South Point

Good article in the neighbors section of the Charlotte Observer today about the plight of Marching Bands in the Gaston County Schools.

Have you ever seen a ruff, tuff football player making the rounds, hat in hand, to sell fruit during the holidays? At the local churches for the “pre-game” meal served to South Point football players, do most of them thank the preparers/servers with a handshake or a word of praise? It must be a God-given right for football players to have a trainer, doctor, and multiple coaches along the sideline to “guide these young men and leaders” through the intracacies of  high school life. The message is, “someone else will take care of you”. What are they teaching their charges about life?

Not so, for the so-called “non-revenue sports and extracurricular activities”. Scraping by every year to teach fine arts at the high school level, teachers employed by the school system, resort to what amounts to begging for leftovers through piddly-fundraisers. Nickels and dimes are raised to offset the thousands of dollars necessary to operate a band or theater program.

At South Point for example, the band instructor, Tim Hamilton, has as many as 80-100 students in the marching/concert band class in fourth period. John Devine, PE teacher, has as many as 6-10 coaches, some of those are volunteer-daddies, for 60 players.  Players from South Point are also fed, visiting teams as well, after each home game — granted, a couple of hotdogs/hamburgers — but still fed, while the band has to run out to the local McDonald’s to get hamburgers at a reduced rate. According to SPHS Booster Club (re: FOOTBALL), this is because, “If we fed the band, we wouldn’t have enough to sell”.

Football, and all sports for that matter, are extracurricular activities, just like Band, cheerleading, French Club, and Moot Court. We would expect as taxpayers, that the various school sports booster clubs respect the students and families that PAY to see the football darlins’ — in the case of the Red Raiders — HOME and AWAY.

The 70 or so banner sponsors(at $300 a pop), Ray McKenney, and the Football Boosters should also support the Marching Band, which is an important part of the Friday Night High School Tradition.

We are calling on our Belmont friends and neighbors to help support the bands and fine arts programs at South Point. Participate in their fundraising activities and consider “adding” some dollars to your contribution for their effort.

You can call the school, 704-825-3351 to get band contacts, and contacts for the other programs as well.

The Wal-Mart effect: Build it, and THEY will come !

Several years ago the political lines in the Belmont area were pretty well divided over growth issues. Type of Growth, Rate of Growth, Vision of Community, Sense of Belonging, and the kicker — Property Rights.

The mill community mentality, taken from the farms and hills of the early twentieth century learned young’uns the value of owning property if you “cud git ahold a sum”. Gaston County divided itself along the lines of the “Haves”, and the “Have Nots”.

The funny thing during the debate process (some called it “steamrolling”) was that nobody discussed the attendant collateral damage of big box development.

The collateral damage is the “flow-through” of increased traffic that these types of development brings to an area. Increased malicious mischief, vandalism, theft, and larceny are the damages.

(Belmont Police photo published in Gazette)

This series is not just “kids with nothing to do”. It is not necessarily gang-related either.

Belmont Police Chief David James, always on the lookout for more money to increase the size of his force, commented on the potential of these issues in the original series of debates. Of course, his eye was on the development of his department — remember we built that grand new police department building on Chronicle Street with an eye on the future – (re: bigger than needed) 

The article in the Gazette about the recent rash of auto break-ins, noted the neighborhoods where these occurred. “Build It, and They will come !” Works for both good and bad.

What can the community do? Well, besides call the police?

Be vigilant in your travels through town. Not paranoid, just observant.

With a lot of new people in the area, new homes, bigger dogs (which always seem to come with the type of folk who want to make some kind of “statement”), fancy-schmanzy cars, we need to try to reach out and make a community that is larger than the great walls that have been erected around several of the subdivisions.

Community Watch efforts are always good. The Neighborhood Preservation portion of the new Land Use Plan, can and should encourage these community efforts. Maybe Chief James would seek out funding opportunities to support Community Watch and Community Policing efforts.  Another idea is to encourage police officers to live in the community. Many of our recent police recruits don’t live here, why should they care what they see as they are driving out of town at the end of their shift?

What efforts are being made to encourage/require public safety personnel to be active members of the community? Granted, there are a few who do live here, but as the force grows, what is being done?

The big deal a few years ago was to allow officers to drive their vehicle home — helps as a deterrent to crime. Problem is, We have never seen those cars in our various neighborhoods, unless there is a called-in issue.  

Presence, vigilance, and connectivity help keep communities safe for everyone. Maybe the police department can use some of their funding from us to do more along those lines rather than buying more stuff…

(Chris Lane making a first down – John Clark, Gazette Photo) 

The Gazette has partnered with www.varsitync.com to offer a wider variety of subjects rather than the tired old Ashbrook and Forestview fare that we have come to read over the past several years.

The article, written by stringer Bill Hupp, offers the Gastonia paper a lesson in “fair and balanced”. It is a good idea to contract with people who will give the flavor of the event, rather than slant it to the paper’s ultimate interest.

 Anyway, South Point beat East Gaston 31-0, taking a measure from last year’s whuppin’. Lowery, Lane, and Crumbly looked good in the effort on the ground. Justice had a struggle kicking last night, but the season is still not to the halfway mark yet.

Reports of “8,000 people” and an “overflow crowd” are a bit exaggerated, even by South Point Booster standards. With this event being called “Black Friday”, the new “PSL” seats keep many people away from the stands, wandering around as if they were in the wilderness. “Black Friday” at South Point is the culmination of a weeklong series of themes, pep rallies, and school spirit activities uniting the student body. The term comes from the tradition of the Black and Red school colors, and wearing all black on the Friday of the East Gaston game. Of course, there are a small number that choose to wear all white on this day, just to stick out. Most of the 1,200 students at SPHS are into the week’s events and participate with enthusiasm. I carried over to the ball game as well. Great spirit in the stands and in the areas outside the fence near the new scoreboard.

Area homeowners and neighbors have taken a page from the homes and businesses that surround Wrigley Field in Chicago. Charge a few buck to park in our driveways, cut down the walking distances to Lineberger Stadium on game days — helps with the ol’ property tax bill.

The still undefeated Red Raider football team is looking good. Keep goin’ boys!