Mobile Home Sales in Georgetown, SC

GEORGETOWN — Students will continue to attend classes at Plantersville Elementary School.

Georgetown County School District Superintendent Keith Price said at the Feb. 21 board meeting there hasn’t been any formal discussions to close the school, which has the smallest elementary school in state with 67 students. Georgetown County ’s nine elementary schools have 375 students on average, according to state data.

Plantersville residents flocked to the Feb. 21 board meeting to support the elementary school because Price was making a presentation on the school’s per-pupil cost and proximity to the students it serves.

Price said the presentation was only informational and made in response to questions raised last fall by the board of trustees. The trustees asked why Plantersville Elementary School’s per-pupil costs were nearly twice the district’s average.

“I’m not going to speculate on a closing or anything, this is right now just information that the board’s asking questions about,” Price said.

Plantersville Elementary serves students in preschool through fifth grade. The school’s enrollment zone straddles U.S. Highway 701 and stretches from the Horry County line nearly to Georgetown. Enrollment has dwindled into the double digits in recent years.

The school served less than 10 students in three of its seven grade levels at the time of the 45-day count, including just three in the second grade.

An additional 19 students requested and received transfers from Plantersville Elementary for various reasons this school year. Maryville Elementary School took in the most transfers at nine, closely followed by Kensington Elementary School with eight.

In 2021-22, the per-pupil costs at Plantersville Elementary were $27,695, slightly down from 2019-20 but up from the previous school year. That figure was nearly double the district’s average cost for an elementary student.

Price said schools with smaller enrollments have higher per-pupil costs, as they also require teachers, administration and janitorial staff like larger schools.

“We have to allocate more resources to a smaller school to be able to offer as close to a balanced experience as we do in the others,” Price said.

The board also heard from Price on the school’s proximity to its students. Price said Plantersville Elementary students live within a 10-minute drive from the school.

The nearest elementary school to Plantersville Elementary is Kensington Elementary, about 12 miles away via U.S. Highway 701. Brown’s Ferry Elementary School is 16 miles away via U.S. Highway 701 and S.C. Highway 51.

Georgetown County Council Chairman Louis Morant, a Plantersville resident and alum of Plantersville Elementary, attended the Feb. 21 school board meeting. Morant said Plantersville has had concerns for years about the elementary school closing, but preserving it is key to the area’s culture, especially for its children.

“We are losing the cultural aspect of our community by our students going (to other schools),” Morant said. “You may have some going to Brown’s Ferry, some going to Kensington, some going to Maryville, some come to McDonald. So when they come to get back within their community, they don’t know each other.”

In October, Price announced the district received $15 million to turn its Carvers Bay-area schools into magnet schools. Plantersville Elementary, whose students are zoned into Carvers Bay middle and high schools, was included in the program. The magnet program will begin this fall.

Principal Darryl Stanley said the school would become Plantersville Elementary Digital Immersion School under the magnet program, using collaboration with Coastal Carolina University and Boeing to continue the school’s technology education.

The magnet school program has not received unanimous acclaim in the Carvers Bay area. Residents told the board in November they felt the district did not engage enough with the community prior to choosing a magnet school program director.

Price said one of the goals of the magnet school program is to increase district enrollment. It could attract students to Plantersville who haven’t considered it before, and bring back students who transferred from the school, he said.

School board trustee Keith Moore, who represents Plantersville, thanked residents for attending the Feb. 21 meeting and said he hopes to share more with the community as the board discusses the school’s outcomes.

MURRELLS INLET — The Hammock Coast Birding Festival will take birdwatching enthusiasts to four notable sites around Georgetown County over the weekend, and reception of the inaugural event makes it likely that it will become an area mainstay in the future.

Birders from around North America gathered for tours of Brookgreen Gardens, Huntington Beach State Park, Hobcaw Barony and the Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center.

Planning for the festival stretches back before the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Years ago, a Clemson University professor told the Georgetown County Chamber of Commerce that they were missing a chance by not showcasing the county as the best birding site in South Carolina, said Mark Stevens, chamber’s tourism development director.

“We wanted to have some sort of event that tied a lot of our locations together as well as the Hammock Coast region as an important birding sight,” Stevens said. “This was about a year ago, I brought representatives from Huntington Beach State Park, Hobcaw Barony, the Tom Yawkey Center and Brookgreen Gardens together and said, ‘Is this possible?’”

Open registration for the festival quickly yielded the limit of 96 birders, though two later made the cut from a waiting list he said was “a mile long.”

“We had people from Canada, California, Oregon, Michigan, upstate New York, just all over,” Stevens said. “And most of the people, (it’s) the first time they’ve ever been here. And some of these are really active birders.”

Birders Sylvie Martel and her husband Gaetan Giroux drove their RV from their home in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, near Montreal, for the event. Martel said it was her first time in the Palmetto State in half a century.

“We don’t have many birds this time of year (in Quebec), they’re all down south,” Martel said. Giroux noted that he and Martel spotted four birds they had never seen before just on the first day of tours.

Quebec is good for birding in the other three seasons, Martel said, but is quiet in the winter.

“I love it,” Martel said of her experience on the festival’s first day. “And that’s what I was saying to Mark, the organization is perfect, everything is perfect.”

GEORGETOWN — No reason for excitement: Georgetown is not planning any annexations, Mayor Carol Jayroe says.

A Municipal Association of South Carolina presentation on annexation procedures last month was a learning experience for veteran and new City Council members.

Association Field Service Manager Charlie Barrineau outlined the three annexation methods to the Council at its Jan. 26 meeting.

“It is a service that is offered to all municipalities,” Georgetown Public Information Officer Cindy Thompson said. “With new Council members, it was an opportunity to familiarize them with what the process involves should an opportunity ever present itself in the future.”

The Council added its newest member in January when Tamika Williams Obeng was sworn in following her victory in a December special election to replace Al Joseph. Joseph resigned in August to become coordinator of the city’s Main Street program.

The Georgetown City Council has approved five annexations since 2018 but none since February 2020. Those annexations have added about 17.5 acres to the city in addition to a small portion of U.S. Highway 17.

The city’s most recent annexations were of properties bordering Georgetown whose owners came to the city with the idea for annexation, Jayroe said. Short staffing would make it difficult for the city to come up with a larger annexation proposal.

“It was very clear if you start to do an annexation process that you need someone to manage that process, and we certainly don’t have anybody that can do that right now,” Jayroe said.

The city does not plan to hire a dedicated staff member to work on annexations, Jayroe added. Such a position does exist in larger South Carolina cities, including Charleston and Columbia.

Georgetown is surrounded by multiple unincorporated communities, including Spring Gully, Graves Station and Kensington that rely on county services. Kensington is close enough to northern Georgetown that elementary school students in much of the city north of the Sampit River are zoned into Kensington Elementary School.

State law outlines three methods for the annexation of privately owned property. Under the first, the city can accept a petition signed by 100 percent of property owners within a property to be annexed and annex the land by ordinance.

Secondly, the city can accept a petition signed by at least 75 percent of landowners owning at least 75 percent of the property’s assessed value and then annex the land by ordinance.

Finally, 25 percent of the property’s qualified electors can sign a petition that will result in an election overseen by their county. If successful, a second petition could be filed against annexation to touch off a second, citywide election.

Georgetown’s municipal website has its own webpage touting the benefits of annexation, calling the process “critical” to its planning. Among its reasons are lower insurance rates, lack of impact fees and a higher rate of law enforcement officers per square mile compared to unincorporated Georgetown County.

“If you are considering development in Georgetown, you are strongly urged to contact the city of Georgetown to discuss the benefits of being part of the City,” according to the website.

It is unclear when the webpage was last updated. It lists former interim Planning Director Chris Inglese as a contact for further information. Inglese was hired as the administrator for Newberry County in November 2021.

FLANDERS, N.J. — The founder of Advanced Digital Data Inc. (ADD Systems), Bruce A. Bott, passed away.

Bott was an ambitious entrepreneur who pioneered software for the energy distribution industry, building ADD Systems from a one-person operation to a thriving corporation that employs more than 150 people across the United States and Canada, according to the company.

Bott was a graduate of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., where he studied civil engineering and earned both his bachelor's and master's degrees. While attending college, he was employed by Dixon Brothers in Boonton, N.J., as an oil delivery driver. Between his undergraduate and graduate studies, he worked at Rust Engineering in Georgetown, S.C.

After finishing his graduate degree, he took a position at Electric Boat in Groton, Conn., followed by a job with General Electric in New York City. However, Bott was drawn to the oil delivery business. He partnered with Bill Dixon of Dixon Oil to create ADD Systems, developing fuel management software that automated the process of predicting fuel deliveries.

The company grew organically for the first 24 years with a few hundred clients. Between 1997 and 2005, Bott spearheaded the first of three acquisitions — the petroleum division of STS, the petroleum software division of EDS and the petroleum division of Versyss — each of which added additional industry expertise, clients and software. Since then, ADD Systems has continued to grow to serve more than 500 clients in the U.S. and Canada.

Bott began transitioning from his leadership role 15 years ago, with his son, Bruce C. Bott, serving as president since 2010.

"Bruce was an amazing man. He was the epitome of an entrepreneur, focused on his customers, his employees and products," said Rob Culbertson, ADD senior vice president and chief operating officer.

Bruce C. Bott added, "Dad will be missed at home and at work. I trust that he'll continue to give me the guidance, from above, needed to carry on his legacy of this wonderful company."

Donations in memory of Bott may be made to the Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease or Smile Train.

Since 1973, ADD Systems has provided software for the petroleum distribution, HVAC and convenience store industries. Their software solutions include backoffice software, home office convenience store software, business intelligence, mobile delivery, and service computers and a web services gateway.

South Carolina House budget writers aimed to continue investing in economic development and the people of the state, the House’s lead writer says of the Ways and Means Committee budget proposal approved last week.

Among the investments is money to prepare land for companies to locate, to freeze college tuition rates, to create new state parks and create a center for school safety.

Lawmakers have about $3.5 billion in new annual and one-time revenue to spend in this spring’s budget discussions for the spending year that begins July 1. In total, the House budget-writing committee proposed a $13.8 billion spending plan.

The full House is scheduled to debate the budget the week of March 13. After House approval, the Senate will start its deliberations.

Budget writers also had to take into account the second year of a scheduled tax cut that lowers the maximum income tax rate from 6.5% to 6.4%. The cut keeps about $96 million out of state coffers.

“I think this budget is an investment in the people and prosperity in South Carolina,” said Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bruce Bannister, R-Greenville. “Low taxes, conservative budgeting, aggressive economic development efforts lead to a strong economy, which leads to additional opportunity to invest in the people and the economy in South Carolina.”

Among the planned expenditures, budget writers want to give $200 million to the S.C. Department of Commerce for economic development site preparation such as putting in roads, water and sewer infrastructure to sites for major economic development projects. An additional $5.5 million would go to the agency to update its branding efforts when marketing to businesses.

“Site preparation is critical to developing a competitive edge for South Carolina in the southeast to attract companies that can be economic drivers for our state and on a local level,” said state Rep. Leon Stavrinakis, D-Charleston.

The Ways and Means Committee also proposed spending $25 million on state park development, upgrades and maintenance.

The state Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism has acquired land to build out the Ramsey Grove State Park in Georgetown County, Fort Johnson State Park in James Island and Black River State Park in Williamsburg and Georgetown counties.

The last park opened by PRT was H. Cooper Black in Cheraw in 2006.

“To the degree we can add unique and special things for our citizens to enjoy and that will further draw people to South Carolina to contribute to our local economy, that’s a win for us,” Stavrinakis said. “These are amazing properties and pieces of land that we’re preserving or making special places out of them.”

Budget writers also included $3.2 million to create a center for school safety at the former Gilbert Elementary School in Lexington 1. The center was among the recommendations made by Gov. Henry McMaster in his proposed budget and is in line with the plan to have a school resource officer at every school in the state.

“Having regular training sessions is really a response to (what happened in) Uvalde’s failure to act, ‘Hey, this is what you do when there’s an active shooter,’ and they’re going to go work on that and that’ll be part of their training,” Bannister said.

In-state college students also are in line to not face an increase in their tuition rates for the fifth year in a row. House budget writers proposed $69 million for tuition mitigation to freeze tuition rates for in-state students.

“We wanted to focus on the access and affordability in higher education for our young students across the state,” said state Rep. Nathan Ballentine, R-Lexington. “Freezing tuition prices obviously prevents an increased burden on families and our students throughout the state.”

House budget writers also want to spend $196 million for Medicaid and Medicare programs.

Part of the expense includes replacing matching dollars lost from a decrease in federal funding because the state’s economy is doing well, Medicare premium increases, increased reimbursement rates, increased costs for inflation and other costs to maintain the same level of service in the state.

“This will draw more providers to our underserved communities and that’s been a goal of our subcommittee for the past five or six years,” said state Rep. Bill Herbkersman, R-Beaufort, who leads a panel overseeing health care spending.

Again not included in the budget proposal is money for to start building Interstate 73 to connect Interstate 95 to Myrtle Beach, a roadway that would encourage economic development in the Grand Strand and help with hurricane evacuations.

McMaster and Horry County lawmakers last year sought $300 million to start the highway, a recommendation the governor pushed for again this year. However, lawmakers included $200 million to speed up bridge work planned by the S.C. Department of Transportation around the state.

“My feel for the House is there’s still a very strong desire to fix the (current) interstate system,” Bannister said. “That we have to make sure that it’s up to snuff before we start building new roads.”

The initial budget proposed by Ways and Means does not include member-directed spending for projects in their districts.

Member projects are expected to be added when the House receives the budget back from the Senate. In recent years some earmarked projects have been controversial, including how money went to a nonprofit run by a lawmaker’s friend and how an Upstate Christian organization wanted to use state dollars to build a school.

Bannister said the Ways and Means Committee is working on the best way to review projects before they get state money, to make sure organizations or nonprofits that get dollars are in good standing, and if the project is worth the investment.

“We’re trying to figure out if there’s a way to vet those projects better than we have in the past,” Bannister said.

Bannister did not know how many member projects would ultimately be included but the committee has billions in requests.