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Sumter real estate healthy Stable housing numbers should benefit local market, experts say BY JIM HILLEY jim@theitem.com After nearly tripling between the end of 2011 and October 2013, home inventories have stabilized in the Sumter area, and that should be good news for people in the real estate industry. Michael Halpern, a portfolio manager for Synovus Trust, the holding com-
said. “I am sure the Sumter area is benefitting from the tire company expansion.” Continental Tire the Americas, which opened a plant in Sumter in 2013, has been steadily increasing its production and expects to have 825 employees at the plant by the end of 2016, plant manager Craig Baartman said in March. Other companies which have
pany of NBSC, said there are several factors that could point to a stronger real estate market in Sumter. “In general, where there is both manufacturing and industry growth, as well as migration — where more people are coming into the market, whether retirees, people seeking a warmer climate or whatever — it puts pressure on the housing market,” he
expanded or announced expansions that could affect the local housing market by attracting more employees include Apex Tool Group and Caterpillar Inc. Though housing inventory in the area has not returned to pre-2011 levels, incoming buyers should eventually
SEE HOUSING, PAGE A6
More area bridges could be fixed soon 4 bridges now set for replacement BY COLLYN TAYLOR intern@theitem.com A week after South Carolina Department of Transportation announced a bridge closing in Sumter County, more bridge closures may be on the horizon. In the recent news release, DOT announced the bridge on Dubose Siding Road will be closed for two-and-a-half months beginning in mid-August to completely replace the bridge. And Robert Dickinson, DOT district maintenance engineer covering Sumter County, said more closings could happen to replace more local bridges. Dickinson said a bridge on Westbury Mill Road is scheduled for replacement in January 2016 with two bridges on East Brewington Road scheduled to be replaced in April and August next year as well, according to Dickinson. All are load-restricted bridges. Dickinson said the goal is to maximize the amount of weight that can go across each bridge. These add to the bridge projects already underway in Sumter County now with the bridge on U.S. 15 and another over Turkey Creek on Fulton Street undergoing replacements. The replacements are a part
KEITH GEDAMKE / THE SUMTER ITEM
The bridge on Miller Road is one of Sumter’s bridges that has a load restriction on it and needs to be fixed. A brace has been installed on one SEE BRIDGES, PAGE A6 of the bridge’s supports. The bridge is one of four in Sumter that needs to be repaired, including bridges on St. Pauls Church and Kolb roads.
Wing part could help solve what happened to MH370 SAINT-ANDRE, Reunion (AP) — A barnacle-encrusted wing part that washed up on a remote Indian Ocean island could help solve one of aviation’s greatest mysteries, as investigators work to connect it to the Malaysia Airlines flight that vanished more than a year ago. The surprise discovery of the debris on a rocky beach stirred hopes and emotion among families of the missing, after a year and a half of grieving and frustration at a lack of answers, despite a wide, deep and expensive multinational search effort in the southern Indian Ocean, the China Sea and the Gulf of Thailand. Even if it is confirmed to be a long-awaited first clue to the
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
French police officers inspect a piece of debris from a plane in SaintAndre, Reunion Island, on Wednesday. disappearance of Flight 370, there’s no guarantee that investigators can still find the plane’s recorders or other remains a year and a half later.
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The coming hours and days will be crucial. French authorities moved the plane piece from the beach to the local airport on Reunion, and
will send it next to the city of Toulouse, where it may arrive Saturday morning, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office. Toulouse is the hub of Europe’s aerospace industry, with the headquarters of Airbus and a network of hangars and plane facilities. The plane part will be analyzed in special defense facilities used for airplane testing and analysis, according to the Defense Ministry. Air safety investigators, including one from Boeing, have identified the component found on the French island of Reunion as a “flaperon” from the trailing edge of a Boeing 777 wing, a U.S. official said. The official wasn’t authorized to be publicly named. Flight 370, which disap-
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peared March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board, is the only 777 known to be missing. The unsuccessful search for the plane has raised concerns worldwide about whether airliners should be required to transmit their locations continually via satellite, especially when flying long distances over the ocean. “It’s the first real evidence that there is a possibility that a part of the aircraft may have been found,” said Australian Transport Minister Warren Truss, whose country is leading the search for the plane in a remote patch of ocean far off Australia’s west coast. “It’s too early to make that judgment, but clearly we are treating this as a major lead,” Truss said.
WEATHER, A10 DON’T FORGET AN UMBRELLA Variably cloudy with a thunderstorm today; partly cloudy and humid tonight. HIGH 95, LOW 73
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