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Fire damages Belvidere house
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Local couple makes music
Rage 3
PAL gala a success
Pages
June 29, 2005
Vol, 73, No 256 Hertford, North Carolina 27944
PERQUIMANS COUN^^ LIBRARY ^
110 W ACADEMY ST
HERTFORD, NC 27944-1306 -A , JZiJJ
JUN
21
5005
Perquim^Ks
Weekly
Hertford teen killed in Saturday wreck
ERIN RICKERT
A single-car accident
proved tragic early
Saturday morning, claim
ing the life of one county
teen and seriously injuring
another after the pickup
they were traveling in
crashed into a bridge rail
and burst into flames.
The passenger, James
“Jim” Garland Baccus, 19,
of 366 Beech Springs Road,
was declared dead from the
injuries he suffered as a
result of the accident en
route to Albemarle
Hospital, according to Sgt.
C.T. Griffin with the N-C.
Highway Patrol.
The driver, Dylan Joseph
Nowell, 19, of 1080
Belvidere Road, Belvidere,
was released from the hos
pital Sunday and is now
using a walker after being
treated for several serious
injuries. Nowell was,later
charged with driving while
impaired and exceeding a
safe speed.
Authorities are now
waiting on test results to
determine whether both
boys consumed any impair
ing substances before the
accident and if so, how
much was in their systems.
Griffin said these results
would help them determine
if Nowell will receive any
additional charges.
“We’ve got to get some
blood results back first
before we do anything
else,” Griffin said.
In Baccus’s case, Griffin
said the department does
not expect test results from
the medical examiner for
close to 45 days. It will be
another three months at
least, Griffin said, before
the State Bureau of
Investigation’s crime lab
will produce results for
Nowell.
Griffin said Nowell and
Baccus were traveling west
on Foreman-Bundy Road in
Pasquotank County, just
miles from the Perquimans
County line, near Cherry
Glade Road when the acci
dent occurred around 3
a.m. Saturday
Griffin said Nowell
turned the wheel of his
1994 Chevrolet Pickup right
to miss a deer when the
front passenger side of the
vehicle hit a reflective sign
then the concrete bridge
Continued on page 12
Jim Baccus
Hertford
ups tax,
utilities
rates
ERIN RICKERT
Residents of Hertford
should expect to see
increases not only in their
property taxes, but utility
rates when the 2005-06 fiscal
year begins July 1.
Monday evening
Hertford Town Council
voted to adopt this year’s
fiscal budget with a 1-cent
property tax increase —
raising the current rate set
at 48-cents per $100 valua
tion to 49-cents per $100 val
uation. Only
Councilwoman Anne White
cast a disssenting vote.
This means a resident
owning a $100,000 home
would pay the town an addi
tional $10 in property taxes.
Hertford "Town Manager
John Christensen said the
property tax increase
would generate close to
$7,500 in additional revenue
needed in the town’s
approximately $1.26 million
budget.
Christensen said water
and sewer rates also
increased to obtain the
additional $308,000 in rev
enue needed to help the
town handle recent growth
demands and complete
infrastructure improve
ments.
Now the approximately
one-third of residents
whose water and sewer use
is 3,000 gallons or less a
Continued on page 9
Board
names new
assistant
principals
ERIN RICKERT
The School Board on
Monday night announced
the two new assistant prin
cipals who will help lead
both the middle and high
schools with the start of
the 2005-06 school year in
August.
This comes after former
PCHS Principal Hans
Lassiter announced his res
ignation and plans to take a
principal position in
Sanford earlier this year.
Now Lisa Frost, an edu-
Park overhaul
- . 1
PHOTO BY ERIN RICKERT
Crew members from Harrell's Concrete smooth freshly laid sidewalks in Missing
Mill Park Thursday afternoon. Nearly 375-feet of concrete is expected to be
installed in the park in time for the Independence Day events Sunday as part of
the first of two phases designed to improve the park. Over the course of the next
year more than $86,000 will finish work to phase one. Trash receptacles, six bench
es, new playground equipment, a drinking fountain and street-lights were already
added earlier this year. Horseshoe pits, doggy pooper scooper stations, six grills,i
bike racks and new park signs will complete the construction.
Fireworks moved
to Sunday night
ERIN RICKERT
License problems have
forced the fireworks
planned to celebrate
Independence Day in
Hertford’s Missing Mill
Park to be rescheduled for
Sunday.
The American Legion
Post 125, who handle the
fireworks each year, origi
nally scheduled launch of
the fireworks for the
evening of July 4, but were
forced to reschedule to
dusk on July 3. Legion
PostCommander Ken
Rominger said the event
change came when they
were unable to find a
licensed person to shoot off
the nearly $7,000 in fire
works planned for this
year’s event.
“We submitted the
paperwork,” Rominger
said. “There was a problem
getting the fingerprint
cards ... there was a back
log of about six weeks.”
Rominger said added
requirements caused a
delay in the application
process for those attempt
ing to obtain licensing this
year.
“It came up Monday
night,” Rominger said. “It
really boiled down to
whether we would have to
reschedule or cancel it.”
Rominger said after dis
covering the delay he
searched aU over the area
for someone with up-to-date
licensing to no avail.
“It’s been a problem all
over,” Rominger said. “We
Continued on page 9
Local writing
test scores up
ERIN RICKERT
Qualifying grade levels
in the Perquimans County
School system who took
this year’s statewide
Writing Assessment have
met the state’s proficiency
requirement — testing at or
above grade level — prelim
inary reports released by
the North Carolina
Department of Public
Instruction revealed
recently.
While testing scores for
several other schools and
the overall state proficien
cy rating for tenth grade
students was down, in
Perquimans County the
students in the school sys
tem’s fourth, seventh and
tenth grades showed
improvement on this year’s
tests.
“I think our superinten
dent [Dr. Kenneth W. Wells]
realizes writing is a valu
able tool for success,” said
Perquimans County
Schools Public Information
Officer Brenda Lassiter.
Continued on page 9
County again on OLF list
PHOTO BY SUSAN HARRIS
Melissa Morales (left) and Lisa Frost speak with school
board members after their assistant principal appoint
ments were approved Monday night.
cator from Camden, will
join Jamie Liver man, the
newly-tapped principal of
PCMS, and Melissa
Morales of Gates joins
Melvin Hawkins, the prin
cipal of PCHS, effective
July 1.
Frost is currently a
fourth grade teacher at
Moyock Elementary School
and the coordinator of the
Math Club at the school.
Continued on page 12
ERIN RICKERT
Perquimans is one of
four counties in northeast
North Carolina being
reconsidered as a possible
site for an Outlying
Landing Field that would
allow the Navy to practice
aircraft carrier landings
using Super Hornet F/A-
18s from Virginia Beach,
Va. and Cherry Point, N.C.
Bertie, Hyde,
Perquimans and Craven
counties are all being
reconsidered because the
Navy’s need for a new OLF
is “so urgent and critical,”
a letter dated Wednesday
from the Department of the
Navy reads.
Now over the course of
the next 18 months and pos
sibly as long as two years.
Perquimans County
Manager Bobby Darden
said the Navy intends to
conduct a supplemental
environmental impact
study in all four counties.
Darden said this would
provide additional critique
of the environmental con
sequences associated -with
the construction and opera
tion of an OLF in the area.
This comes after a
record of decision was
made in September 2003 to
construct and operate an
OLF in Washington County.
Yet, in February the
District Court ruled the
Navy did not sufficiently
probe the environmental
impact on the acreage
planned for the OLF at that
location.
Continued on page 12
Weekend
Weather
Thursday
High: 85
Low: 73
Scattered T'storms
Friday
High: 92
Low: 73
ScAHERED T'storms
Saturday
High: 91
Low: 66
Isolated T'storms