Town Hall Return Downtown Getting Close, Says Honea Path Mayor

Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer

In Honea Path, a town hall is more than an office building, it is a place where utility bills are paid, permits are requested, arguments are heard, records accumulate and citizens encounter government in its most human scale with a friendly clerk, a familiar police officer coming through a door, a mayor who has known some residents since for most of their lives.

That makes Honea Path Mayor Jimmy Smith’s dream for the restoration of the town’s old downtown municipal building more than another construction project. It is a welcome return to a better way.

The South Carolina General Assembly recently awarded Honea Path $500,000 in directed funding for the downtown Town Hall project, but work began before the money arrived. The condition of the building had become serious enough that the town was approaching the point at which demolition might have become the only realistic option.

“They gave us $500,000 to do that project with,” Smith said. “We’d already gone ahead and started construction because we had to. The building was getting in such bad shape that we were probably about six months away from maybe even having to tear the whole building down.”

Crews have repaired the roof and removed and replaced rotted floor and ceiling joists. The building has moved into the less dramatic and more mundane forms of restoration: paint, flooring and the final work required before municipal operations can return downtown.

“It won’t be long when we’ll be moving back to town,” Smith said.

The restored building will consolidate town offices in one location. The former police department space will become the city clerk’s office, including a drive-through window where residents can pay bills without leaving their vehicles.

“You can come up and pay your bills right there and just never get out of the car,” Smith said. “That’s going to be a big plus for everybody.”

The old courtroom upstairs will become town council chambers, while other areas will provide storage for town records and additional space for municipal operations. It is an exercise in reuse, and a statement that Honea Path’s government is coming back to the center of town.

Smith said restoring the old Town Hall has been one of his principal goals since taking office. The town had moved its offices downhill on South Main Street, into a facility Smith describes as good but less connected to downtown commerce.

The new site worked as an office while the old one, he believes, can work as part of a downtown.

“When we moved downhill on South Main, this is a good facility, but it took a lot of foot traffic off of Main Street,” Smith said. “We need to give Main Street all the help we can in getting people back down there.”

Honea Path has seen signs of renewed activity downtown. Smith pointed to a consignment shop and other businesses, while the Fiddle and Bow Music Hall is a regular gathering place for concerts and events. Restaurants and other enterprises have helped create the beginnings of a more active commercial district.

“Things are picking up,” said Smith.

The mayor’s vision is that if you put government offices in the middle of town, and residents who come to pay a bill or attend a meeting may also buy lunch, browse a store, hear music or simply walk a block they otherwise would not have walked.

“We are off to a good start to get some merchants in there and some different things to attract people,” Smith said. “But we just need to improve the foot traffic.”

The town has also appointed a new police chief, Steve Gable, though “new” is not quite the right word for someone whose history with Honea Path began decades ago.

Gamble, Smith said, began his law-enforcement career in Honea Path at age 21 and had previously served as a volunteer firefighter in town, working alongside Smith. Even after joining the police department, Gamble remained connected to the fire department.

“He made the full circle,” Smith said. “He’s back to Honea Path and seems to be doing a good job. I think everybody’s glad to have Steve at the reins of the police department now.”

Honea Path’s population is estimated at roughly 4,200 to 4,400 people, Smith said — growth that has occurred over the past four or five years. Housing construction continues, though at a slower pace than before. Smith estimated that about 10 homes are either under construction or nearing completion, and he said the town has sites that could support subdivisions of about 40 houses.

Still, the mayor does not want growth to arrive simply as density.

“When I took office, when I ran, I said we want to see the town grow, but we want to have controlled growth,” Smith said. “We don’t want to be able to reach out and touch a neighbor’s house.”

Honea Path also intends to preserve its existing building standards, zoning rules and residential setbacks, Smith said. The town wants new residents and new homes, but not at the expense of its physical character.

“We want to grow, but we don’t want to just get everything jammed together,” he said.

Road improvements pose a related challenge. Smith said paving one mile of roadway can cost about $1 million, while C-Fund projects require towns to contribute a 10 percent match before the Anderson County Transportation Committee advances them.

The town is considering alternative paving materials for lower-traffic streets — methods that can incorporate old tires and plastic-type material rather than relying entirely on conventional asphalt.

“We told them we’d be a guinea pig for some of it to see how it holds up,” Smith said.

Town Council recently approved a resolution covering three roads submitted for paving. The town will seek pricing for conventional pavement while requesting the alternative method, an effort to make limited road funds extend farther.

At the former mill property, the clearing process is nearly finished.

“The only thing left standing is the old smokestack,” he said.

The stack remains not as a simple relic but as a potential development tool. Smith said the town needs to retain some portion of the mill site to preserve eligibility for textile-mill tax credits, which could make redevelopment more attractive to future developers.

“Whoever develops that would probably want to take advantage of the textile mill tax credits,” Smith said. “You have to have some part of the mill left standing to get those tax credits.”

Smith expects the cleanup to be complete within about 30 days. Once the town receives clearance to proceed, it plans to market the property. Developers have already expressed interest, he said, though no final plan has been announced.

“That’s the plan,” Smith said. “As soon as we get the OK to go ahead, we’ll put it on the market, and we’ve already had some developers come talk with us.”

The town is also watching employment prospects just outside its borders. A new business proposed for the former Belton Industries building between Belton and Honea Path would help the region, Smith said, by giving area residents opportunities to work closer to home.

“Anything we do to keep industry in this area, it helps,” Smith said.

A new shelter opened in the town park this summer has become the setting for a monthly farmers market, generally held on the third Saturday of each month. The market began during a drought, when garden yields were limited, but Smith said vendors have brought fresh produce, baked goods and canned items. The most recent market drew a large crowd.

The project was developed by the Empower Honea Path Group, led by Jodi Fleming and her committee, with grant support from Timken to remove an old structure and construct the new shelter.

“They’ve done an excellent job with that,” Smith said of the group, which also helps organize the town’s Christmas parade, Fourth of July observances and other public events.

Honea Path’s fall festival is approaching, with live music and the town’s honey sopping competition. The town will also host its annual Halloween trick-or-treat event with downtown merchants, which Smith said consistently draws a large crowd.

The Christmas parade may return to an older format this year: a Thursday-night event, potentially held on the first Thursday in December. Smith said Thursday parades once coincided with local payday, when stores stayed open after the procession and residents moved from the route into downtown businesses.

“There was a method to the madness there,” he said.

A nighttime parade, with its lights and its crowd gathered after dark, would give the event “a different dimension,” Smith said.

The town will also participate in Anderson County’s upcoming October bicentennial parade and Smith hopes Honea Path’s 1916 fire truck, discovered by firefighter Billy McCullough in a North Carolina field and restored after a long search, will be ready to appear in the procession. The truck was remounted on a new chassis in 1927, and its restoration offers a mechanical version of the work taking place at Town Hall: a piece of local history returned to service.

Smith, who is 73, has enjoyed his role as mayor, he said, and believes the town’s first year under his administration has moved faster than he expected. His work as a former physician also continues to surface in his civic role, when former patients appear at his office door and ask for advice after seeing their doctor.

“It’s all part of being in a small town,” he said.