ERQUIMANS J Weekly Pirates hold on to beat South Creek, 8 "News from Next Door ' ^ 2 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24,2016 50 cents Counties to debate new wind power project BY PETER WILLIAMS AND REGGIE PONDER News Editors The Perquimans County Board of County Commis sioners is scheduled to hold quasi-judicial hearings to day and Thursday to consid er the Apex Clean Energy project. Both meetings start at 5:30 p.m. and will be held in the second floor courtroom at the Perquimans Court house Annex. The Perquimans meet ings will come on the heels of identical hearings being held in Chowan County. The Apex wind project spans some 16,000 acres on both sides of the county line. Both representatives for the Perquimans County and those for the opponents say privately they think the issue will ultimately be settled in court, not in a counaty com mission meeting. At stake is a project expected to cost $300 million to $400 million. Perquimans County offi cials have already tentative ly set aside Sept. 20-21 for more debate on the issue if needed. Chowan officials met un til 11 am. Monday on the first night of discussions. The Chowan County Board of Commissioners heard testimony from Don Giecek, a senior develop ment manager with Apex, on the proposed project’s harmony with the area and general conformity with the county’s land use plan. In response to questions from Henry Campen, an at torney representing Apex in the matter, Giecek testified that most of the land leased for the project is agricultural land or Weyerhauser-owned timberland. The property is zoned See WIND, 2 Concrete project wraps up BY PETER WILLIAMS News Editor The massive job of pour ing the concrete founda tions for the Amazon Wind Farms East wind project wrapped up this month. In a span from March 7 through Aug. 13, Com mercial Ready Mix Prod ucts (CRMP) mixed and hauled some 66,560 cubic yards of concrete. To put that into perspective, the four-lane Chowan River Bridge required 77,000 cubic yards and took two years to complete in 1997. Jimmy McPherson worked on both projects. He’s the plant manager of the Edenton CRMP facil ity. “I just want to say it too great teamwork from ev- eiybody, the rock haulers, chemical guys, water haul ers, the sand haulers, the fuel haulers, everybody,” McPherson said. “It wasn’t any one group that made it possible. “I’ve done bridges in Chowan and Perquimans and the Elizabeth City bypass,” McPherson. “For this it’s not so much a job, it’s an adventure.” On the final day, the plant produced 1,154 yards of concrete in less than nine hours. Each load was See CONCRETE, 2 This sight hasn’t been as common for motorists this summer because high heat has limited the amount of time Hertford’s S-Bridge has opened for boat traffic. Heat causes problems with Bridge BY PETER WILLIAMS News Editor (COMING NEXT WEEK: State agencies remain at odds over how best to replace the S- Bridge.) While the debate drags on over how to best to replace Hertford’s swing bridge, the S-Bridge itself has been virtually closed to boat traffic during the heat of the day for much of the summer because of fears it could get stuck. Officials of the N.C. Department of Transpor tation said it’s not really a new situation, but it’s not been quite this bad before. As temperatures climb more boaters head to the water for relief but heat causes metal to expand and the S-Bridge sits on a giant turntable and is powered by motors and gears. John Abel, who handles bridge issues with the lo cal district DOT office, said it’s been an issue throughout his six years with the department. But he admits it’s a little worse this year. When the temperature gets above 90 degrees, things swell to the point we can’t open the bridge. “From a safety stand point it could damage the gears inside if we tried to get it unstuck. If we sheer off a gear inside, that’s go ing to be a major repair.” While motorists haven’t been bothered by the is sue, boaters have. The clearance under the S- Bridge is about five feet so during the day no larg er boats could get in or out of Hertford. Coupled with that is the fact that the only public boat ramp in the Hertford area is up river from the S-Bridge. The bridge issue not only keeps larger boats See S-BRIDGE, 2 Youth to face ‘Real World’ BY PETER WILLIAMS News Editor COMING NEXT WEEK: Learn more about how Per quimans County school of ficials will, be using a grant to teach students about eti quette and social skills. A program to expose young adults to what it’s like in the real world will be held Sept. 28 at Camp Cale. “Northeastern REAL WORLD” is geared toward people age 16 to 24 in the 10-county region covered by the Northeastern Workforce Development Board’s youth program. The program drives home how education — or the lack of it — can dictate the future of someone’s life. Students will go through some workshops in the morning and then get a glimpse of what life may be like when they grow up. Lora Aples is helping put on the event. She’s the youth program manager for the Northeastern Workforce See YOUTH, 4 Perquimans students heading back to class Monday BY PETER WILLIAMS News Editor More than 100 more Per quimans County students are scheduled to go back to school when classes re sume on Aug. 29. The projected enrollment —1,890—is 107 more than at this time last year. Unlike last year when school officials had to shuffle top staff positions at the last minute, all four principals remain the same as last year. There have been some changes. Tammy Miller White, who took the job as assistant principal at Per quimans County Middle School to fill a void last fall, has returned to her old job as head of the school sys tem’s Accelerated Learning Center. Miller-White was replaced by Dexter Jack son-Heard who is moving over from a similar position at the high school. Jack son-Heard will serve as as sistant principal and Julie Roberts will move from Hertford Grammar School to take the new role as Dean of Students. The Dean of Students job incorporates some of the duties done by curriculum specialists in the past. School nutrition prices will remain the same this year. Breakfast remains $1.35 and lunches cost $2.60 for paying customers and 40 cents for those who qualify for a reduced price. The school system does have a new nutrition di rector — Shirley Pelletier — who plans to revamp the menu and the way food is delivered to try and win back students who haven’t been eating school-pre pared food. Parents will also have the opportunity this year to see what their children are eating. The school system is rolling out an on-line sys tem that allows parents to deposit money directly into their child’s food account. The system also tracks what students spend it on, so parents can know. The school system is also rolling out a new web site HYPERLINK “http:// www.pqschools.org” www.pqschools.org. Te resa Beardsley, the school system’s director of com munications, said the new address is easier to remem ber. See SCHOOLS, 4 Nutrition program gets upgrade BY PETER WILLIAMS News Editor Shirley Pelletier has a mission to win back Perqui mans County students who aren’t eating school-pre pared food. About 70 percent of coun ty students qualify to get a free or reduced price meal, but sometimes only half of them take it. That’s an issue for stu dents, the school system and ultimately for taxpayers who could end up paying for food that is wasted. “If you’re not feeding the free and reduced students, you have a problem,” she said. “You can’t get that money back.” Adding the occasional See NUTRITION, 4 Camp Cale holding fundraiser Sept. 17 BY PETER WILLIAMS News Editor Camp Cale — fresh off a record setting summer camping program — is plan ning a fundraiser in Sep tember to help raise money to build new year-round housing for those why stay 6 89076 47144 2 there. The camp hosted 424 campers this summer, the most ever in its 55 years of operation. Matt Thomas, the direc tor of the camp said about two dozen campers had to be turned away because there wasn’t space for them. The camp hosted 376 camp ers for the 2015 season, “An Evening At Cale” on Sept. 17 is designed to raise money so two new bunkhouses can be built. Combined they could house 96 people and unlike the current bunkhouses, they would be heated and cooled so they could be used year- round. Tickets for the Sept. 17 event are $25 and will in clude music, entertainment and heavy hors d’oeuvres. The event will run from 6- 9 p.m. and will be more of a “floating event” vs. a sit down meal, Thomas said. It will be catered by Montero’s. For more information call Camp Cale at 264-2513 or Kelsey Gray at 339-6274 or e-mail HYPERLINK “mailto: kelseybgray@yahoo.com” .kelseybgray@yahoo.com. The two new bunkhous es are expected to cost about $1 million, and about $170,000 has been raised thus far. The camp owns about 10 acres adjacent to the camp that it is trying to sell. That’s expected to fetch about $240,000 which See FUNDRAISER, 5 Health study set to be released From Staff Reports Albemarle Regional Health Services along with five hospitals and other community part ners has completed com munity health assess ments for a seven county area, including Perqui mans. The Perquimans Coun ty data will be released Thursday at 10 am. at the Perquimans County Recreation Department. Not-for-profithospitals are required to conduct a community health needs assessment at least once every three years. Involved in the study See STUDY, 4