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Perry celebrates turning 90
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Colors of autumn fall around us
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Lady Pirates, Lady Tigers win
Rage 8
The
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September 20, 2006
Vol, 74, No. 43 Hertford, North Carolina 27944
Perquimans
Weekly
SUSAN HARRIS
Perquimans youth are
not physically fit, and the
school system, thanks in
part to a Carol M. White
Physical Education
Program Grant, hopes to
change that.
The schools will receive
almost $254,000 per year for
three years to plan and
implement a comprehen
sive physical education
program that will increase
physical activity at all
grade levels, improve
social and emotional well
being, and maximize aca
demic potentional. The
grant will also provide for
staff training and equip
ment to implement the pro
gram. Perquimans is the
only district in North
Carolina to receive fund
ing.
A present, students at
Central School are sched
uled for physical education
each week for two 30-
minute sessions. At
Hertford Grammar, the two
sessions increase to 40
minutes each. In middle
school, ■ students take one
semester of physical edu
cation, going to class each
day for 45 minutes. High
school students are
required to take only one
semester of physical edu
cation during their four
years, meeting each day for
90 minutes. The course is a
combination of physical
education and health.
Weight training and
advanced physical educa
tion are offered at the high
school, but are generally
taken only by student ath
letes, records show.
Local studies show that
, by high school, about 75
percent of the student pop
ulation is not physically
active outside of any phys
ical education class
required. About 65 percent
of the entire student popu
lation exhibit poor health
behavior and 5 percent
require daily medication
during the school day.
Perhaps most telling,
however, is that 26 percent
of the student population
is overweight, the highest
percentage in
Northeastern North
Carolina. About 12 percent
of students have chronic
diseases such as asthma,
ADHD, diabetes, sickle cell,
seizures, genetic disorders
and gastrointestinal disor
ders.
The new program,
called Physical Activities
Promoting Active
Lifestyles or PAPALS, will
help achieve the state man
date requiring 150 minutes
of moderate to vigorous
physical activity each
week for elementary stu
dents and 225 minutes for
middle and high school stu
dents.
Based on studies and
local assessments, school
officials expect that the
program will not only
improve the physical
health and wellbeing of
students, but will also
improve academic per
Continued on page 4
Love my grandma
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PHOTO COURTESY PERQUIMANS COUNTY SCHOOLS
Cathy Linton (center) enjoys breakfast with her 4th grade granddaughter Tashani Maniqault (right) and
grandson Brandon last week during the Grandparents' Day celebration at Hertford Grammar School. Both
Hertford Grammar and Central schools invited grandparents in for meals with their grandchildren. "This is
a great opportunity for grandparents to take an active role in their grandchild's education," said Hertford
Grammar School Principal Dianne Meiggs. "Children gain self-esteem and self-confidence by feeling loved.
One of the greatest gifts offered by a grandparent is unconditional love and support."
New PAL
exhibit
opens
The Perquimans Arts
League gallery is holding a
new exhibit with the theme
of Flora and Fauna of
Perquimans County. The
display will run untii Oct. 7
in the Hall of Fame Square.
A number of artists are
showing their works in a
variety of , mediums,
including watercolors,
acrylics, wood carvings,
stained glass, fiber arts and
photography. Two local
artists, Ruth Kemp and
Pedro Beildeck, are among
the exhibitors.
Fabricating fabric
Hardly a day goes by
when Ruth Kemp isn’t
stitching together fabric
shapes into what will
become wall hangings,
ornaments, place mats, tree
skirts, tote bags or, espe
cially, quilts.
Kemp, who lives in the
Hertford Beach area, has
Pedro Beildeck turned an interest in photographing
his children into a long-term hobby. His close-up
nature scenes are exhibited at the PAL gallery through
Oct. 7.
been quilting or watching
her mother and grand
mother quilt since she was
a child. She used to play
under their large pull-down
quilting frame that hung
from the ceiling.
“As long as I can remem
ber, my mother and my
grandmother quilted and I
was right there with it,”
she said.
She usually machine
stitches the fabric pieces
together and hand quilts
the stitching into the mate
rial. About 10 years ago,
while she cared for her sick
son, she hand-sewed an
entire quilt.
Kemp grew up in
Arkansas, married a U.S.
Navy man, Elton Kemp,
and retired from Geico in
Virginia Beach, Va., after
19 years of working there.
During the years Kemp
was working and raising
four children, she worked
on the craft sporadically,
mostly giving the finished
pieces away as gifts. After
Continued on page 4
Ruth Kemp works on fall
quilts for the Craftsman's
Fair in Elizabeth City in
her home full of colors
and fabric. Her favorite is
a double wedding ring
quilt she made. A difficult
pattern to piece togeth
er, the quilt blends new
with old as it's displayed
next to the one her moth
er and grandmother
made.
PHOTO BY MARGARET FISHER
Hertford
shrinks
paving
list
MARGARET FISHER
The town of Hertford is
dropping some of its prior
ity paving projects because
of a hike in costs.
This month, town coun
cilors approved removing
Newby Street and the por
tion of Hyde Street from
Market to Dobbs streets off
the paving list for this year.
Roads remaining on the
paving list include Front
Street from Punch Alley to
the north end, Hyde Park
from Dobbs to King streets
and Pennsylvania Avenue
from Charles Street to
Woodland Avenue. ,
These streets were
selected based on having
numerous potholes, gross
deterioration of the
roadbed and shoulders and
hazardous curbing.
Road improvements are
funded by the Powell Bill,
which draws from the state
gasoline tax. Last year’s
remaining funds of about
$34,000 coupled with funds
available in October total
about $60,500.
The cost for paving the
four original streets were
estimated in June to' be
about $30,000, but the cur
rent estimate is $73,200.
Escalating oil prices
have driven up the cost of
asphalt, a petroleum-based
product, said Town
Manager John
Christensen.
Dropping the two street
projects will lower the total
cost by about $12,800.
wreck
MARGARET FISHER
Ten Perquimans County
High School students and
the driver incurred no
injuries after their school
bus was hit by a truck.
The accident happened
on Monday at about 3:10
p.m. on Pender Road when
the driver, Cynthia White,
was dropping off students
from bus No. 106.
White said that she was
driving at about 40 miles
per hour and was not near
any of her stops when she
saw a truck starting to
back down a driveway.
“I was coming down the
highway and blowing the
horn,” White said. “...As I
was going by, she started
backing out.”
The driver of a Ford F-
150 truck — Margaret
Ratliff, 37, of 638 Pender
Road — was backing out of
her driveway
According to Trooper,
K.R. Briggs of the N.C.
Highway Patrol, Ratliff
told him she had looked
both ways, but did not see a
bus coming.
The truck hit the right
side at the back end of the
bus, scraping the side of
the bus and the tire. The
wreck dented the back of
the truck.
“There were no injuries.
There was minor damage
to both vehicles,” Briggs
said.
Ratliff was charged
with failure to yield from a
private driveway.
White said it is her first
accident in 25 years of bus
driving.
“The first thing I did
was to make sure the kids
were okay,” White said.
The school’s public
information officer,
Brenda Lassiter, said that
drivers need to slow down
now and be aware that
buses are on the road.
“People who are on the
road need to be cautious,”
Lassiter said. “One of the
most dreaded phone calls
we can receive is about a
bus. We’re just thankful
that no one was hurt.”
Students used their cell
phones to call home. Once
the bus was inspected, they
were transported on the
same bus to their homes.
Weather
Thursday
High: 75, Low: 55
Mostly Sunny
Friday
High: 79, Low: 64
Mostly Sunny
Saturday
High: 84, Low: 69
Partly Cloudy