No roaming allowed: Ordinances
prohibit ‘unrestrained’ dogs

October 14, 2005

By MEGAN VARNER
Index-Journal senior staff writer

If you let Fido wander though the neighborhood unrestrained, you could end up losing him and facing fines or jail time.
Ordinances prohibiting dogs running at large or unrestrained are in the code books for the City of Greenwood and Greenwood County.
City and county officials say the ordinances are necessary to keep pet-related nuisances to a minimum and to protect residents throughout the county.
“It’s a safety issue. A lot of people walk along the streets (and in their neighborhoods) for exercise, and dogs might come up and growl at them,” said Greenwood Assistant Police Chief Mike Butler. “The safest way to keep this down is for people to be guided by what the ordinance says.”
The city ordinance states that “(no) owner or keeper of any dog shall permit such dog to run at large or unrestrained at any time. All dogs shall be kept under restraint at all times.”
Butler said the city has seen problems with stray dogs and dogs that do not have tags or any form of identification.
“We see a good bit in the daytime, but a lot more in the evenings,” he added.
Countywide, a “leash law” has been on the books since the 1990s, said Greenwood County attorney Chuck Watson.
The ordinance states that “dogs whose owners make no provisions for proper restraint (can) roam properties of neighbors, destroy personal property of others, litter property of others, endanger children and adults, pose hazards to motorists and constitute nuisances.”
Though leash law violations are not frequent in the county, Greenwood County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Mike Frederick said the county does respond to a number of stray dog complaints, as well as complaints about other animals.
“We pick up opossums, raccoons, cats, dogs,” he said, “but dogs are by far the most common.”
Watson said county council also has passed an ordinance regarding menacing dogs, though there has been only one violation of the law during its three-year existence.
Watson said menacing dog cases are reviewed by the magistrate. If the dog is found to be mean or vicious, it is forfeited to Greenwood County unless the owner enters into a written agreement that the dog is to remain on his or her property.
“If the dog ever leaves that property, it is forfeited, and the owner is prosecuted,” he said, adding that the penalty could include fines and jail time. “It was written that way so that the owner had a fair shot (to keep the dog).”
When authorities are contacted about unrestrained, roaming or stray dogs, animal control officers with the police department and sheriff’s office respond to collect the animals.
The animals then are taken to the Humane Society of Greenwood, said society executive director Karen Pettay.
Pettay said animals that have no identification — such as a collar or microchip — could face adoption by another person or euthanasia if the rightful owner doesn’t claim them. She said it is important for owners to call the shelter as soon as they notice their pet is missing, rather than waiting for weeks.
There are fees associated with reclaiming an animal from a shelter, including boarding fees, animal control fees, impound fees and rabies vaccine fees if the owner doesn’t have a record of the animal’s vaccination.
About a month ago, shelter staff began implanting identification microchips in reclaimed animals in accordance with a state law, Pettay said.
Microchips can be implanted by veterinarians. Pettay said the device, which includes information about the animal’s owner, can limit frustration when a pet is missing.

Shhhhhh! Noise ordinances aim to keep city, county peaceful

October 14, 2005

By MEGAN VARNER
Index-Journal senior staff writer

Sometimes you just need some peace and quiet — and city and county ordinances are designed to do just that for Greenwood residents.
But each day, law enforcement officials receive complaints about noise. They say the most common violations arise from loud or amplified car stereos, parties or nightclubs in an area.
According to city code, it is unlawful for a person to operate any radio or device that creates “unreasonably loud, excessive or disturbing noises” that is used “in such manner or with such volume as to annoy or disturb the quiet comfort and/or repose of any person and/or neighborhood in the vicinity.”
Greenwood Police Assistant Chief Mike Butler said the city receives “quite a few” noise ordinance violations on a regular basis.
Butler said nightclubs sometimes can cause a nuisance for residents in nearby communities.
“People will go in and out, or people will hold the (club’s) door open and neighbors will complain,” he said, adding that officers will respond to address the issue.
But vehicles have become a bigger noise problem inside the city limits, Butler said.
“Many times, we have violations of music being heard from outside of the vehicle. People with loud bass thumping in their cars will rattle the doors on people’s houses,” he said. “We have a great number of complaints around areas in town where kids gather and socialize.”
The problem led city council to pass a city noise ordinance aimed specifically at sound created by vehicles.
The ordinance prohibits music, sound or noise from a vehicle that can be “heard outside (of the vehicle)…and on any street, park, public place or private premises of another.”
Butler said the summer months, when people drive with their convertible tops open or windows rolled down, are when city officials receive the most complaints.
Though county noise ordinance violations are not an “overwhelming problem,” Greenwood County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Mike Frederick said deputies do respond to similar violations as city officials.
Frederick said nightclubs and parties are the biggest noise culprits in the county, but responding deputies are normally able to cease the problem by speaking with property owners.
“They are usually willing to comply,” Frederick said.
County codes prohibit noise that “annoys, disturbs, injures or endangers the comfort, repose, health, peace or safety of others.”
According to the code, excessive or unnecessary noise is that “which is plainly audible at a distance of 50 feet from its source.”
Horns, radios, televisions, instruments and even pets are listed in the code’s 15 violations, as well as excessive noises that interfere with schools, churches, libraries or courts while in session.
Violators can face a fine of up to $200 or imprisonment of up to 30 days, but Frederick said arrests for noise ordinance violations are rare.

Hanna beats GHS for region crown

October 14, 2005

By CHRIS TRAINOR
Index-Journal sports writer

Now the playoffs can begin.
The Greenwood High School girls’ tennis team fell to T.L. Hanna 5-1 Thursday at the Gatewood Racquet Club. The win sealed the Region I-AAAA crown and a No. 1 playoff seed for the Lady Yellow Jackets.
Despite the loss, Greenwood finished with sole possession of second place in the region and should be at home for the opening round of the Class AAAA playoffs.
Thursday’s match was one that Greenwood coach John Epplesheimer described as being much closer than the first match between the teams this season, a 6-0 T.L. Hanna victory.
“We played quite a bit better today,” Epplesheimer said. “We had our chances. If we could have had a game or two go our way here or there, we would have been right in this one.”
The highlight of the night for the Lady Eagles was the 6-3, 6-2 victory of Brigitte Briere over T.L. Hanna’s Gina Nicolopulos in No. 2 singles.
Nicolopulos had defeated Briere in a three-set thriller earlier in the year, but Briere made sure there was little drama in this meeting.
As Nicolopulos strolled around the court seeming distracted, even checking her cell phone for messages between games, Briere pounded forehand winners and angling cross-court bullets past the tall junior.
“I was really ready for this one,” said Briere, affectionately dubbed “Frenchie” by her teammates on account of her French heritage.
“I did my best to stay calm and concentrate, because I tend to get anxious.”
Briere indicated one advantage that helped her to her victory: Playing in the friendly confines of Gatewood Racquet Club.
“Playing at home made me feel at ease,” Briere said. “Having my friends and family around me was big.”
A spirited match was held in No. 2 doubles, though it didn’t start out that way.
Lady Jackets’ duo Courtland Haynes and Katie Rivers swamped Greenwood’s Jeannie Flick and Emily Moore 6-0 in the first set. However, Flick and Moore came roaring back to make a match of it in the second set, forcing a tiebreaker in which they fell 7-5.
“We played so much better in the second set,” Flick said. “Hanna has a good team, so for us to go to a tiebreaker in the second set was pretty good.”
Flick had the highlight shot of the night. In the midst of a back and forth rally, Haynes smashed a forehand into the service box of the ad court. Flick lunged at the seemingly unreachable ball, which bounced just above the grip of her racquet and bounded unmolested over the net for an improbable winner.
“Pure luck,” said Flick with a broad smile.
As the Lady Eagles head into the playoffs, which begin Oct. 27, Epplesheimer is optimistic about their chances for success.
“You always try to make it as far as you can,” Epplesheimer said. “In high school tennis, strange things can happen sometimes. You play hard and you never know what could happen.”

Lander’s Petrovic wins Erskine Invitational

October 14, 2005

By JIM JOYCE
Special projects editor

DUE WEST — The Erskine Cross Country Invitational usually draws between 15 and 20 teams. This year, however, there were fewer teams, but coach Jeff Schrage wasn’t totally disappointed.
“I’m happy with where we are,” he said before the women’s division starting the 3.1-mile trek through the wooded area on Bobby Clark’s farm near the town of Due West. “Sometimes, smaller means better. The competition is a little better, and you don’t get lost in the shuffle.”
“The track is mostly grass and in the middle of nowhere — how a cross country meet should be.”
The course didn’t bother Lander University’s Ivana Petrovic, who won the women’s race with a time of 19 minutes, 51 seconds.
“It’s not really fast,” she said. “There are some hills and it’s very hard to run on it. A lot of our races before this were flat. This course probably has more hills than any we’ve been on this year.”
The course took its toll on the runners, as only five women were able to break 21 minutes.
Petrovic set her own pace and finished ahead of that time.
“I ran the way I wanted to,” she said.
“I took off with a couple of girls so they could set a pace for me. Then, I tried to beat them, which I did at about the mile and a half mark.”
Schrage agreed about the difficulty of the course.
“I figured the time would be a little better, but it is a hard course and times will be slower,” he said.
“With the course being difficult, I expected our girls to be a little slower than they were at the PC meet, but they’re improving. They’re struggling a little, but they’re trying harder to get better.”
The team that was expected to be strong — Wingate College — didn’t fool anybody. Wingate won the men’s division with 31 points, and took the women’s division with 32 points.
North Greenville had 51 for second and Presbyterian had 81 points for third in the men’s race. The Lady Bearcats placed second in the women’s race with 43 points, followed by Southern Wesleyan with 54.
Individually, Petrovic was followed by Wingate’s Natalie Creech and Ashley Condrey, with times of 20:07 and 20:42, respectively.
Among the men, Brandon DiBianca, of Wingate, won the 8K race in 27:19, followed by teammate Jayce Watson in 27:30, and Matthew Elliott, of PC, in 28:07.
Emerald High School graduate David Payne, running for Southern Wesleyan, finished fifth in 28:29. Alisia Lopez led the Erskine women, placing 16th in 21:50. She was followed by Catherine Meggs, 31st in 23.22, Lauren Cross, 32nd in 23:27, Kristen Koch, 47th in 24:57 and Elizabeth Hyman, 48th in 24:59.
For the men, John Sell led the Fleet, finishing 16th in 29:36. Sell was followed by Hunter Gaffney, 23rd in 30:34, Takaaki Shioya, 30th in 31:37, Brad Shillinglaw, 44th in 33:55 and Jonathan Cook, 47th in 34:34.
“Hunter ran extremely well for us,” Schrage said.
For Lander, which did not have a men’s team, Petrovic was followed by Anna Lohman seventh in 21:05, Olga Nunez-Lopez, eighth in 21:10, Margaret Mobley, 13th in 21:23 and Kate Deyerle, 18th in 22:01.

Opinion

World War II president put safety in perspective

October 14, 2005

Some around the Greenwood area remember President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and they could give us all a lesson in unity.
Roosevelt was, of course, a Democrat, but that didn’t matter when World War II came along. Democrat, Republican or Independent, he was America’s president. He didn’t have to beg the people for support in his prosecution of the war against world fascism.
Then came that United Nation’s “police action” in Korea, where this country carried the brunt of the effort. In many minds we didn’t win that war ….. the first one ever. In retrospect, though, we did achieve a great victory. We stopped the spread of Communism by keeping the North Koreans and their Red Chinese supporters from overrunning the South Koreans.
While jousting with the Soviet Union nothing much changed for a decade or so. Then, though, there was Vietnam. It appeared that we lost that one, too. Nevertheless, Communism was once again stopped in its tracks.

EVENTUALLY, AS EVERY SOUTH Carolinian knows, the Berlin wall came down. That symbol of Communist oppression separated Communist East Berlin from the west, keeping people in and locking freedom out.
Next came the fall of the Soviet Union, thanks primarily to the efforts of President Ronald Reagan.
During all this, of course, there were flareups around the world. None developed into a world-threatening concern, though, until terrorism became an enemy of freedom and peace everywhere. The people of this nation all of a sudden became vulnerable to a mindset that has one goal: kill Americans. Of course, disrupting the lives of all other Americans and exploiting our very freedom in order to do us harm also is part of the picture.
Despite knowing what terrorists have in mind, there are still those who would do nothing and let terrorists have their way, no matter the consequences.

WE COULD ALL LEARN FROM two things President Roosevelt said. First: “We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression – everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way – everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want … everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear …anywhere in the world.”
Then, later, as if to add emphasis, he said, “We, too, born to freedom, and believing in freedom, are willing to fight to maintain freedom. We, and all others who believe as deeply as we do, would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.”
Some who remember now wonder what changed us.

Editorial expression in this feature represents our own views.
Opinions are limited to this page.

Obituaries

Jim Burnett

GREENWOOD, SC — James “Jim” William Burnett, 31 of 616 Hwy 246 South, husband of Jackie Perry Burnett, died Wednesday, October 12, 2005.
Born in Greenwood, he was the son of James Taylor and Deborah Lambert Burnett. He attended Ninety Six High School and was a self employed plumber. He was a member of House of Faith Ministries.
He was predeceased in death by grandparents Dorothy Shaw Burnett, Ray T. Burnett, William H. “Bill” Lambert, and great grandfather Nathaniel “Nat” Maness.
He is survived by his wife of the home, his parents of Greenwood, two daughters Lauren Perry and Madison Danielle of Greenwood: a grandmother Christine Maness Lambert of Union, great grandmother Glennie Justice Maness of Union: a sister Melissa Burnett Langley of Greenwood, and two nephews Cody Langley and Jamie Bell of Greenwood.
Graveside services will be 4 pm Saturday at Greenwood Memorial Gardens, with the Reverend Shawn Williams officiating.
Honorary escorts will be Dale Brown, Wayne Fuller, Jimmy Mays, Chad Teague, and Glenn McDowell.
The family will receive friends 7-9 pm Friday at Harley Funeral Home.
The family is at the home.
Online condolences may be sent to the family by visiting www.harleyfuneralhome.com
PAID OBITUARY

Hannah Brown Cheatham

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Services for Hannah Pearl Brown Cheatham are 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Mount Moriah Baptist Church, Plum Branch, S.C., conducted by the Rev. M.L. Gordon, pastor. The body will be placed in the church at 1:30. Burial is in the church cemetery.
Pallbearers are Ernest Cartledge, Rufus Cartledge, Ervin Talbert, Lanford Talbert, Leroy Wells and Anthony Gaskin.
Flower bearers are nieces.
The family is at the home of a sister Effie Talbert, 67 Bartley Road, Edgefield, S.C.
Walker Funeral Home, McCormick, S.C., is in charge.

Maggie Emery

PHILADELPHIA — Maggie Emery died Sunday, Oct. 9, 2005.
Survivors include three stepdaughters, Clara B. Hart, Betty J. Higgins and Dorothy M. Norman, all of Greenwood, S.C.
Services are Monday in Philadelphia.
Ray’s Funeral Home, 1525-29 W. Dauphin St., is in charge.
Announcement courtesy of Parks Funeral Home, Greenwood.

Johnny Hewett

NINETY SIX — Johnny Hewett, 59, of 204 Eddy Road, husband of Sue Fuller Hewett, died Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2005 at his home.
Born in South Port, N.C., he was a son of the late Johnny G. and Mary Lee Cox Hewett. He was employed by Greenwood Packing Plant and was a Navy Vietnam War veteran.
Survivors include his wife of the home; two sons, Kevin and Jeffery Hewett, both of Ninety Six; two daughters, Deana Brewer of Greenwood and Kim Carroll of Ninety Six; two sisters, Barbara Ledbetter of Marietta, Ga., and Jackie Babson of Easley; a brother, Faron Hewett of Clendenin, W.Va.; 12 grandchildren.
Services are 11 a.m. Saturday at Harley Funeral Home, conducted by the Rev. Sam Smith. Burial is in Oakbrook Memorial Park, Greenwood.
Pallbearers are Jim Fuller Jr., David Fuller, Tony Covington, Jerry Babson, J.T. Leopard and Charlie Murphy.
Visitation is 7-9 tonight at the funeral home.
The family is at the home.
Harley Funeral Home is in charge.
Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.harleyfuneralhome.com

Ruby Y. Leopard

GREENWOOD, SC — Ruby Yeargin Leopard, 88, of 225 Georgia Ave., widow of Tommie Pitts Leopard, entered into eternal rest Thursday, October 13, 2005 at Hospice House.
Born in Abbeville; a daughter of the late John Ellis and Tabitha Clem Yeargin. She was formerly employed with Greenwood and Abney Mills. She attended Whitehall Church of God. She was predeceased by a son John Ellis Leopard and two grandsons, Furman Stacy Shumate and Capt. Tony Franklin Roberts. She lived with her daughter, Rosa Stargel for the past six years.
Surviving are two sons Tommie Lee Leopard Sr. of Bradley and Jackie Daniel Leopard of Ridgeville; four daughters, Darlene Roberts and Rosa Stargel both of Greenwood, Laverne Gable of Lexington, and Pat Joseph of Laurens; one half brother Claude Conyers of Greenwood; nineteen grandchildren, thirty-five great grandchildren, fourteen great great grandchildren; fifteen step grandchildren; twelve step great grandchildren. She also reared one adopted grand-daughter raised in her home, Dollinda Leopard.
Services will be held 3:30 p.m. Friday at Harley Funeral Home Chapel with the Rev. Mike Hammond and Rev. Gene Thrasher officiating. Burial will follow in Mayson Cemetery, Saluda, SC.
Pallbearers will be Furman Shumate, T.L. Leopard Jr., Tim Leopard, Benny Leopard, John Ellis Leopard Jr., Russell Covan, Phillip Attaway, John Turner Leopard, Danny Crawford, and Bobby Day.
Honorary escorts will be Talmadge Attaway, John Attaway, Randy Shumate, Joey Crawford, Rick Hill, and the Men of Whitehall Church of God.
The body is at Harley Funeral Home where the family will receive friends Friday from 1:30 until 3:30 p.m.
Memorials may be made to Hospice of Greenwood, 408 W. Alexander Ave., Greenwood, SC, 29646. The family is at the home of her daughter Rosa Stargel, 225 Georgia Ave.
Online condolences may be sent to the family by visiting www.harleyfuneralhome.com
PAID OBITUARY