Aiken Standard's top local stories of 2019 — Nos. 5-1: School Board turmoil, old Aiken hospital and more

Dec. 31--Editor's note: This is part 2 of 2 articles highlighting the Aiken Standard's top local stories of 2019. Part 1 was published Dec. 30.

5. Aiken Steeplechase moving to new location

After some uncertainty earlier in the year, 2019 ended with the future looking bright for the Aiken Steeplechase Association.

In June, the organization announced it would be moving its two events -- the Aiken Spring Steeplechase and the Aiken Fall Steeplechase -- from Bruce's Field to a new venue in the near future.

Steeplechase Association President Paul Sauerborn said the relocation would take place following the 2021 Spring Steeplechase even though a new site hadn't been determined yet.

Then the clock started ticking.

In early December, the Steeplechase Association revealed it had found a new home on the east side of Aiken on Rudy Mason Parkway.

Meanwhile, City of Aiken officials said they would consider helping financially with the purchase of he property.

Later in the month, Aiken City Council approved the first reading of an ordinance that would give the Steeplechase Association $1 million in the form a grant and $500,000 in the form of a loan.

The Steeplechase Association would provide $600,000.

The second reading of the ordinance is scheduled for Jan. 13.

-- By Dede Biles

4. Laurens Street fatal shooting/crime wave

Aiken faced a wave of shootings in August, one of them being the fatal shooting on Laurens Street.

Police, including Public Safety and the Aiken County Sheriff's Office, responded to a shooting on Laurens Street on the evening of Aug. 6.

The victim, later identified as Larry Swearingen, 42, of Aiken was transported to the Augusta University Medical Center to receive treatment from injuries.

Swearingen was pronounced dead the following Saturday.

Suspect Dae'Kwon Simmons, 18, of Aiken surrendered himself to officers at ADPS Headquarters on Beaufort Street on Aug. 12.

Simmons allegedly shot Swearingen in front of the victim's wife and daughter and fled the scene.

He was charged with one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder.

He was later denied bond and was deemed "a threat to the community."

Aiken County saw five shooting incidents in that week, the first being a shooting at Waterloo Street on the morning of Aug. 2 which led to the death of a Graniteville teenager Alexander McMillian.

Two suspects were charged for involvement in the shooting.

Three more shootings occurred the night of Aug. 4.

Two additional shootings followed on Aug. 4: one on Laurens Street at Columbia Avenue and the other at Abbeville Avenue NW.

-- By Matthew Enfinger

3. Old Aiken County hospital property redevelopment

Following months of debate and back and forth, at both the city and county level, plans for the radical redevelopment of the old Aiken County hospital property are moving forward.

The Aiken City Council in late October gave the green light to WTC Investments LLC's vision for the roughly 12 acres at 828 Richland Ave. W. And neighboring 159 Morgan St. N.W.

The multimillion-dollar plans -- certainly controversial -- involve razing the existing buildings on site, including the large hospital, and constructing a hotel, conference center, apartment complex and amenity area.

The hotel will be named Hotel Hitchcock, according to Tom Wyatt, who manages WTC Investments. It was either that or The Hotel Hitchcock, renderings have shown.

The investment could have a $240 million economic sway in Aiken, according to a city-generated study.

The old hospital property was once the home to Aiken County government, but it was vacated years ago and has since sat empty.

-- By Colin Demarest

2. MOX-pit production transition

It was in May 2018 when the National Nuclear Security Administration and the U.S. Department of Defense together recommended producing plutonium pits, nuclear weapon cores, at the Savannah River Site.

And it was five months later when the NNSA, part of the Energy Department, officially terminated the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility project at SRS, about 30 minutes south of Aiken.

But it was in 2019 when some significant progress was made to connect the two.

The joint recommendation involves reworking and renovating the MOX footprint and infrastructure for the pit mission -- flipping what was once meant to be a nuclear fuel facility into one for pumping out nuclear weapon components.

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, the head contractor at SRS, began leading the way and is still considered the integrator of it all. Other involved agencies and firms include Merrick, which recently opened an Aiken branch, and Fluor in Greenville, according to Dave Olson, the SRNS pit production mission director.

That said, everything is still in its infancy. Preliminary designs are being crafted, and most major project milestones are years out.

The pit mission, officials have lobbied, would return the site to its roots: production in the name of national defense.

-- By Colin Demarest

1. Aiken County School Board turmoil

The makeup of the Aiken County School Board changed dramatically Sept. 5.

After the board voted to accept the resignation of Aiken County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Sean Alford, three members who represented residents in the Aiken area resigned.

Ahmed Samaha and Tad Barber resigned immediately, with Samaha walking out of the meeting after submitting his resignation letter.

Rosemary English, a longtime board member and a former chairman, resigned at the end of the end of September. In her resignation letter, English called for an investigation of practices and proceedings of the remaining board members. Samaha and Barber also called for an ethics investigation of the board.

The board's vote to accept Alford's resignation drew an angry response from the audience at the special called meeting Sept. 5. The board faced more criticism from constituents at the next regular board meeting Sept. 10.

At the Sept. 10 meeting, the board named King Laurence, who had been the school district's chief officer of administration, as the interim superintendent.

In November, a S.C. Ethics Commission executive said the commission was not investigating allegations of misconduct levied against Keith Liner, the chairman of the Aiken County School Board, by English.

Earlier, Meghan Walker, the commission's executive director, had said the commission did not have the jurisdiction to investigate the allegations as laid out by English. The state Ethics Commission is guided by state law and deals namely with the use of public office for financial gain as well as campaign finance rules, according to a news story in the Aiken Standard.

The resignations led to a special election Dec. 10 to fill the three empty seats.

On Dec. 17, Patrice Rhinehart-Jackson was sworn in to represent District 7, Dr. John Bradley to represent District 8 and Cameron Nuessle to represent District 9.

-- By Larry Wood

Runner Up -- U.S. diplomat's wife/SAHS grad involved in fatal motorcycle crash

Aiken made international news after Anne Sacoolas, a U.S. diplomat's wife and graduate from South Aiken High School, was named the suspect of a deadly crash in the United Kingdom.

British police say 19-year-old motorcycle rider Harry Dunn died in August when he was hit by a car driven by Sacoolas, whose husband was an intelligence officer at RAF Croughton, a military base in central England used by U.S. forces. Sacoolas claimed diplomatic immunity and left Britain after the crash.

According to British authorities, Sacoolas was driving on the wrong side of the road when she struck and killed the motorcyclist near the Royal Air Force Croughton Station.

Dunn's parents continue to campaign for Sacoolas' return to the U.K. through the platform #justiceforHarry.

British prosecutors officially charged Sacoolas on Dec. 20 with causing death by dangerous driving.

The U.S. State Department called the charges unhelpful and Sacoolas' lawyer, Amy Jeffress, said her client had cooperated fully with the investigation but "will not return voluntarily to the United Kingdom to face a potential jail sentence for what was a terrible but unintentional accident."

-- By Matthew Enfinger

Runner Up -- Operation Gunsmoke: S.C. and Georgia drug, gun arrests

The Aiken County investigation dubbed "Operation Gunsmoke" came to a close in September as the last of 15 South Carolina defendants with pending charges pled guilty in federal court to offenses involving narcotics and firearms.

The crime crackdown began on March 12 in connection with a member of the Bloods gang.

Court testimony revealed that the case first started as a result of increasing violence in Aiken County.

On March 12, a total of 26 people were federally indicted on various gun and drug charges across South Carolina and Georgia.

Seventeen people were charged in South Carolina the first day of the crime crackdown.

During the course of the investigation, over 150 guns were seized -- most from the hands of felons, according to the news release. Methamphetamine, cocaine and crack cocaine were also seized during the case, including over 4 pounds of methamphetamine in one seizure.

The lengthy investigation was a collaborative effort by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Regional Anti-Gang Enforcement Unit, a joint gang/violent crime task force with the Aiken County Sheriff's Office, North Augusta Department of Public Safety, Aiken Department of Public Safety, Richmond County, Georgia, Sheriff's Office, South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and ATF.

-- By Matthew Enfinger

Runner Up -- Plutonium removed from SRS

The U.S. Department of Energy, namely its weapons-and-nonproliferation arm, the National Nuclear Security Administration, in 2019 removed a total 1 metric ton of weapons-grade plutonium from the Savannah River Site and South Carolina, more generally.

The removal satisfies a federal court order issued in late 2017.

A half-metric ton of the plutonium was sent to the Silver State, north of Las Vegas to the Nevada National Security Site. That relocation campaign was completed before November 2018 -- before Nevada sued to prevent the shipments in the first place. A legal battle still rages, and South Carolina is involved.

The other half-metric ton of plutonium could have been sent to the Pantex Plant in Texas. The plans to move the cache out of state were disclosed and detailed in an environmental study.

Eventually, the total 1 metric ton will be sent to Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and be used for nuclear weapons work -- plutonium pit production, to be more specific.

Two secretaries of energy have promised to remove the plutonium from Nevada by the end of 2026.

-- By Colin Demarest

___

(c)2019 the Aiken Standard (Aiken, S.C.)

Visit the Aiken Standard (Aiken, S.C.) at www.aikenstandard.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.