Thanks for those suggestions... I did try that perpendicular script but as it was built for 9.3 I tried to convert it to 10.0 without success. I had to change
feat = row.Shape
firstpoint = feat.FirstPoint
...
firstpoint = firstpoint.split(" ")
to
feat = row.Shape
firstpoint = feat.firstPoint
...
firstpoint = firstpoint.split(" ")
but subsequently that gives me the error that "Point object has no attribute 'split' " when "firstpoint = firstpoint.split(" ")" is executed. ***UPDATE***Solved my own problem by implementing the following instead
fpx = firstpoint.X
fpy = firstpoint.Y