WINNSBORO – A recent rash of burglaries in vehicles parked in church parking lots during worship services has prompted Fairfield County Sheriff Will Montgomery to issue an advisory encouraging citizens and church members to be vigilant for suspicious activity on church properties in the county.
Someone burglarized a vehicle at a church in the Jenkinsville community on Sunday, March 10, stealing money and a pocketbook containing bank cards, the Sheriff’s office reported. The subject used the bank cards a short time later at the Dollar General in the Blair area.
Similar thefts also occurred in Lancaster County that same morning and are believed to have been committed by the same person, the Sheriff said. Surveillance cameras captured images of the suspect and his vehicle, believed to be a dark, possibly blue, Chevrolet Impala.
Catalytic converters (exhaust system parts) have also been taken from church vans/buses parked at several churches in Fairfield County in the past few weeks.
Sheriff Montgomery said he does not know if the suspect is involved with these thefts.
“We encourage everyone to be extra vigilant for suspicious activity at area churches and to contact the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office at 803-635-4141 if any suspicious activity is observed,” Montgomery said. “We also ask that anyone who recognizes the individual, or vehicle to contact us.”
BLYTHEWOOD – Blythewood filmmaker Ray Smith is conducting an informational meeting at the Blythewood Library for those interested in the upcoming Doko Film Festival. Smith will talk about the festival and volunteer opportunities. The meeting is set for March 14, 2019 at 6:00 pm.
The Festival is set for April 26 and 27 and is dedicated to developing the skills, knowledge and confidence of young filmmakers in South Carolina and beyond. Tickets range from $5 – $20 and can be purchased at www.dokofilmfest.com.
The first night of the festival will be held at Doko Manor on April 26, from 7 – 9:30 p.m., featuring a reception for Blythewood native and Oscar winner Michelle Eisenreich, who will also help judge the film submissions. A silent auction will include a knife signed by James Jude Courtney aka Michael Myers of Halloween, along with jazz music, drinks and heavy hors d’oeuvres.
The second full day of the festival will be held at Westwood High School from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., featuring screenings of selected films made entirely by high schoolers. Throughout the day, there will be master classes held by Eisenreich and other video professionals on tips and tricks needed to produce a winning and engaging film.
There will also be representatives from the University of South Carolina and Savannah College of Art and Design discussing the two schools’ media arts and film courses.
Awards in various categories will be presented at the end of the day as well as Best in Show.
From 6 – 9 p.m., that evening, there will be a concert in the park behind Doko Manor.
Tickets range from $5 – $20 and can be purchased at www.dokofilmfest.com.
BLYTHEWOOD – The Blythewood Garden Club will feature well-known garden designer, horticulturist and author Jenks Farmer at its 12th Annual Community Gardening Event on March 21, at 7 p.m. in the Blythewood High School media center.
Farmer was the developer and former director of Riverbanks Botanical Garden and the founding horticulturist of the Darla Moore Farms Garden in Lake City. He designs gardens and landscapes throughout the Southeast in public and private spaces.
Farmer writes for a number of periodicals and is the author of two books: “Deep Rooted Wisdom: Stories and Lessons from Generations of Gardeners” and the soon to be released, “Funky Little Flower Farm.” He has a deep interest in collecting and growing Crinum Lilies, and his lily farm will be featured in an upcoming “Garden and Gun” magazine. He will offer some of his collection of bulbs for sale at the meeting.
The Blythewood Garden Club has offered the Blythewood community a variety of gardening and environmental programs over the last twelve years, featuring such gardening experts as Austin Jenkins who developed the Master Naturalist Program, naturalist Rudy Manke and ETV’s Amanda McNulty of ‘ETV’s “Making It Grow.”
Cultus Club officers include: Cookie Brooks, Mary Jane Wright, Patsy Black, Trev Sherrod, Margaret DuBard and Frances Barnett. Other book club members in attendance were Nancy Stevenson, Marlise Meyer, Carolyn Clemens, Mary Lynne A. Zeno, Phyllis Nichols Gutierrez, Laurens Livings and Sallie Kate Watford. Members not pictured included Dee Dee Branham, Barbara Douglas, Betty Harden, Priscilla Patrick and Janice Wolf. | Darlene Embleton
FAIRFIELD COUNTY – The Cultus Club, whose membership lives mostly the Blythewood and Fairfield County communities, is possibly the oldest continuous book club in Fairfiled County – perhaps even the state. And that history is of as much interest to members as the books they read and review.
The Club’s historian and current president, Frances Barnett, traced the Club’s history back to the beginning of the 20th century when an article in The News and Herald newspaper, dated Jan. 18, 1905, printed a report on a meeting of the Cultus Club, then located in Fairfield County.
Member Margaret DuBard, after further sleuthing, chronicled the history of the Club in a seven-page document that noted member Pinky Dicky’s discovery of handwritten minutes of the Club dating from 1967 – 1985. Those notes were recovered from the estate of member Rebecca Hanahan and produced written proof that the Club existed continuously for at least those 52 years.
Today, the Club’s 18 or so members meet alternately in each other’s homes on a monthly rotation. They most recently met at the Cedar Creek home of DuBard who co-hosted the event with Patsy Black. The meetings are a testament to the fact that gracious Southern hospitality lives on.
The meeting at DuBard’s home began at 4 p.m. and started off with refreshments and a setting that would have made Scarlett proud – decadent lemon and chocolate cakes, spiced tea sweetened with Blythewood honey and coffee were served from silver tea services at tables laden with china, linen napkins and fresh flower arrangements. It was, as Club secretary Cookie Brooks calls it, a very social time for catching up.
As the women sat chatting and nibbling, DuBard’s husband, Bill, appeared outside a picture window to sprinkle a significant amount of bird seed on a picnic table in the rear yard to allow attendees to enjoy the ‘fly in’ of upwards of 20 cardinals who came to feast on their evening meal.
With sated appetites, the group retired to the open living/dining room to sit together and enjoy the anticipated book review provided by Marlise Meyer. On this day, Meyer was reviewing ‘The First Conspiracy – The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington.”
Written by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch, the book was well suited for the event and setting. And Meyer explained the plot within the framework of the setting’s history, thereby whetting the Club members’ appetites to read the book themselves.
Besides Barnett serving as president of the Club, other officers include: Trev Sherrod, vice president; Cookie Brooks and Mary Jane Wright are both the Treasurer and longest living member.
Laurens Livings, whose son Jack’s book, ”The Dog,” was reviewed by the New York Times and won the prestigious Penn Award, is a second generation member of the Club.
“Promoting and supporting literacy, culture and the arts has always been important to the members of the Cultus Club,” DuBard said. “While our individual members have a wide range of talents, interests, concerns and responsibilities, the one thing we have in common is that we all love a good read,” she said.
WINNSBORO – Last Thursday Sheriff Will Montgomery presented a check for $10,061 to the South Carolina Special Olympics. The Sheriff’s department raised the amount during their Polar Plunge fundraiser at Wateree State Park on Feb. 23. “This is such a great cause,” Sheriff Montgomery said, “and we are proud to be a part of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Torch Run organization that directly supports South Carolina Special Olympics.”
RIDGEWAY – Geiger Elementary School principal Myra Bramlett awarded second grade teacher Blair Branham, left, the Rookie Teacher of the Year award this week. Branham, a graduate of Blythewood High School, graduated from Columbia College in 2017. She joined Geiger in August of 2018. Branham’s second grade teammate, Lori Yarborough was awarded Geiger’s Teacher of the Year award.
COLUMBIA – The South Carolina State Board of Education has suspended the teaching license of a Blythewood High School teacher after he was accused of being in a closed closet alone with a female student on several occasions.
Kevin Smalls had been employed by Richland County School District Two since 2014 as an engineering and robotics teacher. On Jan. 25, 2017, a female student reported the allegations to school officials, and the District placed Smalls on administrative leave.
After investigations by Richland School District Two administrators and Blythewood High School administrators, law enforcement was notified. Smalls voluntarily resigned his position in the District, effective March 13, 2017, according to a statement released by the District.
Smalls requested a hearing that was held in October 2017 before the State Board of Education.
“The hearing officer found that Smalls’ conduct warranted action against his certificate, as he was alone with a student behind closed doors on multiple occasions,” according to a Feb. 12 order signed by the State Board of Education Chair Del-Gratia Jones.
“The state board finds that the evidence presented demonstrates Smalls acted in an unprofessional manner,” the order stated.
“There were no other complaints reported to administration regarding Mr. Smalls,” Richland Two Chief Communications Officer Libby Roof wrote in an email released to the media.
Small’s license was ordered suspended for 60 days, from Feb. 12 to April 13, 2019, the order states.
The new board of the county and town’s joint water/sewer authority met during an organizational meeting to elect officers, discuss incorporation and receive an engineering update. Attending the meeting were C. D. Rhodes, III, clockwise left, attorney with Pope Flynn, who represents the new joint water/sewer authority board; County Administrator Jason Taylor; Deputy County Administrator Davis Anderson; Winnsboro Town Attorney John Fantry; County Economic Development Director Ty Davenport, County Clerk Patti Locklair Davis; Mayor Roger Gaddy; Town Manager Don Wood; Fairfield County resident and engineer Kyle T. Crager, senior project manager of water/wastewater operations for Michel Baker International and County Council Chairman Neal Robinson.
WINNSBORO – Fairfield County is gathering all the trappings to lure big industry and with it, more jobs.
It has interstate access, a megasite roughly equidistant between Columbia and Charlotte and a $2 million state grant targeting infrastructure for that site.
Now the county and town have created a joint water authority – the Fairfield Joint Water and Sewer System – whose mission it is to facilitate infrastructure growth at the I-77 megasite.
“I’m excited because it just shows growth for the town and the county,” said Fairfield County Council Chairman Neil Robinson. “I was told we were delusional just thinking about this, but I think we’re on the right path.”
Appointments of a five-member board were made Monday night and board officers were elected. Plans are to meet monthly, with the next meeting scheduled for March 20.
Winnsboro Mayor Roger Gaddy was named the Authority’s board chairman and Robinson was named vice-chair. Other members include Fairfield County Administrator Jason Taylor (treasurer), Winnsboro Town Manager Don Wood and Fairfield County resident and engineer Kyle Crager, senior project manager of water/wastewater operations for Michel Baker International.
“We have to address water and sewer issues if we’re going to grow,” Taylor said. “Without water and sewer the county cannot realize its full potential.”
Talk of forming a water authority has occurred on and off for the past four years, but gained steam in the past year.
The S.C. Department of Commerce recently pumped $2 million into the megasite, seed money that will fund an engineering study with the ultimate goal of building a wastewater facility at the I-77 megasite.
To that end, the state requested that an authority be formed.
Moving forward, the authority said a critical first step involves mapping out existing infrastructure in the county. The board tentatively plans to review those plans at the next meeting.
“I think it would be important to see all the plans that have been done on the sewer and at the same time work on the water so we’re all up to speed,” Gaddy said. “I think it’s important for us to all be on the same page and prioritize things.”
Taylor suggested reaching out to other water providers as the authority’s work moves forward.
Taylor said at this point, merely mapping the size and location of current water and sewer lines is a prerequisite in developing infrastructure at the megasite.
“With all of these little fractured systems, it’s not necessarily a rational way to provide infrastructure to the county,” Taylor said. “We’re going to start approaching other providers of water and sewer and see if there’s an opportunity to work with them.
WINNSBORO – Former Geiger Elementary Principal Joe Seibles was elected to the FCSD board of trustees, representing District 4, on Tuesday. Seibles had no opponents in the race.
Seibles
Of the 2,323 voters in District 4, 61 cast votes for Seibles, and there were no write-ins, Director of Voter Registration for Fairfield County Debbie Stidham said.
Seibles, who spent his entire 36-year teaching career in Fairfield County, fills the seat vacated by longtime board member Annie McDaniels, who was elected to the House of Representatives in November.
“I ran for the seat because the district needed to be represented by someone who has experience and knows how the district operates,” Seibles said. “I’m looking forward to serving the County’s schools.”
The vote breakdown for District 4 precincts includes:
Stidham said the votes will be certified on Friday.
“We used two different types of voting equipment from Hart,” Stidham said, “one being a ballot marking system and the other a hand marked system. Both have the paper verifiable rail that the state is looking for.”
Stidham said the machines are the first two to be tested by the state as they look for voter machines to replace the current machines.
Cooking fire destroys Ridgeway home. | Fairfield County Fire Service
RIDGEWAY – A cooking fire that broke out in the kitchen of a mobile home a little after 3 p.m. on March 2 destroyed the home, located on Reese Lane in Ridgeway.
The home was being rented by a couple and their four-month-old daughter.
The mother told the fire service that she was cooking in the kitchen when her baby started crying in another part of the home, according to the incident report.
The mother said she went to check on the baby and when she came back into the kitchen, “the whole place was in flames,” according to the report. She then grabbed her baby and ran from the house.
Three other stations were called to the home, which was fully engulfed.
“Cooking related incidents are the leading cause of house fires nationwide,” Fairfield County Fire Service Director Jason Pope said. “We just want to caution folks to stay in the kitchen while you’re frying, grilling, boiling or broiling food. Use a timer to remind you if you are simmering, baking or roasting food. And keep anything that can catch fire – oven mitts, wooden utensils, food packaging, towels or curtains – away from your stovetop,” Pope said. Another suggestion, he said, is to keep a lid nearby to smother small grease fires.
“And if a fire starts, just get out,” he said, “close the door behind you to help contain the fire, and call 911 or the local emergency number after you leave. If you try to fight the fire, be sure others are getting out and that you have a clear way out.”
“For an oven fire, turn off the heat and keep the door closed,” Pope said.
Someone burglarized a vehicle at a church in the Jenkinsville community on Sunday, March 10, stealing money and a pocketbook containing bank cards, the Sheriff’s office reported. The subject used the bank cards a short time later at the Dollar General in the Blair area.
