A lot happened in Lexington County in 2022, much more than we could summarize in a single issue of the Chronicle.

But in this week’s cover package, before we turn fully to 2023, we decided to take a look back at the stories that defined the year we just ended – many of which will continue to impact the county in the next 12 months.

Columbiana shooting grabbed national attention

On April 16, the Saturday of Easter weekend, three people turned an ongoing dispute into a gunfight in the middle Columbiana Centre, the large indoor mall that straddles the Lexington/Richland county line, resulting in 15 injuries, nine by direct gunshots and the rest as shoppers fled the shooters.

The incident pulled the Midlands into the national news, reignited debates about where we should and shouldn’t be allowed to carry guns, and spotlighted the interagency responses that come when jurisdictional lines are crossed.

Columbia Police were assisted in their response by the Richland County Sheriff’s Department; Lexington County Sheriff’s Department; Newberry County Sheriff’s Office; the state Law Enforcement Division, state Highway Patrol; state Probation, Parole and Pardon Services; Irmo Police Department; the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; U.S. Marshal Service; and even the FBI.

All three shooters were arrested and are awaiting trial. – JL

Much happened in economic development

Development continued to boom in the county in 2022.

According to the Annual Report issued by the county Department of Economic Development, the county received commitments of $448.7 million in capital investment and 1,107 new jobs in the 12 months leading up to the report.

The report features descriptions of several companies that have moved to the county or expanded in the past 12 months, ranging from weight-training equipment manufacturing to health food supplement ingredients to pontoon boats and a new Lexington-based S.C. field office for the FBI.

A solar energy farm’s $180 million commitment to three sites was the largest capital commitment announced, followed by a $100 million expansion for Nephron Nitrile (the new plant that began producing protective gloves next month in West Columbia). Home Depot and Amazon also continued expanding distribution operations here, as did Spectrum at its major call center operation in West Columbia.

The rest of the year brought with it other big announcements, including the formal reveal of a 350,000-square-foot FedEx Ground Distribution facility coming near Lexington, a $60 million project to bring luxury apartments and likely a grocery store to Sunset Boulevard in West Columbia, and a potential project to reshape an unused factory in the latter city’s Triangle City area into a mixed-use development that could include such aspects as a food hall and coworking space. — AD and JL

Penny tax voted down again

On Nov. 8, a penny tax to fund road improvements in Lexington County failed.

The 1% Capital Project Sales Tax was voted down by 54.6% of voters, coming closer to passing than a similar ballot initiative for Lexington County did in 2014, when nearly 70% of voters rejected it.

The proposed project list included more than 120 items, limited strictly to road improvements, that would’ve been paid for with an estimated $536 million generated by the tax across eight years.

“The people have spoken,” Lexington County Council Chair Scott Whetstone said after the tax was voted down. “We have to back up and punt.”

He told the Chronicle said council “will have to be creative” to address the roads problem without the money from the tax. – KK

Cayce police officer slain, community mourned

The Lexington County community was rocked when Cayce Police Officer Roy Andrew “Drew” Barr, who was gunned down in the line of duty April 24.

Barr, a 27-year-old K-9 officer, was killed responding to a domestic dispute when suspected murderer Austin Leigh Henderson tracked him and other officers from an upstairs window with a rifle and fired two shots, hitting Barr with the first. Henderson later took his own life after barricading himself inside the house for approximately seven hours.

Gov. Henry McMaster was among those in attendance at Barr’s funeral, during which people lined up down the steps and into the parking lot at Batesburg-Leesville High’s 1,000-capacity Fine Arts Center, where the funeral was held.

Molly, the K-9 officer’s dog partner, retired from service after his death and went to live with Barr’s mother. — JL

A man escaped from the Lexington County Detention Center

On Jan. 14, Charles Bradford Deese, who was being held on charges including forgery, failure to stop for blue lights, domestic violence and distribution of meth, escaped from the Lexington County Detention Center and was eventually recaptured nearly five hours later a little more than five miles away.

According to documents provided to the Chronicle by the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department under the Freedom of Information Act, an investigator received a tip from another inmate that Deese would attempt to sneak out the morning he escaped.

The department declined to comment on whether Deese’s escape was seen on video in real time. A department spokesperson told the Chronicle that details about whether cameras are monitored in real time could not be provided due to security concerns. — JL

COVID continued to have an impact

COVID-19 continued to cast a shadow over the state and county in 2022.

Levels spiked for much of the summer, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state Department of Health and Environmental Control recommending the county mask in indoor public places for large stretches of June, July, August and September.

COVID metrics were down during the fall, but spiked again heading into the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. As of this issue’s Jan. 3 press deadline, the county was in its second-straight week of again being recommended to mask.

Though COVID never went away in 2022, mandates associated with the virus never returned, and the county’s events calendar was as robust as it’s been since 2019, with some signature festivities, such as the Lexington County Peach Festival, returning for the first time since the pandemic began. — JL

Juneteenth observed

This year two towns in Lexington County began observing the newest federal holiday.

Town councils in Lexington and Swansea both voted to add the day marking the abolition of slavery in the United States to their lists of official holidays.

“We want to be in front of the curve instead of behind the curve,” Lexington Council Member Ron Williams said of his support for making Juneteenth a town holiday.

Unlike Lexington’s move, which was finalized in October, Swansea not only added a holiday but replaced their observance of Confederate Memorial Day, which is a statutory remembrance of the soldiers who died fighting for the Confederacy in the Civil War, with that of Juneteenth.

Swansea council members Michael Luongo and Doris Simmons questioned whether the town can choose to not recognize a state holiday, which Confederate Memorial Day is, both ultimately voting against replacing it with Juneteenth, making the final November vote 3-2.

Juneteenth, which was created to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved people in the U.S., was declared a federal holiday last year. Since then, at least 24 states and the District of Columbia have followed suit. – KK

Swansea finances remained an issue

Swansea’s financial difficulties continued in 2022.

The town with a population of a little more than 700 passed its 2021-22 budget nearly a year late in May and had to turn quickly to ready a 2022-23 budget, with tension among Mayor Viola McDaniel and members of council continuing to persist.

Council Members Michael Luongo and Doris Simmons sued seeking answers about $3.3 million that Auditor John Brown said were unaccounted for in the latest town audit. During the August meeting during which the 2022-23 budget was passed, Brown, who is Black, went on to describe what he framed as a history of preferential behavior toward white town employees on the part of the Luongo and Simmons, who are white, saying everyone they’ve gone after about financial issues — including McDaniel and former Mayor Jerald Sanders — have been people of color.

The suit remains unresolved.

In November, council voted to use American Rescue Plan Funds, of which the town has received two grants totaling about $240,000, to cover budget shortfalls after town officials considered holding off on paying council salaries. — JL

Lexington biergarten bails, wine bar to take its place

A downtown Lexington property that was planned to become a biergarten that was challenged by a neighboring church is now set to become the third location of a local wine bar.

The Navy Yard Biergarten, which announced intentions to open on the property, had its beer and wine licenses formally challenged by the neighboring St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church.

According to Administrative Law Judge Shirely Robinson’s ruling, the church’s challenge claimed that the biergarten could lead to intoxicated customers leaving the proposed location and loitering on church property

Shortly after winning the high-profile legal battle, the partners in the endeavor announced in April that the business was no longer coming to Lexington.

Molto Vino, a wine bar with two locations in Columbia, teased its impending location at 102 W Main St., taking one of the buildings initially set to be part of the biergarten, in a December Facebook photo. The State’s Chris Trainor confirmed the bar’s plans, reporting that an opening date hasn't been set. – KK

Complicated year for local schools

The three largest school districts in Lexington County welcomed new leaders – and dealt with issues – in 2022.

Lexington School County District 1 and 2, respectively, welcomed Gerrita Postlewait on Oct. 4 and Brenda Hafner on June 2, while Lexington-Richland School District 5 welcomed Akil Ross on Jan. 10.

The transition from former superintendent Nicholas Wade to Hafner in Lexington 2 following the sudden resignation of her predecessor was the most scrutinized, particularly as district continues to deal with the fallout of an audit by the state Department of Education of transcripts found many issues at Brookland-Cayce High School, including a student a who graduated without passing all required courses. The school had its accreditation status downgraded — it’s still accredited, but its status was dropped to  “accreditation/advised,” a warning that it needs to do better.

Brookland-Cayce also came under public scrutiny when Assistant Principal Leon Brunson was arrested and shown twice on video released by Cayce Police appearing to body slam students. He was allowed to return to work while the case made its way through the courts.

The second half of the year brought particular attention to District 1, as a contentious and crowded school board race installed three new members, a lawsuit was levied against the district, and two arrests in one week happened on one high school campus.

District 1 and Postlewait were named a suit filed in November by the S.C. Freedom Caucus, a group of far-right state lawmakers, seeking declaratory judgments that practices, ideas, and concepts derived from critical race theory are being taught in some classrooms.

Questions remain after a teacher was arrested for having a gun in her car on campus at River Bluff High School, three days before a former student was able to bypass security protocols and approach current students at the school about drugs.

As lawsuits and financial questions continue to swirl and resolve around the District 5 board, which saw all three incumbent members up for re-election in November losing, Superintendent Ross continued to push out new security measures in the wake of a student walkout over safety concerns took place in February. – KK and JL

Interstate work continued  and will continue

Lexington County continues to be home to road construction and changing traffic conditions.

All six lanes of Interstate 20 opened after the 11-mile stretch was the focus of a widening and improvement project.

I-20 remains the subject of other construction projects in the counties of Lexington and Richland.

The interchange connecting I-20 and U.S. 1 near the Town of Lexington is undergoing improvements, including replacing the overpass, with the expected completion date being June 2024.

Carolina Crossroads, a $1.7 billion state infrastructure project centered on the clustered Columbia interchanges of I-20, Interstate 26 and Interstate 126 (commonly referred to as “Malfunction Junction”) is also ongoing.

In addition to replacing and restructuring interstate interchanges, the project includes improvements to 14 miles of I-20, Interstate 26 and Interstate 126. The stretch of I-20 goes from just shy of the bridge over the Broad River to just shy of the U.S. 378 interchange.

Also ongoing is Midlands Connection, a project which will improve and widen a 16-mile stretch of I-26 from Little Mountain to Irmo, including the replacement of seven overpass bridges and the modification of four interchanges.

The state Department of Transportation is taking a speedy approach to resurfacing bridges along Interstate 77, though the project will still require closures and detours.

Between March 10 and May 22 next year, all 14 bridges along the interstate will be resurfaced from mile marker 0 to mile marker 5, going from the highway’s interchange with Interstate 26 in Lexington County across the Congaree River and into Richland County. – KK

Greenway announced to connect Lake Murray to Columbia

Midlands residents who enjoy riverside walking trails are receiving another option with a new path set to connect Lake Murray to Columbia.

The Lower Saluda Greenway is an ongoing project which will install a 12-foot-wide path connecting the existing Saluda River Greenway, which runs along the river from Columbia to the Riverbanks Zoo, to Lake Murray.

The estimated $15 million project, which was announced in August, will take a while to complete, but it is expected to be an important new recreational asset for the suburbs of Richland and Lexington counties.

When completed, the path will stretch approximately 10 miles along the scenic river, providing residents of the Midlands with some of the most beautiful sights of Lexington County, Mark Smyres, chair of the Irmo Chapin Recreation Commission said. He described the project as an “amenity” for those who love nature trails.

Smyres confirmed with the Chronicle that the project will receive $8.1 million in state funding to begin designing and building the greenway which will connect with existing trails to run from the current Saluda River Greenway to the Lake Murray Dam. – KK

F-16s roared

In October, the S.C. Air National Guard extended temporary operations at the Columbia Metropolitan Airport in West Columbia by “several weeks.”

The guard’s 169th Fighter Wing started operation out of the airport in April, reaching full deployment in May. The fighters are displaced from their regular home, McEntire Joint National Guard Base in Hopkins, undergoes renovations.

The fighters can now frequently be heard roaring through the air around Lexington County, though officials say they are taking steps to limit noise pollution to the area around the airport and during nighttime hours.

No end date has been set for the temporary deployment, which sees about 200 personnel from the S.C. Air National Guard are working at the airport at any point during the week. — JL

Prominent openings  and closings

Lexington County saw many businesses make their start in 2022, while other community favorites closed.

Lexington welcomed Tee’d Up, a new golf simulator parlor, Hokkaido Ramen House, the first such restaurant in Lexington, and Freddy’s Frozen Custard, an outpost of the  American fast-casual restaurant chain, joining two others in the county and another future location that was announced to to open in West Columbia.

Goodbyes were also said as Roy’s Grille, formerly housed at an Exxon gas station, departed for a new home in Irmo, where it opened in December after owner Chris Williams took over what was formerly beloved sandwich spot Fire and Spice, which closed earlier in the year.

Lexington’s long-standing Uno’s Pizzeria, the last location in South Carolina, closed after 19 years.

Batesburg-Leesville received its first comic shop, Boomer Comics, stocked with a plethora of comic books, toys, Pokemon and Magic cards, among other items. The Spud Stop, a food truck turned brick-and-mortar, opened in the downtown area offering a variety of baked potatoes, hand-cut fries, burgers and hot dogs.

In March, West Columbia welcomed WE’S, the city’s first pride bar located in the spot formerly occupied by The Comedy Closet on Meeting Street. True BBQ, a community favorite, reopened after being temporarily closed. The city said goodbye to La Fiesta, a Mexican restaurant that operated in the city for nearly 30 years. – KK