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VOL. 105 NO. 11
Thursday, March 18, 1993
If winter comes can spring be far behind?
That's what Kings Mountain citizens were wonder-
ing aloud this week after a 4 1/2 inch snowfall left
most roads impassable Saturday, closed churches on
Sunday and schools on Monday but resulted in no
damage but some isolated power outages.
The wintry blast, one week before the start of
spring, caused little convenience to Kings Mountain
residents but in a wide area of the state and country
folks were still digging out from one of the most
powerful winter storms in recorded history.
The calm after the storm was windy and’ bitterly
cold.
Residents of the Oak View Community outside the
Hall of Fame
tickets on sale
Tickets for the sixth annual
Chamber of Commerce Hall of
Fame banquet are on sale at the
Chamber office, the Herald,
McGinnis Department Store,
Carolina State Bank and by all
members of the Hall of Fame se-
lection committee.
Tickets are $10 each which in-
cludes the induction ceremony and
a meal catered by Town and
Country Barbecue.
The banquet is set for Monday,
March 29 at 7 p.m. at the
Community Center. Mickey
Marvin, former All-Pro guard with
the Oakland Raiders, will be the
guest speaker.
The inductees include the 1945
KMHS men's basketball team, the
late Coman Falls, former Florida
State All-American baseball player
Richard Gold, and short track rac-
ing star Freddy Smith. Steve
Moffiu, wrestling coach at KMHS,
will receive the Special
Achievement Award for coaching
his teams to three straight Western
N.C. championships.
Mearl Valentine is chairman of
the Hall of Fame and promises that
this year's banquet will be one of
the best ever.
Jay Rhodes of Carolina State
Bank will be master of ceremonies.
Video tapes of all past Hall of
Fame banquets are available to the
public at Mauney Memorial
Library.
city were without power from 5 p.m. Saturday until 2
p.m. Sunday, according to Ralph Sparrow, pastor of
Oak View Baptist Church. In some sections of the
city power was off up to two hours.
Local weatherman Kenneth Kitzmiller said. the
storm dumped the largest amount of snow in years on
Cleveland County but disagrees with some media
people reporting it as "the blizzard of the century."
The weather watcher agrees that the storm packed "a
lot of wind” but says it isn't unusual for thunder to
accompany snow storms. "That can result from the
warm air and the moist air getting together," said
Kitzmiller, who said he saw few drifts in this area but
noted the storm, which ravaged the Gulf Coast to
Hugo.
"No one believed the weather forecasters and went
ahead with plans and some got snow bound," said
Kitzmiller.
Pine trees toppling over electric lines were
Utility Director Jimmy
Maney said Kings Mountain is lucky. "All the tree
trimming that has been done in the past six months
blamed for the outages.
paid off," said Maney.
Crews were on the street at S a.m. Saturday morn-
ing. One pine tree on a line in the Linwood section
took a complete circuit out and falling trees tore ser-
Kings Mount...
Maine, docsn't compare, in his opinion, to Hurricane
Maney said.
erated smoothly.
es. "We couldn't repair ou
tomer lines were down and
86 +35¢
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1e cus-
» wual 100k time,"
Maney said the city substations and equipment op-
Public Works Supt. Karl Moss agreed with Maney
that citizen cooperation was excellent. Street crews
started scraping streets around 4 p.m. Saturday and
started applying salt after midnight. He said 15 peo-
ple in the street department worked around the clock
vice away from houses and jerked the lines off hous-
Photo by LeighAnne Newton
Young Caleb Beach saw his first big snowfall Saturday, and like most young boys with four-wheelers, he
had to get out in it and see how far his wheels would take him. The 4 1/2-inches snow bogged him down
before he got out of his yard. No problem - he had a lot of time on his hands and many other toys and to
keep him busy.
Grover to vote on beer and wine sales
Grover voters will go to the
polls on June 1 in a beer and wine
referendum.
Cleveland County Board of
Elections officials scheduled the
referendum last week after receiv-
ing a petition signed by 142 of
Grover's 349 registered voters.
Juanita Pruette, a former Council
Jean Bolin McAbee takes her
clowning ministry everywhere. In
her green wig, green eyelashes and
hammer pants the funny clown is
the perfect complement to the sad
hobo personified by her husband,
Kenny McAbee.
They mime before church
groups, senior citizens, and birth-
day parties and enthusiastically
share the message of Jesus Christ.
Ms. Jean doesn't clown around
when she talks about a second
love, the Crisis Pregnancy Center
of Cleveland County where she has
volunteered for a year and is the
support coordinator.
The doting mother and grand-
mother couldn't go to the mission
fields, so she does the next best
thing. She witnesses to the saving
grace of God at home.
McAbee says the seven year
Crisis Pregnancy Center is virtual-
ly new to the Greater Kings
Mountain area. The Christian min-
istry is located at 232 S. Lafayette
Street in Shelby and operates a 24-
hour hot line. The number is 487-
HELP.
McAbee counsels pregnant fc-
males 12-51. In addition, the
Center offers free pregnancy LCsts,
maternity clothes, baby clothes and
furniture to the needy, Bibles, rc-
eRe
Jean The Clown big support
for pregnant women in crisis
i rae SR Or epep °F
member, led the petition effort
which required at least 35 percent
of registered voters to sign within a
three month period. She submitted
the petition March 2, two days be-
fore the deadline.
Pruette said that proponents for
the sale of beer and wine in Grover
tried to pass a similar referendum
ferrals to adoption agencies and re-
ligious tracts. It is operated by a
six-member volunteer board of di-
rectors and funded by local contri-
butions from individuals and
churches. Benni Wright is the full
time director. McAbee went on the
staff part time recently. One of her
services is to visit local churches
and let them know about the pro-
gram and also to invite financial
support from churches and individ-
uals.
McAbee became sold on the
program after hearing a presenta-
tion on Sanctity of Home Life
Sunday last year at Second Baptist
Church.
The heart of the clown was al-
most broken recently when a 12-
year-old Kings Mountain girl un-
derwent an abortion. In North
Carolina a 12-ycar-old can havc an
abortion at any stage of pregnancy,
says McAbce, and parental signa-
ture is not required. She decries
laws that requirc parental signa-
tures for car piercing and not for an
abortion.
"I try to give emotional and
spiritual support as well as the
medical facts about pregnancy and
abortion," said McAbcc, who is
solidly against abortion. Shc was in
See Clown, 5-A
© eT
12 years ago. The referendum
failed by 68 votes.
"We didn't have very many who
didn't sign it," said Pruette, who
wants to see the referendum pass
so Grover can benefit from taxes
on beer and wine sales. A conve-
nience store with beer and wine is
within walking distance of Grover
just across the South Carolina state
line. ¢
Local investors did at a cent
town board meetinjg that asnajor
food chain and bank are looking at
the area with an eye to locating in
Grover. The big question asked by
executives is whether or not beer
and wine can be sold.
Jean McAbee, in her colorful clown costume, entertains Jeffrey
Howell, seated, and friends at a Mickey Mouse birthday party.
and also assisted the eight electrical workers in mov-
ing fallen limbs. City workers also transported scv-
eral nurses to the hospital.
See Snow, 6-A
Elections Board
to hear appeals
The Cleveland County Board of
Elections will conduct a public
hearing Wednesday, March 24, on
the November 3 county commis-
sioner's race involving appeals by
Sam Gold and Charlie Harry.
The hearing will be held at 9
a.m. in Commissioner's Chambers
in the new Administrative Building
on Marion Street in Shelby.
Election officials say the purpose
of the hearing is to find facts and
make conclusions of law in regard
to the request by Harry for a spe-
cial recount.
During the hearing both sides in
the dispute will present evidence,
testimonies and legal arguments to
support their contentions. All testi-
mony will be under oath and offi-
cially recorded by a court reporter.
After the hearing the board will
determine the meaning of the State
Board's order of December 17,
1992 to examine the ballots to a
"reasonable extent." Once deter-
mined, the hearing will recess to
the Board of Elections Office
where the members of the board
will examine the ballots.
After the examination of the bal-
lots, the board will enter into exec-
utive session to find the facts and
to make conclusions of law, ac-
cording to a letter from Chairman
Dr. Tony Eastman to the media and
persons interested and involved in
the controversy.
Its findings will be announced
in open session. The county attor-
ney will write a report to the state
board.
Once the report from the hearing
is sent to Raleigh, the county will
play no role in deciding the elec-
tion, said county attorney Robert
Yelton.
See Complaint, 5-A
Commissioners
fire attorney
Cleveland County commission-
ers went behind closed doors
Monday without their attomey and
came out 45 minutes later and fired
him by 3-1 vote.
Bob Yelton, 50, had served as
the county attorney for 17 years.
Commissioner Joyce Cashion
voted to keep Yelton and
Commissioner Charlie Harry, who
had left the meeting, later said he
would have voted against the fir-
ing.
Voting to fire Yelton were new
chairman Cecil Dickson, new com-
missioner E. T, Vanhoy and Ralph
Gilbert.
The commissioners named
Shelby attorney Julian Wray of the
firm of Church, Paksoy & Wray as
interim county attorney.
Vice Chairman Cashion said
Wednesday that Yelton may or may
not choose to continue in his posi-
tion as the attorney handling the
controversial elections dispute be-
tween Harry and Sam Gold for
which the hearing is slated March
24. Cashion said she hoped that
Yelton would continue.
His firing was no surprise to
Yelton who read a three page pre-
pared statement after the board's
vote in open session.
"Even though no one likes to be
fired from any position, I fully re-
alize that the position of county at-
torney is a political position,”
Yelton said. "I realize that I first
got the position because of politics
and I always knew that some day 1
See Fired, 6-A
Dickson heads CC commissioners
Cleveland County commission-
ers have elected freshman com-
missioner Cecil Dickson of Shelby
as new chairman and Joyce
Cashion of Kings Mountain as
vice-chairman.
It was the first of three split
votes by the board Monday.
Dickson, Cashion and Charlie
Harry provided the votes for the
new leadership. Commissioners
E.T. Vanhoy, the top votegetier in
the 1992 general election, and
Ralph Gilbert voted against the
nominations of both Dickson and
Cashion. There were no other nom-
inces and there was no discussion.
The vote, usually held at the
board's first meeting in December,
had been delayed by the ongoing
election dispute between incum-
bent Harry and apparent commis-
sioner-clect Sam Gold. Harry con-
tinues to serve while election
officials decide who to certify as
the third 1992 commissioner.
Vanhoy and Gilbert, who had
voted together in opposition to the
elected officers, split over who
would serve as the commissioner's
representative on the county board
of health. Vanhoy won the appoint-
ment on another 3-2 vote, this time
getting support from Cashion,
Harry and himself. Gilbert, who
was also nominated for the posi-
See Dickson, 5-A
Harris-Teeter robbed Sunday night
Kings Mountain police arc in-
vestigating the armed robbery of a
Harris-Tecter employee Sunday
night as he closed the East King
Street store about 7:30 p.m.
Det. Lt. Richard Reynolds said
that the employee was locking up
when three black males grabbed
him and forced him inside the store
building. The man was forced to
open a safe and to turn over his car
keys before the men tied him up
and left him in the store. After
about two hours, the clerk freed
himself and called police.
The three robbers were all
armed, according to the victim,
who said he was not harmed
Suspect No. 1 was described as a
black male six feet tall weighing
160 pound and wearing a burgundy
ski mask, burgundy nylon jacket
and blue jeans and carrying a
chrome colored pistol. The second
suspect was described as a black
male 6 feet tall and weighing about
160 pounds and wearing a dark
colored ski mask, dark clothes and
armed with a revolver. The third
suspect was described as a black
male five feet eight inches tall
weighing about 160 pounds and
wearing dark colored clothes and a
ski mask and carrying a hand gun,
See Robbery, 5-A
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