WINNSBORO – Positive economic signs are continuing to pop up in Fairfield County.
The latest good news came during public comments of Monday night’s meeting, when Ridgeway resident Randy Bright called attention to encouraging unemployment numbers.
Bright said Farfield’s unemployment rate dropped from 8.9 percent to 5.4 percent in the past 12 months, a 39 percent improvement.
“We’ve come off the bottom,” he said. “A lot of good things coming up.”
Signs of progress emerged in September, when TV manufacturer Element reversed course on a potential workforce reduction. Element’s plans changed when President Donald Trump eased tariffs on Chinese imports.
Fairfield County is also deep in talks with another economic development prospect that would add another 200 jobs and make a $30 million investment.
County Council discussed that project in executive session Monday night, but no action was taken.
To keep the momentum going, Bright encouraged the council to continue water and sewer infrastructure improvements, as well as combating blight.
He also touted a penny sales tax to boost infrastructure funding, estimating it would bring in $2 million a year.
WINNSBORO – It may be cold and rainy outside on Saturday, but it will be warm and fuzzy inside at Winnsboro’s annual Holiday Market Place featuring offerings of gifts, crafts, bakery confections and local farm produce – fruits, vegetables, meats, honey and more – from farmers and artisans of Winnsboro, Blythewood and Ridgeway.
The holiday event, from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m., will be located in the enclosed ground floor of the Town Clock and across the street in the former Desportes Stables which has been newly renovated with a rustic, barn-like décor.
“It’s a great place to find Christmas treasures, those special gifts not available in stores, and something for everyone on your list,” former President of the Fairfield Chamber of Commerce Terry Vickers said. “The products are unique and the prices are low,”
Downtown merchants will also be offering their own Christmas surprises. Santa will be visiting in the shops and there will be refreshments and caroling.
“It’s going to be a great day for shoppers,” Vickers said. “There will be so many wonderful items to choose from. Don’t let the weather stop you. You really won’t want to miss it.”
WINNSBORO – The Angel Tree is a holiday tradition in the Fairfield community that makes Christmas special for over 200 of the county’s senior citizens
To participate, volunteers pick an angel from the Angel Tree at the Council on Aging’s Senior Center, then fill plastic totes (provided by the Center) with non-perishable items – soap, paper towels, socks cleaning supplies, slippers, skin creams, soups toiletries and other personal items.
The recipients of the totes are the Council’s Meals on Wheels clients or those seniors who eat and participate at the Council’s Senior Center in Winnsboro.
“While these items don’t sound very exciting to the average person, they make a big difference for seniors who are living restricted lifestyles due to age, income or transportation issues,” said the Center’s director Angela Connor who initiated the Angel Tree program eight years ago.
“Living alone can be desperately lonely for seniors, especially during holidays,” Connor said. “Receiving the totes is a personal touch that lets them know somebody really cares about them.”
The filled 32-quart plastic totes are to be returned to the Center by Dec. 12. They will be delivered on Dec. 18.
“We also need volunteers to help us deliver the totes,” Connor said.
The Council on Aging Center is located at 210 E Washington Street, Winnsboro. Information about the program is also available on Facebook at Fairfield-County-SC-Council-on-Aging-INC or by calling 803-635-3105. Council hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday -Thursday, and 8:30 a.m. – 2 p.m. on Friday.
WINNSBORO – One person has died after a single-vehicle crash in Fairfield County.
The accident happened Dec. 2 at 5:30 a.m. on SC-34 near Hopewell Church Rd., according to SCHP. This is about seven miles from the town of Winnsboro.
The driver of a 2006 Honda Accord was traveling East on SC-34 when they ran off the side of the road and over corrected. The driver hit a tree and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The driver was not wearing a seat belt, according to SCHP.
That person’s identity has not yet been released. No other injuries were reported.
WINNSBORO – Fairfield County Council wants several conditions met before agreeing to participate in a school district project to build a subdivision in Winnsboro catering to teachers.
School leaders, however, say they fear delaying action could cause Gorelick Brothers Capital, a Charlotte, North Carolina developer willing to bankroll most of the project, to walk.
At a special meeting Monday, county and school leaders found little common ground regarding the “Teacher Village,” a $3.6 million subdivision the district wants built on property the district currently owns behind the district office off U.S. 321 Bypass.
Dr. J.R. Green, superintendent of the Fairfield County School District (right), argues in favor of the proposed “teacher village” during a special county meeting Monday night. Looking on at left is a County Administrator Jason Taylor. | Michael Smith
The district wants a multicounty business park agreement in place and a seven-year, $600,000 property tax abatement for the developer. Both require County Council approval.
Citing a litany of potential legal issues, county attorney Tommy Morgan called attention to a pending lawsuit challenging a similar project involving multifamily housing in downtown Columbia.
“We don’t know if this case in Richland County is going to be upheld, if it’s going to be overturned. It’s still going. I don’t know,” Morgan said.
Morgan also alluded to a 2010 attorney general opinion that raised further doubts as to whether the county would be protected if similar litigation were filed over the Teacher Village.
“It does give some cause for concern in my mind whether the special source revenue credit agreement would be the best way to accomplish what I understand the school district is wanting to do,” Morgan continued.
Dr. J.R. Green, district superintendent, brushed off concerns about potential litigation.
As to the Columbia case, Green doesn’t think the appeal will succeed, stating that Columbia is moving forward with another housing project targeting law enforcement and teachers.
“Personally I think it is highly unlikely that it is going to be overturned on appeal,” Green said. “Obviously, in Richland County, they have not been deterred by this appeal that has occurred.
“I disagree if the sentiment is that the county doesn’t want to move forward because there is an appeal or there is a case that has been previously judged,” Green continued.
Morgan and Council Chairman Billy Smith also asked if it’s possible for the district to work out its own credit agreement with Gorelick, paying for $600,000 outright, bypassing the county altogether.
William Halligan, an attorney representing the district, said only the county can approve or deny multicounty park agreements. The district cannot do it, he said.
“Nowhere in [the law] do we have the legal right to pay a third party not relating to buildings of the school district,” Halligan said. “We pay teachers, but we can’t buy their food and we can’t pay for their housing.”
Procedural and zoning issues represent added concerns for the county.
Smith said the county hasn’t received any formal requests from Gorelick, only from the Fairfield County Schools’ Education Foundation, a proxy of the school district.
The land also remains in the district’s name, Smith noted.
No site plan has been submitted to the Town of Winnsboro for rezoning, and there has been no request to the Town for rezoning.
“All of that are steps that have to be undertaken, whether it’s by the school district, the foundation or Gorelick Brothers,” Morgan said. “There has to be these steps with regard to the property before it can even be considered by the county whether it needs to be included in a multicounty industrial park.”
“I don’t think that’s accurate,” Green responded. “You’re telling me the property has to be rezoned before it’s considered for a multicounty project.”
Morgan replied by saying the Teacher Village can’t be a Gorelick project when the land is still in the district’s name.
Teacher Village conditions set
Filed in 2016, a Richland County lawsuit that also names Columbia and Fairfield County as codefendants, states that a student housing development was improperly included in another multicounty business and industrial park.
Fairfield County partnered with Richland County and the City of Columbia in that park agreement.
“I had similar concerns about that project and I raised them at the time. Ultimately, Council approved that deal because the developer agreed to indemnification– to pay for any legal fallout,” Smith told The Voice after the meeting. “That’s all I’ve requested on this project to that point, but it seems like we’re being asked to bear all of the risk in this project. We’re being asked to follow the framework from the previous deal in every way except for the indemnification.”
A circuit judge sided with the counties and City of Columbia, though the suit has been appealed to the S.C. Court of Appeals.
“There has been caution presented to us based on the case in Columbia,” Council Chairman Billy Smith said during the meeting. “If we would be the ones to accept the risk for what many of us see as a school district project, then there are some conditions that we’d like to talk about.”
Thumbing through his phone, Smith read a list of conditions he’d like met regarding the Teacher Village:
An agreement with Gorelick to indemnify Fairfield County in the Teacher Village project
An agreement to cover Fairfield’s legal expenses incurred in association with the Teacher Village
A legal description of the Teacher Village property
The Town of Winnsboro agreeing to place the property into the multicounty park since it’s in the town limits
Winnsboro agreeing to rezone the property
“If they don’t rezone the property as requested, it’s over with,” Smith said. “It doesn’t make much sense for us to spend good money on something when we’re not sure whether it has a chance of happening.”
School officials took issue with Smith’s proposed conditions. Green called them “not reasonable,” and voiced concerns that Gorelick Brothers may walk.
“If that’s the takeaway, that’s not reasonable,” Green said of Smith’s conditions. “I don’t know how Gorelick is going to respond to this. The longer this stretches out, the more the likelihood Gorelick pulls out.”
Asked after the meeting about Green’s contention that the conditions being unreasonable, Smith said, “What’s unreasonable is to ask someone else to bear all of the risk for a project that is yours and that primarily benefits you. I realize the potential of this, and I’d like to support it in some way, but I’m not going to allow the County to be the only entity involved accepting risk. If it were our project, I wouldn’t expect the School District to accept all of the risk for it.”
The Teacher Village, as proposed, calls for building up to 70 single family homes on 22 acres behind the district office, starting with 30 homes and building more if the development takes off.
Teachers would be given first priority and would receive a taxpayer subsidized credit of $300, reducing their rent to the $600 to $900 per month range, depending on the home.
District office staff would receive second preference, followed by law enforcement and first responders. Only teachers, though, would qualify for the credit.
School and foundation leaders have said the Teacher Village is vital in recruiting and retaining teachers by providing them with affordable, attractive housing that generally doesn’t exist in Fairfield County.
“People who live in a home are going to stay longer than in an apartment,” said Dr. Sue Rex, chairwoman of the Fairfield education foundation. “This is going to bring a lot of energy to Fairfield County.”
BLYTHEWOOD – Officials are investigating an armed robbery in Blythewood that left two victims shot Saturday night, according to the Richland County Sheriff’s Department.
The shooting took place 11:30 p.m. in the Eagles Glen neighborhood off Rimer Pond Road.
Deputies report that two people were standing outside of a residence on Feather Run Court when two males exited a dark colored sedan and demanded their valuables.
That is when the two victims were shot, according to officials. The gunshot victims were taken to a local hospital where they are listed in stable condition, according to the sheriff’s department.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crimestoppers at 888-CRIME-SC or submit an online tip.
BLYTHEWOOD – Several Richland County deputies appeared at an open forum Tuesday night to field questions from concerned residents on the recent rise of car burglaries in the Blythewood area.
Deputies with the county’s Community Action Team (C.A.T.), along with investigators, assured residents that the department was taking the rise in occurrences seriously, and that action was being taken in an effort to combat the crimes.
“We have already begun increasing patrols and changing our hours to randomize crime suppression patrols through both retail areas and residential communities,” Lt. Danny Brown with the C.A.T. stated.
Brown said the department takes burglaries of homes and properties “to heart”, and that any and all tools available are being utilized by deputies.
“We will even go so far as to jump into an unmarked car to start patrolling neighborhoods, and that is what we have been doing over the last couple of months,” he stated.
In addition to patrols, deputies said one of the most powerful ways to combat the crime was through partnering with residents. The C.A.T. boasts one of the most impressive community-oriented programs in the surrounding area. Through the use of smartphone apps and the department’s website, rcsd.net, residents have the cell phone and other contact information to their region’s deputies at their fingertips.
Sergeant Ellis Pearson said the information has been made so readily available in the hopes that residents would take advantage of the opportunity to reach out to deputies if they noticed anything suspicious in their community.
The team currently offers patrols through neighborhoods upon request, and will conduct safety surveys of homes. Still, deputies said, the best approach to safety is being proactive and reducing the temptation for a potential car burglar.
Deputies recommended always locking the doors on any vehicle left outside of a garage for any length of time, and to either remove or hide any valuables inside of it.
“When you look at these car break-ins that have occurred lately, over 85 percent of the vehicles involved were left unlocked,” Pearson stated.
Some residents were concerned that some neighborhoods in the area were being “targeted” more than others, but deputies said that is not the case.
“Nationwide we are having issues with car break-ins, and the trend across the country is unlocked cars,” Brown stated.
Other residents questioned whether the car thefts could morph into more serious crimes that would threaten the safety of residents in their homes, but deputies said that such incidents remain “exceedingly rare”.
“These guys don’t want to be caught, which is why they are opening unlocked cars and not breaking windows. They are not looking to cause a disturbance, so they are not going to go into your home when they know you are there; they want an easy target,” Brown stated.
Deputies did warn that daytime burglaries can occur when thieves believe a home is left unoccupied. To protect themselves from a potential burglar, deputies recommended residents create the illusion that a home is occupied even when they are not, and that in the case of leaving home for a holiday vacation that they do not make any information known to the post office or on social media.
Instead, deputies recommended asking a trusted neighbor to collect mail during the absence and to even move vehicles from time to time if the absence will be extended for more than a few days.
BLYTHEWOOD – The sale of the Doko Depot has been delayed since December, 2017, for myriad reasons. In September, 2018, Mayor J. Michael Ross announced a new delay – this one caused by the discovery that property title restrictions had not been disclosed to the Town in prior financing efforts with Santee-Cooper.
“We are in the process of remedying this issue,” Ross told The Voice in August.
When asked last week about the progress of the remedy, Ross said the Town has not yet reached a resolution with the owners. The Town received both parcels for community use only. Both parcels contained reversion or repurchase clauses.
Those clauses kicked in when in 2016 the town re-designated park property that include sections of the two parcels.
If a resolution cannot otherwise be reached with all parties, Ross said he is looking at other options – two of them drastic – including cutting a portion of one end of the building off or moving it a few feet off the parcels in question.
Ross said one parcel was sold on favorable terms directly to the town government for community use and could be repurchased by the owner should the parcel no longer be used for community use. Records show that parcel was owned and donated by Margaret DuBard. The other parcel was originally conveyed to the Blythewood Volunteer Fire Department by Charles W. Proctor in 1971.
Proctor reserved a reversion of title if the property ceased to be used for fire department or other community uses. When a new fire station was built on Main Street, the land was donated to the Town. But the parcel was still subject to the reversion clause, documents state.
Proctor passed away in 1976, leaving no children. His wife died shortly thereafter. The heirs, Ross said, are being contacted and a civil action will be brought to determine their interests and compensation.
“According to the documents that were signed,” Ross said, “there’s not that much money involved. It’s just a percentage of the value of the land the building sits on.”
Not knowing about the title issue at the time, Council voted in December, 2017, to authorize Ross to sign a sales contract with Columbia developer Wheeler & Wheeler to purchase the property.
Last April, Don Russo told The Voice that his company, Freeway Music, was negotiating a contract to lease part of the building from Wheeler & Wheeler.
It was also announced that a popular Lexington restaurant is planning to lease the other part of the building.
Ross said on Tuesday those plans are now on hold. He further stated that the Town and Dubard have agreed to obtain an appraisal in order to get an appropriate purchase price for Dubard’s interest.
“We’re going to lose our tenants if the sale is delayed much longer,” Ross said. “So we have to come up with a plan of how to alleviate the connection of the owners with the Depot building.
“If the title to the properties had been clear when the building was built, we wouldn’t be in this fix right now. There are a lot of things we’re looking into,” Ross said.
Still, Ross said he understands the previous property owners’ perspective.
“They wanted to see the land used as a public park or other public use. The Town took the land and commercialized it in the pursuit of economic development,” Ross explained. “Now it’s a mess. We’re trying to figure out how we get around this mess.”
While the issue was discussed in executive session Monday night, Council did not discuss or vote on it in public session.
WINNSBORO – Fairfield County schools experienced a setback in a key assessment that counts as 20 percent of a student’s final grade in core subjects, mirroring a similar slide in statewide results.
The Fairfield County School District scores declined from spring, 2017 to spring, 2018 in three of four core subjects on the End-of-Course Examination Program (EOCEP), according to data the S.C. Department of Education released in October. Fairfield Central High School’s mean scores on the EOCEP declined from last year in all four subjects.
Core subjects of testing consist of Algebra 1, English 1, Biology 1 and U.S. History and the Constitution. Students must pass each course at some point before they are awarded a high school diploma.
The district also struggled on the Ready to Work exam, a new career-readiness exam that all 11th graders are required to take.
The generally declining performances on the EOCEP and the lagging Ready to Work scores come in spite of the district leading the state in per pupil revenues, at $21,803 per student in 2017-2018, according to Department of Education figures.
Dr. J.R. Green, district superintendent, couldn’t be reached for comment.
At the district’s board of trustees meeting Nov. 13, Green said that students are being over-tested.
“We have been on this hyper assessment wheel for 20-plus years now. It has been absolutely counterproductive,” Green said. “This is going to be controversial, but the testing industry is a business. It’s a business to keep us on the hyper-accountability movement.
“People think that is how you measure schools,” Green continued. “People think that is how you improve schools.”
Fairfield’s performance stands in contrast to the district’s SAT scores for 2018, which shot up 60 points from the year before.
Only 41 Fairfield County high school students took the SAT, while between 138 and 195 took various individual portions of the EOCEP, according to the S.C. Department of Education.
How FCHS students performed
The bright spot for FCHS students was in English 1 where the percentage of students scoring an A rose from -0- in 2017 to 3.6 in 2018. The percentage of students scoring an F – defined as 0 to 59 percent – in English 1, however, increased from 33.1 percent in 2017 to 42.8 percent in 2018.
FCHS test takers struggled most on Algebra 1, figures show. Percentages of students scoring an A in Algebra 1 dropped from 1.2 percent in 2017 to -0- students scoring an A in 2018. More than half (54.3 percent) scored an F on Algebra 1 in 2018, a 14.2 percent increase over the 40.1 percent who scored an F on Algebra in 2017.
Fewer students scored an A on Biology 1, dropping from 17.8 percent last year to 6.7 percent this year. Percentages of students scoring an F in Biology 1 increased from 38.8 percent in 2017 to 41 percent in 2018.
The percentage of students scoring an A in U.S. History and the Constitution dropped from 2 percent last year to 1.1 percent this year. While more than half the students (52.5 percent) taking the test scored an F in 2018, that was an improvement over the 55 percent who scored an F in 2017, figures show.
The mean scores of FCHS students were also down in all four subjects tested.
Algebra 1 – 63.3 (2017) to 58.6 (2018), down 4.7
Biology 1 – 67.6 (2017 ) to 65.2 (2018), down 2.4
English 1 – 64.1 (2017) to 63.7 (2018), down 0.4
U.S. History and Constitution – 60.5 (2017) to 60.3 (2018), down 0.2
The mean scores of the District as a whole were similarly down from last year with the exception of English 1 which showed a 0.7 increase.
On the new Ready to Work exam, Fairfield performed behind 2018 state averages.
Ready to Work (R2W) is a career readiness assessment administered to all eleventh grade students to determine student achievement in three key subjects – Applied Mathematics, Reading for Information and Locating Information. Fairfield performed below the state average on each of the three subject areas:
Applied Mathematics—State average 241, Fairfield 235
Reading for Information—State average 247, Fairfield 242
Locating Information—State average 230, Fairfield 228
The R2W test awards certificates, which are associated with career professions, beginning with bronze and peaking with platinum.
Roughly one-fourth (24.6 percent) of the 179 students taking the test didn’t score well enough to earn a certificate.
About one-third (34.1 percent) earned a Bronze Level certificate, meaning they’re ready for 35 percent of jobs in the workforce. Bronze level sample professions include construction laborer, electrician assistant, cement mason and dental hygienist.
Another 38.5 percent earned Silver Level certificates, which means they’re ready for 65 percent of jobs, including insulation installer, roofer, chef, pipe layer, flight attendant or machinist.
Gold Level certificates were earned by 2.8 percent of students. This level includes credit analysts, aircraft mechanics, medical transcriptionists, acute care nurses and social workers.
No Fairfield students earned a Platinum Level certificate, which includes architects, chemists, geographers, anesthesiologists and agricultural engineers.
WINNSBORO – The town of Winnsboro will be unveiling a new video on its website this week in the hopes of putting the small town “on the map” of local tourism and shopping destinations.
According to town clerk Lorraine Abell, the two and a half-minute video was filmed by the town’s website team this summer. The budget for the filming was presented and approved by the town council in April 2018.
“The town council has been fully on board for this video since the idea was first introduced,” Abell stated.
The video includes shots of key area focal points and landmark buildings, but it seems to truly shine with the commentaries and testimonies from local business owners who declare their love for the small town alongside their ability to successfully operate a homegrown shop in its downtown district.
“We knew we wanted to highlight our local businesses and so we created a list early on of both established businesses and new shops that recently opened that we wanted to offer a spot in the video to,” Abell stated.
Every business that the town approached jumped on board enthusiastically, Abell said, with only one business having to opt out because of scheduling conflicts.
The finished product, she said, exceeded all expectations.
“We (the town) are so very pleased with the result and we believe it accurately portrays the heart of Winnsboro,” she stated.
In addition to shining a light on the blossoming downtown shopping district, the video also spotlights the town’s railroad museum and Abell said she hopes the video will encourage viewers to see that there is much to do in the small town.
“Winnsboro really is a wonderful day trip destination with many hidden gems that people who don’t live here might not be aware of,” Abell stated.
Alongside the museum, which offers train rides for visitors in addition to its expansive historical collection, the town also features walking tours through some of its historical neighborhoods. All of which, she said, the town believes deserves the right to be noticed.
“The town of Winnsboro has a rich history and we have so much to offer, we hope to really showcase that through this video and reveal to the surrounding areas that our little town is a special place worth a visit,” Abell stated.
