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94
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Celebrity Basketball
Game Monday
Member Of The
North Carolina
Press Association
VOL. 102 NO. 14
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HRC
Sub-Station
Hearing Set
For April 12
City Council will conduct a public hearing
Thursday, April 12, at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall on the
city's plans to build a new 15,000 volt electrical sub-
station near Davidson Park on Sims and Parker Street.
The electric sub-station is part of a $9 million im-
provements package voted by Kings Mountain citizens
for utility improvements. It will be 45 feet high with
80 to 100 feet powerlines and bordsred by a 10-foot
fence on a two-acre site.
is Clty Council i is negotiating with Kings Mountain
Board of Education for the property. &) ii
Although the public hearing is not a legal require-
ment, members of the city utilities committee, which
has approved the site on recommendation of Heath and
Associates, electrical consulting engineers, wants the
public to have input on the site and have their ques-
tions answered concerning noise and safety. The Heath
engineers, who met with the Utilities committee at a
recent meeting, will also be available to answer ques-
tions by the public.
Only one other item is on the agenda for next
Thursday's meeting, rescheduled so that three mem-
bers of Council could attend a N. C. League of
Municipalities meeting in Asheville. Council is ex-
pected to act on the sale of city property on North
Watterson Street to Mount Zion Baptist Church.
Fund Drive Begins
For Wreck Victim
Friends of Shane Lowery, 23, who was critically in-
jured in an automobile accident March 23, are spon-
soring a Coffee Break this weekend at 201 York Road
for benefit of he Lowery family.
- Lowery lost control of his
ar when he swerved to avoid hit-
ting a dog on U.S. 74 West near
Dennis No. 3 Food Mart on
riday, March 23. The car flipped
. over several times and Lowery
was pinned in the wreckage. His
wife, Janice, and their two chil-
+ dren, Kevin, 7 months, and
Daniel, 3, suffered bruises. The
LOWERY
baby remained in the hospital a day for observation.
Lowery remains in the Intensive Care Unit at Charlotte
Memorial Hospital.
See Fund Drive, 2-A
Grover Mine
Up For Sale
2»
Former Teachers To Return
For Central Celebration
SA
~ TA
oN
8
GETTING READY TO GLIDE-Dr. Bob Baker, retired Kings Mountain dentist, gets ready to glide on
Moss Lake. At 73, Baker wind surfs and skis at the lake and this weekend will snow ski in Colorado. His
boat crew is his wife, Mary Louise Baker, wench operator, and nephew, Phil Baker, driver.
Dentist, 73, Wind Surfer
Baker Still Flying High
Wind surfing on Moss Lake, hang gliding, and snow
skiing are not sports limited to the very young.
Ask Dr. Bob Baker, retired dentist, who at 73 is un-
like many of his contemporaries who may opt the less
dangerous activities as senior citizens.
While his former classmates at Central School are
"Celebrating Central” on April 7, Bob and his wife,
Mary Louise, will be in Steamboat, Colorado for a
week of skiing. Bob is praying for snow.
At least once a month Bob and his wife and nephew,
Phil Baker, hitch boat and equipment on "Old Blue,"
his 1973 Le Sabre, to Moss Lake and Bob wind surfs.
"It's less dangerous to stay over the water," says Baker,
explaining that his nephew operates the boat and Mary
Louise uses an electric wench to let out 2,000 feet of
rope. Water skiing is fun but hang gliding on
Grandfather Mountain is the ultimate experience for
Baker who used a hang glide for the first time in 1974
and before that for ten years flew a flat kite with the
Charlotte Water Ski Shows. He purchased a new hang
glider in 1981 and at the age of 69 started wind surf-
ing. He will celebrate his 74th birthday in May.
Bob Baker graduated from Central ( Kings
Mountain High School) in 1933 at age 16, two days
before his 17th birthday.. The fire is a vivid memory
for Bob because it occurred a little over two months
before high school graduation. "The heat was so in-
tense. It looked like half the student body got up that
night and came to the school and watched the building
burn,” said Baker, who lived on North Piedmont
Avenue in the Baker homeplace, across the street from
the Dr. P. G. Padgett residence. Bob rode his bicycle to
school and parked it in the D. C. Mauney garage
across the street from the high school. "The fire was so
intense but the kids whooped it up and cheered. We
even sang the Alma Mater as the building burned,” he
recalled. Baker said the auditorium did not burn and
his class went back into the auditorium for graduation.
For the remainder of that school year, however, the se-
niors went to school for a half a day each day at East
School. Baker recalled that his parents, the late Dr. and
Mrs, L. P. Baker, had donated French bass homs for
the band and all the instruments melted. All school
records were lost in the fire. "All our class graduated. I
think the teachers got together and remembered our
grades, etc.," he said.
See Baker, 10-A
will have a memory book for
ormer pupils to sign.
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~ Central alumni from the 1930s
through the 1960s will be featured
in the multi-media slide presenta-
“tion, at 7. p.m.
Auditorium. "The first thing we
want to stress to the public is
this program is free. We think
will be great entertainment for the
man Steve Baker. "Mama Central
has helped give birth to a lot of
memories over the years and this is
a way that we'll share with those
See Central, 3-A
Did Mayor
Over-Step
Authority?
GROVER-A dispute over the mayor's authority
spilled over into Monday night's town board meeting.
Does the mayor have authority to postpone a town
board meeting? New commissioner Norman King
thinks not, he reiterated Monday night at the meeting
which McCarter rescheduled in a memo to commis-
sioners after King "called to my attention that the
Mayor doesn't have the authority to postpone a meet-
ing."
McCarter said he wanted to attend a revival meeting
at First Baptist Church, which King also attends, and
‘Mayor Pro Tem Ronald Queen was 10 be ont-of-tows.
He notified commissioners by mail that the April 2
meeting was put off until April 9. King called him and
questioned his authority in postponing a meeting be-
fore taking a vote of commissioners.
King, who has been on the Grover board for four
months, said he wasn't "throwing rocks at anybody"
but that he has received no challenge as a new com-
missioner and he feels the mayor and all commission-
ers should get the community involved in decision
making. "The citizens aren't getting their money's
worth for what they pay us. When you appoint a com-
mittee you appoint only one person," he told the may-
or. King said he wanted his comments questioning the
mayor's authority in the board minutes.
After heated discussion between McCarter and
King, the mayor called King out of order.
In actions:
+Approved architect's fee of $4,000. for the town
Hall construction project and agreed to pay invoices
on receipt in first phase of construction and to autho-
rize drawings for plumbing, heating and electrical in-
stallations in the amount of $1500. The project is ex-
pected to cost $54,000 plus architect fees.
+Tabled the Brice Harry Memorial Park improve:
ments until board members can take a look at the Parl:
where additional dirt, reseeding, fertilizing, and instal-
lation of backstops, base-line fencing and water and
sewer will be needed before the baseball season be-
gins. McCarter said cost of the project could amount to
more than $30,000 and there isn't much interest by
young people in fielding teams. Numerous Little
League teams used to play ball at the park but
McCarter says those ball players have grown up and
the interest has waned.
+Approved a sewer tap at $50 and water meter at’
$25 for Bethany Baptist Church, same rate that applied
when the sewer system was under construction. Now,
the rates have increased considerably.
See Grover, 10-A
Don Parker Couldn't Leave Central
in Central
whole family," said program chair-
The J. M. Huber Corporation
will offer its North Carolina mica
mining and production operations
* for sale this spring. It includes a
new, dry-ground production facility
and mines near Grover and a wet-
ground facility at Spruce Pine.
The Grover plant employs 14
people and the Spruce Pine plant
employs 11.
According to Jacob J. Ferro,
President of Huber's Clay Division
in Macon, Ga., "Phasing out of the
mica business will allow Huber to
focus on opportunities created by
our new line of proprietary struc-
tured pigments and kaolin clay
products. We are pleased with the
quality of our new mica products,
but we want to use our resources to
take advantage of opportunities in
our core kaolin clay business."
Ferro said the divestiture process
will begin April 1 and is expected
to be completed by Dec. 31, 1990.
The J. M. Huber Corporation's
Clay Division is headquartered
near Macon, Ga. and is one of the
world's leading suppliers of kaolin
clays and structured pigments for
the paper, rubber, plastics, ceramic,
paints, adhesives, and agricultural
industries. Kaolin mines and bene-
ficiating plants are located in
Georgia and South Carolina.
"We will continue our normal
operations at the local plant until
the sale is consummated,” said
Carl Kollmar, manager of the
Grover plant.
DON PARKER
KM Never Repaid This Loan
By GARY STEWART
Editor of the Herald
When Don Parker first came to
Kings Mountain High School in
the spring of 1943, he was on loan
from the Henderson County School
System.
Kings Mountain had lost its
coach, Pepper Martin, to Furman
University and Supt. B.N. Barnes
of Kings Mountain visited Supt.
Anders in Hendersonville to see if
he had a coach KM could "borrow"
for the rest of the term.
Anders said he had a young man
named Don Parker who was coach-
ing at Fletcher High School, but
Kings Mountain could only "bor-
row" him for the rest of the school
year. He had to have him back.
"I was impressed with Kings
Mountain and the people here,"
Parker recalls, "and when the
spring term was over Mr. Barnes
asked me if I'd stay. I told him I
would on one condition...that he
tell Mr. Anders."
So, Parker stayed, as coach of all
sports including girls basketball,
and as a teacher of several subjects.
After the World War II years the
school system began to gradually
add coaches. In 1948 Shu Carlton
came as football coach and in 1951
Fred Withers came to coach base-
ball. Parker concentrated on being
head boys basketball coach, golf
coach and an assistant in football.
He coached through the 1966-67
school year and then served as
Assistant Superintendent in charge
of the Special Education programs
until he retired in 1975. He had a
career record of 247-139 in boys
basketball and coached one
Western N.C. High Schools
Activities Association champi-
onship golf team.
Coaching all sports wasn't easy,
he recalls. But he enjoyed it. He'd
leave home every morning at 7:30
and usually not get back until 7:30
or later at night. On game nights, it
was much later than that, often af-
ter midnight,
See Parker, 3-A
'N, N.C. 28086
i