"Prior to the holidays, we're going to take these proposals to the School Improvement Councils to get input and we'll bring back the feedback," said Kershaw County School District Superintendent Dr. Frank Morgan. "We're going to take it out for larger input but the School Improvement Council is a good place to start."

During the past several months, the board has been looking for redistricting options that would create school boundaries in Camden and address overcrowding issues at Doby's Mill Elementary School.

Rickie Tiller was elected chairman and Melissa Emmons vice chair.

The commission heard presentations from both the city of Camden and Amy Schofield, director of the Kershaw County Library, for their input on the needs of the county.

The event, hosted by the Camden Garden Club as part of its 80th anniversary project to beautify and conserve Kershaw's grave, featured Revolutionary militia re-enactors, a Colonial color guard, the Daughters of the American Revolution, Sons of the American Revolution, the American Revolution Association and representatives from Historic Camden. Others participating in the ceremony included S.C. Rep. Laurie Slade Funderburk, S.C. Sen. Vincent Sheheen, Kershaw family descendants and Father Thomas Wynn Allen, pastor of Statesburg's Church of the Holy Cross. Kershaw, along with Thomas Sumter, was a founding member of the church.

Joanne Cushman, president of the Camden Garden Club, also recognized Camden City Councilman Ned Towell.

According to a pair of CPD reports, the sequence of events began just before 3:30 p.m. Friday when a Camden couple called Kershaw County dispatchers saying Sutton was following them. The couple made their way to CPD headquarters. CPD Chief Joe Floyd said Sutton took off when he spotted officers in patrol cars who were already looking for him.

Sutton drove up DeKalb Street at high speed in a rented red Ford Focus, turned right on Campbell Street and then left on Rutledge Street.

"It all took less than 30 seconds," Floyd said. "By the time our officers got onto Rutledge, the wreck had already happened," said Floyd. "One of our offices said they saw (Sutton) blow through the four-way stop at Rutledge and Church streets."

According to Camden Police Department (CPD) Chief Joe Floyd, Henry Lamar Stover, 27, of Grey Fox Road, Lugoff, was stopped after an officer spotted him driving a burgundy Ford Taurus with a paper tag that appeared to have been altered.

"He had written over the information on the tag," said Floyd. "It was very obvious."

The report indicated Stover had changed the tag from reading "11/15/2009" to "11/25/2009" but it was not clearly legible.

While running the Taurus' information, the officer discovered Stover had previous drug charges levied by the CPD in 2000. At that point, the officer returned to Stover's vehicle and, while returning his driver's license, smelled a strong odor of marijuana coming from the car.

"Our officer could smell marijuana plants -- it's a different smell from a burnt marijuana cigarette," said Floyd.

Inside the trunk, the officer found a pair of work boots, safety glasses, hard hat, hooded sweatshirt, antifreeze, a silver colored spoon and a black leather jacket.

Matthews said in an exclusive advance interview that his unofficial campaign has gone "very well" despite the economy.

"When I first started, I tried to go to all the businesses in the county," said Matthews, a Republican. "People are being polite, but they're saying there's a need for modernization, for change."

According to the S.C. Ethics Commission Web site, Matthews has raised a total of just more than $28,844 as of Oct. 10 and has spent just less than $10,000 of that.

When asked why he started his unofficial campaign so long ago -- in the summer of 2008 -- Matthews said he was "testing the waters."

Kershaw County Council, County Administrator Clay Young and County Attorney Ken DuBose held an initial meeting Monday with two officials from the University of South Carolina's (USC) Institute for Public Service and Policy Research to discuss the development of a 10-year strategic plan for the county.

"We have already started this process," said USC's Bill Tomes. "We've met with stakeholders and other officials in the county."

Tomes said it will be a challenge to compile a strategic plan in light of the current economic situation.

While Elgin is already home to a branch of the Kershaw County Library, at 3,600 square feet the building on U.S. 1 is bursting at the seams.

There are three options to alleviate the over-crowding, according to Amy Schofield, the director of the Kershaw County Library.

The first option is to use land the town of Elgin owns on Greenhill Road to construct a new library. The second alternative brought to the table is to use the property currently used as recreational ballfields in Lugoff -- owned by Kershaw County. The third possibility is to expand the current building, which Schofield said would be the least expensive option, but would leave no room for expansion in the future.

A crew from TruVista Communications was recently busy preparing lights for a holiday tree lighting ceremony to be held from 5 to 6 p.m. Nov. 29 at Monument Square in Camden.

This event, according to Camden Downtown Manager Wade Luther, will mark the beginning of the holiday season festivities in Camden.

A committee led by Luther has been organizing this ceremony, as well as a City Hall tree lighting ceremony, for several months.

Liz Horton, chamber executive director, unveiled the updated Web site to members of the chamber's executive board during its Thursday meeting.

"After many months and countless hours, the new Web site has finally arrived," Horton said. "A lot of work has gone into this, and it's just really exciting to be able to actually launch it now."

Horton said she hoped many Kershaw County residents and business owners would be pleased with the new site, acknowledging that the previous site seemed to primarily target tourists.

"We decided to change the Web site so that we can make it more user-friendly and increase the business aspect of it," Horton said. "We wanted it to be three-fold: beneficial for our chamber members, visitors, and people that are looking to relocate here."

Camden is no exception, which is why it has been included in the SCPRT's Tourism Action Plan (TAP).

"This plan goes back six or seven years ago, when legislators and the governor brought Michael Porter down from Harvard. He basically said that we need to lift ourselves up from our bootstraps -- economically," said Marion Edmonds, SCPRT spokesperson. "He gave us a few ideas of clusters to focus on, and one of those clusters was tourism."

"We're here to serve our customers," said General Manager Charles Litchfield. "We're not driven by stockholders or profit."

Servicing an estimated 24,000 people across 400 square-miles, Cassatt Water Co. is celebrating its 40th year in business this month.

What originally started in 1969 when Cassatt resident and Strom Thurmond administrative assistant Hettie Rickett spearheaded an effort to bring clean, reliable water to Cassatt locals, has sprung into an 18-employee inter-county operation.

"It has received all permits and is now available for residential and commercial properties along Hwy. 1," said Russell Wright, utilities director for Kershaw County.

According to economic development director Nelson Lindsay, Kershaw County Council has explored the concept of providing sewer service to the East Camden commercial corridor since the 1990s.