Criminal Defense Attorney inMount Pleasant, SC

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCIV) — Mount Pleasant leaders are attempting to limit loud noises throughout the town.

On Tuesday night, the town council passed an ordinance to begin a 90 day trial of a noise ordinance. However, no fines will be issued during the 90-day testing period.

The town is limiting noise to 55 decibels max.

"By setting a limit, it allows us to at least say and give restaurants that play live music a grade on what they are allowed and not allowed to do," said John Iacofano of the Mount Pleasant Town Council.

Iacofano said he thinks the ordinance will be good to collect data on how loud some areas may be. He said he went to Shem Creek to test the noise.

"I went to a restaurant that had live music. The noise was between 75 to 85 decibels, and I was okay with that. That was at the edge of the property itself. I didn't know what it was at homes in Shem Creek, but I think 55 is tight," said Iacofano.

Jeremy Cundiff is the general manager at Red's Ice House. He said if the ordinance becomes permanent, it will affect their business.

"If we don't have live music, that will impact a lot of people on the creek. Then I'm worried that will drive them downtown or elsewhere outside of Mount Pleasant," said Cundiff.

Cundiff said now is the restaurant's busy season with summer fast approaching and tourists coming into town. He said they are always respectful to their neighbors when it comes to loud noise.

"I walk around when we have bands with a decibel reader and try to make sure it's a reasonable limit from the edges of our property. I don't go over 75 decibels," said Cundiff.

Cundiff said he does not know where this ordinance came from since they generally don't receive complaints.

"I feel like it's been several years since we had multiple complaints. I think we had one recently, but it was for a special event that we don't often have," he said.

There are limitations to the ordinance including emergency vehicles, special events, parades, and construction or repair sound.

No fines will be given during the pilot ordinance. It will begin on May 1st.

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCBD) – The Mount Pleasant Town Council unanimously passed an amendment at Tuesday’s meeting that allows Charleston County residents to utilize the town’s wastewater services without requiring them to be annexed into the town.

Making changes to an ordinance that has created controversy for years.

“We used a lot of legal advice to finally craft an amendment to our ordinance that if you have an existing single-family home as of June 14th,” Mount Pleasant Mayor Will Haynie said, “and you have a septic tank in the ground and sewer service is already available, then you can tap on without annexing.”

Haynie says this amendment will protect the town, while also providing wastewater service for many neighborhoods in the area.

“What the town wanted was to protect the town,” Haynie said, “so that we don’t have rampant development in parts of Mount Pleasant that we don’t have governance of. People are shocked when they find out that places on Coleman Boulevard are not in the Town of Mount Pleasant.”

Settlement communities will be one of the primary beneficiaries of this amendment. It’s something John Wright, president of the African American Settlement Community Historic Commission, says they’ve been fighting for, for a long time.

“I think by amending it,” Wright said, “I think all those things now come full circle. You know, we get better environment, we get quality of life, we get health. You know, we get all those things now that that amendment has taken place because it puts us on one playing field.”

Haynie believes this amendment is a major step forward for all of Mount Pleasant.

“We’re going to protect the character,” Haynie said, “primarily of the settlement communities, and we’re going to protect the environment, which affects all of Mount Pleasant, whether you’re in the town or not. So, it’s a double win.”

And many residents agree.

“It’s something we’ve been trying to get for years,” Snowden resident Thomas Jenkins said, “the wastewater. And try to do away with the septic tanks and stuff like that. To get it, and not to be annexed into Mount Pleasant, that’s just a relief right there.”

MOUNT PLEASANT — Failing septic systems foul waterways and harm quality of life, but for decades East Cooper residents have been required to annex into the town if they want to connect to the sewer system.

Some have been unwilling to do that, particularly in historic African American settlement communities such as Snowden, Six Mile, Ten Mile and Phillips.

Others have been unable to annex because their properties don’t touch the town boundaries.

Now, in a move that could help residents outside the town limits and improve water quality, Mount Pleasant is moving to change the rules.

An ordinance that received initial unanimous Town Council approval May 10 would allow existing homes with septic systems to connect to Mount Pleasant Waterworks’ sewer lines anywhere they are available, regardless of whether the property is within the town.

“This will get us clean water for our citizens and clean water for Shem Creek, and I think this will be an olive branch to those who would resent the town for withholding sewer if they did not annex,” Mayor Will Haynie said.

Like most towns and cities in South Carolina, Mount Pleasant’s town boundaries encircle many unincorporated areas. Some are individual homes and businesses, while others are entire communities.

The utility’s sewer lines run as far up the coast as the Bull’s Bay Golf Club and Paradise Island on the Wando River, so there are lots of homes that could connect to the sewer system but for the annexation rule.

John Wright, president of the African American Settlement Community Historic Commission, praised the pending rule change.

“We know that this is really significant,” he said. “Annexation has been really divisive.”

Wright said some community residents have not wanted to join the town because they believe doing so would lead to new regulations or unwanted development.

“This is going to be a great quality of life (improvement) for individuals who need service,” said Freddie Jenkins, chairman of the Commission’s Waterworks Committee.

Jenkins lives in Snowden, a settlement community off Long Point Road, and annexed his own property into the town years ago. He was able to connect his home to the sewer system last year, allowing him to get rid of a failing septic system that sometimes backed up into his house.

“Man, I’m enjoying it,” he said.

Charleston County and the the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control require property owners with failing septic systems to connect to public sewer lines if they are available but at their own expense. One flaw is that agencies do not regularly inspect septic systems to see if they are failing.

The costs of switching from septic to sewer are considerable, averaging about $10,000, Mount Pleasant Waterworks estimates.

The utility hopes to secure federal funding to assist people in making the switch, as has been done in the past.

“It’s about environmental protection and water quality,” said Allan Clum, Mount Pleasant Waterworks’ general manager. “There are several areas where we know we have failing septic systems.”

For years, water sampling by Charleston Waterkeeper has found high levels of fecal bacteria in area creeks, including Shem Creek, particularly after periods of rain. In 2021 the town of James Island earmarked $1.8 million in federal American Recovery Plan funds toward an effort to replace the failing septic systems blamed for the pollution.

Haynie, who as mayor sits on the Mount Pleasant Waterworks Commission, said the utility is “getting ready to get tens of millions of dollars in grants, we think.”

The town’s annexation rules have been in place for about three decades and exist because requiring properties to join the town in order to get sewer lines gives Mount Pleasant more control over development.

That wouldn’t change under the pending rules. The only properties that could remain outside the town limits and get sewer service are those with existing residences, and they would be limited to getting sewer service for homes existing when the ordinance is passed — likely in June.

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCBD)- Every business at the 426 Coleman Boulevard Shopping Center in Mount Pleasant has one thing in common, they’re all owned by women.

Diane Anglin was the first women to own a business in the strip mall and more female owners have joined her over the years.

“To have been here in one location for so long is important for your clients because even if they move away they come back,” said Anglin. “It’s pretty amazing. We are very fortunate to be here.”

In the past few months, Monique Semper moved into the far left unit with her businesses. She moved Charleston Tuxedo and Yoj Events from Charleston to Mount Pleasant. Since then, all the businesses have been owned by women.

“My parents were business owners and I just come from a long line of ‘Do it yourself,’ and the sky is the limit and there’s no room for failure,” said Semper.

She had been looking for the space to accommodate a friend of hers who needed a place to run her florist business. Kimberly Findlay uses the back of Semper’s store to make arrangements for graduations and weddings.

“It’s very empowering that everyone in the building is a women business owner. I’ve been seeing this industry grow more and more with women in charge and running their own businesses and making the money that we should be making,” said Finlay, who owns Coastal Creations.

The other businesses in the strip mall include two nutrition stores, an insurance agent and a doctor. Alex Presswood is the co-owner of Lillie Fuel, where she and her mother-in-law make baby food for families.

“We’re basically just moms trying to help out other moms and empower women in general,” said Presswood. “When COVID-19 hit I lost my job and I was able to do this full time.”

According the the United States Small Business Administration, women accounted for 48.8 percent of workers and owned 43.9 percent of businesses in South Carolina in 2021. South Carolina is also the fourth ranked state for the growth of women owned businesses.

To all of the women in the building that means empowering each other.

“To say ‘You know we’re all female owned businesses,’ it’s a pretty big deal,” said Anglin.

“We honestly just made it work. We’re tiny but mighty is what we like to say,” said Semper.

For the younger business owners like Presswood and her mother-in-law they bounce ideas off of the women who are also mothers in the building.

“All of us have different tricks, trades and different ideas of what kids will and will not eat so we can always show other moms” said Presswood.

No matter the business the women are always there to help their neighbors.

“I think we all support each other in the sense that we have a lot in common and we can work well together,” said Findlay.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — Families around the country are struggling to feed their babies because of a shortage of baby formula. This has been going on for months, and only got worse after a nationwide recall from a major formula distributor.

Here in the Lowcountry, one mom is trying to help families by giving them some of her own food.

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Valerie Weber knows all too well the importance of baby formula. Her son, Wyatt, was born 6 1/2 weeks early.

“They wanted him on fortified bottles until he was like I think four months adjusted. So we did have to do three bottles a day with a teaspoon of formula,” she says.

Weber says she’s seen anxious parents posting to Facebook trying to find baby formula for their kids.

“They were just always asking, ‘Have you seen this anywhere? I’ve been to four different stores, have you seen this? Let me know, does anybody have any extra?’ I’ve seen some like super empty shelves, which is scary,” Weber says.

The baby formula shortage started a few months ago when Abbott, a major producer of baby formula, recalled three brands. The recalls, combined with supply chain issues and inflation, has left several parents scrambling.

Megan Foxe, a dietitian in the Pediatric Critical Care Unit at MUSC, says their staff is trying to help parents as they can.

“They may be prescribed on one of the formulas that are recalled, and we can’t find it in an outpatient setting. So the availability of those products come and go day by day,” she says.

Foxe says parents have brought in their children after trying to make their own baby formula.

“When a parent makes their own formula, they’re using different ingredients. I’ve seen everything from almonds and milking their own almonds and flax seed. Adding fish oil, cod liver oil,” she says. “All those things can be super dangerous. It affects electrolytes and causes abnormalities that could cause heart arrhythmias and even brain issues.”

“I just can’t imagine not being able to feed my baby, or the fear of possibly not being able to feed my baby,” says Weber.

Weber posted to Facebook offering up extra breast milk to parents whose babies can use it.

“I just put myself in their shoes, and I can’t imagine, so I just wanted to help however I possibly could if I could,” she says.

Weber says she was able to help a mom to premature twins get enough milk to hold her over until a delivery of formula came in.

She says her freezer is open to help anyone who needs it.

“If you can help some mom feed their baby, I think that’s a beautiful thing,’ she says.

There is a breast milk bank through MUSC, but officials say that milk is primarily used for babies in the NICU or mothers who cannot produce breast milk. The bank is accepting donations. Click here for more information.