Thursday, May 18, 2000
Vol. 112 No. 20
Since 1889
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BRIEFLY
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KMDS interviewing
coaching prospects
Kings Mountain school offi-
cials were busy this week in-
terviewing possible successors
to departing football coach
Ron Massey.
Asst. Supt. for Personnel
Ronnie Wilson said he has re-
ceived 15 applications, some
of which are from veteran
coaches with established win-
ning programs.
Wilson, outgoing KMHS
Principal Phil Weathers, and
incoming Principal John
Yarbro conducted three inter-
views Tuesday and four
Wednesday.
The veteran head coaches
are from eastern and western
North Carolina, and the list of
assistants interested include
two members of the current
KMHS coaching staff.
In addition to the 15 appli--
cants, Wilson said he has had
inquiries from coaches in
Florida, Arkansas and
Virginia.
Wilson said he hopes to
have a new coach hired by the
end of next week.
Massey resigned last week
to become head coach and ath
letic director at A.L. Brown
High School in Kannapolis.
KMHS graduation
Friday at Stadium
Father,
drown in
oss Lake
SOI11
GARY STEWART / HERALD
Merger
hearing
Monday
KM Schools to seek injunction
to stop State Board from acting
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
Kings Mountain District Schools’ attempt to get
an injunction preventing the State Board of
Education from acting on Cleveland County
Commissioners’ school merger plan will be heard
Monday at 10 a.m. before
Judge Henry Barnette in Wake
County Superior Court.
The Kings Mountain and
Cleveland County School
Boards, and many parents and
other interested parties from
Cleveland County, will be in
attendance.
KMDS won a temporary re-
straining order which stopped
the State Board from acting on
the merger plan at its May meeting. The Board
meets again on May 31-June 1.
Judge Barnette can approve or deny the injunc-
tion request Monday, or take time to consider his
decision.
The plan calls for the July 1, 2000 merger of the
Kings Mountain, Cleveland County and Shelby
City School systems. However, Kings Mountain is
contesting the plan because it does not include
183 Gaston County students who live in the
HAWKINS
SE
Kings Mountain School District, and also that the 88
projected cost of merger is inaccurate. &
The county’s original plan estimated that im- of o
plementing merger would cost an estimated 334 4
million. KMDS countered that the estimate was
Kings Mountain High
School’s 2000 commencement
ceremony will be held Friday,
May 19 at 7 p.m. at John
Rescuers and volunteers drag Moss Lake for the bodies of James Roy Carroll Sr. and James Roy Carroll Jr.,
who drowned during a fishing trip on Saturday afternoon. The body of young James Carroll was found by an
underwater camera Tuesday morning at 10: 30 a. m. in 50 foot of water. Rescuers are continuing the search for
James Carroll S a Li Ge 1
oom AR
scesscss
Gamble Stadium.
Over 225 graduates will re-
ceive their diplomas.
For a complete story on
commencement exercises and
pictures of all the graduates,
see Section C in today’s
Herald.
James Roy Carroll 4 ’S hod found Tuesday
rescuers still searching for James Carroll Sr.
coven
low by some $1.1 million, bringing the total to
over $4.5 million.
The State Department of Public Instruction
agreed with Kings Mountain's figures, and the
county board of commissioners Tuesday night
amended the merger plan to include the higher
figure.
By GARY STEWART Proctor said he feels like the search. Kings Mountain School Board member Ronnie
Editor of The Herald two had gone swimming, and The tragedy occurred in one of Hawkins, who is running for County
Subway reopens one got into trouble and the other the most difficult parts of the lake Commissioner, heard at the last minute Tuesday
in Ki Mountain A Shelby man and his son tried to help. to conduct a search, Proctor said. afternoon that the commissioners intended to dis-
In Kings drowned Saturday while on a According to rescuers on the The area is off Zeb Cline Road cuss merger at its meeting, and he made a quick
The Sub York Road fishing trip at Moss Lake. scene, the men’s shoes were still where an old bridge and barb trip to Shelby to speak before the board and again
Kin A af a The body of James Roy Carroll in the boat and their keys and wire were left in place when the ask commissioners to stop its merger plan.
business late Tuesday after-
noon after being closed for al-
most three weeks while set-
tling with the State
Department of Revenue Sales
Tax Division on past due sales
tax.
Store Manager Paul Brintley
said the store will be open
from 10:30 a.m.-11 p.m.
Monday through Friday and
10:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday
and Sunday.
{
Second primary
slated May 30
The second Republican
Primary election will be held
Tuesday, May 30 at all
precincts in Cleveland County. :
Runoffs are scheduled in the
Commissioner of Agriculture
race between Tom Davidson
and Steve Troxler; and in the
Commissioner of Labor be-
tween Cherie Killian Berry
and Joong 3. Miller.
INSIDE
Methodist
plans celebration
Grace United Methodist
Church, Kings Mountain, will
holds its 100th anniversary
celebration Sunday morning Hunter Caldwell and Greg the more alert and focused on
in grand old style just like : Ingram. their driving.”
Methodists did it a hundred The unique thing about A Driver's Ed teacher for 30 [{&
years ago. The pastor, Dale
Swofford, will ride to church
on horseback in the tradition
of the Circuit Riding Preacher,
with the bridle in one hand
and a-Bible in the other. 3A
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sssecsece
Jr., 17, was found in 50 feet of wa-
ter at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday. Rescue
personnel and volunteers were
still searching for the body of
James Roy Carroll Sr., 41, at The
Herald's press time Wednesday
morning.
According to Lt. Melvin Proctor
of the Kings Mountain Police
Department, the men had been
fishing about three hours when
some other boaters heard some-
one yelling for help and noticed
a man in the water flailing his
arms. But by the time the boaters
got to him, he had gone under.
Stop, look
and sign
Hearing impaired KMMS
students learning to drive
BY ALAN HODGE
Staff Writer
Alert, focused, and full of de-
sire to drive safely, that’s how
Kings Mountain High School
Driver’s Education instructor
Bo Goforth describes students
Caldwell and Ingram'’s training
is that they are both hearing im-
paired and need a fourth pas-
senger in the Driver’s Ed car-
: sign language expert Alene
Williams, to roby Goforth’s in- |
structions. Though it sometimes
makes for extra stops along the
way, the combination seems to
work like a charm.
“The boys can’t hear sirens
and other sounds,” Goforth
said. “But that makes them all —§
wallets in the shoes, indicating
that they were swimming.
“This is a tragedy,” said Lt.
Proctor. “They were both good
Christian people. We ask that the
people remember the family in
their prayers. This is a tough hit
for them.”
Over 70 rescuers, firemen and
law enforcement personnel from
70 miles around gave up their
Mother's Day to help search for
the men, Proctor said.
About 45 people took time off
from work Monday, Tuesday and
Wednesday to continue the
years, Goforth also teaches
physical education at Grover
School. Though he’s had other
lake was built, and also where
two creeks feed into the lake and
two old road beds are situated.
“That's probably the most dan-
gerous place in the lake to dive,”
Proctor said. “You can’t see once
you get below 20 feet. You sort of
go into a blackout condition. No
light can penetrate it below 20
feet. Even with your light source
you can’t see you hand in front
of your face because the silt just
hangs in the water and never set-
tles.”
See Search, 2A
“Merger was not on the agenda, and there was
no notification to anyone that they were going to
discuss it,” Hawkins said. “One of our con-
tentions from the very beginning is that the com-
missioners adopt an agenda as they go without
informing the people.”
Hawkins claimed that County Manager Lane
Alexander and the commissioners’ merger
lawyer, Gil Middlebrooks, went to Raleigh last
week to look at the financial figures compiled by
Kings Mountain’s merger lawyers, Richard
Schwartz and Brian Shaw.
“The DPI is agreeing with our numbers, and
before the commissioners can present a plan to
the State Board it has to be pretty much in line
See Merger, 2A
DRIVER EDUCATION
+ STUDENT DRIVER _ |
ALAN HODGE/THE HERALD
Kings Mountain Middle School student Hunter Caldwell gets set for another round of Driver Ed
training with instructor Bo Goforth. Hearing impaired, Caldwell uses his other senses in special
See Driving, 10A
ways to make himself a smooth and safe driver.
Kings Mountain Gastonia Shelby Bessemer City
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