Local

Badcock Home Furnishing Center is preparing to move to a new building that will be more than triple the size of its existing location.

The Badcock furniture store on South Main Street will relocate to the old Wal-Mart building on S.C. 9 Bypass. Owner Cliff Altman said the store may be open at the new location by May 1.

Badcock’s new store will have 24,000 square feet of showroom space. The warehouse will be 10,000 square feet, and the clearance center will measure about 6,000 square feet, Altman said.

The hugs were plentiful. Smiles were a mainstay and some people shed tears.

The evening was all about the children in Lancaster County who’ve made strides toward excellence and the proud parents, teachers and others who support them along the way.

On Thursday, the three Rotary clubs in Lancaster County held the third annual Principals’ Choice Awards – an honor that recognizes students for achievement in and outside the classroom. The ceremony was held in a packed Bundy Auditorium at the University of South Carolina at Lancaster.

County Council will discuss forming a committee Monday that will recommend capital projects that should be included in a November referendum.

Council is considering a 1-cent sales tax to pay for projects, such as building a new courthouse, expanding the main library and public works facilities, improving utility lines in the county’s municipalities.

A courthouse could cost at least $20 million. Because the county can’t borrow money for all the projects, the public would vote on a bond package during the general election in November.

Lancaster City Council is moving forward on a project to create a monument to Springs Industries’ Lancaster Plant and the employees who worked at the plant for many years.

While the mill is now gone, its tower clock has been refurbished and the city is now hoping to place it inside a monument that will stand somewhere in downtown Lancaster.

City Administrator Helen Sowell said the majority of council wants the monument on the island in Elm Street that faces Main Street from the west. That would be part of an effort to beautify the southern part of downtown, she said.