Newspapers / The Chowan Herald (Edenton, … / Feb. 25, 2015, edition 1 / Page 2
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County’s jobless rate unchanged in December The Daily Advance Chowan County's job less rate was unchanged in December, according to the state Department of Com merce. The deptirtmentis Labor and Economic Analysis Di usion recently released its mi uithly report. Chowan's rate in Decem ber remained at b.7 percent. Tire ci unity has the 7Sth high est rate statewide. The report .said Pasquo tank Comity, with the both ORDINANCE Continued from 1A ported to the hom'd mid the public at the meeting that n order to meet the bar for i moratorium, the county most haw first exhausted all t\ tillable'.iptii>ns; pr< wen the inadeiimicy of the existing irdinance; mid cited an im minent threat to the county tii.it the moratorium would 1 >i mtendeiI to address. Surratt stud he strongly i><illwes the existing ordi inull e is madiujuate based on things he has learned dining the past war. Ills rec uumendatii >n w< uild be a < lake a new |i ii ik at the w md '•nerg\ < udinmice. he said. 1 it it lust'd on the amici' : the ci>uiit\ attnmey. it ■a 11 ilti appear nut ni he the ■!'■ i 'f the Plat mine Bi >ard cuiisidei a muratnnnm. sirmtt stud. Am nn 1j\iihi;ii iti/.eti ma\ submit a ntura ' '1111111 j' 'pi iSij dll ectlv ti i :i.' coiiii';, i i iliinu ss l • >i it as. e SUll ' That's m I ' mu fundi' >n." -'Urruti said. rtTenmtf tn ' >iLsidci'at]i in i>f a iniirati> nuni But tin- imard on a split >ute annul meed it plans to review the ci umr> s wind en ei o\ ' irdmtuice Board meinher -Inn Ro bisons miiii,in passed Pd. w it 11 members IP ihh\ Win hunic and William Munds vounti apanis' it. REPORT CARD Continued Tom 1A A at c)i. tie sani. A tamhi s| m at .h dm A. ! 1' d ! I les is I) ie ! inti i sel [( k i] s partnership with ' iiile^e A ttic Aiheniarlc 11 mt al .' as s si iidei it' to graduate a :! 11 ati ass. m oate desri ia■ li the I I dleOi ■ if \ e| at 11 if saine time!fi*• v a]'• earning di>'ir high si in ml dlplunlas. nm-nth 7s < pen ent uf i I' 'lines seniors iti adi)a11■ 11 lour '.ears 01 less ati It i' Tease of at M >' II i i 'pel ' ent s;in ' mill 1 ■ lai ksi a; has sail I puh highest jobless rate of 10* counties in the state, saw it rate drop from 7.8 percent n November to 7.7 percent ii December. Perquimans Countv w hich has the 80th highes jobless rate in the state, saw its rate drop from 7.4 percen in November to (79 percen in December. Also seeing its rate drop slightly was Camden County’ the 75th highest jobless rate in the state, w hich went fron •7.9 percent to 5.8 percent ir the same time period. Robison withdrew a pro vioiLS motion that woulc have directed the chairman to draft a letter notifying the Chowan Board of Com missioners of the Planning Board's intention of review - ing the ordinance. That mo tion had sparked an intense discussion among the board regarding how individual members would be able to have input into the wording of the letter. Near the beginning of the meeting. Winbome ex pressed frustration that some board members had received information or updates that he had not received. He said he was heaiing about the legal ad vice regarding the morato rium for the first time even though some board meni bers seemed already famil iar with it. "1 hat s wrung, ninbome said. Surratt said the purjx ise (if the meet mg was to make all the information available to the public and to the board. He added that he'didn’t have all the information himself until he got to the meeting, and lie apologized to the other board members for that. During a public comment period at the meeting. Gene Jordan, a fanner and mem ber of tiie Edenton-Chowan Hi >ard of Education, told the In iard he was a fanner on an eighth-generation fann. 11<■ 1 > that he w ill work tire lessly as superintendent toward a 100 percent grad uation rate. CMS Principal Tanya Turner, who was recently lured io become assistant superintendent of schools starting this summer, gave a PowerPoint presentation on the Report Card results at the Fell. 0 school board meeting. Turner explained that the letter grade each si hool received was based on a combination | 'I an SO percent achieve ment score and JO percent gn iwth score. PUBLIC NOTICE Be advised that the Town of Edenton is now accepting bids to mow the grass at the Northeastern Regional Airport. Contract will be for cutting approximately 225 acres using airport equipment or contractor can bid using their equipment. For details contact Bud Powell at 482-4415. All bids must be submitted by 3/16/15. tj s < * •> evpectinij ycWi piwp&ud But not a diamond like this! 311 SOUTH BROAD STREET EDENTON, NC 252-482-3525 ) The report said statewide s the non-seasonably actjuster i unemployment rate was 5.2 i percent in December, a 0.2 decrease from November’s revised rate, and a 1.4 per centage-point decline over the year. The jobless rate fell in 56 counties, rose in 28 and was unchanged in 16. Graham County recorded December’s highest jobless rate at 12.3 percent, followed by Scot land County ata 10 percent. Buncombe and Chatham counties had the lowest un The family owns property in the area where the wind mills are being proposed, so his family has investigated wind energy very carefully, he said. Jordan said his fam ily brought a lot of different ideologies and perspectives to the investigation and asked a lot of questions. When it was all done, though, the clear and simple answer was that a wind en ergy project was very much in the interest of farmers, Jordan .said. Jordan said that as a school board member he also has a special apprecia tion for the county’s need f< >r economic development. “We need economic de velopment," Jordan said. “That's what this Ls." Robison objected to Ty son Ctt, a representative of Apex Clean Energy, being allowed to .speak during the forum. Robison said the pur pose was to hear from citi zens of Chowan County. Board member Bobby Win borne disagreed, saying it was a public forum and anyone should be allowed to address the board. Board member Jim Leggett noted Ctt represents a c ompany that is planning a project in the county. But Robison was insis tent. "He is not a citizen of Chowan County," Robison said. Surratt ruled that Utt Scoring this year was based on a 15-point scale, Turner pointed out. "Remember, the 15 point sc ale is for this year only," she reminded the board. “Beginning next year, tice state will be us ing a 10 point scale." Turner also emphasized the findings of an analysis done by the Raleigh News and Observer that found a strong link between the results and family income levels. She quoted the newspa per article as drawing the conclusion that “schools with fewer low-income students were more likely to score As or Bs while high poverty schools were more likely to get Its or Ks.” Overall. considering employment rate at 3.8 per cent followed by Orange at 3.9 percent. The report also broke down the jobless rates for metropolitan areas like Char lotte and Raleigh, and micro politan statistical areas like Elizabeth City, whose rate dropped from 7.4 percent in November to 7.3 percent in December. A year ago in De cember 2013, Elizabeth City’s rate was 8.4 percent. The report also said the number of workers em ployed statewide, not sea could address the board. Surratt added, however, that the comments should be fo cused on the content of the ordinance rather than on the question of a moratorium. "We don't need a sales pitch,” said local citizen Dossie Pruden, referring to Dtt's speaking to the board. Pruden later addressed the board himself, saying he would like to see the coun ty’s wind energy ordinance oe very restrictive. Utt said Chowan’s wind energy ordinance is fair and consistent with ordinances in other counties and with the states model ordinance. Utt said the ordinance was updated a little more than a year ago and the public was able to provide input at that time. The amendments to the ordinance were approved unanimously by the Chow an Board of Commissioners, Utt noted. Utt mentioned that in ad dition to the county’s per mitting process, the project also would require permits from multiple state and fed eral agencies. Michael Colton told the board that one way to get an idea of the visual impact of wind turbines is to go to the country club and look at the power lines going across the Albemarle Sound. Those towers are about 100 feet tall, he said. He suggested imaging that they were an the hardworking teach- i ers at each of the county's t four schorls and the other s individual achievements at each school, the letter y grades received by the £ Edenton-Chowan Schools f have been extremely dis- i appointing, Turner said. j “This has been a hard 1 hit for them," she told the g school board. t The school system re- 1 r eived the following let ter grades: D.F. Walker s Elementary, D; Chowan J Middle School, D; and r John A. Holmes, C. White Oak Elementary, which is 1 a pre-K through second- t grade school, was not re- f quired to be ranked. t Board member Gil s Burroughs commented that the 10- and 15-point n spreads used in calculat- t sonally adjusted, decreased in December by over 56,000 to 4.32 million, while the number of those unemployed decreased just over 9,000 to nearly 239,000. Since December 2013, the number of workers employed statewide increased 5,942 while those unemployed de creased 66,923. “It is important to note that employment estimates are subject to large seasonal patterns; therefore it is ad visable to focus on over-the year changes in the not-sea other 500 feet tall, with huge rotating blades. When you do something like that you realize that the wind turbines must give off mgjor shadows and block vi sion, he said. Another concern is birds, C olton said. “Everybody knows that windmills whack birds," Colton said. Colton said he was espe cially concerned about wa terfowl on the sound, and the flight paths of migratory birds in the area But the main concern is the 600-foot height, Colton said. Windmills cast a huge, huge shadow, which would be a very good reason for limiting the height to 250 or 300 feet, he said. Linda Peterson, a loc;il resident who works with the Albemarle Resource Conservation and Develop ment Council, said tire Albe marle RC and D Council had looked very closely at sus tainable energy and had cre ated a website with current scientific information. Wind energy is a fast-moving in dustry that has been through a lot of changes, and those changes, Peterson said, are reflected in the u]>to-date information at sustainable energy-solutioas-nc.org. “There is a lot of old infor mation and there is a lot of misinformation." she said, but the information on the sustainable energy solutions ig the results represent d “an arbitrary number et by the legislature." “It all depends on how ou want to make things ppear," he said. “If you ut the 10 percent scale ito play, which will hap en next year, there would ave been no schools to et an A and only two of lem would have gotten a 1 this time." "1 share your concern,” rhool board Chairman ohn Guard told Bun nighs. Jackson added that e did not think the let 'r grades accurately re eded the hard work of ie teaching staff at the chools. “That's disheartening to ie,” he said. “We’ll con nue to fight that fight." sonally adjusted estimates,” the report states. In Pasquotank County, the labor force for December was 15,588, with 1,207 unem ployed, which accounted for the 7.7 percent jobless rate. In Perquimans, 338 were jobless out of a labor force of 4,878. Currituck saw 692 unem ployed in December out of a labor force of 12,626; Chow an had 375 jobless out of 5,596 workers; and Camden had 241 jobless out of a labor force of 4,141. website is current and reli able. In addition to the website Peterson mentioned, there is information specific to the Timbermill project at Apex Clean Energy’s project web site: www. timbermill wind, com. Also, researcher, activ ist and wind energy skej> tic John Droz maintains a website, with links to vari ous studies related to wind energy, at www.wlseenergy. org. William Mularie, a local resident who identified him self as a retired physicist and former visiting profes sor at the University of Min nesota said he wanted to congratulate the Planning Board on its decision to get input from citizens and from other counties. Peter Lolkenia said he supports a moratorium. He said he is ;in environmental advocate and has observed wind energy up close in Eu rope. He thanked the Plan ning Board for taking the initiative to set up the public hearing. Lolkenia urged the board to make use of objective thought and information to protect public health and safety; quiet enjoyment of property; home values; crops and Livestock; busi ness, including tourism; bats and other wildlife; taxpay ers and rate-payers; and the military. GRANT Continued from 1A stale. The grants-making programs of the division include assistance for build ing reuse ;md well as infra structure including water and sewer. Cl >B< i is a 1 .S. Housing and I'rban Development program that provides an annual allocation of funds for rural economic devel opment and residential in frastructure projects. The CDB<; economic develop ment program provides grants to local governments for creating and retaining jobs. Funding for projects is based on the number of jobs to be created and the level of distress in the community applying for the funds. Bankruptcy can help you manage and solve your financial problems. Cali Allen C. Brown Attorney Over 2,500 clients helped with 28 years of experience 1-800-752-0952 #252-752-0753 Belief Agency helping people eliminate debt through bankruptcy r33rd Annual Belvoir Fire Department AUCTION March 7,2015 9:00am NC 33 West and 222 BBQ PORK OR Chicken Plates WILL BE SOLD AT LUNCH For more info, contact Charles Tucker @252-341-2259 JW Tugwell Auction Co. NCAL #883 Firm License #7533 NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING Albemarle Regional Solid Waste Management Authority will hold a Board Meeting at 10:30 AM on Thurs., March 12th at the Perquimans Co. Recreation Center 310 Grandy St., Hertford. A Perquimans Chowan Gates Landfill Board Meeting will be held beginning 11:30 AM at the same location and date. FMI CALL 252-338 4458 OR CONTACT ABLINDT@ARHS-NC.ORG CHOWA^HERALD (USPS 106-380) Vol. 81. No. 8 Published Every Wednesday Cooke Communications North Carolina, LLC Entered as a second-class matter August 30, 1934 at the Post Office of Edenton, North Carolina, under Act of March 3, 1870 SUBSCRIPTION RATES Daily Advance home delivery area $27.00 (Chowan, Perquimans, Pasquotank, Camden, Currituck, parts of Gates) Elsewhere in continental United States $46.00 POSTMASTER: SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO: The Chowan Herald • PO. Box 207 • Edenton, NC 27932 Telephone: (252) 482-2623 Fax: (252) 482-4410 chowanheraldConcweeklies.com
The Chowan Herald (Edenton, N.C.)
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Feb. 25, 2015, edition 1
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