Newspapers / The Kings Mountain Herald … / April 26, 2001, edition 1 / Page 1
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Thursday, April 25, 2001 Vol. 113 No. 17 Since 1889 50 Cents Joy Theatre now home of KMLT Sale closed Thursday, open house June 1 By GARY STEWART Editor of The Herald Kings Mountain Little Theatre has successfully completed its $300,000 fund raising campaign to purchase the Joy Theatre on Railroad Avenue for a Performing Arts Center. The Little Theatre closed on the pur- chase of the theatre from Gospel Assembly last Thursday, and has hired architect Roger Holland of Shelby to redesign the stage and performing arts area. Those plans will be revealed at a public open house on June 1 from 5- 6:30 p.m. June 1 is the 52nd anniver- sary of the opening performance of the Joy Theatre in 1949. The first movie shown there was “Follies of 1947.” A grand opening will be held later. KMLT President Jim Champion said the public fund-raising effort which lasted less than four months was a “team effort” of 40 volunteers. See Theatre, 3A GARY STEWART / THE HERALD The old Joy Theatre, current home of Gospel Assembly of Kings Mountain, has been purchased by the Kings Mountain Little Theatre for use as a Performing Arts Center. Man cut in front of KMPD Kings Mountain Police have arrested a Shelby woman in connection with an alleged cut- ting incident in front of the Police Station at 11:05 p.m. Monday. According to Lt. E.D. Johnson, Ishmar Jabbar Grier, 20, 500 Margrace Road, Kings Mountain, entered the front door of the Police Department and said he had been cut. Johnson said EMS was notified and Grier was transported to Cleveland Regional Medical Center, where he was treated and released. Johnson said Kimberly Nicole Champion, 1113 North Post Road, Apartment 5A, Shelby, Ledbetter joins Herald staff Ben Ledbetter has joined the staff of The Kings Mountain Herald as a reporter. A native of Shelby, he .is the son of | EDBETTER Don and Dianne Ledbetter of Wilmington. He is a 1996 graduate of New Hanover High School, and a 2000 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Ledbetter previously served as a reporter for The Watertown (NY) Daily Times and The Tribune in Elkin. He began his newspaper career as a clerk and Ss Thelma Parrott, trailer recently. left, and her sister, Gantt was letting Parrott use the was detained in front of the Police Department and ques- tioned. Police allege that Champion cut Grier in the lower back and buttocks area with a box cutter. Johnson said the incident stemmed from a domestic dis- pute that occurred in front of the Police Department. Ms. Champion was arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon inflicting seri- ous bodily injury. She was jailed in Cleveland County Detention Center under a $5,000 secured bond. Johnson said warrants are al- so on file for Grier, charging him with assault on a female. correspondent for the Greensboro News & Record while a student at UNCG. He has also written stories for The Charlotte-Observer, The Denver Post, The Herald -Sun of Durham, and The Wilmington Morning Star. He is experienced in a wide range of newspaper reporting, including entertainment, sports and news. “I look forward to coming back to Cleveland County and to get to know the people of Kings Mountain,” Ledbetter said. He replaces Alan Hodge, who served the Herald for 2 1/2 years and has been promot- ed to the position of Editor of the Belmont Banner and Mount Holly News, sister papers of The Herald. place her house which burned down. FIRST NATIONAL BANK . Celebrating 127 Years BEN LEDBETTER/THE HERALD i i h Road Gantt visit with each other in Gantt's Ranc h Dale trailer until she could find something to re- : Kings Mountain 300 W. Mountain St. 704-739-4782 GARY STEWART / THE HERALD BY BEN LEDBETTER Staff Writer Thelma Parrott may have lost her house, but her spirit was untouched by the flames. Her home of 35 years at Fulton Street in Kings Mountain burned April 9. Currently, she is living in a trailer owned by her sister on Range Road near the Bethlehem area. “The fire department seemed to think the baby did it,” Parrot said. “I really don’t know how it started. I was sitting at the kitchen table looking at the Shelby Shopper and the fire alarm went off. When I jumped up, the chair was on fire,” she said. Parrott said one of her son's, who had an injured leg, had Gastonia 529 New Hope Road 704-865-1233 : Traffic is backed up for miles on Interstate 85 in Cleveland and Gaston counties : this week as the DOT reduced traffic to one lane from mile marker 10 to 14 to : apply a fine layer of pavement on I-85 North. Northbound motorists can expect : significant delays for the next six days, and are encouraged to use alternate i routes if possible. : helped out during the fire. “He came running in there, and said, ‘Mama get on out and get the kids out.” He tried to close off some of the rooms.” Parrott has been raising three of her daughter’s children as well. “It seems like I'm at a stand- still, T just don’t know what to do.” she said. “The first time in my life, I couldn’t what to do. I raised five kids of my own. I'm seventy years-old and I'm raising another family,” Her oldest son, Michael Black, has been ill, still helps out around the house; places ie wel Mountain Street residents oppose child care center at King-Phifer By GARY STEWART Editor of The Herald Zoning matters dominated much of the discus- sion at Tuesday's monthly meeting of City Council at Kings Mountain City Hall. One controversial item that wasn’t on the agen- da - plans for a child care center at the intersec- tion of West King Street and Phifer Road - drew opposition from neighbors onWest Mountain Street who said they understood action by Council last year prevented any future businesses in the area. City officials, including City Manager Jimmy Maney, said that was not the case; that the R8 classification allows day care centers. Local realtor David Faunce has purchased the home on West King Street that will house the Heavenly Kids day care center. He said it will ac- commodate up to 45 children at different times. Roger Goins, Charlene Ellis and George Hatch, all residents of Mountain Street, objected to the plan saying it would add traffic to an already- congested intersection, that it would increase. noise in a quiet neighborhood which includes a lot of elderly citizens, and that it would decrease property values. “The state has done a lot to relieve congestion at that intersection,” Goins said. “It is not reason=x able to allow congestion to be put back at that in-: tersection.” Goins led an effort by a number of citizens last year to have the entire Mountain Street area re- served for quiet neighborhood residences only, except for certain businesses, apartments and a school that were already there. “We worked over five months on this planning and the City Planning Department was involved in it,” he said. “It allowed existing businesses to be rebuilt but prohibited any more multi-family homes or businesses. There now seems to be a question that no one spoke about businesses. I talked about business to the mayor and council members and I want to know what happened? If a mistake was made we ask it to be corrected im- mediately.” Hatch, who said he attended those meetings, said he only found out “yesterday” that the zon- ing allows day care centers. “I attended the meet- ings last year and the impetus was to improve the residential quality of the neighborhood and have no more businesses and multi-family dwellings,” he said. “We were misled. We asked your ad- vice.” Hatch said a day care center in the neighbor- hood would have a “disastrous effect on property value and traffic safety. It would create added traffic at the worst time of the day...when school: is taking up and letting out.” ul Ellis, who presented a petition bearing 54 names opposing the day care center, said she : couldn’t believe “after all the work we did that a day care center was coming to this busy corner. It’s the second busiest corner in town.” City Manager Jimmy Maney took exceptionto Hatch'’s claim that citizens were “misled,” saying See Child Care, 3A Burned Out Family, neighbors come to aid of woman who lost her home in fire The other children she is rais- ing are Alina Lambert, Michael ., Lambert, Jessica Lambert and Bradley Parrott. Raising children has been something Parrott has been used to. She had helped raise her sis- ter, Dale Gantt, during her teenage years. “Her husband told her if I died they would have to put her in the casket with me, Parrott said. “That’s how close we are.” Gantt, who was visiting her sister in the trailer, said her sis- ter played another role in her think of but says he Parrott uses an oxygen tank to life. assist with her breathing. “He has been a big help with me through the trying times,” she said. “He does all the heavy work, I'm not able to mop or do anything like that.” Shelby 106 S. Lafayette St. 704-484-6200 “We've been close,” Gantt said. “ “She’s been like a mother and sister to me.” She said they have helped her See Parrott, 3A Bessemer City 1225 Gastonia Hwy. 704-629-3906 Member FDIC A a —
The Kings Mountain Herald (Kings Mountain, N.C.)
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April 26, 2001, edition 1
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