By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter

jevans@thepccourier.com

LIBERTY — Pickens County officials are celebrating the expansion of a company that was “bursting at the seams” at its current facility. [cointent_lockedcontent]

Pickens County Council announced the expansion of Reliable Automatic Sprinkler Co. Inc. in the Pickens County Commerce Park after a special called meeting Thursday.

“This is truly an outstanding day in the history of Reliable,” company president Kevin T. Fee said.

The new development is expected to bring $23.1 million in capital investment and lead to the creation of 100 jobs for the company, which manufactures automatic fire sprinklers and is a major distributor of sprinkler system components.

“Today we are thrilled to be celebrating the expansion of Reliable,” County council chair Jennifer Willis said.

The expansion announcement came exactly 12 years and one day after officials held a groundbreaking for Reliable Sprinkler’s existing facility, she said.

“In the late 1990s, Pickens County Council took steps to acquire land and created the commerce park that we’re in today,” she said.

She recalled attending a ribbon-cutting ceremony in late 2003 for the Cartee Road exchange that opened access to the facility off of U.S. Highway 123.

“At that time, we had the infrastructure in place,” Willis continued. “We had roads, we had land, but we had nothing else. But, to borrow a line from the movie ‘Field of Dreams,’ ‘If you build it, they will come.’”

At the time of its groundbreaking in 2004, Reliable officials designed a facility “they could not imagine filling up,” Willis said.

Fast forward 12 years, and “Reliable Automatic Sprinkler Co. is completely out of space and still growing,” she said.

In 2004, the company projected a $20 million investment, a 300,000-square-foot building and approximately 180 jobs, “which they have well exceeded multiple times over,” Willis said.

Willis said the work between company officials, county officials and Alliance Pickens that led to the expansion announcement began about two and a half years ago.

“We are like the ducks you see out on the pond,” she said. “You don’t think we’re moving — and we’re frantically paddling underneath. We have been frantically paddling underneath the water for a long time to get this job put to bed. We’ve got lots of exciting things coming in the next few months.”

Before the announcement, county council approved ordinances that will help make the expansion possible, including a fee-in-lieu-of-tax agreement and a land grant for Reliable.

“Instead of being taxed at the standard 10.5 percent rate, they pay a flat fee which is equivocal to approximately six percent,” Willis said. “It’s a fee instead of a tax. Whatever that number is, that number is set for the next 20 years.”

The agreement is “the same incentive that we give every company that’s located here in the park,” Willis said. “It just covers that additional investment and gives them that reduced tax burden. It’s an incentive for them to bring money here and bring jobs here.”

County council also gifted the company an additional 22-acre parcel “to allow them to do everything they need to do to expand,” Willis said.

“They are basically landlocked,” she said. “They have a great problem — and a tremendous opportunity for us. They are bursting at the seams.”

The land grant “guarantees the future growth of our company,” Fee said.

“There’s no doubt that without this land grant, we would have run out of space and would have had to move,” he said.

Reliable will expand its existing plant by 150,000 square feet to bring the total facility space to 452,000 square feet. The expanded facility should be up and running by July of 2017, Fee said.

Senior vice president Bill Kirkpatrick walked officials through the plans for the expansion.

The expansion will help address congestion on Smith Grove Road, especially during shift changes at Reliable.

“We want to minimize the time it takes to pass the baton to other shifts,” Kirkpatrick said. “That’s time lost and money.”

The company now has the land needed to handle future expansions of their facilities.

“We have plans to go further,” Kirkpatrick said.

Willis thanked Ray Farley and his Alliance Pickens staff for the work they put in toward getting the deal done.

Farley said Reliable’s decision to expand says a lot about Pickens County.

“World-class company, number two in the world, and this is the only place that they manufacture, and they serve a worldwide marketplace,” Farley said. “This is the only manufacturing location they have —they rely on it. The fact that they’re investing the kind of money they’re investing here speaks volumes for our school system, the manner by which we train and educate a learned workforce to supply them.

“I think it speaks volumes in the trust they put in the Pickens County Council. And now that they’re here, they continue to invest here. I just think it speaks volumes for the Pickens County community.”

Fee said the decision to move its operation from Mount Vernon, N.Y., to Liberty was “the greatest and most important decision” in the company’s nearly 100-year history.

“Everybody said, ‘This is going to be your home forever,’” Fee said. “It’s been a very rewarding experience.”

Three-quarters of the company’s employees live in Pickens County, Farley said.

Fee said the company’s facilities and its employees give the company “the greatest home-field advantage.”

“We do have great people,” he said. “They’re the most important asset we have, and we’re always going to take care of them.

Fee said the best year of the company and its market are “ahead of us, not behind us,” adding that he hopes to shatter the job numbers and figures announced with the expansion.

He urged Farley and county officials to use him and his company as references as they court future investment in the commerce park and the county.

“At any time that you need to call upon us as a reference or to show potential investors Pickens County in any way, shape or form, please call upon us,” Fee said. “We’re there for you. We are strong believers in Pickens County.” [/cointent_lockedcontent]

By Greg Oliver
Courtesy The Journal

goliver@upstatetoday.com

PICKENS — Eight inmates at the Pickens County Detention Center have been charged with physically assaulting two other inmates last month.

Pickens County Sheriff’s Office chief deputy Creed Hashe said Isaiah Rakeesh Grant, 24, of Butler Road Apartments, Greenville; Trevor Lance Williams, 27, of Ray Martin Street, Greenville; Matthew Quinn Gillespie, 28, of Old Shirley Road, Central; Timothy Antuan Wilson, 33, of Westchester Road, Easley; Jessie Robert Bridges, 24, of Wolf Creek School Road, Pickens; Argelius Conbrien Croft, 28, of Arnold Drive, Pickens; Eddie Coleman Powell, 33, of Avis Lane, Liberty; and Jeremiah Matthew Little, 17, of McRogers Drive, Easley, were each charged with two counts of third-degree assault and battery by mob and are each being held on additional $6,000 surety bonds — $3,000 for each count. [cointent_lockedcontent]

Two male victims were taken to the emergency room for treatment of blunt-trauma injuries and subsequently released back to the detention center after the April 22 incident in the POD, which is an open area by design and typically used for the general population.

Although the POD has a rated capacity of 32, the chief deputy said on the day of the event about 65 inmates were assigned to that area of the facility due to issues associated with overcrowding.

“The rated capacity for the entire facility is 93, and on the date of the assault, the total population was 226 inmates,” Hashe said, adding that the inmates charged are all being detained within various areas of the facility on those and other unrelated offenses.

According to arrest warrants, the victims were kicked, stomped and beaten with a sock containing batteries, causing lacerations to the head and face.

Pickens County sheriff Rick Clark has long expressed a desire for a new jail, saying the present facility is too overcrowded. In 2014, representatives of the National Institute of Corrections, county council and the sheriff’s office met to brainstorm ways to address the issue of a facility designed for a capacity of 91 but that, in reality, holds more than 200 prisoners.

“We routinely see that confrontations among inmates tend to rise during periods where the jail population grows well over 200,” Clark said Thursday. “Our officers work diligently to make the environment as safe as possible, but the number of people in such a small area of square footage is a huge challenge.

“I am encouraged by council’s movement to investigate potential solutions to this issue, and it is my hope that appropriate measures will continue to be taken to minimize the risks and hazards exposed to our detention personnel and to the inmates that are detained within the facility.”

[/cointent_lockedcontent]

By Robbie Tinsley
Courtesy The Journal

rtinsley@upstatetoday.com

CHICAGO — He had to wait a little longer to hear his name called than most projected, but Shaq Lawson still made Daniel High School history on Thursday night.

Taken with the 19th overall pick of the NFL draft by the Buffalo Bills, Lawson became the third former Lion to be taken in the first or second round in the last five years, and he went sooner than his elder fellow alumni Jarvis Jenkins (41st, Washington, 2011) and DeAndre Hopkins (27th, Houston, 2013).

As Lawson told ESPN’s Suzy Kolber right after his selection, Thursday marked five years to the day that his father was killed in a car accident — a moment which Lawson has often claimed was a turning point in his life.

“I’ve overcome a lot,” he said on ESPN. “He impacted me a lot — he made me the man I am today. I had to step up a lot when he passed away, becoming a father figure for my younger brothers and sisters and always being there for them.”

Former Daniel head coach Randy Robinson, who coached Lawson, Hopkins and Jenkins — as well as Cincinnati Bengals defensive tackle DeShawn Williams — during their time in high school, said Lawson’s father’s death was “a marker in his life that changed him forever.”

“He wants to honor his dad with his efforts and his behavior, and he’s certainly done that,” Robinson told The Journal.

Robinson remembers having to talk the “bubbly” Lawson out of devoting his time to basketball and getting him to take his training seriously during high school.

“We had to help him realize his dream could come true in college football and maybe the NFL, and it sure did work out well for him,” he said.

New Daniel head coach Jeff Fruster coached the Lions’ defense during Lawson’s time in high school. He remembers seeing the lanky, rangy freshman going through linebacker drills and imagining Lawson’s potential.

“As he grew into his body, he just naturally morphed into a defensive end and just became an absolute terror for the three years we had him on the varsity team,” he said.

“Words can’t express how proud I am of that young man with the struggles he’s faced and overcome to get where he is today.”

Both Robinson and Fruster expressed their incredulity that the small communities of Central, Clemson and Six Mile, which send their kids to Daniel High School, could produce four NFL players in a five-year span.

Fruster said it’s also a testament to the staff at the high school for preparing kids for success.

“I think it’s a testament not only to our community, but to our school as well,” Fruster said. “It’s no secret that even with athleticism, you need to have that leadership to mold that athleticism into the athlete you need him to be. I think the towns of Clemson, Central and Six Mile have given us some great athletes, but the staff at Daniel High School has done a great job of getting them ready for the next level.”

Rocky Nimmons/Courier

Blue Ridge Electric president and CEO Charles Dalton, right, talks with Frank Looper during the co-op’s annual members meeting last week in Pickens.

COUNTY — Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative is taking steps to add capacity to its system to welcome new and future growth.

Blue Ridge president and CEO Charles Dalton delivered remarks at a recent media luncheon in Clemson.

“Last year, we welcomed 389 net new members onto Blue Ridge lines,” he said. “That was our best showing since 2008, although it still fell well short of the kind of annual growth we had been experiencing before the onset of the Great Recession.”

Cooperative officials have been encouraged by a number of projects either already underway or recently announced within Blue Ridge’s service area, Dalton said.

In Pickens County, Reliable Sprinkler announced official plans last week for an expansion that will include erecting a new structure at the Pickens County Commerce Park in Liberty. Oconee County has welcomed the start of a huge commercial development and mega-church complex directly across Lake Hartwell from Clemson. An industrial combination, Baxter Enterprises and Hi-Tech Mold and Engineering, will soon break ground at the Oconee Industry and Technology Park. Anderson County currently has two industrial buildings under construction.

Those coming commercial and industrial prospects might be just the beginning, Dalton said.

“Signals we’ve received from local economic development agencies indicate that there are good numbers of other industrial prospects who are also looking very seriously at this northwestern corner of South Carolina,” Dalton said. “Whatever might be headed our way, I can assure you that Blue Ridge plans to be ready for it.”

The cooperative plans to build new substations “when and where they’re needed,” Dalton said.

Blue Ridge Electric energized its new Golden Corner substation in southwestern Oconee County several months ago and will soon bring on line a substation in Landrum.

Plans are underway to enlarge its Piercetown substation in Anderson County, Dalton said.

“All these additions to our physical plant point to a higher level of service for members on the Blue Ridge system,” he said.

The cooperative’s line-construction crews are “quite busy right now,” Dalton said.

“We’re hopeful that indicates the volume of work will continue to increase,” he said.

Much of that construction work involves making further improvements to the cooperative’s 7,000-mile network of power lines, Dalton said.

“Lengthy spans of existing power lines are being upgraded in order to build more capacity into our distribution system in the name of service reliability,” he said.

In many cases, this involves moving poles and wires out of wooded areas and into new locations along edge-of-road rights of way.

“Positioning these lines away from away from forested land can certainly help to make service for members more dependable,” Dalton said.