RC Area News Notes

Published 10:15 am Wednesday, March 18, 2020

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Bertie School lunches

The Bertie County Schools Nutrition Department will serve lunches for children ages 0-18 from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at a total of 64 stops throughout the county. These meals are at no cost and will be made available MONDAY through FRIDAY, as long as schools are closed, by the order of the Governor.

For a complete listing of routes and stops, go to www.bertie.k12.nc.us and look under the NEWS items for the headline titled, “Meal Delivery.”

You may also find the listings on the Bertie County Schools Facebook page and Twitter feed.

Detention Center visits suspended

The Northampton County Sheriff’s Office has suspended all visitation at the county’s Detention Center in Jackson until further notice. This decision was made to protect inmates, staff, and the public in an effort to help stop the spread of the COVID-19. Phone service for inmates will still remain in effect and in use.

Seaboard cancels events

Town of Seaboard officials conducted an emergency meeting on March 17 in reference to COVID-19. At this point the town has made the following decisions as an effort to prevent COVID-19 contamination and to alleviate some financial distress:

All planned events (Easter Kiddie Parade, Healthy Living) within the town have been canceled; and

Water billing has been suspended for the months of March & April (more info will be delivered to each payee).

HCPS lunches

Hertford County Public Schools are offering “grab-and-go” lunch meals from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the high school cafeteria in Ahoskie and the middle school cafeteria in Murfreesboro.

Parents or guardians of all HCPS students (ages pre-K through high school seniors) can pick-up these meals to take home to their youngsters.

This service will continue through Friday of this week and Monday through Friday of next week.

Each lunch meal will be accompanied by a breakfast meal for the following day (example: Tuesday’s lunch will include a separate breakfast meal for Wednesday).

Town of Ahoskie

The Town Gym is closed. All outdoor recreational areas are open. Town Hall is open, but if possible, please make utility payments by phone or online.

Dominion Energy

Suspended all service disconnections at this time.

Roanoke Electric Cooperative

Suspended cut-offs and late fees for two weeks. Lobbies are closed at the REC main office near Ahoskie and at the Roanoke Center in Rich Square. Customer drive-up window service remains in operation.

 Spectrum Internet

Charter Communications will offer its Spectrum Internet services to students amidst the current Coronavirus epidemic.

Beginning on Monday March 16, Spectrum broadband and Wi-Fi access will be available to households with K-12 and/or college students who do not already have a Spectrum broadband subscription.

Currently, this promotion is scheduled to last for 60 days after March 16.

Additionally, Charter will reach out to school districts in order to raise awareness in communities that their tools and services are available for free use, so that students have the option to learn remotely from home.

To enroll, call 1-844-488-8395. Installation fees will be waived for new student households.

CenturyLink

For the next 60 days, CenturyLink will waive late fees and will not terminate a residential or small business customer’s service due to financial circumstances associated with COVID-19. The company is also suspending data usage limits for consumer customers during this time period due to COVID-19.

CenturyLink’s Network Operations Center is constantly monitoring usage across the network. These teams can quickly add capacity, modify paths, and adjust traffic based on customer utilization.

Northampton update

As of March 17, no positive cases of COVID-19 were known of in Northampton County

Contact the Northampton County Health Department if you have any symptoms of COVID-19. Health Dept. personnel will come to your home to administer testing. Once the test has been administered you will remain in quarantine until the results has been proven to be negative.

Individuals are encouraged to practice “social distancing” (remaining six feet apart from others and avoid gatherings of more than 10. Bleach kills the virus on contact. Remember to wash your hands; be watchful of the elderly (high risk); and adhere to all information that’s being issued by the Governor.

Local towns, county officials, businesses, and organizations needing to publish information for the public’s benefit during this health crisis can email those news briefs to cal.bryant@r-cnews.com. There is no charge for publication.