THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 23, 1995 TAG: 9502230335
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PEA RIDGE LENGTH: Short : 49 lines
Members of the Northeastern North Carolina Development Commission canceled a $110,000 matching grant that the pump-priming group gave to a Northampton developer to start construction on a recreation project at Lake Gaston.
The panel earlier in the month had approved the grant for Grover L. Edwards, who had proposed the $27 million project.
Edwards, a former Northampton County School Board chairman, now is a contractor.
The motion to kill the grant came after a special meeting in Washington County that was called after members of the commission learned that Edwards and his family owned some of the land on which a hotel, golf course and convention center would have been built.
Andrew Allen of Plymouth, chairman of the commission, said no further action on the development is under consideration.
Before taking action, the commission heard from Max Busby, an Edenton attorney who is the panel's counsel. He read conflict-of-interest provisions in state law.
Edwards told the commission at a Bertie County meeting earlier that he and his partners wanted to develop several hundred acres on the shore of Lake Gaston close to the Virginia border to create a hotel and convention complex that would include an 18-hole golf course.
Members of the development commission, after considerable debate, voted to earmark the $110,000 grant for Edwards and his Lake Gaston project.
Commission members stipulated that Northampton, Halifax and Warren counties - which would benefit from the convention center - would have to ante up matching funds before the $110,000 would be released.
But not many hours after the Bertie session, a special meeting of the full commission was scheduled in the Soundside Restaurant at Pea Ridge across the Albemarle Sound bridge in Washington County.
James Lancaster, executive director of the commission, said the special session was required to ``re-examine'' the $110,000 grant because some members of the commission had been informed that Edwards and his family owned some of the land around the town of Henrico, N.C., where the convention complex would be built on the north shore of Lake Gaston.
Grover C. Edwards, 77-year-old father of Edwards and a retired member of a contracting firm, said last week he believed the family owned ``about 50 acres'' of the land. by CNB