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In the year 2022 didn’t include the Cracker Barrel in North Augusta, but many other big things took shape.
Here are the top 10 news stories of 2022 in the North Augusta government and business world.
Aiken Regional Medical Centers along with local chambers of commerce, government officials and business representatives celebrated the opening of an $11 million ER in North Augusta in Sweetwater on Monday, August 8.
1. Aiken Regional ER opens in North Augusta.
Aiken Regional Medical Centers opened a freestanding emergency room in Sweetwater in August. The new ER bridged the medical care gap that existed 20 miles from Augusta to Aiken.
It was a 3-year, $11 million project that former Aiken Regional CEO Jim O’Laughlin estimated would treat 6,000 people in its first year and take some of the burden off ARMC’s main hospital.
An Aiken regional representative told members of the North Augusta Chamber of Commerce earlier this month that the ER is now treating an average of 60 patients a day.
“Healthcare systems across the United States have really struggled with COVID and staffing issues over the past two years,” O’Loughlin told reporters at the launch. “At the same time, it’s good to focus on expansion.”
North Augusta hosted an open house on Oct. 28 at its new Fire Station #1. Leaning against the ladder truck, Joshua Garrison says he’s been in the old building “long enough to appreciate the new.”
2. Fire Station No. 1 opens in West Martintown.
North Augusta’s new Fire Station No. 1 in West Martintown opened in October, with Public Safety Chief John Thomas saying, “I’m not excited about a lot, but I’m excited about today.
A $3.93 million fire station relocation project has been hit by supply chain issues and is 10 months behind schedule. But now it’s a more comfortable place than it was at the Public Safety Headquarters. The new station has four bunk rooms and a full-service kitchen for a four-man crew led by Sgt. Daniel Smith. Oh, and the bay even hosts the next big thing: a ladder truck.
The new location expands the station’s service area to a full radius: west of the Savannah River on Buena Vista Street, where it was cut off from service.
The 1,368-acre Highland Springs proposed development received final approval from the North Augusta City Council on Aug. 1.
3. Go Time at the massive Highland Springs mixed-use development
North Augusta’s single largest development project got its final stamp of approval Aug. 1 when city council members approved the Highland Springs Development Plan, a 1,368-acre mixed-use project along I-520.
The sprawling property was zoned for such development in 2001, but has seen little development except for the I-520 bifurcation and, more recently, construction for Highland Springs Middle and Elementary Schools.
The development plan provides up to 5,000 residential units. Phase one (of 25 phases) could begin in spring 2023.
Terry Lambert Hyundai opened Sept. 1 on Jefferson Davis Highway in North Augusta.
4. High-profile business development: Hyundai and North Augusta Carpet Shop
Business growth in North Augusta has been out of whack this year.
First, it was announced in March that local developer Brett Brannon had purchased the old carpet store in a $12 million mixed-use project at the entrance to downtown.
North Augusta planning commissioners have now approved site plans for Brannon’s project, and the schedule still calls for the main building — the renovated carpet shop — to be completed by early April.
Then, on September 1, Hyundai opened as the new kid on the block in North Augusta’s “Motor Mile.”
It was a stop-and-start project that was supposed to open three years ago, but the previous owner couldn’t get the money to complete it.
Terry Lambert picked it up, and Hyundai is the third of what will be four dealerships in a small stretch of Jefferson Davis Highway — and the area around all that development is “prime” for more growth, one development expert said.
Former North Augusta High School head football coach Robert “Jim Bob” Bryant resigned in December of last year due to misconduct.
5. Official: Why former NAHS football coach Jim Bob Bryant resigned
Former North Augusta head football coach Jim Bob Bryant He may have resigned at the end of 2021, but the reason for his resignation was not until this year.
Following an internal investigation by the Aiken County Public School District, Bryant was fired in 2015. He was charged with violating anti-harassment policies for late 2020 conduct and the Yellow Jackets’ 26-7 conference win over rival Midland Valley High School on Oct. 16. He wrote to NAHS Principal John Murphy that the language Bryant used with the team that night was “immoral, inexcusable and unacceptable.”
Investigations prompted by formal complaints from parents uncovered further misconduct. Bryant signed a settlement agreement with the district in December of last year.
Bryant’s departure from the Aiken County School District means new football coach Matt Quinn is in his first season as a Yellow Jacket. North Augusta football finished the 2022 season in first place in Region 4-AAAA and with an overall record of 6 wins and 6 losses.
The North Augusta Greenway will extend another quarter mile from the current Woodstone development to its current terminus on North Mayfield Road, the City Council approved Sept. 19. Shown here is the Bergen Road entrance to the Greenway, the closest entrance to the approved extension. .
6. Greenway extended to Mayfield Drive.
A quarter-mile extension of the North Augusta Greenway was approved in September, bringing the Greenway that much closer to prime parks and the land it covers: 150 acres of dry land, “country club property.
The greenway, which comes from the Woodstone development at Bergen and Gregory Lake roads, now ends at the junction at Rippling Creek Lane. Its extension will bring the Greenway to Mayfield Drive, possibly as early as January — with work nearing completion.
Bill Waters, of North Augusta, said the extension could open up direct and unfettered access to the community above Lake Gregory and “create an untapped market and possibly a circuit for cyclists who want to extend their rides even further.” Boost downtown.”
The Greenway is named for former North Augusta Mayor Tom Green, who died on January 3 of this year at the age of 88.
Eleven properties in North Augusta’s Riverside Village avoided this year’s Aiken County Tax sale by paying nearly $788,000 owed to the city of North Augusta at the last minute.
7. Riverside Village
The Riverside Village Stadium parking lot’s tax code-related legal limbo finally saved its owner $53,000 in city taxes this year.
Unpaid debts, the property was tied up by the court, to delay the certificate of residence and, by law, the tax year in which the structure is assessed.
But the taxing activities that occurred in Riverside Village were not limited to this. For the third year in a row, there were nearly a dozen properties. Threat of bidding Nearly $788,000 in lost city tax payments. An 11th-hour payment by their owners — Greenstone and its LLCs — saved them from being sold at the 2022 Aiken County Delinquent Tax Sale.
The dilapidated buildings at the site of the future North Augusta Department of Public Safety headquarters have been demolished, the city announced May 23. The two heritage buildings on Observatory Street were built in 1903.
8. Demolition of the flight, seven gable buildings
A group of North Augustans has fought hard to preserve the two historic buildings on Georgia Street since the site was decided to be the site of the city’s new public safety headquarters.
At first they seemed to succeed. But when it was deemed that the cost of maintaining the buildings could not be met without public funds, the conservatives who supported the cause gave up – and public officials declared that this could not happen.
So, the 119-year-old Fleet House and its companion “Caretaker’s House,” which once served as an annex to Palmetto Lodge, are in September.
The North Augusta Arts and Heritage Center had the opportunity to exhume parts of the two buildings, and Heritage Center Director Mary Anne Bigger said they are still deciding how they will be displayed.
Officials expect to break ground on the new headquarters in early January.
Portraits honoring Jefferson Davis were commissioned in 1931 by local chapters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
9. Local historian Jefferson Davis asked Marker
Shortly after Augusta commissioners voted to rename the Jefferson Davis Bridge “Freedom Bridge,” a local historian and member of the North Augusta Arts and Heritage Center asked in a letter that the two pieces were donated 91 years ago by the United South Carolina Chapter. Daughters of the Confederacy will be added to collections at the Heritage Center.
Milledge Murray wrote to the Augusta commission secretary that the bridge where the Hamburg Massacre took place in 1876 at the end of South Carolina is an important part of North Augusta history.
The bridge’s renaming — and the fate of all the historic markers on it — is now in question after opponents filed a lawsuit claiming the commissioners’ action is illegal under Georgia’s Monument Preservation Act.
The North Augusta City Council voted to allocate $10 million to the city’s ARPA allocation for general government services. (Featured photo)
10. The North Augusta General Fund received a $10M ARPA boost
Holding off until the last minute, as local governments patiently await final guidance from the U.S. Treasury on how much of their coronavirus relief will be used, the city of North Augusta was able to boost its overall funding by $10 million in March.
For the rest of the year, that money was used to stretch dollars and match grants to help with improved police communications, a half-million dollar light air and service truck, the long-awaited Poli Branch basin and rehabilitation. Main sewer line.
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