Member
North Carolina Press Association
Vol. 109 No. 06
a
City looks
at Bojangles
site plans
City Planning Director Steve
Killian said the city has looked
at a site plan for a proposed
Bojangles and negotiations are
still underway by the company
for property acquisition.
Meantime, Killian said that
construction is well underway
for a permanent Doctor's Clinic
on Cleveland Avenue in the
same area that Bojangles is
looking at property for a restau-
rant. A temporary Doctor's
Clinic is operated presently on
Cleveland Avenue by Gaston
Memorial Hospital.
Other proposed construction
projects are taking shape.
Landscaping contractors
started clearing away under-
brush and old trees last
Wednesday at White Oak
Manor in preparation for a
$48,000 landscaping project in
line with neighborhood re-
quests for more buffering.
White Oak plans a 60-bed ex-
pansion and City Council gave
approval to the rezoning re-
quest last week.
Killian said that grading is
underway at the site of the pro-
posed assisted living retirement
complex across from the Kings
Mountain Middle School in
Southwoods Development.
"With good weather we should
see more progress there," he
said.
Ingles has not Somitien a re-
quest for a building permit nor
a site plan. However, Killian
said Ingles has the option to
seck an amendment from City
Council to the portion of the re-
cently adopted zoning ordi-
nance Ingles questions or to re-
quest a variance to the Kings
Mountain Board of Adjustment.
Ingles has raised objections to a
provision in the new ordinance
requiring more trees, citing
safety reasons to prospective
customers.
Killian said the planning
board will take a look at a re-
zoning request from Phillip
Elam of Mars Hill, formerly of
Kings Mountain, at the
February 18 meeting. Killian
said that an Indiana company is
eying the 80 acres off Crocker
Road to build manufactured
homes that could employ up to
250 people.
Shelby Realtor John Barker
. has submitted the Elam applica-
tion for rezoning from residen-
tial to light industry.
Members of Brownie Scout Troop 984, sponsored by the North
mene School PTO, took advantage of Monday's sun and
69-degree temperature to have some fun on the sliding board at
0 playgr
: GROVER - The Town of:
~ Grover currently uses an honor
system to employ three part
time police officers and some-
times it poses a dilemma, ac-
cording to Mayor Ronald
Queen.
Queen on Monday appoint-
ed veteran officer and Grover
..resident Ed Pheagin to super-
vise the present staff of part-
time officers Jerry White and
Debbie Arrowood and run the
police department.
Grover may consider
GROVER - Town Council
may look at farming out the
garbage collection business to
an independent hauler, Mayor
Ronald Queen said Monday.
The matter surfaced at the
Town Board meeting when
Queen said the town must re-
duce by 40 percent the amount
of garbage it hauls to the county .
landfill in the next 10 years.
Queen was directed by the
board to send out a letter to all
residents strongly encouraging
w ich
The mayor said the dilemma
arises when the three officers,
who are employed full time by
Cleveland County Sheriff's
Department, must report to
their full time jobs first and
there is. none to meet Grover
schedules.
"We're working with volun-
teers but I am going to push for
a full time officer in the upcom-
ing budget," Queen said at
Monday night's board meeting
as the board took his suggestion
recycling.
"I am concerned that we are
spending quite a bit of money
to do the job ourselves when we
may be able to get a contractor
to do the work cheaper," he told
the board.
The town owns its own
garbage truck and pays for the
labor to haul the garbage to the
county landfill.
Queen said that residents are
using the recycling bins at City
Hall mostly to dump newspa-
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Area citizens speak in favor
of building a new 5-6 school
A majority of people attending the first public
hearing on how to spend school bond money
Thursday night favored the building of a new 5-
6 school.
An informal poll taken by Board of Education
Chairman Ronnie Hawkins revealed that 49 of
the 50 people present at Kings Mountain Middle -
School preferred a grades 5-6 school instead of
two other options: a new K-5 school or using the
$6.1 million for capital projects at the present
school plants.
Several parents said that using the money to fix
up the present plants when there was little room
for expansion was merely applying a bandaid.
The next public hearing will be held at 9 a.m.
Thursday in the board room of Central School.
The third and last public hearing will be held Feb.
18th at 7 p.m. at Grover School.
Supt. Dr. Bob McRae, who reviewed three op-
tions for the use of the bond funds, said a grades
5-6 school would mean less redistricting and de-
crease the overcrowded situation at the Middle
School but it would cost about $10 million.
"We would have to stretch to get the extra mon-
ey and we would need about 20 acres of land
which could cost as‘ much as $5,000 per acre," he
said. McRae said a grades 5-6 school could house
800 students and would create another principal-
ship in the system
Tim Echols asked how the system would raise
‘the additional cash. McRae said a local bond issue
would not be a strong possibility.
School counselor Florrie Hamrick said that a
new grades 5-6 school would be ideal for 11 and
12 year old children who are finding it hard to
make the transition to middle school.
"We have sixth graders at the Middle School
striving for attention because they want to im-
press their older friends," she said. Hamrick and
her husband, Larry Hamrick Jr., called a band aid
in their opinion,
the school population . lo
/ ws: Bethw :
well together and also applauded the idea of a
new grades 5-6 school.
McRae pointed out that building a new grades
K-5 school would create a significant redistricting
of clementary school lines, a reshuffling of in-
town students who would not have a great dis-
tance of bus travel. He said an elementary school
could require 10-15 acres of land and had no sug-
gestions as to its location. Hawkins said that since
the growth area is primarily in the Grover and
Bethware areas that it had been suggested the
school be located in the Bethlehem Community.
"We've already had a few people come forward
with land to sell,” Hawkins said.
Board member B. S. Peeler suggested that per-
haps a land owner would donate some property.
McRae said the school bond money could be
used for new schools and to buy land or renovate
present buildings but not for maintenance or for
mobile units or to use for any projects at the
Central office complex.
McRae said grades K-3 are the largest in the :
system with some 400 students and that the ele-
mentary schools and middle schools "are already
cramped for space."
He said the system may have to utilize as many
as four mobile units next school year.
McRae said the schools receives a half million
dollars a year from Cleveland County sales tax
distribution and Kings Mountain citizens pay a
supplemental school tax. He also said the system
receives $280,000 from the county each year but
that money is needed for emergencies such as
roof repairs and could not be used to fund build-
ing projects.
McRae said the Middle School opened in the
late 1980s with 825 students and is projecting
1050 by the turn of the century. He said currently
grades i isatiy |
to name veteran officer Pheagin
as supervisor in charge of the
police department.
"We need a person in charge
to be sure that the accident re-
ports and other paperwork are
handled and sent to Raleigh,"
said the mayor, who is a full-
time supervisor at Grover
Industries. A
But Robert Roper and
William Farrell questioned the
need for a Grover Police
Department, saying that per-
haps the Soul could take over
the responsibility Farrell com-
pared the population of Grover
with neighboring Patterson
Springs which operates no po-
lice department.
But Councilman Robbie
Sides, a former county deputy
and a former city policeman,
and Grover native Martha
Hicks Turner said a local police
department is a real need.
"People think the streets roll
up at night but there is crime in
farming out garbage
pers.
Board member Elizabeth
Throop said she usually loaded
her car with recyclables and
took them to the recycling cen-
ter at Midpines in Kings
Mountain.
"There is also a county recy-
cling center in Earl that Grover
residents could use," she added.
In a related action, Council
member Robbie Sides made the
motion and the board agreed
that the city offer to pick up re-
_ cyclables at the homes of elder-
ly residents. Councilman Jack
Herndon agreed, saying that
most senior citizens recycle but
have difficulty getting the
items to Town Hall.
In other actions, the board:
Approved a $1,000 per month
payment to the Grover Fire
Department for fire protection.
The town gave the department
a 100-year lease for $1 a year
and that contract is up for re-
newal in 2088.
. ®
Kings Mountain People
this area," said Sides, who said
county officers can't possibly
cover every town in the county =
at the same time. =
"We are a municipality and
we pay taxes for police protec- =
tion," Sides said. £
"Our goal is to make people
feel safe and I'll do what I can
to keep the police here."
Turner said she was proud of
the good service she secs from
police on a daily basis.
collection
Authorized City Attorney
Mickey Corry to draft an ordi-
nance to regulate parking on
Main Street, at the railroad side
and curbside. Violation would
mean a civil penalty.
Councilman Noel Spivey was
asked ' to fcontact ithe
Department of Transportation
for signs.
Approved a $1500 grant to
the city recreation department
for a basketball league.
Edith Queen Crow, 85, never
dreamed she'd be a minister's
wife.
"My husband brought me
flowers one day and then pro-
posed after a courtship of two
months,” said the petite grand-
mother and widow of retired
Baptist minister Rev. C. C.
Crow.
She said she listened to his
sermons from the pew but nev-
er critiqued them during their
nine years of marriage.
Mrs. Crow was introduced to
Rev. Crow by his former wife
who died after an illness. "She
used to come and visit me while
C.C. was on preaching missions
all over the Kings Mountain
Baptist Association and we be-
came great friends,” said Edith
Crow.
Mrs. Crow has a reputation
with her West Mountain Street
neighbors as being a caring
homemaker who shares vegeta-
bles almost year round from her
|
garden, cakes from her oven
and beautiful handmade quilts
she can turn out from her quilt-
ing frames in quick time.
The winter months are
Crow's favorite times to quilt
and one of her favorites now on
her frames is a blue and white
star quilt. Another quilt features
dessert plates.
At an age when her contem-
poraries relax in their rocking
chairs on the porch, Edith Crow
mows and rakes her own yard,
with assistance at times from
friends like Mary Adams, tends
her own garden with assistance
in preparing the soil from
friend John Beam and drives
her 1985 Ford Station Wagon."
Crow used to drive to the
mountains about four times cv-
ery year but admits she doesn't
take quite as many trips now.
She served her last tomato
from her winter garden this
week but her freezer is stocked
with homemade soups and oth-
Edith likes being neighborly
er delicacies that she shares
with company and neighbors.
Fifteen years ago Mrs. Crow
underwent surgery for a pace-
maker and is in apparently fine
health. She walks to nearby
First Baptist Church when the
weather is good and used. to
walk at least two miles a day.
She is a familiar neighbor to C.
D. Ware and Mr. and Mrs. Gene
Austin and often helps Mr.
Ware with exercises since he has
been homebound for some
time. She visited Ware Tuesday
on his 89th birthday.
Collecting dolls is a hobby
that Crow started years ago and
she has received dolls from
friends all over the country.
Born in Marble in in the
Western North Carolina moun-
tains near Murphy, Crow never
received dolls as a child grow-
ing up in a family of seven chil-
dren.
See Crow, 8-A
LIKES BEING NEIGHBORLY - Sharing with her neighbors and friends her hobbies of garden-
ing, quilting and doll collecting keeps Edith Crow busy.