Mobile Home Sales in Kershaw, SC

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Orion Performance Compounds, Inc. today announced plans to establish operations in Kershaw County. The company’s $13 million investment will create up to 54 new jobs.

A manufacturer of highly engineered thermoplastic compounds, Orion Performance Compounds, Inc. will blend melted resins with carbon fiber, lubricants and other additives to form custom materials for use in final markets such as automotive, aerospace, medical and more.

Locating at 15 Mesa Lane in the Heritage Pointe Industrial Park in Lugoff, the company will open a new 50,000-square-foot facility for the manufacturing and distribution of its materials.

Operations are expected to be online by the second quarter of 2023.

Individuals interested in joining the Orion Performance Compounds, Inc. team should email resumes to the company.

The Coordinating Council for Economic Development approved job development credits related to this project. The council also awarded a $300,000 Set-Aside grant to Kershaw County to assist with the costs of building improvements.

QUOTES

“The Lugoff, S.C. site was selected after an extensive multi-state search. The state of S.C. and Kershaw County were very welcoming to our planned business and removed any hurdles along the way. Combined with convenient access to multiple interstate highways with which to service a large geographic customer base, the selection process was made easy.”-Orion Performance Compounds, Inc. Chief Operations Officer Tom Drye

“Congratulations to Orion Performance Compounds, Inc. on establishing operations in South Carolina. They are joining the increasing number of companies that call our state home, making a positive impact on our communities and economy every day.” -Gov. Henry McMaster

“As an upcoming manufacturer of key materials used in the automotive and aerospace industries, Orion Performance Compounds, Inc. is a natural fit for South Carolina. We celebrate the company’s new facility in Kershaw County and look forward to building a strong partnership.” -Secretary of Commerce Harry M. Lightsey III

“It’s a great day in Kershaw County as we welcome Orion Performance Compounds, Inc. to our community. We invested in ourselves so industry could invest more. The Heritage Pointe Spec Building is now home to Orion and 54 new, well-paying technical jobs. This announcement provides a welcome economic boost and great addition to Kershaw County’s diverse and growing business sector.” -Kershaw County Council Chairman Julian Burns

“Congratulations to Orion Performance Compounds, Inc. and our partners in Kershaw County on today’s announcement. The company is welcomed with excitement to the Heritage Pointe Industrial Park and joins a group of reputable manufacturers within the park and throughout the county.”-Central SC Alliance Chairman Matthew Shaffer

FIVE FAST FACTS

USDA announced it would allocate $59 million in federal grants to five independent processors. Funding will come through the Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program, which helps processors expand their capacity.

The MPPEP was created as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says that these investments will give farmers and ranchers a fair chance to compete in the marketplace and help lower food costs.

“For too long, American farmers and ranchers have been asked to produce more to meet increasing demand across the country and around the world, while they and the rural communities they come from have struggled to see their fair share of the benefits,” Vilsack said. “The Biden-Harris Administration and USDA are taking action to advance a sustainable vision of agriculture that prioritizes the needs of our resilient producers and small businesses, strengthens our food supply chain and brings value back to rural people and places.”

Projects receive funding

Riverbend Meats will receive $25 million to help build an environmentally friendly beef processing plant in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Funds will be used to purchase custom equipment and install nine miles of mainline gas pipe. According to USDA, these improvements will double the plant’s capacity to 600 head per day.

Prestage Farms in Kershaw County, South Carolina will use a nearly $25 million grant to offset the costs of high-tech poultry processing equipment. European air-chilled technology allows the facility to increase turkey shelf life compared to traditional processing methods. The upgrades are expected to increase production to 8 million birds per year and create more than 290 full-time jobs.

CNF Enterprises will receive $3.3 million for a 30,000 square-foot processing facility in New Underwood, South Dakota. When complete, the facility will be able to process 4,000 head of beef, pork, lamb and buffalo per year.

Another $3.6 million grant will go toward expanding the Shenandoah Valley Organic chicken processing facility in Harrisonburg, Virginia. New equipment, conveyer lines, wastewater treatment systems and other site improvements are expected to nearly double the facility’s processing capacity to 630,000 birds per week. The increased capacity is also expected to create approximately 300 jobs.

Holly Poultry will receive $2 million to upgrade its and expand its Baltimore poultry processing facility. Those improvements are expected to add 200 jobs by 2025 and increase capacity by nearly 2,000 pounds per week.

This is the is third set of MPPEP grants announced by USDA in the past few months. In November 22 projects were awarded a combined $75 million in grants. That was followed by a $12 million investment in three projects this past January.

About the Author(s)

KERSHAW, S.C. (WBTV) – A South Carolina restaurant had an unexpected patron charge through its doors earlier this week.

The owners of 521 Filling Station in Kershaw posted video surveillance footage to its Facebook page that shows a deer making its way into the eatery on Monday. 521 Filling Station is used to heavy foot traffic in and out of the door. But hoof traffic? Not so much.

”I’m in a meeting with the human resources officers and I start getting phone calls. So I step out and call and they’re like there’s a deer in the restaurant. And I said, ‘What?’ And they said, ‘There’s a deer in the restaurant!’ and I said you’re kidding me,” said co-owner Kevin Sims.

Video on the restaurant’s Facebook page shows that this situation was no joke. You can see a deer burst through the front glass door and slide right into the dining room of the restaurant.

”Came across the parking lot full head of steam. Hit the front door. Shattered glass everywhere. He slid over here and then there’s chaos,” he says.

A startled worker gets out of the way as the deer slips on the floor, knocking down chairs as it slides around the restaurant. The video shows all that chaos unfolding.

The animal eventually winds up in a booth before one of the workers got their hands on the deer and slid it across the floor and then back outside.

“He needed help to get out, so I helped him!” said Beth Truesdale, a server at the restaurant.

Truesdale cornered that deer and got it calm enough to be able to drag it out. The server showed her nerves of steel the entire time.

”I was just trying to get him. I’m a country girl it didn’t bother me,” she sa

When asked how she managed to stay so cool, calm, and collected she said it was simple. She had to get back to work.

”Servers only make $2.13 an hour. Most of them. So, I just needed him to leave so I could finish making my money,” she explained laughing.

“Never a dull moment @ THE 521,” the restaurant posted. Watch the original video below:

Copyright 2022 WBTV. All rights reserved.

OPINION AND COMMENTARY

Editorials and other Opinion content offer perspectives on issues important to our community and are independent from the work of our newsroom reporters.

The border between Kershaw and Richland Counties along I-20 consistently smells like a porta potty.

In this age of technological water treatment advances – including towns that rely solely on desalinization of ocean water for drinking water or use of treated wastewater to beautify wetlands along receiving waters and other amazing stories of success – why can’t a small town’s wastewater treatment plant effectively filter its off gas?

The wastewater treatment facility I am focusing my ire on is the Spears Creek Water Treatment Plant in Elgin, in sight and smelling distance of I-20.

During my every-day commute to (and from) Columbia along that section of I-20, I smell poo. With all the wastewater technology available to the company that appears to be the source of this smell, one would think they could afford to deal with the noxious (and just gross) odors.

Yuck. Let’s ask that it be fixed.

Matthew H O’Brien, Lugoff

For more than 200 years, horse-related businesses have helped South Carolina grow and conserve culturally significant land. The equine industry remains an important part of agribusiness to this day. Currently, there are 73,000+ horses stabled in South Carolina, creating an annual economic impact of $1.9 billion.

Thanks to our equine community, ideal climate, and booming economy, horse enthusiasts and businesses want to be here. However, many are forced to locate in neighboring states because of outdated laws in the Palmetto State that makes us a less competitive option.

To protect equine jobs and to preserve our horse culture for future generations, I am asking state lawmakers to support the S.C. Equine Advancement Act. This legislation would legalize Advance Deposit Wagering on equine events being held across the U.S., generating new revenue from licensing.

Please consider joining me in helping to keep our centuries-old equine industry alive by notifying your legislators of your support for the S.C. Equine Advancement Act.

Ned Towell, Camden

Can you believe some folks at the State House want to do away with the licenses that are required for some very important professions? Professions where a client would want to know the practitioner was qualified?

Some of our legislators want to take us back over a century to the time when snake oil salesmen were free to sell their wares. Wanna be a psychologist? Sure, just go hang out a sign. Wanna be a dietician? Just say you’re one after you’ve read a book or two or watched some infomercials. Those licenses are there to reassure those of us who go to these professionals that they have had the proper training for their jobs.

Requiring additional training every so many years keeps these folks up-to-date.

The marketplace already decides which practitioners are the best. But at least for now, our choices are among qualified, licensed professionals.

Let’s keep it that way.

Elizabeth Russell, Columbia

Why is a medical procedure in the hands of politicians?

Abortion banning is not about unborn babies at all. It is about the domination and control of women.

This is an endeavor men have been trying for thousands of years. They might as well try to nail a chain across the sky to stop the wind from blowing.

The natural wisdom, strength, and intelligence of women cannot be stopped.

Secure and wise men see women as equal companions and co-creators of life and love, family and a sustainable society. Secure men don’t need to prove their worth by dominating and controlling women.

To govern wisely is to govern with kindness and compassion for all with fairness and justice. We are living on one delicate planet.

We all are precious regardless of our skin color, social status, or sexual orientation.

Life on this planet survives through respect for one another and not by baseless domination and control of one another.

Rosellen Aleguire, Fair Play

Apparently, our wise legislators are considering making guns more available and less regulated in our state. It appears as if they are again, endangering citizens in order to please their donors.

If they were honest, they would not just make guns more available in public areas, but also where they work, the State House.

Clearly, they do not think that guns pose a danger, do they?

Frankly, if the legislature persists in making public areas, malls, restaurants, shops, bars, Main Street more dangerous, perhaps we need to protect ourselves and avoid those areas.

Warren Hix, Columbia

A scary 24 hours in Kershaw as 11 overdoses were reported, 4 of which resulted in deaths.

KERSHAW COUNTY, S.C. — Kershaw County Sheriff Lee Boan says his county is on pace to have the worst year on record of drug overdose deaths.

On Thursday the department posted an update that in a 24 hour stretch, 11 overdoses were called in, with four resulting in deaths.

How bad has the drug epidemic become in Kershaw county?

"It's becoming more and more frequent, " said Sheriff Bone.

The Kershaw County Coroners office says the overdoses likely originated from a the same source that was sold on the streets.

Sheriff Boan says his narcotics units are seeing calls weekly that originate from drug overdoses.

The vast majority of deaths coming directly from exposure to Fentanyl, an opioid that is more potent than other popular drugs.

"They think they're buying heroine or they're buying cocaine and it's laced with fentanyl and they don't know that, they're not told that," he said.

Fentanyl is an issue that Mara Jones sees on a daily basis.

Jones is the executive director at ALPHA behavioral center in Camden. It's a drug treatment center that averages 300 active participants in an opioid treatment program.

"Families are devastated, that's why it's a family disease, it's not an individual disease, " she said.

It's why her team offers counseling and free resources. She says anyone can walk into their facilities at their Camden location at 208 King Street and get Narcan, an overdose reversal agent, and fentanyl test strips--to see if the product has any of the drug.

"This is a safe way for harm reduction in our community and [for] individuals to stay alive, " she continued.

The sheriff says it's an epidemic that isn't going anywhere, which education being the key to beating it.

He has now reinstated the county's D.A.R.E. program to teach school students about the dangers of drugs.

He encourages anyone seeking help or with information on drug trafficking to reach out to the sheriff's department.