North Carolina Newspapers

{ { dc VOL. 106 NO. 44 Kings Mountain and No. 4 Township voters face a crowded ballot at the polls Tuesday but the good news is that only nine races are contested. Top interest is centered lo- . cally in the sheriff's race, the county commission contest, the state legislative seats for the 37th Senate and 40th House Districts and for U. S. Congress in the 9th District. Polls open at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m. at East Kings Mountain (Community Center); West = Kings Mountain, (National Guard Armory); Bethware, at David Baptist Church Fellowship Hall; Grover at the Grover Rescue Squad; and Waco at Waco Town Hall, School Rd. Cashion refuses to quit A Cleveland County resident, Rodney Spencer, asked for County Commissioner Joyce Cashion's resignation as chair- man of the Department of ¥ Social Services Tuesday night. "He demanded confidential information on a case that I would not give him," said Cashion, of Kings Mountain. "You better believe I'm serv- : ing out my term which won't = expire until next July," she said . at the meeting of the Cleveland : - County board. Cashion said that Spencer = asked for the resignation of - three DSS employees earlier this week. Cashion, the first woman to . serve on the county board of commissioners, will complete her service in December with : the swearing-in of her succes- “sor. Cashion, a Democrat, was defeated in the May Primary. Commissioners also heard presentations by two other area residents, Pat Carpenter and ~Allen Lingerfelt, representing “Citizens Against an Airpark. Lingerfelt is chairman of the group. ==The board recessed until ~Wednesday, November 9, at 7 “p.m. when members will con- duct a forum with nine candi- dates vying for two minority seats on the county board of .commissioners. 15 Inmates to help beautify KM -A With the high interest in the county contests and particularly those involving local candi- dates, the activity at the polls is expected to be heavy. The choice for sheriff is be- tween two candidates, both with law enforcement experience but | each with a different agenda to protect and serve Cleveland County. Dan Crawford, the Democrat and a special agent for the State Bureau of Investigations, says he wants to implement more in- house training for deputies and use the savings plus any other available county funds to hire more deputies and institute community policing. Ward Kellum, Republican, re- tired state trooper, wants to di- TI . CRAWFORD KELLUM rect the public's fear of crime into volunteer action and solicit private donations to establish a satellite office beginning in Kings Mountain and establish mobile command centers in drug infested areas. The tight race for two county commissioner seats is between Democrats Ralph Gilbert Jr., the incumbent, and R. Patrick Spangler Jr. and Republicans Jim Crawley and Johnny Short. Most of them agreed in recent forums that the commissioners should have implemented an elections plan that included dis- trict seats - rather than limited voting - to address minority concerns. All said they are concerned about the budget pressures the county has faced during the past year and all said they share a concern that the current divi- siveness on the DSS board has become unproductive. Each offers a different type of leadership experience. Short, a former Casar mayor, would press for a new reservoir Kings Mountain Farm Center on Shelby Road was gutted by fire apparently caused by an electrical malfunction early Saturday morning. Firemen rescued a number of small animals. Fire guts KM Farm Center Firemen and EMS paramedic Jimmy Hensley rescued small animals from a fire at Kings Mountain Farm Center Saturday morning, injecting oxygen to survive them and erecting tents around the cages with their own clothing. About a dozen small animal and birds perished in the blaze which apparently was from an electrical malfunction. Fire Marshal Beau Lovelace is still investigating the fire which was spotted by Cleveland County officer David Crowe on routine patrol. Crowe kicked in the door where pets and sup- plies were housed and used a fire extinguisher from his car. Bethlehem firemen used lights to enter the building and hand some of the animals in their cages to other members of assisting fire departments from Kings Mountain and Oak Grove. Also on the scene were the American Red Cross, the county fire marshal and Kings Mountain Police. Kings Mountain Fire Department Frank Burns said that the fire started in the rear west side of the Shelby Road building. A dispatcher with local police quickly called the city water, gas and electric departments and Dennis Bolin, owner of the business. Since Bolin, doesn't use power from the city, only a representative of the gas depart- ment came to the site to cut off gas. Sgt. Mark Simpson, Ptl. Lisa Nance to ask for consultant Kings Mountain City Manager Chuck Nance said he will recommend to City Council Tuesday that an independent consultant be hired immedi- ately to audit all utility accounts, including gas, electric, water and sewer. The recommendation comes after disclosures f high dollar billing discrepancies in eight elec- tric utility accounts with demand meters. The biggest discrepancies involved two of the city's biggest industries. Ruppe Hosiery on Gold Street and Charles Street was underbilled $120,289.33 during a 19- month period February 1993-August 1994. Wix Corporation was overbilled $51,952 for the period September 1992-November 1993. Maney said at the recent City Council meeting on questioning of Councilwoman Norma Bridges that he could not be sure how the errors occurred. But he said they had to be manually done. He and Finance Director Maxine Parsons dis- agreed over whether the errors were made by me- ter readers or billing department clerks. They agreed that errors had been made and the errors were being corrected. - Complaints by two industries to Maney led to the investigations of the discrepancies which oc- curred during a complicated. computer-based billing process that charges customers based on demand and calculations of the amount of electric energy used called “multipliers.” Nance asked Maney and Parsons to conduct an in-house audit. Maney called in an outside electrical consulting engineer. "Its time to quit finger pointing and get the matter cleaned upand we are doing that," said Nance. "We have to treat everybody the same and pay back the money we owe and try to collect even though we made the mistakes," said Nance. He said if the city is able to collect from any of those involved, a city ordinance allows the cus- tomer to pay the accumulated balance over the period in which the bill was accumulated. Some of the eight audited accounts have b.en erroneously billed for 27-32 months. The city codes specify that if a customer | as kilowatt demand of under S0kw that the city can only go back 150 days and if the customer's bill is over 50kw demand the city can only go back 12 months to collect. “The city may have some problems collecting because the errors are the city's fault," he said. "We will audit all existing accounts to keep this kind of thing from happening again.” Nance said that although auditors in the past had suggested an in-depth look at billing, the problem was not an casy one to detect. See Nance, 10-A RR a RX Capps, Ptl. Bob Myers, and re- serve officer and city fireman John Wright responded along’ with volunteers from three fire departments. The blaze was re- ported at 1:07 a.m. and firemen left the scene at 5:30 a.m. Bolin had a number of guinea pigs, hamsters, birds and rabbits in the building KMFD Chief Erank Burns Burns said the fire loriginated in the attic area and if had not been spotted early would have resulted in high dollar damages. "Another 15-20 minutes would have made a big differ- ence," he said. Bolin had operated the busi- ness in the old Masters Funeral Home for several years. The business is closed for re- pairs. STATE SUPERINTENDENT VISITS - State Rep. . PT NA NY NT Kings Mountain, NC 280869 a DAVIS WESTMORELAND in Upper Cleveland County. among other things. Crawley, retired manager of the local compact disk plant, said his broad experience with Cleveland Tomorrow and Executive Roundtable and Cleveland Chamber have put him in touch with concerns on economic development that ought to be a priority for the commissioners. Gilbert has served one four- year term. The retired land ap- praiser feels he has developed a reputation for being accessible and responsive. Spangler is co-owner of a business equipment company in Shelby and says his business experience and work with civic clubs has prepared him for pub- lic office. The six candidates for three seats in the N. C. House- Republicans Dean Allen, Debbie Clary and John Weatherly and Democrats Andy Dedmon, Jack Hunt and Edith Sine See Election, 7-A Maney: There may be other mistakes The city's Director of Utilities Jimmy Maney said in a memo- randum to elected officials and City Manager Chuck Nance un- der date of October 24 that he has "reasons to believe that there are other utility accounts being billed and adjusted incor- rectly." "However, 1 cannot say this is the tip of the iceberg or if it is the iceberg. This along with a few other accounts may be ev- erything." Maney did not elaborate fur- ther but reported the findings of a billing audit completed after 2 1/2 weeks by the city's electri- cal consulting engineer, Maney and Electrical Supt. Scott Buchanan. Maney said that actual histor- ical readings and printouts of the eight electric accounts au- dited were the foundation of the data used. Maney gave some of the report during last Tuesday night's City Council meeting, noting specific reasons as to how the overbilling of $113,264 and underbilling of $143,028 could have happened. The consultant who investi- gated the eight customer bills which had improper multiplying factors said that of the ques- tions that arose, the five most important were: If the meter readers were key- punching in the right readings with correct decimal input. If the multipliers were being used on both the KW demand and KWH energy charges: See Maney, 10-A ~ customers with demand mi Attorney gives names to press City Attorney Mickey Corry Thursday released the names of] the eight municipal electricity who were found to be ov billed or underbilled during audit. by the city's ‘electric’ partment’ s outside consulting engineer, Electrical Supt. Scott, Buchanan and Utilities Director Jimmy Maney. Corry said the amounts re- flected may not be figures the city intends to attempt to collect for underpayment. Corry met with City Manager Chuck Nance, Finance Director Maxine Parsons, Maney and Councilman Jim Guyton, chair- man of the utilities committee, at 4 p.m. Thursday and then re- leased the list to the Kings Mountain Herald, Shelby Star, and Gaston Gazette in a faxed memorandum to each newspa- per. The names were not released at last Tuesday night's Council meeting at the advice of the city attorney citing legal matters. The Gazette requested the in- formation under public record laws. A local businessman also called the N. C. Attorney General's office on Tuesday pri- or to the Council meeting with questions concerning Kings Mountain City Council and the Open Meetings Law. A See Corry, 10-A ow Jack Hunt and State Supt. of Public Instruction Bob Etheridge standing left to right, watch as Kings Mountain High students William Strickland, Derek Moore and Josh Lowery, left to right, work with computers at KMHS library Thursday morning. Etheridge was in the area to visit schools and meet with educators and students.