ERQUIMANS
. X M l E K LY
Graduation 2017,4
"News from Next Door"
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21, 2017
3B 2 1 RETD
50 cents
County adopts budget but open to changes
J
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
The Perquimans County Com
mission voted to adopt the final
budget for 2017-18 as presented
Monday night, but left the door
open for more capital funding for
schools if needed.
The budget includes no in
crease in the 57 cents per $100 in
valuation tax rate. It does includes
a $250,000 in Emergency Medical
Services to improve the training
and equipment for paramedics re ¬
sponding to emergencies.
Only one person spoke in the
public hearing part of the process.
Alan Lennon called on the board
to increase spending for schools,
especially for teacher supplemen
tal salaries and funding teacher’s
assistants.
He called last year’s decision to
raise the tax rate to 57 “reactive”
and a response to falling property
values.
“This is an opportunity to be
proactive,” he said. He said raising
the rate by two cents would gen ¬
erate $280,000
a year He said
that works out
to about $30 per
month for a typi
cal homeowner.
“When you
look at it by the
month I think
LEIGH taxpayers will
say ‘I can handle
that,’” Lennon said.
Lennon ran for county commis
sion in the last election.
The budget vote was 5-0 in fa
vor. Chairman Kyle Jones did not
attend the meeting because he had
to attend a conference in Winston
Salem. Vice Chair Fondella Leigh
presided over the budget discus
sion.
Commissioner Joseph Hoffler
said he would like to give more
money for schools, but he didn’t
have a certain figure in mind.
Hoffler however was opposed to
hiring a fourth School Resource
Officer. The new budget already
includes hiring a third school-
based deputy, but Superintendent
Matthew Cheeseman was pushing
for one for all four schools.
Cheeseman did not address the
board Monday, but he did present
written comments. A fight at Per
quimans County High School last
year left a dozen teachers injured.
The same SRO that handles the
high school rotates to Hertford
Grammar School and the deputy
was at HGS at the time the fight
broke out.
Hoffler called hiring a fourth
See BUDGET, 3
Golf
tourney
changing
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
Albemarle Plantation is
no stranger to putting on
pro golf tournaments. It’s
hosted three over the previ
ous three years, and brought
in young golfers working
their way towards a spot on
the PGA.
But
come June
26, the
Plantation
is poised
to do a
fourth one
without
using an-
LOUGHLIN otherorga-
nization to
run it. It’s also the first time
it’s hosted a pro event since
the departure of Kenny
Saunders, the long-time pro
at The Plantation. Saunders
left this spring for a new job
in Tennessee.
Running the show this
year for the Biggs Cadillac
Buick GMC Classic will be
Tom Loughlin, a Plantation
resident. He’s confident the
event will be a success.
“The biggest thing that is
different is we don’t have a
tour (to run if),” Loughlin
said last week. “It’s a little
scary.”
Loughlin said the Planta
tion made the call to do the
tournament themselves af
ter having mixed results us
ing tours like the NGA in the
past. Last year they used the
Swing Thought tour.
But based on the turnout
for the first Swing Thought
tournament this year, Plan-
See GOLF, 2
STAFF PHOTO BY PETER WILLIAMS
Perquimans County Sheriff’s Deputy Robert Farrar will work with the department’s newest K-9
named Roll.
New K-9 to join the force
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
The newest Perquimans
County Deputy has a special
skills, was born in Germany
and has four legs.
Within a week Roll, a black
German shepherd, will be
(pardon the pun) rolling in a
sheriffs office SUV outfitted to
handle a dog.
The sheriffs office hasn’t
had a K-9 on the staff for the
more than a year. Current Sher
iff Shelby White was the K-9
officer when he served as an
investigator and worked with
Boz until the dog had to retired
because of hip problems and
was retired and went home
with White to stay. Boz eventu
ally had to be put to sleep.
“Hip displacia and arthritis
worked on him, White said.
“He got to where he couldn’t
jump.”
The sheriffs office got X-
Rays of Roll to access his
bone health. That and being
15-months old is a sign that he
may be able to serve the county
for eight or nine years, instead
of six or seven for older dogs,
White said.
Without a K-9 on staff, Per
quimans deputies have had to
ask other agencies in the area
to borrow their dog.
The Currituck County Sher-
See K-9,2
Boat basin
funding
approved
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
The final state budget approved this
week includes $2,885,000 to start the
boat basin at the Perquimans Marine
Industrial Park.
Jordan Hennessy, an aide to Sen. Bill
Cook, shared the news with Cathy Davi
son, the director of the Hertford-based
Albemarle Commission. The Perqui
mans County money appears in page
410 of the state budget.
“Thank you to Sen. Bill Cook and
Rep. Bob Steinburg for their support
of the Perquimans Marine Industrial
Park in negotiating the $2,885,000 for
the project into the conference com
mittee budget. The Perquimans Marine
Industrial Park is a project that not only
has a valuable economic impact on Per
quimans County, but a substantial im
pact on the region through committed
investment, committed jobs and new
businesses. The Albemarle Commission
See BOAT, 2
Regional agency
looking to move
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
After 40 years in the same location,
the Hertford-based Albemarle Commis
sion is looking to move.
Executive Director Cathy Davison
says it shouldn’t be moving far from the
current Church Street location.
“It looks like we’re going to stay in
Perquimans County,” Davison said on
Monday.
She said the commission is looking
at a site about a mile away on Har-
See MOVE, 2
Library fundraiser deadline looms
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
Time is running out to get your
memories on a special quilt that
will be hung in the new Perqui
mans County Library.
The Perquimans County Li
brary Board is selling the squares
to raise money to properly fur
nish the new library. The deadline
to get a quilt square is July 1.
Doug Layden, a library board
member, said 100 squares have
been sold thus far. A traditional
quilt has space for about 150
squares. The library will get $90
of the $100 fee and $10 will go
toward actually creating the
square.
Albemarle Screenprinting and
Embroidery will make the indi
vidual squares and the Perqui
mans County Quilters will use to
create the actual quilt.
“If we sell 150 squares, that
will be successful for us,” Layden
said.
He hopes in the future more
quilts can be sold that can be
hung on display in the library. If
we have more than one, we can
rotate them from place to place,”
he said.
Buyers can pick from six colors
— copen, cornflower, pear, hon
eydew, lemon and maize. There
See LIBRARY, 2
STAFF PHOTO BY
PETER WILLIAMS
Perquimans
County
Librarian
Michele
Lawrence
holds up an
example of
one of the
quilt squares
that will go
into the final
product that
will hang
in the new
Perquimans
County Library.
Coast Guard Petty Officer responds to pleas for help
From Staff Reports
A Hertford woman driv
ing to drop off her daughter
at a daycare before going to
work at the U.S. Coast Guard
6 89076 47144
base in
Elizabeth
City is be
ing cred
ited with
helping a
victim of
a car ac
cident on
U.S. 17.
Coast
WILSON
2
Guard Petty Officer 2nd
Class Nancy Wilson wit
nessed the accident as she
was headed north on the
same highway on June 7.
The other drive hit a ditch
and rolled, ejecting its driv
er.
Wilson, a storekeeper at
the base and self-described
“paper pusher” immediately
pulled over and turned on
her hazard lights. She then
called 911 and notified the
dispatcher that at least one
person had been ejected
from the crashed vehicle
between the Foreman Bun
dy and Okisko Road Exits
in Elizabeth City, according
to a release from the Coast
Guard.
Wilson, a Florida native,
was on her way to drop off
her 20-month old daughter,
Ayla, at daycare before go
ing to work.
After the wreck Wilson
took Ayla from her car seat
and joined a small group
gathered at the edge of a
drainage ditch filled with
murky brown water several
yards from where the Tahoe
left the road. She let them
know help was on the way.
The group could not see
where the ejected driver
was, but they could clearly
hear the distressed man
calling out for help. Wilson
said she could hear the con
fusion and pain in his voice,
coming from some tall grass
and cattails on the other
side of the water, about 20
feet from where they stood.
See HELP, 2