North Carolina Newspapers

The only newspaper for and about Perquimans County and its people m Spruce up for spring H Pages 6 and 7 1 Harrell at home at PCHS H Rage 9 ■ Sports P lEffi'fr’flUMfi) 0 4 2001 April 5, 2001 [ Vol. 69, No. 14 Hertford, North Carolina 27944 013165 110101 01 _^**C001 PERQUIMANS COUNTY LIBRARY 110 W ACADEMY Si HERTFORD NC Z7944 \/uiiviAJNS Weekly Few show at safety meeting Sparse turnout finstrates some parents SUSAN R. HARRIS When given the opportu nity to have their voices heard about school vio lence, most people in Perquimans County clammed up. About 50 people showed up for an open meeting on safe schools held at the high school Monday night. Only about 30 of them were parents of students enrolled in the school sys tem. Written notice of the meeting was sent home with every student in aU four schools and notices were published in both The Perquimans Weekly and The Daily Advance news papers, according to Schools Interim Superintendent Pat Harrell. In an open forum that ended the meeting, one • theme continued to be expressed; Too many par ents did not attend the meeting. Parents who were there were obviously frus trated with the low number of parents who showed up. Many said parents are an important key to making schools safer. Some parents found it ironic that parents allowed students to stay at home in response to the March investigation of a reported incident of a student carry ing a gun to school and a bomb threat a week later, but they did not attend the meeting. Facilitated by Harrell, the meeting offered a chance to break into groups and offer sugges tions to make schools safer. Each group prioritized their suggestions and stat ed how those suggestions might be implemented. The activity culminated with each group presenting their ideas on improving school safety. The diverse group that included parents, students, school administrators and staff, grandparents, law enforcement officers and board members, came up with a variety of ideas. Among the suggestions made were identification badges for students and staff, having only one unlocked entrance at each school, more security offi cers, dress codes/uni forms, character educa tion, parental involvement, more counselors,k fencing the King Street parking lot at the high school, better facilities, parking decals, student courts, peer media tion, better awareness of bullies and their targets, bus monitors, video sur veillance, and training for students and staff. Harrell said some of the suggestions could be imple mented easily and without financial considerations. Others, he said, would force setting budget priori ties. Continued on oaoe 10 Future farmers? v..".-'I^S • T ' ' r, |- Spring is here, and in Perquimans, that means getting back in touch with the good earth. Nicholas and Bryan Lewis were spied getting dirt under their fingernails at their Covent Garden home Monday after noon. It could be the brothers will be architects or contractors instead of farmers as they were building castles in the rich, black dirt. Truck runs into river SUSAN R. HARRIS A Hertford man escaped injury when he drove his .tractor-trailer off the causeway in Hertford Friday Gerald Darian White, 33, of 108 Martin Lane, was traveling south on North Church Street around 4:30 Friday afternoon when the tractor-trailer he was driv ing jack-knifed and a por tion of the rig ended up hanging off the causeway in the Perquimans River. According to the acci dent report completed by Hertford Police officer Brad Krause, the right tires of the tractor-trailer dropped off the right side of the road onto the low shoulder of the road. White overcorrected, and the truck veered left head ing into the curve. He pulled back to the right, and the rig jack-knifed, with the portion of the tractor and trailer that connects ending up hang ing in the river and the rest of the rig in the north bound lane. arm The accident caused traf fic delays for several hours as only the southbound lane was open. Hertford Police Chief Dale Vanscoy said it took two wreckers to pull the truck back onto the roadway, and the causeway was closed during the process. The causeway reopened just after 7 p.m. No charges were filed. County board endorses COPS grant application Funds could put resource officers at schools SUSAN R. HARRIS County commissioners endorsed a grant applica tion for the sheriff’s department that would put resource officers in Perquimans County Schools. At the request of Sheriff Eric Tilley and Interim Schools Superintendent Pat Harrell, the commis sioners endorsed a COPS grant application that could pay for salaries and benefits for three resource officers to be stationed on school campuses. Tilley said the federal funds would pay up to $125,000 per officer over a 3- year period. He said the idea of adding resource officers at the schools came from meetings on school safety that occurred after the March 8 report of a stu dent carrying a gun at the high school. Receiving funding for two officers is likely, TiUey said, and officials hope a third will be approved. Preliminary plans call for placing the officers at both the high and middle schools, and if a third is approved, a shared D.A.R.E./resource officer at the county’s elementary schools. Tniey said if three offi cer are approved for fund ing, Deputy Lee Price would continue to serve as the D.A.R.E. officer and assist at other schools and with serving civil papers. His salary could then be Continued on page 10 Commissioners try for sewer money again Nixon votes against application SUSAN R. HARRIS The county will try again to gets funds to establish and provide sewer service to the Menzie’s Creek Sewer District. Consultant Dick George told commission ers that the county did not apply for state Clean Water Bond Act funds after a 1999 public hear ing on establishing a Menzie’s Creek Sewer dis trict because the county needed to negotiate for land to buUd the system The grant application calls for the county to DWI check yields Daily Advance photo A tractor-trailer driven by Gerald Darian White of Hertford ended up partially in the river Friday afternoon after White ran off the road and overcorrected. No one was injured in the one-vehicle accident. purchase the working sewer system at Albemarle Plantation and expand it to serve home- owners in Holiday Island. George said the project falls under Clean Water guidelines because Holiday Island’s sewer needs constitute an envi ronmental problem area. At present, there are numerous failing septic tanks in the Holiday Island subdivision, which could cause problems with groundwater quedity and threatens the Albemarle Sound. Residents in the subdivi sion have requested coun ty help with the problem. While the county did not submit a grant appli cation in 1999, a capital improvement plan was submitted. George said it was not approved, but Continued on page 10 SUSAN R. HARRIS Law enforcement authorities set up a DWI roadblock Friday night in Hertford that netted guns and drugs, although few impaired drivers. Hertford Police Chief Dale Vanscoy said 10 agen cies worked at the south ern town limits, stopping traffic in both directions. Only three DWIs were issued; however, officers made six arrests for weapons violations and seven for drug possession. Vanscoy said all war rants and citations issued at the scene went through the magistrate’s office and he had not gotten copies of paperwork by press time, so arrest details were not available. He did say that some of the drug and weapons charges stemmed from stopping a van from Virginia carrying disc jockeys on their way to Edenton to play at an event there. One of the charges in the case was a federal offense for altering a serial number. “I was surprised at the traffic we had,” Vanscoy said. “We had traffic all the way up to 1 o’clock (in the morning). I knew traffic had increased on (Highway) 17, but I didn’t know it had increased that much.” The roadblock was a joint operation spearhead ed by the Hertford Police Department. Agencies involved in addition to HPD were the Perquimans and Chowan county sher iff’s deparmens, Winfall, Elizabeth City and Edenton police depart ments, Pasquotank County Drug Task Force, ALE, highway patrol and proba tion/parole. Charges included open alcohol containers, child safety and seat belt viola tions, driving while license revoked, underage drink ing, insurance violations and drug paraphernalia. Weekend Weather Thursday High: 68 Low: 49 Partly Cloudy Friday High: 68 Low: 50 Partly Cloudy Saturday High: 74 Low: 57 Mostly Cloudy