Influenza Continues to Spread Palmetto State Hit Hard; 10 Deaths, 340-Plus Hospitalized in 1 Week Period
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PANORAMA Mark St. Patty’s Day with Celtic dancers and musicians A5 SUNDAY, MARCH 5, 2017 | Serving South Carolina since October 15, 1894 $1.50 Influenza continues to spread Palmetto State hit hard; 10 deaths, 340-plus hospitalized in 1 week period BY JIM HILLEY year ago. tives for flu. fluenza-associated hospitalizations [email protected] Since Oct. 2, 2016, 30 flu-related She said that this year, 884 patients have been reported since Oct. 2, 2016. deaths have been reported in the state, were tested, resulting in 128 positive The rate of hospitalization is up This year’s flu season is far outpac- compared to 18 at this time last year. results. from last year as well statewide, Prin- ing the 2015-16 season, with 10 deaths Letitia Pringle-Miller, infectious dis- Pringle-Miller said that while Type gle-Miller said. and more than 340 hospitalizations ease representative at Palmetto Health A Influenza is still the most prevalent, Last year, 5.1 out of 1,000 flu cases from Feb. 19-25, the South Carolina Tuomey, said she is not aware of any Type B Influenza is more common resulted in hospitalization, she said, Department of Health and Environ- deaths locally, but the local numbers than last season. while this year the rate is 29.4 for mental Control reported Thursday. back up statewide totals. DHEC, in its March 2 weekly report, every 1,000 cases. More than 44,000 cases have been She said Tuomey tested 312 patients said Influenza B was found in 34.6 per- reported so far this flu season, almost with the rapid flu test in January and cent of cases from Feb. 19-25. four times the number reported a February 2016 and reported 23 posi- Statewide, DHEC reported 1,732 in- SEE INFLUENZA, PAGE A9 Take a bite out of crime Jones family sells Nissan dealership BY BRUCE MILLS For the short term, the [email protected] new Nissan of Sumter will rent the existing Jones fa- A local family-owned car cility until a new Nissan fa- dealership is removing one cility, planned for Broad brand from under its um- Street Extension, is built. brella with the sale of a The new facility will be franchise. next to the current Honda On Thursday, brothers motorcycle business at 2544 John and Jim Jones final- Broad St. ized the sale of Jones Nis- According to the state- san Inc., at 1260 Broad St., ment, the Terry Holmes to the Terry Holmes Auto- Automotive Group has four motive Group of Pawleys dealerships, including Is- Island. The new Sumter land Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge- dealership will be called Ram and Island Luxury Im- Nissan of Sumter. ports — both in Pawleys Is- In a statement, the Jones land — and Myrtle Beach brothers said they and their Kia and Nissan of Orange- four sons will continue burg. The automotive group with their two General Mo- has also recently been tors franchises of Jones Chevrolet-Cadillac and Jones Buick-GMC. SEE DEALERSHIP, PAGE A9 RICK CARPENTER / THE SUMTER ITEM Halo keeps a close eye on the suspect, Sumter Sheriff’s Office Staff Sgt. Jason Tassone, while deputies Evan Rogerson, left, and Halo’s handler Cameron Prescott subdue the suspect. District: 34 workers K-9s help deputies apprehend, detect and track terminated were all BY ADRIENNE SARVIS few months with German or Dutch commands [email protected] before they are transported to U.S. providers in Georgia or North Carolina, where they receive ‘retired and rehired’ Some dogs live to play fetch and have their bel- further training, he said. lies scratched while others are selected to serve Tassone said each dog costs from $10,000 to BY BRUCE MILLS proved by the district’s fi- their communities to search for criminals and get $15,000 but the payoff from drugs seized and sus- [email protected] nance department. Accord- drugs off of the streets such as the canines at pects apprehended makes the canines invaluable. ing to Scott Allan, the fi- Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. While they are puppies, the canines are selected The 34 employees of nancial consultant working Most of the breeds working at the sheriff’s of- for “career paths” based on their behaviors when Sumter School District who with the district to help fix fice are German Shepherd and Belgian Malinois they begin their training. were let go as part of mid- its budgeting dilemma, only mix, said Staff Sgt. Jason Tassone, supervisor of Puppies that take their time and are more year budget cuts were all 12 of the 49 new positions the K-9 Unit. K-9 “Mike” is full Belgian Malinois. retirees of the district who had budget funding to cover The dogs are bred overseas and trained for a SEE BITE, PAGE A9 had been rehired and were costs of their salaries and employed at-will, according associated benefits. With to a statement released last personnel representing week by the district. about 85 percent of the dis- No teacher under con- trict’s annual budget, the Sumter Democrat to run for seat in 5th District tract was terminated. new hires contributed sig- Superintendent Frank nificantly to the district FROM STAFF REPORTS Published reports indicate centage points to Mulvaney Baker made the remarks in overspending by $6.2 mil- Parnell, 66, will make a for- last November. response to inquiries about lion last fiscal year, accord- Archie Parnell of Sumter mal announcement on Tues- There are seven Republi- why certain employees ing to Allan. became the first Democrat to day. cans who have announced were terminated at the end Baker has said previously announce he plans to seek the He is currently a senior ad- plans to run for the posi- of January and not any of that implementing cost-sav- South Carolina 5th Congres- viser for Goldman Sachs. tion. the now-documented 49 ing measures for a school sional seat vacated by U.S. The only Democrat to run Mulvaney resigned his posi- new hires added in the dis- Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-Indian in the 2016 election was Fran tion to become budget direc- trict for the 2015-16 school Land. Person, who lost by 20 per- tor for President Trump. year who had not been ap- SEE DISTRICT, PAGE A9 VISIT US ONLINE AT CONTACT US DEATHS, A13 WEATHER, A14 INSIDE Information: 774-1200 Lennie E. Curran Jeffrey Thigpen Willene Sherer SUNNY SUNDAY 4 SECTIONS, 32 PAGES the .com Advertising: 774-1246 Charles L. Bradham Phillip Goodman Jr. Marianne Beasley VOL. 122, NO. 101 Classifieds: 774-1234 Partly sunny. Jack W. Chandler Jr. Susan Charles George Gregg Jr. Tonight, Classifieds C8 Delivery: 774-1258 Oliver McCoy Jr. Mark G. Horne Olia M. Jenkins Dixon partly cloudy. Opinion A12 News and Sports: 774-1226 Jerome Lawson Kenneth Campbell Jr. Rachel P. Poole Quaneisha S. McFadden HIGH 64, LOW 40 Outdoors C7 Sports B1 Not too big. Not too small. Our home loans are just right for you. Sumter: 803.469.0156 Manning: 803.433.4451 bankofclarendon.com ."//*/(t46.5&3t4"/5&&t46..&350/t8:#00 A2 | SUNDAY, MARCH 5, 2017 THE SUMTER ITEM Call: (803) 774-1226 | E-mail: [email protected] LOCAL BRIEFS FROM STAFF REPORTS Sen. Tim Scott seeks internship applications U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R- South Carolina, is accepting congressional internship ap- plications for available posi- tions in his North Charles- ton, Columbia and Greenville offices for the summer of 2017, according to a press re- lease. The internship program of- fers undergraduate and grad- uate students practical expe- rience in constituent services and government policy, and provides students with the ability to work with and learn from public service professionals, the release said. The internships are un- paid, but students will learn valuable work experience and skills, according to the release Internship hours are flexi- ble to accommodate students’ course schedules, but can generally run from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Interested students should contact the internship coor- dinator at internships@scott. senate.gov. RICK CARPENTER / THE SUMTER ITEM Alice Drive Middle School students Ashton Armstrong, left, and Marr’ion Singleton team up to learn how to program a robot to pick up a Cains Mill Road repairs horizontal piece of wood, turn it to a vertical position and then place it on a targeted piece of green tape. complete after fire South Carolina Department More than playing robotic pick-up sticks of Transportation Resident Construction Engineer Jeffrey BY RICK CARPENTER and Central Carolina Tech- the mechanical drawings nology Training Center as a Wilkes said repairs to Cains [email protected] nical College at the Ad- into a model of the final key component in creating a Mill Road are complete after a vanced Manufacturing Tech- product. steady pipeline of employees portion of the roadway was The mission seemed sim- nology Training Center on In another class, they used trained to meet Sumter’s damaged when a tanker truck ple for eighth-grade students Friday. the same CAD to create an- growing need for a STEM- carrying diesel fuel wrecked, Ashton Armstrong and While all students en- other widget, but instead of trained workforce. High causing a fire, on Feb. 8. Wil- Marr’ion Singleton: Play rolled at Alice Drive Middle using a 3-D printer, they school graduates who work kes said permanent road pick-up sticks with one stick School participate in Sci- used Computer-Aided Me- through a mechatronics pro- markings will be added to the by picking it up horizontally, ence, Technology, Engineer- chanics to transform a hunk gram command $40,000 an- roadway sometime in coming moving it to a vertical posi- ing and Math, or STEM, cur- of metal into their design.