‘Nobody deserves a Christmas more than Fairfield County’

Dec. 19--WINNSBORO, S.C. -- Fairfield County is ending 2018 on a better note.

A week before Christmas, the county's new standalone emergency room opened its doors Tuesday.

Last week, S.C. business leaders announced Chinese-based Healthcare U.S. Co. would invest $45 million to open a new plant making memory foam for mattresses, creating up to 250 new jobs, at the site of the former Mack Trucks plant in Winnsboro.

And, three months ago, the Trump administration exempted TV assembler Element Electronics from tariffs, an action that otherwise could have left about 126 Fairfield County workers without a job.

After the $9 billion construction effort to build two new reactors at Fairfield's V.C. Summer Nuclear Station was abandoned in 2017, the last four months of 2018 have been a relief to county leaders.

"Nobody deserves a Christmas more than Fairfield County," said state Sen. Mike Fanning, D-Fairfield.

'Turning in the right direction'

Before Christmas, however, there was one more bit of sad news.

Fairfield Memorial Hospital closed its doors Tuesday after years on life support.

But, because of the opening of the new emergency room, Fairfield still has some health-care services. Other rural communities across the country that have lost their hospitals -- because of shrinking, poor populations -- have no medical backstop.

The opening of Providence Health's emergency room is a "culmination of a lot of good work," county administrator Jason Taylor said, noting the nearly three years it took to plan and build the facility. "It's always good when you put a lot of work into something, a lot of thought into something and it comes to fruition."

County leaders don't know yet how they will use the now-closed 25-bed hospital building. Ideas range from a drug rehab facility to a nursing home.

For now, county deputy administrator Davis Anderson is just happy there are some medical services.

"It is a blessing and an honor to serve such a welcoming part of the country," Providence Health-Northeast's chief executive Lindy White said in a statement.

County leaders say Fairfield is poised to head in the right direction in 2019.

"(V.C. Summer) was a hard blow for us," Taylor said. "It's going to take us awhile. We're turning in the right direction."

'We're not dead yet'

Recently, a large swath of the county was included in federal "Opportunity Zones" legislation, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Tim Scott, R-North Charleston, aimed at reviving struggling rural areas across the country that have high unemployment and have seen job losses.

Scott and Gov. Henry McMaster will host a summit on opportunity zones on Jan. 25 in Columbia.

"Fairfield County will bounce back," said former state Rep. Boyd Brown, of Fairfield, now working at a Columbia government relations firm. "To quote (wrestler) Rick Flair, 'We're not dead yet,' minus a word."

Taylor said Tuesday the county will continue to invest in its infrastructure and market its industrial park, hoping to some day land the next BMW Manufacturing or even the German automaker's much-speculated second U.S. plant, expected to make vehicle engines.

"We'd be great engine makers," said county economic development director Ty Davenport.

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