INSIDE: Sumter FD achieves highest ISO certification
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THE CLARENDON SUN
Awareness vigil Candlelight ceremony takes on tragedy of child abuse A5 SERVING SOUTH CAROLINA SINCE OCTOBER 15, 1894
THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 2016
Clarendon Tax Sale A7-A9
75 CENTS
Haley brings encouragement S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley hugs homeowner Barbra Campbell before touring Campbell’s home on Briarwood Drive in Sumter on Wednesday. Campbell’s home was heavily damaged in the October flooding, and Sumter United Ministries and the Menonite Disaster Services are helping her rebuild the home. KEITH GEDAMKE / THE SUMTER ITEM
Governor visits local families whose home was destroyed in October’s 1,000-year flooding BY JIM HILLEY jim@theitem.com While homes across the street were barely touched, homes on the south side of Briarwood Drive in Sumter had nearly 6 feet of water inside during October’s flood. Those displaced by the waters included 98-year-old Emma McClure and a neighbor in her
80s, Barbara Campbell. On Wednesday, Gov. Nikki Haley paid a visit to the women’s homes to offer encouragement and show appreciation to the volunteer organizations that have played a central role in helping flood victims such as Campbell and McClure recover. “The people of South Carolina really showed where their heart was,”
Haley said, “People talk about a year of tragedy, but it was a year of faith.” Haley was referring to groups such as the Mennonite Disaster Service which provided much of the labor in repairing the homes she visited, as well as many others in the Sumter area such as the Sumter Combat Veterans Group and Sumter United Ministries.
State Disaster Recovery Coordinator Kevin Schwedo said the work of volunteer groups has been critical to the state’s recovery from the “1,000-year flood.” “The most significant progress we’ve seen in flood recovery has been through the work of volunteer organizations
SEE HALEY, PAGE A4
BY ADRIENNE SARVIS adrienne@theitem.com
S.C. officials seek federal help on inmate cellphone dangers
Those driving down Jefferson Road the past few days may have noticed a lot of law enforcement activity in the area as Sumter County Sheriff’s Office employees practiced precision driving for their annual test. Anyone who drives a county vehicle has to go through the course every year, said Ken Bell, public information officer for the sheriff’s office. Drivers get three chances to take the driving test. Those who do not pass the test within three attempts have to take another course. Lt. Jenny Dailey, the sheriff’s office training instructor, said the obstacles are set to represent situations the deputies could encounter every day on the road.
COLUMBIA (AP) — South Carolina officials on Wednesday renewed their call for federal help in dealing with the dangers of cellphones behind prison walls, telling Federal Communications Commission officials they need permission to block cell signals altogether to keep both prison employees and the public at large safe. “Every day and every night, I hold my breath,” Gov. Nikki Haley said during a hearing in Columbia with officials from the FCC and cellphone industry, saying she dreads getting a call that a cellphone-orchestrated prison riot has occurred. At Haley’s invitation, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai spent the day in the state, gathering information in what Pai has said he hopes will be an effort
Deputies prep for annual driving tests
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A Sumter sheriff’s deputy drives through the “S” turns section of the obstacle course that all officers must complete as part of their annual training on Wednesday afternoon. Dailey is in charge of the sheriff’s offices training and is the agency’s only female instructor. “We have to drive defensively all the time,” she said.
“We have to be able to drive better than the average driver on the road.” A cone could be a person,
SEE TEST, PAGE A4
DEATHS, B7 Whitley Lee Stokes Sr. Marcus Garland Lionel Bowman Amelia Wiley
Julia H. McConico Frank Yates Nancy G. Benenhaley Angeline B. Nelson
to rejuvenate agency action on cellphones. Haley and South Carolina prisons officials have long spoken of the dangers of cellphones, which are smuggled by the thousands into the state’s institutions. Officials say they’re thrown over fences inside hollowed out footballs, whisked in by corrupt employees or sometimes even dropped by drone. Corrections Director Bryan Stirling and his predecessor, Jon Ozmint, have sought permission to jam cell signals at the state’s prisons, but a 1934 law says the FCC can grant permission to jam public airwaves only to federal agencies, not state or local ones. In 2008, the state got FCC
SEE CELLPHONE, PAGE A4
WEATHER, A14
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CHANCE OF BAD WEATHER
2 SECTIONS, 22 PAGES VOL. 121, NO. 147
Warm today but with spotty thunderstorms possible in morning; early shower and clearing tonight . HIGH 73, LOW 49
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