A Year in Review

Every year in January for this column, I take a minute to reflect on all that we accomplished the year prior in Fountain Inn. And what a list for 2022!

Private Sector Growth

Having the private sector invest in our community is been one of the biggest compliments Fountain Inn has received. Small and large businesses are choosing our city and our residents to create jobs, support families, and offer goods and services closer to home. 

● We saw small businesses grow in town, yet again, with nearly a dozen new shops and restaurants opening up in and around downtown Fountain Inn.

● Fox Hill Business Park on 418 has two buildings up and nearly complete, with both of them fully leased - over 500,000 square feet total.

● Key sites such as the Flour Mill and the old mill property are moving forward with their exciting new plans.

● Nearly every vacant storefront in downtown has an active lease on it - the pace of each of those projects vary.

Comprehensive Plan 
+ Zoning Updates

My biggest objective as Mayor has been to focus in on zoning and help control the growth we’re experiencing. To do this the right way, we’ve set out to totally overhaul our Comprehensive Plan, the city’s 10-year strategic vision. After its completion, we can begin rewriting nearly all of our zoning laws, but we’re not going to wait long to start that either. A committee of residents, business owners, faith leaders, and youth will help guide this entire process from start to finish.

Public input sessions are already set for later in January, plus focus groups are being formed. We hope everyone will participate in the process. 

Parks & Facilities

We’ve spent a good amount of time in 2022 looking at our physical needs for employees and city services.

● Sanctified Hill Park’s facelift is well underway, with completion set for Spring 2023. Our park most in need, the new Sanctified Hill Park will be a marked improvement over what our community was offered for the last few decades. 

● A Parks Master Plan was also set in motion in 2022. We’ve got needs across all of our other parks, but we also have a growing Recreation Department in need of more field and park space. Our Parks Master Plan will use the community’s input to help us prioritize all of these needs and give us an actionable plan.

● We broke ground on our much-needed Public Utilities Complex, giving our Public Works and Natural Gas crews the space they need and deserve to keep our city running. Being built on nine acres on the Laurens County side of town (land purchased for $1.00), this facility will have room for all of our equipment and staff now, and in the future.

 Infrastructure

We have continued to focus on local infrastructure and have made some good progress in 2022 that folks will see play out in 2023.

● Main Street improvements are coming from 418 to Jones St. As design work started in 2022, we’ll see dirt move in 2023 to make our entire historic Main Street have the same look and feel.

● As you may know, SC DOT owns the vast majority of roads in Fountain Inn, leaving their maintenance to the state and their prioritization process. Without exaggeration, after three years of pushing and navigating the process, we finally got word in 2022 that the following projects are all slated to begin in 2023:

○ Repaving: Highway 418 from Main Street to the Laurens County line (north). 

○ Repaving: Jones Mill Road from FI High School to Scuffletown Road.

○ Repaving: Jones Road from Durbin Creek Road (Durbin Oaks & Winterbrook neighborhood area).

○ Traffic Signalization: I-385 South & Highway 418 (Exit 23).

● Our sewer rehabilitation project continues to march on. Upon completion, our entire sewer system will be relined and rehabbed. We’ve used grant funding to make a lot of progress in 2022, and have continued to seek additional grant funding to carry it even further.■