Driving School in Sullivan's Island, SC

SULLIVAN’S ISLAND, S.C. (WCBD) – Town council candidates spoke at a community forum, answering questions from the public.

News 2’s Brendan Clark moderated the event. Candidates touched on several topics, including town finances, stormwater management and plans for the maritime forest.

The forum began with candidates discussing their top priorities for the town if they are chosen.

People heard from:

Laura Shcroeder, who has served for years on the Island’s planning commission. She says her priority is transparency.

“It’s hard to know exactly where our tax dollars are going if we don’t have full transparency of how it’s being spent,” Schroeder said. “Additionally, this council takes most conversations into private sessions instead of having open and frank discussions with residents so they can hear what each council member is really thinking.”

Justin Novak, who is seeking re-election. He says stormwater management.

“We also have antiquated stormwater infrastructure that’s owned and should be maintained by the department of transportation,” Novak said. “It is not. What we have done is started putting money away for this in the long term.”

Scott Millimet is also an incumbent. He agrees on stormwater management.

“Executing the plans that are already in place for stormwater management,” Millimet said. “We broke ground a couple of weeks ago on the initial funded projects. That should be wrapping up by the end of next year. So, we’ve got already engineering plans that we need to get funding for.”

Gary Visser is the third candidate seeking re-election. He says staying open to a wide variety of ideas from the public.

“Ensuring that we have a community that has discussions of goofy ideas more and more,” Visser said. “The more you bring your ideas, the more we all benefit. We want ideas to be discussed, we want you to be able to provide your input so they become crafted.”

And Melanie Burkhold. She says she is an active St. Andrews church member and MUSC volunteer. She says transparency and giving people more opportunities to speak up is a top priority.

“Implement town halls,” Burkhold said. “True town halls. Like here at the church, or at the school. So we can go back and forth. It would be on critical issues. Bury the power lines, stormwater, maritime forest. We have a back and forth with experts, with town council, with y’all.”

SULLIVAN’S ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - The town of Sullivan’s Island is working to reduce the effects of flooding with projects in the works and a study that forecasts sea level rise and offers solutions to combat it.

A working stormwater system on Sullivans Island is no longer just a pipe dream, Mayor Patrick O’Neill said.

“This is the exciting beginning to a project that’s been years in the making,” he said.

The existing storm drain system is failing, leading to flooding.

“We’re going be removing and replacing some of the existing storm drains and putting in new,” Golf Stream Construction Senior Project Manager Cam Cooper said.

Crews are working on adding massive pipes starting with Station 28.5 and Station 31. O’Neill said the pipes will make it easier for rainwater to get collected and flow out to the marsh. That is one of several flood related projects the town is prioritizing.

Town council will look at a sea level adaptation and resilience plan, which highlights nature-based solutions, on Tuesday.

“What we’re really trying to do with these practices as is mimic predevelopment hydrology, so water moves across the land like before we built upon it,” Weston & Sampson Team Leader Kim Morganello said.

The plan will recommend ten adaptation strategies including redesigning Middle Street, a main road on the island. Researchers looked at where street level rain gardens can be added and where permeable parking would be possible.

The study also looked at open space around the island, researchers identified 33 specific locations that could have nature-based solutions. One of the projects is already moving into implementation, a rain garden will be going in at the Sullivans Island Elementary School.

Morganello said the plan serves as a guidebook through 2050 for the town to reference among anticipated increases in high tides and storms. A model allowed researchers to simulate what the future on the island could look like.

“We increased the title storm search value to almost two feet to show what it would look like in 2050. We also added an increase in rainfall depth to simulate some stronger, more frequent and more intense storms,” Weston & Sampson Senior Project Scientist Lucas Hernandez said.

Hernandez said the models and research provides the town with information that will allow officials to begin to address some items on the community rating system through FEMA.

“That system actually feeds into the insurance premiums for a community standpoint,” Hernandez said.

O’Neill added being proactive on anticipated flood concerns is the best strategy for the town.

“We’re definitely planning for tomorrow’s needs and not today because we do expect sea level rise will continue, we expect there to be more extreme rain events, so we’re trying to plan ahead for that,” O’Neill said.

At Tuesday’s council meeting, members could accept the sea level adaptation and resilience plan document, but they will not be voting on anything in it. O’Neill said as the town considers those solutions there will be opportunity for community involvement along the way.

Click here to review the draft plan.

Click here for the latest on Sullivan’s Island Town Council meetings.

SULLIVAN’S ISLAND — Running low on gunpowder, Col. William Moultrie’s men timed their cannon fire carefully on June 28, 1776.

From behind the walls of a makeshift fortress made of palmetto logs and damp sand, the soldiers of the Continental Army’s 2nd South Carolina Regiment fought back the well-armed ships of the British Royal Navy.

And against all odds, they won.

America’s first decisive victory against British forces is a well-known story among South Carolina natives and locals. Now the Battle of Sullivan’s Island is commemorated in a new documentary produced in time for the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution.

“The Battle of Sullivan’s Island,” produced by Wide Awake Films and commissioned by South Carolina 250, premiered Nov. 6 to a packed house at the Charleston Library Society.

“Our team is dedicated to creating media that breathes new life into stories from the past and hopefully spurs new generations to get hooked on history. That's our mission,” said Shane Seley, founder of Wide Awake Films.

The 13-minute short film is available for free on the S.C. American Revolution 250 Commission YouTube channel. The documentary depicts the battle that proved to British forces that they wouldn’t easily lay siege to Charleston. The triumph is celebrated each year Carolina Day on June 28.

It took over a year to produce as the filmmakers poured over maps and books, researched period-specific military uniforms and consulted with historians. Rob Shenk, an SC 250 board member and chief content officer for Wide Awake Films, said the goal was to create an accurate retelling of the Battle of Sullivan’s Island and the critical moments that led Moultrie and his regiment to victory — and bring the story of this early American victory into the mainstream.

“This film was built to kind of build awareness, to be a vanguard, to help people to understand this important moment in our history,” Shenk said.

In the weeks leading up to the battle, Moultrie’s men constructed a fort with palmetto logs and sand. Though some had wavering faith in the makeshift fortress (Maj. Gen. Charles Lee dubbed it a “slaughtering pen”), the logs proved incredibly useful at absorbing blows from British cannonballs.

But that wasn’t the only reason for the American’s success.

The British Royal Navy hired local Black harbor pilots to guide their warships through the Charleston Harbor. With Moultrie’s regiment vastly outnumbered, the ships approached Sullivan’s Island in a major show of force against the American soldiers.

A trio of ships, the Sphinx, Syren and Actaeon, were dispatched by British Maj. Gen. Henry Clinton. They were to sail behind the fort. In their attempt to flank Moultrie’s troops, the three ships ran onto a hidden shoal. With these ships stuck on a sandbar, the soldiers on Sullivan’s Island only had the handful of warships on the British mainlines to focus on.

“Those three ships were trying to flank and provide enfilading fire down the side of the fort,” said historian Doug MacIntyre. “If they had succeeded in that, we would have lost, basically, because his men would not have been able to withstand that and fight.”

Still, the 2nd Regiment was extremely low on gunpowder and fired at the enemy ships only once every 10 minutes. Though the American blows were accurate, severely wounding British soldiers manning the ships and significantly damaging their artillery, a lone blow from a Royal cannon knocked down the fort’s flag.

The liberty flag, indigo-hued and bearing a white crescent, toppled from the fort. Sgt. William Jasper refused to continue the fight without the flag and successfully evaded enemy fire to retrieve it. He secured it once more over the fort — signaling to the British forces that the battle was not yet over.

As the sun set on June 28, a delivery of over 500 pounds of gunpowder arrived. The delivery from South Carolina president John C. Rutledge arrived at a critical time and gave Moultrie’s men the necessary power to deliver the final blows to the British. Clinton’s ships surrendered shortly after.

“The absolute victory for the Americans was a disgraceful disaster for the British. Following their defeat at Sullivan’s Island, the British military had no base for southern operations,” MacIntyre said. “They realized claiming Charleston and the South would not be easy.”

Despite British weaponry outnumbered the Americans’ 8 to 1, the British saw far more casualties than the Patriots. The 2nd Regiment reported 37 dead and wounded soldiers after the battle, compared to the 200-plus dead and injured soldiers recorded by the British. One Royal Navy soldier wrote that they “have never had such a drubbing” in their lives, describing the unexpected defeat.

SULLIVAN’S ISLAND — Two homeowners have taken their fight to cut down parts of the island's maritime forest back to court.

The latest appeal heard Oct. 8 brings the legal battle into its 15th year.

In 2023, a judge tossed out a settlement that residents Nathan Bluestein and Theodore Albensius had reached with the town agreeing to remove an unprecedented number of trees from the forest behind their homes in a detailed maintenance plan.

The trees stand between their property, as well as their neighbors’ land, and the ocean.

The S.C. Court of Appeals heard arguments Oct. 8 in Columbia from the plaintiff’s attorney, James Hood, and Greenville-based lawyer William Wilkins, who represents the town.

“We're hopeful that the Court of Appeals will order the town of Sullivan's Island to do what it agreed to do,” Hood told The Post and Courier.

The lush forest that spans more than 200 acres of accreted sand on Sullivan’s Island is relatively young. The forest took hold in the 1950s and has been left to its own devices ever since. This untamed growth became a sticking point for residents living behind it.

The property owners, Bluestein and Albensius, sued the town in 2010 for failing to manage the forest. They argued the overgrowth brought mosquitos, raccoons, snakes and coyotes and created fire hazards. In their initial complaint, the homeowners claimed the thick forest’s growth had deprived them of ocean views and breezes and lowered their property values.

In 2020, the homeowners settled with the town. Under the terms of the agreement, Sullivan’s Island would selectively thin zones of the forest and remove more trees than had previously been allowed before. Any future town council would be bound to this agreement, too.

Shortly after the agreement was executed, Sullivan’s Island elected an entirely new town council, save for Mayor Pat O’Neil, who voted against settling the litigation in the first place. The compromise also drew criticism from some residents, including a local environmental advocacy group called Sullivan’s Island for All, who decried the impending tree removals.

The newly elected council sought to overturn the agreement and in 2023 were successful.

Charleston County Circuit Judge Jennifer McCoy ruled the settlement unenforceable because a previous town council had agreed to its terms. The agreement restricted council from adopting future regulations preserving or maintaining the land as public interests change, McCoy wrote.

Wilkins argued this point again Oct. 8.

“A prior council may not tell a future council what it must do or what it may not do regarding the exercise of its governmental powers,” Wilkins said.

Hood disagreed with that assessment. His clients are asking to reverse the 2023 judgment that voided their agreement with the town.

“What they did in this case was they settled a lawsuit, then they turned around and sued the people they settled with and forced them to go back to court to defend a settlement agreement that the town had agreed upon,” Hood said. “My clients’ hope is that the town of Sullivan's Island would recognize its obligation to do the work of its constituents, and that would include living up to the promises it makes.”

FOX Weather Meteorologist Steve Bender breaks down everything you need to know for the nor'easter anticipated to slam the eastern U.S. this weekend, with heavy rain, high winds, and coastal flooding expected.

SULLIVAN'S ISLAND, S.C. – The Carolinas are bracing for coastal impacts from a powerful nor'easter expected to blast the East Coast beginning Friday.

Gusty winds, heavy rain and coastal impacts such as flooding and beach erosion are possible.

(Bayne Froney / FOX Weather)

For areas in both North and South Carolina already battered by recent rough surf from hurricanes Humberto and Imelda, the threat of more flooding and beach erosion presents a danger to homes already impacted by erosion.

Nine homes collapsed in just a few days along the beach in Buxton and Rodanthe, North Carolina, from late September into early October. In total, 21 homes have collapsed along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore since 2020.

Several other homes at risk of collapse sit abandoned along those beaches.

The impacts from this nor'easter will stretch from the Carolinas into New England through Tuesday.

A Level 2 out of 4 flash flood risk has been issued for coastal North Carolina on Saturday.

FOX Weather Meteorologist Bayne Froney reported from Sullivan's Island, South Carolina, on Thursday, where King Tides were still impacting conditions, bringing rough surf and causing beach erosion.

A cold front brought a drastic temperature shift to the East Coast on Thursday morning.

"We've been dealing with these conditions all day, thanks to that cold front," Froney said. "The surf has been intense all day long."

Overall, rainfall closer to the coast looks to amount to a widespread 2-3 inches through Monday, according to the FOX Forecast Center. Localized rainfall amounts closer to 5 inches are possible as well.