School

In a closely contested competition, the Red Raiders fell short at home tonight 62-58 to the Forestview Jaguars.

South Point kept the more talented Jags close in each of the quarters, even holding a slight edge during the first quarter. Forestview held a halftime lead of 30-27.

There was good energy in the gym during the second half. Spectators on both sides getting hoarse over the sheer wall of noise of the hundreds of cheerleaders.

Des Lowery had a good game. Don’t know how many points he scored but he had a sick blocked shot late in the 4th quarter. He had to jump at least 4 feet above everyone to block the Forestview player’s shot from the perimeter.

South Point was fired up during the last two minutes of play, briefly pulling within 2 points, until #10 from Forestview put a couple sweet layups, and finished at the free throw line.

Forestview swept all four games tonight winning the girls jv and varsity games as well as the boys jv and varsity.

South Point looked much better tonight than they did against Ashbrook a few days ago. They hustled more and fought for the ball, earning several fast  breaks, but not able to finish.

Gazette Account:

 Forestview 62, South Point 58 — Trey Whitworth had 28 points and the Jags put together a strong defensive effort to pick up their second league win Tuesday. Jack Sumner added 14 points for Forestview (7-7, 2-1 Big South), which plays Friday at Ashbrook. Dan Alliss scored 20 and Christian Lawrence poured in 13 for South Point (2-12, 0-4).

Keep Belmont Beautiful, an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, has been using the proceeds from a Community Foundation Grant to help educate third graders in Belmont about environmental issues.

This grant, entitled Planting the Seeds of Learning, is being used to provide a monthly program to North Belmont and Belmont Central Elementary students.

October’s program was on water conservation, and children learned tips for conserving water, current levels of rainfall, and the mandated water restrictions by the City of Belmont. They all received a 30-minute program on water conservation tips and were given copies of water conservation tips to take home and a word search and coloring section on water conservation. All third grade classes were given presentations by Carolyn Sly on how to construct a compost pile, each class room receiving all of the equipment to build it.

Keep Belmont Beautiful educates and involves the community in litter and waste reduction, recycling, beautification and natural resources conservation.

New Gaston school site has not yet been identified, but it would be in east end of county

Can’t wait for this site to be identified and the choice of name, colors, mascots, and whether a soccer field will be a part of the the campus plans.

It is too bad that the county school board and the “educated” planners do not consider more urban models of school designs. These models would build on smaller land in a vertical format. The Belmont vision of “Town Center” could be accomplished, better park and community facilities such as baseball, softball, soccer, football, and cross country courses could be assembled in a workable plan that can be used year around. Of course, the school won’t be in Belmont and the new UDO of Gaston County doesn’t really address school construction issues, but it is worth a plug to keep up discussion.

Our coffee-klatch speculation is that the site will be on the McAdenville side of Lowell north of the interstate.  There is a 260+ acre piece of property that is owned by Belmont Land & Investment. It is adjacent to Lowell Elementary school and could made accessible from either exit #22 or #23 of I-85. But again, we just speculate…