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MAUNEY MEMORIAL LIBRARY
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David Smith, left,
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Page 12
senior project manager Strickland Waterproofing Company, Kassie
Brown, engineer Joel Woods & Associates, Mayor Rick Murphrey, Junior Hinson, city
water plant manager;-and Dennis Wells, city water department director, survey the work
underway hy the city to-repair the Moss Lake dam spillway.
Photo by ELLIS NOELL
Jim Ferebee
100 S PIEDMONT AVE
KINGS MOUNTAIN NC 28086-3450
TE NAVEEN WW IVE WEE
Over Mountain
Saturday night
Page 6
Volume 127 ¢ lssue5 © Wednesday, February 4, 2015
HH
Larry Hamrick, Jr.
Alex Bell
15¢
repairs on schedule
Weather permitting, April
is target date for Spillway fix
ELIZABETH STEWART
lib.kmherald @ gmail.com
Everything is on schedule
at Moss Lake dam where city
workers expect the repairs on
the spillway to be completed
in April.
While the schedule is on
time, the use of the lake has
been suspended.
Water Superintendent
Dennis Wells said the water
level this week was about
seven feet below full pond
and workmen are working
at the back side of the dam
to repair the spillway which
protects the lake and the dam.
The repairs are concen-
trated on a drainage pipe that
was left behind when the dam
was originally constructed.
The pipe is being filled with
grout to cap it off.
The spillway rehab proj-
ect is budgeted at $611,000
and is not part of the $34 mil-
lion water/sewer improve-
ments being financed by a
20 year, no interest loan from
the state revolving plan.
The draw down of the res-
ervoir started Oct. 9.
Wells said the raising and
lowering of the lake level is
driven by the weather.
Repair work is continu-
ing, he said.
Moss Lake is approxi-
mately 90 feet deep. It en-
compasses more than 2,000
acres with 57 miles of shore-
line, 1,660 acres of water.
Moss Lake was built in 1974
as the city's water source
when the area was suffering
from drought.
Moss Lake serves also as
an active recreational desti-
nation for boaters, fisherman
and water tournaments.
Moss Lake hosts the na-
tional qualifing Over the
Mountain Triathlon every
year which draws a crowd of
participants and spectators.
New YMCA lease
on Council agenda
ELIZABETH STEWART
lib.kmherald @gmail.com
By 6-1 Kings Mountain
City Council last Tuesday
authorized Mayor Rick
Murphrey to sign an ex-
tended lease agreement
with the YMCA so that the
terms of a new proposed
lease ( from 15 to 20 years)
can be advertised for 10
days prior to a Council
vote on Feb 24.
The lease agreement
and operational services
agreement between the city
and YMCA were set to ex-
pire on Jan 31. Council ex-
tended the lease to Feb. 28.
Under the terms of the
proposed new lease the
city will pay the YMCA
$400,000 per year for pro-
viding recreational services
with a two to four percent
increase each year. The
proposed new lease ex-
cludes the city walking
track and children's park.
City Attorney Mickey
Corry said the YMCA has
expressed an interest in
gaining significant funds
to invest in improvements
to the facility, owned by
the city and formerly the
Kings Mountain Commu-
nity Center.
See YMCA, Page 4
Harper low bidder
for $11M city project
‘Harper Construction
Company of Greenville,
SC is the low bidder at
$11,565,000.00 for the
upgrade of the T. J. Elli-
son Water Plant pending
approval of the NCDENR
Division of Water Infra-
structure.
Six bids ranging from the
low bid of $11.5 million to
a high bid of $12.4 million
8 ll 00200" 1
were received on this proj-
ect and a tentative award
was approved by city coun-
cil at the recent meeting.
Other bidders were De-
Vere Construction Co.,
Alpena, MI; English Con-
struction Co., Lynchburg,
VA; RTD Construction
Co., Zephyrhills, FL; State
Utility Contractors, Mon-
roe,NC; and Wharton
Smith, Sanford, FL.
The upgrade of the T.J.
Ellison Water Plant will in-
crease the permitted water
treatment capacity from 8
million gallons to 12 million
See HARPER, Page 4
State school chief
tours West School
West School Principal Heather Pagan and Suzie Roberis,
fourth grade teacher welcome Dr. June St. Clair Atkinson,
State Superintendent of Public Instruction to the school.
dave.kmherald@gmail.com
West Elementary, still
in a celebratory mood after
picking up a Blue Ribbon
School title last quarter, had
a few distinguished guests
drop by its campus Thurs-
day to cheer on its success
and share their vision for
education in North Carolina.
The state’s highest edu-
cation official, Dr. June St.
Clair Atkinson, State Super-
intendent for Public Instruc-
tion, joined members of her
staff, a N.C. Board of Edu-
cation member, Cleveland
County Schools Superinten-
dent Dr. Stephen Fisher and
members of the local board
of education to talk up the
school’s success in a tour at
the downtown school that
culminated in a question
and answer session from the
school’s staff.
“You should all feel
great pride by being one of
the five schools in N.C. to
be recognized as a Blue Rib-
bon School,” said Atkinson
of the recent honor, which
spotlights schools across
the nation that have either
achieve very high learning
standards or are making no-
table improvement in clos-
ing the achievement gap.
“It’s gratifying to see the
respect that your students
are showing you,” Atkin-
son said in remarks to the
staff and local school offi-
cials who had gathered in
the school cafeteria follow-
ing the group’s tour of the
school’s classrooms. “It’s
See STATE, Page 4
Faunce property rezoned
Faunce Properties is ex-
panding properties located
at 813 W. King Street, 809
W. King Street and 811
West King Street and the
city council accepted the
recommendation of the
planning board last Tues-
day night and unanimously
rezoned the properties to
conditional use office.
David Faunce, 116 E.
Mountain St., said the new
construction will be a fit
for the community. He said
he responded to lighting
and technical concerns of
neighbors.
Planning Director Steve
Killian said that the plan-
ning board considered the
land development plan of
the city and the office use
development trends in the
area in making the rezon-
ing recommendation. He
said the land development
plan shows residential
in the area of the Faunce
property, however, it is
likely to convert to Office
in a manner that does not
negatively impact the West
End neighborhood. Killian
said that Faunce eliminated
uses that he stated
See FAUNCE, Page 4
Kelly: no time limit
on casino fate
DAVE BLANTON
dave.kmherald @gmail.com
The fate of the multi-
million dollar casino/resort
development planned on a
parcel of land at the inter-
section of I-85 and Dixon
School Road still rests with
a small group of bureaucrats
in Washington, D.C.
An application submit-
ted by the South Caroli-
na-based Catawba Indian
Tribe has been in the hands
of the Bureau of Indian Af-
fairs since September of last
year. The BIA is a part of
the US Department of Inte-
rior.
A long delay in handling
such an application is not
uncommon, according to
Joseph Kelly, a New York-
based attorney who special-
izes in gambling law.
“It can drag on for a
long time," said Kelly, who
teaches Business Law at the
State University of New
York-Buffalo and co-edits
“Gaming Law Review.”
He said that the Bureau
of Indian Affairs is very
careful about covering all
the environmental bases
that comes with putting
land into trust, including
wetlands protection regula-
tions and ensuring compli-
ance with the Endangered
Species Act.
“You can't put a time
limit on it," said Kelly in
a telephone interview last
week.
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