Kings
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Meet the new ‘Y guy’ prove too much for
KM author writes
WWII love story
H Star shines on KM
ALEX BENNETT
Actor comes
home from
Hong Kong
By ELIZABETH STEWART
Staff writer
Kings Mountain's Alex Bennett traveled across the world
recently to Hong Kong, China, to act in a world-premier sus-
pense thriller and he said last week "I'd go back in a minute."
Bennett, 24, returned to Los Angeles, CA last week after
spending the holidays with his parents, Rick and Ann Ben-
nett.
The play, “Hipicking the Northern Star," was a sell-out for
six weeks in China. Alex is keeping his fingers crossed that,
because of its reception after seven performances, the cast
may be recalled for repeat shows in June.
Bennett, one of four actors flown from LA for parts in the
drama, had the feature role of Cpl. Randall. In the play Ben-
nett is a US Marine on R&R from Vietnam in 1968. He falls
for a girl he didn't know was one of the hijackers, the snipers
start shooting and Bennett (as Randall) takes the ‘bullet for
the girlfriend. Interestingly, sub-titles were featured on stage
to accommodate English, Cantonese and Mandarin speaking
theatre-goers. The "hijackers" spoke both Cantonese and
English.
"I didn't know what to expect but I loved Hong Kong, it's
a- beautiful country and sub-tropical temperatures year
round,”
said Bennett. He ‘describes Hong Kong as "very
See ACTOR, 8A
Families evacuated
in Tracy St. gas leak
Although pipe not burst by
excavation, public reminded
to 'call before you dig'
By EMILY WEAVER
Editor
Two families were evac-
uated from: residences on
Tracy Street Saturday after-
noon after natural gas started
seeping from an under-
ground pipe.
The smell of a strange
odor was reported to the city
by a resident around 1 p.m.
The Kings Mountain fire and
gas departments responded
to the scene and discovered
a pipe, about four feet under
the ground, had ruptured.
Fire Chief Frank Burns
said that two families, who
reside adjacent to the leak,
were evacuated until the pipe
could be repaired.
Mike Nicholson, director
of the city's gas department,
said that they had the ‘leak
under control and the pipe
repaired about an hour and a
half after they responded.
“© He said it was a "typical
leak", but it might not have
A
$
been an easy fix. "We had to
dig up the street," he said.
There are about 125 miles
of gas mains and nearly
twice that many of service
lines, including water and
electric; coursing underneath
the city's soil, according to
Nicholson.
"Some of those pipelines
have been in the ground for
years and years," Burns said,
adding that sometimes, with
age, the pipes develop weak
spots and can rupture like
this one.
But some of those weak
See LEAK, 3A
Fast Mountaineers
Ashbrook
SPORTS 1B
ceremony
Monday at
MLK
Volume 122 « Issue 2 Wednesday, Janta 13,2010
Harris Funeral Home
Locally Ouned
& Operated Since 1947
A Family Tradition of Dignity,
Service & Understanding
108 S. Piedmont Ave.
Kings Mountain, NC
739-2591
Downtown businesses get
$250K grant for growth
By EMILY WEAVER
Editor
The city and Mountaineer Partner-
ship found out last week that they have
received a $250,000 grant from the
state’s Small Business and Entrepre-
neurial Assistance Program.
The quarter-of-a-million dollar grant
will help three small businesses expand -
their operations in downtown Kings
Mountain.
Although the city has yet to receive
the formal letter stating the official total
of the grant, the mayor and Moun-
taineer Partnership Executive Director
Adam Hines are confident that they
have been awarded the full amount they
applied for last July.
Hines said that a total of $1 million
was offered to communities across the
state through the North Carolina De-
partment of Commerce for the expan-
sion of business and creation of jobs.
For us to be awarded a quarter of that
is a big deal, he added.
"We are very pleased," said Mayor
Rick Murphrey, who said the grant
money would bring additional jobs and
plans for expansion by downtown busi--
nesses.
Mountaineer Partnership, working
with the city, asked for the full amount
of the grant ($250,000) for Majors
Wellness Center, AFAB Promotions
and Hometown Hardware and Garden
Center. They sought $175,000 for Ma-
jors Wellness Center .to reconfigure
— ET Era
Ruff.
Above, a shot of Crowder’s Mountain from Lake Monto-
nia. At right, a view of the mountain captured by Abraham
Prescribed burn
on Crowder’s Mtn
Where there's smoke, there's fire. That's
usually true. The smoke that exhaled from
Crowder's Mountain last week was due toa
prescribed burn.
Park officials set fire ‘to: parts of the
- mountain's upper crest and lower climbs to
burn off dead foliage and spark new life.
Prescribed burns are carefully monitored
and controlled.
The flames control dry brush accumula-
tion, which can fuel wildfires. Some plants
grow back stronger and replenish the park
with more life. Smoke from last week's pre-
scribed burn on Crowder's Mountain was
seen for miles. ;
their existing space. at Majors Chiro-
practic, on King Street, to create room
for a wellness center, adding seven new
jobs.
In their application, they also sought
$50,000 for Greg Johnson’s advertising
business, AFAB Promotions, for the
purchase of an embroidery machine and
two full-time jobs to expand operations.
They asked for $25,000 for Howard El-
more’s Hometown Hardware, at the
corner of King Street and Railroad Av-
enue, for the construction of an outdoor
canopy area to allow space for outdoor
seasonal products and plants and the
creation of one new full-time job. Plans
for expansion of the hardware store are
designed to promote the ambiance of a
See GRANT, 3A
HOMEGROWN
Proffitt Farms join organic
market with grass-fed beef
By EMILY WEAVER
Editor
The Proffitt family has
found something more im-
portant than profit. It’s qual-
ity that counts. /
On their farm, at 150
Home Place, the family is
raising and selling grass-fed
beef. Their cattle, over 100
head spread out on three
plots of land, graze freely on
grass the Proffitt family says
is untainted by chemicals
and pesticides.
No corn or grain i$ mass-
produced for these herds. No
“feedlot” awaits them in the
fe
EMILY WEAVER/HERALD
Shelley Eagan, left, greets the cattle with her father Steve Proffitt.
future. They are not confined
in barely-moveable cells and
they will not be injected with
hormones or antibiotics.
Ammonia, to protect from E-
coli, will not touch them.
One day, these cows will
all face slaughter, but not as
209 S.
soon as their genetically-en-
hanced cousins. The slogan
here is not “faster, fatter, big-
ger, cheaper” in order to sa-
tiate the ever-hungry
consumer. It's all about get-
ting back to the basics.
The Proffitts strive to be
Lappy Customers
are Our [8
good stewards of the land
while producing a healthy,
safe product for the con-
sumer.
Even better, this grass-
fed, hormone-free, antibi-
otic-free, ammonia-free beef
can be purchased locally on
Business] A 11s
Battleground Ave., Kings Mountain ® 704.739.5411
www.alliancebankandtrust.com e MEMBER FDIC
a farm not veiled from the
public.
The Proffitt family, who
held its first Family Farm
Day on November 26, at its
headquarters ranch in Kings
Mountain, welcomed the
See FARM, 4A
ANCE |
Banka Trust
Building Communities