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On Sunday, a handful of Fairfield County Council members gathered at 5679 Old Airport Road in Winnsboro for the ribbon cutting ceremony to open up the new Wood Chipping and Waste Tire Facility. County Council Chairman David Ferguson said he believes the facility, and the service it provides, can save the county money in the future.

“This facility will save us thousands of dollars,” Ferguson said. “It’ll probably pay for itself within the first two years.”

The facility, which has been operating for five months and cost the County between $400,000 and $500,000 (mostly for the enormous amount of concrete involved), has already processed 2,000 tons of material, saving the County approximately $100,000. Before the county opened up the Wood Chipping and Waste Tire Facility, they had to pay $50 per ton to haul it to Screaming Eagle Road in Columbia.

The Wood Chipping and Waste Tire Facility is a place where county residents can take their limbs, stumps, leaves, grass clippings and yard debris. Once the facility is about two-thirds full, a portable wood chipper comes in and creates mulch. County residents can then come to the facility with their pickup trucks or trailers and haul off the mulch for free.

Ferguson said that the facility should be especially helpful to people living in Winnsboro.

“The Town of Winnsboro is one of our biggest contributors to picking up waste and yard debris,” he said.

Hours of operation for the Fairfield County Wood Chipping and Waste Tire facility are Monday through Friday, 7 a.m.-7 p.m. and on Saturday, 8 a.m.-2 p.m. and closed on Sundays.

The Fairfield County landscape is changing, slowly but surely, as enforcers of the recently enacted Property Maintenance Code go to work and property owners gradually get the message: Clean up or pay up.

While the Fairfield County cleanup is not without its critics, Deputy County Administrator Davis Anderson said the enforcement is working and the new codes are for the benefit of the entire county.

“It’s about having your community look like a livable community,” Anderson said. “When people come to our county, the first thing they say shouldn’t be ‘Lord! Look at all this abandoned junk everywhere!’”

Anderson, along with Ron Stowers, Marvin Jeter and LaShonda Holmes, sat down with The Voice last week to show some of the County’s work since the codes went into effect. Stowers is the County’s Director of Planning and Zoning. Jeter and Holmes are code enforcement officers for the County, and it is their job to canvas the county, inspect properties and work with property owners to comply with the codes.

The ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos say it all. In recent weeks, property owners have been compelled to haul off trash, mend broken steps, cut back overgrown trees and shrubs from around homes and either repair or demolish unsafe structures. The building that once stood at the corner of Winter Street and Highway 321 Business is a prime example of the latter. After standing empty for years with a collapsing roof and faulty wiring, the building was demolished last month. Similarly, an owner of property on Twinleaf Drive was encouraged to remove a burned out mobile home from a lot there after a visit from code enforcement officers.

Walking away from a fire-gutted mobile home is common, Anderson said, even though many insurance policies carry a debris removal option. But for some, the price of cleanup can be costly.

“If they don’t have a debris removal option and they can show it would be a hardship, the County will put a bin on the property so they can clean it up,” Anderson said. “Not because we want to get in the cleanup business, but because it’s a hardship – and you can fine them all you want, but if they can’t pay it doesn’t do you any good.”

And the new codes do come with fines, the teeth that give them their bite. For abandoned and unsafe buildings, a property owner can be fined up to $500 a day. The same goes for abandoned manufactured home and mobile homes. For junked cars, unkempt lots or the accumulation of garbage, the fine is $200 a day. But the fines don’t just appear out of thin air. First, property owners receive a notice of violation – the dreaded ‘red sticker’ – and are given 10 days to clean up lots, 30 days to remove abandoned homes. There’s also an appeal process if property owners feel they need more time or if they feel they are not in violation.

In addition to addressing dilapidated buildings, ordinance 541 also mandates that property owners keep their lots free of tall grass, overgrown vegetation, garbage and stagnant water. Such accumulations, according to the ordinance, “may become a nuisance causing injury or sickness to the health and welfare of residents or the public in the vicinity,” or may cause “injury to neighboring property.” Such lots, Holmes said, provide homes to rats, snakes and other critters that can’t tell where one property line ends and another begins.

Holmes also said that the response to the cleanup has generally been positive, particularly from neighbors of property owners her department has cited for violations. But not everyone sees the new code enforcement as a benefit.

“It’s terrible,” said Jimmy Ray Douglas, owner of Carolina Furniture in downtown Winnsboro and an outspoken critic of Fairfield County government. “It’s just an excuse for them to hire some more people.”

Douglas, who owns numerous rental properties in Fairfield County, said he has felt the sting of the new codes firsthand.

“I’ve had six mobile homes demolished because of them getting on me about the way they looked,” Douglas said, adding the mobile homes could have been repaired, but demolition was more cost effective.

“We keep all our houses up,” Douglas said. “Many of them are state housing, and they’re inspected every year. We take care of our stuff.”

What concerns Douglas most, he said, are the homes in the mill village, owned by retirees living on a fixed income who can’t afford to do much to their property.

“There might be some houses in the mill village that need to be torn down and the lots fixed up,” Douglas said, “but some of these people who have been living there their whole lives – they shouldn’t pick on them. If they’re not going to treat everybody the same, then they shouldn’t do it at all.”

But Anderson said the new codes were not designed to create a hardship on anyone, but to make the county a better place to live.

“The purpose is not to harm anyone,” Anderson said, “but to help the county. If some government body doesn’t get behind cleaning up the county, who will?”

And a more attractive county, Anderson said, is a county more likely to draw not only new residents, but new industry.

“After all, if you’re looking to buy a new car, and if it’s all scratched up, you’re not going to buy it,” Anderson said. “It’s the same thing with property.”

Average scores on End of Course exams rose slightly in several subjects for Fairfield County students for the 2011-2012 school year, while the numbers indicate that, like students across the state, Fairfield test takers continue to struggle with U.S. History and the Constitution subject matter.

Across the board, average scores for Fairfield Central High School test takers were (2010-2011 scores in parentheses): Algebra – 70.5 (70.5), Biology – 73.1 (67.2), English 1 – 70 (67.4), U.S. History and the Constitution – 63.1 (64.4). For Fairfield Middle School test takers, those numbers were: Algebra – 85.5 (88.7) and English 1 – 81.8 (82.2).

The percentage of test takers earning either a D or an F outweighed those earning an A or B in all subjects, with the greatest disparity in the U.S. History and the Constitution subject. No students garnered either an A or a B in U.S. History and the Constitution, while 87.3 percent received an F and 11 percent a D. Only 1.7 percent received a C in the subject. During the 2010-2011 school year, 75.7 percent of test takers received an F in the subject, while 19.1 percent received a D and 4.8 percent a C. Less than half of 1 percent earned a B. Fewer high school students were tested overall in 2011-2012, while 10 more middle school students took the exams in 2011-2012.

While the average score was up slightly in English 1, a similar gap exists between those making F and those making A. Of the 155 high school students tested in English 1 in 2011-2012, 50.3 percent received a grade of F, while only 1.3 percent earned an A. Likewise, 20.6 percent received a D, while 7.1 percent received a B. At the middle school level, the numbers tell a somewhat different story, with 15.9 percent of test takers earning an A in Algebra with only 2.3 percent receiving an F, 43.2 percent a B, 27.3 percent a C and 11.4 percent a D. Only 2.3 percent received an F in English 1 as well at the middle school, while 7 percent earned an A, 34.9 percent a B, 16.3 percent a C and 39.5 percent a D.

In Biology, 7.5 percent of Fairfield Central High School test takers received an A, 10.6 percent a B, 16.1 percent a C, 26.1 percent a D and 39.7 percent an F.

Statewide, average scores were 81 in Algebra, 80.8 in Biology, 78.2 in English and 71.2 in U.S. History and the Constitution. In Algebra, 20 percent of test takers scored an A, while 18.3 percent scored an F. In Biology, 27.4 percent earned an A and 23.7 percent an F. In English, 13.4 percent scored an A, 26 percent an F, and in U.S. History and the Constitution, 3 percent received an A and 47.2 percent an F. The average scores were up across all subjects from 2010-2011, increasing a tenth of a point in Algebra, 3.2 points in Biology, 1.1 points in English and two-tenths of a point in U.S. History and the Constitution.

“The credit for student achievement gains belongs to hard working students, parents and teachers,” said State Superintendent of Education Mick Zais. “Measuring student achievement is an important tool to improving instructional practices. End-of-Course assessments demonstrate how well high school students have mastered key concepts and skills they will use after graduation.”

On Sept. 26, the Fairfield County Council met with Army Corps of Engineers to begin a survey to find a new source of water. The Army Corps of Engineers team is headed up by Dudley Patrick (project manager), Al Walker (plan formulator), Vernard Cleveland (civil engineering), Pat Rushing (hydrology), George Ebai (economic), Mark Shafer (environmental) and David Neuman (geographic information systems).

The cost of the project is shared with the county 50-50. In 2010, Winnsboro’s mayor Roger Gaddy wrote a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers requesting a study of water supply needs under the Planning Assistance to States program. The letter was very direct in its statement.

“Residential, commercial and industrial growth is projected to continue unabated in the next decade as the Columbia suburbs expand into Fairfield County and other parts of the County continue to grow,” Gaddy said in his letter. “Under present circumstances, the Water System will have to find additional raw water to meet projected demand or the County will have to take steps to restrict water us and economic development.”

The total estimated cost for the study is $379,220, with $148,500 coming from Fairfield County. The study is broken up into two phases with the first phase taking an estimated 15 months starting in September 2012 through November 2013. The first phase is a report concentrated on the Town of Winnsboro with five tasks: data research, demographic projection, water supply and demand, conceptual system alternatives and Town of Winnsboro water supply. Phase two would include the selection of a recommended plan for a county-wide water supply. Phase two would only begin if the determination is made to move forward.

County Council Chairman David Ferguson said he looks forward to the survey for a new water source.

“We are glad they (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) are on board and willing to help,” Ferguson said.

With Winnsboro’s water reservoirs just around 50 percent full, this is the first year that Winnsboro has had to resort to a water restriction. There is a new 680-acre industrial park (Fairfield Commerce Center) on Peach Road, the progress of which has been held up due to lack of sustainable water.

“There is the potential for 1,000 jobs to come to Fairfield County through the Commerce Center,” Ferguson said. “But we need water for them to come.”

There have been a number of sites thrown into the hat from which to pull water, including the Broad River, Lake Wateree and the Catawba River. The project’s staff is trying to avoid inner basin transfer. During the first day of discussion last week, the staff proposed pulling water from the Broad River for the county on the west side of I-77 and pulling water from Lake Wateree for the east side of I-77.

Two women were arrested within a minute of each other last month after an investigation by the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office into complaints of prostitution in Ridgeway.

During the undercover sting operation, one suspect was picked up working an area between Highway 21 South and Coleman Road, and the other near the intersection of Palmer and Ruff streets, between 4:18 and 4:19 p.m. Sept. 13. Each time, an undercover officer was able to pick up the women in his car where arrangements were made with the suspects to perform sexual acts in exchange for money. The transactions were monitored electronically, according to the Sheriff’s Office, and the arrests were made after the price and the service were agreed upon.

Mary Hughey, 51, of Macedonia Church Road, was arrested at 4:18 p.m. Rosetta Miller, 50, of Highway 21 South, was arrested 60 seconds later. Both Ridgeway women were charged with prostitution, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Lake Wateree residents may sleep a little easier tonight after several uneasy days and nights during last month’s mini crime spree.

Jesse Andrew Gregory, 28, of 4318 Flynn Drive in North Charleston, was arrested by North Charleston police Sept. 28 following a Lowcountry car chase. Gregory was spotted by North Charleston patrolmen driving a 2009 Ford Edge that had been stolen during Gregory’s last visit to Lake Wateree five days earlier. Gregory crashed the car, worth $8,000, during the pursuit and was transported to the J. Al Cannon Jr. Detention Center in Charleston, where he is being held on robbery and other charges in the area. Upon his release, Gregory faces charges in Fairfield County of first-degree burglary, grand larceny and several petty larceny charges.

The Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office said they believe Gregory is responsible for a string of thefts along Wateree Estates Road that first took place in the early morning hours of Sept. 19. During this first outing to Lake Wateree, several unlocked cars were entered and Gregory allegedly took cash, tools and a handgun worth more than $900 in total. On Sept. 23, Gregory reportedly returned to the area, first to a home in the 2100 block of Wateree Estates Road. At approximately 10 p.m., residents inside the home heard a noise come from the ground floor of the house, but did not investigate it. The next morning, they awoke to find someone had cut a screen and entered the home, stealing a laptop computer and carrying case worth $100. A truck in the driveway of the home had also been entered, although nothing was reported stolen from inside.

On Sept. 24, between 1 and 6:27 a.m., Gregory allegedly broke into an SUV parked outside a home in the 1200 block of Wateree Estates Road and stole a purse worth $200.

At 6:25 a.m. on Sept. 24, a resident in the 100 block of Copper Lane, just off Wateree Estates Road, reported the theft of his 2009 Ford Edge. Another vehicle in the driveway of the home had been rummaged through, although nothing was reported stolen. Meanwhile, notice of the stolen Ford Edge was placed on the police wire – the National Crime Information Center (NCIC).

A little more than an hour and a half later, investigators discovered a Mazda Protégé of undetermined year and worth $2,000 abandoned in a field near the 1100 block of Wateree Estates Road. The Mazda, which matched the description of a car seen in the area before and following the Sept. 19 crime spree, checked out as stolen from a home in Richland County. Inside the Mazda, investigators found the stolen laptop and carrying case, both of which were returned to their owner. Additional evidence found near the Mazda led investigators to a positive ID of Gregory, whose name was also added to the NCIC.

Tonight kicks off the 16th annual Rock Around the Clock festival in downtown Winnsboro. The Town Clock serves as the focal point of downtown Winnsboro. It was built in 1833 and is the oldest continuously running town clock in America. The origin of the festival’s name is two fold. Originally it is derived from the Blue Granite, for which Fairfield County is famous, that surrounds the Town Clock. Couple that with a festival that invites bands to play music and encourages street dance and you have a natural fit for “Rock Around the Clock.”

Planning for the festival started way back in January, but Chamber of Commerce President Terry Vickers said the prep is like clockwork.

“After 16 years, we’ve pretty much got the routine down,” Vickers said.

The festivities begin at 7 p.m. with the Rocking Chair Parade. The Fairfield County VA took home the first place prize for best float last year, but TruVista Communications hopes to regain their top spot. TruVista won 2008-2010. From 8 p.m.-11 p.m. the CoastRunners band from Charleston will play during the annual street dance. There will be a Shag contest at 9:30 p.m. with the winner receiving a cash prize.

The Food Court will be located on West Washington Street and the vendors will be using tickets for the purchase of food. Be sure to visit the ticket tent located on the corner of Washington and Congress streets. Tickets are $1 each. There will be a little bit of everything at the food court, from Caribbean style cuisines to Philly cheese steaks, funnel cakes and much more.

Saturday’s events begin at 10 a.m. with Winnsboro Mayor Roger Gaddy introducing the newly crowned Rock Around the Clock Beauty Queens. From 11 a.m.-3 p.m. there is plenty to do. For the kids, there will be a strawberry ride, giant slide and a mega mountain obstacle course on North Congress Street. Arm bands will be available at the amusement area for $10 allowing children to play until 3 p.m. For the adults, the annual classic car and truck show goes from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and trophies will go out to the top 50 entries, including a Judge’s Choice Trophy.

Throughout the day there will be live music from Will Hobgood, Zumbia Ladies and Winnsboro’s own ReUnion Bande. Town councilman Clyde Sanders is one the band’s singers.

“We have been looking forward to this and it’s going to be a good show,” Sanders said. “I think people will enjoy the music.”

The ReUnion Bande is a revival band from the ‘70s and has been together for 15 months.

The Rock Around the Clock festival is a time that has become a staple to kickoff the fall in Winnsboro.

“It’s just a great time,” Vickers said. “It’s a time when every citizen can be a part of the community.”