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[Mecano roumoen | . kmherald.com Volume 126 ¢ Issue 33 * Wednesday, August 13, 2014 15¢
School board
cries foul on state
budget provisions
DAVE BLANTON
dave.kmherald@gmail.com
Members of the Cleve-
land County Board of Edu-
cation heard from the school
system’s top finance officer
Monday about what the re-
cently passed state budget
mean to students and teach-
ers at the local level.
Dr. David Lee, finance
director, did not paint a
pretty picture.
“In the big picture and in
the long run, the pay raises
offered to teachers amounts
to diminishing returns,” Lee
said in a scalding appraisal
of an $8.1 billion state edu-
cation budget that was
passed in July after pro-
longed wrangling among
Raleigh lawmakers.
“All that glitters is not
gold,” Lee said.
He was, in part, referring
to a part of the budget that
allocated an average 3.3 per-
cent increase in teacher
salaries. He conceded that
for younger, less experi-
enced teachers the raise
mandated by lawmakers is
close to 18 percent, but said
that as teachers acquire
more years on the job, the
pay bump fades to almost
zero. The budget caps future
pay for teachers at $50,000
per year.
Although the matter of
the budget has been settled
and signed into law, schools
still cannot yet plan for the
upcoming fiscal year be-
cause the North Carolina’s
Department of Public In-
struction, which directly al-
locates monies to local
systems, has not notified
schools what their share of
See SCHOOL BOARD, 7A
Crime rate low
says KM’s Chief Proctor
mu ELIZABETH STEWART
lib.kmherald @gmail.com
Significant involuntary
annexations began in 1997
and remarkably, for the
13,456 square miles that city
police patrol, the crime rate
has been substantially low
for the ninth consecutive
year.
Chief of Police Melvin
Proctor credits the low rate
to a partnership with the
community.
Mayor Rick Murphrey
agrees, going another step to
point out good police work
and great communication by
police and the community.
“The city council is com-
mitted to provide the police
department with the latest
technology and the best
equipment while pushing
education in a career devel-
opment plan with officers,"
said the mayor. He added,
“Having well trained offi-
cers and employees is criti-
cal in today's litigation soci-
ety and we are now moving
key personnel into upper
level management training
which is the key to future
department leadership."
“We continue to use
crime maps to identify
where crime areas exist in
the city and from this infor-
mation we develop plans
and strategies to address
those crime patterns and
trends in those areas," said
the chief.
The statistics board in the
chief's office at the police
department displays figures
provided by the Special Bu-
reau of Investigations. Dur-
ing the past nine years Kings
Mountain has been signifi-
cantly below the statistics in
1993. The Chief said that
larcenies and assault head
the list this year and he
See CRIME RATE, 7A
Electrical panel explodes
at KM metal fabricator
A fireball type explosion
in a large electrical panel at
Alcoa Metal Fabricators,
Cansler Street, will close the
plant for a couple of days
while repairs are made, ac-
8 | ll 1
852570
cording to Fire Chief Frank
Burns.
The Kings Mountain Fire
Department and Kings
Mountain Police Depart-
ment were dispatched to the
plant at 9:23 a.m. Tuesday
morning.
“This was a small fire but
the fuse panel was damaged
and it will take awhile to re-
pair it," said Burns.
Burns said the large elec-
trical panel will have to be
completely redone.
29 i i .
~ oy &
E i a d > a
Motorcycle riders on the American Legion Legacy Run, some 600 strong, will arrive in Kings Mountain Thursday, Aug. 21,
are
at 2:45 p.m. and will be hosted by American Legion Post 155. It will be the last leg of a 1,360 mile ride over five days in
eight states.
Photo: AL Legacy Run website
Riding for a cause
ELIZABETH STEWART
lib.kmherald@gmail.com
Imagine hundreds of motorcycles of
all shapes and colors roaring through
eight states completing an American Le-
gion Legacy Run composed of wartime
veterans, and ending at American Le-
gion Post 155, East Gold Street, next
Thursday, Aug. 21, at 2:45 p.m.
“We are excited and we will be ready
to feed this group barbecue with all the
trimmings," said Post Commander Cur-
tis Thrift.
Thrift said that more than 600 veter-
ans had signed up for the ride and he ex-
pects some 500 to be on motorcycles
coming into the Post parking lot, led by
riders from the local Post and Kings
Mountain Police. Mayor Rick Murphrey
will be on hand to welcome the visitors
to Kings Mountain.
The contingent of veterans start their
ride from Indianapolis, Indiana, head-
quarters of the 2.5 million-member
American Legion, from Post 64, riding
five days to raise funds for the American
Legion Legacy scholarship fund for
children of US military personnel killed
on or after Sept. 11, 2001.
Thrift said a 4,000 square foot tent
will be set up in the parking lot of the
Post home and equipped with tables and
chairs to serve 300 people. A stage will
also be set up in the parking lot. The rid-
ers will proceed through a buffet, find-
ing their places to eat inside and outside
the Post home. Members of Unit 155
Auxiliary, of which Lisa Carrigan is
president, will assist in serving the meal.
The caravan of cyclists will be riding
1,360 miles. They will be recognized at
the American Legion World Series
championship game at 7 p.m. in Shelby
on August 19, then travel to Georgia on
August 20.
From Kings Mountain on August 21
the Riders will travel to Charlotte to at-
tend the 96th American Legion conven-
tion.
Since 2006 riders from American
Legion Riders chapters havespaitici-
pated in the Legion Legacy Run to an-
nually raise money for scholarships and
the chapters are well known for their
charitable work, which has raised hun-
dreds of thousands of dollars for local
children's hospitals, schools, veteran
homes, and severely wounded service
members.
Roll credits: Local drive-in closing
DAVE BLANTON
dave.kmherald@gmail.com
A drive-in theater whose
screenings of such classic
films as “Peter Pan,”
“Goldfinger,” “Rocky” and
“Raiders of the Lost Ark”
have delighted tens of thou-
sands over the decades has
announced plans to close
down after Labor Day week-
end, citing a shift in the
technology Hollywood uses
to distribute movies.
Rick Stinnett, whose
mother and father opened
the Bessemer City Kings
Mountain Drive-In, in 1949,
says the theater will not be
able to afford the
changeover from conven-
tional film to digital media.
“Nowadays, you have to
have a digital projector and
that’s just too expensive to
do,” Stinnett said, adding
that the cost of the conver-
This will be the last summer for the Bessemer City Kings Mountain Drive-In. Owner says he
will not be able to make necessary upgrades.
sion would be in the neigh-
borhood of $100,000. “It
puts us in a bad position.”
Stinnett says he will con-
tinue to operate the Sunset
Drive-In in Shelby, which he
recently upgraded to accom-
modate movies that are de-
livered via digital
technology, which arrive on
a small hard drive or a Blu-
Ray disc instead of long
rolls of actual cellulose film.
“I know what I'm up
against,” he said in an inter-
view last week. “I wouldn’t
be able to recoup it.
Stinnett, who grew up
with the business and with
the movies, said he’s not
happy about the business de-
cision for the theater that has
See DRIVE-IN, 7A
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