Commissioners Act To Use Closed Schools

In a joint meeting of our two government boards, the Bertie County Commissioners passed two resolutions last night. After discussions with the Board of Education to try and work through our problem of excess school buildings sitting idle, the resolutions started final actions to get some value for our citizens by using the facilities they have paid for. To understand what is going on, some history is required.

A few years ago some of our local officials in the school system worked with the federal Department of Justice to close two of our schools by court order. It damaged two of our communities, created a local movement in opposition to the BOE, contributed to open hostility between the two boards of governement in our county (commissioners and education), and left a legacy of distrust that local officials are still trying to overcome. The cooperation of last night was a good start.



Chairman of County Commissioners Rick Harrell opened the meeting and called the County Commisioners into session.


These two elementary schools were closed during a time when former school officials focused considerable time and efforts in building new schools in our county. Many people were outraged at this focus for multiple reasons. We are losing population and had an excess of classroom space already. We are a poor county and directing money to buildings instead of teachers made no sense to most. No logical reason existed for directing our energies to building new schoools at a time when our students were falling farther and farther behind in student achievement and school officials seemed uncertain how to stop the slide. Unable to build a new high school due to mistakes in their planning, school officials settled for building a new middle school just so they could claim to build something. This created two more empty schools in our small county.

So now we have four schools sitting idle; Southwestern and C.G. White Middle Schools, J.P. Law and Askewville Elementary Schools. What a waste. The BOE can only justify using one of these for administration purposes and right now their plan is to make that Southwestern. That leaves three schools that will sit idle unless our elected officials act.



Chairman of Board of Education Rickey Freeman spoke next and called the Board of Education into session.


The County Commissioners have been working with citizens in our various communities to try and get some value for these idle buildings and land. County Manager Zee Lamb gave a summary of the many uses for C.G. White that have been identified as providing value to our citizens. An article in the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald does a great job of documenting the various groups who are interested in the C.G. White School and the uses that have been envisioned to make this building a value to our communities. You can read that article by Jennipher Dickens here.

Many legal problems existed that made this complicated. The two elementary schools had recently had millions of dollars spent on refurbishing them just before they were closed. Not good planning by some former Board of Education members as it left the schools encumbered with bond restrictions prohibiting using these schools for anything but what the courts had banned.

The disposal of a closed school is always complicated in North Carolina due to the regulatory requirements of the state involved in the process, so even the middle school that is excess cannot be sold to the county without extensive actions by both boards, tying up a lot of time for government officials and taking up much time in a crowded schedule. It includes a provision that they must first offer the school to the county whose tax payers built the school . . . . but does not make it easy.

Our County Commisioners and Board of Education met in the Council on Aging building last night to try and work through some of these hurdles.




County Commissioners and staff - Morris Rascoe, Lloyd Smith, Zee Lamb, Charles Smith, Wallace Perry, Norman Cherry and L.C. Hoggard



Board of Education and staff - Rickey Freeman, Melinda Eure, Gloria Lee, Alton Parker, Emma Johnson and Dr. Michael Priddy


There was some discussion about the fair market value of C.G. White which has been appraised by our Bertie County Tax Administrator Hosea Wilson. Highlights from his professional appraisal are as follows. ". . . the Cost Approach is the only approach pertinent." ". . . the Sales Comparison and Income Approach have been considered but deemed not applicable." ". . . the property suffers from Physical Deterioration and Functional Obsolescence at such a rate that the improvements no longer contribute any value to the land or site itself. " "It would be necessary to raze the improvements and have infrastructure in place to develop the site into a residential subdivision and reach its potential highest and best use. " ". . . the fair market value of the subject property on July 24, 2007 is $30,000.00."

The first act last night of the County Commissioners was in response to a motion of Commissioner Norman Cherry, seconded by Commissioner Wallace Perry, and unanimously passed, to purchase back the C.G. White Middle School from the BOE so we can use it for the community. A part of Commissioner Cherry's proposal included creating a working group of interested parties to work out details of how best to use the property once it was in the county's possession. However the first step was considering the acts needed to complete the repurchase at the next County Commissioner's meeting on August 6th, so that the BOE could act on August 13th at their next meeting. The County will work out a proposed price (to be determined in line with Hosea Wilson's appraisal) to be forwarded to the BOE.

Of course the bond restrictions on the two elementary schools make them a more complicated problem. Our County Attorney, Lloyd Smith, has been working to resolve this issue with the lender. Because of the conscientious way our finances have been maintained, we are well secured for the bond repayments on all of our QZAB loans. That means the lender is well secured and therefore willing to work with us to resolve this. The County Commissioner's and County Manager Zee Lamb are to be commended for this situation, as it has not been easy in a poor county like Bertie to maintain a good financial reputation. It has taken a lot of hard work and focus.

The second significant action taken last night was about this goal of releasing the schools from bond restrictions. In response to a motion by Vice Chairman L.C. Hoggard, seconded by Commsioner Wallace Perry, the commisioners authorized the County Attorney to complete his negotiations to release the two elementary schools from the bond restrictions. After this release is secured, the plan is to find ways to use these two buildings for our community and citizens as well.

Since these schools are currently owned by the County, and merely leased to the Board of Education, it will have to be determined how best to resolve the ownership issue. Though the BOE has a legal right to ask that title be transferred to the school system, the schools would be surplus and merely have to be disposed of through the same complicated process of returning them to the county being pursued for C.G. White. As Dr. Michael Priddy, our acting Superintendent, noted it would seem prudent to leave title with the county to avoid the bureacratic overhead of turning right around and giving them back to the county.

A great deal of credit goes to our County Commissioners and Board of Education for acting to get some value from these schools built with our tax dollars.

Thank you.

Windsor Rotary Inducts New Officers

The Windsor Rotary Annual Dinner and Cocktail Party was held last night, and noted guest was local District President Charles Gregg. Below are a few of the members who enjoyed the hospitality as they waited for the dinner to start.






Outgoing President Ned Heckstall (shown below) opened the evening and thanked a few people for their efforts during the past year when he was President.




Charles Gregg (far right below) then adminstered the oath of office to the new incoming officers (shown below from left) including Ron Freeman, Treasurer, Collins Cooper, Vice President, and Sharon Davis, President.




Outgoing President Ned Heckstall (right below) was presented a plaque thanking him and recognizing him for his many efforts during the past year from Charles Gregg (left below).




It was a great evening for a group of citizens that is involved in many efforts to build and support our community. You should come to the Carolina House Restaurant next Thursday at Noon to get to know this group of civic minded people.

Bertie And Windsor Tourist Brochure

Some conscientious citizens have created a new tri-fold brochure so that local businesses can promote some of our leading attractions. Made of card stock, it can be folded and set up as a display for counters or tables.




The following are the three sides to the brochure. Click on each thumbnail for a full size picture to allow you to see the wording and pictures clearly.







Please contact Nancy Joyner at (252) 794-4966 or email ncfj@earthlink.net for copies of the card stock version for your business, or you may get the brochure as a flyer for handouts. This is a great promotional item for our area.

Warner And The Whale

Story by Bob Fringer




A thunderous gobble greeted us as Warner and I were quietly climbing out of his truck. It was still 45 minutes before sunrise and no self- respecting turkey should have been gobbling at that time.

We quickly grabbed our decoys and headed toward the tree line where the demented turkey was gobbling. I was going along as an observer and did not carry my gun. We had to walk about 100 yards along a water-filled ditch before we reached a place where we could cross it. We had planned to ford the ditch and then walk another 100 yards to the edge of the woods where we intended to hunt. Warner was the first one to cross the ditch while I brought up the rear. I wasn’t quite as nimble as Warner so I had to crawl up the far side of the ditch on my hands and knees. As I was groping my way up the steep bank we could hear the gobbler fly down into the field. We barely saw the bird through the murky haze of the early morning light. It gobbled several times and began to walk out into the field. We couldn’t move any farther without being seen. The only cover we had was about 10 inches of grass. Warner, 5 yards to my left, was able to nestle down into the grass but I, with an extra large belly, sprawled out across the grass, looking much like a beached whale in a camouflaged jump suit.

I was having a difficult time seeing the gobbler. I had knocked my cap sideways while climbing out of the ditch, twisted my face mask around my head so that I couldn’t see out of the eye holes and pushed my eyeglasses slightly off my nose.

About that time, Warner said that he had seen another gobbler enter the field. He laughed when he saw my predicaments. I replied that I couldn’t see anything.

After some major adjustments on my part, I was finally able to see the two birds strutting around in the field. I couldn’t see well enough to determine the ages of the birds, but Warner, with a better vantage point, said that there was one mature gobbler and a jake (immature male).

The two birds walked around the field and slowly wandered away from us. Warner was able to put a decoy out in front of us when the birds were walking away. The birds were now 120 yards out in the field. Suddenly, they sprinted across the field and began to chase another bird. The three of them ran back and forth around the field. The chase went on for several minutes, with the birds getting closer to us each time they ran across the field. Since I didn’t have much cover, I kept my head low and, consequently, could only catch a glimpse of the bird every so often.

Soon, Warner whispered, “I think I can kill that bird.” I thought the birds were too far away and urged Warner to wait. At this point, Warner shouldered his gun. I looked up and saw two jakes running straight to the decoy and told Warner that the birds were too young to shoot. Suddenly, Warner’s gun blast broke the stillness of the morning. The two jakes, about 15 yards from us, took off for parts unknown. The bird Warner shot was flapping on the ground. It quickly became apparent to me that Warner and I weren’t looking at the same bird. He had shot a nice sized two-year old gobbler.

Warner had made a long shot. The distance between where he had shot and where the bird lay was 47 paces. That’s a long way to kill a turkey.

We picked up the bird and the decoy and headed back to the truck. I made it back across the ditch without any problem. It had been an exciting morning and now Warner had “a whale of a tale” to tell.



Bob Fringer
July 10, 2007

School Disposal Meeting - July 30th

The Bertie County Commissioners and the Bertie County Board of Education will hold a joint meeting at the Council on Aging building on July 30th at 3:00 PM. The primary topic is the C.G. White public hearing to talk about the process by which the disposal of that surplus school will be handled.

However the issues are broader than C.G. White and the Powellsville area alone. Since we will shortly be determining what will happen with Askewville and J.P. Law in Merry Hill also, the meeting could have broader impact than just C.G. White as it will clearly be establishing the decision pattern that will be followed twice more in fairly short order.

The article below about C.G. White indicates that certain groups are already putting pressure on our elected officials. Everyone who lives close to Powellsville, Merry Hill and Askewville has an interest in this upcoming meeting. In fact since a lot of tax payer dollars are at stake, everyone who pays taxes in Bertie County has an interest too.

Patience Wears Thin

by Jennifer Dickens - July 13th, 2007 - Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald

On July 30, [at 3:00 PM] a joint session of the Bertie County Commissioners and the Bertie Board of Education (BOE) is to be held at the Council on Aging building on School Street in Windsor.

"This is the meeting that Mr. (Rick) Harrell (the chairman of the commissioners) envisioned where interested parties can sit down and talk about what will be done with the buildings," County Manager Zee Lamb stated at Monday night's regular commissioner's meeting.

Harrell said at a previous commissioner's meeting there would be no decision made on what to do with the school buildings until everybody who had a stake in the outcome sat down and talked about it.

Some people in the community are evidently tired of waiting for that decision.

"We're disgusted; we're tired of waiting," stated Jean Canada, a representative of the C.G. White Alumni Association interested in acquiring that school.

Interesting position, this "we're tired of waiting" comment. The group Jean Canada represents essentially asked that they be given the building free for their group to use alone. There are several other groups that have an interest in use of the facility (which appear to be representated by the Town of Powellsville or even the County for sports). There has been no delay in moving forward with the efforts to resolve the issue. The County Commissioners have been moving forward promptly in talking with all groups. Is the lack of patience because other groups had not approached the Commissioners until after the Alumni group?

Though I know some are not in favor of this blogs position as expressed in an earlier editorial, I feel the tax payer money spent on this facility was directed towards education and proceeds from the building disposal should go to education factilities. I recognize that the fair market value of the facility is not nearly what some would think, but I do hope that the Board of Education uses whatever proceeds they get from divesting the property to fixing the problems with the high school facility.

Though keeping C.G. White in the hands of groups dedicated to the public good will require some new tax payer expenditures, we will get double value by both receiving the new facilities for the Powellsville area and directing the money it costs to transfer title into fixing the high school issues as well (I hope!). I think that is a good bargain.

From what I have been told, all the money should not have to come from Bertie County tax payers either. There are lots of grants available for education, sports, library and civic facilities. C.G. White could be used for all of these and grants are certainly a reality. Unfortunately that will take some time and might further try the patience of the Alumni group.

Bertie County Survey On Transportation Needs

The State of North Carolina is funding a Department of Transportation "Comprehensive Transportation Planning" committee which is looking at future transportation needs of our county. One of the first acts of the committee is to allow Bertie County residents and employees of our community businesses to provide input to the process through a poll. The poll form is being provided to local buinesses and organizations for peope to comment. It is also available online to simplify providing your information at:

surveymonkey.com/bertietransportation.


For any questions or additional information please contact Ann S. Whitley, Transportation Planner/RPO Coordinator for the Upper Coastal Plain Council of Governments at phone number (252) 446-0411 ext. 260 or email her at awhitley@ucpcog.org.

OLF Site Search Shifts To Virginia

by Cal Bryant - July 11th, 2007 - Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald

Over the past five years, the U.S. Navy has searched for a prime spot in eastern North Carolina to construct an Outlying Landing Field (OLF).

The Navy’s search may now take a turn north of the border in Virginia.

On Tuesday, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine identified 10 spots in his state the Navy could consider for its fleet of new F/A 18 Super Hornet strike fighter jets to perform “touch-and-go” training.

Three of the Virginia sites are as close to Bertie County as the site in Washington County. Because of the huge scale of territory that modern fighter jets cover, it is unlikely that these three sites will matter to us any less than the site in Washington County that appears to have been defeated by political efforts.

It is interesting to me that the battle has always been over where to place the new OLF and not whether a new OLF is important. The problem has always been twofold. The most critical one is that our nation no longer is willing to say to people, deal with your own decisions. The current touch and go landing field has been surrounded by homes and development that came in long after the field was built and used for this purpose. These people built their homes and then demanded the Navy move someplace else because they didn't like the noise. That is the reason a new field is needed.

Since a field already exists, and the only purpose is to move to a less congested area, it is ironic that our nation will not allow the field to be built anywhere there is wildlife too. If you can't build in the country and you can't operate near cities, there is certainly an implication that many people simply don't want our pilots to be able to practice. Is there perhaps an ulterior motive?

The second reason this is important is that we are at war right now. World War IV against the Islamofascists is reality. There is no argument that fighter jets will not be an important part of this war. Already the success and tactical superiority we gained in early battles in Iraq and Afghanistan prove that. Since the war will be going on for at least another generation, it probably is important that this OLF be built somewhere, or a better choice be found from among the many bases that already exist.

An important question in this battle over where to allow training permitted by the OLF type facility, do we have the will to do things that are in our national interest any longer?

Commissioners Hold Public Hearing On Landfill Expansion

The first action item on last night's Bertie County Commissioners meeting was a Public Hearing on the need to expand our county landfill. As noted by Jim Hoggard, representing the organization "Mayors and Commissioners of Bertie County", the current landfill contract saves the taxpayers of Bertie County 17 cents per dollar on our tax rate. That is a significant saving and serves our county well. Of the 8 towns represented in the organization, 6 have already endorsed the planned expansion and one was meeting last night at the same time as the Public Hearing with the expectation that they would also approve.




The first presentation on the issue was by Drew Isenhour (shown below), Area President of Republic Services of NC, current contract holder on the landfill operation.




Mr. Isenhour spoke about the contract, the process by which the landfill expansion had been researched to adhere to state rules, and the next steps to move the process forward.

The next presentation was by Bill Hodges, (shown below) Professional Engineer from Hodges, Harbin, Newberry & Tribble, Inc.





Mr Hodges provided details and maps of the various sites that were considered. He explained why most of the numerous sites were rejected, and then compared some of the issues of the 5 sites that were finalists in the process. He explained why they recommended Bertie County select expansion of the current landfill site as the best option for Bertie County.

If you click on the title above, you will be taken to the Bertie County web site page which allows for a download of the details of the study. It is a very large download but provides significant details, including maps, for each of the sites considered.

A primary focus of discussion lst night was the issue of mediation of road damage and litter for the citizens who live in the immediate area of the landfill or have to use the roads in the area on a regular basis. Since the county and our towns are benefitting from the landfill economically, to be fair we need to make sure that these citizens are not unfairly burdened with potholes and litter. At present that is a concern.

There was some discussion about the possiblity of getting matching funds from the State of North Carolina if some money was set aside to mediate the issue of potholes.

There was also discussion about the possibility of the new contract specifying more agressive cleanup efforts for the roads in the area to alleviate current litter problems.

A team of negotiators to represent county interests was appointed to start working with Republic Services of NC on the specifics of the new contract, incuding addressing these mediation efforts. The Bertie County team will be composed of Commissioner Norman Cherry, Commisioner Wallace Perry, County Manager Zee Lamb and County Attorney Lloyd Smith.

They will present any proposed contract at a future meeting of the County Commissioners. It was noted that there will be at least two more meetings on the landfill expansion before any contract can be approved.

Windsor Annual July 3rd Spectatcular

Windsor’s Fireworks Celebration was held last night at the Roanoke / Cashie River Center. There was great music, food, and spectacular Fireworks. The event is held on the 3rd so families can join other communities in their traditional firework shows on the Fourth of July. That way everyone gets two celebrations.




The crowd was a great turnout. The weather was spectacular. This is an event that grows every year and next year will be even better. Shown below, a typical kid and a couple of sisters who came out to have fun!






Mayor Bob Spivey and Commissioner Jim Hoggard (shown below), greet visitors as they arrive at the event.

Local concessions provided great food. (John Tyler shown working hard!)




As the sunlight grows dim, the crowd continues to grow.




The band was great and the music set the mood of celebration.




Even Uncle Sam was there with a couple of friends!

The most spectacular part of the show is always the fireworks.

Opening Burst

Trails Of Light

The July 3rd fireworks Celebration is being made possible by the Town of Windsor so thank the people of Windsor for the great show.

Beauty At Night

Four-legged Camp

by Meagan Williford - July 2nd, 2007 - Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald

COLERAIN - Summertime is here and that means school is out and the kids are home all day.

Have no fear moms, camps are an educational and fun way to entertain children during the summer.



Charles and Leah Newsome, owners of Oak Down Stables, have a three -day summer enrichment program three weeks during the summer for children.

Great article . . . . except not enough pictures of the horses or the kids. There are a lot of pictures of last year's camps covered on the article we did on the blog last year about Oak Down Stables and their summer camps. You can see that article here.

I understand there are still a couple of openings for this year's camps. If you want to send your kids, you can contact Oak Down Stables through their web site, http://www.oakdownstables.com/, or call Leah and Charles at (252) 356-4130.

Don’t Mourn Brown v. Board of Education

By Juan Williams - June 29th, 2007 - The New York Times

With yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling ending the use of voluntary schemes to create racial balance among students, it is time to acknowledge that Brown’s time has passed. It is worthy of a send-off with fanfare for setting off the civil rights movement and inspiring social progress for women, gays and the poor. But the decision in Brown v. Board of Education that focused on outlawing segregated schools as unconstitutional is now out of step with American political and social realities.

[snip]

Racial malice is no longer the primary motive in shaping inferior schools for minority children. Many failing big city schools today are operated by black superintendents and mostly black school boards.

And today the argument that school reform should provide equal opportunity for children, or prepare them to live in a pluralistic society, is spent. The winning argument is that better schools are needed for all children — black, white, brown and every other hue — in order to foster a competitive workforce in a global economy.

There is that other minor issue that representative democracies require literate and experienced citizens or they collapse into greed and dictatorship. A little lesson of history that has been ignored as our schools deteriorated over the last 40 years. It is time to go back to what worked.

Get the courts out of interefering with the discipline of children. They actually ruled that a child that had beaten a teacher almost to death could not be removed from classes.

Also let the teachers teach, not fill out forms proving they are adhering to federal regulations.

Our schools are not failing because we have forgotten how to teach. Our schools are failing because the courts and the federal bureaucrats are "changing society", not "teaching children".

Excellent article.