Home Care In Cayce, SC

CAYCE — Customers are climbing the walls at the newest business in Cayce.

Capital Climbing Cayce opened its doors at Parkland Plaza on May 30 to those who backed the project in advance. The gym will open to the public on June 10.

It adds an outdoor attraction in the Midlands that had been lacking as the community becomes more of a draw to outdoor enthusiasts.

The gym has more than 2,000 feet of space for those who want to work on bouldering and rock climbing at different levels of difficulty, with marked routes on the walls to follow.

The walls rise up to eight feet and are inclined outward, with thick padding welcoming those who have lost their grip.

For those who like to rock climb, having a spot right in Cayce to enjoy the sport is a boon.

“It’s good to have good bouldering here, five minutes from my apartment,” said Garfield Fowler, a University of South Carolina student who was trying out the new walls on the first day that members could use the space.

The idea is to have a destination for those who love rock climbing and bouldering but also have a place where newcomers can try the sport, owner Chris Neal said.

Capital Climbing even has climbing shoes in a variety of sizes that can be rented.

“One of the things that we wanted to offer was the opportunity to walk by, come in off the the street and not feel like they weren’t welcome,” Neal said.

It has taken months to get the space open for customers. Years ago the space was a dollar store, Neal said.

To convert it, he had to remove the drop ceiling and vinyl floors, then work with a Utah company, Vertical Solutions, to install walls and rock pads.

The space also needed a new roof and air-conditioning system.

The climbing walls include a Kilter Board, which has a huge variety of holds and is electronic, so can be programmed with an app to highlight routes of varying difficulty.

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It slopes inward at 45 degrees from vertical.

Some space at the gym allow children to climb, Neal said, adding that he has brought his own kids in to test the difficulty for younger customers.

Scouts’ designer

Scout Motors, which will build pickups and SUVs in Blythewood, has made one of its most important decisions as it ramps up.

Scout has selected Chris Benjamin as its chief design officer, the company announced May 30.

Benjamin is a veteran of automotive design, working with such brands as Jeep, BMW and Ram Trucks. Most recently he was leading interior designs at at Stellantis North America, the parent company of Chrysler.

“His thumb prints are all over many of the most beloved off-road vehicles in the market today,” Scout Motors CEO Scott Keogh said.

Benjamin said in a statement that Scout’s classic designs have been among his favorites.

“They created the archetype for the modern SUV in the ’60s and proved that a daily driver could also be a weekend adventurer,” Benjamin said. “My task now is to balance the iconic design language of the past with all of the innovative possibilities that electrification unlocks.”

The company, part of Volkswagen, picked Blythewood in March for its $2 billion assembly plant. Production there is projected to start at the end of 2026.

Esther’s closes

Richard Conklin, sounded like anything but someone who was done with restaurants as he announced the closing of Esther’s Soul Food + Kitchen, the restaurant in the Village at Sandhill.

Conklin, who announced the closing of the restaurant on its Facebook page on May 21, talked about the challenges of the restaurant industry but also sounded like new plans are already underway.

“I’m working on a lot of things right now,” Conklin said. “I am not giving up.”

One new thing already has been rolled out: Conklin will be doing live cooking shows in Instagram and pop-up soul food events, with the first set for June 25 at 730 Polo Road.

According to the city manager, the Avenues in Cayce is prone to flooding but now state money could fill in the gap.

CAYCE, S.C. — The City of Cayce has received funding that it says will go towards drainage issues that have annoyed residents for years.

In Wednesday's City Council meeting, two major moves were made to address a growing issue with drainage and flooding.- a check worth $10 million was given to Cayce from the South Carolina Rural Infrastructure Authority, and the council approved professional engineering services for the second phase of the Cayce Avenues drainage improvement project.

Tracy Hegler is the city manager and says the money is a huge leg-up for getting the work done. She adds that part of the city is prone to flood, especially from storm water.

'It's just an older neighborhood that was built before we knew how to design storm water management, it's not uncommon, it happens everywhere," she says.

She explains additional funding will also come from the state transportation department making the total cost of the grant $11 million. She adds the drainage project is broken into three phases, with the second phase and will focus on drainage close to the river along Indago and Karlaney streets

"It's going to be either new pipes, bigger pipes, new culverts, upsized culverts, just to capture that flow in a more efficient manner than exists today," Hegler says.

That might not be the only change coming to Cayce's infrastructure.

RELATED: Cayce residents say erosion is causing a 'canyon', taking over properties

In Wednesday's meeting, Dara Brown a community health coordinator with Brookland-Lakeview Empowerment Center provided a presentation on a possible walking and biking loop that would run through Cayce.

"So our vision of the loop is to connect Steel Hands and Savage Craft breweries. So starting from Foreman Street with Steel Hands and going up Frank and across State streets towards Savage Craft and then down meeting street in West Columbia, turning left onto Twelfth Street and following Twelfth Street all the way into Cayce." Brown explains.

She says the color is to connect disadvantaged communities, especially communities of color, and additionally provide a safe place for people to walk and shop in the area. The idea is receiving verbal support from the council according to Mayor Elise Partin. She says the project could be a huge help to the local economy.

"We have so many great small businesses but there's space for more and adding in safe ways to bike and to walk we know will actually help to bring more business," she claims.

Brown says the next step is to host some audit walks, where city leaders and the community will come out and survey the proposed improvements, and says she is working to secure grant funding and garner more support from the community.

Residents of Cayce tell us they're excited about both projects, including Randall Clamb. He's an Avenues resident and sees a walking corridor as a safe alternative for his dog walks.

"When you're driving on the street you're thinking about getting over, so if there were sidewalks to walk on, it would just be a lot safer," he says.

He adds additional help with flooding will also be huge for the neighborhood.

"I think it's time to take care of a problem that has plagued us for a long time," Clamb says.

The ‘canyon’ was once a small stream that carried water from a drainage pipe, but now it’s a ravine that residents say their yards are slowly falling into.

CAYCE, S.C. — A handful of Cayce residents say erosion has ruined their yards and made it impossible to sell their houses, thanks to a creek they call ‘Cayce Canyon.' The residents want the City of Cayce to intervene.

“We are tired of being a hostage of Cayce,” said resident Karen Dawkins.

Dawkins has lived in the avenues of Cayce for thirty years. Her yard backs up to the riverwalk and right behind her fence is ‘Cayce Canyon.'

“Property values have decreased steadily,” Dawkins said. “Making it not feasible to sell our homes at the same time with the damage that continues to be done.”

The ‘canyon’ was once a small stream that carried water from a drainage pipe, but now it’s a deep ravine that residents say their yards are slowly falling into.

“We have lost one telephone pole already,” Dawkins said. “We've lost our fences. Our property has been deemed unsafe from the midpoint to what's now the bank.”

What used to be a flat back yard has become a steep hill, and now her house’s foundation is cracking. American Engineering Consultants review found that development in the area caused increased stormwater flow, and the ditch is significantly over capacity.

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Dawkins has reached out to everyone she can think of for help.

“The first thing we did was contact our city leaders,” Dawkins said. “Our city leaders told us that they were not solely responsible, that they even did a water study back in 2016 and found that the water coming onto the city's property comes from different entities.”

City officials say they are aware of the issue. "We're constantly looking for funding, whether it's via grants or talking to our state representatives or federal representatives, to help tackle this project,” Cayce City Manager Tracy Hegler said.

The City of Cayce recently received a $10 million rural infrastructure grant. The money’s from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), and it’s going towards drainage issues in the Avenues. Hegler says a portion of this money is going to what residents call the ‘Cayce Canyon.'

“There'll be a little bit more on what we're calling the indigo basin, where we've started our work already,” Hegler said. “Some of our citizens are already seeing the great impact of that, and it will address what's kind of the next outfall in the Avenues drainage area, which is the Naples basin, and so we will be able to, we will be, we will be working on that.”

For residents, it may be the end of a decades-long issue.

“Cayce’s motto is 'Time for Life.'" We've been waiting over 20 years for ours,” Dawkins said.

Residents may see improvements soon, as the City of Cayce says the grant money must be spent in the next two years.

The City of Cayce is making efforts toward preserving historic Black cemeteries.

CAYCE, S.C. — For more than a year now, the City of Cayce has been working on preserving the final resting places of founding members of the community, and specifically people from the Black community.

City Grant Manager Taylor Gray applied for a Federal Historic Preservation Grant to conduct a survey of local African-American Cemeteries. The South Carolina Department of Archives and History awarded the city $15,000, and the city has matched the funds to make the funding $30,000 for the project.

Stantec, an engineering company in Columbia, was contracted for the project and gave a 20-minute presentation on Tuesday about what they found in surveying several plots of land with marked and unmarked graves. Kimberly Hinder with Stantec gave the presentation and explained the findings.

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"In summary, we identified seven African American cemeteries and four that may have had some African American burials within the city limits. We're recommending ground-penetrating radar for most of the sites in order to determine the number of burials and boundaries for the cemeteries," Hinder explained.

The company plans to continue researching each cemetery location they have looked at and hopefully have the community point them toward more graves. According to Cayce Cayce Museum Curator Andy Thomas, there is no timeline for the preservations project just yet.

"I think it's going to be a long term, and then as far as preservation, that's long-term. What are you going to put into it, your resources, and what you're going to put into it," Thomas said.

Chicora, a local cemetery preservation foundation, is not involved with this particular project but their director, Michael Trinkley, says preservation and restoration done right, should take time.

"Finding the cemeteries is certainly a great first step, but the second step needs to be, 'What are we going to do with them?'. Too often, people think once you record the stones... you've got all the information you need... Cemeteries are sacred, protected spaces under South Carolina law... so there's a lot more to the preservation of cemeteries, than just finding them. Usually, however complex and time-consuming finding them is, coming up with what you're going to do with them... is even more extensive," Trinkley said.

69-year-old Anthony Weston took time after the Tuesday night presentation to walk through the Saint Anne Cemetery behind City Hall, where generations of his family have been buried. Weston says he and his family are thrilled that more effort will be taken toward preserving Black history in Cayce.

"I'm glad they're doing this because you go into the museum and it looks like no Black people were ever in Cayce," Weston said.

To share information with Stantec on any unmarked graves in Cayce, contact Kimberly Hinder by email at Kimberly.Hinder@stantec.com or call at (813) 367-0969.

When you chat with owners and employees at Cayce’s Piecewise Coffee Co., the word “community” often pops up.

And in a recent poll of readers of The State, the community showed its love for the shop.

Piecewise emerged as the winner of The State’s recent reader poll on the Midlands’ favorite coffee shops. Nineteen local coffee shops were listed in the poll, and more than 30,000 votes were cast. When the smoke cleared, Piecewise came out on top, with 40% — more than 12,000 — of the votes.

West Columbia’s Brickhouse Gourmet Coffee was second with 28% of the votes, and the Coffee Shelf, Loveland Coffee and Oliver Gospel Roastery tied for third with 6% each.

Piecewise, located at 2001 State St. in Cayce, was bustling on a recent Wednesday morning. There were baristas crafting hot and cold beverages — items on the pumpkin- and Japanese sweet potato-infused special fall menu are a current favorite — and customers filling the seats of nearby tables; friends catching up with each other and remote workers tacking away on laptops.

In the midst of it all was Jacob Kirby, who co-owns Piecewise with twin brother, Zach, making drinks, chatting with colleagues and wiping down tables and chairs on the sidewalk outside the shop. The Kirby brothers bought Piecewise in September 2022 from original owners Lindsey and Stanton Scoma, who initially opened the shop in 2019.

Jacob Kirby said it felt good to see Piecewise climb to the top of the newspaper’s recent reader poll.

“My brother and I are both from Columbia, so for us it’s really rewarding to feel like the community here is showing support for what has been going on at Piecewise,” Kirby said.

The Kirby brothers are 29, and Jacob said they have been talking about having their own coffee shop since they were 19. They were regular customers at Piecewise in recent years, and in 2022, when the opportunity arose to purchase the Cayce shop, they took that leap into ownership.

“When that opportunity kind of showed up, we were kind of like, ‘Can we pull this off right now? Can we tackle this?,’” Jacob Kirby said. “Luckily we have such a great team here. We inherited a really amazing team. Our managers here, Kaden (Parham) and Zoe (Ebo) were totally instrumental to us even pulling it off, at all. I tell them every day that we couldn’t have pulled this off without them.”

Ebo has been working for Piecewise since it opened in 2019. She said it was encouraging to see the support the Cayce shop gathered in the recent coffee poll.

“I think it’s pretty neat,” Ebo said. “Especially since we’re such a small shop outside of the (downtown) Columbia area. You might not even know we were here unless you drove outside the downtown.”

As Piecewise has established a foothold in Cayce since 2019, and the Kirby brothers have adjusted to ownership during the last year, Jacob Kirby said they are beginning to take a look into the future. While there are no concrete plans in place, he didn’t rule out establishing another Piecewise location at some point down the road.

“We are looking at the coffee landscape in Columbia and trying to identify whether there are parts of town that don’t have a local option,” he said. “There are a lot of parts of town that do have a local option, and we aren’t trying to go in and put ourselves next door to another local choice. ... What we are trying to find out is, in the Midlands, where there are areas that don’t have a real local option, and if there’s an opportunity for us to put another one of these there, maybe.”

Piecewise is open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.

This story was originally published October 5, 2023, 5:30 AM.