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APRIL 14–20, 2022
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PRESORTED PERMIT NO. 97 BEAUFORT, SC 29902
COVERING BEAUFORT COUNTY
LOWCOUNTRY LOWDOWN
LOLITA HUCKABY
Development impact fees – the debate goes on
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BEAUFORT ast week’s column was about the county’s development impact fees … and guess what? This one is as well. It’s just too fascinating subject to ignore … unless you’re one of those residents who don’t really care about what your local government is doing, you just want to know how much it’s gonna cost you. Of course, if you happen to be planning on building a new home — either as the owner or the contractor — your attention may have been captured by the proceedings of the Beaufort County Council in the past month. Or maybe you’re a prospective homeowner who doesn’t mind an additional $8,000 to $10,000 tacked onto your construction budget. It seems we have quite a few of those folks among us. The County Council two weeks ago decided to play hard ball with the municipal councils who they felt were asking too many questions how these proposed fees were gonna work and what projects were going to be undertaken. The majority of county council members agreed if the municipalities wouldn’t sign mutual agreements on the various impact fee ordinances, they’d just drop the whole program. Their argument was that it wasn’t fair for folks building a new home in the county to pay certain fees that folks building a new
Ray Harvey, co-owner of the iconic Harvey’s Barber Shop on Bay Street, said the shop, which has been downtown for decades, will be moving to a new venue at the Grayco Center on Lady’s Island. Not shown is Harvey’s co-owner and the youngest Harvey brother, Johnny. Photo by Bob Sofaly.
‘Sometimes you’ve just got to do things’ Harvey’s barbershop to move after nearly nine decades in downtown Beaufort
By Tony Kukulich
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fter a staggering 86 years in downtown Beaufort, Harvey’s Barbershop is moving. The Bay Street institution is planning to open June 1 in its new Lady’s Island location in the Grayco Shopping Center. Ray Harvey, who owns and runs the business with his brother Johnny, said the growth in tourism, while good for the town, has made it difficult for him to operate his business. “The tourism has grown double just about every year for the last five
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years,” Ray said. “That eats up all the parking spaces. I just had two customers say they had to park twoand-a-half blocks away. It’s just gotten busier and busier with people not getting haircuts. Tourism is not good for haircuts.” According to Ray, his father, Furman Harvey, started cutting hair in Beaufort in 1936. Furman grew up in Fairfax, S.C., and learned the barber trade in Florida before settling briefly in Walterboro. “He went to work in a shop in Walterboro, and didn’t like it,” Ray explained. “That’s why he moseyed
down here one day. He got out of the car and passed a man, Mr. Fordham from Fordham’s Hardware. He asked him, ‘Do you know anyone that needs a barber?’” A simple inquiry led to a job in short order, and that was all it took to establish a business that has lasted four score and six years, so far. In 1954, Furman moved the business into its third and final location, a building that Furman built himself. Johnny and Ray bought the business and the building in 1993, though
SEE BARBER PAGE A7
Exposing the American Conquistadors
Author argues Beaufort County played key role in establishing America By Tony Kukulich The origin story of the United States is often told as the founding of the Jamestown colony by the English in 1607 or the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock 13 years later, but a local author is working to shed light on the significance that present day Beaufort County played in the founding of the country. Considering Jamestown or Plymouth as the start of the American story ignores European explorations and settlement attempts for the entirety of the 16th century, what historians refer to as the “lost century of American history.” It’s an era that is understood by few.
With the publication of his book “American Conquistador,” Beaufort resident Daryl Ferguson is determined to change that. Ferguson’s interest in the significance of the Port Royal Sound area in the earliest days of European settlement efforts was sparked by a conversation with Professor Larry Rowland, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History for the University of South Carolina Beaufort. Rowland told Ferguson about a little-known settlement called Santa Elena and said he believed it could be the site where America began. “He told me that there was in fact a historical site on Parris Island that
may go back as early as a settlement to 1569,'' Ferguson said. “I said, ‘I can’t believe it. We’ve all been taught that the English landed at Plymouth as our first settlement in 1620.’” For Ferguson, an amateur historian with a Ph.D in business, that conversation would spark a research effort that would consume six days a week for eight years. “After we had our conversation, he just got completely hooked on Santa Elena and the whole Spanish story of the southeast coast,” Rowland said. At Rowland’s direction, Ferguson
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Daryl A. Ferguson with a copy of his book, American Conquistador, at his home near Clarendon Plantation. Photo by Bob Sofaly.
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Public meeting addresses stormwater, traffic issues in Shell Point.
Rebecca Folsom plays music to inspire at Fripp Island Community Centre.
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