Thursday, February 22, 2007
KINGS MOUNTAIN
The Herald
Vol. 119 No. 8 Since 1889
50 Cents
Board to
consider
overlay
zone
ELIZABETH STEWART
Herald Correspondent
Since first impressions of an
area are important to a first-
time visitor, the city is look-
ing to establish what Mayor
Rick Murphrey describes as
an “overlay zone,” targeting
beautification in the main
corridors in an out of Kings
Mountain.
Murphrey said the idea
came out of meetings of the
Keep Kings Mountain
Beautiful and the city appear-
ance committees and the
Planning and Zoning Board.
Tuesday night at 7 p.m. at
City Hall the Planning and
Zoning Board will ask City
Council to set a public hear-
ing for March 17 on a text
amendment to establish the
new zone. A second public
hearing will be held on
March ?7 to show the areas
which include the downtown
and the outlying main corri-
dors. Input from the public is
invited at both meetings.
Murphrey said that mem-
bers of the Planning and
Zoning board had visited the
areas in the proposed new
zone and saw some critical
appearance issues such as
signs, sidewalks and build-
ings that need attention.
City Council on Tuesday
will also consider setting a
public hearing on March 27
on request of Laura Fannin
to change the zoning at the
intersection of Morris and
Waco Roads from R-6 and NB
to single family designation
only. Last month the board
turned down a request from a
citizen to put up a muffler
shop in that area after neigh-
bors cited noise concerns and
presented a petition. Now,
neighbors want the area to
accommodate single family
residences only and are ask-
ing for new zoning change.
Fire department’s
new educational
tools benefit kids
New educational tools in
the Fire Training Room at the
Kings Mountain Fire
Department will benefit the
kids of the community.
A $1,000 grant from the
Norfolk-Southern
Foundation has been used by
Fire Chief Frank Burns to
purchase a LCD projector,
VCR, and DVD for the train-
ing room where young peo-
ple from the various schools
visit on a regular basis for fire
safety programs.
RRA RMR
RADAR WATCH
Kings Mountain Police will
be running radar at the fol-
lowing locations during the
week of Feb. 25-March 3.
Sun., Feb. 25 - York Rd.
Mon., Feb. 26 - Shelby Rd.
Tues., Feb. 27 - Kings
Mountain Blvd.
Wed., Feb. 28 - Waco Rd.
Thurs., March 1 -
Cleveland Ave.
Fri, March 2 - Margrace
Rd.
Sat., March 3 - Gold St.
SY
EMILY WEAVER
eweaver@kingsmountainherald.com
Instead of watching Saturday morning cartoons, 10-
year-old Devin Ayscue came with his parents, Gina and
Dan Ayscue, and a handful of other people to Chemetall
Foote at 10 a.m. to have an inside glace at the future land
of the Gateway Trail. About seven miles of the proposed
10-12 mile trail will cut through Chemetall land. President
and CFO Ron France, Ron Cason, and Ralph Hawks with
Chemetall Foote drove the spectators around, often stop-
ping and pointing out future highlights and sights of the
trail. Director of the Kings Mountain Chamber of
Commerce office and vice president of Gateway Trails
Shirley Brutko was anxious to see “their baby” begin to
take form, after working on the project for over five years.
Chemetall allowed visitors to see sights that will one
day be seen along the Gateway Trail. They showed the
future hikers and bikers the man-made reservoir that the
company made to use when putting out office fires, noting
that the pumps they currently have may not be adequate
in fighting fires. They hope to gain support from the city
and connect to Kings Mountain's water lines instead of
having to rely on outdated pumps, in cases of emergency.
Spectators also got a look at the mine pit. Lithium and
minerals are no longer mined at Chemetall Foote, but past
excavations of the land are still very present. Water now
lines the bottom of the pit running depths of 150-200 feet.
The trail will provide ample views of the once vigorous
pit. Prior to 1966, 95 percent of the country’s lithium was
mined right here in Kings Mountain, Hawk said.
See Gateway, 10A
Knockout Punch
Truck clips guide wires,
puts one-fourth of city in
dark for hour and a half
GARY STEWART
| gstewart@kingsmountainherald.com
Early risers and first shift workers found themselves get-
ting ready in the dark Tuesday morning after a tractor-
trailer kayoed power to about 1,500 of Kings Mountain's
electric customers.
The truck was making a turn off Hawthorne onto South
Cansler Street about 6:30 a.m. when it got into a utility
pole’s guide wires and broke the phases on Duke Power's
44 000 volt transmission lines.
The jolt not only knocked out power in that community,
but also customers in the I-85/York Road area that are
served by the city’s York Road substation.
According to Kings Mountain Electrical Director Nick
Hendricks, about 25 percent of the city’s customers were
without power.
“They (Duke Power) isolated the (Hawthorne and
Cansler) area so they could do the repairs, and got power
back over to us so we could bring our system back on,”
Hendricks said.
All power was restored by 8 a.m.
Hikers take walking tour of Gateway
EMILY WEAVER / HERALD
Kings Mountain Chamber Director Shirley Brutko and Dr.
Jeff Carley follow the group of explorers along future
Gateway Trail land. The path that they are walking runs
along Kings Creek.
Coaches,
teams to be
inducted into
Hall of Fame
Van Dyke, Clark, football,
volleyball teams to be honored
- GARY STEWART
gstewart@kingsmountainherald.com
Two successful high school coaches and two
championship teams will be inducted into the
Kings Mountain Sports Hall of Fame at the 20th
annual banquet and induction ceremony Saturday,
May 12 at 6 p.m. at Central United Methodist
Church Family Life Center.
Darrell Van Dyke, whose baseball teams won
362 games during his 26-year tenure as head coach
at East Gaston, and Bruce Clark, whose teams won
two state championships in five years at Kings
Mountain, will be inducted along with the KMHS
state championship 1998 women's volleyball team
and the 1998 state finalist KMHS football team.
Lucille Williams, a longtime volunteer with the
Hall of Fame, KMHS Booster Club and many other
sports organizations, and longtime sports support-
er Keith Falls of Linwood Restaurant will be hon-
ored as recipients of the annual Distinguished
Service Award.
In addition, the Hall of Fame will honor the two-
time State Championship. KMHS women's softball
team with its Special Achievement Award and will
See Inductees, 4A
Saturday fund raiser
for KM man fighting
lupus of the brain
EMILY WEAVER
eweaver@kingsmountainherald.com
Jon Williams, 30, of Kings Mountain has been
very sick for the past two years. He went first to
Kings Mountain Hospital, then to Cleveland
Regional Medical Center in Shelby and from there
he went to Carolina’s Medical Center in Charlotte.
Doctors were puzzled by his ailment. CMC sug-
gested that he go to Duke University Hospital for
treatment. They diagnosed him with lupus of the
brain, a very serious condition that doctors at
Duke are not familiar with and therefore, cannot
treat.
His doctors are sending him to a hospital in
Florida where they believe similar cases have been
treated. In Florida he hopes to find some answers
See Fund Raiser, 8A
This 18-wheeler
clipped some
guide wires at
the corner of
Hawthorne
Road and South
Cansler Street
just before day-
light Tuesday,
knocking out
power to one-
fourth of the
City of Kings
Mountain cus-
tomers. Duke
Power and City
of Kings
Mountain
Electrical
Department
employees had
power restored
in about 90
minutes.
GARY STEWART/
THE HERALD
|