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Pets to Adopt
GUTIERREZ
Golf Course in Conway. The girls soccer team defeated Christian Academy 3-0 at Heathwood Hall in Columbia. HHCA golfer Max Green also won an individual title. He shot a 36-hole total of 4-under 140. The soccer team was led in the state final by goals from Addy Lentz, Devon Yarde and Bless Hurtado.
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Hilton Head Prep’s boys tennis team won the SCISA Class AAA state crown with a 6-0 victory over Cardinal Newman.
The team finished the season 13-0.
BLUFFTON TOWNSHIP FIRE DISTRICT NAMES FIRST FEMALE OFFICER
Veronica Gutierrez has become the first female officer for the Bluffton Township Fire District. She was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, according to the fire district. Lt. Gutierrez started her career as a firefighter with the Bluffton Township Fire District in 2018.
“It is truly exciting to be a part of Bluffton Township Fire District’s history,” she said in a news release.
DOZENS OF PALM TREES REMOVED FOR BEING A ‘HAZARD’
Dominion Energy began removing about 30 palm trees in Bluffton’s Historic District. The project, which began in April, was necessary because the palm trees were touching electrical wires and posed a threat to safety and uninterrupted power, the town of Bluffton said.
“Dominion Energy representatives have made it clear these trees are a safety hazard to everyone near them as well as Dominion employees who work on the lines,” interim town manager Scott Marshall said.
The trees were planted in the 1930s as a memorial to fallen World War I soldiers, a news release said. Marshall said staff researched the possibility of relocating the trees, but the project would “cost more than $25,000 with no guarantee the trees would survive.”
WORK ON U.S. 17 UNDERWAY
Crews have begun work on a $42 million project that spans from the S.C. 315 intersection close to Hardeeville to the Back River Bridge near Savannah.
Work that has been completed includes most of the re-striping that creates narrower, 11-foot lanes during construction that will widen the highway from two lanes to four.
The project includes the addition of bike lanes, intersection upgrades, safety rumble strips, and a new traffic signal at the U.S. 17 and S.C. 315 intersection.
COUNTY PROGRAM ALERTS PROPERTY OWNERS TO NEW FILINGS
Beaufort County’s Register of Deeds launched a free service that gives property owners e-mail alerts whenever a document is recorded with the owner’s name or property ID.
The public can sign up by visiting the Beaufort County Register of Deeds website and following the links to register. More than 70,000 documents are recorded annually at the Register of Deeds office.
“While this service cannot prevent fraud, it is important to be notified early that someone may be trying to steal your property without your knowledge,” said Dale Butts, register of deeds.
For more information, call the Register of Deeds at 843-255-2555.
OF THE MONTH
CLEMENS
Age: 2.6 years old Gender: Male Weight: 64 pounds Breed: Terrier Mix Temperament: Lively and playful; selective with dogs. Loves toys.
CARDI
Age: 10.2 years old Gender: Female Weight: 9.5 pounds Breed: Domestic Short Hair Temperament: Shy and independent; loves all cats. Loves toys.
Adopt them at: Hilton Head Human Association’s Okatie Campus 10 Pritcher Point Road, Okatie For more information: 843-645-8400 OR HHHUMANE.ORG
Adoption by appointment only. (Please call to schedule an appointment. No drop-ins).
FORMER BEAUFORT COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR HIRED IN NORTH CAROLINA
Ashley Jacobs, who resigned last October as Beaufort County’s administrator, was hired to be chief information and innovation officer in Wake County, N.C. Jacobs had been Beaufort County’s administrator since 2019. Her first day in her new position will be June 14. She will oversee the county’s technology infrastructure, according to a news release.
SAVANNAH BOOK FESTIVAL PLANS IN-PERSON EVENT IN 2022
The Savannah Book Festival announced plans to host the 2022 Savannah Book Festival in person Feb. 17-20, 2022. Executive Director Erika Dongre said the festival will incorporate safety recommendations from the CDC and state and local governments. SBF pivoted to all virtual events following the cancellation of the February 2021 festival. The festival plans to offer some virtual events in 2022.
TOP GOLFERS COMMIT TO PALMETTO CHAMPIONSHIP IN LOWCOUNTRY
Dustin Johnson is set to compete at the Palmetto Championship at Congaree Golf Club in Ridgeland, June 10-13. He is a 24-time PGA Tour winner. The event is expected to draw a field of 156 golfers. Standouts Tyrrell Hatton and Matt Fitzpatrick are also set to contend for the title. Congaree Golf Club was voted Golf Digest’s Best New Private Course in 2018.
HILTON HEAD CHRISTIAN ACADEMY BOYS GOLF TEAM
LAUDING a legacy
STORY BY BARRY KAUFMAN | PHOTO BY ROB KAUFMAN
BLUFFTON HONORS A FAMILY WHO HAS MADE SERVICE ITS HERITAGE
Decades before any ribbons were cut and any speeches were made, a young boy named Jacob Martin played among the streets and sidewalks where Boundary and Lawrence streets meet in Old Town Bluffton.
Eventually, he found himself in charge of a library on the little spit of land, just blocks away from the house his family had called home for more than a century. Fast forward again, and you’ll find the lot cleared and landscaped into a picturesque greenspace, and a sign bearing the Martin family name.
The place has been many things in Jacob Martin’s lifetime. But what it is now will carry on his family’s legacy in perpetuity.
The town of Bluffton recognized the family in April with a ribbon-cutting for Martin Family Park.
The park honors the tireless dedication that both Jacob and his late wife, Ida Martin, showed in improving their community.
Jacob returned to his hometown after nearly 30 years living in Detroit, bent on making Bluffton better. While serving as a teacher,
IDA AND JACOB MARTIN
municipal judge and public school administrator at turns, he also spent 28 years volunteering with Meals on Wheels.
As for Ida, she famously founded Bluffton Self Help in 1987 from the Bruin Road house Jacob still calls home after more than 40 years.
“She started it right in the garage, back there,” he said, perched on a front-room sofa of his home.
Surrounding the nonagenarian are photos that tell the story of the Martin family with greater affection than any park ever could.
Candid shots and portraits of children and grandchildren captured throughout the years, diplomas from a slew of colleges and universities, and of course photos of Ida accepting her Presidential Citizens Medal from President Obama in 2011 all line the walls.
Taken all together, they paint a portrait of an amazing family. And they also underscore a philosophy running through the generations of the Martin family long before Jacob was born.
“We were raised to go and get as much education as we could, come back to Bluffton and make our contributions to Bluffton,” said Jacob.
The education came first, with Jacob attending boarding school at Shanklin School in northern Beaufort County in 1942. Beaufort County, being largely rural at the time, meant that getting to school required hopping on a train at Lobeco, where the New River Linear Park now runs under S.C. 46. It was a trek, but in segregation-era Bluffton it was the only option.
Even as Ida graduated a year before him, continuing her education at Johns Hopkins, the couple remained together. Jacob would eventually attempt to attend law school in Columbia before the infamous Strom Thurmond got involved.
The couple moved to Detroit together, where Jacob would spend 28 years, from 1951 to 1979, with the motor city’s police department. If you’re familiar with Detroit’s history, you’ll know those were not easy years to be a police officer.
And his return home would find Jacob and Ida living by the simple credo of the Martin family. Get an education. Come home. Put that education to use benefiting Bluffton.
Now, and forever, that credo will live on in a small patch of grassy land in the heart of a grateful town.
