Special Reports

16 for 2016: A look ahead at the issues that will be in the news this year

16 for 2016
Staff illustration

Retail development will soar in 2016. | READ

It is a big year for two of the largest and most expensive public projects in a decade. | READ

Five of the 11 seats on the Beaufort County school board are up for grabs this year. | READ

The remaking of Hilton Head Island's iconic beaches begins in February. | READ

State engineers will cut down trees and install cable barriers along a stretch of I-95 in Jasper County known as the "coffin corridor." | READ

The new year also will reveal how much confidence superintendent Jeff Moss and the school board has in their standing with the community. | READ

If the school district doesn't go forward with its referendum proposal, and possibly even if it does, keep an eye on Beaufort County, which also may ask the public to give it approximately $120 million for yet-to-be-determined projects through a 1 percent increase in the county's sales tax. | READ

Sixteen people died in homicides last year, the deadliest year in Beaufort County in at least 20 years and nearly triple the number in 2014. | READ

While the presence of freshly minted Masters champion Jordan Spieth sent a buzz through the 2015 RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing, he was merely the most famous face of a youth movement sweeping PGA Tour venues. | READ

Odds are good that 2016 will be the year when more resources flow to Hilton Head Island's arts community. | READ

Beaufort County has established itself as an important foothold in the "First in the South" primary that will be held in South Carolina in February. | READ

The only thing Beaufort County leaders agree on when it comes to landing non-tourism businesses is that their 2015 attempts at it were embarrassing. | READ

New USC coach Will Muschamp will try to rebuild the fallen Gamecocks, coming off a 3-9 season and the loss of legendary coach Steve Spurrier. | READ

Finding an affordable place to live likely will get harder this year, a trend that could spell trouble for our area, which is dependent on a low and middle-income workforce to staff restaurants, hotels, golf courses and spas. | READ

Yet another bid to buy the Port of Port Royal fell through at the end of 2015. Now, presumably, the property heads to auction. But no one is holding their breath that the sale will happen this year either. | READ

After a special report in this newspaper about the way Beaufort County has treated its unclaimed dead -- the remains of nearly 70 people are being kept in a closet in the local coroner's office -- support is coalescing for a new solution. | READ

This story was originally published January 8, 2016 at 2:40 PM with the headline "16 for 2016: A look ahead at the issues that will be in the news this year."

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