USA TODAY: FBI director says nothing supports Trump’s wiretap claims C1 Supreme Court affects more of your life than you might think A5 TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 2017 | Serving South Carolina since October 15, 1894 75 cents Members Woman with cerebral palsy perseveres react to to find mixed martial arts instructor bill to add 2 trustees School board would have 9 members if legislation passes BY BRUCE MILLS [email protected] Two Sumter School Board of Trustees mem- bers say they haven’t read a new bill yet that was introduced last week by both state sena- tors representing Sumter County to add two at- large, voting members to the board, but one said he wasn’t that surprised with the bill’s introduc- tion. Board members the Rev. Ralph Canty and Chairman the Rev. Daryl McGhaney made their com- CANTY ments Monday after state Sens. Thomas McElveen, D-Sumter, and Kevin Johnson, D-Clarendon, in- troduced the bill Thursday to add the at-large, voting members to the board. At the time, McElveen said the county’s legislative delegation has McGHANEY considered introducing the legisla- PHOTOS BY RICK CARPENTER / THE SUMTER ITEM tion for a long time, but the dis- Team Robinson coach Jerome Robinson defends some punches from Whitney Cranford during a training session Fri- trict’s recent financial crisis pushed the need for the bill to the forefront. day. Cranford, who is from Hartsville, searched for someone to teach her mixed martial arts while using a wheelchair. Canty said it was rumored the delegation would introduce the bill at some point; so, he Team Robinson MMA becomes ‘like family’ to Hartsville student SEE MEMBERS, PAGE A7 BY BRUCE MILLS is specialized just for children, ac- [email protected] cording to Cranford. After college and beginning her hitney “Whit” career, she was able to resume with a Medicaid-funded PT pro- Cranford is like gram at a local hospital in Harts- City: Water meter many of Jerome ville. W When she earned a master’s de- Robinson’s mixed martial gree in professional counseling a replacement will arts students at Team Robin- few years later, she began a new career as a certified counselor son MMA in Sumter. She’s with Rubicon Family Counseling begin next month motivated, loves learning the Services, also in Hartsville. But her new position raised her Usage data will be sent to computers various techniques and con- income level too high to qualify siders her sessions a big for Medicaid, and her new health BY JIM HILLEY care plan would only fund eight [email protected] stress reliever, given her busy sessions of physical therapy. schedule. It was about that time that The City of Sumter will begin the process of Cranford said she saw a men’s upgrading its water meters in early April, ac- What is unique about Cran- Robinson stretches out Cranford’s mixed martial arts fight on TV. cording to Utility Finance Director Candi ford’s training is she learns the arms as she prepares to go 10 rounds She was immediately fascinated Quiroz. various mixed martial arts box- with him. with the sport and wondered if The new fixed-base system will allow city ing techniques from a wheelchair. women were now allowed to par- employees to read meters from computers in Cranford was born prematurely months old and did it twice a ticipate. While researching MMA city offices instead of having meter readers with cerebral palsy in both legs week until she entered Coker Col- on the Internet, she came across visit each meter. and arms. lege in her hometown of Harts- a couple of female professional Each meter will have a digital register and Keeping stretched out and ville. Medicaid paid for her PT. mixed martial artists including an antenna that sends the reading to one of doing various exercises regularly During her college years, her Jessamyn Duke. about 35 collectors across the city and Mayes- is critically important for people parents stretched her out, and Duke became her favorite ville, which then transmit the data to the water with CP, she said. Cranford said she did home exercises because department’s computers. she started physical therapy at 6 most therapy associated with CP SEE CRANFORD, PAGE A4 “Instead of readers going out to read the me- ters manually, we will get the reading in the of- fice,” Quiroz said. Every water user in the system will receive a new meter, Assistant City Manager Al Harris said. A variety of old meters in use will all be Freeze means fewer blueberries, peaches replaced, he said. “We have so many types of meters out there BY JEFFREY COLLINS gia’s blueberry crop is gone, and best crop of Georgia’s pro- now, some you drive by to read, others must be The Associated Press Georgia Agriculture Commis- duction history that you would read manually,” Harris said. sioner Gary Black said after tour- now not be able to find enough Quiroz said the city plans to begin installing COLUMBIA — Last week’s ing the state late last week. blueberries that survived the cold meters on April 3. deep freeze in the Southeast ap- Between the two states, crop to make one pie,” Black said. “We are going to start in the Mayesville pears to have nearly wiped out losses from the freeze could ap- Temperatures dipped into the area,” she said. “That is going to be our pilot or Georgia’s blueberries and South proach $1 billion, officials said. 20s both Wednesday and Thurs- test area. It’s a smaller system, and it’s further Carolina’s peaches and seriously Georgia might be the Peach day morning. While mid-March out, so it is beneficial to test there so we don’t damaged a number of other crops State, but blueberries have re- freezes aren’t unusual in much of have to send our readers out.” such as strawberries and apples. cently passed peaches in value. the Southeast, many crops were She said city employees will still visit the me- In South Carolina, 85 percent of Blueberries ripen faster in the blooming up to three weeks early ters if they don’t get a signal or if someone is the state’s peach crop is gone warmer climate and can get into because of the unusually mild moving in or out. while the small pink blooms re- stores quicker than traditional winter. “We will have software on our computers so main on the trees, according to blueberry growing regions far- South Carolina is the second- as soon as they start putting them out, we will the South Carolina Department ther north. But not this year. biggest peach producer in the of Agriculture. “We saw blueberry fields that SEE METERS, PAGE A7 Up to 80 percent of south Geor- had the potential to be the biggest SEE FREEZE, PAGE A7 VISIT US ONLINE AT DEATHS, B4 WEATHER, A10 INSIDE Beatrix B. Bagnal Wesley Williams Tim Truett STORMS COMING 3 SECTIONS, 20 PAGES the .com VOL. 121, NO. 112 Henry Lee McKinney Sr. Sarah L. Miller Carolyn M. Brown Partly sunny and warmer; Pauline W. Jackson Mattie Clea Viola W. Brayboy thunderstorms possible tonight Classifieds B5 Charles E. Dill Karl Lynn Rogers Ruby M. White Comics C4 HIGH 85, LOW 57 Jacqueline D. Joe Gwendolyn M. Nixon Willie Tindal Opinion A8 Television A9 A2 | TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 2017 THE SUMTER ITEM Call: (803) 774-1226 | E-mail: [email protected] Lego League teaches while kids have fun Free program is open to grades K through 12 BY KASEY MEREDITH [email protected] Every engineer starts somewhere, and one of those places is the Lego League in Sumter at Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church. On the third Saturday of every month, YouthLink, a nonprofit organization focused on building interest in sci- ence, technology, engi- neering and math, or STEM, organizes a Lego League. Children in grades kindergarten through 12 use Legos to build conceptual models that have some BLASSINGAME sort of robotic compo- nent. "It's cool because it moves," Ze'briana Session said about the beehive model which included a push lever that dispensed a yellow Lego that signified honey. "They're having fun, but they're learning," said Anita Blassingame, PHOTOS BY KASEY MEREDITH / THE SUMTER ITEM the youth leader for Sumter's Youth- From left Jaden Weston, Avery Lockett and Keenan Ward try to figure out the next step at Lego League held at Mount Zion Missionary Link. Thirteen children from ages 6 Baptist Church in Sumter. Lego League leader Anita Blassingame emphasizes communication being key to the students. to 13 were split between two teams, where they had an hour to make a The Lego League is open to youth small-scale beehive and bee model. in Sumter, Lee, Clarendon and "We don't compete, but we're Winnsboro counties and is free to gonna win," Cameron Williams said. join. The children are provided with Blassingame said she started the a snack and watch an educational Sumter chapter of YouthLink be- video for the first hour that they are cause she wanted to give the youth there. of Sumter a chance to do something Blassingame said if she were in a educational. Lego League as a child she would've "Not everyone can do sports," had more interest in science. Blassingame said. "Everybody loves Legos," Blassin- One YouthLink member, Jerius game said. Williams, 13, is taking the Lego League to the next level. "I get bored a lot, and I build air- planes and cars with Legos without using any instruction," Williams Keenan Ward said.