Farmville shop owes taxes

SNOW HILL — Greene County’s interim county manager, Richard Hicks, said the 2012 unpaid taxes of about $1,050 to the town of Farmville for Hicks Frame Shop in Farmville has been paid.

The business also owes taxes to Pitt County amounting to around $2,000. Hicks said he has set up a payment arrangement.

“I pay the bills and pay the taxes,” he said. “I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.”

Although Hicks helps out with the business part of the shop, the business on Main Street is run by his wife Geena Hicks.

During the middle of the busiest season for retails shops, she experienced a traumatic situation.

“My father died right in the middle of the holidays,” Geena said. “… He had a massive heart attack on Thanksgiving and he died in my arms, and it’s not something you just get over.”

Even now, she said, she hasn’t been able to get caught up with the business matters, and her mother lives a distance in Roxboro.

“I’m the sole proprietor of the business,” she said, “and I’m still not finished.”

Hicks works, for the most part, three days a week for Greene County getting $50 an hour and two days a week for Wilson Mills earning $40 an hour. But he said all the expenses of the business are paid out of the business account.

“I try to be self-supporting,” Geena said.

The wholesale molding part of the business is down 80 percent with the economy in a slump, she said.

“We’re just regular people, you know,” she said, “and it’s a sign of the times.”

The business was late paying taxes of less than $900 in 2010.

Margaret Fisher can be reached at 252-559-1082 or Margaret.Fisher@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @MargaretFishr.