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“STILL THE KING
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After 33 Years,
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VOL. 103 NO. 14
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KINGS MOUNTAIN HOSPITAL
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Thursday, April 11, 1991 Kings Mountain. NC iB
EERE AN Ew Ta EEE TERETE = m
Kings Mountain school officials say the proposed ™==
state budget cuts are "very serious" and are asking lo-
cal citizens to contact their state legislators and urge
them to raise taxes, if necessary, to continue funding of
necessary educational programs at their present level.
Supt. Bob McRae told the board of education at
Monday night's meeting that his "guess-timation" is
that Kings Mountain Schools will receive $364,091
less next year from state funds if legislators go through
with the cuts House and Senate appropriations sub-
committees are now considering. In addition, he said,
the system may have to return up to $113,760 of cur-
rent fiscal year funds to help make up for the state's ~
budget shortfall.
School Board Chairman Billy King read two letters
which he recently received from Gene Causby, execu-
tive director of the State School Boards Association,
and the State Coalition for Education. Both letters said
the cuts are "devastating" and could set education in
Budget cut
‘I think it's ironic that
these cuts come
when there have
been some real
advances made in
education...”
BILLY KING
North Carolina back 10 years. Causby's letter said that
legislators are aware of school officials’ concerns but
are not hearing from the public.
"We need to let the public know our feelings," King
told the board. "These proposed cuts are very serious.
There's a possibility that many programs will be
TTR
severely cut. I think it's ironic that these cuts come
when there have been some real advances made in ed-
ucation in North Carolina in the past 3 1/2 years."
King pointed to the new Tech Prep program, which
better prepares students for job market skills, and other
programs that would suffer because of the proposed
cuts,
"We are really identifying things that we can do bet-
ter," he said, "and it's a shame that cuts are coming at
this time."
Other board members also expressed concern.
"Right now is the time to act," said Doyle Campbell.
"If we don't act now we'll have to live with the conse-
quences."
Billy Houze said it is "imperative that citizens know
that this is a dangerous time for education. The long-
range effect is that it will be hard to attract new indus-
tries in North Carolina if we don't properly prepare our
students for the work force."
sigs 7 ” 0
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Ronnie Hawkins said school officials and citizens
should make a strong statement to their legislators that,
when they plan new educational programs that they al-
so plan where the funds will come from to finance
them.
"Our General Assembly should increase taxes with
the thought in mind that when they plan programs that
they also budget money before hand, rather than let-
ting our teachers and administrators work toward a
program only to find out there's no money to fund it,"
he said.
McRae provided the board with a list of 17 possible
areas which could be cut, including $107,634 in state
money allocated for energy costs; $29,468 (30%) in
Associate/Assistant Superintendent salaries, and some
$175,000 reduction in salaries for teacher assistants,
clerical assistants, finance officers, assistant principals,
maintenance, custodians, drop-out prevention, support
See Budget, 14-A
May result
NEW
county officials joined local and area bankers in cutting the ribbon
ON-City and
for Kings Mountain's new Carolina State Bank Monday. From left,
Donna and John Godbold, Charles F. Mauney, Larry Hamrick Sr.,
Despite a sluggish economy, Carolina State
Bank's 1,085 stockholders-70% of them from
Cleveland County-invested $6.9 million over
the last 22 months and opened Monday the
city's fourth and the first locally owned bank in
Cleveland County in 68 years.
"We're excited," said Charlie Harry,
chairman of the bank's organizing committee
and president of Grover Industries." We look
forward to participating in the future growth of
our county and are proud to open banks in
Kings Mountain and Shelby. We have
assembled an excellent staff and they are very
excited about our opening."
John J. Godbold Jr., president and chief
executive officer, Larry Hamrick Sr. and
Charles F. Mauney, local members of the six-
member board of directors, and Jay Rhodes
Jr., senior vice president and chief operating
officer, echoed Harry's remarks. Harry,
chairman of the board of directors, and Mayor
Kyle Smith cut the ribbon officially opening
the new facility built at cost of $600,000 to a
crowd of well-wishers who applauded
enthusiastically to music by the KMHS Pep
Band and to visiting speakers, including Joe
Smith, and chief operating officer of the new bank Jay Rhodes.
Redistricting hearing set
Public hearing on redistricting of
Kings Mountain City Council will
be conducted by the newly-ap-
pointed Redistricting committee
Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. at City
Hall.
Elections Board Chairman
Becky Cook will conduct the hear-
ing designed to get input from the
public. !
The committee at recent meet-
ings looked at seven options.
They are:
Five council members elected by
wards; two council members elect-
ed at large; mayor elected at large.
Five council members elected by
wards; one council member elected
at large; mayor elected at large.
Four council members elected
by wards; two council members
elected at large; mayor elected at
large.
Six council members elected by
wards; mayor elected at large.
Five council members elected by
wards; mayor elected at large.
Four council members elected
by wards; mayor elected at large.
Four council members elected
Woman survives lightning
Keiko Nishiyama, 38, of 302
Scotland Drive, feels she is a lucky
woman.
Nishiyama was jolted by a
lightning bolt Monday afternoon
during a sudden thunderstorm as
she tried to bring her dry clothes in
from a clothesline.
Hiorki Nishiyama, 12, fright-
ened by the lightning, looked out
the window and saw his mother ly-
ing on the ground and ran to his
neighbor Pat Boyd, who called
911. Boyd comforted the three
children while an ambulance took
the mother to Kings Mountain
Hospital, where she remained until
6 p.m. Tuesday.
"It was just lucky that I was off
from work Monday and could be
of help," said Boyd, who operates
See Woman, 10-A
Get your Hall of Fame tickets now
Time is running out to purchase
tickets for the fourth annual Kings
Mountain Sports Hall of Fame
Banquet, which will be held
Monday night, April 22 at 7 p.m. at
the Community Center.
Tickets are $10 each and may be
purchased at the Kings Mountain
Chamber of Commerce, McGinnis
Department Store, Champion
Contracting and the Kings
Mountain Herald; or from any
member of the Hall of Fame
Committee.
The Hall of Fame committee
needs to have an idea ‘of how many
people will be in attendance by
next Thursday night in order to
make plans with the caterer. The
See Hall, 13-A
by wards; one council member
elected at large; mayor elected at
large.
Cook said a major change in the
voting procedure will face Kings
Mountain citizens when they go to
the polls, probably this fall, for the
city municipal election. Forming of
a minority district, under guide-
lines by the U. S. Department of
Justice, is also an important part of
the plan which must be approved
by the Justice Department before
the next election.
See Hearing, 2-A
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Cabaniss, chairman of the Cleveland County
Board of Commissioners.
"There were no banks in the early history of
the county founded in 1841," said Cabaniss,
who congratulated the bank leaders who made
their dreams come true for a new community
bank. Cabaniss said some of the relatives of
the founders of the Bank of Kings Mountain
chartered June 25, 1900 as First National Bank
are stockholders and directors of the new bank.
Other employees have strong ties to the early
banks of the community.
See Bank, 14-A
Classifieds..........:.s 9-B
Engagements .......2-B
Library News.......... 2-B
Obituaries ............. 2-A
ODIO, vr ervvssnniiar 4-A
Religion ......... 11, 12-A
See 8 IL 5. 6-A
Weddings .......oouue 3-B
Office.
; ai board of directors, Bob
Jurek, county commission chairman Joe Cabaniss, Mayor Kyle
RANDOLPH YARBRO
in merger
The possibility of a merger of
Kings Mountain, Cleveland
County and Shelby schools is be-
coming "very real," Supt. Bob
McRae told the board of education
at its monthly meeting Monday
night at the Superintendent's
Talk of merger has surface
study in the early 1980's.
Talk began to surface again re-
cently when Governor Martin pro-
posed eliminating state funding of
multiple systems in one county. His
suggestion seemed to be brushed
over until the past couple of weeks
when both the State Senate and
House sub-committees on educa-
tion appropriations also proposed
eliminating funding of multiple
systems. Currently there are 134
school systems in the state's 100
counties.
McRae said Gene Causby, exec-
utive director of the State School
Boards Association, has called’a
meeting in Raleigh on April 22 for
officials of city school systems and
all other interested parties to talk
about the matter.
Kings Mountain's School Board
passed a resolution after Governor
Martin's state of the state address
requesting the General Assembly
to continue funding multiple sys-
tems and leave the decision of
merger to the local citizenry. While
Governor Martin stated that his re-
marks did not call for a merger, lo-
cal officials say if the state stops
funding a Central Administration
Office in Kings Mountain, it would
force a merger.
McRae said it would cost over a
quarter of a million dollars to fund
the local unit. That amount of mon-
ey, added to the $364,000 which he
estimates Kings Mountain will not
receive next year because of bud-
real.
Cleveland County and Shelby
Schools did participate in a merger
"I'd say it's getting
very serious attention
and the possibility of
it happening is very
get cuts, would mean Kings
Mountain citizens would have to
come up with about $600,000 from
local funds to operate its own
school system.
"Until just recently I don't think
anyone felt like Governor Martin's
proposal had a significant chance
of being approved,” McRae said.
"But now that both Houses’ educa-
tion appropriations sub-committees
have included it for study by the
full Appropriations Committee, I'd
say it's getting very serious atten-
tion and the possibility of it hap-
pening is very real."
In the past when mergers were
agreed upon, the state continued
funding each unit for two years as
the merger was phased in. "I've
heard that the committees have
said if systems would agree to
merge by a certain date the funding
would continue for a two-year
phase-in period, but if systems
refuse to merge they would go
ahead and cut the funds now. That's |
certainly not a final decision but it
was discussed,” McRae said.
McRae urges local citizens to
contact their legislators and let
their feelings be known. John
Carter of Lincolnton is on the sub-
committee on appropriations in the
Senate and Jonathan Rhyne of
Lincolnton is on the House sub-
-committee. A list of all the local
delegates is on the editorial page
on page 4-A.
"We're trying ito make people
See Merger, 14-A
God first, everything second, for Yarbro
By ELIZABETH STEWART
Of The Herald Staff Sar
Being a Christian is the most impertant thing in
"Randolph Yarbro's life. Everything else is secondary.
That's the advice the 77-year-old Kings Mountain
man gives to people he meets every day and the wise
counsel he says he has followed since youth.
A carpenter, mechanic, brick mason, and farmer,
Yarbro doesn't plan to quit work. He's happiest when
he's plowing a garden for a friend and he estimates
that he breaks ground for about 200 vegetable gar-_
dens every spring. He has a waiting list now of about
40 friends who want their gardens plowed, and al-
though rain slows him down he finds plenty to do
around the house. He and his wife built their home
on Gold Street Extension 44 years ago and he docs
all the maintenance work. In addition, they are co-
custodians for Westover Baptist Church where they
never miss a Sunday.
Yarbro, who stands 6 fect 6 inches tall, missed the
Army by two inches because of his height. "Back |
then they were going to put me on the farming list to |
build barracks because they were drafting boys no |
taller than 6 feet four," laughed Yarbro, who built his |
first house at age 22 in the Elizabeth Church|
Community. In 1939, two years after he married |
Mary West, they started housekeeping with his fa- |
ther on the family farm in the Elizabeth Community. |
Mary West was 17 and Yarbro was 24 when they |
were married in York, S.C. Yarbro joined C. T|
Bennett brickyard in Kings Mountain and retired|
there after 22 years in the construction and brick]
_ business. He retired again from Gastonia Industrial |
Park and then retired twice more from area industry, |
traveling for several years. He is in much demand as|
a carpenter and loves to see buildings go up. It isn't]
unusual to see him climbing on a roof but his love is|
helping his neighbor's gardens grow. i
See Yarbro, 14-A
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