Pigskin Picks...
Serving Belmont, Mount Holly, Stanley, Cramerton, and McAdenville
Volume 78 • Issue 36 • Wednesday, September 4, 2013
75¢
On the beat Mount Holly police renew focus on foot patrol
Photo by Alan Hodge
Eloise Potts and all the other ladies at Charlie’s Drugs in Mount Holly appreciate what police officers like Thomas Bell and his colleagues are doing with their downtown foot patrols. ALAN HODGE alan.bannernews@gmail.com
The Mount Holly Police Department is giving a personal touch to its presence downtown with a
renewed focus on foot patrols and visits to businesses- and the response by merchants and shoppers has been enthusiastic. Chief Don Roper wanted to let folks in the downtown area know
his officers were there for them. “I would say that the officers have been doing foot patrols for some time, but I wanted to place a renewed emphasis on them,� said See MH POLICE, 5A
Manhunt in Stanley leads to arrest By Alan Hodge Alan.bannernews@gmail.com
A Mount Holly man was arrested Sunday evening after a seven hour manhunt. Rodney James Helton Jr., 21, was captured near the Creek Walk subdivision off Hickory Grve Rd. near Stanley around 8:30pm. He has been charged with rape, kidnapping, and attempted murder.
According to Gaston County Police, The incident began around 1:30 when police received a call from Helton’s grandmother who said he had a woman tied up. Helton then left the house on Family Lane with the woman in her car. The woman and her car were found in the Creek Walk neighborhood. The woman Rodney Helton See MANHUNT, 2A
St. Joseph’s has strong roots Photo by Alan Hodge
The roots of Gaston County Catholicism, including Belmont Abbey, can be traced to St. Joseph’s church near Mount Holly. Constructed circa 1843, it’s the fourth oldest Catholic church in North Carolina and the first one built west of Raleigh. This is the original building.
Photo by Scott Sherrill
Artist Jan Craft stands in front of her new sculpture which graces the Lakewood Road roundabout near Stuart Cramer High and Cramerton. The sculpture features stylized letters “SC� and stands nearly 30-feet tall.
Sculpture goes up ALAN HODGE alan.bannernews@gmail.com
Drivers negotiating the Lakewood Rd. roundabout in front of Stuart Cramer High slowed to a crawl and gawked Thursday morning as crews erected the new piece of public art that was put in place there. The 29-foot-tall metal sculpture was designed by artist Jan Craft using an idea from the Cramerton Beautification Committee as a jumping off point. It features a silver colored center spire and two large triangular pieces of black metal forming a stylized “SC� motif- the initials of Stuart Cramer. Craft turned to Steel Specialty Inc. in Belmont to cut, roll, bend,
weld, sandblast, paint, and to simply house the piece for approximately two months while under construction. “It was so exciting to go by and check on the construction and progress of the piece,� Craft said. “I would stop in with my camera several days a week to document the progress and just to look at the scale of it all. The guys in the office and the shop would call me with questions once in a while and I would stop in and make decisions as they came up.� The office connection at SSI was Ed Reese, and Scott Mauldin. The shop connection was Larry Bashaw. “They were so great to work with. See SCULPTURE, 5A
Recycling made easy By Alan Hodge Alan.bannernews@gmail.com
By Alan Hodge Alan.bannernews@gmail.com
A couple of weeks ago, hundreds of students returned to Belmont Abbey College to start a new school year, but what most of them, as well as many other folks, aren’t aware of is that the roots of Catholicism in our area can be traced to a little white church
building located just outside of Mount Holly at the intersection of NC273 and Sandy Ford Rd. St. Joseph’s Catholic Church is the name of the 30x40 foot building that dates to 1843 and is not only the fourth oldest church of that denomination in North Carolina, but the first one built west of Raleigh. The first Catholic church in the state was built in New Bern in 1830 by the family of William Gaston, the man that Gaston County is named for and the composer of our official NC anthem, “The Old North State�. This was followed by Catholic churches in Fayetteville (1832) and Raleigh
(1834). St. Joseph’s was built to serve the Irish miners who were in Gaston County looking for gold. They had come here to work for an Italian gent named Chevalier Riva de Finola and prior to the church’s construction had used his home as a place of worship. After de Finola met with financial setbacks, he moved out of the Gaston County and the miners were without a place to worship. Thus was born the need for a Catholic church near what would eventually be Mount Holly. A driving force behind the building of St. Joseph’s was Father See ST JOSEPH’S, 5A
Paul Bunyan may have had a big blue ox, but the City of Mount Holly now has some big blue recycling bins and effective Oct. 7, the municipality will use them to pick up recycled items from businesses. Waste Management will partner with the City of Mount Holly in the program. Mike Santmire, director of streets and solid waste, gave the city council a report last week on the business recycling program and its rules and regulations. “While this is a mandatory program, it requires voluntary participation from businesses,� Santmire said. The guidelines will be similar to Mount Holly’s residential program, Each recycle container user/business will be charged a fee of three dollars per container per month, billed to the water bill. Recycling will be collected Monday through Friday on a bi-weekly scheduled route on the customer’s normal col-
lection day. According to Santmire, all affected businesses in Mount Holly will be given printed information on the program. “Recycle containers will be delivered Sept. 30 or Oct. 1,� he said. “The first collection of recyclables will be the week of Oct. 7.� The containers hold 95 gallons and are bright blue in color. All businesses and churches in Mount Holly that receive refuse collection will get one of the big blue bins. The blue containers will be used for recycling only. They must be placed at the curb no later than 7am the day of pickup. Recyclables not placed in the bins will be considered improperly prepared for collection. Corrugated cardboard should be “broken down� for placement in the bins. After pickup, the bins must be removed from the curb by midnight of that day. Items that will be accepted include plastic bottles, jugs, and See RECYCLING, 4A
Call us today at 704.263.4646 of Stanley
Open Monday - Friday • Located on Hwy 27 South in Stanley - across from Food Lion