Group Health Insurance Agent in Port Royal, SC

Looking to celebrate Fourth of July with a bang?

From Bluffton to Hilton Head and up to Port Royal, the Lowcountry region is lighting up with fireworks and festivities all week long.

Here’s where you can join in the fun and see a sparkling performance in the sky:

Kick off the holiday weekend with an evening packed full of family-friendly fun in Bluffton. Enjoy carnival-style games, bounce houses, tasty eats from local vendors and live music from the Parris Island Marine Band.

A guitar rendition of the National Anthem is scheduled for 5:55 p.m., followed by fireworks lighting up the May River at 9 p.m.

Parking: Palmetto Breeze will have free shuttle service from M.C. Riley Elementary (200 Burnt Church Road) to Oyster Factory Park. Accessible parking is available at Bluffton Town Hall (20 Bridge Street).

Join the celebration at Hilton Head’s Shelter Cove for a festive night of live performances by Shannon Tanner, face painting, games and a fireworks finale over the water.

Parking: Free shuttle services are available from the Hilton Head Community Church lot (860 William Hilton Parkway) to Shelter Cove Harbour from 5:30 to 10:30 p.m.

Enjoy all-day festivities at the Sea Pines Resort and cap the day with fireworks at the iconic Harbour Town Lighthouse over the Calibogue Sound.

Parking: Parking is available in designated lots along Greenwood Drive; attendants will direct traffic. Buses are available to transport guests to and from Harbour Town from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Celebrate with coastal flair at Sands Beach in Port Royal. The evening features local food vendors, children’s activities, live music, and a performance by the Parris Island Marine Band. The evening will close with fireworks over the river.

Parking: Parking at The Sands is only for handicapped and golf cart users. Other parking options include spaces along Paris Avenue and nearby streets.

Looking for other Independence Day events to celebrate the holiday weekend?

From patriotic parades to community festivals, events are scheduled in every corner of the region. Click here for the full rundown.

By Delayna Earley

The Island News

Beachgoers rejoice, for the causeway leading to Sands Beach in Port Royal is now open for public use, which means that vehicles can now drive onto the beach once more.

Sands Beach is rare among beaches in Beaufort County, as vehicles are allowed to drive up to and park on the beach.

Now, after three months of construction, visitors can access the beach without damaging their cars due to tidal holes and dips in the sand thanks to the new wooden causeway that opened to vehicular traffic on Friday, June 6.

The causeway, constructed by Greenway Bridge Company, out of St. Augustine, Fla., had previously opened to pedestrians at the end of May.

At 150 feet long and 24 feet wide, the wooden bridge is made from wood and has a section for vehicles to drive on and a separate part for pedestrians.

It is located where the Battery Creek and marsh meet and is constructed with pilings that were driven 25 feet deep, a foundation made from a concrete and rubberized stabilization system, sand used to level out the approach to the causeway on both sides and is capable of handling 20 tons.

The beach, which is completely accessible to vehicles except for a small portion closest to the water’s edge, is a favorite among locals who drive there to see the sunset, watch dolphins feed and search for sharks’ teeth.

It is open at dawn and closes at dusk.

The bridge cost $1.5 million and was paid for by federal COVID-19 relief funds.

The announcement of the causeway opening was first made on social media, drawing mostly positive comments from the community.

On Facebook, the post has been liked more than 600 times, has been shared more than 60 times and has attracted more than 100 comments.

While most comments are positive, there were concerns raised about safety and size of the causeway, stating that the causeway appears to only be wide enough to allow one vehicle to use it and could be problematic when the beach is busy.

Delayna Earley, who joined The Island News in 2022, formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.

At long last, the dark skies hanging over Safe Harbor Marina’s waterfront redevelopment plans in the town of Port Royal have cleared.

At Tuesday’s Town Council meeting, council members were almost giddy as they approved key amendments to development agreements between the town and Safe Harbor along with an important land swap. Those moves, they say, amend the once-fractured partnership and pave the way for a “reset” so construction can begin this year. Plans call for a marina-centered residential and retail development for one of the most recognizable properties in northern Beaufort County.

Town officials called ratification of the development changes a new day in the relationship — and even a critical point in the town’s history, which was incorporated in 1874 and dates to 1562. The 300 acres along Battery Creek serves as the town’s front porch and can be seen by thousands of motorists daily who cross the Bell Bridge. The picturesque property sits adjacent to heavily-used Sands Beach and a boardwalk.

The remake of the waterfront is expected to boost the population of the community of 16,000 by as many as a 1,000 residents while attracting boats including yachts traveling between northeastern states and Florida.

“This is a monumental moment for Port Royal,” Councilman Darryl Owens said. “I’m sitting here now and I actually have goosebumps.”

Town Council members unanimously approved amendments to two key documents known as a development and planned unit development agreements. Those papers spell out what will get built and when and how and where. Council members also approved a land swap that clears the way for key pieces of the development, including a promenade through the marsh.

The South Carolina Ports Authority once owned the land where it ran the Port of Port Royal marine terminal from 1959 to 2004 before selling in 2017 to Grey Ghost Properties, which, in turn, sold the land to Safe Harbor in 2021. The relationship between Safe Harbor, a world-wide marina operator, and the town quickly soured over a litany of issues. But in February, the two sides reached a settlement agreement resolving their differences.

The amendments to the planned unit development and development agreements “codified” that settlement allowing the Port project to finally get off the ground more than 20 years after the state sold the property and redevelopment discussions began.

“This is the paperwork part that gets everybody to go to work,” Mayor Kevin Phillips said.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Safe Harbor and town officials traded niceties as if they had not been butting heads for months or residents had not paraded through Town Council chambers toting signs protesting the state of the development in 2023 and demanding a better outcome.

The two sides spent spent countless hours of time “hammering out” the issues to get to this point, Phillips said. “I just thank God I get to be here while it’s happening and I get to be a part of it,” Phillips said Tuesday.

Safe Harbor’s Colby Cooper was also upbeat and marveled at how long the project had been under discussion, which came long before Safe Harbor arrived on the scene.

“Many of us were teenagers when this process started,” said Colby, drawing a few laughs.

The town’s first ordinance related to the redevelopment was approved in 2011 — then amended in 2017, 2021 and now 2025, Cooper noted.

He characterized the latest amendments to the development plans as a “reset.”

Ron Gift, a regional Safe Harbor vice president, said last week, when the town gave preliminary approval to the changes, that the company has the permits needed to begin construction on a marina permitted for up to 300 slips. But he added that the company is focused on quality not speed.

The location of the marina benefits both Safe Harbor and the town, he said.

“With proximity to the coastal waterway, it is traffic-centric for the general boating public and frankly will be the premier waterfront anchor for the town,” Gift said.

Safe Harbor is planning a “world-class marina” that will include spaces for yachts, sail boats and other vessels. The marina will be flanked by a few hundred units of housing. Retail is in the mix as well. Public components include a park, shrimp docks and promenade through the marsh.

Here are highlights of the amendments and land swap:

▪ The construction timeline is clarified: The initial build-out will be three to five years, with work beginning later this year and continuing through 2028. Besides work on building docks, various mixed-use land parcels and buildings will be prepared that will be available for sale by the middle to latter part of 2026. Also during this phase, park sites and a pedestrian promenade system will be designed to accommodate and link future phases of development.

The dry stack boat storage facility that’s already in place will expand and development of residential areas will start after properties are sold. The park sites, pedestrian promenade, and additional open space will be completed and conveyed to the Town. The estimated population is expected to grow to 500 during this time period.

The period between 2028 and 2030 will be considered the close-out phase, during which much of the property will be available and major infrastructure will be complete. By this time, the estimated population will be 1,000.

▪ Safe Harbor will transfer land known as the “beer garden,” and adjacent areas of the marsh and its dry-stack boat storage facility, to the town.

The property is now used as a parking area for those visiting Sands Beach or the boardwalk.

The land is critical to a plan to build an elevated public promenade across the marsh that will stretch between the existing boardwalk viewing tower and the beer garden.

The town will give Safe Harbor five in-town townhouse lots in exchange.

▪ Safe Harbor is granting an easement to the town to operate the town-owned Henry Robinson Boardwalk which is located on Safe Harbor property.

▪ The town will also receive land between the Fishcamp on 11th Street restaurant and Shellring Ale Works where it plans to build new shrimp docks and a seafood processing facility. In return for that land, the town plans to waive a $150,000 contribution from Safe Harbor toward the fish processing facility.

▪ Safe Harbor will agree to cap the number of rental units in its housing plans at 15%. That issue arose when residents opposed an initial plan to build mostly rentals.

▪ The town will issue a temporary use permit to Safe Harbor for up to 18 months to build the docks for the marina. Long-term, however, it can’t use the area as a construction site to build docks. This settles a dispute over construction activities on the site.

▪ Safe Harbor is granting an easement that allows the extension of the Spanish Moss Trail.

It’s not everyday you see workers in buckets — at night — suspended under a major bridge but that’s what is occurring in Port Royal this week.

The rare sight is occurring at the Bell Bridge in Port Royal, the bridge that connects the town with residential neighborhoods and commercial areas of Shell Point and the U.S. Marine Corps Recruit Station Parris Island on the other side of Battery Creek.

The bridge doesn’t just transport vehicles. Two 14-inch diameter water pipes also hang on each side.

About every three years, crews with the Beaufort-Jasper Water Sewer Authority need to inspect those major lines, said Jeff La Rue, BJWSA’s chief communications officer.

Given their location hanging from the sides of a bridge, it takes special equipment, specifically a rig similar to a cherry picker, a hydraulic crane with a platform at the end for raising and lowering people that’s often used to reach overhead cables.

To inspect the bridge water pipes, however, BJWSA workers must go out and down, not up. The arm on the BJWSA cherry picker reaches out over the railing and lowers a bucket below the bridge so the crew can check the pipes and also the structures that hold them in place, La Rue said.

“If you can picture what electric guys use to go up electrical poles,” La Rue says. “It looks like that. It goes out over the railing and hangs down so guys can stand in the bucket.”

The process is causing some traffic disruption but that can’t be helped because the BJWSA vehicles need to drive slowly down the bridge checking the water mains on both sides.

Lane closures began Tuesday and will continue through Friday. To limit the inconvenience, however, the inspections are occurring nightly between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Drivers should anticipate delays and are urged to use caution while traveling through the area for their safety and that of the BJWSA crews, La Rue said.

The BJWSA treats and delivers 20 million gallons of drinking water to 60,000 retail customers across a 750-square mile service area has an average altitude between 13 and 39 feet above sea level. It also collects and treats nine million gallons of wastewater daily across 1,420 miles for about 43,000 sewer accounts.