Kings Moun
Volume 125 eo Issue 50 ¢ Wednesday, December 11, 2013
kmherald.net
New
ees?
ELIZABETH STEWART
lib.kmherald @gmail.com
City Council was expected
to bite the bullet Tuesday night
on assessing a $2.50 monthly
fee across the board to the city’s
4500 residential and all utility
customers following state and
federal mandates handed down
to municipalities on storm
water.
For business and commer-
cial customers, the monthly rate
is expected to be $2.50 every
2,000 feet of impervious sur-
face based on measurements of
parking lots and driveways.
Tax-exempt organizations,
such as churches, are not ex-
empt from paying the utility
fee. :
All councilmen at the work
session last week say they
See FEES, 7A
Santa
to visit
museum
Santa Claus will be stopping
in Kings Mountain on his “Fire
Truck Express” for a couple of
last minute stops to see the chil-
dren before Christmas and to
get an update on their Christ-
mas lists.
On Thursday and Friday
mornings, Santa will visit local
daycare centers.
On Saturday, December 14,
Santa and his helpers will arrive
on his “Fire Truck Express” for
a visit to the Kings Mountain
Historical Museum, during the
Toys, Games & Trains Exhibit,
from 1 — 3PM. During Santa’s
visit, the annual model train
display will be traveling around
the tracks for children and their
families to enjoy. This interac-
tive and highly popular display
was built and is maintained by
the Piedmont “S” Gaugers, a
group of model train enthusi-
asts. Museum visitors can also
step back in time on Saturday
and enjoy the growing exhibits
of unique antique toys and
games.
The event is free and open to
the public. Donations are wel-
come to support the Museum’s
mission of informing visitors
the history of Kings Mountain
by preserving and exhibiting
this 19th and early 20th century
collection. The annual “Toys,
Games and Trains” exhibit is on
display and will run through
January 4, 2014.
The Gift Shop at the Main
Exhibit Hall will also be open
and a perfect place for those
last minute ideas for unique
Christmas gifts. Old Salem
Cookies and Cheese Stars will
also be available for purchase
mm
98525700200
ook ok ok sk kok sk ok sk ok ok ok kok kk kok
4903 04-17-14 0024A0
MAUNEY MEMORIAL LIBRARY
100 S PIEDMONT AVE
5P
EE
**XFIRM 28086
3S
RLICK ano HAMRICK
KINGS MOUNTAIN NC 28086- 3450
raia
15¢
a DAVE BLANTON
dreds of participants.
i From the Kings Mountain High
School marching band and dance compa-
dave.kmherald@gmail.com
Relatively warm temperatures and
clear skies brought out one of the biggest
crowds in memory for the city’s annual
Christmas Parade on Saturday, which
featured more than 80 entries and hun-
Crowds gather for parade
Sunny weather boosts Christmas parade attendance
‘course pageant winners and beauty
queens, there was a little something for
everyone at the parade. Police estimates
nies to local businesses, car clubs and of
put the crowd size at around 6,000.
And much to the delight of young |
children (and some adults) hundreds of |
pounds of candy could be seen flying
through the air from the parade’s start at
3 p.m. to its conclusion a little more than
an hour later.
Police blocked off main streets
See PARADE, 7A |
Community rallies
around Haraszkiewicz
2011 KMHS graduate
Taylor (Faris) Ha-
raszkiewicz has recently
been diagnosed with a very
rare and acute form of
leukemia and since then doc-
tors locally and in Winston
Salem have been racing to
prescribe a life-saving treat-
ment. Meanwhile, family
and friends have rallied
around the 20-year-old, who
just this June married her
high school sweetheart,
Josh. Haraszkiewicz works
as a pharmacy technician at
Walgreens in Kings Moun-
tain.
Doctors moved swiftly to
put her on an intense round
of chemotherapy. Her first
treatment was Thursday at
Baptist Memorial Hospital, a
teaching and research facil-
ity affiliated with Wake For-
est University. The first
round of chemo is expected
to last four weeks, according
to family members.
Haraszkiewicz will be
spending Christmas at the
Wake Forest Comprehensive
Cancer Center. You can add
a little cheer to her room
with a simple ribbon with a
message of hope or encour-
agement or perhaps your fa-
vorite scripture written on it.
The ribbons should be cut
Taylor (Faris) Haraszkiewic? (with stiand Josh) was diag-
nosed last week with a rare form of leukemia. Since that
time the Kings Mountain community has rallied around the
young newlywed.
approximately 8 inches in
length. A Sharpie or gel
marker usually works best
for writing. The ribbons will
be linked together and used
to decorate her room at the
Cancer Center.
Cards and ribbons can be
mailed to: Taylor Ha-
raszkiewicz, Wake Forest
Baptist Medical Center,
Comprehensive Cancer Cen-
ter, Medical Center Boule-
vard, Winston-Salem, N.C.
27157.
The young woman’s fam-
ily is asking for prayers from
the community. They’ ve also
established a fundraising
drive, which includes T-
shirts and a bake sale, to help
Photo submitted
pay for the medical costs as-
sociated with her treatment.
To learn more about Ha-
raszkiewicz’s fight against
leukemia or to make a dona-
tion, visit www.caring-
bridge.org/visit/taylorharasz
kiewicz or www.gofundme.
com/Taylorsfund.
Mountain View Family
Restaurant is also hosting
several Santa Claus picture
days to raise money for Ha-
raszkiewicz. Children of all
ages can have their photo
taken with Santa for $10 this
Friday and Saturday from 5
to 9 p.m. Santa is returning
on Friday, Dec. 20, and Sat-
urday, Dec. 21, from 11 a.m.
to 3 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m.
I
{
i
|
L ——
IN SURANCE
704.739.3611
106 East Mountain Street
Kings Mountain, NC
WWW. KMinsure.co com
How r
| your health
coverage!
New health insurance laws a
‘came-changer’ for local providers
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is ex-
pected to have a complicated influence on the relation-
ship between the insured and insurer. Still in its early
days, consumers and providers alike are still sorting
through a host of new rules, a web site that didn t launch
smoothly and the extent to which Medicare funding is af-
fected.
DAVE BLANTON
dave.kmherald@gmail.com
The prolonged political
battle that eventually
pressed into law an over-
haul of the health insur-
ance industry seemed to
come to an end on March
23, 2010, when President
Obama signed a con-
tentious bill called the Pa-
tient Protection and
Affordable Care Act.
But the struggle to
change the way Americans
get access to health care
and pay for treatment was-
n’t over then and is still a
moving target now, nearly
six years after the presi-
dent and Congress began
drafting and re-drafting
legislation that sought to
reduce the number of
uninsured while at the
same time lowering ever-
rising health care costs.
After the law passed,
the legislation still had to
overcome a number of po-
litical hurdles that risked
killing — or at least stalling
— what Obama has called
the most important act of
his time in the Oval Of-
fice. Among other lawsuits
related to the new law, the
one with the most momen-
tum was one brought by
an association of hospital
and insurance companies
that sought to strike down
the new health care law on
the grounds that it was un-
constitutional. That suit
wound its way through the
federal courts and ulti-
mately landed in the U.S.
Supreme Court, which
ruled, essentially, that
Congress did, in fact, have
the power to mandate that
individuals carry health in-
surance as prescribed by
rules set forth in Afford-
able Care Act.
Later, as a budget fight
roiled Washington in Sep-
tember, the new health
care law was in the spot-
light again as Republicans,
who have been the fiercest
opponents of the Afford-
able Care Act, sought to
withhold funding for it.
That resulted in a 16-day
shutdown of the federal
- government, which shut-
tered most federal govern-
ment offices and sent more
than 800,000 federal
workers nationwide home,
unsure of when they
would be able to return to
work. Members of Con-
gress eventually worked
out a budget deal that pre-
served funding for the new
health care law’s provi-
sions.
At the same time, an-
other problem — not a po-
litical one but a technical
one — was surfacing. The
web site maintained by the
government to help marry
the insured with the in-
surer was having cata-
strophic problems. The
site crashed repeatedly in
its debut week. Tens of
thousands of would-be
customers were reporting
problems establishing an
account.
There were also doubts
that the site, which had
been designed and built
chiefly by a menagerie of
non-government sub-con-
tractors, was stable
enough to withstand cyber
attacks, and whether it was
secure enough to, be en-
trusted with individual’s
personal information.
After more than six weeks
of prolonged glitches and
uncertainty, confidence in
See HEALTH CARE, 7A
Orange barricades
here for a while longer
It will be Spring before
the orange barricades are
removed from the down-
town railroad tracks but
city manager Marilyn Sell-
ers said last week that the
Department of Transporta-
tion will handle the im-
provements and pay for
the costs at both crossings.
She said a meeting is
scheduled Thursday with
DOT officials.
“The improvements
will be for much more than
the upgrades at the railroad
crossings; the traffic and
truck route will run more
smoothly,” she said during
a work session with the
full board of commission-
ers.
- Sellers has called spe-
cial meetings with com-
missioners for Dec. 16 at
5:30 p.m. to approve bids
for generators and on Jan.7
for a two hour work ses-
sion which will include an
update on the SMART
Meters pilot program. The
meeting is set for 5:30 p.m.
Mid-Day Special’
10am-3pm
Limited time offer!
Cleaning, polishing, dental exam & xrays ONLY $149 for uninsured patients! reg. $31
For details or to schedule an appointment contact Baker Dental Care today! Call 704-739-4461
703 E. Kings St., Suite 9, Kings Mountain * www.BakerDentalCare.com
*Qffer valid for new patients only & in the absence of gum disease. Offer expires 1/31/14
Now Open
on Fridays!