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Primary voters keep
LEADING IN VOTES
Kings Mountain incumbents Ronnie
Hawkins and Johnny Hutchins and political
newcomer Susan K. Allen of Shelby led the
field of four candidates for three seats open
in November on the Cleveland County Board
of Commissioners as voters went to the polls
in the May primary Tuesday.
At presstime, with all precincts reporting,
Hutchins and Hawkins were neck and neck.
Hutchins: had 6,216 votes followed: by
Hawkins with 6,166 and Allen with 4,907.
Jeff Gregory placed fourth with 2,969.
' The three top Republicans and Democrat
. = “Mary Accor of Kings Mountain, unopposed
“ in the Primary and also a veteran county
RONNIE HAWKINS
JOHNNY HUTCHINS
30.5%
31%
WARLICK mp HAMRICK
INSURANCE
704.739.3611
106 East Mountain Street
Kings Mountain, NC
www.KMinsure.com
|| Wecansaveyou money! ha
Lr erent
SPORTS, 1B
B Four to be inducted into KM Hall of Fame
Saturday; Look who's coming to dinner!
B KMHS Women’s track team sets school record
KM lead
SUSAN ALLEN
JEFF GREGORY
24.2%
14.7%
(With 24 of 26 county precincts reporting as of presstime.)
commissioner along with Hutchins “and
Hawkins, will be on the ballot Nov. 8 where
voters may vote for three. Hutchins is cur-
rently chairman of the board of commission-
‘ers and both Hawkins and Accor are former
chairmen. Hawkins is the current vice-chair-
man.
3 Movin’ on up, down the street
KYRA TURNER /HERALD
. KYRA A. TURNER
kyra.kmherald @gmail.com
After 20 and 30 years of
business on West Gold,
Factory are moving down
the street to Junction 309.
"It's time for a change,"
said Kelly Styers, owner of
the building we have now
- there is'no room to expand
and we have been having
trouble with the building
|. being so old."
The Sub Factory started
in 1982 by Don and Shirley
Adams. J
"They still come around
and see the place from time
people in here who remem-
ber when they owned it,"
Styers said.
Sub Factory will be moving to Junction 309 at the beginning
of June.
Ses BUSINESSES, 7A
The KM on your plastic bottle,
means it came from here
= ELIZABETH STEWART
lib.kmherald@gmail.com
“Southeastern: Container, Inc. of Kings
Mountain has a proven track record that has:
spelled success for this nearly seven year old
industry at 293 Industrial Drive.
Drive down Yotk Road (161) and almost
to the old Falls Superette, turn right on In-
dustrial Drive where multi-million dollar in-
vestments in expansive tall buildings
represent diversification of jobs for Kings
Mountain people. :
And the next time you buy a PET plastic
bottle of sparkling Coca-Cola or water look
for a tiny km on the bottle and you will see
that the bottle is manufactured in Kings
Mountain - 2.5 million plastic PET bottles
manufactured every 24 hours by a staff of 67
at the local plant - a whopping total of 750
million bottles in a year.
; Charles Roach, Manufacturing Plant
‘Manager, said that Southeastern Container
(SEC) was formed in 1982 and has been in
operation in Kings Mountain since February
2005 under the ownership of a group of
Coca-Cola Bottling Companies.
The company produces plastic PET bot-
_tles to meet the packaging needs of its cus-
tomers in the Coca-Cola bottling community.
‘See SOUTHEASTERN, 7A
Dance Reflections and Sub-
to time and we get a lot of
A constitutional amendment that would
ban gay marriage was driving the turnout at
Sub Factory since 2007. "In /
the polls here and all over the state and
passed in Cleveland County by a landslide.
A total of 17,799 county voters approved and
4,406 were against. Workers passed out cam-
paign materials and held signs in light rain at
ers on ballot
times in Kings Mountain and in the county
as voters cast ballots at 26 precincts) Several
people stationed at KM North (the YMCA)
and KM South (the Mauney Memorial Li-
brary) displayed placards that read "vote for
the marriage ‘amendment." As the Herald
went to press Amendment One was unde-
cided, although several pollsters had pre-
dicted it would pass in one of the most hotly
contested primaries in the state. North Car--
olina is the only state in the South without
such a Constitutional ban. :
Also of interest locally was the contest for
‘See KM, 7A
CROSSING SHUT DOWN
photos by KYRA TURNER.
A northbound Norfolk Southern train collided with a 18 wheeler stuck on the tracks at the Oak
Street crossing Friday morning ripping the truck in half and scattering cotton from a load of
cotton bales. The truck driver from Texas bailed out of the truck with seconds to spare.
City fathers temporarily close Oak Street
crossing after second wreck in 2 months
ELIZABETH STEWART
lib.kmherald@gmail.com \
Kings Mountain city offi-
cials have temporarily
blocked the Oak Street rail-
road crossing, across from
Farmers Furniture, after a
Norfolk Southern train col-
lided with an 18-wheeler
hauling cotton bales Friday
at 7:30 a.m.
"It's a safety issue, we
have to do something before
someone gets killed," says
Mayor Rick Murphrey. He
added that city council is ex-
pected at its May meeting to
set the date for a public hear-
ing at 6 p.m. June 26 to de-
termine if the crossing will
be shut down for good.
"We're working for a so-
lution, the city has looked for
sometime for different op-
Cotton spills onto the road after a Norfolk Southern freight
train collided with a stuck truck Friday.
-
Photo by ELLIS NOELL
Southeastern Container Manufacturing Plant Manager Charles Roach, left, explains the PET
plastic bottle making process to Kings Mountain Mayor Rick Murphrey. The local plant's 67
employees turn out 2.5 million bottles for Coca-Cola Bottling every 24 hours. It Opeeaies 1 two
12-hour shifts seven days a week.
tions," he said. The mayor
“acknowledged that Norfolk
Southern Railroad and the
North Carolina Department
of Transportation have rec-
ommended that the Oak
Street crossing be closed
permanently and if that ac-
tion to close is taken by city
council this will be the sec-
ond railroad crossing closed
in the downtown area. The
Hawthorne crossing was
closed in September 2004.
Will truck drivers then
drive up a block or two to the
Gold Street and W. Moun-
tain Street crossings?
The mayor said city offi-
cials are working with rail-
road officials and the N.C.
Department of Transporta-
tion to keep the Gold and
Mountain Street crossings
open for cars only.
Truckers, ignoring a truck
foute which runs from
Cansler toward King St., at-
tempt to cross Oak where
signs prohibit crossing, get
stuck on the tracks and in the
two most recent incidents the
drivers had narrow escapes
from their vehicles.
Friday afternoon city
crews placed large concrete
barriers at the Oak Street
crossing.
See CROSSING, 7A
SHIELDS UP -
Four collisions in 2
years at Oak St.
crossing spur
temporary closure...
for now. Page 7A
I Sn,
8 Nn 00
200
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