Anderson, SC

As you may have already heard, Anderson County School District Five has obtained an option to buy 30+ acres on Cathey Road for the purpose of building a new elementary school. I had heard various people talk about it but ran across SC Sen. K Bryant's blog on this topic. I followed the link to SaveCatheyRoad.com and read the arguments against locating a school there. I encourage you to do so also. The Cathey Road site has more information regarding the situation.

I am not sure all of the reasons they state are as important or realistic as they could be. The safety concerns are the most important but until we get the current budget problems in Anderson Schools settled, I am not sure we need to build another school anyway. And that is their reason #6! Safety should be #1 when children are involved since you cannot put a price on the safety, well being and education of our children.

The argument about losing farmland would mean more to me if the area in question was predominantly used for agriculture. But I hate adding any more to the urban sprawl that has ruined many beautiful areas in America. But I live close as a crow flies from this area and I can see alot of growth happening and that will mean an increasing need for more schools.

Their reasoning that there are 37 acres available on Hwy 81 that is better suited may be true. But how much is the school district going to have to pay for this 37 acres? Not sure if it the tract for sale for $9.4 million dollars is the one they are talking about but that is one heck of a price to pay before you ever break ground. Especially if we could just expand the capabilities of our other schools as they suggest in reason #7. Sometimes throwing money at a problem is not the best way to solve it.

I see alot of good sound reasons against locating a school here and agree with alot of what is said on the anit-Cathey Rd website. So what do you think?

It might be time to tone down the prayers for rain. I know we have been in a terrrible drought but the heavy rains we have seen lately are taking the blame for the damage to the floodgates of the Broadway Lake dam in Anderson SC.

County officials must determine how much it will cost to fix the gate, or if they should wait and push for $30 million of federal money it would take to replace the lake's dam, bridge and spillway. And in the usual way of politicians doing things, several politicians started pointing fingers at each other in an article in the Independent. yet once again, politicians squabbling instead of solving. No big surprise there.

Somehow I suspect the politicians that push for the $30 million solution have friends or family that will benefit from doing the work. But there is no doubt the work should have been done in the past but isn't hindsight always 20/20? And what does the finger pointing accomplish?

It sure does not help the residents of Broadway Lake.

I am happy to say that on April 2, the third annual Downtown Sounds returns to the Courthouse Square in Anderson's downtown. I just read the news today, which was kind of weird considering my better half and I were wondering when the event would be starting. After all it is starting to get warmer, and even if it is cooler today spring has sprung! If you don't beleive me, look at all the pollen turning my black car yellow! But at tleast the rain is helping with the pollen and the lake levels.

For those that are not familiar Downtown Sounds is a Free musical event that runs from April 2 to August 27. It features blues, oldies and beach music. Anyway, the layout of Downtown Sounds will be about the same as before. There will be beverage stations outside, one with soda pop and water, another with beer-not that anybody wants to drink a frosty one while listening to the free music! They are moving the ticket booths to a shady spot to help the volunteers stay a little bit cooler.

The event starts at 6 and runs to 9PM at the Courthouse Square. If you get a chance, get there extra early so you can eat at Matty's, which is one of the events sponsors.