Local official: Natural gas will follow
gasoline prices – into stratosphere

September 12, 2005

By VIC MACDONALD
Index-Journal regional editor

After a hurricane, the price of gasoline spiked up to record levels. People worried about supplies and rushed to the pumps to be sure their cars would run. They grumbled about the price — why’s it so high anyway — but what can you do?
You have to have transportation.
After a cold winter, the price of natural gas could cause the same reaction.
People won’t rush to their natural gas company wanting to fill up, of course, but they’ll be concerned, rightfully, about the supply running low. They will turn down their thermostats, perhaps to uncomfortable levels, and shiver in sweaters — indoors. But what can you do?
You have to have heat.
In Greenwood, the manager of the Commission of Public Works sees this situation playing out here — and across the nation. If this is a cold winter, people either will be cold, even indoors, or they will devote a much higher proportion of their household income to the task of keeping warm.
Steve Reeves just doesn’t want people surprised in October and November when the bills come due.
“The gasoline market is similar to the natural gas market,” he said. “You’ve seen a 30-50 percent increase in (the cost of) gasoline. There is a duplicate in natural gas prices.”
Add into the market conditions Hurricane Katrina and it’s a once-in-40-years scenario for the natural gas industry. In its first short-term post-Katrina energy outlook, the Energy Information Administration warns the natural gas industry and its customers to get ready for sky-high natural gas prices this winter.
The buying trends that have held true in past markets no longer apply in today’s natural gas-buying arena, Reeves said.
In the past, natural gas costs to the utilities were lower in the summer, so buyers could shop for the lowest prices, then store natural gas and have a winter supply.
This summer the price just kept escalating. Projections call for the price to be even higher when winter comes — that’s the traditional time for a spike upward in the price of natural gas. And the utilities will have no choice but to pass that additional cost to consumers.
Reeves said the 15,000-16,000 CPW residential customers will see little change in the portion of their bills that reflects CPW’s cost of getting the natural gas into homes.
What will change is the amount in the bottom portion of the bill that reflects the amount CPW pays for natural gas. For a home that uses 10,000 cubic feet of natural gas per month, that portion of the bill will be about $50 higher.
“We want to give a heads-up so it doesn’t come so much as a shock to people when they get their bills,” Reeves said. “With winter just around the corner, they should expect extremely high heating bills.”
Unless they drop their thermostats. Reeves said keeping the thermostat at 68 degrees, as opposed to 70 or 72, could provide some savings. But the last time CPW weathered an extremely cold winter, 2001-02, that didn’t work.
“We hated to keep telling people ‘drop your thermostat’ and people were telling us ‘it’s already at 60 (degrees),’” Reeves said. “You hate to tell people to drop it more than that.”
Electric heating bills also could be affected by the natural gas price spike, since more natural gas than ever is being diverted to fuel electric power plants.
“As coal prices went up, electric plants turned to natural gas. That drove natural gas prices up,” Reeves said. “When there’s greater demand and the same supply, the price goes up.”
Propane and fuel oil prices most likely also will track gasoline and natural gas prices upward, Reeves said. CPW will try to combat the high cost of buying natural gas on the open market by doing some propane injection to stretch the available fuel supply, and by tapping some of the natural gas it has in reserves.
But tapping reserves is risky, Reeves conceded, because the utility may wind up with low reserves and no gas available at any prices if the distribution system damaged by Hurricane Katrina can’t be repaired quickly.
Mild winter weather could go a long way toward solving the natural gas price spike. If demand stays constant – not rising to meet cold weather demands – and supply improves, the price would stabilize. Reeves said that’s the best CPW could hope for.
“It could lower the price, lower consumption,” he said. “That would be the best for consumers.”
To prepare, Reeves advises weather-stripping and storm windows for homes that don’t have them. But he’s also sensitive to some people’s financial situation. Seniors on fixed incomes, who don’t have the money to pay dramatically high natural gas bills, also don’t have the money to winter-proof a house, he said, although some investment in protecting the exterior of the home could be repaid in savings from heating the interior.
Whatever homeowners feel they can do to guard against the winter, he thinks forewarned is better than unaware.
“People see the (gasoline) pump – they need to know the same thing is going to happen to (the price of) natural gas,” Reeves said.

Lander’s international students attend
ice cream social at president’s house

September 12, 2005

By SHAVONNE POTTS
Index-Journal staff writer

A group of international students from Lander University talk with people from the community Sunday afternoon during a welcome ice cream social at Lander President Dan Ball and wife Marjorie’s home. Lander has more than 50 international students.

Since home is thousands of miles away, many of Lander University’s international students from around the world found a second home and an extended family right in the back yard of the president’s home.
President Dan Ball and wife Marjorie welcomed students from more than 14 foreign countries and the community for an ice cream social.
Many of the students enrolled are from Australia, Finland, France, Thailand, Yugoslavia and Zimbabwe.
“It makes me feel welcome and to know you’re not alone here,” Olga Nunez-Lopez, of Mexico, said.
Nunez-Lopez said she’s gotten the chance to meet new people, and by running cross country, she’s met even more people.
Tara Nyikaranda, of Zambia, is completing her second year at Lander and is happy to see the various people from different countries.
“It feels so good and makes us feel like we’re at home and that’s what I like about it, that it makes you feel at home,” she said.
Nyikaranda said she is happy to see so many international students at the university.
“I think it’s wonderful the way Lander University is so welcoming to the international students,” host mother Kathy Goforth, of Greenwood, said.
For years, Goforth and husband Gary have opened their home to several international students from various countries, including Thailand and Serbia and Montenegro.
“The students feel at home and they get a good education,” Gary Goforth said.
Zoran Jelenic, of Serbia and Montenegro, is a senior, but is spending his first year at Lander.
“It sure is nice to see that they care about the international students and it creates a very friendly environment — kind of like a home,” he said.
April Moore, assistant director of Student Activities and Multicultural Affairs coordinator, said the event is part of bridging the gap between the community and the students.
“It’s making sure that these students are recognized and a chance to meet, not just Dr. Ball, but people from the community,” she said.
Moore’s job is to make sure the students have a positive experience at the university and that they have a smooth transition.
She said the university tries to have between 40-60 international students attend the university each year.
“This was a great chance for Dr. Ball, the faculty and staff to open their arms and extend a very warm welcome to the students,” Moore said.
The next International Student Organization event will be in November.
For information on the Multicultural Affairs office, call Moore at 388-8896 or go online at amoore@lander.edu.

Shavonne Potts covers general assignments in Greenwood and the Lakelands. She can be reached at 223-1811, ext. 3306, or: spotts@indexjournal.com.

Opinion

Teaching the Constitution one day is at least a step

September 12, 2005

Beginning this year, on September 17, every school that receives federal funds will be required to have some kind of program for students to focus on the U. S. Constitution. If that date is on a weekend, like this year, it can be applied in the week before or after.
That, of course, includes all schools in Greenwood and the Lakelands. It applies to all educational institutions that receive federal funds, whether elementary schools or colleges. That generates a large dose of sarcasm, and, sarcastically speaking, Big Deal!
This day of “remembrance” was mandated by a law introduced by Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W. Va. September 17 is, as every school child ought to know, the date the Constitution was signed. The senator, who was frustrated from what he believed was “a huge ignorance on the part of many Americans about history,” wanted to do something to help change that.

SENATOR BYRD, NO DOUBT, had the best intentions. It is indeed something that needs addressing in our schools. Still, the law does very little, other than calling attention to the date. It requires no continuous academic instructions on what the Constitution means to us or even why we are Americans who enjoy the greatest freedoms in the world. Not only that, what can students learn in one day that will stay with students throughout their lives?
From time to time some quiz shows we are sadly educated about our country, its rights, its freedoms, and putting into perspective what it all means. Not only students, but many adults have no idea about some of the things that made this nation what it is. American history is something in books. That they know, but little else.

IT’S APPROPRIATE, THEN, that two U. S. senators got together to introduce a bill called the “American History Achievement Act.” It would create a new 10-state pilot assessment of the teaching of U. S. History and Civics and would be given in grades 8 and 12 through the National Assessment of Educational Programs (NAEP). It would mandate a more frequent analysis through the NAEP of the actual extent and depth of the effective teaching of American history. The bill also puts emphasis on civic education.
Civics and American history should be part of every curriculum, mandated or not. The lessons they contain cannot be overemphasized.
There is a lesson to be learned from the new bill, too. It was introduced by Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. They have shown that regardless of political philosophies, working together leads to positive results. But, then, that’s something many adults and other lawmakers could also note.

Editorial expression in this feature represents our own views.
Opinions are limited to this page.

Obituaries

Danny Garner

GREENWOOD — Danny Eugene “Pee Wee” Garner, beloved brother and uncle, 55, of 128 Stone Oak Lane, died Sunday, September 11, 2005, at his home.
Born in Greenwood, he was a son of the late Perry Willis Garner and Annie Bell Wood Garner Scott. He was previously employed by Bi-Lo and was a member of Parkland Baptist Church.
He was preceded in death by a brother, Richard Garner.
Surviving is a sister, Brenda Garner of the home; a half sister, Patsy G. Wood of Georgia; a brother, Bobby Garner of Abbeville; three half brothers, Kenneth Garner and Ray Garner, both of GA and Eddie Garner of North Carolina; two nieces, Lois Rhodes of Calhoun Falls and Sharon Garner of Hodges; and two nephews, Calvin Brown of Hodges and Lee Garner of Abbeville.
Services will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday at the Harley Funeral Home Chapel with the Rev. Joe Black and the Rev. Craig Hughes officiating. Burial will be in Greenwood Memorial Gardens.
Pallbearers will be Christopher Brown, Calvin Brown, Tim Rhodes, Johnny Rhodes, Ron Davis and Phil Wood.
The family will receive friends at the funeral home on Tuesday from 7 to 9 p.m.
The family is at the home of his nephew, Calvin Brown, 107 Andrews Chapel Road, Hodges.

Online condolences may be sent to the family by visiting www.harleyfuneralhome.com
PAID OBITUARY

Anne Garrett

Anne Elizabeth Shirley Garrett, 77, of 129 Thompson Drive, died Saturday, Sept. 10, 2005 at Self Regional Medical Center.
Born in Greenwood, she was a daughter of the late Walker Talmadge and Mary Elizabeth Davis Shirley. She was a graduate of Greenwood High School and retired from Carolina Cigar & Candy Co. She was a former member of Main Street United Methodist Church and Tranquil United Methodist Church.
Survivors include a son, Richard Wayne Garrett of Greenwood; a brother, Richard Shirley of Greenwood; and a companion with whom she made her home, Thomas Cook.
Memorial services are 11:30 a.m. Tuesday at Blyth Funeral Home.
The family is at the home.
Memorials may be made to the American Cancer Society, P.O. Box 1741, Greenwood, SC 29648.
Blyth Funeral Home & Cremation Services is in charge.
Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.blythfuneralhome.com

Evelyn Harrison Miller

BRADLEY — Evelyn Marie Harrison Miller, 68, of 2005 County Line Road, widow of Deaver Miller, died Sunday, Sept., 11, 2005 at her home.
Born in LaGrange, Ga., she was a daughter of the late Beula and Katherine Marie Harrison. She was a retired seamstress with Greenwood Shirt Co.
Survivors include are two sons, Bobby and James Miller, both of Greenwood; three daughters, Becky Worthington of Bradley, Jean Duncan of Alabama and Ann Ebert of Walhalla; nine grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.
Graveside services are 11 a.m. Tuesday at Greenwood Memorial Gardens, conducted by the Revs. Bobby Cutter and Chuck Sprouse.
Pallbearers are Chris Davis, Artie and Danny Worthington, Chris Miller, David Dill and Jacob Miller.
Visitation is 7-9 tonight at Harley Funeral Home.
The family is at the home of a son Bobby Miller, 129 Crescent Drive, Brookside, Greenwood.
Memorials may be made c/o Harley Funeral Home, P.O. Box 777, Greenwood, SC 29648.
Harley Funeral Home is in charge.
Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.harleyfuneralhome.com

Mary Ann McDowell Rhodes

COLUMBIA — Service for Mary Ann McDowell Rhodes, 69, will be held Tuesday at 11 a.m. at Westminster Presbyterian Church with burial in Elmwood Cemetery and Gardens. Visitation will be Monday 7-9 p.m. at the church. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Dorothy A. Rhodes Endowment Scholarship, c/o Columbia College, Columbia, S.C. 29203; Westminster Presbyterian Church Music Fund or Kitchen Fund, 1715 Broad River Rd., Columbia, S.C. 29210; or to a charity of one’s choice. Dunbar Funeral Home, Dutch Fork Chapel, Irmo, is assisting the family.
Mrs. Rhodes, wife of Jerry Rhodes, died Saturday, September 10, 2005. Born in Camden, she was a daughter of the late Hollis and Dolly Clyburn McDowell. A graduate of Eau Claire High School, she attended Bell South School, Lyles, Illinois. She retired as an engineer after thirty years with Southern Bell.
Mrs. Rhodes attended Westminster Presbyterian Church where she served on the Board of Deacons, as a Circle Member and member of Ladies Bible Class, Go-Getters and Settlers Club.
Surviving are her husband; daughters and sons-in-law, Melita R. Newman and Charles T. Newman, Sr. of Columbia and Cindy R. Leary and Dr. Julius L. Leary, Jr. of Ninety Six; sons and daughter-in-law, W. Lynn Rhodes of Blythewood and James E. and Betty M. Rhodes of West Columbia; grandchildren, J. Nicholas Perry and his wife, Candice W. Perry, Lindsay A. Perry, Frances G. Newman, Charles T. Newman, Jr., Christopher B. Perry, Victor R. Perry, Julius L. Leary III, Carolina E. Leary, Jonathan R. Leary and Christopher James Rhodes; great-grandchild, Bryce N. Perry; and sister, Margie Cobb of Long Beach, Calif. She was predeceased by daughter, Dorothy A. Rhodes and sister, Sallie Lou Bruce.
PAID OBITUARY