Dear Island Neighbors,

Well, Hurricane/Tropical Storm Idalia came and went before I ever learned how to pronounce or spell it.
All things considered, we got off light. We did have some beach erosion in a few vulnerable spots, but otherwise the main overall effects were some sand rearrangement on the beach, some of us hosting the Atlantic Ocean in our yards for a short while, and some limbs and marsh grass to clean up. We were pretty lucky, and if you doubt that, just look at the folks in Florida.

In fact, do more than look. Please consider helping those Floridian fellow coast-dwellers who have suffered so much. Here is a great place to find organizations who will offer direct help to the people most affected:  https://bit.ly/MFIdalia

Your entire Town staff worked very diligently and intelligently to prepare us for the storm, maintain safety during it, and quickly recover from it. They have much experience in these activities (more than we wish), but under the leadership of Town Administrator Andy Benke they put on another clinic in town disaster preparation and management. Many employees spent the hurricane at Town Hall looking after us rather than looking after their families and homes. Please thank any Town employee you encounter for their service.

And the folks at Dominion Energy also deserve some thanks. The only power outage we experienced (other than a couple blinks) lasted just about an hour. That Dominion was able to get the lights back on in the midst of a tropical storm is a commendable achievement by their staff. I have made a promise to say fewer bad words the next time I open my bill.

This should be a reminder to get your hang tags which would be required for return to the Island if access is ever restricted. They are available at Town Hall upon presentation of your driver’s license with your Sullivan’s Island address on it OR a deed of ownership for Island property. These tags are for residents and property owners ONLY, not visitors, guests, extended family, contractors or employees.

And for important emergency preparedness information please visit bit.ly/SIPrepared. Here’s hoping we won’t need it again any time soon,  but now’s the time to get those batteries, flashlights, cell phone battery backups, etc., you wished you’d had this time.

Coyotes
As you have no doubt heard, we have had an increase in encounters with coyotes, including the tragic loss of one dog and attacks on some others. We are taking this situation very seriously and following best practices as established by the experts. We now have more traps installed than ever before, and are working to get more, but at present we seem to have a small number of unusually aggressive and incorrigible animals on our hands.

For more information on this matter, please go to bit.ly/SICoyotes

If you have an encounter, please call it in to the police non-emergency number (843) SIES-200 (743-7200) or if the situation is ongoing and more urgent, 911. You can also use the “TOSI Talks” link in the bottom right corner of every page at the Town website.

Stith Park Planning Event
After considerable discussion and review of proposals, the Town has retained the firm of Thomas & Hutton to provide a master plan for enhancement and revitalization of Stith Park on Middle Street, which as you know is the home of the Mound, Bandstand, kids’ playgrounds, and tennis and basketball courts. A critical part of this process includes public meetings to solicit input from Islanders about how they would like to see the Park develop into an even more vibrant community gathering place.

The first of these informal “charette”-style meetings will be at 6:00 PM  on Thursday,  September 21, 2023 at Town Hall. Please come out to see what our consultants’ preliminary thoughts are, and more importantly, to provide your own thoughts!

Beach Bonfires?

Fire Chief Anthony Stith and his experienced team have recommended that we consider no longer permitting fires on the beach. Apparently we are the only beach town in South Carolina which still permits these. Some other municipalities ended the practice years ago.
There are a number of sound arguments for eliminating it: threat of fire landward of the beach in the maritime forest, difficulty of enforcing the cleanup requirements, public safety manpower required to monitor the requirements of the permits during and after the fires, safety hazards posed by people who disregard the requirements, and the surprisingly large burden on our Town Hall administrative staff for issuing the permits and collecting and enforcing the deposits for non-compliance with cleanup requirements.
We will be discussing this matter at a Council Public Safety Committee meeting in the near future. If you have thoughts on this, please use the “TOSI Talks” feature mentioned earlier in this column and it will be routed to the right folks, and we will also notify you about that Public Safety Committee meeting.

See you around the Island!

Pat O’Neil
Mayor
843 670 9266
Twitter: @oneilpm1
oneilp@sullivansisland.sc.gov