Our Business Calendar

**Darlington City Council Holds A Second Round Of Interviews Next Week For The City Manager Position**

With the final four candidates. The finalists include (in alphabetical order) Eric Bostwick of Nashville, Tenn., Daniel Gerald of Spring Lake, N.C., John Payne of Florence, and Dennis Sparks of Hopewell, Va.

More than 67 applicants submitted materials since April, and Council has met several times to review them during May and June. The Municipal Association of South Carolina reviewed the initial batch of resumes and provided a slate of eight individuals based on the review of a panel of former and current city managers across the state. Council was not bound by that selection process and reviewed all applications.

Council released the previous city manager Howard Garland from his position on March 30.

Council will interview Mr. Payne at 5 p.m. Thursday, June 24; Mr. Bostwick at 7 p.m. June 24; Mr. Gerald at 4 p.m. Friday, June 25; and Mr. Sparks at 5 p.m. June 25.

The next regular City Council meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 13, at City Hall, 400 Pearl St.

**How To Prevent Fake Check Scams**

Fake checks come in many forms. Business or personal checks, cashier's checks, and money orders are all types that we've seen scammers use. And the scammers use them in a variety of schemes to get your money. Here are some examples:

Mystery or Secret Shopping

A scammer will pretend to hire you as a mystery shopper. Your usual first assignment is to purchase a gift card or money order from a retailer to evaluate them. The scammer will have you send the money order or gift card details to them, taking your money!

Car Wrap Decals or Bumper Stickers

Scammers will send checks to people interested in making some extra cash with vehicle advertising. They'll ask you to deposit a check they send and send money to car decal installers who don't exist.

We detail more fake check scam examples in our blog, including Claiming Prizes, Personal Assistant, and Overpayments.

No matter how believable the circumstance, never send money to someone you don't know and have never met. Take it from us, businesses and people won't send you money for no reason! If it sounds too good to be true, it is

**Intermittent Telephone Issues**

Customers have reported they are having connection issues when they call our 888.543.5510 phone number.

The issue seems to reside if Verizon is your phone service provider. All other phone service providers are not encountering issues.

Our team is working quickly to resolve the issue. We will update you when the issue is resolved.

In the meantime, Verizon customers encountering the issue can reach our Customer Care Call Center by dialing our local number which is not the toll free number. That number is: 843-656-5000

**Department of Energy Selects Battelle Savannah River Alliance For $3.8 Billion Contract to Manage SRNL**

ORANGEBURG, S.C. - The Battelle Savannah River Alliance (BRSA) Team, which includes South Carolina State University, was selected by the Department of Energy to manage one of the country’s premier environmental, energy, and national security research facilities—the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL).

SC State, a historically black university, is the only comprehensive university offering an undergraduate degree in nuclear engineering in the State of South Carolina. The university prepares its STEM graduates to fulfill global workforce demands in critical areas including environmental management and remediation, national and homeland security, advanced manufacturing and material science.