Serving Belmont, Mount Holly, Stanley, Cramerton, and McAdenville
Volume 78 • Issue 15 • Wednesday, April 10, 2013
75¢
New Cramerton high school on target $60 million facility on track to welcome students in August By Alan Hodge Editor Alan.bannernews@gmail.com
“On time and under budget.� That’s how Gaston County Schools Deputy Superintendent Jeff Booker described the $60 million, 277,000 sq. ft. Stuart W. Cramer High School on Lakewood Rd. near Cramerton. Outside, the campus is nearly complete and a 3,000 seat sports stadium in place. There’s also a baseball field, concession building, and field house. Landscaping and road improvements including a large roundabout are done as well. A portion of the 100-acre campus
is set aside as natural area. The main school building itself is impressive and has the aura of a Fortune 500 corporate headquarters. Over 185,000 bricks went into the structure–enough if laid end to end would stretch from Charlotte to Gastonia. Shelco General Contractors has been handling the project that was designed by MBAJ Architecture. According to Booker, construction work will be wrapped up by May 1 and then GCS will take over. One of the first tasks will be moving in truckloads of furniture, computers, and other equipment. GCS has named Audrey Devine to the post of principal at the new
Photo by Alan Hodge
Stuart W. Cramer High is 95 percent finished and will open this coming August. The 277,000 sq. ft. school is chock full of the latest educational aids and is beautiful to boot. school. Other staffing is in the process of being put in place. The first students arriving at Cramer
High this August will be 9th and 10th graders. In 2013-2014 the 11th grade will be added with 12th
graders the following year. The first graduating class will be in
CaroMont ‘rethinking’ new tag line
See NEW HIGH SCHOOL, 5A
Tragic accident claims two young lives By Alan Hodge Alan.bannernnews@gmail.com
By Alan Hodge Alan.bannernews@gmail.com
When CaroMont Health launched its new tag line “Cheat Death� at a news conference last week, it went up like a rocket. However, it only took a few days before public outcry had it come down like a stick. CaroMont had hired Chapel Hill-based branding company Immortology to come up with the Cheat Death slogan. Also announced at the same time was a name change for Gaston Memorial Hospital to CaroMont Regional Medical Center. The 435-bed hospital had been known as Gaston Memorial since 1946. On Friday, members of the Gaston County Board of Commissioners gathered on the courthouse steps to publicly criticize the Cheat Death tag line and hospital rename. Citizens from a variety of backgrounds also expressed dismay at the slogan. “It’s pathetic,� said senior citizen Jerome Sherrill of Mount Holly. “They need to change it right quick.� Sensitive to the criticism, CaroMont has since decided to “rethink� the slogan. “We will pause on the initiative long enough to consider a rallying cry that will unite us and put the attention where it needs to be, providing every man, woman, and child in Gaston County the opportunity to live longer and healthier lives,� CaroMont CEO and president Randal Kelley said in an email to hospital board members. According to Kelley, the whole idea behind the Cheat Death slogan was to draw attention, sharply, to the fact that Gaston was ranked 81st out of North Carolina’s 100 counties in health and to jolt folks into action to do something about it with what he called an “audacious and provocative rallying cry�. With the audacious and provocative rallying cry Cheat Death now reduced to a murmur, the fate of other parts of the CaroMont push to get Gaston County residents on a healthier track is still to be decided. These ideas included health kits that could be distributed in schools, businesses, and churches. Also part of the initial plan was a program where CaroMont would work with local gyms and restaurants on health initiatives. CaroMont also had its 4,000 employees sign an oath to “provide each resident of Gaston County with every opportunity to cheat death so they may live healthier, better, and longer life.�
Photo by Alan Hodge
CaroMont Health’s Discover You Phase II is now open in the Mount Holly Municipal Complex. Lacey Graham, 4, Garrett Davis 7, and Michael Graham, 5, were visiting the site and learning about good nutrition.
Discover You phase II opens By Alan Hodge Alan.bannernews@gmail.com
Phase II of CaroMont Health’s Discover You facility in the Mount Holly Municipal Complex is now open and will put into practical application many of the healthy nutrition concepts provided by the interactive exhibits already in place in Phase I. “Phase II will bring educational programs to Discover You so people can learn about healthy lifestyle choices,� said CaroMont Health Wellness Director Debbie Bellenger. Phase II is equipped with a
large kitchen and a full array of appliances such as ovens, refrigerator and freezer, plenty of countertop space, and stainless steel sinks. There’s even a large grill set in an island with an overhead vent hood. The room can be configured for different events via a folding divider. “The teaching kitchen and community room in Phase II can be used for cooking classes, wellness lectures, lunch and learn sessions, or mini-exercises classes,� she said. “It will also be available for rent to individuals and groups.� Phase II of Discover You is the natural extension of the
touch technology interactive exhibits in the 50,000 sq. ft. Phase I that include everything from a blood oxygen level sensor to a large heart model that matches its beat to the patron’s pulse. Other exhibits educate and entertain visitors in subjects ranging from respiration to relaxation. On a recent morning, sevenyear-old Garrett Davis of Charlotte was visiting Discover You with four-year-old Lacey Graham, and five-year-old Michael Graham. The kids were having fun looking at and interacting See DISCOVER YOU, 5A
Two Stanley-area children lost their lives Sunday afternoon when a construction site hole they were playing in collapsed on top of them. Larry Seagle of the Lincoln Co. Sheriff’s Department said the bodies of the children, identified as James Levi Caldwell, 7, of the 5800 block of Cedarbrook Court, Stanley, and Chloe Jade Arwood, 6, of the 600 block of Westway Drive, Gastonia, were recovered between 6 and 7 a.m. Monday morning. The children were cousins. The hole was where a basement for a new home was being dug and was about 20 feet deep. The site where the accident occurred is on Cedarbrook Court in the Lucia community about five miles northeast of Stanley, off Hines Circle Road near Old Plank Rd. See ACCIDENT, 5A
Million Mile Challenge By Alan Hodge Alan.bannernews@gmail.com
Mountain Island Charter School breaks ground Contributed Photo
Ground was broken recently for the new Mountain Island Charter School near Mount Holly. Pictured below (left to right) are the Founding Board of Trustees members J.J. McEachern, Debbie Coble, Bobby Spivey, Ann Blomquist, and Kelly Pledger. Head of School Linda Bratcher is pictured on the far right. See the story on page 6A.
To the moon and back twice is more or less a million miles and that’s the distance a group of folks in Belmont is aiming to get people to pedal, walk, or run all in the name of fitness and community spirit. It’s called the Million Mile Challenge and city councilman Bill Toole is one of the group that also includes assistant city manager Adrian Miller, Parks and Recreation events coordinator Reba Edwards, police officer Cpl. Doug Huffstetler, and South Main Cycles owner Steve Pepitone, who put their heads together and thought up the concept. “Our specific goal for the Million Mile Challenge is for our community–the folks in the towns along the two rivers of the South Fork and Catawba–to log a million miles of physical activity See CHALLENGE, 5A
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