kitchen countertopsNear Hanahan, SC

HANAHAN, S.C. (WCSC) - After being reelected for another term on Tuesday, Hanahan Mayor Christie Rainwater is already preparing for the next four years.

In this year’s election, no opponents ran against Rainwater, which she says was a relief to not sit on the edge of her seat and worry about winning or not.

“I feel like the residents of the city have seen the work I’ve put in, and they want that to keep going,” she says. “They want the momentum to continue, and no one ran against me. I’m able to really continue keeping that momentum going.”

The Hanahan City Council and school board members were all reelected on Tuesday, and the mayor says will continue as a strong partnership because of the established relationships.

Similar to the rest of the Lowcountry, Hanahan continues to grow. Rainwater focused on building economic development and recreation in the area by adding two new parks over the last four years.

“Really bringing this quality of life to the residents is what we’ve been doing over the past four years and will continue to do over the next four,” she says.

As for the upcoming four years, the mayor really wants to focus on flooding concerns, more economic growth and additional housing for the community. She also mentioned that the Lowcountry Rapid Transit plans include four stops that will positively impact Hanahan.

“We are really looking at our specifically downtown area and how can we allow for housing that will work for everyone,” Rainwater says. “We have changed the ordinances over the past few years that will allow for us to build up a little higher and bring that in.”

The mayor also expressed that Hanahan has a small-town feel despite being the seventeenth-largest city in South Carolina.

“I like to say I bleed blue and orange,” she says. “Hanahan is the heart of the Lowcountry. When you look at its location, you’ve got downtown Charleston, Summerville, Mount Pleasant, West Ashley, and right in the heart, you’ll find Hanahan. The truth is, it’s not just because of its location; the people in Hanahan are so special.”

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Hanahan High School’s next football coach has won better than 72 percent of his games in three Peach State stops as a head coach, including one state championship.

Milan Turner has certainly been around a lot of winning football going back nearly three decades.

Counting his time as an assistant coach in the mid-1990s, Turner has been on the sideline for six state championship games with five programs. Two of those won it all in Georgia, where he’s coached his whole career until now.

“We are elated to welcome Coach Turner to the Hawk family,” Hanahan High Principal Tom Gallus said. “Our community is very fortunate to have a coach of this caliber to lead and develop our student-athletes on and off the field. Coach Turner is a proven educator and leader. He knows what it takes to build a successful high school football program and to ensure that each student is prepared for their next steps after high school. I look forward to serving alongside Coach Turner and seeing our Hawks shine under the Friday night lights.”

Most recently, though, Turner was on the college level for one season, serving as the director of high school relations for the Georgia Southern football program.

Before Georgia Southern, where he earned his undergraduate and Master’s degrees, Turner compiled a 112-43 mark over 13 seasons as a head coach for three Georgia programs: Emanuel County (2005-10), Thomson (2011-13) and Veterans (2018-21). Turner’s teams won 65 games in six seasons at Emanuel, claiming the Class A crown in 2007 and finishing runner-up in 2008. He was 24-10 at Thomson and 23-21 at Veterans, both marks skewed heavily by one rough season.

In between Thomson and Veterans, Turner was on staff at Coffee High School for four seasons. Coffee was the Class 6A runner-up in 2017. He was also an assistant for the Class 4A state champion at Warner Robins in 2004 and played for state titles as an assistant at 2A Fitzgerald in 2000 and 2A Screven County in 1994.

Turner takes the reins from interim coach Steve Blanchard, who guided the Hawks for most of the season after Art Craig stepped away mid-season and eventually retired.

Last fall, Hanahan started off 6-1 and dropped three straight to finish 6-4 after a first-round playoff loss to Brookland-Cayce.

“First, I would like to thank Coach Clay Helton and Georgia Southern University for the incredible opportunity I had to serve this year on the football staff,” Coach Turner said in a statement released by HHS. “I want to also thank Principal Tom Gallus, Athletic Director Kim Joseph, the search committee, and the Berkeley County Board of Education for this incredible opportunity to be a teacher and head football coach at Hanahan High School. I am extremely excited for the future of our school and athletic program. I cannot wait to get to work with our team and to meet the Hanahan community.”

HANAHAN, S.C. (HOLY CITY SINNER) — Press Release

SeamonWhiteside (SW+), a full-service site design firm throughout the Carolinas, is nearing completion of the brand-new Hanahan Recreation Complex.

This multi-use recreation project is the first to open since the City of Hanahan’s large population growth over the last several years and is a much-needed addition to the community.

The new complex located in Hanahan off of Henry Brown Boulevard and adjacent to Bowen’s Corner Elementary School, will bring great value to the City’s residents and the Berkeley County School District with many added facilities and recreational uses.

SeamonWhiteside is the lead consultant on this $12M+ project and has worked closely with the City of Hanahan since 2016.

The firm provided Programming/Master Planning, Budgeting Assistance, CDs, Permitting, Bid Administration and Procurement, and Construction Administration.

The complex will offer dog parks, walking trails, courts for tennis, volleyball, and basketball, a playground, a multi-purpose recreation building, public parking, restrooms, picnic areas including a covered pavilion, and synthetic and natural sports fields.

“The project is nearing the finish line, and we can’t wait for the City of Hanahan residents to experience what we’ve been working on over the last several years. Located just steps away from Bowen’s Corner Elementary School, this will be a convenient and accessible resource for the community,” says Jennifer Palmer, Director of the SeamonWhiteside Summerville Office. “A fun fact about this project was the property used to be owned by the Federal Government Joint Base Charleston and was part of an old blast zone for testing missiles. All of the natural wetlands remain undisturbed and we utilized a timber bridge, designed by York Bridges, with a very natural park-like aesthetic for the road crossing spanning the wetland to join the two sides of the complex. It is thrilling to see it all come to life and I cannot wait to see it being utilized by the community.”

SeamonWhiteside worked closely on this project with Southeastern Surveying, ECS, Critical Systems Engineering, McSweeney Engineers, and architect Chris Karpus.

The Hanahan Recreation Complex began construction in June 2021 and is now nearing completion, with an expected finish and open date in early 2023.

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To learn more about SeamonWhiteside, visit www.seamonwhiteside.com.

HANAHAN — A parade of emergency response vehicles and a school bus were the first to drive a newly opened mile-long stretch of Railroad Avenue, a road project recently completed after years of work.

The extension runs from Mabeline Road to Eagle Landing Boulevard, adding a two-lane roadway along the eastern side of the existing CSX rail line, with a sidewalk along one side of the road.

Though only a mile, the new stretch connects the northwest corner of the city, where several neighborhoods and Hanahan Elementary School are, to the rest of the city, said Mayor Christie Rainwater.

Prior to the extension, drivers had to take a roundabout route and cross the railroad tracks twice.

“In order to get to the Eagle Landing ... part of the city, you actually had to leave the city, cross over the railroad tracks, go to another city (North Charleston), and then go down Rivers Avenue, cross back over the railroad tracks and get back into (Hanahan),” she said. “So obviously it was inconvenient to say the least.”

It was also completed after more than two decades of delays, which ballooned the cost from a $4 million federal earmark in the 1990s to more than $20 million by the time the county broke ground on the project in 2021.

Berkeley County’s 1 percent sales tax to pay for infrastructure contributed more than $16 million to the funding.

Officials said the delays were due to a number of bureaucratic hurdles and discussions between the county, the S.C. Department of Transportation and CSX, all of which had to review and approve various aspects of the project. Funding issues contributed as well, Rainwater said — the longer other delays took, the more expensive the project became and the more time it took to secure further funding.

Town and county officials held a ribbon cutting for the road extension on March 17, with a cohort of former mayors and other public officials in attendance such as former U.S. Rep. Henry Brown, who helped secure the initial federal earmark. Officials, local emergency responders and other attendees took to the school bus and emergency vehicles to drive through a blue ribbon and up the mile of road.

Rainwater said the extension saves at least 10 minutes of driving, and that’s without traffic and train-related delays. During rush hour or when a train is stopped on the tracks, it took even longer for drivers to get to their destination.

Berkeley County Supervisor Johnny Cribb pointed out it will also help ease congestion on Rivers Avenue.

“Think about all the cars that leave Hanahan, go out on Rivers Avenue, go to the intersection of Ashley Phosphate and Rivers needlessly every single day,” he said. “Every one of those cars are now pulled off that road, so that helps regional transportation.”

It was also a public safety issue when emergency vehicles are trying to get to the northwest part of town, Rainwater said.

Though acknowledging that not all road projects take so long, attendees at the ribbon-cutting made a number of jokes about the length of time it took to complete the extension. Rainwater said one resident called her reporting that her daughter was about to graduate from high school and to ask if the student could drive it before she left for college.

“If anybody here has got a good idea on a road project that might be done in the next 30 years, let us know today before you leave so we can get it done in your lifetime,” Cribb joked.

Cribb pointed out each county has a “dinosaur” of an infrastructure project that has taken years to complete, referencing the Highway 526 in Charleston County and the Berlin G. Myers Parkway in Dorchester County. The Railroad Avenue extension has been Berkeley County’s, he said.

HANAHAN, S.C. (WCBD) – The owner of a fitness training company in Hanahan that has been working with kids and adults for a few years is calling on the community to help keep his business open.

Kendrick Robinson opened The Factory Sports and Fitness Training in Hanahan a year before the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States to help train people in basketball, football, and other athletics.

“It was something that God brought to me. He gave me a vision,” said Robinson. “I wanted to have a facility where the youth in our community could (better) selves and have a safe place where they can come and train.”

“He always helps out. He helps out with kids like schoolwork and stuff like that before training,” said Christian Gray, who has been coming to the program for four years.

Robinson said working with the youth is his passion. But things have been tough financially, he said.

“Our rates are really not expensive, but if they’re not able to do training, we try to do charitable giving would give out free sessions,” explained Robinson.

He went on to say, “We kind of gotten [sic] to a rough patch since Covid. We had a business plan, and it kind of altered all of that, and we’ve been playing catch-up ever since.”

Robinson decided Sunday to let the public know they might have to close next month and started a GoFundMe in hopes of finding some assistance.

“Not something I wanted to go public with, but closed mouths don’t get fed. God revealed that to me, he told me to make sure I keep this place open and get the help that we needed from the community. The response has been, man amazing.”

More than $2,500 has already come in from the community, of the $10,000 they need.

“It’s been amazing to get all the feedback and support from the supporters we’ve had over the years and knowing that we’re doing the right thing just by being transparent with the community and letting them know that it hasn’t always been easy.”

If you would like to help, please click here.