P The
ERQUIMANS
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Page 7
"News from Next Door”
FEBRUARY 11, 2015 - FEBRUARY 17, 2015
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Jackson parents face new charges
FILE PHOTO
Nita Jackson
and her husband
John sit in the
Perquimans
County
Courthouse
waiting for their
case to come up
last year.
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
The father and mother of six
brothers charged with sexually
abusing their younger sister are
back in jail on multiple counts
of being an accessory after the
fact and felony child abuse.
John Jackson was re-arrested
Feb. 3 by Perquimans County
Sheriffs Deputies and jailed
under $400,000 bond. Nina Jack
son, 55, was arrested Feb. 5 af
ter being pulled over on a traffic
violation.
Both John Jackson,
who will turn 66 years
old on Feb. 27, and his
wife had been freed on
bond shortly after they
and their sons were
arrested in May. Both
parents were originally
charged with felony
JACKSON
child abuse. And was released
on $15,000. His wife Nita was
originally charged with child
abuse/sexual act and also had
been released under a $15,000
secured bond.
The new charges are
six counts of felony ac
cessory after the fact
and three counts of fel
ony child abuse-sexual
act.
Sheriff Eric Tilley saw
the District Attorney’s
office filed the addition
al charges after the Grand Jury
met last month. District Attor
ney Andrew Womble could not
See CHARGES, 8
School
test
grades
released
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
Two Perquimans County
schools scored a “C” and
one earned a “D” in a new
grading system rolled out
by the state last week.
Even before the grades
were released Thursday,
local school officials were
already critical of the for
mula that was used to cre
ate them.
The state-mandated
grades only count a stu
dent’s growth for 20 percent
of the score. The majority is
based on how students per
form on academic tests.
Across the five-county
Albemarle area, 19 schools
earned a “C”, nine earned a
“D” and five earned a “B.”
Perquimans County
Middle School received a
“D” and Hertford Gram
mar School and Perquimans
County High School earned
“Cs.” Perquimans Central
was not graded because stu
dents in grades kindergarten
through second grade aren’t
tested in the same way older
students are.
Superintendent Dwayne
Stallings defended the
strides made by the school
system and repeated his be
lief that the scoring system
doesn’t paint an accurate
picture.
In the case of Hertford
Grammar School, the letter
grade is largely based on
how students performed on
three tests taken over four
days of a 183-day school cal
endar and not so much on
how much students grew
academically during the
other 179 days of school.
“As educators we want to
See GRADES, 8
STAFF PHOTO BY PETER WILLIAMS
A cow rests in a field above the former landfill for Perquimans, Chowan and Gates Counties off Perry’s Bridge
Road. The counties have started a pilot program to allow cattle to graze there instead of having to pay to
have the 26-acre site mowed several times a year.
Cows take over mowing duties
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
A small herd of cattle
are now doing what trac
tors have done for the past
20 years at the old landfill
in Perquimans County.
And they’re doing it for
free.
The landfill officially
closed in 1991 and a layer
of dirt was spread over the
County chamber to hold outreach meetings
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
The Perquimans County
Chamber of Commerce will
kick off a monthly program
Feb. 18 to reach out to the
business community.
The hour-long sessions
start at 8:30 a.m. and will be
held on the third Wednes
day of each month in the
conference room of the
Perquimans County Exten
sion Center, 601-A S. Eden ¬
26-acre site. Monitoring
wells were installed and
are periodically checked
for problems and grass
covers the site now to keep
the soil in place.
But grass needs to be
mowed.
Brad Gardner, the man
ager of the site, estimates
it’s been costing nearly
$1,000 each time to bring
a contractor in to do the
ton Road St.
“Truthfully, the busi
nesses that are here, a lot of
them are struggling just to
keep the doors open,” said
Susan Cox, the president
of the chamber. “We want
businesses to give us their
concerns on how we might
help. We want the input.
“We want to try and help
area business find ways
they can work together. The
idea is to bring businesses
in, chamber members or
work. Depending on the
weather, the site needed
to be mowed up to 10 or 11
times a year.
Gardner and Jared Har
rell, a N.C. State Extension
Service agent who deals
with livestock, thought
there had to be a better
way.
The old landfill and
the adjacent 74 acres that
make up the current waste
transfer site is a joint op
eration between Perqui
mans, Gates and Chowan
Counties. Today trash and
recyclables from the three
counties comes to Perqui
mans County, and then
trucked to a permanent
home in Bertie County.
The site is operated by Al
bemarle Regional Health
See COWS, 8
not, to exchange ideas.”
Each of the “Chamber
Conversations Over Cof
fee” sessions will include a
speaker.
“That will take about 15
minutes,” Cox said. The
meetings won’t last more
than at hour.
“At 9:30 we can all go to
work,” she said.
Both Cox and Sid Eley,
the executive director of
the chamber, said most Per
quimans County businesses
are small and need support
from local consumers.
“For every dollar spent
locally, 68 cents stays in
Perquimans County,” Cox
said. “When you go to Wal-
Mart none of that comes
back. When you buy at a
big box store, you’ve lost it.
In a small town with small
businesses you get good
service. We’re trying to see
what we cap do and how
we can all benefit.”
Eley said Perquimans
DOT
moving
forward
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
The N.C. Department of
Transportation is moving
forward on plans to replace
the S-Bridge in Hertford
with a new high-rise span
despite some concerns it
would harm the visual char
acter of the residential his
toric district.
The state historic pres
ervation office submitted
a written objection to the
plan last month. The docu
ment concludes that a 33-
foot-tall concrete bridge
would damage the nature of
the district. The groups also
opposed building another
swing bridge downtown.
While the objections will
be taken into consideration,
they won’t derail the plans
to proceed with what is
known as Alternative D-
Mod, said project manager
Jay McInnis.
“The question of which
alternative (to build) is be-
hind us now,” he said Tues
day. “The question now is
what can we do to improve
alternative D-Mod.”
That’s fine with some
downtown merchants who
See DOT, 8
County has things to offer,
but people need to know
about them.
“With Hertford and Per
quimans County frankly
we’ve done a poor job
selfing ourselves,” Eley
said. “We don’t promote
ourselves. We have people
who don’t know we have
a chamber and they don’t
know we have a Jimmy
Hunter Museum.”
See CHAMBER, 9
Windfall mayor Yates honored by Gov. McCrory
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
When Winfall Mayor Fred
Yates accepted an invitation
to attend Gov. Pat McCrory’s
State of the State address
last week he had no idea
the governor would single
him out for praise from the
gallery of the Legislature. Or
6 89076 47144
that he’d receive a standing
ovation from state lawmak
ers.
But both things hap
pened.
Yates , Winfall’s mayor
since 1993, was one of four
special guests personally
recognized by McCrory dur
ing his annual speech to a
joint session of the House
and Senate in the Legislative
Building.
Referring to Yates ‘ and
other area officials’ actions
in wake of devastating
tornadoes that struck the
region in April, McCrory
called the Winfall mayor a
“true leader in a crisis.”
“It was unexpected, and I
thought it was great,” Yates
said. “I was invited to be
present at his speech but
I wasn’t told he was going
to single me out. I’ve never
had the whole General As
sembly give me a standing
ovation.”
Yates ‘ appearance in the
gallery Wednesday night
stemmed from a meeting
See YATES, 9
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Gov. Pat McCrory
(left) and Winfall
Mayor Fred Yates
embrace last year
in Chapanoke at
the scene of a
tornado.
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