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ERQUIMANS
1 WEEK I v
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FEBRUARY 5, 2014 - FEBRUARY 11, 2014
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charged
LITTLE FUN IN THE SNOW in armed
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
hen life gives you
lemons, you make
lemonade.
When Mother Nature
handed them up to eight
inches of snow with freezing
weather behind it, Perqui
mans County residents ap
peared to have made it into a
game, not a chore, according
to Perquimans County Sheriff
Eric Tilley.
“Folks got out and enjoyed
this storm more than I’ve ever
seen,” Tilley said last week as
the thaw started.
The sheriff and his wife
Sherry were among those that
had a little fun in the wrath
of Mother Nature. They built
an upside-down snowman in
their yard.
The key, Sheriff Tilley said,
is to use more ice than snow
when creating the head since
all the rest of the structure
will be resting on it.
“You have to really pack it
on the bottom,” he said.
It wasn’t Tilley’s first snow
man.
‘Two or three years ago
we built one that was about
six and a half feet tall, but as
soon as it started raining, it
didn’t even last an hour.”
The sheriff likes to believe
that people listened to the
warnings to stay home and
avoid the roads.
“The accidents were veiy
few. I think when the control
group put out the call to
stay inside, people actually
listened.”
The control group consists
of leaders from the county,
the towns and local law
enforcement.
Tilley said the county re
ported more wrecks the week
before than it did during the
period during and after the
snows of Jan. 28.
“There were patches here
and there, but it wasn’t that
bad as long as you paid atten
tion to what you were doing,”
Tilley said last week.
James Finley, one of
the board members of the
Minize’s Creek Sanitary
District in Holiday Island said
residents there appeared to
have adapted well. He hadn’t
ventured out much.
“Everything is moving
here,” he said Friday morning.
“We had local volunteers that
bulldozed a lot of the streets.
One guy I talked to said he
took his wife to work at Wal
Mart and he said it was great
once they got out of Holiday
Island.”
Hertford Town Man
ager Brandon Shoaf also said
people seemed to get around
OK
“We didn’t have a lot of
ice, and that’s where we have
issues.”
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Sherry Tilley, wife of Perquimans Sheriff Eric Tilley, kneels beside an upside down snowman her
family built in their yard after last week’s big snowfall. See more photos from snowfall, page 7
Crews, volunteers clear roads
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
State road crews as well
as Good Samaritans pitched
in last week to make frozen
roads in Perquimans County
passable in the wake of the
snowstorm.
While the N.C. Depart
ment of Transportation
drew praise from several
local officials, area farmers
were also cited for pitch
ing in to help, according to
Jarvis Winslow, the county’s
emergency management di
rector.
“We need to give kudos
to our area farmers who
got their equipment out and
STAFF PHOTO BY PETER WILLIAMS
An NC Department of Transportation grader pushes snow to the
outside lane of US Highway 17 between Hertford and Edenton,
Wednesday. MORE INSIDE: Schools move grad date back to
make room for snow days, page 2
See ROADS, 4
robbery
From staff reports
EDENTON — Three Per
quimans County men and one
from Chowan County have been
charged with the armed robbery
of a man in the McDonald’s park
ing lot in Edenton on Thursday.
The arrested men include:
O’shea Lee, 21, of Chapanoke
Road, Hertford; Shakir Laquan
Archer, 23 of 303 Stokes Drive,
Hertford; Stephen McGillberry,
23, of 308 Stokes Drive, Hertford
and Montelli Laquan Privotte, 24,
of Wildcat Road, Edenton.
Hertford Po
lice Chief Doug
Freeman said
ARCHER
1
LEE
three of the men
had arrest re
cords. Privotte
was arrested for
speeding to elude
arrest and disor
derly conduct.
Lee was arrested
on three counts
of trespassing,
plus possession
of cocaine, pro
bation violation,
illegal discharge
of a firearm and
simple assault.
,— Archer had been
fi
MCGILBERRY
PRIVOTTE
arrested for as
sault on a law
enforcement of
ficer.
McGillberry
had no anest re
cord.
Privotte is
scheduled to ap
pear in Perqui-
mans
court
12 on
tion
County
on Feb.
a proba-
violation
according to the
office of the Per
quimans County
Clerk of Court.
Lee served 30
days on a communicating threats
charge plus 45 days for injury to
real property. Archer has a pend
ing probation violation case from
another jurisdiction.
All four were charged with rob
bery with a dangerous weapon
and conspiracy to commit robbery
for the crime Thursday, according
to Police Chief Jay Fortenbery of
the Edenton Police Department.
The robbery occurred around
3 p.m., according to police, and
the victim was identified as Javon
Freeman of Bertie County.
Freeman told Edenton police
he was robbed of $500. So far,
no money has been recovered,
Fortenbery said.
Police have recovered a 9 mm
semi-automatic handgun believed
to have been used in the robbery.
According to police, Free
man was in his car talking with
See ROBBERY, 2
DOT board member promises to try to help region
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
The northeast region’s
new voice on the N.C. De
partment of Transportation
told Perquimans County
leaders Monday plans to
replace the S-Bridge in Hert
ford shouldn’t have to com
pete with road projects for
state funding.
But Malcolm Fearing
couldn’t promise
much else and didn’t
try to.
Fearing was ap
pointed in April to
represent DOT’s
Division I — a 14-
county region that
includes Camden,
Chowan, Currituck,
FEARING
MORE INSIDE
■ DOT regional meeting now set for Feb. 17 - page 2
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47144
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Pasquotank and Perqui
mans counties.
In a self-deprecating tone,
Fearing told the Perquimans
County Commission and
leaders from Hertford and
Winfall who were in the au
dience that he didn’t seek
out the DOT post. Gov. Pat
McCrory called him
last year and asked
him to take the post
and Fearing said he
was shocked.
Fearing calls himself an
course in high school that
trained him to be a helper
for a block mason.
As the region’s DOT
board member, Fearing did
promise to work as best as
independent—not a Demo- he could for the people of
crat or a Republican.
He fully admitted that he
didn’t do well in high school.
He didn’t go to UNC-Chapel
Hill or Duke. Instead he
lucked out because he was
allowed to take a vocational
that region.
“I pull for all people,”
Fearing told the county
commission. “I’m not run
ning for anything and don’t
want to run for anything.”
He joked that just 12 days
into his term last year, he
had a newspaper reporter
ask him a complicated ques
tion about the impact of
funding changes within the
General Assembly.
“I didn’t have a clue and I
don’t have a whole lot more
now.”
But Fearing said plans to
replace the S-Bridge should
not have to go back and
compete with other regional
road projects. The S-Bridge
replacement had been on
DOT’s long-range Transpor
tation Improvement plan.
Then the state had changed
road-funding rules and road
projects that aren’t under
construction by 2015 will
have to be prioritized. It
could be 2018 before con
struction starts in Hertford.
But replacement of the
S-Bridge is a bridge proj
ect, Fearing said, not a road
project.
Still the project carries an
“R” designation for “road”
vs. a “B” for bridge. Fear
ing said that’s because once
upon a time replacement
of the causeway — a road
— and replacement of the
bridge were considered two
See FEARING, 4