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Burket tops in PAL show
Rage 2
HGS^ Beacon honor rolls
Rage 4
Rec League champs
Rages
March 23, 2005
Vol. 73, No. 12 Hertford, North Carolina 27944
ji^kQUIMANS
Weekly
mar 7 3 2005
Gas
prices
soar as
Easter
nears
ERIN RICKERT
Gas prices are reaching
new highs across North
Carolina after averaging $2
a gallon last week.
Due in part to the
increased price of crude
oil, fear of terrorism and
market speculation, Tom
Croshy, vice president of
communication for AAA
Carolinas said gas prices in
the Carolinas have been
climbing by more than a
penny a day since early
March.
Traditionally, gas prices
begin to rise in late spring
and continue to rise
throughout the summer
due to the increase in travel
and demands for gasoline.
Crosby said now with the
traditional spring increase
in pump prices underway.
North Carolinians are
spending more than ever at
gas stations across the
state.
According to a AAA fuel
gauge report, gas prices are
already up more than 30
cents a gallon since last
Easter.
One year ago the average
price of regular unleaded
gasoline was $1,722 per gal
lon and as of Monday it had
risen to $2,036 per gallon.
Gas prices wiU most like
ly continue to increase,
Crosby said, until
Memorial Day as the warm
weather demand sets in.
He said prices could sta
bilize between now and
Memorial Day if Saudi
Arabia follows through on
its pledge to supply an extra
500,000 barrels of crude oil
a day starting April 1.
Crosby reminds con
sumers that a typical vehi
cle getting 20 miles to the
gallon traveling no more
than 15,000 miles a year
would only experience a
$3.60 increase a week with
current prices.
“There is no need to buy
a different car or change
routines,” Crosby said.
“Prices may be a problem
only if there were a drastic
dollar increase.”
AREA PUMP PRICES
As of Monday, prices
rounded to the nearest cent,
of regular unleaded gaso
line at some Perquimans
County stations:
One Stop, Grubb Street,
Hertford $2.10
Layden’s Supermarket,
Belvidere Road, Belvidere
$2.09
Trade Mart, Church
Street, Hertford $2.09
Red Apple, Harvey Point
Road, Hertford $2.10
Layden’s, Winfall
Boulevard, Winfall $2.09
PHOTO BY ERIN RICKERT
Nell Davis (left) and Geri Layden of the Belvidere Ruritan Relay for Life Team make purple ribbons which the
team is selling for $5 each to raise money for cancer research. Davis is undergoing daily chemotherapy treat
ments for an aggressive form of breast cancer.
Relay teams raising money
ERIN RICKERT
Editor’s note: This is the
first in a series on
Perquimans County-based
Relay For Life teams.
Throughout the month of
March and into April, The
Perquimans Weekly will
bring our readers the stories
of area teams and the dri
ving force behind their
efforts to help support the
fight to eliminate cancer.
While the yellow Lance
Armstrong “live strong”
bracelets are being sold all
over the country to aid can
cer research, a local effort
is going on right here in
Perquimans County.
Started as a fundraiser
by the Belvidere Ruritan
Club’s first-ever Relay For
Life team, purple cancer
awareness ribbons began
popping up on mailboxes
and front doors aU over the
county March 8.
Similar to the bracelets,
the large weatherproof rib
bons can be purchased for
$5 with all the proceeds
going toward cancer
research.
For the Belvidere
Ruritan Club, the effort is
of great importance after
one of its members was
diagnosed with cancer last
August.
Nell Davis, 53, discov
ered she had a severely
aggressive form of breast
cancer after going in for a ^
routine mammogram just
months earlier.
Now as Davis works to
complete the last few weeks
of her daily chemotherapy
treatments, she and her co
captain Geri Layden head
the team’s ribbon fundrais
er.
In May, Davis’s team and
the four other teams in
Perquimans County to
date, plan to participate in
the Relay For Life event.
Held across the globe for
years, the event is designed
not only to celebrate sur
vivorship, but hope, all
while raising money for
research and programs
sponsored by the American
Cancer Society.
In the months before the
race, each team holds its
own unique fundraisers to
raise money that wiU later
be donated toward cancer
research.
It is Davis’s hope that
with the community’s help,
the Ruritan team could
raise close to $1,000 with its
ribbon campaign — later
presenting it to the
American Cancer Society
at the end of fundraising
May 4.
Davis said with the help
of local businesses, club
PHOTO BY ERIN RICKERT
Layden's Supermarket on Belvidere Road in Belvidere
is just one of the places to purchase a purple ribbon
to help fund cancer research.
members are working to bons it will take to meet
create the nearly 200 rib- Continued on page 4
Winfall brings technology to its residents
ERIN RICKERT
Area residents without
access to computers or
Internet may benefit from a
Technology Center recent
ly installed inside the
Winfall Town Office.
Equipped with four com
puter stations, basic soft
ware and wireless Internet
connections, computer ser
vices are available to resi
dents from 10 a.m.-noon
and 1-5 p.m. Monday-
Friday
“There are a lot of
homes that don’t have com
puters,” said Winfall Mayor
Fred Yates. “What we are
trying to do is close out that
digital divide.”
Winfall was able to pro
vide the service to resi
dents after being chosen as
one of 15 towns to receive
the computers through the
expansion of a revitaliza
tion grant the Town of
Roper’s Window on the
World Technology Center
received months earlier.
Bunny Sanders, mayor
of the Town of Roper, said
the grant called for Roper
to chose 15 of the more
than 30 towns in northeast
ern North Carolina with a
population of less than
1,500 people to mentor.
Through this they were
able to provide the town
with government surplus
computers and updates to
the computers for a small
fee.
Gloria Mason, town
clerk and finance officer
said Winfall was able to
obtain the five computers,
one for office use and the
other four for resident use,
through the grant.
Mason said the $1,250
needed for Roper to update
the computers and $788 to
purchase workstations for
the computers was taken
from the balance left over
Hertford
eyes
growth
concerns
Moratorium
on large
subdivisions
implemented
ERIN RICKERT
Hertford officials are
hopeful a two-year morato
rium on larger subdivi
sions will give them time to
develop a plan to accommo
date the sudden influx of
requests by developers to
build in the area.
Town Council approved
the moratorium on subdivi
sions 10 lots or larger last
week after mulling requests
to build from Page
Development and
Timberline Land Company
in their February meeting.
Council members were
faced with requests by Page
and Timberline for the
addition of close to 150 lots
on Edenton Road Street and
another 300 lots on the cor
ner of Harvey Point Road
and US Highway 17, thus
stealing more than half the
capacity of the town’s $5
million sewer plant slated
for completion in 2007 and
violating capacity limita
tions set by the state.
“Under the special order
by consent, we have a cer
tain amount [of capacity]
we have to protect,” said
Hertford Town Manager
John Christensen. “The
moratorium protects that
capacity the SOC allows us
until the plant is finished. It
gives us time to look at new
growth projections.”
Christensen said when
the town began to consider
upgrading the five decade
old sewer plant in 1999
plans were based on only a
2 percent growth increase
per year.
“Now that we are in the
last stages of design and
ready to construct [the
sewer plant],” Christensen
said, “we are finding our
growth far exceeds the 2
percent.”
Christensen, along with
engineers are now working
together to anticipate
growth and plan future
capacity expansion, which
Continued on page 4
from constructing the
town’s Municipal Building.
Because town employees
monitor workstations, par
ents and children interest
ed in using the facilities are
required to sign an agree
ment not to misuse materi
als.
While the use of the
workstations is free. Mason
said residents who wish to
print anything out on the
computers must pay the
town 25 cents per copy.
“If we are going to be a
service to the community,”
Yates said.,’’this is a step in
the right direction.”
Weekend
Weather
Thursday
High; 58
Low: 47
Partly Cloudy
Friday
High: 67
Low: 51
Partly Cloudy
Saturday
High: 71
Low: 55
Thunderstorms