Newspapers / The Perquimans Weekly (Hertford, … / Feb. 11, 2009, edition 1 / Page 1
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FEB 1 1 ■ Dental pros Give Kids a Smile Paqe 8 February 11, 2009 Vol. 77, No. 6 Hertford, North Carolina 27944 **News from NextDoor^^ County joins insurance rate hike fight Homeowners get hit with deductible, rate increases CATHY WILSON Staff Writer Perquimans County is joining the fight opposing increases in home insur ance rates, deductibles, and surcharges. Last week, county com missioners agreed to join the list of counties and municipalities challenging increases for coastal coun ties, including'Perquimans, approved by the North Car olina Department of Insur ance in December. So far, the county sup ports the fight in name only. Any financial support of the legal challenge will be decided by commissioners at a later date. The legal fight is lead by officials from Dare County who have vowed to fund the legal challenge. Other local ities that join the fight have been asked to donate any where from $1,000 to $10,000 to help fund the battle. Bobby Outten, Dare County attorney, explained that the fight challenges upcoming Beach/Fair plan rate increases as well as surcharges and deductible increases that went into ef fect Feb. 1, Perquimans County is one of 18 coimties included in the coastal counties that will be affected by the in creases, he said. For the Beach Plan (North Carolina Insurance Underwriters Association), surcharges for new and re newal policies increased Feb. 1 from 1.15 percent to 1.25 percent (full peril) and from 1.05 percent to 1.15 percent for wind only. Insurance deductibles are set to change for both the Beach Plan as well as the Fair Plan (North Caro lina Joint Underwriters Association), Outten ex plained. For any new residential plan after Feb. 1, the deduct ible wUl be 2 percent o68the WkMMR Thursday High: 68 Low: 41 Cloudy, Windy Friday High: 59 Low: 42 Mostly Sunny Saturday High: 53 Low: 39 Showers 6 ""89076 7143 property value or $1,000 minimum per occurrence. As an example, Outten said a client insuring a $150,000 home suffering wind and/ or hail-related damage would have to pay the first $3,000 out of pocket. If wind or hail-related damage oc curred again within the same year, the homeowner would have to pay another $3,000 deductible each time damage occurred. For policy renewals and continuations, the deduct ible change will become ef fective April 1. “It’s unfair and it’s ex pensive,’’ Outten told com missioners last week. In addition to the sur charge and deductible changes, homeowner insur ance rates here are slated to increase 6.5 percent May 1. The approved increase is much lower than the 28.2 percent increase originally proposed for Perquimans and surrounding counties by the North Carolina Rate Bureau. In addition, the North Carolina Department of Insurance also realigned several insurance territo ries along the coast includ ing former territory 43 which lumped Perquimans County in with beach front counties like Dare, Hyde and Carteret. With the new alignment, Perquimans is now grouped in Territory 43W which includes Beau fort, Camden, Chowan, Craven, Jones, Pasquotank, Tyrrell and Washington counties. The more eastern coun ties, like Currituck, Dare, Hyde and Pamlico, are now grouped in Territory 43^1. Their insurance increase will be 22 percent. “This wUl be the third rate increase in five years,” Outten added. “But, the de ductible and surcharge in creases are worse than the rate increase.” “This is a huge problem here,” said Commissioner Sue Weimar. “I hear about this all the time from my constituents.” “It’s an uphni battle,” added Chairman Mack Nix on. “They lump us aU to- ■ gether with the big expen sive beach homes...It’s time we aU take a stand against this.” In other matters last week, county commission ers agreed to proceed with taking over the operation of Winfall’s water system. Members of Winfall Town Council gave verbal approval Jan. 12 to have the county take complete con trol of the operations. “Smaller water systems are taxed to operate,” said Winfall Mayor Fred Yates. “By having the county take it over, this will give our cit izens a decent water rate.” Currently, the county sells WinfaU bulk water which the town distributes. The county wUl draw up an agreement allowing the county to take over billing as well as ownership of town water property. “There used to be five water systems in the coun ty,” said County Manager Bobby Darden. “Now there wiU be two (county and Hertford).” ' . . j,. . PHIL HARRIS QUINYOTTA PETTAWAY rises above her opponents m a win over Roanoke in Hertford on Monday night. The last time the two teams met, Pettaway broke the 1,000 career point mark. Read more about he[ on page 8. Bethel man dies in house fire CATHY WILSON staff Writer An elderly man died in a house fire in the Bethel com munity Thursday morning despite efforts by his neigh bors to save him. Sheriffs Investigator Shelby White said Paul Ko- tel, 83, died in his residence at 144 Bethel Fishing Cen ter Road. Neighbors first tried to enter the small, one- story frame house through the back door, but could not gain entrance, he said. They managed to break in a side door of the house and tried to save Kotel, but heavy smoke quickly drove them back out. Perquimans FireMashall Mark Rogerson said Kotel’s body was found on the floor near the back door. The body has been sent to the state medical examiner’s office to determine cause of death. Rogerson, along with Pasquotank/Camden Fire Marshall Barry Overman, determined that the fire started in an electrical out let and spread to adjacent walls. No smoke detectors were found in the house, Roger son added. The fire call came in at 7:43 a.m., Rogerson said, and Bethel Volunteer Fire Department was on the scene within five minutes. Hertford Fire Department arrived minutes later. “The fire department tried to make entry into the house after they arrived, but the intense heat and smoke, as well as the fake ceilings falling down, kept them out,” Rogerson said. The construction and materials used in the three- I Perquimans Weekly photo by CATHY WILSON AN ELDERLY BETHEL MAN died in his home last week when neighbors were unable to rescue him from a house fire. room house contributed to the intense smoke and heat, Rogerson explained. “The walls had paneling on them, and the ceilings were made of compressed wood made with glue,” said Rogerson. “The bare wood with the glue basically acts like kerosene, adding to the intensity of the heat and smoke quickly.” Neighbors heard a small explosion, thep saw flames, Rogerson said. He believes the explosion occurred when the fire inside the house caused the freon can ister in a window air con ditioner to blow. Evidence shows that the fire inside the house, he said, smol dered for quite a while be fore bursting into flames. Rogerson stressed the importance of installing smoke detectors in homes, and encouraged those who need financial assistance to do so to take part in the county’^ new program to have free smoke detectors installed by local fire de partments. “If a properly-working smoke detector had been in this house, it might have made a difference,” he said. Rogerson also stressed the importance of checking on elderly neighbors or fam ily members, making sure they have smoke detectors installed in their homes. Free smoke detectors available Perquimans Cpunty residents can have free smoke detectors installed in their homes thanks to a state grant. The county recently re ceived a $2,000 grant from the North Carolina De partment of Health and Human Services Division of Public Health Injury and Violence Prevention that provides 250 lithium battery-powered smoke detectors for installation. CONTINUED on page 8 Building down, code officer let go due to lack of revenue CATHY WILSON Staff Writer One county employee has been laid off due to the eco nomic slowdown that has damaged the local building industry. County commissioners last week agreed to imple ment a reduction in force (RIF), laying off one full time code enforcement po sition in the county’s build ing inspections office. “This is the first time in many years that I can re member the county having to implement a RIF,” said Courity Manager Bobby Darden. “We’re not antici pating any further reduc tions, but who knows what the rest of the year wiU bring.” The budding inspec tions office wUl now , have four full-time employees. The number of homes be ing buUt in the county is half the number buUt two or three years ago, Darden explained. As a result, rev enues from inspections are down about half, he said. This comes a month af ter Darden sent a memo to county department heads teUing them to decrease ex penditures by 4 percent to help keep a balanced bud get strained by declining county revenues. General fund revenues are expected to be nearly $350,000 less than budgeted due to the slowing econo my. In addition to the 4 per cent reductions in each de partment, other reductions include $67,000 for budget ed positions that won’t be filled, and $23,000 in convey ance taxes. Any current positions that become vacant must be held for 90 days before being advertised with the exception of hardship cas es in which Darden may decide whether or not the position can be fUled. This mandatory waiting period, however, does not pertain to any public safety posi tions in departments like sheriff, emergency medical services and communica tions. Darden told commis sioners last week that land transfer taxes wUl likely be about $200,000 less than budgeted this year because of the slow real estate mar ket. WhUe $475,000 was bud geted, Darden now expects about $245,000 to come into county coffers from the sale of real estate in the county. “We have not coUected this little in land transfer taxes in 10 years,” Darden pointed out. “This year we’U meet our $200,000 transfer to the general fund to meet school debt, but next year, we’re looking at the fuU payment on the high school project.” Perquimans is one of only six counties in the state to have a land trans fer tax which funds capital projects including schools.
The Perquimans Weekly (Hertford, N.C.)
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Feb. 11, 2009, edition 1
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