KINGS MOUNTAIN
Heral
50 Cents
§ Ea Natural 0as pri C es on ri S e
in grid contest
You can win some big
bucks in The Herald's annual
football contest which begins
this week and will run for 13
weeks. See page 10A
PEOPLE
KM’s Ruth Baity
is 80 years old
Ruth
Baity of
Kings
Mountain
recently cel-
ebrated her
80th birth-
day with
family and
yl friends and
First
Wesleyan Church. 7A
KM’s Mary Collier
national delegate
Kings Mountain High stu-
dent Mary Collier will be a
youth delegate to the
National Mothers Against
Drunk Driving youth sum-
mit in Washington, DC. 7A
KM cancer patient
gets his dream trip
Kings Mountain cancer pa-
tient Randy Horn is getting
the trip of his life compli-
ments of the Dream
Foundation. He will go to
Las Vegas for a big birthday
celebration. 8A
Marines promote
Bill Marcellino
Bill Marcellino of Kings
Mountain was recently pro-
moted to the rank of Major
in the U.S. Marines. 8A
Steve Southwell
joins First Citizens
Kings Mountain native
Steve Southwell has been
named vice-president of
Small Business Lending and
Consumer Lending at First
Citizens Bank in Rock Hill,
SC. 2A
COMMUNITY
KM sets fall
clean-up effort
The mayor is planning a
big city clean-up effort for
September 30 and numerous
fun activities for the whole
family are planned for the
next two months at Patriots
Park. 3A
RADAR WATCH
The schedule for next
week’s Kings Mountain
Police radar watch is as fol-
lows:
Monday - East King at
Canterbury Road.
Tuesday - Highway 74 at
Food Lion.
Wednesday - West Gold St.
Thursday - North
Piedmont at Highway 74 by-
ass.
Friday - Phifer Road.
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HOMETOWN
BANK
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
This could be an expensive
winter for folks in Kings
Mountain, and other areas of
the country, who heat with nat-
ural gas and oil.
City Manager Jimmy Maney,
quoting statistics compiled by
the Federal Energy Department,
HB IN THE LOOP
said the city can expect a “55 to
60 percent” increase in natural
gas costs from October through
March. He and some members
of City Council noted “there’s
nothing we can do about it”
and said the cost would have to
be passed on to customers.
Current natural gas prices are
around $4.50 per 1,000 cubic
feet. Last year at this time,
Maney said the price was $2.50
“What we're trying to do is
make citizens aware that they
need to go ahead and take pre-
cautions to conserve energy this
winter so they don’t get hit with
these high gas bills,” Maney
said.
Maney offered a number of
energy-saving tips, which will -
run in next week’s Herald.
City Manager says citizens should begin planning for winter energy conservation
The Energy Department's
Information Administration in-
dicated that the sharp increase
is due to a falloff in production,
short supplies, and high de-
mand by industry and electric
utilities.
Maney said if prices remain
as they are now, a homeowner
whose gas bill was $100 last
year may pay $150 for the same
GARY STEWART / THE HERALD
Brad Allen found a unique way to negotiate the monkey bars at the Kings Mountain Walking Track off Cleveland Avenue. Instead of
hanging and walking by his hands,
had to make a complete turn of his b
the structure.
BY ALAN HODGE
Staff Writer
SAT scores released Tuesday.
showed a mixed bag of results
for Cleveland County's four
high schools.
Shelby High led the county
with a score of 1007, Crest came
in second with an average score
of 985, Kings Mountain tallied
an average score of 929, and
Burns brought up the rear with
a 901 point average score. Kings
Mountain’s score was down
eight points from 1999, Shelby
went up 40 points, Burns
dropped 53 points and Crest
gained 22 points over last year. -
The scores were still below
the national average of 1,019
points on the combined math
White blasts Hayes
for suit against city
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
Kings Mountain City Council
held a closed session Tuesday
night to discuss Councilman
Bob Hayes’ lawsuit against the
city and City Manager Jimmy
Maney.
Hayes, who last week filed a
suit claiming that he was forced
to resign from his position as
police chief to run for City
Council, did not enter the
closed session. He stayed in the
Council chambers with his
attorney, Rob Deaton, as the
other members of Council met
with City Attorney Mickey
Corry.
Following the meeting,
Council returned to open ses-
sion and named Conncilmen
Gene White and Carl DeVane as
a litigation committee.. Their re-
sponsibilities will be directed
by Corry as the the lawsuit pro-
gresses.
The only mention of the suit
in open session came from
Councilman White, who re-
quested that he be given a spot
near the end of the agenda to
comment on the suit and other
matters.
White pulled no punches in
criticizing Hayes for bringing
what he said was an “outra-
geous” and “frivolous” lawsuit
against the city.
Pointing out Hayes’ 36 years
of service to the city, White said,
“This is like suing your own
mother,” and later said it
See White, 3A
and verbal tests that are often
used by colleges and universi-
ties to screen applicants. In
North Carolina, over 60 percent
of high school seniors take the
SAT test. The average score in
North Carolina is 988, up two
points from 1999. The national
average rose three points in the
same period.
At Kings Mountain High
ALAN HODGE/THE HERALD
Eight-year-old Marlin
Lawrence of Kings Mountain
holds a grapeshot and six-
pound cannonball her mother
Melissa Lawrence and aunt
Stella Putnam found in their
* backyards. The balls date to
the Civil War era.
he crawled through from one end to the other. It took some imagination, though, to get down. He
ody inside the loops to get his feet in position to step off on the wooden platform at the end of
KM SAT scores drop eight points
School, 53 percent of seniors
took the SAT this year.
According to Kings Mountain
District School superintendent
Dr. Bob McRae, this figure is
much higher than the 30 per-
cent figure that used to give the
tests a shot. Still, McRae felt the
students could have done a lit-
tle better.
See SAT, 3A
amount of use this year.
Kings Mountain has over
4,000 customers, so such an in-
crease could amount to “hun-
dreds of thousands” of dollars,
Maney said.
“We're not just talking about
one month when you‘ve had to
eat something,” Maney said We
Council
extends |
its ET) |
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
Over objections from a num-
ber of property owners, Kings
Mountain City Council Tuesday
night adopted ordinances to es-
tablish two-mile extra-territorial
jurisdiction along the Highway
29/185 corridor and in the Oak
Grove/Patterson Grove com-
munities.
The move will give the city
zoning powers in those areas,
something most residents who
attended public hearings last
month and Tuesday night do
not approve of. :
Many residents said they do
not fully understand the city’s
zoning plans and urged the
Council to put off the vote until
it could better explain its plans
to the residents. Council had
voted 4-3 at its July meeting to
delay the action for one month
so the Planning Department
could “educate” the citizens on
its plans.
After the hearing, Council>
voted 6-1 to proceed with the
action, with Councilman Bob
Hayes casting the lone no vote.
Although City Planner Steve
Killian reiterated statements
from the past that establishing
an ET] will not result in annexa-
tion or increased property taxes,
residents were still not con-
vinced that it couldn’t eventual-
ly happen.
Darvin Chastain, who lives in
the Oak Grove community, of-
fered a petition containing
names of property owners who
opposed the action.
“The city needs to do some
long-range planning,” he told
the Council. “It looks like we
are in a zoning race with
See Council, 3A
Cannonball could
date to Civil War
ALAN HODGE
Staff Writer
Everyone likes a good mys-
tery, and Stella Putnam of Kings
Mountain has six pounds worth
she recently found in her gar-
den. The puzzle is a solid shot
iron cannonball- origin open to
speculation. :
“When I found it, I wasn’
certain what it was or how it
could have gotten in my yard.”
Putnam said. “It’s not some-
thing you find everyday.”
Six pound cannonballs of the
type Putnam discovered would
have been fired from smooth-
bore cannons of the
Revolutionary and pre-Civil
War eras. During the Civil War,
front-line units usually used a
12-pound projectile fired from
Kings Mountain Gastonia Shelby Bessemer City
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what were called “Napoleon”
brass pieces. Putnam’s projec-
tile is solid iron, but hollow
shells filled with powder and a
time fuse were also used.
So, how could a cannonball
find its way to Phifer Road in
Kings Mountain? History buff
David Neisler has a theory.
“At one time there was a pre-
Civil War militia mustering
grounds south of El Bethel
Church Road,” Neisler said.
“It’s possible the militia could
have been training on obsolete,
Revolutionary War six
pounders.’
Neisler has written a book
entitled “White Plains Goes to
War” about the Civil War ex-
ploits of some area
See Ball, 8A