MARCH 13–19, 2025
WWW.YOURISLANDNEWS.COM
COVERING BEAUFORT COUNTY
CELEBRATING LAFAYETTE
ELIZABETH CHEW
Lafayette’s 1825 visit offers model for liberty today
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uring the American Revolution, a wealthy French teenager was willing to risk his fortune and his life for people he had never met who lived an ocean away. Why? Because of their stirring fight for freedom from British colonial rule. Against the wishes of his family and the French crown, Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de LaFayette (1757-1834), financed a ship and crossed the Atlantic to join our cause. He was 19 years old. He was commissioned as a major general in the Continental Army, became an influential member of General George Washington’s staff, endured the brutal winter at Valley Forge, and befriended Alexander Ham-
SEE LIBERTY PAGE A4
Well known historical interpreter Mark Schneider, in costume as the Marquis de Lafayette, will be part of Beaufort’s March 2025 festivities marking the bicentennial of Lafayette’s 1825 visit. Photo courtesy of Historic Beaufort Foundation
City, HBF, others mark 200th anniversary of Marquis de Lafayette’s visit to Beaufort By Mike McCombs The Island News Most Americans can’t tell you who Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier was. Even if you use his more familiar title — the Marquis de La Fayette or simply General Lafayette in the United States — you will still get a lot of blank stares these days. A discussion of Americans’ knowledge of their own history is best saved for another time.
But this week and next, many Art at in the City of upcoming Beaufort will exhibit painted have their minds specifically on Lafayette. for Lafayette The Marquis Day, Page A9 de Lafayette was a French Nobleman and military officer who, at 19 years of age, volunteered to join the Continental Army, led by Gen. George Washington, in INSIDE
the American Revolutionary War. He played a role in convincing the French crown to aid the prospective nation in its battle for independence from England. Becoming a close friend and aide to Washington, Lafayette commanded the troops in the decisive siege of Yorktown in 1781, the final major battle that secured American Independence, and he
SEE VISIT PAGE B6
LOWCOUNTRY LOWDOWN
Council’s Okatie rezoning decision misleading
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BEAUFORT eaufort County Council’s committee members got some bad press last week from the Savannah television news reporters who called them out for turning down a rezoning request which could have paved the way for more housing for disabled veterans and first responders. True, the council has received more than its share of “bad press” in the past two years, considering its efforts to disassociate with the former county administrator. But in the case of last week’s
LOLITA HUCKABY
report from the council’s Natural Resource Committee, there truly is … more to the story. The committee, following the recommendation from the County Planning Commission, plus the
planning staff, voted to disapprove a rezoning request which would have converted a 50-acre acre tract on S.C. 170, across the road from the back entrance to Sun City, from rural to neighborhood mixed use. In defense of their request, representatives of Mosaic Development proposed a development agreement for the Mews Village which would allow two dozen of the 200-plus residential units to be designated for first responders and disabled veterans, in association with the nonprofit Lowcountry Veterans Housing Foundation.
The committee members, like the planning commissioners, heard from a half-dozen neighbors who asked the local officials to uphold the original rural zoning of the area, especially in light of the growing traffic congestion in the area and the lack of funding to improve that congestion. “Beaufort County is being destroyed by a million small paper cuts,” said one resident who urged the county to deny the change. Another resident even asked the county to consider a moratorium on all new developments, urging them to take an inventory
of all permitted developments including those not yet built. “I think you’d be surprised,” she added. At least two committee members, Chairwoman Alice Howard and Vice-Chair Anna Maria Tabernick, stressed that their vote to deny had nothing to do with providing affordable housing for veterans or first-responders. “It’s just not the right place,” Howard summarized. Tabernick noted that when she first met last year with the
SEE LOWDOWN PAGE A4
SPORTS
EDUCATION
HEALTH
INSIDE
Justin Jarrett: “USCB lucky he’s building his vision here.”
Beaufort County School District gives update on student response to cell phone ban.
Beaufort Memorial now accepting applications for Rising Star Youth Volunteer program.
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EGG DROPS AGES 1-12 (TICKETS REQUIRED) BOUNCE KIDZONE - PETTING ZOO FOOD TRUCKS & VENDORS - DJ
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