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Look for the
Fitness and
Health 2015
Edition
"News from Next Door"
JANUARY 21, 2015 - JANUARY 27, 2015
50 cents
Waterway
cleanup
to start
very soon
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
Officials hope to start
work soon clearing down
trees along the New River in
Perquimans County.
Half of the $30,000 project
is funded by the county and
the other half comes from a
grant.
Some of the debris dates
back to recent hurricanes,
but a lot of it came after tor
nadoes in April of last year,
said Rodney Johnson, chair
man of the Albemarle RC&D
Council. The council serves
Camden, Chowan, Cur-,
rituck, Dare, Gates, Hyde,
Pasquotank, Perquimans,
Tyrrell and Washington
Counties.
Johnson said originally the
RC&D lobbied for $99,000 to
deal with problems in those
10 counties. Other counties
also wanted help and the
General Assembly eventu
ally approved $250,000 to
cover a 19-county area
The fallen trees have ef
fectively closed a boat ramp
on the Little River in the
Woodville area, Johnson
said.
“You can get a boat in
there, but then you can only
go 15 feet or so in one direc
tion or 20 feet in the other.”
The trees aren’t just a
problem for boaters. John
son said fallen trees could
contribute to flooding up
stream. The Little River
flows Parkville to the Albe
marle Sound.
“It’s a drainage and flood
prevention measure,” he
See CLEANUP, 2
I STAFF PHOTOS BY PETER WILLIAMS
McKinley Strother speaks to an audience Monday at First Baptist Missionary Church in Hertford.
Young, old honor King at event
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
T hose who lived through the
Civil Rights battles of the
1960s and some who weren’t
even born yet remembered the con
tributions of Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. in Hertford Monday.
A celebration service was held at
First Baptist Missionary Church on
Hyde Park Street. The guest speaker,
McKinley Strother, thanked that or
ganizers for letting a younger voice
be heard.
Strother, 20, is a junior at
Elizabeth City State University and
president of the Student Govern
ment Association. He’s a native of
Hampton, Va.
“I’m about the youngest person
here, and I’m oveijoyed and grateful.
It means I know you’re listening and
want to hear what I have to say.”
Yet Strother said he wished the
crowd was more diverse.
“The ratio is off,’ Strother told
the audience as he looked out at the
Nasean Holley rests on the shoulder of a woman Monday during a
Martin Luther King Jr. service in Hertford.
crowd. It was almost all black and
mostly older residents.
Strother said King was the voice
that woke up the nation and his ef
forts live today in a life that is better
for all.
But the challenges remain, he
said, and people need to cast off
viewing things with race as their
lens.
See MLK DAY, 2
Schools
look to
recoup
lunch fees
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
Perquimans County stu
dents who rack up more
than $20 in unpaid lunch
room fees will be served
vegetables and fruit until
the bill is reduced under a
new policy.
As of Jan. 15 the school
system had 318 students
who owed a total of $2,941.
The school system al
ready reaches out to parents
to make sure they know of
free or reduced-price lunch
programs, but sometimes
they only apply until after
the debt mounts up.
Under the new policy the
school system will reach
out to parents at least three
times to get the overdue bill
paid; The first will come
when the debt hits $10, the
second when it hits $15. The
third is when it hits the $20
cap.
Once the parent gets the
third notice, students will
get two portions of veg
etables and two portions of
fruit. Just what kind depends
on what is on the menu that
day. In the case of the Jan. 29
menu, that would be potato
wedges, green beans, pears
and fresh apple slices plus
milk. The next day, the stu
dent would get glazed carrot
coins, green peas, peaches,
a banana and milk.
They will still be charged
the normal lunch fee.
About 52 percent of the
1,800 students in the Per
quimans system qualify
for a free lunch. Another 8
See PRICES, 3
Local farm named 2014s top cotton consultant
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
A Tennessee-based magazine
has named a Belvidere man as the
country’s top cotton consultant for
2014.
Cotton Farming magazine has
given the award since 1981 when a
consultant in Arizona won it. Stan
Winslow, 58, is the first North Caro
lina resident to win it since Danny
Pierce of Princeton captured the ti
tle in 2003. He’s only the third win
ner from the state. Texas has been
home to seven winners, including
the 2013 recipient from Plainview.
Winslow deflected the praise to
his wife, Lou Ann, his employees
and his God.
“I have 14 other full-time people
besides myself in the company and
they all do their jobs, they do a
great job. And I couldn’t have done
it without my wife.”
The 58-year-old Belvidere native
earned a bachelor’s degree from
N.C. State University and then
spent some time as a county exten
sion agent and working for Peele
Ag Consulting.
In 1998 he started Tidewater Ag
ronomics, Inc.
Things have changed since then.
When he started, cotton was the
mqjor crop in northeastern North
Carolina.
“We did a lot more cotton work
than we do now, and we did some
potatoes, but they were no where
near the major part of it: When we
started cotton was the most profit
able crop you could grow, but now
that’s different. Com, soybeans,
and wheat are in there, therefore
the cotton acreage went down.”
In the latest U.S.D.A crop report
for North Carolina, soybeans were
by far the biggest crop at 1.75 mil
lion acres. Com for grain followed
at 840,000 acres and cotton was at
460,000 acres. Tidewater scouts
between 8,000 and 10,000 cotton
acres, 40,000 acres of soybeans,
20,000 acres of wheat, 5,000 acres
of potatoes, 5,000 acres of com and
small number of cabbage, melon
and peanut acres.
The company started with three
full-time employees and 18 part-
time workers during the summer.
Now Winslow has 14 full-time em
ployees.
“I really didn’t think we’d get to
this point, but the Lord has a plan. I
believe he’s put the team of people
See TOP AWARD, 3
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Perquimans
County crop
consultant Stan
Winslow was
honored as
the top cotton
consultant of
2014 in the
January issue of
Cotton Farmer
magazine.
Scout accomplishes
his mom’s dream
Program planned on historic portraits
BY REGGIE PONDER
Chowan Herald
The path to Eagle Scout
always is challenging, but
for Larry Gutmann it took a
tragic turn last fall.
His mother, Janet Gut
mann, died in October of
last year of injuries suffered
in an automobile accident.
She was 52, a nurse — and
a staunch supporter of her
son’s Scouting endeavors.
So as painful a loss as it
was, he s^id the death of his
mother in no way slowed
him down in pursuing his
goal of being an Eagle
Scout.
“It made me want to do it
more than ever,” Gutmann
said in an interview follow
ing his Eagle Court of Honor
Jan. 12 at the American Le
gion Post 126 on Academy
Street in Hertford. Gutmann,
18, is a senior at Perquimans
High School.
“She was always pushing
me to make it and I knew
that it would make her hap-
py-”
See GUTMANN, 2
John Lawrence Newby
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
An art conservator from
Durham is scheduled to
host a program on the res
toration of historical por
traits in Hertford on Feb. 1.
The event will be held in
the visitor’s center of the
Newbold-White House on
Harvey Point Road at 2:30
p.m. There is no admission
fee, but donations will be
accepted.
The focus of the program
will be on two portraits do
nated to the Perquimans
County Restoration Associ
ation of area residents from
the 1800s. The speaker is
Janet Hessling of Hessling
Conservation, LLC.
The portrait of John
Lawrence Newby was
donated in 1962 by Mrs.
George W. Bradshaw (Mary
Newby White). The por
trait had long hung in the
Bradshaw’s family home in
Belvidere, but its history is
largely unknown.
It is known that New
by was born was born
Nov. 15, 1796, likely at
Belvidere Plantation, at
the home of his parents,
Exum Newby and Martha
Lawrence Newby. In 1819
John Newby moved to Vir
ginia and settled in or near
Richmond. Little is known
of his life in Virginia, ex
cept that he returned to
Perquimans in 1870.
The latest donation is a
See PORTRAITS, 3