NATION: Seniors are fastest-growing group of marijuana users for pain A6 4Ɲ@>. Hampton Liquor 256 S. Pike West Sumter 803-883-4128 Mon.–Sat. 9am–7pm WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2019 | Serving South Carolina since October 15, 1894 $1.00 $20K may Up to the be spent highest height on appeal umter County Recreation and Parks held its annu- Sal kite-flying contest on Saturday at Patriot Park, cele- by district brating a sunny spring day as families brought out their col- Item requests attorney billing orful and tail-detailed kites. totals since vote by school Contest categories ranged LEFT: Onyx Torrez and Nicolas Anderson pose with their array of med- from shortest and longest tail board to reopen Mayewood als after the Sumter County Recreation and Parks Department’s annual Kite Flying Contest on Saturday at Patriot Park. to most colorful and most BY BRUCE MILLS RIGHT: Joe Joe Perry holds the kite that won most unique. A unique, and the youngest and [email protected] family member brought it back from a national park in Isra- “most matured” participants el, and it features animals and mascots from the park. Reopening Mayewood Middle School is ex- were also awarded. pected to cost Sumter School District at least $20,000 in attorney fees, about $13,300 of which The winner of the has already been incurred as of Friday. Best In Show tro- PHOTOS BY The Sumter Item obtained legal billing totals phy poses with her KAYLA ROBINS / this week via a Freedom of Information Act re- award at the event THE SUMTER quest in connection to the discussions on re- Saturday at Patriot ITEM opening the school and the district’s appeal Park. hearing on April 9 with the state Board of Edu- cation. The district’s law firm, Columbia-based White and Story LLC, also spoke on its ap- peal of State Superintendent of Education Molly Spear- man’s “fiscal emergency” declaration from late Feb- ruary. Those fees Lily Montgomery plays with the have been ac- trophy she won at the contest. crued from Among other awards, she won for legal counsel being the youngest participant at since the Feb. 1.5 years old. 11 board meet- ing when the KAYLA ROBINS / THE SUMTER ITEM trustees voted S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster 6-3 to reopen speaks to the Sumter Rotary Mayewood for Club on Monday at The next school O’Donnell House. He is the most year. recent official, along with a Last year, the Shaw Air Force Base representa- nine-member tive and government officials, to board at the condemn recent financial deci- time — consist- sions made by the Sumter ing of five dif- school board. The school board ferent trustees will present its appeal on April 9. that changed over in the No- vember midterm election — voted to close Mayewood and F.J. DeLaine Elementary School in Wedgefield at the end of last school year be- cause of what it said was low enrollment and as an effort to save money. The district overspent its budget by $6.2 mil- Fireside Fund helps elderly Mayesville woman lion in fiscal 2016, as revealed in an official audit, and its fund balance dipped to $106,449. This year, Mayewood students have moved to as annual drive enters final week for donations R.E. Davis Elementary School, which is 1.3 miles away. The school has been renamed R.E. BY KAYLA ROBINS Each winter, The Sumter Item in its effort to provide heating as- Davis College Preparatory Academy and oper- [email protected] collects money from the public in sistance through bills and access ates as a K-8 school with a magnet curriculum. memory of a different late mem- for those in need. F.J. DeLaine Elementary has consolidated into In a situation in which an elder- ber of the community who made When the 71-year-old Mayes- Cherryvale Elementary School three miles ly Mayesville resident kept seeing a positive impact on his or her ville woman was interviewed at away. expenses outpace her fixed in- surroundings and donates it to a the group’s Crisis Relief Minis- In examining attorneys’ fees submitted to The come, including forgoing prescrip- nonprofit. This year’s fund is ded- try, she said she lives alone on a Sumter Item by the district to date associated tions that would have cost three- icated to Roger Ackerman, a sup- family property and depends on with the reopening, $2,306.25 in legal billings quarters of her $800-a-month pay- porter of the Sumter community, people to bring her food because have been accrued to Halligan, Mahoney and check, a broken HVAC was the arts, cultural and food scene who she cannot often afford to buy Williams of Columbia for five meetings through last thing she needed. died last September, and it is ben- groceries, according to Kevin That’s where the Fireside Fund efiting Sumter United Ministries, SEE FEES, PAGE A7 comes in. an emergency services nonprofit, SEE FIRESIDE, PAGE A7 VISIT US ONLINE AT DEATHS, B5 WEATHER, A8 INSIDE Edna Brayboy Webster Glenn William Shaw Shuler COOL BUT NICE 3 SECTIONS, 20 PAGES the .com VOL. 124, NO. 113 Eugenia Bradford Mabry William Raymond Lawhon Mostly sunny and cool; Sarah Ginn Gabe Ballard Jr. clear and chilly tonight Classifieds B6 Opinion A9 Joseph E. Krasko Edward Thomas Sr. Comics C2 Sports B1 Christine E. Shirer Miles Elmon Elberry Nobles HIGH 62, LOW 36 Barbara Jean Westberry Thomas Wilder Food C1 Television C3 Blackmon Banking has never been easier. Check out our new Mobile & Online features at www.bankofclarendon.bank Sumter: 803.469.0156 Manning: 803.433.4451 ."//*/(t46.5&3t4"/5&&t46..&350/t8:#00 A2 | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2019 THE SUMTER ITEM Call: (803) 774-1226 | E-mail: [email protected] Pickleball tournament set for Friday in Sumter and set up the courts themselves. Game is therapeutic, competitive and fun HISTORY OF PICKLEBALL Each court is the size of a badminton court, 20 by 22 feet on either side of Pickleball was invented in 1965 by the center net, which is shorter and BY IVY MOORE iels, who was instrumental in getting Rep. Joel Pritchard of Washington less wide than a tennis net. Other Special to The Sumter Item regular pickleball games established. state and his friend, businessman Bill than the center net, equipment need- Kieslich said there are around 30 Bell, to entertain their families. ed is a paddle and a ball. The paddle Pickleball has grown greatly in players expected to participate in the It was named for the Pritchards’ is larger than a ping pong paddle, popularity in Sumter since October tournament. dog Pickles, who kept running off and the ball is hard plastic, hollow of 2017, when the Shepherd’s Center “There are players as young as with the ball. and 3 inches in diameter. It has of Sumter and the Sumter County their 20s and others into their 70s,” Pickleball is included in many round holes and resembles a wiffle Recreation Department both spon- she said. “It’s good, gentle exercise, states’ senior Olympics. The USA ball. sored regular games. Local enthusi- especially for older people, but it can Pickleball Association was organized The rules for pickleball are similar asts searched for an indoor facility get very competitive.” in 1984, and the sport is now played to those for volleyball. Each doubles for their games and now meet regu- All play together, and the teams are in 43 states, four Canadian provinces team selects a server, who serves larly at the University of South Caro- coed, Kieslich noted. and on many individual courts. until his or her team faults. To win a lina Sumter’s Nettles Building gym. Players at last Tuesday’s games game, one side must score 11 points “Spectators are invited to see what quickly formed doubles teams and with at least a two-point advantage. pickleball is all about,” said Anita started playing. Bob Karel brought a The public is invited to watch the Kieslich, who plays and “oversees” special pickleball “coin” he’d made to for four months each year, “then I go Dixie Daniels Pickleball Tournament, the group. “If people want to play, decide which team goes first. He said home to Minnesota and play five presented in cooperation with the they just show up while we’re here, the game can be “quite strenuous” times a week.” Shepherd’s Center of Sumter, begin- and we’ll teach them how to play.” and is good exercise, especially for Amber Purcell, one of the younger ning at 9 a.m. Friday in the Nettles While there is no official league in- the joints. players, said her family recently vis- Building gym at the University of volved for the players who meet twice June Winters, who had hip replace- ited from Wisconsin, “I introduced South Carolina, 200 Miller Road. For a week for some friendly competition, ment surgery, said pickleball had re- the game to them, and they now play more information, call the Shep- the group is hosting a tournament at duced her recovery time. five times a week” there. herd’s Center at (803) 773-1944. Visit the USC Sumter gym on Friday. The “I was playing just six weeks later,” The players arrive on Tuesdays, the website https://www.usapa.org tournament is named for Dixie Dan- she said. She comes down to Sumter Thursdays and Fridays around 9 a.m. for more about pickleball. Police searching for hit-and-run car, driver that injured pedestrian BY KAYLA ROBBINS store, is described as a small blue-gray, [email protected] four-door car.