EMILY WEAVER/HERALD
Margaret Leach gazes at a photo in the "What is Your Vision’
of the American Dream?" photo contest on display at city hall
Monday night. The photograph she looks at won first place
in the adult division.
City pauses for the
‘American Dream’
ELIZABETH STEWART
lib.kmherald@gmail.com
Kings Mountain citizens
paused Monday at an 8 a.m.
breakfast at Bynum Chapel
AME Zion Church and 4a 6
p.m. unveiling of 16 photo-
graphs on the "American
Dream" at Kings Mountain
City Hall to remember slain
Civil Rights leader Dr. Mar-
tin Luther King Jr.
King, born in Atlanta, Ga.
at the height of racial segre-
gation, dedicated his life to
bringing social injustices to
light in a powerful and non-
violent way.
The exhibit of photo-
graphs on display in the
lobby at Kings Mountain
See DREAM, 3A
CCS employees
resign under fire
: ELIZABETH STEWART
lib.kmherald@gmail.com
47
wa a
RAR TRH RE
0
o 0B 3
KINGS MOUNT
| Walkupy steps 1
PIED
through
KM in march to Atlanta
EMILY WEAVER/HERALD
“Kidd” leads the way as the Walkupy group heads down King St. Friday. Carrying the flag is Bo Han.
EMILY WEAVER
Editor :
KINGS MOUNTAIN - Walkupy,
supporters of the Occupy movement,
occupied a corner of the parking lot of
the Crown Silver Express gas station
Friday morning, taking a brief rest
along a 700-mile trek from Washington,
D.C. to a "big rally" in Atlanta. They
hope to reach the Peach State capital by
the end of the month.
When The Herald caught up with
the movement around 11 a.m. it was
on foot, off to Hwy. 29, Grover, Blacks-
burg and beyond. Their mission? To
"spread the concept of horizontal lead-
ership" in non-violent civil disobedi-
ence protests, bolstering the Occupy
movement which started Sept. 17, 2011
in Manhattan's Financial District. The
protest movement has spread to more
than 100 cities across the country and
in many others across the world.
"The movement is inspired by pop-
ular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, and
aims to fight back against the richest 1
percent of people that are writing the
rules of an unfair global economy that
Two veteran county school employees - Shelby Division
Maintenance Director Tony Wray and Maintenance Me-
chanic Billy Hurdt - resigned under fire last Tuesday in the
wake of alleged misuse of local taxpayer school funds re-
ported in a state audit in December.
Buddy Ramey is currently overseeing the school's Shelby
maintenance division. {
No other employees have resigned or been terminated. A
SBI investigation into alleged misconduct continues.
After a two-hour personnel session following a work ses-
sion at old Central School in Kings Mountain Jan. 10, the
board of education took Supt. Dr. Bruce Boyles' recommen-
dation and accepted the two resignations, effective immedi-
ately. The action came after the second night of a two-day
workshop, the board's first public meetings following the re-
lease of a 17-page investigative report from the state auditor's
office. Discussion of the report wasn't on the work session
agenda and report of the findings was not discussed in open
session.
Donna Carpenter, public information officer for the
schools, said the administration continues to study the find-
ings of the state audit and in relation to the use of credit cards
used by school employees for purchasing at the school and
department levels.
Supt. Dr. Bruce Boyles and Board of Education Chairman ,
Dr. John C. Hamrick, responding Dec. 20, 2011 to a letter
from State Auditor Beth A. Wood, said the schools are taking
corrective action in its maintenance department (identified
in the report) and will "engage outside auditors to provide
feedback on past purchasing card transactions as well as
practices and procedures involving the purchasing process."
They also said that the system will provide additional
training this summer to school district administrators in
proper purchasing and inventory control and address areas
identified in the state audit report and those suggested by the
See SCHOOL, 7A
[HR EL TT in
money, heer heist
. Fast police work by Kings Mountain and Gastonia
City officers quickly nabbed the two suspects in the
robbery early Tuesday of One Stop, a convenience store
at 2120 Shelby Road.
Sgt. Lisa Proctor said that two white males walked
into One Stop, 2120 Shelby Road, Tuesday morning at
4:17 a.m., one suspect pulled a revolver handgun and
they left in a black compact car traveling toward Gas-
tonia with an unknown amount of currency from the
convenience store cash drawer and 3-4 beers.
See FAST, 2A
EE
Bank Trust ce
Builitig Communities %
nual Percentage Yield. Rate effective 9/15/11. Ral
15-marchers strong, four on bikes, 11
is foreclosing on our future," Bronying
to occupywallst.org
Like the Occupy Wall Street pote
ers, who were banned from Manhattan's
Zuccotti Park in November, the road
hasn't been easy for the Walkupiers.
The group of nine stepped off from
the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in
Washington, D.C. on Dec. 1, heading
south. They reached Charlotte Jan. 7th,
where two ofthe Walkupy protesters
were arrested outside of the Bank of
America building.
See WALKUPY, 6A
County welcomes state’s
second largest solar farm to KM
photo by ELLIS NOELL
Strata Solar CEO Markus Wilhelm chats with Mayor Rick Murphrey at Thursday's rib-
hon cutting welcoming the state's Second largest solar farm to Kings Mountain.
== EMILY WEAVER
] Editor
The wind whipping around at
speeds of 25 mph, with gusts of up
to 40 mph, rattled the walls of a tent
staked off of Dixon Dairy Rd. Thurs-
day for a ribbon cutting to welcome
the state's second largest solar farm
to Kings Mountain.
"We should have built a wind
farm," joked Markus Wilhelm, CEO
of Strata Solar.
The 21,000 solar panels planted
on the $20 million farm's 28 acres
produce enough energy to power
more than 600 homes, said Secretary
J. Keith Crisco of the North Carolina
Department of Commerce.
See WELCOME, 3A
As old as the hills, as solid as a rock
What makes the KM range so special? TIME.
w= EMILY WEAVER
i Editor
Part 2 of 2
- Native American folklore
explains the existence of
mountains as giants, who
daid down to sleep and slept
so long they were covered by
the earth. Geologists explain
347985257002 00""1
it a little differently. And the
Kings Mountain Range, al-
though as old as the giant
Appalachians, are not con-
sidered "mountains" by their
standards.
Park Ranger Kelly
Cooke, of Crowders Moun-
tain State Park, said that the
Kings Mountain Range are
"monadnocks" - erosion-re-
sistant rocks towering over
level ground. The peaks are
all that remains of a once
older and higher land sur-
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face.
Their existence all began
with what Cooke describes
a "continental car
a rather nasty one - that
happened hundreds of mil-
lions of years ago. A mighty
See RANGE, 7A
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