Town Plays a Limited Role, But Residents Appreciate Small-Town Feel

Shirley Carter lives along a small dirt road at the southern end James Island, where for many years she was a woman without a town.

Along with neighbors in the Sol Legare community and about 20,000 other James Islanders, she lived in an unincorporated section of Charleston County.

That meant she had to drive 17 miles to the Charleston County offices in North Charleston if she had an issue that needed some government attention, such as a zoning issue or building permit.

Now that James Island is a town, Carter can travel the short distance to Town Hall on Camp Road, and that's just what she did Tuesday.

Carter wants the town to pave her dirt lane. She isn't sure if the town will satisfy her request, but she was pleased with the attention given to her concerns.

"At least they are listening," she said. "The county did absolutely nothing for us."

"It was like we were stepchildren," Carter said, "because we weren't in the city (of Charleston) and we weren't in Folly Beach."

Access to a local, elected government is one of the things at stake for town residents, in a court ruling expected by June 1 on whether the town's 2006 incorporation was constitutional and proper.

As the court fight drags on, those who lived in unincorporated areas are getting accustomed to the idea of being in a town, though it's a limited form of a town.

The town has no police or fire department, no sanitation crews, no municipal court, no parks or recreation department, and owns no buildings.

Basic services are provided, as they were before, by the county sheriff or James Island Public Service District.

Those who supported forming a town, starting around 1992, focused their energy on creating the town, fighting legal challenges from Charleston, reforming the town, fighting in court and losing again, and then incorporating the town once more.

Now, they are learning anew what it means to govern.

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