QUIMAlI
EEKIS
AI BEN Aid .E PRISONA^O
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ITHI ANNUAL
1
“News from Next Door”
THURSDAY, JULY 21, 2022
$1.50
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PAGE A2
IDA awards PAL
$1K grant to design
US 17 billboard
PAGE A3
Remember
Jesus when the
wheels won’t go
back on
PAGE B3
Baseball,
softball coach
pitch champs
announced
Winfall cools on sheriff taking over policing in town
Town doesn’t want long-term
contract with Perquimans
BY REGGIE PONDER
Staff Writer
WINFALL—Winfall town
officials appear in no hurry
to follow their counterparts
in Hertford in turning over
policing to the Perquimans
County Sheriffs Office.
At last week’s regular
meeting of the Winfall Town
Council, Councilwoman
Carol Cooper reported that
she had spoken with Per
quimans County Manager
Frank Heath about the pos
sibility of Winfall entering a
one-year trial contract with
the sheriffs office.
Cooper said Heath had
indicated to her the county
is not interested in a short
term agreement.
Cooper said Heath spe
cifically expressed concern
about the difficulty of hiring
a deputy for Winfall under a
short-term deal.
The county manager
“says it’s a forever deal or
no deal,” Cooper said. “So at
least now we know.”
Heath confirmed after
the meeting that while a
deal wouldn’t actually be
permanent, it would need
to be long-term in order for
the county to be interested
in providing police services
in Winfall.
“They would be asking
us to hire a deputy to ded
icate service to the town
of Winfall and they could
pull out after a year and we
would have spent the mon
ey to hire a deputy,” Heath
explained. “And you can’t
fire somebody after a year.
So it doesn’t make practical
sense for the county.”
Heath pointed out that
Hertford’s policing contract
with the county is a long-
term agreement.
Winfall Councilwoman
Virginia Harvey also noted
at last week’s meeting that
when the town of Hertford
entered its policing agree
ment with the Perquimans
Sheriffs Office, the sheriffs
office took possession of all
of the town’s police equip
ment and vehicles.
Cooper said that didn’t
seem right or smart to her.
She expressed opposition
to doing something similar
with the town of Winfall’s
equipment and vehicles.
Heath confirmed after
See WINFALL, A4
Planning for the unthinkable
Committee setup
to reduce Yates’
role in Winfall
PHOTOS BY REGGIE PONDER/THE PERQUIMANS WEEKLY
An actor portraying a gunshot victim warns law enforcement officers entering Perquimans County High School to
expect more than one gunman, during an armed intruder drill at the school Thursday, July 14. More than 50 law
enforcement officers and other emergency responders from Perquimans and neighboring counties participated in
the drill.
Responders drill for armed intruder
In exercise, 3 gunmen entered
Perquimans High School
BY REGGIE PONDER
Staff Writer
HERTFORD — Everyone
knew it was a drill. Even so,
the shots that rang out in the
Perquimans County High
School cafeteria Thursday,
July 14, and the enraged
screams of a man portray
ing an active shooter were
unsettling sounds in this
close-knit community.
PCHS Principal Mick
ey Drew was at his lunch
duty post in the cafeteria
as he might be on an actual
school day when the simu
lated armed intruder inci
dent began.
Drew led people out of
the cafeteria as quickly as
he could when the incident
started. A lockdown was
then announced over the
school’s intercom.
As law enforcement of
ficers participating in the
drill began to arrive they
started to encounter people
portraying shooting victims,
some of whom had already
died, others who were se
verely wounded.
They also began to
learn from some of those
portraying victims that
there might be more than
one active shooter inside
the school building.
“There’s two of them,”
one of the actors portray
ing a wounded victim told
arriving officers. “One
shot me and one went that
way,” pointing
It turned out there were
actually three shooters in
all. Two were “killed” by
law enforcement and a
third was taken into cus
tody. But not before three
people portraying vic
tims in the exercise were
“killed” and 12 others
were “wounded.”
Perquimans County
Schools Superintendent
Tanya Turner participat
ed in Thursday’s armed
intruder exercise in her
regular role as superin
tendent. She was in the
command center along
with law enforcement and
emergency services au-
See DRILL, A4
Councilors, instead of mayor,
to oversee town departments
BY REGGIE PONDER
Staff Writer
WINFALL — Winfall
Town Council is signifi
cantly reducing the duties
formerly carried out by the
town’s longtime mayor,
Fred Yates.
At the Winfall Town
Council’s regular meeting
last week, new commit
tees were announced that
will give council members
oversight responsibilities
of various areas of town
government.
Hertford to make
$15K in cemetery
improvements
Cole: Survey could add 100
burial plots at Cedarwood
BY REGGIE PONDER
Staff Writer
HERTFORD — The
town of Hertford will be
gin a series of improve
ments and upgrades at
Cedarwood and Roadside
cemeteries.
Interim Town Manager
Janice Cole told Hertford
Town Council at its regular
meeting last week that the
town’s cemetery fund con
tains $107,000.
YATES
Coun
cilwom
an Carol
Cooper
said she
had re
viewed
the com
mittee as
signments
with all
council members to be
sure everyone was happy
with the responsibilities
they were given.
She said a list distributed
at the meeting was based
on that mutual agreement
among council members.
See YATES, A4
“We
would like
to take the
money
out of that
fund for
the things
that we
want to
COLE do,” Cole
said.
Among the planned uses
for the funds is $4,000 for
about 100 feet of new fenc
ing at Roadside Cemetery.
Cedarwood Cemetery
is running low on marked
See CEMETERIES, A4
Longtime sailor Reis enjoys helping others on, off the sea
Resident once served as sailing
coach at U.S. Naval Academy
BY JOHN FOLEY
Correspondent
Salt air can become addictive.
While enrolled in the prep
school program at the Naval
Nuclear Power School on Mare
Island in Vallejo, California, the
summer before heading to Purdue
University, Ken Ries decided to
learn how to sail dinglues.
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That was 1962. The Akron, Ohio
native who would go on to a ca
reer as a U.S. Navy commander
has yet to let his sails luff.
“I came from Akron and if you
had a boat in Akron, it was a pow
er boat, but I was always interest
ed in sailing,” said Reis, who now
lives at Holiday Island.
Reis said learned how to sail
“by the seat of my pants” after
being introduced to dinghies at a
small basin in San Diego.
“My next sailing opportunity
came when I got to Purdue, but
I didn’t have free time to join the
sailing club because I had to get
good grades since I was there on
the government’s money. I had to
be a good steward of that money,”
Ries said.
“Steward” is an appropriate
word to describe Ries’ life. He’s
been helping others eqjoy the ben
efits of sailing for years, starting
with his sister.
“One day my sister and her
friends wanted to learn how to sail
and they wanted to build a boat
but they didn’t have any money,”
Ries recalled.
He went on to explain how he
sketched out a design that his
sister and her friends then used
to build a boat out of metal. They
used 1942 car hoods for the bow,
1950 hoods for the stem, as well
as refrigerators, all welded togeth
er by an airplane mechanic.
“They built a 20-foot scow, com
plete with a sail made out of an old
parachute, and we sailed that boat
on the Mississippi for four sum
mers,” Reis recalled.
The naval officer would go on
to sail his own personal Flying
See REIS, A4
JOHN FOLEY PHOTO
Ken Reis, a retired Navy commander who also served as a sailing
coach at the U.S. Naval Academy, poses for a portrait at his home
in Holiday Island. Reis, 84, still likes to sail; he owns six boats.