By Lolita Huckaby
Rain, rain, go away
BEAUFORT
By the time you read this, it should be raining. At least, that’s what the national weather service forecasters are saying as this column is being written on Sunday.
Tropical Storm Debby, (it’s still a tropical storm at this point) is expected to bring as much as 18 to 24 inches of rain to this part of the Lowcountry, which is certainly nothing to sneeze about. Gov. Henry McMaster, not one to dilly-dally when an emergency is at hand, has already declared a State Of Emergency which means the state will be standing in line for any federal dollars out there for storm repairs.
Let’s hope they’re not needed.
The amount of rain anticipated from Debby does reinforce the city of Beaufort’s attempts to improve its stormwater system.
In July 2022, engineering consultants for the city, Davis and Floyd, presented a report that showed the need for 28 projects to improve dilapidated drainage systems within the city limits. The report came with a stunning $28.3 million price tag.
Just recently, city staff at the direction of City Council, backed off plans to develop a pump station in the Point neighborhood, a project that had been in the works for several years and had been approved for a $9.4 million state infrastructure grant which was to be matched by the city’s $1.66 million.
Neighbors of the proposed pump station were adamantly opposed to the construction of a 20-foot-by-20-foot-by-10-foot concrete structure in a small city-owned pocket park in the middle of the city’s historic residential district. They felt city officials and their engineering consultants hadn’t done enough to pursue alternatives.
Specifically, they wanted to see the focus on improving existing stormwater pipelines and drains before undertaking the pump station monstrosity.
The city council, responding to what fellow The Island News columnist Bill Rauch described last month as a perfect example of “community activism,” have sidetracked plans for the pump station and moved on with work on other parts of the long-range drainage improvement project, the Baynard and Pinckney streets and the Charles and Craven streets areas, including problem areas around Port Republic and Carteret streets.
The Charles and Craven streets project includes the city’s waterfront park – which has its own set of issues, as we know – includes improvements to that drainage system which currently sees flooding during periods of extreme high tides.
New Assistant City Manager JJ Sauve and the engineers held a public meeting last week on the Charles/Craven Street project where they outlined the plans for an improved drainage system, no pump stations included. The attendance was small but the Facebook video of the session was apparently viewed 831 times.
Community activism may have stopped the proposed concrete bunker of a pump station in the middle of the historic district but the flooding of streets is going to continue, as we’ll probably see this week.
As Geoffrey Chaucer is credited with saying, time and tides wait for no man.
Political Insider
BEAUFORT – With problems in the waterfront park, drainage issues as sea level rises, building projects that keep landing them in court, who will be brave enough to step up and run for City Council?
With a week to file, Mayor Phil Cromer has signed up to run for another four-year term as have Council members Neil Lipsitz and Mitch Mitchell.
So far, only Josh Gibson and Julie Crenshaw — whose campaigns are being assisted by Carrie Chappell, editor of the online Beaufort Insider and who also worked Cromer’s first mayoral campaign — have filed for the non-partisan council seats.
Word is, Councilman Josh Scallate may be looking hard at the mayoral seat. Also, former Mayor Billy Keyserling has reportedly been approached by those wishing to see him back in office.
We’ll know the answer to at least this question Thursday, Aug. 15 at noon.
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.
