WINNSBORO (Sept. 1, 2016) – A local barber dodged gunfire last week as he narrowly escaped a holdup outside his shop on Columbia Road. Fairfield County Sheriff’s investigators are now on the hunt for three suspects who fled the scene in a burgundy Pontiac Grand Am.
According to an incident report from the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office, the 32-year-old barber was finishing up his last haircut of the day on Aug. 20 when, at approximately 10:15 p.m., three black males in their early 20s pulled into the parking lot of Fly Expressions barbershop at 159 Columbia Road. Although the victim told the suspects he was closing up after finishing with the customer in the chair, the barber agreed to give two of the suspects a haircut. The third suspect remained in the Grand Am, which has a donut spare on the front driver’s side.
The barber’s parents were also in the shop, and after the barber finished with the customer in the chair they gave the man a ride home.
The two suspects left the shop after receiving their haircuts, the report states, after which the barber began closing up shop. The barber’s parents returned to the shop just as he was closing up. According to the report, the victim’s mother told police that she had a “bad feeling” about the two strangers who had entered the shop so late in the evening. As she and her husband pulled into the parking lot, the barber was exiting the building. The barber’s parents said they spotted the two suspects waiting around the corner of the building, and as the barber was locking the front door, they drove their vehicle in closer and shouted warnings to their son.
As the barber made a run for his parents’ vehicle, the suspects, armed with handguns, opened fire. The barber made it safely to the vehicle while the suspects leapt into the Grand Am and sped off down 2nd Street. The Grand Am then turned left on Maple Street and was out of sight.
According to the report, suspect number one had mentioned that the men were from Sumter. The suspect had a wound on his chin and neck, which the suspect said was from a shooting at a nightclub. The suspect was between 6-feet and 6-feet, 3-inches tall, thin, with dreadlocks, a short beard and multiple tattoos on his arms.
Suspect number two had short hair, a mustache, long hair on his chin, a “flame” tattoo on the right side of his neck and a “teardrop” tattoo under his right eye, as well as multiple tattoos on his arms.
Suspect number three, who remained behind the wheel of the getaway car, was described only as heavy set and wearing a white tank top.
Bill Rogers, Executive Director of the S.C. Press Association (right) presents Voice graphic designer Ashley Ghere with her fifth consecutive Best in Show PALMY Award for ad design.
BLYTHEWOOD/FAIRFIELD (Aug. 25, 2016) – Ashley Ghere, the graphic designer for The Voice who makes our advertisers look their very best, was honored for her work this month with 14 PALMY Awards from the S.C. Press Association.
Ghere took home four first-place awards in the weekly under 8,500 circulation division, including the Best in Show Award for her Reese’s Plants ad, highlighting the garden store’s knockout roses selection. The ad also earned first place in the Professional Services category.
This was Ghere’s fifth consecutive Best in Show win.
“Wow. A knockout ad for knockout roses,” judges said. “Impossible to miss this ad. The message could not be more clear. Great work.”
Ghere’s ad for Over The Top Boutique in Ridgeway took first place in the Fashion category, while her ad for the Midlands STEM Institute won first in the Half-Page or Greater category. Her ad for Emma Clifton earned first in the Miscellaneous category.
Ghere also earned five second-place awards, including her ad for the Wings & Wheels Air Festival (Events/Cultural Entertainment category), the Blythewood Butterfly Festival (Small Space Ad), the Blythewood Merchants’ Valentine’s Day ad (Half-Page or Greater), the Holiday Entertaining Guide (Special Section) and The Voice’s ‘Thinking Inside the Box’ newspaper promotion ad.
Her four third-place finishes include ads for The Law offices of Shannon Burnett (Professional Services), S.C. Farm Garden Wildlife (Home Furnishings), New Kirk Presbyterian (Non-Profit Community Service) and the Elaine Baker obituary ad (Miscellaneous).
Congratulations to Ashley Ghere! Find out how good she can make your business look by calling 803-767-5711.
Brothers Chuck and Steve Raley will be honored on Sept. 22 for their 40 years of coaching youth at Drawdy Park.
WINNSBORO (Aug. 25, 2016) – Coaching is the kind of thing that gets into your blood. Not unlike the ministry, one is ‘called’ to do it.
Forty years ago, brothers Chuck and Steve Raley answered that call, and the two have been coaching football, baseball and basketball at Drawdy Park ever since.
Next month, Fairfield County’s local legislative delegation – Sen. Creighton Coleman and Rep. MaryGail Douglas – will recognize the Raley brothers for their service at a ceremony at Drawdy Park on Sept. 22 at 6 p.m.
“I’m honored,” Chuck Raley said recently. “But I don’t coach for the recognition. When you coach kids, you bond with kids, and I’ve bonded with so many kids over the years. I’ve had some really special kids.”
Chuck Raley ticked off a few names that came through Drawdy Park on their way to the NFL; names like Orlando Ruff (Seattle Seahawks), Mike Anderson (Rookie of the Year in 1984 for the Denver Broncos) and Tyler Thigpen (Miami Dolphins, et. al.).
And then there are the ones the Raleys coached who are now coaching themselves – Reggie Shaw (head football coach at A.C. Flora), Jonathan Burroughs (head baseball coach at Westwood) and Demetrius Davis (head football coach at Fairfield Central).
Davis said that during his Drawdy Park days, he played football, baseball and basketball for the Raleys, and from them he learned what it meant to be dependable.
“They never missed a practice,” Davis said. “They are both good guys. For them to continue their service for 40 years is a testament to what kind of guys they are. They’ve had a big fingerprint on sports in Fairfield County.”
A youth coach, Davis said, is a key component to any high school’s feeder program, and a youth coach must strike a delicate balance – coaching kids just enough to develop their talents, but not so much that a kid gets turned off on the sport and never plays again. The Raley brothers, Davis said, have been able to strike that balance.
“They’re one of the reasons why football has been so successful in Fairfield County for so long,” Davis said.
Remembering that the game is supposed to be fun, Steve Raley, 58, said, is part of striking that balance.
“You’ve got to make it fun for them,” Steve said. “If you try to over-coach them, it goes over their heads. You don’t want it to get too complicated or too competitive.”
Chuck, 61, said his kids may not know it, but he has them running some rather advanced plays on the football field.
“I run college plays,” he said. “They don’t know it, but they run them. I simplify them a little, but the kids today are very smart. I love watching kids learn and seeing their talent level grow. I love it when they see themselves make plays they couldn’t make when they started.”
Steve said coaching is like therapy for him, and he hopes to keep doing it for years to come.
“I enjoy being around the kids. They’re real special,” Steve said. “It’s been my pleasure to be with these kids. They pick me up a little bit. I love seeing the progress they make and watching them grow.”
The Raleys have seen a lot of changes over their 40 years as coaches, and one change, they said, is concerning.
“It seems like a number of kids nowadays are more interested in video games,” he said. “They didn’t have video games when I started coaching. Now, kids are not in as good of shape as in the past because of video games. They don’t come out and play sports like they used to.”
“I guess they’d rather do it with their fingers now,” Steve agreed.
But one thing, Chuck said, has not changed.
“The quality of talent is still there,” Chuck said. “We’ve still got a lot of good athletes in Fairfield County.”
The Sept. 22 event is free and current and former players, as well as family and friends, are invited.
WINNSBORO (Aug. 25, 2016) – With a light agenda Tuesday night, the most interesting discussion of the meeting happened during County Council Time on the new hot topic in the County – whether to build or not to build a new Courthouse, and what to do with the current historic Robert Mills Courthouse if the County decides to build a new one.
Acting on a tip from a concerned Fairfield County citizen, WLTX-Channel 19 aired a short news spot on the subject last Friday evening. Councilman Billy Smith (District 7), who was interviewed for the program, said he posted a link to the station’s story on his Facebook page and it lit up with more than 6,000 views and 1,400 clicks.
Citizen interest in the Courthouse conundrum picked up last June after an Ad Hoc Committee for the temporary relocation of the Courthouse, made up of Council Chairwoman Carolyn Robinson (District 2) and Council members Kamau Marcharia (District 4) and Dan Ruff (District 1), voted to recommend that Council build a new Courthouse on S. Congress Street in downtown Winnsboro on land the County owns. That property is a vacant lot next to First Citizen’s Bank. A week later, full Council voted to ask County Administrator Jason Taylor to look into the feasibility of the Committee’s recommendation.
That didn’t sit well with some in the community who worried about what would happen to the current Robert Mills Court House.
On Tuesday evening, Smith suggested an alternative to the vacant lot location.
“What would it cost us to renovate Mt. Zion for the temporary Courthouse?” Smith asked. “This is something we would need to talk to the Town of Winnsboro about and contact some firms about just as we are with the new facility on S. Congress to get some estimates. While we’re still in the discovery phase, I’d like us to look at all our options. If we’re looking at some of the figures I’ve heard to construct a new facility, I think it would behoove us to at least look into Mt. Zion. Before we move forward on something else, I’d like to at least find out if Mt. Zion is a viable option.”
Smith’s proposal followed Chairwoman Robinson’s comment that Council, earlier this summer, obtained permission from the Clerk of Court, 6th Circuit Court Judge Brian Gibbons and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Don Beatty to locate a new Courthouse building on S. Congress Street. She then asked Deputy Administrator Davis Anderson to update the audience on the history of the current plans to renovate the Courthouse, which were initiated in February of 2011.
According to the renovation timeline, by March of 2014, consultants Mead & Hunt had recommended the Council renovate the HON building to accommodate a temporary Courthouse while the Robert Mills Courthouse in downtown Winnsboro is renovated. But the $3.5 million price tag on the renovation of a building the County would leave behind after about two years was rejected by the current Council in September 2015.
The current Courthouse, designed by Robert Mills and built in 1823-1824, has major mechanical and environmental problems, Robinson said. The air conditioning system in the building is 50 years old and is prone to growing mold. Robinson pointed out that, for all his historic grandeur and value, the building doesn’t have adequate wiring for all the computers and electrical needs of a modern Courthouse.
“That’s where we are,” Robinson said as she concluded the timetable.
Ruff agreed with Smith.
“I think we need to look at all options,” Ruff said. “I’d like to hear from people who come up with ideas we may not have looked at. This is a big deal and we need to take our time and be diligent about this.
Sunday Alcohol Sales
Council continued to fast track Sunday alcohol sales in Fairfield County by passing second reading to determine whether the S.C. Department of Revenue may issue temporary permits to allow the sale of alcoholic beverages for on-premises consumption and beer and wine at permitted off-premises locations on Sundays in the unincorporated area. Council must pass third reading by Sept. 9 in order to have the Sunday alcoholic sales on the Nov. 8 ballot.
Rezoning Properties
Council passed second reading to reclassify property owned by Tammy C. Faile at 547 Miles Road in Great Falls from B-2 (General Business District) to RD-1 (Rural Residential District). It also passed second reading to reclassify property owned by Danny Holt at 1922 State Highway 34 East in Winnsboro from I-1 (Industrial District) to RD-1 (Rural Residential District.
Purchases
Council voted to purchase five stretchers for EMS at a total price of $67,067.98; a 2017 Chevrolet Tahoe PPV, 4×4 SUV (EMS) for $37,108.00 and three 2017 Chevrolet Caprices at a total cost of $40,058.46 for each vehicle.
Council passed a resolution for Enhanced Rail Passenger Service in support of transportation options for the state and it also voted to approve an agreement between Fairfield County Council and Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office supporting the Sheriff’s Office to obtain goods at no cost from the state/federal military surplus to include armored vehicles and/or Humvees as needed.
NASHVILLE, TENN. (Aug. 18, 2016) – The sentencing of a former Blythewood Councilwoman, who has admitted her part in a multi-million dollar healthcare fraud and embezzlement scheme, has been delayed as she continues her cooperation with the United States Attorney’s office.
Kathleen “Katie” Devereaux Cauthen, 46, has pleaded guilty and was scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 26 on two felony counts – conspiracy to commit “theft or embezzlement in connection with health care” and misprision, the failure to report the commission of a felony to judicial authorities. However, Cauthen’s sentencing hearing, where she could face 21-27 months in federal prison, has been delayed until Feb. 12, 2018 as she continues to help prosecute her alleged co-conspirators in a related case.
According to court documents released Aug. 8, Cauthen’s cooperation could culminate in the trial of Bart and Angela Posey, both 48, of Springfield, Tenn. and Richard H. Bachman, 67, of Austin, Texas. That case, titled USA Vs Posey, focusses on the same conspiracy and on which she is an unindicted co-conspirator, will go to trial in Jan. 16, 2018. The extension of time in this case, which is officially labeled as “complex” is “due to the nature of the prosecution, type of charges, and scope of discovery and forfeiture proceedings” Cauthen’s attorney Cynthia Chappell wrote in her motion asking to delay sentencing. This order was granted without opposition from prosecutor, Assistant United States Attorney William Abely.
Cauthen’s charges, filed June 16, 2014, state that she aided others in a scheme purported to provide healthcare benefit coverage to more than 17,000 individuals and multiple employer groups in various states.
The Posey case was filed a year before Cauthen was charged in June of 2013. Defendant Worthy, 53, of Isle of Palms, has also pleaded guilty, admitting one count of conspiracy and one count of wire fraud, for which he was sentenced earlier this year to serve 82 months in a minimum security prison and to pay $6.5 million in restitution.
At his 2015 plea hearing, Worthy admitted participating in a scheme designed to defraud thousands of individuals who purchased purported healthcare coverage from him and his co-conspirators. Worthy acknowledged his role in promoting and selling the health care plans not backed by insurance companies, which were marketed by Smart Data Solutions, LLC, a company located in Springfield, Tenn. owned and managed by Bart Posey, who is charged as a co-conspirator in this case. Worthy also admitted that he and his co-conspirators embezzled funds from premiums paid by individuals who had signed up for these unauthorized health plans, diverting more than $5.4 million in premiums for their own personal use. He further admitted that the majority of claims submitted in connection with these unauthorized health plans were never paid and accepted responsibility for more than $7.3 million of losses from the fraud.
Bart Posey, the named defendant in the case, faces 57 counts including criminal conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, embezzlement and money laundering. Angela Posey and Bachman face almost all of those charges, also.
Cauthen will be hoping to qualify for a “downward departure” with her cooperation. If a defendant is able to offer substantial assistance in the prosecution of others, their sentence can be reduced in the federal sentencing guidelines.
Request for comment from the U.S. Attorney’s office were not returned at time of publication.
Family and friends who travelled to Alaska to work on the cabin this summer included Tommy Sanders (Adolf’s nephew), T. Cox (Adolf’s granddaughter’s father-in-law and Davis Weitzel (Adolf’s grandson).
NEAR ANCHOR POINT, ALASKA (Aug. 13, 2016) – The Weitzel family of Blythewood and Ridgeway is working together and with friends to finish building the Alaskan log cabin that was a labor of love for Adolf Weitzel, the family patriarch who died suddenly in May of 2015.
The cabin was a late-in-life project for Adolf and, according to his son Steve, he’d hoped that it would become a special outpost for family gatherings and wonderful memories. Now, thanks to the generosity, fortitude and mad skills of Adolph’s friends and family, his hope is becoming a reality.
At 72, Adolf, a home builder by trade, realized the dream of a lifetime when he set out to build a log cabin, by hand, in the coastal wilds of Alaska. After spontaneously purchasing the property in 2011 while on a cross-country RV trip with his wife Annerose, Adolf spent his final summers in cheerful pursuit of his dream – felling trees, curing the logs, hoisting them into walls . . . and fishing, whenever he wasn’t building. It brought him great joy to settle in for the summer – sometimes in the company of family and friends – on his patch of wilderness on the Kenai Peninsula, surrounded by glaciers, ocean and mountains.
In 2015, on his first day back in the Last Frontier, Adolf phoned Annerose and reported that everything looked wonderful – the tarp-covered cabin had survived the winter, all his equipment was in good shape and he was excited to get started. But after that call, while driving home with groceries from the nearby hamlet of Homer, he suffered a fatal heart attack.
Steve, who lives with his wife Joanna and their two children in Blythewood, said that while dealing with the shock and grief of his father’s passing, he realized that the cabin would need attention, and soon – it didn’t have a roof yet and wouldn’t be protected from the weather for long. He didn’t want his father’s cherished project to fall to neglect.
So after family and friends had gathered for a heartfelt celebration of Adolf’s memory, Steve and his sister, Patricia Reid, headed up to Alaska with Billy Windhorn of Blythewood and several others for two weeks of a convivial work-a-thon that resulted in a finished metal roof and closed-in gables. Steve, who works for a Geothermal heating company, grew up working with his dad on building projects, and eventually did contract work on his own for renovation and home improvement jobs.
This summer, the work continued. Steve and his son Davis, 15, travelled to Alaska with five others, and in two weeks they had installed shaker shingles on the ends of the cabin, built the balcony/porch, installed a window, and sanded, chinked and stained every log.
“Next summer,” Steve said, “we plan to finish putting in the windows and doors, and start on some of the inside work – electrical and plumbing. It’ll probably take three more summers to complete everything.”
It’s not all work and no play, though – the group enjoyed fishing for salmon and halibut, and they delighted in seeing moose and calves that would frequently visit the property.
Joanna said the family looks forward to travelling to Alaska for many future summer visits and eventually for a Christmas gathering at the cabin. She said Adolf would be thrilled to know that everyone was working together on the cabin he had started with a vision of family and fellowship.
“Adolf left this world doing exactly what he wanted to do, on his terms and in the place that he loved,” Joanna said, “and I think the family is able to find comfort in that. Annerose said that Adolf was very happy when she spoke with him on that last phone call. He said he was so happy that everything had gone so well.”
Gary Brown makes his last stop Saturday at his barbershop on Congress Street. (Photo/Barbara Ball)
WINNSBORO (Aug. 12, 2016) – When men like Gary Brown, men who have become so ingrained in the fiber of the community that one can no longer separate the man from the place or the place from the man, when men who have become institutions in their community leave this world for their Final Reward, the rest of us are left to wonder, for a time at least, just how this Earth will continue to turn.
On Aug. 3, 2016, the man who, referring to his nightly constitutional of a half pint of Lord Calvert Canadian whiskey, would often say at the end of a long day at his barbershop or filming a football game or a Town Council meeting, “I’m going home to shake hands with the Lord,” literally did just that.
Gary Brown was many things to many people. A son, a father, a grandfather, even a great-grandfather. A husband, remarkably enough, at one time or another. For more than 50 years, he was the proverbial Town Barber, a maker of trophies and plaques, videographer of local government meetings and The Voice of the Griffins. A golfing partner, bookie and drinking buddy. And an instant old friend; the minute you met him, he treated you like he’d known you all your life.
I first came to Winnsboro in 2002 as an eager young reporter with The Herald-Independent. On my first day of work the senior reporter, Bobb Hane, took me out of the office so I could meet all the big important people – the local dignitaries, as it were – whom I would need to know in order to be any kind of successful at my job. I’m thinking, ‘OK. I’m probably going to meet the mayor, a couple of council members, an administrator or two, maybe the sheriff.’
The first place Hane took me was straight across the street to meet the town barber.
‘Where the heck am I?’ I remember thinking. ‘The most important dignitary on their list is the town barber . . . ? They actually have a town barber here?’
Right away, Gary treated me like he’d always known me. Like I belonged here. It wasn’t long before I was calling football and basketball games with him, and together we logged a lot of miles across the state. We saw a lot of football together, most of it good. We had a lot of times together. Most of them were good, too. I never regretted knowing the man.
“The first year I moved here was Gary’s first year on the radio (WCKM-AM),” Robert Sharpe said. “He did our first state championship out here at Winnsboro High School. It was 1969. The games would be broadcast on a delay on Saturday morning, and all the football players would sit and listen to Gary on the radio like he was a big celebrity. Before the games, Gary would come in and he’d say ‘How many are we going to beat ‘em by tonight?’ He wanted to know because he always had a side bet going on somewhere.
“Anything you wanted from Gary, he tried to get it done,” Sharpe said. “There’s no doubt about that. I think he’s going to be really missed by a lot of people. I don’t believe people realize what all Gary did do until this year when they’re missing him.”
“He saw a lot of football around here,” Demetrius Davis, head football coach at Fairfield Central High School, said. “When it comes to football in Fairfield County, Gary Brown is going to be missed. He’s been calling games for a lot of years. I remember him calling games when I was in high school and I still have some VHS tapes of some of his games. Everybody used to look forward to watching his replays during the week in Fairfield County. That was one of the days when everybody went and watched TV. As a high school kid you get a chance to see yourself on TV and listen to some of the nice things he said about you. He’s going to be truly missed and it’s going to be tough to replace a guy that had the passion for football in Winnsboro and providing a lot of attention to high school football and high school football players.”
“He was one of the mainstays, the foundation of support when I was there,” said S.C. State University head football coach Buddy Pough. Pough was head man at Fairfield Central from 1994 to 1996, leading the Griffins to a state title his final year. “He always helped us, whatever we needed. I always enjoy going back and looking at his work and seeing our games during our championship year there. Gary was a good friend during my time there.”
“He was a good guy,” Reggie Kennedy, the Griffins’ head football coach from 2002-2005 and 2008-2010. “He treated me really well when I was there and did a great job covering the games. If you wanted to know anything about the history of Winnsboro, all you had to do was ask him. He knew it. The first time I met him over at his barber shop, I couldn’t believe he was a barber. I thought he was in there getting a haircut. But I met him there and I got a chance to be a part of the barber shop talk for a little while.”
“Gary was always unbiased,” Deputy County Administrator Davis Anderson said. “He did everything we needed him to do to get the (County Council) meetings filmed. He was always a good spokesperson for Fairfield County, and he was always there for the high school football games.”
“I met Gary Brown in 1971, when I got back from Vietnam,” said Lawrence Brown, a longtime friend and a big part of Gary’s video productions. “When a new person came into town and came into the barbershop, Gary treated them like he already knew them. And when they left that barbershop, he always told them if there was anything he could do for them, just let him know. And he meant it. We’re going to miss his voice and we’re going to miss his personality.”
“Good old Gary Brown was exactly that: Good Old Gary Brown,” said former County Councilman David Brown. “He always looked out for people. He loved the county, and he loved people. He’d let you know what he believed – you might not agree with him, but he’d let you know. He provided a service in Winnsboro that’s a dying breed – an old timey barber.
“You had to catch him between long-winded political speeches or he wouldn’t stop cutting your hair, and you couldn’t get him too riled up or you’d leave the chair bald,” Brown said. “But he always cut my hair the way I wanted it cut. We’ll miss having an old timey barbershop where you could sit and get caught up on everything. It’s the end of an era.”
“If you saw his hands shaking, you got a little nervous in that barber chair,” Winnsboro Town Councilman Stan Klaus said. Klaus was also a founding member of Gary Brown Video Productions, helping Gary with the selection of equipment and the productions of broadcasts. Klaus fondly recalled tinkering with the equipment on an election night in the early 1990s, turning what was meant to be a delayed airing into a live feed and giving Gary the surprise of his life.
What will Klaus miss the most?
“The barbershop B.S.,” he said. “Gary Brown could come off the wall with a rumor. If you go to a beautician, she’s got the rumor, but she can substantiate it. But Gary Brown was always like ‘I heard this . . .’ Well, where did you hear it? ‘Oh, I can’t tell you. . . .’ He was like the town crier, from talking to the people who came into his shop. Now, whether it was true or whether it wasn’t . . . ?
“I’ll miss his friendship,” Klaus said. “I’ll miss talking to some of the other people who came into the barbershop. I would spend an hour, an hour and a half in the shop, talking to the other people who came in. These are the things you take for granted, but that you’ll miss down the road.”
“Where are all the men in town going to be able to keep up with everything politically and gossip-wise?” Winnsboro Mayor Roger Gaddy wondered. “He probably attended more Council meetings than any other person in town, including Council members. That was one unique perspective he had, because of his longevity, filming meetings for as long as he did. He knew more about what was going on with those political bodies than members of the political bodies did.”
“I’ve known Gary since 1965,” said Ed Ellenburg, an All-State quarterback for Winnsboro High in 1967. “He came here to cut hair with Slim Mattox. I was in the 10th grade and playing football. I went in to get a haircut. I didn’t know what to expect. I sat up in that chair and all he talked about was sports, and I thought ‘we’re going to get along just fine.’ We played a lot of golf together. He couldn’t count. He could play golf, but he couldn’t count. He would make an 8 on a hole and say he got a 5.”
Ellenburg said he’ll miss the stories Gary would tell while cutting hair more than the haircuts themselves.
“He’d tell the same story four different ways,” Ellenburg said. “He would say ‘I swear this is true,’ and I knew right then it wasn’t. My sister came up from Florida one time and Gary cut her hair. Gary was probably the worst barber in the country, but my sister said it was the best haircut she’d ever had.”
We laid Gary to rest Saturday morning, a half pint of Lord Calvert and an assortment of golf balls and tees tucked in beside him. His obituary can be found on page 5 of our Aug. 11 edition as well as here on this website. What others in the community say about him tells the rest.
Volunteer painters Jeff and Allison Spires and Rhetta Taylor put the finishing touches on a classroom at Richard Winn Academy. (Photo/Barbara Ball)
WINNSBORO (Aug. 4, 2016) – Already sporting a new head football coach, new girls’ basketball coach and a new head of school, the Richard Winn Academy building itself is going to have a new look when classes start Aug. 11.
Since accepting the job as Head of School in the spring, Brandy Mullennax has thrown herself into a two- month whirlwind of overseeing a major renovation of the school, which consumed the better part of June and July. But oversight was just one part of the job. Mullennax also pulled together volunteers, donors and rolled up her own sleeves to get the job done before the start of the new school year and under budget – way under budget.
“In addition to our actual costs, we would have had additional expenses of about $20,000 had the RWA community not stepped in to paint, repair and donate money, equipment and supplies,” Mullennax said.
“We couldn’t have done this without those volunteers and donors. It’s been seven days a week for the last two months. We’ve painted most of the interior of the school and brought the school colors in to brighten the hallways. Everyone has pitched in to do something. K4 student Avery Warren was up here painting hallways alongside her parents Todd and Reid,” she said.
Some teachers painted their own rooms while RWA family, friends and students painted and fixed up other areas including the administrative offices, hallways, classrooms, gym and outside areas. There’s also a new awning at the entrance to the school.
“We’ve renovated some locker rooms and restrooms, made major roof repairs, replaced air conditioning units, added an Early Learning Center with infant and toddler rooms, added fencing to the playground . . . the list is long,” Mullennax said with a weary smile. But she said there is more to do – more painting, more air conditioners to be replaced, the back side of the gym roof needs replacing and more restrooms need to be renovated. Mullennax said some of these needs will have to wait, however, until she can come up with more funds.
“It’s been an extraordinary effort,” she said. “These people (volunteers) are tireless.”
“But it was Mullennax who planned and guided the project and provided the energy behind it,” RWA staff member Martha Ladd told The Voice. Indeed, Mullennax recruited volunteers from near and far, including her Lugoff neighbor, Glenn Smith, who donated over $1,000 in labor to patch drywall and repair ceilings.
With all the tearing out, painting and replacing over the summer, the school was a mess by mid-July. Workers and visitors could hardly get through the hallways to their work stations. But Mullennax said she is confident the building is going to look great when the students arrive for the new school year.
“The renovation was truly a community effort,” Mullennax said. “It’s amazing how they transformed the school on a shoestring budget in such a short time. And we at the school are grateful.”
County Council’s latest venture – a mega industrial park site to attract the heavy hitters.
WINNSBORO (Aug. 4, 2016) – Fairfield County Council officially embarked on a major economic development project last week, giving final authorization to an agreement between the County and the S.C. Department of Commerce to acquire more than 1,000 acres of land in Fairfield County that is located on the east side of I-77 and to the north of Highway 34. Another 800 adjoining acres are under option.
The anticipated purchase price of the land is $8,583,669. The County will contribute $3 million with the Commerce Department raising the remaining $5.5 million. Once the properties are acquired, the County will hold the titles and will transfer the titles to the Commerce Department when it is certified that an economic development prospect intends to make a qualifying commitment on one or more of the parcels.
“Council’s goal is to develop a mega site on this land to attract significant economic development prospects,” Ty Davenport, Fairfield County Economic Development Director, told The Voice. “This is a tremendously positive step for the County and for South Carolina. Mega projects can be transformative for communities. Our proximity to the Port of Charleston, the Charlotte International Airport, USC, Midlands Tech and to a large existing labor pool makes this site very attractive.”
The ordinance specifies that the Commerce Department and the County will lease or buy six contiguous parcels of land that make up the site. Three of the parcels, designated as “key” parcels, meaning they are integral to the development of the mega site, comprise 984 acres and are described as the Porth Tract, the P. Palmer Tract and the Patrick Tract.
Three other parcels are described as option parcels and include a 5.88 acre tract owned by the Ruff family. Councilman Dan Ruff (District 1) recused himself from the second reading and was not present at the special called meeting for the third reading. In total, the key and option parcels amount to just under 2,000 acres.
Davenport said utilities and infrastructure can be extended to the site.
“In the event that a large qualified user becomes interested in the property, funds to cover the costs of infrastructure would come mostly from the state’s resources. The commitment of these funds would be based on several criteria such as job creation, total investment, wage level, environmental compliance and other economic factors,” Davenport said. “No funds will be expended until a mega user has committed.”
Davenport said the Commerce Department committed to actively recruiting and pursuing large economic development projects to locate on the parcels and to work with third parties in order to fund any site development costs.
“This will not happen overnight,” Davenport said. “But I am confident that, ultimately, we will see success. Council took a very positive step in the effort to provide future jobs and long-term opportunities for Fairfield County citizens. The opportunity to partner with the State of South Carolina and the S.C. Department of Commerce as well as the I-77 Alliance and the Central Carolina Alliance is very important. Fairfield County will be marketed to significant companies around the globe.”
Susan Knight, a vet tech at Fairfield Animal Hospital, is headed to the Olympic Games.
WINNSBORO (July 21, 2016) – Athletes train for the better part of their lives to make it to the Olympics. And while Susan Knight has plenty of training, most of it wasn’t in a gym, on a track or in a pool. But she is going to Rio this summer, nonetheless.
She just had to fill out the right form.
Knight, a vet tech at Fairfield Animal Hospital, is headed south of the equator next month for the XXXI Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as a volunteer. After a two-week stay, she’ll be back in Rio in September for the 2016 Paralympics.
Knight, who trained as a phlebotomist and worked in the plasma industry in Florida, will use her skills to help monitor athletes for the use of performance-enhancing drugs – also known as “doping.” Knight said she would be involved in either drawing blood from athletes or in chaperoning urine samples to laboratories for testing. And her duties will not be limited to the human athletes competing in Rio, she said, but will also include horses competing in the equestrian events.
“I don’t expect to see a lot of it (doping),” Knight said.
But doping has made a lot of Olympic headlines recently. The Russian track and field team has been barred from the 2016 summer games, while the BBC reported this week that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is considering a blanket ban on all Russian teams in the wake of a doping scandal that emerged from the 2014 Winter Olympics and appears to stretch as far back as 2011.
Detecting performance-enhancing drugs can be tricky, Knight said.
“There are things in your diet that can cause false positives,” she said.
Poppy seeds – even on bagels or muffins – can trigger a false positive for illegal drugs like heroin, Knight said, while normal everyday foods like chicken, beef or even milk can contain human growth hormones (HGH), a common performance-enhancing supplement.
“Athletes are pretty much aware of most foods that can trigger a false positive,” Knight said, “and they know what not to eat 30 days before competition.”
A detailed questionnaire accompanies the testing, Knight said, to help testers determine if a false positive is possible. Horses, however, can’t answer a whole lot of questions about what they’ve eaten.
“If you get a false positive on a horse, chances are it has been given a steroid or antibiotic that could trigger that false positive,” Knight said. “Things like that don’t normally show up in horse feed.”
For the Paralympic Games, Knight will get out of the labs and onto the fields where she will be involved with timing and scoring of events.
The Zika Virus has probably made more headlines leading up to the games as doping, as South America has been hardest hit by the mosquito-borne illness. But Knight said she wasn’t particularly concerned with bringing a dose home.
“I’m not worried,” she said. “It’s actually winter down there. The temperatures are in the mid-70s, so it’s not warm enough to be wearing shorts and short sleeves.”
The trip involves a real personal commitment from Knight, as she is paying for nearly the entire affair out of her own pocket.
“The only thing they provide is your uniform, lunch on work days and transportation to and from the events,” Knight said.
But it won’t be all work and no play for Knight. Every two or three days, she said, she will have a day off in between. She said she looks forward to taking in some of the competition.
