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He spoke for about 33 and a half minutes, using a PowerPoint containing several slides of photos.

“Florence County has a $64 million budget,” Dorriety said. “Some people think that’s a lot of money and it is but we run a very tight ship, a very thin ship, so we don’t have a lot of extra revenue to throw around.”

Dorriety implied that the lack of revenue necessitates working with partners. His presentation provided several examples of the collaboration between partners.

The Drs. Bruce & Lee Foundation: He thanked the foundation of providing the funding to construct the county’s library system. Dorriety also reminded the crowd that the county is responsible for paying the employees at those libraries.

Dorriety said he felt the main branch of the library, the Drs. Bruce & Lee Foundation Florence County Library, was part of the county’s contribution to the city’s downtown revitalization efforts.

He also thanked the foundation for donating approximately $4 million to the building of the Florence County Museum.

Once again, he said the county must pay for the employees of the museum.

Dorriety also mentioned the foundation’s involvement in the location of a Buc-EEs off Interstate 95’s exit 170.

Senator Hugh K. Leatherman Sr: Dorriety also thanked State Sen. Hugh K. Leatherman Sr. for his work in securing approximately $4 million for the construction of the county museum.

He mentioned that Leatherman helped the county acquire over $300 million in funding from the State Infrastructure Bank for the building of six roads in the county’s first capital project sales tax.

Dorriety also pushed back on criticism that Leatherman received for funding the expansion of S.C. 51, the Pamplico Highway, and U.S. 378. He said the critics had no idea how much those expansions were going to open up the areas of Pamplico, Johnsonville and Lake City.

City of Florence: Dorriety used the example of the Florence Center as showing the power of cooperation between the city and the county.

He said the facility had two profitable months in the previous year, very unusual for that type of facility.

The Florence Center’s economic impact is $52 million and growing, Dorriety said. That growth can be felt in the location of several hotels around the center.

Dorriety thanked the city for its help with water for the new Niagara Bottling Plant coming to the Pee Dee Touchtone Energy Commerce City.

On Wednesday, at the Florence County Legislative luncheon, Dorriety said working with the city on water was essential to continued economic development.

Dorriety also spoke about the county’s somewhat strained relationship with the city. Dorriety indicated at the February county council meeting that the county’s intergovernmental committee would be meeting with the city at least quarterly.

Florence Mayor Pro Tempore Frank J. “Buddy” Brand II indicated that the city had also set up a committee of himself and council members Glynn F. Willis and Teresa Myers Ervin to meet with the county’s committee.

Other municipalities: Dorriety also spoke about the transformation of Lake City, something he credited to the Darla Moore Foundation.

He recommended that those attending visit the new Lake City Park, now complete with accessible playground equipment for disabled children.

He also spoke about a project at another smaller municipality where the municipality sought and received $500,000 for the building of a new water tower in the second capital project sales tax. The municipality then used that funding to get a $1 million grant to build the water tower.

Utilities: The county’s three power utilities, Dorriety said, were also essential in providing the power to the potential industrial sites.

Dorriety added that three utilities, Duke Energy Progress, Pee Dee Electric Cooperative, and Santee Electric Cooperative, were fantastic partners.

Looking toward the future: The goal of the collaboration between the county and its partners, Dorriety said, was simple: continue to economically develop the county so that it can compete to retain its youth and grow into the future.

The major avenue for continued economic growth will be potentially two separate bond issues.

One, approved by the Florence County Council in February, will be around $22 million. The proceeds from those bonds will be used to acquire and develop industrial property in the county to have on hand when an economic developer investigates locating a facility in Florence.

The other is the potential reimposition of the Capital Project Sales Tax.

Dorriety said the committee created by the council was going to receive requests for about $350 million from municipalities and the county itself but would only have approximately $160 million to spend.

He said the potential penny sales — which would not increase sales taxes in the county — would likely be similar to the county’s current sales tax with a $125 million bond issue and $25 million of pay-as-you-go projects.

Dorriety also spoke about the county’s plans for the future including the construction of a four-level, 390 space parking deck between the County Complex building and the Florence County magistrates’ offices.

He said the new parking facility would cost $14 million and would not result in a tax increase.

Dorriety added that the County Complex and the parking lot that abuts the backside of several buildings on West Evans Street would also be getting facelifts.

Dorriety said it was nice to have organizations like the Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce. He added that all the organizations like the chamber share a love of the county.

He said the most important thing was the county’s 900 employees. Dorriety added that the county had some really, really good employees.

“As you businessmen know, your business is only as good as your employees,” Dorriety said. “If you don’t have good employees, it’s not good.”

Dorriety said he was very proud of the new Florence County Judicial Center. He said he was initially skeptical and voted against a bond issue. Dorriety added that his vote actually saved the county around $14 million.

He also spoke about $6 million of previous renovations to the County Complex, indicating that the complex’s additions including a medical facility, helped save the county funds by reducing the number of sick days and the amount of downtime of employees waiting to see a doctor.

To read the full article on SC Now, click here.

In an announcement, South Carolina Federal President and CEO Scott Woods said, “We are very proud of our presence in Florence and are thrilled to deepen our community reach by merging with Health Facilities, a strong and trusted local entity.”

He said, “Florence is a thriving town and we are committed to providing the best service to our soon to be 10,000 members here.”

Members of Health Facilities Federal Credit Union voted in November to approve the merger. Health Facilities has two branches in Florence. Its main branch is at 501 S. Irby St.

Health Facilities was started in 1977, said CEO Robert Harris. It provides loans and other financial services to health-care employees and municipal employees in the Florence area.

Health Facilities Federal Credit Union has roughly $35 million in assets and more than 9,000 members, he said.

The announcement said “both Health Facilities locations and all employees will be retained. Health Facilities CEO Robert Harris will continue in the role of city executive.”

Harris said the merger will provide several benefits to the credit union and its members.

“The leadership of Health Facilities believes this merger is an opportunity to provide more convenient, competitively priced products and services to our members, while keeping pace with the growth of Florence,” Harris said. ”We look forward to the future and serving both the Pee Dee region and state of South Carolina.”

South Carolina Federal is a much larger credit union that was set up as the Charleston Naval Yard Credit Union in the mid-1930s, Harris said.

South Carolina Federal now has more than 155,000 members and operates 21 offices in five major markets: Charleston, Columbia, Georgetown, Florence and Spartanburg.

“It has close to $2 billion in assets,” Harris said.

Harris said the merger will provide Health Facilities Federal members enhanced technology, expanded services, investment options and a full line of insurance products and ATMs.

Harris has worked with Health Facilities Federal for about 16 years.

The last official board meeting of Health Facilities was held Tuesday night at The Peddler. Members of the Health Facilities Federal Credit Union Board of Directors and the Supervisory Board were recognized. Each member present was presented a plaque for his or her tenure on the board, some having served almost from the beginning when the four hospitals in Florence came together to form the credit union. In the 1980s the credit union merged with the Florence municipal employee credit union and some board members are from that merger.

Donald Wilcox, chairman of the board, said he is looking forward to the merger.

“It will mean great advantages for our members,” he said. “They (South Carolina Federal) will be able to offer them more financial services than we could because of our size.”

Jeannette Glenn, board member since 2003, retired from McLeod Regional Medical Center and a charter member of the credit union, said Health Facilities Federal Credit Union has been a tremendous value to employees and has enabled them to have valuable financial services. She said it has been a wonderful opportunity for people to save for both their living and retirement.

She said the company has partnered with the community and supported other institutions and organizations, contributing to worthy causes.

“It was a tough decision for us,” she said. “When you look at the number of services that will be provided for members through the merger it will be a wonderful thing. They already have many services that we were longing for but couldn’t have due to our size.”

Mary Ann Turner, member of the board since 1993, worked for a physicians group for 35 years before retiring. She said of her time of the board, “It is a wonderful organization and our board is the best.”

Other members of the board of directors honored at the meeting on Tuesday night were Waymon Munford (1986); Josephine Jupiter (1998); Dorothy Hines (2005); Howard Parnell (2010) and Joe Page (2017).

Harris presented a check for $25,000 to the First Responders Memorial as part of a $120,000 giving program above the company’s normal gifts given annually over the past 20 years. This portion of the gift will help finance a planned memorial for all fallen first responders to be placed at the Florence County Judicial Center, Harris said.

Previously, $10,000 was given to the Youth Mentors of the Pee Dee (formerly the Big Brothers Association), $50,000 to the McLeod Foundation ($25,000 for the Hope Fund and $25,000 for the Children’s Hospital) and $25,000 for the Boys & Girls Club of the Pee Dee.

To read the full article on SC Now, click here.

“We have always hoped to reach a level where unemployment was this low, but I don’t think even in our wildest dreams we believed we would actually get here,” said Yancey McGill, a former S.C. lieutenant governor and NESA executive committee chairman.

While the region’s unemployment ticked up slightly at the close of the year, finishing at 2.5 percent in November according to BLS, McGill said 2019 was one of the best years for development since NESA was founded in 2001.

The NESA region, which includes Chesterfield, Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Horry, Georgetown, Marion, Marlboro and Williamsburg counties, had some of the state’s highest unemployment rates over the past decade and at the height of the recession.

“Looking back, it’s hard to believe we had an unemployment rate of almost 16 percent just a few short years ago,” McGill said.

The sharp decline in unemployment has resulted in higher wages for area residents. With an ever tightening labor pool, companies have begun increasing wages to recruit and retain skilled workers. The result is an increase in the average annual wages of 3.2 percent in 2019, outperforming the state’s wage growth rate of 2.9 percent.

The region has reported growth in other areas as well. The real gross regional product – the value of all final goods and services produced in the region – has increased 2.8 percent annually over the past six years, according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. That’s higher than the national growth rate of 2.4 percent.

In 2019, the region had 23 companies announce either expansions (12) or new locations (11).

“There were so many exciting announcements in 2019,” McGill said. “We need to take a moment and congratulate and commend each of these companies for making investments in our communities. We also need to thank everyone who put in the hard work behind the scenes including the counties and individual economic developers who were involved in making these announcements possible.”

Looking forward, McGill said 2020 is a little more difficult to forecast.

“It is an election year, which typically means slower activity as companies are more willing to wait and see what happens before they make any large scale decisions,” he said. “Unemployment being at record lows is an excellent thing, but it also leads to its own list of potential problems and workforce availability questions have become inevitable.”

Despite these cautious expectations, the region has already had four new announcements in 2020. Huber Engineered Woods LLC, Pee Dee Extractors, LLC, Georgia-Pacific, and GreenCore Materials have already announced plans to invest a combined $187.9 million, creating 129 new jobs in the process.

McGill said he is excited interest in the region continues to grow and is looking forward to making 2020 another great year for the region.

COUNTY BY COUNTY UPDATES AND OUTLOOKS

Chesterfield County

Population: 45,754

Unemployment Rate: 2.1% (↓ 0.8 points YOY)

Average annual wages: $37,464

GDP: $1,596,558,000

2019 announcement totals: 4

2019 in review: “Even though it appeared things were slow, we stayed very busy in 2019,” Chesterfield County Economic Development Executive Director Kim Burch said. “We keep trying to stay ahead of the game to be prepared for potential development.

2020 expectations: “We hope that we continue to grow and develop product, which we are working on now.”

Darlington County

Population: 66,802

Unemployment rate: 2.6% (↓ 0.9 points YOY)

Average annual wages: $48,011

GDP: $2,578,701,000

2019 announcement totals: 2

2019 in review: “Darlington County had two announcements in 2019 with a total investment of $216 million. Combined with the $340 million invested in 2018, Darlington County announced

more investment in the last two years than in the previous ten years combined,” Darlington County Economic Development Executive Director Frank Willis said. “These expansions show the commitment of local industry to the county and Darlington County’s commitment to providing a good business climate for companies to invest over time.”

2020 expectations: “Darlington County expects several more expansions of existing industry during 2020, including the completion of some projects that have been on-going for quite some time.”

Dillon County

Population: 30,599

Unemployment rate: 3.1% (↓ 1.2 points YOY)

Average annual wages: $33,011

GDP: $854,575,000

2019 announcement totals: 2

2019 in review: “Dillon County had a great year for 2019. We had approximately $45 million in new investment and 150 new jobs announced,” Dillon County Economic Development Executive Director Clay Young said. “We also are conducting two studies through grants from EDA to develop a Master Plan for the Inland Port Dillon and, a county wide water and wastewater needs assessment. In 2019 our unemployment rate decreased, and our investment county-wide increased. We should see both of these continue in 2020.”

2020 expectations: “With the announcement in January, of Huber Engineered Wood, LLC, investment of $30 million and the creation of 30 new jobs, 2020 is already turning out to be one our best years on record. We are working with Equus (Capital Partners, Ltd.) and the Marlboro Development Team to build two spec buildings near Inland Port Dillon. The two spec buildings are 373,100 sq. foot (Equus) and 250,000 sq. foot (Marlboro Development Team). The county is also working with the South Carolina Department of Transportation to four-lane Highway 34 from Long Street to Harllees Bridge Road at Exit 190 on I-95.”

Florence County

Population: 138,159

Unemployment Rate: 2.2% (↓ 1.0 points YOY)

Average Annual Wages: $39,475

2019 Announcement Totals: 3

2019 In Review: “2019 was a year of continued growth for Florence County for both new industry and existing industry,” Florence County Economic Development Executive Director Joe King said. “Take McCall Farms, for example – the family-owned canning operation announced a $50 million investment that will create 140 new jobs in October 2019. Existing industry is the lifeblood of any community, and when we have existing industry expansions, that’s a sign of a healthy business climate.”

2020 Expectations: “We anticipate 2020 to mirror 2019, and expect Florence County to have both new industry announcements and existing industry expansions throughout the year. Florence County is taking an active role in enhancing the product within the county. To continue to promote growth and attract industry to the county, we must have sites and speculative buildings to compete for capital investment and jobs. Continuing to increase the shovel-ready product within the county is at the forefront of our initiatives for the coming year.”

Georgetown County

Population: 62,249

Unemployment rate: 2.7% (↓ 1.2 points YOY)

Average annual wages: $41,294

GDP: $2,498,440,000

2019 announcement totals: 0

2019 in review: “2019 was the most active year in the last decade for Georgetown County,” Georgetown County Economic Development Executive Director Brian Tucker said. “Our pipeline has never been better, and I expect 2020 to be a great year.”

2020 expectations: “Over the last five years we have focused extensively on product development and building awareness of Georgetown County around the state and beyond. We had our first announcement of the year with GreenCore Materials in late January and expect several others. These projects take a long time to develop and we hope to see the fruits of our labor in 2020.”

Horry County

Population: 344,147

Unemployment rate: 2.5% (↓ 1.3 points YOY)

Average annual wages: $34,204

GDP: $12,734,507,000

2019 announcement totals: 4

2019 in review: “I feel like 2019 was a year that made many of the past years worthwhile,” Horry County Economic Development Executive Director Sandy Davis said. “Relationships that we have built at tradeshows and marketing missions finally seem to be coming to fruition. The MBREDC is celebrating the success of 2019 and hope to continue the growth.”

2020 expectations: “2020 is off to a great start. Some of the projects that began in 2019 will be announced. Due to it being an election year, I think the influx of new projects will be less than what we saw last year.”

Marion County

Population: 31,039

Unemployment rate: 3.1% (↓ 1.8 points YOY)

Average annual wages: $31,580

GDP: $603,140,000

2019 announcement totals: 5

2019 in review: “The NESA region enjoyed tremendous success in 2019 and Marion County had a banner year with 5 announcements,” Marion County Economic Development Executive Director Dr. Julie Norman said. “I think the region is getting attention because of our transportation infrastructure (highways, Inland Port Dillon), proximity to major markets, and available sites and buildings, but it is the way the counties and NESA work as a team that brings a project to fruition.”

2020 expectations: “I hope the momentum continues and the NESA region is recognized as an ideal place to do business. Marion County intends to fill our newly constructed speculative building and start construction on another in 2020.”

Marlboro County

Population: 26,398

Unemployment rate: 3.4% (↓ 0.9 points YOY)

Average annual wages: $42,121

GDP: $822,551,000

2019 announcement totals: 3

2019 in review: “For Marlboro County, 2019 was a great year with the addition of 100+ jobs resulting from the Arris Manufacturing project,” Marlboro County Administrator Ron Munnerlyn said.

2020 expectations: “We expect 2020 to show continued job growth with Arris as well as significant progress with the large Delta project. The Delta project is the redevelopment of a 300 acre industrial “city”, formerly the site of a large textile facility. Marlboro County will take the lead on a number of initiatives resulting from our recent strategic planning update. These include infrastructure such as roads and broadband internet access to health care and tourism.”

Williamsburg County

Population: 30,606

Unemployment rate: 3.4% (↓ 1.2 points YOY)

Average annual wages: $37,699

GDP: $833,908,000

2019 announcement totals: 0

2019 in review: “2019 was an interesting year,” Williamsburg County Economic Development Executive Director Gilleon Frieson said. “We experienced record unemployment, and witnessed various economic challenges brought on by tariffs and trade policy.”

2020 expectations: “My expectations for 2020 are to have multiple announcements in NESA’s and Department of Commerce’s newsletter throughout the year regarding completed projects in Williamsburg County; enhance the workforce development initiatives through partnerships with Williamsburg County School District, Williamsburg Technical College, and the local Workforce Development Board; and inspire small businesses to achieve their full potential.”

To read the full article on SC Now, click here.

It was Jackie Olsen and Shana Sullivan’s first time attending. They work with the Pee Dee Coalition and said they came for the networking opportunity.

Don and Robin Ashwood were visiting with House of Hope and attended the event with their friend Julie Maxham, director of donor development. Don won the prize for the evening.