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  • Rimer Pond hearing deferred

    COLUMBIA – During a Richland County Council public hearing on a request for commercial zoning on Rimer Pond Road Tuesday night, a parliamentary faux pas and a bizarre motion from the Rimer Pond Road area’s own council representative resulted in a confusing deferral to Council’s Feb. 27 meeting.

    Michael Watts addresses Richland County Council members Tuesday night.

    After an hour into the meeting that included testimony from Rimer Pond Road area residents streaming to the microphone to speak against Hugh Palmer’s request to rezone 5.23 acres on Rimer Pond Road for commercial use, Chairwoman Joyce Dickerson announced the public hearing closed and called on Councilwoman Gwen Kennedy, the representative for Rimer Pond Road, to make a motion.

    Kennedy, who in the past has voted against her constituents and in favor of Palmer’s commercial rezoning requests, made a motion that appeared to momentarily stun the audience and council members as well.

    “I’ve been listening to everything and I make a motion to deny (the rezoning request),” Kennedy said.

    Another council member seconded the motion.

    “The motion has been properly made and seconded,” Dickerson said. There was a pause as Kennedy looked toward the audience and appeared to exchange glances with Palmer.

    “I’m sorry,” Kennedy said, “I’m making a motion to defer it.”

    “You want to remove your, uh…” Dickerson said, turning to Kennedy.

    “I want to find out what people in this area want. I’m going to make a motion to defer this to the next meeting, uh, so that I can hear from some more of the residents because I’ve not heard from but a few. I’d like to hear. I move to defer this,” Kennedy said.

    Without revisiting the original motion and second as would be required by Roberts Rules, Council passed the deferral 7-3.

    “Do you want to have another public hearing?” Tracey Hegler, Director of Planning and Zoning for Richland County, asked Dickerson.

    “No, we will not have another public hearing,” Dickerson said.

    “Wait,” Hegler said. “You’re not going to have another public hearing?

    Dickerson then told a resident that there will be another public hearing, but that no one would be allowed to speak.

    While Council would not be required to allow the public to speak at a second public hearing, multiple public hearings are allowed on an issue and could be held at the discretion of Council. A vote can be taken at that meeting without allowing the public to speak if County Council so chooses.

    It was the fourth time in as many years that Palmer has requested some type of commercial zoning for the 5.23 acres at the intersection of Rimer Pond Road and Longtown Road West, across from Blythewood Middle School.

    When Palmer’s third commercial rezoning request came before Council in February 2017, Kennedy left her seat at the dais during the meeting and followed the Palmers’ lobbyist, Boyd Brown, into the hallway outside the chambers. After about five minutes they returned and Kennedy made the motion in favor of Palmer’s request. She was the only member of Council to vote in favor of the rezoning, which was denied.

    Approximately 60 residents from Rimer Pond Road, LongCreek Plantation and Eagle’s Glen neighborhoods attended Tuesday night’s meeting, but only 14 of the 32 who signed up to speak were allowed to address Council since total speaking time on the issue was limited to 30 minutes. The residents’ mantra was repeated by almost every speaker – “We don’t need it. We don’t want it.” None of the residents from the Rimer Pond Road area spoke in favor of commercial zoning on the road which is made up primarily of farms and large acre properties.

    “We are extremely opposed to this,” said Michael Watts who said his family has lived on Rimer Pond Road for generations. “Mr. Palmer made a business decision to purchase this property in about 2007 and he has made plenty of money on it. The County even bailed him out on 35 acres of it. So, as a profit motive, he’s got his profit. How about a people motive? Maybe you could do what the people want out there, which is no commercial,” Watts said.

    In 2015, the Palmers had the property listed for $350,000 per acre. After The Voice published that information, Patrick Palmer notified the newspaper to say he would no longer be listing the property.

    Palmer brought along three supporters, all in the building industry – Jacob Rabon, a civil engineer from Lexington; Bill Flowers, a developer from Columbia and Earl McLeod, with the Columbia Home Builders Association – who spoke to the advantages of commercial development in the rural area.

    Palmer‘s son, Patrick, told Council that numerous residents in the Rimer Pond Road area had called to tell him they are in favor of the rezoning, but he said they didn’t want to come out to a public meeting. At the February 2017 meeting, lobbyist Boyd Brown, speaking on behalf of the Palmers, said he had in his possession a petition with 125 signatures of people who supported commercial rezoning on Rimer Pond Road, but none of the alleged supporters showed up at that meeting.

    “Richland School District is in favor of this (rezoning),” Patrick Palmer told Council. But LongCreek Plantation resident Jerry Rega countered that claim.

    “I spoke with the administrators of both Round Top Elementary and Blythewood Middle School, and they are opposed to this commercial rezoning,” Rega said.

    “If the School District supports this commercial zoning, then I would think a representative of the District would have been here to speak in support of it,” resident Michael Lacey said.

    Palmers’ three supporters also urged Council to follow the guidance of the County’s planning staff who recommended the rezoning to both the Planning Commission and County Council. The three touted the staff’s professional perspective of the rezoning and their degrees.

    “Your planning staff, professionals in the County, that do this for a living and have degrees in this, are in favor of this as well,” Patrick Palmer told council members.

    “I urge Council to listen to your planning staff and vote in favor of this commercial rezoning,” developer Bill Flowers said.

    “Neighborhood Commercial zoning was, in fact, developed for just this type of development,” McLeod said, urging Council to follow the County’s comp plan (Comprehensive Planning Guide) that he said serves as a road map for future development.

    But several of the residents said the comp plan for future growth in the Rimer Pond area is out of sync with what the area is.

    “We’ve been coming down here for 25 years telling you want we want and it never makes its way into the comp plan,” resident Michael Watts said.

    Rega, a resident of LongCreek Plantation, also addressed the County’s comp plan, waving his copy in the air.

    “The comp plan says, specifically, that it is not intended to provide site level guidance,” Rega said. “I’m tired of people coming from outside our area claiming to know what we need,” Rega said, addressing Palmers’ Columbia and Lexington supporters from the building industry.

    “I moved here for the rural setting. It’s peaceful. It’s nice. It’s where we live. We simply have no need for commercial conveniences in our neighborhood,” Eagles Glen resident Chris Henchy said.

    “We don’t need anything but for that corner to stay a cell phone tower,” West Lake Farms resident Elizabeth Mull said. “Please don’t let this go forward. We love where we live. We don’t need commercial coming any closer.”

    Representative Joe McEachern also spoke to the quality of life the residents enjoy in their community and urged Council to consider that when they vote.

    But Hugh Palmer, who was granted his request to be allowed to have his named moved down the speaker sign-up sheet which gave him the advantage of having the last word of all the speakers, encouraged Council to vote for his commercial rezoning request, saying the area is changing.

    “Whether folks in the area desire that or not, the area is changing,” Hugh Palmer said.

    The next public hearing on the commercial rezoning request will be held in council chambers at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 27. To request an emailed packet for that meeting, call 803-576-2174 the week prior to the meeting.

  • Citizens sue to stop SCE&G dividend payouts

    WINNSBORO – Eleven Fairfield County residents in a lawsuit filed against SCANA/SCE&G in August, have filed a motion in the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court to have a state judge order a freeze of SCANA/SCE&G’s next dividend payment which is scheduled for Jan. 1.

    “If a judge doesn’t freeze SCANA’s assets, it will pay out $87.3 million on Jan. 1 to shareholders,” Creighton Coleman, one of the attorney for the plaintiffs, said.

    In their motion, the plaintiffs’ request that any dividends paid out be paid into a trust account until the plaintiffs’ lawsuit is resolved. The motion contends that the money from dividend payments to shareholders should be preserved so that sufficient assets will be available for potential liabilities.

    The lawsuit also seeks to have the court freeze assets of the company related to the nuclear plant project.

    The lawsuit alleges that the companies “knew years before abandoning the project that the project was not feasible; not subject to a detailed construction schedule; not a good investment of the ratepayer’s money, over budget; and failing.”

    The plaintiffs allege that SCANA/SCE&G charged customers up to $1 billion over the years for its failed nuclear expansion project and seeks to recover money for all of the company’s ratepayers in the Columbia and Charleston areas.

    The lawsuit alleges 11 causes of action, including waste, breach of fiduciary duty, negligence and fraud. It accuses the companies of unjust enrichment for receiving profits from the project “since the project was not completed and the plaintiffs were not provided with any value from the project.”

    In addition to Coleman, other lawyers for the plaintiffs include Ed Bell of Georgetown, Greg Galvin of Bluffton and State Sen. Vincent Sheheen, D-Kershaw.

  • Arrest made in hit and run

    WINNSBORO – A Columbia man charged in a fatal Fairfield County hit-and-run appeared in bond court on Friday morning.

    Jenkins

    Brian Jenkins, 41, was released on a $50,000 bond after he was charged with a hit-and-run resulting in death.

    Troopers with the South Carolina Highway Patrol said Jenkins was the driver of a white, four-door Nissan that is believed to be involved in the hit-and-run collision that killed 40-year-old Lamont Andre Jackson on Tuesday, Dec. 12.

  • County to see SCE&G in court Friday

    WINNSBORO – A lawsuit filed on Nov. 29 by the attorneys for Fairfield County for a temporary injunction against SCE&G/SCANA is scheduled to be heard in Common Pleas Court in Winnsboro on Friday.

    The suit calls for the immediate issuance of a temporary injunction based on SCE&G/SCANA’s failure to comply with the terms of the County’s fee-in-lieu contract with SCE&G/SCANA, and also an immediate, temporary restraining order to prevent SCE&G from abandoning the project at V.C. Summer nuclear plant and not protecting the assets at the plant.

    The lawsuit alleges breach of contract, fraud, negligent misrepresentation, breach of fiduciary duty and unfair trade practices.

    The County claims that SCE&G/SCANA’s expressed intention to abandon the project and dispose of the properties, plus abandoning regulatory permits and licenses by year’s end in order to gain a tax advantage, will deprive the County of determining what potential tax and license fees are or could be due from the property within its jurisdiction and may leave dangerous or potentially dangerous conditions to the County’s citizens.

    The suit contends that if regulatory permits or licenses are abandoned, that may deprive the County of the benefit of others completing the project and assuming SCE&G’s obligations to the County per the parties’ agreement.

    In a statement issued on Nov. 21, the County stated that, in July of 2010, the County and SCE&G entered into a fee-in-lieu of taxes agreement. That gave the utility preferential tax treatment by the County in exchange for future payments of fees by SCE&G to the County once the new nuclear units were generating power.

    In reliance on the agreement, according to the statement, Fairfield County undertook a number of long term financial obligations including the issuance of $24 million in bonds to finance multiple construction projects and upgrades in anticipation of SCE&G’s operation of the plants.

    The County states that SCE&G’s decision to abandon the projects has left the County with significant obligations that would not have been undertaken but for the company’s representations to the County, according to the statement.

    Also, according to the statement, the decision will cost the County millions of dollars of lost revenue from the abandonment of the fee in lieu of taxes agreement.

    “The Council owes it to the citizens of our County to do whatever we can to recoup the financial losses created by SCE&G’s decision to abandon the project,” Smith said. “The goal of this litigation is to get the County closer to the position it would have been in had SCE&G/SCANA acted in good faith, diligently completed these projects and not chosen to abandon the construction of the plants,” Smith said.

  • Rimer Pond vs. Palmer Tuesday night

    BLYTHEWOOD – The zoning fate of the Rimer Pond Road area will once again be in the hands of Richland County Council as members cast their votes Tuesday night on whether the road will become commercial or remain rural. The hearing was scheduled for October, but land owner Hugh Palmer who is requesting the rezoning, asked to have the hearing rescheduled for Dec. 19. Many of those who oppose the rezoning say that date could favor Palmer if many of the families who usually show up at Council to speak out against the rezoning are out of town due to the schools’ Christmas break which begins Dec. 16.

    For almost a quarter century, Rimer Pond Road area residents have fought to keep commercial zoning out of their neighborhood. Hugh Palmer and his son Patrick Palmer, who live in Columbia, are among a long string of developers/land speculators to repeatedly ask County Council for commercial zoning on the road.

    For the past three years, the Palmers have requested commercial zoning on 5.23 acres of land they own at the intersection of Longtown Road West and Rimer Pond Road. The property sits across the road from Blythewood Middle School.

    There is no commercial zoning on the road.

    “For the Palmers, a lot of money is riding on the success of this request…maybe as much as $2M, maybe more,” Rimer Pond Road resident Trey Hair told County Council earlier this year. “There’s no money in it for the residents. All we want is to just to be able to maintain our rural way of life, what we moved out here for.  Once the first commercial zoning request is approved, they will start coming down like dominoes along Rimer Pond Road.”

    The commercial issue

    The Palmers say they want to bring commercial uses to benefit the neighborhood. The residents responded that they don’t need those commercial uses and don’t want them.

    Residents say commercial uses in neighboring areas have brought crime and more commercial zoning, and that many of those commercial buildings are frequently vacant. They have given examples of gunshots being fired at nearby convenience store/gas stations.

    Residents told Richland County Planning Commissioners earlier in October that the Neighborhood Commercial (NC) zoning the Palmers seek on Rimer Pond Road would allow a convenience store with gas pumps in the midst of their residential and farm properties, bringing crime to the neighborhood. The Commissioners assured them that convenience stores with gas pumps are not allowed in NC zoning. However, Richland county Planning Director Geonard Price said the residents were correct, that convenience stores with gas pumps will be permitted on the Palmers’ 5.23 acres if it is rezoned to NC.

    Although there is currently no other commercial zoning in the area, the County’s planning staff recommended that the Planning Commission vote for the rezoning, saying it “would be consistent with the intentions of the 2015 Comprehensive Plan and that it would not be out of character with the existing surrounding development pattern and zoning districts for the area. According to the County zoning ordinances, the property, as it is now zoned, is also consistent with the intentions of the Comp Plan. The residents say the only reason to change the zoning to commercial is for the Palmers to enrich their coffers at the expense of the neighborhood’s quality of life.

    While the Comprehensive Plan specifies that the NC zoning district is designed to be located within or adjacent to residential neighborhoods where large commercial uses are inappropriate, but where small neighborhood oriented businesses are useful and desired, Rimer Pond Road area residents say such commercial uses are not desired by the residents, and that to vote for them would only be accommodating developers, not the people who live there.

    “After Council defeated the Palmers’ last commercial zoning request on Rimer Pond Road in February, Ashley Powell, Manager of Richland County Planning Services, was quoted as saying, “Right now in some areas, like Rimer Pond Road, the people who live there are not liking what the County has planned for their area in terms of zoning.

    “If we want to protect the character of the neighborhood that the people moved out there for,” Powell said, “we need to amend (the Richland County comp plan) based on the feedback we get from the people.”

    While Powell set up several meetings to gather that feedback, 10 months later the County has still not issued any reports on the results of those meetings. According to Tracey Hegler, Director of Planning and Development for Richland County, those reports won’t be made available until around February, 2018, long after Council votes on whether to establish commercial zoning on Rimer Pond Road. So the results of the meetings are being held up by the County planning staff until after they could be of any benefit to the areas (including Rimer Pond Road) that they are supposed to protect.

    Just before the Planning Commission voted earlier this month on the Palmers’ commercial zoning request, Commissioner Heather Carnes confessed that she had been leaning toward voting for Neighborhood Commercial zoning this time because she’s a city girl and appreciates what she feels NC zoning can generally do for rural communities who desire commercial uses.

    “Even so,” she said, “in this particular situation, given what Rimer Pond Road is and that there is no commercial zoning for, like, forever, in this area, I am going to vote against this request for commercial zoning.”

    While Commissioner Beverly Frierson voted in favor of the Palmers and against the residents as did David Tuttle, Christopher Anderson and Planning Commission Chair Stephen Gilchrist, the motion for commercial zoning ended in a tie vote which meant it failed to pass. As a result, no recommendation, for or against, will be sent to Council when it meets Tuesday evening, Dec. 19, at 7 p.m. at County Council chambers in the County building at Hampton and Hardin Streets in Columbia.

    Those wishing to speak for or against the commercial zoning request must arrive a few minutes early to sign in. Council will have three votes on the issue. If at any of the three meetings they vote against the rezoning, then the issue will be denied.

    The 5.23 acre parcel at Rimer Pond and Longtown West roads was part of a larger 31.23 acre tract the Palmers purchased in February of 2008. In December of 2008, the family wanted a different zoning and asked County Council to rezone the parcel from Rural (RU) to Medium Density Residential (RS-MD). Council granted their wish, and the Palmers sold off all but the 5.23 acres to developer Kevin Steelman, president of LandTech, who subsequently built homes on the property.

    By June, 2015, the Palmers wanted to up-zone the 5/23 acres and asked Council to rezone it – this time, from Medium Density Residential (RS-MD) to Rural Commercial zoning (RC). Palmer listed the 5.23 acres for $350,000 per acre. When it was apparent to the Palmers that they did not have the vote over a large contingent of Rimer Pond Road residents at the June 23, 2015 County Council meeting, they withdrew their rezoning request prior to the meeting.

    Five months later, the Palmers brought their request for commercial zoning back to County Council, this time complaining that the 5.23 acre parcel was undesirable as residential property because it had a cell tower on it. But the cell tower had been on the property when they purchased it. Council’s vote ended in a tie resulting in a denial of the Palmer’s rezoning request.

    Last Feb. 23, the Palmer’s again asked Council for commercial zoning on the 5.23 acre parcel. More than a hundred residents attended the County Council hearing to ask that their neighborhood be spared from the Palmer’s commercial zoning request. In a bold display of bias, the road’s own Council representative, Gwen Kennedy, left her chair at the dais during the meeting, walked outside the chambers with Boyd Brown, a lobbyist hired by the Palmers to persuade Council to vote for commercial zoning.  After about 10 minutes, the two came back in to the meeting. Kennedy took her seat at the dais and subsequently made the motion to approve the Palmers’ commercial zoning request. The motion failed as she was the only one who voted for it.

    Kennedy did not attend a community meeting on Oct. 18 in Blythewood that was called by the residents. Instead, Calvin Jackson met with the residents to hear their concerns.

    What businesses are allowed outright on the 5.23 acres under the Neighborhood Commercial zoning designation?

    • Convenience Store with gas pumps
    • Liquor Store
    • Tobacco Store
    • Bar and Other Drinking Place
    • Auto Dealership
    • Laundry and Dry Cleaner
    • General Merchandise Store
    • Grocery Store
    • Cigar Bar
    • And more…

  • Winnsboro man jailed for attempted murder

    WINNSBORO – The Fairfield County Sheriff’s office charged James Ruben Woodard, 29, with attempted murder after witnesses say he shot at a man who Woodard and another unidentified man had been arguing with. The incident occurred about 2 a.m., Nov. 25.

    The victim reported that he had accused the unidentified man of stealing vehicles and other items from a yard on Ramble Drive.

    Woodard

    The incident report states that Woodard began defending the accused thief, then pulled a gun on the victim who tried to grab the gun from Woodard.

    Unsuccessful in disarming Woodard, the victim ran into another yard. Witnesses told deputies that Woodard then got into a grey Mustang and pulled up onto Ramble Drive. The report states that Woodard again presented a gun and began firing on the victim. The victim stated that he ran and that Woodard pulled out of a driveway at a high rate of speed, then fled the scene in the vehicle going toward State Highway 269.

    The victim stated that he believes the other man he was arguing with fled the scene on foot into the woods.

    A bullet was recovered from a vehicle on scene and there was damage reported to other vehicles as well as to the residence on the Ramble Drive property where the shooting took place.

    Woodard was arrested Dec. 7, and a judge denied bond to Woodard on that same date. He is being held at the Fairfield County Detention Center.

  • Updated: Pedestrian Hit and Run Fatality

    WINNSBORO – The Fairfield County Coroner’s Office, along with the South Carolina Highway Patrol, are investigating a pedestrian fatality, which occurred on Hwy. 34, in Fairfield County at approximately 7 a.m., Dec. 12.

    Coroner Chris Hill states that Lamont Andre Jackson, age 40, of 410 Palmer Street in Winnsboro died from injuries received when he was struck by an oncoming vehicle.

    At this time the Coroner’s Office is seeking information on a 4-door Nissan, white in color with damage to the front end of the vehicle.

    The incident remains under investigation by the Fairfield County Coroner’s Office and South Carolina Highway Patrol.

    Troopers are asking anyone with information about the collision or about the vehicle of interest to contact the South Carolina Highway Patrol at (803) 896-9621 or 1-800-768-1501.

  • FMH funds dwindling

    WINNSBORO – Even as Fairfield Memorial Hospital sheds departments and services in the hope of remaining afloat, the Board of Trustees continued to grapple with the reality of its cash shortages during the Nov. 27 Finance and Audit Committee meeting.

    “The overriding theme here is that while we made some hard decisions the last meeting, our cash flow is still very troubling,” Finance Committee Chairman Randy Bright said. “We’ve got more work to do to stabilize our cash flow.”

    In a special called meeting Nov. 7 the Board voted to close the Blue Granite Medical Center, the Caring Neighbors home health service and the hospital-based cardiac rehab program.

    The hospital is still getting less money in the door, especially in its emergency department, which exacerbates its cash shortage. Chief Financial Officer Timothy Mitchell explained why patient collections are decreasing.

    “We are doing less of the more profitable books of business/services such as imaging and rehab and more of the unprofitable books of business such as the ED (emergency department),” Mitchell said.

    Second, he said the ED is getting more Medicaid and self-pay patients.

    “Medicaid pays less than private insurance companies, and patients who are self-pay often don’t have any health insurance at all,” he said.

    Finally, the hospital is seeing more denials because of not meeting medical necessity.  When a patient seeks primary care in an emergency room and does not present with a true emergency, the insurance company will not pay the hospital claim.”

    Mitchell also pointed out that the last time the hospital received state DHS (disproportionate share) and county funds was the first week in July 2017, when they had 22.5 days cash on hand.  By October this had shrunk to 9.6 days cash on hand.

    While the hospital does have enough funds to pay its key vendors and staff, Mitchell said, “We won’t have a whole lot of cash once those checks clear”.

    Mitchell also pointed out the cost savings he expected would accrue with the elimination of Blue Granite, home health, and the other departments. For example, while the expenses last month of running these departments were more than $96,000, they took in only $47,000 in revenues.

    “However, even taking these savings into account,” Mitchell said, “We are still looking at a large cash loss over the next 12 months…as best we can project”

    The hospital’s operating expenses were 66.8 percent of revenue in October, 2016. These increased to 71.5 percent in October 2017.

    The hospital experienced a net loss of $273,351 for October 2017; this did not include any bad debt recoveries.  Both the October and the November GEAR and tax set off payments will be reflected in the November financials, Mitchell said.  Daily gross patient revenue was also off in October, down to $39,578 from $45,227 the previous month and from more than $51,000 per day in October of last year.

    At Mitchell’s suggestion, the Board moved $125,000 of the $517,000 in Board-restricted cash to the hospital’s operating fund. Board-restricted cash is money the Board has previously set aside and that the hospital cannot use without the Board’s permission.

    “It would be difficult to get through December without tapping into these reserves,” Mitchell said.

    Also based on a recommendation from the Finance and Audit Committee, the Board approved an increase in the prices charged by the hospital based on a charge master review that was completed last year. This would result in an overall 17 percent increase in FMH charges.

    Hospital CEO Suzanne Doscher updated the Board on the closing Blue Granite and the FMH’s home health and cardiac rehab services. She said physicians and patients have been provided with notifications about the closure, and the goal is to complete care or transition care to other providers by year end, Doscher said.

    The five employees who are losing their jobs have been formally notified with letters, she said, and the hospital is actively helping them find new jobs.

    No nurses have been notified yet since the hospital is working with them to see who can fill vacant positions within the ER, she said. The transition will be finalized within the year, Doscher said.

    The Board also heard a presentation from Dawn Catalano, the executive director of the FMH Foundation.  She reported that since its inception in 2010-2011, the Foundation has donated $418,090 in total contributions – cash, grants, and items – to the hospital.

    Finally, the Board approved two motions after coming out of executive session:

    Approved the Hospital Transformation Agreement (Nov. 20, 2017) which would supersede the Board’s prior approval of the Hospital Transformation Agreement (Oct. 5, 2017), and

    Authorized Board Chair Catherine Fantry to sign the Hospital Transformation Agreement on behalf of the Fairfield Memorial Hospital Board of Trustees.

  • Winnsboro man charged with child pornography

    Pearson

    COLUMBIA – South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Raymonte Terrial Pearson (age 19) of Winnsboro, S.C., on ten charges connected to the exploitation of a minor.  Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Attorney General’s Office made the arrest.  Investigators with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office, both also members of the state’s ICAC Task Force, assisted with the search and arrest.

    Investigators received a CyberTipline report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) which led them to Pearson. Investigators state Pearson possessed multiple images of child pornography.

    Pearson was arrested on November 29, 2017. He is charged with ten counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, third degree (§16-15-410), a felony offense punishable by up to ten years imprisonment on each count.

    The case will be prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office.

     

  • Wildfire doused near Ashley Oaks

    BLYTHEWOOD – Much of Blythewood was blanketed in smoke last Thursday when a wildfire that was described as low-intensity spread over approximately 50 acres just north of Ashley Oaks.

    Several firefighters, a brush truck and an engine were sent from Columbia. The South Carolina Forestry Commission also assisted, bulldozing firebreaks around the northern and western sides of the fire. Fire officials said no homes were threatened, and the fire was contained.

    The cause of the fire is undetermined until the investigated is completed, officials said.