electrician in Fort Lawn, SC

FORT LAWN, S.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Most residents in Fort Lawn, SC can now take advantage of Comporium's fiber-based services. Recently the company completed upgrades to its network in the community. Customers on Comporium’s network now have access to internet speeds up to 1 gigabit per second. Comporium also set up free public wi-fi access at the Fort Lawn Community Center as an additional service to the community.

“Our crews worked for months to upgrade the network throughout Fort Lawn for internet speeds of 1 gigabit per second,” stated Matthew Dosch, Comporium’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. “Grants from the South Carolina Broadband Office provided the financial boost we needed to reach some very rural areas. Our state-of-the-art fiber-optic network ensures that this area is prepared for the future.”

Comporium continues to work with state and federal agencies to find ways to upgrade service to rural customers. Many recent upgrades were the result of Rural Broadband Grants, made possible through funding from the South Carolina Department of Commerce and administered by the South Carolina Broadband Office within the Office of Regulatory Staff.

By combining private investment with the State’s funding, Comporium made service available to more than 1,650 addresses in South Carolina this year. In May of this year the company completed a similar project and extended fiber access to more than 160 addresses in the Fort Lawn area. Comporium has extended high-speed internet access to more than 850 addresses in Chester and Lancaster Counties this year.

Comporium also takes part in the FCC’s Affordable Connectivity Program. This federal program allows eligible homes to get a $30 discount off regular monthly rates for internet. This participation is a part of the company’s ongoing commitment to the community. At the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, Comporium provided service at no charge to hundreds of student households when schools were closed for public health reasons, and continues to offer internet, voice, security, and video services with a variety of subscription options intended to suit every user’s needs.

Residents and businesses in Fort Lawn may place an order and schedule installation appointments through Comporium’s website at www.comporium.com.

About Comporium

Comporium, Inc., headquartered in Rock Hill, S.C., is a diversified, privately held communications company that employs nearly 1,000 people and provides broadband, TV, voice, wireless, smart home systems, and advertising services throughout the Carolinas. Comporium’s ventures include companies which offer business solutions, managed services, and digital signage. For more information, please visit www.comporium.com.

S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster talked Friday afternoon about all that comes with the new Gallo’s Operations Facility in Fort Lawn.

“This is a great thing,” McMaster said. “This offers careers, long-term employment, with good benefits and good work in a great company. This was a great step forward, not only for the state but for this area.”

McMaster and E&J Gallo’s CEO Ernest Gallo were in Chester County for the ribbon-cutting ceremony at what has been reported to be the winemaker’s first facility on the East Coast. A fact sheet on the Gallow website says there is a winery in New York.

Construction of the regional distribution facility started in June 2021, and there was a push to get it ready by the projected date of Oct. 3. However, company officials said this is just the first phase en route to a long and successful partnership with this state.

“It feels fantastic,” said Stein Edwards, Gallo’s Senior Director of Operations in South Carolina. “This community has been very welcoming, bringing us in. They welcomed us with open arms.

“A lot of our folks that we’ve hired are from this very local area. And they’ve been watching this project for several years, and a lot of them said, ‘hey, we can’t wait to get started, and we’re so happy what you’re doing for the community.’ So it’s really neat to be a part of.”

Gallo officials said they expect to add manufacturing lines in 2023 as they begin production and making further investments in the state.

Brooke Clinton, president of the Chester County Chamber of Commerce, said the facility will have an impact on the local area both now and in the future.

The facility is expected to bring almost 500 jobs to Lancaster and Chester counties. Fort Lawn is in Chester County, but close to the Lancaster County border.

There are currently about 80 people working at the site, and Gallo is currently adding new employees.

“We’re training the folks right now,” said Erich Kaepp, the vice president of Eastern Operations at Gallo. “We’re going through a new warehouse management system, so they’re learning how to do all those kinds of things and get ready to ship. We’ve successfully gotten eight trucks so far. We’ve gotten them all received, so it seems to be going okay, so far.”

The company cited access to the Southeast market and South Carolina’s infrastructure as reasons for choosing South Carolina as its east coast operations location.

McMaster said there will be more business opportunities coming to the state. He said the people and culture are what draw companies here.

This story was originally published October 8, 2022, 10:36 AM.

MONCKS CORNER — Check the box. Fort Fair Lawn is the first historic site that is part of South Carolina’s Liberty Trail to open to the public.

The ribbon was cut the morning of Sept. 23, providing access to a remarkable, well-preserved British fort used during the American Revolution as a staging ground and strategic installation. It both deployed Redcoats to Charleston and the surrounding areas, and received Redcoats in retreat from battles such as the bloody one in 1781 at Eutaw Springs, the last big confrontation of the war in the state.

Tours are available via the Old Santee Canal Park in Moncks Corner. Temporary signage is mounted with permanent signage interpreting this history to come.

The fort was manned by garrisons ordered to protect British interests and to make it easier to move troops. It was a crossroads and a base from which the British lay siege on Charleston.

During that siege and subsequent occupation, which spanned 32 months beginning in the spring of 1780, American fighters led by Brig. Gen. Francis Marion, Lt. Col. Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee, Col. Wade Hampton, Col. Hezekiah Maham, Col. Isaac Shelby and other Patriots adopted guerrilla tactics and harassed British positions.

This strategy eroded the ability of the British to retain control of the territory. They were forced to engage in skirmishes, launch raids to procure food, forage for supplies and more, often finding themselves under fire.

Fort Fair Lawn was an extension of the Fair Lawn Barony, 12,000 acres along the west branch of the Cooper River owned by the Colleton family. It included a mansion the British would use as a retreat.

On Nov. 17, 1781, Marion dispatched Maham and Shelby and about 400 fighters to attack Fair Lawn. The British, taken by surprise, were forced to surrender.

The Lord Berkeley Trust began the process of acquiring the 80-acre Fort Fair Lawn tract in 2007, but it wasn’t until 2016 that the property was secured. It took $1 million in funding from the South Carolina Conservation Bank, $500,000 in hydrology mitigation funding from the State Ports Authority, and $500,000 from the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program.

A tiny bridge in the woods leads to the fort, surrounded by the remains of a moat that once had about 6 feet of water in it. A small mound marks the remains of a cannon barbette. In the center of the fort are some loose bricks that once were part of a kiln the British used to forge weapons and ammunition. From this location the fort’s earthen walls, now merely eroded and overgrown mounds, are easier to see.

Doug Bostick, executive director of the S.C. Battleground Preservation Trust, said the upcoming 250th anniversary celebration of the Revolutionary War surely has provided impetus to many to secure this and other historic sites. The trust, he said, has enjoyed notable success in recent years. Six properties are currently subject to negotiations, he said.

Among them is a site in Hollywood connected to the Battle of Stono Ferry. Another is Hammond’s Store in Laurens County. Another is Ports Ferry in Florence County.

All of these Revolutionary War sites will be part of the Liberty Trail, a joint effort between the S.C. Battleground Preservation Trust and the American Battlefield Trust to preserve, interpret and promote key battlefields of the Southern Campaign.

The network is made possible thanks to involvement from nonprofits such as the Lord Berkeley Conservation Trust, the South Carolina Conservation Bank, municipal and county officials, and private and corporate philanthropy.

When E. & J. Gallo Winery announced its plans and began construction last June for a massive East Coast hub in Chester County, company leaders targeted October 2022 to open the first piece of the operation. The nation's largest winemaker held a ceremony today to celebrate the fact it achieved that goal despite supply-chain challenges stemming from the Covid-19 outbreak.

Gallo welcomed a number of state and local leaders, including S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster, to mark the opening of its regional distribution center in Fort Lawn. The distribution operation occupies just a piece of a large, 1.5 million-square-foot building that is under construction to accommodate the first phase of Gallo's East Coast operation.

Erich Kaepp, Gallo's vice president of eastern operations, said it was "a push up to the end" to prepare to launch the distribution operation, which officially opened on Oct. 3.

"Having achieved that milestone further demonstrates that choosing South Carolina was the correct decision," CEO Ernest Gallo said of the company staying on schedule despite pandemic-related challenges. "Although we are here to celebrate the opening of this facility, it is just the first of many anticipated phases."

Gallo pledged a $423 million investment and the creation of nearly 500 jobs for the first phase of the project that includes the regional distribution center, a production facility, warehousing, bottling, canning and an import and export hub.

The company plans to open the next piece of the operation in February, when it is targeting the opening of its first production line in Fort Lawn. That line will serve the company's High Noon brand. Kaepp said he is still eyeing May and August of next year, respectively, to open the second and third production lines at the first phase.

The Modesto, California-based Gallo has acquired well over 600 acres at the intersection of S.C. Highway 9 and U.S. Highway 21 for the East Coast hub. The first portion of Gallo's Chester County operations is expected to take up around 300 acres, leaving significant room for growth beyond the initial $423 million commitment.

In total, the master-planned site could have as many as five major phases. A construction timetable for the following phases is still being finalized. Upon full buildout of the site, Gallo's total investment is expected to surpass $1 billion and create over 1,000 jobs over the course of several decades.

Kaepp said Gallo has hired just shy of 80 workers thus far and will have another cohort of around 30 employees coming in November. The hiring process has been constant in recent months and will continue to move quickly, Kaepp said.

"We have much, much bigger plans for South Carolina in the future," Gallo's Rob Donoho said on Friday. "In the future, we envision have many more buildings similar to this over the decades to come. We see tremendous growth opportunities in South Carolina."

Gallo's announcement last year came after it secured incentives packages and S.C. lawmakers changed the state's alcohol laws for Gallo's operations. The project has widely been seen as a transformative one for Chester County and Fort Lawn, the tiny town with a population under 1,000.

McMaster said Friday was a "glorious day" for S.C. because of Gallo's investment. Friday's ceremony was McMaster's second visit in as many days to the S.C. portion of the Charlotte region. He attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday for Nutramax Laboratories' latest expansion in Lancaster.

McMaster echoes the confidence of other local leaders that Gallo's investment could kickstart more development momentum along I-77 between Charlotte and Columbia. He and other state and local leaders have compared Gallo's potential impact on the I-77 corridor to that of BMW's on the I-85 corridor between Greenville and Charlotte.

"This is a great step forward not only for the state, but for this area," McMaster said.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster talked about all that comes with the new Gallo Operations Facility in Fort Lawn.

“This is a great thing,” McMaster said. “This offers careers, long-term employment with good benefits and good work in a great company. This was a great step forward, not only for the state but for this area.”

McMaster and Ernest Gallo, the CEO of the Modesto-based E.&J. Gallo Winery, were in Chester County for the Oct. 7 ribbon-cutting ceremony. Gallo is the grandson and namesake of the co-founder in 1933 of what is now the world’s largest wine producer.

The new plant could add close to 500 people to the Gallo workforce of about 6,500. It has operations in the San Joaquin Valley, in coastal regions of California and in the states of Washington and New York. The company also imports wine from several nations and produces or distributes several types of liquor.

Gallo has said the South Carolina branch will not mean loss of jobs elsewhere. And in fact, its website listed 59 openings at the Yosemite Boulevard headquarters as of Wednesday.

Construction of the regional distribution facility in Fort Lawn started in June 2021, and there was a push to get it ready by the projected date of Oct. 3. However, company officials said this is just the first phase en route to a long and successful partnership with South Carolina.

“It feels fantastic,” said Stein Edwards, Gallo’s senior director of operations in South Carolina. “This community has been very welcoming, bringing us in. They welcomed us with open arms.

“A lot of our folks that we’ve hired are from this very local area. And they’ve been watching this project for several years, and a lot of them said, ‘Hey, we can’t wait to get started, and we’re so happy what you’re doing for the community.’ So it’s really neat to be a part of.”

Gallo officials said they expect to add manufacturing lines in 2023 as they begin production and making further investments in the state.

Brooke Clinton, president of the Chester County Chamber of Commerce, said the facility will have an impact on the local area both now and in the future.

There are about 80 people working at the site, and Gallo is adding employees.

“We’re training the folks right now,” said Erich Kaepp, the vice president of eastern operations at Gallo. “We’re going through a new warehouse management system, so they’re learning how to do all those kinds of things and get ready to ship. We’ve successfully gotten eight trucks so far. We’ve gotten them all received, so it seems to be going okay, so far.”

The company cited access to the Southeast market and South Carolina’s infrastructure as reasons for choosing its East Coast operations location.

McMaster said there will be more business opportunities coming to the state. He said the people and culture are what draw companies here.

Modesto Bee staff writer John Holland contributed to this report.