Angel Oak park may get bigger

Deal to preserve 16 acres, save rural health care services
 

A development deal on Johns Island could result in not only more houses and stores, but continued health-care services for the rural poor and more breathing room for the Angel Oak, the island's sprawling, landmark tree. In a multiparty deal sealed Tuesday night by Charleston City Council, Sea Island Comprehensive Health Care Corp. plans to save itself from possible liquidation in U.S. Bankruptcy Court by selling nearly 40 acres to developer Robert S. Small Jr. for about $3.5 million. Small, of Greenville, also is chairman of the board of the College of Charleston. The nonprofit Sea Island Comprehensive Health Care Corp. was formed three decades ago to provide health services to low-income sea island residents. Sea Island offers programs and services on Edisto, James, Johns and Wadmalaw islands and Hollywood, including home health care, child care and programs for the elderly. It ran into financial trouble several years ago when the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control shut down the group's nursing home, and it ran up a large debt to the Internal Revenue Service involving employee Social Security and Medicare taxes. The group has continued to operate a health clinic and other services, and has been doing so under bankruptcy protection since January. The land-rich, cash-poor institution now appears to have found a way out. To make the land deal work financially for the developer and to protect Angel Oak, Charleston has agreed to spend $1 million to buy 16 of the nearly 40 acres of the land Sea Island is selling, with plans to use the land to expand its Angel Oak Park. The city expects, however, that the Charleston County Park and Recreation Commission will become the purchaser, putting up the $1 million and eventually operating the park. The city would turn over the existing two-acre Angel Oak Park to the county, creating an 18-acre park, Mayor Joe Riley said. "If the PRC were to decide they don't want to buy this, we would have three years to do it, with no interest," he said. Riley said the city needed to commit to buying the land Tuesday, in case the county doesn't, so that Sea Island would have the deal in place before a bankruptcy hearing Sept. 22. Keith Waring, a consultant for Sea Island, said it's crucial that the health care services continue, because the same sea islands that are home to wealthy beach resorts are home to communities with great poverty. The county commission is scheduled to vote on the land deal sometime after the bankruptcy hearing. "Everyone I have spoken to is very excited about the potential," said County PRC Commissioner Cheryll Woods-Flowers. "I certainly think we could find the money." If the commission votes as Woods-Flowers expects and decides to buy the 16 acres of land, the result would be a significant park with Angel Oak as its main attraction. Angel Oak was named South Carolina's Millennium Tree in 2001 by the America the Beautiful Fund. It's 65 feet high, 25-1/2 feet in circumference and shades a 17,000-square-foot area. Its largest limb is more than 11 feet around and 89 feet long. Angel Oak changed hands several times in the last century. At one point a private owner fenced it off and charged a fee for visitors to take a close look. The city bought the tree and two acres of land that comprise the current park in 1991.

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