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HOSPITAL (PART A)
MEDICAL (PART B)
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05-01-2016
03-01-2016
What’s in your wallet?, 7
"News from Next Door"
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2017
50 cents
Rescue squad marks 50 years
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
In the 1960s if you had a med
ical emergency in Perquimans
County, the volunteers who
arrived were driving a hearse
borrowed from a local funeral
home may have had no medical
training at all.
It was clearly the 1960s and
that was then and this is now.
But the rescue squad filled a
gap. On Sunday Perquimans
County Rescue Squad marked
their 50th anniversary with an
event in Winfall.
Today a call to 911 will
prompt the arrival of an ambu
lance with a trained paramedic
and advanced life support
equipment. Volunteer Rescue
Squad members play a back-up
roll.
Jonathan Nixon, the head of
Perquimans County Emergen
cy Management, said in Perqui
mans County and everywhere
else there has been a gradual
shift from volunteers to paid
staff.
“It used to be we had few
paid EMS personnel and most
ly volunteers but the pendulum
has been swinging in the other
direction,” Nixon said.
Nixon estimates he has about
50 paid full and part-time EMS
personnel. That doesn’t count
the telecommucators who staff
the 911 system.
Mark Symons, the head of
the Rescue Squad estimates
the volunteer rescue squad has
about 15 or 20 people now. At
its height, the figure was more
See SQUAD, 2
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Family gather around a flagpole at the Perquimans County Emergency
Management building in Winfall Sunday. The pole was dedicated to Delton
“Bake” Stallings and Lloyd “Punch” Stallings. The gift was possible by a
donation by Larry and Barbara Stallings.
STAFF PHOTO BY PETER WILLIAMS
The more than 200 people participating in the Jim “Catfish” Hunter ALS Walk get an escort from the Perquimans County Sheriff’s
Office Saturday in Hertford. The event raises more than $24,000 to help area people who suffer from the disease.
Coach’s parents witness Las Vegas shooting
BY REGGIE PONDER
The Daily Advance
The deadly shooting rampage at a
country music concert in Las Vegas
on Sunday night hit close to home for
the head football coach at Perquimans
County High School.
Ian Rapanick’s parents were among
the 22,000 people attending the out
door concert attacked by a lone sniper
firing from a room on the 32nd floor of
the Mandalay Bay casino hotel. Police
say 59 people have now died and an
other 500 were injured in what’s being
called the worst mass shooting in mod
ern American history.
Rapanick said Monday that his par
ents, Chris and Larisa Rapanick, who
live in Chesapeake, Va., had gone to Las
Vegas for their wedding anniversary.
“They’re big country music fans and
they wanted to see everybody so they
went to the festival,” Rapanick said.
The country music festival featured
top country music acts such as Luke
Bryan and Jason Aldean.
At 10:08 p.m. Sunday, police say a
lone gunman, Stephen Craig Paddock,
64, opened fire on the crowd from his
room in the Mandalay Bay hotel. He
would continue to fir e what police be
lieve was automatic gunfire for more
than 10 minutes before they were able
to locate him at the Mandalay Bay. Po
lice said Paddock killed himself before
officers stormed the room where he
had been staying.
Rapanick said his mother called him
around 1 am. Eastern time Monday
See SHOOTING, 2
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Perquimans County High School football coach Ian
Rapanich poses with his parents, father Chris (left) and
mother Larisa.
Carolina Moon to present play on Oct. 13-15
From Staff Reports
Carolina Moon Theater will of
fer a taste of murder-mystery din
ner theater on Oct. 13-15 at the
theater on Grubb Street in Hert
ford with “Death of a Hot Sauce
Salesman.”
The dinner theater play re
volves around Prescott Knight,
ALS WALK
the owner of the Hot Knights
Genuine Pepper sauce empire.
He discovers on the night of
the annual family barbecue that
somebody is trying to kill him. A
family meeting is arranged and
Knight announces he’s chang
ing his will so the recipe for the
sauce will pass on to the right
hands. Hours later, he is found.
dead and his recipe stolen.
Knight’s family, his lawyer, the
housekeeper, and the gardener
are all suspects.
“With the help of audience
members, who have been given
clue packets, Judge Titus A.
Drumm slowly unravels this
spicy comedy filled with zany
characters, outrageous lines, and
plenty of hot sauce,” said Julie
Phelps, who works with Caro
lina. Moon.
Tickets are $25 and available
at Carolina Trophy on Church
Street. For information call 377-
7780. The play will be performed
at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 13-14 and 4
See PLAY, 4
Large fire
drill planned
From Staff Reports
Portions of downtown Hertford
will be closed to traffic the evening
of Oct. 19 during a large-scale fire
drill.
Hertford Fire Chief Drew Wood
ard said about a dozen fire vehicles
from Perquimans, Chowan and
Pasquotank counties and roughly
100 members will be participating.
Woodward said it’s been perhaps
15 years since a drill this large has
been held in Hertford. The drill
starts at 6 p.m. and runs until 10
p.m.
The drill will simulate how to re
sponded to a large fire in the Hall of
Fame Building on Market Street.
Portions of Church Street from
Grubb Street to Market Street will
be closed as well as Market Street
from Church Street to Covent Gar
den and Grubb Street and Covent
Garden along with Punch Alley.
The street closures will be re
quired so crews can lay five-inch
fire hoses from the simulation area
to the driver. Cars won’t be allowed
on the streets in that area for the
I four-hour drill.
Baggett rides
out hurricane
BY PETER WILLIAMS
News Editor
Riding out Hurricane Isabel at
the Hertford Cafe in 2003 did not
prepare 31-year-old James Baggett
for Irma.
The Elizabeth
City State Univer
sity graduate was
raised in Perqui
mans County but
has lived in the
Caribbean since
2013. He wrote
of surviving Irma
and spoke briefly
to The Perqui
BAGGETT
mans Weekly Tuesday afternoon
over a G-mail voice program from
his home in Sint Maarten.
His mother, Merle Benge and
her husband Byron still live in Bear
Swamp community.. He remem
bers during Isabel he was hold up
in Hertford Cafe on Church Street
where he was a dishwasher.
“This was nothing like that,” he
said.
Sint Maarten is part of the King- .
dom of the Netherlands, is a coun ¬
See BAGGETT, 4
PAL holding arts/crafts show
MayDay
From Staff Reports
The Perquimans Arts
League (PAL) will host its
seventh annual Arts and
Crafts Show at the Perqui
mans County Recreation
Center on Saturday from 10
a.m. until 4 p.m.
The show will feature
more than 40 artists and
craftspeople with an array
of products. In addition,
there will be breakfast and
lunch items, a bake sale,
50/50 raffle and door prizes
awarded throughout the
day. An added attraction for
fiber artists will be the yarn
truck from Knitting Addic
tion LLC from the Outer
Banks.
Admission to the show is
$3.
Since early spring, PAL
Arts & Crafts Show commit ¬
tee members have been vis
iting art shows and fairs to
evaluate a variety of artists’
works and inviting the best
to participate in this show.
Fine artists who work in
acrylic, oil, and watercolor
Photographers will pres
ent works featuring creative
lighting and eclectic sub
jects with products ranging
from large wall hangings to
photo note cards.
There will be a large vari-
See SHOW, 2
STAFF PHOTO BY PETER
WILLIAMS
A girl puts up a sign
for tributes to survivors
of addiction on a
piece of chain line
fence Saturday at a
MayDay event at the
Perquimans County
Recreation Department.
To the right are jars
placed in honor of
those who died from
addictions. To the
left are memories of
survivors.