Crimewatch EDENTON POLICE DEPARTMENT ARRESTS ■ Sept. 22 - Corey Scott Venters, 26, of Icar ia Road, was arrested on one misdemeanor count of larceny and one misde meanor count of posses sion of stolen property. INCIDENTS ■ Sept 22 - Larceny at Dollar General on North Broad Street. ■ Sept. 21 - Obtaining property by false pre tense at the Duck Thru on Virginia Road. ■ Sept. 20 - Breaking and entering and larceny on East Queen Street ■ Sept 13 - Injury to personal property on Wedgewood Apts. CHOWAN COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE ARRESTS ■ Sept. 22 - Malik Davon Mabine, 20, of Greenhall Road, was ar rested on one felony count of statutory sex of fense with a child under the age of 15. INCIDENTS ■ None reported. Peeler recused from Perquimans vote on wind energy BY PETER WILLIAMS The Perquimans Weekly When the Perquimans Board of Commission ers makes its decision on whether to grant a condi tional use permit for the Apex Clean Energy project, it will be without Commis sioner Matt Peeler. The board voted 3-2 Wednesday night to recuse Peeler from any vote on the / 11 nun /ii pi ujrv i. The board's decision follows release of emails by Peeler including one to state Sen. Bill Cook. R Beaufort They appear to show Peeler's desire to stop or severely limit wind pow er in the state. “1 will admit now and in the fuhire 1 will oppose these things on their health and welfare impacts,” Peel er said in one e-mail. “ Voting for recusal were board Chairwoman Janice Cole and Commissioners Fondella Leigh and Ed Muz zulin. Voting against recu sal were Commissioners Wallace Nelson and Kyle Jones. The emails were brought to the board’s attention by Henry Campen, the lead attorney for Apex. He said they showed Peeler could not make an objective de cision on Apex’s permit request, even though that’s what Peeler agreed to do during the board’s first quasi-judicial hearing on the request Campen asked the Perquimans Board of Commissioners to recuse Peeler from the permitting decision. Cole asked the other com missioners if they wanted to comment on the request from Campen. After about two minutes of silence, Cole said she’d start Cole said while it was possible for Peeler to sepa rate his legislative role from his role as an impartial de cider in the permit request, Peeler has consistently fought wind development, even the Desert Wind proj ect which the board of com missioners had already ap proved. “He took a position that he wanted to do anything he could do to stop the proj ect, vole .said. Leigh said she was both ered by the email in which Peeler said, “I will admit now and in the future I will oppose these things on their health and welfare im pacts.” Muzzulin pointed out that all six commissioners at tended a workshop in May where lawyers explained the quasi-judicial hearing process and were advised not to have contact with anyone involved in matters being considered at those hearings. Jones said Peeler’s emails help erode the public’s trust in elected officials and the email to Sen. Cook was par ticularly troubling. “It was a poor decision to do that,” Jones said. For his part, Peeler re sponded that he could be objective on the Apex re quest when he was asked if he could be by Nelson. Peeler pointed out that, while he’s opposed to so lar projects because he be lieves they don’t really fit in a rural area, he did vote for one of the four projects that have come before the board during his tenure as a commissioner. “I couldn’t say no to it because the evidence said I had to say, ‘yes.” he said. Following the vote, Peel er left his seat on the stage at the historic Perquimans County Courthouse where the board was meeting and took a seat in the audience. Leary Winslow, one of the group that is fighting the Apex project, was critical of Wednesday’s decision. “Commissioners have their mind made up,” Win slow said. “I’ve been told this for the past 10 months but it was ever so prevalent last night. The disresoect and bias from the chair was completely unprofessional. It has become extremely obvious she has an immov able bias in favor of the Timbermill project. Com missioner Peeler actually did a great deal of research on the pros and cons of wind energy and formed an educated opinion. For that he was recused.” The county commission has scheduled two more hearings on the Apex proj ect for Oct 17-18. The fact that Peeler can't vote on the project elimi nates the chance there will be a tie vote. With some elected bod ies, there is an odd number of members and the chair man can vote to break a tie. The Perquimans board has six members, including the chairman. With Peeler recused, there are five that can vote. Tie votes are rare, but there was one in February. The board was consider ing increasing the setback between wind turbines and homes to one half mile (2,640 feet). Peeler was among three com missioners that supported the larger setback but the other three opposed so the vote ended three-to-three. As a result, the motion died and setback wasn’t increased. Apex presents testimony on safety, appearance BY REGGIE PONDER Editor The company applying for a local permit to build the Timbemiill Wind Proj ect presented evidence Monday on the safety and visual impact of the 48 wind turbines proposed for the Chowan County portion of the project. Apex Clean Energy Inc., lilt* v n