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Thursday, August 2, 2001
Vol. 113 No. 31
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Page 3C:
GARY STEWART / THE HERALD
Cleveland County Fire Marshal Beau Lovelace (with flashlight) checks ont the origin of the fire that damaged the drafting class-
room at Kings Mountain High School Tuesday.
Fire damages KM High School
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
A mid-morning fire at Kings Mountain
High School Tuesday did extensive damage
to the drafting classroom.
Kings Mountain Fire Chief Frank Burns
said the fire began when a computer moni-
tor malfunctioned and ignited a plastic cabi-
net. ;
Burns estimated damage at between
$25,000 and $50,000.
“It basically destroyed the room,” Burns
said. “It’s going to have to be completel
redone, and all the equipment will have to
be replaced.”
Burns said there were “8 to 10” comput-
ers and “15 to 20” drafting desks in the 20
by 20 feet room.
There was also smoke damage through-
out the hall and into an art lab and wood-
working shop.
Burns said the call came in around 10:36 ca
a.m., and within minutes the Kings
Mountain, Bethlehem, and Oak Grove fire
departments were on the scene. The fire was
under control within 15 minutes but it took
another hour and a half to remove the
smoke. The Fire Marshall’s Office also
responded, and Kings Mountain Rescue
stood by.
“When we got there there was heavy
smoke,” Burns said. “The room was full of
smoke, and the art room too. There was a
light smoke in the hallway initially, but after
we opened the door to get into the drafting
room the hallway outside filled up with
smoke.”
Burns said teachers were in the nearby
feteria taking staff development courses,
and when they took a break someone
smelled smoke and alerted authorities.
“Fortunately, they kept the doors shut
and that helped confine the fire to the draft-
ing area,”
Burns said.
Burns said it was fortunate the incident
occurred during the daytime when people
were there.
“If it had been in the middle of the night
See Fire Page 3A
School Board
to appeal
merger ruling
By BEN LEDBETTER
Staff Writer
Kings Mountain District
Schools will appeal a Wake
County Superior Court Judge's
ruling against the school system
in its suit against the State
Board of Education.
School board Chairperson
Shearra Miller said the attor-
neys were told to proceed until
all options were exhausted.
“We have not told them to
stop now,” Miller said.
Miller said the merger plan is
not best for Kings Mountain
students.
“I was obviously disappoint-
ed,” Miller said. “I felt all along
that merger was not the best
thing for students in Kings
Mountain.
Kings Mountain District
Schools Vice Chairperson Stella
Putnam said the merger plan
was not about education.
“I don’t think it’s about edu-
cation,” Putnam said. “It’s
about politics and money. I
want to listen to what the peo-
ple want. I don’t want to be like
those county commissioners
who didn’t listen.”
Putnam said she wanted to
exhaust all legal means before
putting the issue behind.
Judge J.B. Allen of Burlington
s upheld the action the State
Board of Education took last
Editor of The Herald
Five file for
By GARY STEWART
Races are developing for
Kings Mountain City Council
fall elections, but thus far lit-
tle interest has been shown in
the Kings Mountain School
Board race.
Filing for the School Board
ends Friday at noon at the
Cleveland County Board of
Elections in Shelby. Filing for
Kings Mountain mayor and
City Council ends Friday,
August 10 at noon.
Pee Wee Hamrick entered
the mayor's race this week,
making it a three-man field,
and incumbent Carl DeVane,
Jeffrey Q. Bostic, Preston
Leonard and Lamar Fletcher
entered Council ward races.
DeVane filed for a second term as the Ward 5 rep-
resentative, and Bostic will oppose him. Fletcher
filed in Ward 1, and Leonard in Ward 2.
Thus far, no one has filed for Clavon Kelly's
By BEN LEDBETTER
Staff Writer
The Cleveland County Board of
Commissioners nearly passed a plan in
1992 that would call for commissioners
to be elected based on districts.
It was never implemented, but the
issue will be discussed again at a special
work session on Monday.
Commissioner Ronnie Hawkins made
the motion during the July 3 meeting.
“The plan was ready to go, and it was
_ pretty much supported by the commis-
sioners before it went to a vote,”
Hawkins said.
There are two ways to implement the
election districts once a plan has been
picked, Hawkins said.
It can be introduced in the state legisla-
FIRST NATIONAL BANK
Celehrating 127 Years
Devane
Fletcher
Hamrick
Leonard
ture or voted on in a referendum.
The two options could be considered if
the United States Department of Justice
approves a redistricting plan.
There is little work left to be done on
the issue, Hawkins said.
“Once we see what has been done,
there's really no reason to start start from
a clean sheet of paper,” Hawkins said.
Board of Commissioners Chairperson
Willie McIntosh said the meeting will be
a fact finding session where the board
will look for information the 1992 board
dealt with.
Raleigh attorney Michael Crowell will
also be at the meeting. Crowell has dealt
with
Commissioner Mary Accor said she
was for district representation as long as
a thought out plan could be made.
City Council,
three file for School Board
Ward 3 seat. Thus far, Dean
Spears is unopposed in Ward 4
and incumbent Gene White and
former commissioner Jerry
Mullinax are the only ones run-
ning for the two At-Large seats.
Terry McClain and Jerry
Blanton, both of whom were
appointed to fill unexpired
terms, and Kathy Falls have filed
for the two outside city seats on
the School Board. No one has
filed for the At-Large seat.
A trend seems to be
developing in the city races with
incumbents calling for “contin-
ued progress” and newcomers
wanting to do more for the
“poor and elderly.”
Hamrick, calling most
politicians “nearsighted,” said
he wants to provide Kings
Mountain with 20/20 vision.
“We need a mayor who has a vision for Kings
Mountain...and with the courage to implement
See Filing Page 3A
Kings Mountain
300 W. Mountain St.
: 704-739-4782
GARY STEWART / THE HERALD
East Elementary third grade teacher Heidi Jones gets text-
books and work stations ready for Monday’s opening day of
school. The bell rings at 8 a.m.
County to study district representation
“I think we all agree it should be
done,” Accor said. “I just want to make
sure it’s something that is fair and well
thought out.”
Former Commissioner Joyce Cashion,
who served on the 1992 board, said she
was unsure why the plan did not pass,
but agrees with the current board’s plan
to study the issue.
“(It's) something I think i is very impor-
tant, and I think should have been done
long, long ago,” she said.
Cashion said it’s the only way to give
every area of the county representation
in Shelby.
Cashion and Ralph Gilbert were the
two commissioners who voted for dis-
trict representation during the board's
October 5, 1993 meeting.
Former Commissioner E.T. Vanhoy,
~ Gastonia
529 New Hope Road
704-865-1233
who voted against the issue, said the
change was not a needed one.
“I thought it was suitable the way it
was,” Vanhoy said. “When you're serv-
ing at large, you're serving the whole
county and not a special district.”
Vanhoy, Cecil Dickson and Sam Gold
voted against the issue in 1993.
The 1992 board considered three plans,
and chose the third of those plans pre-
sented by a redistricting committee,
appointed by the former board.
“...All three plans provide contiguous
districts which meet the Supreme Court's
one person-one vote criteria, provided
for one majority African-American dis-
trict, and easily recognized physical
boundaries or precinct lines as delim
See Study Page 3A
Shelby
106 S. Lafayette St.
704-484-6200
year to approve a merger plan
for all three Cleveland County
school systems by attorney Gil
Middlebrooks.
Raleigh attorney Brian Shaw,
who has been arguing for the
Kings Mountain school system,
said he still believes a proposed
merger of the three school sys-
tems in Cleveland County
would harm the voting rights of
the 181 students who live in
Gaston County but attend
school in Kings Mountain.
“We continue to think we've
got a strong legal case,” Shaw
said. “We remain convinced the
Kings Mountain School District
is in Gaston County.”
Shaw said the school system's
argument is from a 1905 school
system charter that said the ter-
ritory in the Kings Mountain
School District expands with the
city limits.
The issue with the charter,
Shaw said, is whether it said
that any annexed parts of the
city would be in the school dis-
trict, or just the areas that were
in the city in 1905.
The North Carolina General
Assembly approved a similar
charter for Asheboro the same
day it approved Kings
Mountain's, Shaw said.
The case will go back to the
North Carolina Court of
See Merger Page 3A
KM bank
robbery
suspect
nabbed
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
Kings Mountain Police inves-
tigator Shane Davis was in the
right place at the right time
Monday afternoon and nabbed
a bank robbery suspect just
moments after the crime.
KMPD reported that First
Charter Bank, 114 East Gold
Street, was robbed at gunpoint
about 1:20 p.m. by a Black man
who left the scene in a 1993
white Cadillac. An undisclosed
amount of money was taken.
Cpl. Davis was at the inter-
section of Dixon School Road
and Interstate 85 after doing a
follow-up investigation in
another incident. When he
heard the call from the police
dispatcher about the bank rob-
bery, he headed north on I-85 to
lend assistance.
When he got off I-85 at the
NC 161 ramp and turned
toward town, he noticed a car
that “just didn’t look quite
right” and decided to follow it.
“When they came across with
the suspect information, I knew
I had it so I conducted a stop -
on northbound 85 at Firestone”
he said.
The stolen money and the
firearm were located, Davis
said.
Mark Eric Pratt, 36, of 1022
West-6th Avenue, Gastonia, was
taken into custody. The FBI was
called in and collected the evi-
dence and took the suspect to
Charlotte to be charged with
See Robbery Page 3A
Bessemer City
1225 Gastonia Hwy.
704-629-3906
Member FDIC