vision
Volume 121 . Issue 5e Wornesday Feviuary «+, cvvo
| Legally blind
woman learns new
trade, finds new
Page 3A
4061 OB:ytounin St., Kings Mountain
Wairlick Shy mic
WWII hero Sydney Dixon rides
as Grand Marshall in 2007
Christmas Parade.
Rotary seeks help
in sending
WWII vets on
‘Flight of Honor’
By EMILY WEAVER
Editor
World War II veterans sacrificed
their lives for our nation and for our
way of life. Many of them watched
their brothers fall on the battlefields.
The ones who survived to tell the
tale seemed to remain mostly silent
for many years. They wanted to live
in peace and to not have to think about
_ the war that changed them. Even
though a grand monument was
erected in their honor on the National
Mall in 2004, many WWII veterans
have yet to even see it. Those heroes
are dying now. An estimated 1,200-
1,500 pass away every day.
With that in mind efforts have been
made to let the remaining heroes
know how much America appreciated
ther bravery. Kings Mountain Rotar-
ians hope to send at least three of
those local heroes to Washington,
D.C., on Saturday, April 18, in what
has been coined a “flight of honor.”
In April, 100 veterans from mid-
western North Carolina will be on a
chartered U.S. Air “Flight of Honor.”
The flight will depart Charlotte ‘and
land at Reagan National Airport. The
group will be transported by bus to
the WWII Memorial.
E. Wilson Griffin and Sidney
Dixon, both of Kings Mountain, and
one veteran from Waco are planned to
be among those 100. But the Rotary
Club needs public support to help pay
the way.
For Griffin, this will be a second
trip. But for Dixon, this will be the
first time he has seen the monument.
Griffin, the last remaining charter
member of the KM Rotary Club,
“joined the U.S. Navy and worked at
the Norfolk Naval Hospital as a sur-
gical hospital corpsman and special
duty nurse before being sent in 1943
to the Mediterranean. He spent time
in northern Africa at Casablanca, Mo-
rocco, Oran and Arzeu, Algeria,” ac-
cording to information compiled by
the club.
“He helped open the Navy hospi-
tal at Marseille, France. Toward the
end of the war, Griffin was sent back
to Oran, Algeria, and retrained for
duty at the Naval Hospital in Palermo,
Sicily. One of his final duties there
was to help identify 24 civilians who
diell in a plane crash near Palermo.
The cemetery is located behind the
mountain where Gen. George Patton’s
famous battle took place. When VE
See MEMORIAL, Page 3A
INSIDE:
Economy hurting small
churches Page 7A
Coroner investigates
fatal wreck Page 2A
City council gets
CONNECTed Page 6A
Alliance
Bank& Trust
Building Communities
Sumulys hopefuls
City wants piece of the pie
By ELIZABETH STEWART
staff writer wo
As the US Senate debates this week the
$819 billion Economic Recovery and Rein-
vestment (Stimulus) Package, the most ex-
pensive pieces of legislation to move
through Congress, city of Kings Mountain
leaders are working hard to get a piece of
the pie.
“ Mayor Rick Murphrey said the city is
forwarding letters and project information
to the North Carolina Department of Pub-
lic Water Supply which, in turn, would send
the requests on to the Federal Government.
Kings Mountain's three big projects would
cost big bucks: $19 million for a new water
line from Moss Lake to town; $7 million to
repair the spillway at Moss Lake; and $25
million, at today's prices, for a proposed
new lake - a total of $51 million.
Said the mayor, "If that bill should pass
and we could get some help with funding .
grants the city could put people to work."
The Stimulus Plan is breathtaking in size
and scope. that President Obama hopes to
make the cornerstone of his efforts to re-
suscitate the staggering economy. Obama
engaged in an all-out lobbying push for the
bill and marked a big victory for his presi-
. dency a little more than a week into his
term. He turned his attention to the Senate
Breaking n new ground
Monday, where Democrats began debate
‘on the measure. The price tag is likely to
reach $900 billion.
Larger than the combined costs of the
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan so far, the two-
year stimulus plan would provide up to
$1,000 per year in tax relief for most fami-
lies, dramatically increase funding for alter-
native energy production and direct more
than $300 billion in aid to states to held re-
build schools, provide health care to the
poor and reconstruct highways and bridges.
The plan passed on a 244 to 188 vote in
the US House. Obama's personal salesman-
ship effort failed to secure a single Repub-:
lican supporter for the spending plan.
Man returns
home to find
house robbed,
girlfriend dead
“Suspected homicide |
La AL ee Se TAN VR Sb SN ah
phioto by Lib Stewart
Robbie Reynolds, chairman of the board of Cleveland County Hospice, Kings Mountain
Mayor Rick Murphrey, Myra McGinnis, Executive Director of Cleveland County Hospice,
Jay Rhodes, chairman of the capital fund campaign, and Joseph Tysinger, chairman of the
Strategic Planning Committee, break ground for the new Kings Mountain Hospice on
Kings Mountain Boulevard.
Building a future
KM Hospice breaks ground
for new site off Phifer Road
By ELIZABETH STEWART
staff writer
Becky Cook's plea for a Kings Mountain Home
for Hospice swayed the panel that officials of Cleve-
land County Hospice appeared before in the appli-
cation process three or four years ago that led to
Friday's noon groundbreaking .ceremonies for a
Hospice of Kings Mountain.
Myra McGinnis, Kings Mountain native and
daughter of Margaret McGinnis and the late Dick
McGinnis, prefaced these remarks about Hospice as
she and other leaders shoveled the first dirt to offi-
cially start the construction process which will take
about a year.
Cook's daughter, the late Terri Cook, had been
on the waiting list at Wendover, the 14-bed Kath-
leen Dover Hamrick Hospice House located in
Shelby.
The new 8-bed facility will be located on five
acres of land on Kings Mountain Boulevard, the
beautiful five acre site which belonged to the
Cameron Ware family Jay Rhodes of Kings Moun-
tain, chairman of the capital campaign fund drive to
build the new Hospice, fell in love with the site
with its picturesque view of the mduntains and
started the ball rolling to purchase it. Holland &
Hamrick are architects for the new construction and
contractor is Lawson Construction Co.
"Teamwork is what has brought us to this point,’
said McGinnis, who signaled out volunteers, board
members, capital campaign committee members,
Kings Mountain city officials and city staff and the
small number of people who started the ball rolling
for the first Hospice House in Shelby in the 1980s.
See HOSPICE, Page 3A
———
Back to work,
State legislature looks at ways to balance
budget, discusses priorities for session
By EMILY WEAVER
Editor
Lawmakers headed back to Raliegh last Wednes-
day for the first of a long and sure-to-be tough leg-
islative session. The economy and jobs are number
one priorities for local representatives.
After the swearing-in ceremonies and welcome
back festivities, many smiling faces melted into a
somber countenance as eyes focused on the budget.
Balancing the state's checkbook will be one of the
209
Visit us today at
S. Battleground Avenue
Kings Mountain
704.739.5411 www.alliancebankandtrust.com
legislature's first and most important chores to
tackle this session. And it won't be easy.
The Office of State Budget and Management an-
ticipates a $2 billion shortfall in this year's budget,
which, according to state law must be balanced be-
fore it expires June 30.
Gov. Bev Perdue has asked state agencies to cut
7 percent of their budgets to bridge the gap. Further
executive orders require state agencies to "stop the
purchase of all goods or services, unless specifically
See LEGISLATURE, Page 3A
By EMILY WEAVER
Editor
Robert Deshawn Odums
returned home Friday night
to find his house burglar-
ized and his girlfriend dead,
according to information re-
leased by the Cleveland
County Sheriff's Depart-
ment.
Emergency communica-
tions received a 911 call at
11:40 p.m. Friday, Jan. 30,
from Odums who said he
See MURDER, Page 6A
Fugitive caught
arrested in
traffic stop
By EMILY WEAVER
Editor
A seemingly routine traf-
fic stop on Jan. 25, led to
the arrest of a run-away
fugitive, according to Kings
Mountain police reports.
Doris Ann Worley, 36, of
611 Floyd Street, was
pulled over for a traffic of-
fense on Sunday. When the
officer asked for her identi-
fication she reportedly gave
See FUGITIVE, Page 3A
Unemployment
rate reaches
12 percent
By EMILY WEAVER
Editor
Cleveland County's
unemployment rate rests
at 12 percent - the high-
est in the piedmont re-
gion and: the eighth
highest among counties
in North Carolina, ac-
cording to recent figures
released by the state Em-
ployment Security Com-
mission.
The rate increased
from 10.6 percent in No-
vember and has more
See RATES, Page 3A
H
MEMBER FDIC
The Faces of Hometown Banking
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