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Madison
Phillips
has been
designated
as an
honorary
lighthouse
keeper
— IB
482-4418
Wednesday, August 27, 2014 50*
State cuts schedule at employment office
STAFF PHOTO I
REQGIE PONDER
40T0W,
This sign on
the door at
the Chowan
ESC office
informs the
public of
the change
to a two
day-a-week
schedule at
the office.
IMPORTANT NOTICE
EFFECTIVE
AUGUST 18,2014
This office will be open
Tuesdays and Thursdays
ONLYili
Hours: 8:00AM-4:30PM
4
From staff reports
The Chowan County Employment Se
curity Commission office is now open
only two days a week
The cutback from five days a week,
which went into effect earlier this month,
is a permanent cutback based on state
wide budget reductions, according to
Graham H. Wilson, a spokesman for the
N.C. Department of Commerce.
“The division has been realigning its
offices due to a reduction in funding,”
Wilson said. “The Division of Workforce
Solutions had a reduction of about 25
percent in state and federal funding, to
taling about $25 million. State funding
was reduced by about $19.5 million.”
NEED HELP?
■ Customers who need assistance on days
the local office is not open can visit the Eliza
beth City office or call (252) 331-4798.
■ Also, you can register for free with NCWorks
Online (www.ncworks.gov) and search for jobs
and training opportunities in their area.
Wilson explained that none of the of
fice’s employees have been laid off. Em
ployees will work in Elizabeth City when
they are not working in Chowan County.
There were three employees assigned
to Edenton-Chowan County. All three
will now work in Elizabeth City on a
regular basis and some will come back to
Edenton to provide services on the days
that office is open.
Wilson said the Chowan office serves
a smaller population than other offices in
the area
“The Division of Workforce Solutions
believes that excellent customer service
can be provided to the residents of Chow
an County on a part-time basis,” Wilson
said. ,
Customers who need assistance on
days the local office is not open can visit
the Elizabeth City office or call (252) 331
4798.
Wilson said customers also can regis
ter for free with NCWorks Online (www.
ncworks.gov) and search for jobs and
training opportunities in their area
Officials
eye staffing
in light of
budget cuts
BY REGGIE PONDER
Editor
All four schools in the
/\ Edenton-Chowanschool
JL JL district reported a re
markably smooth first day of
* school on Monday.
Attendance at John A Hol
mes High School was 649. Cur
rent enrollment on Monday
was 670 -15) slightly from the
end of last year.
The enrollment at D.EWalk
£ • - er was 461 and Monday’s atten
dance was 448. The enrollment
at the end of last year was 464.
White Oak Elementary
School had 22 absent Monday
from an enrollment of 621. The
school had 617 students en
rolled at the end of last year.
Chowan Middle School’s
enrollment is 532. The enroll
ment at the end of last year
was 538.
There were 21 absent Mon
day.
“That’s very good,” Chowan
Middle Principal Tanya l\imer
said of the first-day atten
dance.
Himer said she expects
more students to enroll during
the next couple of weeks.
“I really think this is one of
our best openings,” Himer
said.
Superintendent Rob Jack
. son agreed with Turner’s
assessment - one that was
echoed by other principals in
the school district
“Today was an incredible
day,” Jackson said.
The superintendent said he
got into almost every single
classroom Monday, where he
“saw teachers teaching and
students learning,”
Like several of the
See FIRST DAY, 4A
STAFF PHOTO BY REGGIE PONDER
White Oak Principal Michelle White hugs second-grader Ayden Hall, 8, while greeting
students Monday morning on the first day of school. 4
STAFF PHOTO
BY REGGIE PONDER
D.F. Walker
Principal Jamie
Bowers celebrates
a smooth first
day of school next
to the school’s
welcome-back
banner in the
main lobby.
The Chowan Herald: Hometown stories for 80 years
BY REBECCA BUNCH
Staff Writer
The little weekly newspaper
started by two journeymen
printers, J. Edwin “Buff Buf
flap and Hector “Hec” Lupton,
turns 80 this week.
The very first of the Chowan
Herald was mailed from the
Edenton Post Office on Aug.
30,1934.
Bufflap served as the first
editor/publisher while Lupton
oversaw advertising sales for
the paper. Bufflap’s “Heard &
Seen By Buff column was one
of the paper’s most popular
features.
It was not the town’s first
newspaper — there were
several others, including the
Edenton Daily News, where
Buff and Hec worked. But it
was the Herald, the paper they
started together all those years
ago, that lasted.
In the years in between, the
Herald has gone through nu
merous changes in ovmership
and equipment
For decades, typesetting of
the paper was done by Buff
and later Pete Manning, who
eventually became the paper’s
publisher.
In a May, 1998 interview
he gave Herald columnist Les
Bell, Manning recalled how he
had hated to give'up the ma
chine even after computerized
typesetting had essentially re
placed it
The day the linotype was
replaced by electronic typeset
ting? Feb. 19,1991.
Manning, having finally
yielded to the insistence of
then-publisher J.P. Huskins
that he get rid of the machine,
which was hogging prime floor
space in the Herald’s commer
cial print shop, tried unsuc
cessfully to find a buyer.
“My feeling when I had to
destroy -it? Nostalgic. It rep
resented the most pleasant
memories of my life," Manning
told Bell, who included the in
terview in his book, “As I See
It: Collected Columns from the
See HERALD, 4A
Trial in 2004
slaying set
for October
From staff reports
The re-trial of William Joseph Moore in
the stabbing death of a Chowan County
woman a decade ago has been scheduled
for Oct. 13 in Chowan County Superior
Court.
Moore is charged in the August 2004 stab
bing death of Pamela Joye Virzi. He was 46
at the time. Virzi was 47 at the time of her
death.
Moore was sentenced to death in 2006.
In an unusual turn of events at that time,
Moore pleaded guilty to first-degree murder
and represented himself in the sentencing
phase of the trial. He told the court he was
leaving his fate in the hands of the jury.
The N.C. Supreme Court overturned
Moore’s death sentence in 2008 and ordered
a new trial.
The Supreme Court ruled that the trial
court had not made an adequate termina
tion that Moore’s decision to waive counsel
had been made “knowingly, intelligently,
and voluntarily.”
Elizabeth City attorney H.P. Williams has
been assigned as special prosecutor on the
case.
The case had been on the Chowan docket
on Aug. 18 for administrative purposes - to
hear any remaining pre-trial motions - but
those motions will be heard Oct. 13 since
the trial judge was recovering from surgery
on Aug. 18, according to court officials.
See 2004 MURDER, 4A
Town pushing
pedestrian,
bicycle safety
■ After information blitz, police will crack
down on jaywalking and other safety violations
BY REBECCA BUNCH
Staff Writer
Although an educational campaign on pe
destrian and bicycle safety will come first,
local police ultimately plan to crack down
of safety law violations - including jaywalk
ing - as part of Edenton’s participation in the
state’s Watch for Me NC 2014 campaign.
The town will partner with the N.C. Depart
ment of Transportation to raise public aware
ness concerning pedestrian and bicycle safety
through the program.
Capt. Tim Hickman of the Edenton Police
Department briefed the town council Mon
day night during its monthly work session on
the educational component and benefits of
the campaign. He said that following an edu
cation effort, enforcement of existing laws
would follow.
“We’ll be going out and watching the cross
walks for violators,” Hickman said.
Hickman said that pedestrians — and bicy
clists — would also be educated about what
they’re required to do. He also pointed out
that those who jaywalk rather than stand at
one of the downtown crosswalks and then
walk across the street to the other side are
in violation of the law even though it is a
See SAFETY, 4A
jjra sinnwcrsary
2 014
1
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CRAFTS, FOOD, ENTERTAINMENT, BEER GARDEN & MORE
Free Street Dance Friday Night - The Rhondels
st Historic! Hertford!
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Sept. 5th, 6 to 10:00 p.m.
Sept. 6th, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
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