.. / u'y LOT* * C 002 Pk0ll3 .... SHEPHERD pruden library 106 W WATER ST EDENTONNC 27932-1854 \» 482-4418 Wednesday, December 30, 2015 *195 Per Person/BouWe • *245 Per Person/SInde Price Includes V DWinre Bus Transportation. * 2 ftfglits at Dover Downs. Escorted By: 40/8 American Legion, Edenton. N.C, Cali 252-562-8114 • 252-339-6433 Money ts Due When You Sign Up. Deadline: February 15,2016. All Proceeds go lo the Local Nursing Scholarship Fuat ♦ *60 Casino Credit. ♦ 2 Breakfast Buffets. All Taxes & Gratuities Schools look for progress in 2016 BY REBECCA BUNCH Staff Writer Edenton-Chowan Schools Superintendent Rob Jackson said he is opti mistic that the coming year will be a time of progress for students and staff. “I believe that 2016 will be a great year for the school system as we will continue to see our positive trends gather momentum,'’ he said. Jackson said he is anticipat ing that the graduating class of 2016 will break records set by last year’s graduates in terms of both gradu ate rate and the number of scholarships received. He added that Chowan Middle School, which has been deemed a North Carolina Middle ScIkxjI to Watch, "is fielding requests from other middle schools and school districts to send teams to visit our teachers and staff to learn from their suc cess.” “The elementary schools are having tremendous years find are benefiting from growing parent and community involvement," Jackson said. “Each of our schools Is on a positive tra jectory and I believe that we will witness even more stu dent success in 2016.'' He said that one of the greatest challenges for the school system and for the community as a whole re mains school readiness. “This school year, 86 [>ercent of our entering kin dergarteners were below where they needed to be (in terms of skilLs) to start kindergarten," Jackson said. “As a community we must address the critical issue of school readiness. We all need to do our part to encourage parents of very young ctiildren to read to them every night ;uid to have meaningful conversa tions with them.” He emphasized that recent research shared through t 'howan ( ARES shows that a child who is read to 20 minutes a day is exposed to 1.8 million words per year as c< >mpared to a child who Ls not read to and Ls only exposed to 8,(XXI words a year. 'This disparity in prepa ration creates a difficult barrier for children to over come as they mast work to catch up with their peers," Jackson said. But positive steps are be ing taken to close the gap, he said. “Our public library is of fering powerful opportuni ties for parents anti children to meet authors and engage in a community of readers,” Jackson said. “We mast encourage the parents of young children to take ad vantage of our tremendous public library,” he added. See SCHOOLS, 3A '< 2009 The Chowan Herald All Rights Reserved Destination Downtown Edenton eyes growth BY REGGIE PONDER Edihtor If Destination Down town Edenton has its way, 2016 will be a year of growth for the town’s already vibrant downtown district. Jennifer Harriss, execu tive director of Destination Downtown Edenton Inc., which is Edenton’s National Main Street Program office, said in a recent interview that recruiting new busi nesses to downtown, helping existing businesses expand and encouraging public art hr the community will be among DDEs efforts in the coining year. The DDE Board has an 18-month plan of work. One of the goals hr that plan is the development of ;ur incentive program for the recruitment of new businesses and the expan sion of existing businesses. DDE will be working with other organizations to see how they might be able to partner on that. vvt- IILUIK IIS uupuiuuu not only to recruit new businesses but to assist the businesses we have now with expanding and offering new goods and services,” Harriss said. In particular, Harriss said, DDE is very interested in bringing a sporting goods component to downtown, either tlirough a new busi ness or the expansion of a new business into the spoiling goods line. Also, a canoe and kayak outfitter could be part of a larger sporting goods busi ness or could be a small standalone business, she said. Market analyses have shown a lot of leakage when it comes to spoiling goods, she said. “So the board really wants to zero in on that for our downtown,” Harriss said. “It’s a need and we iiope to till it." See DOWNTOWN, 4A STAFF PHOTOS BY REGGIE PONDER This window at Shoppes on Broad (above) tied for first place in the windows contest sponsored by Destination Downtown Edenton Inc. Edenton Bay Trading Co. (below) was brightly decorated for the holidays and shared first place honors in the contest. Honorable mention went to Polka Dot Palm and John Gay Studio. Water woes top county concern in coming year BY REGGIE PONDER Editor Finding-a cost-effective way to comply with state regulations at the comity’s water treatment plant wliile resuming the water-softening process tops the agenda for Chow an County officials as 2016 dawns. “That's our number one issue next year," said County Manager Kevin Howard. State environmental regulators have told county officials they must stop softening the comity’s water as long as the county continues to dis charge the effluent from the treat ment process into a swamp near the treatment plant. The county already has begun phasing out the softening of the water and will stop the softening completely by March 1. Meanwlule, the county conunissioners plan to start meeting in the next couple of weeks to discuss how to resolve the water treatment Issues. County Manager Kevm'?Iowanl said that there aLso would be meet ings for public information and jaiblic input on the issue. Constructing a reverse osmosis water treatment pl;mt would be a HOWARD costly solution, with esti mates around $30 million for a new RO plant. A much more affordable options, and therefore one the commissioners likely will focus us, is to use the current water treatment system but change the way the effluent is disposed of. Howard said it could cost $4 mil lion or more to reroute the effluent, depending on where the discharge site is. The state has to approve the discharge location, ;uul alternate dischar ge sites could range from as close as three miles away to as far away as 15-16 miles. Howard said the timetable for resolving the water Issues was not necessarily tied to the budget process since the county already increased water rates tins fiscal ye;ir in anticipation of needing to upgrade the plant. What is driving the timetable in stead is a general sense of urgency to resolve the water issues. “We're going to move as fast as possible to figure out something," Howard said. “Our phut is to get back in the softening business, not just stay the way we are now." See COUNTY, 4A Town infrastructure a priority in year ahead BY REBECCA BUNCH Editor Looking ahead to the coining year Town Manager Anne-Marie Knighton says tile town government “iias a lot on its plate.” And wiiile all of the goals and priorities won’t lx- final ized until tiie town council meets in January to review and update its Vision State ment, Knighton said that projects for 2016 would include the future use of the for mer Northeast Com mission building, the new headquar ters for the Edenton Police Department, implementation of tire redevelopment plans tor the North Uakum Street and Moseley Street neighborhoods; upgrades to the electrical distribution KNIGHTON system and water mains on Peanut Drive; and con tinuing to help the Edenton-Chowan Partnership with its efforts to recruit a second grocery store. “Tlie upcoming budget lor 2()H>/17 Ls a bud get I am looking forward to,” Knighton said. Thanks to the General Assembly giving municipalities the authority to increase the vehicle tag fee beginning in July, the Town will have ad ditional revenue to pay for street paving work. We will be updating our priority list in the spring and reviewing it with the town council as part of the budget prepara tion work.” Knighton acknowledged that one of the areas of greatest int erest in the com ing year would be the fu tiuv ownership and use of the Northeast Commission building &mdash; the last remaining piece of commer cial real estate available on the downtown waterfront. “Our town council ad ministrative committee chaired by Councilman Steve Biggs has recom mended that Reid Thomas See TOWN, 3A WE DON'T EXPECT TO BE EVERYONE'S PHARMACY, ! I HUIIT’C MUTUAL BUTWE SURELYWOULD LIKETO BEYOURS. LUU m I 0 DRUGS ^xPenence DIFFERENCE.Make that New Year’s resolution you’ve been meaning to make! ' 323 8, Broad St. * PO Box 208 * EdtntOtl, NC 27932-02Q9 * (252) 482-2127 J.6. (Jim) Blount, Sr., R.PH • Jenny Blount Wiliams, Pturm.D. • Nelson Spear, Ptumi, D.

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