THE PERQUIMANS WEEKLY
Volume 3*, No. 45 USPS42MH0 Hertford, Perquimans County, N.C., Thursday, November 13,1980 20 CENTS
Despite rate exemption ,
Winfall wants freedom
Despite assurances that Winfall
residents will not have to pay Hertford's
impending IS percent utility increase,
unhappy electrical customers are still
threatening to seek services elsewhere.
I A group of some 30 unhappy Hertford
utility consumers and residents of
Winfall attended that town's council
meeting last week seeking support for
switching electric service to Albemarle
Electric Cooperative, citing disapproval
of Hertford's recent IS percent increase
in utility rates, as well as alleged poor
service.
Hertford Mayor and Town Manager
Bill Cox said that the Hertford Town
Council had never intended the IS per
cent increase to affect those utility
customers not receiving water and sewer
service.
"The reason to not increase Winfall
rates is because they're not full utility
customers ? they do not have the benefit
of the town's waste-treatment plant, the
town's water system, or any other town
services," said Cox.
"Therefore, the council felt that it
would not be fair to increase their
(Winfall's utility) rates because the
extra revenue generated by electric
rates pays for other town services that
are not available to these customers," be
added.
Cox also expressed some displeasure
over Hertford utility customers taking
problems to the Winfall Town Council.
"The council and I feel that the
customers involved should have come to
the Hertford board if they had com
plaints," he said, "This is the place to
bring them."
But exemption from the 15 percent
increase will apparently have no effect
on Winfall customers who are petitioning
their right to contract with AEMC.
Aside from what some Winfall
residents described as "poor service due
to low voltage," a petition has been
drawn up which requests releasement
from Hertford lines on the following
premises:
?AEMC is the duly franc hised electric
supplier for the town of Winf all.
?The Winf all Town Council and Mayor
desire that Hertford withdraw utility
services and facilities from Winf all.
?Hertford pays neither property taxes
nor gross receipts taxes to the town of
Winf all, while AEMC does.
?Hertford does not qualify as a
"secondary supplier" as the term is used
in the North Carolina General Statutes
defining electric suppliers' rights inside
corporate limits of municipalities.
?AEMC has its principal headquarters
located within Winfall's corporate limits,
a position Winfall residents believe
allows for more timely service.
?AEMC has a system of profit sharing
which credits consumer-members with
revenues above the cooperative's actual
yearly expenses.
Although Winfall Mayor David
True blood affirmed that the Winfall
Council would back the citizen petition to
switch to AEMC, he was uncertain as to
how far the effort would go. "I know they
,w*nt it (the switch) mighty bad, but
whether it will go to court or not, I don't
know," he said.
Winfall commissioner Richard Bryant
said that he thought the people in Winfall
were "sick enough" of Hertford's
electric service to take it to court.
"It makes them mad ? some people
get mad when they just see the Hertford
servic* truck in Winfall," said Bryant,
"Call it town loyalty, call it want you
want, but I think we may end up in
court"
Bryant, who is an AEMC customer,
said he understood the biggest complaint
to be low voltage in Winfall, a problem
which residents claim interfere with
television pictures, lights, and appliance
performance.
He said that the alleged poor service
could possibly be proven if meters were
installed to monitor the possible voltage
drops.
Winfall's town attorney James
Singletary, who was directed by the
council to prepare and distribute the
petitions, said that he would recommend
that the town secure a Raleigh attorney,
should the matter come to litigation.
"I think they would do better if they
hired an attorney who specializes in
utility regulations," he said.
Singletary said that the possibility of
Winfall customers purchasing electricity
directly from Virginia Electric and
Power Company had not been brought
up.
But Hertford officials seem unwilling
to relinquish Winfall customers to
AEMC.
Hertford commissioner T. Erie Haste,
Jr., said that releasing Winfall's 129
customers would have an effect on
wholesale rates.
"We need to keep these people (Winfall
customers) so the volume of wholesale
electricity will remain consistent and the
price lower," said Haste, who estimated
that Winfall customers comprised ap
proximately 12 percent of Hertford's
electrical consumers. "We cannot afford
to lose 12 percent," he said.
Haste also indicated that he felt
charges of "poor service" were unfair.
"When the people of Winfall had no
electricity years ago, they appealed to
the town of Hertford.
"And Hertford bought equipment and
had lines run to them (Winfall
customers) at the expense of Hertford
taxpayers'," said Haste, adding "We
have been giving those people good
service since that time.
Fall fun
Megan Shales (top) and sister Hannah
enjoyed unseasonably warm autumn
temperatures earlier this week by
frolicking in a mound of colorful leaves.
The two are daughters of Dr. and Mrs.
Paul Shales of Grubb Street, Hertford.
W elf are rolls swell during inflation-racked year
Higher unemployment and inflation
rates have resulted in a larger number of
families with dependent children ap
plying for public assistance, according to
Robert Ward, director of the North
Carolina Department of Human
Resource's Division of Social Services.
"The average monthly number of
AFDC recipients (Aid to Families with
Dependent Children) to- fiscal year 1979
80 was 193,502 (statewide) compared to
190.M0 for fiscal year 1978-79," said
Ward.
"However, the year started in July
1979 with only 188,468 and increased to
199,908 by June of 1980, for an increase of
11,440 recipients," Ward said.
Perquimans County's average number
of monthly recipients in fiscal year 1978
79 was 312, with a total of $241,188 in
payments during that year. In fiscal year
1979-80, the average number of monthly
recipients increased to 382, with a total of
1317,937 in payments.
Total AFDC payments for 1979-80
amounted to $146.6 million compared to
slightly less than $135 million the
previous year. Ward said that the largest
part of the increase was due to a five
percent increase in maximum payments
approved by the 1979 session of the N.C.
General Assembly. The federal govern
ment's share of the payment is 67.64
percent with the state and counties share
at 16.18 each.
North Carolina's AFDC payments still
ran 42nd in the nation with a maximum
payment of $210 a month for a family of
four.
Ward indicated that the number of
recipients appears to have leveled off
with 199,725 North Carolinians receiving
assistance in September.
The AFDC program provides financial
assistance for children who have been
denied the support of either one or both
( Continued on page 2)
Town of Hertford taking steps to improve waste - water system
The situation at Hertford's waste
water treatment plant, cited in violation
of state effluent limitations last spring,
has improved considerably according to
a report from the North Carolina
Department of Natural Resources and
Community Development
W.E. Furr, Jr. of the department's
Division of Environmental Management
in Washington, N.C., recently reported
that operation at the plant appeared to be
"much better" following a September
inspection.
The plant had been cited as operating
in violation following an earlier in
spection in April, when Furr found an
excess of fecal coliform and other human
waste-related bacteria in the
Perquimans River.
While the September inspection in
dicated that the plant was presently
operating in compliance with permit
limitations, the report indicated that
yearly averages showed the facility to be
exceeding the suspended solid
limitations.
Furr's evaluation acknowledged,
however, that problems existing at the
plant are expected to be corrected with
completion of the 201 facilities process, a
plan designed to upgrade the waste
water treatment plant.
According to Hertford Mayor and
Town Manager Bill Cox, completion of
the 201 process will address all existing
problems within the water works,
notably the infiltration of excess water
into the town sewer lines and manholes.
Smoke tests performed last September
(as Phase I of the process) indicated that
ground and rain water were entering
sewer lines through disconnected joints
A PRECINCT BY PRECINCT LOOK AT THE MAJOR RACES
I I IAST I WST
|B?LVIDERE|
and deteriorating manholes.
When such excess water gains entry to
the plant, the danger of a washout is
emminent. Such an occurence can cause
the destruction of the necessary human
waste-eating bacteria, and the result is
the dumping of water not sufficiently
free of wastes into the river.
The 201 process was begun in 1975, and
should reach the construction stage
sometime in 1982, according to Cox, who
said the Environmental Protection
Agency will pay 75 percent of the some $1
million project, with the state and the
town of Hertford dividing the remaining
25 percent equally.
The town council moved last week to
proceed with Phase II of the 201 process.
Phase II costs will be in the neighborhood
of $35,000, with the town footing ap
proximately $4,375 of that.
Phase II is expected to address the
problem of faulty lines through cleaning,
which will rid obstructions and debris
such as sand, mud, roots, grease, gravel
and sludge to permit free passage of a
television monitoring camera.
The television camera will be used to
inspect lines to determine infiltration
sources as well as estimated flow rate;
crushed, broken, or cracked pipes; root
intrusion locations; and misaligned
pipes.
All questionable conditions will be
video taped, thus allowing engineers to
pinpoint trouble spots in the sewage
system.
One imprisoned, another
waiting in Harris robbery
Two men were convicted for their roles
in the August 9 armed robbery of Harris
Building Supply in Hertford during the
Oct. 29 term of Superior Court in
Perquimans County.
Clyde Alexander Leary, who wielded a
knife during the robbery, was found
guilty of one count of armed robbery and
waa sentenced to not less than 7 nor more
than 14 years imprisonment.
Charles Phillip Bond, who carried a
sa wed-off shotgun during the robbery,
was also found guilt., of one count of
armed robbery, but has not yet been
Both Bond and Leary are expected to
testify for the state against suspected
"get-away" car driver George Lee
Rerell, who is scheduled to be tried
during the February session of Superior
Court, according to Hertford Police Chief
Marshall Merritt.
In the August 9 robbery, $150 was taken
from the cash register of the store, and
the wallets of Dale and customer Jan
Spruill were taken.
Then Spruill and Dale, as well as
business owner Edison "Spec" Harris,
were forced into a restroom and the
robbers fled.
In another case decided during the Oct.
29 term, Michael Wayne Spivey received
a prison sentence of not less than two nor
more than five years after a host of
charges against him were consolidated.
Spivey had been charged with a break
in and theft at the home of Hertford
resident Preston Divert, a break-in and
theft at Pitt Hardware in Hertford, as
well breaking into an auto and several
other offenses.
He had also escaped from custody
\ %
while awaiting trial in District Court
Conditions of his sentence required
that he pay restitution of $500 to Divers,
be evaluated for his condition as an
admitted drug addict and receive any
and all treatment, and be considered for
work or study release.
A marijuana case against Anaeta
Louise Powers was reduced from a
felony to a misdemeanor in exchange for
a guilty plea, and Ms. Powers received a
six month suspended sentence.
She was also required to pay a $500 flat
plus cost of court.
Just over an ounce of marijuana was
discovered in her house trailer in Bait
ford during a search for items stolen In
the Divers break-in.
Francis Gregory Burns, III, ?f VlrgWa
(Continued on page 1)
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