Our condolences go out to the family and friends of former Fort Mill mayor, Harry Hallman, who passed away Tuesday, September 1, 2009 at the age of 78. A lifelong resident of South Carolina (he grew up in Lancaster but moved to Fort Mill about 50 years ago), he served as Mayor from 1978-1984.

You can read more in The Herald’s tribute to Harry Hallman.

For those who are politically inclined, tomorrow evening (Monday, August 31) there will be a Meet and Greet for Ralph Norman at the Fort Mill Library from 5:30 – 7:00 p.m. This event is free and open to the public, and refreshments will be served.

As you may or may not know, Mr. Norman is running for the House of Representitives for the 48th District.

If you want to learn more about his platform, I encourage you to attend the meet and greet!

For the past several weeks I have been following a blog dedicated to issues revolving around Tega Cay. It is called Tega Cay Underground and its mission is to act as a watchdog citizen’s group and “change the way our government communicates, represents, and interacts with the residents of Tega Cay.”

The blog is relatively new – it started in May 2009 – but has already tackled such things as point by point analysis of council meetings to in-depth analysis of voting results related to Tega Cay.

If you have any interest in the political goings-on in TC, I heartily recommend the website.

I saw a funny article yesterday, about a Facebook group that has formed with the goal of having Al Capone replace Paul Lindemann as the York County council (you can find the Facebook group here as well as one called Send Lindemann Packing). As you may or may not know, Lindemann has been in the news for a variety of issues including driving under the influence and not paying his bills. Even his wife made the news at some point this past spring, for hanging out with a man that wasn’t her husband and having drugs in the car. Is this a man we want representing Fort Mill?

Now, I don’t know about you, but last time I checked, electing a dead person into office isn’t allowed. So how about, instead, we find some good candidates that we can believe in that will participate in the next election? Anyone want to volunteer?

Argentina? Not Appalachia? Out of touch with everyone – including his own sons on Father’s Day? WHAT is going on with Governor Sanford? Who goes to Argentina for 4 days (which is about how long he had there when you consider he’d need two days for travel)? Who goes anywhere without even telling his FAMILY what he’s doing?

What do you think is going on with our governor?

Update at 3:34 p.m.: I haven’t been online for a couple hours and thanks to DixieHoosier (see comments), we now know exactly why he went to Argentina. That’s tragic – I feel for the wife, who has to endure the humiliation (I liken this to the humiliation that former NJ Gov. Greevey’s wife had to stand through during his “I am a gay American” speech a few years ago, as well as NY’s Elliot Spitzer’s wife during his speech about visiting prostitutes). He just better not have spent SC money for his little rendevous.

It seems that being a decent, faithful-to-your-spouse politician is a rarity. Sound off in the comments.

On Monday the Fort Mill Town Council passed a measure to outlaw public smoking as of August 1 (“public” is defined as bars, bingo halls, elevators, health care facilities and hotel and motel lobbies). One difference between the Town of Fort Mill’s ordinance and that of Rock Hill and York County is that pre-existing private clubs will still be allowed to allow smoking should they wish to (private clubs include places like Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion). And it appears that future private clubs that open in the Township will be able to make their own determination as to whether they will be smoke-free or not.

I still think it’s weird to outlaw smoking in bars. I haven’t smoked regularly in over twelve years, but even when I did smoke, it was mostly when I went to clubs/bars with my pals. Having a drink and smoking a cigarette just kind of go hand-in-hand in my head. Even now, 12 years later, I sometimes crave a cigarette if I have a few drinks at a party.

In any event, get your smoke on while you can – because come August 1st that all comes to an end!!

And just like that it’s over, and the schools are feeling nothing but relief this morning. Gov. Sanford has lost his bid at the state Supreme Court and plans on requesting the $700 million in Federal stimulus funds on Monday. This money was originally slated to head to statewide schools over the next two years, but Gov. Sanford hoped to redirect it to pay down state debt instead.