Newspapers / The Perquimans Weekly (Hertford, … / Sept. 24, 1981, edition 1 / Page 1
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THE PERQUIMANS WEEKLY Volume 17, No. 31 USPS 421-080 Hertford, Perquimans County, N.C., Thursday, September 24, 19tl 20 CENTS Town joins NCMPA 3 The 'bottom line ' determines Hertford vote The Hertford Town Council unanimously voted in a public hearing last Moday to discontinue buying electricity from the Virginia Electric and Power Company and jeln the North Carolina Municipal Power Agency Number 3 r And In a bit a illustrative irony, the council followed that vote with a decision to pais on the increase in wfttlesale power rates filed by VEPCO on September 1. That increase will be JO percent, though with the proposed reduction in the fossil fuels charge it could be as low as IS percent. The rate increase was the "straw that broke the camel's back" for ' Hertford Mayor and City Manager Bill Cox. It was, he said, another example of why he thought the switch from VEPCO to NCMPA 3 was a good idea. Of the nine citizens who attended the hearing, seven of them spoke in favor of the switch, while one seriously questioned the idea. Before the vote, the councilmen all i spoke of "the bottom line." that is. that according to the independent study by R. W. Beck k Associates in the long term rates will be about 15 percent less than what they would have been under VEPCO. Councilman John Beers noted, "Before, we couldn't control the rates, but now we have control. "This is something the people of northeastern North Carolina have been searching for and fighting for for * a long time." Beers added. "To me this is not a gamble, it's a solid investment." Concerning the delays that other municipal governments have asked for. Councilman Erie Haste said, "Elisabeth City wants to wait until they can loam mors about it (the power switch). 1ffel], if they wait. they'll wait 'til the year 2.000." Haste added that the detail* of the propoul are so complicated only an expert could understand them, so he like the other councilmen was following "the bottom line." Haste was incensed by the VEP CO's recent increase. "This is so unreal and so unfair," he said. "I think the townspeople should know that whether it's a 15 or 20 or whatever increase, the toWn is not getting any of it. We're not charging for any profit. We're charging whatever they charge us. Whst else can you do?" The NCMPA 3 is a non-profit organisation made up of 36 North Carolina municipalities, who intend to buy 13 to 11 percent interest in nine different power generators now owned by the Carolina Power and Light Company. The cost of the purchase, paid for with municipal bonds issued by the agency, is $1.2 billion, with ap proximately $3.1 billion more spent for capital and construction cost by the year 1982. If the power agency is formed, as is expected (65 percent of the expected power load must sign up in order for the agency to make the purchase. Over 60 percent has now joined NCM PA 3), Hertford will begin receive power from NCMPA 3 by December or early January, according to Cox. The expected long term savings, 15 percent by 1(93, comes about because the NCMPA 3 is a non-profit organisation, and therefore doesn't pay stockholder's dividends or in come tax. In addition, the municipal bonds the agency issues are at a lower rate of interest because they are tax exempt. Both the citizens and the coun cilmep at tbe hearing pointed out that i the public shouldn't expect there electric bills to go down as soon as the town begins to receive power from the agency. What is more likely is that rates will simply level off and not increase as rapidly as they do now. But as one citizen said, "If you can keep the rates from going up, you've done a pretty good job." In one other action, the council approved a motion to give John Willis Simmons a charter to run a taxi service in Hertford. The service, ran from the bus station on Church and Grabb Streets, should begin by the first of October. Holiday Is . flap discussed In an update of the plot changes at Holiday Island, Walter Edwards, Jr., the attorney for the property owners, told the Perquimans County Board of Commissioners Monday night that "we cannot come to an agreement" on the issue of putting paved roads in the area to be re-developed. The developers of Holiday Island, Coastland Corporation, have proposed changing 265 camping plot to 54 residential sites. The property owners. Holiday Island Property Owners Association, do not oppose the change, but wish to make certain that the roads and sewage system will meet their requirements. Edwards indicated that HIPOA has instructed him to "convince the county commission that paved roads ( Continued on page 2) Archaeologists search into county's past The actual spot that they began digging at was picked after studying the results of earlier test holes. They decided where to dig the test holes pretty much at random. For all they know, there could be a much more valuable site 10 yards from where they dug. "We could dig up the whole area," said Baker, "but the government and the public are not too interested in funding that sort of thing. "When we came down here from Chapel Hill, we probably passed thousands of Indian sites. "We don't have the same orientation to the past as they do in Great Britian," Baker added. Over there, if you find a Celtic site in your backyard, it doesn't belong to you, it belongs to the government. And people there appreciate that. "People over here just aren't as interested in their pasts." By the time you read this, the three scientists will have taken their artifacts back to Chapel Hill for study, and unless they can get an extension on the project (the Rivercroft development was delayed so the digging could be done), they will have finished their work here. And don't let anyone tell you archaeology is easy work. You just try to stand out in the sun and scrape dirt, little by little, out of a ditch. And that's when you're not bothering to be real careful. Ai Mike Hammond said, "All of were sane before we got into this." When people think of archaelogy they usually think of gray-haired professors wearing helmets and digging in the Egyptian desert. But there are archaeologists working in our own background, three of them in fact. They've been digging around the site of the Rivercroft subdivision near the U.S. 17 bypass bridge, across the river from Hertford. They're looking for remains of colonial and Indian settlements. And as they expected, they've found something. The three men ? Mike Baker, Mike Hammond and Tom Hargrove ? make up Ar k,L !?? Bitar look ow an ladtao trash alt at _? chaeological Research Consultants Inc., the only private ar chaeological research group in the state. They were hired by the Corps of Engineers to look that area over for remains of early settlements. The area has been pretty chewed-up ? "disturbed" in ar chaelogical lingo ? when the bypass bridge was built, so the artifacts they've found don't look too impressive. But they hold a lot of information about our former residents. "There's a lot of valuable in formation of the period in these artifacts," said Baker, "but there aren't any museum exibits." The archaeologists came here last March, and from there preliminary tests found pottery shards and organic material in the area. Taking into account the location of the site ? a point jutting out into the river just about where it begins to narrow, ideal for communications ? the group believed this could be a good find. "This place used to be called Ferry Point," said Baker. "There was probably a ferry running from here to Hertford in colonial times. "From what we know of the Indians around here, they would have a large capital settlement in some central location, and then satellite settlement surrounding it. There is another archaeological site further down the river, which was probably the capital, and this was a satellite." The pottery the three men found could roughly be estimated to be anywhere from 2,000 to 1,500 years old. They have found several post holes, which trace out the area of an Indian hut, and spot thick with organic matter and large pieces of pottery, which was probably a trash pit. Trash pits don't sound too ex citing, But they can he valuable sources of information. Just as much then as today, everything seems to ead up la the trash heap. If the scientists can identify the decayed femabu. they will know Just a taste Tony Window selects from the many delicious dishes cooked by local home economics clubs during the Perquimans County Food Show and Tasting Tour at the ABPDC building Wednesday of last week. Jim Mills (inset> gobbles it down. BNC post filled Charles D. Hobbs, Jr., has joined the Bank of North Carolina, N.C. in Hertford as Vice President and City Executive, it was announced recently by J. Marshall Tetterton, Senior Vice President. Hobbs, who comes to BNC with over ten years banking experience in the Hertford ares, is a native of Pasquotank County. His respon sibilities include the management and business development of BNC's Hertford Office. Acitve in the community, Hobbs is past president of the Cosmopolitan Club and the N.C. Eastern Lung Association, past secretary of the Junior Chamber of Commerce, and is an active member of the Kiwanis Club and the Evangelical Methodist Church. He attended the College of the Albemarle in Elizabeth City and the Robert Morris and Associates Commercial School at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. Hobbs Hobbs and his wife, the former Jean Meads of Elizabeth City, have two children, a son Jerry and a daughter Denise. County citizens contest secondary road plan About 70 county residents showed up for a vocal public hearing before the county Board of Commissioners concerning the North Carolina Department of Transportation's spending recommendations for the county's secondary road allocation. Residents of Deep Creek Road (secondary road number 132S) in the southeastern part of the county made up the largest and most vocal con tingent at the hearing. Deep Creek Road is a three-mile stretch running between Durants Neck and the Little River. There are 90 residences along that unpaved route, according to the speakers at the hearing. The state secondary road allocation was collected through the issuance of bonds, a new state gas tax earmarked for secondary road maintenance, and unallocated money from previous years. The county's share is $200,397 The DOT recommends that $104,000 of the allocation. Just over half of the county's share, ho need to upgrade Deep Creek Road. The im provements. according to DdT Secretary Marc Ba anight, will be in .. , v. - ,.v -? -+ ?. - "If the money is available, we will pave Deep Creek Road next spring," said Basnight, adding that he ex pected the next state allocation to be sufficient to do the paving. Basnight said, the the county board agreed with him, that paving Deep Creek Road was a primary goal of the board. Deep Creek Road is number (Continued on page 2 This week Area women are finding exercise can be Jut as fan aa it Is healthy. Turn to page three. Weather Partly cloudy through the weekend, highs in the upper 70s, lows In the mid-Ms to lower fOs.
The Perquimans Weekly (Hertford, N.C.)
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Sept. 24, 1981, edition 1
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