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Perquimans Weekly
350
Vol. 66, No. 38
The only newspaper for and about Perquimans County people
Hertford, North Carolina 27944
Inside
Lady Pirates
dominate
Edenton
Pages
JVsopen
season with 2
2-point losses
Pages
Retinal camera
finds general
health problems
Pages
PCHS seniors
prepare for
senior projects
Pages
Hertford to upgrade electric system
Council votes to
move ahead
with $850K loan
By SUSAN R. HARRIS
Editor
The Hertford Town Council
voted to borrow $850,000 to
upgrade its electrical system
during a public hearing
Monday night.
The money will finance a
major overhaul of the electri
cal system recommended by
engineering firm Booth &
Associates in 1996. Town
Manager John Christensen
said the project is expected to
take two years to complete.
The Local Government
Commission will act on the
town’s decision at its October
meeting, Christensen said.
With commission approval,
the town can close on the loan,
then bid the project. All pro
jects of this magnitude involv
ing borrowed funds must be
approved by the commission.
Christensen said the town
presently has a 4,000 volt sys
tem with four circuits. The
substation is located behind
the fire department on Grubb
Street. One circuit feeds
Church Street and U.S.
Highway 17 Bypass.
Christensen said that circuit is
operating at 100 percent capac
ity.
A second circuit serves the
downtown area and a third,
the area in the western sector
of the town by Miller and
Meads Mobile Home Park.
Those circuits are operating at
70 percent capacity.
The fourth circuit feeds
Edenton Road Street and
Wynn Fork. That circuit is
operating at 80 percent capaci
ty, and can tie back into the
Church Street circuit if neces
sary, Christensen said.
Because of the long distance
the Edenton Road Street cir
cuit runs to serve customers,
Christensen said the town is
sustaining high electric losses.
When new electric systems
are designed, Christensen said
engineers look at load capaci
ties of 40 percent, far lower
than any circuit currently
operating in Hertford.
“Obviously w’ere at the
point ... that we need to
increase the capacity of our
system,” Christensen said.
The manager said the town
needs to increase its system to
12,500 volts, also known as a
12.5 KV system. Christensen
said the town could transmit
power over the same lines,
running more power with
higher efficiency.
Among the problems with
Love those grandparents
Indian
Summer
Festival is
Saturday
By SUSAN R. HARRIS
Editor
Last-minute details for the
17th annual Indian Summer
Festival are underway by the
Hertford Downtown
Merchants Association.
Set to kick off at 9 a.m.,
Saturday’s gala will feature
entertainment, crafts, food,
games, information and spe
cials by local merchants.
Entertainment will begin
with the Inspirational Voices
and the Perquimans County
High School Marching Pirates
Band.
Radio station 103.7, the HOT
FM, will broadcast live all day
from the courthouse green.
The festival will climax
with a street dance in down
town Hertford.
>, -For a complete schedule of
events, list of participants, bus
Schedules and pick-up points
and other festival information,
see the Indian Summer
Festival book included in this
newspaper. The book was pro
duced by The Perquimans
Weekly in conjunction with
the Hertford Downtown
Merchants Association.
SUBMITTED PHOTOS
In celebration of
Grandparents Day, more
than a hundred grand
parents filled the cafete
ria at Perquimans Middle
School on Sept. 10.
Grandparents were invit
ed to enjoy lunch with
their grandchildren and
then participate in
school picture day.
Grandparents Day is a
national holiday and is
always observed the
Sunday after Labor Day.
Aid available for hurricane victims
Federal, state
programs offer
assistance
By SUSAN R. HARRIS
Editor
Federal Emergency
Management Agency represen
tative Barb Stermer was in the
area last week to make those
who sustained losses due to
Hurricane Bonnie aware of
federal assistance available.
According to figures
released by Perquimans
County Emergency
Management Coordinator Ray
Cullipher, farmers were the
hardest-hit in Perquimans
County.
Stermer said farmers who
sustained losses may qualify
for assistance under the gov
ernment’s Disaster
Unemployment Assistance,
Business Disaster Loan and
Housing Loans/Grants for
Farmers programs.
The Disaster
Unemployment Assistance
program provides weekly ben
efit payments to those out of
owrk due to disaster, includ
ing self-employed persons,
farm workers, farm and ranch
owners and others not covered
by regular unemployment pro
grams. The program is admin
istered by the state, and appli
cation for assistance may be
made at Job Service offices,
Stermer said.
The USD A may make loans
to permanent residents sus
taining damages that require
repair or replacement of their
homes under the Housing
Loans/Grants for Farmers
program. Grants of up to $5,000
are available to applicants age
62 and over and who have low
income. Emergency loans may
also be made to farmers adn
ranchers, either owners or ten
ants, who were operating and
managing a farm or ranch at
the time of the disaster. The
loans are limited to the
amount necessary to compen
sate for actual losses to essen
tial proeprty and/or produc
tion capacity. Application may
bej made for cost-sharing
grants for emergency conser
vation programs, such as
debris removal from crop/pas
ture lands, repairs to
land/water conservation
structures and permanent
fencing.
Business Disaster Loans are
also available through the
Small Business
Administration to repair or
replace destroyed or damaged
the town’s current system are
high line losses in transmis
sion which cuts the town’s
profit margin on electricity
sales, limited availability of
equipment when parts are
needed, and the danger that
results from the system’s fail
ure to trip out when lines are
downed due to storms or acci
dents. Christensen said a cou
ple of years ago, the town was
forced to turn off its electric
system because a power lines
were downed by a storm in
many places in town. Because
the present system will not
trip out on the order of a cir
cuit breaker in a home to
avoid fire or injury, the town
was forced to cut power to pre
vent injury to people riding
around to survey storm dam
age and clean-up crews.
With the upgrade,
Christensen said the town will
be able to add new circuits in
high-growth areas such as the
commerce centre.
North Carolina Power
would have to upgrade its sub
station right behind the town
public works complex during
the upgrade.
If the upgrade moves as
planned, the Church Street cir
cuit will be converted to
12.5KV 100 percent. The Don
Juan circuit will be converted
to 12.5 KV to the Country
Corner intersection, then
remain at 4KV afterwards. The
Edenton Road Street circuit
would be converted to 12.5KV
to Wynn Fork Road, then
revert back to 4 KV.
Christensen said the engi
neers projected that the town
will be able to pay off the loan
with the savings in line losses
the improvements will bring.
The town does not expect any
increase in consumer cost of
electricity to result from the
project.
Water, sewer
bonds officially
on Hertford ballot
business facilities, inventory,
machines or equipment. The
maximum loan samount is $1.5
million.
Other assistance is avail
able through the National
Flood Insurance Program. The
self-sustaining program was
created to help avoid flood
losses and to help pay for them
through insurance.
Stermer said one important
but often overlooked assis
tance program is crisis coun
seling. She said often people
have difficulty sleeping or cop
ing with devastating losses.
This program provides coun
seling to help victims cope
with disaster-related stress or
trauma.
For more information about
disaster assistance programs,
caU 1-800-525-0321. To apply by
phone for aid, call 1-800-462-
9029.
Referendum
okayed for up to
$4.8 million
By SUSAN R. HARRIS
Editor
Hertford Council made it
official Monday night;
Hertford voters will decide on
Nov. 3 if the town should issue
up to $4.8 million in bonds to
upgrade its water and waste-
water systems.
The bonds would cover the
cost of major additions and
renovations needed in both the
water and sewer systems.
Town Manager John
Christensen said the town may
not need to borrow aU $4.8 mil
lion through bonds if grant
applications presently being
reviewed are approved.
Christensen said the timing
is right for the town’s grant
applications, and that the
applications and project out
line are strong.
The Local Government
Commission has approved the
town’s application to issue the
bonds.
Christensen said he does
not anticipate that the town
will borrow the entire $4.8 mil
lion, but because that is the
total amount of the project, the
Local Government
Commission wanted that
amount on the referendum.
The town will subtract any
grant funds from the $4.8 mil
lion before issuing any bonds.
The bonds will be general
obligation bonds, meaning
that the town is backing the
issue with its taxing power.
If the bond referendum does
not pass, council members
said they will be forced to find
funds from other sources
because the systems must be
improved.
Christensen said the advan
tage of issuing bonds for such
a large project is that the cost
is lower than borrowing from
a financial institution. He said
the interest rate on general
obligation bonds will be signif
icantly lower than loan funds.
Council voted to hold off on
the fire department’s request
for a new truck, in part
because council members do
not know what will happen at
the polls on Nov. 3.
Councilman Carlton
Davenport said while he
thinks fire chief Sid Eley is
doing a good job and some of
the department’s rolling stock
is not in good shape, he was
not in favor of authorizing the
purchase of a $185,000 fire
truck when the town was on
the brink of borrowing
$850,000 for electric improve
ments and issuing $4.8 million
in bonds.
Davenport recommended
that council wait until after
the bond referendum to dis
cuss the purchase of the truck.
Eley said waiting to pur
chase a truck could mean pay
ing a higher price. The chief,
also a councilman, said the
department purchased a new
truck in 1994, but the other
equipment is 30 years old. In
addition to the 1994 truck, the
department uses 1969 and 1963
pumpers, a 1962 step van and
an old ambulance purchased
from the county for $l.The
new truck would replace all
put the 1963 pumper, Eley said.
Councilman Billy Winslow
said he had been told at one
time that it was a law that fire
departments respond to
wrecks, but that recently he
had been told that it is not a
law. He said wreck response is
the job of the rescue squad,
and that the county should
help purchase the new vehicle
if one of the reasons it is need
ed is to answer wreck calls.
Winslow added that he
thinks the town has gone
“overboard in the fire depart
ment.” He said the town bud
geted $15,000 this year for
equipment and that the “mutu
al aid is tremendous.” He said
the department has three class
A pumpers certified by the
state.
Eley responded that while
county departments do back
each other up, each depart
ment has to be self-sufficient.
He said the 1969 pumper had to
be “nursed through” the last
pump test. He added that if the
town had replaced equipment
ona 10-year schedule instead of
purchasing no new rolling
stock in the 1970s and 1980s,
the department “wouldn’t be
in this shape.”
Mayor John Beers said fire
fighters have told him that
keeping the trucks operational
is becoming increasingly diffi
cult. Work on the motors,
which often will not turn when
firefighters get a call, has
become almost constant and
costly, Beers said.
Eley’s last motion to pur
chase the truck if the bond ref
erendum passed died for lack
of a second.