Member
North Carolina Press Association
Vol. 107 No. 47
JERRY MULLINAX
Give Thanks
L, oe
VHA
Mullinax
Jerry Mullinax was officially de-
clared the winner of the Ward 2
Council seat Monday night by the
Kings Mountain Board of
Elections which unanimously de-
nied incumbent Jim Guyton's chal-
lenge for a new election but said it
found serious indications of al-
leged voter fraud.
City Attorney Mickey Corry
said after the hearing that he would
turn over the sworn testimony of
Guyton and his wife, Shirley, to the
District Attorney for possible pros-
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Wednesday, November 22, 1995
ecution of a Grover woman who
allegedly used her mother's address
to vote in the November 7 runoff.
"There is sufficient evidence
from the sworn testimony that vio-
lations of the election laws and
misconduct are sufficiently serious
but would not cast doubt on the
permanent results of the Ward 2
election,"said Elections Board
Chairman Becky Cook.
Cook said that apparently a
. woman who now ‘resides in Grover
gave her mother's Kings Mountain
address and voted in the East
precinct. According to the poll-
books, the woman had voted on
October 10 in the East Kings
Mountain precir:..
Cook said the 30 day rule of
moving does not apply.
Cook said there was no way to
determine how the woman voted.
"One vote however won't change
the results of the election but we
will present all the facts to the
District Attorney."
"I won't go any further on this
KM prepares
for Thanksgiving
Family get-to-gethers, early
church breakfasts, hunting and
television viewing of football
games and parades will be the or-
der of Thanksgiving Day for most
Kings Mountain area residents.
At ‘least one church, St.
Matthew's Lutheran Church, will
hold the annual Thanksgiving Day
worship services Thursday at 10
a.m.
The service of holy communion
will include special music by the
choir. Rev. James Dougherty will
use the topic, "For What Are We
Thankful?"
Worshippers will take food do-
nations to the service for needy
families and the food will be dis-
tributed by the Kings Mountain
Crisis Ministry during the holiday
season.
Breakfast will be served by the
Men of First Presbyterian and
Kings Mountain Baptist Churches .
and at Boyce Memorial ARP
Church at 7:30 a.m. Brief services
of worship will follow. At Central
United Methodist Church the Men
of the Church will serve breakfast
from 7:30-9 a.m. At Grace United
Methodist Church the Men of the
Church will serve breakfast at 8:30
a.m.
Christie Hughes, Kings
Mountain High School senior and
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jackie
Hughes, will represent the city as
Carrousel Princess in the annual
Thanksgiving Day parade in
Charlotte. The parade will be tele-
vised by WBTV Channel 3.
Most of the city will be closed
down tight with the exception of
some industrial plants and service
stations.
In Kings Mountain Peggy's
Restaurant on North Piedmont
Avenue and Ramada Inn, formerly
Holiday Inn on I-85 at York Road,
will be open for serving of the tra-
ditional Thanksgiving lunch.
City offices will be closed and
emergencies will be routed through
the Kings Mountain Police
Department, 734-0444 or 911.
Students and teachers will begin
a long holiday Wednesday, return-
ing to school on Monday.
shows off a few of his big crop.
Only one day remains before Thanksgiving. Farmer Jack Scism
DA dismisses charges against Williams
All pending charges against
controversial and ousted
Department of Social Services
Board member Robert A. Williams
were dismissed by Cleveland
County District Attorney Bill
Young last Thursday but the detec-
tive handling the investigation is
asked the DA to review the case .
The only witness to show up at
the probable cause hearing was
Sandra Gail Wilson of Grover, who
refused to testify.
Det. Bobby Steen of the
Cleveland County Sheriff's
Department, who took out the war-
rant charging Williams with assault
on Wilson's 16-year-old son, said
he was not notified of the hearing.
"No one from the Sheriff's office
was subpoenaed," Steen said
Tuesday. :
Young was in court Tuesday
and unavailable for comment.
Williams, who was arrested
twice within 24 hours last month,
said "Cleveland County dirty poli-
tics just ran head on into the US
Myrick to lead
Christmas parade
Ninth District Congresswoman
Sue Myrick will be grand marshal
for Kings Mountain's Christmas
parade Saturday, December 2, at
3:30 p.m.
Parade entries are still invited,
according to David Dellinger, who
is heading up the holiday event for
the Kings Mountain Parks &
Recreation Department.
Seventy units had signed up this
week at the Community Center.
Dellinger says he expects the pa-
rade lineup will top 100.
Fhe Shriners’ Piedmont Pistons,
the Kings Mountain High School
marching band, the Madison
McCullouth Community Band and
the Greenville Marching Corp are
expected as well as Carolina
Crusaders, Magic 96, Frosty the
Snowman, numerous dance groups
and beauty queens, at least 10
floats, and, of course, the jolly old
man himself from the North Pole,
Santa Claus.
Dellinger said the parade route
will move from West Gold Street,
turning right at Minit Grill and pro-
ceeding up the main street of the
REP. SUE MYRICK
city, turning right on King Street at
the overhead bridge and disband-
ing in the area of Kentucky Fried
Chicken on King Street.
Representative Myrick is serving
her first term in the U. S. Congress.
A Republican member of the
House, she is a former mayor of
Charlotte.
=
Constitution and the Constitution
won."
"lis the same every time. Make
up a phony charge, substantiate
with phony reports, make a big me-
dia circus, blame it on Williams
and then held a kangaroo court.
Just like the county commission
so-called hearing on my role as a
DSS board member."
"So, I hired an out-of-county at-
torney. A real courtroom pro. He
read the law as it was written.
Some folks wanted the law to say
what they wanted, but my attorney
made them go by what the law re-
ally says and what the facts really
were. Make believe charges were
not allowed." /
"Actually," continued Williams,
"I'm a little surprised at how fast
everything was dropped. It was a
red hot potato that the Sheriff's
Department dropped in the DA's
lap. The charges were just flat
false and the DA knew it. Bill
Young dropped them as fast as he
could."
Kings Mountain People
Kings Mountain, N.C, ¢ 28086 50¢
but I congratulate Mr. Mullinax
and I will be at every board meet-
ing and will continue to speak up
for what's right," said Guyton after
a hearing which attracted about 30
people and in which Guyton and
his wife, Shirley, were the only
sworn witnesses.
Mullinax, elected by a two vote
margin over Guyton to his first two
year term at City Hall, was obvi-
ously pleased at the outcome.
"I don't blame Jim for making a
challenge and I certainly do not ap-
in: Guyton out
prove of the behavior at the polls
that he talked about tonight and I
certainly hope it will never happen
again."
Guyton said he wanted to air his
concerns because "some bad things
happened at the polls in November
and I hope I made that point by
challenging the election."
Cook, who conducted the hear-
ing, said she was pleased that Mr.
Guyton had not asked for a re-
count.
See Mullinax, 2A
City to crack down
on past due accounts
City Manager Gary Hicks said
the city will aggressively crack
down on past due utility accounts
and examine current contracts with
an eye toward using legal means to
collect. ;
"It's nearly two years down the
road since the city found that some
utility customers had underpaid
their bills and the city had over-
charged some customers and we
want to examine all past due ac-
counts and take steps to cut off
electricity of customers who are
behind," he said to the city utilise
committee Monday night.
"But we want to give them one
more chance to pay up,” he said.
Jim Guyton, chairman of the
utilities committee, said he had
asked for copies of all unpaid bills
and wanted the full Council to be
apprised of all unpaid bills.
“I have still not received the
copies and the Council has not,"
said Guyton.
Hicks acknowledged that some
contract signing probably had not
been done in accordance with the
code of ordinance.
"But the city has credited those
accounts for electricity that were
overcharged," he said.
Guyton said he blames city de-
partment heads for dropping the
ball on the policies and procedures
dealing with contracts for some
customers.
"I don't blame the customers,"
he said.
Guyton said that customers are
complaining that their utility bills
are incorrect,
"I want the departments to keep
up with what is going on and I
hope that someday customers will
believe that the bills they are get-
ting from us are correct."
Councilman Phil Hager's ad-
vice was "put people in the place
where they need to be,” comment-
See Crack Down, 2A
City seeks
renegotiated
contract
"It's worth a try," said City
Manager Gary Hicks to
Councilman Jim Guyton's sugges-
tion that he attempt to renegotiate
with Gastonia for a reduction in
itscurrent 30-year contract at the
Crowders. Creek Wastewater
Treatment Plant.
The Utilities committee Monday
night pondered over the loss of
revenue by the closing of the
Clevemont Fruit of the Loom plant
which is a big water and sewer cus-
tomer.
Walt Ollis, city water/wastewa-
ter department head, said Kings
Mountain paid neighboring
Gastonia $870,000 last year for
sewage treatment and up until
Clevemont announced its closing
the city was pumping 618,000 gal-
lons a day with a return of a half
million gallons a day in waste wa-
ter.
‘Ollis said the most obvious an-
swer is to run a 1 1/2 mile line to
Spectrum, another big water cus-
tomer, but the major expense
would be a force main to carry the
flow of a half million gallons to the
plant.
"Spectrum has no sewer prob-
lem," he said.
But Spectrum engineer Hubert
Johnson said he didn't want to
muddy the water but Spectrum was
installing in house a new water re-
cycling system which looks very
promising.
"We're a year away from the fin-
ished installed system but a year
from now we may not be using 25
or 30 percent of the water we're
using today."
See Hicks, 2A
By ELIZABETH STEWART
of The Herald Staff
His rookie class says there's nev-
er a dull moment in training with
Kings Mountain Police Sgt. James
Camp.
"That's because I want them to
be the best and I like what I do,"
says the 19-year veteran of KMPD
who was promoted through the
ranks to Sergeant nine years ago.
Camp returned to his home in
Grover from New Jersey in 1976
after working 17 years as a bus
driver for the state transportation
system and found a job with a fu-
ture.
"Chief Earl Lloyd was hiring
new patrolman in Kings Mountain
and I jumped at the chance to get
into police work," said Camp.
"There is nothing like it and I
recommend it to any young person
who wants a future in law enforce-
ment and is committed to doing a
good job."
Fresh out of Compact High
School in 1959, Camp found there
were no job for a young black man
who married at 16 four days after
graduation. He and his bride took
off for New Jersey and he started
driving the bus. They were mar-
ried for 15 years and had four chil-
dren, Earvient Camp Cortter, Carla
Rena Shepert, James Pressley
Camp Jr. and Eric Norris Camp of
Hillside, NJ. and nine grandchil-
dren who range from 20 years to
less than 12 months.
Camp met his wife, Sharon
Martin Camp, when she caught his
bus to ride to Mount Claire State
College, where she was a student.
They were married and moved
back to the Long Branch
Community of Grover in 1976.
They have been married 20 years
and have one son, A. J., 9. They
belong to Long Branch First
Baptist Church where Camp is ac-
tive on the usher and trustee
boards. Mrs. Camp has worked for
Southern Bell for 24 years and
transferred from New Jersey Bell
to Charlotte.
Son of the late Maggie Camp
Peterson and L. A. Grier, Camp
built his new home in the commu-
nity he was raised. After retire-
ment, he plans to join the family
business, Long Branch Dry
Cleaners which his sister, Vanessa
Camp, has owned and operated
since the death of their mother.
Camp was raised in the family
home beside the dry cleaning busi-
ness which is run by Charlie
Crocker on Long Branch Road.
An avid golfer, James plays in a
golf association league and partici-
pated in the John Peterson PGA
Tour. On his day off you can find
him at the golf course.
“I play every chance I get, got
started 13 years ago and I hope my
young son will follow in my foot-
steps,” he laughs. James enjoying
spending time with his son, a
fourth grader at Grover, and when
all the children and grandchildren
all get together there's a full house.
Police officers help people and
Camp is no exception. He helped
Camp's training class is never dull
SGT. JAMES CAMP
organize a ball team and club of
young people in the Northwoods
Community to help clean up the
area, cut grass for the elderly and
run errands.
Instead of getting in trouble,
Kids got direction and other outlets
See Camp, 2A
IARERERC LE RAREDEN OL BE HE