THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 24, 1996 TAG: 9610240365
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SERIES: DECISION '96
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CURRITUCK LENGTH: 138 lines
Conflict is a natural part of elections, but in Currituck County two candidates have made conflict a major part of their campaigns.
Gene Ansell Gregory, 56, of Shawboro is a Democrat hoping for a second term on the Board of Commissioners.
He's facing stiff competition for the Crawford Township seat from Republican William Dobney, 48, of Currituck.
Both candidates have attacked each other on possible conflicts of interest.
Another incumbent commissioner, Democrat Ernie Bowden of Carova Beach, is defending his seat against Republican challenger Gary Montalbine of Knotts Island.
A third contested race involves Janet Taylor and Patricia Ferebee Blowe, two Democratic women who both want to represent the Moyock Township on the nonpartisan Currituck County Board of Education.
Gregory has suggested Dobney's position as the associate superintendent of Currituck County Public Schools is not compatible with that of county commissioner.
Dobney has questioned Gregory's involvement with the county airport in Maple. Gregory, a pilot who rents a hangar at the facility, represents commissioners on the airport authority.
Gregory has pointed out that commissioners each year decide how much money to give to the public schools, usually about a third of the county's $17.5 million budget.
Dobney will be ``appropriating money for what he is involved with all the time,'' Gregory said at a candidates' forum this month.
Dobney, who said he's paid with state funds and not local dollars, believes his position will ``provide knowledge on school budgets and school matters that it has never had before.''
Dobney also vowed to abstain from voting on items that financially benefit him or his wife, who also works for the school system.
That's something Dobney said his opponent failed to do when he voted this year to give noncertified school personnel a raise - including Gregory's wife. Gregory also voted on a salary increase for county employees that included his daughter, who works in the county attorney's office, Dobney said.
Dobney has also pointed out that since Gregory became a commissioner, the county has given, or agreed to fund, almost $680,000 of $951,380 in improvements to the Maple facility where Gregory keeps his plane.
The airport currently generates about $12,600 annually from hangar rentals, he said.
Gregory said he believes the airport improvements will more than pay for themselves after a new bridge across the Currituck Sound makes Currituck beaches more accessible.
``You'll see that airport take off like you can't believe once that mid-county bridge is put in there,'' said Gregory, who has worked the past 33 years at the Ford Motor Co. plant in Norfolk.
If re-elected, Gregory said he'd continue with county improvements begun during his first term. They include a $5 million judicial complex now under construction and planned expansion of a county water system to southern Currituck County.
Among Dobney's campaign pledges are more resources for the sheriff's department to fight ``our own local war on drugs'' and developing family recreational facilities throughout the county.
Dobney also said he would control taxes and eliminate nonessential expenditures.
Gregory has noted that ad valorem, or local real estate, taxes have not increased during his term, except for a 9-cent increase last year that was a byproduct of earlier voter-approved school bonds.
The other contested race for commissioner matches Bowden and Montalbine.
Bowden, 71, has served as a county commissioner since 1976, but never for consecutive terms.
``I frankly don't think I need to be replaced because I've got more experience than anyone else on the board,'' Bowden said at a candidates forum this month.
Bowden was on the board that established county building codes and subdivision regulations in the 1970s. More recently, he helped establish a growth policy to allow the county to keep pace with services and facilities.
``You can control it, you can direct it, but I don't think you can actually stop it,'' said Bowden, a cattle rancher on the Outer Banks.
Montalbine, 62, also supports controlled growth and would like to see more industry to help ease residents' tax burden.
The Republican candidate has made public access to local government a priority in his campaign.
``We've got to get people involved in government,'' he said at the same forum. ``There's got to be information flowing both ways to have an effective government.''
Montalbine currently serves on the Currituck County Board of Adjustments and last year established KITV, which broadcasts local news on a cable access channel in Knotts Island.
Montalbine said he started KITV because Knotts Island residents receive so little information about their county government.
A third contested race involves Janet Taylor and Patricia Ferebee Blowe, two Democratic women who both want to represent the Moyock Township on the nonpartisan Currituck County Board of Education.
In the Board of Education race, Taylor, 36, is a former school bus driver and custodian who in January was elected the vice chair of the School Board. Ferebee, 35, is a government auditor making her first bid for public office.
``I'm one of those types of people that, instead of complaining, want to try and help solve problems,'' Ferebee said.
The Currituck County native has two children and a foster child enrolled in the public schools.
Ferebee believes she could benefit the board with her financial expertise. For the past 14 years, she's been an auditor for the U.S. General Accounting Office in Virginia Beach.
Taylor has three children in the county schools.
Among her goals, Taylor hopes to improve the sometimes antagonistic relationship between the boards of education and commissioners. She also wants to see more consistency in the curriculum.
``I would like to see us stick with one thing,'' Taylor said.
Taylor also would like schools to emphasize the basics in instruction and has been a proponent of more and improved core classes, particularly math and English courses at the high school.
Ferebee also has suggested schools officials stick with the basics when building schools in order to keep costs down. ``I do believe there is a limit as to how much should be put into a school,'' she said.
Taylor agreed. She said the current $16 million high school under construction is ``still on the plus side'' and that ``budgetwise, we're looking good right now.''
The high school ended up costing millions more than expected because of unforeseen price jumps in the building industry at the time the project was sent out for bids.
It also is at least two months behind schedule.
One area the two women disagreed on is tenured teachers.
Ferebee does not agree with the policy. ``If the person isn't producing, then the person should be dismissed,'' she said.
``Tenure does secure the good, and it does keep the not-so-good,'' Taylor admitted. But, she said, it also protects teachers against losing their jobs because of personal vendettas or politics. by CNB