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KMHS principal named
Distinguished Woman
5-A
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Baseball
season fo op~"
VOL. 106 NO. 11
Maxine Parsons, 43, Assistant
Finance Officer and Assistant City
Clerk, was appointed Interim City
Manager Tuesday night by a 4-3
vote of Kings Mountain City
Council.
The action came at.9:15 p.m. af-
ter the board, split on their choice
for an interim manager to serve in
the manager's job being vacated by
George Wood, went behind closed
doors for over an hour.
Councilman Phil Hager made
the = motion, seconded by
Councilwoman Norma Bridges,
that the board appoint Joe
Council says
bye to George
Kings Mountain city fathers
said goodbye to City Manager
George A. Wood Tuesday and hon-
ored him with engraved plaquzs
and a resolution of "distinguished
service."
"I don't look forward to this item
on the agenda,” said Mayor Scott
Neisler, who asked for a formal
vote on the manager's resignation.
Councilwoman Norma Bridges
and Councilman Phil Hager pub-
licly thanked Wood for his service
to the city and made the motions
"with regret."
"I want the citizens to know that
we had a lot of inadequacies when
- George Wood came on the job six
years ago," said Hager.
Hager said Wood's "careful plan-
ning assured future growth" and he
hopes that Wood's direction will
continue. A ii hk
ok
Hager said he had more to say
See Wood, 13-A
Hendrick of Shelby as interim
manager.
Hendrick, who cut his teeth on
city government as City Clerk-
Treasurer in Kings Mountain in the
1950's, has retired as county man-
ager and more recently as Director
of the Cleveland County office of
Economic Development.
Commissioner Jim Guyton voted
for Hendrick.
Voting against Hendrick and vot-
ing for Parsons were
Commissioners Ralph Grindstaff
and Rick Murphrey who made the
motions and joined
by!
Thursday, March 17, 1994
Commissioners Jerry White and
Dean Spears in supporting Parsons.
There was no open discussion.
Parsons said after the meeting
that she was shocked to get the
promotion. She said she looks for-
ward to working with Department
heads and Council in the budget
preparations and other business of
the city.
Mayor Scott Neisler congratulat-
ed Parsons after the meeting and
scheduled a meeting with her and
Wood Wednesday morning after an
early-morning meeting of depart-
ment heads.
Parsons said she had planned to
attend a meeting in Raleigh
Wednesday but would postpone it
to work closely with Wood until he
leages the office Monday.
Parsons, of Boiling Springs,
holds an undergraduate degree in
Business from Gardner-Webb
University and completed last
December graduate work at
Winthrop University where she
earned her MBA degree. »
She joined the city finance staff
in October 1989. Her immediate
supervisor has been Finance
Director Jeff Rosencrans.
oun
Tennessee.
anager George V
Neisler. Wood is leaving the city Monday
Kings Mountain Board of
Education sent a message to teach-
ers and principals Monday that
they expect results of performance
on all state measures of student
achievements to be at or above the
North Carolina average.
"That's our number one board
goal this year and it's time to be
blunt,” said board member Ronnie
Hawkins at the regular March
meeting. 0 Hawkins said
that it's time that the system evalu-
ate teachers in terms of what they
are doing in the classroom before
giving tenure. :
"We don't want to be strong
arms but I'm strong on this busi-
ness of tenure," said Hawkins.
"When we give tenure we give
Tougher evaluations planned
teachers a job of a lifetime."
Rev. Billy Houze said he agreed
with Hawkins and added that those
who need remediation sho'ld be
given that opportunity. .
Supt. Bob McRae said that with
all the data available to the schools
today that it's easier to evaluate but
he warned that "We don't need to
try to explain away the numbers on
the test scores we get."
McRae said that achievement
test scores go up and down like a
roller coaster. "We need to look at
those test scores every year and if
we believe that all kids can learn
we can improve."
Both Houze and Hawkins said
that consistency is needed but that
See Evaluation, 12-A
Four to be inducted
into Sports Hall of Fame |
The seventh annual Kings
Mountain Sports Hall of Fame ban-
quet will be held Monday, April 18
at 7 p.m. at the Kings Mountain
Community Center.
This year's inductees include
Zeb Plonk, Grace Page, Jimmy
Littlejohn and the 1955 KMHS
football team.
The Special Achievement Award
for accomplishments during the
calendar year of 1993 will be given
to the KMHS men's swimming and
baseball teams for winning the
state championship.
Guest speaker will be Jeff
Mullins, former Duke All-
* American and current men's bas-
ketball coach at the University of
North Carolina at Charlotte.
Tickets are $10 and will be on
sale soon at various locations
around town. Tickets will also be
available at the door. ;
This year's list of inductees pre-
sent a variety of talents and contri-
butions to the community.
Zeb Plonk was a three-sport ath-
lete in the early days of Kings
Mountain High athletics. He
played football, basketball and
baseball for the Mountaineers from
1923-26 and played football and
baseball at N.C. State College from
1927-30. :
Grace Page played basketball for
KMHS in an era when basketball
was the only sport offered for girls.
But she gained her athletic fame as
an outdoorsman, twice winning the
North Carolina State Skeet
Shooting championship and com-,
peting in the National
Championship.
Jimmy Littlejohn is being recog-
nized for 34 years of service as a
volunteer coach in the Kings
Mountain Pop Warner football pro-
gram. He also served as a volunteer
coach in the city's youth basketball
league for 30 years and is also the
athletic officer for the Kings
Mountain American Legion base-
ball team.
The 1955 football team, coached
See Fame, 13-A
"
A 9.8 increase in current expens-
es or $1.97 million will be sought
by Kings Mountain District
Schools from Cleveland County
commissioners in the preliminary
budget which the Board of
Education received Monday night
from Supt. Dr. Bob McRae.
A major item in the budget in-
cludes a request for $35,000 to pro-
vide a resource/police officer at the
high school/middle school, a rec-
ommendation that was made by the
new task force on school violence.
This year a city police officer has
worked three hours each day at the
high school and has supervised the
safety checks using hand-held met-
al detectors.
"This is a reasonable budget,"
said McRae, who said he would
present the budget to commission-
ers after public hearing by the
school board April 19.
Phillip Higginbotham,
ds for service from Mayor Scott
after six years to take a similar position in Cleveland,
, receives awar
~ Schools seek more money from county
There is no increase in capital
outlay requests of $281,551.
Included in the request is $40,000
for an activity bus for the high
school, $12,348 for a maintenance
cargo van; $11,000 for high school
band instruments; $13,649 for a
field house roof; and $30,000 for a
fire alarm panel at the middle
school.
A total of $40,000 fs earmarkpd
for projects at the seven schools
and District office for furniture,
painting, computers and shelving
No increase is proposed in the
supplemental tax. Last year Kings
Mountain asked the county to raise
its supplemental tax by one penny
to stop door-to-door sales by stu-
dents for special fund-raising pro-
jects.
The major increases are person-
See Budget, 12-A
Kings Mountai
Parsons interim city manager
Before coming to Kings
Mountain Parsons worked for the
State of South Carolina training
new industrial employees for
Newark Electronics, a division of
Osh Kosh Chassis in Gaffney.
She currently teaches classes in
accounting and business at
Cleveland Community College.
Parsons’ husband, Robert Thad
Parsons Jr., is Assistant Dean of
the School of Divinity at Gardner-
Webb University. They have a 12-
year-old son, Thad.
See Parsons, 14-A
The arrest of Kings Mountain
businessman Kenneth Ross
Roberts, 55, and an Iron Station
woman, Sandra Ann Shires, 33, in
a "crank" bust March 6 in Hickory
resulted in more felony charges
against Roberts by Kings Mountain
Police.
Charles Griffin, also of Kings
Mountain, was arrested for posses-
sion of marijuana by Kings
Mountain Police after officers
searched the Roberts home at 917
S. Battleground Avenue and’ the
business Roberts co-owns with his
wife, Depot Stop and Go, on North
Piedmont Avenue.
Kings Mountain Police
Detective Sgt. Billy Benton and
IRS Agent Dick Hughes seized
ria
Benton and Narcotics
Cleveland County Sheriff's
Department searched the residence.
Hickory narcotic. officers
charged Roberts and Shires with
one count each of trafficking in
methamphetamine and possession
of schedule II narcotics.
Benton charged Roberts with
possession of cocaine and posses-
sion of a firearm by a convicted
felon. Roberts was placed under
$150,000 secured bond but after a
bond hearing the bond was re-
duced and Roberts was freed on
$75,000 bond.
Shires was held in jail in lieu of
$100,000 bond.
Shires and Roberts await a prob-
able cause hearing later this month.
Benton said the combined street
value of drugs seized was more
than $55,000.
Benton said the arrests were ini-
tiated by Hickory police respond-
ing to a domestic call to a Hickory
hotel room. The Hickory Daily
Record, in a front page news story,
said "the search of the room led po-
lice to Hickory's first crank bust."
Debra Hadley, staff writer for The
Hickory Daily Record, said that
"the Hickory Police Department
and business
MAXINE PARSONS
KM businessman
faces drug charge
canine units were the first called
out to the hotel on Lenoir-Rhyne
Boulevard. Those officers called in
the department's narcotics officers
after they found a bag containing a
yellowish powder that reeked of
chemicals."
Officers said tests of that powder
showed it is methamphetamine, or
"crank" or what used to be com-
monly known as "speed," said
Benton. The Kings Mountain offi-
cer was called by Hickory police
early Sunday morning and he said
officers from Hickory, Kings
Mountain and Cleveland and
Lincoln Counties worked a
marathon 25 hours straight on
Sunday and Monday, searching not
only the hotel room but residences
in Lincoln and Cleveland Counties
ellis Ag He
ing to Benton, officers seized 4 1/2
ounces of crank, about 4 3/4
pounds of marijuana, 40 di-
azepam, one gram of cocaine, 30
firearms, numerous videotapes,
two tin cans full of ammunition
and drug paraphernalia including a
set of scales.
Benton said that Hickory police
confiscated the crank, a porno-
graphic film and a gun.
Benton said Roberts had previ-
ously been charged with possession
of seven grams of crank in Lincoln
County.
The Hickory Daily Record quot-
ed Hickory officers as saying that
"police believe that the two already
arrested are part of a loose-knit
group that bought and sold drugs
but did not manufacture them.
"It is still too early in the investi-
gation to tell if the drugs officers
found in the hotel room were des-
tined for the streets of Hickory,"
The Record quoted police. They
haven't ruled out the possibility
though.
"He, the man who was arrested,
has contacts in the city," The
Record quoted the undercover offi-
cer who worked the case.
Medical Society honors Harris
for his career contributions
Senator J. Ollie Harris of Kings
Mountain was honored Saturday
by the North Carolina Medical
Society with the "Certificate of
Career Recognition."
The prestigious award honors
his "outstanding contributions of
over two decades of service to
leadership in the North Carolina
as the Prince, and Shelby Jennings, as Snow
White, are pictured in a scene in the forest in the Little Theatre chil-
dren's play,’ Snow White," which opens Friday at the Woman's Club.
Story and more photos on page 11-A.
Senate which led to better health
for the citizens of this state."
Harris is retiring at the end of
the two-year term in 1994 after 20
years of public service. He was
first elected in the 25th Senatorial
district which included the four
county area of Cleveland, Gaston,
Rutherford and Lincoln and with
redistricting to the 37th Senatorial
District two years ago to comprise
Cleveland and Rutherford
Counties.
The Medical Society's mid-year
Symposium for present and future
leaders was held in Pinehurst.
Cleveland County residents at
the Symposium were Dr. and Mrs.
Martin Stallings and Harris of
fa » 4 A
J. OLLIE HARKIS
Kings Mountain, former Kings
Mountain resident Margaret
Jackson Woodcock. who is on the
staff of the North Carolina Medical
Society, and Dr. Reginald Harris of
Shelby.
The engraved plaque was signed
by Dr. Elizabeth Kanof, president
of the society
'