Sanford's suggested closings spark debate

AIKEN - Plans to close a live-in school for troubled youth and privatize a state park have angered McCormick County officials and provoked the state senator who represents the rural county - South Carolina's smallest and one of its poorest.

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State Sen. Tommy Moore, D-Clearwater, said McCormick County, which also sports one of the state's highest unemployment rates, cannot afford to lose its third-largest job center, John de la Howe School. Nor could he see Hickory Knob State Park being turned over to a private concessionaire who will probably trim its 55-person payroll of full-time and seasonal employees.

"Y'all say you want to help McCormick County - well, you've helped them about as much as they can stand," said Mr. Moore, who was particularly critical of Gov. Mark Sanford's plan to close the historic school, founded in 1797 by a French Huguenot physician.

The state House has already approved Mr. Sanford's proposal to save $3.2 million by closing John de la Howe and sending its students to a similar school in West Columbia, but Mr. Moore said Friday he plans to fight the measure when it reaches the state Senate.

"My wife says pick your hill to die on, and this is my hill," said Mr. Moore.

Mr. Sanford has listened to McCormick County residents and officials, but has no plans to reverse himself, said spokesman Will Folks.

South Carolina spends 30 percent more than the national average on state government while its residents make 80 percent of the national average in wages and salaries, Mr. Folks said. To make South Carolina more economically competitive, Mr. Sanford is committed to reducing both state spending and the state income tax, he said.

"The governor's bottom line is the taxpayer's bottom line, whether it's McCormick County, York County or any other county," Mr. Folks said. "We have to reform the way we tax and the way we spend if we're going to be a competitive state."

School supporters say the governor's decision is based on overly inflated estimates of how much it costs to educate each student. By shutting down John de la Howe, the state will lose a historic institution uniquely suited to rehabilitating troubled youth before they rack up a significant criminal record, they say.

They point to McCormick County's high unemployment rate, currently more than 11 percent, and say losing the school's 135 jobs will hurt the small county, home to about 10,000 people.

County residents also are angered by the notion of turning the bucolic, 1,216-acre campus into a Department of Juvenile Justice holding center. Residents of the exclusive Savannah Lakes resort community say this would lower their property values.

While members of the House passed the governor's John de la Howe measure, they also have approved spending $750,000 a year for an Atlantic Coast Conference bowl game to be played in Charleston, Mr. Moore said.

The Clearwater Democrat also took a partisan shot at Mr. Sanford for sending aides to two separate meetings with residents, elected officials and school officials March 4 and Monday, then attending a McCormick County Republican Party fund-raiser at Hickory Knob on Monday.

"Not only have I sliced you open, but here's a big bunch of salt to put in your wound," Mr. Moore said. "There is much unrest in McCormick County with the governor refusing to visit John de la Howe to see it for himself. They're more than a little upset over there."

On Friday, state park service officials, including Chad Prosser, the agency director of the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, met with McCormick Mayor Marion Patterson and McCormick County Council President Alonzo Harrison, department spokesman Marion Edmonds said.

The state is preparing a request for proposal to float to private companies interested in running all or portions of the park, which includes a golf course, a lodge and weekend cabins, Mr. Edmonds said.

Over the past five years, the park has lost $3 million and is projected to run up a red-ink balance of $400,000.

Only Charles Towne Landing, a national historic site and state park that sits on the original English colonist community founded in 1670, runs a bigger deficit, Mr. Edmonds said.

Reach Jim Nesbitt at (803) 648-1395 or jim.nesbitt@augustachronicle.com. John de la Howe School: Founded in 1797 by a French Hugenot physician, the school is authorized to have 135 employees and currently has 97.

Hickory Knob State Park: Employs about 55 full-time and seasonal employees but has run up about $3 million in red ink over the past five years, the highest deficit in South Carolina's system of 46 state parks.

Sources: John de la Howe School, South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism

Reach Jim Nesbitt at (803) 648-1395 or jim.nesbitt@augustachronicle.com.

--From the Saturday, March 13, 2004 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle