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Berkeley County and the town of St. Stephen are getting to work on using a $500,000 environmental grant.

Published: Wed Oct 26 2022

ST. STEPHEN, S.C. (WCSC) - Berkeley County and the town of St. Stephen are getting to work on using a $500,000 environmental grant.

The EPA Brownfield Grant money is meant to identify and make a plan to clean up run-down properties that may have contaminated materials on the land so it can eventually be redeveloped.

County Economic Development Director Kristin Lanier says St. Stephen is an area where officials are looking forward to investing in redevelopment.

“We asked them to put together a steering committee of community members because we understand any type of activity in the community, especially grant-driven opportunities have to be driven by the community. So from that town hall, we sat down with the community members, and they actually provided a lot of insight that went into the grant that we wrote,” Lanier says.

Daniel Kredensor moved to St. Stephen to be a part of the small-town charm. He says he loves the area and is excited about what its future holds.

“It’s a small community. Everybody really is wonderful to each other. We take care of everybody here. The community itself is very much alive,” Kredensor says.

The grant will allow the county and town to identify as many as 15 to 20 pieces of land they want to revitalize before working the list down to a few main focuses. Officials already have their eye on the old St. Stephen High School and Old Lumber Mill.

Kredensor says it would be great to see opportunities like a community center come back to the school and a working company providing jobs take over the mill. He also hopes people will get involved in the town halls, committees and surveys that will soon be coming about the project.

“Everyone needs to be a part of this. It’s not just elected officials. And it’s not just you know, one or two people from the county. It is the people of town and it really needing that participation because the county doesn’t know every site that people think should be fixed,” he says.

As of October 1st, the money has been available and officials say the first steps are getting a qualified consultant to help and setting up the community outreach phase.

“This is where the community can start sending insights that they want to look at, and we will actually create like a ranking tool to kind of determine based on all the sites that are presented which one we deem we should look at in the first notch,” Lanier says.

The grant can be used to identify old sites that may have asbestos, lead paint, gas soil contamination or chemical remnants. Those types of hazards need to be properly identified and the county needs to create a plan for safely removing them with this grant to apply for more money to begin any work.

“There was a lot of history that comes into it, so when you come into a brownfield grant or in really any community you look around and you might see some unused properties, but the folks that live there, you know, they know the history of these of these communities in the in these properties,’ Lanier says.

Officials hosted a town hall about the grant. They also plan to send out information in different forms including online and handouts to make sure people are able to participate in the process starting early next year. You can watch the full meeting on the town’s Facebook page.

In a statement, St. Stephen Mayor John Rivers says:

I was pleased to see the participants at the Town Hall Meeting, held on October 20, 2022, at the American Legion Hut. Their questions were asked and answered. I think many misconceptions were cleared up during this exchange of information. We will continue in our efforts to keep the community informed, inspired and involved. I thank the Berkeley County Economic Development Department for their crucial partnership in this project. Our continued growth will depend on the actions of the town officials and a supporting community working together on one accord.

Officials say this is the first step in a years-long investment into revitalizing St. Stephen. They hope to have outreach programs ramp up at the start of the new year and want people to get as involved as possible.

You can learn more about St. Stephen and current projects going on by clicking here.

Copyright 2022 WCSC. All rights reserved.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a plea by St Stephen’s College to suspend a judgment which restrained the college from conducting interviews for non-minority students in addition to considering their Common University Entrance Test (CUET) scores

The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a plea by St Stephen’s College to suspend a judgment which restrained the college from conducting interviews for non-minority students in addition to considering their Common University Entrance Test (CUET) scores.

The bench said that substantial questions of law pertaining to rights of a minority institution with respect to admitting students of their choice can be examined at a later stage, but there is no valid ground to stay the operation of the high court judgment.

“We find no reason to stay the impugned judgement (of the Delhi high court). The application for interim relief is dismissed,” ordered a bench of justices Ajay Rastogi and CT Ravikumar.

“The action to be taken pursuant to admission process shall be subject to the final outcome of the petition,” added the bench in its order, asking the lawyers for both sides to submit legal issues that would require deliberation when the matter is heard at length.

St Stephen’s college challenged in the Supreme Court a September 12 Delhi high court order that asked it to follow Delhi University’s admission policy and take in undergraduate students in the non-minority category solely on the basis of CUET scores. The college, however, wanted to also conduct interviews for the students from the general category. The high court, however, gave the college a liberty to conduct interviews for the Christian students, if it so desired.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the college, bore down that right to administer a minority institution under Article 30 of the Constitution shall include the right to admit students of its choice. He cited the landmark Supreme Court ruling in the TMA Pai case (YEAR) to argue that a minority institution cannot be denuded of its choice through regulation because that would take away the constitutional right under Article 30.

“We are not discarding merit at all. We will draw the students from CUET pool only but after that, the college must get to exercise its discretion as to who it should select... Merit cannot correlate only to marks or we don’t have a choice as a minority institution to select our students,” contended Sibal, adding interviews are conducted to assess compatibility and temperament of the candidates.

Countering his submissions, solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Delhi University, argued that the entire purpose of CUET to have uniformity will be frustrated if one particular college (St Stephen’s) is allowed to have interviews in addition to CUET scores. Mehta added that it will be detrimental to meritorious students who would be eliminated due to less scores in interviews although they would have scored high in CUET.

Representing the University Grants Commission (UGC), additional solicitor general Vikramjeet Banerjee pointed out that it had always been in favour of completely doing away with the process of interview for all students, including minority students, to bring about absolute uniformity in the admission process throughout the country.

At one point during the proceedings, the bench wondered if different admission criteria for minority and non-minority students should operate for the same institution and whether DU should have allowed St Stephen’s to have interviews for minority students.

“If you trust their discretion and a leeway of 15% can be given to them for minority students, why can’t the same discretion be given to them for non-minority students? Why to have two standards?” the bench asked SG, who retorted that DU is willing to issue an order on removing the criteria of interview completely.

St Stephen’s has been fighting DU over the admission process following the university’s order to all affiliated colleges to take in students on the basis of CUET scores alone. At St Stephen’s, half the seats are reserved for Christians.

The college has been insisting on giving 85% cent weightage to CUET scores and 15% to its own interview of non-Christian applicants, citing its minority institution status to assert its right to take such decisions independently.

However, through its September order, the Delhi high court ordered the college to issue a fresh prospectus giving 100% weightage to CUET scores while admitting non-minority students to undergraduate courses.

The special rights of the minority institutions cannot be extended to their non-minority students, the high court had emphasised in its order while adding that the college is still free to conduct interviews in addition to the CUET for the admission of students belonging to the minority community.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Wednesday refused to stay the Delhi High Court order asking St. Stephen's College to follow the admission policy prescribed by the Delhi University under which it cannot hold interviews for non-minority students in undergraduate courses.

A bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and C T Ravikumar said it was not inclined to interfere with the HC judgement, prompting the prestigious college to take down from its website a contentious prospectus which was at the centre of a discord between the college and its governing Delhi University.

"We find no reason to stay the judgement, therefore the application for interim relief is dismissed," the bench said.

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The top court was hearing a plea of St Stephen's College against a Delhi High Court order which asked it to follow the admission policy of the Delhi University.

According to the prospectus, which was on the college website since May, 85 per cent weightage was to be given to the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) score and 15 per cent to interview, which was against the Delhi University's criteria that accorded 100 per cent weightage to the CUET and did not provide for an interview.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the college, said the interview process was applicable to all and not just non-minority students.

"Delhi High Court order says interview can only be for minority and rest as per Common University Entrance Test. That is bad in law and unsustainable," he asserted.

The senior lawyer said the college has, for the last 40 years, given 15 per cent weightage to interview for admission against unreserved seats.

Sibal also referred to the New Education Policy (NEP) of the government and said marks should not be the criteria for admission in colleges.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Delhi University, submitted imposing a stay on the high court order will have a detrimental effect on the academic environment.

Mehta contended the CUET has been introduced with a view to having a common standard of assessment and there is no requirement of a separate interview by the college.

The Delhi High Court had on September 12 asked the Christian minority institution to follow the admission policy formulated by the Delhi University according to which 100 per cent weightage has to be given to the CUET-2022 score while granting admission to non-minority students in its undergraduate courses.

The high court had said the college cannot conduct interviews for non-minority category students and admissions should be as per the CUET score alone.

The high court had also said the rights accorded to a minority institution under the Constitution cannot be extended to non-minorities.

It had said the college has the authority to conduct interviews, in addition to the CUET score, for admitting Christian students but it cannot force non-minority candidates to additionally appear for an interview.

The HC bench, while asking the college to withdraw its prospectus giving 15 per cent weightage to interview for admission against unreserved seats, besides taking into consideration the CUET score of a candidate, had, however, ruled the DU "cannot insist upon a single merit list for admission of candidates belonging to the Christian community regardless of denomination, etc".

The high court's order had come on petitions filed by a law student and the college with respect to the legality of the procedure for admission of students against unreserved non-minority seats for UG courses.

ST. STEPHEN, S.C. -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Charleston District, in partnership with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, recently hosted the 8th annual Wounded Warriors and Veterans fishing day at the Cooper River Rediversion Dam in St. Stephen.

Canceled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic and held with limited participation with safety measures in 2021, the event returned this year in full force. Sixty individuals participated in this year’s event, which was open to all veterans, even those with disabilities and needing mobility assistance.

“Despite being rescheduled at the last minute due to weather, this year’s event was a great success,” said Jesse Helton, a natural resources program specialist at Charleston District who helps plan the yearly event. “We are looking forward to next year’s event and hope to continue to increase the turn out. Giving our wounded warriors, veterans and active-duty military a chance to have a great day fishing and visiting with each other is what this event is all about.”

The event would not be possible without the assistance of the DNR, who allows the fishing to occur in a protected wildlife area once a year.

“As always, I would like to express our appreciation to the DNR,” said Helton. “Without their support planning the event and working with the participants on the day of the event, we would not be able to make it happen.”

The event was also a chance for DNR to collect age data and health information on some of the fish that were caught. This data will provide important information about the American shad population that will be used to inform fisheries management decisions for the species.

Unlike other districts in USACE, Charleston District does not operate any official recreation sites. However, the property in St. Stephen has been used unofficially for years as a recreation site in South Carolina and has hosted many events.

The Corps proposed the CRRP in the early 1970’s to reduce sedimentation and dredging costs in Charleston Harbor. Construction began in 1978 and was completed in March 1985. This project saves taxpayers $36 million per year in dredging costs in Charleston Harbor, while benefitting shipping, industrial development, hydropower, and fish and wildlife.

Since the dam blocked fish from being able to swim upriver to spawning grounds, a fish lift was built to move the fish to the other side of the dam. Up to 750,000 fish pass through the fish lift per year. The fish lift is operated by SCDNR during the spawning season, which is usually from February 1 through May 15, depending on flows and water temperature.

The annual fishing day is not the only event hosted by USACE and DNR. In the fall, the agencies host an annual dove hunt, which occurs just down the street from the dam and is also held exclusively for veterans.

Once again St Stephens college and Delhi University (DU) are at loggerheads with each other over the admission process. The DU VC Yogesh Singh said that the CUET admission process will be followed 100 per cent in all colleges that include St Stephen’s as well.

“We are in talks with St Stephen’s college we believe this time they should not have any issue in carrying out the admission process the way it is stated in the university prospectus. Last time they conducted interviews only for minority students this time there will be no interview for either non-minority or minority students,” Singh told News18.com.

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However, St Stephen’s College has a different take on the issue. “The matter is in SC. We will deal with it there. I don’t know how can someone take such calls when the matter is sub judice. We will do what the court will ask us to do,” principal John Verghese told News18.com.

Last year in April, St Stephen’s college issued a circular stating that it will provide admissions based on the 85:15 (CUET: interview) formula for all seat categories. The Delhi University at that point informed St Stephen’s that any admission made by it in violation of CUET guidelines will be declared null and void. The university, also stated there could not be a separate admission process for one college when the other 62 were taking only the CUET score into account for admission.

St Stephen’s College later moved Delhi high court, which ruled in favour of the university. The court directed the college to issue a fresh admission prospectus and give 100 per cent weightage to the CUET score. The college further challenged the order in the Supreme Court which directed the college to conduct admission for the general category on the basis of CUET score and can take interviews of minority students for the reserved seat.

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However, this time the Delhi University VC says that there will no interviews for the general or minority category students. Though the Supreme Court had dismissed the petition filed by St Stephen’s in October last year, the college says the matter is still in the court and a decision will be taken based on what the court says.

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