Mobile Home Sales in Alcolu, SC

One of the world’s largest wood pulp and paper manufacturers is spending $20 million to expand its operations in Alcolu, a tiny mill town in northern Clarendon County.

Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific said most of the money will go toward the addition of a third line to produce oriented strand board, wood panels similar to particle board that’s used in flooring and other construction applications.

The addition will increase the plant’s output by about 150 million square feet per year. Work is scheduled to begin at the site north of Manning in April, with the new addition slated to be online by the first quarter of 2023.

Tobey Elgin, Georgia-Pacific’s director of operations for oriented strand board, said the expansion has always been in the plans for the South Carolina plant.

“The site was originally designed for additional capacity, so adding this third strander will maximize the efficiency and output for the operation,” he said.

A strander is a machine that processes wood flakes from logs that have been debarked. The final product is made by adding adhesives to the flakes and then compressing the mixture into various types and thicknesses.

Georgia-Pacific makes the building material at five U.S. sites. The company sold another strand board plant in Allendale in October for $280 million to Canada’s West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. That factory had been idle since 2019.

Andy Konieczka, Georgia-Pacific’s president of structural panels, said in a written statement that the Alcolu expansion “will be a plus for the local economy.”

He estimated that about 100 contractors will work on the expansion during the construction phase, and the new machine will require more truckers to deliver raw materials and haul away the finished goods.

This is the second major expansion at the Alcolu plant since 2018, when Georgia-Pacific announced a $4.5 million investment in a new warehouse, a laminating line and other new equipment.

The company bought the plant, which employs about 150 workers, in 2010 from Grant Forest Products. Production began three years later.

All told, Georgia-Pacific has five sites across South Carolina that employ 920 workers and have a combined capital investment of $252 million.

A Canadian firm that provides digital-communication services for businesses around the globe has filed a notification that it plans to lay off 266 employees at its North Charleston location.

Telus International said the job cuts are tied to an account with a customer that is set to expire next week. The company provided a formal written notice to the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce about the layoffs on Feb. 22, according to the agency’s website.

“Although we are unable to provide any specific details due to standard confidentiality clauses with all of our clients, we can confirm that Telus International informed a group of team members working from our North Charleston site that their roles on a specific client account would end on March 6, 2023,” a spokesperson said Feb. 27 in a written statement.

The company added that it’s “working to find these individuals new assignments within other teams, however, in instances where redeployment is not feasible we are supporting them with access to career planning services to ensure their continued success.”

The location will remain open. Telus could not provide a breakdown of its local labor force Tuesday but said it employs more than 3,000 on-site, hybrid and remote workers at its two U.S. sites in North Charleston and Las Vegas.

The company is a publicly traded division of Telus Corp., a national telecommunications services provider in Canada.

The Vancouver-based subsidiary expanded to North Charleston in 2021, saying it planned to hire as many as 1,200 workers to staff its Ingleside Boulevard outpost near U.S. Highway 78. The company invested $3.2 million to retrofit a newly built customer call center that Comcast Corp. had vacated after the cable TV and broadband giant switched to a remote-working model.

The “digital customer experience” and other technology services that Telus International provides from its 69 locations include content moderation for social media platforms and artificial intelligence tools that recognize speech and text in multiple languages. Its 650 global clients include companies in the financial, gaming, health care, travel, defense, agriculture and e-commerce industries.

Telus International reported recently that its net income last year more than doubled to $183 million compared to 2021 on sales of about $2.5 billion, which increased 12 percent over the same period.

As of Dec. 31, the company employed more than 73,000 workers worldwide, up 18 percent over the previous 12 months, according to CEO Jeff Puritt, who briefly addressed the recent surge in layoffs within the high-tech sector during a Feb. 9 conference call with financial analysts.

He estimated that about 260,000 industry workers have lost their jobs over the past 15 months, mostly since November. Telus International “minimized these difficult situations” because it didn’t overhire over the past few years, Puritt added.

Althea Gibson was born on Aug. 25, 1927 in Silver, South Carolina, part of Clarendon County. Gibson grew up in a family who worked as sharecroppers on a cotton farm. She was one of five children, having three sisters and a brother. From a young age, Gibson had a talent for paddle tennis and by age twelve she was the New York City's women's paddle tennis champion. A year later, she dropped out of school and began a life of '"street fighting", girls' basketball, and watching movies.

Gibson would later explain that she felt that tennis was actually a weak sport for weak people and every time she lost a match, she kept wanting to fight her competitor.

When she got back on track with tennis, Gibson won her first tournament with the American Tennis Association (AQTA). Gibson went on to win the ATA National Championship in the female division in 1944 and 1945.

In 1949, Gibson became the second African American athlete and first female African American to play in the USTA's National Indoor Championships. Gibson reached the quarter finals. Upon graduating from Florida A&M University, she became the first African American player to receive an invitation to the Nationals. Gibson, 23 at the time, lost in the second round.

In 1951, Gibson became one of the first African American Athlete to compete at Wimbledon. She was defeated in the third round. Ranked seventh nationally in 1952 by the USTA, she took a position as a Physical Education teacher at Lincoln University.

In 1956, she became the first African American athlete to win the grand slam tournament. The Grand Slam Tournament is part of the French Championship singles. That same year, Gibson went on to win the Wimbledon doubles championship along with Angela Buxton, the Italian Championship, the Indian Championship, and the Asian Championship, traveling from Rome to New Delhi and Cylon.

In 1957, Gibson won the singles at Wimbledon and was the first African American Champion in the tournament's eighty year history receiving her trophy from Queen Elizabeth II. In 1957 and 1958, she was named Female Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press because of her three Wimbeldon wins.

Gibson passed away in September of 2003. She left behind an amazing legacy for not only African American athletes, but all women athletes as well. Gibson was one of the first six inductees into the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame along with being inducted into the National Lawn Tennis Hall of Fame, The Black Athletes Hall of Fame, and many more.

Tuesday, March 14, 2023 - 5:00 PM Town Hall10 Main Street, Summerton, SC 29148

I. Call to order ... Mayor Tony Junious

II. Invocation ... Councilmember Regina Brown

III. Notification to media

IV. Pledge of Allegiance ... Ms. Jazlynn Bowman

V. Approval of Agenda

VI. Approval of Minutes

Minutes of regular council meeting of February 14, 2023.

VII. Public Presentation

Team Culture Awards (Street Department)

Inspiration Awards (Community Champion Award, Outstanding Downtown Alliance, COmmunity Ambassador Award)

EPC Oasis Easter Egg Hunt... Ms. Lannell Gamble and Mr. Dale Castro Powell (COmmunity Peace Group)

Proclamation... Benjamin "Randy" Leggett, Jr. Day

VIII. Departmental Reports

Public Works - Mr. Robert Tucker, Asst. Supervisor

Oliver Environmental Services - Mr. Joey Oliver, Operator

Police Department - Chief Donell Dixon

Administration - Mrs. Mary Adger, Town Administrator

IX. Finance Report

X. Councilmember Comments

XI. Old Business

A. Discussion of Summerton Help House Project

XII. New Business

A. Ordinance No: 2023-01. An ordinance to regulate the shooting of fire arms within the town limits of Summerton

B. Zoning Text Amendment No: 2023-01T. Discussion of a zoning text ammendment to the Town of Summterton Zoning Ordinance.

C. Resolution 2023-02. A resolution to accept and approve Clarendon County Hazard Mitigation Sterring Committee, and the submission on the behalf of the participating counties and municipalities of the Adopted Hazard Plan to the State Emergency Management Division and to the federal emergency management agent officials for formal review and approval.

D. Discussion of partnering with EPC Oasis Easter Egg Hunt

E. Discussion of a partnership with Community Peace Group

F. Discussion of funding for city projects

G. Discussion of participation in National Child Abuse Prevention Month

XIII. Executive Session

Discussion of employment, appointment, compensation, promotion, demotion, discipline, or release of an employee, a student, or a person regulated by a public body or the appointment of person to a public body. Section 30-4-70(A)(1).

The Clarendon County School District Board of Trustees had their monthly meeting on Monday, Feb. 6, 2023. The School Board members covered a variety of topics significant to this month. Ceth Land, Board Chair, led the meeting as he and the other members voted on matters regarding several different offices within the school system.

A meeting recording can be found on the Clarendon County School District website under the Board of Trustees.

Following the invocation by Arthur Moyd, Board Vice Chair, and the Pledge of Allegiance, the Board approved two overnight field trip requests. The first was from the band teacher at Manning High School, Jordan Jefferson, on behalf of a student who has the honor of attending Region Band from Feb. 16 to Feb. 18 in Summerville, SC. The second request came from Manning High School as well. It was submitted by the golf coach, Marion Lewis, and it is for five students and two chaperones to attend the Diamondback Golf Tournament in Loris, SC, from Mar. 24 through Mar. 26.

The Office of Finance, under the District Superintendent, then addressed the board and gave the monthly financial report. The proposed 2023-2024 budget calendar was also on the agenda for this month, and the Finance Office provided each member of the Board with a copy to be reviewed. It followed until the final reading in June. The public hearing of the budget will be held on May 8. The final reading of the budget will be held on Jun. 5 and sent to County Council on Jun. 6. The Budget Presentation Council will then meet on Jun. 12 to review.

The Office of Instruction highlighted three items with the members of the Board this month. The first is their new department motto, ACES. ACES stands for Accountability, Continuing support, Equity, and System. The spokesperson for the Instruction Office shared that accountability means that "we all are accountable to each other, and we are becoming more accountable to our data, making sure that we understand that data so we can make the best decisions for our students." Continuing support ensures that data shows teachers and principals that students are getting what they need. Equity represents that students' needs may not be the same, so the type of support they are getting may not be the same. Systems represent getting away from operating in different cycles and acting as one unified District so that Clarendon County can stand united as one. The department had the opportunity to show ACES in action, and principals could share that data, which showed two areas of strengths and challenges. They were also responsible for sharing what attributed to those successes and challenges and ensuring they got tailored support. All directors were present for the meeting, and they could ask any department for their needed help.

Finally, the spokesperson wanted to highlight an area of focus in the Instructional Department, which was inspired by state concerns for Clarendon County Schools' disabled population. The disabled population is a subgroup based on the number of students in the school district representing that group. Clarendon County is working to support the disabled students better in the future.

In this month's technology update from the Office of Technology, Godbold referenced the access points in both Turbeville and Manning Schools. These switches are on the same platform or network, and Summerton's access points include forty switches that need to be transferred. Once these forty switches are moved, all access points in the Summerton cluster will be on one network, similar to the Turbeville and Manning clusters. The technology department will also update the Turbeville cluster's interactive panels. The current panels could be considered outdated, so any spare panels or panels not currently used will be transferred to ensure every cluster is on the same par in terms of interactive panels for teacher use. The final point is updating student testing to ensure all testing modules for students are ready to be used on their devices. Therefore, the test will be prepared if the student has their device charged.

The Board of Trustees then took the time to commend Godbold on his job with his team in the Office of Technology.

The Office of Student Services addressed the Board with a few highlights from their Student Services Update. The department is "Choosing Kindness" this month, a program that allows students to receive a greeting card acknowledging their acts of kindness. Suppose the department chair witnesses the student being kind, or it is reported that a student has displayed kindness. In that case, the student will receive a greeting.

The Office of Student Services is also promoting perfect attendance. Every month, the department plans to track students who attended school every day of that month. In January, there were over 1,200 students that came to school every day.

This week, the Office of Student Services is also celebrating Student Council. Their theme this year is "Dream Big," so council members encourage students to dream big in their lessons and actions. Finally, the department wanted to highlight that the District celebrates job shadowing on Feb. 23. Students will have the opportunity to shadow someone in a profession of their choosing.

The Board then inquired about Early Enrollment Registration, held from Jan. 23 through Jan. 27. The department would like parents to know that they continue to accept those registration forms as they come in.

The Office of Operations provided the Board with a few highlights from their operations update. The department has begun looking at a property in Turbeville following state law and the guidelines propagated by the Office of School Facilities. On Feb. 6, they held an initial meeting with DOT and the Office of School Facilities at the location as a first step of the approval process. The Office of Operations also awarded a new outdoor freezer to East Clarendon, acquired through the South Carolina Business Opportunities organization.

Auditors from Mauldin & Jenkins will be present from Feb. 13 to start and complete the audit from Clarendon School District 1.

The Board then inquired about the two modules from East Clarendon and Walker Gamble. The Office of Operations installed new fire alarms on Feb. 6. The last thing remaining is some electrical work on the inside and the placement of emergency lights in preparation for inspection.

The Office of Operations spokesperson concluded by referencing the First Reading of Policy EF-R Food Services. Due to the district being under community eligibility, no student paid to eat unless they ordered something above what was provided. The policy is modeled after the previous school district food service policy and was approved by the Board of Trustees.

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