Wedding & Event Venue Near Anderson, SC.

The Anderson Area YMCA raised private money, obtained foundation grant money, and held fundraisers to pay for the expansion and renovations of the Ducworth Tucker Sports Complex.

The price tag for the renovations and expansions was $11.8 million, said Joe Drennon, CEO of the Anderson Area YMCA.

Fundraising for renovations began in 2019, construction began in 2021 and it took three years to complete, he said.

The Anderson Area YMCA is hosting a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the park at 9 a.m. Saturday, April 13.

"This complex will help build up the next generation of Anderson County through youth sports programs," Drennon said. "It's also a tremendous economic development tool for Anderson County to bring outside sports teams in to play in weekend tournaments."

Anderson Mayor Terrance Roberts said the YMCA Sports Park is important to residents.

"I coached my children on the very fields of the YMCA Sports Park," he said. "This new space symbolizes endless possibilities for personal growth and community development. Through sports and teamwork, children and families alike will have the opportunity to cultivate valuable skills, form lasting relationships, and create cherished memories that will last a lifetime."

Ducworth Tucker Sports Complex history, upgrades

For more than 52 years, the Ducworth Tucker Sports Complex has been a prominent venue for sports programming, Drennon said.

From 1972 to 1999, the facility operated on 32 acres of land donated by the family of John Ducworth, Drennon said. In 2000, the family of John Tucker made three separate donations totaling 53 additional acres.

The sports complex now sits on 85 acres of land," Drennon said.

The complex will include a playground, four dedicated baseball fields, and five multipurpose fields. The fields can be used for soccer, football, T-ball, and lacrosse. The park also has places for businesses to play softball or host team-building exercises.

Ducworth Tucker Sports Complex and Anderson School District Five

Ducworth Tucker Sports Complex is home to Anderson School District Five's Cross-Country Program, which serves T.L. Hanna and Westside High School.

The district contributed $4.7 million for the state-of-the-art cross-country course, according to Kyle Newton, assistant superintendent of Anderson School District Five.

The new cross-country track tours through the woods and involves steep hills.

"Our cross-country teams run all over the state, but we never had a nice place in Anderson where they could run," Newton said. "Our teams used to run on Highway I-81, in town, around the campus, and down Jackson Street.

"With this new facility, they now have a dedicated place to run, helping get them off the streets and sidewalks," Newton said.

The facility is also open to the public.

Travis Rose covers Anderson County for the Independent Mail. Reach him via email at trose@gannett.com.

ANDERSON CO., S.C. (WSPA) — For years Anderson County has been looking at ways to improve the economic development.

“We’re expecting a banner year and economic development and a lot of growth, a lot of job opportunities and alot of new things for our citizens to do,” Rusty Burns, Anderson County Administrator.

Anderson County’s new year “to-do list” starts with the Historic Courthouse. Leaders said it will cost around $8 million for structural repairs.

“We need a new roof. We need to replace some of the timbers that are holding up the clock tower as well as repoint the bricks on the outside,” said Burns.

Burns said fixing the 125 year old building needs to happen now in hopes it will last another 125 years.

Starting the second week of January, crews will be in the attic by the bell tower.

“We paid off another bond so when we paid it off of that bond, that freed up some space for us to do the $8 million bond without any tax increase necessary,” said Burns.

Across the street from the old courthouse is what the county calls “the new courthouse” which is 32 years old.

In January, crews will begin minor updates like the replacing carpet.

“Both courthouses will get some love, the old courthouse will get the most love and as money becomes available we’ll be doing projects at the new courthouse,” said Burns.

Not only will the courthouses have upgrades, but so will the old Equinox Mill. The mass of rubble will be turned into townhomes and apartments.

“It’s our desire because there’s a housing shortage in Anderson. We want to work with people to put housing available in Anderson County and in all socioeconomic classes,” said Burns.

The county said they’ve also received a grant for “safe streets” for improvements to roads and bridges. This project will tap into another area of federal funding using a penny sales tax.

“County council’s already had two readings on the penny sales tax, which would bring in $49 million a year, we will have the third reading, the first meeting in January. It will be up to voters to decide if they want something to happen,” said Burns.

According to the county, a What-A-Burger will kick off its expansion into the upstate with 10 new restaurants, one coming to Anderson fall 2024.

ANDERSON, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - An investigation by FOX Carolina has uncovered Duke Energy knew rolling outages were a possibility nearly two years prior to a deadly winter storm yet failed to properly prepare a customer notification system ahead of time.

One Upstate family now claims the company was negligent because they waited too long to communicate with customers.

Rolling outages, or “load shedding,” are an emergency procedure utility companies can take to preserve the electric grid. It involves the utility company manually turning off power in certain areas for a short amount of time. They usually occur during periods of high-power demand.

Duke Energy Carolinas, the division of Duke Energy that serves the Upstate and Western North Carolina, says they were forced to start rolling outages on Christmas Eve 2022 because of the unusually cold temperatures brought on by a winter storm.

While the Carolinas did not see any snow or ice, the company blamed high customer demand over the holiday.

Over 500,000 people across the Carolinas lost power because of those outages. Nearly 100,000 of them lived in South Carolina.

“IF HE WOULD HAVE JUST KNOWN IN TIME”

Like 18,000 other South Carolinians, Tony Smith, who lived in Anderson County, relied on an oxygen tank that plugged into the wall. Smith, an always-prepared Eagle Scout, also had six portable tanks he could use in the event of an emergency.

On the day of the rolling outages, Tony’s son, Scott, noticed a missed call from his father at 9:30 a.m.

“I called him back, he didn’t answer, he didn’t answer, and there was a three-minute voicemail but it was just him mumbling,” said Scott.

By the time Scott was able to make it to his father’s home, it was too late. He found his 73-year-old father collapsed on the floor, just four feet away from his life-saving medical device.

Tony’s family filed a lawsuit on April 2, 2024, claiming Duke Energy was negligent in failing to adequately predict power demand and failing to provide any prior warning about the rolling outages.

“It’s been terrible for him to walk in and us to realize someone suffocated,” said Scott’s wife, Kelly Smith. “There was no reason for this to happen. He had plenty of oxygen, if he would’ve just known in time and been able to get to his other tanks.”

The lawsuit also claims Tony called Duke Energy’s outage hotline, a phone number the company operates with outage information. However, during the rolling outages, Duke Energy did not update the hotline until hours after the rolling outages began, and once the hotline was operational, it communicated inaccurate information about how long the outages would last.

The Smith’s lawsuit claims Tony likely heard that information.

Duke Energy has not yet responded to the complaint. A company spokesperson released the following statement to FOX Carolina:

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“RESTORATION WAS DELAYED”

South Carolina has two main agencies responsible for overseeing and inspecting utility companies: the Office of Regulatory Staff (ORS) and the Public Service Commission (PSC).

Following the events of Winter Storm Elliott, the Public Service Commission requested the Office of Regulatory Staff investigate Duke Energy’s actions.

The ORS published a report in August, citing multiple failures and errors in Duke Energy’s preparation leading up to Winter Storm Elliott and revealed equipment failures, human error, and software failures as causes for the outages.

The report identified five main causes:

The ORS report claims because the software system failed, “customer outages were extended and restoration was delayed.” The report says if the software had functioned properly, power to customers would have been restored sooner.

In a letter Duke Energy representatives wrote in response to the ORS report, the company pushed back against claims it did not adequately predict energy demand.

Duke Energy told the PSC that it predicts power demand with models based on previous weather events, and that a similar day “did not exist.”

But during our investigation, FOX Carolina obtained an internal memorandum sent to Duke Energy Corporation’s Board of Directors.

The memo details an assessment Duke Energy performed to evaluate how the company would respond to an extreme cold-weather event like what happened to the Texas electric grid in 2021.

The memo, dated May 6, 2021, reads in part: “resources are adequate … assets are available for normal peak season operation. However, modeling of extreme cold (10 degrees Fahrenheit colder than prior extremes) conducted for Duke Energy Progress and Duke Energy Carolinas indicated significant load-shedding may be necessary…”

In a filing dated March 7, 2024, Duke Energy told the Public Service Commission it has, “implemented outage alerts that are specific to rotational load shed [rolling outages] that replaces the standard outage alert messaging customers normally received. The Companies [Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress] plan to communicate these alerts via text, email or outbound call based on the customers’ preferences.”

FOX Carolina asked Duke Energy about why they did not have a notification system in place before the events of Christmas Eve 2022, when the board was warned in May 2021 rolling outages were a possibility.

FOX Carolina did not receive a response to our question about why the outage alerts were not in place earlier.

“I WANT TO SEE A HUGE CHANGE”

South Carolina has what’s called an Electric Bill of Rights. It details what utility customers are entitled to know. In it, it says “you have the right to contact the electrical utility at all hours in case of emergency or unscheduled interruptions in your electric service,” but nowhere in these requirements does it say a utility company is responsible for notifying customers.

We asked the Smith family what they want to see changed.

“I want to see a huge change made; to have a system that informs people,” said Kelly Smith. “They need to have legislation that there are reminders when other events happen, they inform customers. I feel like people have got to be notified like an amber alert, like a tornado warning. A better job has to be done to inform people, because so many people live on oxygen.”

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Applications for the two at-large positions to the Library Board of Trustees are now being accepted through April 24, 2024. CLICK HERE FOR APPLICATION

To Better Anderson has partnered with the Foothills Community Foundation to bring the Millennium Pegasus sculpture by artist Sandy Scott to downtown Anderson.

"We have done everything from our first project at Generator Park to Carolina Wrenz and Payton Alley," said Robert Rainey, a representative of the community group.

The sculpture has been installed on the site of the former Bailes Building in downtown Anderson. The official unveiling of the Pegasus will be Thursday, Nov. 9 at 11:30 a.m.

The Pegasus is expected to be in Anderson for three to four years, Rainey said.

"In two to three years, once some road construction is complete, the plan is for Pegasus to be relocated to Anderson University," he added.

Pegasus' purchase, transportation and installation was funded by To Better Anderson with private funds. Rainey said McDuffie Crane's transported the sculpture.

Anderson County provided the location, concrete slab and lighting for the current, temporary installation.

The bronze sculpture stands 12-feet-tall, has a wingspan of 14.5 feet and weighs approximately 3,000 pounds.

Pegasus was built in 1999, and until recently, it was on display in Denver. Artist Sandy Scott has a history in Anderson County. Scott's "Peace Fountain" is installed next to the J. Ross Anderson Building on the Anderson University campus.

Also, Scott recently sculpted a bronze Trojan warrior head that will be installed in the approach to the new athletic fieldhouse at Anderson University.

Travis Rose covers Anderson County for the Independent Mail. Reach him via email at trose@gannett.com.