Election splits Awendaw

AWENDAW -- The election for mayor and four council seats has divided this town of about 1,200 residents.

On one side is Awendaw First led by mayoral candidate Samuel Robinson. Its campaign headquarters is in a former grocery store on U.S. Highway 17 at the corner of Doar Road.

On the other is the A-Team, led by Mayor William Alston, which set up a headquarters across the highway, decorating a single-wide trailer with red, white and blue ribbons, campaign signs and a red sheet of plastic over the door.

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Robinson said fervor over the town's recent annexations and what he calls disrespect of the environment has caused a rift in the community.

Alston wouldn't comment on the division. He said the election is only about who has control.

Voters will decide Tuesday whether it will be Alston, who has served as the town's mayor since its 1992 incorporation, or Robinson, a current councilman.

Whoever wins affects not only the future of Awendaw but also surrounding land, including the Francis Marion National Forest and the Cape Romain Wildlife Reserve.

Awendaw, a loosely connected community, has annexed large swaths of land and approved those tracts for suburban-type development in recent years.

A land-use map for the town tacked up in Town Hall estimates that new and existing tracts will bring the community 2,620 homes, with 1,310 coming in the next 11 years.

Robinson said the only thing that the town can do is to ask developers to reduce the volume of homes and respect the environment.

Lynne Vicary and others have rallied around Robinson and his slate of council candidates united by their common interest in preserving Awendaw's rural flavor.

"The opposing faction is just as passionate in their beliefs," Vicary said.

Alston's supporters said they want more homes and businesses to keep the town from dying. And Alston has said the town needs help from a developer with deep pockets to achieve goals such as building a town center.

"We need money," Alston said.

Alston has accepted a total of $1,050 in campaign donations from four sources, according to documents filed with the State Ethics Commission. Those include $100 from himself and $300 from Tex Smalls, the Greenville developer behind the Market at Oakland, home to the Super Walmart in Mount Pleasant.

Smalls also is a member of Low Country Utilities LLC, which funded a request once before the Charleston-Berkeley-Dorchester Council of Governments to build a waste-water treatment plant for the town.

Robinson has brought in $2,600 in campaign donations from three sources, including $1,500 from himself, according to the ethics commission.

Charles White, 75, a lifelong resident with ties to the White Tract, a development slated for 400 homes, said it's the new residents who oppose growth.

They come to Awendaw, buy land, build a home and don't want anyone else to do the same, he said. White said some residents fear that the town could morph into another Mount Pleasant.

"I guess it will, eventually," White said.

Reach Jessica Johnson at 937-5921 or jjohnson@post andcourier.com.