YP of Florence invites you to join them on Thursday, August 18th from 5:30 – 7:30 pm at the Residence Inn for a Hawaiian themed get together. Bring your pet for the fashion show and donation to the Florence Area Humane Society.
For more information, click here.
Join us on Wednesday, August 10th as we team up with The Blood Connection to host a blood drive in Downtown Florence from 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM. A $20 charitable donation will be made for every blood donor!
For more information or to sign up, click here.
The Jr. Leadership Florence County 4-H Program kicked off their 2022-2023 year with their Opening Retreat Camp Bob Cooper in Summerton on Monday, July 25th and Tuesday, July 26th. The students truly enjoyed learning more about each other while strengthening their skills. They bonded through icebreakers, leadership and personality assessments, and team-building exercises.
In August, they will have “Meet Me at the Lanes,” where they will have a night to mingle with each other before the monthly sessions start in September.
Without the partnership between Clemson Extension/ 4-H, FMU, and the Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce, this program would not be possible. We are thankful for the support from the community and the donations that the program receives. We have an incredible group of students and look forward to a successful year ahead.
Special thanks to Camp Bob Cooper for hosting us and the Florence School District Two for assisting us with transportation.
To view photos from the session, click here.
During the annual Sales Tax Holiday, a variety of purchases are exempt from the state’s 6% Sales Tax and any applicable local taxes. Tax-free items range from clothing, accessories, and shoes to school supplies, backpacks, and computers. As long as an item is eligible, it is tax-free whether purchased in-store or online. This tax free weekend runs from Friday, August 5 through Sunday, August 7.
For more information, click here.
The 60-mile trail in Florence County carries paddlers into the cypress and tupelo-laden swampland Francis Marion used as a hideout while fighting the British during the American Revolution.
Last month the 60-mile South Carolina Revolutionary Rivers Trail on Lynches River became a National Water Trail in an effort spearheaded by the Friends of Revolutionary Rivers.
The official announcement was made on June 4, National Trails Day. Nine recreation trails in seven states, were added to the National Trails System.
To read the full story, click here.
Work on Florence’s new downtown mural began in earnest Saturday morning as a steady crowd of volunteers passed through the painting station on North Dargan Street across from Ideal Funeral Parlor.
“It is sort of a surprise. One of the people who is featured in the mural doesn’t know the mural is taking place,” said Hannah Davis, development manager for the city of Florence. “It’s going to be an amazing tribute to him and the contribution he has made to the African-American Historic District.”
To read the full story, click here.
The Florence 1 School District will start the 2022-23 school year on Aug. 1 with nearly all its teaching positions filed, Superintendent Richard O’Malley said recently.
In late June, the district had approximately 10 classrooms in need of a teacher, O’Malley said. The district started the 2021-22 school year with a teacher in every classroom.
The district’s benefit package makes recruiting and retaining educators easier, O’Malley said. At the June 16 Board of Trustees meeting, the board added another benefit for teachers – paid maternity and paternity leave. “The quality of life issues that we’ve added to our benefits for our staff have been very much well-received,” O’Malley said. “Last year, we started no vacancies for the first time. This year, we are getting close to that. I think we have about 10 classroom vacancies.”
To read the full story, click here.
An analysis published this week shows that three South Carolina metropolitan areas were amongst twenty other metro areas in the United States that saw the highest increase in property taxes from 2020 to 2021. The Greenville, Columbia, and Charleston metro areas ranked 18th, 14th, and 13th respectively in property tax growth from 2020 to 2021 with average property taxes rising roughly 10-12% during this time period. To be included in the report, each metro area had to have a population of at least 500,000.
Sales of homes in South Carolina increased by 11.1% during that same period while median sales prices also rose by 13.8% according to the South Carolina Realtors 2021 Annual Report.
Two of Country Music’s most dynamic performers and multi- platinum selling and award-winning artists, Travis Tritt and Chris Janson, are set to embark on a co-headline tour, the Can’t Miss Tour, and it’s coming to Florence Center on November 4. Joining Tritt and Janson are War Hippies, who will appear as special guests along the tour.
For ticket information, click here.
Newly released state-level Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey data by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that nearly 86,000 South Carolinians left their jobs in April to pursue other opportunities, with South Carolina employers adding over 113,000 new workers during that same time period. The total number of individuals that left their jobs is 3.7% of the state’s total workforce. As of May 2022, there were over 112,000 open jobs in the state and only 79,000 unemployed individuals.
While much has been made nationally about the “great resignation” with workers leaving their jobs at staggering rates, recent analysis by the US Chamber of Commerce has pushed back on that notion by highlighting that the national hiring rate (4.4%) has vastly exceeded the national quit rate (2.9%) since 2020 thus seeming to indicate that individuals are choosing to pursue other employment opportunities for a variety of reasons. A more apt description of this phenomenon would appear to be the “great reshuffling” instead of the “great resignation”.
The jobs report released on Friday by the BLS showed that the U.S. added 372,000 jobs in the month of June, exceeding projections by almost 100,000 jobs in a sign that the labor market around the country is still hot.
