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Volume 78 • Issue 24 • Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Stowe Park Special visits Belmont ALAN HODGE alan.bannernews@gmail.com
One of Belmont’s most beloved icons made a oneday appearance last Wednesday at the Belmont Historical Society museum where it was featured in a WBTV Carolina Camera shoot. The star of the show was the Stowe Park Special, a scaled-down locomotive that pulled several passenger cars on tracks at the park from 1951 until the late 1960s. The engine was built in 1951 by the Miniature Train Co. of Rensselaer, Indiana and supposedly made its debut at Stowe Park at the July 4, 1951 grand opening. A photo from that time shows Robert Stowe, Jr., Miss Belmont Novella Cloninger, NC Governor R. Gregg Cherry, and Harley Gaston Sr., getting set to take a ride on the train at the gala event. During its nearly two decades of service, countless thousands of kids- including this reporter- and grownups enjoyed riding the train on the 300 yards of miniature
Photo by Alan Hodge
See TRAIN, 6A
The fully restored Stowe Park train engine was trucked to the grounds of the Belmont Historical Society museum last week for a Carolina Camera TV segment. Seen with the engine are BHS members John Love and Bob Atterberry.
County budget Discover You hosts Teen Health Fair MH Council approves vote on hold By Alan Hodge
Alan.bannernews@gmail.com
The Gaston County Board of Commissioners met last Thursday and decided to postpone a vote on the FY2013-2014 budget until at least June 27. A public hearing during the meeting saw more than forty people voice opinions on a possible 5.4-cent tax increase. The county’s current tax rate is 83.5 cents per $100 of property. Gaston County Manager Jan Winters’ budget proposal would raise the tax rate to 88.9 cents per $100. The increase is mainly needed to deal with more than $100 million in debt from two school and college bond referendums that voters approved in 2006 and 2007. NC state law requires counties and municipalities to pass at least a preliminary budget by July 1. The commissioner’s June 27 meeting is scheduled for 6pm at the Gaston County Courthouse.
CDF awarded $5,000 grant The Mount Holly Community Development Foundation was recently awarded the Montcross “Forward Together� grant in the amount of $5000. This grant was made possible through the generosity of the Park Sterling Community Fund of the Community Foundation of Gaston County, Inc. and was authorized by the CFGC Executive Committee. The Foundation was excited to accept this award and appreciative to both the Park Sterling Community Fund and the Community Foundation of Gaston County for providing this support to the organization.
Farmers Market serving up fresh food and fun! Fresh food and lots of fun will be on the menu at the Mount Holly Farmer’s Market this summer. The market is open 8am-12 noon until the end of August at 130 S. Main Street in the heart of downtown. Items available include fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, fish, and seafood. Baked goods, flowers, and other items are also part of the scene. Music and cooking demos add to the festive atmosphere. See FARMERS MARKET, 6A
Caromont Health’s Discover You facility at the Mount Holly Municipal Complex was a beehive of activity last Friday during the Teen Health Fair event. Dozens of youths attended the fair including groups from the Bessemer City Boys and Girls Club, Gaston County Boys and Girls Club, Stowe YMCA, and the Teen Wellness Center. The fair was organized by Caromont’s Community Wellness Coordinator Holly Powell. The fair featured a dozen booths set up by divisions of CaroMont Health as well as several Gaston County health and wellness agencies and the Stowe YMCA. Some of the groups represented included Caromont’s Sports and Rehabilitation, Nutritional Services, Wellness Team, Cancer Services, and more. The Teen Wellness Center was also represented at the fair. That group is part of the Gaston County Health Dept. and has sev-
2013-14 budget By Alan Hodge
Alan.bannernews@gmail.com
Photo by Alan Hodge
Dozens of youths from as far away as Bessemer City went to the Caromont Teen Health Fair held Friday at Discover You in Mount Holly. The kids learned about proper eating and other health information. eral locations that can be accessed at www.gastonpublichealth.org. Display tables the teens perused at the fair featured a variety of information on subjects such as
how to make healthy menu selections at restaurants, the dangers of smoking, back health, and inexpensive ways to exercise using See DISCOVER YOU, 7A
Retirement? Who needs retirement? Raymond Karns says ‘not him’ Some folks can’t wait to get away from their job, but 71-year-old Raymond Karns of Belmont couldn’t wait to get back to his. The Karns chronicle kicked off when he moved from Pennsylvania as a teen and eventually ended up working at Ramsey Products in Belmont. After 42 years on the job, the last ten of which saw him in the role of foreman of the chain department, Karns retired in 2005 when he reached 62 years of age and began to pursue one of his passions, fishing, with a vengeance. Karns likes to tell fishing stories and one of his favorites revolves around a fight he had with a blue marlin that sounds like something out of Ernest Hemingway’s famous “Old Man and the Sea� novella. “When I started working at Ramsey, Stirling and Mac were in charge,� Karns said. “Bill, Ramsey’s current president, was in college. Back then Ramsey had access to a deep sea fishing boat. Occasionally, usually on a Friday, some of us would take off for the coast. We would go out sixty or seventy miles and fish, often for days at a time. One time, one of the guys hooked a blue marlin. He wanted me to reel ALAN HODGE
alan.bannernews@gmail.com
it in so I took over. I only weighed 140 pounds at the time and it was hot. It must have been 100 degrees. The other guys were fanning me as I fought the fish. What seemed like hours later, I landed a 12-foot, 247pound marlin. We had some good times.� During his retirement, Karns fished local lakes Raymond Karns and rivers as often as possible. But Karns was also passionate about his work at Ramsey, especially the chain division. “There have been so many different types of chain over the years,� he said. “Some of the newest ones are so small. I’ve also worked on a chain that weighed over 2,000 pounds.� So, after being retired for seven years, the debate in his heart and mind that pitted fishing and lounging against his love of working at Ramsey eventually came to a head- and Karns headed back to work at age 69. “My neighbor and I fished every day for several
The Mount Holly City Council met last week and approved the municipal FY2013-2014 budget. The budget includes a 3 percent COLA raise for city employees. Dependent healthcare coverage will be maintained at the present rate. One current part–time position in the Stormwater Department will be upgraded with the addition of benefits. See MH COUNCIL, 7A
More Duke lawsuits By Alan Hodge Alan.bannernews@gamail.com
The lawsuits concerning Duke Energy’s coal-ash storage procedures, especially at the now-closed Riverbend Steam Station on Mountain Island Lake near Mount Holly, keep coming. Last week saw The Southern Environmental Law Center file suit in Federal Court against Duke Energy for alleged pollution of Mountain Island Lake, the source of drinking water for over 750,000 people in the greater Charlotte area. The suit details how Duke Energy has allegedly discharged toxic metals and other harmful substances See DUKE, 7A
See KARNS, 7A
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