IN
OUR
OPINION
BNR
City Council
should require
petition drive
on term length
Next
week,
politicians -
or public
servants if
you will -
will be
coming out |
of the
woodwork.
Filing for
city council Gary Stewart
and school Editor
board seats wsummmmmm———
begins next Monday for the
November elections. There
are six council and the
mayor's seat, and two
inside city school board
seats available.
What the issues will be is
unclear at this point, but
you can bet they'll surface
pretty soon.
In Kings Mountain's
council race, one item of
discussion may be a four-
versus two-year term of
office.
City Council last week
held a public hearing to
receive citizen input on the
idea of changing the term to
four years, which appears to
have the blessing of most
members of council. Only
two citizens showed up to
speak - both of them against
- and that may indicate that
most citizens don’t really
care.
Don’t be surprised if
council calls for a referen-
dum on the matter. By law,
the change in term lengths
must be voted on by the cit-
izens. But council should
not call for a referendum,
and here’s why:
Kings Mountain changed
from a four- to two-year
i, term just eight years ago
after retired city planner
(and current councilman)
Gene White circulated a
petition and got the neces-
sary names to require that
the matter be placed before
the voters.
White lobbied for two-
year terms because there
was turmoil in the city at
the time caused partly
because of tough economic
times and perhaps aided by
inexperienced city managers
who may not have ade-
quately addressed some
personnel problems and
council requests in a timely
fashion.
White secured a whole lot
more than the 10% of regis-
tered voter signatures
required to call a referen-
dum, and it passed by 115
votes (485-340) with only
18% of the city’s 4,500 regis-
tered voters participating.
Now some council mem-
bers are saying that two
years is not long enough to
learn the job, and that four-
year staggered terms would
provide continuity and
¢
2
See Gary, 5A
0 P INI ON The $6ings A Mountain Herald Editor: Gary Stewart © 739-7496
THRILL OF A LIFETIME
Thursday, July 3, 2003
i
YOUR VIEW
Ole Opry.
Oh, if I could
create a garden
like Stowes’
After two straight weeks of heat,
Andie Brymer
Saturday's overcast day was perfect for a Staff Writer
long awaited trip to Daniel Stowe
Botanical Garden.
Having been raised in a farm family, it only makes
sense the Belmont garden would appeal to me. I grew up
hearing about trees, frost, fertilizers and harvests. Wher
my father wasn’t working in the apple orchard, he was
busy in his vegetable garden or helping my mother in the
yard.
Almost before my husband and I could make it out of
the parking lot, a cardoon plant caught my eye. I had
heard about the plant from volunteers at the Schiele
Museum'’s Backcountry Farm but had never seen the actu-
al bloom. Standing head high, the thistle top sported a flu-
orescent blue bloom. Nearby, basil plants stood knee high.
I was tempted to steal a few leaves to perk up dinner.
Once inside the gardens, I was ready to wander. Seeing
the lacy, white flowers on Queen’s Anne Lace was a wel-
come sight. I know some folks consider it a weed, but I
never have. At home, I recently dug a few up that were
growing near the edge of the woods and transplanted
them around the mailbox.
There must be thousands of varieties of plants growing
at Stowe but only a small fraction have name tags. I was
particularly glad clematis was identified. A few weeks
ago, I dug some of out of my mother-in-law’s yard.
We joked about the plant with its five, fan style leaves
looking like another plant that can get one in a heap of
trouble. I felt a little uneasy when I set them out in my
yard, fearing a neighbor would suspect I was growing
contraband. Seeing the clematis, already in bloom, at
Stowe reassured me we had not misidentified the plant.
I can remember years ago my father hanging yellow
and green traps for Japanese beetles near his grape vines.
At a tender age, I learned the flying bug was to be
destroyed. When I saw the pests making a rose vine into
their own buffet, I could not contain myself. Despite
thorns, I plucked the bugs off the leaves and squashed
them.
My husband, evidently not raised to hate the beetle,
complained about my killing spree. Defending the
See Andie, 5A
ERI
Sk
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Billie Hicklin, right, of Kings Mountain recently sang with country music legend Billy Walker on the stage of the Grand
Don’t throw
anything away),
it may be useful
Jim Heffner
I'm one of those people who cannot Guest Column
throw anything away that might be use- mss
ful. I'm not talking about old clothes, tools 0 or other non-
descript items. I mean anything.
One gallon plastic milk jugs, for example. I've found so
‘many uses for, those things you ‘wouldn’ t believe it.
"They make good bird feeders, if you cut the sides out
and leave the bottom to hold seeds. Of course you have to
take measures to make sure those thieving squirrels can’t
get to the seeds.
If you have small children, you can make scoops for
playing in the sand box, and if you're creative enough,
some toys can be fashioned from the empty containers. In
an old country store in the mountains I once saw a mobile
some budding artist had created using the jugs. He had
painted beautiful mountain scenes on the sides, and the
piece was hanging from the ceiling. It was impressive.
You could take a vacation on the money you'd save by
dropping all your spare change each day into an empty
milk jug.
I use several to mix liquid fertilizer, but haven't come
up with anything out of the ordinary for them lately. I
will, though.
All those plastic containers have other uses. I use peanut
butter jars to store different sizes of nails, screws, washers,
nuts and bolts.
The Japanese reuse plastic soft drink bottles and jars in
many different ways. An enterprising firm in Okinawa,
packs roasted peanuts in them for resale.
The peanut butter jars are also good for storing odds
and ends such as buttons and small items which tend to
accumulate in cabinets and drawers.
I would say, youngsters can keep their marbles in them,
but I think I'm going back too far. I haven't seen a sack of
marbles in years, and if they could be found they would
probably be accompanied by a squad of do-gooders
yelling about the danger of swallowing one of them. I
wish there was a plastic bottle big enough to store some of
See Jim, 5A
SS
SESE
Se
RRR
TH
NH
SS
BN
‘63 budget
a record
$915,000
From the July 4, 1963
edition of The Herald:
The city commission will
gather early next week for
an informal work session
on the 1963-64 budget,
with departmental appro-
priation requests at a
record $915,000.
Clarence Sloan Plonk,
farmer, trader, and corn
field philosopher, observed
his 80t birthday Tuesday.
Dottie Gibbons, Kings
Mountain freshman at
Gaston Memorial Hospital
School of Nursing, has
been elected treasurer of
District 3 of the NC
Student Nurse Association.
Bobby Biddix, Kings
Mountain senior at Wake
Forest, was listed on the
dean’s list for the spring
term.
John Harry of Grover
copped first place in the
state for his forestry project
and four Kings Mountain
boys won their FFA farmer
degrees at the recent state
convention of Future
Farmers of America in
Raleigh
Anita McGinnis has been
awarded a $2,940 trainee-
ship by the National
Institute of Mental Health
for graduate study.
James Kenneth Baity has
been employed as an
adjuster in the Charleston,
SC branch office of
American Discount compa-
ny.
James F. Webster, Route 3
farmer, has reported the
first cotton bloom in the
Kings Mountain area.
Jackie Hughes, Post 155
ace righthander, won his
third game against
Rutherfordton Tuesday
night, 4-2. Louis Cook led
the KM hitting with 2-for-
4.
Zip code time is here.
That's the new five-digit all
United States citizens have
added to their addresses
by the post office depart-
ment. All Kings Mountain
A SRD
i
|
regular address, now own
the number 28086.
The city has filed its
application for street
improvement funds under
the state’s Powell Act on
the basis of 40.01 miles of
city-maintained streets.
The Herald anticipates
publishing its July 18th
edition on the Goss Cox -
o-Type newspaper press it
purchased recently. The
new press will produce up
to eight printed pages,
delivering the pages in
folded sections. Normal
running speed is 3,000
copies per hour.
SIDEWALK
SURVEY
BY ANDIE L. BRYMER
THE HERALD
wu
What does
the July 4
holiday
mean to
you?
“A time of celebration of
the independence of our
country, family, friends.”
“Freedom, getting togeth-
er with family.”
Jennifer Dockery
Jeff Hargrove Kings Mountain
Kings Mountain
“It’s a big part of our
nation’s history, makes me
proud to be an American.”
“It reminds me how lucky
I am to live in a free coun-
try.”
Jon Wheeler
Kings Mountain
Meagan Noell
Kings Mountain
“Liberation, that’s what it
means to me.”
Regina Sellars
Kings Mountain
citizens, in addition to their
pemen
Ne