Pine Ridge, SC 11/15/2021 (Paul Kirby) – University of South Carolina employee Melissa Lewie is facing one opponent in a runoff race for the open seat on the Town of Pineridge’s Town Council. The voting takes place tomorrow. She faces Karen Jones who garnered the same number of write-in votes in the General Election that was held on November 2nd.
It is interesting how these two ladies ended up as write-in candidates for a seat that’s been open since Daniel Davis was elected mayor last spring. Davis, who served on the council for many years, narrowly defeated newcomer Kevin Nation in that election but in doing so, he had to give up his council seat after he prevailed. Lewie had been interested in getting more involved in the town for over a year, but did not become aware of the vacant town council seat until the evening of November 1st. She learned at the same time that no one had filed to run. After thinking and praying on it overnight, she decide to be a write-in candidate to try and fill the position. The results of the November 2nd election was a three way tie, but the third person dropped out. This left Lewie and Jones to face off against each other in the runoff election tomorrow.
Lewie, 52, has lived with her family in the Courtyards at Rockford Place for 8-years. Prior to that, she lived 15-years in the Gaston area of Lexington County. She is married to a US Army veteran and the couple have been married for 23 years. The couple have a son who attended Lexington District Two Schools and graduated Airport High School. He is currently serving in the US Air Force. She is a Southern Baptist and describes herself as having, “traditional Conservative southern morals and values.”
Lewie, who has a master’s degree in business administration, currently works at USC in the School of Medicine. There, she is the business manager of the FoodShare SC program. The employees and volunteers of FoodShare SC supply fresh fruits and vegetables for the underserved citizens of the state. They try and distribute every two weeks at a discounted price that’s more affordable to their clients than shopping retail. Most of the food comes from the SC State Farmers’ Market and each distribution date sees them package and distribute about 1,000 boxes to those that are currently being served by the EBT nutrition program.
Lewie says she has a deep love for the Town of Pine Ridge and its citizens. She says not only is the town beautiful but it’s has always been a wonderful place to live, work, and raise a family. Her main goal in running for council is to see that the town continues to grow and develop at a measured and controlled pace. She’d also like to work alongside the other council members to ensure Pine Ridge is clean, safe, and a friendly place to live.
Lewie says that she became interested in getting more involved in the running of the town after seeing it go through the tumultuous years when Robert Wells served as mayor. She says like most residents, she was concerned not only by what was happening but also by what she believed was the negative view that outsiders had of the once peaceful, quiet, town. She said as a resident, she was also saddened that people had begun to look at Pine Ridge as a place where the government didn’t function, and the citizens were not safe. “Pine Ridge had always been such wonderful town,” she said. “As a citizen, I knew we were going through a rough patch, but I also knew that this great little town was still here, and I want people to know that.”
She said now that Daniel Davis is mayor, she feels the extra transparency in the government has made people feel more comfortable about the innerworkings of the town’s government. “Since they’ve started with the live Facebook meetings, I think people have become more comfortable with how the town’s government functions because they can hear the meetings and know what’s being said and done. Still, I do see a little disconnect between the community and the actual town hall so I would like to see more community involvement promoted.” She said that Meet and Greets might be one solution to that. She’s also discussed with her husband the possibility of having a community meal and field day that Pine Ridge would host. She feels like they could serve bar-b-que or some other food and have activities for children. “This would allow people who’ve been neighbors for years to really get to know one another and I think that’s of the utmost importance. It would make us a more unified community instead of a town of many individual neighborhoods,” she concluded.
Lewie currently serves on the subcommittee that is studying the redevelopment of the old town hall property at the corner of Fish Hatchery Road and Pine Ridge Drive. “We’ve discussed making this into a park, a place that could be used for various community events,” Lewie said. “It would be a great place for a walking track and a pavilion with a stage where we could have music or perhaps show family movies. We could even host a monthly Farmers’ Market there. I really think that some sort of community facility in Pine Ridge is much needed. We have a great opportunity to make that happen here. I think that redeveloping that property is a nice idea and a great way to bring people together,” Lewie concluded.
Lewie said that she feels like that some of the roughest periods Pine Ridge’s has ever faced is behind the town now. “I don’t really hear people saying a lot during the comment times and that’s sad. When there are problems, people turn out in droves to complain but now that things seem to be running smoother, very few act like they want to get involved.” She says that she hopes that changes in the future and she like to work with the rest of the council in hopes she can be a catalyst in improving that citizens’ participation.
As she’s walked the neighborhoods of Pine Ridge knocking on doors and campaigning, she says she’s listened to the people, their concerns, and their desires for the town's future. “The people that I’ve spoken with want to see Pine Ridge continue to develop and grow but their always concerned about what that growth will look like. They want to see more houses for families, but they aren’t interested in the mega-developments where the houses are stacked on top of each other. They also aren’t interested in having a whole lot of new businesses come here. They really like the quiet, bedroom community identity and feel and want it to remain that way,” she said.
As to public safety Lewie said that most she's spoken with seem happy to have a full-time Pine Ridge Police Department again even though it doesn’t provide for 24-hour a day protection. “I’d like to see us have additional patrols designated to work at night and I don’t think we have much of that right now. Of course, that comes down to finances so we need to continue to look at how we can fund our Police Department without a tax base. I’m not sure that the 24-hour protection is in the cards for Pine Ridge but it’s a goal we can always keep in mind and strive for,” she said.
Lewie says that she also believes that more can be done if the town will develop stronger partnerships with the governments that surround them. Cayce, South Congaree, the Town of Gaston, and Lexington County all either abut Pine Ridge or are in proximity to it. “It’s difficult to have a working relationship with other governments when we don’t regularly communicate with them,” Lewie said. “It makes sense to think that working together with our neighbors will make us stronger in the future as we tackle the more complex issues. That cooperation would first start with communication.”
“We could also do more to promote Pine Ridge as a town with its own identity,” Lewie said. She went on to explain that because the mailing addresses in Pine Ridge are either Gaston or West Columbia, some residents don’t know they even live in the little town. “I think we do have some responsibility to market ourselves as an individual town with a great history, wonderful people, and high quality of life.”
She also said that the town could be more involved in the things the schools and the state are doing in Pine Ridge. Lexington District Two has 3 schools in the town and the State of South Carolina has its Warm Water Fish Hatchery as well as its statewide Emergency Operations Center located there. She explained that she knows that events held at these facilities are not usually the responsibility of the town but feels like Pine Ridge could be more involved. “As the host community, we could at least make an appearance at some of the functions these agencies hold. It would be nice to ask if there’s some way we could help beside making the monetary donations to the Dixie Youth teams of the other community programs we already give to,” she concluded.
Lewie says that she hopes that the citizens of the town will turn out one more time tomorrow and cast their ballots for her. “My MBA helps me to understand the number and finances of the town and my deep love of this town, and its people are probably my strongest assets. I just pray the voters turn out and place their trust in me to finish out Mayor Davis’s term on council. I think together as a team, the other members of the council and I can make a positive difference in the lives of the people of the Town of Pine Ridge.
If you’d like to speak with Melissa Lewie, you can call he on her cell phone at (803) 206-3005. Voting begins tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. and the polls will close at 7:00 p.m.
