Home Care In Chapin, SC

CHAPIN, S.C. — Town leaders are looking for your help if you live, work, commute through, visit family in or frequent the Chapin area.

Thursday night at 6 p.m., the town of Chapin is hoping to get a better picture of what residents want for the future of their town.

Their public workshop will include input from locals, as well as planners and designers to envision what everyone expects of the town in the coming years.

The Lexington Richland 5 abandoned school site next to the Chapin library is just one of the locations being considered for redevelopment by the town in their comprehensive plan from two years ago.

The town explains this plan designated the future land use as part of a town center serving as a focal point and gathering place for locals. Right now this area is also home to the former community theater and storage buildings.

RELATED: What you need to know about I-26 exit projects underway in Lexington County

Claire Dorbandt, a lawyer who works next to this property says she'd like to see something new out her office window.

"I think Chapin has a lot of potential and can certainly improve in that area, so something to of course bring people in, congregate and if we could bring in some more revenue, that would be great too," Dorbrandt said.

Other locals have vocalized there's already too much traffic, and anything like a town center would create more of it. They explained they'd prefer more green space.

"It's very early stages, all encompassing. We are just trying to gather as much information. It'll be with our market research specialists," said Dylan Francis, town of Chapin communication specialist.

Francis says the town's recent survey about a new master plan got about 300 responses.

"People want new restaurants, people want a town center, a town green, they want more facilities for events," Francis said.

He adds that with new opportunities of potentially new land and partnerships, talking to the public was the next step that made sense.

According to town leaders, there will be more meetings in the future as this is a multi-year master plan.

Chapin, SC 06/27/2023 (Paul Kirby) – Extremely high winds struck areas out of the Lexington County town of Chapin Monday night causing many people to continue to be without power as crews worked throughout the day Tuesday to try and get multiple communities back online. Homes were damaged by falling trees and many roads were completely blocked by debris as crews continue to work to return the area to some sort of a semblance of normalcy. The first reports of the severe weather began coming in just after 10:30 p.m. in the vicinity of Wessinger Road and Putnam Drive. Wessinger Road is the only road in and out of a peninsula that juts out into Lake Murray and is bounded by Bear Creek on one side and John’s Creek on the other.

Putnam Drive was completely closed by the storm and remains that way late Tuesday. The storm knocked the utility infrastructure down snapping poles into splinters and bringing the power lines down across the road all along its length. Large trees were snapped off and laying across the asphalt as late as 4:00 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. A number of homes in the area were damaged by falling trees and the high winds. Crews were still working to clear the road to provide access to the end of that point.

Ben Kirby, a resident of Indian Summer Point off Libby Ariel Circle within a mile of Putnam Drive, said that a cooperative group of utility crews that included Mid-Carolina Electric, Dominion Energy, and the sub-contractor Sumter Utilities, were all in the area replacing power poles and utility infrastructure so that they could begin restringing electric wire sometime in the future. Kirby said his power went out about 10:30 p.m. Monday night and he didn’t expect it to be restored for several days. He had used his chainsaw to clear enough of the road into his home so that he and his neighbors could drive in and out if they needed to. He said that many of his neighbors had whole home generator systems that kept their homes comfortable. Kirby was using smaller generators to keep his refrigerators and freezers running but said he would probably stay with family tonight so that they could have air conditioning until their power was restored.

Emergency radio traffic coming into Lexington County’s 911 Center Monday night indicated that the worst of the storm first ripped down Putnam Drive, then crossed Bear Creek. The storm quickly began to ravage trees, homes, and utility infrastructure out on the Amick’s Ferry Road peninsula. Timber Lake Country Club reported Tuesday that they have as many as 60 to 70 trees around their golf course that were down, and the first 9 holes of the course were extremely dangerous due to storm damage. Many homes in the Timberlake area were also damaged by the high winds as were homes and buildings in the surrounding areas of that community.

The County of Lexington had employees of its Emergency Management Division working Tuesday assessing the storm damage. They also asked anyone who had photos of storm damage from that area to call 803-785-2449. Photos can be sent to the county using the email address [email protected]. All emails should include the home address in the subject line.

Chris Jackson, a noted local and national weather authority based out of the Midlands of SC, said that he felt this damage was not done by a tornado but rather straight-line winds from a microburst. Jackson said that the damages from these types of storms can be identical or even more severe than small or weaker tornadoes. He also said that they don’t get the attention they deserve because they don’t cause the same fear factor that the word tornado carries. The National Weather Service usually classifies a storm such as this as a tornado only after studying the images of the radar. This can show rotation in several different colors where winds moving away from a central core may be one color and then as it rotates back toward the core in a circular motion another color. They also can use other indicators. Jackson often explains on his social media pages like https://www.facebook.com/MySCWeather/ how all this works. As of Tuesday evening, there was no indication that the NWS was going to contradict Jackson and classify last nights weather event as a tornado either.

CHAPIN, S.C. — Many residents in the Chapin area have been expressing concern about the traffic construction happening on I-26.

They said that in the area between mile markers 82 and 97 specifically, there's not enough room for a car to pull over in an emergency.

These residents said they've seen dozens of cars pile up several times following an emergency-related accident.

One person from Prosperity said he believes something needs to be done by the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT).

"Especially with the walls they've had to build on either side of the road to keep their equipment out of the way is just a total disaster," Greg Gibbons of Newberry County said. "People don't know what speed to go; the lanes have gotten more narrow, and last year, on my way from Columbia down 26, there was something in the road that I could not get around because of the walls, and I ended up having to hit it, and I still don't know what it was. I know it wasn't another vehicle. It was something in the road, which did a lot of damage to my car, and I filed a complaint with DOT, and nothing ever came from it."

News19 brought these concerns to SCDOT, and their communications office said pull-off areas are added as space is available. SCDOT added that it regularly works closely with emergency responders to discuss any necessary changes and assists emergency responders.

"I know it's going to take a while for the construction to get finished," Gibbons said. "I just wish they would take out some of the walls so there was an emergency ramp of some sort, and if there is going to be mass construction, put up some lights or some signage to allow people time to move over instead of being all of a sudden, there we are, we have no choice."

SCDOT said the safety of their roadways is a top priority and that there are contractors on call that can respond as requested by law enforcement to remove obstructions in the work zone – for example, if they need to move a portion of the wall.

The State Highway Emergency Program (SHEP) teams manage traffic, provide assist emergency responders and help drivers experiencing mechanical problems. Drivers can call one of these teams from their cell phones by dialing *47. More information is available on the SCDOT Midlands Connection website and this page describing SCDOT emergency response protocols.

SCDOT explains the current anticipated completion date of this I-26 construction is the end of 2024.

CHAPIN, S.C. (WIS) - A set of identical quadruplets turned their tassels saying, “goodbye” to the Midlands and hello to their next chapter.

Adelle, Bonnie, Chloe, and Daphne Breedlove graduated from Spring Hill High School in Chapin on Thursday.

They may have been born identical, but their personalities are far from it.

“I’m very happy-go-lucky, I’m smiling all the time,” Chloe Breedlove said, “Then sometimes you’ll see Bonnie in the hallway and she doesn’t mean anything by it, but she’s just straight-faced.”

Flaunting their own styles as they walked across the graduation stage, the Breedloves are a long way from the days of getting called the wrong name and wearing matching outfits.

“We were all assigned different colors so that our parents could tell us apart whenever we were little,” Chloe Breedlove said. “Some of us, we’ve kept our original color-coded colors. Like, yellow is my color and I’ve always kept that, hers is purple.”

Their mom, Shelley Breedlove, has no problem telling them apart 18 years later. However, looking back she said the journey wasn’t easy.

“When we first found out I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m gonna be able to handle this,” Shelley Breedlove said. “There were so many bumps in the road, but they were worth it in the end.”

It turns out the quads won’t be separating just yet. All four are going to the College of Southern Maryland for at least the first two years.

Then, it’s off to pursuing careers in homeland security for Adelle and Bonnie, radiation therapy for Chloe, and veterinary medicine for Daphne.

“More than anything I want them to know that pursuing being your best person is the end goal,” Shelley said.

It’s safe to say the Breedloves have all made their mom proud.

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CHAPIN, S.C. (WIS) - A new development in Lake Murray will have a large economic impact on the area.

The Vice President of Marketing for Lake Murray, Micah Decker, said WhiteWater Landing, the last of the Timberlake property, will most likely be one of the last large developments on the water.

WhiteWater Landing continues American Land Holding’s $40 million investment in three of four surrounding counties of Lake Murray including Saluda, Newberry, and Lexington, and will represent a value of over $250 million dollars in current and future custom home construction read a press release.

Dean Sinatra, Managing Development Partner of American Land Holdings (WhiteWater Landing) said:

Decker added the new development will bring an economic impact of over $250 million dollars in current and future custom home construction.

“Capital City/Lake Murray Country Regional Tourism Board has enjoyed working with American Land Holdings for the last 5 years. This developer is in tune with the future of residential development by maximizing scenic landscapes, amenities, and more, to lure families to the pinnacle of the lake living experience,” states Miriam Atria, the organization’s President and CEO.

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