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Volume 122 e Issue 35 » Wednesday, Sepwemper 1, 2010
4 A NSURANCE
704.739.3611
106 East Mountain Street
Kings Mountain, NC
www. KMinsure.com
FAL a NT
Cs WL op
In the money
Rural Center
to cut city a
second check
City submits revised
application, gets $204K
for downtown steakhouse
By EMILY WEAVER
Editor
The city has been awarded a total
of $204,000 in grants for the Old
Stone Steakhouse to be located on the
corner of Gold St. and Railroad Ave.
in the old Plonk Brothers Department
Store.
City officials received word on
Aug. 26 that the North Carolina Rural
Economic Development Center will
be cutting them another check for
granted $96,000 in funds to a few
months ago.
City Planning Director Steve Kil-
MORE MONEY, 5A
(ity seeks grant
for yet another
restaurant
By EMILY WEAVER
Editor
City Council Tuesday night au-
thorized the mayor to submit a Build-
ing Reuse and Restoration grant
application for another possible future
restaurant downtown.
The city, on behalf of the future
developer, is seeking approximately
$200,000 for renovations to the old
- Grapevine building for a project that
would create the potential of 25 per-
manent full-time jobs, according to
city Planning Director Steve Killian.
Although the name of the pro-
posed restaurant has yet to be re-
leased, the developer is listed ‘as
Kathleen Hover, president of Kath-
leert Custom Homes, Inc., and owner
of the Center Street Tavern and
Restaurant in Cramerton, according to
city records.
NEW, 5A
Trails awarded
$5K bike grant
Next phase of trail
to begin soon,
By EMILY WEAVER
Editor
The Kings Mountain Gateway
Trails is set to receive a $5,000 Bikes
Belong grant for the next phase of
construction to the paths that will one
day lead trailblazers from the City of
Kings Mountain to state parks and
scenic attractions in both of the Car-
olinas.
President of Gateway Trails Inc.,
Shirley Brutko, received word from
Bikes Belong on Aug. 23, that the
non-profit group, which opened the
first two portions of the trails last No-
vember, has been awarded the grant
to help with the third phase of nearly
three miles.
Trail volunteers have already
begun marking and clearing brush for
TRAILS, 5A
Lappy Customs
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Denis Boulais, right.
By EMILY WEAVER
Editor
¢ Solaris Industries, an rn inverratonal
manufacturer of steel tubing, head-
quartered in a French-Canadian town
north of Montreal, offered an official
"bonjour" to Kings Mountain and
Cleveland County as it opened its
i Solaris Industries, at 133 Industrial
. Drive, is planning to hire 40-50 peo-
i ple in the next 18-24 months.
President and CEO of the ‘com-
pany, Denis Boulais, said that they
started hiring a few months ago and
already have about a dozen employ-
{ees onsite. He said that they will con-
! tinue to take applications to fill a
variety of positions from general
"labor to specialized work, like a mill
operator and welders.
‘were finalized in late F Shr they
:
:
i
Es
—
doors Tuesday for a special tour of its
| first home in the United States.
Boulais said that after their plans
EMILY WEAVER/HERALD
Mayor Rick Warbler presents’a key to the city to president and CEQ of Solaris ;
International steel
$108,000 for the project they first
‘manufacturer opens
1st US home in KM
‘Project Bonjour’ officials say
‘bonjour’ with { tour of new facility
began moving into their new KM fa- {
cility ‘and started up their first line of |
production in late July. Some of the !
equipment they used was found in the |
100,000 sg. ft. plant, formerly home |
to Tube Enterprises and Common-
wealth/Aluminum, when they moved
in. The large, specialized machinery |
used to manufacture steel tubing, was |
retrofitted to meet their needs, in what ©
Boulais calls a "state-of-the-art" mill. |
Solaris Industries, a wholly-owned
division of Delhi-Solac, Inc., has two
plants in Canada. The company's head- |
office is in a town north of Montreal. |
The other location is just south of |
Toronto, in what Boulais said is con- |
sidered the "steel belt of Ontario".
"We started selling increasingly,
more to U.S. customers and saw an :
opportunity to sell further south, but |
steel doesn't travel well," Boulais |
said, adding that steel is a heavy ma-
SOLARIS, 4A |
Hobby shop i in | straits
By EMILY WEAVER
Editor
A local hobby shop may be forced to
close its doors this week after 33 years
of business in Cleveland County.
A letter from the Gaston County De-
partment of Building Inspections sent to
Rev. James Robinson, owner of Chuga-
Chuga Choo-Choo Hobbies at 1640
County Line Road, stated that the elec-
tricity to the shop may be cut off as early
as today (Sept. 1).
The department stated that since it
has not issued a Certificate of Occu-
~ pancy for the shop, “nor given approval
for electric power, the utility providing
power to the premises will be directed
to remove any electric service meters
and to discontinue electric service to the
premises at 1640 County Line Road as
of September 1, 2010”.
It came as yet another heavy blow to
the Robinsons, who reside in Kings
Mountain, and operate the shop located
on their land that, although bears a KM
address, lies’ within ‘Gaston County
lines. ;
Saddled with hundreds of thousands
of dollars in medical debt after a bizarre
condition nearly took the life of his
wife, whose survival was coined a “mir-
acle” by physicians, and a few other
needed operations for Rev. Robinson,
himself, the couple has had to file for
bankruptcy, leaning on sales from the
hobby shop to survive.
“Without our shop 1 don’t know what
we're going to do,” Rev. Robinson said.
The Robinsons started the Chuga-
Chuga Choo-Choo Hobbies store in
Shelby, in 1978. For 30 years they op-
erated the shop selling a variety of hob-
byists’ desires — model kits for trains,
automobiles, planes, science, trucks and
electric cars — in Cleveland Mall and,
for a period, in a shop outside the mall.
Robinson, who also works on life-size
automobiles and was selling a few cars
on his property, decided to expand his
business by adding storage buildings to
the lot.
He filed for his permits. His lot was
rezoned to General Business. Every-
thing seemed fine, until a couple of
years later. He had decided to use the
extra trailers, first intended to be storage
units, as a new location for the hobby
shop.
Rev. Robinson purchased two former
HOBBIES, 4A
A code of
their own
with new language in student
Code of Conduct ‘expectation’
By EMILY WEAVER
Editor
Gang signs have made °
their way into the Cleveland
County School's Student
Code of Conduct book. The
school board recently ap-
proved an amended draft that
| added new language to the
code, outlawing gang-related
"tags" and apparel.
"Expectation 21" in the
code, which discourages stu-
dents from participating in,
leading or coaxing others to
participate in a gang, gang
| activity or gang behavior,
¥
now includes a broader defi-
nition of "gang activity" and
"behavior".
Kids. caught promoting
gangs, either. by dress,
speech, vandalism, intimida-
tion or solicitation, could
face up to five days of out of
school suspension for their
first offense. Students could
be kicked out for up to 10
days for a second offense
and even longer for a third.
The amended code also
Read the entire
amended code on
Gang Activity on
page 5A.
requires principals to be vig-
ilant of gang lingo, symbols
and behaviors. They are to
notify students that those af-
filiations are prohibited.
Cleveland County
Schools Director of Public
CODES, 5A
AI Pinges
END
BEAR A
photo by ELLIS NOELL
Kings Mountain's First Lady Sandra Murphrey, left, and
KMPD Sgt. Lisa Proctor lead the upcoming Twin Pinks En-
‘duro, a big race for breast cancer research. They are pictured
at Kings Mountain Gateway Trail where the cancer benefit will
be held Sept. 18.
In the running
Breast cancer survivors team
up to have race for a cure
‘ 5
By ELIZABETH STEWART
Staff writer :
Two Kings Mountain
women - Sandra Murphrey
and Lisa Proctor - share a
common challenge, a fight
against breast cancer.
Murphrey, wife of Kings
Mountain Mayor Rick Mur-
phrey, and Proctor, wife of
Kings Mountain Police
Chief Melvin Proctor, are
[S.
are Dur Business!
209 S. Battleground Ave., Kings Mountain ® 704.739.5411
www.alliancebankandtrust.com MEMBER FDIC
breast cancer survivors who
credit survival to "the grace
of God, their strong faith, the
heavy support of their hus-
bands and medical research."
Six months ago the two
women approached the city's
events coordinator, Ellis
Noell, about a plan to raise
breast cancer awareness by
sponsoring a benefit for the
SURVIVORS, 4A
lance
Banke Trust
Building Communities