‘Closest we’ve ever gotten’: Yemassee petition on Beaufort Co. annexation gains traction
A citizen petition asking Beaufort County to annex the town of Yemassee has garnered more than half the signatures needed to “move the process forward,” but not without tension in the small community that straddles Beaufort and Hampton counties.
Although the potential annexation — first reported by The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette Feb. 5 — was not on Yemassee Town Council’s meeting agenda Tuesday, about 30 residents showed up looking for answers.
They didn’t get any from the town council, which was missing two members Tuesday evening. Mayor Colin Moore and council members Alfred Washington and Chuckie Simmons were there; council members Peggy Bing-O’Banner and Michelle Hagan did not attend the meeting.
Feedback from residents
Douglas Mickens, a leader for one of Yemassee Police Department’s crime zones, peppered town leaders with questions.
“Excuse me right now,” Mayor Moore said, interrupting. “We don’t have that on the agenda, and it’s still a work in progress. We can’t discuss it tonight because we don’t have a lot of information ourselves.”
Mickens continued asking questions.
The mayor assured him that once the petition is filed, Yemassee would host a series of educational meetings led by professionals who “know what they’re talking about.”
“Shouldn’t that have been done before y’all came up with all of this?” Ginger Braswell asked from the audience. “I mean, I’m sorry, but shouldn’t it have been done? ... There are a lot of questions.”
“And there will be answers,” Moore responded.
Braswell, who’s lived in Yemassee 60 years, stood up, complaining that since she was annexed into town limits, she’s had to pay taxes to both the county and the town but hasn’t seen an increase in services.
“I know how y’all work. Everything is under the county, so somebody is getting something out of this,” she said, and then walked out.
Eventually, Stephen Henson, one of the petition organizers, stood up.
“Listen,” he said. “The town cannot discuss the annexation.”
Henson said that until 10% of registered voters in the annexation area have signed the petition, “there is no official process.”
Once the petition is submitted, Henson said, officials from Yemassee, Beaufort and Hampton counties can discuss the annexation.
He said signing the petition does not mean the signers have to vote “yes” to annexation if an election is scheduled. It means they want to know more.
“There’s a lot of other people who may not be for it, ... but once again, to get the facts out, enough citizens have to say we’d like to explore this option, and then officials can come out and talk,” Henson said.
Hampton County Republican Party chairman Darrell Russell said he vehemently opposes annexation. He said that over the past five years, Hampton County’s taxes have remained low while Beaufort County’s have risen and listed different values for “comparable homes” in Yemassee and various Beaufort County towns. Russell also worried about tipping fees and the fate of Yemassee’s senior center should annexation happen.
Beaufort County Council vice chairman Paul Sommerville sat silently in the front row. He said later that he is a liaison to Yemassee, among other areas, and so occasionally attends town or county council meetings.
He said he wasn’t there because of the annexation discussion, “but I am curious about what they’re doing.”
The petition
Henson, the petition organizer who has lived in Yemassee for 45 years, said “70 plus” people have signed the petition since it was released in early February. He said they need only about 120 signatures to meet the required 10% of registered voters in the area proposed for annexation.
He drafted a petition and outlines on a map of the proposed area to be annexed. That area is about 7 square miles, which includes not only the incorporated Town of Yemassee, but also residential areas on the outskirts that may later be annexed into the town.
“The current thought process is (to include) not only the current Town of Yemassee, but the residents that have the potential to annex in because we want to be a town in one county, not a town divided again,” he said.
In full, the petition reads:
A petition of the residents of the town of Yemassee, South Carolina and surrounding areas requesting to annex a portion of the county of Hampton into the county of Beaufort as outlined in S.C. Code of Laws 4-5-120. A map of the proposed area for annexation is attached. Upon receipt of 10% of registered voters in the area to be annexed, the petition shall be delivered to the clerk of court of the appropriate county along with the required deposit sufficient to cover the expenses of surveys, plats and other associated costs.
*This petition is to move the process forward only. The deciding vote will come at a later date.*
Henson said the original petition did not include the last two sentences, but those were added for clarification.
He said the first petition he drafted began circulating Feb. 1, after some Yemassee officials went to Beaufort County late last year “to just do some investigation to see if it was feasible to start with.”
Once they knew “we weren’t going to get resistance from Beaufort County — because if you’re going to get resistance it’s just an uphill battle all the way around” — he said he began knocking on doors with the map and petition.
“This is the closest we’ve ever gotten to moving the process forward,” Henson said. “Sometimes you’ve got to strike while the iron is hot.”
