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  • Skimming device on Blythewood ATM

    Ionita, 17, is suspected of placing the device on the bank’s ATM.

    BLYTHEWOOD – When Blythewood resident Brandy Dunaway visited a Blythewood drive-thru ATM last Saturday, the card reader on the machine looked different. Dunaway, who was a victim of a skimming device at the same ATM a year earlier, was skeptical.

    The device was darker in color than the normal card reader and protruding from the ATM. When she tried to move it, it was loose.

    Dunaway called the Richland County Sheriff’s office, and, sure enough, it an object that steals credit card information had been placed over the ATM’s card reader.

    The suspect was captured on the ATM’s surveillance camera. Suraj Ionita, 17, was identified by the Richland County Sheriff’s Office as the alleged suspect in Dunaway’s case.

    Anyone who has information concerning the case or Ionita is asked to call Crimestoppers at 1-888-CRIME-SC.

  • Chamber Board meets secretly; votes to become ‘inactive’

    WINNSBORO – The elephant in the room was not mentioned during the Fairfield County Chamber of Commerce’s monthly breakfast on Wednesday. That elephant was the surprise announcement on Monday that the Chamber Board voted for the Chamber to become ‘inactive’ as of June 30, 2018.

    While Facebook pages lit up with the news, neither the Chamber’s Board Chairman, nor any of the Board members mentioned the issue at the breakfast.

    Following the breakfast, when two Board members were asked by The Voice when and where the Board had met to vote for the ‘inactive’ status, neither would divulge the information. Board member Lou Ann Coleman accused The Voice of harassment for asking the question. In an email later that day, Coleman did respond that the vote was held during a meeting at the Chamber offices on April 19. However, no meeting had been posted for a Chamber Board meeting on that date.

    The S. C. Freedom of Information Act, Sec. 30-4-60 states, “Every meeting of all public bodies shall be open to the public unless closed pursuant to Sec. 30-4-70 of this chapter. In Sec. 30-4-80, it further states that notice must be given of meetings of all public bodies.

    “The South Carolina Freedom of Information Act requires not just governmental entities, but ‘any organization, corporation, or agency supported in whole or in part by public funds or expending public funds,’ to abide the Act’s transparency requirements,” S.C. Press Association attorney Taylor Smith said. “The Act provides that such organization must have meetings open to the public and that the public be notified of the time, location and agenda for the meeting. The failure to notify the public of an upcoming meeting of an organization is a violation of the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act,” Smith said.

    “After carefully evaluating its feasibility, the Board of Directors unanimously voted to take this action,” the Board’s press release stated. “The primary factors that led to this decision included limited financial support, reduced participation during the traditional Chamber structured events, as well as limited volunteers,” the release stated.

    Asked to clarify whether the Board planned to disband the chamber on June 30, 2018, a source on the Board who asked not to be identified said the chamber will still file with the Secretary of State as an organization, but that it will become inactive as of June 30. Until that time, activities will go on as normal, the source said.

    The source also said all Chamber employees will be let go as of June 30, but that the Chamber will remain in an inactive state after June 30, the end of the Chamber’s fiscal year.

    Asked by The Voice to clarify ‘inactive,’ Shull answered in an email, “Inactive means not in operation.”

    In the email, Shull also stated that the newly hired Interim Director of the Chamber, Chris Timmers, who was hired March 1, would not be employed through June 30. On that same day, in a Facebook post, Board member Lou Ann Coleman posted that Timmers “is no longer employed by the Chamber. Ms. (Susan) Yenner is.”

    Asked to clarify Mr. Timmers’ employment status further, whether he would continue receiving a salary until June 30 even though he is no long employed, or if he received a separation package, Shull has not, at press time, responded.

    The Chamber is funded primarily by the County, at $87,500 annually, and by the Town of Winnsboro for Town sponsored events at $35,000 annually. In reference to the Chamber’s reported ‘limited financial support,’ County Council Chairman Billy Smith said he was surprised to hear that was a factor in the Board’s decision to go inactive.

    “No, the County has not cut the Chamber’s funding,” Smith said. “We have contemplated the idea of reducing it, but only because their representatives couldn’t answer basic questions Council members had about their plans for the future during our second budget work-session.

    “In a letter from Council that was delivered to the Board on April 17, Council offered the Chamber every opportunity to keep their County funding the same as it has been in the past. I offered assistance on planning. Now, I really don’t understand the suggestion of ‘limited financial support,’” Smith said.

    “Between County funding, the money the Town of Winnsboro gave the Chamber for the first time this year, and the proceeds from their golf tournament (which they said they aren’t going to do anymore),” Smith said, “ I’d think the Chamber had more financial support now than at any time before, at least in recent history.”

    Asked if he had seen a decrease in attendance at Chamber sponsored events, Chief John Seibles with the Winnsboro Department of Public Safety, which oversees safety of the festivals in the Town, including Rock Around the Clock and the Pumpkin Festival, said the crowd at last year’s Rock Around the Clock was large and orderly.

    “It [Rock Around the Clock] was larger than in past years and it ran smoothly as I recall,” Seibles said.

    Board Chairman Harper Shull has not returned phone calls from The Voice at press time.

    County Council Chairman Billy Smith sent the following letter to Chamber Board Chairman Harper Shull following Chamber Interim Director Chris Timmers’ presentation to Council during a budget workshop on April 17.

    Related: FC Chamber Board votes to become inactive, Council gives Chamber notice

  • Crime spree rattles Blythewood

    Morton’s Auto Sales was one of the five Blythewood businesses hit by the thieves recently when two cars were stolen from this lot.

    BLYTHEWOOD – A month-long crime spree in downtown Blythewood, with crimes ranging from stealing bubble gum to auto theft and armed robbery, rattled the sense of safety for many in the community.

    Five Blythewood businesses and the Richland County Recreation Center were targeted between March 28 and April 26. With the help of GPS tracking information and information provided by security surveillance videos in the town park, Sheriff’s deputies made arrests in connection with at least four of the crimes. A spokesperson with the Richland County Sheriff’s department said at least one suspect is still being sought. While juveniles were arrested in four of the incidents and released into the custody of family members, burglaries at Hardee’s and San Jose’s Mexican Restaurant were not tied to the other four.

    Hardee’s

    The first of the crimes occurred at Hardee’s restaurant on Creech Road at about 5:40 a.m. on March 28, when a black male  entered the restaurant  through a side entrance and walked up to the counter and ordered a sausage biscuit, a store employee stated. When the employee opened the cash register, the suspect handed the employee a plastic bag and, with his right hand, pulled out a black handgun and ordered the employee to hand over money from the register.

    Instead of handing over the money, the employee closed the register, which locks when it’s closed, and held his hands in the air. The suspect then fled the scene emptyhanded and is still being sought.

    San Jose’s Mexican Restaurant

    On Monday, April 2, a robber used a large rock to force entry through the glass front door of San Jose’s Mexican Restaurant, next door to Hardee’s. According to a Sheriff’s report, multiple suspects entered the business and stole money from a register along with several bottles of liquor. The suspects used a crowbar to make entry into the main office where the bottles were stored, then exited through the rear door, the report stated. Surveillance cameras captured the incident which was viewed on scene, revealing two suspects who appeared to be males, the report stated. The heist netted the robbers five bottles of liquor valued at $400 and $100 in cash.  The suspects have not been arrested at press time. A Sheriff’s report states that one of the suspects was killed in a vehicle collision last week.

    Morton’s Auto Sales

    Two cars were stolen from Morton’s Auto Sales at the corner of Main Street and McLean Road sometime between Saturday evening, April 21 and Monday morning, April 23.

    Stolen Toyota Avalon

    The business’ owner, Damien Morton, discovered the crime on April 25 and reported a 2006 gray Toyota Avalon valued at $4,500 and a 2004 gray Mercedes E320 valued at $6,500 had been taken from the car lot. The incident report states that a window was broken on the side of the building where it appeared the robbers entered and rummaged through the office, taking the keys to the missing vehicles.

    Within a short time of discovering the incident, a tracking devise on the 2004 Mercedes led Sheriff’s deputies to Boney Road where the abandoned vehicle was located on a powerline access road between Boney Road and I-77, the Sheriff’s report states. At press time, the Toyota had not been recovered.

    Three juveniles were arrested and charged with burglary and motor vehicle theft. They were also charged with robberies at the Blythewood Recreation Park Concession Stand, Trinity Auto Sales and Doko Smoke BBQ.

    Park Concession Stand

    At the Blythewood Park Recreation Center’s ball field, Concession Stand Director Jeannie Sharpe, reported the stand was apparently robbed multiple times without being detected during the week of April 21. Sharpe said she noticed M&M candies and bubble gum began missing the first of the week. By Thursday, she said, “everything was gone.”

    “They took everything, even my screw driver, tea bags, cheese and hot dogs,” Sharpe said. “They just cleaned us out, easily $1,000 worth of products.   It is just awful that somebody would stoop so low as to steal from a kids’ baseball league.”

    In order to recoup the concession stand losses, Sharpe is encouraging folks to come by the ball park and purchase food items from the concession which is open 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., Monday to Friday and Saturday from 10 a. m. until 1 p. m.

     

    Chrystal Glover, owner of Trinity Car Sales, stands next to a busted out car window after thieves vandalized her car lot. | Photos: Callie Sims

    Trinity Car Sales

     

    Across McLean Road from Morton Auto Sales, Crystal Glover, owner of Trinity Car Sales and U-Haul Trailor rentals, told The Voice that records show her security alarm went off on Monday night, April 22, but no entry was made at her business. Then on April 25, Glover reported vandalism to vehicles on her lot that she said occurred sometime between April 22 and Wednesday evening, April 25. Glover said vandals slashed the tires on one car and two U-Haul trucks on her lot, smashed the driver’s side window of a Volvo and stole two tires and rims off a U-Haul truck.

    “My alarm system must have scared them away on Monday evening,” Glover said. “Then the tires were slashed and other damage done on the lot Wednesday night. But they did not break into the office.”

    Glover estimated damage at about $2,000 and the stolen tires were valued at $500.

    Doko Smoke BBQ

    Doko Barbecue, another business on Main Street, was entered through an unsecure door, robbed and vandalized the same evening according to Tony Crout, owner of the restaurant. Crout reported the thieves ransacked the restaurant, spraying interior walls and furnishings with a fire extinguisher before leaving with an Apple iPad and cash register stand an Apple iPad mini, two jars of BBQ sauce, a jar of BBQ rub, a tip jar and an unknown number of assorted chips and drinks.

    “It was a mess in here,” Crout said. “But when we put it out on social media, a lot of our friends and customers showed up to help us clean up. We were only closed one day. It was amazing.”

    Crout estimated damage to his business at more than $8,000.

    Shortly after discovering the robbery, Crout electronically located his iPad and gave the location of his IPad to Sheriff’s Deputies. Crout said the juveniles were arrested that same morning.

  • Blythewood man dies in motorcycle accident

    COLUMBIA – Blythewood resident Christopher P. Dawkins died in a two-vehicle collision on April 28 at the intersection of Two Notch and Polo Roads in Columbia.

    Dawkins was the driver of a motorcycle that collided with a vehicle that pulled out onto Two Notch Road.

    Dawkins, who was not wearing a helmet at the time of the collision, died at the scene. The cause of death was determined to be blunt force injuries to the head.

    The SC Highway Patrol is continuing to investigate the incident.

  • Smith signs contract with Texans

     

    Smith finished his Limestone career as the school’s leader in receiving yards. | Photo: GoLimestoneSaints.com
    Smith

    HOUSTON – Former Westwood and Limestone College big-play receiver Vyncint Smith signed a free agent deal Saturday with the Houston Texans. Smith, who was born in Germany, played varsity for the Blythewood Bengals during his sophomore season and then played two seasons with the Redhawks.

    Smith earned an All-Region honor during his senior campaign at Westwood with 31 receptions for 503 yards and four touchdowns. He continued his momentum by finishing second on the team in receiving yards as a true freshman at Limestone.

    Smith posted career highs in catches and receiving yards in his senior season and was an All-South Atlantic Conference choice.

    Smith finished his stellar career at Limestone as the school’s all-time leader in receiving yards and second in total receptions. He also became the first player in program history to sign a professional contract.

  • Historic Cedar Creek church to close May 6

     

    Cedar Creek Methodist Church to be closed after May 6 service. | Darlene Embleton

    FAIRFIELD COUNTY – After 274 years, the doors of the historic Cedar Creek Methodist Church on Cedar Creek Road will close on Sunday during a special ceremony. In attendance will be the few remaining and some former members including Margaret Gardner, her sister Julianne Hendricks and Sandra Jones. The three women who grew up attending the church together with their families – the Eargles, the DuBards and the Howells as well as many friends of the church.

    Gardner, 96, who attended the church until a few years ago, said her mother played the piano there every Sunday.

    “That’s where she taught me to play,” Gardner said, recalling the joys and telling the stories of growing up with family and friends in the tight knit church.

    Located in the Cedar Creek community in the edge of Fairfield County, the church is on the historic registry and is rich with various versions of its founding. One version is that it was originally founded on the banks of the Saluda River and later moved to the Cedar Creek area where, in 1762, land for a second building was purchased from two Indians. There, under the pastorate of Rev. John Nicholas Martin, a long building was erected about 16 by 30 feet, with a dirt floor.

    Another version is that it was moved to the current location on land granted by the King of England to Pastor William Dubbart. It was said at one time to have Presbyterian leanings. But Ben Hornsby, a historian and pianist for the church’s sister church, Bethel Methodist Church in Fairfield County, says he finds no documentation of a Presbyterian affiliation in the church’s DNA.

    For years, life for the Eargles, Dubards, Fridys, Levers, Howells and other Cedar Creek families centered around the charming, white country church. But by the mid-1900s, many families with children were moving their memberships from quaint one-room country churches, to more modern United Methodist Church facilities featuring worship bands, organized youth events and social centers with basketball courts.  By 2011, the church’s membership had dwindled to a handful as most of the members had died or moved away.

    “It was about then that we became aware that our church and the property it sat on was not ours, but belonged to the S. C. United Methodist Conference,” Jones said. Still, the few remaining members, including Margaret Gardner, then in her 90s, fought to keep the doors open, paying the apportionments and maintaining the building and cemetery as best they could.

    “My father, Joseph DuBard, always looked after the church and even left a sum of money in his will for the church’s upkeep after he was gone,” Jones said. “While that money was part of close to $100,000 the church eventually turned over to the Conference, the effort to maintain the church was carried on by those who didn’t want it declared closed.”

    On June 12, 2015, Jones wrote to The Voice, asking for help in fighting for the preservation of the historic church.

    “Time is of the essence,” she wrote, “as members with ties to the church are dying out.”

    While Bill DuBard and his wife Margaret moved their membership years ago, they still live in Cedar Creek and support the maintenance of the Cedar Creek church.

    “It’s a shame,” Bill DuBard said, “that the church has just dried up. There isn’t any indoor plumbing and the air conditioning unit was vandalized for its copper piping years ago.”

    In June of 2017, the Conference dealt the final blow, voting to close the church for good. While the last members, as well as their descendants, are not comfortable with the closing, they accept it. Their worry now is what will become of it? Who will pay for the upkeep? Will the Conference sell the property? The questions are many, Jones said.

    Both DuBards hope it can be maintained as a benefit to the community. Margaret DuBard said the boards of the Blythewood and Upper Fairfield County Historical Societies are supportive of preserving the church as well as the cemetery.

    “I would love to see it used as a wedding venue or for gospel music events,” Margaret DuBard said.

    Rev. Cathy Jamison, a former pastor at Trinity United Methodist Church in Blythewood and the current Columbia District Superintendent and Secretary to the Cabinet of the S.C. United Methodist Conference, confirmed that the fate of the church and property are not known at this time. But she said the funds handed over to the Conference are earmarked for the upkeep of the cemetery and cannot be used for anything else.

    She also said the resolution affirmed by the Annual Conference in June 2017 includes a clause recommending the property be preserved because of its historical significance.

    “So it’s up to the Conference trustees, who have the responsibility for all Conference properties in South Carolina, to decide the fate of the property,” Jamison said. “While I really can’t comment on things I don’t have power over, I can make recommendations. Unfortunately there’s not a stockpile of money for the preservation of the building so that would have to be a community fundraising effort. The plan for the future of the property is evolving,” Jamison said.

    The ceremony for the closing of the church will be held at the church at 1209 Cedar Creek Road on Sunday, May 6, at 4 p.m. Leading the service in the community landmark will be the current pastor of the Fairfield Circuit, Rev. Alice Deal.

    Those interested in the preservation of the church property can call Bill DuBard at 754-0710.

    Barbara Ball contributed to this story.

  • Missing person in Ridgeway

    Wise

    RIDGEWAY – On Monday, April 30, 2018, at approximately 5:00 PM, Randolph Wise walked away from his residence, 132 Jujube Drive, in the Ridgeway area near the Ridgeway Motel. Wise has several medical issues, including seizures and has a history of falling/tripping. He also may have mental impairment and may be acting irrationally.

    Wise was last seen wearing a black long-sleeve pullover, blue jeans, and black Nike shoes with a green Nike “check.”

    If you see Mr. Wise or have information about him, please contact the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office (803-635-4141) immediately.

  • BREAKING – FC Chamber Board votes to become inactive

    WINNSBORO – The Fairfield County Chamber of Commerce announced in a press release on Monday that it will become inactive as of June 30, 2018.

    “After carefully evaluating its feasibility, the Board of Directors unanimously voted to take this action. The primary factors that led to this decision included limited financial support, reduced participation during the traditional Chamber structured events, as well as limited volunteers,” the release stated.

    Asked by The Voice if the Board will disband the chamber as of June 30, 2018, a source on the Board who asked not to be identified said the chamber is not filing with the Secretary of State to disband, but that it will become inactive as of June 30. Until that time, activities will go on as normal, the source said.

    The source also said that all Chamber employees will be let go as of June 30, but that the Chamber will remain in an inactive state after June 30, the end of the Chamber’s fiscal year.

    The Chamber is funded primarily by the County, at $87,500 annually, and by the Town of Winnsboro for Town sponsored events at $35,000 annually. Asked about that funding, County Council Chairman Billy Smith said he was surprised to hear that the Board’s decision to go inactive was, in part, due to limited financial support.

    “No, the County has not cut the Chamber’s funding,” Smith said. “We have contemplated the idea of reducing it, but only because their representatives couldn’t answer basic questions Council members had about their plans for the future during our second budget work-session.

    “Council then offered the Chamber every opportunity to keep their County funding the same as it has been in the past, even offering assistance on planning. Now I really don’t understand the suggestion of ‘limited financial support,’” Smith said.

    “Between County funding, the money the Town of Winnsboro gave the Chamber for the first time this year, and the proceeds from their golf tournament (which they said they aren’t going to do anymore),” Smith said, ” I’d think the Chamber had more financial support now than at anytime before, at least in recent history.”

    Chief John Seibles with the Winnsboro Department of Public Safety, which oversees the festivals in the Town, including Rock Around the Clock and the Pumpkin Festival, told The Voice that the crowd at last year’s Rock Around the Clock was large and orderly.

    “It [Rock Around the Clock]  was larger than in past years and it ran smoothly as I recall,” Seibles said.

    Board Chairman Harper Shull could not be reached for comment at this time.

    The Voice will update the story as it develops.

    Related: Council gives Chamber notice

  • County plans to move forward with traffic circle

    BLYTHEWOOD – After multiple community and council meetings over the last year about a proposed controversial double-lane traffic circle that would impact the entrance to Cobblestone Park and the retail, restaurant and office businesses located on University Village Drive in Blythewood, the pot was still boiling Tuesday during a Blythewood Town Hall meeting held on the issue at The Manor.

    With more than 50 people in attendance and many of them addressing the issue, the problem is not solved, but   Richland County government appears to be digging its heels in to proceed with construction of the traffic circle as well as widening Blythewood Road to five lanes.

    The proposed $10.5 million project is part of the Richland Penny Tax program and extends less than a mile along Blythewood Road from Syrup Mill Road East to the Southbound I-77 ramps.

    The posted project overview on the richlandpenny.com website shows the existing roadway would be widened to a five-lane section with two travel lanes in each direction and a two-way left turn lane, which is a paved 15-foot median.  Ten-foot shared-use paths are proposed on each side of the roadway for the length of the project to accommodate bicyclists and pedestrians.  A double-lane traffic circle is proposed near the intersection of Community Road and the entrance to Cobblestone Park.

    During a public project meeting held at Muller Road Middle School on March 22, by representatives from the Penny Tax Program, a large group of residents, primarily from Cobblestone Park, turned out to question the safety and effectiveness of the traffic circle.

    Responding to a phone call from The Voice inquiring about the results of resident input on comment cards after the Muller Road meeting, Project Manager Ben Lewis was clear.

    “The plan is to move forward with Option A – the 5 lane, offset, shared use option,” Lewis said.

    Twelve residents spoke at the Tuesday night meeting with the majority being Cobblestone residents speaking out against the creation of the traffic circle.

    “It appears the Penny Tax Committee has chosen an inadequate, short term fix for a longer term issue,” Cobblestone resident and former Town Councilman Tom Utroska said, reading from a two page letter in which he addressed a number of issues including how tractor-trailers would negotiate 270 degree turns on the circle without causing major backups.

    Another Cobblestone resident, Bethany Parler, said she was concerned about the large number of out-of-area visitors to the Cobblestone golf club and restaurant who would not be familiar with how to negotiate the traffic circle which requires drivers leaving Cobblestone Park to cross two lanes of traffic on the circle before turning left toward I-77.  She urged the Town of Blythewood concentrate on the McNulty Road to Main Street, Langford Road traffic problem and move the Blythewood Road project to number two on the agenda.

    There was a moan from the audience when Mayor J. Michael Ross suggested the hypothetical possibility of a fatal traffic accident happening while the project was on hold.

    Courtney Levett, another Cobblestone pointed to the traffic circle installed on Piney Grove Road in Columbia where, he said, there had been a lot of damage to the curbing and 3 foot tall reflective sticks by traffic trying to negotiate the turns.

    “I would like Richland County to delay their decision until this can be further explored,” he said, indicating that he felt that the issue had divided the town.  His suggestion to let the Town vote on it was met with applause from the audience.

    But Ross countered.

    “Almost three thousand people live in the town limits,” Ross said, “and the only people who’ve called me have been my [Cobblestone] neighbors.  These projects are to better the whole town of Blythewood,” Ross said.

    Former Blythewood High School teacher of the year Allison Byrd cautioned the County about how they use tax dollars.  She suggested pausing the traffic circle project until a study could be done on the installation of a traffic light at Syrup Mill Road to slow down traffic.

    Larry Sharpe, who owns large parcels on each side of the section of Blythewood Road that would be impacted by the traffic circle an opposes the project, talked about the influence that industrial growth on Community Road and near Syrup Mill and H.R. Horton’s continued building in Cobblestone would have on the traffic circle.  He also talked about the problem that would be created with motor homes or trailers and boats trying to navigate the circle.

    But not all Cobblestone residents were opposed to the project, including Buddy Price, a 19-year Blythewood resident.

    “Every year it has gotten worse, and it is getting less and less safe,” Price said.   He said he would have preferred a stop light be installed but he expressed support for the plan and encouraged the council to move forward quickly.

    Mike Switzer, Executive Director for the Blythewood Chamber, said he hopes the plan will go forward.  He said he had spoken with the businesses on University Blvd. Drive and the Food Lion Shopping Center and that they were concerned with their customers being able to get out onto Blythewood Road.

    “Cobblestone residents have a back way to those merchants,” Switzer said. “How would you feel if the merchants closed?” he asked.  “The Town will lose a lot of revenue if that happens.”

    At the suggestion of Ross, David Beatty and Ben Lewis from the Transportation Penny project followed up on questions that had been raised during the meeting.

    Beatty shared the history of the Penny Tax Resolution all the way back to its inception in 2012.

    “There were just 2 projects for this area and it is very restricted. We can’t create new projects beyond those covered in the referendum,” Beatty said.  “The current DOT traffic count is 11,000 a day and is projected to be 16,000 a day in 20 years.”

    Ben Lewis, the project manager for the Blythewood project, said that federal standards don’t currently warrant a signal at the intersection of Syrup Mill Road and Blythewood Road as previously suggested.  He also said it is not possible to put a signal instead of a traffic circle at the Community Road and Blythewood Road intersection because there is a minimum spacing requirement between signals of 1300 feet and it is only 730-750 feet to the traffic circle area from the signal at the I-77 ramp.

    “The benefit of a roundabout [traffic circle] is that it slows speeds,” Lewis explained.  “It reduces severity of accidents by 80% according to DOT statistics and 100% in South Carolina.”

    Regarding Utroska’s suggestion to restrict tractor-trailer traffic, Lewis said SCDOT makes those calls and that the heavily populated urban areas are most likely to be qualified.

    Richland County Council Chair Joyce Dickerson encouraged the Blythewood Town Council to be open-minded regarding the traffic circle.

    “When projects go on hold,” Dickerson warned, “the money will be spent somewhere else.”  She cited an Irmo area traffic circle project that had citizen concerns when proposed, but that, she said, had turned out to be very successful.

    “As Richland County grows, what you put in place now will work down the road,” she said.

    Looking back to the council meeting in May of 2012, Ross suggested that if they had known how things would have turned out, that council would likely have taken the McNulty Road project as their first choice.

    “But that isn’t possible now,” he said.

    The next step, Lewis said, is be to begin rights-of-way acquisitions.  He said plans are still to begin construction in the fall or winter of 2019.

    Related articles:  Traffic circle opposition picks up speed,  Blythewood traffic circle causing angst,  Traffic Circle Talks Continue 

  • May Vokaty goes from kitchen to farm

    May Vokaty shows off her growing herd of Alpacas. | Ashley Ghere

    RIDGEWAY – The Voice’s Foods Editor, May Vokaty, isn’t just a recipe wizard – she’s also an alpaca farmer. She was first smitten with the idea of owning alpacas while on vacation in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, and then spent a few years researching the logistics. Last October, she finally took the plunge and rented 2½ idyllic acres in Ridgeway for The Alpaca Experience, a pastured farmstead where she tends a herd of fluffy, sweet-natured alpacas, curly-horned angora goats, Heritage chickens and a wriggly litter of Great Pyranees puppies.

    Vokaty said she’s delighted that the farm is coming together just like she envisioned – as a productive fiber farm, an educational venue for the public and a farmer’s market offering farm-raised meat and eggs, homemade nut butters and jellies, hand-dyed yarn and fiber-woven accessories like socks, gloves, hats and scarves.

    The next Farm Day Farmer’s Market will be held on Saturday, May 5. Vendors’ wares will include handmade sawmill furniture, glass and ceramic mosaics, decorative felted animal figurines, hand-painted wooden home décor, a produce vendor, macramé jewelry, a food truck and more.

    Vokaty’s daughter, Elli, 6, smooches a baby alpaca. | May Vokaty

    And even the farm’s bumper crop of alpaca manure has become a surprisingly popular purchase at $5 a bag.

     

    “Alpaca manure is low in nitrogen and turns into compost quickly, without having to age much. So you can take it straight from the pasture and put it in your garden. It’s a very practical resource,” she said. “I actually pay my farm rent in manure!”

    Held on the first Saturday of every month, Farm Day Farmer’s Markets are open to the public and packed with informative tours, interaction with the animals and learning about farm life. Vokaty plans to continue developing the farm into an educational resource, perhaps as a destination for field trips and as a summer camp. She also hosts events for kids with special needs.

    “The atmosphere here is peaceful, and kind of therapeutic in a way,” she said. “A friend of mine has an autistic son, and I noticed how much he enjoys spending time at the farm, just relaxing on a bench in the shade of a tree or spending a few moments petting a gentle, friendly animal. In March, we held an Easter egg hunt here for kids with special needs and their families, and it was a great experience. I’d like to do more events like that, such as harvest festivals in the fall and Christmas things.”

    Vokaty said her daughter Elli, 6, is a big help around the farm.

    “She’s very involved, and she can do just about anything,” Vokaty said. “We come out to feed the animals every day after she gets home from school, and if I said, Elli, you’ve got to take care of everybody today, she could do it! Of course, it might take her a while…she’s easily distracted by the puppies,” she added with a smile. “Elli especially likes caring for the chickens, and she’s told her classmates that she wants to be either a chicken farmer or a chicken scientist when she grows up,” she said. “I don’t think I could do all this without her.”

    And building the alpaca herd, Vokaty said, has been an adventure.

    The farm’s Great Pyranees caretaker keeps an eye on her pups. | May Vokaty

    “I don’t know that I was ready for the first three,” she said. “I heard about them on Facebook, and went to see them at a farm upstate. They were living in bad conditions, and I knew I couldn’t just leave them, so I bought them and brought them home in a trailer. I had been studying alpacas for three or four years, so when I got the animals, it was like – oh, I know what to do! Although, I didn’t,” she adds with a laugh.

     

    The next three hailed from an area with lots of red clay.

    “I call them my orange girls,” she said. “But their color has calmed down considerably now.”

    Four male alpacas from North Carolina have rounded out the herd, although the group will be growing again soon since all the females are currently pregnant.

    “I’m really interested in fiber,” Vokaty said. “Alpaca fleece is comparable to cashmere – it’s lightweight, very warm, water-resistant, hypoallergenic and doesn’t make you sweat or itch.

    But alpaca fiber is ‘greener’ and more environmentally sustainable. Cashmere goats tear up their pasture land and basically reduce it to desert, so the more demand there is for cashmere, the more it destroys the earth. Alpacas are different. Instead of hooves, they have soft pads with toenails, so they don’t tear up the earth. And they’re bigger, so you can get four-six sweaters from one alpaca in a year, while it takes four cashmere goats to make just one sweater. Plus, they eat less than cashmere goats.”

    She sends the fleece to an alpaca fiber pool in New England for processing.

    “Since there are so few alpaca farmers in the United States, it’s a way for us to pool our fiber together and make it workable for a large mill, like the Pendleton mill that my fiber pool uses,” she said. “If I send them, say, 10 pounds of fleece, then I receive 10 pounds of finished product.”

    Any unusable bits and bobs of alpaca fleece are stuffed into “bird balls” that she hangs in trees around the farm to provide grab n’ go nesting material.

    Vokaty said that every day on the farm brings something new, whether a big surprise – like a litter of puppies – or more fleeting, like witnessing the alpacas’ delight at being allowed to “clean up the garden” at the end of the season.

    “The alpacas are just four-legged stress relievers,” she said. “When I’m out here, in the pasture with the animals and working with them, my stress just seems to go away. It’s a busy lifestyle – there’s always something to do, and you never get any time off – but they just seem to emotionally soothe me, in a way that makes what I’m doing worthwhile.”

    More information about The Alpaca Experience is available on the farm’s Facebook page at facebook.com/thealpacaexperience1.