Wedding & Event Venue Near York, SC.

These Covid tracking pages are no longer being updated. Get the latest information from the Centers for Disease Control, or find archived data from The Times’s three year reporting effort here.

Daily Covid-19 admissions in the York County area

About the data

Data is from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hospitalization data is a daily average of Covid-19 patients in hospital service areas that intersect with York County, an area which may be larger than York County itself.

The number of daily hospital admissions shows how many patients were admitted to hospitals for Covid and is one of the most reliably reported indicators of Covid’s impact on a community.

Total population

Ages 65 and up

Total population

Ages 65 and up

An updated vaccine is recommended for adults and most children. Statewide, 7% of vaccinations did not specify a home county.

Nearby hospitals

Share of I.C.U. beds occupied

About this data Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Notes: The hospitals map shows the average I.C.U. occupancy at nearby hospitals in the most recent week with data reported. The data is self-reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by individual hospitals. It excludes counts from hospitals operated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Indian Health Service. Numbers for hospitalized patients are based on inpatient beds and include I.C.U. beds. Hospitalized Covid-19 patients include both confirmed and suspected Covid-19 patients. The C.D.C. stopped reporting data on cases in May 2023.

How trends have changed in York County

About this data Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Notes: Weekly county death data prior to Jan. 2021 was not reported by the C.D.C. and is sourced from reporting by The New York Times. Hospitalization data is a weekly average of Covid-19 patients in hospital service areas that intersect with York County. Hospitalization numbers early in the pandemic are undercounts due to incomplete reporting by hospitals to the federal government.

Historical trends in York County

The data in these charts has been archived and they are no longer being updated.

About this data Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The data in these charts has been archived and they are no longer being updated. Weekly county case data prior to Jan. 2021 was not reported by the C.D.C. and is sourced from reporting by The New York Times. The C.D.C. stopped reporting data on cases in May 2023. Test positivity data is based only on test results reported to the federal government and is a seven-day average.

By Jon Huang, Samuel Jacoby, Jasmine C. Lee, John-Michael Murphy, Charlie Smart and Albert Sun. Additional reporting by Sarah Cahalan, Lisa Waananen Jones, Amy Schoenfeld Walker and Josh Williams. See a full list of contributors to The Times’s Covid-19 data reporting here.

About the data

Data on this page is reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Population and demographic data is from the U.S. Census Bureau. Hospitalization data is reported by individual hospitals to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and it includes confirmed and suspected adult and pediatric patients. The C.D.C. does not provide complete vaccinations data for some counties and caps its vaccination rate figures at 95 percent.

The C.D.C. may make historical updates as more data is reported.

The C.D.C. stopped reporting data on Covid cases in May 2023.

A York County pizza place with almost 30 years of serving customers is expanding for the first time.

Lake Wylie Pizza & Italian Restaurant posted on its Facebook page that a new spot is coming soon in York. The 1075 Filbert Hwy. space is in the Food Lion-anchored shopping center at the U.S. 321 and S.C. 5 intersection, the former address of R&B Pub House and 321 Crossroads.

Lake Wylie Pizza opened in 1995, just off S.C. 49 on the South Carolina side of Buster Boyd Bridge, at 4074 Charlotte Hwy. It’s close to River Hills and other neighborhoods on the peninsula as well as the Steele Creek area of Charlotte.

The menu has pizza, calzone, stromboli and pasta dishes. Lake Wylie Pizza also serves sub sandwiches, burgers, chicken wings, salads and desserts.

About Lake Wylie Pizza

The Lake Wylie restaurant opens at 11 a.m. weekdays and at 8 a.m. on weekends. A breakfast and brunch menu on weekends includes omelets, waffles, French toast and meat-and-egg plates. The restaurant closes at 9 p.m. daily.

In December, Lake Wylie Pizza owner Huseyin Yem was named business person of the year for 2023 by the Lake Wylie Chamber of Commerce.

“Yem has hired, trained and mentored literally scores of young people through the years that have blossomed and gone on to have careers in the food and beverage industry,” said chamber President Susan Bromfield.

The Lake Wylie restaurant is a go-to gathering spot for weekend breakfasts and family nights out, she said.

“We look forward to supporting the new location, too,” Bromfield said.

Visit York County lists 44 restaurants under its pizza tab, with less than half of them being large chains like Domino’s, Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, Little Caesar’s or Cici’s. Most are single-shop eateries, or they have a few locations in the region.

Tony’s Pizza and Italian Restaurant is the only non-chain pizza place listed with a York address. York does have a Domino’s and a Pizza Hut.

This story was originally published January 22, 2024, 12:47 PM.

York County will add a new spot for fishing, disc golf and hiking in one of its busiest areas for public recreation.

The York County Council approved a concept plan for the 60-acre Thistle Park. The site near the old Five Points intersection in Lake Wylie, includes a large pond and three streams that run through the width of it. The property also reaches to state highway S.C. 55 on its northern point.

The plan shows three fishing banks and on the pond a non-motorized boat access area. The concept has three spots for disc golf, with two nearby the pond. A 3-acre dog park will have a water feature, fencing and punch code access for safety, with benches and wash stations.

Other added amenities include an open meadow and a separate nature-based play area. A gatehouse, ranger station, restrooms and picnic shelters are located along almost 3 miles of gravel, dirt or concrete trails.

Council didn’t give a timeline for when construction might begin or an open date. Those details will follow work by the county parks department and the Bethel-Lake Wylie Land Acquisition and Preservation Parks District.

The Lake Wylie area is a large part of the growing parks and recreation program in York County. There wasn’t a parks department when Lake Wylie voters opted to set up a special tax district as a condition to get Field Day Park, which opened in 2020. Later that year, Lake Wylie voters again chose to tax themselves to create the park district to buy and preserve property.

In 2021 the district bought four properties at more than 150 combined acres. It acquired the 87-acre Woodend Farm on S.C. 557 for $4.3 million, which now hosts public events. The almost 7-acre Goat Farm on S.C. 274, bought for $1.4 million, has farmers markets. The $1.9 million purchase of Thistle Park is the next step.

Apart from the park district, Allison Creek Park opened last fall in Lake Wylie. Nanny’s Mountain Historical Park is about a mile from Thistle Park. Even county parks that aren’t in Lake Wylie have connections to the lake. Long-time Ebenezer Park in Rock Hill is on Lake Wylie, while the coming Catawba Bend Preserve is just below the lake on the Catawba River.

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November 08, 2023 11:15 AM

This story was originally published February 9, 2024, 2:03 PM.

Heavy rain and gusty winds are expected to lash York, Chester, and Lancaster counties in South Carolina on Tuesday, with the possibility of thunderstorms and a tornado, according to the National Weather Service forecast and emergency officials.

The severe weather Tuesday has the chance of peaking during the afternoon commute, said Chuck Haynes, York County Emergency Management Director. Haynes urged anyone on the road Tuesday afternoon during severe weather to use extra caution.

“All day is expected to be rainy and windy, but there is a chance that the late afternoon hours could see the worst of it,” Haynes said Monday.

Rain forecasts for the Rock Hill area are from 1 to 2 inches with the possibility of more, according to the Weather Service. Winds are expected to be 20-30 miles per hour, with guts of 45 MPH, the forecast shows.

The area has a wind advisory and a flood watch for Tuesday. That means there’s a potential for flash flooding, according to the Weather Service.

All four York County school districts and the Lancaster County school district have switched to virtual school for Tuesday in preparation for the weather.

While the rain could be heavy, the wind is especially concerning for the roads, said Darren Player, emergency management director for Lancaster County.

A dynamic storm system will bring multiple weather hazards to our area tonight through Tue. Threat #1: Very heavy rainfall expected, with 2-4" for much of the area. 4-6" with locally higher amounts over the mountainous areas along the GA/SC/NC border. (1/4) #gawx #ncwx #scwx pic.twitter.com/ErFxSaqkmJ

— NWS GSP (@NWSGSP) January 8, 2024

The severe weather has the possibility of tornadoes, mainly south of Interstate 85, according to the Weather Service. I-85 skirts the western edge of York County.

“We are going to have breezy conditions in the morning then after lunch winds will be even higher,” Player said Monday afternoon. “Wind gusts that could reach 45 miles per hour are enough to buffet vehicles on the road.”

Both Haynes and Player said high winds combined with rain bring the possibility of downed trees and power lines.

“Drivers need to be aware of debris on the road,” Player said.

This story was originally published January 8, 2024, 3:50 PM.

A South Carolina home builder accused of taking millions from 20 families on unfinished homes near Lake Wylie asked a York County judge last week to drop his $1 million bond.

But Judge Dan Hall didn’t lower Christian Joseph Novellino’s bail — he canceled the bond instead.

Prosecutors say for years Novellino orchestrated a $2.4 million scheme to take money without finishing homes on the same properties the home builder sold twice on three occasions, Judge Hall told a packed courtroom at the Moss Justice Center on Feb. 22.

Present were families who allegedly lost as much as a $200,000 or more.

“There is a lot of money involved,” Hall said. “I am going to revoke all bonds ...The business model that has been presented is a danger to the community.”

Novellino, 49, of Clover, has been in jail for almost three months since charges were filed. After more people came forward at the end of 2023, he faced 20 charges from alleged frauds from the past few years. His bail originally was set by a lower court magistrate at $1 million — $50,000 per count.

Novellino had the legal right to ask a South Carolina Circuit Court judge to lower the amount.

More than 20 people who identified as victims stood in court late Thursday when 16th Circuit Solicitor Kevin Brackett asked them to be recognized. Most had invested in property near Lake Wylie where they had contracted with Novellino, Brackett said.

The area near Charlotte is one of the fastest-growing in South Carolina.

“These are people whose lives have been devastated,” Brackett told Judge Hall. “Their lives are shattered.”

Novellino took people’s money to build houses where little or no work was done, Brackett said. Amounts range from around $50,000 to over $200,000 in the 20 cases, according to Brackett and arrest warrants in the cases obtained by The Herald.

The 20 charges total $2,440,311.37 in lost money, arrest warrants show.

Most victims will likely will never see the money they gave Novellino to build dream homes, Brackett said.

Brackett read the property addresses from the arrest warrants in court so Judge Hall could hear that Novellino allegedly sold three of the properties twice.

More, investigators and forensic accountants from the FBI and York County Sheriff’s Office have not been able to find the $2.4 million that Novellino took as deposits, Brackett said.

The money could be offshore in banks or even buried in the ground waiting to be unearthed, Brackett said

“We have concerns about him getting out and accessing the money,” Brackett said. “The money evaporated — it went up in smoke.”

Novellino has felony convictions from a decade ago for a similar scheme in which he received probation, Brackett said. The current charges carry up to 10 years in prison for each conviction under South Carolina law.

Burton Carey, who says he’s a victim, was asked by others deceived to speak on their behalf about concerns Novellino could flee if released, he told Judge Hall.

Novellino has not been convicted of any charge against him on the 20 current cases. During a December hearing, Novellino denied the allegations.

His lawyer, John Mussetto of Greenville, said in court Novellino “did not pocket the money,” and denies wrongdoing.

Mussetto claimed Novellino would take a deposit from clients, and use most of the money to buy the land, then use money for construction preparation.

“He is a bad businessman, yes, but was only paid when a project closed,” Mussetto said. “He had no intent to take these people’s money.

Mussetto argued Novellino is neither a flight risk nor a danger to the public if freed on bail, adding that there is “no tin can buried in the yard” with the money.

Novellino remains in the York County jail pending trial. No date has been set.

The cases have not yet been presented to a York County grand jury for indictments, Brackett said. Prosecutors must have indictments for any cases to go to trial.

This story was originally published February 26, 2024, 1:54 PM.

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