THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 6, 1994 TAG: 9406070454
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PATRICIA HUANG, SPECIAL TO BUSINESS WEEKLY
DATELINE: 940606 LENGTH: MOYOCK
``When you cross that line,'' Menke says, ``people are just a lot friendlier and down to earth. Here, you just feel like anyone would help you even if they don't know you.
{REST} ``You just drive down these streets and you wave to anybody. That would just be unheard of to wave to a stranger in the middle of Virginia Beach!''
When her husband suggested relocating from Chesapeake to Currituck County seven years ago, Menke wasn't sure that it was the right move. Now she can't imagine returning to South Hampton Roads.
The rural tranquillity generally is cited for attracting outsiders and making this one of North Carolina's fastest-growing counties.
Safety was singled out by Margaret Zirpoli as a major factor for her family's move south from Chesapeake. But she worries that the growing stream of newcomers may destroy the attractions that brought them here.
``Our main reason for moving down was to get out of Great Bridge and get out of the overcrowding,'' she says.
The Zirpolis moved to Moyock, one of the most populous Currituck communities, nearly two years ago just before their two youngest children were set to enter Great Bridge Middle School North, Chesapeake's most overcrowded school.
They found that housing was cheaper, too. They live in a five-bedroom home on Currituck Sound that cost them about $190,000, Zirpoli says, while smaller houses in Chesapeake cost up to $100,000 more.
Property taxes in Currituck also are lower, about half of what they are in Chesapeake and other South Hampton Roads cities.
Employment opportunities, officials say, are improving, but most newcomers commute to jobs outside the county. Menke's husband, Rick, 39, makes a 45-minute trip twice a day to his job at Bill Lewis Chevrolet in Chesapeake.
Zirpoli, a graduate of Currituck High School, said she knows first-hand how good the schools are, but she's concerned that the system's use of 40 portable classrooms to help handle its 2,900 students may signal severe overcrowding to come, mirroring some packed Chesapeake and Virginia Beach schools.
``They're developing lots of housing projects, but I don't see new schools,'' she said. ``And that does worry me.''
Currituck officials say they are keeping a keen eye on the rapid growth of the bedroom community and are already preparing to preserve the county's rural characteristic.
Ronnie Capps, Currituck's superintendent of schools, said he expects a total student enrollment of about 3,350 by the year 2000. A $16 million referendum approved last November ensures plans to build a new high school and primary school as well as renovate current schools by 1997. Twenty new teachers were hired last year, Capps said.
Last year two police officers were added to the shefiff's department, and area fire and rescue squads are also growing. Next year, emergency medical volunteers in Grandy plan to buy a new ambulance, and area firefighters received two additional fire trucks last year.
In the past few years, the number of calls for help has nearly doubled, to about 450 in 1993.
``All the county's agencies are experiencing the pains of the growth,'' Capps said. ``Most of the new people who are coming from the suburbs, and they have a high expectation of government.''
by CNB