A Miss KM Pageant First
B1 - Two winners crowned.
SPORTS
C1 - Late field goal lifts Shelby over KM 24-21.
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WARLICE HAMRICK
INSURANCE
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106 East Mountain Street
Kings Mountain, NC
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Rola 123 * Issue 40 » Wednesday, September 28, 201 1
17 honored, 1 life saved at 1st Image Awards
= EMILY WEAVER
Editor
Saturday night was an evening of great
moments for the Cleveland County chapter
of the NAACP (National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People). Seventeen
were honored and one life that temporarily:
hung in the balance... was saved.
For the innumerable lives that have been
touched by the service of this 102-year-old
national civic organization, it was a bit sym-
bolic. Hundreds of people of different colors
gathered at 5:30 p.m. at the Senior Center in
Shelby for CCNAACP's inaugural Image
Awards banquet. The Herald was there. At
about a quarter 'til 9 we accepted a great
honor - an Outstanding Media Award.
But first, about that life that was saved...
I returned from the restroom to find a
huddle around a man who was straining to
clear his throat. I heard a voice say, "don't
touch him, he's okay."
That wasn't how he sounded. I touched
the arm of a man next to me and asked, "Is he
okay? Does he need the Heimlich maneu-
ver?"
The man said, "no it's already been given.
He'll be okay."
And he was.
"I am really glad to be here tonight,"
Robert Miller said, "because there for a little
while I almost wasn't."
He said that a man named Emanuel Hunt
saved him when he was choking. An ap-
plause louder than the first one (when it hap-
pened) echoed through the room.
Miller presented the chapter's Outstand-
Candidates
speak out at
open meeting
= ELIZABETH STEWART
lib.kmherald@gmail.com
Eight candidates for city
council and and seven candi-
dates for school board
pledged to be "approachable
and available" to citizens at a
"Meet the Candidate Night"
at the Kings Mountain
Woman's Club Monday.
The group included all six
KM Forum at CCC
6A - KM city candi-
dates invited to par-
ticipate in Candidate
Forum Oct. 10.
ing Medical Award to a KM doctor who has
also saved lives.
Dr. Christian G. Anderson, board certified
in internal medicine, accepted the award in
honor of "children for the next generation".
He has been a doctor of internal medicine at
Kings Mountain Hospital since February
1996 and was recognized for initiating a
"kids challenge". Through Dr. Anderson's ef-
forts, Miller said, more than 70-80 kids were
helped.
Attorney for both the City of Kings
Mountain and Town of Grover, Mickey
Corry Jr. was honored with an Outstanding
Community Service Award, along ' with
restauranteur Michael Cheng and the late Dr.
Samuel Anderson Raper.
See IMAGE, 7A
—— Overmountain Men to headline Gateway Fest ——
Thomas Brantley holds his three-year-old
daughter Aviana Brantley at the Image
Awards banquet.
candidates running for the At-large seat on the Kings Moun-
tain City Council, incumbent Mayor Rick Murphrey, Mayor
pro tem Rodney Gordon, and school board candidates Danny
Lee Blanton, Sid Bryson, Melvin Lewis Clark, Yvette D.
Grant, Jerry D.Hoyle, Page D. Morgan and Connie Phifer
Savell. Pee Wee Hamrick, candidate for mayor, and incum-
bent councilmen Howard Shipp and Rick Moore, both un-
opposed for reelection, did not attend.
Although the candidates had only brief minutes to present
their remarks, they were relaxed and professional and ad-
hered to the time clock. Woman's Club President Betty Gam-
See CANDIDATES, 8A
City mulls over
fiber connection
ELIZABETH STEWART
lib.kmherald @gmail.com
Fiber optic linkage to
most city facilities is being
mulled by Kings Mountain
city officials.
"The idea is not far-
fetched," says Electric Supt.
Nick Hendricks who gave an
update Thursday to city
council at a work session at
the Public Works building.
The first phase of the
project would concentrate on
city facilities and the
SCADA system in the elec-
tric/gas departments. City
officials are looking at visit-
ing Bowling Green, Kent., a
city that has conducted a
similar project successfully.
City Manager Marilyn
Sellers said that the city had
discussions with RST Com-
munications but its portfolio
98525700200" 1
Alliance
Banks Trust
has changed. She said that
Fiber’ Planners, Inc. of
Asheville is assisting in fiber
route planning and Progres-
sive Engineering Inc. is
working the route plan for
the SCADA system.
Hendricks said that fiber"
linkage would provide an
economic boost to data cen-
ters, save on phone bills and
costs of security systems,
provide a Smart Meter and
Smart grid, and a city utility
customer, for instance, from
a meter inside his home
could use a password and
track all his usage in the
city's four utilities, water,
sewer, gas and electric. He
said another feature would
be expansion capability,
marketing enhanced technol-
ogy.
Sellers said the city
would evaluate the progress
after the first phase and
weigh financial costs. The
city has budgeted $75,000
for the first phase of the proj-
ect.
' Big plans are in the works by the City of Kings Moun-
tain, host of the annual "Gateway Festival," to be held Sat-
urday, October 8 from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. throughout the
downtown area. :
Mayor Rick Murphrey said this community event is a
celebration of Kings Mountain's designation in 2000 as
"The Gateway City” by the Department of Interior and
Overmountain Men band to headline concert at Gateway Festival.
the National Park Service. Kings Mountain is a gateway
to all three area parks - Crowder's Mountain State Park,
Kings Mountain State Park and Kings Mountain National
Military Park. The mayor said the welcome mat is out for
everyone to attend this year's festivities.
See GATEWAY FEST, 8A
City talks power in light of Duke merger
Kings Mountain City Council Tuesday night was ex-
pected to approve an amended and restated power purchase
and reps compliance service Tgeemeny with Duke Energy
Carolinas, LLC.
Mayor Rick Murphrey said that the "final product 4
been two years in the making and today it's all good news"
he presented Electric Supt. Nick Hendricks and City iy
ager Marilyn Sellers who gave a progress update to the seven
‘member city council Thursday morning at a work session at
the Public Works building.
In" response to question from Councilman Tommy
Hawkins, Hendricks said a merger between Duke and
Progress Energy would have zero effect on Kings Mountain's
relationship with Duke Energy. Hendricks said the city's con-
tract with Duke will be upheld for the next 10 years and the
merger will have no bearing on costs to the city. He said a
merger between the two companies would make Duke the
largest power company in the United States.
The social and economic costs of that merger has been
aired at public: hearings i in Raleigh. Earlier last week the
CEOs for both companies made their cases in favor of the
$26 billion deal, contending that the combined company
would be in a stronger financial position to build power
. plants while limiting rate increases for customers.
By its June-vote Kings Mountain city council supported
the Duke/Progress Energy merger. "We managed our risks,"
said Hendricks, explaining that in a settlement agreement no
costs can be passed on to Kings Mountain for 10 years. The
merger is still in motion to be approved Dec. 31 but there are
still hurdles. The N.C. Utilities Commission is required by
state law to weigh the merger's benefits versus its costs and
See POWER TALKS, 8A
Brush ly il
Piedmont Avenue resulted in a charge of
by police against Brian Cloninger, 38, of
a candidate for an at-large seat on city cou
Det. Captain Derek Johnson said Tony (
TH, wl...
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