Letter: Beaufort County should be split

I read your April 7 editorial with puzzlement, in particular the statement, “Not only do the different areas of Beaufort County need each other and depend on each other ...”

With reference to the different feels and needs of the communities you mentioned, could you please explain to us how, for example, Bluffton and unincorporated Sun City “need and depend on” Sheldon or St. Helena Island or, for that matter, even Beaufort?

Indeed, the very County Council meeting that prompted your editorial presents a good example of the dysfunction that cries out for a separation of this county into two separate counties, one north of the Broad River and the other south.

Of the state’s 46 counties, Beaufort County, with its population of 175,852, ranks 10th. Its populations north and south of the Broad River are roughly equal in number. If they were divided into two separate counties, the population of each would be about the size of Orangeburg County and considerably larger than most of the state’s other counties. Thus, each should be able to provide its own services and pursue its own interests without interference from the other.

Sorry, but I think your editorial is nothing but rhetorical hype with no real substance to back it up.

This story was originally published April 14, 2016 at 5:45 PM with the headline "Letter: Beaufort County should be split."