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Crestwood, SHS boys look to earn lower state title berths. B1
Preserving culture ‘Gullah Lady’ will present black history program
A3 VOL. 118, NO. 104 WWW.THEITEM.COM
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2013 | SUMTER, SOUTH CAROLINA
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Man gets life for murder
Continental installs plant’s final beam
BY ROBERT J. BAKER bbaker@theitem.com
RIGHT: Construction workers at the Continental Tire the Americas plant sign the ceremonial last beam that was to be installed on Tuesday.
ABOVE RIGHT: South Carolina Secretary of Commerce Bobby Hitt, left, and Continental Tire plant manager Craig Baartman sign the beam on Tuesday.
PHOTOS BY BRADEN BUNCH / THE ITEM
State secretary of commerce visits for ceremony BY BRADEN BUNCH bbunch@theitem.com The Continental Tire the Americas Sumter plant reached a major construction milestone Tuesday, as workers installed the final steel beam in the facility. With South Carolina Secretary of Commerce Bobby Hitt on hand, as well as about 60 others — a combination of public and company officials — construction workers lifted the beam, painted with company colors and signed by dignitaries and employees alike, into place. The ceremony comes 11 months after the plant’s initial groundbreaking on the 330-acre facility just south of downtown along U.S. 521 and con-
firms the one-million-square-foot facility has now been completely framed. Plant Manager Craig Baartman said this latest step now brings the facility to about 60 percent completion, keeping the plant on schedule to be finished by the end of the year. Eventually, Continental plans on making a $500 million capital investment into its Sumter facilities, employing about 1,600 people to produce an estimated 8 million tires annually. The target date for those figures, however, is not until 2021. For now, the company’s focus remains on getting this first phase of the facility up and running. “At this point in time we’re down to the wire, on a day-to-day basis,
trying to keep up with our plan, so there’s absolutely no comfort zone or breathing space at all,” Baartman said. During the same time, Baartman said Continental is also receiving key equipment to install under its new roof, while hiring both management and production staff to be trained for the start of production next year. About 300 people will be hired in 2013, Baartman said, with many of these employees being sent to other Continental plants around the world later this year for training. The plant manager also said about 95 percent of the production employees hired so far have been from within the state. SEE PLANT, PAGE A8
Manning administrator resigns at meeting BY SHARRON HALEY sharron@theitem-clarendonsun.com MANNING — Manning Administrator Pat Goodwin resigned Monday night during a long executive session. In a letter addressed to Manning Mayor Julia A. Nelson and Council, Pat Goodwin quoted the Book of Ecclesiastes, “To everything there is a season and a time under the heavens.” “Someone else said, ‘Change is the only con-
stant in our lives’ and that is true in my life as well,” Goodwin wrote. In the letter GOODWIN dated Feb. 14, Goodwin said he was submitting his resignation as Manning’s administrator effective March 19. “Following my final date, I will be more than willing to assist you, the city’s staff and/or the new administra-
tor with grants, issues and information as much as possible,” he said. Goodwin said his reason for leaving Manning is personal. “I wish to pursue other opportunities in my life,” he wrote. Nelson read the letter from Goodwin to those in attendance. “I just want to issue you a public thank you,” Nelson said. “We hope you do well in your future endeavors.”
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Nelson said she has complete faith in her department heads that they can carry on until a new administrator is hired. Goodwin, who has been the city’s administrator for 22 months, said the decision was “not an easy decision for me because of my deep love and respect for each of you and all those I have come to know and love here in Manning.” SEE GOODWIN, PAGE A8
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Larry Green told a circuit court judge that crack cocaine led to the majority of trouble in his life. Now, the drug and what Green said it caused him to do in December 2010 have cost him his freedom. Third Circuit Judge George C. James sentenced Green on Monday to life in prison after the 50-year-old Rembert man pleaded guilty to the murder of 52-year-old Arthur Lee McDaniel. Lt. Robert Burnish of the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office said Green GREEN led deputies to McDaniel’s body in a field off Borden Road in Sumter on Dec. 15, 2010, five days after the man had been reported missing by his sister. “(Green) took us to the body and also gave a statement admitting his involvement in (McDaniel’s) death,” Burnish said. “We also had information prior to (Green’s) arrest that he was the last person to talk to the victim on the day (McDaniel) disappeared.” Betty McDaniel told deputies she had last spoken with her brother Dec. 9, and that his employer, the city of Camden, notified her Dec. 10 that he had neither shown up for work nor called in to explain his absence that day. Sheriff Anthony Dennis said in 2010 that the men had been acquaintances. “Green had been a person of interest since the beginning (of the investigation),” Dennis said in an Item file story. Green later became a suspect on Dec. 14, 2010, after McDaniel’s truck was found in the third block of East Calhoun Street. Between the time of McDaniel’s death — by blunt force trauma to the head from a piece of wood — and Green’s arrest, the suspect reportedly went to Santee-Wateree Community Health Center on North Magnolia Street and then to New Alternatives, a substance abuse facility on North Main Street, claiming to be suicidal. He was later checked into Tuomey Regional Medical Center, where he was arrested the following day. Green later told authorities he had taken about $300 from McDaniel to purchase more crack cocaine. His prior record includes a 15-year sentence for first-degree burglary in 1988 and another 15-year sentence for that same offense in 1997. The latter sentence was served concurrent to a 10-year sentence for possession of a stolen vehicle of greater value than $5,000. Reach Robert J. Baker at (803) 774-1210.
OUTSIDE SUN!
INSIDE 3 SECTIONS, 24 PAGES
Lots of sunshine today; clear and cold tonight HIGH: 56 LOW: 30 A8
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