Two fake stop signs have been found in one James Island neighborhood, which the mayor says has caused confusion and controversy between town officials and local

JAMES ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - Two fake stop signs have been found in one James Island neighborhood, which the mayor says has caused confusion and controversy between town officials and locals.

A neighbor’s security camera captured the Town of James Island’s public works department removing the illegal stop signs from the corner of Clearview Drive and Tennant Street on Oct. 21.

“You cannot put your own stop signs out. You can always come to the town and make a request, and it will always be merited,” Mayor Bill Woolsey said. “We won’t often be able to put them up, but you can’t put them up yourself, and how we respond is we immediately contact SCDOT. We would have been very surprised if they put a stop sign out there without telling us beforehand.”

A worker could be seen wiggling one of the signs a couple of times before lifting it out of the ground and placing it in the back of a truck.

Not only were the signs put in illegally, according to the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office, but the ground next to the street was painted with white stop bars, as well.

“It’s the first I’ve ever heard about it, and I hope it doesn’t spread,” Woolsey said. “[I’m surprised] someone would come and paint a line in the road and buy some online stop signs and install them themselves in the middle of the night or early in the morning.”

Deputies said they were patrolling the area the night before and didn’t see any new signs, but when they went back the next day, they said the signs, which were apparently purchased online, had been put in overnight.

The South Carolina Department of Transportation has also confirmed they have not installed any stop signs at the intersection.

Neighbors initially thought the stop signs were put in by DOT to help with speeders and said the fake signs hurts their ability to address the issue.

“I guess somebody duped us, and they were putting in fake stop signs,” neighbor Jim Boyd said. “They looked to all of us legitimate and 100% real. We are just in favor of anything and everything that we can get people to slow down. Yes, we understand first responders need to get here quickly as well, but we want everything and anything.”

However, Woolsey said he believes the signs did not pop up at random.

“If we find out who did it, they will be charged, and we believe that, most likely, it was someone who lives close by,” he said.

Woolsey also said there was a recent incident where an illegal speed bump was found and removed near the intersection. He said the speed bump had black and yellow stripes and was similar to one found in parking lots across the Lowcountry.

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JAMES ISLAND, S.C. (WCBD) – Charleston City leaders provided some insight on a flood-prone neighborhood on James Island that saw an excess of water after Hurricane Ian.

News 2 first introduced viewers to Michael Miller and his wife on Friday when Hurricane Ian flooded their home and others on Shoreham Road.

According to Miller, it took about five to six hours for the water to drain on the street and about three hours for it to recede inside his home.

“We just started getting as much of the water and as much of the dirt out as we could. Putting up fans, scrubbing down everything. Trying to assess the damage,” said Miller.

According to Charleston City leaders, Shoreham Road is known to flood because it sits in a low-lying area.

“It’s a neighborhood where when that water falls on the streets and on the roofs and on the properties it’s hard to move it out very quickly especially if we get higher tides,” explained Matthew Fountain, the Director of Stormwater Management for the City of Charleston.

There are a few projects in the works to help prevent flooding in the neighborhood. Fountain said one includes a rain garden that is set to be built at the site of a former flood-prone home the city acquired through federal grants.

He said the other small project consists of constructing a drainage swale system to help store more water in the neighborhood. While these projects can help with a typical thunderstorm/rain event, Fountain said it will take more to prevent flooding in a major storm like Ian.

“That neighborhood is going to experience flooding. That’s part of the reason we’ve looked at home acquisitions and demolition in that location giving people the opportunity if they have a heavily flooded home to have the city work with the federal government and eventually buy their homes,” explained Fountain.

Meanwhile, drainage projects on other parts of James Island seem to be showing signs of improvement. News 2 met with Charleston County Councilwoman Jenny Costa Honeycutt at the Charleston Municipal Golf Course where drainage improvements are underway.

She said Hurricane Ian was one of the first big storms to hit the area since rolling out the projects. Because of the work that was done over the last few years, Honeycutt said the water in the system was able to drain within one tide cycle, as opposed to sitting for days as it has in the past.

“One of the parts of the improvements that really helped was cleaning out the Stono River outfall and then back up the ditch system to the entire watershed, so that water could drain out faster. In conjunction, we also enhanced these ponds you see on the golf course to allow more water to stay in the system as the tides change,” explained Honeycutt.

According to city leaders, they monitor streets like Shoreham Road ahead of big storms, making sure the pipes aren’t clogged.

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A James Island church reopened Sunday after nearly ten years of litigation between the South Carolina Supreme Court and 29 parishes.

JAMES ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - A James Island church reopened Sunday after nearly ten years of litigation between the South Carolina Supreme Court and 29 parishes.

Episcopal and Anglican churches have been fighting in court since 2012, but in August, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that eight out of the 29 total churches in the lawsuit would be returned to the Episcopal church.

One of the eight churches, St. James Episcopal Church, has spent over 200 years on James Island. Reverend Taylor Smith was called to lead the church into its new chapter.

“Today [Sunday] was our first service back so it’s very exciting for us,” Smith said. “We pray for the folks who are not here anymore; they were so sad to leave this church as you can imagine, but the Episcopal Church of South Carolina is really excited to be welcoming St. James back, and the bishop asked me to lead that effort.”

Over the last decade, the church has still held services but under the Anglican denomination.

Many members of the congregation stuck by the church during that time. Smith said they will continue to stay loyal as the church reverts to an Episcopal church.

“We’ll get an eclectic group and I just can’t know what that is; that’s part of the excitement to lead something that is very hard to identify, but it’s thrilling,” he said. “Ultimately, we are all together doing the work of God in Jesus’ name and that’s always thrilling.”

The legal battle began when the eight churches left the Episcopal Church and later joined the Anglican Church. A South Carolina Supreme Court ruling stated that the churches that left did not have proper ownership to leave based on state trust law.

The August 17 ruling states:

We direct that appropriate documentation be filed in the public record indicating the National Church and the Associated Diocese now own that real estate. From our decision today, there will be no remand. The case is over.

As for the future of the church, Smith explained that they are more traditional than other churches, which some people love.

“A lot of ideas are going to spring up from the people,” he said. “I’m not coming in with an agenda other than to keep worshiping every week and to be inviting. We will do whatever people are motivated to do.”

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CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - The City of Charleston’s Planning Commission on Wednesday will review plans for a new residential development on James Island.

The property has both low-lying wetlands and high ground, which appears to be causing concern for some James Island residents.

One James Island resident, Franny Henty, said she is concerned about the flooding problems that developments in low-lying areas may cause for surrounding neighbors.

Developers are proposing to build the ‘Harbor View Towns’ near the intersection of the James Island Expressway and Harbor View Road. According to the submitted plans, it will consist of six single-family and 10 multifamily units.

Henty lives off of Folly Road, right near Publix.

With the multiple jurisdictions interacting on James Island, she said she hopes the city is being careful with its stormwater retention plan, especially considering the low-lying areas and wetlands on the property.

“Adding so much development can flood out the neighbors, and that’s not apparent immediately, its apparent years later, Henty said.

City of Charleston Director of Planning, Preservation and Sustainability Robert Summerfield said the majority of the property is high land, but the portion of the property containing wetlands will be “pretty significantly” buffered away.

He said the developer’s plans include a stormwater retention plan, and even though the multiple jurisdictions can be confusing from a planning perspective, he is confident in the city’s stormwater requirements.

“This property is in the city, this property is not, and so on and so forth. But this one is in the city, has to meet all of our requirements. And again, our stormwater requirements, I would put those up against any in the state in terms of their stringent requirements to safeguard against future, and particularly downstream, flooding,” Summerfield said.

We are waiting to hear from the developer for comment.

Today’s planning commission meeting will take place at 5:00 p.m. in the Public Meeting Room on the first floor of 2 George Street.

The meeting will also be live streamed and recorded on the City of Charleston Public Meetings YouTube channel.

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NORTH CHARLESTON — A man provided Charleston County deputies with a different name before he took off running across several lanes of a major road and jumping from an overpass.

Kelvin Cole, 56, died Oct. 28 after being struck by multiple cars on Interstate 26. Investigators later determined he had active arrest warrants from Charleston County’s Family Court and the S.C. Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services.

Cole, who lived and worked as a welder in Johns Island, was riding in the passenger seat of a car when a deputy stopped it for alleged traffic violations. The car’s 31-year-old driver was ultimately given a warning.

Attempts to reach Cole’s family Nov. 2 were unsuccessful.

The Charleston County Sheriff’s Office released an incident report Nov. 2, several days after Cole’s death. It provides new details on what preceded the moment he ran from the deputy.

Deputy Tanner Buller was patrolling around 10:30 p.m. near Stall and Mazyck roads in North Charleston when he noticed a white SUV swerve several times from its lane, the report states. The driver also failed to use a turn signal when changing lanes.

Buller, who has worked in law enforcement for five years, had a deputy-in-training with him during the stop. He flipped on his blue lights and the SUV pulled over onto the Ashley Phosphate Road overpass, which sits atop I-26.

Buller spoke with the car’s driver through the passenger-side window. The driver denied he had been drinking, but Buller wrote he could smell marijuana and alcohol coming from the vehicle’s passenger side. The car’s passenger, later identified as Cole, told the deputy his name was Raymond Brown.

Buller had both men get out of their car so he could search them. The driver admitted he’d smoked marijuana earlier in the day, the report states.

When Cole exited the car, Buller saw a beer can near the passenger seat. Buller found Cole’s driver’s license and noticed it did not match the name he’d provided the deputy.

Buller tried to detain Cole “but he pulled away and fled on foot” across Ashley Phosphate Road, the report states. The deputy chased Cole while trying to avoid traffic.

He repeatedly asked Cole to stop but the man “eventually jumped over the guardrail,” the report states. Buller saw Cole’s hands “grabbing the rail for a brief period” before he appeared to let go and fall onto I-26, the report states.

Buller never drew his weapon, said Andrew Knapp, a Sheriff’s Office spokesman. The deputy remains on duty. In addition to conducting its own internal review, the Sheriff’s Office also requested State Law Enforcement Division investigate the incident, Knapp said.

Investigators searched Cole’s name in a federal database and found he had an active warrant with the probation department, as well as three bench warrants with Charleston County’s Family Court.

Cole was the defendant in an ongoing child support case filed in 2016, court records show.

He was placed on a year of probation in February 2020 after pleading guilty in Charleston County to a forgery charge. Cole’s probation sentence would not be terminated until he paid all associated fees, said Anita Dantzler, a department spokeswoman.

Cole owed nearly $2,500 to the department, records show.