Vol. 107 No. 33
OS
Second Baptist to honor
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Rev, Land || Rememberin
Thursday, August 17, 1995
Interim City Manager says KM on right track
Hicks: Turn around takes time
After nearly two weeks in the
chief executive's chair in the city
Gary Hicks is getting acclimated.
The Gastonia resident and re-
tired city manager of Gastonia,
never liked retirement because he
could not stay busy enough, so he
returned to city government last
year at neighboring Lowell and
then took the interim job when
Chuck Nance left Kings Mountain
recently.
Hicks sees one major goal for
better control of funds throughout
the fiscal year and he has some
ideas he will share on how to ac-
complish that with Council.
"It's always been my philosophy
to share my ideas with my Council
before talking about it in the news-
paper," he laughed.
At the August 29 meeting of
Council Hicks said he and Finance
Officer Maxine Parsons will pre-
sent a report on the shape of the
city's finances for year ending June
30, 1995.
But Hicks said the Council took
the first steps recently to get Kings
Mountain back on the road to good
financial health in approving the
recent budget and instituting cost
cutting measures and he plans to
keep it that way.
"Kings Mountain's financial
problems did not occur in one year
and they can't be fixed in one
year," he said.
He plans to look at the day-to
day operations and analyze the fi-
nancial picture as first priorities in
his new job.
"I have always liked my job be-
cause I like people and Kings
Mountain will be no exception," he
said this week.
Hicks, 57, began his work expe-
rience in city government first as a
city planner in Charlotte in 1962-
63 and as land planner for the City
of High Point from 1963-65. He
prepared planning studies for cities
on a contract basis in 1965-67 and
came to Kings Mountain and pre-
See Hicks, 10-A
Remember
Park Yarn
Life in the Park Yarn Mill
Village centered around the mill,
Ted Weir's store, Park Grace
School and John Gregory's Little
Church on the Hill.
Those were the memories that
more than 125 people attending
Saturday's first reunion at Depot
Center remembered with much af-
fection.
"The late Ted Weir and Bert
Blanton were like a Mama and
Daddy to me," said Harold
Flowers, who got the idea to hold
the reunion and got the help of
Johnnie Moore Bingham, Helen
Whetstine, Bonnie Frederick,
Margie Flowers Bowers and
Chester Campbell and they started
See Reunion, 9-A
rs
Baxter and Helen Short, Pete Smith, Dana Trammell with young Zachary and Alice Eubanks are pic-
tured at one of the dining tables at Saturday's reunion of Park Yarn Village resident and mill workers at
Depot Center. Crowds had lunch at tables laden with vegetables, meats and desserts:
Thirty-seven buses roll Thursday
morning for the fall opening of
Kings Mountain District Schools
: and the return to books of 4,000
: students and over 500 employees at
eight schools.
"Thanks to the teaching staff,
principals and program directors
we are ready,” said Supt. Dr. Bob
McRae.
Asst. Supt. for Personnel Ronnie
Wilson said that faculties are com-
plete with the addition of 22 con-
tracts to teachers, the employment
of nine other classified employees
and the transfer of seven employ-
ees.
Wilson said the system had
moved three teaching assistants to
full-time teaching positions.
East Principal Jerry Hoyle says
his school has gained an additional
first grade teacher and kindergarten
teacher from the recent statewide
reduction in classroom size.
"We're just delighted that we
could add more teachers," said
Hoyle this week as his staff readied
to welcome 270 K-5 students.
At all plants in the system the
teachers and assistants were
putting up welcome posters and
getting ready for the first day of
school. Teachers were officially
welcomed at an early breakfast
Tuesday morning at the high
school.
Wilson said that the system hired
Kathy Archer, first grade,
Bethware; Shari Mansfield, sixth
grade, middle school; Cynthia
Black, exceptional children,
Grover; Cathy Carr, first grade,
Grover; Hubert McGinnis, Choice
program, middle school; Hannah
Cole, English, high school; Tammy
Yarborough, first grade, East;
Margaret Pearson, French and
Business, high school; Brian
Petras, math, high school; and
Betty Blalock, fourth grade.
Also Tracie Merchant, first
grade Bethware and Kay Lee, sec-
ond grade Bethware, all former
teaching assistants at Bethware;
John Wilkes, social studies, middle
school; Elizabeth Melton, English,
high school; Dan Jones, guidance,
Parker Street; Lori Evatt, Smart
See School, 8-A
Additional gas could keep industries open in winter
Local industry has apparently
won another round with the city.
Monday night the utilities com-
mittee recommended that the city
buy an additional 1,000 mcf's per
day of firm gas and spread the ad-
ditional annual cost of $100,000 to
$132,000 between the city's 3,000
residential users of natural gas and
industry.
In effect, the move. expected to
be approved by City Council at the
August 29 meeting, would mean
that gas would be issued all winter
to industrial customers.
Previously, six industrial users
on the interruptible rate have been
cut on and off for approximately
20 days during the winter months
and last winter some have switched
to alternative fuel. At least one cus-
tomer closed for a day or two.
Interim City Manager Gary
Hicks said after the meeting that he
City to add water
Walt Ollis, the city's superin-
tendent of water/wastewater opera-
tions, said the city will hook up an-
other water connection for
emergency water for the Kings
Mountain Hospital.
Last Friday morning Ollis said
he received a call from a mainte-
nance worker at the hospital at
7:15 a.m. that the hospital only had
about 56 pounds of water pressure
left due to a burst water main in
front of the hospital on West King
Street.
Surgery had to be rescheduled
and the emergency room was shut
down until 1 p.m. as city workers
rushed to repair the pipes. The
Gelot Medical Clinic was also out
of water as were residents of
Juniper Street and Central Carolina
Bank.
"There is no valve in the old
part of the hospital that works. the
hydrant in the back of the building
feeds off Edgemont Drive and
there is no connection between that
line and the building," said Ollis.
"Even if we have to run a fire
hose we don't want the hospital to
ever be without water," he said.
hook-up at hospital
No emergency patients had to be
rerouted to other hospitals, accord-
ing to Cleveland County EMS
which operates a station directly
across from the hospital emergency
room.
The city has averaged a water
break every other week for the past
four weeks, three of them requiring
major repairs. Ollis said that such
breaks are just a matter of course in
the operation of the city's water
system and that as the pipes age
more breaks can be expected.
He said repeated breaks can be
attributed to aging pipes and shut-
-oft valves located too far apart.
On July 11 a 70-year-old water
line burst in the downtown area
sending millions of gallons of wa-
ter down the railroad tracks.
The second break occurred July
29 when a line on Crocker Road
burst, taking more than half the
road away. Many customers across
the city, including the hospital, were
without water for more than two
hours.
A minor break carlier on
Hawthorne Road left no residences
See Water, 9-A
heartily agrees with the proposal
by e Chairman and Councilman
Jim Guyton and Councilman Phil
Hager. The third member of the
committee, Councilman Dean
Spears, was absent from the meet-
ing attended by 19 people, includ-
ing a majority of industrial users of
natural gas.
"It's a no-win situation,’
Hicks.
"I have qualms about possible
said
cldsing of industries due to lack of
gas and sending people home from
work in the winter time."
A new rate study in the works is
expected to include fixed costs for
natural gas.
Guyton said that industry carries
90 percent of the load in the winter
months.
"We need to be fair and not
overburden anyone," said Hicks.
See Gas, 9-A
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"AT CONT
Gary Hicks, the city's new interim city manager, talks about goals as
he relaxes in his office at City Hall.
SRO crowd applauds vote
County to Williams:
Get off DSS Board
Eighteen hours after he was or-
dered to step down from the board
of the County Department of
Social Services by the unanimous
vote of the county board of com-
missioners who appointed him,
Robert A. Williams of Fallston
says he won't step down.
"I still have work to do on that
board," Williams told The Herald.
Williams contends that under
state statutes 153-A76 the county
board is prohibited from altering
the manner in which board mem-
bers are elected.
The county commissioners voted
Tuesday night before a standing-
room-only crowd to ask for
Williams' resignation, issuing a
remove him from the seat he has
held since 1993.
Williams says allegations made
against him by his ex-wife were
proven false in court and when he
took the job at the urging of three
commissioners he publicly stated
that he would step down if allega-
tions against him were proven true.
"lI have won every case I have
had in court and I have not been
charged with any criminal viola-
tions," he said.
Williams said the county board
is operating on the theory that an
appointed authority can unappoint
a member of a board. :
"The law simply does not allow
for that," he said.
Williams said he was appointed
to help oversee the county's largest
agency, the Department of Social
Services, an agency that all county
commissioners need to be involved
in, he said.
"If they can remove me then
why can't the public remove the
elected officials on grounds of "no
confidence." They were put there
by the voters.
Water Supt. Walt Ollis, foreman Steve Hamrick, Tony Brooks and Willie Inman, left to right, repair a
pipe in a burst water line in front of the hospital. The hospital and nearby residents and businesses out
of water for six hours Friday.
Tuesday night Chairman Cecil
Dickson, who along with
Commissioners E. T. Vanhoy and
Sam Gold had originally support-
ed Williams, made the motion to
issue a statement of "no confi-
dence" and to ask for his immedi-
ate resignation.
The motion also included that in
the event Williams will not resign
that the county attorney implement
immediate legal action for his re-
moval.
No one in the audience spoke af-
ter the vote was taken but the ap-
plause was loud and Dickson
called for order. But Commissioner
Ralph Gilbert took the floor and af-
ter his remarks the applause was
v son called for ‘order: oa A KY
ilbert sought a spe-
y d. D
cial meeting of the board to ask for
the resignation of Williams after
learning about a reported dispute
between Williams and a female
friend. But Dickson said last
Wednesday he preferred to wait
until the board's Tuesday night
meeting because the social services
board did not have a meeting be-
fore the regular meeting of the
county commission.
"As a commissioner I was not
informed of any dialogue between
three of the commissioners and Mr.
Williams last week but I am
delightéd to know that some dia-
logue went on," he said after
Dickson read a prepared statement.
“It would have been better for all
of us if we had all been informed
before the meeting took place. I
wholeheartedly support the chair-
man's recommendation."
In his 'prepared statement,
Dickson said:
"For the past. few months there
has been an ongoing discussion be-
tween some of the commissioners
about replacing Robert A. Williams
«n the Social Services Board.
Board revises
conduct policy
JA revision by the Kings
Mountain Board of Education
Monday of the system's code of
conduct now makes it comply with
a state policy that requires students
who take weapons on campus to be
suspended.
The policy was revised from
suspending studenfs for the re-
mainder of the school year to sus-
pending them for 365 days from
the date of the incident.
The disciplinary sanctions in the
new code of conduct reads:
Students in grades K-12 who
bring or possess a weapon on
school property as defined in G. S.
14-269.2 (b) shall be suspended for
365 days. Any reduction of said
suspension will be in accordance
with G. S. 115C-391 (d)
Students in grades 6-12 who
bring or possess any other legally
defined weapon on a school cam-
pus will be suspended for the re-
mainder of the school vear.
Students in grades K-5 who
bring or possess a legally defined
weapon other than defined in 3a on
a school campus will be disciplined
See Policy, 10-A