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  • Visitor’s Center shares Palmer’s post

    BLYTHEWOOD – As the residents of Rimer Pond Road and the LongCreek Plantation neighborhood continue to fight a Columbia family’s fourth attempt in as many years to bring commercial zoning to Rimer Pond Road, the Blythewood Chamber of Commerce Visitors’ Center raised the hackles of those residents by inserting itself into the emotionally charged zoning issue with a Facebook post on Monday, Jan.29.

    After posting seemingly innocuous information about a community meeting for residents concerning Hugh Palmer’s commercial zoning request on Rimer Pond Road, the Visitors’ Center’s Facebook page also featured a link to the Facebook page titled ‘Voice of Everyone – Blythewood’ that openly supports the commercial zoning and is administrated by Hugh Palmer’s son, Patrick, former longtime Chairman of the Richland County Planning Commission.

    While the name of Palmer’s Facebook page, ‘Voice of Everyone – Blythewood,’ is strikingly similar to The Voice of Blythewood, it is not in any way associated with the newspaper.

    The Palmer page, which was shared by the Visitors’ Center on its own Facebook page, promoted the commercial zoning request and featured a photo of a colorful, neatly landscaped row of four shops proposed on the Palmer’s Rimer Pond Road property. The page suggested that seemingly benign businesses such as a Sylvan Learning Center would be the kinds of businesses coming to the Palmer’s property which is across from Blythewood Middle School. According to Richland County zoning codes, however, other less desirable uses such as a convenience store with gas pumps, are also a permitted uses in the Neighborhood Commercial zoning requested by the Palmers.

    Patrick Palmer’s page offered itself as a safe place where residents could freely voice their opinion on the matter, stating that the page was ‘not judgmental.’ However, as the comments against commercial zoning in the area began piling up on the page, they were promptly removed by the page’s administrator and those posters were subsequently blocked from posting. Screen shots of the blocked pages poured into The Voice.

    “…comments that we posted on the Facebook page, ‘The Voice for Everyone – Blythewood,’ were deleted by the page administrator,” LongCreek residents Dan and Amy Wrightsman, who oppose the commercial zoning, stated in an email to The Voice.

    “Palmer’s Facebook page, ‘Voice for Everyone – Blythewood,’ was bombarded with dozens of negative comments from residents,” Rimer Pond Road resident Trey Hair stated in an email to The Voice. “He deleted those comments and subsequently blocked those folks from being able to comment further. But residents had left 38 negative 1-star reviews on the site which the administrator was unable to delete per Facebook rules, so the entire page was ultimately deleted by its administrator,” wrote Hair who owns and operates ‘Keep it Rural,’ a Facebook site that serves as a hub of information for those who oppose the commercial rezoning in their neighborhood.

    By the next morning, the flurry of angry, though civil, comments on Palmer’s Facebook page, that was being shared on the Chamber’s Visitors’ Center’s page, prompted Blythewood Mayor J. Michael Ross to call Switzer to complain about the Chamber’s Visitor’s Center’s page for sharing Palmer’s page. Ross has been a strong supporter of the residents’ fight against commercial zoning on Rimer Pond Road for several years.

    “The Town government has been in support to keep this property [on Rimer Pond Road] rural from the beginning and will continue this by attending the [Windermere] meeting Jan. 31…I really want to focus our efforts on stopping this rezoning,” Ross said in an email to Hair’s Keep it Rural page. “Everything anybody needs is in Blythewood or on Killian Road.”

    While Switzer took everything concerning the proposed commercial zoning off the Visitors’ Center’s Facebook page, he defended himself and the Chamber, telling The Voice in an email that “nobody on the chamber staff is siding with Palmer.” They also did not side with the community’s residents. Switzer placed blame for the entire posting incident on “our social media girl,” who, Switzer said, “did the post-share on her own…she thought it was informational.”

    The ‘media girl,’ Heather Holt, was hired by the Chamber earlier this year as a specialist in Facebook and social media. The Visitor’s Center is funded by The Town of Blythewood through the Accommodation Tax fund.

    Ross reiterated, however, that he stands firmly with the residents against commercial zoning on Rimer Pond Road and that the postings on the Visitors’ Center’s Facebook page did not reflect the Town’s stance on the issue.

    “The Visitor’s Center’s Facebook page is supposed to be used to bring tourism to Blythewood,” Ross said.

    ”it was…only to generate a discussion regarding that location based on the discussions at the council meeting,” Holt said in an email to The Voice after the posts were removed. But the Mayor, during that council meeting, had spoken out against the commercial zoning request and in support of the residents. Holt’s Visitor’s Center’s Facebook page did not take that stand.

    “I thought (regrettably so) that sharing a post from that [Voice of Everyone – Blythewood] page would start a conversation about the proposed development,” Holt stated in a post on the ‘Keep it Rural’ Facebook page, in which she shielded Switzer and the Blythewood Chamber of Commerce from any blame for the postings. In an email to The Voice, Holt stated, “It was information I thought people would be interested in knowing.”

    County Council will cast their first vote on the issue on Feb. 27, at 7 p.m., in Council Chambers in the County building at Harden and Hampton Streets. The agenda and packet for the meeting should be available from the County the week prior to the meeting. To obtain a copy of the agenda and the entire meeting packet via email, call Tommy Delage at 576-2172 or email him at delaget@rcgov.us or call 576-2190.

    Community information about the meeting can be found on the Facebook page, ‘Keep it Rural.’ Patrick Palmer, whose family is requesting the commercial zoning on the road, has posted signs at the Rimer Pond Road site asking residents to call him at 556-3340 for information.

  • County goes after opioid costs

    WINNSBORO – After receiving legal advice in executive session Monday evening regarding potential opioid litigation on behalf of Fairfield County, Council returned to public session and voted to join a lawsuit being brought by Savage, Royall & Sheheen L.L.P of Camden.

    “This firm is filing suits on behalf of a number of counties to recover losses occurring from us having to deal with the opioid epidemic,” County Administrator Jason Taylor said. “They are going after drug companies because of the cost of such things as sheriff’s calls, ambulance calls and all other costs resulting from opioid use.”

    Taylor said the suit is not a class action suit, but the law firm is suing on behalf of the individual counties. As to what extent Fairfield County is affected by opioid use, Taylor said the law firm will begin gathering statewide statistics and looking at national statistics and extrapolating those downward.

    “Then they will look specifically at Fairfield County,” Taylor said.

    According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, opioids are a class of drugs that include the illegal drug heroin, synthetic opioids such as fentanyl and pain relievers available legally by prescription, such as oxycodone (OxyContin®), hydrocodone (Vicodin®), codeine, morphine, and many others. These drugs are chemically related and interact with opioid receptors on nerve cells in the body and brain and can produce euphoria in addition to pain relief, according to the Institute.

    The Voice left a voice message on Wednesday with the Sheriff’s department asking about the overall extent of the use or misuse of opioids in Fairfield County, but the department had not responded at press time.

  • Davis sworn in

    Photo: Martha Ladd

    WINNSBORO – Newly elected Fairfield School District school board member Darreyl Davis is sworn into office by Fairfield County Clerk of Court Judy Bonds during ceremonies at the Court House last week. Holding the Bible is Davis’ wife, Tamika.

  • Two killed in separate crashes

    FAIRFIELD COUNTY – Adam Reed Williamson, 31, of Ridgeway was the driver of a GMC Envoy that was involved in a single vehicle accident that occurred on Rockbridge Road in Fairfield County at approximately 7 p.m., Feb. 7, resulting in his death.

    In a separate accident, Willie R. Belk, 45, of Blackstock, was inside a 2003 Cadillac that was involved in a single vehicle accident on Old Douglas Road in Fairfield County that resulted in his death. The accident occurred at 2:10 p.m. on Feb. 11.

    Both accidents remain under investigation by the Fairfield County Coroner’s Office and the South Carolina Highway Patrol.

     

  • FCSD announces Hall of Fame class

    WINNSBORO – The 5th annual Fairfield County School District Hall of Fame Induction Gala will be Saturday, May 5 at Fairfield Central High School.  Five new members will be inducted into the district’s Hall of Fame, established in 2013 to recognize graduates and others who have made a significant contribution to their community and professions.  The members of the 2018 induction class are Bernice J. Brown, Mary Lee Hendrix, Jennifer M. Jenkins, and posthumous honorees, Walter “Monzell” Simpson and Sally Ruth Thompson.

    All of the honorees are natives for Fairfield County. Brown, Hendrix, Jenkins, and Thompson are veteran educators with the district.  Mr. Simpson served on the Board of Trustees. Tickets for black-tie optional gala are on sale at the District Office.

     

  • A Step Towards Justice

    COLUMBIA – Fairfield County residents and Hoof and Paw Benevolent Society board members Paula Spinale, left, and Kathy Faulk and Blythewood resident and board member Deborah Richelle, right, joined Rep. MaryGail Douglas at the Humane Society Lobby Day at the State House in Columbia last week where they witnessed the Senate’s vote to pass the animal welfare bill S841 that addresses tethering, shelter restrictions and myriad issues of animal cruelty.

  • BHS student makes NHHB Championships

    TIGERVILLE –Blythewood High sophomore Abhimanyu Sailesh finished as runner-up in the 2017 SC State History Bee and Bowl Championships at North Greenville University on Feb. 10.

    Sailesh

    Also representing BHS as a one-man team, he reached the finals of the Bowl Championship, a team competition, as well, after five rounds of preliminaries and a round of semi-finals.  Salilesh also finished as runner-up in the team event.

    Sailesh qualified for the NHHB Junior Varsity National Championships and Bowl Championships to be held April 27-29 in Washington D.C. and Arlington, Va.

  • Winnsboro Town Council OKs water for BW senior center

    Winnsboro Council OKs water capacity for proposed Senior Center in Blythewood

    WINNSBORO – A 64-room senior living facility proposed for downtown Blythewood crossed a major hurdle Monday night when the Town of Winnsboro voted unanimously to approve a Water Capacity Availability and Willingness to Serve Letter for The Pendergraph Companies. The letter approves 11,520 gallons per day (GPD) for the facility.

    The facility, to be named Blythewood Senior Living, is proposed for a five-acre site on Creech Road between the Russell Jeffcoat offices and the IGA and behind Larry Sharpe’s BP service station and three other lots facing Blythewood Road.

    According to Tom Ulrich, the project manager for the proposal, the water capacity is based on 32 two-bedroom apartment homes and 32 one-bedroom apartment homes. Ulrich told The Voice following the meeting that the facility would be for residents who live independently.

    “The rooms will all be in one building, like a hotel,” Ulrich said.

    Ulrich came before the Blythewood Town Council in the fall of 2017 to give Town Hall a heads up that his company was considering bringing a senior living facility to the town. Ulrich told The Voice that the company has been in discussions with Town officials for some months.

    “I wrote a reference letter for the developer stating this would be great for our town,” Mayor J. Michael Ross said, “but that we are not advocating for any more affordable living apartments. We are very excited that this facility might come to Blythewood.”

    “The project looks very positive from the developer’s perspective,” the Winnsboro’s utility attorney, John Fantry, said. “They’ve already built one of these facilities in Lancaster County. Now they’re taking that vision to Blythewood. They are currently doing due diligence for financing on a tract of about 52 acres on Creech Road. The developer will be coming back to us when financing is worked out. This particular request is to provide assurance to their financing process that Winnsboro does have the capacity to serve the proposed facility’s water needs,” Fantry said.

    Ulrich said he expects the project to be complete by the end of 2019.

    “We should have our water from Broad River by then,” Mayor Roger Gaddy said. “We oughta have all kinds of water to sell.”

  • Deadlines tighten on vendor regulations

    BLYTHEWOOD – On Monday night, the Planning Commission once again tackled the question of what policies, procedures and guidelines the Town government should put in place for itinerant vendors who want to set up shop in the Town Center District.

    And, once again, the Commission punted.

    Commission Chair Donald Brock opened the issue by questioning whether the discussion should be put off until the Blythewood Chamber members could have a seat at the table.

    Commissioner Rich McKendrick, however, questioned whether it is appropriate that the Chamber be in the mix during a regular meeting of the Commission. He suggested a workshop might be the more appropriate place to include so-called stakeholders on the issue.

    “I’d say the Chamber position would be to get as many businesses into town as possible for more revenue,” Brock said. He also suggested earlier in the meeting that the Commission should question whether they, ultimately, even want itinerant merchants doing business in the town.

    “Once that question is answered, it will steer us in the direction of where we want to go,” Brock said.

    While Town Planning Consultant Michael Criss listed some of the pluses of street vendors (they add interest and pedestrian traffic to the TCD), he also said there are concerns about the aesthetics of unregulated vendors and referenced Grace Coffee.

    “However, the coffee vendor (Grace Coffee) was approved for a Certificate of Approval (COA) last year [April, 2017], by the Board of Architectural Review (BAR),” Criss said.

    A loophole in the Town’s code of ordinances paved the way for Grace Coffee, a vendor housed in a small turquoise and white mobile home on Main Street in downtown Blythewood, to do what no other business in town has been able to do – receive a COA without meeting the Town’s architectural review standards.

    It appears the Town’s ordinance regulating architectural review in the Town Center District (TCD) did not have well-defined regulations for mobile vendors.

    “We were asked to give a COA without guidelines,” BAR [then] Vice Chairman Jim McLean told The Voice. “We (the BAR) did not want to do that because a COA is permanent. We grappled with it, and we did all we could do, considering the Town has no architectural review standards in place for mobile vendors,” McLean said. “The Town was caught off guard.”

    Instead, the BAR agreed to grant a one-year conditional COA to the business to give the Town Council time to draw up standards and an ordinance for mobile vendors. That year will be up on or about April 17, 2018 and the Commission is no closer to forwarding a draft ordinance on the issue than it was a year ago.

    At issue, according to Criss, is the definition of ‘structure’ in the Town’s code of ordinances.

    “Structure’ is very broadly defined in the code, yet this mobile vendor is a ‘structure,’ and because it is in the TCD, it must have a COA from this Board for its exterior appearance,” The Town’s Planning Consultant Michael Criss told the Board in April, 2017.

    While brick and mortar buildings in the Town Center District must adhere to guidelines for paint color, lighting, whirly gigs and other exterior architectural features, Grace Coffee was not required to meet any of those standards, Criss said.

    However, McLean said the coffee vendor’s COA is based on how it currently stands and that it cannot make further (substantive) changes in its appearance going forward without coming back to the BAR.

    Newly installed Board Chairwoman Pam Dukes then asked how the sign allowances would be applied to Grace Coffee.

    That, too, turned out to favor the vendor over the town’s brick and mortar businesses.

    “It’s clear what the regulations are for permanent structures that are affixed to the ground,” Criss said. “The landlord gets one monument sign freestanding out in the front yard and one wall sign on the facade facing the street.”

    Those signs, according to the Town’s code must meet specific size and quantity guidelines.

    “But it’s not crystal clear what the sign limitations are on a mobile unit such as a trailer,” Criss said.

    Grace Coffee usually has four signs displayed – one at each entrance, one on the trailer and a menu sign in front of the trailer.

    “Suppose they were frying chicken in there,” McLean asked, referencing a discussion the Board had earlier in the meeting with Kentucky Fried Chicken officials who are looking to make major exterior renovations of the KFC in downtown Blythewood.

    “I’m trying to go back and grab the fairness. We just turned down Kentucky Fried Chicken about what they can and can’t do (with signage),” McLean said, pointing out that brick and mortar businesses in the Town are held to higher standards.

    The discussion has been ongoing ever since Grace Coffee pulled in to town in December, 2016 and set up shop in the parking lot of Bits and Pieces consignment store.

    “When we initially talked with them (Grace Coffee), they said they were going to take the trailer away each night. But now it sits there,” Mayor J. Michael Ross told Council in January of last year. “It’s another example of how a vending stand comes in and is just left there. It’s frustrating.”

    At the February, 2017 meeting, Grace Coffee’s owner Bret Beyer added another dimension to the mobility issue, telling Council members that the stand was no longer mobile, that it could not be moved.

    While a one-year temporary vender ordinance was passed in March, 2017 and Grace Coffee’s one-year COA is set to expire in April, and the Planning Commission is charged with coming up with draft standards [ordinance] for mobile vendors for recommendation to Town Council before those one year terms expire, expectations are growing slim that a new, permanent vending ordinance will be in place to meet those deadlines. The issue is not expected to be brought up for discussion again until Town Council’s annual retreat on March 10.

  • Six candidates file for RW election

    RIDGEWAY – With the filing deadline ending on Feb. 2, four candidates have declared for the two open seats on Ridgeway Town Council and two have declared to run for mayor.

    These candidates will be on the April 3 ballot: Council – Roger Herring, Rick Johnson, former mayor Rufus Jones and Dan Martin; Mayor – Councilman Heath Cookendorfer and Councilwoman Angela Harrison. Terms are ending for Cookendorfer and Doug Porter.

    Both the council seats and the mayor’s seat are for four year terms. The election is nonpartisan, and no party affiliation will be placed on the ballot.

    The election will be held on Tuesday, April 3, at the Ridgeway Fire Department, 170 S. Palmer Street. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. – 7 p.m. that day.

    Those desiring to vote in the upcoming election must be registered by March 5, 2018, at the Fairfield County Board of Voter Registration, 315 S. Congress Street in Winnsboro.

    For more information, call 803-337-2213.