Probate Lawyer in Port Royal, SC

Streets through Port Royal’s cozy residential neighborhoods are getting repaved. The nearly $2 million project signals the first time the town has tackled multiple paving needs simultaneously. The work will bring new surfaces to virtually every street in the Old Village, the historic center of the town where some roads are named after nation capitals including Paris, London, Madrid and Edinburgh.

The paving work will be an inconvenience for residents, Town Manager Van Willis says, “but we think long-term it’s a significant improvement.”

Work by Charlotte-based Blythe Construction began Monday with resurfacing of Madrid Avenue and will continue for three to four weeks. Blythe is asking residents to have all vehicles removed from the street between 7 a.m.-7 p.m.

“We have piecemealed the resurfacing throughout the years,” Willis said, “but this is the first truly comprehensive resurfacing of town-owned roads.”

“We are repaving basically all of downtown Port Royal, with the exception of Paris Avenue,” Willis added.

In the largest capital project the community has ever undertaken, the town also plans to spend some $16 million in a major overhaul of Paris Avenue — the main street through the Old Village. But the town must still secure funding before beginning that work.

Unlike most municipalities, Willis said, Port Royal owns most of its roads, which only adds significance to the repaving work. The state of South Carolina typically owns most of the roads in communities, he said. But in the 1990s, the town began taking ownership so it had more control over redevelopment designs for the downtown area, Willis said.

Last year, the online review site Cheapism ranked Port Royal among the 50 most-underrated towns in America, citing its leadership in the planning and development approach known as New Urbanism.

The Town Council previously approved $5 million in capital projects for 2023-24, a 900% increase. That work included $3 million in general obligation borrowing. At just under $2 million, the street repaving makes up the bulk of the $3 million worth of borrowing, Willis said.

Here’s when repaving is scheduled to begin:

? March 4: Madrid Avenue and Laurel Street.

? March 5: 15th and 16th streets, Columbia Avenue

? March 7: 11th, 12th and 13th streets.

This story was originally published March 5, 2024, 1:20 PM.

By Delayna Earley

The Island News

The first inclusive playground in Beaufort County officially opened on Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024.

The Bruce Edgerley Inclusive Playground opened with a crowd of about 50 people in attendance, but more families came following the ceremony to enjoy the new facility.

The playground equipment, which cost nearly $800,000, was installed in July 2023, but it was revealed and reported to Beaufort County Council in September 2023 that proper procurement code was not followed in the purchase of the equipment.

At the time, Shannon Loper was the Beaufort County Parks and Recreation Director, but she is no longer employed by the county.

Six months after the equipment was initially installed, the playground is now open and can be used by members of the public.

Interim County Administrator John Robinson announced during the Jan. 8, 2024, County Council meeting that the contractors finished sidewalks just after Christmas and revealed the date of the grand opening and ribbon cutting, but made no mention of the issues surrounding the playground beginnings.

The new playground is in Port Royal at the Port Royal Community Center.

The equipment is inclusive because it goes beyond American with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards to accommodate children of all abilities, according to Hannah Nichols, Beaufort County’s Public Information Officer.

Among the typical pieces you might see at a playground, it features a flush entry to the equipment, unitary turf surfacing, new restrooms and sensory areas.

While the playground will be managed and maintained by Beaufort County, the town of Port Royal will step in to help where it is needed, Port Royal Mayor Kevin Phillips said.

Phillips, who just celebrated the birth of his first child, said that he is very excited about the opening of the new playground and that Port Royal was chosen as the site for the playground.

He said that they specifically chose to have the event on a Saturday so that more families and children would be able to attend and use the playground.

“It’s a beautiful playground,” Phillips said. “I’m excited to see people enjoying it.”

Delayna Earley formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.

Last year ended with Port Royal sending a stern six-page letter to Safe Harbor Marinas outlining the town’s disappointment with the lack of progress in its development of the port of Port Royal.

But, according to town manager Van Willis, the new year has brought a glimmer of good news.

The letter to Safe Harbor in late December demanded answers. On Wednesday, Safe Harbor responded, and Willis said, “I think we’re moving in the right direction.” Willis updated the members of the Town Council at a meeting Wednesday evening.

Mayor Kevin Phillips said Wednesday the response was a welcome and a positive development. “They didn’t tell us to just go pound sand.”

The full contents of the response have not yet been made public.

Safe Harbor is developing two miles of waterfront known as Port Royal’s “front porch” because of its sweeping views of Battery Creek and beyond. Safe Harbor is planning what it describes as world-class marina and ancillary businesses and hundreds of units of housing. The town also hopes to see restaurants and a public promenade. But residents and town leaders alike have been frustrated by delays and plan changes. The construction of rental townhomes — rather than owner occupied units — was soundly criticized by residents and political leaders. Further, town officials expressed in the December letter that the council does not condone Safe Harbor using the waterfront for industrial uses unrelated to the local marina development, particularly the placement of unsightly large cranes used for assembling docks for use at Safe Harbor properties elsewhere.

Included with the letter were details of the development including an easement needed to extend the popular Spanish Moss Trail across Safe Harbor land, and a land swap the town needs to build a sea food processing facility near a new shrimp dock planned between Fish Camp on 11th Street and the Shellring Ale Works.

Town officials, including its legal counsel, still were evaluating the information as of Wednesday, Willis added.

The letter, he noted, included dozens of pages along with deeds and easement information. “They are paying attention so hopefully we can get some progress on this port development,” Phillips said.

Last month, when the Beaufort Gazette and Island Packet asked Safe Harbor for a response to the town’s concerns, Clark responded: “Safe Harbor and its partners are eager to continue development in Port Royal but require support from the town to advance the project.”

This story was originally published January 11, 2024, 11:31 AM.

In the wake of concerns the town has raised about the pace and details of Safe Harbor Marina’s multi-million dollar redevelopment of the Port of Port Royal, Safe Harbor has requested a meeting to clear the air — and preferably by the end of the month.

Peter H. Clark, Safe Harbor’s Dallas, Texas-based chief development officer, made the request for an in-person meeting with Town of Port Royal officials in a Jan. 9 letter that came in response to concerns town officials previously raised about the plan to redevelop some 50 acres of more than 300 it owns on the shores of Battery Creek.

“Safe Harbor believes that an in-person meeting between the Developer and the Town will be the most efficient forum to discuss and reach prompt resolution on the Town’s remaining concerns to ensure the shared desire of successful redevelopment of the Property, and looks forward to discussing same before the end of the month,” Safe Harbor’s Clark says in the letter.

At a Town Council meeting Wednesday, officials announced they had received the letter from Safe Harbor and called it a positive development, but the full contents were not released until Thursday. In that letter, requested by the Beaufort Gazette and Island Packet, Clark notes that the town had requested Safe Harbor address a number of items by Jan. 12. But he added that those matters would benefit from discussion between the town’s staff, consultants and legal counsel prior to responding. Therefore, he said, Safe Harbor requests a meeting on Jan. 31 “or some other mutually agreeable time.”

Once anchored by the South Carolina Ports Authority terminal, the Port of Port Royal is sandwiched between the historic portion of the Town and Battery Creek. Safe Harbor is planning what it calls a world-class marina with ancillary businesses and hundreds of units of housing. The town also hopes to see restaurants and other businesses developed and improved access to the water via parks and a promenade. The town is working on its own port improvements, including building a new dock and seafood processing facility in a nod to its deep ties to the shrimping industry as well as extending the popular Spanish Moss trail.

Close coordination is required for each of this efforts because Safe Harbor owns property that is involved in those plans.

Frustrated by what they view as delays and a lack of information about plan specifics, on Dec. 14, the town sent a six-page correspondence to the marina operator seeking resolution to these issues, which prompted the Jan. 9 response from Safe Harbor.

One of the town’s concerns that Safe Harbor did respond to in the letter was the warehousing and use of materials by a contractor, Harbormasters International, to support the assembly of floating dock pontoons, unrelated to the Port Royal Development, for use at other Safe Harbor properties (Safe Harbor owns 80 marinas in 19 states). The town previously told Safe Harbor it considers those activities in breach of the development agreement.

But while Safe Harbor says in the letter that it agrees that light industry is not permitted in the area known as Port Village 5, it argues that those operations are contained to another area, known as Port Village 4, where it says that type of work is allowed.

The town also had requested written evidence regarding regulatory approvals for the marina and associated dock facilities. Safe Harbor says in the letter that it anticipates that those permits will be issued by the end of this month.

Safe Harbor also sent the town revisions to two deeds involved in a proposed land swap that will facilitate the town’s seafood facility construction.

A draft easement across a portion of the Safe Harbor property for the Spanish Moss Trail also was sent to the town.

As of today, the date and location for the requested in-person meeting has not been set.

This story was originally published January 12, 2024, 11:12 AM.

Standing on four beefy legs made of hefty shrimp boat anchor chain, a 7 1/2-foot-long and 2 1/2-foot-wide alligator sculpture weighing 125 pounds and made mostly of metal now greets visitors to Port Royal’s Cypress Wetlands.

With its large tail that’s slightly curved, the toothy and bumpy backed replica is poised near the entrance to the swamp where real alligators live, literally greeting visitors with a steely stare and a grin revealing a mouthful of teeth fashioned from bicycle chain.

But the new greeter is not art for art’s sake alone.

It’s a statement, too: Don’t be a slob and toss litter into the waters of the world-class wetlands and rookery.

To drive home the point of the harm that garbage can have on wildlife, the innards of the alligator sculpture are stuffed with metal cans and plastic bottles.

“Litter endangers our alligators, turtles, birds and our entire ecosystem,” a sign near the garbage gator reads.

Metal artist Cathy Pender Emmert created this unique sculpture.

“It’s definitely a piece of art,” Pender Emmert said moments before the town’s latest piece of artwork, hidden under a green tarp, was unveiled before a curious crowd that gathered at the amphitheater on Thursday. “I really like it. It surpassed my expectations of what I thought I would create.”

The metal artist spared no details trying to get the gator just right, studying information about the specifics of the apex predator’s toes and eyes. Sharing a fun fact she learned in her investigation, the length in inches between an alligator’s nostrils and eyes is approximately the same as the animal’s total length in feet.

She made the sculpture using mostly metal chains of various sizes and some rebar.

The eyes are made of steel orbs with a slash of copper to mimic the slits. The rebar was chosen because it’s rough, like an alligator’s texture, while the chains recreate its bumpy and bony exterior.

Friends of Cypress Wetlands asked Pender Emmert to create the public art.

The not-for-profit group advocates on behalf of the wetlands, which attracts thousands of great egrets, snowy egrets, tri-color herons, little blue herons, black-crowned night herons, green herons and white ibises that roost and nest in the trees.

Scot Clark, the president of the board, says Cypress Wetlands draws some 210,000 visitors a year, which is “pretty amazing.”

But Kat Bray, a Friends board member, also noted that she and others have been pulling trash out of the swamp for years.

She recommended a public service-type of public art after she saw a large dolphin sculpture filled with litter while visiting St. Simons Island.

“We wanted to make a statement,” Bray said.

A welder by trade, Pender Emmert manages the welding department at Pender Brothers Inc. in Port Royal. About 6 years ago, she started creating art from metal. The beer tap handles at Shellring Ale Works are just one of her projects.

After hours, Pender Emmert and her father enjoy father-daughter time doing “blacksmithing” projects.

“I tell everybody, ‘He didn’t have a boy, so I had to man up,’” she says with a laugh.

The alligator sculpture project contained a lot of firsts for her: It is the first animal she has created and her first three-dimensional project. It is also the largest.

At the close of the unveiling of the sculpture, somebody asked about the name of the alligator. Clark says that’s still to be determined, but Pender Emmert’s father has an idea.

“I’ve been referring to it as ‘him,’” she said of alligator sculpture, ”but my dad says it should be Ally the Gator.”

This story was originally published November 3, 2023, 12:30 PM.