Electrician Contractor in Cayce, SC

With his staff seeing an average of 1 to 2 overdoses per week, Cayce's fire chief is hoping a new approach to the problem will pay off.

CAYCE, S.C. — A position passed Cayce's City Council aimed at community outreach and youth education for an ongoing opioid crisis

Cayce Fire Department Chief Steven Bullard says his vision for a new position is to "get rid of the opioid crisis that we have here in South Carolina."

In Wednesday's city council meeting, his agency received approval for a new position he calls the community Risk Reduction Manager.

"So this is going to be a position that's going to provide public outreach and education in the community on the effects of opioids and other drugs."

He says this new position is being funded from the South Carolina Opioid Recovery Fund with money from the South Carolina Opioid Litigation Settlement that provides millions of dollars from opioid production companies.

"They sent out a notification last year that this money was going to be available to every city, county in the state, we had a certain time to apply and we took the steps to apply."

He adds the fund will pay for the first 5 years of the program and says the plan is to have the city pay for the program afterwards.

Opioid overdoses are something his staff see on a regular basis. He says throughout the year the city experiences on average between one and two overdoses per week. He spoke about the daily responsibilities for the role.

"They'll be out in schools, out in the community doing all kinds of outreach. They'll also be working with state and other local partners, such as the department of mental health, and other resources."

The decision is receiving support from the community, too. Max Carroll lives in Cayce.

"It's one of those things like, an ounce of prevention is worth of cure. So if we can stop someone from reaching the point where they're using opioids or other substances, than I think that's worth it's weight in gold."

Chief Bullard shared his vision for what the opioid crisis will look like in 5-years and tells News19 the plan is begin the search after the city's budget is approved, so likely July 1st will be the official start of the search

"That we don't have any overdoses or have any more or problems with the opioids, that's my goal whether that happens is still yet to be seen."

The school had its accreditation lowered following discrepancies found during an audit that showed violations of district and state education policies.

CAYCE, S.C. — A Lexington County school has had its accreditation returned to the "highest level" after being placed under watch by the state department of education less than a year earlier, school officials say.

Lexington School District Two announced late Friday that Brookland-Cayce High School had been returned to the top accreditation level. The district also added that South Carolina Superintendent of Education Ellen Weaver noted that it had made "significant progress in resolving" issues that arose during an audit on June 22.

The audit was triggered after a request for a diploma from the high school guidance office was sent to the state education department. Confusion over the student's graduation date led to a review of that student's transcript, which found that the student had failed four of the classes required for graduation in the 2020-2021 school year.

The audit also found that the school was in violation of Lexington School District Two's credit recovery policy, the state's uniform grading policy, and two other regulations in granting the student a South Carolina high school diploma.

The state department of education then reviewed a random sampling of all of Lexington District Two's senior transcripts for the 2020-21 school year and a preliminary look at the 2022 graduating class.

The state board of education also cautioned the school district not to order diplomas until the audit was complete.

It ultimately found 28 violations at Brookland-Cayce including:

The school was later dropped to the status of "accredited advised" but, months later in October, the state department of education said the school was on the right track toward fixing its issues.

Lexington School District 2 said that, in a letter dated Feb. 3, Superintendent Weaver stated that the department "appreciates the District's efforts and cooperation" in addressing the violations.

In the district's announcement on Friday, school superintendent Brenda Hafner said, in part, that:

“This is an affirmation of the work this administration has been focusing on across the District – from our middle and high school counselors to our school-level educators and administrators – to keep the focus on a quality education for all of our students.

Our teachers at Brookland Cayce High School, and at all of our schools, have worked hard to ensure that our students have always and will continue to receive a quality education that prepares them to be college and career-ready, workforce-ready, or military-bound, knowing that our ultimate goal is that they return to be productive citizens in a community that is rich in tradition and history.

CAYCE — The city is moving forward with plans to identify and preserve Black cemeteries in an effort to tell a more complete narrative of it’s history.

City officials know of two historic Black cemeteries — one near Frink Road and another close to Steel Hands brewing. Marked graves are from the 19th and 20th centuries, but some unmarked ones could date to the 18th century.

The city hopes to locate more that might be hidden among overgrown shrubs and modern infrastructure, City Manager Tracy Hegler said.

Additionally, Cayce wants to learn more about how to recognize those buried in the cemeteries and preserve the sites.

“There’s places like these unmarked graves or lost cemeteries where it’s part of the history of Cayce,” said Cayce Museum Curator Andy Thomas. “It would be great if we could recover the stories of some of these people and what that means to our history.”

Cayce, located in Lexington County just southwest of Columbia, received a grant from the National Park Service earlier this year to fund the project. It contracted with Cardno, an infrastructure, environmental and social development company, to complete the work earlier this month.

Cardno will soon begin preliminary research on the project, Hegler said.

The efforts come a year after Cayce was plagued by racial controversy and an investigation found that the Cayce museum could do a better job telling the city’s Black history.

“The museum has created an African American Committee to make sure that we’re inclusive in everything we do there, and that we’re respecting that history and incorporating it as much as we can,” Hegler said.

The idea for the cemetery project came from a combination of a Cayce resident who is passionate about cemetery restoration, the push from the museum to better represent Cayce’s Black history and the grant opportunity, Hegler said.

“It kind of all just sort of led to, ‘Well, let’s look at identifying African American cemeteries and grave sites around the city, many of which we may not know are there,’ ” Hegler said.

A push has been made in recent years across South Carolina to clear and protect Black cemeteries, which had been previously pushed aside as a part of history.

Last month, Cayce officials reviewed applications from companies with expertise in the field, and selected Cardno to spend the next six to nine months surveying Cayce.

Cardno plans to use a combination of GIS mapping, studying archives and speaking with Cayce residents to locate and identify the grave sites, Thomas said. Cardno officials declined comment on the company’s process.

One challenge that Hegler said she expects to run into is tracking down property rights after cemeteries are located.

“If it’s not clear who has title to the property, nobody really has the right to go on it and do anything to clear it, clean it, maintain it and keep it in good order, because we don’t know who’s it is,” Hegler said. “So, to the degree that we can establish ordinances and policies to help protect it, versus us physically doing that is probably what’s going to come out of that.”

After Cardno’s contract with the city is up, the firm will make recommendations to the town on how to raise awareness and promote preservation of the cemeteries.

The Cayce Museum does not yet know how it will detail findings of Cardno’s efforts, Thomas said.

In the meantime Cayce is building the African American Legends of Cayce exhibit to make its museum more inclusive. The exhibit will highlight Black Cayce community members, some of whom are still living, like influential teachers, police officers and business owners, Thomas said.

CAYCE, S.C. — Cayce city leaders heard a proposal to change the city's district lines and approved the second reading of the city's budget on Wednesday.

Despite a downpour outside, a small crowd filled the City of Cayce municipal building Wednesday. On the docket, a change to the city's district lines. The city manager-presentation was given by Adam DeMars, with the South Carolina Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office. He says that based on 2020 census data, the city saw a 10% increase in population - according to his presentation, there were hundreds more voters in district one than the other districts.

In an attempt to level the playing field, his office proposed a map, pictured below, that changes the area for all four districts. While district one had the most population, it's proposed to gain some space in district two. District two is planned to gain some area from three and four, while also giving some area to district three. A copy of the map and more details can be found on page 104 of this agenda.

Credit: WLTX

Cayce city manger Tracy Hegler says its a good sign, especially an expanding population.

"So you want to make sure you have equal representation in every district, they call it the 'one vote, one person'. Often what happens in ten years is people move around, one district may grow, another may lose population."

Residents we spoke to are skeptical but hopeful for the changes, including Byron Gray, who lives in district two currently, but is proposed to switch to district three.

"If we get a little bit better representation, and not feel like we're forgotten over here in this area, if that'll effect it, I'm all for it."

Related Articles

Also on the agenda for Wednesday's meeting was the second reading of the city's budget for next year. City manager Hegler says it passed second reading without any increases to taxes, or millage rates. She adds in the original budget, there was a proposed 2 dollar per month increase to a sanitation tax, but after a request from council, that has been avoided.

"We go after grants to supplement that so we have a good track record of finding non tax and non fee-related to provide the services that we we provide"

Cayce's next meeting is July 10th.

CAYCE, S.C. — The potential sale of Dominion Energy's main campus could mean big change for the Cayce community.

Stavros Seremetis has owned Tony's since 2010 and says his business is always impacted by changes that happen in the community.

"If we lose 10 customers from there, we're going to get 15 from there," Seremetis said.

A big unknown in the Cayce community at the moment, is the potential sale of a Dominion Energy building on Otarre Parkway.

"My regulars from Dominion, I see them at least once a week, but I know if they move they won't be able to come by as much, maybe once a month, but either way it will affect us," Seremetis explained.

The Dominion building was built on Otarre Parkway in 2009 and sits on 92 acres of land.

WLTX reached out to Dominion Energy on Monday to confirm the sale of this particular building and received this statement in reply:

"Dominion Energy is committed to maintaining a strong company presence in Cayce. We continue to assess ways to operate even more efficiently, and this includes the potential for consolidating occupancy of our facilities on the 12th Street corridor if it is in the best interest of our customers and employees. In doing so, Dominion Energy has entered an agreement with Stern & Stern Properties Inc. for the potential sale of our main campus on 12th street."

Phil Baughman who often rides his bike near this particular Dominion Energy building, along a portion of the Cayce Riverwalk, says he hopes the sale of the building will be a good thing.

"You've still got to pay your electric bill no matter what, no matter who it's from," Baughman said. "People will have jobs, I mean there are jobs around now, people begging for work, for workers, so I think we'll be okay either way."

Cayce Mayor, Elise Partin, also hopes the sale of the building will be positive. She sent WLTX this statement:

"While there are still many unknowns for us… we hope that Dominion will stay in the area even if they don't own the building. We look forward to welcoming new businesses and corporate partners in that space as well. Cayce has a great quality of life and we are thrilled about the possibility of more employees getting to enjoy our restaurants, local coffee shops, and businesses."

From what we know the sale is not a done deal as of yet, and there are still discussions to be had.

We reached out to Stern & Stern Properties about the sale of this particular building to get more details about what it will be used for, but we have not heard back just yet.