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UNTATN NC 26
Thursday, February 1, 2001
Vol. 113 No. 05
Allen named
superintendent
BY ALAN HODGE
Staff Writer
Dr. Larry Allen has been cho-
sen to replace Dr. Bob McRae as
superintendent of Kings
Mountain District Schools. The
announcement came at a special
meeting Wednesday morning.
McRae will be leaving Kings
Mountain in April to take over
the schools in Randolph
County.
A long-time resident of Kings
Mountain, Allen is a native of
Shelby. He currently serves as
chairman of the Kings
Mountain school board. He
3 boards
to meet
on merger
BY ALAN HODGE
Staff Writer
Kings Mountain, Cleveland
County, and Shelby City school
boards will all meet February 7
to look for a solution to the
merger question. The meeting
will take place at 7 p.m. at the
Kings Mountain District
Schools administrative building
at 105 Ridge Street.
One of the topics expected to
be discussed at the open meet-
ing will likely be redrawing of
school district lines to more
evenly distribute students
throughout the county. One of
the guests will be Michael
Crowell, the attorney who rep-
resents Cleveland County
Schools. Some people have been
concerned that redrawing the
school lines will result in a
flood of lawsuits.
See Merger, 3A
graduated from Shelby High
School in 1960 and holds de-
grees from Appalachian State
University.
Allen's career as an industrial
arts and drafting teacher began
in Greensboro in 1964. From
1965-1968 he taught at Shelby
High School. He came to Kings
Mountain and taught from
1968-1974. The years 1974
through 1978 saw Allen serve as
principal of Central School.
In 1979 he took over as assis-
tant superintendent of Kings
Mountain Schools, a job he held
until 1985 when he became as-
See Allen, 3A
Since 1889
«8086-3414
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
City Council Tuesday night
voted 4-3 to “table indefinitely”
the sale of the old City and
Davidson lakes and to refund
earnest money to Sea Island
Land Co., which had recently
Dr. Larry Allen, chairman
of the Kings Mountain
Board of Education, is
coming out of retirement
to become Superintendent
of Schools.
BH SWINGING INTO SPRING
Spring-like temperatures saw East Elementary students (from
left) Katelynn Daniel, Kurtis Martin, Leticia Michelle and
LS
bid $630,000 for the two pieces
of property. :
A standing-room-only crowd
that spilled all the way out of
Council Chambers into the lob-
by of City Hall, reacted to the
vote with a thunderous ap-
plause. Councilmen Carl
DeVane, who made the motion,
Bob Hayes, Howard Shipp and
Clavon Kelly voted to table the
matter. Gene White, Jim Guyton
and Dean Spears opposed.
During the citizens comments
section earlier in the meeting, a
number of representatives of
the recently-organized Friends
of the Lakes urged Council to
retain and maintain the lakes
for recreational purposes. They
also presented a petition con-
taining approximately 500
names of persons opposed to
’y
ALAN HODGE/THE HERALD
Ashlei Thompson swinging on the school playground. The kids
are all in the third grade at East.
Red Cross looking for home in downtown KM
BY ALAN HODGE
Staff Writer
Old movie theaters seem to
be hot items in Kings Mountain
lately. Besides the possibility of
the former Joy Theater becom-
ing a performing arts center,
there's a chance that the Dixie
Theater could become a new
location for the Cleveland
County Chapter of the
American Red Cross.
Red Cross executive director
Rick Dancy says his group is
currently looking for a Kings
Mountain site. The Dixie is lo-
cated on Railroad Avenue not
far from the Joy. Besides the
Dixie, Dancy said the former
SageSport building on West
Mountain Street is under con-
sideration.
“We haven't decided on a lo-
cation yet, but we want the Red
Cross to be involved in down-
town revitalization in Kings
Mountain,” Dancy said.
Uses for the Kings Mountain
branch of the Red Cross will in-
clude safety and CPR classes,
* storage for emergency supplies,
and a place where the bloodmo-
bile could visit.
The Kings Mountain site
would likely not be staffed full-
time, but would have staff on
duty as needed.
“We are really looking for a
City may have to redraw voting
lines and postpone 2001 election
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
City Council Tuesday night set a public hear-
ing for February 27 at 7 p.m. to consider post-
poning the November 2001 municipal election.
City Attorney Mickey Corry told Council
that re-districting of city wards will probably
Council pledges $50,000
to Little Theatre project
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
City Council Tuesday night pledged $50,000
big, open room type space,”
said Dancy. “We are not close to
choosing a site, but we're look-
in nd
The Red Cross also wants a
* new building in Shelby. That
project will need $1 million
raised to see it through. The
project is currently in the plan-
ning stage. The chapter is in the
middle of a three-part feasibili-
ty study to determine land and
building costs. According to
Dancy, two potential sites have
been identified.
To help with the financial as-
pect of the project, Dancy has
been given the authorization to
hire Research Development
Corp. fund raiser Carl Elliot. He
is also involved in raising mon-
ey for the Performing Arts
Center. Other projects Elliot has
had a hand in include the
Harris Children’s Wing of
Mauney Memorial Library
tabled ‘indefinitely’
the sale. :
Prior to the vote, several of
the Councilmen stated their po-
sition. The three opposing the
motion to table noted that the
sale of the lakes has been dis-
cussed for years and said only
recently did anyone state an
opposition to it. er
“Why have we been hassling
with this for years - and very in-
tensely during the past year -
and nobody does anything and
all of a sudden people come
See Lakes, 3A
Game rooms
permit denied,
owners seek
injunction
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
After a marathon meeting
that began January 9 and was
recessed to reconvene on two
subsequent occasions, the Kings
Mountain Board of
Adjustments Monday night
unanimously denied all nine
conditional use permit requests
from local video arcade owners
Mike Heath and Don Johnson
that would have allowed them
to continue to operate their.
businesses past the state- and’
local-mandated January 31
deadline for compliance with
zoning ordinances. ;
Immediately following the
decision, Heath and Johnson
said they would seek a restrain-
ing order to keep the city from
enforcing the deadline while
the lawsuit they recently filed
against the city is running its
course in the judicial system.
Although the Board reiterat-
ed on several occasions that it is
not a “law-making body” and
does not have the power to
amend zoning ordinances, it
would be hard to convince the
game room owners that the
city’s non-conforming zoning
policy is being enforced on a
fair and equal basis.
“They basically denied our
permits because we're not
zoned right,” said Johnson, who
owns or leases seven of the nine
businesses that applied for CU
permits.
See Poker, 8A
be necessary because of an increase in popula-
tion due to recent annexation and the U.S. cen-
sus.
“State law says you must look at the ward
lines to see if they need to be redrawn,” Corry
said.
Corry said State law requires re-districting
be completed at least three days prior to the
July 6 filing date for City Council. It must also
be pre-cleared by the U.S. Justice Department.
Corry said it will probably be March or April
before census figures are received, “and typi-
cally you anticipate 60 to 120 days for clearance
by the Justice Department.” He said if all of
that can be accomplished by July 3 the election
could go on as scheduled in November; if not,
it would have to be delayed.
See Election, 8A
FIRST NATIONAL BANK
Celebrating 127 Years
over a three-year period to the Kings Mountain
Little Theatre’s $300,000 fund-raising project
which would turn the old Joy Theater into a
Performing Arts Center.
Jim Champion, Team Leader for the fund-
raising effort, told Council its donation would
go a long way in putting the effort “over the
top.”
hopin said the group has already raised
over $175,000.
Councilman Gene White said he supported
the Little Theatre but that the city has commit-
ted a lot of money to other projects over the
next several years, and suggested that the city
offer $25,000 over a three-year period. His pro-
posal failed on a vote of 5-2, with Clavon Kelly
siding with White.
See Theatre, 3A
Kings Mountain
300 W. Mountain St.
704-739-4782
529 New Hope Road
GARY STEWART / THE HERALD
Pete’s Game Rooms 1 and 2 on North Piedmont Avenue are two of the nine video gaming es-
tablishments that were denied conditional use permits by the Kings Mountain Board of
Adjustments Monday night. The business owners intend to seek a restraining order to keep the
city from shutting them down.
Gastonia Shelby
106 S. Lafayette St.
704-484-6200
Bessemer City
1225 Gastonia Hwy.
704-865-1233 704-629-3906
Member FDIC
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