The town of James Island already met its legal end last year. The symbolic end came Wednesday when Mayor Mary Clark removed the flag from a Town Hall that is about to become a pizza parlor.
It was a day for last rites. Clark and her husband rolled up the flag and worked on clearing out of the shopping center storefront that had housed the town's government since it was born in 2002.
"It's a poignant moment," she said. "I knew this could happen. I hoped it wouldn't."
Clark's act finally lowered the curtain on the second version of the town of James Island, which met its demise when the S.C. Supreme Court ruled that the town formed under an unconstitutional law.
While the town officially ceased to exist last year, there were still plenty of loose ends to tie up. Records had to be filed and stored, town funds had to be dispersed and floors had to be swept and cleaned.
One of the town's two employees has been assisting with the transition, and the other hopes to find work with another local government.
Inside the former Town Hall, almost everything was gone Wednesday. About the only items that remained were some cleaning tools, a fax machine without paper and a leased copier whose owner has yet to retrieve it.
"They're going to have to come and get it or whatever," Clark said.
The narrow space looks strangely smaller without desks and furnishings. Their absence reveals a floor scuffed and stained by use and time.
The section of the Camp Road strip mall has been home to enterprises ranging from a beauty parlor to a dog grooming business. Clark, who now calls herself "the only mayor-in-exile in America," said a pizza place will be the next to call it home.
Some residents say they are still feeling the loss of their town.
"I have had a sinking feeling in my stomach since that day. It is a sickening feeling," said Joe Qualey, who served as a town councilman. "The closing of the town represents one of the saddest eras in Lowcountry history."
The Town Hall still conjures up memories. Qualey said fellow residents wept on his shoulder at the last meeting there.
Despite what happened to the town, he and others have hopes that it can be resurrected.
Town backers are pushing for the General Assembly to pass a bill that would remove legal obstacles to the town's rebirth.
The city of Charleston, however, is certain to oppose any effort to allow the town to come back. The city, which wants to be able to expand its borders on the island, successfully sued to dissolve the town both times it was created. The first version of the town perished in 1996.Clark, who frequently has worn a red shirt in protest of the town's fate, said she plans to continue fighting for the town. She looks forward to the task.
"Being the mayor of the town was never as interesting as fighting for it," she said. "I've got to fight as long as there's a fight to be had."
For now, she plans to work on that out of her home. She's also got a few other chores to tend to, such as watering the array of plants that once decorated the Town Hall.
They're now in storage, a few storefronts away in the same shopping center. Clark paused for just a second as she considered the plants, lined up neatly in pots by the window.
"It was quite beautiful," she said.
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Jason Hardin can be reached at 937-5549 or at jhardin@postand courier.com.