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  • Business Makeover Faces Hurdles

    BLYTHEWOOD – During opening remarks at Monday night’s regular Architectural Review Board (ARB) meeting, Ralph Walden announced that he has resigned as the Board’s architectural consultant and that his replacement is architect Matt Hill, who was appointed to that position last month by Town Council.

    Walden attended the meeting as the representative of Larry Sharpe (Sharpe Operating Properties) to obtain a Certificate of Appropriateness (COA) from the Board to enlarge, renovate and improve the interior of Sharpe’s Exxon service station and both the interior and exterior of the adjoining Bojangles fast food restaurant in downtown Blythewood. Walden said the roof of the building would be raised several feet to help create a new look for Bojangles and to meet the Town’s architectural requirements for hiding rooftop equipment.

    Last month the Board granted a partial COA to Sharpe so he could get started on the renovation, but the final COA approval required the matter to come back to the Board for landscaping, signage, lighting and dumpster concealment approval.

    Section 155.501 of the Town’s codes requires that, when a COA is requested for architectural changes to an existing building, other areas of that site’s design are to be considered by the Board before granting a COA.

    The landscaping code states that landscaping is a primary tool used in meeting the objectives for the overall site design. Plantings, berms, walls and fences are used to screen site parking areas and utilities. Trees and shrubbery are used to create visually aesthetic transitions to separate the site from streets and adjoining properties. Interior plantings break up parking areas from large monotonous expanses of pavement into smaller lots.

    While the proposed signage and lighting were quickly acceptable to the Board, their primary concern Monday night was the issue of protecting motorists and pedestrians (traveling along McNulty Road) from the 18-wheelers that enter and exit the large concrete parking lot behind the Exxon and the Wings restaurant. They also expressed concern about the lack of landscaping in the area, complaining that the area was covered in unsightly concrete. Board member Gail Coston and others on the ARB suggested protecting the roadway behind the Exxon from the parking lot with plantings that would also improve the looks of the area.

    Town Administrator John Perry explained that the radius required for the trucks to turn into the parking lot would most likely ruin the plantings. Plus, he said, “there’s lots of concrete back there and Mr. Sharpe has no way to get water to the plantings, so it would be difficult for him to maintain it.” Perry said another problem is that Sharpe’s property actually includes the section of the roadway in front of McDonald’s, Comfort Inn and Subway that is thought of as a continuation of McNulty Road.

    Members of the Board gave their own testimonials of how dangerous the area is for pedestrians and motorists who frequently have to dodge the 18-wheelers and other trucks entering and leaving the parking lot. The problem is compounded, ARB member David Shands said, by a lack of organized parking in the lot area behind the Exxon and the Wings restaurant.

    Perry suggested several solutions that would give definition between the roadway and parking lot as well as make the area more attractive. One, Perry said, would be to pour a raised, concrete rollover ledge around that corner of the parking lot along the roadway and lay a wide expanse of decorative pavers behind the rollover ledge. He said that had been done successfully in Davidson, N.C. under similar traffic patterns.

    Reviewing the site plan of Sharpe’s property, Board member Susan Sorg suggested the owner of the property get with the ARB to work out safety and beautification details, including the creation of a crosswalk from the parking lot to the other side of McNulty Road. Other suggestions for improved safety included a scheme of marked parking spaces for the trucks.

    It was also suggested that Sharpe be asked to accommodate the maintenance of landscaping and planters in the area by cutting through the concrete to lay irrigation lines to the plantings.

    The Board went on to unanimously approve the final COA for the building renovation and expansion with a verbal consensus to require finalization of the corner design of the parking lot where it joins the roadway behind the building at a later date.

    “I don’t want to hold up work on the project,” said Bob Mangone, who made the motion for approval of the COA. The Board will meet at the parking lot site behind the Exxon at 6:30 p.m. on June 17 to observe and discuss possible solutions to Sharpe’s problem. Perry said the issue would not come back to the Board for final resolution, but would go to Hill, the new architectural consultant.

  • COG to Review Town Property Codes

    WINNSBORO – With Fairfield County moving forward with an aggressive enforcement of more rigid property maintenance codes, Winnsboro Town Council made a move to keep pace during their May 7 meeting, voting 3-0 to approve a contract with the Central Midlands Council of Governments to review Winnsboro’s codes.

    “We’ve asked the Council of Governments to review our property codes and advise us of what to do and what to change,” said Mayor Pro Tem Jackie Wilkes, who chaired last week’s meeting in the absence of Mayor Roger Gaddy, sidelined with illness. “We’re hoping to get something similar to what the County’s got. There’s no sense in us having something different.”

    Wilkes said it was also possible that Winnsboro would petition the County to administer the codes, once the new regulations are in place.

    Winnsboro is shelling out $2,400 to the Council of Governments for their assistance in the review.

    “We thought it would be easier, simpler and faster than bringing the committees in to get this done,” Wilkes said.

    Council also heard from Vickie Dodds, Chairwoman of the Friends of Mt. Zion Institute (FOMZI), who reiterated her group’s commitment to working with the Town to salvage the historic school building.

    “Whatever form our partnership takes, we vow to keep our mutual interests in opportunities for the county front and center,” Dodds said. “This opportunity is about so much more than the preservation of a building. It is an opportunity to impact the economy, our quality of life and our visible standing in the state.”

    Council agreed to schedule a work session with FOMZI in early June in order to sketch out the details of the project.

  • Community Leans on Council on Eve of Budget Vote

    FAIRFIELD – County Council gave the final approval to their 2013-2014 budget Monday night, a budget nearly 11 percent smaller than that of the previous fiscal year, weighing in at $33,440,757. The budget passed on a 6-1 vote, with Carolyn Robinson (District 2) casting the lone dissenting vote.

    “That’s what District 2 wanted to do,” Robinson said after the meeting.

    Robinson voted with the majority in approving the associated millage rates, which come in at 181.87 –  8.6 mills less than last year.

    “Because it was a reduced rate,” Robinson explained. “We finally got something right.”

    Although the public hearing on the budget was officially held April 22, Council got an earful from constituents prior to Monday’s vote, many of them angered over tax rates, as well as the County’s $24.06 million industrial development/recreation bond, passed April 15.

    “I don’t think there was any coordination whatsoever between County Council and the School Board, that they would simultaneously pass $44 million worth of bonds, which will start in 2014,” said Oliver Johnson. “Spending is out of control. We have the third highest millage of any county in this state. We have the highest general fund budget per capita of any county in this state. We’ve got the eighth highest assessed property values per capita. We’ve got a fixation on the industrial park, we’ve poured money into it, we’ve taken acreage off the tax rolls, built spec buildings because the state says that’s the way to attract industry. Frankly, and I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think we’re going to attract industry. We need to go after retirees. Bring them in here with disposable income.”

    Jeff Schaffer, of Dawkins, said he would like to see more accountability, as well as a refund to taxpayers.

    “Stop spending and start improving,” Schaffer said. “If you’re a school teacher, you better be one who can show your class is improving, if not you won’t be in the budget next year. Same thing goes for the hospital and every other charity case us taxpayers take on. I would like to see a budget that is reduced by last year’s spending by 10 percent across the board, and that reduction I would like to see redistributed under the category of Fairfield taxpayers by sending us a refund check.”

    Schafer also suggested imposing an “excise tax” on people who work in the county but who do not live here.

    “If every employee who works in the county but does not live in the county paid a millage rate, we would pay less and they would pay for the services that I and others provide for by paying those taxes,” Schaffer said.

    Betty Scott Frazier Bell said she sees a mass exodus from Fairfield County every day between 3:30 and 5 p.m.

    “People who are working in Fairfield County, driving Mercedes and SUVs, all leaving the county with salaries they are making in Fairfield,” Bell said, “and you are planning a new industrial park in Blythewood’s back yard.”

    The industrial park, Bell said, was a mistake, and the bond money could be better spent elsewhere, if at all.

    “To put up a building before you had water and sewer?” Bell asked rhetorically. “You put in an industrial park that is not even a certified site and you’re asking for a little over $20 million to remedy that mistake. Richland County should be writing you a thank you note for putting in the infrastructure for their residents.”

    After the vote, Bell’s comments, and those of her colleagues, drew an impassioned response from Council. David Ferguson, Council Chairman, said that the industrial park was indeed a Class-A certified park. He also said that there was no correlation between the School District’s bond and that of the County. But most of all, Ferguson stood firm on the County’s policy of industrial development.

    “When you have a stable environment and you have a job, you may can stand at that microphone and tell me we don’t need jobs in Fairfield County,” Ferguson said. “When we’ve got 11 percent unemployment, and in a lot of cases husband and wife unemployed, don’t bother to tell me we don’t need jobs. If you talk to those people who are unemployed, they’re not going to agree with you. And I don’t agree with you, either. I would be very disappointed in the Council if I was sitting out there and you were sitting up here and you were not trying to get jobs for me to work at and better my family. I don’t think anybody in our county wants us not to be trying to bring gainful employment to this county.”

  • Water, Sewer Rates on the Rise

    RIDGEWAY – During Winnsboro Town Council’s May 2 budget work session, Council voted to increase their electric, water and sewer rates for the upcoming fiscal year in order to help balance the Town’s 2013-2014 utilities fund budget at $15,081,890. Thursday night (May 9), Ridgeway Mayor Charlene Herring announced during the first reading of Ridgeway’s budget that those increases would have to be passed on to customers in Ridgeway.

    “Winnsboro’s water rates are going up,” Herring said at Thursday’s Town Council meeting, “and we have to pass those along to our customers. We don’t want to, but we have to.”

    The new rates, which will take effect July 1, are:

    Water:

    Residential (within town limits): $13.94 (minimum) for first 1,000 gallons; $4.29 for each addition 1,000 gallons.

    Residential (outside town limits): $18.69 (m) for first 1,000; $5.54 for each additional 1,000.

    Commercial (within town limits): $16.94 (m) for first 1,000; $4.29 for each additional 1,000.

    Commercial (outside town limits): $21.94 (m) for first 1,000; $5.54 for each additional 1,000.

    Sewer:

    Residential (within town limits): $10.94 (minimum) for first 1,000 gallons; $3.64 for each additional 1,000 gallons.

    Residential (outside town limits): $11.69 (m) for first 1,000; $4.79 for each additional 1,000.

    Commercial (within town limits): $14.94 (m) for first 1,000; $3.79 for each additional 1,000.

    Commercial (outside town limits): $17.69 (m) for first 1,000; $4.79 for each additional 1,000.

    While rates are going up, Ridgeway’s sewer system is showing its age. Earlier in last week’s meeting, Judy Miller, owner of Just Around the Corner, suggested that Council consider installing a portable bathroom near the fire station between the months of April and December.

    “All of us are centered in the proximity of Historic Ridgeway,” Miller said. “Our sewer system is also historic, which (makes it) a struggle to operate effectively on a daily basis.”

    Miller said that tourists swell the population of Ridgeway during these months, putting a strain on the sewer system. Merchants are faced with the choice of either turning a tourist away, and losing that potential revenue, or risk dealing with overflowing toilets. Her rest room, she said, has backed up three times in the last six weeks.

    Miller volunteered to oversee the upkeep and supervision of a portable rest room, should the town decide to invest in one. Herring said Council would take the suggestion under consideration.

  • Shooting Victim Charged with Missing Funds

    Keshia Roseboro

    WINNSBORO – The Winnsboro woman who last October was shot and gravely wounded by her estranged husband, then an on-duty Winnsboro police officer, is now facing criminal charges of her own after an investigation into her activities as an administrative sergeant at the Fairfield County Detention Center.

    Takisha (Keshia) Yolanda Roseboro, 36, was arrested by agents with the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) May 9 at her home on 81 Neason Lane in Winnsboro, after an internal investigation revealed she had allegedly embezzled more than $4,000 in inmate funds from the Detention Center. She has been charged with breach of trust.

    Davis Anderson, Deputy County Administrator, said the investigation began as a routine audit of Roseboro’s work activities when she went out on administrative leave after being shot by her estranged husband, Michael Bernard Roseboro, on Oct. 28. Anderson said the audit found Roseboro had left notes to herself on how to balance the system of inmate funds in order to cover her tracks. Once the audit uncovered the discrepancies, the investigation was turned over to SLED.

    “Keshia was a good employee,” Anderson said, “she just made a bad mistake.”

    Roseboro had been employed with the County since August of 2000 and left on disability following her recovery from the October shooting. Anderson said all the funds have since been paid back to the County.

  • Ridgeway Names New Tenant for Restaurant

    RIDGEWAY – During the first reading of the 2013-2014 budget at last week’s Council meeting, Ridgeway Mayor Charlene Herring noted that revenues for the Town were projected to be lower than last year. A lot, she said, depended on whether or not Council could find a tenant for the vacant Old Town Hall restaurant building, which would bring the Town $800 a month in rental fees.

    Only minutes later, following an executive session, Council voted unanimously to approve a new lease for the restaurant to Vesha Sanders of Columbia. Sanders owns and operates a catering company, Edie’s Event Planning, out of an office on Main Street in Blythewood and has owned restaurants in Arizona and Orangeburg. Sanders said she hopes to have the Old Town Hall Restaurant open in the next month, serving lunch Tuesday – Friday and lunch and dinner Friday and Saturday, featuring Southern cuisine.

    With the lease of the restaurant, Ridgeway expects to operate with a balanced general fund budget of $198,550 in revenues and expenses and a balanced water and sewer fund of $337,632 in the coming year.

  • Bengals Force Winner-Take-All Game 3

    After losing game one of the 4A state championship series, the Blythewood Bengals baseball team laid it all out on the line Wednesday night against the Lexington Wildcats. The Bengals were able to overcome an early 2-1 defect and saved their season with a 7-2 victory. With his team on the brink Blythewood head coach Barry Mizzell never lost faith in his Bengals.

    “Our backs were to the wall,” Mizzell said. “But I told our players just get it to a third game and anything can happen.”

    Blythewood took the lead in the bottom of the third inning when Tyler Romanik smoked a ball down the left field line for an RBI double to score Andrew Beckwith and put the Bengals on top 3-2. Blythewood did not give up another run and extended their lead with a run in the fifth inning and three more in the sixth inning. In that sixth inning the Bengals sent nine batters to the plate and scored off three hits, two walks, an error and a wild pitch. Blythewood’s starting pitcher Allen Louthian earned the victory allowing two runs on six hits, one walk and five strikeouts in all seven innings of work. With the game-two win the Bengals forced a deciding game three at Carolina Stadium on Friday. Mizzell looks forward to the championship deciding contest.

    “I think it’ll be a great atmosphere and a terrific reward for these young men,” Mizzell said.

    First pitch is set for 7 p.m.

  • Whitewater Fever

    From springs and steams near Cashiers, N.C., grows a mighty river. Rising as a glittering mountain stream near Whitesides Mountain, the Chattooga flows 10 miles in North Carolina before forming a 40-mile border between Georgia and South Carolina. The river drops 2,469 feet over 50 miles (49.3 feet per mile), creating a wild, dangerous run. The river surges, pools and slashes through Chattooga Country, as National Geographic referred to it. It’s known too as “Deliverance Country,” owing to the 1972 film, Deliverance, that made it a legend.

    Chattooga Country is up in Oconee County, approximately 150 miles away. Take I-26 to I-385 North to I-85 south and take SC-11 at Exit 1 toward Walhalla. It’s slow going in the mountains so allow yourself at least three hours to arrive at your chosen outfitter’s headquarters. A night-before stay is advisable.

    Let’s make a very important point right up front: You do not want to run the Chattooga without the assistance of trained professionals. Note that this column provides three outfitters who can take you down the river. These outfitters provide safety equipment and trained guides familiar with the river’s ways and dangers. The National Forestry Service regulates all three.

    This savage-but-stunning river flows through ancient Cherokee lands and to this day it remains untamed. Dams straddle most rivers in the Southeast; not the Chattooga. It runs free. It attracts people from throughout the world. Fishermen, naturalists, novelists, environmentalists, essayists, filmmakers and the curious come to the Chattooga. Rafters and veteran kayakers brave its Sections III and IV. The river has long attracted thrill seekers, many times fatally. The intimidated cling to its banks and stare.

    Geological forces over millions of years carved out the Chattooga’s path. When first formed, the Blue Ridge Mountains reached higher than the Rockies. Millennia of water and weather whittled away the jagged peaks and carved deep narrow valleys in the terrain. The Chattooga courses through this tumbled topography to become a river steeped in myth. The true Earth lives along this National and Scenic River, the Earth too wild to tame.

    Hurdling downriver between canyon walls, rafters glide, pitch, jostle and buck on an untamable river. Guides who run the Chattooga must be unerring judges of depths, colors and shadows to avoid death traps perfected by geological processes 250 million years old.

    Be advised. Rafters on the Chattooga go from smiling to terror in the blink of an eye. Helmets and lifejackets are mandatory on this river that has claimed many a life. As quick as a pencil point breaks, rafters find themselves hurled into the river where swift currents slam them against rocks. Approach this adventure with a serious attitude. Several deaths have occurred here, one as recently as mid-July 2012.

     Learn more about Tom Poland, a Southern writer, and his work at www.tompoland.net. Email day-trip ideas to him at tompol@earthlink.net.

  • New Fund to Run Park

    BLYTHEWOOD – Town Council held a budget workshop Monday night, but only a small portion of the meeting was devoted to discussing budget items. Town Administrator John Perry gave a quick overview of expenditures for personnel and introduced a new Enterprise Fund, which he created to maintain and operate the Doko Meadows during fiscal year 2014 (FY14).

    The FY14 operational budget for Doko Meadows (the Park), including the Doko Manor, is $82,000. According to a handout passed out by Perry during the meeting, that amount will be offset by a $62,000 revenue stream he expects from rental of the Doko Manor facility and a $20,000 stabilization contribution (or sinking fund) from the Town’s Hospitality Tax and the Local Accommodations Tax Funds.

    The Enterprise Fund focuses on activities and functions, Perry said. Under Program/Oversight, Perry allocated $10,000 (that will be supplemented by other, additional funds) for the Events Conference Center Director Martha Jones and $20,000 for a full-time Accommodations Manager. Another $8,000 was allocated to the keeping of the grounds; $22,000 for general maintenance of the building and $22,000 for utilities.

    Perry’s chart of expenditures for personnel under the FY14 budget showed an increase of $8,000 for the Mayor’s salary and expenses, from $16,000 a year to $24,000 a year. Council’s collective annual salary and expenses are expected to go from $40,000 to $50,000 and staff salaries and benefits are expected to go from $400,000 to $424,000, an increase of $24,000. Millage will remain at $8,000. Training, travel and expense is budgeted to remain at $12,000.

    Overall, according to Perry, the Town is reducing its employed staff in favor of more outsourcing.

    Councilman Ed Garrison stressed that he hoped they still have someone to answer phones when the public calls. Mayor J. Michael Ross assured Garrison, saying, “We have brought in a young man who works in the Cobblestone Park Pro Shop to answer phones on a temporary schedule.” Ross said he was hired on an hourly basis.

    Prior to discussing the budget, Council voted to replace the Town’s Architectural Review Board (ARB) consultant, Ralph Walden, with architect Matt Davis who does design/build. Davis has sat in on a couple of ARB meetings in the past when Walden made presentations to the ARB that he (Walden) had worked on for the Town for compensation.

    Council also unanimously passed first reading for zoning on two properties on Sandfield Road. They voted to zone a 1-acre property at 525 Sandfield Road from RU (Rural District) in the county to NC (Neighborhood Commercial) in the town. They also voted to zone an adjoining 6.4-acre property at the same address from (RU) in the county to (RU) in the town. Both properties had been annexed into the town in 2009, but were never given final zoning by Council until now.

    Council also passed first reading to allow D. R. Horton Builders to reduce by 2 feet the minimum side building set-backs for up to 115 lots in the new Primrose section of The Farm in Cobblestone Park. The builder said this would allow a larger footprint to accommodate ranch style homes designed for senior accessibility.

    Council then entered executive session to discuss employment matters related to an employee and matters relating to the proposed location, expansion or the provision of services encouraging location or expansion of industries or other businesses in the area served by the public body. No vote was taken when they came out of executive session.

  • Jim Chappell was once ‘Sensational’ as an ‘Epic’ . . . and he still is when the Beach Bash comes to town

    A young Chappell takes the spotlight as lead singer of the group.
    Jim Chappell with the Epics at the Beach Bash

    BLYTHEWOOD — When you see Blythewood realtor Jim Chappell cruising around town in his grey Jeep Cherokee, picking up a few things at the IGA or having lunch at San Jose’s, you might not think he was once a rock star on tour.

    You would be wrong.

    Because he was.

    Back in the ’60s, Chappell was one of the original members of The Sensational Epics – the hottest beach band in the Southeast – playing on stage with Gladys Knight and the Pips, the Tams, the Drifters, the Platters, Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions and other top recording artists of the era.

    They recorded several national hits including  “I’ve Been Hurt” and “Be Young Be Foolish Be Happy” under such labels as Cameo, Warner Brothers and Capitol.

    It all started in Chappell’s parents’ living room in 1963, when Chappell and four Dreher High School buddies organized themselves into one of the umpteen jillion high school bands that were sprouting up in garages across the country.

    But this one proved to be different. Chappell, on drums, and his friends  Jimmy Brazelle on bass, Jimmy Anderson and Rick Richardson on guitar and Greg Pearce – now a Richland County Councilman – on keyboard, quickly went from performing high school assembly programs to University of South Carolina fraternity parties to touring the university circuit throughout the South.

    “Our first big break came while we were still in high school,” Chappell recalled. “Columbia had won the All-American City award and the city was organizing an extravaganza at the Township Auditorium.
    We were invited and got great reviews. And the rest is history,” he said, shaking his head, still amazed.

    After high school, the band members enrolled at various schools in the Columbia area, but continued performing together. Chappell took off for Clemson University, but joined the band during summers. It was during this time that the group’s popularity skyrocketed.

    “When school ended in May, we usually had a tour lined up heading south,” Chappell said. Their on-stage antics, choreography and dynamic sound made them an instant favorite of the college set. “We’d play USC or Clemson, then take off for the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, the University of Alabama and other southern colleges. We also played debutante parties and other venues along the way. We usually ended up in Panama City, Fla. We were living our dream.”

    Then it got better.

    The biggest beach music venue in the country at that time was The Beach Club in Myrtle Beach. Chappell said the group was thrilled when they got booked at the club.

    “When we drove up and got out of the car, we looked up at the marquee and saw we were sharing the stage with The Drifters.

    “The Drifters were really big then,” Chappell reminisced. “They’d just released ‘Under the Boardwalk’ and ‘Up on the Roof.’ Things were happening fast. Warner Brothers Records wanted to take us on a national tour, but with Viet Nam breathing down our necks, we knew we would be drafted immediately if we dropped out of college.

    “We made friends with some of the big groups and we’ve remained friends through the years, although most of them are passed on now,” he said.

    Chappell said Woody Windham, Hunter Herring, Bob Fulton and other biggies on the local music scene contributed to the band’s success by promoting their songs on the radio.

    “‘I’ve Been Hurt’ was our first big hit,” Chappell said. “It was kind of nice to be in Atlanta or Birmingham and hear our band on the radio.”

    After graduating from Clemson, Chappell became the band’s drummer and resumed touring with them.

    But by 1970, the band members had graduated from college, gotten married, started families and were taking real, but arguably less exciting, jobs. Times and music were changing. Breaking up was inevitable, but they all remained close.

    Chappell had met his wife, Cam, when she was a student at USC and attended a party the band was playing at the Russell House. They were married in 1967, and eventually settled in Blythewood on 100 acres of land in Cedar Creek that has been in his family since 1847.

    “I grew up in Columbia,” Chappell said, “but my home and heart were always in Cedar Creek.”

    Chappell pursued a career in real estate and he and Cam are the parents of two children and have three grandchildren. While Chappell has wonderful memories of the band, he said they had no plans to play together again.

    Then, in 2000, Columbia deejay Hunter Herring asked the Epics to reunite at the fountain in Five Points for a performance to raise money for Palmetto Place, a shelter for battered and abused children.

    They did. The band was such a hit all over again that they began to take bookings. These days, they have a solid schedule of venues booked months in advance and have even produced a CD titled “Been There . . . ain’t done yet!”

    One of their regular annual venues is the Blythewood Beach Bash each spring. The band performs the show as a benefit for cancer research in memory of Jimmy Anderson, one of the five original members who died five years ago of cancer.

    Chappell opted not to join the new band, but he supports them and occasionally sings with them for special performances like the one in Blythewood.

    “Those guys are just as good now at 200 pounds as they were in 1963 at 130 pounds,” Chappell said, laughing. “But the idea of tearing down a band stage at 1:30 in the morning doesn’t appeal to me anymore,” he said jokingly, but with sentiment in his voice.

    “But it was really a good time, and when the Beach Bash comes to town, I’m still one of ‘em.”

    The Beach Bash returns to Blythewood on Saturday, May 18, 5-10 p.m., at Cobblestone Park. Bring lawn chairs. Tickets $15, or two for $25. Children under 12 free. To book the Sensational Epics, call Buster Elrod at 803-760-5533.