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kmherald.com Volume 126 eo Issue 45 ¢ Wednesday, November 5, 2014 15¢
Seelocal
election returns
on kmherald.com
SPORTS......cooereecennc 1B
m MASSEY
MEMORIAL
INSIDE...
ODHUAIES ve.esunssessessenss 2A
Police Report .....caneres 2A
Debutantes .....sssssenses 3A
SPOMS..caiaceresirsercnsanesss 1B
More Halloween photos on page 8B
Veterans Day Round Of Applause
November 11
The City of Kings Mountain will host
the annual Veteran’s Day Parade and Ob-
servance on Tuesday, November 11.
The observance will begin with the
parade starting at the War Memorial on
Railroad Avenue, across from the Joy Per-
formance Center, at 10:45 a.m. The Kings
Mountain Police Department Color Guard
will step off the parade with the Loch Nor-
man Pipe Band and all veterans and their
families are invited to join in the parade.
The parade will proceed to Patriots Park
where the observance will take place at the
Patriots’ Memorial.
The Veteran’s Day address will be given
by Abraham Ruff, US Army, SGM (Ret.).
The Patriots’ Memorial, located at the
west entry to Patriots Park (Cansler Street
and Gold Street), has plaques honoring
those soldiers who died in combat during
WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam.
“The City was originally approached a
few years ago by an informal group of local
Vietnam veterans who wanted to have a
memorial dedicated to those soldiers from
Kings Mountain who were killed in action
in Vietnam. We realized there was no me-
morial for any of our local heroes who gave
their lives in battle to preserve our freedoms.
We found a design where we could incorpo-
rate the names all the heroes in a morument,™
the Patriots’ Memorial,” said Mayor Rick
Murphrey.
All veterans are invited to be part of the
observance. There will be limited seating in
front of the stage and participants are en-
couraged to bring portable chairs. Parking
will be available at the park. In the event
of rain, the program will be moved inside
to City Hall.
To mark
Veterans Day
this year,
the Herald
worked in
conjunction
with Mallo-
rie Edmond-
son, a Kings
Mountain
High School
senior whose :
senior proj-
ect deals with Abe Ruff
veteran appreciation in this country. Ed-
mondson conducted a number of extensive
interviews with area veterans -- from sev-
eral branches in the military. They shared
with Edmondson what it meant to them to
serve and how the experience shaped their
lives, then and now.
Curtis Thrift — U.S. National Guard
When Curtis Thrift joined the U.S. Army
National Guard, he hadn’t even begun his
senior year of high school. In fact, he needed
his mother to sign for him because he was
still under 18. As he recalls she wasn’t the
biggest fan of his decision because she
didn’t want him to get hurt.
The Kings Mountain native entered boot
camp at Fort Jackson, in Columbia, S.C., an
experience he recently described as never
boring. While there, he says he learned a
lot about leadership and discipline. He also
learned to have a lot of respect for those
who served in combat.
“Veterans should be recognized more
often because a veteran is someone who has
See VETERANS DAY, 7A
Hawkins retracts
casino support
DC stat-
ing that
Ward III Councilman
Tommy Hawkins surprised
to sign the letter of endorse-
ment by the mayor and city
council.
Hawkins made his re-
marks prior to a presentation
by a group of six members of
the Kings Mountain Aware-
ness group who asked city
council to retract their support
for West Elementary
DAVE BLANTON
dave.kmherald@gmail.com
U.S: Rep. Patrick
McHenry (N.C.-10) was
on hand Monday at West
Elementary School to con-
gratulate the Kings Moun-
tain school on recently
being named a Blue Ribbon
School, a federal Depart-
ment of Education honor
shared by just five public
schools in the state.
West Elementary was re-
cently named by U.S. Sec-
retary of Education Arne
Duncan as a 2014 National
Blue Ribbon School. West
was recognized for the high
learning standards achieved
by the students and named
an Exemplary High Per-
forming School.
“Schools are more than
mere money and mere
buildings, mere things,”
McHenry said while pre-
senting a flag that had re-
cently flown over the U.S.
Capitol. “Education is
about people. And it’s the
people in this room and in
this school district that have
made this distinction possi-
ble.”
McHenry was joined by
Te ane
iA
i
|
4
West Elementary principal Heather Pagan is presented with
an American flag by U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry on Monday
during a ceremony recognizing the school as a Blue Ribbon
School, a recent honor bestowed by the U.S. Department of
Education.
local officialsy. school sys-
tem administrators, several
members of the Cleveland
County Board of Education
and the faculty and staff of
‘Photo hy ELLIS NOELL
West Elementary.
“This school is doing an
excellent job of preparing
See APPLAUSE, 6A
Churches not banned
City Attorney Mickey Corry told
city council in a memorandum issued
to the mayor, council members and city
manager Oct. 20 that the use by a church
of a govern mentally-owned facility, as
has been occurring nearly four years at
the H. Lawrence Patrick Senior Life &
Conference Center by Advent Lutheran
Church is “not lawful.”
The legal opinion was also sent to
Arise, a church which has been meeting
on temporary basis at the YMCA. The
YMCA building is also owned by the
City of Kings Mountain.
City Manager Marilyn Sellers wrote
non Tackett that “I want to be perfectly
clear that your church can rent the Se-
nior Center, but cannot be, in order to co
mply with law, continuous, ongoing and
indefinite in length, I invite you to rent
the Senior Center for any special events
you may have in the future.”
Corry said in the memorandum to
council that the usage of city buildings
Advent Church Council President Cle-
by a religious group, in his opinion, had
always posed a potential legal issue and
his opinion is shared by the Institute of
Government at UNC Chapel Hill.
Mayor Rick Murphrey said the
See CHURCHES, 7A
a packed city hall crowd last he he
Tuesday, which included 52 had re-
responders to a recent search evalu-
for a missing senior resident, ated a
with the announcement that decision
he was changing his original made 10
position of support for a pro- months tommy Hawkins
posed Catawba Indian Nation: ago and
resort/casino to that of oppo-
sition.
He waved his stamped
letter at last Tuesday's city
council meeting to the mem-
bers of the Kings Mountain
Awareness Group in the au-
dience and stated that he was
mailing the letter to Kevin K.
Washburn, Secretary of In-
dian Affairs, in Washington,
8 ""98525%00200"™ 1
retracts previous support.
“This community does
not welcome casinos, I can't
believe you want to evict a
church and bring in a casino,"
he said.
After the meeting Haw-
kins said one of the reasons
he changed his mind was his
recent visit in Las Vegas, Ne-
vada.
Hawkins is the second
council member to voice op-
position to what supporters
hail as an economic develop-
ment project and a potential
economic boon for Cleveland
County. At-large councilman
Keith Miller refused last year
of the project.
Adam Forcade, a leader of
the Kings Mountain Aware-
ness Group, said:
“My observation is that I
firmly believe that several of
you councilmen wish you had
made a different decision last
year when approached with
this issue. I am sure at the
time you got caught up in the
moment and truly believed a
casino would be a good thing
for Kings Mountain. I believe
some of you went along be-
cause of the benefits you be-
lieved would accumulate to
the community as a whole.
See HAWKINS, 7A
Mayor responds to city action
Members of the Advent Lutheran Church
were recently told that they would no longer
be able to use the Patrick Senior Center as .
their place of worship after Oct. 31. The
issue was discussed briefly at the recent
city council meeting. The city attorney said
the issue was a legal matter and a closed
session, already scheduled, was held after
the regular meeting adjourned. Mayor Rick
Murphrey issued the following response to
questions of why the church was denied use
of the building.
“It is so unfortunate that the situation
involving the church use of the city-owned
facilities has come to a controversial point,
and the role of the City of Kings Mountain
which has caused such.
“This situation arose by reason of the
Senior Center staff being approached by
church members desiring to have tempo-
rary use of the Patrick Senior Center until a
permanent location could be located for the
purpose of that group having its religious
services. At the beginning of that relation-
ship, in every regard, it was the city's un-
derstanding that the occupancy and usage
at the Patrick Senior Center would be only
temporary in nature; but other usage, during
the temporary relationship, evolved into a
permanent location of the Patrick Senior
See MAYOR, 6A
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