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  • Shell Building Becoming Reality

    After reworking the original concept and a project re-bid, ground was finally broken last week on Blythewood’s shell building. Digging in at Doko Meadows last Wednesday are: Larry Griffin, Town Councilman; Ed Parler, Economic Development Consultant; Bill Hart, CEO Fairfield Electric Cooperative; Blythewood Mayor J. Michael Ross; Town Councilmen Eddie Baughman and Malcolm Gordge and Kevin Key, Lyn/Rich Contracting Co., Inc. (Photo/Barbara Ball)
    After reworking the original concept and a project re-bid, ground was finally broken last week on Blythewood’s shell building. Digging in at Doko Meadows last Wednesday are: Larry Griffin, Town Councilman; Ed Parler, Economic Development Consultant; Bill Hart, CEO Fairfield Electric Cooperative; Blythewood Mayor J. Michael Ross; Town Councilmen Eddie Baughman and Malcolm Gordge and Kevin Key, Lyn/Rich Contracting Co., Inc. (Photo/Barbara Ball)

    BLYTHEWOOD (Sept. 8, 2016) – After several stops and starts and adjustments to the overall plan, Blythewood’s spec building on the grounds of Doko Meadows Park is at last on its way to becoming a reality.

    “It’s for real this time,” Ed Parler, the Town’s Economic Development consultant, told The Voice last week, just days after a ground-breaking ceremony at the site. “We’ve awarded the contract, and construction should begin in the next seven to 10 days.”

    The Town announced the winning bid on the project last month after Lyn-Rich Contracting Co., Inc. of West Columbia submitted a base bid of $379,850. With options, which Town Council voted to accept, the Lyn-Rich bid came to $388,100. Those options include walkways and special fire protection equipment.

    The August bids were the second round of bids on the project. Council put the construction out for bid a second time after bids opened last June came in ranging from $524,000 to $761,455 – all well over the $410,000 budget for the project.

    The June bids forced Council and architect Ralph Walden to rethink the scope of the spec building.

    “We had the specs beyond a shell,” Walden said in July, “and that proved to be the wrong direction. We had wiring, 800 amps for a kitchen, HVAC and a slab. The plan was to give the end-user a little more for his money.”

    Specifications for the second round of bids included only rough plumbing and eliminated the HVAC unit. Also eliminated were interior doors and ceiling tiles, connection to water and sewer and all walkways. Finished siding was substituted for primed siding and paint. Specifications were changed for deck and rail materials, windows, doors and shingles.

    The spec – or “shell” – building is itself a scaled-down version of a plan three years ago for the Town to build a restaurant in the park, utilizing grant money from the Fairfield Electric Co-Op and a $1 million loan from Santee Cooper. That plan called for the Town to construct a restaurant and lease the facility out. But a newly elected Town Council balked at that idea.

    “The new Council had questions about the Town being in the restaurant business and carrying all that debt,” Parler said. “So we scaled down the project. Rather than doing a fully fitted out building, we would construct a shell. Hopefully, by the first of the year we will be able to sell it and have the owner finish it out.”

    And while there are certain restrictions on what kind of business could set up shop in a building located in a publicly owned park, Parler said the likelihood is high that it would be a restaurant after all. The building could also serve as an office building, Parler said.

    Fairfield Electric Co-Op has been instrumental in making the shell building a reality, Parler said. A 2013 economic development grant from the Co-Op netted the Town $240,714, and a year later the Co-Op pitched in another $216,167, for a total of $456,881, Parler said.

    Last month, Town Administrator Gary Parker told Council that the Town still holds $325,916 of the original $456,881 utility grant from Fairfield Electric Co-Op. The balance of the costs of the shell building, Parker said, can probably be taken from Hospitality Tax revenue.

    Parler said the Town’s intent is to recover those funds with the sale of the shell building.

    Construction is slated to begin any day now, Parler said, and should be wrapped up in approximately 150 days. The Town will begin marketing the building for sale in November.

     

  • Fighting for Green Space

    Cobblestone Residents Look to P.C. for Help

    BLYTHEWOOD (Sept. 8, 2016) – After discovering in July that Cobblestone Park developer D.R. Horton is planning to build six new roads and 74 more homes in what residents thought would remain green space around their homes in the Primrose section of Cobblestone, Lenora Zedosky and about 30 of her Primrose neighbors appeared before the Town’s Planning Commission to protest the development, saying, “We were told (by the developer) that the green space would always be there.”

    Zedosky and her neighbors appeared again at Tuesday evening’s Planning Commission meeting to report that four days after their July protest, D.R. Horton upped the ante, displaying in the Cobblestone Clubhouse an entirely different road/housing plan for the Primrose section that included two more roads and 10 more new homes.

    “In this new plan, the backs of homes would face Primrose, which is the primary entrance into our neighborhood,” Zedosky said. “To our knowledge, the new plan has not been presented to Council, but is already being marketed. That’s a great concern to us. It’s an entirely different plan than was approved by you in October 2014.

    “We are not trying to stop all development,” Zedosky continued. “We just want a buffer and no clear cutting, which has been the habit we’ve seen so far.”

    Commission Chairman Buddy Price asked Town Administrator Gary Parker to confirm that the developer cannot move forward with the proposed construction until it comes before the Planning Commission for approval.

    Parker agreed.

    “We had a meeting with the developer about a week ago and saw the new proposal, but there’s a ways to go,” Parker reassured Zedosky.

    Following the meeting, Michael Criss, the Town’s Planning Consultant, reviewed for The Voice the steps the developer will need to complete in order to progress to the construction and sales stages of the project.

    “After the developer brings a sketch plan to the Town Administrator, he will then send it to the Planning Commission for a preliminary plat approval,” Criss said.

    “That’s a full civil engineering plan – roads, street drainage, water, sewer, as well as other infrastructure,” Criss said. “At that point, if the plan is approved by the Commission, work can begin on the infrastructure (grading, pipes in the ground, sidewalks, paving, etc.) When this work is finished, the developer will bring a final plat to the Commission for approval. When that’s approved, they can start selling.”

    Asked if the Commission had the authority to outright turn down the plan because of the residents’ objections, Criss said any approval or disapproval must follow zoning regulations spelled out in Chapter 153 of the Town’s zoning ordinances.

    “The developer has already been given the authority to build so many homes, so the Commission can make some suggestions for the plan, but there is just so much land available to build on. We have to be fair with how the houses and streets are arranged to accommodate what has been approved,” Parker said.

    Franklin Elected Chairman

    In other business, the Commission members unanimously elected Commissioner Bryan Franklin as Chairman. Buddy Price said he was stepping down from the Planning Commission after six years to give someone else an opportunity to serve.

     

  • Blythewood Reads Honors Vets

    ‘Eli the Good’ Featured at Sept. 22 Event

    BLYTHEWOOD (Sept. 1, 2016) – Last May, the Blythewood community came together in solidarity to remember fallen service members by hosting the Wall that Heals, a memorial honoring those who died during the Vietnam War. Fiona Smith, Library Associate at the Blythewood Library, watched as the community embraced one another and shared memories of their past.

    In an effort to keep the camaraderie alive, she has challenged Blythewood to read “Eli the Good,” a book that tells the story of the aftermath of Vietnam on a small Southern town. She hopes the public will join her for the Blythewood Reads event at the Langford-Nord House on Sept. 22 to discuss the book and share their own wartime stories.

    “The book is about a Vietnam vet who has returned to a community like Blythewood. He comes back – it’s 1975 – and his sister moves in with the family. She’d been a protester,” Smith said. “We decided [the book] would be good because a lot of people reminisced about that era. They liked hearing about the ’70s and remembered things that had happened to them. We also thought it might inform younger people about the conflicts that went on.”

    The event is shaping up to be larger than expected, Smith said. “Eli the Good” has been checked out roughly 45 times and five different book clubs have expressed interest in attending. Volunteers are bringing cookies and tray bakes, and the library is serving water and sweet tea to attendees.

    “The house itself has several spaces where we can have groups, but there are also picnic tables outside so we can spread out. We’re going to have small groups with facilitators so people aren’t intimidated. We’ve got five facilitators so far, and we’ll look out for another one or two just in case,” Smith said.

    She is hoping the high schools get involved come November and use the book for their lessons on the Vietnam War. The goal is to keep people engaged by learning about the past and to strengthen the bond within the Blythewood community. Smith hopes to continue Blythewood Reads in the future and to find a new book to engross Blythewood’s bookworms.

    Blythewood Reads will be hosted at the Langford-Nord House on Sept. 22 at 7:30 p.m.