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State of City addressed at recent
Breakfast
i eweaver@kingsmountainherald.com
Mayor Rick Murphrey gave a
State of the City address at last
week’s Customer Appreciation
breakfast at the Patrick Senior
Center, which included several
updates and current activities in city
departments.
“The city continues to move pro-
gressively forward,” he said.
Starting with the $35 million
2008-09 budget, he said, that the
city’s long-term debt rests at a little
over $6 million. The short-term debt
is at $1.3 million and $858,000 is
included in the budget this year for
the city’s capital outlay projects.
“We've had a perfect audit, we're
very proud of, for eight years in a
row,” he said. “You can see our debt
service in a $35 million business, we -
feel, is very reasonable and very
© low”
“Kings Mountain is one of eight
cities (in the state) that sells all four
utilities: water, sewer, electric and
gas. As the economic times become
a little tougher and more difficult,
we've implemented a few plans to
try to save money,” the mayor said.
One of the plans is the city’s per-
formance contract with Siemens, a
company which develops new
technology to promote efficiency
and to cut costs for their clients.
Murphrey said, that through
Siemens, the city will save over $3
million in a 12-year period.
Another penny-saver is found in
the city’s two peak-shaving plants.
The plants enable the city to save
money by producing their own
electricity, through turbine engines,
during the city’s highest peaks of
energy usage. “We have signed a
new 10-year contract with Duke
Energy,” Murphrey said, which will
take affect January 1, 2009.
For many years, the city has pur-
chased wholesale electricity from
Duke Energy, who supplies it to the
KM substations, which then distrib-
ute it to the citizens. Through the
new contract, he said, Duke will
allow the city to continue its peak
shaving operations.
“That is saving the city roughly
$1 million dollars,” he added.
Another cost-cutter in the age of
expensive oil, is the city’s no-idle
policy. Murphrey said that they are
encouraging city employees to use
one car instead of two when only
one would do. They are also asked
to turn their engines off when they
are stopped to avoid wasting fuel
by letting the engine idle.
“We have an energy depot that's
on our website
(www.cityofkm.com) and has just a
tremendous amount of energy tips
to help us all save money,” the
mayor said.
Economic development
Even in a receding economy,
Murphrey said that the city has wel-
comed several new businesses and
industrial expansions over the past
year.
To name a few, he spoke of the
recent grand opening of the 85,000
sq. ft. Ingles on Shelby Road, the
opening of Roses department store,
Buckeye’s 35,000 sq. ft. addition to
its complex and Ultra Machine's
expansion into two KM locations
and one Shelby location.
“Southern Industrial Contractors
has merged with Gibson
International and they are hiring at
this time. It looks like to me it’s
some 40 or 50 or it could be as much
as over 100 jobs (to fill there) as we
go into the next year,” Murphrey
said.
He thanked Parker Hannifin for
moving its hydraulic pump divi-
sion and headquarters to the com-
pany’s Kings Mountain plant. “It
means a lot to me and it means a lot
to our city when big corporations
like this think enough of us and our
staff and the workforce to bring
their entire headquarters here,” he
said.
Several other new businesses
were mentioned, in addition to the
new Kings Mountain Professional
building, which houses
Prescriptions Plus and Baker Dental
Care on E. King Street. The mayor
said that in the past four or five
years, the city has probably received
over $100 million worth of industri-
al investment and over 1,000 jobs,
which stemmed from “a lot of team
work.”
Residential development
Murphrey said that although the
city has not been immune to the
nationwide housing slump, the res-
idential market continues to devel-
op in Kings Mountain. :
“We have subdivisions still being
built,” he said.
Those listed as “active develop-
ments” at the meeting were:
Country Grove on Patterson Rd;
The Farm on Oak Grove Rd. (about
28 houses); Coleman Estates (about
Customer Appreciation
30 houses); Eagle Run; Tommy
Hall's condos; Fairview
Subdivision; Hall Crossing;
Shepherd's Place; Phifer Acres and
Crocker Ridge.
The land that is currently being
cleared near Mountain Rest
Cemetery on Gold Street will house
King Falls apartments, with 36 units
for seniors and 48 apart-
ments, Murphrey said. Twelve
more apartments will be estab-
lished on Cherokee Street for the
handicapped.
Water and Sewer
The city Water and Sewer
Department serves 4,639 water cus-
tomers and 4,063 sewer customers,
according to the mayor.
He mentioned the new technolo-
gy Director Dennis Wells has been
using, the cure-in-pipe inner liner.
“They don’t have to dig up the
street (to repair a water line),” he
said.
With cure-in-pipe repairs, work-
ers are able to detect the problem
areas of a line with a small camera
and, once spotted, can usually
repair the cracks with a foam inject-
ed into a liner in the pipe.
“We're going to complete the
sewer extension to our Westover
friends, that should be completed
by the end of October. We've got a
grant to do that, some $440,000,” he
said, adding that they have also
received a $700,000 grant to provide
service to Galilee Church Road.
He said that they continue to
dredge Moss Lake, which holds 50
billion gallons of valuable water. He
thanked former mayor John Henry
Moss for his vision to establish the
lake years ago. He added that the
city is about three or four years into
an eight-nine year process of creat-
ing another lake, about a third of the
size of Moss, next to the current
impoundment.
He said that they continue to
work on the new pipeline coming
into town and there are some spill-
way repairs, which need to be com-
pleted.
Electric Department
The Electric Department, directed
by Nick Hendricks, serves 4,226
customers. “Nick and his staff con-
tinue to do new lighting on the
main corridors as you come into
town,” Murphrey said. “These
lights will be changing from mercu-
ry to sodium lights. They look a lit-
EMILY WEAVER/HERALD
Mayor Rick Murphrey addresses crowd at annual city breakfast.
tle dull, but it’s less energy and it’s
brighter. We've tested them.”
He said that they have added
new street lights to Patriot's Park
“When I first got my braces, my
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and are installing underground
wiring downtown for electricity,
which should hopefully be in place
in time for Christmas. New lights
~Angelina, Grade 11
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