Chimney Sweep Near Me West Ashley, SC

WEST ASHLEY — Two years after an Indian restaurant that was a favorite of locals shut down for a complete remodel and rebuild, it’s finally eyeing a reopening date.

The only hold up? The building still needs interior walls and equipment.

Balvinder Banga originally expected the overhaul of Nirlep at 908 Savannah Highway to take about seven months. Instead, the project is nearing the two-year mark.

She’s now hopeful the fully rebuilt space will be ready by early 2026, ideally in January.

As part of the refresh, Banga unveiled a new logo on the outside of the Charleston building featuring an Indian man wearing sunglasses — a visual cue, the owner said, to clearly signal that Nirlep serves Indian cuisine.

The logo and the refreshed interior will be the most notable changes to the dining experience.

“It will be the same menu, same everything,” Banga said. That includes Nirlep’s popular lunch buffet.

Nirlep closed at the end of 2023 after persistent issues with the aging structure, particularly its plumbing, Banga said.

What followed was a full demolition down to the slab. The new building will feature a larger kitchen, two clay ovens — one for the restaurant’s variety of tandoori-roti breads and another for chicken — as well as a bar with seating and a semi-private dining room that can hold about 20 guests.

Banga is also considering adding outdoor seating behind the building.

Many longtime staff members plan to return, and Banga will remain in the kitchen cooking her secret-sauce chicken tandoori, spicy Krahi chicken and chicken tikki masala.

She and her husband, Dilawar Banga, first opened Nirlep in 2002, naming it after their son. They purchased the building in 2008 for $485,000, according to county records.

Despite construction delays, customer demand hasn’t waned. Banga said diners as far as Summerville continue to ask when Nirlep will reopen. All of the restaurant’s new furniture is sitting in a warehouse, ready to be moved in once the renovations are complete.

Nirlep’s return comes as Charleston’s Indian dining scene continues to grow.

In recent years the Lowcountry area has welcomed Spice Palette in Mount Pleasant, Ma’am Saab, the Pakistani restaurant and cocktail bar from the owners of the more casual Malika Canteen in Mount Pleasant, and most recently, Riviat, a higher-end Indian restaurant which opened in the Cannonborough/Elliotborough neighborhood in September.

CHARLESTON, S.C. – Novant Health announced the opening of West Ashley Internal Medicine, a new primary care clinic designed to expand access to high-quality, patient-centered care in the Charleston area. The clinic is located at 10-B Farmfield Avenue, Charleston, SC 29407.

The new practice will open with Sarah Minter, DO, an experienced primary care physician dedicated to building long-term relationships with patients and helping them manage their health at every stage of life.

“Expanding access to primary care is one of the most important ways we can meet the growing health needs of families in the Charleston area,” said Kirsten Royster, president of Novant Health’s Charleston area. “With the opening of West Ashley Internal Medicine, we’re ensuring that more patients have convenient access to trusted providers close to where they live and work.”

Primary care plays a vital role in preventive health and in the early detection and management of chronic conditions. Novant Health is planning to open additional primary care clinics throughout the Tri-County.

Novant Health has also hired a dedicated primary care patient navigator who can help patients explore which provider is right for them – and set them up with same-day and next-day appointments - by calling 843-471-1239.

“My goal as a primary care physician is to get to know my patients, understand their health history and partner with them to make decisions that improve their long-term well-being,” Minter said. “I’m excited to be part of Novant Health’s commitment to bring more options for high-quality care to West Ashley and the greater community.”

In addition to the new West Ashley location, Novant Health also recently welcomed Stewart Trimble, MD, at Novant Health Sewee Family Medicine at 570 Long Point Road in Mount Pleasant. Together, these expansions reflect Novant Health’s ongoing commitment to meet the growing demand for primary care across the Charleston area, along with advanced services at Novant Health East Cooper Medical Center.

Appointments at West Ashley Internal Medicine are now available online or by calling the primary care new patient navigator at 843-471-1239.

About Novant Health

Novant Health is an integrated network of more than 900 locations, including 19 hospitals, more than 750 physician clinics and urgent care centers, outpatient facilities, and imaging and pharmacy services. This network supports a seamless and personalized healthcare experience for communities in North Carolina and South Carolina. Novant Health is nationally recognized for our unwavering commitment to safety and the highest quality care, and we serve as a catalyst for healthcare transformation through clinical trials, leading-edge research, innovative care delivery models and robust virtual care networks. The expertise and empathy of our more than 40,000 team members along with more than 8,500 independent and employed clinicians are at the heart of Our Cause as industry leaders caring for communities across the Carolinas. In 2023, Novant Health provided more than $1.6 billion in , including financial assistance and services.

For more information, visit . Follow Novant Health on , , and .

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) — Roper St. Francis and the Medical University of South Carolina Children’s Health have teamed up to open a pediatric center in West Ashley that officials say addresses a needed gap in local care.

“This is really the first step in this collaboration,” Dr. John Pastore, Roper St. Francis Pediatric Medical Director, said.

Medical officials said the new facility addresses a gap in pediatric care as the Charleston area continues to grow.

“Charleston metropolitan area continues to grow, so do the family sizes, of course, and Shawn Jenkins has grown with it, but the pace of our population growth has outpaced even what Shawn Jenkins can serve,” Dr. Megan Baker, Chief Clinical Officer at Roper St. Francis Healthcare, said.

Some residents said traveling downtown for pediatric care presented challenges, including parking difficulties, flooding, traffic and childcare issues.

The new center will treat low-acuity pediatric conditions for patients requiring shorter hospital stays.

“I want to focus on the type of care where patients will be in the hospital for a shorter amount of time and have a lower severity of illness, so things that are easy to manage, such as pediatric mild asthma exacerbations, community-acquired infections and community-acquired pneumonia,” Pastore said.

One of the center’s main goals is maintaining family unity during treatment.

“Closer to home for many of our patients and keeping families together,” Baker said.

The children’s ward starts with eight rooms and will expand to 16, including a lab and other inpatient services. The facility includes a playroom that doctors said children need for recovery.

“This is being hospitalized is such a stressful time for children. Trying to preserve some semblance of normalcy is so important. Thus, we have pet therapists. We’re going to have child life specialists and even just a little playtime. One of the reasons I went into pediatrics is because children do not become their disease. Children want to be children, and this is how we promote that, and that’s part of their well-being,” Pastore said.

Officials said this represents the beginning of expanded services they plan to provide. Staff hope for the center to open in early December.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – One of South Carolina’s oldest and busiest roads, carrying more than 50,000 cars a day, could soon see safety improvements thanks to a push from lawmakers.

State and Lowcountry leaders say long-term improvements are coming to Ashley River Road, also known as Highway 61, but the project will take time and significant funding to complete. For many travelers, congestion and potential danger have become cause for concern.

Since the plan was first announced in August 2024, State Rep. Gary Brewer has helped secure $2 million from the state budget to fund a preliminary study. Charleston County has since completed the procurement process and turned the study over to a third-party contractor.

The next step, a preliminary design, will require an additional $5.9 million. Brewer says he plans to request that funding during the upcoming legislative session in January. Even if it is approved, he says that the full project, which includes studies, public input and construction, is expected to take about nine years and cost more than $100 million.

The need for safety improvements is clear. Between 2017 and mid-2022, the South Carolina Department of Transportation recorded 2,008 car crashes, 28 bicycle accidents and 18 pedestrian crashes along just one section of Highway 61.

“In about a mile and a half stretch, we’ve got to have everything that you can possibly imagine,” Brewer says. “We’ve got to sit down and go through and figure out where we can widen, where we can’t widen, how we can stage construction, what would improve flooding, what would improve traffic flow, how we can get students safely in and out of their school, everything, people in and out of their neighborhoods. So, there’s a lot to take in.”

Brewer says improving Highway 61 has been one of his top priorities since he took office. When he first ran for his seat, he says the message from residents was loud and clear.

“When we ran the first go-around, we knocked on a little over 6,000 doors,” Brewer says. “Knocking on those doors, the No. 1 priority was infrastructure. And the No. 1 priority amongst infrastructure was specifically this corridor on the West Ashley end of my district.”

That feedback, he says, is what drives him to keep pushing for progress even when it takes time.

“I live in the West Ashley end of my district. I see it every day, but hearing my neighbors and my friends and my family and my constituents talk about how tough it is to travel that road and seeing every day the head-on wrecks and the issues that we have, it’s something that’s got to get done yesterday. It’s something that we can’t afford to kick down the road even more,” he says.

Brewer says conversations about improving Highway 61 are not new. He says many local and state leaders before him discussed similar plans, but they never made it past the planning phase.

“It had been brought up multiple times and remembered by multiple predecessors, but it was always told it couldn’t be done,” he says. “I think that we found out that all you’ve got to do is force the conversation and you get to a point where you can actually make the project happen.”

Brewer also says one major hurdle is the state’s lengthy procurement process, which can delay construction for years before work even begins.

“There’s a lot going on in our state at the state level right now to be able to improve our procurement. Right now, it takes about five to seven years to get to construction, and then construction is usually the quickest part. Once they get to construction, it usually moves a heck of a lot quicker,” he says. “So, we’re working on that right now to help give some tools to the counties to be able to speed up the pre-construction and the procurement processes.”

While large-scale changes may be years away, some smaller safety improvements could arrive sooner. In March of this year, SCDOT proposed updates including high-visibility crosswalks, bike lanes, accessibility ramps and new pavement markings. The department also plans to install technology aimed at reducing pedestrian and angle collisions.

Brewer says these upgrades are just the beginning of a much larger effort to make Highway 61 safer and more efficient for the thousands of drivers who rely on it every day.

Construction on those safety projects could begin as early as 2026.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — It may look like a simple wooden box, but for many West Ashley families, it means everything. Blessing Boxes are small, community-run pantries where neighbors can “take what they need and leave what they can.”

With the recent government shutdown delaying SNAP benefits, many Lowcountry families are struggling to put food on the table.

The motivation is that there are people in our community who rely on SNAP benefits, and because of the government shutdown, those benefits were delayed,” Kenneth Marolda, Co-Founder of West Ashley Connects explained.

Although benefits are set to be partially funded again, local leaders say the help may not go far enough.

“As we head into the holiday season, the partial funding may not be sufficient even to meet their daily needs, let alone holiday celebrations,” Marolda added. “And this is a way that we can help provide relief.”

The West Ashley Connects neighborhood group manages several of these Blessing Boxes across the area, filling them with canned goods, baby formula, hygiene products, and snacks. Volunteers say it’s their way of helping when larger systems fall short.

“I can’t provide official aid in any other way,” Marolda said. “But we can do what we can here to help make sure that people are fed.”

There are two main ways to get involved. You can drop off nonperishable food or hygiene items at four local partner businesses: Highfalutin Coffee Roasters, Café Rocha, Frothy Beard Brewing Company, and Shift Pilates Studio. Volunteers collect these donations regularly to restock the boxes.

You can also contribute financially to West Ashley Connects through PayPal or Venmo. Every dollar goes directly toward purchasing nonperishable items for the boxes.

We’re going to do it as long as we can,” Marolda said. “As long as people will donate and as long as there’s need. So either when the need is gone or when the funds dry up.”

Blessing Box locations and donation sites are: