Pushing forward

Over the last two years, Marlboro County has experienced big losses.

One of the county’s largest employers, Mohawk Industries, closed nearly two years ago and rather unexpectedly. The company had operated in Marlboro County for over 60 years. At the time, former county administrator Ron Munnerlyn said the closing was unexpected because the county had “a long-standing record of assisting Mohawk and even developed a free bus route in 2017 to transport employees to and from the site,” according to WPDE News. More than 600 people lost jobs when the plant closed in September 2022, a month earlier than the company had announced.

But things in Marlboro County began changing in July 2023 when Wilson “Tony” Clyburn was named Marlboro County Administrator.

“One of the things we faced in Marlboro County upon my arrival, from a numbers standpoint was unemployment. It’s still the main issue in Marlboro County and it’s an issue that doesn’t go away quietly. It’s something we have to push away, something we have to work on constantly,” Clyburn said. “And we have done that.”

In 2023, Marlboro County led the state in unemployment with rates as high as 8.5 %. In March, Allendale County surpassed Marlboro County as the county with the highest rate of unemployment.

“Another issue with Marlboro County is just pride in our county as far as our facilities as far as the roads as far as the overall pride of how the place feels and how it looks. That’s something that has been a major focus. We’re making serious upgrades in the way that Marlboro County looks and feels to its citizens. And part of that is economic development.”

Enter Tonny McNeil, Marlboro County’s executive director of economic development. In March, McNeil announced several investments in the county, starting with Ferroglobe, a global producer of silicon metal, that is establishing operations in Marlboro County. The company’s $20 million investment will create 20 new jobs.

McNeil also announced a $265 million investment in the county from Birdseye Renewable Energy, a solar developer owned by Dominion Energy.

“This is going to spur growth in terms of workforce housing,” McNeil said in March. “It’s definitely going to attract more restaurants as well as commercial and retail development. Believe it or not, those types of development pay attention to industrial development.”

When more people are working in an area making money, there are more opportunities for new ventures to come into the county, McNeil said.

The first investment announcements came after McNeil had been on the job for three months. McNeil has worked in economic development for 14 years and was trained by the South Carolina Department of Commerce.

“I’m used to coming into kind of tough situations. I’m an engineer by both education and training. So, I’m used to creating something from nothing,” McNeil said.

Clyburn praised McNeil for letting industries know that “Marlboro County is open for business.”

Clyburn said another way the county is making progress is through adding recreation to the area. One of the recreational areas the county is creating is the Marlboro County Aquatic Center, which is set to open in the summer of 2025.

The Marlboro Aquatic Center is poised to be the start of making the county a go-to spot for recreation.

“We’re going to have a real facility, it’s going to have a good size patio, parking and all of that,” he said.

The center will have a junior Olympic-sized pool that will enable Marlboro County High School to host swim meets, a zero-entry pool, which is like walking on the beach, a water slide, and a splash pad. There will be showers, locker rooms, and office space.

“We’re going to do a groundbreaking really soon with that,” Clyburn said. “It will be a really nice atmosphere. Because it will be the first time in the history of Marlboro County that there is truly a public pool for 100% of the population. And that’s important, that’s a milestone. It’s important that the whole community is involved in everything we do. We want the whole community involved with our golf course, we want the whole community involved with our swimming pool. We want the entire community involved once we work with the city to do some things on the lake. We want the whole community involved when we have our county events. Our events aren’t for a certain segment of the population and neither should our facilities be.”

Clyburn said everyone knows Marlboro County had a segregated pool at one time. “That’s just part of our history, it happened. But this is a new day and age where we’re going to have things in this county that everyone can be proud of and everyone can feel comfortable attending and making use of.”

Clyburn said one of the first things people will notice about the aquatic center is that it’s first-class and has activities for children and adults.

“We want to make Marlboro County a place that is appealing for people to live,” he said. “That’s not something that’s done overnight. Marlboro County has had a stagnancy in growth for some years. There’s a reason why Marlboro County hasn’t grown and other places have grown tremendously. It’s a quality of life issues and that’s something we need to tackle in Marlboro County.”

Clyburn said the vision he has for the county wouldn’t be able to be executed without the support of the county’s staff and the county council. He said one of his first hires was Jamal Campbell, the county’s director of operations.

“He’s been outstanding as the way he’s managed county operations. The way that he has stepped in and taken over the role of managing public works, code enforcement and maintenance, and all the different things that have to do with our day-to-day operations,” Clyburn said.

Clyburn said the strides that have been made recently would not be possible without the right team in place. “That’s the cause of those achievements. It’s been a real team effort.”

And Clyburn has done something that he was surprised previous administrators hadn’t done— partnership with all of the towns in Marlboro County.

“It’s no secret that the county has had some strained relationships. But our county government, county council included, we are making an effort to work with the city of Bennettsville on a lot of things. We’re working with the school district, we’re working with the town of Clio, the town of McColl, the town of Blenheim, the town of Tatum. We’re trying to work with everyone in the county so that we can make life better for all of our citizens,” he said.

In a first-of-its-kind meeting in February, county leaders came together to discuss the current state of affairs in Marlboro County and solicit ideas.

Read the full story in the forthcoming issue of Progress Magazine coming next month.