NCPA A ward
Winninfr Newspaper
KJMflS^MOUtlTA’W
MIRROR-HEmD
15
VOL. I
NO. 43
Cleveland County's yUtdern Newsweekly"
KINGS MOUNTAIN, NORTH CAROLINA 28086 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30,1975
Polls Open 6:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m.
City Runoff, School Board Elections
it Armory, Community Center Tuesday
By TOM McIntyre
Editor, Mirror-Herald
About half of the 2,200-plus voters who
urned out for the Oct. 7 municipal elec-
ion are expected to return to the polls
ex(Tuesday (Nov. 4) for the runoff elec-
ion.
Kings Mountians will select six com-
lissioners to serve four and two year
ms in city government and two trus
ses for the Kings Mountain District
chools Board of Education.
A even dozen candidates seek the six
ommissioner seats while six candidates
iefor the two educational trusteeships.
Candidates for the city commission are
Ray Cline and Jim Childers (district one)
W. S. Biddix and Humes Houston (two),
Corbet Nicholson and James Guyton
(three), Norman King and Don McAbee
(four), James Amos and Bill Grissom
(five) and James Dickey and Fred
Wright Jr. (six).
Candidates in the local school board
race are Charles F. Mauney, Kyle Smith,
Herman Greene, Mrs. June Lee, William
Orr and Mrs. Marion Thomasson.
The local voters will again cast ballots
in only two polling placra; the National
Guard Armory in West Kings Mountain
and the community center in East KM.
Voters living in districts one, two and
three vote at the community center while
those in districts four, five and six go to
the armory.
However, because the Cleveland
County Board of Elections, which will
conduct the board of education election
next Tuesday, has yet to adopt the same
boundary lines as the local elections
board, some voters will have to go to both
the community center and the armory to
vote for commissioners and school board
trustees.
According to Luther Bennett, KM elec
tions board chairman, the voters on cer
tain streets now in district one because of
the district line changes must cast ballots
at both precincts.
“These voters were in district five until
the boundary line was changed to more
equalize voter numbers,” Bennett said.
“And as yet the county has not officially
adopted the same lines as the city. How
ever, the county expects to do so for
future elections.”
Residents on the following streets will
vote for the city commissioners at the
community center and school trustees at
the armory:
Cansler, Tracy, Oak, Pine, Elm, Haw
thorne Rd., Joyce, Meadowbrook Rd.,
Oakland, Hillside Dr., Marion, Chestnut,
Crescent Cir. and residents in the 100
through 400 block of Mountain and Gold
Sts.
This applies to those above-mentioned
residents now considered in district one.
Voters will be given two ballots next
Tuesday, one for the city commission and
one for the school board trustees.
The polls will be open from 6:30 a. m.
until 7:30 p. m.
Election headquarters for next Tues
day’s runoff and school board elections
will be at The Mirror-Herald offices on S.
Piedmont.
And again The Mirror-Herald will be in
the mails and on the street Wednesday
More Election News &
Photos On Page 4A
morning with complete election returns
from Tuesday’s balloting. With the day
early publication date all deadlines will
be moved back one day than usual. All
social items must be in Monday morning
and all news and sports items by Tuesday
morning.
Likewise, The Mirror-Herald ad
vertising department will be making
calls earlier than usual to observe the
early deadlines.
Hard Line Approach
New Thrust Seen
In CBD Plannin
FIRST SHOVEFUL OF EARTH — Mayor John H. Moss
the first shovelful of earth on the site for the proposed
ity fire department museum on Cleveland Ave. Behind the
mayor is Rev. L. D. Scruggs, fire department chaplain. From
Photo By Tom McIntyre
left to right in the background are Sen. Ollie Harris and
Commissioners James Amos, M. C. Pruette, Lloyd Davis, Don
McAbee, Ray Cline and Corbet Nicholson. Also Fire Chief
Gene Tignor and Assistant Fire Chief C. E. Ware.
Groundbreaking Held
For City Fire Museum
ByTOMMcINTYRE
Editor, Mirror-Herald
Monday night the city com-
feioners approved the use
fl05 by 130 feet of property to
we a city fire department
Num and threw in $1,000
Fard the estimated $3,500
price tag for the project.
ITuesday morning Mayor
,™H. Moss, commissioners,
"temen and interested citi
es gathered on the site
the community center
“ong Cleveland Ave. to hold
c^ficial groundbreaking
ca'eniony.
jjlie city’s 25 paid and volun-
f firemen began digging
® foundation tor the 30 by 30
structure Tuesday after-
ftin,
l^e idea of a museum to
bygone fire-
, '"g was born during
I f^®''6rsation between Fire
Chief Gene. Tignor and volun
teer firefighter Jerry White
while they were trying to de
cide what to do with the city’s
1938 Ford fire truck.
It was suggested the truck
be parked at the community
center where it could be seen
and at that point the two men
were riding past the very spot
where the ground was broken
Tuesday for the museum.
“Why don’t we build a
museum and put all kinds of
old firefighting apparatus on
display,” White asked Tignor.
That was two weeks ago. It
was a “spur of the moment
thing,” according to White.
But the idea caught fire and
the firemen sat down to dis
cuss what would be involved,
devised a plan for the building
and got an estimate on the
cost, if the firemen them
selves did the actual labor.
The square building will
have large windows on three
sides and large doors for
placing relics on display in
side. The first relic to grace
the museum when it is fin
ished will be the 1938 fire
truck, which has been re
stored to full operating
capacity by the firemen over
the past year or so. The old
Ford was the first fire truck
the city fire department
bought.
“We’ll also place on display
the hats worn by the city’s
four fire chiefs,” Tignor said,
“along with their pictures.
We’ll have other firefighting
apparatus, now outdated, on
display.”
“The first fire fought by the
city’s department was at 2 a.
m. on May 22, 1931,” White
said.
(Turn ToPage3A)
By TOM McINTYRE
Editor, Mirror-Herald
Meeting informally Wed
nesday morning the city’s
downtown revitalization and
development committee took
some hard lines of approach to
the problem of bringing life
back into the central business
district.
Chairman Charles Blanton
appointed two committees be
fore the 90 minute meeting ad
journed; the first to visit Rob
ert M. Yoder for discussion on
use of the old Winn-Dixie
building, and the second to de
velopment ideas for raising
funds to pay a fulltime
promoter of the downtown
business community.
William Fulton, Charles F.
Mauney and Mayor John
Henry Moss will serve as the
first committee, with Wilson
Griffin in an advisory position.
Paul Walker, David Plonk and
Odus Smith will serve as the
second committee.
The main theme of Wednes
day’s meeting was en
thusiasm, solid unity and pro
gress and all were tied to the
unspoken, underlying theme
known as survival.
In his opening remarks
Blanton said, “Redevelop
ment in Kings Mountain has
been slow. Maybe slower than
in other communities. Any
progress made has come in
spurts over the past eight or
nine years. But, there has
been little participation from
all of the businessmen in
volved and we’ve never had a
coordinated plan. But now, I
think the tearing down and the
paperwork are mostly behind
us. The city is ready to move
and we should be right along
with it.”
Mayor Moss commented
that the city government and
the downtown businessmen
are going to have to generate
enthusiasm and make sure
there is harmony in thought on
the project.
“We read about other
communities revitalizing
business districts,” the mayor
said, “and maybe we tend to
feel that other people are
more imaginative than we
are. Well, that isn’t true.
People in those other com
munities are no smarter, no
more imaginative than the
people here and their capabili
ties and potential are no
greater than ours.
“Kings Mountain has grown
to a size to support more
professional p)eople,” Mayor
Moss continued. “We have
room for more diversified
business, large and small. It’s
a matter of pulling together to
bring them in.”
From the meeting came the
idea that a food store located
in the downtown area is top
priority to create more traffic
flow in the business area. The
city’s proposed parking lot
with 76 spaces, pedestrian
walks and underground
utilities, it is felt, will be
another drawing card for the
downtown area.
For almost two years Ox
ford has maintained a ware
house in the old Winn-Dixie
building off Cherokee St. It
was then and is now a sore
spot as far as the downtown
merchants are concerned.
Wednesday Blanton said he
would draft a letter asking the
city commissioners to enforce
the city codes, which prohibits
(Turn ToPagelOA)
Board Purchases
New Equipment
City Commissioners made
quick work of a short agenda
Monday night as they ap
proved purchase of equipment
for the city’s electrical and
sanitation departments.
Following a reading of the
bids from three separate
TTie museum will also house I firms on a wood chippjer, a
p)hotographs of early day fire- contract was awarded Safety
fighters and equipment and
from the three or four large
full scale fires fought by the
local department since it’s
formal creation.
Test and Equipment Co., Inc.
of Shelby.
The new piece of equipment
will be capable of grinding
logs up to seven inches in
At Least Two Years
Bypass Delayed Again
L, J'^'^Lion of the Kings
S. Highway 74
to delayed
~ time for two
Uyth7 , ^'ghway officials
knJ ‘^'^tinuing right-
acquisition.
Anderson of the N.
^^test delay came
Nolinp , '■e'^enues from
to
' 'ne anticipated in
come, thus, many projects
had to be delayed.
“We just (ton’t have the
money to build all the high
ways we had planned,” he
said, “so we had to delay
some; not cancel them but
delay them.”
Mayor John Moss said
Kings Mountain can live with
the problem as long as rights-
of-way acquisitions are not
delayed.
“I don’t like the decision,”
Moss said, “but my main con
cern is that Kings Mountain
residents who live in the path
of the bypass are not incon
venienced by an undue wait.
Delaying rights-of-way work
would work a hardship on
these people.”
According to the highway
department, from 13,500 to
20,000 cars travel the Kings
Mountain route daily. 'The
department considers that
“very heavy” traffic for a
two-lane highway.
The new bypass will not
completely avoid the town,
and Moss said that pleases
him.
“We want the bypass to
relieve traffic congestion in
the center of town,” he said,
“but we want it close enough
that it will still serve the
town.”
Cost of the Kings Mountain
project is estimated at $20
million. The federal govern
ment will pay 70 percent of the
cost.
diameter into chips. Dutch
Wilson, superintendent of the
electrical department, told
commissioners the “machine
can be put to use immediately
and we can store the chips and
later make them available
through sales to the citizens.”
Wilson said purchase of the
unit, at $4,365, will save
hauling about 15 truck loads
daily of limbs to the county
dump.
Commissioners also
awarded a contract to Goin
Equipment Sales, Inc. for two
satellite garbage pickup carts
at $4,491.06 each for a total of
$8,982.12.
The carts will be delivered
in three to four weeks.
Public Works Director
Black Leonard said the carts
will increase the number of
garbage pickups per week and
will be tested for a two week
period to see if the city can re
turn to at least two complete
pickups all over town per
week.
Commissioner M. C. Pruette
asked if there were warranties
on the carts and City Clerk Joe
McDaniel said warranties
were not outlined in the
specifications released to bid
ders.
(Turn ToPage9A)
Photo By Gary Stewart
RESTING UP — This spooky skeleton is Kings Mountain. He was caught taking it easy
taking it easy right now, but he’s just resting in the front lawn of the Vernon Smiths on
up for Halloween night when he’ll be scareing a Rhodes Avenue,
lot of trick or treaters in the Linwood section of