Annexation issues

Open Letter to Mayor and City Council,

Thank you for the work you do for the benefit of the City of Pickens. For more than two years the subject of annexation, leading to a high-density development, has consumed much time and effort.

As one who has followed this closely, it appears that more effort has been directed toward making annexation work than toward evaluating why it should be approved.

Despite a lack of critical information from the developer, on May 28, 2025, Council passed by a 5-to-1 vote First Reading of the annexation ordinance.  Council members revealed that they did not have words, numbers, dollars, and facts from the developer, nor a comparison of pros and cons of the annexation and high-density development. Even now, major issues are not settled, such as Water, Sewer, and Stormwater.  Furthermore, Council members stated they would not move forward with annexation until they have this necessary information in an approved development agreement.  (Pickens County Courier, October 23, 2024).

Why have you disregarded the clear and sensible language in the 2012 Pickens Comprehensive Plan which protects and preserves the beauty of our community? Are you concerned that this developer is being sued in Charleston for fraud regarding a similar high-density development?

Because there are so many lingering questions and concerns, I urge you to vote NO to annexation of the Wolf Creek property.

Ben Mann

Pickens

Recycling Response

Dear Editor,

Thank you for the recent letter about changes to our County recycling centers. We value public input—please email me at kenr@pickenscountysc.gov or share your thoughts in person with our Environmental Enforcement Officer, who will be visiting centers on a temporary schedule. We will use resident feedback to continuously improve our recycling centers.

These upgrades are primarily about safety. Earlier this year, a recycling center employee was struck by a vehicle and hospitalized. The new layouts slow traffic, reduce the need to cross lanes, and spread out bins to avoid bottlenecks.

Residents can help by using a “last in, first out” (LIFO) method when packing loads—place the items you’ll drop off first on top—making visits quicker and smoother.

To help everyone adjust, we’ve posted video walkthroughs of each center on the Pickens County website. These changes may take time to get used to, but they will make the centers safer, more efficient, and better suited to our growing population.

Ken Roper

Pickens

Letter to Tim Scott

An Open Letter to Senator Tim Scott,

I am writing you in this public format because I fear you do not read the letters or emails I have sent.  The question I have for you is also an underlying concern of import to us all.

You, and other Congressional representatives, advertise your Christian faith as a reference to your character, implying personal integrity and trustworthiness.  However, as I understand the Christian faith, there is a great disconnect between the core beliefs of that faith and the policies and the administration you support.

In my struggle to walk the Christian faith, I have come to understand simply this:  God is Love.  Jesus, in answering a question, stated that the most important of the commandments was to love God, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself.  In another text, Jesus, the storyteller, answers the question, “who is my neighbor?”  It was not someone that either the religious or political leaders would have anticipated.  Jesus, again in story, talks about separating the sheep from the goats in a kind of spiritual “deportation” story.  Those who are to be exiled are told, “I was hungry, thirsty, cold and in need, a stranger, in prison, and you did not do a thing to help.” “Just as you do for the very least of these, you do it for me,” Jesus tells his listeners.

In each of your newsletters you include, from I Corinthians, “Let all that you do be done in love.”  I am hard pressed to find anything being done by this administration that could be considered loving, unless you are referring to the love of self, money, and power.

The deportation of immigrants, many of whom are brothers and sisters in Christ, the savagery with which these people are treated, separated from their families, collected into vans without due process…     This is done in Love?

The defunding of educational, and social programs, as well as scientific research programs – all created to strengthen, build, and safeguard our communities….       This is done in love?

Am I missing something, or do we just know a different Jesus?

Doug Berky

Pickens