Since May 2007 PRESORT STANDARD US POSTAGE PAID CHARLESTON, SC PERMIT NO. 137 POSTAL PATRON
Volume 21 • Issue 7
FREE
September 5, 2025
Could CARTA one day service freshfields village?
Photo courtesy of Kiawah Island.
BY THERESA STRATFORD For The Island Connection
E
ven though Kiawah Island is not serviced by the public transportation bus system, CARTA, the Kiawah Island Town Council approved the budget for the area’s service. The Sea Islands, in general, are excluded from service by CARTA, since Johns Island and Seabrook Island also do not benefit from the public transportation system. However, after much discussion and consideration of voting against the budget or tabling the issue to a future meeting, the Kiawah Island Town Council concluded that denying support would send the wrong message since they would like service at some point in the future. Charleston County requires that CARTA go to every municipality in the area and receive approval of its (Continued on page 2)
There’s a lot of noise about Kiawah’s revised noise ordinance BY THERESA STRATFORD For The Island Connection
T
here was quite a bit of noise about updating the Town of Kiawah Island’s noise ordinance at the August 5 Town Council meeting. For an hour, Town Council members discussed issues that the residents of Kiawah Island face in regards to noise and some possible ways to remedy the problems. Mayor Bradley Belt said that the Town’s current noise ordinance was brought up by a citizen recently when they complained about some construction work occurring at Ocean Pines. Belt decided to review the Town’s noise ordinance after the complaint was made, and he said he found many discrepancies in the way it was worded. “It is a bit of a hot mess in terms of how it was drafted,” he said. He noted that most of the language was pulled from the Town of Mount Pleasant’s noise ordinance from about four or five years ago. (Continued on page 4)
Rodent poison still found in island bobcats BY THERESA STRATFORD For The Island Connection
M
ayor Bradley Belt spoke about an “unfortunate incident” during the August 5 Kiawah Island Town Council meeting. He said, “I’m not sure if this is publicly known, but we had an unfortunate incident concerning a bobcat. This was actually a little while ago now, but the bobcat was killed by blunt force trauma. Probably hit by a car, although the bobcat somehow managed to make it to Captain Sams Spit. The disconcerting thing was that we sent off samples for necropsy, and the results showed very high levels of SGAs.” SGAs, or second-generation anticoagulants, are the chemicals in rodenticides that were found to be the primary contributing factor for at least seven bobcat deaths during 2019-2020. Biologists estimated that Kiawah’s bobcat population declined from a historic population of 30 to 35 to less than 10 during this period. After the successful implementation of the Bobcat Guardian Pledge program in 2020, bobcat numbers stabilized and started to increase. The Bobcat Guardian program is a community-wide pledge to participate in a commitment to banning the use of SGAs on individual properties. The Town asks that residents pledge to either tell their pest control provider: “I do not authorize the use of SGA rodenticides (Brodifacoum, Bromadiolone, Difenacoum and Difethialone) on my property and I want you to use alternative methods.” Or, they can pledge, “I personally commit not to use the above products on my property.”
Although the pledge was successful, bobcat numbers are still decreasing at a rapid pace. Clemson Extension, a state regulatory agency of SGAs, is working to ban or restrict rodenticide chemicals for use with pest control companies that are not licensed. That means that the chemical, which has been linked to killing the bobcat population, would not be sold in stores and could not be accessed by anyone without a license to manage the rodent population. Currently, state law will not allow municipalities to ban the chemical from pest control used within their jurisdictions. “We are hopeful that we can get the state to reconsider, and we can therefore take some positive steps forward in strengthening regulation,” Belt said. He added that a few of the regime councils on Kiawah Island have asked if they could ban the chemical. However, these regimes wouldn’t have the ability to monitor the bait traps that are put down. Kiawah Island’s Town Biologist Jim Jordan said that most of the time, the poison isn’t labeled in any way. “The easiest way is to request records from the pest control companies on what they are applying,” he said. Belt concluded that they will talk about this situation in a senior staff meeting soon. “Let’s try to figure out a way to move forward and get cooperation from the regimes. I think that would go a long way in addressing the bobcat problem,” he said.