THE PERQUIMANS WEEKLY Volume 60, No. 38 Hertford, Perquimans County, N.C.,Thursday, September 19, 1991 30 Cents Pirates attempt | pass . Aces. !•'■ “ nt Page6 % I ir t rmm: Sheriff, deputies 'visit' county drug hotspot: Page 2 ' m %*£ .x m'3 r * ■H State changes ..v- , - • >; ' > ' ■ laws about passing SChOOl buses: Page 6 I If; y* ' ■■ir ' | ** - ' , > Photo by Susan HBrilf The Live Wire Band, composed of -ceal teen musicians, performed Friday evening durfrjjjgj the Indian Summer Festival. The group, led by singer Bi-ian Jones, was well-received, all |>ecia!!y by their friends who turned out in large number to support Live Wire. ill '• ^ : ■ v :..v: Indian Summer Festival is success ! Indian Summer Festival ’91 brought two Pjjwvk of fun to the streets of Hertford last Fri TPtty and Saturday, as record numbers of pa ti n 1 d -he downtown area and Missing Mill f; : The 'festival was kicked off with storytime pTor kids sponsored by, the Perquimans County ng. .irary, While the preschoolers enjoyed the li fferarv activities beneath .the oak trees, shoppers jjlpufid - bargains f at the sidewalk sales, and UnsanV were rewarded with prizes courtesy of jlthe local merchants. Historical window dis | plav.s. an antique car display and the Albe C^jnarte Fire Safety House were also enjoyed. ; - i Entertainment began at noon with music JSbv the award-winning Perquimans High School ■Parching Pirate Band under the direction of l-Davki Ziemba. Other performances by local :mu •Wir s Included Edgar Lane and the live by Jim Bridges and Ann Deytcn, the Aerobic Team and a. Hurst Tool uem i by the Hertford Fire Department and as County Rescue Squad rounded out oon's entertainment. ..,v> : riialc of Overtime band filled rtburch during tire annual street. an. Grilled iavontos. cuds. Ukcd i homemade sausage bis and fried chicken wqre consumed by hungfy festival-goers during thef day- 'iam Rain threatened to cancel Saturday's active Itles at Missing Mill Park, but after a short rooming shower, the show went on as planned! Early run and Hospital. Then it was fun. games, food and ente: ment on tap for the rest of the day. Out int thftj Cold. Wild Streak and Second Wind bands en-» tertained the crowd, along with the FlatiandO Cloggers. the Perquimans County Recreation^ Department Aerobics team, and die Holiday Ip land Chapel Chimes The waterfront was popular with a ski sh by the Hertford Ski Club. Yamaha Wave Ru: ner demonstrations and a visit by the Sil* Chalice. The festival ended with a junior hi. dance at the Senior Center. ' .* ^ From shiskkabobs to chicken pot pie to crab sandwiches, festival-goersate .their Satmdav. wish »> ’ .or-d v-udoi . ,, that they s .‘Id out : ■ ■\ Although rain - caused. a' flurry of activity patrons and vendors hurriedly packed die® wares late Saturday evening, festival organises" tagged the two-day evenj a,.success* : j Countv needs new wells in Winfall i u> Perquimans County needs to took for new wells to feed its Winfali water plant, Bill Deal of Deal & Phillips engineering from Gaiy told the county commis sioners Monday night. ' ' i According to Deal, the iWto*» fall plant is in good condition, but the wells that feed the plant are not as productive as they need to toe. On the other hand. Dead said, the Bethel plant is loo small, tout there is ample water available. , , =• After much discussion Mon day night, the commissioners asked Deal to submit a cost pro posal on drilling test wells In the Wlnfall area. , ' V ', , " Deal said part of the prob lem In Wlnfall may be that the four wells are too close together. He added that the static water level Is. decreasing In the wells,, indicating overpumping of the acquifer. Deal said tha he did not believe the present well field Is in a good location. i “I don't know where a real good location for a well field up in that area of the county Is. rsald Deal, who has worked with the county water department for about three years. "The well field is only going to get worse.” . ' ■ When asked how long the county water system can con tinue to operate at Its present | fate of growth. Deal replied. “I Can go as far as saying that in \ hot weather it’s touch and go. Ybu don't have a whole lot of ca • pacity left In your system.” Deal added that even If the county decided to build another water plant, tests, financing and } plant construction could delay the first day Of operation for five years. i'-,-XK,l '■ back. We’re not asking him to do it free. The county wants to pay the man.” Simpson added. “Our neighborhood really needs it.” Yates responded. “Has communication im proved between you and the sheriffs department or is it still at a stalemate?" resident John Popek asked the commissioners. Simpson replied that he has not been in contact with the sheriff, however he said that he set up a committee that has communicated with the sheriff and that Higgins is on the com mittee. "I'm not prepared to commu nicate on it," Higgins said. Yates said, “I don’t think that the drug program is the is sue. There is something else be hind the drug program and the drug program is being used. I’m thinking the drug program is be ing used for a pawn on some thing else." The commissioners did not respond to Yates' statement. Yates asked the commission ers if they'd be willing to sit down "over coffee" and discuss the problem with the sheriff. Simpson said. "Yes." “I think everyone of us - the commissioners. Paul (Gregory), John (Matthews) - will go and do everything we can,” Nixon added. Simpson told Yates that Lo thian has been invited to attend commissioners’ meetings three times, but has failed to do so. Gregory said Tuesday morn ing that the commissioners are very concerned about the D.A.R.E. program, and want to work with the sheriffs depart ment to put it back in the schools. "They support it 100 per cent." Gregory said. He added that both he and Lothian have been asked to speak about the program at the Perquimans Mid dle School PTSA meeting on Sept. 24. He said he hopes that they will be able to report that the program will be back soon. Hertford Town Council delays truck purchase To buy a truck or not to buy a truck. That is the question that Hertford town councilmen have debated at both their Au gust and September meetings. At issue is replacing a 1976 pick-up used by the electric de partment. Mayor and city man ager W.D. “Bill" Cox told the councilmen at their August meeting that the truck is "used as much as any vehicle owned by the town. It has over 200,000 miles on the odometer, the steering is bad and the motor has been rebuilt. Councilman Jesse Harris said he favored driving the truck until it wears out. Replacing the truck was dis cussed in August because the council had earlier authorized Cox to get bids on a 1991 Ford pick-up. Cox submitted three bids to the council - $11,613; $11,990 and $12,130 - from Courtesy Ford, Stewart Ford and Albemarle Motors, respectively. After the decision to buy the truck was tabled. Cox asked, "Gentlemen, let me asked you, why did you ask me to go through the bid process?" Cox said that the town had allowed several pieces of equipment to “go to pot" in the past, resulting in the replacement of four major pieces of equipment in a two year period. He added that re placing the equipment in such a short time-span had resulted in a financial strain on the town coffers. When the issue was brought up for discussion in September. Cox said. "The truck needs to be replaced. It's got to be replaced." He added that it will probably be impossible to get a 1991 model vehicle this late in the year, which will mean the town will have to bid on what will likely be a more expensive 1992 model. “Are we going to take the po sition that when they start rid ing in the bucket truck that's when we're going to make the decision?" councilman Erie Haste queried. Harris then suggested looking for a used vehicle. Cox responded. "We don't need something two-thirds or half worn out in the electric de partment." Cox said he had looked at used vehicles and found that a "decent" pre-owned model would cost approximately $9,000 com pared to a new one with warran ties for about $12,000. "For the electric truck, we need dependable equipment." Cox said. "It doesn’t bother me if you want to go back and get bids again," councilman Billy Winslow said. Winslow made the motion to table the purchase at the August meeting. He said that since that time he had lis tened to the present vehicle op erate. "We sure need a new one." he said. “If it's running and doing the job. I vote against it,” Harris said. "The truck's days are num bered." Cox responded. "If the truck is not good enough to do what has to be done you need that truck moved to a less-used department." Haste commented. "I just feel like let’s don’t push it right this second." Har ris said. No decision was made on re placing the present vehicle which town electric employees say will run at a maximum speed of 48 miles per hour. Brighter horizons Plioto by Susan Hams Dianne Banks, owner of Dianne’s Hairstyling and Tan* ning and Toning, receives her share of the Hertford Hori zons funds which were set aside to assist with renovations in the business district. With Banks Hertford Mayor Bill Cox, John Christensen and Cart Ter ranova. — i