Mortgage Broker in Johns Island, SC

JOHNS ISLAND, S.C. (WCBD) – After the weekend, the Johns Island and Lowcountry community came together to help out St. John’s High School.

The local high school hasn’t had a traditional homecoming dance since 2020, but this year they are bringing it back. One student on the dance’s committee took to Facebook and sent out a post hoping to make this year’s homecoming special.

“She was worried our homecoming dance wasn’t going to happen,” Erin Longshore, a teacher at St. John’s High School, said. “I think her original intention was to see if she could get a couple of things here and there for us to have really great decorations and from there it just kind of exploded.”

The response from that post allowed the school to raise over $13,000. Longshore checked her email on Saturday and shared the news with her committee members Madison Evans and Morgan Denton, who are also teachers at the school.

“Completely utter shock,” Longshore said. “I started crying when I saw all the emails on Saturday and I normally don’t check emails on Saturday, but something told me to.”

School officials said students are excited for the dance and were also surprised by the amount they fundraised. Some of the donations included buying tickets for students and others to their Amazon wish list. With the dance coming up tomorrow, students and staff on the decorating committee are continuing to prepare for the night.

“We’ve been patiently waiting for the Amazon delivery truck to show up so we can get all our packages and undo those,” Longshore said. “They’ve been able to come out of their classes do so, and we’ve been slowly decorating during lunch. And in any free time we might have, which we don’t have much, but we’ve been getting it done.”

Officials said the remaining amount of money will go towards future dances and activities, which will leave the students and staff plenty of time and resources to plan ahead. Longshore said this year’s decorations will be recycled and reused.

The dance is on Oct. 17, while the homecoming football game and parade will be on Oct. 18.

JAMES ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - A science teacher at James Island Charter High School hopes you’ll help her provide her students with the tools to collect and analyze scientific data, specifically how sea level rise is changing our local environment.

Eve Kendrick believes her students could be the key to solving serious environmental problems in the Lowcountry.

“My students are very enthusiastic and passionate, and they’re full of life,” she says. “I want to capture and harvest that energy and maybe direct it toward some environmental stewardship through learning about different aspects of sea level rise in environmental science.”

Kendrick plans to encourage this stewardship through a real-world research project in the field looking into coastal freshwater streams. The project aims to document how sea level rise and saltwater moving further inland are transforming these freshwater environments.

“We’re going to be looking at insects, and using these insects as an indicator of how our streams are changing,” she says. “They’ll be able to process these samples on the streambed outside, and they’re really going to get a personal connection with these ecosystems that maybe wasn’t on their radar before as something really critical to monitor.”

Kendrick hopes to provide her students with the tools to carry out this monitoring through her project on Donors Choose is called "Too Salty! Sea Level Rise & Freshwater Environments."

She plans to buy nets, waders, sieves and other testing equipment to track how these delicate coastal environments are being affected.

“I’m going to partner with the Adopt-a-Stream organization in South Carolina, and so this data that my students will collect through my ‘Too Salty’ Donors Choose project, that’s actually going to go into a state database,” Kendrick says. “Scientists will be able to access it, and it’s going to allow my students to take ownership of the research that’s currently happening in our state.”

With your donation, you’ll be able to not only make an impact on students but also your local environment now and into the future, Kendrick says.

“We’re going to take all of our skills and take them outside so [my students] can actually get their hands dirty and wet and actually collect insects and process their own data,” she says. “I think that going outside and having a personal connection with the environment helps to encourage students to become lifelong learners. It also might encourage them to have some environmental stewardship as they move forward as adults and citizens in South Carolina.”

Kendrick also has a second Donors Choose project called "Interactive Biology and Data Analysis" that is designed to bring biology concepts to life through collaboration, realistic case studies and interactive labs. She plans to use basic resources funded through the project, including calculators and clipboards, to create a notebook documenting her students' problem-solving and analyses.

You can become a Live 5 Classroom Champion for these students by helping to fund these projects. All donations are tax-deductible. The Donors Choose organization collects the money, purchases the items and sends them to the teacher. That way you know your donation is used appropriately.

If you’re a teacher who would like their Donors Choose project featured on Classroom Champions, please email classchamp@live5news.com.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

Published: Oct. 9, 2024 at 12:50 PM PDT|

JOHNS ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - Nine couples sued a homebuilder on Johns Island after the builder terminated their contracts at the last minute, and a judge ruled in favor of the buyers saying the contract lacked ‘any mutuality’ and was ‘unconscionable.’

Christopher Raybon was one of many who thought he had found his dream house with Eastwood Homes in Swygerts Landing on Johns Island.

“I remarried in 2019 and my wife and I both were really excited about looking for a fresh start. We had our eyes on probably six or seven different properties, and decided to go with Eastwood because we’d heard such great things about the houses,” Raybon says.

He signed a contract with Eastwood Homes and the process began.

“We felt great going into it. The person who gave us contracts went over everything with us, assured us that they never had any problems with anyone with their contracts, and that it was pretty, as we’ve heard a couple times, just kind of a boilerplate contract,” Raybon says.

Raybon recalls getting weekly updates on the house, that started to slow in the months approaching the move, but he didn’t think anything of it. He was never notified of any sort of issues. Then, he says it was only a month until the big move when he got the call.

“Just out of the blue, I received a call from them, kind of, expressing that they had an HOA issue and that they wanted to work through, would take a couple months, and they want us to voluntarily exit the contract, and didn’t give me a choice of what to do. It was a really sinking feeling, because the impact of it didn’t hit me all at once, but after I got off the phone, it really sunk in it they want me to exit this contract, and I’ve got to explain to my wife how we no longer have anywhere to move,” Raybon says.

Eastwood Homes wrote the contract. The part this lawsuit deals with is a paragraph titled “Seller Option to Cancel Prior to Closing.” The paragraph says that if a bona fide dispute should arise between the buyer and seller, and it cannot be resolved, it is the seller’s sole judgment to cancel the contract. In that event, Eastside would notify the buyer, refund their purchase, plus $100 for the trouble.

Local attorneys Ross Appel and Michael Cooper handled the case. They say the legal issue isn’t whether there was an HOA dispute, but instead with how the contract is written and how dispute is defined.

“One of the issues that we have in this case is that when you’re dealing with these national builders, the contracts that you sign are not negotiated. These are take it or leave it form boilerplate contracts that are being provided on a take it or leave it basis by the builder,” Appel says.

“The builder is allowed to use their own contract, right? That’s totally fine, but the terms of the contract have to be fair and sort of mutual. Like, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander,” Cooper says.

At trial, Eastwood’s lawyer testified that they defined ‘dispute’ as any reason the builder wanted to cancel. The Eastside lawyer says in the record “Your opinion is irrelevant because it’s the seller’s sole judgment, so I really don’t care what your opinion is. It’s only my opinion that matters. Period.”

The judge ruled that the terms of the contract were not mutual, lulled the buyers into a false sense of security and “no reasonable, honest, or fair person would accept such terms that allow the party with superior bargaining power to terminate the agreement at-will and without meaningful consequence.”

“The ruling that we got from Judge Scarborough stands for a pretty simple proposition, that when a builder enters into a contract with a homebuyer, they have to take that contract seriously, and they can’t just terminate the contract for any reason they want and do so in a way that’s completely one-sided, and that’s really what this case is about,” Appel says.

“So they can’t say you have to use our contract, but then I get all the benefits and you get none. And so, you know that’s the issue - is when it’s not really bargained and it’s not fair,” Cooper says.

At trial, the Eastwood lawyer said the company had the right to define ‘dispute’ dispute however they wanted and for example, could end the contract if they wanted to try and re-sell the home for a higher price.

“It was really devastating us. We were really looking forward to beginning a new life, moving into this new house. And it was just devastating to know that someone could come into a contract that we entered into with faith and just decide on a whim not to sell it to you. And, you know, and the dream that you had, we don’t really care about that, because we care more about what we think we need to do for our bottom line,” Raybon says.

Eastwood homes is appealing against the ruling, so this case may be heard by the State Supreme Court in 2025. Raybon is glad to have been a part of setting the record straight in the first ruling, even if he still doesn’t have that dream home.

“It was just completely unfair. If they could do that to us, they could do that to who knows, however many other homeowners and I’ve never been one to stand by when I felt like there was a, you know, someone was being wrong,” Raybon says.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - A Johns Island resident is continuing to push for change after he says a road in his subdivision is a speedway for drivers trying to cut through the neighborhood.

“Three years ago, we had to say this tree was hit by a speeder coming through,” Kent Kise says.

Kise has lived off Brittlebush Lane in Whitney Lakes on Johns Island for about eight years.

Kise and other nearby residents say not a lot has changed since the last time they talked about this problem.

“Every morning and every evening we’re seeing cars racing through here at 40 to 50 miles an hour. It’s got straddled with walkways on both sides. We’ve got children, pets, pedestrians,” Kise says.

Kise and his neighbors are continuing to fight for speed bumps in the area and are still dealing with speedy drivers cutting through their neighborhood around Maybank Highway.

“We have a stretch here called ‘the Brittlebush Speedway,’” Kise says.

The nickname was coined by the neighborhood after residents said the constant flow of through traffic to Maybank Highway is causing safety concerns in the neighborhood

“It’s not a matter of if it’s going to happen, someone’s going to get seriously hurt,” Kise says.

Now, community members say they have reached the final straw after another high-speed driver recently crashed into the same tree in their subdivision.

“We had a very high-impact crash on the same tree in the same area. So, it just goes to show just how dangerous this area has gotten.” Kise said.

Speed bumps are on other roads in the neighborhood, but not on Brittlebush Lane - the one Kent says sees the worst of it.

“Of all areas that need speed calming and speed humps is this stretch right here… This is a very deserving location. If they want to prevent some serious accidents, they need to do it now,” Kise says.

Live 5 brought these concerns to the City of Charleston Section Chief of Public Works, Robert Somerville, who says that, for speed bumps to be considered, it’s going to take some work from the public, because of the amount of road requests they receive.

He said, first, a petition would need to be done with at least 75% of residents in the area agreeing to the issue, a study would then need to be done proving about 350 vehicles pass through at over 20 miles per hour. If this is proven, the proposal will be taken to the city council for approval.

Once approved, Somerville says they will proceed with speed bumps at the location.

What’s driving you crazy out on the roads? Submit your story suggestions here.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.