electrician in Clover, SC

CLOVER, S.C. — Several vacant buildings in downtown Clover will soon be given new lives as a local entrepreneur looks to revitalize North Main Street.

The area is riddled with empty commercial space but Clover native Justin McFalls is working to change that. On Monday, he announced he closed on four commercial spaces on North Main Street. Two of the units are vacant and two have tenants McFalls said he is currently in discussions with.

McFalls told WCNC Charlotte he is also under contract for two more neighboring units on North Main Street.

The news is exciting to Clover business owner Pat Bingham. She owns The Clover Station, a restaurant on the corner of North Main and Kings Mountain Streets.

"I don’t care what anybody says, progress is good," Bingham said. "That’s what’s happening to this town, it’s growing."

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Bingham said her country kitchen has been busy recently thanks to newcomers moving to town, but some of her neighbors didn’t get to see that newfound boost.

"COVID was bad for everybody," Bingham explained. "Some restaurants that were local just couldn’t survive."

Two storefronts on the strip of businesses where McFalls is renovating closed within the last year. Others have been vacant for much longer.

"I drove by it for many years just seeing it boarded up and just thinking about all the opportunity there is for someone to do something and then the building popped up for sale," McFalls said.

The building, according to McFalls, was built in 1886. Above the storefronts is old office space that hasn't been touched since the 1960s. McFalls plans to transform the upstairs into apartments and the downstairs will be redesigned for new restaurants and family-friendly bars.

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"We want people to stay in town, we want people to be close by, we want 'em to be able to ride their golf carts up here, and get a bite to eat, grab a beer or a nice cocktail, spend time with their wife and kids and head home," McFalls said.

Some in the small town may resist revitalization, but Bingham said she’s excited about more foot traffic.

McFalls said renovations will maintain the historic building’s character. He hopes to have the first restaurant open in about six months.

CLOVER — As residents pour into York County, Clover School District has proposed its most recent solution to alleviate the overcrowding in its hallways: Building an eighth elementary school.

The consideration comes seven months after residents narrowly approved a $156 million bond to finance a new 2,100-student high school.

But school officials now say they need another $55 million for a new elementary school — or they won’t be able to keep up with rising population numbers as residents flock to the eastern part of the district on Lake Wylie.

By 2026, the district expects to surpass its capacity of elementary school students.

“We’re at a critical juncture,” Superintendent Sheila Quinn told the board June 12.

For this project, though, district officials will not pursue a bond referendum or raise taxes. Instead, they will borrow money from the state to fund $55 million over a three-year period.

The board will make a final decision June 26 on if and how they will build a new elementary school.

“While elementary schools are not cheap, it’s the most cost-effective option rather than Band-Aid the other,” Quinn said, “because you’re going to have come back at some point and build an elementary school.”

It is Clover’s most recent potential project in a line of large-scale, multimillion-dollar requests over the past few years. In 2021, the district asked for a $197 million bond to build a second high school and an eighth elementary school. Voters overwhelmingly rejected the request, 79 percent to 21 percent.

After eliminating the elementary school, officials returned last November with a $156 million bond that would build a new high school. It narrowly passed, 51 percent to 49 percent. The new high school is set to open by 2026. It also allowed for the school’s ninth grade academy, located in Clover High School, to transform into a new and third middle school.

Despite the influx in cash and new buildings, officials insist they still need an elementary school. And they argue that they need to construct it now, before the 2026 school year, when the district estimates it will reach its current cap on elementary school students.

“We do not have any funds just sitting around waiting to do that,” Quinn said. “We have to think about how to generate those funds.”

In recent years, Clover has experienced some of the sharpest growth in South Carolina. Located just south of the North Carolina border, Clover saw its population from 2020 to 2022 rise from 6,675 to 7,405. That 11 percent increase was the 10th highest in the state.

The largest growth for the school district has come to the east of town along Lake Wylie. From 2000 to 2020, the unincorporated Lake Wylie area saw a 46 percent jump in population, which tripled to above 12,000. Given its placement near the water, proximity to Charlotte and lower state taxes, Lake Wylie has attracted people from across the country. Nearly 80 percent of its residents were born outside of South Carolina.

The rapid growth previously forced York County Council to place a 16-month moratorium on new subdivisions and apartment complexes, along with commercial and residential rezoning requests, until 2021.

As the area’s population has increased, attendance in the district has climbed with it, adding nearly 800 students over the past three years.

Elementary schools have especially felt the strain, reaching 88 percent capacity. Nearly 200 students entered the district annually over the last three years, the district said. In that time, Bethany Elementary has already surpassed its capacity, forcing 35 kids to attend nearby Larne Elementary.

According to district projects, that number will only increase.

By 2026, Clover estimates nearly 2,661 residential units and 514 elementary students will move into the area, based on the district’s 2020 Tishler-Bise Impact Fee Study.

Other school districts have attempted different methods to deal with the growth in York County. Fort Mill School District, for example, home to the third fastest-growing town in South Carolina, implemented an enrollment freeze in February. Districts including Fort Mill, York and Clover, have petitioned — and, in some cases, succeeded — to implement impact fees on new developments.

During a special trustee meeting June 12, district officials presented a number of solutions, including the expansion of elementary schools, creation of mobile units and the redevelopment of the district’s resource center.

District officials, though, says they can’t afford to dance around the issue. Their schools are about to exceed capacity — and they need a new elementary school to fix it.

CLOVER, S.C. — The town of Clover has a five-year plan to revitalize its Main Street area with new businesses, signage, and connectivity.

Clover’s downtown is filled with empty buildings after many small businesses were forced to shut down during the pandemic.

“A lot of things happened with the economy and places had to shut down," Clover’s Main Street Director Alicia Griffith said.

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Now, the town is rebuilding for the future. Several vacant commercial spaces along Main Street have been bought by developers who plan to breathe new life into them.

Clover native Justin McFalls announced recently he bought four units in between The Clover Station and The Vault.

“It’s always been a dream for me to own this building,” McFalls told WCNC Charlotte.

More houses are being built and the small town is growing. McFalls wants to give people more places to go for a fun night out.

"We want them to stay downtown," he said. "On the weekends, Friday and Saturday nights, it’s like a ghost town."

McFalls' first tenant is a pizza restaurant called King of Fire. Plus, Griffith told WCNC Charlotte two coffee shops are opening in the area this year.

"A lot of the buildings have sat for so long," Griffith said. "So, there's a lot of work that needs to be done to bring them up to code and some other stuff. So, we're working on some business incentives to really try to offset some of that cost."

One incentive is a $3,000 grant for businesses to clean up their facades. Griffith said they're also working to establish historic overlays, which will not only protect the town's character but offer tax breaks for businesses.

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Clover is working with Main Street America, a national program Monroe, Belmont, and Waxhaw have used to implement a five-year growth plan.

The goal is to boost economic development by recruiting restaurants and retail while keeping Clover’s small-town charm.

Griffith told WCNC Charlotte the town is also looking at properties to create more parking for the downtown area in the future.

The Clover School District and Fort Mill School District will join other districts in a lawsuit against social media giants like Tik Tok, Snapchat and Youtube.

Clover High School Principal Rod Ruth brought the class action litigation to the Clover school board Monday night. The board approved the district’s participation, based on the mental health impact social media can have on students.

The suit contends social media companies create addictive products that can cause eating disorders, anxiety, depression, suicide and other problems for students as part of what has become a mental health crisis, Ruth said.

“(School) districts are often on the front line of this impact,” Ruth said.

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The school board in Fort Mill approved its participation in the suit on Tuesday night. An attorney for the Fort Mill district echoed mental health reasons for supporting the suit. Board member Wayne Bouldin said regardless the financial outcome, the district should support the suit on principal. But also that there is a financial impact.

“We’re seeing a lot the impacts and we’re spending a lot of money that could be better spent educating, dealing with the ramifications of this thing,” Bouldin said.

The litigation isn’t the first time Clover and Fort Mill schools joined in a larger cause.

Last year the districts participated in a suit, as did others in the region and state, against vape product maker JUUL Labs for targeting students.

The social media suit lists four defendants. Facebook and Instagram owner Meta is one, as are the parent companies of Tik Tok (ByteDance) and Snapchat (Snap). The other is Google, owner of Youtube.

Ruth said the mental health impact on students is significant, and it impacts school districts financially. Schools have to divert resources to address mental health issues. They have to hire more mental health staff, provide new resources, increase teacher and staff training and create more lesson plans on mental health, Ruth said. Also, Ruth said, districts see increased property damage to schools as a result of social media targeting students.

The lawsuit contends social media companies target school children to increase company profits, and looks for system-wide changes in how the companies operate to make them safer for children and adolescents, Ruth said.

Questions of how social media impacts students aren’t new, nor are mental health concerns for students. Districts across the Rock Hill region noted increased mental health concerns when the COVID-19 pandemic hit three years ago. Districts spent considerable amounts of federal funding related to the pandemic on staff, programs and services related to mental health.

South Carolina school districts including Clover and Fort Mill have been making plans the past couple of years for how they’ll respond when federal pandemic money runs dry. Especially given how many districts hired additional staff, including mental health professionals.

Last year, The Herald interviewed school and mental health professionals from across the area to ask how they’re handling the uptick in cases since COVID and what parents can do to help students with mental health issues. Social media was a big part of that discussion. Consensus was it could be years still before the full COVID impact on mental health can be determined.

This story was originally published May 23, 2023, 1:39 PM.

Folks in Clover, S.C., who haven’t seen Aiden Adair for awhile will get their chance on Sunday night. So will the rest of the country.

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The former Clover High School student traveled to Nashville for an American Idol tryout. Adair couldn’t say ahead of Sunday’s new episode how the tryout went, but did say Thursday morning it was a great experience.

“It was a lot,” Adair said. “I’m very introverted and to myself, so definitely out of my comfort zone.”

Adair, 19, was born in Pennsylvania but moved to Clover at age 6. Adair went to Clover High, and followed in siblings’ footsteps through the popular Choraliers singing program.

The COVID-19 pandemic hit when Adair was a junior, which was the last time he sang live in front of crowds prior to American Idol.

Adair started creating music and went through a physical transformation since the pandemic sent him online for his senior year of high school, so even old friends may not recognize him. After high school Adair briefly moved to Los Angeles and just recently to Charleston — both places where he has family — while pursuing passions of music, fitness and boxing.

Adair hasn’t started live music performances yet.

“I just don’t really know how to play instruments, so that’s kind of been the thing that’s holding me back,” Adair said.

Adair began making music during the online days of pandemic. His Tik Tok following grew to more than 350,000 followers. Adair prefers to sing indie, folk music. The online presence led to an invitation to try out for Idol.

Adair watched American Idol with his family when he was younger. He recalls artists like Scotty McCreery and Phillip Phillips. Adair didn’t watch as much through high school. Then, music became a more serious passion.

Adair covered a song of another Idol contestant who blew up on Tik Tok, Benson Boone. Adair spoke with Boone ahead of the recent audition.

Adair said he was more nervous than he expected he’d be at the Nashville audition. Like other hopefuls, he had to perform in front of Luke Bryan, Katy Perry and Lionel Richie. But the invitation fit Adair’s no-regret philosophy.

“I felt like it was a good opportunity for me to take, and I would be dumb not to take it,” Adair said.

As a high school sophomore, Adair vowed to never settle.

“I decided that I would dedicate my life to only doing the stuff I love doing with people I like being around,” Adair said.

Adair didn’t listen if someone said he had to go to college, or get a job straight away. Now Adair plans to live with a friend and continue to pursue music.

“There’s no backup plan,” Adair said. “I believe if you have a backup plan you don’t believe in your first plan.”

Adair said he only has to get a job, until he doesn’t. He said he sees everyone on a rock spinning through space, with one life to live. Adair said he believes people should do what makes them happy, which for him means betting on himself and pursuing dreams.

“No one really does the out-of-the-ordinary,” Adair said.

The American Idol audition certainly was extraordinary. Adair went to Nashville with his dad and walked the city. Adair isn’t sure if it will show on the coming episode, but the experience opened him up in unexpected ways. Adair also recalls the most beautiful sunset he’d seen -- on audition day.

American Idol is old enough now for generations to have grown up watching it. Perhaps dreaming what it might be like to audition. The show is older than Tik Tok or many of the other platforms artists now use to grow a following. For anyone who may watch the show and consider a tryout, Adair shares his philosophy.

He never wants to be the old guy who looks back and wonders what it would have been like to chase a dream, to truly and wholeheartedly go for it.

“If you’re passionate about something, if you have a dream, just go for it,” Adair said. “No matter what.”

This story was originally published February 23, 2023, 12:56 PM.