WALTERBORO, S.C. (WCSC) - Colleton County has two large industries coming around Walterboro in the near future and county officials are already thinking about how this is going to affect housing.

Pomega Energy Storage Technologies, a subsidiary of Kontrolmatik Technologies that makes lithium-ion batteries, is investing $279 million to build a facility located in the Colleton Industrial Campus near Walterboro.

“That is the largest economic investment of a company coming to this county in history,” Colleton County Councilman Scott Biering said.

This industry will bring in 575 jobs, but that’s not all. Biering says Boise Cascade Company, a leading manufacturer for building materials, will also bring in 30 additional jobs and developers have already sent in applications.

“I think there’s two developments, like maybe 100 houses per development,” Biering said. “And that’s a big deal for us.”

Mark Wysong, the president of the Colleton County Chamber of Commerce, says this will bring greater prosperity to the city of Walterboro.

“Right now, that’s one of the biggest challenges that we have in Colleton County is affordable housing,” Wysong said.

Wysong says these industry jobs will increase the median income within the county, improving the housing market overall. Biering says there are roughly 9,000 people that leave every day to go work in neighboring counties and they want to try to keep those people a little closer to home.

“There’s not been a whole lot of homes and developers in this area for a long time,” Biering said. “So, this is something new to us to have this amount of interest.”

Wysong says he knows locals will want to keep their small town the way it is, but no one should have to worry about losing it.

“While retaining the small-town feel, I think these new developments coming in will adopt that look and feel, so you retain this really small neighborhood community,” Wysong said.

Biering says these housing developments are only in the planning stages, and nothing has been approved so far.

“We like to live, work and play here,” Biering said. “We’d like to keep it closer to the center. So, I think the housing will be a big plus in that direction.”

Biering says Pomega is hopefully expected to break ground in 2024.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.

Yogi is 8 ½ years old. He’s an Aussie German Shepherd mix who loves to sit near the house and watch the few cars and trucks that go by on the Gouge family’s long dirt driveway on 22 acres outside Walterboro.

Most days he gets some extra pets and maybe a treat or two as packages are delivered.

Then came Monday.

Yogi was sitting in his usual spot when the mail carrier came by.

Next thing Paula Gouge knew he came inside and laid down on the bathroom floor.

Moments later a neighbor called and said Yogi had been hit by the mail carrier’s truck. She did not stop. The neighbor saw it all as she sat on her porch.

Gouge looked at her Ring camera and she saw it all, too. Warning, the video may be upsetting to some viewers.

She checked on Yogi and saw he was bleeding.

They rushed him to the emergency vet and learned his hip was dislocated and femur broken. He had a spinal injury.

“He is 90 pounds of all-good boy,” she said on the gofundme page set up to pay what is likely going to be a $10,000 bill for surgery and other expenses.

Her husband Rodney said, “He’s my joker. He makes you laugh.”

They both said he is a member of the family, along with three children, two grandchildren and two other dogs, a bulldog and a teacup aussie.

“Yogi has never chased a car,” Paula Gouge said in an interview Thursday with The State.

She’s not sure why he did Monday. The carrier had delivered packages, went to a neighbor’s and was on her way back out of the Gouge’s property. They own both sides of the driveway and the neighbor has an easement to use it.

Rodney Gouge reported the incident to the United States Postal Service.

“We haven’t heard squat,” he said.

A spokeswoman for the Southern Area Corporate Communications Office of the Postal Service told The State on Thursday that, “The Postal Service strives to always provide the best possible service to our valued customers. It is disappointing when, on rare occasions, we fall short of that goal.”

She said Walterboro Post Office management has addressed the situation with the letter carrier, who was not named.

“We sincerely apologize to our customer,” she said., declining to answer further questions while the investigation is ongoing.

We “will take all appropriate actions based on the results of the investigation to ensure that the integrity and values of the USPS are upheld,” she said.

Rodney Gouge said he wants the Postal Service to pay the vet bills, but most importantly, he wants the carrier to apologize for hitting Yogi and for not stopping.

Colleton County animal control officer Suzi Reeves did not return a phone message but she told Live 5 news the driver will likely face at least two citations.

The Charleston-area station said the driver told Reeves she didn’t know she hit the dog.

There is some good news. Yogi had surgery Thursday and will be going home Friday. The orthopedist did not have to amputate his leg as was feared.

It will be a long recovery — eight to 10 weeks immobilized inside the house — for Yogi and for the Gouges before he can once again lie down by the chicken coop, nose in the wire fence, watching over his flock or stand sentry by the front door.

This story was originally published July 14, 2023, 6:30 AM.

SOUTH CAROLINA (WCIV) — It’s amazing. It was already 15 years ago, I did a story on an aspiring singer/songwriter leaving for Nashville after his time as a Clemson Tigers long snapper. It worked out pretty well for that guy- Lee Brice.

This week, we do the same story. A former Clemson long snapper, leaving to follow his music dreams in Nashville. Walterboro’s Jim Brown.

If passion could be purveyed, Jim Brown has always found a way to do it.

Walterboro's Jim Brown follows in Lee Brice's footsteps, gunning for a music career. (WCIV)

“I sing vocally very gritty and aggressive," said the Pinewood Prep grad.

If purpose and passion meet, Jim Brown will find a way to connect them. In his fifth year at Clemson, he was awarded a scholarship by Dabo Swinney.

The Walterboro native has a deeply rooted passion, and now, is his time to shine.

“I taught myself how to play guitar in HS after an ACL injury, bedridden for two weeks so I picked up a guitar and learned to play. When football was over, just latched on to it— all music. Singing vocals, piano, music theory, songwriting- started diving as deep as I could and it sort of got me to here," he said.

Construction consultant is the title that pays the bills for now. But Jim Brown is ready for that chord progression to take the next step. Similar to going from walk-on to scholarship player.

“I’m not trying to be the next Chris Stapleton, but I want to make music that hopefully relates to people on some level," Brown said.

Music, can always take you home. His first single is doing just that.

“The Devil and the Gavel” is his ode to the Murdaugh murders saga in his hometown of Walterboro.

“In Charleston I played a lot of gigs, covers around town and on weekends, Thursday, Friday, Saturday at Edisto Beach and Walterboro. Now, more songwriting. At the end of the day, what I want to do is release music that I have, keep playing. I know its something I’m fortunate to have, and kind of let people know this is my thing," Brown said.

He doesn’t know Lee Brice. He’s never met him. But he hopes his passion will help him follow the same path.

COLLETON COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) - The Colleton County Sheriff’s Office said some cattle may still be unaccounted for after an early morning crash that closed Interstate 95 early Tuesday morning.

A tractor-trailer hauling cattle crashed near mile marker 55 on the southbound side of I-95 around 1 a.m. Tuesday morning, deputies said.

The crash closed all lanes on the interstate for more than nine hours while crews worked the crash and attempted to wrangle up the animals that got loose.

The South Carolina Highway Patrol said the crash was cleared around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, around nine hours after the crash closed all lanes on the interstate.

Earlier in the morning, the South Carolina Highway Patrol posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that all lanes were closed near mile marker 55 for a collision. Trooper Nick Pye said the livestock got free as a result of the collision and lanes were closed as they tried to catch the loose animals.

Colleton County Fire-Rescue officials said the tractor-trailer hit a bridge near mile marker 55 and caught on fire. Its cattle trailer went off the bridge and into the river.

Arriving crews found the cab of the truck fully involved in flames but the driver had managed to escape with non-life-threatening injuries. The driver was taken to the hospital for treatment.

The driver told firefighters that more than 35 cows were onboard the trailer at the time of the crash. Some of the cattle were found in and along the river while others had made their way to the northbound side of the interstate leading to those lanes being closed.

Area veterinarians and ranchers volunteered to assist emergency crews as they tried to collect the loose cattle. Riders on horseback used lassos to catch some of the cattle and put them on trailers.

Some of the cattle had made its way into neighborhoods near the interstate and firefighters and deputies used drones with thermal imaging to locate them.

The sheriff’s office warned motorists to be on the lookout for cattle while traveling on Beach Road, Ulmer Lake Road, Cypress Pond Road, Doctor’s Creek Road, Sniders Highway, Bells Highway, Ivanhoe Road, Hiers Corner Road and Hilton Hall Lane.

Residents are asked to report sightings to the Colleton County non-emergency line at 843-549-2211.

Once the truck was cleared from the roadway, Department of Transportation officials sanded the bridge as diesel fuel had spilled from the truck as a result of the crash. Officials also inspected the bridge because of the damage.

Deputies ask that anyone who comes in contact with loose cattle not to approach as the animal may be scared or injured.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

A “flagship” project that was announced in December has begun its construction phase.

Pomega Energy Storage Technologies, a subsidiary of Kontrolmatik Technologies, has begun work on its first U.S. lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant in South Carolina.

As construction of its lithium-ion battery factory in Ankara nears completion, Kontrolmatik Technologies announced in December its plan to build a 500,000-square-foot facility in Colleton County that is expected to begin production in mid-2024, create about 575 new jobs and have an initial production capacity of 3 gigawatt-hours (GWh), a Pomega news release stated.

The company plans to later increase capacity to 6 GWh and has secured land to expand operations. The company will invest $300 million in upfront capital expenditures in the new facility, according to the release.

Pomega will manufacture lithium iron phosphate cells designed exclusively for North American grid-scale energy storage applications, the release stated. In addition to manufacturing the battery cells at the South Carolina plant, Pomega will also manufacture and assemble turnkey battery energy storage systems (BESS), including modules, cabinets and final containerized energy storage solutions.

Related content: Manufacturer to build ‘flagship’ factory in Colleton County

When production begins at the company's South Carolina plant, Pomega will be one of the first and only U.S. manufacturers of lithium-ion batteries dedicated exclusively to the domestic utility-scale energy storage market, as opposed to the electric vehicle market where the vast majority of new investments are currently focused, the release stated.

This will place Pomega at the forefront of the energy storage revolution, allowing it not only to vertically integrate its own supply chain for BESS, but also to supply other domestic BESS integrators with these crucial lithium-ion batteries, the released stated. To this end, the company has already begun signing offtake agreements for its future capacity.

Gov. Henry McMaster was the guest of honor at a recent groundbreaking ceremony.

JLL, a professional services firm specializing in real estate and investment management, led the nationwide site selection process, the release stated. The JLL team analyzed more than 200 sites to identify locations that could be suitable for the plant.

As for the expected production tax credits (PTC) expected to be collected as per IRA, the calculation is based on an annual PTC of $35/KWh for battery cells and $45/KWh for modules, the release stated. Taking into account the company's projected product mix for a total of 3 GWh of PTC for 2024-2029, phasing out at 25% per year between 2030-32, the total estimated amount is $916 million.

"South Carolina was very clear in expressing their commitment to attracting top global technology and manufacturing companies to their state, and we are convinced that we will accomplish great things with the state’s support," Bahadir Yetki, CEO of Kontrolmatik Technologies and Pomega Energy Storage Technologies, said in the December announcement.