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My Letter

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I’ve been asked for my letter to DNR and the POA Board.  

I am writing as a passionate and committed volunteer for DNR of 16 years; I am permitted by DNR to lead Dewees Island’s turtle team, I was instrumental in applying for Dewees Island’s  WHSRN designation, I drafted the first pass at what became the Lake Timicau Restoration Project, and I have worked for conservation on Dewees since I got here in 2003.  I have been an owner on Dewees Island since then, and a full time resident of that island for the last 8 years. I am also an active advisory board member of SC Audubon and have served on the board of the Lowcountry Biodiversity Institute.

Recently, a small group of Dewees owners met with you to air their concerns about “commercial activity” on the island, and I am concerned that they are focused on their own interests instead of the community at large.  Perhaps they are not aware of all the facts and the history of our Environmental Programs, as well as the economic realities of running our island, and you weren’t presented with a balanced picture of this complex issue.

Real Estate sales support the environmental programs that support our conservation easement.  In 2004, I joined the Dewees Island Environmental Committee.  A former educator, I am passionate about the mission of conservation, and I volunteered to lead summer environmental camps for three years. Our environmental  budget was based on income from a percentage of lot sales. For several years after the departure of the developer, we were selling a few lots a year valued between $300,000 and $1,000,000.  By 2007, some of those lot owners allowed banks to foreclose on them, pushing values down. As the Chair of the Environmental Program board, I became concerned about the lack of sales and began to look at what budget cuts would mean to our valuable staff, who help us keep our commitments to the easement and land plan.  So I rolled up my sleeves, got a real estate license, and worked on marketing the island.

Dewees is a niche market and not easy to sell.  Realtors who work off the island are reluctant to bring clients here: the details of the ferry, getting golf carts and other island logistics are huge disincentives for them to show property.  In addition, only a small percentage of buyers are interested in living this intimately with nature. From 2007 to 2016 we watched undeveloped property values decline by 90%. As people walked away from lots, I saw the values for a marshfront lot go from well over $300,000 to a sale at $8,000.  In addition, the buyer who bought for that low price was unable to pay the carrying costs, which means that the overall budget of the island gets a shortfall for that lot. Foreclosure can take years. The environmental program budget, which would have received a fee of $3750 at a value of $300,000 now receives a fee of $10, and zero in the event of a foreclosure.  We need those fees to maintain our environmental programs. More lots were abandoned in the great recession, and the economic realities of running the island raised costs to owners significantly over the last decade. We have not seen an improvement in those prices until a slight rise recently.

Short term rentals have been part of this community since the first homes were built here.  I have chronicled the history of those policies and communications in this blog post. Owners bought with the specific expectation that they would be able to rent their homes, even though most of them would prefer not to.  In the last few weeks, I have seen six buyers either change their minds completely or put their plans on hold until this is worked out. Other recent owners of homes and lots have asked me to “dump” them on the market. This will further affect prices.

I am certain that cessation of short term rentals will have a catastrophic effect on sales, because most people can’t commit to the level of costs we have on the island without some sort of safety net if their personal situations change.  63% of my buyers over the last five years rented before buying. ALL of my buyers over the last month have walked away or put their plans on hold until this issue is straightened out. This island is my passion, and real estate sales fund our environmental programs so that we can have environmentally sustainable drinking and wastewater treatment, shorebird restoration projects, coyote research projects, motus bird-tracking tower participation, impoundment management, endangered species management, poison free pest control, road management, invasive species management, etc.  

We have systems in place to educate renters and guests. It is also my passion to educate renters (and all visitors, because I believe some owners guests are much harder on the island than renters because they don’t get educational material). Here is a blog post about educational maps that we have paid for so ALL visitors to the island get the top facts.  Here are some educational videos I made for the environmental program:

How to Get to Dewees Island 2008

How to protect our Beach 2008

How to Crab Sustainably 2008

Fishing on Dewees Island

Managing Garbage and Recycling

Living Gently with Alligators 2008

Shorebirds

Chinese Tallow Invasive Species Eradication.2009

Our Residential Use Study group has made additional suggestions and provided materials in advance of this summer season to address gaps discovered last year.

Rental Management companies provide visitor oversight.  They require guests to read and agree to our guidelines before ever arriving on the island.  I provide support for this, putting this book in each rental home so guests understand how to interact with the island.  I developed more videos about packing and transportation. I have helped supervise the intern program that educates guests and visitors, as well as the turtle intern program that provides DNR coverage to Capers Island, Cape Romain, and Dewees.

Transportation 2014

Packing for Dewees Island

Transportation 2019

Alligator Safety and Crabbing 2016

In addition, I have paid for and provided an app to the POA and the rental companies that educates renters long before ever getting to the island.

Predictable Challenges come with Growth.  We have more people on the island than we did in 1998, for sure.  We have sixty-five homes instead of 10. Interestingly, a smaller percentage of them are rentals than in the 1990’s.  My suspicion is that renters get a bad rap: they are an easy, safe target for everyone to blame things on rather than owners or guests~ they become the perfect scapegoat;once they are gone, they can’t defend their position or set the record straight.   We do have challenges associated with our allowed growth.  Our conservation easement provides for 150 homes. Dedicated community members have met to address these issues and are working on future infrastructure needs and what our optimal development model looks like. We need to improve some of our logistics:  Transportation and parking (neither of which is spelled out in our conservation easement) need some immediate attention, and we have committees looking at them.  But none of that is possible without a healthy sales program.

Even a “crowded” day isn’t that crowded. The busiest day ever on Dewees was the day of the total solar eclipse in 2017.  We took some drone photos of the most crowded beach any of us had ever seen. As you can see, the crowds are not overwhelming the ecosystem in any way. Almost all of the homes were full, some with renters and some with owners and their guests.  And yet the crowd looks almost nonexistent compared to other places. This is a manageable group.

It is unfortunate that a vocal minority took their concerns and personal perspectives to you instead of addressing them through our existing channels. Our community and governing body are aware of several issues from last summer and have been taking steps to correct them.  Several of those owners were part of a Residential Use Study Group designed to address concerns from last summer. That group implemented a number of new procedures and recommendations: but it is still too soon to evaluate their efficacy. My suspicion is that these owners are against all people on the island except themselves.  That’s a short-sighted viewpoint that does not take into account all the processes already in place and economic factors affecting our environmental health.

Our Land Plan and Conservation Easements provide for commercial service and support..  “No commercial activity of any nature shall be allowed on Dewees Island; however, minimum service and support activities and related facilities shall be allowed for the common use and enjoyment of those persons residing and/ or staying as guests on the Island such as those for recreation, eating, lodging, storage, maintenance, docking. and supply.”  Management of our own homes and facilities outsourced to a local company as a means of defraying costs would constitute a service and support activity.

Our community has been actively working to address the issue of visitor impacts.  All visitors to the island, paying and non-paying, need education and accountability to our covenants.  But these are all things we can solve in-house, and we have volunteer committees, elected directors, and dedicated staff to put them in place.

 

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What’s up with the Rental Kerfuffle?

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I’m getting a lot of calls about this current short term rental discussion, so I thought I’d share as much as I could to give some context and history. This is my personal and professional opinion, and it doesn’t reflect any position of the POA or anyone else, although I have tried to be as accurate as possible.

What is the history of rentals on Dewees Island? How are they managed? How do they work within the context of our conservation easements and guidelines? I am writing in my capacity as your neighbor, and in terms of what I have learned in the real estate and hospitality industries.  

Two Issues

We are at a current crossroads because of two converging issues: Charleston County’s new ordinance about short term rentals in unincorporated Charleston County and resident concerns about the impact of visitors (both invited and paying) on the ecosystems (human and natural) of the island. As you’ll see from this history, this last one is an ongoing concern, which has been addressed in various ways since 1999.

Quick History

There have been rentals and guest homes on the island since our current governmental system, the Property Owners Association (POA) was put in place in 1992. I went and looked through the developer’s monthly newsletters.

Visitor/renter housing begins in April 1992. The developer describes the Royal House and the island’s “guest house” to be used for marketing. It also describes a rather opulent crab feast for realtors to visit the island.

By July 1995, The developer is making connections with Area Tourism outfitters to show them the island. This encourages those tourism operators to send their clients to the island for a great vacation.

By November 1996, the newsletter advertises last minute vacancies at the “Guest House” to give people a “test drive” on the island.

In June 1997, Dewees Island Rentals is formed by the developer, and they put the first house into an island based rental program.

In April of 1998, Huyler House is completed, and the four guest suites are added to the 5 rental homes the developer advertises under the column written by island manager Jim Haley. Jim’s wife Jamie, who now runs Lowcountry Local First, was the hospitality coordinator. Of the 19 finished homes on the island, 5 are available for short term rentals, representing a far higher percentage than today.

By August of 1998, Huyler House has opened as an Inn, with sustainability as a buzzword, in a grand opening ceremony with 300 guests. Jack Huyler regaled the group with his tales of growing up on the island.

By summer of 1999, the island manager’s report boasts 8 rental homes in addition to Huyler House, and Jim Haley describes the education and contract that rental guests need to follow.  This means that thinking of the ways renters impact the island and how we educate them has been part of our culture for 20 years.

 This marketing brochure was designed to attract renters and visitors to the island in 1998.

By the year 2000, the island has begun to prepare for transfer from the developer and there is a new employee in charge of rentals. This brochure was printed in 2003, when the new property owners association realized what costs were included in managing a successful rental program, and began using Island Realty as the official sales and rental office.

 

I joined what was then called the Environmental Committee in 2004, and education of renters was a big topic of conversation even then. We published a book, The Visitor’s Guide to Dewees Island, and offered it to people who rent their homes, and several videos about being good stewards.

Eventually, Reggie and I merged his enthusiasm for real estate technology with my interest in education and formed our own Dewees Rentals, focusing exclusively on Dewees, and developing materials for people to learn about the island.  We have more books and an app, and Emily Watson worked with us for the entire 5 years while we built the company.  When we realized the company could economically sustain one family but not two, and and we wanted to focus on Real Estate Sales, Watson Property Management eventually bought our rental company, Dewees Rentals. In Fall of 2017, Dunes Properties acquired Watson Property Management.  

So this historical record demonstrates a twenty-five year old culture supportive of rentals since the inception of the community. In addition, there has been a consistent emphasis on education of paying guests so that they understand our culture before we arrive.

Charleston County

This summer, on July 24, 2018, Charleston County implemented a new short term rental ordinance, which is a response to consumer driven portals for short term rentals. This has caused some confusion around the issue of Dewees.  I have some questions about this:  Are we in fact Unincorporated Charleston County?  We are also officially a PUD, or planned unit development; are Charleston County rules superseded by the master plan of our PUD? Does this limit an individual’s property ownership rights?  Legal discussions are ongoing.

 

Effects of Eliminating Rentals

I have spent a LOT of time on the issues surrounding rentals over the last decade.  My first complete summer on the island was 2008, five years after the POA took over. One of the most frustrating pieces for me was that there were a lot of challenges blamed on renters that really had to do with guests and unaccompanied visitors.  So we built a rental company based on education and love for our island environment.  We greeted folks and pointed them in the right direction and we helped create an intern program so visitors and guests alike would have easy access to information about renting.  We made educational videos and we created an app.

90% of the renters that come to the island are amazing additions to the community: for a week or a weekend, every so often or every year.  They send us holiday cards, follow us on social media, and become our friends.  They are careful with packing and garbage, they clean trash off the beach and volunteer for turtle team opportunities.  And eventually, they become our neighbors by buying on the island.  Depending on how you count a new owner, between 45 and 65 percent were renters first.

If we remove 65% of buyers from the pool, our niche market takes a pretty big hit.  Even as we’ve contemplated this issue in the last couple of weeks, I have seen five buyers either ice their plans or walk away completely.  Given that we see five or six sales a year, and it might take me 100 inquiries and sixty tours to get those buyers to commit to our niche market, that’s almost a years worth of sales on ice.  In addition, more inventory leads to lower prices, and I have been contacted by several owners to put their homes on the market.  We are not known for our liquid market, and my broker Randy Walker cautions people to be prepared for any of the big D’s that can change circumstances and require someone to need to sell their home quickly: Disease, Divorce, Disability, Death, Disaster, and Depreciation.  He follows up with:

 

A property is an asset whose value is determined by the lessons we learned in Econ. 101: Supply and Demand. 

 
Visitors to the island generate interest which in turn creates demand. As we all understand, Dewees is an island with limited access due to the location. It’s hard enough now to attract buying prospects to a location by boat. With the elimination of the rental income for second homes, and fewer visitors to experience the island, demand for property will absolutely decrease. And how many home owners and vacant lot owners will choose to sell asap, when their income option disappears? Too many, too quickly. 
 
Vacation guests have always been the lifeblood of demand for second homes on all south Atlantic islands. Visitors keep the island economically vibrant and desirable. They allow second homeowners to maintain their properties.  Eliminate short term rentals and the supply of homes and vacant lots for sale will skyrocket, with even fewer visitors to provide the demand needed to shore up values. Picture an overabundant supply and even more limited demand.  Do the math and everyone loses.

So it seems that we all should be on the same page, allowing residents the right to use their property as economic circumstances dictate and within the paradigms that have been in place for the last 25 years. We certainly should be able to present that perspective to Charleston County. And there are surely ways to manage the system so it provides a quality experience for the guests and a comfortable way of life for full and part-time residents.

How do we Mitigate the Impact of Increased Use?

This is the second, perhaps even more essential question. And it’s one the community is grappling with in many ways: the Residential Use Study Group met for a few months this winter and made a bunch of recommendations. If you are an owner, these were sent to you. Dewees does not have an unlimited capacity for rentals. We are not a resort. If we have four or five large rental homes that switch on weekends, the ferry would be hard pressed to accommodate more on those days. If renters begin to have significantly negative experiences, and supply exceeds demand, the price will drop, making values lower.

What about visitors that don’t respect the island? Sadly, a small number of our guests do not respect the island rules and ethos. Dunes Properties provides extensive education for paying guests, and our app has a lot of information. The RUSG and the recent new guidelines for the ARB mandate extra education efforts.

There are a LOT of other suggestions on the list from the RUSG, and there are a lot of people working on their pieces of the puzzle: I published the new transportation video on the last post here, and Reggie and I developed maps for visitors with all the rules, paid for by dunes properties. The app is getting an update.

The POA has taken a more proactive role in hiring and training our summer hospitality interns this year, and they are excited to start working with guests and visitors. Casey Jenkins has been on the island in advance of her summer term, assisting with spring break traffic, and she says this on her social media:

On this #earthday, I am celebrating the beautiful island I get to call home in a few weeks, Dewees Island. Everyone here is dedicated to sustainability and keeping every inch pristine. You can walk the entire beach and see only footprints in the sand. South Carolina’s nature here is at its wildest and most authentic, as it should be.

Won’t that be a great perspective to share with new visitors to the island!

photo by Casey Jenkins

In addition, we have other groups looking at long range planning and what we are going to be when we grow up. How many lots? Parking? Water and wastewater? Utilities? Ferry? Emergency Services?

You’ll have a chance to weigh in on some of these issues: I believe the POA is sending out a survey to members soon.

One of my favorite parts of this community is the way we come together to find creative solutions to problems and listen to each other. In advance of the 2017 Eclipse, when we planned to have more humans on the island than at any previous point in history, we were able to create an experience that was joyful, seamless and cooperative. Skeptics who were worried about the parking were astounded when community members voluntarily moved their cars.

We volunteer to clean the pool and the roadways after hurricanes, we help our neighbors pack up, we assist when someone is sick, and we lend a hand with the myriad crises that affect our neighbors. We are a community built on respect for the land and each other. We can handle this. We can solve it. We’ve got this.

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New Dewees Island Ferry Video Now Available to Share with Guests

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As part of the Residential Use group, we looked at revising the map (which we talked about here), and providing guests with videos that prepare them for a visit on Dewees.  One video that needed updating was the 2014 Dewees Island ferry transportation video, which did not have the new schedule.  

We are pleased to announce that here is the new video: Catching the Dewees Island Ferry   We are pretty excited about the addition of drone footage from Reggie’s aerial perspective.

It addresses how to find the marina, luggage carts, ferry etiquette, calling for a return ferry, and golf carts. You can share this with your visitors and family by sending this link to them: https://youtu.be/SBx5A-lC5Bs

If you put that link in a gmail, it will automatically attach the video.  We are updating the app, and as soon as the new interface rolls out, we’ll put it in there too!

This one is also old, but still relevant:  How to Pack for Dewees island. It addresses the fact that we have limited garbage and recycling capacity, and why not to bring individual bottles of water.

You can also share that link by copying and pasting this: https://youtu.be/nO3aQb1kSQA

If you’re a homeowner, please consider sharing with your guests. If you are planning to visit this summer, please share with all members of your party. And stay tuned: we’ve got more videos to come.

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Dr. Leslie Sautter’s presentation on our Changing Beach

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Last week at POA weekend, Dr. Leslie Sautter came to Dewees and gave a great presentation on the history of our shoreline, changes to the front beach, and suggestions for ways to address the new inlet into Lake Timicau.  As usual, she was both informative and entertaining.  I tried to add her slides and illustrations into the videos: I recommend starting at the beginning and watching them in order. She comes to us not as a consultant but as an educator providing some framework for us to address with consultants.

She started with some historical data that she gathered using Google Earth. Since 2006, her students have done surveys, but the Google Earth tools allow some different perspectives on the shoreline.  Overflights and drone photography have made even more research possible. This first video begins with a general discussion of shoreline change and coastal processes.

The second video discusses geomorphology, or how the beach changes.  From ebb tidal deltas, to swash bars, to updrift and downdrift, she gives us some geological terms and illustrations of what is happening in Capers Inlet, and how that affects how much sand we have on the beach.

The third video discusses how shoals form, and how that changes the directions that the sand moves on the beach. Sand can build, creating a tombolo effect, which is what happened on Dewees in the 2000’s.

The fourth video looks at the specific changes on Dewees in terms of shoreline and the main channel, including previous breaches from Hurricanes David and Hugo.

In this fifth video, Dr. Sautter looks at the historical changes in Lake Timicau and the ocean shoreline, looking at the natural flow of water in that area.

Here, she looks at the current breach situation, the way it is changing every day, and some possible solutions we might explore going forward.

In the 7th video, Dr. Sautter looks at the current patterns of water in Lake Timicau. She shows us several possibilities for encouraging the water to go further north than the channel currently goes. Kiawah uses a similar “soft solution” for managing their shoreline.

This video concludes Dr. Sautter’s lecture to the Dewees community on March 24, 2019. She continues looking for alternate water areas. Some questions and answers are included. How will ecology change? Can we keep the area impounded? Will sand fences make a difference?





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Dewees Island on the Map

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We’ve been focusing on maps a lot lately. Way back in about 2004, we worked with the Environmental committee and some realtors to create a large, foldable map with street addresses, lots, and information about how to live gently on the island.  These, it turns out, are pretty expensive to reproduce.  In addition, some of the information was out of date, and some of it was hard to read if you were actually looking at the map: the most important information about our conservation culture was hidden on the back.

New Island Map

For a few years, Dewees Real Estate has produced this map:

With the rules on the back of the map.

But it was time for a bit of an overhaul, and we wanted a place where first time visitors could absorb some of our most important cultural guidelines while looking at the map.  So HERE is a quick snapshot of the new map: you can get yours on the ferry or there will be multiples around for you to pick up at POA weekend.  It’s a great way to give your guests a quick overview of the rules.

In addition, this new map has all the street addresses on the back, as well as information about ferry priorities, calling for a return ride, and trash and recycling. It’s a collaborative effort between me and Reggie, the POA, and dunes properties/Charleston Coast Vacations. We’ll have it for you at POA weekend. (And that photo is of a DRAFT… if you’re quick you can spot a few errors.  We’ll have the updated ones available for you this weekend.

New Tourist Map

One of the things I started working on when I began marketing was the fact that Dewees didn’t seem to be featured on local maps.  Over the last few years, we’ve been working hard to change that.  With the help of dunes properties, what used to be an ad on the previous map is now a map of Dewees.  It has a tiny nature center, the Huyler House, The sub tower, the ferry and the streets.  You’ll notice that it also says “private” so that people aren’t tempted to just hop on the ferry.  And there’s a tiny realtor, which makes us laugh but could come in handy.  We’ll have some of these around for pickup on POA weekend, or you can stop in at some local businesses to get a copy.  Dunes has some at the office, and we grabbed these at the Refuge near the Harris Teeter.

Real Estate Map

Dunes properties has a Mount Pleasant/Sullivans/IOP map in their offices which does show Dewees, so anyone looking at property from those offices is exposed to the awesomeness that is Dewees.





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Some new Dewees publications: preorder before POA Meeting

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We have two new books available: we’re really excited about them.  They are being printed at Blurb, which is an on-demand printer, so if you want to preorder some to pick up at the POA meeting and save yourself the shipping, shoot us an email with the number of copies you need.

 

The first one is by Carroll and Jane Savage, with their incredible poem and the history of Dewees Island.  Read at the 25th anniversary celebration, this epic poem chronicles the last 300 years on the island, using anecdotes and historical research from Jim Cochrane’s history book.  They got together with Esther Doyle to set it to current artwork, and this lovely book is the result.

You can order online with the link below, if you aren’t headed to POA weekend.  It’s $15 before shipping.

 

To preview and order a copy to be shipped to you, click here.

Also, I had a great time putting together an annotated tide table for the island. It is in the form of a day planner, and each week has the high and low tides of that week, the sunrise and sunset times, and the plants and animals you’re likely to find that week.

Click here to preview and order for shipping.

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Bald Eagle Chick (s?) Hatch on Dewees Island for the 8th year.

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On Saturday, we caught our first glimpse of a young eaglet over on our eagle nest.  This makes the eighth consecutive year that a pair of nesting bald eagles has hatched at least one youngster.  The above photo is from 2017. In 2012, we were so surprised when a pair of Bald Eagles made their nest on a platform build for Osprey nesting, and even more excited to see the chick hatch in the spring.  Since then, we consider it our great privilege to watch them care for the young birds until they fledge each spring.

It took me a few days to get you actual photos of this youngster: between the rain this weekend, and fog on Tuesday, it was Wednesday before I could actually capture some footage.  We have a pretty good view of what’s going on through our scope, but we are a quarter mile away, and my little (amazing) canon sx60 was able to get some quick video and a shot or two.  It was windy, and we are both three stories up in the air with a lot of space between.

Here is some footage of the whole process over the years.





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Arts Council to Host Another Plein Air Workshop: Register Now for 3/5/2019

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The Dewees Island Arts Council had such a success with last spring’s Plein Air Workshop, they’d like to do it again. To join the class, email: DeweesIslandArtsCouncil@gmail.com

On Tuesday March 5, so long as there are enough participants, artist Beth Bathe will be leading a plein air workshop with mixable oils.  Beth is an artist residing in Lancaster, PA, who participates in high profile competitions from Maine to Washington State; a total of ten competitions in 2018 alone. Her paintings have won numerous awards and honors and she is a featured artist in the 2018 February/March issue of PleinAir Magazine:

Water mixable oils can produce stunning paintings that rival the color depth and texture of those done with traditional oils, yet eliminate the need for solvents. Beth’s unique approach incorporates a number of texturizing techniques. If you have experience with oils, watercolors, or acrylics, this workshop is for you.

Our workshop booking depends upon 6 or more confirmed attendees. The workshop fee is $100 per person + $80 supplies. The deadline for receipt of payment is February 15. Details regarding supplies and instructions for payment will be emailed.

Beth’s painting style is unique, looking somewhat like a watercolor, or is it an oil painting?  She uses Cobra Water Mixable Oil Colors in thin washes with a limited tonalist palette, using unconventional tools such as squeegees and qtips along with her brushes. Her representational paintings have been described by critics as evoking nostalgia, like that of an old sepia toned photograph, often with just touches of color. She is highly influenced by painter Andrew Wyeth, and her subject matter is often what she refers to as the “vanishing landscape”, including finding beauty in buildings, barns and old towns of a time gone by and often beyond their prime. Old barns, a Victorian farmhouse, a back alley, a fire escape, an old mill, or an old split rail fence down a country road are common subjects. Beth paints primary on location to catch her subject at a specific time, especially how the light and shadows play on the surface create drama and emotion.

Beth has a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University ‘81. She teaches classes and leads workshops at her studio, Short Dog Studio, in Ephrata, PA, where she shares her space with her photographer partner and three cardigan welsh corgis.

She is currently represented by Charles Fine Art Gallery in Gloucester MA, Vermont Artisan Designs in Brattleboro VT, South Street Gallery in Easton MD, Crystal Moll Gallery, Baltimore MD, Warm Springs Gallery, Warm Springs VA and Red Raven Gallery in 2019.

Beth is a Artist Member and on the Executive Board as Secretary of the Mid Atlantic Plein Air Painters (MAPAPA), Oil Painters of America (OPA), Outdoor Painters Society (OPS), Susquehanna Valley Plein Air Painters (SVPAP), Daily Painters of Pennsylvania and Daily Paintworks. In February 2016 she participated in the Plein Air Magazine Invitational trip to Cuba, and has also plein air painted in China.

2019 Events (partial)
• Invited Artist 2019 Lighthouse Plein Air, FL

• Invited Artist 2019 George Island, FL
• Juried Artist 2019 Southwest Plein Air, TX

• Invited Artist 2019 Gloucester Plein Air, VA

• Juried Artist 2018 Door County Plein Air, WI

Please RSVP to: DeweesIslandArtsCouncil@gmail.com
The mission of the Dewees Island Arts Council is to further the appreciation of the arts on Dewees Island and beyond through a series of programs, exhibits, workshops, lectures and field trips. They maintain our gallery space at Huyler House.

Committee Members: Diane Kliros (Chair), Anne Anderson, Claudia DeMayo, Ester Doyle, Brucie Harry, Low Harry, Susan Mashman, Barbara McIntyre, Cassandra McLeod, Cozy Mitchell, Jane Pasquini, Mary Reilly, Jane Savage, and Lisa Ward





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Internet and TV access on Dewees — one year later

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About a year ago we published a blog post called, “Internet Access – Solutions Available Today“.

Here’s what’s changed:

1. We still love our cellular Internet connections using data resellers.

To ensure that we always have access for the business Judy runs — Dewees Real Estate — and the rest of our needs, we actually have 2 networks run by different service providers with different underling networks (AT&T and T-Mobile).  Plus our cell phones, tablets and Apple Watch run on Verizon.  See the article from last year for instructions on how to setup such a system.  We think this is overkill and almost certainly not necessary for most households on Dewees, but are happy to know we always have access.

We’re using gobs of data for all kinds of upload and download services.  Once in a while we get a warning that we’re approaching the Top 5% of all data users on the plan, but we don’t think we’re being throttled or otherwise limited by the services.

2.  We’ve turned off several other services.

Excede satellite Internet – turned off.

AT&T DSL – turned off.

AT&T home telephone line – turned off.

AT&T DirecTV – turned off.

Savings: hundreds of dollars per month.

3.  We’ve installed some new services and hardware.

Switched fire and burglar alarm monitoring to cellular black box system.

We setup a Roku TV from TCL and a Roku Stick.

We hooked up the TV antenna in our attic (again) to get 20 local channels over the air.  This might also be achievable with an inexpensive indoor antenna.

We setup Sonos home theatre surround sound.

4.   We’re using lots of streaming services.

Netflix

Amazon Prime

Hulu

Spotify & Sonos with Spotify

YouTube TV — a way to get live TV programming, including Charleston stations; we’re still deciding if it’s necessary given HD TV over the attic antenna.

YouTube — great for all kinds of instructional videos, such as Yoga with Adrienne and Touring the Pantanal

5.  We’re using numerous Internet cloud services.

Google Drive and Dropbox

Adobe Lightroom CC

Smugmug

PlayStation for gaming

and on and on

Conclusion:

While our Internet isn’t as fast as in Manhattan or San Fransisco, it’s highly functional and works well with todays entertainment, communication and business services.

We know that lots all over the island are using it successfully, some with external antennas and some with just the cellular modem box.  If you’re not using it, you might want to investigate it for your home.





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Fresh Deliveries from the Bounty Box

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I’ve been experimenting with some food delivery options to the island recently, and so far my favorite is The Bounty Box.  This is a collaborative effort with local and regional farmers, and you sign up to join.  (You are not committed to weekly deliveries if that doesn’t work for you~ no worries.) In fact, if you sign up in January (like today) you get free enrollment for the year.  Otherwise, it will cost you $23.00.

It works like this: On Fridays, I get an email reminding me to pick my box for the next week.  I can choose between a small box, my usual (farmer’s choice) or I can assemble my own box.  Sometimes I want all the control, so I assemble my own box, and sometimes I like the random challenge of creating meals out of what is fresh and plentiful. You do have to think ahead a little: any changes have to be finalized by Sunday night or you’ll get your default package.

The following Friday, my box arrives at the ferry dock, usually around the time one of us is coming back to the island.  The ferry staff has been very helpful about delivering it and letting me know which ferry to meet on the Dewees side. On Friday mornings I put the boxes back at the IOP side of the ferry dock for re-use.

If you are not a full time resident, no worries: you would just pause the weeks when you aren’t going to be here.  Check out the website for more information: www.thebountybox.com.

I asked Kathryn about her involvement with the Bounty Box, and she told me this:

I first heard about The Bounty Box through a friend. The Bounty Box only does “guerrilla marketing” through word of mouth, door hanging and now some paid advertising with social media. I signed up for The Bounty Box as a member but saw they needed NC’s to deliver in my area. I work 1:1 with an adult with special needs full time acting as his life skills tutor/therapist. Together, we volunteer at various organizations as his “job” and his involvement in society. I knew us delivering for The Bounty Box would be the perfect fit into our schedule as we are used to delivering for The Meals on Wheels Program. We have been delivering for The Bounty Box for 3 years and love it! We love the fresh produce and it lasts so much longer and fresher verse a grocery store. 
We try to use as little plastic as possible. Our produce comes in different cardboard boxes to keep the product from damaging each other. The theory behind the boxes it to return them on your next delivery date. This helps us to reuse and recycle them back to the box manufacturer. We do have to use some produce for packaging such as hydroponic lettuce, meats (to prevent contamination) and cheese. Most of these plastics get sent back in our returned boxes and we can turn around and re-use them to prevent waste. The fruit that bruises easily and you would normally put in a plastic box at the grocery store, comes in biodegradable fruit containers (you would get them at a farm stand). Our costumers always return these in their boxes to be used again and again. 
We also now have a community box option where instead of the costumer skipping their box for the week, they order a community box and it gets delivered to the Low Country Food Bank. This produce then goes through The Low Country Food Bank and gets sent to smaller non profit Distribution Centers for people in need. One of them is ECCO which is where my student and I volunteer at. 
The Bounty Box is a great, small local CSA delivery company that has been around for 6 years. Edward, the founder, wanted to go further with a CSA instead of having it be a pick up location and an overabundance of the same produce. Hence why we began delivering boxes that come with a different menu each other or one you can customize. It’s the perfect job for stay at home moms or people with flexible jobs and people that want free produce. Our costumers that are loyal to TBB agree with our mission and know about the importance of supporting local farmers and artisans. 


You can sign up using KATHRYN2019 and you will get $5 off your order ($10 off if you sign up today. Use Dewees Island or Judy as your reference.  There is also no enrollment fee and there is never a renewal fee. www.thebountybox.com