Chiropractic Care in Summerville, SC

SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (WCSC) - Dorchester County has set aside over nine million dollars to build a new library branch in downtown Summerville, but neighbors are concerned over its possible location.

A two-story, 15,000-square-foot library could soon be built in front of the Summerville Family YMCA. It’s one of three planned libraries in the lower part of Dorchester County.

However, the location off Doty Avenue has drawn parking concerns from business owners and neighbors.

“I think that this is a good bad idea,” business owner Diane Frankenberger said, “and I think there’s gotta be another place for it where there’s just more parking. Parking’s the issue.”

County Administrator Jason Ward says he believes the library will serve a smaller radius than its current library on Trolley Road, which it will replace once complete.

“When you go from one facility, like the one on Trolley Road, to three facilities, you’re going to have a dispersion of the parking,” Ward said. “You’re not going to have everyone that’s going to the Trolley branch come to downtown .”

Frankenberger said the proposed site will hurt both the library and the YMCA.

She and neighbors say instead of building the facility there, the library should go across the railroad tracks onto the former site of the town’s public safety headquarters, which they say could provide ample space for parking.

However, the county disagrees, saying the YMCA site is the most walkable.

“While [the old public safety building] is a location that some have looked at for different purposes, we really feel the location that we have provides kind of the old four corners concept,” Ward said.

Neighbors said they’re not against having a library built downtown, but they want a place where people won’t have to stress out about where to park.

“I’d like to get peace in my heart, and I know other people would too, about where folks are going to park, and that those studies have been done,” Frankenberger said.

Joseph Debney, the Summerville Family YMCA’s CEO, released the following statement:

We, at the Summerville Family YMCA, are invested in this community. Our parking provides over 100 spaces to our members. We have and will continue to work with our local businesses, residents, and elected officials to address the need for parking in Summerville.

To that end, we have had many discussions regarding bike sharing and improved pedestrian and bike trails to encourage safety and greater access to our downtown and Oakbrook areas. We believe that creating this access improves equitability for all in our community.

We will continue to work with the county and town on projects that improve the quality of life for all Dorchester County residents through community partnerships, workforce development, removing barriers to transportation accessibility.

Copyright 2022 WCSC. All rights reserved.

Women We Admire just announced the Top 50 Women Leaders of South Carolina for 2022, naming author and publisher Susan Kammeraad-Campbell as an awardee.

Each year the publication chooses honorees based on their dedication to their profession, tenacity, discipline and perseverance as well as women who have “defied limitations and broke[n] through glass ceilings, helping to change today’s landscape of professional women.”

Kammeraad-Campbell is the publisher and editor in chief of Joggling Board Press (JBP), an independent press founded in 2003 and dedicated to the publication of books in the spirit of the South. Under her leadership, JBP has published more than 30 books of fiction, history, photography, nature and memoir, titles that consistently earn top national awards and critical acclaim.

Kammeraad-Campbell has mentored more than 40 interns and apprentices in the literary arts and taught hundreds through workshops and master classes in writing and creative thinking, using innovative methods that bypass the usual approaches to teaching writing. Her work as a journalist at the Medical University of South Carolina sparked her interest in neurology, a pursuit that gave her insight into how the brain works – specifically, how we tap into our most creative thoughts, what triggers memory, and what gives us pause to recalibrate a memory through the portal of reflection. Her techniques have proven to work again and again to spirit writers to delve into the deepest crevices of their creative minds. The writing generated through this process is often stunningly powerful, yielding insights anew, creative connections unanticipated.

In addition to her work in publishing, Kammeraad-Campbell served as executive director of D.R.E.A.M., Summerville’s Main Street program, shortly after moving to the area with her young family in 1997. She has been a community organizer, strategist and analyst working with the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Riley Center for Livable Communities, the Community and Regional Resilience Institute and local and county governments. She was named Oxford, Ohio, Citizen of the Year for her work bringing strategic planning to the public school district there.

As a key player in the case study evaluating the resilience of Charleston, S.C., for DHS, she was a member of the core writing team developing a national framework for community resilience.

Kammeraad-Campbell worked as a reporter for United Press International and for newspapers in the Midwest, New England and the South. Her book Doc: Dennis Littky’s Fight for a Better School became an NBC movie called A Town Torn Apart. She is the coauthor of Edisto River: Black Water Crown Jewel, winner of seven national awards, including the best nonfiction book of the year by Foreword Reviews.

Among her volunteer activities, she founded the Summerville chapter of Together Women Rise (formerly Dining for Women) and is an active member of the Summerville Orchestra board of directors.

SUMMERVILLE — The $137 million project to build 3.9 miles of the Berlin G. Myers Parkway began its final phase on Aug. 8.

Through this project, the S.C. Department of Transportation, the town of Summerville and the Dorchester County Transportation Authority are delivering a new four-lane roadway as well as a multipurpose pathway along the Sawmill Branch Trail for bicycle and pedestrian users.

The extension of this parkway will connect with other well-traveled roads including U.S. Highway 17A and Bacons Bridge Road, DOT Director of Communications Pete Poore wrote in an email to The Post and Courier.

According to a news release, the purpose of the project is to “improve roadway connectivity, reduce traffic congestion and enhance safety for the residents of Summerville.”

Parts of the Sawmill Branch Trail will be closing temporarily — a maximum of 90 days — due to construction crews starting flood mitigation work. The crews will be working and rebuilding part of the trail between Jedi Lane and Bacons Bridge Road.

Poore said there will also be short-term closures between Luden Drive and East Carolina Avenue, and they will be announced a week in advance.

The project took more than 18 years of planning, permitting and engineering work. Stephen Grant, chairman of the DCTA, said the Berlin G. Myers Parkway was first conceived as a bypass around Main Street in Summerville in the mid 1970s.

According to Grant, the first two phases of the parkway were completed around 1998, with the third and final phase approved as part of the 2006 sales tax referendum by Dorchester County voters.

Mayor Ricky Waring said one of his main platforms when he ran for mayor in 2020 was getting the parkway completed, and for his first two years as mayor, he and members of Town Council worked hard on getting the permits necessary for the final phase of the project to begin.

“(Before running for mayor), I worked for the same mayor for 40 years, and the parkway’s named after him: Berlin Myers Parkway. He wanted to complete it in his lifetime, and that didn’t happen,” Waring said. “For a while, I was wondering whether it might happen in my lifetime. I said, ‘I’ll try my best to make it happen.’ And it did. It’s not complete, but it’s underway.”

Transportation Secretary Christy Hall said in a news release that cooperation between DOT and several other parties — including the Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham — played a significant role.

The project budget is composed of $35 million in DCTA funds, $30 million in State Infrastructure Bank funds and $72 million in Charleston Area Transportation/Study DOT funds.

Grant said the project is slated to be completed on Sept. 30, 2026.

SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (WCBD) – Driving up to the parking garage in Downtown Summerville, you’ll see the word ‘free’ posted in several places.

A convenient place to park, near Summerville’s shops and restaurants, has been free since it was built in 2008.

“It is super convenient,” said one Summerville man. “I’m going right across the street to the shops here, and it’s a convenient place to park for it.”

But an idea being discussed among town leaders could mean patrons have to pay to park.

“The idea is just to charge for the garage, people who use the garage, just to recoup some of that money so the garage is self-sufficient and pays for itself,” said Russ Cornette, the Public Works Director for the Town of Summerville.

Since 2014, an average of $96,000 per year have been spent on maintenance, upkeep, and upgrades of the garage. Currently, that money is coming from the town and out of taxpayers’ pockets.

“Since 2014 we’ve invested about $770,000,” said Cornette.

He says maintenance gets more expensive as the years go on.

“The older a building gets, the more it’s going to cost the town, the taxpayers of the town. Many of the people who use this garage are non-residents. So it would be great to have the garage pay for itself from non-residents.”

When the garage was built, technology including ticket stations and a place for drop gates were installed just in case the town decided to start charging in the future.

“Council, at the time, decided it would be best not to charge people to park. But, at the time, they also decided to install some of the infrastructures to be able to charge in the future.”

Discussions have already started among stakeholders and the town, and more conversations will happen in the coming weeks and months. Cornette says the feedback he’s received so far has been mostly negative, but that a large portion of people who park in the garage are tourists and visitors.

“A lot of people probably that don’t live in Summerville also probably park here when there are events and Third Thursdays and things like that so is it good or bad…? I think there’s a balance that has to be struck between taking care of things and using them,” said a Summerville resident.

No decisions have been made yet, and the idea may not be implemented.

That decision is up to the town council.

SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (WCIV) — Just in time for back-to-school shopping, or just wanting a break on some non-educational items, the South Carolina annual Sales-Tax Holiday started on Friday and will run through Sunday, August 7th.

While shoppers throughout the Lowcountry have many choices of where to shop for the discount, the self-proclaimed "Home of Sweet Tea" hopes the savings sweeten the pot to entice folks to Summerville.

Long-time Hutchinson Square business owner Debbie Maccario says that since opening shop in Summerville in 2007, “[We've had] a lot of growth, and we have a lot of people moving in from other states.”

Her clothing and apparel store, Maggie Rose, sees a variety of customers throughout the year, including many tourists and Charleston-area shoppers. One enticement -- no parking fees.

Add that onto a tax-free holiday, and that's a pretty sweet deal.

“I have a lot of customers that are from Summerville that will come in anytime there is something a little less expensive. And the taxes do take off seven percent.”

The state’s Department of Revenue says that South Carolina's six percent sales tax, along with any local sales taxes, are waived during this period.

For the folks at South Carolina-based clothing and apparel chain Palmetto Moon, that’s also great news.

A representative for the store tells us that the Summerville location is one of the retailer’s best-selling.

Kelsi Cannon with the store says, “We welcome anyone to shop with us during tax-free weekend. Especially if you’re looking for the back-to-school look. We’re also gearing up for gameday.”

Cannon wants potential customers to know that it’s not just K-12 students that’s on their minds.

There’s savings for college and university students, too.

Cannon says Palmetto Moon is proud to serve local communities like Summerville.

Back at Maggie Rose, Maccario speaks with customers visiting from Illinois. She’s aware of the tax break’s impact on her shop and neighboring stores like Palmetto Moon.

“I think it’s advertised across the board well for tax-free weekend. I mean, it’s a big deal.”

Clothing and school supplies are the main items with the temporary tax exemptions. For the full list, visit the SCDOR’s website.