COMAN FALLS
One of KM's Best Athletes
-6-A
GROVER BOARD
Accused of
Censoring the News
SPORTS HALL
OF FAME
Tickets Are On Sale
VOL. 104 NO. 11
2-month school discuss
West School will hold meetings
next week on the Year Round
School proposal. All meetings will
be held in the West (Central)
School cafeteria and it is important
that all parents attend their grade
level meetings.
The meeting schedule is as fol-
lows:
10-A
Monday, March 16 - 7 p.m. -
Perspective kindergarten and cur-
rent kindergarten parents. Anyone
who will have a child in kinder-
garten at West next year should at-
tend.
Tuesday, March 17 - 7 p.m, -
First and second grade parents.
Wednesday, March 18 - 3:15 -
Meetings next week at West School
Third, fourth and fifth grade par-
ents.
Thursday, March 19 at 3:15, and
Monday, March 23 at 7 p.m.,
school personnel will be available
for all parents who are unable to at-
tend the above-mentioned meet-
ings.
Saturday hail
leaves its mark
Dixon Community residents
Jackie Hughes and Dee Stewart
picked up hail in their yards and
froze it to show their neighbors,
who like them, couldn't believe
their eyes Saturday afternoon.
Hail, from the size of marbles to
golf balls, rained over the Dixon
and Bethlehem Communities in the
Greater Kings Mountain area.
None was reported in the Kings
Mountain city limits.
The sudden storm on a bright,
sunny afternoon ripped through the
area about 3 p.m. along with heavy
rain, A funnel cloud ‘was reported
in Swainsville in the eastern end of
the county near Lattimore, al-
though no damage was reported.
"That's the most hail I've ever
seeit,! said Mrs. George Stewart,
76. Hughes said the lack of wind
was also amazing.
"The path of the storm must
have been in the area of the Dixon-
Bethlehem-Grover area," said in-
suranceman Bob Maner, who said
15-20 houses and automobiles in
the Bethlehem area were damaged
by hail ranging from pea size to
* golf ball size.
A spokesman for Warlick-
Hamrick Insurance Agency, said
adjustors were busy checking
homes this week in the White
Plains and Stewart Road of the
Dixon Community but more cars
were damaged than residences.
"The damage isn't great but there
are quite a few cars damaged," she
said.
Nationwide Insurance Agency
also reported receiving claims for
hail damages to cars and houses,
mostly in the Grover and Shelby
area. No reports for damages were
filed by people living inside the
city limits of Kings Mountain, they
said. 5
With the lack of any snow this
winter, the sight of the hail was the
closest to winter-like weather many
residents have seen this year.
City Manager George Wood said
a mild winter for the second winter
in Kings Mountain would mean a
very conservative budget for the
City of Kings Mountain in 1992-
93 :
"I'm praying for some winter
weather,” said Wood. The. city's
budget depends largely on utility
payments by gas, water and elec-
tric users. "It makes we wonder
about what it says in the Bible
about the end of time coming when
no one can tell the seasons."
Club, Grover Counc
GROVER - A flap over city
board policy on use of the new
community room between the city
council and the Woman's Club sur-
faced at Tuesday's meeting when
club vice president Kathy Neely
read a letter from the club.
"We feel we had our hands
slapped by council when it nixed
our kitchen project and we just
want to work for the community
and with council and get any nega-
tive feelings in the open and pick
up where we left off in the commu-
nity," she said.
Eight of the 15 active members
of the club were present.
Mayor Ronald Queen denied
any negative feelings by the board
who pledged its support to the
club. Queen said the community
room policy is necessary because
other groups besides the Woman's
Club use the building and supplies
left there are the responsibility of
the town and must become the
property of the town.
Mrs. Neely said the club donaied
flatwear, glasses, pitchers, pans,
trays and a 40-cup coffeemaker at a
Burger King breaks
ground for restaurant
Rain and mud at the site didn't
dampen the enthusiasm of Burger
King officials who broke ground
Tuesday morning for a new restau-
rant at 717 York Road.
The downpour of rain came sec-
onds after Contractor Jeff Denton,
Mayor Pro Tem Norma Bridges,
and co-owner Jim Green used new
shovels to break the ground on
1.08 acres between Family Storage
and Baucom Chevrolet.
Bill Reule Sr., commercial loca-
tion consultant, estimated that,
weather permitting, the new Kings
Mountain business will open in
about 90 days. It will be a standard
Burger King but No. 19 in North
Carolina for brothers Bob and Jim
Green of Union County. Jim Green
said the standard Burger King will
be a first in Cleveland County but
with a new decor package, a 1950's
theme in the dining room. Green
said that 80-100 people will be
hired, some on a full-time and
some on a part-time basis. The fa-
cility will also include a play-
ground.
Patsy Roberts of Stanley will
manage the new Burger King and
Marc Rudnick and Brian Rains,
both of Kings Mountain, have been
hired as assistant managers.
Richardson Turner of Knoxville,
Tennessee is the general contract-
ing firm for the $160,000 building.
Bill Reule Sr. and Bill Reule Jr.
handled the site selection and pur-
chased the city permits for the
owners. BB&T's Dan Ayscue of
Kings Mountain and Bill Sudyk of
Gastonia handled the financial ar-
rangements.
The Green brothers also own
and operate B&J Restaurant and
Times Food Systems Corporation
as well as 18 Burger King facilities
in Charlotte, Gastonia, Salisbury,
Hickory, Concord, Kannapolis,
Newton Conover, Lincolnton and
Mocksville.
Bill Reule Jr., vice president o
William H. Reule Associates of
Charlotte, said he appreciated the
assistance of city engineer Tom
Howard and other city officials in
the site development and location.
See Burger King, 2-A
Thursday, March 12, 1992
By RENEE WALSER
Of the Herald Staff
Eleven concerned citizens spoke
to the Kings Mountain Board of
Education about their views on the
year-round school issue at Monday
night's March meeting of the
board.
Seven of the eleven spoke
against instituting a year-round cal-
endar gt West Elementary next
Photos by Bryan Warren
Area residents may not get to see a snow-covered lawn this winter,
but Saturday's hail storm left them white for a few minutes, as shown
in the upper photograph. Many people reported hail the size of golf
balls. If you don't believe it, look at the lower photo which shows a hail
stone beside of a golf ball.
il at odds
kitchen shower for the town hall
‘kitchen and wants to raise more
money for more utensils. She said
the club was told that items could
not be stored in the kitchen and the
board would further stock the
kitchen.
Mayor Pro Tem Sandra Ellis ex-
plained the reason for the board's
policy. "We must safeguard all the
property. Any negativism is com-
ing from within your organization,
not from council," she said.
KATHY NEELY
BURGER KING BREAKS GROUND - Burger King broke
ground for a new Kings Mountain restaurant Tuesday. From left,
Mayor Pro Tem Norma Bridges, owner Jim Green, and contractor
Jeff Denton.
Kings Mountain, N.C. 28086 «35¢
year, and four spoke in favor of the
change.
The speakers were made up of
both teachers and parents.
Superintendent Bob McRae said
he would present his recommenda-
tion to the board in April. He
added that he would strongly con-
sider parents’ wishes in coming to
his decision.
“We've looked at a lot of reports
-- both pro and con," McRae told
the packed board room. " The re-
By ELIZABETH STEWART
of The Herald Staff
The statistics are staggering: 837
calls to police involving domestic
incidents in Kings Mountain in
1991. Already this year 102 do-
mestic incidents have been investi-
gated, including two homicides in
the last two weeks which shocked
the community.
"In the last five years the calls
we have responded to have been
more violent than any I have seen
in my career," said Chief of Police
Warren Goforth. "It's going to get
worse."
Goforth said only 41 victims of
assault in 1991 filed reports. Only
18 arrests were made. In most of
the cases, the women victims didn't
charge the suspect and if they did
they dropped the charges.
Decision of abused spouses and
girlfriends not to seek protection
from the law are not unique, say
officers. Even when abuse victims
report violence they often with-
draw their complaints in court.
And, in most cases, the women of-
ten let the men move back in with
them or drop assault charges out of
fear, says Goforth.
Goforth says two recent homi-
ros
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Domestic crime
Ss on the rise
"The calls...have been
more violent than any
I've seen in my
career... It's going to get
worse."
Warren Goforth
cides and a suicide in Kings
Mountain were the results of love
gone sour. Although police were
aware of domestic problems in the
two homicide cases, no charges
had been preferred by the two vic-
tims.
Two Kings Mountain men,
Daten Schenck) 21, of 206 NN.
Cansler 8t., and Charles Francis
Hardy, 35, of Groves St., are in
Cleveland County Jail charged
with the murder of their spouses.
Dean Hamrick, 37, of Grover took
his own life on December 30, 1991
after holding police at bay for near-
ly five hours. Wanted for the mur-
der of four people in Alexander
County, including his former girl-
friend, Hamrick ended 24 hours of
See Crime, 3-A
Grover considers zoning
GROVER - County Planning
Director Bill McCarter told Town
officials Tuesday he will assist in
developing a zoning ordinance for
the town.
McCarter, showing eight color
coded maps of proposals for an in-
dustrial corridor on I-85 and
Highway 29 at the city limits, said
those plans will undergo additional
adjustments before they are pre-
sented to the county board of com-
missioners for approval.
The proposal has been under de-
velopment for a year by a task
Kings Mountain People
force which has targeted the corri-
dor between Kings Mountain and
Grover for zoning because of its
current industrial use and potential
for further growth. A public hear-
ing was held in Kings Mountain re-
cently at which 75 property owners
and industry officials expressed
varying concerns, all of which
McCarter says will be incorporated
in a final proposal.
"This is the area that will be
growing in the next 20 years and
we need to look at zoning," said
. See Zoning, Page 2-A
The 'Dean’ of politics
By ELIZABETH STEWART
of The Herald Staff
Politics is in Dean
Westmoreland's blood.
The new chairman of the
Cleveland County Democratic
Party, a retired Kings Mountain
history and government teacher for
30 years, won't rule out a future in
state politics. He ran a good show-
ing for a state senate seat back in
1976 but decided against a runoff
with the winner, his good friend
Senator Helen Marvin.
He got the political fever as a se-
nior at Grover High School in 1952
when he worked in Adlai
Stevenson's campaign for presi-
dent. He said he thought the world
had come to an end when Dwight
D. Eisenhower won the election.
Dean listens to the voters. "One
vote counts, most elections are
won by less than 5 percent of the
voters" he told his Amcrican
History and government students
on many occasions at Kings
Mountain High School and volun-
teers at the Grover Precinct meet-
DEAN WESTMORELAND
ings he chaired at Grover Rescue
Building for 20 years before he
stepped down in April to become
the party chairman. Westmoreland
gets out the vote in his small town.
"Government and politics are lo-
cal," he said. "You vote for
President of the U.S. but you cast
your vote in small towns just like
Grover, at town halls or church fel-
lowship halls. The government is
See Westmoreland, 3-A
»,