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Thursday, August 19, 1999 Vol. 111 No. 33 Since 1889 50 Cents
TRUER
SPORTS
a
Mountaineers week
away from opener
Blown breaker
at sub-station
ko’s KM power
Equipment failure was blamed for a power out-
age Friday afternoon that put 25 percent of the
city in the dark.
City Manager Jimmy Maney said a 1977 break-
er blew the top off the York Road Sub-Station on
York Road about 2:30 p.m. but luckily some
plants had closed for the day.
Electricity was restored in about two hours but
industry was the hardest hit by the equipment
failure.
Kings Mountain High's
football team is working hard
to prepare for the 1999 opener
on Friday, August 27 against
East Gaston's Warriors. They'll
compete in the Gaffney, SC
Jamboree Friday night and the
first-ever Cleveland County
Jamboree Saturday at Burns
High School. 2B
Susie Hughes new
KM volleyball coach
Susie Hughes,
former assis-
tant, has been
named head Director of Utilities NIck Hendricks was shop-
coach of the ping for new equipment this week which will
Kings cost about $30,000, Maney said.
Mountain High Maney said that lightning could have damaged
School volley- the sub-station during a recent summer storm
ball team. The
team, which
FEES won the state
3A championship last year,
“opens its regular season
Saturday in a tournament at
Watauga High School. 2B
and caused the breaker to come apart.
Although Kings Mountain electrical customers
have been using more power to keep cool the ex-
tremely hot weather was not a factor in the break-
age, Maney said.
“We were just lucky,” he said.
RA
SPORTS
NEXT WEEK
Wo
Herald football tab
coming next week
The Herald’s 1999 special
football preview, featuring the
preseason outlook for the
Kings Mountain Mountaineers
and all of their opponents, will
be published in next week’s
Herald.
EEN,
PEOPLE
Bill McDaniel loves
helping KM yreople
Fifty years
ago this week
Bill McDaniel
made his first
trip as an ambu-
lance driver for
Harris Funeral
Home. He has
worked either
“1 full- or part-time
for the funeral home ever
since. 3A
Grace Robinson 100
and still having fun
i
Hot cars
can be fatal
in minutes
Grace
Robinson,
who lives at BY ALAN HODGE
Kings Staff Writer
Mountain
Care Center, is Though no parent would ever dream of putting
100 years old. their child in a hot oven, that’s just what some are
She says if the doing when they leave chaps unattended in cars
world ends in
the year 2000 she'll just say
“it's been fun.”
parked in the summer sun. Underscoring this fact
this summer in North Carolina as a result of such
5A negligence. Last week, two more cases of children
being left in unattended cars were also reported in
our state.
BUSINESS The deaths in question involved two year old
Tyrell Stacker in Guilford County, and three year
Mia old Trey Barber in Scotland County. Both children
Local business break
ratures.
ground for expansion pe
departments, no cases of children being left unat-
tended in cars has come to their attention. The
same holds true for Cleveland County Emergency
Medical Services.
“We haven't had any cases of children being left
Two local businesses broke
ound for new buildings this
week. The Kings Mountain
Farm Bureau Office is building
a new facility at West Gate
Shopping Center on Shelby
Road, and the Mayflower
plant on Grover Road broke
ground for a major expansion.
4B
Lewis Jenkins. “If someone should see a child
locked in a car in the sun, they should call 911 at
once.” :
See Hot Cars, 3A
FIRST NATIONAL BANK
Celebrating 125 Years
is the tragic realization that two children have died
died from the effects of hyperthermia- overheating
of the body by prolonged exposure to extreme tem-
According to the Kings Mountain fire and police
in cars to my knowledge,” said EMS training officer
SA
GARY STEWART / THE HERALD
A burned out breaker at the York Road sub-station (top photo) knocked out the power to most of east Kings
Mountain Friday afternoon. Kings Mountain Electrical Superintendent Nick Hendricks (left bottom photo) looks
over the damage with employees of Duke Power Company, the city’s electric supplier.
Cleveland’s
late crops
in trouble
BY ALAN HODGE
Staff Writer
As if lawns and fields the color of shredded
wheat cereal weren't proof enough, the N.C.
Drought Council announced recently that our state
was in desperate need of rain. With rainfall over
most of North Carolina averaging between fifty
and seventy five percent of normal levels, rainfall
levels are up to seven inches below normal for this
time of year. The Western Piedmont has not had a
- month since May of 1998 when rainfall levels were
normal.
All this heat and dryness has everyone from
farmers to city dwellers sweltering. Cleveland
County agriculture has been suffering as well.
“The biggest areas of concern for farmers in
Cleveland County has been with apples and pas-
ture grasses,” said Greg Treywick of the Cleveland
County Cooperative Extension Service. “Apple size
is down from normal although quality is still ac-
ceptable. Pasture grasses and hay are in trouble.
The Cleveland County Cattleman’s Association has
drafted a letter to agriculture secretary Jim Graham
requesting help in the hay situation. With the heat
and lack of rain, cool season grasses are dead and it
looks as if we won't have a crop of hay this year.
Some farmers are already feeding their livestock
A See Crops, 3A
Kings Mountain
300 W. Mountain St.
739-4781 365-1111
(GRR) TE
529 New Hope Rd.
publicly stated they favor the annexation.’
Consultant says if KM doesn’t
annex Canterbury, Gastonia will
City Council may not be so far apart on the
annexation issue, members indicated in ques-
tions posed and anwered during a work session.
Monday night.
The seven member board will take a vote
August 31 on whether to annex 2,300 plus
acres south and ”
Are you go-
east of the city, a i
tract that would |
increase the city’s Ing to let your
area by half. . |
Itis the largest tAX DASE, jObS
Ymca apne and uiilily cus,
tion in the city’s
history, and ac-
— tomers go to
Benchmark annex- (3gstonia?”
ation consultant
Richard Flowe it's
an opportunity for -Richard Flowe
growth if not Consultant, Benchmark
grasped by Kings Mountain will go to neigh-
boring Gastonia.
“If you vote this down on August 31 the City
of Gastonia can move on it September 1 and
now it’s only a half mile from Gastonia to Kings
Mountain's existing city limits,” he said, illus-
trating the distance on a large map.
Flowe told council and several Canterbury
Road residents in the council meeting room
that “you will either be in Gastonia city limits
or Kings Mountain city limits in 24 months.” :
Council members Norma Bridges, Gene 3)
White, Rick Murphrey and Phil Hager have on A
Councilman Clavon Kelly, “between a rock and
a hard place last week,” now says he will vote
for the annexation.
Councilman Bob Hayes and Jerry Mullinax
say they learned some new things during the
discussion, including the fact that there is no
current non-annexation agreement between
Kings Mountain and Gastonia.
Ina meeting with Gastonia officials, City
Manager Jimmy Maney said he learned that
Gastonia intends to annex the mountain ridge
line and connect Kings Mountain Pinnacle to
Crowder’s Mountain State Park.
Flowe said Gastonia has an aggressive plan
for annexation that would take in the Lake
Montonia and Canterbury Road areas and the
north side of I-85 frontage road where it crosses
the intersection at Highway161.
“Canterbury Road is the battleground be-
tween two cities,” said Flowe. It is the stepping
stone to cut off the area you have to rely on for
future development. Are you going to let your
tax base, jobs and utility customers go to
Gastonia?
“Look at annexation as an essential step to
preserve growth.”
Although initially the annexation would
bring in only $152,000 annually in taxes to
Kings Mountain, Flowe said extending the utili-
ties would pay the construction costs. Maney
said a different financing methodology would
be used with no cash coming from any fund or
capital improvements project. He said a
Number 1 project for the city is still running a
new water line to town but first engineers have
to determine what shape the current line is in
and if it can be updated. Maney said the city
will be out of debt on the electric peak genera- »
tion plant in two years and that $500,000 sav- |
ings each year can be designated to finance the
water line to town, if a new line is needed.
“We are in process of getting an evaluation of
the existing line and its life-expectancy,” he
said.
Councilman Rick Murphrey, chairman of the
utility committee, is expected to present a rec-
ommendation from the utility committee at the
August 31 meeting. The utility committee is
asking city council to approve a half million
dollar expenditure for replacement of 3,000 feet
of water line. The tie-in from the water plant
would be completed July 4th while industry is
closed for the holidays. The project design will |
require submission to the state. !
“Every break we have on the water line is
due to 90 degree bends and the utility commit-
tee is recommending that we remedy that prob-
lem by upgrading from a 24 inch line to a 36
inch line,” Maney said.
SETS
See Council, 3A
SISO
Main Office
106 S. lafayette St.
484-6200 Member FDIC