Thursday, November 11, 1999
Vol. 111 No. 45
Since 1889
50 Cents
Blanton
named
Herald
Publisher
Kings Mountain native
Michael S. “Mike” Blanton has
been named Publisher of the
Kings Mountain group of
Republic Newspapers.
The group includes The
Kings Mountain Herald, The
Cherryville Eagle, Belmont
Banner, Mount Holly News,
Bessemer City Record, and The
Cleveland
Times.
Blanton, a
1970 gradu-
ate of Kings
Mountain
High
School, be-
gan as
Publisher
effective
November
1. He replaces Wes Grooms who
left to pursue other interests.
Blanton will be in charge of
the overall operation of the
group of weeklies in Cleveland
and Gaston counties.
His wife, Susan, a native of
Belmont, graduated from Kings
Mountain High School also.
They returned in June to reside
in Kings Mountain.
The Blantons have one
daughter, Jennifer, a recent
graduate of UNC-Charlotte,
who lives in Chapel Hill.
BLANTON
After finishing high school,
Blanton attended Gaston
College and North Carolina
State University at Raleigh be-
fore beginning his newspaper
career in the mid-70s.
He worked in the circulation
department for a variety of
newspapers in North Carolina
and Virginia over the next
decade.
He was named Publisher of
weeklies in Indiana and
Virginia before being named
Publisher of two dailies in
Blacksburg, VA in 1990. A trans-
fer within the same company
returned him to North Carolina:
in 1995 as a Publisher of the
Avery Journal in Newland, NC.
Blanton returned to the area
earlier this year when he was
named Circulation Director of
The Gaston Gazette.
When asked about his return
to his native area, he respond-
ed, “Susan and I have enjoyed
returning to the area to be near,
her father, Charles Wilson, and
our other family members. We
look forward to getting reac-
quainted with our many friends
and family members in Kings
Mountain, Belmont and the sur-
rounding areas.”
He continued, “I know The
Kings Mountain Herald and the
other sister papers have high
readership and are respected in
their communities. I want each
newspaper to be a leader in its
own community. I believe a
community newspaper should
be a reflection of the communi-
ty it represents.”
Blanton can be contacted at
739-7496 or at
kmgmike@aol.com.
Veterans Day service
set at Mountain Rest
The city will sponsor a
Veterans Day service November
11 at 11 a.m. at Mountain Rest
Cemetery.
Mayor Scott Neisler will lead
the service, assisted by mem-
bers of the American Legion
and VFW.
The public is invited.
BW MOUNTAINEER CHRISTMAS
Kings Mountain cable customers will
see an increase in rates on January 1,
2000.
Time Warner Cable's Shelby System
Manager Floyd Williams announced the
prices today, but added that the pricing
packages are a result of continued in-
vestments in new programming and
programming choices, improvement in
customer service, and investments in
system technology.
“Time Warner Cable continues to keep
prices as low as possible while support-
ing the variety of services that customers
find valuable,” Williams said. “We are
investing in programming that cus-
tomers want to watch, making invest-
ments in the future by upgrading our
technology by offering customer service
guarantees. As a result of these contin-
; GARY STEWART / THE HERALD
Todd Hughes of the City Electrical Department strings lights around a Holly tree
on Railroad Avenue. City employees are getting downtown ready for the
Christmas season which will include a parade and many other special activities.
Cable rates going up
ued investments, it is necessary for us to
make this adjustment in our prices. As a
whole, the price increase for some of our
popular level of service will be around
five percent.”
Over the past five years, Williams said
the Shelby System has been upgraded to
750MZ to allow more channels and ser-
vices. The popular Road Runner High
Speed Internet is scheduled to start here
in the first quarter of 2000. The system
has also been improved to a state-of-the-
art facility, capable of providing the most
advanced telecommunications services,
Williams said. He said, in addition to
new services, local customers will bene-:
fit from upgrades in technology, better
picture and sound quality, and improved
service reliability.
See Cable, 3A
14
Board delays
site selection
for new school
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
The Kings Mountain Board of
Education held off on choosing a site for
a new 5-6 school at Monday night's board
meeting at Central School, but after a
Closed Session it did authorize Supt. Bob
McRae to begin inquiring about the price
of two parcels of property near the pre-
sent site of Kings Mountain Middle
School... : -
Only one person - realtor Kay
Cloninger - signed up to speak at the
public hearing called to receive input on
the two pieces of property as well as any
other tracts that might be available. One
other citizen, David Dellinger, sent typed
comments with Board Chairman Ronnie
Hawkins.
Both Cloninger and Dellinger ex-
pressed concerns about the possibility of
heavy traffic on Phifer Road and the new
Dixon School Road extension, which will
eventually be a connector road between I-
* 85 and Highway 74, and which is very
close to both parcels of land being consid-
ered. :
Vice-Chairman Shearra Miller said she
had hoped that the Board wold “get to
the point where a tract would just jump
out at us,” but said that’s not the case.
“I'm not thoroughly happy with either
tract,” she said.
One tract being considered is the Beam
property, which adjoins the present
Middle School property and has some
frontage on Phifer Road. If that tract (up
to approximately 50 acres) is chosen, the
entrance to the school will be on the new
connector road. :
The other tract, known as the Elam
property, is 40 acres with frontage on
Crocker and Phifer Roads. If that parcel is
chosen, the entrance to the school will be
on Crocker Road.
Both tracts have municipal water and
sewer nearby, a factor that disqualified
one piece of property that was offered
earlier.
Cloninger said the Elam property is
more suitable for the system's needs be-
cause the school entrance would be on
the less-traveled Crocker Road, and that
the school system could take an option on
an additional 83 acres of land for future
expansion. She said the property is avail-
able for $7,000 an acre.
She advised against purchasing the
Beam property because she said there is a
“potential for five lanes on that road” in
the future.
“You need to look at the larger pictured
and not be so focused on what we need
air
five years down the road,” she told the
board. 1 (
She predicted that “transfer trucks, |
dump trucks, buses and general traffic”
will make heavy use of the connector
road once it is completely finished.
“I worry about that,” she said. “A traf-
fic light can do a certain amount of good,
but the potential for situations would be
great if you front a school on that road.” |
In his typed remarks, Dellinger spoke |
of congestion at either site. He said that
grades 5 through 12 (or 50% of the total
KM Schools population) would be locat-
ed in “one geographic area.”
In the year 2015, when Kings |
Mountain's estimated student population
would be 10,000, there would be major
traffic concerns, he noted.
“Regardless of the chosen location, the
school system must continuously push
the DOT to widen Phifer Road,” he said.
The system eventually plans to turn the
new 5-6 school into a second middle
school and build two new elementary
schools to take care of the fifth grades.
“For convenience of the school popula-
tion, the two schools should be located in
separate areas of the school district,”
Dellinger said. “If the Phifer Road area is fl cS
selected for the new school, the intent qe
should be to serve as a future elementary
school (K-5) and not as a future middle
school. Another tract of land can be se-
lected in the future to serve that purpose,
away from the present middle school.”
Regardless of the site selected, the
Board, which had hoped to have the new
school ready for occupancy at the begin-
ning of the 2001-2002 school year, was
told by Architect Roger Holland that
“we're past the point of being in it at the |
beginning of 2001.”
Holland said, even if a site is selected
now, it would take several months to do
drawings, advertise for bids, etc., and af- 14¢
ter that 18 months would be needed for 1:
construction.
“We're looking at a best case scenario 1c
of completing construction in December ]
2001,” he said. “You could opt to com-
plete it in the spring of 2002 and have stu-
dents move in in the fall of 2002.”
Supt. McRae said if the building is
completed in December 2001, the school
could be occupied at the beginning of the
second semester in January 2002.
“It would not be impossible to open in
mid-year, but it would be cumbersome,”
he said.
The school, which would house all of
the system’s fifth and sixth grade stu-
dents, would have a projected enrollment
of 756 if opened in 2001-2002, and 766 in
2002-03.
Like a Good Neighbor,
Here comes...
the Spiderman
Biker pedals 145,000 miles across U.S.
to raise awareness of Multiple Sclerosis
By GARY STEWART Kings Mountain. “I don’t think
Editor of The Herald I'll make the $60,000. I may get
two or three hundred more, or
He's pedaled 145,000 miles maybe a thousand.”
over the past nine years to raise
money and awareness of multi-
ple sclerosis, but 31-year-old
Thomas Beasley of Anaheim,
CA is ready to call it quits.
Known as the Spiderman - a
nickname given himby his =
grandmother because he
climbed chairs even before he
learned to walk - Beasley has a
goal to raise $60,000 for MS be-
fore he hops off his bike in
Columbia, SC in 13 days and
catches a train back to
California.
“I have raised $58,040,” he
said Monday before stopping
for a night's rest at a hotel in
taken him to every state in the
U.S. except Alaska, Vermont
and New Jersey. He has ped-
aled through most of the states
many times over - spending the
winter in warmer states such as
Texas, and the hot summer
months in the north.
He covers about 30 miles a
day, visiting numerous busi-
nesses, telling his story and
asking for a donation to fight
MS
“I talk to the owners of the
businesses,” he said. “If they
feel what I am doing is worth-
See Beasley, 3A
The Spiderman’s travels have
GARY STEWART / THE HERALD
Thomas Beasley - The Spiderman - stopped
in Kings Mountain Monday on one of his many
bike rides across the United States to raise
money for and awareness of Multiple
Sclerosis. He hopes to top the $60,000 mark
- in donations.
KMDS helps county
with construction funds
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
In a “good neighbor” move, Kings Mountain's
Board of Education Monday nigh unanimously
approved loaning Cleveland County Schools $1.5
million out of its construction allocation so the
new Springmore Elementary School in upper
Cleveland County can be completed on time.
Supt. Bob McRae told the board that Kings
Mountain has $2.3 million in its bond account,
and that letting Cleveland County use part of its
allocation would not affect the upcoming pur-
chase of property for a new 5-6 school in Kings
Mountain.
New allocations of state bond money for school
construction is due in March 2000, McRae said,
and at that time $1.5 million of Cleveland
County’s allocation will be placed in Kings
~ Mountain’s account.
“This basically falls into the ‘Good Neighbors’
category,” McRae told the Board. “We would still
have $800,000 which is enough to purchase prop-
erty if we get the details worked out by then.”
Vice Chairman Shearra Miller, who seconded
Larry Allen’s motion to allow Cleveland County
to use the funds, said it is “often perceived” that
the three Cleveland County School Systems “are
See Schaols. 3A
2%
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hela
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