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People of Beaufort, Ostroh have historic meeting Area’s Rotary Clubs facilitate ZOOM video call with sister city in Ukraine
On Wednesday, July 16, 2025, Beaufort’s three Rotary Clubs came together for a joint video meeting with their twin city, Ostroh, Ukraine. Amber Hewitt/The Island News
By Mike McCombs The Island News There was a historically significant act of diplomacy and international goodwill last week and it took place right here in Beaufort on Wednesday, July 16. The area’s three Rotary Clubs — Rotary Club of Beaufort, Sea Island Rotary Club and Lowcountry Rotary Club — organized a ZOOM video call between a joint meeting of their members gathered in the Friendship Hall of Sea Island Pres-
WATCH THE MEETING If you’d like to watch the ZOOM video call between the three Beaufort area Rotary Clubs and a delegation from Ostroh, Ukraine, visit https://bit.ly/40um0rX. The code is &4Qd5B+g. Video 2 is the complete meeting.
byterian Church on Lady’s Island and the town leaders of Ostroh, the oldest city in Western Ukraine. The call was organized and coordinated by Dr. Baxter McClendon of the Sea Island Rotary
Club, while Barry Wilson, Rotary Club of Beaufort Past President, was responsible for ZOOM call itself, as well as managing any technical issues. Beaufort City Councilman and Mayor Pro Tem Mike McFee, as well as City Manager Scott Marshall, were among dignitaries attending the meeting, along with Rotary notables Bob Gross, Rotary’s Past District 7770 Governor;
SEE MEETING PAGE A8
Another one down
69th Beaufort Water Festival comes to a close By Delayna Earley The Island News After 10 days of festival fun, the 69th Beaufort Water Festival has come to a close and a new Commodore has been named for the 2026 Beaufort Water Festival. Dusty Vickers, who lives in Port Royal with his wife and two children, will be the new Water Festival Commodore, taking over tor Todd Stowe. Vickers, who has worked and volunteered for the festival for about 14 years, said that as much as he loves volunteering with the festival, both he and his wife are looking forward to everything that his swan song year with the festival will have to offer before he will take a less active role and can focus on
spending that extra time with his wife and two young children. While Vickers is not sure about what the 70th Beaufort Water Festival will bring, he said he hopes to make his mark and maybe even add a new sporting event that he is trying to figure out logistically. The 2025 Water Festival had a lot to contend with, between the City of Beaufort closing a large portion of the promenade barely two weeks before the festival’s start forcing staff to find alternative options for several events and heavy rain causing the Opening Night festivities to have to be canceled on that first Friday and rescheduled for later in the week.
SEE FESTIVAL PAGE A10
Commodore Todd Stowe wears a South Carolina State Flag, and his wife, Patsy, wears an American Flag, both given by Rep. Shannon Erickson, during the 69th Annual Beaufort Water Festival Caribbean Night on Tuesday, July 15, 2025. Amber Hewitt/The Island News
Just like that, BCSD has a jail log
Inmate Inquiry website back up; County complies with FOIA with physical jail log
B
The physical jail log in the lobby of the Beaufort County Detention Center. Mike McCombs/The Island News
eaufort County breathed a big sigh of relief Monday morning, July 21. It was back. Down since the early morning hours of Tuesday, June 17, the Beaufort County Detention Center’s online Inmate Inquiry System was functioning again. And that’s a really good thing. But not for the reason most people care about. For the uninitiated, the site allows users to search the current population of the Beaufort County
MIKE MCCOMBS
Detention Center, as well as peruse the list of anyone who may have been booked into the facility in the past 90 days.
It’s a wealth of information. It lists the inmates, their personal information, such as their address and birthdate, as well as all of their arrest information, such as the arresting agency and officer, time, the specific charges and whether or not bond has been set or at what dollar amount it is set. And of course, it provides the basic info – when were they booked, are they still detained, and if not, when they were released. It also tells you if an ICE Hold has been placed on an inmate,
which seems to be a much more relevant than usual detail in the current political climate. Oh, and the elephant in the room. The site also includes the inmates’ booking mugshots. This is why people generally care about the Inmate Inquiry System. There are people that live for these mugshots. And their lives will once again be complete. Back on June 17, new bookings stopped showing up on the
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Boater arrested after docking on restricted dock during storm.
TCL receives 5-year federal grant to fund student success program.
How to stop hot flashes fast: Solutions for relief.
Doug Rich: “The other side of Beaufort’s Airbnb regulations.”
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