Moving Company in Hilton Head Island

Hargray, which provides cable television, phone and internet services in the Lowcountry area, this month received more than $1.4 million in grants intended to help the company expand broadband access in Beaufort and Jasper counties.

The internet service provider is one of 16 companies in 22 S.C. counties to receive the state funding. The S.C. Office of Regulatory Staff, in coordination with the S.C. Department of Commerce, earlier this month approved the almost $30 million to bring access to more than 23,000 households.

Hargray, and the other companies, will have to match the $30 million, according to a news release.

The state funding comes after S.C.’s need for broadband service was exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic as students learned remotely, businesses shifted to work-from-home schedules and doctors scheduled telehealth appointments.

Over 400,000 S.C. residents don’t have access to broadband internet speeds fast enough to have telehealth appointments or stream videos for classes, The State Media Co. reported. The Office of Regulatory Staff estimates $610 million in private and public money spent over five years would be needed to expand service to every household in the state.

The almost $30 million in funding has been a “long time coming” for rural portions of the state, Jasper County Council Chair Barbara Clark said in a news release.

“Having reliable access to the internet should be for all South Carolinians,” she said.

Of the $30 million, Hargray received $783,275 in Beaufort County and $635,391 in Jasper County. The company will have to provide the Office of Regulatory Staff the final construction reports by Oct. 15. All projects statewide are expected to be completed by October 2022.

“This is a huge step forward for residents of Jasper County and will provide more Internet access to more people in our community than ever before,” Jasper County Administrator Andrew Fulghum said in a news release.

Jasper County, where state officials highlighted areas in need of significant broadband upgrades, has seen a boom in economic development and infrastructure projects, including $60 million in highway improvements and the massive Jasper Ocean Terminal project.

Access to the internet “is absolutely a necessity to do business, get an education, and find vital information— expanding broadband is the first step in securing that for every South Carolinian,” said S.C. Sen. Margie Bright Matthews. “I’m proud of the strides we’ve made here in Jasper County in infrastructure and economic development, and this project will only bolster that new growth and success.”

Projects were awarded in the following counties: Aiken, Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Beaufort, Berkeley, Calhoun, Clarendon, Chester, Chesterfield, Fairfield, Georgetown, Hampton, Jasper, Kershaw, Lancaster, Lee, Marion, Marlboro, Newberry, Orangeburg, and Williamsburg.

For more information about expanding broadband access in S.C., visit https://ors.sc.gov/broadband

The Board of Governors approved new North Carolina men’s basketball coach Hubert Davis’ contract on Thursday, nearly four months after Davis took over for Roy Williams.

Davis, who was an assistant coach for the Tar Heels, signed a five-year deal with a base salary for $400,000 per year. The contract runs through June 30, 2026. The News & Observer previously reported details of the contract in mid-April. The document was signed by Davis and other UNC officials in late April.

Davis, who was recruiting at Nike’s Peach Jam tournament in North Augusta, S.C., shrugged off the delay in the BOG’s final approval telling the N&O, “Carolina has always taken good care of me.”

The 24-member Board of Governors had a regularly scheduled meeting in May but didn’t approve Davis’ contract until Thursday at its regular July meeting. The group did not meet for a regular meeting in June. Thursday’s meetings took place via video conference and live stream and in Chapel Hill, according to the agenda.

The deal includes performance bonuses for winning the regular-season and conference tournament titles, as well as for participation in the NCAA Tournament. The NCAA Tournament bonuses grow for each victory, culminating in a $250,000 bonus for winning the national title. There are other bonuses for coach of the year awards and academic success by the team.

Davis’ bonuses are capped at $1.075 million per year.

Davis will receive $600,000 in supplemental income through June 2022 with that amount growing by $100,000 each year of the contract. He also receives $50,000 for expenses in “to advance the Program.”

He will also receive $500,000 per year from Learfield Communications and $250,000 from Nike, which both have contracts with the university’s athletic department. His total compensation before any incentives kick in of $1.8 million is among the lowest in the ACC according to the USA Today coaches database. Davis is the only head coach in the league without prior head coaching experience, although Duke’s Jon Scheyer will join him next season when he takes over for Mike Krzyzewski.

Davis signed his contract in late April. The former Tar Heel and NBA player was elevated to head coach at his alma mater on April 5.

Davis described his transition to head coach as a whirlwind and said things may finally slow down for him after this week when the recruiting live period ends.

He has made good use of his time filling some of the immediate holes in the Tar Heels’ roster for next season. He used the transfer portal to bulk up the frontcourt with the addition Oklahoma forward Brady Manek; Virginia forward Justin McKoy, who played at Panther Creek High School; and Marquette center/forward Dawson Garcia. Davis also has made a bit of a splash on the recruiting trail getting his first five-star commitment from Jalen Washington out of Gary, Indiana.

When Queen saw the ocean for the first time in more than a year, she stopped to let a wave wash over her.

Last summer, a group of beach-goers found her majesty stranded and covered in pluff mud on Kiawah Island. The female loggerhead sea turtle had cataracts on her eyes and coral growing on her shell.

She also had debilitated turtle syndrome, which meant she was lethargic and not eating — a dangerous combination. And so, on June 13, 2020, she was admitted to the South Carolina Aquarium Sea Turtle Hospital for care.

But on Tuesday morning, as an amber sun rose above Folly Beach, Queen finally found her way home.

“She looks very ready to go,” Susan McLaughlin, an educator at the S.C. Aquarium, narrated as she captured the moment on a Facebook Live video.

When Queen was admitted for care, she weighed 147 pounds. Now, it would take seven aquarium staff members to lift all 202 pounds of her when they arrived at the beach for a private staff-only sea turtle release.

They hoisted her out of an open crate in a special yellow sling, and walked her down toward the water so that she could save her energy for the journey ahead. And, thanks to two cataract surgeries in each eye, Queen could now see again.

When her flippers touched the sand, she began moving forward. Then, she paused to feel her first ocean wave in 13 months.

After the waters washed over Queen, it was as if she was pulled toward the ocean by the receding tide itself. With her flippers digging into the sand, the loggerhead pushed herself forward and back toward the sea.

“Sometimes, if we watch closely, we can see her come up for one more big breath of air, too. Or,” McLaughlin said, chuckling, “she might just take off.”

Then the S.C. Aquarium staff burst into applause on the beach.

It was an emotional moment after a difficult year.

In the fall of 2020, it was unclear if the aquarium would even be able to continue doing this type of work.

Each year, about 80% of the aquarium’s income comes from its general admission tickets and membership sales. That once-dependable revenue stream evaporated in 2020, when the pandemic forced the aquarium to shut its doors for 68 days.

Compounding the pain, the closure also came at the start of the aquarium’s busy season.

As a result, the unexpected financial crisis threw the aquarium’s Sea Turtle Care Center, which has rehabilitated and released more than 300 turtles like Queen in the past 20 years, into jeopardy. There were also two rounds of layoffs that cut staff by 25%.

In March, after a public fundraising drive that asked visitors and locals to imagine a world without the aquarium, the organization announced the community had saved them and, as a result, creatures like Queen.

“It was inconceivable to us that we might lose our ability to educate schoolchildren, or save the lives of sick and injured sea turtles — programs that define the very heart and soul of our mission,” Kevin Mills, president and CEO of the South Carolina Aquarium, said in a statement at the time.

Tuesday’s release was private and not announced in advance to keep crowds down and make animal care the top priority. But the private release was also a special thank-you for the staff.

Many of them, McLaughlin said in the video, had never gotten to go to a sea turtle release themselves.

In addition to Queen, a juvenile Kemp’s ridley named Charlotte was also released.

Belinda Stewart Young stood before the silent crowd of Hilton Head Island residents and paused, taking a moment to collect her thoughts.

Young, a native islander, had two minutes to speak late Thursday during the S.C. Department of Transportation’s long-awaited public hearing over the U.S. 278 corridor project.

Like dozens of other residents, Young was frustrated by the state’s preferred construction plan, which was released earlier this month, and had only a few moments to raise her objections.

So Young, echoing several other speakers, began her speech by simply telling SCDOT and the town, “You can do better than this.”

That was the prevailing sentiment at the Thursday hearing, where roughly 30 people spoke to a crowd of about 200 onlookers, and residents crammed into gymnasium bleachers at the Island Recreation Center to hear more about the SCDOT’s $290 million proposal.

A handful of people seemed to support the state’s plan. One resident said a compromise is inevitable.

“Maybe this project’s a C now. Hopefully we can get it to a B. But these are competing things that we want. We’re never going to get an A,” said John Taylor, who has served on the town’s gateway corridor committee.

The majority of speakers, though, used their time to describe a litany of concerns about the SCDOT proposal, and some called for it to be completely rejected.

Hilton Head Plantation residents took issue with the state’s plan to scrap left turns at the Squire Pope Road-U.S. 278 intersection. Native islanders in the historic Stoney community pleaded with officials to mothball the proposed highway widening in their neighborhood. And activists argued that the SCDOT’s study scope and traffic projections were both flawed.

“Go back to the drawing board,” said Patsy Brison, co-founder of the Coalition of Island Neighbors, or COIN.

“We can do better than this,” said Alex Brown, who represents Ward 1 on the island’s Town Council.

“Fix the bridge ... but hold off on this road, right now. Let’s find a better way,” said John Stewart, a native islander who lives in Stoney. “We all gotta get together, come together, as one. This is the time to do it. ... When it affects Stoney, it’s going to affect everybody.”

Here’s a look at some of the biggest issues raised during the Thursday hearing.

Several residents said they opposed the proposed road widening in Stoney. SCDOT wants to expand U.S. 278 to six lanes through the entire corridor; acquire 4.8 acres in Stoney; and relocate two businesses in the area: Island Psychic and Willie Young’s Upholstery & Fabrics. (All of the state’s rejected plans would have led to more relocations.)

SCDOT, Young argued, should build a completely new bridge that connects the south end of Hilton Head to the mainland.

“A better solution, if you ask me, is another way off the island, not just for my family or Stoney, but for everyone,” she said.

Having only a single entry and exit point to Hilton Head is dangerous, especially during hurricane season, said Young, who lives in Stoney.

Stewart, meanwhile, added that once SCDOT finishes the highway project, island residents will be left to deal with the construction’s long-term impacts. Stewart thinks the state should fix the deficient eastbound U.S. 278 lanes over Mackay Creek and hold off on other road work for now.

“I’m mad, I’m angry, I’m frustrated,” he said. “We got to do better.”

Luana Graves Sellars, a leader in the island’s Gullah community, said, “Stoney’s designation as a traditional cultural property is not just a box to be checked.”

Jessie White, south coast office director for the Coastal Conservation League, is also upset by the proposed impacts in Stoney.

“It’s precisely these types of road improvements that have led to the near extinction of the thriving center that once defined Stoney,” White said.

A few others, though, had different opinions. Mary Read, of Hilton Head Plantation, said she supported roadway widening to reduce congestion. Off-island workers, she said, need to wake up “at the crack of dawn” to drive to their jobs on Hilton Head.

Jack Alderman, who also lives in the north-end gated community, said he thinks six lanes will probably be necessary.

Taylor, meanwhile, said the proposed widening would not be significant.

“We want to fix our traffic problems, we want safe travel for vehicles and pedestrians, (to) protect and enhance our history and our Stoney community, and a gateway to the island,” he said. “The challenge is that those things compete against each other.”

Hilton Head Plantation residents fiercely criticized the SCDOT’s proposed reconfiguration of major island intersections.

“This is not about the people that live here. This is about moving people to the south end of the island, maybe. Maybe moving them successfully to the south end of the island,” said Peter Kristian, general manager of Hilton Head Plantation.

State officials want to eliminate left turns at the Squire Pope Road-U.S. 278 intersection (eastbound drivers could make a U-turn at Old Wild Horse Road to eventually turn right onto Squire Pope Road); turn Old Wild Horse Road into a one-way street that connects drivers to Wild Horse Road; and eliminate left turns at the Spanish Wells-Wild Horse roads intersection (people in the westbound U.S. 278 lanes could make a U-turn at Old Wild Horse Road to eventually turn right onto Spanish Wells Road in the eastbound U.S. 278 lanes, and eastbound drivers could use Old Wild Horse Road to get to Wild Horse Road).

The U-turn ideas for Old Wild Horse Road are “ill-advised,” Kristian said.

Tractor-trailer trucks would be forced down Old Wild Horse Road under the state’s plan, he said.

Like Young, Brown and others, including Tamara Becker, who represents Ward 4 on Town Council, Kristian said: “We can do a lot better than this.”

The Hilton Head Plantation property owners’ association previously took aim at the state’s intersection proposals and expressed support for a different set of design concepts: grade-separated intersections. (These intersections align a junction of two or more roadway axes at different heights so they do not disrupt traffic flow on other transit routes when they cross each other.)

SCDOT wants to put a traffic signal on U.S. 278 outside the entrance to Windmill Harbour on Jenkins Island.

Windmill Harbour residents on Thursday expressed support for the signal, arguing that heavy traffic on that part of the highway has been a longstanding safety concern for the community.

“We think that the stoplight will save lives in the long run,” said Charles Perry, who said he represented the Windmill Harbour Association.

Other residents took issue with his assessment.

Alderman, for example, who lives in Hilton Head Plantation, told SCDOT officials to rethink their Windmill Harbour idea.

Vehicles will pass over the proposed bridge at high speeds, round a corner on Jenkins Island and immediately face a traffic signal, Alderman said.

That seems dangerous, he said.

People can still submit public comments about the SCDOT plan through Aug. 22 online: https://bit.ly/PublicHearing278

And Hilton Head residents will soon get a glimpse of how town officials want to tweak and modify SCDOT’s plan to reshape the U.S. 278 corridor.

MKSK, a town-hired land planning firm, will explain its proposed modifications to the state plan during three public forums on Aug. 16 and Aug. 17, Shawn Colin, senior adviser to Hilton Head’s town manager, previously said.

The town has hired MKSK, based in Greenville, for $98,660 to examine and critique the SCDOT’s highway ideas.

The firm, Colin has said, could counter the state’s favored construction plan, or “preferred alternative,” with its own proposals, including different design concepts for Hilton Head intersections.

Two of the town’s public forums will be held on Aug. 16 at the Island Recreation Center from 9 to 11 a.m. and 5 to 7 p.m., Town Manager Marc Orlando previously said.

The other forum will be held at Town Hall on Aug. 17 from 9 to 11 a.m., Orlando said.

The forums will occur just before MKSK and town staff bring their suggestions to the island’s Town Council for consideration during an Aug. 17 meeting.

Colin said he hopes to get the council’s “soft position” on the state’s preferred alternative, and MKSK’s ideas, on Aug. 17, before then submitting the town’s official public comment on the project to SCDOT before Aug. 22.

The project’s 45-day public comment period ends Aug. 22. SCDOT must respond to written comments made between July 7 and Aug. 22, Colin has said.

Colin expects state officials to spend two to three months responding to the public’s written comments.

The transportation agency could then release an updated version of its preferred alternative this fall, he has said.

Hilton Head Island residents will soon get a glimpse of how town officials want to tweak and modify the S.C. Department of Transportation’s $290 million plan to reshape the U.S. 278 corridor.

MKSK, a town-hired land planning firm, will explain its proposed modifications to the SCDOT plan during three public forums on Aug. 16 and Aug. 17, said Shawn Colin, senior adviser to Hilton Head’s town manager.

The town previously hired MKSK, which is based in Greenville, for $98,660 to examine and critique the SCDOT’s highway ideas.

The firm, Colin said, could counter the state’s favored construction plan, or “preferred alternative,” with its own proposals, including different design concepts for major Hilton Head intersections (SCDOT wants to eliminate left turns at the Squire Pope Road-U.S. 278 intersection and Spanish Wells-Wild Horse roads intersection.)

MKSK is ultimately tasked with designing a new entrance to Hilton Head at its single entry and exit point. The entrance is supposed to be welcoming to drivers and less intrusive to the families and businesses that own property in the Stoney community, a historic neighborhood where generations of native islanders have raised their families.

The firm is reviewing the U.S. 278 project to address various concerns regarding “land disruption, safety, quality of life,” Colin said, but he does not expect MKSK to suggest a completely different route for U.S. 278 from what the SCDOT has already proposed. (The state wants to demolish the existing Hilton Head bridges and replace them with a single, six-lane bridge.)

Two of the town’s public forums will be held on Aug. 16 at the Island Recreation Center from 9 to 11 a.m. and 5 to 7 p.m., said Town Manager Marc Orlando.

The other forum will be held at Town Hall on Aug. 17 from 9 to 11 a.m., Orlando said.

The forums will occur just before MKSK and town staff bring their suggestions to the island’s Town Council for consideration during an Aug. 17 meeting.

Colin said he hopes to get the council’s “soft position” on the state’s preferred alternative, and MKSK’s ideas, on Aug. 17, before then submitting the town’s official public comment on the project to SCDOT before Aug. 22.

The project’s 45-day public comment period ends Aug. 22. SCDOT must respond to written comments made between July 7 and Aug. 22, Colin said.

If Colin attaches MKSK’s design concepts to the town’s comment, he said SCDOT would have to respond to the firm’s ideas.

Colin expects state officials to spend two to three months responding to the public’s written comments.

The transportation agency could then release an updated version of its preferred alternative this fall, he said.

Beaufort County will have to obtain a signature of municipal consent from the town before construction can begin on the project, according to SCDOT and Colin.

The Town Council, in other words, has the ability to veto the SCDOT’s plan, Colin said.

If some Town Council members think, “We’re not satisfied that you integrated enough or any” of the MKSK recommendations, Colin said, that could be grounds for the council’s rejection of the SCDOT proposal.

The SCDOT’s in-person public hearing for the project is still happening. It’s separate from the town’s public forums.

Residents are invited to attend the hearing on Thursday to discuss the preferred alternative. The public hearing will be held from 2 to 7 p.m. at the rec center at 20 Wilborn Road. People can drop by to ask questions from 2 to 6 p.m. An hour-long meeting for residents to speak out about the plan will run from 6 to 7 p.m.