by David Burn | Aug 6, 2006 | Lowcountry, The Environment
Bluffton icon, Betty Felix by Harmony Motter of The Island Packet
Bluffton just invested $635,000 in a new 8-acre recycling and dump site on Simmonsville Road, upgrading Ms. Felix’s work environment considerably in the process.
In 2005, 5,637.96 tons of plastic No. 1 and No. 2; aluminum and steel cans; clear, brown and green glass; newspaper; cardboard, magazines and mixed paper were recycled via Beaufort County programs alone. The County has twelve reclamation sites.
An average of 1,200 to 1,500 cars pull into the Simmonsville Road center on a daily basis.
by David Burn | Aug 4, 2006 | Lowcountry, Media
WHHI-TV’s new owner, John Byrne (photo by Harmony Motter)
I took note yesterday of an article in The Island Packet about new ownership at WHHI-TV, the local cable channel. According to the paper, the new owner has big plans for the future, which is good news since the current production values and content offerings of the station are a bit soft.
Admittedly, WHHI has to do more to capture the interest of local viewers. A lot of residents have told Byrne they’ve seen his station, but they don’t watch it, he said.
Staff members say there are a lot of misconceptions about the station. Some people think the station is a cable-access arm of the government instead of an ad-supported station. Others think it is just a visitors’ guide.
“We are the good-news channel,” said Dick O’Donnell, director of sales for WHHI. “We don’t have hurricanes. We don’t have wars. We talk about the things your friends and neighbors do.”
Going forward, the station’s programs will be archived on the Web site, www.whhitv.com, so viewers can watch them online at any time. The Web site also offers schedules for shows, which include “Talk of the Town with Ed McCullough,” “Street Talk with Brian Finnerty” and “Doug Weaver’s Hilton Head Golf Weekly.”
A station like this needs to accurately reflect the community. Beaufort County has plenty of people with ideas and money. My hope is Mr. Byrne can channel some of these precious local resources into his new venture.
by David Burn | Jul 20, 2006 | Lowcountry, Music
You know you’re adjusting nicely to the South when you buy Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s 1973 debut on iTunes. At $7.92 it’s hard to resist. My purchase today was in part motivated by an event I didn’t see coming. Last Friday we ate sushi with friends and then we went to Rider’s Lounge, where I encountered my boss, another co-worker and her husband, as well as a high school band from Bluffton known as The Gnomes.
Here’s what the Island Packet said about them last summer:
In a town where cover bands are about as common as drink specials and the strains of “Freebird” blend into the background noise like cicadas, it can be hard for a seemingly innocuous set of teenagers to gain a foothold, much less a following.
The best part of their show for me was a rendition of “Simple Man.” I stood back against the bar after downing a Jaeger bomb (not somethng I do much of), and took it all in. Namely, that three teens in this small South Carolina town know how to rip and they like to rip Skynyrd. They do pretty well by their musical idols, I’d say.
On a related note, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s biggest hit single, “Sweet Home Alabama”, was an answer song to Neil Young’s “Alabama” and “Southern Man”. The common belief that Ronnie Van Zant and Young were rivals is incorrect–they were actually fans of each other and considered collaborating together on several occasions.
by David Burn | Jun 23, 2006 | Lowcountry, The Environment
Dean Schmelter, who owns several chemical processing businesses throughout the Southeast, was speaking to his mechanic at Black Forest Imports in Mount Pleasant last summer. He was complaining about the high cost of fuel. The mechanic, being of sound mind, said, “You’re a chemist. Do something about it.” He did. And now, the Lowcountry is about to benefit from this man’s ingenuity.
According to The Charleston Post and Courier:
The Lowcountry’s first biodiesel plant will be built in an unused warehouse on the former Navy base, creating a local source of nontoxic, low-cost fuel that can be used in nearly any diesel engine and marking a further advance in what’s been a largely backyard industry in South Carolina.
While one biodiesel plant already is being operated in the Upstate by Carolina Biofuels, the North Charleston plant will be unique in that it will use waste vegetable oil from hundreds of area restaurants to eventually fill the tanks of school buses, automobiles, trucks and even shrimp boats.
Rudolph Diesel, founder of the diesel engine, originally created his spark plug-free motor so that farmers could power their tractors with oil from plants they grew. Nearly any diesel engine built today will run on straight vegetable oil, but the fuel system must be modified to heat the oil so it flows smoothly. This process is unnecessary with biodiesel.
by David Burn | May 30, 2006 | Lowcountry, Place
A couple of weeks ago I flew out of Hilton Head airport for the first time. A few minutes after take off, I noted Fripps Island and Hunting Island on our right, then a big body of water, then a beach community that I couldn’t quite place. After consulting the map, I learned it was St. Helena Sound and Edisto Island that I saw from the US Air twin-engine prop.
Yesterday, we drove to Edisto Beach. What took five minutes in the plane, took more than an hour and a half by car. Such is the nature of watery land. More times than not one goes around, not over.
While our nearest beach is but 20 minutes away, we like to see what the different beach communities offer. Since moving to the Lowcountry 16 months ago, we’ve visited beaches on Sullivan’s Island, Edisto Island, Hunting Island, Hilton Head Island, Tybee Island, St. Simon’s Island, Sea Island, Jekyll Island, Cumberland Island and Amelia Island. Edisto was most reminiscent of Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island in the northeast corner of Florida. Both have a laid back, old school beach town feel with relatively modest, but still high-priced homes on the beach.
It was a sunny day with a strong breeze. We saw dolphins just offshore, swam in the inviting ocean waters and read our books under the umbrella.
by David Burn | May 13, 2006 | Lowcountry
Lowcountry Blogs, a nicely rendered Typepad blog published by the Post & Courier in Charleston, questions the Lowcountry’s physical and cultural boundaries.
I’m wondering if there aren’t actually TWO “lowcountries” within the larger set “Lowcountry.”
The idea goes like this: That if you look at the area between Winyah Bay and the Savannah River and define it by the cultural centers to which the residents orient their identities, then there’s a Charleston-centric lowcountry that picks up Berkeley and Dorchester while extending south into parts of Colleton County.
But by this definition there’s also a smaller, distinctly Beaufort-centric lowcountry, where residents might even be more oriented to Savannah than they are to Charleston.
In other words, we share a Lowcounty with Beaufort, but do we share a community?
Beaufort-centric lowcountry? Charleston-centric lowcountry? I don’t know. I think it’s more local and more complex than that. The center of the Lowcountry is where you find it. If you live in Bluffton, like I do, it’s right here between the May and Colleton Rivers. For my friends on Hilton Head, it means something else.
As for Savannah, I find it hard to think of the city as somehow apart from the Lowcountry. Savannah is 25 miles away and clearly a different place in another state. Yet, are we to let rivers and state lines be such serious dividers? Perhaps we are, but I’ve taken to saying “I’m from the Savannah area” when people ask where I live, because it registers with them, allowing us to move the conversation forward.
by David Burn | Apr 22, 2006 | Food & Beverage, Lowcountry
Beaufort has two of the top dining experiences available in the county, a fact Hilton Headers might have some trouble digesting. If so, my advise is take a Tums and point your boat or vehicle towards historic downtown Beaufort, where you can dine in the California-meets-Charleston nautically-restored room known as Saltus River Grill. High ceilings, raw ahi tuna, Oregon pinot noir–that’s the ticket.
Then come back for the coup, cross the river to Lady’s Island and take your first hard right onto an access road, and find Bateaux tucked into the splendor of the marsh. We dined there recently, and the hostess showed us to our window table where we proceeded to bask in the glory of the view, the company, terrific Portugese wine aged for 12 years, fresh salads, delicious entrees all around and the best rice pudding I’ve tasted in my life. Not cheap, but not outrageous, Bateaux is a must visit for anyone–local or otherwise–who appreciates the pursuit of dining perfection.
by David Burn | Apr 22, 2006 | Lowcountry, The Environment
A few days ago, Pat Conroy, one of the Lowcountry’s more notable characters spoke out against unchecked development. He said, “I think southern Beaufort County is both lost and ruined.” Pretty tough words. For sure, the area is radically changed from Conroy’s youth, as is the rest of America. But for the newcomers fleeing a cold, gray, North, Hilton Head and Bluffton are the embodiment of that paradisical vision Conroy so longs for.
And it appears the place still has some fight in her. The Town of Hilton head is in battle with the Adventure Inn, over that property’s desire to build fire pits, bathrooms and other structures (look, tiki bars!) on the extreme beachside line of their land. I’m for the town in this. Stay the hell back from the dunes.
According to the Island Packet story, the inn’s owners say the town is incorrectly identifying the property as dunes and that environmental officials have said there are no dunes on the property.
Original redevelopment plans the inn submitted in January called for a building and other construction right up to the state setback line, which could have made the inn the closest development toward the ocean on that part of the island. That plan showed dunes in the area, a description the inn’s owners later said was made in error.
How’s that for some outside the Beltway spin?
I can actually sympathize with the property owners here, but only to a degree. They want to provide the ultimate island experience for their guests. No one can argue that’s not their right as operators, but I will argue that a different vision can be shared with visitors. The hotel could turn their negative into a positive by educating guests on the hotel’s sound design principals and embrace of ecotourism. Be proud of the fact that development is kept respectfully back, in honor of common sense and the stunning magnitude and power of the sea.
by David Burn | Apr 21, 2006 | Lowcountry
One of the first things I did upon moving to the Lowcountry 15 months ago was pick up a copy of Pat Conroy’s The Water Is Wide at a downtown Beaufort bookstore. It’s a great book. Conroy grew up here and he masterfully sets his best selling stories here. A couple of days ago the Beaufort Gazette set one of his nativist ecoriffs to type.
For the life of me, I cannot understand why Mayor Bill Rauch and most of the members of the City Council seem to loathe the exquisite and endangered town of Beaufort. I’ve made a career out of praising this town’s irreplaceable beauty and the incomparable sea islands that form the archipelago that makes Beaufort County the loveliest spot on Earth to me.
I think southern Beaufort County is both lost and ruined. Hilton Head has traffic jams that make me feel like I’m still in Atlanta. The coming of Sun City brought about the destruction of the jewel-like town of Bluffton.
Now I read that Mayor Rauch and the City Council are planning to annex a plantation where a developer plans to put in a modest 16,000 houses with a population that could reach 40,000 people. I can’t believe there have not been riots in the streets over this stupid proposal. If Rauch and his associates on the City Council succeed in this monstrous and unjustified annexation, Beaufort will soon be Hilton Head, Mount Pleasant, Myrtle Beach — the utter destruction of the South Carolina Lowcountry will begin its race to the finish line.
[via The Island Packet]
by David Burn | Mar 31, 2006 | Lowcountry, The Environment
For the past several days on my way home from work, I’ve taken notice of three wild turkey hens walking alongside ever busy Highway 278. They don’t seem to mind the traffic, even though I do.
The wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) became South Carolina’s official State Wild Game Bird in 1976. According to the National Wild Turkey Federation there are over 5 million Eastern Subspecies turkeys roaming our hardwood forests.
