Southeast
Corporation, asked Myrick
KMHS swimmers win
SWC championship
8-A
: dart
Dr. Adams returning to KM
Kings Mountain Family Practice on W. Mountain
Street will become Kings Mountain Medical Center
March 1 and longtime resident Dr. Charles Adams will
join Dr. Thomas Durham in the general practice of
medicine.
A third physician, Dr. Lewis Robertson of
Greenville, a recent graduate of East Carolina
University Medical School, will join the staff on July
24.
partnership.
Dr. Joseph Lee III, a former partner with Durham in
Kings Mountain Family Practice for 31 years, died
February 14, 1995 of leukemia. The Clinic was found-
ed by the late Dr. Paul Hendricks Sr.
Stallings said new patients will be welcomed in ad-
dition to current patients of Durham and Lee.
Medicare, Medicaid, other hospital insurance or pay-
ment by Master Charge and Visa will be available.
Durham signed a management contract, effective
March 1, with Cleco Primary Care Network to keep
medical cae in the community, said Denese Stallings
of Kings Mountain, a director of the public/private
Cleco will also offer preventive services, according
to Stallings, who is Executive Director of the
Cleveland County Health Department.
tients, for example, will be offered help from nutrition-
Diabetic pa-
ists on diet and proper foods and local specialists will
will be available.
be available for referrals from the clinic.
Cleco plans to hire more doctors and physician's as-
sistants as the practice continues to grow, said
Stallings, who said that doctors will admit patients to
either Kings Mountain Hospital or Cleveland
Memorial Hospital and an after-hours calling service
"We can reassure Kings Mountain people that a
doctor will be available to them and they get help from
a specialist and surgeon if needed and admitted to a
hospital," said Stallings.
Stallings said the Office of Rural Health in Raleigh
has contributed money and resources to the project and
tioners.
Congresswoman Myrick
meets her constituents
Greeting local constituents
Friday at Kings Mountain City
Hall in her first official office visit
here since her election,
Congresswoman Sue Myrick said
her doors are open.
A representative of Myrick's of-
fice is in Kings Mountain on
Tuesday from 9-12 and Thursday
from 1-5 p.m. at City Hall.
Bill Plonk, Kings Mountain
dairy farmer and a director of
Rutherford Electric Membership
Te
wer ministratio
federal power agency which P
says saves the REA $1.5 million
annually in wholesale power costs.
Rutherford Electric has 49,000
consumers in nine counties with 24
percent of the total membership in
Gaston County.
Retired city employee J. K.
Brooks, 63, of 118 Owens St., was
worried about health insurance.
to vote
lonk
Legally blind, Brooks retired
from the City of Kings Mountain
Sewer Department on July 30,
1993 after 17 years on the job. He
said the city will stop his insurance
on February 28 and he is two years
away from age 65 when he could
be insured by Medicare.
"Stick with your contract with
America" were other messages
that Myrick was hearing at visits
in her district here and in Gastonia.
“Jason Bradley, Press
Presidential iz
certificate for honorable service to
the family of a serviceman whose
family had been told that he was a
deserter in the military in 1984 and
whose family had asked former
Congressman Ballenger to ascer-
tain the true facts.
"I was very pleased to be able to
make this special presentation,”
said Myrick.
representa
will assist in recruitment of doctors and nurse practi-
"Keeping medical care in Kings Mountain is what
this is all about and we are excited," said Stallings.
Progress
Edition
Inside Today's Issue
DR. CHARLES ADAMS
Congresswoman Sue Myrick, above, chats with Kings Mountain
dairy farmer Bill Plonk during a visit in Kings Mountain Friday.
Byers kids fund drive tops $13,000 mark
A fund drive for a specially
handicapped-equipped van for
Billy Byers Jr. and his sister,
Tabitha, reached the $13,000 mark
this week.
Patricia and Billy Byers said
they are grateful for the continued
support of the community for their
children who are battling Batten's
Disease. The family got a good re-
port from doctors at Duke Hospital
last week when the children went
back for regular checkups.
Maney: City must track cost of utilities
Utility Director Jimmy Maney
is heading off any complaints he
may get from interruptible natural
gas customers about their last mon-
th's bills in which the city charged
them 73 cents above the retail rate.
"We don't want to gouge our
customers, so we need to take an-
other look at the total flex rate and
shift some of the cost back to the
Mayor wants to roll back tax, rates
Guyton won't support cuts
A memorandum from Mayor
Scott Neisler to City Council this
week includes extensive charts
which show that the city's lease-
purchase payments will be gone
virtually this year and $481,954
more money will be available in
FY 1995-96 for capital outlay than
in FY 1992-93.
The mayor said the city has
made numerous big-ticket im-
provements in the recent past
which required long-term bonds
and lease/purchase agreements.
The memos were circulated by
Neisler, he said, to lead credence
to his claims that a property tax in-
crease and residential water rate in-
crease are both unnecessary.
He said these figures will be in-
corporated in his proposed 1994-95
budget he has sent to the state trea-
surer’s office for review.
The figures were first projected
"The doctors are amazed every
time they see Billy and they: in-
creased Tabitha's medication,” said
Mrs. Byers.
Batten's disease affects the brain
and causes deterioration of the in-
tellect and neurological symptoms,
twitching, seizures, psychotic be-
havior and spasticity of legs and
arms.
Before they developed the dis-
ease - Billy Jr., now 9, at age 4, and
particular customer class that it
needs to be assigned to," he told
the city utility committee Monday
night.
Maney said that a new flex rate
inaugurated last summer was a
quick fix to recover the cost of ser-
vice in each customer class but it
isn't working.
"We must pattern our interrupt-
by then-City Manager George
Wood on March 26, 1993 at City
Council's budget retreat in which
Wood estimated capital budget tar-
gets for individual funds. At the
time Wood said the charts could
help as Council analyzed whether
to use pay-as-you-go financing,
lease purchasing or long-term debt
to finance capital expenditures in
the next budget year.
According to the chart the city
paid lease purchases of $121,798
in 1992-93, $102,919 in 1993-94
and $14,105 in 1994-95 from the
general fund. The SCADA
clectric system will be paid off in
1995-96. The 1994-95 payment is
$77,050 and the 1995-96 payment
is $51,367.
The chart points out that the wa-
ter and sewer fund received
$78,000 from a two percent water
See Mayor, 3-A
Tabitha, now 5, at age 3, the chil-
dren were normal.
The family travels 170 miles to
Duke Hospital as the children
need to go. In between visits to
Duke, they go to their pediatrician
in Shelby. When they go to
Durham, Billy Sr. must take a take
off from work. It takes both parents
to lift Billy Jr. and his wheelchair,
which altogether weighs about 100
pounds, into the the family's '78
Chevrolet van which has more than
ible rates after Public Service and
Piedmont Gas and keep tracking
the costs because it changes every
30 days," he said.
Maney said his proposal will not
affect residential customers. He
said the city should be selling
slightly above six percent or above
the alternative fuel supply to inter-
ruptible customers. An interrupt-
130,000 miles and is not handi-
capped equipped.
"After we buy the new van,
whatever is left over we will do-
nate to children who need lifts and
wheelchairs," Mrs. Byers said.
A fund has been set up at First
National Bank, Shelby, or persons
who want to help may contact Mr.
or Mrs. Byers at 108 Plantation
Drive in the White Plains
Community of Kings Mountain.
ible customer can switch to No. 2,
No. 5, or No. 6 fuel oil and quali-
fy for the special rate.
Maney and City Manager Chuck
Nance plan to redesign the flex rate
to maintain the profit margin but
not gouge the interruptible cus-
tomers. The proposal will be pre-
See Utilities, 7-A
City Councilman Jim Guyton
said Monday he could not support
a cut in city taxes and water rates.
The chairman of the city utility
committee said the city needs to
spend money to make improve-
ments to its water and sewer sys-
tems and those funds must come
from the general fund which is
supported by costs of services and
property taxes.
Guyton said the city also must
support local utility customers and
industry.
"We can't curtail our longtime
customers by taking on bigger ones
to provide service unless we have
additional capacity for providing
water, gas, electricity and sewer,"
he said.
Guyton said he knew of no new
industry looking at the city but he
said that when industry locates the
first priorities are utilities.
Mayor Scott Neisler is propos-
ing that the city roll back recently-
enacted city property taxes and res-
idential water rates and says it can
be done in his version of a 1994-
95 budget Local Government
Commission and Institute of
Government officials have in their
hands to review.
The mayor said that he hopes to
have a report from the proposal
this week so that he can made a re-
port at Tuesday night's February
meeting of City Council at 7:30
p.m. at City Hall.
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Term petition
going strong
Retired city planner Gene White
said he will present a petition to
shorten the terms of the mayor and
city council from four to two years
to Kings Mountain City Council
March 28.
Meantime, White said that he
will be at various shopping centers
this week and next to invite inter-
ested citizens to participate. He
said he is mailing petitions to 100
people this week to sign and pass
on to other citizens.
"I am getting tremendous re-
sponse,” said White.
The petition does not call for a
staggered term, only that Kings
Mountain's form of government be
modified to a two year term.
White said before the City
Manager form of government be-
came effective in 1987 that the city
council and mayor were elected to
four year terms and before that to
two year terms.
White, KM Elections Board
Supervisor Becky Cook and
Cleveland County Elections Board
Supervisor Debra Blanton agree
that a staggered term would be im-
practical and costly since the elec-
tion and a run-off, if necessary, ,
would have to be held each year.
"Back in the early 1980's Kings
Mountain citizens elected the
be completed in time to become ef-
fective at the next election for
Mayor and City Council in October
1995. Terms of Mayor Scott
Neisler and Council members
Norma Bridges, Phil Hager and
Jim Guyton are up in 1995. Terms
of Council members Rick
Murphrey, Dean Spears, Ralph
Grindstaff and Jerry White are up
in 1997.
Blanton said the petition must
be verified by her office and if one-
tenth of the signatures are verified
to be voting residents of the city
that City Council would be re-
quired to call a referendum. If the
referendum passes, the whole pro-
cess would have to be approved by
the U. S. Justice Department be-
cause it involves a change in the
city charter.
White said that he is hopeful that
a referendum could be held as ear-
ly as this summer.
Both White and Blanton said
that if the two-year term is ap-
proved that by the 1997 city elec-
tion voters would be choosing a
mayor and a full seven member
board.
The petition, addressed to the
See Petition 7-A
| existing catch basins or rip rap |
White hopes that the process can
City Council
meets Tuesday
It's likely that a recommendation
by the city utilities committee to
pay developer Jim Lybrand a re-
bate for the city's share of utility
costs to his new Ashley Park
Subdivision will be tabled again
Tuesday by City Council.
Councilman Ralph Grindstaff,
who made the motion to table at
last month's marathon council
meeting, said that he will probably
make the motion to table again un-
til all improvements cited in a re-
view of the project by W. K.
Dickson Engineers are in order.
Last month the utility committee
recommended that payment be
made to Lybrand, stipulating that}"
certain deficiencies be first correct-
ed.
The 15 stipulations by Alex
Berkeley, engineer, before the
roadway and sewers are accepted
for maintenance by the City of
Kings Mountain, included:
Permanent erosion control by ei-
ther rip rap or curb and gutter on
the shoulder of the road at the be-
ginning of Downing Street near the
Kings Mountain Country Club.
Recessed catch basin in place of § |
¥ gin cer aid exc Ww AIST OR ll :
tinue to wash down the road and |
eventually over the shoulder to the
creek or existing storm drainage
system on the Moore property
causing possible minor damage to
road shoulder.
A field survey determined the
roadway is instafled within the
road rights of-way.
The city originally installed the
gas line prior to the road being
completed. The contractor paved
the road over the gas line. The city
may want to consider installing the
gas line in the road shoulder,
Berkeley told the city utilities com-
mittee who said the idea is not
practical.
Widen the shoulders of the road
to a minimum of six feet. The
creek may need to be realigned.
Existing storm drains may also
need to be extended.
The appropriate wetland and
erosion control permits should be
obtained prior to the work taking
place.
If widening is not required by
the city guardrails should be con-
sidered where there is not suffi-
cient shoulder. Presently, the engi-
neer says 800 feet of guardrail may
need to be installed to meet NC-
See Council, 7-A
RECEIVES EMPLOYER AWARD - Mikie Smith, right, of Commercial
Intertech accepts the 1994 Job Service Employer Award from Sherwood
Southerland, Shelby Job Service manager, and ESC Chairman Ann Q.
Duncan. Winning employers were judged on a number of factors, including
creating new jobs, expansion of existing business, use of Employment Security
Commission services, and participating in local JSEC activities.
TR.
UL) E