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  • The Sites of Landsford Canal

    Up Chester County way, Landsford Canal is so beautiful it ended up in a coffeetable book, “Reflections Of South Carolina” (Clark & Poland). You could say it’s as pretty as a picture. Getting to the canal is easy. From Blythewood and Winnsboro, it is only about 40 miles, much of which is on I-77 North. Go visit Landsford Canal State park and the Catawba River, all blue and rocky, that once upon a time was an avenue of commerce.

    The locks at the south end of Landsford Canal remind us that man can make beautiful structures from rocks. Irish masons crafted the canal’s guardlock, a structure that lowered boats into the canal during floods. The finely cut, precise granite stones still stand, only now lush greenery grows between them where water once stood. In the river, an old diversion dam of rock continues its prolonged tumble. It’s as if time stands still while this old wall decides if it’s going to fall. Men built this diversion dam to direct water into the canal and to offer riverboat pilots a haven during floods.

    People come to the canal all day, especially in May and June when the rocky shoals’ spider lilies burst into large white blooms. Anchored among rocks, the flowers festoon the river. You can see the earth’s true colors in the river and its load of jammed logs: blue, brown, green and white. One of the world’s largest stands of these exquisite white flowers lives here. This large plant has adapted to a very harsh environment and puts on one of the greatest natural “shows” on the East Coast. During their peak bloom from about mid-May to mid-June, these plants blanket the river in white blossoms. Their needs are simple: swift, shallow water and sunlight. Therein lies a problem. Man’s penchant for damming rivers leaves them few places to grow now.

    Riverboat pilots used to ply the Catawba’s waters, but no more. Now kayakers do. Watch folks kayak by, deftly avoiding rocks. On land and by water, people come here to marvel at the old canal. These venerable stone structures stand as monuments to workers who toiled long and hard in the days before power and pneumatic tools came along. And yet their work not only endures, it gives us places stone cold beautiful and places to escape our modern, monotonous version of civilization.

    Fishing, boating and just watching nature are fine activities to enjoy. Playground equipment is on hand for kids. Hike the interpretive trails and see the foundations of an early 1800s mill site. Pack a picnic and enjoy it at a shelter. Spend time in the museum, a restored Great Falls Canal lock keepers house. Check out its pictorial displays. (Open by appointment only. Call to schedule a visit.) You will love every minute of your visit. Keep an eye out for bald eagles, and best of all go when the rocky shoals spider lilies are in bloom from mid-May to mid-June.

     Learn more about Tom Poland, a southern writer at www.tompoland.net. Email day-trip ideas to tompol@earthlink.net.

  • Ridgeway ‘Opens Door to the Arts’

    RIDGEWAY — Opening Doors to the Arts is the theme for the seventh annual Fairfield County Arts on the Ridge festival that will be held in downtown Ridgeway Friday and Saturday, May 3 and 4. The popular venue provides local artists, craftsmen and musicians the opportunity to display their creations and talent.

    The weekend opens Friday evening with a Meet the Artists reception and art sale for the public at the Century House from 6-9 p.m. The evening will be filled with award presentations and recognitions including this year’s Friends of the Arts Award presented by the Fairfield County Arts Council.

    An art walk will be held through the downtown area where many of the shops will feature art work and complimentary tastings of wine, cheese and other treats. Plus the shops will be stocked with spring merchandise for Mother’s Day and graduation gifts.

    And there’s more fun on Saturday when the Century House opens at 10 a.m. with an art show and sale. The streets and the cotton yard will be filled with local artists and crafters selling their works of art. There will be musical performances and art demonstrations throughout the day as well as an authors’ roundtable discussion during the morning.

    And when you tire of shopping and eating, take time out to relax on the Mayor’s shady front porch to listen to some old fashioned Front Porch Tales.

    A special feature of this year’s festival is an exhibit of artwork by students from Fairfield and Blythewood area schools. The Fairfield Magnet students have created some especially colorful and unique paper mache items. The student art work will be on display in the Century House and is not only a must see, but will probably be a must buy.

    For information about the festival, call the Town of Ridgeway at 803-337-2213 or go to www.ridgewaysc.org. Volunteers are still needed for both days and can contact Phyllis Guitteriz, the chair of the 2013 Arts on the Ridge, at the Town phone and email contacts.

  • Penny Tax Committee Holds First Meeting

    RICHLAND – Richland County’s newly appointed 15-member Penny Tax oversight committee held its first meeting April 24 in a conference room in the County building at Hampton and Harden streets. The meeting was facilitated by County Council Chairman Kelvin Washington and Councilman Paul Livingston who, among other things, heard committee members’ concerns about County Council’s recent announcement that it plans to seat two Council members as non-voting members of the committee.

    According to The State newspaper, prior to the November 2012 vote on the tax, Council had promised voters that no members of County Council would sit on the committee. Voters were told that the committee would be a watchdog committee of citizens. Some members of the committee question whether it can remain apolitical and independent of County Council if Council members sit on it.

    Blythewood’s representative on the committee, Bill Wiseman, said the meeting was primarily a get-acquainted meeting with a Power Point review of the background of the Penny Tax initiatives going back to 2008. He said members were given a list of the projects designated for Penny Tax funds. That list and other information can be found on the County’s website, Richlandonline.com.

    “Right now we’re organizing,” Wiseman said. “Council is interviewing for a Transportation Director, and as soon as they put that person in place, they’ll hire a Program Management Firm to oversee the tax funded projects.” He said that process should be completed in about 60 to 90 days.

    Wiseman said the committee will meet again either May 13 or 24 to elect officers and discuss their next steps. The committee’s task is to provide oversight to County Council as it carries out a $1.07 billion improvement program over 20 years to fund roads, bus routes, trails and bike paths in the county. Wiseman, who is serving a four-year term on the committee, will report back to Town Council and the community on the committee’s work.

    The committee’s meetings are open to the public.

  • Town Taps Santee Cooper for $900K Loan

    BLYTHEWOOD – Town Administrator John Perry announced at Monday night’s Town Council meeting that the Town has applied for a $900,000, 10-year, 2 percent loan through the Santee Cooper revolving loan fund to build a restaurant in the Town park.

    “We passed a resolution to expand our search for funding for Project Booster (the restaurant building) from funding available through the USDA to revolving loan funds,” Perry told Council. He said he anticipates hearing back on that application shortly.

    “I’m looking forward to an October completion date on the restaurant,” Perry said.

    He did not announce who the restaurant would be leased to, but he said he would have more to report to Council on May 13.

  • Council Considers Fee Increase

    BLYTHEWOOD – At Monday night’s Town Council meeting, Town Administrator John Perry suggested it was time for Council to raise the Town’s fees for both residential and commercial construction permits. He suggested raising the fees to be more in line with those charged by Columbia, Forest Acres and Richland County. The construction permit fee for a 2,500-square-foot home valued at $200,000 would go from the current $700 to $800. A permit fee for the construction of a 1,500-square-foot home valued at $100,000 would go from $175 to $400, an increase of $225. A permit for the construction of a 10,000-square-foot commercial building valued at $1 million would almost double from the current $2,366 to $4,655. Mayor J. Michael Ross agreed that it was time to adjust the fees.

    “We need to do this now,” he said, “and move forward.”

    Perry said the issue would come before Council in the next few months for a vote.

    Park maintenance contract

    In other business, Council voted to authorize the mayor to award a lawn care contract for the town park to Superior Lawn and Yard Maintenance out of Prosperity. Perry told Council that the Town received 12 bids for the three-year contact and that Superior’s bid of $20,162 per year for three years was the lowest and would include mowing, edging, fertilizing and maintaining the lawn in the park. Councilman Jeff Branham told The Voice that the contract will be re-evaluated at the end of each year

    Budget review

    In a discussion of the parameters of the 2014 budget, which must be approved by July 1, Perry presented an overview of the Town’s revenues in all funds. He said revenues overall are up 3 to 5 percent. While total ‘other’ revenues dropped from $153,000 to $95,000, Perry said that number reflects the end of several grants. He said the Town is also looking at more outsourcing instead of using full-time employees to be more effective and efficient. Four other meetings are scheduled (see below) for budget review and action during May and June.

    I-77 landscaping

    Perry reported that the S.C. Department of Transportation had extended the I-77 landscape contractor’s agreement to May 31. Perry reported that some of the trees had failed to thrive and needed to be replaced before the contractor, Pony Hill Nursery and Landscaping of Lexington, leaves the job. Perry said some weeding and mulching remain to be done as well.

    Doko Manor rentals

    Martha Jones, the Town’s Events and Conference Center Director, gave a report on the Doko Manor building rental. She passed out a chart that showed it will have been used at no charge by community groups 43 times through the end of May and will have been rented six times for graduation parties, wedding and baby showers, anniversaries and other private parties. She said she expects more rental activity in the coming months. Perry announced that the Town would initiate an enterprise fund to meet the future expenses of the Manor. Branham told The Voice that this fund would be necessary since the Manor was expected to be a significant revenue generator for the Town.

    Farmers Market

    Perry announced that the Town’s Farmers Market will open in the park on May 20, and will be open every Monday through October.

    The following meetings are scheduled to review the Town’s 2014 Budget:

    Planning Commission

    • May 6 at 6 p.m. – Discuss the Town’s Capital Improvements Plan

    Town Council

    • May 13 at 6 p.m. – Review CIP, Personnel & Enterprise Fund for Manor

    • May 28 at 7 p.m. – First Reading (vote) of FY ’14 Budget; Review Operating Budget & Other Sources and Uses

    • June 10 at 6 p.m. – Public Hearing on Budget; Final Review of all funds

    • June 24 at 7 p.m. – Second Reading (vote) of FY ’14 Budget

    • June 30 – Start of audit of FY ‘13

  • Walker’s Grand Slam Lifts Griffins to First Playoff Win

    It took 27 years, some clawing, some scratching, some digging and a dramatic bases-clearing shot to get there, but Thursday night the Fairfield Central Griffins baseball squad earned their first postseason victory in school history, overcoming an early 4-0 deficit in Pageland to shock the Central Eagles 9-6 in game one of the Class 2A playoffs.

    “What can you say about these kids?” an emotional head coach Scotty Dean said after the game. “They battled. Compton (Walker, starting pitcher) wasn’t his best, but he battled through.”

    While Walker battled on the mound, his signature moment came at the plate. Going into the top of the fourth the Griffins were down 4-1, but began chipping away at Central starter Joseph Rollings. A two-out bases-loaded RBI single by Javarius Cook cut the lead to 4-2 and a four-pitch walk by Brandon Adams made it a one-run game. With the bags still juiced, Walker stepped to the plate. He took the first pitch for ball one, then stepped out of the box to confer with his skipper.

    “I told him, ‘If you want to be the guy, you got to hit this ball’,” Dean said after the game.

    Walker hit it, all right. And it stayed hit.

    Walker blistered a fastball to the deepest part of the park, up and over the center field fence for a game-changing grand slam. With the Griffins now up 7-4, Walker went back to the mound to protect the lead. The Eagles threatened in the bottom half, but their rally was put down when Nick Goins made a diving catch near the foul line in deep left to end the inning.

    Walker worked six innings Thursday and into the seventh before being lifted for Stanley McManus. The junior right-hander threw 118 pitches, giving up six runs (four earned) on five hits and eight walks, while striking out three and hitting one batter. Walker appeared in control early, coasting through the first two Eagle batters, but then a single, a walk, a pair of stolen bases and a passed ball gave Central an early 1-0 lead. Three walks and a single in the second put the Eagles up 4-0.

    Central’s Kelton Myers touched Walker for a leadoff home run in the bottom of the sixth and Ryheem Lockhart scored on an error to make it a one-run game once more, 7-6 Fairfield. But the Griffins squelched the Eagles’ momentum in the seventh when Chris Boyd delivered an RBI double, scoring pinch runner Tyrell Hill. Boyd later came around on a throwing error by the Central catcher for the ninth and final Griffin run.

    Walker gave up a single and hit a batter to start the final frame before giving way to McManus, who was seeing his first action in six weeks.

    “He had a cast on his hand this morning,” Dean said of McManus.

    The gutsy McManus struck out Rollings, got Myers to hit into a 5-3 put-out and forced Cody Hall to hit a grounder to Walker, who had moved to shortstop. Walker scooped up the ball and threw to Boyd at first to end the game.

    The Griffins continue postseason play tonight, hosting Andrew Jackson at 6 p.m.

  • County Budget Clears Second Reading

    FAIRFIELD – County Council held a public hearing and passed second reading Monday night on a 2013-2014 budget that is nearly 11 percent leaner than the previous year’s budget. The County is working with a general fund budget of $22,645,189 for the coming fiscal year, down from the 2012-2013 general fund of $24,508,004. The capital fund for 2013-2014 is down more than $2 million from last year, at $10,795,568 versus $12,944,909 last year.

    The largest drop in the general fund, in terms of dollars, is in the “General Fund Distribution” line item, which is down nearly $2 million from last year. Hinely said that drop reflects one-time expenditures from last year’s budget, such as $350,000 for construction at the library, $125,000 for construction of the new Board of Disabilities and Special Needs facility and more than $1 million to prop up Fairfield Memorial Hospital.

    Percentage-wise, the biggest dip in the general fund can be found in the “QuickJobs Training Facility” line item, which has fallen 49 percent. Hinely said the drop doesn’t represent a decrease in actual financial support, however. Previous budgets, he said, had not been based upon historical data, as the QuickJobs Center was a new facility. Now that it has been operational for a few years, he said, the budget has been adjusted to reflect their actual needs.

    The County plans to spend more than $80,000 less on attorney’s fees in the coming year, as well as more than $400,000 less on general operating expenses. The Capital Improvement fund and the Building Contingency fund both fell by more than $400,000 each, while Recreation Capital fell from $300,000 to zero. The Data Processing fund is up more than $175,000 from the hiring of a Database Manager and the purchase of new software applications, and the Department of Planning, Building and Zoning is up $167,079 from the hiring of new Code Enforcement Officers and the promotion of the Deputy Director.

    There were no public comments or comments from Council during Monday’s public hearing. Council will hold their next work session on the budget on May 6.

  • Future of Landmark in Doubt

    Council considers fate of former offices

    FAIRFIELD – Although 117 E. Washington St. was on its last legs long before the County Coroner, the Fire Marshall and Voter Registration moved out in July of 2011, suggestions of its imminent demise at Monday night’s County Council meeting stirred an emotional, heartfelt reaction from one Fairfield County resident – Terry Vickers, President of the Chamber of Commerce.

    Vickers said the Chamber has only now gotten the OK for a $40,000 grant to implement a farmer’s market in downtown Winnsboro, and that she envisions the former Voter Registration building as part of the finished product.

    “I know the Council has been very lenient with that building,” Vickers said. “I know that building is not in good shape. But we still have dreams of using that building, because it is an historic building.”

    Phil Hinely, County Administrator, said it was a miracle that the building was still standing at all.

    “Several years ago, we abandoned the Voter Registration building. It had fire code violations, electrical code violations, public code violations. It had about every kind of code violation you could think of,” Hinely said. “It’s a safety hazard, it’s a fire hazard. I’m really kind of surprised it made it through the winter. We didn’t have any snow, but a heavy snow could have crashed that roof down.”

    Hinely recommended that the County move forward with razing the structure and replacing it with a building to be used for housing records from the County Courthouse, as well as evidence from past criminal cases, all of which he said the County was required by law to maintain.

    Vickers asked Council to consider an historic façade for any new building, so that it might fit in with the surrounding aesthetic of Winnsboro’s downtown historic hub.

    “I hope we can work together so we can still have a piece of history,” Vickers said.

    Chairman David Ferguson said preserving the building would not be cost effective for the County, essentially sounding the death knell for 117 E. Washington.

    “I think the best thing to do is to tear that building down and try to build something that would be accommodating for folks to use (as part of the farmer’s market),” Ferguson said. “It would cost us more to bring that building up to any kind of standard than it would for us to build a new building on that site.”

    Council took no action on the fate of the building, but Ferguson said it was something that would require a vote in the not too distant future.

  • County, Town Clear the Air on Water Debacle

    Deal for industry imminent; Sewer for Middle Six dead

    WINNSBORO – With a deal between Winnsboro and the City of Columbia for an additional 600,000 gallons of water a day marked ‘dead on arrival,’ the major players in the rush to provide water for the County’s new industrial parks met at the Midlands Technical College QuickJobs campus in Winnsboro April 17 to clear the air and hammer out a solution.

    “Ninety-eight percent of the problem is we have a lack of communication,” County Administrator Phil Hinely said a day after the meeting. “What was happening was our engineers were saying we need X amount of water and X amount of sewer, and the Town was saying ‘We don’t have that’.”

    But those “X’s,” Hinely said, represented the County’s need for a fully occupied, complete build-out of the parks, which could take as long as 20 years.

    “Instead of a full build-out, we’re actually asking for a smaller amount of water,” Hinely said. “Meanwhile, we will recruit industries that use less water – light manufacturing, assembly. Industries that don’t use water in their production, but only use water for bathrooms, sinks, drinking fountains and fire pressure.”

    Although the bulk of the meeting took place in executive session, it did not, however, take place in a sound-proof room, and the frustrations on both sides of the table were clearly audible in the Midlands Tech hallways. Winnsboro Mayor Roger Gaddy has made it no secret that the Town has hit an impasse with Columbia and has no intentions of signing a contract that would allow Columbia to decrease volume and increase rates without notice. Columbia would also not guarantee the quality of the water, nor was it prepared to take responsibility for Winnsboro’s water lines if they suffered damage as a result of a Columbia error. Gaddy has also never hidden his frustration with the County, which he said undertook the industrial park projects without consulting Winnsboro on their ability to provide water.

    The County, on the other hand, has been adamant that they indeed jumped through all necessary hoops to request water for the parks, and have the paper trail to support that claim.

    “It was a good airing of the soul,” John Fantry, special counsel to the Town of Winnsboro, said. “And we saw some pathways to moving forward. It got down to everybody knows what everybody else did, but how do we get moving forward? Plans (to provide water to the industrial parks) are forming.”

    David Ferguson, Chairman of Fairfield County Council, said the County wasn’t even aware the deal between Winnsboro and Columbia was dead until he read about it in The Voice, but said he was determined to do whatever it takes to get water to the parks.

    “If I have to go down and negotiate a contract, I will,” Ferguson said. “It’s not my job, but I’ll do it. If they can’t go down there and talk to someone like they’ve got some sense, then I’ll do it.

    “The dumbest thing we could do would be to bring in a 100-job plant in that park and tell them we can’t give them water,” Ferguson said. “That would be dumb on my part.”

    At Monday night’s County Council meeting, Ferguson announced another casualty from the April 17 water meeting – the future of sewer lines in the Middle Six community.

    On April 8, the County held a public hearing on an application for a Community Development Block Grant to install lines and provide sewer service to approximately 72 low- to moderate-income homes on Old Camden Road and Flora Circle. The County was prepared to pony up $50,000 in matching funds for the project, but after the April 17 meeting, that project is dead.

    “The Mayor (Gaddy) told us they were not interested in taking on that project for financial reasons,” Ferguson said. “They pretty well walked away from it. I know that was very concerning to Mr. (District 7 Councilman David) Brown. He had been trying for 14 years to get sewer service out there. They have terrible, terrible sewer problems there. I hate it worked out that way, but we don’t have the sewer system and we don’t have the water system, so we have to rely on what other people decide.”

  • District Takes First Look at Budget

    WINNSBORO – The Fairfield County School Board of Trustees voted 7-0 at their April 16 meeting to pass first reading of their $34,334,464 budget for 2013-2014. The budget, up from last year’s $32,789,140, anticipates an increase of $941,800 in local revenues from 2012-2013, but with an unchanged millage rate of 203.1.

    Kevin Robinson, Director of Finance for the District, told the Board that last year administrators budgeted conservatively in terms of funds from local revenues and actually collected more in local property taxes, late fees and fines than expected. This year, he said, that expected number was bumped up by $800,000. The State’s portion of revenues was also tweaked in the coming budget by an additional $200,000. The additional $1 million is offset by a decrease of approximately $100,000 in other local taxes.

    The 2013-2014 budget also includes a transfer of $291,000 from the general fund to the food services fund, Robinson said, as well as more than $695,000 slated for the Chester County School District to pay for Fairfield County students living in the Mitford area and attending Chester County schools.

    Salaries consume about 85 percent of the budget, Robinson said, with a 2013-2014 increase of $1,025,508, which includes step increases for teachers and non-teaching personnel, as well as an increase in health insurance costs and retirement benefits, but 5 percent each.