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— Since 1889 — Pref
VOL. 100 NUMBER 11
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 1987 - KINGS MOUNTAIN, NORTH CAROLINA
niest show on earth” which
Kings Mountain Community
day night at 7 p.m. i
Kids of all ages are invited
Community Center as early
rides on the donkeys and to
s Hospitals.
A candidate for city com-
missioner who lost by a close
vote in the 1985 city election
said Tuesday after the board
tabled her request for gas
line extension that ‘city com-
missioners are not doing
their homework.”
Mrs. Ruby M. Alexander,
of Alexander Realty, had re-
quested gas lines to run to
five homes in the New Gold
Run Subdivision her com-
pany is building in the Oak
Grove Community. The re-
quest was tabled after Com-
missioner Norman King ask-
Storm Drainage
Commissioners by 5-1 vote
approved a storm drainage
improvements agreement
from Cornwell Drug with the
city over strong objections of
Commissioner Norman King
who charged that Cornwell
may not have kept its original
bargain with the adjoining
property owner.
Cornwell, building a new
store at Country Club Road
and West King St. is required
in the contract for special use
parking to construct as part
of the overall site work deten-
tion basins to retain storm-
water runoff.
King maintains that in the
original contract called for a
retaining wall between the
new drug store and the home
of Mrs. Clyde Bearden on
Country Club Road.
“] don’t see a retaining
wall going up”’, said King.
City Attorney George
Thomasson, responding to
King, acknowledged that the
original contract may have
been amended but had never
included the construction of a
retaining cement wall
separating the properties.
ry Propst, manager of
Cornwell Drug and present
for the meeting, concurred
White Plains Shrine Club is billing their
donkey ballgame as ‘‘the wildest and fun-
sions. Hot dogs and hamburgers with ac-
cessories will be sold and all proceeds from
the vent will benefit Shriners Crippled
Is Not Doing Its Homework
Donkey game provides many spills...
Donkey Game Is Saturday
comes to the
Center Satur-
to come to the
as 5 p.m. for
enjoy conces-
ed if the state had installed
casings across the U.S. 74
bridge at Piedmont, Waco
Road and Cleveland Avenue
interchanges and Gas Supt.
Jimmy Maney was absent to
answer his questions. “It
would be very expensive’,
said King’, if the casings
under the road are not in
place.”
Commissioner Humes
Houstin reminded commis-
sioners that a letter in each
commissioners meeting
folder, presented by the
Mayor, reported that the
KM City Board Approves
Agreement
with the attorney. Commis-
sioner Harold Phillips said he
had also been told that a re-
taining wall was included in
the original agreement bet-
ween the city and drug store.
Thomasson said a
misunderstanding had occur-
red, that engineers had in-
stalled retaining basins, not a
retaining wall.
Propst said that his com-
pany had gone to additional
expense of to complete catch
basins and landscaping and
that the adjoining property
owner was cooperating, is
satisfied, and his firm is
abiding with its agreement
with the city. Propst asked
King if he had talked with
Mrs. Bearden during the last
24-48 hours and King said he
had talked to Mrs. Bearden
about a week ago.
Propst said he wished that
King had been conscientious
enough to call her again
before Tuesday’s meeting
and not use week old informa-
tion. King said he resented
Propst’s remarks and that he
had looked at the site himself
and had strong reservations
about voting for acceptance
of the project.
laughter and surprises never ends at a
donkey ball game. You will see your
neighbors and friends attempt to ride
donkeys that are specially trained for the
game. Some have not been ridden very far
even after hundreds of attempts”, said
Shriner Darvin Chastain.
The entire ballgame will be comedy filled
but there is also a hilarious half time show.
Professional Animal Frolics will be pro-
ducing the ball game for local Shriners for
mily entertainment for the whole family.
city’s gas engineers had
reviewed the city’s éurrent
gas demand and said there
was sufficient capacity ‘‘to
serve the Gold Run Subdivi-
sion with no problem.”
However, Commissioner
Fred Finger questioned the
“awful fast payback’ an-
ticipated on preliminary
estimates of the project and
Commissioner Harold
Phillips asked for a detailed
plan of cost of the project for
100 potential customers.
Phillips asked the cost of a
tap fee for outside city
customers but Mayor Moss
said he did not have the
figures.
City Commissioner Corbet
Nicholson said that the gas
superintendent should be pre-
sent to answer those ques-
tions. Commissioner asked
for the cost of 1,000 cubic feet
of residential gas to outside
city customers and the
Mayor could not give him the
figures without a rate chart.
Finger then made the motion,
seconded by King, to call for
a feasibility study with a
detailed plan and cost
estimate on the project to be
on the agenda for the next
month’s meeting.
Mrs. Alexander said she
had seen road drawings and
plans and that castings were
in place in all the areas ques-
tioned by the commissioners.
She said 60 additional home
sites are proposed at Gold
Run.
A water tap request from
Mike Brown, 1506 N. Canser
St., was also tabled by the
board for more study, but on-
ly after lengthy discussion
between Codes Director Bob
Davies, Brown and commis-
sioners uncertain if Brown’s
i was being con-
sidered as a trailer park
which the codes director says
does not qualify. Davies also
read a city ordinance which
Turn To Page 5-A
Only Four Speak
At School Hearing
By GARY STEWART
Managing Editor
Only four of the estimated
25 citizens attending Tuesday
night’s public hearing for in-
put into possible re-
organization of the Kings
Mountain schools grade
structures spoke to the board.
The school board is con-
sidering re-organizing the
grade structures when and if
special funds become
available for new school con-
struction and refurbishing.
Over the past several mon-
ths, Supt. Bob McRae and
board members have
discussed several options, in-
"cluding:
*Building a new middle
scheol to replace Central
School, which has been judg-
ed as unsuitable for students.
A new school would house the
sixth and seventh grades;
*Move the ninth grade from
the junior to senior high, and
move the sixth and seventh
grades from Central to the
junior high’
*Move the ninth grade to
the high school, the seventh
to the junior high, and the
sixth to the five elementary
schools;
*Move the seventh grade to
the junior high and the sixth
to iii elementary schools.
Carolyn Hicks, all residents
of Kings Mountain, gave their
opinions Tuesday. All leaned
toward returning sixth
graders to the elementary
schools, which at present in-
clude grades kindergarten
though five.
Caveny also eneguraged
the board to used the middle
school concept to its fullest
advantage.
“The middle school is an
excellent idea,” he said. “‘Un-
fortunately, it’s not an idea
that we've used to good ad-
vantage. More than anything
else Central School has been
a two-year holding tank.”
Caveny noted that sixth
graders are held ‘almost en-
tirely apart from seventh
grders”” and that seventh
graders who participate in
sports do so at the junior high
school. There is no school
spirit, he said.
“There is no true middle
school,” he said. “If it’s
possible to incorporate a true
middle school into the
Oliver and
system, I encourage you to do
50.”
Caveny said he felt the best
reorganization option would
be moving the sixth grade
back to the elementary
schools, having a seventh
through ninth grade junior
high and 10-12th senior high.
. Caveny urged the board to
take a look at the teaching
and learning environment.
“There is some grouping ac-
cording to achievement,” he
said. “I would suggest that in
some cases attitude is more
important than achievement.
There are bright students
with poor attitudes toward
education who are preventing
others from progressing pro-
perly. There are weaker
students with a good attitude
who are being held back by
disruptive students. Re-
organization should seek to
remedy that situation as far
as possible.”
Caveny urged the board to
poll teachers for their sugges-
tions. “A teacher’s primary
job is to teach and the stu-
dent’s is to learn. Both should
be allowed to function with as
little interference as
possible,” he said. ‘The
primary function of the schol
is to educate the students and
all other considerations are
.
Caveny said one of the big-
gest interferences is extra-
curricular activities,
especially sports. He urged
the board to take a serious
look at the academic eligibili-
ty requirements for athletes.
“Sports should be treated as
a privilege,” he said.
“If we’re ‘going to
reorganize our schools,
reorganize them well,”’ he
said. ‘‘Reorganize them in a
way that encourages a good
education and not just 12
years of attending classes.’
Hck
McDaniel said he favored
the sixth grade in elementary
schools or in a middle school
because of the big difference
in size and maturity levels of
sixth and eighth graders.
_ “There is a lot of difference
in the maturity of a sixth and
eighth grader,” he said. ‘I
can remember when I was in
those grades and the
pressure that was placed on
the younger student by the
upperclassmen. Those
pressures take place today
Just as the did then.
“There’s not that much dif-
ference (in the maturity) bet-
ween seventh and eighth
graders, but from the sixth to
eighth grade there is a
tremendous amount,”” he
said.
Mrs. Moss said she felt
most youngsters leaving the
ifth g are not ready |
dle school.
The mother of a Central
Turn To Page 2-A
Good Friday Snow Day,
School Calendar Approved
The Kings Mountain Board
of Education amended its
current calendar and adopted
the calendar for 1987-88 at
Monday’s meeting at the
Superintendent’s Office.
Good Friday was approved
as a makeup day for one of
the three days missed
because of bad weather. The
other two days will be tacked
on at the end of the year,
making June 10 the last day
for students.
Next year, teachers will
begin school on August 13 and
first day for students will be
August 24. Final day for
students will be June 3.
In other business Monday,
the board:
*Heard a report from
Assistant Superintendent
Larry Allen on the com-
parison of salaries of
classified personnel in the
three county systems. He
said secretaries, plant opera-
tion employees, and cafeteria
employees rank behind the
Shelby and Cleveland County
systems while teacher aides
salaries are slightly above.
Supt. Bob McRae recom-
mended, and the board ap-
proved, a plan to bring
secretaries pay in line with
other units as funds become
available, and that the board
continue to pursue ways to in-
crease pay of persons in other
categories.
Turn To Page 2-A
STUDENT EXHIBITS—Math and Science students from Grades 4-12 exhibited in the annual
Math and Science Fair held at the Kings Mountain Woman’s Club Friday afterno:n. Judy Gib-
son, Junior High algebra and geometry teacher, above, admires the large and ve ried exhibits
which filled the auditorium of the clubhouse and were open for public inspectior.
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