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The Perquimans Weekly
350
Vol. 64. No. 22
The only newspaper for and about Perquimans County people
Hertford, North Carolina 27944
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Hoola hoop/Field Day fun
PHOTO BY SUSAN HARRIS
Perquimans County students are busy with end-of-courses
tests, final projects and exam preparation, but there’s still
time for a break to have fun. Field Days at Hertford Grammar,
Perquimans Central and Perquimans Middle schools offer
students the opportunity to show their athletic ability and
have a great time. Here, eighth grade boys swing their hips
in the hoola hoop contest Friday at the middle school. Miss
Dobie’s class took first place for the day.
PCHS to offer new breakfast program
Perquimans High School
students will fuel up for suc
cess next fall with the expan
sion of the school’s breakfast
program.
Through the First Class
Breakfast in a Bag Program,
breakfast will be delivered to
each classroom at the end of
the first period class.
Breakfast will be available to
each student at the school at
no charge.
The program is made possi
ble through an $8,000 grant
from Share Our Strength and
American Express. It is a part
of the Charge Against Hunger
campaign with American
Express.
Studies have shown that
children who eat breakfast
receive nourishment required
for proper growth, attend
school more regularly, behave
better in the classroom, have
greater attention spans and
improve academic perfor
mance.
Breakfast has been avail
able at school for several
years, however students had to
arrive early to participate.
Child nutrition personnel rec
ognized a need to increase par
ticipation in the program for
the benefit of all students.
County economic and social
factors helped to influence the
grant approval. According to
the grant application,
Perquimans has a population
of 10,701, with 1940 students
enrolled in its school system.
Of those students, 71 percent
receive AFDC. The county’s
average per capita income of
$10,241 make it 89th in the
state. About 25 percent of
county tfamilies earn incomes
below the poverty level.
Almost 40 percent of students
in the local schools live in sin
gle-parent households.
Another 5 percent live with a
guardian.
“Traditionally, both of these
groups earn low wages,” the
application states. “These fac
tors have a direct impact on
children.”
Many local students are
from families dealing with
unemployment, poverty, sub
standard housing, transporta
tion problems, drug abuse,
domestic violence and health
crisis. As a result, numerous
students are involved in the
complex issue of hunger.
Statistics indicate that stu
dents from low-income fami
lies depend on the schools’
meal program for as much as
one half of their daily nutri
tional intake.
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Shirley McClain (center), executive director of North Carolina
Hunger Network, visited Perquimans County Schools recently
to present an $8,000 anti-hunger grant. Through the grant,
high school students will receive a free bagged breakfast next
school year. With McClain are Student Alternative Services
Coordinator Jeanie Umphlett (left) and Child Nutrition Director
Donna Harris.
Records will be kept of the
breakfast program to docu
ment its effectiveness.
The project will be a collab
orative effort of the school sys
tem, the State Department of
Pqblic Instruction and the
Perquimans County Health
Department. The health
department will help make the
community aware of the
importance of eating a proper
diet to preserve good health.
Funds will be sought from
private, public and local fund
ing sources to continue the
program after the grant period
ends in April 1997.
Inmate labor saves
town on maintenance
By SUSAN R. HARRIS
Editor
John
know
PHOTO BY SUSAN HARRIS
Hertford officials say inmates from the Gates County
Correctional Facility have saved the tpwn thousands of dollars
on maintenance projects like this one on Church Street.
Town Manager
Christensen doesn’t
exactly how much money
Hertford has saved over the
past few months thanks to
inmate labor from the Gates
County Correctional Facility,
but he’s sure it’s a significant
amount for a small town.
The most recent project for
which the town was able to
secure inmate labor was clean
ing out the drainage lines that
link Church and Front streets
through the Holy Trinity
Episcopal Church property.
Heavy rains in late winter
and early spring brought
major flooding at the intersec
tion of Church and Dobbs
streets, and complaints from
motorists. The town deter
mined that tree roots had
grown into the drainage lines,
and said fixing the problem
would be labor-intensive.
With inmate assistance, the
town maintenance crew fin
ished the project last week.
Gates County inmates have
also done work at the sewer
plant, helped with the massive
tire cleanup on town property
adjacent to the sewer plant,
and performed roadside
cleanup in several areas.
Bus, car hit
head-on south
of Hertford
No students
injured in wreck
on Highway 17
By SUSAN R. HARRIS
Editor
and GINGER LIVINGSTON
The Daily Advance
Ann Lightfoot is being
hailed as a hero for preventing
a head-on collision between
the school bus she was driving
and a car from becoming a
tragedy.
Lightfoot managed to keep
Perquimans County Schools
bus No. 59 upright and out of a
ditch when a car traveling
north on U.S. Highway 17
bypass about one mile south of
Hertford pulled directly into
the path of the southbound
bus.
“The bus driver
did a tremendous
piece of driving,”
Perquimans
Superintendent
Randall Henion
said. “I think my
first reaction
would liave been
to swerve which
could have caused
the bus to roll
over. When I
asked her about it
she said she
wasn’t driving the
bus at the time, it
was a higher
authority.”
Transportation ______
and maintenance
secretary June Ritter said she
was told by school transporta
tion officials that when
Lightfoot saw the car pull into
her path, she locked the
brakes, holding the bus at the
right edge of the road. To her
right was a dragline ditch.
Hertford Police Department
Sgt. Dale Vanscoy was a mem
ber of the Hertford Fire
Department response team
that responded to the accident.
“I don’t know who that dri
ver was, but she did an excel
lent job,“ Vanscoy said. “She
turned the bus just enough to
keep it from taking the full
impact of the hit.”
Lightfoot suffered a cracked
wrist during thii%f@feident,
Ritter said. She will probably
be unable to resume her dri
ving duties for a week.
“For precaution and grati
tude, we decided to give her a
week off,“ Ritter said.
The driver of the car, whose
name is unavailable, was not
so fortunate. Her car was
jammed under the front wheel
well of the bus on the driver’s
“The bus driver
did a tremen
dous piece of
driving....
When I asked
her about it
she said she
wasn’t driving
the bus at the
time, it was a
higher
authority.”
Randall L. Henion
Superintendent
Perquimans County
Schools
side. The response team used
the jaws of life to remove her
from the car, Vanscoy said.
Emergency personnel on the
scene suspect she suffered sev
eral broken bones. She was
taken to Chowan Hospital for
treatment. No word on her
injuries or condition is avail
able.
None of the seven high
school and middle school stu
dents on the bus at the time of
the accident were injured,
school officials said. However,
some parents indicated to
school officials that they
would take children in for
examination as a precaution.
“I was really proud of their
(the students’) demeanor in
pulling together," Henion
said.He also praised the driver
of a second bus caught in the
traffic backlog caused by the
accident. He said
the driver kept the
students calm and
occupied during
the delay.
Traffic was
rerouted down
several secondary
roads while the
accident was
cleared.
Vanscoy said
emergency per
sonnel were anx
ious as they trav
eled to the scene,
because the inci
dent was reported
as an accident
involving a car, a
school bus and a
tractor trailer.
Upon their arrival, the
response team found that the
log truck driver following the
bus had managed to avoid hit
ting the bus.Ritter said offi
cials told her that the truck
driver realized there was trou
ble ahead before impact and
slowed down.
Traffic is normally heavy
o'n U.S. 17, especially on the
two- lane corridor connecting
Hertford and Edenton. With
road construction underway to
widen the highway to four
lanes, travel along the eight-
mile stretch is often slow. Area
residents regularly note prob
lems with speeding, dangerous
passing and construction vehi
cles pulling out in traffic.
The possible danger of trav
el down U.S. 17 is of special
concern to Henion due to
school buses transporting stu
dents on the route.
While N.C. Highway Patrol
officers don’t think the con
struction on U.S. 17 has made
travel more dangerous, several
local officials, including law
enforcement officers, disagree.
Outside
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