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  • Great Falls Man Charged in Wateree Area Thefts

    Dalford Mitchell Wilson
    Dalford Mitchell Wilson

    WINNSBORO (May 20, 2016) – A Great Falls man was arrested last week by Fairfield County Sheriff’s investigators and charged with grand larceny and petit larceny after three jet skis and a golf cart were stolen from homes at Lake Wateree.

    Dalford Mitchell Wilson, 30, of 4740 Great Falls Highway and with an alternate address of 204 Duke St., was arrested on May 13 after Great Falls police had picked him up for questioning during the investigation.

    Wilson is charged with thefts that, according to incident reports from the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office, began around May 2. It was then that a homeowner in the 100 block of Bluebird Lane reported a pair of jet skis worth $4,000 had been stolen from outside his home.

    On May 7, a homeowner in the 100 block of Saints Drive reported his Yamaha jet ski worth $1,500 had also been stolen from underneath his home. Then on May 14, a homeowner also in the 100 block of Saints Drive reported the theft of a golf cart worth $800 from outside his home.

    A witness in the golf cart theft reported seeing a red pickup truck towing the golf cart away from the home some time between May 3 and May 5. A second witness reported seeing the same red pickup truck prowling around the neighborhood between those same dates. The pickup truck was later linked to Wilson who confessed to the theft. Wilson reportedly told investigators that he had dropped the golf cart off at a home on Circle Street in Great Falls. Investigators located the golf cart there on May 14.

    The jet skis stolen from Blue Bird Lane were located on May 10 outside a home on Old Stover Road in Great Falls. The resident there reportedly told investigators that Wilson had asked her if he could park them there.

    The jet ski stole from Saints Drive was located outside a home on Holly Street in Great Falls. The resident there also reportedly told investigators that Wilson had dropped the jet ski off there.

    Fairfield County Sheriff Will Montgomery said he expects the Wilson investigation will lead to more stolen items.

    “This is still an active investigation,” Montgomery said, “and we are optimistic that we are going to be able to locate more of these items that have been stolen.”

    The Lake Wateree area has in recent weeks experienced a rash of thefts, the Sheriff’s Office said, which in addition to personal water craft and the golf cart include tools and trailers.

    Wilson was booked into the Fairfield County Detention Center. He was released on May 16 on a $10,000 bond and transferred to Chester County where he faces additional charges.

     

  • So Long Sarah –

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    Senator Creighton Coleman and Representative MaryGail Douglas present a proclamation honoring Sarah McMaster, center, for her 39 years of service as Director of the Fairfield County Public Library. During the Sunday afternoon retirement party, many town and government officials and members of the community thanked McMaster and wished her well.

     

  • Livings the Good Life

    Writer Earns Spot at Academy in Rome

    Jack Livings
    Jack Livings

    NEW YORK, NY (May 20, 2016) – Winnsboro native Jack Livings has won a 2016 Rome Prize in Literature from the American Academy in Rome. The literary fellowship, awarded annually to two writers, provides for 11 months in residence at the American Academy in Rome (beginning in September), a writing studio, daily meals and a $28,000 stipend. The Academy also welcomes the winners’ spouses and children. Livings was presented with the award in a ceremony at the New School in New York City on April 21.

    Livings, 41, said his time in Rome will be focused on finishing his novel-in-progress, which is already under contract with publisher Farrar, Straus & Giroux as the second of a two-book deal. His first book, a collection of short stories called “The Dog,” won the $25,000 PEN/Bingham award in 2015. During his year in Italy, Livings will be on book leave from his job as International Editor in Licensing and Syndication at Time, Inc. in New York City.

    “I’m most looking forward to having the time to work,” he said in a telephone interview with The Voice. “It will be great to be in Rome, to learn some Italian and travel around some. But uprooting from everything that we have here, and going over there – if not for the work, I would never do it. I wouldn’t just take a year off and go to Rome. I’m doing this only because it affords me the chance to get consistent, concentrated work done. And it just happens to be in a great, beautiful, historic place.”

    While the two literature fellowships are awarded solely through nomination by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, 28 other Rome Prizes are awarded to artists and scholars who apply with projects in fields such as art history, musical composition, visual arts, ancient history, architecture and medieval studies.

    “One of the great things about the Academy is that you’re around a lot of really interesting people,” Livings said, “and more people kind of cycle through on shorter visits, like Zadie Smith, who came through for a month one year.”

    Livings’ wife, writer Jennie Yabroff, and their three-year-old daughter Anna will also be spending the year in Rome with him.

    “My older daughter, Eleanor, will be 12, and she’s going to stay in New York with her mother,” he said. “It just seemed like a really bad idea to yank her out of New York and take her away from her friends and the activities she enjoys, chorus and basketball. It’ll be tough not to see her as much, but we’re planning for her to come over pretty frequently, at least every month, for long visits.”

    Livings’ current schedule involves waking up at 4:30 a.m. to write for a couple of hours before heading to the office, and he said he’ll definitely keep to a morning schedule in Rome – though perhaps not quite such an early one.

    “I’ll let myself sleep until maybe 7 o’clock,” he said with a laugh. “Seriously though, I think I get better work done before lunch. So if I want to do five or six really good hours of work, I need to do it before noon.”

    The novel itself, he said, is going well, although sometimes it seems to have a mind of its own.

    “Before, I was always just interested in short stories, and I put a lot of effort into learning that form. A short story is so tightly packed. So for me this is a new form,” he said. “A short story is like a shoebox filled with mementos – your grandmother’s necklace, your grandfather’s pen, a lobster claw, a rock from somewhere. You can pick each one up individually and examine it, but you can also see the contents of the box, all at one time. But a novel, at least to me, is like a warehouse stacked floor to ceiling and wall to wall with shoeboxes. You can’t conceivably keep it all in your mind at one time, so you’re just sort of going on good faith most of the time. And that’s what’s nice about this thing in Rome – I might actually be able to concentrate hard enough to do it well, or at least to approach doing it well, because a novel just requires so much more sustained concentration than short stories.”

    Raised in Winnsboro, where his mother, Laurens Livings, still resides, Livings graduated from Richard Winn Academy in 1992. After majoring in English at Davidson College, he earned a Masters in Fine Arts in fiction from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. In 2000, he was one of five writers selected for the prestigious Wallace Stegner Fellowship in Fiction at Stanford University.

     

  • Water, Sewer Rates Rise in Ridgeway Budget

    RIDGEWAY (May 20, 2016) – Town Council during their May 12 meeting passed first reading of their 2016-2017 budget that includes a rate increase for water and sewer service. The increase, Councilman Doug Porter said, was being passed along to Ridgeway customers from the Town of Winnsboro, Ridgeway’s supplier of wholesale water.

    While the Winnsboro Town Council has not yet officially OK’d rate increases, Ridgeway is preparing for rates to go up .065 cents per 1,000 gallons, according to documents provided by the Town.

    According to last week’s proposal, in-town residential water rates would go from $15.10 to $15.25 for the first 1,000 gallons, and from $5.17 to $5.25 for overage costs. Out of town residential rates would go from $20.10 to $20.50 for the first 1,000 gallons, and from $6.42 to $6.50 for overage costs.

    In-town commercial rates would go from $18.10 to $18.50 for the first 1,000 gallons, and from $5.17 to $5.25 for overage. Out of town commercial rates would go from $23.10 to $23.50 for the first 1,000 gallons, and from $6.42 to $6.50 for overage.

    In-town residential sewer rates would go from $12.10 to $12.25 for the first 1,000 gallons, and from $4.52 to $4.75 for overage. Out of town residential sewer rates would increase from $13.10 to $13.50 for the first 1,000 gallons, and from $5.67 to $5.75 for overage.

    In-town commercial sewer rates would rise from $16.10 to $16.25 for the first 1,000 gallons, and from $4.67 to $4.75 for overage. Out of town commercial sewer rates would increase from $19.10 to $19.25 for the first 1,000 gallons, and from $5.67 to $5.75 for overage.

    Tap fees for in-town and out of town water would remain at $500 for non-bore three-quarter-inch taps and $900 for out of town non-bore 1-inch taps. Bore taps come at cost plus 10 percent. Sewer taps will be provided at cost.

     

  • Council Nixes Sidewalk Repair

    RIDGEWAY (May 20, 2016) – Town Council reversed course last week on a February vote to fund the repair of a little more than 200 feet of sidewalk near the Post Office on S. Palmer Street, turning down a $5,900 bid from Dwight Robertson.

    Robertson’s offer was the lower of two bids, the second coming in at $8,200 from M C Rowe Construction.

    During their Feb. 11 meeting, Council voted unanimously to cash in one of their Certificates of Deposit (CDs) to fund the project, which at that time was estimated at $5,000. When the cost to meet Department of Transportation (DOT) requirements sent the estimate over the $5,000 threshold for no-bid jobs, Council was required to seek additional bids on the project.

    At Council’s May 12 meeting, Councilman Heath Cookendorfer said he had received negative feedback from citizens who were concerned about the Town spending money on a state-owned sidewalk. The state, Mayor Charlene Herring said, has obligated DOT funding for the repair of bridges and roads, with no money available for sidewalks.

    Meanwhile, Council is facing another large expenditure with its Police Department. Officer Christopher Culp told Council on May 12 that the car radios as well as a pair of hand-held radios will stop working at the end of the year when the state completes its changeover to a digital system. The total estimated cost to replace the radios is around $5,000.

    During the sidewalk debate, Councilman Doug Porter said repairing the sidewalk was a safety issue. Councilman Donald Prioleau, however, said that it was “more important from a safety standpoint for the Police Department to have the proper equipment.”

    The money to replace the radios, Prioleau said, could also be pulled from CDs.

    Sidewalk repair failed on a 2-3 vote, with Herring and Porter voting in favor and Cookendorfer, Prioleau and Angela Harrison voting against.

    High Grass and Fire Hazards

    Council also passed first reading on an ordinance to keep weeds and grass less than 1-foot high in lawns inside the town limits. Residents found in violation would receive a 14-day notice, after which time the Town would mow the lawn and bill the resident.

    Prioleau said that 1 foot might be too tall and suggested leaving the definition vague at simply “high grass.” But Herring noted that the ordinance should have measurable definitions to be enforceable.

    Council gave first reading to an amendment to its fire hazards ordinance, upgrading the fines for the accumulation on property of debris and other material deemed by the Fire or Police chief to be a fire hazard. The existing ordinance carries a penalty of $50 or 30 days in jail. The amendment contains a $50 fine for first offense and a $100 fine or 30 days in jail for second offense.

     

  • Town Considers Park Uses, Security

    BLYTHEWOOD (May 19, 2016) – With the increasing popularity of Doko Park and the Manor, Council continued at their May 12 workshop to look at the increasing need to control and monitor what goes on in the park and around the Manor. To that end, Town Administrator Gary Parker asked Council for guidance on what uses should be permitted/prohibited in the park and how to monitor the park.

    Permitted Park Uses

    Parker said Council should make it clear to park participants if it is not going to allow bounce houses, other inflatables and mechanical rides. He also wanted guidance on how, if such a policy were initiated, it would be enforced.

    Mayor J. Michael Ross suggested a park attendant.

    “I would like this Council to think about a Saturday employee that’s in this park from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., eight hours, for the safety of the people who come here and to remind them of what they can and can’t do,” Ross said. “It’s just a thought, but the budget is coming up and I think we’re big enough.”

    Town Attorney Jim Meggs suggested crafting an ordinance to address the park issues.

    “I’d suggest this would be a good segue to having a full discussion about an ordinance related to all the park’s prohibitions, permitting and procedures,” Meggs said. “We need an ordinance combined with assistance from the Sheriff’s Department.”

    Councilman Tom Utroska suggested having simple signs posted at the entrances, such as: ‘picnicking allowed in certain areas,’ ‘only use gas grills,’ ‘no inflatables allowed.’

    “I think most people will abide by what we post,” Utroska said. “But I don’t want 18 signs all over the park.”

    “Are we making a mountain out of a mole hill?” Councilman Larry Griffin asked. “I don’t want to kill the whole park thing. We can put up a few signs saying what we can and can’t do. I’ve played ball in parks all over the United States of America. Why is our park different? I don’t see policemen all over the city or state parks. When you see a lot of security, it gives the impression that something is wrong.”

    Parker and Meggs reiterated that the town would eventually need an ordinance in place as the park gets busier. Ross agreed.

    “The ordinance is something to move forward with that will give us some teeth,” Ross said.

    Security Cameras

    With infrequent but considerable vandalism having already occurred in the park, Parker stressed the need for a security system with cameras. He presented two quotes – for $16,000 the town would own the system and monitor it, and for $7,000 – $8,000, the security firm would own the equipment and monitor it for the town in addition to Town Hall staff monitoring it.

    “The reason this is before us at all is because we have had some vandalism issues in the park and want to prevent it from happening in the future,” Parker told Council. “And if vandalism does occur, we’ll have some evidence as to who to hold accountable. Both the systems we’re looking at use cameras and video recorders, so I think a system is not only for vandals, but it prevents problems. If someone falls on the playground, the camera protests us from possible problems.”

    Parker said Irmo has a similar (smaller) security system with 23 cameras.

    “After they were installed, all vandalism stopped. They have owned cameras for six years,” Parker said. “North Augusta has also had good experience with this system.”

    Captain Stubblefield from the Richland County Sheriff’s Department attended the meeting and weighed in on the issue. He stressed what he considered the two most important aspects of a camera security system.

    “It’s about how much time it takes us to get the information from the system and start tracking someone down and start investigating,” Stubblefield said. “If we have to wait to get a manager or regional guy to come download the video, the more difficult the apprehension (of the suspect) becomes. And the most important investment for you is good cameras with good capabilities. It’s good to have a car tag number, but we have to actually id the person behind the wheel. A good camera helps us solve the crime.”

    Stubblefield said it’s also an important prevention to crime to have signs saying cameras are on site.

    Ross asked Parker to have staff to proceed with drafting specks for a system and have them ready for Council’s review at the May 23 Council meeting.

     

  • True Believers –

    Senate_Coleman_McMaster_Davis copy

    Sen. Creighton Coleman and S.C. Lt. Governor Henry McMaster, center, presented a Senate proclamation last month to Darreyl Davis, president of Believers and Achievers, for the group’s work in support of youth in Fairfield County. From left are some of the organization’s members: Sallie Benson, Felicia Alexander, Annie White, Coleman, Raymond Fowler, McMaster, Keeon Watkins, Davis, Lekwan Rabb, Eliza Davis and Albertha Woodard.

     

  • District Budget Includes Pay Raises, New Teaching Positions

    WINNSBORO (May 13, 2016) – The Fairfield County School Board of Trustees reviewed the proposed 2016-2017 District budget, as well as policy revisions suggested by the S.C. School Board Association (SCSBA) during an April 26 work session.

    Board members had more than 70 pages of budget detail before them, but only asked a few questions, mostly for clarification. According to Kevin Robinson, Director of Finance for the District, the proposed budget of $38,470,384 projects a slight increase in revenue of $600,000, or about 2 percent, and includes a corresponding increase in expenditures of about $670,000. The millage rate will remain the same.

    Two of the main drivers for the expenditure increase will be a state-mandated 2 percent raise for teachers, plus hiring for six new instructional positions. According to Dr. J.R. Green, District Superintendent, these new positions will be an expansion of District staff. They will include four classroom teachers, one literacy interventionist and one instructional facilitator.

    Two of the teaching positions will be for class size reduction, and the other two teachers will be used to expand the District’s Alternative Learning Program and dual credit options. The literacy interventionist will be added to address identified gaps in literacy development; the instructional facilitator will be added to provide additional support to instructional staff.

    In addition, Green said that the District will be looking to fill existing vacancies next year. At this time, the District is seeking to replace 33 certified positions for next year, although this is not a static figure. Eight of those vacancies currently have pending recommendations to be approved by the Board of Trustees.

    The Board also began sifting through policy models and revisions from the SCSBA, and will continue this review, although according to Board Chairwomen Beth Reid (District 7), the next work session has not been scheduled. The next regularly called Board meeting is May 17 at the District offices.

     

  • Council OK’s Drawdy Park Repairs

    WINNSBORO (May 13, 2016) – County Council Monday night gave the OK to a recommendation from the Administration and Finance Committee’s April 25 meeting to award the winning bid for the repair of drainage lines at Drawdy Park. Council also approved the Committee’s recommendation to outsource printing duties to a private vendor.

    The Committee, chaired by Carolyn Robinson (District 2) and consisting of Marion Robinson (District 5) and District 6 Councilwoman Mary Lynn Kinley (who made it to the meeting after the voting was done), recommended on April 25 a bid of $27,000 from Martin & Son Contracting, Inc. for the Drawdy Park work.

    Martin & Son, of Spartanburg, beat out bids of $28,000 by the Ridgeway firm M.C. Rowe Construction Company, Inc., and $36,771 from J.P. Smith Builders, LLC, of Camden.

    The project will consist of digging an existing ditch to a depth where it can tie in with an 18-inch crossline pipe; replacing existing crossline pipe with 18-inch CPP tie-in to the catch basin; removing all existing concrete pipe and replacing it with 18-inch corrugated plastic pipe; removing the fence and filling in the existing catch basin; installing 18-inch plastic pipe on the baseball field side to tie in with existing concrete pipe; running an 18-inch plastic pipe to catch basin 2 and an 18-inch plastic pipe from the basin to the woods; and installing two junction boxes on the back side of the baseball field. In all, approximately 800-feet of pipe will be installed.

    Printing

    Council also approved the Committee’s recommendation to outsource printing and printer needs to Sharp Business Systems of Columbia, removing those duties from the County’s IT Department.

    According to Interim County Administrator Milton Pope’s recommendation documents, the outsourcing will save the County a little more than $17,629 a year.

    “We are currently not paying the least amount for daily printing and not properly utilizing the power of IT by way of in-house management of ink/toner stock,” Pope’s recommendation states. “I’m recommending a change that will reduce the IT budget by (more than) 7 percent and will also save Fairfield County over $1,700 annually. Further, IT will be better able to serve the County’s technical issues quicker.”

    Both recommendations received Council’s unanimous approval.

     

  • County Won’t Kick In for Library Raises

    WINNSBORO (May 13, 2016) – The Fairfield County Library won’t be getting any help from the County in funding a 2 percent cost of living increase for its employees as County Council Monday night voted down a proposal to kick in nearly $9,000 to the Library Commission’s budget.

    The Library Commission, Councilman Billy Smith (District 7) pointed out, is an autonomous entity that has its own millage on county property tax bills. Council, he said, does not have the same oversight over the Library as it does over internal departments.

    Council has discretion over how much to fund the Library, Interim County Administrator Milton Pope added, but how those funds are spent are entirely up to the Commission and its executive director.

    “Other agencies – the Disabilities and Special Needs Board, the Council on Aging, things like that – they might come next time and ask the same thing if we set this precedent,” Smith said.

    The Commission had requested an additional $8,948 from the County to help fund the cost of living increase. Pope brought the request to Council during their final budget work session on May 3. During the work session, Council asked Pope to ask the Commission if they could find a way to make the pay increase work with their existing budget.

    Monday night, Pope reported that the Commission had told him that, “due to some internal expenses” their request stood.

    Mary Lynn Kinley (District 6) put the motion on the floor to amend the budget to include the funding for the Commission, and Kamau Marcharia (District 4) offered the second. The motion failed 2-4, with Smith, Dan Ruff, Walter Larry Stewart and Marion Robinson voting against.