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FTC: Tower to improve cell reception BY JIM HILLEY jim@theitem.com
KEITH GEDAMKE / THE SUMTER ITEM
Attorney Tim Murphy, left, stands with his client, Jordan Jackson, during Jackson’s bond hearing on Thursday at Sumter County Judicial Center.
Judge denies bond 16-year-old murder suspect will remain behind bars BY JIM HILLEY jim@theitem.com Bond was denied to 16-yearold Jordan Duval Jackson at a hearing Thursday afternoon in the Sumter County Judicial Center. The teenager is accused of murdering Antawne Dargan, 23, at the Poplar Square apartments on Dec. 30, 2015. Under South Carolina law, Jackson will be prosecuted as an adult. Jordan’s attorney, Third Judicial District Chief Public Defender Tim Murphy, said Jordan lives with his mother and grandmother in Sumter, voluntarily came in for questioning twice before being arrested and is not a flight risk. “We stand on the presumption of innocence,” he said. Third Judicial District Solicitor Chip Finney presented a Sumter Police Department investigator who alleged the suspect shot the victim at least three times. One of the bullet holes was through the hand, he said, indicating Dargan was in a defensive posture. He told the court several rounds hit the apartment building full of residents, including many children. Many
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Residents who live near Sunset Country Club may notice seeing something new in their neighborhood — a cellphone tower reaching 200 feet into the South Carolina sky. It takes a good deal of planning to construct one of the towers, according to Jonathan Tessenair, wireless support engineer for Farmer’s Telephone Company. He said doing due diligence, designing the foundation and getting all the required permits, including FAA and FCC approval, usually takes about three months. “If you can get all those steps going simultaneously, it can go a little more quickly,” he said. He said it also depends on which municipality you are dealing with, some being more lenient than others. “I work in five different counties,” he said, “but Sumter has always been easy to work with.” The construction portion can be done within 45 days, Tessenair said. Tessenair said the poured concrete foundation took about a week. “There are two difference types of foundation,” he said, “a bored foundation, which is a drilled hole, or a mat-and-pier foundation.” The tower being constructed Tuesday has a matand-pier foundation, he said. “The bored foundation costs a little bit more because you have to extract the soil, and then you have to do something with the excavated soil. You can’t put it back because of the concrete,” Tessenair said. He said a pier is a little less expensive course because it doesn’t require discarding soil. Assembling the tower involves the use of a large crane, which lifts each section into place, starting with the bottom section. Workers use liquid dish soap as a lubricant to help the sections slide together, FTC Public Relations Director Chip Chase said. At the scene of the tower on Tuesday, a large bottle of Palmolive liquid was visible near the crane. The tower near the golf course is called a “monopole” and can be erected in one day if everything goes well. A crew of seven was at
KEITH GEDAMKE / THE SUMTER ITEM
David Moore, an employee of South Carolina Tel-Con, uses straps to position the 53-foot-long section of FTC’s cellphone tower into place Thursday morning. See more photos at theitem.com. the site Tuesday, working to assemble the sections of tower and mounting equipment; however, they reportedly had to bring in a larger crane and construction was
still underway on Thursday. Tessenair said “stealth antennas” are becoming common in many areas, but not yet in the Sumter area. Antennas can be hidden in
church steeples or even disguised as pine trees or windmills, he said. “Sometimes they stick out
SEE TOWER, PAGE A6
Will proposed $200M per year budget fix blighted schools? BY JAMIE SELF jself@thestate.com Gov. Nikki Haley proposed Wednesday the state borrow as much as $200 million per year to renovate blighted school buildings or build new ones. In making her proposal, Haley said that some S.C. schools are in “horrible condition.” “We’re seeing schools with leaky roofs. We’re seeing teachers having to wear rain boots to walk through the rain. We’re seeing walls that are molded ... building structures that are not safe,” Haley said, announcing her edu-
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cation proposals for the 2016 legislative session. “It is time to deal with facilities.” The Lexington Republican is making education a focus of her second term. HALEY In 2014, as she was running for a second term, Haley proposed spending more to educate children who live in poverty, on reading programs and on school technology. Those efforts were approved by legislators in 2015. The governor and legislators also are under pressure from S.C. Supreme
Court to improve the state’s schools. In 2014, the court said South Carolina’s schools were unconstitutional because they did not provide an adequate education. The court has asked for an update this summer on what the state is doing to improve those schools. In this year’s budget, which begins July 1, Haley also proposes: • Spending $15 million on a program, now in its first year, aimed at recruiting teachers to rural areas with high teacher turnover. Under the plan, the state would pay up to $7,500 a year in tuition for every two years that an
DEATHS, B5 and 6 John L. Samuel Mazie Blocker Hillard Workman Herbert F. Quattlebaum Daniel V. Sweeney Dorcia Mae Robinson Wilhelmenia Alston
Dorothy S. Kirby Deloris Bracey Diane B. Hodgson Kenneth F. Duffy Ella Brown Edith Tindal
educator teaches in a rural district where turnover has averaged 12 percent during the last five years; and • Expanding students’ access to Internet in their homes — not just in their classrooms. “In order to be able to study and in order to be able to do homework, you have to have Internet in your home,” Haley said. House Speaker Jay Lucas, R-Darlington, praised Haley’s proposals. “Education reform is a long-overdue, critical conversation that must
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