Volume 1 Number 12 | pdb2b.com

About 40 veterans, residents and officials gathered outside the Chesterfield County courthouse for a ceremony dedicating the County’s new veterans park on June 15.

Nathan Gardner — vice commander of American Legion Post 74, Chesterfield — served as master of ceremonies for the dedication ceremony and acknowledged the gold star families in attendance, as well as veterans and currently serving military.

Gardner said in an email interview that he, along with leadership of the Chesterfield County American Legion post, had organized the ceremony.

County Administrator Michelle Stanley had credited Gardner in a March interview as the de facto “project manager” of the park, which opened to the public June 8.

Plans for the park have been in the works for about three years, according to Gardner, who had served active duty in the US Army for 13 years and is currently in the Army Reserve. Early plans had called for a 300-foot memorial wall, which had proven too expensive and was removed from the project.

The project entailed moving the existing gold star monument on the grounds of the Chesterfield County judicial center, 200 W. Main St. in Chesterfield, as well as relocating flagpoles with US military branch flags from across the street. New sidewalks, sod, shrubbery, benches and flagpole lighting also had to be installed.

The addition of sidewalks makes the park, particularly the gold star monument, more accessible to people in wheelchairs, according to state Rep. Richard “Richie” Yow — District 53, Chesterfield — who was a guest speaker at the event and is credited by Gardner as the project’s sponsor and by Stanley as having been instrumental in obtaining state funding for the park.

Yow, who had retired from the US Air Force, said he had helped secure a $50,000 grant from the SC Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism via the Chesterfield County Legislative Delegation.

The Park and Recreation Development Fund is “a state-funded, noncompetitive, reimbursable grant program for eligible local governments or special-purpose district entities which provide recreational opportunities within each county,” according to the state Parks, Recreation and Tourism website. The fund is an 80-20 match program that helps develop new public recreation facilities or augment existing ones.

Additional funding had come from a $10,000 grant from Duke Energy Foundation, while the County’s state accommodation tax money covered $10,000-$12,000, according to Stanley. Part of SC Code of Laws Title 12, the state applies a 2% charge on accommodations statewide, and the money goes back to municipalities, which can then use the funds toward local tourism.

In February, Chesterfield County Council had awarded $64,623 to DAP Contracting of Monroe, NC, to do the work, which it had started March 9.

To read the rest of this story, head to our website.

Rare earth element recycling company Cyclic Materials hosted a town hall at McBee High School on June 4. The Toronto-based company had announced in January it would invest $82.6 million and add 91 jobs in a facility in McBee. The company invited the public to attend the event, where it explained what it does and shared information about the project’s construction timetable, hiring and environmental precautions. Cylic also opened the town hall up to questions from residents.

Cyclic COO Matt Cherevaty was the primary speaker at the event, and he elaborated on key points in an accompanying PowerPoint presentation. Cherevaty said that the company would exceed its original estimated investment. “What we committed to when we were talking to the government was about $82 million in investment,” he said. “To be honest, that number is going to be a lot higher than that.”

Cyclic recycles rare earth elements and other materials in magnet-containing end-of-life scrap and turns magnet-production waste into raw materials used in AI, robotics, defense and advanced manufacturing, according to its website.

The plant slated for construction at McBee’s Alligator Industrial Park, 26009 SC Highway 151, will comprise a processing facility and a manufacturing facility that will provide mixed rare earth oxide, steel, aluminum and copper.

Continued on the website

The cities of Bennettsville and Dillon have allocated funding from MPD Electric Cooperative toward infrastructure projects. Bennettsville will apply the $50,000 in utility tax credits it received from MPD toward a survey of its utility poles. Dillon will put the $100,000 in funding it received toward covering the cost of a pumping station near Dillon Elementary School.

Continued on the website