Electricians in Rock Hill, SC

Development plans in Rock Hill include what would have been the Carolina Panthers headquarters, large residential lots near Lake Wylie and business space.

The city planning commission will meet March 7.

That agenda includes several annexation and rezoning cases. The commission will make recommendations ahead of a Rock Hill City Council final decision on each.

Here’s a look at what’s on the table:

▪ Rock Hill applied to annex two properties that were part of the failed Carolina Panthers headquarters project. The 228 Mt. Gallant Road and unaddressed parcel, also on Mt. Gallant, combine for almost 7 acres.

The unaddressed site would’ve been an entrance to the Panthers property. It was used to hold items for construction until the project halted last year. The other Mt. Gallant property has a building on it that was used as an office for the Panthers development. The city acquired the property along with the larger Panthers site through bankruptcy proceedings.

The two-parcel annexation plan didn’t come with details on how the city might use or develop the land. A required zoning change with the annexation would give the properties a general industrial zoning.

▪ Catawba River Investments applied to rezone more than 93 acres near Lake Wylie for a large lot subdivision. The property is off Mt. Gallant Road at Foxridge and Nautilus roads, beside and across from Mt. Gallant Elementary and Dutchman Creek Middle schools respectively.

The property is wooded except for about 35 acres in a Duke Energy power line easement. The site is near the Museum of York County. Three years ago the applicant requested an 80-lot subdivision that didn’t happen. Now the plan is for lots at 10 or more acres, for buyers who may want more rural home sites.

▪ South Fork Ventures applied to annex 23 acres at Celanese Road and Trexler Lane. The property runs both sides of Celanese, near the city airport. Commercial development plans for the site include office, retail and self-storage.

The wooded property also has frontage on Ebenezer Road. Concept drawings show a two-story self-storage facility and single stories for remaining buildings. Access would come from Ebenezer and Trexler, not Celanese.

The 80,000-square-foot storage facility would be to the north, off Trexler. It includes outdoor storage that could be used for boats, RVs or other parked vehicles. Two flex buildings, at 12,500 and 7,500 square feet, also are to the north of Celanese, off Trexler.

South of Celanese, a 22,000-square-foot office or professional building would back up to two outparcel spaces at more than an acre each. The plan doesn’t show what would go on those outparcels, along the Ebenezer side.

▪ Landover One, affiliated with Warren Norman Co., applied to annex and rezone almost 8 acres on Sharonwood Lane and India Hook Road. The company asked that a decision be deferred to a later planning commission meeting. The zoning change would make the entire property commercial.

▪ An annexation plan for two Cherry Road properties would allow a new auto repair site. The properties at 2147 and 2153 Cherry Road sit across from the city wastewater facility. The new use would replace a former restaurant and former barbershop in two buildings at those sites.

This story was originally published March 3, 2023, 2:31 PM.

Rock Hill High School wrestlers Ta’niya Roberts and Kalijah Campos left their mark at the first-ever Women’s Wrestling Invitational last month.

Roberts won a South Carolina High School Leage title in the 160-pound divison, and Campos did the same as a 182-pounder. And their efforts helped propel the Bearcats to a 101-98 victory over Greenwood to take earn the team state title.

Trinity Davis, the third and only other senior on the team, finished second in the 132-pound division.

The tournament was the first-ever SCHSL-sanctioned state championship event for women’s wrestling. More than 200 athletes wrestled Feb. 25 in Anderson, S.C.

“They’ve been pretty dominant this year,” Rock Hill High coach Timothy Beard said. “We’ve won every girls tournament that we’ve been to. And it’s because of those three seniors and some underclassmen that scored us points at every tournament that prepared us to go to the state tournament.”

Roberts said it was a bittersweet moment when she realized she’d won a state title.

“I worked all summer,” Roberts said. “I did off season wrestling and during the season, and this is my last year. So I had to work extremely hard to make it to be a state champ. I placed third twice, all of my years that I wrestled, so this is my first time at the top of the podium, and I was very excited.”

Women’s wrestling isn’t a fully-sanctioned sport by the SCHSL.

So the Rock Hill women have entered wrestling tournaments this season to compete against other women wrestlers. In some cases, they wrestled their male counterparts when opposing schools didn’t have women participants -- like their opening night match against Boiling Springs, and other matches against Chapman and Clover.

Campos said she had wrestled for her school in California before she moved to Rock Hill, S.C. She said womens wrestling is farther along there than in South Carolina. She was not accustomed to wrestling against males.

“It kind of toughens you up because boys and girls have very different styles of wrestling,” Campos said. “For girls, they don’t focus much on moves. Boys, they’ll try and do more intricate moves, so they can do ... many different things.”

The Bearcats had won state titles in women’s wrestling in 2020 and 2021, but those tournaments weren’t sanctioned by the high school league.

High school league officials are optimistic that womens wrestling will become a sanctioned sport, but it won’t happen immediately.

“All indicators indicate that it’s popular,” said Dr. Jerome Singleton, commissioner of the SCHSL. “We had multiple wrestlers in each weight class. The spectators that were there appeared to cheer it on well and had an opportunity to enjoy it.

“Looking into it, for a first time, I was very pleased. But the goal is to be able to create wrestling teams in each school ... That’s the goal. So while I think we’re off to a great start, there’s no doubt we still got a lot of work ahead of us.”

Singleton said the onus of growing womens wrestling will fall on the schools.

As general interest from schools and athletes continues to grow, that will push womens wrestling closer to becoming a sanctioned SCHSL sport.

Rock Hill is a step closer to a new swim beach.

Rock Hill City Council voted Monday night to approve a lease agreement with Duke Energy for property at India Hook and Elks Park roads. The site will become a new waterfront park.

”This project is substantially complete,” said deputy city manager Jimmy Bagley. “They’re prepared to turn the keys over to the city for a spring opening.”

The city recreation department will operate the new park. It will be open sunrise to sunset. Amenities will include restrooms, a canoe and kayak launch, fishing piers, trails, picnic tables and benches. The most notable, though, is the new swim beach.

Ebenezer Park has a swim beach. For Tega Cay residents, Windjammer Park has one. Otherwise, there hasn’t been significant public swimming access on Lake Wylie. The new swim beach in Rock Hill will be considered a natural swimming area, meaning it won’t have stationed lifeguards.

Duke operates almost a dozen Catawba River lakes from the North Carolina mountains to the South Carolina sandhills. Duke needs a federal license to operate hydroelectric facilities on them. In 2006, Duke signed an agreement with almost 70 regional stakeholders to apply for a new license, which was granted in 2015. The application included promised public recreation and environmental improvements throughout the basin.

The new Rock Hill park is part of that pledge. So is a massive upgrade effort at Allison Creek Access Area in York County. Upgrades at Dutchman’s Creek Access Area and restrooms at Buster Boyd Access Area in Lake Wylie already are complete.

Beyond Lake Wylie, planned recreation improvements range from a swim beach on Lake Norman to Springs Park Access Area on Fishing Creek Reservoir to the Great Falls restoration of river flow in areas where it was dammed off decades ago.

Bagley, who sat in on years of stakeholder meetings during relicensing, said what city officials now call Lake Park won’t have motor boat access but will have plenty of amenities. Duke will own the site and lease it to the city through the license term, which goes to 2055.

”Hopefully they would have a new license extended (to keep the part operating beyond that date),” Bagley said.

Apart from staffing similar to other city parks, the new site comes at Duke’s expense as part of the agreement.

“It was a long, painstaking process,” Bagley said of relicensing. “It didn’t cost us anything. It will have staffing, that will cost us in the future.”

Councilwoman Kathy Pender said Bagley’s work to represent the city in relicensing was key to the coming attraction. As were other area representatives.

”Part of that was making sure our community came away with something out of that partnership,” Pender said. “Not only this park, but there are others in York County that have come out of that.”

Councilman John Black said the new park meets a need in Rock Hill.

”This is a great amenity and adding something our community really doesn’t have,” Black said.

The addition in Rock Hill grows a range of city offerings to access the Catawba River. The Piedmont Medical Center Trail runs along the river at Riverwalk. The Rock Hill Velodrome, Rock Hill Criterium and Rock Hill Outdoor Center Greens also are at Riverwalk. Just downstream, near Waterford Golf Club, there’s River Park.

The new Rock Hill beachfront park also adds to river recreation sites across the region. Tega Cay recently opened ballfields, trails and more at Catawba Park. York County continues work on the 1,900-acre Catawba Bend Preserve on the Rock Hill banks of the Catawba.

York County finalized a deal Monday night to bring Pallidus to Rock Hill.

The silicon carbide manufacturer intends to create more than 400 jobs and invest $443 million. The company founded in 2015 will relocate its headquarters from New York to a 300,000-square-foot facility at 1786 and 1800 Overview Drive in Rock Hill.

Pallidus applications can serve the electric vehicle, mass transit and green energy sectors, among others. Pallidus intends to expand the country’s semiconductor market.

Operations should begin third quarter of this year. In an announcement from the state commerce department Tuesday, company vice president of global facilities Jerry Knowles said Pallidus is thrilled to partner with South Carolina and the local community.

“The decision to select Rock Hill, South Carolina for our next manufacturing facility was the result of extensive research to locate to a community that aligned with our innovative and collaborative spirit, offered an exceptional quality of life for our employees and is easily supported from our research and development facility in New York,” Knowles said.

Rock Hill Mayor John Gettys said his community invested for decades in utility systems would bring investments like Pallidus. Attaining high standards for the sight resulted, Gettys said, ine one of the most impactful economic development announcements in the city’s history.

“We welcome Pallidus and the new generation of manufacturing jobs they bring to the ‘good town’ as well as the opportunity for more of our people to build wealth through high paying wages,” Gettys said.

Charlotte Regional Business Alliance chief business recruitment officer Danny Chavez said the move is big beyond just York County.

“The state of South Carolina, along with our region, continues to be a magnet for innovative, next-generation companies like Pallidus,” Chavez said. “Success stories like these, within our targeted industries, are a testament to our streamlined, dual-state economic development capabilities.”

York County Council finalized an economic incentive deal for the project on Monday night. Chairwoman Christi Cox said jobs will be liveable wage, many at $80,000 a year or more. Cox spoke with company officials and was impressed that Pallidus is American-owned with American investors.

“It opens up some tremendous opportunities for the county,” Cox said.

Councilman Tom Audette said the number of new jobs is good news for York County.

“The opportunity here for the community, and the opportunity for job growth, is immense,” Audette said.

Jaden Erickson knew he had to work alongside his teammates on the football field to make a great play.

The 16-year-old now knows he has to work with another type of team to make a great play.

He has shifted from stadium lights to stage lights.

Erickson is a member of a thespian team from Rock Hill High School who won the state theater competition last November.

And now they hope to clench another championship at a national conference in Kentucky. The group will compete at the Southeastern Theater Conference March 1-5. They will compete with teams from North Carolina, Alabama, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia and Florida.

The Rock Hill High School drama program took to the stage last fall at the South Carolina Theater Association competition, said drama teacher and theater director Stephanie Daniels.

The Rock Hill High cast won first place with its performance of “Parallel Lives.”

The state championship cast included: Gabriella Daniels, Laura Grace Dhillon, Chloe Newport and Meridee Ritzer. The crew included: Aidan Lee, Uli Galindo, Jasmine Butler, Ariale Figueroa, and Jaden Erickson.

Dhillon won Best Actress and Daniels and Newport also received awards.

“It’s very rare that they recognize every single person in your show,” Daniels said.

Most of the other competitors were from the larger schools in South Carolina, Daniels said. All three high schools in Rock Hill competed. South Pointe finished eighth.

The students have rehearsed for several hours every day after school for six weeks to prepare for the big gig in Kentucky.

Erickson said he sees similarities between football and theater. There’s the idea that both take mental and physical strength, and both are very emotional.

“It’s a very emotional thing and it’s what creates the biggest bonds between us, and theater has those big moments, like when we are about to go on stage for a big competition,” he said. “It’s those emotions and those talks that are what brings us so much closer to each other.”

And there’s the teamwork.

“You know you can be a star player, but without a team, without the person beside you giving it their all, the team won’t ever be great,” he said.

Erickson was an offensive lineman on the football team until ninth-grade. He saw a play and presented the idea to his parents that he would pursue his newly-minted passion to be a movie star. That meant he’d quit football.

“I came to my parents and I was like, what should I do?” Erickson said. “And they said do what your heart tells you to do.”

Erickson hung up his football jersey and headed to drama practice.

“I have always been outgoing, but I have never been the person to perform in front of other people,” he said.Some of his favorite roles include playing Elvis and a part in “Schoolhouse Rock!’s ‘Conjunction Junction.’” He’s goal is television and movies.

Laura Grace Dhillon, 18, calls her cast mates her brothers and sisters.

“You’re so vulnerable onstage doing these things, you know, being someone else,” she said. “And so off-stage, you kind of have that relationship with those same people that are doing the same thing.”

Dhillon began acting when she was 4 and “like two feet tall,” she said. She attended a summer camp. She also tagged along with her mom who was involved with the Rock Hill Community Theater, she said. She started doing shows when she was in seventh grade.

“I have always been in love with theater,” she said.

The tall senior with long, brown hair moved with her family to Shanghai, China, when she was younger and continued her love of acting there with a theater program at an international school, she said.

She attended Westminster Catawba Christian School and took a summer program with Daniels before attending Rock Hill High.

“I kind of just knew instinctively that it was going to be like a new family for me,” said the senior, who also performs with Rock Hill Theater.

Dhillon, who is the drama club president, said arts programs are a way students can hone their creativity.

“It’s also just a place where you can try new things and fail, and learn about yourself and others,” she said. “And it’s just really an outlet that is just amazing to bring students together who would otherwise, you know, wouldn’t meet each other.”

Dhillon said acting is a good medium to tell someone else’s story, with no limitations.

“It can really touch people,” she said. “Not only when I get onstage am I, like, revived because it just does that to me, but it can touch anybody else who is in the audience.”

Dhillon said she will study acting when she starts a bachelor of fine arts program at New York University in the fall and said she wants to perform in film and television.

The 2022-2023 school year is Daniels’ 30th year teaching and she has taken students to competitions for 28 years, with the program attending about 10 South Carolina Theater Association competitions, she said. Daniels has taught at Rock Hill High for 19 years.

The students perform a play every fall.

“I think the students get a lot out of going to competitions because they get to see students perform from around the state and they get to make friends with other drama kids,” Daniels said.

This year, the team will again perform “Parallel Lives”, which has a cast of girls. At the state competition, judges lauded all of the Rock Hill High girls who were in the show, which is rare, Daniels said.

Daniels said the actors have 45 minutes to perform. They are judged on characterization, the story line, the plot, ensemble work and others categories.

“Really they are looking for the acting skills of the students and the directing,” she said.

Daniels likes to brag on her young stars.

She said two Rock Hill High graduates are involved in the University of South Carolina theater program.

“A lot of kids do this for fun and they might pick up a couple of college classes,” Daniels said. “I have had kids come back and say ‘I’m so far ahead of a lot of people in my theater class because of the stuff I’ve learned in your program.’ So it makes me feel good.”

Despite the price tag of $550 per student for this week’s competition, which the students raised themselves through fundraising, going to a competition is worth it, Daniels said.

“It’s an honor to represent your state,” she said.

This story was originally published March 1, 2023, 2:02 PM.