Mobile Home Sales in Salters, SC

Lexington, SC 05/04/2022 - Lexington County School District One Superintendent Greg Little, Ed.D., announced Wednesday that Jeffrey S. Salters, the district’s chief operations officer, plans to retire effective September 8, 2022.

Of his retirement, Dr. Little says, “For nearly three decades, Mr. Salters dedicated himself to our school district, working tirelessly to support our students, staff and schools. He’s managed countless projects, from the building of new schools to the implementation of technologies, which all advanced our schools and led us to become one of the best districts in the state. I am honored to call him my colleague and friend. I wish him the best as he soon enjoys his well-deserved retirement.”

Salters began his career in 1994 as a network administrator for Resource Bancshares Mortgage Group in Columbia. He joined the Lexington District One family the following year as assistant coordinator of information technology, where he provided technology support for the district’s financial management system.

In 1997, Salters was promoted to Information and Communication Technologies Director. In this role, he managed districtwide software rollouts and web development as well as support of the district’s servers and employee devices. Salters was then promoted to Chief Information Officer in 2007, leading the district’s expanding information technology division and piloting 1:1 devices for students.

Salters became the Chief Operations Officer in 2010 where he oversaw IT, facilities and maintenance, student services, athletics, safety and security, and transportation for nine years. During this time, he coordinated the implementation of a $336-million bond referendum, developed the annual operations budget, led districtwide emergency response, and supported the financial and operating needs of all schools and offices.

In 2019, Salters took on the additional duties of chief financial officer, while student services, athletics, transportation and IT responsibilities shifted to other divisions. He, along with the strong finance and procurement teams, conducted long-range financial planning, developed financial reports that routinely received awards from the Association of School Business Officials International and the Government Finance Officers Association.

During his tenure, the district built and opened several new schools including Centerville Elementary, Beechwood Middle, the new Pelion Middle and Lakeside Middle, and also completed numerous addition and renovation projects.

Salters holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration from University of South Carolina and a Master of Business Administration from Colorado State University.

He is a member of the South Carolina Association of School Administrators and South Carolina Association of School Business Officials, among many other local and state organizations.

I have always wanted to tint the windows of the bus I use to move my brood around town. It’s already black, so the black windows would give it the sort of look that befits a group of organized criminals (which is pretty much what my children are).

Unfortunately, window tinting isn’t cheap – especially on a vehicle as large as the one required to transport my merry band of aspiring hoodlums hither and yon.

Typical window tint jobs cost at least $200, which is a lot more than most people can pay in these tight economic times.

Of course if you are a taxpayer-funded employee rolling deep in the Midland region of South Carolina – in a taxpayer-funded Chevy Tahoe, no less – why not just bill your tint to the taxpayers.

Maybe even drop some Ludacris as you roll …

That’s exactly what Lexington County school district one chief operations officer Jeffrey S. Salters did a few years ago (well, minus the Ludacris’ beats I’m guessing), according to a district credit card record obtained by a Lexington County government watchdog and provided to this news outlet.

Salters dropped $220 to tint the windows of his district-issued Tahoe – money that (like the price of his vehicle) could have gone to the classroom instead.

Here is the receipt for the tint job …

(Click to view)

(Via: Provided)

Now … is this a huge scandal? A major violation of the public trust? No, not necessarily … but it is indicative of how school districts across the Palmetto State have been playing fast and loose with growing stacks of other people’s money.

As previously noted, this news outlet has been working overtime with engaged parents across the Palmetto State to hold local school districts accountable for the outcomes they produce – and the manner in which they produce them. That includes combing through public records (those that are made available, anyway) and holding these systems and their administrators accountable … down to the last penny.

Waste, duplication and inefficiency of any kind will not be tolerated. Nor, for that matter, will indoctrination (although the S.C. Department of Education is not only tolerating it … it is rewarding it).

What absolutely won’t be tolerated? Crappy outcomes …

Anyway, returning to ‘Tint-gate,’ Lexington district one spokeswoman Kathryn McPhail told me Salters’ window tinting was authorized for “safety and security” reasons.

“It is not uncommon to tint the windows of district vehicles, if the windows are not already tinted when the vehicle is purchased, for safety and security reasons,” McPhail said. “We do so to better protect equipment such as maintenance tools, computer devices and/ or other technologies which may be transported in district vehicles.”

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According to a release from the district, Salters is stepping down effective September 8, 2022. He is obviously not resigning because a four-year-old window tinting receipt was exposed, but rather due to a planned retirement. Most of the Lexington district one sources I spoke with had favorable things to say about Salters, however some questioned his decisions in several recent school site selection debates.

Rest assured this news outlet will be digging into those reports, too …

To its credit, Lexington district one does post its credit card expenses online. However, many transparency advocates have complained that these expenses fail to provide itemized receipts so that taxpayers can see precisely what was purchased.

That makes this as good an opportunity as ever to reiterate my call for an online database of all taxpayer expenditures in the Palmetto State – including itemized receipts. Absent such granular data, we will never know exactly how our money is being spent.

As I reminded readers last spring, South Carolina has a galling lack of transparency when it comes to spending at all levels (here and here). And not surprisingly, legislatively appointed judges have done little-to-nothing to compel disclosure of taxpayer-funded expenditures.

If anything, they have gone in the opposite direction.

Taxpayers shouldn’t stand for that. And parents shouldn’t stand for it, either – especially when you consider the extent to which education funding has soared in recent years with next-to-nothing to show for it in terms of academic advancement.

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(Via: FITSNews)

Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven children.

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Trooper fired over Sam Montgomery traffic stop

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LAURENS COUNTY, S.C. —

A Highway Patrol trooper is without a job following an investigation into his handling of a traffic stop of an NFL player in June.

According to a release from the Highway Patrol, Lance Cpl. R.S. Salter has been terminated, effective as of June 26, the date on which he was suspended.

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Previous stories: The arrest | Trooper suspended | Ticket thrown out

The cause of his termination was conduct unbecoming a state employee, Salter’s second offense of this type according to the SCHP.

A release said an internal investigation was conducted after a June 25 traffic stop involving NFL player, Sydney "Sam" Montgomery, in Laurens County.

Montgomery is from Greenwood and played college football at LSU. He’s now on the Cincinnati Bengals roster.

Montgomery was allegedly going 89 mph in a 55 mph area. He was pulled over just after 12:30 a.m.

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The SCHP said that during the course of this traffic stop, Salter’s interaction with Montgomery was “inconsistent with how he was trained to conduct a traffic stop; his actions and behavior were unprofessional when he told Mr. Montgomery, “NFL, you are under arrest,” which could be perceived as suggesting that Montgomery was being arrested because of his status of being in the NFL.”

The release said Salter "deviated from his training and exhibited negligence in following rules, regulations, policies or procedures when he did not properly approach the vehicle and introduce himself, but instead immediately effectuated an arrest without informing Mr. Montgomery of the reason for the traffic stop and giving loud verbal commands instructing him repeatedly to shut off his vehicle and show his hands."

The release said Salter’s comments to Montgomery during the ride to the detention center were inappropriate, including referring to a seat belt in the patrol car saying, “We can pull that thing across you tight and lock it, and we can make it a very uncomfortable ride to jail.”

Montgomery later pleaded not guilty and the judge dismissed the charge.

The SCHP said Salter also had an inconsistent pattern of who he chose to arrest or not arrest.

The release said Salter had received a letter of counseling in 2007 for using poor judgment and being unprofessional during a traffic stop. He was also disciplined in 2012 for making inappropriate comments on his personal social media site that reflected poorly on his status as an officer of the law.

The release said that troopers are to conduct themselves in a manner that is above reproach fitting their position of authority, and Salter’s conduct during the Montgomery traffic stop and other incident “fell woefully short of that standard and therefore resulted in his termination.”

The youngest students in the northeastern corner of Lexington County could soon be headed to a new elementary school.

The Lexington 1 school board approved an option to place a new elementary school for the River Bluff High School area on approximately 42 acres off of Corley Mill Road.

The school would be located on land near the Saluda River Club and Woodmill neighborhoods, almost two miles west of River Bluff High, which itself opened less than a decade ago.

School personnel cited the growth in the area as necessitating a new school. When voters in Lexington 1 approved a new elementary school in a 2018 referendum, 9,000 new housing units were projected to be built in the area along the Saluda River in the coming years, said Jeff Salters, the district’s chief operations officer.

In the area roughly bordered by Corley Mill Road, North Lake Drive and U.S. 378, students are currently bused to either Midway Elementary at the western end or Meadow Glen Elementary in the southeast, leaving space for a northern elementary school close to the river.

“When we look at where to put a school, we look at where our students are located, and get as close to the students as possible,” Salters said.

Some have expressed concerns that the new school will add to traffic congestion on Corley Mill, but Salters pointed to studies by the S.C. Department of Transportation that other roads in the area already register between 3,000 to more than 10,000 cars per day.

“These students are already on our roadways, traveling all the way over to Midway, some to Meadow Glen,” Salters said. “If we locate here, we can localize some of that traffic and keep them off the main roadways, and create smaller attendance zones.”

Board member Brent Powers noted of all the 2018 referendum projects, “This caused the most heartburn, because it’s the most densely populated.”

The school board voted to approve the plan 6-1. Jada Garris cast the lone dissenting vote, expressing concerns about the location.

“I said, if we try to put a school on Corley Mill Road, we’ll need to increase law enforcement at the board meeting, because the community is not going to be happy,” Garris told The State.

She also worries that adding infrastructure for traffic and other site improvements will also add to the eventual cost of the site, similar to the new Lakeside Middle School on Old Cherokee Road that ended up costing millions more than the initial estimate.

Independent appraisers will work with the district to negotiate a purchasing price from four different owners in the area, then bring the price back to the school board for approval.

PAWLEYS ISLAND, S.C. (WMBF) - Before the upscale shopping, beach stores and traffic, there were a few shops and only two grocery stores the Orr siblings remember.

“My older brothers used to play football in the middle of Highway 17," Sandra (Orr) Sherman told WMBF News.

“The road was like a bunch of shells. Oyster shells," her brother, Mike Orr, added.

Their sister, Wilhemina (Orr) Green, agreed. The three had eight other siblings, but they’ve worked at Frank’s and Frank’s Outback Restaurant for over 80 years combined. It’s a feat not many other sibling trios can claim.

Another feat not many people can claim is remembering when Frank’s and Frank’s Outback Restaurant was originally one of two grocery stores in the area.

“It was an old town country grocery store," Sherman explained.

It made the town what it was to the families who lived there.

“I remember Mr. Marlow walking around with his apron on, with his big cigar. That’s what I remember,” Green said, smiling.

“(The cigar) that he never lit, he just chewed on.” Sherman added.

“He had a big ole’ stand of roasted peanuts,” Orr recalled.

The trio remembered walking into Marlow’s Supermarket like it was yesterday. They said they were regulars, going in to get candy, among other things like produce and meats, and remember Salters McClary working there during their visits.

Fast forward to now, and Salters McClary is the owner of Frank’s Restaurant. Sherman said McClary worked at Marlow’s in the summers, stocking shelves and pumping gas. McClary opened the restaurant in the Marlow’s Supermarket building in 1988 when Marlow retired, and he named it ‘Frank’s’ in honor of him.

Sherman said McClary expanded the restaurant when they took over Marlow’s mother’s house behind the restaurant, and thus ‘Frank’s Outback’ was built.

“It’s the happening place you know, everybody comes here. It’s like the meet and greet of Pawleys Island,” Sherman said.

“It’s the party place,” Orr said with a smile.

Sherman is now the manager of Frank’s, Orr is the lead grill chef and Green is the longest-serving server.

“Actually September 1990 I started here as a bus person, and I was part-time. But I’ve done everything in this restaurant except own it. I was the first pizza chef," Sherman explained.

“I went to the Navy, I got out of the Navy and came here as a dishwasher. I worked for three months as a dishwasher and they asked me if I wanted to cook. And I said ‘Why not? It beats washing dishes,’ and I was here ever since," Orr said.

He said he came to the restaurant in 1995 and learned almost everything under executive chef Pierce Culliton. Culliton is still at the restaurant.

Green said she served seven years in the military. She came back to Pawleys Island in 1989, and started working at Frank’s in 1990.

“The first day you have to learn fast or you get left behind. I learned fast," Green said.

Green does most of the server training now.

“I love serving. I enjoy meeting new people and making them laugh most of all," Green said.

The Orr siblings also have an aunt and nephew who work at Frank’s. They said among their favorite memories are Green’s wedding and the New Year’s parties the restaurant used to host. Sherman said Frank’s is the only restaurant she knows of that once served lunch but had to change to dinner only because they were ‘too busy.’

The trio said they’ve served and cooked for celebrities like Dabo Swinney, Cyndi Lauper, members of Hootie and the Blowfish, Andie Macdowell and the late Cokie Roberts who they said ate at Frank’s all the time.

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