Winning cheerleaders, 9 ’’News from Next Door ' WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2019 75 cents SUBMITTED PHOTO A design shows the proposed Perquimans Marine Industrial Park with a man-made boat basin. The Perquimans County Recreation Center is located to the right at the foot of South Granby Street. The first phase of the boat basin is colored in light blue. County gets $750,000 grant BY PETER WILLIAMS News Editor A $750,000 grant by Golden LEAF will put Per quimans County one step closer to the start of con struction of a long-awaited marine industrial Park. The announcement by Golden LEAF executive director Dan Gerlach last week was applauded by county officials who ap plied for the grant last year. Golden LEAF was offering counties up to $1.5 million. “I’m ecstatic,” said Per quimans County Manager Frank Heath.. “We have a pending grant with U.S. Eco nomic Development Admin istration and in my view this just strengthens the case for getting it. We’re on a good footing now, and that would put us on a better footing. We’re also working on some other angles as well. “It’s clear Dan and Golden LEAF believe in our project. As you know, we’ve been talking with them about it for years, and now it’s hap pening. This also creates the effect of legitimacy for other funders.” Gerlach said Golden LEAF will work with other funding agencies to make the Perquimans project a reality. “The closer you get the easier it is to find the rest of the money,” Gerlach said. “We will be able to tell oth- ers, ‘hey we’re in, why don’t you get in too.’” The first phase of building an inland boat basin is es timated to cost between $6 million and $7 million. The state has already awarded the county almost $2.9 mil lion for the project. With the $750,000 from Golden LEAF, the comity has nearly $3.6 million to spend. The county owns the 72-acre parcel near tlie Perquimans County Rec reation Center. The site is See GRANT, 2 County adopts fraud system BY PETER WILLIAMS News Editor Perquimans County property owners are urged to take advantage of a free system that will alert them if somebody tries to file a deed or other action against their property. A criminal may record a fraudulent deed making it } appear as if they now own | your home. Once they’ve done this, they can use ! your name as collateral on a mortgage or even attempt | to sell your home to an un- | suspecting buyer. Register of Deeds Jacque line Frierson said the service became active on Feb. 1. Frierson said she is not aware of this type of fraud happening in Perquimans County but she knows it has happened elsewhere, including Wake County. She said Currituck and Gates counties have adopted the fraud alert program. “Once you sign up, if a deed or any other type of document is filed with your name on it, you will be alert ed,” Frierson said. “If you know about it, and it’s OK, there is nothing you have tot do, but if you don’t then you contact our office.” The system only works with e-mail, not with phone numbers. Once you log in, you will be asked to give a See FRAUD, 2 More funds available for winter heating help BY PETER WILLIAMS News Editor Perquimans County has received another $31,000 to help low-income people with heating help this win ter. Department of Social Services Director Susan Chaney said her depart ment was notified of the grant on Friday. SUBMITTED PHOTO The new DaVita kidney center in Hertford will have 10 chairs and can serve 20 patients. DaVita to open kidney clinic BY PETER WILLIAMS News Editor DaVita, a worldwide pro vider of dialysis treatment, plans to open a clinic in Hert ford in March. The clinic at 210 Ocean Highway South is in a shop ping center that also houses a Family Dollar store. Courtney Culpepper, a conununications manager for Denver-based DaVita, said the Hertford clinic will have 10 chairs and expects to serve 20 patients. Additionally, the center is equipped with train ing rooms and will serve as a regional hub for teammate education efforts. DaVita has clinics in Elizabeth City and Edenton as well. The Hertford clinic will Tlie funding comes through the federal Low Income Energy Assistance Program, or LIEAP. The county received $70,000 in late 2018 and those funds were all used by early Janu ary. The initial grant was earmarked for people who were age 60 or older and disabled and who were already getting services through Aging and Adult Services. The new grant is opened up to low-income people, regardless ®f age. People are eligible for the new LIEAP funds if they make less than 110 percent of the Federal Poverty Level. That works out to about $13,700 for an individual or about $28,300 for a family of four, based on the pov ¬ erty numbers on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ website. There are also are other limits. People who received money in the first round of funding and ineligible for funding in the new round. The money is paid di rectly to the utility, either electrical utility or some thing that provides fuel like have a staff of about 10 peo ple. That will include a nurse, dietician, social worker, insur ance counselor and patient care technicians. An estimated 31 million people in the U.S. have chron ic kidney disease, accord ing to the American Kidney Fund. Diabetes and hypertension are the two leading causes of kidney disease. One in three people with diabetes and one in five people with hyperten sion also have kidney dis ease. For people with stage five kidney disease, also known as kidney failure or end-stage renal disease, dialysis or a kidney transplant is required See KIDNEY, 2 SUBMITTED PHOTO A picture shows the lobby area of the new DaVita kidney center in Hertford. propane or oil. The amount ranges by how many people in the household. The most someone can get is $400. The least is $200. If you take an average of $300, the $31,000 will be enough to help about 105 households. For more information on the program, contact the Perquimans Social Services office at 426-7373. Schools want calendar control BY PETER WILLIAMS News Editor Perquimans County is joining the list of school systems that are asking the state to give them back lo cal control over the school calendar. Interim Superintendent James Bunch made the request tlus month to the Perquimans County Corm mission and asked for their f support. The county com mission agreed to back the plan. In 2004, the North Caro lina General Assembly took control of school calendar and set what amounts to a “one size fits all” statewide mandate. Schools cannot start any earlier than the Monday closest to Aug. 26 and school must end no later than the Friday clos est to June 11. The change was largely supported by the tourism industry. A lon ger summer break meant people had more time to vacation at the beach or the mountains and it pro vides teenage workers who wouldn’t be in school. School officials have been fighting to get back control of the calendar ever since. In 2017, a bill passed in the N.C. House by a 100-8 margin to let any school sys tem start as early as Aug. 15 to align with the community college calendar. The House voted 104-6 in favor of let ting 20 primarily high-pover ty counties start the school year as early as the Monday closest to Aug. 10. Both measures never made it to the Senate floor. That same year then Rep. Bob Steinburg sponsored a bill that would give com plete control of the calen dar to the school boards in Camden, Currituck, Eden ton-Chowan, Elizabeth City- Pasquotank, Perquimans and Tyrrell County. “One reason the issue See CALENDAR, 2 Long-time congressman dies at 76 Man faces $2 million bond BY BOBBY BURNS The Daily Reflector U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, the long-serving legislator who railed against deficit spending and advocated for the active duty military and veterans alike, died Sunday at age 76 after struggling with health problems in cluding a broken hip. Jones, a Republican from the Pitt County town of Farmville, represented the 3rd Congressional District which includes Perqui mans County. He had been re-elected to his 13th term in November and had an nounced he would retire at the end of the term. He be came ill before the new ses sion began, however, and was excused on Dec. 11. “Congressman Jones rep resented the best of North Carolina politics,” said U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, a Wil son Democrat who gave Jones the oath of office on Jan. 4 during a private visit to Jones’ home. See JONES, 2 From Staff Reports A host of law enforcement agencies were involved in the arrest of a man on Turnpike Road on Wednesday on weap ons and drug charges. Eddy Rodriguez-Pinto, 26, is being held on $2 million bond on charges of traffick ing marijuana, maintaining a dwelling and possession of a firearm by a felon. He was living in the 500 block of Turn pike Road in Perquimans County. Sheriff Shelby White said more than 10 pounds of marijuana was seized. RODRIGUEZ- PINTO The sheriff would only say multiple law enforce ment agencies were in volved in the case, but he would not name them. A spokesman for the FBI in Charlotte said last week the pending charg es were state related and her office couldn’t com ment on state charges. More charges are ex ¬ pected. Rodriguez-Pinto is being held in Albemarle District Jail.

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