Softball, baseball move on in playoffs, 7 50 cents Dozens of golfers to attend tourney BY PETER WILLIAMS News Editor A golf tournament with a $200,000 purse is expected to draw at least 120 young professional golfers to the Biggs Cadillac Buick GMC Classic at Albemarle Planta tion next week. As of Thursday 40 players had booked rooms to stay with residents at the Plan tation according to Tom Loughlin, one of the volun teers for the event and Ken ny Saunders, the golf pro. As of Monday, the director of the e-Golf tour said 120 golfers had signed up. The event starts May 25 and runs through May 31. The player response has been fight years away from the number of golfers at tending an NGA tournament last year at the Plantation. Just 13 NGA golfers came. Saunders said some of those golfers who played in the NGA event last year will be back for this year’s e-Golf tour tournament. “They told me they had a. great time,” Saunders said. Another reason could be the money. The winner of the 2014 NGA event walked away with $5,000. The eGolf tournament has a purse of $200,000 and the winner should get between $35,000 to $40,000. The deadline to sign up to play in the tournament was Monday but players can still sign up, said David Siegel, the director of the e-Golf tour. “We’ve run events with over 200 players and we’ve also run events with 60 play ers before,” Siegel said last week. “But I think this is go ing to be the best event any developmental tour runs all year. The course is in great shape it’s going to be a great week for our players.” Siegel played basketball at Colgate University and started playing in develop mental tours in 1996. In 11 years, he earned 20 wins. He founded the Tarheel Tom in 2002 and served as vice president until 2007 when he started as president of the eGolf tom. “We’ve done a pretty good See GOLF, 8 Eleven MAT 2 0 ^CD Relay For Life held suspects arrested BY PETER WILLIAMS News Editor State and area lawmen completed the roundup of 11 suspects wanted in an undercover prescription drug, operation dubbed “Operation Take As Di rected.” The Perquimans County Sheriff’s Office and the State Bureau of Investi gation started the probe about six months ago. The investigation re sulted in the seizure of 47 doses of oxycodone and 35 dosage units of hydroco done, the SBI said. Undis closed amounts of subox- one and fentanyl were also seized. Officers started round ing up suspects about 7:30 a.m. May 12 and the last suspect was arrested about 9:30 p.m. that night. All of the charges involve the possession and sale of over-the-counter narcotics. The suspects were jailed under bonds ranging from $6,000 to $40,000. Eight of the suspects were listed as Perquimans County residents. Two were from Edenton and one listed an address in Creswell. Perquimans Sher iff Eric Tilley said Ivory Jean Talmadge had recent ly moved to Washington County from Snug Harbor. Tilley said Talmadge, 25, was arrested with another one of the suspects in the same car. In addition to the one count of Possession With Intent to Manufacture Sell/Deliver (PWIMSD) a Schedule II drug, and one count of sale and delivery, Tilley said she will face ad ditional charges because she had drugs in her pos session when she was arrested. She was jailed See ARRESTS, 8 REBECCA BUNCH/CHOWAN HERALD Members of the Vidant Chowan Hospital Relay for Life team smile and laugh as they walk around the track at John A. Holmes High School Friday evening during the opening ceremony for Chowan-Perquimans Relay for Life 2015. See full story on Page 2. Area student is Disney bound BY PETER WILLIAMS News Editor J essica Cartwright knows about beating the odds. ■ In 2010 she underwent a dangerous surgery at a Greenville hospital to remove numerous large tumors from her abdomen. At first doctors suspected appendicitis, but instead they found massive growths. Her parents, Kevin and Lori Cart wright were warned that if it was cancer, their course of action would be to just sew Jessica back up and try and make her as comfortable as possible until she died. The surgery went well, but Jessica said one of the tumors was the size of a volleyball. Another was the size of a softball. Given her situation the threat of cancer remained and Cartwright was told she needed to be rechecked at least every six months. Earlier this month her doctor See CARTWRIGHT, 8 SUBMITTED PHOTO Jessica Cartwright shows off her diploma from the University of North * Carolina’s School of the Arts this month while wearing a mortarboard complete with Mickey Mouse ears. Cartwright will start work with Disney in Florida this month. Power savings expected From staff reports Hertford and Edenton should see a big decrease in electrical rates in the early stages of a deal to sell four electrical power plants back to Duke Energy Progress, elected officials were told last week. Over the life of the 20-year agreement, the long-term sav ings will amount to between 3 and 4 percent. Graham Edwards, chief executive officer of Electrici ties, shared the information on the projected cost savings during a joint presentation in Edenton to the mayors and town councils of Hertford and Edenton. ElectriCities is the adminis trative arm for the NCEMPA. Edenton, Hertford, Elizabeth Gity and 29 other municipali ties are members of the pow er agency. The initial savings may be as high as 16 percent. Ed wards said it would be up to the individual towns how to translate that wholesale sav ings into rate refief for then- own customers. Hertford will take up the issue June 8, according to Town Manager Brandon Shoaf. The town intends to hire a company, Utility Fi nancial Solutions, to do a rate study “We don’t want to go out willy nilly and do this,” he said. Shoaf said his goal is to be competitive. “The main thing is we want to be competitive with our neighbors and provide the best value we can for our customers.” Value includes providing reliable service. Utility officials caution that when electric bills are rolled back — for an example 10 percent—that does not mean the total utility bill will be See SAVINGS, 2 Memorial Day to be observed on Monday at courthouse From staff reports American Legion Post 126 will conduct the Pequimans County annual Memorial Day Observance Monday at the Veterans Monument on the county courthouse green. Hertford’s American Le gion Post 362 will assist in this observance which will begin at 11 a.m. In the event 6 89076 47144 of inclement weather the observance will be moved to the Perquimans County Recreation Center off Har vey Point Road. Post Commander Mike Ellis will conduct the pro gram which will include the traditional roll call of Per quimans Comity veterans who have passed since last Memorial Day. Wreath presentations will be made by the County, Post Commander 126 Ellis and Post 362 Commander William Modlin. Any other organization wishing to lay See OBSERVANCE, 2 Retired Navy captain to speak at service From staff reports Retired U.S. Navy Cap tain Guy J. Simmons of Hertford, will be the guest speaker at the Perquimans County annual Memorial Day observance Monday. The event is sponsored by Hertford American Le gion Post 126. Simmons is a Vietnam veteran (1966- 67) and served 27 years in the U.S. Navy, retiring in 1992. Following graduation from Columbia University he was commissioned an Ensign in the Navy and was assigned as an engineer officer as signed to the USS Sutter County (LST 1150), a unit of the naval forces in Viet nam. Subsequently, his active duty included an assign ment on the USS Charles F. Adams (DDG 2), a guid ed missile destroyer with the Atlantic Fleet. He also served as personnel officer at Naval Station Brooklyn, N.Y. , and was an instruc tor in the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps at Columbia University, his alma mater. His service in the Na val Reserve included the command of four units, including a Naval Inshore Undersea Warfare Unit. He has served as an officer in the Massachusetts State Guard, the Coast Guard See SIMMONS, 2 2 Guy Simmons