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Vol. 111 No. 10 Thursday, March 11, 1999 Kings Mountain, NC Since 1889 *50¢
Council
to discuss
sale of lakes
Kings Mountain insurance-
man Bobby Maner and his
Board okays building plan
5-6 school hopefully will open in 2001, others may follow within 10 years
»
: By GARY STEWART dicts tremendous growth for ways and also considering that ~~ near capacity. The current
family srepmong the Shogest 5 Editor of the Herald Kings Mountain oo that a Ld percentage of the if school oii daily member-
Hix pore Y own could result in the need of an- births in Cleveland County are ship is 4,352 and is projected to
di The Kings Mountain Board of = other middle school and possi- to Kings Mountain parents, be 4,904 in 2006-07.
Davidson Lake Education Monday night ap- bly two new elementary schools Spencer feel there is tremen- The study listed three options
and like neigh- proved its long-range facility in 7 to 10 years, and a total pop- dous opportunity for growth. the system could pursue to ease
Dore he fe con- study that calls for construction ulation of 10,000 students in 20 Spencer, who visited every current overcrowded situations,
cerned about of a new 5-6 school that should years. Kings Mountain's stu- school in the district, pointed especially at Grover and
hat the ci open in August 2001. dent population has grown out in the study that Bethware, Bethware elementary schools:
na : i oy : The same report, compiled by ~~ from 3,800 to over 4,400 since Grover, KMMS and KMHS are HM Construct a new elemen-
“I've asked Pp tothe pes Architect Roger Holland address- Educational Consultants Darrell = 1989, and with its close proxim- currently operating over capaci- tary school to serve grades K-5.
members erty. prop Selon Boa on long-range Spencer and Associates, pre- ity to Charlotte and major high- ty, and East, North and West are See School, 3A !
o chs City Council : :
0 no will discuss ¢ ° 9 ¢ 9
property ossible action 1 b h : b 1 d h 1 ta Cc
ors’ Eocene t may be an up ill battle’ and a ‘ho y war chools to
when sale of both the ’ o ° : h
they start i :
srs Bisnand || but dry forces say they'll rid city of booze | passive approac
Bob Maner properties at : ‘
Thursday’s 5:30 p.m. special
meeting and Maner plans to at-
tend with a residential zoning
petition.
“I've asked various members
of City Council informally for
several years to notify property
owners when they start to sell
the property and I read about
it in the newspapers,” said
Maner.
If and when the city inks the
sale Maner wants it in writing
that property owners will be
protected.
City Manager Jimmy Maney
says property owners will be
protected with deed restric-
tions.
“We are concerned that
someone might buy the prop-
erty and just put any and ev- .
erything on it,”said Maner.
Maney said the item is on
the agenda for Council to de-
velop the strategy for selling
the two pieces of property.
Maney is asking for authoriza-
tion to procure appraisals so
that minimum offers can be es-
tablished and Council can then
move to accept the offers and
establish deed restrictions to
protect the property owners.
Several years ago a
prospective buyer came to city
council and said he was inter-
ested in the property to build
upscale housing. The project
didn’t fly.
Currently the lake property
area of Galilee Church Road is
unzoned.
“This petition could take
three to four months for action
by county commissioners after
public hearing by the county
planning board,” said Maner.
He said most all of the two
dozen homes and properties in
the area are represented on the
petition.
DEATHS
hp itissnornasar eras
Siiveessvsessauary seiannsuisnanre Mt. Holly
Ernest Dixon, 74
sessvastays Seeossoderesnrhsassssrars GIOVE
Madeline Houser, 42
resesessssnnsensannennns KINGS Mountain
Jim Beam, 77
Sresss itisssiiavanesanneerissss QIOVOL
Charlie Cobb, 87
sesusasserzss nesbass ...Kings Mountain
Elva Webster, 81
2iieunsnbys sseeieis aSieearivsunisanss Shelby
2A
INDEX :
AT So res des dts wasn dives 2B
Obituaries .......... En ee 2A
PolICE NEWS: cvusassnsivoensvaesvanas 2A
Schoo! NEWS .cvveeeriivivnennnns 3-4B
SCNODISE . ez: vensssassrhnsoradarass 5-6A
Women's NEWS .....ccuuunieneunnnes 1B
This week's advertising sections:
CVS
Food Lion °
Harris Teeter
Winn Dixie
Citizens sign petitions calling for ABC referendum at anti-alcohol rally Tuesday night at Community Center
to curb smoking
By GARY STEWART
Editor of the Herald
The Kings Mountain Board of Education, meet-
ing Monday night at the Central office, agreed on
a “passive” approach to trying to curtail smoking
at future athletic events.
Beginning with the next school
year, the system will use P.A. an-
nouncements, posted signs and
other educational avenues to try
to discourage people from smok-
ing in the stands.
After a lengthy discussion, the
board decided not to designate a
smoking area for fear that it Py
would further congest the area SN at
behind the stands and concession HAWKINS
stand, and may possibly even encourage smoking
“by young people who might congregate in such
an area and use smoking as their excuse.
“I would like to see a passive measure taken
first,” urged Board Chairman Ronnie Hawkins,
“and ask people not to smoke and to respect the
people around them.”
The smoking issue surfaced last fall when
KMHS senior Amanda Johnsonbaugh urged the
board to ban smoking by all persons on school
grounds. However, a federal law exists that pre-
vents school systems from making policy more
restrictive than it was in 1993 when that law was
passed.
Kings Mountain's policy that has been in effect
since 1993 allows smoking by staff in designated
By ELIZABETH STEWART
Of The Herald Staff
Anti-alcohol supporters
pledged to collect 2,150 signa-
tures of registered voters to put
the issue on a September ballot as
150-200 people attended a
Citizens for a Better Community
rally Tuesday night at the
Community Center.
Gene White, city councilman
from Ward 4, led the rally and
called the campaign an “uphill
battle” and a “holy war.”
“This is an emotional issue we
will fight with hard facts,” said
White who took the occasion to
discount rumors that he engi-
neered the campaign to run for
mayor this year.
“I'm definitely not running for
mayor,” said White, but he said
he would probably seek reelec-
tion either as Ward 4 commission-
er or at-large commissioner.
White said he had originally
intended to run for mayor but he
said, “This campaign is too im-
portant to dilute it with talk of
using this as a vehicle for political
plans.”
But White said that other city
leaders should take a stand on
ridding the city of alcohol, drugs
and gambling.
White picked up the petitions
March 3 at the office of the
Cleveland County Board of
Elections. In the Community
Center gym Tuesday, they picked
up petitions, computer printouts
of the city’s 6,124 registered vot-
ersand voter registration forms.
And they pledged to take the
signed petitions to local churches
in seven days so volunteers can
start validating them.
White reminded the group that
pro-alcohol forces were already
hard at work with another peti-
tion drive for a mixed drink refer-
endum on the same ballot. He
said a mass mailing of fliers urg-
ing people to vote for mixed
drinks had gone out to area resi-
dents, with groups like beer dis-
tributors backing the effort.
“The propaganda has already
started,” said White, who esti-
See Alcohol, 3A
KM Council to consider
areas, but no smoking by students.
Supt. Bob McRae said he could research to see
if the system could ban smoking by students at
games since “they are our students and are in our
facilities,” but board member Sonny Peeler dis-
agreed, saying students attend games “on their
own time.” McRae said current school policy
bans smoking by participants in school activities.
“We can’t ban it,” Dr. McRae said, “but we can
take action to restrict it.”
Hawkins said he is confident most smokers
will be responsive to the school system's request
not to smoke in the presence of others.
But, he added, designating a smoking area
might encourage young people to smoke just for
the sake of gathering with their friends away
from the stands. For several years the school sys-
tem has tried to stop young people from stand-
ing behind the wall on the home side of the foot-
ball stadium.
See Smoking, 3A
second water line to town
City Council is expected to proceed Thursday
at a 5:30 p.m. special meeting on an application
for a Clean Water Loan and Grant to help fund
major capital improvements that could result in
the building of a second water line from Moss
Lake to town.
“We need to move for procuring the money
and fast track this project,” said City Manager
Jimmy Maney at a work session of the city utili-
ties committee last Thursday.
Maney called the project “doable” in 24 months
by combining major water and sewer projects. He
said the outcome would hinge on whether the
grant application is approved and the contribu-
tion of both the city and Ingles to run the sewer
line.
“An outflow line from the Spectrum plant could
open up industry in the Oak Grove and sur-
rounding areas, a potential for annexation at
Gold Run and other areas,” he said.
Maney said if a force main is built to serve
Ingles at cost of $400,000 that only that business
could be served, comparing the costs of a total
gravity line, $825,000, a rebuilt line for Spectrum
at $400,000 or a new line at Spectrum at cost of
$900,000 which would serve a wide area and also
service the Ingles project.
By June 1 city officials should know if a grant is
forthcoming.
Last Thursday engineer Al Moretz gave sever-
al scenarios for running 14,000 feet of water and
sewer lines from various areas. Moretz said Phase
I of a five year program could cost $2.4 million
and was the most important because of the needs
to address the water system.
See Water, 3A
NEW WATER LINE - Engineer Vern Smith, left, Claude Morgan
and construction superintendent Jay Absher stand near the new
water line installed along Lake Montonia Road. Smith is among
residents hooking on to the line.