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"News from Next Door" AUGUST 20, 2014 - MONTH 26, 2014
School finance staff honored, 3
AUG 2 ORB'D
50 cents
Eley appointed to fill board seat
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
Three years after losing
his only election in 20 years,
Sid Eley is back on the Hert
ford Town Board.
Eley will fill a vacancy
on the five-member board.
It was created when Anne
White opted to run for Per
quimans County School
Board instead. White won
in May but had to give her
seat up on the town board
when she took the school
board seat in July.
Two people expressed an
interest in filling the town
post, Eley and Archie Aples.
Last week by a 3-1 vote, the
board voted to pick Eley to
fulfill the 17 months left in
the term.
Mayor Horace Reid was
the lone vote against ap
pointing Eley and the lone
vote in favor of appointing
Aples. Also voting were
Carlton Davenport, Lillian
Holman
and Ed
Lane.
In 2011
Reid de
feated Eley
in a race
for mayor
by a margin ELEY
of 274-188.
The two men had served to
gether on the board before,
Reid as a councilmember
and Eley as mayor.
Despite his loss to Reid,
Eley said
the two can
still work
together.
“He was
the Mayor
Pro-Tem
when I was
APLES mayor,”
Eley said.
“We’re still good friends.”
Eley said he just wants
to work on making the town
better.
“I wanted to serve the
town in any way I possibly
could,” Eley said Monday
about his decision to put his
name on the list. “I love the
service. I just want to see
Hertford grow and I want to
see more businesses com
ing to Hertford. I can’t wait
to start working with the
council.”
Reid favored Aples, who
lost out in a four-way race
for two seats on the town
board in November. Lane
and Holman won new four-
year terms last year, Lane
with 247 votes and Holman
with 223. Aples was close
behind with 203 votes.
The only other candidate,
Quentin Jackson, had 83
votes.
Aples said he believed the
fact he was just 20 votes shy
of winning last year would
have played in his favor.
“I kind of thought that
would put me in the front
of the line, but I guess I was
wrong.” .
Blanchard
named
Teacher of
the Year
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
Perquimans County
Middle School’s Teressa
Blanchard was named as
Perquimans County’s Teach
er of the Year for 2014-15 on
Monday.
She
was se
lected from
the four
school-lev
el winners
that were
picked by
their • col
leagues at
BLANCHARD
their respective schools.
The individual winners for
this year were Connie Ash
ley from Perquimans Cen
tral, Kristine Corprew from
Perquimans County High
School and Colin Woodley
from Hertford Grammar
School.
Blanchard will now ad
vance on to compete for the
regional honors and could
reach the state and even na
tional level.
Blanchard started work in
the business world but shift
ed to teaching in 1999. Her
educational career started
in as a career and technical
education teacher, then be
cause the instructional tech
nology facilitator from 2004
through 2011 when she went
back to being a career and
technical educator teacher.
She earned her bachelor’s
degree in computer science
from East Carolina Univer
sity in 2004 and then earned
See BLANCHARD, 2
Getting Ready for their Students
STAFF PHOTOS BY PIETER WILLIAMS
With a glue gun and paper, new teacher Heather Newbern puts up a bulletin board last week in the first
classroom she can call her own at Hertford Grammar School. Newbern, a native of Elizabeth City, graduated
from Elizabeth City State University.
Perquimans Central
School teacher
Holly Winslow sorts
through letters for
a bulletin board in
her classroom last
week. Local teachers
reported for duty this
week and more than
1,800 students are
scheduled to head
back to class on Aug.
25.
DOT:
Bridge
limits to
remain
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
The N.C. Department of
Transportation is tweaking
plans for a bridge to replace
the S-Bridge in Hertford to
reduce the impact on the
historic district even as
some citizens still oppose it.
Jay McInnis, the project
engineer, said he hopes to
complete that by the end of
August or early September.
They’re focusing on reduc
ing the size or in some cases
eliminating the retaining
walls that would be needed "
along Church Street at the
approach to the bridge.
McInnis also said the
present traffic restrictions
will remain even with a new
bridge despite an earlier
comment he made at a pub
lic meeting.
Some residents are still
opposing the DOT pre
ferred alternative known
as “D-Mod.” This week the
county was presented a pe
tition signed by 314 people
opposing the plan. The
group promoting the effort
is called “Citizens for the
Preservation and Growth of
Hertford.” The petition has
been made available to the
Perquimans County Com
mission which met Mon
day night and to DOT and
the Town of Hertford last
month.
McInnis said DOT is
aware of the petition.
“We were giyen this peti
tion at the town’s hearing
in July,” he said last week.
See BRIGDE, 2
Perquimans schools hope to roll out new computers soon
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
It could be October be
fore students start reaping
the benefits of a $864,000
grant from Golden LEAF
that will provide money to
buy hundreds of new tablet
computers for the school
system.
Perquimans County
Schools Superintendent
Dwayne Stallings said he provides
expects the county school the bulk of
board will decide what plat- the start-
form they’ll buy when the up money
board meets Aug. 25. School to get the
starts on Monday. one-to-one
The school system doesn’t' computer
want to rush into such abig program
decision, Stallings said. started, but
“We may go a little slow- the school
er, but we want students to
be prepared,” Stallings said.
The Golden LEAF grant
STALLINGS
system is required to pro
vide matching funds. The
county is expected to keep
the program going in the
long term.
Perquimans County was
the recipient of two grants
through Golden LEAF, the
Rocky Mount-based agency
that administers the pro
ceeds from a tobacco settle
ment lawsuit.
To make sure school
staff was prepared, school
officials met with others at
the Friday Institute in Ra
leigh to learn how others
have adopted a one-to-one
program. They also visited
Franklin Academy in Wake
Forest. While it is a charter
school, Stallings said it’s had
a one-to-one program for
some time.
“We want to make sure
we get everything right,”
Stallings said.
The county also got
$308,000 to build an indus
trial-sized boat ramp near
the Perquimans County Rec
reation Center. The ramp
will be available for recre
ational boaters, but will be
large enough that it could
handle larger commercial
boats. County officials hope
the ramp will attract ma
rine-related businesses to
the industrial park located
See COMPUTERS, 2
Man takes novel approach to gardening
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
Charlie Felton struck out
when it came to finding the
seeds to grow great northern
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47144
6
2
beans, but he didn’t quit.
“I went to seed stores
all around and they told
me they won’t grow here,
or they’d never seen great
northern seeds.”
Felton didn’t give up.
He went to the Food Lion
store in Hertford, bought
a bag of dried beans and
planted them in a row next
to his house off Pender
Road.
“I wasn’t sure it would
work,” he said.
It did.
Last week he showed off
clumps of seed pods from
plants that just six weeks
before were just dried
beans in a plastic bag at the
grocery store.
Katy Shook, the interim
extension director in Chow
an County and an area agent
for consumer horticulture
isn’t surprised Felton’s plan
worked. But she said that
the crops produced in such
a way may or may not taste
like what you were expect
ing and some may not work
at all.
“You can’t expect the
same plant you’re eating
will taste the same.”
She said you can buy a
See GARDENING, 2
STAFF PHOTO BY
PETER WILLIAMS
Charlie
Felton
holds great
northern
beans he
grew from a
bag of dried
seeds he
bought at
the grocery
store last
week at
his home
on Thunder
Road.