The Heral
Thursday, June 20, 2002 Vol. 114 No. 25 Since 1889 50 Cents
MOVING ON UP
)
Dorothy Dills cleans windows inside at Kings Mountain Intermediate School.
BEN LEDBETTER / THE HERALD
Intermediate school is KM’s
school in 28 years
first new
By BEN LEDBETTER
Staff Writer
Kings Mountain will open its first
new school in 28 years when Kings
Mountain Intermediate School ;
becomes part of the system in
August.
The school is near the high school
and middle school campuses and
will house fifth and sixth graders. A
portion of the students will be com-
ing from the five elementary schools
in the district.
The new school will give the five
elementary schools between two and
four available classrooms, which
used to have fifth grade classes.
School officials said it will draw
approximately 350 students at Kings
Mountain Middle School, which
started last school year with 1,157
students - similar to the size of the
state’s larger high schools.
For the next school year, projected
enrollment at the school is expected
to be at 720 students.
Workers have been at the school
recently making final preparations
such as moving furniture into class-
rooms, installing alarms and clean-
ing.
The gym floor is currently being
installed and the lines are expected
to be painted this week.
Although the building is not cur-
BEN LEDBETTER / THE HERALD
Kenny Spangler installs an alarm
at Kings Mountain Intermediate
School.
rently ready for staff to occupy, a
community open house will be held
Sunday, August 4.
Most of the teaching staff will
come from other schools in the Kings
Mountain system with one teacher
being bought in from outside the dis-
trict.
~ The district gained one position at
the school from the state. :
Principal Ethel Pedersen, who was
previously the middle school princi-
pal, said she was excited to start her
new job, which she has been prepar-
ing for since earlier this year.
Tam very excited, it’s beautiful.
It’s very nice,” she said.
Apparently the same attitude is
found among other staffers, she said.
“Everybody that’s coming is so
enthusiastic,” she said. “We'll come
in, we'll have a new school and a
new staff we'll have to mesh togeth-
er. I'm looking forward to it.”
To help the meshing Pedersen has
planned a staff development session
on team building with Cindi Wood.
While the staff is now in place at
the school, the constructing of the
school has moved fast according to
the updates in school board meet-
ings. Ground was broken for the
Kings Mountain Boulevard site last
summer. The school will soon be
near an apartment complex and a
branch of the Life Enrichment Center
of Cleveland County.
Before the ceremony, grading, part
of the walls and other excavation
work were done. Construction had
been in progress for approximately
two months.
See School, 3A
A3%
KINGS MOUNTAIN PEOPLE
Eddie wears many hats
By BEN LEDBETTER
Staff Writer
Eddie Lockhart has
retired, although not com-
pletely.
Along with being a pastor
of The Divine True Holiness
Church of God in
Blacksburg, S.C. for the past
32 years, he is also working
as a custodian at Grover
Elementary School. He has
retired from Kings Mountain
schools, but has been filling
in at Grover this past school
year.
Lockhart came to the
school system in 1975 after
being laid off from a con-
struction job.
EDDIE LOCKHART
During his tenure with
the school system, he also
worked at the maintenance
shop and Kings Mountain
High School.
One of his loves has been
children, Lockhart said, and
he experienced that during
his 20 years at Grover.
“I'm a lover of children,”
Lockhart said. “Each day I
came to work I look forward
to picking at the kids and
having fun with them.”
The relationships with
teachers and other staff also
went well, he said.
Former students have
come back with their chil-
dren to see Lockhart also.
See Eddie, 3A
FIRST NATIONAL BANK Kings Mountain
Celebrating 128 Years
300 W. Mountain St.
704-739-4782
By BEN LEDBETTER
Staff Writer
A large amount of people
turned out for the third
annual Beach Blast
Saturday.
One of the new additions
this year was a release of
beach balls from the sky
that descended on about
150 children.
Kings Mountain Mayor
Rick Murphrey was on top
of a fire truck ladder and
released the balls.
Attendees to the Saturday
festival could choose to go
on a climbing wall, play
See Beach, 5A
Gastonia
529 New Hope Road
704-865-1233
106 S. Lafayette St.
GDS to close
its landfill after
county
By BEN LEDBETTER
Staff Writer
Although it will need
another vote, Cleveland
County is closer to having
two companies to haul
garbage.
Both GDS and Waste
Management will be fran-
chised haulers after county
commissioners gave prelim-
inary approval for the agree-
ment during the board's
meeting Tuesday. The rec-
ommendation for the two
haulers came from the coun-
ty health department.
The second vote is sched-
uled for the second commis-
sioners’ meeting in July.
Several stipulations were
put into the agreement by
commissioners.
Both companies would
have to take on any residen-
tial customers that asked for
service, the county could
decide to break the agree-
ment after one year and
there would need to be
monitoring of the two com-
panies.
Commissioners said they
answered numerous calls
about the issue and dis-
cussed them.
Chairman Willie McIntosh
said most of the residents he
Lambeth Rope
decision
spoke with were happy with
GDS, but did not hear any-
thing from the commercial
or industrial sector.
He did call four business-
es today and said the
response was they wanted
multiple haulers so they
could possibly save money.
“My thought is that I
understand, number 1, that
GDS is concerned,”
McIntosh said.
He said multiple haulers
may help industrial recruit-
ment in the county.
Commissioner Mary
Accor said she agreed with
having two haulers but did
not want to assign them
specific parts of the county.
“I'm having a little prob-
lem with the word divide,
divide the county,” she said.
“Free enterprise is some-
thing I believe in.”
Commissioner Jerry Self
said the calls he received
were from people who
favored doing things that
would help lure industry.
“They particularly felt we
should be pro-industrial
recruitment,” he said.
Deciding to go with the
two solid waste haulers was
not the only decision
See Landfill, SA
purchase now
being considered
By BEN LEDBETTER
* Staff Writer
A possible land purchase
‘will be on the agenda for the
Kings Mountain District
Schools work session on
June 28 at 8:30 a.m.
The board has been dis-
cussing possibly purchasing
the old Lambeth Rope
building across from Kings
Mountain High School.
The board met in closed
session Monday to discuss
the issue but when it came
out it did not take any
action.
Schools Superintendent
Larry Allen sent a memo to
BEACH BLAST
Cleveland County seeking
support for purchasing the
building.
The item was on the agen-
da for the Tuesday county
commissioners meeting but
was deleted.
In the memo, Allen said
the approximately 24,000
square foot building is on
8.66 acres that will be reno-
vated into a classroom and
laboratory facility to house
primarily the Work Force
Development Program at
Kings Mountain High
School.
The building will cost
See Purchase, 8A
Turnout high for festival
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Members of Dance Magic perform during Beach Blast.
Shelby
704-484-6200
Bessemer City
1225 Gastonia Hwy.
704-629-3906
Member FDIC