THE PERQUIMANS WEEKLY
Volume 37, No. II USPS 428460 Hertford, Pwrquimons County, N.C., Thursday, May 7,1911 10 CENTS
County
resists
increase
The Perquimans County Board of
Commissioners is steeling itself to resist
increased local spending for social
services in the coming year.
County social services director Paul
Gregory offered a budget projection at a
Monday meeting of the board that would
up local contributions by about 9.4 per
pent, or 120,711.
But the commissioners instructed
Gregory to find some more cuts, and
some members endorsed taking the
increase out of Aid to Families with
Dependent Children.
Commissioner Lester Simpson
lamented that AFDC had made
pregnancy profitable. "If the state and
federal government are cutting, we
ihould be cutting too," Simpson said.
I Gregory, however, argued that the
county is mandated to participate in
AFDC at a certain level, and that the
state would require payment when local
funds ran out, whether budgeted or not.
" The state offered an estimate of $55,315
in local requirements for AFDC, but
Gregory had projected expenditures of
(59,365.
He said the state estimate would not
ftven cover cost of the program in the
present year, and that it has been in
creasing in cost at a rate of about 5 per
cent per year for the last three years.
Commissioner Welly White, however,
advocated going with the state estimate,
i and that idea seemed to find general
agreement among board members.
Increases were also projected in
Medicaid, special assistance (county
contribution towards rest home ex
penses), and administrative costs.
Gregory was instructed to get his
budget proposal approved by the county
social services Iwii, wMtli had rejected t
it because of the increases, then come
back to the commissioners for approval.
In another development, Wayne Floyd,
of Rivers and Associates, the firm that
engineered the county's water system,
told the board that he would be able to
locate three new wells and an additional
water treatment plant on three one acre
tracts of land located off U.S. 17 near
Winfall.
Ron Sessoms, another Rivers and
Associates representative, told the board
I . (Continued on page 2)
The bid mounts
A spotter indicates that a buyer has in
deed upped the price a few more cents in
auctioning at the Albemarle 4-H
Livestock Show and Sale conducted last
Tuesday and Wednesday in Elisabeth
City. For more on the show and tale, see
P??e >?
1 3 percent sought
Schools ready
budget for
joint meeting
The Perquimans County Board of
Education will present a budget that
includes an increase of some 13 per cent
in local spending when it meets with the
county commissioners in a special
session on May 11.
The budget calls for $886,151 in spen
ding for current expense, an increase of
some 12.75 per cent, and $180,400 for
capital outlay, up 17 per cent.
A total of $551,200 would be generated
through local tix dollars and the
remainder would come from other
sources.
If approved, the budget would
represent a 52 cents share of the county's
tax rate, up 3 cents over the present year.
The current expense side of the budget
was described as "hold the line" by'
schools superintendent Pat Harrell, and
board members toiled over paring down
the capital outlay side of the budget in a
lengthy session Monday night.
The bulk of projected capital outlay is
in renovations and repairs, and the
major new item included is $22,000 for a
new bus needed to transport the county's
high school band.
Board member Clifford Towe said that
he might be able to locate a quality used
bus at signifigant savings to the schools.
While the percentage of increase in
capital outlay may seem large, board
members have argued that maintenance
needs are critical in some of the school
buildings.
"If they (the county commissioners)
can't provide the money for keeping the
buildings up our hands are tied in
maintaining the buildings like they
should be," said board chairman Clifford
Winslow.
Board member Lloyd "Flutch" Dail
proposed taking the commissioners
around and showing them the needs if
they balked at providing maintenance
and repair money.
The King Street Building at
Perquimans County High School is
targeted for extensive repairs, and the
replacement of rotting windows at
Perquimans Union School and PCHS is
projected to cost more than $30,000 in the
coming year ($10,000 in additional
window replacements at PUS would be
carried over to the next year's budget).
The Monday night meeting will begin
with a 7:30 p.m. public hearing on county
use of revenue sharing funds, to be
followed by the joint session with the
board of education.
In other facility-related matters, the
board decided to improve existing
restrooms in the athletic complex, rather
than build new ones, and decided that
work should begin on building a turf for
the coming football season.
Hybrid bermuda sprigs will be rolled
into the existing grass, beginning with
the area between the two 35 yard lines,
and progressing as funds permit.
The largest expense will be an
irrigation system, Harrell said.
The board also elected to get an ar
chitect's drawing for a proposed weight
room to be attached to the high school
gym, and to proceed with that project.
Board members had discussed the
construction of a new restroom facility at
a recent meeting, but decided against it
Monday night, because an expenditure of
such magnitude would tend to tie the
football field to its present site.
Long range plans call for a new
athletic complex to be constructed
across the street from the existing
facility.
In other matters, the board learned :
?that advanced typing students from
PCHS had finished first in a regional
typing contest at East Carolina
University;
?that Brock Winslow, Tammie Lane,
Bonnie Harris, and Elmer Boyce, all
seventh graders at PUS, had been
singled out for honors by Duke Univer
sity because of their scores on the
Standard Achievement Test (SAT), and;
?that the public auction of a storage
building built by the PCHS carpentry
class would be on May IS at 12 noon at the
King Street building, with bids starting
at $1,650, the cost of construction.
Winfall officials seek Hertford power-iine sell-out
' Representatives from the Town of
Winfall appeared before the Hertford
Town Council Monday night asking that
Hertford begin negotiating the sale of
I Hertford electric facilities in Winfall to
Albemarle Electric Membership
Cooperative.
Winfall town attorney Walter Ed
.wards, Jr. read a resolution, passed by
-the Winfall council in April, asking that
Hertford sell out to AEMC because of a
(pur-month petition drive by Winfall
residents unhappy with electric services
provided by the Town of Hertford.
Some 90 Winfall residents signed the
petition requesting the switch because of
alleged poor service, because Hertford
pays neither property taxes nor gross
receipt taxes to the Town of Win
fall, (while AEMC does), and because the
cooperative, located in Winfall, might
provide more timely service.
While Edwards told Hertford coun
cilmen that they did not expect im
mediate action, he requested the board to
make a decision as "soon as possible."
Hertford Mayor and Town Manager
Bill Cox requested a copy.of the petition
and signatures, "so that we, too, can see
who signed."
Winfall Mayor Lloyd Ray Morgan, who
was also in attendance, assured Cox that
a copy of the petition and signatures
would be forwarded to him immediately,
and added that he hoped Hertford
councilmen would not take the matter
"personally."
"Winfall citizens formed their own
committee and collected signatures ?
we had no alternative except to go with
it," said Morgan.
Hertford councilmen told the Winfall
contigent that they "would study the
matter."
In other business, the Hertford Town
Council moved to tentatively close the ice
plant. Councilman T. Erie Haste, Jr.,
recommended "we proceed into the
season with the ice plant closed, and keep
it closed on a month to month basis until
we can determine the community's
needs."
Cox said later it was not "financially
feasible" for the town to re-open the
plant, closed since the first of the year
because of a breakdown in the com
pressor. Repairs at the plant have been
estimated at $8,000.
The council also:
?Moved to hold a public hearing at the
Municipal Building at 7 p.m., May 26, to
amend a zoning ordinance requiring
assessory buildings to be erected 10 to 20
feet from real lines, depending on the
area. The amendment is sought to
uniformly require that such buildings
may be built within 5 feet of real lines, no
matter what zone;
?Learned that Cox had begun working on
redesignation as a Community of Ex
cellence;
?Heard from Hertford Police Chief
Marshall Merritt that the department
had raised all the funds needed to send
Corporal Robert Morris to the drug
enforcement academy in Washington,
D.C., and that Morris had begun classes
Monday morning.
Newbold-White House may open this summer
: If all goes as hoped, doors will open
sometime this summer to the Newbold
White House, considered by some to be
the oldest extant bcilding in the state.
, ?' While W.M. Kemp, the contractor who
has been working on restoration of the
pre-Georgian structure since 1177, said
be couldn't put ? date on the opening,
members of the Perquimans County
Restoration Society are more optimistic.
Some have even looked forward to a
mid-June opening of the historic house
M Kmc, cat., -jpenrlior of the
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? fciiwivivn vn ifif npwooiu nnur nous*3
piinti not a sample d the atruclure'i
_ WHI 100
the stair. Tbe plaster iadkates where the
original rtair treads were placed.
mBmw? ? r j
museum, but former society president
William Nixon said he thinks it could be
complete by July 1, making July 4, "a
good opening date to shoot for . "
Nixon, who said he expected the house
to be completed two years ago, added
that he felt "it would be a boost and an
encouragement if restoration Is complete
by July 4,1m."
Final stages
A1 Hoaeycutt, supervisor of
Restoration and Preservation Services, a
branch of the Division of Archives and
History, of Raleigh, visited the house last
Wednesday and described restoration
efforts as in "the final stage*."
According to Hoeeycutt, among tasks
yet to be finished are installation of the
sheathing on the second floor and
sheathing around windows, placement of
a lock on middle partition doors, some
baseboard work, refiaishing paneling,
which shows an accumulation of smoke
and grease build-up ? the result of many
years of cooking, according to
Honeycutt.
Exhibits of the original wallj>laster,
which are preserved in framed glass
diaplays on the stairs and lower level,
Indicate that the plaster went down to the
floor with no baseboard, a practice
Honeycutt said would be copied, though
baseboards will be used on the wooden
partition walls. The plaster display on
the stain shows the original tread of the
stairway, now wider for safety's sake,
according to Honeycutt. The stair is a
copy of the one in the 17th century
Ljrnnhaven House, in Virginia Beach,
Va.
All Interior brick will be covered wit|>
plaster, which Honeycutt said would
mimic the brusbed-coat effect of the pre
Georgian plaster technique. "At that
time, they brushed on several thin coats
of plaster," said Honeycutt, who added.
"It (piutdring) had to be done often
because It flaked off so easily."
Mixture of old and new
A blending of both old and new
materials has gooe into renovation of the
the exterior doors and part of the flooring
were of new wood, while much of the
interior paneling was made from old
church pews.
But even new materials for the house
were not easy to come by. Finding the
heart pine needed to replace the flooring
turned into a year's search, and was
finally located in Gates County. Finding
a mill willing to cut the pine into the 11
foot long planks presented still another
dilemma. A Windsor mill finally agreed
to do the work.
The pine flooring was sealed with a dry
base, which will allow it to age with time,
and blend in with the original floor
boards.
Even the handblown glass for tbf
leaded casement windows had to tpe
ordered from a firm in West Germaflr.
Glau fragments found during an early
archeological dig provided clues ty the
proper hue and texture. Kemp, along
with Herbert Nixon and James Goodwin,
recreated the leaded windows tlUt flank
the doors in both the front and b?rk
Exact date unknown
Although Hooeycutt said that neither
historical nor arcbeoiogfcal research had
yielded any Information which could
pinpoint an exact year in which the
structure was built, he said that several
s *
of the house's features were indicative of
medieval building practices.
Ghost marks found on the center
( Continued on page 2)
This week ^
?A crew of 57 bbm in attempting to
Uki the click ety -clack out of the
railroad track through Perquimans
County ? tee page 1
?Aunt Etta, poet-mistress in New
Hope, keep* those tarda and letters
coning, bat her nth smart ia pen
ding, and the future of the contract
station is uncertain? aoe page I
?County youths were superb hi
showing their animals at the
Afenaaite 4-H Lire stock Shew and
Sale Inst wank? ??? pact *
Weather word
Chnaot of showers Thursday, than
partly cloudy Friday and Saturday.
Ogha to thefts, lows to the Ste