Lexington County looks at selling airstrip, industrial area

The Pelion airstrip and the Batesburg-Leesville industrial area might be on the chopping block as Lexington County leaders prepare a new spending plan.

Neither has been the job magnet envisioned since the county acquired them in the past 16 years, partly because both are remote.

“Background chatter” is bubbling among some County Council members about exploring a sale of both, Council chairman Todd Cullum of Cayce said.

The idea comes as county leaders struggle to reduce road congestion, improve stormwater drainage and add deputies, firefighters, ambulance crews and 911 dispatchers as more homes and businesses sprout in the 758-square-mile county.

“We need to put our money where it’s more productive,” Councilman Phil Yarborough of Irmo said. “We can stimulate growth other ways.”

Getting rid of the sites could be difficult, Cullum said.

Interest in either likely will be limited because of their rural settings, he said.

“When you put something on the market, there’s got to be a market for it,” Cullum said. “It’s kind of like offering a bunch of VHS tapes today.”

Talk of selling the sites is a bombshell for both small towns.

“If they want to go down that road, a lot of people are going to be ticked off,” Batesburg-Leesville Mayor Rita Crapps said.

Pelion Mayor Barbara Smith declined comment.

Both sites have been called white elephants since the county took them over as a favor for communities that struggled to make each a success. But there’s been no interest among county leaders in giving up on them until now.

The 190-acre airstrip, acquired by the county in 2004, has been slow to take off in attracting business travelers as well as those who fly for fun.

Flights in recent years have averaged as many as 6,800 annually, an increase of 500 since 2012, officials say.

Despite sporadic renovations, the airstrip in the southwest corner of the county is too small and too isolated to attract much commercial travel, aviation advisers have told county officials.

Making the airstrip more appealing for commercial fliers came after efforts to attract industry there went nowhere. County officials chip in $60,000 yearly – enough to pay a firefighter – to help run it.

The 176-acre industrial area in Batesburg-Leesville is off the beaten path for commercial development, located 10 miles north of I-20 in the west edge of the county, some analysts say.

Opened 18 years ago, it is home to one small industrial manufacturer. Recent improvements in utility service so sites are ready to build on still hasn’t attracted newcomers.

The industrial area is a town-county partnership in which each have installed roads, water and sewer.

Batesburg-Leesville will “look for re-imbursement of what we put in” if the site is sold, Crapps said.

This story was originally published April 21, 2017 at 6:41 PM with the headline "Lexington County looks at selling airstrip, industrial area."