North Augusta Mayor Briton Williams was joined by a group of downtown business owners to update storm recovery in the city.
“One of the things I’m excited about is we have power in our downtown and Riverside Village, and we are open for business,” said Williams.
Joining Williams were representatives from Fleet Feet, Orange Otter, The Grove Gourmet Market, Cavalier’s Coffee and Shoppe 3130.
Jenny Elliott, owner of Shoppe 3130, said businesses and citizens are all part of the same community.
“I feel like our neighbors and our business neighbors were the first people to show up with us and for us,” she told ABD, asking customers to continue to shop locally.
“If there’s something that they need, look local first, and before you hop on Amazon, or before you go out of out of the downtown area, like look here first and see if it’s something we can help with,” she said.
Williams said Dominion Energy crews have been able to restore power to parts of the exit five commercial district, helping the ER at Sweetwater, Aiken Regional Medical Center’s free-standing ER, and the newly open Tru by Hilton Hotel, both on Austin Graybill Road.
“What’s really been nice is Dominion was able to get the regional gas distribution tanks up (on Sweetwater Road),” he added. “So, you can see that’s why Parker’s, you got QT, most of the gas stations are open. So, that has been a big, big, big, big plus. It’s just taking time, but progress day by day.”
While North Augusta is doing what it can to support its small business community, Will Williams, President and CEO of Western SC Economic Development, told ABD his office is working with the region’s larger companies.
“We’re coordinating with our existing industries, finding out what their situations are. Many of them are operating with skeleton crews. They’re trying to work with their employees to be able to know, because obviously, they know their employees are dealing with situations at home and don’t have gas or power all those kind of things,” he said, adding the companies are also looking for ways to help their communities.
“Many of them are trying to figure out ways to step up and offer support to the community. So, we’re trying to identify vacant buildings where power providers can set up different tent cities and things like that, so they can have a base of operations for these contractors that are coming to assist them from out of town.”
Mayor Williams said there are a few things residents can do to help smooth the way to recovery. First, check the electrical connection to your meter. If it is damaged, an electrician will need to make the repair before power can be restored.
“The second thing is, if you hired a company for debris, try to push that debris as much as you can off of the street,” he advised. “We don’t need it moving over into the street. Get it up in your yard, because eventually, we will be picking all that debris up, but it’s not going to happen immediately.”
Fleet Feet owner, Jenafer McCauley, who is also North Augusta Mayor Pro Tem, told ABD anyone heading to a business it is wise to check if transactions are cash-only.
“Fleet Feet is both right now, we have live internet,” she explained. “I think it’s varying between each business. So, I would check. I know I have gone to other businesses that are cash-only. So, I would be prepared, probably for cash only, and be fortunate that if you get to use your card.”
Williams said the city is posting regular updates and videos regarding cleanup and power restoration to the City of North Augusta Public Information page on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/CityofNorthAugusta
