Mobile Home Sales in Nichols, SC

NICHOLS, S.C. – Town of Nichols officials and the Beatification Committee celebrated their latest project with a dedication service Thursday for the newly painted Unity Mural.

Tucked between the rivers, woods, fields and the dirt roads, Nichols took time to remember the farms and train tracks that set the scene captured in the town mural recently painted on the old Napa store. More than 100 people attended the event at Nichols Baptist Church.

Sen. Kent Williams and Rep. Lucas Atkinson were in attendance to join Mayor Lawson Battle along with two of the oldest living residents in Nichols C.P. Mincey and Euel Shelley as they provided a brief history of the town.

“It’s a good day in Nichols,” Battle said.

The mural was designed and painted by Florence artists Wilbert Rice and Jason Best.

Residents that lived there more than three generations shared stories of work, play, farming and swimming in the river together. They spoke of the old Nichols High School and elementary school that had come and gone along with the farm supply store.

Pace called Nichols a safe place, where you could go up and down the street and be gone for hours and no one worried.

“News of any wrongdoing would get home before you would, but you were always welcome to sit and eat at any table no matter what.”

Shelley and Mincey, both in nineties, told of the old airport, businesses, schools and friends which built the small town up and gave it the feel of home and family it still has today.

Officials said the mural has helped to bring much needed happiness back to the town that suffered so much devastation during the floods in 2016 and 2018 due to hurricanes Matthew and Florence.

Battle thanked Nichols Town Councilwoman Bonita Bailey for leading the town’s Beautification Committee.

Bailey called the project a breath of fresh air.

The mural depicts the features of the small rural town, with paintings of a train on the railroad, farming, church, school, rivers and air field.

Rice spoke of the work, thought process and heart that went into creating the piece of art.

Nichols now sets its sights on the next activity, which will be the town’s Christmas parade on Dec. 3.

Noah Nichols flew under the radar as a junior wrestler for Stratford High School this winter. He most certainly will not be able to surprise anybody as a senior.

He capped a stellar individual campaign Feb. 24-25 by rising to the top of the podium at Anderson Civic Center, claiming the 160-pound weight class in Class AAAAA to become the first Stratford state champion since Preston Soriano in 2019.

“I had a very good inclination he was going to win it all after what he did at Lower State,” Stratford coach David Maningding said. “He didn’t get scored on and teched two of three opponents. He was kind of in the zone, peaking at the right time.”

Nichols won the Lower State championship Feb. 17-18 with little problem and kept it going into the final weekend of the season. He won his first state match via decision, then pinned the next two lined up across from him. Tied 3-3 going into the third period, the semifinal bout against Asher Fink of Byrnes provided the most resistance for Nichols. With 24 seconds left in the period, though, Nichols caught fink during a scramble and won via fall. Riding high going into the final, Nichols dusted his last opponent in less than a minute to close out the year with a 40-2 record.

“He’ll be the man to beat next year, but I thought he was the man to beat this year,” Maningding said. “He got ranked only once all season, except for maybe eighth. He was upset about that but I just told him the rankings you care about are the ones at the end of the year.”

Nichols has been a quick study on the mat. Many who rise to state champion level generally picked up the sport in elementary or middle school, but Nichols didn’t grab a singlet until his freshman year. Through focus and determination, he’s progressed rapidly. He caught a jet stream after not getting out of Lower State as a sophomore.

“He busts his butt,” Maningding said. “He goes 100 percent all the time. Sometimes I have to talk to him about practicing too much. He tries to get in extra work whenever he can. He’s a student of the sport. Every move I show Noah, he wants to know if there is another way to do it.”

The other Stratford wrestler who made it through to the last weekend of the season, heavyweight Landon Stradcutter, finished as a state runner-up. He caught fire the second half of the season and ended up 28-11.

“One thing I can say about Landon was he won four matches last year,” Maningding said. “He started off slow this year. Right around the new year, he was something like 10-9. He was about .500. We did a couple things and worked on some things over Christmas break, and something just clicked. He got on a roll at the right time.”

Stradcutter won his first two bouts at state by fall and then dropped the finale in the third period.

NICHOLS, S.C. (WMBF) - Residents in the town of Nichols are seeing repeated issues with their trash pick-up service.

Nichols resident Cynthia Tucker said she doesn’t understand why they keep getting missed.

“I don’t know why they missed us because it’s not hard to miss with this big pink garbage can," Tucker said.

She’s not alone. American Waste Systems is regularly missing many houses in the town of Nichols for trash pick-up. Nichols neighbor Harry Campbell also is having issues with trash not getting picked up regularly.

“Seems like every company that comes to pick up, it don’t last no time. They just go back to the ol' routine,” Campbell said. “You put it out there on Thursday for them to pick up Friday. Sometimes it might be next Friday when they pick it up. Sometimes it might be Wednesday. They got no set time to pick it up.”

Tucker said she’s frustrated by the lack of a set schedule and is worried animals are going to get into her garbage.

“At the least they can do is tell us and let us know, so at least we wouldn’t put it out for all the wild animals,” she said.

Town administrator Sandee Rogers said she’s familiar with the issues people are facing. She added they’re getting the town’s attorney involved.

In Marion, city leaders said they’ve had the same issues with American Waste System. In a city council meeting earlier this month, they voted to end the contract with the company at the end of the year.

In a Facebook post Friday, the city wrote they’re going to rent a garbage truck and pick up trash themselves if the company continues to not come through city limits.

Back in Nichols, Tucker said she would want the town to step in if the problem isn’t solved.

“We pay for trash and water so it’s all there together, so it should get picked up. We’re not getting the service that we’re paying for," Tucker said.

WMBF News has reached out to American Waste Systems multiple times for comment, but have yet to hear back.

Copyright 2020 WMBF. All rights reserved.

Two well-known York County properties are up for development decisions, while another would allow new senior apartments.

The York County planning commission meets Monday. On that agenda are changes for the Southbridge project where the Charlotte Knights used to play in Fort Mill. Also, a proposed expansion of commercial property at Nichols Store in Rock Hill.

Here are the plans submitted:

▪ Cato Land Development applied for changes to the massive Southbridge project at the former Knights Stadium site in Fort Mill. The property at Deerfield Drive and Springfield Parkway would take out a planned internal roadway to serve the property, and update language requiring more pedestrian access throughout it.

Southbridge is a 355-acre mixed-use development project. A 2016 change to the site allowed for up to 5.2 million square feet of office space, 600 new residences and 400,000 square feet of retail and service uses. Most of the property remains wooded and vacant. A three-story office building, at 150,000 square feet, is built. Townhomes are under consideration for development, according to the county.

▪ Plans to expand Nichols Store in Rock Hill were submitted, though county planning staff recommends against the requested zoning change needed. Nichols Store sells a variety of hunting, fishing, outdoors and other items.

The property owner of three parcels at 1956, 1962 and 1980 Mt. Holly Road applied to change almost 7 combined acres there to general commercial use. The plan involves a new parking area and almost 12,000-square-foot building for storage, office or retail use. The two parcels that don’t include the current store have homes on them. The existing commercial buildings at the store combine for 28,000 square feet.

▪ The owners of almost 8 acres between Pleasant and Gold Hill roads in Fort Mill applied to rezone the property to allow for a 134-unit senior apartment facility. Calamar and RM80 are the applicants. The property is at 2625 through 2655 Pleasant Road.

Two of three involved land parcels are vacant. Another includes a home. The vacant sites are heavily wooded with a creek along their border. A site plan shows the single access to the site would come off Pleasant.

▪ May Green Properties applied for a change to the Edmunds Farm subdivision plan approved late last year. A county change to open space requirements for some development types led to a plan for the owner to sell a portion of the property.

Edmunds Farm is a proposed 58 lots on 123 acres on Hines Road, near South Main Street and Filbert Highway in the Kings Mountain area near Clover. Lots will be an acre or more, and there still will be more than 20 acres of open space.

Editor’s note: In 2016, the tiny Pee Dee town of Nichols was nearly wiped out by floods after Hurricane Matthew. As it struggles to rebuild and bring back displaced residents, Hurricane Florence’s rains threaten to do it again. Gov. Henry McMaster told town and county officials Thursday that the state “has their back.”

NICHOLS — Billy Jones just wants to go back home, but the 78-year-old can’t. Nearly a half year after he left it in flood waters from Hurricane Matthew, he can barely breathe in his house because of the mold, even if it had a floor.

Nine of every 10 former residents still can’t go home in this tiny Pee Dee town. They and officials struggle to rebuild before the place falls apart as a community. The town took maybe the worst of last October’s storm that wreaked more than $100 million damages statewide.

The 400 people who lived here are mostly low- to moderate-income workers and retirees.

Nichols isn’t one of those flood-prone towns built straddling a river bottom. It sits on a modest bluff along the Lumber River in Marion County.

Before last year, the worst flood most people could recall sheeted the streets with only a few inches of water, but the town also sits little more than a mile upstream of where the Little Pee Dee River flows into the Lumber.

Matthew’s winds did little damage to Nichols, but heavy rains caused more than a half-dozen upstream dams to breach. By the time the flood reached Nichols, the rivers might as well have been one stream — running 4 feet high down the streets.

‘It’s overwhelming’

To glance at Jones’ modest brick home, you wouldn’t think anything amiss, besides the flap of yellow caution tape still on the door rail, a surgical mask dangling alongside.

“Everything is gone,” he said, his eyes tearing up to think of it. “The duct work, the heat pump. They disconnected the water and sewer. They tore out the flooring, the kitchen cabinets, piled them in the street.”

Jones is a gentle man who called himself “just a common, ordinary guy.” He is a little frail and had lost his wife in January before the flood.

A retired worker living on Social Security, he doesn’t have the money to rebuild. He didn’t qualify for Federal Emergency Management Agency help because he’s in the flood plain without insurance. He didn’t qualify for loans because he doesn’t have enough income.

“It’s overwhelming just to try to figure out what to do,” said Julie Bumgarner, his daughter.

Sunday evening after the storm, Jones and others began noticing water puddling where it shouldn’t have been. Then it was ankle deep, then waist deep.

“When it come, it come. It was just a matter of minutes,” he said. “I lost my house. ’Bout lost my life.”

Will enough return?

No occupancy signs are posted on window after window. Campers share yard space with rail car-sized debris containers. Businesses are boarded up. New flood codes mean a lot of it will have to be elevated when rebuilt. With its tax base disrupted, the town has exhausted its funds and reserves. It’s operating on a grant.

Roland Windham settles with a heave into his office chair after a day of relentless meetings. The retired Charleston County administrator, now working under contract for Nichols, is jumping from crisis management to recovery planning. The town wants to reinvent itself as a riverside tourism and inland port destination.

“Getting people back in the homes” is the most pressing need, Windham said. People displaced from storms tend to stay put after four or five months, so that puts the town at a critical moment.

Asked what would happen if enough of them don’t return, he shakes his head. That’s the question they don’t want to answer, he said.

‘We are worth saving’

Workers are setting sheet rock in the living room, while the household goods that weren’t lost to the flood wait in stacks on the porch. The place could be livable again in a few weeks.

“So hopefully, that will be by the end of April,” said Cynthia Tucker, a retired office worker who lives there with her mother and sister. “We’ve had so much throwaway.” They had been rescued by boat after waving down a helicopter. Nobody thought they were still there because her sister’s small sedan was nearly submerged.

One estimate put the repair cost at $77,000. They have a FEMA loan but it isn’t enough to finish. They’re working through agencies for other help.

At Town Hall, Sandee Rogers keeps up the chipper front of a saleswoman, but her eyes get somber. The town clerk knows what the community she loves is up against. Few of its residents had flood insurance, too big an expense. Each of them will need it or some kind of waiver to get back in their homes, after they rebuild.

“We’re not riding on the heels of anyone. It’s time to make this town what it can be,” she said.

“We are worth saving. We are Small Town America. If we can’t save this place, we as Americans are falling down on the job.”