B Sports
Recreation News.B1
Nascar.....B2
C Community News
Upcoming Events .....C2
Society.... C3
Obituaries...C6
Church.................. C7.8
D Classifieds
Buy/Sell/Trade.D1 $
Service Directory.D2
Employment.D4
0
02006 The Chowan Herald
All Rights Reserved
Keeping the legacy alive
Earline White/The Chowan Herald
Lula Johnson, Hope Ford and Esther Freeman, members of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. community choir of Edenton join the hundreds of attendees in song Monday afternoon.
BY SEAN JACKSON
Staff Writer
Althea Riddick picked out one
sentence from a slain American
Civil Rights leader’s most famous
speech during a celebration Mon
day in his honor in Edenton.
Riddick, the keynote speaker
during the annual Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. event at Swain
Auditorium, said King’s fameu
Have a Dream” speech doesn’t
need to be read aloud in full for it
to have an impact.
The speech’s focus on judging
someone by the content of their
character and not the color of
their skin is enough to start with,
Riddick told a crowd of roughly
300 people.
During his speech, King said:
“I have a dream that my four chil
dren will one day live in a nation
where they will not be judged by
the color of their skin but by the
content of their character.”
Riddick said that one quote
could be used to illustrate the
heart and soul of King’s dream
of freedom and equality for all
Americans.
“There’s so much hidden in
there,” she said of King’s speech
delivered on the steps of the Lin
coln Memorial in August 1963 —
less than five years before the
Nobel Peace Prize-winner was as
sassinated.
With youth being the backbone
of America’s future, young
people need appropriate role
Goodwin eyes education as top priority
BY EARLINE WHITE
Staff Writer
Kenny Goodwin has a per
sonal interest in the education
of local youth.
As the father of two young
girls, the newly appointed com
missioner wants to make sure
' that rural education remains
competitive with that of larger
area and across the globe.
Goodwin plarts to make edu
cation his main focus during
his duration as a commis
sioner.
Goodwin, 34, grew up in
Tyner, and is the son of the late*
county commissioner Wayne
Goodwin and Frances Good
win.
“I want to do what my dad
was able to do — take care of
the concerns of the people in
our area,” Goodwin said dur
ing an interview Friday.
Though Goodwin has no po
%
Riddick
models, she said.
And those role
models are the
parents.
Some parents,
Riddick said,
aren’t doing
enough to mold
their children into
adults with good
character.
| “It’s household by household,”
Riddick said of the progress she
envisions in order to help the coun
try achieve King’s dream of racial
justice and equality for all Ameri
cans.
But some parents have to get back
to basics, the vice-president of in
struction at College of The Albe
marle said.
“I don’t understand that parents
want to be friends with their chil
dren,” she said, adding that parents
must be authoritarians with their
kids.
And then there’s the lack of re
spect — for themselves and others
— that some children display at
home, she said.
“It’s not up to the school system
to raise your child,” she said. “They
don’t change because you put them
on a yellow bus.”
Poor character traits can result in
a poor education, she added. The
entire community must give all it
can to ensure that today’s students
can become tomorrow’s educated
leaders, she said.
“If you think education is expen
sive,”rshe said, “try ignorance.”
Riddick and other speakers ap
litical experience himself, he is
familiar with the workings of
the commission through talks
with his father who
served on the board
for 18 years.
During that time
the late Goodwin
was able to push
forth his agenda of
creating a commu
nity center in north
ern Chowan — a
dream that was real
ized in 2000 when the Northern
Chowan Community Center
was created.
Goodwin, like his father,
plans to keep his community
in mind and be accessible to
the people of the county for
their unique and personal in
put on county issues.
It was Goodwin’s speech dur
ing the nomination process
with the local democratic
party (that made the recom
ELSEWHERE
Local pastors gather for
dinner to pay tribute to
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Page C8.
plauded the contingent of
youngsters and teens on hand
for the event.
After her stirring 20-minute
speech, Riddick was greeted
with a standing ovation.
Though Riddick was the an
chor of the nearly two-hour
program, singers provided
some of the afternoon’s more
emotional enterntainment.
Song after song not only re
joiced about King’s ongoing
legacy, they also rekindled his
passion for religion and preach
ing.
Joining the Rev. Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. Community
Choir on the bill were the Jeri
cho Singers led by Ebony
Rankins.
“You’re beautiful,” Ralph
Cole, chairman of the Chowan
County Board of Commission
ers, told the singers.
Monday’s event was held on
King’s actual birthday. He
would have been 78.
Speaker Jamye K. Copeland
also noted King’s 1962 visit to
Edenton. King spoke to an esti
mated 500 people inside the old
National Guard Armory build
See KING, Page A2 ►
mendation to the county com
missioners) that made him a
shoo-in to fill his father’s un
expired term.
“But it was the
community’s feel
ing of ease with
him, their confi
dence in him as a
family man, a
farmer, not simply
the fact that he is
Goodwin
Wayne’s son, that
the party recom
mended him,” Derrick
Wadsworth with the demo
cratic party said.
“He cares for the commu
nity, having grown up there
himself, and he cares for the
history and lifestyle of the
county being a farmer,”
Wadsworth added.
“The county is growing
See GOOWDIN, Page A2 ►
Lawrence
students
step into
history
School, C4
Farm Fresh
delayed
Buyout deal pushes opening
date back to May 2008
BY SEAN JACKSON
Staff Writer
Edenton’s proposed Farm Fresh super
market won’t open to shoppers as soon as
forecast.
Originally slated to open this summer, the
supermarket at Edenton Commons Shop
ping Center likely won’t open until May of
2008, developer Jon Wheeler said yesterday.
Farm Fresh’s parent company, SuperValu,
recently completed its acquisition of
Albertsons supermarkets, Wheeler said.
That buyout resulted in a shift in Farm
Fresh’s current budget.
“It takes a while to digest it,’’.Wheeler said.
“But I think they’re very happy with their
acquisition.”
Plans are to put the Edenton supermarket
into Farm Fresh’s 2008 budget, Wheeler
added.
A preliminary approval of the Edenton
Farm Fresh site by SuperValu was sched
uled to take place yesterday, Wheeler said
from his Norfolk. Va., office. Another ap
proval is set for Jan. 25.
“Hopefully, that will be a final-final,”
Wheeler said.
Edenton Town Manager Anne-Marie
Knighton agrees.
“I have been told this purchase is immi
nent,” Knighton said of the deal to bring
Farm Fresh to Edenton.
Farm Fresh will be the anchor of the pro
posed shopping center to be located on
Whitemon Lane, near the intersection of
N.C. Highway 32 and U.S. Highway 17.
Farm Fresh is slated to occupy 56,000
square feet, and include a florist, pharmacy,
and a Starbucks coffee outlet.
Other, smaller anchor stores at the 64-acre
site will range from 6,000 to 21,000 square
feet. Those stores will open after Farm
Fresh, Wheeler said. Those stores should
open in the fall of 2008, he added.
Dozens of other, even smaller, stores are
projected to complete the center, officials
have said.
Wheeler said the project is not in jeopardy.
With the success of the new Farm Fresh in
Elizabeth City, the chain is still looking to
expand into northeast North Carolina.
“For all intents and purposes,” he said,
“progress is still good, still on schedule, still
will happen.”
See DELAYED, Page A2 >
Town Council OKs new
utility billing system
BY SEA,N JACKSON
Staff Writer
Edenton utility customers
will see a different type of bill
in their mailboxes in March.
The postcard-style bills the
town has sent out for years will
be replaced by enveloped no
tices.
The Town Council approved
a measure recently that would
give a Charlotte-based com
pany the responsibility of
printing and mailing the
town’s monthly utility bills.
'‘What we’re doing now is
archaic,” Councilman Jerry
Parks said during the board’s
Jan. 9 meeting.
Town Manager Anne-Marie
Knighton said Total Billings
can produce and mail out the
bills at an additional cost to the
town of roughly $430 a month.
“The town has been doing
the postcards ourselves for
ever,” Knighton said.
Councilors said the fact the
town would avoid purchasing
new equipment to continue
printing and mailing the bills
— in addition to saving town
employees time — should re
duce that cost to the town dra
matically.
“It’ll be close to breaking
even,” Councilman Jimmy
Stallings said.
No town employees would
lose their jobs due to the new
See BILLS, Page A2 V