FRRRERRT
CERPIEE
3)
(TVG
ML,
eS ha WT
|
ub 5
VOL 106 NO. 42
Possible billing errors investigated
3 nib
vA x
TAL
)
ON
Le yea
Tn] .
4 ol
b I)
A a
Ga Nd “2
J
}
- Ji
¢!
(
4%
,
%
S
],
NS
I» ] \
is
NM
\ /"
}
fit 2
"0
1
O13
HH
EEEFEET
Thursday, October 20, 1994
The City of Kings Mountain
spent Powell Bill funds of
$174,999 in 1993-94 but not for
streets as was designated and will
have to repay the money to the
state over a five-year period.
"I don't think they will charge a
penalty but of course they could,"
said city auditor Darrell Keller. He
said the state will charge interest
on the $174,999.
Finance Officer Maxine Parsons
said that she verified in a letter to
the state that the cash is not on
City must pay back misused Powell Bil money
hand for the street improvements.
Keller said the city will end fis-
cal year 1993-94 at June 30 with
$16,376 cash.
The audit will reflect a negative
$374,813 in undesignated fund bal-
ance compared to $85,000 in fiscal
year 1992-93.
"We've run wild on expenditures
andborrowed from Peter to pay
Paul to pay John," said Councilman
Jim Guyton.
Keller said the city had to catch
up for overspending the budget in
prior years.
"This year the city will carry
over $314,000, compared to a $1.1
million in 1993-94, which the (ity
owed and could not pay, " said
Keller.
"Since we paid off $700,000 this
year then the following year should
show pluses instead of minuses,"
said Guyton. ]
"Hopefully you'll break even if
you continue to hold the line on
spending," said Keller.
See Repay, 12-A
——
~<aug gp RERERERE
Kings Mountain People |
An in-house audit of the City Utility Department,
which includes electric meters and billing, is under-
way, according to City Manager Chuck Nance.
Nance said that some apparent errors were discov-
ered in the process of checking an industrial cus-
tomer's bill when the demand charge was not found
plugged into the new computer system.
"This is not just one customer," said Nance, re-
sponding to what he said are unfounded rumors flying
around town that the city would be wiping out a big
bill for one small industrial user.
Nance said that the problem could go back as far as
three years.
He said the results of the audit will be turned over to
City Attorney Mickey Corry for his advice on a possi-
ble legal matter.
"If the city owes any utility customer the city will
pay," said Nance.
By FLIZABETH STEWART
of The Herald Staff
It took two years for retired
school teacher Janet Falls to finish
her book but for her and her family
"The Falls of Oaklawn" was a la-
bor of love.
The book is about the close-knit
Falls family of Kings Mountain
and a chapter is devoted to each of
the 10 children and their parents,
Alvin Price and Sarah Elizabeth
Patterson Falls.
"The setting for the book is the
grew up in the hou: et,
90, and her brother, Hugh, 79, the
last surviving siblings, reside.
The popular North School sixth
grade teacher retired in 1969 after
42 years in the public schools. She
taught in Kings Mountain 12 years
but began her career teaching
French and History in Mooresboro
and then taught in Mecklenburg
County and in Gastonia before
coming to Kings Mountain.
Miss Falls' tumble out the back
steps of her home kept her indoors
and she decided to write her book,
enlisting the help of nieces and
nephews to provide some of the
materials and help with the re-
search.
With her keen memory and at-
tention to detail, Falls has com-
piled memories of happenings
from the early years to the present.
"Our roots are special and the
book is my tribute to my beloved
family," said Janet, who said that
kinfolk laugh and cry when they
read the memories she first wrote
with pen and pencil and which
Becky Falls Scism typed on 8
1/2x11 white paper.
The attractively bound book is
easy to read and is illustrated with
pictures. On the front cover of
“The Falls of Oaklawn" by Laura
Janet Falls is a photograph of her
mother sitting on the tree-shaded
lawn. The book is dedicated to
Janet's mother.
Book was labor of love
for Janet Falls, age 90
Alvin Price Falls, a Kings
Mountain pioneer,’ was born in
1861, the year the Civil War began
during President Abe Lincoln's ad-
ministration. His initials AFP are
inscribed in the chimney he built
where he also inscribed the date of
the house he built 109 years ago.
Among the pictures are jars
filled with beans and carrots
canned in the late 1920's and early
1930's.and prize winners at the
1933 World's Fair.
Each family member, including
cousins and nieces. and nephews,
of her longtime concern for her
large, devoted family.
Until 1953 the roads by the
beautiful country home were dirt
and Janet and her brother, Féigh,
recalled that because there were no
school buses the children watked
five miles a day to school froth the
Patterson Grove Commupgiiy to
Central School ins #Kings
Mountain. |
Janet started school in | one-
teacher Patterson Grove School
which operated four months of the
year. In 1937 the Patterson Grove
Community got electricity but
Janet still kept her kerosene lamps.
Janet Falls remembers hard
times during the Depression. Her
father was a surveyor and farmer.
Her mother was a full time home-
maker. She also remembers the
good times the children had togeth-
er.
Janet graduated from Winthrop
College in 1927 when tuition for
out-of-state pupils like her was $90
a year. In-state tuition was $45.
One summer she attended the
Sorbonne, the oldest and most
prestigious college in the
University of Paris.
All teaching and conversation
was in French and at the beginning
of the term the students took both
oral and written exams. She stood,
as was the custom, to recite the
siblings and their families, typical
oral exam. She was late for class
one morning and had to stand for
her French lessons. She said the
reason fo rher tardiness was that
"she had to take refuge in English."
She was never late again.
Every day was tour day and the
students visited places of historical
and literary significance in Paris,
Falls said her study in Paris and
her stay with Madame Bour and
others made her a much better
French teacher.
"She said she got a different per-
spective on teaching at four mis-
sion schools - Jamaica, Haiti,
Puerto Rico and Dominican
Republic.
Relaxing at her home this week,
Falls said she found Haiti a much
different place in 1952 than she
found it in her travels later in life
and from current reports of unrest
in the country .
"I found Haiti reasonably peace-
ful and that might have been be-
cause their president who had dic-
tatorial powers controlled his
subjects by fear. Military police
with guns on their shoulders guard-
ed the parliament at all times. They
policed the streets," said Falls.
"The only disturbance I ob-
served while there was a policeman
unmercifully beating a small boy
for stealing some food. He then
dragged the child down the streets
and out of sight with him scream-
ing for dear life. All that because a
hungry child could get food no
other way.
Falls described Haiti as beautiful
with an abundance of fragrant trop-
ical flowers.
Since retirement Janet's travels
have taken her to 30 countries in
Europe, Africa and Asia but fa-
vorite spots were the Middle East,
Egypt and the Holy Land. She also
toured eight of the 10 Provinces of
Canada and four countries in West
Indies.
Long active in the Thursday
Afternoon Book Club and Open
Gate Garden Club, Janet is a life
member of Alpha Delta Kappa,
honorary teacher's sorority.
"My eyes are not as good as they
used to be and I don't read as much
as I would like," said Janet. She
said she also leaves the cooking
and yard work to her brother, her
best friend.
A member of Central United
Methodist Church she was sur-
prised on a recent Heritage Day
with a gift as the member who had
served the longest period of years
in the church.
Nieces Ann Falls Davis and
Sarah Falls McCraney and nephew
oa be
See Falls, 13-A
Kings Mountain, NC
_ 1
Utility Commission Chairman Jim Guyton said the
city won't be wiping out utility bills.
Guyton said the subject had not come up before the
utility commission, which meets Monday at 6 p.m.,
nor at City Council, which meets Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
"I've heard some rumors," said Guyton.
Councilman Ralph Grindstaff acknowledged that he
had heard rumors but that nothing could be verified
until all the facts were in hand and that would occur
only after the audit underway by Nance, Finance
Director Maxine Parsons and Utility Director Jimmy
Maney.
Parsons said the electric department changed out
multipliers.
meter service to one customer and did not change the
"We checked that industrial customer's bill and then
started an internal audit," she said.
See Billing, 13-A
City hires rec director,
Parsons finance director
Two key jobs in the city were
filled this week by City Manager
Chuck Nance.
Former Interim City Manager
Maxine Parsons was named
Finance Director at annual salary
of $38,100 and Karen Langston-
Byers of Bessemer City was hired
as the new Director of Parks and
Recreation at annual salary of
$33,000.
Byers, formerly Program
Coordinator for the Gaston County
Parks and Recreation Department,
will report to work ‘at the Kings
Mountain Community Center
October 31.
po- dinator an
Nance. fig
"She is obviously aware of our
current financial situation and will
play a vital role in helping us re-
gain our financial strength.”
Said Nance, "I am sure there are
others who also have excellent cre-
dentials and would have done a
fine job for the city. However, I
feel that it's important that we uti-
lize the knowledge and awareness
that Maxine has and also she won't
be handicapped by coming into a
new environment with a new
staff."
Parsons, who is a graduate of
Gardner-Webb University, earned
her Master's in Business
Administration in December of
1993. She served as Interim City
Manager until September 1 when
Nance, of Spindale, assumed the
duties vacated by George Wood,
who resigned March 21 for a simi-
lar position in Cleveland, Tn.
She joined the City of Kings
Mountain in October 1989 as
Assistant Finance Director.
As the Interim Manager she pre-
pared the 1994-95 budget and for-
mulated a financial plan to stabilize
the financial condition of the city,
freezing hiring and spending for
three months. She recommended
change in meter reading, billing
and collecting of utility bills to im-
prove cash flow which was adopt-
ed in July by Council and worked
BYERS PARSONS
closely with the Utilities
Committee on the wastewater
treatment project at Grover
Industries.
She was adjunct instructor in ac-
dinator and instructor in economic
development for the State of South
Carolina in Columbia, SC from
June 1989 to June 1991, working
with Oshkosh and Newark
Electronics in recruiting new in-
dustry startup.
Byers, 33, taught Integrated
Science in the Charlotte-
Mecklenburg Schools in 1992,
Modern Dance in grades K-6 in the
Gaston County Schools from 1989-
92 and Health and PE at the Junior
High level in Charlotte Schools
from 1987-89. She also supervised
an operational district of seven
stores for Southland Corporation-in
1986-87, sold insurance for State
Farm Insurance and qualified for
the Million Dollar Month Club
from 1984-86 and was Cultural
Arts Specialist Supervisor for the
Charlotte Parks & Recreation
Department in 1977-84.
Byers holds a B.S. degree from
Winston-Salem State University
and dance certification from UNC
at Charlotte. She has done graduate
work in Health and PE at Florida
State University and North
Carolina A&T University.
She currently serves as a pro-
fessional basketball official, the
first black woman in a profession
dominated by men.
Nance said he interviewed 30
applicants for the Recreation
Department job and narrowed the
field to two candidates last week,
KM nurse hopes to be county's first midwife
By ELIZABETH STEWART
of The Herald Staff
If she lands a job as a practicing,
professional midwife next year
Kelly Grant, 27, will become the
county's first.
"[ can hardly wait to start deliv-
ering babies," said Grant, a regis-
tered nurse for six years in Labor
and Delivery at Cleveland
Memorial Hospital where she has
seen plenty of duty assisting new
babies make their entrance into the
world.
"But standing by and helping is-
n't the same thing," says Grant,
who says nothing can beat the thrill
of the birth of a baby.
Grant and her husband, John
Grant Jr. of Kings Mountain, plan
to wait to start their family until af-
ter Kelly is established in her new
profession in a health department,
private office or women's clinic.
"I hope I won't have to go out-
side the county to work because we
love our home in the Oak Grove
Community and our families are
here," said the daughter of Doug
and Beth Eubanks.
The field is wide open for mid-
wifery and family nursing, says
Grant, who says that she will also
be trained in prenatal care, routine
gynecology and in contraceptive
counseling as well as the actual de-
livery of babies.
Grant said her sister, Susan, a lo-
cal beautician and Gaston College
student, couldn't believe Grant's
choice of a new profession but
Grant heard about Frontier School
of Midwifery in Kentucky from
two midwives who live in Shelby
and work outside the county. In
August 1993 she also heard about
Mary Breckenbridge Hospital and
Health Center near Lexington, Ky.
and she signed up for the two year
community-based nursing program
and loves it.
Grant completes homework as-
signments on computer and by
mail but also must attend special
sessions at the Health Center in
Kentucky and the Midwifery
School and will take her clinical
training at a Rock Hill, SC hospi-
tal. When she completes her train-
ing she will have the equivalent of
a master's degree from Case
Western University Medical
School, Cleveland, Ohio.
A 1985 graduate of Kings
Mountain High School, Grant at-
tended Gaston College and gradu-
ated from UNCC with a four year
degree. She worked at Kings
Mountain Hospital in the obstetrics
department until it closed in 1989.
All her life she has loved nurs-
ing and it wasn't unusual to see her
with a nurses’ kit as a little girl
growing up in Kings Mountain.
Being both a nurse and a mid-
wife combines the best of both
worlds, according to Grant, who
looks forward to the role of a pri-
mary care provider.
She said that some 1300 infants
are born at Cleveland Memorial
Hospital in Shelby each year to
mothers who range in ages from
1-50.
Most of them have healthy ba-
bies and 1 have been present for
many of those births," said Grant,
But standing by and assisting a
doctor is nothing like performing
the delivery and that's her goal.
Grant said that 55 other midwife
candidates in’ her class are age 26
to late 40's. She said that the first
midwife for whom the school was
founded was Mary Breckenbridge
and she rode horseback in the
1800's to deliver babies in the
backwoods of Kentucky.
Mary Breckenbridge Hospital
and Health Center near Lexington
is regarded as one of the top
schools in the country, The cost of
a two-year midwifery program is
expensive. about $35.000,
However, some state loans and
grants are available.
A prospective midwife (nurse
practitioner) must have a four-year
college degree and experience in
See Grant, 13-A
coor-