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BENNETTSVILLE, South Casrolina – Champion Media of the Carolinas, a family-owned company based in Mooresville, N.C., announced today that it has acquired the Herald-Advocate, the community newspaper in Bennettsville.

Champion Media is owned by CEO Scott Champion and President Corey Champion.

“We are excited to become part of this community,” Scott Champion said. “The Herald-Advocate fits with our current North Carolina properties and we know this acquisition will help our South Carolina business partners to expand their current advertising reach.”

Champion Media currently owns more than 20 newspapers in six states. Its largest footprint is in North Carolina with newspapers in Robeson, Sampson, and Bladen counties as well as The Laurinburg Exchange in Scotland County, The Richmond County Daily Journal in Rockingham, and the Anson Record in Wadesboro. The company also owns two South Carolina publications, the Newberry Observer in Newberry and Sentinel Progress in Easley.

The Herald-Advocate was sold by Marlboro Publishing Company, which is owned by Bennettsville native Elisabeth McNiel and her husband Dan. She represented the third generation of family ownership for the Herald-Advocate.

“We want to thank everyone who has supported our family and the newspaper for the last 90 years. We feel confident that Champion Media will do a great job and ask the community to assist them during this transition,” said Dan McNiel, who has served as the editor for the last seven years and publisher for the last four years.

The late Mr. and Mrs. W.L. Kinney began the Marlboro County Herald in 1931 and purchased the Pee Dee Advocate 20 years later forming the Marlboro Herald-Advocate. In 1972 W. L. Kinney Jr. purchased his parent’s interest with his daughter and son-in-law taking over the paper in 2014.

Over the years, the newspaper garnered several awards from the South Carolina Press Association and has been a cheerleader for social and economic growth in the region.

“It’s important to know that your community newspaper will remain just that, your newspaper,” Scott Champion said. “We intend to continue, and expand, your local coverage of news, sports and human interest and we believe, by partnering with our other area newspapers, will provide an expanded reach for the business community.”

Included in the sale is the regional magazine Pee Dee Life, which the Herald-Advocate staff started in 2019.

The sale of the newspaper was finalized Thursday. Many of the same faces that have worked and supported the newspaper for years will remain. The Herald-Advocate will continue to have an office in Bennettsville and offer both a print edition and online content.

Calhoun, GA, August 4, 2022-Mohawk Industries will transition its Bennettsville, South Carolina yarn conversion and extrusion operations to manufacturing facilities in northwest Georgia.

Operations in Bennettsville will cease on October 6.

Mohawk's Q2 earnings release, the firm foretold of this type of cost reducing activity:“To adapt to current conditions and improve our results, we are taking actions across the enterprise to restructure our costs. We are finalizing plans to rationalize older, less efficient assets and optimize processes to lower our costs. The most significant actions will be in Flooring North America, including some fiber assets and reducing rug manufacturing capacity.

The Bennettsville campus, locally known as “Oak River,” consists of three plants that collectively employ about 600 people. These team members will receive outplacement support from Mohawk’s human resources team to identify employment opportunities in the area.

“Since the 1990s, people at Oak River have seen many changes, all of which were part of ongoing efforts to extend the operations on this campus and to invest in the Bennettsville community,” said Curt Hutchins, president of Mohawk’s residential carpet business. “Oak River continued to operate for almost thirty years after the closure of the carpet plant it was built to support. That speaks to the commitment to excellence of the people at this plant. However, during that same time period, we have also seen significant changes in consumer fiber preferences and manufacturing technology advances, both of which have ultimately directed this business decision.”

While Mohawk is ending operations in Bennettsville, the consolidation of yarn conversion and extrusion in northwest Georgia represents the company’s continued commitment to delivering quality, speed and efficiency to customers through state-of-the-art equipment. The company expects no interruption of service during this transition.

“Oak River has been in the county for more than 60 years,” according to WPDE.

“‘The news of Oak River’s closing was unexpected, especially considering the County Council had just approved new tax incentives for the company in April of this year and at that time there was no indication of plans to close the site. Marlboro County has a long-standing record of assisting Mohawk and even developed a free bus route in 2017 to transport employees to and from the site,’ said [Marlboro County Administrator Ron] Munnerlyn.

“At one time, the plant employed more than 1,000 people.”

As of 2005, the plant produced 50 million pounds of spun and filament fiber annually. The company made a $60 million expansion to the facility in 2010.

MARLBORO COUNTY, S.C. (WPDE) — Mohawk Flooring’s Oak River Mills is closing its plant in the Blenheim area of Marlboro County, according to Marlboro County Administrator Ron Munnerlyn.

Oak River has been in the county for more than 60 years.

“The news of Oak River’s closing was unexpected, especially considering the County Council had just approved new tax incentives for the company in April of this year and at that time there was no indication of plans to close the site. Marlboro County has a long-standing record of assisting Mohawk and even developed a free bus route in 2017 to transport employees to and from the site," said Munnerlyn.

At one time, the plant employed more than 1,000 people. It’s not clear how many people are employed at the factory now.

Munnerlyn said it is sure to have a major impact on the county’s unemployment rate.

“The county has a high unemployment rate yet almost every company in the county is in need of workers. The Oak River plant is no exception as Mohawk found it difficult to recruit and retain enough employees. This announcement is a wakeup call that all involved must take a hard look at how we train and educate our workforce. We have the numbers of people of working age, but clearly there is a disconnect between those numbers and the need for employees in these companies,” said Munnerlyn.

Many people in the community said they’re hoping that the county will bounce back and attract another company that will hire hundreds of workers.

Some employees of the plant said they are set to close in October.

The company announced in a release that operations will stop on Oct. 6.

For decades, the people at Oak River have created the foundation for carpet used in millions of homes across America,” said Katie Engleman, Mohawk’s vice president of human resources. “As we shift production to other locations, we are grateful for and respectful of that legacy. We have developed a well-defined transition plan, which includes assistance for the people at the Bennettsville facility.

Since the 1990s, people at Oak River have seen many changes, all of which were part of ongoing efforts to extend the operations on this campus and to invest in the Bennettsville community,” said Curt Hutchins, president of Mohawk’s residential carpet business. “Oak River continued to operate for almost thirty years after the closure of the carpet plant it was built to support. That speaks to the commitment to excellence of the people at this plant. However, during that same time period, we have also seen significant changes in consumer fiber preferences and manufacturing technology advances, both of which have ultimately directed this business decision.

A release also said they plan to provide as much support as possible to help their people find new careers.

BENNETTSVILLE, S.C. (WPDE) — Nine incarcerated men at Evans Correctional Institution received workforce certificates in business and industrial technology from Northeastern Technical College (NETC) at a graduation ceremony held on Aug. 9.

A press release from Cheraw college stated the ceremony was the second of its kind for the college and the prison, made possible by the Department of Education’s Second Chance Pell Experiment.

The experiment allows incarcerated people to receive federal financial aid for higher education, to increase their access to college; in 2016, NETC was selected as one of 67 colleges in the United States to participate in a pilot program.

One of the men who graduated spoke at the ceremony and talked about his pride in completing the program along with his appreciation for the opportunity presented through the program.

Today is a historic day at Evans Correctional, we are acknowledging the success of a few believers, who became achievers in their educational pursuit. History has shown that success is not achieved by doing nothing, but the result of exercising belief, perseverance, and endless efforts to accomplish what seemed impossible,” he said. “Northeastern Technical College provided us the opportunity to obtain educational credentials that will indeed enhance our possibilities for success in life as productive returning citizens.

He continued to say, "Knowledge that is earned, is knowledge that cannot be discredited or even taken away. I stand proud with these men graduating today, we have accomplished our goals through belief, perseverance, and effort."

Due to the success of the experiment, the press release shared that funding eligibility will expand in 2023 to include incarcerated individuals in correctional facilities throughout South Carolina.

NETC has now expanded its curriculum to include stackable workforce programs in order for students to gain workforce skills, employable knowledge, and lifelong learning opportunities that “stack” upon other educational opportunities to create Associate and Bachelor degrees.

At the graduation, the South Carolina Department of Corrections Director, Bryan Stirling said, “Our department couldn’t have success with recidivism without education and job skills programs like this one. I want to thank our colleagues at Northeastern Tech and the staff at Evans for making this program so successful. It wasn’t always easy to work through the limitations of the pandemic, but they stayed the course and provided the leadership and structure to help build a better life for our graduates and their families.”

A study from RAND, first conducted in 2013 and updated in 2018, found that access to postsecondary education in prison can reduce recidivism by up to 48%, which ultimately leads to safer communities and less of a financial burden for taxpayers.

Earlier this year, the Spring Edition of Pee Dee Life was delivered along with my Herald Advocate Newspaper. I commend Mr. Heath Milligan for the excellent selection of feature articles, the professional penmanship and high quality of descriptive photos which broadens the minds of the readers. As I read the feature articles, I decided to dovetail some of the Pee Dee Life Profiles, which sent me back to earlier years of my life.

In 1955, a close friend and I were stationed at Francis E. Warren AFB in Cheyenne, Wyoming. One Sunday, we attended a Baptist church downtown and were introduced as guests from Bennettsville, South Carolina. When the services were over, a couple of local men welcomed us and told us they had attended flight training at Palmer Field near our hometown.

They indicated it was a long way from Cheyenne, but they really enjoyed the friendliness of the people and how we made them feel like they were part of us. It would have been interesting to know the stories of more of those Army Air Corps Cadets and their World War II experiences.

There was also an article about “A Gathering Place” in Pageland, South Carolina, which was of interest to me. My daddy’s store, Davis Cut-Rate Furniture, handled new, used and antique furniture. My dad attended many auctions in search of second-hand stuff (Dad called it junk.).

He learned the value of antique pieces’ sales appeal if they were made of the right vintage and wood. Before the sales began, he scraped many coats of paint or varnish to get to the bare wood to determine which pieces were bid-worthy. When he returned home, my job was to strip off those many “coats of color.” The profit made it worth the effort.

Having been a railroad enthusiast since childhood, The Hamlet Depot and Museum piece was a good read as my mind returned to the past when I caught a train from that location. In 1957, I was on leave from my duty station in England and had flown from London to New York to make the last leg of my trip via Grand Central Station to Hamlet, North Carolina.

After my stay at home for 30 days, I returned to England. I will never forget that on the return trip, my mother had packed a grocery bag of Southern fried chicken. I was a little embarrassed but knew I had to eat something. When it came time to eat, I opened the bag and asked those around me if they would like to share with me. You guessed it, my chicken was gone in a Brooklyn minute. I learned from that day that if God gives you food, thank God, eat it and enjoy it.

The Lewis Hine Project about child abuse in the different industries caught my eye because one of the elderly couples in my church had explained in detail what they faced while working in the cotton mills in North Carolina.

Mr. and Mrs. Dancy had been working in different cotton mills across our state since they were small children. Mr. Dancy started at age 10. I think they said they married at 14 years old and both stayed in the mills until retirement. I cannot remember all the details, but it was too horrible to imagine.

This couple did not complain but thanked God for having employment for all those years. Mr. and Mrs. Dancy would ask me to take their tithes to the church and said they had been giving God his share since they became Christians. After each visit, she asked me to sing her favorite hymn with her, with these words: “Wait a little longer, please Jesus, there are so many wandering out in sin, just a little longer, please Jesus, a few more days to let our loved ones in.”