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Vol. 102 No. 82
Thursday, September 20, 1990
Hurricane Hugo Remembered
Kings Mountain, N.C. 28086 ¢ 85°
Year Later, We Count Blessings
Mrs. Irene Biddix, 70, still homesick for her 40-
year-old home she lost to Hurricane Hugo almost a
year ago, is adjusting to a new three-bedroom double-
wide mobile home at 1608 York Road. For her and
KM citizens hit by the storm life is back to normal.
"I spent a lot of years in that house and I lost a lot of
family pictures, which can't be replaced but I was
lucky," she said this week as she reminisced about the
century's worst storm which ravaged Charleston and
came 200 miles inland to Kings Mountain on Friday,
Sept. 22, 1989 and wreaked havoc in a wide area, spar-
ing lives but tearing down power lines and piling up
thousands of dollars in damage.
Biddix, like other Kings Mountain citizens who ex-
perienced Hugo's wrath, is building back and counting
her blessings. For four months after Hugo, Irene lived
with her daughter and son-in-law, Joyce and Paul Hord
Jr. Two big trees left standing by Hugo were felled and
a big bulldozer cleared what was left of the house after
a tree landed in her living room Sept. 22 at 4:15 a.m.
She moved a new mobile home on the site.
Some of the Biddix furnishings were saved but the
storm took the living room and many family items that
can't be replaced. In its place is new furniture in a
beautiful residence with a fireplace but missing are her
front and back porches which Irene plans to add in a
few months. "I saved my cement front porch and plan
to put a roof over it later and build porches," she said.
City Manager George Wood said the city received
$365,000 in federal reimbursement from Hugo but
that cleaning up the debris and restoration of power
when lines were felled by the storm threw the city be-
hind on many projects for months. "As far as the over-
all community, we were very fortunate in Kings
Mountain. There were very minor injuries and no fa-
talities. Now we're ready to take bids on a new electri-
cal sub-station and ready to begin utility improve-
ments,” he said. "Hugo cost us a lot of time but we
were so fortunate compared to neighboring cities like
Charlotte and, of course, Charleston," he said.
Virtually every area of the city was hit by falling
trees and limbs and it took four days to restore power.
The city was supplemented by 10 electrical crews
from as far away as Tennessee and Virginia to help re-
store the power outages in some areas in 1 1/2 days.
The city's two sub-stations were down but never was
the city without water.
Some outlying areas of the city were both water dry
and dark for four days. Property damages in
Bethlehem-Dixon, Oak Grove and Compact School
Road areas of the community topped $500,000 and
when the totals were in the assessed damages from
Hugo topped $1 million, the same as when the torna-
does struck Upper Cleveland County May 5, 1989.
"Boy, were we shocked," said rescue workers, who
said they were expecting winds of 40 miles an hour,
not 100 miles an hour.
Churches were dark in some areas that weekend a
year ago but worshipers gave thanks for lives spared
and prayed for normalcy after the storm. Neighbors
pitched in to help neighbors and funds were started
for the victims of Hugo even before the power was re-
stored.
Saturday on the first anniversary of Hugo, Irene
Biddix and other victims of the storm will count their
blessings.
Officials
To Discuss
New Road
North Carolina Secretary of
Transportation Tommy Harrelson
of Raleigh will join other key offi-
sials of the Department of
Fansportation in Kings Mountain
1uesday for a conference with city
assis on the status of a feasibili-
& study for a north-south connec-
for between U.S. 74 Business and
Phifer Road near the high school to
alleviate traffic.
City Manager George Wood said
that Harrelson, Ken Younger of
Cherryville, DOT trustee, and Ray
Spangler of Shelby, DOT Division
engineer, will meet with city offi-
cials at 10:30 a.m. to take a look at
the proposal.
Wood said that at 2:30 p.m. he
will accompany Deputy Secretary
of N. C. Environmental Health
Resources Ernie Carl on a tour of
the Pilot Creek expansion project.
The two meetings are in con-
junction with Governor Jim
Martin's "Capital for a Day" visit
to Cleveland County. The
Governor, who is not scheduled to
be in Kings Mountain, will be in
Shelby with other members of his
staff for various functions.
Governor Martin, six of his cabi-
net secretaries and several staff
members, will be in the county
from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. An ex-
tension of the "town meetings" that
Martin has held since he served as
Congressman from the Ninth
District, the "Capital for A Day"
gives North Carolinians the chance
to observe first-hand the workings
of the state's executive office.
"This gives the people of
Cleveland County the opportunity
to meet the officials who have been
entrusted with the daily operations
of state government," Martin said.
"It also allows us to work together
See New Road, 11-A
School Budget
Is $15 Million
The Kings Mountain Board of
Education officially approved its
1990-91 operating budget
Thursday night at its monthly
meeting at Kings Mountain Middle
School.
The total budget is $15,787,341,
including $268,144 for capital out-
lay projects.
For current expense, the schools
will receive $3,297,644 in county
ENLARGING CULVERT- City workers enlarge the culvert under the road on Oakland Street to elimi-
nate flooding of streets and water flooding into the basement of one of the residences. Above, George
Jacobs, Joe Hamrick, Jimmy Sisk and Arsh Sanders begin work on the project.
Bids Awarded By Board
East Construction
To Cost $1.2 Million
The Kings Mountain School
Board awarded bids of $1,207,200
for new construction at East School
at Thursday night's meeting at
Kings Mountain Middle School.
Associate Supt. Dr. Lary Allen
told the board that demolition of
"the old fourth/fifth gradejbuilding
at East should begin by the end of
the month. School officials hope
the new building will be ready for
use before the beginning of the
1991-92 school year. East students
are attending classes at Central
School this year.
The board approved all the alter-
nates which were included in the
bids.
The general construction bid
went to Beam Construction of
Cherryville. Beam's bid was
$767,900.
The plumbing contract was
awarded to Goforth Plumbing
Company of Kings Mountain,
which bid $59,500.
The heating and air conditioning
contract went to Bass Plumbing
and Heating of Chesapeake, Va.,
which bid $226,300.
The electrical contract was
awarded to Burch Electric of Kings
Mountain. The bid was $99,500,
“The board awarded the lowest
bid in each case.
The board received nine general
contract bids, six plumbing bids,
five electrical bids and nine heating
and air conditioning bids.
Allen said he was pleased with
the bids.
"The bids came in just a little
over what we had planned on ($1.2
million) but the funding is in
place," Allen said.
The new building will include
four regular classrooms, an excep-
tional children's room, Chapter I
room, library, administrative of-
fices, cafeteria/multi-purpose room
which dividers, restrooms and sup-
See School, 10-A
KM Schools Approve Tech Prep Program
The Kings Mountain Board of
Education, meeting Thursday night
at Kings Mountain Middle School,
unanimously approved participa-
tion in the Tech Prep Program with
Shelby City Schools, Cleveland
County Schools and Cleveland
Community College.
The program, patterned after a
program in Richmond County, is
geared to meeting the needs of stu-
dents in the "middle 50 percent”
who do not go on to college and
are often not prepared to enter the
work force, Vocational Education
Director Betty Gamble pointed out.
School officials hope the pro-
gram will not only prepare those
students to enter the working
world, but will also decrease the
dropout rate in local schools.
Richmond County Schools’
dropout rate decreased from 7.2 to
under |5 percent in five years after
the program was implemented
there./
Mis. Gamble said the local
school units have applied for a
$25,000 grant to assist in imple-
menting the program, but even if
the grant request is turned down
the local units are still determined
to begin the program..
"We're very excited about the
program," Mrs. Gamble told the
board. "There are 3,488 students in
Cleveland County who will benefit
from this program."
Kings Mountain District Schools
will serve as the program's admin-
istrator.
Mrs. Gamble pointed out that 17
Tech Prep Programs have been im-
plemented in North Carolina and
most units have reported increased
SAT scores, end of the year testing
and lower dropout rates. Richmond
County reported that 48 to 73 per-
cent of the students involved in the
program went on to attend two-
year schools.
Mrs. Gamble said the schools
will name "a strong steering com-
mittee" to work with the Cleveland
County Challenge Task Force to
plan and implement the program,
and Supt. Bob McRae said all of
the administrations are also strong-
ly committed to the program. He
said the units began discussing the
program late last spring after Dr.
Steve Thornburg took over as
President of Cleveland Community
College.
Students in the Tech Prep
Program will study algebra, geom-
etry, regular or pre-college English,
science, government and eco-
nomics history, and other courses
regulated by the state, as well as
technical and vocational courses,
Mrs. Gamble said.
Each student's curriculum will
be matched with job goals.
The schools hope to have the
program in place at the beginning
of the 1991-92 school year.
Mrs. Gamble said some classes
may have to be added but the pro-
gram can be implemented by "up-
grading" current programs.
"We'll see more emphasis on
helping students make a better
choice of courses," Supt. McRae
said.
In other action Thursday night,
the board:
*Was reminded that the annual
board advance will be September
23-25.
*Was told by Supt. McRae that
State Supt. Bob Etheridge will
speak at the dedication of the new
See Tech Prep, 9-A
"CONGRAULATI
NATIONAL MERIT SE
MICHAEL JORDAN
ONS
and local funds, $10,619,285 in
state funds, $647,318 in federal
grants, and $954,950 in school nu-
trition funds.
Capital outlay funds are ear-
marked for improvements at every
school except East (funds for the
See Budget, 10-A reer in music.
NATIONAL MERIT SEMIFINALIST-Michael Jordan has been named a 1991 national semifinal
the National Merit Scholarship competition. The No. 1 senior scholar at KMSHS plans to pursue a ca-
MI-FINALIST
ist in
Michael Jordan Ranks
First In Class Of 265
Michael Jordan, 17, who ranks
No. 1 scholastically in the 265-
member KMSHS Class of 1991,
says he wasn't pressured to get
good grades but that educational
pressures on high school students
today are great due to increased
concern over low Standardized
Achievement Test scores.
"The future is not dark for young
people," said Jordan, who ac-
knowledged that this is an age
where much is expected of youth.
The personable, talented young
man made the remarks as he stood
on campus before a sign announc-
ing that he was recently named a
semifinalist in the 1991 Merit
Scholarship competition, one of
15,000 young people selected from
more than one million in over
19,000 high schools who entered
the program last year by taking the
1989 Preliminary Scholastic
Aptitude Test/National Merit
Scholarship Qualifying Test, which
served as an initial screen of the
large volume of entrants.
Those designated Semifinalists
in each state are the top scorers
who must now advance to the fi-
See Jordan, 9-A
k
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