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Thursday, September 9, 1999
Vol. 111 No. 36
Since 1889
50 Cents
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OP gessemer City
1B
SPORTS
GARY STEWART/ HERALD
Sophomore Preston Cole
plays the trumpet during
halftime entertainment at
Friday’s Kings Mountain-
Gaffney football game at
John Gamble Stadium.
Mountaineers hope
to bounce back at BC
Kings Mountain's
Mountaineers hope to bounce
back from Friday's loss to
Gaffney when they travel to
Bessemer City Friday for a
nonconference game. Game
time is 8 p.m. 1B
Mountaineer spikers
still the best in SWC
Despite predictions by
many that their dominance of
the Southwestern 3A
Conference would end after
last year’s state championship
season, Kings Mountain
High's volleyball team is right
back at the top of the confer-
ence standings following a
win over a strong R-S Central
team last week. 1B
RELIGION
Goforth is ‘perfect’
at First Presbyterian
Hilda Goforth got into the
habit of going
to Sunday
School and
church ona
regular basis
when she was
a small child.
She recently
: 4 received
recognition for 49 years per-
fect attendance at Kings
Mountain's First Presbyterian
Church. 6A
Bynum Chapel sets
dedication of center
Bynum Chapel AME Zion
Church in Kings Mountain
will dedicate its new Family
Life Center Sunday at 12:30
p-m. 5A
COMMUNITY
Assisted Living Week
slated at EdenGardens
EdenGardens in Kings
Mountain has scheduled a
host of special activities to cel-
ebrate Assisted Living Week
September 12-18. 2A
‘Champion Contracting
prepares industrial park
Champion Contracting of -
Kings Mountain is pushing a
tight schedule to prepare the
ground for the new Cleveland
County Industrial Park near
Kings Mountain. 10B
BY ALAN HODGE
Staff Writer
Four “nines” could be the start of a great hand
of poker to some, but to computer folks these fig-
ures might just tell the tale of their Y2K readiness.
Everyone in the computer world from govern-
ment agencies to utility companies will be testing
their systems September 9 to see if the fateful fig-
ure of 9-9-99 has any adverse affect upon their
operation.
What's all the fuss about 9-9-99? To the calen-
dar, it’s just September 9, 1999. To some comput-
ers, the numerals 9-9-99 are seen as a stop pro-
gram command. Though most of the world has
been focusing its attention to January 1, 2000 as
~ the point at which the biggest possibility exists
for Y2K woes, no one is ruling out 9-9-99 as an-
other stone in the road to the New Millennium.
September 9 is not the only date that has com-
puter people casting wary eyes on their monitors.
Other dates that have caused and might cause
glitches included January 1, 1999- the first day of
the 99th year, April 9, 1999- the 99th day of the
99th year, October 1, 1999- the start of the 2000
fiscal year for the U.S. government, February 29,
2000- an extra day because of the leap year that
could cause some computers to miss seeing the
date, and December 31, 2000- the 366th day of
the year which could confuse even more comput-
ers.
In many ways, the September 9 date is provid-
‘ing a good opportunity to pre-run computer sys- - entities iiwvolved itt Y2k will be watching the 9:9:
99 date.” : ;
tems before the big day of January 1. Many elec-
9-9-99
Could this be the day computer
systems come crashing down?
tric utilities, including Duke Power, will be
watching their computers closely. The Coast
Guard is even getting into the act by checking
computer based navigational equipment and as-
signing extra personnel to watch it. The
Transportation Department is assembling a team
usually only formed in case of a natural disaster.
The major airlines are confident about September
9 and will not be setting up special command
posts.
Even though many eyes are watching for the 9-
9-99 bug, it might turn out to be less of a bother
than some suppose. Not as many computers are
currently using 9-9-99 as an end of file program
as before. Also, the date is more likely to come up
as 090999. The largest number of difficulties is
predicted to relate to billing and older mainframe
computers.
With much of its day to day operations now us-
ing computers, the City of Kings Mountain is also
a player in the 9-9-99 scenario. City officials and
department heads held a special Y2K meeting
Wednesday morning to discuss steps they had
taken so far to deal with making sure their com-
puters were Y2K compliant. Plans were also dis-
cussed on how to move forward in computer pre-
paredness towards January 1, 2000. Thursday
morning will see wide testing of the City’s com-
puter systems.
“We have a good bit of testing scheduled for
Thursday,” said City Manager Jimmy Maney.
“Not only us but Duke Power and all the other
‘Happy to Help’
Kings Mountain National Guardsmen work on clearing Highway 12 near Kill Devil Hills after Hurricane Dennis
made a reverse run over the weekend.
KM National Guard unit helps clean
Dennis’ damage on N.C. Outer Banks
BY ALAN HODGE
Staff Writer
4,000 pounds of sand with each scoop.
While they were on their mission, Company B worked
with members of the 105th Engineering Battalion from
FIRST NATIONAL BANK
“Tired but always happy to help out,” was how Sgt.
Paul Terry of the Kings Mountain Army National Guard
Armory described his troop’s mission to the Outer Banks
in the wake of Hurricane Dennis. Deployed to Kill Devil
Hills, Sgt. Terry and his squad of fourteen soldiers from
Company B of the 505th Engineering Battalion spent five
hard days on the Carolina coast helping the North
Carolina DOT move mountains of sand and debris from
Highway 12.
“We left last Thursday and got back Tuesday evening,”
Sgt. Terry said. “While we were on the Outer Banks our
group worked as many as twelve hours per day.”
A self sufficient unit, Co. B of the 505th can do all the
‘ maintenance on its earth moving equipment and support
vehicles. For the Outer Banks mission, Company B took
several trucks and two front end loaders capable of load-
ing 2 1/2 yards of sand with each scoop. That's about
Raeford, Laurinburg, and St. Pauls, North Carolina. The
task force made up of Company B from Kings Mountain
and the 105th was commanded overall by Captain
Christopher Newton.
When the Kings Mountain Guardsmen got to the
Outer Banks, they found widespread flooding.
“We heard that they had more damage down the coast
at places like Ocracoke,” Sgt. Terry said. “But there was
still a lot of debris and sand that had to be moved. Once
the road was cleared the sand had to be left in big piles
until the environmental agency people made sure it was
safe to push back on the beach.”
A veteran of several other hurricane missions, includ-
ing Hugo and Andrew, Sgt. Terry acknowledged the
Outer Banks took a beating but he said “it could have
been a lot worse.”
See Guard, 3A
Kings Mountain
ER ORNARY TTR EN
739-4781 865-1111
(ERT) IF
529 New Hope Rd.
ALAN HODGE/THE HERALD
Christopher Brackett (left) and Jordan Brackett took advantage i" Cf ;
of Labor Day by going fishing at Moss Lake. Even though the i :
Video conferences :
could cut down | |
cops’ trips to Shelby
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
It has been over 10 years since Kings
Mountain had its own magistrate. Chances are,
despite the city’s insistence that it is in critical
need of one, it will never have another because
the current trend of the judicial system is to
house its magistrates in the county seats.
But that doesn’t change the fact that Kings
Mountain police officers spend several hours a
week taking prisoners to the Cleveland County
Law Enforcement Center in Shelby for magis-
trates there to process warrants. The practice is
costly to the city, not only in gas and wear and
tear on equipment but more importantly in
time that officers spend away from more im-
portant duties here.
Assuming they won't be assigned another
magistrate, city officials are urging the judicial
system to approve a new idea which would B
substantially decrease the amount of time offi-
cers are away from their patrols and at the
same time get arrested persons processed. :
\. &.d
Se
See Video, 3A
Analysis of line could :
answer water questions |
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
The City of Kings Mountain will soon begin
checking out the seven miles of 24-inch water
line coming from Moss Lake into the city, and it
could be the first step of multi-million dollar
project bringing an entirely new line into town
to replace the original 30-plus year-old pipe.
City Council gave its approval at last week's 3
meeting for Moretz Engineering of Kings
rn
Mountain and Triagon Engineering of
Asheville to analyze the line. City Manager |
Jimmy Maney said the testing should begin
within 30 days, and within 30 days after that
the engineers would compile a report to be pre-
sented to Council and the City Utilities !
Committee.
Maney said the check of the lies would once f
and for all give the city an accurate evaluation
of the condition of the pipe, and from there
Council could decide the priority of repairing ie
or replacing the lines. :
See Water, 3A
~ Shelby
: Man Oftice :
106 S. Lafayette St.
: 484-6200
vi Member FDIC - i {