One of the most important things to a community and helping it to grow and progress is to have leadership with vision and with the interest of that community at heart.
While we have local leaders whose focus is on the community, we need more representation at the state level to get things moving.
The new redistricting as it currently stands puts a large majority of our county in one Senate district served by Senator Kent Williams.
While Senator Williams is from “our side of the river” as he campaigned on, being from Marion and in a high position in their county government, it is our perception that he would, of course, take care of Marion first. A quick look at the S.C. Department of Commerce website shows that since September 2009, Marion County has secured industries promising more than $10 million in investment and nearly 600 jobs. There may be even more than what is listed there. Despite the fact that we have a better location in proximity to the interstate and available land, in that same time frame, Dillon County has not received the same benefit. Dillon County has not had a major announcement of a new industry since Harbor Freight Tools in 2001.
At the same time, Dillon County has experienced a loss of services. Our Clemson Extension office has reduced hours. Our One Stop Center was closed, and a new office opened just a few days a week with reduced service from the previous office. We have a Social Security office that is only open a couple of days a week. Our citizens have to travel out of our area to receive full service from many agencies now.
While all of the above-mentioned items may not be to Senator Williams credit or may not be his fault, Dillon County has not had the political strength behind us to protect what we have and to bring new things our way.
This is why we believe that Dillon County needs its own Senator.
We need a Senator who is in our community every day working for the people. We must have someone who understands the needs of the county and who is here on a regular basis talking with the citizens to find out their concerns and suggestions—not just someone who shows up for a photo op. We need someone out there fighting for us and our county to make sure that we get our fair share, and unfortunately, it does not appear that we have that now.
In the past decade, we have had a senator from Florence and then one from Marion in this particular seat. Each has had a turn. Dillon County was on the backburner. For Dillon County to become a priority, we need some good Dillon County citizen with a willingness to step forward to campaign and win the seat. With such a large part of Dillon County in that one district, the time seems better now than ever.
It’s our turn now. We just need the right person to step up to the plate.