rerum sameeren
NR TENT TR T
Approved bid brought back without their knowledge
~ Council members say their authority usurped
By ELIZABETH STEWART
Of The Herald Staff
Ward II Councilman Jerry
Mullinax charged Tuesday night
that Council's authority was
usurped after Council let contract
for a proposed Peak Generation
plant last month and had to do it
over again Tuesday.
"The City Manager needs to run
the job and others stay out of it un-
til we approve it," said Mullinax,
who was joined by Councilwoman
Norma Bridges in questioning why
Council had to vote again and by
Council to look
at highway plan
Residents are being encouraged
to drop by City Hall between 4-7
p.m. June 13 and preview the city's
bold, proposed thoroughfare plan.
City Council will hold public
hearing on the plan June 25 at the
7:30 p.m. Council meeting. If ap-
proved by city commissioners, the
recommendations will go to a N.
C. Department of Transportation
board to possibly be included on a
five year program that guides state
road building, says city planning
director Steve Killian.
The thoroughfare plan has
Mountain citizens are invited to
take a look at the maps on display
at City Hall.
Nine road projects are included
in the proposals.
Gold Street would run all the
See Thoroughfare, 4-A
No priorities would be set on §
in the works for some time. Kings
Councilman Phil Hager who said
he was tired of coming to a meet-
ing to find out about something he
should have been informed of in a
memorandum.
The flap occurred after Council
learned that the Local Government
Commission turned down the ini-
tial low bid in a financial proposal
for a $2 million Peak Generation
plant as "too high." Another bid
package was submitted which actu-
ally gets the city a lower interest
rate on the money it plans to bor-
TOWS.
"The City Manager
needs to run the job and
others stay out of it...”
-Jerry Mullinax
Councilwoman Norma Bridges
asked what price the city would
pay for the month's delay in the be-
ginning of construction of the
Gaston “Street facility and Utility
Director Jimmy Maney estimated
that costs of not using the plant
Twins gave KM sports fans
double dose of good times
5-A
ann peak months could run
about $200,000.
But City Manger Gary Hicks
said the LGC must approve high
dollar projects and simply said the
financial package was bid too high.
Mullinax, in a strong inter-
change with Hicks and Finance
Director Maxine Parsons, said "the
city manager needs to run the job
and let others stay out of it until we
approve it."
Councilman Phil Hager said he
only learned about the bid change
when he received his packet of in-
END OF SCHOOL PICNIC -
and back row, Jimmy and Michael Bell, Jeremy Tucker and Brooke Baity and her father, Brent Baity,
enjoy a parent-child picnic with 58 kindergarten students and their families at West School. Hilda
Leonard planned the party which featured hot dogs and all the trimmings and ice cream.
Amanda Still, Stetson Adams and Siresse Moss, front row, left to right,
Hawkins: No increase in school tax
Even though Kings Mountain
District Schools probably won't get
all the money it is requesting from
the Cleveland County Board of
Commissioners in the 1996-97
budget, there won't be a school tax
hike to Kings Mountain citizens,
says Chairman Ronnie Hawkins.
Hawkins said the full board dis-
cussed where it would get the ap-
proximately $95,290, the differ-
ence between the board's request
for $2.5 million for operation and
maintenance costs and its anticipat-
ed funding of $1.9 million, at an
all-day work session Friday and
agreed informally to use money
from reserves to make up the dif-
ference.
"The money being allocated by
commissioners will come close to
meeting our needs," said Hawkins.
Incoming ninth graders at Kings
Mountain High School could be as-
signed to certain courses next year
based on their end-of-eighth grade
scores.
Dr. Jane King, Assistant
Superintendent for Public
Instruction, is recommending that
incoming ninth graders scoring 50
percentile or above on end-of -
course reading tests be placed in
an English I honors class instead of
a traditional English I class.
King is also recommending that
Test scores may determine placement
Composition be a prerequisite for
English IT beginning with the in-
coming ninth grade class.
"The staff is recommending
these changes in order to establish
higher expectations of our stu-
dents," said King in a presentation
to the Board of Education at a
workshop Friday.
King talked to parents of incom-
ing ninth graders recently about the
proposal which will probably be on
the agenda for the next board of
education meeting.
Hawkins said the Cleveland
County Board of Commissioners is
expected to act on funding, ap-
proximately $1 million in the bud-.
get for the three Cleveland County
systems, Tuesday night at the
monthly meeting.
County Manager Lane
Alexander is recommending a 2-
percent increase in per-pupil
spending for next year. The in-
crease, if approved Tuesday, would
give Shelby, Kings Mountain and
Cleveland County school officials
an additional $9.83 to spend on
each of the county's 16,000 stu-
dents. This would mean that Kings
Mountain's per pupil increase
would go up from $491.27 per
child to $501.10 per child or a to-
tal of $1.9 million.
Although Hawkins was quick to
praise the proposed spending plan,
he said Kings Mountain schools
haven't received an increase in two
years ‘and the cost of running a
school system continues to go up.
See Schools, 4-A
formation about the upcoming
council meeting.
"We're talking about our authority
being usurped, I don't like it. Make
us aware of any changes, send us a
memorandum," said Hager.
Hicks told Council that anytime
it borrows money that the Local
Government Commission has to
give its approval and that Parsons
was acting correctly in submitting
another bid package.
Parsons said only one bid was
submitted initially which the board
accepted at last month's meeting.
Controversial rezoning request
Maney said each vendor also
submitted a financial package.
Mullinax charged that the begin-
ning construction date would be
delayed by the move and depart-
ment heads have no authority to
make changes.
But Hicks said the new bid tabu-
"lation approved by Council
Tuesday night also has to be ap-
proved by the LGC. Hicks predicts
the low bid from BB&T Leasing
Corporation at 4.77 percent, 1 per-
cent lower than the originally ac-
cepted bid, will fly.
tabled again by KM City Council
East Ridge Street residents are
petitioning City Council to amend
a rezoning request by Mike Brown
but the developer won't back
down.
The controversial rezoning of
Brown's property on King and
Ridge Streets was tabled for anoth-
er month Tuesday night after
neighbors objected, among other
things, to Brown's plans to put up
houses on lots smaller than others
in the neighborhood.
The neighborhood request to re-
zone to R-10 instead of the pro-
8,000 square feet. g
Brown's request to rezone the
former L. A. Kiser property on
East King Street to General
Business also came under fire.
"If two nice houses can be sur-
rounded by businesses this sends a
message to property owners that
anything can happen in our neigh-
borhood," said Sarah Rhea.
It's legal robbery."
Rhea said the entrance to the
city should be inviting, "not a
hodge podge" in a residential area.
"He's proposing four businesses
in our back yards, a drive-through
parking lot and homes on small
sized lots," she said.
"Will we be looking at tree
stumps and debris for the next
three years?" she asked Brown.
"It looks like a bomb dropped on
Eddie Robbs also disagreed
with Brown's claim that he will
build comparable housing on the
back of Ridge Street.
"He's threatened to put up low
income housing and duplexes if he
don't get his way," said Rhea, in a
letter she read to Council Tuesday
night.
Rhea said she applied at City
Hall for a zoning amendment, un-
See Rezoning, 4-A
it.
ery day.
and back every day,
good health to exercise," she said.
The Kings Mountain woman and her eight-year-old
daughter, Heather, walk to West School's second grade
rain or shine. Wanda returns
home on her feet to Phifer Road and then walks back
to accompany her daughter home in the afternoon.
Heather doesn't share her Mom's mode of traveling
but she says she's looking forward to riding in the car
to Disneyworld this summer and taking a rest at home.
Even when she was Heather's age, Wanda walked to
town twice a week with her mother, Josephine
McAbee, from their home in the Craftspun Mills com-
munity. The youngest in the McAbee household of
nine children, Wanda was the walker in the family.
"I have always been health conscious and credit my
In addition to walking to school and back, Wilson
hikes to her sister's home on Fairview Road, a 7 1/2
mile round trip.
Wanda never walks at the walking track, prefers ear-
home.
cise to others.
temperatures.
How does Wanda measure her distance on her feet?
After she returns home she gets in her car and rides.
A WALKING WANDA
Walking helps KM woman stay healthy, relieve tensions of day
Wanda McAbee Wilson's friends tease her that she
may have more miles on her feet than on her car.
But Wilson, an avid hiker since she was a little girl,
continues walking right along and at least 10 miles ev-
ly morning walks with her daughter to talk about fami-
ly activities and in the afternoon hears about school
events on the brisk walk home which averages about
15 minutes a mile.
"We leave the house about 7:30 a.m. every morning
- on Phifer Road and it takes 25 to 30 minutes to walk to
school,” says Wanda who is back at school at 2:50
p.m. every day to walk her daughter back to their
Bill Wilson shares his wife's attitude about good
health and proper exercise but doesn't join his family
often on their treks to town.
Wanda, who is fit and trim, thinks she has built up
an immunity to illness with her strict exercise pro-
gram. She highly recommends walking as good exer-
"I like to look at things as I walk and reminisce and
it seems like the pressures and tensions of the day just
roll off," says Wanda who often walks as much as 15
miles a day. Wanda walks in all kinds of weather but
doesn't take her child out in extremely cold and hot
e
Council annexes
east KM property
mously approved the annexation of
City Council Tuesday unani-
212 residential and 546 industrial
acres on the city's east side that
adds $30 million in real property
tax value to the city's rclls and
brings nearly $250,000 in total an-
nual revenue to the city.
The effective date is 13 months
away.
Although ome residents of the
ope! ?
taken quickly by Council.
Neighborhood and some indus-
trial objection was raised at a May
14 public hearing by those who
said annexation would decrease
new business in the city and they
didn't need more property taxes. .
Area 97-A, which includes
Center and Second Streets, is most-
ly residential with a handful of
small businesses.
Area 97-B, primarily industrial,
runs from U. S. 74 south across
Canterbury Road and I-85 and in-
cludes Bali, Commercial Intertech,
Firestone Fibers, Sara Lee and
Foust Textiles.
City planner Steve Killian said
that the city had met all legal re-
quirements for annexation. He
said all costs connected with
rolling services, such as fire and
police, would begin by July 1,
1997.
Killian said the city's cost for
providing water in Area A would
run $14,000 and for sewer services
approximately $93,000. He said
the city would collect no revenue
until the second year of annexa-
tion. He said the second phase of
utility construction in Area B
would run approximately $252,000
See Annexation, 4-A
Heather Wilson joins her mother, Wanda McAbee Wilson, on their
daily walk to school.
The exercise gives them plenty of time to talk.
York Road residents
oppose name changes
York Road residents don't want
their road renamed Ollie Harris
Boulevard.
"Forty businesses would be af-
fected by the change," said busi-
nessman John Dilling during a
public hearing by City Council
Tuesday night.
"We were told nothing in ad-
vance about this proposed change.
We had to read it in the newspa-
per,” he said.
Dilling was joined by his wife,
Carolyn Dilling, Irene Moore and
Coleen Philbeck in asking Council
to pick another street.
"It's well and good to honor the
Senator but why not name the new
road that's proposed after Ollie, "
said Dilling. =
"You're ‘adding more expense
small businesses and not taking
them into consideration."
Mrs. Dilling suggested that nam-
ing the bypass after Harris would
also be a better choice.
Mayor Scott Neisler said the by-
See York Road, 4-A