Reverend Reese Blanchett Speaks To Rotary

Bill White had the program for Rotary today and brought a speaker to the rotary for his first visit to our group.




Recent arrival to our area Reese Blanchett is the new Pastor at Cashie Baptist Church. Mr. Blanchett gave an interesting talk on impressions of our area and whether they matched statistical views. He provided some recent analysis of statistics and trends of the immediate Windsor area that were quite interesting and in some ways at odds with what is generally thought to be true. This is always thought provoking and inspires us to be more aware of what is going on.





Collins Cooper presented the traditional cobalt blue mug to Reese as a thank you for the talk.






Don't miss next weeks program, Thursday at noon in the Carolina House Restaurant.

Open House To Honor Art Class Thursday October 4th

Thursday October 4th, the Bertie County Arts Council will honor the students of Tracy Bell at their monthly reception and open house. The time will be from 4:00 PM until 6:00 PM.

Elizabeth "Sis" Gillam Hall of Elizabeth City and Nags Head (left) and Tra Perry of Colerain and Hyde County are in the class and will have paintings on exhibit.




Some of the pictures that will be on display include the following:

Yellow House of Jimmy and Rita Hoggard on King Street in Windsor, by Tracy Bell.



King Street in Windsor, with its beautiful trees and shadows, was painted by Laura Beasley of Colerain.

St. Thomas Episcopal Church by Peggy Anne Vaughan of Edenton.


Don't miss this monthly gathering. It is always fun.

Maybe Old News . . .

. . . but still GREAT NEWS!


Cashie 14 & Under - 2007 Babe Ruth Softball - National Tournament Champions!

Thank you. Good job.

"Windsor House" Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

The new Windsor facility to care long term for patients with memory problems had its ribbon cutting ceremony yesterday. The facility, called Windsor House, is at the end of Rhodes Ave behind the hospital off U.S. 17.




The Executive Director of the facility, Ellen Bunch (shown below), opened the ceremony and welcomed everyone to the event.




Mayor Bob Spivey gave a benediction for our Men and Women in Uniform and then presided over the ceremony to bless the American Flag.




Officers Martin Phelps (shown below on the left) of the Windsor Police Department and Chris Lee of the Edenton Police Department performed the ceremony to raise the flag for the first time in front of Windsor House.




Allen Castelloe (shown below), Windsor Town Manager led the Pledge of Allegiance.




Alysia Salisbury gave a fantastic rendering of the National Anthem and Carrie Jernigan signed it for the deaf.




Ben Bunch led a prayer for the Windsor House Blessing and for the future residents, and also led a prayer to bless the food that was being provided for all attendees.




Allen Osborne (shown below) of Windsor House made comments to introduce the ribbon cutting ceremony and express pleasure at joining our community. He pledged that Windsor House would be good corporate citizens.




Sharon Davis, Director of the Chamber of Commerce, thanked everyone for coming and welcomed Windsor House to our community.




There was a very good crowd present considering the rain that preceded the event. Luckily the rain stopped just before the time scheduled for this outdoor event.




The formal ribbon cutting included Chuck White of Spinnaker Development, builders of Windsor House, Mayor Bob Spivey, Executive Director Ellen Bunch, Allen Osborne, Carrie Jernigan and Lena Evans, RCC of Windsor House.




After the ceremony we all got to take a tour of the facility. When you enter the lobby it is very impressive, more like a hotel than a care facility.




On this day first order of business was to check in with Kelly Phelps to register and get a name tag, along with a lottery ticket for their drawing.




The fireplace in the lobby attracted some of the guests to pause and rest for a few minutes.




In one of the guest waiting rooms on either side of the lobby there is a piano that can play music automatically, creating a very pleasant ambience. This day they also had a piano player and singer, Michelle Chappel and Vickie Hoggard (shown below) to welcome guests.




To get to the dinning facility we headed down the main hallway.




Food for the event was provided by John and Rachel Pierce of Heritage House, and was as usual excellent.




As people completed their tours they gathered in the dining room, a very impressive place, for food and conversation.




Windsor House looks like it is going to be an excellent addition to our community.

Bertie County Officials Map Plan For Emergency Response

by Jennipher Dickens - September 19th, 2007 - Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald

Rickey Freeman has had a busy few weeks.

Freeman, the Emergency Management Coordinator for Bertie County, has been scrambling to find a solution to the state of rescue services in Bertie County.

Volunteer rescue squads are becoming a thing of the past. Part of that is the result of our law suit obsessed culture where training and credentials are required for anything, and that still does not protect the volunteer. Add to that the willingness of government to tax for any reason and paid government staff is the solution to any problem. For 49 years the Aulander Rescue Squad, volunteers, protected that town. Now it is being disbanded.

This all seems to be a part of a change in the culture of America. I wonder if we are going to be happy with the new culture when it is in place?

Colerain's Seagull Cafe

Mark Your Calendar
The Seagull Café Is Opening October 3

The famous Colerain "Seagull Cafe" will be opening in the fall for the fourth year in a row. This new tradition has proven very popular with both local regulars and the many long time visitors from outside our area.

Allen And Helen Wall, Jimmy and Evelyn Hoggard
Fall 2006 - First Customers

The Seagull will be open Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 11:00 AM until 2:00 PM for lunchtime.

Chowan River In Fall Colors

The food is unique and I highly recommend it. The menu includes Salt Herring, Trout, Oysters and Wild Caught N.C. Shrimp.

Betsy Bixler tried to be first customer last year, but just missed. Betsy and the crew of builders on her house were the second customers.

Brandon Johnson, Tom Mizelle, Nancy Adams, Betsy Bixler And Chester Johnson Arriving At The Seagull

The cooks at the Seagull are simply the best.

Mike Perry, Delores Forehand, Nancy Harrell And Linda Wynn - The Seagull Cafe

Mike Perry and Linda Wynn are always on hand to welcome everyone to a unique dining experience. Please don't miss it!


Click on the title to go to the web site for Perry-Wynn Fish Company, the owner of the Seagull Care.

Web Site Promotes Education On Shaken Baby Syndrome

Jennifer Dickens is continuing her efforts to spread education about Shaken Baby Syndrome in our area with the creation of a new web site with information about the problem. The new website can be reached by clicking on the title above or clicking here.

http://stopsbs.net/

An earlier article about Jennifer's educational presentation (done for the Windsor Rotary) can be found at the link below.
http://bertiecounty.blogspot.com/2007/08/jennipher-dickens-talks-about-shaken.html

For a little history, the link below talks about Jennifer's presentation to the Bertie County Commissisoners when she was just forming her new organization to promote education about the problem.
http://bertiecounty.blogspot.com/2007/08/shaken-baby-syndrome-group-being-formed.html

Jennifer's new website has a great links page to other information sources on the problem. Let's all help by spreading the word about the new website, and asking organizations in our area to contact Jennifer about doing her educational presentation. You can email her at jennipher.dickens@r-cnews.com. Thanks.

Commissioners Support Future Growth

Article and photos by Collins Cooper.

Years ago our area was booming. Windsor had 5 grocery stores and a movie theater. Colerain was a thriving business center. Aulander was thriving too, with its own auto dealership. However we went through a period when local government was hostile to business and did not appreciate the consequences. Government cannot create business opportunities but it can kill them. Our businesses left, slowly, one by one. The result was reduced tax receipts and loss of jobs which has made us one of the poorest areas in the state.




Bertie County is a peninsula with three rivers, the Roanoke, Chowan and Cashie, providing us with unbelievable beauty, recreation and assets. The world is short of of all three and we can use these natural advantages to recreate that boom time again, providing jobs and opportunity to our people. It is not necessary for our area to be poor.

To take advantage of our assets while preserving the natural beauty we do not want to allow new development to be just mobile homes and cheap housing, even though those need to be a part of the mix too. For some time now the county has been working to approve a Planned Unit Development section (called a PUD) for our subdivision ordinance so that developers can set aside some of the land to remain forever natural, while still getting the financial rewards that fuel growth from high end development. This means increasing density on the land left and that needs to be carefully controlled. These kinds of developments, high density, allow for beautiful homes close to open spaces that are very desirable to many people.

Last night our county commissioners approved the PUD that they have been working on so long to help fuel future growth. Over time this will result in jobs and opportunties for out citizens while preserving nature for future generations. A complex problem with no easy solutions. I suspect that is why it took so long to work out the details of the new ordinance.

The motion to approve the PUD amendments to the Sub-Division Ordinance was made by Wallace Perry, seconded by L.C. Hoggard and passed unanimously.

The success of this effort is a positive move that will help us attract new business. It sends a great message. Bertie County welcomes responsible growth.

The Freedom Trip Wire

by Ken Blackwell - September 13th, 2007 - Townhall.com

For many liberals and conservatives, the pivotal battleground this election season isn't Iowa, New Hampshire, or South Carolina. It's Utah. There, a fight over the state's universal K-12 school choice program portends to be the trip wire for the school choice movement across the country.

Utah is the location of the fault line between those who would prod conventional public schools out of their mediocrity and those 21st century Luddites who will protect the status quo to their death. The latter group's battle cry is, "Entrenched bureaucracy forever!"

We have plenty of examples of this attitude among the school educrats here in Bertie County. I cannot imagine a more effective process of gaining power for our parents and children than the options for educational excellence that are being proposed in Utah.

We need to get all the changes proposed to increase competition and excellence in our shools; charter schools, teacher compensation based on student achievement, vouchers for poor children as well as freedom to choose another public school where the teachers are succeeding (both within the county and without). Competition. It is what we need to get back to the excellent schools we had 50 years ago.

Peter Rascoe Presents Edenton Lighthouse Plans

Sharon Davis of the Windsor Rotary Club introduced the program for the day. It was a special program from Peter Rascoe about the history and plans of the Roanoke River Lighthouse that was recently moved to the Edenton Harbor.




Peter is Special Projects Coordinator for Chowan County and has been involved in several really special efforts including the Cannon made from the Courthouse bell and the Edenton Courthouse itself.




Peter's persentation covered all the phases of this project. The history of the lighthouses in the area. Examples of some of the other lighthouses that have been used turned into monuments for people to visit.

Pictures of the Roanoke River lighthouse when it was in the river are really special. Here (below) is one looking east at sunrise. Peter covered the history of the Roanoke River lighthouse and how it came to be in Edenton as the home of local resident Emmett Wiggings.




An important part of the lighthouse is the special light which came from the lighthouse, and which will be returned to it as a part of the restoration effort.




The Lighthouse move was a big event. Below Jeff and Stephani Powell and their kids watch the move from the bridge of one of the tugs. Peter's presentation explained future plans and the process by which the lighthouse restoration is being managed and funded.





This is the link to the Chowan River Patriot Article on the lighthouse move. Stephani Powell provided some of the pictures for that article since I had to leave to cover another event I had already committed to. It's a great article that was picked up by a couple of lighthouse magazines and web sites.

For some spectacular VIDEO of the Roanoke River Lighthouse move click here.




Collins Cooper (above right) presents a thank you mug to Peter Rascoe for the great presentation.

A Compensation Plan With Merit

by Kristen Blair - September 13th, 2007 - North Carolina Education Alliance

In the business world, top performers are routinely rewarded with handsome financial bonuses and generous raises. The flip side is true as well: missing the mark entirely just might mean getting the boot. Such a reality-based compensation system of cause and effect keeps employees on their toes.

Public education, on the other hand, generally operates under a far different – and counterintuitive – set of incentives, linking financial remuneration for teachers with credentials and years on the job, instead of individual student achievement gains.

And that is the problem. We have teachers all over America who are handsomely compensated for their "great job" and students are falling further and further behind. There is no measure of teacher accomplishment other than how well the students learn worth caring about. I do not believe it is fair for the measure to be how well the least successful 10% learn but the willingness to drag our schools down to the lowest common denominator is part of the reason overall attainment has been sacrificed.

Excluding those who are discipline problems and those with special learning needs, the other 90% of our students should be doing better today than students of any time in history. We certainly have the tools to expose them and challenge them better. The computer technology that allows us to use distance learning and repetitive skill drills provides opportunities unimagined in the past. What do we do? Our teacher unions oppose them and insist that neither of these can be used.

With technology today we should have the greatest education system that ever existed. If we don't it is because the school administrators are resisting intelligent goals. Insisting that measuring teachers cannot be based on how well our children are learning is a major part of that insanity. No other measure, including almost every measure currently used, is worth anything. They are an insult to our children.

Chicken On The Cashie Friday - October 12th

Support our Fire Departments. Don't miss the annual Chicken On The Cashie.

Stop The Bus, My Kid Is Getting Off

by Paul Jacob - September 2nd, 2007 - Townhall.com

The first public/private schooling decision to receive national hype occured back in 1993, when President Bill and First Lady Hillary Clinton chose the exclusive Sidwell Friends School rather than a D.C. public school for their then 12-year old daughter Chelsea. They were roundly criticized. Yet, to me, their decision was reassuring, indicating for the first time that Bill and Hillary might actually place something ahead of their own political advantage.

One of the reasons Bill offered was that the private school would allow Chelsea "more control over her destiny." For once, Mr. and Mrs. Clinton and I saw eye to eye — as parents.

Granted, there is rampant hypocrisy at work. These people stump for public schooling, opposing systems of school choice. And yet, they choose to opt out of the system they allegedly shore up . . . from competition.

Every parent needs to recognize that the quality of the education that their child gets is signifcantly impacted by their own attitude. If parents recognize that the key to the American dream is a top quality education, they will impress that on their child. However the child's willingness to work for an education is dependent on believing that they can learn. We need to be careful at what lesson we learn from articles like the one above. Here are my reasons why.

We have a new Superintendent in Bertie County. Whether that will make any difference to the education of our children is dependent on a change in our current culture that says our children can't learn. "We are too poor." "Racism is still too prevalent." "Learning is acting white." "All the smart people have left the county." "Our kids can't learn." "It is hopeless and we can't change the culture." What nonsense! It is not hopeless. It is true the new Superintendent can influence our culture but CANNOT change it unless those of us in the community who know better create an environment where he can succeed. That means we must attack anyone who spreads the nonsense of the quotes I listed above.

Everyone has heard these lines. From people you call friends. How often have you joined Bill Cosby and openly attacked these cliches as garbage? It is not a black problem alone but it is dishonest not to admit that it is a serious problem. The African American community must own up to it and attack it internally. African Americans must not be defensive and use the excuse "you are attacking the victim". This is not an attack on the child. It is an attack on the culture of failure. Bertie County is in the bottom 10% of educational attainment in North Carolina. Our children cannot get on the first step of the ladder to the American dream until we change the culture that tolerates that.

My problem with articles like the one above is that they give another excuse for the failure. They are important articles only as long as they point out the hypocrisy of those who are holding our children back. However it is easy for that to mis-direct the discussion into areas that are useless. You don't need to send your children to private school to succeed.

Children can succeed in almost any school system when parents care. Any parent can change the quality of education by getting involved and making sure their child does homework, since that does more than any other action to impress on the child two things. YOU can LEARN. YOU must TRY. It is actually consistent with the individual focus of modern education . . . . with the twist that it expects the child to succeed before they are praised. Small change but an important one.

The other issue, discipline, can also be helped dramatically by parental involvement. Our children know who the problem children are. You don't have to get the schoool administrators to tell you who the bullies are. Ask your children. If they think that you are on their side they will tell you. Get other parents together and talk with the parents of the bullies. Most bullies and most parents of bullies are basically cowards. Group pressure can change this too. It cannot be left just to school administrators. It is societies problem.

We have the power to change the education system right here in Bertie County . . . through competition to be a good parent. To become the best merely requires an expectation that parents can make a difference. They can. An amazing difference. Competition will not mean everyone will succeed. It will only be the children of parents who care enough to try. If we want our children to try and learn shouldn't we try and help them?

Group Asks For J.P. Law Ownership

by Jennipher Dickens - September 1st, 2007 - Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald


Kelvin Outlaw of Merry Hill Talks About J.P. Law

Some citizens in the Merry Hill community are apparently still interested in utilizing the now vacant J.P. Law Elementary School for community purposes, but their wishes and plans may be in vain.

County attorney Lloyd Smith informed the Bertie County Commissioners during their regular meeting last Monday night that the bank might not be able to release the school.

"The bank has been trying to find out if they can release the schools under QZAB regulations, but they're not sure at this point if that will be possible," Smith stated.

It was thought at one time there might be a way around the school having to lie dormant after it was closed because of regulations set forth when the QZAB loan was taken out.

Under QZAB terms, a school that uses QZAB money for renovations cannot be used for anything other than educational purposes for the life of the loan.

I spent some time the other night disagreeing with some citizens who were blaming this problem on the current BOE, County Commissioners and County Officials. The one comment I want to add to Jennipher's article is to remind people that no one currently working to fix this problem created it.

An arrogant federal court Judge, an out of touch DOJ, and some now out of office BOE members who wanted a single elementary school for all of Bertie County, forced the closure of these schools. This was the year after these same BOE members spent nearly $1.5 million in QZAB bonds on J.P. Law and Askewville Elementary schools creating the current problem. If they were going to close them, why on earth did these BOE . . . . members (I so want to be insulting and use a word like idiot but I will resist the temptation) spend this money and then close the schools?

I cannot resist pointing out that the judge in question who gave the order to close our schools was trying to pander for support by liberals of his candidacy for an appeals court position. It did not work. The liberals who opposed him still opposed him and he lost anyway.

However don't blame the current BOE, County Commissioners, County Manager and County Attorney for this problem. They did not create this situation. They are simply trying to undo the damage that others have done. I appreciate how hard they are working to try and fix it.