JULY 31–AUGUST 6, 2025
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The freshly painted Hunting Island Lighthouse, as it appears Tuesday, July 29, 2025. With the major exterior work complete, the familiar scaffolding was removed in May. The Lighthouse is expected to reopen in either late 2025 or early 2026. Mike McCombs/The Island News
COVERING BEAUFORT COUNTY
Tamika Eugene-Brown, with the Beaufort County Youth Conference, hands some informational flyers to Jayana Winkfield, 14, a rising freshman at Battery Creek High School on Saturday, July 26, 2025, at the Beaufort County School District Back-to-School Expo at Battery Creek High School. Delayna Earley/The Island News
Progress made in lighthouse restoration
The time is near Beaufort County students set to head back to school
Exterior work on Hunting Island crown jewel complete
By Delayna Earley The Island News It’s almost time for students to return to public schools in Beaufort County and to prepare, the district and other local groups are holding back-to-school events aimed at helping returning students get all the supplies and necessary information that they need to have a successful school year. The 2025-2026 school year begins on Wednesday, Aug. 6, in Beaufort County School District (BCSD) public schools, and students and parents are in full swing trying to get ready.
By Mike McCombs The Island News HUNTING ISLAND – As National Lighthouse Day — Thursday, Aug. 7 — approaches, those fond of Hunting Island will be pleased to know that as far as the restoration work on Hunting Island State Park’s Lighthouse goes, we can finally see the proverbial lighthouse in the distance. According to Kirby Brady, Park Manager for Hunting Island State Park & Saint Phillips Island, “a major milestone” has been reached in the restoration work on the iconic lighthouse. “Exterior restoration work [is] now complete and interior renovations [are] underway,” Brady recently wrote in a document updating the project’s progress. “This marks a new chapter in preserving one of South Carolina’s most treasured landmarks.” Restoration needed The Hunting Island Lighthouse closed to tours in early 2022 because of safety concerns. Bennett Preservation Engineering was hired to oversee architecture and engineering, while Huss, Inc., was hired as the project contractor. After two years of securing funding for the project, structural repairs and restoration work began soon after the end of hurricane season last year.. “Their work requires extraordinary care to protect the historic millwork, structural wood, masonry, glass, ironwork, and distinctive decorative finishes. Much of their focus will be on stabilizing and
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BCSD held its annual Back-toSchool Expo on Saturday, July 26, at Battery Creek High School and saw a large INSIDE turnout of parEducation ents and stuDepartment dents hoping to to unfreeze get supplies like contested K-12 funds, backpacks, penPage A9 cils and crayons, in addition to information about community services aimed to help school-aged students. More than 1,000 people attended Saturday’s Back-to-School Expo, according to district
spokesperson Candace Bruder. The expo also offered free onsite dental and health services, for those who registered, from Beaufort-Jasper-Hampton Comprehensive Health Services and Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). St. Helena Parish Church in downtown Beaufort also held its annual Back-to-School Bash on Sunday, July 27, where they invited foster and adopted children and their families to come and celebrate the new school year.
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Sales-tax holiday coming this weekend SC shoppers can save on back-to-school, more as state waives sales taxes for 3 days By Jessica Holdman SCDailyGazette.com South Carolina shoppers can buy school supplies, computers, clothes, shoes and more without paying any sales taxes this coming weekend. The state’s annual Tax Free Weekend starts Friday and ends Sunday. The tax holiday waives the state’s 6% sales tax as well as applicable local taxes, according to the state Department of Revenue. Sales taxes are 6% in only three of South Carolina’s 46 coun-
ties: Beaufort, Greenville and Oconee. The other 43 counties charge their own sales taxes for local projects. At 9% total, sales taxes are highest in Charleston County and the city of Myrtle Beach. Non-taxable items include musical instruments, calculators, headphones, printers, computers, computer software and all types of clothing, as well as certain bed and bath items, including bed spreads, sheets, pillows, towels and shower curtains. the department lists as ex-
amples on its website. Items that are still taxed as normal include cellphones, digital cameras and video game consoles. Last year, shoppers bought more than $22.3 million in taxfree items and saved more than $1.3 million in taxes, according to the state tax agency. Per the law passed in 2000, the 72 hours of savings start at 12:01 a.m. the first Friday in August and continue until midnight Sunday. Online sales of eligible items are included. The tax break applies to all
shoppers, but the law was intended to help parents buy back-toschool items ahead of each new school year. This year, one-quarter of the state’s 72 public school districts will have already resumed classed before the tax holiday. Jessica Holdman writes about the economy, workforce and higher education. Before joining the S.C. Daily Gazette, she was a business reporter for The Post and Courier. S.C. Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
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INSIDE
Beaufort mother asks for internal review in daughter’s trafficking case.
U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman becomes 4th Republican to enter SC governor’s race.
Prediabetes: Symptoms, risks and how to reverse it.
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