Dear Citizens
of Barnwell County:
The  Save the Hospital Committee and many others are continuing to work on your behalf. We are disappointed that Dobbs selected their proposed New Hospital “site to be in Bamberg County, some two miles west of Denmark on U.S. Highway 78”,  (hereinafter referred to as the Denmark Hospital). We remain firm that the present Barnwell County Hospital should not be closed nor sold, and should remain open in the future in its present location. There are three remaining issues that can save our Hospital:

As the New Year has officially begun, it seems the controversy of 2011 has spilled into 2012.
The fight for the Barnwell County Hospital has again heated up.
Rick Greene with Dobbs Equity Partners, LLC is asking local residents to sign a form letter, or write one of their own, if they support the planned new hospital.
“I would like to express my unconditional support for the SC Regional Health System’s (“RHS”) Certificate of Need for a hospital replacement project in the Bamberg/Barnwell area,” the letter begins.

So Paula Deen has Type 2 diabetes.
You know that, don’t you? It has been repeated on every newscast and in every daily newspaper in the English-speaking world. Paula Deen—the queen of Southern cooking who deep-fries cheesecake and flavors her quiche with a pound of bacon, the stories say—has Type 2 diabetes.

Compromise - that seems to be the solution to most problems and it seems most Barnwell County residents will have to make the compromise of driving a few - not a lot - extra miles to get a higher quality of health care.
Dobb’s Equity Partners, LLC announced Jan. 24 their intention to locate the new regional hospital in Bamberg County. The location, on U.S. 78 at the intersection of Ghents Branch Road, is two miles from the Barnwell County line between Blackville and Denmark.

This time of year keeps “Smokey the Bear” and supporting firefighters busy.
I am a strong supporter of controlled burns. Too often I have watched reports of wildfires in other states where controlled burns were not permitted. The destruction and injuries could have easily been avoided.
Occasional rain, cool days and moderate humidity makes January a prime time to burn off woods and other areas.
That being said, I beg you to take all precautions - make it a team effort, complete with wide firelines and access to water for hot spots.

Many economies have gotten an economic boost as candidates got serious about the “first in the South” South Carolina primary.
Money has freely flowed into South Carolina since the New Hampshire primary. Advertising has been one of the top benefiters but only into large markets and then, mostly television.
Many presidential campaigns spent dollars more locally in communities as they crisscrossed the state stumping for votes.
Saturday, candidates will decide if that was money well spent.

Dear Editor:
The hustle and bustle of the Christmas Holidays have passed but not my gratitude to all those who made the “Secret Santa” program successful.
Once again, our local businesses and citizens’ generosity of their time and money showed that our community has a big heart for the less fortunate children of our county. We had 597 children sponsored this year.  A heartfelt thank you goes out to all!
“Let us remember that the Christmas heart is a giving heart, a wide open heart that thinks of others first.”

Barnwell County has had a rash of fires recently and although the damage has not been deadly, damage to homes and land has occurred.
Just last week, Barnwell County and City firefighters responded to two “suspicious” fires that caused damage to multiple homes. The cause of those fires has not been determined.
This time of year in Barnwell County is known for dry conditions and higher volume of winds which only add fuel to any fire, even those started with good intentions.

Dear Editor,
Unfortunately, as I can judge by the tenor of the Letters to the Editor concerning the resignation of Superintendent Clamp, some citizens, based on their “assumptions,” are beginning to stoke the fires of a witch hunt in Williston. It appears that the stakes are to be placed, the wood ignited and the innocents burned on Election Day. Sadly, assumptions, or a play on assumptions, are difficult to overcome once the seed had been planted and nourished by their progenitors. In regards to the latter, no one knew this any better than Joseph Goebbels.

The making of resolutions is a good way of taking a look at our lives and doing a bit of housecleaning.
We try to improve on the things we like about ourselves, change the things we don’t like and take the opportunity to take on new adventures.
Panning back from our personal list, we like to also take a look at our county. What is it that we like? What do we want to change? What new adventures are in store?
Knowing what we like is the easy list.
• We love our communities and the people who make those communities vibrant.