Episode 003:
Experience Matters with Eric Newton: Leading Clemson with Mayor Robert Halfacre – 003

Welcome to Experience Matters with Eric Newton. I’m Eric Newton and this is Mayor Robert Halfacre. We’re glad to have you on the podcast with us. It’s great to be here. Yeah. Appreciate you. we know you’re, we know you’re a busy man. No, not a lot. You got a lot going on. So no, I really do. I really do appreciate you, joining me on this, this, this podcast. It means a lot. So we’ll just, we’ll just dive right in. I just, I know, I know you’ve got limited amount of time. So I’ll be respectful of that. And we’ll just, we’ll just chat. I kind of wanted to just, uh, spend the first part of the podcast, just, uh, getting to know you a little bit. I mean, obviously I know you, um, you’re a native. You’re you grew up here just like me. He went to Daniel high school and I think you went, didn’t you graduate ‘90, 1990? Yeah. That’s impressive. Yeah. So you’re, you’re you’re a lot older than me. Thank you for doing that in front of your daughter too. I appreciate that. No. So, um, I think you were in school with, with, uh, Laura, right? Where are you in school? Yeah. We’re the same class. Yeah. You’re saying class or in a couple of years, uh, behind my brother, Mike. Yep. I think let’s say Mike graduated in ‘88. Okay. Two years. Yeah. So, but point is you’re, you’re, you’re a native.

Yep. And it’s cool that that we have a mayor of, of our town. That’s that’s a local guy. So I know you’ve been here almost 50 years. Yeah. I mean, I know you went away for, you went to Georgia. don’t say that too much. I did go away. For my education. Yeah. And you, you and I share something in common with our majors. I was a finance major and you were a finance major. That’s right. But it was, I think it was a BA at Georgia and it’s a BS here. Yeah. So, but, um, did you have a concentration area? No, was finance. So, and fortunately I went straight into banking right after college. So it worked out well. Actually I was during college, I was working for a bank. So I started really early. So I was like, you’d say you worked like literally during the summers, you wouldn’t call it truly an internship because basically I was, I was working within the bank and I just applied and it worked out, but for four different summers before I started, I actually started on the teller line within the banking industry. And you talk about learning everything in the banking industry. That’s the way to do it. Cause you’ve learned about everything on the teller line. So it was a great experience. I always thought it would be fun to be a teller. Yeah. I mean, one of the hardest workers within, and also you see every customer that comes in. So the face of the bank. So it’s great. What, what bank was that?

So this will show my age. was South Carolina national and then became Wachovia. Okay. So yeah. And then it became Wells Fargo. And was that at the downtown branch or was it the one… I did did the one on 123 right there in Clemson and then also were downtown as well. So I got to go back and forth. So, I mean, you’ve been, you really have been in the banking industry pretty much your entire adult life for banks over 30 years. between Wells Fargo, First Citizens, BB&T which became truest and then very thankful the last eight years with park national, was Carolina Alliance before that. So to park national, like is that in Easley, right? Isit in Easley? So our base location here is easily, but I cover commercial for a Oconee, Pickens County, a little bit of Greenville, a little bit of Anderson. So kind of all over the place. where, where’s your office? The base office is an easily for me. That’s where you then, and then our base office as a, as a corporation bank is in Ohio so.

And you’re doing primarily commercial lending. It’s pretty much what I do every day. What’s, what kind of loans, what kind of loans are you doing these days? you name it. Just helping a lot of businesses. I love it, you know, and same businesses I’ve been working with for almost 20 years. So it’s really a great experience. I’ve seen them grow thrive. It’s been, it’s been perfect. So it’s been a good situation. So do you, but do you, are you doing like, lending on, buildings?

Okay. Yeah. I could have a little more specific. Sorry. I’m doing lending on, yeah. Finance and a purchase of a building and financing their equipment needs. They’re working capital needs. You name it, whatever a business owner needs. And so, and that’s where I’m talking about what’s really cool is little, I’ve been working with the same businesses for 20 plus years. And so I’ve seen them when they first started basically, and that growth more than people probably want to know on a business cycle, but the growth and then now they’re that mature type of growth business cycle, which is really cool. Do you, do you work with any businesses that have inventory that you have to finance the purchase of the inventory? Yep, yep. That’s pretty, that’s pretty cool. I, that’s, I don’t know a whole lot about that. So I’m kind of, I’m always fascinated about other businesses. I’ve been, you know, I’ve been in real estate and development my whole life. So it’s just help a lot of real estate agents. Yeah. So, so how did your your, uh, finance degree, obvious. mean, it’s, I mean, this is going to sound like an obvious question, but, um, how did your finance degree, um, help you with what you’re doing now? In what capacity and yet like serving as mayor or serving as no, I’m the banking. I’ll get the mayor thing in a minute. And I’m because I could tell you that one too. Uh, so from the banking side…

Now finance degree obviously started at an early age, but really in banking, you really learn as you go. When I say that experiences with working with clients, establishing that credibility with clients. And then thankfully, like I said, just been working with the same clients and they know who I am and I know who they are. I know a lot about their families. I know about a lot about my family, which is really cool. And so we’ve all been part of it for the last 20, 30 years. So other than my time when I moved down to the coast for about five years, that was the only time that I kind of went away for little bit and then came back. But thankfully came back to the upstate. Where were you in Beaufort? So I covered Beaufort County. And so when I say covered, it was a de novo type situation startup for First Citizens. And so it was responsible for the commercial retail side. and it was, it was the best of times and the worst of times, cause I went down there when everything was thriving, everything was great. And then the recession. So I learned a lot from that experience.

Yeah. So did many other employees and so did many other, community members. So we got through it. So do you have any good war stories, banking war stories? There’s a few, but you know, without going in specifics, cause next thing I know, someone might put two and two together. They might say, yeah, they might say, know that client, but, know, thankfully, you know, like I said, we all work through it. It was just part of learning. That was the first time in banking that I ever experienced really downtime. Right. And so now, you know, it helps for the future and not only future present when I work with a client.

Yeah, the recession was a crazy period. I learned a lot. I tell people all the time, you know, what I went through was rough. I mean, it was really rough and I basically had to regroup and rebrand and re you know, I basically started over. Um, now I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything because it was, I mean, it was, uh, I learned so much, but I wouldn’t want to go through it again.

I can say the same thing. You learn a lot. You, you take those experiences, down the road and you know, you put them into play. yeah, I don’t think I said that very well. How, you know, when did you know that… I mean, obviously you went away to Georgia, came back. mean, when did you know that you wanted to, build your life here and raise your family here? Did you, was it, was it ever a question that you wouldn’t or never a question always wanted to be here.

Thankfully I met my wife in banking. And so, she had just for everybody’s knowledge, she never lived in one place very long, more than three to four years. Her dad was military. Thank you for his service. Um, and he, know, they moved around a lot. And so when we actually met and she stayed here, this is the longest she’s ever stayed somewhere. Oh, nice. 20 plus years later, we’ve been married for 23 years. So two kids, two kids once I’m going to cringe a little, uh. Both were fortunate enough to get in Clemson. Both decided to go off. I understand, you know, they wanted to get away. Blake’s currently, well, he went to, our son, went to Western Carolina. I say this, he did have a little too much fun. But he came back home and, he’s actually out in Colorado now working at a golf course, living with my brother-in-law and his family, which is a great experience for him to be able to do that.

And then our daughter is uh, finished her first year at Auburn. she’s another tiger, but a different tiger, but it’s okay. We’re very fortunate. She had a great experience. She did very well academically. So we’re proud of her. Yeah. of our son as well. Well, I bet that’s hard. She went to Auburn being a Georgia grad. I’ll let you know, Eric, my wife’s already converted to Auburn. She doesn’t even care about Georgia anymore. Do you have any Auburn? I do. And I’ve already been criticized for my friends from Georgia. Just so you know, for wearing Auburn gear, but I’m like, this tuition dollars are going towards Auburn. So I’m going to support that school. I’ll leave it at that. So, also she’s had a great experience and for it, for the record, everybody should know this. Obviously when Georgia and Clemson plays, say it all the time. I will never cheer against Clemson. Always Clemson. When I went up to when Clemson played Georgia and in Charlotte, obviously it was supporting Clemson all the way didn’t have the result that I wanted in Georgia won, but anyway, just to make sure we clearly communicate. Okay. Well, that’s good. That’s good to know. We’d know where your allegiances are. No, you know, growing up here, mean, I’m, I love this area. I’m very, we’re very fortunate. Well, you know, it’s funny because I mean, there are a lot of folks like that that grew up, went to Daniel or grew up in the area. They just wanted to get away. And, but they, their allegiances have always been with Clemson.

I mean, you know, and I mean, I’ve had lots of friends that went to other schools and, know, but they pulled for Clemson over the school they went to, you know? So, I mean, that’s, that’s pretty cool. It tells you how it a little bit about how, special, you know, this town is and everything. I mean, the town and, that Clemson University is, and so I’ve always thought that was, that was, that was pretty cool.

So, so to tell now let’s talk about your mayoral duties. So you’ve been mayor since I think you got elected in 2018 and you started in 2019, is that right? So I’ve been on city council almost six years, been mayor almost four years, three and a half years to be exact. Up for reelection, not technically in November. Okay. For your term. Okay. So you’re going to run again? I am. Oh, good. I am, so. Good.

So how, how did your, how’s your banking career helped you with your mayoral duties? So, yeah. So first of all, the bank’s been very supportive. I wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t for the bank being supportive because I always tell people too, I, I love giving back, love being in the role and trying to help others. But if the bank didn’t support it because the bank takes care of my family financially, that job is the one that literally takes care of, I keep on saying it takes care of my family. Right. But going into the role itself, from the financial side, you know, being mayor, it helps you a lot from the fiscal being responsible. Cause one of, one of my things coming in was like, you know, let’s make sure we’re sound financially as a city. You know, obviously I think, you know, you know, it’s something maybe people don’t want to talk about anymore, but, we first started when I was in the role.

We had COVID which was a tough time for all to balance that, know, keep people safe, but obviously, you know, allow businesses to still, you know, survive. I always would say survive now they’re thriving, which is great. You know, three or four years later, maybe say two or three years later, but that was, you know, that I think the banking aspect helped me with that just to kind of say, okay, we can get through this. We just got to be fiscally responsible. Now coming in off of COVID much better, but then we’ve had other challenges too. I don’t know if a lot of people know this and Eric, you probably know this, but even when we started on city or I shouldn’t say when we started on city council, when I started in the role as mayor, we had six or seven department heads within six months, either retire, leave, basically those were the two reasons. and so there was a lot of transition within the city.

Yeah, I didn’t think about it that way, you’re right. I think actually we had seven department heads. And so, know, people kind of forget that and It was a tough time. I say tough time, we knew we were going to get through it, but the banking helps me because I’ve seen a lot of challenges with clients and they’ve gotten through it. We’ve worked together and that’s all part of it. And that’s the same thing with the city. We got through it. Andy Blondo has done a great job, hired Aligan also as deputy administrator. I like both of them. They both done a great job leading the team. But it’s been quite a, you know, if you quantify it from a municipality having six or seven, that’s a lot for a municipality that lose that many department-

And I say lose. I mean, I’m very thankful, you know, half of them retired great for them. Great for their families. I’m happy for them, but obviously it was a loss for us. But fortunately, a lot of the department heads, there was a lot of succession aspects going into play. A lot of them were hired within the departments. We did have some external hires. You know, obviously we had a new chief that came in. He’s done a great job, um, had a lot of experience from Gainesville, Florida. So he’s done a tremendous job.

We had a new planning director that came in from outside. He’s done a great job. So we’ve been fortunate and I can just, I could keep going. We’ve been very blessed. Yeah. Well, and that’s an important thing, I think for people to understand and maybe, some of us tend to forget times that y’all are pretty much volunteers. I mean, yeah. And you… I would say that. Yeah. I mean, yeah, let’s face it. You’re, you’re volunteering your time.

I mean, I was on planning commission for a little while and there’s a lot of time and effort that you put into it. And I mean, there’s, there’s, you know, you don’t get a whole lot of, reward other than, I mean, as far as other than just, you know, you’re doing something good for the community. And, you know, some people may not always see it that way, but you know, I, I certainly have a whole, high level of respect for those individuals that are willing to subject themselves to a lot of the scrutiny and everything that goes along with those roles.

And so, you know, it’s hard to make everybody happy. You know, I think people tend to forget that y’all are volunteering your time and it’s a really critical part of our process in our country. And it’s a very important part of our process. And if there weren’t people like you, they’re willing to do it. I mean, I don’t know where things would be. And so I’m always very, I try to be very respectful, you know, of, of those individuals that, that do volunteer their time. I mean, cause I mean, you’re, I mean, probably how many hours you think you spend a week? I don’t, I don’t ever, I don’t want to ever quantify it because it might stress me out too much. I’ll leave it that. Yeah. I so, you know, I, I certainly appreciate what y’all do. And so, um. But I will go and I’m going to add, you know, what you just said. Yeah. I mean, if you’re doing it for the right reason, you’re giving back. You say when you served on planning commission, we greatly appreciate every volunteer within every committee we have. We realize people are literally just giving back, but they have other jobs. And most importantly, I always give the prioritization God and family first. Always. I always say that to everybody because I believe it. I live it. Um, if you do that, but you know, people are willing to volunteer the time.

We greatly appreciate it. And you say we’re volunteering or we are, but I consider it having basically another full-time job. Well, yeah, you have two full-time jobs and it’s great that the bank is gives you that flexibility because they are, they are the ones that are, you know, that’s how you earn your, your, income. And, so it’s great that they’re allowing you to do that. And I mean, and I see you around everywhere. I mean, I don’t know how you do it. You, you, go, you’re at just about every event.

That is, that is, that is out there. I mean, where are you at the downtown event last night? yeah. Ella said she saw you. Yeah. So, did you see me? I was setting up tables. That’s what I was doing. Yeah. So the mayor was cleaning up that gets even better. Yeah. So last night was a prime example. we’re all trying to get back, but we all set up. We’re very fortunate. have four public works employees that help us out. And I say, help us out. They do a lot of the hard lifting and labor, we set up the tables. Yeah. And then we break them down. But actually after we set up, I left because we had a Pickens County municipal association meeting in Norris. And so, we meet once a month. We’ll, we’ll take a break during the summer, but it’s a great opportunity for municipality employees, not only just elected, but from an administrative get together, just talk about common, common areas, things that we can help each other within the whole County. And so we meet, but, this year I’m cheering it.

So I could not, not be there, I guess I should say. but it worked out well. left, we ran a meeting and then we came back or I came back. should say, should say, wait, so yeah. And it was actually a place for my daughter. I don’t know if you’ve been out to the tumbling out there. Did you ever tumble? Okay. It’s Norris used to have, the high power elite used to be out there. So I used to take my daughter out there years to go out to the Norris community center. So brought back some good memories too last night. Yeah. That’s great. so I know there’s been a lot going on in the town. is there anything, well, before we get into what, you know, stuff like it’s been going on recently, tell us like what’s been your most rewarding experience as, as, as being the mayor.

So far, so mine is just seeing how things have now started to come to fruition. And when I say that there’s been a lot of planning. Um, sometimes you don’t always see it, you know, but I think the city councils work very hard as well as previous city councils. Um, but I always tell people we’re not doing the work as the city employees. So, you know, we may have the, some of the vision, we may have some of the, we’re, we’re getting a lot of the engagement for the community and we’re going to obviously take that and and try to put that into, you know, down the road in some capacity with essay that is like seeing Clemson park finally start to evolve where it’s a little more. If you don’t know about Clemson park, there’s a, there’s just, there’s literally there’s different stages and we have to do it in stages because financially we want to make sure we do it right. But we also want to make sure we save and, and, and put the things in place, but just the future there. When you think about it, when, know, we already have the pump track. If you haven’t been out there, please go out there.

But it’s for all ages and I say all ages, I’ve seen all ages use the pump track, but then we’re going to have skate park. The plan is also have a splash pad. Those things are going to evolve. So that’s just one of many areas. But again, that’s a lot of employees working together. You know, yes, we’re, helping from city council’s perspective, but it’s a lot of community engagement to tell, you know, mentioning here’s what we like to see. And I think we’re covering more of the ages. I don’t know about you, but I felt like there was a gap.

I mean, I felt, I felt like there’s a lot of things to do in Clemson. If you’re very young, but then once you’re a teenager, it’s a little more difficult, right? But if we can create more of that environment and it doesn’t all have to be sports related, but it does create getting outside. I’m very good on that. So trails, pump tracks, skate parks, splash pad, you name it. Expanding nettles, pickleball courts, you name it. All that’s coming and we’re excited about all that. So the difficulty for me is I’m not as patient as some people.

Um, I wish I had a little, no, I tried, I’m getting better, but a lot of these things have been planned for like two or three years. So to answer your question, that’s the long answer. That’s the most gratifying seat at all come to fruition after years of planning years of input and putting it all in place. Yeah. Yeah. Because it takes time to get some of these. mean, I’ve been on the green Crescent board for a really long time. Um, when it first started and plus years. Yeah.

And so just now seeing a lot of those projects start to come to fruition has been awesome. I mean, we knew it was going to be a marathon, not a sprint, but, I’m like you, I’m, I’m, I get a little impatient too, but it just takes time. You have to get the funding and there’s a process. so, yeah, I mean, it is really cool. I’ve seen how you’ve made that, a big priority over the years. And that’s very, very appreciative. Appreciate all you’ve done for the green Crescent trail as well. I mean, that’s a prime example; have phase one actually have a walking trail and then it’s great. You know this Eric, you’re on the board. Um, just partner with Clemson University too, to have that extension through gateway to perimeter. That’s going to be huge. Yeah. We just hope more people start to use it. So, uh, I commend, uh, Carrie, who actually led a group last Thursday night, we all walked it. Um, there was probably, I don’t know, 20, 25 people out there, but the more people we can get out there. And we started at Clemson park, went over to the backside of gateway park and then right. Yeah. And you said something a minute ago that I wanted to touch on too, just about the, the employees, you know, that work for the city. mean, yes. And they, you know, they do, they do a lot and they’re, mean, they, you know, it’s, it’s a thankless job as well. So, and that’s something that I noticed for my days being on planning commission. And of course, you know, you know, doing what I do, I have to have to work with a lot of those individuals a lot. I know, I know they, catch a lot of grief for a lot of things that they, you know, they’re, they’re bound by the ordinances and the rules and they have to enforce. so it’s a tough job. And so I felt like I needed to also reiterate that as well, that, that you’re, know, they’re the ones executing what, you know, what y’all are putting into place from an ordinance standpoint. it’s, it’s a really, yeah, no. I’ve-

I’m very respectful of that too. You know, sometimes I, know, you know, over the years I’ve may have butted heads with someone, but I’ve always tried to be very respectful, you know, of them. And, I do appreciate what they do and what they’re, what they’re, what they’re faced with, every day. So, especially with a lot of the stuff that’s going on, you know, such, which is a perfect segue into, so, tell us a little bit about what, what, what you’ve been working on, some of the, I know.

I mean, y’all, y’all have a lot of things that come across your plate, but tell us some of the, some of the things that maybe people don’t, don’t get as much publicity and then, and then let’s the, the, the giant elephant in the room, like what asked away. Yeah. I, I, well, first of all, I’ll tell you that, know, right now it’s obviously the budget time, you know, planning for the future, making sure we’re fiscally and that’s where the banker comes into play a little bit from my experience, not that I know all, I don’t, but can help with that. Leslie’s done a great job, our finance director, putting it all together with her whole team. So first reading will be this Monday night for the budget. also have a public hearing before that. So that’s the most important that’s coming up. What’s also been really cool in the last couple of months and actually the last couple of years was just recognizing so many, I’m gonna keep on saying so many state champions, achievements from local, from our youth. It’s phenomenal.

We don’t take it for granted. Someone said the other day, y’all keep on recognizing state champions. I we’ll do it as long as I mean, because it’s not always going to be here. Yeah, it’s a big deal. We’re not, you know, we’re not taking this lightly and we’re very fortunate. We’ll recognize Monday night. some of the track, champions, which will be great. they’ve done a great job this way. And you know, this is the spring aspect. of course, you know, we’ve had many other from, but it’s not just sports. There was a chest team that.

Got state championship, band phenomenal for years. So keep that mind. That’s where, that’s where you asked what’s been most gratified. It’s just really not that reckon, you know, I think, I think it’s great that we recognize them and I, I’m so glad we do it, but it’s just seeing their achievements. I’m just happy for them and their families. Cause there’s a lot of energy and effort that goes into that. And so we know that. And so it’s really cool. Yeah. It’s, it’s, you know, I don’t know if you remember, but my youngest daughter, Davis’, 12U girls, um, all-star team won the state championship and the way we went about, know, we’re, we’re a, we’re combined with city of Central and Clemson. it’s a combined city and we were playing counties. mean, we were, they were bringing the best girls to their teams from those entire counties. And we won the, the entire state. I mean, we won the state championship. It was a big deal.

It’s a huge deal. I mean, we beat Richland County. that huge County, if you think about the population of that County compared to what, you know, what we have here, and we beat that huge County in state championship and which, by the way, we, I don’t know if you know the story behind it, but so we, we won our, district, I guess it was an easily, and we had to beat a really good.

Mauldin team and a really good Seneca team who won last year, state at age group one last year, we won, we beat Malden. They’re always like a perennial powerhouse, girls basketball. And then we beat Lawrence in the final, to go to the state championship. And then we played, we played, let’s see, Beaufort County beat them and then lost to Richland County as a double elimination tournament. Shouldn’t have lost the game. And then, had to turn around and play. Uh, no, it wasn’t Myrtle beach. think it was Myrtle beach. played Myrtle beach. I think we think it was Myrtle beach. We played the first game and then beat them the second game. And then, um, and I had to play Richardson county and beat them twice the next day to win the state. And we beat them. We beat them twice to win the state. So it’s pretty incredible. And it’s incredible to see the amount of state championships that, that our schools put out, you know, I mean, you know, I mean, with the football, the soccer and, uh, you know, every, every sport is amazing year after year. And then the, the academic achievements, I it’s not freaking about that. You know, um, know, Clemson central six mile elementary all feed into Edwards and, and Daniel. I mean, the, the, uh, the, academic aspect of things is incredible. You know, we put on a lot of smart, smart kids that go on and do great things. so they’re much smarter than.

Yeah. Yeah, me too. Me too. But going back, I mean, to your point, I mean, that’s so impressive. congratulations again, you’ll actually be in the community connection. I’m not supposed to say too much about the community connection that comes out because it’s to be a surprise when it comes out, but in about a week and a half, it’s, maybe about a week it’s coming out, but there’ll be a nice picture of y’all and the team recognition it’s in there. So I think it’s great. so my girls, so I’m coaching that basically that same team I’m coaching it’s an, team. we, we do most of our practices over at the rec center. but almost every single practice, they’re like, when are we getting our banner? When are we getting our banner? I said, it’s coming. It’s coming. That’s the most important. Yeah. They want their, they want their, they want the banner. I said, it’s coming. It’ll be, can do back to back. Yeah. Well, soccer’s done free time. So, know, well,

Unfortunately, they’re cycling these girls. cycling. gonna go to people. They’ll go to Edwards and get it. So they’re gonna be this group girls gonna be there. They’re, they’re special. But yeah, so that’s that all that stuff’s cool. I’m glad you do that too. That’s, that’s a really neat thing that you do. I see you recognize, lots of different people and groups quite often. And I think that does a lot of different things. One, it recognizes people for their hard work, these kids for their hard work and the volunteers, coaches that coach them, because they are volunteering their time too. But it also highlights how wonderful our programs are. it also…

you know, kind of lightens things up in those meetings. Those meetings can tend to get, you know, there’s a lot of times there’s controversial topics and, and we all have to remember. I agree with you, God and family first. you know, what’s the point of all this is to create a, you know, quality of life for everybody. mean, and, and, so, you know, I don’t think that anybody on, on in any of those,

you know, on the council or planning committee, any of those groups, I don’t think they, they, they want people to have miserable existences. think the goal is just to make things better. And there may be differing opinions on how, you know, how that, how that happens. and that’s generally where the rub is, but you know, you, you have to make a lot of people or try to make a lot of people happy. And you’re basically trying to enhance quality of life or the residents of the area.

And the impact that, that your decisions you have, you know, are big. So, absolutely. And I’ll just say, you know, I’ll add to that. mean, really you got, mean, everybody that’s serving in all these roles, city council, community, city employees, you name it, community members. We’re all, we’re all in this together. and you’ll notice every time when in the community connection, it’s a very positive message that I want to share. It’s not that we’re.

Ignoring the challenges. There are lots of challenges too. and we’ll keep on saying, we’ll talk about it. You know, I’m here to talk about whatever, because we are in a very tough situation. I mean, we’re less than 10 square miles. I’ll go ahead and start talking about it. It’s very tough to balance growth in a desirable area. There are a lot of people that want to be here. and you know, when you’re in less than 10 square miles and you try to compare us to other large university communities and I say,

Obviously, Clemson University is very large, we also have two other great institutions, Southern Westland, Tri-County, we’re very fortunate. But when you have those challenges, especially, and I’ll specifically talk about Clemson University, they’re going to challenge the city. And when I say challenge it, it’s like we all have to try to balance it to the best of our ability. And I’ll keep on emphasizing less than 10 square miles is very difficult. Because if you try to compare us to, I’ll throw out Auburn.

They’re, think, 60 square miles. And they’re also the same municipality. A lot of people probably don’t know that the city of Auburn is actually, well, I should say Auburn University is part of the city of Auburn. And when I say that, it doesn’t, I think it makes it a little bit easier. Clemson University is a separate municipality. Obviously the city of Clemson is a separate municipality. This doesn’t mean we’re not working together. There’s a lot of collaborative efforts. We highlighted that at the state of Clemson.

You know, when the president spoke, when I got a chance to speak, you know, there’s been a lot of things going on for 20 years, great partnerships in certain areas. And we weren’t just saying, okay, that’s all the great areas. You also need to talk about the challenges and growth is one of them. Traffic’s one of them. And how do you balance all that? So, right. Ask away questions now, now that I teed it up for you. I mean, obviously the university is continuing to grow enrollment. You know, I think the the stats that I see, you know, published annually, there somewhere between six and 800 students a year. Yeah. 2%. So, I mean, and there’s no real end in sight for that. Um, you know, that’s six to 800 students. That’s, that’s pretty significant. Um, um, great, you know, obviously got a higher faculty. Um, it, appears that, that the university is more focused on academic buildings and, um, sports facilities, which you know is really cool. You got to be able to, I don’t know, I’ve never had the conversations with the powers that be about it, you probably have, but imagine that you you got to have the buildings to support the students first, you know, and they’ve sort of allowed the private sector to handle the housing in the community.

I know that’s that’s a source, a source subject for a lot of folks in the area. you know, I will say that university, if it weren’t here, we wouldn’t be here. I think this is, I mean, obviously you and I both grew up here. We, we love this town for a lot of reasons. And one of the many reasons is because of the college, you know, and I’m, I’m, you know, I love it and want to be here for many reasons, you know, but I love the fact that it’s a college town, but…

Can I add to that? Yeah. Yeah. And then so to bring it up and maybe a lot of people don’t know my dad’s been at Clemson university for over 50 years. Yeah. Uh, he’s still working for Clemson university. Um, you know, it’s really cool, but to your point, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for my dad and making that transfer from NC state to here in 1974. And so I’m so thankful he did. I didn’t have a choice. I was two years old. So I just, um, I’m very thankful it all worked out, but to your point, we wouldn’t be here. Right.

Um, know, fun fact, he taught me my first class at Clemson. Yep. Okay. He sure did. All right. Uh, my very first pretty laid back dude. I don’t know if you figure that out. He’s pretty laid back. He’s laid back. I, you know, the role he’s in now, right? No, I didn’t. All right. So for the last 20 years, he’s been the Omb Spudsman. He handles the grievances between faculty and staff. I didn’t know that. That’s a, I can’t even imagine that room. Um, and I can’t talk to them.

I mean, we have a close relationship, but I can’t even talk to him, obviously, from a confidentiality aspect. But it takes a certain type of personality to do that role. And so he’s done, I think he’s done a pretty good job from what I’ve gathered. but anyway, that’s he’s doing now. He’s not teaching per se anymore because he was teaching, I know he was teaching horticulture, landscape architecture. He was also teaching introductory, like when freshmen came in, he was helping with the- those classes as well. Which yeah, that was the one that summer session. Yeah. Basically preparing you for college. Is that the one? Okay. Well, I want to say it was a, some kind of horticulture. so they’ve took them out. Yeah. But it was a, it was a, obviously a freshman level class, but it was the very first class I Okay. And so I just, I, they didn’t have summer start when I was there, but I, I just chose to start early. Cause I just wanted to get, yeah.

And then I had him for one of my classes. yeah. So, so that’s cool. But yeah. So, but you know, I think you know, we do have limitations and, and, you know, land area. know, I know the annexation is something that maybe is on your radar or is that, is that something that you y’all are focused on or are you more focused on? I know you are so busy with everything else, but are y’all, are y’all

Have y’all identified certain areas that you’d like to annex into the city? So I’ll answer that question. There’s not a lot of places that you can grow because if you think about it, think about, can’t grow towards Oconee County across the bridge. That’s pretty much not an option. a little bit, maybe towards Pendleton, you know, so said a little bit, but it’s a good partnership with the town of Pendleton, obviously. And you know how annexation works. It’s the property owner coming to us. We’re not actively.

going out. But we do know we need to grow in some capacity. We want to make sure we grow in the right way. We want to make sure it supports. It’s the right decision. So we’ve actually I’ll give credit to this existing council. They’ve done a really good job literally vetting out annexation, working with the municipal municipality association of South Carolina to literally have a formula of where it makes sense, make sure it makes sense for the property owner to come in. It makes sense for the city. So

ENE Group (38:40.43)

But there’s not many places to grow for the city of Glomson. If you think about it, obviously down 123 possibly towards a little bit towards Pendleton. You know, a lot of people, I don’t think they’ve lost sight of it because it’s not happened yet, but it’s getting ready to happen. Think about the vet school on 76. That’s going to be a huge impact. Not only it’s a great impact from economic developments on, know, you’ll have lots of students, I think almost a hundred the first year when it starts in 27 of them doing, I think it’s right. You’re 26. I think it’s 27.

But think about all the different families that will be coming in and supporting the school. That area will change drastically. you know, how do you start it’s a partnership with the town of Pendleton Anderson County and the city of Clemson. So keep that in mind. So that’s where I see growth. But there’s not a lot of areas for Clemson to grow. So what type of growth? Why? I guess you could say, right. What type of growth would you prefer to see? And so I think

You know, I’ll give a little bit of history. know, we did, there was a moratorium that was put in place for high density growth, over 200 units, 200 beds, I should say specifically. And I think that helped because we got the Clemson next and for anybody listening, please look at Clemson next.com. It’s 80 plus pages, but it talks about really planning for the future. And we got outside consultant to come in to work with us, to engage the whole community.

and put a plan in place of how do you protect neighborhoods? How do you also balance the growth? We know it’s coming. We know there’s a demand on our planning department. Ultimately goes to planning commission. Also goes to city council. And really what we focused on is catalyst areas within the city where high density is appropriate in specific areas, but still protects neighborhoods because it’s not, you know, it’s already established areas that we feel like it’s very good, especially if it’s going to be.

for student housing per se, the, cause it’s walkable to campus. You know, you, it should eliminate, you know, as I said, it should eliminate cars on a daily basis, but they’re still going to, people are still gonna use their cars. I don’t, you know, I’ve heard some comments like, yeah, cars are not part for the whole week. you’re still going to go out and run errands. We get it. mean, but if you can create an environment where it’s more walkable, more bikeable, and you know, they’re close to campus.

ENE Group (41:04.172)

the tendency is they’re not going to take the cars out because it’s trouble to go parking on campus and things like that. So the Clemson X is a pretty good, I mean, I think it’s been really good. It’s a guideline. We always tell people it’s a guideline that it shows areas within the city that could potentially work with more high density, but also balances to make sure, mean, you know, like myself, I live downtown, you know, I know that we all want to, you know, it’s not just about

not about me per se, what I’m saying is it’s more of just, we want to protect also what we have within our neighborhoods. And you can do those things if you, if you work with the developers and you work with the companies and I say companies, know, individuals on different, different projects. so, but I can, I will reiterate and I’ll say this and I know people have heard this many times. I feel like after you do your homework and after you do everything, as long as you do what’s best for the whole community.

feel like you’ve done what you’re supposed to do and you’ve done the right thing and sleep at night. Right. So what would you say to someone that says that unless let’s set housing aside for a minute because housing team tends to be like the most controversial. you know, you hear a lot about affordability, affordable housing. you hear about a lot about student housing and you hear,

You know, you hear mostly about those two things. mean, it’s, it’s affordable housing and stuff period, um, anywhere. I mean, it’s talked about across the entire country. Um, but what about, what do you, what do you, what would you say to someone that says that, that Clemson is not a business friendly town?

So I think that’s where some of my banking comes into play, because obviously I work with a lot of businesses. And then how can we change if it’s not business friendly? What are the specific reasons why we’re not business friendly? Because obviously we’re very thankful for those businesses that operate in the city. We also want to help. That’s why we do that. Those downtown events that we started doing, that we just referred back to earlier, that was all part of it. Bringing the community back together, but also supporting the businesses. Now, you know,

Some we got the feedback, you know, why are you just doing it downtown? That’s why we also went out to Patrick Square and tried to expand it out because we want to support all businesses. But to your point, you know, I always look at it. If somebody says we’re not business friendly, you want to kind of peel that onion back a little bit more and ask why? Why? Why does someone think we’re not business? How can we improve? I feel like we have a very good team that does a good job within our business licensing. But, you know, everybody can always improve.

And so we want businesses to come in. We’re very thankful for those businesses that come in. And you talk about being it. love going to ribbon cutting with a new business, but even existing business, very thankful if they change certain things, it doesn’t, it’s not about the ribbon cuttings. It’s about, know, how do we support them? Not only personally, you know, patronizing them, but you know, talking them up. So we’ve been fortunate with a lot of different businesses coming in. Yeah. And I mean, for me, it’s always, you know, obviously

you know, living here and I’ve, you know, never understood why, companies or individuals don’t start their businesses here, you know, and, and, you know, you hear, you know, a lot of college towns are kind of like hot beds for startups. And, and I just, you know, when I really thought about it, I’m like, why, why is it that, you know, these smart people that come out of

this university just don’t choose to stay here and start their businesses. And, and I mean, there may be, there may be a lot of reasons, but one, one of the reasons that I, that I found in just my polling people is the space. mean, literally the space there’s, there’s no, there’s nowhere I’ve had people approach me about, you know, wet lab space, dry lab space, or there there’s no, there aren’t buildings that are big enough to accommodate. mean, we, we, we, you know,

lot of the business you’re probably referring to, like the ones downtown are, are let’s face it, their restaurants, bars, t-shirt shops. they’re not, and those are great. I love those kinds of businesses. but we don’t really have a whole lot of businesses outside of those. You know, you got your insurance agents, real estate companies, got, you know, doctors offices and things like that.

so that’s why that was kind of the idea. I mean, I, I know you’re probably familiar with my think tank spaces. Those were, those were developed, you know, to, help offer up space at a, a really good rate to individuals that are starting businesses who, you know, don’t may not have the capital to go, go rent an entire. And, know, the city does require, you know, in those CP two districts and I think CP one require,

the commercial component on the ground floor. there’s a, there are a lot of spaces that are vacant because of that requirement. Some of those are starting to fill up, which is great, but they’re filling up with, high volume, you know, retail or restaurant type businesses, a startup company, somebody that comes up with a you know, good idea. They can’t go pay.

you know, $28, $30 a square foot for, you know, 3000 square foot space. so we, yeah. So we, that’s, that was the idea behind the think tank is, you know, we have these offices and they have shared, you know, conference room amenities. We’ve had some pretty cool businesses that have come through. Um, and eventually they outgrow, they outgrow the space, you know, cause they need something bigger. Um, I mean, we had, we had a company called aptus that was

occupied one of our spaces and he was actually growing. And I might butcher this, but really cool guys to start. He was growing pig valves or doing pig valves or something, you know, for heart transplants. I mean, more, you know, more things like that. Tracking businesses like that. Like, are we doing anything? Are we doing anything from an economic development standpoint to

I know all our focus tends to be on pushing housing away, but like, we doing anything to try to attract those types of businesses to get them to want to come, you know, start their businesses here and hopefully grow those businesses here and stay here, you know? So I think it’s going to take time to your point. So, you know, downtown right now, you know, the university just did their incubator space.

But it’s really, they were at the think tank and then they moved over. just as an awesome space. know, but over time, I you know, there’s needs to be a collaborative effort. And I say needs to be, I mean, I look forward to that collaborative effort of creating that space and keeping people within the city. Like you said, so that could see that I’ve served on the tri County as the longest serve. mean, when I say this title is tri County and I’m getting, I’m not going to butcher it. may not get it.

There’s Tri County Entrepreneurial Development Corporation Board. And so literally the Tri County area, Oconee, Pickens, and of course Anderson technically, but it’s more focused actually in Oconee County. But I’ve certainly that board Tri County Tech representatives, it’s been on there as well. But the county for Oconee County is literally given space to let startups start. We need those types of things. But to your point, where can you find the space at a reasonable price because

I’m getting my point because it’s so expensive. You can’t pay $25 per square foot. get it. So you have to try to create that, that space. And so those, that’s a challenge, but I look at it as there could be some opportunities and we didn’t talk about one of the projects that I’m, mean, we’ll, be partnering with them. Um, Kadera used to be Packlet Melkin have over 250. was getting there. Yeah. Okay. So you think about it, they’ll start doing their residential first.

And then over time, there’ll be opportunities in the commercial space and how can we partner with them? I believe Jennifer, who, you know, it’s a liaison and Jennifer Labria. Yeah. She, and she’s on the upstate Alliance board. And so she gets the economic impact. She understands like it’s right across from the vet school and what that’s going to do from impact, but just having those discussions and discussions only take it so far, but also talking about where can we all partner together and help, you know, that’s part of, you know, partner on the commercial side and their space there.

So that’s where, you know, those discussions, but that is going to take a little bit of time. It’s not going to happen just overnight, but let me go back to what like Oconee County is doing. And I say, okay, it’s really is a tri county area, but they specifically dedicate space. And that’s what it took. That’s what we need to do as well. Because once you get that dedicated space, you can have different businesses come in and they do a really good job giving them very affordable leases and let their businesses grow. then once they’ve grown to a level, they don’t kick them out.

but they basically say, okay, you’ve grown to a level, it’s time for you to invest back in your community and some other capacity and then, you know, let the next person come in here. And so I think it’s worth that. the Think O’Conny campaign. It’s a Think O’Conny, but it’s also part of, it’s an organization, Dave Eldridge has done a fabulous job leading that. And he was with the Commerce Department and he’s right there at the O’Conny Alliance space, right off of 123 and he’s done a fabulous job leading it. And there’ve been many.

people on the part of the board, but he’s been the leader and he’s done a great job and incorporating some of those things back to the city of Clemson, I think would be really helpful because we have run into, you said, know, what are the businesses that we need and there’s certain business I think we’re lacking. Now some will start contacting some of the businesses and we’ll say, you know, why aren’t you in the city of Clemson? They’ll say, well, demographics don’t support it. And then we’re like, okay, so what does it take?

define it a little bit more than other, just say it just doesn’t. I’m big on someone says no, kind of ask why and then find out and then go from there. So I think as we involve, evolve, I think it’ll be better on the commercial side. And I think more opportunities, Patrick Square has done a pretty good job about creating that environment for the residents throughout the city, think as well. I mean, there’s, different examples. Yeah. Well, what about, do you think they’re

could be other zoning designations that would better accommodate. Like let’s say that, I mean, how cool would it be if Clemson and then this, this really fits into the annexation because we do have land limitations, but how cool would it be if, Clemson itself had a research park? I mean, I we’ve got the one out there in Pendleton off one eight seven, but it’s in the County, but how cool would it be if you had a small, you know, you know, small

research park that and I don’t know is there a zoning designation in city that would accommodate it. I’m not aware of a specific one. But to your point and you’re saying that’s Clemson University that has a research park. It’s not the city obviously and you know that it’s in the county, Anderson County technically. Right. But I think a lot of a lot of there are a lot of people that I’ve talked to that I think would love to be start their business in Clemson but they’re just it’s just difficult.

you know, you know, there’s just, there’s either the zoning doesn’t allow what, you know, for what they want. So, I mean, we kind of lend ourselves as you tell me if I’m totally off base with it, we kind of lend ourselves to being more residential and the types of business, the businesses that we really attract or really, you know, cater more, more to the students, which they should. mean, that we’re, we’re a college town. but

But you hear a lot of the, a lot of residents that say they want different things, but we tend to focus on the things we don’t want, but we don’t, we don’t, they do. say, saying in general, like don’t focus on the trying to get the things that we do want. We’ve put a lot of effort into, you know, pushing away the things we don’t want and not a lot of effort into pulling the things in that we do want. And also just, sorry, I shouldn’t be, I should let you talk. You’re fine. But,

You know, we…

Now I lost my thought, yeah, so we tend to try to track or push away the things that we don’t want. We don’t try to pull in the things that we do want. And you hear a lot of those people, they say, we want this and we want that, but okay, well, you’ve got to have the people, the people like in our demographic, our age group to support a lot of those types of businesses that they’re asking for.

And how do you get those, those people here? Well, you gotta, you gotta have industry. gotta have, you gotta have those, those types of companies, locate here in order to attract those, those types of people to get the numbers up to, because, know, how many times have you heard, Hey, we need a, we need a local, we need a local joint for, for the residents, know, like a bar or, you know, we need more restaurants or we need more clothing stores and

Well, those clothing stores, the ones that are here are there to support the biggest customer base. And, do you see where I’m going with this? It’s just like, it’s kind of like a chicken in the egg. It’s like, gotta have, so I would, I personally would like to see, us try to attract businesses, more businesses, like different businesses. Totally agree. And I’ll go into, just brought up a great point. Let’s think about the.

old basically by low space right there. Yeah. That was being proposed for student housing. That is not zone for student housing. It’s zone for commercial and that was part of Clemson X or an and or workforce housing. So you said not talk about housing, but we’re going to talk about a little bit here. So, you know, planning commission, we’re not really, we’re really not supposed to talk about until after planning commission talk about, which they said, you know, there was the output, they w there was a

Developer that want to present student housing and they all voted it down because they want to keep that commercial space They want to keep those commercial opportunities and I would have done the same thing and I won’t speak for the other six on council I assume they would have done the same thing as well Goes to your point. We know there’s commercial businesses that are needed here that residents want and how do you make sure you protect what’s already here but also expand from that and then show the demographics that show it

I use the example also, if you go over the bridge, that’s a no Coney County, those retail stores are being supported. I mean, I don’t, I don’t know the numbers, but I see the cars and people are using them. So it kind of, it goes back to you have that challenge of space. You have that challenge. So that’s why we don’t want to eliminate. So that was a prime example. They’ll follow. Stay commercial. It needs to stay commercial because there should be hopefully future opportunities of bringing in some of those businesses you’re talking about.

But I’m using an example right across the bridge that people did bring in the businesses and they’ve been successful, at least by from a car and they’ve been in business now for what, two or three years. To me, that shows success, especially if you make it past, you know, make past that first year. That’s a big deal. Um, so there’s opportunities. Yeah. Well, and, know, I think it’s important to point out too, that what makes, I mean, you know, what I do for a living. mean, um, what makes the most sense?

is student housing. mean, you can pay a premium for the land. can pay. I mean, you can, you know, if, the zoning allows, you can, you can typically get the sense, the density that you need to support the land costs and development costs and everything, but it’s really difficult. Like I look at the highway 93 corridor from the by-law and that, that parcel is so expensive. You know, it’s, it’s going to take something special to go there to make that

all turn out to be all commercial or make it be what we would like for it to be. I think most everybody probably would agree that we don’t want to see that turn into a student housing project. And that’s coming from a student housing developer. But from an economic standpoint, that’s the only thing that’s viable to go there right now, I think.

But, but you’ve got that whole entire corridor, highway 93 corridor up and down that, that road there that is like ripe for commercial. And I think you could attract a lot of businesses up through there if it were zoned properly, it’s owned RM1. And I know there’s a lot of political pressure to keep those residential districts, you know, are, you know, what let them stay the same, but that to me is a corridor that makes sense for it to be commercial.

both sides of the road and it’s a high traffic area. But I think, let’s face it, the businesses that would attempt to go in those areas either don’t have the capital and financial resources to go through a rezoning process or to acquire the land and sit on it until they’re able to get it rezoned. So can you speak to that? Would you agree that that quarter maybe is

is, the most logical direction for, for businesses. Well, I kind of just said it in some respects. I’m not trying to put you on the spot. No, mean, you’re fine. But that’s a big parcel. No, that’s a big parcel. And like you said, and I’ll go back to what you just said yet. You know, if a price is certain, you know, you got to look at what the, what somebody’s coming in for their return on their investment. When they see a price tag, let’s say it’s $8 million. I’ll just throw that.

saying what it is but I don’t know what it is but you have to make sure you get your return on the best I get it I do get that that’s a little bit of the banker coming into play for me but then you also have that discussion with whoever can they think I wouldn’t say outside the box but they think about okay how can they make it work from a commercial perspective so it’s not student housing per se because like I said there are certain areas that have been designated for student housing within Clemson

And obviously recently there was a project that was passed that was designated for higher density right across from Abernathy. But also while we’re talking about, I’ll talk about that one real quickly. That will also enhance the Abernathy Park. Where the plan is, and that’s where I feel like we’ve followed through with what we say we’re gonna do. The plan is to go all the way to Wendy’s. And so it’s not that the boardwalk doesn’t go there right now, but how do you make it where it’s more

community friendly. It’s community friendly, but I think there’s opportunities to enhance it to go all the way from Wendy’s back to JC Park. And so those are the types of things. So when you start talking about student housing or you’re talking about commercial designated areas, let’s go back to the 93 quarter. Absolutely is a corridor that could be certain areas within commercial space that businesses I think could thrive. Certain businesses have come in certain instances.

thankfully have stayed and survived and I’ll go back and said, thrive, but you got to create that opportunity. So you’re, going to your point now. You got to create that opportunity to create that space. And we are limited from an industry side. don’t really have here. If you tell me our largest industry. There you go. And then what’s the second one? Duke. Well, not do cause they’re not necessarily well, yeah, they’re not, guess they’re not here, but really if you think about it, you know,

We don’t have, let’s start again. not trying to compare us to Oconee County, but there are manufacturers there that they have. have the space. I try on, you know, large, they’re supporting many families and it’s, it makes it more challenging for us because it’s, know, I would love for everybody that works at Clemson university or any business to live in Clemson. But I think it’s very difficult to live in Clemson now because the price has gone up so much. it’s, it’s a challenge to balance that. And that’s what

our difficulty is. So now I went back to housing again. Well, it always it always circles back to housing and in, you know, it’s a function of supply and demand. You know, I think one of the biggest misconceptions is, that there’s an oversupply of housing. mean, I know firsthand, because what we do that’s that’s wrong. I you know, I go to the I go to an annual conference down in Austin, Texas, where all the

the who’s who of student housing and a lot of eyes are on Clemson and they love the barriers to entry. The institutional groups love the high barriers to entry. The more the better because they are the groups that are better able to put those deals together. Like the little guys like me, it’s harder for me to put together deal. I have limited resources, but those guys, they’ll throw a ton of money at

deals, they’ll be doing that all over all over the country. And so, you know, the my opinion is unpopular, you know, it’s, you know, try to infuse as much supply as quickly as possible, because that’s what’s going to make it less attractive to come here. But infusing the supply in the right areas. And you touched on that with the with the plan that was put out, you know, designated areas for those and the hub. I mean, now the big elephant in the room, I mean,

You know, yeah, I understand that, that, you know, it wasn’t, uh, wasn’t popular amongst a big group of people, but that, that area probably made, it didn’t make the most sense to absorb a lot of, of that sub, you know, supply. Well, you know, I’ll say my own personal opinion. It’s not everything that we would want, but when we worked with the group core, there were a lot of things that we got that we, you know, well enhance Abernathy. does fit within Clemson next a dozen air.

With that said, mean it goes back to we’re following those guidelines of how it is going to limit now that area for high density because basically there’s a max amount that was part of that plan and so I think that’s a good thing as well for the future. So then there are going to be other areas within Glumson that will be focused on and so but I think to your point you know I would love to see more not focused necessarily on student housing focused on

commercial opportunities, bringing what you did, not only residents, but the whole community. I I say residents, but I’m going to say it like this, what the whole community wants. Um, because so they don’t have to drive to Anderson. don’t have to drive. But we keep on going back to housing. I didn’t, I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about, are baby step, baby step, but we got a grant. Thanks to our deputy administrator. We bought some land off of 76 across from Dawson’s part, dying them from doc, Dawson’s part.

that there will be workforce housing there. And it’s over time, probably get in 20 to 24 units there. That’s the first good step. And you can use that as a role model going forward. You created that, that’s basically almost three acres right there. possibly get, I keep on saying 20 to 24 units in there, but that’ll be workforce housing. And we need way more than that. And that’s part of working with Clemson University. They have more land, I say more land, they have…

a lot of land, that there’s possibilities there too. anyway, we keep on going back to housing. We do keep on going back. I’m trying to steer away from it. It’s just a tough one because I’m having a challenge because when you look at the median price, you know this, you’re the expert, not me. But when the median price home is what, 375 in Clemson now? I never thought we’d say that. That’s pretty mind boggling. 375,000. Right. That’s mind boggling. I mean, I grew up in Camelot.

I know exactly what my parents paid for that house. was when they built it was probably low hundred thousand. Right. Um, I know things change. know there’s cost of doing business, but it’s just, making it really tough. Um, because to, to get people, I would love for everybody to live in the city. Um, I just think it’s, we’re not creating and I don’t know. That’s the, that’s the biggest challenge is trying to how to create it. How do you get more families and I’m going to emphasize the word families. mean, I’d love.

young families to be in the city. I think we do have a lot of young families in the city, but I’d love to see more. And I think, you know, where I always, where I always get to is like, we got to figure out how to attract something other than student housing. You know, again, this is how I make my living. But, um, and, you know, I’m probably crazy for even saying that, but if you, if you really want

those things, it’s like, you’ve got to make it less attractive for developers like myself to want to do student housing and more attractive to do those other types. so, um, the, the projects that are the most feasible are our student housing and not commercial. Like I look at that, the Pendleton, that corridor, the 76, like where had that tremendous growth and you know, uh, right there.

We’re starting at, the main red light there at, dairy queen and the, all that from that, from there, the, the, about a half a mile towards Anderson, all those, all those businesses that have popped up right in there because of, I mean, maybe because Clemson, they, maybe those would have gone in Clemson. don’t know. I maybe not. think you’re, mean, I think you’re

Right. Cause I mean the space it’s more, I would think the price of land was more reasonable and our whole region’s growing. And to your point, you got more people coming in, you got more people that need certain types of businesses. So they’ve justified it. And so they made a, you know, made it work. And, and if you think about it, think about 76, you know, on that backside behind like the Waffle house, that’s really truly

workforce housing right back there. And that’s bringing a lot of new people into the community. That’s into the town of Pendleton, but you know, it’s all part of us growing as we’re all, we’re all growing as a region. And you know, it’s in central, it’s easily you name it six mile. just, and that’s why I like even last night when I was telling you that we met the Pickens County municipal, I love that we’re all meeting together because we’re talking about same challenges, but we’re also talking about the positives.

that we’re all experiencing. How can we work together? Because we’re all in this together. It’s not just a clumps of things. It’s not just a penultimate thing. It’s essential, whatever. However you want to say it. anyway. So, real quick, I know we’re probably running out of time. I told you I wouldn’t take up too much of your time. This has been great. I could probably talk to you for hours. But I know…

Are there any other, are there any other projects that you’re excited about or, they’re going on in the city, that aren’t student housing. now I get to talk about the good stuff and some people won’t say this is good stuff by the way. so if you didn’t know, we got almost nine million dollars in rescue funds and it goes back to what we’re, what did the community see is what’s the most important thing, our infrastructure.

I know this doesn’t sound exciting, but it’s one of those things that there are lot of municipalities that receive rescue funds that they put it towards quality of life like a peace center or things like that or a performing arts, I should say peace center, but performing arts site facility. We literally spent, or we used the majority of it to work underneath our roads. I know that doesn’t sound exciting, but I think it was the right thing to do because it’s something that’s needed within our city.

Um, jump out like infrastructure, like underneath sewer and water upgrades, upgrades from any thing. then basically once we’re finally finished with it, it’ll pave the road. But here’s the challenge. We’re doing a lot of that, which is great. And I’m very thankful for it. And it’s literally going to be $7 million and we’ll accomplish around five or six miles. Doesn’t sound like a lot, does it? When you think about the city has 65 to 70 miles.

we’re accomplishing, I can do the math pretty quickly, 10 % of our roads underneath with infrastructure. So there’s a lot more that we could do, but we were lucky that, I shouldn’t say lucky, it was part of the federal government giving you rescue funds to help municipalities. But again, our priorities are, that’s the number one issue is our infrastructure. How do we start addressing it? And it’s nothing against how it was done in the past. We got this large amount, let’s put it to use and start working on it.

But I can say years ago, what was allocated for roads was $300,000 a year. That will not accomplish anything. Right. So we’ve had to do a better job of refocusing how, and it is money related on this one is how do you refocus the dollars to accomplish more? It’s 300,000. weren’t accomplished. And again, I mean, I know that was the mentality in the past, but you got to change that mentality. So

That’s not really fun stuff, but I think it’s, no, it’s important. It’s in focusing on the right thing, but the fun stuff coming up just for everybody’s benefit. Obviously, we’ll have a Juneteenth celebration, coming up in June. and then also we have fireworks July 3rd for the first time coming back, but now this is our first step to come back in, in a slow way, but it’ll be cool because we’ll be shooting them over the lake. so we’re not at the Y beach, be near the Y beach.

Not at the Y beach, but it’ll be near the Y beach. And so we’ll make sure we’re starting getting this announcement out, but there’s not a community type like gathering place, but it be our start to start bringing the community back on July 4th, the type of event if it’s July 3rd or whenever the date is. Um, so I’m excited about that coming up. Of course we don’t, talked about on the app that we’ve had to the last Tuesday night. thought last night was great. Perfect weather. Had a lot of people out, had a great, uh, Luke.

played. Um, it’s a great guy. If you ever get a chance to meet Luke Deuce, he’s gonna, he’s already done great things and continue to do great things. I’m happy for him and his family. With that said, um, that’s coming up. Well, not coming up happened, but come up in the future. Um, and then we’ll keep on celebrating the championships and, the accomplishments. we keep winning more, more. And then Nettles park, there’ll be more parking out there. And that’s something that’s been needed for years. Um,

And so there’s, mean, could go down and if you ever need anything, anybody can call me. You know, the scary thing is I tell people, I shouldn’t say scary. People know my cell phone number because I literally put it out there and they’re like, why do you do that? said, I’d rather them call me. I’d rather anybody call me if they have a question. And I, I feel like that’s where we add value. And you know, I’ve learned a lot from my experience. Hopefully I continue doing it. We’ll see what happens on that. Hopefully the community still wants me to lead in the capacity I’m leading in, but.

Yeah, there’s a lot of great things going on. There’s a lot of good momentum going on. So, but again, I said at the beginning, all our leaders have done a fabulous job within the city and city employees. And I didn’t even talk about our police department. We’re almost fully staffed. I’m very thankful for that, but we got a great team there as well. And I could have gone to public works and the whole parks and rec, you name it. We’re fortunate. Yeah, you are. Well, we, we appreciate your service. no, you don’t get a, get a lot of praise and

ENE Group (01:14:18.789)

appreciate why we do it. Yeah. It’s not why you do it, but you know, we appreciate, appreciate you. And, I know we’ve probably butted heads a few times, maybe over the years, but I do have a lot of respect for you and everybody that does what you do. And, I do really appreciate you coming on, on the podcast with me and I hopefully, you know, you will do it again. Well, can I add one last time? Yeah. Yeah. So what you just said about buddy has I’m a, I’m good with that.

As long as you can agree to disagree, and I think that’s where we’ve lost, and I can go on a whole soapbox on this. You can agree to disagree. Everybody has their different positions. As long as everybody knows the facts, and I’ll emphasize that. I think sometimes we make up our own facts. As long as you know the facts, and then if you have differing opinions, I respect that. mean, that’s what I think we’ve lost a little bit of. And so I think that’s a compliment to you that we may have…

disagreed on certain things, but that we also know that I’ve done my research, you’ve done your research, and we’ve said, okay, this is what I think is the best for the community. You might think differently, slightly, and then we keep on moving forward because we all want to send the best interest to the whole community. You want what’s best for your daughters. You want what’s best for future generations, and I do too. So I think that’s what we’ve lost in some capacities, but hopefully we can get it back.

Yeah. And to that point, I’ll say, you know, I think it’s real important to recognize that we’re all human beings too. And, you know, I think that no matter what side of the aisle you’re on, you know, in any, in any issues, like that there’s a tendency for those that don’t agree to demonize, try to demonize those that don’t agree with them. And I totally disagree with that. And I think that’s not the way we should be. I think you hit it on the nose. I think it’s just like, you agree to disagree and

you know, I don’t think anybody wants, thinks that what they’re doing is going to be bad for the community. just, they just happen to think that the way they think is the best thing for the community. And there has to be a level of respect. And, you know, I know we live in a cancel culture and you know, if you disagree with somebody, you know, you, people feel like you, you have to go on social media and bash them. I mean, we see all this on next door and Facebook and

I’ve had my fair share of criticism. We all have had our fair share, but I don’t like that. And I think that we’re all children of God and we got to remember that first and be respectful of each other’s opinions and everything. And even if we don’t agree, just agree, like you said, agree to disagree and hope for the best. so I do believe that our political system is the best in the world.

this is a great place to live and, we just have to trust, trust the process. so, yeah. So again, I, I, I really appreciate you, being on the, on the podcast. So if we can do it, do it again, I’ll look forward to it. I appreciate the opportunity. know I’m not a Clemson university football player, but that’s okay. I saw the last one was one of the football players and I’m like, yeah, you got me.

That’s okay. we’re gonna we’re gonna we’re gonna bring we’re gonna bring a lot of interesting folks and and on on the podcast. We’ve got a we’ve got a lot of people lined up and I’m glad you said yes and I really appreciate it. Appreciate it. This has been another experience matter experience matters podcast with with Eric Newton. Thank you.