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Circuit Court Judge Walton McLeod heard the motion filed on behalf of the Merriwether Community Coalition Jan. 17 but took the matter under advisement with the outstanding question being whether the coalition, if its motion were granted, would have a legal say in the outcome of mediation between Edgefield County and developer Blue Sky Properties or if the group would be limited to having an ear.

“I’m more interested in the end game, pretty much, when you all sit down,” McLeod said, underlining that it wasn’t a question of the coalition being privy to the proceedings but one of its possible role once admitted to the table.

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South Carolina statute allows for someone who has no ownership of property involved in such an appeal to "petition to intervene" in pre-litigation mediation. Such a motion, according to the statute, “must be granted if the person has a substantial interest in the decision of the board of appeals.”

This was the line that Emily Poole, of the South Carolina Environmental Law Project, which filed the motion on behalf of the coalition, took during the Jan. 17 hearing, iterating a position laid out in a memo filed earlier this month in support of the motion.

Poole said the Merriwether Coalition, with its founding purpose one of “preserving and protecting the rural character” of Edgefield County and of ensuring county infrastructure can support new development, met the requirements of the law.

Five Edgefield County citizens, three of whom have properties immediately backing onto the site of Blue Sky’s proposed Trestle Run subdivision, have declared their own concerns through written affidavits, each affiant writing about what they perceive will be the impact that 254 additional homes could have on that section of Edgefield County not far from Fox Creek High School.

Edgefield County “takes no position” on whether the coalition should be allowed to intervene, said John Grimes, who is representing the county in the appeal.

But the developer, Blue Sky, is strongly opposed and for reasons the developer’s own counsel said extend beyond this specific appeal to addressing what his client alleges are patterns in Edgefield County government.

“The problem we’re having is this is a consistent problem,” Kevin Pethick, counsel for Blue Sky, said during the Jan. 17 hearing.

In its response to the coalition’s motion to intervene, Blue Sky alleges there also is no grounds for the coalition to be involved — the interests of the coalition, according to this filing, are already represented, something that both federal and state judicial law accounts for, allowing for intervention “unless the applicant's interest is adequately represented by existing parties.”

All parties named in the appeal "have a common interest in preventing or restricting the Trestle Run Development from proceeding, since they were all involved in the process that rejected the development,” this response reads.

Further, this response continues, Edgefield County planning commissioner Rhonda Nowicki, as an administrator of the Merriwether Community Coalition, "is one of the primary authors and contributors of the content and emails that are distributed by MCC … It would not be credible to suggest that Rhonda’s presence in the litigation and/or mediation will not adequately represent MCC’s interests."

Blue Sky isn’t “here to get a pound of flesh,” Pethick said of his client. But Blue Sky is wanting “compensation for what they’ve lost at this point.”

“The problem that Edgefield County is having as a whole is they have a lot of un-zoned land,” Pethick said. “If you leave them un-zoned, then they’re basically unrestricted … We need the county to acknowledge the issues they’re having in approving things.”

Edgefield County’s $42.5 million Law Enforcement Center is about 65% percent complete and on schedule to turn operational early next year.

When it does, it will bring the Edgefield County Sheriff’s Office under one roof for the first time in more than a decade, give the county Magistrate’s Office its first designated courtroom and, as possibly the biggest change, provide for a detention center that holds up to state-mandated standards.

“It’s a big deal for us,” Edgefield County Sheriff Jody Rowland said.

A short, if loaded, summary — the depth of Rowland’s statement came out in the energy he had early this month when walking through the construction going up off Star Road and Rabbit Trail, just southeast of the town of Edgefield and on the same 43 acres as the county's new animal control facility.

About 40% of the $42.5 million cost is covered by Edgefield County’s cut of the state’s plutonium cash; the other 60% is ultimately coming from the penny sales tax, Edgefield County voters having sanctioned this in 2020.

The sales tax funds, collected through spring of 2029, will be used to make payments on the $24.5 million in revenue bonds the county issued for the complex.

The overarching themes of the whole thing are safety and efficiency, both in configuration and in new processes being made possible by that configuration.

The jail: 100-bed expansion, central command

Edgefield County’s existing detention center opened in 1980. The South Carolina Department of Corrections in 2019 cited the county for its detention center not complying with state requirements on minimum standards, a citation corroborated by the county’s own insurance carrier later that year.

According to a communication posted by Edgefield County the following year, in 2020, violations found at the time included the overcrowding of inmates (and its effects — an “inferior” number of toilets and showers for the number of inmates and “insufficient” furnishings); a lack of staffing, "inadequate inmate intercom systems [...] and the inability to properly separate sentenced and pre-trial inmates.”

Sheriff Rowland said that as things currently stand, the detention center can technically house 48 inmates but that a few of the cells go unused due to their poor condition and "we can only comfortably go about 35.”

Which means Edgefield County is increasing inmate capacity by nearly 100 beds — the new facility can house 134 inmates.

That type of expansion is meant mainly to serve the county for the next 50 years, but Rowland said the added capacity will likely affect how a case is seen by a judge.

“You move into a big facility like this, and the judge’s attitude changes a little bit,” he said. With beds available, a judge might be more apt to give a week in jail; he “gives him a bond that he can’t make and tells him he’s going to cool his heels ‘til next Friday,” Rowland said.

Edgefield County’s detention center — the existing one and the one now underway — is largely for cases yet to be adjudicated, and sentences there are usually short-term, although the county does take in trustees (state prisoners) and will accommodate post-adjudication inmates.

Inmates held in Edgefield County are held on misdemeanors and minor infractions. But in the design of the new detention center, nothing was left to chance.

“The real heartbeat of the facility,” per Sheriff Rowland, is the control room whose four glass walls jut out and over the ground floor like a ship’s prow and overlook every cell block.

From here, officers will be able to monitor every corner of the detention center through some 400 cameras — and control every door in the building, including those outside the detention center proper.

There will be no need for an officer to manually work the locks and physically accompany an inmate to recreation. The practice will switch from one of direct supervision to one of indirect supervision, a switch that Rowland heralded for the increased safety it will give his detention officers, 70% of whom, he said, are women.

Safety is being built into the facility for inmates and maintenance workers, too. Each cell is built as one unit — the bed is a welded extension of the wall; the clothes hooks hold only so much weight before they simply angle downward.

The cells were built off site and then slid into place, “just like a LEGO,” Rowland said. A maintenance hallway runs behind each group of cells: the prisoner doesn’t have to be moved for maintenance to get done on the cell.

More space, more tech, more efficiency

The whole of Edgefield County’s future Law Enforcement Center — jail, Sheriff’s Office, investigations, magistrate court, records and dispatch — is 67,000 square feet.

That square footage, plus the tech upgrades coming into that space, is allowing for better efficiency across all divisions.

“The total evidence space [currently] for all evidence — guns, narcotics, crime scene, everything — is not as big as this room,” Rowland said, stepping into the skeleton of the room that will be solely for processing what deputies bring in before it’s moved to actual storage.

Narcotics storage will be in a ventilated safe. Having a vehicle bay will be a first for the Edgefield County Sheriff's Office, which Rowland said has relied on local dealerships to lend a car lift.

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GiS data will feed into dispatch monitors, and dispatch will be able to guide responding officers to the scene not only with directions but by describing the way, a huge benefit for poorly lit and hard to find rural areas, Rowland said.

The administrative offices are going up with expansion in mind, and space is being reserved for officers with South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED). Current practice has Rowland lending his own office to SLED or, sometimes, requiring these officers to pen their reports in the hallway.

An outbuilding will serve as training center for the Sheriff’s Office.

There’s a port for tactical vehicles — required in the Edgefield County Sheriff’s current pursuit of state accreditation.

The county magistrates, who’ve used the County Council chambers or, if there are no General Sessions cases going on, the courtroom at Edgefield County Courthouse, will now have their own space.

The detention center will have a kitchen — a first for it — and the county is currently weighing funding options to add one or two full-body scanners for prisoner intake.

Again, that charged sentence from Sheriff Rowland: "It's a big deal for us."

Rowland said the structure for the full Law Enforcement Center should be well in place by June and that, so far, it's on schedule to open early in 2025.

Handpicked by our editor, as well as breaking news, business profiles, and government recaps from North Augusta.

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Elizabeth Hustad covers politics, government and business for The Post and Courier North Augusta. Follow her on X @ElizabethHustad.

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Edgefield County is back in the business of animal control.

The $675,000 animal control facility opened Aug. 15.

It’s the first milestone in a larger consolidation of county law enforcement on that 43-acre property off Star Road and Rabbit Trail just southeast of the city of Edgefield. The building’s opening also initiates a new partnership with Saluda County, which has a 25% stake in the venture.

“We couldn’t be in a better position right now. We’re not going to be everything to everybody, but we are going to do the best we can with what we have,” Edgefield County Sheriff Jody Rowland said during a ribbon cutting the day before, on Aug. 14.

Edgefield County has contracted for veterinary services onsite at the facility and will inoculate all animals that come through it. County officials said they are working to form relationships with foster families willing to take in strays until they can be found permanent homes.

The facility can house up to 16 dogs at a time, each of the kennels with indoor and outdoor space. There's an area for the dogs to socialize and another for prospective adoptions.

A couple paddocks out front have already been utilized as the construction was ongoing — nine horses, found either mistreated or malnourished last year, were eventually transferred out, said Maj. Jason Ramey, chief deputy with the Edgefield County Sheriff’s Office.

“The secret, I think, to running a small facility is to be able to medically stabilize that dog and get it into the right rescue and get it to a good family,” Sheriff Rowland later told Post and Courier North Augusta.

Saluda County contributed 25% of the cost to build, or about $170,000. In exchange, Saluda County has designated access to a quarter of the kennels. Saluda and Edgefield counties will adhere to the same processes for animal intake and for adopting them out.

“This is two small counties that are working together to do something that neither one of us could do alone,” said James “Jim” Moore, Saluda County Council chairman. “Animal control is an important issue in both counties. We’ve got people that drop their dogs off, cats — we need to be able to do something about them before they become a problem to our citizens. This facility is a boon to both counties.”

Edgefield County has been paying about $120,000 annually through an agreement it had with Aiken County. That agreement ended with the opening of the shelter on Rabbit Trail.

Edgefield County officials said they expect the new facility to not only be a good move financially, but also to help alleviate some of the over-crowding at the Aiken shelter.

The shelter is the first completed building on that 43-acre property off Rabbit Trail and Star Road that eventually will also be home to a new law enforcement complex — sheriff's office, training facility, magistrate court and jail.

Ground broke last November, one month before the animal control shelter. The majority of the exterior jail walls and court are already up and with the end of September pegged for completion of the building’s exterior footprint.

When complete inside and out, the new complex will replace a situation that dates to 1980 and that hasn’t been able to accommodate the Sheriff’s Office under one roof.

“We are so excited about getting to this point," Sheriff Rowland said Monday of animal control opening for business. Rowland hailed the partnership with Saluda as one of “great cooperation” and “a great step forward for Edgefield County.”

What happens when a developer proposes to build on land that’s unzoned?

Edgefield County is going through just such a finding-out.

The county planning commission on Aug. 10 rejected on a split vote the development application for a 254-unit residential project near Fox Creek High School, just outside North Augusta in unincorporated Edgefield County.

But the board's rejection wasn't made from any legal basis, just the non-binding recommendations of a comprehensive plan.

Those who voted against BlueSky Development's proposal for the 97-acre Trestle Run on Stephens Road — commissioners Karlene Butler, Sharon Hadden, Rhonda Nowicki and Tracy Walsh — said it was too many homes in too small an area and that the proposed density of the development goes against the county’s Comprehensive Plan.

“We cannot stop growth, and nobody wants to do that. But the density is a large issue,” said Hadden, who represents the parts of Edgefield County in and around North Augusta. “It needs to be controlled growth. We do not want to be North Augusta, and we do not want to be Columbia County.”

That stretch of Stephens Road has borne the construction of three other major subdivisions in recent years.

Commissioners Daniel Baker and Lisa Whitaker, and Commission Chair James Burt, voted for the project, with Whittaker arguing the county could not reject a development solely on the grounds of it not falling in with the Comp Plan, a guiding document but without the legal standing of an ordinance.

North Augusta, CSRA News

At heart of it is an old debate: that Edgefield County remains about 80% un-zoned, and the proposed development would go up on un-zoned land, which carries with it very few restrictions for such things as density, lot size or land use.

The only thing now governing those parcels off Stephens Road where Trestle Run would go — and governing those parcels only in a way that is not legally binding — is the county’s Comprehensive Plan and its land use map.

Though Edgefield County officials have set up the zoning intention for much of the county in that land use map, these designations remain uncodified by an actual ordinance.

“The Comp Plan is an idea, a guideline, but the zoning is law,” commissioner Whitaker said. “Had the zoning been changed back in 2021, we wouldn’t be stirring this pot again.”

“The developer has met all legal requirements,” she added. “The Comp Plan does not apply here, and the developer is within his legal limits.”

The commission’s rejection could open the county up to a lawsuit, should the developer appeal the decision.

Edgefield County attorney Andrew Marine said multiple cases have landed in the courts over county or municipal governments rejecting a development application without having a statutory reason to do so. Decisions in these cases have not been uniform, and the South Carolina Supreme Court hasn’t issued a ruling on the subject, he said.

State law (under section 6-29-540) does allow a developer to move forward on a project that was denied for the reason of it conflicting with a local government’s comprehensive plan.

“BlueSky will have to decide whether they will appeal the decision in court, continue the project regardless of the decision, change the development plan to meet the requirements of the Comprehensive Plan, or abandon the project,” Hart “Doc” Clark, Edgefield County planning director, told Post and Courier North Augusta.

Should BlueSky decide to appeal the case or move forward with it in any way, Edgefield County Council would then have to decide whether to take legal action.

“If we get sued, fight it,” urged Kathy Ekre, an Edgefield County resident. Ekre said she was frustrated with the largescale development going up on the “tiny, rural road” that is Stephens Road.

It’s “not conducive for rural county living to put these big complexes in and then expect everybody just to cope,” she said. “We do need development, but just to look at Stephens Road — just that one little area — and you’ve got these huge developments on both sides of the road.”

The new Tavern Hill by Stanley Martin Homes is only a couple miles west on Stephens Road, while Sweetwater Landing and Annison Pointe — two projects from the same developer proposing Trestle Run — are a couple miles to the east.

“Development is good, but make sure you have a good game plan,” advised another Edgefield County resident, Jay Garrison.

North Augusta, CSRA News

Defending their proposal, BlueSky’s Stuart and David Thompson said the project’s higher density — Trestle Run exceeds the guidelines of Edgefield County's Comp Plan by 25 percent, at 2.5 units per acre to the Comp Plan’s maximum 2 units per acre — was an effort to keep building costs down and provide a more affordable product.

“We have discussed it and done everything we can do,” David Thompson said. “We are trying to keep the cost of overall building down. If we were to go to a 190-unit project, the average person couldn’t afford the house.”

As proposed, the homes at Trestle Run fall into multiple price points, with $175,000 likely for a townhouse and the single-family homes coming in between $200,000 and $600,000 depending on the market.

Commissioner Hadden said Edgefield County, like many areas of the state, needs more affordable housing, “but I’m not okay with this project being presented as if it’s some philanthropic endeavor that we’re providing affordable housing for the county, because it is not,” she said. “It, like everything else, it’s for profit. And I don’t think the profit of a developer should be at the expense of our county.”

EDGEFIELD, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - Edgefield County Schools are starting a new survey for students that is consistent throughout the whole district.

“It gives us the ability to meet their needs, to know exactly what our kids need,” said Meagan Maness, school counselor.

It’s an effort to help improve students learning and get ahead of issues before they happen.

Fran Altringer, Strom Thurmond High School Principle, said: “Teenagers are teenagers, and so the ability to give them the skills that they need to be successful in the classroom, to be successful with the students sit next to them to be successful in the cafeteria.”

MORE | Local STRIVE program helps grads continue education, find jobs

And if they do take the survey, the school says it’ll be put to good use.

Elesha Ellison, Director of Counseling Services, said: “So we’ll first be building out a curriculum K through 12 using that data, but then it will also allow counselors to drill down and figure out, hey, I’ve got this group of 10 kids that really needs support in this area, let me pull them in a small group and work on that with them. It will allow principles to be able to see school-wide, we need to do some stuff on decision making or school-wide, we need to talk about how you resolve conflicts with others.”

The goal is that this will help students be more prepared for the real world.

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Debbie Courtney, principal of Jet Middle School, said: “Employers are constantly stating, ‘I can’t keep an employee or I can’t get the employee to come to work on time’, or they don’t know how to collaborate with each other. And so that’s what we’re teaching.”

It can also help solve some issues from the pandemic.

Ellison said: “And during that time, they’ve lost some of those skills that we need, some of them never had an opportunity to build those skills, because they weren’t in a classroom with other students.”

The survey will be taken twice a year, once in the fall and once in the spring.

Copyright 2023 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Rise Augusta is known for its efforts in helping with education, and that includes helping with higher education through its STRIVE program.

Calliope Bazil is a student at Augusta Tech working to become a surgical technologist.

“I definitely want to help people. I know that people have helped me in the community and I would love to give back,” said Bazil.

One of the things that has helped her get there: the STRIVE program, which helps young adults find job placement or further their education.

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“This age group 17 to 22, we kind of get lost,” said Bazil. “We don’t want to go back to school, or we just don’t know how to start. And this really helps you jump start or kick off how to really do it.”

Angela Prince, the director of the STRIVE program, does this by helping them do things like fill out college applications or the FAFSA.

“It’s really focusing on those that slip through the cracks and there’s no resources a lot of time for this age group,” said Prince.

She has seen firsthand how this program can help.

“I’ve had a couple of students that didn’t have the resources or the help needed to go to school. Now they’re in a program at school, and they’re going to school and they have a better job and started their careers,” said Prince.

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Bazil is one of those going back to school in person, something she says wouldn’t be possible without the help of the program.

“I would probably be doing online school and not doing in-person. I didn’t want to do it online. I’m a better learner in person,” said Bazil.

Prince said helping students like Bazil accomplish their goals has been a rewarding experience.

“They’re out there finding their purpose working, contributing to society, and being good stewards to the community,” said Prince.

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Whether it’s help with job placement or college applications, Bazil encourages people to keep striving.

“Don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Go for it,” she said.

Qualifications for joining that program are having a high school diploma or GED, and being between the ages of 17 and 22.

Anyone interested in the program can join by contacting Prince by phone or email at aprince@riseaugusta.com.

Copyright 2023 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.