NOVEMBER 7 - 13, 2019 WWW.YOURISLANDNEWS.COM
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COVERING BEAUFORT COUNTY
VETERANS DAY
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County Council approves funding for Penn Center renovation project By Mindy Lucas Despite the concerns of at least one council member, Beaufort County Council has given preliminary approval to an ordinance that would increase and fund a major restoration and renovation project for Penn Center, on St. Helena Island. Council members voted to pass the ordinance, which would appropriate up to $822,000 for the project, on first reading at its Monday, Oct. 28 meeting. The funds would come from local accommodations taxes and would go toward Phase I of the construction project, which will include building repairs, improvements and upgrades to many of the center’s historic buildings. Council member Chris Hervochon raised concerns over the funding and a tax notice the center had received. The center received a letter from the S.C. Department of Revenue saying the center owed back taxes for some nine years, the center’s interim executive director Marion Burns said at the meeting. However, the center maintains it does not owe any taxes and has until Nov. 27 to formally respond to the letter, he said. “So we do not have a tax problem,” Burns said. York Glover, Sr. acknowledged past issues in the management of the center’s finances but said the funding of the construction project would be handled through the county’s normal procurement process. Funds, he noted, would be held by the county until it was time to pay contractors. “No money would go any place else other than those buildings,” he said. Glover went on to say that the center is taking strides to bring Penn into a new era to make sure Penn is on a solid foundation. “They are working with a very prominent foundation that’s doing their feasibili-
Decorated war veteran to celebrate 100th birthday
By Margaret Evans
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or Sgt. Major John Thomas “Tom” Collier, USMC, Retired, some of the memories are a little hazy. But he vividly remembers how cold it was in the Chosin Reservoir in 1952. “It was 31 or 32 below zero up there! I had to wear all the clothes I had … at the same time. We couldn’t have a fire, ‘cause the mortars would come in on ya.” And he remembers a time the mortars did come in on him. Tom jumped in his foxhole, his buddy jumped in on top of him, and miraculously, they both survived. Again, this was the Chosin Reservoir, Tom thinks ... Or maybe it was Guadalcanal? Before Korea, Tom served in World War II. He has a Bronze Star, a Good Conduct Medal, the Seventh Award, and an Expert Marksmanship Badge, Pistol Caliber. And those are just the medals he remembers. This month, along with November 11 – Veterans Day – Tom Collier is anticipating November 19, the day he’ll celebrate his 100th birthday. “I never thought I’d make it this far,” he laughs. His secret? “I stayed out of trouble.”
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Tom Collier
There’s a twinkle in his eye with that answer, so we try a more somber question. “Tom, how did you survive two wars when so many were dying around you?” “Luck, I guess,” he replies. “Wasn’t no skill to it.” Again with the twinkle. Tom grew up in Eastover, S.C., where he was an avid tennis player as a boy. After high school, he made his way to the Lowcountry to work in the CCC Camp at Hunting Island. “Digging up tree stumps for something like $1 a day,” he says. “They were getting us ready for the war, but we didn’t know it.” Next thing he knew, Tom was at boot camp on Parris Island. The year was 1940. Tom’s military career spanned
What: 2019 Veterans Day Parade and Ceremony When: Begins 10 a.m., Saturday, Nov. 9. Where: Boundary Street, downtown Beaufort, Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park Details: • Parade begins at 10 a.m. and follows an abbreviated route through downtown Beaufort, beginning at Boundary Street, by the Beaufort National Cemetery and will end at Newcastle Street and Bay Street. • The ceremony will begin at 11:30 a.m. at Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park. The keynote speakers will be the four student winners from the Beaufort County School District who wrote essays on what a veteran means to them. • The Parris Island Marine Band and the Robert Smalls International Academy Chorus will perform during the ceremony. • Food and beverages will be available to purchase from students in the Battery Creek High School Culinary Program and the Beaufort-Jasper Academy for Career Excellence Culinary Program. • Any organization and school group interested in marching in the parade should contact Beaufort County Veterans Affairs at 843-255-6880. • In the event of inclement weather, the parade and ceremony will be canceled. For more information, contact the Beaufort County Department of Veterans Affairs at 843-255-6880.
24 years and two wars, and it ended where it started. In 1964, he retired from the Marine Corps after having served on Parris Island for a second time. The second stint was better than the first. One of his memories from that period is of accompanying Vice President Richard Nixon, who was visiting PI, on a cruise on the USS Sequoia. During his military career, Tom and his first wife lived in a mobile home, driving it from one assignment to the next. When he ended
up at Parris Island the second time, it was the first time he’d really seen Beaufort up close. It seemed like a nice enough place to put down roots. So when he retired, Tom built a house on the water – “I bought this lot for $3,000,” he says – and he’s lived in that house since 1967. After retirement, he worked for a lumber company for a while. He also bought a boat and tried his hand at shrimping.
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Sheriff ’s Office investigating death of Beaufort teen found at boat landing By Mindy Lucas Investigators with the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Department are looking for answers in the suspicious death of a Beaufort teenager whose body was found at a nearby boat landing. Marcus Graves, 16, of Beaufort was found at Grays
Hill Landing, at 8:50 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 1, according to Beaufort County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Maj. Bob Bromage. Graves was last seen around 10 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 31, according to Bromage, and had been reported by his family as a runaway.
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The sheriff’s office and Beaufort County Emergency Medical Services responded to the scene, at the end of Clarendon Road, west of S.C. Highway 21, after area fishermen discovered what they described as an unresponsive body in the marsh. Graves was pronounced
dead by EMS personnel at the scene. A junior at Battery Creek High School, Graves was described as “a free spirit who had a passion for music and an infectious smile,” in a letter sent home to parents from the school’s principal Chad Cox Friday afternoon.
AMONG THE ELITE Beaufort County women bridge the agriculture gap.
Lady’s Island Middle School student receives top membership in national STEM competition.
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A forensic autopsy was performed at the Medical University of South Carolina on Sunday. However, no clear cause and manner of death were determined, stated an advisory issued by the sheriff’s department on Monday. Forensic pathologists will
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perform additional studies, which should aid in those determinations, the statement said. Anyone with information is encouraged to call Sergeant Ryan Garst at 843-2553426 or Crimestoppers of the Lowcountry at 843-5541111.