Hilton Head Monthly Voice Voice of the Lowcountry Beaufort County Administrator Ashley Jacobs resigned at the Oct. 19 County Council meeting.
The Island Packet reports the council accepted her resignation in an 8-2-1 vote. Jacobs had been administrator since 2019.
Eric Greenway was named acting county administrator.
The Beaufort County Board of Education approved construction contracts for the next two major projects funded with proceeds from the November 2019 bond referendum.
The board approved a $53 million contract with Kansas City-based JE Dunn Construction to build a new Robert Smalls International Academy and demolish the existing facility. It also approved a $46 million contract with Columbia-based M.B. Kahn Construction to completely renovate Battery Creek High School’s academic and athletic facilities, according to a news release.
Megan DeWeese, a first-grade teacher at Okatie Elementary, was named the Beaufort County 2020-2021 District Teacher of the Year.
“She is a perpetual learner; she has completed her doctoral studies over the last year,” Okatie Elementary Principal Jamie Pinckney said. “She’s only been at Okatie Elementary for five years and she’s already accomplished more in her five than I have in 39.”
QUIRK OF ‘DONUT HOLES’ POSE CHALLENGES
Here’s a fun exercise if you ever feel like breaking the law in the stupidest way possible: make your way up S.C. 46 as it winds away from Old Town toward Savannah with three sticks in your hand. As you travel, place the first of the sticks across Buck Island Road. Place the second stick across Haigler Boulevard and the third across Crooked Cove Lane.
Congratulations, you are now a renegade outlaw. Kind of.
Election Day: Nov. 3. Polls open 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.
Registration Deadlines: In-person, Oct. 2 by 5 p.m.; Online, fax, email, Oct. 4 by 11:59 p.m.; By mail, postmarked by Oct. 5.
LOCAL, COUNTY & STATE RACES
Local voters will help determine the outcome of a pair of races closely watched across the country on Nov. 3, as Sen. Lindsey Graham pushes to stave off Jaime Harrison. Congressman Joe Cunningham, who in 2018 became the first Democrat since 1981 to represent the 1st Congressional District, is trying to hold on to the seat in a contest with State Rep. Nancy Mace. Voters will also have a long list of state and local races to determine.
TCL CULINARY INSTITUTE RECEIVES $50,000 FROM PALMETTO ELECTRIC TRUST
The Technical College of the Lowcountry received a $50,000 gift from Palmetto Electric Trust to establish the Palmetto Electric Cooperative Lobby at the Culinary Institute of the South.
The Culinary Institute of the South is under construction at the Buckwalter Place Commerce Park in Bluffton. The 29,000 square-foot best-in-class culinary training facility will accommodate more than 300 student. The Foodseum, an interactive museum, will preserve and bring to life the true story of Southern food.
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.”
A 1,000-acre agribusiness cluster in Hampton County will employ more than 1,500 people, according to a news release.
The jobs will be in growing, packing and shipping tomatoes, leafy greens, blueberries and other fresh produce using a “cutting-edge” approach called Controlled Environment Agriculture.
The Beaufort County School District is set to resume face-to-face educational instruction in a hybrid model starting Oct. 5. Superintendent Frank Rodriguez said the district’s risk factors for COVID-19 published by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control had decreased significantly in recent weeks.
In a hybrid AA-BB model, half of the students who registered for face-to-face instruction will attend school on Monday and Tuesday and the other half will attend on Thursday and Friday. Students will have virtual learning on Wednesdays when the school is cleaned.
South Carolina and the state’s health department has sued Able Contracting after it said it spent $5 million to clean up the massive pile of trash that burned and smoldered for months, according to the Associated Press.
It took the state Department of Health and Environmental Control and the federal Environmental Protection Agency six months to completely extinguish the fire and clean the site in Jasper County, according to the report.
With the website wealreadypay.org, the Town of Hilton Head aims to update property owners on the ordinance passed by Beaufort County to impose a law enforcement charge and uniform user fee on island residents and business owners.
The town has filed an injunction with the state Supreme Court requesting that it prevent Beaufort County from adding the fee to island residents and said it filed a lawsuit against Beaufort County in the Beaufort County Court of Common Pleas.
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 University of South Carolina Beaufort is celebrating the success of Theodora (Tedi) Light, who is the first USCB student to receive a Fulbright Student Award. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program provides grants for individually designed study and research projects abroad. Light (Class of 2020, B.A. in History and Spanish) will spend five to seven months in Spain researching the enslavement of indigenous people along the coast of La Florida in the 16th century.
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