North Carolina Newspapers

Ml TTT Br iar a KINGS MOUNTAIN SOCCER TEAM WINS SOUTHWEST 3A ° INSIDE TODAY CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP ~ SEE PAGE 7A SECTION C TEXTILE EDITION Reminder: Set your clocks back one hour at 2 a.m. on October 27. And whenever you change your clocks, change the batteries in your smoke detectors. It could save your life. Mark Moore miracle baby By RENEE WALSER of the Herald Staff One-year-old Mark Moore is a happy baby, his mother, Mickie, said. But he's not aware that doctors don't expect him to see his 30th birthday. Furthermore, they think he has a high chance of contracting some form of cancer before age 18. Mark is a victim of a rare kidney disease called congenital nephro- sis. He spent his first five months of life in the hospital and has un- dergone eight operations during his first year in this world. Mickie, 21, gives him dialysis Mobile home fire fatal for Mitchell Dean Gibson A Kings Mountain man died Monday night after a fire at his mobile home in Midpines. Mitchell Dean Gibson was pro- nounced dead after resuscitation at- tempts were unsuccessful at Kings Mountain Hospital, said County Medical Examiner Dr. Frank Sincox. County Fire Marshal Beau Lovelace said foul play was not suspected. : Wreck law suit settled "The family of a Kings Mountain woman killed in a May, 1990 car crash settled their law suit against Gaston County, Gaston County Police, and police officer Lawrence Hamrick Jr. Monday before the case went to trial. The amount of the settlement was not disclosed. According to the Highway Patrol reports, Cynthia Grigg Berry was killed when the police car driven by Hamrick crossed the cen- ter line and struck her car head-on on Long Creek Road. Police re- ports said Hamrick was eating a chicken dinner when the accident occurred. Q el of ] *S 00l every night for 12 hours. The fami- ly has nurses all night and during the day until 2 p.m. Mark refuses to eat by mouth. So he has two tubes in his stomach, one for feeding and one for dialy- sis. They remain in place all the time. Mark's dad, Randy, is scheduled to give Mark a kidney this spring. After the transplant, Mark won't need the dialysis anymore, but he'll still visit Charlotte doctors three times a week and will be on medi- cation for the rest of his life. "We never know about him," See Mark, 11-A by, Mark, Mickie Moore of Kings Mountain, and her one-year-old miracle Bethlehem and Grover Fire Departments responded after the fire was discovered by a neighbor at 10:45 p.m. Chief Jeff Dixon of Bethlehem said the fire was con- tained to the kitchen and den area. Firemen reportedly entered the building to look for occupants as the other firemen battled the blaze. Gibson was found in the sitting area and showed no signs of con- sciousness, according to the Bethlehem firemen. Hamrick was charged with mis- demeanor death by vehicle and driving left of center. He plead guilty to the left of center charge and paid a fine. The misdemeanor death by vehicle charge was thrown out of court when the judge ruled it would constitute double jeopardy. i A vehicular homicide charge lodged by Superior Court Judge Zoro Guice against Hamrick in June, 1991, is pending and will be Court of Appeals. Kings Mountain. back to KM By ELIZABETH STEWART Of The Herald Staff Ruby M. Alexander, one of the first female contractors to succeed in the once-dominated male build- ing business, is a success story she attributes to her early upbringing in Kings Mountain. It was during her high school years that World War II erupted and that war, she said, had a strong impact on those of her generation. "We grew up by poverty stan- dards but were too happy to realize it," said Alexander, recalling that her mother helped her do her homework by the light of kerosene lamps. "We were wealthy in the re- spect that we had a Christian home and and knew our parents loved us." In contrast by today's generation, Alexander said parents don't have or take the time to spend with their young people on lessons and kids aren't drilled in the three R's. Her mother, Mrs. Pearl Moss Horne, used to drill her on her spelling and math first thing in the morning be- fore she left for school. Evenings found her father, the late Theodore Moss, reading Bible stories to his three children by lamplight and Ruby and her brothers, Jack and Sonny, studying by a coal-burning stove. Since they didn't have a car, the Mass children walked a mile each Sunday to Macedonia Baptist Church from their home on Grover Road where Mrs. Horne and her husband, Rev. Paul Horne, live to- day. N Alexander gives love ~ Employees of Steppe Construction prepare the ditch for a new 15- decided by the North Carolina inch sewer line from Ridge Street to the Highway 74 bypass in east community Alexander is volunteering each Friday morning as a partner with 6th grade students at KM Middle School to help them prepare for California Achievement Tests be- cause she says she appreciates what her parents did for her. She graduated at the top of her class as recipient of both the Danforth "I Dare You" award and the Kiwanis Citizenship medal. "I felt like my mother should be the one receiving the awards," she said. Ruby attended Park Grace School and Kings Mountain High School (then located at the Central School building). "I would ride my bike to school every day," she re- calls. "I had perfect attendance. I never missed a day." During her senior year in high school, Ruby's part in the war ef- fort became greater--she got a job with the Office of Price Administration and worked every afternoon after school. Her job was to interview clients for food stamps. "During the war everything was rationed--food, gas, and even shoes. I took applications for the stamps which regulated the ra- tioning." Mrs. Alexander sometimes found the job difficult. ~ "] wanted to give everyone stamps. I became very sympathetic to the people and all their needs,” she recalled. That trait endeared her to her customers in later years when she built her first house, one RU BY ALEXANDER of hundreds for Kings Mountain rs i nam See Ruby, 11-A Building up Kings Mounta Kings Mountain, NC. NIW SONTH JRAR RENOVA [41d Surgery Fric ; for KM's ‘Angel’ Donations to the fund for Angela Strickland of Kings Mountain total $10,500 to date. Angela, 12, is scheduled for a bone marrow transplant this Friday. She and her mother are in Minnesota for the treatment, which consists of sticking a needle in her chest and allowing the marrow to enter her body. Angela suffers from aplastic anemia and, according to her grandmother, Louise Penner of Bessemer City, is undergoing chemotherapy this week before the {ransplant. See Angel, 11-A ANGELA STRICKLAND Utility work Is completed Work is underway on a new east Kings Mountain sewer line which will allow more efficient discharge of waste water when the new Crowder's Creek Water Treatment Plant is put in operation in south- cast Gaston County. Steppe Construction Co. is dig- ging the ditches this week along Cleveland Avenue (from the Highway 74 bypass to Ridge _ Street) for a 15-inch line which wil ran’ 1,200 feet. The project, which’ should be completed in 60 days, will cost $75,000. Tom Howard, Director of Community Services for the City of Kings Mountain, said the line will replace a smaller line and also provide a new line to feed the ex- isting distribution system. Sometime next month, Howard said, it will be necessary to close all but one lane of traffic on Cleveland Avenue while work is done to manholes. There are also a huge number of trees that must be removed along Cleveland Avenue. In a related matter, the city will dedicate the water bond improve- ments at T.J. Ellison Water Plant Tuesday at 10 a.m. The public is invited. Mayor Kyle Smith will make re- marks and a plaque will be present- ed. It will later be mounted inside the water plant. The city recently completed $2 million worth of improvements at the facility. The funds were made possible through a $9.2 million bond referendum. A one-million gallon clearwell water storage tank has been added, along with a half-million gallon alum sludge tank. Vacuum drying beds were built and a vacuum dry- ing bed pump building was con- structed. Pumping services were upgraded and total crack repair was made in the water settling basins, Howard said. A vacuum system was also added in the settling basins. "The vacuum rides a track, goes back and forth automatically in the settling basins vacuuming all the deposits that come out of the lake water,” Howard explained. "Then, it sends the deposits to the vacuum drying beds outside." The city is also nearing comple- tion of inside the city electrical im- provements made possible through the bond issue. Contractors have completed con- struction ‘on the Mork Road subesta- tion and the station was recently energized. In conjunction with that project, the city has finished connecting the sub-station to the Scada System, which monitors the power delivery of the sub-station through a master computer at the Public Works Department. The Scada system al- so spots circuits which are having problems. Howard said in future budgets the city hopes to include funds for software which will al- low the computers to not only identify the circuits in trouble but show the location of the problem. Howard said the Gaston Street sub-station is about 90 percent complete. The Scada system will be hooked up to that sub-station in about a month. Howard said the water and wastewater facilities will be added onto the Scada system in future budgets. Several projects inside the city have recently been completed or will be in the coming days, Howard said. The city has refurbished the mi- ni-park on West Mountain Street. Bushes and trees were removed and the utility systems were re- constructed. Walls were water- proofed and a concrete cap was made for the planters. The main purpose of the renova- tions was to stop water from going into adjoining buildings, Howard said. : Cold, wet winter ahead; get car and home ready According to the woolly worm, we're in for a cold, nasty winter. It's not too early to start thinking about winterizing your car and home. Here are some tips to help get you started from Ralph Grindstaff at Oil Express and Ronnie Whetstine at W & W Construction. Flush out your car with an addi- tive. Don't use pure water. The ad- ditive will take out the rust and sediments. Let it drain. Fill it with antifreeze in a 75 to 25 mixture of antifreeze to water. Check the hoses. Make sure the thermostat is working properly. ] Make sure the radiator cap is not leaking. Grindstaff says this preparation needs to be done every year. The antifreeze will break down over the summer. He also said to check your bat- icry. "Cold weather will take its toll on a battery," he said. And re- member to change the oil every 3,000 miles. Whetstine offered these sugges- tions: close all the ventilators in your home before the first freeze; cover cxterior faucets; check insulation; check weather stripping on doors and windows; cover or take out air conditioning units; and get something prepared for pets staying out doors. He also said to remember to check the heating system. Most fircs start that first night of cold weather because something is wrong with the heating system. Check for spider webs and soot.