News 12 at 6 o'clock / Wednesday, February 8, 2012

GRANITEVILLE, S.C. -- The Aiken County Council takes its show on the road. It met in Graniteville, not Aiken, this time.

"I think it was very productive,” said Ronald Wood, who helped get them to Gregg Park Civic Center for the meeting.

He's chairman of the Graniteville-Vaucluse-Warrenville Community Investment Corporation. It's a non-profit that's helping bring new life to a region that's had its fair share of bad news. He says it was important to get the council to meet there after a survey last fall showed people in the region didn't expect much from the council.

"People in Graniteville did not feel comfortable with Aiken County Council representation,” he told News 12.

That includes people like Kelly Hagens-Swart of Vaucluse.

"We're the forgotten step-child, and we were actually there first. We were there before Graniteville and Warrenville,” she said of her town, Vaucluse.

For months now, she's been dealing with mail problems.

"We've gotten six or seven change of address forms,” Hagens-Swart said.

She says losing her post office will just be part of the trend.

"We have a crumbling mill. We have beautiful woodlands that belong to not the town [and] a pond that belongs to not the town,” she said.

She wants to see projects come to not just Graniteville, but Vaucluse too.

"[There are} lots of new business coming in. Bridgestone, of course, MTU came in a couple years ago. [There are] lots of good things happening here. Our activity on the economic development side is really pretty strong right now,” said Aiken County Administrator Clay Killian.

Killian is confident that more good news will come for the region, but he says organizations like Wood’s will have to play a role too.

"I think if we can continue to reach out to each other and improve communication, then we'll understand what the county can do and what the county can't do. Some of this is going to be our own responsibility. We're going to have to take care of our own communities too,” said Wood.

There was a bit of the discussion last night about a project code named Project Sam. Many believe it'll bring yet another investor with jobs to the area. Meanwhile, Wood tells us he's pretty confident another industry will soon announce they're setting up shop in an existing Graniteville facility.