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"Your Hometown Newspaper Since 1889"
VOL. 102 NO. 10
TAKING A LOOK-Surveyor Brian Harrison of W. K. Dickson
Company, the city's consulting engineers, takes a look at Bridges |
Urive where the city utility committee is asking city councii to tar-
Kings Mountain People
get a major construction project,
and sewer: lines to be followed by paving, and drainage improns gin
Photo by Dieter Melhorn
including installation of new water
ments to begin by late sumImgT AL tv
|
MRS. W. T. WEIR
By LIB STEWART
Of The Herald Staff
manage those big boys."
classes.
Josephine Ellerbe Weir won't ever forget her first
day in the classroom at Central School.
She was nervous, although she wore a new white
jumper with blue-trimmed blouse with a high collar
and cuffs. She was just out of college, young, petite
and the parents told her," you're a mighty little thing to ’
That was in 1921 and Mrs. Weir, then Josephine
Ellerbe, was hired to teach four high school English
She took the stairs three at a time to the
English department, where the Central library is today.
Very quickly, she earned the reputation of a strict disci-
plinarian. "No chewing gum" was the first rule she
quickly enforced. Students learned English and the
Mrs. Weir Still Hates Gum
as one of their favorite teachers.
During the early years in Kings Mountain, it was
town to call on
loved it.
Weir's love of
+ and librarian.
this year to make
be recounted in a
In 1921 there
love of books and today, 69 years later, they revere her
Grover Hires Plant Operator
GROVER- Town Board hired
Mike Church, of Kings Mountain,
as wastewater treatment plant oper-
ator Monday night after Mayor Bill
McCarter said Bold Laboratories
of Charlotte, who had held the con-
tract with the board for 18 months,
allowed $7,687 in state violation
fines to accumulate.
The action came after an execu-
tive session at the opening of a
lengthy session in which the board
interviewed Church.
Church is rated Grade IV, the
highest rating the state requires for
water plant operators, and the
Grover plant is rated Grade III,
Mayor Kyle Smith wears many
hats.
Friday, Feb. 23, a day after his
62nd birthday, he hung up one of
his hats as Recruiting Manager at
Combustion Engineering, a full-
time job he has held since 1987
along with his elected job as the
city's first part-time mayor to serve
during the city manager-council
form of government.
Smith said he promised himself
that if he could afford to retire
from a full-time job at age 62 he
would do it. And after talking with
his wife, Mikie, personnel director
said McCarter. An independent
plant operator, Church will be paid
$750 a month.
In a related action, the board au-
thorized Town Attorney Bill Lamb
to request a remission, withdrawal
or reduction of the fines on the
grounds that the Charlotte compa-
ny had not certified the operation
and been on site for the amount of
time required."As we received no-
tices from the state we were in vio-
lation of some parameters, we
would send them to Bold. We
would never hear anything back
from them, so we thought we were
taken care of," said the mayor.
of Commercial Shearing, they de-
cided he would pursue other goals.
Smith, who maintains office
hours to the public on Tuesday and
Thursday afternoons at City Hall
and is on call daily to citizens,
plans to do some supervisory train-
ing "on the side" and he has al-
ready completed a course for read-
ing tutors and began teaching an
adult to read on Wednesday night.
Joining the local Literacy club is a
volunteer role he enjoys. Smith
says he is excited about teaching
adults to read and will be teaching
In other business:
+Authorized Attorney Lamb to
file motion for an extension of 30
days and change of venue in a
breach of contract suit. Yates
Construction Co. of Charlotte al-
leges the town owes $21,000 on a
sewer contract executed in late
1987. Grover's sewer project was
completed in late 1988 after the
town allowed extensions of an
April 1, 1988 contract at cost of
$1.8 million, said McCarter who
said the board invoked a penalty to
contractors at $200 a day to get the
project completed.
See Grover, 8-A
reading "one on one" on a regular
basis.
Elected in 1987 for his first four
year term as Kings Mountain's
mayor,. Smith campaigned for the
new form of government which he
inaugurated in Kings Mountain
two years ago and says the system
is working. He listed a number of
goals, which he says he has seen
completed and looks forward to the
lifting of the Judicial Order of
Consent which has been hanging
over the city's Pilot Creek since
1988 and says those required im-
provements haven't been done
not unusual to see her walking over the mill villages in
her students and their parents. She
students has not diminished over the
years nor has their affection for the popular teacher
Mrs. Weir will be among former Central teachers
and alumni honored by "Celebrate Central,” on April
7. The 85-year history of the school, which is closing
way for the new Middle School, will
colorful public program which Mrs.
Weir thinks will be "exciting and proper.”
was no high school library and the
first library books were bought that year with 50-cent
See Mrs. Weir, 13-A
‘Price Of Herald
Goes To 35 Cents
The single copy price of the
Kings Mountain Herald will in-
crease to 35 cents beginning next
week.
the paper in eight years and is nec-
essary because of the rising costs
of newsprint, ink and other sup-
plies necessary to print the paper.
Mail subscriptions will not in-
crease and, in fact, subscribers can
take advantage of special discount
offers if they wish to get their pa-
per through the mail.
1
This is the first price increase at|
Mounties To Host
Mustangs
In First Round Play-Off
4-A
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Kings Mountain city officials
will spend a hefty price tag in the
next two years for improvements
to the Bridges Drive area of the
city in updating water, sewer,
street paving and drainage in an
arca which officials term "a main-
tenance headache for the city " due
to sewage overflow and drainage
problems.
Members of the Utility commit-
tee Tuesday night labeled the
Bridges Drive project a No. 1 pri-
ority for capital improvements
funds over the next two years and
took a hard look at the three phases
of the project, which would top $1
million when completed.
The committee, chaired by
Commissioner Al Moretz, voted
unanimously to recommend to City
Council at the March 27 meeting
that Council approve engineering
fees of $76,000 to W. K. Dickson
Co. and budget $34,000 this fiscal
year for inspection and contract ad-
ministration of Phase I, which
would include water and sewer im-
provements, at estimated construc-
tion cost of $340,000, most of
which is budgeted in the 1990 fis-
cal year budget.
City Manager George Wood said
the Bridges Drive improvements
package, which will mean major
improvements to Bridges Drive,
Landing Street and the south side
of Pineview Street and affect up to
35 property owners, will be phased
out over a two-year period in the
budget. "This means our priority
for the 1991-1992 fiscal year will
also be for this area of the city,” he
told the committee which held a
lengthy discussion of long-range
plans for improvements in the city
over a five-20 year period.
David Pond, consultant with W.
K. Dickson Co. engineers, re-
viewed the construction timetable
for the Bridges Drive project. He
will recommend at the March 27
council meeting that the board
award contract June 1 in Phase 1
and award contract in Phase 2 in
July. "Both these projects will
overlap," said Pond. Phase 2 will
include paving and curb and gutier-
ing.
"Basically, what we will do is
lower the road about a foot and
slope the street to prevent the
flooding of yards in the area.," he
said. In his review, Pond said that
maintenance of the Bridges Drive
area over the years due to "messy"
drainage problems and sewer over-
flow" has cost the city big bucks."
Utility members called replacing of
lines a No. 1 priority. Water pres-
sure problems in that area would
also be eliminated, he said.
The engineering fee proposal
submitted by Pond included $6500
for a drainage study, $12,500 for a
survey, $5,000 for geotechnical
work, including stability analysis,
location and topographic survey,
and design of all three phases,
$52,000., excluding inspection and
construction administration fees of
$13, 000 for Phase 1, $8.000 for
Phase 11 and $13,000 for Phase III.
In other business, the committee:
+Discussed two locations for a
new 5 million gallon water storage
tank to be purchased with bond
money of $250,000 approved by
voters for improvements. Pond rec-
ommends the tank be constricted
at'the Public Works Buyidini 27-
acre site on Highway 26 but the
committee wants to take ancther
look at a 56-feet high elevation siie
on Chestnut Ridge. After a hy-
draulic analysis by W. K. Dickson
engineers, Pond said the 216 site is
better and will be less costly be-
cause of additional pumping cost.
He suggested a smaller storage
tank and booster pumping station
for the Chestnut Ridge area for fu-
ture development but
Commissioner Moretz disagreed.
Moretz said the big tank is needed
at Chestnut Ridge due to needed
fire protection in the area. Pond
said that building of a new 36 inch
See Headache, 13-A
Grover Plans Addition
To Town Hall Facility
GROVER-Mayor Pro Tem
Ronald Queen's motion that the
town board move ahead now on
plans to build a $54,238 addition to
Town Hall came with a stipulation
that the contract be let in 90 days
and the work completed during this
fiscal year.
"Let's get our name in the pot for
a contractor,” he told the board,
who voted unanimously to use
money in unassigned funds to be-
gin construction.
"I don't want any surprises," said
Commissioner Sandra Ellis, who
said she hopes the entire project,
which will take more money to
complete, can be completed "in a
reasonable amount of time."
The proposed addition is a 3,250
overnight. He says the JOC should
be lifted by the end of this year. He
wants to see an updating of the
sewer and electric system, and with
bonds approved by voters last
February, Smith says that this year
and next year will see the comple-
tion of those much needed projects.
Smith said the next two years will
be "big years" in the city's history.
Smith's first goal was realized
in April 1988 when city council
hired its first city manager in the
newly-created city manager-coun-
cil form of government. His second
goal was hiring professional de-
square foot addition to the existing
Smith Retires, Puts On Tutor 'Hat’
partment heads at City Hall and
the hiring of a personnel manager.
Smith said that department heads
and the personnel manager do the
hiring and department heads run
their own departments, which in-
cludes firing. In late 1991 or early
1992 he hopes to see completion of
the long-awaited Crowders Creek
Waste Treatment Plant and last
week presented a check for a half
million dollars to the City of
Gastonia, the city's share of the
project.
See Smith, 14-A
1,375 square feet building and will
include private offices for Grover's
Mayor W. W. McCarter, Police
Officer Paul Cash, and Clerk
Debora G. Philbeck in addition to
bathrooms, storage area, a kitchen
and two furnaces. The existing
meeting room area room now is
utilized also for office space.
Officer Cash works out of the utili-
ty department.
McCarter told the board that
contract can be let up to $50,000
without a bid and the board said
they would begin searching for a
contractor to complete the outside
of the building and pour a concrete
floor. Commissioner Jim Howell
estimated it will take $100,000 to
complete the addition.
MAYOR KYLE SMITH