Round and Round They Go

Looks like a regular road with a large sidewalk.

I know we talk a lot about the importance of long range planning and how our team is looking forward anticipating more and more people moving, building, commuting, playing, and shopping in Florence County. One of our major exercises focuses on transportation planning. Throughout the nation (and the world) transportation planners are working to balance the need to move traffic with the desire to maintain local quality of life. Some may say these two things are the same, but others like things to stay the way they are.

There are challenges out there. I am sure most of you have seen the video of an 'intersection in India' where rickshaws, freight vehicles, motor bikes, cars and bicyclists successfully cross a busy intersect (sans signal). Some of our colleagues to the west are looking at a measured response to balance downtown redevelopment and maintaining the ablilty to move large agricultural machinery by way of downtown roads.

Locally, one of the intersections considered the epitome of 'needing work' is Five Points. Palmetto, Cashua, Hoffmeyer and Cherokee come together here making most likely the longest light timing cycle in the county (the shortest period of time I waited was less than 30 seconds but that was around 1:00am!). A recent update to the urban long range transportation plan (LRTP) considering upgrading Five Points to the Five Points Roundabout. Now, of course anything 'round' has no points; but my point is that this intersection has six, so everyone is entitled to a unique perspective. So, how about a little preview of how a roundabout looks and what it can do.

...but these strange markings tell a different tale.

These photos and the following video were taken from the Coastal Carolina University campus while on my way to a conference. It's really amazing how well the roundabout works. I entered the campus from 544 and there was a very long line to exit at that signal. This intersection, however, was flowing very well (even with bus traffic). Watch one of the buses take a left by going right (Lightning McQueen?) around the circle.

Notice there is a dominant roadway, but once a vehicle is in the circle, they have the right of way. Also notice how far back the pedestrian crossing is from the intersection - the markings make it obvious to drivers that pedestrians come first in this setup.

Now that's not so bad, so let's get your feedback. Do you think a roundabout will work for Florence? Have you experienced this roundabout? Thank you!

Calling All Gardners! Another Sustainability BLOG?

Yep, you read it correct, another sustainability blog! It's so important, I can't contain myself. I have to share things with you as I am introduced to them. Have any of you ever heard of Hurricane Leon? No, not a storm! He is a Florence resident whose place of business is just a few blocks north of Lucas Street on North Irby. (Look for the boat with the huge fish on it at the edge of his property)

The Planning Services Department had the opportunity to meet him, visit his facility and listen to him talk about something he is very passionate about. He operates a small vegetable farm and has started experimenting with organics, (foods that do not contain chemical pesticides), hydroponics (a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions in water, without soil), and aquaculture (involves cultivating freshwater and saltwater populations under controlled conditions). He has chickens, a rooster named "Max " (what a set of lungs he has!) and bee hives that he maintains.

If you're interested in seeing his facility and listening to his wonderful passion, I'm sure he would be delighted to hear from you. (hurricaneleon@aol.com.)

Mr. Crump is the director of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund's state office in Florence. He is a member of the South Carolina Outreach Council and serves on the executive board of the National Family Farm Coalition. In 2002, he was appointed a Food and Society Policy Fellow, a national fellowship program designed to educate consumers, opinion leaders and policymakers on the challenges associated with sustaining family farms and food systems in the United States that are environmentally sound, health promoting and locally owned and controlled.

Mr. Crump assisted Williams Middle School in starting a Community Garden that the students learn from and maintain. It's awesome!

Keeping in line with Mr. Crump's passion, Eat Smart Move More (ESMM) Florence Chapter, in association with the South Carolina Public Health Institute and Francis Marion University's Advancing Rural Community Health (ARCH) are hosting a Home & Community Gardening Forum & Panel Discussion on November 9th from 5:30 - 7 p.m.. It will be held at Francis Marion University in the Lowrimore Auditorium. The speaker will be Carrie Draper, MSW who is the Healthcare organizer with S.C. Fair Share. Mr. Crump will participate on the panel. If you're interested in learning how to start and sustain a home, school or community garden, this is the event for you on November 9th.

Homeless in 2009

In January of 2009 , more than 643,000 people were homeless in the United States. Two-thirds were in shelters while the other third were on the streets or in abandoned buildings. Sixty three percent were individuals and the remainder were members of homeless families.

From October of 2008 through September 2009, almost 1.6 million individuals had taken refuge in emergency or transitional housing. Thirty nine percent of this homeless population lived in California, New York and Florida where high housing costs contributed to the problem.

Below describes the makeup of the typical homeless population:

• 78% were adults;
  
• 61% were males;
  
• 62% were members of a minority group;
  
• 38% were 31 to 50 years old;
  
• 64% were lone individuals; and
  
• 38% had a disability.

Between 2007 and 2009, homeless individuals declined by 7 percent and homeless families increased by 30 percent.

On January 29, 2009, there were 295 homeless persons in Florence County and an additional 105 homeless persons in the Pee Dee Region. There are two soup kitchens located in Florence:

• House of Hope of the Pee Dee located at 1020 W. Darlington St.


• The Manna House at 450 Jarrott St.

Also, the Harvest Hope Food Bank is located at 2513 W. Lucas St. and depends on donations to stock their shelves. Recently they have made public requests for supplies because of the shortage.

The recession is sure to have an impact on the homeless population as statistics are updated!

I-95 Roadwork, Florence

Night time lane closures will occur in various locations north- and south-bound from mile marker 154 to 197 for guardrail repair over the next two weeks. As a reference, Dillon is exit 190, David McLeod/ I-20 is 160 and the exit for 341 is mile marker 146.

New form of alternative transportation

Do you have the Five Points traffic blues? I saw this parked on the library lawn today. No doubt someone's idea of alternative transportation. I had the privelage of riding in these regularly with a previous job - they are fun!

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Florence County "A Step Ahead" Of Natural Disasters

Tornados, hurricanes, and floods! Disasters we hope will never come our way, but know the possibility is always there. How great is it that we can worry a little less knowing that Florence County departments are on top of the aftermath should we be subjected to one of these unwelcomed disasters!

That's right! The Florence County Geographic Information System (GIS) staff has developed a computer program (DART), which is a new damage assessment tool that will be utilized in the event of a natural disaster. DART stands for Damage Assessment Relay Tool. The program combines GIS data with tax assessor information and calculates the dollar amount of damage based on property value of buildings and structures. The beauty of the program is the time it could cut in obtaining federal aid for disasters. By utilizing this new program, Florence County Emergency Management is aware almost instantly how much damage has been done and the dollar amount. This information is critical to submit to the state and federal government since this information is one of the considerations as to whether or not a presidential disaster declaration is issued.

So how does this program work? For past disasters, both an inspector and an appraiser would travel to a site with a paper map, clipboard, pen and paper. On the map, they had to figure out what piece of property they were looking at when they came to a damaged area. Then they would write down the parcel number, the type of structure, amount of damage and the address - if they could determine the address! This procedure had to be done for each damaged location. This information then had to be taken to the tax assessor's office to process the estimated damage for the neighborhood. This alone took three days.

With DART, the inspector's use dash-mounted laptops to plot points and send them back to the emergency operations center wirelessly. DART provides drop-down boxes for each field and uses a Global Positioning System (GPS) to pinpoint a team's exact location with a view of the site from the air. That way if the house is gone or completely destroyed, they can still see what use to be there. Now, what would have normally taken days to complete will make the process faster and much more accurate. As we all know, there is always the chance that the wireless communications could go down. No need to worry for this operation, the data can be logged into the computers and uploaded later at the emergecy operations center.

The Florence County Emergency Management office ran a successful first test on DART in June of this year. DART's capabilities should also help disaster response teams adjust plans as new information becomes available and allow agencies at the emergency operations center to track the path of disasters such as hurricanes and tornadoes. With these coordinates plotted on maps, they can view wind patterns and where the damage occurred. This information helps them make decisions on opening additional shelters and where to send additional resources.

We can't prevent these disasters if they are in our path, but doing whatever we can to make the aftermath easier to deal with is a big thing! Hurricane Hugo and the long weeks following it certainly are not pleasant memories. Learning about DART makes me breath a little easier should we be faced with another similar to Hugo. Hope it does the same for you!

LaHood in Florence

Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood with Congressman John Spratt.

It's not often and never anticipated to see the U.S. Secretary of Transportation in your hometown planning for transportation's future. The Secretary of Transportation is the head of the agency that provides funding for State and local transportation projects and, for the reason of today's meeting, larger national-scale projects such as I-73. So, that's is just what happened this morning. I got a tip late last night from a Darlington County colleague (thank you, Brooks) that explained that there was going to be a transportation roundtable at SiMT Friday morning.

The Planning Services team with Secretary Ray LaHood (from left, Renee Proctor, Elizabeth Ervin, myself, and Debi Matthews at the right of the Secretary.

Of course you know what I said: "what roundtable meeting on transportation at SiMT?"
So a quick search for the meeting came up with Secretary LaHood's appearance in the Pee Dee - only the second for this position. Then, since I was excited about a potential 'fun Friday' with my staff, I woke up and called them to see if they were interested! ...yes, they were interested (and were already awake!). And, plus our intern was going to go, which I though would be a fantastic experience to see government in action.

Deputy Secretary of Transportation  John D. Porcari, who LaHood said, "really runs the department." 

During his presentation, Mr. Secretary mentioned that the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure is compiling a reauthorization of the transportation funding bill (where FLATS, through SCDOT, gets it's guideshare funding) worth nearly $500 billion with a tenth of that being a "down payment" to begin with the larger, important projects that the President mentioned in Milwaukee on Labor Day.

All in all, a very eye-opening day with an audience full of elected officials, MPO staff members from GSATS (our Myrtle Beach colleagues, Grand Strand Transportation Study), directors and administrators of many of the jurisdictions that would be affected by the new interstate highway.

Exciting times here in Florence!

This blog was edited to correct the number of visits the Sec. of Trans. has visited SC.