Plumbers in Summerville, SC

Local fire departments and the S.C. Forestry Commission responded April 17 to a wildfire near 112 North Creek Drive and State Road in Berkeley County. Crews were on the scene around 11:30 a.m. The fire encompassed 20 to 25 acres, and was about 50 percent contained by 3 p.m., then contained within the fire line by 4:30 p.m., according to a county spokesperson. Fire crews

Berkeley County officials are encouraging people to use caution while in the area due to smoky conditions. Homes and other structures were not threatened and no injuries have been reported. Officials have yet to identify the cause of the fire.

"People can expect to see heavy smoke in the area for the next 12-24 hours," a county spokesman wrote in an email. "We are asking people to please use caution while driving. Drone use is also prohibited at this time."

Pine Ridge Fire Rescue, Central Berkeley Fire, Moncks Corner Rural, Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office, Berkeley county Emergency Management, and Berkeley County EMS responded, with the state Forestry Commission leading the response, he wrote.

All of South Carolina currently has a high level of fire danger. Officials are asking anyone planning a burn "to take the proper steps so it doesn’t get out of control."

The area of the fire is a few miles north of downtown Summerville and highly developed. Nearby are Cane Bay elementary and high schools. On the west side of State Road are swaths of woodland.

A "contained" fire is not an extinguished one.

The S.C. Forestry Commission and its partner agencies can "contain" a fire by clearing a protective perimeter, which allows the flames to consume all of the fuel in the area. A "controlled" fire takes a bit longer to achieve, The Post and Courier previously reported. The Forestry Commission is operating several large bulldozers and two airplanes for water drops to help contain the North Creek Drive blaze.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - A Summerville restaurant staple is closing its doors after more than eight decades of serving Southern hospitality.

Eva’s on Main opened in 1944 and Wednesday was their last day open. The owner and customers reflected on the bittersweet end to a long-standing favorite in the community.

The Southern food restaurant has a long history starting in 1944 with Eva Hensen.

“We felt that it was important to carry on that legacy,” Eva’s Restaurant owner Whitney Easler said.

The current owners have been running Eva’s for six years.

“We’ve had a number of longtime customers that have dined with us from back in the day when they were young, and they remember Eva snapping peas in the kitchen,” Easler said.

General manager Tina Howard has been serving friendly faces here for a decade.

“Customers are family to me. We have customers that eat here twice a day,” Howard said.

“This was our home away from home. We came here to feel like we were still back in Delaware. We love the food and the people that work here,” long-time customer Bonnie Booth said.

Owner Whitney Easler said those Southern roots that customer loves are what make it special.

“Making everybody feel like they’re eating at grandma‘s house and we’ve come to know so many of our customers by name. They know who we are and we know who they are. It’s like an old home when you dine at Eva’s,” Easler said.

While it’s a tough last call for many, the final dishes were served Wednesday with no regrets.

“It’s hard to let go, but we’re ready to retire and spend more time with family,” Easler said.

“It’s bittersweet, it’s a part of history gone but now it’s time for change,” Howard said.

Howard said much of the staff will still be working here, for the longtime customers who may want to stop by and visit. But they’ll have to change their taste, as an Italian deli is moving in. Howard said they’re expected to open their doors in three to four weeks.

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SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (WCSC) - Summerville leaders are looking for the community’s input on what they would like to see happen to one of the largest tracts of land in downtown Summerville.

Plans to redevelop the 5.3 acres on 500 North Main Street have been discussed for years as developers, along with town and county officials, have been trying to figure out the best way to enhance the site while also preserving its history.

The Greater Summerville/Dorchester County Chamber Foundation has opened up a community survey that will be facilitated by a consultant group, asking residents to rank their priorities for the redevelopment plans as leaders and developers move forward.

“We want community input because we want to get this right for future generations. It’s a very important part of Summerville. It’s the gateway into our town and we want to make sure we get it right,” President and CEO of the Greater Summerville/Dorchester County Chamber of Commerce Rita Berry says.

The current zoning of the property is downtown-mixed use, which permits housing, retail, office space, and lodging.

However, the building on site, currently the county services building, used to be a hospital which community members have expressed wanting to see preserved. There is also a Veterans memorial honoring branches of the military and public service, including name-dedicated bricks, that sits in front of the building.

County officials say this project is an opportunity to expand the downtown Summerville experience from Hutchinson Square up to 500 North Main.

“The idea of putting something on this site that generates tax revenue that supports the county, that supports the town, is important for the long term vision. This is not a short-term, we’re going to do this and walk away and everything is going to be great,” Dorchester County Chairman David Chinnis says.

Chinnis says plans so far do include a park and keeping the county office building on site. He says there is also discussion about possible affordable housing.

“That is one of the things that we’ve told the developer we need. That needs to be in here,” Chinnis says.

Chinnis says that keeping the center portico of the old hospital is a top goal, but that with it sitting in the middle of the site it does make things more difficult.

“Quite frankly, it would be much simpler if we weren’t trying to conserve that central building. You clear the site off and you develop it the way it looks, the way some people say, well, I want it to look like this, I want it to look like that. That being in the center of the lot makes it challenging because now everything is being built around the outside edges,” Chinnis says.

Chinnis says ultimately the town has the final approval on what happens to the site.

The deadline for Summerville’s Board of Architectural Review to approve any plans has been extended to June 30.

The deadline for community members to fill out the survey is April 4. You can find the link here.

Leaders from the Chamber Foundation say that all responses are confidential. The survey does ask for name and address to make sure the responses are coming from constituent communities.

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After more than 80 years in the community, southern comfort food restaurant Eva’s on Main closed its doors for good after its last day of business Wednesday, March 19. Whitney Easler, who owned Eva's with her husband, Ray, said not to despair — the deli-style Italian restaurant taking its place, Nonna's Olde World New York Deli and Specialties, will forge its own legacy.

“I think they're going to pour as much love into their business as we did,” Easler said. “This is not new for them. They have years of experience working in the food and beverage industry.”

Eva’s on Main was established in 1944 and had been at 129 S. Main St. since 1952. It was named for Eva Hinson, who operated the business with her husband, Eddie, before he retired and gave her control of the restaurant, according to the Eva’s on Main website. With Eva at the helm, the restaurant took her name. The website also states that Eva was known for peeling potatoes and snapping beans in a rocking chair in the kitchen, as well as making desserts from scratch.

The Easlers took over six years ago when the restaurant went up for sale.

“It's southern comfort food served with southern hospitality, and we're all about family, about making you feel at home when you come in,” Easler said. “When you come in and eat at Eva's, you are always going to find somebody else that you know who’s sitting at the table next to you, and I just love to see the customers striking up conversations with each other. It's just such a family environment and just so comfortable.”

Easler explained she and her husband wanted to keep tradition alive at Eva’s but add their own style.

“We tweaked it a little bit, made it our own to a degree, kept old recipes,” Easler said. “Two of the girls that work in the kitchen with us today worked for Eva back in the day when they were young girls, and they're still here with us.”

On its final day of operations, the restaurant was busy with customers. Passersby stopped on the sidewalk to get their last pictures of the sign. Reporters captured the scene. For Easler, saying goodbye was a tear-inspiring process.

“We've realized, too, that, as Eva knew herself, you put a lot of hard work into running a restaurant if you're an owner-operator, and so it took up a lot of time,” Easler said. “It was worth it, and we've thoroughly enjoyed it, but we were ready to spend more time with our family.”

She extended her thanks to the community.

“Thank you to this community that just supported us from day one as soon as we walked in the door,” Easler said. “We knew that we made some little changes and made it our own, so we got past that transition, and the local businesses here, the individuals who work in town hall, just everyone has been phenomenal. The folks at the chamber of commerce, the folks at Summerville DREAM. We are so grateful for these neighbors here because they really have carried us through.”

SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (WCSC) - The Town of Summerville is considering annexation and rezoning a section of land to support a potential townhome development.

The town’s planning commission is meeting on Monday for a public hearing and to vote on a request from the landowner and developer to annex and rezone a property, which is currently part of Dorchester County and zoned for single-family residential use.

This nearly five-acre property is located off Bacons Bridge Road at Crestwood Drive.

If the town moves forward with the request, the annexation would bring the property under the Town of Summerville’s jurisdiction and rezone it for multi-family residential use, allowing for more housing units to be built.

Town officials say that about an acre of the property is wetlands, so only about four acres of the property is developable land.

The Town of Summerville’s Director of Planning, Jessi Shuler, says that the development is still in its early stages, but current plans suggest it will include 20 to 30 townhomes.

“It can vary depending on meeting our other requirements because we do have obviously stormwater requirements and parks and open space requirements that they will have to meet. Then they will have to build a road and so it just kind of varies as to how many they will actually be able to fit, but right now it looks like it will be somewhere between 20 and 30 units,” Shuler says.

She says the development plans so far have gone to the town’s technical review committee, but they haven’t submitted their plans yet to the design review board which is the next step.

Shuler says that the landowner and applicant haven’t discussed their reasons as to why they are seeking annexation into the town rather than remaining in Dorchester County.

Summerville resident and Board Member of the Bike and Walk Summerville, a nonprofit 501(c)3, Chris McClure, says he sees this potential development as a positive opportunity for his community.

“The lack of housing is very apparent to anybody who pays rent within the local area. I recently was looking for an apartment and there was nothing that I could find that was under thirteen or fourteen hundred,” McClure says. “The fact of the matter is we do need to build more housing. People want to live here, they’re going to find a way to live here even if it’s like renting for a little bit then finding a unit.”

This property is located near the Sawmill Branch Trail and McClure says the development could help create a more connected community, providing more opportunities to bike and walk the trail.

“When we don’t allow townhouses and apartments to be in the walking, biking, downtown kind of connected areas what ends up happening is that we push them out and we push them farther. We push them in areas where there are two-lane roads and ditches on the sides and guess what happens? Well, they have to have jobs, they have to work, they have to live in Summerville still and now 100 percent of those people are now dependent on a vehicle for all of their trips,” McClure says.

Shuler says whether the planning commission denies or approves the annexation and zoning request at Monday’s meeting the proposal will still move forward to the planning and development committee of council in April. That committee will then make a recommendation to the town council who will have final approval.

The planning commission ended up recommending that this request be denied.

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