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SHEPHERD PRUDEN LIBRARY
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EDENTON NC 27932-1854
Schools
hold Book
Character
Day - 6A
482-4418
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
County nets $1.85M for Riversound owners
■ Agreement will allow
completion of infrastructure
BY REGGIE PONDER
Editor
County Manager Kevin How
ard announced at the Oct. 19
meeting of the Chowan County
Board of Commissioners that
the county, the bonding com
pany and the property owners
association had settled on $1.85
million as the amount that would
go to the property owners asso
ciation to complete the work on
the wastewater treatment facil
ity for the Riversound I residen
tial development.
The settlement relieves the
county and the bonding com
pany of any further liability, ac
cording to Howard.
Lee Quick, president of the
Riversound Property Owners
Association, said the POA was
pleased that the long negotia
tion had resulted in a settlement
sufficient to complete the infra
structure.
At this point the POA is in
charge of the work and has hired
its own contractor, Quick said.
The subdivision was in the
development stage in 2007 but a
year or so after that the develop
er had fallen prey to the Reces
sion and was unable to complete
the required improvements for
the subdivision. That has left
property owners unable to build
on their lots.
The county called the perfor
mance bond in 2012 in order
to get the streets and wastewa
ter treatment plant completed.
Since then the county and the
bonding company had been ne
gotiating the amount necessary
to complete the work.
Quick said the wastewater
treatment plant should be fin
ished in a few months, and build
ing would be able to start once
state officials certify the plant.
Quick said he appreciated the
work that Chowan County Man
ager Kevin Howard had done to
help get an adequate settlement
in the case.
Harvest Porch
STAFF PHOTO BY REGGIE PONDER
This display of pumpkins and other autumn decorations adorns the porch of Keith and Nancy Sorensen’s home at 209 E. King St.
Board OKs improvement plan for DF Walker
BY REBECCA BUNCH
Staff Writer
School lxtani memliers
arc counting on Superin
tcndcnt Rob Jackson and
FrincipaJ Michelle White to
move D.F. Walker Elemen
tary School beyond its cur
rent state classification as a
low-performing school.
Meanwhile, school lead
ers are looking for parents
and the community to
come alongside' the school
in working for student suc
cess.
The Edenton Chowan
Board of Education re
cently got its first look at
die proposed plan of action
required by the state after
the elementary school was
classified as a low
performing school.
During its quar
terly meeting on
Oct. 20 the hoard
unanimously voted
to approve the phut
so that it could t>e
forwarded to the
N.C Department of
Public Instruction. Board
member Ricky Browder
was not at the meeting.
'They (D.F. Walker) have
come up with a plan that
we feel will address their
grade." said Chairman John
Guard.
Guard said that the board
was also asked to reaffirm
its faith in White, who be
gan her first full year as
D.F Walker’s principal in
GUARD
September, as well
as Jackson, who is
now in his second
year of leading the
school system.
“We did that,”
Guard sjiid.
State officials
gave Walker the
low-performing
designation alter it earned a
"D” for the second consecu
tive year bast'd on School
Repot! Card ratings.
Guard said that he felt
the rating was misleading
because SO percent of the
rating was based on per
fonnance while only 20
percent of the rating consid
ered growth, lit' noted that
current statistics show 85
percent of students enter
ing the Edenton-Chowrin
school system do not meet
expected entrance require
ments and said that requires
teachers at White Oak and
Walker to spend valuable
time trying to help those
children catch up with their
peers.
For that reason, he said,
he believes student perfor
mance and growth should
he considered equally when
the letter grades are as
signed.
Wliile the School Report
Card ratings won’t be offi
cially released until Decem
ber school systems were
notified of grades assigned
to the various schools in
mid-Octot>er. John A. Holm
es High School and Chow an
Middle School each earned
a rating. Since ratings
are not assigned to schools
until tliird grade1, White ()ak
Elementary — which con
sists of students in pre-K
through 2nd grade — was
not assigned a rating.
White praised the perfor
mance of teachers at Walker
and said the rating doesn’t
accurately reflect their pro
fessionalism and commit
ment to teaching.
"I want everyone in our
community to know that
our school is about so much
more than a letter grade,”
White said. “We have an
outstanding school with an
amazing staff who come in
early, stay late, and go above
and beyond for children ev
ery day. We are determined
to make this 2015-2015
school year representative
of tremendous growth for
D.F. Walker.”
The plan for improving
school performance — de
veloped this fall by Walker’s
school improvement team
— contains a clear, con
cise mission statement that
reads simply, “D.F. Walker’s
mission is to encourage suc
cess by meeting individu;il
needs."
And a belief system ham
mered out by the team
makes it clear they support
the idea that till children can
leiun given thev right envi
ronment and resources as
See IMPROVEMENT, 7A
2 men arrested for Oct. 17 shooting
BY BECKY BUNCH
Staff Writer
Two Chowan County
men wanted for a shoot
ing that sent two other
men to the hospital earlier
this month have been ar
rested in Bertie County, the
Edenton police chief said
Wednesday.
C02009 The Chowan Herald
All Rights Reserved
J a b a z z
Ixjug, 20,
formerly
of the 100
block of
P a x I o n
Lane, Eden
ton, and
L'i n w a r d
Bailey 111,
21, of the 2000 block of
Perry (Ionian Line, TVner,
were arrested Wednesday
and taken into custody
without incident, police
Chief Jay Fortonbery said
in a press release.
Fortenbery said L» >ng and
BAILEY
LONG
Bailey were
found in an
unmarked
trailer on
T i f f a n y
Lane out
side the
town of
Windsor.
He said the
arrests resulted from an
anonymous tip.
“We got a tip on where
they were and that’s where
we found them,” he said.
Fortenbery sanl that to
the l>est of his knowledge
no one else was at the trail
er at the time Long and Bai
ley were arrested.
Both suspects ;tre
charged with two counts
of assault with a deadly
weapon with intent to kill
inflicting serious injury.
Both are being held at the
Chowan County Jail in lieu
of $050,(XX) secured bonds.
Edenton police say I/mg
and Bailey are responsible
for a shooting incident in
the 200 block of East Free
mason Street on Saturday,
Oct. 17, that resulted in two
See 2 ARRESTED, 7A
Town responds
to power outage
From staff reports
Town of Edenton utility customers east from Vil
lage Creek to Sandy Point experienced a power fail
ure Monday afternoon.
Utilities Director Glenn Andersen said ait insulator
failure prompted by a burning jtower line caused the
outage. He said that arcs of blue flame could be seen
by town linemen as they responded to the scene and
that flickering lights were experienced as far away as
the downtown area
The outage was reported about 11:15 am. near
Pelikan and power was restored at about 1:30 p.m., ;
Andersen said.
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