May Council Meeting

SCHOLARSHIP AWARD GIVEN TO EMME BUZHARDT - The South Carolina Association of Counties awarded a $2,500.00 Scholarship to Emme Buzhardt of Saluda County. Ms. Buzhardt will attend Furman University in the fall to study Health Science. Presenting the  award is Jerry Strawbridge, Chairman of the Saluda County Council.

Second Readings
Given To Budgets

Saluda County Council gave second readings to the 2021-22 school and county  budgets at the May 10 meeting.
  The local support portion of the school district’s $20,688,6657 budget is $7,613,718, minus revenues and credits reflected on tax receipts from Property Tax Relief, Homestead Exemption, Tier 3 Property Tax Relief, and Motor Carrier for a net amount of $5,001,100  from ad valorem taxes.
  The county’s budget currently stands at $13,886,776. One more reading is required for both budgets.
  Pete Hall asked Council to consider a Second Amendment Ordinance, first proposed in Feb. 2020, which would make Saluda County a Second Amendment Sanctuary. Hall said 1500 counties and ten states had passed the ordinance.
  Council agreed with Councilman Carey Bedenbaugh to do further study on the ordinance before taking action.
  Ann Skinner of the Upper Savannah Council of Governments explained the S.C. Works System, which has an office in the County Council Building.
  The system works with job seekers, employees, and unemployed, and offers training to those out of work and to high school students. She says the state currently has more jobs than job seekers, and when Gov. McMaster ends the enhanced unemployment program, unemployed citizens need to come by the S.C. Works System office soon to begin their job search.
  Council gave readings to several ordinances and a resolution  involving a joint industrial park and fee in lieu of ad valorem taxes.
  Chairman Jerry Strawbridge explained the ordinances and resolution don’t use the actual names of the businesses involved. This is an economic development ploy to protect the identity until an official announcement is made.
  Sheriff Josh Price’s request for some new floor covering at the Sheriff’s Office was approved. Total estimate was over $12,000, but Price said he could cut out the new flooring for the training room, which will save $5000. The money will come from the Building Repair Reserve Fund.
  Grants Coordinator Jill Warren asked permission to apply for a Corona Virus Emergency Supplement Fund grant. If the $11,391 grant is approved, it will be used to purchase seven laptops, which will replace desktop computers. The laptops will allow users to take the devises with them to work at home. The request was approved.

Left to right - Savannah Rodgers, Quinten Miller, Amber Epting

Saluda FFA Tops In SC FFA
Livestock Evaluation CDE

  Members of the Saluda FFA Chapter competed in the virtual State Livestock Evaluation Career Development Event on April 22 and came out on top with a 1st place finish.  The team now advances to national competition this fall.
  Career Development Events (CDEs) build on what is learned in agricultural classes and encourage members to put their knowledge into practice. Students were required to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the livestock industry with a general knowledge test and also judged and placed three classes of livestock, including beef cattle, swine, and goats.
  Team members from Saluda included: Quinten Miller, Amber Epting, and Savannah Rodgers.  Quinten was also named high individual in the state.  Amanda N. Crouch is the agriculture teacher and FFA advisor for the Saluda Chapter.  
  South Carolina agricultural education serves more than 12,000 students across the state. Students receive instruction in one of five different pathways within the Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources career cluster. The South Carolina FFA Association is comprised of over 7,000 members across the state. The mission of the SC FFA Association is to develop premier leadership, personal growth, and career success through agricultural education.

Bloodhound Training

From left, deputies Alex Rhodes and Heather Clary present Sgt. Jeff Graham, former commander of the Greenwood County Sheriff’s Office bloodhound tracking team, a memento celebrating his departure from the team after two decades. (Index-Journal photo by  Damian Dominguez )

Bloodhound team veterans let
younger deputies take the leash

NOTE: The following article aprared in the May 7 issue of the Index-Journal,and is reprinted with permission. Featured in the article is Heather Clary, daughter of Elaine and Davind Clary of Saluda.

By Damian Dominguez This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

  Bloodhounds barked jealously Wednesday evening as a Greenwood County deputy grilled turkey burgers outside their kennels.
  Under the roof of the utility building attached to the sheriff’s office kennels, uniformed deputies handed out paper plates, trading stories of their years on the Bloodhound Tracking Team. Two veteran dog handlers were celebrating retirement, while a pair of young deputies were paying respects to their former commander, ready to try and fill his shoes.
  Sgt. Jeff Graham wasn’t one of the team’s founding members in 1993, but he joined it soon after, and has spent more than two decades helping track suspects and missing people with the help of canine detectives’ keen sense of smell. For the past 16 years, he served as the team’s commander.
  The current kennels are found along a stretch of road behind the sheriff’s office named Dax’s Alley, after the team’s first bloodhound. Graham helped design the current building, based on the needs and shortcomings of the original kennels.
  Graham has seen dozens of bloodhounds come through the team and built a close bond with each of them. “Red” came to live with Graham and his wife, Angie, after Red got too old to keep chasing scents.
  “Everybody thinks he’s called Red because of the Blake Shelton song, you know, ‘Ol’ Red,’” Graham said with a laugh.
  It’s simpler than that — when they assigned collars to that round of dogs, Red’s was red. Graham said each dog has a different tell, and each handler has to learn to look for specific cues. These highly trained dogs use consistent signals to let their handlers know if they still have the scent or if the trail has run cold. It’s a bit like learning another language.
  The bloodhound team is on call 24/7. Each member is also a full-time deputy, but when officers need tracking, the bloodhound team members can be called out at any hour, for as long as they’re needed.
  “They answer calls in the middle of the night, middle of the morning, 24/7, 365,” Graham said.
  Graham was one of the guests at Wednesday’s celebration, as other team members grilled and joked with him. Animal Control Officer Joseph Brooks was also in the hot seat — when he decided he was going to retire from the bloodhound team after 11 years, Graham decided it was his time to step aside, too.
  “We were the last of the old guard, but the guys before me wouldn’t call us the old guard,” Graham said. “I wanted to turn it over to a new generation.”
  Stepping into the command role as co-commanders are deputies Heather Clary, the team’s first female commander, and Alex Rhodes, whose father served on the team alongside Graham. Graham and Brooks aren’t retiring as officers, but Brooks said handling these dogs is a job for younger deputies.
  “It takes a toll on you, a toll on your body,” he said. “You get dragged around by a dog, stumbling and tripping in holes, wearing pounds and pounds of gear. It’s a young man’s game.”
  The hounds that Graham and Brooks built closest relationships with are no longer on the team, dogs such as Red, Ruby and Blue. Some of their remains sit in urns, wrapped in their service collars on shelves in the kennels, surrounded by photos, newspaper cutouts and framed letters showing the storied history of each dog. Buford is the oldest bloodhound still on the team, with Duke, Sam and Riley representing the newest batch of dogs.
  “It’s a new generation of dogs, they need a new generation of handlers,” Brooks said.
  Their tracking calls blur together after so many years, but Brooks distinctly remembered helping another county’s sheriff track a missing woman. Deputies had searched her house and surrounding areas, but when Greenwood’s team got on the scene, Brooks said he walked into the house and saw the elderly woman’s socked feet dangling out from under the bed. The local deputy who searched the house missed that she was hiding under the bed.
  “My most memorable call was with Red, looking for this missing 5-year-old,” Graham said. “I’m telling you, it was like Red was in a different gear. Like he knew it was a child that went missing.”
  They found the boy in the woods, arms outstretched for help — it was an early call in Graham’s career that helped him understand how dedicated these dogs are to their search.
  Clary and Rhodes gave Graham and Brooks each an engraved, glass plaque, commemorating their years of service. Graham assured them that retirement wouldn’t stop him from being there for them if they ever need help.
  “I’ll admit, this is not what I had planned when I joined the dog team,” said Clary. “But they had openings, and I needed more to do around here.”
  Clary spent more than five years with the Lexington County Sheriff’s Office, three of those in crime scene investigations. She joined Greenwood County in 2017 to be closer to home in Saluda, and she said she’s excited to take on this new responsibility.
  Rhodes has been in the bloodhound team for a year and a half, and he said he’s thrilled by the chance to carry the team’s legacy forward.
  “My dad did it. I used to run out here with him in high school,” he said. “I’m definitely excited about it. A little nervous, yeah, but more excited than anything.”
  As the deputies finished their cheeseburgers and grabbed homemade cupcakes to celebrate, they shared stories and memories. Don’t put Sam and Riley together with Scarlet — they’ll team up and annoy her. When Red went home with Graham, he was so accustomed to the noise of the kennels that he barked nonstop. Some dogs are biters, and you have to know how to rein them in to keep them under control.
  It was clear after decades with these dogs, this was one piece of work Graham and Brooks couldn’t help but take home with them.

Saluda Man Dies In
Laurens County Wreck

  One person is dead after a single-vehicle crash on Hwy. 39 near Cross Hill around 7:20am on Sat. morning, May 1, according to Trooper Joe Hovis.
  The Laurens County Coroner’s Office has identified the victim as 22-year-old Dakota James McKinney of Saluda, SC.
  The victim was driving a 2011 Kia south on Hwy. 39 when they ran off the right side of the road, overcorrected and ran off the left side of the road, hitting several trees.
  Hovis said the victim was not wearing a seatbelt, was entrapped in the vehicle and had to be mechanically extricated. The victim died at the scene, according to Hovis.

Special Gift

State Superintendent  Gets Special Gift

  State Superintendent of Education Molly M. Spearman got a special gift at the vaccination clinic at Saluda High School Sat., May 1.
  Dr. Oscar Lovelace gave her an old 78 record, “The Great Judgement Morning” by Rudy Mitchell and his Camp Meeting Band. The “Rudy,” of course, is Mrs. Spearman’s late father Rudolph, who was known locally as a politician and as a member of the musical duo, “The Ivory Keys,’ with the late Holly Price. Mrs. Spearman had never heard of the record nor had she heard of the record label, “Carolina Records” of Saluda.
  The 78 records were first produced in 1898 and were made until the late 1950s. The 12-inch record only had one song on each side. The 78’s gave way to the 33 rpm albums and 45 rpm singles.
  Over 200 citizens got vaccinated at the “Take Your Shot - Saluda” COVID vaccination event.
  Participants enjoyed free food by Blaz N Buzz Catering, while supplies lasted, and participated  raffle giveaways provided by Amick Farms, with a grand prize of a television.
  The free community drive up Pfizer COVID vaccination clinic was hosted by Dr. Lovelace,  Spearman, Saluda County School District and Certified SC.
(Photos by Jamie Shealy)

Taylor Gordon, a senior mass communications and media studies major from Ridge Spring, receives the Laura Lander Woman of the Year Award on Wednesday during Lander’s annual Student Life Awards. Photo courtesy of Laura Brown.

Ridge Spring Student named Lander
University’s 2021  Woman of the Year

GREENWOOD, S.C. -  Lander seniors Ryan Murdock and Taylor Gordon were awarded the Samuel Lander Man of the Year and Laura Lander Woman of the Year awards, respectively, at Lander’s Student Life Awards on April 21.
  The Samuel and Laura Lander Man and Woman of the year award is given to two students annually, and the recipients’ involvement in co-curricular activites, both on campus and in the community during the academic year, are taken into consideration when considering nominees.
  Dr. Boyd Yarbrough, vice president for Student Affairs, presented the pair with the awards during the Student Life Awards ceremony in the Finis Horne Arena. Yarbrough said that the award recognizes two students who have “exhibited high aspirations and noble humanitarian qualities of character throughout all areas of campus life.”
  Murdock, a psychology major, is a Presidential Ambassador, a resident assistant and Lander’s 2021 Homecoming King. “He has a positive attitude that lights up a room and sets an example for other students,” said Yarbrough. “He embodies everything we could ask for in a Lander student.”
  Gordon, of Ridge Spring,  is pursuing a degree in mass communications and media studies, is a Presidential Ambassador and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. In addition to the Laura Lander Woman of the Year award, Gordon was also recognized as one of the Lander University Greek Leaders of the Year. “She puts her heart and soul into everything she does and is a positive role model for students,” said Yarbrough.