The
Thursday, July 25, 2002
Districts
approved,
re-filing
underway
By BEN LEDBETTER
Staff Writer
Filing for offices for the
new state legislative dis-
tricts.started last Friday and
the new period has prompt-
ed one incumbent to file for
a new office. )
Current N.C. Rep. John
Weatherly, R- Cleraig
filed for the District 46 state
senate seat currently occu-
pied by incumbent Walter
Dalton, D-Rutherford.
The 46th senate district
would comprise all of
Cleveland and Rutherford
counties.
Weatherly previously
served Cleveland, Gaston,
Polk and Rutherford coun-
ties in the House.
Much of Weatherly’s pre-
vious house district would
be in Gaston County and he
would have to run against
fellow incumbent Debbie
Clary, R-Cleveland.
Clary will serve District
110, which will include the
Oak Grove, Bethware and
Waco precincts plus parts of
northern Cleveland and
Gaston counties.
Clary will run against
Republican Joe Carpenter, a
Gaston County commis-
sioner.
“I want to continue serv-
ing with the new senatorial
district comprising
Cleveland and Rutherford
counties,” Weatherly said.
“I can do that service by
being elected to the senate.”
Although Weatherly has
filed for another office, he
will have a lot of the same
issues to deal with in
Raleigh. /
One of the issues is the
half-cent sales tax bill,
which died in the General
Assembly last week.
Weatherly was part of a
bipartisan group that
helped defeat the bill.
The death of the bill has
filtered down to the local
level as Cleveland County
commissioners called a
meeting for next Thursday
at 10 a.m. at the County
Administration Building,
311 E. Marion St., Shelby.
Weatherly said he wanted
to see local governments get
money due them last year
and another sales tax hike
See District, 3A
Suit hopes to overturn
plans to cut home care
By BEN LEDBETTER
Staff Writer
Vol. 114
No. 30
Since 1889
MOUNTAIN
BETHWARE FAIR
A a
Karissa Wilson rides the Merry-Go-Round (top plots) and Jacob $Kiduwore runs
through the Castle at the Bethware Fair at Bethware Elementary School. The fair con-
tinues through Saturday night.
Fair
Fun
The 55th annual Bethware Fair is
under way on the grounds of Bethware
Elementary School near Kings Mountain.
The 6-day event is sponsored by the
Bethware
Progressive Club with profits
going to school and community projects.
There are plenty of rides, fun, food,
exhibits and fellowship. And, admission
is free.
The fair
hours are 6-11 p.m. Thursday
and Friday and 3 p.m.-12' midnight on
Saturday.
GARY STEWART / THE HERALD
Possible cuts in home care could affect
many residents who depend on it across the
state.
One of those is Kings Mountain resident
Tammy Thrift, who is absolutely dependent
on 24-hour nursing care provided through
Medicaid’s Private Duty Nursing Services.
She was involved in a car accident that
left her a quadriplegic on her birthday in
1999 and was hospitalized for about three
months.
She planned to come back to her home
and live with her daughter and husband.
She now spends her days confined to a
bed with a television in front of her.
Blankets cover her up to her head and she
has to stop talking to take a breath after
‘every couple of words.
See Suit, 3A
92] FIRST NATIONAL BANK
(GES)
Celebrating 128 Yeare
hel
HOMETOWN
[LUT
Tammy Thrift has been dependent upon 24-
hour nursing care since 1999 auto acci-
dent.
Kings Mountain
300 W. Mountain St.
704-739-4782
: station to open
By BEN LEDBETTER
Staff Writer
with constructio
neti complete, th
new fire station on
Shelby Road in west
I Kings Mountain i is
Chief Frank Burns ald
his department should .
beready tomovein
about one week.
Part of the me
will be housed in the
new statibn while anoth-
er BIOup | il Be at. the .
: expected to be hel
around the middle of
See Tite)! 3A
Gastonia
704-865-1233
50 Cents
Council vote
on Y contract
Tuesday night
By BEN LEDBETTER
Staff Writer
Not much has changed,
but the vote for extending
Kings Mountain's partner-
ship with the Cleveland
County YMCA will take
place at the next city coun-
cil meeting Tuesday at 7
p-m. at City Hall.
Preceding the vote will be
a public hearing.
The Y, which uses the for-
mer Kings Mountain
Community Center, is look-
ing for a 20-year contract
extension which would
allow it to make several
improvements to the city-
owned building. The cur-
rent contract is up next year.
For building improvements, it will cost $4.5 million with
the Y paying $2.3 million or 51 percent of the project.
The city would pay $2.2 million or 49 percent.
Since the YMCA took over recreation for the city in 1998,
it has increased the amount of programs offered.
When renovations are complete, new amenities in the
facility will include an indoor pool, more room for exercise
equipment and a climbing wall.
The city’s money will go toward the construction and it
will send $110,000 per year separately from it’s recreation
money, according to Kings Mountain Mayor Rick
Murphrey.
“They” re continuing to improve the recreation for the
city,” Murphrey said. “They do a lot of different programs
for our community.”
Previously the city used to spend about $400,000 for
recreation before it started an agreement with the Cleveland
County YMCA, which also runs branches in Shelby and
Boiling Springs.
Plans for building a new Boiling Springs facility, current-
ly off East College Avenue near Garner-Webb University
would expand the available space from 1,800 to 25,000
square feet.
Kings Mountain YMCA Executive Director David
Ozmore said the building improvements are part of an
association-wide capital plan which also includes improve-
ments at the Dover Foundation YMCA in Shelby.
If Kings Mountain approves the contract, recreation costs
will be fixed for 20 years.
Attendance at Kings Mountain City Council meetings can
vary, but Ozmore wants to fill City Hall next week.
Yellow signs have been posted on a lot of doors and exer-
cise machines asking members to attend the meeting.
To facilitate more attendance, the Y will close at 6:45 p.m.
“All we're doing is advertising to our membership, ‘Hey,
you need to be there on the 30th,” Ozmore said. “It was an
easy decision for our board to make to close early on a
night like this.”
By having a lot of people attend, Ozmore hopes that will
influence the council’s decision positively.
. “We want to make it hard for a council member to vote
0,” Ozmore said with a chuckle.
And while the city and the YMCA have agreed on the
contract to discuss, some residents of Kings Mountain and
See YMCA, 2A
Additional 1/2-cent sales tax
would have given KM $167,000
By BEN LEDBETTER
Staff Writer
When the sales tax bill
died Thursday so did local
government hopes of hav-
ing another source of
money.
A bill that would have
allowed county commis-
sioners to create a half-cent
sales tax that would have
given counties an additional
money source after Gov.
Mike Easley took reimburse-
ments for cities and counties
to help balance the state’s
budget died during the
General Assembly's
Thursday session.
Cleveland County stands
to lose $2.6 million if it can’t
pass the sales tax. Already
the county lost $932,000 in
state money.
Earlier this month, county
Shelby
529 New Hope Road 106 S Lafayette St.
704-484-6200
commissioners held a town
meeting in Shelby for citi-
zens and municipal leaders
to express their views on the
additional tax.
No further action was
taken on the matter.
Municipalities will also be
affected by the decision.
Kings Mountain will lose
$167,000, which Mayor Rick
Murphrey said could be
made up with fund balances
in the budget.
The city is also looking for
approximately $600,000 in
utility franchise tax money
which it had already
planned for in its current
budget. .
Murphrey said the state
may still get the money, but
he has not seen it yet.
If the tax does not come,
Murphrey said the city will
‘See Tax, 2A
Bessemer City
225 Gastonia Hwy.
704-629-3906