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VOL. 101 NUMBER 34
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17, 1988
Will It Be
Hot Forever?
Will it be this hot forever?
Obviously, the answer is no. But many
residents must wonder as the temperature con-
tinues to rise into the high 90’s and their crops
and lawns continue to suffocate in the heat and
humidity and lack of moisture.
Not only has it affected the plant life, but the in-
tense heat has also become a health problem for
persons who work outside and those with
reathing problems-—particularly the elderly.
The heat last week was blamed for the death of a
16-year-old high school football player in Raleigh
but school officials here say they’ve had no heat-
related problems.
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Another
Hot Day
KM To Pay $500,000
Schools
To Open
Monday
School bells ring Monday for 3800 Kings Moun-
tain District school pupils at eight plants.
Wednesday is first day of school for 450 staff
members, although Monday and Tuesday were
optional teacher work days.
At two of the plants, Kings Mountain Senior
High School and North Elementary School, the
students will begin the new year with a new prin-
cipal. Mrs. Jackie Lavender, former assistant
KMSHS principal, moved up to the principal
postion vacated by Ronnie Wilson when he
ecame the system’s first personnell director. At
North School, Joey Hopper replaces Dr. Jane
King who was promoted to Director of Public In-
struction succeeding retiring director Mrs. Mar-
tha Bridges.
Faculties are complete with the exception of
hiring a new assistant principal at Central
School, according to Dr. Robert McRae,
Superintendent, an action which implements the
state Basic Education Plan. By the time classes.
start on Monday the new position will be filled.
al school bus driver positions have also been fill-
ed.
Lunchrooms will operate as usual on the first
day of school.
A special activity for the staff on Friday will be
a motivation, appreciation luncheon at the Kings
Mountain Senior High cafeteria at 11:30 3.m.
with Dr. William Purkey, Professor of the School
of Education at UNC-Greensboro, as Speaker.
‘Everything looks good for the start of a new
year,” said Dr. McRae who said that although
enrollment figures are down he anticipates the
system will top 3800 students.
Repairs have been completed at most schools,
including the construction of the awning at Kings
Mountain Senior High following the razing of it
last year by a truck that struck the building.
Construction is well underway on the new
Kings Mountain Natatorium, an indoor swimm-
ing pool, which will serve the community as well
as students. With the continuance of good
weather, workmen estimate that construction
will be completed by Jan. 1. After that, schedules
will have to be worked out and supervisors
designated before the pool o
probably in early spring, said McRae.
Tennis courts at the Senior High School were
redone during the summer months but still to be
redone are tennis courts at the Junior High Girls
tennis practice opened this week on the Senior
High courts. Local band students are also prac-
ticing this week. Junior HIgh students and
sophomores were attending day classes and the
KMSHS marching band began practices at night.
The KMSHS Band will be performing at Walt
Disney World April 5-9 and early practice for
sophomores is in fundamentals of marching.
rootbal scrimmages also got underway last
week. :
A new traffic pattern at Grover School was
necessary to separate bus and car traffic and the
new route is a safety feature.
Asbestos was removed from the ceilings of four
classrooms at East School.
The schools’
follows:
operating schedules are as
ELEMENTARY (Grades K-5)
School Day Begins - 8:20 a.m.
School Day Ends - 2:40 p.m.
Kindergarten students will be on a half-day
schedule August 22-26. Students will be asked to
stay one afternoon for testing.
If you have questions, contact the principal of
our child’s school. Dismissal time for
indergartners will be after lunch has been serv-
ed.
CENTRAL (Grades 6-7)
School Day Begins - 8 a.m.
School Day Ends - 2:35 p.m.
JUNIOR HIGH (Grades 8-9)
School Day Begins - 7:48 a.m.
School Day Ends - 2:30 p.m.
SENIOR HIGH (Grades 10-12)
School Day Begins - 8 a.m.
School Day Ends - 2:20 p.m.
Persons who have not registered their child
should contact their child’s school as soon as
possible.
ns to the public,
Governor, Congressman Visit
By LIB STEWART
News Editor
A 30-year contract between Kings Mountain,
Gastonia, Gaston County and Bessemer City for
development of the proposed $26 - $28 million
Crowders Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant is
likely to be signed Thursday by officials of the four
municipalities.
Kings Mountain City Council and Gaston County
Commissioners gave unanimous approval to an
agreement which Gastonia City Council is ex-
pected to approve at its 11 a.m, meeting Thursday.
GOVERNOR JIM MARTIN
Martin: Better Roads,
Jobs, Schools Needed
CONGRESSMAN CASS BALLENGER
Ballenger: Notch Bill
Won’t Pass Congress
By TODD GOSSETT
Staff Reporter
Gov. Jim Martin told a group of Cleveland Coun-
ty Republicans Friday morning that what North
Carolina needs is better schools, better roads, and
better jobs. ‘
He was speaking at a $25 per plate breakfest at
the Western Steer in Shelby.
The most important of these, Martin said, was
better schools in the state. He is advocating pro-
motions for teachers in a Career Ladder program.
The program is already in place in several pilot
districts across the state’ and will soon go
statewide, he said.
He had this to say to teachers: ‘“The better you
are, the better you become and the better you will
be paid.”
Martin also responded to accusations from the
state Democratic Party that he was running away
from the Republican. Party’s national ticket.
“Polls show Bush will win in North Carolina, so
why would I want to run away from a winner?’ he
asked.
Martin said he did not choose to be a delegate at
this weeks’ Republican National Convention
because he can’t be there the whole time. He has
appearances to make this week in North Carolina,
but said he could have put all that aside.
Martin said that if Bush runs ahead of him in
North Carolina, he’ll help Martin, and if he (Mar-
tin) runs ahead of Bush in North Carolina, he’ll
help the presidential candidate.
Martin said it would be a close race between him
and his Democratic opponent, Lt. Gov. Bob Jor-
dan, but expected the Republican party to do well
statewide. :
By TODD GOSETT
Staff Reporter
Congressman Cass Ballenger told a group of
Kings Mountain Senior Citizens Tuesday that he
was against the new medicare plan for
catastrophic health insurance and promised to in-
troduce a bill to help correct social security’s
‘‘notch’ problem.
“There are some good things in here, but you
have to pay for them,” he said about the new
medicare Vn The new plan, which goes into ef-
fect over the next few years, provides more health
care but at higher deductibles than before.
The new plan will pay for one mamography, up
to 80 hours of respite care each year, 150 days in a.
skilled nursing facility, and unlimited hospital
care among other things, Ballenger said.
Ballenger, who voted against the change,
answered questions from the senior citizens about
the new plan.
Ballenger discussed the controversy over the so-
called “notch babies’ -- people born between 1917
and 1921 whose social security benefits were
lowered in 1977 to correct a 1972 error by Congress.
Ballenger said that a “notch” bill could have no
chance of getting passed through Congress, but
that he’d introduce a bill to show his constituents
that he is concerned.
“I’m 100 percent in favor of reducing the money
paid to people who were born before the notch,” he
said. “But I’m trying to be honest -- the bill won’t
have a chance.”
Ballenger said that sometime in the next year or
two people in Congress will realize that something
oe be done about the notch, but it would still
be difficult to do something about it in Congress.
Power To Be Off Sunday
Duke Power will interrupt electric service to
approximately 1,000 customers in areas around
the Margrace Mill community for about 15
minutes Sunday morning at six o’clock.
Customers in the Margrace area, South Grover
Road, Phifer Road, Margrace Road, Dixon
School Road, and Bethlehem Church Road will
be affected.
During the interruption, new equipment will be
installed which will allow Duke to provide addi-
tional cost saving programs for customers in the
Margrace area, said Robert W. Woods, district
engineer.
INSIDE AT A GLANCE
Coleman
Stroupe
Always
Wanted
To Be A
Barber
PAGE 3-A
Obituaries ............ 2-A
Editorials............. 4-A
Sports... 0.00 1-4B
Community News....5-6B
School News........ 7-11B | Jifetime experience.
Classifieds......... 12-14B
Weddings ............ 2-3C
Food...............+ 8-10C
40
PAGES TODAY
The 11 year-olds had won the
state game that qualified them
for the finals and couldn’t believe
they had washed enough cars,
hawked enough doughnuts and
cut enough grass to earn $150 a
piece to pay their expenses.
It was a dream come true, ac-
cording to Danny McDowell,
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Crowder’s Plan OK'..
Under the agreement, Kings Mountain’s up
front costs will be cut from nearly $4 milion to
-$500,000. Gastonia’s share would go from $4 to $7
million but Mayor J.B. Garland, a strong sup-
porter of the efforts, says ‘it’s worth it.”
The agreement pleased Kings Mountain council
members and Council member Al Moretz, chair-
man of the city’s utility committee which decided
about six weeks ago to cut Kings Mountain’s share
of the costs to $1.25 million or pull out of the pro-
ject. “I think we accomplished what we set out to
do. We’ve reduced our up-front money con-
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Most Employees |
To Get Raises
Under New Plan
City Council Tuesday night approved a job
classification and pay plan which means that most
city employees will get raises next month based
on a market study on what their jobs are actually
worth,
Additional payroll costs to meet the new scale
will be approximately $220,000 annually.
Only four of the city’s 170 employees have ex-
ceeded the maximum step on the grade level, said
Roger Scott in his presentation to Council. The re-
molnder were either at or below the suggested
scale.
The city is moving to implement a management
study and in the next weeks will be busy im-
plementing the pay scale. Employees below the
starting step on the grade scale are assured a
substantial raise.
“Because the city is behind the market in some 4
areas it's hard for you to acquire quality
employees and keep them,” said Scott, referring
to the police and fire departments where starting
salaries are below-market pay. ‘Kings Mountain
policemen are start here at a low salary and are
paid by the city to train for their jobs. They leave
and go to Shelby where they can get more pay,” he
said, declaring that “the city is operating under a /
false economy by continuing this practice.”
After their initial raises next month, the next 4
raises in pay for city workers will be merit pay
raises, based on job performance and based on
supervisor’s recommendations through a strict
evaluation process.
Municipal Advisors, Inc. was contacted by the
city five months ago to conduct the study and since
City Manager George Wood came to work three
months ago Scott and Wood have talked at length
about the proposals. Scott took the occasion to
praise Wood and city council for “all you’ve done
in such a short time to implement most of dour
suggestions.”
Included in the budget, adopted July 1, were
provisions for $220,000 to pay for the pay raises;
funds to hire professionals in the area of coeds and
recreation and the employment of a personnel
director who comes to work Aug. 22 just in time to
help implement some program and to work with
the city manager, Mayor Kyle Smith, and Coun-
cilmen J.D. Barrett and Humes Houston on a
revised personnel policy. Barrett and Houston
were appointed by the mayor to an ad hoc commit-
tee to study a proposed personnel policy.
Scott suggested that the new personnel policy
not be overly elaborate but as uncomplicated as
possible and include an inclement weather policy
and give smployecs an extra holiday on Memorial
Day, plus allow them to carry over vacation up to
30 days and include a simple discipline policy. He
called the city’s fringe benefits for employees ‘‘ex-
cellent.”
Other recommendations:
Strengthening the financial system by a new ac-
counting system and computers, already in place,
and fixed asset control to account for everything
the city owns. A modified system is in place and is
being refined.
Central purchasing and warehouseing functions
which are being implemented and key internal ac-
counting procedures.
A utility metering and replacement program
and automated meter cycle billing procedure so
customers are billed at same time each month.
Assessment of the utility operations by a user
rate study which the city is contracting for and
which Scott said is badly needed.
Seventy percent of vehicles owned by the city
are five years old. Scott says the city should in-
itiate an orderly replacement program.
A formal program of goals and objectives and
an annual review is needed.
Scott recommended that city officials at some
point during the year hold a retreat away from the
city to set long term goals and objectives.
Establishment of a Department of Ad-
ministrative Services to relieve the city manager
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KM Boys Club Benefits
From United Way Drive
For the KM Boys Club basket-
ball team that played in the na-
tional tournament in Orlando,
Fla. the trip was a once-in-a
Bethware fourth grade teacher
and director of the program
which began here in 1982, and
Tom Bennett, a businessman,
who was instrumental in starting
the club which began with a
handful of boys 7-16 at Central
School and grew to an enrollment
of 325 kids this summer when the
athletic program was at its peak,
school was out and enthusiasm
was high. Trips to Carowinds,
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