Free medicine

Spartanburg County's employee clinic gets high marks from patients

FEBRUARY 18, 2010 9:58 a.m. (0)

Tony Bell was visiting the clinic he helped set up for Spartanburg County employees recently, and the clinic’s advising physician happened to be there.

“My shoulder has been bothering me forever and a day,” said Bell, sporting a blue canvas arm sling late last week. “He said, ‘Why don’t you get an MRI?’ I hadn’t gotten back to my office before they were calling me to set it up.”  Continue reading...

 

Mayfair has lofty goals

JUNE 14, 2010 9:13 a.m. (0)

The tenants at Mayfair Lofts generally aren’t locals but they have helped make the mill restoration project one of Spartanburg County’s success stories, said Pace Burt of Burt Development.

Perched alongside a major rail line on the edge of the City of Spartanburg, Mayfair Lofts is sandwiched between major shopping, and business opportunities as well as having easy access to colleges and the University of South Carolina at Spartanburg.  Continue reading...

 

Spartanburg's $17.3 million

It's a new day for the county's parks plan

OCTOBER 13, 2010 7:34 a.m. (0)

Just four years after getting into the parks business, Spartanburg County has launched an ambitious $17.3 million parks building program that officials say they hope it will return an equal amount in economic impact in the first year of operations.

“If things go as we hope they will the Tyger River Park will play host to several regional tournaments next year that should generate an economic impact at least equal to the total cost of the parks building program,” said Jeff Caton, director of parks for the county.

Spartanburg is trying to come a long way in a short amount of time since it is the last major metropolitan county in the state to create a recreation department, Caton said, and it has the lowest allocation per resident, $23 dollars, to pay for recreation.  Continue reading...

 

Cash flow

The  divide between Spartanburg county council and parks and recreation

MAY 9, 2011 11:25 a.m. (0)

A dispute between Spartanburg County Council and the recreation department comes down to either a failure to come through on expected projects or a failure to communicate accurately the department’s intentions, officials said recently.

County council ordered a recreation department audit in April and voted to amend the ordinance creating the recreation commission in a move that would bring the department under the supervision of County Administrator Glenn Breed. The recreation commission would remain to handle run-of-the-mill issues.

Council Chairman Jeff Horton said the county’s issues with how the recreation department is run stem mainly from a lack of progress on big-ticket projects like Va-  Continue reading...

 

Conservatives want to get the tea party started

Spartanburg tea party focuses on county

JUNE 23, 2011 9:58 a.m. (1)

The Spartanburg Tea Party has turned its attention to the local scene, bringing its grand experiment in smaller government and lower taxes to the county level in a way that even conservative Spartanburg has never seen before, observers say.

In Spartanburg County employees have not had a raise in five years and yet council, with hearty tea party applause, has passed a tax cut for the next fiscal year.

“The last real tax increase we had in my 17 years on council was the road use fee,” said council Chairman Jeff Horton. “But I don’t think the tea party has that much influence with the council itself. We’re a pretty conservative bunch, overall.”  Continue reading...

 

SLED investigates parks agency

Preliminary investigation opened into issues cited by a soon-to-be released audit

SEPTEMBER 1, 2011 2:47 p.m. (0)

The State Law Enforcement Division has opened a preliminary investigation into issues cited by a soon-to-be released audit of Spartanburg County’s recreation department, SLED spokeswoman Kathryn Richardson said this week.

At this stage it is impossible to determine if any criminal charges are likely, Richardson said.

Information obtained by the Journal last week found that former County Administrator Glenn Breed stepped down after being confronted about the audit by council members in an executive session last month.  Continue reading...

 

County Council spending

Audit reveals more questions

SEPTEMBER 9, 2011 7:54 a.m. (0)

More than $3.5 million was transferred from an account at the Spartanburg County Jail designated for building a new detention facility and used to balance the county’s budget without county council’s knowledge, officials confirmed to the Journal this week.

“When I took over the jail and started looking over the books I found about $200,000 in one account that should have had about $4 million in it,” Sheriff Chuck Wright said.

The money came largely from payments for housing federal prisoners, inmate canteen receipts and a few other sources, Wright said.  Continue reading...