electrician in Fort Mill, SC

A few months ago I wrote about a new wing restaurant coming to Fort Mill. I think when the story actually surfaced, the projected opening date was sometime in December. But, this week VooDoo Wings finally opened at 1646 S.C. 160 across from Baxter. If you’re familiar with the area, this spot formerly housed Blacow Burgers that closed after several years of operation. And, this won’t be the last you hear of VooDoo Wings in the Carolinas. The Herald says they plan to open more sites in the Charlotte area just over the the North Carolina line. VooDoo is famous for serving large and small batch wings in a variety of flavors. Order boneless or traditional in the typical flavors in addition to Cajun ranch, Jamaican Jerk, Mango Habanero and Spicy Pb&J. There’s even a super spicy option known as The Bomb. Orders of wings come in numbers from 6-100 pieces. That’s the one that intrigues me!

Also, if you’re not feeling in the wing mood but want to try out the spot with friends, you have options. VooDoo also serves sandwiches, sides and desserts. Other tasty treats at VooDoo include fried pickles, hand-cut fries and Buffalo mac and cheese. Don’t forget dessert! Choose from homemade banana pudding or Peanut Butter Cup pie in a cup. VooDoo marinates its chicken for 48 hours to ensure the best flavor and tenderness. A spokesperson with National Restaurant Properties points to Fort Mill’s family vibe that makes it perfect for a brand such as VooDoo. Check their website for menus, location and hours of operation. Seems like perfect timing with the “Big Game” just around the corner next month.

2 South Carolina Restaurants Make List for Best Chicken Sandwich in the World

Are you a fan of a chicken sandwich? For the longest, I never understand the hype over a chicken sandwich honestly. Then I had a really good one and now I completely understand. I actually started learning different chicken sandwich recipes and cooking them at home for myself and when I have people over. From grilled chicken to fried chicken and more, the chicken sandwich is a go-to.

Taste Atlas curated a list of some of the best chicken sandwiches in the world! That’s right, the world. Two South Carolina restaurants actually made this list which makes it even better for us. It’s something about the Carolinas and our cooking that just keeps us at the top of the chain sometimes. From cities in South Carolina like Charleston and Hilton Head to North Carolina cities like Charlotte or Raleigh, plenty of food spots to give a try. So, if you’re a chicken sandwich lover this list might be the place for you. Check out some of the best chicken sandwiches in the WORLD and start planning your foodie tour.

Plans for two new Fort Mill schools are coming into focus.

The Fort Mill School District applied to rezone an 88-acre parcel at 278 Gold Hill Road. The York County planning commission voted unanimously on Monday night to recommend the zoning change. York County Council will have final say.

“This will allow the development of an elementary and a middle school campus,” said county planning manager Diane Dil.

After rezoning, the project still would have to come back with final plans for a special exception from the county zoning board of appeals. The property is mostly and thickly wooded, and has a floodplain with significant slope roughly covering the western half of the site.

“They’re utilizing the area that’s outside, every bit of it that’s outside, that floodplain,” Dil said.

The property just touches I-77, but its much larger frontage comes along Gold Hill between that road’s intersections with Springfield Parkway and U.S. 21 Bypass. That stretch of Gold Hill sees an average of 4,900 vehicle trips per day. Beyond it, there’s U.S. 21 Bypass with 18,000 trips and Springfield with 10,600 trips.

The property is beside the Beckett Farms apartments, near Ross Dress for Less property and a neighborhood off Forest Way Drive. There are two undeveloped parcels beside the Fort Mill site, each at more than 50 acres, owned by others.

A site plan submitted by the district refers to the Eubanks site as elementary school No. 12 and middle school No. 7. The Eubanks family, still one of the nearby owners, had the property prior to district ownership.

The site has three large entrance points along Gold Hill. The schools appear to share the central access, and a road behind the schools connects both.

The submitted drawing shows football and baseball fields, the former with a running track, behind the easternmost school nearer the floodplain line. The athletic fields are oriented away from Gold Hill, on the side nearer the interstate and developed industrial properties.

The school district began evaluating the potential school site in 2016. New school planning is a constant effort for the growing district that now has more than 18,000 students and is the largest district in York County.

Last spring the district decided to fund pre-design work for two elementary schools and a middle school, even ahead of any bond vote that would fund them. About half of a larger $4 million capital needs list last fall was money for future school land acquisition or early design work for the three schools, which district officials said would be needed by fall 2025.

The property is a mix of zoning, which now would allow for light industrial and apartment development. Because it’s so close to I-77, it’s part of a section where the county targets larger employment opportunities. Large industrial, distribution, warehouse and similar employment hubs often locate along the interstate.

“Even though it’s not a target industry,” Dil said, “schools do have a lot of employment. And so it does achieve that goal of being able to have an employee base.”

A Pennies for Progress project will reconfigure part of Gold Hill in that area through US 21 widening. Dil said a traffic impact analysis was submitted for the school district project. It doesn’t recommend significant road changes the district would have to fund. Further details will come in site planning, including the request for an exception.

This story was originally published January 10, 2023 12:32 PM.

The district is considering voting on a modified year-round school calendar for the 2025 school year.

FORT MILL, S.C. — Fort Mill Schools is proposing shortening summers for students but adding more breaks in the school year with a new school calendar.

The district is considering voting on a modified year-round school calendar for the 2025 school year.

Fort Mill School would join Clover School District and York School District 1, which have already switched to calendars with similar changes.

Monday, the district sent out a survey asking parents and staff members how a year-round calendar would positively or negatively impact their lives.

At a school board meeting on Jan. 10, staff laid out the basic groundwork of a year-round calendar.

"What this calendar does, is number one, it allows us to do a 90-90, perfect split before the Christmas break for all of our students," Joe Burke, Fort Mill Schools public information officer said.

In a traditional calendar school, the 2025 start date would be Aug. 19.

The year-round calendar would start 10 school days earlier on Aug. 5.

A new calendar would add extra breaks into the school year. The days off for most students are in October and March.

The district says those days would be what they call “remediation days”.

They’d be to help students who need extra instruction while other students are off.

"We would contract with our teachers and staff needed," Burke said. "Those who choose to come in and work those days, to work with our students, who need room who qualify and need remediation."

WCNC Charlotte asked families how they felt about this.

“Unless the entire state has the same schedule and the camps and child care facilities get on board you're just making lives harder and more expensive for people who work," Jaime Lynee said on Facebook.

The district said they are looking for feedback like this.

"Maybe parents come back [saying] there's no way we can deal with two weeks, and then the calendar might change a little bit again," Burke said to the school board. "Maybe those four days get cut down to two, or maybe we look at some other options with this."

In a Fort Mill parents group, one parent said she loves the proposal because she could afford to go on vacations she doesn’t get to do during busy vacation times with higher prices.

Students would also still have federal holidays off, and traditional breaks like Thanksgiving, winter break, and spring break off.

"There definitely is going to be childhood -- some child care issues, and things that people are going to have to work through," Burke said.

Any votes on a calendar would likely happen in the spring. The district votes on calendars two years in advance.

Fort Mill could be the next school district to switch to a modified year-round calendar. But not this coming year, and not before the district gets plenty of feedback.

The Fort Mill School District will email a survey out on Monday to parents and staff to solicit input. Superintendent Chuck Epps said he’s aware of 18 districts in the state moving to the modified calendar. Epps wants to give his district time to process the decision.

“Rock Hill is taking the same strategy we’re taking,” Epps said. “Clover and York already approved their calendars, and changed them.”

District public information officer Joe Burke outlined a traditional calendar plan, and a possible modified one, when the Fort Mill school board met Tuesday. Some dates coincide. Others don’t.

“This is a significant shift in how we have done school calendars,” Burke said.

No calendar has come up for a vote in Fort Mill, but two options were shown Tuesday.

A traditional calendar for 2024-25 would start school on Aug. 19, 2024. Teachers would report a week earlier. Three days off for Thanksgiving would join the typical winter break — in this case from Dec. 19, 2024 to Jan. 3, 2025. Spring break would be the third week of April. School would end on June 5, 2025.

A modified, year-round approach would start school two weeks earlier, on Aug. 5, 2024. Thanksgiving wouldn’t change. Neither would the number of teacher work days, half days and early release days, though the dates for them would shift. Winter break would run Dec. 23, 2024 through Jan. 2, 2025 with a teacher work day the following day, a Friday. Spring break would be a week later, compared to the traditional model. The last day of school would be May 29, 2025.

New in the modified calendar are two weeks off for students. They would come Oct. 14-18, 2024 and March 17-21, 2025. Each of those weeks includes a teacher work day.

South Carolina law requires public schools to start no sooner than the third Monday in August. Area school districts have long wanted to start school earlier to even out instruction time before and after winter break. It’s particularly important in high school where block scheduling means students take most classes only for half the school year.

Fort Mill board member Michele Branning has held various state level school advocacy positions in her time on the board. Branning said the school start date has been her personal project the past seven years, and she’s met with legislators and others on the issue. She’s also spoken with districts around the state, and the almost two dozen that have gone with modified calendars to date won’t be the last.

“It’s going to be more than that,” Branning said. “They’re talking about it, looking at it.”

The modified calendar has been an option since 2007, but the idea picked up steam the past couple of years.

“It just never had a definition and nobody ever really explained what a modified year-round calendar is,” Burke said.

The modified calendar shown Tuesday would perfectly split the school year in two 90-day terms. The 2024-25 school year is a particularly difficult year for the traditional approach, given August starts on a Thursday next year and schools have to take off for elections in November.

“This is the worst case scenario for a calendar,” Burke said. “This is the calendar we try to avoid as often as possible.”

In other years, like when August starts on a Sunday or Monday, calendars aren’t as problematic.

Summers typically would be a week shorter. Because the coming school year is traditional, the switch to a modified year-round model would further shrink the summer.

There also are childcare needs for two extra weeks during the school year. School sports could be impacted from summer conditioning to schedules during the October and March off weeks. Lots of community organizations use Fort Mill schools, like the town parks and recreation department, which typically calls off practices and games when schools aren’t open.

Involvement with the community, from facility use to summer camps and other events, is part of the reason the district began approving calendars two years in advance.

“Our community is planning their life around that calendar, too,” Burke said.

Epps said if new schools open in the 2025 to 2027 range, an earlier start could be an issue as construction typically runs right up through the summer to a start date. The district has a proposed zoning change in front of county planners now for a site that would bring a new middle and elementary school.

“We’re going to have construction people who are going to want to beg us to stretch it out,” Epps said.

Burke said in informal conversations with parents, he’s heard excitement for the weeks off in October and March as families could travel at off peak times.

Those weeks also would be used to help students in need during terms, rather than waiting until summer school. The district could contract with teachers who would like to help those students during remediation weeks, but it wouldn’t be required.

“It’s intended to be a break,” said Board Chair Kristy Spears, “unless a student is in that situation.”

The most significant positive for school officials would be the balanced schedule they’ve long wanted but couldn’t achieve by traditional means under current state law. A modified calendar still keeps significant time off for summer while improving other parts of the calendar.

“It still gets close to meeting when we want to be in and out of school,” Burke said.

Parents, students and teachers aren’t the only ones impacted.

Carowinds is a driving economic force in the region, and many Fort Mill students work there during the summer. Leroy Springs & Co. employs many for summer camps, after-school programs and similar activities throughout the year.

“They’re going to be impacted too,” Epps said.

Epps said he’s spoken with Leroy Springs, parent company to the Anne Springs Close Greenway. Branning said in the past she spoke with Carowinds, as state legislators voiced concern on how any potential law change on the start date might impact the tourism force. Branning said those partners, like parents, need to know what the district intends to do -- and have time to adjust.

“Carowinds is now going to year-round, so their impact may be minimal, or shifting,” Branning said.

Board members say whatever the likes and dislikes, whether from the community or school staff, participation in the upcoming survey will be critical. The district intends to email it out on Monday. Respondents will have the ability to write in whatever thoughts they’d like to share. A final decision will come this spring.

“It’s really critically important that our public takes the time to respond,” Branning said.

This story was originally published January 11, 2023 11:11 AM.

In South Carolina, cold storage warehousing and logistics company FlexCold will invest $49.9 million to establish operations in Dorchester County. The project will create 59 new jobs, and operations are expected to be online by late summer 2024.

“We are thrilled to be expanding our footprint by establishing operations within a modern cold storage facility strategically located close to the Port of Charleston,” said FlexCold Co-Founder Jeff Manno. “We’re proud to further add to the economic development of the area in a meaningful and tangible way by helping meet the need to accommodate critical import and export business, specifically seafood.”

Charleston-based FlexCold specializes in cold storage warehousing and logistics by providing customers with personalized cold storage expertise and targeting strategic locations that are advantageous to today’s evolving food supply chain. The company focuses on storing, handling, and distributing poultry, seafood, meat, packaged goods and frozen produce.

“We are proud to announce another innovative cold storage chain locating in South Carolina,” commented Gov. Henry McMaster. “It’s companies such as FlexCold that will continue to enhance our supply chain by providing profound ideas and cutting-edge talent. We welcome FlexCold and look forward to the positive impact that they will make in the state and the Dorchester County community.”

Located in North Charleston, the Dorchester County facility marks FlexCold’s first cold storage location in South Carolina and its second facility in the U.S. The new operations will include a highly modern, cold food storage facility to accommodate a diverse customer base with a focus on receiving a substantial amount of imported goods. Operationally, FlexCold will provide import and export services, U.S. Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration inspections, labeling and repacking, and cross-docking services.

“SC Ports has significantly upgraded its refrigerated capabilities to efficiently handle more frozen and fresh products for the growing Southeast consumer base,” said SC Ports President and Chief Executive Officer Barbara Melvin. “FlexCold’s investment will complement these efforts and further enhance the cold chain in South Carolina. This innovative facility will expand the ability to move more frozen products, such as seafood, through the Port of Charleston.”

Element Designs To Relocate HQ, Manufacturing Operations To York County

Element Designs will invest $5 million to relocate its headquarters and manufacturing operations to York County. The aluminum frame glass cabinet door manufacturer will bring approximately 100 new jobs to Fort Mill over the next five years. Operations are expected to be online in the second quarter of 2023.

“We are very excited to move our headquarters to Fort Mill, SC. We already feel very welcomed and can’t wait to call it our new home,” said Element Designs President and Chief Executive Officer Mike Uebersax. “It will be a transformational move for our company. This new location and state of the art facility will not only provide us with the necessary room to grow, but it will also be a testament to what we as a company want to be recognized for: an innovative industry leader that produces beautiful products in a sustainable way. Its proximity to our current location was also very important as we want our incredible team to move with us and enjoy the benefits of this new space to call home.”

Charlotte-based Element Designs’ product offerings have expanded to include custom glass and acrylic surfacing solutions and components. All products are made and fabricated in the U.S., with manufacturing processes that use water-based coatings and recycled materials to create products for customers across North America.

Element Designs’ new 112,840-square-foot facility will serve as the company’s joint headquarters and manufacturing operations, allowing the company to efficiently serve its international customers, including many well-known manufacturers in the kitchen, bath and office furniture industries.

The SC Coordinating Council for Economic Development has approved job development credits related to this project.

The Ritedose Corporation To Expand In Richland County

The Ritedose Corporation will invest $81 million to expand its operations in Richland County. The locally owned and operated pharmaceutical manufacturer will create 94 new jobs with this project. Phase one of the expansion and the addition of approximately 50 of the 94 total jobs will be completed in early 2024.

“This initial phase of the expansion project will allow The Ritedose Corporation to continue to deliver over 1 billion doses of respiratory maintenance drugs to the U.S. population, while providing the runway for multiple drugs in various stages of development to be commercialized in the coming years,” said The Ritedose Corporation President and Chief Executive Officer Jody Chastain.

The Ritedose Corporation operates a state-of-the-art “blow-fill-seal” (BFS) facility, where liquid-pharmaceuticals are formulated, filled and packaged for distribution. For over 25 years, The Ritedose Corporation has been an industry leader in the aseptic production of sterile, single-dose medication, serving the contract development manufacturing, generics and 503B outsourcing markets. The company’s customers range from small startups and retail pharmacies to large pharmaceutical companies, wholesalers and hospital systems.