As the sweltering summer temperatures slowly begin to cool down, another running season is getting ready to heat up.

In the near future, low-income, uninsured residents of KershawCounty will have an easier time accessing health care services, thanks to a $750,000 AccessHealth SC grant recently awarded to KershawHealth by the Duke Endowment.

"This won't add to our profit, but it will benefit the county," said KershawHealth President and CEO Donnie Weeks.

According to a press released issued during the KershawHealth Board of Trustees' Tuesday meeting, KershawHealth will partner with the Community Medical Clinic, Sandhills Medical Foundation, ALPHA Center, S.C. Department of Mental Health and the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control's Kershaw County Health Department. The grant will fund efforts by the partnership to improve care coordination, enrollment in services and access to specialty care.

Jessica Gaston, mother of 5-year-old Audriana Mauro, said she was shocked when she found her daughter walking along the sidewalk of busy U.S. 1 in east Camden Aug. 18.

"I couldn't believe it ... I was shocked," Gaston said, adding that she dropped her daughter off at school that morning with a note saying that she would no longer be attending the PEP after-school program and would now be a car rider. "I couldn't figure out why my 5-year-old daughter walked away from that school to a busy four-lane highway alone ... but then Audriana said her teacher told her she was supposed to walk home that day."

Jackson School Principal Dr. Gerald Gary said Audriana was mistakenly instructed to walk home that afternoon, after her teacher confused two change of transportation notes that she received earlier that day.

It all started for Patsy Topping with the loss of two of her dogs in 2002.

Looking to fill the void left with the old-age passing of her pups, Topping visited the Walter M. Crowe Animal Shelter in Camden.

"There are unbelievable dogs that show up at Walter Crowe. A lot of people don't realize how many great dogs are there," Topping said in a phone interview from New York.

Topping, who lives near the Kershaw/Sumter county line, grew up in New Jersey, and still spends much of the year in the Hamptons on Long Island. Up north, she says, they have very strong spay and neuter education.

It's going to take more than one person to make a difference, John H. Carmichael Jr. told a group of Kershaw County community leaders Thursday morning at the ALPHA Center in Camden.

Carmichael is the Kershaw County coordinator for the Community Action for a Safer Tomorrow (CAST) grant, which awarded more than $100,000 to the county to fight underage drinking and DUI traffic crashes. The objective of the meeting was to get everyone on the same page when it comes to fighting underage drinking and drinking and driving.

"This isn't a socio-economic issue, it's not a racial issue, it's a community issue ... and it's in all of our communities," Carmichael said.

Several years ago, First Baptist Church (FBC) of Camden asked the city of Camden to shut down a portion of Walnut Street bisecting its campus. Church elders said they were concerned about the safety of very young children dropped off at and picked up by their parents from the church's daycare program. They were also concerned about the heavy congestion that part of Walnut Street experiences during church functions.

The church even sued the city of Camden to try to get the street shut down.

That lawsuit has since been dropped and shutting down the street has been taken off the table, Mayor Jeffrey Graham said during a Camden City Council work session Aug. 19. The city, however, continued to study the situation. Downtown Manager Wade Luther presented six scenarios for council to review. The goal: to let staff know which, if any of those options, to take to FBC while maintaining an open dialogue.

During a post-meeting discussion, Bradley made sure City Planner Shawn Putnam, acting as the CPC's secretary, understood that he had neither voted "yes" nor "no." During the meeting, Bradley had asked City Attorney Charles Cushman what the requirements were to voice an abstention. Apparently not satisfied with the answer, Bradley simply did not vote nor did he indicate he was abstaining.

The meeting was attended by some 50 Boogertown residents who had filed into Camden City Hall for the second time Tuesday. Some of those residents had been at that morning's Camden City Council meeting speaking out against the plan's inclusion of a proposal to extend the southern end of Jordan Street through the former school property to Laurens Street.

When Jackson found out that she was one of only six teachers selected as a state finalist for the prestigious Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, she didn't say a word to anyone.

"Well, I found out in June that I was selected as one in seven (state) finalists for the award. Then I found out that I was one of the top three (science teachers) during the first week of school ... but I kept my mouth shut because I've never been the kind of person who brags," Jackson said, laughing. "But I was absolutely thrilled when I found out. Then I immediately started looking up the other teachers who were finalists."

According to Kershaw County Sheriff's Office (KCSO) Inv. Steve Knafelc, Poole allegedly stole the money between August 2007 and January 2009. He said Post 195 officers discovered some $23,000 of the building fund's money was missing late in 2009 and confronted Poole. An audit conducted by the S.C. Department of Revenue (DOR) revealed another $28,000 worth of funds missing from the account, said Knafelc.

During Tuesday afternoon's facilities and finance committee meeting, KCSD Superintendent Dr. Frank Morgan proposed an option that would allow the school district to post its financial information, while eliminating server costs.

"Right now, we have four to five months of server space. I propose taking what we have and just putting it on the server. When we run out of space, we'll just remove the oldest piece and keep rotating it like that." Morgan said.

Following a wave of confusion Tuesday night, council voted 4-2 not to place a cap on sewer charges. Only Jones and Councilman C.R. Miles voted in favor. Councilman Gary Elliot was absent.

Jones, who chairs council's finance committee, proposed an ordinance that would allow for the maximum residential usage to be 12,000 gallons per month for a cost of $70. He said this was a chance to "right a serious wrong."

That wrong, he said -- and has said several times in recent months -- is charging some people for sewer services they aren't receiving. When someone fills a pool or waters their lawn, that water isn't being treated by the sewer system, Jones has insisted.