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Volume 78 j Issue 13 j Wednesday, March 27, 2013
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Dr. Martin Murphy named Citizen of the Year By Alan Hodge Editor Alan.bannernews@gmail.com
Photo by Alan Hodge
Former Belmont Mayor Billy Joye (left) is seen presenting the Belmont Historical Society’s Citizen of the Year award to recipient Dr. Martin Murphy at last week’s awards banquet. Murphy was recognized for his many years of volunteerism.
Freightliner cancels layoffs By Alan Hodge Editor Alan.bannernews@gmail.com
Much to the relief of many in the Mount Holly area, the 400 or so layoffs that Freightliner announced earlier this year for its truck manufacturing facility there have been cancelled. The originals numbers called for 405 workers at the Mount Holly plant and another 80 at the Gastonia Components and Logistics facility to be laid off. The message that the layoffs won’t happen here came last week from Freightliner’s parent company Daimler Trucks North American. However, about 380 workers at Freightliner’s Cleveland, N.C. factory in Rowan County are still scheduled to lose their jobs effective April 8. Even so, that number is less than the 715 originally slated for layoffs there. The statement from Daimler Trucks said, “Although the industry is still performing below optimal levels, present order intake and industry leading market share gains have enabled
DTNA to reduce the impact of the potential adjustment.” The layoff reprieve is good news not only for Freightliner workers but the overall Gaston County employment picture–a scene that can use all the help it can get. Non-seasonally adjusted employment figures released last week by the NC Employment Security Commission for January showed the jobless rate in Gaston stuck at 11.1 percent- the same figure as January 2012. In Cleveland County, the unemployment rate has risen over the past twelve months from 10.9 to 11.3 percent. Lincoln County has held steady at 10.8 percent unemployment. Regionally, the CharlotteGastonia-Rock Hill unemployment rate increased to 10 percent in January 2013up from the December 2012 rate of 9.4 percent. The figures released last week showed North Carolina’s unemployment rate at 10.2 percent with every county increasing over December 2012. The national unemployment rate stands at 7.9 percent.
Lewis receives nomination to U.S. Merchant Marines When Dillon Lewis of Mount Holly graduated from East Gaston High last year, he had plans for a military career. Now, he’s one step closer to that goal with a recently announced nomination to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy from the office of U.S. Senator Richard Burr. Lewis was nominated after an application and interview process conducted by Senator Burr’s Academy Selection Committee, which is comprised of military academy graduates, veterans, and community leaders from across the state. Adding icing to the cake, Lewis also received nomina-
“Do something good for someone every day.” Those words by Dr. Martin Murphy at last Tuesday’s Belmont Historical Society’s annual awards banquet not only sum up his personal philosophy but pretty much formed the basis for his being selected as the group’s 2012 Citizen of the Year. The awards banquet and ceremony was held at Park Street United Methodist Church and attended by a large crowd of BHS members, as well as local dignitaries and Murphy family members. The event sponsor was
Wilburn Auto Body. Ted Hall from the Montcross Chamber kicked things off. ‘It is a tremendous honor to stand here,” Hall said. “The Belmont Historical Society has done a tremendous job preserving the history and heritage of our town.” Former Belmont Mayor Billy Joye had the pleasure to introduce Murphy when it came time to bestow the Citizen of the Year honor. “My job is easy,” said Joye, “because Martin Murphy has done many things to help people in Belmont and other areas. To me, he is the epitome of a good Christian man. He is a humble servant to his God, and a devoted servant to his fellow man.” As Joye alluded, Murphy’s vol-
unteer work has taken him from East Belmont to Honduras and a variety of place in between. Murphy has worked extensively with Habitat for Humanity and the Belmont Community Organization where he made food runs to and from the Metrolina Food Bank. A skilled carpenter in addition to his “day job” as a dentist, Murphy helped build or repair storm damaged houses in North Carolina, Mississippi, and Illinois. In addition, Murphy has pitched in at the BHS museum by helping keep the building and grounds tidy. He has also served as past chair of the Gaston County Board of Health and is a board member for Habitat for Humanity of Gaston County. See MURPHY, 3A
Belmont gets a taste of ‘Tinsel Town’ Hallmark Hall of Fame production filmed here to air late spring, early summer It’s 2,402 miles from Belmont to Hollywood but given the fact that a major made for TV movie was shot here over the past few weeks made it seem like a bit of Tinsel Town had landed. The filming that went on was in connection with a Hallmark Hall of Fame production entitled “Shuffleton Barbershop”. The Hallmark anthology series dates back to 1951 and bases it programs on dramatizations of plays, books, and in the case of Belmont, a Norman Rockwell painting of the same name that appeared on the cover of Saturday Evening Post on April 29, 1950. The story starts from that image to three men holding instruments in a small-town barbershop. The plot includes country and western
Photo by Alan Hodge
Film crews turned Belmont into a mini-Hollywood over the past couple of weeks while they were shooting a TV movie for the Hallmark Hall of Fame series. In this photo, equipment was being readied for a scene downtown. musician Trey Cole returning to his hometown and the barbershop where he got his
first haircut following the death of owner Charlie Shuffleton. During his visit Trey
will discover the power of forgiveness, especially See MOVIE, 6A
Gaddis turns the ordinary into beautiful music By Alan Hodge Editor Alan.bannernews@gmail.com
Give 86-year-old Bill Gaddis of Belmont a cigar box, some strings, glue, and a couple of screws and he can make beautiful music pour forth. Actually, Gaddis can take just about any type of scrap wood and use it as the basis for some of the most amazing stringed musical instruments you’ve ever seen. And he crafts them from scratch. “I don’t have any patterns except what’s in my head,” he said. “I saw a picture during the 1980s in a paper of a homemade fiddle and that’s
Bill Gaddis of Belmont handcrafts a wide variety of stringed musical instruments in his home workshop. Gaddis says the designs just pop into his head. Photo by Alan Hodge
See GADDIS, 5A
‘Boys Run Belmont’ The cameras are gone
but the mural remains
By Alan Hodge Editor Alan.bannernews@gmail.com
Dillon Lewis tions from U.S. Senator Kay Hagan and Congresswoman Sue Myrick. Currently, Lewis is enrolled at Greystone Prep School on the campus of Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas. Greystone is a one-year course to prepare candidates for nomination, appointment, and success at See LEWIS, 6A
If you released all the pent up energy in the fourth and fifth grade boys at Belmont Central Elementary at one time it would probably provide enough “go” to power a Supermarine Spitfire fighter plane. Now, thanks to a special afterschool program there, a group of lads are expending some of that propulsion in a positive manner. The program is called “Boys Run Belmont” and it provides not only a chance for the twenty or so participants to blow off steam by circling the on-campus running track, but to also learn positive character traits such as good sportsmanship and overcoming challenges. Boys Run Belmont was the brainchild of parent volunteers Laura Proud and Melanie Andrews. Proud’s son Ryan and Andrews’ son Austin both take part in it. Also on board for the birth of Boys Run Belmont and to provide positive male role models to the lads are assistant See RUNNERS, 5A
By Alan Hodge Editor Alan.bannernews@gmail.com
In 1943 a writer named Betty Smith penned the novel “A Tree Grows In Brooklyn”. Now, in 2013, a tree has grown in downtown Belmont. In just a couple of days. On the side of the Nationwide Insurance building at 9 N. Main Street. And it’s made of paint. Actually, the Belmont tree is in the form of a spectacular mural done by Win-
ston-Salem artist Jennifer O’Kelly. The tree formed part of the backdrop for the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie “Shuffleton Barbershop” that was shot in downtown Belmont over the past several weeks. The great thing is, when the cameras have gone, the mural will remain. “The wall was just bricks and had a ‘heaviness’ to it,” O’Kelly said. “The mural will open and soften it up.” The mural features a large, spreading tree canopy See MURAL, 5A
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