THE PERQUIMANS WEEKLY
Volume 38, No. 33 USPS 428-080 Hertford, Perquimans County, N.C., Thursday, August 19, 1982 20 CENTS
School
insertion
featured
In an effort to keep county
residents informed on happenings
during the past school year, the
' Perquimans County Board of
Education has begun publishing an
annual newspaper of school events.
The newspaper, which has been
( inserted in this week's issue of the
PERQUIMANS WEEKLY, reports
on many of the significant events of
the last year.
Among the articles in the paper are
reports on school accreditation,
improved standardized test scores,
Title I and exceptional children
programs, sports, and a brief look at
each of the schools.
"Many exciting things are taking
' place in our schools," writes School
Superintendent Pat Harrell in a
message to residents. "Our test
scores have continuously been above
the national average... our schools, as
well as the central office, are in the
process of becoming accredited.. .we
are extremely proud of the
recognition gained recently through
our sports and band programs.
"This paper is designed to let you
know what is going on in our school
system, enabling you to become
better informed citizens."
. "I am proud to be a part of an
organization that is committed to
caring and sharing so that our
children can learn in Perquimans
County," writes Board Chairman
Clifford Winslow in his opening
remarks to readers.
The newspaper is also available at
the school superintendent's office.
Fire levels
home near
Center Hill
/
A fire in Perquimans County near
Center Hill destroyed the family
home of a Hertford resident last
Thursday night.
According to fire department
reports, the Center Hill Fire
Department responded at 11:45
Thursday evening to a fire which
destroyed the home of the late
Y Rennie Dail on Center Hill Highway.
The house, now owned by Dail's
daughter, Bonnie White, had been
rented out, but was not occupied at
the time of the fire. No injuries were
reported.
Fire department officials are still
investigating the,cause of the fire.
Picnicking
David Cartwright lets his
belly show as Terry Shively
escorts him over the rails
at Missing Mill Park last
Friday. The two children,
along with the Frisbee
enthusiasts at left, were
enjoying themselves
during Anderson United
Methodist Church's Bible
school picnic.
Commission attempts to increase tax base
By TOM OSTROSKY
Second in a aeries
When the Perquimans County
Industrial Development Commission
holds their Committee of 100 banquet
September 21, one of the most im
portant topics under discussion will
be the county's tax base.
Much of the commission hopes for
forming a local organization to
promote development rest on con
vincing people that industrial growth
will reduce taxes.
The idea is simple enough: there
are only two ways to reduce the
amount of money individuals spend
for property taxes, either by
reducing local government spending.
Or by increasing the amount of
property from which to draw taxes
from.
Reducing government spending is
not entirely out of the question, but is
not very likely either. Over the past
few years, local governments here
? Horse lovers compete each
month in Per qui mass
County. Turn to page three.
Weather
and elsewhere have been cutting
their budgets as much as possible,
until now many have reached the
point where they're no longer cutting
the fat, but the meat as well.
For example, at last Monday's
meeting of the county Board of
Commissioners, Social Services
Director Paul Gregory asked the
board to allow him to reinstate a staff
position that Gregory had cut from
this year's budget. Without that
position, Gregory said, his depart
ment had become hopelessly
backlogged. The board indicated that
Gregory could begin looking to fill
the spot.
Perhaps 80 percent of a local
government's tax revenue is spent on
things that the county has little
choice in cutting. Light bills have to
be paid, buildings have to be kept up,
schools must meet certain standards,
law and order must be kept, and
employees' salaries must remain
competitive or they will leave for
better jobs and be replaced by less
qualified persons.
Most of the other 20 percent is
usually spent on items that may not
be vital, but citizens wouldn't stand
to have them cut either.
In Perquimans County, the Ux rate
Increased from fl.15 to $1.20 this
year, largely to cover * five percent
increase In salaries and the yearly
| in utilities and main
1*70, tax collections in this
have Increased about 228
a a a n lit 1 a i~> t
V ? ? *
gets better. Lately, the attitude in
both Washington and Raleigh is to
give the counties as many duties as
possible, but not to give them enough
money to carry them out. The weight
of many state and federal cuts will
fall on local communities.
Far more desirable than budget
cuts, argue proponents of industrial
growth, would be to increase the tax
base with an addition of one or two or
perhaps three new manufacturing
industries. If the county's tax base
had increased by another $5 million
last year, the county could have
generated the same tax revenue
without raising the rate.
Though $5 million may sound like a
lot of money, it isn't actually. The
county's tax base, even in poor crop
years, will naturally increase by $2
$4 million (six or seven percent) each
year. Growth proponents believe that
with only a few small factories ?
say, of the size and nature of Don
Juan Manufacturing Corp. outside
Hertford ? would excellerate that
natural increase to perhaps 17-10
million.
It's not that the factory itself would
increase the tax base. The physical
plant at Don Juan, for example, is
assessed at only about $170,000.
Rather, it i* the increased salaries of
the employees that raises the
property Ux base.
According to the Employment
in the lumber industry, and $165.32 in
wholesale or retail sales.
At Don Juan, according to
supervisor Stuart Anderson, un
skilled employees working at a
piecemeal rate can make anywhere
from $140 to $200 per week, depen
ding on their speed.
With those higher salaries,
manufacturing employees go out and
buy cars, homes, furniture, and so
on, raising the tax base. In 1972, when
Don Juan expanded it operation to
their present location, total income
for county residents increased over
40 percent, the biggest increase ever,
and in the following year the tax base
increased 14 percent.
Loftis
Chamber lines up
festival program
By SUSAN HARRIS
Fall is just around the corner, and
with it will come the first annual
Chamber of Commerce-sponsored
Indian Summer Festival in
Perquimans County,
To be kicked off on Thursday,
September 16 with Farm-City Day,
the festival promises tun for
everyone right through to the grand
finale ? a street dance in Missing
Mill Park featuring Nita Bowen and
the Dixie Clippers on Saturday,
September 18 at 8 p.m.
Farm-City Day will include a
variety of farm-related displays
under a tent in Missing Mill Park.
B&S Enterprises, Hertford Motor
Company and Byrum Implement
Company are a few of the companies
sponsoring farm equipment displays.
Guests Jim Walter, president of the
N.C. Soybean Association, and
representatives of the N.C. Peanut
Growers Association will be on hand
with demonstrations.
Hot dogs, hamburgers and other
refreshments will go on sale at 10
a.m., and entertainment is planned
throughout the day.
Friday will find Hertford's
sidewalks filled with old-fashioned
bargains as the merchants par
ticipate in Colonial Day.
The American Legion will sponsor
a fish fry Friday evening at $3 per
plate, after which Pirate fans will fill
Memorial Field to cheer the
Perquimans team to victory over the
Hurricanes of Northampton County
West.
Halftime activities will include the
celebrated Marching Pirates in
uniform for their second season.
A 5K race and fun run will start
Saturday's Fun Day. The run, which
will begin at Hertford Grammar
School, is open to all ages. Trophies
will be awarded to the overall winner
and to winners in several age groups.
Co-sponsored by the Perquimans
County Parks and Recreation
Department and the Chamber of
Commerce, the entry fee is $6
through September 10 and $7
thereafter. The fun run is $1
While joggers race over the 3.1
mile trek, booths will be opening up
downtown selling wares from art to
popcorn.
Already signed up to participate
are craftsman offering woodcraft,
crochet, dolls, puppets, ducks,
windchimes, pillows, baskets,
Christmas ornaments, quilt racks,
shells, plastic needlepoint, counted
cross stitch and fabric craft.
There will be plenty of food on
hand, along with various displays.
A dunking booth and games for
children are planned for the park.
Entertainers to perform downtown
and in the park will be the Albemarle
Indian
[i ?mjuwjv)) Summer
y r estiva!
Pops Orchestra, the Flatland
Cloggers, the Navy 4-Star Combo,
Brenda Parker, the Lavezzo Sisters,
the Cann Puppeteers and the Spirited
Truth gospel singers, along with
others.
At 8 o'clock Nita Bowen and the
Dixie Clippers will play for the street
dance in Missing Mill Park.
Booths are still available for rent,
and entertainers are welcome to
participate. For information, call
Miriam Haskett for craft booths at
426-5620, Rebecca Spivey for art
rentals at 297-2402, Richard Bryant
for a food space at 426-5530, Helen
Mae Murray for a display area at 426
7349 and Mary Harrell to entertain at
426-5664.
The Indian Summer Festival
promises to be fun for young and old.
Make your plans now to join in the
gala event sponsored by the
Perquimans County Chamber of
Commerce.
Get your Indian Summer Festival
T-shirt from Darden's or Woodland
Dress Shop and advertise the
county's premiere extravaganza to
your friends and neighbors.
Y'all come!
Hertford welcomes
hunger walker
Beginning the final leg of his 700
mile journey across North Carolina,
Chris Loftis jumped right into the
same message he told a group in
Murphy two months ago.
"When you receive a blessing and
don't be a blessing," he said to a
group of senior citizens at the
Nutrition Site in Hertford, "that's an
insult to God."
Loftis, a 23-year-old native of East
Gastonia, had just about neared the
end of his walk across the state when
he spent Monday in Hertford,
speaking and playing his guitar at
the Nutrition Site, talking with
county officials, and performing at
Missing Mill Park that evening.
Loftis is walking in hopes of calling
attention to the plight of the hungry,
both around the world and in North
Carolina. He is walking in behalf of
CROP, the worldwide church
organization providing relief to
hungry people in Africa, Asia and
Latin America.
A ministry student at Southeastern
Baptist Seminary, Loftis spreads his
concern both as a Christian and as a
humanitarian. "God told us to help
the poor," he said to the group bet
ween renditions of several gospel
songs.
Lugging a 40-pound backpack
along with his guitar, Loftis ? skinny
as a rail, though he claims to have
gained three pounds since he started
walking ? has made this as much a
learning experience for himself as it
was a medns of spreading his con
cern. Wishing to be "a voice of the
poor instead of a voice for the poor,"
he talks with local people and local
officials, trying to learn of their at
titudes toward poverty and what they
arc doing about it.
"You'd be surprised how many
people say there are no poor people in
North Carolina." he said. "They're
usually rich people."
Some o ( the comments have even
made this^quiet young man a bit
angry. "If I hear one more time
somebody say that the poor deserve
to be poor, I might forget I'm a
Baptist and beat the boy up.
"I've had a very good response
from some people," he said. "Some
have been very kind, and some have
been not so kind. I've had people
hrow coke bottles at me and try to
?un me over. But as bad as some
3eople have treated me, I think about
now we all treat each other."
If spreading the word about hunger
and poverty is his intention, then
Loftis appears to have succeeded
marvelously, having his story told in
newspapers in Raleigh, Durham,
Charlotte, Ashville, Lexington,
Elizabeth City, and yes, even Hert
ford.
Along the way, he has stayed and
eaten with local families, in Hertford
with Lib Harris and Sister Barbara
Gerwe of Catholic Social Services.
While in Hertford, he spoke to
several community leaders, among
them County Commissioner Lester
Simpson and Social Services
Director Taul Gregory, learning for
himself about the needs of the poor
here and the help they've received.
"You're better off here than in
some places I've been," he told them.
"In some other counties, people just
don't seem to care."
And he's just as determined about
mailing his trip as he is about
spreading his message When Loftis
say* he will walk across the state, he
means walk the whole way. Running
late for his visit to the Nutrition Site,
Harris picked him up between
Hertford and Edenton and drove him
in. But once he'd finished at the site,
Harris returned him to the spot
where he left off, and he continued
walking from there.
"I hope people will aik me why I'm
doing this," he said. "U I can plant a
tew seeds in people's minds, maybe
aomethini wtil grow."