Blythewood girls competed in five relay events. Their top finish was third in the 1000 Spring Medley. | Photos: Backdawg Photog
EUGENE, OR – After a strong finish at the 2021 State Finals, Blythewood track and field standouts took to Eugene, Oregon for the Outdoor Nationals, presented by Nike.
Arianna Williams and Randy Kelly, who each won individual 5A
State Titles titles at the end of the 2021 high school season. Briana Green,
who took second at state in long jump, also competed in an individual event at
the Outdoor Nationals.
Williams
Green
Williams had the highest individual finish of the three Blythewood competitors. She placed eighth out of 24 runners in the 400 meter championships with a time of 55.08. The top finisher, Aaliyah Butler, finished at 53.48. Williams claimed the 2021 state title in the 400 meter dash. She topped her previous personal record of 55.13 at the Outdoor Nationals.
Randy Kelly
Kelly finished 10th out of 20 in the high jump finals with
at the 6-06.25 mark. His personal record of 6-10 was set at the 2021 state
finals when he claimed the individual title.
Green finished 28th out of 33 in long jump at 5.35m.
Blythewood’s 1000 Sprint Medley Relay team of Green, Hailey
Duncan, Williams and LaTavia Bracey-Ransom had Blythewood’s highest finish at
the Outdoor Nationals. They finished third with a time of 2:15.87, just under
five seconds out from the first place spot.
Green
Green, Williams, Bracey-Ransom and Duncan also competed in the 4×100 meter relay and placed fifth at 48.69.
Blythewood runners finished seventh in the 800 Sprint Medley
Championship with a time of 1:53.87. Katuria Glover, Duncan, Bracey-Ransom and
Mallorie Hogue competed.
The girls 4×200 relay of Glover, Green, Makeshira Brown and
Duncan had a time of 1:45.15 for a seventh place finish.
The girls relay of Monica Joy, Bracey-Ransom, Glover and
Williams placed eighth in the 4×400 meter event with a 3:58.12 finish.
Also this summer, Kelly placed first in high jump (6-08.75) at the USA Track and Field SC Association Championships in Columbia June 25-27.
HOPKINS – Fairfield Central competed in the Lower Richland 7-on-7 Diamond Shootout last Wednesday.
The Griffins are set to begin the 2021 season at Blythewood High School on Aug. 20 and will host their first home game of the season on Aug. 27 against Lancaster.
BLYTHEWOOD – After Ashley Hunter, owner and CEO of MPA
Strategies, announced Monday night during council meeting that she has obtained
a grant for the town, the audience and council burst into applause.
Mayor Bryan Franklin, who has been critical of Hunter and
her marketing firm, joined his fellow council members Monday night in lauding
Hunter’s initial efforts and quick results.
“The intent was that we pay for services with grants that
come to the town,” Franklin said. “It’s well worth the investment,” he said.
“What we pay for services and you double or triple that in grants every year,
is obviously a good investment for this town. And I’m proud of making progress
in that regard.”
During opening remarks by council members, Councilman Larry
Griffin said that since he didn’t see anything on the agenda about a progress
report from MPA Strategies’ marketing work for the town, he wanted to yield his
time to Hunter so she could update council on her work.
“I’m very excited to announce that we’ve been awarded a
grant from International Paper.” That grant will go to the Doko Meadows Park
Foundation, Hunter said. “I’ve also been spending time meeting with various
nonprofits, associations and corporate teams about reserving this beautiful
space (the Manor). Lots of people are asking for proposals so I’ve been working
closely with Carroll [Williamson] on this.
“We’ve also had great success on social media,” she said.
“The town’s engagement has more than tripled on Instagram. I’m very excited
about working with Blythewood – lots of good news. This first round of funding
for the grant automatically makes us [eligible] for the second round as well,”
she said. “So it will be a two-part pot of funding for our park here in
Blythewood.”
The grant funds will be used to support the upfitting,
security and beautification of and around the trailway at Doko Meadows Park
where the new StoryWalk interactive literacy program was just opened.
Additionally, Hunts’ State and Frink nonprofit Foundation
awarded the Town $1000.00 for their 10-4-10 initiative honoring MPA Strategies’
10th year in business. The Foundation will award ten $1000.00 donations to
programs and charities in the Midlands that have a positive impact on their
communities. Blythewood’s is the second of the ten checks to be awarded.
Hunter, who owns and operates both MPA Strategies and the
State and Frink Foundation, stated she is excited to see the Town’s vision for
this wonderful park area for children and families to read and play come to
fruition.
The Foundation’s $1000 grant is being donated for benches
and play equipment throughout and around the StoryWalk exhibit in Doko Park,
Hunter said.
WINNSBORO – The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC)
announced last Friday it will purchase Fairfield’s Providence free standing
emergency room along with three Midlands-area hospitals and other hospitals in
the state.
The purchase, approved by Medical University Hospital
Authority Board of Trustees during June’s regular board meeting, will also
include Providence Health hospitals, KershawHealth, which are currently owned
by LifePoint Health, as well as affiliated physician practice locations serving
communities in the Midlands.
Terms of the transaction have not yet been disclosed.
Fairfield County Interim Administrator Brad Caulder told The
Voice that the county has not yet received any confirmation about the sale of
the ER.
On April 9, 2021, PRISMA announced the termination of its
own planned purchase of the ER.
Fairfield County has a significant investment in the
Providence-Fairfield ER. The county has agreed to pay $10 million to Providence
over 10 years to be used for operation of the ER as well as $4 million the
county had been required to escrow as assurance those ten $1 million payments
would be made.
“The county’s agreement with Providence includes negotiated
terms of providing care to the citizens, keeping the ER open, indigent care
issues and other things,” then-County Attorney Tommy Morgan said last year.
FAIRFIELD COUNTY – The new fire station that’s planned near
Lake Wateree came out of its initial bid process with disappointing results:
Not a single company bid on the project.
Fairfield County Fire Chief Jason Pope says he isn’t sure
why no bids came in, but the details of the design and the surprising recent
increase in the price of construction materials may have been factors.
His plan is to redesign the project with the goal of making
it simpler and, perhaps, easier to bid on.
We didn’t have anyone really call us or say why they didn’t bid.
Jason Pope, Director Fairfield County Fire Service
“As to the exact reason I couldn’t tell you. We didn’t have
anybody really call us and tell us why they would or would not bid,” Pope told
the Fairfield County Council at Monday night’s meeting. “However, what I can
tell you is that our plan going forward [is that] we’re going to revisit the
architectural drawings… and we’re going to make it a little bit simpler.”
Then, he explained in an interview Tuesday, they will actively
seek bidders.
Given the high price of lumber, he says he’s not sure if the
building can still be constructed for the budgeted $375,000, which was approved
by the council in February. But he won’t know until he gets some bids.
“That’s definitely going to be a challenge,” he says of current building material costs, which he’s been told make the cost of constructing a building with wood comparable to the cost of a metal building.
“We put this bid package together last fall, and then the
money was approved in February of this year, and during that time is when the
lumber price spike happened, and so we’re not sure how that’s going to affect
it,” he says.
“What we budgeted for the building – the price is going to
be higher than that obviously, but without getting bids you don’t know what
it’s going to be.”
If the bids come in a lot higher than expected, he says,
then the county will have to consider its options – whether that means
allocating more funding, delaying the project, or further simplifying the design
to cut costs. But first, they need some bids.
“We want the fire station built,” Pope says. “It’s going to
help protect the citizens and the residents of the county, so we’re going to do
everything we can to get it built.”
The new fire station would be the 15th in the county’s
mostly-volunteer system, which staffs five stations during business hours and
relies on volunteers to cover the rest of the time and the rest of the county.
Pope says new volunteer firefighters are always welcome; the
number today – roughly 165 countywide – is slightly more than half of what it
was 25 years ago.
When the county’s volunteer fire departments opened
beginning 50 years ago in 1971, he says, they relied on a strong base of
community support. A decade ago, in 2011, the independent departments were
consolidated under the county fire service as a core function of local
government.
The new fire station, a project initiated and pushed into
reality by former County Councilman Jimmy Ray Douglas, is to be built on River
Road between the Lake Wateree Presbyterian Church and the recycling center.
The plan includes four bays to house a fire truck, tanker,
boat, and EMS vehicle, as well as restrooms, showers, a kitchen, and living
quarters to accommodate firefighters who might man the facility in the future.
Originally proposed in 2007, the project began in earnest
about four years ago, Pope says. It took roughly two years for the county to
obtain the 2.4-acre site to build it on, and site work has been completed by
county public works employees; it’s now ready for the building.
In the area where it is to be located, Pope says, there are
approximately 300 homes that are currently more than five road miles from the
nearest fire station – a distance that means homeowners have increased insurance
premiums and, more importantly, increased risk in the event of a fire.
“This fire station will put fire trucks in their back yard
available to respond,” Pope says, “and it will significantly reduce their
homeowners’ insurance.”
RIDGEWAY – Behavioral Health’s Community Take Back Day at Rufus Belton Park on Saturday, June 26 brought over 75 attendees from the community. The family friendly event featured bounce houses, free hotdogs, raffles, bingo, face painting and more.
The sheriff, council leaders, school officials and Fairfield County residents participated in the 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. event which was sponsored by the Fairfield CountyFairfield Opioid Response Team, the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office, WDPS, Fairfield Behavioral Health Services and Serve & Connect.
WINNSBORO – A Winnsboro man facing domestic violence charges
was arrested on Friday night after a three-hour standoff at his home near The
Strawberry Patch convenience store with Fairfield County Sheriff’s deputies.
Truesdale
Jeffrey Truesdale, 55, was charged with Domestic Violence of a High and Aggravated Nature following an incident that occurred on June 18, according to authorities.
According to an incident report, the sheriff’s office
received a phone call from an anonymous caller that there was a man allegedly
beating a woman in the parking lot of the behavioral health center in
Winnsboro.
While on the phone with a dispatcher, the caller reported
that the man left the parking lot with the woman in a white Chevy Silverado and
was heading southbound on US highway 321.
The dispatcher, according to the incident report, was able
to identify the suspect as possibly being Truesdale, who deputies were already
familiar with. The responding deputy reportedly drove to Truesdale’s last known
residence where he observed a vehicle matching the caller’s description backing
into the driveway of a home on Oak Street Extension and a female laying on the
ground near the truck.
The deputy identified the victim as Truesdale’s wife and
reported that she initially stated that she was alright, and that she had not
meant to fall out of the truck. As other deputies arrived however, the deputy
was able to separate the couple at which point the woman told the deputy that
Jeffrey Truesdale had run her over with the truck.
The woman was then transported to a local hospital where she
received treatment for her injuries.
On Friday, an arrest warrant was obtained for Jeffrey
Truesdale in regards to the incident. According to Fairfield County
authorities, it was in the attempt to serve the arrest warrant that Truesdale
barricaded himself in his garage.
“We called SLED (South Carolina Law Enforcement Division) to
assist us. Another person was in the home and let us know that Truesdale was in
the garage,” Fairfield County Sheriff Will Montgomery told The Voice.
The standoff began at 5 p.m., and according to Montgomery,
at 8 p.m. deputies were able to enter the home through an unlocked door and
arrested Truesdale without incident.
Fairfield County first responders were able to dig a way out for the trapped woman. | William Ladd
WINNSBORO – When the Fairfield County Rescue Squad and Fire Service was dispatched to 141 State Highway 213 about 4:20 p.m., Saturday, June 20 they found an overturned vehicle and a 21-year-old Winnsboro woman trapped underneath it, three to four feet beneath the roadway.
The woman was not restrained and had been ejected from the
2007 Nissan sedan, according to a Highway Patrol report. Rescuers said she had
been trapped under the vehicle for several hours.
After extricating the woman from underneath the vehicle, she
was transported to the Providence/Fairfield Emergency Room on the Hwy 321 Bypass, about ½ mile away.
There is no information about the woman’s injuries or the
cause of the accident.
The incident was investigated by the S.C. Highway Patrol.
WINNSBORO – A man charged with domestic violence of a high
and aggravated nature, barricaded himself in a home near The Strawberry Patch
convenience store for three hours Friday night before he was taken into custody
by the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office.
When Sheriff’s deputies approached a home on Oak Street
Friday about 5 p.m., with an arrest warrant for Jeff Truesdale, 55, on the
domestic violence charge, Truesdale barricaded himself in the garage, according
to Fairfield County Sheriff Will Montgomery.
“We called SLED (South Carolina Law Enforcement Division) to
assist us,” Montgomery said. “Another person was in the home and let us know
that Truesdale was in the garage.”
After deputies entered the home about 8 p.m., through an
unlocked door, they were able to arrest Truesdale without incident.
Truesdale eluded deputies on Friday, June 18, after he was involved in an altercation with a female when he allegedly struck her with a vehicle causing serious injury, Montgomery said.
Truesdale remains in the detention center awaiting a bond
hearing.
JENKINSVILLE – Two separate incidents at Lake Monticello
last week resulted in the deaths of six-year-old Julian Thomas-Smith of
Columbia and 19-year-old Jimmy Montufor of Charlotte.
Around 9 p.m. on Monday, June 14, Fairfield County Sheriff’s
deputies responded to a report that a child had drowned at the Monticello Ball
Park and bystanders were performing CPR.
According to the incident report from the sheriff’s office,
Thomas-Smith regained a pulse. He was
transported by EMS to Providence Fairfield Emergency Room and then to Prisma
Health Richland, where he succumbed to his injuries on June 16.
On Saturday, June 19, the South Carolina Department of
Natural Resources (SCDNR) responded to a request for assistance from the
Fairfield County Fire Services at approximately 5 p.m. Witnesses reported that
a male paddling on a kayak-style inflatable raft a short distance outside of
the marked swimming area at the recreation area had fallen into the water,
began struggling and disappeared.
SCDRN and Fire Service divers searched until dark Saturday
evening and resumed searching Sunday morning when they located the body of
Montufor around 10 a.m.
