AC Repair in Isle of Palms, SC

ISLE OF PALMS, S.C. (WCSC) - A volunteer organization is encouraging others to help with litter removal on Isle of Palms.

The Isle of Palms Cleanup Crew will be holding its first of six litter cleanups, the Spring Litter Sweep series, on Monday and they’re encouraging others in the community to participate.

Co-founder Susan Hill Smith said volunteers collected 60,000 pieces of litter during cleanups last year. That’s a 130% increase over 2021.

She says common litter items found on the beach and commercial areas are plastics such as bottle caps, food wrappers, lids, and straw wrappers.

Smith said one litter item remains at the top of the list even though it is prohibited and that is cigarettes.

Organizers say 44% of litter items collected on the beach, streets, sidewalks, and parking lots last year were smoking-related litter items.

“Cigarette litter is our number one both on the beach and on the streetscape even though on the beach the city council passed and adopted in 2020 a law against smoking on the beach,” Smith said. “We’ve seen a decrease in cigarette litter as far as our totals. But that’s still cigarette litter is still our number one and that has both toxic chemicals and plastic threads in it.”

The group has entered a partnership with the South Carolina Aquarium to document their litter data through the aquarium’s Citizen Science app. The app allows citizen scientists to document observations in the area. They said the aquarium reports at the turtle hospital showed a remarkable increase in the amount of plastic they’re seeing ingested by their patients.

Smith said the crew was founded in 2018 after concerns about litter and pollution problems on the beach and how that was affecting both the beach and ocean ecosystems as well as public health and really just wanted to help keep their islands beautiful and protect the area.

Smith encourages avoiding bringing disposable items to the beach and keeping track of beach ordinances prohibiting single-use items.

If you are interested in joining the clean-up crew the first meeting is 5:30 p.m. Monday at 1100 Ocean Boulevard.

More information on the group and future cleanup dates can be found on their Facebook page.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.

The South Carolina Department of Transportation is asking residents to weigh in on a preferred concept for the Isle of Palms Connector restriping project. At the transportation committee meeting on Feb. 6, Mount Pleasant council members discussed a new alternative concept presented by town staff that includes a larger multiuse path compared to SCDOT’s concepts.

The Town’s concept includes a 14-foot multiuse path on the south side of the bridge (left shoulder when facing Mount Pleasant) with designated bike and pedestrian lanes, a four-foot buffer between the path and traffic and two 11-foot vehicle lanes with an 11-foot median in the middle. The median provides space for emergency vehicles to pass through, and it could be used as an additional westbound lane off of the island for planned special events or evacuations.

“The main change that was proposed as part of that concept was actually to provide a wider pedestrian lane and a wider bicycle lane, separating those uses,” said James Aton, the deputy director for capital projects and transportation for the Town.

At the base of the connector on the Mount Pleasant side, there’s an option to restripe the road to include two westbound lanes leaving the island.

The Town’s concept is similar to SCDOT’s Concept 3, except SCDOT proposes a 10-foot multiuse path with a six-foot buffer and the median between the two travel lanes is 10 feet. SCDOT’s Concept 4 is a mirror of Concept 3 with the bike and pedestrian lane on the other side of the roadway. However, both municipalities favor the bike and pedestrian lane on the south side of the bridge – in Mount Pleasant it allows cyclists and pedestrians to easily access shopping, restaurants and nearby apartments and the Isle of Palms has infrastructure in place to gather pedestrians on that side.

SCDOT presented five concepts in front of the Isle of Palms city council on Dec. 13 and the Mount Pleasant transportation committee on Jan. 3.

SCDOT’s Concept 1 includes a 10-foot bike and pedestrian lane on the south side of the connector, a six-foot buffer, two 11-foot travel lanes with a four-foot paved median in the center and a 10-foot shoulder on the north side of the bridge. Concept 2 is a mirror of Concept 1.

The first four concepts presented by SCDOT do not add capacity to the connector. On a typical travel day, the center median lane or shoulder lane would be used in emergency situations, whether its drivers pulling over for an emergency vehicle or first responders moving an accident out of the way. It would not be used for travel except for planned special events.

Concept 5 presented by SCDOT creates two westbound travel lanes leaving the island to help reduce travel time on the bridge, especially during the busy summer months. This concept includes the 10-foot multiuse path with a five-foot buffer area on the south side of the bridge.

Another option is to leave the current configuration as is. The Isle of Palms Connector was restriped early 2021 to provide more safety for cyclists and pedestrians. The existing configuration includes bike and pedestrian paths on each side of the bridge in a single direction with a 3.5-foot buffer on each side. There are two 11-foot travel lanes with a 4-foot paved median in the center. Additionally, the speed limit went from 55 to 45 mph.

“The benefits of that [configuration] is you’re separating direction of travel for bikes and pedestrians, sort of improving the overall safety of the interaction of those users,” said Aton.

The main goal for revisiting the restriping, initiated by the City of the Isle of Palms, was to assess emergency vehicle response times and find a solution for traffic leaving the island. Police and fire chiefs for both Mount Pleasant and the Isle of Palms said there have not been any issues getting emergency vehicles through the connector and there have not been any delays in response times.

“It’s not something we’ve seen as an issue,” said Mount Pleasant Fire Chief Mike Mixon, “but [a median lane] would keep the cars from having to move to the side.”

The SCDOT survey opened Jan. 17 and closes after 30 days. To provide input on SCDOT’s five concepts, visit http://bit.ly/3YJMtOZ.

Seven Lucy Beckham High School student athletes signed letters of intent to play their sport at the collegiate level.

“I have the privilege to be around these student athletes who have worked hard at all those practices,” said Athletic Director Scott McInnes at the signing ceremony on Feb. 9. He acknowledged the sacrifices the parents of student athletes make throughout the four years.

Each coach shared a few words about the athletes, plus the athletes had an opportunity to thank family and friends for helping them reach this goal.

Baseball

Lane Lockhart — University of South Carolina Union

Football

Malachi Coakley — Union County

Tierell Milligan — St. Andrews University

AJ Kut — The Citadel

Jack Weil — The Citadel

Track & Field

Allison Kammer — University of South Carolina Upstate

Sam Seifert — The Citadel

Bishop England High School hosted a signing day ceremony on Feb. 1 to celebrate nine athletes who committed to playing sports in college. The student athletes took the stage individually with their parents and coaches as their high school sports accomplishments were recognized.

Swimming

Lindsay Burbage — University of Massachusetts

Matthew Piccard — Virginia Military Institute

Softball

Adelaide Coyle — Erskine College

Football

Tommy DiLiegro — Wofford College

William Poole — Gardner Webb University

Charlie Ranney — Bates College

Track & Field

Maggie Long — Anderson University

Rowing

Sophia Savage — Fairfield University

Baseball

Asher Western — University of South Carolina Beaufort

Football

Zach Hagedon — Old Dominion

Timmy Castain — North Greenville

Swimming

Ben Hutson — Converse College

Gabe Grimm — Lees-McRae College

Soccer

Beck Dean — Furman University

Soccer

Turner Orvin — Johns Hopkins University

Soccer

Maile Merklein — University of South Carolina Lancaster

Three more Mount Pleasant high school athletes committed to play college sports on Dec. 21 by signing their letters of intent.

Wando High School’s Mikey Rosa committed to playing football at the Citadel. The team captain and linebacker was selected to play in the 2022 Shrine Bowl and was named the 2022 Shrine Bowl Defensive MVP.

“Mikey is a remarkable young man. He checks all the boxes when it comes to character, leadership and being a teammate. Mikey is a leader on the field and off always willing to lend a hand to whoever may ask,” said Wando coach Rocco Adrian.

Two Oceanside Collegiate Academy football players also signed their letters of intent. Vaugh Blue signed with Liberty University, and Monroe Freeling committed to the University of Georgia. Freeling is the number one college prospect in the state for the class of 2023.

When engaged professors pair up with successful alumni who want to give back to the university that served them, magic happens for students. This semester, that magic is happening now for sixteen lucky students in Travis Hicks’ Interior Architecture (IARc) studio class, who are spending their final semester redesigning restaurants and a VIP suite for a beachfront resort near Charleston, SC.

Beyond the Studio

IARc offers students a broad knowledge in design, commercial applications, and architectural processes. Class options can be tailored to a student’s individual professional aspirations. Although many classes include hands-on projects in the Gatewood Studio Arts Building, Hicks gives fourth year undergraduate students an opportunity to apply the knowledge they’ve absorbed to functioning business environments.

“By the time a student gets to the end of their fourth year, they have skills in conceptual thinking, research, tradition and styles,” Hicks explains. “They have experience looking at materials and systems and understanding how buildings go together. And they have an understanding of how people feel in different kinds of spaces, how colors and materials affect people, and how different proportions of spaces affect people differently. So, by the time they’re at the end of this fourth year, students are really skilled in the studio environment.”

As this group of seniors approaches the completion of their degrees, it is time to test their preparation for real world design jobs. Hicks’ studio class generally engages with design projects in the community. But as he considered what the focus of the final projects would be, Hicks realized that this particular class would take him on a different journey.

“Typically, I would have a studio project in mind. I’d already have a site of building or an idea of what the end product would be. This time I thought, let me ask the students,” the professor explained. “It’s their final semester, their final studio. They’ve been through a lot during COVID and I wanted to make it fun for them, and meaningful to their interests and goals in life.”

seeking hospitality through alumni connections

The students had an overwhelming response to their professor’s request for input on the semester-long projects: hospitality design.

“I’m not a hospitality designer by trade, but I know how to teach students to use design skills to accomplish virtually any program type,” admits Hicks. “With hospitality design, we’re talking restaurants, hotels, boutique hotels with bars, etc. Not being that type of designer myself, I had to think about who I knew who was a hospitality designer.”

Enter Anna Will Maginn ’11, ’13, a UNCG alumna who has combined her passions and education to build a career that led her to an associate marketing director position at one of the most popular beach resorts in the Carolinas, Wild Dunes Resort.

Before moving to Charleston, SC, Maginn received a BA in Interior Architecture in 2011 and a Masters in Interior Architecture in 2013, both at UNCG. In the marketing department at Wild Dunes, Maginn uses her design know-how to enhance sales and customer experiences.

The beach resort, managed by Hyatt, includes accommodation types from hotel suites to private homes; expansive meeting space; restaurants and retail shops; and pools, tennis and golf amenities. Maginn has participated in a recent renovation and expansion of the resort, and currently holds the interim marketing director position at Wild Dunes.

“I knew when Travis approached me that we had some unique offerings that the class could experience that they probably can’t get elsewhere.” Maginn explained, “We’re just coming off of a renovation. It’s a good place to be because we’re in a design evaluation mode.”

“The students are coming in at a point where we are reflecting on what we need for this space that will better communicate the concept. They get to put their stamp on it and potentially produce something that will actually come to be. I don’t think you get that very often and it’s a very cool thing that the students can take away.”

From Proposal to Syllabus

Remembering the studio projects she worked on during her time at UNCG, Maginn proposed a partnership with Hicks’ studio class to her management team at Wild Dunes. The resort needed new ideas for the redesign of a tapas restaurant in the hotel lobby, a sports pub at the golf course, and a VIP suite; the class needed functioning hospitality design projects to tackle. It was a win-win opportunity.

Hicks is excited to work with Maginn again and has great expectations for what his current students can bring to Wild Dunes resort executives.

“I think the students are getting a great opportunity to work in a space where they might not have access otherwise. But the resort management is also getting a huge amount of thinking and design conceptualizing from the students. And it is possible to take any one of the students’ designs and implement them with the right team of people at Wild Dunes.”

Maginn and Hicks developed a syllabus for the class that includes multiple remote meetings between the class and the resort management team. Project briefings began in January; Maginn and other resort executives will give periodic input on student designs via Zoom; Wild Dunes generously offered the class a 3-day visit to the property to study the sites and get input from management; and student presentations to resort management were set for later in the semester.

Creating Opportunity for Undergrads

The Wild Dunes projects will consume this class’ final undergraduate term with a real-world designer/client relationship. All students will finish the projects with portfolio building designs, but some may produce designs that will be utilized on the property.

Maginn is proud to help facilitate this connection between the future designers in UNCG’s Interior Architecture department and the resort she works for. Although the designs may take a while for the resort to implement, she plans to stay in touch with the students.

“I hope they won’t be off and running into the world and forget about us,” Maginn says. “Because if it takes shape, I definitely want to invite them to be part of the process. If that happened to me when I was in school, I would be honored beyond words to know that I had a real stamp on a very real setting in a commercial space of this magnitude.

Travis Hicks credits the IARc department’s ongoing connections with alumni like Anna Maginn for providing avenues that lead to opportunities for current students.

“I can imagine that Anna agreeing to participate in this project might be a way for her to give back to our students in the same way that I watched other professionals help her when she was finishing her IARc degree,” Hicks muses. “Our alumni are pretty giving at UNCG. Anna is continuing in that long line of alumni as she gives back to UNCG of her time and her connections”.

Postscript note: Stay tuned as University Communications follows the IARc studio class’ trip to Isle of Palms to present their proposed designs to Wild Dunes Resort executives. It’s a perfect example of the ways our faculty and alumni work together to help students make a direct impact on our community and beyond.

Photography by Sean Norona, University Communications.

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Swaths of uninterrupted white-sand beach, the smell of salty spray, warm sun on your skin, and the rustle of palm fronds gently blowing in the wind—these are the sights, sounds, and scents of Isle of Palms. The South Carolina barrier island packs a lot of relaxation and big fun into a vacation destination that's just seven miles long and one mile wide. The island's proximity to Charleston (just 18 miles by car), make it a preferred summer hideout for locals. An abundance of vacation rentals and the iconic Wild Dunes resort have been drawing visitors from across the country since the early 1970s.

With the deep blue Atlantic on one side and marshy creeks of the Intracoastal Waterway on the other, Isle of Palms offers the best of the Lowcountry and the beach in one stunning setting that's begging to be added to your vacation calendar.

Six of Isle of Palms' seven total miles are occupied by public beaches, which means you'll have your pick of the litter when looking for a sandy spot where you can post up for the day—or the week. Once you've staked your claim, all the normal beach activities are yours for the choosing, from splashing around in the surprisingly calm seas to building the ultimate sandcastle or playing a game of beach volleyball. For families, the Isle of Palms County Park, located in the middle of the island's coastline, is ideal. The public beach has lifeguards, outdoor showers, chair and umbrella rentals, restrooms, and even a playground for little ones retreat to once they tire of the sun and surf.

Make the most of a visit to Isle of Palms by scheduling a charter to take you offshore. Get your sea legs at the Isle of Palms Marina, where you can easily rent a boat and spend a day exploring the island's bays and waterways. Fishing charters are plentiful and offer both reef fishing and Gulf Stream fishing. For adventure enthusiasts or wildlife lovers, Barrier Island Eco Tours hosts a range of naturalist-guided tours that take visitors through winding salt marshes, tidal creeks, and the Intracoastal Waterway on the way to uninhabited Capers Island. Animals you might see along the way include loggerhead turtles, bottlenose dolphins, and every shape and size of coastal birds.

Breakfast is noteworthy at Sea Biscuit Café. The tiny beachside shack has been dishing out delicious morning meals since 1968. While they offer all the classics, the daily specials are where the magic happens. Past offerings have included chocolate banana challah French toast, lemon lavender pancakes, and tomato pie.

When you need a mid-day refuel for the whole family, Coconut Joe's is the obvious choice. Located on Isle of Palms' main drag, you won't have to venture far to get fresh seafood and impeccable vibes. The open-air covered deck is the ideal spot for munching on the restaurant's namesake shrimp, while rocking sandy toes and sun-bleached hair. When happy hour hits, venture to the rooftop bar for a frozen cocktail or painkiller. Nothing will put you on island time faster.

By the time you're finally ready to come in from the sun and go out to dinner, Isle of Palms will be waiting with plenty of options. The Boathouse and Acme Lowcountry Kitchen are island staples that have stood the test of time thanks to excellent quality food and good old-fashioned Southern hospitality. For a special night out, try Coda del Pesce, a fine dining restaurant that specializes in Italian with lots of influence (and fresh catch) from the nearby seas.

All trips to Isle of Palms must include at least one visit to The Windjammer at Front Beach. The legendary local music venue is known for its incredible live shows, stellar views of the water, cold drinks, and unbeatable fried pickles.

The obvious choice for places to stay in Isle of Palms is Wild Dunes Resort, a 1,600-acre family-friendly resort that offers everything from rooms and suites at two inns, to private beach condos and home rentals. In addition to a more-than-comfortable stay, the resort also features several resort-style pools, a spa, and two championship golf courses.

If you're hoping for a cozier stay, the newly renovated Palms Oceanfront Hotel consists of 68 modern rooms with gorgeous views of the sparkling Atlantic. There are also plenty of rentals through Airbnb and VRBO for everything from multifamily waterfront homes to one-bedroom condos.

Whether you book for a long weekend or stay for an entire week, the memories and magic of Isle of Palms will stay with you for months and years to come—maybe even until you have a chance to make another trip back!

The City of Isle of Palms is holding the first of two public hearings to discuss limiting future development and protecting the golf courses in the Wild Dunes p

ISLE OF PALMS, S.C. (WCSC) - The City of Isle of Palms is holding the first of two public hearings to discuss limiting future development and protecting the golf courses in the Wild Dunes planned development district on Tuesday.

The discussion stemmed from a 1975 agreement that would make it possible for there to be over 300 more rooms built in the Wild Dunes between hotels and condos.

According to Mayor Phillip Pounds, it all started back in February when a group of residents asked the council to take a look at the decades-old agreement to see if they could make some changes. Anthony Santiago says he was one of those residents.

“We thought we were developed already after The Sweetgrass Inn,” Santiago said. “We don’t even have parking for that. And then through the due diligence we discovered the capacity to expand this more than double.”

Santiago and others who are against future development in Wild Dunes say that more development would overwhelm public safety and public works resources, cause more drainage and sewage issues, and make traffic and parking on the island more of a nightmare.

“Every city municipality has the right to rezone as you develop,” Santiago said. “This is almost fifty years ago when we did this. Nobody thought we’d be as big as we are.”

The Isle of Palms City Council now has five ordinances up for discussion that would preserve public and private facilities and put a cap on density in the planned development district.

Beverly Miller is the executive director of the Barrier Island Preservation Alliance, a nonprofit formed to address challenges unique to the barrier islands. She said she wanted to show support for the ordinances through a petition. It now has over 750 signatures.

“When that was written, this island was erratically different, and it’s so different now that we need to amend those zoning ordinances so that we are up to today and the demands that are on the island today that were not here in 1975,” Miller said.

Pounds said the Wild Dunes agreement was one of the first of its type in the country.

“Unusual maybe, but as areas get built out there’s certainly an opportunity for cities to revisit the zoning and the density and the future development,” Pounds said.

Pounds said the city has received many phone calls and emails from concerned residents worried how much the island could take. He says there’s confusion about the slow process, but he says with the public hearing, that will stop development even though they aren’t completely through the process.

“When you’re on an island where you have such little landmass to develop anything, the ability to put 300 plus units in Wild Dunes today, I don’t even know where they would put them because there’s not that kind of landmass,” Pounds said. “But some of the concern was, could they do something on the golf courses, could they do something on the tennis courts. That’s some of the ordinance that we’re looking at during this process is protecting those areas.”

Tuesday’s public hearing will take place at Isle of Palms city hall at 5 p.m. Another public hearing will take place Nov. 1 at 5 p.m. at the city’s recreation center. The city’s planning commission will take a look at the ordinances and give feedback to city council. Then, it will be up to city council to schedule a second reading which would solidify the ordinances.

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