Sgt. Moses Brown School Resource Officer of the Year

By Valerie Sliker, courtesy Wagener Monthly

Moses Brown was presented with the 2016 SC School Resource Officer of the Year award on June 30, 2016 at a law enforcement conference in Myrtle Beach.  Sgt. Brown was again presented the award by his peers at a Wagener town council meeting on July 18th.  This annual award is bestowed in recognition for outstanding contributions to the schools, the law enforcement agency and the community served Sergeant by its recipient.

Graduating from Voorhees College on a track and field scholarship in 2010, Sgt. Brown began working with DJJ on the correctional side, quickly moving up through the DJJ to the DJJ PD.  Brown appreciates the variety of difficult incidents he learned to manage working “on the inside.”  It was a breeze, he says, to come work out on the streets.

In the summer of 2013, Sgt. Brown accepted a job as an officer with the Wagener PD.  He soon became the school resource officer and was promoted to Sergeant in 2014.  Brown also serves as the training officer at WPD and will soon be over the Property & Evidence section.

Brown, the only boy among 5 children, credits his father, a Viet Nam veteran, for the stern and disciplined manner in which he was raised, keeping him out of trouble and with a healthy respect for authority.  Brown adamantly pronounces that he doesn’t think he is better than his friends who got in trouble or incarcerated, he is just more fortunate having the father he had.

I spoke with Sergeant Moses Brown at town hall just before he received the award. 

Holman's Double Dutch Force's Salayah Walker Wins in World Championship

By Valerie Sliker, courtesy Wagener Monthly
Tragically, Coach Holman has passed away since the writing of this article. The Forces are under the leadership of Shannia Bryant. Read more here.

Holman Celebrates 25 Years of Double Dutch Force Championships

Salayah Walker, an A. L. Corbett 7th grader, jumping with a Lexington/Columbia Double Dutch Forces jump rope team, won first place in doubles in the world championship held on June 8, 9 and 11, 2016 in Sumter, SC.  Formerly held in Paris, the Caribbean, NY and FL, the competition was held nearby this year and featured teams from as far away as Japan and France. 

On this 25th anniversary year for the Wagener Double Dutch Forces, Coach Joy Holman took 14 teams to the competition.  Six teams won first place, four teams placed second, and two teams placed third.  The world championship is a three-day event with daily eliminations and only five teams make it to the Saturday finals.

For somebody who stumbled into the sport, Coach Holman has accumulated a very impressive record coaching her Double Dutch Forces.  Besides winning world championships, Holman and her Forces have two documentaries out, one of which Oprah owns the rights.  They’ve been featured in several commercials and one educational show about Gullah and filmed in Beaufort.  They’ve had songs made just for them and one of her jumpers was featured in an Adam Sandler movie called Jack and Jill.

Grant for Parks from Aiken County Council

The Aiken County Council has awarded $20,000 to the Town of Wagener for a tourism development project, namely restoration of the former Kitchings Mill library building currently housed adjacent to the Wagener Volunteer Fire Department.  The restoration of this historic building is intended to provide a park visitor center for Wagener and to contribute to tourism in the unincorporated areas of Aiken County. 

Mayor Mike Miller applied for this grant to secure funds for a new roof and other improvements to the historic Kitchings Mill library building.  Aiken County Councilwoman Kathy Rawls brought the grant to Miller’s attention.  The town of Wagener appreciates all Ms. Rawls does for the area and the citizens she represents here in Northeast Aiken County.  She works tirelessly on our behalf.

Restoration and revitalization of the Kitchings Mill library and the John’s Town general store buildings comprise the first phase development of the 17-acre Eunice & Dr. Henry Ponder Municipal Park located beside and behind the fire department.  Plans have been proposed to establish an Aiken County EMS and Sheriff’s substation in this area as well.  The EMS ambulance service previously located in Wagener was forced to relocate due to the lack of a sprinkler system in their building of occupancy.  According to Aiken County fire officials, a sprinkler system is required in any building wherein a person sleeps.  Miller has fought to keep the EMS in Wagener under a grandfather clause to no avail.  This matter is currently under contention.

Senator Nikki Setzler recently presented the town with a $35,000 Grant for a playground at the new park as well.  Read more about it in this month's Wagener Monthly.

Park improvements have begun at the Aiken County Roy Warner Park as well.  An update was presented in the June issue of the Wagener Monthly.

Help Needed to Control Feral Cats in Wagener

By Valerie Sliker, courtesy Wagener Monthly

Wagener’s Trap, Neuter & Return (TNR) volunteer program, a part of Aiken County’s and the nationwide TNR program, is seeking long-term volunteers to assist a couple of days per month with trapping and transporting feral cats in and around Wagener.  The cats, with the feeder’s or owner’s permission, are generally unapproachable and have to be humanely trapped before being transported to and from a facility that will spay or neuter the cats.  After recovery, the cats are released at the same location where they were trapped.

TNR aims to humanely control feral cat overpopulation and shelter overpopulation.  Trap and Remove programs have been unsuccessful because the vacant space with some type of food and shelter for feral cats remains and more unsterilized cats quickly repopulate the area.  Trap, Neuter and Return has been proven successful by preventing cat reproduction.

If you are feeding outdoor cats, you need to have them spayed or neutered or you will soon have many more outdoor cats.  Outdoor cats tend to become feral and unapproachable.  This overpopulation has become a problem for the town of Wagener and Aiken County.  Kathy Rawls has been working with TNR and community volunteers to address this problem in a humane way.

Dottie Gantt and Vicki Wright began this program in the Wagener area a few years ago.  Health problems prevent them for working as much as they have in the past.  Connie Jeffcoat has also helped a lot.  Dr. Kathy Bissell and Dr. Charlie Timmerman have also donated time or transportation.

CE Tyler's Red & White Comes Down

By Valerie Sliker, courtesy Wagener Monthly

Feb. 8, 2018

The building that housed CE Tyler’s Red & White grocery, one of South Carolina’s first and last Red & White stores, is in the process of being repurposed.  Closed in the Summer of 2001, the store located next to Blizzard’s Funeral Home on Main Street, has remained empty and under the ownership of Charlie Tyler and LeMyra (Tyler) Young for fifteen years. 

“We never felt good about selling the store until now,” Charlie Tyler, son of the building’s proprietor, told me recently as he and his wife Ann talked with me in their home in the room that formerly was a covered porch where his grandmother would sit and collect greetings from Wagener residents as they did their weekly grocery shopping across the yard.

“The store was like our living room and this house was like our living room; didn’t matter, you were home either place.”  Charlie’s grandparents spent much of their time on the sun porch.  They could sit and watch the people come and go and wave to the people who were calling out, “Hey Ms. Myra!”

“We live so close to the building and we will have to live closely with whatever goes on over there,” Tyler explained.  After fifteen years standing empty, the sixty-year-old building that housed a ninety-seven-year-old store has been sold to its neighbor, Blizzard’s Funeral Home.  “Wilson’s (Blizzard) daddy was in the store every day.  He would either sit with my mother in the office or go back in the meat department with daddy and talk.  We have a long standing relationship with the Blizzards.  We’re like family.  When Wilson called about purchasing the building, I didn’t have to hesitate.  I feel like this is a perfect thing to happen to this piece of property.  It’s been a blessing and an answer to prayer.”

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