The Sanctuary at Kiawah Island Golf Resort has achieved designation as a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary through the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program (ASCP), an Audubon International program.
The Sanctuary, a AAA Five Diamond-rated hotel, is the first property in South Carolina and the 58 th in the world to be certified in the ACSP. Seventeen golf courses in South Carolina have been designated as Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuaries, including Kiawah Island Golf Resort’s Ocean Course and Cougar Point, through the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses.
“The Sanctuary has shown a strong commitment to its environmental program. It is to be commended for its efforts to provide a sanctuary for wildlife on property,” says Joellen Zeh, Program Manager for the ACSP. “By taking action to implement indoor and outdoor conservation projects, the management and staff at The Sanctuary have demonstrated their commitment to the sustainable management of their natural resources.”
The Sanctuary opened in August 2004, and features 255 rooms and suites. It sits on a 25-acre oceanfront site, surrounded by 20 acres of undisturbed maritime forest, 400 transplanted Live Oak and Palmetto trees, and a variety of gardens filled with indigenous flora and fauna, and drought-tolerant plants. Inside, the hotel has a recycling program, practices water and energy conservation and uses glassware, not disposables. Guests can voluntarily make a donation of $2 per night to the Kiawah Conservancy, and also enjoy The Discovery Room, which is staffed by resort naturalists. A variety of walking tours, highlighting the island’s natural habitat, originate from this location.
“This is a very important designation to achieve,” says Vijay Singh, The Sanctuary’s hotel manager. “The award is reflective of the name we chose for the hotel and its natural landscape architecture. We made a conscious effort to blend The Sanctuary into the island’s environment and ecosystem, and are thankful for the work of our horticulturalist, Pete Nelson.”
To achieve the Audubon certification, a business must demonstrate that they maintain a high degree of environmental quality in a variety of categories, including Environmental Planning, Wildlife Habitat Management, Resource Conservation, Waste Management, and Outreach and Education.
The Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program provides information and guidance to help businesses and organizations preserve and enhance wildlife habitat, and protect natural resources. Businesses, schools, golf courses, and backyards from the United States , Africa , Australia , Canada , Central America , Europe , and Southeast Asia have also achieved certification in the program. For more information, visit www.auduboninternational.org .
Located along 10 miles of pristine beach just south of Charleston , SC , Kiawah Island Golf Resort is rated as the country’s top golf resort by Travel + Leisure Golf. It includes The Sanctuary – a AAA Five Diamond-rated, 255-room hotel and spa – and 600 private villas and luxury homes. The resort has five championship golf courses, including The Ocean Course – host of the 1991 Ryder Cup, the 2007 Senior PGA and 2012 PGA championships. The resort also ranks as the number one tennis resort in the world, has nine restaurants, and features a renowned recreation and nature program. For more information, visit www.kiawahresort.com or call 800-654-2924 .
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As the first order of business, Mayor Wert asked for a moment of silence for September 11, for and all those serving overseas and for those who have died.
Helping Coastal Crisis Chaplaincy
Mayor Wert introduced the Reverend Rob Dewey of the Coastal Crisis Chaplaincy, a local non-profit organization of emergency response chaplains. Reverend Dewey took his stand at the podium and noted to the Council that he had brought several copies of a letter, requesting funds from Kiawah Island to help support the continuation of the Coastal Crisis Chaplaincy, an organization that has been in existence for the past 18 years. When Mayor Wert asked him what their program involved, Reverend Dewey stated that the Chaplaincy “offers support in people’s needs and in disasters. We try to have chaplains on the scene for any traumatic incident.” He went on to describe the fact that one of their chaplains had been on hand at the Citadel Mall shooting at the request of SLED and at the tragic Sofa Super Store fire. “We work under the auspices of the Charleston County police department and the St. John’s fire department,” said Reverend Dewey. “We are a non-profit organization that survives through grants from individuals, congregations and organizations.” He pointed out that the City of Mount Pleasant had agreed to donate $25,000 to their program and the City of North Charleston had agreed to donate the sum of $50,000 for the next four years. The program had just hired on their third full-time chaplain “on faith”, hoping the funds to keep in aboard would come in soon.
Mayor Wert thanked Reverend Dewey for coming to the Council meeting and agreed to keep the request for funding in mind for the next Council meeting. For more information about the Coastal Crisis Chaplaincy, please call 724-1212.
Lowcountry Heritage Festival a success
Tumiko Rucker announced that the Lowcountry Heritage Festival, held on August 24, helped to raise over $750 for the Lowcountry Food Bank. Jermaine Husser, the executive director of the Lowcountry Food Bank, accepted the check and thanked the Town of Kiawah for their kindness.
Kiawah Parkway progress
Councilman Orban reported that he met with the Corp of Engineers concerning the 1.3 acres of wetland that would be needed to complete the Kiawah Island Parkway. After a two hour meeting, Councilman Orban found that the Town would need to come up with up to four acres of highland that the Town would need in mitigation to make up for the use of the wetlands. Orban brought up the possibility of using the Conservancy’s newly donated land, but the area was unacceptable since it was too susceptible to storms. The KRA brought up an area of 3.5 acres that might be available, but are still in the process of determining its availability. “So we have at least two project potentials that can be used as mitigation,” said Councilman Orban. “Either the KRA’s land or land from the SC Nature Conservancy.” According to the guidelines from the Corp of Engineeers, the land to be used in mitigation must have a specific preservation project with money going toward it for the land to be a viable option. “It’s a tedious project,” said Orban, “but we’re working through it.”
In the meantime, the plans for the Parkway are finished and Council is hoping to put out for bids as soon as possible. A Councilperson asked if it was possible to reduce the area of wetlands needed in order to reduce the necessary size of the land for mitigation. Councilman Orban replied that “it’s as tight as we can make it. There’s nothing we can do design-wise to make the area we need, smaller.” He also noted that he was disappointed that the process was taking so long, but he reassured the Council that the roadwork would be done by the next tourist season.
Town gets new ToyotaTacoma
Council approved up to $30,000 for the purchase of a new Toyota Tacoma that will provide the Wildlife Department with a vehicle to replace the current Chevrolet Colorado. The Chevy was not due to be replaced, but because of excessive rust buildup under the truck, frequent repairs and a potential upcoming cost of $2,000 for further repairs, the Town feels it is a necessary expense, though it was not budgeted in the 2007/08 budget. The funds for the vehicle will come out of the contingency line of the budget for the County Accommodation Tax fund since the vehicle is intended to promote tourism by benefiting the preservation of wildlife. Bids will be received until September 27 at 3:00pm.
Matching green belts
The Charleston County Greenbelt Program has approved a contribution of $120,000 for creating greenspace along the Kiawah Island Parkway and bike path as long as the town matches the amount with $120,000 or greater. The Town voted on the matching funds, passing the proposal unanimously. The funds will be taken from the Capital Improvement Fund if the funding is available after the completion of the Parkway Construction. The proposed greenspace will consist of the addition of native plants including grasses, flowers and shrubs in an aesthetically pleasing manner to accentuate the bike path. The project is being designed by Design Works, LLC on an hourly basis not to exceed $5,000.
Town of Kiawah goes mobile
The Council approved the budgeted expenditure of $15,000 for the purchase of 6 laptops with docking stations, Adobe Creative Suite III software, a set of 5 backup tapes and a computer rack for storage of the network server and a disaster recovery server. The operating systems will be Windows XP pro and will be Vista compatible, which the current computers are not. Councilman Burnaford asked Town Administrator Rucker why the new computers were going to be laptops instead of desktops, since there was definitely a price difference between the two. Ms. Rucker answered that the laptops were “easier to move and can continue to operate even if we are not at Town Hall.” The laptops also allow employees to remove the duplication of moving all your work material from desktop and laptop. Mayor Wert pointed out that the laptops also had more “flexibility and the memory is great. Most of our employees work from home, but we’re also looking at the benefit of the laptops compatibility and interchangeability.” Councilman McIver agreed, saying the laptops had “the benefit of both worlds”.
Online payment for your business license
Councilman McIver proposed that the Council approve an unbudgeted expenditure of up to $10,000 to purchase the programming, services, licenses and integration with a credit card processing firm for the purpose of providing online credit card acceptance for business license applications. “There are a number of businesses that have branch offices here,” said Mr. McIver, “and the ability to pay online would allow anyone to go online, fill out the form, pay by credit card and they’re done.” Councilman Orban, however, disagreed with the proposal, stating that “I’m not in favor because we’re not sure how many people would use it. Too much money has been spent already on ‘techie upgrades’. Will this really benefit the town?” Town Administrator Rucker answered that “many national firms request that they pay by credit card. Right now, mailing slows down the process which could mean fines. We would speed up the process with credit card capability and all the information would go to a third party secure site.” The Mayor also added that “part of our function [as Town Council] is to provide service. The Ways and Means committee did recommend that we approve this.” The expenditure was approved 4 to 1 with Councilman Orban against the decision.
Beach Sweep/River Sweep Day
The Town of Kiawah officially recognized September 15, 2007 as “Beach Sweep/River Sweep Day”, a day organized by the SC Sea Grant Consortium to keep our beaches and rivers clean. The sweep was conducted from Night Heron Park, where sweepers met at 8:30am for refreshments before being handed bags, gloves and a portion of Kiawah’s beaches and/or marsh to clean up.
Improving the Town parking lot
Council voted to approve the expenditure of up to $30,000 for parking lot improvements at Town Hall upon the renewal of the Overflow Parking Lot Lease with Kiawah Resort Associates. The creation of additional parking spaces will alleviate the overflow of parking problem. The project will create approximately 15 – 18 new spaces with overhead lighting for safety and security purposes. The project site is the current dirt lot adjacent to the Municipal Center. The expenditure was approved unanimously; though the Mayor asked to amend the request to say that it will be executed on confirmation of the renewal of the lease. Also, the KRA, the current owners of the land, ask that if they ever want the land back, the Town needs to return it in its found condition. The lease will cost a staggering $1 year to renew.
Art Council 2006/07 program evaluation ready
Councilman Lipuma announced that the Art Council’s 2006/07 program evaluation was ready and available for anyone that wants to review it. “We had great attendance last year,” said Mr. Lipuma. “We were under budget by 3.5%, but I’ll leave it to ya’ll to read through.” Mayor Wert thanked Mr. Lipuma, stating that the report was “very thorough” and “a nice job”. The 2007/08 program, said Mr. Lipuma, will focus on a variety of series, including jazz, ballet and concert performances. The first performance of the year, the full CSO orchestra performing a classical concert, will be held on Thursday, October 4 at 7:30pm at Holy Spirit Catholic Church. “Check the Town website and Town Notes for updates on the calendar,” said Mr. Lipuma. “The Art Council planner will be filled in as we go along over the course of the season.” The planner will also include the start dates for ticket pickups.
Wildlife reports
Councilman Lipuma reported that a dead five and a half foot dolphin had been reported near the Beach Club. A necropsy had been performed, but they were still waiting to hear the results. The wildlife team also relocated an eight foot alligator that had taken up residence in the front flower bed of the Sanctuary. On September 3, an adult female bobcat that had been collared in 2004 was killed in a car accident. Also, it was reported that 12 alligator nests have been found on the island so far, a number that indicates a healthy population. There has also been a series of recent fish kills due to the warm, high salinity of the water. Over 5600 pounds of dead fish have been cleared from the island, including 400 pounds from a local pond. Finally, the piping plover monitoring has been going well. They are surveyed two times every ten days until fall, when the monitoring will be done two times a month.
Town audit going well
Councilman Orban announced that the Town’s audit is in full progress thanks to Town Treasurer and it is moving along rapidly. The results will be available at the next town meeting.
Town Notes and Town Digest
Councilman Burnaford announced that the combination of the Town Notes and Town Digest had been a success. They are still looking for contributors, however to fill the extra four pages created by combining the two publications. For submissions or questions, please contact Tumiko Rucker at Town Hall.
Well grounded fun
Recently it was reported that a property owner ran his boat aground in the island’s newly created renourishment zone. As luck would have it, the consultant hired to monitor the zone was nearby and attempted to pull the grounded boat out of the inlet. He attached a tow rope to the boat and to his 4 x 4, however, the boat was too well grounded and instead of pulling the boat out, the vehicle broke a rod and he ended up having to call for assistance for both of them. The next day, the boat floated out on its own.
John’s Island Council
Councilman Orban reported that he attended the John’s Island Council meeting in Mr. Burnaford’s stead, since Mr. Burnaford was out of town that week. He announced that he had signed up Mr. Burnaford for the Council’s “Blue Ribbon Committee”, a group of concerned citizens who, over the next few years, will assist the Department of Transportation by drawing up proposals for the widening of Betsy Kerrison Blvd and Bohicket road.
*Please note that the approved minutes from this meeting will be available at the next Kiawah Island Council meeting on October 2, 2007.
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