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INSIDE... i oh election office as filing opens
Backyard
Burger
Contest 3A
Lovelace
named Rotary
Citizen of
the Year 8A
Tate ranks at
Jr.rodeo 5B
Morehead
named
KMMS
Principal
The promotion of two
educators in the Cleveland
County Schools was an-
nounced by Supt. Dr. Bruce
Boyles at Monday night’s
board of education meeting
in Shelby.
Michael (Mickey) More-
head assumed his new posi-
tion Tuesday as the new
Principal of Kings Mountain
Middle School and former
KMMS Principal Dr. Brian
Hunnell was promoted to
Director of Administrative
Services for the school sys-
tem.
Morehead served as an
assistant principal at Kings
Mountain High School for
three years. Before that he
taught mathematics for 10
years at Burns Middle
School and coached football,
wrestling, and boys and girls
soccer. He also coached var-
sity girls’ soccer at Burns
High School for the six years
prior to becoming an assis-
tant principal. Before begin-
ning a teaching career he
spent 16 years in the textile
industry.
He holds a BA degree in
Business Administration
from UNCC, a teaching cer-
tification from UNCC and a
Master’s in education from
UNCC and administrative
certification from ASU. He
is married with three chil-
dren and is a member of
See SCHOOL BOARD, 3A
Best video
wins $50!
The Kings Mountain
Herald is offering a $50
prize for the video that best
captures the city’s 2013 July
4th fireworks display.
Entering the contest is
simple. Just upload your
video to YouTube by mid-
night Sunday, July 14, and
include the words “Herald
fireworks video contest” in
the description and include
your name and email ad-
dress.
Judges will be looking for
clarity, creativity and overall
video quality in determining
a winner, which will be an-
nounced in the July 17 edi-
tion of the newspaper.
8 ll 00200 TH
. Strand.
pg ELIZABETH STEWART
lib.kmherald@gmail.com
Fourteen candidates and their
families packed the Board of Elec-
tion’s office in Shelby Friday as fil-
ing opened at noon with candidates
submitting their paperwork and pay-
ing their filing fees for the 2013 fall
elections.
All three Kings Mountain City
Council incumbents — Dean Spears,
Mike Butler and Tommy Hawkins
and their wives — were among the
first to register to file and incumbent
school board member Kathy Falls of
Grover arrived a little later in the
day.
Falls. 47, is running on her record
for a second four year term on the
Cleveland County Board of Educa-
tion.
“We have had a good board and
we all work together and have tried
to make sound decisions,” said
Hawkins, adding “We are trying to
move Kings Mountain to the next
level with major improvements and
our priority is more jobs for our peo-
ple.”
All three council incumbents say
they want to see projects completed
that are on the drawing board, in-
cluding the completion of the new
water line from Moss Lake to town
and other major water/sewer im-
provements, and downtown redevel-
opment. ,
“Kings Mountain is the best city
all around — not only for no property
tax increase but with many improve-
ments today and in the future,” said
Butler who also said he thinks all
city employees need a cost of living
increase to which incumbents all
agreed.
Spears said completion of the
See CANDIDATES, 3A
Beach Blast... water, sand, music & fun
The water, the sand, the
sun, the music and the fun —
that’s life along the Grand
Beach Blast on Saturday,
July 20, downtown Patriots
Park, will bring the beach
experience to Kings Moun-
tain and events begin at 10
a.m.
Beach music fans can
shag into the summer night
with music at the Gazebo
featuring the Fantastic Shak-
ers, Free Flow and the Craig
Woolard Band.
The water features will
include the Rotary Splash
Pad and continuous rounds
of Water Wars.
This free event, spon-
sored by the City of Kings -
Mountain, opens with com-
petition in the Teenie-Wee-
nie Bikini contest, from
newborn to age six, a water-
melon eating contest, a
Woodie car show, a Euro
Bungie ride, Best backyard
burger contest, crank it up
See BEACH BLAST, 3A
July 4th sparkles despite wet weather
DAVE BLANTON
dave.kmherald@gmail.com
Thousands flocked to the city’s Fourth of July
celebration Thursday to hear live music, see a dra-
matic reenactment of the Battle of Kings Moun-
tain and take in a mesmerizing and regionally
famous fireworks show that capped the sometimes
rainy evening.
The area saw nearly seven inches of rain in the
days before the big event and Wednesday was
marked by scattered thunderstorms.
By about 8:15, as the crowd swelled in antici-
pation of a parade and the fireworks presentation,
a heavy downpour forced people to run for cover.
Although many were drenched by the sudden rain,
most appeared to trickle back in to the main area
— or at least stay put in their nearby cars — by 9
p.m.
“What surprised me was that everyone came
back,” said Scott Neisler, the pyrotechnician and
Kings Mountain native who’s behind the show
every year.
He said while getting ready for the show he re-
moved the tarp protecting the fireworks for a mo-
ment when a blast of rain pelted the area. He
moved fast to cover the hardware, which costs
around
$10,000.
“I was risk-
ing losing
everything,” he
said. “I had a lot
of good help out
there.”
Before the
bombastic and color-
ful show set to patri-
wowed by even
louder booms as
reepactors fired
cannons
muskets in a
large play that |
recreates the 8
October 7%
1780 battle
otic rock and country
songs, the crowd was
and 8 4
that was a turning point in the young country’s war
for independence.
The Battle of Kings Mountain was a decisive
ment.
4 vie for manager’s seat
Candidate hopefuls for the posi-
tion of Cleveland County Manager
have been narrowed to four and
commissioners met in closed session
Tuesday prior to the regular meeting
to interview the first candidate.
Since the hiring process began
some 30 resumes were received up
to the application cutoff date of June
30.
Commission Chairman Ronnie
Hawkins said the interviews will be
conducted through the month of
July.
Retired county manager David
Dear stepped in to fill the position
after the resignation of Eddie Bailes
April 30. Dear retired two years ago
and had been employed under the
economic development umbrella.
Bailes was promoted from assistant
manager to county manager two
years ago and before that was HR di-
rector for a number of years.
Commissioners heard a report
from Planning Director. Bill Mc-
Carter that Kings Mountain Gateway
Trail had been designated a National
Recreation Trail and received a res-
olution from its sister city in Cleve-
land County, Oklahoma, including a
report from Vice-Chairman Jason
Falls about his trip to Cleveland
County, Oklahoma recently.
Nine board appointments were
approved.
battle between the Patriot and Loyalist militias in
the Southern campaign of the American Revolu-
tionary War. The actual battle took place nine
miles south of present-day Kings Mountain in
rural York County, S.C., where the Patriot militia
defeated the Loyalist militia commanded by
British Major Patrick Ferguson of the 71st Regi-
See JULY 4th, 6A
Matt Vincett portrays Major Patrick
Ferguson of the British Army in a
reenactment of the 1780 Battle of
Kings Mountain. Vincett, a water
quality specialist with the North
Carolina Forest Service in Rich-
mond County, says he participates
in historical reenactments all over
western North Carolina.
See more July 4th photos - page 1B
Local Democrats attend
Moral Monday protest
By Betsy Wells
Special to The Herald
Cleveland and Gaston County
Democrats joined thousands de-
scending on the N. C. Legislature the
10th week of Moral Monday protests
in the state capital Monday.
Betsy Wells, longtime Demo-
cratic leader from Kings Mountain
and chairman of District 10, led a
delegation who boarded a 15-passen-
ger van and met with other vans car-
rying Gaston County Democrats in
Gastonia Monday morning to travel
to Raleigh for the 10th Moral Mon-
day demonstration to focus they said
on “the numbers” by calculating the
impact of the North Carolina Legis-
lature’s extreme policies.”
The rally began outside the Gen-
eral Assembly on Halifax Mall at 5
p.m. While some remained outside,
others walked inside the statehouse
and talked to their local legislators.
Wells noted in her correspon-
dence to District 10 Democrats that
“if you are planning to be among
See MORAL MONDAY, 6A
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