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Tag: Pig on the Ridge

  • Pig on the Ridge set for Nov. 5-6

    More than 50 cookers will be lining the tracks at this year’s Pig on the Ridge. | Barbara Ball

    RIDGEWAY – The first weekend in November means one thing in Ridgeway: the Pig is back. Friday night’s “No Pigs allowed” runs from 6 – 10:30 p.m. with activities for kids, craft sales, a street party with DJ Doug Pauley, and delicious and different non-pork cuisine for sale.

    Saturday kicks off with the BBQ judging contest at 9 a.m. and the fun lasts until 1 p.m. There will be more of Friday plus a Classic/Antique Car Display, hog-calling contest and a cruise-by with Town Councilman Don Prioleau entertaining as he introduces and comments on the vehicles.

    With sunny skies and a slight fall chill, it should be the perfect weekend for shopping at vendor booths or at the stocked-for-Christmas shops along Palmer Street.

    The Pig on the Ridge is manned by Ridgeway volunteers who give hours of their time throughout the year to make the festival enjoyable for the thousands barbecue lovers and shoppers who attend every year.

    “We’ll have a new, younger steering committee running the festival this year,” Rufus Jones one of the original four steering committee members said. “We’ll be here to help,” he said of the members of the former steering committee, but they are all experienced and with pit master Tony Crout heading up the barbecue cookers, it’s going to be lots of fun with plenty of good food and shopping,” Jones said.

    Every year the steering committee holds a dinner prior to the festival for the volunteers. This year it was held at Purity Lodge and guests were catered by Doko Smoke barbecue.

    POTR Volunteer Dinner

    Larry Weldon

    RIDGEWAY – About 50 volunteers who make the Pig on the Ridge happen gathered at the Purity Lodge in Ridgeway for dinner, visiting and getting ready for the big weekend starting Friday Nov. 5, and lasting through about 1 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 6.

    From left are the new steering committee: Deb Truesdale, Mack Miles, Belva Bush Belton, Tony Crout and Tony Jones; and the outgoing POTR steering committee, from left: Henry Dixon, Don Prioleau, Rufus Jones and Gloria Keeffe.

    Below, the buffet barbecue dinner catered by Doko Smoke. At right, Larry Weldon, the train man who delivers the barbecue dinners to the train engineer during the festival when the train rolls through town.

  • Pig on the Ridge festival soars

    Ervin Brazell, Jr. and his dad, Ervin, Sr. sell kettle corn to Felicia Elliot and Charlie Ray.

    RIDGEWAY – Pig on the Ridge lived up to the hype last weekend as it does almost every year, with great weather and a large, hungry crowd.

    “Probably one of the best Pig on the Ridge events we’ve cooked! Looking forward to next year!” Tony Crout of Doko Smoke Barbecue in Blythewood posted to his Facebook page. Crout placed in the top 10 professional cookers.

    Dwight Robinson of Ridgeway has cooked all 20 festivals. A popular pit master, he sold 40 butts before noon.

    Some of the best professional and amateur pit masters in the state were attracted to the festival by more than $3,500 in cook-off prize money. Winnsboro’s Tyler Gregory of Raww Hawggin brought home the first place trophy and $500 for amateur cookers. Tutored by George King, the barbecue king of past Pig on the Ridge cook-offs, this was Gregory’s first time to enter the competition.

    Gene Culbertson of Backwood Bar-B-Cue won top prize, $1,000 for the professional group.

    On Friday ‘no pigs allowed’ night, cookers offered a smorgasbord of non-pork dishes. Winnsboro’s Keith Green of Big Boyz BBQ captured the trophy and $500 for selling the most of the dish his cookers prepared.

    Chandler Cook took first place in hog calling for the 12 and under group. Haley Autry took second place. Kevin Lynch took first place for the 13 and up group, and Keeon Watkins took second place.

    The owners of classic and antique cars and trucks showed off their wheels in the crowd-favorite cruise-by, and vendors lined the streets Friday night and Saturday selling jewelry, baked goods, bird feeders, outdoor solar chandeliers and more.

    “We couldn’t be happier with our turnout, our cooks, our judges, our venders and other participants, our merchants, our volunteers and the great weather. I don’t know when we’ve enjoyed such pretty weather,” Pig on the Ridge steering committee member Rufus Jones said. “Had a little rain going into Friday night, but it cleared off and was perfect the rest of the weekend. I think everybody had a good time.”

    That sentiment was not shared, however, by Town Councilwoman Angela Harrison who called for a boycott of the festival by posting an anonymous letter on her Facebook page 10 days prior to the festival and her own message just two days prior. Her call, however, had little affect on attendance.

    In her post, Harrison said she could not attend the event because, as she claimed, the Pig on the Ridge committee promotes division in the town. She also accused the committee of having no stated purpose for its funds for the festival and accused the committee of not donating adequately to charity.

    “The committee continually promotes the festival as one that gives back to the community,” Harrison said. “If you looked at the books, you would know that’s just hot air. They give a little to make it look good,” Harrison said, “then hoard the rest.””

    “The town presents Pig on the Ridge as a town festival, organized by the steering committee,” Town Clerk Vivian Case said, “But it has always donated a large portion of the revenue from the festival to charity and to things the town needs. It buys lifesaving equipment for the town’s fire department and a lot of things like that to benefit the community. I don’t believe the festival revenue was ever intended to all be donated to charity.”

    Case said the committee does not make expenditures or take in revenue.

    “None of them actually ever touch any of the money. All the Pig on the Ridge money goes through the town government and always has,” Case said.

    Case said the financials for Pig on the Ridge are open and available to the public – how the money is spent, how much is given to churches and other charitable causes in the community and how much is held by the town for future use on big ticket items and rained-out festivals.

    “A Freedom of Information request is not required to look at this information,” Case said. “It’s available to anyone.”

    “From the beginning, we have put some money back for a rainy day,” Steering Committee member Tom Connor said. “And sometimes we save up to buy expensive things for the community that the revenue from one festival will not provide. That money is in the town’s possession at all times. If our festival gets rained out, we are stuck with all the expenses but bring in no revenue. We try to plan so that we don’t miss a festival for any reason,” Connor said.

     

  • RW puts lipstick on the Pig for 20th time

    RIDGEWAY – More than 800 Boston butts will be cooking, and over 60 S.C. Barbecue Association certified judges will be judging this weekend at the Annual Pig on the Ridge festival in Ridgeway…just as they have for the last 20 years.

    Despite an announcement last month that the pig might not get over the stile this year after it was reported that some residents would boycott the festival as an expression of their dismay with the town government, volunteers from 14 churches and others in Ridgeway stepped forward last week to offer their services, assuring that the show would go on.

    As a result, come dawn on Saturday morning, the aroma of roast pig will once again waft through the Cotton Yard as festival goers invade the tiny town to buy barbecue from some of the top pit masters in the Southeast, as well as shop for gifts and gadgets from 50 or so street vendors.

    POR is still the largest of the S. C. Barbeque Association’s events.  And, even though the price of pork has gone up, POR tickets have not.

    Organizers say it looks like it’s going to be as big as ever substantially adding to the $200,000 worth of benefits that POR has raised over the years.

    “We originally started the barbeque festival to celebrate Ridgeway’s 200th anniversary,” Tom Connor, Ridgeway resident and one of the festival founders said.  “We wanted to provide an opportunity for people to come together to renew old relationships and make new ones – a family friendly festival.  We are especially proud of what the people in our community have made it possible for us to accomplish over the years,” Connors said.

    “The financial income from the festival has helped our community groups buy toys for kids who might not otherwise have received any toys at Christmas,” Connor said. “And 20 years later, that is still what we are all about.”

    “Our church partners have come together to raise money to directly support efforts to care for those who need their help,” Connor added.

    In addition to the funds made available directly to each participating church, POR has made donations on behalf of the festival to the Ridgeway Fire Department for both uniforms and tools to help increase safety in our community. We have financially helped to supply fire extinguishers and smoke alarms to over 100 homes where needed. POR was the largest donor to the restoration of the Century House which created a historical landmark as the Town Hall, and it has made donations annually to support the Vacation Bible Schools in the Ridgeway area as well as helping fund the Fairfield County Arts Council’s Arts on the Ridge festivals.

    POR funds were used to purchase and install the “Welcome to Ridgeway” signs, helped finance the restoration of the Arch at the Ridgeway Park and were used to purchase the ball field bleachers and picnic tables for the town park.

    “On behalf of the Pig on the Ridge volunteers, we were able to provide an outreach donation to the American Red Cross for the Flood Relief Drive for survivors of the recent disaster in Columbia,” Connor said proudly.

    The festival kicks off Friday evening, Nov. 2, at 6 p.m. with ‘No Pigs Allowed!” – a smorgasbord of entree samples made from ‘anything but’ pork that will excite any appetite. Pork is, of course, reserved for Saturday.

    There will be children’s activities, craft sales and the evening will culminate with music and dancing on Dogwood Dr., with DJ Papa Charlie.

    Beginning at 9 a.m., Saturday, Nov. 3, the barbecue judging begins and sales begin.

    “You need to come early, though. It goes fast,” Connor said with a laugh.

    Seventy-five or so of the town’s volunteers help expedite serving the hungry festival goers.

    Most of the cookers, primarily from North and South Carolina, return every year. They typically offer three types of sauce – low country pepper vinegar sauce, the midlands mustard sauce and the Piedmont tomato base barbeque sauce.

    Both days include children’s activities and lots of arts and crafts vendors.  Saturday’s festival is also enhanced with a classic/antique car display on Dogwood Drive, on-stage entertainment by the Geiger Elementary and other students, a hog-calling contest and a “cruise-by” at noon with an emergency/public safety salute and a parade of the classic/antique cars and bikes.

    Awards are presented at 1 p.m.

    Tom Connor, Rufus Jones, Donald Prioleau and Henry Dixon have kept the festival on track for many years.  Councilman Dan Martin has recently joined the Steering Committee.  This year’s children’s activities are being coordinated by Karen Siegling, the Classic Car display is organized by Minor Jones and the Media Relations and Best Booth judging by Patsy Palmer.

    Come early. Even 800 Boston butts can be gone long before lunch time at Pig on the Ridge.

  • Pig on the Ridge survives up/down vote

    POR Committee Seeks 75 Volunteers

    RIDGEWAY – It appeared last week that the almost 20-year-old Ridgeway institution – Pig on the Ridge – was about to breathe its last. The festival survived an up or down vote by the hair of its chinny-chin-chin when the POR steering committee voted 3 – 1 on Oct. 11, for the 2018 Pig on the Ridge to go on. Donald Prioleau voted against.

    In early October, Prioleau announced to the other three committee members – Tom Connor, Rufus Jones and Henry Dixon – that the 75-or-so longtime community volunteer servers, who worked under his supervision during the festival, had told him they were going to sit out the 2018 Pig on the Ridge because they were upset at the town government over the defunding of the town’s police department. That defunding resulted in the elimination of Police Chief Christopher Culp’s job. Ridgway’s policing was subsequently turned over to the Fairfield County Sheriff’s department. Prioleau said the volunteers were also disgruntled over how they perceived Prioleau, the town councilman with oversight of the police department, had been treated by council.

    “They’re not talking Pig on the Ridge. They’re talking Town, starting with Pig on the Ridge. And there’s other things they’re going to bring,” Prioleau warned.

    Prioleau said the standoff included not only the volunteer servers provided by the town’s churches for the festival, but other vital personnel as well – the car cruise organizer,  the man who assisted in meat delivery, the soft drink organizer, the railroad employee who handled the traditional train stop during the festival, the singing groups who entertained and others. The most crucial blow, however, was that the event’s most popular performer, the dj – Prioleau, himself – would not participate.

    After Prioleau’s announcement, one committee member said he didn’t see how the event could go on without those volunteers.

    “But to not have it this year would be the end of Pig on the Ridge,” he said.

    A meeting was called on Oct. 11, for the committee to vote whether the festival would go. After calling that meeting to order, Chairman Connor had his say right off.

    “I favor continuing,” Connor said. “Here’s why. As the originator and a founding member of this committee, I’ve seen the many positive impacts over the last 19 years because of the Pig on the Ridge festival – things such as enhanced community relations, donations to help with community needs, etc.,” he said.

    Every year, the committee reached out to 21 churches who provide the 75 volunteers. Each church received $300 to purchase Christmas gifts for children who might not otherwise receive gifts.

    “We are now faced with deciding the festival’s fate,” Connor continued, “because some key volunteers will not be available as in past years. It appears their decisions are to express their reaction to Town Council’s defunding of the Town Police Department,” he said.

    “Pig on the Ridge, as a body, had no role and no voice in Council’s decision,” he added. “I’m sure the kids who have had a better Christmas in prior years because of Pig on the Ridge had no voice in this, and Pig on the Ridge does not wish such a voice,” Connor said.

    “Is Pig on the Ridge guilty of something by affiliation [with town government]? And must it, therefore, suffer consequences for that affiliation?” he asked.

    Connor clarified after the meeting that the town government handles all Pig on the Ridge funds and keeps those financial records but does not interfere with the event’s management.

    Connor explained in the Oct. 11 meeting that many Pig on the Ridge providers have already ordered their supplies, more than 60 certified barbecue judges have been recruited and that significant sums of money have been spent.

    “To discontinue at this late date throws them under the bus,” Connor said.

    Connor reviewed the committee’s original goals: to conduct a family friendly event and to generate funds to donate back to the community. He said the event is designed to enhance a diverse community.

    According to Connor, the festival has been the largest barbecue event in the state almost every year since 1999. He said the South Carolina BBQ Association recognizes Pig on the Ridge as a premier cook-off in the state.

    “I hope whatever divides this community at this point can be mutually addressed and resolved by good-minded and community-focused citizens,” Connor concluded.

    Connor then turned to Prioleau.

    “Don?” Conner said.

    Among his grievances over the defunding of the police department, Prioleau said he had been asked, at one point, by the mayor to resign from his oversight over the department.

    “I declined,” Prioleau said, adding, also, that when he was asked [after Culp left] by the mayor to remove items from the police station for inventory, the lock had been changed.

    “I have been blessed to grow up in a town where we – Rufus, his mother and father, Dan Ruff and his mother and father and people like the Thomases and others – got along like sisters and brothers. I don’t know where it’s going, but you got citizens in this town highly upset. They are telling me to resign. But I’m not,” Prioleau said.

    “I love this little town, but I cannot participate in Pig on the Ridge. I have to listen to the people,” he continued, his comments turning poignant. “But I won’t do anything to try to stop it.”

    “We have to go on,” Dixon said. “Pig on the Ridge has to continue. I hate this happened. I love Don. We grew up playing ball and everything else together. I understand where you’re coming from in some respects,” Dixon said to Prioleau. “I’ve beat myself up since last week over this thing. I haven’t slept six hours any night this week. I sleep two to three hours and wake up and watch TV because I can’t get it off my mind. I just think we’ve got to go on. Maybe by doing it we can heal some.”

    “I can’t get in my mind how they would target something that is only loosely affiliated with something they have ill will toward,” Connor said. “There are good things about Pig on the Ridge that would be jeopardized.”

    “I think we’ve said all we can say,” Jones said.

    With that, the committee voted. Moments later they began in earnest re-working plans for next month’s Pig on the Ridge. At first, Prioleau was subdued but was soon in the thick of it, pointing out such things as who needs to be called for this and that, explaining the intricacies of having the train stop during the festivities and how to set up barricades.

    “You’ve got to be careful about how the arrows are turned (on the barricades),” he cautioned.

    The planning went on for another half hour with the focus on finding volunteers to fill the new vacancies.  Town Councilman Dan Martin who was in the audience volunteered for some of the jobs.

    By the time the meeting was adjourned, the committee members were making inside jokes and laughing with abandon, probably much like when three of them were kids playing ball together.

    The 19th annual Pig on the Ridge Festival will happen Friday and Saturday, Nov. 2 – 3. Watch for details in The Voice next week.

    Anyone wishing to volunteer for the 2018 Pig on the Ridge, please email artie@toddysmith.com

  • The Pig Gives Back

    RIDGEWAY – Pig on the Ridge committee representatives Tom Connor and Henry Dixon present a check for $1,000 to the Barclay School to help fund its fledgling program for students who learn differently. Below, they also donated $300 to Geiger Elementary Principal Myra Bramlett for the school’s “Look For The Good Project” that the school implemented for the coming school year.

    Committee members not shown are Don Prioleau and Rufus Jones.

     

  • Council proposes restrictions on POR $

    RIDGEWAY – At its March meeting, Town Council continued chipping away at the Pig on the Ridge (POR) festival steering committee’s longstanding level of involvement with the festival by introducing an ordinance that Interim administrator David Hudspeth said would establish financial procedures for the administration of POR funds.

    While the steering committee – Tom Connor, Councilman Don Prioleau, Rufus Jones and Henry Dixon – has provided general oversight and management of the festival since its inception in 1999, Connor said the Town government has always collected, accounted for, deposited and written the checks for all POR moneys, and that POR expenditures always required Council approval, which was rarely if ever withheld. Council, not POR, had authority to sign POR checks and purchase and cash POR CDs, Connor said.

    In turn, Connor said the steering committee enjoyed autonomy in making decisions regarding how the festival’s money was spent, how charitable donations were distributed, etc.

    “It operated on a gentleman’s agreement between the committee and Town Hall,” Jones said. “There were no problems. Everything ran smoothly. There were no complaints that we mishandled money and no problems from yearly audits. Everything was reported properly and it added up,” Jones said. “We never touched POR cash. It went directly to town hall.”

    Hudspeth’s proposed ordinance would impose strict procedures for all POR expenses and revenues, some of which, Prioleau said, will not work for POR.

    Among those are the requirement that the committee seek Council approval before purchasing a big ticket item such as a town clock which the committee has contemplated purchasing. The committee must also procure goods and services for the operation of the festival in accordance with the Town’s purchasing policies. Prioleau said that won’t work.

    “U.S. Foods works with us. The meat market is up and down, and we don’t lock in on a price ‘till two weeks out,” Prioleau said. “They deliver meat and donate $1,000 to POR. They provide us with quality meat. We can’t just take the lowest bid.”

    “POR has been a community effort and brought the community together. We’ve brought love and commitment and we’ve been doing it for 19 years, so we must have been doing something right,” Prioleau said. “I beg you to review this. We need a better ordinance.”

    After Prioleau’s emotional plea, Councilman Heath Cookendorfer made a motion to table the ordinance until the administrator and POR committee could agree.

    Unlike recent rancorous meetings, there were no interruptions, and Council voted unanimously, 5-0 in favor of Cookendorf’s motion.

    “We’re glad you all are coming to the table,” Mayor Charlene Herring said to Prioleau. “We just want to make sure that we’re all clear and clean. I wouldn’t want anything to stop any of our festivals.”

  • Harrison has plans for Pig on the Ridge’s revenue

    RIDGEWAY– After Ridgeway Town Administrator David Hudspeth cashed in 10 Pig on the Ridge CDs in January, prior to their maturity, and deposited that cash into the Town’s General Fund, Town Councilwoman Angela Harrison made a motion at the Feb. 26 meeting that could eventually strip the Pig on the Ridge steering committee of its ability to determine to which charities the festival’s proceeds are given in the future.

    In addition, an item on the March 8 agenda would, if passed, establish financial procedures for the administration of the POR and other festivals.

    The motion came out of an agenda item Harrison asked to have placed on the docket: “Consideration of education grant opportunities for Ridgeway students in District No. 1, Ridgeway.”

    These grant opportunities could be funded, Harrison announced, with profits from Pig on the Ridge and other Ridgeway festivals.

    “Let’s have a charitable purpose of how we can use it [POR profits.] I’ve looked into what we can do…I’m looking at scholarships and ways to give back to our kids. I think it is really important that we use some of our festival revenues…and put it into an educational grant,” Harrison said.

    Before making her motion, “To meet with community and school leaders and partners to develop a budget for an education grant for the whole community,” Harrison unleashed 20 minutes of rapid-fire criticism of the popular barbecue festival that was created 19 years ago by four Ridgeway men: Town Councilman Don Prioleau, former Ridgeway Mayor Rufus Jones, Tom Connor and local Pit Master J. W. Joye. Some years before his death, Joye stepped down and was replaced by Henry Dixon. Prioleau, Jones, Connor and Dixon comprise the POR steering committee and oversee the planning, marketing and management of the festival, the largest barbecue festival in the state for 15 years.  The event is manned by a volunteer army comprised primarily of residents from the community.

    Talking rapidly as she handed out multiple rounds of documents to Council members in dramatic fashion, Harrison took the POR organizers to the woodshed before zeroing in on the agenda item that could eventually transfer control of the POR funds from the steering committee to the community/school committee overseeing education grant opportunities.

    Harrison first lambasted the POR for its out-of-date filing status with the Secretary of State’s office, saying that POR should be in a category for charitable organizations that take in more than $20,000 in sponsor and vendor fees, which the POR does. In that category, the POR would be required to list revenues, expenses and a statement of its charitable purpose with the Secretary of State, not just the Town government. Instead, the festival’s status remains as it was originally filed with the Secretary of State…as an ‘exempt’ charity that brings in less than $7,500 annually.

    “So, the information at the Secretary of State’s office is not correct and we need to have it fixed,” Harrison said.

    Harrison presented no proof, however, that the POR steering committee had made any missteps in reporting revenues and expenses to the Town’s auditor or to Town Hall, which, Prioleau said, has always handled the POR funds. Nor was any proof presented that the POR steering committee had mishandled any of the POR funds in any way.

    Following the Council meeting, Prioleau told The Voice that the failure to update the Secretary of State filing was an unintentional oversight. According to the Secretary of State’s office, that correction can be made by Town Hall in May when the filing is due to be renewed.

    “All this show tonight wasn’t necessary to get a new form filled out,” Prioleau said.

    Next, Harrison said she had “recently sat down and traced the expenditures and revenues from the POR festival and realized that it’s not really giving back to our community as much as it could.”

    She was critical that some of the profits from each POR festival were held in a CD for use as seed money for the next POR festival. Prioleau said the CDs were also used to make large purchases for the town that would exceed the profits from a single year, such as a town clock.

    When Prioleau tried to speak, explaining how ex-Ridgeway Mayor Gene Wilson had helped the POR get organized during its first year and how decisions were made early on to set aside seed money for each successive year’s POR festival, Harrison interrupted him.

    “I’m trying to give you the whole picture,” Prioleau explained to Harrison.

    “I know the whole picture,” Harrison shot back, with a laugh.

    “I listened to you, now…,” Prioleau said before he was again interrupted.

    “Ok, the whole picture,” Harrison said.

    “After the last POR festival, I passed out checks for $300 each to 21 or 22 churches and Geiger Elementary. We’ve donated a lot of money to the community over the years – over $10,000 to renovate the Century House, over $10,000 for a special piece of fire department equipment that we had to save a couple of years for, money to Hurricane victims and to flood victims through the Red Cross, and more,” Prioleau said. “The money in the CDs is just to be sure we have money for the next festival. Now, if you have questions,” Prioleau said, “you need to come to the table and sit down and see what we need to do, but if we’re going to have the festival year after year, either the Town will have to fund it or…”

    “The Town is funding it!” Harrison interrupted again.

    As Prioleau tried to talk, Harrison continued to talk over him.

    “The Town has been funding it,” Harrison said. “You can’t say the Town has not been funding it. It’s been funded by the Town!”

    Prioleau again asked Harrison to let him finish.

    “Pig on the Ridge has never been in the red, not even the first year…” Prioleau said before being interrupted again.

    “I’m not saying you were,” she said.

    “You’re saying the Town is funding Pig on the Ridge,” Cookendorfer interjected and was joined by Prioleau as they emphasized in unison, “but that’s money raised by Pig on the Ridge that the Town is paying out.”

    “I totally understand that,” Harrison said, before changing the subject and repeating, again, that the POR was not filed properly with the Secretary of State.

    “If you’re saying Pig on the Ridge money is not spent properly…,” Prioleau said.

    “You didn’t file it properly, Donald, is all I’m saying,” Harrison said, all the while filming Prioleau and Cookendorfer on Facebook Live with her phone throughout the meeting.

    Cookendorfer told Harrison that she was painting only half the picture.

    “Really?” Harrison asked with a smile and began talking over Cookendorfer again.

    “I am asking to be able to talk without being interrupted,” Cookendorfer said.

    “It’s all right here,” Harrison continued, ignoring Cookendorfer’s plea.

    “Can you stop interrupting?” Cookendorfer asked.

    Mayor Charlene Herring, who had been hesitant to gavel Harrison’s repeated interruptions, instructed Cookendorfer to go ahead and vote on the motion and ask his questions later.

    Cookendorfer insisted he should be allowed to ask questions about the paperwork Harrison handed out since she had not shared it prior to the meeting.

    Asked later by The Voice if she had spoken to Cookendorfer, Prioleau or the other members of the POR steering committee about the Secretary of State information prior to the meeting, Harrison said she had not.

    At Councilman Doug Porter’s suggestion, Herring allowed Cookendorfer to finish asking questions.

    Finally, Harrison segued into a several-minute soliloquy, elaborating on her stated motion and her plans for the education grant committee.

    The vote on the motion passed 3-2 with Herring, Harrison and Porter voting for and Prioleau and Cookendorfer voting against.

    Story updated 3/8/18 at 10:00 to correct Town Council’s meeting date, which is March 8. 

  • RW Admin stirs CD controversy

    RIDGEWAY – After Ridgeway Town Council went on a spending spree in June, 2017, spending more than $113,000 from a capital expenditure fund that did not exist, interim Town Administrator David Hudspeth suggested Council amend the budget to accommodate that spending. As part of that amendment, Hudspeth suggested the Town cash in all its CDs, worth about $409,000, and deposit the cash into the Town’s general fund to go toward creating a capital expenditure account and beefing up the water fund.

    Since the $409,000 included a little over $80,000 in CDs commonly referred to as the POR CDs and purchased with funds raised by the Pig on the Ridge festival, Hudspeth’s plan to cash in the CDs didn’t sit well with the four POR steering committee members, three of whom are also founders of the town’s popular annual barbecue festival.

    Councilmen Don Prioleau, a member of the POR steering committee, and Heath Cookendorfer pushed back.

    “I don’t agree with cashing in the CDs,” Cookendorfer told Hudspeth. “Once we cash them in, they’re gone. I would like to see the Pig on the Ridge funds restricted. Being in the general fund, it can be borrowed [by the Town] if we run short on things. I don’t like that,” Cookendorfer said.

    Hudspeth assured Cookendorfer, during the Dec. 14 public meeting, that the CDs would not be cashed in until they matured.

    “I think if you wait until they mature you may not need to liquidate all of them,” Hudspeth said during the meeting, which was digitally recorded by The Voice. “…this is not something we’ve got to do immediately,” Hudspeth assured Cookendorfer, ‘but as they come due we’ll look at the money we have if we still need cash, then I think that as those CD’s mature, we’ll try to move them around where they need to be. But I wouldn’t suggest, unless there’s some reason we really had to, to cash them in advance,” Hudspeth said. “…we’ll wait till they mature to move things around. We’ll look at this sometime between now and the end of the fiscal year, you’ve still got six months. You’ve got that amount of time to do it,” Hudspeth again assured Cookendorfer.

    Mayor Charlene Herring and Council members Angela Harrison and Doug Porter voted for the budget amendment, Don Prioleau was not present and Cookendorfer voted against.

    But, to the surprise of both Cookendofer and Prioleau, on Jan. 12, 2018, the day after the amended budget was passed by the second and final vote, Mayor Charlene Herring forwarded an email from Hudspeth to Town Clerk Vivian Case that instructed Case to, among other things, “Close all Pig on the Ridge CDs and deposit funds into the new POR checking account.”

    Cookendorfer said that after he learned the CDs had been cashed, he asked the town clerk for the maturity dates.

    “None of them were even close to maturity,” Cookendorfer said.

    At the Feb. 22 meeting, Cookendorfer challenged Hudspeth for breaking his word and misleading Cookendorf into thinking that the CDs would not be cashed until they matured.

    Hudspeth quickly changed the subject to the importance of getting a higher interest rate by moving the cash from the CDs, where they earned a little less than one percent, to the state government’s investment pool where they will earn one percent.

    While Hudspeth admitted at the Feb. 26 meeting that the Town lost as much as $600 in penalties on one CD by cashing it early, he said the penalties on others were as small as $6 and $14.

    In his own defense, Hudspeth placed the blame on the budget amendment ordinance that was passed by Council on Jan. 11.

    “It didn’t say, we couldn’t or wouldn’t” [cash the CDs prior to their maturity.]

    Asked about his change in position from stating in the public meeting that the CDs would not be cashed in until they matured, Hudspeth told The Voice that he couldn’t recall exactly what he said two months earlier at the Dec. 14 meeting.

    Information on the 10 CDs that the RW admin cashed in early in January.

    Article updated 11:10, 3/2/18 to show CD information. 

     

  • RW Council to amend budget by 30.46%; Prioleau Criticizes Cotton Yard Purchase

    RIDGEWAY – Town Council will will hold a public hearing and take a final vote Thursday night to amend the budget for the 2017-2018 fiscal year by 30.46 percent.

    The Town’s current revenue will be amended from $744,200 to $970,900. However, the difference of $226,700 is not newly generated revenue, administrative consultant David Hudspeth told The Voice on Tuesday.

    “This money is currently in the Town’s bank account, but not allocated in the budget,” Hudspeth said. The transfer was necessary, he said, to put it into the Town’s budget so it could be used.

    Much of this additional revenue comes from the Town’s savings account. At the Dec. 14 meeting, Hudspeth recommended cashing in the Town’s CD’s and moving the proceeds into the general fund.

    While Ridgeway Town Council voted 3-1 last month to purchase the Cotton Yard for $73,000 +, Councilman Donald Prioleau told The Voice afterward that, had he been present for the vote, he would have joined Councilman Heath Cookendorfer in voting against the purchase.

    Prioleau said because of a prior commitment he had to leave the meeting before the executive session and had not thought the issue would come up for a vote that night since it was only on the agenda for executive session.

    “I don’t think we need to be spending that kind of money right now,” Prioleau said. “And when we spend that kind of money, we need to give the public better notice. I understand that there has since been talk that the Pig on the Ridge steering committee is all for this and is considering throwing a lot of money into it, but that’s not exactly correct,” Prioleau said. “We said we would be interested in helping out on a depot-style building with an outdoor platform and maybe room inside for community gatherings, but the library thing came up much later. The only sketch I’ve seen of a library is not a depot-style building. And I am not interested in that,” Prioleau said.

    “I also want to weigh in on the library location,” Prioleau added. “I’m all for a new library but as much as we need merchant space downtown and as congested as Palmer Street already is, we need to think about moving the library next to the park and ball field. A lot of children use the library and that would be a better location, near the park and it would not take up merchant shopping and parking space.”

    Another member of the POR steering committee, Tom Connor, agreed that the park would probably be a better location for the library.

    “I think the steering committee is most interested in a depot style building and also we would like to see a nice clock built in the downtown, in the Cotton Yard area,” Connor said.

    The next Town Council meeting is set for Thursday, Jan. 11.

  • Pig on the Ridge Marks 16 Years in Hog Heaven

     

    Hog Wild –
    Pig on the Ridge organizers Donald Prioleau, Tom Connor, Henry Dixon and Rufus Jones show off the new monument to Ridgeway’s annual festival, which will happen again this weekend. For a complete schedule of events, see their ad on page 20. (Photo/Barbara Ball)

    RIDGEWAY – It was in May of 1999 that Tom Connor of Ridgeway was visiting family in Memphis, Tenn. and attended the country’s largest barbecue festival. To his surprise, he met up with an old friend from Ridgeway, J.W. Joye, who was cooking at the festival. Impressed with the event, Connor asked Joye if he would help arrange a barbecue festival in Ridgeway for the town’s 200th anniversary that fall. Joye agreed and the event was a success – so much so that they decided to do it again the next year.

    Joye is no longer helping with the event (he’s too busy cooking and judging barbecue at festivals around the country), but Connor and three other Ridgeway friends, Rufus Jones, Donald Prioleau and Henry Dixon, have carried on. They called the Ridgeway event Pig on the Ridge, and this year is its 16th anniversary. For eight out of the last nine years, it has been the largest barbecue cook-off in South Carolina.

    But Pig on the Ridge is more than great barbecue. It has become the Town’s main charitable event, raising more than $145,000 for community endeavors, including $76,000 for children in the Ridgeway community who might not otherwise receive Christmas gifts. The funds have been used to restore the Century House, purchase equipment for the Town’s volunteer fire department, provide welcome signs for the Town, provide smoke alarms in the homes of the elderly and disabled, and much more.

    “A festival like this involves lots of partnering,” Connor told The Voice. “We depend on the churches and Geiger Elementary School to identify children whose families need a little help at Christmas time.”

    While the four organizers plan the event, Connor said it is the 200 or so community volunteers who make the event happen.

    “Don Prioleau recruits volunteers to assist the cook teams. They distribute 3.5 tons of Boston Butts and whole hogs to the cook teams in less than an hour. We have Fanny Ford and many others who help with the ticket booths,” Connor said. “And that’s serious work; lots of hard work. But they are always there to do it.”

    The most recent recipient of Pig on the Ridge funds is a granite monument to the festival that has been set between the Old Town Hall Restaurant and the World’s Smallest Police Station.

    On Monday, cooking rigs were already setting up and volunteers were busy getting equipment ready for the weekend when festivities begin at 6:30 p.m. on Friday with the traditional “No Pig Allowed” street party. On that evening, the cook teams will be dishing out everything but barbecue. That can only be served on Saturday when judging begins at 9:30 a.m. But don’t wait too late. Regulars say the barbecue goes fast and if you arrive at 11 a.m. for lunch, you might be out of luck.

    But even being late has a silver lining. The Old Town Restaurant, under new management, will open its doors for lunch and will be open in the evening as well.

    For a small-town, family fun weekend, don’t miss Pig on the Ridge. There will be live music, rides for the kids, arts and crafts vendors, a hog-calling contest at 12:30, a cruise-by at 1 p.m. and the festival will wrap up with the awards ceremony at 2 p.m.