482-4418
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
50*
“I hate that word, closure”
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Earline White/The Chowan Herald
Joanna Eddy shows photos of her relief station at which-she and other volunteers worked following 9-11 in New York.
Doug and Joanna
Eddy still try to make
sense of their time at
“Ground Zero”
By Vernon Fueston
" Contributing Writer
Joanna Eddy remembers, like
most of us, where she was when
the twin towers fell,
A social worker with the Salva
tion Army in Syracuse, N.Y., she
did something unusual that day.
Prompted by a news item on
the car radio, she turned on the
television set in her office,
i The Today Show was on and
Katie Couric was speaking, the
image of smoke from one of the
World Trade Center towers in the
background. A tragic accident.
Then the second plane hit.
Operation “Compassion Under
Fire”, was getting underway even
before the towers fell.
In a recent presentation to the
American Legion, Doug and Jo
anna Eddy shared their feelings
about the stressful days follow
ing Sept. 11,2001.
The Salvation Army was head
ed to New York to provide sup
port to the fire, rescue, and con
struction workers dealing with
the carnage.
Her husband, Doug, had just
accepted a position as pastor to
INDEX
A Local
Opinion.........A7
Land Transfers.....A5
B Sports
Local Scores...B1
Nascar.. B2
: C Community News
M Upcoming Events.C2
Society.. C4
£ Obituaries....C6
Church.C7,8
-
D Classifieds
v Buy/Sell/Trade... D1,3,4
Service Directory.D2
Employment.D4
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All Rights Reserved
the First Presbyterian Church
in Edenton, but back in Syracuse
he had been active with the Sal
vation Army, too. He was drafted
to arrange lodging for families
whose loved ones might be hospi
talized following the disaster.
That was what everybody was
expecting, a rescue effort to pull
survivors and bodies from the
wreckage. They prepared to
treat the survivors and set up
morgues, but it didn’t work out
that way
♦ ♦ ♦
When the Eddys arrived, the
scene was organized confusion.
What most of us have come to
know as “Ground Zero” was re
ferred to as “The Pile”, a pile of
smoking concrete, steel, and flut
tering office paper between 20
and 30-stories high.
It was to yield few if any hu
man remains and even fewer
survivors.
Sticking from the debris were
jagged panels of the towers’ ex
ternal skin that looked eerily like
the gothic walls of a cathedral.
Crawling over “The Pile” like
ants on a disturbed mound, were
firemen, desperately looking for
anything that lived, including
their own.
Joanna and Doug Eddy set up
a “Relief and Hydration Station”
where they passed out comfort
and bottles of water. Near build
Local elections gear up, filing begins
Fred Spruill announces
run for commissioner
By Vernon Fueston
Contributing Writer
Fred Spruill, former sheriff of
Chowan County, has filed his inten
tion to run for an at-large seat on
the Board of County Commission
ers, now held by Jerry Downum, a
Republican.
Spruill is a life-long resident of
Chowan County and graduate of
Chowan High School. An Army vet
eran of three years, he served as a
police officer on the Plymouth, N.C. force for three
years and with the Edenton Police for 9 years.
In 1986, Spruill ran as a Republican for the of
fice of Chowan County Sheriff. He was elected and
served until December of 2006.
Spruill said his objectives, if elected, would be to
. continue what he sees as a pattern of good govern
ment provided by the current Board. Support for
the school system and controlled economic growth,
See SPRUILL, Page A2 ►
*
Spruill
ing 20 they put
up a table on a
girder.
The first
few days were
chaos with ev
erybody want
ing to help.
Churches set
up tables and
individuals dropped off sand
wiches. Sometimes things got
surreal.
Joanna remembers a chef.
“This chef in a white, pristine
uniform, hat, the whole nine
yards came down with insulated
bags full of gourmet sandwiches
from the Tribeca Grill.
He picked his way through all
this debris covered with gray
dust and he was still absolutely
white. I asked him how he man
aged it ‘I don’t dare get dirty’, he
said. ‘The Chief Chef would kill
me!”’
There are those rescue work
ers whose stories linger in their
memories.
One New York City Fire Chief,
a man named Kane, dug out his
• own son’s smashed fire truck and
.loaded the pancaked remains
onto a flatbed.
“I just hope I find him so I can
give him back to his mother,” he
said.
Eventually the girder that was
Joanna’s perch was removed and
a tent erected. As the work site
Stallings to compete for
seat against Goodwin
By Vernon Fueston
Contributing Writer
Stallings
Alex E. Stallings filed to run as a
Republican against incumbent Ken
neth Goodwin Feb. 11 for the second
seat, District 2.'
Stallings, 22, is a native of Chow
an County and a graduate of John
A, Holmes High School. He attend
ed the College of the Albemarle for
three years in various technical
programs.
He works in medical transport as an employee of
the Bertie Ambulance Service.
This is Stallings’ first run for public office.
Asked about the things that motivated him to
run, Stallings emphasized the opportunity to bring
a fresh perspective to county politics.
“Most of my concerns are the same anybody else
would have,” Stallings said. “I’m not mad at any
thing. I think the board could use someone with a
See STALLINGS, Page A2 ►
began to change, some things re
mained.
All around ‘The Pile’ were piec
es of naturally-occurring twisted
and broken pipe, girders, and re
bar that resembled crosses.
By unspoken agreement, these
were not removed until necessity
required it. It just seemed like
the right thing to do.
♦ ♦ ♦
The New York Fire Depart
ment lost 25 percent of its lead
ership in one day But it was the
individual stories that seemed to
bring the tragedy into focus and
make it understandable.
Doug recalls one firefighter
pointing to a pile of rubble and
stating with certainty “That’s
where my brother is.” They
worked around the clock, many
refusing to leave.
Another fireman had to deal
with the shock of finding things
that will stay with him forever.
“One firefighter was off to the
side sitting on a box. We got to
talking and he said he’d found
something relating to a young
child very close to the age of his
own child. He was very despon
dent.
“I asked him what’s gotten him
through things like this in the
past.
He said, ‘my family’ I told
See EDDY, Page A2 >
Fred Spruill, Alex Stallings
throw in hats for county
commissioner see below
Forest fire destroys
700 acres in county A2
Could an
ice rink be
in Chowan’s
future?
By Connie Sage
Contributing Writer
Nothing to do on a cold winter’s .week
end but cozy up next to a fire?
This time next year, couch potato, you
could be ice skating downtown.
Local officials hope to install a tempo
rary ice skating rink that would be set up
each winter, with skating available hum
Thanksgiving to the end of winter.
There are a lot of planned events that
bring people downtown, said Town Man
ager Anne-Marie Knighton, but between
Christmas and the annual “Pet and Pedal” f
parade in March, there are few special ac- '*
tivities.
“Our idea is to make it a draw for down
. town,” she said. “It would be a fun thing for
families from around the region. I could
. see the moms saying “Go skate; I’ll shop.”
The same folks who maintain the ice for
the Admirals’ hockey team in Norfolk, Va.,
this year worked with Currituck County
to build a temporary skating rink there.
“The whole concept behind this is to
bring new recreational outlets to counties
in Northeastern North Carolina,” said
Rich Cubin, vice president of Rink Spe
cialists, an eight-year-old company based
in Chesapeake.
Edenton officials have invited Cubin
and company president Benn Breton here
to see if a similar rink would be viable.
If there’s an appropriate site, Cubin and
Breton would present a proposal on how
much the project would cost. The town
then would figure out a way to raise the
money, Knighton said.
The Currituck County rink, the “Ice
Haus,” is part of the Weeping Radish, a
brewery, restaurant and butcher in Jarvis
burg, 60 miles from Edenton.
The Currituck County facility has been
skated on 10,000 times in two months, he
said, by individuals, chmch and school
groups, and for birthday parties.
While the rink is under a tent, “as you’re
driving on Route 158, you’re actually see
ing people ice skating,” Cubin said. “It’s
like a pond on a farm; it’s not commei-cial
looking.”
“The overall theme is bringing the com
munity together at a time (of year) that’s
typically stagnant,” Cubin said.
“It’s not a tourist product. It’s to provide
something for the locals to do — a safe, fun
winter activity — and to stir up business
for local businesses.”
A typical rink would be the size of two
Olympic-size swimming pools, with up to
150 skaters on the ice at any one time.
Rink Specialists likely would run the
rink the first year until employees, hired
locally, are trained to maintain the facility
The charge to skate in Currituck Coun
ty is $5 for kids ages 12 and under, plus $2
to rent skates. For children teenagers and
adults, the fee is $6 for two hours on the ice,
plus $2 to rent skates.
Between each two-hour session, the ice
is groomed. Photos and a typical skating
schedule, by month, are at www.weepin
gradish.com
The initial costs to establish a rink could
run as high as $150,000 for the first year,
Cubin said. “That’s the design, electrical,
the rink and rental skates.”
After the first year, the overhead would
drop by a third, he said.
The money to build the rink could come
from grants, advertising displayed beneath
the ice and around the rink, and the fees to
skate.
“It’s great for families who live here
and for people who visit here,” said Nan-.
cy Nicholls, the town’s tourism director.
“Currituck brought it there. Wouldn’t it be
nice to bring it here?”