SATURDAY, MAY 6, 2023
"News from Next Door”
$1.50
jj) SCAN ME
PAGE 2
Hundreds attend
Pig on Perquimans;
event featured
cookoff, hoops
tourney, 5K
PAGE 4
Rain forces
PCRA’s annual
Living History
Day indoors
PAGE 5
Providence
MB Church
refurbishing roof,
spire, dome
Perquimans awards $1.2M contract for high school track
Chesson to begin work in Dec.,
track to be ready in spring
BY REGGIE PONDER
Staff Writer
HERTFORD — William
ston-based contractor A.R.
Chesson has been awarded
a $1.2 million contract to
build the new outdoor ath
letic track at Perquimans
County High School.
The Perquimans County
Board of Education voted
unanimously to award the
construction contract to the
Williamston-based firm at
its Monday, April 24 meet
ing.
This time last year, Per
quimans school officials
were expecting to have the
new track at the high school
ready for the 2023 track sea
son.
That didn’t come through,
but school officials now are
hoping to have the track
completed by this Decem
ber. That timetable will have
the track in place for the
spring 2024 track season.
The board voted at its
February 2022 regular meet
ing to secure CHA Consult
ing to design the new track.
The design and construc
tion management firm was
hired to develop a project
budget and bring it back to
the school board for its con
sideration. The firm’s fee is
based on the total project
budget.
Representatives of CHA
told the school board in
January 2022 that a track
typically takes six to seven
months to complete.
Board members stated
during discussions last year
that they liked the work
CHA did on the football
stadium project at the high
school.
To pay for the project,
the Perquimans County
Schools applied for a feder
al grant administered by the
N.C. Department of Public
Instruction in July 2021.
A month later, the district
got the green light to move
forward with planning the
project.
The track project is ex
pected to be a multi-year
project. During phase one,
See TRACK, A7
Masters of the Garden
Search continues in
Camden for missing
Edenton woman
VERNON FUESTON/THE PERQUIMANS WEEKLY
An unidentified vendor (right) talks with a potential customer (left) at the Master Gardeners’ 11th annual Spring
Garden Show at the Perquimans County Parks and Recreation Center in Hertford, Saturday, April 29. More than
500 people were expected to attend the show, an organizer said.
500-plus attend Spring Garden Show
Vendors sold plants, garden
accessories, arts and crafts
BY VERNON FUESTON
Staff Writer
HERTFORD — A crowd
estimated by organizers at
more than 500 turned out
for the Albemarle Master
Gardeners’ 11th annual
Spring Garden Show on Sat
urday, April 29.
The show attracted more
than 40 vendors who set up
booths at the Perquimans
County Parks and Recre
ation Center in Hertford and
sold plant cuttings, herbs,
garden accessories, and gar
den-oriented arts and crafts.
Along with the vendors,
Albemarle Master Garden-
New Edenton downtown director hired
Chesson 2008 Holmes
grad, former naval aviator
From staff reports
EDENTON — An Eden
ton native who went on to
become a Navy aviator and
helicopter instructor for 11
years is returning home to
head Edenton’s Main Street
6 1 89076 47144
Vol. 88, No. 18
WWW.PerquimansWeekly.com
@2021 Perquimans Weekly
All Rights Reserved
VERNON FUESTON/THE PERQUIMANS WEEKLY
Vendors at the 11th annual Albemarle Master
Gardeners’ Spring Garden Show arrange plants at their
booth at the Perquimans County Parks and Recreation
Center, Saturday, April 29.
ers members were also on
hand to dispense gardening
advice.
The show has been held
Program.
James “Ches” "Chesson
has been hired as execu
tive director of Destination
Downtown Edenton, Town
Manager Corey Gooden
and the Destination Down
town Board of Directors an
nounced last week.
“We are absolutely elated
to announce Mr. Chesson
as the new executive direc
tor for Destination
Downtown Eden
ton,” Gooden said in
2 a press release. “He
brings smarts, savvy
and familiarity of his
native community to
the table. We look for
ward to working with
in Perquimans County for
11 years, though the COVID
pandemic canceled two
shows. Proceeds from the
CHESSON
_ him closely
I as we chart
la path
I forward
I toward
i continued
; econom-
s ic vitality
'' downtown
as well as
the preser
vation of our historic dis
trict.”
Chesson is a 2008 gradu
ate of John A. Holmes High
School who became a naval
aviator and instructor for
the Navy’s MH60R Seahawk
helicopter after attending
the U.S. Naval Academy at
Annapolis, Maryland.
show are used to provide
$1,000 scholarships to area
high school students who
plan to attend a college or
university and study either
agriculture, horticulture or
natural resources.
Lines in front of vendor
booths were constantly two
to three deep, with garden
enthusiasts waiting to ask
vendors or the Master Gar
dener volunteers questions.
One vendor, Sherry Beau
champ of Verdant Vittles,
sells microgreens, sprouts
and herbs that she grows at
home.
“I believe in health and
happiness, and I try to
spread that in what I grow,”
Beauchamp said.
See GARDEN, A7
After leaving the mil
itary, Chesson earned a
master’s degree in business
administration from the
Kenan-Flagler Business
School at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel
Hill. Chesson and his wife
Adrianne have two young
children, Holmes and Coo
per.
Destination Downtown
Edenton is a nonprofit
downtown revitalization
organization that, according
to the press release, “works
to promote and preserve
downtown Edenton as a
desirable destination to live,
See CHESSON, A7
Anderson last seen in
Camden Point area April 25
BY JULIAN EURE
Managing Editor
CAMDEN — The Cam
den Sheriffs Office re
sumed its search Monday
for an Edenton woman re
ported missing on April 25
and whose car was found
abandoned in the Camden
Point area on Saturday,
April 29.
Sheriff Kevin Jones said
the search continues for
Shannon Dionne Ander
son, who was last seen in
the southern area of Cam
den between 9:30 p.m. and
11 p.m. on April 25.
The search in Camden
for Anderson, 50, of Chow
an Gardens, Edenton,
began Saturday, April 29,
after her 2018 Ford Escape
was found unattended by
sheriffs deputies on Broad
Creek Road, nearly four
days after she was report
ed missing.
The Edenton Police De
partment said in a Face-
book post April 25 that
Anderson was last seen
Graham’s message
in Edenton Sunday
to be ‘God loves you’
Evangelist to speak at
Legion Fairgrounds at 4 p.m.
BY REGGIE PONDER
Staff Writer
EDENTON — Frank
lin Graham’s message in
Edenton this weekend
will be the same message
he has proclaimed for de
cades — and the one his
father preached around
the world, according to
event organizers.
“The message is the
same,” Steve Rhoads, vice
president of the Billy Gra
ham Evangelistic Associ
ation, said in an interview
last week. “It’s the mes
sage that ‘God loves each,
and every one of us and
has provided a way for us
to have a relationship with
him through his Son Jesus
Christ.’”
The message is always
“God loves you,” Rhoads
said.
Graham will speak at
the American Legion Post
40 Fairgrounds In Edenton
Sunday at 4 p.m. as part
of the six-city “God Loves
ANDERSON
that day
on cam
eras leav
ing the
Chowan
Gardens
property.
Ac
cording
to Jones,
Anderson
apparently drove up to a
gate on Broad Creek Road
Tuesday night and stopped
her vehicle. He said Ander
son got out and knocked
on the door of a house and
told the resident who an
swered that “she was look
ing for somebody.”
The house where Ander
son stopped is in Camden’s
Vietnamese community,
so the residents weren’t
able to fully communicate
with her. They did recall
her asking for a person by
name, Jones said. Further
investigation by the Cam
den Sheriffs Office deter
mined the person Ander
son was seeking lives in
Virginia, he said.
After residents of the
Broad Creek Road home
See ANDERSON, A7
You” Tide-
water
Tour. The
tour start
ed today
in south
western
Maryland.
Graham’s
GRAHAM last tour
in North
Carolina in 2019 visited
Greenville.
Music for the event
in Edenton will include
award-winning contempo
rary group the Newsboys,
worship leader Marcos
Witt, and longtime BGEA
musical partner Dennis
Agqjanian.
“That draws all kinds
of people,’’Rhoads said
of the variety of musical
performers. The event is
designed for families and
will draw “all walks of
life, young and old, people
from all races and back
grounds,” he said.
But beyond the music,
the need for hope “is what
draws people,” he said.
“We live in a day when
See GRAHAM, A7