COLUMBIA --- State Sen. Greg Ryberg, R-Aiken, launched an attack Tuesday against the Lower Savannah Council of Governments, accusing them of collecting private money to incorporate the towns of Graniteville, Vaucluse and Warrenville into one community.

He also said the six-county advocacy organization is stonewalling his efforts to find out who is donating to the effort and how those funds are being spent.

The issue of combining the three communities will appear on the Aug. 26 ballot, pending U.S. Department of Justice approval.

When asked by a reporter to detail the group's financial activities, Deputy Director Nora Sanders said the information was not available because the executive director was out of town.

"I remain puzzled by the arrangement whereby a public body takes private money for political purposes," said Mr. Ryberg in a statement.

"I am alarmed by the reluctance of LSCOG to turn over the records of those transactions."

In response, the council, which assists Aiken, Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Calhoun and Orangeburg, issued a statement that ignored most of Mr. Ryberg's claims.

Instead the group's statement said: "The Lower Savannah Council of Governments has acted as a financial manager only for the GVW (Graniteville, Vaucluse and Warrenville) fact-finding and preparatory portion of the possible incorporation as dictated by the S.C. statute. We have received donations from a variety of individuals and paid expenses incurred in the preliminary process only."

After the release of the group's statement, Ms. Sanders wrote in an e-mail, "For clarification, LSCOG was not collecting the donations. The donations were being collected by the Graniteville Incorporation Committee."