Home Care In Pelzer, SC

PELZER, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - We are working to get you answers about your Upstate road concerns.

We have received several submissions about a rough road in that runs through Pelzer.

Located in Greenville County near the Anderson County line, Berry Road takes drivers from Old Hundred Road to McKelvey Road.

Neighbors tell us the two-and-a-half mile road did not see many cars until a nearby bridge closed earlier this year.

“Since the bridge has been out, the road has constantly been busy due to the detour,” Sherry Thompson said, “Whereas before, we never had any traffic.”

Thompson, who lives on Berry Road, said she has watched it go downhill.

“It was a little cracked up but nothing like it is now,” Thompson said, “They’re trying to fill it in in little spots, but it’s still rough. I mean, there’s patchy spots. We’ve even had damage to our tires because of it.”

The McKelvey Road Bridge over Huff Creek was closed in February 2023 when engineers found significant deterioration during an inspection.

Karen wrote in, “Bridge is closed on McKelvey Rd. We are told it will take 3 years to fix. The alternative route to get from McKelvey Rd to Highway 418 is Berry Rd. but it is in terrible shape. Please help us get Berry Rd. and the McKelvey Rd. bridge fixed.”

Fork Shoals Elementary and Ralph Chandler Middle are located on opposite sides of the bridge.

“This is the only cut-through road that you can use to get to the schools so now everybody uses this road,” Thompson said.

The South Carolina Department of Transportation said drivers should take the detour they have in place.

“The S-154 (McKelvey Rd) bridge over Huff Creek has been closed and a detour is currently in affect. The detour utilizes Fork Shoals Road (S-146), SC 418, Reedy Fork Road (S-50), and McKelvey Road (S-154) and is approximately 8.6 miles long.”

While Berry Road is not part of the detour, Thompson said more cars are taking it because its a shorter route.

With all of the extra traffic, Thompson says Berry Road needs repairs.

“The whole thing needs to be repaved in my opinion because they’re just doing the little patchwork. They’re just patching it, instead of solving it,” Thompson said.

SCDOT does not have any current projects scheduled for Berry Road.

Meanwhile, the bridge on McKelvey Road remains closed, with construction set to start in January 2024.

Submit your road and bridge concerns and FOX Carolina will work on getting answers for you.

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PELZER, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - FOX Carolina is working to get answers about your Upstate road concerns.

This week, we’re on West Georgia Road in southern Greenville County.

This road runs under 20 miles, from Pelzer to Simpsonville.

Neighbors told us most of the problems lie on the Pelzer side.

With all of the rain we’ve had in January, a bridge has been shut down several times due to flooding.

“You can’t pass by. That thing was closed all during the rain,” neighbor, Fritz Wiebel said.

Wiebel lives near the bridge that runs over Grove Creek on West Georgia Road in Pelzer.

He said the bridge reopened after the water receded, but after flooding again this week, road closure signs are up again.

Wiebel said flooding is just one of a long list of problems. “You’re on your own when you come out here. You’re riding around on a broken tile floor. It’s got grass growing up the middle of the pavement.”

Driving by Wiebel’s house, it’s easy to see his frustration.

At least a dozen signs are posted at the entrance of his property. One sign reads, “More road money.” Another sign, “12 cent gas tax. Where’s the money?”

“You might as well been out here howling at the moon. There’s been no response. The whole community is in an uproar about it and it’s just time for them to do something about it”

He said the potholes have gotten bigger and the cracks have gotten worse since moving to West Georgia Road six years ago.

“They’ll come by and patch one or two. You can see the reflectors are all gone. You can see the lines not even painted and that’s dangerous. It’s just dangerous, period,” Wiebel said.

While repaving and other improvements have been made on the other side of West Georgia in Simpsonville, Wiebel said this side has been neglected. “It’s plain to see Georgia Road has two-tiered service. You got Simpsonville service, but when you cross over Highway 25, we’re not getting nothing over here.”

After flooding earlier this month, the South Carolina Department of Transportation said engineers inspected two bridges on West Georgia Road and found no damage.

SCDOT said West Georgia Road is on the list for repaving.

Crews are planning to repave a two-and-a-half mile stretch, from Waycross Church Road to Eastview Road in Pelzer.

Construction is expected to start this summer.

Submit your road and bridge concerns to FOX Carolina.

Copyright 2024 WHNS. All rights reserved.

Who knew rounding up escaped dairy cows was part of a sheriff deputy’s job, but that’s just what happened in Greenville Tuesday night.

It seems Kevon, a bull, and a few of his cow pals decided they needed a night out and left the pasture belonging to Happy Cow Creamery, a well-known producer of raw milk and other products in Pelzer.

A woman came upon them in the middle of rural McKelvey Road. The crowd was just walking and grazing. It looked like something from a sci-fi film. Apparently cows believe like many that the grass is always greener on the other side.

The woman, who was not identified, took a video, which Happy Cow posted on TikTok.

Ashley Trantham, who owns the creamery with her husband Tom, called deputies.

Four responded, not knowing when they started their shift they’d be full-fledged cattle wranglers by day’s end.

The roundup went fairly smoothly until Kevon decided to pull a full-on bull response and charged one of the deputies. Kevon ended up with a face full of pepper spray.

Ashley Trantham posted a pun-filled thank you to the deputies on Facebook Wednesday morning.

“They “herd” our heifers and Kevon the bull had escaped and helped us Mooove them back into their fence.,” she said.

That unleashed a slew of puns in response.

Why did he escape? Did he have a “mad cow” moment?

Bad bulls, bad bulls, what cha gonna do, what ya gonna do when they come for you?

Officers are familiar with getting lots of “bull” (my hubs is retired) but this takes the prize!

Un-herd of!

Peppered beef.

I’m thinking Kevon was “stunned.”

I’d like to see their body-cam footage.

Even Greenville County Sheriff Hobart Lewis chimed in saying, “Great group for sure. They always go above and beyond each day.”

To which Happy Cow Creamery responded, “They went above, beyond, under and through last night. The girls did NOT make it easy but your crew was amazingly organized in their response. Kevon actually put himself back in the fence by himself after a little pepper spray.”

PELZER S.C. (FOX Carolina) - Ray Hershey says flooding and stormwater issues aren’t new for his community.

“It just comes flying down the road,” Hershey said of stormwater during heavy rains in his neighborhood. “All the stormwater sewers lead straight to the lake,” he added, “and it’s not just the volume of water, but the velocity of the water.”

But he says it’s something that has actually gotten worse in recent times, especially with all of the storms of the last year or so. And he says the 43 homeowners responsible for maintaining Lake Trollingwood have been on the hook financially--some with thousands of dollars in damage from recent storms.

“We are getting a lot more water now that there’s this development up there, and it’s all coming downhill,” Hershey explained, talking about new homes being built just up the road from one of Pelzer’s oldest neighborhoods.

Greenville County Councilman Lynn Ballard told us he received multiple complaints over the course of months from residents in the Trollingwood community.

“There was a significant amount of brown water running here, there, and everywhere,” Ballard said. “And it even contaminated their well.”

After compiling emails obtained from the county, Fox Carolina was able to piece together a timeline:

In all, records show 3 complaints about water runoff issues in the Trollingwood community were made since May—the first one coming from homeowners on Rivendell Drive May 8th.

After the first complaint, Ballard says county inspectors went out to look at the isolated area, and determined repairs were needed.

But that was just the tip of the iceberg.

After the third and final complaint from residents on Shadowmere Drive on June 22, Ballard says county inspectors came out once again, this time in force, with a team of engineers and inspectors. That team surveyed at least 30 lots undergoing construction in the community, and found something startling.

“That was just a failure of the protective measures that were put in place,” Ballard said.

The final report, released on June 30 by the Assistant County Administrator for Community Planning, names multiple lots being built into new homes in the Preserve at Trollingwood community as a large part of the problem.

Fox Carolina went looking, and found several “stop work” orders issued on lots in that area, highlighting numerous code violations, including but not limited to: uninstalled drainage mechanisms, incomplete silt fencing, and other water control measures, like small retention ponds, which officials say were listed on plans by developers and contractors, but never actually built.

“Those kinds of issues fall onto the developer and the contractor,” Ballard said. “If we don’t get complaints, the assumption is everything is working the way it is supposed to.”

Ballard says the county has now stepped in to create a stormwater control plan in conjunction with builders. But homeowners like Ray are still worried.

“As this end of the county gets developed, there is a lot of pressure to put a lot of homes in here,” Hershey reflected. “That’s just going to add to the water.”

He says the larger issue at the county level is still growth and development occurring at a rapid pace, and what he views as the lack of infrastructure available to compensate for it.

Hershey says he wants the county to take a hard look at infrastructure plans for the future in his area.

“They are concerned about dealing with this individual problem on a micro level,” Hershey remarked. “We are concerned about our lake in our neighborhood on a macro level.”

Fox Carolina reached out to the developer of the Preserve at Trollingwood, who said he was not willing to comment on any of the above issues.

According to the same report from the Assistant County Administrator’s office, contractors working on homes in that area had until July 6 to resolve stormwater drainage and runoff problems by installing mitigation measures. Over two weeks later on July 20, the “stop work” order signs in front of several lots in the area still remain.

Ballard says the county still has confidence in the intention and character of the developers building homes in the Trollingwood area. He says he expects the matter to be dealt with swiftly and efficiently, and that there is no evidence to suggest that any corners were cut intentionally at this time.

Copyright 2022 WHNS. All rights reserved.

A March 1919 story in The Greenville News emphasized the need for an auditorium in Pelzer, SC after a large number of residents were unable to get in to see the Pelzer Amateur Club’s presentation of the rural comedy drama, Deacon Dubbs, at the local school.

“It had the best local talent production ever staged in Pelzer,” the article reads. “But the one thing to be regretted was to see the large number of people turned away who would not get even standing room. It is a shame that Pelzer has not an auditorium which can accommodate our own local entertainments.”

Whether or not The Greenville News article had an impact, the Anderson County town of Pelzer had a new auditorium the next year.

Funded by local mill owners as part of the Pelzer school system’s building plan, the new brick auditorium with towering white columns opened in October 1920 with 800 seats, according to news accounts. Over the next 50 years, the auditorium on Lebby Street would serve as a center of activity for the burgeoning mill town, hosting everything from minstrel shows to mock trials.

A 1931 article in The Greenville News announces a mock trial to be staged at the auditorium on December 21 at 8 p.m. by the Pelzer Nights of Pythias.

“Dick Turner will be the defendant and he is charged with violation of the prohibition law,” the article says. “There will be some real attorneys present and a big time is promised to everyone.”

But by the 1970s, the historic building was not in regular use and it fell into disrepair. Once again, the area school system stepped up. After Anderson School District 1 refurbished the building, area theater groups and performers began using it occasionally.

Efforts to find an ongoing use for the historic Pelzer Auditorium were taken up by the Community of Pelzer Historical Society, which sought recommendations from representatives of the Newberry Opera House, League of Historic American Theatres, Walhalla Civic Auditorium, and the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, according to Beth Howansky, president of the Community of Pelzer Historical Society.

In 2014, Historic Pelzer Auditorium found new life when Mill Town Players became a permanent resident offering year-round live theater.

Billed as big city entertainment at small town prices, Mill Town Players has been recognized nationally for artistic excellence, with many of its performances at the now 656-seat auditorium selling out.

Season attendance has grown to more 32,000, with patrons coming from more than 52 municipalities across South Carolina, and many areas of Georgia and North Carolina, according to Pelzer Mayor Will Ragland, who is executive artistic director of Mill Town Players.

Due to COVID-19, Mill Town Players has suspended its 2020 season, with a scheduled return in May 2021. For the 2021 show schedule, visit MillTownPlayers.org.

And in case you were wondering, Ragland confirms that the 100-year-old auditorium is haunted. Here’s his firsthand account.