IN SPORTS: Area high school football players to continue careers in college
B1
THE CLARENDON SUN
Signing of petition helped end school segregation A6 THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2017
| Serving South Carolina since October 15, 1894
75 cents
2 Sumter judges elected James, McFaddin advance up state’s judicial ladder BY JIM HILLEY jim@theitem.com Two Sumter judges were elected by acclamation by a joint session of the South Carolina General Assembly on Wednesday. Third Judicial Circuit Court Judge George C. “Buck” James Jr. was elected to be one of five mem-
bers of the South Carolina Supreme Court, filling the seat formerly held by Chief Justice Costa Pleicones, who retired because of the court’s age restrictions. James has been a resident Circuit Court judge in the Third Judicial District since July 2006. Before that, he spent 21 years as an attorney in private practice.
According to his official biography, James was born in 1960. He graduated from Wilson Hall Academy in 1978 and graduated cum laude from The Citadel in 1982, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration.
JIM HILLEY / THE SUMTER ITEM
Members of the South Carolina General Assembly cheer the election of George C. “Buck” James Jr. of Sumter to the S.C. Supreme Court during a joint sesSEE JUDGES, PAGE A3 sion in the Statehouse in Columbia on Wednesday.
Mmm, mmm, good! 8th-grader arrested for
having gun on campus BY ADRIENNE SARVIS adrienne@theitem.com Sumter Police Department took an eighth-grade Bates Middle School student into custody for allegedly carrying a loaded handgun inside his book bag while on school grounds on Tuesday. Shelly Galloway, Sumter School District public information and partnerships coordinator, said the student is 13 years old. The student’s identity has not been released because he is a minor. According to a news release from the police department, a school resource officer found the 9mm handgun while investigating a smell of smoke coming from a boys restroom. Officers think the incident was isolated and continue to investigate how the student got the gun. The student was immediately taken to the principal’s office after the firearm was found, and no students were directly threatened at
any time, states a letter issued to parents by Bates Middle School Principal Ayesha Hunter. Sumter School District has a zerotolerance policy for weapons, and the student will receive disciplinary action in accordance with Sumter School District Code of Conduct, Hunter wrote in the letter. According to the school district’s code of conduct, possession of a weapon on school grounds is considered a most serious offense, requiring that the student be suspended, pending an expulsion hearing. Tonyia McGirt, public information officer at the police department, said the student has been charged with possession of a weapon on school grounds and could face other weapons charges pending the completion of the investigation. The student has been transported to a South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice facility and is awaiting a detention hearing.
Hall gives grim statistics on roads to Senate committee BY JIM HILLEY jim@theitem.com
KASEY MEREDITH / THE SUMTER ITEM
Kathyrn Godwin, former Campbell’s Soup employee, holding up her employee of the month (March 1985) award. Godwin is the founder of the Campbell’s Soup Friends Lunch Group which will meet for its 25th anniversary on Saturday at Golden Corral.
Former Campbell’s Soup workers will meet on anniversary of plant closing BY KASEY MEREDITH intern@theitem.com A group of former Campbell’s Soup factory workers meets on the first Saturday of the month at Golden Corral in Sumter. The plant closed 25 years ago, and they’ve been meeting ever since. On the anniversary of Campbell’s’ closing, former employee Kathryn “Kathy” Godwin called up some of her colleagues to meet for breakfast. Godwin decided to extend the invitation to other former employees, and soon the Campbell’s Soup Friends’ Lunch Group was born. Saturday will mark the 25th anniversary of 300 meetings of the Campbell’s Soup
VISIT US ONLINE AT
the
.com
WHO: Campbell’s Soup Friends’ Lunch Group WHAT: Celebrating the 25th anniversary of 300 monthly meetings of Campbell’s Soup former employees WHERE: Golden Corral at 2385 Walmart Blvd., Sumter WHEN: 11:30 a.m. Saturday
Friends’ Lunch Group monthly meeting. It will be held at Golden Corral at 11:30 a.m., where the employees know her as “The Campbell’s Soup lady.” Campbell’s Soup Co. came to Sumter
SEE SOUP, PAGE A10
CONTACT US Information: 774-1200 Advertising: 774-1246 Classifieds: 774-1234 Delivery: 774-1258 News and Sports: 774-1226
South Carolina Department of Transportation Secretary Christy Hall didn’t try to sugar-coat the problems facing the Palmetto State’s aging road system when she testified before the Senate Transportation Committee Wednesday in Columbia. “Just like a lot of agencies, we are still trying to recover from the recession of 2008,” she said. “We are still behind 2005 funding levels.” If the General Assembly would write a “one-time check” to bring all the state’s roads up to good condition, it would take $8 billion, Hall said. She told members of the committee that expectations must match funding levels. She said she was thankful for the $329 million increase in annual funding and a one-time expenditure of $316 million the DOT received from the General Assembly in 2016, but she said a lot remains to be done. “We have marginally improved pavement,” she said. “But we still have more than 400 structurally deficient bridges.” She said the additional funding helped jump-start the state’s Interstate program and allowed DOT to double its paving program and begin a bridge replacement program. “We were paving 2 percent a
DEATHS, B4 Alex S. Boykin Sr. Robert Pearson Albert Lee Johnson Louise C. Moseley Carole L. Skipper
Frank E. Byrd Jr. Robert A. Smith Betty Ann Robinson Willie Mae B. Sweat Mary S. Tennant
Ella Mae S. Maple Howard C. Coffey Fred Sigler Jr. Donald J. Clark Betty Sue M. Fifield Susan N. Francis
year,” Hall said. “Now we are paving 4 percent a year.” She said she is proud of the work the DOT staff has done, but reminded the senators that South Carolina has the fourth largest road network in the nation with the lowest level of funding. “You are not getting more with less,” she said. “You are getting less with less. “We have the No. 1 fatality rate in the nation,” Hall said. “That is the real cost of deferred maintenance.” She showed a map of HALL South Carolina with each of the state’s nearly 7,000 fatal or serious injury crashes in the last five years marked in red. “It looks like the state is bleeding,” remarked Sen. Larry Grooms, R-Berkeley, who chairs the committee. Hall said one of the department’s goals was to improve the safety of highways in the state. Statistics show that 60 percent of fatal and serious-injury accidents are on rural highways and 47 percent involve the driver leaving the road, she said. Drivers not wearing seat belts contributed to 33 percent of those accidents, speeding to 31 percent and impaired driving to 20 percent.
SEE ROADS, PAGE A10
WEATHER, A12
INSIDE
SOME SUN, CLOUDS
2 SECTIONS, 20 PAGES VOL. 122, NO. 79
Partly sunny. Tonight, mostly cloudy with a 60 percent chance of a shower late. HIGH 73, LOW 47
Classifieds B6 Comics B5 Opinion A11 Television A9