Chamber enlisting support to keep USCL open

The Lancaster County Chamber of Commerce is seeking the support of the business community and all Lancaster County residents to express their concern and disapproval over Gov. Mark Sanford’s budget proposal to close the University of South Carolina at Lancaster campus over the next two years.

The chamber has already contacted its membership, including more than 500 representatives of business and industry, encouraging them to respond to a special e-mail address that has been established by the chamber, asking them to include their name and address in support of keeping USCL open.

Because the chamber believes it’s important for all county residents to be heard on this issue, everyone concerned about the proposal is asked to respond to this e-mail address, saveuscl@comporium.net, with your name and address.

The chamber, along with Lancaster County Council and Lancaster City Council, has put together a joint resolution supporting USCL.

The towns of Heath Springs and Kershaw are also expected to adopt the resolution.

Following its adoption, the signed resolution will be hand-delivered to the Governor’s Office and to the state Senate and House of Representatives in Columbia. A component of the package will be a list of each person’s name and address who has responded to the saveuscl@comporium.net e-mail in support of the resolution.

“We know that Lancaster County’s current citizens are completely opposed to the governor’s proposal to close USC-Lancaster, but we also believe that many former residents, as well as residents of other areas who have attended USC-Lancaster or participated in its programs, want their voices of concern to be made known, and our hope is to have thousands of legitimate names and addresses to present to the governor on behalf of USC-Lancaster,” chamber Chairman Jay Rainey said.

“We encourage our citizens to respond to this urgent call for support and let the governor and the state Legislature know that USC-Lancaster is vital to the economic survival of Lancaster County,” Rainey said.