Mayor Drew Laughlin's Monthly Letter to Residents

As seen in Celebrate Hilton Head Magazine 

New Projects, New Opportunities

December 2014

I would like to update you on several exciting Town projects that are underway or have recently been completed.

We are very proud to open, this month, a beautiful new park on Skull Creek that provides water access for non-motorized water craft (kayaks, rowing, sailing, paddle boarding, wind surfing, etc.), as well as fishing and crabbing. The Rowing and Sailing Center at Squire Pope Community Park, located on the site of the old seafood co-op at 133 Squire Pope Road, cost just under $1.2 million to construct. This park includes parking areas, restrooms, a picnic pavilion, playground, fire pit, swings, benches, and two fenced, gravel storage areas, along with a fixed timber pier, aluminum gangway, and floating dock. You may contact the Island Recreation Center for information on the water craft programs they will run out of this facility. 

Another beautiful waterfront park opening this winter is the new Shelter Cove Community Park.  It replaces the former park and will contain the same amenities and Lowcountry style, but with an added performance pavilion. This project is being funded and constructed by the mall developer as part of a development agreement.

As part of our ever-expanding pathway network, we have recently completed construction of two new pathways along Pembroke and Gardner Drives. This adds another mile and a half of pathways which connect several mid-island residential and commercial developments to the Leg O Mutton Road and William Hilton Parkway pathways. In January, construction will begin on a new pathway along eastbound William Hilton Parkway (US 278 Business), from the new traffic signal at Leamington to Shelter Cove Lane. It will connect to a new pathway in front of the mall that was privately funded and constructed as part of a development agreement, totaling another mile and a half of new pathways to be finished this spring.

We have just rehabilitated six town roads (Oak Park Drive, Electric Avenue, Mingo Way, Cooperative Way, Thompson Street, and Power Alley) in the Mathews Drive, Chaplin area to provide proper pavement and drainage infrastructure as well as much needed on-street parking. In January, we will begin construction of a new roundabout at the intersection of Mathews Drive and Marshland Road, a project designed to enhance traffic conveyance and public safety. Both of these projects are funded with Tax Increment Financing (TIF), a very rewarding program that allows the Town to take tax money that may have been spent elsewhere in the county and devote it to providing new and enhanced infrastructure within the TIF district here on Hilton Head Island.