electrician in Kershaw, SC

CASSATT, S.C. — Two solar farms, Project "Creed" and Project "1802," are being considered for Kershaw County.

"They are going to be solar farms projects. At this point, the county is working with the consultant for the company that's proposed these projects, and we're just going through basically the first steps," said Jeff Burgess, the Kershaw County economic development director.

He said the projects would be in and around Cassatt but couldn't provide the exact location. That's left residents with mixed opinions.

"If it's a smaller thing or somewhere where, if you can't see it, I don't think it's a big deal," resident Joshua Kelly said. "If it's right there on the road and it's an eye sore, I don't think anyone will like that."

"I'm okay with it in our community," said Dean Elliott, the pastor at Cassatt Baptist Church.

Burgess said the project is expected to bring significant revenue to the area.

"Right at $282 million in investment, that's both projects come in investment; the property they are looking at is about $7,000 in taxes a year. With improvements they do on it, it's a $495,000 profit to the county on the revenue, so it's a win-win," he said. "There's not a whole lot of effort in it, and it brings that revenue in the county they can, then disburse."

Related Articles

Based on planning and zoning regulations, solar farms must be 100 feet from all roads' right-of-way, and there must be a 50-foot planted buffer if it's near existing residences. But before any of that can happen, Burgess said many more steps will come.

"At this point, they still have to do several steps: an interconnectivity study with the utility provider, then the power purchase agreement known as the PPA. And that would need to be negotiated between the utility companies. Once they get that part settled, then they come back county, and then we move forward with first, second, third reading," Burgess adds.

Before the project can move forward, planning and zoning officials said there must also be a 15-foot height limitation, mandatory fencing and a glint and glare study to ensure no impact. Officials must also consider a decommissioning plan for when a solar farm is no longer used.

The county currently has an ordinance only allowing people to stay 3 months, but that may be changing soon.

KERSHAW COUNTY, S.C. — Those visiting Kershaw County and planning to stay at campground or RV sites may soon be able to stay longer than 3 months.

“It is huge,” says Christopher Renfroe, owner of Renfroe Ranch Campground.

Renfroe has been advocating for the county to change the current policy, which only allows guests to stay 3 months at a campground before they must leave.

“I would say 80% of our traffic to 90% of our traffic in income would more than likely come from longer than 3-month stays,” Renfroe said.

He says many who come to a campground like his are either construction workers or new residents looking to build, and once they realize they can only stay for 3 months, they might take their business elsewhere.

RELATED: Checking out a park passport at your local library can get you into South Carolina state parks for free

“It makes it a lot harder, especially being a new small campground. We have a lot of transient workers that come through needing way more than 3 months, so they go to our surrounding counties which offer long-term camping,” Renfroe added.

Councilmember Derek Shoemake says several campgrounds are excluded from the current ordinance of only 3 months, as they were grandfathered in before a previous council made the change.

Now, the county is taking steps to change that ordinance again, ensuring small businesses like Renfroe Ranch have room to grow.

RELATED: Changes could be coming to residential growth in Kershaw County

“We voted to send through Planning and Zoning a change to the ordinance that would take 3 months and expand it to 9 months," Shoemake said. "It would also add a record-keeping requirement so it would be easier to know when someone was staying at a campground.”

Shoemake says Planning and Zoning will look at the request or take away provisions altogether allowing someone to stay as long as they like. He says he supports extended stays, but doesn’t want to throw out all rules.

The new draft is expected to be taken by council in August.

The facility is meant to hold around 86 inmates, but in recent years has held 120-140 at times

KERSHAW COUNTY, S.C. — Kershaw County leaders are dealing with an urgent problem, too many inmates inside the Kershaw County jail.

The situation has been growing for years, and now they're searching for solutions.

"We're over capacity and there are a lot of different factors in that, COVID, the pandemic had a huge role to play, also the way cases are prosecuted or handled has a part to play, but the main thing is growth, Kershaw County has seen so much growth in the past 10 years," says Kershaw County Chairwoman, Katie Guinn.

She says the facility was designed to hold around 86 people, but at times it’s housed between 120 to 150 inmates.

"There have been some conversions of some areas that weren't original places for cells but they've been converted to cells," adds Guinn.

With an influx of people moving into the area and the detention center running at full capacity, Guinn says they are now examining their options.

"The company who presented us with the study also brings back a workup of different scenarios, so one scenario would be expansion of the current jail and renovations of the current building or the other situation would be building a new jail" she adds.

Related Articles

A change new resident to the county, Kimberly Wiggers supports.

“I think I would like to see something done for the inmates, and residents of Camden as well, but if it’s warranted I think it’s an issue that needs to be addressed,” says Wiggers.

Chairwoman Guinn expects this process to take a couple of months, but in the meantime, they plan to address some of the immediate issues.

"In 2023-2024 we allocated $600,000 to capital projects renovations. The biggest priority project is the roof, so right now we're making smaller fixes what I call band-aids until we get these engineering and architectural plans in place to make a determination," Guinn adds.

Chairwoman Katie Guinn expects a plan to be in place within the next year, but there's no specific date for when all the changes will be implemented.

Improving child care access across the state, that’s one goal of South Carolina First Steps.

KERSHAW, S.C. (WCSC) - Improving child care access across the state, that’s one goal of South Carolina First Steps, an initiative designed to make sure all children can start school ready to reach their highest potential.

For a town of 2,500, the new Clyburn Early Childhood Center will help families and will open its doors Thursday to children in Kershaw and Lancaster County. The new Clyburn Early Childhood Center is the only licensed child care center in the town.

The new center is located in a former bank building, a two-story 10,000-square-foot structure built in 1910. Lancaster County First Steps is the operator. They’ll offer free full-day education at the Clyburn Center to children K4 before they go to kindergarten.

Georgia Mjartan, Director of South Carolina First Steps, says South Carolina has a problem. The problem is that child care is scarce. Mjartan says this was a problem before COVID. It’s about the financial infrastructure of child care. And the town of Kershaw and all of its residents were experiencing that challenge. She says the lack of child care access is in both rural and urban communities in the state.

“In some of the urban communities, there may appear to be lots of children when you see a child care center when you’re driving down the street, but many families’ experiences are that many of the providers are full,” Mjartan says.

Mjartan says access to early learning is important for First Steps and filling in gaps where there are needs. Resources to build the centers, sustain them, renovate and provide an appropriately compensated educator workforce are all needed to make sure child care is provided.

“And ultimately, it’s a partnership between parents and early educators to make sure that their young children start school with everything they need to thrive,” Mjartan says, “To be ready for success in kindergarten and beyond. That’s what a 4K program is all about. And that’s why we’re so pleased to be a part of this project.”

Mjartan says if you don’t live in the area not to fret, they have over 250 4K programs across the state that families can enroll in fully free and publicly funded. The application is completely online, and you can click the link to apply.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.

Council was presented with three different designs for the $10 million project.

KERSHAW COUNTY, S.C. — Kershaw County is making significant strides toward establishing its inaugural recreation center, with the design phase now complete.

The council has been presented with three preliminary architectural proposals for the recreation center. The first plan involves overhauling Woodward Park, adding soccer fields, baseball fields, and more.

The second plan replicates this but focuses on Larry Doby Park in Lugoff. The third option seeks to distribute the project's scope between both parks.

"Our recreation staff has been working with an engineering firm, and they put together three design plans for a portion of what our master recreation plan will be," Kershaw County Councilmember Brant Tomlinson said.

He said this portion of the recreation overhaul costs around $10 million and would bring options to the county they've never had before.

"It's not just baseball and soccer; it's not just your youth recreation; it has a chance for the elderly people to get out there, walking tracks, and engineering lighting, which is very important," he said.

"There are three designs. One is updating Larry Dobby completely, so it would be adding - there is existing infrastructure already there, but it would be making baseball fields and soccer fields all in one," he added. "The second would be updating the existing Woodward Park, and the third option is to split it up between the two, so having the existing Woodward be the baseball complex; and the soccer, football, and flag football go to Larry Doby."

The decision regarding which plan the county sees has a few more steps.

"We're going to have public hearings across the county coming up, so we will have public input on what they want and where they would like to see the options come. ... Then it comes back to council for us to make a decision upon," he said.

Tomlinson said public comment will come in several months, and there is no expectation of when this project will go under construction.

Financing for the project is derived from American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds coupled with donations of $3 million each from the Kershaw County Health District and the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). Authorities said $10 million is allocated for Woodward Park or Larry Doby, while the remaining funds will facilitate upgrades to Cayce West and the rejuvenation of parks in the Bethune and Mt. Pisgah communities.