KINGS MOUNTAIN
Thursday, August 16, 2001
Vol. 113 No. 33
Since 1889
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50 Cents.
Life in Colonial
North Carolina
was a challenge
1B
KM not
backing
down on
merger
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
It’s official! The Kings
Mountain Board of Education is
appealing the recent ruling by
the North Carolina Court of
Appeals that the June 2000
approval of the Cleveland
County School Merger Plan is
valid.
Speaking at Monday night’s
regular monthly meeting at
Central School, some Board
members said they are con-
cerned that continuing the
merger fight is expensive. but
their focus is on the children of
Kings Mountain District
Schools and they are “worth
fighting for.”
Kings Mountain's merger
lawyers Brian Shaw and
Richard Schwartz of Raleigh
are currently evaluating the
Appeals Court judges” written
order, which was filed on
August 6. KMDS has 30 days
from that date to file an appeal.
“There’s no way of knowing
what the result will be,” Supt.
Larry Allen told the Board, “but
their intent is to follow your
directions and pursue an
appeal until you tell them to
stop.”
All of the Board members
said they have had numerous
calls from citizens, and a couple
of them even admitted that
they had been told to give up
the fight. But, the majority of
the callers, they said, encour-
aged them to appeal the ruling.
“I'm still getting calls...and
they are telling us to exhaust
every resource” to hold off the
merger, vice-chairperson Stella
Putnam said. “My phone rings
all day and most of it is school
business. I haven't had a single
call telling us to stop.”
Jerry Blanton said the School
System has “gone too far” to
give up now. “Our system is
worth fighting for,” he said.
“I've been told we're wasting
money and need to give it up,”
added Terry McClain, “but
those comments weren't from
people in Kings Mountain. I
think we do have some prob-
lems in our schools, but I don’t
think merger will solve them.”
Trace Barnette, who was sit-
ting in on his first meeting
since being appointed to fill the
unexpired term of Melony
Bolin, said he took his daughter
out of private school to enroll
her at East Elementary, and
“the attention she has gotten at
East School has been phenome-
nal.”
BIBIAN BRL
See Merger Page 3A
The new Kings Mountain
Intermediate School, which is
scheduled to open in August
2002, is well underway toward
completion, Supt. Larry Allen
told the Board of Education at
its monthly meeting Monday
night at Central School.
Allen and the general contrac-
tors are confident the school
will be in the dry within three
months.
Extensive brick and block
work, as well as plumbing, air
conditioning and electrical
work, have been going on for
the past several weeks and the
driveways and parking lots are
beginning to take shape.
“I met with the foreman out
there this morning,” Dr. Allen
said Tuesday, “and he said they
have had the good fortune of
having a lot of brick and block
masons available who were
GARY STEWART / THE HE
Roger Brooks, left, and Joe Wright of Dallas Electric connect conduit below the roof framing at
the new Kings Mountain Intermediate School on Kings Mountain Blvd. Construction is going full
speed ahead to get the school ready for students in August 2002.
School construction
is ahead of schedule
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
——
ALD
po
waiting for other jobs, and they
put them down here allowing
them to get a head start ofnall of
that work.”
Allen said the roofing con-
tractor is preparing to move in
any day now to start putting the
roof on. After the roof is on,
Allen said workers will begin
putting doors and windows in
place.
The school will serve up to
See School Page 3A
Ground broken for walking track
By BEN LEDBETTER
Staff Writer
Some communities gather in a town
square, while some have a restaurant or
m.
The Watterson Street community in Kings
Mountain used to gather around a spring
where residents could stop for a drink of
water.
And when the walking track is finished at
the city-owned site beside Mount Zion
Church, city officials said a plaque is expect-
ed to be built near the old spring.
Construction and grading of the track
will be done by Charlotte firm Pavilon, and
is expected to begin in two to three weeks.
Pavilon, whose bid for the project was
approximately $60,000, is scheduled to com-
plete work at the track within a month,
according to City of Kings Mountain Mayor
FIRST NATIONAL BANK
Celebrating 127 Years
Rick Murphrey.
The Charlotte firm is also doing work on
the city’s playground which is expected to
be built at the Kings Mountain YMCA and
is building the new fire department sub-sta-
tion on the west side of Kings Mountain.
Margaret Leach said the park will affect
both senior citizens and the youth of the
community.
“I think we'll have a lot of the youth to
come in and walk along with us,” she said.
Leach, who has lived on Watterson Street
since her childhood, said the community’s
population has become more diverse, espe-
cially after an urban renewal project in the
1960's. :
“It has brought in a lot of new people,”
Leach said. “On the upper end of Watterson
St. is a much younger group of people. And
on the farther end just about everybody up
there are senior citizens.”
Kings Mountain
300 W. Mountain St.
704-739-4782
529 New Hope Road
Urban renewal might have relocated the
community geographically, but not much of
the area’s residents, Mount Zion Baptist
Pastor Clinton Feemster said.
“This has been a work in progress since
the mid-sixties, and it’s finally getting to a
stage that we can appreciate in the commu-
* nity,” Feemster said.
One of the more visible changes in the
community is Mount Zion Baptist Church.
The church is located on the site of the seg-
regation-era Davidson School.
James Boyd Jr. said the new track will be
more accessible to the Watterson St. resi-
dents, which he said the majority is com-
posed of senior citizens, than the current
track on Cleveland Avenue.
“I think it’s going to be a big help to the
community on this side,” Boyd said. “It will
See Track Page 3A
Gastonia
704-865-1233
106 S. Lafayette St.
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
Seven more Kings
Mountain citizens filed for
Council prior to Friday's
deadline, bringing the total to
21 persons seeking seven
Council and the Mayor's
seats in the November 6 elec-
tion.
The late filing guaranteed a
race in every ward.
Kay Hambright filed to
oppose Dean Spears in Ward
4; Brenda Ross filed to
oppose Jim Guyton and
Preston Leonard in Ward 2;
Ken Hamrick, Wayne
Worcester and Gary Cooke
came out against Clavon
Kelly in Ward 3; and Bernice
Chappell
and Glenn
Carroll
filed to
battle Rick
Moore,
Jerry
Mullinax
and Gene
White for
the two"
At-Large
seats.
Jim Belt
and Dee'Wee Hamrick had earli-
er filed to oppose Mayor Rick
Murphrey. Lamar Fletcher earli-
er filed to oppose Howard
Shipp in Ward 2; and Jerry
Bostic had earlier filed to
oppose Carl DeVane in Ward 5.
Hambright, Ross and
Chappell hope to become just
the second female elected to
City Council. Norma Bridges
served several terms on Council
before losing her seat in the last
election. The only other woman
to serve was Mrs. O.O. Walker,
who was appointed to fill the
unexpired term of her husband
in the 1960s.
The most recent candidates
have mixed ideas on what they
would like to see the city
accomplish during the next two
years. Many of them want to
Hamrick
ue, while others say the city is
not doing enough for the youth
and the elderly.
Carroll, who operates
Community Grocery, is very
outspoken about why he’s run-
ning for Council. He said the
city is big business and should
be run by businessmen and
he’d like to see a clean sweep of
Mayor and City Council.
“I think it’s time for some
new faces and young blood,” he
see the current progress contin-
even more
ile for City
ouncil races
Carroll Chappell =
Cooke
Worcester
Ross
said. “The City
Council is more important than
the Presidential election because
City Council controls your life
more than the President does.”
Carroll said he would be
“afraid to show my face” if he
was a member of a Council that
“did some of the things” the
current Council did during the
past two years.
“The two-mile ETJ was a
major mess-up,” he said. “It
could have been handled in a
smoother way instead of the
City making everyone in the
new ETJ come in and have their
property rezoned. It was a
major disaster.
“In the CommScope deal, the
seven gentlemen up there broke
every regulation they had, and
it was done behind closed
doors. If I had done something
© like that I wouldn't show my
face in this town again.”
He also criticized the city for
spending “a half-million dol-
lars” for a new fire high-ladder
fire truck which he says has
only “made one trip to Shelby.”
“I think the only three-story
buildings we have in town are
Firestone and Central School,
and the new doctor’s office. If
Central School ever catches on
See Filing Page 3A
es : &§
BEN LEDBETTER/THE HERALD
Marie Burris, left, and St. Paul's Church Minister Clarence
. Wright discuss possibilities for the name of the Watterson St.
Greenway which was dedicated Friday.
Shelby
704-484-6200
Bessemer City
1225 Gastonia Hwy.
704-629-3906
Member FDIC}: