Wedding & Event Venue Near Marion, SC.

Spectrum Internet® with Starting Speeds of 300 Mbps Now Available to More Than 4,400 Homes and Small Businesses

Network Buildout is Part of Spectrum’s $5 Billion, Multiyear Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Investment in Rural Broadband

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Spectrum today announced the launch of Spectrum Internet, Mobile, TV and Voice services to more than 4,400 homes and small businesses in Marion County, S.C. Spectrum’s newly constructed fiber-optic network buildout in Marion County is part of the company’s approximately $5 billion RDOF-related investment in unserved rural communities, which includes $1 billion won in the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) RDOF auction. The company’s RDOF expansion will provide broadband access to approximately 1 million customer locations as estimated by the FCC across 24 states in the coming years.

“Spectrum is bringing gigabit broadband to unserved communities across America through RDOF,” said Jonathan Holt, Vice President of Construction at Spectrum. “Our investment is making it possible to deliver the high-value broadband, mobile, TV and voice services now available in Marion County. We are providing local residents and small businesses superior connectivity at highly competitive prices, backed by a team of skilled local technicians and U.S.-based customer service.”

Broadband Speeds up to 1 Gbps, Plus Money-Saving Mobile Options and 85,000 On Demand Choices

Spectrum Internet delivers speeds up to 1 Gbps and Advanced WiFi for both residential customers and small business clients, featuring starting speeds of 300 Mbps, with no modem fees, data caps or contracts. Spectrum Business Internet offers its clients plans with starting download speeds of 300 Mbps, with 600 Mbps and 1 Gbps options.

“Now more than ever, it is important for all Americans — from students to the working class to our senior citizens — to have access to a fast, reliable internet connection,” said U.S. Rep. Russell Fry. “Thanks to broadband, families are able to stay connected, and businesses have the connectivity they need to thrive. I applaud Spectrum's investment to provide broadband services in parts of the Grand Strand and Pee Dee in South Carolina's Seventh District, expanding connectivity in rural areas.”

Spectrum Internet delivers the fastest internet and WiFi download speeds in the nation^*, and also exceeded advertised download and upload speeds for all tiers measured — even during peak weeknight usage between 7 and 11 p.m. — according to the FCC’s most recent “Measuring Broadband America Fixed Broadband Report” issued in January 2023.

“I have been a longtime advocate of expanding high-speed broadband access to rural and unserved parts of the state,” added state Sen. Kent Williams. “Spectrum’s announcement today is cause for celebration for residents in Marion County, who now have access to reliable internet connectivity with affordability options like the Affordable Connectivity Program.”

Spectrum also was a day one participant in the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which makes quality, high-speed internet service available at a low — or even at no — cost to eligible families in financial need. All Spectrum Internet plans are eligible for ACP credits, and because customers are not locked into a contract, families can always choose the right broadband plan to meet their changing needs.

Along with multiple broadband options, Spectrum services now available also include Spectrum Mobile^™ and Spectrum TV^®. Spectrum Mobile is the nation’s fastest-growing mobile provider^** and combines with Spectrum Internet and Advanced Home WiFi to provide seamless connectivity inside and outside the home. Spectrum Mobile provides customers access to nationwide 5G at great value, with Unlimited lines starting at $29.99 a month, as well as By the Gig options.

Spectrum TV offers more than 270 HD channels and access to 85,000 On Demand movies and shows. Using the Spectrum TV App — the highest-rated pay TV streaming app in the U.S.^*** — viewers can stream content across a growing number of platforms, including iOS and Android mobile devices, Xbox One, Kindle Fire, Samsung Smart TVs, Apple TV, Google Chromecast, Roku, XUMO TVs and PCs.

Local residents and business owners should visit spectrumruralexpansion.com to learn more about when their home or business may be able to receive Spectrum services.

^* Based on analysis by Ookla^® of Speedtest Intelligence^® data U.S. median fixed download speeds for Q1 2023. Ookla trademarks used under license and reprinted with permission.

^** Based on year end 2022 subscriber data among top 3 carriers.

^***iOS (App Store) and Android (Google Play) average ratings as of April 1, 2023. Apps must have at least 150k reviews through combination of iOS & Android store reviews as of April 1, 2023.

About Spectrum

Spectrum is a suite of advanced communications services offered by Charter Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHTR), a leading broadband connectivity company and cable operator serving more than 32 million customers in 41 states. Over an advanced communications network, the company offers a full range of state-of-the-art residential and business services including Spectrum Internet^®, TV, Mobile and Voice.

For small and medium-sized companies, Spectrum Business^® delivers the same suite of broadband products and services coupled with special features and applications to enhance productivity, while for larger businesses and government entities, Spectrum Enterprise provides highly customized, fiber-based solutions. Spectrum Reach^® delivers tailored advertising and production for the modern media landscape. The company also distributes award-winning news coverage and sports programming to its customers through Spectrum Networks. More information about Charter can be found at corporate.charter.com.

Media Contact

Patrick Paterno

Patrick.Paterno@charter.com

Latest trends

Higher test positivity rates are a sign that many infections are not reported — even if they are tested for at home. This results in a more severe undercount of cases. The number of hospitalized patients with Covid is a more reliable measure because testing is more consistent in hospitals. Read more about the data.

In data for South Carolina, The Times primarily relies on reports from the state. The state releases new data once a week. It released new data daily until June 12, 2021, and new data all weekdays until March 15, 2022. The state reports cases and deaths based on a person’s permanent or usual residence.

The Times has identified reporting anomalies or methodology changes in the data.

The tallies on this page include probable and confirmed cases and deaths.

Confirmed cases and deaths, which are widely considered to be an undercount of the true toll, are counts of individuals whose coronavirus infections were confirmed by a molecular laboratory test. Probable cases and deaths count individuals who meet criteria for other types of testing, symptoms and exposure, as developed by national and local governments.

Governments often revise data or report a single-day large increase in cases or deaths from unspecified days without historical revisions, which can cause an irregular pattern in the daily reported figures. The Times is excluding these anomalies from seven-day averages when possible. For agencies that do not report data every day, variation in the schedule on which cases or deaths are reported, such as around holidays, can also cause an irregular pattern in averages. The Times uses an adjustment method to vary the number of days included in an average to remove these irregularities.

MARION, S.C. (WPDE) — The Marion County animal shelter will temporarily close on July 1, according to Marion County Interim Administrator Chavis Watford.

ABC15 reached out to Watford after community members inquired about the shelter.

Watford sent the following statement via email on Friday:

We are planning on closing the Animal Shelter as of July 1 to clean, sanitize, and make some changes until the new shelter is complete. We do not have a timeline on how long this will take, however, we plan to move as quickly as possible to re-open. We want a safe and clean environment for staff and for the animals and I think this is the best way to accomplish this. In the meantime, we are taking adoptions for the current animals we have.

The shelter posted on social media in April that the facility was overwhelmed with animals.

At the time, the shelter was housing 101 dogs and 70 cats.

The post said there were two employees and three trustees working at the shelter, making the ratio about 35 animals per person.

According to the Facebook post, each worker is responsible for cleaning, medicating, walking, playing with, etc. for each animal at the shelter.

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We can’t do it. It is physically impossible to give these animals the time they need, they deserve. Between the need for donations, volunteers, and adoptions, the shelter said they need help.

They ended their post by saying, "At this point, I don’t know we just need help. Nobody seems to grasp the reality of this situation."

Many people in Marion County have questioned why the shelter isn't utilizing a building that was donated to be used as an animal shelter.

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In 2016, Anderson Brothers Bank donated one of their Mullins buildings on East McIntyre Street and the 6.37-acre lot to the county with plans to use it as an animal shelter.

County leaders said the plans called for the 12,000-square-foot building to be renovated to expand and accommodate the current animal shelter's need for more room and a better environment for its occupants.

Officials then said in 2017 they had to renovate the building to better accommodate the needs of the shelter.

ABC15 asked Chavis a list of questions, including the status of the renovation of the building, but she didn't address in her response to us.

Check back for any updates or new developments regarding the animal shelter.

MARION — Mike Jackson is a lifelong son of Marion, a small, rural town hardly an hour from South Carolina’s coast.

He and his aunt opened Main Street Cleaners in 1983 in the heart of downtown.

He remembers the foot traffic.

Folks walked up and down Main Street, popped by businesses and window shopped. Barbershops, clothing stores, banks — everything they needed was right there, he said.

Then, the culture shifted.

Businesses closed, industries shrunk and money slowed. Downtown Marion became little more than a ghost town over the years.

The Historic Marion Revitalization Association has been working to bring a rhythm back to downtown’s pulse. Grants, events and business support have been the backbone of downtown’s turnaround.

“We struggled to maintain,” Jackson said. “Now, it’s done better than maintain. It’s improved.”

The road to improvement

The Historic Marion Revitalization Association was formed in 1993. It originally functioned as more of an event planning organization, Executive Director Taylor Newell said.

Jackson was involved from the beginning.

Jackson was in his 40s when the nonprofit got off the ground. He and other older residents met on Tuesday mornings to see what they could do to keep their downtown alive.

They put on a number of minor events — photos with Santa and horse-drawn carriage rides at Christmas, essay contests for local elementary school kids, a photo book sale with historic Marion photography.

Something — anything, really — to keep the community’s engine running.

“In the 1990s, I don’t think we were focused as much on growth as we were on surviving,” Jackson said.

That period of time in Marion was hard, Jackson said. He remembers a slowdown in the town’s textile and tobacco industries — once heavy hitters in the area.

Marion relied on agriculture, namely tobacco, for decades after its stint as a Revolutionary War battleground. The town, originally Gilesborough, was renamed in 1847 after General Francis Marion, the area’s notorious guerilla-fighting Revolutionary hero, known as the swamp Fox.

Money stopped coming in like it used to when planting and industry slowed down.

Downtown’s heartbeat left with it. Businesses were gone. People couldn’t go downtown for what they needed.

Marion residents started traveling for what they needed. They ran to Horry County’s beaches for entertainment and fun. They drove to Florence when they needed a new outfit or haircut.

They lived in Marion but didn’t function there.

Newell grew up in Marion, too. She moved back after starting a family and spending a few years in other South Carolina locales.

“When I grew up here, it was more we drove downtown to get to church,” she said. “It was just the pass through.”

She got involved with the nonprofit when she moved back to Marion. She wants her town — her home — to be somewhere her kids can return to one day like she did. Somewhere they can be proud of.

The Historic Marion Revitalization Association started taking a different approach around five years ago. What was once an event planning organization is now a backbone for local businesses.

The nonprofit offers grants to help bring businesses back downtown. It applies for grants that are pooled to award to downtown business owners.

Facade grants are one of their biggest pulls.

Those funds help business owners give the outside of their buildings a facelift. It can help cover anything from paint, outdoor light fixtures or a new roof.

Facades are the tip of the iceberg.

Tactical urbanism grants give business owners the ability to add flare outside of their spaces. Outdoor games, furniture, sidewalk signs and landscaping are all covered under the grant.

Sign grants help businesses evade Newell’s dreaded adversary: the “strip mall sign.”

Applicants can get up to a 75 percent match of a project’s cost from the nonprofit because of the grants. That could be the cost of paint for an entire building, installation of new windows and signs. The match is one of the nonprofit’s biggest assets.

“We’re able to really help people get things going, get things off the ground, and, and show that we have skin in the game, too,” Newell said.

The formula has been working. A combination of a larger-than-average match with the nonprofit’s willingness to go beyond its original purpose caused a shift downtown.

Downtown Marion saw 13 businesses open in a one-year period around 2021. Finally, a boom after nearly three decades of silence. Some of the businesses didn’t stay open for long, Newell said, but that can happen to anyone.

There are boutiques, ice cream shops, a coffee shop and antique stores. Even a pizza place is on the horizon.

Today, there’s only one available storefront in Marion, Newell said. Locals aren’t traveling to the coast or Florence as much. Visitors from neighboring towns, near and far, are traveling to see Marion’s facelift.

“It’s heartwarming,” Jackson said. “It really has restored a sense of pride.”

Brittany Fincannon’s business, Swoon Boutique, opened downtown nearly two years ago. She’s also from Marion — born and raised.

She grew up in the same Marion that Newell did. The one that was quiet and usually empty.

She and her friends would drive to Myrtle Beach or Florence when they were in high school just to have something to do.

Fincannon returned to Marion after attending college in Charleston. She never imagined that she’d own a business in the same downtown that she and her friends drove away from every weekend.

She also couldn’t imagine it would be in the same building where her aunt and uncle had a clothing store 30 years ago.

“What’s been the most exciting part is that all these people notice the change and they want to be a part of it,” she said.

The downtown business owners have their own little community now, she said. They have a group text full of advice, alerts and support for one another. There are no feelings of competition or anxiety.

That only happens in a small town, she said.

Fincannon, a member of the Historic Marion Revitalization Association’s board of directors, thinks that the organization has been instrumental in making Marion a place that young people want to be again.

The nonprofit still plans and hosts events beyond business support.

The events are much bigger than they were three decades ago. A summer concert series, sponsored by the Marion Chamber of Commerce and the association, draws hundreds of locals and visitors downtown.

A farmer’s market packs downtown on the first and third Saturdays for nine months out of the year. Paint Your Part, a yearly art competition, keeps local art hanging in an alleyway near Swoon Boutique.

The nonprofit is helping build businesses, but the events help make sure people know downtown is back and here to stay, Newell said. They’re trying to build a community people are proud of.

Years of silence and stillness sparked the Historic Marion Revitalization Association’s push for a better downtown. Their grants, events and business support have made a world of difference to the once sleepy town.

Today, there’s only one ghost left in the former ghost town. It’s nestled away in the last available storefront on Main Street.

It’s surrounded by a new energy — new life — that many in Marion thought they’d never have again.

FLORENCE — More than 500 townhomes could be coming northwest of the city of Florence from a longtime Pee Dee developer.

Chandler Reserve Club, located on Pisgah Road a few minutes from the Pee Dee State Farmer’s Market, is under construction and has approximately 200 houses built and are available for rent.

Jonathan Chandler, owner of Chandler Investment Properties, said they’ll continue building the houses as long as the demand is there.

Construction started in 2021 and 575 units are approved for construction.

“I really don’t know what the demand will continue to be,” Chandler said. “The economy keeps changing from time to time, inflation, job growth, things like that affect the rental business.”

Chandler said more people are leasing than buying. This comes as previous reporting by The Post and Courier showed that available houses to buy can’t keep up with the rising population of Florence.

Chandler has multiple developments in Florence County and one in Sumter and Hartsville.

Construction of the development is in the third phase, with 96 units planned for construction. Chandler said this phase would be completed mid-November.

Construction of the next set of houses after this phase would start in February or March of next year.

Available units have 1,100 square feet and just over 1,200 square feet of space. The area offers six and 12-month leases for both units. The larger units have a carport.

Leases for the smaller housing are $1,350 a month for a 12-month lease and $1,550 for a six month lease.

The carport housing leases are $1,550 a month for a 12-month lease and $1,750 a month for a six month lease.

Prices are higher for both units’ 12-month lease if the unit has a view of the pond in the area.

Chandler got into the development business in 2016 with his first development in Hartsville, called Chandler Cottages, which are described as furnished luxury rentals on the website. The rentals are located on Gandy Street next to Carolina Elementary School.

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

Historical trends in Marion 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.