Thursday, October 3, 2002
Crematorium
request sent
back to KM
zoning board
By ELIZABETH STEWART
Republic Newspapers
“I am not trying to put
funeral homes out of
businsss, I just want to offer
a service,” said Scism Road
resident David A. Scism.
Scism has applied to the
city for rezoning so he can
tear down his family’s
country store building and
put up a new building for a
crematorium, which if
spproved, would be the
county’s first.
Scism Road is outside the
city limits but in the City of
Kings Mountain’s extra-ter-
ritorial zoning jurisdiction.
At the September meeting
the planning board unani-
mously denied the request
and at the recent city coun-
cil meeting the request was
sent back to the planning
board for a study of a site
plan which Scism had not
presented earlier.
“I 'had to go to Florida for
the funeral of a relative and
had no idea the request was
to come up at the planning
board meeting or at city
council meeting last
Tuesday,” said Scism. Jim
Childers, chairman of the
planning board, said Scism
had requested a postpone-
ment but the planning
board had to act on its rec-
ommendations within a
required 60 day period.
Scism filed the request on
July 11.
See Request, 3A
Second KM fire station dedicated
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
Kings Mountain city officials and family
members of the late Jacob Hord dedicated the
city’s new $702,000 fire substation on Shelby
Road Saturday morning.
The fire station is named in memory of
Hord, a Kings Mountain grocer who lived
most of his life on the land where the new
station is located.
Speaking for the family, Hord’s grand:
daughter Mary Ann Gibson said the building
is “certainly a tribute to Jake Hord. He would
be proud that his property is being used to
serve the citizens of Kings Mountain.”
The building, which took over a year to
construct, includes two large bays for fire
trucks, and Fire Chief Frank Burns said it was
designed to accommodate a third bay in the
Vol. 114 No. 40
Since 1889
SIGNING IN THE RAIN
50 Cents
GARY STEWART / HERALD
Despite a steady drizzle, Barry Elliott of Comco signs repairs the neon sign outside
the Joy Performance Center Friday morning.
Republic Newspapers
Walt Ollis, the city's Water
Resource Director, says the
city has proven during the
drought that it is in a good
position to supply water to
neighboring cities.
Both Ollis and City
Engineer Al Moretz
Shelby was wise to seek
after the First Broad River
dried up but said that no
officials from Shelby or
Cleveland County have
.inquired of Kings Mountain
about what it would take to
put a raw water intake into
Moss Lake where a possible
yield is 37 million gallons a
day.
"It could be done," said
Ollis, who estimated the
cost could be considerably
‘$11 million for a Broad
water treatment plant and a
pump station at estimated
cost of $8 million and inter-
connections through the.
county estimated to cost $3
million.. :
Mayor Rick Murphrey
agrees that Shelby should
take a serious look at Moss
future, if necessary. The spacious interior
includes a large kitchen and sitting area com
See Station, 3A
Caldwell always wanted to be a fireman
By ELIZABETH STEWART
Republic Newspapers
Volunteer fireman Johnnie R.
Caldwell learned a valuable
lesson fighting fire.
“I don't take life for granted
and I never leave home with-
out telling my wife goodbye
and that I love her,” said the
29-year volunteer firefighter
and assistant chief of the 20
volunteer firemen in the Kings
Mountain Fire Department.
About 15 years ago Caldwell
and his crew were fighting the
big Parkdale Mill fire in Kings
Mountain when the alarm bell
went off on his airpack, signal-
ing that he was almost out of
air. He warned his buddies to
stick together and started fol-
lowing the hose to the outside.
About halfway out, the bell
OXS
OC
he lV
HOMETOWN
LVS
GARY STEWART / HERALD
Maxine Bennett, left, and Mayor Rick Murphrey unveil plaque naming
new KM fire station #2 in memory of Mrs. Bennett's father, Jacob Hord.
KINGS MOUNTAIN PEOPLE
quit ringing and
he unscrewed
the valve on his
pressure gauge
regulator and
knew he was out
of air. Crawling
down a staircase
he became dis-
oriented and fell
to the bottom of
the stairs and
struck a storage
container. Then,
miraculously, he
saw a light and
followed it out of
the mill.
After he got
outside he never saw the light
that guided him, never told
anyone about the incident and
quickly refilled his air bottle
and went back inside the burn-
FIRST NATIONAL BANK
Celebrating 128 Years
JOHNNIE CALDWELL
ing building.
Firemen fought
the blaze for 13
hours before
bringing it under
control.
Said Johnnie,
“God had some-
thing else for me
to do.”
He has fought
other fires since
that time, several
in which there
were fatalities.
He, along with
other firemen,
rushed to the
scene of a blazing
house fire one night to find
one person dead and searched
the house to see if there were
other occupants.
Smoking in bed results in
Kings Mountain
300 W. Mountain St.
704-739-4782
a lr rN NMR NS A TT a ar A Ty TT A gh
Lake as a water source but
he reiterated again this
week that Kings Mountain
has excess water to sell but
By ELIZABETH STEWART
Republic Newspapers
Mayor Rick Murphrey
tinuing to pursue a second
lake and has filed its appli-
cation for a $40,000 Rural
an engineering study.
"I really feel good about
our grant application," said
ed the Rural Center in
Raleigh and got a good
fatalities. Other fires are
caused by pots being left unat-
tended on cook stoves,
reminders that smoke detec-
tors save lives. Change the bat-
teries like you change your
clocks in spring and fall and if
you use petroleum products
for heat sources invest in a car-
bon monoxide detector. Both
are inexpensive. A few dollars
worth of prevention saves
lives.
Caldwell, a Kings Mountain
native, grew up wanting to
ride the big red fire truck. But
there was no junior program
and you had to be 18 years old
before you could join a fire
department. Caldwell, 16 at
the time, lived on El Bethel
Church Road and talked with
Bethlehem and Kings
See Caldwell, 3A
By ELIZABETH STEWART
acknowledged that neighbor
alternative sources for water
less than projected figures of
River connection to Shelby's
says Kings Mountain is con-
Center grant to help pay for
Murphrey who said he visit-
reception. He said the city is
HOMECOMING QUEEN——
Lesley Potter, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Dan
Potter, was crowned homecoming queen at
halftime of Friday’s KMHS game with Fred 3
Foard. Game details on 1B.
Officials say
City could
provide water
water for Kings Mountain
residents is "first priority."
The mayor also reiterated
that Kings Mountain City
Council is firm on its posi-
tion that it will not support
a $14 million county water
plan financed by higher
taxes. The mayor said he
informed county officials of
the city's stance following
last Tuesday night's city
council meeting and also
that Kings Mountain wants
to be excluded from the tax-
ing district should the coun-
ty authorize a property tax
increase to pay for water for
the county seat city.
Murphrey said the City of
Shelby was billed
September 18 for 10,420,000
gallons of water at the out-
side city rate of $1.88 per
1M gallons at total cost of
$20,121.60.
City officials are expected
to see preliminary cost fig-
ures on upgrading Kings
Mountain's water treatment
plant from 8 to 12 million
gallons at the October 28
"council meeting.
Moretz Engineering, of
which city engineer Al
Moretz is president, is con-
Sucng festudy J
A "ball park" estimate on
the cost is $6 million, says
Ollis. ®
But Ollis said it would be
"getting the cart before the
See Water, 3A
City still pursuing
second reservoir
upgrading its pump station
and is in the third design
phase of the new water line
to town. However, Water
Rescouces Director Walt
Ollis says the completion of
the first two segments
depend on the economy and
the most expensive part of
the project will be tieing into
the water plant across
Muddy Fork. The third
design will run the line from
Cansler Street to Oak Grove
Road. The city's water plant
See City, 3A
GARY STEWART / HERALD
Gastonia Shelby
529 New Hope Road 106 S Lafayette St.
704-865-1233 704-484-6200
Bessemer City
225 Gastonia Hwy.
704-629-3906