Your Hometown
Newspaper
eSince 1889s
Jackie Houston
to compete in
Tournament
National
VOL. 108 NO. 27
Kings Mountain celebrates
Fourth of July
See story and photos
New teaching
contracts
approved
Monday night
5A
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The city of Kings Mountain received the go-ahead City Manager George Wood said ti ie
from federal authorities Friday for realignment of its and the public can receive at city hall i =
Veteran Grover Mayor Bill
McCarter filed Friday for his fifth
term.
_ The mayor tossed his hat in the
ring as filing for county political
offices opened at the Cleveland
County Board of Elections.
Filing for school board offices
also began on Friday and continue
until Aug. 2.
The terms of Chairman Billy
King and Doyle Campbell expire
this year on the Kings Mountain
Board of Education. Both seats are
for four years and candidates for
both must reside within the city
They're off and running
chairman, has said he does not plan
to seek reelection.
McCarter, first elected to the
Grover town board in 1957, was
elected mayor in 1975.
A native of Grover, McCarter
says he wants to continue major
projects in the town and wants to
see completion of improvements at
Brice Harry Memorial Park, where
the town is seeding the ball fields
and tennis courts area.
The biggest project of his long
career was the installation in 1988-
89 of the long-awaited sewer sys-
tem which had a $1.8 million price
limits. Campbell, a former board
BILL McCARTER
ward boundaries.
The approval from the U. S. Department of Justice
means that filing for mayor and four seats on the city
council will begin on July 22 and end Aug. 2.
In a unique election year in Kings Mountain, citi-
zens will go to the polls and elect five of the eight
members of the board. Runoffs, if necessary, will be
held on Nov. 5. The deadline for registration is Sept.
9 for the election and Oct. 7 for the runoff.
The terms of Mayor Kyle Smith and city commis-
sioners Al Moretz, Norma Bridges and Jackie Barrett
are expiring.
Voters from Ward I and Ward 2 will be electing
commissioners for four year terms. Ward I is the new
minority/majority ward.
Two commissioners will be elected at-large, the
top vote-getter to a four-year term and and the other
to a two-year term to accomplish a staggered term of
maps with the new precinct lines drawn
Kings Mountain is one of 55 North (
that must have its redistricting plans |
lowing population updates from th
Census. I
The city submitted a new voting boundary plan to
the U. S. Justice Department nearly two months ago
calling for the creation of a predominately black dis-
trict and the addition of one council member, upping
the membership on council from six to seven.
Wood and City Attorney Mickey Corry have
talked to federal authorities over the past two
months, responding to questions, Wood said, and
providing information as requested.
Corry was called by Justice Department officials
Friday afternoon with the news that the city has the
See Grover, 9A
office.
No new
registration
necessary
No new registration is required
for the October 8 Kings Mountain
municipal election. The two
polling places are unchanged.
Elections Board Chairman
Becky Cook said that citizens who
voted in any election during the
past four years are registered to
vote. New residents, however, can
register now at Mauney Memorial
registration and change of address
activity ends September 9.
Cook said there may be some
confusion among candidates about
ward alignment and she will be
available to answer questions and
also to take filing information at
her home on Meadowbrook Road.
Cook will also have available the
new maps with the new boundary
and ward lines outlined. Although
all citizens will be voting for may-
or and for two at-large seats on the
board, citizens who reside in Ward
I will be electing the Ward I com-
missioner, who must reside in
Ward I, and citizens who reside in
Ward 2 will be electing the Ward 2
commissioner, who must reside in
Ward 2.
The new ward alignment did not
change the two polling places. East
Kings Mountain voters will vote at
Kings Mountain Community
Center and West Kings Mountain
voters will vote at the National
Guard Armory. "Citizens who vot-
ed at the Armory four years ago
will go back to the Armory and cit-
izens who voted at the Community
Center will return there to vote,"
said Cook.
Filing for the mayor and four
seats on city council begin July 22
and ends August 2.
See Filing, 9A
New Ward and Precinct Map
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WARD NO. 5
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WARD NO. 5
SSH hese scores; MCRag said; "IE
4
WARD AND PRECINCT MAP
For The City Of Kings Mountain, North Carolina
LEGEND J POLLING PLACES
Ward Boundary
Ward Number 4
Precinct Boundary
West Precinct: Armory
East Precinct: Community Center
planned.
green light to proceed with the fall elections as
Schools want
better scores
Kings Mountain Schools cannot
continue to be satisfied with roller-
coaster test scores in reading, Supt.
Bob McRae told the Board of
Education at its monthly meeting
Monday night at the
Administration Office.
Scores since 1986 have been "up
one year, down the next," McRae
said.
"We. cannot be satisfied with
can't read you can't get very far in
life. We must create an expectation
that reading scores have to get bet-
ter.”
Schools testing coordinator Jean
Thrift presented CAT results of the
past two years for third, sixth and
eighth graders, and end of course
testing results for high school stu-
dents. Most scores declined in
1990-91.
"There was a slight decrease in
all areas in the third grade system-
wide," she noted. "Math and lan-
guage scores were higher than
reading and consistent with the
other grades. We're concerned
about the reading scores and al-
ready working on ways to im-
prove."
Third graders scored in the 48th
national percentile in reading,
down from 56 percent the year be-
fore. In language the scores
dropped from the 74th percentile to
70 and in math from 67 to 61. The
total battery dropped from 68 to
60. The national averages were 55
in reading, 75 in language, 70 in
math and 70 in total battery.
Kings Mountain's sixth graders
improved in every area, from 39 to
47 in reading, 55 to 58 in language,
52 to 58 in math and 48 to 55 in to-
tal battery.
Kings Mountain People
See Tests, 9A
Beck's haircuts always just Wright |
KM Schools
considering
drug tests
Kings Mountain Schools will
Administration Office.
Middle School Counselor
Melanie Ballard researched a pos-
sible program during the summer
as part of a graduate program and
explained many options the board
could take. The board will likely
take up the matter at its annual
"Advance" this fall.
Mrs. Ballard reviewed the test-
ing programs of many school sys-
tems in the state and also provided
figures which local medical clinics
charge for drug screening tests.
"The program can be as simple
or as complex s you want it to be,"
Mrs. Ballard said. "We need to
guarantee the privacy and dignity
of employees but stand firm in our
commitment that drug use will not
be tolerated."
Ballard said most school sys-
tems and business are steering
clear of "random" drug testing and
having "periodic" testing.
Board chairman Billy King said
drug testing will "generate a lot of
questions. A lot of details need to
be worked out. This is good infor-
mation we can discuss for a while
before we decide whether or not
we want to do it."
+ "We want to be careful and be
robably proceed slowly in devel- |
employees, board members hinted
at Monday night's meeting. at the |
See Drugs, 9A
Storm puts
KM in dark
Beck Wright's keen sense of humor and easy wit
. belies his 83 years.
The self-taught Grover barber has been cutting
hair for 53 years and has no plans for retirement.
Relaxing in-between customers at City Barber
Shop in Blacksburg, S. C., this week Wright talked
about how he learned to cut hair from his father. As a
youngster growing up in Kings Mountain, he took
scissors and shears to his own locks a few times but
never did his big family of four sisters and four |
brothers dare allow him to trim their hair.
Barbering is quite different, says the longtime
Grover resident, who grew up in the barber chair at
Wright's Barber Shop which used to be located near
the old First National Bank building downtown. His
brother, Gene Wright, was a barber in Kings
Mountain for many years and so were his cousins,
Baxter and G. L. Wright.
When Beck Herman Wright and Gladys Blalock
married nearly 54 years ago, they settled in Grover
and at one time Wright worked with Bill Camp at
Camp's Barber Shop and also worked for a shop in
Shelby. He operated Wright's Barber Shop in Kings
Mountain 16 years and has been located in
Blacksburg, S.C. in that town's only barber shop for
11 years.
Wright recalled that the glory days of barber shops
is past. "People have moved on to beauty shops to
have their hair styled," he laughed, as he reminisced
of the early days of cutting hair."I really give a good
haircut my customers tell me and I have had some of
the same customers for years," he said. "If I had my
life to live over I'd choose this occupation, it's a lazy
man's job, " he laughed, admitting that barbers are a
rare breed nowadays. When Wright first went to
Blacksburg he said there were five barber shops.
Now there is one,a two-barber shop he shares with
Vonnie Cobb, a Blacksburg town commissioner for
16 1/2 years.
Morning hours are busiest at the shop which also
serves a number of senior citizens in the area. Beck is
off three days a week but finds plenty of haircuts to
do Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Son of the late Julius and Lula Wright, Beck met
his wife on a blind date. Mrs. Wright grew up in the
Bethlehem Community, daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
John Blalock. It was love at first sight for Wright
who liked Gladys’ red hair. The couple have two chil-
dren: Jim Wright of Kings Mountain and Cynthia
White of Rock Hill, S.C. There are three grand-
daughters, Christine and Angela Wright of Kings
See Beck, 9A
A summer storm packing light-
ning and hail put about 30 percent
of Kings Mountain in the dark for
three to seven hours Monday.
Firemen were kept hopping an-
swering six calls from 4:10 p.m.
until 5:25 p.m.
Lightning hit several transform-
ers, trees, and electrical wires and
struck a chimney at Kings
Mountain Baptist Church knocking
off brick.
Power lines were down in the
Linwood section on Henry and
Stone Streets and on Gaston Street.
A house at 409 Battleground
Avenue was slightly damaged
when lightning struck it, according
to Fire Chief Frank Burns. False
alarms were reported at Clevemont
Mill and Kings Mountain Hospital.
Tom Howard, the city's Director
of Community Services, said the
worst hit area of town were the
Linwood section and Gaston and
Willis Davidson gets haircut from Beck Wright
See Storm, 9A