Thursday
night at Joy
2A
Comedian Mayor honors K-9
performs for service
4A
Child star makes it
to Sesame Street
5A
Grace Christian
students wear
hats for Haiti
Page 8B
Volime 122 ¢ Issue 4e Wednesday, January 27, 2010
'God saved me and I came out of that building unarmed’
Woman lives through Haiti
quake, finds comfort in KM Bonjour’
By ELIZABETH STEWART
staff writer
"God saved my life for a purpose,"
said Michelle Remy, 36, safe in Kings
Mountain two weeks after a 7.0 maghi-
tude earthquake devastated Haiti's cap-
ital, leaving staggering tumbers of dead
and massive destruction.
Remy, born of missionary parents in
Haiti, was working on the third floor of
the Port Au Prince Capital Bank, where
she is a vice president, on Jan. 12. It
was a normal day but without any
warning at 4:52 p.m. the building
started shaking violently. Her col-
leagues ran. Remy remained in her
chair and prayed.
"God saved me and I came out of
that building unharmed," said Remy.
But once she tried to get home she re-
alized the magnitude of the quake.
There were cadavers everywhere. Peo-
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Rodney Perry, Michelle Remy, Debbie Crocker and Bynum Chapel
AME Zion Church pastor Sylvia Y. Perry, left to right, are pictured
after a church service Sunday in which Remy was speaker.
ple were running frantically in the
streets. Many buildings were in ruins,
people were injured and dying. The
main roads were blocked.
"I was. so afraid," she said. The
house she shared with her parents,
Lewis Michael and Violet Remy, was
but we were all spa
"Mom and my cousin were upstairs and the quake shook
the house so hard that it knocked my cousin down.
And Dad was in the church downtown,
red."
- Michelle Remy, survivor of Haiti quake
still standing but damaged. "Mom and
my cousin were upstairs and the quake
shook the house so hard that it knocked
my cousin down. And Dad was in the
church downtown but we were. all
spared," she said. Her 75-year-old fa-
ther also walked home over cadavers
and debris. It was a miracle, said
Michelle.
Because it was no longer sdfe to stay.
in their home the Remys, like so many
of their friends and neighbors, lived in
the streets, They went back into their
house to get a few belongings but they
slept outside. Food and water were
scarce. The aftershocks were constant
reminders of the horror they: experi-
enced; The quake took thousands of
lives and lofts million homeless. The
dead included friefids and church mem-
bers.
Michelle left Haid on Jan. 15 for the
Dominican Republic; from there she
took a fight to Atlanta, GA, and then to
See HAITI, 7A
® FREAK ACCIDENT
Councilman Shipp recovering
from getting hit in parking lot
By ELIZABETH STEWART
Staff writer
"T thought I was going to die," said Rev. Howard Shipp,
75, still "very sore" after a freak accident Jan. 16 when he
became pinned between three vehicles in the parking lot of
Love's Fish Box on Shelby Road.
Miraculously, the Kings Mountain city councilman from
Ward I only suffered three broken ‘ribs; his right knee is
swollen twice its normal size, but is not broken.
"[ heard a revving sound of a motor, looked up and a car
was on top of me. I couldn't move," he said. Mr. Shipp was
walking into the restaurant to buy tea.
Betty Stewart Caldwell, 81, of Bessemer City, told inves-
tigating KMPD Ptl. H. W. Carpenter that the last thing she re-
membered before blacking out was that she had the car in
reverse to allow another driver to move from a parking space.
She depressed the accelerator pedal causing her 2002 Buick
to gain speed while traveling in reverse across the parking
lot off 1104 Shelby Road.
E EYES ON THE COMMUNITY
Group wants to plant
By EMILY WEAVER
Editor
sprouted the idea for a coun-
tywide growing initiative
that will supply not only
Kings Mountain Crisis Min-
One in eight Americans
worry about where their next
meal will come from. With a
nearly 15 percent county-
wide unemployment rate,.
that statistic has hit home.
It spurred the youth at St.
Matthew’s Lutheran Church
to have a non-perishable
food drive last Halloween
and the students at Grace
Christian Academy to collect
food and dry goods for
Christmas. ' Both events
helped stock the shelves at
the Kings Mountain Crisis
Ministry, who, in*turn, fed
hundreds in the community.
The need is still there
and, according to director of
the crisis ministry Becky
Lineberger, it “seems to be
growing.” Now, it has
istry, but also the Salvation
Army, the Greater Cleveland
County Baptist Association
and possibly other organiza-
tions with food to feed the
local hungry.
The plan is to plant pota-
toes, both sweet and Irish, in
the rich soil here. Once har-
vested, the potatoes, which
are considered easier to grow
0 0) Happy Gust
Police said that the Cald-
well car "traveled 36 feet and
struck the pedestrian who be-
came airborne and traveled
19 feet to where he hit the
ground." After striking the
pedestrian, the Caldwell car
traveled nine additional feet
and collided with a parked
1999 Chevrolet belonging to
David Richard Stevens of
Blacksburg, SC, pushing that
car into a parked 2006 Ford
owned by Douglas Rathbone,
of 403 Somerset Dr., and the
Rathbone car into a parked
HOWARD SHIPP
2002 Dodge owned by Howard Swofford, of 1422 Phifer
Road.
"The pedestrian (Shipp) was in a pinned position Between
See SHIPP, 3A
potatoes for hungry
and store than certain other
crops, will be given to local
ministries and redistributed
to the public in need.
Although planting and
harvesting may be months
away, there are still actions
that need to be taken now to
cultivate the success of this
project. The steering com-
mittee is seeking land, labor
and supplies.
One of the organizers of
the Cleveland County Potato
Project, Doug Sharp, said
209 S. Battleground Ave., Kings Mountain e 704.739.5411
www .alliancebankandtrust.com © MEMBER FDIC
that any landowner, church
or organization that wanted
to participate could offer an
acre or less and “we’ll pro-
vide whatever assistance
they need.”
“If an organization
wanted to do this on its own
and just coordinate with us
then that’s great, too,” he
added.
The committee is not ask-
ing for land ownership rights
or liability, only the fruits, or
See POTATOES, 5A
‘Project
By ELIZABETH STEWART
Staff writer
Project Bonjour! A name you may be hearing often if
plans jell for a new business looking at Kings Mountain.
. To jump start the project City Council took the first step
Tuesday night in trying to land more jobs by setting a public
hearing for Feb. 23 on application for an incentive grant for
$20,000. :
Other major business involved planning and development.
Council approved a rezoning request for Dee Properties
which will bring Patriot Jack's Outfitters, a new business, in
the old Herald building at King and Canterbury. The board
authorized Mayor Rick Murphrey to submit a Community
Development Block Grant program amendment for $107,000
(local match and block grant funds) to serve most of the res-
idents of Center Street'with sewer.
‘Council also authorized the mayor to submit a building
and reuse and restoration grant application on behalf of the
city for Steve Wallace, who wants to redo a building down-
town. The grant is essentially $25,000 for a feasibility plan
for both the renovation and the use of the building. A $4,000
* See BONJOUR, 3A
Sides VOWS not
to give up on
getting sweeps
off Main Street
By ELIZABETH STEWART
Staff writer
GROVER - Mayor Robert Sides vows he won't stop lob-
bying legislators to enact rules and regulations for towns hard
hit — like Grover — with video gaming, a hot topic all over
the state. Six sweepstakes operations flourish on Main Street.
Governor Beverly Purdue sent the Sides letter to Attor-
ney General Roy Cooper, who responded with 600 pages of
information, noting that South Carolina outlawed video gam-
ing in the same sentence it did away with poker machines but
North Carolina left loopholes in the law.
"I have seen some questionable things but nothing in-
dictable," he wrote. Other legislatots have ignored Sides.
County Planning Director Bill McCarter told county com-
missioners last week that one of the six sweepstakes opera-
tions on Main Street in Grover has-a valid conditional use
permit, which the county requires. One has appealed to Su-
perior Court, and four are in the filing process, a lengthy
process McCarter told the board, which almost always ends
See SWEEPS, 3A,
iN CASE OF EMERGENCY
City reminds public
what to do when
sirens sound
The city's warning sirens are tested every Saturday
at precisely noon. People have been known to set their
clocks by it.
* But'what happens when it isn't a test?
The sirens are used as a warning system for citizens
to take cover in the event of severe weather. The sounds
alert citizens that bad conditions are emident.
In the event of an emergency, sirens will be sounded
from the Kings Mountain Police Department on Pied-
mont Avenue, the no. 2 station firehouse on Shelby
Road and the community playground near the YMCA.
When the warning system is activated, citizens
should turn on their televisions ¢ or tune into a local radio
station to find out what is going on and to take action,
according to Mayor Rick Murphrey. If the power is out, .
a battery-powered radio or a weather radio can come
in handy.
. See SIRENS, 3A
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