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Thursday, January 7, 2016
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LOOK INSIDE! Volume 82 • Issue 1
• Belmont • Cramerton • Lowell • McAdenville • Mount Holly • Stanley
Thursday, January 7, 2016
Karagias named Cramerton Firefighter of the Year 2015 By Alan Hodge alan.bannernews@gmail.com
Luke Karagias has been named Cramerton’s Firefighter of the Year. Karagias, 18 years old and a 2015 graduate of South Point High, may be young, but he is mature beyond his years and has a sense of destiny when it comes to a firefighting career. Right now, Karagias is a volunteer with the Cramerton Fire Dept., a job he is totally immersed in, but he’s looking onward and upward. “It’s my dream goal to be a fulltime firefighter,” he says. To get to the point where he’s currently at, Karagias had to work hard. While still a student at South Point, he also attended firefighting and EMT classes at Gaston College
and Cleveland Community College. So far, he has over 500 hours of training under his belt. Just before Christmas, he received his firefighter and basic EMT certificates. When the Cramerton Fire Department held its December 18 Christmas party, Karagias not only received his black firefighter helmet, signifying he can go on calls of any type, he was also informed of the Firefighter of the Year award. He had been voted on by his peers at Cramerton. “It was the most excited I have ever been in my life,” he said. “It was such an honor.” Chief Lance Foulk is rightfully proud of Karagias. “Luke has a bright future ahead of him and is very driven,” Foulk said. “I cannot wait to see what the future holds for him.” See FIREFIGHTER page2
Luke Karagias, 18, has been named Cramerton Firefighter of the Year. In this photo he’s seen wearing his newly awarded black hat meaning he can go out on all types of calls including house fires. Photo by Alan Hodge
The Year In Review... Second half of 2015 saw elections, Cramerton Centennial, and sports thrillers top the news By Alan Hodge alan.bannernews@gmail.com
Stories for the second six months of 2015 witnessed some new local city council members take seats, a good deal of school sports excitement from South Point High, and Cramerton celebrating its 100th birthday.
The South Fork rose to its highest level in two years during last Wednesday’s inundation. See more inside. Photo by Alan Hodge
Mt. Holly applies for Township Grants By Alan Hodge alan.bannernews@gmail.com
The City of Mt. Holly has applied for monies from the Gaston Board of Commissioners Township Grant Program. Earlier in 2015, CaroMont Health paid Gaston County $20 million for leasing the property where
P LAY T H E
CaroMont Regional Medical Center sits. The Commissioners voted to take part of the funds and form the grant prograam whereby each township in the county could be eligible for up to $500,000. The deadline for the towns to submit grant applications was Dec. 31, 2015. See GRANTS page 2
July: It was one of the hottest and driest Julys on record in our region and destined to get even hotter and drier. In Belmont, two guys, Jim Antley and Neal Winslow, began a project of videotaping interviews with local veterans about their war time experiences. Antley and Winslow put the interviews on QR codes for distribution in places like the American Military Museum in Gastonia. On July 4, the McDowell family in McAdenville headed up a project to put 2,000 American flags on the sidewalks not only in honor of their son Mark who was killed when his F15 fighter crashed in Afghanistan but all members of the U.S. Military. A BannerNews human interest story in July highlighted the “GI Janes” women roller derby team.
The ladies were based in Belmont and traveled across the Carolinas taking on teams with names such as the “New River Knockouts”. Mt. Holly news in July included the swearing in of several new fire and police department employees. Mt. Holly also held its annual Sports Hall of Fame banquet. A day trip article in the July 23 BannerNews featured the Tryon International Equestrian Center as a great place to visit. August: Still scorching in August. City councils in Belmont and Mt. Holly both heard presentations on possible water restriction plans. Water worries of another type, coal ash contamination, had South Point peninsula residents worried. On a 95F day, Push American bicycle riders visited Holy Angles for the 28th year in a row. A story in the August 13 BannerNews commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII looked at how local returning veterans coped with civilian life. See REVIEW pages 10, 11 & 12
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