OPINION: Dillon County moving in right direction

Dillon County’s future looks brighter on two fronts this morning based on significant developments to everyone in the county of 30,000.
Citizens were awakened politically by the ouster of county administrator Charles Curry after concluding he was railroaded. Curry’s dismissal opened eyes to politics as usual and the difficulty in pushing change.
The firing will remain a sore point for some time, but a positive development was formation of a political action committee by citizens to foster change in local politics. The creation of the group should raise awareness and remind taxpayers to hold their county officials accountable.
Meanwhile, school administrators have been discussing plans to rebuild J.V. Martin Junior High School using interest-free loans. This is extremely good news. The school has become a statewide symbol of crumbling infrastructure after a student, Ty’Sheoma Bethea, sat with first lady Michelle Obama at President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address as a result of Ty’Sheoma’s letter to Obama about her school.
First, the curious case of Curry. The former Dillon County attorney was fired by Dillon County Council after only three months on the job. The final public hearing on the matter was Monday night, with Curry turning over the keys to his office.
For the first time, Curry spoke publicly about his dismissal. He chastised members of the council who voted to fire him in the 4-3 decision and pointed to conflicts in each case.
Significantly, Curry said, Bobby Moody was upset with him for a decision to stop funding on the Kemper Fire Department building until council approved a budget.
About $225,000 was spent on the Kemper project when he told Moody work had to stop. Curry said Moody’s “good ‘ole boy method” of management allowed an outside firm to do $42,000 worth of worth without bidding, so no one knows if the money was well spent.
Councilman Andrew “Deboy” Graves was miffed, Curry said, because Curry suspended a firefighter in Graves’ district without informing him.
Eleven of the 13 firefighters at Dillon County Fire Station 5 on S.C. 57 wrote a letter to Curry saying that they would all quit if something wasn’t done about an engineer working at the station. Curry said he suspended the employee with pay until an investigation could be conducted.
Curry said Councilman Macio Williamson didn’t like Curry’s refusal to pay firefighters who didn’t show up to fight fires.
Williamson is a volunteer firefighter and “is one of the worst offenders” of the county policy of paying only firefighters who show up at the scene, Curry said. Williamson also didn’t like Curry’s decision to revoke his county vehicle.
County council members accused Curry of having poor management skills and of interfering with an Equal Opportunity Employment case related to his hiring.
This newspaper editorialized against Curry’s bull-rush approach to management and trying to do things too fast. But we supported his efforts at reforming the county over time.
Meanwhile, the construction of a new J.V. Martin Junior High will do much to rebuild Dillon’s reputation academically.
A two-day conference in Columbia showcased how the new school can be a model, combining technology and architecture to meet students’ educational and social needs.
Bethea and Dillon 2 Superintendent Ray Rogers were on a panel Tuesday to discuss how a new J.V. Martin could be that case study.
Dillon’s push to eliminate old-school politics and replace a crumbling school have been painful to watch. Yet they’re important in making progress and bringing about change.
Residents should remain mindful the county’s destiny is in their hands. If they don’t like decisions made on their behalf, find new representation. Join hands and raise questions.
Dillon County is moving in the right direction, thanks to people who care like Curry and Bethea. Now others have to push ahead.

— Unsigned editorials represent the views of this newspaper. Editorial Board members are Mark Laskowski (regional publisher), James Bennett (regional editor), Sam Bundy (sports editor), Kimberly Ginfrida (news editor), David Johnson (regional circulation director), Charles Tomlinson (Lake City News & Post editor) and Jackie Torok (metro editor).