Red Bank/White Knoll, SC 04/02/2024 (Paul Kirby) - Red Bank area retired businessman, helicopter and fixed wing pilot, Richland County reserve deputy sheriff, and philanthropist Clifford Fisher is running for Lexington County Council District 5 against incumbent Gene “Bimbo” Jones. Both are conservative Republicans in this non-partisan race.
Fisher is very well-know around Lexington and Richland Counties. His wife Margaret Fisher is the current elected coroner of Lexington County and faces no opposition in her re-election effort this spring.
Fisher himself is a reserve sheriff’s deputy with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department where he is essential to their mounted patrol. You’ll see Fisher using his horses at USC home football games, area festivals, the Blythewood and South Congaree Championship Rodeos, and other event like the larger high school sporting events in Richland County. During these, he has trained his horses for crowd control and public relations. He is one of the few people in the southeast that can train horses for this type of work.
Fisher also owns and shows Abraham, the Mountain Dew drinking camel. He is probably the best-known camel in our state. Abraham makes appearances across the Midlands at church events, in parades, and at schools just to name a few. When out with Abraham, children love to see Fisher pulling his red Radio Flyer wagon full of Mt. Dews with Abraham happily chugging them down. Fisher hauls these animals, feeds and cares for them, all at his own expense. “I’ve been extremely blessed by the Lord with success in my life,” Fisher said during a recent interview. “I’ve always felt it was my mandate to share those blessings with others,” he stated. Several years ago, he sold his heavy construction company, Owens-Fisher, to Great Southern Homes for an undisclosed sum. He has what’s known in church circles as a servants heart, and retirement has really allowed him to give of himself to other people in need.
“My father was an ordained minister,” Fisher stated during a recent interview with the Lexington Ledger. “I didn’t follow my dad into that profession, but my wife and I are still devout Christians. Instead of going into the ministry, in the early 1970s, I became a land surveyor and started to lay out home lots for developers. Afterward, I went into the dirt work business paving roads and grading land for commercial and residential use. I did this for about 45 years before I sold out that business and retired a few years ago.”
Now, Fisher is a fixed wing and helicopter pilot and owns several copters he uses for recreation and the executive transport business. “Before I roll my helicopters away at night, I make sure they are fully checked over and topped off with fuel. I’ve told Sheriff Koon (Lexington County) if he ever needs me, I always have one right here at my Red Bank farm and it wouldn’t cost him a dime to have me fly it anywhere he needs it. All he has to do is call and I can be in the air in minutes,” Fisher continued. Because he has been an active member of Richland County’s SWAT team, he even has the frequency for the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department and SLED programmed into his helicopter’s radio. “I got started with Richland County Sheriff’s Department because when I offered to help Sheriff Metts years ago, but he had his own helicopter and pilot here in Lexington County. He also had someone who was trying to train horses for a mounted patrol. Sheriff Metts said at that time he didn’t need me. I love Lexington County and have lived here decades. If Sheriff Koon ever needs me for anything, all he needs to do is ask.”
The Christmas Passion Play Jesus is His Name that’s held each Christmas at the South Congaree Rodeo Arena was revived by Fisher, “with the help of God, and more than 100 Godly friends” he chuckled recently. He was driving by the arena one day some years ago and felt an overwhelming need to stop, get down on his knees, and pray. “I pray daily, but really never felt the need or call to kneel in a public place to do that. Although I wondered who would see me out there at that arena on my knees, I didn’t care and did exactly as I was directed by God. Almost immediately, God began to open doors and Jesus is His Name starting coming together. It was as if it were a miracle,” he said. He has always been the show’s biggest sponsor and benefactor.
Regarding politics, Fisher is a newcomer to elected office. “I’ve retired now, and I have the time to do this he said.” He and the incumbent, Bimbo Jones, have been friends most of their lives. Throughout his life, Fisher and his businesses have bought an estomated1 million dollars worth of tires through Bimbo and Discount Tire. “Before I registered to run, I went to see Bimbo and we talked. When we parted ways, we shook hands and agreed we’d still be friends no matter what. If the County Council is buying tires, I’d say Bimbo Jones is the man for the job. The problem right now is that development, growth, planning, drainage, and roads are the top challenges county leaders face today. Those are my areas of expertise.”
“Although I am not for unchecked growth in Lexington County, we have to continue to seriously plan for more growth. If we don't, it’s going to get to the point our children can’t afford to live here in Lexington County,” Fisher stated. He went on to say that home inventories in Lexington County are at record lows and low new or used home inventories mean climbing prices. “We have to continue to follow the plans that have been adopted over the past 5 years to control development without stopping it all together. We also need to continue to adapt these as we need to. We are continuing to recruit big industry to Lexington County and its industrial parks. Students are training at Midlands Technical College to take these jobs with the industries. Those people have to live somewhere and most want to live in Lexington County because this is where they work and we have such a high quality of life here,” he said. “But, we need to have a decent inventory of starter homes that a young man and woman can afford to move in and begin their family.”
Fisher agrees that roads do need to be wider because ambulances and fire trucks are getting wider. He also feels we need to continue to have areas of the county with zoning that limits structures and density, the number of homes on that can be on one lot. However, he also feels the need for folks to realize that the large tracts do belong to someone and they shouldn’t be forced to keep it for eternity if they can sell it to a quality developer that will build by the rules imposed by Lexington County. In explaining this, Fisher used the following example. In some Lexington County areas, families have had tracts of 50 to 100 plus acres of land in their family for half a century or more. The first generation may have farmed the land with livestock or some type of row or truck crop until they passed on and left the land to the next generation. That generation cared about “Grandpa’s and Grandma’s Land”, but didn’t actively farm it. Instead they put planted pines on it to retain their agricultural tax exemption. This is not the real hard work type farming but it is some work and keeping it planted does help with property tax breaks for the owners. Now, maybe a third or fourth generation has inherited the land and those group of heirs may not be interested in doing any type of work on it at all. Some may be doctors, lawyers, accountants, school teachers, plumbers and some of the heirs may be living in another state. They have no interest in the land anymore other than its monetary value. Their lives have changed so much, the dynamics in this situation is nothing like it was when the original family members bought it. “Are you going to tell those heirs they can’t sell their tract of land to a developer and they can’t cash out,” Fisher asked? “Only developers are interested in buying those size tracts in Lexington County and if you tell those heirs they can’t take what a developer is offering for the land, does that mean they still have to use it for some type of agriculture operation or pay the 6% tax rate because they live somewhere else other than that property?” Fisher went on to say. “Put yourself in their place. Let’s say six cousins own the land now and it’s worth $1.5 to $2 million to a developer to build homes on. If Lexington County allows it to be developed, the traffic and schools could be thrown into chaos. It has to be done correctly and I’m the only one that would serve on that council that has ever built a road, surveyed a lot, or done any of that type of work. I understand the need to control growth but I also understand the reality of these type of owners.”
Fisher also believes that he may be able to find savings in the Public Works Department that takes care of our county-maintained roads and bridges. “Do we need more paving crews of our own,” Fisher asked recently? “I feel we’ll always have some dirt roads in Lexington County because it’s cost prohibitive to pave them all. It’s simply smarter to continue grading a road that’s a mile long and leads to just one or two homes. What we need to tackle, and the current Council is wrestling with right now, is the long dirt roads that lead to a greater number of homes. “There are some spots where we can change the way we grade roads to make them hold together longer.” He said that this is more cost effective and could be expanded across the county. “Believe it or not, there are some roads that the majority of the residence just don’t want paved,” he concluded.
In closing, Fisher said, “I used to work 80 hours a week in my business. Now that I’m retired, I have lots of time to donate to this job. I’ve been blessed with good health and really feel I can put in the time in this job requires. I will can promise I will promptly call people back and I have breakfast and lunch at local restaurants almost every day of the week. I’m not hard to bump into.”
If you’d like to Contact Fisher, you can call him on the phone at (803) 331-0091. He ask that if you don’t reach him immediately, please leave a message or send him a text and he’ll get back to you as soon as possible. You can also find out more on his election Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557772406382.
PHOTO: Clifford Fisher and his camel Abraham
