By Lolita Huckaby
BEAUFORT
When the late city Public Works Director Clayton Cooler retired in 1992 after almost 50 years of monitoring the municipality’s water and sewer services, not to mention trash collections and road repairs, a lot of people said well, now we’re in trouble, ‘cause Clayton knows in his head where all the pipes are.
In those days, when the town didn’t stretch over to Lady’s Island or out to MCAS Beaufort, for the population of fewer than 10,000, keeping with underground pipes wasn’t the monumental task it is now.
Case in point, the $11.9 million Charles and Craven streets stormwater drainage replacement project designed to replace 100-year-old pipes. A project which has the downtown merchants up in arms and city officials scrambling to meet a deadline of the end of 2026 to spend federal grants for the project.
The project is being funded by American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, grants which were available to the city, like other municipalities and governments, to help offset the losses incurred by the COVID epidemic.
And now that a schedule has been released that calls for the closure of the Bay and Charles Street intersection during the upcoming holiday months, merchants are extremely concerned and letting their elected leaders know about it.
The city leaders’ response has been a decision to launch a comprehensive marketing plan letting the world know DOWNTOWN BEAUFORT IS STILL OPEN FOR BUSINESS.
The response includes expanding the free-parking option in the Downtown Marina parking lot, which is traditionally done for the Christmas season, between Thanksgiving and the New Year. Now, free parking is available as well as token passes to allow free parking for a two-hour period.
Merchants have suggested suspending all parking fees through this construction period, and while city officials haven’t responded, a parking study several years ago indicated if parking fees were waived, it was the downtown employees who took advantage of the situation, not shoppers.
The Bay Street shopping district faced similar disruptions in the 1990’s when the city launched a major renovation which included new sidewalks and those wonderful “pork chops” curb parking spaces still in place. Kevin Cuppia of Modern Jewelers, one of the oldest retail operations on Bay Street, reminded merchants present at last week’s meeting that customers had to cross plywood to get into the stores during that project.
There was a general feeling of “we need to work together” after last week’s session but there was no mistaking the frustration merchants felt, realizing “the show must go on.”
The timing of the major intersection closure, in the middle of the holiday season which can be a breaking point for merchants who are already seeing a drop in tourism, with the current federal government closure and its impact on local military families. Then there’s the cruise ships being redirected from the downtown seawall to Port Royal.
On top of all that, the city leaders still haven’t settled on a plan to repair that waterfront park seawall, a project they know is going to cost millions of dollars.
Plus the possibility of hurricanes or other storm events in 2026 which might impact the project completion.
The list does go on and on. But the central message, despite the concerns, complaints and finger-pointing, is focused: DOWNTOWN BEAUFORT IS STILL OPEN FOR BUSINESS.
Or else it could return to a “sleepy, little town” with a lot of boarded windows.
County elections board still looking for director
BEAUFORT — Last week’s municipal elections in Port Royal, Bluffton and Yemassee are behind us but county election commissioners still have lots of work to do in preparation for the 2026 elections, including finding a new director for the county Voter Registration and Elections office.
The commissioners have been looking for a new director since Marie Smalls resigned after 12 years of service in September. Currently, Assistant Director Wendell Roberson is serving currently in that capacity.
One of the biggest complaints elections officials heard at last week’s monthly meeting was from citizens who didn’t realize the elections were only for voters living in municipalities.
With campaigning for the municipal races was relatively quiet, campaigning for next year’s mid-term elections has already begun, especially for those incumbents like U.S. Senator Lindsay Graham and the Governor’s race, where candidates are already lining up.
In Port Royal, where incumbents Mary Beth Heyward and Daryl Owens were the top vote-getters, 9.4 percent of the registered voters turned out.
In Yemassee, where incumbent Mayor Colin Moore and newcomers Alfred Washington and Lori Poston were elected, 5.8 percent of the total voters cast a ballot.
And in Bluffton, council members Emily Vaux Burden and Fred Washington were re-elected, with 5.8 percent of the voters voting.
Next up, the June 9 primaries for the 2026 elections.
National apartment rents may be going down, but not here
BEAUFORT — A recent story in the Wall Street Journal reported apartment renters across the nation were beginning to see a lowering of monthly rental fees connected with a “glut” of apartment construction.
The report noted the average national rent dropped 0.3 percent during the month of September, the steepest September drop in 15 years, according to CoStar data firm, quoted by The Wall Street Journal. The report went on to say major metro areas were seeing landlords cutting prices.
With all the apartment construction experienced in the Lowcountry, one might assume rental rates might see some decreases, but there’s no real evidence that trend is being experienced here … yet.
One online source, Apartment.com, says the average rent in Beaufort is $1,335 a month. Another online source, zumper.com lists the median rent for one-bedroom apartments as $1,502, down 6 percent from last year.
The Beaufort-Jasper Housing Trust, which works on providing “affordable” and “workforce” housing in the two-county area, reports the average monthly rental cost in the city of Beaufort is $2,300 per month compared to the town of Port Royal where the average is $2,400 and a high of $3,500 on Hilton Head Island.
B-JHT’s latest project, working with private developers, is the Carrington Manor apartment complex on Boundary Street which will provide 64 units for residents 55 and older once it opens. Carrington’s website states rent will be between $959 and $1,422 depending on the number of bedrooms.
The newest addition to Beaufort’s apartment scene is Pearl Studio, formerly the old Quality Inn on Boundary Street, lists rent between $1,100 and $1,200 including utilities.
The studio apartments, a project of 303 Associates, are like Vivo Apartments on Ribaut Road in Port Royal, which are located within a former Days Inn with 145 rooms. Rent there is listed on-line between $975 and $1,075 based on square footage of one-bedroom apartments.
And for the record, these are just apartments, not rental houses. Also, the median income for a household in Beaufort County is $84,800 but that includes the income of retirees, not just the working folks.
Lolita Huckaby Watson is a community volunteer and newspaper columnist. In her former role as a reporter with The Beaufort Gazette, The Savannah Morning News, Bluffton Today and Beaufort Today, she prided herself in trying to stay neutral and unbiased. As a columnist, these are her opinions. The Rowland, N.C. native’s goal is to be factual but opinionated, based on her own observations. Feel free to contact her at bftbay@gmail.com.
