By Patricia Burkett
Published: April 19, 2011
FLORENCE, SC —
A local delegation recently returned from a trip to Washington, D.C., to speak with Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint and Congressmen Jim Clyburn and Mick Mulvaney about issues facing Florence County.
The main topics of concern included the loss of Delta Airlines at Florence Regional Airport, losses in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding, the Pee Dee Regional Transportation Authority, dredging at the Port of Charleston and the The School Foundation, which serves Florence School District 1.
Members of the delegation said they asked lawmakers to help them encourage Delta officials to reverse their decision in October to discontinue service at the Florence airport.
“One of them (the lawmakers) said there’s not much we can do when a private enterprise decides to do something, but we’ll at least make the calls and see if we can be of some help,” Florence Regional Airport Director Hartsell Rogers, who was among the delegation, said. He didn’t identify the lawmaker.
“We hope they will and we will follow up to be sure that they have the proper bullet points and we’ll make those phone calls,” Rogers said. “Nobody can understand why they pulled out to start with … when you look at the big picture and what really makes sense, Delta just fits Florence. We’re hoping they will make those phone calls … and point out to them (Delta officials) that they made a mistake when they chose to move out of Florence.”
Rogers said though officials at the airport are in continued talks with Delta, the airline has not said whether it plans to return.
Meanwhile, work on a $7 million concourse that was originally intended for Delta continues and is expected to be completed near Thanksgiving.
Rogers said he hopes that if nothing else, the legislative meeting would inform those in Washington of the issues facing Florence County and just what they can do to lend a helping hand to those here at home.
Florence Mayor Stephen J. Wukela said he felt it the impact of the group’s visit will be felt throughout Florence County.
“Members of Congress need to see the local impact that those decisions have. It can be somewhat abstracted in Washington, even for the best member, of course,” Wukela said. “Also, I think it must be said, the effect of seeing a Democratic mayor along with some Republican members of the Chamber of Commerce come together to lobby members from both parties on the same issues, I think makes an impact and it shows a united front here in Florence for the needs that we have and the importance of federal involvement.”
Wukela said that he made special mention of the importance of CDBGs to the Florence area and lobbied for federal funding to continue. The grants are one of the main sources used in downtown redevelopment efforts, and lawmakers in Washington threatened to cut them entirely. Instead, a new federal budget plan would cut the grants by 7 percent.
“The chamber and I both lobbied Congress to not cut it altogether. We certainly understood that it was going to be cut, but we would certainly rather have 7-percent cut than a complete cut,” Wukela said.
Among those in the delegation were representatives of the Greater Florence and Darlington chambers of commerce, Florence city and Marion County officials, and representatives of PDRTA, Roche Carolina, Progress Energy and HillSouth.