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VOL. 98 NUMBER 1
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1984
KINGS MOUNTAIN, NORTH CAROLINA
A Friend Of Yours Is “On The Ropes”
And folks, lest we forget where we came from, you don't
(EDITOR'S NOTE-Beginning next week, this
newspaper will print a weekly, on-going. con-
tinuous column - “Buy American!” - which will in-
clude a list of textile goods made in this area, and
where you may purchase the finished product. We
encourage all our readers to study this list each
week and when you shop, buy only American made
textile products.)
A good friend of mine and yours has been taking it on
the chin recently. I don’t know about you, but it makes me
fighting mad. That friend has always been a world cham-
pion, but he is now in a fight for his life. It’s the fifth round
of a fifteen rounder and our friend is on the ropes. It
wouldn’t be such a tough struggle, but the fight has been
fixed.
That friend of ours is the textile industry—the thousands
of workers, supervisors, office personnel, managers and
owners of the hundreds of textile plants that once had us
standing tall as the “Fine Combed Cotton Yarn Capitol of
The World.”
have to pick up a history book to learn that we all came
from the cotton mill - and I’m proud of it.
If you didn’t work in a textile mill, you sat beside so-
meone in school who did. We played on the playgrounds,
and parks provided by the mills and worshiped in chur-
ches, the textile owners helped build. If you saw one of
Russ Bergman's great baseball teams, that home run was
hit by a skinny kid whose parents probably worked in a
textile mill.
The primary reason for the growth of this area was the
coming of the mills after the Civil War. The railroads came
South, making the transportation of manufactured goods
cheaper and faster and mills sprouted up everywhere pro-
viding jobs for farmers out of work. Restless mountain folk
came down from the hills of Western North Carolina to
work for cash and enjoy the “City Life.” These people
were the salt of the earth and became the backbone of the
county.
: By the third decade of this century, the area had grown
Turn To Page 3-A
Junior High Building
Plans Ok’d By Board
Kings Mountain’s Board of
‘Education Monday night
unanimously approved construc- .
tion plans for an eight-classroom
addition to Kings Mountain
Education for their approval.
accepted, bids will go out in
January and could be received as
early as the February school
board meeting.
Superintendent William Davis
and architects Stan Anthony
and Jim Martin predicted that
the new wing would be occupied
during the Christmas break next
year. }
The new wing, which will cost
around $500,000 and funded
through the school system’s
share of sales tax revenues, will
house four science and four
math classrooms and will allow
renovation of the existing library
which was built under the junior
high’s “open classroom” concept
and experiences problems of stu-
dent traffic interrupting studies.
The four new math classes
will seat 30 students comtortably
ing will be equippe
male and female restrooms.
storage rooms and a workroom
for teachers.
Martin said the math
classroom will be built to ac-
comodate up to 15 computer ter-
minals as computer classes
become a part of future
academic programs.
The new wing will have win-
dows, as required by state law.
and 200 lockers will be moved
from the existing building to the
corridors of the new wing.
Installation of heat pumps will
give each classroom control ot its
heat. Developers predict that in-
dividual heating units will save
the school system energy dollars
Bruce Bowers To Speak
To KM Kiwanis Club
Bruce Bowers, investigative
reported for WSOC-TV News,
will be guest speaker at Thurs-
day night’s meeting of the Kings
Mountain Kiwanis Club at 6:45
p.m. at Kings Mountain Coun-
try Club.
Since 1971, Bowers has been a
journalist in Charlotte. During
those years, he ha worked as a
reporter, assignment editor,
news director and computerized
newsroom developer. He spent
seven years at WBTV News but
moved across town to WSOC-
TV (Channel 9) in October 1981
to become the investigative
reporter for WSOC-TV.
In 1979, Bowers won his first
award for excellence in in-
vestigative reporting. In 1984, he
was given two national awards
by his peers in Investigative
Reporters & Editors (IRE). The
Bronze Medal, the
organization’s most prestigious
award, was given Bowers at a na-
tional conference in Miami in
June.
The North Wilkesboro native
also has been assigned three
overseas reporting tours in the
past five years. In the fall of
1979, Bowers provided exclusive
local coverage of Vice President
Walter Mondale’s visit to the
People’s Republic of China and
Hong Kong. In the spring of
1982, Bowers also arranged
WSOC-TVs exclusive coverage
BRUCE BOWERS
of Rev. Billy Graham’s visit to
Moscow. Then again in the fall
of 1984, Bowers followed
Graham on his second trip to the
Soviet Union; this time to
Moscow, I eningrad and Tallinn.
Bowers graduated from the
University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill with a degree in
Radio-Television & Motion Pic-
tures. He also attended Gardner-
Webb College, where he now
serves as a member of the Board
of Trustees.
Se
and Phyllis Sadler as secretary in
because night programs may be
held ‘in the new wing without
having to turn on the main
heating system.
In other action Monday night
the Community Schools Depart -
ment. The board also accepted
the resignation of Monica Gen-
try as secretary in the Communi-
ty Schools Department and ap-
proved a maternity leave for
teacher Anne Qualtebaum.
*Accepted student Donna
Faye Wright from Gaston Coun-
ty Schools and released Tammy
Todd to Gaston County.
*Reviewed the 1983-84 finan
cial audit with auditor Charles
Ezell of McGladrey. Hen:
drickson and Pullen.
Concert
Thursday
A Christmas Concert by the
Kings Mountain Senior High
Chorus, Chorale and Ensemble
and the Junior High Eighth
Grade and Ninth Grade Chorus
will be presented at B.N. Barnes
Auditorium Thursday night at 8
p.m.
The concert is free of charge
and open to the interested
public.
Accompanists will be David
Dingus, Karen Penner and Tim
Echols.
“We invite the public to
celebrate the Christmas season
by attending this concert and
listening to these fine
musicians”, said a spokesman for
the Chorus.
Concert
Monday
The annual Winter Band Con-
cert will be given Monday,
December 17, at 8 p.m. at B.N.
Barnes Auditorium, Kings
Mountain High School.
Directors Donald J. Deal and
Christopher H. Cole will con-
duct the Kings Mountain Junior
High Eighth Grade Band, the
Kings Mountain Junior High
Ninth Grade Band and the
Kings Mountain Senior High
School Blazer Band in both
seasonal and traditional concert
band music. :
The public is invited. Admis-
sion is free.
“Cotes
GARLAND ATKINS
PHOTO BY LIB STEWART
ANNEXATION MAP-— City Commissioner Humes Houston, left, and Wilson Griffin point to the
large area which city commissioners and the planning and zoning board of the city envision
as the targeted area for growth which could triple the size of Kings Mountain: The city last
undertook a major annexation in 1919.
Annexation Resolution
Ok’d By City Board
The city board of commis-
‘sioners Monday night, in what
Mayor John Henry Moss termed
a ‘historic move for Kings
Mountain”, adopted an annexa-
tion resolution, first step in a
lengthy annexation process,
when, if completed, could more
than double the size of Kings
Mountain.
In another major action, the
board approved extending water
outside the city limits in January
to Quail Run Subdivision which
paves the way for future annexa-
tion.
The city last undertook a ma-
jor annexation in 1919 when it
expanded outside Cleveland into
Gaston County, said the Mayor,
who said the plan is Kings
Mountain’s first large scale an-
nexation plan in over 60 years.
“Actually what this amounts
to is that we’re staking a claim”,
said Commissioner Humes
Houston, chairman of the newly
formed annexation committee
which also includes Commis-
sioners Corbet Nicholson, Nor-
man King and Jim Dickey, Gene
White and City Attorneys
George Thomasson and Mickey
Corry, with assistance from the
North Carolina Department of
Community Development and
the Institute of Government.
Adding to the history making
event Monday night was the
presence of former Mayor H.
Tom Fulton and five former city
commissioners, . including Paul
Ledford, W.S. Biddix, Murray
Pruitt, Jim Childers and Jonas
Bridges.
The area under consideration
extends as far as three miles ap-
proximately from the present ci-
ty limits east, west and south of
the city. :
According to the maps on
display at City Hall, the approx-
imate borders extend eastward
out Highway 74 about a mile
further into Gaston County to
the Sparrow Springs Road in-
tersection, westward out
Highway 74 to Bethware
School, and encompassing
Bethlehem Road and southward
out Grover Road and Highway
161 to encompass a sweeping
section of 1-85 and the city’s two
lakes and the areas where Spec-
trum, Reliance Electric and
Foote Mineral Company are
located.
Under state statute, governing
annexation, the city can take no
legal action toward annexation
for 365 days after passing a
resolution of consideration.
During the next year,
Houston said commissioners will
Mon., Dec. 24.
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Christmas Edition
Deadline December 21
The Herald will publish its annual Christmas edition on
In order to print early. early deadlines for advertisements
and news must be observed. Deadline for all adver-
tisements and news items will be 5 p.m., Fri.. Dec. 21.
The Christmas paper will include traditional messages
from area merchants to their customers, letters to Santa
Claus from children. and other Christmas features.
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determine whether annexation is
feasible and if a cost study pro-
ves that annexation is feasible,
the next step would be to adopt a
resolution of intent specifying by
metes and bounds and descrip-
tion the exact areas to be annex-
ed.
Public hearings would follow
and after that the city would
have two years to complete con-
struction of utilities. When an
annexation ordinance is finally
passed, at that point the city
would have to provide fire and
police protection and garbage
pickups to the annexed areas.
“It’s a lengthy process”,
Houston told the board of com-
missioners and his remarks were
echoed by Wilson Griffin, chair-
man of the Planning and Zoning
Board.
Griffin told the board that he
is in wholehearted agreement
with the commission, as are
other members of the Planning
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