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AMERICAN LEGION Playoffs begin Thursday Page 7-A GIVE BLOOD THURSDAY at First Baptist 1-6 p.m. 1 1 THE HERALD OFFICE will be open regular hours Friday July 3 & Monday July 6 dtl VOL. 104 NO. 27 Prayer ruling upsets KM citizens By RENEE WALSER Of The Herald Staff Some school and community leaders expressed dis- _ appointment in the U.S. Supreme Court's decision last week that banned prayer during public school gradua- tion ceremonies. Chairman of the school board Ronnie Hawkins said it was his personal opinion that the Supreme Court made a bad decision. "It's a shame that the Supreme Court made such a decision, and I, for one, prefer to keep prayer at gradu- ation," said Hawkins. But, as a board member, Hawkins said he and the board would have to meet and discuss the issue. "Until we can hear what the scope of the interpreta- tion is, we don't know what we are dealing with," he said, adding that the ruling could carry over to other school functions, such as ball games. Hawkins said the issue would be on the board agen- da probably as soon as possible once the board's lawyer had time to ascertain the scope of the decision. Supt. Dr. Bob McRae agreed with Hawkins that the board and school officials needed time to consider Council what the opinion meant to Kings Mountain schools. "The decision seems to speak to graduations,” said McRae. But he said it could carry over to athletic events and baccalaureate. Some school systems have said they would continue to pray at graduation ceremonies. "I'm certainly disappointed in the decision," he said. "I think it's the right of the school system to do these things. But I don't believe the system should be in the business of breaking the law. We need to discuss this." McRae said he was looking for direction from the state department and the N.C. School Board Association. Kings Mountain High School principal and gradua- tion organizer Jackie Lavender said, "I disagree with it ... We haven't had a chance to talk about it yet. But we'll uphold the law." "I'm just saddened by the ruling," said Rev. Chip Sloan, minister at First Baptist Church. "And I hope that we won't comply with that type of ruling. "I think this is taking away Christians’ rights. Vice President Quayle spoke at the Southern Baptist Convention recently and he made the comment that there is a cultural elite that calls for tolerance for every FUN IN THE SUN Thursday, July 2, 1992 group. But there's no tolerance for Christian values. What we're seeing is a growing intolerance for Christian values." Sloan said that the cultural elite said, "Practice your faith, practice your religion, but do it in secrecy, do it in the confinement of the church, don't bring it into the public." "But that's not Christianity," said Sloan. "Jesus is not a segment of the day. He's my life. . . . That's a cheap version of Christianity." Tenth District Congressman Cass Ballenger R- Hickory) expressed disgust with the decision. "It was a lousy ruling as far as I'm concerned," he said. "They went out of their way bending over back- wards to use any excuse. The prayer they ruled against was almost a non-partisan prayer. It didn't mention God, Jesus or anything. If we can't say a prayer like “that, our nation is in pretty bad shape." Ballenger said citizens need to "light a fire" under their elected officials. "We can pass some laws here to overrule the Supreme Court,” he said. "Citizens should write their congressmen." One Kings Mountain citizen is prepared to go a long Kings Mountain, N.C. 28086 way to battle the court's decision. Juanita Flemi started a poster campaign to get citizens to wri congressman. "I may go to Timbuktu," she said. "As I h coming across the news, I was hurt, grieved, ay mad. It just seemed like I needed to do some didn't do anything about it in '62." Fleming said the ruling interfered with our right to free speech. "We didn't have the right to vote, we didn't have a say-so or anything," she said. Asked is she felt the community should go ahead and pray at graduation anyway, she said, "Yes. I feel like we should stand up and pray." Ollie Harris commented, "I think it's a shame that they cannot have prayer in school, much less gradua- tion. There's not much you can do about it because the Supreme Court officials are not elected but appointed. If I had anything to do with it, I'd throw the ones out that are against it." 4th fireworks approves budget Without discussion, Kings Mountain City Council Tuesday night adopted a record $18.2 city budget which sets the same tax 36 cents per $10 roperty and at Mauney Library since June 5 and a public hearing was held by Council last month with no changes in the preliminary budget proposed by City Manager George Wood including - priorities set by Council at a spring planning re- treat. The total budget is $18,246,510.00, up slightly from last year. Council members said at the public hearing that the budget held the line on expenses. Council also approved an Employee Assistance Program to provide city employees and their families with help in dealing with personal problems. The $3600 cost is included in the new budget which went into effect Wednesday. EAP services give employees a way to deal with family stress and financial and legal concerns See Budget, 3-A ~ show ever," SWINGING IN THE SUN -- Tony and Teresa Childers have fun with their children, Jordan, 2, and Morgan, 3, in the park behind the Community Center last week. Industries taking shorter holiday The economy could be picking up in the Kings Mountain area. Most plants are shut down tight this week and employees are off with vacation pay but a survey of industry report shorter holidays in store for some segment of Kings Mountain industry. Spectrum, Clevemont Mills, Mauney Hosiery Mills, Anvil Knitwear and Tultex Yarns, all of Kings Mountain, and Minette Mills and Grover Industries in Grover ‘are observing the full week for the holidays. ABE Combustion Engineering, Hayward Pool Products, and Commercial Intertech will close only one day, on Friday. Some em- ployees of Commercial Intertech will work Friday and Saturday. Cyprus Foote Mineral employ- ees will take a three-day holiday, closing Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. PMDC Inc., formerly Philips- Dupont on Grover Road will close Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Eaton Corporation's Grover Road plant will be closed on Friday for the July 4th holiday. At Preparation Machinery some employees are taking this week off and others will vacation next' week. "This is a very busy season for us,” said Mikie Smith of Cab operators granted permits Three taxi cab operators, R. K. Moore, Paul E. Hicks and Jimmy T. Adams, were granted permits from City Council Tuesday which stipulated they pass medical and drug screenings, show proof of in- surance, and pass vehicle inspec- tion. Bloodmobile in The Red Cross bloodmobile will return to Kings Mountain Thursday for a one-day visit at First Baptist Church. Area Red Cross officials say un- less substantial donations are re- ceived that an emergency call for blood will be issued. Sandi Bolick, Director of Blood City Manager George Wood said that other cab operators are in the process of making formal applica- tions for permits since the city adopted a more stringent ordinance regulating vehicles for hire. See Cab, 3-A KM Thursday Services for the Cleveland County Red Cross Chapter, urges donors to donate blood from 1 p.m.-6 p.m. With the holidays upcoming, Bolick said that blood nceds arc greater than ever. 'The visit is sponsored by Kings Mountain Board of Realtors and WKMT Radio. Commercial Intertech. Smith pre- dicts that the economy is picking up in Kings Mountain industry. Most Kings Mountain retail businesses will be closed Saturday. Grocery stores and service stations will operate on regular schedule. Downtown stores announcing they will close on Saturday are Cooper's, McGinnis Furniture, McGinnis Department Store, Sagesport, Dellinger's, AAA Sports, and Mobile Vibrations. Plonk Brothers and Heilig- Myers will open on Saturday. City financial institutions will be closed on Friday. Window service at the Kings Mountain Post Office will close at noon on Friday but mail carriers will deliver mail and monthly social security checks will be delivered by the post office on Thursday morning, according to Post Office official Quay Moss who said postal authorities had giv- en the go-ahead for the distribution of the checks early so that recipi- ents can cash them on Thursday prior to bank holidays. City Hall offices and the Public Works Department will be closed Monday but sanitation workers will be off Friday and there will be no residential trash collection Friday. Kings Mountain People Fireworks ‘will light up the sky Friday .night at 10 p.m. in a pre- . July 4th color extravaganza expect- ed to rival last year's show which drew the biggest crowds ever to th says Recreation Director David Hancock, who said the addition of $1,000 worth of new fireworks from sponsors will add to the dazzle and glitter of the Independence Day celebration. Working behind the scenes for months on the patriotic display was fireman Bill Ware, who has been playing with fireworks all his life and masterminded the big show last year which saluted the heroes of Desert Storm. Ware is being as- sisted by Johnny Caldwell and 10 firemen in the Kings Mountain Fire Department and by Mayor Scott Neisler and Hancock and members of the Parks & Recreation Department. Neisler and Ware have been: busy on the musical portion of the program, working with Radio Station WKMT and Jayda Brown. Miss Brown will sing Sandi Patti's rendition of 'The National Anthem" as the red, white, and blue finale with fireworks in the background. Local citizens can hear the music by turning on their car radios to 1220 on the dial or by carrying a radio with them set at 1220 to view the air show. The nighttime fireworks show: is not new to Ware, who has been called on by the city to shoot fire- works at Mountaineer Day func- tions and July 4th celebrations for 16 years. He joined KMFD as a volunteer in 1973. Perfecting a high quality and safe show using various types of shells has worked for Ware. This year's show, he hopes, will be enjoyable and rival any of the former events. Ware said the new shells will make for a larger show.Some of the See Fireworks, 3-A Friday in KM Frid By. D An "Almost Fourth of July . Celebration” will be kicked off at. noon Friday at Kings Mountain Community Center and Deal Street Park. Mayor Scott Neisler and former Senator J. Ollie Harris will present opening patriotic remarks, Patriotic music and a balloon release will signal the start of activities for al ages. The City of Kings Mountain ant the Parks & Recreation Department are co-sponsoring the celebration which culminates with a fireworks display and patriotic music at 10 p.m. The popular band, "Mink," will play for a dance from 7:30 p.m.- 11:30 p.m. The schedule of events for July 3: f 11 a.m. - Horseshoe registration. 11:30 a.m. - Horseshoe plz gets underway. 12 noon - Opening ceremonies, music, welcome by Mayor, balloon release. 12 noon - Pool activities begin and continue until 2 p.m. Free swim after events. After 2 p.m. special prices 50 cents per person. 2:30 p.m. - Kids Area opens with various games, including pup- pet show and face painting. 3:30 p.m. - Water slide, street shower, batting cage. + 4:30 p.m. - Watermelon eating contest and dunking booth. 6 p.m. - Home run derby. 7:30-11:30 p.m. - Band, "Mink," performs. 10 p.m. - Fireworks extravagan- za. of Svante. = By ELIZABETH STEWART of The Herald Staff : The love that she felt as a child in her grandmoth- er's house near the railroad tracks is what 81-year-old Virginia Bird Crawford hopes visitors find in her comfortable home on S. Watterson Street. Crawford fell in love with trains as a child riding the Southern from Columbia, SC to Kings Mountain to visit her grandparents. The big two-story home of former Mayor and Mrs. Squire Kendrick stood at the corner of S. Battleground Avenue and East Gold Street. It was al- Always love in Mrs. Crawford's home The Bird name was familiar with the Southern Railroad. Three generations of Birds operated trains. Virginia’ father, William Bird, ran the freight run * from Columbia, SC. Her grandfather operated the Special and was among the oldest engineers running the route from Columbia to Asheville, There were Bird cousins and an uncle who were train operators. Captain Bird, as her grandfather was called, was one of the most popular cngincers. "Some commuters wouldn't ride with anyone but Captain Bird because they said his rides were smooth," said Crawford. Daughter of William and Rossic Bird of Columbia, Virginia was born in Kings Mountain but lived in VIRGINIA CRAWFORD so a boarding house for teachers and commuters. Standing on the porch across from the tracks, Virginia waved often to the engineer. Columbia during her teenage years, returning to See Crawford, 3-A a Ee yoni, Aa
The Kings Mountain Herald (Kings Mountain, N.C.)
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July 2, 1992, edition 1
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