Newspapers / The Kings Mountain Herald … / Sept. 14, 1988, edition 1 / Page 1
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IE,» CC oe ae Vr re Ne STO AR SR RT FT Ge i gh va i de No J NIN SONTY S 001 VOL. 101 NUMBER 38 WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1988 a KINGS MOUNTAIN, NORTH Council Approves Lake Dam Repairs By LIB STEWART Staff Reporter : With approval of a get-touch policy on outside ci- ty water and sewer extensions, the city council Tuesday night made it plain that developers must furnish ‘“‘up front” money of total project costs. The city will waive the $800 utilities tap on fee when the total project funds are in hand. ‘“We have limited finances and are in no position to install lines and are having a Drobjem with get- ting up front money from people requesting city services who live outside the city,” said City Outside Water Customers Must Pay In Advance in : Manager George Wood in making the recommen- dation, which passed 5-0. Councilman Humes Houston was absent. Two residents of Dover Heights, Betty Conner and Margaret Rayfield, protested, saying they were promised city utilities two years ago when water and sewer lines were run to the home of neighbors off Waco Road. Mrs. Conner said that seven families in the area are in need of water and wells are dry. : : Residents of Dover Street, Bethware School Turn To Page 6-A Exceptional Children Programs Are Discussed By GARY STEWART Herald Editor Kings Mountain’s Board of Education was given a review of its Exceptional Children Programs by coordinator Jean Thrift at Monday’s board meeting at the Schools Administration Building. Mrs. Thrift said the school system is providing a variety of services to exceptional children ranging from severely mentally handicapped to academically gifted students. Services are offered to handicapped (minor to severe) children as early as three years old and academically talented students are served in grades two through 12. They are identified in the first grade. AG students in grades two through five are in an enrichment program and are pulled out of the regular classroom twice a week for special classes. AG students in the sixth and seventh grades study language arts, eight grade AG students are given special courses in history and English, and senior high AG students take ad- vanced classes. ; ‘Many people have asked why we don’t do more for the academically gifted students,”” Mrs. Thrift said. “It’s a matter of money. We receive only about one-third of the funds for AG as we do for the handicapped programs.’ Handicapped students spend as much time in a regular classroom as possible, she said. Upon identification, a handicapped student may be served totally in a regular classroom with a resource teacher serving as a consultant. Students J tudents. Children in grades K-3 tend classes at North School and those in grades 4-5 attend class at Grover. : “WE don’t have enough children to need a class at every school,” Mrs. Thrift said. ‘‘We have from eight to 12 students at North and usually fewer than that at Grover.” Behaviourly Emotionally Handicapped students are served in grades K-5 at North, 6-8 at Central and 9-12 at the high school, she said. Those are self-contained classes. The Kings Mountain system usually contracts with the Cleveland or Gaston County systems to provide services for the severely hearing im- paired. Mrs. Thrift said Kings Mountain can con- tract with one of those units for $2,000 to $3,000 per child which is less cost than it would be if Kings Mountain served those students. Many Kings Mountain students who are severe- ly mentally handicapped attend the Children’s Center in Shelby, which is a program shared by the county’s three school systems. Kings Moun- tain now has 17 students in that program. Kings Mountain also has two students in the Or- tohpedically Impaired program at Graham School in Shelby. Most children whose only handicap is being con- fined to a wheelchair are served in the regular classrooms, she said. The Exceptional Children’s Program also offers services such as Governor’s School for the academically gifted, and heme hospital services for persons who are homebound because of health problems, accidents, etc., for periods of 20 or more school days. Residential placement is offered for children who are disturbed at Eckerd Wilderness, and for deaf students at North Carolina School for the Deaf. Kings Mountain presently has two students at NCSD. Mrs. Thrift said new programs will be added in the next three years to help identify high-risk students, and that could help develop better readers and lower the dropout rate, Mrs. Thrift said. Kings Mountain is beginning a SKATES pro- gram (see article on page one), which is a speech- language screening program for three and four year olds. The system has scheduled screenings at North and Grover and will also be going into non- Turn To Page 7-A School Committee To Begin The Kings Mountain Middle School committee Kings Mt. District Schools is offering to the community a new pre-school program called S.K.AT.E.S. This stands for Special Kids And Their Early Speech. The goals of the SK.A.T.E.S. Program are to identify 3-and-4-year-old children with a speech and language pro- blem and to provide therapy to help the child. By finding and helping children early, the Turn To Page 8-A in that category, however, have only minor han- di ch as the visually impaired whose only . des K-3 at- By LIB STEWART Staff Reporter Kings Mountain City Council Tuesday night ap- proved $107,670 for emergency repairs to a spillway at Moss Lake and authorized Crowders Construction Co. to begin work immediately. Additional lowering of the lake will begin as soon as extensions to intake pumps are installed. “We are a little behind but will be ready when the construction crew comes in,” City Manager George Wood said. Repairs are expected to be completed in 45 days. The repairs are to correct weaknesses in the spillway at the dam which engineers said might fail y heavy rains significantly raise the lake evels. : Photo by Gary Stewart RIDING FOR M.S. Four of the over 100 bikers who participated in Sunday’s ‘150 Ride To Kings Mountain State Park” to raise money for multiple sclerosis are pictured on Dixon School road. Bikers rode 65 miles from Carowinds to the K raised over §: Kings Mountain Rescue Squa calls during 1987 and traveled 15,000 miles while reporting 50,000 man hours in service to the com- munity. When Kings Mountain area citizens give to the United Fund this year the all-volunteer squad will receive $7,400 of the contributions. United Fund 1989 seeks a record contributions of $115,500 for 15 causes. Todd Cerwin, Secretary to the Squad, says that KM Rescuers are on stand-by 24 hours a day as supplement for Emergency Medical Services and are on duty on weekends. Transporting patients to doctor’s offices and out-of-town hospitals and making blood runs is a common occurrence. The Squad has on hand a crash truck which is used to extricate victims pinned in wrecks and is the only rescue unit patroling Moss Lake. All volunteers are training at the EMT and Intermediate EMT levels. Chartered in 1957, it was the second squad organized in North Carolina and the first in Cleveland County. Serwin made his remarks Friday as Kings Mountain United Fund campaign workers kicked off the annual drive at a luncheon at Holiday Inn. Tom Bennett also presented a mini view of the Kings Mountain Boys Club, also one of the local agencies funded this year. Kings Mountain Boys Club is the 1006th unit of Boys Club of America of 1200 in the U.S. and 650 satellite units. The Kings Mountain club is one of only three without a facili- ty. The local club, for boys 7-16, is operated out of Central School and has average attendance year- round of 20-120 daily. The club, formed May 8, 1982, had the distinction recently of having an 11 year old ball team win the state competition and lose by three points in overtime during the na- tional finals in Orlando, Fla. President John H. Moss presided at the lun- cheon which was attended by an overflow crowd and also included recognition of division chairmen and a video, “Love Is All We Need” featuring John Denver. Dr. Bob McRae, campaign chairman, presented a campaign plan in which he challenged drive leaders to make their reports early and to ‘‘get on with it and get it done.” Report dates are Sept. 16, Oct.7 and Oct. 21 and the victory banquet is slated for Nov. 14. All the report meetings will be held at noon luncheons at Holiday Inn. Dr. McRae, Superintendent of KM District Schools, took the occasion to announce that M Park Saturday, and then 55 miles back to Carowinds by another route Sunday. They d answered 888 ERIC FAUST (L), TODD CERWIN LOOK OVER UNITED FUND GOALS Pacesetter Jim Scruggs, principal of Grover School, is challenging all schools to top Grovet’s record of giving. Last year Grover School was a Pacesetter with $460. This year, Scruggs has said he would give a 10 percent contribution of the total raised by his staff and students. Today, Grover’s total was $1100.53 and climbing, Scruggs said. “That’s the kind of effort that we need to meet the needs not only of the local Kings Mountain Rescue Squad and Kings Mountain Boys Club, but for all 15 agencies needing funds this year for a variety of causes,” said McRae. “This is a big send off today for the United Fund but it takes work from so many to get the job done,’’ said McRae. 9608¢ ON°©- ‘HAV LNOWQATg AYVIGIT TVINOWNANW AINAVR Other bidders for the project were H ting of Charlotte, $178,530; and EI. | Associates, Statesville, $210,540. The bids were awarded without comment except by motions by Councilman Al Moretz, chairman of the city’s utility committee, who said, ‘It’s not with pleasure that I make this motion but by choice,” seconded by Councilman Fred Finger, also a member of the utility committee. The repairs will buttress the spillway which handles overflow from Moss Lake, said David Pond, senior vice president of W.K. Dickson Co., a Charlotte engineering firm that has served as con- sultants on the project and completed engineering study for the board this summer. Pond said Turn To Page 6-A Can Lake Handle Future Water Needs? By LIB STEWART Staff Reporter City Manager George Wood isn’t convinced that Moss Lake can handle future water needs of Cleveland County even though the lake treatment capacity is 8 million gallons daily with a reservoir capacity of 20 to 30 million gallons. He made the remarks as he recommended Tues- day night that City Council endorse a resolution, part of a state grant application to be prepared by Isothermal Planning and Development Commis- sion, for funding to conduct a study of water treat- ment capacity in Cleveland County. Wood said that Kings Mountain, with its own water source and distribution system, may not be able to satisfy all the water requests that come in future years and strain of its water treatment capacity would require treatment plant expan- sion. Cleveland County Commissioners got the coun- tywide water system project rolling recently in a meeting attended by representatives of all municipal and district water systems in the coun- ty with Economic Development Director Joe Hen- drick and 10th District Congressman Cass Ballenger. Wood said that during the meeting participants seemed to agree on the benefits of connecting the present water systems and developing a new water source as steps toward achieving a coun- tywide water system. : Glenn Rhodes of the Isothermal Planning Com- mission is drafting the grant application. Shelby City Manager David Wilkinson says S 0 Wn Xi. inance an actual project. : City Council favored the study but when Councilman Fred Finger questioned costs City Manager Wood said the request was on- ly for a resolution endorsing the application for funding to conduct a study of water treatment capacity in Cleveland County. 7 Wood said the resolution provides the possible interconnection of existing systems for emergen- Cy purposes. Shelby, which operates its own water system, indicated they cannot satisfy all the water re- quests that will come to them in the future. The study will look at long term usage of water in Cleveland County. The resolution states that the city of Shelby and Upper Cleveland Water District, as well as the newly created Piedmont Metropolitan Water District, are in need of addi- tional water suplies for long term growth. ‘This would certainly reduce the pressure on us for water and give us a chance to expand Kings Moun- tain industrial development,” said Wood, of the proposal. 43 Small Businesses Getting Utility Break Forty-three small businesses paying minimum demand charges for electricity and gas got a break from city fathers Tuesday night. The charge is being eliminated and those who have paid their monthly bills will receive credits for the difference the city owes. Councilman Al Moretz, chairman of the city’s utility committee, said there is no justification for the minimal charge of $46.80 for electricity and gas when some customers may not use any more than $15-$18 a month. ; Concilman Harold Phillips agreed and quickly seconded the motion, saying he was happy to ‘‘se- cond Al’s motion.”” Councilman Phillips said he had received a barrage of telephone calls recently from citizens who had been paying what the rate schedule says and not liking it. The unanimous action by Council means that 43 firms will pay now for usage only. “What the city has always tried to do is to track Duke Power's electric rate but the times indicate that we are in an energy conservation crunch and Duke doesn’t enforce the minimal rate now,” Moretz explained. The change won’t affect water and sewer customers where all “pay their fair share for a gallon of water and ‘a gallon of wastewater treated,” he said. Turn To Page 6-A Obituaries ............ yy Tisipation in the study and fii : S.K.A.T.E.S. Screening To Begin hopes to get off to a “wonderful beginning” tonight when it meets with Nancy Farmer of the North Carolina Department of Instruction to begin plan- ning for the creation of a middle school (grades 6-8), director of instruction Jane King told the * Board of Education Monday at its regular monthly meeting at the Schools Administration Office. Mrs. King chairs the committee, which includes parents, teachers, administrators and other school staff members. Mrs. King said Mrs. Farmer, a special assistant for middle grades with the Department of Instruc- tion, will help the committee in discussion of goals, objectives, curriculum, scheduling, building organization and teacher organization. Turn To Page 8-A Ebenezer Baptist Church To Dedicate New Building PAGE 15-B Editorials........... ..4-A Women’s News. ...... 10-A Sports ....... ae a eat 1-B “Religion. ............. 8-B Classifieds ........... 12-B Lifestyles ............. 1-C Food... oun. viii 2-C 38 PAGES TODAY PLUS 6 INSERTS I Co aE
The Kings Mountain Herald (Kings Mountain, N.C.)
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