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Volume 78 • Issue 38 • Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Serving Belmont, Mount Holly, Stanley, Cramerton, and McAdenville
Couple charged with child endangerment
Remembering Reid High School
Belmont couple charged for endangerment, suspected drug lab
Reid High School on Sacco Street in Belmont may have been torn down in 1966, but its memory has never been erased from the hearts and minds of its former students. That fact was clearly evident on Sept. 7 when over 100 folks gathered at the corner of Sacco and Cedar streets, where Reid High had once stood, to honor its memory with the dedication of a roadside historical marker. The event was attended by Reid community folks of all ages, dignitaries, and many who had attended the school during its years of operation that began in 1918. Reid School, as it would become known was started just after WWI in a small building on Sacco St. The first principal was Charles Jessie Reid. It was the school where local African-American children were educated. Students that attended Reid School came from as far away as South Gastonia. Some walked as far as five miles to attend classes. Others rode in an old vehicle that had been converted into a makeshift bus. Reid School grew and by the 1940s was expanded to include high school grades. The school sports nickname and mascot was the Rams, and students excelled on and off the athletic field. Graduates included artist Juan Logan, political activist Ron
A Belmont man and woman were arrested for endangering a young child while running a suspected methamphetamine lab from their home at 817 Gaston Avenue Ext. in Belmont. Belmont Police Chief Charlie Franklin said that the lab was discovered Thursday night, when investigators went out to the residence for a “knock and talk� interview along with a Kimberly Hall Gaston County DSS case worker. Gaston County DSS was there to investigate a complaint of a 3year-old child being in the house while meth was being cooked. After making contact with the residents, Belmont officers obtained consent to search the home. A 3-yearold boy along with a 51- Robin Rhyne Jr. year-old woman and 27-year-old man lived in the home. During that search police discovered equipment and the precursor over the counter medications necessary to make methamphetamine. This led officers to believe that the residence was being used to manufacture the drug. The Belmont Criminal Investigations Division (CID) along with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations and the Gaston County Police Department executed a search to process the scene. Further evidence associated with the manufacturing of methamphetamine was found. As a result of the investigation Belmont police arrested Robin Rhyne Jr., 27, and Kimberly Hall, 51, both of 817 Gaston Ave. Ext. The pair were charged with an assortment of felony charges associated with the possession and manufacturing of methamphetamine. They were also charged with misdemeanor child abuse in connection to the presence of a child in an alleged meth lab. Rhyne was placed in the Gaston County Jail under a 100,000 secured bond. Hall received a $60,000 bond.
MH Historical Society alive and well Audio visual and oral presentations were the main focus of the Sept. 9 Mount Holly city council meeting. Chelsea Bailey, who interned this summer with the City of Mount Holly and is a senior Broadcast Media major at North Greenville University as well as the granddaughter of councilmember Carolyn Breyare, showed several examples of promotional videos she had created for and in the municipality. “This summer, I created promotional brochures, took pictures, and made marketing videos for the City,� Bailey said. They will be displayed on the city website soon. I also took pictures around Mount Holly and in the various city departments.� Bailey showed the council three videos she had created. The first featured “slice of life� segments in Mount Holly such as the downtown area, rail lights flashing, shops, parks, and people generally enjoying a swell lifestyle. Bailey’s second video featured local shop and other See COUNCIL, 5A
ALAN HODGE alan.bannernews@gmail.com
Leeper, Belmont civic leader Elsie Grier, and many more. When schools were integrated in 1966, Reid High was closed and its students sent
to Belmont High. Not long after, Reid High was demolished. But the legacy of Reid High was strong. See REID HS, 3A
A new life for an old mill ALAN HODGE alan.bannernews@gmail.com
Thanks to the vision of John Church, CEO of Waterstone Asset Management and Church Realty, new life is likely going to be breathed into Belmont’s oldest cotton mill. Located on Catawba St., the 110,000 sq. ft. Chronicle Mill was built in 1901 by R.L. Stowe and other investors. Workers who laid the bricks for the imposing three-story structure earned $1.75 for every thousand they put down. Timber and other lumber used in the building cost $13 per thousand board feet delivered to the site. The mill’s name was chosen to honor a Revolutionary War patriot from Gaston County, Major William Chronicle, who had lived near the mill site and was killed in the Battle of King’s Mountain in October 1780. The first bale of cotton was fed into the Chronicle Mill’s steam-powered machinery on Feb. 28, 1902. By 1908, the mill
Photo by Alan Hodge
Developer John Church has purchased the 1901 Chronicle Mill in Belmont and is in the process of determining which direction he will go in regarding its use. In this photo he’s seen looking out one of the original windows. was powered by electricity, a move that doubled production. In time, countless cones of cot-
ton thread would be spun at the Chronicle Mill until it finally shut down a couple of years
ago. Following its closing, the See OLD MILL, 6A
Aftermath of Hugo not forgotten By Alan Hodge Alan.bannernews@gmail.com
It’s been nearly a quarter century since Hurricane Hugo pounded the Piedmont on Sept. 22, 1989, but the memory of that meteorological mayhem is preserved in the Belmont Banner and Mount Holly News archival volumes and their on-the-spot reporting of the storm, the cleanup, and how local folks pulled together to recover from the disaster. The first edition of the Banner to come out after Hugo was dated Sept. 27. In the five days since the storm, staff members had fanned out across the local landscape photographing the devastation and interviewing folks. The entire region, including Gaston County, had been declared a disaster area by President Bush. The first image folks saw on the front
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of Stanley
Photo by Alan Hodge
This historical marker to Reid High on Sacco St. was officially dedicated on Sept. 7 with a ceremony that included many dignitaries and alumni.
page of the Banner was the home of Barbara Taylor in North Belmont that had been
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smashed by a large tree. Other photos See HUGO, 6A
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