Hilton Head Monthly Voice Voice of the Lowcountry This year’s Christmas parade in Bluffton will be a socially distanced celebration. The town of Bluffton plans to host a “reverse” Christmas Parade on Dec. 5. The parade’s entrants will be stationary on May River Road as spectators drive by. Entrants will be positioned a minimum of 10 feet from each other and a safe distance from the traveling vehicles, the town said. No candy or promotional items may be distributed. The parade begins at 10 a.m.
The Bluffton Township Fire District has opened Station 38. The facility, its ninth fire station, is off Raider Drive and Hampton Parkway.
The building is Category 5 rated. It will be the district’s emergency operations center during natural disasters. The station was built for $3.4 million
Stephenie Price was sworn in last month as the Town of Bluffton’s police chief. She’s the first woman to lead Bluffton’s police department.
The ceremony was held at the Bluffton Police Department at Buckwalter Place. Price has more than 21 years of law enforcement experience. She was most recently assistant police chief with the Savannah Police Department. In Savannah, Price supervised the administration and management bureau of the department.
Stephenie Price has been named the new Bluffton Police Department Police Chief. Price, who serves as assistant chief of police for the Savannah Police Department, will begin her new role Oct. 12, a town news release said.
“Stephenie’s combined depth of law enforcement experience and knowledge of our region is why she is the perfect choice for Bluffton,” Bluffton Town Manager Marc Orlando said. “Throughout Stephenie’s career, she has built a strong reputation for responsiveness, accountability, and innovation.”
The Town of Bluffton has partnered with Bluffton Bike Taxi to offer free rides throughout the town’s historic district.
The rides are offered from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
The Bluffton Book Festival, which annually aims to raise literacy levels in the Southeast, has gone virtual this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a news release.
The festival’s fifth year will include 11 virtual events featuring bestselling authors. The event will move from its normal three-day schedule to a format with events taking place between Sept. 17 and Nov. 21.
The Lutzie 43K Virtual 5K, part of the Town of Bluffton’s distracted driving campaign, raised more than $4,700. Bluffton Mayor Lisa Sulka accepted checks from the Kiwanis Club of Bluffton and CrossFit843 for donations collected in conjunction with the event. The Kiwanis Club of Bluffton presented a check for $2,535, and CrossFit843 presented a check for $1,000. The Mike Hostilo Law Firm contributed to the overall donations by advertising and promoting the event.
St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church is in unincorporated Beaufort County, but it hopes to seek annexation into Bluffton. The property has a Bluffton address but is not in town limits. Church officials have made an annexation request to the Town of Bluffton. The property is located on U.S. 278 between the Buckwalter Parkway intersection and Bluffton Township Fire District Station 35.
The Town of Bluffton awarded a construction contract to Jordan Construction of Hilton Head, Inc., to install sanitary sewers on Pritchard Street. This first phase is comprised of installing 2,550 linear feet of main sewer lines and will service 25 properties with houses and four additional undeveloped lots. The $513,431 project is funded through stormwater utility fees of $225,930, a South Carolina Appropriation grant of $95,950 and a portion of the S.C. DHEC grant totaling $191,551 for this project.
Teachers and staff at Bluffton High School dusted off their stealth skills on April 9 and pulled a senior prank. But in this role reversal, the surprise was for their students.
Over the course of a day, the adults put up signs in the front yards of the school’s 233 seniors in a mostly covert operation.
