Kings Mountam
kmherald.net
Volume 125 ¢ Issue 49 ¢ Wednesday, December 4, 2013
mas
marshal.
pt be Kings Moun-
£ tain’s 2013 Christ-
Saturday at 3 p.m. is
expected to be “bigger
and better than ever.”
Headlining the event
will be Vietnam veterans
from the Greater Kings
Mountain area as the grand
All veterans who served
during the period 1961-75 are
Parade
town streets.
invited to join the parade lineup.
Jolly ole St. Nick will round up
the over 100-unit spectacle on down-
More units are expected to regis-
ter at City Hall before parade day and
Events Director Ellis Noell never
turns away participants.
“Over two years ago seven men
started the Vietnam Veterans support
group in Kings Mountain. This
unique cadre of veterans meets the
second Monday of each month for
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Santa Claus is coming to town! lingle Bell
breakfast and fellowship. There are
over 56 Vietnam veterans on the
roles that are active and supportive of
the Vietnam Veterans group. On Vet-
erans Day in 2012 a memorial at Pa-
triots Park was dedicated honoring
10 Kings Mountain men who were
killed in action in the rice patties and
jungles of Vietnam,* said Noell of
the selection of the grand marshals.”
Mayor Rick Murphrey said the
selection of the veterans as grand
See KM PARADE, 8A
Fantasy light show wows onlookers
The 400,000-light synchronized display put on by the city runs through Dec. 31
DAVE BLANTON
. dave.kmherald@gmail.com
If you cruise through the
downtown area at night dur-
ing the Christmas season
this year, you’ll see an odd
display of seemingly ran-
dom blinking red, green,
blue and white lights on
some of the buildings and
trees.
If you tune your radio to
101.5 FM you’ll hear an up-
beat mix of holiday tunes.
But putting the two activ-
ities together might stop you
in your tracks.
City officials flipped the
switch on the Downtown
Kings Mountain Christmas
Fantasy Light Show Mon-
day night to the awe of an
awaiting =~ crowd and
passersby who were witness
to the remarkable dance of
lights — set to the “Carol of
the Bells,” a yuletide mash-
up of “Dueling Banjos” and
Mozart and Trans-Siberian
Orchestra selections, among
many other songs.
The light show, which
runs through New Year’s
Eve, is a project that’s many
years in the making, with
roots in the Oak Grove com-
munity where Donnie Beard
first began drawing large
crowds to the dazzling light
show five years ago.
The city tapped Beard
this summer to pair up his
imagination and technical
EN SL
Christmas lights adorn building rooflines and trees along Railroad Ave. downtown. Visitors simply need to tune in to 101.5
FM (Let It Snow Radio) to hear and see the synchronized holiday light show.
expertise with the town re-
sources and move the show
to downtown.
A $10,000 grant from the
Kings Mountain Tourism
Development Authority has
made it possible for Beard
and city officials to boost the
total number of lights in
play to 400,000. They adorn
the rooflines of the buildings
along Railroad Ave. between
Gold and Mountain streets,
a row of trees on the street
and a Santa figure.
The lights for the Christ-
‘mas Fantasy Light Show
will shine on Sunday-Thurs-
day nights from 5:30
through 10:30 p.m. and on
Friday and Saturday nights
from 5:30 until midnight.
The light show will run all
night on Christmas Eve and
New Year’s Eve.
The official start of the
light show was hit by tech-
nical problems that were
sorted out in about 30 min-
utes after Beard and city
electricians worked to fix a
power supply problem.
By 8 and 9 p.m., the on-
going display was drawing a
small crowd of motorists
who parked on the opposite
side of the railroad tracks to
take in the show.
Wilbanks new Bethware principal
The Cleveland County
Board of Education unani-
mously approved Lori
Wilbanks as principal of
Bethware Elementary last
week.
Wilbanks began in the
pharmaceutical industry,
but found that she missed
her calling. She decided to
go into education as a later-
entry teacher in Tabor City,
N.C., where she taught sci-
ence for two years at South
Columbus High School.
On her journey to Cleve-
land County, Wilbanks
taught science at Piedmont
Middle in Union County.
Shortly thereafter, she ac-
cepted a position at Kings
een et eee eet eee eee.
TH
9852500200" 1
3
Lori Wilbanks is taking the
top job at Bethware after the
previous principal took a job
with Cleveland County
Schools’ central offices.
Mountain High where she
taught biology for six years.
She then left the classroom
to aid fellow teachers as the
district’s Science Coordina-
tor for four years. She has
served as an assistant prin-
cipal at Kings Mountain
Middle since 2011.
Wilbanks majored in Bi-
ology with a minor in
Chemistry at the University
of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill and earned a Master’s
degree in School Adminis-
tration from Gardner-Webb
University. She has two
children, Carter (5th grade)
and Eli (4th grade). Her
husband, Mike, is a history
teacher, football coach and
assistant athletic director at
Shelby High School.
“I am excited for the op-
portunity to serve as the
principal of Bethware Ele-
mentary,” said Mrs.
Wilbanks. “I’m so excited
to be in such a great place
surrounded by fabulous
people!”
She replaces Jennifer
Wampler, who was named
the Cleveland County
Schools Principal of the
Year in September.
Wampler has been named
the director of Human Re-
sources for Cleveland
County Schools. She re-
places Diana Bridges, who
retired earlier this year.
pn
PET 0 SO
Photo by DAVE BLANTON
Council has mixed
reactions to requests
= ELIZABETH STEWART
lib.kmherald@gmail.com
A routine agenda turned
into a vote on Urban chick-
ens, in which council may
have set a precedence in ap-
proving, voluntary annexa-
tion and rezoning last
Tuesday by a city council
with mixed reaction to a
couple of the requests.
Longtime councilman
Dean Spears also took the
occasion to thank employ-
ees, council and department
heads for “the best year of
my 20 years of service” and
singled out for special
thanks longtime friend En-
ergy Director Nick Hen-
dricks. He also praised the
mayor and council for sup-
port of the campaign for
funds for an addition to the
H. Lawrence Patrick Senior
Life & Conference Center.
“We hope to complete
the fundraising by February
and be in that addition by
Fall 2014,” said Spears, who
serves as advisory board
chairman for the facility.
Mayor Rick Murphrey
and several councilmen ex-
pressed appreciation to
Spears for his service but the
mayor said that more thanks
will come at the Dec. 10
meeting of council when the
2014 administration will be
sworn.
During the business por-
tion of the meeting Council,
by 4-3 vote, okayed an
amendment to the city’s
zoning ordinance to allow
inside-city residents to keep
up to three chickens.
By 6-1 council turned
down a request from TP’s
Resurrection Company to
authorize the city clerk to in-
vestigate a voluntary non-
contiguous annexation
petition. It was the third time
around for the Charlotte-
based company to appear
before the board. The board
had previously completed
the steps required in the
process and had voted
against the requested annex-
ation after a recent public
hearing.
By its vote Tuesday, City
council refused to authorize
the city clerk to again inves-
tigate a voluntary annexa-
tion request from Thomas A.
Patterson, owner of the
restaurant on .47-acre lo-
cally known as the former
Wendell’s BBQ, 1553 Bat-
tleground Ave., just outside
the city limits.
Councilman Keith Miller
made the motion to remove
the request from the consent
agenda for discussion. The
vote was taken and council-
man Howard Shipp cast the
lone “yes” vote.
TP’s Resurrection Co.,
7209 E. W. T. Harris Blvd.
#J, Charlotte, is listed as the
grantee of the property from
Kelly A. Bunch, PO Box
367, Kings Mountain.
The draft text amend-
ment, “Urban Chickens,”
See COUNCIL, 8A
Over 20 years
experience!
35
a
Rockin’
Run is
Saturday
DAVE BLANTON
_ dave.kmherald@gmail.com
Organizers and racers are
gearing up for the annual
Jingle Bell Rockin’ Run,
held this Saturday morning
and expected to draw around
700 people for the 5K °
walk/run, a 10K Run, and a
Kid’s Fun Run.
The races start at 9:30 at
the Patriot Park gazebo.
Runners and other partici-
pants can register at the
YMCA until 2 p.m. Friday
and at the former J. Oliver’s
coffee shop on the day of the
race from 7:30 to 9 a.m.
Registration can also be
completed online at racing-
toes.com through today.
Santa Claus will be mak-
ing an appearance at the be-
ginning of the festivities.
He’ll also lead the children
See RUN, 8A
Grover
parade
set for Saturday
GROVER - Santa Claus
is coming to town Saturday
at 11 am. in the 57-unit
Christmas parade that will
honor seven area World War
II veterans as grand mar-
shals.
Sidney Dixon, Ed Camp-
bell, Howard Swofford,
George Melton, Les Roark,
Bill Favell and Gene Put-
nam will be grand marshals
and will lead the parade and
also featuring the high step-
ping Kings Mountain High
School Band, pretty girls,
floats and much more.
Anna Grace Hughes,
chairman for the sponsoring
Grover Woman’s Club, said
the parade will line up in the
Spring Acres area of town,
-proceed down Main Street
and disband on Cleveland
Avenue.
The parade lineup:
Grover Police, Marine
Corps League, Marine truck,
the seven grand marshals,
military truck, Deuce and a
half military truck, Civil Air
Patrol, Sheriff Alan Nor-
man, Cleveland County
Coroner Dwight Tesseneer,
Cleveland County Board of
Education, county commis-
sioner Jason Falls, Cleve-
land County Democratic
Party, Grover Town Mainte-
nance, Mark McDaniel;
Grover Town Council; Town
of Grover; Grover Town
Maintenance, Mike Church;
Grover Town Maintenance,
Josh McLaughlin; Little
Miss Pumpkin Queen Jamie
Sharp; Miss Cleveland
County Fair Jordyn Powell;
Miss Pre Teen North Car-
olina Rachel Mower; Kings
Mountain High School
Homecoming Queen Haley
See GROVER PARADE, 8A
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