Property owner withdraws
request for townhouses
in Crescent Hill area
Coaching moves
announced for
KMHS football 6A
102 Kings Mountain Miody
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7
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10A
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Thursday, June 1, 2006
KINGS MOUNTAIN
Vol. 118 No. 22
Since 1889
50 Cents
Inside..
Layla Harris
and friends
publish
cookbook for
Juvenile
Diabetes
2A
Raleigh Bound
a
HOMEFRONT
Johnson edges
Hamrick in runoff
for Clerk of Court
Mitzi McGraw Johnson edged
Sharon Hamrick Jones by 59
votes to win the Democratic
nomination for
Clerk of
Superior Court
in Tuesday’s
second pri-
mary.
Johnson gar-
nered 51 per-
cent of the
votes with
2,026. Jones
collected 1,967
votes, or 49 per-
JOHNSON
cent.
Johnson will face Republican
Claudia Glenn in the general
election on Tuesday, November
7.
The vote total is unofficial. The
canvass is Tuesday at the
Cleveland County Board of
Elections.
FIRE REPORT
Kings Mountain Fire
Department calls:
May 24 at 4 pm: Grass fire, 600
Oakland St. win
May 24 at 3 pm: Carbon
monoxide investigation, 800
Hillside Dr.
May 25 at 3:07 am: Fire alarm,
202 Park Dr.
May 25 at 9:38 pm: Motor vehi-
cle accident, Intersection of E.
King St. and S. Deal
May 25 at 3:00 pm: Service Call,
1019 York Rd.
May 26 at 1:53 am: Fire alarm,
Pine St. (Mauney Hosiery)
May 26 at 6:23 am: Structure
fire, 212 Walker St.
May 26 at 7:20 am: Fire alarm,
100 Firestone Ln.
May 27 at 4:12 am: Helicopter
standby, KM Hospital.
RADAR WATCH
Kings Mountain Police
Department will be running
radar June 4-10 at the following
locations:
Sunday, June 4 - NC 216.
Monday, June 5 - NC 161.
Tuesday, June 6 - Margrace Rd.
Wednesday, June 7 - Linwood
Rd.
Thursday, June 8 - Kings
Mountain Blvd.
Friday, June 9 - Gold St.
Saturday, June 10- Mountain
St.
*Police run radar every day on
I-85 and US 74 Bypass.
DEATHS
Annette Chen, 50
Jacob Knox, 71
Michael Strickland, 28
Jessica Causby, 17
Page 4A
Classified 5B Lifestyles 5A
‘Obituaries 4A Opinion 3A
Police 4A Schools 1B
Sports 6A Worship 5B
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RY
GARY STEWART / HERALD
Kings Mountain High softball players celebrate their victory over South Point Friday in the
state 3A playoffs in Belmont. The 3-0 victory sends the Lady Mountaineers to Raleigh this
weekend for the state championship series.
Lady Mountaineers seek second
straight state 3A championship
GARY STEWART
gstewart@kingsmountainherald.co
Kings Mountain High's women’s softball
team will open its quest for a second straight
state 3A championship Friday at 5 p.m. at
Walnut Creek Park in Raleigh against
Southwest Randolph.
That game will be for the Western Regional
Championship. The winner will go against the
winner of the Aycock-Harnett Central game at
7:30 and the losers will play each other at 7:30
also.
The four-team double-elimination event con-
tinues with three games Saturday. The loser’s
bracket final is at 11 a.m. The championship
game is at 1:30 and if a second game is neces-
sary it will be at 4 p.m. In case of rain, the tour-
ney could run into Sunday.
Kings Mountain (26-1) carries the best overall
record into the tournament but all four teams
are said to have outstanding pitching. Aycock,
which lost to Kings Mountain 1-0 in the second
round last year, is 19-7. Harnett Central is 25-3
and Southwest Randolph 23-2.
Kings Mountain's ladies earned a chance to
repeat Friday with a 3-0 victory over South
Point in Belmont. Kings Mountain is unscored
on in the state playoffs and has given up just
three runs all year.
Morgan Childers, who hurled her ninth no-
hitter of the season at South Point, heads the
KM pitching staff with a 24-1 record. She has
given up just one earned run, that in the bottom
of the seventh inning in a 1-0 loss to 4A power
Matthews Butler.
“Hopefully, Mo will be on her game as she’s
been on all year, and our defense will be ready
to make the plays that we have to make,” says
KM Coach Suzanne Grayson, who will be seek-
ing third state title in six years at KMHS. She
has one volleyball and one softball crown to her
credit.
Lauren Gaffney made a diving catch of a
sinking liner to left-center to save Childers’ no-
hitter at South Point Friday and it came at a
time when the Mounties were ahead by just 1-
0.
“She made a great catch,” Grayson noted.
“We'll have to also be able to generate some
offense and get runners on base.
“I think everybody’s going to have great
pitching or they wouldn't be here,” she said. “I
don’t know that it’s going to be better than any-
thing we've seen all year. Playing Enka,
Andrew Jackson and Butler we've seen some
other great pitchers. They may or may not be
better but I'm sure they'll be very, very good.”
Kings Mountain players this week are trying
to juggle exams and extra studying with prac-
ticing softball and haven't really had a chance
to get nervous about the state tournament.
“I think right now it’s just the end of school
pressure,” she said. “We've got to just sit back
and kind of talk it out and make sure they're
getting things done that need to be done and
keeping everything in perspective. They have a
great opportunity.”
See Softball, 8A
Spectrum
back bills
will be paid
by June 30
ELIZABETH STEWART
Herald Correspondent
Utility bills are not public record but
Spectrum Yarns has asked city officials to set
the record straight about rumors concerning
“unpaid utility bills.”
Spectrum Yarns, Kings Mountain's biggest
utility customer and a city industry for 32
years, spends $3.4 million a year for city
water, sewer and gas and pays property tax
of $56,800.
Interim City Manager Marilyn Sellers said
former city manager Greg McGinnis and
city council responded like “good citizens”
and during hard times when textile mills
were downsizing, agreed to a payment plan
with Spectrum and that despite rumors to
the contrary, Spectrum will be current on its
utility bills by June 30.
“What some citizens don’t understand is
that 12 percent of our city revenue comes
from this industry and rumors have mush-
roomed since a letter to the editor appeared
in last week’s Herald asking what the city
was doing about unpaid utility bills by this
industry,” said Sellers.
Sellers, former city clerk, recalled that
years ago when the city had a huge cash
flow problem that she went to Spectrum
officials and asked for their monthly utility
bill ahead of time. “They have always been
good customers and I have been here 18
years and we always had a good working
relationship with them,” she added.
Sellers said that Spectrum officials submit-
ted a plan in writing to the city and always
has made weekly payments. One month’s
utility bill, considering the higher prices of
natural gas, amounts to up to $400,000,”
said Sellers responding to the letter writer
who questioned the rumor amount of
money owed at $500,000.
Spectrum’s annual payroll is $6.8 million.
The Kings Mountain plant was Spectrum’s
first in this area and employs 300 people on
three shifts five days a week. Spectrum also
operates a plant in Marion and employs 150
people.
“Spectrum survived when other plants
were closing. We lost Anvil, one of the city’s
big utility customers, and Clevemont, one of
the big water users moved to Mexico, to
name a few,” said Sellers.
“Spectrum’s business has kept our rates
down and at end of June will owe less than
$200,000 in back payments,” she said.
Sellers said Mayor Rick Murphrey, vice-
president of sales for Spectrum, has been
See Spectrum, 3A
Kings Mountain remembers its fallen heroes
EMILY WEAVER / HERALD
Jeff Goode salutes and Mayor Rick Murphrey stands in silent contem-
plation at the monument, while taps softly plays in the background.
prize of freedom. Thank God for
eweaver@kingsmountainherald.com
“Memorial Day is the time we
honor those men and women who
made the ultimate sacrifice to pre-
serve our freedom. It is a day to
remind us that each new genera-
tion has a responsibility to preserve
our liberty and our way of life.
These men and women knew the
risk but believing in loyalty, per-
sonal courage, duty and honor,
ordinary citizens went into battle
willing to die for their country,”
said Mayor Rick Murphrey at the
10 am service on Memorial Day in
the Mountain Rest Cemetery.
Dozens of people, some veterans
and some loved ones, came out to
honor and pay tribute to our
nation’s fallen soldiers. “Our sol-
diers fight not for glory but the
our fallen heroes. We will never
forget them,” Murphrey said.
Chaplain David Irish, a veteran
soldier, gave the invocation. “Lord,
we thank you for the freedoms that
we can exercise and enjoy today
because of our citizens who have
arisen to the battle against bigotry,
tyranny, dictatorships . . . all of
those things that would destroy the
very spirit and the soul of
mankind,” Irish said. He prayed
for our soldiers in Iraq and their
safe return, along with the presi-
dent and other governing officials
who have to make decisions on
their behalf. Cleveland County
Sheriff Raymond Hamrick lead the
crowd, hand over heart, in the !
pledge of allegiance. Across the
tops of silent markers full of stories
untold, the National Anthem
See Heroes, 10A
Bh