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SHEPHERD PRUDEN LIBRARY
106 W WATER ST /
EDENTON NC 27932-1854
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
Help a
local
shelter
animal
find a
new
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— 2A
50«
Town: Station could save more than $1 million
BY REGGIE PONDER
Editor
Edenton town officials
estimate the construction of
a new police station could
save town taxpayers $1.4
million.
Edenton Tbwn Manager
Anne-Marie Knighton said
the town council’s decision
to build a new police sta
tion grew out of Chowan
County’s refinancing of the
county’s debt
“When the commission
ers refinanced the county’s
Rountree,
Register
of Deeds,
dies
From staff reports
Susan Rountree, who had
served as Chowan County’s
Register of Deeds for nearly
two decades, died Saturday
at her home on East King
Street in
Edenton.
She was
64.
Roun
tree
worked in
the coun-»
ty’sTkx De
partment
from 1979 to l!
was appoihl
Register of
1. She then
Assistant
serving
in that capacity until 1995
when she began service as
Register of Deeds, a position
she held until her death.
“The Chowan County
Board of Commissioners
and county staff are deeply
saddened to learn of the
passing of Chowan'Coun
ty Register of Deeds Sue
Rountree,” Board of Com
missioners Chairman Keith
Nixon said Monday. “Sue
was employed 34 years with
Chowan County. She began
working in the mx office in
1979 and later became the
Assistant Register of Deeds
in 1981. She was appointed
Register of Deeds July 1,
1995.
“At the time Sue came
to work in the Register of
Deeds Office, all documen
tation was in paper form and
could only be researched
manually,” Nixon continued
“Sue worked diligently to
bring the Register of Deeds
office into the digital age.
Sue worked hard to serve
the citizens of Chowan
County and always did so
with a positive attitude and
a smile on her face. She will
be missed greatly.”
Chowan Clerk of Supe
rior Court Mike McArthur
recalled working alongside
Rountree at the courthouse.
. “Sue and I worked closely
together here in the court
house fgr nearly 20 years
making sure that our cus
tomers received the kind of
professional assistance they
needed” McArthur said “We
helped each other through
hurricanes, bomb threats,
floods, political hurdles,
See ROUNTREE, 3A
©2009 The Chowan Herald
All Rights Reserved
' ■ ■
.. .i .
debt, they saved the taxpay
ers an enormous amount
of money,” Knighton said
in an email message to the
Chowan Herald. “Hie com
missioners offered the town
the opportunity to terminate
the lease agreement at the
Public Safety Center - and
the Tbwn Council after con
siderable thought and anal
ysis decided it made sense
financially for the town to
terminate that agreement”
Knighton noted the Pub
lic Safety Center lease was
based on a 40-year loan that
Historic sites stress interaction with public
BY REBECCA BUNCH
Staff Writer
State officials visited
Edenton last week to talk
about programming chang
es that will make state
owned historic sites in
town more accessible and
events more interactive.
“There’s no intention of
this site going away,” said
Keith Hardison, director
of the N.C. Division of His
toric Sites and Properties.
“We expect to be here on a
continuing basis.”
/ Hardison made the com
ment in response to a ques
, tion about the future of the
visitor center now that the
Barker House — which
served as the visitor center
until that role was taken
over by the state-owned
Ziegler House in the early
1990s — has been renamed
the Penelope Barker Wel
come Center. The trolley
car that transports visitors
on a riding tour of signifi
cant sites in town has also
been relocated to a parking
area adjacent to the wel
come center. Interpreters
from the State Historic Site
visitor center will continue
to ride the trolley with visi
tors and talk about local
history.
Hardison said both ac
tions were appropriate
given the fact that the wel
Former top principal shares turnaround keys
Iimin f_2_■■■•J
STAFF PHOTO BY REGGIE PONDER
Patrice Faison. N.C. Principal of the Year for 2012,
speaks to local school administrators during a
breakfast meeting March 24.
Town council mulls Redevelopment Commission
BY REBECCA BUNCH
Staff Writer
Dale Holland, senior partner in
Charlotte-based Holland Consult
ing Planners Inc., talked with the
town council at its March 24 work
session about how the council
might benefit from the establish
ment of a redevelopment commis
sioa '
The establishment of a compre
hensive redevelopment area is one
of the nuyor components of the
North Oakum Street Housing Re
development Plan, Tbwn Manager
was modified to a 30-year
loan at an interest rate of
4.25 percent — total princi
pal and interest $5.3M.
She said town officials es
timate they can build a new
facility for $2.25 million and
at amuch lower interest rate
■— 2.69 percent on a 20-year
note — for total principal
and interest of $2.9 million.
The town has paid $966,000
in lease payments to the
county, leaving a balance
of $4.3 million owed on the
lease.
“We therefore estimate
PHOTO COURTESY JOHN COLLINS
This banner on the front of the Ziegler House that houses the Historic Edenton Visitor Center on North Broad
Street alerts passersby about an upcoming Science Festival. The event will be the first in a series of hands-on
activities taking place at the historic site in the coming year.
come center is located on
the downtown waterfront
that is such a key focal
point for tourists. He added
that the change would al
Anne-Marie Knighton said. * '
Holland said that the powers of
such a commission would allow
the town to exercise other options
to acquire property in different ar
eas of town besides relying on emi
nent domain.
“It would give you a tool that
you could use in multiple areas of
town," he said. “We recommend
that you move forward with this.”
Holland added that the commis
sion could take on various con
figurations, including having the
members of the town council serve
as the commissioa That is the op
the town taxpayers will save
$1.4 million and at the end of
the day, the town will own
an asset,” Knighton said. “At
the end of the lease with the
county, the town could con
tinue to rent but would not
own the asset ”
Knighton said in an in
terview this week that she
had spoken with a couple of
architects who had recently
built police stations and her
estimated costs were based
on those conversations as
well as other information
from a number of sources.
low the State Historic Site
visitor center to better ful
fill its new role of planning
and carrying out more in
teractive events, tours and
BY REGGIE PONDER
Editor -
Local public school admin
istrators gathered last week
for breakfast and education
shop talk with the state’s 2012
Principal of the Year.
Patrice Faison, who was
Principal of the Year in 2012,
is a native of Elizabeth City.
She was in Edenton March
24 at the invitation of Linda
White, who is director of
elementary education, Title
1 and AIG for the Edenton
Chowan Schools.
Faison talked to the princi
pals and assistant principals
“Our estimates are very
conservative,” Knighton
said.
Not only are town offi
cials cpnfident the project
will be completed within
the $2.25 million budget, but
they actually are hoping for
a lower price tag.
“My goal is to get it in
lower,” Knighton said in the
interview. “I want it to come
in under $2 million.”
One possible savings is
on stormwater facilities,
according to Knighton She
said that when the town
programming at its North
Broad Street location.
“This is simply a real
location of our resources,”
Hardison said. “We’re not
about leading school turn
around. She is the former
principal of The Academy
at Smith - a “high school op
tion” in the Guilford County
Schools — and Oak Hill
Elementaxy School in High
Point
Currently, Faison is prin
cipal at Page High School in
Greensboro.
Faison said that when she
first went to The Academy at
Smith, a small school focused
on medical careers and con
struction, she saw “awful in
struction — if you can call it
instruction.”
There were only about 100
tion his agency .would recommend,
he said.
He added that the commission
could be assigned the authority
to sell, exchange, transfer, assign,
subdivide, retain for its own use,
mortgage, pledge as collateral or
otherwise encumber or dispose of
any real or personal property or
any interest therein, either as an
entirety to a single redeveloper or
in parts to several redevelopers.
Holland said that such a com
mission would also have the au
thority to invest funds held in
reserves, borrow money, prepare
was looking very closely at
site 4 - the possible location
on the north end of Oakum
Street - the’ need to build a
pond for stormwater man
agement was a significant
cost
But as the town now
looks closely at site 1 - the
town council’s designated
“preferred” site at the comer
of Oakum and Albemarle
streets - it appears it might
not be necessary to con
struct a stormwater pond at
that location, according to
Knighton.
going anywhere. What
you will see is us engaging
with the public in a more
See VISITOR, 4A
students then at The Acad
emy at Smith.
“Nobody wanted to go
there,” Faison said.
Faison said there really
was only one thing missing at
the school.
• “We needed good teach
ers,” Faison said. “It, to me,
was simple.”
But Oak Hill was not sim
ple, she said.
The elementary school
was the lowest perform
ing school in the state when
Faison first went there. She
noted the school’s dismal
See PRINCIPAL, 2A J
surveys, studies and plans, make
expenditures, execute contracts
and perform redevelopment proj
ect undertakings.
The acquisition of properly
could take place through a variety
of means, including the purchase
of the property as a result of a tax
foreclosure, he said
Several members of the council
voiced support for the recommen
dation.
“I would hope that we can look at
this (formation of a redevelopment
See COMMISSION, 4A
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