The Boone Show - S5 E1 - Williamston Mayor Rockey Burgess

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What's the secret behind Williamston's vibrant community spirit? Mayor Rockey Burgess joins us on The Boone Show to reveal the exciting changes coming to town, starting with the Spring Water Festival's move to cooler months next year for a more enjoyable experience. Discover the impressive upgrades at Mineral Spring and Brookdale Parks, as Rockey shares his vision for top-notch recreational facilities that cater to everyone in the community.

Ever wondered about the intricacies of road paving and local development? Rockey breaks it all down, detailing the challenges and triumphs of paving state, county, and city roads, and the hurdles in securing funding and contractors. Hear about the much-anticipated Main Street paving project and the delays in the construction of a new Ingle's store due to the pandemic. Plus, get a sneak peek into Williamston's growth plans, including the upcoming Big Creek Station project.

In the final segment, Rockey shares personal and heartfelt stories, from David Rodgers' illustrious career and retirement plans to Rockey's philanthropic efforts through the Burgess Family Foundation. Celebrate local dining favorites, anticipate college football season, and enjoy Rockey's reflections on community support and his unopposed reelection campaign. This episode is a testament to what makes Williamston a vibrant and growing community. Tune in and get inspired!

Thanks for listening! Direct all inquiries to [e-mail].

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everybody, Back on the air for the 24-25 school
year.
It's the Boone Show on MyPulseRadio.
I'm John Boone.
We've got the boss lady here,Holly Harrell Hi.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hey, it seems like the summer is shorter and
shorter, hasn't it?

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Yes, I can't believe.
We've been in school threeweeks and we're still not
through August.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
I know right.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
This is.
But we've got a special guestin studio tonight and it is the
mayor of Williamston, himselfone of the most interesting men
in the world, rocky Burgess.
Rocky, how are you doing today?
I'm better than I deserve, myfriend, I bet you.
So I'm doing good.
Great to be here.
We have got a lot to talk aboutwith you on this show tonight

(00:42):
this afternoon, whatever youconsider 4 o'clock.
This show tonight thisafternoon, whatever you consider
4 o'clock.
And let's start with what'sgoing on this weekend in
Williamston.
What is it?
The 43rd edition of the SpringWater Festival.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
I believe you're right.
Spring Water Festival Got tolove it, been around for a good
long time.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
So what's going on with that?

Speaker 3 (00:57):
Well, this will be the last one in August.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Oh, there's a lot of Big round of applause, the last
one?

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Oh, there's a lot of Big round of applause, the last
one.

Speaker 3 (01:03):
It'll be the last one that takes place in August.
I think the Spring WaterFestival Committee voted to move
it to springtime of next year.
Maybe it might be a little bitcooler.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Oh yes, because it is miserable.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
It's a great idea We've watched attendance kind of
drop a little bit over theyears and it's gotten hotter,
you know, with all that globalwarming thing going on, Got to
get a Tesla.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Got to fix it.
We're going to talk about thatlater, aren't we?
We'll get to that, so lots ofgood stuff happening.

Speaker 3 (01:28):
You've got bands coming out on Friday night and
then Saturday you'll have allyour crafts and all that good
stuff.
Friday night, I think, there'stwo bands starting at 6.
And then around, I believe, 10or 11 o'clock somewhere around
in there.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
All right, and last year there seemed to be the
biggest crowd in a while.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
Anyway, I guess, yeah , last year was a good event too
.
Yeah, we're still terribly hot,though.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Whoever plays the platypals for us, the mascot
going around.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
Bless their heart.
I hope you've got an airconditioner inside, at least a
fan.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
We have a little fan, but it doesn't do much.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
It is a tiny little fan uh, yeah, and they get.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
We pay them for doing that, but not enough for the
spring water festival, becausethat is the hottest event of the
year.
So I'd heard a few years agothey're thinking about moving it
that that's happened for sure?

Speaker 3 (02:16):
uh, matter of fact, if you go on, uh, these
williamson spring water festivalon facebook, um, they announce
the data.
You have to forgive me I don'tknow that date right off the top
of my head, but next year itwill be in the spring.
So, we're coming up prettyquick.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
They're planning to add some events and stuff on it
too.
Now you'll still have thebarbecue festival right around
that time too.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
Yep, I think it may be the week or two after.
Wow, we'll have a lot going onin the spring, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
So what else is going on at the park these?

Speaker 3 (02:42):
days.
So, speaking of spring andMineral Spring Park, we've got
some big news on Mineral SpringPark.
We just took down the oldplayground equipment and, thanks
to Representative Ann Thayer,we were able to get a $750,000
earmark to replace thatplayground with a super, super
nice playground that's handicapaccessible, meets all the latest

(03:06):
and greatest requirements forfall protection and all that
good stuff.
If you ever go out to TigerRiver Park in Spartanburg, the
exact same playground equipmentis going into Williamston, so
we're super excited about thatconstruction.
Matter of fact, I was told thatmaterials will come lay down
next week and then they willstart construction directly
thereafter and expect to takeabout 30 days.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Oh wow, so it's going to be quick.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
Real quick.
Yeah, they're actually doingthe site work leading up this
week, leading up to Spring WaterFestival.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
And you all have done so much to that park.
You know, with the pickleballcourts and the beautification
around the, the water walkwayand um, and now the, the
playground, and there isconstantly kids out there.
I mean constantly kids andfamilies out of that playground.

Speaker 3 (03:53):
It does my heart good when I roll through about 10 11
o'clock on my way home to rollthrough the park and see
bustling activity.
And it's not just, um, oldpeople, it's not just young
people, it's a, it's a mixtureof folks, um, of folks that
we're providing things forpeople to do.
We spend a lot of money therein Mineral Spring Park, but
that's the focal point of thetown.
We've also got some upgradesgoing at Brookdale Park as well.

(04:15):
Over back behind the curbmarket on Circle Drive, they're
getting a new steel sheltergoing in out there.
The shelter that was used foryears for family reunions and
stuff like that has quite a bitof termite damage and has fallen
into a state of disrepair.
It's been up probably since the50s.
So they're getting a nicebrand-new steel polygon shelter.

(04:36):
That's about $200,000 worth ofshelter going in over there, so
we're super excited about that.
One thing we want to do is makesure that people are aware of
all of our parks.
So we're super excited aboutthat.
One thing we want to do is makesure that people are aware of
all of our parks, where they'relocated at.
Some are neighborhood parks,just like Brookdale and Gray
Drive Park.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
But they're very, very nice amenities that all of
our communities can enjoy.
Tell me where Brookdale Park is, because I don't know.

Speaker 3 (05:00):
The best way I can tell you is behind the curb
market or if you come down EastCarolina Street, or you can take
Brown almost directly acrossfrom Burwick.
You can go down Brown, take aright onto Bigby and then it's
immediately there.
On the left They've gotbasketball courts, got a big
baseball field out there that weuse for practice sometimes
Restrooms They've got newrestrooms.

(05:21):
They've been in the last 10years.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
And tell me a little bit more about the playground
that you are putting in Now.
First of all, you said youvisited where they have it in
Spartanburg.
Did you like try out theequipment?
I did.
Did you go down the slide?

Speaker 3 (05:36):
I violated all the rules that were posted because
it said you know, I've alwaysbeen a rule breaker, no, but I
did it for good reason.
You?
I've always been a rule breaker?
No, but I did it for goodreason.
You've got to sample before youbuy correct.
That's right, you've got tomake sure that it supports you
and does all that you want it todo.
It's a three-story playgroundso it's really really tall Tons

(05:57):
of interactive things to do, butit will fit in the same
footprint of what the oldequipment was there.

Speaker 1 (06:04):
And is it going to have?

Speaker 3 (06:05):
turf, it will have astroturf, yep.
So, um, you know, getting grassto grow in that area has for
for years we've tried, and the,the old oak trees, which are
beautiful, um oak trees that wewant to remain, they just suck
all the nutrients out of thesoil.
So erosion issues we've had.
This should remedy every bit ofthat.
So the, the maintenance will beliterally cleaning it on

(06:27):
occasion and just blowing leavesoff of the turf.
So we're super excited the turfhas some fall protection built
into it as well.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
Good, good little cushion, yep, um, yeah, even
with the mulch that they put in,and there it caused an issue.
For one of our kids, forinstance, they fell down piece
of mulch, cut their lip whenthey fell down.
So I mean the turf thing shouldbe.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
Turf thing is a lot better, and there's some concern
about turf and the ingredientsthat goes into turf.
If you will that cause someconcern with some people.
This has none of that bad stuffin it.
I think they basically callthem forever chemicals, that
type of stuff.
So this is made by a companythat does not use that, so we
don't have to worry about themineral spring being

(07:08):
contaminated or anything likethat.
So it's got a nice 20-yearwarranty on it All right, we're
excited.

Speaker 1 (07:14):
Sounds good.
How long has the otherequipment been there.

Speaker 3 (07:20):
It's been there, I wouldn't say all my life,
because I played on the oldwooden and steel stuff that
nobody cared if you broke yourarm or busted your lip or
whatever it might be, but Iwould say that equipment that's
there was probably put in late80s, early 90s, wow, so it's
been a while.

Speaker 1 (07:35):
It's been there for a while.
It's been good equipment.
Yeah, yeah, back in the day,holly, you remember playgrounds
back in the day.

Speaker 2 (07:42):
Oh yes, Did you get outside any?
You know, Holly, you rememberplaygrounds back in the day?

Speaker 1 (07:44):
Oh yes, absolutely.
You go on the slide and youburn your butt because of it
being in the sun.

Speaker 3 (07:48):
Big steel slide, no fall protection, about 15 foot
in the air.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
You got the monkey bars.

Speaker 3 (07:52):
That everybody's falling on the merry-go-round
the merry-go-round.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
The seesaw.
Yeah, very dangerous stuff.
Your legs would hit that silverslide going down and your shins
would hit the steps just rightyes, and it would burn all the
way down the steps literally hadlike serrated edges on them
almost like a knife and therewas no angle to go up.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
It was straight up.
You climbed up just like youwould a straight ladder
absolutely your foot slip andyour shin just gets all peeled
up.
Nobody sued, anybody can you?

Speaker 1 (08:18):
no, no, and that's the way that I guess it was done
on purpose to make us, or theswing that would not be cemented
in?

Speaker 2 (08:25):
quite right, and it would move as you yeah, yeah,
swing a certain direction.

Speaker 3 (08:29):
We see how far we can go.
Rocket for a strike, set andtilt it over.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
Go all the way over, yeah yes, so uh yeah,
playground's a lot safer we evenhad a uh, a log.

Speaker 3 (08:37):
You would stand up on and and run on the log like it,
the log would turn.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
Who does that anymore ?
Yeah, yeah, injuries to happen.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
So what do you have?
Well, I guess this will be thenext what's coming up.
Like what other?
Visions do you have?
But I know we're going to talk.
I know we're coming up to that.
Sorry, I went too fast.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
But quickly before we leave the park, especially
Spring Water, mineral SpringPark, what's coming up in the
park besides Spring WaterFestival in the next month or so
?

Speaker 3 (09:05):
Are they still doing that camping thing?
Well, you're going to have aVolkswagen camp out.
You're going to have Boo in thePark.

Speaker 1 (09:11):
Yeah, which I noticed is early.
I guess it's for in casethere's a rain out, because it's
like the 19th of October, it'svery early this year.

Speaker 3 (09:19):
Well, you also have to think too.
We've got to start decoratingfor Christmas.
Some people say you know, assoon as Halloween's over, like
almost the next day, we starthanging Christmas decorations.
People are like why are theydoing that?
Do you realize how long ittakes to put all that stuff up
and take it down?
If you don't start, then it'snot ready and obviously we have
a Winter Wonderland, which isamazing.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
Which has been great.
What's that?
Three years, you've done thatTwo, three years.

Speaker 3 (09:44):
This will be, I think , our third year.

Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yeah, it's been very successful and you're having the
parade on the same day againthis year, because I know you
moved it last year, I think so.
Okay.

Speaker 3 (09:52):
I think it's going to be on the same day.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
One thing I noticed at Disney.
You know they have theirHalloween stuff all the way up
through.

Speaker 3 (09:59):
Halloween to disney.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
Yeah, listen to this outstanding, I mean this goes
you made me think of it andnovember 1st it is completely
decorated for christmas.
Absolutely, the people rightafter the halloween thing is
they have hundreds of peopletaking down all that stuff and
putting up all the christmasstuff in one night.
Yep, so that the people thatcome to the park on november 1st
can see all christmas yepthat's our game plan, doing the

(10:23):
same thing in williamston.

Speaker 3 (10:24):
We hope to have some new uh street decorations as
well.
We've been working with thecompany and hopefully they'll be
here by then all right, thatall sounds good.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
We have much, much more, as holly teased coming up
with.
Uh, rocky burgess, it's theboone show, my pulse radio.
Uh, we don't always open aphone line, but if you're
listening and you want to callin, it's 864-847-3509.
Puggles is here tonight.
This is like going back intothe past.
Oh wait, I'll turn your mic on.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
After four years, I think yeah, you're back, I am
back, you're back 864-847-3509if you have a question for the
mayor.

Speaker 1 (10:57):
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Speaker 7 (12:59):
This is Olivia Neal from Ren High School and you're
listening to MyPulse Radio.

Speaker 1 (13:05):
Welcome back to the Boone Show, my Pulse Radio.
Our special guest tonight isRocky Burgess, the mayor of the
town of Williamston, of which weare a part, and it's election
season and Mr Burgess is runningagain.
Thank goodness.
I read the nice statement thatyou had.

(13:26):
That was in the journal.
It was also on Facebook orwherever I saw it.
I know you're all over theplace.
If you try to look up rockyburgess on instagram, there's
like 10 accounts.

Speaker 3 (13:35):
He's like 10 different ones.
One thing nobody can say is I'mnot accessible.
You might not want what I haveto say, but I am most definitely
, but you can say it yeah,anywhere.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
uh, but tell us about your, your feeling.
Obviously you're running again,but this is kind of really a
labor of love for you, oh yeahfor sure.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
It's what it comes down to Public servant for sure.

Speaker 3 (13:55):
Yeah so tell us about your reelection campaign.
It is.
So there will be no campaign.
I did announce Fourth of Julycelebration, much to my wife and
family's chagrin, but I lookedaround the room, tried to get
somebody that would step in andunfortunately it requires a lot

(14:15):
of work.
It almost requires somebody tobe either retired or have the
time and energy to be able toput into it.
The good Lord has blessed mewith that time that I can put
into it.
Not that that's exactly what Iwant to do, but I do love my
community enough to be able toserve if the folks will have me
to do it.
One more time.

(14:36):
I did put my name on the listand was notified yesterday I
think it was that apparentlyI'll be running unopposed this
year.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
So how many times can you run?

Speaker 3 (14:49):
It's not like present or any other.
You can make a lifelong careerout of it.
I suppose, if you want to, I donot want to.
I hope that one day we'll havesomebody that would be my ideal
candidate.
It would be somebody young,that would step up and somebody
that I could help.
I don't necessarily want to bethe guy in the making all the

(15:10):
decisions and having to beavailable 24-7, but I would love
to be that guy in thebackground helping somebody else
.
That's my ultimate goal.

Speaker 2 (15:18):
Well, you and your wife and your family have always
been somewhere shape or form inpublic service, whether it be
with the school system or in thecommunity itself.
You guys have done it all.
I'm grateful for what you'vedone for the town of Williamston

(15:38):
and, to be honest with you, forour school.
You've done a lot for us.

Speaker 3 (15:43):
We appreciate it very much.
Both of us are getting a littleolder, both of us are nearing
retirement age, where there'sother things in life we'd like
to do as well, but certainly ourcommunity and our school system
included.
Both of us are very, verypassionate about our community.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
That's awesome, so no worries about $500 plate
dinners or anything for Rocky'scampaign.
No, we're not doing any of that.
Just be happy to have your voteon november 5th absolutely all
right so uh, tell us what elseis going on.
I know there's been a lot oftalk about roads being paved
yeah.

Speaker 3 (16:16):
so, um, a lot of people are not familiar with the
roads and how those structureswork.
You know, you hear um peoplesay I don't want to pay any more
.
We all just had a big taxincrease with the gasoline tax
that we're all familiar with alittle while back, and that's
correct.
But that's actually for stateroads.
That goes to the South CarolinaDepartment of Transportation
for 85 US 29 state roads and,believe it or not, there's

(16:41):
actually a lot of those.
In Williamston, if you look byBelton Highway, here's a state
road, but a lot of people don'tunderstand that there's also
county roads and city roads too,and so the process by which we
get those paved, whether it bethe county or the municipality
of Williamston, is we don'tcollect gasoline tax, we don't
get any money for gasoline tax.

(17:02):
We have to go to the countyC-Funds Committee there's a
portion of those road taxesallocated to the county to
distribute it as they see fit.
So we have to get on the listand beg and plead and for the
for the most part, we've beenfairly successful in getting
some roads paved.
As a matter of fact, the townjust put a post out a while ago
that apparently there'll be somepaving starting tomorrow, and I

(17:23):
know that one.
One of the bigger streets isparker, just down the street
from the career center.
They'll that, I believe,tomorrow, and paving should run
throughout the end of the yearuntil it gets too cold to pave.
And that was like a millionfive, I think, is the allocation
for that tranche of roads.
It's like six roads in the cityand then we've got six more.

(17:43):
That was approved last week atthe C-Funds Committee.
The problem is is it takes along, long time to get
contractors available to do it.
And the second issue that we'reall facing is you know, several
years ago to get a mile of roadpaved was about $250,000.
Now it's about $1.2 million.
So the cost, the contract,there's so few contractors,

(18:05):
they're giving you the I don'twant it price and so there's not
enough contractors to do thework.
And if you want to get in theroad paving business, which I
would love to do, you can make alot of money doing that.
The problem is you have to alsoown an asphalt company to be
able to provide the base productby which to do asphalt work,

(18:29):
and so they almost have anasphalt mafia.
So if you're not in this group,that pats each other on the
back.
You don't get paving contractsbecause you can't get the
product.

Speaker 2 (18:41):
Makes sense.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
It's a racket, it's all a big racket.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
So the roads will be getting smoother.

Speaker 3 (18:47):
Yeah, that's the good news and we do a good job too.
If you've got potholes orsomething like that on a city
street, we obviously always youknow going around with a cold
patch, feeling those things asthey come up.

Speaker 2 (18:57):
And it's so hard to figure out what's a state street
, what's a city street, what's acounty street.
I mean there are so many thingsand us as the homeowners or
people who live and drive, youknow, people complain all the
time about the roads, but reallythere is so many and most
people don't care whose problemit is no they just know it's a
problem and they want somebodyto fix it.
Dadgummit Right.

Speaker 3 (19:15):
That's right.
But one way you can tell is ifyou look at the street sign, you
will see the little S.
It's like a black sign with Snumbers on it.

Speaker 2 (19:33):
That's a very clear indication that state road.

Speaker 3 (19:35):
So what in the world?

Speaker 2 (19:35):
sorry, I hit multitasking, yeah I hit the
intercom and bless old peoplewith technology.

Speaker 1 (19:37):
Gotta love it, that's right, exactly so like a street
, like main street.
Could you um like lobby forthat?
So how does that?

Speaker 3 (19:46):
work.
Um, yes and no.
D to DOT was a lot morepolitical than it is these days.
A lot of it depended on whoyour House member was, who your
senator was, where they hadclout, and you'd have years
where all the money was funneledtoward Florence, and then you
may have somebody in GreenvilleCounty that becomes influential.
They've been there.
They're sitting on some board,that's important, and so the

(20:08):
money gets funneled over here.
They've eliminated there.
They're sitting on some board,that's important, and so the
money gets funneled over here.
They've eliminated thatsupposedly, and I believe the
state.
They tell us the truth all thetime.
Sure, they do, but supposedlythey rank it and you can
actually go to DOT's website andsee the ranking and the order.
So I think, worst case scenario, they're at least being
transparent about what they'redoing and I am proud to say that

(20:29):
, yes, main Street Williamstonis slated to be paved this year.
As a matter of fact, it'scoming from there at Larry's
Used Cars, just up the street,all the way down Belton Drive.
Oh, wow, and will end atSunTrust Bank there at Hamilton
Street.

Speaker 2 (20:45):
Wow, so right in front of our school.

Speaker 3 (20:46):
Yep.
So that's slated to be pavedthis year according to DOT.
Now they may change that, butit is number one on their
priority list for AndersonCounty.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
Great, it needs it Absolutely.
So what's going on with Ingalls?
You knew that was coming.
We've had Rocky on.
How many?

Speaker 3 (21:04):
years have you been in office now?
So the transaction took placemy first year in office and I've
been in here.
This is my fourth year, soapproximately three years.
It took a year to make thatdeal work and get it transferred
and get all the paperworkcompleted.
And we had some COVID issues tooduring that time, so that was

(21:25):
the last information that I gotwas from Ingalls, was that they
had planned the store to bebuilt the year following the
closing of the deal, which wouldhave been my second year in
office but COVID hit andobviously the cost of everything
soared, and so instead theybuilt one store that year, and
that was the one that they hadalready, you know, started work
on.
They built none the followingyear, and so now I'm told

(21:46):
they're ramping back up year andthat was the one that they had
already, you know, started, uh,started work on.
They built none the followingyear, and so now I'm told
they're ramping back up.
I do know they're still pullingpermits with dot and they're
going to do intersectionrealignment and stuff like that,
but it's just not coming fastenough for me you know, as a
business owner, when I see aproblem I do it now.
that's right, and so the hardpart is the hurry up and wait.

(22:08):
But but I'm going to tell you Ithink I'm going to start a
campaign this upcoming year if Iwin re-election again, and
we're just all going to writeletters and I'm going to refer
everybody to Ingalls.
And I'm going to have them getbombarded with the phone calls
to make sure that they know thatour community is very
interested in them being here.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
That's right.
Yes and yes, and it's supposedto be one of the biggest ones.

Speaker 3 (22:26):
It will be the biggest one in their whole
conglomeration.
Oh wow, based on the plans thatthey've submitted to us, it
will take the footprint of thatexisting store, including the
old Ace Hardware goodies, thewhole complex and extend by 20
foot.
On either side it has theBoar's Head Meats, the Asian

(22:47):
Cuisine inside the Fuel Station,ev Charging Station, starbucks,
Starbucks it has a Starbucks.
It's got everything.
If you go to an Ingalls store,that's got everything in it.
This has got everything, plus alittle bit more square footage.

Speaker 1 (23:00):
That's pretty awesome , yeah, that would be a huge.

Speaker 3 (23:02):
I'm hoping they will have the beer inside where you
can.
Actually.
If you go to Florida you canactually order a beer and shop
with your wife.
That would be my ideal.

Speaker 2 (23:11):
I think they have that in Greer as well.

Speaker 3 (23:13):
I don't know if South Carolina allows it but if they
allow it, I will be perfectlyhappy with it.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
Don't they do it at Lowe's Foods?
I think they may.

Speaker 3 (23:21):
It's a very neat concept it is.
You just walk around with abeer and shop or wine.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
Or wine a glass of wine, all right.
What else is growing inWilliamston?
So?

Speaker 3 (23:34):
housing's still booming.
I heard that it's going to beletting up.
I've seen no signs of that.
Our two subdivisions that we'vegot in place are moving right
along.
We had some issues withSaratoga Oaks, saratoga Villages
, with some water and drainageissues.
They had to pull off a bit.
For a little bit we had to busta couple beaver dams and they

(23:56):
had to install some drainagedrain pipe in to alleviate the
ponding that was taking place onthe property.
They're back at work.
As of last week they startedback doing more site work there,
so hopefully we'll see some,some homes going up by the end
of the year.
At those two locations there'sbeen tons of onesies, twosies,
three, fours, uh popping up allover the place too, so we're

(24:18):
super excited about the growth.

Speaker 1 (24:19):
Yeah, there's been a lot of it.
Um, what about business wise?
You know of any?
Uh, can you tell us of anybusinesses that are coming or
give us some teases?

Speaker 2 (24:31):
Looks like there's some more models downtown.

Speaker 3 (24:32):
Well, there's a couple of A couple of.
You've got Wicked Licks IceCream if you're familiar with
them?
Yes, they're coming right downthe street and they have plans
to open up in, I believe,january of 2025.

Speaker 2 (24:45):
And that's kind of over by the BP.

Speaker 3 (24:50):
It is over by.

Speaker 2 (24:50):
BP and Hardee's's, the old uh, I don't remember
what bank that was, but it wasan old bank.

Speaker 3 (24:52):
Okay, yep, oh yeah.
So here's the thing that I likeabout those niche business like
that, they're unique, yep, um,they bring people in who would
not ordinarily come towilliamston.
That's important to us.
Um, our hospitality taxes Itake it since I've taken office
um, this is largely withsupportive counsel.
In the niches that we've taken,we've went from generating
$160,000 a year on prepared foodto $380,000.

(25:15):
Wow, that's huge that does nothappen by accident.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
No, that's intentional.

Speaker 3 (25:19):
And so you know, building a pickleball course,
bringing people in who would notordinarily come to Williamston,
taking advantage of ouramenities that we have to offer
is huge.
Taking advantage of ouramenities that we have to offer
is huge.
One of the big, big drivers ofthat is going to be those niche
things, big creek stations,kicking off their development.
So you're going to start to seesome announcements being made.

Speaker 5 (25:40):
What is?

Speaker 3 (25:41):
that that was our old water plant.
That's behind the firedepartment and it also
encompasses the old depotbuilding, if you'll notice.
They just finished painting itand we found the old porcelain
williamston sign that hung onthe depot.
We was able to find it and getthat home back up.
But they're going to do wedidn't sell that property.
That'll still belong to thetown, but they will lease that

(26:03):
out as part of that overallcomplex for for what they intend
to do, the same developers thatdeveloped Hampton Station
downtown Greenville are involvedin this one.
So if you can think Birds FlySouth Hampton Station.
It'd be something very similarto it.
It'd be something where, if youlive in TR or somewhere like

(26:23):
that and you wake up on Saturdaymorning, you grab the wife and
kids and say let's go toWilliamston and spend the day.
You know right now there's nota whole lot of reason to do that
, unless you're coming to afestival or one of our events or
at the park or the park, yeah,but this will give you a lot
more.
Just the things like the newplayground.
All those are drivers, economicdrivers that bring people into
town, that spend their money tovisit and hopefully call it home

(26:47):
.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
So when is this going to take place?
Which part the station?
I've covered a lot the stationBig.

Speaker 3 (26:52):
Creek Station, so we just transacted that they own
the property.
Now They've went ahead andstarted some demo of the old
facility cleaning it out,getting it ready.
It's a really, really uniquefacility.
It's off limits now so thegeneral public can't go see it,
but it's a really, really uniquefacility.
And one thing they're talkingabout doing, if you're familiar
with, uh, uh, what's thegreenville location where they

(27:15):
have all the gather gathergreenville um, they're planning
on bringing in some um foodtrucks and things like that,
almost like gather greenville tostart getting some attention in
that area.
They've got some marketingdigital signage getting ready to
go up as well to kind ofgenerate a lot of interest.

Speaker 2 (27:31):
So the next year we're really going to see some
movement.

Speaker 3 (27:33):
You're going to see movement all across the board in
Wheaton.
All kinds of things from pavingto development, to homes.
It's going to be transformativefor sure.

Speaker 1 (27:44):
That building next to the journal is anybody doing
anything with?

Speaker 3 (27:48):
that.
So you've got the journal andthen, you've got another
building beside of it without aroof, and then you got the
two-story building.
Now me and um three otherpartners own that building,
along with cutters, which cutteris a new um barbara that just
came into town.
They're booming.
They're doing a phenomenal jobif you haven't visited cutters
for a haircut, you need to go by.
They pamper, take good care ofyou.

(28:10):
It's a very, very nice facilityand they're doing a heck of a
good business over there.
So the two-story building wehad engineers look at it, one
thing that I love, thearchitecture on it and my dream
was to have that building makemy private office upstairs have
a balcony that looked over thepark.
I could go, sit out and have aglass of bourbon and a good
cigar and see all the activitiestaking place in the park.

(28:31):
So we had engineers look at itand they were concerned of the
structure itself.
Basically, we'd have to build.
Their recommendation was totear it down.
So we don't want to tear itdown.
The other alternative was tobuild a structure within the
outside, within the inside ofthat structure.
Obviously, obviously, that's avery expensive, ambitious and

(28:53):
expensive thing to do.
The thing that caused us themost issues why things have not
progressed on it currently is tobe accessible to the public.
It has to have an elevator, andso the elevator, along with the
construction you're looking atabout $2.2 million, oh my.
And it still has issues withparking.
So I've talked with the otherpartners.

(29:14):
We've got to get it agreed andwe've got to get the insurance
companies involved and make sureeverything's good to go.
But I think we may transformthat into an outdoor space with
some nice lighting, but a placewhere you could have wedding
receptions and stuff like thatas well.
Okay, I always thought thatmight be a nice event.

Speaker 1 (29:29):
Yes, it would be great.

Speaker 3 (29:31):
The biggest issue that we've got and we've got to
work on this all throughoutWilliamston is making
Williamston a more walkablecommunity.
If you go downtown Greenville.
It's nothing for you to walk acouple blocks right.
Right, we don't currently havethat set up, but in order for
our business to flourish andbuildings like you're talking
about to be viable, you mostdefinitely have to have a more

(29:52):
walkable community.
So we're working on that, alongwith expanding our trails, that
type of stuff as well.

Speaker 1 (29:58):
All right, We've got much more coming up with Rocky
Burgess.
We're going to hopefully hearfrom Zach.
Take a little break in themiddle here and talk about
football season about to start.
He could take the next halfhour, holly.

Speaker 2 (30:10):
Oh, I know it, I know it.

Speaker 1 (30:12):
But I'm sure he's you know, deceived enough to think
that Clemson is going to beGeorgia, but we'll see.
He's already starting to becalling in, so stay with us.
You're listening to the BooneShow on MyPulse Radio show on my

(30:35):
pulse radio.

Speaker 8 (30:36):
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Speaker 9 (31:01):
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No, it's a nice car.
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No, it's just a piece of junk.
Okay, well, why don't you justlisten to me and take it to L&C
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Speaker 10 (32:04):
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(32:25):
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palmettobusinessorg.
It's Elijah.

Speaker 5 (32:37):
Bell, the Big Stepper from Patterson High School.
Welcome to MyPulse Radio.

Speaker 1 (32:43):
Hey, it's the Boone Show on MyPulseRadio.
Our guest tonight, rockyBurgess, the mayor of
Williamston, trying to get Zachon the line.
If we get him, fine.
If not, I'll take over all theviews that he would have had
towards football.
But we've got much more to talkabout with Rocky.
And one thing I noticed in thenews recently David Rogers, who

(33:05):
everybody knows in Williamson.
You see his face everywhere.
He retires but then he's notgoing anywhere.
Well, maybe, maybe not, younever know, with elections.
Now he wants to be a councilman,and good for him.
So tell us a little bit aboutall that time that he put into
the town of Williamson.

Speaker 3 (33:23):
So David came right out of high school, went to work
for the town of Williamson atthe water plant we used to have
our own water plant.
Um, him and his wife gotmarried shortly thereafter and
one of the stories he tells agood bit is that once his wife,
um, decided to go get married,they did, they eloped, and then
shortly thereafter, uh, he wascalled into work and wasn't able

(33:43):
to take a honeymoon.
So, um, he's been lookingforward to that honeymoon.
I think he's getting ready totake it now.
Finally, him and Pam's going togo to Hawaii.
I think, all right.

Speaker 1 (33:53):
48 years, a long time .
They seem to do a good bit oftraveling.
They do, it seems like theytravel.
Well, they don't have any kids,yeah.

Speaker 3 (34:00):
And when you've been working for 48 years, I think
you get like six months paidvacation a year or something
it's insane.
Um, so they have the time to doit.
Pam and david, they both ofthem have been great community
supporters as well.
You know, pam, she works up atrim as a teacher there, so I
think she'll probably retire inthe next year or two.

Speaker 1 (34:19):
She'd be at least eligible to so is the when's the
council election.
That's that the same as?

Speaker 3 (34:25):
yours, everything is november the 5th, so it follows
the general election.
Okay, is that the same as yours?
Everything is November the 5thfollows the general election.

Speaker 1 (34:29):
Okay, so that was a pretty quick decision too.

Speaker 3 (34:30):
Yeah, and that one I wasn't even aware of.
So okay, we do have a greatcouncil, though that's one thing
I'll say Tabitha who's—thosetwo will be opposing each other.
Tabitha's been awesome as well.
Williamston wins either way.
I'll just put it to you thatway um, williamston wins.

Speaker 1 (34:49):
Either way, I'll just , I'll just put it to you that
way, all right, uh, just to leteverybody know.
Uh, the the phone line's likedead, so I'm sorry zach.
Yeah, I know a guy yeah, we uhthey've redone a bunch of things
with the phones and uh thatthat got caught up in it, I
guess.
But uh apologize for that, zach, we'll have you on next week,
but I know what he wanted totalk about.
Rocky and holly, you can joinin too here.

(35:09):
Puggles is totally biased, soshe can't uh give any opinion on
this.
But, um, college footballgetting started and of course
clemson's first game is againstgeorgia georgia in yes at a
neutral site so so to speak.
Yeah, at noon All the big gamesare at noon this year.

(35:32):
But I thought last year Georgiawas the best team.
When they lost to Alabama andit knocked them out of the
playoff, I thought that was bad.
I thought they were killingeverybody up to that point and
they lost to a very good teamand didn't make the playoffs.
I thought georgia was the bestteam.
I thought they could havebeaten michigan, but they didn't

(35:52):
make it and they just seemed tokeep, you know, reloading.
What do you guys, you clemsonpeople, think because I don't
know much about the team thisyear uh, clemson didn't have the
best year last year george isgonna kill him.
Yeah, I'm saying by fourtouchdowns or so, and I'm a
clemson, didn't have the bestyear last year.
Georgia's going to kill themyeah, I'm saying by four
touchdowns or so, and I'm aClemson fan.
What do you think, holly?

Speaker 2 (36:13):
I'm a huge Clemson fan and I go to the games and
Will Madeline and I everybody'sgoing to be there.
You know, of course I wish thatwe don't, but you know I'll be
honest with you, I don't keep upwith some of that as much as
other people do.
Sometimes years, footballseasons are for tailgating and
there's other years wherethey're for football.

Speaker 3 (36:33):
This will be a tailgating year.

Speaker 2 (36:35):
I think I hope not, but you never know.

Speaker 1 (36:37):
You never know.
That's right the thing about.

Speaker 3 (36:39):
Clemson is.
They'll go up against a clearlysuperior team, whip their high
end in and then they'll playWake Forest and lose or
something Right, right, so youjust never know.

Speaker 1 (36:48):
So we'll see Interesting matchup.
Heck of a way to start theseason, that's for sure.
It is, it is, it should be agreat game though.
Yeah, absolutely it reallyshould Hot, probably miserably
hot.
Yeah, you know, I saw theweather.

Speaker 3 (37:08):
It's supposed to days like low temperatures For
spring water festivals, thankyou Lord, yeah, but then by the
weekend it's going to warm up.
Well, 86, I think, is what thehigh is for Saturday.

Speaker 1 (37:12):
It's not bad, it's not bad, I guess then it warms
up like 90s next week again.
But yeah, that would be nice Ifit was 86 for the spring water
festival.
That's like 30 degrees lowerthan it normally is for the
spring water festival yeah, it'susually the hottest weekend,
did he?

Speaker 2 (37:26):
what did he say?
He said clemson's gonna beatgeorgia.
See, I knew he would say he hasthe most faith.
I'm with you, zach, I'm withyou.
What's the score gonna be, zach?
What do you think the score isgonna be?

Speaker 1 (37:36):
um, I I'll be honest, I have not um dived in to um
all the all the games that aregoing on and looked around at
who's supposed to be great andall that and, to be honest, it's
it's tough to keep track ofwith all the games that are
going on and looked around atwho's supposed to be great and
all that and to be honest, it'stough to keep track of with all
the movement now and the NILdeals the portals.
See, you don't have to worryabout that with Clemson, because

(37:57):
they don't do any of that.

Speaker 2 (37:58):
They're going to have to start doing something.

Speaker 1 (38:00):
And that's why some people think they're sinking is
because they haven't gotten realinvolved in that.
We'll see, we'll see.

Speaker 2 (38:07):
So Zach said 27-24.

Speaker 1 (38:09):
No way.

Speaker 2 (38:09):
Clemson and he said all you've got to do is remember
one name.
What's that?
Sammy Brown.
Okay, so we'll see.
We'll see, all right.

Speaker 1 (38:17):
Zach, we got that His team ran in high school playing
Palmetto this week, soobviously Ren will be a big
favorite, wren moving up to 4Athough this year.
So most of their games aregoing to be against tougher
competition, so we'll see howthey do.
Like Poundersville?
No well, do they playPoundersville?

Speaker 10 (38:37):
this year they still play them.

Speaker 1 (38:38):
Yeah, Of course, you guys are 3A and you guys have a
whole bunch of new people teamsthat you'll be playing this year
, A lot of people teams thatyou'll be playing this year, A
lot of like the parochialschools, like Christ.

Speaker 2 (38:51):
Church St Joe's Southside.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
Christian all on the Powdersville schedule this year,
so that's interesting and we'llbe doing the Powdersville home
games as part of our learningour sports live streaming for
our department here.

Speaker 2 (39:08):
So, zach, I had one more comment for you, mr.
What's that that?
Um?
You're a phillies fan, soyou're delusional I'm delusional
.

Speaker 1 (39:16):
They're up seven games on the braves.
Wait, this guy thinks clint isgonna win and you're the
delusional one come on, now hehas hope he has, hope he's.
Yeah, I'm the delusional one.
I'm sorry, Zach, we will makesure we get this thing fixed and
you can tell us all about yourgreat prediction on the next

(39:36):
show.

Speaker 2 (39:36):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (39:37):
That's right, but we've got a few more things we
want to talk about with Rocky.
You started something recentlyand I'd like to know you know,
the motivation behind it, whyyou wanted to do it, what it's
all about?
The Burgess Family Foundation.

Speaker 3 (39:50):
Yeah.
So my wife and I startedplanning about a year ago and
started to start initiating thepaperwork that's required to
become a 501c3 nonprofit.
Obviously she's very passionateabout education.
I'm very passionate abouteverything.
Williamston and oftentimesgovernment can't be everything
to everybody.
For example, the schooldistrict may have a need that

(40:14):
can't be met by local taxes orby traditional methods.
The same thing with Williamston.
It may be adopt a rest stop orsomething like that.
We wanted to make sure thatthere was an avenue within the
city by which to fund some ofthose opportunities as much as
we possibly can.
And one thing that we cameacross oftentimes is if somebody

(40:38):
wrote a check out to, let's say, the Career Center and they
think they're a business andthey think it's tax deductible.
It may or may not be taxdeductible, depending on your
accountant, but for sure itdepends on if you get audited or
not, but for sure.
Same thing with the city, butfor sure if you do to, a 501c3
is most definitely taxdeductible.

(40:59):
So we worked on that.
We finally got our 501c3 status.
Matter of fact, the actualformal stuff came in the mail
today from the IRS and that's adifficult process.
It is.
It's about a year-long process.
You can act as a 501c3, whichis what we planned on doing
until we got our letter.
But now we're official, we'reregistered with the Secretary of

(41:20):
State's office, all that goodstuff.
So primarily it's to benefitWilliamston, it's to benefit
education.
We may do some scholarships.
That's one of the ideas thatwe're talking about doing.
Those of you who are familiarwith my wife know that she's a
James F Burns scholar and bothof us come from very humble
beginnings and so there was noway that I could attend college.

(41:42):
By the way, I didn't.
I don't have a degree.
My wife obviously has multipledegrees, but that's largely a
part to the James F BurnsFoundation somebody thinking
ahead and planning for thefuture.
And we want to leave a legacybehind.
You know, long after we're deadand gone, we'd like to still
have something that peopleremember us by the things that
we've done in the community.

(42:03):
And I don't have an infinitesource of revenue either.
So you know, being able to havea golf tournament, get business
sponsors, that type of thing isvery, very important to the
mission of, you know, supportingthose community activities.
So we've got a golf tournamentcoming up on October the 26th at
Pine Lake.
If you go to the Burgess FamilyFoundation on Facebook you'll

(42:23):
see a registration link andstuff like that too, to be able
to register for it.
It's $350 for a team of four.
We're still looking for somewhole sponsors and things like
that, but it promises to be anabsolutely outstanding day and
that will be our firstfundraiser.
And then we're looking to doprobably in the spring we will
do a large oyster roast.

(42:44):
For those of you who arefamiliar with me, I do tons of
oyster roasts.
We cook for thousands of people,so there's no reason we can't
pull off a successful event likethat in Williamson as well.
So we're looking forward to it.
Looking forward to being ableto give back to our community.
We've been blessed and highlyfavored.

Speaker 2 (43:02):
Well, you've been giving back for a long time.
We have, but oftentimes.

Speaker 3 (43:05):
You know again, I don't have an infinite source of
revenue and we give back to ourcommunity, but this will
actually take me out of the mixtoo.
So you have a board that tellswhat we fund, what we don't fund
.
As long as it meets our missionstatement, that can be funded.
So we'll probably takeapplications quarterly will be

(43:28):
my guess and then we'll have theboard review and determine what
needs funding and to whatamount.

Speaker 1 (43:34):
When do you think you're ready to start taking?

Speaker 3 (43:36):
those applications.
So we're ready to start takingthose applications, probably
immediately Now.
We don't have any money rightnow, but we're going to supply
all your wants.
So we can take your applicationand look at at it um no, we do
have a little bit of money, notnot much, but um, I'll take us
put in some seed money.
Uh, the family has uh to helpget the thing up and going.

(43:57):
So our golf fundraiser will bethe the very first one and that
will generate a little bit moreseed money and the proceeds for
the golf tournament gospecifically to uh masonic
activities.
Those of you who don't know,I'm a Mason.
It's a fraternity.
You don't talk a lot aboutMasonry, but it's a fraternity
that takes good guys and makesthem better, better men.
We believe in philanthropy, webelieve in doing good by others

(44:22):
and certainly helping out thecommunity.

Speaker 1 (44:25):
They're the same guys that do the barbecue festival.

Speaker 3 (44:27):
Those are called our Masonic tenants.

Speaker 1 (44:29):
There, you go.

Speaker 2 (44:31):
And y'all recently, in the last what two years,
donated to every school in yourarea.
That's correct.

Speaker 3 (44:38):
In the Masonic Lodge.
The pig in the park raises agood bit of money, but every bit
of that goes out to charities,local charities, whether it be
the food bank, Summer Free Camp,the mentor program at Palmetto
Middle School.
It goes out to variousdifferent groups, and we were
looking around the lodge and wesee some major issues,

(44:59):
structural issues that need tobe tended to before they become
worse.
And so our options are we keepthe money and fix our stuff,
ensure those charities we'vebeen contributing to for years,
or we do something different.
So this is an opportunity forus to do something different.
That way, those charities canstill receive that funding that
they've been dependent on yearafter year.
We don't shortchange anybody.

Speaker 1 (45:19):
Now, am I correct?

Speaker 3 (45:20):
You haven't been involved in Masons that long
right, since I was 21 years old,sir, then I am wrong.

Speaker 1 (45:25):
I'm thinking of somebody else, because there was
somebody that I was talking torecently that had just gotten
into it maybe for the last seven, eight years and had really
gotten a lot out of it.

Speaker 3 (45:37):
I'm past master of Williamston.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
Lodge no 24.
And we attend a lot of lodges.
21 was a long time ago.

Speaker 3 (45:43):
Yes, it's been several decades ago.
How about that?
That's a long time ago.
Yes, it's been several decadesago.

Speaker 1 (45:47):
How about that?
But yeah, that's really cool tobe a part of that and giving
back to the community.
That enriches your life and thelives of others.

Speaker 3 (45:58):
That's what it's all about leaving a legacy behind,
making the world a better placethan you found it.
That's right.

Speaker 1 (46:02):
All right.
Speaking of that, you're nowthe spokesman for Tesla in the
Williamston area.
Just about he's an expert forsure, there's more per capita
Teslas in Williamston than anytown anywhere around, because
two of them are in Rocky'sdriveway.

Speaker 2 (46:17):
That's right.
I was wondering whoseCybertruck that was.
Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 1 (46:21):
He's giving rides after the show.

Speaker 2 (46:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
I'll be popping in, but tell me about this
Cybertruck.
So tell me about thisCybertruck.
People either say it's theweirdest thing they've ever seen
, or they're like this is themost incredible thing I've ever
seen.

Speaker 3 (46:35):
It's a little bit of both.

Speaker 1 (46:36):
So tell me about it.

Speaker 3 (46:38):
So you've got to go back to the Model 3 first, which
is my first Tesla.
I got it around February.
I went out and drove one andhad no interest my son.
Obviously I'm in the technologybusiness, so I love technology
and anything that can make mylife easier.
well, I'm here to tell you fullself-driving definitely makes
your life a lot easier and itmakes me a lot more efficient

(47:03):
because I'm doing a lot ofthings when I'm traveling and so
having a car drive you and takeyou there is pretty doggone
sweet.
So after driving one I was like, yeah, I've got to have this.
And selfishly you know,obviously I'm not a left-winger
person who's, you know, go greenand wants to hug trees all the
time.
I do care about my environment.
Everybody wants clean water and, you know, fresh air.
And if it helps the environment, that's wonderful, but that is

(47:26):
not why I bought it air.
and if it helps the environment,that's wonderful, but that is
not why I bought it I bought itbecause it's fast, it's fun,
it's easy to drive and it makesme more efficient and it's
loaded with technology.
Um.
So before I bought that, Iactually was on the list about
four years ago for a cyber truck.
You pay 350 bucks kind of adeposit and I thought one day,
if it comes in, you know I canalways get my money back, or um

(47:50):
or not get it yeah, um, butafter driving the model 3 I went
, yeah, I will have that cybertruck.
It's gonna be a while.
And I was on the list and theywere telling me november.
Well, I got a um, got anotification that, hey, we got a
vn for you, if you, if you'reready to pick it up.
So I went and picked it up lastweekend in Atlanta and I
absolutely love it, fell in lovewith it.

Speaker 2 (48:09):
Do you like it better than the Model 3?

Speaker 3 (48:12):
I like them equally.
Okay, both of them aredifferent.
Obviously, one's a truck, one'sa car, sure, so the
functionality is different.
The Cybertruck definitely getsmore head turns.

Speaker 5 (48:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (48:23):
My poor daughters, Lord help.
I dropped them off at theschool at Palmetto and everybody
stops, turns and looks that'sright, and so they're pretty
quiet individuals and they'rehugely embarrassed, but it's a
lot of fun to drive.
You don't just stop in the ifyou're in a hurry.
Don't drive the Cybertruck,because if you stop at a

(48:46):
restaurant or somewhere, you'regoing to get tied up for 15, 20
minutes.
People won't look at it andtalk to you, and I'm always
happy to do that.
It's unique, loaded withtechnology, a lot of fun and
super fast.

Speaker 1 (48:58):
Does it have a 845 horsepower, wow, wow.
See, people don't think of thatwhen they think of electric
vehicles With pure torqueall-wheel drive.
It's got a towing package.
It does have a towing package.

Speaker 10 (49:09):
Really.

Speaker 5 (49:11):
Oh, wow.

Speaker 3 (49:11):
The only thing it won't do is tow my fifth wheel,
and that's simply becausethere's not anything in the bed.
The design is such that that'snot conducive.
It wouldn't work, Holly.

Speaker 1 (49:22):
I can see Robbie getting one of those now.

Speaker 2 (49:24):
No, no, no, no, no.

Speaker 1 (49:25):
Well, first I've got to go for a spin first.

Speaker 2 (49:28):
We've got to go for a spin first.
Rocky promised me he'd take mefor a spin.
I don't like the yoke.

Speaker 3 (49:33):
It has a yoke for a steering wheel, oh really, yeah,
that's the only thing I don'tlike.
And the reason I don't like itis I'm used to driving on my
knee.
Yeah, radio right was on a cellphone.
You know all those illegalthings.

Speaker 2 (49:51):
I don't know that driving with your knees illegal,
well, I'll give you that.

Speaker 3 (49:53):
But phone and radio but it wasn't back in the day,
that's true.

Speaker 2 (49:55):
I'll give you that it was a long time ago.
We did all kinds of things.
That's right.
It's kind of an underlyingtheme of the show

Speaker 1 (50:01):
that's right, but uh, yeah, what?
What can you tell us otherwise?
You know, when you say it'sfull of technology, what are
some of the standout things?

Speaker 3 (50:09):
It's the little things that you don't realize.
That makes life easier.
For example, it raises thegarage door for me.
It closes the garage door If Igo to my farm.
It automatically adjusts theheight.
It knows where I'm at and soit'll go high so that I don't
drag to ground when I'm goingover stumps and riding out
through the pasture.
And what?

Speaker 2 (50:29):
when you mean by automatically open the the
garage door when you get closeit doesn't, you don't have to
get anything, yeah no, I don'thit it.

Speaker 3 (50:34):
And when I leave it closed the garage door and if,
for some reason you know um, youknow my wife didn't pull her
car all the way in or whatever,and it didn't close it will, it
will notify me.
Hey, your garage door is notclosed.
The little things like thatmake a big, big difference.
You know, if you accidentallyleave the I guess you call it a
tonneau cover, I think thatrolls up it'll send me an alert

(50:57):
on the phone Every morning.
It's preconditioned so that itknows whenever I go out.
It starts learning your patternbehavior.

Speaker 2 (51:05):
So it knows when you get ready to go to work per se
Correct.
Yep.
And what does it do?
It preheats or cools thevehicle down.

Speaker 3 (51:13):
My cabin's never under 90 degrees, ever, ever,
ever.
If I want to order floor mats,I just simply go on the Tesla
app and order floor mats.
If I want another Tesla, I justgo on there, put my credit card
in and Tesla arrives in acouple weeks.
Everything's just simple.
Other tesla just go on there,put my credit card in.
Tesla arrives in a couple weeks.
It everything's just it's.
If I have a problem, I clickservice on my app and a couple

(51:34):
days later a guy rolls up in atesla service vehicle serves at
my parking lot so he comes toyou yeah, I mean for the most
part, unless it's somethingmajor, but there's nothing
really to go wrong with it well,I was gonna say so.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
So the cons to it that I've heard is the battery
right.

Speaker 3 (51:48):
Battery 10 to 15 years.
That's an industry standardwith 2% degradation per year.
So 10 years you lost roughly 10to 20% of your battery Again.
I can go about 400 and some oddmiles.
Who does that a day?

Speaker 2 (52:02):
Right.

Speaker 3 (52:03):
And my son just got back from Wisconsin.
He took my Model 3 to Wisconsinand it plots your route to a
supercharger.
So I pull up at Dumbly, aBucky's or somewhere like that,
and you plug up and you're therefor 10, 15 minutes 20 minutes
max if you go from zero to 80%,which is what's a typical charge
rate, and you roll on aboutyour business.
So by the time you go grab aburger or use the bathroom, Does

(52:26):
it cost you anything?
Yeah, it's about $15 for anaverage fill up.

Speaker 2 (52:31):
Which is a heck of a lot cheaper than so.

Speaker 3 (52:33):
I'm actually going all out.
Tesla we're getting at myoffice.
I'm getting the Tesla Powerwall, I got two of those coming
along with Tesla solar panelsand I've got enough to be able
to charge my vehicles, run mywhole office and still have a
little bit left to sell back toDuke.

Speaker 2 (52:49):
That is very cool, that's awesome.
That's very cool.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
Very cool.
So he's a proponent of the GoGreen stuff now and the Green
New Deal.
No, I'm just kidding.

Speaker 3 (53:00):
No, not really.

Speaker 1 (53:02):
You're just a fan of cool.

Speaker 3 (53:04):
If it works for you, by all means do it.
I'm free fan of cool.
If it works for you, by allmeans do it.
I'm free market baby.
If it works for you, do it.
If you don't like it, don't doit.
Exactly, I still got a coupleof F-350 pickup trucks and a big
deuce and a half, you'll burnsome gas, yeah yeah, all right,
we're winding things up here.

Speaker 1 (53:19):
There are a few student questions for you and
Puggles.
You're a student.
You can ask a question of thegovernor, the mayor here.
But here's the type ofquestions I'm getting from my
students these days.
I don't know whether it's justcreativity or something else.

(53:39):
They want to know what chairsits behind your mayor's desk.
Does it swivel?
Is it fluffy?
Does it recline?
Are there, are there wheels?
If so, how many?
And what is your dream chair?

Speaker 3 (53:55):
well, I have seen those chairs that are I don't
sit in a chair long enough to toreally make a difference, but
but those, those chairs that are, um, that you see advertised
with the infomercials.
I've always, always wanted oneof those, but they tell you you
can get a if you use this promocode.
You get $300.
You get $300 off and I'm like,how much is a dang chair, for
God's sake, like?

Speaker 2 (54:15):
$800 or something, so my chair is very.

Speaker 3 (54:17):
It's a used chair.
It actually came.
I commandeered it Don't tellanybody when they were
remodeling Anderson School,district 1.
Board of Trustees office.
I may have commandeered one ofthose trustee chairs and placed
it in the mayor's office inWilliamston.
That's been a long time, thoughit's been a long time.
Statute of limitations.

Speaker 2 (54:37):
Statute of limitations yeah, all right, so
it's a leather chair.

Speaker 3 (54:41):
It is not leather.

Speaker 2 (54:43):
Pleather chair.

Speaker 3 (54:44):
No, it's not even pleather.

Speaker 2 (54:45):
It's cloth.

Speaker 1 (54:48):
It's a no, it's not even pleather, it's cloth.
It's a cloth chair.
All right, all right, but it'scomfortable.

Speaker 3 (54:51):
It is fairly comfortable it was way better
than the 49.99 office depotchair that I had.
Yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (54:57):
Um, here's a question about restaurants in
williamston has.
First of all, has anyone evercalled you rocky burger?
And uh, would you ever, youknow, get a restaurant, have a,
have a sandwich named after youas such?
But seriously, the other partof the question is what are you
doing for this town to combatthe disproportionate ratio of

(55:17):
fast food to local diningrestaurants, and they see it as
a problem.
Why all the fast food and noreal restaurants?
What are we doing about thereal restaurant?
Well, like rain, sit down, okay, it's very simple.

Speaker 3 (55:33):
Um, you have to look around and you got to be
thinking outside the box.
We got to take for grantedevery day that, hey, the smoking
pig is there.
Very good too, have you?

Speaker 2 (55:42):
been to the smoking pig um.

Speaker 3 (55:45):
So you got, you got the pig, you got rains, you also
have um the panda panda's got.
A matter of fact, I had fouregg rolls from there for lunch
yesterday.
It's probably not thehealthiest, um, but I would like
to see a meeting three you got.
Mr habaneros has just openedback up under your ownership.
That I've heard fantastic Ihaven't been there yet

(56:07):
fiestaiesta of course.
So don't give me that aboutthis fast food.

Speaker 1 (56:11):
Too much fast food, okay, so yeah, what do they want
?

Speaker 8 (56:16):
You were agreeing with them, puggles.
Well, actually I agree with theopposite.

Speaker 3 (56:20):
Oh, the lack of— what would you like to see?

Speaker 2 (56:22):
I would like to see a Chick-fil-A and a Starbucks.

Speaker 3 (56:25):
They're there in the park.
They are in the park At leastonce a week.
Wait, what Really?
A food truck, really?
Okay, I know this.
They weren't there in thesummer, so let me go ahead and
add too, they were the mayordidn't just sit down and say
I'll take one of these and notone of these and one of those.

Speaker 1 (56:48):
That's not the, and able to talk to some folks and
say we used to be a greatcommunity.
And here's why I've heardsometimes you know everybody
wants the fancy restaurants, butthere's not always the budgets
of everybody to go with it tosupport a fancy restaurant.
But what I thought would alwayswork would be like a cookout.

Speaker 5 (57:00):
Cookout would be fantastic.

Speaker 3 (57:00):
Because, that's like the cheapest fast food.
That is fast food, yeah, butthat's what I mean.
They have the best milkshakestoo.
They do.
They have the best milkshakesSacket two Chick-fil-A.

Speaker 1 (57:08):
And they're cheap.

Speaker 2 (57:10):
Yeah, they're the cheapest meal out there Can't
beat it, they are.

Speaker 1 (57:12):
I thought they would work well.

Speaker 2 (57:13):
I'm surprised they haven't showed up in a town like
Queens, put that right acrossthe park in the Ingalls lot.
There, there you go it is, andthe kids love it too.

Speaker 1 (57:25):
They come in with that stuff all the time.
It's not just the adults.

Speaker 3 (57:27):
We're getting a bunch of yuppie kids, all of them
playing pickleball and drinkcoffee.

Speaker 2 (57:31):
I know Fancy drinks.

Speaker 3 (57:32):
Fancy drinks.

Speaker 2 (57:34):
Either get it from there or from there.

Speaker 3 (57:35):
Who would have thought Palmetto students would
be bougie, bougie, bougie.

Speaker 1 (57:48):
Either go in there or over to the Cotton Duck over in
West.
Let's get it back to Williamson.
Let's get it back to Williamson.
Here's the last question I toldhim.
I would read it Okay, as apublic official, have you ever
had some threats to you that andwhat you think caused it?
Are you anxious about a threaton your life consistently?
Do you feel protected in yourcity?

Speaker 3 (58:10):
Well, I shouldn't be laughing it's serious to answer
that you've always got a drunkor something that kind of gets
mouthy or something like that.
Do I feel threatened?
No, I can handle my own, Ipromise you.
So that doesn't bother me, notvery much at all and what I,
what I like.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
What you've said um other places is about the
security in the park has got somuch better.
Correct Mineral spraying A lotof it because there's so much
going on over there.

Speaker 3 (58:34):
Correct.
Nobody wants to commit a crimewhere everybody and their
brothers are around.
We're good guys around, so it'scurb to vandalism tremendously.
But let me also add too mycyber truck is bulletproof.
There you go, and it has anuclear option on it, so you
touch it.
Nuclear option and it willactually positive pressurize the
cabin and it's got a series offilters and stuff that will

(58:57):
supposedly stay for 40 daysinside the cabin during a
nuclear, biological or chemicalattack.

Speaker 1 (59:03):
Oh, nice to know, since we're near the Oconee
station.
You never know.

Speaker 2 (59:07):
I did not know that Wow.

Speaker 1 (59:10):
He's going to come out of there.
It's going to be like thewalking dead going on outside.

Speaker 3 (59:15):
When the zombie apocalypse happens, Rocky comes
out of his cyber truck.

Speaker 2 (59:18):
He's got 40 days.

Speaker 1 (59:20):
Wow, that's amazing.
Yeah it is All right.
So it's time to wrap things upand to do that.
We always have our guestrecommendations.
Rocky, you've been on manytimes before.
We've gotten some of yourentertainment and food
recommendations, but of course,they always need updating as you
visit other places and read orwatch things or listen to things
.
So, uh, what do you have for us?
Uh, entertainment wise that weshould check out um, obviously,

(59:44):
milltown players I have missedthe money and Clyde show, but
I've heard it was fantastic.
I heard great things.

Speaker 3 (59:49):
For local entertainment.
That's where to go, yeah.

Speaker 1 (59:52):
And they just finished what their 10th season
already.

Speaker 2 (59:54):
I think so.

Speaker 1 (59:55):
So getting ready for a new one, we'll have to have
Will on to talk about that.

Speaker 3 (59:58):
You don't want Will on.
He's boring.

Speaker 1 (01:00:01):
He's anything but boring.
And what about food?
Any food recommendations?

Speaker 2 (01:00:07):
Besides Panda Cafe and the four egg rolls.
Let me tell you what those eggrolls are.
On point now.

Speaker 3 (01:00:11):
They hit just right.
It's hard to beat Rain's.

Speaker 1 (01:00:16):
Their pot roast.

Speaker 5 (01:00:17):
Pot roast sandwich.
No, just the pot roast, justthe pot roast.
Yeah, I love their sandwich.

Speaker 3 (01:00:21):
With those green beans that are.
They're not like grandma'sgreen beans that are mushy.

Speaker 1 (01:00:26):
Yeah, they're kind of snappy Al dente, I think they
call it.

Speaker 3 (01:00:28):
Have you tried the broccoli?
I have the broccolini.

Speaker 2 (01:00:32):
They have the best broccoli around.

Speaker 3 (01:00:33):
Yep and their chicken wings are good on Tuesdays.
Buy one, get one.
Oh, okay, no it's Tuesday too,I have to remember that.

Speaker 2 (01:00:38):
Oh, it is.

Speaker 1 (01:00:39):
Tuesday yeah, yeah, business.
So are you coming, holly?
I can't.
I gotta be mom tonight.
Take puggles with you.
Yeah, take puggles.

(01:00:59):
Robotics, it's always busy,always busy, but found time for
the show tonight, so weappreciate you coming by puggles
.
Of course, you're welcomeanytime.
Now we're only doing these liketwice a month now, so but we
are doing one next week with, uh, angie stringer because it's
time for the hot air fair, andall that with the cancer
association and you know they'recoming out here friday morning
are they?

Speaker 2 (01:01:13):
uh-huh, they'll be out here with a couple of
balloons friday morning, um,bright and early.
I mean they're here usuallylike at 6 30.
You know we started this whenwilliamston had it and they've
been coming over, and so they.
They make a point to alwayscome over.
Um, I've been on standby to flyin one of these balloons.
Yeah, for years it just hasn'thappened, so I'm hoping this

(01:01:33):
time it will happen.

Speaker 3 (01:01:34):
I got to do that.
Did you get to do it?
It was fantastic, and I'mscared to death.
Me too, I am scared to death.

Speaker 1 (01:01:40):
I was supposed to be on one with Robbie Binniker.

Speaker 2 (01:01:42):
Yeah, and you had your mom out there, your mom out
there.

Speaker 1 (01:01:44):
But it was too windy.

Speaker 2 (01:01:45):
It was too windy, so we'll check it out.

Speaker 1 (01:01:47):
It's all psyched up.
Let's see what happens.
It's loads of fun, that's right, it sounds like it and that's
always a very cool weekend andof course, it's a big show now
down in Anderson Sure is You'vegot the concerts going on and
all that.
Did you go both nights or justone?
I went both nights.

Speaker 3 (01:02:06):
And a good thing I was in the VIP area.

Speaker 5 (01:02:08):
Thank you, anderson County.
And so I got to be in theair-conditioned tent.
I got to go out on stage,that's right.

Speaker 3 (01:02:14):
Nothing like looking at 40,000 people looking at you.

Speaker 2 (01:02:17):
Looking all goofy.
Sometimes you get perks aspoliticians, just sometimes.
Yeah, hey, there's got to hearall the other stuff Got to go
backstage during Kid Rock andstuff.

Speaker 3 (01:02:27):
That was pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (01:02:28):
Oh, you got to meet him.
I did not get to meet him.
I would have loved to see himpicture you in Kid Rock.

Speaker 3 (01:02:31):
I would have loved to .
That would have been awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:02:34):
Did you watch the Republican Convention when he
was playing?
I did oh my gosh, I did not.
That was cringeworthy.

Speaker 3 (01:02:43):
We need to have a political show one night.
Yeah, we'll have somebody onboth sides of the aisle.
Maybe we'll do it late night orsomething.

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
Yeah, that would be fun, Holly it would be.
Holly would be like cringingthe whole time.
I would, Because we're on theschool radio station Just
talking about it now, it's allgood.

Speaker 3 (01:02:58):
Listen.
Here's the thing.
Here's what we're missing inpolitics in America these days.
You can agree, to disagree andstill get along.

Speaker 2 (01:03:04):
There's no reason to act a dang fool.
Agreed and it's like we canhave a middle person.
Yep, you know what I mean.
You can have middle thoughts.
It doesn't have to be one wayor the other, it can be.
Just talk, I know, just talk.
That's the thing.

Speaker 3 (01:03:20):
Just talk and realize too, you're not the smartest
guy in the room most all thetime.

Speaker 1 (01:03:26):
Rocky, thanks for coming on and kicking off our
season number five.

Speaker 2 (01:03:29):
As usual.

Speaker 1 (01:03:29):
So we always like keeping in touch with you and
you're always into someinteresting stuff, that's right.

Speaker 3 (01:03:35):
Keep it spicy, and we're fortunate to have you in
Williamston.
We really are.

Speaker 2 (01:03:38):
We're fortunate to be included in Williamston's town
now.

Speaker 3 (01:03:41):
So know that we're on it.
Y'all are officially in thecity limits, we are, we are.

Speaker 2 (01:03:44):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (01:03:45):
All right, rocky Burgess, everybody the mayor of
Williamston and if you'relistening right now, you can get
this on the podcast and we'llbe promoting that as well.
It'll be up on Spotify andGoogle and Apple and all that in
the next couple of days to heareverything.
So tell all your friends totune in and hear what's going on
at Williamston.
We'll see most of you at theSpring Water Festival this

(01:04:09):
weekend and again Angie Stringernext week on the Boone Show on
MyPulse Radio.