Chiropractic Care in Johns Island, SC

Two fake stop signs have been found in one James Island neighborhood, which the mayor says has caused confusion and controversy between town officials and local

JAMES ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - Two fake stop signs have been found in one James Island neighborhood, which the mayor says has caused confusion and controversy between town officials and locals.

A neighbor’s security camera captured the Town of James Island’s public works department removing the illegal stop signs from the corner of Clearview Drive and Tennant Street on Oct. 21.

“You cannot put your own stop signs out. You can always come to the town and make a request, and it will always be merited,” Mayor Bill Woolsey said. “We won’t often be able to put them up, but you can’t put them up yourself, and how we respond is we immediately contact SCDOT. We would have been very surprised if they put a stop sign out there without telling us beforehand.”

A worker could be seen wiggling one of the signs a couple of times before lifting it out of the ground and placing it in the back of a truck.

Not only were the signs put in illegally, according to the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office, but the ground next to the street was painted with white stop bars, as well.

“It’s the first I’ve ever heard about it, and I hope it doesn’t spread,” Woolsey said. “[I’m surprised] someone would come and paint a line in the road and buy some online stop signs and install them themselves in the middle of the night or early in the morning.”

Deputies said they were patrolling the area the night before and didn’t see any new signs, but when they went back the next day, they said the signs, which were apparently purchased online, had been put in overnight.

The South Carolina Department of Transportation has also confirmed they have not installed any stop signs at the intersection.

Neighbors initially thought the stop signs were put in by DOT to help with speeders and said the fake signs hurts their ability to address the issue.

“I guess somebody duped us, and they were putting in fake stop signs,” neighbor Jim Boyd said. “They looked to all of us legitimate and 100% real. We are just in favor of anything and everything that we can get people to slow down. Yes, we understand first responders need to get here quickly as well, but we want everything and anything.”

However, Woolsey said he believes the signs did not pop up at random.

“If we find out who did it, they will be charged, and we believe that, most likely, it was someone who lives close by,” he said.

Woolsey also said there was a recent incident where an illegal speed bump was found and removed near the intersection. He said the speed bump had black and yellow stripes and was similar to one found in parking lots across the Lowcountry.

Copyright 2022 WCSC. All rights reserved.

You’re seeing The Post and Courier’s weekly real estate newsletter. Receive all the latest transactions and top development, building, and home and commercial sales news to your inbox each Saturday here.

The new 16-acre Hayes Park mixed-use development coming to Johns Island has lined up nine commercial tenants more than a year before it opens.

A Simple Tree, Grace Frederick Design, High Steaks Butcher Shop, Jimmy John’s, Somm Wine Bar, New Leaf Builders Design Center, Opal Aesthetics, Seaboard Builders and Weightspace are among the signed tenants on the five acres of commercial space. They will begin opening in December 2023.

The development by Charleston-based New Leaf Builders also includes 56 residences, including single-family attached houses and townhome options. Residential sales information will be released in November.

About 1,500 grand trees have been protected on the site that’s been in the works for several years as a destination for John Islanders to live, work and play.

“Given the high visibility and scale of the grand trees on this property, we spent considerable time designing these buildings to work with the existing features of the property,” said Adam Baslow, founder of New Leaf Builders.

“To deliver the best product for the community and bring Hayes Park??????? to life, we worked around all the trees we could while protecting the natural wetlands on the rear of the property,” he said.

A pair of 100,000-square-foot office buildings and an 800-car parking deck are planned where Regal Cinebarre once operated on Houston Northcutt Boulevard.

652: Address on St. Andrews Boulevard where a new French restaurant is in the works.

17: Number of years a West Ashley cafe served up breakfast and lunch before it closed Sept. 30.

350: Number of apartments planned in North Charleston??????? where the developer hopes to win approval to fill wetlands.

48,387: Square footage of new Publix supermarket that opened Sept. 28 in Moncks Corner.

+ On the way: A three-story building with a restaurant and living space is planned on downtown Charleston corner where a church once operated.

+ Trucking in: A Nashville-based trucking company recently opened in Palmetto Commerce Park where a developer plans to build commercial structures for retailers or restaurants near the juncture of Palmetto Commerce Parkway and Ladson Road.

+ Tour of homes: The Charleston Symphony Orchestra League has set the date for its upcoming tour of homes??????? on Kiawah Island.

The Medical University of South Carolina wants to build a six-story building on President Street to house the College of Health Professions???????.

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CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - The City of Charleston’s Planning Commission on Wednesday will review plans for a new residential development on James Island.

The property has both low-lying wetlands and high ground, which appears to be causing concern for some James Island residents.

One James Island resident, Franny Henty, said she is concerned about the flooding problems that developments in low-lying areas may cause for surrounding neighbors.

Developers are proposing to build the ‘Harbor View Towns’ near the intersection of the James Island Expressway and Harbor View Road. According to the submitted plans, it will consist of six single-family and 10 multifamily units.

Henty lives off of Folly Road, right near Publix.

With the multiple jurisdictions interacting on James Island, she said she hopes the city is being careful with its stormwater retention plan, especially considering the low-lying areas and wetlands on the property.

“Adding so much development can flood out the neighbors, and that’s not apparent immediately, its apparent years later, Henty said.

City of Charleston Director of Planning, Preservation and Sustainability Robert Summerfield said the majority of the property is high land, but the portion of the property containing wetlands will be “pretty significantly” buffered away.

He said the developer’s plans include a stormwater retention plan, and even though the multiple jurisdictions can be confusing from a planning perspective, he is confident in the city’s stormwater requirements.

“This property is in the city, this property is not, and so on and so forth. But this one is in the city, has to meet all of our requirements. And again, our stormwater requirements, I would put those up against any in the state in terms of their stringent requirements to safeguard against future, and particularly downstream, flooding,” Summerfield said.

We are waiting to hear from the developer for comment.

Today’s planning commission meeting will take place at 5:00 p.m. in the Public Meeting Room on the first floor of 2 George Street.

The meeting will also be live streamed and recorded on the City of Charleston Public Meetings YouTube channel.

Copyright 2022 WCSC. All rights reserved.

JOHNS ISLAND, S.C. (WCBD) – Hebron Zion Presbyterian Church on Johns Island was the site for Saturday’s History Harvest where locals were invited to share their genealogical history, which will be preserved in the International African American Museum’s Center for Family History.

“There’s so much history here,” International African American Museum volunteer and Lowcountry native Darryl Bonneau said. “The graveyards a full with all our family members and we want you to know that our family members laid this foundation for us.”

The International African American Museum is working to preserve Lowcountry family legacies at the inaugural History Harvest.

“Our history is not all documented and we want to make sure when our children and our adults who are doing their history,” Reverend DeMett Jenkins with the International African American Museum said, “or learning history, or they’re family legacy, that they have the information that is needed.”

Community members who participated had the opportunity to digitize family documents and share oral accounts of their family’s history.

“I’ve been doing oral history interviews for quite some time,” Joshua Parks, the digital production manager for the International African American Museum, said, “and I really enjoy just being able to capture people’s stories. Let them tell their stories and just act as a soundboard to just capture that history.”

One participant eager to tell her family’s story is Tamara Saunders Jenkins.

“My father is William “Bill” Saunders,” Saunders Jenkins said. “He was actually the CEO and founder of WPAL radio station in Charleston, which was the only radio station that was actually active and operating during Hurricane Hugo. My mother, she was instrumental in the Civil Rights Movement, cooking for Martin Luther King, Jr.”

Organizers say many families here in the Lowcountry have a rich, diverse history that is often overlooked, and this event will ensure that their stories are told.

“We want the world to know the importance of Gullah Geechee culture and the contributions that we have made,” Reverend Patricia Bligen, pastor of Hebron Zion Presbyterian Church, said, “not only through the church, but through just working and living and thriving.”

The International African American Museum is scheduled to officially open on January 21, 2023.

Two weeks of no-excuse-needed early voting kicks off Oct. 24 at more than 100 locations statewide, giving South Carolinians more options than ever for casting a ballot with hopefully little to no wait.

It’s South Carolina’s first general election under a Statehouse law signed by Gov. Henry McMaster in May which directed each county to open up to seven early voting sites for 12 days through the Saturday before Election Day.

All locations must open to voters from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. in all 46 counties from the coast to the mountains.

The exception is Oct. 30, as the law forbids Sunday voting.

Early voters can choose whatever site is most convenient for them within the county where they’re registered, whether that’s close to home, work or shopping. They aren’t limited by their home address.

“Early voting is a big deal for South Carolina,” state Election Commission spokesman Chris Whitmire said. “It gives a lot more access, more options for busy people to go vote. That’s the biggest benefit.”

It also should reduce stress on poll workers and give them more time to fix problems as they arise, which in turn also benefits voters, he said.

“Whatever line you’ve had before will be better,” Whitmire said.

The 111 early voting sites statewide represent a 35 percent increase from the total that opened before the June primaries, when election officers had less than three weeks to put the new rules into practice.

Nineteen of South Carolina’s rural counties are still offering a single location, usually at their main election office.

Some of the most-populous counties are providing several additional options. For example, Lexington went from one to five. Charleston County, which also offered a single site in June, is among three counties opening the maximum seven.

Greenville and Horry counties are the other two with seven.

Voting sites for every county can be found on the S.C. Election Commission website at scvotes.gov/voters/early-voting. By law, each county election office must also post local locations on its own website.

Voting absentee by mail is also underway. Those who qualify include people who are 65 and older, have physical disabilities, or work a job that doesn’t allow them to vote in person during the two-week early voting window. Applications must be in by Oct. 28. People returning a mailed ballot in person must show identification.

Charleston County, which has opened satellite offices since 2016 under prior law that required an excuse for voting early, has planned since January to open seven once the legislation passed. But when the final version didn’t allow for mobile sites as intended, the county reverted to one, but only for the primaries, said Isaac Cramer, director of the Charleston County Board of Elections.

Local sites for this election include four libraries and two churches spread out from Hollywood to Mount Pleasant, with the largest site being the North Charleston Convention Center. That was a popular spot for voters in November 2020, Cramer said.

Amid the pandemic, legislators passed a temporary law allowing no-excuse-needed in-person absentee voting for that election only. One problem was that access varied widely across the state. Even so, it marked the first time that more South Carolinians voted early than on Election Day.

Two years later under the new law requiring options with standardized hours, Charleston County has added sites on James Island, Johns Island and Hollywood.

“We wanted to expand to areas with population growth and rural areas so people across the county would have shorter distances to travel,” Cramer said.

The more than 150 additional workers hired specifically for early voting began weeklong training sessions Oct. 17. They’re prepared for busy, 12-hour days. They’ll stay on through Election Day at $15 an hour, which becomes $22.50 hourly for required overtime, he said.

In the Upstate, Greenville and Spartanburg counties each hired dozens of additional poll workers for early voting.

Staffing concerns are partly why Spartanburg went with three offerings for its first election with multiple sites, said its elections director, Adam Hammons.

Since turnout is generally lower for midterm elections than in presidential contests, “starting with three early voting centers that are fully staffed and ready for voters was our decision,” he said.

It’s among 10 counties opening three locations.

Others include nearby Pickens County, Dorchester County in the Lowcountry, and York County south of Charlotte, as well as rural Barnwell and Hampton counties along the Georgia line.

Georgetown and Beaufort counties are each operating four sites.

Georgetown officials didn’t see a reason to open the max, said elections director Aphra McCrea.

There was an obvious need for a location in the Waccamaw Neck, a peninsula east of the Waccamaw River that is where most voters live. The county office made sense as it’s already equipped to handle early voting. The other two were put in locations convenient for rural residents, McCrea said.

Lexington and Richland are the only counties offering five locations.

Richland County has had more shakeups at its long-troubled election agency in the last few months, to include the resignation of its director. But interim director Terry Graham, who also submitted a resignation letter before agreeing to stay through the elections, insisted the county is prepared for the election and early voting.

County officials considered expanding to six but decided it lacked sufficient workers and money for an additional site, he said.

“Money always is a deciding factor. If we could do more, we would do more,” he said. “We didn’t want to spread ourselves too thin by adding more people and more locations.”

Spencer Donovan contributed from Greenville. Leah Hincks contributed from Columbia. Mike Woodel contributed from Georgetown. Nicole Ziege contributed from Myrtle Beach.