Chimney Sweep Near Me Mount Pleasant, SC

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCSC) - Veterans will now be able to make their way to a new Ralph H. Johnson Veterans Affairs Health Care System clinic in Mount Pleasant.

“A VA service center here for primary care really just sort of completes the picture for Mount Pleasant,” Mount Pleasant Mayor Will Haynie said.

Haynie said this clinic was what this town needed because of its patriotic history.

“Just this is who we are as a town in Mount Pleasant. We’re very patriotic, as I said with Patriots Point Medal of Honor,” Haynie said.

With Tuesday’s ribbon-cutting, Mount Pleasant entered a new era for the veteran community.

“Thousands of veterans that live east of the Cooper both in Mount Pleasant and the whole East Cooper community and for them to have this primary care health right here and whole health in Mount Pleasant. Where they don’t have to go downtown, they don’t have to worry about parking, they don’t have to worry about flooding, is huge for our veterans of our town, and there are between four and five thousand that we know of now, and that number is going up every day,” Haynie said.

The VA’s mission is to be available to all veterans, and that’s why they established the new clinic in Mount Pleasant.

“The VA is all about accessibility. So opening this clinic in Mount Pleasant, where so many veterans live, is about bringing care to where they are and to make it easier, accessible, and to give them better care,” Wayne Capps, chief of public affairs for the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center, said.

With it being located in a central location in Mount Pleasant, it’ll be more convenient for patients coming from nearby locations.

Capps said that this space will offer not only primary care but also whole health.

“Opening up this clinic, there was a need to bring primary care into the Mount Pleasant area. We’re also bringing in whole health things like chiropractic, massage therapy, things of that nature that can help the whole veteran concept,” Capps said.

Capps said that the whole health concept is very sought out and the VA wants to serve veterans as a whole.

The clinic will officially open to the public Monday.

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCBD) – Mount Pleasant Town Council has moved forward on increasing the property tax or millage rate, as part of an effort to increase first responders’ salaries.

The town’s property owners may see an increase when they pay their taxes, as council hosted a special meeting to vote on the issue. Charleston County conducts a reassessment of each property every five years. If the value has gone up, it’s likely the taxes have increased. In order to balance it, Mount Pleasant sets its own millage rate. Town Council decided to increase it by 3.7 with no rollback.

“We had the choice of 3.7 mills and with inflation and everything else we saw the need to keep up with the times and ensure that the level of service that our town demands, that we keep up with that 3.7 instead of rolling back. Have that opportunity to use it to take care of our team,” said John Iacofano, a council member for Mount Pleasant.

This is expected to amount to about $100 increase on a $700k appraised home.

“Four of us felt like instead of raising our taxes on our citizens – we can apply that to it. So, there was no disagreement on what we need to do for our first responders, it was which pool of money we use it,” Will Haynie, mayor of Mount Pleasant, said.

It comes as town staff completed a wage study showing a pay gap for first responders. The departments are able to recruit, but retaining and ensuring employees are given fair wage is the main problem. Most of council agreed a raise for first responders is necessary, the disagreement was about where the funds should come from. Those in opposition wanted to pull from existing funds.

“The numbers were put up. There was a $3.5 million surplus last year, we could easily use the surplus from this year or some of that to do that without raising taxes,” Haynie said. “That’s the reason for my vote.”

While those in favor, including Iacofano, said the increase is well-worth it to be funded this way.

“It’s been allowed to get too far behind and we’re losing, we’re losing quality people to municipalities around us and we can’t allow that. We’re not even paying average right now, and do we want to be average? Or do we want to be the best? I want Mount Pleasant to be the best.”

The millage rate is expected to go into effect in January 2026.

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCSC) - The Mount Pleasant Business and Community Expo is back for its 15th year and, this time, it’s expanding in both size and scope with new features aimed at boosting engagement, outreach and opportunity.

Organizers say this year’s expo, held at the Omar Shrine Convention Center, is completely sold out with 90 vendors in attendance. It’s considered the largest networking event in the region, connecting Lowcountry residents with local businesses and organizations and, for the first time, it includes a job fair.

Attendees on the job hunt can connect directly with major employers including the South Carolina Port Authority, the Charleston County School District, the Town of Mount Pleasant and the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce.

“This really is the Super Bowl of networking,” Rebecca Imholz, the executive director of the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce, says. “It is one place where you can learn about travel and leisure, health care, fitness, items for the home, HVAC services and more.”

Alongside the job fair, another new feature this year is health screenings provided by Novant Health. Staff will be on hand to check blood pressure and monitor glucose levels free of charge.

But the expo isn’t just about business, it’s about community. The first 500 attendees will receive a clear bag they can fill with giveaways, merchandise and promotional items from local vendors. Happy hour kicks off at 4 p.m., giving guests the chance to unwind, munch on some free food and connect further.

Nonprofits like East Cooper Community Outreach and the Charleston Animal Society are also featured, offering information on local services and even the chance to cuddle adoptable puppies.

A parade led by the mayor of Mount Pleasant and featuring university mascots is also scheduled to take place at the start of the event.

Imholz says the variety and scope of the expo are what keep the community coming back.

“It is successful and continues to be a success because it’s a great way to let the community know about businesses and community organizations in our area,” Imholz says.

Imholz also emphasizes the broader economic impact of the event.

“It really has been an effort to bring community awareness to businesses, not just in Mount Pleasant, but throughout the Lowcountry,” she says. “We know that being able to support a business really helps our local economy because so much of what we do, what makes the Lowcountry so great is that we depend upon the local businesses.”

Admission to the expo is completely free to the public, including parking. Golf cart shuttles are available to transport guests between the parking lot and the venue entrance.

Organizers say they expect more than 1,000 people to attend. Thursday’s event runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Omar Shrine Convention Center.

Officials with the Clemson University Department of Plant Industry (DPI) are asking residents, arborists, construction site contractors and debris management companies to refrain from moving certain hardwood tree debris, including maple, from Mount Pleasant after inspectors detected Asian longhorned beetle (ALB) on the grounds of a commercial shopping center in the town.

Clemson DPI and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Plant and Animal Inspection Service are collaborating to determine the extent of the infestation. They will announce an official quarantine area in the coming weeks.

Officials are asking home and business owners to cooperate by giving the DPI and USDA inspectors property access as they conduct surveys to determine the extent of the infestation.

Private contractors working within Mount Pleasant should coordinate with the South Carolina Asian Longhorned Beetle Cooperative Eradication Program to determine how hardwoods can be properly deregulated and disposed of to ensure infested material doesn’t spread and eradication efforts remain effective.

The infestation was detected on August 24 by two off-duty DPI inspectors who saw suspicious insect damage on maple trees consistent with ALB and followed up.

The Mount Pleasant detection comes amid a five-year, multifront battle against the insect in Hollywood, S.C.

“It’s difficult to know how the insects ended up in Mount Pleasant,” said Steven Long, assistant director of Clemson Regulatory Services, who oversees DPI. “It’s frustrating that invasive insects can move in several ways, including on humans, vehicles, equipment, firewood, woody debris or on packing material from international goods.”

The Asian longhorned beetle, Anoplophora glabripennis, is a wood-boring beetle that threatens various hardwood trees, including maple, elm, willow, sycamore, poplar and birch. It is not a pest of the oak or pine species that are more abundant in South Carolina.

As the beetle bores into the tree, it interrupts the flow of life-giving sap and weakens it, ultimately killing it. Infested trees can also become safety hazards, since branches can drop and trees can fall over, especially during storms.

South Carolina was the sixth state to detect an Asian longhorned beetle infestation. The pest has been eradicated from New Jersey and Illinois; eradication efforts are ongoing in New York, Massachusetts and Ohio with guidance from the APHIS Asian Longhorned Beetle Eradication Program.

In addition to allowing state and federal inspectors access to property to survey for the pest, residents in the town of Mount Pleasant and in surrounding Charleston County communities are encouraged to also help by looking for the beetle and examining the trees on their property for damage that the beetles may cause.

“The number one thing we need is access to property in the inspection area,” Long said. “Survey crews will be operating in the area as we determine the extent of the infestation. Landowners’ cooperation ensures this pest doesn’t establish a foothold.

“The second thing we need is for people to help us look,” he said. “Our inspectors are experienced in examining the tree for signs of the beetles’ presence, but the more eyes we have looking for the insect and the more obvious damage it causes, the more likely we are to find it.”

The Asian longhorned beetle is shiny black with small, white spots on its body and abnormally long antennae. Adult beetles can grow an inch and a half long.

The beetle’s larvae feed by tunneling under the tree bark, where they live through the winter, forming feeding galleries in the trunk and branches. They chew their way out when mature, creating round holes about 3/8 inch in diameter.

Signs of infestation could include:

South Carolinians who believe they have found infested trees may report it online at https://clemson.edu/alb, by email at stopalb@clemson.edu or by calling DPI at 843-973-8329.

They may also make a report by calling the USDA’s Asian longhorned beetle hotline at 866-702-9938 or report online at www.AsianLonghornedBeetle.com.

MOUNT PLEASANT — After months of waiting, a new tenant is moving into the empty Harris Teeter grocery store in The Shoppes at Seaside Farms.

Construction Resources has announced it will be opening a CR Design Center next spring where the supermarket chain operated for 12 years before closing at the end of May.

The new tenant said the space will provide "designers, builders, remodelers, and homeowners with a seamless one-stop destination for every stage of their project and an unparalleled selection of premium brands.”

The location sits at the back of the Mount Pleasant shopping center — bordered by Rifle Range Road and the Isle of Palms Connector — and is adjacent to the Seaside Farms residential subdivision and multiple apartment and condominium buildings. A Target store sits at the other end of the shopping area.

Harris Teeter’s closure deprived that section of the shopping center of much of its foot traffic, said Todd Weiss, owner of Top Hat Wine & Liquors just steps from the former grocery store.

“Without them, it’s been a ghost town,” he said. “Without them here we’ve been down at least a third of revenue.

The Yamato Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar, which had been the second-largest business in the rear portion of the shopping center, also shut down earlier this year. Plans to redevelop that property as a hotel have been rebuffed by Mount Pleasant Town Council.

Weiss said seeing a new tenant in the large, vacant grocery store space should help his business, though not as much as a high-traffic supermarket would.

The more than 45,000-square-foot CR Design Center will be Decatur, Ga.-based Construction Resources’ newest location, the company said. Last year, it opened its flagship showroom in Atlanta, and the company has been expanding in the Southeast.

Construction Resources said it held a roundtable discussion with top Charleston-based designers earlier this year to help shape the Mount Pleasant location.

“The region’s design influence is nationally recognized, and Seaside Farms offers an ideal setting to become part of a vibrant community where people live, shop and create,” CEO Mitch Hires said in a prepared statement.

Harris Teeter expanded into Seaside Farms in October 2013. Previously, the space with 40-foot vaulted ceilings was anchored by the former Piggly Wiggly Carolina franchise, which built it in 1996.

The former supermarket property joins numerous other sites in Mount Pleasant and elsewhere throughout the region where shuttered grocery stores have been replaced by other types of businesses including gyms, pickleball courts and specialty retailers.

At nearby Sweetgrass Corner, for instance, part of a former Bi-Lo that closed in 2019 near Highway 17 and the Isle of Palms Connector now houses a Trade Joe's store. Two other retail tenants, Golf Galaxy and Homesense, are backfilling the rest of the space.