31 www.ReadMPM.com | www.MountPleasantMagazine.com | www.MountPleasantPodcast.com our town In a perfect world, two barrier islands sitting just off the coast would be connected to the mainland by government as well as causeways. But this is the real world, and it’s not perfect. So it’s up to us to do the work to create our more perfect unions. For the last few years, this is exactly what neighbors in Mount Pleasant, the Isle of Palms and Sullivan’s Island have been doing. I feel that the relationship between the three municipalities is as good as it has ever been. Everyone knows that building good relationships takes work. They don’t just happen. Three elements are key: communication, shared priorities and trust. How did we get here? The Town of Sullivan’s Island as we know it today wasn't incorporated until 1975, however municipal government existed there prior to both Mount Pleasant and the Isle of Palms. Originally incorporated as the Town of Moultrieville in 1817, it somehow lost its charter in the early 1900s and went without one until the 1975 re-incorporation. You have to wonder if during that three-quarters of a century interim there were any annexation discussions between the island and Mount Pleasant, especially during the days when they were so closely connected by the trolley that traveled over the Pitt Street Bridge, with the ascending station numbers of its stops beginning in Mount Pleasant and continuing across the island. Isle of Palms citizens met at the Exchange Club in 1953 and voted 121 to 68 to incorporate. The Town of Mount Pleasant resulted from a half-dozen small townships coming together to incorporate in 1837. Today, mayors Phillip Pounds, Pat O'Neil and I work together effectively by keeping our communication open, honest and frequent. Our three municipalities all by law have the council form of government, wherein mayors have no executive authority to direct staff, so we must be the conduits of information to our respective councils when policy decisions are necessary. Our first priority is always safety, and in this realm all three communities are better together than we are separate. For fire protection, we have what's called automatic aid, whereby calls are responded to by all our fire departments without need of a call for assistance. This force multiplier is crucial in providing response personnel and also equipment now that new fire trucks cost several million dollars and take years for delivery. Likewise, the value of our aid agreements for law enforcement have never been more highly visible than during the massive, coordinated response to the homeschool group vehicle attack on Sullivan’s Island in May 2025. Finally, there is beach traffic management. Traffic congestion during the summer beach season can be overwhelming for all three communities. Several years ago, we started having yearly traffic management coordination meetings to which we invite every applicable agency and department from Charleston County all the way up to the state of South Carolina. We address traffic choke points on the islands and the mainland, public safety, evacuation plans and parking availability. We partner with local TV station WCIV, which offers a live Beach Traffic Tracker - Know B4 You Go with current drive times, which has reached over 15 million hits since its inception. We mayors filmed a promotional spot for it this year that involves tossing a beach ball between us. So when you see that, it represents more than a TV gimmick; there are years of communication and coordination that went into getting us here. BY WILL HAYNIE MAYOR OF MOUNT PLEASANT Mayor’s Message Staying connected
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