News of park surprises Folly residents
FBI & McClellan Property
By Lauren Dean
Folly Beach residents got a big surprise when they opened the Post & Courier on March 11. There on the front page was an article about a new beachfront park nobody knew anything about that would be built on E. Arctic Avenue at the site of the present Front Beach Inn.
The news also caught City Hall staffers unaware. Folly Beach Comptroller Charlie McManus, who manages the City’s money and talks to the Mayor just about every day said, “I was unaware of it until I read about it in the paper this morning.”
It was a surprise to City Council members as well, who were shocked to learn about a major new park in the heart of Folly Beach from a newspaper article. The Post & Courier said Charleston County Council was expected to approve the purchase of the property by the Charleston County Parks & Recreation Commission when it met that evening.
Funding for the purchase of the land for the new park would come entirely from PRC’s $36 million share of the half-cent sales tax for transportation and green space programs. The City of Folly Beach was not buying the property – PRC had signed a contract with the owners for $3.2 million – but an agreement that would turn a large chunk of residential revenue-generating property into a tax-neutral County facility would have a huge effect on Folly Beach.
Council members said they should have been told about the proposed park and given an opportunity to determine what effect the park would have on Folly Beach and, if they thought it was a bad idea, to make their case before County Council before the funding was approved.
Instead, they learned that County Council was expected to finalize the deal that very evening. Taking matters into his own hands, Folly Beach Councilman Tom Scruggs called County Councilor Paul Thurmond to request a deferral of the discussion on funding for the park to give Folly Beach City Council time to “weigh in” on the acquisition.
Tom O’Rourke, Executive Director of the Charleston County Parks & Recreation Commission, was at the Council meeting to request funding for the park. Thurmond, who said he was in favor of projects that give more access to water, nonetheless said that if O’Rourke would agree, he would like to defer discussion of the funding request for two weeks.
O’Rourke agreed, but he said he did not understand the reason for the delay since it was Folly Beach Mayor Carl Beckmann who had approached him about the beach park project in the first place.
“I was really kind of shocked,” O’Rourke said. “We are the ones making the purchase and we never got one call, email, or letter from anyone at Folly in opposition of this purchase. In fact we’ve gotten a good bit of support. So who knows, maybe there won’t be a park there after all.”
Thurmond said he had tried to reach the Mayor for comment, but was unsuccessful in that attempt. The committee agreed to postpone the discussion for two weeks.
Chris Wilkerson, who is a member of the Folly Beach Parks & Recreation Committee, told Thurmond after the meeting that Mayor Beckmann was the only one on City Council who knew about the transaction. She said Council members and residents alike were alarmed that they had been kept in the dark and they had questions about what Folly Beach would get in return for giving away such a valuable property.
If the deal goes through, this will be the fifth Folly Beach property in the hands
of Charleston County. The other four are the park at the West end of the island,
the pier, the boat landing, and the old Coast Guard Station.
Comptroller Charlie McManus, who had learned of the transaction in the newspaper that morning, said he was concerned about the revenue Folly Beach would lose if the deal went through. Government entities are exempt from taxes, according to McManus , who said Folly Beach will lose property taxes, accommodations taxes, business license fees, and sales taxes from food and beverage businesses. “It’s a fact that the people who live here, consume here. Heads and beds are what keep the City going tax wise. To lose that tax base will cause a huge chain reaction and it will be for perpetuity.” McManus also urged people to consider the cost element to the City, including additional costs to police the property, offer EMS services, and collect garbage.
By any stretch of the imagination, what will be built to replace the Front Beach Inn (known to Folly residents as the FBI) will be a vast improvement over what is there now. The FBI is a 33-room flop house that has been run for almost 30 years by Donald “Brother Don” Constantin, who claimed to run a ministry for the down and out, but the facility functioned more often as a haven for drunks and heavy drug users.
Blue lights could be seen flashing in front of the FBI almost every day and red lights from EMS vehicles were also common. Sometimes tenants were cuffed and taken away; other times they were loaded on stretchers and carried out. There were good people there, too, people who had fallen on hard times for whom the FBI was a refuge from the storm or a temporary home to settle in and lick their wounds.
If the deal with PRC goes through, the infamous Front Beach Inn must be razed within 30 days and this Folly Beach landmark will disappear forever, signaling the passing of an era in which Folly Beach took in everyone and asked no questions.
The Front Beach Inn had been condemned by the Folly Beach Fire Marshall. According to Deputy Fire Chief Brad Wade, the downstairs units were illegal because they failed to meet the minimum ceiling height of seven feet and there were numerous code violations and safety hazards. Constantin had been given 30 days to make the required repairs, which he failed to do, and on February 13 he turned the keys over to the City. “It could have been a place for people to get a new start,” Wade said, “But the sad thing is he was running it as a slumlord.”
The property PRC hopes to purchase consists of four lots owned by Constatin and one lot owned by Philip and Jean McClellan. O’Rourke said PRC was able to buy the properties for a total of $2.8 million because the value of land on Folly Beach has plummeted over the past few years. “We’re years away from even starting to build the park,” O’Rourke said. “We just wanted to get the land before the price became prohibitive.”
“We wanted the property so bad, and it was a little bit tricky putting the deal together,” he continued. “But at the last minute we got everyone on board.”
The long-term plan, according to O’Rourke, is to create a park facility with restrooms, showers and a raised building with storage underneath for lifeguard equipment. He said PRC would provide lifeguard service at no cost to the City from the park all the way to the pier.
O’Rourke envisions a park for the residents of Folly Beach that would not shut down when the tourist season is over. “It won’t be a cookie cutter approach,” he said. “We’re thinking about playground equipment on the beach, maybe beach volleyball, things that families will enjoy.”
“We want to bring the community in on the planning,” he said, indicating that public hearings would be held so residents could share their input with CPR. There will be plenty of time for residents to decide what they want to do with their park because, according to O’Rourke, it would take a year to plan the park and another year to build it.
And at this time they don’t even have the funds to start construction of the park – Greenbelt funds can only be used for land acquisition – but O’Rourke said there is no great rush to go out and spend the money. “We want to phase it in,” he said. “We want to do it right. It’s not just for today, it’s for the next hundred years.”
When County Council meets again in two weeks, the Folly Beach Park will be on the agenda and Council will vote on whether to release funds for the acquisition of the property. Folly Beach residents may appear before Council to voice their opinions.
What O’Rourke thought was a done deal has turned into a wait and see game. He said he was stunned when County Council failed to release funds for the park. “For the first time in as long as I can remember, I don’t have any answer to the question that I have been asked by two TV stations and the Post and Courier. ‘Why do you think that the Folly Beach Council stopped this?’ I honestly have no idea,” he said.
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