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Vol. 110 No. 46
.
Thursday, November 12, 1998
Js Mountain, NC «Since 1889 +50¢
I TODS aT tL
make KM Council has second thoughts on alcohol vote
Timing of Wednesday night meeting to rescind action is called suspicious
to make KM
drug free
Community invited
to Saturday’s outreach
program at KM Armory
By Alan Hodge
The Kings Mountain National
Guard Armory will be the scene
Saturday November 14, of a
Community Outreach Event.
Beginning at 1 pm and lasting
until 4 pm, the event will gather
local law enforcement, social
agencies, schools, youth groups
and the National Guard in a
day of anti-substance abuse ex-
hibits and education.
Using the theme "Choose to
be Drug Free", the event is part
of the National Guard's effort to
better serve the communities
where its armories are located.
While visitors to the Outreach
Event are at the Kings
Mountain Armory, they can al-
so see what role the National
Guard and its personnel and
equipment plays in keeping us
safe and informed.
"We want everyone to know
we're here in the community,"
says Sgt. Paul Terry. "We are
committed to helping in the
fight against drugs.”
The displays at Saturday's
Community Outreach Event
will be exciting and education-
al. The National Guard will be
displaying a variety of its heavy
construction ‘equipment as well ge
as a helicopter. Members of the
Shelby Police will be present
with their K-9 dogs. Coming
from Charlotte, members of the
Drug Enforcement Agency will
show their anti-drug skills.
Also slated to make an appear-
ance at the event will be the
Cleveland Center, Kings
Mountain's DARE group, and
the National Guard's counter-
drug unit.
In addition to the many
things to see, the Outreach
Event will also have refresh-
ments, door prizes, and enter-
tainment. Hope is for a good
turnout at an event that could
change lives.
"We're estimating that as
many as 1,000 people could
come to the armory," Sgt. Terry
said. ;
The Kings Mountain National
Guard Armory is located at 200
Phifer Road, Kings Mountain.
For more information on the
Community Outreach Event,
call Sgt. Paul Terry at 739-4741.
Deal Park, police
projects under way
Dugouts and rest room facili-
ties are the only recreation projects
yet to be completed at Deal Street
Park where major work has been
done by the city this summer.
City Manager Jimmy Maney
said that possibly some playground
equipment will be added at the
recreational area.
Maney said grading has been
completed at Davidson Park and
seeding is expected to begin next
week.
“We are moving quickly to com-
plete these two park projects,” said
Maney.
Maney said the parking lot at
Deal Street has been paved as well
as the parking lot at the city’s
walking track.
At the site of the new law en-
forcement center this week work-
ers with Pinnix Construction
Company were digging the foot-
ings and getting ready to pour the
slab-type foundation. “Once this is,
done the walls will start going up
and people will be seeing some
building activity at the site,” said
Maney.
First Carolina Federal
City Council was on the hot
seat again Wednesday night
from anti-alcohol proponents
angry at a quickly-called special
meeting the same hour as
church prayer services to re-
scind a October 27 unanimous
decision calling for a special ref-
erendum to ban alcohol sales in
the city.
As the Herald went to press,
it was anyone’s guess what the
final decision would be by
Council on a controversial,
emotional issue which flared up
at last month’s meeting when
over 200 people protested ex-
pansion of Sunday sales of beer
“I'm extremely disappoint-
ed in these people who
are willing to sacrifice
their principles in a heart-
beat.”
-Councilman Gene White
and wine. After an emotional
hour of comments about the
danger of alcohol, Council end-
ed up voting to call for a refer-
endum to ban all alcohol sales.
Council instructed City
Attorney Mickey Corry to con-
tact the Cleveland County
Board of Elections about run-
ning the election. With the new
developments, no date has been
set.
“I'm extremely disappointed
in these people (council) who
are willing to sacrifice their
principles in a heart beat,” said
Ward 4 commissioner Gene
White who made the motion
October 27 to call for the special
vote after he asked that the
agenda item on expansion of
Sunday sales be changed to in-
clude any other action regard-
ing the issue.
Council voted unanimously
not to expand Sunday sales af-
ter hearing from numerous peo-
ple detailing alcohol’s harmful
effects. No one spoke in favor
of alcohol sales on Sunday.
Presently four restaurants can
serve beer and wine on
Sundays because their state per-
mits override local ordinances.
Local restaurant owner Ken
Hamrick first raised the issue
several months ago because he
wanted to open a convenience
store but wanted to avoid the
expense of adding a kitchen
and seats to meet the state re-
quirements so he could sell beer
and wine on Sundays. Hamrick
said expanding sales would be
fair to all merchants. The city al-
so has an ABC Store for liquor
See Council, 3A
A STEP BACK IN TIME
By Alan Hodge
Cast from the same mold as an
Andrew Jackson or Abraham
Lincoln, Jim Eaker of Lawndale lives
an honorable and dignified life close
to the soil. Still as tall and straight at
age 73 as the pines that surround his
home, Eaker has spent his entire life
on ancestral lands that are truly a
paradise on earth.
Eaker's roots go back to the very
beginning of settlement in this area.
In 1741 his ancestor Peter Eaker
walked from Philadelphia,
Jim Eaker still rides his horse to town
Jim Eaker sticks close to the soil,
still drives a horse and cart to town
Pennsylvania to Crouse where he
built a log cabin. During the Civil
War, Eaker's great-grandfather Jesse
Eaker fought in Company "F" of the
56th North Carolina Regiment. The
log house where Jesse Eaker lived
still stands near a stream a couple of
miles from Jim's home.
Eaker said.
. Just down the slope from Eaker's
home is a spot where the cabin his
changed.”
campuses.
School Board
to consider
designated area
for smokers
By GARY STEWART
Editor of the Herald
Banning smoking at outdoor sporting events
would violate state law, so while she goes
about attempting to get the law changed
{+ KMHS student Amanda Johnsonbaugh is ask-
ing the Kings Mountain Board of Education to
restrict smoking to designated areas.
There is some question whether or not the
Board can even do that, since a State Law pro-
hibits smoking bans that are more restrictive
than they were in 1993.
Kings Mountain's smoking policy, adopted
in 1993, does not address smoking in stadiums
and other outdoor activities.
“I want everyone to know that I'm not giv-
ing up on this,” Johnsonbaugh told the Board
at its meeting Tuesday night at the District
Office. “I feel even more of a need to accom-
plish this. It's a terrible law. I'm in the process
of working with legislators to have this law
Johnsonbaugh said a designated smoking
area at the football stadium would be a “good
start” toward eliminating smoking on school
The Board, which agreed to take the matter
up again at its February work session, had
mixed feelings on the matter, with some favor-
ing designated smoking areas and at least one,
"Great-grandpa told us he nearly
-died of thirst on one march, so he
vowed he would build his cabin near
a creek when he got out of the army."
parents L.S. and Mary Murry Eaker
lived, and where he was born in
1926.
All his life, Jim Eaker has been a
working man. After he returned
from World War II, Eaker spent 14
years with Hudson Hosiery in
Shelby. Following that career, he took
the wheel of an Overnite
Transportation truck and held on un-
til 1983 when he retired. These days,
Eaker still stays busy.
See Eaker, 3A
B.S. Peeler, saying it would be impossible to :
enforce such action.
“I just don’t think it’s enforceable,” he said.
“You have 5,000 people at a football game and
10 police officers. Some may do it voluntarily
and others may tell you to go chase yourself.”
Even if smoking areas are designated, Supt. ..
Bob McRae said he is not sure the school sys-
tem could force the public to use them.
“That's something I'd have to check on,” he
said. “If you ask someone to move to the
smoking area, I don’t know if you could eject
them if they choose not to.”
See Smoke, 3A
New computer system will put
city in good shape for year 2000
The new high tech computer
system at City Hall has arrived
just in time for the millennium
and is termed “our new baby”
by new computer whiz Carol
George.
~ George joined the city staff
August 12 with 20 years experi-
ence working with Duke
Power’s Information Systems
and as a computer instructor at
Gaston College. The Kings
Mountain woman has appropri-
ately placed a sign in her office
over the new equipment that
asks RU Y2K OK?
“We expect to be in good
shape for the year 2000 with no
glitches in the new system,”
said Lori Hall, billing and finan-
cial director. 3
The new equipment and soft-
ware was purchased at a cost of
$113,000 and is worth every
penny, according to George,
who joined staffers in complet-
ing about six weeks training be-
fore converting the old system
to the new.
George says the new system
is efficient, time-saving and
works faster than the old mode
300 W.
Kings Mountain
739-4781
of “dumb terminals” which
were connected by cables to the
data base in Raleigh but is now
hooked up in Kings Mountain.
The new system had a trial
run with utility bills that went
out November 2. It handles
payroll, accounts payable, pur-
chasing, meter reading, collec-
tions, past due payments, cut-
offs, deposits, work orders, and
any city services including dog
tags and cemetery lots, all in
one package, processing data
on the site.
See Computer, 3A
Terry Bullock,
SEI)
Mountain St.
865-1111
529 S. New Hope Rd.
seated, demonstrates city’s new computer system
for Lori Hall, left, and Carol George
1238 E. Dixon Blvd.
484-0222
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