Thursday, November 16, 2000
Vol. 112 No. 46
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festivals
McIntosh
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
Kings Mountain candidates
made Cleveland County politi-
cal history last week when they
swept all three available seats in
the County Commissioners
election.
Ronnie Hawkins, Tommy
Reaction
to recount
mixed here
BY ALAN HODGE
Staff Writer
With more convolutions than
an old time washboard, the
Presidential election in Florida
continues to stagger along like a
Key West rummy.
.As of Wednesday morning,
recounted votes in Florida gave
Republican George W. Bush a
300 vote lead- 2,910,492 for
Bush and 2,910,192 for Vice
President Al Gore. The recount
was supposed to stop for good
at 5 p.m. Tuesday on an order
by the Florida Secretary of State
Katherine Harris, but a judge’s
ruling on the matter also left a
loophole in the deadline that
stated Harris had to “consider”
amended results. Circuit Judge
Terry Lewis said Harris’ deci-
sion could not be “arbitrary.”
Still to be counted, and pre-
dicted to be in favor of Bush,
are several thousand absentee
votes from overseas. Most are
from military personnel. So far,
about 3,000 of these votes have
come back to Florida and are
supposed to be all in and count-
ed by Saturday.
Despite threats of lawsuits by
both Democrats and
Republicans if things don’t go
their way, Harris said that after
the absentee ballots are count-
ed, she will certify the vote and
“the final results of the election
for president of the United
States in Florida.”
Local reaction to the situation
in Florida varied from the neu-
tral to the partisan. Rare indeed
was the person who didn’t have
some type of opinion on the
subject. Ideas ranged from sim-
ply leaving the first results
alone to having the candidates
“draw pistols at dawn.”
Cleveland County
Republican Party chairman Tim
Moore said that a hand count of
each vote was “too subjective”
to be accurate.
“Voting machines are not per-
fect,” Moore said. “But I don’t
think they are so inaccurate as
See Recount, 3A
ree ecssannceecaraciecsase00000000000000000000ssssest0000ssts0ente 20000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000sossoccscssscscesrss:
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Bridges and Mary Accor be-
came the first Kings Mountain
majority on the five-member
Board, and Mrs. Accor became
the first African American
woman to be elected to the
Board. She had served 31/2
years previously as an appoint-
ed member.
And, history will be made
HB VETERANS DAY
again on the new Board's first
meeting night Monday, Dec. 4
at 6 p.m. when they elect the
county’s first African American
chairman.
All three KM commissioners-
elect say they will support
Willie B. McIntosh as Chairman.
They say he deserves the posi-
tion because of his experience
and his stance against school
merger.
“He has experience, and he
was the only one that listened
to the people on the old Board,”
says Bridges. “I think he de-
serves it if he wants it. I believe
he’d be a good leader.”
“I think Willie’s done a lot to
try to reach out to the people all
i dads LR
ALAN HODGE/THE HERALD
Led by members of the Kings Mountain High School marching band, dignitaries and citizens pa-
taded to Mountain View Cemetery for a special ceremony marking Veterans Day on Saturday.
Several dozen folks took part in the march and commemorative events.
Rededication of cannon, parade
and service highlight observance
Paul Fulton plays Taps at
Veterans Day service
BY ALAN HODGE
Staff Writer
Kings Mountain honored its
military personnel past and pre-
sent with ceremonies and a pa-
rade Saturday morning. The
events included special guest
speakers and drew a sizable
crowd.
The day got underway with a
rededication of the Kings
Mountain War Memorial at the
corner of Mountain Street and
and Railroad Avenue. The
memorial and its 75mm pack
howitzer have been completely
refurbished. A mural on the
cannon’s base painted by Clive
Haynes depicts the world and
places where modern wars have
taken place. The crowd includ-
ed aging veterans, young folks,
and families with small chil-
dren.
“History and memory brings
our gratitude to those who
KM police to crack down
on speeding on Nebo Hill
Mountain High School and Kings Mountain
Middle School that pick students up and drop
them off on Waco Road had been making their
BY ALAN HODGE
Staff Writer
Drivers who think the Nebo Hill section of
Waco Road near Kings Mountain is a racetrack
had better get ready to be black-flagged.
Following a series of near misses between
speeding vehicles and school buses that stop
there, the Kings Mountain police say they are go-
ing to slow folks down one way or the other.
“We are going to have several deterrents in
place on that stretch of Waco Road,” said chief
Houston Corn. “Besides patrol cars with radar,
we will also be moving our speed indicator sign
out there.”
Other things in the works to get the speed
down on Nebo Hill will include having the speed
limit reduced from 45 miles per hour to 35.
Signage indicating that school bus stops are in the
area will also be erected.
Prior to this week, the buses from Kings
stops in a blind curve at the bottom of Nebo Hill.
Now, the buses will be halting at the top of the
hill in a more visible area.
Though area residents say drivers speeding
around the Nebo curves are nothing new, last
Friday saw an incident that was the straw which
broke not only the camel’s back, but very nearly a
school bus as well.
“A tractor trailer came around the curve as I
was stopped picking up children,” said bus driv-
er Debbie Wright. “He locked his brakes up and
stopped a foot away from the bus. At the same
truck.”
dangerous.”
time a person following the truck too closely
skidded around to keep from rear ending the
Wright says that the Nebo Hill areas is “really
See Police, 2A
fought and died for liberty,”
said former Kings Mountain
mayor John Henry Moss.
Moss also drew a parallel be-
tween modern troops and the
patriots who fought at Kings
Mountain as people who served
with “valor, honor, and duty to
God.”
The current field piece at the
monument was put there in
1968. A previous cannon from
World War I had been on dis-
play, but was used for scrap in
World War II. The late Joe Smith
of Kings Mountain was one of
those instrumental in getting
the 75mm piece.
“Joe would be pleased to see
how we have gathered to honor
our veterans,” said wife Nancy
Smith.
Kings Mountain mayor Rick
Murphrey said it was “on our
watch and our responsibility”
See Veterans, 3A
oe
OS eeetterctesttercncrrcsonentsrsssscenssosssesereces
to lead county b
over the county,” Accor noted.
“That's being a representative
of all the people. Willie is evi-
dence of what a representative
should be.”
Hawkins said he will support
McIntosh not because of indebt-
edness to his stance against
See County, 2A
Willie
Mcintosh
will be
county’s
first
Black
chairman
county for money |
for new school
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
One of the first major deci-
sions to be made by the new
Board of County
Commissioners may be
whether or not to financially
support the building of a new 5-
6 grade school in Kings
Mountain.
The Kings Mountain School
Board will open bids for the
new school on December 7 and
hope to begin site work by the
first of the year.
Although they're hopeful the
bids will come in within their
price range of approximately $9
million, it’s almost certain they
won't. Preliminary estimates
in the $11.5 million range.
the present County Board sev-
eral months ago asking for that
by either providing a loan or
money from its capital reserve
fund.
tion on the request.
School Supt. Bob McRae said
the new school is being bid in
such a way that some classroom
wings could be left off the ini-
tial construction, allowing the
facility to be built within the $9
million range. By the time the
school opens in 2002, KMDS
would have that much money
in reserve through state sales
tax redistribution funds.
The School Board meets
Thursday at 7 p.m. at Central
School, and McRae said the
Board may have some conver-
sation about reapproaching the
commissioners for financial as-
sistance. :
“I don’t know what form that
request will take,” McRae said.
“If we do that I think we need
to do it fairly early. I don’t an-
ticipate that being at their
December 4 meeting, but at a
See School, 3A
were that the school would cost
The School Board went before
board to help finance the project
The County board took no ac-
‘Hawkins
to resign
school seat
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
The Kings Mountain Board
of Education will discuss fill-
ing the vacant seat of recently-
elected County Commissioner
Ronnie Hawkins at Thursday's
7 p.m. meet- ] :
ing at
Central
School.
But, the
matter of
finding a
new superin-
tendent to
replace Dr.
Bob'McRae,
who is leav-
ing April 1 to become superin-
tendent of Randolph County
Schools, will not be on the
agenda until at least January,
said Chairman Larry Allen.
“We will receive Bob's letter
of resignation,” Allen said,
“but our first order of business
will be to determine a replace-
ment for Ronnie Hawkins.”
Hawkins said he will hand
deliver his letter of resignation
to the Board Thursday and it
will be effective at noon
December 4, the day he takes
his oath of office as county
commissioner. However,
Hawkins said, if the Board
wants to name his replacement
earlier than December 4 he is
willing to step down at any
time. :
“I'm going to do what's con-
venient for the School Board,”
Hawkins said. “I think it’s in
the best interest of the school
system for them to get some-
one on board and up to speed
See Hawkins. 3A
ALAN HODGE/THE HERALD:
Kings Mountain police will be stepping up efforts to catch speeders coming down Nebo Hill on
Waco Road. Folks traveling too fa
for the bus.
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