Too fast for conditions

Residents of Greenwood subdivision say
speeding drivers a risk to children, others

May 8, 2006

By MEGAN VARNER
Index-Journal senior staff writer

Just one drive through Creekside could leave you with the feeling that the north Greenwood subdivision is a nearly perfect example of a modern American neighborhood.
Family pets frolic through the meticulously groomed lawns, joggers and bikers work their way along the shaded, winding roads, fathers and sons play ball in the front yards and children sit at homemade stands on the street selling goodies for charity to the motorists and pedestrians passing by.
But residents of the neighborhood say each of these examples is a reason why they are concerned about speeding on the roads in Creekside.
“People absolutely fly through here,” said Debbie Rohrbach, a Plantation Drive resident and mother of three young children. “It’s awful and there is really no excuse for it.”
Rohrbach said Plantation Drive, the main entrance and exit road in Creekside, sees the most traffic and most speeders. The road, with winding curves and hills that can obstruct a motorist’s view can be hazardous when combined with the heavy pedestrian and bike traffic the neighborhood sees.
“There are so many blind corners. If somebody were to trip and fall, or if someone fell off their bike, someone flying around the corner might not have a chance to stop,” she said, adding that she has even had close calls with people speeding around curves. “We have a lot of children (in Creekside) and it is just a matter of time before they can’t ride their bikes freely.”
She said her own children, Elise, 10, Abbie, 8, and Trace, 5, often play in the yard, and she worries about their safety.
“I do let them go out there, and I do try to tell them to be as careful as possible,” she said. “You want to let your children (play outside). It’s your subdivision, and you want them to be able to ride their bikes and have fun. It’s really sad that you have to worry about that.”
The speed limit in the neighborhood is posted at 25 mph, a speed which Plantation Drive resident Rob Cathey calls “generous.”Cathey said he and wife Sara enjoy being outside, and Cathey said he jogs along his street “just about every day,” sometimes bringing 2-year-old daughter Claire along in a special stroller. He said he has seen drivers accelerate to speeds up to 40 or 50 mph near his home and he doesn’t feel comfortable being near the vehicles.
He said a “Slow: Kids at Play” sign was destroyed this month when a driver ran off the road and collided with the sign.
“You’d like to think you could get over on the edge of the grass and follow the neighborhoods’ roads, but even when you’re way over in the grass you’re not safe,” he said. “The bottom line is, if you’re going 40 or 50 miles per hour, there is no way you are going to get stopped. It’s not going to happen.” But the roads in Creekside aren’t the only ones in Greenwood that are plagued by drivers with lead feet, and local law enforcement officials said speeding affects residential areas throughout the city and county.
Lt. Tara Scott, with the Greenwood County Sheriff’s Office, said the sheriff’s office gets “inundated with requests” for a special electronic monitoring radar that displays the posted speed limit and a passing motorist’s speed. The devices can be placed anywhere speed is a problem, but the demand by neighborhoods is so high that there is a waiting list, Scott added.
She said the device also has been requested by the Belle Meade neighborhood and was in the Hunter’s Creek area about a week ago.
“The speeding concern in Belle Meade was not all day long, but primarily in the mornings and when school let out,” she said. “Folks use that subdivision to beat the school traffic.”
When residents call to complain about speeding, Scott said the sheriff’s office will post radar units in problem areas and deputies perform extra monitoring in areas where speeding might be an issue.
The Greenwood Police Department gets calls from residential neighborhoods about speeding, said Lt. Sam Watts, adding that the department addresses the problem using speed monitoring radar trailers, which, like the sheriff’s office radars, display the posted speed limit and a passing motorist’s speed.
“The purpose of the smart trailers is to gain voluntary compliance” by drivers, Watts said, adding that radars might make drivers pay attention to how fast they are traveling. Officers also can use moving and stationary radars to clock drivers who continue to break the law.
And it isn’t just teenage drivers who have a need for speed.
“Typically, we find that violators come from all age groups, races and genders,” Watts said. “A large number of the tickets we issue are for residents of the neighborhood.”
Watts said complacency, comfort or experience with neighborhood roads might make residents more prone to speeding near their home, but drivers can never be certain about what is just around the corner. Because children are out of school and more people are doing activities outside, the spring and summer are seasons when speeding in residential areas is particularly dangerous, said Lance Cpl. Steve Sluder, with the S.C. Highway Patrol.
But speeding can cause headaches for drivers even when pedestrians aren’t involved, he added.
“Speeding in the Greenwood and Abbeville area is the number one contributing factor to collisions, followed by (failing to yield) right of way, driving under the influence and improper lane changing.”
The issue of speeding is one that the Creekside Homeowners Association has been addressing at its annual meetings and in monthly newsletters to residents, said former association president Paul Riddle.
“We have asked people to please slow down to the speed limit that is posted in the neighborhood,” Riddle said, adding that the association at one time looked at using speed bumps to keep drivers in compliance. But the “majority of neighbors didn’t want speed bumps” placed on their streets, and the idea was eventually tossed aside, Riddle said.
For state maintained roads in residential areas, District Traffic Engineer Kevin McLaughlin, with the S.C. Department of Transportation, said that “traffic calming devices” such as speed humps can be useful in residential areas. Speed humps, which have an incline followed by a plateau and then decline, are a “less severe” form of speed bump, McLaughlin said.
In the case of county-maintained roads, Greenwood County Council has adopted a procedure for requesting speed humps in neighborhoods, said Greenwood City/County Engineer Larry Smith.
“It requires a petition signed by 75 percent of the residents (in the neighborhood) and the neighborhood has to agree to bear the costs,” Smith said, adding that the costs are currently about $400 per hump.
Smith said speed bumps and speed humps have pros and cons, adding that they sometimes can cause damage to cars, increase noise levels in neighborhoods and create problems for emergency vehicles.
McLaughlin said the transportation department gets about two or three complaints about speeding each day, and a lot of residents request that extra speed limit signs be put up in residential areas.
“Signing is not as much of an effort (as installing speed calming devices), but the effectiveness depends on the neighborhood,” McLaughlin said, adding that spreading the word about speeding by talking with neighbors “works a whole lot better than any sign.”
And Abbington Lane resident Jody Martin said the Creekside Homeowners Association has been “vigilant” in getting the word out about slowing down speeds.
Martin, who said he now wears an orange vest to go walking in his neighborhood, admitted that he has caught himself breaking the limit, and he thinks that having a radar trailer in the neighborhood for a few days might help.
“It’s an awareness issue,” he said. “People drive through here and say ‘It’s not me speeding, but someone else.’”
He said the late afternoons, as children get home from school and residents return from work, can bring the biggest speeding problems to the area.
“On Plantation Drive, it gets a little hairy because of all the curves,” he said. “People are in a hurry and everyone is in a rush. Unfortunately, what it is going to take (to get people to slow down) is someone getting hurt.”
Martin’s neighbor, 13-year-old Zach Gentry, said he has learned to be on the lookout for cars as they approach.
“You can hear people come in the neighborhood with their music turned up, and I see them flying down past the pond (in Creekside),” Gentry said. “If I hear a car coming, I’m going to get off the road as soon as possible.”
Though installing speed bumps, speed humps or even stop signs throughout the neighborhood might give children and pedestrians some added protection from passing motorists, most residents said they don’t want to have to go extremes to be safe.
They just want drivers to obey the law.
“If you drive 25 miles per hour, or something reasonably close to it,” Cathey said, “it solves the problem.”

Andy McNeil Andrews

McCORMICK — Andy McNeil Andrews, 18, of 2368 Highway 378 East, died Saturday, May 6, 2006 in McCormick.
Born in Greenwood, he was a son of William and Ann Moragne Andrews of McCormick. He was a student at Long Cane Academy and a member of Light House Baptist Church in Abbeville.
Survivors include his parents of the home; his maternal grandparents, Agnes and Allen Moragne of McCormick; four sisters, Joyce Collins of Greenwood, Naomi Andrews of McCormick, Dottie Price and Vickie Manning, both of North Augusta.
Services are 4 p.m. Tuesday at McCormick First Baptist Church, conducted by the Rev. Dennis Lynn. Burial is in Overbrook Cemetery.
Pallbearers are Milton Self Jr., Jonathan Self, Jabe Clegg, Justin Glegg, Link Wall and Matthew Duffie. Visitation is 7-9 tonight at Strom Funeral Home.
The family is at the home.
Strom Funeral Home is in charge.

Larry M. Cheshire

WARE SHOALS — Larry Marshall Cheshire, 59, of 99 Smith Street Ext., husband of Lorraine Brown Cheshire, died Saturday May 6, 2006 at his home.
He was born in Ware Shoals a son of the late Lee and Pearl Smith Cheshire. He was a member of Walnut Grove Baptist Church., had worked many years at Riegel Textile Corp. and retired from NSO Resins of Greenwood. Mr. Cheshire was a veteran of the US Navy and served in Viet Nam.
Surviving are: his wife of the home, a daughter, Amanda Cheshire Owens, Ware Shoals Two brothers, Ronnie Cheshire, Ware Shoals and Charles Cheshire, Donalds; one sister, Diane C. Lamb, Honea Path, and one grandson, Levi Marshall Owens.
He was pre-deceased by two brothers, David Cheshire and Donald Cheshire.
Funeral services will be conducted Tuesday, at 3 PM at Walnut Grove Baptist Church with Rev. Scott Dublin and Rev. Rodney Jeanes officiating. Burial will follow in Oakbrook Memorial Park.
Active pallbearers will be Jason Cheshire, Joshua Cheshire, Kevin Lamb, Lee Lamb, Ricky Cheshire, Jarrod Moody, Jarrett Sheppard and Jason Brown.
Men of Walnut Grove Baptist Church will serve as the honorary escort.
The family is at the home and will receive friends Monday, 7-9 PM at Parker-White Funeral Home.
Memorials may be made to Hospice of the Piedmont, 408 W. Alexander Ave., Greenwood, S.C. 29646.
PAID OBITUARY

Ann M. Christie

EDGEFIELD — Ann Martin Nixon Christie, 71, of Plum Branch Road, wife of Tommie L. Christie, died Friday, May 5, 2006 at Medical College of Georgia.
Services are 11 a.m. today at Berea Baptist Church. Burial is in the church cemetery.
Edgefield Mercantile Funeral Home is in charge.

Harold Hudson Sr.

Harold D. Hudson Sr., 81, of 105 Lawton St., widower of Sue Dellinger Hudson, died Sunday, May 7, 2006 at Richard M. Campbell Veterans Nursing Home in Anderson.
Born in Greenwood County, he was a son of the late James Willis and Annie Elizabeth Saunders Hudson. He was a World War II Army veteran and a member of the D.A.V. He was a retired truck driver and of the Baptist faith.
Survivors include two sons, Harold Hudson Jr. of N.C. and James Hudson of Ninety Six; a daughter, Elsie Nickles of Hodges; seven grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren.
Graveside services are 11 a.m. Tuesday at Greenwood Memorial Gardens, conducted by Dr. Robert Miller.
Visitation is after the service.
Memorials may be made to D.A.V., PO Box 2071, Greenwood SC 29646 or to the charity of ones choice.
The family is at the home of his daughter, Elsie Nickles, 5814 Highway 185, Hodges.
Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.harleyfuneralhome.com

Major Carey J. Johnson

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Major Carey J. Johnson, 39, of 1944 Briarwood Street died May 6, 2006 at Baptist South Hospital in Montgomery Alabama. Born in Abbeville, SC May 19, 1966 a son of Mrs. Edith Spells Johnson Collins and the late Dr. Leon Johnson and stepson of the late James Collins.
He was a grandson of the late, Edgar B. (Rachel) Williams, Bill (Annie) Johnson, Benjamin (Wilhelmina) Spells, Sr.
He was currently serving as Division Chief, Distance Learning Plans Division Squadron Officer College and Senior Flight Commander and Master Flight Commander, Maxwell Air Force Base Alabama. He served as Section Commander, 69th Fighter Squadron, Moody Air Force Base in 1995 and was Airborne Laser Optics Engineer, Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico before being stationed in Alabama.
He was a member of Mt Lebanon AME Church, Due West, SC. And associate member of St Peter AME Church Montgomery, Alabama. He received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Physics from Clemson University in 1990. He received further training at the Air Force Officer Training School, Squadron Officer School, Academic Instructor School and Air Command and Staff College.
He was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Avalanche Ski Club and Capital City Country Club.
He received the following commendations; Airman of The Year, Misawa Air Base, Japan (1993), Airborne Laser System Program Officer Company Grade Officer of the Year (2000), Squadron Officer School “Squadron Right of Line Award (2002), 30th Student Squadron’s Flight Commander of the Year Award (2004).
His Military Honors include, Meritorious (2006), Air Force Commendation Medal with two oak Leaf Clusters, Air Force Achievement Medal, Air Force Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal with the Bronze Star, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal and Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.
Survivors are his mother, Edith S. Johnson Collins of Due West, SC, a brother Mr. Nagee Mustafaa, two sisters Ms. Kirsten Johnson and Dr. Crystal Johnson, four uncles, Mr. Benjamin (Patricia) Spells, Jr., Mr. Curtis (Rhodia) Spells, Mr. Hollis Spells, Mr. Warner (Thomasina) Fisher and Mr. Gregory Fisher, eight aunts, Mrs. Bernice Priester, Mrs. Carolyn (Franklin) Bonner, Mrs. Sandra (William) Stinson, Mrs. Varene (John) McDaniel, Mrs. Rita (Lindsey) Bates, Attorney Susan Williams, Ms. Constance Prioleau and Ms. Megra Spells; a Godsister, Mrs. Myrtice (James) Collier, Godparent, Mrs. Mary H. Williams, devoted special friend, Dr. Donata Green.
Funeral services are incomplete and will be announced.
Percival-Tompkins Funeral Home is in charge.
ONLINE: pertompfh1@earthlink.net.
PAID OBITUARY

Howard Earl ‘Bubba’ Logan

NINETY SIX — Howard Earl “Bubba” Logan, 54, of 118 Panther Drive, husband of Wanda Logan, died Sunday, May 7, 2006 at his home.
Born in Greenwood County, he was a son of Willie J. Humphrey, the late Bertha Logan Williams and stepson of the late Brodie Williams. He was employed by Greenwood Plating and was self-employed by Logan Lawncare. He was a member of Mount Zion Baptist Church and was president of Terra Villa Community Club.
Survivors include his wife of the home; his father of Greenwood; a son, Howard Earl Logan Jr. of Waldorf, Md.; a daughter, Teressa Logan Calhoun of Ninety Six; a grandchild, Greterrious Calhoun, of the home; five brothers, Larry Williams, Donnie Logan, Barry Williams, Jimmy Williams and Art Dunbar, all of Greenwood; three sisters, Bertheina Logan-Modu of Temple Hill, Md., Cynthia Williams of Nashville, Tenn. and Doris Humphrey of Coronaca; nine grandchildren.
The family is at the home.
Services will be announced by Robinson and Son Mortuary Inc.
Online condolences may be sent to the family at robson@nctv.com

Ola M. Stevens

Ola M. Stevens, widow of Roscoe Stevens, died Sunday, May 7, 2006 at Greenwood National Healthcare.
The family is at the home of a son, Alvin Roundtree, 110 Carver St. and a granddaughter, Debra Harris, 110 Balsam Lane.
Services will be announced by Parks Funeral Home.

Raymond Eugene ‘Tuck’ Tucker, Jr.

Raymond Eugene “Tuck” Tucker, Jr., 57, of 123 Egret Lane, husband of Nancy Williams Tucker, died Saturday, May 6, 2006 in Tryon, NC.
Born in Fairmont, WV, he was a son of Minnie Brown Tucker of Laurens and the late Raymond Eugene Tucker, Sr., was an Insurance Agent and a member of the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection. He started the Laurens Hall of Fame Board and was inducted into it in 2005, a member of the Booster Club of Laurens and the Republican Party.
Surviving in addition to his wife and mother are two daughters, Elizabeth Annette Tucker of Washington, DC and Carrie Walden of Greenwood; one son, Drew Walden of Hope Hull, AL; one brother, Lee Tucker of Laurens.
Funeral services will be 2:00 PM Tuesday, May 9, 2006 at The Episcopal Church of the Resurrection conducted by Rev. Peter Hawes and Rev. M. Dow Sanderson with burial in Westview Memorial Park, Laurens. The family is at the residence and will receive friends from 1:00 to 2:00 PM Tuesday in the Parrish Hall of the Church prior to the service.
Memorials may be made to The Episcopal Church of The Resurrection, 700 Main Street, Greenwood, SC 29646 or to The Laurens Hall of Fame, c/o Judy Word, Laurens District 55 High School, 5058 Hwy 76 W., Laurens, SC 29360.
Kennedy Mortuary, Laurens.
PAID OBITUARY

Joe Walker

ELBERTON, Ga. — Joe Walker, 53, husband of Linda Robinson Walker died Friday, May 5, 2006 at the Department of Veterans Administration Medical Center, Augusta, Ga.
Born in McCormick, S.C., he was a son of the late Jasper Walker and Martha Norman Walker. He was a former member of Bethany Baptist Church in McCormick and a 1973 graduate of McCormick High School. He served in the U.S. Army from 1974-1994 and was retired from the Kennestone Hospital.
Survivors include his wife of the home; two sons, Jason Walker of Kennesaw, Ga. and Patrick Walker of Smyrna, Ga.; two brothers, Bernard Walker and Harry Walker, both of McCormick; four sisters, Cathy Turman of Chula Vista, Calif., Madie Freeman of Jamaica, N.Y., Anna Leverette of Lithonia, Ga. and Sarah Walker of Atlanta; two grandsons.
The family is at the home of a brother, Harry Walker, Oak Hill Drive, McCormick.
Services will be announced by Walker Funeral Home.

Keeping the public trust is mandatory, not option

May 8, 2006

Public trust is the key to good government, whether it’s in South Carolina or any other place. When that trust is eroded, regardless of what does the eroding, it tends to hurt everyone.
Take the recent case of U. S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-RI, who is a son of U. S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass. As most people know, Rep. Kennedy was stopped in the middle of the night after he ran into a security barrier at the nation’s capitol. Police said he appeared intoxicated. He said he was on prescribed medication that caused him to be disoriented.

THEN THERE ARE THE up and down high gasoline prices that hit every motorist hard in the pocketbook.
It doesn’t matter whether young Kennedy was drinking or not. Nor does it matter whether there are legitimate reasons for the gasoline problem.
The perception of every average South Carolinian, and all Americans, for that matter, is what counts.Many people believe, rightly or wrongly, that Rep. Kennedy got special treatment after being stopped (no sobriety test was administered, high-ranking officers drove him home. and no charges were filed). Many people also believe that big oil companies are manipulating supply and prices of gasoline.

LIKE IT OR NOT, BOTH of those things add to a situation that should not be ignored. It’s getting serious. Already there is a growing lack of trust in government in general, not to mention the big media and other public institutions.
While we’re considering the everyday issues that concern us all, we should be taking a long, hard look at what’s happening. We need to recognize that trust is paramount to free people.
We have to actively pursue ways not only to stop the erosion of public trust, but to return it to a level that has been the foundation of this nation’s existence right from the git-go.
If we can’t do that, all the other problems pale into insignificance.