[Tree appointment today! 704.473.4048
786 Bell Rd., Kings Mountain
Over 20 years
experience!
kmherald.net
Kings [Moun
Volume 126 ¢ Issue26 © Wednesday, June 25, 2014
sk kk kK
4903 04-17-
MAUNEY
RRR RFRA KARR FHKE
15 0024A00 5P
IRM 28086
Y
MEMORIAL LIBRAR
PIEDMONT AVE
SR MOUNTAIN N
ii er ad
C 28086-3459
15¢
KMLT gearing up for 1780 battle drama
Theater group is getting
close to its fundraising goal
of $65,000, which will fund
production of the play for
years to come.
DAVE BLANTON
dave.kmherald@gmail.com
The town’s Little Theatre pro-
ducers say they expect to have a
rough draft of Bob Inman’s play
about the 1780 historic Battle of
Kings Mountain in their hands in
less than two weeks.
That will set in motion a chain
of events that includes designing
the set, making some early casting
decisions and planning for most
costume needs as production ap-
proaches its October 3 premiere.
Everything is falling into place for
what is likely to be the Kings
Mountain Little Theatre’s most
auspicious project. The community
theater has also made big strides in
meeting its $65,000 fundraising
goal to finance the big production,
which will feature a cast of more
than 40 and an elaborate set.
“We’re reaching our goal, but
we’re not there yet,” said Jim
Champion, a member of the steer-
ing committee responsible for
ironing out all the pre-production
details of Inman’s play.
This committee, which met
Wednesday at the Joy Performance
Theatre, announced that its mem-
bers had twice accompanied Inman
— the longtime WBTYV anchor who
turned to writing books, plays and
screenplays after his retirement
from television — to the battle site
a few miles south of downtown in
the Kings Mountain National Mil-
itary Park.
It also said that the show’s pre-
miere is already at 80 percent ca-
pacity for the'black tie invitational
only event. With more than 700
names on its mailing list, the
KMLT is trying to reach members
of the community who want to
help the production get off the
ground. Much of the money raised,
Champion said, will go toward
buying items that will be used over
and over again in future produc-
tions of the period drama, which
has no name yet.
“All of this is being done for the
See PLAY, 7A
KM teen dies
in swimming
accident
Will Dawson, 17, of 108
Cenco Drive, a Kings
Mountain High School stu-
dent, drowned Monday af-
ternoon while swimming in
a family pond on Timmer-
man Road in Mansfield,
Ohio.
The teen was swimming
with his sister and a friend
around 1 p.m. when he went
under, Richland County
Sheriff's Maj. Joe Masi said.
“He started to panic,”
Masi said. (His sister) tried
to rescue him and was un-
able to.”
The siblings were visit-
ing their great-grandfather
Thomas Hamilton and re-
portedly swam in the pond
many times.
Kaitlin Durbin of the
Mansfield News Journal re-
ported that the pond was
roughly 21 feet deep and
divers scoured the water for
almost an hour before they
found the teen 18 feet below
the surface. The water tem-
perature was around 55 de-
grees.
Richland County Coro-
ner Investigator Bob Bell
pronounced the teen dead at
2:35 p.m.
Budget adopted
by 4-3 vote
ELIZABETH STEWART
lib.kmherald@gmail.com
By 4-3, city council
adopted the $38 million city
budget last Tuesday.
Three councilmen -
mayor pro tem Mike Butler,
Ward 3 councilman Rodney
Gordon, and At-Large coun-
cilman Keith Miller voted
against because of a new item
that allocated $200 car ex-
pense to the seven member
board.
City Manager Marilyn
Sellers had originally pro-
posed a $200 raise in pay for
council and the mayor but at
Tuesday’s meeting an-
nounced the raise would
come in the form of travel/car
expense.
City council receives
monthly pay of $500, the
mayor's salary is $700
monthly, and all council
members and the mayor re-
ceive insurance payments.
Full time city employees re-
ceived a 2% cost-of-living in-
crease in pay and they also
8 ll ll
receive free insurance bene-
fits.
“I don't serve for ‘the
money. I think the raise for
council should have gone to
city employees and the
mayor," said Butler after the
meeting last week. “The
mayor enjoys what he does
but he deserves to be paid
more," he added.
Gordon said, “I am 100%
opposed to the raise for city
council. I am for everything
else in the budget."
Miller said he was un-
comfortable with the $200
per month travel/car al-
lowance for city council
members and asked that the
item be removed from the
budget.
The $38 million budget
passed 4-3.
“Our budget is conserva-
tive with no increase in prop-
erty taxes, no electric base
rate increase, no natural gas
rate increase, and no landfill
costs," Sellers said.
Last year the city bor-
rowed $33 million from a
state revolving fund to make
major water system improve-
ments and citizens saw a 7-
1/2% increase in water and
sewer. That rate will continue
this year and next year to pay
off the loan. Sellers said the
annual payment to the state
See BUDGET, 7A
A. —.
| Small crowd puts up big fight at Relay for Life
See more photos on page 3B and the read the story on page 7B i
Forum sees mostly praise for schools
or BLANTON
| dave. kmherald@gmail.com
=
A schools forum organ-
ized by a member of the
Cleveland Board of Educa-
tion drew about 90 people in
Shelby Monday.
Coming armed mostly
with praise for local schools,
the students who attend them
and the teachers who work in
them, more than a dozen of
those present took to the
podium to urge school board
members, other elected offi-
cials and members of the
public to support greater
funding — or more carefully
allocated funding -- for
schools.
“We have a desire to see
that our children get the best
that this county has to offer,”
said Michael Grant, who said
he was teacher in New York
City for 20 years. “Sadly,
today we are scrambling to
find the funds to educate our
children.”
Grant also said that the
school system should work
harder to retain its brightest
individuals.
The ones that fall through
the cracks stay here,” he said.
“The ones who succeed
don’t want to come back.
They're gone.”
Grant was not the only
person with a teaching or ed-
ucation background to speak
at the forum, which was or-
ganized by school board
member Danny Blanton and
moderated by Robert Queen,
both of whom have been
adamant critics of the school
board and the school’s sys-
tem’s leadership in recent
years. Blanton won election
to the board in November’s
election.
Monday’s forum was not
a school board board func-
tion; Blanton and Roger Har-
ris were the only school
board members present.
Queen is the parent of a re-
cent Crest High School
See FORUM, 7A
Lori Wilson, a parent of a
student in CC Schools who
recently wrote a letter of ap-
preciation to her local
school, spoke at a forum
held Monday night.
Photo by Dave Blanton
y “ESN
we
New
Downtown
Banners
Nick Hendricks, City
Utilities Director, left,
and Mayor Rick Murphrey
look over one of the
newly designed banners
for the downtown area.
“These banners will
share the importance of
our place in history with
the cannon, the railroad,
the mining and the textile
industry in our develop-
ment of current Kings
Mountain,” said the
mayor.
Photo by ELLIS NOELL
Creating Dazzling Smiles that Brighten Your Life!
Preventative, Restorative & Cosmetic Dentistry
To schedule an appointment contact Baker Dental Care today! Call 704-739-4461
703 E. Kings St., Suite 9, Kings Mountain * www.BakerDentalCare.com
Now
Open on
Fridays!
wy