FAIRFIELD COUNTY – Douglas William Sumner, 41, reported missing on Oct. 22, was found in his wrecked vehicle off of Hwy 21 North in Fairfield County according to a statement from Fairfield County Coroner Chris Hill. Sumner appears to have run off the highway, down a 60-foot embankment where his vehicle struck a tree.
This incident is still under investigation by the Coroner’s Office, SC Highway Patrol and SLED.
WINNSBORO – Healthcare US Co., Ltd., a venture of China-based Healthcare Co., Ltd., today announced plans to establish new operations in Fairfield County. The company’s $45 million investment is projected to create 250 new jobs.
Healthcare US Co., Ltd. is expected to launch its new, 650,000-square-foot, Fairfield County facility in the first quarter of 2019. Located at 1 Guardian Way in Winnsboro, where Mack Truck was previously housed, the operation will specialize in the production of memory-foam mattresses for a variety of customers. Hiring is also slated to begin early next year, and interested applicants should contact healthcare.us@hkfoam.com for more information.
“Fairfield County is beyond excited and thankful that Healthcare USA Co., Ltd. has chosen to locate its first U.S. factory in Winnsboro,” said Fairfield County Council Chairman Billy Smith. “The representatives of this company with whom we’ve worked throughout this process have been a pleasure to do business with, and we look forward to their future operation and success within the county. We welcome them with open and supporting arms and are hopeful that others will see this and know that Fairfield County is open for business and focused on the kind of growth that will be beneficial both for our citizens and the businesses that choose to locate and invest with us.”
“We’re happy to be establishing this new facility in Fairfield County, and we are very appreciative of the ongoing support from both the local and state governments,” Healthcare Co., Ltd. President James Ni said. “This is a milestone for our company, and we are excited to support the community we will soon be calling home.”
Founded in Jiangsu, China in 2003, Healthcare Co., Ltd. is the first publicly-traded, memory-foam mattress manufacturer in China and is now the largest such manufacturer in that country. Becoming a global industry leader, the company has established overseas production operations in both Serbia and Spain, with approximately 3,600 workers globally.
The Coordinating Council for Economic Development has awarded a $300,000 Rural Infrastructure Fund grant to Fairfield County to assist with the costs of building renovations.
“South Carolina’s ongoing economic success can be attributed, in part, to our manufacturing prowess and ability to recruit foreign direct investment,” Secretary of Commerce Bobby Hitt said. “This $45 million investment in Fairfield County only reinforces that notion. We look forward to this new partnership with Healthcare USA Co., Ltd.”
See the full story in Thursday’s issue of The Voice.
FIVE FAST FACTS
WINNSBORO – The public will get their first peek inside the new Providence Health-Fairfield Emergency Room next week – Thursday, Nov, 13, from 4 to 6 p.m. – when officials hold an open house with a ribbon cutting and tours of the new facility.
Located at 1810 US Hwy 321 S, across the street from the Winnsboro Bi-Lo, the state-of-the-art Emergency Room will open for business later this month.
Officials with Providence stated that the new facility will provide Fairfield County with quick and easy access to round-the-clock, high-quality emergency care.
The County contracted with Providence to construct and operate the facility after plans were initiated to close Fairfield Memorial Hospital earlier this year. Closing date for the hospital is Dec. 18.
“This facility was designed to include everything that we need to provide efficient and safe emergency care,” Providence Health-Northeast CEO said.
The building includes four treatment rooms with two pre-constructed additional exam rooms for future expansion. It also includes two trauma rooms and an onsite full service laboratory for the fast return of blood work results.
The facility also has a top-of-the-line CT scan, an ultrasound and x-ray technology to facilitate quick access to the diagnostic information needed for emergency care.
The structure is laid out in a horseshoe shape so patients can feel the progress of their visit as they move through the facility, White pointed out. In the center of the horseshoe is a large, open nursing station keeping the staff in close range to all parts of the patient journey.
“We gave careful consideration to patient comfort such as the use of natural light and high ceilings,” White said. “We wanted to provide a healing environment for our patients, families, and staff.
“The ambulance entry for the facility leads directly to the nurses’ station so that care can be delivered as quickly as possible for the most emergent cases,” White said. “Directly next to the ambulance entrance are two large trauma bays that will provide ample space and supplies to ensure that staff has, at their fingertips, whatever tool is needed to provide the complex care required for more serious cases.”
White said the trauma rooms in the new facility are some of the nicest ones she’s seen in her experience with emergency care.
“The facility itself is somewhat of a futuristic layout in terms of how we can best meet the emergency needs of the community,” White added.
The structure also includes 6,000 square feet of shell space to achieve future needs as they are determined.
White said the emergency room’s location, easily accessible near the intersection of Highways 321 and 34, is key to providing quality care to the community.
“The facility’s close proximity to the Providence Health-Northeast community hospital provides the added benefit of fast-track access for patients who need to be transferred for more advanced care,” White added.
WINNSBORO – It could cost up to $500 per violation in the enhanced animal control laws under consideration by Fairfield County Council.
Second reading of the draft ordinance passed unanimously last week.
While animal rights advocates applaud higher fines and greater guidance for law enforcement, they say the new law, which hasn’t been updated for 11 years, should go further.
Kathy Faulk, community outreach director for the Hoof and Paw Benevolent Society, which lobbied for more teeth in the law, commended the council supporting the ordinance.
“Updating this animal ordinance is, as you know, long overdue. We are hopeful and very excited that this ordinance may go through,” Faulk said. “It will help improve the quality of life of animals that are living in Fairfield County. It will help animal control and law enforcement do their jobs.”
The old law, last updated 11 years ago, included only rudimentary definitions of offenses. A version of the ordinance that passed Monday night included several additional provisions, including:
Mandatory reporting of any pet struck by a motor vehicle or bicycle
More detailed definitions of nuisance animals
Pets must be fed at least once a day and have potable water
Tethers must be at least 12 feet long and weigh no more than 15 percent of an animal’s body weight
On tethering, Faulk said she’d like to see it outlawed in its entirety. She also pressed for a $1,000 maximum fine for offenses.
“Our views on tethering remain unchanged,” she said. “We believe it is inhumane for animals to spend their lives on the end of a tether. However, we believe this ordinance provides some much needed guidelines and it’s a start.”
Faulk also called for the use of swing chains as tethers to be outlawed.
Councilman Dan Ruff also pressed for tougher penalties.
“I agree that we should look into raising the fine to $1,000,” he said.
Fairfield County Attorney Tommy Morgan said state law limits fines counties can charge for ordinance violations.
Morgan said the maximum fine allowed in magistrate court for ordinance violations is $500. He noted that state law contains tougher penalties for felony violations, with higher maximums on fines and offenders facing up to five years in prison.
County law enforcement officers have the option of charging felonies under the state’s “Ill Treatment of Animals” cruelty law. Those charges are heard in General Sessions Court.
“In a nutshell, the state restricts counties in what penalties we can put in animal control ordinances,” Council Chairman Billy Smith said.
Smith agreed that he, too, would like the proposed ordinance revised to outlaw swing chains. He also called upon the General Assembly to update its animal abuse laws.
“In my mind if there’s a state provision in law that we’ve addressed, it should be charged under the state provision because there are higher provisions,” Smith added. “We need to push state legislators to draft legislation to that effect.”
Ruff called upon the solicitor’s office to prosecute cases more vigorously.
“I guess we need to encourage our solicitor to prosecute these cases to the fullest extent of the law,” Ruff said.
Sixth Circuit Solicitor Randy Newman couldn’t be reached for comment.
In previous comments, Newman has said it’s unrealistic to expect prison time in every animal abuse case, and that plea bargains are necessary.
“It is simply not possible to go to trial on every case or even a majority of cases,” Newman said in an email to The Voice. “This would cause an even greater delay in justice for victims of crimes, defendants and their families.”
Newman also criticized media coverage of how animal abuse cases are handled.
“You guys get an initial incident report and have the guy tried in the news and guilty before the case is even indicted,” Newman said. “This newspaper seems to be concerned with folks being sentenced to prison.”
A recent investigation by The Voice, which reviewed publicly available court records online, found that virtually none of the Fairfield County animal abuse cases prosecuted by the solicitor’s office resulted in a prison sentence.
“The likelihood of a person with little or no previous record going to prison is very slim,” Newman said.
Final reading of the county’s animal control ordinance is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 10.
WINNSBORO – Fairfield County Council wants several conditions met before agreeing to participate in a school district project to build a subdivision in Winnsboro catering to teachers.
School leaders, however, say they fear delaying action could cause Gorelick Brothers Capital, a Charlotte, North Carolina developer willing to bankroll most of the project, to walk.
At a special meeting Monday, county and school leaders found little common ground regarding the “Teacher Village,” a $3.6 million subdivision the district wants built on property the district currently owns behind the district office off U.S. 321 Bypass.
The district wants a multicounty business park agreement in place and a seven-year, $600,000 property tax abatement for the developer. Both require County Council approval.
Citing a litany of potential legal issues, county attorney Tommy Morgan called attention to a pending lawsuit challenging a similar project involving multifamily housing in downtown Columbia.
“We don’t know if this case in Richland County is going to be upheld, if it’s going to be overturned. It’s still going. I don’t know,” Morgan said.
Morgan also alluded to a 2010 attorney general opinion that raised further doubts as to whether the county would be protected if similar litigation were filed over the Teacher Village.
“It does give some cause for concern in my mind whether the special source revenue credit agreement would be the best way to accomplish what I understand the school district is wanting to do,” Morgan continued.
Dr. J.R. Green, district superintendent, brushed off concerns about potential litigation.
As to the Columbia case, Green doesn’t think the appeal will succeed, stating that Columbia is moving forward with another housing project targeting law enforcement and teachers.
“Personally I think it is highly unlikely that it is going to be overturned on appeal,” Green said. “Obviously, in Richland County, they have not been deterred by this appeal that has occurred.
“I disagree if the sentiment is that the county doesn’t want to move forward because there is an appeal or there is a case that has been previously judged,” Green continued.
Morgan and Council Chairman Billy Smith also asked if it’s possible for the district to work out its own credit agreement with Gorelick, paying for $600,000 outright, bypassing the county altogether.
William Halligan, an attorney representing the district, said only the county can approve or deny multicounty park agreements. The district cannot do it, he said.
“Nowhere in [the law] do we have the legal right to pay a third party not relating to buildings of the school district,” Halligan said. “We pay teachers, but we can’t buy their food and we can’t pay for their housing.”
Procedural and zoning issues represent added concerns for the county.
Smith said the county hasn’t received any formal requests from Gorelick, only from the Fairfield County Schools’ Education Foundation, a proxy of the school district.
The land also remains in the district’s name, Smith noted.
No site plan has been submitted to the Town of Winnsboro for rezoning, and there has been no request to the Town for rezoning.
“All of that are steps that have to be undertaken, whether it’s by the school district, the foundation or Gorelick Brothers,” Morgan said. “There has to be these steps with regard to the property before it can even be considered by the county whether it needs to be included in a multicounty industrial park.”
“I don’t think that’s accurate,” Green responded. “You’re telling me the property has to be rezoned before it’s considered for a multicounty project.”
Morgan replied by saying the Teacher Village can’t be a Gorelick project when the land is still in the district’s name.
Teacher Village conditions set
Filed in 2016, a Richland County lawsuit that also names Columbia and Fairfield County as codefendants, states that a student housing development was improperly included in another multicounty business and industrial park.
Fairfield County partnered with Richland County and the City of Columbia in that park agreement.
“I had similar concerns about that project and I raised them at the time. Ultimately, Council approved that deal because the developer agreed to indemnification– to pay for any legal fallout,” Smith told The Voice after the meeting. “That’s all I’ve requested on this project to that point, but it seems like we’re being asked to bear all of the risk in this project. We’re being asked to follow the framework from the previous deal in every way except for the indemnification.”
A circuit judge sided with the counties and City of Columbia, though the suit has been appealed to the S.C. Court of Appeals.
“There has been caution presented to us based on the case in Columbia,” Council Chairman Billy Smith said during the meeting. “If we would be the ones to accept the risk for what many of us see as a school district project, then there are some conditions that we’d like to talk about.”
Thumbing through his phone, Smith read a list of conditions he’d like met regarding the Teacher Village:
An agreement with Gorelick to indemnify Fairfield County in the Teacher Village project
An agreement to cover Fairfield’s legal expenses incurred in association with the Teacher Village
A legal description of the Teacher Village property
The Town of Winnsboro agreeing to place the property into the multicounty park since it’s in the town limits
Winnsboro agreeing to rezone the property
“If they don’t rezone the property as requested, it’s over with,” Smith said. “It doesn’t make much sense for us to spend good money on something when we’re not sure whether it has a chance of happening.”
School officials took issue with Smith’s proposed conditions. Green called them “not reasonable,” and voiced concerns that Gorelick Brothers may walk.
“If that’s the takeaway, that’s not reasonable,” Green said of Smith’s conditions. “I don’t know how Gorelick is going to respond to this. The longer this stretches out, the more the likelihood Gorelick pulls out.”
Asked after the meeting about Green’s contention that the conditions being unreasonable, Smith said, “What’s unreasonable is to ask someone else to bear all of the risk for a project that is yours and that primarily benefits you. I realize the potential of this, and I’d like to support it in some way, but I’m not going to allow the County to be the only entity involved accepting risk. If it were our project, I wouldn’t expect the School District to accept all of the risk for it.”
The Teacher Village, as proposed, calls for building up to 70 single family homes on 22 acres behind the district office, starting with 30 homes and building more if the development takes off.
Teachers would be given first priority and would receive a taxpayer subsidized credit of $300, reducing their rent to the $600 to $900 per month range, depending on the home.
District office staff would receive second preference, followed by law enforcement and first responders. Only teachers, though, would qualify for the credit.
School and foundation leaders have said the Teacher Village is vital in recruiting and retaining teachers by providing them with affordable, attractive housing that generally doesn’t exist in Fairfield County.
“People who live in a home are going to stay longer than in an apartment,” said Dr. Sue Rex, chairwoman of the Fairfield education foundation. “This is going to bring a lot of energy to Fairfield County.”
A video of the Nov. 28 meeting in its entirety is available on The Voice’s Facebook page.
WIINNSBORO – Officials are searching for a Fairfield County business owner who was last seen in Rock Hill in October.
The Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the disappearance of Douglas William Sumner, II, of Angel Drive in the Great Falls area of Fairfield County.
Sumner, 52, was last seen in Rock Hill at approximately 12 p.m. on October 22, according to officials. Sumner is described as a white male with brown hair, hazel eyes, approximately 6’ tall and weighing about 195 pounds. He was last seen driving a black Dodge pickup truck, with SC tag# DGJ353.
“We are obviously very concerned about the disappearance of Mr. Sumner. He is a business owner and is very well-liked in the community,” Fairfield County Sheriff Will Montgomery said.
Montgomery said The Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office is working with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) and other surrounding jurisdictions to follow up on any and all leads reported to law enforcement.
“No tip is too small and you may be holding that vital piece of information that we need to locate Mr. Sumner,” Montgomery said. “If you have any information regarding Mr. Sumner, contact Investigator Thomas (803-718-4084) or the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office (803-635-4141).
WINNSBORO – A Florida woman is wishing for a holiday miracle this Thanksgiving as she seeks help from the surrounding Fairfield County communities in reuniting her with her lost pets.
On August 15, Barbara Randlett, 84, was making her annual trek to Maine from her Florida home to visit family when she crossed the state line into South Carolina. Randlett typically made the drive with a friend or family member, but she said she had become so accustomed to the drive that she felt confident going it alone in recent years.
For this year’s trip, Randlett had purchased a used Recreational Vehicle to better accommodate herself and her six animals that were traveling with her, but that purchase took a tragic toll on her journey.
As she entered Fairfield County, nearing mile marker 39 on U.S. 77 and just above Exit 34, a fire broke out under the hood of the 25-foot motor home. Within seconds, Randlett said, the flames began to encroach on the cab area of the RV.
“I never saw anything move so fast as that fire that night,” she recalled through tears.
With her thoughts only on the animals in the vehicle with her, Randlett pulled over to the side of the road and set to work on freeing them. The first she pulled out were her two dogs, Charlie the lab and Ruby the pug. As she tethered Charlie to a guardrail, Ruby freed herself from Randlett’s grasp and ran around the back of the burning RV and into oncoming interstate traffic. She was struck and killed almost instantly.
“It was an awful experience that I cannot even describe how painful that moment was,” Randlett stated. “To see it happen and not be able to stop it was terrible.”
With barely any time to mourn Ruby’s death, Randlett had to turn her attention back to the burning RV where her four cats were still trapped. With the aid of two passers-by who stopped to help, Randlett was able to force open the back door of the RV and three of the four cats escaped into the wooded area next to the interstate.
Randlett had only enough time to retrieve the fourth cat, which had been kept in a kennel, before the entire vehicle went up in flames.
“There is no way to describe that moment; watching everything I owned go up into flames,” she stated. “I had been so worried about saving my animals that I did not have time to grab even my purse.”
Randlett lost her identification, her clothing and her money in a matter of minutes. Fire and police officials were forced to close the northbound lanes of I-77 for eight hours as they fought the blaze and then cleared the debris.
Despite her great losses that night, Randlett said she was also shown incredible generosity in the days that followed.
“A police officer took me to a hotel nearby – the Ramada – and the owner let me stay there at no charge until someone could come and pick me up. He would not even think of letting me pay him, and I am so thankful for everything he did for me while I was there. He and his staff were so kind to me.”
Still, Randlett had to return to her home without her three missing companions. The heartbreak from that night still weighs on her with each passing day.
“I have nightmares nearly every night where I am reliving the whole ordeal. I still see Ruby getting hit and I still see the fire, and I still can’t talk about it without crying. I know it’s something that I need to talk about, but it is just so hard to do,” she stated.
The cats; Belle – a 10 year-old black and white female with long hair and a bobbed tail, Lincoln – a 6 year-old black and gray tabby striped male cat, and Sophie – a young female cat with dark stripes along her back and a white face, chest and stomach still have not been seen.
Randlett has continued to make regular contact with local rescues and humane societies in the area to see if anyone has brought in a cat that resembles one of her own, and she is now offering a $200 reward for each cat.
Earlier this month, Randlett returned to South Carolina with family friend, Suzanne Ely to post fliers in shelters and around the area in search of the cats. While here, she met with two local college students who believed they had found Lincoln.
While the cat was not hers, Randlett chose to bring the cat home with her anyway where she said he has helped with her grieving.
“My neighbors had also surprised me with a kitten sometime after the accident, and now the two get along very well and keep me entertained,” she stated.
“I still hope every day that someone will call to tell me that they have my cats. Maybe someone has been feeding them that didn’t know they are missing, or maybe they joined up with a colony of stray cats there. However it happens, I just hope that they are found so that I can bring them back home.”