A couple of weeks ago The Mint Hill Times told you about Symone Stukes, the second 
runner at the Poetry Out Loud contest in Raleigh a few weeks ago. Staff and students at Independence thought Symone deserved more than third place, so they took it upon themselves to raise a little bit of cash to give to Symone for her hard work and awesome performance. The school raised $128 to give to her, a difficult task in these economic times.
This weekend (March 21-22) real estate agents have made a collaborative effort to work together and showcase some of the finer new construction and existing homes of Mint Hill. For a list of homes open this weekend: Continue reading »
Stephen Healy displays his new book, "Restaurant Personalities."
Stephen C. Healy, who was raised in Mint Hill and whose parents still live in Farmwood, dropped by the Mint Hill Times office today to show us his new children’s book “Restaurant Personality.” The book, which was illustrated by Thomas McDaniel, tells the story of a restaurant that serves up personalities. Healy said he hopes children take away from the book the lesson of learning to be one’s self.
“It’s the retelling of the quintessential coming of age story but told a little differently,” Healy said.
One-third of the proceeds from the book go toward the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Healy said they have sold 1,200 books thus far, and he has plans to tour the Southeast for the next three months to promote the book. Healy has three more books coming out in the next year for Sleep Tree Publishing Co, two children’s books and a coffee cookbook for Dilworth Coffee.
Mint Hill Police were dispatched to 6920 Ravenglass Lane in reference to an assault on a female today around 3 pm. Officers were advised that the suspect, 
Rawle Harding, had left the residence in a vehicle. An officer located the vehicle on Wilgrove-Mint Hill Road and attempted to make a traffic stop. The suspect did not immediately respond to the activated emergency equipment, but after a short chase, officers took Harding into custody. Harding has been charged with Assault on a Female and Fleeing to Elude Police and was transported to Mecklenburg County Intake Center. The victim, Catherina Harding, was transported to Presbyterian Hospital and treated for minor injuries.
In this week’s Mint Hill Times…
• Get a Bridges at Mint Hill update. Every indication is the developers and retailers are still 100 percent committed to the project.
• Mint Hill could sign a lease next week for the police department to open a satellite office at the Idlewild Plaza Shopping Center. Rent will be free, but the town will have to pay $4,000 in utilities a year.
• Reporter Carolyn Steeves writes about Dog’s Day Out in Matthews and its unique approach to caring for dogs.
• Sports reporter Andrew Stark previews spring sports at Butler and Independence high schools.
• Award winning columnist Leslie Southerland writes about her attempts to get her young boys into a sleeping habits that benefit the whole family:
One culprit, I know, has been the time change. Whoever came up with the concept of daylight savings time was not raising small children at the time. It takes awhile for adults to get used to the time change each time it happens—small children don’t get it at all!
Republican members of the North Carolina Senate and House of Representatives cited President Obama’s enthusiastic support for charter schools and called on their Democratic colleagues to join them in eliminating the charter schools cap. Current N.C. law restricts the number of charter schools in our state to only 100. A number of bills to raise or eliminate the cap are pending in the General Assembly. Rep. Jim Gulley and Sen. Eddie Goodall, both of whom represent the Mint Hill area, have led the fight in Raleigh to lift the cap on charter schools. Continue reading »
Bob Rowland with Rotary president Tanya Nix
Anne Marie Radke has received The Golden Anniversary Scholarship in the amount of $6,000 from
The Delta Kappa Gamma Society International. The honor society for women educators promotes excellence in education and personal and professional growth of women educators, leading in the field of graduate scholarships given to members and emphasizing leadership development for its more than 106,000 members in 16 countries. A member of the Society’s Alpha Zeta Chapter in North Carolina, Radke is attending Wingate University, where she is majoring in Educational Leadership and is a member of their first doctoral cohort at the Metro campus. Radke has also been awarded the 2009 Gilbert-McNairy Scholarship of $4,000 from the Eta State Chapter of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International. She will receive the state-based scholarship during the Eta State Conference April 25, 2009 in Greensboro. Radke is in her fifth year as principal at Piedmont Middle School in Union County. Continue reading »
Covenant Day School will feed six village orphanages in Haiti for an entire month from proceeds of their international Empty Bowls Project, “Sip Soup on the Sixth at Covenant Day School.” Three thousand dollars was raised and 100 percent of these funds will be used to feed the hungry children in these Haiti orphanages. Empty Bowls is an international project to fight hunger around the world. Four hundred seventy Covenant Day School lower and middle school Fine Arts students sculpted and hand painted ceramic bowls which were offered for a nominal donation in exchange for a simple meal of soup and bread. The “Sip Soup on the Sixth at Covenant Day School” occurred during their annual GrandFriends’ Day celebration.
Continue reading »
Sen. Eddie Goodall, who represents Mint Hill, Matthews, and some of Union County in the state legislature, wants to study whether the DMV should ask drivers if they have a living will. If the driver does, and wants the information recorded on their license, then Goodall thinks this could help in situations like Terry Schiavo.
According to the News and Observer:
“I’ve talked to a lot of nurses and people in palliative care,” he said. “They say there’s a big need for more education about living wills because families go through misery trying to make these end-of-life decisions.”
A Conway, S.C. man fired a shot at Matthews Police last night after a routine traffic stop. The incident happened near the Hoods Road Shopping Center on Matthews-Mint Hill Road at 2 am. Police say 52-year-old Terence Lee Houchins was stopped because he had a homemade license plate. Houchins pulled a handgun a fired one shot at police. No one was hit. Houchins is charged with assault with a deadly weapon, carrying a concealed weapon and impersonating an officer.
The Mint Hill Historical Society recently added several newsletters from Bain School in the mid 1940s. Read about the newsletters in this week’s Mint Hill Times on newstands now. Click on a link below to view a sample of the newsletters:
Bain school newsletter vol1 no. 6
Amy Dellinger will be the new principal of Mint Hill Middle School. She has been an assistant principal at Mint Hill since 2006. Before joining CMS, Dellinger was an assistant principal of South Rowan High School in China Grove and a teacher in Shelby, N.C. Dellinger replaces Denise Watts who was transfered to Spaugh Middle School in late February.
