Blythewood Online 691

Category: Community

  • It takes a community to rescue a cat

    BLYTHEWOOD – After a group of animal advocates from Blythewood and Ridgeway rescued a Jacksonville, Florida cat last week that had gone missing in Blythewood last September in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, the rescuers and the cat’s owner, Chris Miller, were treated to breakfast Sunday morning by the staff at Blythewood’s Lizard’s Thicket.

    Lux’s rescuers were treated to breakfast by Lizard’s Thicket management. Rescuers, from left: Cilla Phillips, Amy Kennedy, Wendy and Rob Schisler, Mark Cruise, Robert Calahan, Kelly Cruise, Donna Browning, Cam Chappell and Chris Miller, Lux’s owner.

    The occasion was the reuniting of Miller with her cat, Lux (pronounced Lukes), who went missing after Miller and her husband stopped in Blythewood to have lunch at Lizard’s Thicket on Sept. 14. The couple and their two dogs and Lux, a 15-pound black cat with yellow eyes, were returning home to Jacksonville after evacuating during Hurricane Irma.

    Before going into the restaurant, the Millers cracked the car windows and left the sunroof partially open for the animals’ comfort. After lunch, the Millers got back into their car and a ways before stopping for fuel.

    “We drove a little further,” Miller said, “before we discovered that Lux was missing. We searched the car and couldn’t find him.”

    “We drove back to Blythewood where we searched into the night around Lizard’s Thicket, then we checked in to a motel in town and began our search again the next morning in the Cobblestone Park area.”

    That’s when they met Cobblestone Park resident Mark Cruise who offered to enter their missing cat information on the NextDoor app for Cobblestone Park and Eagles Glenn.

    During the ensuing months many in the community kept a vigil for the cat. There were occasional reports of sightings, but no solid leads. The managers of a cat colony in the area were also keeping on the lookout for the missing cat.

    Cam Chappell, left, and Cilla Phillips, two Blythewood women who help manage cat communities, say good-bye to Lux before his ride back to Jacksonville. | Photos/Barbara Ball

    Cam Chappell set out trail cameras. Cilla Phillips thought a couple of times that she’d seen Lux, but couldn’t be sure. After a couple of sightings that turned out not to be Lux, Cam Chappell thought she spotted him Sunday morning.

    “We had two black cats in the cat colony,” Chappell said. “So when a third one showed up on Thursday, I was sure it was Lux.”

    A humane trap was set and a couple of hours later, Lux walked into it. Miller was contacted and made plans to pick him up in Blythewood Sunday morning.

    The breakfast reunion of Miller with her cat and the folks who helped rescue him was joyous. Many with other cat, dog and pig rescue stories with happy endings were related.

    “We appreciate all you did for us and Lux,” Miller told her new friends. “We are grateful. What a wonderful community.”

    After taking selfies all around, Miller and Lux said good-bye and set off for the long drive home.

  • Recycle your Christmas tree

    BLYTHEWOOD – Recycle your live Christmas trees through the annual Grinding of the Greens program offered by the Keep the Midlands Beautiful! program. Trees can be dropped off at any of 21 locations between Dec. 26 and Jan. 11. Locations can be found at www.keepthemidlandsbeautiful.org or by calling 733-1139.

    Before dropping off trees:

    • remove all lights, tinsel and ornaments and the stand from the tree
    • drop off trees only. Wreaths, garland and other greenery are not accepted
    • remove tree from bag
    • remove any string, wire or ties on the tree

    Christmas tree drop-off locations nearest Blythewood:

    Clemson Institute for Economic & Community Development – 900 Clemson Road.

    Richland County Tennis Center-7500 Parklane Road, Columbia M-TH, 9 a.m. – 9 p.m.; Fri, 9: a.m. – 6 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. -3 p.m.
    City of Columbia Compost Facility –121 Humane Lane, Columbia. (off Shop Road across from SPCA). M-F, 8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.

    Free mulch made from the recycled trees will be available to the public at the following two locations on Saturday, Jan. 13 from 8:30 a.m. until the mulch runs out: South Carolina State Farmers Market (3483 Charleston Highway, West Columbia) and Seven Oaks Park (200 Leisure Lane; near the intersection of St. Andrews & Piney Grove roads).

  • FCHS hosts funeral service for student

    WINNSBORO – More than 700 students, friends and family members attended the funeral for a 15-year-old Fairfield Central High School student that was held on Tuesday at the high school.

    Beaufort

    Mykel Rodriqus Hampton Beaufort died when the car he was driving collided with another car on Highway 34 near Pine Top Road on Dec. 26, around 5:20 p.m.

    “I’ve had the opportunity to get to know Mykel in the Griffin Bow Tie Club,” School Superintendent J. R. Green said. “Two words exemplify Mykel – humble spirit. He was a very respectful young man. His parents did an exceptional job raising him.”

    Green said Beaufort was also a member of the band and played football, soccer, basketball and baseball.

    “It is very hard to say goodbye to a student. I love every one of them,” FCHS Principal Tracie Swilley said. “Mykel was a model student who exemplified Griffin P.R.I.D.E. in the school, on the court, on the field and in the community. We will miss him terribly and will never forget him.”

  • Rev. Norris N. Turner dies

    Rev. Turner

    BLAIR – America lost a powerful man of God and a talented gospel singer on Dec. 27 when Rev. Norris B. Turner passed away. Rev. Turner served as pastor of Gethsemane Baptist Church in Blair for nineteen years before retiring in February of 2017.

     

    Rev. Turner’s song writing ability was legendary in the gospel recording industry. “Give God a Chance” was one of his original compositions. Other successful songs r include “At the Cross Roads” and “Stop & Get Religion.”

    A celebration of life for Rev. Norris B. Turner was held Saturday, Dec. 30 at Gethsemane Baptist Church. A funeral at Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Greenwood, SC followed on Dec. 31.

     

  • Dru Blair art center in the works

    WINNSBORO – Okay, everybody get out a pen and paper – it’s time for class! Art class, that is… in a vibrant new community art center coming to life in Winnsboro. Fairfield County’s Dru Blair, an internationally recognized photorealist painter who also manages a popular art school in Blair, is renovating the former Winnsboro Furniture Building on Congress St. into an energetic hub for creativity and artistic expression.

    “The concept we have right now is to make one side of it an art center that can be used by the community, and the other side a gallery to represent different artists,” Blair said. “It’s a large building – about 7000 square feet. So there’s plenty of room for many things.”

    Blair Art Center & Gallery on Congress Street, Winnsboro.

    Blair purchased the building five years ago, but because he was busy with other professional obligations and wasn’t able to start work on it right away, he allowed the STEM school to use the space free. He said the time has finally arrived, though, to start developing the art center, and he’s enthusiastic about the process.

    “We don’t have an exact time frame yet,” he said, “but we do already have people who want to use it. So I’m trying to move it along as fast as possible!”

    Blair said the new center will function as an extension of his art school in Blair, which he founded 20 years ago, originally in North Carolina.

    “In 2008, I moved the school to Blair, which is my ancestral hometown,” he said. “We have students come from all over the world to this school, but it’s not a ‘community center’. I figured it might serve the community better to have a place in a more accessible area. The Furniture Building seemed like an ideal location, and the owner, John McMeekin, had decided to retire and sell the building. So it worked out really well.”

    Blair said that community support for developing the center has been very encouraging.

    “Terry Vickers and Don Bonds both contacted me about moving forward with the art center. Don is an artist himself, and he recently retired from a position in the county tax assessor’s office. He volunteered to do some of the heavy lifting as we make changes with the building, so I purchased some paint and he got it painted. Changing the color was a big step,” he said.

    “I’ve also been working with Julianne Neal, the director of the arts in Fairfield County public schools. She works with the performing arts, and I’ve been talking to her for years about setting up something together. So we’re trying to make sure the building can accommodate not just visual arts but also performing arts.”

    Blair intends for the school to include a wide variety of artistic media, including his own instruction in photo-realism and traditional brushwork. .

    “We’re also planning to offer acrylic, watercolor, things like that,” he said. “And we’ll bring in guest instructors, even from around the world, who will come give classes or workshops in the building. What I’d like to see is a community center where people can explore a craft or an art, and where different art groups can meet. I think it will benefit Winnsboro greatly.”

    Blair, who holds a Master of Fine Arts in Painting from USC, has received a plethora of awards and recognition over the years for his photorealistic painting. He’s interviewed regularly for magazines, television and radio, and was even featured on the Japanese television show, ‘Battle of the Experts’.

    “That was about five years ago,” he said. “Two Japanese TV crews came to Blair to film the competition. The goal was for me to create a painting that would fool one of the world’s foremost photographic experts into thinking it was an actual photograph – and I won. Then I went over there and won again, against their champion. It was a great experience.

    “I think people like realism, and I think that’s what brings the students to visit me. Even if they’re not photo-realists, they certainly can pick up new techniques to apply to their own art.”

    Blair keeps a busy schedule of teaching workshops and classes around the world, and often receives invitations to over a dozen places a year. He just returned from teaching in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth, Australia.

    “I’m fortunate to have this life,” he said, “but I do get homesick – I miss Fairfield County. I always look forward to coming home after every trip.”

    He said that helping students develop into artists is what makes it all worthwhile.

    “Art is therapeutic,” he said. “A lot of my students are creative people who chose careers in other fields, like surgery or carpentry, and now they are realizing a creative outlet later in their careers and are taking great enjoyment from it. You’re never too old to learn, and anyone can improve and become a better artist.”

    Blair has no shortage of ambitions for fostering a new era of artistic expression in Fairfield County. Some of his upcoming project ideas include planning an illusionistic art mural near the Town Clock in Winnsboro and setting up a children’s art camp in Blair within the next few years.

    “And my ultimate goal is to bring a college – an art college – to Fairfield County. There’s a lot of support for the idea, but it’s not a small task. It takes money, of course, and the paperwork is probably 3 or 4 feet high just to apply for the license,” he said. “But everything begins with a dream!”

  • Rimer Pond vs. Palmer Tuesday night

    BLYTHEWOOD – The zoning fate of the Rimer Pond Road area will once again be in the hands of Richland County Council as members cast their votes Tuesday night on whether the road will become commercial or remain rural. The hearing was scheduled for October, but land owner Hugh Palmer who is requesting the rezoning, asked to have the hearing rescheduled for Dec. 19. Many of those who oppose the rezoning say that date could favor Palmer if many of the families who usually show up at Council to speak out against the rezoning are out of town due to the schools’ Christmas break which begins Dec. 16.

    For almost a quarter century, Rimer Pond Road area residents have fought to keep commercial zoning out of their neighborhood. Hugh Palmer and his son Patrick Palmer, who live in Columbia, are among a long string of developers/land speculators to repeatedly ask County Council for commercial zoning on the road.

    For the past three years, the Palmers have requested commercial zoning on 5.23 acres of land they own at the intersection of Longtown Road West and Rimer Pond Road. The property sits across the road from Blythewood Middle School.

    There is no commercial zoning on the road.

    “For the Palmers, a lot of money is riding on the success of this request…maybe as much as $2M, maybe more,” Rimer Pond Road resident Trey Hair told County Council earlier this year. “There’s no money in it for the residents. All we want is to just to be able to maintain our rural way of life, what we moved out here for.  Once the first commercial zoning request is approved, they will start coming down like dominoes along Rimer Pond Road.”

    The commercial issue

    The Palmers say they want to bring commercial uses to benefit the neighborhood. The residents responded that they don’t need those commercial uses and don’t want them.

    Residents say commercial uses in neighboring areas have brought crime and more commercial zoning, and that many of those commercial buildings are frequently vacant. They have given examples of gunshots being fired at nearby convenience store/gas stations.

    Residents told Richland County Planning Commissioners earlier in October that the Neighborhood Commercial (NC) zoning the Palmers seek on Rimer Pond Road would allow a convenience store with gas pumps in the midst of their residential and farm properties, bringing crime to the neighborhood. The Commissioners assured them that convenience stores with gas pumps are not allowed in NC zoning. However, Richland county Planning Director Geonard Price said the residents were correct, that convenience stores with gas pumps will be permitted on the Palmers’ 5.23 acres if it is rezoned to NC.

    Although there is currently no other commercial zoning in the area, the County’s planning staff recommended that the Planning Commission vote for the rezoning, saying it “would be consistent with the intentions of the 2015 Comprehensive Plan and that it would not be out of character with the existing surrounding development pattern and zoning districts for the area. According to the County zoning ordinances, the property, as it is now zoned, is also consistent with the intentions of the Comp Plan. The residents say the only reason to change the zoning to commercial is for the Palmers to enrich their coffers at the expense of the neighborhood’s quality of life.

    While the Comprehensive Plan specifies that the NC zoning district is designed to be located within or adjacent to residential neighborhoods where large commercial uses are inappropriate, but where small neighborhood oriented businesses are useful and desired, Rimer Pond Road area residents say such commercial uses are not desired by the residents, and that to vote for them would only be accommodating developers, not the people who live there.

    “After Council defeated the Palmers’ last commercial zoning request on Rimer Pond Road in February, Ashley Powell, Manager of Richland County Planning Services, was quoted as saying, “Right now in some areas, like Rimer Pond Road, the people who live there are not liking what the County has planned for their area in terms of zoning.

    “If we want to protect the character of the neighborhood that the people moved out there for,” Powell said, “we need to amend (the Richland County comp plan) based on the feedback we get from the people.”

    While Powell set up several meetings to gather that feedback, 10 months later the County has still not issued any reports on the results of those meetings. According to Tracey Hegler, Director of Planning and Development for Richland County, those reports won’t be made available until around February, 2018, long after Council votes on whether to establish commercial zoning on Rimer Pond Road. So the results of the meetings are being held up by the County planning staff until after they could be of any benefit to the areas (including Rimer Pond Road) that they are supposed to protect.

    Just before the Planning Commission voted earlier this month on the Palmers’ commercial zoning request, Commissioner Heather Carnes confessed that she had been leaning toward voting for Neighborhood Commercial zoning this time because she’s a city girl and appreciates what she feels NC zoning can generally do for rural communities who desire commercial uses.

    “Even so,” she said, “in this particular situation, given what Rimer Pond Road is and that there is no commercial zoning for, like, forever, in this area, I am going to vote against this request for commercial zoning.”

    While Commissioner Beverly Frierson voted in favor of the Palmers and against the residents as did David Tuttle, Christopher Anderson and Planning Commission Chair Stephen Gilchrist, the motion for commercial zoning ended in a tie vote which meant it failed to pass. As a result, no recommendation, for or against, will be sent to Council when it meets Tuesday evening, Dec. 19, at 7 p.m. at County Council chambers in the County building at Hampton and Hardin Streets in Columbia.

    Those wishing to speak for or against the commercial zoning request must arrive a few minutes early to sign in. Council will have three votes on the issue. If at any of the three meetings they vote against the rezoning, then the issue will be denied.

    The 5.23 acre parcel at Rimer Pond and Longtown West roads was part of a larger 31.23 acre tract the Palmers purchased in February of 2008. In December of 2008, the family wanted a different zoning and asked County Council to rezone the parcel from Rural (RU) to Medium Density Residential (RS-MD). Council granted their wish, and the Palmers sold off all but the 5.23 acres to developer Kevin Steelman, president of LandTech, who subsequently built homes on the property.

    By June, 2015, the Palmers wanted to up-zone the 5/23 acres and asked Council to rezone it – this time, from Medium Density Residential (RS-MD) to Rural Commercial zoning (RC). Palmer listed the 5.23 acres for $350,000 per acre. When it was apparent to the Palmers that they did not have the vote over a large contingent of Rimer Pond Road residents at the June 23, 2015 County Council meeting, they withdrew their rezoning request prior to the meeting.

    Five months later, the Palmers brought their request for commercial zoning back to County Council, this time complaining that the 5.23 acre parcel was undesirable as residential property because it had a cell tower on it. But the cell tower had been on the property when they purchased it. Council’s vote ended in a tie resulting in a denial of the Palmer’s rezoning request.

    Last Feb. 23, the Palmer’s again asked Council for commercial zoning on the 5.23 acre parcel. More than a hundred residents attended the County Council hearing to ask that their neighborhood be spared from the Palmer’s commercial zoning request. In a bold display of bias, the road’s own Council representative, Gwen Kennedy, left her chair at the dais during the meeting, walked outside the chambers with Boyd Brown, a lobbyist hired by the Palmers to persuade Council to vote for commercial zoning.  After about 10 minutes, the two came back in to the meeting. Kennedy took her seat at the dais and subsequently made the motion to approve the Palmers’ commercial zoning request. The motion failed as she was the only one who voted for it.

    Kennedy did not attend a community meeting on Oct. 18 in Blythewood that was called by the residents. Instead, Calvin Jackson met with the residents to hear their concerns.

    What businesses are allowed outright on the 5.23 acres under the Neighborhood Commercial zoning designation?

    • Convenience Store with gas pumps
    • Liquor Store
    • Tobacco Store
    • Bar and Other Drinking Place
    • Auto Dealership
    • Laundry and Dry Cleaner
    • General Merchandise Store
    • Grocery Store
    • Cigar Bar
    • And more…

  • Gordge: Comet gave false stats on bus riders

    BLYTHEWOOD – During Council members’ remarks at Monday’s Council meeting, Councilman Malcolm Gordge brought up what he called false information provided to the Town by Comet officials about the number of people who ride on the new Blythewood Express Comet commuter bus, 52X, that buses riders to Columbia in the morning and back to Blythewood in the afternoon.

    Gordge provided The Voice with a recent report from the Central Midlands Transit on ridership and seat occupancy of the Blythewood Express. The report stated that of the 90 seats available on the 52X, 33 percent of the seats were filled during the second month of service (October, 2017), almost double the percentage for the previous month (16.3 percent).

    “Our best day so far,” the report stated, “was Thursday, Oct. 5, where a total of 63 passengers filled 70 percent of the available seats.”

    The report stated that during October, the 52X had a total ridership of 664 passengers, an average of 30 passengers per day.

    But Gordge said the Town was not seeing those numbers and he challenged transit officials about the number of riders taking the bus out of Blythewood.

    “In actuality,” Gordge told The Voice, “we never had more than one, two or three passengers ride the bus except a few days when there were as many as five. So when I challenged the numbers, they told me that those numbers were for the entire 52X route which picks up many other locations even though it is called the Blythewood Express,” Gordge said.

    “When I told them we needed to have a better understanding of what the numbers, time frames and destinations are, they did not seem worried. I had the distinct impression that the transit officials are going to keep running the bus out here no matter what,” Gordge said.

    The bus, which charges $2.50 bus fare each way, makes stops at The Ponte apartments on Main Street and at Town Hall. For bus schedule information, go to www.townofblythewoodsc.gov.

  • Horton cottages fail PC rezoning criteria, Brock elected PC Chair

    BLYTHEWOOD – The Planning Commission members unanimously elected Donald Brock to chair the Commission Monday evening. Brock replaces Brian Franklin who was elected to Town Council last month. Brock is a resident of Oakhurst neighborhood.

    Brock

    Developer D. R. Horton was back on the Commission’s doorstep Monday evening requesting the rezoning of 4.76 acres near the Cobblestone Clubhouse from Planned Development/ R-3 (PDD, R-3), single family attached townhomes to Planned Development/R-2 (PDD, R-2, single family detached residential).

    A Horton representative said Horton plans to build 12 to 13 cottage-style homes on the parcel.

    In October, the Commission recommended that same rezoning request based on several residents’ expressed desires to have cottages over townhomes.

    However, when the issue came before Council, the residents switched gears, telling Council they were afraid the cottages were not going to come up to neighborhood standards and asked Council to turn Horton’s request down.  Council obliged.

    When Horton came back to the Commission Monday night asking for a re-do of the October vote, the Commissioners weren’t as eager to comply.

    New chair Brock cited a memo from Town Attorney Jim Meggs stating that generally the same rezoning can’t be resubmitted for a year unless the Commission determines either: 1) there has been a substantial change in the character of the area or 2) factors exist which were not considered in the previous deliberations which might substantially alter the basis for the Commission’s recommendation.

    Brock said neither was the case, and the Commission voted unanimously against recommending the rezoning.

  • 13-year-old drowns in Lake Carolina

    Jaylan Antonio Jones

    BLYTHEWOOD – A 13-year-old Lake Carolina boy, Jaylan Jones, slipped into the lake around 2 p.m. on Sunday and drowned, according to Richland County Coroner Gary Watts. His body was recovered about 4:30 p.m. that afternoon.

    According to Lt. Curtis Wilson of the Richland County Sheriff’s Department, a friend told deputies he and Jones were playing in the spillway near the dam when Jones slipped and fell into the lake.

    The friend called 911 and led first responders to the site where Jones went under water.

    Jones was a seventh grader at Kelly Mill Middle School.

  • Sheriff updates Greenbrier on Cambio

    Fairfield County Sheriff Will Montgomery updated neighbors of the Cambio Academy last week on what his department is doing to keep residents safe from Cambio runaways who, Montgomery said, roam Greenbrier day and night causing damage, leaving residents fearful for their safety.

    GREENBRIER- After making more than a hundred calls to Cambio Academy in the Greenbrier community since May and hearing from many residents about runaways from Cambio breaking and entering and causing property damage and harrassing Greenbrier residents, Sheriff Will Montgomery held a community meeting last week at Greenbrier United Methodist Church.

    While Montgomery didn’t have a lot of answers, the Greenbrier neighbors had a lot of questions:

    “What kind of in-house security does Cambio have?”

    “What are you (the Sheriff) doing about this?

    “What structure does Cambio have in place to keep these kids busy?”

    The Sheriff’s answers:

    “None.”

    “I’m working on it.”

    “Breaking and entering,” someone in the audience joked

    There were numerous testimonials about property damage and runaway teens roaming the neighborhood day and night.

    “How long is it going to be until something serious happens? That what worries me,” a woman from the audience said.

    Another asked, “When one of these kids goes missing, why aren’t we notified?”

    Montgomery suggested residents could sign up for the County’s reverse 911 service that will notify them of emergencies and that he will consider using the service for the Cambio issue.

    Cambio Academy is located in Greenbrier.

    Montgomery said that after talking with the Academy’s Director, Pamela Woods, he is trying to work out some type of security for the facility such as fencing or an alarm system that will alert management when a teen is leaving the facility.

    Resident Laura Thomas suggested residents call the governor’s office to complain about the community chaos created by Cambio.

    Asked how the facility got approval to operate in the County, Administrator Jason Taylor said Cambio representatives did not have to come before the County to ask for rezoning of the property.

    “It was already zoned for that use,” Taylor said.

    County Council Chairman Billy Smith addressed the process for getting the state to close the facility.

    “Part of the process of trying to get them closed is to basically identify to them what problems they are causing, give them a period of time to fix those problems and then if they don’t, we can petition the court to grant an injunction to close it,” Smith said. “So it is very important that we have everything documented, anything that you are aware of, be sure to make those phone calls to the County or the Sheriff’s department. That will be the information we have to have to present to a judge.”

    Another community meeting is set for Tuesday, Dec. 19 at 6 p.m. at Greenbrier Methodist Church to discuss the issue.