Personal Injury Attorney in West Ashley, SC

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - From West Ashley to Sullivan’s Island, businesses spent the day recuperating after heavy rains and strong winds caused them to temporarily lock their doors.

Many of the exterior windows at Hay Tire Pros, off Savannah Highway, shattered, and a large part of their ceiling collapsed on the inside.

Vice President Bill Sekula said that they have always expected severe storms to come through with being in Charleston, but that they have never had this much damage before.

“I guess it was like a microburst or something to that effect, but apparently it was raining harder than usual and then the windows started to buckle and snapped over. These windows on the side just kind of came apart and came out of the building,” Sekula said.

Sekula said glass from the windows was even in the back part of their building which is almost 30 yards away. They had to close the business for the day and return all of their customers’ vehicles. He said the incident happened during hours of operation as employees notified him at around 8 a.m.

The next-door business, Etto Leisure Cars, a golf cart dealer, also saw significant damage. Will Harton, chief executive officer, said that part of their awning was ripped off and hit their power box causing them to lose power.

“I said ‘Oh my goodness.’ You know, you live in Charleston long enough, you know a storm is going to happen. Usually, it’s a hurricane. It’s not a microburst like this, but we will be fine and we will move on from here,” Harton said.

He added that he’s glad that all of his employees are safe and that the building and golf carts can be fixed.

First Alert Chief Meteorologist Bill Walsh said the damage could have been from a potential microburst or straight-line wind, but the National Weather Service has not yet confirmed that.

The Co-Op Frosé and Eatery on Sullivan’s Island had around two feet of water inside their restaurant. Their staff members spent the day using buckets to help get rid of the water. They said they have had flooding in the past, but never anything over a foot, so this is the worst they’ve seen.

“This morning, we lifted everything off the floor because we were expecting rain and heavy floods, but we didn’t know it was going to get this bad. So, as we were lifting things off the floor, it started coming in through the back door. Next thing you know there is water all over the place and we started getting buckets and mops and throwing water out. We’ve been throwing water out for the past three and a half hours,” employee Havannah Malan said.

She said that they have had to get their floors redone three times, and she expects the business will have to get them redone a fourth time after Saturday’s flood.

The businesses said they hope to repair the damages quickly, so they can return to normal operation as soon as possible.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - After months of her son being chronically sick, which even led him to temporarily stop walking and talking, one West Ashley woman wants to warn people about the effects of living with mold.

Mold test results allege this is exactly what former tenant Lauren LaMantia experienced while living at The Heyward Apartments.

“There’s nothing more frustrating than knowing something is wrong with your kid and there’s no one that will help you,” LaMantia said.

LaMantia and her son Leo moved into The Heyward apartments in West Ashley in 2020. What began as off-and-on colds, led to a sickness that wouldn’t go away for Leo LaMantia last spring.

Lauren LaMantia says he had constant mucus, an oozing eye and he even eventually stopped walking and talking. He was diagnosed with three different viruses and pneumonia in his right lung.

A specialist recommended getting an environmental test in their apartment, which is when she hired The Mold Girl, LLC and GSL Engineering.

She explained what The Mold Girl, LLC recommended.

“[An employee] said, ‘Based on how I feel after being here and testing, I wouldn’t keep my family here for another day,’” LaMantia said. “So, that night we packed up and we left.”

She took the topical tests to The Heyward management, who then hired a vendor to remediate the area and clean invasively, which she claims only exacerbated the problem.

“It was worse, obviously, than what was just topical,” LaMantia said. “And those spores got thrown out into the air, into the air ducts and contaminated all of our belongings.”

When the two initial companies came out to test again, the results were worse than before.

GSL Engineering’s air quality test says anything higher than a five requires an investigation. The apartment’s levels were 7.7.

In The Mold Girl, LLC’s test, there were a variety of molds found, with some of these also showing in the 95th percentile in Leo’s urine sample.

“When I told the complex that, they considered this matter closed and that they had denied any allegations with my initial concern with sending a vendor out there to fix it,” LaMantia said.

She says The Heyward offered to terminate the lease, under one condition. She was asked to sign a waiver of liability, a confidentiality agreement and a non-disclosure form. When she refused, she had to pay nine more months of rent in an apartment she couldn’t live in.

“Between moving, medical, rent, legal counsel - just consultations - it’s between $40,000-$50,000 out of pocket,” LaMantia said.

The Heyward’s attorney, Thomas Howard, sent this statement in response to the allegations:

Due to privacy concerns, it is our policy not to comment on specific questions regarding any resident. We are aware of the resident’s complaint to which our community representatives promptly investigated and responded. We contest the resident’s portrayal of the facts and our corresponding actions. At Heyward, the safety and well-being of our community residents are paramount, and we treat all concerns with utmost seriousness. Heyward has been nationally recognized in the country for resident experience placing in the Elite 1% ORA Power Rankings (34th nationally) by J Turner Research. The ORA® Power Ranking is based on the relative strength of over 140,000 communities assessed by J Turner Research, a prominent consulting firm that monitors resident satisfaction. This accomplishment reflects the hard work and positive impact of our onsite management team which remains dedicated to providing the best possible environment for all of our residents.

Since moving out, LaMantia says she still experiences memory loss and is on more antibiotics now than she has been in the last ten years. She wants to warn other renters about the dangers mold could present.

“I just hope that people get out of that place,” LaMantia said. “...It’s just a breeding ground for mold... And they have no idea that they’re going to breathe in these terrible things and that could permanently damage them.”

She recommends if anyone is feeling symptoms no matter where they live, to get your place tested.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

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Danielle and Brent Sweatman understand the complicated relationship between sobriety and the food and beverage space. The couple, who have worked in the industry for years, are two years sober.

“We knew how it feels to be uncomfortable with limited options and wanted to change that,” said Danielle, who with her husband Brent, opened Sweatman’s Garden — a sodary and fondue Lounge at 90 Folly Road Boulevard in the South Windermere Shopping Center.

Brent said they chose the location for a few reasons.

“We live in West Ashley and have been living in Byrnes Down for about five years. Because we love our community, we wanted to provide a cool hangout spot close to home for both drinkers and non-drinkers.”

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According to Brent, he and his wife were happy to fill a much-needed niche in the community.

“There are so many young people in the area that are becoming part of the sober curious movement and it was important to us to provide an inclusive space for the people that would want to take advantage of it,” he said.

And with the rise of mocktail culture, their timing couldn’t be better. According to research conducted by NielsenIQ, the non-alcoholic beverage sector is expanding rapidly as alcohol consumption declines, with popularity soaring over the past five years — a trend driven by Gen Z and millennials.

An Instagram-worthy experience

When the couple moved into what was Florence’s Lowcountry Kitchen, they were presented with a tabula rasa, enabling Danielle, as she says, “to go wild.”

She transformed plain, white walls into ones with a dark green hue and festooned them with dozens of thriving plants. Quirky and colorful seating areas are Instagram-worthy, like the attractive curved yellow couch which faces tufted lilac chairs and is separated by a ‘70s-era coffee table.

“We set them up to appear like little living rooms,” said Danielle, adding that she loves maximalism and color. “I was inspired by an art-deco, 70s funky vibe,” she said.

The offerings

Brent is no stranger to libation creation, having helped open the King Street Diner known as the Rarebit featuring homemade ginger beer, tonic, sodas and bitters.

“We’re doing 12 different taps, featuring our tonic and ginger beer and additional playful, fun stuff when it comes to our sodas, like plum rose citrus and a delicious habanero fresca sweetened with monk fruit, which is currently getting a lot of love, along with our root beer,” said Danielle.

For an additional $5, customers can add their choice of alcohol, or a cannabis-based infusion to their sodas. Sometimes customers opt for both non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages in the same evening.

“I’ve seen some of them take a non-alcohol root beer break from drinking,” said Danielle

The couple also decided to offer a limited menu featuring fondue.

“We’re serving savory fondue, like Mediterranean and beer cheese and also offering sweet options like white chocolate and milk chocolate,” said Danielle, explaining that she loves cheese and chocolate, but that they also wanted to make the menu a fun, interactive experience that doesn’t take staff too much time to create. For now, the business employs a total of seven staff members.

As for the future, Danielle said they are working on finding their bearings at the moment. “We were intentionally a little mysterious about being open to see what worked and what didn’t, but we may consider live entertainment in the future, if all goes well,” she said.

Stefanie Kalina-Metzger is a contributing writer for SC Biz News.