The following is a transcript from Roni's Friday Market Update from Ashley River Park, with special guest, Jay Byars.

Roni Haskell:

Good morning friends. It's Friday, which means I'm coming to you live, not only to deliver a market update, which we'll get to later, but really that's going to come secondary today because I'm here with Jay Byars, and we are here at the brand new Dorchester County, Ashley River Park. This is a project you've been working on for a long time, Jay.

Jay Byars:

It is. We're excited. This has been 10 years of labor of love, so we're excited. We open it up tomorrow for the general public. Everybody's excited to see it.

Roni Haskell:

I know that they are. There's a lot of buzz within our community, so tell us the overall vision of this and what all it's going to give to our community.

Jay Byars:

Sure. One of the things we really wanted to do, in a short term, is everybody loves James Island County Park. Think about what Charleston has at James Island County Park. We wanted to bring all of that here into Somerville. That's the shortest, easiest way to describe it. Splash pad, huge playgrounds, dog parks, trails, three quarters of a mile of river frontage, a six-acre fishing pond, a large rentable pavilion, great restroom facilities, an outfitter building where you can rent kayaks, standup paddle boards, canoes. We're very excited about that. This is the kind of thing that we're just going to continue doing more of. I'm super excited. I can't wait to see everybody enjoying It.

Roni Haskell:

I know. Personally, I can't wait to get out there in the kayaks. That's going to be a lot of fun. Y'all have the adventure race coming up on Sunday, huh?

Jay Byars:

We do. The adventure race Sunday, we're going to 5K run through the park and then everybody's going to jump in their kayaks and they're going to paddle down to Middleton Place, which is eight miles away... with the tide, by the way, because paddling against the tide is not fun. And that'll take about two hours and we'll have some barbecue and blue grass at the end of it, so we're super excited about that.

Roni Haskell:

So is that filled up or is there still opportunity for people to sign up?

Jay Byars:

It's pretty full, but if somebody wanted to get in, I might be able to create a space. I need to know pretty quickly, though.

Roni Haskell:

Here's a little bit of information. Two years ago... Was it two years ago when y'all did the inaugural Ashley River Race, or was it three?

Jay Byars:

Actually, it was 2019.

Roni Haskell:

2019, they had the inaugural Ashley River Race. And who won the women's division?

Jay Byars:

I think it might have been you.

Roni Haskell:

It was me. It was me. So anyway...

Jay Byars:

Toot your own horn. You go ahead and let people know how great you are.

Roni Haskell:

You got it. Listen, I am up for an adventure and I am up for a challenge and you put me on the front line of a race and I'm going to go after it. My friend, Jill Weatherford, many of y'all might know her. If not, she's a treat to know, but she was my partner in that. Anyway, y'all are going to have a great weekend out here. What are the hours of operations?

Jay Byars:

Dawn to dusk.

Roni Haskell:

Dawn to dusk.

Jay Byars:

Dawn to dusk.

Roni Haskell:

And then is there a fee for entry?

Jay Byars:

Yeah, so just like Charleston County Parks, we're going to charge a $2 entry fee. We're selling annual passes for Dorchester County residents for $6, I'm sorry, for $40. And if you are not a Dorchester County resident, you can also buy a pass and I believe it's $65.

Roni Haskell:

That's a year.

Jay Byars:

That allows... it's a great deal.

Roni Haskell:

It's a great offer.

Jay Byars:It allows us to be able to help maintain the park. It also allows people who are outside of the county to help us maintain the park by paying to actually use it. Charleston County's been doing it for 50 years. It works really well, and we're excited about it. That pass will cover up to nine people in a vehicle, so if want shove your entire family and a Volkswagen Bug and try to set a record, you can come out here and then come to the park. And then that'll also cover the future county parks that we continue to build.

Roni Haskell:

Wow. Well, I see there's a lot of potential. Look here. This is the splash pad, I guess.

Jay Byars:

Yeah, this is going to be huge. This is going to be awesome. So if you can get it on the camera, if you look and you see that blue tile out there, the splash pad itself actually is a geographic overlay of the Ashley River Drainage Basin. So when you're standing out on the splash pad, you would be standing in different places within the Ashley River Drainage Basin in the Charleston area. So that's going to be pretty neat for kids and adults to be able to go out and enjoy. I imagine that's going to get used very heavily. I can't wait to see them out here.

Roni Haskell:

What a beautiful... So Seamon Whiteside, right, is the designers and architects that were mastermind behind this. I know there's so many people that were integral part of the planning and such, but we appreciate... now I'm going to speak for the community of Summerville and Dorchester County, but we appreciate your involvement here, your vision.

Jay Byars:

Thank you.

Roni Haskell:

You've done a great job.

Jay Byars:

Well, it wasn't just me, but I appreciate it. I certainly have a passion for it. I think that I learned a lot in 2010 when I first ran for elections, just talking with a lot of constituents, and got ideas from those constituents and how passionate they were to see these types of things happen. And so we just took those ideas and we really put them to paper, and now we put them out here and we've turned the dirt to really turn those into reality. The community certainly gave us the incentive, and then we had a lot of people on county council, a lot of staff, and a lot of just community leaders to help make this happen, so this was definitely a team effort. I think Summerville's been starving for this for about two decades and they've been ready for it, and here it is.

Roni Haskell:

For sure. Well, the vision has come to life and I can't wait for all of the community to be able to see this. I know that you're getting a little glimpse of it here on camera.

Jay Byars:

Little teaser.

Roni Haskell:

We passed by the playground a while ago, and that'll be great for families to be able to come and play. And what we're doing is making our way, I think... I think we're making our way to waterfront over here.

Jay Byars:

We are, we are.

Roni Haskell:

...just crossing over the bridge. How many miles of trails do y'all have out here?

Jay Byars:

In this particular site, we probably have about a mile and a half. The overall goal, we're actually in the process of doing this now. We closed on another 120 acres across the street, on Bacons Bridge Road, that's also on the river. And then we got Rosebrock Park across the river, that's 70 acres with about a mile and a half of trails. We're going to build a tunnel under the road and a bridge across to Rosebrock Park, we're going to connect these two parks, and then we will connect the 120 acres. We'll end having eight or nine miles of trails...

Roni Haskell:

Wow.

Jay Byars:

...With about 300 or 400 acres of riverfront park in the next couple of years, by the time this is all said and done. Plus our Oakbrook and Summerville libraries we'll be able to build. So we're really... this will be huge. This is really just phase one, and so it's going to grow even more. I think people are going to be super excited when they really see what this thing is going to be, and it's just going to be a great opportunity to spend a lot of time outside. This is a special place to be, and there's no need to sit inside and play Xbox all the time. This is what we want to do.

Roni Haskell:

Listen, I can't think of a better weekend to have a grand opening of a park because it is perfect weather out here.

Jay Byars:

Absolutely. God smiled on us big time.

Roni Haskell:

For sure, He did. For sure, He did. Yeah, because last weekend was pretty crummy. So you ordered it up, didn't you, Jay?

Jay Byars:

That would've been a disaster. Yeah, we're definitely getting our Sunday morning weather. We appreciate the good Lord smiling on us. Even our ribbon cutting yesterday, or Wednesday, it was thunderstorms all day, and for two hours, we had nothing. So it was great.

Roni Haskell:

Yeah. Well, good.

Jay Byars:

I think we're going to see a lot of people come out here this weekend and have perfect weather.

Roni Haskell:

Yes. Well, good. Well, we are still making our way over here to the water and [Braden's] behind the camera and bless him, he's having to walk backwards and making sure he doesn't run anything over.

Jay Byars:

He's doing a great job.

Roni Haskell:

He is doing a good job.

Jay Byars:

The fact that he's doing the moonwalk the entire time is pretty impressive too.

Roni Haskell:

So pipe in, let me know if you have any questions. If you want more details on this park, I'll be glad to share it. At the conclusion of all of this, I will reach out to you, but gosh, I just am thoroughly enjoying being out here and I plan on bringing my kids this weekend.



Hey, talk about things happening around town and such. We had a wonderful event last night in the town of Summerville. Hey, Jay, did you make it over to Third Thursday?

Jay Byars:

I did. I stopped by briefly last night before I went and did my first night flight, because I'm working on my pilot's license. So I did stop by a little bit. It was a great night for that as well.

Roni Haskell:

It was a big event and that is just one event of many that we have here in Summerville. We have such a great sense of community and that's what so many buyers are attracted to and a big reason that families and retirees and such land themselves in the heart of Summerville is because of the sense of community that we have to offer around here.

Jay Byars:

Yeah. It's a great place, whether you're retiring or you're just growing up and raising your kids here like we've done. This is just a great place to be, and what we're doing here with the parks, the libraries, the quality of your life is going to be second to none. That's really our goal. Summerville with Third Thursday, it's amazing how much this place is just really growing in a really phenomenally great way for the last five to ten years.

Roni Haskell:

It sure has. And I know my family enjoys it and I love sharing with other people as they're moving into town, about it as well and just tons and tons of benefits and perks, and just good quality of life here. So I'm going to spin around, so you can see the lake, pond behind me.

Let me talk to you a little bit about the market. We have been getting some more activity. Springtime has kicked into full gear for our real estate. Listings are still down from what they have been in the last two years, but guys, I was looking back to numbers of 2019 and we are right there where the numbers were in 2019. So don't think that the market is down at all or listings are down or sales are down. The last couple of years have been historical highs, is what it has produced. And so yes, we're off from the numbers from last year, but it'd be hard to keep up with 2021 numbers, quite frankly.

So we are continuing to climb. We have broken over that 400 mark for sales this past week. We were at 410 with sales within our MLS. We need inventory. If you're thinking about buying or selling, either one, it's a good time. Interest rates are still low. Anything low 4% is low, guys. That's cheap money to be had. We do expect for interest rates to continue to climb throughout the year, so if you're wanting to buy, now's a great time to do it. If you're wanting to sell, now's a great time to do it.

Let's start the conversation. Let's talk about what you need to do to prep your house for sale. I was at somebody's house at 8:30 this morning doing just that you don't have to go at it alone. Don't pull me in when it's time to put the finger on the trigger and push it out into my last. Get me in early. Use my resources to benefit you, whether you're needing consultations on prepping it for sale, what the right vendors and contractors are going to be. I am a wealth of knowledge. I call it my pool of people. My pool of professionals. Tap into me as resource. I'd be glad to share all of that information with you, give you the right counsel on what to do to prep your house for the market this spring and what you realistically don't need to do and spend money on. All right. So reach out to me at any time, I want to be your resource for buying or selling in this Charleston market, 843-297-1935, and make sure to come visit Dorchester County Ashley River Park this weekend. Have a great time.