V
Home buying workshop set
Rage 3
Rush and racism
Rage 4
Basketball update
Page 6
January 14, 2004
Vol. 72, No. 2 Hertford, North Carolina 27944
IeIquWs county library
110 W ACADEMY ST
HERTFORD, NC 27944-1306
Perquima^js
Weekly
Winter wonderland
Bowles visits
Hertford
PHOTO BY TINA ENNIS
Thursday night brought a dusting of snow, but not enough to affect schools, businesses and traffic. However
by mid-morning Friday, it began to snow in earnest, sending students home after eating and early lunch and
causing some businesses to close. About 1-2 inches fell here, staying around for a couple of days thanks to bit
terly cold temperatures. Most of the snow was gone by Monday afternoon, when temperatures warmed.
Another blast of arctic air is forecast for later this week.
County approves new salary schedule
SUSAN R. HARRIS
Santa came on New
Year’s for county employ
ees, when the county com
missioners implemented a
new salary schedule.
The schedule was imple
mented by a vote last
Monday night in regular
session, and no commis
sioner voted against the
measure.
According to County
Manager Paul Gregory, one
reason the county contrac-
tred for a salary study and
implemented the new
schedule was to raise the
salaries of those employees
on the lower end of the
salary scale.
The schedule, he said,
provided significant raises
for some employees and
made the county competi
tive with other counties
such as Chowan, Gates,
Hertford and
Northampton. While
salaries in the upper pay
grades and steps may not
be as high as those in coun
ties such as Pasquotank
and Currituck, Gregory
said in general employees
who live in the county may
realize about the same pay
when travel expenses are
factored in.
In fact, at least one coun
ty employee who left to
accept a position in a sur
rounding county has called
and indicated a desire to
come back.
“We are competitive
with the counties in the
area,” he said. “It was a
good step in the right direc
tion.”
Employees in the law
enforcement, emergency
medical and maintenance
areas may have seen the
most significant raises,
Gregory added;
All county employees
received raises, although
some did not see hourly
increases, and in fact,
about 15—18 employees
may have seen their hourly
pay decrease.
That is because with the
new salary schedule, the
commissioners also
changed the county work
day from 7 1/2—8 hours.
“The vast majority are
very, very happy,” Gregory
said.
He added that several
employees have called his
office to thank the commis
sioners for implementing
the policy, although he did
say that there have been
some “minor upsets” over
the overall effects of the
new 40-hour work week.
When budget work
begins over the next few
weeks, commissioners will
“take a good, hard look at
raises” for next fiscal year,
Gregory said, in light of
the raises given on Jan. 1.
Because of the new sched
ule and its fuU implementa
tion, county employees
may not get a raise in the
new budget.
“After that, the person
nel policy will kick back
in,” Gregory said, adding
that that means step, cost of
living and merit raises will
again be handled per the
county personnel policy.
SUSAN R. HARRIS
Erskine Bowles, a North
Carolina businessman and
former White House Chief
of staff, made a short visit
to Hertford Monday after
noon, speaking with about
30 people at the courthouse.
The visit was publicized
as a forrnn to discuss hous
ing, business and economic
development issues, spon
sored by the Northeastern
Community Development
Corporation and the
Perquimans County
Chamber of Commerce.
However, Bowles spoke
about his stances on health
care, the economy and edu
cation, and what he wiU do
if elected to the U.S. Senate.
“I think I can make a big,
big difference for this, part
of the state,” Bowles said.
Bowles said he has 35
years’ experience as a busi
ness person, with his share
of both successes and fail
ures. He learned from both,
he said, and can use what
he has learned from per
sonal experience to help
stimulate the economy.
He said there is a need to
create good, high-wage jobs
Bowles said he would
support no future trade
agreements while those
presently in effect are not
enforced.
He added that the $103
million deficit in the bal
ance of trade with China is
a major economic problem
with the United States.
Bowles
Another priority for
Bowles, he said, would be
healthcare.
“We have the best health
care in the world, but the
healthcare system needs
reform,” Bowles said.
Americans spend 14 per
cent of the GDP on health
care.
“No other nation in the
world spends over nine per
cent,” he said.
There are 44 million
Americans with no health
insurance.
He said healthcare
reform needs to take place
on a step-by-step basis until
it is fixed.
“I think we have a real
obligation to do something
there,” he said.
Healthcare reform will
require working across
party lines, and Bowles
thinks he can do that, he
said.
While Bowles said he
believes in high standards
in education he believes
that the No Child Left
Behind legislation may in
reality be “no child left
untested.”
He said the program has
a good intent, but is one-
third underfunded, needing
at least $6 billion more to
implement.
He sees a focus on early
childhood programs, small
er class sizes, valuing and
paying teachers, schools
construction, after-school
programs, increased Pell
grants and an investment
in college as necessary to
education improvement.
On a national level,
Bowles was asked to head
the Small Business
Administration by
President Clinton in 1993,
and served as Deputy Chief
of Staff for the president
from October 1994 to
December 1995.
Bowles returned to
Charlotte for a brief period
of time in 1996, but was
asked to return to
Washington by President
Clinton in December of
that year to serve as his
Chief of Staff. Since his
resignation in 1998, Bowles
has returned to Charlotte
and resumed his responsi
bilities in the business sec
tor.
Bowles said while in
Washington, he worked
across party lines to help
balance the national bud
get. He was successful and
actually helped create a
budget surplus, even while
increasing education fund
ing.
“Our priorities were to
invest in the future of this
country,” he said of those
from both parties with
whom he worked on the
budget.
“I want to be there when
you caU me,” Bowles said.
Periauger keel-laying ceremony set for Friday at Maritime Museum
Next Friday, construc
tion win begin on the long-
awaited periauger, a colo
nial era logboat that wUl be
home-ported in Hertford.
A keel-laying ceremony
is set for Jan. 16 at 1:30 p.m.
at the N.C. Maritime
Museum’s Watercraft
Center in Beaufort.
A keel laying traditional
ly involves the placement of
the first timber of a new
vessel to be constructed.
Museum Director Dr. David
Nateman will officiate at
the ceremony. A reception
in the museum auditorium
will follow.
The boat is expected to
be completed by mid-April.
The construction of the
periauger is a joint project
with the Perquimans
County Restoration
Association, which oper
ates the Newbold-White
House Historic Site, and
East Carolina University’s
Program in Maritime
Studies. Other partners
include Perquimans
County, the Town of
Hertford and North
Carolina’s Northeast
Partnership.
The periauger will be
located in Historic
Hertford harbor following
completion and eventually
at the Newbold-White
House Historic Site as part
of its hands-on educational
programming.
In colonial America, set
tlers traveled the water
ways in common ships
called periaugers — the
pick-up trucks of those
days. Historical references
indicate that for many colo
nial settlers, the periauger
was the vessel of choice,
especially on the sounds
and rivers of North
Carolina.
No surviving examples
for these characteristic
workboats used by
colonists in North Carolina
in the 17th and 18th century
are known to exist; there
fore the design for this 30-
foot vessel was researched
for over a decade using
descriptions and illustra
tions of that period.
Among the documentary
evidence discovered about
the ship was a reference to
a periauger in the 1751
estate of Abraham
Sanders, the builder of the
1730 Newbold-White House.
Through this history
making project, the peri
auger will be built and rein
troduced to the waterways.
Periauger is a generic
term for a two-masted ship
made of a dugout and split
cypress log with split keel
and propelled by both oars
and sails. Some periaugers
could carry large cargos
and travel up small streams
and rivers where deeper
draft vessels could not.
The PCRA raised $37,000
in private donations and
the North Carolina
Department of
Transportation’s
Enhancement Program
committed $55,623 for the
project.
Michael B. Alford, for
mer curator of maritime
research for the N.C.
Maritime Museum in
Beaufort, designed the peri
auger. Assisting in the
research was Dr. Larry
Babits, maritime archaeol
ogist with East Carolina
University’s Program in
Maritime Studies. The pro
ject boatbuilder is Craig
Wright, formerly of
Goshen, Conn., who built
the 28-foot gaff cutter on
which he lives.
Local volunteers spent
hours last winter hand
crafting many of the ancil
lary pieces of the periauger
project, including the
masts, sweeps, rudder and
jib.
The work took place in
unoccupied space at the
Perquimans 2020 Business
Incubator on Harvey Point
Road. Lead builders Gerry
Zell, Kent Carper and John
Ernst, along with Frank
Aubert, Dick Haas, Ted
Huffman, Monty Spindler,
Don Johnson and Bill
Jackson, spent well over
1500 manhours on the local
portion of the building
project.
Jim Burns donated
much of the equipment
used by the Perquimans
building crew.
The public may watch
the construction of the
periauger in the N.C.
Maritime Museum’s
Watercraft Center Monday
— Friday, 9 a.m. — 5 p.m.
There is no admission
charge to visit the muse
um.
Contact the museum for
information at 252-728-7317
or email
maritime@ncmail.net.
Holiday
Weather
THURSDAY
High: 35 '
Low: 23
Early Flurry
Friday
High: 29
Low: 23
Mostly Sunny
Saturday
High: 35
Low: 26
Partly Cloudy