Mortgage Broker in Orangeburg, SC

COPE, S.C. (WCIV) — A new Garden Club class at an Orangeburg County School District is rebuilding their greenhouse, after a recent storm damaged two of them.

“It got destroyed,” Carver-Edisto Middle School 8th grade student Taylor Mack said. “We couldn’t even put it back up.”

The remaining greenhouse suffered damage, including tears and rips.

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The nine students enrolled in the class are now building a sturdier greenhouse, with the help of the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputy Quentin Williams helped to start the club with the students. He said the students’ progress has been tremendous.

“Some of our kids have had behavioral issues, especially last year and the year before, but this year, since they’ve been doing this: nothing. Not one thing,” he said.

Many of the students said they find their time in the garden to be calming and peaceful.

“In my 7th grade year, I was more on the troubled side. I would constantly stay in trouble,” 8th grade student Juan Still said. “When you’re in Garden Club, you have to have good grades, you can’t get in any trouble. So, I have very good grades now and I haven’t gotten into trouble.”

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Deputy Williams said some 8th grade students who will be moving to the high school next year are considering returning to the garden to mentor the new batch of students.

The students are responsible for watering, fertilizing and picking the vegetables, including broccoli, collards, cauliflower and onions.

Eighth grade student Ethan Spigner created a wooden sign with the phrase “Watch Me Grow” on it.

“It’s like our slogan,” he said.

In addition to the new greenhouse, the class is planning to add chickens and quails to their garden. Over the summer months, student will return to the school on a rotating basis to care for the animals and plants.

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“I’m really, really proud of them,” Deputy Williams said. “I think that’s what I want everyone to know and just see: actually understanding how far they’ve come.”

The program was initially started through the MUSC Boeing Center for Children’s Wellness.

ORANGEBURG COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) - The family of a woman who has been missing since August says they are infuriated after finding exposed remains they believed to be hers.

Melissa Aguilar, 49, of Holly Hill, was last in contact with family on Aug. 17, according to Orangeburg County Sheriff Leroy Ravenell.

Aguilar’s sister, Sarah Shipman, says investigators told her Thursday that remains were found in Holly Hill, less than half a mile from Aguilar’s home.

After asking neighbors for an approximate location, she and Aguilar’s two daughters, Brittany Ranew and Shanna Brown, went to the site the next day, hoping for closure.

“As I was hugging my nieces and consoling them, I looked down and found my sister’s jawbone between my feet,” Shipman says.

After rushing her nieces out of the woods, Shipman says she returned to the site.

“I went back out there to see if that was what I had really seen, I found her dental work and close to 20 more pieces of my sister that they had walked over and left behind,” she says.

The Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office has not confirmed the remains are Aguilars. They say they’ve been sent to SLED for processing and identification.

“We know her smile, and that smile was in the dirt, and you don’t unsee that, and you know someone’s smile,” she says.

Shipman says investigators promised to collect the rest of the remains Monday. When she and Brown returned to the scene Tuesday, they found what appeared to be several more bones and a tooth.

“I knew, there was something telling me there was more,” Shipman says.

They immediately altered authorities again.

Ranew describes her mother as the glue of the entire family.

“It’s hard to list all the amazing things about her because she was so much more than anyone could describe,” Ranew says.

Brown says there are no words to describe the pain of losing a mother.

“My 6-year-old is constantly asking me, ‘Why is Mamie on the news?’ and then my 1-year-old is not going to remember her. I’m going to have to remind him of who she was, she’s going to miss my wedding day,” Brown says.

Shipman says the lack of care from the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office through the entire investigation has “traumatized” their family.

“If the Sheriff’s Department is not capable of doing a job correctly, leaving my sister behind, they should own up and call in outside resources,” Shipman says.

The Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to the family’s claim that they mishandled the investigation.

“The investigation into Ms. Melissa Aguilar going missing is an active and ongoing investigation,” Sheriff Leroy Ravenell said in an email. “We are still asking the public for any information regarding Ms. Aguilar. If you have any information in this case, you are urged to contact us.”

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ORANGEBURG, S.C. —

The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control is investigating an unlicensed facility.

(Video above: Evening headlines from WYFF News 4)

Officials say on Thursday, DHEC, along with other state and local agencies, began an investigation on three alleged unlicensed community residential care facilities in Orangeburg.

According to officials, DHEC staff cited one facility for operating without a license, which is a violation of state statutes and regulations.

During the investigation, DHEC discovered that staff at the unlicensed facility were offering room and board and provided personal care for residents, officials say.

According to officials, investigators also found that residents were locked in rooms with no way of exiting without assistance. According to DHEC, that poses a risk in the event of a fire or medical emergency.

DHEC says authorities were able to place the residents of the unlicensed facility into emergency protective custody, and they have since been relocated to appropriate facilities to ensure their safety.

Based on the investigations of the other two facilities, DHEC staff did not find that they were being operated as community residential care facilities, according to officials.

DHEC says individuals living at those facilities were not receiving assistance with day-to-day living, so officials considered these facilities to be apartments.

Officials say the unlicensed facility submitted a plan of correction that was accepted by DHEC’s Bureau of Health Facilities Licensing.

“It is the responsibility of long-term care facilities to operate in compliance with all applicable state and federal laws, regulations and permits,” said DHEC’s Director of Health Care Quality, Gwen Thompson. “Our ultimate goal is for all of our state’s long-term care facilities to operate in accordance with these laws and regulations, which exist to establish safe standards for protecting the health of the residents they care for, as well as their staff. If a facility creates a dangerous living condition, we will take immediate and decisive action to protect residents, who are always our top priority.”

“I am deeply disturbed by the deplorable conditions in which we found the victims involved in these heinous crimes against humanity,” said Orangeburg Department of Public Safety Chief Charles Austin, Sr. “I commend Sergeant Deloris Edmunds and the team that worked with her to investigate and uncover the atrocities that were committed against some of our vulnerable citizens whose families entrusted the personal care of their loved ones to the suspects and their trust was betrayed.”

ORANGEBURG COUNTY, S.C. (WACH) — Investigators with the Orangeburg Department of Public Safety (ODPS) say five vulnerable adults ranging in age from 52 to 99 were in imminent danger when they were found in heavily soiled undergarments in the back of a Broughton Street barbershop.

During the December 27 investigation, officials say they were told that a man inside a closet room area ate himself to death and passed away on Christmas Eve, according to the incident report.

ODPS officials say bond was set a $30,000 for 40-year-old Shaneima Montgomery of Saint George on January 5 in connection to the crimes.

The Lemon Drive woman was arrested on January 4 and is charged with five counts of neglect and financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult.

Montgomery was allegedly receiving varying payment amounts for the victims' care at the Broughton Street and a location on Lovell Street.

According to an incident report, Montgomery is the owner of Blue Ink Sign Inc (487 Broughton Street) and is registered with the South Carolina Secretary of State as a nonprofit.

The use of the business is listed as administrative management and general management consulting services.

ODPS investigators were conducting a follow up from December 19 when they say the victims were found.

At the time of the initial visit, investigators say they saw a customer get a haircut and a Business and Professional License to Jerry's Professional Barber (967 Russell St., 29115) on the wall.

According to the incident report the victims were identified as a 99-year-old Black female, a 52-year-old Black female, an 80-year-old white male, 63-year-old white male, 73-year-old white male.

The door of one of the victims was locked from the outside preventing them to leave the room and a box of used needles were found on the floor of another victim.

The incident reports also states:

These are just some of the reasons this building is deemed unsafe for the vulnerable adults; however, there are many more, the incident report states.

All the victims were taken to MUSC Health Orangeburg for treatment.

The Orangeburg Department of Public Safety is still investigating the case.

The county will spend $600,000 to purchase the lot on 886 John C Calhoun Drive and the adjacent parking lot.

ORANGEBURG COUNTY, S.C. — The expansion of the Orangeburg County courthouse complex continues with the purchase of ATown Wings. It’s a move the county says is necessary to give them more room to do their work.

Last week the Orangeburg County council authorized the $600,000 purchase of the restaurant and the parking lot beside it. The county plans to use the land for green space and additional parking.

Donna Miller is a frequent customer at ATown Wings and says she hopes to see ATown stay in Orangeburg.

"I will say I am happy the fact that Orangeburg is growing and some of these dilapidated buildings, said Miller. “They're taking them down and trying to make Orangeburg look better. However, A Town Wing is a place that is very convenient for people who are working even the students to come and get something to eat fast and it absolutely tastes delicious so it's a bitter sweet situation right now.

RELATED: Hotel coming down to make way for Orangeburg county's new courthouse parking lot

County Administrator Harold Young says the restaurants lease will stay until construction is ready for the county courthouse.

"We extended that lease until we're ready to demolish it,” said Young. “That will give them time to decide whether they want to.. where they're next location will be. We hopefully that they won't close down, they'll just move somewhere else cause there are a lot of people who like their product."

RELATED: Orangeburg County starts demolition for new courthouse

The county has already begun tearing down other buildings to get ready for the new courthouse…which will replace the one that’s been in existence since 1928.

"And with more space it would allow us to have court more frequently,” said Young. “Which would help us adjudicate criminals better and be better for the citizens of Orangeburg County."

Once construction begins, the county estimates the project will be completed in eighteen months.