Commercial Truck Insurance in Rock Hill, SC

He became the first person to score the Palmetto Cash 5 jackpot, scoring a $240,000 prize.

ROCK HILL, S.C. — A Rock Hill man scored a huge lottery prize this month and he has his family to thank for them, because it was their birthdays that led to his big win.

The man became the first South Carolinian to win the Palmetto Cash 5 jackpot with a $240,000 win on March 13. He bought the ticket at the Publix on Heckle Boulevard in Rock Hill.

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"I didn't even know he was using those numbers," his wife said, recognizing the numbers on his lottery ticket.

The lucky numbers were 10, 17, 20, 28 and 30. The father said he'd been using those numbers for a while when playing the lottery.

The Palmetto Cash 5 is a new game from the South Carolina Education Lottery. Tickets are $2 with daily drawings. If there's no winner, that day's jackpot rolls over to the next drawing. The odds of winning a Palmetto Cash 5 jackpot are approximately 1 in 850,668, according to lottery officials.

Lottery jackpots are reaching near-historic highs as no one has claimed either the Mega Millions or Powerball jackpot for some time. The Powerball jackpot increased to an estimated $865 million after no one won Monday night's drawing. The Powerball jackpot has gone unclaimed since New Year's Day.

Mega Millions, the other national U.S. lottery game, is even bigger, with an estimated jackpot of $1.1 billion. The next Mega Millions drawing will be on Tuesday, March 26.

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Winning Powerball numbers for Monday, March 25, 2024

The winning numbers were 7-11-19-53-68 Powerball: 23 Power Play: 2.

If a winner matches all five numbers and the Powerball, they have the option to take the full jackpot paid out over 30 years, or a smaller cash payout. Winners almost always take the cash option.

Even with the smaller lump sum payout, federal taxes will eat into those winnings, and some states also tax big lottery prizes. Powerball is played in 45 states, as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Playing the lottery is a form of gambling. If you are concerned about your gambling or worried about a friend, you can call the NC Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-877-718-5543. You can also contact the National Helpline at 1-800-522-4700.

A new pizzeria in Lake Wylie will be opening soon.

The first day for Big Papa’s Pizzeria at 5800 Charlotte Highway is April 1. The restaurant will be open Monday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Big Papa’s Pizzeria will offer pizza, pasta, salads and subs to go along with a collection of appetizers, sides and desserts.

Store co-owner Jerry Simonetti recently spoke with The Herald about his history in the restaurant business and his goals for the store.

The 62-year old moved to the Carolinas in 2007 after a successful career running two restaurants on the east end of Long Island, New York.

Big Papa’s Pizzeria will be the Long Island-native’s second restaurant in the Lake Wylie-area. He also owns Lily’s Bistro, another restaurant on Charlotte Highway.

Around 2007, Simonetti said, “I wanted to open a restaurant in Belmont, (North Carolina). My family said ‘no, no, no, we want pizza.’ I did a little bit of pizza but not much, so I opened (Simonetti’s Pizza), and then 10 years later, I opened Lily’s.”

The distance between the two ended up being too much for Simonetti, who lives in the Charlotte area. He sold Simonetti’s Pizza and had Lily’s Bistro as his only active restaurant for the past seven years.

However, the opportunity arose for Simonetti to open another restaurant, and he once again is the owner of a pizzeria.

Big Papa’s Pizzeria will be the eighth restaurant Simonetti has opened.

His first was a small Italian restaurant in Boca Raton, Florida, over 30 years ago, followed by the two restaurants in Long Island and three more in Gaston County, North Carolina.

Now, Big Papa’s Pizzeria joins Lily’s Bistro as his only active stores. However, he didn’t rule out potentially adding more.

“I have a lot of people that like what I do,” Simonetti said. “And I’m not opposed to anything. I have some people that want to do more stores, but I don’t know. We’ll see how this one goes first.”

ROCK HILL, S.C. — The Rock Hill School District is now the first in the Palmetto State to implement the new “Leader in Me” program.

District officials say the new program is changing the way students think and “empowering them with leadership and life skills.”

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“I have to be careful when I say this – school is not for everyone," Rock Hill School District Superintendent Dr. Tommy Schmolze said. "I say that meaning, I love school. I loved everything about school, but my best friend didn’t."

Because of this, Schmolze said the plan now is to focus on highlighting each student’s strengths to encourage individualized learning and he says they’ve seen great results so far.

“What you’ll see is a 3rd grader will talk to you about becoming a dental hygienist and what the steps are to becoming a dental hygienist,” Schmolze said.

The program was first tested at a few schools – including Independence and Oakdale Elementary – and the principals there say the feedback has been amazing from students and staff.

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“A student who is amazing with Legos – we see that student being a future engineer," Independence Elementary School Principal Kimberly Odem said. "A student may be amazing with music and we see them performing in the local shows."

“There’s something they’re doing in the school that’s giving back to the school ... so they feel like they’re a part of it," Oakdale Elementary School Principal Jacob Moree said. "They’re not just showing up for someone to tell them what to do all day. They get to be a part of the planning and the solutions."

The district announced Wednesday that, following the success of these schools, more schools in the district will be integrated into the program in the fall of 2024 and the last few will be integrated in the fall of 2025.

Forty-six years is a long time to do anything.

In some ways, I guess I’d qualify as a unicorn. I walked off the UNC (Tar Heel born, Tar Heel bred) campus in 1977. I walked into a newsroom and never left.

I’ve done just about every job you can do in a newsroom.

I’ve been through the great times and tumult. But I always said I would know when it’s time to walk away.

Now’s my time. I’m retiring from my position as executive editor of The Herald.

I’ve had enough stress, enough long hours, enough exacting demands. But I’ve also had great fun, laughter, success and made a host of friends. And I’ve lived a huge portion of a really good life in newsrooms.

I’m leaving with my health intact. Evidence of that is that I have a pretty good tennis game.

As for my mental and emotional acuity? Well, I’ll refer to a line from one of my favorite movies, “Roadhouse”: “Opinions do vary.”

I came to Rock Hill eight years ago on what I thought was a temporary assignment. Now, I consider this place one of my many homes. I grew up in Rockingham, N.C., and I’ve lived in Columbus, Ga., Greenville, S.C., and Charlotte. Each place owns a section in my heart.

It’s not the geography, it’s the people. I will not start citing names here. There are too many. And I’m not a person given to long-winded farewells. I know who you are and I won’t forget you. That’s good enough for me.

One thing I hope I accomplished is that you all were left with the feeling that I cared. I cared about the people. I cared about the work. I cared about the words we published.

I’m a person who tries to live out my Christian faith. My sometimes salty language may have thrown you off a bit. But I believe in the practice of the Golden Rule. I believe words give surface impressions, but actions give real-life impact.

And I hope my impact was to make each of you know how much I cared.

That’s my farewell message.

Now, one final story:

As a college freshman, I had a legendary professor named Jim Shuemaker. He asked one day “how do you end a good story?” Now you must know Shuemaker was a tall man with an intimidating presence. He listened to us all with an impatient glare in his eyes.

When we all had our say, he was silent for a moment.

Then he said (and I’ll clean this sentence up for print purposes): “You end a good story with a .... period.”

His point was this: When you’ve done all that is necessary to tell a good story. Don’t feel the need to do more. Just stop.

Well, I’m done telling my story. And this is my cue.

Period.

This story was originally published October 27, 2023, 12:43 PM.

After two years of property negotiations, Rock Hill officials are ready to move forward with plans that include a new $15 million downtown sports arena. It’ll be smaller than the Rock Hill Sports & Event Center but the two will work in conjunction to bring more teams and larger events to the area.

The city and Freedom Temple Ministries own property there now.

The developer, Southern Street Development, will acquire property from Freedom Temple and once construction is finished, the city will own the arena. The city and Southern Street have an aggressive time line for construction.

Here are those details and others on what the city has planned:

Constitution Boulevard and West White Street come to a roundabout at the northern tip of an almost 3-acre, gumdrop-shaped former mill property that runs south to Lee Street. Continuing south beyond Lee to Stewart Avenue, there are more than a dozen parcels that combine for roughly 6 acres.

The city sold the gumdrop piece north of Lee to its economic development corporation for $1 in 2016 as part of a state incentive process to clean up properties, so effectively the city owns it. The city also owns more than an acre to the southwest, along Stewart.

A land swap between the city and developer involve two smaller, internal pieces.

The plan shows 87 townhomes or condos north of Lee and west along Constitution. The sports arena would be at the southeastern part of the entire property, on land now owned by Freedom Temple Ministries and shown as 605 W. White St.

Just north of the new arena, along White Street, a 5,600-square-foot mixed-use building appears on the plan. It likely would be for restaurant or retail use, said city manager David Vehaun.

The walk down White Street and across on Technology Center Way from the new sports arena to the larger sports and event center is about a quarter of a mile.

The main sports and event center in University Center has space for 10 basketball or 17 volleyball courts. The new 40,000-square-foot annex arena would add four basketball courts.

Depending on the event type, the new space could add room for up to 60 teams on a weekend and fill a need, given the popularity of the existing arena for large events.

“We are limited in the number of teams that we can bring in for weekend events,” Vehaun said. “We’re having to push (overflow from) these events out to the high schools, and to Winthrop and to other locations.”

Based on 40 events, an additional four basketball courts could add $300,000 in rental revenue, more than $150,000 in concessions and $40,000 in parking, according to information Vehaun presented to city council. Those numbers are based on rental rates at half what the sports and event center charges.

The annual economic impact when considering team and fan stays in local hotels, or trips to restaurants, could reach $36 million, Vehaun said.

The annex arena also allows for new or expanded tournament options. It has room, for instance, for 12 pickleball courts.

“Our (recreation) staff are very motivated about going out and recruiting those kinds of events,” Vehaun said.

Council members have been inundated with questions from people about pickleball, said Councilman Jim Reno. Like other athletics facilities across the region that make their money on weekend tournament play rentals, the new Rock Hill site could be used during the week for city recreation programming.

In January the city approved an installment purchase revenue bond. It creates $12 million for the arena construction and about $3 million for fixtures and items inside it. The bond also includes $7 million for improvements at McGirt Auditorium and $1 million for an Armory Park grant match.

Arena costs will be about $1.3 million annually until construction is paid off, a figure the city will handle mostly or entirely with hospitality tax revenue.

Hospitality taxes are charged on food and drink, mainly at restaurants, and have to be used on items that promote tourism.

The city anticipates pricing bonds in May and closing on them in early June. Construction would begin within about three months of land transfers between the city and developer being finalized at the site.

“We would need to be under construction by probably August,” Vehaun said.

The site has to be done by the end of next year, he said. Large events often are planned years in advance and the additional space has to be ready to help host them when 2026 arrives.

“It does us no good to have something that gets finished in May (‘26), because we’ve missed a whole five months when we have large events that come in,” Vehaun said.

The developer has tax credits that happen once the arena property transfers at completion to city ownership. Those credits mean the developer has incentive to finish on time, Vehaun said.

This story was originally published February 27, 2024, 1:04 PM.

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John Marks graduated from Furman University in 2004 and joined the Herald in 2005. He covers community growth, municipalities, transportation and education mainly in York County and Lancaster County. The Fort Mill native earned dozens of South Carolina Press Association awards and multiple McClatchy President’s Awards for news coverage in Fort Mill and Lake Wylie.