Orangeburg National

sells to First Citizens

What began more than 20 years ago as a bank that would meet the needs of the Orangeburg community merged with First Citizens Bank and Trust Co. Inc.

Orangeburg National Bank, later named Community Resource Bank, was founded in November 1987. Community Bankshares Inc., parent of Community Resource Bank, N.A., and First Citizens Bank and Trust Co. Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of First Citizens Bancorporation Inc. announced the execution of a definitive merger agreement in late June. Orangeburg National officially became First Citizens Bank and Trust on Oct. 31.

A group of nine business people in Orangeburg formed Orangeburg National Bank. The bank expanded to Sumter and Florence, and entered the greater Columbia market with the acquisition of the Bank of Ridgeway in 2002. The bank operated 10 branches throughout the Midlands and Pee Dee regions of South Carolina. Community Resource Bank resulted from the 2006 merger of CBI’s four bank subsidiaries – Orangeburg National Bank, Sumter National Bank, Florence National Bank and the Bank of Ridgeway.

First Citizens Bank offers commercial and retail banking services through 170 offices in Georgia and South Carolina. First Citizens’ Chairman and CEO Jim Apple has said both banks share a strategy of providing community banking services to the markets they serve and a commitment to their employees, shareholders and customers.

Samuel L. Erwin, CEO of Community Bankshares, said there are no plans to close the two bank branches in Orangeburg — one on Broughton Street and the other on Columbia Road. The signs changed to First Citizens the first week in December.

Despite a difficult 2007 in the face of a struggling real estate market and declining interest rate margins, bank officials have said the merger is not about recent challenges.

Man gets life in killing

of Springfield pastor

The Rev. Phillip McCreary Sr. was a beloved brother, father and grandfather whose murder on July 6, 2007, perplexed his family, friends and even authorities.

An associate pastor at Macedonia Baptist Church in Blackville, the 51-year-old was an avid fisherman who was murdered while doing what he loved best.

Authorities were sent to the landing where S.C. Highway 39 crosses the Edisto River near Springfield. It was there they found the body of McCreary with a single gunshot wound to the head.

The two arrests eventually made following an investigation conducted by SLED, the Barnwell County Sheriff’s Office and other state and local agencies included William Allen Owens, 31, of Williston and Hariet Renee McKinney, 32, of Pittsville, Md.

Owens’ trial began Dec. 1 and ended three days later with a sentence of life in prison for murder along with five years on a lesser charge of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.

McKinney’s original charge of murder was reduced to accessory after the fact of murder after authorities learned she played no role in the killing. The reduced charge was dropped following McKinney’s testimony against Owens during the trial. McKinney said she was living with Owens at the time of the murder and that on the night of the killing, Owens bragged about shooting a man in the head.

Starbucks opens coffee roasting

plant in Calhoun County

With the looming threat of economic uncertainty nationwide, Calhoun County was more than elated to have snagged Starbucks Coffee Co.

In August, Starbucks management and staff moved into a 150,000-square-foot coffee-roasting plant in the Tri-County Electric Corporative Industrial Park that has since begun full operation.

Starbucks is the first company to locate in the 325-acre industrial park near Interstate 26.

The opening of the Calhoun County roasting facility came at a time when the company had announced plans to close about 600 of its stores in 2009 as it continues to feel the pain of a slumping U.S. economy.

Starbucks plans to invest $70 million and employ approximately 160 at the Calhoun facility over the next few years.

Calhoun County Administrator Lee Prickett said the plant has approximately 90 employees. “I know they are up and running, and all the infrastructure that was put in to serve the plant is now complete, including water, wastewater, road expansion, natural gas and electrical upgrades to the industrial park. It’s been a great thing for Calhoun County, particularly at a time when the economy is turning down.”

“It is uncertain as to how these economic conditions will directly impact our plant,” said Tara Darrow, corporate communications representative for Starbucks Coffee Co. “Regardless, our central focus remains to safely produce premium coffee with the enthusiastic involvement of our partners. Commissioning of the plant began in August, with a progressive startup that we expect to conclude in the spring of 2009. Coffee production has also started and shipments have recently started going out of the plant,” she said.

Hot streaks for local

athletic teams

The South Carolina State University Bulldogs ended the 2008 regular season at 10-2 overall with a perfect 7-0 conference record.

The football team’s season included a 32-0 victory over Morgan State University, which allowed the Bulldogs to clinch their first outright Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference title since 1994 and their first playoff appearance since 1982.

With the win against the Morgan State Bears, the team became the first S.C. State team to win 10 games since the 1994 Black College National Championship.

Despite a disappointing 54-0 loss at Clemson, the Bulldogs’ six-game winning streak stands as the third longest in the nation and second longest under head coach Oliver “Buddy” Pough behind a seven-game winning streak spanning the 2004 and 2005 seasons.

S.C. State maintained its momentum toward a perfect MEAC mark and earned its place among the nation’s elite in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs as a first-round contender against three-time defending national champion Appalachian State.

The Calhoun County Saints set records of their own on Jan. 15 following a 91-36 victory over Fox Creek in North Augusta. With their 66th consecutive win, the Saints broke a 48-year S.C. High School League record set by Hannah High School and added another milestone to the program’s rich championship history.

The Saints went on to clinch their third straight Class A championship in March with a nail-biting 67-66 win against Hemingway.

The team ended its season with a state-record 78th consecutive victory and as only the seventh team in S.C. High School League history to win three consecutive championships.

T&D Staff Writer Dionne Gleaton can be reached at dgleaton@times anddemocrat.com and 803-533-5534. Comment on this and other stories at www.TheTandD.com.

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