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VOL. 104 NO. 41
Makeup of school board m
Program updates and goal-set-
ting highlighted a recent marathon
16-hour retreat in Boone by the
KM Board of Education and the
school system's executive staff.
"Advance was highly success-
ful,” said Board Chairman Ronnie
Hawkins and Supt. Dr. Bob
McRae.
McRae said some notable
changes in the health education
program were reviewed by Cindy
Borders following a revision of the
Advance hig
family life education curriculum by
the Health Council. The system is
returning to the process of segre-
gating the boys and girls in 7th and
8th grade health classes that deal
with the human anatomy. "The cur-
riculum promotes as a first choice
abstinence before marriage," said
Borders.
Drug testing of all employees
who transport students gets under-
way in the next few weeks.
Personnel Director Ronnie Wilson
Thursday, October 8, 1992
hly successful for KM
said an an-out- of-town company
will monitor the program and the
testing will be done through ran-
dom selection. ;
Computers will soon be moved
into the 6th grade at KM Middle
School. Principal John Goforth and
computer company representatives
' reviewed the next phase of expan-
sion of the computer assisted learn-
ing program and board members
took a look at the computers.
See Advance, 5-A
Garrett Neisler, son of Mayor and Mrs. Scott Neisler, and
Virginia Neisler, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Andy Neisler, lead off
the children's parade during Mountaineer Day Saturday.
Old 'Dixie’ gift to KMLT
launches theater project
The old Dixie Theater property
was given to the Kings Mountain
Little Theatre Inc, Thursday and
heralded by owner John O. Plonk
Jr. as the beginning of the restora-
tion of uptown Kings Mountain.
"This is the most significant
moment in the history of the Kings
Mountain Little Theatre," said
President Jeff Grigg, accepting the
property from Mr. and Mrs. John
Plonk Jr. which had belonged to
the Plonk family since the turn of
the century.
The Railroad Avenue building,
formerly used by Foust Textiles as
a warchouse, was given as a
matching grant to the Kings
Mountain Little Theatre.
Plonk envisions that the histori-
cal area of the city will again be a
center of business, culture and a
variety of services and believes
Cable customers
will see little change
Local cable customers can €x-
pect little change from the new
federal law passed this week to
regulate rates for cable TV sub-
scribers.
Margaret Wilkins, marketing
manager for Jones Intercable
which serves 8,000 subscribers in
the Kings Mountain and
Cherryville area, said the new law
may slow down rate increascs in
the industry.
"It's business as usual,” said
Manager Rob Bridges.
President Bush's veto of the bill
to regulate rates was overridden by
the Congress Monday night.
"It just happened and we foresce
little change at this point,” said
Wilkins. "Bills will probably stay
the same."
that property values and business
uptown will be enhanced as plans
and projections become a reality.
Grigg sees the gift as a lifetime
dream of the 50-year-old theater
group which was reorganized in
1969. "We were given the building
and now must show that the citi-
zens of Kings Mountain will sup-
port this endeavor by matching the
gift," said Grigg.
Fund raising for the first phase
to match the $40,400 grant will be-
gin shortly. The second phase
could cost between $100,000-
$150,000 and will be undertaken,
said Grigg, after exact figures for
the renovation can be obtained fol-
lowing architectural design and es-
timates of cost.
Grigg says the Little Theatre
wants to restore the building as
close to its original form as possi-
People
Kings Mountain Board of
Education is looking at a new
makeup of the board to fairly rep-
resent the population.
Supt. Dr. Bob McRae said the
board will probably call for a pub-
lic hearing at its Monday night
_meeting on a proposal to seek leg-
islation to make one of the current -
inside-city seats on the board an at-
large position effective with the
next board election in November
1993.
If local people approve the plan
at a public hearing probably in
November, McRae said a local
legislator will be asked to intro-
duce a bill in the next session of
Kings Mountain, N.C
——————
the N.C. General Assembly to
make the change.
McRae said this would mean
that voters in 1993 would be filling
three seats--two outside and one at-
large. ;
Terms of board chairman Ronnie
Hawkins and Rev. Billy Houze,
representing outside district pa-
trons, and Priscilla Mauney, repre-
senting inside district patrons, are
up in 1993. Mrs. Mauney could run
for reelection to the at-large posi-
tion on the board.
"As the population has shifted
more people live outside the city
limits than inside but if the city an-
nexes in the future the reverse
ay chan
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could be true,” said McRae, ex-
plaining the board's thinking which
surfaced again at the recent retreat
of board members in Boone.
"We believe the new makeup
would best fairly represent the pop-
ulation over a long range of time, "
he said.
At Monday night's meeting at
7:30 the board will also formalize
goals it discussed at the Advance
and consider formal approval of
the new state mandated perfor-
mance based accountability pro-
gram in which each school must
develop goals and the system itself
develop goals.
Small crowds attend Mountaineer Day celebration
Mountaineer Day Saturday drew
one of its smallest crowds in recent
years.
A police spokesman estimated
that 500-600 people attended the
day-long events topped off by fire-
works and a street dance.
One of the most popular events
was a car show which drew a vari-
ety of makes and models.
A handful of exhibitors showed
off Christmas yard decorations,
decorated shirts, crafts, and jewel-
ry. Clowns painted faces of chil-
dren. Barbecued chicken cooked
on the street’ drew the lunch and
supper crowd but a church conces-
sion booth featuring homemade hot
dogs also drew hungry families as
well as several other concession
booths set up in the downtown
area.
The newly-remodeled Plonk's
General Store drew visitors as well
“as the newly-opened Angie's
Etceteras in the old KM Farm
Center building. Several merchants
offered street sales, including
Sagesport and = McGinnis
Department Store.
Petition drive underway
GROVER - A petition seeking 2 -
referendum on th
beer
effort 12 years, ago said she and
others in the community will start
the petition effort again in an effort
to draw a major food chain to the
Grover area.
"Since beer and wine can be
ble but to make it as comfortable
and up-to- date as possible. The
building will be handicapped ac-
cessible and seat between 200-250
people.
The Dixie was built as a motion
picture house and opened by the
Cash brothers, David and Charlie,
at a cost of $35,000 in November
1935. Four years before opening
the New Dixie, David Cash had
operated the Imperial Theatre, then
located across from Griffin Drug
Store.
Pat Neisler Plonk and David
Cash's daughter, Betty Cash
Mitchell, were school mates and as
children attended the New Dixie.
The 591 leather seats were uphol-
stered in maroon leather and as
comfortable as a parlor chair. The
See Theater, 10-A
y+ Bought just outside thetown limits
e package sale’'of
et oe
we want to tell those looking at
g p
of a grocery store in the area.
"If you go out and get 60 percent
of the registered voters on a peti-
tion and come back with them to
Council we will look it as a red
ood store in town that
: Nr rd
‘Merchants reported a brisk busi-
ness," said Recreation Director
David Hancock.
Shriners Thursday called off the
jail-a-thon because of scheduling
conflicts.
The sponsoring Parks &
Recreation: Department had origi-
nally scheduled Mountaineer Day
for September 26 so it would not
conflict with the big Cleveland
County Fair. Kings Mountain peo-
ple apparently joined the crowds
at the fair Saturday. Traffic was
lined up for miles at entrances to
the fairground. :
Hancock said he was pleased
with the turnout Saturday. Food
vendors sold out, he said, and en-
tertainmenta provided a variety of
crowd-pleasers. The Ectcetra Band
from Kings Mountain High School
was a hit with the crowd and other
popular groups were gospel, coun-
try and The Ordinaries.
"We felt good about it," said
Hancock.
for beer, wine in Grover
flag that means that people want
beer and wine," said Mayor Ronald
Queen. The may
has thejres] i
So
200 vote in a general election, said
Queen, who said that voter turnout
is usually light.
or said the board
ility of calling an
me 350-plus voters live with-
in the city limits but only about
© A town ordinance passed in
1975 does not permit the sale of
- malt beverages in the corporate
cause they came from people living
outside the corporate limits, " said
Queen, who sat on the board at that
See Grover, 5-A
Jeff Grigg, right, president of Kings Mountain Little Theatre, accepts the gift of a building for the new
home of the Little Theatre from John and Pat Plonk, owners of the old Dixie property on Railroad
Avenue.
ck
i }
4
CHARLIE HARRY
Positive thinking, life's philosophy for Harry
By ELIZABETH STEWART
of The Herald Staff :
Charlie Harry doesn't dwell on
bad times. He thinks positively and
credits God's direction for his atti-
tude. He calls minor problems
"hiccups" and has ncver considered
something he could not do.
Grover Industrics' chief exccu-
tive and Cleveland County com-
missioner is the cpitome of
courage. Many of his cmployces
tell stories of how he helped them
overcome obstacles.
His sister, Jean Harry Francis,
says her brother is modest about
how he helps others but that he has
always been generous, not only
providing a helping hand in the
form of money for a ncedy situa-
tion but also as a listening friend.
"We never know for a couple of
ycars when someone writes and
thanks Charlie for helping them get
through a bad time," said Francis.
'He always docs things like that
and keeps quict about it." ;
It was Junc 1952 and Harry, 15
1/2, had just finished the 9th grade
at Blacksburg High School. He was
a strapping six feet onc inches tall
and weighed 195 pounds. Four
years before, he followed his fa-
ther, C.F. Harry Jr. and his grandfla-
ther, C. E Harry Sr, in the family
owned Minette Mill and got his
first job in the dye house.
Big and tall for his age, the
teenager could run errands and
load and empty dye carriers as well
and as fast as the adults. Cap Harry
had founded the only mill in
Grover in 1919 and many of the
residents of the small town worked
in the mill. Charlic was on a first
name basis with them and today it's
the same at the much larger Grover
Industrics which was founded by
the Harrys in 1963 after the parent
company was sold.
Charlic's life was put on hold
when polio hit Cleveland County
that summer of '52. He was diag-
nosed with the disease by Dr. Tom
Campbell at Kings Mountain
Hospital after he was rushed there
in an ambulance on June 22, 1952.
From June until the next January
the teenager lost 100 pounds and
was in and out of hospitals, at
Asheville Orthopedic Hospital,
Warm Springs, GA, and at Duke
Hospital where he was diagnosed
with an unusual kidney related
problem and doctors sent him
home with little hope. for survival.
As it turncd out, Harry's problem
was two huge stones in ¢¢ bladder
and after surgery he went back to
Warm Springs, again in a Cadillac
See Harry, 9-A
i