Criminal Defense Attorney inBoiling Springs, SC

BOILING SPRINGS — Miranda Gilbert is planning to open a dessert shop that will satisfy a sweet tooth and honor the memory of her younger sister.

“I always said that I wanted to open a cupcake place and let her help me run it when she got older,” Gilbert said.

After Erika’s death at 22 nearly three years ago, Gilbert started Sissy’s Sweets at home as a side business. Gilbert is currently a school counselor but always wanted to be a business owner. Her sister’s death inspired her to finally start a business doing something she loves. They called each other Sissy and one of their favorite pastime activities was to bake cupcakes together.

“She was just like somebody that no words can describe,” Gilbert said. “Everybody loved her, she was hilarious and she was so full of life all the time.”

The shop will be in Rocky Branch Plaza on Boiling Springs Road in the former location of Yes Doll Boutique. Gilbert hopes to open this summer.

Though the specialty is cupcakes, customers will have other dessert options. There will also be coffee and breakfast items such as cinnamon rolls.

Gilbert plans to have pictures of her sister in the shop and incorporate purple into the decor — Erika’s favorite color. The dessert shop will have indoor seating.

“It’s nice to have people say things taste good, but the fact that I still get to tell people about her and do things that we loved to do together is definitely the best part,” she said.

Erika had Down Syndrome, so Gilbert hopes to create job opportunities for people with disabilities.

Today you’re holding the latest example of our commitment to delivering local news to Greenville and Spartanburg.

This is the first edition of a new monthly newspaper that we’re publishing in addition to daily coverage we provide at www.postandcourier.com/greenville and www.postandcourier.com/spartanburg. You’ll also find the monthly edition available on our site as an E-Paper, a digital replica of the print version. We’ll publish the edition on the third Thursday of every month.

We’re excited to provide this service. You may recall that The Post and Courier announced in 2020 that we would fill a void as newspapers were closing in South Carolina or drastically reducing coverage. We launched an ambitious expansion across the state. We’ve opened news operations in Greenville and Spartanburg, Rock Hill, Columbia, Myrtle Beach, the Pee Dee, Hilton Head and North Augusta.

Sam R. Hall, a veteran editor who recently moved to Greenville as Upstate and Regional Editor for The Post and Courier, is in charge of coverage in your area. You can reach Sam at shall@postandcourier.com, 864-887-2314 or at our office at 20 Augusta St. in the West End of downtown Greenville.

“The Post and Courier has a tremendous reputation for local journalism, and I’m happy to be a part of this ever-expanding effort,” Hall said. “The commitment to Greenville, Spartanburg and the entire Upstate is evident as we roll out this new product and continue to invest in these communities.”

We hope you’ll support our efforts to continue providing news to you and your communities. Please subscribe at www.postandcourier.com/greenville/subscribe/ or www.postandcourier.com/spartanburg/subscribe/ to support local news in your area.

A 44-year-old woman disappeared three weeks ago — and her home security cameras were unplugged at “crucial times,” South Carolina investigators said.

Still, deputies were able to track down video that showed her boyfriend wiping down her car and throwing items into a dumpster after she was reported missing, the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office wrote June 2 on Facebook.

Now, the man is facing charges as deputies continue to search for his missing girlfriend.

The case dates to May 16, when a woman reported her granddaughter, Casey Lavonne Young, didn’t go to work, saying it was “out of the ordinary for her.”

At the time, Young lived with her boyfriend on Pratt Drive in Boiling Springs, northwest of Spartanburg. Her phone “went dead” soon after arriving there on May 15, according to the sheriff’s office.

Young’s boyfriend told deputies the two of them argued before she drove off in her car on May 15. Then, two days later, deputies reported finding Young’s car at a nearby apartment complex, “backed in behind some bushes.”

Officials said surveillance footage from the area captured the missing woman’s boyfriend driving her car into the complex and “wiping down the inside of the car.” The boyfriend can then be seen tossing items into a dumpster and walking toward his house, according to deputies.

At the time the video was taken, the boyfriend is accused of leaving his cellphone at home “in what appears to be an attempt to cover up that he was the one who left the car at the apartment complex.”

Also as part of the investigation, deputies reported “several videos had been manually deleted from the ADT surveillance system at the home on Pratt Dr., along with event logs showing cameras being unplugged during crucial times.”

Young’s boyfriend — considered “a person of interest” as of June 2 — was arrested. He has been charged with obstruction of justice and grand larceny, officials said.

Young is described as being 5 feet, 5 inches tall and weighing 150 pounds. At the time she vanished, she was wearing her hair in black braids. Officials originally said they didn’t have enough evidence to suggest foul play.

Now, there’s a $10,000 reward for information about the missing person’s case. People with tips are asked to contact deputies at 864-494-0644 or email bletterman@spartanburgcounty.org.

BOILING SPRINGS — Spartanburg County is set to get its second Target on the property of the former Boiling Springs Ninth Grade Campus on Highway 9.

The 150,000-square-foot store will have a CVS Pharmacy and Starbucks inside and will occupy nearly 17 acres of the property that’s between Double Bridge Road and Old Furnace Road.

Ben Hines, president and co-owner of Spencer/Hines Properties, represented Spartanburg School District 2 in selling the 40-acre site that will become a shopping center.

There’s no opening date for the store but construction on the property will begin soon, Hines said.

Hines said when his company first listed the property on behalf of the school district, 64 acres were available and 24 acres were sold to a townhome developer.

The remaining 40 acres were sold to Atlanta-based developer Bright-Meyers Properties for around $6 million.

“We’ve been here for 37 years, and we want to continue to provide for the community,” Hines said. “It was important to us to have something that the citizens would be proud of and likewise embrace.”

Next to Target will be a retail strip center that will include a Whataburger restaurant. A QuikTrip will be in the area, and there will be a quick service restaurant, Hines said.

“It is a substantial financial windfall for District 2 and Spartanburg County,” he said.

Now that the property is sold, it will generate tax revenue for District 2. He said that $1 million in real estate taxes will be generated yearly for the school district.

There’s a 14-acre parcel on the property that will be used for retail that is occupied by Upstate Family Resource Center. The nonprofit will move to a new facility.

Today you’re holding the latest example of our commitment to delivering local news to Greenville and Spartanburg.

This is the first edition of a new monthly newspaper that we’re publishing in addition to daily coverage we provide at www.postandcourier.com/greenville and www.postandcourier.com/spartanburg. You’ll also find the monthly edition available on our site as an E-Paper, a digital replica of the print version. We’ll publish the edition on the third Thursday of every month.

We’re excited to provide this service. You may recall that The Post and Courier announced in 2020 that we would fill a void as newspapers were closing in South Carolina or drastically reducing coverage. We launched an ambitious expansion across the state. We’ve opened news operations in Greenville and Spartanburg, Rock Hill, Columbia, Myrtle Beach, the Pee Dee, Hilton Head and North Augusta.

Sam R. Hall, a veteran editor who recently moved to Greenville as Upstate and Regional Editor for The Post and Courier, is in charge of coverage in your area. You can reach Sam at shall@postandcourier.com, 864-887-2314 or at our office at 20 Augusta St. in the West End of downtown Greenville.

“The Post and Courier has a tremendous reputation for local journalism, and I’m happy to be a part of this ever-expanding effort,” Hall said. “The commitment to Greenville, Spartanburg and the entire Upstate is evident as we roll out this new product and continue to invest in these communities.”

We hope you’ll support our efforts to continue providing news to you and your communities. Please subscribe at www.postandcourier.com/greenville/subscribe/ or www.postandcourier.com/spartanburg/subscribe/ to support local news in your area.

Three years after enacting zoning for southwestern Spartanburg County to regulate growth, County Council is moving forward with plans to bring zoning to the entire county.

Planning Director Joan Holliday told council members Monday public input will be sought in drafting a performance zoning plan to be ready for council approval by this fall.

The plan would not apply to incorporated towns and cities, but could bring order to fast-growing unincorporated areas like Boiling Springs and Campobello, where many residents have said uncontrolled growth has brought traffic headaches.

Some residents said they want to see what's in the plan before outright supporting it.

"If you surveyed citizens of this county today, most would say that development is out of control," said Sally Rock of Campobello. "Will the proposed zoning be a political path to more rapid development? How do citizens in the southwest corner feel zoning is working there?"

Southwest zoning plan moves forwardZoning plan for southwest corridor approved

Spartanburg County's Southwest Performance Plan is modeled after Lexington County's plan, Holliday said.

The 160-page Southwest Performance Zoning Plan covers a large area from Greer to Woodruff, where most of the current industrial and residential growth is occurring.

At first, county officials anticipated expanding the zoning to four other areas, piece by piece, but have now decided to simply expand the Southwest Plan countywide.

If enacted countywide, it would replace the county's 22-year-old Unified Land Management Ordinance (ULMO) that has regulated development with rules such as buffers, height, landscaping and setbacks.

Over time, the ULMO has been criticized by many residents as too weak to protect against sprawl and address infrastructure needs such as roads, before growth happens.

Two years ago, County Councilman Bob Walker cited an example, saying the ULMO would not prevent an RV park planned on Landrum Mill Road in northern Spartanburg County that residents have opposed, but performance zoning might require the developer to find another site.

Performance zoning, on the other hand, is loaded with what uses are allowed in certain areas. It classifies roads from most traveled to least traveled: arterial (heavily traveled); collector; local; limited local; restrictive local; and residential local.

The greater the traffic volume on a road, the more uses that are permitted, such as schools, daycare centers, hospitals, flea markets, retail stores and manufacturing facilities.

Highway 101 is an example of a major arterial road with the highest classification.

The zoning also includes restrictive districts by protecting rural areas and guiding development toward population centers.

Former County Councilman Roger Nutt, who headed up the process of drafting the Southwest Plan, said the plan preserves property rights – a major concern at the outset of planning.

Public input will be sought on zoning plan

Holliday said meetings will be held with council members and planning commission members in February and March, followed by "stakeholder engagement" from April to August.

Planners will then seek public input from July to September, with a planning commission review in September, and finally three readings of the ordinance by county council in September, October and November.

Details of where and when public meetings will be held have not been finalized.

Residents react to zoning effort

Campobello-area residents critical of uncontrolled growth said the plan is long needed.

"I was a big proponent of performance zoning," said Jeffrey A. Horton Jr., a resident of northern Spartanburg County. "I feel it's the only way to regulate growth and preserve rural areas of my district.

"It's not necessarily meant to stifle growth, but guide it where it can become viable and manageable. People are jaded with traffic, state of our roads and over-congestion this population growth has produced, yet no one is actively addressing these issues."

Lou Nespecca of Campobello said he hopes the plan provides grandfather provisions to exempt some current uses.

"I would find it hard to tell someone who has done something for 25 years it is now illegal," he said. "I would like to know the push behind this agenda. Do they now want to over-develop other areas of the county and plan to force people out of their current situation? What happens if the pig farm was there first, and houses start to pop up around it?."

Rock, one of many northern Spartanburg County residents who oppose a planned RV park near Landrum, said she hopes the county is sincere in taking public input into account.

Opponents of the RV park were upset after the Planning Commission gave conditional approval to the RV park in March 2021. Opponents said they were not notified ahead of time. County officials said the park plan was on the Planning Commission's agenda and properly posted on its website a week before the meeting.

"This county has a track record of not welcoming citizen input and ignoring citizens' concerns when it comes to development and a vision for the future," she said. "Folks feel they have zero voice in local government land use planning. If you surveyed citizens of this county today, most would say that development is out of control."

Nathan Williams, a third-generation farmer on Highway 357 in Campobello, said the influx of housing developments is causing streams to flood more often and destroy topsoil needed for crops. He's also seen more traffic on narrow roads, making it impossible at times for his combine – a machine to harvest grain crops – to get to fields without the use of an escort.

He said he hopes the zoning plan will preserve farmland and steer growth to population centers.

"I don't know the solution," the 60-year-old farmer said. "I'm just concerned that in our future, we're not going to have anything left to farm."

Mike Brady of Boiling Springs has often been critical of the lack of county planning in Boiling Springs, where commercial growth branching out from the Highway 9 corridor has prompted many discussions about whether Boiling Springs should be incorporated with its own laws.

"The county has always held the opinion that zoning is the answer, but look in areas that have zoning regulations like Greenville County. I don't see it has worked very well there," he said. "Council holds the opinion that I am anti-growth, I am not. I'm for the county doing its job of planning areas for the benefit of the communities the growth will impact.

"Roads are a prime example of the tail wagging the dog. Let development come in unplanned, congest an area, and then try to address the problem on the back end. Old-timers like myself are looking at leaving the communities we have loved and worked in for a lifetime because of the issues lack of planning has created."

Boiling Springs baseball coach Jeff Lipscomb, after his team won an elimination game Monday night and reached the Upper State high school championship, had one more question for his team in the postgame circle.

“Who would you rather have up in the biggest spot than this guy?” he said, pointing to senior catcher Hudson Wilson.

It was a rhetorical question.

Wilson’s eighth-inning, game-winning hit off the right-field fence scored Luke Compton from third base, and it might be a tie between them for slowest 90 feet in high school baseball history.

“I was just walking,” Wilson said. “All we needed was a sacrifice fly right there.”

They both made it, eventually, and Boiling Springs beat T.L. Hanna, 2-1, triggering the celebration of a dramatic comeback. The Bulldogs were being shut out and down to their final three outs in the seventh.

Boiling Springs (19-8) will play at 5 p.m. Wednesday at Blythewood (20-4) and needs to win twice to advance to the state championship.

Hudson, who went 3-for-4, made one of the defensive plays of the game in the top of the eighth and his highlight inning was just getting started.

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Hudson, an Anderson University signee, caught a runner leaning too far off first on a failed bunt attempt and that led to a shutdown inning and a chance for a walk-off in the bottom half.

“What a great night for No. 7,” Lipscomb said. “Picks that guy off and does the job catching (starting pitcher and Clemson commit) Jackson Cole all night long and then comes up with the game-winner. Mr. Clutch.

“... Man, he was fun to watch.”

Unexpected pitchers' duel with Clemson commit

It was a pitchers’ duel, which was normal in the Upper State finals because three runs by T.L. Hanna in the first round against Lexington is now considered an offensive explosion.

But this one was rather unexpected because it was between Clemson commit Jackson Cole of Boiling Springs and T.L. Hanna freshman Easton Thomas.

Cole reached his 110-pitch limit in the eighth. He struck out nine, walked three and allowed six hits. Thomas went six-plus and had a 1-0 lead when he departed in the seventh with a runner on first.

T.L. Hanna baseball is ahead of schedule

Hanna’s final record won't be all that impressive, 12-11, but the Yellow Jackets went 7-2 in their region during a rebuilding season.

They lost 13 seniors after last season, had two returning offensive players with more than 30 at-bats and just one pitcher with significant experience.

“I just loved the growth and maturity,” Hanna coach Daniel Crenshaw said. “We were so young and not a lot of people expected a lot from us. But these guys competed their tails off.”