Tideland Electric repairs underway after Hurricane Hanna

At 5:30 a.m. Saturday, Tideland Electric Membership Corporation, serving six eastern North Carolina counties, had fewer than 250 customers without power. Those numbers quickly started to climb after sunrise and reached a high of 7,852 by 9:30 a.m.

Repair crews had whittled outages to fewer than 1,200 customers by 6 p.m.,  according to a statement released by the utility’s public affairs department.

A majority of the remaining outages are related to the cooperative’s badly damaged Merritt Circuit, which originates in Pamlico County and feeds into areas of southern Beaufort County.

Ocracoke continued to receive central station power across Hatteras Inlet during the weather event. However when the cooperative lost one phase along Highway 12 crews cut power to the island so they could quickly make repairs. Power was restored to the island by 1 p.m.

Third murder trial set for Oct. 6

Hung juries have twice refused to convict in brutal slayings of Richard and Rosa Flowers

State prosecutors, having twice failed to convict the man accused in the January 2003 brutal stabbing deaths of Richard and Rosa Flowers, will pursue the case yet again in a highly unusual third trial, scheduled to begin Oct. 6 in a Craven County courtroom.

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Third trial set for Pamlico
double-murder suspect

Attorney Richard McNeil will defend Jones for a third time

Vaughn Jones enters a courtroom last year

Accused double-murderer Vaughn Jones, arrested more than five years ago for the January 2003 stabbing deaths of Merritt residents Richard and Rosa Flowers, returns to a Craven County courtroom Thursday for defense and prosecution motions in anticipation of his third trial, set to begin Oct. 6.

Juries have twice refused to convict Jones. The first trial, held in Pamlico County, ended with a 6 to 6 deadlock.

Last year, the proceedings were moved to Craven County over the objections of Jones’s court-appointed attorney, Richard McNeil. In that trial, five jurors held out for acquittal.

The tense two weeks resembled a TV drama, including the appearance of a surprise witness.

A former girlfriend of Jones, who survived his vicious knife assault in August 1995, testified as to details of the attack, which bore an eerie resemblance to that suffered by the Flowers.

At the time of the murders, Jones was an employee of the Flowers’ business, Custom Steel Boats. He has been held without bail since his arrest.

In Thursday’s hearing, courtroom observers expect prosecutors to file burglary charges against Jones, an offense that was not pursued during either of the earlier trials. The additional count signals the prosecution team is intent upon securing some type of conviction, in the wake of two consecutive hung juries who considered only murder charges.

Quashawn Monk injured

Photos by Kathy Enzerink/Pamlico News

Pamlico County Rescue Squad and volunteers from the Triangle Fire Departments responded to a single-vehicle accident Sunday afternoon on Hwy. 304 near Cash Corner.

Quashawn Monk, a 2008 graduate from Pamlico County High School, apparently misjudged the curve in a heavy downpour and rolled the burgundy color Nissan Pathfinder he was driving. Complaining of back and neck pain, Monk was transported by ambulance to the Moose Lodge in Grantsboro where he was airlifted to Pitt Memorial Hospital in Greenville.

The vehicle left deep ruts in the right-o-way on the opposite side of the two-lane road and muddy tire prints on the blacktop before ending on its side in the ditch.

First on the scene, Glenn Hopkins who lives next to the crash site, helped pull Monk through the busted out back window of the vehicle.

Unsafe tires and heavy rain may have played a part in the accident. Charges are pending, according to Highway Patrol Trooper Thomas Wetherington, who investigated.

Trailer fire in Arapahoe

Photos by Jeff Aydelette/Pamlico News

Home unseen from Hwy. 306,
no road sign a potential problem 

Seven units from three different volunteer fire departments -- and more than a dozen firefighters --responded to a fire in Arapahoe Sunday afternoon that completely destroyed the furnishings and interior of a single-wide mobile home on Griffin Road. No injuries were reported.

Reports of the blaze were called into 911 at about 1:15 p.m.

The trailer is one of a few homes, including several brick structures, near the end of the dirt road.

Approximately two-tenths of a mile off heavily traveled Hwy. 306, the small neighborhood is concealed by woods. And, for whatever reason, no sign marks the intersection.

Arapahoe firemen know their hometown district well. As a result, they had no trouble responding. However, back-up units from Southeast Pamlico near Oriental, and Grantsboro-Silverhill, were slightly slowed by the lack of basic, and mandatory, signage.

A random sample of 25 students, drawn from those in grades 9 through 12 who participate in extracurricular activities, took a saliva-testing procedure Friday morning at Pamlico County High School.

“They were all 100 percent negative,” reported high school principal Tom Marsh, a term used to indicate no illegal drug use had been detected. “I knew we were going to have one (a test) some time, but I didn’t know when.”

All of those who were asked had previously signed a ‘pledge,’ in which they agreed to participate. The consent form was also completed by either a parent or guardian of every student.

A list of student identification numbers, randomly selected by a third party administrator, was transmitted to school superintendent Rick Sherrill.

Marsh, in turn, received the list early Friday morning. And, according to procedure, he used the school’s computerized database to match the ID numbers with students’ names.

“Then we called them out from class five at a time,” he said. “They did a mouth rinse, waited 10 minutes, and then we administered the test. And, we got the results four minutes later.”

Approximately 100 students who belong to the football, soccer, volleyball, and cheerleading squads comprised the pool. Those with parking permits and who plan to take Drivers’ Education classes will soon be added to the mix.

In recent years, several Supreme Court decisions have been interpreted as prohibiting school officials from testing students who attend only school. Those who partake of extracurricular activities have been ruled eligible -- and thus subject to occasional, and reasonable, drug tests.