Rodney Ashcraft meetings

Rodney Ashcraft is an Edgefield County Council Member.  He is running for re-election this year.  The primary election is June 8.  The following meetings will be held at the Mount Vintage Town Center.

I have included a list of meetings that are being held regarding my campaign and would like to invite anyone who has not yet been contacted to attend any of these meetings.  I would also encourage anyone to contact those who do not have email accounts so that they will be able to attend.  We will be accepting questions and donations.

 

May 12    6:30pm    Town Center

May 16    4:00pm    Town Center

May 19    7:00pm    Town Center

May 24    6:30pm    Town Center

 

Thank you,

Rodney Ashcraft

Report on Homeowners Meeting

A meeting of Mount Vintage homeowners was held at the North Augusta Community Center last night. Talmadge Knight announced that he now personally owns all the unsold lots at Mount Vintage, and that he will be the sole developer going forward. He called it a "New Beginning for Mount Vintage". Charles Blackston will be the general manager at Mount Vintage and will be organizing a marketing plan for selling real estate in the next thirty days. The Shaw Estates and the equestrian center (including the riding trails) are for sale as a package. They hope that a buyer (who would cooperate with Mr. Knight) is almost ready to announce a deal. The golf course is in default and it is expected that the bank will take over shortly. A homeowners group is studying the feasibility of buying the golf course. It's unclear who else might be interested in acquiring the golf course. Mr. Knight explained that it was in his interest to maintain and improve the golf course in order to promote real estate sales, but he personally did not want to purchase it at this time. The Town Center is expected to be in default by the end of June. A buyer for the golf course could perhaps acquire that property as well. According to Mr. Knight, the Homeowners Association is financially sound. We can expect the directorship of the Homeowners Association to change sometime in the near future as the new management takes control, but there are various details to work out. My impression is that there are still financial and legal issues that need to be resolved among the former owners, but it's fairly certain that Mr. Knight will be firmly in charge when the dust settles. The audience seemed to be very supportive of Mr. Knight's efforts. I would say that the general atmosphere was positive, but there are serious questions about the future of the golf course, which is a major concern for property owners.

Steve Miner
webmaster@mountvintage.org

Mac Vintage on Wednesday

The "Mac Vintage" Macintosh users group will meet at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, May 5, in the Town Center. For more information, see our web page here:

http://www.mountvintage.org/activities/mac-vintage/

Updated: Homeowners Meeting for May 4

We don't have any more details or any explanation for why the meeting has moved, but we assume that something important will be announced. This is all we know:

A meeting for all concerned residents and property owners will be held on Tuesday, May 4th at 7:00 p.m. at the North Augusta Community Center.

Directions to North Augusta Community Center from Mount Vintage: Turn left onto Sweetwater Road, go 5 miles to Five Notch Road (at Sweetwater Baptist Church). Turn right, following Five Notch to the first stoplight. Turn right on Georgia Avenue and go to the 3rd stoplight which is Buena Vista Avenue. Turn left, go about 200 yards and the North Augusta Community Center will be on your left. It is across from the North Augusta Police Department.

Landscaping Ideas Gleaned from Nature

On Monday night (April 26) at 7:00 PM at the Athletic Club/Town Center, our featured speaker is MVP resident, Beth Smith, who will be presenting "Landscaping Ideas Gleaned from Nature".

Follow this link for the handouts:

http://mountvintage.org/activities/transplants/landscaping-ideas-gleaned.html

MV Homeowners meeting on May 4

There will be a special meeting of the Mount Vintage Plantation Homeowners' Association on Tuesday, May 4, at 7:00 p.m. at the Town Center.

EdgefieldDaily.com covers Sunday's tornado

http://edgefielddaily.com/merriwether033010.html

County Councilman Rodney Ashcraft drove through the district checking the damage and speaking with constituents. "The damage is extensive," Ashcraft said. "This is not something you are going to fix in a day or two." He said he offered to help house family pets while the displaced families affected by the tornado are staying in hotels. "I may not be able to do something on the county side, but I can do things personally to help out."

More here:

http://edgefielddaily.com/merriwether032910.html

Snakes and Spiders: Mar. 29

The Transplants Garden club invite you to attend the talk tonight at 7 P.M. in the Town Center.  For more information see:

http://www.mountvintage.org/activities/transplants/snakes.html

Edgefield County Budget Calendar

Edgefield County FY 2010-11 PROPOSED BUDGET CALENDAR

Advertise start of budget process 2-03-10
Advertise deadline for budget requests from non-governmental entities
2-03-10
All department heads and elected officials receive budget request
sheets 2-04-10
Budget request submittals to administrator due from department heads
2-18-10
and elected officials 2-19-10
Budget requests due from non-government entities 3-01-10
Administrator's recommendations for elected officials' budgets 3-10-10
forwarded to elected officials
Advertise First Reading of budget 3-17-10
Council Budget Work Session 3-25-10
Administrator's budget draft due, elected officials address council
First Reading of budget 4-06-10
Advertise Second Reading of budget & Public Hearing 4-14-10
Council budget work session 4-20-10
Second Reading of budget & Public Hearing 5-04-10
Advertise Third Budget Reading 5-12-10
Council budget work session 5-18-10
Third and Final Budget Reading 6-01-10
Proof Budget 6-08-1 0
Submit budget to printers 6-11-10
Advertise adopted budget in newspaper 6-16-10
Printed copies of budget received 6-22-10
Proof completed budgets 6-23-10
Distribute copies of budget received 6-30-10
Operate in new budget 7-01-10

Angela Pride

The Star recently published a profile of Mount Vintage resident Angela Pride, who's working on the census:

http://www.aikenstandard.com/star/News-0225-Angela-Pride-PROFILE

March Gardening Events

An announcement from the Transplants Garden Club:

Nurseries Caroliniana is offering a seminar every Saturday starting in March.

Spring is right around the corner! 

At least we hope it is. This has certainly been a memorable winter. To kick off the spring gardening season, we will be having seminars every Saturday at 10:30AM here at the retail store. We have lots of ideas for seminar subjects, but we would also love to hear suggestions from you. The object of seminars is to help you, so we want to address topics that our customers feel are important. Bring a paper and pen when you come and bring your questions too. Here is the schedule for March.

March 6 - Pruning - knowing when or if to prune and proper pruning techniques and tools

March 13 - Weeds - Bring your weeds with you, and if you don't know what type of grass you have, bring a sample of that too. 

March 20 - Liming and Fertilizing - why and when to lime, how the right fertilizer can make your plants perform their best.

March 27 - Vegetable Gardening - Homegrown vegetables always taste the best. We will cover the basics of soil preparation, pest and disease control, and varieties that are good for our area. 

We look forward to seeing you. If you have questions, please call us at the number below.

Nurseries Caroliniana
143 Mims Grove Church Rd.
North Augusta, SC 29860
803-279-2707

Snow in Mount Vintage

The Miners enjoyed a rare snow day at Mount Vintage.

http://lisaminer.com/miner/photo-albums/recent-albums/snow-february-13-2010/

HOA Annual Meeting, January 25

The Annual Meeting of the Mount Vintage Plantation Homeowners'
Association will be held on Monday, January 25, 2010, at 6:00 p.m. at
the Mount Vintage Plantation Athletic Club and Town Center. All
Property Owners are urged to attend.

Carolinas-Georgia Junior Championship

The field is set for the 2nd annual Carolinas-Georgia Junior Championship
to be held January 17 – 18, 2010, at Mount Vintage Plantation:

http://carolinasgajunior.com/Home.php

SRS offering tours in 2010

The Savannah River Site is accepting reservations for free tours.  You must register soon as the available spots fill up quickly. See the story in the Aiken Standard:

http://www.aikenstandard.com/Local/0105SRSTours

For reservations, visit:

http://www5.hanford.gov/SRSTours/

Book Club Christmas Tea pictures

You can see the pictures on the MountVintage.org web site.

Palmetto Parkway will open to traffic Thursday

http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2009/12/16/met_559733.shtml

The parkway will open up traffic beginning at U.S. Highway 1, tying into Interstate 20 and extending to the Edgefield and North Augusta exit on I-20, Mr. Ipock said.

Highway 25 crosses I-20 at Exit 5. The new Exit 6 goes to the Palmetto Parkway (I-520), which will continue south to the Georgia border where it becomes the Bobby Jones Expressway (I-520). For more information see http://www.palmettoparkway.org/maps.shtml.

[Corrected: I-20 Exit 6 is the Palmetto Parkway.]

AT&T offers DSL in Mount Vintage

I'm not sure if it applies to all of Mount Vintage, but AT&T offered me DSL at my house in the "new nine" section. Previously, they told me that they did not have DSL service in the area. They're having a promotion if you order online. (You can find a link from att.com.)

I got an introductory deal from Comcast for internet service so I'm staying with them for now, but I like the idea that there's some competition. It might keep prices down in the future.

83 Beaver Pond Court

Beaver Pond Court is a street in the new section of Mount Vintage. It doesn't appear on the online map services yet. I've made a custom map at Google to help people find us. Starting from the main entrance to Mount Vintage, follow Mount Vintage Plantation Drive to the first roundabout (near the Town Center) and make a logical left onto Revolutionary Way. That will take you down the hill, past "The Village" to the new roundabout. Make another logical left onto Captain Johnson's Drive, then a quick left onto Militia Loop and finally one more left onto Beaver Pond Court.


View 83 Beaver Pond Court, North Augusta, SC in a larger map

Best spots for spectators at the Masters

http://www.augusta.com/masters/masters/dos_donts.shtml

Best Spots 

Hole 4: Spectators can view action on two holes while behind the No. 4 tee. There are views of the approach to the No. 3 green and the tee shot on the par-3 No. 4.

Hole 7: Behind the green, spectators can see down the No. 2 and No. 3 fairways, the No. 7 green, the No. 8 tee and the No. 17 fairway. Hole 12: In the heart of Amen Corner, spectators behind the tee can see the approach shots to No. 11, the entire 12th hole, and tee shots and second shots on the par-5 No. 13.

Hole 16: A new viewing area (above) was created here thanks to a storm in July 2006 that took down several trees. The natural seating area allows patrons to see the green at Nos. 6, 15 and 16 and the tee shot at No. 17.

Hole 18: If you get a spot early behind the No. 18 green, you can see approach shots to the final green and have a view of several other holes.

Putting green: You can watch as golfers prepare for their round.

Practice tee: Seating is available in the bleachers behind the tee. It is standing room only to the right of the tee. A chipping area, on the other side of Magnolia Lane, is also open to spectators.