DSS Director Promised to Personally Monitor Cases

The head of the state Department of Social Services said Wednesday that she personally will monitor the caseloads of social workers with that agency.

“There’s no question that we have workers here who have too many cases,” director Lillian Koller said after testifying before a state Senate panel investigating the agency, under fire for child deaths.

Senators said there have been multiple complaints from Social Services workers about the number of cases — up to 70 — that they are expected to handle. They asked Koller for an estimate on how many cases a worker reasonably could handle. 

“It’s not just a number,” Koller responded. “It has to weigh other factors.”

Those factors include the type and complexity of cases, Koller told the panel, made up of chairman Tom Young, R-Aiken; Joel Lourie, D-Richland; and Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington.

Koller said a draft plan includes limiting agency workers to 20 cases for initial assessments and limiting foster-care workers to overseeing 26 children. Those numbers are not definite, she said, adding they are being compared to workloads in other states. 

However, Koller said she personally will get involved. She said she will receive a weekly report from every county Social Services office and call any county director who has a front-line worker with 30 or more cases. 

Sens. Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, and Billy O’Dell, R-Abbeville, joined the panel Wednesday to question Koller, questioning the training and qualifications of agency workers. 

Koller said entry-level caseworkers, required to have a bachelor’s degree, start at salaries of $29,000.

“That’s something to aspire to when you’re graduating college,” Massey replied skeptically, referring to the salary.

Gov. Nikki Haley, who is seeking re-election this year, recently announced Social Services was sending 20 additional workers into its troubled Richland County operation.

Koller said those workers temporarily are assigned to Richland Social Services to prevent its operations from spiraling down. She said she expected the intervention to last no more than five months while new staffers are hired and trained for the Richland County office. 

Most recently, Richland Social Services has been criticized for its role in the April 22 death of 5-month-old Bryson Webb. 

The agency received a warning that Bryson’s life was in danger but could not locate the child or his parents for more than a month. Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott held a news conference after the child’s death and criticized Social Services for not telling law enforcement that it could not locate Bryson’s parents.

In response, Social Services put in place a new policy to call law enforcement within 72 hours if it cannot locate a family.

Rumors also are swirling around the state agency.

For example, Lourie, who repeatedly has called for Koller’s removal, asked her Wednesday if she were aware of any investigation into the agency by the State Law Enforcement Division, the Federal Bureau of Investigation or the U.S. attorney’s office.

Koller said she was not aware of one taking place now but would not be surprised if an investigation was launched.

Afterward, Lourie said Social Services is reacting to problems, not anticipating them, and needs to be restructured. He again said Koller is the wrong person to lead the agency and said her presence is a distraction.

Koller had said earlier the agency is being proactive but needs to do better, faster work. 

She said the agency has been building up and strengthening since she was named director in 2011. “This is a very troubled agency,” Koller said. “I did not walk in with my eyes closed.” 

Chairman Young said another hearing will be held in two weeks, and the committee also will meet once more after the legislative session ends next month.

Cherokee Road in Belton to Close June 9

Anderson County Roads & Bridges Department will close Cherokee Road west of Belton June 9, to begin replacing the existing old bridge over Cherokee Creek, 0.80 miles west of Belton Middle School.

The project will be completed before school starts in August, weather permitting.

The new bridge will be a three-sided precast concrete structure resting on precast concrete footings.  It will be 8-feet high, 20-feet long and 44-feet wide.  All of the bridge and roadway work will be completed by Roads & Bridges crews using county general funds. 

The signed detour route will follow US 76 Anderson Street at Cherokee Road (C-18-0028) westbound 1.20 miles to Pine Top Road (S-04-0080), south on Pine Top Road 1.25 miles to Cherokee Road (S-04-0107), then north on Cherokee Road (S-04-0107) 0.14 miles to the intersection of Fant Farm Road (C-18-0027), West Road (S-04-0266) and the county's Cherokee Road (C-18-0028).  Only adjacent residents and delivery vehicles will be permitted within the road closure area.

Anderson's Economic Development Map 2009-2014

WSPA: Anderson Water Tainted by Blue Green Algae

The Anderson Regional Joint Water System says its customers may notice an odor or strange taste from their drinking water this spring.

The water system is letting customers know it is addressing the issue by expanding its water treatment process at its Lake Hartwell plant.

7 On Your Side’s Shelby Coates checked with the water system to find out what's causing the change. She found out last year's drought followed by a summer of heavy rain is to blame.

“What we have with the runoff and everything else was blue green algae that was in the tributaries above us which washed out into lake hartwell,” said Anderson Regional Joint Water System Operations Manager David Melton.

Melton says blue green algae is harmless, but sometimes it washes into area lakes and can affect the taste and smell of your water.

He adds that algae bloom every spring and can sometimes impact local lakes up to five years. For example, Lake Greenwood had a similar situation a few years ago.

The water system says it will now use a carbon powder to absorb the algae.

Melton says the process is costly, but safe. He says the equipment for the process is ordered and en route. Plus, construction for the new equipment has already started at the plant site.

Once the carbon process begins, drinking water should be back to it's normal taste and smell within 6 to 8 weeks.

In the meantime, the water systems says it has increased sample testing to ensure safety.

Greenville Hospital System to Expand to Anderson

Greenville Health System is about to embark on a $40 million project to develop “comprehensive, multi-specialty ambulatory care centers” in Anderson and Spartanburg counties.

The move, approved by trustees Tuesday, is part of the hospital’s strategy to expand ambulatory services in its primary market, which is the Upstate, Malcolm Isely, GHS’s vice president of strategic services, told The Greenville News.

“We’ve got businesses we work with that want us to cover their employees, and relationships with insurers, and we have patients in counties around us,” he said. “We need to fill some of the gaps.”

Isely said that because plans haven’t been finalized yet, it’s too early to say how many centers there will be or their exact location. It’s also too soon to say precisely what kind of services these centers will offer, though they will have an urgent-care component as well as different physician disciplines and diagnostic services, possibly endoscopy, surgery and advanced imaging, he said.

Though a financing plan hasn’t yet been developed, Isely said the project will be funded through traditional methods, such as bond issues and reserves.

It won’t mean a rate hike for patients, he said.

While a Certificate of Need seeking state approval for the project has yet to be submitted to the Department of Health and Environmental Control, Isely said he expects the centers will be up and running within two years.

Alwyn Cassil, an independent health policy consultant with Policy Translation in Silver Spring, Md., said that historically, although GHS has been positioning itself to be “a one-stop shop,” it hasn’t gone head-to-head with competitors in Spartanburg and Anderson. But hospitals are under a lot of pressure from declining Medicare reimbursements, she said.

“It’s unusual in that it appears that GHS is going to make a bold move into other competitors’ turf,” she said.

Columbia health care consultant Lynn Bailey said that as the health care reimbursement landscape changes, hospitals are looking to grab up as much business as they can to keep their competitors from getting it.

“The best defense is a good offense,” she said. “And I think they’re going on offense.”

Isely said it’s about the market moving to more outpatient as opposed to inpatient services.

“This is our strategy,” he said. “We want to offer low-cost, efficient ambulatory services.”

Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System declined to comment.

AnMed Health in Anderson released a statement saying that although it hadn’t heard about GHS’s plans, it wasn’t surprised.

“Going forward, the landscape of health care will change and competition for an expanding share of insured patients will increase,” the statement said.

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Tea Party Losses in Primaries Could Help GOP

Conservative Republicans have called for a truce with the party leadership in an effort to win control of the US Senate after minority leader Mitch McConnell scored a resounding win over a Tea Party challenger in Kentucky and rightwing candidates were decisively defeated in a crucial Georgia primary.

Minutes after the polls closed in Kentucky the Associated Press declared McConnell the nominee for that state in a race that was once seen as the best opportunity for rightwing Republicans to punish him for backing down during last October's budget showdown in Washington.

Instead results showed McConnell ahead by some 24 percentage points over Tea Party-supported businessman Matt Bevin by the time 71% of precincts declared at 8.20pm.

The result in Georgia was far tighter and took longer to call. But shortly before midnight on Tuesday David Perdue, a businessman considered more moderate than his opponents, declared victory to his supporters in Atlanta. 

With almost nine out of 10 precincts counted Perdue secured 30% – the leading tally but insufficient to avoid a run-off with his main opponent, Jack Kingston, who came in second.

Kingston, a congressman with running with the support of the Chamber of Commerce, received 26% of the vote, narrowly beating the Sarah Palin-backed candidate, Karen Handel. 

Perdue and Kingston ran the two best-funded campaigns and were both endorsed by GOP apparatchiks. 

Tea Party-backed congressmen Phil Gingrey and Paul Broun, in contrast, both trailed badly, compounding the sense that the rightwing insurgency that has reshaped the Republican party over the last five years is finally running out of steam.

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County to Replace S.C. 8 Bridge over U.S. 29

On Tuesday night, Anderson County Council announced a $1.2 grant from the Appalachian Regional Council to raise the S.C. 8 bridge over U.S. 29 to allow large tractor trailer traffic and open the area up for economic development.

Construction on the bridge, which is expected to take about six months, is not yet scheduled.

Meanwhile, council spent much of the meeting discussing the challenges and opportunities posed by the 2014-25 budget for the county.

Anderson County Councilman Francis Crowder said a number of questions loom over the upcoming budget, including state mandates, employee raises and economic development.

Crowder asked citizens to contact their state legislators asking them to fund state madates.

“We now have a tremendous shortfall in funding coming from the state legislature,” Crowder said. “We are having to eat those costs.”

Councilwoman Cindy Wilson pointed out the state is in violation of law not providing such funds.

Crowder also said while county employees should receive a raise, the question of how much, and how much of the county payments toward the employees' health insurance increase and other costs should be considered in the decision.

Wilson suggested merit pay increases be considered instead of across-the-board raises, adding that the county's portion of employee health insurance, which costs the county $7 million annually, is "generous" and not often factored into an increase in employee bentfits.

In summarizing the budget, Wilson added that legal costs in the county for the coming budget year is expected to be $450,000. She said the overall budget for the coming year is $10 million less than the current budget year. 

Wilson expressed concern over the Pets Are Worth Saving shelter increasing from $1,120,00  to $1,240,00 for 2014-15.

"That is almost as much as the county is spending on district paving accounts," Wilson said.

Wilson handed council members a list of suggestions for cutting the budget (or adjusting projected increases), which included cuts for P.A.W.S., Emergency Services, the Civic Center, the administrator's office and a number of other areas.

A copy of the list was not distributed to the public. 

Tommy Dunn asked council to consider a plan to fix the county's EMS problems, in a way which provides the same level of care to all areas of the county.

Councilwoman Gracie Floyd said the CAT bus system is prepared to offer a six-month waiver until the county can meet with all parties concerned and work out details on the bus system.

"We are going to have to get a new bus," Floyd said. "They (CAT) are willing to help find grant money to help us buy a bus."

Floyd said Anderson University, Tri-County Techinical College and businesses along the route should be asked to provide financial assitance to keep the CAT bus system running.

Earlier, Anderson Interfaith Ministries Director Krist King-Brock asked the county for $10,000 to help support AIM's housing programs. AIM's current impact on housing in Anderson County is currently $1.4 million.

The money would be used to help with matching grants to provide housing assistance and repair across the county. 

Council members indicated that the request would be considered in the current budget talks.

Council also heard a citizen report on problems with trucks entering and exiting Love's Truck Stop at Exit 4 in Anderson. Eileen Baumgartel of Fair Play represented a group asking for a turn lane at the site, to prevent accidents. Baumgartel said she had been working on the issue for three years. 

"Every day there is a chance that someone is going to get killed in front of that truck stop," she said. "The 18-wheelers do not abide by the law and stop where they are supposed to stop." She also said a state engineer told her the site was a problem, but that this office did not have the budget to fix the problem. She challenged council members to visit the truck stop to see the problem.

Anderson County Councilman Tom Allen said he had been out to the truck stop and was aware of problems. 

"Is a significant part of this the actions of the drivers, or is it the physical facilities, or both?" Allen asked.

"Both," said Baumgartel.

Councilwoman Cindy Wilson suggested asking South Carolina State Troopers to saturate the area and possibly send a litter officer to the area.

On Tuesday night, council also:

Approved on third reading the $600 million investment by Duke Power for a natural gas-fired plant near Williamston. The plant will create 25 full-time jobs.

Approved on third reading a countywide agreement to help defray the cost of pauper burials in the county. 

Approved on second reading tax incentives for Project Choco, an intellectual properties company, with 18 current employees having an average salary $78,000, and the promise of 26 new jobs at $30-per-hour average salary. The 20-year economic impact of the the project is estimated at $58 million.

Approved on second reading tax incentives for the expansion of Project Cloud, which currently has 480 jobs in place and will and an additional 200 new jobs with $14-per-hour average wage. The new capital invesment is $350 million.

Approved limiting traffic on Cason Road, which has been the site of a number of large trucks getting stuck on a road which is not designed for big rigs.

Approved bid for Brown Road Fishing Pier from Belk Company for $210,700.

Senate Move Would Allow Appointing Adjutant General

S.C. lawmakers took a big step Tuesday to allowing voters the chance to decide whether to stop electing the state’s adjutant general.

The S.C. Senate gave a key approval unanimously to a bill that would allow voters to change the state Constitution to allow the governor to appoint the adjutant general with approval by the Senate.

The House already passed that bill and another that lists the qualifications for a leader of the state National Guard. South Carolina is the last state to elect the leader of its state National Guard.

The Senate needs to take one more perfunctory vote on each of the two bills before it can return the bills to House since amendments were added.

Once the details are ironed out, the bills would head to Gov. Nikki Haley’s desk. She supports the bill, her office said. First Gentleman Michael Haley is a captain in the S.C. National Guard, who returned in December from a yearlong deployment to Afghanistan.

If passed before the session ends, voters would cast ballots on the change in November. The adjutant general’s race this fall would be the last if approved by voters. Current Adjutant GeneralBob Livingston, who is seeking re-election, supports the governor appointing the guard leader.

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Study: S.C. Rural Schools Rank Near Bottom Again

Once again a national study of schools has ranked South Carolina's near the bottom of the heap.

The state's rural schools are the third worst in the nation when it comes to the need for attention from state officials and lawmakers, according to the study by the nonprofit Rural School and Community Trust.

Only Mississippi and Alabama, in that order, scored below South Carolina. Massachusetts scored highest.

The report, titled "Why Rural Matters," says students in South Carolina's schools "performed among the lowest third of states in the US in math and fared even worse in reading." As a result, the report says, "South Carolina ranks as the third highest priority in terms of the need for policymakers' attention to rural education."

The report ranks all states in several categories that gauge the importance of rural education, the diversity of rural students and families, socioeconomic challenges, educational policy and expenditures and educational performance.

The five gauges clearly show that the sheer number of South Carolina's rural minority students combined with a depth of poverty and major unemployment creates a situation that has yielded poorly performing students.

The report said South Carolina's third worst ranking "stems mostly from the diversity of...student population and from the severe socioeconomic challenges facing families in rural areas."

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S.C. Roads In Deadly Shape

The poor condition of South Carolina roads has caused at least one fatality and numerous injuries, along with car repair bills from blown tires, dented rims, and broken windshields. If you’ve ever wondered why the state’s roads are in such bad shape, one reason is that South Carolina has the fourth-largest state maintained road system in the nation but the third-lowest gas tax to pay for that maintenance.

Of the 41,444 miles of state-maintained roads in South Carolina, 47 percent are considered to be in “poor” condition, and 19 percent are considered “substandard.” While the SCDOT maintains 63 percent of the roads in the state, most other states maintain 19 percent, on average.

The reason why South Carolina has such a large system that’s maintained by the state goes back to before there were cars, according to historian John Hammond Moore, who wrote a book about the history of the state’s roads. As a rural state that relied on agriculture, the state built roads to get farmers’ crops to markets.

Once cars came along, counties didn’t always have the money to build good roads. “It was politics, to a great extent,” Moore says. “Individual politicians or powerful politicians were trying to help their areas," by getting their local roads paved by the state. That won loyalty from voters.

And while the SCDOT has to maintain so many miles of roads, South Carolina politicians rarely raise taxes. The state’s gas tax of 16 cents a gallon hasn’t been raised since 1987, while the number of cars on the roads has multiplied and, since those cars get much better gas mileage, the number of gallons sold hasn’t kept pace.

One idea for improving the roads is to have counties and cities take back the maintenance of some of the smaller ones. Rep. Brian White, R-Anderson, chairman of the House committee that writes the state budget, got a plan put in the House budget that would encourage counties and cities to do that.

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Anderson County Jobless Rate Falls to 4.3 in April

Anderson County's unemployment rate fell to 4.3 in April, down from 4.7 percent in March. The drop also represents another record-breaking number of citizens employed in the county, with 83,187 people holding jobs in Anderson.

Elsewhere, the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased to 5.3 percent in April down from March’s rate of 5.5 percent. The last time the rate was at this level was in June 2001. The number of unemployed persons was 114,413, a decline of 4,652 people over the month. The number of South Carolinians working continues to trend upward, rising for nine consecutive months, and reaching a historic high in April of 2,050,776 people. This marks a 4,713 increase since March, and an estimated 35,939 people 

have found work since April 2013. 

 

Over the month, the labor force ticked up by 61 people to a level of 2,165,189. Since April 2013, the 

labor force has declined by nearly 23,000 people. 

 

Nationally, the unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage points to 6.3 percent in April. 

Study: S.C. Lawmakers Deserve Raises

South Carolina lawmakers should get big pay raises, according to a study that was commissioned two years ago but is just now getting attention because lawmakers are talking about it. The state Senate voted last week to give all state lawmakers an additional $12,000 a year for in-district expenses, things like traveling to meetings around their districts and running their local district offices. They already get $12,000 a year for in-district expenses.

Lawmakers commissioned a study in 2012 by an independent consulting firm, the Hay Group, to compare South Carolina lawmakers' pay to other states.

SC lawmakers make a base salary of $10,400 a year. The Southern region average is $21,109, while the national average is $31,643. But the study did not include the $12,000 SC lawmakers already get for in-district expenses, which is taxed as salary. Including that would raise their salary to $22,400, above the Southern region average but still below the national average.

Sen. John Scott, D-Columbia, brought up the study when senators were debating the in-district expense increase.

The study cost taxpayers more than $60,000, but Sen. Scott says it was necessary.

"Just to pull a figure out of the air to say, 'This is what we think needs to happen,' without any justification? The study is the justification. It shows what was going on in the Southern region. Even Alabama's outpacing South Carolina in terms of its pay for its members of its General Assembly," he says.

Alabama lawmakers make $28,920.

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T. Ed Garrison Intersection Dedication Today

A ceremony to dedicate the T. Ed Garrison Intersection at the intersection of Interstate 85 and U.S. Highway 76 will be held this morning at 10 a.m., on the site of the Abney Estate at 4629 Clemson Boulevard.

Parking is available at the Denver Downs Corn Maze, with shuttles running to the site of the ceremony.