Home Care In Fort Mill, SC

Say what you will about the ongoing cicada invasion but for kids, it’s been one big science lesson in real life.

Take 12-year-old Lily Hurley for example.

She wants to be outside as much as she can to hold them. They are a fascination. She researched Brood XIX, which has been developing in the ground longer than she’s been alive.

“She is happy to share all about the cicadas with anyone who will listen,” her mother Amy Hurley said.

The brood found in 14 Southern states emerges every 13 years.

The State asked readers to send their photos and stories of the great cicada invasion and the large majority came from parents — and one school administrator — writing about the reaction of children.

Retired Clemson professor and cicada expert Eric Benson said the invasion will probably last another two weeks in the areas where the bugs first emerged about a month ago and up to six in others.

The cycle is: emerge, molt, mate and then the females lay their eggs. The babies go underground for 13 years and the parents die.

An exterminator of 24 years who declined to give his name said he’s never seen anything like it. He has to scrape his house and patio every morning, he said.

Hannah Harmon, a student at Academy Christian School in Rock Hill, was on a field trip earlier this week to Kings Mountain when a cicada joined the group. Most of the others in her class passed on their chance for an up-close-and-personal meeting, but not 10-year-old Hannah.

She went right up to it and she and school administrator Wendy Lipe took a good hard look.

“We love to explore the outdoors with our students. We try to get them acclimated to all of God’s creations … even these pesky cicadas!” Lipe said.

Then there’s 5-year-old Ginny Wright of Lesslie in York County.

She loves to hold them.

She told her mother Alyssa Jannetta, “They are so cute with their red eyes. And their cute wings and squishy bodies. And they don’t bite or sting.” Another perk — “their little feets are ticklish,” she said.

Aniston Rawdon, 9, got to see a cicada come out of its shell at 4H Science Club in York.

“They were finished with class and enjoying a chat with a friend when they both noticed it,” her mother Brittaney Rawdon said. “Needless to say, the class time was extended by 30 minutes.”

Tina Finders was fishing in Leesville last Saturday and cicadas were everywhere.

“So many that they were falling out of the trees and when they landed in the water, the fish would come up and eat them,” she said.

DeAn Blanton of Lancaster said she has never seen so many cicadas in one place. The emergence reminded her of when she was a child in the 1970s.

“It was a treasure to find the shells on the trees,” she said. “We would remove them from the trees and attach them to our shirts.”

Misty Zban said her porch, house and yard in Fort Mill are covered.

“Our backyard sounds like the Twilight Zone,” she said. “I am shocked how many there are!”

Shells, alive, dead, everywhere.

“Hopefully they don’t do too much damage to our plants and flowers,” she said.

Carlee Carter of Rock Hill said she has seen the shells attached to everything, houses, buildings. And the noise. So loud.

Malasia Cousar, a home health aide, said she was alarmed when a red-eyed creature flew over to her and her client as they were enjoying the spring weather. It was staring them down, she said.

“Once I realized it wasn’t a threat we made good friends. HaHaHa,” she said.

Later, she learned it was a cicada.

“I’m happy I finally got to meet the buzz bug,” she said.

While some consider the male cicada song, which attracts mates, frightening to the point of calling 911, Susan Doyle finds the insect’s song delightful.

“Are we having fun,” she said. “I am!”

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A prominent Fort Mill outdoors store, a Rock Hill hotel and plenty of large homes top the latest high-dollar sales list from across the region.

York, Lancaster and Chester county land records on Friday show almost two dozen March sales at $1 million or more. Most of those sales are homes, including a growing number in Rock Hill, compared to recent months.

Here’s a look at the big sales listed:

? The Cabela’s hunting, fishing and outdoors store in Fort Mill sold March 5 for $23.6 million. The more than 14-acre site parallel to and just off of Interstate 77 near Carowinds has almost 100,000 square feet of commercial space at 1000 Cabelas Dr.

A company affiliated with Fortress Investment Group out of Los Angeles bought the property. Attempts to reach Fortress for comment were unsuccessful.

The outdoors store built between Carowinds and the interstate in 2015 has restaurants and recent plans for hotels just around it. Cabela’s redeveloped a former outlet mall and Plaza Fiesta market at the site just south of the state line and Charlotte.

? A Rock Hill hotel sold on March 5 for $6.5 million. The five-story Holiday Inn at 503 Galleria Blvd., built in 2009, was sold to a company out of High Point, North Carolina. The hotel is just off Interstate 77 and Dave Lyle Boulevard, near the Galleria Mall.

? Charlotte company JDSI sold 116 acres of Chester County property off Lancaster Highway on March 7 for $4.6 million. A company called HC Stanton is the new owner. JDSI had owned several parcels at about 350 combined acres at Lancaster Highway and Wylies Mill Road.

? Knox Station Land Holdings bought two Chester County parcels on March 4 for almost $3 million. They combine for 180 acres along Lancaster Highway, just across from Knox Station Road and south of the county-owned Rodman Ballfield. The properties are listed for agricultural use.

? Seven vacant properties on Court House Avenue in York sold March 8 for $2.7 million. Homebuilder DR Horton bought the home lots as part of the new Fergus Crossing subdivision first phase. Online sales info from the builder shows homes in the $300,000 range and townhomes starting in the $270,000 range in the development off Alexander Love Highway.

? About 3 acres of commercial property at a busy Fort Mill intersection sold March 7 for $1.3 million. BB Land Trust at neighboring 2950 Old Nation Road bought 2948 and 2944 Old Nation Road. Combined, those properties at the intersection of Old Nation and U.S. 21 Bypass have had a variety of uses, from outdoor storage building to trailer to lawnmower sales.

The intersection is a common way to get from downtown Fort Mill to the Carowinds area, or to Charlotte via Interstate 77. The sales includes a 2,500-square-foot office building and an almost 4,000-square-foot warehouse, both built in 1983.

? Property at 2250 Cherry Road in Rock Hill sold March 22 for $1.2 million. Express Oil Change bought the vacant site, at less than an acre, in front of a welding school and off the same driveway as a Publix grocery store.

? Charlotte-based Aric Lake Wylie bought three commercial properties along the Five Points intersection in Lake Wylie on March 1 for nearly $1.1 million. The 5979 Charlotte Hwy. address includes a 1,100-square-foot former home. The 5360 Hwy. 55 East parcel has a 1,000-square-foot office that, like the home, was built in the early 1980s. The third property is vacant.

? Homebuilder LGI Homes bought 18 Chester County lots for a new subdivision on March 6 for nearly $1.1 million. The Doran Ter properties are part of the Knights Bridge subdivision in Richburg. The builder is selling ranch and two-story homes there from the upper $200,000s.

? The three counties had 11 homes sell for $1 million or more. Three of them were in Rock Hill and two were in Clover. Rock Hill even had the highest sale at almost $1.7 million. High-end sales in recent months have largely been in Fort Mill, Indian Land or Lake Wylie.

Use the graphic below for more information on each of the $1 million or more sales. Blue icons are March sales. Black ones are prior sales in 2024.

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John Marks graduated from Furman University in 2004 and joined the Herald in 2005. He covers community growth, municipalities, transportation and education mainly in York County and Lancaster County. The Fort Mill native earned dozens of South Carolina Press Association awards and multiple McClatchy President’s Awards for news coverage in Fort Mill and Lake Wylie.

It could get loud — dynamite loud — beside two Fort Mill schools and a grocery store shopping center. And it could stay loud for months.

Fort Mill Middle School messaged parents Friday to inform them of potential blasting beside school property. The state fire marshal’s office issued a blasting permit to Palmetto Rock Services related to a new residential subdivision on Springfield Parkway. The company will use “explosives similar to dynamite” to blast rocks ahead of construction, according to the school notice.

Blasting could start as early as Friday and run through May 8. It could happen between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. daily.

“While there is no danger to our school or the community, we wanted to make you aware of this development to avoid any confusion regarding the potential noise resulting from the blasting activities,” reads the school notice.

Fort Mill Middle shares a campus with Fort Mill Elementary School, which followed with a matching message to parents Friday morning. Both border the project. On its other side is the Avery Plaza, a Food Lion-anchored shopping center. The new subdivision also backs up to the York and Lancaster counties line.

In May of 2022 Dan Ryan Builders bought five properties for almost $16.5 million. The more than 340 acres of residential and farm land near the S.C. 160 and Springfield Parkway intersection sits between the schools, shopping center and Anne Springs Close Greenway property.

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Springland Associates, affiliated with Clear Springs and the Avery Plaza, sold the property to the builder. The plans at the time were for about 500 age-restricted homes. The property allows for 475 age-restricted units as part of a 2008 development agreement between the town and Clear Springs.

Dan Ryan doesn’t yet list the new Fort Mill community online, but does list coming projects in York County with Baxter Village Towns in Fort Mill and Lakeside Glen in Lake Wylie.

This story was originally published February 9, 2024, 10:57 AM.

But a new opportunity was opening close to home.

The 23-year-old Rock Hill resident and University of South Carolina graduate thought 2023 would be the year she would begin earning her master's degree.

But an irregular heartbeat, known as supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), began affecting her health and she returned to her parents' home to recover and prepare her Plan B.

As Netherland had her surgery last summer, Laurel Institute of Technology prepped to open in September its campus in Fort Mill off of State Road 160 south of the Tega Cay area.

Officials there said based on feedback from Rock Hill area employers, the first program they wanted to launch was for cardiovascular technology.

Given her field of study — exercise science — and her physical ailment, Netherland said her interest was piqued and she enrolled as one of the first 15 students. She and others in the courses are learning to perform cardiac sonography and echocardiogram procedures.

"Our family has had a history with cardiac conditions," she said. "And I always wanted to be in a hospital setting."

Netherland is on her way to completing Laurel's 16-month certificate program for cardiovascular technology. The Fort Mill site is the Laurel's fourth, following their locations in Morgantown, W.V., and the outskirts of Pittsburgh, Penn.

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"We noticed a lot of people moving from western Pennsylvania to the Charlotte area," Laurel President Douglas Decker said. "It kind of became a natural place to look to expand. We wanted to serve an area that's growing. We spent over two years prior to opening the school just meeting with people, seeing where there was a need for what we do."

They met with local leaders like Dean Faile, CEO of the York County Chamber of Commerce, who connected school officials with area hospitals and medical offices. That allowed the school to choose cardiovascular technology as the initial program, Decker said, based on the feedback.

"They want to be a real good partner," Faile said.

While Laurel just opened its Fort Mill site last year, plans are for staff and students to move to a larger building in the same block later in 2024.

Decker said that should be accompanied by an additional certificate program, but he and other school leaders are still assessing what that could be.

For Laurel's other campuses, it offers a variety of other healthcare disciplines, as well as programs in business, education, culinary arts, trades and cosmetology.

"We're looking at that middle-skills occupation group, something that takes less than a bachelor's degree but more than a high school diploma," Decker said. "They're the ones that get things done in our economy. And those folks have never been more in demand than they are now."

Unofficial results posted Tuesday night show the Fort Mill school bond referendum vote passed with 64% approval.

Fort Mill’s school superintendent is calling Tuesday’s $204 million bond election a win, and not just for his school board.

The polls closed at 7 p.m. and a little before 9 p.m. the York County Voter Registration & Elections Office had not posted results from the referendum.

Even so, about an hour after the polls closed, the Keep Our Schools Strong committee that backed the bond posted a Facebook video stating it was a “yes” vote, based on numbers posted at polling stations.

In the video Fort Mill School District Superintendent Chuck Epps declared the election a success with the passage of the referendum.

“The children of Fort Mill will be the winners here tonight,” Epps said. “So pleased with our community support. So thankful to the community. They continue to come through for us.”

The voter registration office posted unofficial results at about 10 p.m. There were 3,807 votes cast, or 6.7% turnout of eligible voters. Precincts ranged from less than 3.6% turnout at the Lake Wylie Lutheran Church precinct to more than 9.1% at Carolinas Cornerstone Church. Five precincts — more than 20% of them — had voter turnout below 5%.

Results will be certified this week.

The ballot question asked voters whether the district should issue and sell up to $204 million of bonds to fund a new middle school, early childhood development center, land purchases for future schools, technology and facility maintenance.

If there’s bond money left over, the board could use it to renovate, repair, expand, equip or furnish other district facilities, according to the ballot question.

The maximum tax increase would result in an extra $60 per year, or $5 a month, cost to homeowners for every $100,000 in home value. So the owner of a $500,000 home would pay $300 more a year, or $25 more per month. Costs would be higher for businesses and rental property owners.

A Flourish data visualization

The school district owns 88 acres at 278 Gold Hill Road where a new elementary school is under construction. That $67 million school is being paid for through impact fees, or charges on new home and apartment construction. That same property will have the new middle school — the bond’s most expensive item.

The district would aim to open the almost $87 million middle school in 2026.

The $64 million childhood learning center, to serve pre-kindergarten students, would go on 34 acres donated by Clear Springs Land Co. District officials discussed having that facility open in 2027. Clear Springs owns property off Tom Hall Street, across from Dobys Bridge Road and east of Joe Louis and Steele streets.

School board member Anthony Boddie stopped in at Unity Presbyterian Church to vote a little before noon Tuesday. Boddie was concerned with low turnout, since only about 80 people had voted at that precinct to that point. Just down the road at the Fort Mill Church of God polling place, turnout was half that amount.

More voters began to trickle in around noon. Sam Culver, at Unity, had his mind made up well before he entered the voting booth.

“Fort Mill schools are foundational to the town and they’re what sets this town apart,” Culver said. “A simple yes vote is a no-brainer.”

The reputation of the school district, and trust in its leadership, also was key for voter Brenda Stowe.

“I’ve never been in the education field, but I certainly respect what the Fort Mill district has done,” Stowe said. “It’s one of the best that I’ve ever seen.”

Stowe no longer has children in Fort Mill schools, but as a parent and grandparent she sees funding the school system as more important than the tax increase she’d have to pay.

“I sent my children to Fort Mill schools, and I like the way they turned out,” Stowe said. “My children had the advantage of the schools here and I owe it to the other people that live here now with their children, that they get the benefit that I did.”

Regardless what voters decided Tuesday, more funding will be needed moving forward. The $204 million bond proposal was part of an almost $700 million needs list presented to the school board in November. The $700 million is the projected 10-year costs.

In addition to what’s on the bond, the 10-year list included the new elementary school under construction now, two more elementary schools, expansion at existing high schools, a performing arts center, more money for land purchases, technology and maintenance.

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Fort Mill has grown into the largest school district in York County — based on enrollment — despite being the smallest in the state geographically. The district’s more than 18,000 students are the result of decades of growth. Since 1998, the district has averaged about 600 more students each year.

The 20 district schools now vary with how much room they have available. For the past several years some schools have been frozen, meaning students that would go there are instead sent to schools with available space. The district projects elementary school space across the district would reach capacity by the 2027-28 school year without the new school under construction. Without the bond, middle school space would run out the following year and high school space, the following year.

This story was originally published March 19, 2024, 9:29 PM.