April storm still impacting some in county
STAFF PHOTO BY
PETER WILLIAMS
While the rubble
of Leonidas
. Parker’s home
remains, there
are signs of
better things. The
foundation blocks
have been laid for
a new home to
replace the one
destroyed in a
tornado in April.
(EDITORS NOTE: The
following is the first part of
a series on disaster recov
ery in the wake of the April
tornados in Perquimans
County.)
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
If all goes right, by Octo
ber of next year Stephanie
Hunt will have worked her
self out of a job here in the
Albemarle area.
That doesn’t mean she
won’t have work to do
somewhere else.
Hunt is the disaster site
coordinator working for the
N.C. Conference of the Unit
ed Methodist Church. Since
last summer she’s been
moping up storm damage
in Perquimans, Pasquotank
and Chowan counties. Tor
nados in April caused more
than $10 million in damage,
killed one person and left a
dozen or so homeless in the
three county area.
Hunt’s job is to get those
people back in a house and
last week she was busy
trying to get two homes re
paired in time for families to
move in by Christmas.
“I’m stressing about it,”
Hunt said on Friday. “I ad
mit I’ve been real pushy this
last week with some of the
people who have been my
best volunteers.
“When you can get some
body back home it’s a great
day, but there are a lot of
days where you’re stressing
out.”
Hunt hopes everybody on
See RECOVERY, 2
Support
strong
for kettle
campaign
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
Strong support from
Albemarle Plantation resi
dents and local volunteers
ringing the Salvation Army
bell helped push local dona
tions over the top this year.
Skip Matthews, who
heads the local kettle cam
paign, said it may be a week
or so before the final tally is
in, but he’s sure it will top
the $11,625 raised last year
in Perquimans County.
“Collections may be
down elsewhere, but the
good people here, with the
very generous support of
the people at the Albemarle
Plantation, have, once again,
demonstrated the love and
generosity for which they
are known,” Matthews said
in a letter to the editor.
As of last week Elizabeth
City Salvation Army Mayor
Butch Mallard was report
ing the kettle drive was off
by $7,000 from last year.
Mallard said 25-to-30 per
cent of their annual income
is generated through the
kettle donations.
What really pushes Per
quimans County over the
top are donations from resi
dents of Albemarle Planta
tion, Matthews said.
“We really appreciate the
small change or anything
we get but the fact that Al
bemarle Plantation is there
really makes a difference,”
Matthews said. He’s been
coordination the kettle drive
for more than 10 years.
The Plantation has a tra
dition of holding an annual
Christmas party. Christmas
cards for neighbors are left
on a tree, and the c^ds
See CAMPAIGN, 3
SUBMITTED PHOTOS
Winfall Mayor Fred Yates (above,
back row, middle) stands with
members of the Perquimans
County Middle School Show
Choir. The choir won a trophy at
the Winfall parade.
Andrea Greene, principal of
Perquimans County Middle
School, and Melissa Fields,
principal of Perquimans
Central School, wave back to
the crowd during WinfallOs
annual Christmas parade on
Dec. 6. Greene was the Grand
Marshall for the parade. For
more pictures of the Winfall
parade, please see page 8.
See PLEA, 3
Pagels: Trip to Israel was ‘indescribable
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
Jacque Pagels still can’t
really describe it.
After returning from her
third trip to Israel in four
years she still struggles
putting the experience into
words.
“Several people have
asked me if I’d give a talk
about it, but there is no way
you can convey the feeling.
How can you describe the
indescribable?”
Pagels got her first taste
of the Holy Land in 2010.
She went with her daugh
ter and a group organized
by her former pastor from
Kernersville United Meth
odist Church. Pagels is a
Perquimans County na
tive who graduated from
Perquimans County High
School in 1962.
“ft was like it (Israel)
just grabbed a hold of me. I
knew I wanted to go back.”
Dr. Jeff Patterson makes
the journey every two years
and Pagels went back again
in 2012 and then again in
November of this year. “The
pastor stresses this is a pil
grimage, not a vacation and
we take our Bibles wher
ever we go. Now that I’ve
been, when I read the Bible
it is so much more alive to
me,” she said.
She has made notes in
her Bible that deal with
specific regions to remind
her when she visited that
place.
Given the tension in
the region, she often gets
the question “weren’t you
scared?”
At least when it comes
to Israel, Pagels shakes her
head “no.”
“In Israel I had no con
cerns whatsoever. I don’t
know if it’s faith or what
ever. But when we crossed
over into Jordan, there was
a wash of fear. I know my
Murder
suspect
pleads
guilty
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
A man who admitted to
killing a 28-year-old Perqui
mans County man in 2012
plead guilty last week to
second degree murder.
Michael
Helms,
a Myrtle
Beach, S.C.
construc
tion work
er, was
arrested
in Febru
ary 2012. A
HELMS
second man, Brian King of
King was arrested about a
year later and charged with
accessory after the fact in
the murder.
An autopsy showed Chad
Austin Colson had been
stabbed 90 times.
Helms plead guilty in
Dare County to second de
gree murder and conspiracy
to commit first-degree mur
der. He was sentenced to
between 22 and 28 years in
family was concerned this
time, but I never had any
doubts. While I was over
there I didn’t see anything,
or hear any gunshots or
anything.”
That’s not to mean there
isn’t violence there, but Pa
gels wonders if the percep
tion in the U.S. is the same
as the reality.
This last time Pagels vis
ited, the group started in
See ISRAEL, 4
Winfall supports swing-span
bridge along with Perquimans
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
The Town of Winfall
joined the Perquimans
County Commission
week in voting to support
another swing bridge to link
the towns of Winfall and
Hertford.
Winfall’s board took the
action on Dec. 8, a week af
ter the county commission
made the same decision.
Both boards want DOT to se
lect what is known as Alter
native B, a new 15-foot-high
swing span near the spot of
the current S-Bridge.
“What it’s going to take is
last all four of our boards, Win
fall, Hertford, the county
and the school board to
all sign a letter, the same
letter,” said Winfall Mayor
Fred Yates.
DOT favors building a
new fixed span bridge, not
a swing span. State engi
neers argue that that the op
tion known as Alternative
D-Mod is not only the least
expensive in terms of con
struction, it doesn’t have the
ongoing maintenance costs
of staffing and maintaining
a bridge that moves.
D-Mod is expected to
cost $19 million and Alter
native B is estimated to cost
$32 million. DOT also main
tains that D-Mod would also
require a far shorter disrup
tion in traffic between the
two towns.
The Hertford Town Board
heard from a speaker re
garding the replacement of
the S-Bridge the same night
Winfall took its action. The
Hertford board listened to
speaker Nancy Theodore,
but took no action.
Theodore lobbied the
Hertford board to throw
suppo^ behind the op
tion known as Alternative
See BRIDGE, 4
Members of the Hertford Grammar School Chorus sing with a glow of a Christmas
tree behind them during Grand Illumination in Hertford on Dec. 5.