North Carolina Newspapers

Kings Mountain area Democrats return to the polls Tuesday in the run-off election and voters can look forward to a short ballot. Of special interest to local voters is the race between Ralph Gilbert and Dick Kelly for Cleveland County Board of Commissioners. Local voters will also have their choice of the U. S. Senate nominee where the race is between Mike Easley and Harvey Gantt. Polls open at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m. Local polling places are: West Kings Mountain at The Armory; East Kings Mountain at the Community Center; Grover at Grover Rescue Squad; and Bethware at David Baptist Church fellowship hall. Gilbert placed second and Kelly Democratic Run-Off Election Set Tuesd: placed third in a field of nine can- didates for two seats open on the Cleveland County Board of Commissioners. Joyce Falls Cashion of Kings Mountain was the only clear winner among the VOL. 102 NO. 22 Thursday, May 31, 1990 "2 =O» woo Q Z wn wn = oid + 9 X nine. Gantt, form = 2 1 = or, led Easley in Sa OR w The Democrat o oy n on Tuesday will TD . candidates in Nov ® i oo o> ; ®< H aE = . = > w =< KINGS MOUNTAIN, N.C. 28086 Board Says It Will Not Close Schools All five K-5 elementary schools will remain open but school atten- dance lines will be redrawn to bal- ance dwindling enrollments and racial imbalance, a hot issue on school board agendas for over a year. The five members of the Kings Mountain Board of Education is expected to take formal action on the question Monday night at 7:30 p.m. but made it clear at a work session Monday night they will not change their minds. After hearing a recommendation by a 17-member committee to close East and West Schools and enlarge Bethware, Grover and North campuses to take care of the elementary enrollment in K-35, board members agreed to retain the K-5 grade structure and agreed by consensus that overwhelming pub- lic opinion in recent weeks had persuaded them to support keeping the five elementary schools open. "I hear a lot of really good points to having three schools instead of five but that's not what I'm hearing from people in the community," said Chairman Doyle Campbell, who acknowledged he had favored closing East School when the pro- posal was first raised nearly 18 months ago and then was leaning, along with other board members, to splitting grade levels between East and West Schools in a K-3 and 4-5 structure. "What I kept hearing from parents was they did- n't want split schools. Redistricting won't be easy and there will be screeching and gnashing of teeth, but I think we need to leave the schools as they are," he said. "Whatever we do is going to re- quire some children being moved, whether we like it or not, "said board member Billy King,"but it's going to be necessary." John Goforth, principal of East School who chaired the special committee, presented the report, approved by 10 of the 13 members voting at the last session held by the special committee over the past four months. In addition to closing East and West, the committee's re- port also urged the board to expand enrollments at Bethware, Grover and North to between 500 and 700 students. Current enrollments are approximately 475 at Bethware, 230 at East; 400 at Grover; 360 at North and 290 at East. The report said three larger schools would be more economi- cal, more efficient and might solve racial imbalances and dropping en- rollment. School board members rejected several of the arguments during a three hour session Monday night. " I don't think taxpayers will appreci- ate us throwing money down the drain," said Ronnie Hawkins, school board member, noting that cost effectiveness was a debatable issue. "You can't go back once you've sold the two schools you've Three Join Hall Of Fame Three Kings Mountain sports heroes joined the Kings Mountain Chamber of Commerce Sports Hall of Fame at its third annual induction ceremony Thursday night at the Community Center. Baseball star” Charlie Ballard, football great George Harris and coaching legend Don Parker were inducted. Also honored was the state championship 1989 baseball team, which received the Special Recognition Award, and Hall of Fame organizing chairman Carl Champion, who was presented a special plaque in appreciation of his tireless efforts to get the project off the ground. Ken Pettus, assistant football coach at N.C. State University, was the featured speaker. Also making remarks was State's assistant bas- ketball coach, Buzz Peterson. John Henry Moss, a former Hall of Fame inductee, inducted Charlie Ballard, who was the star pitcher on Kings Mountain High's champi- onship 1941 baseball team. Ballard also played several years of pro ball in the Western Carolinas League, compiling a .348 lifetime batting average. Ballard had a 12-1 record and struck out 156 batters in leading the | Mountaineers to'a 17-1 record in ‘41. He pitcined in the high school | All-American game in Philadelphia, hurling a two-hitter. "He was Kings Mountain's great- est pitcher ever,” said Moss. "He had an inexhaustible love for the game. He walked onto the field in pride and you could feel a winner had stepped on the mound." Ballard said he always loved baseball and would love to be See Hall, 4-A HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES - Charlie Ballard, Don Parker and George Harris, left to right, were in- ducted into the Kings Mountain Sports Hall of Fame at the third annual banquet Thursday night at the Community Center. Landfill Tipping Fees Will Be Passed On To Citizens Kings Mountain's 1990-91 city budget calls for no increase in the tax rate and no increase in utility rates, says City Manager George Wood who will present the budget to city commissioners Friday. Council will conduct a public hear- ing on the budget Tuesday night at 7:30 at City Hall. Wood said that work sessions by the board will be held in the next several weeks prior to the final adoption prior to June 30. Not budgeted, said Wood, are anticipated tipping charges by the county for increased cost of land- fill operations. The city's cost for the first year are expected to top $115,000, Wood said, and those costs will be passed on to citizens in the form of garbage disposal fees to be added to monthly utility bills. "We don't know precisely what the costs will be but we think the city's cost initially will be $9 per ton for garbage taken to the KM Natural Gas Customers To Receive Credit Or Bills Residential natural gas cus- tomers of the City of Kings Mountain will get extra bonuses in their utility billings this week due to an error by the city in computing the rate decreases announced last year, City Manager George Wood said. Wood said credits, including in- terest earned since last’ May when the rate decrease went into effect for all gas users, will be issued to all residential users this week. An average residential user could re- ceive a credit of between $30-$32 on this month's billing, he said. Other natural gas users of the city received the rate decrease last year but the new residential rate had not been entered at the same time in city computers, said Wood. Wood said the error was discov- ered Tuesday by City Treasurer Jeff Rosencrans and accounts were | - credited to include 8% annual in- terest for monies owed by the city to customers since May 1989. county landfills. Council will be looking at a structure that is fair to all citizens," Wood said. The coun- ty is expected to start charging tip- ping fees by January 1991. "These are state-mandated regulations be- yond our control and the only way to generate funds for our share of the costs will be to implement a sanitation disposal fee on monthly utility fees. In this way, all will be paying for garbage disposal,” he said. In other actions, Tuesday,the board: + Upon recommendation of the codes department, ordered demoli- tion of condemned property of Charles L. Bagwell at 309 Stowe Acres that was declared "unfit for habitation." No one appeared at a hearing to object or announce plans for repairing the structure. The owner will be assessed costs of de- molition and clearing of property and a $25 administrative fee . Under the ordinance, the city will demolish the property within 60 days. +Rezoned, after a public hearing in which no one opposed the re- zoning, property of Rick Moore from R-20 to R-10 on Ashley Park Annex and set June 26 at 7:30 p.m. as date of a public hearing on re- zoning request of Rodney Houser who wants to rezone his property from residential to light industrial. +Authorized Mayor Kyle Smith to certify the list of firemen eligi- ble for the N. C. Firemen's Pension Fund. +Declared retired Fire Chief Gene Tignor's turnout gear surplus property and donated it to the KM Fire Museum. A plaque will be at- tached to the exhibit honoring Tignor. +Amended Chapter 11 of the Municipal Code concerning water and sewer use regulations as part of the Judicial Order of Consent re- quirements of the state which will spell out an appeal process. +Adopted resolution honoring the Kings Mountain High Boy's Golf Team for winning the state championship. Coach Hicks and several golfers were present for the presentation by Mayor Smith. The resolution commended Athletic Director Denny Hicks and Ryan Broadwell, Robbie Wilson, Brady Goforth, Matt Heavner and Mitchell Morrow. closed," said King. Parents reacted positively to the board's consensus but West School PTO President Ben Poole said par- ents would like input into redis- tricting plans. "Nobody really wants to close West School but the fear comes in when parents think their kids will be bussed across town." Campbell said an independent outside firm would be given some guidelines by the board, but that in all fairness to constituents, would See Schools, 8-A Grover Bid Is Approved School officials say no changes will come in school attendance lines before the 1992-93 school year. The Kings Mountain Board of Education, at a work session Monday night, indicated it will hire an independent consulting firm to determine the new attendance lines to avoid the appearance of bias. In the meantime, the board gave the go-ahead to the Grover School improvements project, approving the -base hid of $1,176,000 and deleting two alternates to cut back on costs of the project, which are over $50,000 more than budgeted. To be deleted will be two gate- ways/columns in a covered walk area which will save $21,200 and acoustical tiles in the cafeteria and multiple-purpose room which will save another $5100. Supt. Bob McRae said the extras can be added in future years and the cuts can be made without altering the physical appearance. The con- struction will cost $55 a square foot, a little higher than the board anticipated. McRae said the bond package included $900,000 for as- bestos removal but that both Park Grace and the current administra- tive building (the old Davidson plant) will not be in use once the Central plant is vacated. "This will save some money," he said. After hearing a bid update by Dr. Larry Allen, the board ap- proved the general contract of $758,000, the mechanical contract of $216,000 and the electrical con- tract of $100,600. Wednesday at a special meeting, the board was to approve a plumbing contract at $74,512. Allen said the schools will pro- ceed with other construction plans at all five schools as part of the dis- trict's $10.5 million improvements plan. The schools will have to use mo- bile units for same classes during construction, he said. East students may be sent to Central School for meals while the cafeteria is remod- eled. JAPANESE FIRM TO LOCATE HERE-Cleveland County's first fully-owned Japanese industry, HH&NK Co. Limited, owned by Nikko of Tokyo, will invest $1.5 million in a new plant on Countryside Road to employ 20 people initially. The plant's first operation in the U. S. will export persimmon wood blocks to Tokyo to be manufactured into golf club heads. Making the announcement at a press conference Tuesday at City Hall are Mayor Kyle Smith, left, Cleveland County Manager Lane Alexander, Yazuru Sidney Yasaki, executive vice president of the new company, City Manager George Wood and Joe Hendrick, executive director of the Cleveland County Economic Development Commission. Firm To Build Here A Japanese firm, HH & NK Company, will begin construction in June on a 10-acre site on U. S. Business 74 and U. S. Highway 74 By-Pass at Countryside Drive for a 20,000 square feet manufacturing facility which will manufacture custom dimension wood stock for the golf club industry. Yazuru Sidney = Yasaki, Executive Vice President, said the local site will house the first North Carolina plant for the company which will be exporting all prod- ucts to Japan for the final phase of manufacturing the golf club heads, to be constructed of persimmon wood shipped here from sources in Tennessee and other southern states. Yasaki said approximately 500,000 golf club heads will be manufactured yearly. He said the cutting, sawing and drying opera- tion will be done at the processing plant here and 20 people will be hired initially and trained at Cleveland Community College. The local office of the Employment Security Commission is now taking applications. Mayor Kyle Smith and Yasaki made the announcement at a press conference Tuesday morning at City Hall attended by local and county officials. . "We are delighted to welcome the Japanese firm to Kings Mountain. It will be a unique oper- ation and the first company to ex- port exclusively a product from this area," said Smith. "We are pleased with the enthu- siastic reception from Kings Mountain and Cleveland County," said Yasaki. The sales projection for the sec- ond year of operation should ex- ceed $2.6 million, says Yasaki who said the parent company, Nikko Co., has two other manufacturing plants in Taiwan and China, selling to wholesale dealers of golf club parts. The new site will house a ware- house and office space. Yasaki said persimmon wood from Kentucky, Arkansas and North Carolina will be utilized. "Your persimmon wood in North Carolina is the best quality of wood for golf clubs in the United States," he said.