Mortgage Broker in Surrounding Lexington, SC

Chapin, SC 06/27/2023 (Paul Kirby) – Extremely high winds struck areas out of the Lexington County town of Chapin Monday night causing many people to continue to be without power as crews worked throughout the day Tuesday to try and get multiple communities back online. Homes were damaged by falling trees and many roads were completely blocked by debris as crews continue to work to return the area to some sort of a semblance of normalcy. The first reports of the severe weather began coming in just after 10:30 p.m. in the vicinity of Wessinger Road and Putnam Drive. Wessinger Road is the only road in and out of a peninsula that juts out into Lake Murray and is bounded by Bear Creek on one side and John’s Creek on the other.

Putnam Drive was completely closed by the storm and remains that way late Tuesday. The storm knocked the utility infrastructure down snapping poles into splinters and bringing the power lines down across the road all along its length. Large trees were snapped off and laying across the asphalt as late as 4:00 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. A number of homes in the area were damaged by falling trees and the high winds. Crews were still working to clear the road to provide access to the end of that point.

Ben Kirby, a resident of Indian Summer Point off Libby Ariel Circle within a mile of Putnam Drive, said that a cooperative group of utility crews that included Mid-Carolina Electric, Dominion Energy, and the sub-contractor Sumter Utilities, were all in the area replacing power poles and utility infrastructure so that they could begin restringing electric wire sometime in the future. Kirby said his power went out about 10:30 p.m. Monday night and he didn’t expect it to be restored for several days. He had used his chainsaw to clear enough of the road into his home so that he and his neighbors could drive in and out if they needed to. He said that many of his neighbors had whole home generator systems that kept their homes comfortable. Kirby was using smaller generators to keep his refrigerators and freezers running but said he would probably stay with family tonight so that they could have air conditioning until their power was restored.

Emergency radio traffic coming into Lexington County’s 911 Center Monday night indicated that the worst of the storm first ripped down Putnam Drive, then crossed Bear Creek. The storm quickly began to ravage trees, homes, and utility infrastructure out on the Amick’s Ferry Road peninsula. Timber Lake Country Club reported Tuesday that they have as many as 60 to 70 trees around their golf course that were down, and the first 9 holes of the course were extremely dangerous due to storm damage. Many homes in the Timberlake area were also damaged by the high winds as were homes and buildings in the surrounding areas of that community.

The County of Lexington had employees of its Emergency Management Division working Tuesday assessing the storm damage. They also asked anyone who had photos of storm damage from that area to call 803-785-2449. Photos can be sent to the county using the email address tshehow@lex-co.com. All emails should include the home address in the subject line.

Chris Jackson, a noted local and national weather authority based out of the Midlands of SC, said that he felt this damage was not done by a tornado but rather straight-line winds from a microburst. Jackson said that the damages from these types of storms can be identical or even more severe than small or weaker tornadoes. He also said that they don’t get the attention they deserve because they don’t cause the same fear factor that the word tornado carries. The National Weather Service usually classifies a storm such as this as a tornado only after studying the images of the radar. This can show rotation in several different colors where winds moving away from a central core may be one color and then as it rotates back toward the core in a circular motion another color. They also can use other indicators. Jackson often explains on his social media pages like https://www.facebook.com/MySCWeather/ how all this works. As of Tuesday evening, there was no indication that the NWS was going to contradict Jackson and classify last nights weather event as a tornado either.

A regional chain that makes bagels, not to be toasted and schmeared but to be loaded with meat and toppings and steamed, is headed to Lexington, with other county locations to follow.

Sully’s Steamers, which opened its first Midlands location on Devine Street in Columbia last week, is set to take over the spot formerly occupied by Kitty's Hallmark Shop, nestled in the small Kitty’s Corner shopping center at 5580 Sunset Blvd.

Brandon McCullough, an operating partner for Sully’s Steamers Columbia, said the franchise group owned by Michael Stuckey won’t be done expanding when the Lexington shop opens, hopefully between late October and early November.

Stuckey, the executive chef for Southern Way Catering, is also looking to expand to Irmo, Forest Acres and West Columbia, along with adding a second Lexington location, in the near future, though McCullough noted that exactly where those additional locations will end up is still up in the air.

The operating partner, who will take on direct leadership of the Lexington location once it opens, said he believes the chain’s emphasis on quality ingredients sold at an affordable price — about $7-$10 a sandwich at the Devine Street location — help set it apart amid a fast food and casual dining landscape that increasingly offers lesser food at escalating prices.

But explaining why people shouldn’t expect a bagel with a spread when they come in can still be a challenge, he admitted.

“It's the constant challenge,” McCullough said. “We are a sandwich shop that happens to use bagels. We take pride in all of our products. We have cream cheeses on a lot of our different sandwiches. And at the end of the day, we want people to be happy with what they got. But we just feel like our product is different. In that a toasted bagel with the smear is something you can find someplace else, but a steamed sandwich makes us unique.”

The chain — which lists nine current locations in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia on its website (with five of those locations being in the South Carolina Upstate) — offers a variety of sandwiches. There are breakfast options, but the menu emphasizes “Legendary” lunch-leaning sandwiches like The Griswold (which comes with turkey, bacon, provolone, paper jack, lettuce, barbecue and parm-peppercorn sauce).

While Sully’s moved into a newly erected building in Columbia, McCullough said he’s excited to be able to renovate a pre-existing space in Lexington, explaining that the franchise wants to become a part of the neighborhood wherever it goes.

To wit, he said they’ve identified parking as something that’s sometimes lacking in Lexington, which is why they went for a shopping center that he said will soon improve its lot to include 60-70 spots.

“We really liked the Lexington area kind of because it's its own thing,” he said of why the town made sense for the group’s second location. “It's its own kind of part of Columbia but not, it’s in the suburbs. [We] just felt like hit Columbia on Devine Street, get the other side with Lexington and all the locals over there, and it would just be the best of both worlds.”

Keywords

sully's steamers, lexington restaurant, kitty's corner, sunset boulevard, west columbia food, irmo openings

A regional chain that makes bagels, not to be toasted and schmeared but to be loaded with meat and toppings and steamed, is headed to Lexington, with other county locations to follow.

Sully’s Steamers, which opened its first Midlands location on Devine Street in Columbia last week, is set to take over the spot formerly occupied by Kitty's Hallmark Shop, nestled in the small Kitty’s Corner shopping center at 5580 Sunset Blvd.

Brandon McCullough, an operating partner for Sully’s Steamers Columbia, said the franchise group owned by Michael Stuckey won’t be done expanding when the Lexington shop opens, hopefully between late October and early November.

Stuckey, the executive chef for Southern Way Catering, is also looking to expand to Irmo, Forest Acres and West Columbia, along with adding a second Lexington location, in the near future, though McCullough noted that exactly where those additional locations will end up is still up in the air.

The operating partner, who will take on direct leadership of the Lexington location once it opens, said he believes the chain’s emphasis on quality ingredients sold at an affordable price — about $7-$10 a sandwich at the Devine Street location — help set it apart amid a fast food and casual dining landscape that increasingly offers lesser food at escalating prices.

But explaining why people shouldn’t expect a bagel with a spread when they come in can still be a challenge, he admitted.

“It's the constant challenge,” McCullough said. “We are a sandwich shop that happens to use bagels. We take pride in all of our products. We have cream cheeses on a lot of our different sandwiches. And at the end of the day, we want people to be happy with what they got. But we just feel like our product is different. In that a toasted bagel with the smear is something you can find someplace else, but a steamed sandwich makes us unique.”

The chain — which lists nine current locations in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia on its website (with five of those locations being in the South Carolina Upstate) — offers a variety of sandwiches. There are breakfast options, but the menu emphasizes “Legendary” lunch-leaning sandwiches like The Griswold (which comes with turkey, bacon, provolone, paper jack, lettuce, barbecue and parm-peppercorn sauce).

While Sully’s moved into a newly erected building in Columbia, McCullough said he’s excited to be able to renovate a pre-existing space in Lexington, explaining that the franchise wants to become a part of the neighborhood wherever it goes.

To wit, he said they’ve identified parking as something that’s sometimes lacking in Lexington, which is why they went for a shopping center that he said will soon improve its lot to include 60-70 spots.

“We really liked the Lexington area kind of because it's its own thing,” he said of why the town made sense for the group’s second location. “It's its own kind of part of Columbia but not, it’s in the suburbs. [We] just felt like hit Columbia on Devine Street, get the other side with Lexington and all the locals over there, and it would just be the best of both worlds.”

Keywords

sully's steamers, lexington restaurant, kitty's corner, sunset boulevard, west columbia food, irmo openings

Lexington County residents will vote on Tuesday on a proposed penny-on-the-dollar sales tax to improve county roads.

The Capital Project Sales Tax is a proposed tax that would raise funds exclusively for improving roads in Lexington County.

The tax is known as a penny tax, meaning for every dollar spent, an additional tax of 1-cent will be charged on top of the existing sales tax, which in Lexington County is 7%.

If passed, the tax will go into effect in May 2023. The tax will raise an estimated $536 million dollars, all of which will fund road improvement projects, according to the project’s website. Specifically, the tax would pay for road, intersection and bridge improvements and paving dirt roads.

Lexington County Administrator Lynn Sturkie said the funds just aren’t there for road improvements in the current budget.

The tax is not permanent and will end after eight years. Sturkie said for it to last longer, voters would need to approve it again.

The 1% tax would not be applied to unprepared grocery items, gasoline or prescription drugs, according to the CPST website.

Attorney Rich Bolen doesn’t think the tax is worth it, however.

“It’s just a bad idea for the government to take more money from us during a recession,” Bolen said.

He agrees that the roads do need to be fixed. But he worries the tax will do more harm than good for people who are already struggling financially.

“The average person who’s trying to get by with gas costing twice as much and rent going up and electricity costs going up and winter coming, just don’t need another 1% taken away from them,” Bolen said.

Leigh Lowry, membership director for the Lexington Chamber & Visitors Center, said “there’s never really a good time to raise taxes.” But she knows the roads desperately need improvement.

“Quite frankly, something has to be done now, because if we continue to put it off as residents, our roads will get worse and our roads will become more congested,” Lowry said.

She said all other counties surrounding Lexington already have penny taxes or transportation taxes that help pay for their roads.

“We have a wonderful town, a wonderful county,” Lowry said. “The people want to live here, and we need our infrastructure to match our community and our schools.”

More information about the proposal can be found at https://www.lexingtoncountycpst.com.

Lexington County residents will vote on Tuesday on a proposed penny-on-the-dollar sales tax to improve county roads.

The Capital Project Sales Tax is a proposed tax that would raise funds exclusively for improving roads in Lexington County.

The tax is known as a penny tax, meaning for every dollar spent, an additional tax of 1-cent will be charged on top of the existing sales tax, which in Lexington County is 7%.

If passed, the tax will go into effect in May 2023. The tax will raise an estimated $536 million dollars, all of which will fund road improvement projects, according to the project’s website. Specifically, the tax would pay for road, intersection and bridge improvements and paving dirt roads.

Lexington County Administrator Lynn Sturkie said the funds just aren’t there for road improvements in the current budget.

The tax is not permanent and will end after eight years. Sturkie said for it to last longer, voters would need to approve it again.

The 1% tax would not be applied to unprepared grocery items, gasoline or prescription drugs, according to the CPST website.

Attorney Rich Bolen doesn’t think the tax is worth it, however.

“It’s just a bad idea for the government to take more money from us during a recession,” Bolen said.

He agrees that the roads do need to be fixed. But he worries the tax will do more harm than good for people who are already struggling financially.

“The average person who’s trying to get by with gas costing twice as much and rent going up and electricity costs going up and winter coming, just don’t need another 1% taken away from them,” Bolen said.

Leigh Lowry, membership director for the Lexington Chamber & Visitors Center, said “there’s never really a good time to raise taxes.” But she knows the roads desperately need improvement.

“Quite frankly, something has to be done now, because if we continue to put it off as residents, our roads will get worse and our roads will become more congested,” Lowry said.

She said all other counties surrounding Lexington already have penny taxes or transportation taxes that help pay for their roads.

“We have a wonderful town, a wonderful county,” Lowry said. “The people want to live here, and we need our infrastructure to match our community and our schools.”

More information about the proposal can be found at https://www.lexingtoncountycpst.com.