First Annual Fund Raiser Gala
Access to Affordable Health Care
October 15, 2016 - 6:30pm
Kermit E. White Center - Elizabeth City State University
Dr. M. Joycelyn Elders, Key Note Speaker
SEE INSIDE FOR MORE INFORMATION
P The
ERQUIMANS
1 WE E K EY
Walk For Hunger set for Sunday, 7
"News from Next Door"
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2016
OCT JKCD
50 cents
Testimony wraps up for wind project
BY REGGIE PONDER
Chowan Herald
Apex Clean Energy Inc.
and opponents of Apex’s
proposed Timbernull Wind
Project completed their
presentation of evidence
last week in hearings on the
conditional use permit ap
plication for the project.
During four days of hear
ings before the Chowan
County Board of Commis
sioners, Apex presented
testimony on topics such
as health, sound and prop
erty values. The opposition
offered testimony from its
own witnesses, including
two who spoke about the
project’s potential impact on
soil and water resources.
The county commisison-
ers held hearings Monday
and Tuesday evenings,
all day Wednesday into
Wednesday evening, and
Thursday evening.
Apex also had presented
evidence at a hearing in Au
gust.
The Perquimans County
Commission is scheduled
to resume hearings on the
Apex project on Oct. 17-18.
Apex, a company based
in Charlottesville, Va., has
applied for a conditional
use permit to build a 300-
megawatt wind energy gen
eration facility in the Bear
Swamp and Center Hill
areas of Chowan and Per
quimans counties. The proj
ect requires a CUP in each
county.
The proposed project
includes 105 wind turbines
projected to be nearly 600
feet high at maximum tip
height.
The plan calls for 48 of
the turbines to be located in
Chowan County.
At the beginning of the
session Thursday evening,
Patrick Flynn, a property
owner participating in the
case against the proposed
wind energy generation fa
cility, announced that the
opposition, which had been
represented by attorney Bill
Bryan, had decided to con
serve its assets by dispens
ing with counsel.
Flynn represented him
self in the hearing Thursday
evening. He said would like
to reserve his closing state
ment until just before the
commissioners begin then-
deliberations.
Attorneys for Apex also
plan to present closing argu
ments at that time.
The commissioners will
meet at 5 p.m. on Oct. 17 to
set a time for the delibera
tions on the CUP applica
tion. Before deliberations
See WIND, 2
Region
braces
for storm
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
State and local officials
were keeping an eye on
Hurricane Matthew.
At the very least it's ex
pected to bring gusty winds,
several inches of rain and
coastal flooding by this
weekend.
Hurricane tracking mod
els largely agreed on the
storm’s path through early
this week but there was less
confidence beyond mid
week.
A statement issued by the.
Office of Pasquotank-Cam
den and Dare County Emer
gency Mangement warned
that even moderate winds
could be bad.
“Even if we are not direct
ly impacted by Matthew, any
heavy rainfall on the periph-
ery of the storm could cause
some flooding due to our
already saturated ground in
See HURRICANE, 4
Family battles cancer together
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Tanner Sprague this spring at a family wedding before he start he started
chemotherapy for his cancer.
BY SUSAN HARRIS
Special To The Weekly
H is mom cried.
And that’s how
Tanner Sprague of
Hertford knew that whatever
the doctors had found was
not good.
“Not good” is an under
statement. Tanner had been
diagnosed with osteosarco
ma, shocking and devastating
news for his parents, Shane
and Holly Sprague.
“We left to go to D.C.
(where Tanner was diag
nosed) and it was a beautiful
day,” Shane Sprague said.
“Everything was just perfect.
We get up there and our
whole world changed.”
The path from being
a youngster eqjoying all
manner of outside activities
— fishing, shooting his bow
and arrow, and baseball — to
being a cancer patient began
on Super Bowl Sunday when
Tanner took a tumble.
“I fell down the stairs with
a metal baseball bat and
landed on my arm,” Tanner
said.
See TANNER, 2
Marina
earns
honor
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
For the second year in a
row the Albemarle Planta
tion Marina has been named
one of the top 10 best all-
around marinas on the East
Coast by Marinas.com, a
marine industry website
and trade magazine.
The 166-slip facility was
also named one of the 11 top
marinas in the southeast.
That list includes the Palm
Harbor Marina in West Palm
Beach. Florida dominated
the list with six of the 11
regional winners. Just three
were in North Carolina In
addition to the Plantation,
the Grace Harbor at River
Dunes facility in Oriental
was named as well as the
Wilmington City Docks.
Buddy Lawrence, the
new director of operations
See MARINA, 3
Students, young adults get a taste of the ‘Real World’
STAFF PHOTO BY
PETER WILLIAMS
Dilys Heriford
(left) explains
the ‘Life
Happens’ wheel
last week for a
participant in
the ‘Real World’
program held
for teens and
young adults
at Camp Cale.
More than 150
participated in
the event.
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
Dozens of teens and
young adults got a lesson
last week that sometimes
no matter how well you
plan “Life Happens.”
Sometimes that’s a good
thing, like you get an unex
pected gift. Sometimes it’s
bad and it wipes out your
bank account.
The lessons were part of
a day-long session called
“Real World” and was put
on by the Albemarle Com
mission. Lora Aples is the
youth program manager
for the commission and be
lieves the session at Camp
Cale did drive home some
important points for the
150 teens and some young
adults from the River City
CDC program.
“Your education and your
job has a great deal of im
pact on your life, but some
times things happen in your
life and you just have to deal
with it.”
Aples doesn’t consider
“Get Real” as a game. She’d
rather call it a reality check.
“It’s a wake up call. It’s an
eye opener that in life things
happen that you can’t con
trol.
Education doesn’t guaran
tee you anything, but it puts
you ahead of the game.”
The morning was filled
with workshops on budget
ing, banking, social skills
and insurance. After lunch
the “Real Life” session start
ed.
Each participant was
given a “job” based on their
interests and how much
education they intended to
See ‘REAL WORLD’, 3
Byrum remembered
through scholarship
From Staff Reports
The Hertford Ladies, Red
Hat group, has initiated a
new scholarship to celebrate
the life and legacy of Mad
elyn Marie Byrum, a former
Perquimans County High
School stu
dent, who
died the
summer of
2016.
The
scholar
ship will
BYRUM benefit a
graduating
senior from Perquimans
County High School in
June.
6 89076 47144 2
See SCHOLARSHIP, 3
STAFF PHOTO BY PETER WILLIAMS
Jimmy Riddick (left) finishes up with a customer
recently at his barber shop in Hertford. Riddick
marked 50 years as a barber last month.
Local barber
marks 50th year
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
Spending one winter
working outside was enough
to convince Jimmy Riddick
he might want to consider
another line of work.
“The year after I got out of
high school I went to work
in construction,” Riddick
said last week. “It was cold
and then I ran into a friend
of mine and we talked for a
few hours. He was going to
barber school and he want
ed me to go too.”
“I thought about it. You’d
be inside in the winter time
and inside in the summer
time.”
So Riddick went off to
spend eight months train
ing at the Durham Institute
of Barbers, and on Sept. 29,
1966 he earned his diploma.
Last week Riddick
marked 50 years as a barber.
See BARBER, 3