Iva Ushers in Fall with Town Improvements and Events

Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer

After a busy summer, one which saw improvements and plans for more significant improvements, the Town of Iva is preparing for an even busier fall and holiday season.

A recent infusion of directed state funding will pay for some of the work, including the slow, necessary repair of places where the town gathers.

Town Manager Tim Taylor said the money secured through the General Assembly will be used for improvements at several public facilities, including the Iva Civic Center, the farmers market, the Municipal Activity Center and the town gazebo.

The Municipal Activity Center, known locally as the MAC Center, will receive new windows, flooring and other small repairs. The former high-school cafeteria is part of the town’s civic life, and its renovation will offer one of the most visible signs of the new funding.

The building is used for family dinners, birthday parties, senior activities, recreation programs and winter basketball games, and after roughly four decades of heavy public use, the upgrades are needed.

“There’s some painting that will be getting done,” Taylor said. “Of course, the MAC Center with the new windows there, that’ll be a nice aesthetic look as well.”

The project will also include repairs to the farmers market, where restroom work and new ceiling fans are planned. The market is open-air, and the limitations of that arrangement are evident during an Upstate summer.

“During the summer, it gets hot,” Taylor said. “With open air, there’s no air conditioning in there.”

The downtown gazebo also needs work, particularly on its flooring and staging area. Taylor credited S.C. Mike Gambrell and S.C. Sen. Richard Cash for helping secure the facilities funding.

The state money, Taylor said, will allow Iva to address needs that would have been difficult to tackle without outside support.

“Not at all,” he said when asked whether the town could have completed the work without the funding. “These repairs are needed, and they’re costly.”

That is the financial reality of a small-town government where the infrastructure can be old, the spaces are used constantly and local budgets must stretch across roads, public safety, recreation, buildings and services. A failed roof, an aging HVAC system or a worn restroom becomes not merely a maintenance issue but a choice among competing priorities.

Taylor said the town has also learned that road funding may be on the way after a meeting with S.C. Rep. Lee Gilliard about directed money for road repairs.

The funding is expected to go toward patching and repairing streets, and while Taylor said he did not yet know whether the amount would be enough to pave a full road, the town welcomes any opportunity to make needed improvements.

“We want to thank Senator Gambrell, of course, for the facilities, and thank Representative Gilreath for his involvement in some funding for roads,” Taylor said.

“When we can get the repairs made where it’s long-lasting, [we can] get them done,” Taylor said.

Iva’s recreation programs remain busy, with fall sports under way after a full summer of activity. The town expects to host the Dixie Softball World Series next year, drawing visitors not only to the Parker-Bowie complex but also to restaurants and businesses in Iva and elsewhere in Anderson County.

The event, Taylor said, will generate a kind of regional spillover, with athletes, parents and spectators who arrive for games also eat, shop and travel through the town.

The town is also a key part of the recently revived Savannah River Scenic Highway, a designation Taylor sees as an opportunity to turn Iva’s location into a destination rather than simply a point on the way to somewhere else.

Iva may be the only incorporated municipality in Anderson County on the scenic route, Taylor said, a byway connects destinations from Green Pond Landing through the county and south toward McCormick, inviting campers, day-trippers and motorists seeking a slower route through rural landscapes.

“It’s not an interstate deal,” Taylor said. “It is where you can hop on the Scenic Highway and make multiple stops.”

The town plans to work with Anderson County on signage and other ways to identify Iva as a scenic-byway stop. When the town’s museum reopens, Taylor said, it may include a place where visitors can sign in and record that they traveled the route through Iva.

The museum itself remains a project in waiting. The town hopes to begin construction in the old five & ten store on the square early next year, though officials are still working through designs and costs. Its holdings are currently in storage, even as people occasionally call asking to see artifacts they remember from past visits.

“We have people call from time to time,” Taylor said, “and say, ‘Can I look at this? Can I look at that?’”

The eventual reopening is expected to be a significant civic project, a return of local history to public view.

The town is also considering a scenic-byway day trip for senior adults next year, potentially traveling from Green Pond Landing toward McCormick. The proposal could eventually involve civic groups and other local partners, turning a designation on a map into an actual shared experience.

Downtown Iva is preparing for a smaller but more immediately delicious addition: a sushi restaurant, planned for the former Mexican restaurant space beside the new library.

The restaurant was still finishing its interior work during Taylor’s interview, but he said it could open in the first or second week of October and is expected to operate seven days a week.

“That’ll be a nice addition to downtown for sure,” Taylor said.

The new library has already changed the rhythm of downtown, attracting children, parents, students and adults through story times, reading programs, study sessions and other activities. Its presence has brought people into an area where they may also visit nearby businesses.

“Anybody who hasn’t been there, please go by and visit the library,” Taylor said. “I absolutely think it’s driving some interest into our downtown.”

The library’s success has also created an ordinary problem of a growing downtown: parking. Taylor said the town is aware of concerns about parking near the library and plans to work on improvements.

The fact that a library needs more parking because people are using it is a solid measure of its vitality.

Fall is Iva’s busiest season for public events.

The town has just completed its summer-night series, which brought people downtown on Thursday evenings despite high temperatures that occasionally required fans to be placed outside. Now comes a sequence of events that will carry Iva through Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The first is Depot Days, a two-day event beginning Oct. 9. The festival will open at 4 p.m. with music, vendors, inflatables and other attractions.

The event continues Oct. 10, from 9 a.m.-4 p.m., with vendors and festival programming alongside the annual car show. Organizers hope to attract roughly 150 vehicles, though the show typically brings more than 100.

This year’s car show will also serve as a memorial to Furman Cain, a longtime supporter who helped secure contributions and volunteer support for the event. Taylor said Cain’s family and other volunteers plan to continue his work.

“He was a big advocate for the car show,” Taylor said. “He worked very, very hard throughout the year to get contributions made to make sure it was supported well.”

The town hopes residents and visitors will attend in support of Cain’s family and his memory.

The following week, on Oct. 15, Iva will host its chili cookoff. Halloween on Main follows Oct. 24, a full week before Halloween. Taylor said the town chose the earlier date to avoid competing with church, municipal and family events on the holiday weekend.

On Nov. 21 at 10 a.m., Iva will hold the second annual Jingle on Main, an outdoor holiday market revived last year after residents asked the town to bring back a Christmas craft-fair tradition. More than 50 vendors had already registered for this year’s event.

“It is a good opportunity for vendors to sell products,” Taylor said, “but also a lot of people would go and buy Christmas gifts and those things.”

The town will begin installing Halloween decorations soon, but Taylor is already looking toward Christmas.

For the first time, Iva will have a large municipal Christmas tree.

“We’re probably one of the only towns that didn’t have one,” Taylor said.

That changes the meaning of the annual tree lighting. This year, the town will light an actual large tree rather than simply hold a holiday gathering around the small live tree on the square.

The tree lighting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Dec. 3, the first Thursday in December. Local schools, choirs and bands will participate as they have in past years.

The town’s Christmas parade will follow at 3 p.m. Dec. 13. Participants can already contact Town Hall to register.

Iva has a reputation, Taylor joked, for choosing the coldest day of the season for its Christmas parade.

“We normally try to pick ice and snow,” he said.

The cold, he suggested, may be part of the ritual: not necessarily pleasant, but useful in producing the proper Christmas spirit.

Beyond the events calendar, Iva is watching modest residential growth and continued interest in the Jackson Mill property, which Taylor said remains a priority for the next several years.

The town has a handful of homes under construction and expects residential development to be an important part of its future. And while Iva is not growing at the pace of larger Upstate communities, Taylor said, it is attracting new residents and trying to prepare for the effects of that growth.

“We’re not a rapidly developing town,” he said, “but we do have some growth going, which is great.”

The town’s approach, like its new state-funded repairs, is incremental. Fix the restrooms. Repair the roads. Improve the gazebo. Reopen the museum. Promote the scenic route. Add a restaurant. Make room for visitors. Put up a Christmas tree.

None of these changes alone remake Iva, but together, they form a picture of a small town trying to preserve its places, welcome new people and give residents a reason to gather in the center of town.