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MAUNEY MEMORIAL LIBRARY > ne
KINGS MOUNTAIN NC 28086-3450
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kmherald.com
Volume 126 Issue 53 © Wednesday, December 31, 2014 15¢
Good team work
equals success
Good team work spelled
success in 2014 for the city,
according to City Manager
Marilyn Sellers who said
. that new projects in the
~ works this year will ensure
that rates are kept low and
progressive strides will con-
"tinue as the staff, mayor and
council work together in
2015.
Sellers, who has been
manager for nine years,
joined the city staff 26
years ago and is a former
city clerk. Rick Murphrey,
who has 21 years with the
city, was on city council six
years before being elected
mayor and has served 15
years as mayor.
Jobs continued to be a
priority of city administra-
tion. The opening of the
Walmart Neighborhood
Market brought nearly
100 jobs to the city in the
last month of the old year.
Major Metals added 25 jobs
in 2014 and O'Riley's Auto,
anew business, is promising
10 new jobs when this new
building is completed.
Among the big news
items for the city w as the
signing of a 20-year con-
tract with NTE to provide
wholesale electricity to the
city beginning in 2019. The
current supplier (Duke) con-
tract ends in 2018.
During construction of
the Kings Mountain Energy
Center by NTE, a total of
300 construction jobs will
be available and 30 perma-
See GOOD TEAM, Page 8
New year, new names
Two area hospitals
change names Jan.1
Cleveland Regional Med-
ical Center at Shelby and
Kings Mountain Hospital
will be known as Carolinas
HealthCare System Cleve-
land and’ Carolinas Health-
Care System Kings Mountain
beginning January 1.
The name changes reflect
the continuation of the hos-
pitals' integration with the
region's largest healthcare
network.
“Our relationship with
Carolinas HealthCare Sys-
tem began in 1994," said
Brian Gwyn, president of
Carolinas HealthCare System
Cleveland. “Since then, we
have made over $200 mil-
lion dollars in improvements,
including better imaging
cancer-care and a women's
center.”
Carolinas HealthCare Sys-
tem managed the hospitals for
almost two decades before
buying the facilities from
Cleveland County in 2013.
“Our community has seen
lots of positive change as a re-
sult of our hospitals' connec-
tion to Carolinas HealthCare
System," said Gwyn. “That
connection is NOW very evi-
dent in our very name.”
Hope” is the theme
Hope” is the theme of the annual photography contest
hosted by The City of Kings Mountain
in observance of
Martin Luther King Day, January 19, 2015.
The competition is open for all adults and students in the
Cleveland County school system. There will be cash prizes
for 1%, 2", and 3 place in both adult and student divisions.
“The competition is taking its cue from the Martin Luther
King, Jr. quote “We must accept finite disappointment, but
never lose infinite hope” said Ellis Noell, Special Events
Director for the City. “We are encouraging young and old
to share their vision of Hope and believe that this theme will
provide great latitude in artistic interpretation.” added Noell.
Photographic prints (minimum size 8” x 10”/maximum
size 12” x 18”) can be submitted at City Hall or mailed to
P.O. Box 429, Kings Mountain, NC 28086. Submissions
can be made digitally through a disk dropped off or mailed.
Electronic submissions should be sent to ellisn@cityofkm.
com and submissions must be received by the 5:00 P.M.
deadline, Friday, January 17,
2015. Eligibility and rules for
submission are available on the Events page at the City’s
website, www.CityofKM.com or by calling Karen Tucker at
704-734-0333.
The exhibit and reception with the entrants will open
January 19, 2015 at the Southern Arts Depot at 6 p.m. The
§ I o8
525700200
art center will serve as the
gallery for all the submitted
photographs with winners an-
nounced at 7 p.m. The exhibit
will remain in the art center in
January and move to the Pat-
rick Center in February for
Black History month.
ELIZABETH STEWART
& DAVE BLANTON
lib.kmherald @ gmail.com
1. Casino limbo
There were rumors. And there were
arguments and protests. But 2014
brought no official word on the prog-
ress of a proposal that would put a ca-
sino in Kings Mountain.
City and county leaders announced
what could potentially be the largest
economic development proposal in
decades more than a year ago, in the
fall of 2013.
That built excitement for some, but
for others it led to irritation and the
formation of a vocal group who sought
to highlight the dark side of having a
large gaming resort situated so close to
this working-class community.
The members of the Kings Moun-
tain Awareness Group, headed by
Adam Forcade and his wife Cynthia,
have confronted local leaders at City
Council and Cleveland County Board
of Commissioners meetings. They’ve
also spearheaded what they call an
information campaign in area news-
papers.
Meanwhile, many in the business
community have mere recently ap-
peared to embrace the inevitability of a
casino built by the S.C.-based Catawba
Indian Tribe. Several parcels of land
around the proposed site — located at
the Dixon School Rd. exit off of Inter-
state 85 — have traded hands since the
sell of the land was made to the tribe
in the summer of 2013. The owner of
the Silver Villa — which for more than
three decades was located on King St.
— publicly. explained that he was mov-
ing to a spot nearer I-85 to capitalize
on “casino traffic.”
But at the Bureau of Indian Affairs,
mum is the word on the fate of a pend-
ing request to put the land into trust,
which would be the lynchpin to devel-
oping the site for gaming purposes.
This artist rendering shows the proposed Catawba Indian Nation resort and
Year In Review: 2014
casino that could be built in Kings Mountain.
2. City signs 20 year deal
with NTE Energy
Kings Mountain will be cutting ties
five years from now with its wholesale
electric supplier Duke Energy after
108 years of doing business with the
power company.
“This is a historic day," said Mayor
Rick Murphrey as he signed a 20-year
energy agreement with CEO Seth
Shortlidge and NTE Energy effective
Jan. 1, 2019. The full city council
unanimously approved the deal and
looked on at the signing before dinner
at the H. Lawrence Patrick Senior Life
& Conference Center
Kings Mountain Energy would be ca-
pable of powering 400,000 homes.
The NTE plant ( Kings Mountain
Energy) will start construction of its
new 480 MW natural gas fired power
generating facility in the summer of
2015. The plant's commercial opera-
tion will begin the first quarter of 2018.
The mayor said that since 2010
the city has been evaluating, along
with five other municipalities, several
power companies to provide wholesale
electricity. Energy Services Director
See YEAR, Page 8
A new $450 million
power plant, Kings Moun-
tain Energy Center, will be
built by NTE Energy, St.
Augustine, Fla., at a site off
Dixon School Road near
the proposed site of the Ca-
tawba Indian Nation resort/
casino. Ground-breaking is
expected to be held in early
April 2015. The new plant 3
will occupy 20 acres of a NTE Chief Executive Seth Shortlidge, seated left,
290 acre site expected to and Kings Mountain Mayor Rick Murphrey affix
be completed for an indus- their signatures to a 20-year agreement for power.
trial park. Once completed Also present were all city council members.
Waffle House starting over in KM
i DAVE BLANTON
%2 dave.kmherald@gmail.com
- Late night and middle of the night
dining options in Kings Mountain are
about to get a lot thinner for the next
several months.
On Saturday, Hillcrest Foods Inc.
plans to close the doors of the Waf-
fle House it operates on York Rd.
The familiar restaurant will be torn
town and within about three months
replaced with a new, larger one at the
same location.
Waffle House employees at the
current restaurant, which was built
in the early 1980s, say the building is
too old to repair and that the re-start
is paving the way for a Waffle House
with a fresher look and slightly more
square footage and seating options.
Although the chain has been long
associated with over-the-road truck-
ers for its broad menu and 24-hour
availability, the location in Kings
Mountain has proven to also be a local
favorite that patrons say they’ll miss
in the coming months.
“I probably come here on average
about once a month,” said Howard
McLeod, after dining on a sausage
and egg sandwich Monday morning.
“They serve good food, but (while the
The franchisee that operates the Waffle House on York Rd. is demolishing the
building and putting up a larger one that will likely open by early April.
restaurant is being rebuilt) I’ll proba-
bly eat at Subway instead.”
Mack Robinette, who said the
Kings Mountain Waffle House is one
of his favored places to get a bite in
town, had a quick alternative lined up.
“I’1l probably just eat at the one in
Belmont because it’s on the way to
my job in Charlotte,” he said over a
plate of eggs and toasts, adding that
he’s fond of most items on the menu.
Looking for a last meal at the
Waffle House before it reopens in
the spring? Store employees said the
doors will close on the old building at
7 a.m. Saturday morning.
Hillcrest Foods is a Suwanee,
Ga.-based franchisee that operates
55 Waffle Houses in Georgia, North
Carolina and South Carolina. Waffle
House has more than 2,100 locations
in 25 states.
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