INSIDE: Docs recommend flu shots, not nasal spray, this year
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Fabulous Writer remembers Sumter’s Freddie Solomon bursting with talent, compassion C1
SERVING SOUTH CAROLINA SINCE OCTOBER 15, 1894
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2016
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Alligator in Swan Lake JIM HILLEY / THE SUMTER ITEM
R & R Services Too employee Lenny Nelson uses a nail gun to lay down new roofing on a ticket booth at the Sumter County Fairgrounds on Tuesday as part of a community service project with Lowe’s Home Improvement, HGTV and Sherwin-Williams Paints.
Volunteers help fix up fairgrounds Structures suffered heavy flood damage BY JIM HILLEY jim@theitem.com With the Sumter County Fair only a few weeks away, restrooms and ticket booths at Sumter County Fairgrounds are getting some much-needed repairs thanks to Lowe’s Home Improvement, HGTV, Sherwin-Williams Paints and R & R Services Too. Kristi Hipkins, who works as the return-to-manufacturer clerk at Lowe's, said the company tries to do community service projects each year. This year, it chose to install playground equipment at the YWCA and to help the American Legion with work repairing roofs and painting restrooms at the fairgrounds, which are owned by the Legion. “This is probably one of the biggest projects we’ve done,” she said. The fairgrounds were hard hit by the floods last year, Hipkins said. “We called the American Legion and asked what they needed, and they said roofs on the ticket booths and painting the restrooms,” Hipkins said. “Lowe’s stepped in to help them and also do some work at the Boy Scout building.” In addition to providing materials to R & R Services Too, which volunteered to do the roofing work, Lowe’s provided volunteers to help paint the restrooms inside and out with the aid of Sherwin-Williams Paints and HGTV. At the Boy Scout building, Lowe’s donated materials and labor to install two inside ceiling fans and better lighting on the outside of the building. “During the part of the year that it gets dark early, that will let the Boy Scouts have more outdoor activities,” Hipkins said. Hipkins estimated Lowe's donated about $5,000 in materials to the project. "If you look at labor between us and the roofing company (R & R Services Too), I would say it's about $8,000 to $10,000," she said.
SEE FAIR, PAGE A6
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A turtle watches intently as a small alligator swims by at Swan Lake-Iris Gardens on Sunday afternoon.
Presence of small gators in natural area not uncommon FROM STAFF REPORTS Sumter City officials are working with a licensed trapper to catch a 7-foot alligator that residents have spotted in Swan Lake-Iris Gardens, the city's preeminent park. Assistant City Manager Al
Harris said the city usually captures several gators in the lake each year and releases them in other locations, either in swamps, lakes or areas where people want them. He said the city doesn't like to sound alarms that might frighten visitors from
the site, so it usually quietly captures and releases them. "We've never had them bother anyone, but we just move them quickly to another area," he said. Depending on the size and ability to trap the gators, the city uses its personnel, a licensed trapper or South
Carolina Department of Natural Resources to trap and release the gators. Harris said the city has removed as many as seven from the park in one year. The gators enter the area usually by climbing over the
SEE GATORS, PAGE A6
City council approves annexation, rezoning BY JIM HILLEY jim@theitem.com Sumter City Council met in regular session Tuesday and passed several items on its agenda, including the annexation and rezoning of property on Loring Mill and Keels roads. Council approved the annexation of several pieces of property in the area and then listened to Jay Davis, who attended the meeting to represent the developer, Knowlton Properties and Dunlap Properties.
During a public hearing on the rezoning held Aug. 16, a number of county residents who live in the area attended to show their opposition to the zoning change. After the meeting, they were able to discuss their concerns with the developer. At the meeting, Davis said the discussions with area residents had alleviated most of their concerns, most of which involved drainage, property values and traffic. He said it is likely the new development would improve drainage in the
area, and he told Council that the R-9 zoning, with smaller lot sizes, is more common now because of numerous additional requirements for development than what were in existence when nearby subdivisions were built. Those requirements mean few lots per acre, he said. After hearing Davis presentation, council passed the first reading of changing the property’s zoning from R-15 to R-9.
SEE CITY, PAGE A6
GOP woos veterans, but Trump has rubbed some the wrong way THE ASSOCIATED PRESS RENO, Nevada — It was more than a routine get-outthe-vote knock on the door when Iraq War veteran and Nevada Republican Party staffer Jon Staab asked Kenneth Olofson, a Vietnam veteran, if he'll be voting for Donald Trump. An instant bond was formed as the two swapped stories of service and those of relatives who fought in World War II. "I don't miss an election,"
Olofson, 74 and a lifelong Republican, said. "Whenever I vote, I think of Normandy." A few blocks away, Daniel Mendoza, also an Iraq war veteran canvassing for the GOP, was promptly kicked off another elderly veteran's property at the mere mention of Trump's name. Two years ago, the Republican National Committee hatched a plan to bolster turnout for veterans, who traditionally lean Republican. The party calculated
DEATHS, B5 Jeanne B. Wellman Ben Newman Joshua Neal Jr. Charlene Reid
Joseph B. Cutter Jr. Dorothy H. Richardson Lumicha J. Whaley LaQuanda Hinnant
that 6.5 million veterans either didn't register to vote or didn't cast a ballot in the 2012 presidential election. In the shadow of the Obama administration's controversial management of the Veteran's TRUMP Administration, the RNC compiled lists of veteran voters and hired veterans for an unprecedented getout-the-vote effort.
Then Trump won the party's presidential nomination, and his controversial rhetoric has rubbed some veterans the wrong way. The billionaire businessman has mocked Sen. John McCain for being captured during the Vietnam War, threatened to withdraw from NATO and feuded with a slain soldier's family that criticized him during the Democratic National Convention.
SEE VETS, PAGE A6
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