Roofer in James Island, SC

VIDEO: Goose Creek ready for live events with opening of amphitheater

Updated: 6 hours ago

VIDEO: Berkeley Co. foster organization expanding to help girls in need

Updated: 7 hours ago

VIDEO: CARTA wraps up third season of its Beach Reach Shuttle service

Updated: 13 hours ago

VIDEO: Weather prompts rescheduling of Folly Beach litter sweep event

Updated: 18 hours ago

VIDEO: Water quality tests in Debby’s aftermath raise post-storm safety worries

Updated: 19 hours ago

VIDEO: Lowcountry businesses see uptick in customers during Labor Day weekend

Updated: 19 hours ago

News

Weather

Sports

Contact Us

Terms of Service

Privacy Policy

Public Inspection File

EEO Report

publicfile@live5news.com - (843) 402-5555

FCC Applications

WCSC Careers

Closed Captioning/Audio Description

Advertising

Digital Marketing

At Gray, our journalists report, write, edit and produce the news content that informs the communities we serve. Click here to learn more about our approach to artificial intelligence.

A Gray Local Media Station © 2002-2024

JAMES ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - Some James Island residents are concerned with the amount of litter they have been seeing along their roadways.

Recently one resident, Christine Kitch posted pictures of debris along Harbor View Road on James Island on an app called Nextdoor, a social media app for neighborhoods, which got many other residents’ attention.

Kitch says one day this week she saw crews on Harbor View Road setting up to perform maintenance such as mowing and weed whacking.

The following day she says all of the trash had been mown over and was in pieces. Kitsch says when she went to pick up the trash by hand it ended up being 800 pieces total, 357 of which was plastic.

“People have been outraged on the app about this post and it’s not shocking to see that because when you see your whole entryway to your neighborhood and city trashed like that it looked like a large rat came through, chewed everything up, and deposited it back out. It looks disgusting,” she says.

Kitch expressed her concern about the wildlife and marshes that this impacts.

The Woodland Shores Road coalition founder Adam Friend also says he worries about the debris getting into the marshes. He says he’d like to see better clean-up efforts from the South Carolina Department of Transportation and citizens properly disposing of their garbage.

“Even worse when you have a lawn mower service that’s being paid for by SCDOT to just not pick it up before they run it over and chop it into millions of pieces which makes it a lot easier to be traveled over into the marshes and water and habitat,” he says.

Friend says that it would be helpful if citizens knew ahead of time when crews would be mowing so that they could pick up the trash beforehand instead of it getting mowed over and making it harder to clean.

Kitch says she first noticed that trash was an issue in her community after going on a lot of walks. She says she started carrying a big bag with her every time she would go on a walk and pick up the trash herself. Kitsch says sometimes she would spend an hour or so doing bigger pickups, meaning around 300 to 500 pieces of litter.

She says for the last two years she has been using an app called Anecdata through the South Carolina Aquarium to track every piece of trash that she has picked up.

“I’ve been tracking every single little pickup I’ve been doing and because my kids went to school in the past two years I have actually been doing it pretty much daily throughout the week collecting these little pickups,” she says.

Kitch says she’s been thinking about the right time to bring this issue to the public because she didn’t want to bring it up with minimal data. She says that she doesn’t expect every person to track the amount of litter they pick up, but that in this situation the data she has collected is important in trying to see change.

A spokesperson for SCDOT provided the following statement:

SCDOT encourages members of the public to report any issue on a state-maintained road to us directly at 855-467-2368 or they can submit a maintenance work request on our website.

We have also let our local maintenance crew know of the issue.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

JOHNS ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - Members of the Johns Island community could be looking at the construction of a second hotel and living space.

New Leaf Builders is requesting to build JUBILEE on the corner of Maybank Highway and Wildts Battery Boulevard. The development would take up 13.3 acres.

The City of Charleston passed the plans through in a 7-0 vote on July 19. It is the latest in a series of conversations involving development on Johns Island.

Rich Thomas has lived on Johns Island for 16 years and says it is hard to recognize the lay of the land.

“The city and county have not paid any attention whatsoever to how Maybank and Johns Island in general can handle these developments,” Thomas says. “When you add up 100 housing units, commercial restaurants and things, it turns into a huge problem.”

Councilman Jim McBride says the development is classified as a Planned Unit Development, or PUD, meaning fewer units will go on the property than originally thought.

Developers say they intend to create a “vibrant, human-scaled, pedestrian-friendly community” and “transform neglected and underutilized natural resources into a beautiful hospitality village destination.”

The area is considered a central location for future public transit and connectivity. McBride says it would help to support the island’s future fire station and Trident hospital.

The plans fit the mold for a mixed-use residential office and low-density residential district. JUBILEE would become a spot for 140 families total, split into 75 hotel rooms and 65 residential cottages.

It is unclear how much each unit will cost or how much it will be to build the complex.

Each building would sit at a height of either three or four stories.

Darcy Whalen lived on Johns Island for six years but now resides across the Stono River in James Island.

Out her window, she still sees the impacts of traffic and growth bleeding into her community.

“Infrastructure is huge. We’re a little backwards, that we should’ve had that first before these things were approved,” Whalen says. “I don’t begrudge getting a hotel. There are a lot of people coming onto Johns Island and Seabrook. I think we have been done a disservice.”

Developers emphasized that Charleston has doubled in population since the 1970s. They claim the Charleston City Plan to develop the area over the next 10 years fits within their plans to build up Johns Island.

Charleston County Council will tentatively vote on the project on August 30.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

Traffic. Charleston is awash with it, and the same people who created the problem now want to put a new road through your front yard or your front door in order to fix it.

“You can just move,” they say. They are wrong. We live here.

Plato opined in 400 B.C., "The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." However, no love interest ever whispered, “You had me at the latest traffic study.” It is boring.

I am not indifferent. I live here. Johns Island requires a new comprehensive plan (Main, River, Brownswood, Maybank, Bohicket, Edenvale) that includes the needs of James Island, West Ashley and Red Top. Whether you are Finish 526, Nix 526, Fix Our Roads First or something entirely different, we need fresh ideas.

We have them in the form of Rational Roads, Johns Island Advocate, Charleston City Councilman Jim McBride, Charleston Mayor William Cogswell, Charleston County Councilman Joe Boykin, Coastal Conservation League and Lowcountry Land Trust. It’s a new day.

We also have thousands of residents who have been mocked, underrepresented and silenced by a system that is flush with cash and politically connected. The “destroyers” in this system cite hurricanes and killer grand oaks as the reasons we should suffer instead of them.

What we don’t need are outdated traffic models, bureaucrats or anonymous sources saying that we should have “the moral rectitude to take the few steps necessary to remedy this existential threat" and that "the preservation of a few trees is much more important than peoples’ lives” and throw-away phrases such as “Developers gonna develop,” as metro columnist Brian Hicks wrote in his June 30 column.

Charleston’s City and County councils, the S.C. Department of Transportation, Mayors Joe Riley and John Tecklenburg, the Chamber of Commerce and their lackeys have sold out Charleston and made millions for Centex, Pulte, Toll Brothers, Kiawah et al., while proposing to bulldoze the property of folks who can’t fight back. The median price for a home on Kiawah in May was more than $4 million.

The county's proposed improvement to Segment C of the Main and Bohicket corridor would cut through acres of pristine wetlands in a highly sensitive area of Bohicket Creek, through the natural buffer of four protected conservation easements, destroy private homes and businesses and threaten the groundwater surrounding the Angel Oak while, according to its own studies, only modestly improving traffic flow.

Safety was not mentioned in the public handout provided at the public meeting in May.

Don’t be fooled. This is not about you. This is about money.

Andrew Geer, M.D., is a Johns Island resident.

Arguably, the best defensive line in the state for the 2024 high school football season plays at James Island Charter High School.

At the very least, the foursome that comprise the Trojans first line of defense is the best unit in the Lowcountry. Coach Jamar McKoy has three returning starters and added an impressive transfer to complete the lineup. He said the defensive line will be the strength of his team.

“Their experience and ability are off the charts, and we definitely expect them to carry the way this season,” said McKoy, who has led the program to 23 wins over the last two seasons.

Anchoring that line is the area’s top defensive line performer, senior end Hendrix Beran. The 6-3, 245-pound Beran will be a third-year starter this fall and already has verbally committed to Army for his future football plans.

Last season, Beran earned first-team All-Lowcountry and AAAA all-state honors after posting 70 tackles and 18 tackles for loss. Beran said the defensive line has great chemistry.

“As a unit, we pride ourselves on being the hardest workers on the field,” he said. “We are like brothers, but we hold each other accountable. We hold each other to a high standard, and we’re not afraid to get on each other, to push each other. We have a lot of trust in each other, and as long as each of us does their job, we will be successful.”

Of his decision to end his recruiting early and commit to Army, Beran said “my visit was amazing, unlike anything I’ve seen. And the opportunity to set myself up for life after football was a big thing. I am honored to have this opportunity.”

Beran joins another local star defensive lineman, Oceanside Collegiate’s Ben Britton, as West Point commitments. Britton is set to begin his freshman year this fall.

Story continues below

Joining Beran on the front are senior returners Malachi Jefferson (6-0, 270) and Dalton Woodall (6-3, 290). Adding to the mix this season is Tresean White (6-2, 220), a transfer from St. John’s. McKoy feels all three will have an opportunity to play college football.

Oceanside Collegiate returns two key players on its defensive line in juniors Mike Jones and Sawyer Arnold. Jones holds an offer from The Citadel, and Arnold was a Class AA all-state selection after recording 14 sacks last season.

Northwood Academy’s defensive line is among the best in the SCISA ranks with returners Gabe Roper, Will Watts and Edward White. All three tallied more than 90 tackles last season, combining for 68 tackles for loss.

Summerville’s Yasir White has moved from tight end to the defensive line and is attracting college attention for his quickness and athleticism.

Hanahan’s Antwain Mitchell and Kalani Roberts are returning starters for the Hawks, while Jackson Edwards returns as a key cog on the Lucy Beckham defense.

Two of the top ends are Fort Dorchester’s Malachi Watson and West Ashley’s Davion Kinard, both third-year starters on the Class AAAAA level.

One of the top nose guards in the area is Stratford’s Otis Gardner, a fourth-year starter with a 385-pound bench press.

Juniors Jayquan Shephard and Michael Garnett will anchor the front at Philip Simmons.

Disclaimer: Bandwagoning is not a ranking of the best or worst teams, the biggest wins or worst losses. It’s instead an inexact assessment of the emotions experienced by various fan bases following their most recent game. There is nothing scientific about this. Nothing.

JUMPING ON: The U is back, at least for one week! The Hurricanes did indeed look a lot like the Miami teams of old during their 41-17 win at Florida.

Florida State's Week 0 loss to Georgia Tech and Clemson's presumed, and realized, struggles against No. 1 Georgia enhanced Miami's perception in the ACC. It responded by dominating all aspects of the game against the Gators, resembling the front-to-back model that Mario Cristobal said he wanted when he took over in December 2021.

Miami quarterback Cam Ward validated the proposition that he was the transfer portal’s biggest fish: He completed 26 of 35 passes for 385 yards, three touchdowns and an interception.

By contrast, Florida produced only 261 yards, was 1 of 9 on third downs and couldn’t stop Miami on the ground or through the air. Yet, no matter how bad it looked, Florida is incredibly a long way from hitting rock bottom. Games with the likes of Tennessee, Georgia, Ole Miss and Texas still loom ahead.

JUMPING OFF: Nobody had positive expectations for Florida. But as for Virginia Tech? Its 34-27 overtime loss at Vanderbilt once again proved why the ACC can’t have nice things.

The Hokies, with 19 of 22 starters back (including all 11 on defense), were getting lots of love as a sexy pick to make the new, 12-team College Football Playoff. Vanderbilt came in 9-27 during Clark Lea’s three seasons as coach and was the preseason pick to finish last in the SEC.