Berkeley County hires Butler to help recruit industry, new jobsBy Katy Stech (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Saturday, July 19, 2008
A Charleston native is returning to the Lowcountry to help attract new industry and new jobs to Berkeley County. Gene Butler, 62, will take over as economic development director Aug. 18. He replaces John Scarborough, who abruptly resigned from the job earlier this year after sparring with county Supervisor Dan Davis. The move will likely come with a change of pace for Butler. He currently heads economic development ef-forts for Dillon County, a small county on the North Carolina border north of Florence with a population of about 30,000. Berkeley County, by contrast, has more than 150,000 residents. It also has amassed an impressive record on the economic development front. Two of the more-recent high-profile investments the county has landed were a $500 million expansion of the DuPont chemical plant in Bushy Park and a $600 million data center that Internet search giant Google Inc. is building near Goose Creek. "I'm just going to try and hitch my wagon and see if I can make a contribution to what's already going on," Butler said Friday. During the past eight years, the Charleston Southern University graduate has helped organize long-range planning sessions for Dillon County leaders, who are pursuing an industrial park development. Before that, he was Colleton County's economic development director for 14 years. Berkeley has been without a full-time economic development director since April, shortly after Davis told Scarborough that he could either resign or be fired during a disagreement over incentives for a prospective company. The identity of company was not disclosed. Scarborough had worked with the county for 17 years. This week it was announced that he joined the S.C. Department of Commerce, where he will focus mostly on attracting more port-related business to the state. Many of Scarborough's responsibilities were being handled by Deputy Supervisor Chip Boling, who could not be reached for comment Friday. Reach Katy Stech at kstech@postandcourier.com or 937-5549. |
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Comments
This article has 1 comment(s)
Posted by smalltownrumor on July 19, 2008 at 8:10 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Congratulations, Mr. Davis. Your stupidity has exceeded even my expectations. You got your nickers in a twist and fired a man with the 16+ years of proven expertise of John Scarborough. In your "nationwide" search to find his replacement, you ended up in those bastions of demonstrated economic development, Colleton and Dillon Counties. It is said that even a blind hog will find an acorn every once in a while. When it comes to your administrative skills, the people of Berkeley County are still waiting for that event to happen.