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Rico Small (left) and Jermaine Blake fish for crabs off the bank of the Stono River near Wappoo Road on May 16, 2024, in Charleston. “Don’t give us highways, we want waterways!” Small said about the Mark Clark Extension plans.

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Jermaine Blake (right) fishes for crabs with John Jones on May 16 in Charleston. The Maybank Highway bridge, which looms in the background, would be connected with the new Mark Clark Extension under current plans.

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Crabs are stored in a bucket on the banks of the Stono River on May 16, 2024, in Charleston. The Wappoo bridge is a popular spot for day fishermen during all hours. Jermaine Blake (not pictured) catches his own crabs and cooks them for his food truck business.

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Rico Small wraps up fishing line after catching a bucket full of blue crabs on the bank of the Stono River on May 16, 2024, in Charleston.

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Homes line up against the shore of the Stono River just south of where the Mark Clark Extension would cross into wetlands and over the river May 16, 2024, as seen from this vantage point across the marsh on Johns Island.

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Power lines cross over the Stono River and marshlands surrounding it just south of where the Mark Clark Extension would cross the same area May 16, 2024, on Johns Island.

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Water from the Stono River laps up on the shore and wetlands surrounding it May 16, 2024, in Charleston. Stretches along the shore similar to this are areas at risk of being cleared with the proposed Mark Clark Extension.

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A power line stretches up to the sky on the shore of the Stono River just south of the proposed plans for the Mark Clark Extension on May 16, 2024, on Johns Island.

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Annabel Eppes, a climbing wall aide at James Island County Park, sets new routes on the climbing wall on May 16 in Charleston. With the construction of the Mark Clark Extension, multiple structures will be eliminated, including the climbing wall and disc golf course.

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Changes for the Mark Clark Extension construction will include the elimination of multiple structures like the outdoor center, climbing wall and ropes course at James Island County Park, seen here May 16, 2024, in Charleston.

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Izzy Hamrick, a climbing wall aide, lies back and listens to Luke Chachula (top left) instruct Caroline Van Deusen (top right) on proper knot tying and rigging for placing new routes on the climbing wall May 16, 2024, in Charleston.

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An alligator suns itself on the shore of a pond at James Island County Park on May 16, 2024, in Charleston.

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An alligator suns itself on the shore of a pond in James Island County Park on May 16, 2024, in Charleston.

JOHNS ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - People will have the opportunity to review in person the proposed changes to major Johns Island roadways meant to alleviate traffic and keep up with the island’s growing traffic.

The Main Road Corridor is a major project that has three project zones, A, B and C. Tuesday’s meeting will be the final public input meeting about the plans for Section C. The meeting is from 4 to 7 p.m. at Johns Island Episcopal Church on Maybank Highway.

Section C deals with the stretch of Bohicket Road from Maybank Highway to Betsy Kerrison Parkway.

Most of the plans involve widening Bohicket Road to four lanes, with two lanes going each way. One plan suggests building a new road, funneling some traffic from Betsy Kerrison Parkway directly to River Road with the new build. Some of the seven maps are a combination of widening and adding new connecting roads. The options include a plan based on suggestions from the community group Rational Roads and another plan based on suggestions from the town of Kiawah Island.

Alex Owsiak is a Capital Programs Manager at Charleston County. He says prior public input meetings helped shape the plan the county is leaning towards and will present at the meeting.

“Tomorrow night’s meeting, we’ll be representing our preferred alternative, which is alternative eight, which is kind of a combination of the last two alternatives, which got the most public support, which was alternative one a, alternative six. We’re looking to do some widening on Bohicket Road between Main Road and River Road and improving some intersections along that corridor as well,” Owsiak says.

Owsiak says this is the third meeting and the idea for the changes go back to 2019. Right now, the planning phase is almost complete and next is finalizing the plans before starting land acquisition in 2025. If the plan stays on track the Section C portion could see construction in 2026.

“Projects do you take a long time to go through with the public involvement process and permitting is online as well, but we do a mixture, we assist in that public input in providing those, getting those comments and incorporate them into our plans so we can provide the best improvement there for the public,” Owsiak says.

Betty Abbott has lived on Kiawah and Johns Islands all her life. She says she remembers when the roads reaching Kiawah were still made of dirt. Now, she says the traffic is overwhelming and she fears any improvements would be too little to late. She has strong opinions about the traffic.

“Big time bad, awful, terrible, you name it,” Abbott says.

Abbott says she’s afraid the islands have simply let the development grow beyond what they can handle.

“It needs a whole lot more than that. To me, there’s no help. And I don’t want to go anywhere because this is all I know,” Abbott says.

Daryll Jones, who has lived on Johns Island for more than 20 years, agrees with some of Abbott’s thoughts. He says he’s noticed the traffic get exponentially worse in recent years. While he hopes the projects will offer relief, he’s skeptical about how much will be felt.

“There’s only two ways in and of the island, so if you talk about widening the road it’s only going to bring you back to the same two exits we have off of Johns Island,” Jones says.

He mentions how it feels like there are lots of discussions of solutions, like extending 526, but projects take so long to plan and approve.

After the public meeting, people will be able to share comments on the preferred plan for Section C through June 14 online.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

The labyrinth beckons walkers to pursue a pilgrimage of mindfulness, prayer and meditation. Some come to the labyrinth for an answer to a specific question, others seek healing, peace or forgiveness. The ancient spiritual practice is not rooted in a certain religion. Instead, it provides a space for thoughtfulness, offering a metaphor to life’s twists and turns.

“We kind of go through life fragmented, but the labyrinth tends to put us back into our wholeness — mind, body and spirit all come together,” said the Rev. Chris Huff, the associate priest at St. John’s Episcopal Church, who championed the idea for a labyrinth.

The labyrinth is located under tall trees that allow the sunlight to peek through the leaves. A light breeze rustles the trees overhead as birds chirp melodically and cars traveling on Maybank Highway hum in the distance.

Part of the path remains shaded while other sections are in direct sunlight, an intentional design providing a metaphor for life’s moments of light and darkness.

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During Huff’s 35 years of ministry as a priest, he always wanted to be a part of creating a labyrinth. It’s a practice he has studied and benefited from personally.

During a recent sermon, he used a labyrinth as a metaphor for life’s unexpected turns. The message struck a chord with the congregation. Several congregants brought up the idea of building a labyrinth on the church’s property. Once the plan was set in place, a couple dozen people helped construct the labyrinth and lay river stones and seashells to create the pathway.

The process of creating the labyrinth coincided with a time of adversity in Huff’s personal life.

Huff was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer.

“It is actually at the end of my ministry when the fruition of a true labyrinth has come to bear. It’s all a matter of timing,” Huff said.

The labyrinth has been a useful tool for Huff as he navigates his cancer journey. He recalled taking a walk on the labyrinth’s pathway as he pondered a tension he felt. He was grieving his life — his wife, his close friends and family, the things he loved doing. At the same time, he felt indescribable joy.

He said a walk on the labyrinth focused his heart and mind.

“I’m rejoicing because I know what’s ahead, I’ve got a better sense of what’s ahead, and I know it on a different level,” Huff said.

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Huff said the answer isn’t always revealed during the walk — it might take days or even years to recognize the purpose of each journey.

On May 4, nearly 20 people, including members of the church and others from the community, gathered at the church’s labyrinth for World Labyrinth Day. Across the world, people walked labyrinths with a unifying goal in mind: peace.

It also happened to be Huff’s birthday.

Labyrinths are often associated with mazes. However, mazes are intended to be confusing. Mazes have many paths to the center, marked by decisions to go left or right and dead ends. While a labyrinth’s intricate path isn’t easily deciphered, there is only one way in and out.

Georgie Skover, a member of the community who attended World Labyrinth Day, put it like this: You get lost in a maze, but in a labyrinth you get found.

“As you walk, you let go of that thing that’s on your shoulders, and when you get to the center it’s gone and you’re free of it and you walk out in a very different state of mind,” Skover said.

Many St. John’s members have had their own personal experiences with labyrinths, even before the new one at the church was built. Some have been members of other churches that have labyrinths on their properties or use temporary labyrinths for special occasions. Others have visited labyrinths in various cities.

One of the most famous labyrinths that dates back to 1200 is housed inside the Chartres Cathedral in France.

Pat Cline, a new member at St. John’s, said several years ago she met one of her friends, who was grieving the loss of her son, at the labyrinth at Roper St. Francis in West Ashley each week to walk with her during this profound loss. The Medical University of South Carolina has a labyrinth at its downtown hospital.

Cline, who has known about labyrinths for years, has always wanted to incorporate the practice regularly. She said understanding the history of labyrinths allows her to connect with those in the past who have sought prayer and meditation through labyrinth journeys.

During the overcast Saturday at St. John’s, each person walked the labyrinth at their own pace. Some people stopped when they reached the center, pausing as others wove through the path around them. For some, it was their first experience walking a labyrinth. Each person left with a different experience.

For Huff, the idea of this group walking with others across the world with the same intention in mind was powerful.

“When we find commonality, that’s where we find peace with one another,” Huff said.

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“My concern, and the concern of people on the island, is that River Road is getting more and more crowded,” Charleston City Councilman Jim McBride said at an April 22 Committee on Public Works and Utilities meeting.

“It’s a two-lane road, with not a lot of shoulders, which contributed to the crash, I think.”

Leachate is created when water filters through a landfill, and picks up all kinds of chemical and organic pollutants along the way. It’s like filtering water through coffee grounds to make your morning brew — just replace the beans with garbage.

The utility’s spokesperson, Mike Saia, told city leaders in April that there are many reasons the system sends leachate to the processing plant on Johns Island, located at the intersection of River and Murraywood roads.

That includes a “symbiotic relationship” with the Oakridge Landfill in Dorchester County, where the truck that crashed in February was coming from. Oakridge takes Charleston’s solids, and CWS takes Oakridge’s liquids.

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The system can’t send the leachate directly to its central Plum Island facility, as the highly-concentrated wastewater can “wreak havoc” on that plant’s infrastructure if it arrives untreated. The Johns Island plant was also built large enough to handle a population boom, so its upper capacity hasn’t been reached.

Perhaps most importantly, Saia said processing the so-called “garbage juice” above Charleston’s watershed would be risky.

“It is a tremendous benefit to the entire Lowcountry that we treat this leachate and then release the water into the harbor, versus above us where our drinking water comes from,” he said.

Each truck can carry between 4,000 and 6,000 gallons of leachate. Saia said it’s unclear how much was on the truck when it crashed, but “most of it was spilled.” Clean-up took a few hours and the scene was “fully remediated.” Saia said the truck was operated by a subcontractor hired by the Oakridge Landfill, which was responsible for the managing the cleanup.

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In response to the February spill, and feedback from the community, Saia said the utility is adding more pavement on the turn-out from the site onto River Road to give trucks more room to safely maneuver. But any improvements to the narrow road beyond that might be tricky.

River Road, like many roads across the state, is managed by the South Carolina Department of Transportation, not a local government. In an emailed statement, a department spokesperson wrote that the SCDOT “does not currently have any plans” for updating or widening the two-lane road.

“However, we encourage anyone with issues on a state-maintained roadway to be in touch with us directly at 855-467-2368,” the spokesperson wrote.

Toxic vs. hazardous

Technically, “toxic” is not the same thing as “hazardous.”

“The toxicity of a substance is the potential of that substance to cause harm, and is only one factor in determining whether a hazard exists,” according to Purdue University. “The hazard of a chemical is the practical likelihood that the chemical will cause harm.”

Saia said the wastewater that spilled forth from the February accident was toxic, but not hazardous since the landfill it was from doesn’t accept hazardous waste.

“People ask us what’s in it. We don’t know what’s in every drop, because we don’t know what people send to the landfill,” he said. “But we do know that it meets industry standards and that it’s a high-strength wastewater.”

Andrew Wunderley, executive director of Charleston Waterkeeper, said leachate is a significant environmental threat.

Auberge Resorts has hatched a charming new riverfront resort on picturesque Johns Island in South Carolina.

Occupying a prime position on the banks of the Kiawah River, the Dunlin is named after a local shorebird and aims to showcase the natural beauty within this coastal enclave. Set on the community’s 2,000 acres, the property comprises 72 cottage-esque rooms and suites. In addition, the grounds are adorned with 19 private branded residences. Travelers and residents alike will have access to the lavish amenities inside the Dunlin, too.

Auberge currently has 27 luxurious locations across the globe, but this is the U.S. company’s first outpost in the Palmetto State. (The project was announced in early 2021, and ground was broken in spring 2022.) “We have seen continued demand for resort properties in the South that are easily accessible by guests on both the East and West Coast,” Auberge’s chief creative officer Kemper Hyers told Robb Report via email. “The Charleston Sea Islands—and more specifically Johns Island where The Dunlin, Auberge Resorts Collection calls home—was the perfect location.”

Architect Robert Glazier was tapped to design the exterior of the Dunlin, opting for a modern take on a Southern summer home that complements the surrounding environment. The renders, shared exclusively with Robb Report, show the various buildings feature spacious porches and gabled roofs synonymous with the South.

Designer Amanda Lindroth spearheaded the interiors, achieving true Southern flair by combining sunny batik prints and textural linen fabrics with white-washed walls and honey oak floors. The rooms and suites are both generously proportioned, though the suites come with living rooms, dining nooks, and soaking tubs.

The Dunlin celebrates soulful Southern cooking, naturally. Signature restaurant Linnette’s offers round-the-clock dining and a seafood-focused menu that pays homage to the heritage of Charleston, while the Cove evokes a 1950s beach club and serves casual bites poolside beneath striped umbrellas. In addition, the Willet Room is a swanky riverside lounge that slings punchy cocktails, rare whiskey, and soulful fare.

Wellness buffs should beeline it to the Aster, though. The tranquil spa offers a range of treatments designed to maximize the natural healing potential of honey. Hive-to-table experiences on the menu include nectar-infused facials and a honey oil scrub and massage. In addition, the menu includes French beauty rituals by Biologique Recherche and garden-inspired treatments with locally-grown florals and essences.

The Dunlin will offer a range of activities, such as hikes, sports fishing, and water safaris. It will also hold bonfires, communal seafood feasts, and whole hog BBQs with plenty of that signature Southern hospitality. The property also includes four event spaces that you can book for weddings or other special occasions.

Ready to experience some coastal bliss? You can book a stay via the resort’s website. Rooms start at $749.

Click here for more images of the resort.