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Category: Business

  • Vickers returns to shore up Chamber

    WINNSBORO – Terry Vickers, who retired last October from her post after 20 years as President and CEO of the Fairfield County Chamber of Commerce, is back in the saddle, but only long enough, she says, to help get the Chamber up and running after it foundered recently under new leadership.

    Alarmed after learning last week that the Chamber’s board had voted to become ‘inactive,’ Vickers sprang into action.

    “I contacted Harper (Shull, Chairman of the Chamber board) and asked what I could do. He was receptive to my offer to help and suggested I talk with County Administrator Jason Taylor as well as contact each of the Chamber’s board members,” Vickers said. “I did that and I had a 100 percent positive response from both Jason and the board members.”

    Two weeks earlier, when the Chamber’s new leadership failed to satisfy Council’s concerns during a budget workshop regarding the Chamber’s plans for the upcoming budget year, Council, which has no oversight over the Chamber other than funding, threatened to reduce the annual funding it provides for the Chamber from $87,500 to $25,000 unless the Chamber provided a financial roadmap by May 9, for how it plans to spend that funding in the 2018-19 fiscal year.

    The Chamber board responded by voting, in a meeting not announced or open to the public, that it would become inactive as of June 30, the day before the beginning of the new budget year. It also announced piecemeal on Facebook and via email to The Voice and others that the newly hired Interim Director was no longer employed, and that all Chamber employees, which consisted of Susan Yenner at that time, would be let go on June 30. Yenner has been managing the Chamber since Vicker’s retirement in October.

    “I explained to Harper and Jason that I would be happy to do what I can to help the Chamber get back on its feet and remain a viable organization,” Vickers said.

    Without meeting, the Chamber board reportedly voted electronically to approve Vickers as the new Interim Director for an unspecified period of time. Vickers said she has asked for the Board to ratify that vote during a public meeting. That meeting is to be held in the Chamber on Thursday, May 10, at 9:30 a.m., which is the board’s regularly scheduled monthly meeting date. That meeting, Vickers said, is open to the public.

    While her tenure at the Chamber is open-ended, Vickers said she doesn’t expect it to last longer than about six months.

    “I’ll stay as long as I need to for things to smooth out,” Vickers said.

    Vickers said she has been tasked with two primary duties in her new role: write a proposal for the Chamber’s funding for 2018-19 and submit it to Council by May 9 and conduct a search for a new director who Vickers will spend an as yet undetermined amount of time training. Vickers said she would also like to work on updating the Chamber’s website.

    Vickers said the work before her is more than a job. It’s a passion she says she has always had for the well-being of the County.

    “Since 1945, when the Chamber was chartered, too many people have put too much effort into making it successful for it to suddenly end. My goal in getting the Chamber back on its feet, is simply to stick to the purpose in the Chamber’s bylaws, to advance the commercial, industrial, educational, civic and general interest of Fairfield County,” Vickers said. “The Chamber’s mission will be what it has always been, to promote and improve the business environment so that our local economy is stimulated. What we all want is a wonderful quality of life in Fairfield County.

    “The County needs a Chamber,” Vickers said. “And the Chamber events need support from the merchants, the local governments and the residents if they are to thrive. I have a lot of faith that everything will work out so long as we are all working toward the same goal.”

    Related: Chamber Board meets secretly; votes to become ‘inactive’, FC Chamber Board votes to become inactive, Council gives Chamber notice

  • BREAKING – FC Chamber Board votes to become inactive

    WINNSBORO – The Fairfield County Chamber of Commerce announced in a press release on Monday that it will become inactive as of June 30, 2018.

    “After carefully evaluating its feasibility, the Board of Directors unanimously voted to take this action. The primary factors that led to this decision included limited financial support, reduced participation during the traditional Chamber structured events, as well as limited volunteers,” the release stated.

    Asked by The Voice if the Board will disband the chamber as of June 30, 2018, a source on the Board who asked not to be identified said the chamber is not filing with the Secretary of State to disband, but that it will become inactive as of June 30. Until that time, activities will go on as normal, the source said.

    The source also said that all Chamber employees will be let go as of June 30, but that the Chamber will remain in an inactive state after June 30, the end of the Chamber’s fiscal year.

    The Chamber is funded primarily by the County, at $87,500 annually, and by the Town of Winnsboro for Town sponsored events at $35,000 annually. Asked about that funding, County Council Chairman Billy Smith said he was surprised to hear that the Board’s decision to go inactive was, in part, due to limited financial support.

    “No, the County has not cut the Chamber’s funding,” Smith said. “We have contemplated the idea of reducing it, but only because their representatives couldn’t answer basic questions Council members had about their plans for the future during our second budget work-session.

    “Council then offered the Chamber every opportunity to keep their County funding the same as it has been in the past, even offering assistance on planning. Now I really don’t understand the suggestion of ‘limited financial support,’” Smith said.

    “Between County funding, the money the Town of Winnsboro gave the Chamber for the first time this year, and the proceeds from their golf tournament (which they said they aren’t going to do anymore),” Smith said, ” I’d think the Chamber had more financial support now than at anytime before, at least in recent history.”

    Chief John Seibles with the Winnsboro Department of Public Safety, which oversees the festivals in the Town, including Rock Around the Clock and the Pumpkin Festival, told The Voice that the crowd at last year’s Rock Around the Clock was large and orderly.

    “It [Rock Around the Clock]  was larger than in past years and it ran smoothly as I recall,” Seibles said.

    Board Chairman Harper Shull could not be reached for comment at this time.

    The Voice will update the story as it develops.

    Related: Council gives Chamber notice

  • Council gives Chamber notice

    WINNSBORO – When the new leader of the Fairfield County Chamber of Commerce failed to satisfy Council’s concerns last week, during a budget workshop, regarding the Chamber’s plans for the upcoming budget year, Council threatened to reduce the funding it provides for the Chamber from $87,500 to $25,000 unless the Chamber provided a financial roadmap for how it plans to spend that funding in the 2018-19 fiscal year.

    “I’m not opposed to continuing our full funding for the Chamber,” Council Chairman Billy Smith said, “but we need a plan to know what they’re going to do with it.”

    Chris Timmers, who was introduced by the Chamber Board as the Interim Director of the Chamber during a member breakfast on March 2, introduced himself as Executive Director of the Chamber when he came before Council during the April 17 workshop. Asked by The Voice following the meeting to clarify Timmers’ job title, Board Chairman Harper Shull said Timmers had not been hired to be the Executive Director.

    “He is the Interim Director,” Shull said.

    After announcing to Council that March 31 was the Chamber’s 73rd anniversary, informing Council that Providence Health was clearing ground to construct a new emergency facility in Fairfield County and that Lake Wateree is sold out and being developed to the max, Timmers said the Chamber had McMaster Enterprises, which is owned by Bill McMaster, Shull’s employer, to thank for having rent-free office space. Timmers said that was way the Chamber has saved Council money.

    However, Council has never funded office space for the Chamber according to several Council members. Prior to moving into its current offices at 120 N. Congress Street, which were offered by McMaster, the Chamber occupied rent-free offices in the Town Clock tower which is owned by the Town of Winnsboro.

    Timmers said the Chamber’s programs include the S.C. Railroad Museum, the Big Grab Yard Sale, Arts on the Ridge and Ag & Art. However, when asked about the Chamber’s involvement with the Railroad Museum and Arts on the Ridge, Susan Yenner, secretary of the Chamber, said those are not financially supported by the Chamber, but are included in the Chamber’s promotional material.

    When Council Chairman Billy Smith inquired about the amount of funding provided to the Chamber by the Town of Winnsboro and what that funding is used for, Timmers looked to Chamber Board Chairman, Harper Shull, for answers and then sat down.

    Shull said the Town provided the Chamber with about $35,000 last year, but that it was a one-time deal and was to be renegotiated each year. As for how that money was spent, Shull looked to Chamber Secretary Susan Yenner in the audience for guidance. Yenner, who has been managing the Chamber’s day to day business since former President/CEO Terry Vickers resigned last October, said the money went to such events as Pumpkin Fest and Spirit Fest, before Shull picked back up and continued.

    Shull expressed a dim view of whether the Chamber should be taking any money from the town government for events in the town.

    “We’re not exactly sure how we go forward with that just because there is a, I won’t say a conflict of interest, I mean, it’s the county seat of Fairfield County, and maybe previously we spent too much time in downtown Winnsboro versus the County as a whole,” Shull said.

    “Well, I think if the Town is giving you the money, it’s appropriate you spend it there,” Smith said.

    Shull also suggested changes that might be coming to the Rock Around the Clock festival, including an admission charge. He also announced that Sam Edenfield would not be able to run the car show aspect of the festival this year.

    “We had some feedback last year about Rock Around the Clock. We had a lot of mayhem,” Shull said. “We like to keep law and order as much as possible.”

    Chief John Seibles of the Winnsboro Department of Public Safety said he does not remember there were any problems at the festival last year.

    “It was a lot larger than in past years and it ran rather smoothly as I recall,” Seibles said.

    When Smith asked about the Chamber’s annual golf tournament fundraiser that he discontinued this year and questioned how the Chamber planned to make up for the $8,000 it would lose without the tournament, Shull said the tournament was solely on the back of Winnsboro Petroleum, which is owned by McMaster, and other corporate sponsors.

    “It became a lot for me to ask Coca Cola and Budweiser [for sponsorships],” Shull said. He also said the tournament had to be held out of county because there is no golf course in Fairfield County. He said the Board is tossing around another event that could be held in the county.

    At the end of the six-hour budget workshop, Council appeared satisfied with the administrative recommendations for allocations for all the agencies supported by the County, except for those recommended for the Chamber and for Fairfield County Disabilities and Special Needs. Council suggested omitting funding for a $19,000 vehicle for DSN, saying that some of DSN’s vehicles still had low mileage.

    “I wasn’t too impressed with some of the answers we received from the Chamber of Commerce tonight,” Smith told Council. “If they are not even sure they’re going to continue doing the things that we all know they have been doing, I think that leaves a question for us. If they don’t know what they’re going to continue to be doing, then how do we know how to continue to fund them?”

    “Are they going to be doing away with Rock Around the Clock?” Councilman Doug Pauley asked.

    “It kind of sounds that way,” Smith said. “I understand the Chamber is in a transitional period, but it seems the boat is rather rocky at the current time. Before we pass along any taxpayers’ monies, I’m just concerned about what the Chamber is going to do in the future,” Smith said.

    County Administrator Jason Taylor met with the Chamber Board the morning following the meeting, explaining what Council is looking for in the way of a spending plan for the coming fiscal year. The Chamber’s response is due to Taylor no later than May 9.

    In another funding concern, Council questioned Fairfield County Sheriff Will Montgomery’s request for funds in excess of Taylor’s recommendation. Montgomery requested additional funds for raises for his department that exceeded administrative recommendations. Smith said he would like to hear more details from Montgomery about the additional funding request.

    Council held a third budget workshop on April 24 and final reading on the budget will be held at the regular meeting on May 14.

  • May Vokaty goes from kitchen to farm

    May Vokaty shows off her growing herd of Alpacas. | Ashley Ghere

    RIDGEWAY – The Voice’s Foods Editor, May Vokaty, isn’t just a recipe wizard – she’s also an alpaca farmer. She was first smitten with the idea of owning alpacas while on vacation in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, and then spent a few years researching the logistics. Last October, she finally took the plunge and rented 2½ idyllic acres in Ridgeway for The Alpaca Experience, a pastured farmstead where she tends a herd of fluffy, sweet-natured alpacas, curly-horned angora goats, Heritage chickens and a wriggly litter of Great Pyranees puppies.

    Vokaty said she’s delighted that the farm is coming together just like she envisioned – as a productive fiber farm, an educational venue for the public and a farmer’s market offering farm-raised meat and eggs, homemade nut butters and jellies, hand-dyed yarn and fiber-woven accessories like socks, gloves, hats and scarves.

    The next Farm Day Farmer’s Market will be held on Saturday, May 5. Vendors’ wares will include handmade sawmill furniture, glass and ceramic mosaics, decorative felted animal figurines, hand-painted wooden home décor, a produce vendor, macramé jewelry, a food truck and more.

    Vokaty’s daughter, Elli, 6, smooches a baby alpaca. | May Vokaty

    And even the farm’s bumper crop of alpaca manure has become a surprisingly popular purchase at $5 a bag.

     

    “Alpaca manure is low in nitrogen and turns into compost quickly, without having to age much. So you can take it straight from the pasture and put it in your garden. It’s a very practical resource,” she said. “I actually pay my farm rent in manure!”

    Held on the first Saturday of every month, Farm Day Farmer’s Markets are open to the public and packed with informative tours, interaction with the animals and learning about farm life. Vokaty plans to continue developing the farm into an educational resource, perhaps as a destination for field trips and as a summer camp. She also hosts events for kids with special needs.

    “The atmosphere here is peaceful, and kind of therapeutic in a way,” she said. “A friend of mine has an autistic son, and I noticed how much he enjoys spending time at the farm, just relaxing on a bench in the shade of a tree or spending a few moments petting a gentle, friendly animal. In March, we held an Easter egg hunt here for kids with special needs and their families, and it was a great experience. I’d like to do more events like that, such as harvest festivals in the fall and Christmas things.”

    Vokaty said her daughter Elli, 6, is a big help around the farm.

    “She’s very involved, and she can do just about anything,” Vokaty said. “We come out to feed the animals every day after she gets home from school, and if I said, Elli, you’ve got to take care of everybody today, she could do it! Of course, it might take her a while…she’s easily distracted by the puppies,” she added with a smile. “Elli especially likes caring for the chickens, and she’s told her classmates that she wants to be either a chicken farmer or a chicken scientist when she grows up,” she said. “I don’t think I could do all this without her.”

    And building the alpaca herd, Vokaty said, has been an adventure.

    The farm’s Great Pyranees caretaker keeps an eye on her pups. | May Vokaty

    “I don’t know that I was ready for the first three,” she said. “I heard about them on Facebook, and went to see them at a farm upstate. They were living in bad conditions, and I knew I couldn’t just leave them, so I bought them and brought them home in a trailer. I had been studying alpacas for three or four years, so when I got the animals, it was like – oh, I know what to do! Although, I didn’t,” she adds with a laugh.

     

    The next three hailed from an area with lots of red clay.

    “I call them my orange girls,” she said. “But their color has calmed down considerably now.”

    Four male alpacas from North Carolina have rounded out the herd, although the group will be growing again soon since all the females are currently pregnant.

    “I’m really interested in fiber,” Vokaty said. “Alpaca fleece is comparable to cashmere – it’s lightweight, very warm, water-resistant, hypoallergenic and doesn’t make you sweat or itch.

    But alpaca fiber is ‘greener’ and more environmentally sustainable. Cashmere goats tear up their pasture land and basically reduce it to desert, so the more demand there is for cashmere, the more it destroys the earth. Alpacas are different. Instead of hooves, they have soft pads with toenails, so they don’t tear up the earth. And they’re bigger, so you can get four-six sweaters from one alpaca in a year, while it takes four cashmere goats to make just one sweater. Plus, they eat less than cashmere goats.”

    She sends the fleece to an alpaca fiber pool in New England for processing.

    “Since there are so few alpaca farmers in the United States, it’s a way for us to pool our fiber together and make it workable for a large mill, like the Pendleton mill that my fiber pool uses,” she said. “If I send them, say, 10 pounds of fleece, then I receive 10 pounds of finished product.”

    Any unusable bits and bobs of alpaca fleece are stuffed into “bird balls” that she hangs in trees around the farm to provide grab n’ go nesting material.

    Vokaty said that every day on the farm brings something new, whether a big surprise – like a litter of puppies – or more fleeting, like witnessing the alpacas’ delight at being allowed to “clean up the garden” at the end of the season.

    “The alpacas are just four-legged stress relievers,” she said. “When I’m out here, in the pasture with the animals and working with them, my stress just seems to go away. It’s a busy lifestyle – there’s always something to do, and you never get any time off – but they just seem to emotionally soothe me, in a way that makes what I’m doing worthwhile.”

    More information about The Alpaca Experience is available on the farm’s Facebook page at facebook.com/thealpacaexperience1.

  • Trial for JWC, board set for May 7

    JENKINSVILLE – Motions relating to pending lawsuits against the Jenkinsville Water Company and some of its officers are scheduled to be heard in a Fairfield County courtroom this week. In all, four motions will be heard on Friday, April 27. A trial date of May 7 has been set in one of the lawsuits, according to Fairfield County court documents.

    Ginyard

    One motion on Friday’s docket seeks to merge two similarly worded lawsuits – one filed in 2014 and the other in 2016. Both suits were filed by the Broad River Campground.  JWC is named as the lone defendant in the 2014 suit, while JWC president Greg Ginyard and vice president Joseph McBride are co-defendants in the 2016 litigation.

    Both suits concern a dispute over water usage agreements between the campground and the JWC. They also dispute how rates were calculated. Many people living at the campground were workers at the V.C. Summer nuclear plant in Jenkinsville. More water service was needed to accommodate growth in the campsites, the lawsuits state.

    “Jenkinsville Water Co., led by Ginyard and McBride, unfairly, unreasonably, and dishonestly used an inflated estimated water usage rate rather than the actual water usage rate … in making the decision to deny the additional 49 campsites,” the campground states in its complaint.

    Another motion the campground filed seeks permission to amend its original complaint. Additional details were not contained in court documents, and will be presented during Friday’s hearing, court documents state.

    The court will also hear a motion for summary judgment filed by the JWC.

    In a memo, the JWC said water is a finite resource that must be regulated.

    “JWC’s actions did not harm the public interests, as the Company acted prudently to ensure that the water would be conserved properly and would be available to other customers and potential customers,” the memo states.

    Specifically, a 2009 letter the JWC wrote to Broad River Campground stated water usage was capped at 8,050 gallons per day, but the number would rise to 21,000 gallons per day if service to the additional sites was approved.

    JWC also disputes the assertion that the letter constitutes a contract.

    “The parties never had a meeting of the minds and never entered into a valid contract,” the memo states.

    Broad River Campground filed another lawsuit in December 2016 that alleges the JWC has violated the state’s Freedom of Information Act. That case is still pending and it is not on the docket Friday.

    Related articles: Water Company Faces FOIA Lawsuit,  Water Company Officers Added to Lawsuit,

  • Green Energy Biofuel donates to Sustainable Carolina

    COLUMBIA – Green Energy Biofuel made a second annual donation to the University of South Carolina’s Sustainable Carolina on April 17. The company collects used cooking oil from USC and other organizations and upcycles it into useable biofuel. Green Energy Biofuel, located on Congress Street in Winnsboro, graduated from the University of South Carolina’s Incubator Program in 2012. By donating 25 cents for every gallon collected, Green Energy Biofuel gave a total of $2,100 back to Sustainable Carolina to help fund new butterfly and vertical gardens on campus. From left, Paris Block, Green Energy Biofuel executive assistant, Joe Renwick, Green Energy Biofuel founder and process engineer, Tom Syftert, USC Director of Environmental Health and Safety, and Zack Johnson, Green Energy Biofuel intern and USC student.

  • Timmers named interim director of Chamber

    Chris Timmers, center, new interim director of the Fairfield Chamber, is welcomed during last week’s monthly Chamber breakfast by board members Brian Bonds, Susan Douglas Taylor, Lou Ann Coleman and Lisa Kelly. | Barbara Ball

    WINNSBORO – The Fairfield County Chamber of Commerce board has named Chris Timmers of Columbia as interim director of the Chamber. He replaces former Chamber Director Terry Vickers who retired from her post in October 2017.

    Timmers, 70, previously spent four years with the Columbia Chamber of Commerce in membership sales where he set a number of sales records. Prior to that, Timmers was a consultant in the plastics industry.

    Timmers said his goal is to increase the Chamber’s visibility within the greater Fairfield community, including securing membership renewals at the rate of 80 percent and increasing new memberships the first year by 10 percent. Timmers said he hopes to do this short term by bringing in new member businesses from the three contiguous counties surrounding Fairfield, but his long term goal is to sell memberships to businesses in the surrounding 11 counties. He said those merchants and businesses would then be promoted in Fairfield County by the Chamber just as the Fairfield merchants and businesses are now.

    “Fairfield has a great deal to offer potential and existing members,” Timmers said.  “It’s location in north central South Carolina make it an attractive site for manufacturing and distribution. Its proximity to highways, rail lines and municipal airports is a key draw to executives pondering where in our state to locate new or expanded facilities.”

    Timmers will commute from Columbia where he and his wife Cindy make their home.

  • Element gives $30K for chorus trip

    Before being presented with Element’s check, Fairfield District Honors Chorus presented the songs that they will perform at Carnegie Hall. | Barbara Ball

    WINNSBORO – Fairfield County School District’s Honors Chorus learned last September that they are one of five high school bands and choruses chosen to perform next week at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Then, last week, they got more good news when Element TV in Winnsboro donated $30,000 to help finance the $50,000 trip.

    As of last week, the students had only raised $20,000. That’s when Carl Kennedy, Vice President of Human Resources at Element TV in Winnsboro, stepped in. He invited the chorus to perform for the company’s four-year anniversary in Winnsboro on March 9. Following the performance, Kennedy surprised them by presenting them with the check from Element.

    The students will leave by chartered bus on Sunday at 3 a.m., perform Tuesday evening, at 6 p.m., then return to Fairfield County the next day.

    “One of the students told me this morning that they are getting ready to make an impression on the world on the world’s most renowned stage,” Kennedy told the audience. “They are going to make us proud.”

  • Oldies & Goodies open for business

    WINNSBORO – A large crowd gathered last week for the grand opening of Robert and Bobbie Pemberton’s Oldies & Goodies consignment store at 158 S. Congress in downtown Winnsboro. The ribbon line, from left, Tamara Day, holding Carter, 2, Bobbie’s sisters Mamie Turner, Stephanie Levy and Nancy Grogan, Bobbie’s father Robert Moak, the Pembertons, Mayor Roger Gaddy, Betty Harden,  and Robert’s sister Marilyn George and her husband Joe.

  • Winnsboro Town Council OKs water for BW senior center

    Winnsboro Council OKs water capacity for proposed Senior Center in Blythewood

    WINNSBORO – A 64-room senior living facility proposed for downtown Blythewood crossed a major hurdle Monday night when the Town of Winnsboro voted unanimously to approve a Water Capacity Availability and Willingness to Serve Letter for The Pendergraph Companies. The letter approves 11,520 gallons per day (GPD) for the facility.

    The facility, to be named Blythewood Senior Living, is proposed for a five-acre site on Creech Road between the Russell Jeffcoat offices and the IGA and behind Larry Sharpe’s BP service station and three other lots facing Blythewood Road.

    According to Tom Ulrich, the project manager for the proposal, the water capacity is based on 32 two-bedroom apartment homes and 32 one-bedroom apartment homes. Ulrich told The Voice following the meeting that the facility would be for residents who live independently.

    “The rooms will all be in one building, like a hotel,” Ulrich said.

    Ulrich came before the Blythewood Town Council in the fall of 2017 to give Town Hall a heads up that his company was considering bringing a senior living facility to the town. Ulrich told The Voice that the company has been in discussions with Town officials for some months.

    “I wrote a reference letter for the developer stating this would be great for our town,” Mayor J. Michael Ross said, “but that we are not advocating for any more affordable living apartments. We are very excited that this facility might come to Blythewood.”

    “The project looks very positive from the developer’s perspective,” the Winnsboro’s utility attorney, John Fantry, said. “They’ve already built one of these facilities in Lancaster County. Now they’re taking that vision to Blythewood. They are currently doing due diligence for financing on a tract of about 52 acres on Creech Road. The developer will be coming back to us when financing is worked out. This particular request is to provide assurance to their financing process that Winnsboro does have the capacity to serve the proposed facility’s water needs,” Fantry said.

    Ulrich said he expects the project to be complete by the end of 2019.

    “We should have our water from Broad River by then,” Mayor Roger Gaddy said. “We oughta have all kinds of water to sell.”