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  • Business Fights for Full Color

    BAR Reviews Sno-Cone Stand

    A Pelican SnoBalls stand in Forest Acres, similar to what franchise owners are looking to bring to Blythewood.
    A Pelican SnoBalls stand in Forest Acres, similar to what franchise owners are looking to bring to Blythewood.

    BLYTHEWOOD (Sept. 29, 2016) – Bryan Keller, owner of ice specialty stores in Elgin and Columbia, appeared before the Board of Architectural Review on Sept. 19 to find out if Board members would approve the use of several different bright colors on the exterior of a building the franchise hopes to rent on Wilson Boulevard near the intersection of Rimer Pond Road.

    Keller said he had been discouraged last year by Town Hall zoning officials from trying to open a Pelican’s SnoBalls franchise in downtown Blythewood because of the company’s required bright purple, pink and blue building colors.

    Town Administrator Gary Parker explained that the colors weren’t the only problem, that the business would also require a zoning change to at least Multi-Neighborhood Commercial (MC) if it locates on the Wilson Boulevard property. Several residents from nearby Rimer Pond Road who oppose commercial zoning in the area were in attendance.

    “It was made clear to us that the location in downtown was not going to happen,” Keller told the Board. “So we’ve expanded our search (for a building).”

    Keller said he’s considering the former 3-G Windows and Doors building that was renovated about five years ago. The building is located at 10713 Wilson Blvd.

    BAR members, who are charged with safeguarding the town’s aesthetics, took a collective deep breath when Keller passed around photos of the proposed color options.

    “The 3-G building has a very nice renovation,” Board member David Shand pointed out, “and I think your color scheme would take away from the look.”

    After much discussion about the colors which all concerned, including the Pelican representatives, agreed were garish, Matt Marcom, the Pelican SnoBalls franchise representative, weighed in.

    “There is some flexibility with the color. We can’t change the color scheme, but we can change where the colors go, the amount of color and saturation levels. So if we can compromise, the color combination makes up our trade dress. It’s meant to stand out,” Marcom said about the bright colors. “I think it’s good looking.”

    “The town’s requirements say unusual or attention-grabbing colors are not permitted,” Chairman Gale Coston said, reading from the ordinance.

    “But it’s supposed to be (attention grabbing),” Marcom said. “Could we get a variance?”

    “We worked for two and a half years with Hardees to get the colors right,” Coston said. “For us to make an exception like this would be defenseless.”

    “But this is not in the Town Center,” Keller countered. “It is in an area where the rules are more relaxed. It’s not on Blythewood Road. It’s next to a farm.”

    After Keller was reminded by a Board member that, “Some of us live on farms,” another Board member, Jim McLean, added, “It is the gateway to the town and the entrance to Rimer Pond Road. I don’t think this Board can maintain its continuity and approve these colors.”

    With that, Marcom backed down, suggesting he could possibly get approval (from his company) for a white building with only brightly colored trim work, wall menus and signage.

    “I understand. What you’re trying to prevent is what we’re trying to bring in,” Marcom said.

    Coston agreed that some compromise was possible and suggested Keller schedule a formal presentation to the Board outlining their plans, including landscape, lighting and parking lot paving for the Board to review. But McLean suggested Keller might want to be sure he could get the zoning before going to the trouble of preparing a presentation for the BAR.

    Asked by Keller if he thought the Town would agree to rezone the property from its current Multi-Neighborhood Office (MO) designation to Multi-Neighborhood Commercial (MC) designation, Parker said that would be up to Council.

    The properties on all sides of the 3-G property are currently zoned Rural (RU). Dawson’s Pond, a residential neighborhood, borders the back side of the property.

    Asked if he wanted to speak to the issue, Michael Watts said he and other Rimer Pond Road neighbors in attendance shared the Board’s concerns about the colors.

    “But our biggest concern is up-zoning the property to a commercial designation that will lead to even more up-zoning. We’re opposed to commercial zoning in this area,” Watts said.

    The next Board of Architectural Review is Oct. 17.

     

  • Fairfield Celebrates

    Rock Around the Clock beauties crowned during a pageant on Saturday at Fairfield Central High School include, standing: Young Miss Abigail Shaw; Preteen Miss Sara Denise Pullen, Teen Miss Ja’Niya Martise, Miss Rock Around the Clock Cali Ann Swearingen and Ms. RATC Amy Rose Calixto. Front: Little Miss Alexis Blair Montgomery and Wee Miss Molliegh Rose Talbert. Not shown: Baby Miss Anna-Leigh Hill and Toddler Miss Mason Cardon. Kylie Allene Jordan was named Miss Photogenic.
    Rock Around the Clock beauties crowned during a pageant on Saturday at Fairfield Central High School include, standing: Young Miss Abigail Shaw; Preteen Miss Sara Denise Pullen, Teen Miss Ja’Niya Martise, Miss Rock Around the Clock Cali Ann Swearingen and Ms. RATC Amy Rose Calixto. Front: Little Miss Alexis Blair Montgomery and Wee Miss Molliegh Rose Talbert. Not shown: Baby Miss Anna-Leigh Hill and Toddler Miss Mason Cardon. Kylie Allene Jordan was named Miss Photogenic.

    WINNSBORO/RIDGEWAY – This weekend will be jam-packed with festivals and activities in Winnsboro and Ridgeway for the whole family. On Friday, the Fairfield Memorial Hospital Foundation hosts their annual BBQ, Bluegrass & Blue Jeans benefit at The Farm at Ridgeway from 6 to 9 p.m. Winnsboro and the Fairfield County Chamber of Commerce will also be hosting the 20th Annual Rock Around the Clock two-day extravaganza starting Friday from 7 to 11 p.m. and continuing on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

    BBQ, Bluegrass & Blue Jeans

    BBB Guests usually begin arriving early at The Farm, many dressed to the nines in boots and jeans, for the fundraiser sponsored by the Fairfield Memorial Hospital’s Foundation Board. Now in its fourth consecutive year, the BBB features not only great barbecue and bands but a silent auction and door prizes. Heyward Mattox will be on hand again this year auctioning off everything from signed footballs to high dollar vacations. Proceeds will go to buying equipment for Fairfield Memorial Hospital.

    “We wanted to do something a little different and new and more casual and during a time of year that’s not as busy as the holidays,” Dawn Catalano, Executive Director of the Fairfield Memorial Hospital Foundation, said. “People love barbecue and Bluegrass, so it was a good combination. It was just so popular that everyone wanted to do it again.”

    Rock Around the Clock

    Executive Director of the Fairfield Chamber of Commerce, Terry Vickers, recalls how, 20 years ago, she helped organize The Rock Around The Clock Festival after word spread that Walmart was coming to town.

    “Our small businesses were worried,” she recalled, “fearful of how it would affect their stores and shops, their lives.”

    This year, Walmart is gone, but the festival is going strong and continues to promote the County’s local businesses and community.

    “I think the biggest thrill for me, after all of the work we put into it, is seeing everybody coming together and having a good time,” Vickers said. “If we could come together and interact with each other every day like we do for those two days for Rock Around the Clock, oh what a happy world this would be.” Friday evening is for partying in the street and Saturday is for shopping, live stage entertainment and one of the top car shows in the Southeast.

    “It’s definitely a don’t-miss event,” Vickers said. “We’re looking forward to a beautiful weekend.”

  • Expect Delays as Pipeline Work Continues

    The 2-1/2 foot sewer line being constructed for Palmetto Utilities along Langford Road will accommodate growth in Blythewood and the surrounding county.
    The 2-1/2 in diameter sewer line being constructed for Palmetto Utilities along Langford Road will accommodate growth in Blythewood and the surrounding county.

    BLYTHEWOOD – Palmetto Utilities recently started construction on a new 2-1/2 foot diameter force main sewer line along Langford Road that is not only causing traffic slowdowns just north of downtown Blythewood, but is a sign of things to come for Blythewood – growth. And the local construction is part of a much larger growth plan for the county.

    “The sewer line begins at the intersection of Longtown Road and Highway 555, and will eventually end at the Palmetto Utilities waste treatment plant on High- way Church Road in Elgin,” Andrena Powell-Baker, Senior Manager for Community Relations and Development at Palmetto Utilities, said in an email to The Voice.

    “We anticipate the construction along Langford Road to be completed within the next 45-60 days,” Powell-Baker said.

    The overall sewer line route will follow several different roads, Powell- Baker explained, beginning on Highway 555 at Longtown Road and running north along Highway 21, then following under a giant power line as it goes cross country to Langford Road where the gi- ant pipes are currently being buried.

    The map below shows the route of the sewer line continuing all the way to Two Notch Road and ending at the Highway Church Road treatment plant.

    sewer-map-conv

    “The first section will serve all of our Palmetto Richland County area. Once you get to Kelly Mill Road, the Kelly Mill pump station, which serves Blythewood, LongCreek and Lake Carolina, will also pump into the line,” Powell-Baker said.

    While the Langford Road construction may cause headaches for commuters now, the construction will soon change route and continue along Highway 21.

    “There may be some minor construction traffic issues in and around Blythewood for a short time,” Powell-Baker said.

    Construction on the sewer line results from the steady population increase and the expected growth in Blythewood and surrounding areas. A new high school is scheduled to be built on property owned by Richland School District Two at the corner of Grover Wilson Road and Langford Road. The high school is scheduled to be completed for the 2024-25 school year, the District’s Director of Planning Will Anderson told The Voice.

    “We have seen a large influx in building permits and new residential construction over the last three years,” Kirk Wilson, Director of Permits and Licenses for the Town of Blythewood, said.

    According to Wilson, the Town of Blythewood’s building permits more than doubled from 2012 to 2013, going from 53 to 123 permits. Since 2013, permit numbers have stayed consistently in the hundreds.

    “There have already been 111 residential building permits issued this year,” Wilson said.

    Powell-Baker told The Voice the entire project should be completed by March.

  • Ridgeway Icon on Last Legs

    Council is seeking grant funds to replace its aging water tank.
    Council is seeking grant funds to replace its aging water tank.

    RIDGEWAY (Sept. 22, 2016) – The iconic Ridgeway water tank may soon be relegated to the scrap yard, or at best to the grounds of the old school property for use as a photo backdrop. The one thing that is certain, Town Council said during their Sept. 8 meeting, is that its days as a fully functioning 75,000-gallon storage tank are all but over.

    Council voted unanimously last week to apply for a Rural Infrastructure Authority grant to help cover the cost of replacing the tank, an endeavor that could run to nearly $600,000.

    The price of a new elevated tank alone, Councilman Doug Porter said during the meeting, is $446,000. Piping will add another $35,000, while removal of the existing tank will add $15,000. With a 10-percent contingency built in, he said, the total cost of the project could cost up to $598,000.

    “We looked at this for over a year or more, and made this a priority this year,” Mayor Charlene Herring said. “A review from an outside agency concluded that there were so many things in disrepair. One, you can’t fill the tank – it’s a 75,000-gallon tank – you can’t fill it to the top because of the leaks. We don’t have safety ladders, it needs to be painted again. We had it cleaned inside twice, what they call waxing, but you cannot do that anymore, it has to be (sand) blasted. Once you sand blast something that was built in 1922, there will be more holes. So we believe it is the best option to purchase a new tank.”

    In order to receive the grant, Herring said, the application for which was due Tuesday, the Town would have to commit to at most $97,950 to cover the engineering fee, the contingency, permitting and geotechnical services.

    Councilwoman Angela Harrison suggested moving the old tank to the school grounds as a kind of museum piece. Councilman Donald Prioleau said he didn’t want the Town to overcommit to other grants while the water tank was clearly Ridgeway’s top priority.

    Council had previously during the meeting agreed to apply for a Department of Tourism grant to construct a playground at the old school. That grant – for $80,250 – would require a 20-percent match. Also on the agenda was a Municipal Association economic development grant of $25,000, which Herring said could be used to make repairs to the police station, sidewalks and the school arch. That grant requires a 5-percent match.

    “What I’m hearing, we’ve got a lot of grants,” Prioleau said. “Some of them are matching, like 20 percent. I think we need to make this water project a priority.”

    But Herring said the match for the Department of Tourism grant was being provided in part by $16,050 given to the Town by the Pulpwood Committee. It was hoped that the remainder, she said, would come from a County grant. County Council’s Administrative and Finance Committee, however, nixed that idea during their Sept. 12 meeting.

    The Municipal Association grant, Herring said, could be matched either with cash or “in-kind,” with labor for the projects provided by the Town or donated by local businesses.

    Council gave the OK to apply for all three grants. Matching funds for the water tank grant would come from cashing in part of the Town’s Certificate of Deposit.

     

  • Phillips Granite Co. Enters New Era

    Grady Phillips with the last load of granite to leave his shop.
    Grady Phillips with the last load of granite to leave his shop.

    WINNSBORO (Sept. 16, 2016) – After 83 years in business, Phillips Granite Company has decided to partner with Gulden Monuments of York County. The granite company has been in the family for three generations and was the last monument manufacturer in South Carolina.

    “My grandfather moved here in 1933 and started his own granite business and saw it as an opportunity,” manager Grady Phillips said. “I learned (the business) from my father who engaged in the business all his life, and we worked side by side for three decades together.”

    Phillips said he has known the owners of Gulden Monuments for many years and has always thought highly of them.

    “Now it’s time to finish up the remaining manufacturing orders and move onto the next chapter,” Phillips said. “That’s just the economics in the way of business these days. I didn’t have a successor in my family that wanted to continue the business. Now the business will be able to continue after I retire, and hopefully after I die.”

    Phillips said this merger will have little outward change for the public, however. The business will stay in the same location and clients will still come to the office to place their orders. The only major change is that Phillips Granite will be working strictly in sales and services, not in manufacturing.

    “You’ll see the same two ladies at the front, and you’ll still see me there. I’ll still be a manager of the granite company,” Phillips said. “We are very blessed and I thank the Lord every day that we have been able to do this for 83 years. We’re still in business and we appreciate all the support from the community.”

     

  • Reunion Honors Family History

    Nancy Juanita Thompson, named for her grandmother and Thompson family matriarch, Nancy Thompson, places flowers on the grave of her father, Ed Brice Thompson (one of Nancy’s sons) last weekend during the first reunion of the Thompson descendants in Blair. (Photo/Barbara Ball)
    Nancy Juanita Thompson, named for her grandmother and Thompson family matriarch, Nancy Thompson, places flowers on the grave of her father, Ed Brice Thompson (one of Nancy’s sons) last weekend during the first reunion of the Thompson descendants in Blair. (Photo/Barbara Ball)

    BLAIR (Sept. 9, 2016) – In 1886, Bun and Nancy Thompson married and started a life together in Blair. Last week, more than 100 descendants of the couple’s 12 children gathered together in Blair for the first ever Bun and Nancy Thompson Family Reunion.

    Thompson and his wife were hard working and cared for the community, according to a reunion document prepared by one of their granddaughters, Emily Thompson Haley of Blythewood. Determined to make a name for themselves in the segregated Southern community, the two newlyweds taught themselves to read and write. Both worked as share croppers for Jimmy Frazier Sr. until Bun Thompson was able to buy 300 acres of land from Frazier to start his own farm. Thompson was the first African-American in Fairfield County to own land, Haley said.

    Nancy Thompson made a name for herself in her own right, playing a prominent role in the Blair community as the local midwife.

    “They referred to her as the Florence Nightingale of her time. She would get on her horse and ride to deliver babies and provide medical services to the ill. Most of it free of charge,” Sherry Fears, the family historian, said.

    The Thompsons diligently gave back to the community, whether it was helping the ill for free or giving food to the less fortunate and selling supplies on the open market, Fears said. Nancy Thompson organized the Women’s Humble Burial Aid Society in Fairfield County to ensure families in the community had enough money for a proper funeral for their loved ones. Her husband mortgaged his house and land to build Blair’s Gethsemane Baptist Church.

    “My great-grandfather [Bun] helped build that church,” Fears said. So it was fitting that the descendants of Bun and Nancy Thompson first gathered at the Gethsemane Baptist Church where the foundation of the community met the cornerstones of the family’s bloodline.

    Following Bun Thompson’s legacy as someone who broke boundaries and strove to be a wholesome and righteous man, one of the Thompson’s grandchildren, Herman Young, also became a pillar of the Fairfield community. He became the first African-American Sheriff of Fairfield County and served for 22 years. Upon his retirement, Gov. Nikki Haley bestowed upon Sheriff Young the highest honor that can be presented by the Governor’s Office: The Order of the Palmetto.

    The descendants of this prominent family, known for their generosity to their community, celebrated their achievements and historical breakthroughs during the three-day reunion. It began with a Sunday church service at Gethsemane Baptist Church followed by a visit to the family cemetery adjacent to the church to remember Bun, Nancy and other family members who are buried there. They then embarked on a tour of the Thompson homestead in Blair and spent the afternoon at a cookout on Weston Lake in Columbia where they enjoyed lots of good food and entertainment by a James Brown impersonator.

    The Thompson relatives spent Sunday in high spirits as they learned more about their own history and built bonds to last a lifetime. The next reunion is planned for 2018.

     

  • Big Grab Gets Bigger

    Bargain Hunting Begins Friday

    BLYTHEWOOD/FAIRFIELD (Sept. 8, 2016) – With a name like “The Big Grab,” one would have to imagine the event has considerable scope. After all, the word “Big” is right there in the name of the event.

    But this weekend’s curbside crawl of yard sales might have been better dubbed “The Bigger Grab.”

    Shoppers at last year's Big Grab search for deals.
    Shoppers at last year’s Big Grab search for deals.

    The event that links Blythewood, Ridgeway and Winnsboro in a network of yard sales has grown and expanded this year to include more of Richland County and will run all the way to Newberry.

    “It started out at 25 miles as a way to bring people into our communities and to enjoy small towns again, as well as a way to help our citizens put a little money in their pockets,” Terry Vickers, President of the Fairfield County Chamber of Commerce, said. “Now we’re in our fifth year and it is up to 85 miles.”

    Vendors will be out trolling the roadsides from sunrise to sunset this Friday and Saturday along a route that beings at Exit 71 on I-20 and travels up Highway 21 into Blythewood and on to Ridgeway. From Ridgeway, shoppers can follow Highway 34 to Winnsboro, where sales will stretch along Highway 321 Business and the 321 Bypass, looping back to Highway 34 and running all the way to Exit 74 at I-26 near Newberry.

    The event was the brainchild of Ridgeway merchant Denise Jones, Vickers said, who saw the success of Ridgeway’s semi-annual sidewalk sales and envisioned a chain of similar sales running for miles along the open road. Since its inception, The Big Grab has not only drawn shoppers into local businesses, it has also drawn vendors from as far away as New Jersey, Vickers said.

    The event has also been a boon to local churches, who have capitalized on The Big Grab as a major annual fundraiser – not only selling their own wares, but also renting out prime selling space to vendors who otherwise would not have had a spot along the route. First United Methodist Church in Winnsboro has set the bar for other churches, raising approximately $5,000 last year.

    Vendors will begin trickling into the area soon, Vickers said, setting up Thursday evening so they will be ready for the first light of dawn on Friday. Shoppers will just have to stand by and wait until day breaks.

    “It’s exciting,” Vickers said. “My phone has been ringing off the hook!”

     

  • Shell Building Becoming Reality

    After reworking the original concept and a project re-bid, ground was finally broken last week on Blythewood’s shell building. Digging in at Doko Meadows last Wednesday are: Larry Griffin, Town Councilman; Ed Parler, Economic Development Consultant; Bill Hart, CEO Fairfield Electric Cooperative; Blythewood Mayor J. Michael Ross; Town Councilmen Eddie Baughman and Malcolm Gordge and Kevin Key, Lyn/Rich Contracting Co., Inc. (Photo/Barbara Ball)
    After reworking the original concept and a project re-bid, ground was finally broken last week on Blythewood’s shell building. Digging in at Doko Meadows last Wednesday are: Larry Griffin, Town Councilman; Ed Parler, Economic Development Consultant; Bill Hart, CEO Fairfield Electric Cooperative; Blythewood Mayor J. Michael Ross; Town Councilmen Eddie Baughman and Malcolm Gordge and Kevin Key, Lyn/Rich Contracting Co., Inc. (Photo/Barbara Ball)

    BLYTHEWOOD (Sept. 8, 2016) – After several stops and starts and adjustments to the overall plan, Blythewood’s spec building on the grounds of Doko Meadows Park is at last on its way to becoming a reality.

    “It’s for real this time,” Ed Parler, the Town’s Economic Development consultant, told The Voice last week, just days after a ground-breaking ceremony at the site. “We’ve awarded the contract, and construction should begin in the next seven to 10 days.”

    The Town announced the winning bid on the project last month after Lyn-Rich Contracting Co., Inc. of West Columbia submitted a base bid of $379,850. With options, which Town Council voted to accept, the Lyn-Rich bid came to $388,100. Those options include walkways and special fire protection equipment.

    The August bids were the second round of bids on the project. Council put the construction out for bid a second time after bids opened last June came in ranging from $524,000 to $761,455 – all well over the $410,000 budget for the project.

    The June bids forced Council and architect Ralph Walden to rethink the scope of the spec building.

    “We had the specs beyond a shell,” Walden said in July, “and that proved to be the wrong direction. We had wiring, 800 amps for a kitchen, HVAC and a slab. The plan was to give the end-user a little more for his money.”

    Specifications for the second round of bids included only rough plumbing and eliminated the HVAC unit. Also eliminated were interior doors and ceiling tiles, connection to water and sewer and all walkways. Finished siding was substituted for primed siding and paint. Specifications were changed for deck and rail materials, windows, doors and shingles.

    The spec – or “shell” – building is itself a scaled-down version of a plan three years ago for the Town to build a restaurant in the park, utilizing grant money from the Fairfield Electric Co-Op and a $1 million loan from Santee Cooper. That plan called for the Town to construct a restaurant and lease the facility out. But a newly elected Town Council balked at that idea.

    “The new Council had questions about the Town being in the restaurant business and carrying all that debt,” Parler said. “So we scaled down the project. Rather than doing a fully fitted out building, we would construct a shell. Hopefully, by the first of the year we will be able to sell it and have the owner finish it out.”

    And while there are certain restrictions on what kind of business could set up shop in a building located in a publicly owned park, Parler said the likelihood is high that it would be a restaurant after all. The building could also serve as an office building, Parler said.

    Fairfield Electric Co-Op has been instrumental in making the shell building a reality, Parler said. A 2013 economic development grant from the Co-Op netted the Town $240,714, and a year later the Co-Op pitched in another $216,167, for a total of $456,881, Parler said.

    Last month, Town Administrator Gary Parker told Council that the Town still holds $325,916 of the original $456,881 utility grant from Fairfield Electric Co-Op. The balance of the costs of the shell building, Parker said, can probably be taken from Hospitality Tax revenue.

    Parler said the Town’s intent is to recover those funds with the sale of the shell building.

    Construction is slated to begin any day now, Parler said, and should be wrapped up in approximately 150 days. The Town will begin marketing the building for sale in November.

     

  • Doko Smoke Needs Your Vote

    Tony and Chris Crout of Doko Smoke BBQ shoot for ‘Best of the Best.’
    Tony and Chris Crout of Doko Smoke BBQ shoot for ‘Best of the Best.’

    BLYTHEWOOD (Sept. 1, 2016) – Barbecue duo Chris and Tony Crout, owners of Doko Smoke BBQ, have made the top 10 in the ribs and barbecue categories in The State newspaper’s Best of the Best contest, but Tony Crout said they will need a little help from the community to make it over the top.

    “We’re in the running for the final vote,” Crout told The Voice, “but we’ll need a lot of votes from our customers to be named the Best of the Best.”

    But voting, Crout said, is tricky. One vote won’t do it.

    “People have to vote in a minimum of 30 categories for their vote to count,” Crout explained. “They can go online and vote once a day at thestate.com/best or look for the green ‘The Best’ logo.

    While there is no prize, to win would mean a lot to the Crouts.

    “The recognition would be great and we would be able to use the Best of the Best logo in our marketing and advertising,” Crout said. “We hope it will happen.”

    The contest runs through Sunday, Sept. 11. Winners of the public opinion poll will be announced Sunday, Oct. 23. Doko Smoke BBQ is located at 408 Main St., Blythewood. For more information, call 803-730-6016.

     

  • Who Let the Dogs Out?

    Shelter, Rescuers Partner to Find Homes for Strays

    Bob Ennis, Shelter Manager for Pets, Inc. and new Fairfield County Animal Shelter Director James Hill with one of 29 dogs taken from the Fairfield shelter in the last 10 days by two rescue organizations, Pets, Inc. and Ozzie to the Rescue, and placed in safe havens where they will receive shots, be altered and cared for until they can be adopted. Clearing of the dogs from the shelter was facilitated by The Hoof and Paw Benevolent Society.
    Bob Ennis, Shelter Manager for Pets, Inc. and new Fairfield County Animal Shelter Director James Hill with one of 29 dogs taken from the Fairfield shelter in the last 10 days by two rescue organizations, Pets, Inc. and Ozzie to the Rescue, and placed in safe havens where they will receive shots, be altered and cared for until they can be adopted. Clearing of the dogs from the shelter was facilitated by The Hoof and Paw Benevolent Society.

    WINNSBORO (Sept. 1, 2016) – The dogs are on the move in Fairfield County. More specifically, they are on the move out of Fairfield County’s animal shelter and on their way to rescue organizations that will find them permanent homes.

    After a meeting with members of The Hoof and Paw Benevolent Society last week, James Hill, Director of Fairfield County Animal Control, has seen the number of dogs sitting in the shelter’s intake kennels dwindle to nearly zero.

    “The last four days have really made an impact on the shelter,” Deborah Richelle, president of Hoof and Paw, told The Voice last week. “The last four days have been amazing to me. We’re hoping that it gives the folks at the shelter the feeling that ‘yes, it can be done.’”

    Hoof and Paw proved to be the conduit between the shelter and two prominent rescue organizations – Ozzie to the Rescue in Rock Hill and Pets, Inc. in West Columbia. These two outfits helped clear dogs from the shelter’s intake kennels, Richelle said, and will find for them permanent homes while they wait in no-kill shelters.

    Pets, Inc. had previously assisted the Fairfield County shelter, Richelle said, but with Hill taking over last month that relationship had to be reestablished. Now that it has, the wheels have remained in motion.

    Ozzie to the Rescue was quickly able to take eight dogs off the County’s hands, Richelle said, while Pets, Inc. took the rest.

    “Pets, Inc. has been a big help to us,” Richelle said. “They have taken all the dogs that (Ozzie) couldn’t take. They are a huge asset to Fairfield County, because they have a much larger audience (of potential adopters) in West Columbia.”

    “Pets, Inc. has helped us out tremendously, just in the last two weeks” Hill said. “They’ve already taken more than 20 dogs. And they are not selective – they take all dogs.”

    The assistance of these two rescue groups has reduced the number of animals euthanized at the shelter, Hill said, an issue that was of great concern to Hoof and Paw. Richelle said the shelter put down about a dozen dogs in the last month.

    Another area of initial concern for Hoof and Paw, Richelle said, was the limited hours the shelter is open. Richelle said the County might be able to adopt out animals more easily if the hours of operation at the shelter made more sense. At present, the shelter is open 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday; 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday. The shelter is closed on the weekends; and Saturday, Richelle said, is Prime Time for adopting pets.

    Hill is making adjusting those hours of operation a priority. Beginning Sept. 12, Hill said, the shelter will now be closed Sunday, Monday and Thursday, and will operate Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Most importantly, the adoption center will be open Saturdays, 8 a.m. – 4 p.m.

    Hill said Animal Control has made other improvements as well in recent days.

    A new web hosting database, he said, will help his department track animals that have been taken in and adopted out or sent to rescues. Hill said his department is also establishing a database of non-profit rescue groups to which daily mass emails will be sent cataloging the animals in the County’s custody.

    “We want to keep all the rescue groups in the loop as to what we have,” Hill said. “The earlier we can get that information out there, the more exposure the animals have.”

    Hill said Animal Control has also reestablished its student volunteer program through the School District’s Career and Technology Center. Students in the Small Animal Care class will get credit hours volunteering at the shelter, Hill said.

    Hill said he also wants to have input into plans the County Council undertook earlier this year to recommend changes to the County’s animal control ordinance, specifically to address tethering which is not currently addressed in the ordinance.

    Hill said he also wants to implement a ‘responsible pet owner’ program in the county’s elementary schools.

    Richelle, meanwhile, said Hoof and Paw would like to hold a food drive for the shelter.

    Richelle also encourages people interested in acquiring a pet to shop first at their local shelters, instead of buying dogs for their breed.

    “Now the challenge is to keep the momentum going,” Richelle said.