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Thursday, October 12, 2000
KINGS MOUNTAIN
Vol. 112 No. 41
Since 1889
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Senior Center, water contracts awarded
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
In a special meeting Monday,
Kings Mountain City Council
awarded contracts for two capi-
tal projects amounting to almost
$4 million.
Council awarded a
$888,092.48 contract, including
10 percent contingency funds,
to Ronny Turner Construction
for the 36” north side water
KM Board
discusses
new school
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
Architect Roger Holland gave
the Kings Mountain Board of
Education an update on the de-
sign of a new 5-6 grade school
at Monday night's meeting at
Central School.
The project is scheduled to go :
out for bids in late October, and
the Board hopes to award con-
~tracts by early December.
- Kings Mountain plans a facil-
-ity on the new Kings Mountain
“Boulevard to house all of the
= system’s fifth and sixth graders.
However, because their fund-
“ing position is not clear at this
point, the Board asked Holland
to draw the plans so that two of -
the four classroom wings could
be bid as alternates.
The estimated cost of the
original plans was around
$11.75 million. Each classroom
wing deleted could save about :
© $1.5 million in construction
cost, but the system would have :
to install mobile units at the site
to take care of the student pop-
ulation.
The school system would
have about $9 million available
through saving its share of state
sales tax revenue over the past
several years. The system re-
cently asked Cleveland County .
Commissioners to back loans
for the remaining amount nec-
essary, but they refused to take
action.
School officials are still hope-
ful that funds can be found to
finance the entire project.
Holland told the Board very
few modifications have been
made to the original plan. If
classroom wings are deleted,
some modifications would have
to be made to walls and doors,
he said.
“In case the prices are not
within the means to fund the
two classroom wings, they can
be deducted and one or both
put back in at a later date,” he
said. “There’s a lot of flexibility:
with what we can afford to do.”
Board member Ronnie
Hawkins was optimistic the en-
tire project can still be funded,
and said it needs to be stressed
to the public that this is Kings
Mountain's first new school
since 1974 (when the Middle
School was built).
“When we do this, we want it
to be for the future,” Hawkins
said. “In the year 2020 I would
like to say this is still a state-of-
the-art school.”
Holland said he is optimistic
that the system will get some
good bids
“Based on other jobs we're
doing, it appears the market is
very good now,” he said.
“We're very pleased with the
bids we've received on other
jobs. If the market stays like it
is, and with this project coming
along just prior to the bond ref-
erendum for universities and
community colleges, we
See School, 7A
line, which is Phase II of a 10-
year program to completely re-
place the main water line from
Moss Lake to the city.
Council also awarded con-
tracts totalling almost $2.8 mil-
lion for the construction of the
Kings Mountain Senior Life and
Conference Center.
City Manager Jimmy Maney
noted that Phase I of the water
project had been completed
during the past fiscal year, and
Phase II will be completed in
this fiscal year’s budget. Phase
III will be included in the 2001-
02 fiscal year budget and
should be completed by
Christmas 2001.
Phase I included some 3,600
feet of line from the water plant
at Moss Lake across Muddy
Fork Creek.
Phase II is a 36” north line
coming out of the Public Works
facility on North Piedmont,
down Cansler Street. Phase III
will extend that project to Oak
Grove Road across the
Highway 74 bypass.
Maney said approximately $1
million is available in the bud-
get to cover the project, thus al-
lowing the city to go ahead and
begin design work for Phase III
even though it is not included
in this year’s budget.
Bids were awarded contin-
gent upon rights of way being
3 ALAN HODGE/THE HERALD :
: Kindergarten students from Springmore Elementary in Boiling Springs paid a recent visit to :
: Killdeer Farm for a morning hayride. Admiring the Killdeer Plpkine were, from foft, Vimotiy
i Gossett, Kayleigh McDaniel, and Sierra Akers. RA
oll ‘Em No More
KM’s new automated garbage truck in use
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
Kings Mountain Public Works officials got their
first test run of their new $147,000 automated
refuse collection truck Thursday morning, and
they look forward to putting the truck in service
this week.
Maxwell Taylor, Vice President of Sales for
Carolina Environmental Systems, Inc., gave a
thorough training session on the easily, conve-
niently operated one-arm pickup system behind
the Public Works Building on North Piedmont
Avenue.
Public Works Director Jackie Barnette said as
soon as paper work is completed on the purchase,
the truck will be put in service.
The vehicle should more than adequately serve
the needs of the city’s over 4,700 residential cus-
tomers, Barnette said, and will make sanitation
pickup more efficient and less expensive in the
See Garbage, 3A
Huge crowd attends
KM battle celebration
BY ALAN HODGE
Staff Writer
Saturday saw a veritable bat-
talion of history buffs descend
on Kings Mountain National
Military Park for the 220th
Anniversary celebration of that
Revolutionary War battle.
Dignitaries, Revolutionary reen-
actors, the Overmountain
Victory Trail marchers, and
hundreds of folks interested in
~ our nation’s past filled the park
visitor center and grounds to
overflowing.
“This is the most people I've
ever seen at the park,” said su-
perintendent Erin Broadbent.
Sunny skies and cool temper-
atures made a perfect day for
ceremonies commemorating the
October 7, 1780 Patriot victory
at Kings Mountain. The battle,
often called a turning point in
the American Revolution, saw
buckskin clad mountainmen
and local militia fight against
Tories led by British army
Major Patrick Ferguson.
Fighting Indian style, the
Patriots destroyed their enemies
and killed Ferguson to boot.
One aspect of the event that
was especially interesting was
an encampment by members of
the Guilford Militia and Locke's
Militia. Dressed in 18th century
garb, the men, women, and
children reenactors had set up a
living history camp in the
woods with canvas tents and
stew boiling in iron kettles over
open fires.
“We enjoy doing this because
it helps educate the public
about how people lived back in
the time of the Revolution,”
See Battle, 3A
GARY STEWART / HERALD
Maxwell Taylor, right, of Carolina
Environmental. Systems, Inc. shows Mayor Rick
Murphrey how easy it is to operate automated
garbage truck.
secured, Maney said.
Negotiation on one right of way
is not complete, and if it’s not
secured an alternate route will
be considered.
By going ahead and award-
ing construction bids, materials
could be ordered but actual
construction could not begin
until the right of way issue is
settled, Maney said.
An alternate route could re-
quire additional money, Maney
noted.
General construction for the
Senior Center project was
awarded to Pinnix Inc. of
Gastonia, which offered a base
bid of $1,483,452. Eleven alter-
nates were included in the plan,
bringing the total cost to
$2,088,177.
Site work was awarded to
J.W. Tedder Construction in the
See Contract, 3A
Dalton,
Neisler
in Senate race
(First of a three-week series
on the important local races in
the November 7 general elec-
tion. This week: NC State
Senate District 37. Next week,
NC State House District 48).
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
Both candidates for the 37th
State Senate seat - incumbent
Walter Dalton of Rutherford
County and challenger Scott
Neisler of Cleveland County -
list education as one of their top
four priorities, but have differ-
ent ideas on what they consider
the other three most important
issues facing the state Juring
the next two years.
fiscal responsibility, and pro-
tecting children and families as
his main goals.
Neisler, former Kings
Mountain mayor, listed, in no
particular order, taxes, spend-
ing money for its intended pur-
poses, education, and reducing
restrictions that the state puts
on local government agencies.
“In a nutshell, I'm for cost
versus benefit analysis,” says
Neisler. “If the cost is worth the
benefit do it; if not, leave it
alone.”
Neisler said the main reason
he’s running for State Senate is
because, when he was mayor
“the state government was not
real responsive to the things we
needed here in our area.”
And, that brings us to his first
priority:
He spoke specifically of a KM
request for a 3-cent state occu-
pancy tax at hotels on I-85
which he said would have put
an additional $75,000 a year in
listed el ucation, the ER -
NEISLER + DALTON
the city coffers.
“We've had local bills op-
posed for the last three years,”
he said, “and our local delega-
tion has not been able to grant
those to Kings Mountain. For
some reason the Democratic-
controlled General Assembly
hasn't seen fit to grant Kings
* nicipalities i in this county have.”
2 - Spending money for its in-
tended purpose:
“As mayor I was not fond of
taking money out of one fund
and using it for another pro-
ject,” he said. “We ran into diffi-
culty here, because by doing
that a lot of our systems let go.
I'd like for things to go to their
_ specific causes.”
As an example, he said, the
state gasoline tax is supposed to
go to the highway fund, but he
charged that over the last three
years the General Assembly
“has robbed that fund of $153
million.” He said local projects,
such as the 74 bypass around
Shelby, would have been farther
along if the gas tax had gone to
its intended purpose.
3- Schools:
Even with the improvements
made in education, Neisler said
“it’s still a shame that we are
See Senate 3A
ALAN HODGE/THE HERALD
Beverly Mcintyre helped cooked some vitties for the Revolutionary War camp Saturday at Kings
Mountain National Military Park. Mcintyre and her friends slept outside in canvas tents.
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