Mortgage Broker in Greenville, SC

Make those fall and Halloween memories this week! Please continue to check with event organizers before you head out for any event or program scheduled prior to the hurricane, though most in the Upstate are back on track. We are updating on our Facebook page as news is shared. As always, we’ve got helps and tips and much more for your parenting journey – along with our full October calendar – at upstateparent.com.

To include your organization’s family friendly events in Upstate Parent, email chris@worthyplace.com.

Afternoon Explorations are 1:30 – 5 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays at Roper Mountain Science Center. For details and tickets, visit ropermountain.org.

“The Wizard of Oz” is presented by Greer Children’s Theatre at 7 p.m. Oct. 18 and 25 and at 2 p.m. Oct. 26-27 at the Cannon Centre. For tickets, visit greerculturalarts.com.

The Green Monster Mash is 5-8 p.m. Oct. 25 at Fluor Field. For tickets and details, visit milb.com/greenville/events/greenmonstermash.

“Carmela Full of Wishes” is presented Oct. 25 – Nov. 10 at South Carolina Children’s Theatre. For tickets and details, visit scchildrenstheatre.org.

The Greenville Swamp Rabbits play at 7:05 p.m. Oct. 25 at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena. Visit swamprabbits.com.

Friday Night Flicks: “Hocus Pocus” is at the Mauldin Cultural Center amphitheater. The movie starts at dusk. Parking and entry are free. For details, visit mauldinculturalcenter.org/events/festival-season/friday-night-flicks.

A Fall Festival continues through Nov. 10 at Denver Downs Farms. The farm is open 5-10 p.m. Fridays, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturdays and noon-6 p.m. Sundays. The event includes a wide variety of activities including jumbo jumping pillow, barnyard express zipline, giant spider web, corn hole, ropes course, human foosball, ball zone arcade, tricycle races and more. Oct. 27 features a concert by Jason Crabb Band. For tickets and details, visit denverdownsfarm.com.

An Autumn Celebration is 3 – 9 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through Nov. 2 at the Farm at Newell. The event includes hayrides, bonfires, games, a pumpkin patch and more. Food, coffee and pumpkins will be available for purchase. Admission is $12 each for adults and children ages 2 and older. For details, visit facebook.com/events/473077835531990. The farm is located at 3330 Highway 86, Piedmont (near Wren Schools). Email thefarmatnewell@gmail.com or visit @thefarmatnewell on Facebook and Instagram.

Concert for Carolina, featuring Luke Combs, Eric Church, Billy Strings, James Taylor and more, is at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte on Oct. 26. All proceeds will support Hurricane Helene relief efforts in the Carolina Region. For tickets and details, visit concertforcarolina.com.

The Autumn Harvest Festival is at the TD Saturday Market 8 a.m. – noon Oct. 26 in downtown Greenville. Children can trick-or-treat and there is a costume contest at 10:30 a.m. For details, visit saturdaymarketlive.com.

BOO!seum: Trick-or-Treat is Oct. 26 – at 9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. at TCMU-Greenville and at TCMU-Spartanburg. BOO!seum: Trick-or-Treat at TCMU-Greenville is open to all families with children ages 12 and younger. BOO!seum: Trick-or-Treat at TCMU-Spartanburg is open to all families with children ages 6 and younger. These events are timed ticketing only. Tickets are expected to sell out and guests must pre-purchase tickets for guaranteed entry. TCMU members receive discounts. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit tcmupstate.org/trick-or-treat.

Trick-or-Treat on Main Street from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Oct. 26 in downtown Greenville. For details, visit greenvillesc.gov/1772/Trick-or-Treat-on-Main-Street.

All Hallows' Eve is noon – 9 p.m. Oct. 26 at Walnut Grove. Daytime events includes trick-or-treating at the historic buildings, a dog costume contest, hayrides, and more. Evening events include candlelight walks to the cemetery, family cemetery tours, campfire stories, s'mores and more. For details and tickets, visit spartanburghistory.org/all-hallows-eve.

The Buddy Walk begins at noon Oct. 27 at Saluda Shoals Park Athletic Fields in Columbia. Upstate residents are welcome to participate by starting an online fundraising team or making a one-time donation on the event page at familyconnectionsc.networkforgood.com/projects/228684-buddy-walk-2024. To learn more about Family Connection and Buddy Walk, visit familyconnectionsc.org.

Sensory-Friendly Trick-or-Treat is 10 a.m. – noon and 1 – 3 p.m. Oct. 27 at TCMU-Greenville and at TCMU-Spartanburg. Sensory-Friendly Trick-or-Treat at TCMU-Greenville is open to families with children ages 12 and younger who benefit most from sensory accommodations. Sensory-Friendly Trick-or-Treat at TCMU-Spartanburg is open to families with children ages 6 and younger who benefit most from sensory accommodations. Please refrain from buying a ticket unless this event fits your family's needs. These events are timed ticketing only. Tickets are expected to sell out and guests must pre-purchase tickets for guaranteed entry. TCMU members receive discounts. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit tcmupstate.org/trick-or-treat.

The Carolina Youth Symphony Orchestra and members of the Greenville Symphony perform a side-side concert at 5 p.m. Oct. 27 at the Peace Center. Tickets are $15 each for adults and $10 for students and seniors. For tickets, visit peacecenter.org.

Dollywood’s Harvest Festival continues through Oct. 28. For details, visit dollywood.com/themepark/festivals/harvest-festival.

Hopefall Gathering, benefitting Compass of Carolina, has been rescheduled for 11:45 a.m.-1 p.m. Oct. 29 at the Embassy Suites at Verdae. Compass of Carolina’s largest fundraising event of the year, the event offers the chance to actively support the mission of providing compassionate services to individuals and families in need through counseling, education, and fiduciary management. For tickets and details, visit compassofcarolina.org/hopefall-gathering-2024-2.

Prisma Health Boo in the Zoo continues through Oct. 30 at the Greenville Zoo. For tickets and full event details, visit greenvillezoo.com.

“Finding the Force…Awakening an Empire,”a Star Wars exhibition, is open at the Upcountry History Museum through Nov. 3. The exhibition brings together a unique presentation of the history, the costuming, the creatives, and the characters, highlighting the legends and legacies of this storied franchise, and providing insight into the elements that have consistently connected us to a galaxy far, far away for over 45 years. For details, visit upcountryhistory.org.

The Collective Memory Project: Stories from Hurricane Helene, is a history preservation project of the Upcountry History Museum. The Collective Memory Project seeks to preserve the stories, photographs, and experiences of Upstate residents, during and after Hurricane Helene. Share via this Google form or at the museum.

“Sesame Street Live! Say Hello” is at 2 p.m. Nov. 9 at the Peace Center. Tickets are on sale now. Visit peacecenter.org.

GREENVILLE, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - Greenville County voters have an important decision to make on their ballots, do you want the county to impose a one-percent sales tax to fix roads?

Councilors first began discussing the penny sales tax a year ago and now the decision is in your hands. Out of the 46 counties in South Carolina, Greenville is one of only three that’s never had a sales tax approved by voters.

A 1 percent sales tax in Greenville is estimated to generate $1 billion over 8 years. If approved residents and visitors would be taxed 1 percent on every purchase in the county other than gas, medication and groceries.

“Municipal roads that are in our cities, county roads, and state roads. All of the roads that are either fair or in poor condition will be addressed,” District 25 Councilman Ennis Fant explained.

A commission created a list of more than 1,400 road projects that would be funded. Projects like repaving, congestion relief and intersection improvements.

Although the majority of council has supported the referendum—others say a penny tax isn’t the way to go.

“I would tell the voters to look at this very long and confusing referendum and vote no,” said Councilman Steve Shaw, District 21.

The ballot question will show a condensed list of projects to be funded. The full list is 26 pages long. You’ll be asked “yes” or “no” if you want the tax to be levied.

Then what happens? leaders say if voters do not approve the tax, fixing roads is a money problem.

“There is no pot of money that someone is hiding in a closet somewhere that we can use if this fails,” said Fant. If we don’t pass this one cent sales tax on November 5th, the roads in Greenville County, particularly in the rural areas, will be in a rapid, steady state of decline until they turn back to gravel and then turn back to dirt.”

“There’s not enough because the county council at its stance has not prioritized roads. If we just simply prioritize roads, there’s plenty. And the state has already told us they have the money to fix the roads. they’re just slow because they can’t find the contractors and we wouldn’t be able to either,” Shaw argues.

But if it is approved, the tax doesn’t take effect until May 2025, so council will consider approving a bond.

“If they vote for it, they want to see results like yesterday. The bond will allow us to let them see bulldozers moving and pavement being laid almost instantly,” said Fant.

The last time a sales tax was on the ballot in Greenville was 10 years ago and voters did not approve it. Back then council did not exempt the tax on groceries and medications.

To view the full list of proposed projects and learn more about the proposed sales tax, click here. To watch FOX Carolina’s One Percent Sales Tax Debate, click here.

Copyright 2024 WHNS. All rights reserved.

GREENVILLE, S.C. —

We are continuing to provide updates to the Spectrum internet outage that has continued since Helene caused significant damage to our area last month.

For our previous reporting on the outage, click here.

Wednesday morning update:

The website now lists the estimated date of restoration for Spartanburg as Oct. 25. It still says the date for restoration in Greenville as Oct. 24.

(Spectrum has previously said that when a county gets to a certain restoration percentage that county is taken off the website list)

Here is the latest update as of Tuesday afternoon:

Spectrum says the updated estimated time to restore services to "accessible homes" in our area is Oct. 24. The spokesperson said the website will be updated today.

Here is the latest update as of Tuesday morning:

WYFF News 4 reached out to Spectrum Tuesday morning after hearing from many customers who had internet restored and then lost it again.

Spectrum said that some customers were impacted Monday night by a fiber outage cause by a downed tree that damaged the network, but that issue has since been repaired.

They also provided information that 96% of customers have been restored in South Carolina. For those who are not restored, Spectrum says it is planning to provide updated expected restoration times for the remaining impacted customers. (We have followed up and asked how the estimated times will be communicated to customers and were told the updates will be posted on the website here. )

"Restoration is taking longer than we initially anticipated due to the damage to hundreds of miles of our network, challenges to safely access certain areas, and the need to return to make repairs in areas where infrastructure is being rebuilt," a spokesperson said Tuesday.

The spokesperson also said that at times Spectrum networks are damaged during the rebuilding process and when that happens they have to go back and re-repair an area, which slows down restoration and causes some to experience additional outages.

To read our previous coverage of this story click on the links below:

(This story was updated to add new information.)

It's been nearly a month since Tropical Storm Helene crossed paths with South Carolina, leaving destruction and tragedy in its wake.

As time goes on, many lives will remain forever changed by the storm, which arrived in the Upstate on Sept. 27.

Here is a look at key numbers in relation to fatalities, power outages, rainfall, and wind speeds caused by Helene.

8

The number of deaths in Greenville County alone due to Helene. Here is a breakdown of deaths by county, according to the S.C. Department of Public Safety:

? Aiken: 11

? Anderson: 5

? Chester: 2

? Chesterfield: 1

? Greenville: 8

? Greenwood:1

? Laurens: 3

? Newberry: 5

? Richland: 1

? Saluda: 3

? Spartanburg: 9

? York: 1

50

The total number of deaths in S.C. due to Helene as of Wednesday, Oct. 9.

80

The number of people in North Carolina that remain missing due to the storm.

250

The number of lives claimed by the storm along the Southeast, and counting.

56

There are currently 56 Duke Energy customers without power in Greenville. In Spartanburg, there are 41, and in Anderson, 2.

99%

The percentage of Spectrum customers whose internet has been restored in Greenville and Spartanburg. In Greenville, the date for total restoration is Thursday, Oct. 24. In Spartanburg, it is Friday, Oct. 25.

21.66 inches

This is the highest rainfall total recorded in S.C. during Helene, which accumulated near Rocky Bottom in northern Pickens County. Other areas that received the high rainfall amounts include Table Rock at 16.51 inches and Liberty at 16.51 inches.

Here are rainfall totals from other areas:

? Anderson: 9.42 inches

? Clemson: 10.16 inches

? Greenville: 11.3 inches

? Pickens: 12 inches

? Seneca: 12 inches

? Travelers Rest: 12 inches

26.23 feet

Both the Saluda and Broad rivers received their highest level of flooding since 1949's historic Saluda River flood. The Broad River reached 26.23 feet of flooding, while the Saluda River reached 20.23 feet.

Here is a rundown of other floodwater levels in the area:

? Reedy River near Falls Park and Unity Park: 16.19 feet

? Reedy River at I-85: 13.34 feet

? Saluda Lake Dam: 20.23 feet

? West Pelzer: 18.3 feet

73

73 mph wind speeds were recorded at Sassafras Mountain in Pickens County during Helene ? the highest rate in S.C. Other wind speed numbers include 72 mph in Anderson, 68 mph in Greenville-Spartanburg, 66 mph in Clemson, and 64 mph in downtown Greenville.

9%

In the aftermath of Tropical Storm Helene, hotels countywide saw a 9-percent year-over-year increase in lodging occupancy. Hotels outside of downtown were the largest recipients of those filled rooms, according to Visit Greenville SC.

Although Tropical Storm Helene brought major damages to Western North Carolina and the Upstate, causing outages, displacement, and more, Greenville area hospitality increased between Sept. 29 and Oct. 5, according to their data.

"We believe the increase in occupancy was attributable to both local residents who may have needed immediate refuge due to home damage/power outages and rooms to support emergency crews that filled the area from a variety of public and private groups," said Beth Moats, vice president of marketing for Visit Greenville.

By Sunday, Sept. 29, Simpsonville, Haywood Road and downtown Greenville saw the largest jumps in hotel occupancy compared to the same time in 2023. As more residents regained power during the week after the storm, hotel occupancies returned to normal demand by Oct. 5.

"After Helene, our team witnessed firsthand the collaborative spirit of the hotels, as they were working together to try and fulfill the needs of so many requiring temporary accommodations while also ensuring the safety of their own staff," Moats added.

Over the first two days of Helene, Sept. 27–28, Greenville County hotels saw a decrease in year-over-year occupancy, except for lodging venues near Augusta Road, Pelham Road and Downtown Greenville, which showed higher-than-normal occupancy.

– A.J. Jackson covers the food & dining scene, along with arts, entertainment and downtown culture for The Greenville News. Contact him by email at ajackson@gannett.com, and follow him on X (formally Twitter) @ajhappened. This coverage is only possible with support from our readers.Sign up today for a digital subscription.

Nina Tran covers trending topics for The Greenville News. Reach her via email at ntran@gannett.com.

Sure, Babette Jones loves her sweet tea, but the serial entrepreneur has always had a natural energy.

That’s why even a day before the official launch of her new spirits company, Jones, who also owns an Allstate Insurance agency and also works a full-time job as senior director at The Greenville Tech Foundation, has a natural effervescence that is enviable.

This month, Jones officially launched Six Nineteen Spirits, a line of ready-to-drink canned cocktails and mocktails that was inspired by friends, community and a mission to give back.

The Greenville-based brand is the first Black woman-owned spirits company in Upstate and one of only a few in the state, and represents an underrepresented segment of the alcohol and spirits world.

While Black Americans represent 12 percent of alcohol consumers, they make up two percent of executives in the industry, according to Pronghorn, an initiative focused on cultivating the next generation of Black entrepreneurs and leaders within the spirits business.

Six Nineteen is named for the moment when Jones’ dear friend, Charles Anderson Jr., developed a rum-based cocktail for a friend gathering on Hilton Head in 2022 as a reference to Juneteenth, the historic day when the final group of enslaved African Americans were freed in Texas, two years after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

“It’s a very overpopulated space but very underrepresented,” Jones said of the spirits business.

If things go as planned, Six Nineteen products, which currently include the coconut rum cocktail, grapefruit agave cocktail and a passionfruit mocktail, should be available in stores by the end of the year, Jones said.

A spirit with a mission

Jones did not set out to create a cocktail brand, but the Greenville native admitted she has an entrepreneurial spirit. After graduating from Mauldin High School in 1982, Jones attended Benedict College in Columbia. She spent nine years as a parole and probation agent before moving into the higher education realm.

In 2000, she changed course, opening her first business and an Allstate Insurance agency, which she continues to run today.

After a decade, though, the agency was humming along and Jones felt the pull to add something new to her life, which drew her back into higher education at Furman University.

She also opened the Lollipop Shop on Main Street in downtown Greenville in 2008. While the Lollipop Shop was a bit ahead of Main Street's fully realized renaissance, she said, Jones never lost her desire to create new ventures.

Fast forward to 2022, when her group of friends gathered at the beach.

That’s when Anderson created the rum cocktail that would become the inspiration for Six Nineteen.

But the real idea to create a brand didn’t sink in until over a year later, when the group lost their dear friend Jimmie Flythe Jr.

Flythe was not only like a brother, Jones said, but her counterpart, someone who could match her energy and sense of adventure.

When the group of close friends gathered to celebrate Flythe’s daughter’s graduation, Jones asked Anderson to make his now-beloved cocktail so they could they toast to the occasion and their late friend.

“He served it to about 80-plus people and they fell in love with it,” Jones recalled.

That’s when Jones began to see more potential. Not just to create something delicious, but to create something that could bring people together and do more for the community.

In 2023, Jones was accepted into the Greenville Starts entrepreneurial program. The eight-week entrepreneur bootcamp resulted in Six Nineteen winning a $5,000 seed grant.

From there, Jones raised $90,000 through friends and family. All this has led to this month's Six Nineteen’s debut.

Beyond a refreshing sip, Six Nineteen comes with a broader mission to give back. The company has a nonprofit arm called the Six Nineteen Foundation, which will be used to fund three annual scholarships and three grants to students, aspiring entrepreneurs and those seeking to attend a Historically Black College or University, like her alma mater, Benedict.

“As entrepreneurs, we don’t ever know if its gonna work or not. But we have to take that leap,” Jones said. “Our mission is to help students and entrepreneurs and philanthropists help make our world better.”

Six Nineteen Spirits will be available in local retail outlets later this year. For more visit https://sixnineteenspirits.com