B.J. Hill set to
reach finish
line in his walk
across America
Saturday
See story, Page 4A
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Petitions get
more names
than needed
Liquor vote predicted
to be held in spring
By EMILY WEAVER
Editor
Around 4,000 signatures were turned
into the Cleveland County Board of
Elections last week to call for a referen-
dum on mixed beverage sales within
city limits. Over 300 were received by
the Gaston County board.
* Pages and pages of signed petitions
have been weeded through in both
counties to come up with the current
total number of verified signatures -
2,291. Only 2,212 were needed to call
for an election, which CCBoE Dir.
Debra Blanton said will be held this
spring.
= “Ther ‘were a lot of {miles on the
faces of some business owners and pro-
fessionals last Thursday as they gath-
ered for a ribbon cutting of a new clinic
downtown. Word of the upcoming ref-
erendum spread with quiet cheers and
gestures of victory.
Citizens for Progress, a group of in-
dividuals who had pushed for a vote on
mixed beverage sales, began their fight
about a year ago. In casual conversa-
tions members of the group talked with
councilmen in March, testing the wa-
ters. ) : :
They were urged then to circulate a
petition - a very tedious route. A few
months later, spirits stirred again over
‘the issue. And at the city’s Aug. meet-
ing, Citizens for Progress requested a
referendum for liquor by the drink. It
was postponed and later denied in a 4-3
vote.
Although another request seemed to
be on the horizon, Citizens for Progress
decided to take the matter into their own
hands - in the form of petitions. For 90
days, they passed the pen and clip-
boards, called for names at city events,
rang doorbells or offered customers a
chance to sign-up at local stores. The
petition seems to mirror the struggle.
Nearly half of the 4,000 signatures
turned over to Cleveland County by the
Jan. 5 deadline were dismissed due to
multiple repeats and some collected
from folks residing outside of city lim-
its or who were not registered to vote.
Blanton said that they had certified
2,194 signatures as of Tuesday morning.
The Gaston County Board of Elec-
tions had certified 97 signatures, with a
few hundred more to sift through, as of
Tuesday morning. But the number con-
tinues to fluctuate.
Until the names are officially certi-
fied and a referendum is scheduled at
the CCBoE’s next meeting on Feb. 4,
signatures could still be removed from
the petition. Blanton said that they have
removed three names from the petition
so far from signers, who have had a
change of heart. But take-backs are not
offered over the phone. :
And even though names could be re-
moved, no new signatures can be
added to the list after the Jan. 5
deadline.
“That’s why every petition
group needs to get a lot more than
what they need,” Blanton said.
This has been the first success-
ful petition for liquor by the drink
mn Kings Mountain.
"
By ELIZABETH STEWART
staff writer
ASHELIN HUNT
KM student invited to attend
after winning presidential award
; ~ Ashelin Hunt is an excited teenager. She’s going to the
nation’s capitol by invitation of President-Elect Barack
Obama to attend the presidential inauguration.
Hunt, 12, a 7th grader at Crest Middle School and daugh-
Two families prepare to attend historic inauguration
staff writer
capital.
4 Ruth and Rufus Parker of Grover are taking their young
grandson, Douglas, to Washington, DC for the inauguration
of the new president.
Obama campaign volunteer to witness
historic oath of office with family
By ELIZABETH STEWART
Ten-year-old Douglas Parker is excited. He plans to be a part of his-
‘tory by attending the Presidential inauguration Tuesday in the nation’s
His grandparents, Ruth and Rufus Parker, hope the fifth grader will
photo by Lib Stewart
ter of Dee and Coleman Hunt of Kings Mountain, got her
personal invitation this week extended on behalf of the Con-
gressional Youth Leadership Conference. She and her
mother are planning the trip which includes a five day Jun-
ior Presidential Leadership Conference which will give
students from across the U. S. like the Kings Mountain stu-
have plenty to tell his classmates when they return home to Grover after
five days in Washington, DC. Douglas is already telling his friends “I
will be making history next week.”
Ruth Parker volunteered with the Barack Obama campaign in Cleve-
land County. She said that when Obama was running for President she
felt a connection with him and her husband was also impressed,”He’s
dent a close-up look at the inauguration process.
Ashelin was nominated for the conference by 5th grade
AIG teacher Charlotte Teague of Washington Elementary
School where Ashelin’s father is principal and based on
academics and extracurricular activities.
“I am so proud of her,‘ said Mrs. Hunt.
See STUDENT, Page 4A
a smart man but I would not want to be in his shoes,’ said Mr. Parker,
Mrs. Parker contacted Rep. Tim Moore for tickets and he contacted
10th’ District U.S. Congressman Patrick Mc Henry and Thursday the
Parkers will pick up the tickets at the Congressman’s Hickory office.
They plan to drive to Delaware on Saturday to visit for a day with Mr.
Parker ’s sister, Elizabeth Reid before heading for Washington.
See PARKERS, Page 4A
| Alliance
Analysis: Alcohol cheers
and jeers over the years
By EMILY WEAVER
Editor
To sell drinks or not to sell drinks?
That is the question. Alcohol has been
an issue for the City of Kings Mountain
since its inception. The ongoing prob-
lem has garnered many headlines in the
past 21 years.
The city is born, alcohol banned
Kings Mountain became a chartered
town on Feb. 11, 1874 and one of the
first items on its agenda was to vote on
“license” within 30 days.
The election was not held on sched-
ule, but when the votes were tabulated,
it was 13-0 against the sell of spirituous
liquor within town limits, according to
Bonnie Summers’ Kings Mountain: Her
Background and * Beginning. Even
though the first building in town was
said to have been a saloon, the first or-
dinances were set in place with strict
punishments to discourage drunkenness,
among other things.
Even before the thirst of the 1920s
i
Bank Trust
Building Communities
Prohibition, Kings Mountain remained
a “dry” town aside from the occasional
bootlegger’s trade.
In 1948, Kings Mountain held an-
other vote on alcohol and again, in 1967
and in 1975. All three elections denied
libation sales by margins in the hun-
dreds.
In 1983, the margins were slimmer.
The result was the same: Sixty-five per-
cent of the registered voters turned out
then to turn down a request. for off-
premise sales of beer, wine and liquor *
and the establishment of an ABC store.
But the city’s “wet” issue:was far
from’ dead in the waters. On Jan. 20,
1987, Kings Mountain voters cast their
ballots addressing: “off-premise sale
only of malt beverages; on-premise sale
of malt beverages by Class A hotels,
motels and restaurants and to permit off-
premise sales by other permittees; on-
and off-premise sales ‘of unfortified
wine; and operation of an ABC store.”
The headline of that week’s Herald
read, “Alcohol votes pass by narrow
See ALCOHOL, Page 3A
Visit us today at
a growing demand
By ELIZABETH STEWART
staff writer
Looking for a bargain?
That’s a growing demand by Mr. or Mrs. Shopper as the
public feels the pinch of an ever-threatening flagging econ-
omy. And Kings Mountain people are no different from
“others in the country who are looking for incredible deals.
Resale and pawn shops seem to be booming and first-
time customers are finding their buying habits are chang-
ing. They like the feeling particularly if their pocketbooks
have cash left over for groceries and car payments.
“People are settling for less and finding less-costly
items, not new ones,’ says Gail Garrett of Jack’s Jewelry
‘& Loan, a Kings Mountain business on Cleveland Avenue
for nearly 25 years and owned by Jack Stringfellow. James
Parker, also an employee of the business, agrees. They say
newcomers to their business prefer to trade at home in-
stead of driving to Charlotte, Shelby or Gastonia because of
the high cost of gasoline. Gas is an issue now, a biggie, says
Gail, and shoppers are looking for bargains and making. de-
cisions.
A pawn shop is a store that offers money for a variety
of different items. Such stores have existed as far back as
Ancient Greece, with differing rules for how they operate.
See BARGAIN, Page 4A
209 S. Battleground Avenue
Kings Mountain
704.739.5411 e www.alliancebankandtrust.com
MEMBER FDIC The Faces of Hometown Banking
Bargain shopping
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