By Lolita Huckaby
New County chief off to good start with Daufuskie residents
BEAUFORT
Beaufort County’s new administrator has checked in and from the initial looks of it, he’s off to an aggressive start.
One of the first public actions of Michael Moore was the announcement last week county attorneys would be serving official notice to operators of the Daufuskie Island ferry the county is not pleased with their service and considers the company in non-compliance with its contract.
Well, it’s about time, say observers of County Council meetings who for the past six months have heard Daufuskie Island residents complain about how lousy the current service is.
As background, the interim county administrator entered a contract with the Lowcountry Ferry in January after working with Haig Point Community Association for the past seven years. Lowcountry was the low bidder at $365,000 for the job compared to Haig Point’s $1.02 million.
And it wasn’t long after the new contractor began that complaints about inadequate boats, irregular schedules and the negative impact on tourists trying to visit the island. Add to that the threat of a federal lawsuit for violations under the Americans Disabilities Act.
The County Council spent unknown hours behind closed doors discussing the ferry contract – we have to say unknown because we’re never sure exactly WHAT topics are being discussed behind those closed doors. But it wasn’t until Moore sat down at the top administrator’s desk on July 1 that some action was forthcoming.
It’s a sure bet the County Council members had discussed the issue enough, again behind closed doors, to give some direction to their new administrator. But it was Moore’s employment that triggered a response to those complaints.
It will be interesting to see what the new guy’s next actions will be, considering the list of challenges he faces — replacement of several key administrative folks including a chief financial officer, a campaign to convince voters to support a transportation sales tax, a possible solution to the Pine Island development agreement that’s tied up county and private attorneys in court for the last year? Who knows?
It is interesting that the “official” action to “do something” comes as the islanders and others gather this week to bid farewell to one of the island’s more colorful characters, Roger Pinckney XI.
Certainly the late Pat Conroy brought a fair amount of publicity to the island from his book “The Water if Wide,” based on his teaching experiences there in 1968. And Daufuskie is home to renowned cookbook author and preservationist Sallie Mae Robinson whose life’s work has focused on promoting the Gullah culture, although fewer than 100 of the native islanders still live there.
But it was Pinckney, who died April 3, that claimed the infamous Lowcountry root doctor, Dr. Buzzard, had put a “no money root” on the entire island at one point and no one would ever get rich there.
While Beaufort County has gotten its share of property taxes from Daufuskie over the years and some property owners have gotten richer from land sales, maybe the lack of a reliable ferry service is another way of making Dr. Buzzard’s curse come true.
Zoning Appeals Board – that’s where it’s happening
BEAUFORT — In today’s hustle-and-bustle society, it’s hardly unlikely any right-minded person is going to choose to sit through any government meeting unless it’s a matter of personal interest.
Even if the said meeting takes place in a relatively comfortable, air-conditioned space with adequate lighting.
But, you can certainly tell a lot about what’s going on in a community if you happen drop into one of those inconspicuous sessions and stick around to listen.
Case in point: the recent monthly meeting of the Beaufort County Zoning Board of Appeals. Incredibly boring, you might say. But oh no, the agenda included four requests for short-term rental approvals and a large church camp and retreat center on Lady’s Island.
Camp Jubilee, being proposed by the Anglican Dioceses of South Carolina, would be located on Brickyard Point Road with hopes of replacing the church’s very popular Camp St. Christopher on Johns Island in Charleston County, which it no longer owns.
Plans call for the wooded area, zoned for single-family residential development, to be converted to a multi-cabin complex capable of accommodating more than 120 campers, a point of contention for the neighbors.
The ZBOA opted to continue the discussion.
Of the four short-term rental (STR) requests, which require a variance from the zoning board because that’s the way the county’s STR ordinance reads, all four had neighbors turn out to speak in opposition. And because of that opposition, the seven members of the ZBOA said no.
Two of the requests involved lots on isolated Coffin Point, where out-of-state property owners were hoping to cash in on their residences. But then the neighbors spoke up and voiced their frustrations with previous STR situations – multiple cars, loud parties, “strangers” walking up and down the dirt roads and through private yards, etc.
One speaker at last week’s ZBOA summed it up.
“We spend time working on regulations saying how an area can be developed, someone comes in and buys their ‘forever’ home there and then someone else comes along and gets a variance to do something else. Why do we bother?”
“We want neighbors, not investors,” another neighbor argued.
It’s indicative of an almost universal complaint. There’s always the argument for private property rights – a person should be allowed to do what they wish with their property – but where does that stop?
Supreme Court affirms city ordinance
BEAUFORT – All of the U.S. Supreme Court’s rulings have some sort of impact on citizens but last month’s ruling prohibiting homeless people from sleeping in public places affirms what Beaufort City Council did four years ago.
In response to complaints about individuals sleeping overnight in public parks, particularly the Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park, the City Council in September, 2020 passed an ordinance banning “camping” in parking lots and parks.
In the past two years, Beaufort police officers have issued two citations and 10 warnings for violation of the ordinance.
Beaufort County Council passed its own ordinance in January 2022 when it discovered a homeless individual was camping outside the doors of the County Council chambers in the Administrative Building on Ribaut Road.
The ordinance allowed individuals who were sleeping or camping on county-owned properties to be arrested and charged. In this particular case, it allowed the individual, who had documented mental issues, to be placed in the county jail when efforts to find lodging for him were unsuccessful.
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. Her goal is to be factual but opinionated, based on her own observations. Feel free to contact her at bftbay@gmail.com.
