PCHS earns sportsmanship award
Page 3
Hunter need to think safety
Page 4
Lady Pirates win conference
Page 7
October 11, 2006
Vol. 74, No. 41 Hertford, North Carolina 27944
The
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PEP-QUItiKSS COUSTI LIBRARY
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Perquimans
Weekly
Troopers
to patrol
school
zones
MARGARET FISHER
Each school day, about 2,000
drivers violate the state’s school
bus stop arm law. Two children
were killed while trying to board
their bus, states a press release
from the N.C. Highway Patrol.
In order to promote school bus
safety awareness, the Highway
Patrol is conducting its
“Operation Stop Arm” this
month.
Beginning Monday, Oct. 16 at 5
a.ih. and running for five days,
the Highway Patrol will be send
ing out five troopers to cover
Perquimans and Chowan coun
ties during school bus operating
times in the mornings and after
noons.
“(Troopers) will be looking for
folks that operate vehicles in a
reckless manner around school
buses and at bus stops,” said Sgt.
C.T. Griffin.
They will also be looking for
speeding offenders in school
zones, he said.
Last Friday, two people were
injured on a bus filled with 27 stu
dents. in South Mills in Camden
County. The driver of another
vehicle was charged with reckless
driving and failure to reduce
speed, Griffin said.
This school year, a woman was
Continued on page 8
Who will the winner be?
PHOTO BY MARGARET FISHER
Schools superintendents Dr. Allan Smith of Chowan (left) and Dr. Kenneth Wells (right) listen as
Communities in Schools of Perquimans Nancy Barrow explains how a car give-away drawing
for juniors and seniors at Perquimans and John A. Holmes high schools will work. The Chevrolet
Aveo is being donated by Edenton Motors.
Edenton Motors to give student a car
Communities in Schools of Perquimans is
introducing an initiative in Perquimans and
Chowan counties to help children to strive for
excellence in the classroom.
CISP is partnering with Edenton Motors, John
A. Holmes High School and Perquimans County
High School by offering a 2007 Chevrolet Aveo to a
deserving student to symbolize the importance of
education.
r Stewart Deacon, parent, community leader and
general manager of Edenton Motors, is offering
the car to a student in one of the two counties
because he believes in encouraging students to
reach their full potential through education.
In order to meet this challenge, the partnership
has come up with the idea Project KEYS
(Knowledge Enhances Your Success).
Continued on page 8
Heiford
woman
kidnapped
MARGARET FISHER
A Hertford woman drove a man
from Elizabeth City to Hertford
after he jumped into her car on
Saturday
Lorenzo Hurdle, 45, a homeless
man, was unarmed when he
approached Nichole Malone, 26,
of 402 Woodland Church Road,
and told her to take him to
Hertford at about 11:30 p.m.
Malone was apparently afraid
to resist, said Hertford Police
Chief Dale Vanscoy. She drove
Hurdle, who was recently
released from prison, to the
Wilco-Hess convenience store.
As they approached the store.
Hurdle allegedly began rummag
ing through the glove compart
ment and center console looking
for money, Vanscoy said. He
allegedly took about $5 in cash
and left Malone with her vehicle
when they arrived at the store.
Malone gave police a vivid
description of Hurdle and picked
him out from police photos.
Hurdle is known by police to
travel back and forth between
Hertford and Elizabeth City,
Vanscoy said. He was spotted and
picked up on Sunday by an
Elizabeth City detective, said Sgt.
John Etheridge of the Elizabeth
City Police Department.
Hertford Police brought him
back to Hertford where he was
charged with common law rob
bery, or larceny by intimidation
without the use of weapons, and
Continued on page 8
E 9-1-1- phone lines undergo delay
MARGARET FISHER
When a caller contacts the 9-1-1
Communication Center with an emer
gency, the expectation is that help will
arrive within minutes. So, when tech
nical problems arise within the sys
tem, measures are taken immediately
so emergency response is not delayed.
That’s what happened last week
when a hardware card, similar to a
motherboard card on a computer, tem
porarily failed in a switch in Rocky
Mount, states a press release from
Embarq Corporation.
The problem sporadically affected a
number of 9-1-1 centers in eastern
North Carolina, including the center
in Perquimans County, on the evening
of Oct. 2 for nearly two and a half
hours. Locally, calls initiated in the
Piney Woods exchange with the 297
prefix were not being received by the
Communication Center on their
administrative line for about 13 min
utes.
However, no emergency calls were
placed during the interruption, said
Homeria Jennette, director of
Telecommunications.
Jennette learned there was a prob
lem when a fireman in Belvidere used
a cell phone to call the center after a
phone call from a LAN phone didn’t go
through. The call, placed around 7
p.m., was a routine, non-emergency
announcement.
The hardware card was “reseated”
immediately by Embarq and a new
card was replaced in the system on
Oct. 4 at 1 a.m., causing disruption
again for some centers.
Programming problems for emer
gency centers are rare, said Tom
Matthews, manager of media relations
at Embarq.
“The network is up about 99.99 per
cent of the time, and an occurrence
like (the one on Oct. 2) is even more
rare than that .01,” Matthews said.
When work is going to be done that
will disrupt service, a notice is sent
out to emergency centers so that they
can utilize a backup. That was the case
this past Monday night when Embarq
disrupted service in order to add mul
tiple path alternatives to their routing.
The additional pathways will
increase routing diversity for emer
gency calls, further reducing phone
line disruptions, Matthews said.
Interruptions may also occur on
site, as one did on Oct. 4 at about 9 a.m.
An ambulance returning to the county
after a trip to the hospital called the
center to check in by radio. The cen
ter’s radio operates on a phone line,
which was down at the time. Again,
there were no emergency calls affected
by the downed radio line.
“(Embarq) had it fixed in no time,”
Jennette said.
1 injured in wreck
MARGARET FISHER
An accident on the corner of Church Street and
US. Highway 17 resulted in an injury, extensive
damage to two vehicles and charges to a driver.
At about 6:50 p.m. on Sunday, Carolyn Spellman,
41, of 122 Dogwood Dr., was making a right turn
from Church Street onto U.S. Highway 17. Her 1999
Pontiac Sunfire was hit by a 1996 Chrysler Cirrus
driven by Jacqulyn Schmitz, 18, of 131 Maryland
Lane in Sunbury.
Schmitz, who was traveling south on the high
way, failed to stop at the red light. Upon impact, her
car wound up in the median. Spellman’s vehicle
ended up in the outside lane of southbound traffic.
Schmitz suffered no visible injuries. She was
cited for failure to stop at a red light and careless
and reckless driving.
Spellmanwas treated on scene by Emergency
Medical Services and taken to Chowan Hospital.
Her condition was not known at press time.
Damages to Spellman’s car was estimated to be
about $3,500 and to Schmitz’s car about $3,000.
Belvidere fire destroys family farm relics
Fire destroys farm relics
MARGARET FISHER
A fire in Belvidere totally
destroyed a barn filled with a
winter’s supply of hay and horse
feed last Thursday.
Preston and Carole Dail owned
the barn, located at 260 Hunters
Fork Road. Preston Dail had fin
ished mowing his lawn when he
returned the riding mower to its
spot under a lean-to that was part
of a 30-foot by 30-foot barn.
He then went to check on his
father who lives nearby He was
n’t gone more than 10 minutes
when he began driving back
towards his home. Right away, he
spotted a large flame in the direc
tion of his house.
“It can’t be my house; I had
just left there,” he said he had
thought when he first saw the
flame. As he got closer, he figured
it was one neighbor’s house, and
then another and then he thought
it was in the woods.
“I didn’t know where the fire
was until I pulled up in front of
my house,” he said.
By that time, about 7:45 p.m.,
another neighbor, Ken Dail, had
already called Central
Communications. Within min
utes, Belvidere Fire Department,
followed by Winfall and Hertford
fire departments, arrived.
Preston Dail said fire officials
ascertained that the fire possibly
started from a spark lit when a
piece of carbon fell off the cool
ing muffler of the lawnmower.
The spark likely caught the dry
grass on fire, causing the full gas
tank to explode, thereby catching
a nearby gas can on fire. Once the
fire started, the hay-stocked barn
became a roaring infurno.
Carole Dail was in church at
the time, and later was called
home when her husband thought
one of her dogs was missing. It
turned out the dog, due to have
puppies soon, was safe in a crate.
“Thank God, no one got hurt,”
Carole Dail said. The barn was
full of horse tack and feed, tools
and antique tools passed down
from Preston Dail’s grandfather.
As he recalled to his insurance
agent the treasured items that
had lined the walls inside the
barn, Preston Dail said that tears
began to well up as the realiza
tion hit that the fire wasn’t a
dream.
While the cost of the barn and
some of the items inside can be
recouped by insurance, some of
the memorabilia cannot be
replaced, nor will insurance
cover the hay, feed and plywood
boards stored for future projects,
the couple said.
This time of year, hay is hard
to come by, Carole Dail said. They
may have to drive to Greenville to
replace the supply.
Weather
Thursday
High: 80, Low: 54
AM Showers
Friday
High: 64, Low: 43
Partly Cloudy
Saturday
High: 64, Low: 45
Sunny