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MONCKS CORNER, S.C. (WCSC) - The Berkeley County Family YMCA is closing its doors after nearly 30 years.

The YMCA of Greater Charleston sent a notice out to members on Jan. 30. The email cited the building as being “in need of substantial improvement.” The notice says the YMCA cannot provide that work and the efforts to operate in Berkeley County have “seriously challenged the financial capabilities” of the local YMCA.

Therefore, the YMCA of Greater Charleston Board of Directors and staff management have decided to close and sell the 210 Rembert C. Dennis Blvd. location in Moncks Corner.

President and CEO of the Charleston area operations, Paul Stoney, signed the email notification.

Stoney says the building was costing more than $100,000 a year to keep its doors open and still needed costly repairs, like a potentially $300,000 new roof. When the building is officially sold and closed, members are invited to use the Cane Bay location, and participate in continuing leagues and services.

“Physically, that YMCA does not meet the expectations of a YMCA, it is rapidly deteriorating,” Stoney says.

Stoney says the decision was based on being a good steward of community money, and the facility didn’t make sense anymore. But he says there are future options to collaborate with the help of land donations or developer deals.

“And as it relates to developers, if they’re able to, and it makes good business sense, then we would love to maintain a new presence in that community with a new facility. So that is being taken into consideration,” Stoney said.

The notice says all current members will be grandfathered in to the YMCA facility in Cane Bay, which is about a 20-minute drive across the county. The membership will last one year from the closing date of the Moncks Corner location, which has not been announced.

Kenneth Owens, a member since 1998, says he will miss the location.

“I’m sad it’s closing down because I’ve always enjoyed the people I work out with and the people who run the facility here are very nice people. But going to Cane Bay isn’t really going to be an option for me that’s a little bit further to travel,” Owens says.

The Cane Bay facility opened in April of 2019 and boasts 54,000-square-feet of new construction and assets.

Stoney says in the email that YMCA youth sports, fitness and programming will continue at satellite locations across the county and the non-profit will make every effort for current staff members to continue with the organization.

“Our programs, just like programs that we operate downtown, although we don’t have a physical presence, that is part of our service area. And we still operate programs downtown without having a physical presence. We intend to do the same thing in the Moncks Corner Berkeley County community,” Stoney says.

Stoney says he values the Moncks Corner members and is happy to field any question going forward with the process.

“This is part of a longer vision to continue to deliver a high caliber of programs throughout Charleston and Berkeley counties. And we take that very seriously. We also have to recognize when a facility is not up to our standards, and yes, tough decisions need to be made,” Stoney says.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.

The Berkeley Independent recently reported on the future of the Moncks Corner YMCA and the unconfirmed chatter about its future. Officials with the branch offered up some answers, now confirming the facility’s future is certainly, uncertain.

According to an emailed response from Ryoko Abbott, the Greater Charleston YMCA’s Marketing Director the site is not closing or up for sale — yet. But said if the facility is sold, the Monck’s Corner branch will be closed.

“We do not have any detailed date or timeline at this point. Since 2009, the YMCA of Greater Charleston has made several attempts to provide a meaningful and safe YMCA experience to the community residents of Berkeley County,” the response stated.

“This effort [Moncks Corner branch] has seriously challenged the financial capabilities of our organization. Currently, the Berkeley County Family YMCA is in need of substantial improvement which our organization is unable to provide. As a result of these challenges, and following much discussion and deliberation, the Board of Directors and staff management team of the YMCA of greater Charleston have decided to sell the Berkeley County Family YMCA facility.”

The Berkeley County Family YMCA opened in 1994 and since then, according to its website, it has strived to provide low cost programs for families. The Berkeley County YMCA serves over 3,000 members and program participants in Berkeley County.

The facility provides a variety of Health and Wellness services for infants to senior citizens. With the indoor swimming pool in Berkeley County, this YMCA provides educational lifeguard courses and training, senior citizens water aerobics, swim programs for local elementary schools and a variety of other services which promote the health and wellness of the entire community.

As far as the community is concerned, Abbott states the YMCA will make sure Berkeley is served if something does happen in the future.

“For the current Berkeley County Family YMCA members, arrangements have been made to grandfather all current YMCA members into our YMCA facility at Cane Bay for a term of one year effective on the closing date of this property,” the email stated. “In addition, YMCA youth sports, fitness and other YMCA programming, will continue throughout the Berkeley County community in various satellite locations. Every effort will be made to provide current staff members an opportunity to continue their service with our organization.”

And all is not lost just yet. Moncks Corner residents may not have make the long commute to Cane Bay to get in their physical fix. There are some other plans that may be in the works, but it’s still early in the game.

“The YMCA of Greater Charleston is considering offers from developers that may result in a partnership with a new amenity for the Moncks Corner Community,” Abbot notes. “No decisions have been made at this time. Our intention is to continue to have a high level go service in the Moncks Corner, Berkeley County Community.”

In what promises to be a family-friendly day of history, reenactments and games, Old Santee Canal Park, the Berkeley County Museum and Lord Berkeley Conservation Trust are welcoming visitors of all ages to their Colonial Day and Fort Fair Lawn grand opening, which kicks off at 10 a.m. on Sept. 24 at 900 Stony Landing Road in Moncks Corner.

The occasion marks the grand opening of Fort Fair Lawn, situated a mile away from Old Santee Canal Park.

Fort Fair Lawn is one of only two earthen military strongholds left in the United States, recounts Berkeley County Museum Director Chelsy Proper, with the other being Star Fort at the Ninety Six Historic Site, about 60 miles south of Greenville.

The Sept. 24 event will allow spectators to see Fort Fair Lawn in its current state, along with taking in reenactments provided by performers dressed in colonial attire. Some of the on-site actors will be armed with muskets and they may even fire off a canon or two.

As for the historical significance of the site, Proper explains that Fort Fair Lawn was actually built in the late 1770s by the British as a holding area to store their military armaments.

“They had it here because it’s close to the Cooper River and they were able to get their supplies up here. Moncks Corner was strategic during the revolution because it was kind of the gateway to Charleston,

“They really wanted to capture Charleston — which they did. The fort was held by the British until (late) 1781, when the patriots came in and attacked [it] and took it over.”

From that point, American troops never utilized Fort Fair Lawn, as the structure was left to be surrounded in overgrown vegetation while it progressively sank deeper into the ground.

And though it was practically abandoned by American forces, centuries later, historian Douglas Bostick of the South Carolina Preservation Battleground Trust describes the site in glowing terms by stating: “Fort Fair Lawn is probably the most pristine, intact original American Revolutionary War fortification in South Carolina, if not the country.”

Over the next 240 years after its abandonment, many locals would go drink beers at the fort or even ride their go carts around the old fortress.

So, while much of the action and reenactment activities are taking place at the fort site on Sept. 24, those who seek a deeper understanding of what transpired in Moncks Corner and the surrounding Charleston area during the American Revolutionary War period can drop in on a lecture at Old Santee Canal Park. The historical learning sessions are scheduled to run from 10 a.m. through 3 p.m.

The subjects covered during these discussions will include a snapshot of residents who remained loyal to the British regime, as well as South Carolina’s connection to Barbados, as many Charlestonians of the time originally came from the island country in the West Indies. In fact, many plantations in South Carolina very closely resemble similar estates that were prevalent in Barbados.

In addition, the first annual Colonial Day will feature games for children in the form of scavenger hunts. Other event activities include indigo dyeing, candle making, native birds/plant talk, the fabrication of sweetgrass baskets and an information session on colonial medicine.

And those who wish to tour the Berkeley Historic Museum can enjoy an up-close and personal view of artifacts found inside Fort Fair Lawn in the form of buttons, soldier belt and shoe buckles and more.

Proper considers Colonial Day and the grand opening of Fort Fair Lawn as an exciting learning opportunity for many newcomers to the Lowcountry.

“There are so many people moving to the area that a lot of them don’t know this history. So, there has been a renewed interest just in the [American] Revolutionary War in general. I’m not sure where that renewed interest comes from, I’m just glad it’s here,” says the researcher/interpreter who hails from the Bluegrass State of Kentucky.

Additional information on the Sept. 24 affair can be found on Berkeley County Museum and Heritage Center Facebook page.

MONCKS CORNER, S.C. (WCSC) - For the first time in seven years, homeowners and landowners in Moncks Corner will see a 15 percent property tax increase starting on October 1.

At the Moncks Corner Town Council meeting Thursday evening, the vote for a new budget was passed unanimously with only one member of the public providing input.

The economy, fuel prices and labor costs are all contributing factors according to Mayor Michael Lockliear, but the main reason for the increase is to afford and pay public employees.

“Retention has been very tough over the last year keeping employees,” Lockliear said. “Since other people are paying more around us, we had to step up and do the same thing.”

The tax hike means a homeowner with a property valued at $250,000 will have to pay $100 more per year on property taxes. Statistically, it is normal to increase taxes by about two-percent each year.

Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office Special Prosecutor Tyler Jenkins was the only one who asked a question during the public input portion of the meeting.

“My real question as far as the millage rate, 15 percent in one year seems like a pretty high number,” Jenkins said. “Was there any discussion about why that wasn’t incrementally put into place?”

In response, Lockliear said this is the first time in seven years that the city has had to increase property tax, which he is very proud of.

“We did it so we wouldn’t have to come back in two years and do it again,” Lockliear said. “As a resident of Moncks Corner, I’d much rather be taxed one time now and then another time in 10 years or so, but not every two years.”

Every year, the city government meets for a budget workshop where they go through the department by department and cut what is needed for a balanced budget. This year, Lockliear said they were short about $325,000 with the more expensive costs coming from health care and retirement benefits to public employees

“With that being done, it put a big dent in our budget,” Lockliear said. “That’s why the millage increase came and hopefully it will take us through the next six to seven-eight years.”

The new budget takes place from Oct. 1, 2022, until Sept. 30, 2023. Operating revenues will increase from $12,417,159 to $15,622,744 and operating expenditures will increase from $14,151,802 to $15,363,175.

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A chemical firm is shutting down a Moncks Corner plant that makes the raw material for products like water bottles and packaging, leaving 125 workers without a job.

DAK Americas LLC — a subsidiary of Monterrey, Mexico-based Alpek — will permanently close its plant along the Cooper River that producsd PET resin, a type of polyester that’s derived from petroleum.

Layoffs will begin on April 28 and will conclude by the end of the year when the plant shuts down, according to a statement from Ricky Lane, the Charlotte company’s director of public affairs, trade relations and corporate communications.

DAK Americas said it will be moving production from Bushy Park to another unidentified site. The Berkeley County plant, which was built in the early 1970s, had the capacity to make 170,000 pounds of the resin annually.

“This difficult decision was necessitated as we optimize our assets to remain competitive in the challenging global polyester markets,” Lane said in a letter to the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce.

That letter stated that DAK Americas “will formally and permanently close production operations on March 1, 2023.”

Lane, in an email to The Post and Courier, said March 1 represents the beginning of the plant’s shutdown and that the process will take at least 60 days to complete.

“It may be helpful to understand that these production operations are not like a light switch and cannot just be turned on and off,” Lane said. “These are highly technical polymer processes that must be stopped in a very systematic manner that takes many days/weeks to accomplish. Only after the 60-day period and once the shutdown process is complete for employees in their area of work will the written notice of individual layoff dates be given.”

The company said the shutdown will save it about $20 million a year.

Parent company Alpek said in a written statement that it is “constantly exploring ways to create value through optimization of its installed capacity and strengthening its cost competitiveness.”

The company said it plans to grow “through more efficient utilization of its assets.”

The closure notice was filed with state officials a day before Jorge Young Cerecedo took over as CEO of Alpek. Cerecedo, who has been with the company for 32 years, also will remain president of Alpek’s polyester division, which accounts for two-thirds of the parent company’s revenues.

Alpek acquired the Moncks Corner plant in a 2001 deal with DuPont, which was exiting the polyester market. Alpek created its DAK Americas subsidiary to operate the South Carolina site and other factories.

The planned plant closure comes less than two years after DAK Americas cut 200 full-time jobs and 40 contract workers at the Cooper River site as it wound down its polyester staple fibers business. The company blamed the decision on a flood of cheap imports.

Alpek, which is publicly traded on the Mexican Stock Exchange, reported revenues of $10.6 billion in 2022 — an 37 percent increase from the previous year — and net income of $789 million. It has more than 7,000 employees at 35 plants in nine countries.

Note: This story was updated March 6 with additional comment from the company.

The International African American Museum received another large gift ahead of its opening next month that will further its mission in providing genealogy research.

New York Life Foundation provided a $750,000 grant to the Charleston museum this week, bringing its total support to $1 million.

The group’s latest award includes $200,000 for general operating costs. The rest will be used to expand the IAAM’s genealogy research arm within its Center for Family History, where visitors can trace and learn about their ancestry.

Museum CEO Tonya Matthews said that the funding is crucial to furthering the center’s online presence. It also will be used to digitize documents and develop programming.

“Here at the museum, we honor the power of story — and being able to take our visitors on a journey through their own via the Center for Family History is a vital part of our work,” Matthews said in a written statement. “This kind of personal discovery alongside exploration of our galleries, art, and objects with national and international significance is what sets us apart, and it’s what makes engaging with these stories transformational.”

New York Life Insurance Co. and its nonprofit arm were early partners in the IAAM’s fundraising campaign, with donations of $100,000 and $150,000 between 2017 and 2020.

“We are proud to continue our support for the International African American Museum with a particular focus on the first-of-its-kind Center for Family History,” said Heather Nesle, president of the New York Life Foundation. “Our grant will help individuals and families trace their ancestry and preserve important records.”

It is the second sizable donation the IAAM has received in the last month. A $500,000 grant from The Mellon Foundation, a New York-based arts and humanities philanthropic organization, was announced April 5 to help support film and media projects over the next three years.

IAAM is set to open June 27, with numerous community events in the days leading up to the launch, including a June 24 ceremony.

The nearly finished museum is off Concord Street and on the site of Gadsden’s Wharf, a former Charleston trading port for enslaved people. Its mission is centered around the untold history and stories of African Americans.