The Fort Mill School District canceled school Tuesday due to lingering impacts from a water main break on Monday.

Uutility crews hit and damaged a water main near U.S. 21 and Gold Hill Road on Monday, according to York County public works. The county announced repairs were done by 11:15 p.m. Monday, with water service to be restored by the end of the night Monday. The county put a boil water advisory in place for anyone who lost water or water pressure.

“Purely as a precaution, water should be boiled before drinking or cooking with it until further notice,” York County posted Monday night. “We’ll have more information on that in the morning, but full service should be restored in the affected areas very soon.”

A little before midnight, the county stated the water main began leaking when pressure was restored. There wasn’t a time given for when repairs would be complete or water service fully restored.

At 5:30 a.m., the county updated progress. Customers may have had water service restored but at a lower pressure. Repairs to the leak were still in progress even as the system was running.

Water could be shut off Tuesday to make final repairs, according to the county.

Initially, the school district said school cafeterias would work with the boil water advisory and bring in drinking water for schools to have students attend class on Tuesday.

Early Tuesday the district pivoted and canceled class for the day, noting ongoing water main work that impacts about half of its schools of district facilities.

The Fort Mill school district is the largest in York County, with almost 18,500 students.

The water main break didn’t impact customers on the town of Fort Mill system and municipal users aren’t under a boil water advisory, the town announced.

At 10 a.m., crews were about to shut off water to make final repairs, according to York County. The plan was to have service fully restored by mid-afternoon.

This is a developing story

This story was originally published October 8, 2024, 8:58 AM.

The Herald

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John Marks graduated from Furman University in 2004 and joined the Herald in 2005. He covers community growth, municipalities, transportation and education mainly in York County and Lancaster County. The Fort Mill native earned dozens of South Carolina Press Association awards and multiple McClatchy President’s Awards for news coverage in Fort Mill and Lake Wylie.

With more than 8,500 homes and businesses still without power in the Rock Hill region, most likely will have it back soon, as recovery continues from Helene.

By 9 a.m. Monday Duke Energy had 4,162 customers in York County and 96 more in Lancaster County still without power. The estimated time for power to be back up is 5 p.m. Monday. Chester County has another 1,074 customers without power, with an estimated 7 p.m. restoration.

York Electric had 3,155 customers without power Monday morning. That is around 90 percent of its customers with power, said Marc Howie, cooperative vice-president. The cooperative hopes to have 95 percent restored by Tuesday, Howie said. No estimate was available for when all cooperative customers will have service restored. Lancaster and Chester counties had a combined 13 cooperative customers without power.

Rock Hill’s city utility department had 14 power outages impacting 66 customers on Monday morning.

As many as 9,100 Duke Energy customers were without power at 6 p.m. Sunday. York Electric Cooperative had almost 5,000 customers without power.

York County reported hundreds of trees had fallen down on Friday. Homes and property were damaged, with some injuries reported, according to a storm update from the county.

The York County Emergency Management set up a website for damage reports. The public can report property damage and post pictures from the storm, which will help the county in continued cleanup and recovery efforts.

County public works crews cleared more than 50 roads between Friday and Sunday, some with dozens of trees down along them, according to the county. Debris removal begins Monday.

County trash and recycling collection centers except the one serving Sharon and Hickory Grove towns are open Monday. Centers without power will accept household trash only.

Six of the 11 Catawba River lakes remained above their full pond levels on Monday morning. That’s the water level where lakes begin to spill if they continue to rise.

Lake Wylie sits just inches below its full pond. Its nearest upstream lake, Mountain Island Lake, is almost four feet above its full pond. Mountain Island Lake crested Sunday at eight feet above its full pond and will continue to drop for several days, according to a notice from Duke Energy.

Lake Norman came within inches of its full pond, but hasn’t topped it. The headwaters at Lake James rose more than six feet above full pond on Friday. On Monday the lake was almost two feet over full pond, but continues to decline.

Lake Wateree, the southernmost lake on the chain, crested Monday at six feet above its full pond. It’s still five feet over as of 9 a.m. Monday and will take several days to drop, according to Duke Energy.

Running water through the Catawba River and its lakes caused significant flooding in riverine areas, too. Parts of Riverwalk in Rock Hill, including the Pump House restaurant, were underwater. Catawba Park in Tega Cay was also underwater.

Heavy rains often bring wastewater spills, or sewage spills. Two were reported in the Rock Hill region during Helene.

A no swim advisory was issued for part of Lake Wylie after a Tega Cay manhole overflowed. The 2142 Manawa Lane spill started at 8:45 a.m. on Friday and ran for more than four hours. It released an estimated 8,500 gallons of wastewater. A pump truck was called in to pump out the extra flow, and lime was applied to the area.

Rock Hill had a smaller spill, of an estimated 500 gallons. A manhole near 310 River Road overflowed when a tree fell onto a power line near a treatment plant causing an electric outage. The spill started at 5 a.m. Friday and lasted more than two hours.

Some area schools brought children to class Monday, while others planned for makeup days.

Fort Mill and Lancaster County schools opened Monday on normal schedules. Rock Hill, Clover, York and Chester County schools were closed.

Rock Hill wasn’t able to run food service Monday due to power outages at some cafeterias. The school district also mentioned families in the area without power as a reason to close Monday. An e-learning makeup day will be Feb. 17, 2025.

At least six Clover school facilities didn’t have power on Sunday, including three elementary schools and the district office. By mid-Sunday, two elementary schools in York didn’t have power. Both of those districts will make up Monday’s classes with e-learning on Jan. 6, 2025.

Power outages and hazardous road conditions led the Chester County district to close Monday, with a weather makeup planned for Nov. 25.

This is a developing story.

This story was originally published September 30, 2024, 10:25 AM.

The Herald

803-329-4076

John Marks graduated from Furman University in 2004 and joined the Herald in 2005. He covers community growth, municipalities, transportation and education mainly in York County and Lancaster County. The Fort Mill native earned dozens of South Carolina Press Association awards and multiple McClatchy President’s Awards for news coverage in Fort Mill and Lake Wylie.

The Rock Hill School District could join others in York County with a new school calendar that starts earlier in the summer, but adds two week-long breaks.

The school board reviewed a potential calendar Tuesday night for the 2025-26 school year. Board members want community feedback before they make a final decision, likely Oct. 8.

Here’s what to know about the pending decision, and how it will impact students:

The proposed calendar brings teachers back July 24 and students back July 31 from summer break in 2025. For comparison, the school year that started last month brought teachers back Aug. 1 for an Aug. 8 start date for students.

The trade-off is two weeks off during the year, one each in October 2025 and February 2026. Other districts across the state that have gone to a similar model have used those weeks as time off, for camps, special programming or remediation to help students who are falling behind in class.

“We look to do something similar during those weeks,” said Superintendent Tommy Schmolze.

The proposed calendar has a full week off at Thanksgiving, up from three days in the current calendar. Traditional winter and spring breaks would be similar to years past. School would end May 29, 2026.

York and Clover schools already have similar models, with the October and February weeks off.

They started earlier this year than Rock Hill and Fort Mill schools. Fort Mill recently presented a model with the two weeks off, and the board there will make a decision next month.

“All York (County) students and faculty that live here will have really close to the same calendar,” Schmolze said of the potential Rock Hill change.

District officials sees advantages to that coordination. People don’t always live, work and raise children in the same York County districts. Board member Pete Nosal likes the current calendar, but could get behind the change, too.

“There’s a lot of value in being consistent, and this is consistent across the (York County) districts,” he said. “With all the crossover we have with teachers and kids and spouses, this is probably something I can support.”

There was discussion Tuesday about the four-day school model, something used in other parts of the country. Students would have longer days, but only four of them instead of five.

The thinking is, students get an extra day off but have more learning time the other days. Staying longer also could help parents who may need to pick up students later each day.

“Right now, there is not an opportunity for us to approve a four-day calendar,” said board Chair Helena Miller.

The state Education Department wouldn’t allow it, she said, but the board will listen to feedback on the proposed calendar to see if there’s community interest. At some point calendar rules could change, as they have in recent years when districts across the state began approving earlier start dates.

Board members brought up positive and negative reactions to the proposed calendar.

Several members liked the way it lines up closely with neighboring districts, but there was concern about starting so early. Fort Mill, for instance, would start that same year in early August compared to a late July start in Rock Hill, according to calendars up for approval in both districts.

The Rock Hill calendar halved the number of half days to four. Retired teacher and board member Mildred Douglas shared concern about half days when parents would need to arrange childcare, and for the new week off in the winter when schools typically gear up for state testing.

“I’m concerned with all the vacation time, especially in the month of February,” Douglas said.

The board wants to approve the new calendar next month. Per its policy, they have until December.

Board members want feedback but offered hesitation Tuesday on a full survey. Past ones brought in comments from outside the district that weren’t helpful, Miller said.

The proposed calendar hadn’t been sent to parents ahead of Tuesday’s board meeting.

Schmolze would like to see input in the coming month, including from people who like the proposal or would propose small modifications to it. Feedback tends to skew toward people who don’t like whatever is being proposed, and doesn’t always fully reflect people who do, he said.

“The feedback is for anybody to give, not just those that don’t like it,” Schmolze said.

For more information on feedback, visit rock-hill.k12.sc.us.

The Herald

803-329-4076

John Marks graduated from Furman University in 2004 and joined the Herald in 2005. He covers community growth, municipalities, transportation and education mainly in York County and Lancaster County. The Fort Mill native earned dozens of South Carolina Press Association awards and multiple McClatchy President’s Awards for news coverage in Fort Mill and Lake Wylie. Support my work with a digital subscription

A park built for everyone needs plenty of space, and Rock Hill’s Miracle Park is getting more of it.

Miracle Park will break ground on its final development phases by the end of the year. A year or more of construction will add a large multi-sport field, a second Miracle League baseball field, a 2,600-square-foot education building for indoor programs, a fishing pond and more parking.

Miracle League is a baseball program where volunteer buddies join players in games designed for children who may not be able to play in traditional leagues. Games start next week with about 150 players signed up to play. Miracle Park and the Miracle League operate out of the city’s parks, recreation and tourism department.

The Miracle Park additions also include an 8,200 square feet of retail space at Cherry Road and Richmond Drive that will be used to train and employ workers of varying physical ability levels.

Those projects mean the park needs to raise $1.5 million in donations.

“It’s been in the works for a long time. But we’re finally at the point where we’ve pulled permits, have a budget and we’re ready to and get started,” said park executive director Kylie Carroll.

Miracle Park opened three years ago between Eden Terrace and Cherry Road, near Winthrop University. The $8 million park on 15 acres aimed to provide play space for all children, including those with physical or mental limitations.

The park also hosts concerts, fundraisers and sports events. It’s become a jewel for the city, and was key in Rock Hill earning All-America City status just prior to the park opening.

Today, the park has a Miracle League and a traditional baseball field, concession stands, sensory areas, a story walk and restrooms. The focal piece is an inclusive playground with a music area, equipment and games designed for all ability levels. So, for instance, play areas are designed to accommodate wheelchairs or have sensory pod spaces.

At its peak in spring, Miracle Park can see up to 17,000 visitors per month. The spring baseball season had almost 200 players this year. New fields could grow those numbers.

A second baseball field would allow Miracle Park to host regional or national tournaments, like the ones they’ve sent all-star players to in recent years. Rock Hill has a storied history of attracting nationwide or even worldwide events, from BMX bike championships to disc golf to ESPN8: “The Ocho” sports programming.

Rock Hill, known in many areas as “Football City, USA” for the unusually high number of prep football stars it sends to the NFL, markets itself with a “Competition Lives Here” mantra.

“That’s exactly why we’re so excited and passionate,” Carroll said. “We have worldwide and nationwide events. Why not for folks with disabilities?”

The multipurpose sports field is another key piece.

It can break into four flag football sized fields, and will serve the city’s flag football program that’s similar to what Miracle League offers for baseball. The city could use that field to attract tournaments, from soccer to pickleball.

“If you play it on that field, we’re going to play it,” Carroll said.

When Miracle Park was still a dream, there weren’t many facilities like it in the region, Carroll said. Now they pop up regularly. Many communities have reached out to ask how Rock Hill did it, Carroll said. The city teams compete with similar leagues in Charlotte and elsewhere.

What’s made Miracle Park a success so far is, it isn’t just a place where people with limitations can play.

“It is a park for everyone,” Carroll said. “The message is finally getting there. The park is for every age and every ability.”

This story was originally published September 11, 2024, 6:10 AM.

The Herald

803-329-4076

John Marks graduated from Furman University in 2004 and joined the Herald in 2005. He covers community growth, municipalities, transportation and education mainly in York County and Lancaster County. The Fort Mill native earned dozens of South Carolina Press Association awards and multiple McClatchy President’s Awards for news coverage in Fort Mill and Lake Wylie.