Thursday, May 24, 2001
KINGS
The He
Vol. 113 No. 21
Since 1889
50 Cents
«<orest: A super
serving of
natural splendor
_« National
1B
Leaders give ‘State of the Community’
By BEN LEDBETTER
Staff Writer
Kings Mountain School
Board Chairman Sherra Miller
said when she moved to Kings
Mountain approximately 10
years ago, no growth was pro-
jected in a census report then.
Miller said that projection
was wrong during Tuesday's
Leaders hope
new industrial
building will
bring jobs
By BEN LEDBETTER
Staff Writer
Although Monday's rain
washed out the groundbreak-
ing, a new building in the Kings
Mountain Industrial park will
be built.
The Spartanburg company
Johnson and Associates will be
constructing the building which
is scheduled to be finished in
September.
The 300,000 square foot
building will complement
100,00 sqaure foot building
which currently houses Tube
Enterprises.
Cleveland County Economic
Development Commission
Director Steve Nye said the
building will be created for
speculation, and will allow the
city and county to compete for
projects or find a more perma-
nent tenant. i
“It will be like the previous
building,” Nye said. “That's
“what helped us get Tube
Enterprises. They didn’t have
enough time to build, and the
building suited their needs.”
Even with the number of jobs
created from the new building
still unknown, Nye said con-
struction workers on the project
will provide a quick boost to
the local economy by buying
supplies locally.
Nye said he would like to
have somebody in the building.
“1 prefer the long term, by
having an employer in the
building employing some of
our friends and neighbors.”
City of Kings Mountain
Mayor Rick Murphrey said the
industrial park has had a posi-
tive impact on the city, and the
city was in the Top 50 in a Site
Selection Magazine poll.
“We've been taking a lot of
hits recently,” Murphrey said.
“Hopefully a new business will
come and offer several jobs.”
Johnson Development has
developed, leased and managed
approximately 3.5 million
See Building 3A
9th District Democrats
hold convention in KM
By BEN LEDBETTER
Staff Writer
Democrats have saved the
United States from crisis
throughout its history.
That was the prevailing
theme of Representative Dar.
Barefoot’s speech at the Ninth
Congressional District's
Democratic Convention
Saturday morning at Kings
Mountain High School’s Barnes
Auditorium.
Delegates from Cleveland,
Gaston and part of
Mecklenburg County were at
the event.
Barefoot said the toughest is-
sue facing the state of North
Carolina currently is the budget
shortfall.
“By law, we have to have a
FIRST NATIONAL BANK
Celebrating 127 Years
changes, and a lot of growth,”
Miller said.
pains” arrive.
Cleveland County Chamber of
Commerce State of the
Community Breakfast at Kings
Mountain Country Club.
“In 10 years I've seen a lot of
And with growth, “growing
Miller said Kings Mountain
has had a high amount of vio-
® GOOD BUY
lent infractions, in a report the
school system turns into the
state, during the last year.
“We feel like the report was
good for us,” Miller said. “We
feel because of that, we're on
top of things.”
Miller said the district reports
every infraction, regardless of
its severity.
The school system has been
holding itself to a high standard
of accountability.
Miller said in a preliminary
school system estimate, 86 per-
cy score is the highest for Kings
Mountain Middle School.
Numbers from the high
school were not available since
it has finished exams last week.
in math testing, while 96 per-
cent were proficient in reading.
Miller said four percent of
students will be attending sum-
cent of third-fifth grade stu-
dents were at or above state lev-
el in reading and 88 percent of
sixth-eighth grade students
were either on or above grade
level in reading and math.
The middle school proficien-
“One of our goals was for our
students to be at or above grade
level,” Miller said.
In the first year of the fifth
grade Gateway exams, 100 per-
cent of students were proficient
CANCE
a
d AMERICAN
ZSoCETY
Diet can affect cancer risk
(Third of a six-part series on
cancer awareness).
BY ALAN HODGE
If you are what you eat, then
what you eat can be the difference
between life and death.
That's one message the
American Cancer Society wants
more folks to heed. In fact, the link
between nutrition and cancer is
one of the most important in the
fight against the disease.
According to the ACS, one third
of the 500,000 cancer deaths in the
United States each year are due to
balanced budget,” Barefoot said
before the convention.
“We can’t borrow money to
balance the budget. Unlike the
federal government we can’t
print money, so we have to look
for ways to make cuts in order
to make the revenues and the
spending be equal.”
Barefoot said North Carolina
stands to gain an extra seat in
the U.S. House, giving the Tar
Heel state 13 electoral votes.
Barefoot outlined specific
moments in American history
where a Democrat had won
election during a crisis.
“In 1932, The American peo-
ple, in crisis, turned to a
Democrat - Franklin Roosevelt,”
Barefoot said. “Americans were
See Democrats 10A
Kings Mountain
300 W. Mountain St.
704-739-4782
dietary factors. A wide variety of
these factors can affect cancer risk.
Just a few include types of food
eaten, preparation methods, por-
tion sizes, overall caloric balance,
and food variety.
Basic steps in reducing cancer
risk may be initiated by changing
eating patterns as well as what
foods are consumed. Tracie Lewis,
local Community Cancer Control
Manager with the American
Cancer Society, offers a few tips to
get started on the road to a healthi-
er lifestyle.
“One of the key things is to have
five servings of fruit and vegeta-
Ke
‘bles every day,” Lewis said. “Also
be sure to incorporate some type of
exercise in your daily routine.”
According to Lewis, it’s not nec-
essary to go overboard with either
diet or exercise to begin with.
“The key is moderation in all
things,” she said. “Even gardening
can be considered exercise. If you
can’t do a half hour of exercise all
at once, then do it in smaller incre-
ments throughout the day.”
Another tip Lewis offered is to
keep fruit in a bowl for after school
snacks instead of sweets. Also, of-
See Cancer 3A
BEN LEDBETTER / THE HERALD
Major Loftin sells flower baskets out of the back of his pickup truck on East King Street. He made the baskets
out of landscaping timber and cedar.
mer school to retake the reading
portion.
Students have to pass the
Gateway exam before being
promoted to sixth grade.
See State 10A
Peddlers may be
on the way out
of Kings Mountain
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
Street-side peddlers will be run out of town if
City Council adopts changes to its code of ordi-
nances at Tuesday night's meeting at City Hall.
The city has scheduled a public hearing to re-
ceive citizen input on the issue, and will probably
act on it at the close of the hearing. Council is also
considering updating ordinances dealing with vi-
cious dogs and noise.
Council will also hold a public hearing on the
proposed redistricting maps which had to be re-
drawn following the 2000 census; will accept bids
for a new fire station for West Kings Mountain;
will consider awarding contracts for a $700,000
Community Development Block Grant water pro-
ject for the newly-annexed Galilee section; pre-
sent a $3,600 check to the Kings Mountain Crisis
Ministry; adopt a proclamation applauding East
Elementary School for being a national Title I
School of Distinction; and adopt a resolution to
seek state funding for signage designating
Highway 161 as a Gateway to the Parks.
Mayor Rick Murphrey said the idea behind the
change to the peddlers’ ordinance will be to des-
: ..ignate the old Kings Mountain Depot site as a
farmer's market where farmers can sell locally-
grown vegetables, and to make it illegal for ped-
dlers and solicitors to set up along streets in the
downtown area.
“We feel that it is not fair to our retail stores
that pay taxes for someone to just set up on the
side of the street,” Murphrey said. “So we're go-
ing to designate an area just for the produce and
at this time there is not going to be a place for
peddlers to come in and sell those retail wares.”
Murphrey said there will be provisions in the
ordinance for special activities such as town cele-
brations, and for downtown merchants who want
to have sidewalk sales or display some of their
products on the sidewalks.
If approved, the ordinance will take effect im-
mediately. Kings Mountain Police Department
will have the responsibility of dealing with viola-
tors. Violation of the peddlers ordinance could re-
sult in a misdemeanor charge. The ordinance will
include only the city limits of Kings Mountain,
and not the two-mile ET], Murphrey said.
Murphrey said the new vicious animals and
noise ordinances will “mirror” ordinances al-»
ready in effect in Cleveland County.
Council will consider sending a resolution to
Senator Walter Dalton asking for state funding to
place signage along Interstate 85 designating
Kings Mountain as a “Gateway Community” and
Highway 161 as the “Gateway to the Parks.”
Murphrey said the Department of
See Council 3A
Carved in Stone
Bill Floyd a walking history
BEN LEDBETTER/THE HERALD
W.D. “Bill Fioyd”, of Forest City works on his laptop recently
at Mountain Rest Cemetery. Floyd is archiving the informa-
tion he enters from the head stones in the cemetery.
Gastonia
529 New Hope Road
704-865-1233
106 S. Lafayette St.
book of cemeteries in area
By BEN LEDBETTER
Staff Writer
W.D. “Bill” Floyd has retired,
but not completely.
After retiring from Bell South,
Forest City’s Floyd has started
archiving information from
cemetery tombstones.
“It’s just one of those things
that need doing,” Floyd said.
“Because you never know when
something will happen to one
of these places.”
Recently at Mountain Rest
Cemetery, Floyd was in the sec-
tion off E. King Street with a
laptop connected to a generator
on a cart.
Floyd said the cemeteries
Shelby
704-484-6200
keep up with who owns the
plots but no other information
about the deceased.
When Floyd retired in 1996
he started working on his wife's
genealogy and from doing that
he said that led him to the
cemetery.
“If you're going to do geneal-
ogy you're going to get in the
cemetery,” Floyd said. “There
ain’t been none of these things
recorded since about 1939-40
when the WPA (Works Progress
Administration) did a little bit
of it,” Floyd said.
Floyd said he wanted to
archive the information because
See Floyd 10A
Bessemer City
1225 Gastonia Hwy.
704-629-3906
Member FDIC §