Oil Change in Johns Island, SC

JOHNS ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - Our Lady of Mercy Community Outreach on Johns Island is making sure adults know it is never too late to further their education with their GED program.

The South Carolina Revenue and Fiscal Affairs office estimates over 315,000 adults in the state between 18 and 65 have less than a high school diploma from 2018 to 2022. Charleston County alone tallies just over 18,000 in those numbers.

Adults 21 and older can sign up on the first day of the organization’s 14-week GED program starting Tuesday from 9 a.m. to noon.

The second day of registration takes place Jan. 21. Leaders say it is required for interested students to participate during the entire session to register. Registration will take place at the Johns Island branch at 1684 Brownswood Road.

Education Coordinator for Our Lady of Mercy Community Outreach, Lara Vo, says parents and older adults typically join the course. The education coordinator says older adults want to qualify for jobs with less physical labor. Vo says she finds the push for higher education inspiring.

“That self-determination and that empowerment within themselves to reach this goal because they feel like they deserve it, is something that I think is really inspiring and fairly common with a lot of our students,” Vo says. “We also have a lot of folks that are trying to get it because they want to improve their lifestyles.”

The organization partners with Charleston County School District’s Adult Education program. The program pays for testing fees for students which can run between $150 to $174 dollars in total depending on in-person or online testing.

Students also receive help through the organization’s career services.

“Once you get your GED, if you want, or even before you get your GED, we can meet with you and talk to you about resumes, interviews, things that you can do right now to improve your life if it’s coming for a job,” Vo says.

Other requirements for class registration include being 250% below the federal poverty line. The annual income for a family of four in this range is $78,000.

Leaders with the organization’s education outreach center have other programs available to the younger community. Volunteers participate in an after school academic support program in partnership with Angel Oak Elementary school. The program uses mentors to support 16 children from second to fifth grade on homework help and behavioral help.

Information on getting involved with the organization is on their website.

Copyright 2025 WCSC. All rights reserved.

Published: Dec. 17, 2024 at 7:45 PM PST|

JOHNS ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - Construction of a multi-million-dollar fire station on Johns Island that has been talked about for years is officially moving forward.

This project took a significant step after the City of Charleston approved a construction manager at risk, or CMAR, contract during Tuesday night’s council meeting.

A CMAR is when a construction manager agrees to take on a project and complete it within a set guaranteed maximum price, or GMP, and if construction services end up exceeding the GMP that was agreed upon, the construction manager is responsible for those costs.

The set GMP that City officials approved for the CMAR contract Tuesday night is $12.4 million.

Fire Station number 23 is planned to sit on Maybank Highway at Wildts Battery Boulevard. Plans call for it to include a training room, three bays and two units: an engine company and a ladder company. Officials say there would be four personnel working on each unit.

“To have enough apparatus and units to respond when we need it, so this will provide for growth as we go forward as well as we continue to plan for future growth beyond this,” Deputy Chief Forrest Cockcroft says. “But right now this will give us another engine and a ladder to really beef up that initial first response that we get on most of our fires, especially on our commercial fires.”

The Charleston Fire Department only has one station on Johns Island, which is Fire Station 17 located on Bohicket Road.

Cockcroft says that they currently have coverage of all of Johns Island between the Charleston Fire Department and St. Johns Fire Department, but they are looking ahead to meet the demand as the population grows by adding this new fire station.

“One of the things we try to look to is to make sure that we have the appropriate amount of personnel on scene for a structure fire or different type of call types, so we have some benchmarks that we try to meet with that and this will allow us to meet those benchmarks much more quickly because we’ve got much more density of stations going in and additional firefighters on the road,” Cockcroft says.

City of Charleston council member, Jim McBride, who represents Johns Island says that this new fire station will also help out other stations in the surrounding areas.

“Sometimes fire stations from James Island and West Ashley have to come augment us if there is a big fire, so getting this station on there on Maybank will actually free them up to focus more on their areas, so it impacts not just Johns Island, but also James Island and West Ashley,” McBride says.

McBride says that the City of Charleston Fire Chief, Dan Curia, has been working ahead and training two fire teams that will occupy the new fire station once it is built.

He says that they expect shovels in the ground for this project in early 2025 with it expected to be finished by the end of the year.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

A family homestead along River Road. A wooded tract near Main Road once used to train horses. An old cattle farm recently considered as a possible county burn site. These three medium-size tracts on Johns Island have different pasts but now share a common future, as their owners successfully worked with the Lowcountry Land Trust and Charleston County's Greenbelt Program to ensure they will remain in a largely undeveloped state.

Each is worth celebrating on its own merits, but the combined effect of these three — along with two other recent greenbelt deals on Johns Island — show there's important momentum continuing to build to ensure that this Sea Island continues to retain part of its traditional, rural flavor, even as more new homes are built there every day.

And it's a sign that keeping Johns Island's character cannot be done by government alone, though zoning, urban growth boundaries and policies limiting infrastructure's spread are certainly important and vital tools. No, success also will require the support and cooperation of the landowners themselves, who should consider doing something similar to what the owners of the three properties mentioned above just did: value conservation work along with what financial return their property might bring them.

In two cases, the Johns Island conservation outcome was aided by owners willing to sell their land for somewhat less than what an appraisal said. In another, the owners retained the property and their two homes but agreed to a conservation easement to prevent any further development on their acreage in exchange for a $380,000 payment, less than half of what the concession is deemed to be worth.

The Lowcountry Land Trust took some risk on the front side assembling these deals, which not only will prevent development but also create new parks and walking trails for the island's growing population, according to Natalie Olson, the trust's Sea Islands program director. "My role is specifically focused on the Sea Islands, and it's been long recognized we need to increase the number of parks and outdoor recreational areas, especially on Johns Island, with the population growth there," she tells us. "Our goal is to protect the island's rural character by balancing growth with conservation."

Each project has its own story. The Barrier Islands Little League approached the trust a few years ago, noting it had too few ballfields to meet demand, and the organizations agreed to work together on a rural park the league could own and maintain in the long term. They found a 40-acre parcel on Main Road with a home and 13 nearby acres used for horses. The trust bought the land for $1.67 million, which the county's greenbelt program provided. The landowner discounted the price by $280,000, and the league agreed to use the farm area for about three to five new ballfields, while the house will provide restroom, office and concession space. Two thirds of the property will be left in its wooded state with new walking trails.

Just kitty-corner across Main Road, the trust worked with the owners of the 94-acre Grayson Oaks tract, a former cattle farm that the county had considered for a burn site a few years ago but met strong opposition. The trust was granted $2.9 million from the greenbelt program, and the S.C. Conservation Bank granted $600,000. Still, the $3.5 million purchase price was $500,000 below the appraised value. The trust plans to restrict its future use to farming, and create walking trails in the wooded portion of the property.

The 49-acre property known as Oscar's Place sits along River Road and includes two parcels with one home apiece, the owners of which wanted to maintain ownership but place restrictions on their property to ensure its forests and fields don't see any future development. The trust's conservation easement will do that, and we encourage the S.C. Conservation Bank to look favorably next month on chipping in to cover a portion of the easement cost, which also will protect the Johns Island park known as Mullet Hall next door.

The most exciting element is how these three deals just happened to come together at the same time, and we hope it spurs further interest in conservation on the Sea Island. "It's been really inspiring to see the response from the community because it's almost like there's a sense of hope and momentum toward the balance of growth and conservation we're seeing out here," Ms. Olson says.

These deals — and the many diverse benefits they offer — also underscore why Charleston County Council should include more money for greenbelts, parks and land conservation in its widely expected 2026 referendum to continue an existing half-percent sales tax.

And these three deals also illustrate that conservation should be valued not only for wildlife and protecting forests and farms and an area's traditional feel, but it also should be valued just as much for how it can improve our quality of life.

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Published: Dec. 3, 2024 at 1:45 PM PST|

JAMES ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - The Town of James Island plans to build a brand-new Arts and Cultural Center in the future, and town leaders want to know your vision for it.

Town officials invite you to a public input meeting next week as an opportunity to share your ideas for the new facility.

Mayor Brook Lyon said the design plan is still in the very beginning stages, but your input still matters.

“Everyone has ownership in it so everyone has a stake in it, so everyone feels a part of it and so it meets the needs of the majority of the people that will be using it and enjoying it,” she said.

Lyon said prior to this plan, the town didn’t have a dedicated arts and cultural building, so they leased the old library building from Charleston County for the past four years.

“It’s been a wonderful opportunity, but the space, the building itself needs a new roof and some repairs, and it’s a large expense to put into a building we don’t own. Council decided because of the expensive repairs as well as issues with parking, it would be prudent to move operations to town hall temporarily, close the current art center temporarily, move the operations to town hall, and then we’re moving forward with plans to build a new art center,” she said.

Lyon said the old library sufficed for the time being but doesn’t make sense financially to continue using it long term.

“It would not be financially prudent to put town money into that much money into a building we don’t own. And there were some stipulations on the parking. The parking lot is privately owned, and that was another issue that we felt like if we move our own art center over here, we have all the parking we need. We own the building, so it makes sense to put town money into a building that we own,” she said.

Lyon said this is the perfect opportunity for you to tell those in charge what your priorities are before any final plans are made.

We’ll have a survey for people to fill out. They can ask questions. I hope to have a slide presentation of the state-of-the-art center that I hope that we can mirror some of those qualities and meet the needs of the citizens that are interested in this wonderful opportunity,” she said.

According to a press release, the town council voted on Nov. 21 to move forward with plans for the new center: “Despite not owning the building, town taxpayers would have been responsible for these repair costs of $250,000 to $400,000 under the lease agreement, along with significantly higher parking costs for even a limited number of spaces at the site.”

The town plans on having more feedback sessions throughout the planning and design process.

“A lot of it is going to depend on what the community wants and what type of building we end up looking at constructing. I don’t have a direct answer for you yet. More will be revealed very soon, but hopefully, we’ll get the best for our dollar and have a great space,” Lyon said.

The new arts center will sit just feet away from the town hall, on the Town’s Hillman Lot.

The public input meeting will be held in the Town Hall Council Chamber on Dec. 11 at 7 p.m.

Lyon said current Arts and Cultural Center programming hasn’t stopped and will continue at James Island Town Hall for now.

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