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The Sanitation Department, the
Police Department and the Public
Works Department employs some
of the lowest paid workers among
160-plus on the City of Kings
Mountain payroll.
The statistics are included in de
new classification and pay study up
for consideration by the City
Council and an issue which proba-
bly won't be voted on until after
Saturday's budget retreat at which
Council will pencil the expected
receipts and disbursements for fis-
Pay study says KM salaries low
cal year 1995-96.
Last budget year raises were not
given to city employees due to a
severe money crunch that forced a
freeze on both spending and hiring.
But in 1993-94 the budget in-
cluded an across-the-boards cost-
of-living raise plus merit raises,
about a 6 per cent pay hike for ma-
jority of city employees and the
first time since both hikes were im-
plemented since the 1990-91 bud-
get year. The 1991-92 and 1992-
93 budgets included 2 1/2 percent
merit raises but no cost-of-living
raises due to a recession year in
which wage increases were lower
in local\ businesses and neighbor-
ing cities.
Starting annual pay in Kings
Mountain of an equipment operator
is about $12,000. The new study
recommends $15,954.
Starting annual pay of a labor-
er/operator in the public works de-
partment is $13,000 and the recom-
mended pay is $14,470.
See Pay, 3-A
CCC bond
referendum Tuesday
KM
A proposal by a consultant to
merge the city departments of
Aging and Parks and Recreation is
facing opposition from members of
the Senior Center Advisory Board.
In a May 1 letter to Mayor Scott
Neisler, the 13-member board ex-
pressed concern about the recent
recommendation included in the
classification and pay study pre-
pared by Management and
Personnel Services of Cary.
Rebecca Veazey, President of
MAPS, said the merger of the two
departments would "reduce the
span of control and streamline the
number of separate departments.
"This function is usually not
Hall of Fame
banquet set
for Tuesday
The eighth annual Kings
Mountain Sports Hall of Fame ban-
quet will be held Tuesday, May 16
at 7 B m. at the Kings Mountain
Community
Center.
Dave
Odom, head
basketball
coach at
Wake Forest
University,
will be the
guest speak-
er. Odom
coached the
Demon
Deacons to a
ODOM
share of the ACC championship for
the first time since 1961 this sea-
son and was voted ACC Coach of
the Year for the third time in five
years.
Tickets for the event are on sale
at the Kings Mountain Herald,
© Carolina State Bank, and McGinnis
Department Store. They are $10
each and include a meal.
Inductees include the late Bud
: Bumgardner and Red Layton,
: Punch Parker and the 1966 Teener
: Baseball All-Stars.
Bumgardner was a volunteer
baseball, football and wrestling
coach at KMHS for many seasons
and helped coach the Mountaineers
to the state championship in 1989
and 1993. He will be inducted by
his coaching cohort, Barry Gibson,
who welcomed Bumgardner into
high school coaching in 1975.
Layton was a professional base-
ball player in the 1930s and played
for many years in the highly-com-
petitive Textile Leagues around
Kings Mountain. He was a driving
force behind the formation of the
Kings Mountain Recreation
Program and organized the first
Little League program in 1953. He
will be inducted by his daughter-
in-law, Brenda Layton.
Parker was a standout running
back on the 1960 KMHS football
team and still holds the school sin-
gle season scoring record of 122
points. He lettered three years in
See Banquet, 3-A
Schools get good audit report
An audit of the Kings Mountain
District School's Central adminis-
trative office reveals that resources
are used efficiently, Tom Newsome
of the Office of State Budget and
Management told the Kings
Mountain Board of Education
Monday night.
The findings revealed that the
Kings Mountain System runs an
operation the same or with less
staff than school systems of com-
parable size in North Carolina. In
facility maintenance the costs are
more c¢conomical than the average
system of comparable size.
"We asked for the management
study in the early part of 1995 by
an outside agency so that we could
he sure that we were using our
money wisely and a representative
spent several days here and looked
at staffing and possible reorganiza-
A huge oak tree toppled on the roof of the Gary Sarvis home on Linwood Road early Wednesday morn-
ing during a severe thunderstorm which left tree limbs and debris in East Kings Mountain yards and 40
homes in other areas in the dark for about an hour. No one was injured
Photo by Darrell Austin
Tuesday storm causes damage
Darren Sarvis, 35, sleeping on the couch at his par-
ents home on Linwood Road Tuesday, thought
Hurricane Hugo had hit East Kings Mountain again
when a huge oak tree fell on top of the house about
2:30 a.m..
The 65 feet high tree was toppled by the severe
storm which rumbled through the area with heavy
thunder, lightning and some hail.
Sarvis, son of Mr. and Mrs. Gary Sarvis, said he
rolled off the couch from the impact of the storm and
awakened his father.
"We looked up at the roof in the room where Darren
was sleeping and the water was coming down in tor-
rents," said Gary Sarvis, who said the tree he described
as "top heavy toward the house" had punched a big
hole in the roof.
Puddles of water were all over the 12 feet living
room where young Sarvis was sleeping.
"I have never heard such popping and cracking
since Hugo," young Sarvis said.
Gary Sarvis recalled that in 1987 Hurricane Hugo
sent another big tree in his yard hurling across the
power lines.
"The tree didn't come close to the power lines this
time because the limbs had been cut but the tree was
top heavy toward the house and the roots were rotten,"
said Sarvis.
tion if needed," said Supt. Bob
Sarvis said the chimney held the tree up from where
it landed on the house and a bag plate glass picture
window escaped the wrath of the storm.
Wednesday morning Sarvis was putting a big tarp
over the roof to protect it from more rain predicted for
the late afternoon and evening hours.
He estimated that damages would be in the thou-
sands.
"It could have been worse and no one was hurt and
that's the important thing," he said.
City of Kings Mountain Utility Director Jimmy
Maney reported some isolated power outages on
Thornburg Drive, Park Drive and Ramseur Street
where some 40 customers reported outages for about
an hour. City crews were called out from 3-6 a.m.
Wednesday morning.
Maney, who lives in the Gold Run Community at
Oak Grove, said he was without electricity for more
than three hours. Duke Power reported a number of
outages where trees fell across lines.
"We can really see the effects of the tree trimming
program we started in Kings Mountain five years ago,"
said Maney.
"It used to be when we got a storm like the one we
had Tuesday night that people would still be without
power the next day but we have consistently trimmed
trees back off the electric lines."
Kings Mountain People
p1HE 98082
= ZOuD** L306
found as a separate department,”
said Veazey.
"In order to adequately manage
and respond to department heads, a
city manager should not have a
span of control that exceeds nine
subordinates."
"Our city is very proud of the
fact that it has the only municipal
aging department in the state and
placing it under another depart-
ment would only deter growth and
create an additional level of bu-
reaucracy to work through," said
Advisory Board directors Dr. John
McGill, Hilda Goforth, Thelma
Hicks, Margaret McGinnis,
Margaret Walker, Judy Phillips,
Milewski couldn't
VE Day
celebrate
World War II ended 50 years ago
May 7, 1945 when Germany sur-
rendered to the U. S. but Kings
Mountain's Andrew Milewski did-
n't take part in the VE Day Victory
celebration parade May 8, 1945 in
London.
"I was without a home," said the
retired mill owner, explaining that
he was a native of Poland and at
the time was in the Polish Second
Corps attached to the British 8th
Army.
"When the Allies divided Poland
they gave the part I lived in. to the
Soviet Union and the West would
not allow wus to take 2
Victory celebrations,”
Milewski said he never could
understand why. He said the Air
Force, Navy, ground troops and
Polish fighters claimed one-third of
the victory in the Battle of Britain.
When the War ended Milewski
was stationed in Italy. The Italian
campaign finished on April 25,
1945. He saw two of his friends
die on the battlefield on April 21.
"Victory Day was beautiful for
Britain, America, France, Germany
and Japan but 150 million people
in other countries were condemned
to slavery and the Cold War for 50
years and their celebration did not
come until 1981," he said.
Milewski joined the service at
age 17 1/2 and served with his fa-
ther, a Major in the Polish Army.
After the war was over,
Milewski remained with the
Occupation Forces for a year and
was discharged in 1948 after ser-
vice in Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Egypt
and Italy.
Milewski does not take his free-
dom lightly.
As a young man and during
Russia's takeover of Poland he was
confined to a Siberian labor camp
and worked for two years as a
lumberjack. In late 1941 he was
released and immediately joined
the Polish Army which was being
formed in Russia. He spent five
years in middle-Eastern countries,
later studying in England and grad-
uating from a school of textiles. He
worked in England and Ireland be-
fore coming to the United States in
1967.
girls win first
track championship
7-A
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Steve Angelis, Julia Nicols, Lottie
Means, Corine Adams, Virgie
Farris, Charles Alexander and
Delcina Morgan.
Aging Director Monty
Thomburg notes that in looking at
the projected demographics of the
aging population the age group
which will experience the most sig-
nificant amount of growth in the
next 25 years will be the 60-plus
population.
"Members of this group will
need specialized services and pro-
grams that should be provided
through a human service agency
See Oppose, 3-A
ANDREW MILEWSKI
"Coming to America was the
happiest day of our lives," he said.
Milewski worked with Reeves
Brothers in Kings Mountain, for-
mer Duplex, before starting his
own business, Hank Fink Inc., in
1979. In September 1994 he sold
his share of the business to Hank
Fink and retired.
Active in Kings Mountain
Rotary Club since 1979, he recent:
ly was honored as the
Distinguished Rotarian by District
7680 of which he is a past presi-
dent. Rotarian of the Year in 1986,
he is a past president of the local
Rotary Club.
Milewski said he was proud of
what Rotary has done to help de-
serving young people go to col-
lege, noting that this year the club
is providing scholarships worth
$4500. Another major project is
providing solar panels for lights for
a health clinic in a small communi-
ty in Nicaragua where none of the
homes and businesses have elec-
tricity.
Milewski said his wife, Eva
Maria, visited the clinic with other
members of St. Michael's Catholic
Church and for them it was a
"moving spiritual experience to see
the witness of those people who
had so little."
Active in St. Michael's Church
See Milewski, 3-A
McRae.
Newsome praised the board for
allocating leftover funds for the in-
structional budget.
"That's where additional funds
should show up, I think this study
shows that we're not putting unnec-
essary funds into the district office
operation," said McRae.
McRae said that the local system
has more staff in the instructional
area than some systems. The audi-
tor agreed that this is a positive
step by Kings Mountain.
Newsome most recently assisted
the State Department of Public
Instruction in its report to the
General Assembly.
Newsome said the primary ob-
jectives of the review were assis-
tance in the arca of organizational
See Audit, 3-A
Phillips faces double lung transplant
BUTCH PHILLIPS
By ELIZABETH STEWART
of The Herald Staff
A bumper sticker on 43-year-old Butch Phillips’
truck says it all about his upbeat attitude about his
need for a life-saving double lung transplant.
"Don't take your organs to Heaven, Heaven knows
we need them here.”
Phillips, who stands over six feet tall and weighs
about 180 pounds. was diagnosed several years ago
with Alpha 1 Antitrypsen deficiency and End Stage
Emphysema.
"It was a shock to be told I needed a double lung
transplant when I had never been sick a day in my life
and had been originally diagnosed with allergies.” said
the former Carolina Freight truck driver who has been
disabled since 1993 and on a lung donor list for 14
months.
His bride of three years. Michelle, says her hus-
band's good humor prevails when she admonishes him
to use his oxygen more and he drives to the grocery
store and passes up a handicapped parking space.
But Butch says he's ready to enter Barnes Hospital
in St. Louis. MO. later this month where he is number
one on the donor list for a double lung transplant. His
surgeons are top lung specialists in the country who
pioneered in performing the life saving and very ex-
pensive lung transplants 10 years ago and perform
them with success three or four times a month.
"It took me 30 seconds to walk up two flights of
stairs at the hospital recently and without oxygen.”
said Butch of his initial trip to St. Louis for consulta-
tions.
Michelle said the patients in rehabilitation are tak-
ing bets that Butch will walk out of the hospital in 10
days.
See Page 1-A