Blythewood Online 691

Category: News

  • Ram Cat Alley

    Once a dangerous place to be, good times now abound in Seneca’s Ram Cat Alley. (Photo/Robert Clark)
    Once a dangerous place to be, good times now abound in Seneca’s Ram Cat Alley. (Photo/Robert Clark)

    Drive 133 miles northwest, about 2.5 hours, to Seneca, and turn back the hands of time. “Seneca” comes from an Indian village that stood nearby. Aged rocks and timeless waterfalls create a region where the past never dies. Not only is the northwest corner old geologically, it’s historical, and you can visit old places preserved much as they were. One exception is an alley that turned into a popular attraction.

    To see this one-time unsavory alley reinvented as a cool pedestrian-friendly spot, go to Seneca’s Ram Cat Alley. The lyrics of that Led Zeppelin tune sum up its history: “Good times, bad times, you know I had my share.” If you could go back to the early 1900s, you’d find the bad times of pool halls, bars and cat-luring fish and meat markets. So many hungry cats congregated in the alley that some wag said, “You couldn’t ram another cat into the alley.” Ram Cat Alley, thus, had its colorful name. In time, the alley fell into neglect.

    In the mid-1990s, good times arrived. Revitalization turned this one-time alleyway of pool halls, bars and meat markets into a walk-about place of boutique shops and restaurants. It’s lively. On Thursdays, restaurants and the city set up tables for “Jazz On the Alley.” From disrepute to being on the National Register of Historic Places and jazzy: that’s how far Ram Cat Alley has come.

    Seneca and Oconee County offer day travelers many ways to visit the past. Stumphouse Tunnel revives frustrated dreams of train commerce to the West, and Isaqueena Falls reveals shimmering veils of water that have long blessed the area with beauty. Not far away, Oconee Station and its beautiful fieldstone building served as protection against the Cherokee, a trading post and a storage place for furs.

    Step back in time at Keil Farm and see an antebellum farmhouse that changed from the mid-19th to early 20th century. By 1905, the circa 1850 farmhouse had evolved from a two-room house, kitchen and loft building to a seven-room house. Today, the farm consists of a one-and-one-half story frame farmhouse and rustic outbuildings that completed farm life: a barn, corncrib, chicken house, smoke house, tenant house and outhouse.

    Add the Newry Historic District to your itinerary. See what a textile mill village looked like. Most of the buildings in Newry arose from 1893 to 1910 and illustrate a turn-of-the century mill village in South Carolina.

    Plan a trip to Seneca and Oconee County in general where the National Register of Historic Places works overtime. Soon the mountains and valleys will green up as spring brings its warmer days. It’s as good a time as any to visit the past. And at revitalized Ram Cat Alley you’ll be hard pressed to conjure up images of frantic felines looking for a meal. After a day of sightseeing, you’ll be the one with dinner on your mind.

    If You Go …

    For information on Seneca:

    www.oconeecountry.com/seneca.html

    For other historic sites: www.nationalregister.sc.gov/oconee/S10817737014/index.htm

    Learn more about Tom Poland, a Southern writer, and his work at www.tompoland.net. Email day-trip ideas to him at tompol@earthlink.net.

     

  • Ordinances Clear Council

    BLYTHEWOOD – Town Council passed final reading on a number of ordinances in short order on Monday night, including ordinances to:

    • Increase the height limit of buildings in all of the Town’s industrial zoning districts up to 110 feet;

    • Require the Board of Architecture to include the Blythewood Historical Society’s input when making recommendations for historical designation of properties in the town;

    • Revise and consolidate the Town’s regulations pertaining to the relaxation of and/or changes to landscaping, buffer yards and tree preservation;

    • Define and prescribe traffic impact studies for developments within the town;

    • Regulate the height of weeds and grass growth on town properties; and

    • Annex property located at 121 McLean Road into the town.

    Council passed first reading to increase the Town’s FY2015-16 budget from $1,301,286 to $1,341,034 as well as a new franchise agreement with Time Warner Cable, minor rate increases for the Manor and a change of date for the August Council meeting from Monday, Aug. 31 to Thursday, Aug. 20.

     

  • Funds Earmarked in Secret Meeting

    BLYTHEWOOD – At the Monday night Town Council meeting it was revealed that the Town’s Accommodation Tax Committee met via phone sometime in July, without public notice and without notifying the media, to vote to recommend funding for two Bravo Blythewood events: a Butterfly Festival ($7,500) and the Beach Bash ($5,000).

    Councilman Bob Mangone expressed concern to Council that telephone meetings are sometimes the only way the Committee can get a quorum. He also expressed his dismay that the town’s hotel owners, which make up three of the seven seats on the Committee, rarely attend the Committee’s meetings and didn’t participate in the phone vote.

    When the Committee’s recommendation came before Council Monday night for approval, Mangone questioned whether the town’s businesses would get a good return on such a large investment in a Butterfly Festival.

    “It sounds incredible,” Mangone said, “to spend $7,500 on a festival that we have no knowledge of how many people will be coming and how much the town’s businesses will reap from the event.”

    Citing what he learned at a recent workshop he attended sponsored by the state’s Municipal Association, Mangone continued, “We were told we should be looking at how much revenue is going to come in from an event (funded by Hospitality and Accommodations Taxes), not how much to give the group for the event. We were told we should be looking at revenue of 2-3 times the investment. So we should see at least $15,000-$20,000 in return for our $7,500 investment. But there’s no way of knowing if we will bring in anywhere near even $5,000. It sounds like we’re handing out candy because we have it, not because of how much we’ll bring in.”

    Mangone told Council that the purpose of the Accommodation Tax Committee is to invest money (in events) that will bring heads to beds and people to our restaurants.

    “It’s difficult for me to believe we’re going to bring in anywhere near $7,500 let alone $10,000-$12,000 from the 500-1,000 people Bravo Blythewood says they expect will attend the festival,” he said. “Is this a good investment for our town?”

    Both Mayor J. Michael Ross and Councilman Eddie Baughman argued that while the event might not meet expectations from the outset, it might grow.

    “I understand from Bravo Blythewood that 10,000 people attended a butterfly festival in Sumter,” Ross said. “You’ve got to start somewhere.”

    Ross pointed out that $2,600 of the $7,500 funding would be spent to rent The Manor and park and would therefore be coming back to the Town.

    “But when we look at our Hospitality and Accommodations Tax revenue during the month of the event and it’s not significantly higher than normal,” Mangone argued, “then we aren’t bringing heads to beds or the revenue in. If the Town government wants to fund an event from the general fund that’s fine, but not from the Hospitality and Accommodation Tax fund. We need to fund things that will make businesses want to come here.”

    Councilman Tom Utroska agreed with Mangone.

    “It befuddles me to give just $5,000 to the Beach Bash, a known commodity, but we are giving $7,500 to some unknown commodity (the Butterfly Festival),” Utroska said. “Maybe the Butterfly Festival will start small and get big, but in that case, we ought to start small with the money. I don’t think it should get more money than the Beach Bash.”

    The funding for the events passed with Ross and Baughman voting to approve the funding for both events, while Mangone voted for the Beach Bash funding and against the Butterfly Festival funding. Utroska voted for the Beach Bash funding and, after a very long pause, voted for the Butterfly Festival funding as well, but with the caveat that he would not vote for it next year if the numbers and return for the event do not meet expectations.

    Bravo Blythewood’s application for funding of the butterfly event listed the Butterfly Festival’s benefit to the community as bringing “outsiders into Blythewood for a unique weekend of shopping, fun and eating.”

    Besides the cost for The Manor and park, expenses for the Butterfly Festival were listed as: $300 for the ROTC; $440 for sheriff’s deputies; $350 for butterflies; $560 for a tent; $200 for electricity; $300 for banners; $250 each for a band and dancers; $600 for insurance; $1,000 for advertising and $600 for awards.

    After some intense discussion by members of the Town’s Accommodation Tax Committee at a previous meeting held on June 3 about how some organizations have spent money awarded to them from the A-Tax fund in past years, Committee members tightened up the rules for organizations applying for those funds in the future. Applicants are now required to provide receipts for all expenses for events receiving Accommodation Tax funding. According to the motion that passed unanimously, if applicants fail to attach those receipts to a financial report 90 days following the close of the funded event, 20 percent of their approved funds will be withheld and they will not be considered for future funding.

     

  • Mobile Animal Clinic Visits Winnsboro

    The Fido Fixer mobile clinic, sponsored by the Columbia Humane Society, will dock in Winnsboro July 30 where it will perform, by appointment, low-cost spay/neuter surgeries for dogs and cats. Other offerings will include vaccinations, microchips and heartworm tests.
    The Fido Fixer mobile clinic, sponsored by the Columbia Humane Society, will dock in Winnsboro July 30 where it will perform, by appointment, low-cost spay/neuter surgeries for dogs and cats. Other offerings will include vaccinations, microchips and heartworm tests.

    WINNSBORO – If your dog or cat has not been spayed/neutered, July 30 is your lucky day. The Fido Fixer mobile clinic is coming to the Fairfield Square Shopping Center, 27 Highway 321 Bypass, in Winnsboro on that date offering on-the-spot, low-cost spay/neutering as well as the following vaccines: rabies ($9), distemper ($9) and bordatella ($15). Microchips and heartworm tests are each $20. Proof of rabies and distemper vaccines are required for all dogs and cats undergoing spay/neutering and can be administered at the time of the surgery. Dogs must weigh between 5 and 40 pounds. Cats must weigh at least 3 pounds. Dogs and cats must be between 3 months and 4 years of age.

    Sponsored by the Humane Society in Columbia, the Fido Fixer is a not-for-profit corporation that provides a well-appointed mobile clinic staffed by veterinarians and technicians.

    The Fixer will be at the shopping center (where the CVS is located, across from the hospital) at 7 a.m. and owners must have their pets there between 7:30 and 8 a.m. Pets must have appointments for services offered by the Fixer. To schedule your pet, call 803-783-1267. More information can be found at www.humanesc.org. Dogs must be on leashes and cats must be in travel crates.

     

  • County Recreation Plan Meets Resistance

    WINNSBORO – Bids for the County’s $3.4 million recreation plan, which also includes a pair of fire and EMS stations, were opened at the County offices on the afternoon of July 14.

    Loveless Commercial Contracting of Cayce came in with the lowest offering at $7,453,044, with Solid Structures of West Columbia coming in second at $7,767,078. A late bid from Thompson Turner Construction in Sumter will still be considered, according to David Brandes, whose Genesis Consulting Group is assisting the County with the implementation of the recreation plan.

    Brandes, who conducted the bid opening, told representatives for Loveless and Solid Structure that the County would examine the bids and respond to them by July 20.

    But at County Council’s July 14 meeting, citizens lined up before the microphone during the first public comment segment to plead with Council to put the brakes on the recreation plan. Two Council members agreed, urging their colleagues to review the plan and get public input.

    “Please take a little more time to have town hall meetings in your district for feedback from the citizens as far as what we want,” Beth Jenkins, of District 2, said.

    District 3 resident Carrie Matthews, meanwhile, was a little more stern with Council in her comments.

    “This entire concept began with a false premise,” Matthews said. “The premise that money for recreational facilities is a gift to be passed out by a benevolent government in return for the citizenry willing to accept a large debt for economic development. What a flawed concept it is for a governing body to determine an amount of money to be spent on anything without first deciding what was needed.”

    District 7 resident Betty Gutschlag said that while she agrees recreational opportunities are needed in the county, she said it needed to be organized and supervised. And with the County’s big payday from two new nuclear reactors at the V.C. Summer plant now delayed to perhaps 2020, and with the debt coming due in 2018, taxpayers may be on the hook.

    The plan did have one supporter speak on its behalf Monday night. District 1 resident Moses Bell said the time has come for the County to forge ahead with its long-discussed plan for recreation improvements.

    “I am hoping we put this thing to bed and that we move ahead with the plan that’s already been talked about for the last two or three years,” Bell said. “We have talked about this long enough. Let’s move forward.”

    District 7 Councilman Billy Smith, during County Council Time, said the plan was approved on the very night it was first introduced to the public back in September of 2014 and that it could benefit from more citizen input.

    “I think we should allow (citizens) to drive the (recreation) process,” Smith said. “I don’t think they’ve been in the driver’s seat or behind the wheel on this one yet. I think we should maybe have a work session on it so we can put forward what all is included in the plan and I think we should have citizens input and let them tell us if they think we ought to look at it and change anything.”

    District 1 Councilman Dan Ruff agreed, suggesting that recreation could be incorporated into the County’s long-term strategic plan, currently being undertaken by T.Y. Linn International. But Councilman Kamau Marcharia (District 4) was adamantly opposed to any delay.

    “I want to move ahead with my plan,” Marcharia said. “We’ve been fighting for years. We certainly want to move ahead.

    “I’ve constantly had community meetings in my district,” Marcharia added. “Saying that the public is not involved, it is on their own volition. They didn’t want to get involved. It’s in the newspaper. We’ve been going through this for several years. I don’t know what stopped them from getting involved. If each individual has a problem with their district, they need to fix it rather than to cut this whole thing out and try to stop it.”

    Smith then said that the District 4 plan was the only plan he felt should move ahead without delay.

    “That’s the only part of the plan that has been in the works for years and years,” Smith said. “It’s been an identified need in that area. It’s been requested for years. There’s been land donated. We already have it ready to go. All the other ones, I think we need to look at them again. I don’t like the idea of borrowing money and then coming up with a plan.”

    There was no indication from Chairwoman Carolyn Robinson (District 2) that Council would review the plan as a whole. In that case, Smith said after the meeting, he intends to at least address the contents of the District 7 plan.

     

  • Pastor Faces Sex Crime Charges

    COLUMBIA – A former pastor of a Winnsboro Methodist church was arrested in Columbia last week and charged with sexually abusing children.

    The Columbia Police Department said Walter C. Ballenger III, 59, of Haven Ridge Court in Columbia, was arrested July 13 and initially charged with third degree criminal sexual conduct. The Police Department said their investigation led to additional charges of two counts of second degree criminal sexual conduct in which Ballenger is accused of touching two children in a sexual manner.

    At the time of his arrest, Ballenger was the pastor of Grace United Methodist Church, at 410 Harbison Boulevard, Columbia. Until approximately one year ago, Ballenger was pastor of Gordon Memorial United Methodist Church at 502 Fifth St. in Winnsboro, where he had served for approximately seven years.

    Ballenger was released from the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center in Columbia late last week on a pair of $100,000 surety bonds.

    The Columbia Police Department launched their investigation after receiving a complaint about the alleged abuse on June 27. The case is still under investigation by the Department’s Special Victims Unit. Anyone with information about the investigation or other possible victims is encouraged to call the Department at 803-545-3500.

     

  • Former Councilwoman Awaits Day in Court

    Cauthen Cooperating with Feds

    Katie Cauthen
    Katie Cauthen

    NASHVILLE, TENN. – More than a year after she was originally charged, former Blythewood Town Councilwoman Kathleen (Katie) Devereaux Cauthen is still waiting for her day in court for her alleged part in a $28 million health care fraud.

    Cauthen has been charged with two felony counts in a U.S. District Court in Nashville, Tenn. The charges include conspiracy to commit “theft or embezzlement in connection with health care” and misprision, the failure to report the commission of a felony to judicial authorities. Cauthen, who was a member of the South Carolina Bar until her license to practice law in South Carolina was suspended last year, faces a maximum sentence of eight years in prison and $500,000 in fines if convicted of the two charges.

    Cauthen’s case has been delayed on multiple occasions as she has been helping the U.S. Attorney’s Office make a case against her co-conspirators. However, documents filed in her case, and that of others charged in the scheme, state she could plead guilty soon.

    “The Defendant (Cauthen) has been and continues to cooperate with the Government in its investigation of other individuals,” Cynthia C. Chappell, Cauthen’s appointed attorney stated in court documents. “The trial of related defendants was continued some time ago and has not been rescheduled. Based on the foregoing, the parties submit that the ends of justice would be best served by continuing Ms. Cauthen’s plea hearing and, therefore request that the Court continue this matter to a convenient date for the Court in or around August 2015.”

    Four of Cauthen’s alleged co-conspirators – William Worthy of Isle of Palms; Bart and Angela Posey of Springfield, Tenn. and Richard H. Bachman of Austin, Texas – were indicted by a federal grand jury in Nashville in June 2013. That case was scheduled for trial in U. S. District Court in Nashville in January 2015, but has been moved up and now is unlikely to see a jury until August 2016. Some of those charged in this case are also cooperating with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and so are likely to accept a guilty plea and not go to trial. According to U.S. Department of Justice statistics, more than 95 percent of federal criminal defendants plead guilty to charges.

    Filed June 16, 2014, the former Councilwoman is alleged to have aided others in a scheme purported to provide health care benefit coverage to more than 17,000 individuals and multiple employer groups in various states. It claims that although holding themselves out as providing health care coverage, the defendant and her co-conspirators did not comply with either state or federal regulatory requirements. Cauthen and her co-conspirators are alleged to have collected more than $28 million in insurance premium payments.

    Some of those premiums went into an account opened by Cauthen at First Citizens Bank in Blythewood in the name of Nationwide Administrators for which Cauthen listed herself as president and used her home address for the company’s physical address according to the federal charges. This action is the basis of the misprison charge.

    “The funds deposited into the account at First Citizens Bank were intended to represent payments to a non-existent underwriter, but were instead primarily converted to the personal use of defendant Kathleen Devereaux Cauthen and co-conspirator William M. Worthy II,” according to the information.

    On July 10, 2014 Cauthen waived her right to be indicted on the charges, and instead she was charged in a federal criminal information – a formal criminal charge made by a prosecutor without obtaining a grand jury indictment. In the document, Cauthen consented to prosecution by information, a path normally taken by individuals who implicate themselves and cooperate with the U.S. Attorney’s Office. This cooperation, if it is substantial, provides original information to the prosecution and if honest, can lead to a federal court reducing the offense level of the crime and so reducing the sentence.

  • Council Takes Up Ordinances, Budget

    BLYTHEWOOD – Town Council will hold a public hearing on Monday night to cover a multitude of new and amended ordinances. It will also be taking a final vote on those ordinances following the hearing.

    Heading the list is the ordinance to allow up to 110-foot-high buildings in the Town’s several industrial parks – the 350-acre Light Industrial Research Park (LIRP) bordered on the west by I-77, on the east by Highway 21, on the north by Firetower Road, with the southern border just above Exit 24 on I-77; a proposed 600-acre Limited Industry-2 (LI-2) Industrial Park  directly across I-77 from the LIRP and bordered on the east by I-77, the west by Ashley Oaks neighborhood, the north by Locklear Road and the south by North Point Industrial Park, which is situated on Community Road. There is also a small Limited Industry-1 Industrial Park on the south side of the Community Center property at the I-77/Blythewood Road Interchange.

    Council will also vote on the following ordinances:

    • Ord. No. 2015.004 to amend the Town’s historic preservation subchapter zoning text to include a requirement to include the Blythewood Historical Society’s input when making recommendations for historical designation of properties in the town.

    • Ord. No. 2015.003 to revise and consolidate the Town’s regulations pertaining to the relaxation of and/or changes to landscaping, buffer yards and tree preservation.

    • Ord. No. 2015.002 to amend the Town’s land development ordinances text to define and prescribe traffic impact studies for developments within the town.

    • Ord. No. 2015.010 to amend Section 302.5 of the International Property Maintenance Code to regulate the height of weeds and grass growth on town properties.

    • Ord. No. 2015.008 to annex property located at 121 McLean Road into the town.

    A first reading will be taken on a budget amendment to account for an additional $39,740 to increase the Town’s FY2015-16 budget from $1,301,286 to $1,341,034.

    Also scheduled on the agenda are votes for a new franchise agreement with Time Warner Cable, rate changes for the Manor and a change of date for the August meeting from Aug. 31 to Aug. 24.

    To receive agendas for Town meetings, contact Melissa Cowan at the Town Hall at cowanm@townofblythewoodsc.gov. or call 754-0501.

     

  • Biker Dies from Crash Injuries

    WINNSBORO – A Winnsboro man died Monday night at Palmetto Richland Memorial Hospital from injuries sustained in a July 16 motorcycle crash on Highway 34.

    Fairfield County Coroner Barkley Ramsey said Danny Gattis, 62, of 49 Goldcrest Road, was pronounced dead at approximately 11 p.m. Monday.

    According to the S.C. Highway Patrol, Gattis was driving a 1997 Harley Davidson motorcycle west on Highway 34 near Poetic Drive, approximately 6 miles west of Winnsboro, at 4:30 p.m. on July 16. Gattis attempted a left-hand turn into a private driveway, but failed to yield to oncoming traffic. Gattis was struck by a 1996 Isuzu pickup truck traveling east on Highway 34 and being driven by a Blair man. Gattis was not wearing a helmet at the time of the crash, the Highway Patrol said. The driver of the pickup truck was not injured.

    Ramsey said Gattis was airlifted from the scene to Palmetto Richland.

     

  • Council Mends Water Rates

    RIDGEWAY – With citizens protesting in numbers to their representatives, the Town of Ridgeway amended its June decision to raise water rates at their July Council meeting.

    With a 3-1 vote, Council members matched their supplier, the Town of Winnsboro, by raising rates to 10 cents per 1,000 gallons of water. Council members reported much contact with those they represent running up to the meeting about the proposed $1 per 1,000 gallon increase in water rates, which started out as a mistake, but some say is much needed.

    “There’s no reason to raise it a dollar. It makes no sense, no rhyme or reason,” Councilman Russ Brown said. “It’s a random number because of a mistake. Increases are going to come, but increasing it by a dollar just to increase it by a dollar would be bad government. We should at least research it first.”

    The $1-per-1,000 gallons increase passed final reading during Council’s June 11 meeting and was intended to coincide with what Council perceived as a 98 cents per 1,000 gallons hike by Winnsboro. However, according to a letter earlier in the year from Winnsboro, their rates increased $.098 per 1,000 gallons, not $.98.

    “My recommendation is that we go up with the Winnsboro rate increase,” said Councilman Heath Cookendorfer. “I’ve had a lot of people call me on this. I’d rather go up the .098 rather than a dollar, amending the budget and correcting the mistake.”

    Cookendorfer said he understood that rates will have to rise in the near future, but that doing so due to a mistake was not the way Council should do so.

    “We have reluctantly raised them when we have had to,” said Councilman Doug Porter, the lone vote of dissent and Council member to advocate for an immediate rise in fees. “Most of our city revenue comes from water and sewer. And we have capital projects we need to address. I think we would have asked a little bit more than that. We are losing ground to (water supplier Winnsboro).”