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wou OO WVEONESAay, August 17, 2011
CrossWalk may return
on ‘world’s largest stage’
Board
denies
Texas Longhorn Coach Rick Barnes takes
a minute to show Layla Harris how to do
the Hook’em Horns sign at a recent YMCA
basketball camp. Read more on 3B.
Six vie for
1 seat, 2
for mayor
sg ELIZABETH STEWART
& lib:kmherald@gmail.com
A sixth
candidate - -
businessman
Bobby Horne,
52, »filed for
the At-Large
seat ‘open; on
‘city © council
and’ Gilbert
(Pee Wee)
Hamrick, 70,
filed to chal-
lenge five-
term Mayor
Rick Mur-
phrey as filing
ended Friday
at noon for the
fall 2011 mu-
nicipal election.
The At-Large seat is a “winner
take all” in the non-partisan race
where no run-off will be held.
Home “free” with no opposition
are incumbent council members
Howadrd Shipp, Ward I; Rodney
Gordon, Ward IV; and Rick Moore,
Ward V.
PN
HAMRICK
See RACE, 7A
Police: toddler
shot in head
improving
Police say a toddler who was
critically injured after he was shot
at a home in the 1200 block of
Shelby Road Aug. 9 is improving.
“His family told me today that
he is doing good,” said Det. Doug
Shockley of the Kings Mountain
Police Department. Police are con-
tinuing the investigation into the in-
cident but have not released the
names of the parents. Shockley,
who stays in contact by phone with
the parents at the hospital, said no
one has been charged.
According to Shockley the two-
year-old boy apparently managed
to grab a gun and accidentally shot
bY
A crowd of spectators gather in the marketplace at CrossWalk.
EMILY WEAVER |
Editor
Hee
“CrossWalk”, a nationally-récognized outdoor pas-
sion play that came to a halt in Kings Mountain after a
nine-year run in 2009, may be coming back in a colos-
sal way! It’s return - if all goes as planned - will be leg-
endary.
The last few years of Crosswalk shows (averaging
eight a season) brought crowds of 300 - most from out
of town - to each performance (1,800-2,400 visits). It’s
economic impact brought an estimated $25,000-
"$35,000 a year to the city. But that seems ta be small
. change and small numbers compared to the plans
“CrossWalk” organizers have in store for the future.
Although the entire scope of the project has yet to
be unveiled, released updates say it will be in the
“world’s first permanent walk+through dramatic facil-
ity” incorporating the “world’s largest stage”. The out-
door Easter drama which led spectators through five
city blocks on the “Trail of Amazing Grace” is heading
indoors. :
“Actually, the dream of entering an indoor facility
came about our second or third year,” said Reg Alexan-
der, founder and director of Regal Ventures Creative
Ministries, the production company that created
“CrossWalk”. “Being on the downtown streets, we did
not have the opportunity of an extended scenery set-
up. It took a lot of coordination on the part of our vol-
unteers to be able to construct sets so quickly. And the
Spring weather not only played havoc with our pre-
sentations, but our set-up and take-down efforts were
greatly marred by wind and rain.”
He jovially recalled the year when the “Last Sup-
per” lasted over a month. Every time the volunteers in
‘charge of that set could get together to dismantle it,
their efforts were drenched by rains, he said.
Adverse weather also led to the occasional cancel-
ing and rescheduling of shows. An Ohio-based tour
. group came to see the show for the first time a few
hi
Contributed photo
years ago. They loved it, hailing it as a “highlight of
their trip”, Alexander said. But the uncertainty of the
weather doused sure-fire plans of a next year encore
Visit. ET
“This certainly reinforced the direction of our plan-
ning toward a fully enclosed venue. ..as well as the va-
lidity of this presentation being marketed as a tour
destination event,” Alexander added.
During the program’s nine-year run, “Cross Walk”
+ welcomed visitors from other states, such as Florida,
Georgia, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Ten-
nessee.
“At the beginning of each presentation we asked for
a show of hands from those who were from out of
town. Each time 70 to 80 percent of those present were
from out of town, and often up to 50 percent were from
out of state,” he said.
Although promotional publicity for “CrossWalk”
ended with the final shows in 2009, Alexander said that
each March and April he has still received phone calls
and emails from people interested in the show.
Unique tour destination
“Having this presentation on the streets of the city
was, a unique event to Kings Mountain,” he added.
“Nowhere else in America, as far as we could ever dis-
cern, had such a bold Easter presentation on public
streets, thanks to the cooperation of the city govern-
ment and downtown businesses. But even under the
best of circumstances, our audiences were still affected
by weather, trains, downtown sounds and other ele-
ments.” j
For weeks leading up to the shows, volunteers
would gather to build sets, sew costumes and trans-
form parts of downtown Kings Mountain into a 2,000-
yedt-old Jerusalem. :
Produced as a street play, the unique element of
CrossWalk is that the audience finds itself in the mid-
dle of the drama, empathetic participants in much of
See CROSSWALK, 7A
Brown’s
plan for
RY park
w= ELIZABETH STEWART
lib.kmherald@gmail.com
"This isn't a subdivision
I'm trying to build, it's a
campground," developer
Mike Brown told the city's
Planning and Zoning Board
last Tuesday after a second
lengthy public hearing on re-
zoning of a portion of his
property on Raven Drive.
By 7-1 the Kings Moun-
tain Planning Board denied
Brown's rezoning request to
put up a RV campground be-
cause of "deficiencies in the
design and enforceability of
the proposal."
The issue, now in the
hands of city council, will be
decided August 30 at 6 p.m.
at a public hearing con-
ducted by city council at the
council's. monthly meeting.
If city council takes the
P&Z board's recommenda-
tion to deny a conditional
use permit and rezoning
from Residential -10 to R-20
of a portion of the property
at the former Park Yarn Mill
site, Brown can't submit an-
other application for six
months.
"The planning board re-
ally took a hard look at the
proposal, advised Mr. Brown
at its July meeting of defi-
ciencies in his design and
listed 13 specific suggestions
for a revised site plan and
voted at its August meeting
on four findings of fact,"
said Planning Director Steve
Killian. :
Among the major ques-
tions asked by the board last
Tuesday was: would it en-
danger the public health and
safety?
"I am concerned about
sanitation," said John Houze
who said a primitive park
See P&Z BOARD, 5A
Final downtown design phase tackles ‘Grease
EDITOR’S NOTE: In this four-part
Trap Alley
himself. He said one parent and
two siblings were in the house at
the time. The family did not call
911 from the home. Instead, they
drove the boy straight to Kings
Mountain Hospital on West King
Street which is close to the home.
The child was then airlifted with
critical injuries to Levine Chil-
idren’s Hospital at Carolinas Med-
ical Center in Charlotte.
Shockley said the child was
moved out of ICU on Friday and
continues to show improvement.
i
8798525700200"
series, The Herald is looking at the tart s
Mountaineer Partnership's Design
Committee proposals to revamp the
pedestrian spaces and pocket parks
that line the backs of businesses from
"Gold Street to Wachovia. This week,
could an area referred to as “grease
trap alley” bein for a cleaning?
Part 4 of 4
Page 6A - MPI rolls out the
first three focus projects of
many to come for downtown
design improvements.
Citizens have nicknamed this
downtown corridor “grease trap alley’.
But it may soon don a new
name... after a bit of scrubbing.
At a recent Downtown Design
Summit, the Mountaineer Partner-
ship’s Design Committee unveiled im-
provement projects broken down into
three phases of back alleyways stretch-
ing from Gold St. to Wachovia: The
areas were codenamed the “North.
See IDEAS, 6A
EMILY WEAVER
Editor
In a back alley that stretches half-
a-city-block from Gold to Mountain
streets, the mouth-watering smells of
competing restaurants drift over the
clutter and crumbling sidewalks. Trash
and recycling cans and a deposit box
for grease line the pedestrian’s way. + South End improvement ideas ca
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