thebarb20

whats sad about of that is Florence really has potential to be a great place and there are hints every now and then that things can happen. however, the only real jobs we ever get from the outside are always ones that are taking advantage low cost labor and not here for the educational level of its citizens. this continued will only cause more of the same to occur and not force real change. we will always have a year over year mass exodus of young people leaving so they can make decent money and the pee dee will continue to be armpit.

I have an MBA from FMU but I'm going to have to leave Florence to make a living.

This is possible because companies like WaMu like to come in to take advantage of the low cost labor (honda employees make 1/3 to 1/2 of the amts made at the same plant that was in ohio). With WaMu, they have recently moved some jobs in Florida to consolidate similar activities. I have heard no news of anything coming but they were several site closings and Florence survived so it might possible that a similar event may occur here. I don't expect it to be anything more than servicing mortgages or credit cards. However, the disturbing trend is there are a lot of talented people who are educated in SC and leave because there are not enough opportunities here. We need to get more corporate type places here and not cubicle farms and call centers. Florence has Francis Marion University which has educated many locals but they almost certainly leave b/c of the lack of opportunity.

morning news reported 2 potential new projects in the work for florence, one employer has the potential to bring 700 new jobs initially. this is very exciting news for the area. there is also a new economic development director for the region that came in from statesville, nc. if anybody has heard any specifics about companies looking to relocate here that would be cool. just thought throw this line out as to the news that just got released.

an article was written, focusing on the gridlock beach traffic causes in florence, interestingly enough it is true that all internet directions for midwesterns take them directly through the middle of town instead of utilizing the i 95, 327 bypass route. i was in the traffic saturday and it was rediculous. I 20 spur and palmetto st were a traffic jam www.morningnewsonline.com

Cleaning up Downtown more progress being made to clean up the area. there's a picture of the old airplane leaving the downtown area in the article.

There have been several articles recently about the new development going on in Florence and how it does not conform to existing neighborhoods. For Instance, next door to the Whitehall neighborhood (2000+ sq. ft homes 2+ acre lots, a new development is going in that will contain 180+ homes on around 48 acres. There is also a 200 duplex triplex development planned in another single family area of Florence. What seems to be the cause of this is the lack of zoning or stricter zoning is these preexisting neighborhood areas. There is significant lack of infrastructure in some of these areas to absorb the additional traffic. The new Super Wal-Mart is also closer to being built next to an upper class residential area, raising the ire of the residents. There is needs to be changes quick before the integrity of our nicer neighborhoods is lost completely.

the latest stuff i've heard regarding downtown is that Florence Little Theater and Fine Arts Center could quite possibly become separate buildings. From what I heard there would be significant stumbling blocks in combining the two buildings w/ scheduling and whatnot. I guess the point of it being is there may end up two separate arts centers in downtown - located near the library of course. Also, the prospective investors for a new mixed use office building at the old mcleod hospital sight (demolished several years ago) are a group of local doctors.

Pee Pride Ownership cited that they missed the breakeven point. they needed 3000 per game and attendance was around 2600 so they are going to move to myrtle beach.

the civic center may be too large for this community. we rarely have situations where it is filled to capacity. fyi, i believe the hockey team played its last game in florence tonight. attendance has been down again this year and i heard that the team did not spend the $ on the players this year, thus contributing to a bad season. they needed 3,500 avg attendance and ended up w/ around 2,500 avg. tv said that the team was likely heading to myrtle beach. i had fun at hockey games its just hard to justify $11 for A-league hockey .. most people just do not have the $ to consistently go to hockey games with their kids and all, in defense of the team though, i thought they played hard and that management tried creative promotions to bring in crowds. this is just too small a market i suppose. league-wide though attendance is down. charleston stingrays doesnt draw the crowds it used to either. there were two articles in the paper today.. one mentioned the sales tax/road project referendum. major projects listed were pineneedles rd. 301 bypass, pamplico hwy. hwy 378 the other article mentioned a townhouse development planned for 16 acres near hoffmeyer and ebenezer rd. w/ 160 units. its a single family residence area and the citizens are disgruntled of course.

FLORENCE - Florence County has retained the services of a consultant to conduct a roads study and prepare a presentation for the State Infrastructure Bank Board. Moderators Note: Please do not post articles in their entriety. Post some of the main facts, key information or key paragraphs with a link to the entire article. Full Article

The latest news on Florence - a group of doctors will likely purchase the lot of the Old Mcleod hospital on cheves St and make an office bldg. rumor has it, around 4 stories. not that significant really, wish it would be taller. most of the steel skeleton is up for the McLeod Tower, its massive compared to the original structure. there is a rumor out there for a new city/county govt bldg. pineneedles rd is has a federal bill being passed to get it widened to 4 lanes (if it goes through) this is a major bottleneck of traffic. hoffmeyer road widening has been completed to 5 lanes. senator leatherman is currently trying to get something going about getting the funding for major road upgrades all of town. maybe the old penny sales tax or something.

Where else can you find three 4-lane roads crossing at the same intersection?

looks as if the NE corner of downtown area will continue to be a blight. However, they are not really interested in doing any major projects in the North Dargan area. They will continue to do major projects along Palmetto and Irby with the latest being the office building at the old McLeod Hospital site and the Fine Arts Center across the street from Poyner. Decisions were made a long time ago that affect the city today. They should have built a 76 bypass and kept Palmetto St. the way it was intended. My father tells me about when Palmetto was lined w/ Palmetto trees all the way through town. This would be awesome if that could be done again. City Hall, etc. should have never been torn down. The McLeod Tower is coming along quite nicely. I'll try to get you guys some pictures one day.

downtown has a lot of crime. Florence historically has a lot of problems with burglary. I have a friend on the police force and there is a tremendous problem with hard drugs in the inner city. Otherwise the town is fine. Like a lot of towns there's two sides of the railroad track. I live right around the I-20 and I-95 interchange. My soccer team's facility is at the intersection of the I-20 and 340.

Just wanted to let you know the construction of the McLeod Tower Downtown is moving along fairly well. It is supposed to be at least 12 stories and there are 2 massive cranes that were constructed for the project. By the way, the tomorrow is the 1st annual pecan festival downtown. Hopefully, it'll become something good, I don't expect much this year though.

[ There is one non-McLeod seven story building downtown. The City-County Complex is 11 stories. McLeod has two seven story buildings and also a five story building that is currently expanding upward to 12 stories. There is a second hospital in town with 9 stories, but is is 2-3 miles south of Downtown. <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I went to Francis Marion. They have by-laws that state no football. It is a shame that they didnt locate downtown. When I get my digital camera fixed, I'll try to get some photos of the new mcleod tower under construction on here. i'm afraid on true downtown redevelopment that we may never get over our crime issues.

First post: Resident (26 yrs old). I work downtown. Part of the problem with Florence were decisions made that have accumulated over a long period of time. First of all Francis Marion University should have been located downtown instead of the boonies. The technical school has relocated its nursing school downtown and built a parking garage which helps but still most of the commercial activity occurs just west of town and just south. The civic center (10,000 seats) was also located near the interstate instead of downtown. Recently the new library opened up, $20M project I believe. McLeod hospital also continues to expand its workforce and facilities. A lot of the historic older buildings were torn down (Old McLeod hospital, city hall) which is a shame. Downtown continues to have crime issues. There is a movement underway to restorate the downtown and the library was the first phase of this. Hopefully in the next few years downtown can become a cultural and commercial center. There should be a new Fine Arts center downtown soon, they are currently in the process of raising money for that which should be pretty nice. We obviously have a long way to go and things have gotten out of hand over the years making the task very hard.