KINGS
MOUNTAIN
erald
COUNCIL
mW
in | Security top concern in KM schools
Council approves
water/sewer hike
The average residential wa-
ter/sewer bill will increase
about $18 a month in a new rate
structure approved Tuesday
night by Kings Mountain
Council. 2A /
KM Council tables
S.C. water’'request
Kings Mountain Council
Tuesday night tabled a request
from South Carolina business
owners to run water through
Grover to their Cherokee
County establishments. 2A
Hearing set May 3
on YMCA proposal
Kings Mountain City Council
will hold a public hearing
Tuesday night, May 3 to receive
public input on a proposed
agreement between the city and
the YMCAs of Cleveland
County to run the KM recre-
ation parks and programs. 3A
SPORTS
mw
KM'’s Bridges racks
up in Senior Games
Kings Mountain's J.C.
Bridges entered 23 events and
won 18 gold medals in last
week's Cleveland County
Senior Games. 6A
Mountaineers still
in running for title
Kings
Mountain's
1 Mountaineers lost
4] Rutherford last
/ week, but are still
in the running for the
SWC baseball title and a state
playoff berth. 7A
FREER
PEOPLE
iE
KM’s Ruby Alexander
wins Wal-mart Award
Kings Mountain realtor and
community leader Ruby
Alexander receives the Sam
Walton Business Leader Award.
10A
Tootie Allen, others
recall war experience
Kings Mountain's Tootie
Allen and other World War II
veterans remembered their war
experiences during a recent ~
meeting of the Saint Matthew's
Lutheran Church Men's
Fellowship. 10A
i
LIFESTYLES
POW Bill Alexander
still a survivor at 81
Retired Kings Mountain
teacher Bill Alexander, a
lic through main entrance only
KMHS.
in halls
Vv Crimestoppers line to Kings
KMMS & KMHS SAFETY CHECKS
Vv Majority outside doors locked during day. Entrance by pub-
¢ Random weapons searches & metal detector checks
¢ Random weapons checks and regular locker checks
¢ Security cameras on all buses; and also inside the building at
¢’ Book bags must be kept in lockers at KMMS
¢/ Close teacher supervision when schools open and close, and
¢ Alternative School for disruptive students.
Mountain Police Dept.
How are the Kings Mountain District
Schools dealing with safety concerns?
After shootings at schools in Arkansas and
Oregon last year and the recent massacre at a
high school in Colorado, how are local
schools ensuring that those tragedies won't
happen here?
At Kings Mountain Middle School a major-
ity of the 35 outside doors are locked with
visitors entering the school at the main en-
trance. Bus drivers run video cameras at least
once a day to monitor student behavior and
a book bag policy in effect for at least seven
years keeps student bags in lockers and stu-
dents carry only books in their hands as they
go from class to class.
Bulky coats are also not seen on campus,
according to Principal John Goforth, who
said that students have never worn any
trench coats, only the big warm winter coats
that they wanted to wear to “hibernate” in
class. “We require students to store their
heavy coats in their lockers,” he said.
A Winning Moment
esoes
Neisler
Attorney Andy Neisler is
out, former magistrate Dot
Hayes is in and attorney Tim
Moore is the new chairman of
the Kings Mountain ABC
Board.
For the third month in a
row, more discussion on the
Alcohol Beverage Control
board took up a long portion
of an agenda that lasted until
11 p.m. Spectators at Tuesday
night's council meeting, in-
cluding members of the ABC
Prisoner of War during World
War II, is still a survivor at age
81. He's always one of the big
winners in Cleveland County
and State Senior Games.
TE
INDEX
Bh :
Birthdays 2B Obituaries 3A :
Classified 9B Opinion 4A :
Education 3B Police - 10A :
Lifestyles 1B Sports 5A :
YOUR
HOMETOWN
BANK
City Council has picked the
7 1/2 acre tract of land on
King Street and Canterbury
Road across from The Herald
as the site for the new Kings
Mountain Senior Center.
After an executive session
Tuesday night, Council voted
unanimously to buy the prop-
erty from the Lillian and Paul
Mauney Estate at cost of
$65,000. Lou Ballew is execu-
tor for the estate.
The driveway of the new $1
Kings Mountain’s All-American tennis player, Bryan Jones, gets a big hug from his college coach,
Allen Morris, after being inducted into the Kings Mountain Sports Hall of Fame Monday night at B.N.
Barnes Auditorium. Story and more photos on page 5A.
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esscsscesssconsssee
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Random weapon searches are still very
much a part of safety plans at both Kings
Mountain High and Kings Mountain Middle 1
Schools. I &
“If we hear a rumor we conduct a search.
Lockers are cleaned out each week with a
teacher present,” Goforth said.
KM Middle has no security cameras in the
building but KM High does.
“We supervise students at all times,” says {
Goforth. Teachers are out in front of the
building when school opens and closes and
in the hall. The safety plan is similar for the
high school and elementary schools.
The creation of the alternative school at
Davidson School took disruptive students
from the classroom and Goforth sees this
school as a real plus to help many students
return to the regular classroom.
“The alternative school is one of the best
things we've offered in Kings Mountain,” he
said.
See Schools, 2A
KMHS student
suspended after
‘hit list’ remark
The safety of Kings Mountain district stu-
dents and faculty is always uppermost in the
minds of school officials, said Supt. Dr. Bob
McRae as the full force of 15 dead last Tuesday
at a Colorado high school heightened safety
awareness.
At Kings Mountain High School last Monday
a ninth grade boy allegedly verbally threatened
to kill a teacher in a classroom and others on a
“hit list.” Principal Phil Weathers immediately
sent the boy home for 10 days and recommend-
ed long-term suspension. A hearing panel met
Tuesday afternoon with McRae.
“The student assured us that he had no inten-
tion to follow through on the statements,” said
McRae.
Weathers said to his knowledge the student
had no history of discipline problems.
As word about the alleged threat spread
throughout the school, students were under-
standably anxious but McRae said he knew of
no absences as the result of the incident.
“We take threats seriously and we believe
that our safety plan works.,” he said.
Considering the impact of what happened
in Colorado schools were back to normal this
week.
Kings Mountain High was not the only
school in the area reporting incidents involving
students. At North Gaston High last week a
teacher found a loaded gun hidden on top of a
bathroom ceiling tile and a 15 year old student
was charged with having a firearm on campus,
a felony. Some 40 students signed out of school
last Wednesday at the Dallas campus.
See Student, 2A
A
out, Moore in as ABC chairman
Board, appeared surprised by
the turn of events which came
about midway of the meeting.
Councilman Gene
White's motion to delete Item
14 “to adopt an ordinance
amending the term limits for
the Kings Mountain ABC
Board” from the agenda failed
for lack of a second and set
the tone.
White made the motion
at the beginning of the meet-
ing when Mayor Scott Neisler
million facility would line up
with Canterbury Road.
The Department of
Housing and Urban
Development has already ap-
proved a $450,000 grant for
one house on the site for eight
bedrooms and eight baths to
accommodate qualifying se-
nior citizens.
The city’s Aging Director
Monty Thornburg said ata
recent meeting that
Isothermal Planning
asked if there were any addi- in January and the position
tions to the agenda and the has been in limbo since.
board prepared to vote on the Neisler answered numer-
agenda. ous questions that had been
White and Councilman fielded by White at recent
Clavon Kelly objected to meetings concerning the oper-
council reversing a decision it ation of the ABC Store.
made a year ago that a mem- He said the board is very
ber of the ABC board could
serve no more than two terms
of three years each. Neisler
has been the only chairman of
the board since its inception
12 years ago. His term expired
conscious of prohibiting un-
derage people at the store
and has done a good job at
control. White had criticized
the operators permitting par-
See MOORE, 2A
NEISLER
MOORE
Commission of Rutherford
County is working with the
WNC Housing Partnership as
project administrator and will
receive the applications. A
Title V person may be hired
for the site to prepare meals
and take care of maintenance.
“This is a new concept in
housing for senior citizens
and the first time we have had
an opportunity in this area to
take advantage of this grant,”
he said.
Shared living accommoda-
tions will include a living
room and kitchen area in the
Victorian style house.
The shared senior housing
' is the first for this area and is
patterned after a concept de-
veloped in Hereford County.
Cit Manager Jimmy
Maney and Architect Glen
Stephens showed conceptual
drawings for the proposed $1
million multi-purpose facility
to City Council at a recent
Senior Center to be built on King Street
meeting.
Stephens described the new
senior center as “cost effec-
tive.”
Included in the spacious
15,000 square feet layout are
five offices, a break room,
nurse’s office, 9x12 reception
area, 14x30 lobby, gift shop,
18x30 kitchen, two 30x30
classrooms, a 86x42 multi pur-
pose room /auditorium, gym,
craft room, pool room, card
See Council, 2A