IN SPORTS: LHS senior eyes historic finish B1
THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 2015
| Serving South Carolina since October 15, 1894
75 cents
City exempts garage from bid Council expects better deal by joining hotel contractor BY ADRIENNE SARVIS adrienne@theitem.com During Sumter City Council’s regular meeting Tuesday, the construction of an elevated parking garage on the southeastern corner of West Hampton Avenue and North Sumter Street was exempted from the city’s competitive bidding process because the city plans to work with the general contractor of the Main Street mystery hotel.
Under normal circumstances, the city would place a public bid for the parking garage project, but City Attorney Eric Shytle said because the sites of the garage and hotel are so close in proximity, working with the same general contractor would be beneficial so that both projects will be about the same time. At the meeting, City Manager Deron McCormick said handling the project this way would ensure the best deal for
the city and taxpayers. “This isn’t a blank check, so to speak,” he said. The new plan is that the city will inform the general contractor of the hotel of the maximum price it is willing to pay for the services and materials, and the contractor will put out bids based on that figure. Now that the project has been exempt from the bidding process, the next step is to negotiate the details of the park-
ing garage, Shytle said. The contract between the city and the general contractor will specify that all subcontractors and materials will be bid out competitively and the city will have access to the results of those bids, he said. “In every aspect of the deal that we can compete on price, we will,” Shytle said. Shytle said city council would see all of the details for bids and purchases down to the line item level and the
public would know that the city got the best price for services and materials throughout the project. After the meeting, Shytle said the designs of the garage will ultimately depend on the maximum price the city is willing to pay for the project, but it is proposed that the twostory garage will have about 250 spaces and will be free and open to the public.
SEE HOTEL, PAGE A8
Blue skies and concrete Workers move a 106,000-pound concrete beam into place Wednesday afternoon for the Layafette Drive bridge. According to Sumter’s S.C. Department of Transportation resident construction engineer, Jeffrey Wilkes, work on Alice Drive and the Lafayette Drive bridge is headed toward the scheduled completion dates. Wilkes said that despite minor setbacks caused by recent weather, Alice Drive should still be completed in May and the Lafayette Drive Bridge is set to be completed December of this year. KEITH GEDAMKE / THE SUMTER ITEM
Janitor son paid almost as much as teacher at MLD BY MATT BRUCE matthew@theitem.com Defense attorneys began presenting their case Wednesday in the multi-million-dollar embezzlement trial of former Lee County charter school operator Benita Dinkins-Robinson, but the prosecutor for the case showed proof that the defendant paid her son for janitorial wages close to that of a teacher. Dinkins-Robinson stands accused of two federal counts stemming from allegations she misappropriated more than $2.2 million from a pair of federal agencies during her tenure as director of Mary L. Dinkins Higher Learning Academy. She has spent much of the past two weeks sitting inside a U.S. District courtroom at Matthew J. Perry Jr. Federal Courthouse, listening to the claims of U.S. attorneys. Prosecutors spent the first five days of testimony putting witnesses on the stand before resting their case. That set the stage for Dinkins-Rob-
VISIT US ONLINE AT
the
.com
HARRISON CAHILL / THE STATE
Benita Dinkins-Robinson, foreground, is seen outside the federal courthouse in Columbia. She is accused of mishandling money intended for her charter school, Mary L. Dinkins Higher Learning Academy. inson’s team of defense attorneys, who rattled through 11 witnesses in a single afternoon on their opening day of
presentation. Several witnesses testified that they participated in or were recipients of
DEATHS, B5 Odessa L. Mack Jerry Singleton Mary Ellen D. Francis Amiel D. Williams Tina Maria Ford Elma Lou Kea Kailyn Marie Shealy
Dinkins-Robinson’s food services initiative dubbed the Feed A Child program, which operated several summers and fed hungry children in multiple counties. Former teachers also took the stand and testified they witnessed the school serve students breakfast and lunch without problems while they worked there. A federal grand jury indicted Dinkins-Robinson on two felony counts of theft of government property in May, and she pleaded not guilty to both charges. She faces as many as 20 years in federal prison and a maximum fine of $250,000, if convicted. Federal prosecutors insist the 40-year-old Bishopville woman embezzled Title I, Title II and IDEA funds from the U.S. Department of Education between 2010 and 2013 — funds which were designated to educate the children at her school. Authorities further charge that she did the same with
Russell Ray Potts Sr. Nolan Bossard Sr. Fred D. Addison Emanuel J. Torres Courtney Singleton Troy A. Graham Ollie May Lowery Lane
SEE MLD, PAGE A8
WEATHER, A14
INSIDE
NEED A COAT WITH A HOOD
2 SECTIONS,22 PAGES VOL. 120, NO. 118
Breezy with periods of rain today. Cloudy and colder tonight. HIGH 75, LOW 32
Classifieds B7 Comics B6 Lotteries A14
Opinion A13 Religion A4 Television A9