Family Photographer in Daniel Island, SC

These are the issues coming before various City of Charleston boards and committees and the application results specific to Daniel Island and the Cainhoy area.

City of Charleston Technical Review Committee

Aug. 18: A site plan for Governor’s Cay – The Point Amenity (third review) at 808 Kings Oak Court in Cainhoy for a 8.06 acre space for a pool, pavilion and bathrooms to serve existing townhome community.

Aug. 18: Road construction plans for Seven Farms Drive and Haswell Street (first review) on Daniel Island for a 7.88 acre road construction plan for 20-lot single-family residential development.

Aug. 18: Road construction plans for Ship Builder Street (third review) on Daniel Island for a 40.90 acre major subdivision to include a 31-lot single-family residential development.

Aug. 18: A site plan for an early site package on Cainhoy with multiple addresses (pre-app) to include 11.3 acres of tree removal, clearing of vegetation and rough grading.

Aug. 18: A site plan for Woodfield Point Hope 4 on Clements Ferry Road at Beach Hill Drive (pre-app) in Cainhoy for 21.9 acres of new development consisting of 384 multifamily units and a 25,000-square-foot retail building.

Aug. 18: A site plan at 2815 Clements Ferry Road (first review) in Cainhoy for a 7.28 acre multifamily development with 260 residential units.

Aug. 18: A site plan at 1888 Clements Ferry Road (pre-app) in Cainhoy for a 2.41 acre commercial warehouse with associated infrastructure.

Aug. 16: A request for special exception to use the site for outdoor laydown yard equipment storage on Jack Primus Road for proposed Dominion Electric operations.

Aug. 16: A request for special exception to allow for a mini-warehouse self-storage facility on Clements Ferry Road.

Berkeley Co. Bd. of Education meets twice each month. Executive Committee meets at 5:30 p.m.; meeting starts at 6:30 p.m.

Berkeley Co. Council meets 4th Mon. of each month, 6 p.m., Berkeley County Admin. Blg., 1003 Hwy 52, Moncks Corner.

City of Charleston Council typically meets the 2nd and 4th Tues. of each month, 5 p.m., City Hall, 80 Broad Street, Charleston, SC and/or virtually via Conference Call #1-929-205-6099; Access Code: 912 096 416. Exceptions: Summer Schedule - 3rd Tues. of June, July, and August; December meetings on the 1st and 3rd Tues. Dates and locations subject to change.

City of Charleston Technical Review Committee meets every Thurs. at 9 a.m. via Zoom.

City of Charleston Board of Zoning Appeals – Site Design meets the 1st Wed. of each month at 5 p.m. via Zoom.

City of Charleston Board of Zoning Appeals – Zoning meets the 1st and 3rd Tues. of each month at 5:15 p.m., except for January and July when no meeting is held on the 1st Tues.

City of Charleston Design Review Board meets the 1st and 3rd Mon. of every month at 4:30 p.m.

City of Charleston Planning Commission meets the 3rd Wed. of every month at 5 p.m.

City of Charleston Board of Architectural Review – Large projects meets the 2nd and 4th Wed. of every month at 4:30 p.m.

City of Charleston Board of Architectural Review – Small projects meets the 2nd and 4th Thurs. of every month at 4:30 p.m.

All meetings are open for public comment except the City of Charleston Technical Review Committee meetings.

For more information, contacts for specific projects and on location and time of the meetings or to learn more, visit charleston-sc.gov/AgendaCenter/.

The commute time to and from Daniel Island is solely impacted by the traffic buildup along I-526. The major thoroughfare may become less congested in the years to come pending the improvements of the Long Point Road interchange near the Wando Terminal in Mount Pleasant.

On Aug. 2, South Carolina Department of Transportation personnel held a public information meeting at the R.L. Jones Center in Mount Pleasant to discuss a component of the Lowcountry Corridor East project. Although the unfunded $2-$4 billion, four-lane widening on I-526 isn’t slated to take place for another 10 years from now, the $165 million construction on the Long Point Road interchange is funded and is expected to begin by the spring or summer of 2024.

SCDOT deems the current Long Point Road and I-526 interchange configuration is deficient because it does not have the capacity to accommodate the forecasted 2050 traffic as outlined in the Planning and Environmental Linkages Study that was updated in July. The following modifications are recommended to accommodate future traffic demand:

• An additional lane along the I-526 westbound on-ramp from Long Point Road.

• An additional lane along the I-526 eastbound off-ramp to Long Point Road.

• An additional left-turn lane along the I-526 eastbound off-ramp approach of the intersection of Long Point Road and I-526 eastbound off-ramp.

• An additional northeast through-lane along Long Point Road beginning as a receiving lane for the left turns from the I-526 eastbound off-ramp and continuing towards the intersection with the I-526 westbound on-ramp.

Two of the four proposed alternatives include new ramps from the Wando Terminal that would connect to the truck climbing lanes on the Wando River Bridge. This bypass is expected to greatly improve the commuter flow of traffic all the way from Long Point Road to Daniel Island.

“If we were able to do that it will provide some significant congestion relief in that immediate area and probably would be a benefit to Daniel Island,” said I-526 Lowcountry Corridor Project Director Joy Riley.

Riley noted that the only other changes impacting the Wando River Bridge would be restriping to connect to the truck climbing lines. SCDOT did perform a safety analysis several years ago for the existing truck climbing lanes on the Don Holt and Wando Bridges and concluded that it was safer to leave the existing truck climbing lanes in operation rather than closing them to decrease the number of accidents. The average daily traffic from Daniel Island to Long Point Road was approximately 78,000 motorists in 2017, according to SCDOT. If there was no build out or mitigation by 2050, a projected 131,000 motorists would frequent the same stretch of road daily – a 69% growth rate.

SCDOT will present their preferred solution at a public hearing before the end of this year in order to get environmental approval in early 2023. The project’s NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) compliance is estimated to take up to 12 months and the design and construction is estimated to take up to 32 months.

SCDOT is accepting online public comments at 526CCLongPoint.com until Sept. 1. To view the latest I-526 Lowcountry Corridor East PEL Study, visit 526lowcountrycorridor.com/east/pel/.

The good news, if you are Bishop England High School football coach John Cantey, is that interest in the Battling Bishops football program is almost at the breaking point.

The coach is in charge of the varsity and junior varsity programs and there are more than 100 players ready to do battle for BE. The junior varsity team boasts some ultra-impressive numbers with 60 players on the roster.

“It’s great to see so many players come out,” said Cantey, whose team opens the season Aug. 26 against rival Porter-Gaud. “Interest in the program is very, very high, and that’s great to see. The numbers indicate we are getting back to normal.”

Back to normal, as in before COVID-19 shut down almost every facet of life as we knew it in the first quarter of 2020. Most coaches, including Cantey, were ready to put the pandemic behind them.

But if you’ve tried to order a refrigerator in the past two years or if you’ve tried to purchase an automobile or even a new home, you know about the supply chain issues that are a lingering byproduct of the pandemic.

With the high school football season right around the corner, coaches across the country are scrambling to find helmets for players because some of the helmet manufacturers such as Schutt and Riddell are behind schedule in filling orders for new helmets and returning reconditioned helmets.

And that includes Cantey, who has resorted to finding helmets via Facebook.

“So, we have almost 60 JV football players, we average about 35, and we ran out of helmets,” Cantey posted on Facebook. “Looking for football helmets that are less than 10 years old. Thanks.”

The team’s football helmet supplier, Riddell, ran out of football helmets in May and doesn’t expect to fill new or past-due orders until October.

While the varsity team is good to go as far as helmets are concerned, it’s the junior varsity team, and its players, that might feel the brunt of the helmet shortage.

“We’ve got a lot of new players in the program who are eager to play football,” Cantey said. “But if we don’t get helmets until October, that means they can’t play in games. They can’t practice or play without helmets. We’ve had even more kids express interest in playing junior varsity in the last couple of weeks, but we can’t let kids come out for football at this stage of the season if they don’t have a football helmet.”

Cantey said a typical new football helmet costs $300-$400 and has a lifespan of approximately 10 years. The team has about 115 helmets on hand, but the only ones available are the extra-large size, meaning the helmets are too big for most junior varsity players’ heads.

The helmet shortages come at a time schools are trying to boost sports participation levels and jumpstart interest in lower level teams after dealing with two years of COVID-19 issues.

Football helmets aren’t the only piece of football equipment that are hard to find. Shoulder pads and other equipment can also be hard to get and could potentially affect youth leagues this fall.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has declared August as “Tree Check Month” for the Asian longhorned beetle (ALB). USDA and its partners are asking residents of South Carolina, particularly Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties, to check their trees for this invasive insect and the damage it causes. August is a critical time of year to look for the ALB because it’s when people are most likely to see adult beetles.

“Checking trees for the pest and the damage it causes is how you can help us eliminate the beetle from the United States, and protect more trees,” said Josie Ryan, APHIS’ National Operations Manager for the ALB Eradication Program. “The sooner we know where the insect is, the sooner we can stop its spread.”

USDA and its partners are working to eradicate the tree-killing beetle. ALB was found most recently in South Carolina, when a homeowner reported finding a beetle in their backyard in 2020, leading USDA and Clemson University’s Department of Plant Industry to discover an active infestation. Since all states have trees ALB attacks, unknown infestations could exist elsewhere in the U.S.

The ALB is an invasive wood-boring beetle that attacks 12 types of hardwood trees in North America, such as maples, elms, buckeyes, birches, and willows. Infested trees do not recover and eventually die. Infested trees also become safety hazards since branches can drop and trees can fall over, especially during storms. In its larval stage, the insect feeds inside tree trunks and branches, creating tunnels as it feeds, then adults chew their way out in the warmer months, leaving about 3/4-inch round exit holes.

The adult beetle has distinctive markings that are easy to recognize:

Signs that a tree might be infested include:

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

The public has a vital role in helping to stop the spread of the ALB and eliminating it from infested areas.

Report it: If you think you found a beetle or tree damage, report it by calling the ALB hotline at 1-866-702-9938 or submitting an online report at www.AsianLonghornedBeetle.com. Try to photograph the ALB or tree damage. If you can, capture the beetle in a durable container and freeze it, which helps preserve the insect for identification. Then report it.

Reduce spread: If you live in an ALB quarantine area, please keep the tree-killing pest from spreading. Follow state and federal laws, which restrict the movement of woody material and untreated firewood that could be infested.

It is possible to eradicate ALB. USDA and its partners eradicated the insect from Illinois, Boston, Massachusetts, New Jersey and portions of New York and Ohio.

For more information about the ALB and the eradication efforts, visit www.AsianLonghornedBeetle.com. For local inquiries or to speak to your USDA State Plant Health Director, call 1-866-702-9938.

Dr. Eddie Collins is one of the biggest Bishop England High School sports fans around. But you won’t find him applauding at Battling Bishops sporting events.

That’s because the 74-year-old Collins is busy and has his hands full with camera equipment, taking pictures of BE players and sporting moments for posterity’s sake. It harkens him back to the time when he was a photographer and sports editor of his high school yearbook at A.C. Flora High School in Columbia.

Collins had a successful career in the dental profession after graduating from Clemson in 1970 and from the College of Dental Medicine at MUSC in 1973. He retired from active teaching in 2015, but retains his 48-year faculty appointment at the rank of professor emeritus.

That was his vocation. His avocation became Bishop England sports. First as a fan, then as a photographer.

“I became hopelessly and pleasantly hooked on BE about 10 years ago,” Collins said. “(Athletic Director) Paul Runey’s oldest brother, Michael, and I were in dental school together and became close friends. Knowing I loved sports, he suggested I attend one of Paul’s basketball games and the rest is history. Paul and I are good friends. He started calling me ‘Doc’ years ago and it seems to have stuck with the teams, parents and staff.”

While Collins loved sports while he was in high school, he didn’t play them. He was more of a “water and woods man” because of his passion for fishing and hunting.

Still, he had the time and interest to become a valued volunteer at BE because of his photography skills.

“My traditional allegiance has been to the girl’s basketball and volleyball teams,” Collins said “I’ve missed only three basketball games in 10 years and very few volleyball matches. I travel with both of the teams and take a ton of pictures. Jeep McCabe is a good friend and he’s helped me a lot with the technical aspects of sports photography.

“This year I was asked by a parent to take lacrosse team photos and Coach Jeff Weiner was very receptive to my taking photos during the games,” Collins said. “I think, of the three, lacrosse is the hardest sport to capture good photos. Quite honestly, I got hooked on the team’s spirit, talent and domination.”

Collins said he can’t remember the reasons for missing any of the three basketball games in 10 years.

“It wasn’t by choice,” Collins said. “It would have been an unavoidable situation.”

Collins’ biggest memories came at the end of the season when it only seemed like the girls’ basketball team or volleyball team would play for a state championship.

“I saw them all,” Collins said. “I went to every one and it was a thrill just to be there.”

Collins also remembers fondly all the state titles collected by the volleyball team. Another big memory involved Collins arranging for coach Cindy Baggott’s team to take part in a St. Patrick’s Day parade by securing a trailer for the float.

Ask Collins who his favorite BE players he’s covered and he’ll respond, Michelle Boykin and Mary Harriet Moore without even hesitating. He pointed out that both players had talent and mettle, which helped them be successful outside the athletic arena.