Opinion

The statistics are in and the S.C. Highway Patrol is taking notice. In 2007, traffic fatalities were up in the county and across the state.

County numbers had 17 people die in fatalities as opposed to 10 in 2006. Statewide, the figures showed that 1,071 drivers lost their lives in 2007, up 43 from the previous year. South Carolina ranks among the highest in the nation in terms of number of traffic deaths and serious accidents per number of vehicles on the road.

Several factors led to the increase here.

After a week under heavy sedation, the first thing Amy Saylors said was, "I've got to pay my bills."

Saylors had been hospitalized with a case of pneumonia so severe that doctors at the Medical University of South Carolina did not have a name for it. They said she was lucky to be alive.

It was New Year's day when Saylors became so sick she had to be transported by ambulance from Springs Memorial Hospital in Lancaster more than three hours south to Charleston to MUSC.

With counsel from my family, close confidants and top staff, I have decided not to seek re-election and will retire at the expiration of my current term in January, 2009.

This was an extremely difficult decision for me because I love law enforcement, the good people of Lancaster County and most of all the men and women I have had the privilege and honor of working with throughout my 30-plus year career.

It’s the time of year that many of us make resolutions about changes we will make in the upcoming year.

Some popular resolutions are losing weight, exercising more and paying off debt, just to name a few. These are all worthwhile, but maybe this year we could consider a goal that empowers us to help children in need – becoming a volunteer Guardian ad Litem for an abused or neglected child.

I would to thank all the wonderful people who live in Lancaster County. We are always hearing about the bad things people do. Well, I want to tell about some good things people do.

Again this year, the Lancaster County Council on Aging (COA) sponsored the “shoe boxes for seniors,” a project that was started about six years ago.

Family Promise of Lancaster County started in September 2007. The essential backbone of any organized group is to have committees to collect needed information or recruit volunteer help.

Family Promise is no different. The committees and their chairmen are: Host Recruitment Committee, the Rev. Dan Batson of First United Methodist Church, chairman: Fundraising Committee, Calvin Miller of Covenant Baptist Church, chairman: Public Relations, Mary Atkinson of St. Catherine Catholic Church, chairwoman and the Day Center with Chad Catledge of First Baptist Church as chairman.

Mary Jane Bailes Watson, who died in December, was a longtime friend. Our families shared good times together. We were Lancaster High School classmates.

She left us for a faraway Pavilion gleaming amid the glow of a full moon, the incoming tide foaming over a sandy shoreline and those ever present salty breezes blowing through your hair.

The sounds of 1950s beach music resounds as she moves across the dance floor with effortless ease as in days of old.

Save a dance for us.

Mary Alice Rankin Evans and W.B. Evans Jr., LHS Class of ’51

Lancaster

The Heath Springs Senior Council on Aging lunch bunch, both in-house and home-delivered meals, local community seniors and Mount Calvary Outreach Seniors in Kershaw wish to express their gratitude to the Hillside High School Class of 1970 for remembering us in such a warm and special way.

We only wish you could have been present to experience the thrill and excitement as we received our gifts.

Our thanks also to Bright Light Baptist and Mount Tabor AME Zion churches who had a part in making this mission possible.

A year ago, several members of Lancaster County Council said a new county courthouse was a top priority.

The process takes time, but some steps were taken to move forward on the issue over the last year.

The next step in the process is hiring an architect.

County Council Chairman Rudy Carter said the council committee working on hiring an architect is in the final stages of the selection process, but an announcement on the architect won't be made until a cost for the courthouse is determined. The goal to determine that figure is early spring.