482-4418 Wednesday, March 28, 2007 Tooth Fairy doles out more $ nowadays Community, C1 545 new people call Edenton, Chowan home Story below Young heart patient helps those like her Lindsey Bunch has heart surgery, raises money for research, too BY EARLINE WHITE Staff Writer When she was two years old Lindsey Bunch told her mom that her heart was “beeping” too fast. Six years later the “beeping” reached over 200 beats per minute. This past September, at the age of eight, Bunch became a survivor of Wolff-Parkinson White syndrome, a rare form of supraven tricular tachycardia, which affects between 0.1 and three percent of the population. Nearly 80 percent of people with symptoms have them first be tween the ages of 11 and 50. In February, only five months after her heart surgery to correct the problem, Bunch was among the top fundraisers for the Ameri can Heart Association through Jump Rope for Heart. , A condition cited in the news for causing the sudden death »f athletes on the court or on the field, supraventricular tachycardia or SVT is a condition in which the electrodes of the heart misfire and cause the heart to beat too fast. It caused Bunch, an active young girl on the soccer and bas ketball recre ation leagues, to become fatigued even while sit ting still. For many the condition is controlled by medication, and for Bunch medication worked for a while. But one night at home nothing seemed to work. Bunch’s parents remained calm as they called the doctor and, as he instructioned, dunked Bunch’s head in the sink filled with See BUNCH, Page A2 ► INSIDE Bunch joins her class mates in Jump Rope for Heart fund-raiser. Page B4 Bunch mAi Rtsr&s. \ 252$ ,,v. c*P',y» ■^2Z J p -rsf Tr*^ S | | ; ’ ,;. j: | j EE! 1 r . 1C j^f Francisco Valle, above and right, of Capital Restoration & Waterproofing, works to repair leaks to the facade of a downtown building applying new mortar be tween the bricks. Valle and co workers with the Edenton based busi ness hope to finish their work on the building — home to Sound Feet Shoes and Broad Street. Software Group — by the end of this week or early next week. Sean Jackson/The Chowan Herald OLF PROPOSAL Officials say airfield won’t fly near here Perquimans County still on i Navy’s list, but not likely to become airfield, some say BY SEAN JACKSON Staff Writer l 51% i'.i-U Local officials think Perquimans County will win its battle to keep a Navy airfield from landing there in the wake of a meeting in Hertford last week than drew nearly800opponents of the plan. While the Navy has tapped Washington County as its pre ferred site for an outlying landing (OLF) field for its new Su per Hornet fighter jets, Perquimans was recently put back on the list of possibilities. Last week’s meeting in Hertford was between Navy offi cials and local residents, with both sides stating their cases for or against the proposed OLE “I personally think the Navy is head ing straight for Washington County,” Chowan County Manager Cliff Copeland said. Copeland, who attended the meeting at Perquimans County High School, said the Navy appears to have changed its mind little since a similar group of plans was released several years ago., Copeland Richard Bunch, Edenton-Chowan Chamber of Commerce executive director, agreed with Copeland that the Navy hasn’t wavered from its initial plans to build the OLF near Roper in Washington County “I think the Navy determined the site for this OLF years ago,”hesaid. Edenton Town Manager Anne-Marie Knighton is taking a similar position. “I do get the sense that the Perquimans site is attractive to the Navy” she said, “as a back-up to Washington County:” Opponents of the Washington County site say the airfield would harm nearby Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge is home to thousands of wa terfowl each winter Bunch also attended the March 21 meet ing in Hertford, as well as a similar public hearing in Windsor the night before. He thinks the Navy’s case is no stronger now than it was several years ago. “There is no way you can build a major airport there,” See OLF, Page A2 > Upcoming OLF public hearings « ■ Beaufort Community College, Washington, > N.C.: Tuesday 7 p.m. A ■ Vernon James Research Center, Plymouth: -J next Wednesday 7 p.m. , * Chowan among northeast counties enjoying steady growth Census data show county population still on the rise f ■ •; BY REBECCA BUNCH Editor Chowan County added 545 new residents between 2000 and 2006. That increase, reflected in a recent U.S. Census release, boosted the county’s overall ©2006 The Chowan Herald All Rights Reserved population to 14,695, for a 3.9 percent increase. With several planned resi dential developments in the works, Edenton Town Man ager Anne-Marie Knighton and County Manager Cliff Copeland predicted those numbers will only continue to climb. “The U.S. Census report con firms what our studies have been projecting, a steady in crease in population in Eden ton and Chowan County,” she said. “Obviously, this 3.9 percent increase is very good news for us,” Copeland said. He added that he believes the actual number of new residents is probably higher than what cen sus figures reflect. Knighton and Copeland both said that local officials con tinue to plan carefully in order to make the- transition a smooth one. “Every day we are all work ing hard to make sure that as we grow, we will provide the citizens of our community with high quality services,” she said. “I often wondered about the fact that Edenton’s population has basically stayed the same for generations. That is going to change over the next 10 years,” Knighton observed. Copeland added that the in frastructure here, including Chowan Hospital and the wide range of services it offers, will surely complement opportuni ties for continued growth. The news was also good for Camden, Perquimans and Pasquotank counties, which all demonstrated steady growth. Camden’s population rose to an estimated 9,271, increasing by 2,386 people, making it the second fastest growing county in the state since the 2000 cen sus. In Pasquotank, the popula See GROWTH, Page A2 > Growth by the j Numbers Population increases in local counties between 2000-2006 Camden 2,386 Chowan 545 Pasquotank 4,694 Perquimans 969 INDEX A Local Land Transfers.A5 Opinion.. A7 s.j. ' \-b.f.’.fh LJ**-. .vVi f AV» i'-ji ' . i • B Sports/School Recreation News...... B1 NASCAR.............. B2 School....B3,4 ,,v / i C Community News Upcoming Events.C2 Obituaries...C6 i,, Church C7.8 D Classifieds Buy/Sell/Trade.D1 Service Directory.D2 Employment.D3 ■ Aces edge First Flight in tennis action Sports, B1 r ■ gjf ft 1 i / Ains* Friday & Saturday VfWf AprU 27 y 28 - 7:30 PM Sponsored by Rocky Hock Ruritan ■ Relay For LifeTeam EA Swain Auditorium Edenton, NC Mail orders call 252-2214875 or 252-340-3438 Tickets $10.00 Available At Byrum Drue Value Hardware - Downtown Edenton 252-482-2131 Acoustic Coffee - Downtown Edenton 252482-7465 Nixon Family Restaurant - Rocky Hock 252-221-2244 Woodard’s Pharmacy - Downtown Hertford 252426-5527 Billy Smith - Suffolk, VA 757-9254541 >