Thursday, July 11, 2001
Poker
machine
permits
denied
By BEN LEDBETTER
Staff Writer
During a marathon session
before Independence Day, the
City of Kings Mountain Board
of Adjustments denied four
conditional use permits for
three fraternal organizations
and one business for the use of
video poker machines.
The Veterans of Foreign Wars
Post 9811, American Legion
Post 155, Kings Mountain
AMVETS and Rick’s Ole
Country Store were denied con-
ditional use permits from the
Board.
Besides meeting various min-
imal distance requirements
from a city ordinance, five addi-
tional requirements had to be
met for the permits to be grant-
ed.
The use requested has to be a
permissible use in that area, the
use will not harm the public
health or safety, it will meet all
required conditions and specifi-
cations, the use is a public need,
property values will not be
harmed, and the use will be in
harmony with the area.
Several people, including
those with the four organiza-
tions applying for the permits
spoke during the near three
hour public hearing portion.
Don-Adams, who represent
ed the VFW, started his presen-
tation by questioning the
board's bias on the issue.
Adams asked the board if it
had any preconceived ideas of
video poker based on personal
beliefs and if the building codes
office had coached the members
on how to vote.
Chairperson Bob Myers dis-
agreed with Adams line of
questioning. :
“The implication you're say-
ing shouldn’t be there,” Myers
said to Adams.
Adams asked for board mem-
ber and city councilman Clavon
Kelly to be removed from the
case, since Adams said he had
made statements on a television
newscast regarding the issue.
Myers declined Adams’ re-
quest. )
No request was made to re-
move Howard Shipp, who also
serves on the Kings Mountain
City Council, off the cases.
“I haven't heard anything
black and white,” Board mem-
ber Ron Humphries said. “I've
heard accusations.”
Adams said the board was
not making the distinction be-
tween an organization having
some machines and an arcade
business.
“I've been in Kings Mountain
~ 30 years,” Adams said. “And
I've never seen an arcade.”
The Kings Mountain ordi-
nance was for businesses,
Adams said, and he said video
poker machines are legal in
North Carolina.
“Basically, what you've
talked about was minimal state
law,” Board member Herman
Greene said regarding Adam's
reference to the North Carolina
statute.
W.D. Holder who was repre-
senting the Kings Mountain
American Legion post, said
without the revenue generated
from the machines, the organi-
zation would not be able to con-
tinue with some of its scholar-
ships.
Steve Tate, who was repre-
senting Rick's Ole Country
Store, said reports of people
See Permits, 2A
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KINGS MOUNTAIN
Vol. 113 No. 28
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GARY STEWART / THE HERALD
City Councilman Gene White stands in the front yard of his home
where someone threw an explosive. White is hoping to generate a
huge reward fund to help find those responsible.
®B OH, SAY, CAN YOU SEE?
Blast rocks home
of KM councilman
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
- Kings Mountain Police are investigating a late-
night explosion that occurred at the home of City
Councilman Gene White on Sunday, July 1.
White said he was sitting in his den watching
TV about 10:30 p.m. when he heard a loud explo-
sion and saw a large blue/red flash at the front of
his home.
Although there were no remains of an explo-
sive device found, White said persons familiar
with dynamite have told him from his description
it appears the device may have been a “quarter-
pounder,” or one-fourth of a stick of dynamite.
There was no damage to White's property or to
any persons, but White feels it was done to
“frighten and terrorize my family.”
Det. Lisa Proctor of the Kings Mountain Police
Department said the Division of Alcohol, Tobacco
and Firearms (ATF) has been notified and will be
working with KMPD to try to solve the case.
Proctor said the police have “several leads that
we are following up on.”
White said some of his neighbors witnessed the
incident, and although it was dark and it would
be hard to identify the occupants of the vehicle,
he feels the case will be solved.
“I am 99 percent certain that I know who paid
for this act, and the person that paid for it knows
that I know,” he said.
White said the blast was so large “you could
see it even though the shades” with him sitting in
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
Former Kings Mountain High teach-
the opposite side of the house. He said several
neighbors also saw the blast and came out to se
what happened. ?
“It was either the world’s largest firecracker or
the quarter-pounder stick of dynamite,” White
said. “But it was light enough to get neighbors up
and across the street to see what happened. It was
so huge it rocked the house.”
Two weeks prior to this incident, someone
threw roofing nails in the driveways of White,
three other City Council members, Mayor Rick
Murphrey and City Manager Jimmy Maney.
White put up a $300 reward for information lead-
ing to the arrest of persons responsible, and 3
Maney and Murphrey each contributed $100 to
the fund. 4
White is hoping others will come forward with
additional reward money, hopefully to make the
fund large enough to entice people to talk.
“Unless somebody comes forward, we don’t |
have a strong enough case to actually indict
somebody,” White said. “If anybody wants to
contribute they can do so, because we need some-
body to come forward to testify.”
White has been an outspoken critic of video
gambling and other “illegal” activity in the city,
and believes the two incidents at his home is a
“message that a handful of people believe they
have a right to continue illegal activity in Kings
Mountain in spite of the fact that 99% of citizens
are not in agreement with their cause.”
See White, 3A
Coach sentenced
in S sex charges
Ballenger pleaded guilty to one count
of indecent liberties with a child, and
four counts of indecent liberties with a
student. He received a 12-to-15 month
GARY STEWART / THE HERALD
Colby Hughes, 2-year-old son of Jason and Val Hughes, squints in the bright,
hot sun to see balloons that were released by one of the vendors during the
city’s Fourth of July Celebration Wednesday at the YMCA.
er/coach David Ballenger drew sen-
tences ranging from 36 to 47 months in
indecent liberties charges heard before
Judge
Forrest D.
Bridges
Thursday
in
Cleveland
County
Superior
Court. He
was sen-
tenced to a
12-to-15
months ac-
tive term
in one of
the charges, and drew suspended sen-
tences in four others.
Sixteen other cases against Ballenger
were dismissed. Ballenger, who was an
assistant football and head golf coach
for the Mountaineers, was accused of
taking indecent liberties with a 15-year-
old student in 1999.
Ballenger, who resides in
Spartanburg, SC resigned his teach-
ing/ coaching positions with the
Mountaineers after his arrest last
September.
His jail term began immediately fol-
lowing the judge’s decisions.
active sentence in the indecent liberties
with a child charge, and received credit
for the two days he served immediately
prior to the trial.
The judge ordered that he undergo
sex offender’s counseling (SORE), and
upon completion of that, work release
was recommended. He is not to have
any contact with the victim or her im-
mediate family, and if he goes on work
release he is to pay the court costs.
In the four cases of indecent liberties
with a student, Ballenger was sentenced
to 6-to-8 months in each case, with each
sentence serving at the expiration of the
other.
Those sentences were suspended and
he will be on supervised probation for a
period of 60 months. He was ordered to
pay the court costs in each case. ’
Ballenger will be required to abide by
numerous sex offender’s conditions, in-
cluding: :
He has to register as a sex offender in
the county of his residence, has to do a
sex offender’s treatment program, and .
he is not to communicate with or be on
the premises of the victim or her family.
He is not to be alone with any minor
child under 18 years of age, except for |
his own two children.
See Coach, 3A
Stewart named principal at KM Middle
New School Board member
to be appointed on Monday
The Kings Mountain District
Schools Board of Education
will hold a special meeting
Monday at 8 a.m. at Central
School to appoint someone fo
fill the vacant seat of Melony
Bolin, who resigned recently
because of health reasons.
The appointee will be sworn
in at the board's regular meet-
ing in August.
Supt. Larry Allen said a
large number of people had
Board sought applications to
expressed interest in being
named to the board when the
fill seats previously held by
Ronnie Hawkins, who re-
signed after being elected to
the Cleveland County Board
of Commissioners, and Allen,
who had to resign in order to
accept the job as superinten-
dent.
With next Monday's ap-
See Board, 3A
FIRST NATIONAL BANK
Celebrating 127 Years
Kings Mountain
300 W. Mountain St.
704-739-4782
By GARY STEWART
begin serving as an assistant
assume the duties of
529 New Hope Road
Editor of The Herald
Lynda Stewart was appointed
principal at KMMS under Ethel
Pedersen. Mrs. Pedersen will
become principal of Kings
principal of Kings Mountain Mountain Intermediate School,
Middle School, " a grade 5-6 school now under
effective construction on Kings
January 1, Mountain Blvd., in January.
2002, at The School Board deliberated
Monday for an hour in closed session be-
night's meet- fore returning to open session
ing of the and naming Mrs. Stewart. Jerry
Kings Blanton’s motion and Stella
Mountain STEWART Putnam's second passed on a 3-
Board of 0 vote, with board member
Education at Central School.
Stewart, currently
Elementary Schools Director of
Curriculum, will immediately
Gastonia
704-865-1233
106 S. Lafayette St.
Terry McClain abstaining.
Supt. Larry Allen said the
Board would immediately be-
gin advertising for someone to
Shelby
704-484-6200
Curriculum Specialist, and later
will begin advertising for an as-
sistant principal to take over
Stewart's duties at KMMS in
January. :
Stewart was one of eight ap-
plicants for the job, and Dr.
Allen said all of the applicants
were excellent.
“But the fact that Lynda has
several years experience at the
middle school as an administra-
tor, and most recently experi-
ence as a curriculum coordina-
tor for the elementary grades
weighed very heavily in the de-
cision.”
See School, 3A
Bessemer City
1225 Gastonia Hwy. .
704-629-3906
Member FDIC