Bridge
hits a
new
snag
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
An issue over the compar
ative height of a new bridge
to replace the 86-year-old
swing span in Hertford has
delayed work on the project
for now.
The discrepancy comes
dowii to less than two feet,
but any mqjor design chang
es could result spark new re
view by the historic preser
vation group and others that
must sign off on the plans.
Jay McInnis, the project
engineer for the N.C. Depart
ment of Transportation, said
he believes the differences
can be hammered out in the
next 30 days.
MORE INSIDE
■ Woman comes to grips
with loss of house - 2
DOT has marketed the
new fixed-span option to
replace the S-Bridge as hav
ing 33-feet of clearance for
boats. That’s the same as
tire-posted clearance for the
U.S. 17 bypass bridges and
about 27 feet more than the
S-Bridge now provides when
it is open to vehicle traffic.
When it came to the fi
nal meeting to approve the
plans, the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers raised a con
cern over the height of the
bridge as it appears in the
preliminary designs.
Tunis out that while the
U.S. 17 Bypass bridge does
have a posted clearance of
33 feet, the actual distance
between the water and the
bottom of the bridge during
normal conditions is 35 feet.
That’s based on the final
“as-built” drawings for the
bridge.
That means unless the
new bridge is built at least
that high, a boat might be
able to pass safely under
the Bypass bridge and not
be able to make it under the
new bridge.
Some of it boils down to
how you measure the level
of the river.
The DOT had been basing
their preliminary designs for
the new bridge on the level
of the river as they measured
it over a recent 36-hour pe
riod.
The U.S. Army Corps
was looking at the “mean
high water” figure. That’s a
number that is determined
by NOAA — the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration.
McInnis said DOT had
See NEW SNAG, 8
SUBMITTED PHOTO
A numbered print of an original artwork of the mural shows how it the image looked when it was originally painted. The Perquimans
County Chamber of Commerce still sells copies of the print.
Time runs out for downtown mural
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
A downtown mural that
depicted the history of
XA. Perquimans County and
included a Confederate battle flag
is gone.
In the end it wasn’t the contro
versial flag that brought the mural
down, but instead the artwork
itself was so deteriorated it was
causing damage to the brick wall
the mural was painted on.
The mural has been a part of
Hertford for the past 30 years, but
Erie Haste Jr., the owner of Hert
ford Hardware Store on Church
Street, said it had to go.
“The mural had deteriorated
dramatically even more so than
it appeared to be when you just
Black leaders see chance for positive change
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
Black leaders in Perquimans
County say the end of a mural
that depicted a Confederate bat
tle flag creates an opportunity
for the community to unite.
Winfall Mayor Fred Yates, a
former president of the Perqui
mans County NAACP, said the
mural itself was great, but the
flag could be viewed as offen
sive.
Yates said the NAACP ap
proached the owner of Hertford
Hardware about a dozen years
Mural’s artist never sought to offend community
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
The Confederate battle flag on a mu
ral in downtown wasn’t a statement that
some people are saying it was, according
to the artist who designed and executed
the artwork.
Rebecca Spivey said it was simply to
fill a blank space.
“As I designed the mural there was
a great big empty space in the top right
comer,” she said last week, from her
home in Asheboro. “I thought, ‘what can
I put there?’ Then I thought the Confed ¬
erate flag was a historical thing and it
was colorful.
“In my innocence at that time I didn’t
know it was a racist symbol and upset
people. To me, it’s part of history.”
When people did complain, Spivey
said she was more than willing to paint
over the Civil War flag.
“I wanted to repaint that side and
put an American flag drapped over that
side,” she said. “Around the borders of it
I wanted to put in black letters ‘together
we stand, divided we fall, together we
See ARTIST, 8
“The mural had deteriorated
dramatically even more so
than it appeared to be when
you just looked at it"
Erie Haste Jr.
Owner, Hertford
Hardware Store
looked at it,” Haste said last week.
“It was pulling some of the mortar
out of the brick joints and with
the winter we’ve been having it
was causing more and more prob
lems with leakage.”
Haste is open to talking to
people about replacing the mural
with an exact replies, of the old
one or something else. He’s also
OK with the idea of leaving just a
ago asking him to get rid of the
flag. Yates said Erie Haste Jr.
declined to remove the mural
calling it “history.”
The NAACP took no more ac
tion.
plain wall.
People had talked about restor
ing the mural, but the only way to
fix the wall would be to remove
the mural.
“When I heard that a matching
grant was available, I talked with
others about it,” Haste said. “We
determined that restoration (of
the mural) would only be practi
cal if the wall was fixed first.”
The fact that simply pressure
washing the wall was enough to
remove about 80 percent of the
mural was proof that it was in
disrepair, Haste said.
If crews can get five straight
days of warm, dry weather, they
can complete the work of putting
a special adhesive mortar on the
wall to preserve it the wall, Haste
said. By Monday, it appeared the
“We didn’t call for a boycott
or anything,” Yates said. “There
was nothing you could do. It’s a
privately owned business.”
But Yates believes blacks and
some whites have chosen not to
patronize the business because
the flag offends them.
Blacks make up about 26 per
cent of the population of Perqui
mans County, but in the Town of
Hertford, blacks represent about
48 percent of the population and
whites are 46 percent. There are
only two hardware stores in the
Hertford area.
“A lot of people have com ¬
work was nearly done.
The mural was designed by
Rebecca Spivey, an art teacher
and wife of a Quaker minister
who was serving at Piney Woods
Friends Meeting in the 1980s. She
pitched the idea of doing some
thing showing the history of the
county, and Haste said he agreed.
The work took about 18 months.
In addition to the Confeder
ate flag, the mural showed the
historic Eagle Hotel which once
stood across the street from the
hardware store and the Newbold-
White House. There was also the
silhouettes of a Quaker couple,
a tribute to Jim “Catfish” Hunter,
the Turtle Log and boys floating
down the river.
See MURAL, 8
mented to me that they won’t
shop there, but when it comes
down to it, I don’t think that
makes much of a difference ei
ther,” Yates said. “People here
have seen it so much they don’t
even look that way anymore.
I am sure it’s cost them some
business, but he (Haste) chose
to go that way.”
The mural does present Hert
ford in a bad light to people from
outside the area, Yates said.
“It gives the county a black
eye every time somebody comes
See POSITIVE, 8
SUBMITTED
PHOTO
Rebecca
Spivey
poses in
front of
a list of
artists
that took
partin
the mural
painting in
1983.
Medical helicopter now based closer to Perquimans
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
The basing of a medi
cal helicopter in Edenton
should mean the time it
takes to get help in Perqui
mans County will be cut in
half.
The Air Methods heli
copter is now housed at
6 89076 47144 2
the Northeastern Regional
Airport in Edenton. Emer
gency officials can call for
aerial transport now, but
given the weather it could
take 20 minutes for a heli
copter to get on site from
either Greenville or Nor
folk.
Sometimes weather
keeps the aircraft on the
ground altogether or makes
the trip take longer, said
Jarvis Winslow, Perqui
mans County’s emergency
management director.
“Personally, I think
it’s great,” Winslow said.
“They (Air Methods) can
be anywhere in Perqui
mans County in 10 minutes.
That’s pretty quick. The 20
minutes can seem like an
eternity.”
The EC-135 helicopter
used by Air Methods has a
cruising speed of 158 miles
per hour and a top speed
of 178 miles per hour. Ac
cording to the company
that makes the aircraft, the
EC135 is currently provid
ing roughly 25 percent of
the world’s total emergen
cy medic services flights.
More than 500 aircraft have
been delivered.
Winslow estimates air
services are called fewer
than 10 times a year in Per
quimans County. Virtually
of the cases involve trauma
from some kind of acci
dent. Patients are typically
flown to either Norfolk or
Greenville, the two near
est trauma hospitals. That
option remains with the ad
dition of the Air Methods
chopper.
As of last week, the
Edenton-based helicopter
has been on-call 24 hours a
day and operates indepen
dently from the hospitals
that provide the care.
“We are not tied to any
particular hospital area,”
said pilot Jon Berge.
Jim Huffman, a flight
medic with Air Methods,
said the helicopter canies
“everything our big critical
care trucks have, but con
densed down to a little bit
smaller.”
The Air Methods crews
currently are staying in
temporary quarters. The
company plans to build an
office building to house the
staff.
The on-duty staff at all
times consists of three crew
members and a mechanic.
The crew includes a pilot,
nurse and paramedic.
Air Methods is head-
quartered in Englewood,
Colorado. According to the
company’s website, it has
operations from Alaska to
Key West, Fla.
The Chowan Herald con-
tributed to this report.