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Progress 2010 A look at
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Sheriff’s budget irks chairman
By RITCHIE E. STARNES
Editor
Not only did the Chowan
County Board of Commis
sioners reject the sheriffs
budget wish list, its chair
man raised questions
. about the department’s ef
ficiency.
Thursday’s budget re
treat exposed a bitter
exchange between Com
mission Chairman Eddy
Goodwin and Sheriff
County
OKs half
schools’
budget
By RITCHIE E. STARNES
Editor
County leaders voted to
allocate enough funding to
cover only half of Edenton
- Chowan schools’ request
to pay projected operating
costs for the next school
year.
In need of an additional
$441,296 over last year’s
operating budget, the
Chowan County Board of
Commissioners voted 4-3
to earmark only $220,000
toward the expanding
budget. Commissioners
Jimmy Alligood, Ralph
Coles, and Louis Belfield
dissented.
“Let’s go back and offer
them half of the amount,”
said Commissioner Keith
Nixon at Thursday’s bud
get retreat.
Next year’s school oper
ating expenses call for pro
jected costs of more than
$3.5 million, not including
various capital projects
for needed facility renova
tions.
Among the requests, Su
perintendent Allan Smith
had called for enough fund
ing to restore last year’s 2
percent employee pay cut.
Smith also cut his salary
by 5 percent and school
board officials opted to for
go their monthly service
stipend. In addition to the
pay cuts, last year’s budget
crisis led to the elimina
tion of 24 positions.
Smith said Monday that
he had not heard about the
county’s recent funding
vote from the retreat. He
chose to defer comment
until he had a chance to re
view the funding proposal.
“The impression that
I got is that they’re going
to put it back either way,”
said Commissioner Kenny
Goodwin, referring to the
probability that the sys
tem will again dip into its
reserves.
Edenton-Chowanschools
took $510,000 from its re
serves last year to balance
its budget.
Since February 2009, the
schools have loss roughly
$3 million in state and lo
cal funding. Funds from
the American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act pro
vided relief for the finan
See SCHOOLS, 3A
©2009 The Chowan Herald
All Rights Reserved
Dwayne Goodwin. With
the sheriff seeking fund
ing for two more deputies
and four new patrol cars
in a budget $144,000 more
than last year, Chairman
Goodwin questioned, why
department expenses are
ballooning in a county
with a declining crime
rate.
“The crime rate is going
down in the county and
we have more deputies
than any other county our
I
Call for help
PHOTO BY RITCHIE E. STARNES
Anecia Wills handles 911 emergency calls at Chowan County’s Central Communications office, Monday. County leaders want
the town of Edenton to pay its share of the communications service. Edenton accounts for roughly 25 percent of the calls.
County to town: Pay fair share of calls
By RITCHIE E. STARNES
Editor
Chowan County
leaders want the
town of Edenton to
chip in toward the cost
of central communica
tions.
As the Board of Com
missioners grapples to
minimize expenses en
size,’’Eddy
Goodwin
said.
Sheriff
Goodwin
said his 17
full-time
deputies
responded
D. Goodwin t0 6,745
service
calls last year, compared to
4,198 calls for Bertie Coun
ty’s 25 officers. Chowan’s
call volume exceeds Per
route to drafting the
2010-11 fiscal year budget
without a property tax
increase, the board
wants to charge the town
for its use of communi
cations, the support net
work of 911. In a 6-1 vote
(with Commissioner
Jimmy Alligood dissent
ing), the board adopted a
resolution at Thursday’s
quimans’
15 officers
by nearly
2,000 calls.
It also
eclipses
Camden
County’s
service
E. Goodwin calls that
field 19 of
ficers, according to Sher
iff Goodwin.
“By population, we re
spond to more calls than
budget retreat instruct
ing County Manager
Peter Rascoe to begin
negotiations with town
officials.
Instead of discussions,
some preferred to simply
send the town a bill for
its 25 percent annual
usage.
“What would be the
ramifications if the
other counties in the
area,” Sheriff Goodwin
said.
Not all of the sheriffs
calls relate to law enforce
ment, such as jump start
ing car batteries and ac
companying, Emergency
Medical Services (EMS)
calls.
Eddy Goodwin took is
sue with the sheriff about
an incident when a deputy
See BUDGET, 4A
county sent them a bill?”
Commissioner Ralph
Cole asked Rascoe.
Commission Chair
man Eddy Goodwin
said the town should be
approached first about
the matter.
“Me as a businessman,
I would be upset if you
See CALLS, 4A
Chowan loses records access;
Board OKs $75K for new server
By RITCHIE E. STARNES
Editor
Chowan commission
ers narrowly approved
the emergency pur
chase of a new server
for the county’s com
puter system Thursday
after a crash left the
county and town with
out access to vital financial records.
County Manager Peter Raseoe said a
10-year-old Unix server crashed March
19th, sending the county and town’s
property tax collections and employee
payroll data into darkness. Since then,
the county’s only information technol
ogy staffer has been working non-stop
to retrieve the financial data, Raseoe
said.
“We’re basically running everything
by hand since last Friday (May 19),”
Raseoe said. “The main concern that
re have right now is run
iing payroll next week.”
As of Monday, recovery
■fforts were stUl ongoing
o reboot the Unix server
;o data can be download
ed to a new system.
It’s old and we’ve been
dvised a few times to
replace it,” Rascoe said.
“Even if we get it going
again, we’ve been told that it could die
at anytime.”
During Thursday’s Board of County
Commissioners’ retreat, the bpard ad
dressed the impromptu $75,000 expense
for a new server. Commissioners ap
proved the purchase and amended its
current budget with a 4-3 vote. The
funding will come from a contingency
hind, a move that not all commission
Knighton
ers agreed with.
See SERVER, 3A
Break-in
suspect
nabbed
By REBECCA BUNCH
Staff Writer
An Edenton man has
been arrested in connec
tion to a Sunday spree of >
car break-ins.
Police
charged
Jamal Ter
rell Moore,
21, Mon
day on
one count
of break
ing and
entering a
motor ve
hicle, reports show. Inves
tigators suspect, however,
that Moore is responsible
for the 34 vehicle break
ins. Additional arrests are
expected, police say. *
Edenton Police Chief
Jay Fortenbery said his de
partment and the Chowan
County Sheriffs Office are
working jointly on the cas
es. Sheriff Dwayne Good
win said 21 cars were tar
geted in the Cape Colony
subdivision with only four
losing valuables.
“Some were ransacked
with nothing taken, and
others lost property,”
Goodwin said.
Moore
Items were stolen in all
13 cars in town, Fortenbery
said. Cash, jewelry, elec
tronics, and credit cards
were among the items sto
len.
The area of town struck
includes the Cotton Mill
parking lot, Queen, King,
and South Oakum streets.
Fortenbery said the break
ins in town occurred be
tween 2 a.m. and 7 a.m.
Sunday morning.
The county spree oc
curred Sunday night.
Goodwin and Fortenbery
offered preventive advice.
“Leaving items of value
in a car where they are
clearly visible to anyone
walking up and shining a
light inside is just tempt
ing someone to take them,”
Goodwin said.
Fortenbery recommend
ed that citizens park in
well-lit areas and not en
ter their vehicles if it ap
pears a break-in may have
taken place. If they do, he
said, they might destroy
any physical evidence left
by the suspect. Instead,
they should call police
See SUSPECT, 4A
B&B owner pleads
guilty to wire fraud
By CATHY WILSON
The Perquimans Weekly
. Stephen M. Gunther,
a Hertford resident and
owner of The Lords Pro
prietor’s Inn in Edenton,
plead guilty to one felony
count of wire fraud March
25 in federal court in Nor
folk, Va.
In a federal plea agree
ment, Gunther admitted
taking part in the real es
tate closings of four homes
in 2006 totaling nearly $1
million using.straw pur
chasers, and failing to
identify third parties to
the mortgage companies.
Those mortgages eventual
ly ended up in foreclosure
with the lending institu
tions losing about $210,000.
The plea agreement
stipulates that Gunther
cooperate with authorities
in ongoing mortgage fraud
investigations conducted
by the FBI, and in return,
the U.S. Attorney’s Office
agreed not, to prosecute
Gunther for other alleged
federal crimes.
Gunther, 39, is scheduled
to be sentenced June 21
and could face up to a max
imum penalty of 30 years
in prison, a $250,000 fine,
and full restitution. His li
cense to practice law was
revoked by the Virginia
State Bar on March 23. He
remains free on a $25,000
PR bond, court records
show.
See OWNER, 4A
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