Whichard sisters getting along .
on the court — 6A
482-4418
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
50*
13 wrecks in 12 months mar Edenton police
Six crashes occur
within a month
By RITCHIE E. STARNES
Editor
Edenton police have
been involved in 13 ve
hicular crashes over the
past 12 months, including
an officer who wrecked his
cruiser after falling asleep
at the wheel.
“Of those 13 accidents,
four were non-preventable,
where the police officer did
everything reasonable to
prevent the accident and
was not at fault and nine
were preventable, where
our officer failed to act in a
reasonably expected man
ner to prevent it,” Town
Manager Anne Marie
Knighton said via email.
Six crashes, five prevent
able, occurred between
Sept. 7 and Oct. 9.
At 4:52 a.m'. Oct. 9, officer
Ronald Rascoe was driv
ing north on Broad Street
when he fell asleep with
his patrol car veering left
across the centerline and
the two southbound lanes
before striking a utility
pole at Gale Street, accord
ing to reports. Upon im
pact, Rascoe’s cruiser spun
around for about 12 feet.
Estimated damages were
reported to be $10,000.
Rascoe’s latest wreck
marks the officer’s second
preventable crash in re
cent months. On June 22,
he collided with a vehicle
that had stopped for a traf
fic signal on Virginia Road.
Rascoe was looking away
when he failed to stop in
time, an accident report
states.
Once five preventable
crashes occurred between
March and July, Knighton
requested that Police Chief
Jay Fortenbery implement
a policy that required
driver training for officers
as well as disciplinary ac
tion for future preventable
wrecks.
“The police chief issued
a preventable accident
See CRASHES, 3A
PHOTO BY RITCHIE STARNES
This Edenton police cruiser was destroyed after the officer fell
asleep at the wheel and struck a utility pole at the comer of
Broad and Gale streets.*
Girl,
7, hit
by car
Second-grader
suffers broken leg
By RITCHIE E. STARNES
Editor
A 7-year-old girl is recov
ering from a broken leg af
ter she was struck by a car
last Wednesday afternoon.
Zy’miah Shanae Brown
underwent surgery Thurs
day whereby metal pins
were used to reset a bro
ken right femor, Brittany
Lassiter, the girl’s mother,
( said Friday.
Brown suffered the bro
f. ken leg after darting be
X tween two lanes of traffic
on Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. Avenue at 5:56 p.m.
“All of a sudden she came
i out of nowhere,” said wit
ness Anthony Hathaway
III “The only thing on that
child’s mind was getting to
the other side of the street.”
,1 Brown, a second grader
I at White Oak Elementary
School, was playing at a
nearby playground when
H. she ran across the yard of
i ( a neighboring residence
I * before attempting to cross
| MLK at Valentine Avenue,
$ according to an Edenton
| police report. Once Brown
ran into the path of an east
I bound car, that car’s driver
|| stopped suddenly to miss
|| hitting the child. It was
seconds later \yhen a run
§ ning Brown entered the
I westbound lane that she
| was struck by a 2007 Chev
rolet driven by Johnny Lee
■;% Rountree, Jr. of Edenton,
i the report stated.
| “She (Brown) darted
I from the opposite side of
the street between cars
and the driver couldn’t see
H her,” Hathaway said.
Brown was thrown onto
the lawn of 700 MLK Jr.
J Ave. upon impact, accord
i ing to the report.
% Traffic had just resumed
after being stopped in both
»' directions due to a school
j| bus letting children off at
p MLK and Valentine, the
report states. Estimates
show Rountree was trav
§! eling at about 15 miles per
hour in the 35 mph zone
l;| when he struck Brown.
Hathaway said he be
lieves Brown wasn’t hurt
any worse because of the
> "i slow moving traffic. He
added that it was obvious
| - at the scene that Brown’s
leg was broken.
Lassiter said her
See BROWN, 3A
■'ii
©2009 The Chowan Herald
All Rights Reserved
' .A % -
J ^
7 «J ^r»^d Jf isi(.-iu(>n fpfi
Motor n
ipK^v ' •■•■vv^vr
|fi| / ISiltSliiiw^
PHOTOS BY KIP SHAW
Current and future John A. Holmes Aces march in the 37th annual Peanut Festival Parade, Saturday. .
Peanut Festival yields bigger return
Merchants reap
sales boost
By RITCHIE E. STARNES
Editor
Continued tweaking
of the Edenton Pea
nut Festival has ad
vanced the annual event
into anything but pea
nuts.
Saturday’s 37th annual
Peanut Festival trumped
last year’s event in sev
eral categories. Organiz
ers projected as many
as 3,000 visitors flooded
downtown’s Broad Street
for the daylong festival.
Part of event sponsor
Destination Downtown
Edenton’s goal is for the
festival to bolster com
merce among existing
merchants as much as the
visiting vendors. •
“We had way more
people for this year’s
festival. It gets bigger and
better each year,” said
Jennifer Harriss, DDE
executive director.
Some merchants agreed
with the assessment after
experiencing a healthy
spike in revenue directly
due to the festival.
“This is real busy for
a parade day, but it’s
been all day and not
just for two hours,” said
Belinda Flynn, Edenton
Coffee House. “I think it's
good for everybody It’s
definitely better than last
year’s.”
Another local eatery
estimated that the event
tripled its typical haul for
the day.
I’ve never seen so many
people,” said Barbara
Jones of the Soda Shoppe.
“There’s a lot of people I
don’t recognize,” sug
gesting that many of the
visitors were from out of
town.
Jones added that the
sunny October day helped
contribute to the sizable
See FESTIVAL, 3A
House hopefuls explain differences
Steinburg, Luton vying
for District 1 seat
By REGGIE PONDER
The Daily Advance
Republican Bob Steinburg and
Democrat Bill Luton agree educa
tion is a central concern in the 1st
District N.C. House race — but
their perspectives could hardly
be more different.
Luton, a member of the Eliza
beth City-Pasquotank Board
of Education, has campaigned
against what he terms the GOP
legislative record “over the last
two years of cutting and pitting
education.” A vote for Steinburg,
according to Luton, “would be a
vote for more of that.”
Throughout the campaipi, Lu
ton also has criticized Steinburg
for being on record in support of
a General Assembly budget that
cut funds to the Golden LEAF
Foundation and the N.C. Rural
Center.
But “everything hinges on edu
cation,” Luton said last week. The
legislature needs to make public
schools a priority and listen to
teachers, who are the real experts
on education, he said.
Steinburg, former chairman of
the Chowan County Republican
Party, talks a lot on the campaign
trail about an idea for a technical
and career charter school in the
northeast region.
Asked about that proposal last
week, he indicated that he has
been talking to people in Eliza
beth City and they are developing
a way to operate the school while
taking into consideration the
lack of state funds for brick and
mortar.
The idea now is to partner
See RACE, 2A
Flash mob needed for YouTube video
Rehearsal, taping
being held Oct. 27
■y REBECCA BUNCH
Staff Writer
One of the more unique
events planned during the
celebration of Edenton’s
300th anniversary will
take place Oct. 27th.
Citizens of all ages are
encouraged to come to
Historic Hicks Field at
10:30 a.m. to rehearse for
a flash mob video. A tap
w
ing by Shannon Studio
of Edenton to be aired on
YouTube will follow the
rehearsal.
For those unfamiliar
with the term, a flash mob
refers to a group of people
who assemble on the spur
of the moment to express
themselves through dance
and other forms of artistic
expression. They then ap
pear to disperse as quickly
as they gathered.
This particular flash
mob event is the product
of the 300th Anniversary
' ' " : ' * * '
commit
tee mem
ber Sally
Francis
Kehayes
as a way to get
Edentonians
of all ages involved in the
celebration.
“This is going to be a lot
of fun,” Kehayes said. “If
you can dance, and want
to do that, that’s great. If
you can’t dance, just wave
your arms and smile!”
Choreography for the
video is being handled
. by Linda
5i2»
sdz the Eden
ton Dance
Stars studio.
Brown, who has
been teaching dance for
16 years, said that work
ing on this project is com
pletely different from any
thing she’s done before.
Brown said that the
crowd will be taught some
basic dance steps that they
can perform to “Smash the
Windows,” a jig created
by the Itinerant Band that
performed here during
the Cupola House’s Easels
in the Garden event in
April.
Brown said that the steps
she has in mind should be
appropriate for all skill
levels. “And if you make
a mistake during the tap
ing, that’s all right,” she
said, laughing. “We just
want everybody to have
a good time and celebrate
our community.”
SeeFUSMA
m