Wedding & Event Venue Near Florence, SC.

FLORENCE — Deputy City Manager Scotty Davis will take the helm as Florence’s interim city manager for the foreseeable future.

Florence City Council announced the decision at its Dec. 11 meeting. Davis will replace Randy Osterman, who has been the city manager since 2020 and plans to retire in February.

While Davis will officially be the interim city manager, Osterman said the appointment is long-term and will run through at least the next year.

Davis said he’s excited to assume the position and that things will continue largely as normal to begin with.

“The beauty of it for me is I’ve worked with Randy. I’m the deputy city manager and work closely with him. So all of our projects and things that we’re working on will continue as normal,” he said.

Davis has worked for the city for decades.

He oversees Florence’s neighborhood revitalization and community development programs, such as building housing in blighted areas, helping families repair and weatherize homes and creating Florence NeighborWorks to invest in communities.

Those programs have been points of emphasis in recent years for City Council members who have said they want to expand the success of downtown redevelopment to surrounding neighborhoods that still struggle with poverty.

Now, Davis will oversee the city’s day-to-day operations, administer policies passed by Council and communicate the needs of the city to elected officials.

With the selection, City Council passed over Economic Development and Utility Planning Director Michael Hemingway, who had previously been promised the job.

That’s why Mayor Teresa Myers Ervin voted against Davis’ appointment, the only one to do so.

When Osterman was hired in 2020, the Council preemptively named Hemingway as his successor.

But current council members — many of whom were elected after Osterman and Hemingway were named — wanted to have a say in that decision. The city’s legal counsel said officials were not bound by previous commitments.

Ervin said she still believed Hemingway deserved the opportunity to be city manager, but she said Davis was an excellent candidate as well.

“I have confidence that Scotty will fulfill the role,” she said.

Davis said he will continue to work closely with Osterman in the final weeks of his tenure before officially assuming his responsibilities in February.

Pending contract negotiations, Davis will take over for the next year. At that point, City Council will announce a permanent city manager, Ervin said.

FLORENCE — Kate Rotan couldn’t go more than a few steps at one point in the reopened Carolina Trading Post without seeing someone she knew. Hugs were exchanged, “How are you doings” were shared and the occasional vendor came up to her for assistance.

There was almost always someone in every row of the Carolina Trading Post on Feb. 1, its first day open in a new location at 1521 Second Loop Road, the former location of All-Stars Sports. It marks the third, and hopefully, final location of the store, according to co-owners Rotan and DeDe Lowder.

The Carolina Trading Post attracts vendors from around the Pee Dee, South Carolina and other states, such as Virginia and North Carolina, and lets them sell their products in spaces under Rotan and Lowder’s roof.

The idea for the store had been kicked around for years by the two. It became a reality when Lowder called Rotan and sent a picture of a building by Florence-Darlington Technical College.

Lowder invited Rotan to see the inside of the building now that she had the key. Rotan asked how she got it.

It was because Lowder had already paid the first-year lease for the place.

“And here we are four years later,” Rotan said.

Entrepreneurship runs in Lowder’s family. Her grandmother owned a grocery store in Lake City, and when Lowder asked if she was ever afraid she wouldn’t make it, she received words that still define her approach to business.

“We were either gonna make it or we were gonna starve,” Lowder said, echoing her grandmother’s words.

The first location was so small around — 1,200 square feet — that you could walk in, spin in a circle, and see everything, Rotan said. The two stayed there with 11 vendors for eight months before moving to the 14,000-square-foot Irby Street location.

The Second Loop Road location has 84 vendors and rows of space for them, serenaded by country music ranging from Kenny Chesney to Dolly Parton.

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.

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

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 Florence County

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 Florence County. Hospitalization numbers early in the pandemic are undercounts due to incomplete reporting by hospitals to the federal government.

Historical trends in Florence County

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

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.

FLORENCE, S.C. (WPDE) — A Florence resident has made it her mission to help those who are less fortunate.

For the past several days Jessica Tedesco has been traveling to parks, shelters and warming stations to help and talk with those experiencing homelessness while also distributing warm clothing and food to them.

NEW: New grocery-style pantry in Conway aims to combat growing food insecurity

For several years Tedesco has worked with the homeless and was even able to help a man get off the streets and get a job.

"When this cold weather snap came, I was like this is death weather, like someone needs to be out there making sure they’re covered. And I just went out there and bought a bunch of jackets, clothes and started making sure they had warm gear," Tedesco said.

She also shared that she is no stranger to hard times. She was even homeless at a point in time, but through isolation and her faith in God, she was able to rise from her pain and get better.

Community members in Florence have been a huge help in dropping donations to Tedesco's home.

An app called "Next Door" allows neighborhoods to connect, get local tips, and buy and sell items, Tedesco said this, and the help of residents allowed her to reach and clothe 103 people in five days.

She noticed an increase in people living on the streets over the years and aspires to create a safe place where people can take showers, relax, eat and play games.

SUGGESTED: Woman dies due to frigid weather near Florence park: Coroner

A huge need when I asked the people that are out on the streets is that they would love to be able to shower daily and I think those are things we take for granted, Tedesco said.

Tedesco is urging city leaders, pastors and residents to get involved and donate food, clothes, money and resources for the homeless.

People in need can be found throughout the city at parks, shelters, and warming stations.

This could be you, these are people that had great jobs good houses, cars, families.... young. I’m seeing more and more in the street, Tedesco said. "I mean people that look like they don’t belong there and their stories are heart breaking and we are all one step away from that.

FLORENCE — Ross Shotts rarely has time to stop and watch the people who visit his Christmas display.

But when he does, he soaks it all in.

He sees a child sitting on her father’s shoulders, head tilted back and mouth agape.

He sees a couple holding hands and friends leaning close.

He sees a young girl twirling beneath the snow machines, flakes catching in her pigtails.

“That was so fun,” she said, stamping her feet in the damp dirt. “Snow everywhere.”

That’s what it’s all about, Ross said with a laugh.

The Shotts family — Ross, his wife, Darlene, and her sister, Denise Pate — are behind one of Florence’s best-known holiday light displays: a 5-acre, 300,000-light walking trail.

This year, it takes on a little extra cache as the family competes on ABC’s reality TV show "The Great Christmas Light Fight."

For the Shotts, it’s evidence that what they’ve built is worth sharing with the rest of the world.

But Florence families have long known the display is something special.

Since 2016, the family has operated the display as Lights 4 Paws, the Florence Area Humane Society’s second-largest fundraiser of the year. Thousands of families visit each holiday season, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“You can’t help but just kind of stand back and admire what they do,” said Liz Parrish, a Humane Society board member who helps organize the event. “We’re lucky to have them in Florence.”

The display is the product of six months of work. On average, the family will spend six hours each day putting things together, Ross said. They do it on their own. It’s a labor of love.

Come Christmastime, the Shotts begin a cycle of almost nonstop work. From Thanksgiving weekend through the end of December, every night is a work night.

You can find Darlene and Pate, wearing fluorescent vests, taking turns with other volunteers to direct traffic. Ross Shotts splits his time between the parking lot and the trail — a quarter-mile path that winds through the woods around the Shotts’ home.

As he patrols the trail, looking for anything amiss, he watches visitors as they take in the light show.

His favorite part is the way the kids' eyes widen, the small gasps of delight that escape their lips.

Even from the parking lot, Ross can hear the kids laughing and screaming.

“I want them to come in and just have fun, and they do,” he said.

Lights 4 Paws is the culmination of years of decorating.

The Shotts started small, like a normal family: just a few white decorations. After a while, they decided to add some color. Then some more.

Slowly, the display grew — a snowflake here, a Santa there — until the decorations threatened to jump the borders of their one-acre home outside of Charlotte.

Christmas decorating, Ross said, became the family hobby.

By the time the Shotts moved to Darlington a decade ago, they were excited to spread out on two acres. That dream quickly ran aground when the local homeowners association shut down the display.

The Shotts replaced the lights with a "for sale" sign.

In 2014, the family found its 5-acre plot of land in Florence. They built fresh, with Christmas in mind. They traced an imaginary trail through the woods. They had the electrician construct an entire panel for the outdoors.

Today's Top Headlines

Now, the Shotts spend half the year setting up and tearing down the display.

The work begins in September, when Ross, Darlene and Pate begin lugging out decorations from the 1,200-square-foot storage barn. On average, they spend six hours each day on the project. They talk, debate where to put different decorations and listen to music (no, not Christmas music).

It’s a grand improvisation. There’s no plan. They put decorations where they look good. Every year it’s a little different.

Ross said the family looks for unique decorations. They want people to see things they've never seen before.

Forget Santa in his sleigh. There’s Santa in construction equipment, a rocket, a camper, an outhouse.

There are Christmas cactuses, porcupines and cowboys.

An entire section is devoted to outer space: Little green men stand next to spaceships and a host of Star Wars decorations.

There are Japanese hanging lanterns and yellow lights that dangle, fairy like, from tree limbs.

Walking through the dark wood can feel a bit like walking through another world.

Ross estimated they’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars on decorations. Some years they put $20,000 to $45,000 on a credit card. The December electricity bill alone is about $400 more than usual, which Ross shrugs off as not too bad.

But it's worth it, both for the Humane Society — a cause the Shotts have devoted countless hours to — and the delight the lights bring to families in Florence.

“It’s a project of pride and love for them, and they do a fantastic job,” Parrish said.

For the families who visit Lights 4 Paws, Christmas wouldn’t be the same without it.

“It’s kind of how I start the season. It’s not Christmas until you see some lights,” Doug Gray said on his second visit of the year to the Shotts’ display.

He took photos beneath the Japanese hanging lanterns as he waited for his son and his friends to arrive. It’s a family tradition to go see the lights at Christmastime, he said.

Mary Schwier has come every year since she was 10 or 11. She’s 18 now. This year, she brought her older sister, Katherine, who recently moved back to Florence.

“I’m still a kid at heart,” Schwier said.

The two women hope to make this a tradition.

Yet the Shotts don’t know how many years they have left in them. Ross is 64. The constant work required of the display is draining. By the end of the year, they’re ready to pack it in and take a break.

“By the end of December we’re whooped,” he said.

Maybe next year will be the last one? But no, not next year, Ross said.

Maybe they’ll just do a little less next year. Or maybe they’ll wait a little longer.

“Four years down the road, three years down the road, five years down the road — whenever we decide that we're going to quit doing this, that's gonna be kind of a burden on us,” he said, reflecting on all of the families who’ve come to rely on the display, or the kids who’ve grown up expecting to come see the lights every year.

“It's gonna be a big effect, I guess if we — when we — do decide to close.”

It might be nice to have their lives back, Ross said. Then again, what would they do with all their spare time?

Well, he said, it might be nice to go see some Christmas lights.