¢
VOL. 104 NO. 40
Open Gate Garden Club
sprucing up downtown parking area
Chamber of Commerce
to sponsor seminars
Thursday, October 1, 1992
Mountaineers win
third in a row
6-A
Mountaineer Day Saturday|
US Department of Interior
Deputy Chief of Staff Knute
Knudson will be the keynote
speaker Wednesday, October 7, at 3
p.m. at the 212th anniversary cele-
bration of the Revolutionary War
Battle of Kings Mountain at Kings
Mountain National Military Park
Amphitheater.
KMNMP Superintendent Mike
Loveless said the ceremony will
begin with the arrival of the
"Overmountain Marchers” retrac-
ing for 14 days the route of the
original pioneer militiamen from
southwest Virginia, east Tennessee,
the Carolinas and Georgia.
The program will be followed
[FE —————————————————
Park celebration Wednesday
with a wreath-laying ceremony at
the United States monument on the |
Battlefield Ridge.
Loveless said The Guilford
Militia, a group dedicated to bring-
ing back a part of history and her-
itage to the public, will recreate the
activities of an 18th century en-
campment and muster on Saturday
and Sunday, October 3 and 4.
There are no fees for any of the
events and the public is invited to
attend.
Knudson, Deputy Chief of Staff-
Administration in the Depariment
of Interior, provides coordination
See Park, 3-A
Parade
scheduled
December 5
In a departure from custom, the
city board of commissioners
Tuesday set the annual Christmas
parade for a Saturday in December
instead of Sunday.
Voting 6-1, the board took the
recommendation of the Parks &
Recreation Commission and set the
parade for December 5 at 4 p.m.
Councilman Al Moreiz, who ob-
jected, said that merchants have
problems with Saturday parades.
Recreation Director David
Hancock said he had surveyed
downtown merchants and most
preferred Sunday parades.
Hancock said, however, that he has
contacted numerous school and
college bands who will march on
Saturday and other councilmen and
Mayor Scott Neisler agreed with
him that a Saturday parade would
be a drawing card to open the
Christmas shopping season in
town. : :
Chief Warren Goforth said po-
lice will have a more difficult time
working traffic on Saturday be-
cause some mills operate on
Saturday and closing time is mid-
afternoon.
Councilman Jerry White said he
had co-chaired a parade with Gene
Tignor and the KM Fire
Department a couple years ago and
caught flack when the parade was
originally scheduled for Saturday.
"We changed it to Sunday,” he
said.
Hancock said the Shelby
Christmas parade is Sunday,
December 6. The Grover parade is
Saturday, December 12.
"If we don't try a Saturday, how
. do we know it won't work,?" asked
Commissioner Norma Bridges,
chairman of the Parks &
Recreation Commission.
See Parade, 3-A
9
INDUSTRIAL PARK READY TO GO - Larry Hamrick, Mrs.
RIBBON-CUTTING AT PLONK'S -Plonk's General Store h
Mountaineer Day Saturday
promises to be fun for all.
The day-long celebration cranks
up at 8:30 a.m. with bicycle rides
and picks up steam as the day de-
velops.
Kiddie events will include the
4th annual dog show, a stuffed ani-
mal contest, and a parade at 10:30
a.m. on Cherokee Strect featuring
kids on decorated bikes, scooters,
wagons and strollers.
Grownups haven't been left out
of the entertainment.
More than 200 cars are expected
to line the streets in a 27-class car
show which will display every-
thing from pre 1949 models to
street rods, street machines, and
trucks, original, custom and mini
wild. More than $1,000 in prizes
await the entrants who will be eli-
eld ribbon-cutting ceremonies Tuesday
gible for two awards per class.
There is a $12 entry fee for this
event.
In addition, stage entertainment
will feature a wide variety of tal-
ented people and opens at 10 a.m.
with the Kings Mountain Pep Band
and a balloon release followed by
bands, gospel singing groups,
karate exhibitions, and topped off
by fireworks at 9:30 p.m. and a
street dance to the music of the
popular "Mink" until 11:30 p.m.
Denise Falls, chairman of the ac-
tivities sponsored by the City of
Kings Mountain Parks &
Recreation Department, said a
wide variety of crafts and food will
be offered in various areas of
downtown and merchants will also
See Mountaineer, 3-A
morning. Grand opening is underway at the remodeled business on Railroad Avenue. Front row, left to
right, Linda Allen, Nelle Crocker, Gene Bridges, Alex Plonk and Mayor Scott Neisler. Back row, from left,
Judy Bolin, John Plonk, Marcy Bridges, Carl Plonk, Ronnie Hedgepeth of Cotter & Co., Robin Plonk
holding Adrienne, Pat Plonk and Susan Gregory.
City employees to be surveyed on pay period issue
The 171 employees of the City
of Kings Mountain will receive
survey forms this week asking if
they want to be paid weekly or ev-
ery two weeks after two depart-
ment supervisors and Councilman
Jerry White raised questions
Tuesday about the proposed plan
which was slated to go into effect
in December.
Council voted 6-1 over objec-
tion of Councilman Phil Hager.
Kings Mountain SCADA system to
A state-of-the-art supervisory
control and data acquisition system
(SCADA) and other electrical im-
provements will be dedicated by
Kings Mountain city officials
Tuesday at 9:30 a.m..
Following a walk-through of the
Gaston Street Substation between
Parker Street and Battleground
Avenue, visitors will move to the
Citizens Service Center at 1013
North Piedmont Avenue for the
%
Elsie Peeler, Don Peeler and Jim
"Sure we take the work force into
consideration but we have to look
at the welfare of all the city and
with the economy the way it is we
have to take a look at the proposed
savings of going from once a week
to every two weeks," he said,
agreeing with City Manager
George Wood's recommendation.
Wood said the employees would
have more than two months to ad-
just to a new schedule and would
dedication and demonstration of
the new SCADA system.
Community Services Director
Tom Howard said the electrical im-
provements are the last of the bond
projects to be completed. The cost
.was approximately $1,870,000.
The SCADA system was funded
by electrical revenues at a cost of
$330,000. :
Howard said the SCADA system
is the first step in bringing the elec-
os
Crawley, left to right, break ground for a new industrial park off N.C. 180 south about a half mile from
Wal-Mart. Hamrick and Crawley of Kings Mountain are officers of the Cleveland County Economic
Development Commission, Mrs. Peeler and her family own the property and Shelby realtor Peeler is the
developer. Peeler Industrial/Business Park is expected to be ready for business and industry to build there
in about three months.
still receive their Christmas bonus-
es "well before the holiday."
Walt Ollis, water superintendent,
and Dick Staub, Sanitation depart-
ment supervisor, said the new pay
plan would put their employees in
a bind. "Some of my people pay
rent every week and they depend
on their check every week. This is
the lowest paid department in the
city. Pay us every week and the rest
every two weeks," said Staub.
trical operation into state-of-the-art
electrical application. Today all
quality electrical agencies operate
their electrical department with a
similar system, the "heart" of the
operations center, he says.
Initially, Kings Mountain's oper-
ation is limited only to the city's
two electrical substations on York
Road and Gaston Street. The entire
"heartbeat" of each electrical sub-
station is constantly monitored and
"A Vote for Dollar makes good
Sense" is how 31-year-old Nelson
Dollar labels his first venture into
politics as the Republican candi-
date for North Carolina
Commissioner of Labor.
Dollar, who served as the
Personnel Director for the N. C.
Department of Economic and
Community Development from
1989 until he retired recently to hit
the campaign trail, was in the
Kings Mountain area Tuesday
pumping hands and talking about
department more open and respon-
sive to the public.
The Labor Department has ap-
proximately 300 employees, about
half the size of the department
Dollar served as personnel director
in Raleigh.
"Cut down on management lay-
ers and give technology to the pro-
fessionals providing services in the
how change is needed to make that |
The Mountaineer Jail will be a busy place Saturday as local peo-
ple lock up their friends for benefit of Shriners ho
Political candi
spar at CCC for
By ELIZABETH STEWART
of The Herald Staff
A few jabs were thrown but
when the two-hour forum ended
Thursday night the 100 people in
the audience at Cleveland
Community College went home
with a clearer picture of the eight
candidates for North Carolina
General Assembly districts that in-
clude Cleveland County.
Some questions weren't asked
due to lack of time. The sponsoring
Women's League of Voters and
Jaycees: promised to let the audi-
ence pose questions October 13
when the six candidates for three
seats on the county board of com-
missioners meet the public.
"If you want to be paying more
taxes, send back the three folks
over there," said Republican 48th
District House candidate Dean
"My employees are afraid this
will hit them at Christmas time and
that's why they object,” said Ollis.
White said he has received nu-
merous calls from employees ob-
Jecting to the proposed change and
suggested a letter go out with the
next checks explaining the particu-
‘lars of the new plan.
In other actions, the board:
Closed a cut-through street be-
tween Phifer Road and Mountain
controlled at the SCADA facility.
When a second phase is purchased
and installed the system will be
able to monitor the "heartbeat" of
the entire city and pinpoint any
outages or damage to the electrical
transmission system allowing the
dispatch of repair crews more ac-
curately and the savings of signifi-
cant revenues.
Most of the initial expense, said
Howard was for a master comput-
NELSON DOLLAR ;
ficld so they can do their job," said
Dollar, who said the department is
not using the latest technology to
track and investigate complaints
238
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Allen, pointing o 3 =
opponents Edith®cs, wa &
and BillaWithrow.c= Re
The only one of by Rong ER,
candidates never t.
- seat in the General | hh,
roundly criticized ants ® #
"When the roll w is call:
times on your busin ;ss, Hut way gu,
n't there to vote,” 4 len said, "By Ny
with = that kind of tninking, we'r¢
probably better off that he wasn't
there.”
Hunt criticized Allen's vesearch
and said that his duties as chairman
of the House Rules Committee
meant that he often did not vote on
rarely contested bills, which often
are packaged together and voted on
in large numbers.
All the candidates but Withrow
See Forum, 2-A
Street fronting the N. C. National
Guard Armory. The Armory owns
the property and needs it for addi-
tional parking.
Amended the zoning ordinance
clarifying setback requirements for
accessory buildings in R-20. The
ordinance states that accessory
building sare permitted only in the
rear yards and shall be not less than
10 feet from any property line and
See City, 5-A
be dedicated Tuesday
er, electronic equipment and facili-
ties. He said the cost of the remain-
ing four phases of the system will
be significantly less when com-
pared to the cost of the master
computer with associated software
and equipment which were sized to
run the entire SCADA system city
wide.
Howard said SCADA is also
connected to the gas supply station
See SCADA, 3-A
Candidate wants to give Dollar's worth
from employees and employers.
Customer service orientation is
badly needed in state government,
says Dollar, who says there is no
excuse for a department not taking
phone calls from the citizens who
pay their salaries and no excuse for
eight months or more lapses in re-
sponding to a citizen complaint,
"Every citizen needs access to that
office," he said.
Dollar sces one of the critical is-
sues facing the state as the need to
increase training opportunities for
“young pcople through pre appren-
ticeship programs and through
Tech Prep programs for high
school students who can't go to
college.
"People tell me they want to see
a more cfficient use of the tax dol-
lar and a change in government. |
have some ideas 1 belicve will
work," said Dollar, native of
See Dollar, 3-A