Belton Rolling into Fall on a Winning Streak

Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer

The view from the standpipe is a good one these days. Belton is entering the fall with new industrial investment, a busy civic calendar, expanding recreation facilities and the steady, less dramatic work of preparing for growth.

Eastern Engineered Wood Products, a Pennsylvania-based wholesale distributor of structural wood products, recently opened a Belton distribution center at 110 Milliken Drive. The project represents an estimated $18.7 million to $20 million investment and employs just under 40 people, with room for future expansion.

The complex occupies the former Milliken site; a property long associated with the region’s industrial past. It is not a mill in the old Southern sense — no looms, shift whistles or rows of mill houses — but it has inherited the site’s basic purpose: work will come through here, goods will leave, and the town will be better off as a result.

For Belton Mayor Eleanor Dorn, the development is evidence that the city has entered a favorable stretch.

“We’re on a good run right now, for sure,” Dorn said. “That is increasing our tax base, our business licenses. It is just a great thing for the city of Belton.”

Eastern Engineered Wood Products supplies engineered materials used in residential and light-commercial construction, including structural beams, laminated veneer lumber and joists. The Belton center will serve lumber dealers and component manufacturers across South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee.

The facility follows the company’s high-service distribution model, intended to deliver materials within one or two days.

“We’ve learned that our high-service model is well suited for dealers in this market,” Todd Lindsey, the company’s president, said at the opening. “We are excited about the opportunity to introduce our unique value proposition in this new territory.”

The project is part of a broader Anderson County effort to bring jobs and investment to communities outside the county’s largest urban areas. Belton could also benefit from Project Palmetto, a planned wood-products manufacturing and distribution facility between Belton and Honea Path. That project is expected to bring a $215.56 million investment and 217 full-time jobs, with its first phase anticipated in 2027.

Eastern Engineered Wood Products is already operating; Project Palmetto remains a larger planned investment subject to incentives, infrastructure credits and the long process of construction and hiring. Together, the two developments suggest that Belton’s industrial future may rest not on restoring the textile economy, but on adapting the sites and workforce traditions it left behind.

Economic development is only one measure of a town’s momentum. Belton’s fall calendar begins with its final Standpipe Sounds concert of the season, featuring the Combo Kings, and turns quickly toward the city’s signature Standpipe Festival on Saturday, Oct. 3.

The festival will include vendors, a car show, bands and a fireworks finale. Dorn said the event, which lost momentum during the COVID-19 pandemic, has returned to strength.

“It’s going strong all day, events all day long, bands all day long, and then that ends with the fireworks show,” Dorn said.

The city’s familiar formula — vendors, cars, music and fireworks — remains part of the appeal. A successful small-town festival does not need constant reinvention. It needs people showing up, bands playing, vendors returning and a public space that feels, for a few hours, like the center of the world.

The schedule continues Oct. 31 with Trick-or-Treat on the Square, an event Dorn said has grown into a major occasion of its own.

“It’s growing and growing,” she said. “It’s a really fun day. That’s kind of turned into an event on its own.”

Christmas is not far behin, with the Belton tree lighting Nov. 19, building on last year’s successful November event. The city will close one end of the square, bring in a band and encourage downtown shops to remain open. The annual Christmas parade is set for Dec. 5.

“It’ll be a downtown square Christmas themed kicking off the Christmas season,” Dorn said.

While downtown fills with music, costumes and lights, Belton is also expanding its recreation complex.

The city has completed upgrades to the Leda Poore building and currently has two fields in place. The larger plan calls for four fields, a configuration intended to make the facility capable of hosting travel-ball tournaments and other larger events.

“We’ve completed our Leda Poore building, which we’re very excited about,” Dorn said. “That’s a huge project.”

The city is seeking grants to add the remaining two fields. State money helped fund earlier stages, but Belton was informed it would not receive additional state funding for the project this year.

“We’re having to find grants to get that done,” Dorn said. “We’re looking hard. We’ll get it done.”

With four fields, Belton could host more tournaments, work with Belton-Honea Path High School on softball events, provide practice space for travel-ball teams and operate concessions during games.

“Travel ball is such a big thing,” Dorn said. “They’re looking for fields to practice on. They’ll rent them to practice, host tournaments out of it. The concession stand will be running wide open. So just generating more fun and more money for the town.”

The recreation grounds already host soccer, baseball, softball, occasional football games and tennis. Pickleball has also become a popular addition.

“It’s going great,” Dorn said. “Just about every time we ride by, it’s packed. So, it’s been a great addition.”

Belton’s downtown is receiving smaller but persistent attention. The city’s beautification committee continues to maintain flowers and landscaping around the square.

“We got a beautification committee that does the flowers, and they do a fantastic job,” Dorn said. “They keep it just really pretty.”

The city is also considering additional parking as activity downtown increases.

“We’re going to work on trying to get some more parking,” Dorn said. “Now that things are happening downtown, we need a little more parking, so we’re working on some ideas on that.”

Belton recently completed paving work, though future municipal-road projects are less certain. Dorn said she has heard that the Anderson County Transportation Committee may not pave municipal roads this year, though she emphasized that she has not yet confirmed the information.

Housing growth is occurring more gradually. Developments have been approved, but construction has not begun. In the meantime, individual lots continue to attract prospective homeowners.

“Every time a lot comes available, somebody comes asking what they need to do to get a house on it,” Dorn said.

The city has not received recent annexation requests, though it had several a few years ago.

Belton is also working with Anderson County on the county’s bicentennial parade. The city was represented during Celebrate Anderson’s drone show, where its name and standpipe were included in the countywide display.

“It’s going to be fun,” Dorn said. “It’s a neat idea.”

The opening of a distribution center, the promise of more ball fields, a festival with fireworks and the need for parking may not initially seem like parts of the same story. In a small city, they are.

Each represents the same municipal challenge: preserve what people value, create places for people to gather, make room for work and recreation, and prepare for growth without losing the town’s recognizable shape.

For Dorn, Belton’s momentum is not confined to one industrial opening or one festival day. It is visible in the accumulation of new jobs, public improvements, downtown activity, prospective home construction and a calendar busy enough to make the passage from summer to Christmas feel unusually quick.