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WORKING ON BASEBALL FIELDS - Employees of Champion
Contracting (top photo) are hard at work fine-grading the new
baseball fields at Deal Street Park, but one good day of work is
Weather delays construction of ball fields,
but city expects them to be ready for play
The weatherman has thrown the
City a curve in its efforts to get
new ball fields ready for the youth
this summer, but the City is hang-
ing in there and taking its cuts, and
even if it takes an extra inning
they're determined to see balls fly-
ing out of the park.
The City last year approved
building seven new youth league
fields - four at the Deal Street com-
plex and three at Davidson Park -
and they will more than double the
number of fields available to youth
league baseball, softball and soccer
teams.
But the rain that has hit the area
at least one day of every week this
year has put construction behind.
This week Champion Contracting
is fine-grading the fields at Deal
Street and they predict that if they
can get five straight days of dry
weather they can have that phase
of the project completed.
City Manager Jimmy Maney
said most of the remainder of the
work - things such as installing
light poles, electricity and fencing -
will be done by city crews.
"All lighting and material are
laying on the lots and the crews are
ready to go,” he said. "It's just a
matter of bringing it all together."
All that should come to pass
over the next three weeks (knock
on wood), weather permitting, he
said.
Maney said there is a slight
chance the opening of the season
will be delayed, and opening of
practice will definitely be delayed
because the City doesn't want any-
one playing on the fields before
they are completely ready. He says
he believes in the philosophy "if
you're going to do something, do it
right."
"What we will do is look ahead
to the all-star dates and figure back
the minimum number of games
they'll have to play to comply with
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all the rules," he said. "We may
start a little later but we still antici-
pate playing the required amount
of games."
With seven fields available in-
stead of the usual three, Maney
said he doesn't foresee a problem.
"When the weather starts getting
warmer, coaches like to get started
practicing their kids," he said, "but
we're not going to do that this year.
We're going to go ahead and regis-
ter players like we normally do but
won't have the draft until a couple
weeks before the season opens. If
we go ahead and draft now they'll
get on the fields where they
shouldn't be."
Maney said the City has been
criticized for not starting construc-
tion earlier, but he said construc-
tion couldn't begin last fall because
of soccer and the project is more
cost efficient if its is contracted as
a whole rather than in pieces.
"We have done a lot of prelimi-
nary work behind the scenes that
no one really sees,” Maney said.
"Right now it looks like a bigger
mess than it really is. But when it
comes together it will come togeth-
er quick because we have in-house
crews to make it happen. We don't
have to depend on outside people
to come in and set poles and move
wire."
The new fields will feature
brick-dust infields and sodded out-
fields, but Maney did say the sod
this year may be temporary.
Once completed, he said the
parks will be something the citi-
zens can be proud of.
"We'll have seven little league
fields when this project is complet-
ed, compared to three before," he
noted. "Our girls have always had
to go to the middle school or wher-
ever to be able to play. One of the
reason we started the schedule so
early in the past was because we
didn't have the fields to play the
number of games we needed to
play."
The brick dust infields, along
huge mud hole (bottom photo).
Gary
Stewart
1 Editor
usually followed by a day of rain which turns the fields into a
with additional drainage, will mean
fewer games will be postponed be-
cause of rain, he said.
"We want a good level playing
field with good material on it," he
said. "If we get that from the be-
ginning it will take care of itself.
Even with rain, most of the water
will be draining away from the
fields. We may not have a rain-out
now unless it's just a downpour.
‘They're set up and designed where
they will drain better."
Maney said over 1,000 kids are
involved in summer ball in Kings
Mountain, including outside-city
children who wouldn't have the op-
portunity to play if sports weren't
offered in Kings Mountain.
Cleveland County doesn't have
county-wide recreation but allo-
cates $47,000 a year toward the
$400,000 budget so outside-city
kids can play.
"We have almost as many out-
side city limits kids as inside city
limits kids, but how can you say no
to a kid?," Maney said. "We can't
charge them. If we charged them
what it costs to break even they
couldn't afford to participate."
Maney said nominal registration
fees are collected from players, but
those go to provide officiating. All
personnel and other costs of run-
ning the program are paid through
city taxes. ;
The new complex, which will al-
so include a new swimming pool,
will utilize the parking at the
Community Center. Maney said
there will be just a few parking
spaces at the "top of the hill" near
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what was the old grass little league
field, and on-street parking will be
prohibited.
"People may have to walk a little
further," he said, "and the main
reason for that was to insure the
safety of the kids. We have been
very fortunate to have that through
traffic all these years and kids
haven't gotten run over. It can be
very dangerous loading and un-
loading kids and people parking on
the side of the road. The police ba-
sically turned their heads but they
had so many complaints about dou-
ble parking and people parking on
Ridge Street and in illegal parking
places. They're going to be very
strict this year. They're going to
post no parking signs, and if you're
caught parking there you're going
to get a ticket."
Maney said the City is consider-
ing putting guard rails at the top of
the hill at Davidson Park to keep
cars from coming off the bank into
the playing area.
"We want to create a safe envi-
ronment for our kids," he said. "If
we can save one from getting run
over we've accomplished our job.
It doesn't have to be a kid partici-
pating in the program, it can be
somebody who has come to
watch."
Maney said all phases of the to-
tal park project - such as the swim-
ming pool and buildings, will not
be ready by this summer, but the
City is committed to having the
ball fields ready.
Meanwhile, as the weather
warms and players and coaches get
the itch to start practicing, he asks
for patience.
"When these fields are finished
we're going to have something that
we're really proud of and the kids
will really enjoy," he said. "This is
just the beginning. We'll build on
this foundation to improve our fa-
cilities each year, and to maintain
good facilities. That's what it takes
to run a successful program.”
VOTE
- Tom
Bridges
NC House
District 48
Paid for by the Candidate
March 5, 1998
KMPD to begin
bicycle patrol
Police riding bicycles may
soon be a new wrinkle for
Kings Mountain in law enforce-
ment.
Chief Richard Reynolds said
bicycles are new tools to fight
crime that are working in other
communities.
Reynolds unveiled the new
project at Friday's City Council
retreat and said he will talk to
civic projects and private indi-
viduals to fund more bicycles.
"We will start with two bikes
with two officers on each squad
to be trained along with. COPS
officers for a total of 10 officers
to mann this program," said
Reynolds.
Captain Houston Corn said
the idea for using bicycles is to
help police get into communi-
ties to build rapport with the
public. "Police can be in a com-
munity on a bike and without a
siren or a police car to alert the
suspects," he said.
Reynolds said the program is
working in other communities
and he sees no reason why it
won't work in Kings Mountain.
"We are committed to be a
drug free community," said
Reynolds in his presentation.
He said that all officers would
be involved in community ori-
ented policing, not just those as-
signed to COPS. He said police
would be highly visible in
downtown, at shopping centers
and in stores located in the vari-
ous communities of the city.
"We encourage business own--
ers and citizens to help police
solve crimes in their communi-
ties," said Reynolds.
duty here would cut down the
time and costs associated with
booking suspects in Shelby.
Reynolds also announced
that plans are in the works for a
Drug. Assistance Resistance
Education program to be initiat-
ed at the Kings Mountain
Middle School in the Fall of
1998 with focus on the seventh
grade. He said the program
would take about two weeks
Reynolds said when the new
police department is up and
running that he will request
from the court system that a
magistrate be assigned to the fa-
cility. He said a magistrate on
each semester. Currently, the D.
A. R. E. program is underway
in fifth grades in the elementary
schools.
The Chief said the reorgani-
zations of rank structure in the
police department will mean
that sergeants will be in charge
of squads and the corporal will
be second in charge of a squad.
Reynolds said the rank of
Corporal will be selected in the
same way that Sergeants are se-
lected. A person will be chosen
on ability, knowledge and se-
niority, not just seniority alone.
A pay scale should be made for
the Corporal rank with this per-
son being responsible for a
squad in the absence of the
Sergeant.
He also said plans are in the
works for a reorganization of
reserve units with a clear sepa-
ration of part time officers and
reserve officers. He said duties
and responsibilities would be
outlined.
Reynolds said he would pre-
sent to the City Council a sug-
gestion for a new custom badge
for the King Mountain Police
Department which would con-
tain city seals and city colors
and possibly other landmarks
of Kings Mountain. He said the
total cost of 476 badges is
$4,180. He said he would like to
present the new badges when
the department moves into the
new law enforcement center.
Reynolds said the police de-
partment is currently using the
old water plant at Deal Street
for a joint training facility for
the police and fire departments.
Building searches and repelling
are targets of special response
teams and police officers also
practice building searches and
felony stops.
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