482-4418
Wednesday, December 30 2009
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ECU’s Pinckney
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See Sports 3A
Perry wins
year’s supply of
pork rinds See
Community IB
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Chowan, Capstrat get subpoenas
* Fed grand jury probes
near financial collapse
By RITCHIE STARNES
Editor
EDENTON — Chowan
County and a Raleigh lobby
ing firm both have received
subpoenas to turn over docu
ments to federal authorities
investigating the county’s
near financial collapse in
Phoning
school
boards
not easy
Only 2 districts post
members’ numbers
By Kristin Pitts
The Daily Advance
When parents have an is
sue with their local school
district, it’s pretty typical for
them to take it up with a board
of education member.
But depending on your dis
trict, getting in touch with a
board of education member
may be more difficult than
you’d expect.
V “Hone of us like
to have negative
phone calls but
then again we
cant bury our
heads in the
sand.”
Sharon Martz
Member, Currituck
Board of Education
The Edenton-Chowan
Schools and Elizabeth City
Pasquotank Public Schools are
the only districts in the area to
post board of education mem
bers’ home phone numbers on
| their Web sites. Camden, Cur
rituck and Perquimans school
districts do not.
In some cases, even asking
for phone numbers doesn’t
work either. Of the three dis
tricts that do not post school
board members’ home phone
numbers, Perquimans was
the only one to provide phone
numbers for the district’s
board when asked. Camden
did not respond to The Daily
Advance’s requests for the
board members’ contact in
formation, while a Currituck
County schools spokeswoman
responded by providing the
phone number for the super
intendent’s administrative as
sistant
Although North Carolina
law doesn’t mandate that
board of education members
make their contact informa
tion readily available, a num
ber of school board members
say being accessible to the
public is just part of the job.
"It provides opportunities
for school employees as well
as parents and public and the
press to contact us if they
have questions, or (need to)
interview us on an issue, said
See PHONING on Pag* 7*
813'
02009 The Chowan Herald
All Rights Reserved
2008, a source close to the in
vestigation told The Chowan
Herald Wednesday.
Sources told the newspa
per that the U.S. Attorney’s
Office for the Eastern Dis
trict of North Carolina has
initiated a probe of the near
collapse, months after coun
ty officials requested one.
“The county did request
that the U.S. Attorney’s Of
fice investigate this,” John
S. Morrison, Chowan’s coun
Copeland
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■ Morrison
ty attorney, said Wednesday.
“The county requested that
I meet with the U.S. Attor
ney’s Office, which I did. ”
Neither Morrison nor
Chowan County Manager
Peter Rascoe would confirm
that the U.S. Attorney’s of
fice had subpoenaed county
records as part of its inves
tigation.
Neither would Ken Eudy,
president of Capstrat, a
Raleigh lobbying firm that
was paid $260,000 by for
mer County Manager Cliff
Copeland to help secure
federal funding for several
projects. Copeland appar
ently hired Capstrat without
the approval of Chowan or
Edenton officials or the joint
county-town Development
Commission.
But a source advised the
newspaper that the U.S. At
torney’s Office has subpoe
naed records from both Cap
strat and Chowan County.
See PROBE on Page 4A
l
Heads or tails?
PHOTOS BY RITCHIE E. STARNES
The heads side (left photo) and the tails side (right photo) of this rare 1853 quarter are seen in this photo. According to Bill Hicks of
the Edenton Lions Club, someone dropped this coin in one of Edenton’s four Salvation Army donation buckets earlier this month. Hicks
said he noticed the coin when it ended up at the top of several other coins that had been processed through a machine sorter.
Rare coin tossed in Salvation Army kettle
By RITCHIE E. STARNES •;
Editor :
Bookkeepers with the Salvation Army will need to ad
just their balance sheet a little more to the good after
it was discovered someone tossed a rare quarter into
one of the holiday collection kettles here in Edenton.
Bill Hicks, chairman and treasurer of the Edenton Li
ons’ Club, is well aware the town ranks among the state’s
oldest, but he was still surprised to find a donated coin that
dates back to some of the area’s historical architecture.
And discovering the 1853-quarter was a mere coincidence.
“This just happened to be on top of the tube,” said
Hicks, describing how the coin came to be stacked after
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the change was sorted.
Had the coin not been on
top and in Hick’s plain
| view, it would have most
likely been overlooked
and treated as a regular
quarter.
After all, Hicks said he
Bill Hicks as $9,000 worth of quar
ters a year in fundraising.
It’s not unusual to find an assortment of loose items
among the Salvation Army’s bucket of change.
See COIN on Page 7A
Look what we got for Christmas
PHOTO BY RITCHIE E. STARNES
Te’von Copeland (right), 7, and Jasmine Copeland, 4, show off the new bicycles they got for Christmas. The siblings were enjoying a
sunny, but cool Monday while riding off Virginia Road. School is out this week for Christmas vacation.
■.nt
by armed
robbers
By RITCHIE E. STARNES
Editor
Two men robbed the
Burger King at gunpoint
as the employees were
leaving the building dur
ing the early morning last
Wednesday (Dec. 23)* ac
cording to Edenton Police
Chief Jay Fortenbery
A night
manager
and an
other
employee
were am
bushed in
the park
ing lot of
the Vir
ginia Road
fast food restaurant at
1:09 a.m., Fortenbery said
Monday. Both robbers
brandished handguns be
fore getting away with the
night deposit bag that con
tained $2,000, Fortenbery
said.
Police responded with a
K-9 tracking team, but the
bloodhound search ended
at an area where a wait
ing car could have been
parked, Fortenbery said.
Police are still investi
gating the armed robbery,
Edenton’s fourth of the
Fortenberry
See ROBBERY on Page 4A
Teen
charged
in Dec. 2
incident
From staff reports
An Edenton teen is one of
three people facing charges
in connection with a recent
armed robbery at a Camden
residence.
Steven Odell Goodman, 17,
of the 400 block of White Oak
Road, has
been charged
with first-de
gree burglary,
attempted
armed rob
bery and fel
ony conspira
cy to commit
armed rob
bery.
According to a press release
from the Camden County
Sheriffs Office, Goodman and
two Elizabeth City residents
— Santonio Tarus Gregory,
25, and Nicole York, 21, both
of the 600 block of U.S. High
way 158, were charged in con
nection with an incident that
’ occurred Dec. 2.
During that incident a
group of people entered a
home in South Mills and at
tempted to rob the occupant,
. according to a Dec. 26 story in
the Daily Advance.
Gregory and York are
charged with attempted rob
bery with a dangerous weap
on and conspiracy to commit
robbery with a dangerous
weapon, a felony.
The suspects are being held
at Albemarle District Jail
in lieu of $250,000 secured
bonds.
Camden Sheriff Tony Perry i
deplined to release the name ?
or address of the victim,
See TEEN on Page 7A
Goodman