Once again with a packed house, the Fairfield County Council “received” requests from its taxpayers to stop the outrageous spending, give back the double dipped insurance funds and college tuition totaling over $95,000 and the taxpayers were ignored. Each council member receives $759 a month or a total of $66,780 yearly under the guise of […]
Radioactive Budget
August 30, 2013 By
Thirty years ago, Fairfield County started receiving money from the V.C. Summer Nuclear Power Plant. All of the Fairfield County Councils and Administrators from the inception of receiving this money have hidden their spending of these funds by not using them in our Fairfield County budgets. The budgets are fixed by the County Administrator and […]
Sausage Spectators
August 30, 2013 By
Government works best, should it indeed work at all, when it works under the watchful eyes of those whom it represents. Forget the old adage about legislation being like making sausage. You do, in fact, want to see it being done. And Fairfield County Council, suddenly, has a lot of people wanting to see how […]
The Price of Secrecy
August 23, 2013 By
There’s no substitute for disclosure. The more the people know about what their government is doing, how they’re doing it and why, the more perfect is our union. After all, let us not forget that the people are, essentially, the government. That was true in the beginning of this great experiment with Democracy, some 230 […]
A Dam Dirty Business
August 15, 2013 By
You think you’ve got problems, Fairfield County? Well, you kind of do. Dirty pictures, property tax snafus, County Council members on the hot seat, water infrastructure struggles – sure. But at least when you go to bed at night you do so with the confidence that Lake Wateree or Lake Monticello will still be there […]
Thank You VFDs
August 9, 2013 By
I am writing to express appreciation to the five Volunteer Fire Departments that responded to the fire destroying our house at Lake Wateree on July 21. When we got there, trucks from the Ridgeway, Mitford, Community, Dutchman Creek and Southeastern VFDs were already there and containing the fire. The Rescue Squad was there to give […]
Un-ESEA Feelings
August 9, 2013 By
It is often difficult to discern through the fog of letters and numbers, percentages and demographic breakdowns swirling above the cauldron of alphabet soup of state school assessments just what those assessments assess. HSAP. PASS. ESEA. Are we measuring whether or not students have mastered the material and are fully armed and equipped to enter […]
ESEA and Richland 2
August 8, 2013 By
The South Carolina Department of Education last week released the 2013 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) rankings of school achievement. Overall, Richland 2 received a letter grade of B. While released by the state, this rating system is a federal accountability measure, formerly called the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), which was part of the […]
Thanks You Stevie
August 8, 2013 By
Thank you for the excellent work done by The Independent Voice and specifically Stevie Johnson on informing the parents and taxpayers of Blythewood about Richland School District 2. She does an excellent job of providing research and insight into an area that impacts all of us. Her role as an independent advocate is appreciated. Doug […]
‘Y’ Not?
August 2, 2013 By
James Denton’s editorial “Fences to Mend” in the The Independent Voice on July 26 was right on! Representative MaryGail Douglas’ letter in the newspapers regarding using the “gift of $500,000 to each council district for recreation” to develop a YMCA in Fairfield County was a breath of fresh air! Please let recreational professionals use those […]
