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The Kings Mountain Herald
MCRAE
From 1A
of family services such as
Communities in Schools, Smart
Start, and before and after
school care programs “hopeful-
ly made raising children easier
for families.”
An avid supporter of athlet-
ics, McRae saw KM teams excel
in many areas.
“In no way would I want to
imply that athletics is the most
important thing in the system,
but it’s something I've en-
joyed,” he said. “We had a great
athletic program, not just in one
sport but every sport had some
significant accomplishments
and that’s been gratifying.”
Many Kings Mountain folks
will attend today’s reception to
honor McRae and tell him how
much he meant to them and to,
the system over the years. A -
group of students from Kings
Mountain High School will pre-
sent a musical program at 5
p-m., and the Board of
Education will make a presenta-
tion to McRae.
One man on the program
who says he will miss him is
County Commissioner Ronnie
Hawkins, who served on the.
Board of Education for almost
12 years under McRae. He was
chairman of the Board for about
half of those years.
.“He has always been one that
‘wanted to make sure that ev-
eryone had the information that
was necessary to perform their
job,” Hawkins said. “I think the
one thing that I will always re-
member most about Bob is that
no matter what the situation,
his first and primary concern
was how it was going to affect
the children. 2
“I've always been impressed
by his ability to stay in the
classrooms and to know each
employee of the school system.
He knows all the teachers, assis-
tants, custodians, cafeteria
‘workers, bus drivers and every-
one else by their fitst name. He
tries his best to stay in the
schools and listen to the con-
cerns of all of the people.
“I know that sometimes he
seems to be flustrated by not
being able to do what every-
‘body wantshim to do, but he
tries and to my knowledge has
ran the Kings Mountain District
Schools the best of anyone that I
have ever heard of. He's going
to be missed. His leadership
abilities will be missed, and I'm
going to miss him as a friend.
He has always been a first class
gentleman and a good Christian
man. Randolph County is going
to be better off for having hired
him. If he works for them like
he has for Kings Mountain,
we're going to be seeing their
name in the paper a lot. It’s go-
ing to be our loss.”
Current Chairwoman Shearra.
Miller said things won't be the
same without McRae. g
“I think he’s been an out-
standing superintendent,” she
said. “He's 100 percent profes-
sional. He has a lot of vision
and foresight and I always felt
like he thought things through
before making a final decision. I
have the utmost respect and
trust for him.
- “Personally, he has been a
‘role model for me as a profes-
sional. I think we've been very
lucky to have him as our super-
intendent for all these years. In
North Carolina, superinten-
dents don’t usually stay in one
system for 14 years. He's given
us a lot of consistency and
that’s one of the reasons we've
done so well.”
FRANKS
From 1A
fifth grade teacher assistant.
Her fellow educators there all
agreed it looked genuine.
“I called the number on the e-
mail to see if it was true,” she
said. “The lady told me that ev-
eryone who wins can’t believe
it actually happened.”
Actually, Franks said she
called three times just to con-
firm what the e-mail said. The
contest prize was a 2002 Ford
Expedition, but Franks decided
to take the cash prize of $31,000.
“I've never won anything,”
said Franks. “It was a nice sur-
prise.”
Now that the check has ar- :
rived and is safely in the bank, :
the question of what to do with
it naturally arises. While others
might buy a new bass boat or
motorcycle, Franks has a more
down to earth plan.
“We might fix up our house
or wait until next year to help
our daughter with a car when
she starts driving,” said Franks.
“We won't go crazy with the
money.”
A once in a lifetime event,
winning the sweepstakes is
something that happens to a
lucky few. Now that it has hap-
pened to Kim Franks, she says
others should try their luck on-
line.
“I didn’t have to buy a single
magazine,” she said.
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ETHEL
From 1A
as Jan Digh from Clover who
brings her books.
“Ethel reads at least four or
five books every week,” Digh
said. “Her favorites are myster-
ies and novels by Janet Oke.”
Allin all, being 94 seems to
sit well with Childers.
. “I've had a good life and I
still got one,” she surmised.
as low as
MERGER
From 1A
Cleveland County residents are
very pleased with the school
systems that they have.”
Although Bolin said she is
concerned that fighting merger
costs a lot of money, she feels
“we should stay the road with
what we're doing” and after
summer see about having their
attorneys get a court date.
“I certainly was disappointed
that Shelby came out pro-merg-
er but I wasn't surprised,” Bolin
said. “The writing was on the
wall. Each board has to do what
they think is best for their sys-
tem.
“But I think we're going to
win in court. I don’t see the
need to rush anyone to make a
hasty decision. Let's wait and
see what the attorneys want us
to do and base our decision ac-
cordingly.” :
McClain said Shelby could
solve its money woes and do
Kings Mountain a favor at the
same time by surrendering its
charter. That would automati-
cally cause a merger of the
Shelby and County systems.
“I can see that they're only
trying to look out for their chil-
dren,” McClain said. “But they
do have an alternative if they're
willing to look at it. They could
give up their charter. They
si eo
as low as
1999. 2000 Ati
could do us a service by giving
up their charter. That would ex-
clude Kings Mountain. They
probably won't do that but I
hope they ‘could hear our plea.”
McClain’s comments drew
roaring applause from the small
number of people in the audi-
ence, and prompted fellow
board member Putnam to con-
gratulate him on being willing
to make that statement publicly.
“Sometimes it’s hard to say
what we feel,” Putnam said.
“We all live in our own capsule.
. This has not been an easy thing.
We looked at redistricting and
people have known where we
stood all along.”
“We're not on a bandwagon,”
added Bolin. “We've listened to
the people. We didn’t come this
far to turn around and be
threatened.. Sometimes slow
and steady wins the race.”
Miller said the KM Board has
always felt that “a smaller sys-
tem is the best” and she and
Putnam pointed out recent
news reports from California
“and other states where large
systems are failing.
“It’s sad that we're looking at
large places where it's not
working, and we wait 20 years
and themtry it,” Miller said.
“I've said all along if you can
. prove to me that it’s best educa-
tionally then I'd be the first one
out there supporting it.”
March 15, 2001
Maxway employees
are suing company
BY ALAN HODGE
Staff Writer
A group of former Maxway
employees in Kings Mountain
have filed a lawsuit against
parent company Variety
Wholesalers Inc. alleging they
were coerced into signing con-
fessions they had stolen from
the store. The group includes
Melissa McCoy, Kimberly -
Haraszkiewicz and Sheryl
Stacey of Kings Mountain and
Sherry Buchanan who lives in
Grover.
Allegations in the suit cite
fraud, deceit, false imprison- .
ment, and emotional distress in
connection with interrogations
' the women say they were sub-
jected to by company loss pre-
vention personnel. The women
claim they were coerced into
signing confessions and agree-
ments to pay back what they
were told was $125,000 in losses .
from the Shelby. Road Maxway:.
Attorney R. Frost Branon, Jr.
of Charlotte is representing the
four women. He says he was re-
ferred to the case by a local resi-
dent. His speciality is employee
litigation.
“When I heard the facts of the
case as the plaintiffs presented
them, I felt they had been co-
erced,” said Branon. “They.
were from different parts of the
county, but gave the same ver-
sion of what happened.”
Variety operates more than
500 stores in 15 states. In addi-
tion to Maxway, they also oper-
ate Roses stores.
None of the four women
could be reached for comment.
Their suit was filed in
Cleveland County Superior
Court on March 2. |
Tube Enterprises to cut ribbon
Commonwealth Aluminum
Tube Enterprises LLC will host
a grand opening and ribbon
cutting Wednesday, March 21 at
11:30 p.m. The event will take
place at 133 Industrial Drive
just off Highway 161, one half
mile south of I-85. Local civic
and business leaders will attend
as well as customers, suppliers,
and employees.
The new tube mill is the first
to be built in the U.S. in 20
years. It features state of the art
equipment and can produce
tubing ‘af a rate of 600 feet per
minute. Séveral planned expan-
sions are planned over the next
2 months. 2
F300
DIALING
From 1A
in the 10-digit scenario.
Telephone companies are plan-
_ ning on having an overlay area
code come to the 919 and 336
areas around Greensboro and
Raleigh. Phone companies are
also looking at overlay codes in
South Carolina for the 803 and
843 codes.
To get ready for the upcom-
ing 704 area code change, there
are several things you need to
do. One is to reprogram your
alarm system so it can add the
area code to any numbers it au-
tomatically- calls. Another tip is
to make sure your fax machine
is set up fo include the area
code in programmed speed di-
al numbers. Check your com-
uter modem and make sure it
will include the area code in
numbers it; dials upd to get on-
line, vise ¢
Other ethies you can do to
help ease the transition to 10-
digit dialing is to include your
full phone number of business
cards, and stationery.
For more information on the
10-digit dialing method, call
BellSouth at 1-800-964-7941 or
visit their website at www.bell-
south.com/areacode.
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