The only newspaper for and about Perquimans County and its people
Lady Pirates are repeat
conference champs
Page 6
Teens In Action are busy club
Page 3
PCHS drama class to hit stage
Page 8
October 14,1999
Vol. 67, No. 39 Hertford, North Carolina 27944
The
Perquimans
Weekly
Courthouse renovations under consideration
Commissioners
okay next steps in
construction
planning process
LEAH ALLEN
Correspondent
The Perquimans Board of
Commissioners voted to move
forward with steps necessary
to enlarge and renovate the
county courthouse in regular
session on Oct. 4.
After review of a proposed
Holiday
parade
dedicated
to Hunter
Family to serve
as Christmas
parade grand
marshalls__ „
From Staff Reports
The family of Jim “Catfish”
Hunter will serve as grand
marshalls for the 1999
Perquimans County Christmas
parade. The parade was dedi
cated to Hunter’s memory hy
unanimous vote of the
Chamber of Commerce Board
of Directors earlier this
month.
With the parade dedicated to
the late Hunter, the theme
should center around baseball,
organizers said. The Chamber
is sponsoring a theme contest
to allow the community to
share in selecting the parade
theme. Proposed themes
should be submitted to the
Perquimans County Chamber
of Commerce, HaU of Fame
Square, Hertford, NC 27944 by
Oct. 22 at 5 p.m. The person
submitting the theme chosen
by the board as the parade
theme will receive a $25 cash
award.
The holiday kick-off event is
set for Saturday, Dec. 4 at 1:30
p.m.
The chamber is working to
bring more entries to this
year’s parade. Contacts are
being made with area high
school bands. The chamber is
also asking that all churches,
school groups and civic organi
zations consider entering the
parade.
Steve Lane of Inteliport will
serve as line-up chairman. Gay
Murray of chimney Masters,
food court chairman, and
Brenda Lassiter of Carolina
Trophy, band chairman. An
overall chairman and judging
chairman, as weU as commit
tee members, are being sought.
To volunteer, call the named
chairperson or the Chamber at
426-5657.
A food court will be set up
on the courthouse square.
Churches, businesses and civic
organizations interested in
renting space should contact
Murray at 4276-1426. There will
be no booths allowed on the
streets and sidewalks to allow
sufficient room for the parade.
For more parade informa
tion, call Carol LeRoy at the
Chamber.
schematic layout for the reno
vation, the board voted to con
tinue with the next planning
step, which will include
designing development draw
ings, creating construction
documents, and developing a
budget.
The proposed additions and
renovations add 3,000 square
feet at a cost of about $150 per
square foot. Cost is estimated
to be within 20 percent of
$500,000, plus additional costs
of renovating the existing
building.
A schematic layout “defines
all that you feel that you need
in terms of space and size,”
said Gerald P. Traub, A.I.A.
The new design will provide
more working space for the
clerk of court.
“We started out initially
talking about relieving the
pressure on the clerk of court’s
office,” stated Traub. To do so,
new office space is being
added. The vault will no
longer be used as office space,
while the older vault wiU be
saved because of its historic
significance. There wiU be a
new office for a visiting attor
ney and judge, both of which
will have private restrooms.
The jury room will also me
moved and enlarged to accom
modate the grand jury. The
new jury room will have a
restroom and space for a kitch
enette. The district attorney
will use the old visiting judge’s
office, also freeing up more
room for the clerk of court.
The changes wth simplify the
maze of hallways present in
the courthouse's current
design.
In addition to needing more
space for the clerk of court, the
courthouse needed renovation
in order to comply with cur
rent handicap accessibility
standards. An elevator will be
added in a tower on the back on
one side of the courthouse. A
matching tower has been sug
gested for the other side to pro
vide symmetry and to be used
for storage. Two new handicap
accessible restrooms will be
added as weU. A covered walk
way is also proposed to link the
courthouse handicap access
and the courthouse annex.
Chairman Charles Ward
suggested adaptations to
include public restrooms for
downtown special events in the
plans as well.
In spite of all the changes,
the courthouse will appear
much the same from the front.
“We thought one of the
prime design criteria was not
Behidere added to National Register
SUSAN R. HARRIS
Editor
Heritage tourism develop
ment in Perquimans County
got a boost recently when the
village of Belvidere was added
to the Natiqnal Register of
Historic Places.
It becomes one of very few
rural historic districts to
appear in the Register, and
joins Perquimans’ other rural
district. Old Neck, as welUas..
Hertford. In addition, thereat
several individual properties
on the register.
The district extends from
Belvidere, the plantation from
which the village eventually
took its name, to the Elihu A
White house and farm on the
south side of NC 37 and the
Nicholson-Riddick-Lamb
Farm on the north side of NC
37.
On Belvidere’s National
Register nomination form was
written: “With the encroach
ment of new residential,
industrial, and commercial
developments throughout east
ern North Carolina, the rural
landscape and its accompany
ing crossroads and villages are
quickly being minimized and,
in places, destroyed. The
Belvidere Historic District,
however, is an exception to this
trend. It stiU embodies an agri
cultural village with a unique
blend of historic structures,
cultivated fields, and forests.
These buildings are connected
to one another by a transporta
tion network of roads adn
waterways that has changed
little in nearly 200 years.
Highway 37, for example, has
followed its present route since
the early nineteenth century
Field patterns also cover near
ly the same expanse of land
that they did in the nineteenth
PHOTO BY SUSAN HARRIS
The Elihu A. White House, ca. .1895, is one of the contributing properties in the Belvidere
Historic District, which was recently placed in the National Register of Historic Places. The
Queen Anne-style dwelling is remains in the family of its original owner.
century “
Today’s quiet Belvidere
gives only architectural hints
of its bustling past. It grew
during the second half of the
18th century as a result of the
development by Thomas
Newby of an important mer
cantile center at Newby’s
Bridge and near his Belvidere
Plantation. Newby’s home is
owned today by the family of
the late Robert “Wolfman
Jack” Smith. In 1833, the
Eastern Quarterly Meeting
Friends Boarding School,
locally known as Belvidere
Academy, opened. Initially
called Newby’s Bridge, the post
office name was changed to
Belvidere in 1861.
The river provided impor
tant transportation for both
commerce and people. The
river was navigable for com
mercial vessels of the time,
and helped mills and stores
thrive in the village settled
mostly by Quakers. Several
general stores, a ginning com
pany, saw mill, grain mill,
undertaker, barber, wheel
wright, blacksmith, mill
wright, all these establish
ments and artisans did busi
ness in Belvidere. A member of
Elihu White’s family wrote in a
1895 letter, “Belvidere is boom
ing.”
Though it is not the center
of commerce and education it
once was, Belvidere offers an
important glimpse into
Perquimans’ past.
For more on the district, see
The Historic Architecture of
Perquimans County, North
Carolina in the county library.
Hertford gets tough on public nuisances
LEAH ALLEN
Correspondent
The Hertford Town Council
unanimously voted to toughen
up on public nuisances at their
regular meeting on Oct. 11.
A new ordinance providing
for the prevention and abate
ment of public nuisances, such
as overgrown grass and weeds,
and accumulation of refuse, is
streamlined to expedite the
enforcement process. It also
attaches hefty fine for continu
ous neglect.
The old ordinance required
the town to send a letter to the
owner of the subject property,
then schedule a hearing 15
days later. The property would
then be inspected and a second
letter sent if the problem was
not relieved. If the nuisance
was not taken care of within 10
days after the second letter was
sent, a work order would be
issued for the town to fix the
problem, such as mow grass,
and bill the owner for expens
es. This process meant that
more than a month could pass
before a problem could be fixed
by the town.
The new ordinance will
require the town to notify the
owner of a property deemed a
nuisance by letter. The owner
may request a hearing within
10 days. If the nuisance in not
removed in that 10 days, the
town manager will issue a
work order to remove or fix the
nuisance. The first offence
requiring the town to remove
or fix the nuisance will result
in the owner being billed for
the cost of removing or fixing
the nuisance. The owner will
be charged a $150 fee plus costs
for the second offence in a
given season. The third
offence wiU result in a $250 fee
plus cost. The owner will be
charged a fee increasing in
increments of $250 plus the
cost of removing or fixing the
nuisance for any further
offences in the same season.
This new policy is meant to
to change the elevation of the
courthouse from the street,”
said Traub. “The addition is
exactly in line with the exist
ing building. It goes back basi
cally utilizing the same kind of
roof profile,” he said.
In addition to the proposed
cost of the addition the board
foresees greater expenses at
the time of construction for
the re-shingling of the roof.
The current shingles were put
on in 1954.
The need for additional
courthouse space and meeting
ADA guidelines has been dis
cussed for several years by the
commissioners.
Prayer
ministry
on TRAC
From Staff Reports
' They’re on TRAC.
According to Perquimans
County TRAC — Touching and
Reaching All our Children —
team organizer Keith
Vaughan, the prayer on each
school campus and at the cen
tral office each Monday morn
ing is having an impact in the
community.
“I have been extremely
encouraged by the initial
response to this idea,”
Vaughan said. “Since we
began praying on September
27, I have received calls from
teachers and administrators
who thanked me for bringing
these people together. They
have already begun to see a dif
ference in their schools. That
is exactly what I expected —
prayer changes things — and
we are excited about the possi
bilities in this ministry.”
About 60 people have shown
up to pray at 7:30 a.m. for the
last three Mondays. In addi
tion, people are volunteering
for the second component of
the TRAC program, becoming
a lunch buddy or reading
buddy for a child. Vaughan
said that part of the program
will be implemented in the
next few weeks as volunteers
are called by the individual
schools.
The prayer time is open to
anyone concerned about
schools and the safety of those
within their walls. It lasts
about 15 minutes.
For more information, caU
Vaughan at The Hertford
Baptist Church at 426-7460.
encourage property owners to
take care of their own mainte
nance problems.
“For the most part, it is the
same people over and over,”
said John Christensen,
Hertford Town Manager. Most
repeat offenders are absentee
owners, people who do not live
in the area, he said.
Various conditions can lead
to an offence. These include
weed or grass growth over 10
inches high, accumulation of
trash, animal or vegetable mat
ter, open storage of appliances
such as refrigerators, or any
other condition deemed detri
mental to public health by the
county health department.
Weekend
Weather
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