electrician in Indian Land, SC

Most Lancaster County schools will offer free meals to all students this coming year.

Schools in the fastest-growing part of the county, though, won’t.

“None of the Indian Land schools qualify,” said Angela McCrorey, student nutrition and food services director for the Lancaster County School District.

The school board vigorously debated the free meal decision Tuesday night. Board members said they are caught between wanting to help families in the southern parts of the county and concerns of fairness for the panhandle to the north.

“I think it’s horrible the way the state is doing this,” said board member Eddie Boykin. “But if the money is there and we have an opportunity to help people across this county, we’ve got to do that.”

Some states offer statewide free meals for students. Some don’t.

South Carolina puts the decision, to an extent, on local districts. A recent state legislative rule means districts will have to provide community eligibility — free meals for an entire school or district — to qualifying areas or give notice why the districts aren’t doing it. The rule begins in the 2024-2025 school year.

McCrorey evaluates percentages of students who qualify for free or reduced cost lunches annually. The district has 21 traditional elementary, middle, intermediate and high schools. There also are five more facilities — a charter school, district career center, adult education, learning center and early childhood center. Of the 21 traditional schools, six are in the Indian Land panhandle.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the county had five schools that qualified for what is now a school-wide free meal program. Now, all 15 schools outside of Indian Land qualify. An increase on assistance programs during the pandemic combined with the inclusion of Medicaid recipient students as automatic qualifiers.

“That kind of inflated everybody’s numbers,” McCrorey said. “The Indian Land area did go up some. It’s not where it needs to be for us to be district-wide, community eligibility free.”

The meal program comes from federal money. It would cost the district about $2 million per year of its own money to provide full free meals in non-qualifying Indian Land, too.

“And rising,” McCrorey said. “Because Indian Land is growing faster than any part of the county.”

Board member Melvin Stroble pushed for the board to pay for a district-wide free meal program. Stroble likened the $2 million first-year cost to past decisions such as teacher bonuses, where the board dipped into fund balance for something that was needed.

“We’re telling the kids (outside of Indian Land), don’t worry about your meals,” Stroble said about a decision to make meals free across the district. “Don’t worry about coming to school, we’re going to feed you. We’re going to take care of you. Indian Land, you’ve got to pay and we will continue to send charges and invoices home to those parents.”

Stroble said the issue is equity. Students across the district who qualify for free meals would get them regardless. School-wide programs only impact families that can afford to pay for meals. In 15 schools they wouldn’t have to, but in Indian Land they would, Stroble said.

“Folks are going to understand that all the other schools are being treated differently than Indian Land,” he said.

Indian Land is more affluent than other parts of the county, but the area flooded with half-million-dollar or more homes in recent years also has a higher cost of living, Stroble said. There are concerns in Indian Land that tax revenue goes south already, he said, with issues like athletics or other funding.

Stroble leads the school board subcommittee looking at a bond referendum next spring. Issues like meal funding, he said, can impact issues like the bond.

Superintendent Jonathan Phipps said he understands the Indian Land area is different from other parts of Lancaster County, but also understands the need for equity across the district.

“We need to be a more united district than what we are,” Phipps said. “But I also believe we shouldn’t penalize students because we’re more concerned about the politics of it than we are taking care of the kids.”

Phipps likened the free meal programs at 15 schools outside of Indian Land to the long-held practice of taking money for Title 1 schools in lower socioeconomic areas that support teaching positions or other needed programs.

“This is a federal offer that we’re taking advantage of,” Phipps said.

Phipps said the cost to the district is too high to add in Indian Land schools.

“There’s no way possible we can take that hit,” Phipps said. “If we could, we would.”

INDIAN LAND, S.C. — Zoning documents filed with Lancaster County show a developer wants to build a Costco in Indian Land. The developer, Crosland Southeast, is planning a Costco east of U.S. Highway 521 between Possum Hollow Road and Sandal Brook Road on a vacant 28-acre parcel.

News of Costco’s potential was first reported by UnTap Indian Land.

ALSO READ: Residential development planned in Indian Land

If there’s one thing Indian Land doesn’t lack, it’s grocery stores. And soon Costco will join the mix.

The beloved wholesale giant is known for selling everything from inflatable hot tubs to rotisserie chickens.

“Costco might drive the prices down a little bit,” resident Jenna Czaplinski said. “Competition is good. Free market. That’s what we want.”

Zoning documents show the 156,000-square-foot store will also include a gas station with 24 pumps. The traffic impact study filed with the county shows the megastore may add as many as 10,000 more cars per day.

That’s a lot to add to an already busy stretch of the road.

“That’s not a Costco issue. That’s a Lancaster County issue,” Czaplinski said. “We have to be well-informed, and the road improvements need to happen ahead of time.”

Derek Farley says it will be worth it. He says Costco has a great reputation for treating the community well and doing things the right way.

He hopes the community will back the store with infrastructure to support it.

“There are going to be headaches along the way, but with headaches come relief,” resident Derek Farley said. “I just like progress. You manage for control, and you manage for growth, and I am all about growth.”

There are plans to add traffic lights for the development.

It will likely be a year or two before ground breaks, so people can later purchase the $1.50 hot dog and soda combo.

This will be Costco’s fourth location in the Charlotte area.

VIDEO: Costco: What you need to know

INDIAN LAND, S.C. — JLL has brokered the sale of Promenade at Carolina Reserve, a 255,868-square-foot shopping center in Indian Land, a South Carolina suburb of Charlotte. Jim Hamilton, Brad Buchanan, Tom Kolarczyk and Andrew Kahn of JLL represented the seller, Bandera Ventures, in the transaction. The Dallas-based firm acquired the property early last year. Rikky Goswami with Insight Property Group represented the undisclosed buyer. The sales price was also not disclosed.

Completed in 2018 by Chattanooga, Tenn.-based Hutton, Promenade at Carolina Reserve was fully leased at the time of sale to tenants including T.J. Maxx, Burlington, Ross Dress for Less, HomeGoods, Ulta Beauty, Hobby Lobby and Petco. Located at US Highway 521 at Jim Wilson Road, Promenade at Carolina Reserve is situated 25.4 miles from Charlotte and is about 27 miles from Charlotte Douglas International Airport.

RUTHER GLEN, VA. — The Davis Cos. and Lingerfelt have formed a joint venture to develop Carmel Church Business Center, a 325,500-square-foot industrial park situated 25 miles north of Richmond in Ruther Glen. The rear-load warehouse park will be located off the I-95 corridor and near the Port of Virginia. ARCO Design/Build Richmond, a division of ARCO DB Cos., the construction partner on the project, will break ground immediately. The joint venture expects to deliver Carmel Church in second-quarter 2024.

HIALEAH, FLA. — Locally based residential development firm MG Developer and partner Baron Property Group have announced plans for a $600 million residential development in the Miami suburb of Hialeah. The transit-oriented campus, dubbed Metro Center, will span 2.3 million square feet and feature more than 1,500 new apartments and 35,000 square feet of retail space. The project will be split between three communities — Metro Parc, Metro Parc North and Metro Parc South — that will be situated within walking distance of the Metrorail and Tri-Rail Transfer Station.

MG’s first multifamily building, Metro Parc, is a 559-unit, 10-story building that broke ground in 2022. The 620-unit Metro Parc North will rise next to Metro Parc at 983 E. 26th St. and is expected to be completed in 2026. The new 347-unit Metro Parc South building will be located at 954 and 934 E. 25th St. and is slated for completion in 2027.

SEATTLE — Amazon Web Services (AWS), a division of Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) that offers on-demand cloud computing platforms to individuals, companies and governments, plans to make a big investment in Central Ohio. The company, along with Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, announced the firm will invest approximately $7.8 billion to expand its data center operations in the region by the end of 2029.

AWS is currently undertaking a site selection process across numerous localities in Central Ohio for the new data center campuses, the total number of facilities of which was not disclosed. Final site selections will be decided and announced at a later date. The move is expected to create 230 new jobs and an estimated 1,000 support jobs, according to J.P. Nauseef, president and CEO of JobsOhio, an economic development corporation based in Columbus.

The AWS data center project represents the second-largest single private sector company investment in Ohio’s history, according to the governor’s office. The new data centers will contain computer servers, data storage drives, networking equipment and other forms of technology infrastructure used to power cloud computing.

“Amazon is already one of the largest private-sector employers in Ohio, and the company’s continued growth here further cements Ohio as the heart of our nation’s technology and innovation,” says DeWine. “As more of the world relies on cloud computing, this investment will build on Amazon’s current infrastructure in Ohio to help new and existing businesses grow, allow residents to securely connect to friends and family and provide access to online educational resources and entertainment.”

AWS launched its first data centers in the Midwest in 2016 and currently operates data center campuses in Ohio’s Franklin and Licking counties. The company’s investments and operations have generated over $2 billion in economic benefit for Ohio to date and supported more than 3,000 local secondary jobs on an average annual basis. In 2022, AWS directly employed nearly 1,000 Ohioans, according to the company.

“We are excited to continue our partnership with the state of Ohio and deliver new workforce development and educational programs that support the next generation of talent by emphasizing collaborative, long-term public and private partnerships across the state,” says Roger Wehner, director of economic development at AWS.

In addition to JobsOhio, multiple county and local economic development teams and One Columbus are collaborating with AWS to support the expansion.

Since 2006, AWS has been the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud and now has more than 200 fully featured services for various software and tech capabilities. AWS operates 99 data centers, which the company dubs “Availability Zones,” within 31 geographic regions worldwide. AWS has announced plans for 15 more data centers and five more AWS regions in Canada, Israel, Malaysia, New Zealand and Thailand.

Amazon’s stock price closed on Monday, June 26 at $127.33 per share, up from $113.22 a year ago, a nearly 12.5 percent increase.

A lot still has to happen before Indian Land, or Lancaster County, gets new schools from a bond referendum. And this summer, a lot is happening.

A bond subcommittee for the Lancaster County school board met last week to outline plans ahead of an anticipated public vote in March. It was the fourth meeting for the group, to discuss details that will be laid out for the full school board when it meets July 11.

“This is not something that, I want folks to understand, is in stone,” said school board member and subcommittee facilitator Melvin Stroble. “It gives us a guideline. Milestones to attempt to achieve through this process.”

If the full school board approves, a facility needs committee could be set up by July 19. A 14-member committee would include participants from each voting district in the county. That committee would present recommendations to the bond subcommittee, which would present to the full school board.

“The facility needs committee is, we believe, is critical in this process to ensure that we are continuing to gain community input and feedback in this process,” Stroble said.

The bond subcommittee isn’t committing to specific projects before the facility needs group does its work. Yet, there are obvious need areas. Indian Land is one of the fastest-growing areas in the Carolinas. Earlier in the week at a medical facility ribbon cutting, state Rep. Mike Neese noted how Indian Land transitioned from an area that didn’t have a grocery store to what now would be, if incorporated, the eighth largest city in the state.

Mary Beth Braham with architectural firm LS3P, a company approved by the school board for design work, mentioned several potential projects that have come up already in discussion about the bond next spring. Braham mentioned a new elementary and middle school for Indian Land at 1,000 students each, an elementary school in Lancaster for 600 students, a gym at Andrew Jackson High School and athletic upgrades in Buford. The subcommittee also mentioned a land sale in Indian Land at Wednesday’s meeting.

Nothing about that list if final or official.

“Clearly these are just the beginning points, of ideas,” Braham said.

If the bond plan progresses, the subcomittee would hear back from the facility needs committee on Aug. 2. The school board could select bond council in executive session on Aug. 15 and recommendations could be finalized on Aug. 30 for presentation to the school board. A public comment period would follow and draft wording on a bond referendum question could follow on Oct. 17.

If all those steps transpire, a bond referendum vote would come March 26, 2024.

The bond process this time is similar to one from 2016. Then, almost $200 million in bond money paid for a new high school and elementary school in Indian Land and land for the high school along with a host of upgrades at schools countywide.

INDIAN LAND, S.C. — Schools in the southern part of the Lancaster County will now offer free meals to all students. However, kids in Indian Land who do not qualify for free or reduced lunch will still have to pay.

Some parents said the decision sends the wrong message. They told Channel 9′s Tina Terry it creates more division between Indian Land and the rest of the school district, and it could hurt some kids.

“I’m a bit surprised and taken back that the school board decides it’s OK to treat Indian Land different, rather than looking for a way to treat everyone equally,” said Revery Johnson.

Johnson raised four kids in Indian Land. He told Terry he’s disappointed in the recent change, which means schools would serve free breakfast and lunch to every child in the district except those in Indian Land.

At a meeting Tuesday, the school board of trustees talked about the new community eligibility program that is making it possible. Schools with a certain percentage of students who qualify for free and reduced meals can now offer free meals to every student, regardless of their economic status.

Schools in the southern part of the county qualify for the program but none of the schools in Indian Land do.

“We certainly have to look at how we can make this work so we’re not creating a further divide in our district,” said board trustee Melvin Stroble.

Stroble suggested holding off on the vote. He also proposed using general fund money to pay to include Indian Land schools -- about $2 million. Leaders decided against spending that money.

“In Indian Land, there are a lot of people living paycheck to paycheck, people that are working every hour to afford to live here, because it’s closer to where they work,” Johnson said. “That check they will write every week for meals makes a difference in their budget.”

Local leaders who supported the change said they didn’t create the rules that qualify schools for this program.

The district can re-evaluate whether to spend its own money to expand the program next year.

(WATCH BELOW: Caldwell County schools providing kids with lunch through the summer)