The news in brief

By Staff  

SEPTEMBER 9, 2010 10:41 a.m. (0)

That’s even with the fact the numbers this week have already started to climb.

Locally, the price per gallon rose nine-tenths of a cent in the past week, while the national average fell two tenths of a cent.

The Web site GasBuddy.com listed Spartanburg as the city with the lowest price per gallon in the U.S. at $2.38 on Wednesday, while the national average hovered around $2.68. Hawaii had the highest average this week at $3.50 per gallon.

Gas consumption has continued to rise in 2010, at almost 226 million barrels with 42 gallons in each barrel. That’s up from 205 million barrels in 2009 and 194 million barrels in 2008.

The peak demand for gas is between Memorial Day and Labor Day, and prices may fluctuate only a few cents coming into fall.

Biologists with the state Department of Natural Resources have good news for deer hunters, but maybe not such good news for automobile drivers.

The state’s deer population is healthy, and there are plenty.

While the deer harvest has been on a downward trend the past few years indicating that population levels have moderated, hunter success and deer harvest rates remain strong, said Charles Ruth, the state Department of Natural Resources Deer and Wild Turkey Program coordinator.

Top counties for harvesting in 2009 included Bamberg, Allendale, Union and Anderson with each posting harvest rates in excess of 15 deer per square mile. Few areas of the U.S. consistently yield comparable harvest figures.

Top counties for quality deer in 2009 included Aiken, Orangeburg and Calhoun in the Coastal Plain and Fairfield, Anderson and Saluda counties in the Piedmont.

South Carolina’s deer population expanded rapidly in the 1980s and early 1990s and peaked in the late 1990s at about 1 million. However, since 2002 the population has trended down with current figures being about 750,000 deer, a 25 percent decline from peak figures 10 years ago. The decline, however, has allowed the quality of deer to improve, officials said.

The reduction can likely be attributable to a number of factors including habitat change.

Although timber management stimulated growth in the deer population beginning in the 1970s, there is considerable acreage statewide in pine stands more than 10 years old, which is not good for deer.

Deer hunting generates about $200 million for South Carolina’s economy annually.

Damage caused by debris piling up beneath the Rock Creek Road bridge has prompted the state Department of Transportation to issue an emergency order to replace the bridge, state officials said this week.

The bridge is located near Simpsonville on state Road S-23-453.

The bridge remains open after emergency repairs to a timber pile that was severely damaged by storm debris. It has been posted with the lowest weight limit (three tons) allowable and serves about 10,500 vehicles a day, state officials said.

A start date on replacing the structure has not been set, but should begin after overhead power lines have been moved.

DOT plans to remove all piers from beneath the structure, restoring Rock Creek to its natural state.

“The replacement of this bridge not only gives us the opportunity to provide a structure that will be more safe for the public, but opening the channel will improve the safety of the waterway and improve the environment,” said Buck Limehouse, state DOT director.

Artists in the Upstate who want to turn their hobby or part-time job into a full-time gig will soon get a boost from the Carolina Foothills Artisan Center and an unlikely source – the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The artisan center has received a $90,000 from the USDA’s Rural Business Enterprise Grant Program, one of 61 grants awarded across the country.

The project will pay for a study of Upstate artists and create a database of artists in Greenville, Spartanburg, Anderson, Cherokee, Laurens, Oconee, Pickens and Union counties, said Artisan Center Executive Director Melia Brannon McCraw.

The feasibility study and database will be used to help artists to better market their work, she said.

“One main goal in this project is to help hobby and part-time artists to become full-time artists,” she said.

The second part of the project will include the development of a comprehensive Web site to promote and sell artwork from artists in the region.

“Many artists would like to have a presence on the Internet to showcase and sell their work. This grant will allow them that opportunity, without having to go to the expense of having their own individual Web sites,” McCraw said. “Our hope is that this grant will allow local artists to become fully supported by their art.”

McCraw also said the center, which is located in Chesnee, hopes to expand its satellite gallery program. The organization’s first satellite gallery is inside of Lillie’s Antiques and Accessories in Cowpens.

Researchers with the Riley Institute at Furman University spent two years studying what South Carolina citizens wanted from the state’s public education system.

Now, a Web site, WhatWorksSC, is trying to help educators and policy makers put those findings into practice.

The newest addition to the Web site is a section on dropout prevention.

“Until we reduce the number of these dropout factories and tackle the drop-out crisis head on, South Carolina will be perpetually behind in educating its students, creating well-paying jobs, developing its economy and succeeding as a state in today’s global marketplace,” said Terry Peterson, former deputy U.S. secretary of education who is now director of the Community Learning Network at the College of Charleston.

Peterson has co-authored a report on the state’s dropout problem with Jay Smink, executive director of the National Dropout Prevention Center.

A case study of Baptist Hill High on Yonges Island near Charleston highlights strategies that transformed the school from a failing school to one that has seen its graduation rate increase 20 percentage points and has earned recognition for its academic improvement.

A clearinghouse of information on promising dropout prevention initiatives is also included.

Information is also available on the Web site on early childhood education, transforming public schools into community learning centers and improving learning in the early years.

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