WINNSBORO – In a move designed to fit some of the final pieces of infrastructure into place at Fairfield Commerce Center, the future new home of BOMAG Americas, County Council voted 7-0 during their Feb. 24 meeting to award the contract for the installation of wastewater lines in the industrial park to Richardson Construction Co. of Columbia.
The unanimous vote on the $1,084,275 contract came after Council’s executive session and after Council voted to remove Upstate Grading and Engineering (UG&E), of Spartanburg, from consideration. Council voted to consider UG&E a “non-responsive bidder and therefore ineligible to proceed,” after UG&E had failed to provide proof of adequate bonding.
Milton Pope, Interim County Administrator, said that while Richardson was the second-lowest bid, their bid came in well under the original estimate for the project.
The wastewater lines will serve all parcels on the western side of the industrial park, including the site for BOMAG. Lines will also extend to serve the County’s new spec building at the Walter Brown II Industrial Park.
Council also received a list of suggestions for the naming of the road that cuts through the new industrial park, for which Council will vote during their next meeting March 10. Names for consideration are: Pinnacle Point, Summit Parkway, Buena Vista Drive, Meridian Parkway and Commerce Parkway.
During his Administrator’s report, Pope gave Council a brief update on the ongoing postmortem of the collapsed section of retaining wall at Drawdy Park. Pope said the County has, through procurement, solicited an engineering company to assist in the evaluation of the structure and to review information received from S2 on the collapse. Some information is still outstanding, Pope said, but should be available for Council to consider at the March 10 meeting. Once the Drawdy Park collapse has been reviewed, Pope said, the firm will begin the review of S2’s other County structures.
WINNSBORO – A Winnsboro man was treated for non-life threatening injuries Saturday night after being shot during an altercation outside a home on Fagan Road. While one suspect turned himself in to the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office early Sunday morning, that suspect has since been released on bond as the victim’s account of the incident has wavered and the suspect was able to provide investigators with a credible alibi of his whereabouts at the time of the shooting. Investigators are now searching for a second man for questioning.
According to the Sheriff’s Office report, Tyrone Kelly, 38, was involved in an argument outside his home at 824 Fagan Road with DeAntray L. Dye, 29, of Caution Drive, Winnsboro, at approximately 7:40 p.m. Friday. Kelly told investigators that during the argument Dye instructed a second man, who Kelly identified as 24-year-old Jarrett Omar Lawson, of Circle Street in Great Falls, to shoot Kelly. Witnesses inside the home told investigators that they heard two gunshots, then saw Kelly run into the house, bleeding from a wound in his left shoulder. Kelly was also wounded in the head, where a bullet grazed his right temple. A witness at the scene drove Kelly to Fairfield Memorial Hospital, where he was treated and released.
Lawson turned himself in at 3 a.m. Sunday. He was charged with assault and battery with attempt to kill. Lawson was released on a $25,000 personal recognizance bond Monday afternoon, and Kelly has since been less certain as to the identity of the shooter. Investigators are still searching for Dye, who witnesses confirmed was at the Fagan Road home at the time of the shooting.
WINNSBORO – After months of delay while the Friends of Mt. Zion Institute (FOMZI) sought high and low for adequate and affordable property and liability insurance, Town Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to OK the final reading of an ordinance transferring the Mt. Zion Institute and its grounds at 250 N. Walnut St. to FOMZI.
According to the agreement, FOMZI will pay the Town $5 for Mt. Zion and will be obligated to rehabilitate and develop the property. FOMZI will have 18 months from closing to stabilize the old school building in order to bring it in line with the Town’s Dangerous Building Code. FOMZI will also have 30 months in which to hire a contractor/developer for historic rehabilitation of the buildings on the site or the Town will bring out the wrecking ball.
The contract between the Town and FOMZI had been in limbo for months while Vickie Dodds, FOMZI Chairwoman, worked to acquire insurance for the property. Dodds said that two weeks ago she reigned in her global search and found something close to home, taking out a standard liability policy and a $150,000 property insurance policy with Insurance of Fairfield. The property insurance policy, Dodds said after Tuesday’s meeting, is based solely on the cash value of the buildings – not the replacement value. In the event of a calamity, the policy would only cover the cleanup of the property, she said. The total premium for both policies is $2,840 a year, Dodds said.
With deadlines now before her, Dodds said the first order of business would be repairing the roof on the school. That will get started next week, she said. In addition, FOMZI will begin cleanup of the property around the historic buildings.
In other local rehabilitation efforts, Council provided a letter of support to Steven J. Boone, president of Buckeye Community Hope Foundation of Columbus, Ohio. Buckeye, a little more than a year ago, purchased Deerwood Apartments at 647 Highway 321 Bypass. Boone said his not-for-profit foundation is seeking Affordable Housing tax credits from the state to renovate the apartments. Total development costs, Boone told Council, were around $6.6 million, at between $50,000 and $55,000 per unit.
Deerwood is around 18 years old, Boone said, and among other things is in need of a new community building. Boone said his foundation also has a social services division, specializing in credit counseling and job training.
Hearing about FOMZI’s efforts to rehabilitate Mt. Zion, Boone threw his support behind Dodds and the project. Boone said his foundation has grant writers and architects on staff, licensed to work in South Carolina, who would be willing to assist FOMZI at no charge.
Council also approved $113,000 in matching funds for a $1 million Community Block Development Grant for upgrades to the Town’s sewer system. The proposed project starts at the Town’s treatment plant near Dunn Street with lines running to the Town’s lagoon near the head of McCulley Creek.
“We’re enlarging those (sewer) lines to prevent any backup of those lines,” Town Manager Don Wood said, “which is what DHEC (the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control) has a problem with us about.”
The project would also include improvements at the wastewater treatment plant, Wood said, to help the plant process wastewater more effectively. Wood said the matching funds would come out of the Town’s Sewer Investment Fund, and added that there were no assurances the Town would receive the grant.
Looking ahead to Council’s next meeting on March 18, Councilman Jackie Wilkes (District 4) asked that the Town’s proposed code enforcement officer be put on the agenda for consideration for hire. Wilkes also said he had received complaints from members of his district regarding roosters inside the Town limits crowing in the middle of the night. Wilkes said that while the matter may simply fall under a disturbing the peace ordinance, Council may want to address zoning regarding chickens, roosters or other animals inside the Town limits.
WINNSBORO – A $200 fine has ballooned into a $14,500 penalty against Fairfield County Coroner Barkley Ramsey, according to a Jan. 11 order from the S.C. State Ethics Commission, for an unpaid penalty dating back to 2012.
According to the Ethics Commission’s order, Ramsey failed to file his Statement of Economic Interest (SEI) form in 2010 and 2011. Ramsey was hit with a $200 fine in a letter dated Feb. 17, 2012, the order said. That letter was re-sent on March 12, 2012 and was returned marked “Return to Sender – Vacant.” The letter was sent a third time directly to the Coroner’s Office, the order said, on April 13, 2012.
The Ethics Commission’s order said that Ramsey later filed his SEI for 2010 and 2011 on Nov. 5, 2012, but by that time he had run up $10,000 in late-filing penalties, as well as $2,000 for each filing violation.
Ramsey said last week that the fine was being paid, with deductions coming directly out of each paycheck. Ramsey characterized the affair as an oversight and took full accountability for the error.
“I’m not trying to hide it,” Ramsey said. “Maybe I got that letter and just misplaced it or overlooked it. I don’t know. But it is being paid.”
In addition to the $2,000 penalty for each violation, failure to file an SEI within five days of the deadline carries a $100 fine. After notice by the Ethics Commission that the SEI has not been filed, violators face a fine of $10 per day for the first 10 days after notice and $100 a day for each additional day.
BLYTHEWOOD – The Planning Commission voted Monday night to recommend to Town Council the long-awaited zoning text amendment to the Town’s Landscape and Tree Preservation Ordinance. The amendment has been on the Commission’s agenda several times during the past year but was deferred for one reason or another.
After a subcommittee spent several months making modifications to the ordinance, Town Hall staff was to put the ordinance into codified form last fall so it could be recommended to Council for first reading. The Commission was told that town attorney Jim Meggs would finish the work. However, after reviewing the ordinance at the December meeting, Commissioners Malcolm Gordge and Town Planner Michael Criss both agreed that what they were presented did not reflect the final work done by the subcommittee.
The ordinance was presented again at Monday evening’s meeting and the Commission, after reviewing it, agreed that it was complete and ready to send to Council for first reading.
The draft document is a consolidation of the previous separate sub-chapters for Landscaping and Tree Preservation. The intention of the consolidation, according to Gordge, was to provide clarity and better guidance for interpreting the requirements of the Town in these two key areas.
“A considerable re-write was essential in order to achieve this,” Gordge, the subcommittee chairman, said, “and Michael Criss summarized all the areas under review at the Planning Commission meeting on Sept. 3 (2013).”
Gordge said the ordinance now provides illustrations for buffer yards applicable to the various zoning districts and examples of tree surveys and tree protection plans to assist businesses, developers and homeowners.
“Since it depends on the particular needs of the user,” Gordge told The Voice, “it is not really possible to mention specific changes for all applications or circumstances.”
The ordinance is expected to be on the agenda at the next Town Council meeting.
In other business, the Commission deferred until the April 7 meeting a request by builder D. R. Horton to decrease the setbacks on 276 lots in the Primrose section of Cobblestone Park until D. R. Horton can revise the list of lots to include only those owned by D. R. Horton.
Two hours of back roads and about 98 miles will take you to McCormick, where the second-richest vein of gold in South Carolina history was discovered. In February 1852, William Burkhalter Dorn discovered gold where McCormick sits. The Dorn Gold Mine in McCormick is one of the more important gold mines in South Carolina. Dorn excavated close to $1 million in gold before the mine ran out in the late 1850s. McCormick stands over the old sites of gold discovery. Dorn himself became wealthy but lost much of his fortune after the Civil War.
Cyrus H. McCormick, inventor of the mechanical reaper, bought the property. When the mines didn’t pan out, McCormick planned the town that took his name.
Evidence of boom times remains. McCormick has an historic mill, a grand courthouse and a fine old hotel that once housed train travelers. The Dorn Mill, restored in 1973, is one of the few remaining gristmills of its type in the United States. The three-story building, built circa 1898, has two steam boilers that powered two 10-ton stationary steam engines. Inside is a boiler made by the Lombard Iron Works of Augusta. That boiler powered this attrition mill where grinding plates revolved in opposite direction at 2,200 revolutions per minute. When this mill was up and running the din must have been unbelievable. A beautiful aspect of the old mill is its many hues of wood. Beams chutes and railings are blond, red and tan. Beautiful too is the Silver Creek Flour Packer.
Viewed from the front the mill has a medieval look. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places it’s lauded as an outstanding example of rural industrial architecture. The dominant feature of the exterior is a three-story brick wall built in 1915 to support a water tower tank.
Hotel Keturah, circa 1910, a building also on the National Register of Historic Places, faces the railroad tracks running through town. In front of the hotel, you’ll see six stones sunk into a sloping shoulder of grass just off the rail tracks. Down these “steps” black gentlemen in tuxedoes escorted train passengers to Hotel Keturah. Keturah, by the way, is the name of the wife of W.J. Conner. And who might he be? The man who built not one, but two hotels on this site and named them both in his wife’s honor (the first Hotel Keturah, 1900, burned in 1909).
Just beyond Hotel Keturah stands the handsome seat of justice. At 133 South Mine Street stands an historic building. Built in 1923, seven years after McCormick County was formed, the building is a Neo-Classical style brick building. The interior features pressed metal ceilings and the original transoms and doors. Like the gristmill and Hotel Keturah, it too is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Gold, a famous inventor and historic buildings wait in McCormick. And it’s a day trip away.
WINNSBORO – The prognosis for the financial state of Fairfield Memorial Hospital, which for the last two years has been grim at best, has officially entered a critical phase. Tim Mitchell, the hospital’s Chief Financial Officer, told a joint meeting of Fairfield County Council and hospital board members Feb. 27 that unless the hospital can get its hands on at least $200,000 in cash before March 6, the hospital would not be able to meet its payroll requirements. Another $300,000 will be required to meet other pressing needs, including a list of vendors to which the hospital owes approximately $3 million.
Hospital CEO Mike Williams said the hospital was due approximately $400,000 in outstanding Medicare and other payments in February, but a pair of winter storms that shut down state government has delayed those payments, putting the hospital in a bind.
“The big check didn’t come,” Mitchell said, adding that the State Department of Health and Human Services has assured the hospital that the funds would be issued in the second week of March – too late for the hospital to pay its employees and other bills.
Mitchell said that over the next 45 days the hospital expected to see about $1.85 million in other payments come into their coffers, but the bulk of that would be used to meet other outstanding and late bills. After the hospital pays its licensing tax, pays into the state retirement system and makes its quarterly payment for service and support of the hospital’s computer billing system (for which they are $350,000 behind, he said), the hospital would only then be left with $47,000 to operate.
Mitchell and Williams told Council that the hospital was looking for a line of credit, either guaranteed by the County from a local bank, or from the County directly, in order the float the hospital for the next 90 days while negotiations get under way with a larger hospital to take over Fairfield Memorial.
“That places us in quite a predicament,” Interim County Administrator Milton Pope said, “because we would have to amend our budget. Transferring money from one entity to another would require three readings and a public hearing.”
And that process would take at least 21 days, well past the March 6 payroll deadline.
Council Chairman David Ferguson (District 5) said Council would hold an emergency meeting at 5 p.m. on March 6 to entertain the possibility of transferring the funds through a resolution instead of a budget amendment. Meanwhile, Councilman David Brown (District 7) urged the hospital board and administration to expedite the negotiation process and to open the process to more than one potential partner. The hospital, he said, always seemed to be 90 days from transitioning to a new partnership model, asking the County to help bridge the gap until a partnership can be established.
“When ya’ll are in dire straits for money, we get a phone call,” Brown said. “I’m starting to feel like the carrot being dangled out there is the 90 days. It’s always 90 days. I don’t want to keep coming back every 90 days.”
Hospital board Chairman James McGraw told Brown that this most recent request should not come as a surprise, as it was discussed during the last join meeting in January.
“I know,” Brown said, “but I would have felt a lot better if the report tonight would have been ‘We’ve got this package together and we’re moving forward,’ but it’s another 90 days. I’d like to see something in writing besides bills. I know it’s going to take more than 30 days, but I hope it doesn’t take more than 90 days or 120 days.”
At press time it was not known if the County would be able to pass the resolution transferring the $500,000. The Voice will update this story following the March 6 emergency meeting.
WINNSBORO – A North Carolina woman died last week from injuries sustained in a two-car crash on I-77 on Feb. 25.
Fairfield County Coroner Barkley Ramsey said Jamie Lynn Withers, 33, was pronounced dead at Fairfield Memorial Hospital at 5:38 p.m. on Feb. 25 Withers, of 125 S. Church St. in Charlotte, was traveling north on I-77 at approximately 4:30 p.m. when her 2005 Hyundai Tucson was forced off the highway by a tractor trailer near mile marker 42. The S.C. Highway Patrol said Withers ran off the left side of the road where she crossed the median, crossed both south-bound lanes, slid down the embankment and struck a tree. She was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident, the Highway Patrol said.
James Taylor, 50, of Baltimore, Md., was later identified as the driver of the 2002 Volvo tractor truck. It was not known at press time if charges against Taylor were pending.
Carson Justice finishes the fast break. (Photo/Martha Ladd)
Jaycie Johnson (15) uses her size to loft in 2 points for the Lady Eagles. (Photo/Martha Ladd)
SUMTER – A flickering scoreboard, a whistle-happy first half, a frozen clock with less than a minute to go and an improbable, desperation 3-point bomb to send the game into overtime piled drama on top of drama in Saturday’s SCISA 2A girls’ state basketball championship. But when the dust had cleared, the Richard Winn Academy Lady Eagles cut down the net and hoisted their second consecutive state title trophy, topping Thomas Sumter 37-33 in overtime.
The Lady Generals’ man-zone defense held Richard Winn to their lowest point total of the season and their lowest output since their 43-38 loss to Union County, a class 3A public school, on Jan. 13. While the Thomas Sumter game plan forced the Lady Eagles into tough looks from outside, the Lady Eagles still managed to open the game on a 5-0 run as the Lady Generals’ offense sputtered out of the gate. Thomas Sumter finally got on the board with 3:30 left in the first period, ending the quarter on a 6-2 streak to cut the Richard Winn lead to 7-6 at the first buzzer.
“I give all the credit in the world to (Thomas Sumter head coach) B.J. Reed,” Richard Winn head coach Jason Haltiwanger said after the victory. “She had a great game plan defensively. It looks like man it looks like zone. We weren’t patient enough to move it around more. But the girls gutted it out, that’s all that matters.”
The Lady Eagles drew whistle after whistle in the first half, and by the second quarter Thomas Sumter had reached the bonus. The Lady Generals tied the game at 7 from the line early in the second, then took a 9-7 lead from the line with 5:37 to play. All but two of the Lady General’s 8 second quarter points came from the stripe.
Sophomore Jaycie Johnson tied the game at 9 with a turnaround jumper in the paint with 4:07 left in the quarter, but Thomas Sumter’s Taylor Knudson put the Lady Generals back out front with a layup at the 3:20 mark. Anna Cooke’s 3-point stroke gave Richard Winn a 12-11 edge with 3:03 to go before the half and Jessie Stidham added two more with 2:33 to go. The Lady Generals tied the game at 14 with just over a minute on the clock when Knudson sank one of two shots from the line, but senior Carson Justice nailed a pair of foul shots in the closing seconds to give the Lady Eagles a 16-14 advantage. The half ended with an astonishing 10-3 foul discrepancy in favor of the Lady Generals.
“There were multiple things that we can’t control that affected us early,” Haltiwanger said. “We got seven or eight fouls just like that. Our best thing we do is a man-to-man run and jump and that took us right of that, so our girls had to adapt and adjust.”
As foul calls reached a more even distribution in the second half, the pace of the contest picked up considerably and the see-saw battle for 2A supremacy was on full display. The Lady Generals tied the game three times in the third period and took a brief 19-18 lead at the 6:28 mark. Richard Winn freshman Bailey Taylor drove home a 3 with 3:09 remaining in the quarter to give the Lady Eagles a 23-20 lead. Taylor’s shot set off a 7-4 run by RWA, leading the Lady Eagles to a 27-24 lead at the third buzzer.
“Bailey Taylor hit some big shots,” Haltiwanger said. “They kept leaving her open and she was hesitating at first, then she took them and knocked them down. That was big.”
In the fourth, Richard Winn matched their largest lead of the game, opening up a 29-24 advantage in the early goings. With just over 3 minutes to play, Justice snatched the ball from Knudson and raced down the floor for the put-in to give the Lady Eagles a 31-24 lead. The Lady Generals, meanwhile, went stone cold, held off the boards for the first 5 minutes of the quarter. Knudson broke that drought with a pair of free throws. And while Richard Winn struggled uncharacteristically from the line down the stretch, Knudson’s buckets ignited a minor Thomas Sumter rally – enough to draw them to within three, at 32-29.
On an in-bounds pass with under a minute to play, the Lady Generals were gifted with as many as seven free seconds of playing time when the game clock failed to start. The unexplained and uncorrected bonus time extended the game just long enough for the Lady Generals to force overtime. With 4 seconds on the clock, Knudson launched a desperation shot from well beyond the arc. As the buzzer sounded, the basket miraculously swallowed the ball, tying the game at 32 and sending the decibel levels inside the Sumter Civic Center soaring to highs greater than a Who concert.
“I heard that (the clock didn’t start), but it’s not going to change anything,” Haltiwanger said. “There were a bunch of questionable things that happened tonight, but a champion doesn’t complain; they keep playing. That’s what the girls did.”
In the 4-minute extra frame, the Lady Generals used the charity stripe once again to take an edge, 33-32. It would, however, be the only point Thomas Sumter could muster in OT, while the Lady Eagles finally found their form from the line. Justice hit three of four attempts in overtime, while junior Emily Brigman hit two of four to sew up the title.
“It was kind of a nightmare free throw night for us,” Haltiwanger said. “(Justice) hit some big free throws of us down the stretch. Emily Brigman, who missed two to put it away (in regulation), came back in overtime to hit some to give us a lead there.”
Saturday’s final was the third consecutive trip to the title game for Richard Winn in as many years, and their second consecutive championship.
“It takes dedication and hard work,” Haltiwanger said. “A lot of girls are at the beach during the summer; they’re in the weight room working out and working on their basketball skills. It started a long time ago with people like Alex Maass (class of 2012) paving the way and now these girls followed and they put in a lot of hard work.”
With a potential dynasty on his hands, Haltiwanger will look to his underclassmen to step up next season. In addition to Justice, the Lady Eagles will have to move on without senior Anna Cooke in the 2014-2015 season.
“Jaycie Johnson is a sophomore, she had an incredible year,” Haltiwanger said. “Jessie Stidham (a junior) is someone you can build around in the post. Alyssa Atkerson, she’s a freshman. You can build around her as a point guard. She’s extremely athletic. So there are some pieces there.”
RIDGEWAY – At its regular monthly meeting, rescheduled from Feb. 14 to Feb. 21 due to snow and icy conditions, Ridgeway Town Council hired a new part-time police officer and part-time maintenance employee. Council considered two applicants for the law enforcement position, settling on Antonio Addison of Columbia who will start work after serving out his two week notice with the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce in Columbia where he has been employed since August 2011. According to his resume, Addison investigated theft and other incidents and was responsible for the protection and security for all persons on the grounds of the state agency. Addison is a graduate of Benedict College with a degree in Criminal Justice. He was recommended to Council by Councilman Don Prioleau. Addison will be the second part-time law enforcement officer for the Town. According to Prioleau, Addison will become a full-time officer at a later time.
“Right now,” Prioleau told The Voice, “Mr. Addison has another commitment that prevents him from working full time for us.”
Council also hired Jeff Wilkins in an on-call maintenance capacity for the Town. He will assist the Town’s current part-time maintenance employee, Robert Arndt.
In other business Chris Curtiss, owner of the Little Cedar Creek Campground on East Peach Road in Ridgeway, asked the Town to provide a 6-inch, 1,250-foot waterline to the campground. Curtiss said he plans to expand his 30-acre campground from 28 units to 58 units and that the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control requires expanded water capacity for the additional 30 units. He said the residents of his campground shop in Ridgeway and that the expansion of the campground could bring considerable economic development to the town.
After hearing Curtiss’s request, Herring asking him to bring back specific numbers of the water capacity needed so Council could consider it further.
