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Volume 83 • Issue 21
Thursday, May 25, 2017
News from a neighbor!
We are forever grateful for your service & sacrifice. Thursday, May 25, 2017
• Belmont • Cramerton • Lowell • McAdenville • Mount Holly • Stanley
Belmont’s “Catawba Catfish” set swimming world on fire By Alan Hodge alan.bannernews@gmail.com
Swimmers at venues like the Olympics might earn gold medals, but Belmont has its own watery record setter in the form of Reg “Moon” Huffstetler aka the “Catawba Catfish”. Currently living at Myrtle Terrace in Belmont, 82-year-old Huffstetler has a set of swimming records to his credit as long as gold medalist Michael Phelps’ arms. Huffstetler got his swimming start in local water holes. “When I was a kid I used to dam up creeks and that plus Suttle’s swimming pool on Wilkinson Blvd. is where I learned to swim.” Huffstetler said. Huffstetler grew up on Central Avenue near where the old Belmont city swimming pool was located. It was there that the urge to swim competitively first entered his mind. “I was just 14-years-old,” Huffstetler said. “There were two college kids at the pool acting as lifeguards. We used to
race and I could beat them every time.” The Belmont pool is also where Huffstetler got the idea to engage in long distance swimming. He honed that skill by swimming the length of the pool up to 50 times without stopping. “I would swim at the pool all day and half the night,” he said. Huffstetler’s first “official” long distance swim was in the Catawba River when he was 21-years-old. For that event he jumped in the river at the Buster Boyd Bridge and stroked upstream to the bridge at Wilkinson Blvd. In Belmont- a distance of 15 miles. “It took me just over nineteen hours to make the swim,” Huffstetler said. “A man in a rowboat with a flashlight guided me in the dark. When I got to the Wilkinson bridge a thousand people was waiting.” See CATFISH page 2
Cramerton’s Central Park getting updates By Alan Hodge alan.bannernews@gmail.com
It’s a fact that Cramerton’s Goat Island Park is the town’s recreational crown jewel, but there’s another park nearby more pastoral in nature that’s getting some much needed upgrades. Central Park dates to the 1980s and is a 20+ acre oasis of green, rolling land located off 8th Street in a quiet neighborhood. The park had become somewhat run down so Cramerton officials decided it was time for a facelift. One of the first things that’s been done is to take what was once a swampy, shallow area near the park’s upper end and turn it into a circular walking trail. Cramerton Parks and Rec director Eric Smallwood dug holes in the center of the depression and found a water pipe leak that had been causing the sogginess. “The pipe is fixed and now the area is dry,” Smallwood said. “We created a path around it and put down stone dust to form a nice track. People are coming out every evening to use it.”
Reg “Moon” Huffstetler of Belmont set many swimming records. He’s holding a trophy given to him by Humpy Wheeler for treading water for over 100 hours back in 1991 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Photo by Alan Hodge
Bridge replacement underway in McAdenville A project to replace the bridge carrying Wesleyan Road over an unnamed tributary of the South Fork River in McAdenville got started Monday, May 15. The bridge is located between Main Street (N.C. 7) and the roundabout on Church Street, near downtown McAdenville. The new bridge will be built at the same location, requiring an offsite detour for traffic during construction. The new bridge will be 60 feet long and 45 feet wide. SideCramerton Parks and Rec. director Eric Smallwood is seen at the recently refurbished picnic walks and wheelchair access ramps are also included in the shelter at Central Park. The Cramerton Community Committee gave the shelter a nice coat of paint. Photos by Alan Hodge design. It will also feature decorative columns and metal railings, similar to those on a larger bridge on N.C. 7 that crosses the South Fork River. The grounds of Central Another area of Central ments to the shelter includes While the bridge is under construction, traffic will be dePark that has received atten- ten heavy duty picnic tables Park are being reconfigured toured onto N.C. 7, Peach Orchard Road and U.S. 74. The detion is the picnic shelter. The and new doors. Plans are to for walking trails. Right now, tour will be in place through Nov. 1. The road is scheduled to shelter has had some rough install restrooms, a new roof, a series of paths are being reopen to traffic prior to the start of McAdenville’s Christmas carved into its topography. times- a tree once fell on it, and lights. lights display in December. “The paths will be paved “The shelter can be used but volunteers from the CraAdditional work on the project, like vegetation establishmerton Community Com- by anyone,” Smallwood said. with stone dust and total ment, can continue through May 2018. mittee recently pitched in “It can seat up to 60 people nearly a mile in length,” Over 4,000 cars per day currently cross the bridge. Orders and gave the shelter a nice and be rented for special oc- Smallwood said. Construction Co. will do the $1.8 million job. coat of paint. Other improve- casions.” See CENTRAL PARK page 2 See photo on page 3
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