Orangeburg County officials sought the state’s help improving roads for economic development during a Tuesday meeting with the head of the South Carolina Department of Transportation.

S.C. Secretary of Transportation Janet Oakley praised the county’s proactive efforts to improve its road network.

“You really are at a crossroads and have a tremendous hub,” Oakley told those gathered at the Orangeburg County Transit Center, a project supported by SCDOT. “You are poised to take off and be the next big area of the state for explosive economic growth.”

Orangeburg County Development Commission Executive Director Gregg Robinson said the meeting was focused on jobs and road improvements associated with jobs.

“The five improvements we discussed have a lot to do with the industrial corridor that already exists in Orangeburg,” Robinson said.

Robinson said the county would like to see improvements to U.S. 178 (Charleston Highway), the Orangeburg bypass (Joe Jeffords Highway) and U.S. 21 (Rowesville Road).

“When you get off the interstate (26) it is four lanes until you get to Joe Jeffords Highway, when it bottlenecks to two,” Robinson said.

The county also wants to widen Industrial Boulevard off of U.S. 601 near Interstate 26 leading to the Zeus Industries plant. It also sees a need for a connector between U.S. 301 and U.S. 21 Rowesville Road, joining Canaan Road and Weatherford Road.

Orangeburg County Administrator Harold Young said large trucks are having problems turning off of U.S. 301 onto Canaan Road in an attempt to get to the Orangeburg County Industrial Park on U.S. 21.

Young said trucks have to turn right onto U.S. 178 (Charleston Highway) and then immediately turn left onto Weatherford Road in order to go to U.S. 21.

Connecting Canaan Road with Weatherford Road would reduce the need for trucks to make the abrupt turns, he said.

Orangeburg Mayor Michael Butler said the city wants to see the runways at the Orangeburg Municipal Airport extended from about 700 feet to about 1,000 feet.

“We want to be able to have cargo planes to help with economic development,” Butler said. He also noted an effort to improve the rail system.

Oakley also met with South Carolina State University President Thomas Elzey, Claflin University President Dr. Henry Tisdale and Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College President Dr. Walt Tobin.

Elzey touted S.C. State’s James E. Clyburn Transportation Center and the university’s desire to be a part of the state’s transportation plans.

“We have big plans for that center,” he said. “We certainly could use all the support to do that.”

Tisdale asked SCDOT to consider funding projects that would address student safety concerns involving the Norfolk Southern Railroad tracks near the universities.

“What attracted the university to Orangeburg has now become a challenge,” Tisdale said.

Tisdale also said the university is also on board to help provide a skilled workforce for SCDOT.

Oakley expressed her willingness to work with the institutions to create the future workforce of SCDOT.

“We need to prepare for the next 50 to 100 years,” Oakley said. “The foundation of that is our people.

“Let’s not just say let’s talk about it, but let’s make it happen for some opportunities for internships and scholarships.”

n Contact the writer: gzaleski@timesanddemocrat.com or 803-533-5551.

By GENE ZALESKI

T&D Staff Writer

Orangeburg County officials sought the state’s help improving roads for economic development during a Tuesday meeting with the head of the South Carolina Department of Transportation.

S.C. Secretary of Transportation Janet Oakley praised the county’s proactive efforts to improve its road network.

“You really are at a crossroads and have a tremendous hub,” Oakley told those gathered at the Orangeburg County Transit Center, a project supported by SCDOT. “You are poised to take off and be the next big area of the state for explosive economic growth.”

Orangeburg County Development Commission Executive Director Gregg Robinson said the meeting was focused on jobs and road improvements associated with jobs.

“The five improvements we discussed have a lot to do with the industrial corridor that already exists in Orangeburg,” Robinson said.

Robinson said the county would like to see improvements to U.S. 178 (Charleston Highway), the Orangeburg bypass (Joe Jeffords Highway) and U.S. 21 (Rowesville Road).

“When you get off the interstate (26) it is four lanes until you get to Joe Jeffords Highway, when it bottlenecks to two,” Robinson said.

The county also wants to widen Industrial Boulevard off of U.S. 601 near Interstate 26 leading to the Zeus Industries plant. It also sees a need for a connector between U.S. 301 and U.S. 21 Rowesville Road, joining Canaan Road and Weatherford Road.

Orangeburg County Administrator Harold Young said large trucks are having problems turning off of U.S. 301 onto Canaan Road in an attempt to get to the Orangeburg County Industrial Park on U.S. 21.

Young said trucks have to turn right onto U.S. 178 (Charleston Highway) and then immediately turn left onto Weatherford Road in order to go to U.S. 21.

Connecting Canaan Road with Weatherford Road would reduce the need for trucks to make the abrupt turns, he said.

Orangeburg Mayor Michael Butler said the city wants to see the runways at the Orangeburg Municipal Airport extended from about 700 feet to about 1,000 feet.

“We want to be able to have cargo planes to help with economic development,” Butler said. He also noted an effort to improve the rail system.

Oakley also met with South Carolina State University President Thomas Elzey, Claflin University President Dr. Henry Tisdale and Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College President Dr. Walt Tobin.

Elzey touted S.C. State’s James E. Clyburn Transportation Center and the university’s desire to be a part of the state’s transportation plans.

“We have big plans for that center,” he said. “We certainly could use all the support to do that.”

Tisdale asked SCDOT to consider funding projects that would address student safety concerns involving the Norfolk Southern Railroad tracks near the universities.

“What attracted the university to Orangeburg has now become a challenge,” Tisdale said.

Tisdale also said the university is also on board to help provide a skilled workforce for SCDOT.

Oakley expressed her willingness to work with the institutions to create the future workforce of SCDOT.

“We need to prepare for the next 50 to 100 years,” Oakley said. “The foundation of that is our people.

“Let’s not just say let’s talk about it, but let’s make it happen for some opportunities for internships and scholarships.”

Contact the writer: gzaleski@timesanddemocrat.com or 803-533-5551.

By GENE ZALESKI, T&D Staff Writer

“The opportunities for this county are very great,” S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley told a room packed with county leaders and small business officials Tuesday evening.

“Know that you have a lot more than most counties. The only thing is get it out there.”

Haley was the guest speaker at the Orangeburg County Chamber of Commerce’s newly initiated Great Speaker Series. During the event at the Orangeburg Country Club, she cited the county’s interstates, its family values and strong work ethic as stories that need to be told to industrial prospects.

“When a CEO comes to an area, they want to see and care about a community of character, they want to see and care about people, they want to see where they are going to live … and where are my kids going to go to school,” she said.

Haley, who once served on the Orangeburg County Chamber of Commerce’s Board of Directors, said she is also concerned the Orangeburg area does not have a movie theater or more downtown amenities such as restaurants.

“For a community, things like that matter,” she said. “Start driving through the area as if you are CEO. That is what will make you realize what you can improve and what you can do better.”

Haley offered her help and commitment to help bring companies and jobs to Orangeburg County.

“Help me continue to sell Orangeburg County,” she said, asking what the county and city are doing to attract industry and small businesses.

Haley challenged officials to take advantage of state-level initiatives.

The governor said she has made it a priority to improve rural communities by including incentives for project managers to attract industry to rural areas and ensuring rural schools have access to the same technology as urban schools.

“We are trying to infiltrate every community possible to make sure everyone can know what job growth feels like,” she said.

Over the last four years, about 20,000 state residents have gotten off of welfare and gone to work, Haley said.

“They don’t want to sit on the couch. They want to work,” she said. “They want to make their families proud.”

Chamber President Dede Cook said if the county and city do not follow the lead of the state and Haley at business retention, the county is doomed to failure.

“We have to first believe in ourselves before anybody else can believe in us,” Cook said. She noted the Chamber and Downtown Orangeburg Revitalization Association have embarked on a process of designing a plan for the city based on a market analysis on what residents want and need.

“If you do not like Orangeburg and if you don’t think we can do it, then all we ask of you is you take two steps aside and move out of our way so we can make it happen,” she said. “We hope that once we get used to winning, we will continue to win.”

“We plan to go after heavily those companies that will really serve well to come to Orangeburg County,” Cook said.

Cook said the Chamber is committed to following the state’s lead in making sure small businesses have incentives on the local level to invest and that both primary and secondary education sectors and industries can cooperate to keep students working in Orangeburg County.

“We know what the problems in education are,” Cook said. “We want to see what we as a business community can do.”

Cook also said the Chamber is strongly seeking to retain small businesses.

Contact the writer: gzaleski@timesanddemocrat.com or 803-533-5551.

HOLLY HILL — The vacated Holly Hill Middle School held a few pieces of obsolete furniture and countless memories when Orangeburg County purchased the property in 2007 for $10 from Orangeburg Consolidated School District Three.

It was the only school situated in the middle of Holly Hill, just on the cusp of the downtown area at 8423 Old State Road.

Now, after a $4 million overhaul, the facility has been transformed into a intergovernmental complex that is serving the public once again — and in ways that reinforce the town’s motto: “Proud Past, Progressive Future.”

“It’s been a long time coming,” Orangeburg County Council Chairman Johnnie Wright Sr. said.

“We’ve planned for this thing several years ago” and now the brick-and-mortar makeover has come to fruition, Wright said.

“Anytime you have a town, a county, a state entity and use federal money … and not duplicate services and use that same tax dollar to benefit the citizens with four different entities and not do it in four different places, that’s the kind of government we should all be striving to have,” County Administrator Harold Young said.

Young was referencing the multi-million-dollar investment to repurpose the former school into a facility that now serves as Holly Hill Town Hall and Police Department and where the county will offer an array of services to citizens.

In addition, the Department of Health and Environment Control’s Home Health Services occupy a portion of the building.

Young said county officials anticipate holding an official grand opening ceremony in mid-May during which the public will have an opportunity to tour the newly-renovated building and grounds.

A date for this event has not yet been announced.

In the mid-1920s, Holly Hill High School was located at the site. Eventually, with modifications and renovations throughout the years, it became Holly Hill Middle School.

The school closed in 2004 after the district’s two high schools merged into one — Lake Marion High School — and the middle school students and staff relocated to the former Holly Hill High School campus at 530 Hesseman Avenue.

Holly Hill’s administrative and police departments and DHEC’s Home Health services are currently operational at the site, but it will likely be another two weeks or more before an Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office substation, library and court services move in.

It’s been nearly a month since Holly Hill town offices moved to the new location, and it is “indescribable,” Holly Hill Mayor William Johnson said.

“This is such a step above where we came from,” Johnson said.

“The citizens are amazed at how the school has changed to what it is today,” he said. “Most of the people I’ve talked to couldn’t imagine that Holly Hill could have such a facility.”

But the project got off to a tough start.

Within months after the county acquired the property, the national economy tanked. The project was delayed, albeit temporarily.

Holly Hill allocated $500,000 from its share of the county’s capital projects sales tax toward the construction of a new town hall.

“But you wouldn’t get much of a town hall for $500,000,” Young said.

At one point, some members of Holly Hill Town Council urged the mayor to “pull our money out (of the joint project) and do something else with it.”

“But we couldn’t have ever done anything that we could be as proud of as I am of this place,” Johnson said.

Young said DHEC promised to give $500,000 toward the project, but to date, they’ve given a total of $300,000.

“That was during the economic downturn, but we’ll hopefully be in discussions on getting the rest of the funding,” he said.

The balance of the project, approximately $3 million, is through grants and loans through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the county administrator said.

Debt service payments begin this year, Young said, noting that the county has at least 20 years to pay back the money borrowed from the USDA toward the project.

Once the renovation got underway, crews experienced a some setbacks.

“One of the obstacles was removing asbestos in the building,” Young said.

The asbestos was confined to the gymnasium and a couple of classrooms, which were demolished after specialty asbestos abatement contractors removed it, he said.

Prior to renovating the school into a municipal complex, county leaders held community meetings. Several citizens said they wanted the gymnasium to remain intact; however, the age of the facility and the asbestos meant the structure had to come down.

Young said the gymnasium contained a basement so when crews demolished the structure, they were also tasked with “digging out the basement.”

The workers then had to fill the area in “such a way to make sure it was structurally stable so you would not have any sinkholes … that contractor did a phenomenal job,” Young said.

He described the project as a “game-changer for the town of Holly Hill.”

And in about six months, taxpayers can expect to see the project’s maximum potential. By then, all facets of the facility will be fully operational.

Young said there will likely be three new jobs announced for the site: a core librarian, a clerk at the OCSO substation and an ombudsman — a person tasked with listening to the public’s concerns and conveying those concerns to county officials.

He said most of the employees are simply transferring to the site from other offices.

Additional changes are planned in the near future.

While the Holly Hill Depot has been used in recent years as the venue for town council meetings and court, the intergovernmental complex has its own courtroom, which town officials expect to use beginning with the Holly Hill Town Council meeting on May 5.

Johnson said the depot will likely be used for a museum, but those plans have not been formalized.

“I’ve always been told the depot was put there to be a museum. We’re missing that piece today,” the mayor said.

He said the depot will continue to “be rented (out) as we rent it today.”

Johnson said of the new intergovernmental complex, “The county owns most of it, but it’s in my yard and I take pride in it and want it to be the best it can be.”

Contact the writer: mbrown@timesanddemocrat.com or 803-533-5545. Follow on Twitter @MRBrownTandD.

Orangeburg’s Albemarle plant is being purchased by another specialty chemical manufacturer.

Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB), announced Wednesday it has signed a definitive agreement to sell certain assets, including the Orangeburg plant, to SI Group, a manufacturer of chemical intermediates, specialty resins and solutions.

The transaction includes the Orangeburg plant’s antioxidants, ibuprofen and propofol businesses and assets as well as a plant in Jinshan, China.

“This is a growth-driven acquisition,” Kate Chauvin, SI Group marketing and communications coordinator, said when asked the transaction’s impact on the Orangeburg plant. “We are broadening our capabilities in a number of sectors as we become a more solutions-oriented company in the global antioxidant market and in selling active ingredients for pharmaceuticals.”

“The purpose behind this acquisition is growth — not consolidation,” Chauvin added. “The capabilities obtained at the newly acquired site are key assets to SI Group.”

Once the deal is closed, the Albemarle plant will become the SI Group, she said.

“We have signed an agreement with our intention to sell to the SI Group and we will be working to close in the next few months,” Ashley Mendoza, Albemarle Corporation communications director said. “In the interim, it is business as usual for the Albemarle plant. We will continue to own and operate the plant.”

The Orangeburg plant employs about 270 people and has about 100 contractor employees, Mendoza said.

The deal expands SI Group’s antioxidants business and will position the company as one of the top three global suppliers of Ibuprofen, according to an SI Group release.

SI Group touts itself as a leading global developer and manufacturer of chemical intermediates, specialty resins and solutions.

Founded in 1906 and headquartered in Schenectady, N.Y., SI Group is a family-owned company with facilities in 10 countries.

Certain applications and technical support capabilities in Shanghai, China and Baton Rouge, La. will also be included in the transaction.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“This transaction is the next step in our previously announced realignment and reflects our commitment to growing in a sustainable manner through increased focus on maximizing the value of and growing our core businesses,” said Luke Kissam, Albemarle president and CEO. “With this transaction, we are placing the antioxidants, ibuprofen and related businesses in the hands of a company with a long history and a proven record of successful integrations and growth. This sale represents the optimal choice to maximize value for our shareholders while positioning these businesses to extend their track record of industry leadership and success going forward.”

“It’s the largest deal in SI Group’s history,” said Frank Bozich, SI Group president and CEO. “This acquisition is a natural fit to our expansion strategy, transforming SI Group into a solutions leader in the global antioxidant and pharmaceutical active ingredients markets.”

Stephen Haller, SI Group senior vice president of strategy and new business development, said, “This acquisition is a major step in SI Group’s strategy of expanding into complementary, faster growing markets while at the same time continuously improving our core business through business excellence.”

The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close later in 2014.

The sale comes a little more than a year after Albemarle’s announcement that it would invest $65 million in its Orangeburg plant over five years. Twenty jobs were said to be added as a result of the investment.

The largest expansion included the company’s fire-safety solutions line, where it would make flame retardants for use in insulation. It also added products in its Fine Chemistry Services business.

Albemarle sits on about a 300-acre site on Cannon Bridge Road. The company acquired Ethyl Corporation’s Orangeburg plant in March 1994.

Headquartered in Baton Rouge, La., Albemarle is a developer, manufacturer and marketer of specialty chemicals for consumer electronics, petroleum refining, utilities, packaging, construction, automotive/transportation, pharmaceuticals, crop protection, food-safety and custom chemistry services.

For more information about SI Group, visit www.siigroup.com. ___

(c)2014 The Times and Democrat (Orangeburg, S.C.)

Visit The Times and Democrat (Orangeburg, S.C.) at thetandd.com

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SANTEE — In a first for South Carolina, Tesla Motors is opening an electric vehicle charging station in Orangeburg County.

The Supercharger station is locating behind Clark’s Inn and Restaurant in Santee, off Interstate 95.