What was once being eyed for a waste-collection site is now being envisioned as a long-awaited playground for youth, but that is just one item included among an Orangeburg community’s improvement plans.

The Nix-Stilton Community Improvement Organization is not even a year old, but it has a large vision for its community that organization officials say has no room for drug dealers, vacant homes, abandoned buildings and run-down property.

“We’re hoping to improve our streets. Orangeburg County Council has done a good job of tearing down a lot of the vacant, abandoned homes. We just want to continue to build that pride in our community so that after we’re all long gone, the efforts that were initially established for an organized, well-kept community will continue to grow for years to come,” said Thomasina G. Wolfe, secretary of the Nix-Stilton CIO.

Wolfe is also the daughter of the late Deacon Thomas Green, one of a group of community members who purchased a plot of land on McLaine Drive in 1957.

Green and the other land purchasers envisioned transforming the land into a playground, so when it was proposed by Orangeburg County Council to place a waste-collection site on the property, the ire of the community was drawn to the point where a large group gathered in opposition to the measure at a County Council meeting last year.

“There are a lot of elderly people that live in our community. The concern of the persons who were initiating that was that the closest waste-management site was off St. Matthews Road. While it may appear reasonable, we were concerned because we didn’t want the facility in our neighborhood,” Wolfe said. “Although they promised a well-kept site, we were still concerned about the possibility of a stench. We wanted to use the property for what it was originally intended for, and that was a park/playground.”

Orangeburg County Administrator Bill Clark said, “That project has been abandoned. The county is not the owners of the land, nor do we have any ownership interest in it. Whatever we might do would have to be at the interest of the entity that owns the property.”

Wolfe said the waste-collection site proposal sparked an interest among the community to continue enhancement efforts. The committee met for the first time in October 2007 and has been meeting the third Sunday of every month ever since. Officers include: Elder George Scott, chaplain; A. Deloris Franklin, assistant secretary; Jimmy Baxter, president; Harry Govan, vice president; Michael Jenkins, treasurer and Willie Stokes, assistant treasurer.

“We want to continue the original efforts of our organizers, who were H.D. Smith, Thomas Green. I mean, these are some of the original names. When all of us ... finally got our hands on the original documentation of the organization, we reviewed the goals and objectives ... and looked at their bylaws. They were very structured and organized,” Wolfe said.

The group is working to secure a grant to develop a park/playground that will include swings, concessions stands and a baseball diamond among several other amenities.

“We’re not talking about just a gym set and horseshoes. We really want a nice playground. When I’m at home visiting my mother on Stilton Road, I see a lot of youth walking the streets. I see T-ball teams, soccer teams of various age groups. There is so much potential,” she said.

Organization member Eartha N. Fuller said she found the initial proposal for a waste-collection site a mixed blessing because she said it spawned an organization that is now working for the continued development of the community.

“That’s what sparked the people out here. We had a councilwoman that was not even up-to-date with nobody in this community. Harry Govan was the one that found out the council was going to initiate that, and that’s what brought the people out,” Fuller said.

Wolfe said the organization’s more immediate plans include working on securing nonprofit 501-C3 status. The group also has beautification and other committees it has developed to foster community pride and support. The group and its arsenal of committed volunteers have also held clean-up days, cleaning streets stretching as far as Mingo Street and some portions of the Belleville Road.

A Community Fun Day has also been scheduled from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 20. There are also plans to add crime watch and noise ordinance signs within the community.

Baxter said more needs to be done to restore the community back to its original lore. He said he’d like to see the removal of drug dealers and others who have torn the community down.

“I’d like to see more activity in this area. It’s way different from the way it used to be. If those older people were here these days and times, they’d die again because of the way they’re tearing up houses and stuff,” Baxter said.

“We have a lot of loose people in this neighborhood, and we’d like to see them move out. Get the sheriff to move them out. I know they say they can’t do nothing when people are on their own property, but they can do something,” he said.

Govan said a large portion of the problem is rental property owners who are not properly caring for their homes.

“After the homeowners died or moved, the rental came in. I think that was the start of some areas’ downfall,” he said.

Organization member Shirley G. Johnson said she still lives in the house that her parents built in 1952 but is discouraged by the drug dealing going on behind her home. She also cited the lack of care rental property owners are showing toward their homes.

“The community is not like it was when my parents built here. A lot of the property has gone down. The reason I’m in this committee is because I’d like to see us bring this area back up to where it was before,” Johnson said.

Jenkins, whose father Johnny Jenkins was also one of the original property owners of the land for which a playground is being planned, said he is also interested in using the CIO as a vehicle for change.

“I think it’s something necessary for the community as far as growth and development. It’s for the community, especially youth in the area that need some guidance and some kind of direction,” Jenkins said.

Chaplain Scott said it will take faith to keep the organization forging ahead.

“Faith alone will cut down on the crime. We’re trying to meet with the community to try to bring them together. We’re not really promoting one faith, but rather what faith stands for, and that’s togetherness,” Scott said.

For more information on the Nix-Stilton CIO or how you can be a part of it, contact Govan by phone at 803-536-0444.

n T&D Staff Writer Dionne Gleaton can be reached by e-mail at dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5534. Discuss this and other stories online at The TandD.comm.

You must be logged in to comment.