COLUMBIA – Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott is requesting the community’s assistance in locating a missing person.
Campbell
Sheriff Leon Lott states that Sherri Lynn Campbell was last seen at a relative’s home in Northeast Columbia on Sunday, April 1, 2018. It was at this home that Sherri Lyn took a green 1997 Jeep Cherokee with SC tag JFW416. Sherri Lyn’s mom discovered a disturbing note which led her to believe that her daughter may do harm to herself; being a special needs child has also caused great concerned for the family of Sherri Lyn.
The Sheriff states that Sherri Lyn is described as a black female, 5’ 6” tall, black hair, brown eyes, weighs 120 pounds. She was last seen wearing an orange shirt and black and red Jordan sneakers.
Anyone with information about Sherri Lynn should call, email or text your anonymous tip to 1-888-CRIME-SC.
BLYTHEWOOD – As controversy heated up over a proposed traffic circle that would impact the Blythewood Road entrances to Cobblestone Park, Palmetto Citizens Bank, the Food Lion shopping complex and two properties owned by Blythewood businessman Larry Sharpe, Richland County Penny Tax officials took a step back this week to again receive citizen input on the issue. But, at the end of the day, David Bailey, one of several members of the county-hired program development team who met with citizens Thursday evening, was less than yielding.
“We can look at it again, but that’s not going to change what works best at this intersection,” Bailey said.
Larry Sharpe, left, and David Bailey of the traffic development team discuss the traffic circle. | Barbara Ball
The County had planned to formally present its case for a final draft of the traffic circle during a public hearing at Muller Road Middle School on Thursday, but decided to forego the formal presentation at the last minute and, instead, hosted what Bailey explained as an informal question and answer session with residents after it became obvious in recent weeks that many of the residents do not want the traffic circle.
Cobblestone Park resident Bethany Parler repeated at that meeting a worry she expressed earlier this month at the Town Council’s annual retreat – that the circle will not solve the traffic problem in that area and might even contribute to a bigger problem.
“If you look at the plans,” Parler said, pointing to one of several renderings and diagrams set up in the school gym, “you will have to turn left out of Cobblestone, then shoot across two lanes of moving traffic, then merge to the right to get on to the interstate while cars are merging onto the circle from Community Road.”
David Bailey, a representative of the program development team hired by the County, did not disagree with that scenario.
While Parler, Sharpe and others reminded Bailey that the circle was not part of the referendum (Master Plan) for the town, Bailey agreed with that also.
“But the referendum identified that Blythewood Road should be widened from I-77 to Syrup Mill Road and it does not get down into the specifics of how each intersection should be improved within that corridor,” Bailey said. “So as part of our engineering study, we’ve looked at each intersection to see if a signal needs to be added and what other improvements could be made to improve traffic and safety. We determined that a traffic circle would be the better improvement at the intersection of Cobblestone and Community Drive,” Bailey said.
Sharpe suggested holding off on the project and evaluating it a little more in light of the growth that would be coming to that area imminently.
“You have all this industrial area [between I-77 and Ashley Oaks] and much of it almost under contract, you have Cobblestone, D. R. Horton is building another 300 homes in back and another developer is coming in with 200 homes [on Blythewood Road near Cobblestone Park],” Sharpe said. “I don’t see, with all this traffic, how a traffic circle will help. In the mornings, there is no break in the traffic for cars to get onto the circle. It’s all bumper to bumper.”
“If traffic is going to back up from I-77 to Syrup Mill Road, it’s going to back up whether we have a circle, a traffic light or no traffic light. We can’t help worst case conditions,” Bailey said. “But this traffic circle will help by slowing traffic down and making people yield. It will give breaks in the traffic,” Bailey explained.
Town Council discussed on Monday evening the possibility of holding a special workshop on the issue sometime in April, and Mayor J. Michael Ross said public input would be invited.
“I think we are going to have to come up with some alternatives, some other ways to deal with traffic in this area,” Ross told The Voice following Thursday evening’s meeting at Muller Road Middle School. “Maybe we can come up with something.”
Welcoming Governor Henry McMaster to Fairfield County are, from left, Councilman Jimmy Ray Douglas, County Administrator Jason Taylor, Councilwoman Bertha Goins, Representative MaryGail Douglas and Councilman Neil Robinson. | Barbara Ball
WINNSBORO – The Fairfield County Commerce Center on Peach Road was the site of Governor Henry McMaster’s announcement last Friday of a federal program that proposes to give extra incentives to companies who invest in new jobs and business in impoverished areas throughout the state. These areas are designated as Opportunity Zones.
Accompanying McMaster were Senator Ralph Norman and S.C. Commerce Director Bobby Hitt.
McMaster made the announcement in Fairfield County where, last summer, the V.C. Summer nuclear plant abandoned the construction of two nuclear reactors, leaving 5,000 people without jobs.
McMaster said there will be 135 Opportunity Zones in the state, at least one in each of the 46 counties.
“This gives us the extra punch, the extra opportunity, that will transform economic growth and development,” McMaster said. He said these Opportunity Zones will bring a new era of prosperity in South Carolina.
Hitt told Fairfield County officials that companies are lined-up to do business in the state. The zones are expected to be approved by the Department of Treasury in the next 30 days. The program is part of the tax reform Congress passed at the end of 2017.
When communities are classified as Opportunity Zones, more tax cuts are offered to businesses who open businesses in those zones.
BLYTHEWOOD – A 17- year old male student at Blythewood High School has been charged with possession of a firearm on school grounds and simple possession of marijuana. Richland County Sheriff’s Department deputies arrested the student without incident.
On Friday morning, March 23, a BHS School Resource Officer was notified by students about a video posted to Snapchat. The video was of the student, posing with a gun in the school’s parking lot. The student was identified and brought into the school administrator’s office.
The Sheriff stated that marijuana was found in the student’s back pack and an unloaded handgun, with rounds in a magazine, located in his vehicle.
The student was has been transported to the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center.
COLUMBIA – A Fairfield County Sheriff’s Deputy was relieved of his duties last week after he was charged with domestic violence 2nd degree and public disorderly conduct.
Blake Justin Adams, 36, of Ridgeway, was arrested about 5 p.m. at 400 Princess Street in Columbia on Saturday, March 17, after he was allegedly involved in a verbal altercation with a woman that turned physical. The incident report states that Adams and the woman live together.
According to the incident report, the woman struck Adams with an open hand, then Adams struck her twice on her face with an open hand. The victim was transported to Richland Memorial Hospital. Medical personnel reported that the woman’s nose was broken and possibly her lobe.
The incident was reportedly witnessed by multiple people who provided written statements. It was reported that, while being detained, Adams became disorderly, uttering profanity in a loud and boisterous manner in a public roadway.
“We got a call on Saturday that one of our deputies, Blake Adams, was arrested for an incident at Five Points during the St. Patrick’s Day event,” Fairfield County Sheriff Will Montgomery told The Voice on Thursday, March 22. “We did an investigation and he was terminated on Tuesday night.”
Adams was taken to the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center in Columbia and released on a $257.50 personal recognizance bond for disorderly conduct and a $5,000 surety bond for domestic violence.
COLUMBIA – On Wednesday, March 7 around 6:20 p.m. at Jeep Rogers Family YMCA at Lake Carolina, Richland County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the report of theft from two motor vehicles.
The suspect broke into the victim’s vehicle by smashing out the rear passenger window. The suspect then stole a Michael Kors purse, valued at $200, which contained the victim’s credit cards and driver’s license. The suspect attempted to use the stolen credit card at GameStop (461 Town Center Place) and at two additional locations.
Sheriff Leon Lott stated that a second vehicle was broken into at Jeep Rogers Family YMCA; the suspect forced entry through the rear door window and stole a Michael Kors purse valued at $500, containing the victim’s wallet and credit cards. The Sheriff believes one of the suspects used one of the stolen cards at GameStop in the Village at Sandhill.
Both suspects have been identified as black men, wearing athletic-type clothing.
Sheriff Lott is seeking the community’s assistance in locating and identifying two suspects wanted on charges of theft from two motor vehicles. Anyone with information on this incident may call or email Crimestoppers to receive up to a $1000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
WINNSBORO – Attorneys for Fairfield County and Councilman Douglas Pauley have asked the Court of Common Pleas in Fairfield County to dismiss a lawsuit filed Feb. 12 by former Fairfield County Recreation Director Lori Schaeffer.
Schaeffer’s suit alleged that Pauley illegally interfered with Schaeffer’s employment and was the source of the complaint used to justify her termination by the County.
In documents filed with the Fairfield County Clerk of Court, Attorneys J. Paul Porter and Elizabeth M. Bowen, of Cromer Babb Porter & Hicks in Columbia, countered that Pauley, as a member of Fairfield County Council, was not a ‘third party’ capable of interfering with any alleged contract between Schaeffer and the County.
Schaeffer’s suit alleges that she had not received any employment discipline from her hire through 2016, except for one disciplinary action directed to her entire department in the summer of 2017. The County and Pauley answered that “…disciplinary notices contained in Plaintiff’s personnel file speak for themselves.”
The County and Pauley also stated in their answer to Schaeffer’s allegations that her “employment was terminated effective Sept. 28, 2017, based on a blatant lack of application and inefficiency.”
The answer also stated that Schaeffer later characterized her termination as a resignation by e-mail correspondence dated Oct. 11, 2017.
In addition to dismissing the lawsuit, the County and Pauley requested that the Court award them costs, attorneys’ fees and such other and further relief as the Court may grant.
FCHS students exit the school during the 17-minute ‘fire drill’ that coincided with the 17-minute national student walkouts last week. | wistv.com
WINNSBORO – Students in schools around the country, including those at Fairfield Central High School, walked out of classes at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Mar. 14 and remained outside for 17 minutes in remembrance of the 17 people recently killed at a school in Florida.
But some parents of Fairfield High School students took to Facebook claiming that the FCHS walkout was not the choice of all students and that the timing of a fire drill was contrived by the school administration to force all students to participate.
“Will the Fairfield County School Board please explain why [some] students were forced to participate in the school walkout disguised as a fire drill?” one parent wrote on School Board Chairman William Frick’s Facebook page.
“I am working to find out how this occurred,” Frick posted. “As I understand it, this was not originally intended to endorse any particular view. Unfortunately, as it transpired, it did just that. While I certainly support an individual’s right to express their political opinion, a certain political view should not be endorsed by our school as a whole. I have expressed my personal displeasure with this situation today.”
When asked for a comment, FCHS principal Tracie Swilley e-mailed the following statement to The Voice: “In an attempt to prevent a potential confrontation with students who wished to express their acknowledgement for the lives lost during the Florida tragedy, we decided to conduct our monthly fire drill. While out during the drill some students elected to discuss their concerns relating to school safety. There was no mention of politics or gun control but an opportunity for students to understand how to appropriately express their voice. Some students remained outside for several minutes after the drill, while others returned immediately.”
As parents continued to comment, one post stated: “We should not lend any validity to this thinly veiled attempt to cover this up as something that it’s not.”
By one parent’s account, some students did not want to participate, so at exactly 10 a.m., the students were alerted that a fire drill was taking place and all marched outside, ostensibly for the fire drill, and stayed outside as TV cameras from WIS-TV and WLTX-TV rolled. Then, after 17 minutes, the students returned to their classrooms.
While school officials claimed that what was perceived as a walkout was actually a fire drill, some parents who posted on Facebook and called The Voice questioned the fire drill’s timing, that it coincided to the minute with the national walking out and, in effect, forced students to participate.
“I think that’s probably what happened,” Frick said. “By doing a contemporaneous fire drill, it ended up being an actual walkout,” he said.
Frick told The Voice that he did not know who called the television stations to be at the school at the time of the fire drill.
“That was an issue I raised because I saw it was on WLTX & WIS. It was my concern,” Frick said.
“It was perceived as a political event. It’s a touchy issue and I don’t like it for the school to appear to take a side,” Frick said. “I want to be sure we have an open dialogue and that people know what’s going on…I understand the parents’ concerns. There was an implication that we need to take some corrective action and whatever we need to do we’re going to do.”
WINNSBORO – A Winnsboro man was gunned down along with two other innocent bystanders in Five Points Saturday night, following the annual St. Pat’s Day celebration.
Deal
Kidron Amaziah Deal, 20, was in a crowd that lingered after the celebration when he was shot in the face. A Hopkins man, Arthur Jones, Jr., 27, is charged with three counts of attempted murder after firing shots into the crowd. According to officials, none of the victims or the shooter knew each other.
Deal, a 2015 graduate of Fairfield Central High School, was a wide receiver for the Griffins football team.
“The kid is the epitome of a student athlete,” said coach Demetrius Davis. “He was a very good football and baseball player. However, he was a better student and an even better young man. His work ethic and smile were so contagious that it rubbed off his classmates and teammates.”
“Kidron is a great young man and we are saddened by this tragic occurrence,” Fairfield Central Superintendent Dr. J. R. Green said. “We will keep him and his family in our thoughts and prayers.”
According to a victim’s advocate during the bond hearing, Deal remains on a ventilator in critical condition.
Jones, Jr. faces three counts of attempted murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime and remains in the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center under a $3 million bond.
BLYTHEWOOD – A bakery/café business may be coming soon to downtown Blythewood in the Bookhart-Blume House at the corner of Langford and Sandfield Roads in the Town Center District.
The Bookhart-Blume house may soon become a bakery-café. | Barbara Ball
The Board of Architectural Review (BAR) held a preliminary discussion Monday evening at the request of Keefer and White Enterprises, LLC, whose members are Blythewood residents Jay and Christine Keefer, Charles White and Chanin White. They have a sales agreement with the sellers which is contingent in part on obtaining a Certificate of Appropriateness from the BAR. The building, owned by former longtime resident Dorothy Blume is a designated historical site located in the commercial district, the Town’s Planning Consultant Michael Criss said.
Jay Keefer presented the plans for the property, noting that the potential buyers want to make few changes to the structure other than adding an ADA ramp to the side of the front porch and other necessary maintenance and repairs.
“We want to preserve as much of the current building as possible,” Keefer said. “We will repaint and clean but won’t change any colors. The roof is the original tin roof and it’s in good shape. It had been painted and we plan to go back over it with a silverfish color.”
BAR Chairman Pam Dukes said the town architectural consultant, Ralph Walden, would work with the purchasers, “from the perspective of the building being something we can approve.”
Keefer said the maximum occupancy of the bakery/café would be about 15-30 people.
“We plan to be open from 6 a.m. – 4 p.m., Tuesdays through Sundays, or maybe all week. We’ll have to see,” Keefer said. He told the BAR members that he expects the bakery-café to be open by late June or earlier if possible, and gave them a sneak peak at a possible name for the business – You Bake Me Happy.
The Keefers and Whites say they expect to work out the details with Walden and be back before the BAR soon to request a Certificate of Appearance.
