PROJECT UPDATES
WHARF LANDING, CLAIRE
DRIVE, HARRIS TRACT,
STRAWBERRY HILL, RIVER
SOUND, BEECHWOOD,
KELLOGG, etc. see below
I
I Shane Bass, 22 months
I 7
f old, now has cutting edge
| electronic implants that
! will let him hear for the
I first time.
The $100,000 cochlear
j implants will cure his
| deafness. But medical
! insurance won’t cover it.
Vernon Fueston
; By Vernon Fueston
Contributing Writer
Shane Bass is profoundly deaf,
but a cure is only days away. On
March 18, thanks to remarkable
cutting- edge surgery, he will hear
sound for the first time in his life.
That’s the date the electronic
“ears” doctors implanted in his
head will be turned on.
Bryan and Suzanne Bass have no
earthly idea how they will pay for
their son’s miracle cure. But they
are determined to see him hear and
speak, no matter what the cost.
Watching Shane at play in the
living room of his Edenton home,
it’s hard to appreciate what almost
total deafness is like. He shows no
response to any noise, no matter
how loud, unless he can feel the vi
brations in his body.
He’s a happy kid who loves to
squeal and vocalize in nonsense
syllables like most toddlers. But
he should be on the threshold of
speech.
Child .development experts say
children Shane’s age should be us
ing one or two syllable words and
babbling with sentence-like inflec
tion.
1 Profound deafness
That is impossible for Shane.
Bryan and Suzanne feared their
son would be seriously language
delayed unless the surgery was
performed immediately.
“He’s got 90 decibels or greater
deafness,” Suzanne Bryan said of
her son as he played with a book,
his back to her. “That’s profound
deafness.”
She stamped her foot on the floor,
hard enough to startle everyone in
the room. It’s the only way to get
his attention.
He turned to her and smiled.
On Feb. 28, Shane received two
cochlear implants, a revolution
ary device. They will bypass his
defective ears and feed electronic
impulses from a microphone di
rectly to his auditory nerves. It’s
the same miracle technology made
famous when it was used to treat
radio talk show host Rush Lim
baugh.'
A $100,000 bill
It’s a miracle cure, but miracles
have a price. In Shane’s case, the
bill will come to over $100,000.
The Basses have no real idea
how they will pay for it, but they've
howtoheIp,
Contributions to help with
Shane’s medical expenses can
be dropped off in person at
Edenton Furniture, S. Broad
Street.
Call 482-8418 to learn more.
taken the financial risk anyway
Bryan works at a sawmill and Su
zanne stays at home, tending to
Shane and home schooling their 11
year-old daughter, Britni.
But whatever the cost, they want
Shane to hear and speak before he
starts school.
Shane’s parents have done all the
things they were supposed to do,
but that may not be enough. They
own their own home. They have
some savings. Bryan has health in
surance where he works.
But unless their appeals are suc
cessful, they may be facing a life
time of debt.
Their insurance company does
not pay for “hearing aids.”
Bryan Bass gets indignant about
that. “It’s not a hearing aid,” he
said, “it’s more like a pacemaker.”
See BASS, Page A2 >■
Party chairs ready for May 6 primary
Home sales steady. Foreclosures up. New projects forge ahead
By Connie Sage
Contributing Writer
At least two new local residential
subdivisions representing nearly
1,000 homes are on hold until the fal
tering U.S. economy strengthens.
Queens Landing, off Hwy 17 bor
dering Pembroke Creek, and Straw
berry Hill by Queen Anne’s Creek,
will be delayed until the housing
market rebounds.
"We’re keeping ajl our permits
current, but we’ve delayed the start
02006 The Chowan Herald *
All Rights Reserved
of the project because of the soft
real estate market,” said Richard
Tremblay, an executive vice presi
dent with the Silver Companies, a
real estate development and invest
ment firm in Washington, D.C., and
Boca Raton, Fla. “We’re waiting for
conditions to improve.”
Tremblay said he told the town
the project likely will be on hold un
til some time next year.
Strawberry Hill developer Gil
liam Wood said his project is “poised
to move” once the current market
downturn improves.
“We’re doing like everybody
else,” he said. “It’s wait-and-see
hoping the market condition will
improve. If we had all of the good
vibes in place, we’d be ready to go in
30 days.”
Major work on Sandy Point, a pro
posed 1,500-unit residential develop
ment near the Albemarle Sound
Bridge, is delayed until November
because, of state fisheries regula
tions, said Sam Young, president
of the Fund for Sandy Point North
Carolina.
Home sales steady
Daily news reports explain any
developer’s hesitancy
The country is in or teetering on a
recession, gas prices are at a record
high, homeowners’ equities have
fallen below 50 percent for the first
time since World War II, home fore
closures have soared to an all-time
high, and the dollar hit a new low
But at least for individual home
sales, Chowan County may not
be as bad off as other parts of the
country.
Since the beginning of the year,
20 homes have been sold here, com
pared to 18 closings for the same
period last year, according to the
Albemarle Area Association of Re
altors.
“It’s a steady market but it’s not a
great market,” said Stephanie Bate
man, executive officer for AAAR.
“It hasn’t stalled.”
While the numbers are holding,
the overall trend for annual home
sales in Chowan County is down. A
total of 165 homes, townhouses and
condos sold in 2005; 148 in 2006, and
110 in 2007.
Those statistics do not include
for-sale-by-owner, commercial prop
erties, lots or homes sold by build
ers who do not use a Multiple List
ing Service database.
Nationally, existing home sales
in January were 23.4 percent below
2007 sales for the same month a year
ago, according to the National Asso
ciation of Realtors.
Foreclosures up
Meanwhile, a record .83 percent
of U.S. home loans were entering
the foreclosure process in the last
three months of 2007 compared
with.54 percent for the same time a
year earlier, Reuters reported.
In North Carolina, 6.5 percent of
the state’s 1.4 million loans were
past due for the same period, with
See PROJECTS, Page A4 >
"Turnout has al
ways been a prob
lem. They believe
their vote doesn't
count ... It affects
them but they feel
they have no say."
— Martha Badger
For Democrats,
it’s all about turnout
By Vernon Fueston
Contributing Writer
There once was a time when
they called it the “Solid South,”
an impenetrable, rock-solid wall
of Democratic Party political soli
darity that was seldom breached.
• Today, Democrat superiority, at
least when it comes to local poli
tics, is still a formidable force in
North Carolina. But that once
solid wall has suffered a few dents
here and there.
For Martha Badger, chair of the
county’s Democratic Party, main
taining that political home court
advantage is all .about motivating
those Chowan County residents
who are registered, or even lean,
Democratic. It’s a tough chal
lenge.
Badger has been chair of the
party since June of 2007. Born in
Rocky Mount, she moved here 10
years ago from Nashville, Tenn.
She said she wasn’t really ac
tive politically until her husband
dragged her to a party precinct
meeting one evening. Party rules
required they have five in atten
dance. That was five or six years
ago; she’s been hooked ever since.
She said her Republican oppo
sition tends to be well motivated
with a high voter turnout. They
also tend to be more affluent with
their numbers concentrated in*
the county’s more well-heeled dis
tricts.
Democrats and their allies
tend tp be less affluent and less
politically motivated, according
to Badger. Following a national
trend, Democrats are more likely
than Republicans to stay home on
Election Day if they’re not strong
ly motivated. That can blunt or
wipe out any advantages that nu
merical superiority in registered
voters can give.
She said Democrats have the
strength locally when it comes to
numbers, but it’s voter turnout
that wins elections. Being in the
majority only counts if the major
ity votes. She said she envies her
opposition’s commitfnent.
.“Democrats fall in love,” Bad
ger said, “but Republicans fall in
line.”
See DEMOCRATS, Page A2 >
"I'm a big believer
in term limits, two
terms. Without that
you end up with
the arrogance of
the incumbents."
— Bob Steinburg
Republicans out to
make their presence felt
By Vernon Fueston
Contributing Writer
Back in the early ‘60s, when Bob
Steinburg was president of his col
lege’s student body government,
he got the thrill of his life.
As president, Steinburg met
both Barry Goldwater and Bobby
Kennedy.
It was Goldwater, with his cam->
paign slogan, “In your heart, you
know I’m right,” who made the
bigger impression.
“He was a pioneer, ahead of
his time,” Steinburg said. “If it
wasn’t for Barry Goldwater, there
would never have been a Ronald
Reagan.”
He’s been politically active ever
since, an unapologetic conserva
tive. Two and a half years ago
Steinburg moved from Virginia
to Edenton, a place he had visited
and admired for years. One of the
first things he did was register to
vote, as a Republican.
Then he began to meet fellow
conservatives who were registered
Democrats. It still makes him
shake his head.
Their reasoning, according to
Steinburg, went something like
this: If there is no Republican pri
mary and the Democrats frequent
ly ran unopposed, only registered
Democrats ended up with an effec
tive voice in county politics. So,
it’s better to register as a Demo
crat, then vote your conscience in
the statewide and national elec
tions.
That did not sit well with Stein
burg, so he checked into the local
Republican Party. Then he was
elected to chair it.
♦ ♦ ♦
Now, for the first time in mem
ory, Republicans are fielding candi
dates in all of the races for Chowan
County’s board of commissioners.
So many candidates have filed that
the county will be holding both a
Democratic and an unprecedented
Republican primary
Ste inburg is a committed con
servative Republican. He writes a
political newspaper column that’s
now carried in numerous papers
around the state. He believes his
party is making progress in the
region.
See REPUBLICAN, Page A2 >