OCTOBER 4 3
65TH ANNUAL
Fall
Bazaar
10 AM - PM
Craft Fair • Silent Auction • Greenhouse Plant Sale International Food Court • Beer and Wine Garden Sweet Shoppe • Kids Zone and Games • Petting Zoo
SEPTEMBER 11–17, 2025
Family Fun, Fabulous Finds, Food and Drink! 70 Lady’s Island Dr, Beaufort Across the Street from Publix
WWW.YOURISLANDNEWS.COM
COVERING BEAUFORT COUNTY
JEFF EVANS 1959–2025
Margaret and Jeff Evans at a Beaufort International Film Festival (BIFF) fundraiser at Saltus River Grill in January 2023. Photo from BIFF Facebook
There aren’t many like Jeff Evans
T
“
here’s things that’ll knock you down you don’t even see coming …” Isn’t that the truth? Song lyrics that have a way of eventually ringing true, if you give them enough time. Jeff Evans died on Saturday afternoon. And knocked down is MIKE MCCOMBS too kind for what has happened to some of us. And I can only speak for myself, but it’s going to be a land News, my employer, my boss, while before I can get up. my partner in good intentions, Jeff was the Publisher of The Is- my friend, … and so many other
The Island News, Lowcountry Weekly publisher Jeff Evans dies
things that I haven’t figured out how to put into words yet. Six and a half years ago, I didn’t know Jeff Evans. And I certainly didn’t see him coming. Three years removed from being laid off at the Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette, I was working at Randel’s Lawnmowers. I had a job that paid the bills and no illusions about a career. I was surviving.
By Mike McCombs The Island News Jeff Evans, publisher of The Island News and Lowcountry Weekly, died Saturday, Sept. 6 at MediINSIDE cal University of Obituary for publisher South Carolina in Jeff Evans, Charleston. Page A7 Evans, 66, suffered a fall in his home on Sunday, Aug. 31, and had been hospitalized since. Along with his wife, Margaret Evans, Jeff Evans had published Lowcountry Weekly since its
SEE MCCOMBS PAGE A6
SEE EVANS PAGE A6
LOWCOUNTRY LOWDOWN
Pine Island fight continues; Green Space grows
D
BEAUFORT ozens of concerned citizens showed up for last week’s County Council Natural Resources Committee meeting to hear about the future of the controversial Pine Island development on St. Helena Island. And while the fate of that development’s future is far from over — it’s now been pushed to the Sept. 22 meeting of the full Council — Tuesday’s meeting had some great reflection on what is happening in this part of the Lowcountry. Specifically, the committee’s agenda included recommendations for approval to the full council of land purchases or negotiations to protect from development
LOLITA HUCKABY
tracts of undeveloped land on St. Helena, in Garden’s Corner and Hilton Head Island. Recommendations were also approved for money from the county’s Green Space Program to help Bluffton acquire land to expand a passive park. Each of these acquisitions or negotiations were recommendations from the county’s Green
Space Advisory Committee and will be funded by dollars raised by a 1-cent sales tax approved by voters in 2022. In the two years it was in place, May 2023 through Feb. 2025, it raised $100 million for land protection within the county. Michael McShane, who chairs the Green Space Committee, complimented the county officials on their support of the program which essentially buys or establishes conservation easements on high-profile properties that might otherwise be developed. He called the county’s approach one of the most advanced example of “smart growth” in South Carolina and a
So why are some areas of the county seeing drainage problems? A look at some of the construction sites gives some obvious clues — lots of dirt being moved; trees cleared to make way for more buildings. That water has to go SEE LOWDOWN PAGE A4 somewhere. Lolita Huckaby/The Island News
NEWS
HEALTH
MILITARY
INSIDE
Patriot Day Ceremony to honor lives lost, first responders on 9/11.
Beaufort Memorial Diabetes Care Center earns national recognition.
First F-35B ever built makes way to MCAS Beaufort.
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