VOL. 106 NO. 4
Bloodmobile Thursday at
First Wesleyan Church
i
Thursday, January 26, 1994
Council denies
City Council balked at Mayor
Scott Neisler's recommendation
Tuesday that the city hire an out-
of-town professional to do a man-
agement study and the mayor was
noticeably miffed.
"That's our job," said
Councilman Ralph Grindstaff. "I
make the motion we do our own
study."
need outside intervention. No on
on this board is an expert," object-
ed Neisler.
Adding to the tiff, Councilman
Jim Guyton said the most recent
pay plan in 1988 "missed the
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Kings Mountain, NC 28086 50¢
Council tables water rate increase
"I'm against it, I'm sorry. We
‘expert’ out of town consultant
mark." He called it "lopsided work
by professionals."
Guyton questioned the number
of city employees today compared
with 1988.
City Manager George Wood said
the last pay plan has changed
somewhat with several positions
state mandated at the pre-treatment
plant, for instance. He said some
jobs were deleted by contracted
services and the transfer station at
Public Works was not built when
the pay plan was implemented.
Councilman Rick Murphey
agreed with Grindstaff. " OQ ur
Department heads like Walt Ollis
at Water/Sewer can do the same
job as a management team and it
won't cost the city a penny more."
"Tell your Department heads to
sit down with their guys and see
where we can cut expenses.”
Councilman Phil Hager inter-
jected, "The motion dies for lack of
a second.”
"I second the motion
Murphey.
The Mayor ended the discussion
by calling for a vote.
Councilman Norma Bridges,
who did not comment during the
discussion, cast the only dissenting
vote,
," said
Cashion
running
ior seat
Kings Mountain grocer Joyce
Falls Cashion filed for reelection
Monday to the Cleveland County
Board of Commissioners.
Cashion, the first woman ever to
be elected to the board, has served
10 years.
"I will
4 be happy to con-
people tof
Cleveland
County," said
Cashion, who
said she had
seen the county
move ahead in
AE many areas over
CASHION the years.
Cashion serves as chairman of
the Department of Social Services,
is on the Mental Health board and
on the board of Cleveland
Community College. A former
chairman of the Cleveland County
Democratic party, she was the first
woman ever elected to that posi-
tion. :
She is married to Bill Cashion
and they have two children, Becky
Bumgardner of Kings Mountain
and Bill Cashion Jr. of Shelby; and
two grandchildren, Beth and Mike
Bumgardner, students in the Kings
Mountain District Schools.
A Kings Mountain native,
Cashion is the daughter of Mrs.
Craig Falls and the late Mr. Falls.
She is a partner in the family busi-
ness, Falls Superette on York Road.
The announcement by Cashion
brings to two the number of
Democrats seeking two seats up for
grabs on the county board in
“November. Jerry Adams of Shelby
" filed for one of the seats recently.
The other incumbent, Ralph
Gilbert, also a Democrat, has not
announced his plans for reelection
but is expected to run again.
NAACP sues
A suit was filed Monday in U.S.
District Court in Charlotte by the
NAACP and Kings Mountain min-
ister Rev. M. L. Campbell that
could require the county to follow
the federal Voting Rights Act.
The suit seeks an injunction
. against the Cleveland County
Board of Elections and the
Cleveland County Board of
Commissioners and was filed by
the Greensboro law firm of Patton,
Boggs and Blow.
Marshall Hurley, of the law firm,
said the heart of the matter is an ef-
fort by the NAACP to make sure
that the county is fair and in com-
pliance with the Voting Rights Act
and is not an attempt to block the
upcoming May primary.
But Campbell said if an injunc-
tion is granted by a federal judge
that "this is possible unless county
tinue serving the
Kings Mountain City Council Tuesday ignored the
mayor's plea to "bite the bullet" and refused to raise
water/sewer rates to industry 9 percent to balance the
budget.
On Councilmen Ralph Grindstaff and Rick
Murphey's motions, the board voted 7-0 to table action
until a special budget meeting at which Murphey sug-
gested they look at job positions with an eye to cutting
costs and spending and minimizing utility increases.
"When there's a shortfall the first things we think of
is increasing rates or raising taxes," he said. "I under-
stand where you're coming from, Mayor, but I think
the rate hike to industry is unjustified."
Murphey, Vice-President of Sales at Spectrum, one
of the city's biggest industry and water user, said, "I
have mixed feelings but this money is coming from
taxpayers’ pockets."
Murphey said the city has increased water/sewer
costs to citizens 20 percent in the last three years.
Murphey said Kings Mountain upped rates 12 per-
cent in 1991; 17 percent in 1992 and 18.7 percent in
1993.
"All businesses are facing cutbacks and we need to
take a hard look at every job, every associate's job in
the city and be sure that the employee is running his
job efficiently."
Murphey said two big industrial users, Spectrum
and Dye Tech, will increase their usage in the last half
of the year. "That will help," he said.
But City Manager George Wood said the city has a
$118,000 deficit in the water/sewer fund for the first
half of this year and this fund continues to be the ma-
jor problem in the city's overall budget because of de-
creased usage.
Wood estimated that the board's delay in putting
new increases into effect will cost the city $20,000 a
month. y
Grindstaff, in his motion, asked that a special meet-
ing be called soon to review the budget and make the
cuts to keep from increasing rates.
See Increase, 2-A
Council tables appointment
of Lake Commission member
county boards
Wilson Griffin, right, the retiring chairman of the Planning and Zoning Board, receives a city plaque
from Mayor Scott Neisler. Griffin has served on the board since its inception in 1966.
City Council honors Wilson Griffin
For over a quarter century E. Wilson Griffin Jr. di-
rected the activities of the Rr Mountain Planning
and Zoning Board.
The first secretary of the boird in 1966 when the
first zoning and sub-division regulations were pre-
pared for codification by the City of Kings Mountain
was honored on his retirement Tuesday with a resolu-
tion of appreciation.
Mayor Scott Neisler presented the framed certificate
to the retired druggist and former owner/manager of
Griffin Drug Store, at Tuesday's City Council meeting.
The mayor cited Griffin for distinguished public ser-
vice and for "dedicated and conscientious service
which greatly contributed to the orderly growth and
progress for the citizens of Kings Mountain."
Griffin presided at his last monthly meeting of the
Planning Board in December.
Several rezoning requests were on the agenda for
Tuesday's meeting and considered by Council after a
public hearing.
The board unanimously denied, on recommendation
of the Planning Board, a request by Joe Edmunds to
amend the zoning map. The Planning Board said that
to rezone only one lot creating an island of R-8 in the
middle of an R-10 district would be a clear-cut case of
- spot zoning, and therefore illegal. The Edmunds prop-
erty is located at 502 S. Cansler Street. Edmunds asked
that his property be rezoned from single ii to two-
family residential.
Jerri Werner spoke for a dozen property onpers op-
posing the rezoning in the Crescent Hill neighborhood.
Werner said that Crescent Hill is one of the more desir-
able housing locations in town with all single family
residences. "Rezoning of this property in my back yard
would devalue property and change the character of
our neighborhood."
Councilman Phil Hager said multi-family housing
disrupts neighborhoods. "I hope that every City
Council will turn down such rezoning requests."
The board approved a request from Rodney Brown
for rezoning west of Oak Grove Road from the Service
Road at the Highway 74 By-Pass from R-20 to G-B, to
permit commercial usage adjacent to his property, an
area over four acres which the Planning Board said
would not constitute spot zoning. The property is in
front of the Scism Body Shop which is zoned industri-
ally.
The board set February 22 at 7:30 p.m. for a public
hearing for four zoning matters and referred the re-
quests to the Planning Board for recommendations at
its Thursday night meeting.
See Griffin, 2-A
Kings Mountain People
A proposal by Moss Lake resi-
dent Bob Conlon that a lake resi-
dent sit on the Moss Lake
Commission drew mixed reaction
from Kings Mountain City
Council Tuesday.
Councilman Ralph Grindstaff,
stating his opposition, said Council
would be setting a precedent to
permit out-of-city residents a
voice on city boards.
Councilman Dean Spears sug-
gested that a Kings Mountain busi-
nessman who lived on the lake
would be a good choice for the one
vacancy on the seven member
board.
Councilman Rick Murphey
made the motion to table the ap-
pointment until the next meeting
and after the Moss Lake
Commission takes action. Moss
Lake Commission submitted a
name to Council Tuesday for the
one-year appointment.
Conlon, who has attended sever-
al Moss Lake Commission meet-
ings recently to update his con-
cerns at the lake, charged that
Moss Lake Commission members
are not aware of some of the prob-
lems on the lake that a resident of
the lake on that board could ad-
dress.
"The rules say no livestock and
there arc cows grazing on the lake,
a tree is about to fall in one area of
the lake and the purity of the water
is my r:al concern with a landfill
the size of eight football fields a
half mil: west of the lake.
"This is a beautiful lake and we
need to keep it beautiful,” said
Conlon.
"Appoint a lake resident to the
Lake Commission to give some
guidance to some things that need
to be done," he said.
City Manager George Wood said
that five monitoring wells serve the
area and some of the problems re-
ferred by Conlon are natural out-
croppings and not a new situation.
"We do have buoy markers and if
we have missed one the lake patrol
will take a closer look," he said.
"I'm not minimizing his concerns
but improvements have been done
with the lowering of the lake," said
Wood.
Conlon left pictures of several
areas at the lake he wants the city
to look at with an eye toward im-
provements.
Conlon has resided on the city-
owned lake two years.
In other actions, Council;
Ml Adopted a policy that exempts
small architectural, engineering
and surveying jobs less than
$30,000 from the lengthy process
of announcement, review of quali-
fications without regard to fee, and
selection followed by negotiations
of fees, but the policy must be in
writing. Council also looked at a
resolution that follows the state
statutes which allows City Council
to exempt larger projects if there *
exists sufficient reasons. Wood
said that projects exceeding
$30,000 would come before
Council for action.
Wood made the recommendation
for adoption, saying that Council
and staff could spend an inordinate
amount of time reviewing qualifi-
cations and selecting engingers,
when the small project wouldn't
justify it.
BW Accepted the audit report with
recommendations by City Auditor
Darrell Keller.
MW Authorized the write off of
$84,474.83 in bad debts or approx-
imately .56 percent of the
$15,029,777 utility revenue billed
by the City of Kings Mountain for
the 1992-93 fiscal year. Assistant
Finance Director Maxine Parsons,
in a memorandum to the board,
said that the 1992-93 bad debt
write off in property taxes was
$8,171.56. This is approximately
.89 percent of the total $919,500
property tax revenue for the 1992-
93 fiscal year.
Wood said that utility accounts
can be legally collected up to three
years after the due date. Personal
property taxes can be collected up
to five years from the due date.
Real property taxes can be collect-
ed up to 10 years after the due
See Resident, 9-A
commissioners are able to adjust
matters that blacks can be propor-
tionately represented on the
board."
Campbell said the hearing, hope-
fully will be scheduled prior to
February 7, the deadline for filing
for state and local political offices.
"We are asking the judge for a
plan that can be perfected that will
assure that blacks will be fairly
represented,” said Campbell.
Campbell said that three of the
five present county commissioners
had twice turned down a districting
plan which a former board had
agree should be forwarded to the
U.S. Justice Department.
He said that Commissioners
Joyce Cashion and Ralph Gilbert
approved the 1993 districting plan
but Commissioners Cecil Dickson,
See Lawsuit, 7-A
STELLA WARE
Retirement took Stella Ware out
of the school kitchen but not from
her love of cooking.
The veteran 30-year employee
of the Food Service Department of
Kings Mountain District Schools
may have hung up her apron at
school but not at home.
Stella and her husband, Buford,
remodeled their country blue
kitchen recently and added on a big
family room to accommodate their
big family.
"Waresville" on Oak Grove
Road is the affectionate name
Stella has for the community that
houses most of the Ware family
which numbers at least 75 people
When the family gathers on
Fhanksgiving, the crowd reaches
Stella Ware enjoying retirement
100 and Stella Ware says she loves
it. Before she married into the
Ware clan she came from a small
family.
"The Wares are a close-knit fam-
ily who are there for each other.”
said the former Stella Davis of
Gastonia.
Her first paying job in Kings
Mountain as a young bride was at
Kings Mountain Drug Company
where she got her start in the food
business as a soda jerk preparing
milkshakes for customers. Before
that, her introduction into fast
foods was running a hot dog stand
near Gastonia High School. She
said she also worked summer jobs
at Belk Department Store
In 1953 her husband came home
from a meeting of Bethware
Progressive Club and reported that
then-Principal John Rudisill was
looking for someone to manage the
cafeteria at Bethware School.
Stella applied for the job and the
rest is history. She stayed in Food
Service 30 years. was out. for a
while to have her children | and
then went back to work in 1960 at
Bethware School when R. G.
Franklin was principal. In 1965 she
helped open the cafeteria at the
new Kings Mountain High School,
“I thought the grass was a litle
greener and 1 left in 1973 and
worked at Shelby Junior High until
1986." said Stella, In 1986. she re-
See Ware, 10-A
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