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Kings Mountain People
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Haynes
proving
herself
By RENEE WALSER
Of The Herald Staff
1 Linda Haynes, the first woman
, detective in Cleveland County,
doesn't let the fact that she's just 5'
4" tall bother her or anyone else.
Besides, there's a male officer
who is about her height, she said.
Haynes, of the Kings Mountain
Police Department, was promoted
to detective in January of last year.
There are four detectives on the de-
partment staff.
Haynes rose through the ranks
starting as a dispatcher for 11 years
and in animal control for the next
- three years.
Detective status had always been
in the back of her mind.
"I had considered it," she said.
"It's a challenge. Trying to actually
solve the cases. You have to look
for physical evidence."
Haynes said detectives take over
when the police officers file the
"initial reports.
"There's a lot of footwork and
knocking on doors," she said,
adding, "A female has to prove
herself."
See Haynes, 8-A Goforth.
FIRST FEMALE DETECTIVE - Kings Mountain Police Department's first female detective Linda
Haynes discusses a case with supervisor Det. Lt. Richard Reynolds, left, and KMPD Chief Warren
en
A. su fr
ech Prep gets big senc
The doctor on call at every foot-
ball game at KMHS gave the first
orientation program in Tech Prep
for rising 9th grade students
Wednesday morning.
Dr. Staley Jackson, orthopedic
surgeon in Kings Mountain and a
former high school athletic coach,
told the 13-year-olds sitting in the
gymnasium bleachers at KM
Middle School that the good jobs
of today and tomorrow are based
on high technology, advanced com-
munications and service occupa-
tions and students need to start
preparing when they enter the high
school as a freshman.
"Get serious about your registra-
tion for classes and choose those
classes that will be most helpful to
you," he said, calling his high
school math teacher in Maryland in
the 1960's and his guidance coun-
selor as strong influences on his
life.
"I was an A student but I saw
Misty Smith, left, 8th grader who wants to be a pediatrician,
KMMS Co- Principal Jerry Hoyle, Dr. Staley Jackson, orthopedic
surgeon, and 8th grader Angie Young, who wants to be a fashion de-
signer, talk about the new Tech Prep program available to 9th grade
students next year and for which orientation began Wednesday.
my friends sliding through on easy
courses and having what I thought
as a teenager more fun. I tried to
get out of college prep courses on
their advice but thank God I lis-
tened to my teachers," said the doc-
tor, who said he entered the 8th
grade in Maryland with school in-
tegration and found the experience
frightening for a 4 1/2 feet tall
youngster with little information
about his career goals. A turning
point in his life came, he said,
when his math teacher encouraged
him to take college preparatory
Courses.
Today's society, said Jackson,
requires more than the basic skills.
Thirty years ago a high school
graduate could get a job if he had a
strong back, he said. Today, strong
New KM company to recycle tires
A
minds and backs are required due
.to a highly technologically ad-
vanced society.
Jackson challenged the kids to
stay healthy by eating the right
foods, drinking plenty of water and
getting enough sleep. He chal-
lenged them to believe in them-
selves. Enjoy being teenagers but
be serious as you start enrolling in
high school classes. Don't be afraid
to ask for help, he said.
More than one-half of the 8th
graders in the audience raised their
hands that they want to get some
form of post high school training.
Supt. Dr. Bob McRae reminded
the class their graduating class of
1996 will be the first class in North
Carolina required to pass algebra
before getting a high school diplo-
ma. The stepped up requirements
for graduation also include science
and math courses.
McRae asked students to look at
Tech Prep if they want to attend a
community college or technical
school for post high school train-
ing. He said KMHS is creating cur-
riculum choices so that students
can take vocational courses at the
See Tech Prep, 8-A
isi
el
5
ashy 4
County commissioners could
call a public hearing on a proposed
county-wide zoning plan as early
as March.
Planning board chairman Frank
Ledford told a standing-room-only
crowd Wednesday that "right now
it's just a map with colors on it.
We're here to try to work out what's
best for all concerned."
Ledford made the statement dur-
ing a meeting at Kings Mountain
city hall where most of the 75-80
people in attendance said they were
in favor of orderly land use propos-
als.
Mining representatives at a 5
p.m.-6 p.m. meeting with the plan-
ning board said they would prefer
no zoning or heavy industrial zon-
ing for the 6.4 mile industrial corri-
dor between Kings Mountain and
Grover but they would not oppose
efforts to enact zoning laws.
After industry had their say, 60-
70 residents of the area voiced dif-
fering concerns of living in a pre-
dominately rural area now dotted
with mines and industrial develop-
ment during an hour's session with
county planners.
Ledford said the planning board
would probably make some adjust-
ments in its original proposal for
zoning about 4500 acres as heavy
| industrial ang 2000 as light indus-
Mtg ho fe
before presenting the formal plan
+0 the county board of commission-
ers. Commission Chairman Joe
Cabaniss said the board would
probably consider the new propos-
al at the March meeting.
Rev. Kenneth Curry and other
residents of the Kilgore community
complained about a now-closed
mine near the neighborhood, say-
ing it was dangerous and an eye-
sore. "I think we ought to solicit
more high tech industries like
Eaton and Phillips DuPont," he
said.
Steve Dolley Jr. of Gastonia, at-
torney for a new Grover mining
operation, said the new industry
would not cause any problems in
the corridor and the company had
no objections to zoning.
"I have sympathy with the mines
but property owners should be con-
sidered,” said Harry Beam, whose
property is surrounded by industry
on Grover Road and who stated his
opposition to more mining. He
asked for a light industrial designa-
tion in the area he lives, which in-
cludes the Eaton plant and Phillips
Du Pont. He said mines should be
limited to heavy industrial area.
Ledford reiterated that the hear-
ing could not determine how to
deal with existing problems but
was to identify the areas on a color
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coded map that would be zoned
heavy and light industrial, residen-
tial and general business.
The Grover Road stretch of land
is one of the region's most industri-
al corridors with seven plants and
1600 employees making every-
thing from truck transmissions to
compact discs. The largest land
holders are mining companies,
which either own property or min-
eral rights or lease the land.
Gene Dotson of Cyprus-Foote
Mineral asked officials not to deny
companies use of mineral reserves.
"If we lose the right to zoning,
we may as well put a gun to our
heads," he said.
"Zoning is probably inevitable
as the county grows," said Herb
Bierman of KMG Minerals Inc.
"You can count on our cooperation.
Our company's been in the area
about 50 years and we've attempted
to be a good neighbor."
"We can't zone the property for
the concerns of a few people,”
Ledford said of mining interests.
"But then Grover Road is where
the minerals are."
"It's a real dilemma for us," said
Ledford of the mining interests
which have conflicted for decades
with the concems of residents who
complain of discolored water,
noisz, dust, and declining property
iterated by property owners again
on Wednesday.
In the coming weeks, Ledford
said Planning Board members will
decide whether they can and
should zone property with mineral
rights held by mining companies as
light industry. The stricter heavy
industry zoning designation would
force mining companies to ask for
a zoning change before they begin
mining, he said.
The bulk of the land being eyed
by the zoning board is either
owned, leased or part of mineral
rights where owners prefer no zon-
ing.
"We feel very concerned with
the growth in this area," said coun-
ty planner Bill McCarter. "We want
to protect it and see it evolve and
grow."
Cabaniss said county officials
have studied more comprehensive
land use plans for several years.
The county's only existing zoning
regulations were enacted in 1973
and sets aside designated areas on
a 2,500 acre strip around Moss
Lake.
The maps also identified resi-
dential areas in Midpines,
Bethlehem, Dixon communities,
Galilee Church Road and Kilgore
Communities.
See Zoning, 8-A
Darren Blevins may have come up with the solu-
tion to a problem that has puzzled many since the in-
vention of the automobile.
What do you do with the old tires? You can burn
them, use them to decorate your yard, make swings
out of them. What else?
Blevins, a scrap dealer, got an idea when he went
to a scrap tire show in Louisville, Kentucky.
Why not bind them together and use them as filler
in concrete walls that serve as security fences, retain-
ing walls and sound barriers?
That's exactly what Blevins and another partner
from Cleveland County are doing. They built a sam-
ple on land where they plan to build a manufacturing
plant for that purpose, which is located on Benton
Road off Highway 29 on the way to Grover. They're
calling the company Enviro Tire.
The wall is 6' 5" high and weighs 12 to 15 tons,
KM to hook on to
Kings Mountain is poised to hook on to the $19
million Gastonia Crowders Creek Waste Water
Treatment Plant but it will probably be March or
A
od Engineer Tom Howard said the final inspec-
tion at the new sewer tie-in line on Cleveland
Avenue, which will connect Kings Mountain to the
Gaston system, was held this week. "Everything
looks good and we're just waiting for them to tell us
and its skeleton contains about 1,000 old tires. Eighty
percent of the bulk weight is high pressured compact-
ed tires, Blevins said.
"It's a state of the art thing," said Blevins. "We're
making tires.a recyclable product . . . a market prod-
uct."
Blevins said he is just about set to go on the pro-
ject and has sent his paper work to the new projects
program at the Department of Transporation to be
reviewed. The DOT has to ckay anything built on a
federal highway, he said.
Blevins said they plan to get tires from Cleveland
County.
"Obviously, we can get rid of a volume of tires,"
he said.
Enviro Tire will do all the processing, fabricating
to constructing on site, Blevins said.
"It's economical," he added. "We'll be competi-
tive."
Crowders Creek
when to hook on," he said.
The city will be shutting down its outdated McGill
Treatment Plant once it hooks on to Crowders
Creek to the tune of 1.9 million gallons of sewage
, per day.
The city's share of the cost of the project was a
half million dollars but their part of the deal was also
See Waste, 8-A
ZONING HEARING - Bill McCarter, Cleveland County planner, addresses a crowd of residential
and industrial property owners attending a hearing last week at city hall on proposed county wide zon-
ing. County commissioners will probably act on a zoning plan in March.