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Volume 21 • Issue 8
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September 19, 2025
Melanie Burkhold Announces Election Run
Scott Pierce Announces Candidacy for Isle of Palms Mayor By Scott Pierce I am pleased to announce my candidacy for mayor of Isle of Palms in the Nov. 4 election. For the past four years, I’ve had the privilege of serving on City Council. Your support, trust and candor have been my greatest motivators, and I’m deeply grateful. Why I’m Running Residents deserve better, Council can do better, and I will ensure your voice shapes every decision. We are at a crossroads. Residents’ quality of life is under pressure, with accelerating external demands on public services, increasing neighborhood traffic from 10 million annual bridge crossings, serious beach deterioration not seen since Hurricane Hugo, and aging infrastructure. Each pillar requires attention, sustainable solutions and meaningful investment. The mayor’s job is to deliver results — by collaborating with Council, listening carefully, and ensuring every resident’s voice is heard, respected and reflected in policy. My priorities are clear: • Protect quality of life for residents • Strengthen public safety and core services to meet growing demands • Engage more formally with IOP’s business community for partnerships and investment • Restore and preserve our beach with stable, long-term proactive plans and funding sources • Modernize and maintain infrastructure (roads, drainage, beach access, parking, facilities) • Practice fiscal responsibility with full transparency Think Bigger. Move Faster. IOP is a regional engine, generating more than $550 million in annual revenue from more than 3,500 businesses thriving here. Yet the dollars we send to the state and elsewhere far exceed what we receive back. As mayor, I will fight for investment and other service support proportional to our scale — to maintain and protect what makes IOP extraordinary and to ensure contributions (Continued on page 6)
By Melanie Burkhold Sullivan’s Island faces urgent challenges: $38 million in bond debt, high administrative costs, persistent stormwater and maintenance issues that cause flooding and strain infrastructure, disproportionately high water and sewer rates, and limited opportunities for public input. It’s time to chart a new course that emphasizes fiscal discipline, transparency, infrastructure, maintenance and meaningful exchanges between residents and Town Council. I’m Melanie Burkhold, and I’m running for Sullivan’s Island Town Council to put residents first and deliver responsible, transparent governance. A College of Charleston alumna, I’ve called the Lowcountry home for decades, moving from Mount Pleasant to Sullivan’s Island in 2019. Married for 30 years with two children, I’m an active St. Andrew’s Church member and volunteer at MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital, supporting patients and their families — a reflection of my deep commitment to service. As a research nurse overseeing clinical drug trials, I navigated state, federal and international regulations, wrote standard operating procedures and managed budgets — skills I’ll apply to address Sullivan’s Island’s needs. As a volunteer with a Mount Pleasant 501(c)(4) neighborhood association, I led a significant community initiative to renovate a park and worked with the (Continued on page 3)
Miars Announces Re-Election Campaign By Katie Miars Four years ago, I promised to work for the residents of Isle of Palms. Today, I sit on my front porch—the same place where I first fell in love with Isle of Palms—asking myself if I should run again. As I watch a father and his young children ride by, with birds singing, cicadas humming and waves crashing in the distance, I realize I am ready and excited to run again. I am not running for myself. I have no economic interest at stake, no businesses tied to the island and certainly not for the pay. I am running for the family that just went by, for our quality of life and for the preservation of this beautiful place we call home. Over the past four years, I have worked hard as promised, and at times it has felt more like a battle than simply hard work. Through it all, I have focused on residents’ best interests. I have had some wins and have continued to learn a great deal. I worked to create our new public dock for everyone to enjoy the view and beauty of the marsh and waterway. I collaborated with Islander 71, engineers, staff and fellow council members to create a parking plan that works for all parties, and I am proud to say Version Q passed in August. I helped pass ordinances to protect the Wild Dunes golf courses from development, along with the wildlife and drainage they support. I worked to continue drainage improvements, and now the flood mitigation and multiuse path (Continued on page 11) on Waterway are becoming a reality. I supported all emergency beach