Wheels on Rock Hill City Council’s bus go round and round redeveloped Hagins-Fewell area

Members of the Rock Hill City Council don’t normally take the bus to work, but Monday was the exception.

Prior to their regular meeting at City Hall, council members boarded a city bus to take a tour of the Hagins-Fewell neighborhood to view some recent improvements to the area.

The tour was held to highlight more than $1 million in infrastructure improvements spread across the residential area west of downtown.

Led by project manager Jennifer Wilford, the tour highlighted the recently completed work on Blackwell Street, running along the site of the former Arcade Mill that burned in 1997, and across Reynolds Street from the present-day Arcade Victoria Park.

“Six months ago, this area was not driveable,” Wilford said. “The asphalt on the road was non-existent.”

After the mill fire, clean-up efforts moved slowly, as inspectors discovered more than 380 storage tanks and barrels on the site, many contaminated with acids. The soil on the site also showed traces of contaminants.

“The environmental issues (there) were worse than at the Bleachery site,” Wilford said, comparing it to the old Rock Hill Printing & Finishing Co. site –another demolished industrial site that now serves as the heart of the Knowledge Park development. “We found drums that were not even labeled. For months, it was like an Easter egg hunt for drums.”

Today, the Arcade Meadow is cleaned up, with specially-selected plants offering phytoremediation – or removing contaminants from the soil by the root.

Blackwell Street and neighboring Wright Street have been fully reconstructed, with new water lines and stormwater basins installed, along with sidewalks and streetlights, paving the way for new homes to go up in the area. The improvements cost a combined $570,000.

Existing homes nearby also have had their housing needs addressed. So far this year, one has seen rehab work, four received fresh paint jobs from the Rolling in Rock Hill event, and another four dilapidated homes have been demolished.

But even as those changes come into effect, the city has taken steps to preserve the area’s history. Councilwoman Sandra Oborokumo, whose ward includes the Hagins-Fewell area, pointed out the historic marker commemorating the history of the former mill village, which marks the trail honoring former Councilman Winston Searles.

The trail runs along Hagins Street and Sunset Drive, an area that recently saw almost $560,500 worth of stormwater abatement work that decreased flooding behind seven homes on Friendship Drive. That work included a new concrete culvert running underneath Allen Street, something Wilford said basically split the road in two.

While Monday’s tour included mostly council members, Oborokumo hopes members of the neighborhood council will get a chance to take a similar tour in the future.

“The Council of Neighborhoods really put a lot into cleaning up the old mill site,” Oborokumo said. “They need to know as much as the council does ... and I want them to be able to see the neighborhood from that perspective, too.”

Before boarding the bus to head back to City Hall, Mayor Doug Echols lauded the hard work that went into improving the area from the burnt ashes of the Arcade Mill.

“If you look at what this area looked like in 1998, you can see what we can do with a little grant money here, a little there, some new streetscaping, some new sidewalks,” Echols said. “It’s a testament to vision and persistence.”

This story was originally published September 28, 2015 at 9:03 PM with the headline "Wheels on Rock Hill City Council’s bus go round and round redeveloped Hagins-Fewell area."