Chowan County
gets $100,000 grant
to combat gangs
SEE BELOW
Gerrisha Moore makes
all-state basketball team
Bt:
Rascoe to be next county manager
By Earline White
Managing Editor
Attorney and special projects
officer for Chowan County, Peter
Rascoe was unanimsoulsy selected
Monday night to serve as the next
Chowan County Manager to suc
ceed Cliff Copeland.
Rascoe will officially take the
helm July 1.
Three applicants were consid
ered.
Commission chairman Ralph V
Cole Sr. said, “Mr. Rascoe brings
lots of background knowledge and
skills that will enable the county to
Local voters
go Republican
Nearly 100 people
shift party before
May 6 primary
By Connie Sage
Contributing Writer
In a county where Demo
crats outnumber Republi
cans by more than two-to
one, local voters are bucking
state-wide trends and chang
ing their registration to Re
publican or unaffiliated.
In the
run:up to
the May 6
primary Republican/unaffiliated
election, 27—Republican to
71 Chow- Demooat/unaffliated
Local switch:
71—Democrat to
an Coun
ty voters
had shift
Statewide:
71,450—Democrat _
ed from toRepdafican/unaffliated
the Dem- 19»®00—Republi
ocratic to can to Democrat/unaf
Republi- fliated
can par
ties or from Democrats to
unaffiliated through the end
of March, according to state
Board of Elections statis
tics.
Only 27 voters here offi
cially changed registration
from Republicans to Demo
crats or to unaffiliated for
the same period.
Statewide, however, more
voters are reregistering
from Republican to Demo
crat or unaffiliated, appar
ently so they can vote for
either Sens. Barack Obama
or Hillary Rodham Clinton
in the primary.
Nearly 20,000 have made
the change statewide, com
pared to some 11,000 who
have switched from the
See VOTERS, Page A2 >
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©2006 The Chowan Herald
All Rights Reserved
contmue the same type of services
and leadership that Cliff Copeland
provided throughout his tenure as,
county manager.
“The Board also felt that Peter
would help in making the transi
tion as smooth as possible for all
employees as well as the county”
Rascoe received a BA in history
from NCSU in 1978, graduated from
the University of South Carolina
Law School in 1982 and has been a
member of the N.C. Bar since that
time.
Rascoe first began working with
the county in late 1999 and since
then has been instrumental in
Holmes redesign concepts to be revealed in June
!■ nsuu, ,.|
Architect Steven Triggiano receives input from school administrators on Holmes immediate needs.
By Vernon Fueston
Contributing Writer
Architects plan to present sev
eral concepts for the re-modeling
of John A. Holmes to a commit
tee of educators and school board
members in about two months.
A preliminary meeting Mon
day afternoon kicked off a series
of discussions aimed at determin
ing just what the new high school
must and might have.
Members of the commission
will go through a three-step pro
gram just to gather enough infor
mation for the architects to draft
a proposal.
Steve Triggiano, an architect
with the Moseley firm, moderated
a discussion with the Program
Area Committee about the coun
ty’s needs.
The committee is comprised of
school board members and mem
bers of the high school staff.
The committee hopes to modify
the high school to accommodate
an increase in the student body
from 750 to 1,000.
In deciding what the new high
school will look like, the board
must what determine what the
Initiative aimed at recruiting Special Lcl. stall
By Rebecca Bunch
Staff Writer
There is an extreme shortage of
exceptional children’s teachers in
the public school system.
Linda Hobbs, who directs the
program in the Edenton-Chowan
Schools, thinks a new initiative
may be part of the answer.
“We have some home-grown
people that I think would be great
at something like this,” Hobbs
told the board of education Mon
day night during their monthly
meeting.
“Somebody you know might
have just what it takes to be a spe
cial education teacher, if you help
plant that seed.
“It’s not going to cost us any*
thing; it’s just an attempt to get
involved in the community”
many large proj
ects, including
a 1,000-acre ac
quisition of for
ested wetlands,
the acquisition
of Holladay’s Is
land, easements
at Dillard’s and
—--- »enneu s mui
Rascoe pond, the return
of the Edenton Cannon, Bandon
restoration projects and the restruc
turing of the Albemarle Learning
Center.
Rascoe’s immediate plans for the
county include meeting one to one
The goal is to build a
high school to
accomodate 1,000
community wants and balance
that against what the state de
partment of public instruction
requires.
This first phase is called the
“space program.”
The architects and the board
will try to decide how much space
and what kinds of rooms and fa
cilities will be needed to meet the
needs of a larger student body
Members of the committee had
a shopping list of features they
hope the remodeled school will
have.
Art classrooms, a science com
puter lab, a video production lab,
a larger kitchen and dining area
were discussed.
One member described the
gymnasium as seating “800 small
people.”
The architect recommended
that the gym be sized to seat the
entire student body for assem
blies.
So session one of this first phase
produced a series of numbers, the
The pro
gram, which
encompasses
five school
systems in
the eastern
part of North
Carolina, in
cluding Eden
ton-Chowan, Hobbs
is being super
vised by the state Department of
Public Instruction in consulta
tion with Georgia-based Watkins
Group and the Personnel Center
in Alexandria, Va.
Partnering in the effort are
Elizabeth City State University as
well as representatives of College
of the Albemarle, the Edenton
Chowan Chamber of Commerce
and local churches.
Their goal is to develop ways of
with the commissioners and with
the county manager to discuss the
transition and outline future needs
of the county
Managing growth and capital as
sets are among his top concerns.
“Cliff and the county have done
an excellent job in the last five years
managing growth by adopting a
county-wide zoning ordinance.
“We anticipate growth will come.
Now we must plan for it so that it
will not infringe on the lifestyles
residents have enjoyed for 300
years.
“We will also have to look at man
aging and maintaining the county’s
“space program”.
Step two will bring in the engi
neers to examine ways the exist
ing structure can be modified to
meet the board’s requirements.
Step three will have the archi
tects presenting several alterna
tives that meet the requirements
of the committee and the specifi
cations provided by the engineers.
It’s then the all important cost es
timates will discussed.
Of course many of the items
discussed from the board’s wish
list probably won’t make the final
cut..
It’s all part of the creative pro
cess that brings something as
complex as a high school from
blueprints to reality
A swimming pool probably
won’t be in the final plan. It will
be interesting to see if a salad bar,
vending machines and “grab-and
go” kiosks will be part of the new
cafeteria.
This first meeting was the start
of a process that will take about
two months to complete.
Even then, the committee will
have several plans to choose from
and a final selection will still have
to be made.
identifying potential candidates
who would make good teachers
for exceptional children.
That information will then be
tin ned over to the Personnel Cen
ter which will compile a list of
possible candidates and provide it
to participating school systems.
“It will be up to us to follow up,”
Hobbs said.
The need for such teachers is
great, she said. “Last year, we had
seven vacancies in the program
out of the 20-plus teachers in our
school system who teach excep
tional children,” she said.
Hobbs said she is already aware
of two teachers in the program
that the school system expects to
lose next year.
“There is a real need for teach
ers,” she said. “Somebody is al
See STAFF, Page A2 >
buildings and infrastructure. We
have to take a hard look at the aging
structures...”
Copeland said Tuesday he was
pleased with the board’s decision. ‘'
“Peter has been excellent and is
very well qualified for the job.”
Copeland added that Rascoe’s big
gest challenge as county manager,
as it was for him, will be meeting all
of the county’s capital outlay needs
— the county office building, EMS,
schools, etc.
Rascoe lives with his wife, a D.E
Walker teacher, Dianne Daniels and
their five children in the Yeopim
township.
Millenium
Marine hits
snag in arrival
Wetlands found at anticipated
location; project on hold until
new permits okayed
By Connie Sage
Contributing Writer
Plans for a Canadian boat building company
that was to open in Edenton this month have
been delayed or scuttled.
“Right now I’m very uncertain,” said Millen
nium Marine President Cory Guimond, after
wetlands recently found at the local industrial
park put his and other projects there on hold.
Guimond signed a one-year lease for a tem
porary building in the first phase of the local
industrial park. A second building was to be
constructed in the second phase of the park as
a permanent home for Millennium.
However, wetlands were found in February
by the North Carolina Department of Trans
portation, one of the tenants of the second
phase of the park. The Army Corps of Engi
neers was contacted and the project was put on
hold until new permits can be issued.
Richard Bunch, executive director of the
Chamber of Commerce, said he hopes Millen
nium will have the patience to work with the
town and county.
See BOAT, Page A2 >
County gets grant
to fight gangs
"We're trying to do
anything we can
to get services out
there to prevent an
onslaught of gangs
here."
— Ben Rose, Chow
. an social services
By Connie Sage
Contributing Writer '
The Chowan County Gang Prevention Task
Force has received a two-year $100,000 state
grant that will be used to hire someone to
work with high-risk local youth and to develop
resources to prevent a rise in violence.
While there is gang-like activity in the town
and county from “wanna-be’s,” there are no
organized links with known gangs, according
to an assessment commissioned by the task
force.
Members of the task force want to keep it
that way.
“We want kids to go to school and feel like
they’re safe,” said Social Services Director
Ben Rose, who chairs the task force.
The goal is to employ someone who lives in
the community — a social worker or even a
retiree — to coordinate with local agencies to
keep gang-like activity from escalating!
This person also would work one-on-one
with high-risk teens and young adults through
the courts and school system.
“We’re concerned about borderline behav
iors,” Rose said. “We’re trying to do anything
See GANGS, Page A2 >►
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