Lancaster County, SC | featured news

Haley Williams, a dance teacher at McDonald Green Elementary, has a new creative and contemplative passion – yoga – and she has begun teaching evening lessons after a month’s training in India.

KERSHAW – The Kershaw Community Park Council on Monday asked the town council for $25,000 to secure an equal grant for the playground-replacement project at Stevens Park, but the council turned down the request.
The $25,000 would have won KCPC a matching amount from the J. Marion Sims Foundation, a big step toward the community group’s $375,000 goal.
“We just don’t have it,” Kershaw Mayor Mark Dorman told anxious KCPC board members after council discussed the matter behind closed doors for more than an hour.

Crime was down overall in Lancaster County between 2016 and 2017, with several categories falling to a 10-year low, according to Lancaster County Sheriff Barry Faile.
According to crime statistics released Monday, Type 1 crimes, which include both violent crimes and property crimes, fell 6 percent overall in 2017.
The total number of violent crimes – murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults – fell 5 percent. Property crimes, which include, larcenies, auto break-ins and motor vehicle thefts, decreased 7 percent.

Lancaster Mayor John Howard has moved out of the intensive care unit at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte as his condition continues to improve.
He is in the hospital’s progressive-care unit, which is a downgrade from ICU and features more intensive physical and respiratory therapy. 
“Dad has continued to gain strength in the last week and is working to sit in the chair and do strengthening exercises with physical therapy,” said Shelley Robinson, Howard’s daughter.

Two Lancaster High School students have been suspended and reported to police after being accused of talking about violent threats against the school, officials said Tuesday.
“We had some students make comments where school would be the target of a violent act,” said Bryan Vaughn, the Lancaster County School District’s safety director. “Law enforcement got involved right away.”

Don Worthington
Landmark News Service

Two incidents of potential gun violence at Chesterfield Schools have followed the Feb. 14 fatal shootings at a Florida high school.
In each case, threats were made but no guns were brought to Chesterfield schools, officials said.
On Thursday, an administrator overheard a student threatening to bring a gun to Chesterfield-Rudy Middle School, according to the Chesterfield County Sheriff’s Office.

An intoxicated motorist was arrested Feb. 3 for domestic violence after deputies said he wrecked a car on the Nitrolee bridge on S.C. 200, then assaulted and chased the victim with a tire iron and threatened passersby who stopped to help her.
Paul Nelly Poag III, 33, of York, was charged with first-degree domestic violence, malicious injury to personal property, possession of a controlled substance (Xanax), first offense DUI, third offense DUI (less than .10), and first offense driving under suspension.