Mayor Teresa Myers Ervin talks with Denis about the State of The City of Florence

Mayor, Teresa Myers Ervin, talks with Denis about the latest developments in the City of Florence. We talk about the new parking deck, the new jobs coming to Florence, housing and urban development, mental health, and public safety.
There are many things to brag about when it comes to the City of Florence.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, it's Dennis Davis. Welcome, it's iHeartRadio and on with us,
we have the honorable Mayor Teresa MyersIrvin. Thank you so much as an
honor to be here with you today. Mayor Teresa Myers Irvin is going to
deliver for us the state of thecity and pretty much give us a sky
high overview of what's going on inthe city of Florence. Take us through

(00:22):
it. You know, I'm honoredto be able to tell our citizens that
the City of Florence is growing.We as a city, we are scheduled
to have over thirty five hundred newhomes built within the city limits. So
definitely we're moving in the right direction. So in the housing front, we're
doing that with various builders, butwe also are continuing our community revitalization project,

(00:44):
and that's where we identify three catalyticareas and start to build homes within
our traditional community for home ownership inorder to stabilize our community. So on
the home front, we are puttinghomes here for our new people and for
our ones who are here to behere. So it's important that we know
as a city that we're investing intoour recreational departments. We're doing some new

(01:06):
redevelopments within our various park areas.We're also developing and connecting our trailways,
so we want to have Florence toBelle walkable, connective city. So you
will see those trails starting to beadvanced more and you will also see when
it comes to the growth leading outto the soccer complex that that trail will
be started this month as well withinthe springtime to do that. But now

(01:30):
only looking at the health of ourcommunities, we think about partnership with our
leading medical facilities. We are presentlypartnering between the city and the state to
have a behavioral hub built here onDargan Street, and that is significant because
when it comes to mental health,we need to pay more attention to the
mental health of our citizens. Sowe're partnered with over one hundred million dollars

(01:53):
partnership to have that hub built.But it's important to know that when it
comes to our intetitution, McLoud andMUSC have partnered together to provide the professionals
that we need to have that development, you know, serve the public.
So that's a great partnership that wehave and I also want to recognize the
fact that Hope Health which is afederally qualified care center, has served our

(02:19):
citizens who are uninsured but also Iinsured citizens. So they have partnered to
do various programs that you can seecoming forth to serve our male populations who
don't always go forth and get thehealth care they need. So we are
taking care of the health care needsof our citizen. We're providing four homes
for them, but also we're partneringand working with our new economic development team

(02:42):
Florence, the Flaunch Economy Development Partnership, and you may be familiar with this
company called ae SC. This projectstarted out at right about eight hundred and
ten million dollars. The investment nowhas seceded over one billion dollars wow,
and it will be bringing in oversixty hundred jobs here to our Florence area.
So we can say that Florence Citycount is now the lead when it

(03:06):
comes to economic development in this region. We're slated to change how our region
looks. Not only that the jobsthat will be coming will be livable age
jobs. That means that you're talkingabout jobs over sixty five thousand dollars a
year at the start, which isexcellent, but not only that because of
that company coming here, a patterneror pipeline for young adults who decide that

(03:28):
they want to go into the avenueof working with this company. They can
start as early as middle school andhigh school to get on that pathway so
they can go right into that industry. And electronic vehicles, the batteries,
those are part of our future andthose jobs available will help us retain our
talent here, and we want toretain the talent we have here in Florence,

(03:51):
so that is so important for usas well. So we've looked at
economic development, We've looked at healthcare here without systems that we have.
But also I want our citizens tothink about that we have industrial parks that
we're working on and we're having variousindustry that move in and it's just quite
recently you think about we have BUCkieshere, and Bucket has changed the landscape

(04:15):
of the ninety five area ninety fivecorridor. But even with Bucky being there,
we're still working with our county tolook at all our corridors leading here
into the city. In the county. We're partnering because we want to have
more of a unified look to ourcity and County so that individuals can see
that we're working together and it willbring you into the residential area, but
also our downtown area. Think aboutwhere our downtown areas. Right now,

(04:41):
it's a walkable, friendly city.We have parking decks, but also we'll
soon be bringing on hopefully by theend of summer, a new parking deck.
What would be free parking. Iwant to say that again, free
parking. When you come to theCity of Florence, you presently have the
parking deck which is by the Emersonwhich is wrapped up in there, but
you also have the parking deck atthe County Complex. But now at the

(05:04):
Urban Square location, you're going tohave another city owned parking deck, and
we want to encourage people to utilizethose parking spaces so that they can be
downtown. We are presently looking athow we can also expand some of the
things that we're doing at Bond Street, especially with the Parilmore Gymnasium that has
been utilized and growing so well thatwe want to see what we can do

(05:26):
there. When it comes to theFlorent Center, I will encourage people to
visit the Florent Center that is jointlysupported by the city in the county together.
There are renovations that are taking placeinside in order to have more of
the IT updates with the new bigelectronic boards so you can have advertisement there.

(05:46):
They've wrapped the new various places concessionstands to be representative. The Florence
Center's going undertaking a major renovation.I would like to reckon Rex who's out
new director there. But also there'ssome things that's happening now athletic. When
you think about we're now hosting theSouth Carolina High School Basketball League tournaments there

(06:11):
and it's going to be all underone area that's going to bring major eonomic
impact here to the city in theCounty of Florence. We set it heads
in beds. But I know that'sa quick synapses, but I want you
to know that city and county we'reworking together along with other industry. I
think that we're at a point thatall of us are working together for one
goal. Our city is healthy mentally, physically, financially, and spiritually.

(06:38):
We're moving in the right direction.And at any time you want to communicate
with me as your mayor, pleaseI have an open door policy. You're
welcome to call my office we canset a time that we can talk by
phone by zoom are in person.And I do want to close out to
let you know that when it comesto protection and security, our City of
Florence Chief, which is mister AllenHeidler, and also our Sheriff TJ.

(07:03):
Joy, there's a task force thatthey serve together, and these two gentlemen
have worked so well together to actuallyprevent crime but also to solve cases because
it's a dynamic team. And Ifully support both of these leaders in their
role to protect our city and ourcounty. And I would like to say

(07:25):
thank you to all of our lawenforcement. We cannot do without them.
So City of Florence and count ofFlorence, thank you for your support.
And we're looking forward to create anenvironment that will not only be home for
us, but homes for our futuregenerations to come. Thank you, the
Honorable Mayor Teresa Meyers Irvin, Cityof Florence, thank you so much for

(07:47):
joining us on iHeartRadio. Thank you, Dennis