Mobile Home Sales in Effingham, SC

They range in age from 17 to 57, hail from Georgia and South Carolina and include a house painter, an industrial worker and an elementary school principal.

The one thing the 39 individuals have in common -- they were all arrested this summer for trying to have sex with children, according to officials with the Effingham County Sheriff's Office.

Deputies from the Effingham and Chatham County Sheriff's Offices lured the men to the area over the past 10 weeks in "Operation Summer Heat" by pretending to be underage children. The suspects were arrested on felony charges of child molestation or computer pornography. The mugshots of 37 of the men were released to the public Tuesday, and two photos were not released because the men were age 17.

"This operation was designed to send a clear message from Effingham County Sheriff Jimmy McDuffie and Chatham County Sheriff Johnny Wilcher that individuals who target our children for their own purposes will not be tolerated in Effingham and Chatham counties," said Effingham Sheriff's Investigator Joe Heath. The Effingham County Sheriff's Office is an affiliate member of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's Internet Crimes against Children Task Force.

Some of the suspects would ask, "Is this a sting?" or "You aren't a cop, are you?" and despite their misgivings, would still arrive at sting sites where they were arrested, officials said. They would try to meet children in public places such as a park or a fast-food restaurant or more secluded places such as a private home - some place the offender would feel safe.

But instead of a young boy or girl, they would find a sheriff's deputy, ready to make an arrest.

"Some offenders had to be wrestled," Heath said. "Some had to be chased, but in the end all the offenders ended up in the Effingham County jail."

The Effingham Sheriff's Office has been making these kinds of arrests for five years now, and their efforts have been covered extensively by the media.

But still, the men turn up.

"Apparently, it's a very, very, very powerful enticement," said Ogeechee Assistant District Attorney Brian Deal.

"We're bailing a boat with a thimble," Heath said.

Deal said the men who plead guilty tend to get shorter prison terms, but even they get 10 years and a long probation term when they must register as a sex offender. Those who go to court have been getting 30 to 40 years in prison.

Deal said the effort is worthwhile because it takes some offenders off the streets.

"You'll never convince me that this is the first time that they've tried to do it," he said.

Those arrested this summer include Portal Elementary School Principal Paul David Hudson, who was charged with attempted child molestation. Hudson's arrest was covered by the media earlier this summer. He resigned as principal, a job he held since 2001.

Hudson's case, along with the cases of several other men arrested in the summer sting, was brought before a grand jury in Effingham on Monday.

Deal said the arrests are a reminder to parents to keep a close eye on their children's Internet activities.

"There could be a knock on the door from someone they don't want to see," he said.

Those arrested:

Adam Alewine, 36, Rincon

Johnathan Baker, 26, Savannah

Odrae Barrett, 26, Port Wentworth

Alexander Belanovich, 49, Guyton

Chadwick Boyd, 24, Sylvania

Deonte Brown, 21, Port Wentworth

Travis Butterbaugh, 31, Claxton

Christopher Carroll, 57, Rock Hill, S.C.

Trenton Carter, 42, Bluffton

James Cheek, 35, Hawkinsville

William Fischer, 24, Pooler

Joseph Fountain, 27, Savannah

Joshua Garner, 21, Pooler

William Gibbs, 52, Bloomingdale

Aaron Green, 26, Guyton

Kevin Hollingsworth, 30, Guyton

Paul Hudson, 49, Statesboro

Thomas Hughes, 45, Pooler

Sean Iwan, 21, Rincon

Gregory Jackson, 48, Newington

Brian Jones, 35, Evans

Andra Keye, 32, Port Wentworth

Jacob Laport, 25, Alto

Matthew Long, 30, Hinesville

Randy Murphy, 29, Savannah

Chad Nephew, 23, Hinesville

Calvin Oliver, 39, Garden City

Johnathan Perkins, 25, Ellabell

Johnathan Purcell, 35, Rincon

Renato Ramos, 22, Swainsboro

Rakeem Scott, 23, Savannah

Robben Sims, 31, Savannah

Douglas Smith, 33, Seabrook, S.C.

Matthew Wilkison, 23, Rincon

Joseph Williams, 31, Statesboro

Henry Williams, 46, Bloomingdale

Lloyd Wray, 41, Hinesville

EFFINGHAM, S.C. – American Legion Post 160 – the building – took another step along the path to rehabilitation Tuesday when it played host to a luncheon for McCall Farms employees.

The building, constructed in 1951, has new purpose as a hiring office for McCall Farms and as such is helping fuel the group of members that continue to call it home as they work to restore the Post to what it was at one time.

"We're really tight on space where we are, and it made sense to come right across the street to the legion hut," said McCall Swink, one of the owners of McCall Farms. "We met with them and threw the idea out there, and it made sense to them.

"We're right across the street, so it makes perfect sense. We've been, kind of but not involved, with the American Legion for many years, because we're from Effingham and have been to many events here. Used to vote here growing up. But we had a need for additional hiring and a place to do it."

The rent paid by the factory, along with donations from the owners and others, will allow the Post to make necessary repairs to the building and give it resources as it seeks to establish outreach missions into the veteran community, said Michael Calcutt, a member of the post who is overseeing the construction and rehabilitation.

"Used to come down here for a lot of events ," said Marion Swink, one of the company's owners. "It was kind of a center gathering point for the Effingham community. I grew up here, never lived anywhere else, never left Effingham."

"We're glad to pitch in where we can."

Henry Swink, one of the company's owners, said he has "been coming here all my life."

"It's always been a unique place for our family and the whole community here in Effingham," Henry Swink said. "It's refreshing to see it come back to life. It's a mutually beneficial role we both played. The American Legion is going to get a lot of out of it, and McCall Farms is going to get a lot out of it."

Completed structural changes include a new ADA compliant bathroom where two noncompliant bathrooms had been and a new drain field.

Cosmetic changes include a new tile floor in the building's entryway and paint, a lot of paint.

Still on the to-do list is a kitchen that speaks to many points in time from the 1960s through the turn of the century.

"That's still on our list ," said Darryl Davids, vice president of human resources for the company. "We'll work around that. During the week we won't be using the kitchen."

Some planned improvements will happen on a much quicker time table, Calcutt said.

McCall Farms will occupy what was once a room dedicated to the women's auxiliary and now referred to by Calcutt as the "red carpet room." The event hall will serve as the plant's training room.

"We're going to start on this room tomorrow, do some wood repair and some painting," Calcutt said. "We'll have that complete by Sunday so they can open it on Monday. Going to do a shampoo cleaning on it (the red carpet)."

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Still discovering history

The Post already had piles of history to sort through from charters to pictures found hanging on the wall before they got around to a storage area that had a wall locker in it and therein discovered more history.

Calcutt said the focus has been on construction so far, and members haven't had a chance to discover who is who and what is what when it comes to their discovered history.

"We had a few people who said, 'My dad was a member of that place back in the 70s. He knows a lot of those people,'" Calcutt said, but post members haven't yet had a chance to follow up on those contacts.

Part of what they discovered in the wall locker was a pile of bank statements that provided them some bread crumbs that could lead to a suspected scholarship fund that was dedicated to purchasing books for nursing students.

"We have a withdrawal from a CD, I said scholarship or trust fund, that'd be the place to park it," Calcutt said.

One possible source of that history could come from Henry Swink.

"They were my parents' friends, and I knew a lot of the children," he said. "Familiar with the family names and the history of the families."

Looking to the future

With the rush to get things done ahead of Monday's official opening, some things have gone undone.

"My pride and joy is the flag poles and the flags," Calcutt said of three new flagpoles and a collection of flags that fly from them.

The poles and flags, though, haven’t had an official flag raising ceremony.

Calcutt said he has reached out to a nearby Junior ROTC unit about lending a hand and that such a ceremony remains on his to-do-list.

Also on the to-do-list is Memorial Day. Calcutt said when the post members hold their next meeting, they will discuss a possible Memorial Day community-outreach, kid-friendly event.

"My great grandmother donated the land for the Legion hut," McCall Swink said. "There is definitely some attachment to it from that point of view. It's the Legion's building, and we're glad to be a part of it."

"This is Main Street Effingham right here. This was a building that needed improvement, and it's got it now.

"We really appreciate the partnership with the Legion. We're honored to be associated with that kind of group.

"It's a true win win."

EFFINGHAM, S.C. (WBTW)– McCall Farms and McLeod Health celebrated the opening of a new family health center Friday at the McCall plant in Effingham.

The new facility features a lab, two exam rooms and more.

Tim Aponte, the director of safety training and compliance at McCall Farms, said one of the goals of the facility is to treat workplace injuries. He said the clinic is a big improvement for medical services at the plant.

“We had a small exam room upstairs in the admin building, or we had to take them offsite to McLeod occupational health, or something like that,” Aponte said.

Aponte says now, the vast majority of workplace injuries can be treated on-site.

“We can do everything except MRIs and X-rays,” he said. “Sutures, slips, trips and falls, wraps. In addition, we have 23 first responders that are trained by McLeod on-site, rotating all three shifts”

Donna Isgett, president and CEO of McLeod Health System, said staff at the clinic will be able to make a difference during medical emergencies.

“Having them right here, accessible,” Isgett said. “The entire time the plant is going, there is someone here medically available, so they get immediate access- even faster than 911 can get here.”

“It is absolutely beautiful in there- hopefully you will all get to see it,” McCall Swink, co-president of McCall Farms told employees during the ribbon cutting. “When you’re in there, it’s hard to believe you’re in downtown Effingham, South Carolina.”

The new clinic will serve the more than 1,200 McCall Farms employees and their families.

Isgett said many of the employees live nearby and it will be much more convenient for them to visit the clinic at work rather than driving to Florence for medical attention, citing convenient care as a key issue in fighting negative health outcomes in the region.

“Not just emergencies that happen when they’re on the floor, but they can also have access to primary care and things they need to do to take care of their health,” Isgett said.

More issues can be addressed at the site.

“We have a lot of diabetes, hypertension and things like that going around our facility,” Aponte said. “We’re trying to do as much as we can to impact the community in a positive way by having this clinic available.”

Aponte said services are free for all employees except those with a high deductible, who will have to pay a $10 fee.

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EFFINGHAM, S.C. (WBTW) — A new facility at the McCall Farms plant in Effingham is turning waste into usable natural gas.

It filters natural gas gathered from nearby wastewater lagoons, which hold the parts of fruits and vegetables that don’t make their way into cans. As the leftover produce rots, methane is released, which is then captured and pumped into trucks for sale.

“Really from any source of organic waste, you can generate methane,” Marc Fetten, the co-owner of GreenGasUSA said. “Methane is exactly the same thing as fossil gasses, only this time it comes from renewable sources.”

Fetten said he became interested in renewable energy after buying a natural gas trucking company. On a business visit to McCall Farms, he saw an opportunity.

“We went to look at their wastewater system and quickly began to realize you could literally see the gas bubble off the wastewater in the lagoons,” he said.

Over the following years, more than seven acres of the lagoons were covered in massive black bladders called anaerobic digesters. The digesters pump the methane from the rotting produce into a filtering facility.

“The gas is run through different molecular gates, different equipment skids that basically purify the methane gas to natural gas pipelines standards,” Dylan Anderson, the plant project manager at McCall Farms said.

Andersons said annually, the process will prevent the equivalent of more than 40,000 cars’ worth of emissions from entering the atmosphere.

“It was a no-brainer for us to jump right on it to have a better impact on our environment and ecosystem,” he said.

Fetten said the gas will help power the Mercedes-Benz factory near Charleston, Duke University and other companies. He said in recent years, consumers have been pushing companies to go green, and he is now working on similar projects in six states.

Hugh Weathers, the South Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture lauded the project. He said he is proud to see South Carolinians make moves toward green energy.

“This is a clear-cut example of where private enterprise really took the lead,” Weathers said. “There are lots of things farmers are doing — and more that we can do — to help mitigate the carbon issue we are experiencing.”

The facility produces around one-and-a-half truckloads of methane per day. Anderson said he expects to see that number increase as plans develop to build a second filtering facility at the plant.

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Effingham Pellets LLC, a subsidiary of Charles Ingram Lumber Co., on Aug. 20 announced plans to establish operations in Florence County, South Carolina. The company's more than $5.4 million investment is projected to create 10 new jobs.

A newly formed company, Effingham Pellets LLC is a wood pellet manufacturer and distributor that supplies wood pellets for export sale to Europe.

Located at 4905 Ingram Bypass in Effingham, the company's Florence County operations will produce wood pellets to be burned in place of coal at power plants across Europe.

Operations are expected to be online by June 2021. Individuals interested in joining the Effingham Pellets, LLC team should visit https://www.cilumber.com/contact-us/.

"We are excited to begin operations in Florence County, where we will be able to produce power solutions that promote sustainability on an international scale. Effingham Pellets LLC looks forward to being an important partner to Charles Ingram Lumber Company and the community as a whole,” said Effingham Pellets LLC

"We are proud to celebrate Effingham Pellets LLC's investment in South Carolina and our people. Anytime a company is able to set up shop here, it proves what we already know - that we have one of the most competitive business environments in the world and a workforce that can get the job done,” said Gov. Henry McMaster

"In South Carolina, we know how to make things. Effingham Pellets LLC's decision to establish operations here generates even more momentum for our state's manufacturing sector, which continues to grow and produce more jobs for South Carolinians,” said Secretary of Commerce Bobby Hitt

"Sustainability is an initiative the state of South Carolina is proud to support. Effingham Pellets LLC, with its use of previously unused material, is the right step for a greener, more environmentally friendly future for Florence County,” said S.C. Senate President Pro Tempore Hugh K. Leatherman

"Effingham Pellets LLC is a welcome addition to the business community of Florence County. Innovative ideas, such as creating useful products from previously unused material, are a representation of the unique opportunities Florence County has to offer. We are proud to host this forward-thinking company,” said Florence County Council Chairman Willard Dorriety, Jr.

"Maintaining a quality business climate is one of the main goals of Florence County Economic Development Partnership. When two industries are able to collaborate for the betterment of the county, as is the case with Effingham Pellets LLC and Charles Ingram Lumber Company, that's an indication that we are succeeding. We are happy to welcome Effingham Pellets, LLC to this community,” said Florence County Economic Development Partnership Chairman Joe W. "Rocky" Pearce