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TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 2017
Members react to bill to add 2 trustees
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Supreme Court affects more of your life than you might think A5
Woman with cerebral palsy perseveres to find mixed martial arts instructor
School board would have 9 members if legislation passes BY BRUCE MILLS bruce@theitem.com Two Sumter School Board of Trustees members say they haven’t read a new bill yet that was introduced last week by both state senators representing Sumter County to add two atlarge, voting members to the board, but one said he wasn’t that surprised with the bill’s introduction. Board members the Rev. Ralph Canty and Chairman the Rev. Daryl McGhaney made their comCANTY ments Monday after state Sens. Thomas McElveen, D-Sumter, and Kevin Johnson, D-Clarendon, introduced the bill Thursday to add the at-large, voting members to the board. At the time, McElveen said the county’s legislative delegation has McGHANEY considered introducing the legislation for a long time, but the district’s recent financial crisis pushed the need for the bill to the forefront. Canty said it was rumored the delegation would introduce the bill at some point; so, he
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City: Water meter replacement will begin next month Usage data will be sent to computers BY JIM HILLEY jim@theitem.com
PHOTOS BY RICK CARPENTER / THE SUMTER ITEM
Team Robinson coach Jerome Robinson defends some punches from Whitney Cranford during a training session Friday. Cranford, who is from Hartsville, searched for someone to teach her mixed martial arts while using a wheelchair.
Team Robinson MMA becomes ‘like family’ to Hartsville student BY BRUCE MILLS bruce@theitem.com
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Cranford is like many of Jerome
Robinson’s mixed martial arts students at Team Robinson MMA in Sumter. She’s motivated, loves learning the various techniques and considers her sessions a big stress reliever, given her busy
The City of Sumter will begin the process of upgrading its water meters in early April, according to Utility Finance Director Candi Quiroz. The new fixed-base system will allow city employees to read meters from computers in city offices instead of having meter readers visit each meter. Each meter will have a digital register and an antenna that sends the reading to one of about 35 collectors across the city and Mayesville, which then transmit the data to the water department’s computers. “Instead of readers going out to read the meters manually, we will get the reading in the office,” Quiroz said. Every water user in the system will receive a new meter, Assistant City Manager Al Harris said. A variety of old meters in use will all be replaced, he said. “We have so many types of meters out there now, some you drive by to read, others must be read manually,” Harris said. Quiroz said the city plans to begin installing meters on April 3. “We are going to start in the Mayesville area,” she said. “That is going to be our pilot or test area. It’s a smaller system, and it’s further out, so it is beneficial to test there so we don’t have to send our readers out.” She said city employees will still visit the meters if they don’t get a signal or if someone is moving in or out. “We will have software on our computers so as soon as they start putting them out, we will
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schedule. What is unique about Cranford’s training is she learns the various mixed martial arts boxing techniques from a wheelchair. Cranford was born prematurely with cerebral palsy in both legs and arms. Keeping stretched out and doing various exercises regularly is critically important for people with CP, she said. Cranford said she started physical therapy at 6
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Robinson stretches out Cranford’s arms as she prepares to go 10 rounds with him. months old and did it twice a week until she entered Coker College in her hometown of Hartsville. Medicaid paid for her PT. During her college years, her parents stretched her out, and she did home exercises because most therapy associated with CP
SEE CRANFORD, PAGE A4
Freeze means fewer blueberries, peaches BY JEFFREY COLLINS The Associated Press COLUMBIA — Last week’s deep freeze in the Southeast appears to have nearly wiped out Georgia’s blueberries and South Carolina’s peaches and seriously damaged a number of other crops such as strawberries and apples. In South Carolina, 85 percent of the state’s peach crop is gone while the small pink blooms remain on the trees, according to the South Carolina Department of Agriculture. Up to 80 percent of south Geor-
gia’s blueberry crop is gone, Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black said after touring the state late last week. Between the two states, crop losses from the freeze could approach $1 billion, officials said. Georgia might be the Peach State, but blueberries have recently passed peaches in value. Blueberries ripen faster in the warmer climate and can get into stores quicker than traditional blueberry growing regions farther north. But not this year. “We saw blueberry fields that had the potential to be the biggest
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is specialized just for children, according to Cranford. After college and beginning her career, she was able to resume with a Medicaid-funded PT program at a local hospital in Hartsville. When she earned a master’s degree in professional counseling a few years later, she began a new career as a certified counselor with Rubicon Family Counseling Services, also in Hartsville. But her new position raised her income level too high to qualify for Medicaid, and her new health care plan would only fund eight sessions of physical therapy. It was about that time that Cranford said she saw a men’s mixed martial arts fight on TV. She was immediately fascinated with the sport and wondered if women were now allowed to participate. While researching MMA on the Internet, she came across a couple of female professional mixed martial artists including Jessamyn Duke. Duke became her favorite
Beatrix B. Bagnal Henry Lee McKinney Sr. Pauline W. Jackson Charles E. Dill Jacqueline D. Joe
Wesley Williams Sarah L. Miller Mattie Clea Karl Lynn Rogers Gwendolyn M. Nixon
Tim Truett Carolyn M. Brown Viola W. Brayboy Ruby M. White Willie Tindal
and best crop of Georgia’s production history that you would now not be able to find enough blueberries that survived the cold to make one pie,” Black said. Temperatures dipped into the 20s both Wednesday and Thursday morning. While mid-March freezes aren’t unusual in much of the Southeast, many crops were blooming up to three weeks early because of the unusually mild winter. South Carolina is the secondbiggest peach producer in the
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WEATHER, A10
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3 SECTIONS, 20 PAGES VOL. 121, NO. 112
Partly sunny and warmer; thunderstorms possible tonight HIGH 85, LOW 57
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