482-4418
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
New homes may
follow demolition
of Chowan Veneer
on Coke Avenue
Story below
v.:
First Steamer
to play in Majors
Sports, B1
■ -
Ashley Barrow starts
fund for Duck-Thru cats
Inside, A6
About $16,000 in musical
instruments stolen at Holmes
Inside, A4
T
Corn
plantings
increase
Push for ethanol
a likely catalyst
throughout U.S.
BY EARLINE WHITE
Staff Writer
On a recent frosty spring
morning, farmer Dale White
hitched up the disc harrow and
headed into the sandy loam of
his family’s farm on Greenhall
Road.
He’s hop
ing for a
good sum
mer — he
contracted
some soy
beans at $8,
and because
of the rising
corn prices
i he cut his cotton crop in half.
“I’m tickled to death about
that,” White said.
“We still pick with a two-row
picker, dump the cotton into
the trailer, stomp it down in the
r*'*--- basket and use heavy covers to
wrap it up — that’s a job and a
lot of up and down.”
For as long as White can re
member working in the field
there has always been cotton,
j corn and beans.
! On the family’s 600 acre farm
^ White has decided this year to
cut back the cotton crop by
half and split the difference
between beans and corn.
White
Corn reaches all-time high
This year, the first in a great
many corn reached an all-time
high of nearly $4 a bushel
while cotton prices remained
level.
Coupled with the increased
demand for ethanol, the corn
based biofuel that has surged
in popularity partly because of
rising gasoline prices and
partly because President Bush
declared that the U.S. is ad
dicted to oil — local farmers
are all jumping on the corn
and bean bandwagon hoping
for a better-than-average year.
Corn plantings in North
Carolina are expected to total
1.05 million acres in 2007;
260.000 more than in 2006, state
officials said. Soybean
plantings at 1.40 million acres
are also expected to increase
30.000 acres from last year.
"In the past, the best corn
land has been in cotton be
cause of the low prices [of
corn],” Mike Williams, local
agriculture agent said.
Cotton, on the other hand, is
down 300,000 acres across the
See CORN, Page A2 >
02006 The Chowan Herald
All Rights Reserved
Earline White/The Chowan Herald
Damion Perry, 15, aka Uncle Sam, and Sha'kiera Holley, 14, aka Lady Liberty, remind local
passersby that tax season is here. Ed Horn of Liberty Tax Service in Edenton said to have
your return postmarked by midnight Monday.
Local schools proud
of low dropout rate
Smith: Ninth grade
students a major
focus of efforts
BY REBECCA BUNCH
Editor
. The local school system is
among those who have demon
strated a drop in suspensions
for the past two school years.
Those results were con
tained in a newly released re
port from the Department of
Public Instruction.
Chowan County school offi
cials credit a proactive ap
proach to keeping kids in
school.
During the 2005-2006 school
year, the most recent for which
figures are available, the
Edenton-Chowan school-sys
tem recorded a 28 percent drop
in suspensions, and a 16.8 sus
pension rate when compared
to Figures reported in 2003-2004
and 2004-2005.
Among the trends noted in
the report
was that
ninth grad
ers were the ‘
most fre
quently sus
pended Stu
dents state
wide.
Dr. Allan
Smith, su
perinten
dent, said he and other admin
istrators and educators in the
local school system had
learned from prior studies that
ninth graders are an ex
See SCHOOLS, Page A2 ►
Smith
Demolition ends an era
BY EARLINE WHITE
Staff Writer
For over 50 years Chowan
Veneer was a thriving busi
ness, cutting a niche for Eden
tonintheN.C. furniture busi
ness.
So when the business fell
into bankruptcy and the build
ing into disrepair, it was a sad
reminder to E.L. Hollowell,
owner of Chowan Veneer for
over two decades.
“I’m just sick about it,”
Hollowell said about the recent
demolition.
Town Manager Anne Marie
Knighton said, “The Town and
County tried very hard to pre
serve the jobs at the mill. So it
is sad to see the mill gone, but
we are relieved to see the prop
erty finally cleaned up.
“It was terrible that the
neighbors had to endure the
overgrown weeds and junk for
so long. The Town tried to do
Earline White/The Chowan Herald
Chowan Veneer fell to the same fate as similar com
panies and was demolished last month.
nuisance abatement enforce
ment but learned that bank
ruptcy trustees can literally
thumb their noses at local gov
ernment ordinances. South
ern Bank worked very hard
and dilligently to get the prop
OLF PROPOSAL
Leaders
here come
under fire
Knighton; Copeland need to
use clout to keep airfield out,
key local opponent argues
BY SEAN JACKSON
Staff Writer
A top opponent of a Navy airfield proposed
to land in the area is voicing his concern about
local leaders’ roles in the debate.
Edenton Town Manager Anne-Marie
Knighton and Chowan County Manager Cliff
Copeland need to better use their influence to
keep the airfield
out of the area, the
key opponent said
during a meeting
Monday night.
Long-time oppo
nent of the outly
ing landing field
(OLF) Phillip
Lange said town and county officials need to
take a tougher, more prominent stance against
INSIDE
Hundreds turn out for
final anti-OLF public
hearing in Plymouth.
Page A3.
the OLF.
“They’ve been in denial all along,” Lange
said.
However, both Knighton and Copeland said
they’ve been working for a number of years —
mostly behind the scenes — to steer the OLF
from this area.
“He doesn’t have any clue as to how much
we’ve used our clout for the last seven years,”
See OLF, Page A2>
erty out of bankruptcy and
cleaned up.”
Residential housing is ex
pected to go in its place on
Coke Avenue.
See VENEER, Page A2 ►
V ‘:<.v.5;
' .....
INDEX
A Local
Land Transfers.. A5
If,'.; Opinion.A7
v School..-.. A8
• ' »- •.f ’'+ f ' i.- S'-’•
»• • •
B Sports/School
Recreation News.B1
NASCAR.. .82
Outdoors......B3
'
• i ' » "«£ r <•% '.. i ' >4* ’ •' rf# -V ’ ' * ■
C Community News d Classifieds
Upcoming Events.C2 Buy/Sell/Trade.D1
Society...C4 Service Directory.D2
Obituaries...C6 Employment.D4
Church.C7,8
Juried Arts and Crafts
Show to be
part of Hog Fest
Community, C1
Gates Open at 6:00pm.
Registration Available Nowl 2007 Season Opener Racing at 7:30pm.
Don't miss the fun. | . . . . -i . ath 482-1655 .
All you need Is a bicycle and helmet! DCITUraay, Mprll I **tn www.cyclespeedway.com
Located on AHantic Forest Drive at the Northeastern Regional Airport. Cycle Speedway is part of the Edenton-Chowan Recreation Department