1.1
Christmas parade is Saturday
f^ge4
Newboid-White site of yule log
Rage 2
Warren remembered
Rage 4
November 30, 2005
Vol. 73, No. 48 Hertford, North Caroliria 27944
PERQUmANS
Weekiy
Holiday blaze
destroys home
MARGARET FISHER
A fire in the residential
downtown area caused
extensive damage to a
home and placed fire fight
ers at risk as two gas tanks
caught fire.
The fire broke out in a
shed, filled with extra fur
niture and antiques, that
quickly spread to the near
by LP gas tanks, as well as
to the home located at 211S.
Covent Garden.
Homeowner Jesse Mae
White was asleep in her
home at 3:30 a.m. on
Thanksgiving morning
with her son, Isaac White,
grandson, James Carter,
and her visiting daughter,
Leeora Brown, when the
fire started.
A neighbor, William
Felton, was the first person
to spot the fire and alert the
occupants. Brown said.
Brown, who takes care of
her mother on a regular
basis, said that she awak
ened her nephew and
brother and the two went
out to the backyard to hose
down the gas tanks. When
Brown saw that the fire had
worsened, she woke up her
mother.
“My nephew (Carter)
and I literally picked her up
and carried her out,”
Brown said.
By the time first-respon
der Hertford Fire
Department arrived, the
occupants were safely out
of the house, said Fire
Chief Robert Reed.
Continued on page 7
PHOTO BY MARGARET FISHER
A kerosene heater may have started a fire in a downtown residence on
Thanksgiving morning. The fire caused extensive damage to the home and
destroyed the shed where the fire is thought to have started.
70 people
unemployed
as result
MARGARET FISHER
A textile firm that has
been operating in Hertford
for more than 20 years is
closing its doors, leaving
about 70 workers looking
for jobs before the holidays.
Apricot, Inc. has been
finishing up the last of its
contract orders for the past
two weeks with about five
employees and will close
within two weeks, said the
firm’s owner, Carl
Tefranova Jr. As textile
production has increasing-
Continued on page 8
True heroes
Four
noted for
bus wreck
heroism
MARGARET FISHER
It was an event to
remember, complete with
television cameras and spe
cial recognition for four
local heroes.
An event to honor a
school bus driver, a passing
motorist and two teachers
was held by Perquimans
County Schools on Monday
in front of more than 150
people.
Special recognition,
including being named
Employee of the Month,
was given to Zita Privott
Ferebee, who kept her bus
upright after a truck collid
ed with it twice and helped
40 middle school students
out while the bus was burn
ing on Oct. 24. Her calm
demeanor was praised by
school and town officials.
NO OLF gears up for
fight against Navy
PHOTO BY MARGARET FISHER
students, parents and other
Bus driver Zita Ferebee, motorist Earl Ward Jr. and teachers Rachel Ward and Karen
Atkinson were honored by Perquimans County Schools for their efforts to help 40
children off a burning bus and comfort them after an Oct. 24 crash.
community members.
Kenneth Rea, 14, was on
the bus during the ordeal.
Rea was the only student
who was transferred to Pitt
Memorial Hospital from
Chowan Hospital and suf
fered a concussion.
“She’s the real hero
tonight - Zita,” Rea said.
“She did more than her job.
She saved 40 kids’ lives,
including my own.”
Ferebee preferred not to
Continued on page 7
Local group
preparing in
case Navy
changes focus
to county
MARGARET FISHER
While the U.S. Navy
focuses on Washington
County as a potential site to
build an outlying landing
field, residents in
Perquimans County are not
idly waiting on the side
lines to see what the Navy
will do.
“I know (the Navy) keeps
saying they are focused on
Washington,” said Stan
Winslow, organizer for the
Perquimans County
Chapter of North
Carolinians Opposed to the
OLF, “but I don’t think we
need to assume that we are
totally out of the picture.”
Winslow met with resi
dents and No OLF support
ers on Nov. 22 to discuss
what the group can do
while the Navy conducts a
supplemental environmen
tal impact study in the five
potential OLF sites, includ
ing Perquimans,
Washington, Bertie, Craven
and Hyde counties.
While the Navy is con
ducting their SEIS, the No
OLF group is making plans
to conduct an economic
impact study in the north
ern part of the county
where the Navy has
expressed interest in build
ing a practice landing strip
for F/A-18 Super Hornet
aircraft.
Part of that information
will include how the county
will be affected by the loss
of taxes if more than 500
residences would be
removed from about 30,000
acres in the Belvidere area.
However, taxes are not the
only loss to the county,
Winslow said.
“It will be a much fur
ther-reaching thing than a
tax loss to the county”"
Winslow said.
Winslow hopes to be able
to get information this win
ter on how farming opera
tions and the agriculture
industry wiU be affected.
Continued on page 7
rnsmi
Breeder starts Peruvian tradition at southern farm
PHOTO BY MARGARET FISHER
Beech Star Alpaca Wear is a new store that is open on
Saturdays at Beech Springs Alpacas. The store features
yarn and clothing and blankets made from the plush
fiber of the llama-like animals. Unlike wool, alpaca
fiber does not contain lanolin or cause the skin to itch.
MARGARET FISHER
. A local breeder of
alpacas, similar to llamas,
is opening a store to sell
clothing and blankets made
from the fiber of these
wooly animals.
Catherine “Kate”
Brown, who owns Beech
Springs Alpacas, has joined
with Chesapeake breeder
Deborah Tabor, owner of
Autumn Star Alpacas, in
opening Beech Star Alpaca
Wear.
The store, open on
Saturdays, sells sweaters,
throws, hats, gloves, socks,
shawls, and Teddy bears. It
also features yarn from the
two breeders’ own animals.
Some of the items are a
combination of alpaca
fiber and silk or wool.
Tabor had wanted to
open a store at her farm.
but the city of Chesapeake
wouldn’t allow a retail busi
ness at her residence. So
she and Brown decided to
sell their fiber products in
Perquimans County
Alpacas are native to the
Andes region of Peru,
Chile and Bolivia, Brown
said. They are predomi
nantly raised for their soft,
plush fiber - often com
pared with cashmere.
“It’s much softer (than
wool),” Brown said. “It
doesn’t have the lanolin or
the greasy feel. It doesn’t
have the itch factor.”
It’s also a strong fiber,
she said.
Since the mid-1980s, the
alpaca fiber industry has
been working to build up
the herds in the U.S. for
breeding and selling pur
poses.
Brown, a nurse practi
tioner, purchased her first
alpacas more than two
years ago and brought
them to Tyner about a year
and half ago. Tabor bought
her first alpaca about a
year ago and now has
seven, including two at six
months old.
Brown has been breed
ing her animals since then
and currently has 16
alpacas, including three
new babies. The animals
are sheared once a year in
the spring. The fiber is
processed by Georgia
Mountain Fiber, which
spins T it , into yarn and
sends it back to her. She
sends some of the fiber to
the New England Fiber co
op, which combines it with
other clients’ fibers and
makes products out of it.
Brown purchases the prod
ucts from the co-op and
from Sol Alpaca in Peru.
Continued on page 8
Weekend
Weather
Thursday
High: 57, Low: 36
Partly Qoudy
Friday
High: 55, Low: 32
Sunny
Saturday
High:57, Low: 45
Mostly Sunny