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ERQUIMANS
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"News from Next Door" FEBRUARY 19, 2014 - FEBRUARY 25, 2014
50 cents
Pay plan leaves veteran teachers out
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
Local educators say a plan to
bump the salary of starting teach
ers is a step, but many are worried
more experienced educators who
get nothing will move on to other
jobs.
Gov. Pat McCrory unveiled the
plan last week that would raise
the starting pay for some teachers
by as much as $4,200 a year within
two years. Those
with more expe
rience would get
less, and those
with 11 or more
years in the class-
room would see
nothing at all.
Even some
teachers who will
GRIFFIN
WARD
County there are
about 150 class-
room teachers
and 56 of them
would see a raise
get the full raise, say the plan gives
them the same amount as a teach
er who is just starting out.
under the Me- “What they’re doing in Raleigh
Crory plan. The makes it real difficult in deciding
other 94 would whether to remain teaching in
get nothing. North Carolina,” Ward said Mon-
Rachel Ward, an 18-year veter
an and a science teacher at Hert
ford Grammar School, is left out
In Perquimans of the governor’s plan. She started
her career in Chowan County and
then went to Moore Comity for
three years. She’s been teaching
in Perquimans County for the past
10.
day. “I love my job, my school and
my students, however with the
lack of pay raises on top of the
higher demands and lack of re
sources, it makes it hard.”
It is unsettling for Ward to have
a friend who is in her fourth year
of teaching in Virginia and she
makes $5,000 more a year than
Ward does after 18 years.
Teachers along the border areas
of North Carolina have other op
tions. Ward lives in the Chowan-
Gates county line. She’s worried
See TEACHERS, 8
STAFF PHOTO BY PETER WILLIAMS
Members of the Albemarle Sounds sing to Perquimans County High School teacher Angel White (left) Friday on Valentine’s
Day. The quartet performs in several counties and brings roses to the recipient. The money raised through the program is
used to support student singing programs in local schools. Pictured are (left) Ron Heiniger, Bob Higerd, March Woodbury
and West Hostetler. Heiniger and Woodbury live in Edenton. Higerd and Hostetler lives in Albemarle Plantation.
More file for
local offices
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
A total of six people have
now filed for office in Per- a
quimans County races. *
Fondella Leigh, a
Woodville Road resident,
entered the race for Perqui ¬
mans County Commission on Feb. 13. She
joins Ed Muzzulin, a fellow Democrat who
is an incumbent on the board. There will be
LEIGH
MUZZULIN
PAGELS
three seats open and two
of the candidates said they
won’t seek re-election.
Leigh, 48, was the direc
tor of the state’s juvenile
detention center in Winfall
until it closed in late 2012.
Since that time she’s been
working as pastor of two
area churches. She is the
daughter of Walter Leigh,
the vice chairman of the
Perquimans County Board
of Education.
Leigh is a Perquimans
County native who went
on to college at N.C. Cen
tral University.
“Working with young
people, I know that more
can be done,” she said
Monday.
Another newcomer,
Chuck Pagels, is running
for one of the three school
board seats. Pagels, 67, re
tired from a career in edu
cation in Illinois and then
went on to teach middle
Slick weather, Valentine’s Day collide
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
W hen a nasty winter storm hits
the same week as Valentine’s
Day, Diane White is a busy
woman.
She and her husband run R.P.’s
Wrecker Service out of Belvidere.
Her sister Brenda Winslow, runs
Dozier’s Florist in Hertford.
Nasty weather is good for one busi
ness, and bad for the other — espe
cially around the romantic holiday when
people want flowers delivered.
The wrecker business was busy
Wednesday night. White said she could
see it coming.
“My mother always told me the biggest
snows always come when it starts off
real fine and yesterday I saw it coming
down and thought ‘we’re in trouble.’”
By Thursday, White was helping de
liver flowers.
The weather turned quickly last
Wednesday and caught many motorists
by surprise, according to White
She said a lot of motorists never called
a wrecker. Instead they had somebody
with a four-wheel drive truck pull them
out. Of those that did call for a wrecker,
most of the vehicles weren’t heavily dam
aged.
“I know we pulled out four
but most of them were
drivable,” White said.
‘We pulled them out,
they paid their bill and
they drove on.”
One person was injured in
a wreck at 1320 Harvey Point
Road, according to Perquimans
County Sheriff Eric Tilley.
A woman was transported to the
hospital after she lost control and
slammed into two cars that were parked
in front of Overton’s Service, a car repair
business. Tilley said the N.C. Highway
Patrol handled the accident and he had
no details.
Chris Powell, a spokesman for Winfall-
based Albemarle EMC, said the utility
had no outages as a result of the storm
Wednesday.
White said there is a misconception
about the wrecker business.
“People think that winter time is the
worst,” she said. “We’re a member of the
Albemarle Towing Association and I can
tell you summer time is the busiest. Kids
are out of school and people are traveling
on vacation.”
But often the smaller winter storms
will catch people by surprise.
If a winter storm does
strike again, White’s
advice is never leave
home at all unless you
have to. If you find it’s
too bad, pull all the way
off the road in a place that
is safe.
‘If you break down, pull over to
the side of the road and make sure
you’re over that white line. Even if one
tire is touching that line, the high patrol
is going to have you towed.”
Others used the break in the weather
to bring a little Valentine’s Day cheer.
Wes Hostetler moved to the area in
1998 and got involved in The Albemarle
Sounds, a barbershop-style singing group
See VALENTINE’S, 8
SPAUGH
school in Davidson County
for five years. He and his
wife Jacque relocated to
Perquimans County about
seven years ago. Jacque
Stallings Pagels is a Per
quimans County native.
“I think it would be
veiy useful to have a for
mer teacher on the school
board,” Chuck Pagels said. “I think I would
eqjoy serving.”
The only other person running for school
board race as of Monday wasAmy Spaugh,
Spaugh, 46, served a four-year term on the
school board, but decided not to run two
years ago.
“I had some reasons, and I really didn’t
feel like I had the time,” she said Monday.
She’s a native of Davidson County and
her husband James is pastor of Bagley
Swamp Wesleyan Church. They have three
children. Two are graduates of Perquimans
County High School and one is currently a
freshman.
The school board race is non-partisan.
Muzzulin, the only county commission
member to file for reelection, is currently
the vice chairman of the board.
Perquimans County Sheriff Eric Tilley
and Perquimans County Clerk of Court
Todd Tilley have also filed for re-election.
Lassiter named regional agronomist
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
At age 15, Perquimans
County native Adam Las
siter was walking the cot
ton fields of northeastern
North Carolina looking for
problems.
Now at age 27 and after
a seven-year absence, he’s
back as the regional
agronomist for the
N.C. Department of
Agriculture.
At a young age,
he started off as
a cotton scout for
Tidewater Agro
nomics, a Camden-
based consulting
LASSITER
associate’s degree
in general agricul
ture and agribusi
ness management.
He then earned
a bachelor’s and
master’s degree in
agriculture educa
tion from N.C. A&T
University.
I BOUGHT IT AT THE AUCTION
6 89076 47144
2
and research firm with an
office in Belvidere.
When he graduated
Perquimans County High
School in 2005, he went
on to N.C. State Univer
sity where he earned an
His wife Hillary, a Gates
County native, works for
USDA in the area rural de
velopment and will be able
to continue that from the
See LASSITER, 8
4
STAFF PHOTO BY
PETER WILLIAMS
Perquimans
County
Chamber of
Commerce
Director Sid
Eley (left)
holds a
wooden box he
made for the
auction, while
auctioneer
Jake Forbes
calls for bids
at Louise’s
Meeting Place,
Feb. 7.