North Carolina Press Association
Vol. 108 No. 37
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State Park
‘Mountaineers sting
Yellow Jackets 58-11
Thursday, September 19, 1996
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Football Contest
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KM breaks ground for peak generation plant
In four years Kings Mountain
City Manager Jimmy Maney ex-
pects the city electric system to
be ready for a competitive mar-
ketplace.
With the construction of a
4,500. to 6,000 kw peak genera-
tion plant underway and access
to cheaper wholesale power
Day of Caring set
Saturday at Depot
Volunteers will go out in
force Saturday morning to shaw
Kings Mountain people they °
care.
It's the annual Day of Caring
sponsored by the Cleveland
County United Way and the
Kings Mountain United Fund
and events are targeted to begin
with breakfast for local volun-
teers at the Kings Mountain
Senior Center.
Rita Lawing, coordinator for
the Kings Mountain project,
said 40 volunteers are needed to
paint the outside of the Senior
Center and the activity room at
the Depot in additon to carpet-
ing one of the two cabooses at
the Senior Center.
If more volunteers show up
and Lawing hopes they will,
there are other projects the
group will work on during the
day. Lunch will also be free at
the Senior Center to volunteers.
Day of Caring is in its second
year in the county.
rates, Maney believes the city
will be better positioned for a
competitive environment.
"We're excited about it. We
feel like we're positioning our-
selves as far as being a small
utility as the leader in the in-
dustry," he said.
The N. C. Local Government
Commission gave the city ap-
proval to borrow $2 million to
build the generator facility at
the North Gaston Street substa-
tion.
Groundbreaking ceremonies
were held Tuesday at 9 a.m.
Mayor Scott Neisler cut the rib-
bon, assisted by contractors
from McDaniel Construction
Company of Blacksburg, SC
and engineer Bob Thomas of
Professional Engineering of
Charlotte. Excavation work
started last week.
The peak generator is sched-
uled for completion by early
February.
GROUNDBREAKING - City Manager Jimmy Maney, Councilman Dean Spears, contractors
Ronnie McDaniel and Bob Thomas, Mayor Scott Neisler and utility department head Scott
Buchanan, left to right, break ground for the city's $2 million peak generation plant on North
_ Gaston Street.
* Sylvia Holmes retires as Girl Sc
For Sylvia Holmes Scouting
has been a lifelong family affair.
Bediving September 30 after
16 years as
the Pioneer
Girl Scout
Council's
chief execu-
tive, Holmes
became a
Girl Scout
leader in
King's
Mountain at
Fila st
Presbyterian
Church Troop 4 almost immedi-
ately after she and her husband,
Ray, moved here in 1962.
"We were not U. S. citizens
then and the Boy Scouts had
HOLMES
that requirement of a leader and
Ray couldn't serve until 1975,"
she said.
But Sylvia could serve even
before she became a U. S. citi-
zen and the whole family, in-
cluding their two children,
quickly became Ameéricanized
and became active in Scouts
and in many community activi-
ties.
Born and reared in Yorkshire,
England, Sylvia moved through
the ranks from a Brownie to the
Girl Guide, the Queen's highest
Scouting award, and met her
husband, who was from
Midlands, England, when he
was also active in the Boy Scout
program.
The family moved to
Historic properties survey
to be conducted in county
Do you want your historic
properties included in a
Cleveland County Historic
Properties Survey book and
preserved for posterity:?
If so, the welcome mat is out
for you to attend a reception
Sunday at 3 p.m. at the old one-
room schoolhouse on Ronny
Ivester's farm, 719 W. Zion
Church Road, off U. S. 226
north.
Brian Eades of Atlanta, Ga., a
certified architectural historian,
will be on hand to get your
names and addresses so that he
can visit your historic home,
historic church, historic grave-
yards and/or industrial or busi-
ness sites for documentation in
a book to be published in future
years.
Eades will work in the county
for 14 months and will be paid
from private donations and
grants from Cleveland County
commissioners and the North
Carolina Department of
Cultural Resources.
Cleveland County Historic
Properties Fund is sponsoring
the event. Local members of the
task force are Mary Neisler,
Johnsie Reavis, Ruby
Alexander, all of Kings
Mountain, and Jackie Rountree
of Grover.
During his stay in the county
Eades will work out of an office
in the Cleveland County
Economic Development
Commission in Shelby.
Cleveland County is among
12 counties in the state who
have not completed a historic
properties survey.
"This task is a must for us to
do and we hope that many peo-
ple will come out Sunday to -
meet the historian who will be
calling on local people for inter-
views and data," said Mrs.
Neisler.
Neisler: No more 'personal attacks’
Mayor Scott Neisler will in-
augurate new guidelines for the
citizen recognition portion of
the regular city board meetings
"on the last Tuesday in the
month.
"We want citizens to feel free
to take their concerns to
Council but we hope to set a
positive trend by encouraging
those who speak to seek posi-
tive solutions to problems
rather than destructive ones,"
he said.
"The mayor says he hopes the
days of personal attacks against
citizens and/or Council are
past.
Citizens will be recognized
for three minutes at the end of
the regular meeting. Those who
wish to speak 10 minutes
should ask to be placed on the
agenda.
Cleveland County when Ray
was transferred to the Fiber
Industries plant in Shelby as
production engineer.
Sylvia wrote social news for
the Kings Mountain Mirror dur-
ing the early years of their mar-
riage here and also taught part
time at Cleveland Community
College and remedial math at
Kings Mountain HIgh School.
"Volunteering was something
I loved to do and I volunteered
for a number of years in many
capacities for Scouts and
worked membership,’ said
Sylvia. After the children were
grown she went to work full
time and heads a staff of 16 plus
a large corps of volunteers.
The Holmes family moved to
Denver in 1983 when Ray was
transferred by Hoechst
Celanese to Salisbury. He re-
tired 3 1/2 years after 37 years
with the company.
The Holmes son' Chris , a
former Kings Mountain Boy
Scout, is a CPA for Ernest &
Young in Washington, DC and
is married to Mildred Webber
Holmes.
The Holmes daughter
Lindsay, a former First Class
Scout, is married to Dr. Charles
Meakin, a Gastonia radiation
oncologist. They have two chil-
dren, Jack,3, and Maisy, six
months.
"Girl Scouting will always be
in my heart," said Sylvia at a re-
See Holmes, 10-A
the city's recent rate Susy ahd
di i we
TAKING SHAPE - The new home of Linda and Alan Stout on
Canterbury Road is going up and Stout says his landscaping
crew will finish up first.
Below the house will be a community
park and a softball field for children of the community.
And since the current settle-
ment with Duke Power over
wholesale rates was approved
last week the system should
pay for itself in four years, ac-
cording to Maney.
Under the settlement, Kings
Mountain will be billed under a
coincident peak rate schedule,
which means the generator will
save the city big bucks during
peak demand times.
Kings Mountain is one of
several cities, including
Concord, Forest City and
Dallas, that filed a complaint
See Plant, 10-A
Daniel M. Stone appointed
KM interim finance officer
Daniel M. Stone of Mount
Pleasant , 50, assumed his new
duties Monday as the City of
Kings Mountain interim finance
officer.
He was
hired by
Coy
Manager
Jim my
Maney at
annual
salary ‘of
$42,000.
Stone
was wel-
comed by
the city utilities commission
Monday night and presented
several alternative rate struc-
tures for water/sewer cus-
tomers. The city raised ‘existing
rates 7.76 percent in a recent
board action.
"Dan is no stranger to Kings
Mountain since he conducted
STONE
"discoverey
underbilling and overbilling of
electric utilities," said Maney.
As a prior executive consul-
tant with SVBK Consulting
Group of Charlotte, he man-
aged and directed various pro-
jects for municipal clients which
own and operate electric, water,
wastewater and natural gas
utility systems. He was manag-
er of the Rates and Billing
Department for Electri Cities of
North Carolina which serves 65
municipal systems in the state
and was utility consulting engi-
neer with the North Carolina
Utilities Commission. In addi-
tion, he prepared testimony and
exhibits and testified at rate
hearings and other proceedings
before the NCUC.
Stone is a licensed profession-
Alan Stout sees Canterbury
residents as big, happy family
A Canterbury Road commu-
nity ballfield and park are in-
cluded in Alan Stout's
blueprints for his new country
home under construction.
I see our community as one
big, happy family," the retired
Schiele Museum executive and
naturalist /historian told friends
and neighbors at a "Sanging in
the Bottoms" he and wife,
Linda, hosted last Wednesday
evening.
Entertaining on the site
where a wagon bogged down
with cannon balls at a wagon
crossing in the gap of the
mountains in the late 1700's, he
talked about his dream for the
community project and the his-
torical area he fell in love with
20 years ago when he built his
first house on the same spot.
Rock chiseled 300 years ago
by German stonemakers were a
stark contrast to new trails, a
waterfall, a creek, foliage and
flowers galore that were a natu-
ral perfect setting for the party.
Carpenters quit work to play
their guitars and guests relaxed
on the porch and picnicked in
the yard. They ended the mer-
rymaking with a bonfire at 10
p.m. and more songs around
the fire.
The inspiration for the party
al engineer in four states, in-
cluding the Carolinas, with over
28 years experience. He has
served over 50 local municipal
governments across . the
Carolina region, including
Kings Mountain and Shelby, on
a variety of utility related is-
sues.
Stone opened Stone
Consulting Services in 1996. He
holds a B. S. degree in Civil
Engineering from North
Carolina State University and
belongs to the Professional
Engineers of North Carolina,
National Society of Professional
Engineers, American Society of
Civil Engineers and American
Public Power Association.
Among Stone's proposals in
the recent rate study was the
implementation of a structural
change to water/sewer cus-
tomers which could mean a dif-
ferential in sewer charges to
outside and inside city cus-
EL 2 is TE oth classe
o tomers are b Ted jig re
same rate. :
Water / Wastewater Supt. Walt
Ollis told the committee that:
the water/sewer budget is at a:
break-even point. "My depart-:
ment is operating on a string:
and we will be dipping into the:=
fund balance if something ma-:
jor should happen," he told the:
three-member board which in-
cludes Phil Hager, chairman;
Norma Bridges and Dean
Spears.
The committee authorized
Stone and Maney to proceed
with plans to implement the
language of the rate study and
present to a future Council
meeting for consideration.
was for the 75 neighbors to get
a preview of the new house
which won't be completed for
several months.
But Stout said his neighbors
are important to him and he
wanted them to share in his ex-
citement.
"God did the landscaping and
we're just enjoying building the
house," he says.
Stout, who retired after 31
1/2 years with Schiele
Museum, is supervising a six-
man construction crew and a
six person landscaping crew.
A carriage house, gazebo and
private gardens are sure to be a
conversation piece. The mani-
cured grounds are a gardener's
delight.
The Great Room will have
stainglass windows, a trayed
ceiling and recessed lighting.
The whole house will have an
open look. Stonework, a sun
room and a log exterior are
among the features.
Jeff Guyton Sr. plans to com-
plete the landscaping before
the house is finished. Stout and
his builders are putting up the
storm ‘drains and doing the
rockwork.
Guyton said before they
See Stout, 10-A
Cl Le EE