Steve Miller Plans to Stay Involved in Pendleton
Greg Wilson
On Wednesday, Steve Miller will walk away from his office in Pendleton after 13 years as the town manager. It’s a bittersweet departure for someone who has been a major player in the town’s growth and progress.
Miller arrived in 2013 and found a community with deep civic pride, unusually strong volunteer energy, and a small-town loyalty that still feels intact even as Pendleton has expanded. He credited staff, councils, and residents for helping steer the town into better financial shape, with investment accounts that may help buffer future tax pressure.
Pendleton has grown from a town that was seeing a downward trend in population into one that now feels much larger than census figures suggest. He said the 2020 census count of about 3,600 does not capture what he believes is a real population closer to 5,000, bolstered by Tri-County Technical College, Clemson University, Anderson District 4 schools, and the town’s location near major transportation corridors.
That growth has been shaped in part by annexation, including close to 700 to 800 acres along Highway 76 and 187. Those additions, he argued, helped fuel Pendleton’s revitalization by bringing in property and revenue that made other projects possible.
Miller pointed to the utility system as one of the clearest symbols of change, recalling the days when sewer manhole lids were literally blowing off on Major Street, a problem he said has been answered by millions of dollars in system improvements. He also cited roughly $7 million to $8 million invested around the Village Green, a project that helped turn that area into an even more vibrant civic center. He said the work at the Village Green, the oil mill property, and the former Riverside redevelopment are part of a larger transformation of downtown Pendleton.
Miller said he wishes he could stay to see several projects through, including the wastewater treatment plant, a new fire station, the completion of the TIF district, and the renovation of the Pendleton Community Center Board building. He also mentioned Keese’s barn facade, tied to the Black History and Culture Foundation, as a project he sees as important to the town’s broader identity even if it is not formally a town project.
Miller said the town’s biggest challenge may not be growth but the slowdown of it, warning that fewer permits today can mean tighter finances 12-24 months from now. Miller said it’s the kind of municipal problem that creeps in quietly.
As for his own next move, Miller will become Chief Financial Officer at Greenville Technical College, a shift out of city management and into a new professional language full of fresh acronyms and unfamiliar terrain. Still, he plans to remain in Pendleton, stay involved, and watch the town from a more comfortable distance, no longer in the middle of its daily arguments.
In the end, Miller’s goodbye is s a thank-you to the people around him: councils, staff, mayors, mentors, and the residents who argued, volunteered, invested, and kept showing up. He said he hopes his successor will help carry forward the next version of Pendleton’s vision, while he and his family remain part of the town’s life.
