New Gates County manager is quick to fill in on job

GATES COUNTY, N.C.

Only a week after his emergency appointment by the county Board of Commissioners, Paul Gregory Jr. was at work in Gates.

Gregory, who recently retired after 17 years as county manager in Perquimans County, said he expects to be in the position part time for several months, until the commissioners have the chance to hire a new manager.

The dilemma of hiring yet another administrative position to head the rural northeast North Carolina county struck the Gates commissioners for the fourth time in two years when Melinda Hoggard submitted her resignation.

Hoggard started in the job at the first of the year. She served first as interim manager. Hoggard told commissioners she was leaving Gates to follow her husband to Wilmington, N.C.

Meanwhile, Gregory said he's back at work at a critical time, when the possibility of Navy outlying landing field being located in the county has surfaced. Gregory said that he had helped Perquimans battle such a proposal, and he plans to do the same for Gates.

"It's a lot of noise, and we don't get any money out of it," he said. "In Perquimans, we fought hard. Now, it's not going in Perquimans County."

Initially, Gregory, 61, said he plans to work three days a week. But, if he needs to, he will devote more time to the position, he said.

Linda McNatt, (757) 222-5561, linda.mcnatt@pilotonline.com