. 107 No. 23
Kings Mountain's City Manager
Chuck Nance is resigning, effec-
tive August 1, after nearly a year
* on the job, ending a 12-year career
in government.
Nance, 35, submitted his resig-
nation to the Mayor and Kings
Mountain City Council Wednesday
afternoon, although he had talked
informally with them and with de-
partment heads on Friday.
He said he will leave city gov-
ernment for private business.
He and his cousin will open and
operate a new partnership,
Mountaineer Construction, in
Lake Commission
wants to sell water
Z=-R
Rutherfordton later this summer, a
business which will include real es-
tate and construction work.
Nance said he will work to make
the transition as smoothly as possi-
ble with City Council as it moves
to hire a new manager.
Before leaving Kings Mountain,
Nance plans to hire a police chief,
a planning director and a Parks &
Recreation director from a pool of
applicants, including the interim
directors on the job. Captain Bob
Hayes is interim chief, Trip Hord is
interim recreation director and Jeff
Thursday, June 8, 1995
Putnam is interim planning direc-
tor.
"The adoption of the new bud-
get and the filling of department
head positions are priorities," he
said.
A 1982 graduate of Appalachian
State University with a major in
planning, Nance came to Kings
Mountain from Spindale where he
had been town manager for 18
months. Prior to that he had served
as town administrator in
Rutherfordton for seven years. He
began his career in government in
Edenton as-a building inspector
and city planner for three years. He
was hired by City Council
September 1.
His present annual salary is
$47,000.
Nance said his experience in
road construction during his col-
lege years and his experience both
as a building inspector and admin-
istrator will help him in his new ca-
reer choice.
"I like being outside and my new
job will be challenging and a need-
ed change," he said.
Nance said he and his wife made
a family decision not to move to
Dreams come true.
Just ask Missy Wiggins, 18, who
beat the odds and graduated with
the Class of 1995 at Kings
Mountain High School last week.
The pretty girl with waist-length
dark hair and dark eyes got a
standing ovation as senior Brad
Leonard pushed her wheelchair
down the sidewalk from the school
building to the football stadium
and onto the stage as the 9th grade
band played the familiar proces-
sional march, "Pomp and
Circumstance.” |
"There really wasn't a dry eye in
the house," said her proud parents,
Carolyn and Mike Patrick.
"I was so happy and I found out
last week that high school boys are
cute, " said the bubbly teenager
who collects Barbie dolls, adores
soap operas, talks non-stop on the
telephone, plays school for hours
with her younger brother and likes
to shop until she drops.
Missy attended Kings Mountain
Schools for seven years but trans-
ferred to special schools, including
Graham School and Jefferson
A DREAM COME TRUE
Missy Wiggins fights off rare disease to graduate high school
School in Shelby and was one of
six seniors in the recent graduating
class at North Shelby School.
A rare disease called
Leukodystrophy, a deterioration of
the brain, put her in a wheelchair
seven years ago.
But the young woman doesn't
call it a handicap. She enjoys life.
"I like home," said the talkative
teen, who admits to tiring easily
and is teased by her brother that
she likes to sleep.
See Dream, 3A
igh pag
Dinet nora
“Public hearing « on KM budget set for Monday
Public hearing on the City of
Kings Mountain budget for 1995-
96 will be held Monday night at
7:30 p.m. in City Hall.
Citizens can ask questions and
voice concerns about next year's
proposed $19 million-plus budget
which is scheduled for approval on
June 27.
City Manager Chuck Nance has
recommended a pay raise for 150-
plus employees, raising the water
and sewer rate across the boards
and essentially raising the amount
residents pay for property tax be-
cause of county-wide revalua-
tion, although technically the taxe
rate will remain the same as last
year when it was raised from 36
cents to 40 cents per $100 valua-
tion.
Because of property revaluation,
for instance, on a house valued at
$100,000 a homeowner can expect
to pay $410 annually, an increase
of $12.
Although not changing the rates
for electric and gas, the city staff
proposes raising the rates for water
and sewer so that an average cus-
tomer using 5000 gallons of water
a month would see his water and
sewer bill rise 24 cents a month.
Proposed rate increases would start
July 1.
Nance had originally recom-
mended that the city absorb and
not pass on $67,000, the estimated
annual increase by the City of
Gastonia for sewer treatment at the
Crowders Creek Wastewater Plant.
Nance said the utilities committee
had recommended that funds be
budgeted for major improvements
at the Pilot Creek Waste Treatment
Plant.
Under Nance's proposal, city
employees will get a 3 1/2 percent
across-the-board raise, a cost of
living increase, but not a merit in-
crease.
City customers will also see an
increase for landfill costs since the
county is upping the rates, an addi-
tional 26 cents a month for local
customers.
Other proposed recommenda-
tions by the staff and utilities com-
mittee will be money for a rate
study estimated to cost $50,000-
‘$55,000 and funds for a customer
service position in the city utili-
ties/finance department. A big
ticket item will be money for a
basin and clarifiers at the Pilot
Creek Wastewater Plant.
Grover Council approves budget for 1995-96
GROVER - There are no in-
creases for services and no change
in the property tax in the 1995-96
budget which Town Board passed
unanimously Monday after a brief
public hearing.
Mayor Ronald Queen said that
even if Kings Mountain goes up on
the cost of water to Grover that the
town has "some cushion” to ab-
sorb additional costs for at least the
next fiscal year.
"I think it's significant that we
have not increased utilities nor
raised taxes," said Mayor pro tem
Noel Spivey.
The budget tops $239,000 in the
general fund with $41,545 for of-
fice operations, $36,900 for Town
Hall operations, $67,632 for main-
tenance operations, $45,740 for po-
lice operations, $11,620 for fire de-
partment expenses, $17,300 for
street and school lighting , $8,800
for sanitation and environmental
department expenses, $5,000 for
community improvement, $5,000
for the new municipal park or a to-
tal expenditures of $239,537.
Revenue from the Powell Bill Fund
is $55,709 with all monies to be
spent for paving and resurfacing
and maintenance. Revenues from
the water and sewer fund are ex-
pected to be $181,000 and expen-
ditures from that department will
total $106,655. Water and sewer
operational costs of $74,345 in-
clude $12,000 to Duke Power for
water, $6,000 to Duke Power for
sewer and $20,000 to Kings
Mountain for water. Total expendi-
tures from the water and sewer
fund are expected to be $181,000.
A grant from the federal Cops
Fast program will allow the town
to hire a full time police officer and
retain some part time patrols.
The Police budget projects
$35,880 for salaries.
The town expects to receive
$80,000 in advalorem taxes,
$12,217 from inventory tax credit,
$60,000 from utilities franchise
tax, $40,000 from local sales tax,
$5,500 in interest from cash man-
agement and money market ac-
counts, and $14,160 in sanitation
fees.
KKM Juniors hest 3A
rn ETE"
City Manager is leaving
Kings Mountain September 1, one
of the requirements of his job in
the city's top executive position.
City policy requires the town man-
ager to live in the town he man-
ages.
"I agree wholeheartedly with
that city policy and had every in-
tention of relocating in Kings
Mountain when I took the job,"
said Nance.
But the Nance tenure he ac-
knowledges has been filled with
problems.
See Nance, 2-A
Kings Mountain citizens will go
to the polls Tuesday at the city's
two polling places - the
Community Center and National
Guard Armory - to decide if they
want their elected officials to serve
four year or two year terms.
Polls open at 6:30 a.m. and close
at 7:30 p.m.
The vote totals will be posted
by Elections Chairman Becky
Cook about 8 p.m. at City Hall.
A total of 4,500 people are regis-
tered to vote.
It is the first effort in the recent
history of Cleveland County by cit-
izens calling for : election to
ficials.
been minimal, several newspaper
advertisements have been placed
by citizens on both sides of the
fence and signs for and against
have gone up in several locations
in the city.
Chief proponent of a two year
term is the retiring City of Kings
Mountain Planning Director Gene
White who led the successful peti-
tion effort to get the names of 433
registered voters on a petition call-
ing for the election.
"The bottom line is to get more
and better qualified candidates to
come out and to encourage more
responsive and responsible leader-
ship," said White who took the
leadership of the petition effort and
who said he paid for expenses of
advertising materials and special
mailings from his pocket.
"Without accountable political
leadership the city can't possibly
progress. We are sitting in an area
with all the criteria that encourages
industry location and more and bet-
ter jobs but we can't do it without
good political leadership.”
The Voting Section Civil Rights
Division of the U.S. Justice
Department must give approval of
the election by June 15.
The ballot will read:
"Shall the charter amendment to
See Election, 2-A
Although political activity has
2-year term election
in KM next Tuesday
White says vote
to silence him
Retired city planner Gene White
said the rejection of Mayor Scott
Neisler's plan to give citizens time
to speak at monthly board meetings
is a "gag rule" that reinforces the
need for two year terms.
White said that the recent 5-3
vote by Council was an attempt to
silence him at city hall.
Earlier this year White charged
board members with conflicts of]
interest when he launched a suc-
[cessful petition effort to cali for
shortening of the terms of mayor
and Council from four to two
years. Citizens will go to the polls
and decide that issue Tuesday:
"What, the new rule means is that
a person who wants to speak at a
monthly board meeting now has to
go to City Hall on Wednesday be-
fore the next week's meeting, fill
out a form and say what he or she
intends to speak about,” said
White.
"Then Council will decide
whether on not they want to put
you on an agenda and you may
then be invited to speak."
The latest controversy at City,
Hall started in March when
Council started voting on adopting
an agenda at the beginning of each
meeting after City Manager Chuck
Nance said he was questioned by.
some board members on how resi
dents get on the agenda. The
agenda change was based on a
booklet of suggestions for city
councils put out by the Institute of
Government training center.
Fleming Bell, who wrote the
booklet, said the suggestions would
be appropriate for some boards and
not for others.
"It really gets down to the coun:
cil and its perception of what its
citizens expect," he said.
See White, 2-A
KINGS MOUNTAIN PEOPLE
Jim Singleton has all the medals and the scars of World War Il.
God carried Singleton through war
By ELIZABETH STEWART
of The Herald Staff
The war memories came flood-
ing back on the 50th anniversary of
VE Day for James Singleton.
And even though the years have
past, he can still remember hearing
his mother praying for him in the
foxholes and telling his friend ly-
ing beside him that "God said
things would be all right."
After that he carried a picture of
Jesus Christ throughout the war.
Indeed, the Kings Mountain man
must have had an angel on his
shoulder.
The narrow escapes he tells
about in a Suicide Platoon in
Patton's 45th Infantry Division
would make your hair curl.
He carried out the dead and car-
ried in the ammunition in the dead
of night, but grave duty was the
hardest job in the war, he said.
Singleton still has nightmares.
He joined the doughboys of the
45th, the foot soldiers, at age 18.
A day before his 19th birthday a
bomb blew him out of a foxhole.
his home for four months.
"I was raised to hunt and the en-
emy was just like a fox after a rab-
bit and we took cover in the woods
and forgot our hurts and moved
on."
The world's attention was fo-
cused on the 45th Infantry Division
from the first day in battle during
World War 11. It got its name as the
"fighting s.0.b.'s" and the "mean"
division correctly and was led by
Blood and Guts General of the
Army George Patton.
"Patton and 1 got on a first name
basis and he told me many times
that a "dead soldier ain't worth a
damn."
An honorary guard for Patton,
Singleton was called on the plat-
form and saluted by Patton.
The 45th Oklahoma National
Guard saw S11 days of front line
duty. There were six men in
Singleton's squad. one of whom:
was Indian. Singleton detended the?
soldier in a dispute and lost one of
his stripes but came out of the war;
a Technical Sergeant with the!
Purple Heart. the Bronze Star with:
Oak Leaf cluster. medals for brav-
ery, five major campaign medals
and two invasions and the
Presidential Citation. He was
scheduled to receive the Silver
Star.
Captured on Anzio when the
Germans threw a barrage of ar-
tillery he said he got away by "the!
hair of my head".
He ran toward the American's
front lines and a soldier stuck a gun
in his belly and asked for the pass-
word he could not remember.
"I finally said something which
he recognized.
"It you have ever been to Anzio
vou've been to hell because it
See Singleton, 2-A