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BEAUFORT — After a dozen years slinging burgers and pouring craft beer, Fat Patties owner Nick Borreggine has decided to call it quits. Sort of.

Doors will close Aug. 24 at the burger joint along the Parris Island Parkway.

"It's very bittersweet," said restaurant general manager Deanna Gray, who also is Borregine's sister and has worked at the restaurant for all of its 12 years. "It's been a good run."

The location won't, however, remain closed for long.

Borreggine and family look to fill what they see as a gap in the area's culinary offerings. Within four weeks of closing, maybe six weeks at the outside, a renamed and refocused restaurant will open at the same location.

"It's going to be called Scratch Italian Kitchen and Bar," Borreggine told The Post and Courier. "All of our own pasta will be made in house, and the restaurant will have a coastal Italian influence with light and bright flavors."

Most of the work required for the transition will be cosmetic, which will facilitate the relatively quick change over.

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A native of Delaware, Borreggine has had a lot of success in the restaurant industry since moving to the Lowcountry in 2000. He opened Panini's on the Waterfront on Bay Street in Beaufort and ran it for 11 years before selling it to open Fat Patties in 2012. A second Fat Patties location opened in Bluffton in 2015. It was sold six years later. Following its sale, Borreggine opened Shellring Ale Works in Port Royal in 2022. Last year, he acquired the locally beloved Alvin Ord's Sandwich Shop on Ribault Road.

In some respects, Borreggine became a victim of his own success. Almost immediately after opening Shellring along Battery Creek, he realized it was taking a bite out of Fat Patties' business.

"By the time we got Shellring opened, we cannibalized ourselves at Fat Patties," Borreggine said. "We lost a good bit of business the week Shellring opened."

Over time, some of the business at Fat Patties bounced back, but not all of it. Closing, Borreggine expects, will improve business at Shellring as both restaurants catered to the beer and burgers crowd.

HILTON HEAD ISLAND — A man found dead beneath a Sea Pines home the morning of Aug. 26 is believed to be a vacationer who went missing 10 days earlier.

Law enforcement officials and the county coroner were working to identify the man but he is believed to be Stanley Kotowski, according to a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office press release.

Investigators were called to a Sea Pines residence at 11:30 a.m. and recovered the body from beneath the home around 3:30 p.m.

An autopsy will be conducted Aug. 27 to determine the man’s identity and cause of death.

A search party for Kotowski was canceled minutes before it was set to begin at 1 p.m. on Aug. 26. An organizer relayed the news to a crowd of about 40 people who had gathered at the Salty Dog restaurant in Sea Pines to assist with the effort.

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The organizer, Andi Gudgeon, said she received a call shortly before the search was scheduled to begin informing her of the cancelation, but she was unsure of the reason.

Ten days before, around 10:30 a.m. on Aug.16, Kotowski inexplicably walked barefoot out the front door of his family’s vacation home at 226 South Sea Pines Drive and wandered away.

Kotowski’s family filed a report with the sheriff’s office a few hours later, but the 60-year-old hasn’t been seen since.

Jackie Kotowski told investigators her husband had displayed paranoia since the family arrived at the vacation rental. According to the report, he believed Sea Pines was a “set up,” that people there were out to get him and that they were “watching him.”

She also told deputies Kotowski wasn’t suicidal but before he left, Kotowski told her: “Promise me you will go on without me.”

The 60-year-old does not have dementia, but has history of paranoia, insomnia, anxiety and high blood pressure, according to the report. He was last seen wearing a gray Coors Light shirt and dark blue/gray Columbia shorts. He’s not believed to have a phone, wallet or driver’s license on him.

Following a growing national academic trend, time is up for cell phones in classrooms in Beaufort County schools.

As students return to class this semester, they will be greeted by a new decision prohibiting student use of cell phones during school hours. Teachers will start enforcing the policy on the first day of school.

The only exception to the rule allows high school students to use their phones during their lunch period. When phones aren’t being used they must be “turned off and stored in a locker, pocket, purse, backpack, or other non-visible location,” according to the policy.

The ban comes as the South Carolina Board of Education is writing a policy to be adopted statewide by public school districts. It is unclear when the state will come out with its policy; but when it does, districts must follow it to continue to receive state funds. The state policy could be more or less strict than Beaufort County’s rules.

Until then Beaufort County will operate on the regulation put out last month, which Superintendent Frank Rodriguez created after the school board directed him to research and create guidelines in May.

“One way or the other, cell phones are out,” Board Member Ingrid Boatright said.

Last year, Florida required public schools to ban student cellphone use during class time, making it the first state to implement a ban. This year, at least eight other states have considered passing similar legislation, according to USA Today.

A district survey showed that the community largely supported the measure. Out of 2,300 parents, students, community members and staff, 74% supported limitations on cell phones during school.

The guidelines are broken up into rules for non-district-issued:

Personal electronic devices, meaning computers, tablets, e-readers, video game systems, digital cameras and other devices capable of sending, storing or recording information and data.

Personal communication devices, meaning cell phones, smart watches or any other device that can emit a signal or communicate to another.

It is also broken up into rules for elementary and middle school students, and high school students.

Elementary and middle school students can’t use either type of device during class or lunch. They can use their devices before and after school.

High school students can’t use either device during class, They can use both devices before and after school. They can only use personal communication devices, such as a cell phone, during lunch.

The Island Packet has scheduled a meeting with Superintendent Rodriguez next week to get more details about this new policy. Please send any questions you have to mdimitrov@islandpacket.com and look for answers in the story that follows.

The Island Packet

(843) 940-8964

Mary Dimitrov is the Hilton Head Island and real estate reporter for The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette. A Maryland native, she has spent time reporting in Maryland and the U.S. Senate for McClatchy’s Fort Worth Star-Telegram. She won numerous South Carolina Press Association awards, including honors in education beat reporting, growth and development beat reporting, investigative reporting and more.

We love our Ohio friends and constantly joke about them on our social media. If you are unaware as to why we do this, well, we certainly didn’t start it. The folks at Island Communications over on Hilton Head actually started it with an article many years ago, and they published it to let folks know why they’ll see Ohio everywhere, and the history behind it all.

So let’s look at the real reason as to why Ohioans love Hilton Head, and the rest of Beaufort County, and why “you will see Ohio license plates even in your sleep.”

If you live here, you know the old jokes. There are more Ohio license plates than there are South Carolina plates. Ohioans in packed minivans going 15 miles an hour down 278 (and 21). And, you’ve heard that Hilton Head is actually “Southern Ohio.”

It’s popular for Clevelanders, Columbusers, Cincinnatians, Akronites and Toledoans, and, well just about everyone from the Buckeye State.

So, what’s the deal? Why do Ohioans love Hilton Head Island (and the rest of Beaufort County)?

We’ll have to relive some Hilton Head history, starting with Charles Fraser.

Fraser was an American real estate developer whose vision helped transform South Carolina’s Hilton Head Island from a sparsely populated sea island into a world-class resort.

He developed the land that eventually became Sea Pines, creating a groundbreaking style of real estate development. Fraser built with a reverence and respect for the natural environment.

Back in the 1970s, Charles Fraser asked his Sea Pines marketing team come up with a strategy to target landlocked states.

The idea was to spread the word to states like Ohio to see how beautiful Hilton Head is. The marketing team wanted people to come here on vacation and ultimately buy real estate.

It was called “the Ohio Strategy.”

The Sea Pines’ crew knew Ohioans were looking for quality beaches that were easily accessible by Interstate highways. So, they ran an influx of advertisements in Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland and Toledo.

It worked, and families started coming in droves during the summer.

And every summer, the legacy lives on

Buckeyes pack the beaches, restaurants, shops and villas. Generations of Ohio families make their yearly pilgrimage to golf, bike and beach and boat. It is easy to get to (Beaufort County). From Ohio, it is a straight 10-12 hour drive down I-77.

Although long-time locals joke about the annual Buckeye invasion, Hilton Head Island (and the rest of Beaufort County) gladly welcome it.

Ohioans are important to our economy, as a tourism is our number one income. Tourist shops offer Buckeye Beach Bum T-shirts and stickers. And Salty Dog gear flies off the shelves, bought by vacationers to take home with them. Not to mention, they take home memories of their week in paradise.

Originally published by Island Communications at HiltonHeadIsland.com and republished with permission by ExploreBeaufortSC.com

Beaufort’s premiere summer event, the 10 day 68th Annual Beaufort Water Festival, kicks off this Friday evening, July 12th, at Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park in downtown Beaufort bringing our summertime celebration of Lowcountry culture that locals wouldn’t miss for the world and that has tens of thousands of visitors making a special trip to experience each year.

Now in its 68th year, the Beaufort Water Festival brings family friendly activities, sporting events, daily & nightly concerts, kid’s fun, fireworks displays and lots more.

If you like dancing, live music, touring shrimp boats, enjoying huge parades or even having dinner surrounded by the entire community, the Annual Beaufort Water Festival has been a can’t-miss event for hundreds of thousands of folks over the decades. There’s even an arts & crafts market that runs every day for your shopping pleasure, and a sponsor’s expo so you can meet some of the local businesses who have helped make this year’s Water Festival happen.

Tickets are available for online purchase only. Visit this link for your tickets and info.

If you’re heading downtown, and we know you will be, parking can sometimes be hard to find so the Water Festival provides a free shuttle from Beaufort Town Center to the downtown waterfront. Here’s a link to the shuttle information, and link to view available downtown Beaufort parking.

If you’re looking for an official Annual Beaufort Water Festival t-shirt, you can find the t-shirt booth set up along the marina in the vendor market. They’ll have every size and color that you could want, and then some.

Also, please make sure that you dress for the weather. With average temperatures in the mid-90s and the humidity making it feel even hotter, it’s best that you dress lightly, and bring both sunscreen and an umbrella. The umbrella may be necessary because we tend to get a stray thunderstorm on hot July days here in the Lowcountry. If the sky opens up, you’ll be happy that you brought it. Take it from us, we know from experience.

Please note that some of the events come with a few rules about your attendance and what you can and cannot bring with you, and that pets are always a no-no.

Before entering a Beaufort Water Festival performance or event, you may be subject to a search of your person, and/or your items. Please arrive at the venue no less than 20 minutes prior to performance time to ensure you can clear security checks prior to the event starting.

This year, the Beaufort Water Festival has implemented a clear-bag policy for all ticketed events. Visit this link to get the info on the new policy and to find out what are are allowed, and are not allowed, to bring.

Remember, there will be a whole lot of people in downtown. Please be kind and patient, and enjoy yourselves while making memories of your summer fun in Beaufort, SC.

Please note that some events are adult only, and most events come with a few rules about your attendance and what you can and cannot bring with you.

If you plan to attend the festival, here’s the full schedule of events. It’s best to come early, as downtown Beaufort can fill up pretty fast.

Embattled by threatening sea level rise and erosion, nature-based protections for areas near the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort are forming as part of a $6.8 million push to protect South Carolina’s coast.

The armor comes in the form of interlocking concrete squares with open tops and bottoms that, when puzzled and stacked atop one another, create lines parallel to the shore that become living shoreline reefs. They’re called oyster-castle living shorelines.

The environmentally conscious cobbled reef is what the Department of Defense, The Nature Conservancy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say will protect parts of the air base that are already experiencing rapid erosion and flooding issues, which are only expected to worsen.

For part of the air base, at Laurel Bay on the Broad River, the planned 2,000-foot oyster-castle living shoreline will be the first line of defense against storm surge, erosion and flooding. Since the spring, volunteers have built about 20% of the structure.

Living shorelines are “a win-win for everybody,” said Gary Herndon, the air station’s natural and cultural resources manager. “For people, the shoreline, and nature in general. It’s better than hardening the shoreline.”

And it’s due time for this type of long-term solution.

Scientists’ flooding and sea level rise predictions paint a grim future for MCAS Beaufort if it doesn’t intervene.

The Union of Concerned Scientists says in a high-scenario, flood-prone areas within the base’s 6,900 acres could experience tidal flooding more than 300 times a year by 2050. In the worst-case scenario, a Category 4 hurricane would bring 6 feet of sea level rise and maybe double the area exposed to flood depths of 20 feet or more by 2100, the nonprofit organization reported.

Herndon previously told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette that being responsible stewards of the land meant addressing current erosion and future projections by working with Mother Nature.

When Herndon and Joy Brown, then-resilient communities program director for The Nature Conservancy, connected in 2022, Brown was working to nab a NOAA grant for living shorelines. Herndon said he knew just the place for it.

Along the Broad River at Laurel Bay, erosion had exposed tree roots, causing the trunks to topple over and die. The particular stretch is near the military housing units. If no action were taken, erosion would eat away at the shoreline and eventually affect properties and community spaces behind it over time, said Nicole Pehl, the Conservancy’s marine conservation coordinator.

In July 2023, NOAA awarded the Conservancy $6.8 million for South Carolina coastal resilience and habitat restoration projects, and a chunk of the funding was funneled into the oyster-castle living shoreline at MCAS Beaufort. The other money is intended to help low-income landowners implement living shorelines on their South Carolina properties.

Nearly a year since getting the grant, the Conservancy has spent $168,895 on 20,930 castles, Pehl said. It’s half of what’s needed to complete the project. They initially budgeted $250,695 for the concrete castles, but because of rising shipping costs, the price of the four-walled blocks has increased significantly.

The Conservancy plans to complete the entire 2,000-foot reef despite likely needing to increase its budget to purchase the remaining castles.

The structure is ideal for the stretch’s conditions, with its gently sloping shoreline, firm sediment and higher salinity, Pehl said. Oyster castles are an environmentally conscious and largely advantageous solution as compared to contentious erosion control structures like sea walls.

When the sandy gray oyster castles are deployed along shorelines, oyster larvae attach to them and grow all while helping reduce wave energy and erosion along the shoreline. Building and placing living shorelines keep the water clean, build up salt marshes, promote vegetation growth, create wildlife habitats and support important local resources, such as the commercial fishing industry.

“We’ve had a lot of success with them in the past,” Pehl said. “They’re good for a variety of energy levels, and there’s a big amount of energy out there, so they shouldn’t move around because they are heavy.”

Two weeks after laying part of the living shoreline, visible sediment had already piled up behind the structure.

“It’s been cool to be able to see so fast that there’s a difference,” Pehl said.

Projected to complete 1,000 feet of the project in 2024, there’s still about 575 feet of heavy lifting to reach that goal.

On Tuesday, an active duty-only team of 80 people built about 75 feet of project in 2.5 hours, while dodging rising tides. The previous volunteer builds were open to the entire community.

MCAS Beaufort isn’t the only military base embracing natural solutions in low-lying areas and needing a helping hand.

In December 2022, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation awarded nearly $1.2 million from its National Coastal Resilience Fund to Parris Island Marine Corps Recruit Depot and partner organizations to install more than 4,500 wire oyster reefs to cover nearly two acres in Beaufort. Currently, there are two volunteer opportunities to help build those reefs, on July 18 and Aug. 2.

Once the blistering summer heat dissipates, Herndon said they plan to get volunteers back out to the site, battling the tides to lay more oyster castles.

This story was originally published July 4, 2024, 9:33 AM.