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Volume 123 © Issue 45 o Wednesday, November 9, 2011 ° 75¢_
Murphrey re-elected, Miller wins at-large seat
Unofficial election returns Tuesday gave
incumbent Rick Murphrey a landslide vic-
tory for his 7th term as mayor over Gilbert
(Pee Wee) Hamrick (1,164-171) and gave
former Ward 5 commissioner Keith Miller a
66-point lead (388-327) over second runner
Curtis Pressley.
"It has been an honor and pleasiite to
serve the citizens of Kings Mountain and I
appreciate the citizens voting for me for an-
other four years," said the mayor. He added,
"I will continue to work with the city staff to
move Kings Mountain progressively forward
to insure that Kings Mountain continues to
prosper and improve the quality of life. I
have always enjoyed serving the citizens of
Kings Mountain and look forward to a great
four years."
With all 26 precincts reporting the top
five leaders in the school board race in unof-
ficial returns posted by the Board of Elec-
tions were: Richard Hooker, 3,433; Jerry
Mike
Brown
served with
criminal
summons
Land dispute heads to court
Hoyle, 3,416; Shearra Miller, 3,325; Jack
Hamrick, 3,002; and Roger Harris, 2,955.
The sixth place finisher Page Morgan gar-
nered 2,921 votes. Hooker, Miller and Ham-
rick are incumbents.
Still to be tabulated by the Cleveland
County Board of Elections on Nov. 15 are
the provisional ballots.
Miller topped five other candidates for the
At-Large seat on city council being vacated
by the retiring Houston Corn. It was a tight
race between Miller and Pressley. Both men
lost in previous elections but came back
strong.
Placing third in the six-man field was
Bobby Horne with 252 votes and fourth was
Butch Pearson with 238. Jerry Mullinax gar-
nered 200 votes and Brian Cloninger, 22, ac-
cording to unofficial returns.
Three other councilmen - Howard Shipp,
Ward I, Rodney Gordon, Ward 4, and Rick
See EARLY, 6A
ze ELIZABETH STEWART
libkmherald@gmail.com
A property dispute between developer
Mike Brown and Cleveland County over
trees cut by Brown is headed to court Nov.
18 at 8:30 a.m. in Cleveland County Dis-
trict Court, room 0002.
for injury to personal property, a misde-
meanor, by county deputies. Monday
morning on a warrant signed by Cleveland
County Planning Director Bill McCarter.
The warrant alleges that Brown cut a
row of 5-6 trees along the gravel Gateway
trail that crosses the back side of his prop-
erty and meanders through Chemetal
property all the way to I-85.
This week McCarter flagged a number
of small and big oak and pine trees with
green ribbons along the trail which he
maintains is county property. "Mike is the
landowner but he's limited on what he can
do and he can't disturb the easement," said
Brown was served a criminal summons |
McCarter. .
Brown said he cut the trees "on my
property" for a sediment pond (basin) that
he is mandated by the state to create to
control erosion and that the pond will
comprise 3/4 to an acre of land.
"The Gateway trail is in the wrong
place," says Brown, adding, "I have told
the county to move it."
McCarter said that Brown cut the tfees
inside the 50 foot easement that the county
signed in an exclusive conservation and
trail agreement with the Kings Mountain
Consortium for Progress Feb. 19, 2008.
McCarter says that Chemetal Foote
gave the county a 50-foot easement right-
of-way along its property Nov. 23, 2010
and Cleveland County started work on the
trail Feb. 24, 2011. Brown bought the
57.522 acres (the former Park Yarn/Glen
Raven Mills properties) from the KM
Consortium for Progress May 20, 2011.
"The Trail is not on the Chemetal
Foote property line, it's on my property
See LANDLOCKED, 5A
Winning candidates, Keith Miller, at-large, and Rick Murphrey, mayor, shake hands after
learning the unofficial election results.
photo by ELLIS NOELL
Hines to resign from MPI
post, president notes his
leadership will be missed
Adam Hines, Executive
Director of Mountaineer
Partnership, has resigned, ef-
fective Dec. 30, to begin
training Jan. 3, 2012 as Fi-
nancial Advisor with Ed-
ward Jones Investments.
In a letter to MPI Presi-
dent Suzanne Amos, he said
that his announcement is
with mixed emotions but
that as he looks back over
three short years it is "with
thanksgiving for the board
members, property and busi-
ness owners with whom we
have achieved = much
progress toward revitalizing
downtown Kings Moun-
tain."
Hines said that he will
spend the time between now
and Dec. 30 trying to help
Amos and the board of di-
rectors begin the search for a
new director; completing the
Cash for Christmas business
promotion, coordinating the
logo development for MPI,
and working with the execu-
‘
tive committee on preparing
for a smooth transition for
the new executive director.
"It is time for me to move
on and for a new executive
director with a different set
of skills to be sought out
who can advance the MPI
organization and the Kings
Mountain downtown to a
new level of success in their
revitalization effort," said
Hines in his letter copied to
the board of directors.
"The Mountdineer Part-
nership has had the privilege
of working with an incredi-
bly talented young man -
Adam Hines. With his lead-
ership we have accom-
plished more than most
Main Street programs of our
age," said Suzanne Amos,
president of the Mountaineer
Partnership.
"Adam's leadership, tal-
ent and energy will be
missed, but our organization
will continue to work with
the City of Kings Mountain
ADAM HINES
“With his leader-
ship we have ac-
complished more
than most Main
Street programs
of our age.”
Suzanne Amos
MPI President
to continue the progress that
we have made over the past
See HINES, 5A
Volunteers harvest 1,650 lbs of Sweel potas to feed hungry
= EMILY WEAVER
. : Editor
Something sweet was plucked from the
earth at Patriot's Park last Tuesday
evening. ..something very sweet that will
help feed hundreds of local residents battling
hunger.
Volunteers harvested 1,650 pounds of
sweet potatoes from the park's potato patch
to go to local outreach agencies as part of the
Cleveland County Potato Project. Thirty-six
boxes piled high with potatoes were trans-
ported to the Kings Mountain Crisis Ministry
Wednesday morning. Some of the others
were set to be taken to Cleveland Vocational
Industries to
cleaned
agencies,
g'Mogs525%0020
be
and distrib-
uted to local
like the Sal-
PTY
Banks Trust
vation Army.
Strictly a volunteer effort, the Cleveland
County Potato Project has raised 36,000
pounds of potatoes (Irish and sweet) this year
to help ease hunger. Citizens across the
county have volunteered their land, labor, ex-
perience and time to the cause.
The City of Kings Mountain was the first
municipality to volunteer land and labor to
the Project, now in its second year.
City Councilman and Mayor Pro-tem
Rodney Gordon heard about the project and
asked City Manager Marilynn Sellers if there
was something the city could do to help. The
city offered a plot of its land at Patriot's Park.
Howard Elmore, owner of Hometown Hard-
ware, helped supply the fertilizer. And sev-
eral city employees, at no cost to the city or
its taxpayers, gave their time and labor to the
sweet potato patch.
See HARVEST, 5A
KYRA TURNER/HERALD
Ken Knight, left, and Doug Sharp, one of the founders of the Cleveland County Potato Proj-
ect, clean freshly picked sweet potatoes at Patriots Park.
TR)
TE TR A TTT A
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