Home Care In Cayce, SC

With filing about to open this month for November’s election, voters in Cayce already know they’re going to have a choice to make for the city’s next mayor.

Elise Partin, who has been Cayce’s mayor since 2008, is running for another term in the city’s top office on Nov. 7. Also running for the mayor’s office is Lexington 2 school board member and lifelong Cayce resident Abbott “Tre” Bray.

In a statement announcing her candidacy, Partin touts a record of keeping taxes down and quality of life high, with an emphasis on government responsiveness and customer service. The city recently won a $10 million state grant for stormwater improvement, and Partin was named public servant of the year in 2019 by the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce.

“Under Partin’s steady leadership, City services have continued to be modernized and are more cost effective,” the media release from the Partin campaign says. “By reversing the City’s credit to an excellent rating (it was poor before her tenure), Partin and City staff were able to get a low-interest loan via the State of S.C. to replace and upgrade 75% of the city’s water lines in 2017 — a massive public works project.”

She will face Bray, a graduate of Brookland-Cayce High School who deployed to Iraq with the S.C. National Guard. He now manages a contract for the Department of Defense providing risk reduction services and prevention training to the Army and Air National Guard. He has served on the Lexington 2 school board since 2020.

“I know first-hand what it’s like to grow up in the Cayce community, one with charm and character like no other,” Bray said in a statement announcing his candidacy. “With the right leadership, we can ensure that Cayce grows responsibly and sustainably. I want Cayce to remain an incredible place to live, work, and raise a family for generations to come.”

Races for public office in Cayce are nonpartisan.

Cayce voters will not only chose a mayor for a new four-year term in November but also two of four city council members. Many other municipalities will also hold local elections this fall.

Filing for local offices in Lexington County opens Aug. 16 and closes Aug. 30.

The Bee is almost ready to buzz.

Little Bee Bun Mee, a new restaurant that will specialize Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches and more, announced Monday that it will officially open at 11 a.m. Tuesday, July 11. It is located at 904 Knox Abbott Drive in Cayce.

The banh mi restaurant is the latest effort from owners Chris and Noi Souvanna, who have operated Duke’s Pad Thai restaurant in Cayce for the last several years. Little Bee Bun Mee is located right next door to Duke’s, and the owners said there will be an “open dining concept” between the two restaurants, where customers can choose from cuisine from either establishment in the same building.

“We wanted to continue to add more cultural dining to Cayce through one of our favorite dishes, banh mi sandwiches,” Noi Souvanna said in a statement. “The last few years have been a whirlwind, surviving a pandemic, raising two boys and running a successful business; we all just felt like busy bees which led us to naming Little Bee. Our passion for fast-casual food fuels the other busy bees out there to have a family-made meal and get on their way to their busy lives.”

Little Bee Bun Mee will focus on banh mi sandwiches, a type of Vietnamese sandwich typically built on a baguette. The sandwiches have continued to gain popularity in the U.S. in recent years. Little Bee also will have sushi, tacos, tea fusion drinks, poke bowls and more.

While it officially opens July 11, Little Bee has quietly had some soft opening activities recently, which the restaurant referred to on social media as “testing recipes” and “finalizing the menu.” A reporter from The State stopped in during one of the soft opening moments and tried the bulgogi cheesesteak sandwich, which came with Korean-style marinated beef, cilantro, cheese, Kimchi sauce and spicy mayo.

Little Bee has been long-awaited in Cayce. A sign touting the restaurant has been up on the building since last year, along with a neon, play-on-words sign in the window that implores customers to “Show Us Your Bunz.”

Banh mi seems to be having a moment in the Columbia area. Aside from Little Bee Bun Mee, two other banh mi restaurants — Banh Mi Boys in the Olympia neighborhood and Paris Banh Mi in northeast Columbia — have plans to open.

The 1950s red brick house on the corner of Prentiss and Orchard streets in Cayce has been empty for half a decade.

The windows are boarded, the door is sealed tight. A bright yellow placard declares “CONDEMNED. DANGER,” to passersby.

Cayce officials deemed the home unlivable in 2018, but the city has no plans to demolish the structure. Despite complaints from at least one neighbor who says the house is creating pest problems, officials say there’s little they can do.

There are vacant properties across the small town of Cayce in similar states. Why are they still standing?

The house on the corner has been a topic of conversation for at least as long as Anna Percival has lived in the neighborhood, since 2017.

She expected something to happen to the house when the city became involved in 2018, but in her view, very little has been done to maintain the property. She’s had to deal with rat problems, and she watches feral cats laze on the home’s roof and porch. Percival said she’s spent roughly $7,000 on repairs to her own home caused by the pest problems she believes stem from the empty house.

“Every time I have a rat issue or any big bug problem, all the pest control companies, especially the one that I trust, tells me as long as that house is next door breeding rats and feral cats and mosquitoes and things of that nature, (I’m) going to continue to have issues,” Percival said.

She’d like to see the house demolished or repaired.

But Cayce officials say the house is already in compliance with city code and there’s nothing more they can do about it.

The Prentiss Street house could use a coat of paint. There’s some debris on the porch, and at least one window appears broken. But the structure is stable, explained Cayce building official Stuart Jones.

When code enforcement initially learned of the Prentiss Street house in 2018, they kicked off the same process used anytime a vacant home is discovered out of code in the city.

The property owner, in this case Ronald Capps, according to property records, was notified and given 60 days to bring the home back into compliance. In Cayce, there are three ways to do that: 1. Repair the house. 2. Secure the house. 3. Demolish the house.

Capps chose option two, according to Cayce officials. In addition to securing the property by boarding the doors and windows, the property owner maintains the yard to keep that in compliance as well.

“They can keep it that way in perpetuity, really,” Jones said, as long as it stays structurally sound.

Capps did not respond to a request for comment from The State.

Now that the home has been secured and doesn’t violate city code, the matter is out of the city’s hands, said Cayce city manager Tracy Hegler.

As for the pests, officials said the problem is one of jurisdiction.

“We live in a state that has very strong property rights,” said assistant city manager Michael Conley. “I can go to this guy and go, ‘Hey, you have a pest problem.’ He’s going to go, ‘So, it’s not your problem,’ and it’s not. There’s nothing I can do about it.”

The city can act on a pest problem when the house is occupied because there are clauses in state law that require certain health and safety standards for human habitation. But because the home is vacant and has already been deemed unlivable, the city doesn’t have the jurisdiction to investigate, officials agreed, adding that concerned neighbors should contact the homeowner directly.

Hegler added that there isn’t clear evidence that the vacant home is the source of the pests.

Percival has gotten this response as well, but she says she doesn’t know the homeowner and has never seen him.

“I feel like that’s something that the city should be taking care of. I don’t think I should even have to touch that issue,” Percival said.

The Prentiss Street house is not unique. It’s typical that when a vacant Cayce property falls out of code, property owners usually opt to secure the home, rather than repair or demolish it.

Officials couldn’t provide exact numbers Friday but said they typically only demolish one house a year, if that. Most of the time, the homeowner addresses the problem. The city did not readily have a list of those vacant homes Friday, but officials said they do keep track of them.

Jones, the building official, said he doesn’t believe vacant houses are a widespread problem in Cayce and doesn’t believe there are particularly blighted areas.

Houses that are left vacant are also still monitored by the city, and the homeowner will get notified if the property does fall out of code, Jones said.

There’s also a reason that demolition of vacant homes is so uncommon.

It will take a minimum of four months to get to the point where a problem property can be razed, Jones said, but often it takes much longer. The process can be slowed by homeowner appeals and ownership changes, among other red tape.

Sometimes the property owner will demolish the house themselves. If the city has to do it, it will issue a lien against the property, but there’s no guarantee the city will get that money back, Hegler said.

Hegler added there may be things the city can do to make the process more easily understood by residents. For example, the language on the sign affixed to the Prentiss Street property uses the word “condemned,” but the house isn’t actually condemned. By the city’s view, it’s vacant but in compliance, and it hasn’t been abandoned.

Jones added that if residents see a home in their neighborhood they believe is not in line with city code, they should contact Cayce code enforcement at 803-739-5361.

This story was originally published August 19, 2023, 5:30 AM.

An expansion of public lands in Cayce, anticipated for a couple years, has come to pass.

The state Department of Natural resources announced that it has completed the purchase of the 644-acre Taylor Tract to add to the Congaree Creek Heritage Preserve, more than doubling the size of the now 1,286-acre preserve.

The nonprofit land preservation group Open Space Institute bought the property for $7 million last year, with the intention being to sell it to the state for the same price. That intention was fulfilled, as DNR reports it bought the property for $7.3 million, including $6.3 million from the department’s Heritage Trust Program and $1 million from the S.C. Conservation Bank, “in partnership with the Open Space Institute.”

“What a great day for the Midlands. What a great day for our conservation partners. What a great day for the state of South Carolina,” DNR Director Robert Boyles is quoted in a release recounting a dedication ceremony held Oct. 20.

The purchase has been hotly anticipated by Cayce, one of two projects looking to enhance the public’s ability to enjoy the outdoors in the area.

A visitor’s center for the 12,000 Year History Park, a city-owned amenity that comprises 350 acres and adjoins the Timmerman Trail and connects to the Cayce Riverwalk, continues through its planning phases, aided by a $1 million grant from the state that was announced in 2021.

The River Alliance, the local nonprofit that guides efforts to expand and enhance river amenities around the Midlands, reported in April that the visitor’s center project was moving forward with final permitting.

“I think they’re both unique assets, especially to be found within an urbanized city,” Cayce City Manager Tracy Hegler told the Chronicle in February. “So to play them off of each other in terms of a full robust tourism attraction to this area — I don’t know what would be similar to it anywhere else.”

Indeed, the uses detailed by DNR for the preserve are considerable.

“Of the 644 acres, 241 acres are upland sandhill ecosystem and 403 acres are wetlands that will be protected from development,” the release states. “The property allows for 10 miles of hiking trails and 10 miles of canoe and kayak paddling. Six Mile and Congaree creeks offer fishing opportunities.

“That’s significant given that the heart of the Midlands has limited public recreation properties of this type, said Sean Taylor, senior archaeologist with the SCDNR Heritage Trust Program.”

The release additionally notes that adding the Taylor Tract forms “a large anchor to protect the Congaree Creek watershed, laying the groundwork for a more comprehensive watershed preservation project” and that there is evidence of human habitation dating back 12,000 years on the property.

“This expansion will double the size of the Congaree Creek Heritage Preserve, making it 25 percent larger than Central Park and one of the largest urban preserves this side of the Mississippi River,” state Sen. Nikki Setzler (D-Lexington), whose district covers Cayce and West Columbia, is quoted. “The Taylor family, who owned this property, has worked to help us preserve this property to be enjoyed by future generations. It is a tremendous benefit to the people of South Carolina.”

Keywords

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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.

Columbia News

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.