IN USA TODAY: 10 new shows that are worth your time C1 D FALL FEAST 09/21/17 from 6-9pm at usc sumter PRESENTING SPONSOR SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2017 | Serving South Carolina since October 15, 1894 $1.75 SUMTERGREEN.ORG SUMTER SCHOOL DISTRICT Report details irregularities Audit: Program had DOCUMENTS ONLINE District already View the official State Department of Eduction trail of deficiencies report of Sumter School District’s use of Child paid back $177K Early Reading Development and Education BY BRUCE MILLS Program money and the district’s corrective action BY BRUCE MILLS [email protected] plan with this story at theitem.com. [email protected] According to the state Department Sumter School District has of Education, program money used ment says, for the program – which made more information avail- in school districts’ Early Childhood is relatively new and was formed able on its Early Childhood Education programs should provide after the state’s Read to Succeed Act Education Program and em- PHOTO PROVIDED services in 4-year-old kindergarten was passed in 2014. ployees after the state Depart- Vince Johnson has been named as the fifth classrooms that focus on the devel- Many items purchased in recent ment of Education released Publisher of The Sumter Item in its 123- opmental and learning support the years by Sumter School District’s last week to The Sumter Item year history. He is the former publisher of children must have to be ready for Early Childhood Education program its audit findings on the pro- the Forsyth (Cumming, Ga.) County News. school. Appropriate classroom space were deemed “disallowed” and gram. is to be given to equipment, materi- The Sumter Item als and supplies, the state depart- SEE AUDIT, PAGE A11 SEE DISTRICT, PAGE A11 has new publisher Battle of Former Forsyth County, Georgia newspaperman 1st publisher the Badges from outside Osteen family Farrah Douglas, American Red Cross collection technician, cleans FROM STAFF REPORTS Sumter Fire Department Fire Prevention Specialist Selena The Sumter Item has named its first Smith’s arm during the Battle of non-family publisher in the newspa- the Badges blood drive on Friday per’s 123-year history. morning. The blood drive is an William Vincent “Vince” Johnson annual friendly competition Jr., former publisher of Forsyth County between Sumter’ s first responder (Cumming, Georgia) News, is the fifth agencies. This year, 48 units, or publisher of the locally owned, inde- pints, were collected. A total of 52 pendent South Carolina newspaper. votes were cast in favor of the He follows Sumter Item founder Hu- individual first responder bert Graham Osteen (1894-1955); Hu- agencies with the fire bert Duvall Osteen Sr. (1955-1987); Hu- department being the winning bert Duvall Osteen Jr. (1987-2005) and agency after receiving 27 votes. John Duvall “Jack” Osteen (2005-2017). Four of the people who voted In a statement, the Osteen family were not allowed to donate blood said that bringing a young, versatile because of low iron and other leader to Sumter marks a new era in reasons. the company’s long history. “We are proud to have attracted someone as talented as Vince to our PHOTOS ADRIENNE SARVIS / THE SUMTER ITEM company and to Sumter. His proven track record as a modern community publisher will serve both our newspa- per and Sumter in countless ways.” Johnson has been publisher of For- syth County News since 2014, and his team received the 2016 Mega-Innova- tion Award for newspapers as judged by the Harvard Business School. From 2012 to 2014, he was chief mul- timedia officer of the Santa Clarita Valley Signal in Valencia, California, and from 2007 to 2012 he was director of audio/video operations for the Statesboro (Georgia) Herald. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Journalism in 2006 as a cum laude SEE ITEM, PAGE A11 Planning commission seeks input on transportation survey BY ADRIENNE SARVIS should be added to the coun- Range Transportation Plan for they would like to see, he said. the consultant agency hired by [email protected] ty’s new long-range transpor- Sumter and needs public input Yu said although public the planning department will tation plan project list. to create a project list. input will not determine categorize that intersection as Sumter City-County Plan- Sumter Senior Transporta- The project list is updated which projects will be selected, a priority, he said. ning Commission is asking tion Planner Allan Yu said every five years, he said. The public opinion will definitely However, before any project the public to complete a trans- Sumter Urban Area Transpor- survey is an opportunity for influence the final project list. is added to the long-range portation study to help the de- tation Study Metropolitan the public to make sugges- If a lot of people express transportation list, it must be partment determine which Planning Organization is in the tions about what kind of that they would like changes roads and intersections process of updating the Long transportation improvements made to the same intersection, SEE SURVEY, PAGE A11 VISIT US ONLINE AT DEATHS, A10 WEATHER, A16 INSIDE Essie M. McFadden William McBride Jr. NICE LATE SUMMER DAY 4 SECTIONS, 32 PAGES the .com VOL. 122, NO. 240 Robert Tindal George W. Hicks Sr. Partly sunny and humid Rhiannon M. Griffin Terry A. Smith today, warm; tonight, Classifieds C7 Opinion A13 Reflections A4 Louise L. Walters Lucinda F. Holliday partly cloudy and mild. Comics D1 Outdoors A6 Sports B1 Robert Mack Jr. Jerry M. Peebles Michelle Y. Dinkins Annie Lee Richardson HIGH 88, LOW 66 Education A5 Panorama A7 Yesteryear B5 Benjamin F. Floyd Clarence Davis III HSNA ART in the PARK 2017 Saturday, September 23, 2017 • 9am to 4pm Historic Memorial Park HSNASUMTERSC.Com Th is projecprojectt is partially funded by the Sumter County Cultural Commission which receives support from the John and Susan Bennett Arts Fund of the Coastal Community Foundation of SC, the South Carolina Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts. A2 | SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2017 THE SUMTER ITEM Call: (803) 774-1226 | E-mail: [email protected] LOCAL & STATE BRIEFS FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS Officers need help to locate missing man Sumter County Sheriff’s Of- fice is asking for the public’s as- sistance in locating 55-year-old Michael J. Thomson, who was picked up by EMS and taken to Pal- metto Health Tu- omey on Sept. 10. Thomson was last seen wearing blue scrub pants, THOMSON a green T-shirt and brown flip flops. He is 6 feet 1 inch tall, weighs 255 pounds, has brown hair and blue eyes. Thomson possibly has men- tal illness described as manic Duke Energy helps bipolar, PTSD and a spinal cord injury which keeps him from standing for long periods with recovery efforts of time. He also suffers from fainting spells. Anyone with information after Hurricane Irma can call 911, (803) 436-2000 or 1-800-CRIMESTOPPERS. ABOVE: Duke Energy’s Chandler Joyner, left, prepares to climb a utility pole to make repairs and return electric service to customers Missing mother returns in Greenwood County with assistance from his supervisor Dan Harrington, center, and fellow lineman Phillip Davis. All three are home with newborn based out of Duke Energy’s Sumter Operations Center and live in the A missing Sumter County Sumter area. mother and her newborn baby have been found safe. LEFT: Joyner makes repairs after climbing a utility pole to return Deputies with the Sumter electric service to customers in Greenwood County. More than 1,000 County Sheriff’s Office said Duke Energy linemen descended upon the Upstate of South Carolina Kristen Blackmon, 35, re- and western North Carolina in advance and during Hurricane Irma. turned home Saturday with They’ve been assisting the thousands of local utility crews and other her 10-day-old child. She had support personnel from across the Southeast U.S. Duke Energy last been seen Thursday after expected to have power returned to all of its Upstate South Carolina leaving a local doctor’s office customers by Friday evening. with the baby. Officers say Blackmon ap- PHOTOS PROVIDED parently left on her own and then decided to return and don’t suspect foul play. Initially, her live-in boy- friend reported her missing, according to reports. The boy- friend said Blackmon called National Anthem Project set for Patriot Hall him on Thursday after leaving the doctor’s office, said the ba- BY IVY MOORE Sumter School District liaison to Shaw by’s check-up went fine, and [email protected] Air Force Base, will speak and sing that she would see him at “God Bless America,” as has become a home when he got off from Sumter’s annual National Anthem tradition at the annual program. work. Neither she nor the Project will be presented at 7 p.m. Thurs- Debbie Hamm, interim superinten- baby were seen until Saturday. day at Patriot Hall. The event sponsored dent of Sumter School District, will by Sumter School District has taught open the program with a welcome to S.C.’s jobless rate inches people the words to the U.S. National An- the community. Beck’s mother, Bonnie up slightly in August them for more than a decade. Beck, will give the prayer, and repre- Almost 13 years ago, Furman Middle sentatives of the city and county will COLUMBIA — Unemploy- School music teacher Linda Beck dis- proclaim Sept. 21 National Anthem ment in South Carolina went covered that very few Americans over Day in Sumter. up slightly in August, to 4 per- 18 knew the words to the national an- Dancers from Miss Libby’s School of cent, according to figures re- them.