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Happy New Year! Kings kmherald.net | = vwaxvwial LIV Volume 123 « issue 52 Wednesday, December 28, 2011 ¢ 75¢ ~~ Harris Funeral Home @ F hg 139.2591 Locally Owned re Operated. Since 1947 A Family Tradition of Dignity; Service & Understanding. 108 8. Piedmont Ave. ¥ a : Kins Mountain, NC a z= ELIZABETH STEWART © libkmherald@gmail.com Cleveland County Schools: is taking cor- rective action in its maintenance department, including a recovery of missing equipment and money, Supt. Dr. Bruce Boyles and , Board of Education Chairman Dr. John C. Hamrick have informed State Auditor Beth A. Wood following a 17-page investigative report on an alleged misuse of funds. ~The investigation into the Maintenance department revealed that some county school employees used the school system's credit cards to spend thousands of local tax dollars on clothing and equipment for personal use - contributing to a State Bureau of Investiga- tion probe into alléged misconduct. The investigation into the maintenance department revealed employees used pro- curement (credit) purchasing cards to buy more than $2,500 of unauthorized purchases, including pickup truck tires, food for internal meetings, a digital camera, flowers to fami- lies of deceased employees and clothing. Some of the allegations of misuse of funds go back to 2007. The school system has recovered all of the money except $300, according to the audit and that money is to be returned by the employee, an administrative assistant, through a payment plan, Boyles said. Ac- cording to the state report, the administrative assistant, not named in the audit report, made the purchases with the authorization of her boss, Cleveland County Schools Mainte- nance Director Tony Wray. In his letter tothe state audit office, Boyles said that corrective action has been taken in the maintenance department, includ- ing recovering missing equipment identified in the state's investigation. Boyles said the system has received $3,774.67 in repayment for nearly all of the purchases and has a repayment plan with an ‘lected. employee in place to receive another $300, as a result of improper personal expendi- tures. Equipment has been returned, he said, that was purchased without proper authori- zation and items that were or may have been used for personal reasons have been returned tc, the school district (such as a bucket truck, tyactor, bed cover and tool boxes). Boyles said that departmental purchasing ‘cards will be discontinued beginning with the ; school year 2012-2013 and have already been discontinued in the maintenance depart- ment, where cards were revoked and col- See AUDIT, 3A City looking at major upgrades ELIZABETH STEWART lib.kmherald@gmail.com City bonds will be paid in full during budget year 2011- 2012 and with the city's A-1 credit rating it's the right time, says Mayor Rick Murphrey, to be proactive and look at ways to fund water system improvements that could bring a price tag of nearly $32 million. The projects could take about three years to finish. Joel Wood, consulting engineer, made the recommenda- tions and gave cdst figures for major water system upgrades to city council at a recent work session. The board favored Option 2 as presented by the engineer. The mayor and board members agreed that with low in- terest rates it's time to take a serious look at financing ad moving ahead on four major water system improvements projects. The Council reiterated it's not eyeing raising taxes to pay for the estimated costs. Timetable for the improvements to start is late 2013, the first big project is the 36-inch water line into town from Moss Lake with antestimated price tag of $15,877,000, The mayor said that two phases of that project have been completed. "We've been wanting to get this done for years and now is the time," said the mayor. See UPGRADES, 7A Light of the season gs KYRA TURNER/HERALD Hundreds came out to view the 6,000 luminaries at Mountain Rest Cemetery Christmas Eve. See more photos on Page 4B Oh, and Santa, if you don’t mind... Ton 10 stories of 2011 EMILY WEAVER Editor Around the world in 2011, people witnessed the death of a terrorist, the fall of a regime, the ousting of a dicta- tor, weather-spawned desolation in the form of flood, famine, earthquakes, torandoes and typhoons, a royal wed- ding and riots, nearly everywhere. But here in Kings Mountain we had our own struggles and our own victories. this year: the schools, county and city faced budget shortfalls; six men raced for one seat on city council; developer Mike Brown took on city hall and the county; Disney moved to Kings Mountain with its new data center; downtown has seen some changes; tremors were felt in KM; new lines were drawn for voting wards after a surge in population; thousands battling .hunger survived a change in food stamp issuance dates with the help of others; the city paused to remember 9/11: and, Chemetall Foote was one of the first in the state to buy the car that is powered by their lithium technol- ogy. Crunching aymbers At'the beginning of the year, with the state facing a predicted $3.7 billion gap between its financial reserves and obligations, Cleveland County Schools, county and municipal leaders nervously looked to state leaders wait- ing for the axe to fall. ! Schools cringed at the threat of an $8.5 million loss in funding from the state, $4 million in federal stimulus funds and a possible tight squeeze from local resources. Leaders braced for larger class sizes and a staggering loss of teachers, assistants and courses. County and city officials crossed their fingers in hopes that state leaders wouldn’t balance the budget against industry recruitment or in ways that would hutt job.growth. By April, though, the state’s pro- jected budget gap had shrunk to $2.4 billion. County leaders were battling the idea of giving up its surplus — a Winning candidates, Keith Miller, at-large, and Rick Murphrey, mayor, shake hands after learning the election results. savings account the Local Govern- ment Commission requires counties to have. But the axe feil on capital hill with- out too much bloodshed, or so it. seemed, The county’s tax rate of 72 cents per $100 property valuation re- mained without an increase. The city passed a $34.7 million budget that car- ried no increase to citizens in tax, util- ity or service rates and no increase in pay to employees via merit or cost of living allowances. A restricted highway fund in the state coerced the school system to pass on an enrollment fee ($38) for the first time to students wanting to take dri- ver’s education, but every teaching po- sition for the 2011-12 school year was funded. Painful cuts did seep into the school’s budget; however, which in- cluded a 46 percent cut in instructional supplies, 81 percent cut in textbooks, 5 percent (4 positions) cut in instruc- tional support, increased class sizes in grades 1-3 and no raises for employ- ees. Six men vie for one seat on council After former police chief and eight- photo by ELLIS NOELL year Kings Mountain Councilman Houston Corn announced that he would not be filing for reelection, the + race for his At-large seat quickly mor- phed into a six-man sprint to the finish line. Former councilmen Keith Miller and Jerry Mullinax raced off against civic advocate Butch Pearson, busi- nessman Bobby Horne, political new- comer Brian Cloninger, and city planning board member Curtis Press- ley. All but two (Pearson and Mulli- nax) of the candidates participated in “a publicized forum at Cleveland Com- munity College on Oct. 10. All six At-large candidates stepped to the mic at Bynum’s Chapel on Oct. 17 to reach voters at a Cleveland County NAACP forum. Although championing different issues from downtown development to fiscal con- servity, all seemed to agree that unem- ployment was the number one issue facing Kings Mountain. A run-in with the law after an al- leged littering incident in which 15 pounds of nails were thrown from a truck window into a parking lot seemed to tarnish the political image of Cloninger, running for improve- ments to the city’s recycling program. Miller, who served on the city’s See TOP 10, 7A KM Auctions raises loads of toys for Christmas Kings Mountain Auctions, with the help of a generous public and dealers, collected two truck loads full of new toys and treats for the Kings Mountain Police Department's Christmas toy drive. On Friday night, Santa, accom- panied by Mayor Rick Murphrey and KM Police Capt. Jerry Tessneer came to collect the toys. Volunteers helped load the back of a city truck with enough goodies to require two trips. Jason Falls, owner of Kings Mountain _ Auctions, said that they had raised more than $2,800 in the past few months for local charities and non- profits. EMILY WEAVER/HERALD Mayor Rick Murphrey tries to lift a rather heavy bag stuffed with toys for KMPD's Christmas toy drive. Photo by ELLIS NOELL Alissa Mull at St. Matthews Daycare shares her Christmas wishes with Santa on a recent visit from Santa's Firetruck LERE3S: Samay visited several daycares on Friday, Dec. 16. SUPER SAVINGS ACC OUNT!!! 1.25% $2,500.00 minimum to open APY® $2 500 minimum to eam advertised rate 2098 Battlegtoutil Ave. ISings Moutitnit, ® 704.7 35411 oe wun allistice batdstic. cota ® HEXBER FDIC wl Vaad Pavalip Vid. Bay Rts INTL Rls ithe dsp Oral Bra Boba Bn eal gS00 rd dnmnd Bb Fp Fhainaes Pulls bo 8 ido, rele ARR be wpe Ed abe i ; ; FY Vv w of Alliance BankzTrust Siang Cranmooiitny (is AT Sa An
The Kings Mountain Herald (Kings Mountain, N.C.)
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Dec. 28, 2011, edition 1
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