By Lolita Huckaby
Water walk reminder of those who don’t have it
PORT ROYAL
Six hundred-plus blue T-shirted walkers strolled the street of the town’s historic district Saturday, carrying buckets to demonstrate they were “walking for water.”
As part of an annual fundraising effort for the Water Mission International program, the 600-plus walkers raised more than $72,000, which will be used to construct and install water treatment facilities in communities around the globe for residents who struggle to provide clean water for their families. The non-profit Water Mission International, formed in 2002 by a Charleston couple who initially saw the need in Honduras, was adopted by several churches in the Beaufort area and the “walk for water” campaign has grown in eight years and expanded to Bluffton, where the walk will be held on Sept. 21.
The focus on providing clean water for those in more isolated areas was once a situation here in the Lowcountry. Residents in the more rural areas used to depend solely on well water for their drinking supplies.
While the municipalities and some communities had their own small water treatment facilities, it wasn’t until 1954 that the state Legislature created the non-profit Beaufort Water Authority to supply the growing demand for reliable water by building a treatment system using water from the Savannah River. The Authority, which expanded to include Jasper County in 1983, now provides 20 million gallons of treated water to customers and is struggling to meet the needs of hundreds who are still coming, future residents of those mushrooming apartment complexes and residential developments springing up around the region.
The BJWSA board of directors last month approved a $110 million capital investment plan which included significant rate increases for residential and commercial water users as well as sewer treatment users who will help pay for the growth in demand.
There are still parts of the county where residents still rely on wells for their drinking, but those wells are being jeopardized, also by the growth, as big well users, such as those golf courses that pump untreated ground water to keep their links green. Hopefully there’s no one in Beaufort County carrying buckets of water for miles, on a daily basis.
Town Council gets tough on SSU’s, stays tough on trees
PORT ROYAL – Port Royal Town Council set another precedent last week when the panel of four plus Mayor Kevin Phillips voted unanimously to stop any more personal self-storage unit businesses being built in certain zoning areas of their community.
The action came because of citizens who urged the elected officials to do something, arguing at least 40 businesses were already in existence within the town limits or a 10-mile radius. As more than one speaker told the council during public hearings preceding the vote, they feared becoming the “storage unit capital of the Lowcountry.” (For the record, the city of Beaufort has eight within its municipal limits.)
The restriction on new units includes property zoned along major thoroughfares such as Ribaut Road, Parris Island Gateway and Savannah Highway.
One property owner who disagreed with the ban, Bennett McNeil who had hoped to build a storage business at the entrance of Wrights Point, contended the units are needed because more and more homes being built are smaller in size and have less storage space. He suggested stricter landscaping regulations could be imposed to make the structures more attractive.
Nationwide, reports claim one in every five Americans rents at least one personal storage unit. The average price for such rentals is $120 per month for the most popular 10-feet-by-10-feet unit, but here in South Carolina, the average is only $108 per month. Current statistics claim there is 1.9 billion square feet of personal storage space here in America.
The council meeting, which repeatedly draws some of the friendliest audiences at any government meeting, also included the first of two necessary votes on a revised tree ordinance which still imposes some of the stiffest fees for removal in the state. Town planners and tree lovers including the Coastal Conservation League have worked for the past year on revisions which they hope will help guide development on some pretty major projects coming down the pipeline (think Safe Harbor property or the heavily wooded lot on Ribaut and Richmond Avenue that’s had a “for sale” sign on it for years.)
The revisions lighten the fees for single family homeowners but still sends the message that if you’re a developer, and you’re gonna cut a lot of trees to build something, it’s gonna cost you.
Gruber to take helm in Hardeeville
HARDEEVILLE – Kudos to our neighbors over in Hardeeville who have a new town manager but one with lots of knowledge about the Lowcountry.
Mayor Harry Williams announced recently the hiring of Hilton Head Town Deputy Manager Josh Gruber to lead the town administration. Gruber is known to many in county circles as the former Beaufort County attorney, then Deputy Administrator, then Interim County Administrator in 2017 when then-Administrator Gary Kubic resigned. He takes over from Michael Czymbor who announced his resignation this summer after nine years with the rapidly growing municipality.
Williams, who had earlier this year said he wasn’t going to run again in November after nine years, is so pleased with the new team he opted to run for another four-year term and faces no opposition. Indeed, two of the council incumbents who are running again only face one opponent indicating they must be doing something right on that side of the Jasper County line.
For those who might think, “Hmmm, what do we care about Hardeeville’s comings and goings, we have our own local elections to keep us busy?” Consider, for a minute, about any trip you might take to Savannah or to the Savannah airport via S.C. 170/U.S. 278 and I-95. All those new apartments and service offices you see springing up there in what was once called “the Great Swamp,” plus the new expansions of Sun City Hilton Head? That’s Hardeeville.
Those road problems we talk about south of the Broad River? We share them with Jasper County and Hardeeville, that’s why both county councils are pushing transportation sales tax referenda in November, to generate dollars to fix some of those problems.
So, good luck to Gruber and Williams as they try to navigate what the Mayor has called “the Starship Hardeeville.”
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.
