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1th e ©amecock Old, new clash on Lowcountry beach I ■ Longtime Folly Beach residents say < new buildings eroding island's charm by Arlie Porter The Charleston Post & Courier FOLLY BEACH — Not so long ago on Folly Beach, oysters were dumped in a burst of steanvpnlo a plywood table. Now, oysters are more likely to be chilled and arranged in a perfect circle on a dinner plate. At Folly Beach, blue-collar is out. Condos are in. In the past three years, nearly 300 condominium units have been built or are planned on the island. And as the con dos multiply, long-cherished Folly Beach landmarks me vanishing. • In the last month, Bushy’s Seafood * staurant off Folly Road closed. It will oe razed and 33 condos built ip its place. • Crawdaddy’s Seafood, another Fol ly Beach fixture, closed a month ago. De velopers plan to construct a bridge pern the boarded restaurant to wooded Long Island so they can build 203 homes. • Thirty condo units me planned be hind the Santl Dollar, a popular bar on Fol ly Beach. Rogers Qglesby, who has lived on Fol ly Beach since 1972, looks around and wonders what happened to the Folly he used to know. “ITiere are all these new kinds of peo ple coining in,” he said. “I don’t mean they’re bad. But before... we had paupers and princes, millionaires.and mutts, but we all got along OK. “Now there are all these Volvos and Jaguars and SUVs. The whole feeling of the town is changing because of all this development.” Added Bonnie Carracciolo, chair of the town’s planning commission: “It’s a huge change in the personality of tire com munity. Overall, there’s no question about that.” Some say Folly Beach has been dis covered. Others attribute new condominium construction to soaring land prices. Still others say it’s crass speculation. Whatev er it is, condos are going up everywhere. The Ocean Front Villas, with 96 units, was built next to the Holiday Inn two years ago. More than 100 condos have been built or are planned along scenic Folly Road. Another 18 units are crowded to gether along the beachfront next to the Folly Pier. Because many of the condominium buildings are built in flood zones, they are elevated. Nearly all reach the town’s 40-foot maximum height limit. Carracciolo calls the box-shaped con dominiums “prefabricated cracker box es.” Oglesby, a member of the city’s Board of Zoning Adjustment, calls them “stack a-shacks.” “Folly Beach is becoming a yuppie Calcutta,” he said. Girracciolo partly blames the current City Council and previous administrations for not supporting strongly enough the creation of a city board of architectural review. “I don’t think anyone is going to look at these things and say, ‘What a beauti ful structure!’ ” she said. “Folly Beach used to be about people. Now it’s about structures.” Mayor Vernon Knox says the econ omy is encouraging the condominium construction. The Oce;m Front Villas were sold be fore the building was finished, which encouraged other developers, he said. “People tliiiik they can get more b;uig from building condos,” he said. “You can ‘ build condos, sell them mid walk away with a good chunk of change.” However, Knox said the condo con struction is relegated to the appropriate ly zoned areas mid residents need not wor ry that the building boom will turn Folly Beach into another Myrtle Beach. City Council members have avoided creating a board of architectural review because of the additional layer of gov ernment. Knox said. “It’s very sad, ” one council member said. “It’s like watching a friend with a terminal disease, and you know there is ultimately no cure.” Hunger T from pageU its member agencies to the people which those agencies serve, and it’s a very or ganized and responsive network of peo ple who are fighting hunger.” Holland said. - % Rep. Joe Neal, D-Richland, said hunger is not a simple problem, but rather “a complex of realities that re inforce one another.”. He said hunger and poverty are po litical issues compounded by the fact that th£ poorest members of the pop ulation are the ones who do not vote, so their issues do not get represented in the legislature. Neal tuged citizens to get involved in the light against hunger by commu nicating their needs to their represen tatives. -Elizabeth Patterson, director of the S.C. Department of Social Services, out lined several plans her oiganization has for the future as part of their “Procla mation for Food Security.” Their goals are to improve nutrition for school children, especially those in low-income areas, and to create a new, less restric tive application process for food stamp eligibility. Patterson emphasized the impor tance of food stamps for low-income families, calling stamps the first line of defense against hunger. However, on ly half of eligible families participate in the program, a statistic DSS hopes to improve through increased public outreach and publicity. According to Patterson, every coun ty in South Carolina is served by a food pantry, with the exception of Mc Cormick, Barnwell, Allendale and Jasper counties. Neal said each church should get in volved in the community by creating its own food pantry to help people in need. According to the Harvest Hope Food Bank, it distributed more than 7 million pounds of surplus food in 1999. The city/state, desk can be reached at gamecockcftydesk@hotmaiLcom. St. Thomas More Catholic Center Rev. Tim Lijewski Mass Schedule Sacrament of Penance Chaplain Saturday 4:30pm Saturday 3:00pm-4:00pm Sr. Julienne Guy OSU Sunday 11:00am. 7:30pm or by appointment Director of Christian _, , _ . _ _. Formation Newman Club Tuesday 7:00pm W 1610 Greene St. 799-5870 (Across from School of Nursing) Wltt'Jil'IU'l Columbia -Five Points (behind Harper's) Proclaiming Christ through the Scriptures and Sacraments Adult Bible Class 9:30ant • Holy Cbnununion 10:30am Member Parish -Lutheran Church Missouri Synod Sunday Activities 9:00 & 11:15am - Worship Services 10:00am - LifeLine Contemporary Service 10:00am - Sunday School 3407 Devine St. ~ 256-8383 ~ www.Shandon-UMC.org . wu vou mow mime? Play Rolling Stone's “What's That Track?" Music Competition On Your Campus This Fall at RSU. — file mm. file mm. file m. 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