Chimney Sweep in Wadmalaw Island, SC

A newly proposed hotel would be one of the first on Johns Island if it comes to fruition.

New Leaf Builders is proposing a 55,000-square-foot lodging, with an unspecified number of guest rooms, according to plans reviewed last week by the city of Charleston’s Technical Review Committee, typically the first official stop in the permitting process.

The hotel is part of a larger mixed-used development to be called Jubilee. It includes 65 residential units, three restaurants and retail and office space.

The 3.27-acre property at 2935 Maybank Highway is just west of River Road. It was annexed into the city in 2017.

New Leaf did not respond to requests for comment about its plans last week. The company, which is headquartered on Johns Island, not far from the Jubilee site, builds homes in several residential developments in the Charleston region and in the Wilmington, N.C., market, according to its website.

The first hotel on Johns Island is well on its way. The Dunlin is set to open this summer at Kiawah River, a master-planned development off Betsy Kerrison Parkway. The luxury Auberge-operated boutique inn will offer guests 72 rooms, 19 villas, riverfront dining and a full-service spa, among other amenities.

MLK Day at IAAM

The International African American Museum is once again offering free admission, this time as part of a public celebration on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Registration for a timeslot is required for the waiver for tickets that are good from noon to 5 p.m. on Jan. 15. Local vendors, food trucks and other activities will be on the grounds of the IAAM, which opened its doors in June.

Earlier this month, the waterfront museum next to the Charleston Maritime Center offered free admission to commemorate Emancipation Day on Jan. 1.

Business

Tennis (jobs), anyone?

The 2024 Credit One Charleston Open is less than 90 days away, and organizers are courting would-be volunteers to ensure the women’s professional tennis tournament runs smoothly.

The annual WTA 500 event is a big visitor draw, attracting more than 90,000 attendees to Daniel Island each spring. It returns March 30-April 7 to Credit One Stadium.

Organizers are looking to recruit 350 volunteers to fill all sorts of roles, from ushering to maintenance, as well as 100 ball-crew members. The perks for the unpaid gig include tickets to a match, meal allowances and event apparel. Training and orientation sessions are required.

The tournament is run by The Charleston Place owner Ben Navarro’s Charleston Tennis LLC and Beemok Sports & Entertainment.

The youngest child welcomed to family through adopted embryo

WADMALAW ISLAND, S.C. (WCBD) – As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, one Lowcountry family has 21 special reasons to be thankful.

The Thornley family on Wadmalaw Island has 21 children, all adopted from around the world. But the youngest little Thornley traveled a different route to join the family – and it all proves a family simply requires love and not necessarily DNA.

News 2 first introduced you to the Thornley family back in 2017; at the time, they had 12 children who were adopted from countries around the world. Now, George and Diana Thornley have 21 children aged 12 months to 23 years.

Having this many mouths to feed comes with a hefty price tag when it comes to buying groceries. “It is roughly a little over $4,000 a month,” said Diana. “That is watching what we spend, having a couple of vegetarian meals a week. We are lucky to get some donations from Panera every other Friday night, so that helps out a lot.”

And the pair make it work. The family also has two passenger vans, and the older kids have cars and jobs.

“Our “why” for doing it, is because kids need families. Kids need homes. No child asked to not have a family,” said Diana.

“I think it’s amazing to see how I get supported with everybody. They care for me a lot, and I love them all,” said 12-year-old Carlee Thornley.

George is an engineer with the Department of Defense and has three biological children from his first marriage. He designed their nine-bedroom Wadmalaw Island home, and they make use of every inch.

The youngest Thornley, Chance, joined the family by way of a different adoption method.

“We have baby Chance, and we adopted his embryo, and he was in Tennessee. Right now, in America, there are about a million embryos just sitting frozen that are potentially children, and we decided we wanted to bring another child in the home, and I had friends who had done embryo adoption,” Diana explained. “I said I would look into it. I want to get the word out about embryo adoption because everywhere I go, people do not realize that is an option, and clearly, I needed help getting pregnant.”

She went on to say, “I was 48, the day before 49. He was born the day before my birthday, and so it’s a great conversation piece because people have no idea, and so it’s a great option for some people to know there are so many embryos out there that need a chance.”

According to the National Institutes of Health, from 2004 to 2019, there were 21,060 frozen donated embryo transfers in the United States, resulting in 8,457 live births.

“It certainly is being utilized more and more,” says Dr. Jeris Cox, founder of Adore Fertility.

She helped the Thornleys conceive. “Embryo adoptions have been around since the 1980s, but I would say that probably has not been utilized until the 2000s for the most part,” said Dr. Cox. “Egg donation, sperm donations, and embryo adoptions are all being utilized more and more. I think embryo adoptions are becoming more popular because there is less cost, and sometimes a little less obstacle for couples to be able to go to an embryo that’s already been created. There’s more testing sometimes that’s done, so they know that embryo from the family that created that embryo had healthy kids, so we know that embryo has a very good likelihood of creating a healthy child. All of those factors in to give parents a little more reassurance, especially if they have to choose between donated eggs, and sperm to create their own embryo, or if an embryo is already created.”

Dr. Cox says the cost could run around $20,000 per embryo.

Most clinics have age limits between 50 to 60. “I think for patients, a couple of different things make this an option. For older patients, older women unfortunately our eggs run out of use in our early 40s, and for older women who want to have families later in life, it’s a great option, because they either have to use a donor egg from someone, or they can choose to take a donor embryo of life created and give full life to that by carrying that pregnancy. Some couples who have fertility issues that are younger and have egg and or sperm issues have to use a donor egg and donor sperm, or they can choose to adopt an embryo and carry that embryo to give life as well. Those are typically the patients we see who are doing embryo adoptions,” she explained.

“I went through all the prep work to get my body ready. I was able to carry him successfully. They induced me at 37 weeks due to me being older, and it was absolutely amazing,” said Diana.

“I think what she has done in her life as for as donating her life to adopting and fostering children is amazing. I also think she always wanted to be able to carry on her own, but life circumstances did not work out that way for her upfront, so embryo adoption was an amazing way for her to continue to get to adopt children,” says Dr. Cox.

The older Thornley siblings say the more the merrier. Izzy Thornley, 16, says “Seeing him be born, and being so loved and how he came to be with our family was pretty awesome.”

The eldest Thornley sibling, 23-year-old Thomas Thornley, recently graduated from the College of Charleston. He says, “It’s more of a blessing. Learning about embryo adoption, that’s actually really cool. I didn’t know you could do that. With all that’s going on in the world today, that’s one way to make the world a better place. I want the world to know, that our family is like God’s family, very diverse, and we do our best to love each other.”

The Thornleys say they have not completely ruled out welcoming more children in the future, but for now, it’s 21.

“At this point, we’re very happy with him and very happy with our family,” said Diana.

JOHNS ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - Charleston County leaders have been working to improve traffic congestion on Johns Island and the area of Maybank Highway and River Road will soon be much easier to travel on.

The county has been working on improvements to Maybank Highway since 2004 and will soon have the third and final phase of these improvement projects completed. Pitchfork Road connects Fenwick Hall Alle to River Road and will serve as an alternative route to Maybank Highway.

Drivers traveling from James Island to Johns Island will be able to bypass the light at Maybank Highway and River Road by using the new Pitchfork Road. This will also apply to drivers coming in the opposite direction. This road can be used as an alternate route to get to James Island. Pitchfork Road will be officially open for use on the afternoon of March 25 and county leaders encourage everyone to use it.

Construction on Pitchfork Road began in 2022 and leaders are excited to host a ribbon-cutting ceremony to commemorate the official opening of the road. This will take place on March 25.

County Construction Project Manager Sheila Parker says that they are really looking to improve safety and relieve traffic in the area.

“I think the people in general are looking forward to, you know, new infrastructure come into John’s Island to help alleviate traffic. We see, you know, development coming and so we need the infrastructure to really accommodate all that,” Parker says.

Parker says that the county has recently made some other changes to the intersection of Maybank Highway and River Road to further improve the flow of traffic.

“We recently restriped Maybank at the intersection of Maybank and River Road, really to accommodate more storage to the left turn lane,” she says. “Previously the left turn lane would stack up with cars and it would block the through lane going straight and so, that would cause traffic backups. Now with more storage, the left turn lane traffic flow improves, and more people can get into the left turn lane.”

Parker says that all of this work is to benefit the residents and drivers of the community and to make traveling on these roads a little easier.

“It’s great to see headway and, you know, the improvements are coming slowly but surely. We’re looking to relieve traffic and improve safety of this area. This has been a big focus for the county,” Parker says.

The county has some safety improvements coming to River Road soon as well. Crews will be working on the addition of reflective markings and rumble strips to the road. This work will lead to some nighttime closures on River Road from Main Road to Maybank Highway. This will take place from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. Sunday through Friday for about the next two weeks.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

The vast majority of Johns Island is rural. Expanses of farms, equestrian trails, hunting, wildlife and tree canopies draw visitors worldwide. This makes Johns Island one of a kind.

It is the reason I moved back here after 30 years of visiting yearly to restore my soul.

The urban growth on Maybank has drawn wonderful businesses and world-class restaurants, making Johns Island a destination.

Johns Islanders have worked to maintain this balance by coming together to collaborate with local government and other partners to create and implement tools, including the urban growth boundary and rural zoning districts.

These actions have helped Johns Island avoid the fate of becoming a cookie cutter community and keep its special natural rural beauty, culture and ecosystem intact.

This comes with a constant awareness of new developments and a vigilant effort to maintain and preserve the balance of this way of life for future generations.

If we are not intentional in future development, our beloved islands will soon be destroyed.

Some believe extending Interstate 526 will solve this. But I believe it will only bring more traffic that could destroy the wildlife, ecosystem and uniqueness of Johns Island.

Island residents still have the opportunity to maintain a balance of rural and urban areas. Extending I-526 would irreparably tip the scales.

ROBIN DYESS

Johns Island

The Dec. 16 commentary by Sara Hazzard, president and CEO of the South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance, is about union Grinches.

But it might be titled, “There is no joy in Mudville — mighty Casey has struck out,” from the poem, “Casey at the Bat,” by Ernest Lawrence Thayer. The poem is about Casey’s overconfidence when he strikes out. He let two pitches fly by as strikes before missing the next pitch.

Right-to-work states are swinging and missing the ball. Labor unions were created in order to help workers with work-related difficulties such as low pay, unsafe or unsanitary working conditions, long hours and other situations.

Unions bring higher wages for the lowest-paid workers.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ annual report on union membership published last January, “Workers who are members of labor unions in the U.S. make 18% more than their nonunion counterparts.”

Which group would you want to be part of?

NANCY ZETTLER

Mount Pleasant

Thank you for Mark Powell’s delightful New Year’s commentary, “Firsts on the First: A quiz for New Year's Day.”

This reminded me of the power of mind over matter, especially the comments on cigarette commercials being banned when President Richard Nixon signed legislation.

It’s been 54 years, and I can still hear the jingle, “Winston tastes good like a cigarette should.”

How pitiful for the child who heard that, believed it and stayed hooked on nicotine for 30 years.

I haven’t smoked in more than 30 years.

Now if we could just get legislation to ban beer commercials, we would have a less drugged America. No one wants to believe alcoholics start with a first taste of beer. I, for one, know better.

“This Bud’s for you.”

To a happy, healthier new year.

SUE GEORGE

Summerville

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JOHNS ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - Charleston County held a public hearing Tuesday night to discuss and hear from anyone interested in the development of a large medical village on Johns Island.

The planned development, located between 4357 and 4365 Betsy Kerrison Parkway, called the Island Park Medical Village would take up more than 17 acres.

The medical village has been a topic among residents of the islands for months now with polarizing opinions supporting and against the development.

More than 30 people spoke during public comment and hundreds of letters were sent to the council in opposition.

RELATED: Neighbor worried about proposed development on Johns Island

Developers are requesting to rezone the land from low-density residential to large-scale medical office park with almost 160,000 maximum square feet of business space.

The medical village was proposed to Charleston County Planning Commission Members back on November 13 with all 7 members denying the zoning request.

Tuesday night, the questions raised included what types of medical options and concerns about traffic.

“We do agree that we need medical facilities, that we do need access,” Long-time Johns Island Resident, Tamara Butler, says. “My question is just what kinds of medical facilities are going to be there and what services are going to be provided.”

Almost 900 property owners on Kiawah Island were surveyed with 80% saying they are against the medical village and think the size of the project is too large.

“In this particular instance, the site of it, the location, the scope and the scale, feels out of character with the area of the island,” Lowcountry Land Trust President Ashley Demosthenes says.

However some community members want the development, sharing why the area needs accessible medical facilities closer to their homes.

“We lack health care. So, this project, the wellness village, actually helps alleviate a lot of that for us because now we’re going to go in a different direction,” Long-time Johns Island Resident, Jim Hart, says.

Developers say they have held meetings to hear from the community about what they want out of the project, and have reduced the project’s size by 25%.

“We care about the community. All we want to do is to provide a development that meets the needs of the people, to curtail the traffic and to allow people to have a choice,” project developer Jill Skerchek says.

With no action being taken, the developers will present the plan again in two weeks to the county council with any possible changes they make in the meantime.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.