Kings Mountain Truth

Kings Mountain Truth Dedicated to truth, accountability and public awareness in the City of Kings Mountain by Mark Wood

10/20/2024

Are you ok with concrete batch plant in your neighborhood?

10/20/2024

**🚨 Say NO to Concrete Batch Plants in Kings Mountain! 🚨**

On October 29th, the City of KM will hold a public hearing and then vote on a zoning UDO text amendment to allow concrete batch plants to be constructed in many areas of our city. During a recent city council meeting, KM Planning Director, Henry Earle, gave a presentation regarding the negative effects of this zoning text amendment as well as alternatives to help minimize the hazardous public health & environmental dangers that these plants pose. We commend Mr. Earle for his thorough research and for looking out for the health & safety of the citizens of Kings Mountain. Our own planning board voted unanimously "in favor" of this zoning change that could potentially put 25 concrete batch plant sites within Kings Mountain's city limits and/or ETJ. When asked on their application why they're applying for this UDO text amendment, the applicant stated, "To reduce delivery times and cost."

🚨**Is it worth health complications in our children and elderly so a private company can "reduce their cost?" There are other batch plants in the area that can handily supply concrete needs.

🚨**Do we want to add 150 concrete trucks per day rolling down our city streets?

🚨**What benefit will the city receive from this concrete batch plant, including if it's constructed in the ETJ?

🚨**If you are in favor of the plant in KM, should we require additional safeguards to protect our health & environment? (Of course, the representative for the batch plant states these additional safeguards are not necessary)

**Council members Annie Thombs and Shearra Miller are commended for questioning this UDO text amendment and suggesting these requests may be better served via a Special Use Permit.

Concrete batch plants pose serious risks to our health and environment. These plants release harmful pollutants like particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which can cause respiratory issues, heart disease, and even cancer. According to the **EPA**, fine particles from these plants are small enough to get deep into the lungs, posing significant risks, especially to children, the elderly, and those with pre-existing health conditions.

Beyond health, these plants also degrade air quality, contribute to noise pollution, and increase heavy truck traffic—making our streets less safe. Our community deserves clean air, safe roads, and a better quality of life. 🌳

Let’s urge our City Council to prioritize public health and protect our environment by rejecting the establishment of concrete batch plants in our neighborhoods. Together, we can ensure a safer, healthier future for our families. 💪

FYI...SOMEONE IS TRYING TO KEEP THIS HOUSING AUTHORITY MEETING A SECRET FROM RESIDENTS BY REPORTING IT TO FB. YOU MAY NO...
09/03/2024

FYI...SOMEONE IS TRYING TO KEEP THIS HOUSING AUTHORITY MEETING A SECRET FROM RESIDENTS BY REPORTING IT TO FB. YOU MAY NOT BE ALLOWED TO SHARE DIRECTLY HOWEVER YOU CAN SCREENSHOT AND SHARE.

KM City Council has hastily called a special council meeting regarding our subsidized housing community, the Kings Mountain Housing Authority.
At tomorrow’s (Tuesday Sept 3rd 4pm) public-welcome meeting, city council will meet in closed session and then vote to dissolve the 233 unit (37 acre) Housing Authority, transferring our low income housing community to the recently resurfaced KM Redevelopment Commission. It appears under NC Statutes, a significant benefit of removing the Housing Authority status is the removal the low income requirement. We have questions:

1. Who initiated this action and why?

2. Does the city intend to remove current tenants, renovate the property and then bring in higher income (market rate) tenants?

3. Will current low income tenants be forced to relocate to other cities?

4. What is council’s future plans for the community?

5. Who stands to benefit financially and who will be adversely affected financially by this change?

6. Does the city plan to keep the property as low income housing only?

7. Considering there has been no discussion or opportunity for citizens to question their council representative regarding this matter, should this vote be tabled until a later date?

8. The Redevelopment Commission statute 160A-509 states that both the Mayor and the governing body (Council) shall appoint members to the commission. Will the Mayor and each council member receive one vote as to the appointee or will they each be allowed one appointee?

9. If the process to comply with Statute 160A-509 hasn’t been determined, will this be done prior to tomorrow’s vote?
Based on the agenda released, it appears council discussion will be in closed session and citizen comments are not allowed. If you would like more info, feel free to email your council members or discuss with them prior to tomorrow’s meeting.

City council emails:
Mike Butler - [email protected]
Tommy Hawkins - [email protected]
Shearra Miller - [email protected]
Jay Rhodes - [email protected]
Annie Thombs - [email protected]
Jimmy West - [email protected]

KM City Council has hastily called a special council meeting regarding our subsidized housing community, the Kings Mount...
09/03/2024

KM City Council has hastily called a special council meeting regarding our subsidized housing community, the Kings Mountain Housing Authority.
At tomorrow’s (Tuesday Sept 3rd 4pm) public-welcome meeting, city council will meet in closed session and then vote to dissolve the 233 unit (37 acre) Housing Authority, transferring our low income housing community to the recently resurfaced KM Redevelopment Commission. It appears under NC Statutes, a significant benefit of removing the Housing Authority status is the removal the low income requirement. We have questions:
1. Who initiated this action and why?
2. Does the city intend to remove current tenants, renovate the property and then bring in higher income (market rate) tenants?
3. Will current low income tenants be forced to relocate to other cities?
4. What is council’s future plans for the community?
5. Who stands to benefit financially and who will be adversely affected financially by this change?
6. Does the city plan to keep the property as low income housing only?
7. Considering there has been no discussion or opportunity for citizens to question their council representative regarding this matter, should this vote be tabled until a later date?
8. The Redevelopment Commission statute 160A-509 states that both the Mayor and the governing body (Council) shall appoint members to the commission. Will the Mayor and each council member receive one vote as to the appointee or will they each be allowed one appointee?
9. If the process to comply with Statute 160A-509 hasn’t been determined, will this be done prior to tomorrow’s vote?
Based on the agenda released, it appears council discussion will be in closed session and citizen comments are not allowed. If you would like more info, feel free to email your council members or discuss with them prior to tomorrow’s meeting.
City council emails:
Mike Butler - [email protected]
Tommy Hawkins - [email protected]
Shearra Miller - [email protected]
Jay Rhodes - [email protected]
Annie Thombs - [email protected]
Jimmy West - [email protected]

KM City Council has hastily called a special council meeting regarding our subsidized housing community, the Kings Mount...
09/02/2024

KM City Council has hastily called a special council meeting regarding our subsidized housing community, the Kings Mountain Housing Authority.

At tomorrow’s (Tuesday Sept 3rd 4pm) public-welcome meeting, city council will meet in closed session and then vote to dissolve the 233 unit (37 acre) Housing Authority, transferring our low income housing community to the recently resurfaced KM Redevelopment Commission. It appears under NC Statutes, a significant benefit of removing the Housing Authority status is the removal the low income requirement. We have questions:

1. Who initiated this action and why?

2. Does the city intend to remove current tenants, renovate the property and then bring in higher income (market rate) tenants?

3. Will current low income tenants be forced to relocate to other cities?

4. What is council’s future plans for the community?

5. Who stands to benefit financially and who will be adversely affected financially by this change?

6. Does the city plan to keep the property as low income housing only?

7. Considering there has been no discussion or opportunity for citizens to question their council representative regarding this matter, should this vote be tabled until a later date?

8. The Redevelopment Commission statute 160A-509 states that both the Mayor and the governing body (Council) shall appoint members to the commission. Will the Mayor and each council member receive one vote as to the appointee or will they each be allowed one appointee?

9. If the process to comply with Statute 160A-509 hasn’t been determined, will this be done prior to tomorrow’s vote?

Based on the agenda released, it appears council discussion will be in closed session and citizen comments are not allowed. If you would like more info, feel free to email your council members or discuss with them prior to tomorrow’s meeting.

City council emails:
Mike Butler - [email protected]
Tommy Hawkins - [email protected]
Shearra Miller - [email protected]
Jay Rhodes - [email protected]
Annie Thombs - [email protected]
Jimmy West - [email protected]

Lithium mine tailings. Our KM City Council will vote on Tuesday June 25th to give the City Manager authority to negotiat...
06/21/2024

Lithium mine tailings. Our KM City Council will vote on Tuesday June 25th to give the City Manager authority to negotiate an agreement with Grover for the city to annex property on S Battleground Ave to be used for lithium mine tailings storage/depository.

06/20/2024

WHO DOES YOUR KM CITY COUNCIL AND CITY MANAGER WORK FOR?
It certainly doesn’t appear that they’re working for the benefit of the citizens of Kings Mountain.

Our KM city council, based on the city manager’s recommendation, voted on 5/28/2024 to DECREASE electric rates for commercial business users and INCREASE residential customer’s rates. They also approved a significant 9.75% water and sewer increase. This after implementing the largest property tax increase in KM history last year at nearly 12%, voting to give our public funds to wealthy downtown property owners and draining our Economic Development Incentive Fund for frivolous uses.

Do you feel like these city council members should be allowed to finish their term or are you ready to sign the Recall petition to vote them out?

Should the city manager be terminated now or should we allow him to finish out his contract? Residents in his previous cities estimated millions of dollars in savings by firing him immediately and paying out his severance.

Do you have faith that the KM Herald is accurately printing the news and information that KM residents deserve to know?

*excerpts of video taken from the 5/28/24 & 6/13/24 city council meetings

*watch full city council meeting videos here https://vimeo.com/showcase/cityofkm

Some of KM’s wealthy have mentioned Belmont as their goal for our city and, through their partnership with City Manager ...
03/08/2024

Some of KM’s wealthy have mentioned Belmont as their goal for our city and, through their partnership with City Manager Jim Palenick and our city council, their dream is on a path to reality. Gentrification is inevitable under their plan…rid KM of its Waffle House families & residents and replace them with the wine & cheese crowd.

As you can see in these posts, Belmont has an uncontrolled growth problem caused by progressive leadership, who partnered with businessowners & developers, and ignored their duties to ensure proper infrastructure was in place. You can experience this for yourself just by driving to the Southpoint area nearly anytime of day. Our KM city council must take back control of city management and listen to its citizens. Otherwise, the same problems plaguing Belmont will soon be here in KM.

Here are the candidates for the NC House District 111 seat for the March 5th primary. Early voting is going on now. I'm ...
02/20/2024

Here are the candidates for the NC House District 111 seat for the March 5th primary. Early voting is going on now. I'm currently studying each candidate's platform, experience and history to decide my own vote and plan to follow up in a subsequent post. Comments, suggestions or information about the candidates are encouraged.

Links to each candidate's website are below

https://scottneisler.com/
https://www.paulbrintley.com/
https://www.davidallennc.com/
https://www.scottforhouse.com/

How would you score City Manager Palenick’s performance? Palenick’s annual performance review is Tuesday, behind closed ...
02/19/2024

How would you score City Manager Palenick’s performance? Palenick’s annual performance review is Tuesday, behind closed doors in what has lately become the standard of our city council. KM city council is as, or even more so, complicit for Palenick’s actions below as they are the citizen’s elected representatives tasked with providing responsible oversight of the city manager employee.

As you read the list of Palenick’s accomplishments as city manager below, it’s hard not to imagine these bullets coming straight out of Copolla’s “The Godfather” movies. These are real issues that we are aware of. What we do not know is what is going on behind the scenes in the many closed session meetings being held by our council and Palenick. Why all this secrecy? Why such blatant attempts to hide the city’s dealings from the citizens?

Palenick’s accomplishments:

➢ Relationship Building with others. Unfortunately, “others” mostly includes wealthy developers and business owners and excludes city residents as a whole. Palenick convinced the city council to approve and fund the partnership with KM Forward leading to unfair, disproportionate treatment of businesses and their owners within our community. Many of the business owners outside of the downtown district are also our friends, neighbors and employers of our community and should receive equal treatment by our city council and city administration. The council and the city manager’s partnership with a few wealthy downtown business owners is alarming and should be investigated. Council Member Jimmy West was just plain wrong when he stated, “we have not done enough for our downtown”. I suppose Jimmy West can provide a list of the council’s accomplishments and funding of non-downtown businesses. Despite what West thinks, the council was wrong to approve public funds for “specific people and interests” that do not benefit the whole (city residents) as required by the NC Public Purpose Act. More about KM Forward, including the good, the bad and the ugly, in an in-depth future post.

➢ Problem Solving. Palenick has certainly helped water conservation efforts by providing six months of undrinkable city water. The community has experienced and spoken enough about this issue

➢ Teamwork (with specific contractors). Palenick asked the council to give bid preference to local contractors despite the fact this may be illegal and could cost taxpayers more. This seems right out of the Corleone playbook

➢ Decisiveness & take-charge authority. Palenick used the power of his position in an attempt to force a recently widowed young lady to sell her properties. Palenick even asked the city’s attorney to call and “Rattle their chain”. This after she refused purchase offers from prominent (now KM Forward partners) colleagues of Palenick

➢ Revenue Generation. Palenick convinced the council to increase our taxes by nearly 12%. A massive unnecessary increase, during a recession, that further adds to the financial hardship of middle and lower wage earners. The citizens of KM will certainly feel more pain from this tax increase after our property reevaluation this year allowing the city to take even more money from our pockets. One county commissioner has stated that they will likely decrease our county tax rate should the reevaluation substantially increase values. Given council’s recent history of inflicting financial pain on KM citizens, I do not see Palenick or council taking the same steps

➢ Disassociation. Palenick told the casino we do not want their money by telling them to go elsewhere for their lucrative electric utilities. At the same time, he gave a toddler-esque rant in the middle of a council meeting about the city not receiving money from the casino. Palenick has also made statements in a recent video in what seems to be an attempt to create strife within our partnership with Cleveland County. In his video, Palenick questions the amount of taxes the county receives despite himself recently championing the largest tax increase in history on KM citizens

➢ Creative Sales Ability. Palenick convinced the council to approve the Dixon Ridge development against the recommendation of our own planning committee and against overwhelming citizen opposition. Why was the council so adamant to approve this deal? Maybe because Palenick was dangling a Buc-ees gas station carrot in front of their face. I suppose that must have put stars (or maybe beavers and money) in council’s eyes

➢ Cunning. Palenick asked the council to spend public funds to build a $4.5m parking deck for the hotel he’s trying to lure here, even reaching out to his go-to developer colleague, David Ratchie (Hollywoodland), to throw him that bone. There was even a sham survey completed by Susan Mosk and sent to Core Distinction resulting in bias, skewed results for the hotel feasibility study. In what appears to be a shell game in response to overwhelming citizen opposition, Palenick is now attempting to bill the parking deck as “for city hall”. The council may be that gullible, but the citizens of KM are aware of council and Palenick’s scam.

If you would like to add your comments to the performance review, please reach out to city council at their emails below:

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

Citizens of KM, I’m asking for your input on who you feel would best represent our city resident’s interests on city cou...
02/06/2024

Citizens of KM, I’m asking for your input on who you feel would best represent our city resident’s interests on city council?

With all of our current council members of retirement age, is there a need for a younger and more diverse perspective on our city council?

Someone who has community and the citizen’s, including all wage earners, best interest in mind without an agenda of overpopulation or personal financial gain.

With councilman David Allen running for NC House and potentially vacating his council seat soon, we, via our city council representatives, will need to appoint a member of our community to fill the seat for the balance of Allen's term.

A recent surge in youthful leadership brings with it a myriad of benefits, injecting fresh perspectives, energy, and innovation into municipal decision-making processes. Kings Mountain may just benefit from the current older council members collaborating with younger members who can bring the unique perspectives below:

Diverse Perspectives:
Younger city council members often bring diverse perspectives shaped by their varied backgrounds, experiences, and outlooks.

Innovation and Adaptability:
The youth are known for their innovative thinking and adaptability to change. In a rapidly evolving world, these qualities are invaluable assets for city councils seeking to address emerging challenges and opportunities. Young council members are often more adept at harnessing technology, exploring creative solutions to complex issues, and embracing new approaches to governance.

Engaging Youth Participation:
The presence of young leaders in local government can inspire greater civic engagement and political participation among youth. Seeing individuals from their own demographic represented in positions of authority can motivate young people to become more involved in the political process, whether through volunteering, advocacy, or running for office themselves.

Long-term Vision:
Young city council members often bring a long-term perspective to governance, recognizing the importance of sustainable development and future planning. With a vested interest in the well-being of their communities for years to come, they are inclined to prioritize initiatives that promote environmental stewardship, economic resilience, and social equity.

By embracing diversity, fostering innovation, bridging generational divides, engaging youth participation, and promoting long-term vision, young emerging leaders play a crucial role in shaping dynamic, forward-thinking communities.

Address

Kings Mountain, NC
28086

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Kings Mountain Truth posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category