Serving Belmont, Mount Holly, Stanley, Cramerton, and McAdenville
Volume 78 • Issue 12 • Wednesday, March 20, 2013
75¢
Soccer facility is a first for Belmont By Alan Hodge Editor Alan.bannernews@gmail.com
Ground was broken on March 14 for the new Ebb Gantt Soccer Park on Brook Street in East Belmont. A group of local officials, sports coaches past and present who knew Gantt, members of his family, and interested citizens showed up to see the first shovels of dirt dug up. Even though Gantt passed away in 1999, he left a deep and lasting sports legacy in Belmont. “I am so excited to break ground on this new park,” said Belmont Mayor Richard Boyce. “It’s fitting we put Ebb Gantt’s name on it. I can’t imagine a better memorial.”
The soccer facility is the first of its type in Belmont and the first totally new park in town in four decades. “It’s high time we built something new and this land is perfect for it,” Boyce said. Ground clearing by heavy equipment was actually going on as the dignitaries were turning the first shovelfuls of earth at the ceremony. A finish date of mid-November 2013 has been set. Morlando Construction will do the work. Several members of Gantt’s family were on hand for the groundbreaking. His daughter Kathy Gantt Gallagher came
from Salisbury to attend the event. “My father would be honored,” she said. “The one thing that got him on the right track was sports.” Gallagher See GANTT, 6A
Photo by Alan Hodge
Dave Robinson was at the groundbreaking last week for the new soccer park on Brook Street that’s named for Ebb Gantt. The shirt Robinson had on was from an October 1990 gathering of Gantt’s friends at the American Legion building in Belmont.
$10.6M in Bridge work progressing on schedule upgrades proposed By Alan Hodge Editor
Alan.bannernews@gmail.com
Task force security suggestions range from simple to complex By Alan Hodge Editor Alan.bannernews@gmail.com
A task force consisting of parents, law enforcement and staff from Gaston County Schools released its findings last week concerning possible security upgrades, and the cost of nearly $10.6 million associated with them, to the system’s 55 schools. The task force was formed following the shootings in December 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Subjects the task force examined included mental health, school facilities, training, and personnel. The group made a number of proposals both complex and simple. The ideas will be reviewed by Reeve McGlohon, Gaston County Schools superintendent, as well as Gaston County Police Chief James Buie. School board members got their first look at the improvements list at their meeting Monday. “The recommendations were presented for informational purposes only at this point,” said Gaston County Schools spokesperson Bonnie Reidy. “When they will be acted on has not been set.” The first taskforce suggestion would increase front lobby security by having lobby doors activated by school staff via remote control. “Buzzing” visitors in like this would need upgrades to doors and locks, as well as construction or office relocation at some schools and could cost around $2 million. Other ideas that are being considered start with having sworn police officers on duty at elementary schools at a cost that could approach $1 million. For secondary schools, the task force recommends having a security person for each 800 students on site at a total cost of around $200,000. The task force included intercom upgrades as well as “panic button” installations that would allow staff to announce lockdowns and also communicate more effectively with law enforcement. The price tag for these improvements could amount to $300,000. To better keep an eye on what is going on in and around schools, the task force suggested installation of cameras and video recording equipment inside and outside of buildings and on campus. This would come at a cost of nearly $2 million. Another big ticket item on the task force’s list at a possible cost of $2.4 million would be improvements to outside doors in the form of better locks or door replacement with an alarm system when breached. Fences between school buildings and better security for mobile units would also be in this package. See UPGRADES, 5A
Crews from the NCDOT and several construction companies have been working like beavers on the new Dawson Bridge on Lakewood Road over the South Fork River in Cramerton. Last Friday saw the first support for the 440-foot long bridge filled with concrete and equipment was in place to bore and fill the other two seven-foot in diameter supports. The new $1.4 million structure is replacing the 1952 bridge on that was named in honor of textile leader C. Claudius Dawson. Plans are for the new bridge to open for traffic in April 2014. Mike Rowland with the NCDOT has been on the work site since the project was started last October. “The project is going well,” Rowland Photo by Alan Hodge said. “There are as many as twenty workers Work continues at a good clip on the new Dawson Bridge in Cramerton. Crews poured conon the job.” crete into forms for the first supports on Friday and were preparing bore holes for the other The bridge construction site is a busy one two which will hold up the 440-foot long structure when it is completed. with a wide variety of heavy equipment ei“We can take the cores and crush them ther staged or in action on both sides of the deep into the bedrock below the river botSouth Fork. One piece of machinery is using tom. The resulting cores of grey stone will for rip-rap,” said Rowland. “We can use a carbide drill bit as big around as a large likely be used on the riverbank to control kitchen table to bore the bridge support holes runoff. See BRIDGE, 6A
Local catholics embrace Francis as their new Pope
Jack Page shows some of the equipment he uses in his search for local gold. The green pan in the box contains gold he found near an abandoned mine south of Belmont.
By Alan Hodge Editor Alan.bannernews@gmail.com
Local members of the Roman Catholic Church joined hundreds of millions of others worldwide last Wednesday in celebrating the naming of a new pope to replace Benedict XVI who stepped down recently due to health issues. “I was delighted by the news of the election of Pope Francis,” said Belmont Abbey Abbot Placid Solari. “And by the way he asked the prayers of the people in St. Peter’s Square, representing the whole church, before he imparted his blessing to them. The whole process, from the resignation of Pope Benedict, through the meetings of the cardinals before the conclave, to the election of Pope Francis was a wonderful sign of the vitality of the church.” Father Frank Cancro of Queen of the Apostles Catholic Church in Belmont was equally delighted. “I am very excited and grateful to God to give us this gift,” he said. Belmont city council member Charlie Martin, who attends Mass at Belmont Abbey with his wife Dot, was also glad to hear the news that Francis had been named pope. “It’s wonderful he’s from the Americas,” Martin said. “He is a brilliant, humble, and charitable man.” Ronald Thomas is a professor of Theology at Belmont Abbey and shared his opinion of the new pontiff.
Is there still gold in these hills?
Photo by Alan Hodge
Pope Francis greets worshipers in St. Peter’s Square in Rome upon his acceptance to the seat at the head of the Roman Catholic church. “In Pope Francis, we have a man of great charity, humility, and determination,” said Thomas. “He is a reformer, because he has defended the Church’s sexual morality in the face of great opposition in Argentina—opposing both homosexual “marriage” and the adoption of children by homosexuals. He is also a pastor— with great love of the poor and a deep sense that the Church is not a social service organization, but a living organism, the very body of Christ. All in all, in continuity with both John Paul II and Benedict XVI, Pope Francis is clear that the message of the Church is not, in any way, “Go Along to Get Along.” The new pontiff, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 76, is the 266th pope. He is the first pope to choose that title. He is also the first non-European pope in over 1,200 years and the first See POPE FRANCIS, 6A
By Alan Hodge Editor Alan.bannernews@gmail.com
Long before the great California gold rush of 1849, our area was part of the top gold producing region in America. In fact, from 1860 until the Civil War, gold mining was along with farming one of the primary occupations not only in Gaston and Cleveland counties, but
across the North Carolina Piedmont in general. So much gold was found in our local area that a branch of the U.S. Mint was set up in Charlotte in 1836 to handle it. As early as the 1700s there were a number of gold producing mines in Belmont, Mount Holly, Stanley, Cherryville, and Kings Mountain. Belmont’s gold mining story See GOLD, 5A
Canoe a labor of love By Alan Hodge Editor Alan.bannernews@gmail.com
Chris Sorrentino and Reid Coluccio of TRC Automotive in Belmont usually turn wrenches for a living, but lately their thoughts have been turning to something they are creating that will soon have them gliding along sparkling waters. The project the guys have been working on is a one-of-akind canoe. Now, this isn’t just
an ordinary canoe of the plastic or aluminum variety, but a 21foot long craft resembling a Native American war canoe or even a small Viking boat- and they’re building it one strip of wood at a time. “We saw a similar canoe online,” said Coluccio. “Then we got a book that explained how to build it and set to work.” The basic principle that Sorrentino and Coluccio are employing consists of gluing and See CANOE, 5A
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