Isle Of Palms Magazine Summer/Fall 2018

10 www.IsleOfPalmsMagazine.com | www.ILoveIOP.com | www.IOPmag.com back from creating a seaside chateaux. For Smith, it was a welcome challenge. “I’ve been living on the Isle of Palms going on 30 years now,” he said. “I attend quite a few Council meetings, and I understood that they needed a contractor who could get the job done at the budget they were looking at. I decided that I would try to help them out.” Smith and his team of 10 subcontractors began work in mid- January and called the project a wrap a mere 12 weeks later. And he brought it all in, incredibly, under budget. The new boardwalk, all 150 feet of it, was moored with 52 pilings jetted 15 to 20 feet into the sand. “They’re not going anywhere,” he noted. Meanwhile, the pedestrian platform was widened from 6 feet 11. “At first, I questioned that width. Then I went out there and saw all the people using the boardwalk to bring lots of gear back and forth, and I immediately understood why. We also made sure that the new walk was ADA- compliant to help serve handicapped beach-goers,” he said. The boardwalk area was fitted with a new decking and an area with four stainless-steel multiheaded showers that can accommodate 16 salty, sandy swimmers. The restrooms themselves were built with open-gable ends, replacing the old stucco with louvered gables for improved ventilation. Smith removed the bathroom ceilings in favor of lattices for even better fresh-air flow. His crew also handled all the plumbing and electrical work for the five male and seven female stalls, replaced the old stall doors with new doors and durable wood frames and installed interior and exterior LED lighting for energy-efficiency and to shield turtles from intense light during the mating season. “At first I was a little skeptical about working for a municipality,” Smith said. “But the Isle of Palms made this one of the most enjoyable projects we’ve worked on in a long while. Douglas Kerr and (former City Administrator) Linda Tucker made this a fun, easy project that we can look back on over time and be glad that we did it.” Beach volleyball, anyone? [ Feature ] Luxury Isle of Palms Vacation Rentals The Best Selection of Oceanfront Homes on Isle of Palms. EastIslandsRentals.com 843.886.0760 29 JC Long Blvd | Isle of Palms, SC Enjoy your vacation; let us take care of the details.