At yesterday’s meeting of the Laurens County Development Corporation it was announced that the bidding process for a new ‘spec’ building had been completed.  The successful bidder was Sherman Construction, the same firm that recently completed the extensive addition to theLaurensCountyHospital.

  Total cost for the spec building project will be approximately 1.1 Million Dollars for the 50,000 square foot building.  According LCDC Executive Director Marvin Moss, footers are being poured this week and exterior walls for the new building should be up about six weeks from now.

 The new building will be onOwings Park Boulevardnot far from the ZF transmission plant.

  Speaking of ZF, we asked Mr. Moss about the number of current employees at ZF.  He says the plant already employs around 700 workers with an eventual employment of about 1200.  The plant has installed about half of their equipment so far he said.

The Laurens County Health Care System’s Board of Directors this week voted to extend their Memorandum of Understanding with the Greenville Hospital System. The understanding states an intention to lease the Laurens County Hospital to the Greenville Health Care System, with the local board still remaining in tact to monitor that lease arrangement. The original Memorandum of Understanding was for a six month lease. Monday night’s vote of the Laurens County Hospital Board was to extend that understanding for another six months, to give more time for the needed details to be worked out.

  In other action, the Laurens County Health Care System Board approved the purchase of a small wooded tract of land at the corner of US Highway 76 and Templeton Road. The land adjoins the hospital’s property, so it increases the road frontage the hospital owns on out to the intersection with Templeton Road.

 Tools used for monitoring the water level of the Reedy River were reported stolen from a monitoring site near Neal Shoals yesterday afternoon. Sheriff’s Sgt. John Carter was dispatched to the site off James Elledge Road at 2:07 yesterday afternoon and spoke with an employee of a firm that checks monitoring sites. She reported arriving around 1:30 yesterday afternoon to take samples and found two padlocks on gates had been cut. Several tools that were inside a fence on the bank of the river were found stolen. A check with computers that monitor the levels remotely indicated there had been an issue with the power to the monitoring station at 8 last Friday evening. The case of stolen scientific measuring devices was being referred to Investigations.

   Financial improvements could be seen in the classrooms of School District 55 this fall. At last night’s District 55 School Board meeting, Superintendent Dr. Billy Strickland noted “We have a history of being conservative in our spending, and had to make hard and difficult choices in the past, but the new budget will reduce some class sizes and restore teachers that had to be laid off.”

     In his legislative update, Dr. Strickland said that the state budget is on senate floor will begin its second week of discussion, with no major changes. He said there is the possibility of having money in the budget to purchase new school buses, but he is not sure of the exact number.

     Strickland said that this is good news since many of District 55’s busses have very high mileage.

     In his monthly financial update last night, District 55 Chief Financial Officer Rodney Smith reported a general fund balance of $10,223,865. Last month’s expenses were $27,903,145 with revenues of $30,341,010; for a gain of $4,437,865.

     Laurens District High School principal Sonya Bryant last night recognized the achievements of the school’s Robotics Competition Team.    

    The team was founded in the fall of 2012, and is a partnership between the Bosch/Rexroth Company of Fountain Inn, and the High School.  

     They competed in their first International Competition in St. Louis, where  they won the award for ‘Rookie all star’ in the Newton division, as teams from across the world gathered for the robotics competition.

     The team has altogether won eleven awards, and Bryant announced that her biggest problem was where to put them.

  Laurens County Deputies went to a residence on Shady Grove Church Road east of Clintonat 12:50 this morning on a report that a man wanted by the Sheriff’s Office was there. Deputy Steve Paterson and Cpl Michael Crockett entered the home and were able to locate the wanted man in a back room, allegedly attempting to hide under a table. 25-year-old Jeffery Allen Arrowwood, formerly of 105 Tillman Circle, Joanna, was taken into custody and was being held to be served with warrants. He is reportedly wanted in connection with an alleged assault in the Joanna area over the weekend.  Deputies reported that during the arrest they discovered a plastic baggy in Arrowwood’s front shorts pocket with several pills inside that were reportedly determined to be a Schedule IV narcotic. An additional warrant was to be sought to charge him in connection with that.