Carolina Ledger

Midlands service

groups band to count homeless

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Service agencies for the homeless in the Midlands hope to get a better count of the people they serve.

A coalition of agencies plan to record information about the homeless population in a database that could be used to produce a count of the Midlands’ homeless.

The Homeless Management Information Systems will be funded by a $193,000 three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. It would serve as a central database for the 11 counties that make up the Midlands Area Consortium for the Homeless. Agencies plan to begin building the database at the end of this year.

Easley library will

honor fallen soldier

EASLEY, S.C.— A $6.7 million main library set to open here next month will be named in honor of Capt. Kimberly Hampton, a 1994 graduate of Easley High School, who was killed in January when the helicopter she was piloting was shot down in Iraq.

Before Hampton became a pilot and commander with the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, she was an English major at Presbyterian College.

Her mother, Ann, said she loved books almost as much as the military. She taught Korean orphans to read when stationed there, her mother said shortly after the library was dedicated Saturday.

‘‘Between the library and bookstores, that’s where she spent most of her free time,’’ Hampton said of her daughter. ‘‘We are just so humbled and thankful for the county to be doing this.’’

The library is scheduled to open in the spring.

Searchers looking for

75-year-old missing from hiking trail

GREENVILLE, S.C. — Rescuers continued to search Sunday for a former teacher and football coach who got separated from his hiking group at Jones Gap State Park.

Joe Mancino, 75, has been missing since Saturday morning. He is a former teacher and coach at Wren High School.

About 50 emergency workers continued their search Sunday, but rescuers were worried because of the below-freezing overnight temperatures in the park.

Mancino was hiking Saturday with a group from Edwards Road Baptist Church, a family member said. He was wearing a vinyl jacket and a floppy hat.

‘‘He was not equipped to stay overnight,’’ River Falls fire chief David Embry said.

There are 65 miles of trails in the park.

Greenville museum to spend

$5.8 million on native artist’s work

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Greenville County Museum of Art plans to spend $5.8 million on art by South Carolina native Jasper Johns.

It’s is one of the largest art purchases by any museum in the region.

‘‘This is something I’ve always wanted to do, but it took 20 years to do it,’’ museum director Tom Styron said.

The museum will purchase an oil painting, two watercolors, a monotype print, a drawing and 30 prints directly from Johns. All the works are from the artist’s personal collection, and the price is lower than the art could have brought on the open market, Styron said.

He worked out the purchase with Johns, who lives outside New York.