The Sand Man -- SC politician's company mined a town's sand. Where did the money go?

[TexasTowelie]

Sand isn’t just sand. Sand grains from the desert often have rounded edges. That’s because desert winds slam the grains into each other until they’re polished like mini marbles. But sand fragments from rivers and beaches are jagged. They lock together well, especially when fixed with cement to make concrete. This makes these jagged grains surprisingly valuable.

Every year, the global construction industry uses $130 billion of this sand. That’s enough to blanket the entire state of South Carolina with 5 inches. Industries use even rarer types for computer chips, window panes and sand traps at golf courses. This has fueled an international sand rush, one that has reached South Carolina’s loamy layers. Today, the state has more than 500 active sand mines.

One controversial sand mine just closed. It was on an ancient dune ridge in Awendaw, a town 30 minutes north of Charleston. Awendaw acquired 290 acres more than a decade ago with $5.17 million generated by the county’s half-cent sales tax. Then the town struck a deal with a mining company to excavate sand to create a large lake. The town hoped the lake would be the centerpiece of a new park, and that the sand would help pay for the park’s construction.

That didn’t quite happen, despite the rising value of sand. The town received far less royalty money than it expected — just $150,000. Today, millions of dollars in sand and dirt are gone; the park isn’t built, and town officials are scrambling to find other ways to pay for it, an Uncovered investigation found. The findings raise new questions about the controversial project and its high-profile sand miner, Elliott Summey.

Read more: https://www.postandcourier.com/uncovered/sc-politicians-company-mined-a-towns-sand-where-did-the-money-go/article_dd90c908-c94a-11eb-9fb6-3b1527d57dd3.html

[OneBlueDotS-Carolina]

1. Elliot's daddy is Keith Summey....

The forever mayor of North Charleston. His son has had a bevy of political positions, thanks to daddy.


In 2020, while chairman of Charleston County Council, Summey was plucked from his job in real estate and hired to serve as the CEO of the Charleston Aviation Authority, a job with a $300,000 per year salary, plus perks. The agency took flak from local residents and transparency advocates for not conducting a national search to replace Paul Campbell, the former energy executive and state senator who retired from the post. Summey’s father is the longtime mayor of North Charleston.

Describing the power of political might as a motivator, Sanford wrote some people are good, but “in other cases, people are just crooked. They want what they want because they want it. Take for instance our airport authority in Charleston.”

After describing the airport’s top job as a post for “political folks” intent on “juicing their retirement” by spending their final years of government work in a high-paying position, Sanford launched into Summey:

“But why wait when you can just do a coup d’état? That’s what happened little more than a year ago in Charleston. In this case, Elliot [sic] Summey, a board member and coincidentally the son of the mayor where the airport sits, worked with others to appoint himself to the $300,000-a-year job as airport director. Did he have any experience in this? Did he have any experience running a large organization? Did the board conduct any interviews for someone who might? The answer is no to all the above, though it’s hardly unreasonable to believe that public boards should operate in the public interest, and that public money should be handled through a public process. But this is just another example of the way politics too often works, and why so many of us become disillusioned by it.”

https://charlestoncitypaper.com/sanford-says-airport-hiring-was-coup-detat-summey-fires-back/

[spike jones]

2. As unlikely as it may seem, this is an excellent read. "The World In a Grain"

The story of sand and how it transformed civilization.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36950075-the-world-in-a-grain