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BLACK HISTORY MONTH - Evelyn Cumberlander, teacher's as-
sistant at No. 3 School, tells a story during a Black History Month cele-
bration Monday at Parker Street School.
Firestone to invest millions
at Kings Mountain plant
Firestone Fibers and Textiles an-
nounced today a further multi-mil-
lion-dollar investment at its Kings
Mountain plant.
Jaggy Anand, president of the
Gaston County based company,
said "We are very pleased to an-
nounce that our parent company,
Bridgestone/Firestone Inc., has ap-
proved the installation of a new
multi-million dollar tire cord treat-
ing unit at our Kings Mountain
plant.
"Installation of this state-of-the
art treating unit together with the
company's existing treating facili-
ties in Gastonia will allow FSFT to
expand its tire cord business in
support of BFS's objective of in-
creased market share in North and
South America as well as provid-
ing the opportunity to participate
more aggressively in the tire cord
market outside of BFS." Anand
said. ] :
Design for the installation of the
unit, which ha$ been produced by
Zell Inc. in Germany, commenced
in January with final installation
planned for September 1997. The
exact amount of the investment
was not disclosed.
When the $20 million, 416,000
square foot facility was dedicated
in July 1993 on the 78-acre site,
KMHS sets sports banquet
The Kings Mountain High
School winter sports banquet will
be held March 11 at 6 p.m. in the
school cafeteria.
Tickets are $7 and may be pur-
the company said it would apply
high technology to achieve world
class manufacturing for tire cord
and industrial fabrics.
The Kings Mountain plant,
which currently has some 360 em-
ployees, is one of 21 North
American tire and diversified prod-
ucts plants operated by
Bridgestone/Firestone Inc., a whol-
ly-owned subsidiary of
Bridgestone Corporation.
Nashville - biased
Bridgestone/Firestone Inc., the
largest subsidiary of Bridgestone
Corporation, develops, manufac-
tures and markets Bridgestone,
Firestone, Dayton, private brand
and house brand tires, as well as
building products, synthetic rubber
and industrial products.
Bridgestone Corporation, head-
quartered in Tokyo, is the largest
tire and rubber company in the
world..It produces a complete line
of tires which account; for 75 per-
cent of its salés worldwide, It also
manufactures a wide range of di-
versified products which include
industrial rubber, chemical prod-
ucts, sporting goods and others.
These products are sold in more
than 150 nations and territories
around the world.
chased at the school office or at the
door.
The basketball, wrestling and
swim teams, and cheerleaders, will
be recognized.
Cherokee Speedway to open
Cherokee Speedway in Gaffney
will pen for its 39th year of racing
this weekend.
An open practice is scheduled
for Friday from 5-10 p.m. and
again on Saturday from 12 noon-5
p.m. The first official race is sched-
uled for Sunday at 2 p.m. Gates
open at noon.
Fans and drivers will find nu-
merous improvements to the his-
toric track. New clay, new walls,
new infield concessions, new in-
field restrooms, and a new pit road
have been added.
The $2,000 to win late model
race on Sunday will give fans their
first chance to see local heroes be-
fore the out-of-state drivers roll in
March 9-10 for the $10,000 to win
AAU basketball
tryouts slated
Tryouts for the Kings Mountain
14 years and under AAU Junior
Olympics basketball team will be
held March 2-3 at 3 p.m. at the
Kings Mountain Boys Club. A
player's age as of September 1 de-
termines eligibility.
For more information, call
Danny McDowell at 739-7026 af-
ter 3:30 p.m., Tom Bennett at 739-
3667 from 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.,
R.A. Bell at 739-0102 after S p.m.,
and Gerome Parker at 739-1867 af-
ter 5 p.m.
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Cherokee Clash - the Hav-A-
Tampa qualifier.
The first track to open in the
area, Cherokee expects to draw
cars out of Tennessee, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia
and Georgia as drivers test new
equipment for the new year. Fans
are encouraged to attend the prac-
tice runs Friday and Saturday.
For more information, call the
track office at (704) 732-2685 or
the track at (864) 489-1969.
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Downtown
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Cleveland County is among at
least three counties of similar size
fined in January for failure by the
DSS to process some applications
in a timely manner.
The Department of Social
Services was also out of compli-
ance in one of the Medicaid cate-
gories five of 12 months during
the period February 1995-January
1996 for failing to process disabili-
ty applications within a required
90-day period.
Al Thompson, state DSS
Regional Administrator, said
Cleveland County was fined
$10,700 by the state in January for
failing to process applications for
food stamps and Aid to Dependent
Children in October, November
and December.
Thompson said DSS officials
took corrective steps to resolve the
problems and the county did not
request a waiver of the fine but
paid the fine.
Thompson said both Onslow
and Cleveland Counties had been
working since September to imple-
ment a new "generic" intake appli-
cation process that requires only
one case worker - instead of two -
in Cleveland County to handle re-
quests for food stamps and AFDC
payments and in Onslow to handle
Medicaid applications.
Onslow requested a waiver to
determine if certain cases were un-
timely beyond the department's
control.
County commissioners, includ-
ing Jim Crawley who sits on the
DSS board, heard about the fine for
the first time from former DSS
Thursday, February 29, 1996 - THE KINGS MOUNTAIN HERALD - Page 5A
County fined for DSS violations
member Robert A. Williams at last
Tuesday's county commission
meeting. :
Williams was removed from the
board by the board of county com-
missioners in September and asked
at that meeting for an update on the
new generic application process
that the county was just beginning.
Williams' request was ignored.
Thompson backed the county's
DSS Director Lorene Rogers who
said at Tuesday afternoon's DSS
meeting that "things are running
smoothly now."
"It has been a difficult time for
the staff and we have no reason to
believe there will be any more ma-
jor problems," said Rogers.
Rogers said the failure on the
state report card can be attributed
to several reasons. She said several
employees since then have either
resigned or gone on extended sick
leave. Late last year, she said there
weren't enough case workers to
process all the applications in the
required 45-day time limit. Rogers
said at least two people left, in part,
because of frustration with the new
program.
"It was not an easy process for
the staff to go through,” said
Rogers. The state administrator
agreed.
Thompson said the Alexander-
Hill-Flaherty-Britt report card is
connected to a state court order
that goes back to 1974. A computer
system determines the timeliness
of cases disposed of by DSS during
a month's time and there is a
threshold of 90 percent for all the
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739-9142
different programs. If a DSS is be-
low 90 percent in a given program
area there are four categories in
which the department/county can
be fined.
"Generic processing is causing
some difficulties in adjustment pe-
riods," Thompson said.
Onslow County failed in the
Medicaid area for three consecu-
tive months in November,
December and January. b
"If we have a county that fails
five out of 12 months we start
looking at the possibility of a com-
pliance team made up of Kent
Campbell, the regional director out
of Black Mountain, the county di-
rector, county commissioners
and/or the county manager," he
said.
Thompson said a compliance
team was not necessary for
Cleveland County in January be-
cause he was assured by DSS offi-
cials that the problems had been re-
solved.
Mecklenburg County was out of
compliance in AFDC for four con-
secutive months and Caldwell
County was out of compliance for
three months, October through
December, he said. Cleveland and
Caldwell were both out of compli-
ance in AFDC in October,
November and December but no
problems were reported in January.
Thompson acknowledged that
other DSS departments were expe-
riencing stress from the court order
because of increased pressure for
extra documentation of cases.
"DSS departments are experi-
Little
| Spring.
In
Your
encing a great deal of turnover and
that means vacant positions and
people have to pick up the slack af-
ter a person quits," he said.
Thompson said the holiday peri-
od and the snow also got DSS
workers behind.
The local agency began training
caseworkers to assume responsibil-
ity for family benefits in Medicaid,
AFDC and Food Stamps programs
in May 1995 but required cus-
tomers to see only one caseworker
to access benefits from all pro-
grams. Rogers said the consolida-
tion of the programs reduces dupli-
cation that occurs when a customer
must see three different casework-
ers, providing the same informa-
tion to obtain benefits. Rogers said
restructuring did not occur until
September.
Of 12 intake caseworkers, she
said four left the agency's employ-
ment. Another of the 12 went on
long term leave. Of the remaining
seven caseworkers on intake, three
had no AFDC or Medicaid experi-
ence. There are currently 16 case-
workers. During the period August
1995-January 1996, a total of 803
AFDC, 1,357 AFDC-MA and
$2,270 food stamp applications
processed.
Rogers said that as of February
13 only one application is pending
on the AFDC and Other Medicaid
Program categories beyond the
45th day. She said the DSS region-
al staff met with her department
February 8 and concluded that the
agency took appropriate measures
to regain and sustain compliance.
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KINGS MOUNTAIN FAMILY PHYSICIANS
608 W. KINGS STREET ® PROFESSIONAL PARK, BLDG. 2 ® KINGS MOUNTAIN, NC © 28086 © 734-2820
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