Personal Injury Attorneyin Santee, SC.

SANTEE, S.C. (WIS) - A fire on Christmas night destroyed a popular barbeque restaurant in Santee.

Crews were called out to The Lone Star BBQ and Mercantile on State Park Road Monday night.

The entire restaurant was in flames, and it took hours to put out the fire.

The Lone Star BBQ and Mercantile has been a historical landmark in Santee since 1883.

″All I can think about is the memories that we’ve made here,” said Rachel Henderson, the owner of the restaurant.

Henderson took over the restaurant in 2020 after its previous owner of 22 years looked for a potential buyer.

”They kept talking and talking, and I said I’ll come work for you for three months. And, I came here and worked for them for three months and I fell in love with it,” said Henderson.

The oldest building was built in 1883, and the youngest building was built 100 years ago after being moved to Santee from Lone Star, South Carolina.

The restaurant had military memorabilia and served home-cooked Southern meals. Customers from across the country, as far as New York and Canada, would gather there for entertainment events, catering events and so much more.

On Tuesday, people stopped to take pictures and video of the damage.

Henderson expressed her emotion detailing the rich history of the restaurant she said cannot be replaced.

“There’s no way to replace what was here. All we can do is… you know… of course we want to come back. Of course we want to reopen and have another business. But it’s just so sad because you can’t replace its history. You just can’t replace it,” Henderson stated.

Henderson told WIS News 10 that she’s heard from the Orangeburg Fire Chief that the cause of the fire was due to faulty wiring.

We’ve contacted the Orangeburg County Fire District and have not heard back.

Henderson stated there are currently no future plans for the restaurant.

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MONCKS CORNER, S.C. – Santee Cooper received the 2023 Lower Region Group Leadership Award from the South Carolina Litter Control Association and Palmetto Pride/Keep SC Beautiful. The award recognizes Santee Cooper for its partnership with Keep Conway Beautiful and its commitment to helping with monthly cleanups for the organization.

“Our team strives to not only be a part of the communities where we live but to make them better,” said Energy Advisor Parker Diedrich, who accepted the award and helps lead the events for Santee Cooper. “We enjoy helping Keep Conway Beautiful and similar organizations around the area.”

Keep Conway Beautiful meets monthly to pick up litter within the city. In 2022, 71 Santee Cooper team members helped clean up 720 pounds of litter. So far this year, 85 team members have picked up 430 pounds of litter along more than four miles of roadway.

“Santee Cooper employees reached out to me with the initial idea of the cleanups and helped to establish our first ever ‘Utility Service Day’ that resulted in us cleaning up almost 600 pounds of litter in an hour with a little over 75 volunteers from several utilities for this one event,” said Nevada Mileur, Program Coordinator for Keep Conway Beautiful. “These cleanups would not exist without the hard work and dedication of the Santee Cooper employees. We are appreciative that they partnered with us to make a difference in our community.”

Santee Cooper received the award from the South Carolina Litter Control Association and PalmettoPride/Keep SC Beautiful at a Sept. 7 awards ceremony. The City of Conway recognized Santee Cooper’s award at its Sept. 18 council meeting.

“A reliable volunteer network is vital to the KSCB affiliates,” said PalmettoPride executive director Sarah Lyles. “With support from Santee Cooper, Keep Conway Beautiful continues to be a cornerstone of the community.”

Santee Cooper

Santee Cooper is South Carolina’s largest power provider, the ultimate source of electricity for 2 million people across the state, and one of America’s Best Midsize Employers as named by Forbes. Through its low-cost, reliable and environmentally responsible electricity and water services, and through innovative partnerships and initiatives that attract and retain industry and jobs, Santee Cooper helps power South Carolina. To learn more, visit www.santeecooper.com and follow #PoweringSC on social media.

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Current technologies and management, agronomics, insect thresholds, economics and other topics are on the agenda for the South Carolina Corn and Soybean Growers Annual Meeting on Dec. 14 in Santee.

Registration and a trade show begin at 8:30 a.m. at the Santee Convention Center, 1737 Bass Drive, Santee, South Carolina 29142. Michael Plumblee, Clemson Cooperative Extension Service corn and soybean specialist, said the meeting is geared toward farmers, but input suppliers will benefit as well.

“The agenda for this year’s meeting covers a variety of topics corn and soybean growers will find useful as they prepare for next year’s crops,” Plumblee said. “We encourage everyone to come and learn how they can grow more profitable crops.”

The meeting starts off with a welcome by Dean Hutto, chairman of the South Carolina Soybean Board, followed by updates from the South Carolina Soybean Board and the South Carolina Corn and Soybean Association by Mary Catherine Cromley, executive director.

The featured speaker is Kenneth Hellevang, a North Dakota State University Extension engineer and professor, who will talk about current technologies used for corn and soybean drying and storage.

Hellevang is an expert in grain drying, storage and handling, as well as structural engineering, building environments, indoor air quality and building plans. His research and Extension programs center on post-harvest engineering, and structural and building environment engineering.

He also serves as an international consultant for grain drying and storage engineering, as well as potato, carrot and onion storage engineering. In addition, Hellevang serves as a consultant for sugar beet storage system designs.

Other speakers include Plumblee, who will speak about corn and soybean agronomics. Adam Whitfield, Clemson doctoral student, will give an update on insect thresholds in soybean and Cory Heaton, wildlife specialist, will talk about determining the economic impact of deer populations on soybean.

Scott Mickey, ag economist, will talk about economics and budgeting for the 2024 crop year, followed by Bennett Harrelson, Clemson doctoral student, who will talk about double cropping corn and soybean. John Mueller, nematologist and plant pathologist, will talk about fungicide and nematode management.

Following lunch, updates will be given by representatives from the National Corn Growers Association and the American Soybean Association.

There is no charge for this meeting, which is expected to end at about 3:30 p.m. Lunch will be provided. For more information, contact Michael Plumblee at mplumbl@clemson.edu, or (803) 284-3343.

Certified crop adviser and pesticide recertification credits have been applied for.

Santee Cooper has finalized its $17 million acquisition of an Upstate power plant, part of a plan to meet short-term demand for electricity driven by residential and business growth across South Carolina.

The deal had been in the works since late April, when the state-owned utility’s board announced an agreement to purchase Cherokee County Cogeneration Partners and its natural gas-fired Cherokee Energy Center in Gaffney.

The sale was later approved by state regulators and, last month, by a legislative committee. The seller was New York-based LS Power.

Santee Cooper said it bought the 25-year-old plant east of Spartanburg to ensure it has enough wattage in its arsenal to meet the needs of residential ratepayers, commercial customers and the 20 small cooperatives that serve mostly rural areas of the state.

“That’s a good problem to have, frankly," CEO Jimmy Staton said of the jump in demand. "Adding the Cherokee plant to our portfolio will help Santee Cooper meet that demand in an affordable and reliable way and help us integrate additional renewable power as we bring it online over the next few years.”

Moncks Corner-based Santee Cooper began buying electricity from the Gaffney site last year. The 98-megawatt station generates enough power to serve the equivalent of about 49,000 homes.

Central Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina, the utility's biggest customer, said it supported the deal, calling it "a win for all of our consumers at the end of the line.”

The buyout is a small step in Santee Cooper's plan to meet its long-range needs.

The public power provider still must replace the capacity that will be lost when its coal-fired Winyah Generating Station in Georgetown County is shuttered by late 2030. Plans are underway to build a gas-fired unit at an undisclosed location in Hampton County, possibly with investor-owned Dominion Energy South Carolina of Cayce as a partner.

Santee Cooper also is looking to ramp up its reliance on solar energy starting in 2026. It aims to have at least 1,500 megawatts on its grid by 2030 and double that amount by 2040, according to a forecast submitted in May to state regulators. The public has been invited to testify about that "integrated resource plan" at a two-day hearing that wraps up Nov. 8 in Columbia.

Will take place December 14 at Santee Conference Center

PUBLISHED ON November 19, 2023

SANTEE, S.C. — The 2023 SC Corn and Soybean Growers Annual Meeting will take place on December 14, 2023 at the Santee Conference Center. The program will begin at 8:30am.

A sponsored lunch will be provided.

Pesticide recertificaiton Credits and CCA credits have been applied for.

Thursday, December 14 at 8:30am to 3:30pm

Santee Conference Center 1737 Bass Drive, Santee, SC 29142

Notice of Non-Discrimination

EVENT TYPE

Cooperative Extension

COST

No registration fee.

CONTACT NAME:

Jonathan Croft

CONTACT PHONE:

803-516-4207

CONTACT EMAIL:

croft@clemson.edu

–Clemson University

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