The Mint Hill Times

Librarians and high fashion will collide next weekend. The Charlotte Mecklenburg library is teaming with Neiman Marcus department store to raised funds via a raffle. The prizes—other than the satisfaction of donating to the library—include a stay at the Ritz Carlton hotel, a $500 gift card from Neiman Marcus, and a private wine tasting for 12 people. The library hopes to make $20,000 via the raffle.

Neiman Marcus chose Charlotte Mecklenburg Library as the charitable beneficiary for its Fashion’s Night Out event on Sept. 10 at 6:30 p.m.  Winners of the raffle will be announced at the free event, but they do not have to be present to win. Tickets are $20 each and can be purchased on-line by visiting www.cmlibrary.org/raffle. Tickets can also be purchased at the event or at any of the 20 library locations.

Interested in attending Fashion’s Night Out? Reserve your spot at the event by emailing RSVPCharlotte@NeimanMarcus.com.

The Carolina Journal looks at the rise of comic books and graphic novels in North Carolina Public libraries and schools. Some say they are useful materials while others, including Independence media specialist Jeff Jones, say he doesn’t see a difference.

However, the genre’s penetration into the schools is mixed. Jeff Jones, the media center specialist at Charlotte’s Independence High School, said there are “50 or 60 books” in the graphic novel collection. “The same people check out a lot of them, but not a lot of different people,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s just for free reading [and] entertainment.”

Want to see a heck of a game from November 13, 1987? Harding beat Independence in the state 4A playoffs that year 34-32  at Memorial Stadium. At the beginning of the video, see the starting rosters–several names stand out for Independence including running back Mario Grier who later played the New England Patriots. Also, the coach for Harding that year was Tom Knotts. He took Harding to the state championship and then the next season bolted for West Charlotte. This video is the first of eight. See the rest of them at this link.

Know anyone in Matthews who likes to play the lottery? You may want to call them to make sure they are not holding onto a $1 million ticket that matched the August 20 drawing. It has still not been claimed. In other lottery news, Derek McWilliams of  Stallings won $10,000 in the August 27 MegaMillions drawing. He purchased his ticket at the Gate #416 at 14622 Lawyers Rd. in Stallings.

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The Mint Hill Board of Commissioners voted 4-1 last night to authorize Town Manager Brian Welch to finalize the purchase of 1.74 acres in Mint Hill Village for the new town hall. The sale of the land was held up because of an environmental report during the due diligence period that found a small amount of fill soil. Money was placed into an escrow account to replace some of the dirt.
The land cost the town $675,000 which was less than the $750,000 appraised value. Welch said Architect David Creech will now begin the drawings and that ground could be broken by the end of the year.
Commissioner Tina Ross voted against the purchase of the land. She said her vote should not have come as a surprise, adding that the town already owned 20 acres of land they could have built on. Mayor Ted Biggers has previously said that because most the infrastructure was already in place at Mint Hill Village, the town could save money. Read more in next week’s Mint Hill Times.

The town hall will be located at the apex of the traffic circle in the above map. The .1 acre in the traffic circle was also purchased by the town for a fountain or sculpture

Isaac Vasquez

WCNC is reporting that a drunk man boarded a bus heading for Mint Hill Middle School this morning. No one was injured. Upon arrest, police took the man to the hospital first because he had consumed so much alcohol. After he entered the bus through the emergency exit, the bus driver rounded up the students, keeping them away from him. A parent who saw the man enter the bus called the police.

The 20-year-old suspect, Isaac Vasquez, has been previously arrested three other times for charges including trafficking in heroin, possession of cocaine, carrying a concealed weapon, assault on a female, and assault on a child under 12 years old.

Want to offer the town your two cents on where you would like to see more sidewalks? Come to the Pedestrian Plan Open House on August 31 at 6 pm. Here’s the link to the page on the the town’s website. Also, be sure to fill out the survey at this link.

The Pedestrian Plan is the result of a matching grant the town received earlier this year. The consultants HNTB are working with the town to develop the plan.

Photos By Jenni Tackett

The Mint Hill Athletic Association Panthers and cheerleaders led the Carolina Panthers on the the field for last Saturday’s Jets preseason game. We knew Carolina was moving toward younger players, but…

Eddie Goodall, outgoing state senator for the Mint Hill area and director of the North Carolina Alliance for Public Charter Schools, announced today that he is glad NC received the federal Race to the Top dollars. However, Goodall hopes charter schools see some of that money.

“Many charters, like our district counterparts, are seeing their budgets stretched and deserve their share of the award. With North Carolina’s looming fiscal deficit and knowing our state’s taxpayers have to pay the federal taxes to fund Race to the Top, naturally we want our share of the $4.35 billion program.”

The Obama Administration created the Race to the Top program to award states federal dollars based on the level of innovation. The cornerstone of this innovation was the advancement of charter schools.
North Carolina did not raise its cap on charter schools, but did pass legislation that would create “charter-lite” schools, much to Goodall’s chagrin. We will know this Wednesday just what about NC impressed the judges for RttT dollars. Said Goodall:

“We will look at the Reviewers’ comments and scoring on the charter section with interest since the state has done nothing to expand successful public charter schools. The General Assembly passed Senate Bill 1201, Cooperative & Innovative High Schools, which only created “charter lite” high schools, a far cry from the charter school improvements we thought the Obama Administration was calling for.”

Birthday Blessings is one of 13 charities which will adorn the Jimmie Johnson Foundation Samsung Helmet of Hope at Auto Club Speedway in October. Birthday Blessings was co-founded by Mint Hill residents John and Amy Cervantes, and provides birthday parties to homeless children. They also will also receive a $10,000 grant from the Johnson Foundation. The organization was nominated by Terri Springer of Matthews.

“Birthday Blessings is a fantastic nonprofit dedicated to serving homeless children,” explained Springer. “Birthday Blessings is a new charity (whose demand) keeps growing due to the economy. “I started volunteering in 2008 and since I began my family has been part of it too. Logan, my 10 year old, loves to go and help. He helps at some parties and watched as one boy blew out his candles. The boy didn’t know how to do it because he had never had candles on his cake before. Logan was very touched by that and hopes that all children can celebrate their birthdays. The organization not only provides smiles but gives the children a moment of normalcy in a time when it isn’t normal.”

Someone purchased the $1 million dollar winning ticket in Union County. The ticket, which matched all five white balls in the Friday, August 20 Mega Millions drawing, was sold at the Market Express on Old Monroe Road in Matthews. (Actually, it’s in Stallings, but the mailing address is Matthews.) The ticket is worth $1 million because it was Megaplied and the multiplier was four.