North Carolina Press Association
Vol. 109 No. 27
LORI HALL
City names Hall
new finance director
Lori Hall, 25, of Bessemer °
City, the city's interim finance
officer, was promoted this week
to the position of finance direc-
tor. Her annual salary is
$32,000.
Hall joined the City of Kings
Mountain nearly four years ago
and has been promoted through
the ranks of the finance depart-
ment from collections, billing
and accounting to head the de-
partment which includes eight.
other fémale employees.
Hall, wife of Shane Hall, re-
turned to work June 16 after
maternity leave. She and her
husband have three sons, Shane
Jr., 8; Chris, 6; and Dillon, 2 1/2
months. A Kings Mountain na- -
tive, she is the daughter of
Roger McDaniel and Teresa
Lovett and is a 1990 graduate of
Kings Mountain High School
where she ranked ninth schofas-
tically in a class of 200.
She attended Gardner-Webb
University on a Dover scholar-
ship and Gaston College where
she took additional accounting
courses.
See HALL, 5A
; JAY RHODES
Fund-raising
is natural
for Rhodes
(Ed.note - This is the third in
a series of weekly articles on
local leaders of the Jay Strack
Crusade to be held August 24-
28 at John Gamble Stadium in
Kings Mountain.)
Naturally, banker Jay Rhodes
was the perfect choice to head
the financial campaign for
$29,997 for the upcoming Jay
Strack Crusade.
Not only is Rhodes proficient
in his management job as Senior
Vice-President of Kings
Mountain Carolina State Bank,
but he chaired a highly success-
ful drive for $130,000 for the
Kings Mountain United Fund.
In addition, he has been active
in the community for seven
years and has been a popular
master of ceremonies for Hall of
Fame banquets and for Kiwanis
Club talent shows.
"I love Kings Mountain and
volunteering is what I like to do
best," said Rhodes who said his
goal is to raise the budget and
meet all the expenses of the
See RHODES, 3A
1:30 Dance Magic onstage.
11 am- On stage, opening ceremonies followed by games at Kids Park until 4pm
12 noon - 2pm - COPS Safety Pup and free ID cards for kids
12:45 - Special music on stage.
Thursday, July 3, 1997
KM July Fourth Activities
Celebration of Freedom at Walking Track
2:30- Old Habits, Country, Southern Rock, on stage
4:30 - Bojangles Homerun Derby at Jake Early Stadium
9:15-B
Smee
Es
we
=~
Fe =
end.
Kings Mountain's Frazier
mance.
and The Atlanta Braves.
Phillies.
nine great-grandchildren.
Robinson, a big sports fan;
autographed bats and balls.
Not many people earn the title of living leg-
Robinson, 87, is a Black Living Legend of Negro o
| Baseball.
His nickname came from his longtime leg-
endary friend Satchel Paige who said his slow ac-
cent had nothing to do with his baseball perfor- |
The son of a minister, Robinson said he just
never learned how to talk Southern although he
grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. :
The former professional catcher for the Satchel |
Paige All-Stars, the Kansas City Monarchs and
the Baltimore Elite Giants and Grays from 1939-
54 was among the elite group of Black Living |
Legends. of Negro League Baseball honored in {
Atlanta, Ga. during the weekend by BellSouth
Fifty years ago this year Jackie Robinson, no
kin to Frazier, broke the color barrier in baseball. |
The reunion in Atlanta of the Black Living
Legends of Negro Baseball coincided with base-
ball's recognition of the debut of Jackie Robinson
in the major leagues and centered around the se-
ries between the Braves and the Philadelphia
1 Frazier's wife, Winnie Robinson, and their
niece, Diane George, accompanied Frazier:to the
festivities. Tired on Monday due to the long trip
and navigating his wheelchair, Frazier said so
many young black baseball players today don't
know much about Jackie Robinson.
'It bothers me that playersidon't know enough
about who paved the way for them,
Robinson who moved to Kings Mountain eight
years ago. He and his wife have two children,
Carolyn Robinson of Kings Mountain and Luther
‘Robinson of Baltimore Md, 10 grandchildren and
Atlanta Braves. {The Braves gave him shirts, hats,
“I know that baseball is a better game because
he played it," said Walt Sessoms, Group President
Living Legend
"Slow" helped break color barrier i in baseball
"Slow Hank"
1
said
him.
pulls for The
couldn't hit:
FRAZIER ROBINSON
for BellSouth and primary organizer of the
- Legends reunions.
Robinson's activity belies his age.
He also sings in the All Male Chorus at Antioch
Missionary Baptist Church in Shelby where his
friends call him Bob. He and his wife travel ex-
tensively to cities where ball clubs pay tribute to
From Robinson's position as a catcher for 15
years he saw batters struggle But part of the
struggle was due to Frazier. As Satchel Paige's
catcher, he was calling for those pitches they | $10,000 as the city's spokespe
son, legal expert and lobbyist at
ig fireworks show
. sary" to
‘Robinson is a modest man now who doesn't
like to talk about those glory days behind the
See ROBINSON, 2A
eR
PALEY
Cou
City Council plans to take
"whatever measures are neces-
preserve Kings
Mountain's ownership of Moss
Lake, City Manager Jimmy
Maney said this week.
Maney made the statement
after, Council voted 6-0 follow-
ing a closed session Monday
night- and formally - to hire
Gastonia lawyer Carl Stewart as
the city's legal counsel to fight
new proposed legislation that
would create. a state authority
to run the lake and introduced
by Rep. Debbie Clary, a Moss
Lake resident.
A hearing before the House
finance committee has not been
set but Maney said city officials
hope to be able to give their
‘side of the controversy before
the vote gets to the floor of the
House. Both the House and the
State Senate would have to vote
- on the proposal.
"This is not our Bill and we
are totally against it and hope
that Kings Mountain citizens
will contact their elected offi-
cials in Raleigh now,” he said.
The seven-member City
Council had already approved
_ the hiring of Stewart during a
* telephone poll by City Attorney
Mickey Corry Friday afternoon.
Stewart, who will be paid
the state capital, was present
Monday for the special meet-
ing. The board went into closed
A
Clary ake Bill,
hires lobbyist
session for over an hour to talk
about possible litigation and
get advice from the attorneys.
After Corry left at 6:55 p.m.
for another meeting, the
Council remained in the City
Hall second floor conference
room to get advice from their
new lake counsel.
"We did not violate the Open
Meetings Law as sone folks
have accused of us doing in this
matter," said Maney.
The Clary rewrite of the city's
original annexation bill - House
Bill 777- was a surprise to city
officials who said they had no
knowledge of it until they read
the newspapers last Thursday.
The bill revision is also support-
ed by other members of the
Cleveland County delegation,
Rep. John Weatherly, who also
resides on Moss Lake, and Rep.
Andy Dedmon of Earl, who al-
so owns property on Moss
Lake.
City officials are angry they
were not consulted about the
substitute bill by Clary or giv-
en the opportunity to address it
before a House Committee.
Clary, who canceled a planned
House vote in April on the. orig-
inal Moss Lake annexation bill,
said she acted after hearing
orotests from big resident
>
"Clary estimates the new
will get to the floor of the
House in about two weeks.
See COUNCIL Pg 3A
Grass grows higher on city control strip at lake
A posted sign stands in knee-
high grass at the waterfront
edge of Tom Mayhew's proper-
ty at Moss Lake. :
"T'd like to cut the grass but
the city says I'm trespassing and
I don't want a ticket," said
Mayhew who bought the first
lot at Moss Lake nearly 25 years
ago.
Mayhew said the sign was
posted by the city's codes de-
partment April 4 on the city's
control strip. He got a letter
from the city April 29 saying
that he has to pay past due fees
before entering into a new lease
agreement.
"We have no gripes about
paying the fees for the current
year but I don't think I ought to
have to pay for last year since
my wife Ruth and I didn't use
the waters,” said Mayhew.
Mayhew said he had an
agreement with the person who
sold him his lot that he had the
right to go from any point on
his property to the lake but the
city disagrees with a notarized
letter bearing the signature of
the late city attorney in October
1968.
"A lot of people had oral stip-
ulations which should be hon-
ored," said Mayhew's son,
Tommy, who lives nearby on
Penninsula Drive.
"We get no services for our
lease payments,” said Tommy
Mayhue, a school teacher, who
said his fees double with the
new fiscal year because he
owns two boats, a jet ski, a pier,
two fishing permits, a water
pump and lease.
"I'm not into politics," said
Tommy Mayhew, "but some-
thing is wrong when we can't
settle all this controversy by
talking about it."
He thinks it unfair in the
city's policy that boating and °
fishing permits can't be issued
to property owners unless the
waterfront is leased.
"If Kings Mountain had only
gone up about 25 percent on
fees nothing would have been
questioned,” said Mayhew.
"We had no notification from
the city of increased fees until
we got the lease notices," said
the senior Mayhew.
"We weren't consulted about
our concerns, I guess it's just the
principle of the thing," said
Tommy Mayhew.
Tom Mayhew said he
planned to pay his lease but for
now he'll let the grass grow
higher.
"I don't think they (the city)
wants it cut. Kings Mountain's
got a beautiful lake and I don't
want. to see them lose control of
it because I remember when it
was built and how John Henry
Moss got turned down by
Shelby city and county officials
when he asked for help and
Kings Mountain citizens paid
for it," said Tom Mayhew.
"But we put up walls to keep
the water pure and pick up
trash on the edge of the water
and we get criticized for doing
it"
High grass nearly covers a city posted sign at waterfront's edge
on Moss Lake.
Lake residents paying up under protest
Over half of the 430 Moss
Lake property owners have
submitted applications for new
leases under the city's new fee
schedule for 1997-98 effective
‘Monday.
City Manager Jimmy Maney
said 70 of the 250 peopletsub-
mitting payment for leases "un-
der protest of new fees” includ-
ed 70 who had given the city an
altered version of the lease. He
said the city has returned the
leases for correction and ex-
tended the grace period until
July 8 for leases to be in hand.
Maney said he would give
another update at the July 8
meeting of Council at 7:30 p.m.
and also review the city's cur-
rent financial status on the lake
operating budget.
‘Maney said that the contro-
versy over fees had snowballed
into demands that the city had
not been able to respond to at
. this time. He said that six or
seven months ago when the city
started looking at the current
fees structure that Council and
management saw the need to
run the city-owned lake like a
business.
"We said at the work sessions
‘that we'd revisit the fee struc-
ture and hope that the lake
property owners would help us
form a partnership so that we
could do a better job in making
‘that lake even more beautiful
and help us to pinpoint those
who may never have paid lake
fees over the years," he said this
week." But apparently that side
of the story was never made
known,” he added?
He said the additional fees
would be used for lake upkeep
and maintenance and salaries of
patrol officers. Maney said a
boat capacity study is in the
works and lake security is a pri-
ority.
"We will know exactly where
the money goes and the lake
will be operated like a busi-
ness," he said.
“It will be business as usual
at Moss Lake Monday, the
deadline the city set for new
fees to go into effect,” said
Maney.
Maney said the same issues
that lake residents have been
addressing are the same the city
brought to the forefront in bud-
get sessions this year, including
long-range planning for the
lake, financial responsibility on
the accountability side and via-
bility of the lake. "We have
started putting together some
ordinances to address some of
the concerns.
But Maney says as the lake
area grows that the city staff
must increase to run it and op-
- erational costs will go up.
Lakefront property owners
are charged annual fees for
piers, docks, ramps, boating
and fishing permits.
The city owns an eight foot
buffer strip around Moss Lake
and leases that buffer to lake-
front residents. When a resident
makes an application for a
lease, he checks off those things
he will be using during the fis-
cal year. A codes officer physi-
cally inspects the property to
match up the application.
Codes Officer Jeff Putnam
said that in the past a family
who has paid $200 for a boat,
pier and land lease will now
pay $305 under the new plan.
However, if that family has ad-
ditional items which would im-
pact its use on the lake the fees
would increase. Fees include
$25 for a pier, $50 minimum for
a pump, $50 for existing con-
crete ramp, $60 per jet ski, up
from $30, $12 a year for fishing
permits and $30 a year for boat-
ing permits.
"This is the only fair way,”
said Putnam who said new
codes enforcement officers Jeff
Curtis and Lee Hayes would as-
sist lake officer Larry Ware and
reserve patrolmen in enforcing
the lake regulations.
"They will be checking to see
that boats have stickers and
fishermen have permits and
that the lake is safe and in the
next few days will be conduct-
ing a shoreline survey," he said.
Putnam said his staff usually
gives a warning to a boater who
doesn't have a permit and di-
rects him to the lake office to
buy the sticker. A citation for vi-
olation would cost $65.
No trespassing signs were
put up at the lake several
months ago on buffer strips
See LEASE, 3A
/