3X
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XN Jor Crest
- Csherian Coleman helps keep
KMHS volleyball team on top
of Southwestern Conference. 1B
Mountaineer spikers
still leading conference
Kings Mountain High's girls
volleyball team ran into a cou-
ple roadblocks against a pair of
nonconference powers over the
weekend, but they're still unde-
feated in the Southwestern
Conference. 1B
Mounties tie Shelby,
host unbeaten Chargers
Kings Mountain High's foot-
ball team tied Shelby 21-21 ina
nonconference thriller last
Friday in Shelby, and will host
one of the top 4A teams in
North Carolina Friday at 7:30
when the Crest Chargers come
to John Gamble Stadium. 1B
CHURCH
ar tr eect
Arlene Barrett ends
40 years with First PC :
Arlene Barrett, who is retiring
after 40 years as secretary at
First Presbyterian Church, will
be honored at a reception
Sunday at the church. 6A
COMMUNITY
Ws
Your blood is needed
Thursday at Central UMC
The Kings
Mountain Lions
Club will spon-
sor a visit of the
Cleveland
County blood-
mobile
Thursday from
1:30-6 p.m. at
Central United Methodist
Church. With the recent hurri-
cane in North Carolina, blood
needs are more critical than ev-
er. 3A
Mayor Neisler four-peats
as county livermush king
When it comes to cooking
creative livermush recipes,
Kings Mountain Mayor Scott
Neisler is the king. He won the
livermush recipe contest at
Saturday’s Cleveland Mall
Livermush Festival for the
fourth time. 3A
Kings Mountain Police
make two drug arrests
Kings Mountain Police exe-
cuted search warrants at two lo-
cal residences, resulting in
charges against two local resi-
dents. Police say they will be
targeting street dealers between
now and December. 5B
(Obituaries Page 2A)
+
LB
HEATHER BARR/THE HERALD
it
Johnny Appleseed of Windy Hill Orchard and Cider Mill, Inc. shows children
how he can peel an apple Into a circular strip and taks cut the cove with one
tool at last weekend’s Pioneer Days at Kings Mountain Staite Park.
City to consider natural gas expansion
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
The City Utilities Committee
will recommend to City
Council Tuesday night that it
accept a five-year capital ex-
pansion study for the city’s
natural gas system as prepared
by its consulting engineer,
Heath and Associates.
If approved, the expansion
.could result in extending ser-
vices to a vast majority of resi-
dences and businesses in and
around Kings Mountain, and
would be financed over a five-
year period through the capital
raised by the services and not
through bonds or loans.
Heath outlined the program
to the Utilities Committee dur-
ing a lengthy meeting Monday
afternoon at City Hall.
Heath studied several areas
in and around the city, and will
recommend that many of them
be approved for services dur-
ing the next five years. Some of
those territories include
Ebenezer Road, Bethlehem
Church Road, Phifer Circle,
Galilee Church Road, and
Williams Road. He said those
- areas would have an economic
payout “of between six to ten
years, which is good.” He will
recommend that those projects
be undertaken within two
years.
~ Other areas are recommend-
~ ed for expansion within five
years, including Bethlehem
Road, and I-85 in the area of
KM Utility Committee may
consider grinder pump use
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
With almost 95 percent of its
“traditional” residential build-
ing lots already used, Kings
Mountain city officials may
soon have to make a decision
on whether or not to develop a
grinder pump policy which
would allow building of resi-
dences on non-traditional lots
which are lower than the city’s
gravity-fed sewer lines.
Butch Kerns, developer of a
subdivision on Williams Street,
appeared before the City
Utilities Committee Monday af-
ternoon asking for approval to
install grinder pumps in a
planned five-lot cul-de-sac.
The utility committee, though
not opposed to the idea, tabled
the matter until it can get ad-
vice from experts in Raleigh
and develop either a policy or
pilot program.
Committee members and
other city officials expressed a
need that standards be set that
would protect the city’s interest.
Kerns’ proposal was that the
grinder pumps, which cost any-
where from $2,600 to $5,000
each, and the lines going from
the resident to the street, be the
property of the resident and
that the force main that carries
the material to the city’s lines be
owned and operated by the city.
Grinder pumps are relatively
new to this area. It was pointed
out that Shelby recently devel-
oped a grinder pump policy,
and that Gastonia is allowing
them. Mecklenburg County has
allowed them for years.
“They have been in service
nationally since the sixties,”
Kerns pointed out. “What were
once thought were unbuildable
lots now have become usable
land.”
See Grinder, 3A
KM comes to aid
of flood
BY ALAN HODGE
Staff Writer
Floyd, the monster hurricane who
stomped his way across the eastern
Carolinas last week, stubbed his toe
when he got to Kings Mountain.
Predictions by weather boffins who said
Floyd would bring 80 mph winds and
torrents of rain to the western
Piedmont, including Cleveland County,
proved to be greatly overblown. The
simple fact was, Floyd had a mind of
his own about where he wanted to go.
Amateur meteorologist Ken
Kitzmiller of Kings Mountain checked
his rain gauge Thursday morning but
was disappointed.
“If any rain accumulated in the gauge
from sprinkles during the night, it had
all evaporated by morning,” Kitzmiller
said. “All we got were some winds that
hit 30 or 35 miles per hour.”
Cleveland County EMS crews had a
relatively quite time during what little
bit of storm came our way.
“To my knowledge we didn’t receive
any storm-related calls,” said EMS
training officer Lewis Jenkins. “We had
Siow calls but they weren't storm relat-
The Kings Mountain fire and police
departments also passed an uneventful
night.
“Everything was peaceful Wednesday
night,” Fire Chief Frank Burns said. “We
had no problems related to the winds.”
Thanks to a program of aggressive
tree trimming initiated after Hurricane
Hugo, the City of Kings Mountain fared
well in Wednesday's winds.
“We were in good shape,” said city
‘Manager Jimmy Maney. “There was on- :
victims
How you can help
4A
ly one outage due to wind and that was
a phone line downed by a limb.”
Cleveland County Emergency man-
agement crews were glad the weather
wasn't as severe as first predicted, but
said a little bit of rain would have been
nice.
“We lucked out with the storm,” said
Dewey Cook. “There was no debris to
clean up and we only heard of one pow-
er line being down.”
Even though Cleveland County got
off easy, the eastern part of our state
took a terrible beating from Floyd's tor-
rential rains and surf surge.
Fresh from a trip to the Outer Banks
to help with Hurricane Dennis, troops
from Co. B 505th Engineering Battalion
at the Kings Mountain Army National
Guard Armory saddled up and headed
Down East again to help victims of
Floyd where over 150,000 people were
without power.
“We've sent over 70 men down to the
Wilmington area,” said Sergeant Paul
Terry of the 505th. “From there they are
fanning out to help in whatever capaci-
ty they are needed.”
Also on their way to the coast was a .
team of technicians from area BellSouth
offices. Driving a caravan of 21 trucks
and vans, the 30 BellSouth workers
were from Cleveland County,
Rutherford County, PR and
Charlotte. =... ios
“1 See Floyd, 3A"
Foote Mineral. Two areas that
were studied but will not be
recommended for expansion in
the near future are Dixon
School Road and Crowders
Mountain.
In some cases, Heath said
the city may want to “stake out
a territory...hoping for some-
thing to happen” for the fu-
ture. Included in that list is
Highway 216 north, where
Heath said there are “not
many people out there now”
and the payout would be in ex-
cess of 25 years.
He pointed out that bids
were recently opened for ex-
pansion into the new
Cleveland County Industrial
Park, for which Cleveland
County will pay half the cost.
Having already secured a ten-
ant, Heath said that project
will pay for itself quickly.
The study also suggests that
the city negotiate a tap with
Public Service Gas Co. to use
its existing line near Foote
Mineral if an emergency situa-
tion ever occurs that would
cause the city to shut down its
system.
In a related matter, Heath al-
so suggested that his company
be allowed to conduct a com-
prehensive study of the cost of
gas services. He said his com-
pany did a study in 1989 and
updated by letter in 1994.
“The last ten years the gas
industry has turned upside
down,” Heath said. “We en-
courage doing a full-scale rate
study every ten years.”
City Manager Jimmy Maney
was quick to point out that the
study has absolutely nothing
to do with raising rates, but in-
stead is aimed at determining
. exactly how much it costs to
provide services to each client,
especially industry.
“We have had customer in-
quiries from people wanting to
buy their gas directly from
Transco and use our lines to
transport it,” Maney said. “We
need to take a look at what the
costs really are. We are not
looking to go up on rates - just
attempting to identify what
those costs are.”
GARY STEWART / THE HERALD
Justin Norman washes windows at the Kings Mountain Senior Center during Saturday morn-
ing’s Day of Caring, sponsored by Cleveland County United Way. Volunteers also cleaned out
the old caboose which has been used for storage.