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1130 Linwood Rt pangs Mountain
Practice
begins
Mountaineers will host
opening pre-season
game Tuesday. See the
story on page 8A
Above: Kings Mountain High football
player Bryan Sanders squirts water on his
head to help cool off during Monday morn-
ing practice.
Sunny
forecast
Cleveland County, N.C.
high on solar energy lists
DAVE BLANTON
dave.kmherald@gmail.com
There’s a silent engine that is almost con-
stantly churning in Kings Mountain. Two
vast solar farms that together encompass
about 60 acres are helping put Cleveland
County at the top of the list of N.C. counties
investing in solar energy in the last several
years.
Cleveland County ranks 7th among North
Carolina’s 100 counties for solar energy in-
vestment since 2007, according to the North
Carolina Sustainable Energy Association.
The county’s part equates to $58.3 million.
Neighboring Gaston County isn’t far be-
hind, ranking 16th on the list and drumming
up more $30 million in new investments in
the same time period. The rural Robeson
County, in the southeastern part of the state,
and Davidson County, which sits about 50
miles northeast of Mecklenburg County, top
the list at the No. 1 and No. 2, respectively.
Catawba County is third with nearly $129
million in investments in that segment of the
renewable energy business.
See FORECAST, 7A
JIN
8525
kmherald.com
Volume 126 ¢ Issue 32 ¢ Wednesday, August 6, 2014
4903
sox kok kkk Rok Rok kkk Kk FE TRM 28086
04-17-15 0024A00 5P S
MAUNEY MEMORIAL LIBRARY
00 S PIEDMONT AVE
KINGS MOUNTAIN NC 28086-3450
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15¢
Wal-Mart construction underway
DAVE BLANTON
dave.kmherald@gmail.com
As workers stepped through
thick mud Monday, a crane ar-
rived at the entrance of the Wal-
Mart project site to install the
massive air-conditioning unit
that will cool the new retail
store.
Elsewhere on the site, about
a dozen sub-contractor crews
worked to set up utility hook-
ups, pour concrete and lay the
plumbing.
The shell of the building that
will be the future home of the
city’s first Wal-Mart is com-
pleted, according to those famil-
iar with the construction taking
place in the shopping center at
the corner of Hwy. 74 Bus. and
Phifer Rd. Around the site and
outside of the buildings, myriad
projects are at various points to
completion, including gas and
sewage work, electrical hook-
ups and, workers say, continu-
ous clean-up and groundwater
runoff tasks to keep in compli-
Crews are seen tackling a project at the site, which is still partially muddy from recent rains, are seen
at the rear of the new building Monday afternoon.
ance with state and federal envi-
ronmental regulations. Workers
admit that an unusually rainy
summer (Friday’s downpours
gave the area three inches) has
slowed things up a bit. But they
also say they’re trained to work
around inclement weather, and,
despite the rain, the project is
still on schedule.
Photo by Dave Blanton
“No excuses” is a phrase one
hears in and around the site.
The 40,000 square-foot Wal-
Mart, which will be tucked back
See WAL-MART, 7A
City signs first dark fiber customer
ELIZABETH STEWART
lib.kmherald@gmail.com
STI/Kings Plush is Kings
Mountain's first customer of dark
fiber. R. John Kay, STI President,
signed a five year lease Monday
morning.
Kings Mountain is only the
fourth city in the state to embark
on a project to sell dark fiber, of-
fering it to industry to enable
transmission capacity between
customer locations.
STI/Kings Plush will connect
its main office on Marie Street to
warehouses on Mitchell Street and
Floyd Street and to the Data Room
at the city's Public Works depart-
ment on N. Piedmont Avenue, a
total installation of 1.25 miles.
Electric utilities has already in-
stalled fiber optics in all city build-
ings except the offices at
city-owned Moss Lake.
Fiber optics became a talking
point with city leaders two years
ago. It’s a communication tool that
saves telephone costs to cus-
tomers.
Dark fiber refers to unused
fiber-optic cable. Often times
companies lay more lines than
what's needed in order to curb
costs of having to do it again. The
dark strands can then be leased to
a commercial and/or industrial
customer who wants to establish
optical connections among its own
location.
Energy Director Nick Hen-
R. John Kay, seated, President
of STI of Kings Mountain, signs
a five year lease with the City of
Kings Mountain as its first cus-
tomer of dark fiber use and rack
space for storage of fiber optics
as Mayor Rick Murphrey looks
on. Photo by Lib Stewart
dricks said in a presentation to city
council recently that the next step
for the city is to take inventory of
the fiber in stock, train current
linemen on how to install it, solid-
ify the contracts for slicing needs
and market to attract more cus-
tomers. Hendricks said no addi-
tional staff will be needed until the
program grows.
Senior center project moving forward
A resolution that asks the
Local Government Commission
in Raleigh to approve financing
of the $1 million plus renova-
tion/expansion project at the
city-owned H. Lawrence Patrick
Senior Life & Conference Cen-
ter was approved by city council
last Tuesday.
Once the LGC gives the
green light to the project it will
be full speed ahead for the be-
ginning of construction work. It
is expected to be completed
within six months.
Council awarded the financ-
ing to BB&T at an interest rate
of 1.90% over an eight year pe-
riod.
Bid requests were sent to 13
financial institutions by finance
director Beverly Moschler. Two
responded, including Fidelity
Bank with interest rate of
2.75%.
The general contract award
Legislature OKs $100k grant
The Tar Heel State in general can brag a fo I Sén 10 Ir cén ter cam pa ign
Ward 5 city councilman
Rick Moore called the Herald
this week to report that the
N.C. Legislature had okayed a
$100,000 grant to the H.
Lawrence Patrick Senior Life
& Conference Center's “Build-
ing for the Futures” campaign.
“Call Tim,” Rick said. Tim
is five-term N.C. Representa-
tive Tim Moore and Rick's
son.
Not only did the senior cen-
ter get a grant for its building
fund but the Earl Scruggs
See GRANT, 7A
went to Holden Building Co.,
the low bidder at $988,450.
Other bidders were Pinnix, Inc.,
$1,038,850; Crescent Construc-
tion Co., $1,046,210; Moss-
Marlow Building Co., Inc,
$1,047,746 and Morrison Con-
struction Co., $1,286,650.
Stewart-Cooper-Newell is
See SENIOR CENTER, 7A
New hours for city parks
The city is posting new hours
of operation at the city's play-
grounds, walking tracks and
other recreational facilities, and
by ordinance adopted last Tues-
day will enforce them. Signs are
going up at all the facilities.
The ordinance states: “no
person or persons shall be upon
the premises which are the
Mayor Rick Murphrey Chil-
dren's Park playground area on
Cleveland Avenue, Davidson
Park on Sims Street, Patriots
Park on Gold Street between the
hours of 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. unless
an authorized event shall be oc-
curring.
€.
"No person or persons shall
be upon the premises of the
walking track adjacent to the
YMCA on Cleveland Avenue or
the walking track located on
King Street between the hours
of 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. unless an
authorized special event shall be
occurring or if such purpose or
purposes for being there be a use
for walking or exercising for
which those two facilities are so
designated.
"Any person Or persons
found upon the aforementioned
premises during the aforemen-
tioned hours shall be a tres-
passer."
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