CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE REPTILIAN KIND
TUESDAY, AUGUST 4, 2015
75 CENTS
SERVING SOUTH CAROLINA SINCE OCTOBER 15, 1894 2 SECTIONS, 18 PAGES | VOL. 120, NO. 244
Lizard Man seen in Lee Well-known local legend makes rare appearance
BY JIM HILLEY jim@theitem.com Residents of the Bishopville and Camden areas are bringing their pet iguanas in at night after a pair of local residents reported having close encounters with the Lizard Man this past weekend.
SEE LIZARD MAN, PAGE A3
PHOTO PROVIDED
A Sumter Item reader snapped this photo of the Lizard Man running along a treeline Sunday in the Bishopville area. The reader said, “My hand to God, I’m not making this up.”
BOBBY RICHARDSON IS TURNING 80
Celebrating our N.Y. Yankees legend Is your child a picky eater? New research says it’s probably harmless but could point to other emotional problems A5 SPORTS
5 questions for USC, Clemson entering start of fall practices today B1 LOCAL
Bishopville election appeal hearing set A2 Sheriff ’s office partners with university A2
RICK CARPENTER / THE SUMTER ITEM
Betsy and Bobby Richardson react to seeing family and friends who gave them a combined birthday and wedding anniversary surprise party Friday. A special birthday cake, below, included a reproduction of a black-and-white photo of Betsy and Bobby Richardson from their younger days.
Family, friends gather to celebrate birthdays, anniversary DEATHS, B5 Robin Grubb Susie Mae H. Pearson Richard W. Rauch Leroy W. Howard Almeta Dian Durant
BY RICK CARPENTER rick@theitem.com
Katherine H. Butler Patricia Ann D. Sinkler Kiwanda L. Cave Lucious Jennings
B
obby Richardson should know better than to trust a story about a
used-car salesman.
WEATHER, A10
But he fell for the story that longtime friend Ron Wilkes created to convince Bobby and his wife, Betsy, to appear and speak at a “used-car association meeting” at Westminster Presbyterian Church on Friday. When they walked in, more than 200 of their family and friends had
GONNA BE A HOT ONE Sunny to partly cloudy today; a few clouds tonight HIGH 96, LOW 75
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gathered to throw them a party trifecta: Bobby’s 80th birthday (actual date is Aug. 19), Betsy’s 75th birthday (Oct. 14) and their 59th wedding anniversary (June 8). Jeannie Kay, one of the couple’s daughters, said her three brothers and sister decided on that day because the date would throw the couple off while it enabled the family to pull together the 15 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. The surprise left the couple glancing around and discovering friend after friend and family members throughout the room as they
SEE PARTY, PAGE A7
S.C. improves slightly on Kids Count Sumter gains in some areas, falls in others BY KONSTANTIN VENGEROWSKY konstantin@theitem.com Sumter County was ranked 23rd out of 46 counties in South Carolina based on four domains in the 2015
Kids Count Report, an initiative of The Annie E. Casey Foundation, released July 21. The four domains were: economic well-being, education, health and family and community. South Carolina ranked 42nd in the nation, according to the report. The four domains for each county focused on children, from birth to 17, in households with incomes below the poverty level, children living in
families in which no parent is in the labor force, owner-occupied households where at least 30 percent of income is spent on housing and children who are not enrolled in school and not working, ages 16-19. Sumter County information is from 2014, and information in the state report is from 2015.
SEE KIDS, PAGE A3
Ministry offers peace of mind by repairing couple’s roof Your donations continue to assist area’s needy BY COLLYN TAYLOR intern@theitem.com When workers for the Sumter United Ministries home repair ministry arrived at a home on West Bee Street, their job was simple: Fix the home’s roof.
The couple living there had lived there for 13 years, according to the ministry, and their roof was in need of being re-shingled. Now, the industry standard for re-shingling a roof allows repair workers to add only one new layer over pre-existing shingles, according to construction ministry coordinator Dennis Bolen. What workers found was something
totally different. Workers found almost 10 layers of shingles piled on top of one another, which could cause serious problems to the house. If too many layers are plopped onto a roof, it could sag or eventually cave in. This is when Sumter United Ministries took control. A team completely stripped the roof and replaced the worn-out shingles with new three-tab, 20-year shingles.
And with the roof now fixed and the threat of it deteriorating a distant memory, for the homeowners comes peace of mind. The two homeowners said the best part about getting their roof fixed was the fellowship, saying they got to make plenty of new friends starting the first day of work. “We still can’t believe all the hardworking young people working on our
SEE CARING, PAGE A7