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— —— % Be —— . i 2 ou Past - Present - Future Be — 1d 28086 MONT AVE. S. PIED /” 5y MEMORIAL LIBRARY KINGS MTN NC ll J MEMBER OF THE NORTH CAROLINA PRESS ASSOCIATION CHRIS MORRIS | By RENEE WALSER Of The Herald Staff The Morris family of Kings Mountain wants to spread their hope to others who might be in their situation. Son, Chris, was diagnosed with complex partial seizures, a form of epilepsy, when he was a junior in high school and 17 years old. Now, four years later, his seizures have become less frequent thanks to a relatively new surgical procedure for epileptics. Chris' mother, April, wanted to stress that the procedure was not for everyone who has this problem. But, she said, "It is a ray of hope for a lot of people.” Chris was an outstanding base- ball player when his teammates no- ticed that he would "space out” during ball practice. His seizures took the form of leaning to the left side while his arms and hands drew in to his chest and he would start walking, all the while not knowing what he was doing. April said these periods were especially scary be- cause he could walk in front of a car, for instance. "We have never been able to de- termine why they started,” April said. At first, the seizures were infre- quent and didn't stunt Chris’ nor- mal life. He won the 1989 Coaches Award in football and played on the state championship baseball team. After he graduated, he went on to Western Carolina University. Then Chris' seizures became more frequent and started lasting longer. Medicines didn't seem to help. He was having one to four seizures a day and could never be left alone. Looking back and laughing about it a little, Chris told of the time he took a test in college and must have had a seizure during the test, because when he got the exam back, about three pages of the test had not been answered. : During this time, Chris tried dif- ferent medications. "Some made him like a zombie," said April. He made a 1.9 at school Surgery gives him new start New surgery gives Morrises new hope one semester on one medicine and then on another mediciation, he made a 2.9 the next semester. "He asked the doctor if he could give him something that would get him a 4.0," April said. Chris was found to be a candi- date for surgery because he could not find a medicine or combination of medicines to help. During Christmas break of his sophomore year at Western Carolina, Chris en- tered Carolina Medical Center for testing. External electrodes were attached to his head and he was monitored by a video camera around the clock for ten days. The doctors were trying to determine in which part of the brain the seizures were originating. The tests were inconclusive and further testing was needed. This time the electrodes were inserted in the brain for ten days. The seizures were found to be coming from the left temporal lobe of the brain, but this is the area where speech is lo- cated. Chris had to be tested some more to "map" out the speech and memory areas of the brain so they could be avoided during surgery. At one point, the surgery was put on hold because the doctors thought it would interfere with his speech. But on Nov. 8, Dr. Jerry Greenhoot surgically removed the anterior portion of Chris' left tem- poral lobe and with the right medicine, is recovering "beautiful- ly," according to his mother. Chris has "tip of the tongue" phenomena, April said. His speech is slow but doctors say in a year, he should be back to normal. "What I've got to do right now is wait at least a year," Chris said about his future. Now he is recuperating at home and helping his dad at his store. "I'm a nurse, and I had no idea until we went through this what ad- vances have been made," said April. While April was amazed, Chris seemed to take losing a part of his brain all in stride. "Like they say, you only use a portion of your brain anyway," he said. . Thursday, Fe Three public hearings, two of expected to be controversial, are on for Tuesday night's city council meeting. Neighbors of a proposed 60-bed addition to Kings Mountain Convalescent Center are expected to object to rezoning of adjacent property by White Oak Minor. Neighbors of city property on Bridges Drive targeted for a park are expected to appear in opposition. In addition, Mayor Scott Neisler is expected to present a proposal from Radio Station WKMT for airing of city cotincil meetings, a met objection from Commissioner Fred Finger when the subject was brought up at a recent utilities’ meeting and proposal which which the mayor favors. EIR which are the agenda regarding junk and projects. A third public hearing is a request from heirs of Elizabeth Rhea to rezone property at 1404 Shelby Rd. from NB to GB for a farm center. Other items on a 26-item agenda include consideration of a resolution adopting an internal accounting manual, amending a personnel ordinance regarding retirees’ medical insurance, amending the municipal code approving sewer service to Hillcrest Mobile Home Park in Oak Grove community and consideration of several change orders in utility Neighbors of Kings Mountain Convalescent Center say if the city approves rezoning for an abandoned vehicles, requests. addition to the Sipe Street nursing home that it Kings Mountain, N.C. 28086 - 35¢ Gontroversial hearing Tuesday Some residents of the Bridges Drive area say they fear a lighted park could create a hangout. See Council, 12-A 12-month school possible at West By RENEE WALSER Of The Herald Staff Kings Mountain School System is getting closer to making a deci- sion on turning West Elementary next year. The schopl board will probably) decide in April vihether tO ke; West a traditional calendar school or make it a year-round calendar program or both -- a school-within- a-school -- with parents having a choice of calendars, said Superintendent Bob McRae and Assistant Superintendent Jane King. School ititc a year-round sete! i ? If West went to a school-within- a-school format, McRae stressed that it would be up to the parents whether their children attended classes the traditional nine months with semmers off or if they would “iferd’ what is called a 45/15 schedule S- 45 dnys of school and 5 days of intersession or vacation qdagh. i WcRag said there are four pilot year-round schools in North Carolina and three of them are school-within-a-school facilities. Using the 45/15 schedule, stu- dents would go to classes for nine weeks and then have three weeks of vacation. During those three weeks, a student needing remedial study would attend one week of classes. There would also be a week of enrichment for high achievers. And day care would be available for zll three weeks. Enrichment and day care are op- tional and 0h would be a charge for those programs. Remedial study would be free. McRae said there was really no change in that policy because at the present the system charges for day care and enrichment programs. The reason for converting to year-round schools is to upgrade student achievement, McRae and King said. There are other benefits, Scism, Hoyle join Senate races A race has developed for both the new State Senate District 37 and 25th District seats with the an- nouncement of their candidacies by Patterson Grove resident Bruce T. Scism for District 37 and founder/former president of Summey Building Systems and former Dallas mayor David W. Hoyle of Shelby for District 25. Former Senator J. Ollie Harris of Kings Mountain is running in the newly-created District 37 and for- mer House Speaker Carl Stewart is running for the 25th District seat which Harris held for 18 years un- til two years ago when he was de- IN SCISM HOYLE feated for reelection. Scism has run unsuccessfully for the 25th District seat several times. All are Democrats. Incumbent Republican 25th District Senator Jim Forrester of Stanley has not announced. There is no incumbent in the 37th District, which includes most of Cleveland and all of Rutherford counties. Scism, Kings Mountain native, says his experience in business makes him qualified to help turn government around. "I want to get the government out of our pocket- books and the legislature to stop passing so many laws that interfere with our freedom as a people,” he said. See Filing, 12-A as King and West Principal Sherrill Toney learned at the National Year- round Conference in California this will mean increased traffic in an area in the western section of the city they call a traffic hazard. Twelve residents of the area attended the recent meeting of the Planning & Zoning Board when Kemp Cecil, president of White Oak Manor, Otto Cecil, vice president, both of Spartanburg, S. C, and Karen Radford, local administrator, made the request, which the board unanimously denied. City council has the final say on rezoning month. One is to benefit some working parents: The school schedule may parallel their sched- ule better. Also there seems to be less burn-out for students and teachers. But King said the primary bene fit is continuous learning. The stu dents need less time to spend re- viewing what has been learned ’ they retain more and achievement goes up. McRae said they had studied See School, 3-A Business Classifieds .......... hua 10-B | Community Service ...... Section C {Food i ati 5-B Health. ............0000... Section F History ©... toni, Section D ObHUAIBS i... iiss 2-A OPINION... a. aly 4-A bPolice: . . n 14-B BPOTIS La 7-9A Way We Were .........c..coeeenenie 1-B Women's News .............c...... 2-38 | 114 Pages Plus 5 Advertising Supplements HELEN HATCH KM's Helen Hatch talented musician| By ELIZABETH STEWART of The Herald Staff Joining the all-male Kings Mountain Kiwanis Club was natu- ral for Helen Hatch, who chose the civic club her husband has been ac- tive in for 15 years because she knew of service the organization does in the community. Helen and George Hatch found they liked the same things about four years ago when both got inter- ested in the Gastonia Toastmasters Club. George, then an officer in the club, welcomed Helen Burnham Ross to her first meeting. In June the couple will celebrate their third wedding anniversary. Moving to Kings Mountain, Helen joined First Presbyterian Church with her husband and re- cently signed up for piano lessons, something that Helen had almost forgot about since she was a little girl, Reared in a musical family in Bloomington, Indiana, Helen start- ed playing bassoon, a wood wind instrument when she was 12 years old. She performed with the Bloomington Civic and Youth Orchestras, setting a pattern of mu- sical achievement that led her to North Carolina. She toured with the N. C. Symphony one summer as a student, and later joined the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra on a permanent basis, playing bassoon in the 60-member orchestra. "I was in college and noticed on the bulletin board that the Gharlote Symphony was looking for a bas- soon player, so I flew to Charlotte and auditioned,” said the petite See Hatch, 3-A ! §= "Additional Copies Of The Outlook Edition Available At The Herald Office *1.00 Each ~~
The Kings Mountain Herald (Kings Mountain, N.C.)
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Feb. 20, 1992, edition 1
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