The Boone Show
The Boone Show
The Boone Show - S5 E1 - Williamston Mayor Rockey Burgess
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What's the secret behind Williamston's vibrant community spirit? Mayor Rockey Burgess joins us on The Boone Show to reveal the exciting changes coming to town, starting with the Spring Water Festival's move to cooler months next year for a more enjoyable experience. Discover the impressive upgrades at Mineral Spring and Brookdale Parks, as Rockey shares his vision for top-notch recreational facilities that cater to everyone in the community.
Ever wondered about the intricacies of road paving and local development? Rockey breaks it all down, detailing the challenges and triumphs of paving state, county, and city roads, and the hurdles in securing funding and contractors. Hear about the much-anticipated Main Street paving project and the delays in the construction of a new Ingle's store due to the pandemic. Plus, get a sneak peek into Williamston's growth plans, including the upcoming Big Creek Station project.
In the final segment, Rockey shares personal and heartfelt stories, from David Rodgers' illustrious career and retirement plans to Rockey's philanthropic efforts through the Burgess Family Foundation. Celebrate local dining favorites, anticipate college football season, and enjoy Rockey's reflections on community support and his unopposed reelection campaign. This episode is a testament to what makes Williamston a vibrant and growing community. Tune in and get inspired!
Hello everybody, Back on the air for the 24-25 school year. It's the Boone Show on MyPulse Radio. I'm John Boone. We've got the boss lady here, Holly Harrell Hi.
Speaker 2:Hey, it seems like the summer is shorter and shorter, hasn't it?
Speaker 1:Yes, I can't believe. We've been in school three weeks and we're still not through August.
Speaker 2:I know right.
Speaker 1:This is. But we've got a special guest in studio tonight and it is the mayor of Williamston, himself one of the most interesting men in the world, rocky Burgess. Rocky, how are you doing today? I'm better than I deserve, my friend, I bet you. So I'm doing good. Great to be here. We have got a lot to talk about with you on this show tonight this afternoon, whatever you consider 4 o'clock. This show tonight this afternoon, whatever you consider 4 o'clock. And let's start with what's going on this weekend in Williamston. What is it? The 43rd edition of the Spring Water Festival.
Speaker 3:I believe you're right. Spring Water Festival Got to love it, been around for a good long time.
Speaker 1:So what's going on with that?
Speaker 3:Well, this will be the last one in August.
Speaker 1:Oh, there's a lot of Big round of applause, the last one?
Speaker 2:Oh, there's a lot of Big round of applause, the last one.
Speaker 3:It'll be the last one that takes place in August. I think the Spring Water Festival Committee voted to move it to springtime of next year. Maybe it might be a little bit cooler.
Speaker 2:Oh yes, because it is miserable.
Speaker 3:It's a great idea We've watched attendance kind of drop a little bit over the years and it's gotten hotter, you know, with all that global warming thing going on, Got to get a Tesla.
Speaker 1:Got to fix it. We're going to talk about that later, aren't we? We'll get to that, so lots of good stuff happening.
Speaker 3:You've got bands coming out on Friday night and then Saturday you'll have all your crafts and all that good stuff. Friday night, I think, there's two bands starting at 6. And then around, I believe, 10 or 11 o'clock somewhere around in there.
Speaker 1:All right, and last year there seemed to be the biggest crowd in a while.
Speaker 3:Anyway, I guess, yeah, last year was a good event too. Yeah, we're still terribly hot, though.
Speaker 1:Whoever plays the platypals for us, the mascot going around.
Speaker 3:Bless their heart. I hope you've got an air conditioner inside, at least a fan.
Speaker 1:We have a little fan, but it doesn't do much.
Speaker 2:It is a tiny little fan uh, yeah, and they get.
Speaker 1:We pay them for doing that, but not enough for the spring water festival, because that is the hottest event of the year. So I'd heard a few years ago they're thinking about moving it that that's happened for sure?
Speaker 3:uh, matter of fact, if you go on, uh, these williamson spring water festival on facebook, um, they announce the data. You have to forgive me I don't know that date right off the top of my head, but next year it will be in the spring. So, we're coming up pretty quick.
Speaker 1:They're planning to add some events and stuff on it too. Now you'll still have the barbecue festival right around that time too.
Speaker 3:Yep, I think it may be the week or two after. Wow, we'll have a lot going on in the spring, absolutely.
Speaker 1:So what else is going on at the park these?
Speaker 3:days. So, speaking of spring and Mineral Spring Park, we've got some big news on Mineral Spring Park. We just took down the old playground equipment and, thanks to Representative Ann Thayer, we were able to get a $750,000 earmark to replace that playground with a super, super nice playground that's handicap accessible, meets all the latest and greatest requirements for fall protection and all that good stuff. If you ever go out to Tiger River Park in Spartanburg, the exact same playground equipment is going into Williamston, so we're super excited about that construction. Matter of fact, I was told that materials will come lay down next week and then they will start construction directly thereafter and expect to take about 30 days.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, so it's going to be quick.
Speaker 3:Real quick. Yeah, they're actually doing the site work leading up this week, leading up to Spring Water Festival.
Speaker 2:And you all have done so much to that park. You know, with the pickleball courts and the beautification around the, the water walkway and um, and now the, the playground, and there is constantly kids out there. I mean constantly kids and families out of that playground.
Speaker 3:It does my heart good when I roll through about 10 11 o'clock on my way home to roll through the park and see bustling activity. And it's not just, um, old people, it's not just young people, it's a, it's a mixture of folks, um, of folks that we're providing things for people to do. We spend a lot of money there in Mineral Spring Park, but that's the focal point of the town. We've also got some upgrades going at Brookdale Park as well. Over back behind the curb market on Circle Drive, they're getting a new steel shelter going in out there.
Speaker 3:The shelter that was used for years for family reunions and stuff like that has quite a bit of termite damage and has fallen into a state of disrepair. It's been up probably since the 50s. So they're getting a nice brand-new steel polygon shelter. That's about $200,000 worth of shelter going in over there, so we're super excited about that. One thing we want to do is make sure that people are aware of all of our parks. So we're super excited about that. One thing we want to do is make sure that people are aware of all of our parks, where they're located at. Some are neighborhood parks, just like Brookdale and Gray Drive Park.
Speaker 1:But they're very, very nice amenities that all of our communities can enjoy. Tell me where Brookdale Park is, because I don't know.
Speaker 3:The best way I can tell you is behind the curb market or if you come down East Carolina Street, or you can take Brown almost directly across from Burwick. You can go down Brown, take a right onto Bigby and then it's immediately there. On the left They've got basketball courts, got a big baseball field out there that we use for practice sometimes Restrooms They've got new restrooms. They've been in the last 10 years.
Speaker 1:And tell me a little bit more about the playground that you are putting in Now. First of all, you said you visited where they have it in Spartanburg. Did you like try out the equipment? I did. Did you go down the slide?
Speaker 3:I violated all the rules that were posted because it said you know, I've always been a rule breaker, no, but I did it for good reason. You? I've always been a rule breaker? No, but I did it for good reason. You've got to sample before you buy correct. That's right, you've got to make sure that it supports you and does all that you want it to do. It's a three-story playground so it's really really tall Tons of interactive things to do, but it will fit in the same footprint of what the old equipment was there.
Speaker 1:And is it going to have?
Speaker 3:turf, it will have astroturf, yep. So, um, you know, getting grass to grow in that area has for for years we've tried, and the, the old oak trees, which are beautiful, um oak trees that we want to remain, they just suck all the nutrients out of the soil. So erosion issues we've had. This should remedy every bit of that. So the, the maintenance will be literally cleaning it on occasion and just blowing leaves off of the turf. So we're super excited the turf has some fall protection built into it as well.
Speaker 1:Good, good little cushion, yep, um, yeah, even with the mulch that they put in, and there it caused an issue. For one of our kids, for instance, they fell down piece of mulch, cut their lip when they fell down. So I mean the turf thing should be.
Speaker 3:Turf thing is a lot better, and there's some concern about turf and the ingredients that goes into turf. If you will that cause some concern with some people. This has none of that bad stuff in it. I think they basically call them forever chemicals, that type of stuff. So this is made by a company that does not use that, so we don't have to worry about the mineral spring being contaminated or anything like that. So it's got a nice 20-year warranty on it All right, we're excited.
Speaker 1:Sounds good. How long has the other equipment been there.
Speaker 3:It's been there, I wouldn't say all my life, because I played on the old wooden and steel stuff that nobody cared if you broke your arm or busted your lip or whatever it might be, but I would say that equipment that's there was probably put in late 80s, early 90s, wow, so it's been a while.
Speaker 1:It's been there for a while. It's been good equipment. Yeah, yeah, back in the day, holly, you remember playgrounds back in the day.
Speaker 2:Oh yes, Did you get outside any? You know, Holly, you remember playgrounds back in the day?
Speaker 1:Oh yes, absolutely. You go on the slide and you burn your butt because of it being in the sun.
Speaker 3:Big steel slide, no fall protection, about 15 foot in the air.
Speaker 1:You got the monkey bars.
Speaker 3:That everybody's falling on the merry-go-round the merry-go-round.
Speaker 2:The seesaw. Yeah, very dangerous stuff. Your legs would hit that silver slide going down and your shins would hit the steps just right yes, and it would burn all the way down the steps literally had like serrated edges on them almost like a knife and there was no angle to go up.
Speaker 3:It was straight up. You climbed up just like you would a straight ladder absolutely your foot slip and your shin just gets all peeled up. Nobody sued, anybody can you?
Speaker 1:no, no, and that's the way that I guess it was done on purpose to make us, or the swing that would not be cemented in?
Speaker 2:quite right, and it would move as you yeah, yeah, swing a certain direction.
Speaker 3:We see how far we can go. Rocket for a strike, set and tilt it over.
Speaker 1:Go all the way over, yeah yes, so uh yeah, playground's a lot safer we even had a uh, a log.
Speaker 3:You would stand up on and and run on the log like it, the log would turn.
Speaker 1:Who does that anymore? Yeah, yeah, injuries to happen.
Speaker 2:So what do you have? Well, I guess this will be the next what's coming up. Like what other? Visions do you have? But I know we're going to talk. I know we're coming up to that. Sorry, I went too fast.
Speaker 1:But quickly before we leave the park, especially Spring Water, mineral Spring Park, what's coming up in the park besides Spring Water Festival in the next month or so?
Speaker 3:Are they still doing that camping thing? Well, you're going to have a Volkswagen camp out. You're going to have Boo in the Park.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which I noticed is early. I guess it's for in case there's a rain out, because it's like the 19th of October, it's very early this year.
Speaker 3:Well, you also have to think too. We've got to start decorating for Christmas. Some people say you know, as soon as Halloween's over, like almost the next day, we start hanging Christmas decorations. People are like why are they doing that? Do you realize how long it takes to put all that stuff up and take it down? If you don't start, then it's not ready and obviously we have a Winter Wonderland, which is amazing.
Speaker 1:Which has been great. What's that? Three years, you've done that Two, three years.
Speaker 3:This will be, I think, our third year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's been very successful and you're having the parade on the same day again this year, because I know you moved it last year, I think so. Okay.
Speaker 3:I think it's going to be on the same day.
Speaker 1:One thing I noticed at Disney. You know they have their Halloween stuff all the way up through.
Speaker 3:Halloween to disney.
Speaker 1:Yeah, listen to this outstanding, I mean this goes you made me think of it and november 1st it is completely decorated for christmas. Absolutely, the people right after the halloween thing is they have hundreds of people taking down all that stuff and putting up all the christmas stuff in one night. Yep, so that the people that come to the park on november 1st can see all christmas yep that's our game plan, doing the same thing in williamston.
Speaker 3:We hope to have some new uh street decorations as well. We've been working with the company and hopefully they'll be here by then all right, that all sounds good.
Speaker 1:We have much, much more, as holly teased coming up with. Uh, rocky burgess, it's the boone show, my pulse radio. Uh, we don't always open a phone line, but if you're listening and you want to call in, it's 864-847-3509. Puggles is here tonight. This is like going back into the past. Oh wait, I'll turn your mic on.
Speaker 2:After four years, I think yeah, you're back, I am back, you're back 864-847-3509 if you have a question for the mayor.
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Speaker 7:This is Olivia Neal from Ren High School and you're listening to MyPulse Radio.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to the Boone Show, my Pulse Radio. Our special guest tonight is Rocky Burgess, the mayor of the town of Williamston, of which we are a part, and it's election season and Mr Burgess is running again. Thank goodness. I read the nice statement that you had. That was in the journal. It was also on Facebook or wherever I saw it. I know you're all over the place. If you try to look up rocky burgess on instagram, there's like 10 accounts.
Speaker 3:He's like 10 different ones. One thing nobody can say is I'm not accessible. You might not want what I have to say, but I am most definitely, but you can say it yeah, anywhere.
Speaker 1:uh, but tell us about your, your feeling. Obviously you're running again, but this is kind of really a labor of love for you, oh yeah for sure.
Speaker 2:It's what it comes down to Public servant for sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah so tell us about your reelection campaign.
Speaker 3:It is. So there will be no campaign. I did announce Fourth of July celebration, much to my wife and family's chagrin, but I looked around the room, tried to get somebody that would step in and unfortunately it requires a lot of work. It almost requires somebody to be either retired or have the time and energy to be able to put into it. The good Lord has blessed me with that time that I can put into it. Not that that's exactly what I want to do, but I do love my community enough to be able to serve if the folks will have me to do it. One more time. I did put my name on the list and was notified yesterday I think it was that apparently I'll be running unopposed this year.
Speaker 2:So how many times can you run?
Speaker 3:It's not like present or any other. You can make a lifelong career out of it. I suppose, if you want to, I do not want to. I hope that one day we'll have somebody that would be my ideal candidate. It would be somebody young, that would step up and somebody that I could help. I don't necessarily want to be the guy in the making all the decisions and having to be available 24-7, but I would love to be that guy in the background helping somebody else. That's my ultimate goal.
Speaker 2:Well, you and your wife and your family have always been somewhere shape or form in public service, whether it be with the school system or in the community itself. You guys have done it all. I'm grateful for what you've done for the town of Williamston and, to be honest with you, for our school. You've done a lot for us.
Speaker 3:We appreciate it very much. Both of us are getting a little older, both of us are nearing retirement age, where there's other things in life we'd like to do as well, but certainly our community and our school system included. Both of us are very, very passionate about our community.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, so no worries about $500 plate dinners or anything for Rocky's campaign. No, we're not doing any of that. Just be happy to have your vote on november 5th absolutely all right so uh, tell us what else is going on. I know there's been a lot of talk about roads being paved yeah.
Speaker 3:so, um, a lot of people are not familiar with the roads and how those structures work. You know, you hear um people say I don't want to pay any more. We all just had a big tax increase with the gasoline tax that we're all familiar with a little while back, and that's correct. But that's actually for state roads. That goes to the South Carolina Department of Transportation for 85 US 29 state roads and, believe it or not, there's actually a lot of those. In Williamston, if you look by Belton Highway, here's a state road, but a lot of people don't understand that there's also county roads and city roads too, and so the process by which we get those paved, whether it be the county or the municipality of Williamston, is we don't collect gasoline tax, we don't get any money for gasoline tax. We have to go to the county C-Funds Committee there's a portion of those road taxes allocated to the county to distribute it as they see fit. So we have to get on the list and beg and plead and for the for the most part, we've been fairly successful in getting some roads paved. As a matter of fact, the town just put a post out a while ago that apparently there'll be some paving starting tomorrow, and I know that one. One of the bigger streets is parker, just down the street from the career center. They'll that, I believe, tomorrow, and paving should run throughout the end of the year until it gets too cold to pave. And that was like a million five, I think, is the allocation for that tranche of roads. It's like six roads in the city and then we've got six more. That was approved last week at the C-Funds Committee.
Speaker 3:The problem is is it takes a long, long time to get contractors available to do it. And the second issue that we're all facing is you know, several years ago to get a mile of road paved was about $250,000. Now it's about $1.2 million. So the cost, the contract, there's so few contractors, they're giving you the I don't want it price and so there's not enough contractors to do the work. And if you want to get in the road paving business, which I would love to do, you can make a lot of money doing that. The problem is you have to also own an asphalt company to be able to provide the base product by which to do asphalt work, and so they almost have an asphalt mafia. So if you're not in this group, that pats each other on the back. You don't get paving contracts because you can't get the product.
Speaker 2:Makes sense.
Speaker 3:It's a racket, it's all a big racket.
Speaker 1:So the roads will be getting smoother.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's the good news and we do a good job too. If you've got potholes or something like that on a city street, we obviously always you know going around with a cold patch, feeling those things as they come up.
Speaker 2:And it's so hard to figure out what's a state street, what's a city street, what's a county street. I mean there are so many things and us as the homeowners or people who live and drive, you know, people complain all the time about the roads, but really there is so many and most people don't care whose problem it is no they just know it's a problem and they want somebody to fix it. Dadgummit Right.
Speaker 3:That's right. But one way you can tell is if you look at the street sign, you will see the little S. It's like a black sign with S numbers on it.
Speaker 2:That's a very clear indication that state road.
Speaker 3:So what in the world?
Speaker 2:sorry, I hit multitasking, yeah I hit the intercom and bless old people with technology.
Speaker 1:Gotta love it, that's right, exactly so like a street, like main street. Could you um like lobby for that? So how does that?
Speaker 3:work. Um, yes and no. D to DOT was a lot more political than it is these days. A lot of it depended on who your House member was, who your senator was, where they had clout, and you'd have years where all the money was funneled toward Florence, and then you may have somebody in Greenville County that becomes influential. They've been there. They're sitting on some board, that's important, and so the money gets funneled over here. They've eliminated there. They're sitting on some board, that's important, and so the money gets funneled over here. They've eliminated that supposedly, and I believe the state. They tell us the truth all the time. Sure, they do, but supposedly they rank it and you can actually go to DOT's website and see the ranking and the order. So I think, worst case scenario, they're at least being transparent about what they're doing and I am proud to say that, yes, main Street Williamston is slated to be paved this year. As a matter of fact, it's coming from there at Larry's Used Cars, just up the street, all the way down Belton Drive.
Speaker 3:Oh, wow, and will end at SunTrust Bank there at Hamilton Street.
Speaker 2:Wow, so right in front of our school.
Speaker 3:Yep. So that's slated to be paved this year according to DOT. Now they may change that, but it is number one on their priority list for Anderson County.
Speaker 1:Great, it needs it Absolutely. So what's going on with Ingalls? You knew that was coming. We've had Rocky on. How many?
Speaker 3:years have you been in office now? So the transaction took place my first year in office and I've been in here. This is my fourth year, so approximately three years. It took a year to make that deal work and get it transferred and get all the paperwork completed.
Speaker 3:And we had some COVID issues too during that time, so that was the last information that I got was from Ingalls, was that they had planned the store to be built the year following the closing of the deal, which would have been my second year in office but COVID hit and obviously the cost of everything soared, and so instead they built one store that year, and that was the one that they had already, you know, started work on. They built none the following year, and so now I'm told they're ramping back up year and that was the one that they had already, you know, started, uh, started work on. They built none the following year, and so now I'm told they're ramping back up. I do know they're still pulling permits with dot and they're going to do intersection realignment and stuff like that, but it's just not coming fast enough for me you know, as a business owner, when I see a problem I do it now.
Speaker 3:that's right, and so the hard part is the hurry up and wait. But but I'm going to tell you I think I'm going to start a campaign this upcoming year if I win re-election again, and we're just all going to write letters and I'm going to refer everybody to Ingalls. And I'm going to have them get bombarded with the phone calls to make sure that they know that our community is very interested in them being here.
Speaker 1:That's right. Yes and yes, and it's supposed to be one of the biggest ones.
Speaker 3:It will be the biggest one in their whole conglomeration. Oh wow, based on the plans that they've submitted to us, it will take the footprint of that existing store, including the old Ace Hardware goodies, the whole complex and extend by 20 foot. On either side it has the Boar's Head Meats, the Asian Cuisine inside the Fuel Station, ev Charging Station, starbucks, Starbucks it has a Starbucks. It's got everything. If you go to an Ingalls store, that's got everything in it. This has got everything, plus a little bit more square footage.
Speaker 1:That's pretty awesome, yeah, that would be a huge.
Speaker 3:I'm hoping they will have the beer inside where you can. Actually. If you go to Florida you can actually order a beer and shop with your wife. That would be my ideal.
Speaker 2:I think they have that in Greer as well.
Speaker 3:I don't know if South Carolina allows it but if they allow it, I will be perfectly happy with it.
Speaker 2:Don't they do it at Lowe's Foods? I think they may.
Speaker 3:It's a very neat concept it is. You just walk around with a beer and shop or wine.
Speaker 1:Or wine a glass of wine, all right. What else is growing in Williamston? So?
Speaker 3:housing's still booming. I heard that it's going to be letting up. I've seen no signs of that. Our two subdivisions that we've got in place are moving right along. We had some issues with Saratoga Oaks, saratoga Villages, with some water and drainage issues. They had to pull off a bit. For a little bit we had to bust a couple beaver dams and they had to install some drainage drain pipe in to alleviate the ponding that was taking place on the property. They're back at work. As of last week they started back doing more site work there, so hopefully we'll see some, some homes going up by the end of the year. At those two locations there's been tons of onesies, twosies, three, fours, uh popping up all over the place too, so we're super excited about the growth.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's been a lot of it. Um, what about business wise? You know of any? Uh, can you tell us of any businesses that are coming or give us some teases?
Speaker 2:Looks like there's some more models downtown.
Speaker 3:Well, there's a couple of A couple of. You've got Wicked Licks Ice Cream if you're familiar with them? Yes, they're coming right down the street and they have plans to open up in, I believe, january of 2025.
Speaker 2:And that's kind of over by the BP.
Speaker 3:It is over by.
Speaker 2:BP and Hardee's's, the old uh, I don't remember what bank that was, but it was an old bank.
Speaker 3:Okay, yep, oh yeah. So here's the thing that I like about those niche business like that, they're unique, yep, um, they bring people in who would not ordinarily come to williamston. That's important to us. Um, our hospitality taxes I take it since I've taken office um, this is largely with supportive counsel. In the niches that we've taken, we've went from generating $160,000 a year on prepared food to $380,000. Wow, that's huge that does not happen by accident.
Speaker 2:No, that's intentional.
Speaker 3:And so you know, building a pickleball course, bringing people in who would not ordinarily come to Williamston, taking advantage of our amenities that we have to offer is huge. Taking advantage of our amenities that we have to offer is huge. One of the big, big drivers of that is going to be those niche things, big creek stations, kicking off their development. So you're going to start to see some announcements being made.
Speaker 5:What is?
Speaker 3:that that was our old water plant. That's behind the fire department and it also encompasses the old depot building, if you'll notice. They just finished painting it and we found the old porcelain williamston sign that hung on the depot. We was able to find it and get that home back up. But they're going to do we didn't sell that property. That'll still belong to the town, but they will lease that out as part of that overall complex for for what they intend to do, the same developers that developed Hampton Station downtown Greenville are involved in this one.
Speaker 3:So if you can think Birds Fly South Hampton Station. It'd be something very similar to it. It'd be something where, if you live in TR or somewhere like that and you wake up on Saturday morning, you grab the wife and kids and say let's go to Williamston and spend the day. You know right now there's not a whole lot of reason to do that, unless you're coming to a festival or one of our events or at the park or the park, yeah, but this will give you a lot more. Just the things like the new playground. All those are drivers, economic drivers that bring people into town, that spend their money to visit and hopefully call it home.
Speaker 2:So when is this going to take place? Which part the station? I've covered a lot the station Big.
Speaker 3:Creek Station, so we just transacted that they own the property. Now They've went ahead and started some demo of the old facility cleaning it out, getting it ready. It's a really, really unique facility. It's off limits now so the general public can't go see it, but it's a really, really unique facility.
Speaker 3:And one thing they're talking about doing, if you're familiar with, uh, uh, what's the greenville location where they have all the gather gather greenville um, they're planning on bringing in some um food trucks and things like that, almost like gather greenville to start getting some attention in that area. They've got some marketing digital signage getting ready to go up as well to kind of generate a lot of interest.
Speaker 2:So the next year we're really going to see some movement.
Speaker 3:You're going to see movement all across the board in Wheaton. All kinds of things from paving to development, to homes. It's going to be transformative for sure.
Speaker 1:That building next to the journal is anybody doing anything with?
Speaker 3:that. So you've got the journal and then, you've got another building beside of it without a roof, and then you got the two-story building. Now me and um three other partners own that building, along with cutters, which cutter is a new um barbara that just came into town. They're booming.
Speaker 3:They're doing a phenomenal job if you haven't visited cutters for a haircut, you need to go by. They pamper, take good care of you. It's a very, very nice facility and they're doing a heck of a good business over there. So the two-story building we had engineers look at it, one thing that I love, the architecture on it and my dream was to have that building make my private office upstairs have a balcony that looked over the park. I could go, sit out and have a glass of bourbon and a good cigar and see all the activities taking place in the park.
Speaker 3:So we had engineers look at it and they were concerned of the structure itself. Basically, we'd have to build. Their recommendation was to tear it down. So we don't want to tear it down. The other alternative was to build a structure within the outside, within the inside of that structure. Obviously, obviously, that's a very expensive, ambitious and expensive thing to do. The thing that caused us the most issues why things have not progressed on it currently is to be accessible to the public. It has to have an elevator, and so the elevator, along with the construction you're looking at about $2.2 million, oh my. And it still has issues with parking. So I've talked with the other partners. We've got to get it agreed and we've got to get the insurance companies involved and make sure everything's good to go. But I think we may transform that into an outdoor space with some nice lighting, but a place where you could have wedding receptions and stuff like that as well. Okay, I always thought that might be a nice event.
Speaker 1:Yes, it would be great.
Speaker 3:The biggest issue that we've got and we've got to work on this all throughout Williamston is making Williamston a more walkable community. If you go downtown Greenville. It's nothing for you to walk a couple blocks right. Right, we don't currently have that set up, but in order for our business to flourish and buildings like you're talking about to be viable, you most definitely have to have a more walkable community. So we're working on that, along with expanding our trails, that type of stuff as well.
Speaker 1:All right, We've got much more coming up with Rocky Burgess. We're going to hopefully hear from Zach. Take a little break in the middle here and talk about football season about to start. He could take the next half hour, holly.
Speaker 2:Oh, I know it, I know it.
Speaker 1:But I'm sure he's you know, deceived enough to think that Clemson is going to be Georgia, but we'll see. He's already starting to be calling in, so stay with us. You're listening to the Boone Show on MyPulse Radio show on my pulse radio.
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Speaker 10:The small and local businesses are the arteries of our communities. Many of these business owners are your neighbors and they reinvest their money into their businesses to bring more products and services to the communities they serve. The Palmetto Business Association is comprised of small and local businesses in Williamston, piedmont, pelzer, west Pelzer and surrounding areas. We, as an association, give back to the communities our businesses serve through many community events throughout the year. For more information, including a complete list of members, and to see upcoming events, please visit our website at palmettobusinessorg. It's Elijah.
Speaker 5:Bell, the Big Stepper from Patterson High School. Welcome to MyPulse Radio.
Speaker 1:Hey, it's the Boone Show on MyPulseRadio. Our guest tonight, rocky Burgess, the mayor of Williamston, trying to get Zach on the line. If we get him, fine. If not, I'll take over all the views that he would have had towards football. But we've got much more to talk about with Rocky. And one thing I noticed in the news recently David Rogers, who everybody knows in Williamson. You see his face everywhere. He retires but then he's not going anywhere. Well, maybe, maybe not, you never know, with elections.
Speaker 1:Now he wants to be a councilman, and good for him. So tell us a little bit about all that time that he put into the town of Williamson.
Speaker 3:So David came right out of high school, went to work for the town of Williamson at the water plant we used to have our own water plant. Um, him and his wife got married shortly thereafter and one of the stories he tells a good bit is that once his wife, um, decided to go get married, they did, they eloped, and then shortly thereafter, uh, he was called into work and wasn't able to take a honeymoon. So, um, he's been looking forward to that honeymoon. I think he's getting ready to take it now. Finally, him and Pam's going to go to Hawaii. I think, all right.
Speaker 1:48 years, a long time. They seem to do a good bit of traveling. They do, it seems like they travel. Well, they don't have any kids, yeah.
Speaker 3:And when you've been working for 48 years, I think you get like six months paid vacation a year or something it's insane. Um, so they have the time to do it. Pam and david, they both of them have been great community supporters as well. You know, pam, she works up at rim as a teacher there, so I think she'll probably retire in the next year or two.
Speaker 1:She'd be at least eligible to so is the when's the council election. That's that the same as?
Speaker 3:yours, everything is november the 5th, so it follows the general election. Okay, is that the same as yours? Everything is November the 5th follows the general election.
Speaker 1:Okay, so that was a pretty quick decision too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that one I wasn't even aware of. So okay, we do have a great council, though that's one thing I'll say Tabitha who's—those two will be opposing each other. Tabitha's been awesome as well. Williamston wins either way. I'll just put it to you that way um, williamston wins.
Speaker 1:Either way, I'll just, I'll just put it to you that way, all right, uh, just to let everybody know. Uh, the the phone line's like dead, so I'm sorry zach.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know a guy yeah, we uh they've redone a bunch of things with the phones and uh that that got caught up in it, I guess. But uh apologize for that, zach, we'll have you on next week, but I know what he wanted to talk about. Rocky and holly, you can join in too here. Puggles is totally biased, so she can't uh give any opinion on this. But, um, college football getting started and of course clemson's first game is against georgia georgia in yes at a neutral site so so to speak.
Speaker 1:Yeah, at noon All the big games are at noon this year.
Speaker 1:But I thought last year Georgia was the best team. When they lost to Alabama and it knocked them out of the playoff, I thought that was bad. I thought they were killing everybody up to that point and they lost to a very good team and didn't make the playoffs. I thought georgia was the best team. I thought they could have beaten michigan, but they didn't make it and they just seemed to keep, you know, reloading. What do you guys, you clemson people, think because I don't know much about the team this year uh, clemson didn't have the best year last year george is gonna kill him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm saying by four touchdowns or so, and I'm a clemson, didn't have the best year last year. Georgia's going to kill them yeah, I'm saying by four touchdowns or so, and I'm a Clemson fan. What do you think, holly?
Speaker 2:I'm a huge Clemson fan and I go to the games and Will Madeline and I everybody's going to be there. You know, of course I wish that we don't, but you know I'll be honest with you, I don't keep up with some of that as much as other people do. Sometimes years, football seasons are for tailgating and there's other years where they're for football.
Speaker 3:This will be a tailgating year.
Speaker 2:I think I hope not, but you never know.
Speaker 1:You never know. That's right the thing about.
Speaker 3:Clemson is. They'll go up against a clearly superior team, whip their high end in and then they'll play Wake Forest and lose or something Right, right, so you just never know.
Speaker 1:So we'll see Interesting matchup. Heck of a way to start the season, that's for sure. It is, it is, it should be a great game though. Yeah, absolutely it really should Hot, probably miserably hot. Yeah, you know, I saw the weather.
Speaker 3:It's supposed to days like low temperatures For spring water festivals, thank you Lord, yeah, but then by the weekend it's going to warm up. Well, 86, I think, is what the high is for Saturday.
Speaker 1:It's not bad, it's not bad, I guess then it warms up like 90s next week again. But yeah, that would be nice If it was 86 for the spring water festival. That's like 30 degrees lower than it normally is for the spring water festival yeah, it's usually the hottest weekend, did he?
Speaker 2:what did he say? He said clemson's gonna beat georgia. See, I knew he would say he has the most faith. I'm with you, zach, I'm with you. What's the score gonna be, zach? What do you think the score is gonna be?
Speaker 1:um, I I'll be honest, I have not um dived in to um all the all the games that are going on and looked around at who's supposed to be great and all that and, to be honest, it's it's tough to keep track of with all the games that are going on and looked around at who's supposed to be great and all that and to be honest, it's tough to keep track of with all the movement now and the NIL deals the portals.
Speaker 1:See, you don't have to worry about that with Clemson, because they don't do any of that.
Speaker 2:They're going to have to start doing something.
Speaker 1:And that's why some people think they're sinking is because they haven't gotten real involved in that. We'll see, we'll see.
Speaker 2:So Zach said 27-24.
Speaker 1:No way.
Speaker 2:Clemson and he said all you've got to do is remember one name. What's that? Sammy Brown. Okay, so we'll see. We'll see, all right.
Speaker 1:Zach, we got that His team ran in high school playing Palmetto this week, so obviously Ren will be a big favorite, wren moving up to 4A though this year. So most of their games are going to be against tougher competition, so we'll see how they do. Like Poundersville? No well, do they play Poundersville?
Speaker 10:this year they still play them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Of course, you guys are 3A and you guys have a whole bunch of new people teams that you'll be playing this year, A lot of people teams that you'll be playing this year, A lot of like the parochial schools, like Christ.
Speaker 2:Church St Joe's Southside.
Speaker 1:Christian all on the Powdersville schedule this year, so that's interesting and we'll be doing the Powdersville home games as part of our learning our sports live streaming for our department here.
Speaker 2:So, zach, I had one more comment for you, mr. What's that that? Um? You're a phillies fan, so you're delusional I'm delusional.
Speaker 1:They're up seven games on the braves. Wait, this guy thinks clint is gonna win and you're the delusional one come on, now he has hope he has, hope he's. Yeah, I'm the delusional one. I'm sorry, Zach, we will make sure we get this thing fixed and you can tell us all about your great prediction on the next show.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:That's right, but we've got a few more things we want to talk about with Rocky. You started something recently and I'd like to know you know, the motivation behind it, why you wanted to do it, what it's all about? The Burgess Family Foundation.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So my wife and I started planning about a year ago and started to start initiating the paperwork that's required to become a 501c3 nonprofit. Obviously she's very passionate about education. I'm very passionate about everything.
Speaker 3:Williamston and oftentimes government can't be everything to everybody. For example, the school district may have a need that can't be met by local taxes or by traditional methods. The same thing with Williamston. It may be adopt a rest stop or something like that. We wanted to make sure that there was an avenue within the city by which to fund some of those opportunities as much as we possibly can. And one thing that we came across oftentimes is if somebody wrote a check out to, let's say, the Career Center and they think they're a business and they think it's tax deductible. It may or may not be tax deductible, depending on your accountant, but for sure it depends on if you get audited or not, but for sure. Same thing with the city, but for sure if you do to, a 501c3 is most definitely tax deductible. So we worked on that. We finally got our 501c3 status. Matter of fact, the actual formal stuff came in the mail today from the IRS and that's a difficult process.
Speaker 3:It is. It's about a year-long process. You can act as a 501c3, which is what we planned on doing until we got our letter. But now we're official, we're registered with the Secretary of State's office, all that good stuff. So primarily it's to benefit Williamston, it's to benefit education. We may do some scholarships. That's one of the ideas that we're talking about doing.
Speaker 3:Those of you who are familiar with my wife know that she's a James F Burns scholar and both of us come from very humble beginnings and so there was no way that I could attend college. By the way, I didn't. I don't have a degree. My wife obviously has multiple degrees, but that's largely a part to the James F Burns Foundation somebody thinking ahead and planning for the future. And we want to leave a legacy behind. You know, long after we're dead and gone, we'd like to still have something that people remember us by the things that we've done in the community.
Speaker 3:And I don't have an infinite source of revenue either. So you know, being able to have a golf tournament, get business sponsors, that type of thing is very, very important to the mission of, you know, supporting those community activities. So we've got a golf tournament coming up on October the 26th at Pine Lake. If you go to the Burgess Family Foundation on Facebook you'll see a registration link and stuff like that too, to be able to register for it. It's $350 for a team of four. We're still looking for some whole sponsors and things like that, but it promises to be an absolutely outstanding day and that will be our first fundraiser. And then we're looking to do probably in the spring we will do a large oyster roast. For those of you who are familiar with me, I do tons of oyster roasts.
Speaker 3:We cook for thousands of people, so there's no reason we can't pull off a successful event like that in Williamson as well. So we're looking forward to it. Looking forward to being able to give back to our community. We've been blessed and highly favored.
Speaker 2:Well, you've been giving back for a long time. We have, but oftentimes.
Speaker 3:You know again, I don't have an infinite source of revenue and we give back to our community, but this will actually take me out of the mix too. So you have a board that tells what we fund, what we don't fund. As long as it meets our mission statement, that can be funded. So we'll probably take applications quarterly will be my guess and then we'll have the board review and determine what needs funding and to what amount.
Speaker 1:When do you think you're ready to start taking?
Speaker 3:those applications. So we're ready to start taking those applications, probably immediately Now. We don't have any money right now, but we're going to supply all your wants.
Speaker 3:So we can take your application and look at at it um no, we do have a little bit of money, not not much, but um, I'll take us put in some seed money. Uh, the family has uh to help get the thing up and going. So our golf fundraiser will be the the very first one and that will generate a little bit more seed money and the proceeds for the golf tournament go specifically to uh masonic activities. Those of you who don't know, I'm a Mason. It's a fraternity. You don't talk a lot about Masonry, but it's a fraternity that takes good guys and makes them better, better men. We believe in philanthropy, we believe in doing good by others and certainly helping out the community.
Speaker 1:They're the same guys that do the barbecue festival.
Speaker 3:Those are called our Masonic tenants.
Speaker 1:There, you go.
Speaker 2:And y'all recently, in the last what two years, donated to every school in your area. That's correct.
Speaker 3:In the Masonic Lodge. The pig in the park raises a good bit of money, but every bit of that goes out to charities, local charities, whether it be the food bank, Summer Free Camp, the mentor program at Palmetto Middle School. It goes out to various different groups, and we were looking around the lodge and we see some major issues, structural issues that need to be tended to before they become worse. And so our options are we keep the money and fix our stuff, ensure those charities we've been contributing to for years, or we do something different. So this is an opportunity for us to do something different. That way, those charities can still receive that funding that they've been dependent on year after year. We don't shortchange anybody.
Speaker 1:Now, am I correct?
Speaker 3:You haven't been involved in Masons that long right, since I was 21 years old, sir, then I am wrong.
Speaker 1:I'm thinking of somebody else, because there was somebody that I was talking to recently that had just gotten into it maybe for the last seven, eight years and had really gotten a lot out of it.
Speaker 3:I'm past master of Williamston.
Speaker 1:Lodge no 24. And we attend a lot of lodges. 21 was a long time ago.
Speaker 3:Yes, it's been several decades ago. How about that? That's a long time ago. Yes, it's been several decades ago.
Speaker 1:How about that? But yeah, that's really cool to be a part of that and giving back to the community. That enriches your life and the lives of others.
Speaker 3:That's what it's all about leaving a legacy behind, making the world a better place than you found it. That's right.
Speaker 1:All right. Speaking of that, you're now the spokesman for Tesla in the Williamston area. Just about he's an expert for sure, there's more per capita Teslas in Williamston than any town anywhere around, because two of them are in Rocky's driveway.
Speaker 2:That's right. I was wondering whose Cybertruck that was. Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1:He's giving rides after the show.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I'll be popping in, but tell me about this Cybertruck. So tell me about this Cybertruck. People either say it's the weirdest thing they've ever seen, or they're like this is the most incredible thing I've ever seen.
Speaker 3:It's a little bit of both.
Speaker 1:So tell me about it.
Speaker 3:So you've got to go back to the Model 3 first, which is my first Tesla. I got it around February. I went out and drove one and had no interest my son. Obviously I'm in the technology business, so I love technology and anything that can make my life easier.
Speaker 3:well, I'm here to tell you full self-driving definitely makes your life a lot easier and it makes me a lot more efficient because I'm doing a lot of things when I'm traveling and so having a car drive you and take you there is pretty doggone sweet. So after driving one I was like, yeah, I've got to have this. And selfishly you know, obviously I'm not a left-winger person who's, you know, go green and wants to hug trees all the time. I do care about my environment. Everybody wants clean water and, you know, fresh air. And if it helps the environment, that's wonderful, but that is not why I bought it air.
Speaker 3:and if it helps the environment, that's wonderful, but that is not why I bought it I bought it because it's fast, it's fun, it's easy to drive and it makes me more efficient and it's loaded with technology. Um. So before I bought that, I actually was on the list about four years ago for a cyber truck. You pay 350 bucks kind of a deposit and I thought one day, if it comes in, you know I can always get my money back, or um or not get it yeah, um, but after driving the model 3 I went, yeah, I will have that cyber truck.
Speaker 3:It's gonna be a while. And I was on the list and they were telling me november. Well, I got a um, got a notification that, hey, we got a vn for you, if you, if you're ready to pick it up. So I went and picked it up last weekend in Atlanta and I absolutely love it, fell in love with it.
Speaker 2:Do you like it better than the Model 3?
Speaker 3:I like them equally. Okay, both of them are different. Obviously, one's a truck, one's a car, sure, so the functionality is different. The Cybertruck definitely gets more head turns.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 3:My poor daughters, Lord help. I dropped them off at the school at Palmetto and everybody stops, turns and looks that's right, and so they're pretty quiet individuals and they're hugely embarrassed, but it's a lot of fun to drive. You don't just stop in the if you're in a hurry. Don't drive the Cybertruck, because if you stop at a restaurant or somewhere, you're going to get tied up for 15, 20 minutes. People won't look at it and talk to you, and I'm always happy to do that. It's unique, loaded with technology, a lot of fun and super fast.
Speaker 1:Does it have a 845 horsepower, wow, wow. See, people don't think of that when they think of electric vehicles With pure torque all-wheel drive. It's got a towing package. It does have a towing package.
Speaker 10:Really.
Speaker 5:Oh, wow.
Speaker 3:The only thing it won't do is tow my fifth wheel, and that's simply because there's not anything in the bed. The design is such that that's not conducive. It wouldn't work, Holly.
Speaker 1:I can see Robbie getting one of those now.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1:Well, first I've got to go for a spin first.
Speaker 2:We've got to go for a spin first. Rocky promised me he'd take me for a spin. I don't like the yoke.
Speaker 3:It has a yoke for a steering wheel, oh really, yeah, that's the only thing I don't like. And the reason I don't like it is I'm used to driving on my knee. Yeah, radio right was on a cell phone. You know all those illegal things.
Speaker 2:I don't know that driving with your knees illegal, well, I'll give you that.
Speaker 3:But phone and radio but it wasn't back in the day, that's true.
Speaker 2:I'll give you that it was a long time ago. We did all kinds of things. That's right. It's kind of an underlying theme of the show
Speaker 1:that's right, but uh, yeah, what? What can you tell us otherwise? You know, when you say it's full of technology, what are some of the standout things?
Speaker 3:It's the little things that you don't realize. That makes life easier. For example, it raises the garage door for me. It closes the garage door If I go to my farm. It automatically adjusts the height. It knows where I'm at and so it'll go high so that I don't drag to ground when I'm going over stumps and riding out through the pasture. And what?
Speaker 2:when you mean by automatically open the the garage door when you get close it doesn't, you don't have to get anything, yeah no, I don't hit it.
Speaker 3:And when I leave it closed the garage door and if, for some reason you know um, you know my wife didn't pull her car all the way in or whatever, and it didn't close it will, it will notify me. Hey, your garage door is not closed. The little things like that make a big, big difference.
Speaker 3:You know, if you accidentally leave the I guess you call it a tonneau cover, I think that rolls up it'll send me an alert on the phone Every morning. It's preconditioned so that it knows whenever I go out. It starts learning your pattern behavior.
Speaker 2:So it knows when you get ready to go to work per se Correct. Yep. And what does it do? It preheats or cools the vehicle down.
Speaker 3:My cabin's never under 90 degrees, ever, ever, ever. If I want to order floor mats, I just simply go on the Tesla app and order floor mats. If I want another Tesla, I just go on there, put my credit card in and Tesla arrives in a couple weeks. Everything's just simple. Other tesla just go on there, put my credit card in. Tesla arrives in a couple weeks. It everything's just it's. If I have a problem, I click service on my app and a couple days later a guy rolls up in a tesla service vehicle serves at my parking lot so he comes to you yeah, I mean for the most part, unless it's something major, but there's nothing really to go wrong with it well, I was gonna say so.
Speaker 2:So the cons to it that I've heard is the battery right.
Speaker 3:Battery 10 to 15 years. That's an industry standard with 2% degradation per year. So 10 years you lost roughly 10 to 20% of your battery Again. I can go about 400 and some odd miles. Who does that a day?
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:And my son just got back from Wisconsin. He took my Model 3 to Wisconsin and it plots your route to a supercharger. So I pull up at Dumbly, a Bucky's or somewhere like that, and you plug up and you're there for 10, 15 minutes 20 minutes max if you go from zero to 80%, which is what's a typical charge rate, and you roll on about your business. So by the time you go grab a burger or use the bathroom, Does it cost you anything? Yeah, it's about $15 for an average fill up.
Speaker 2:Which is a heck of a lot cheaper than so.
Speaker 3:I'm actually going all out. Tesla we're getting at my office. I'm getting the Tesla Powerwall, I got two of those coming along with Tesla solar panels and I've got enough to be able to charge my vehicles, run my whole office and still have a little bit left to sell back to Duke.
Speaker 2:That is very cool, that's awesome. That's very cool.
Speaker 1:Very cool. So he's a proponent of the Go Green stuff now and the Green New Deal. No, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 3:No, not really.
Speaker 1:You're just a fan of cool.
Speaker 3:If it works for you, by all means do it. I'm free fan of cool. If it works for you, by all means do it. I'm free market baby. If it works for you, do it. If you don't like it, don't do it. Exactly, I still got a couple of F-350 pickup trucks and a big deuce and a half, you'll burn some gas, yeah yeah, all right, we're winding things up here.
Speaker 1:There are a few student questions for you and Puggles. You're a student. You can ask a question of the governor, the mayor here. But here's the type of questions I'm getting from my students these days. I don't know whether it's just creativity or something else. They want to know what chair sits behind your mayor's desk. Does it swivel? Is it fluffy? Does it recline? Are there, are there wheels? If so, how many? And what is your dream chair?
Speaker 3:well, I have seen those chairs that are I don't sit in a chair long enough to to really make a difference, but but those, those chairs that are, um, that you see advertised with the infomercials. I've always, always wanted one of those, but they tell you you can get a if you use this promo code. You get $300. You get $300 off and I'm like, how much is a dang chair, for God's sake, like?
Speaker 2:$800 or something, so my chair is very.
Speaker 3:It's a used chair. It actually came. I commandeered it Don't tell anybody when they were remodeling Anderson School, district 1. Board of Trustees office. I may have commandeered one of those trustee chairs and placed it in the mayor's office in Williamston. That's been a long time, though it's been a long time. Statute of limitations.
Speaker 2:Statute of limitations yeah, all right, so it's a leather chair.
Speaker 3:It is not leather.
Speaker 2:Pleather chair.
Speaker 3:No, it's not even pleather.
Speaker 2:It's cloth.
Speaker 1:It's a no, it's not even pleather, it's cloth. It's a cloth chair. All right, all right, but it's comfortable.
Speaker 3:It is fairly comfortable it was way better than the 49.99 office depot chair that I had. Yeah yeah.
Speaker 1:Um, here's a question about restaurants in williamston has. First of all, has anyone ever called you rocky burger? And uh, would you ever, you know, get a restaurant, have a, have a sandwich named after you as such? But seriously, the other part of the question is what are you doing for this town to combat the disproportionate ratio of fast food to local dining restaurants, and they see it as a problem. Why all the fast food and no real restaurants? What are we doing about the real restaurant? Well, like rain, sit down, okay, it's very simple.
Speaker 3:Um, you have to look around and you got to be thinking outside the box. We got to take for granted every day that, hey, the smoking pig is there. Very good too, have you?
Speaker 2:been to the smoking pig um.
Speaker 3:So you got, you got the pig, you got rains, you also have um the panda panda's got. A matter of fact, I had four egg rolls from there for lunch yesterday. It's probably not the healthiest, um, but I would like to see a meeting three you got. Mr habaneros has just opened back up under your ownership. That I've heard fantastic I haven't been there yet fiestaiesta of course. So don't give me that about this fast food.
Speaker 1:Too much fast food, okay, so yeah, what do they want?
Speaker 8:You were agreeing with them, puggles. Well, actually I agree with the opposite.
Speaker 3:Oh, the lack of— what would you like to see?
Speaker 2:I would like to see a Chick-fil-A and a Starbucks.
Speaker 3:They're there in the park. They are in the park At least once a week. Wait, what Really? A food truck, really? Okay, I know this. They weren't there in the summer, so let me go ahead and add too, they were the mayor didn't just sit down and say I'll take one of these and not one of these and one of those.
Speaker 1:That's not the, and able to talk to some folks and say we used to be a great community. And here's why I've heard sometimes you know everybody wants the fancy restaurants, but there's not always the budgets of everybody to go with it to support a fancy restaurant. But what I thought would always work would be like a cookout.
Speaker 5:Cookout would be fantastic.
Speaker 3:Because, that's like the cheapest fast food. That is fast food, yeah, but that's what I mean. They have the best milkshakes too. They do. They have the best milkshakes Sacket two Chick-fil-A.
Speaker 1:And they're cheap.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're the cheapest meal out there Can't beat it, they are.
Speaker 1:I thought they would work well.
Speaker 2:I'm surprised they haven't showed up in a town like Queens, put that right across the park in the Ingalls lot. There, there you go it is, and the kids love it too.
Speaker 1:They come in with that stuff all the time. It's not just the adults.
Speaker 3:We're getting a bunch of yuppie kids, all of them playing pickleball and drink coffee.
Speaker 2:I know Fancy drinks.
Speaker 3:Fancy drinks.
Speaker 2:Either get it from there or from there.
Speaker 3:Who would have thought Palmetto students would be bougie, bougie, bougie.
Speaker 1:Either go in there or over to the Cotton Duck over in West. Let's get it back to Williamson. Let's get it back to Williamson. Here's the last question I told him. I would read it Okay, as a public official, have you ever had some threats to you that and what you think caused it? Are you anxious about a threat on your life consistently? Do you feel protected in your city?
Speaker 3:Well, I shouldn't be laughing it's serious to answer that you've always got a drunk or something that kind of gets mouthy or something like that. Do I feel threatened? No, I can handle my own, I promise you. So that doesn't bother me, not very much at all and what I, what I like.
Speaker 1:What you've said um other places is about the security in the park has got so much better. Correct Mineral spraying A lot of it because there's so much going on over there.
Speaker 3:Correct. Nobody wants to commit a crime where everybody and their brothers are around. We're good guys around, so it's curb to vandalism tremendously. But let me also add too my cyber truck is bulletproof. There you go, and it has a nuclear option on it, so you touch it. Nuclear option and it will actually positive pressurize the cabin and it's got a series of filters and stuff that will supposedly stay for 40 days inside the cabin during a nuclear, biological or chemical attack.
Speaker 1:Oh, nice to know, since we're near the Oconee station. You never know.
Speaker 2:I did not know that Wow.
Speaker 1:He's going to come out of there. It's going to be like the walking dead going on outside.
Speaker 3:When the zombie apocalypse happens, Rocky comes out of his cyber truck.
Speaker 2:He's got 40 days.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's amazing. Yeah it is All right. So it's time to wrap things up and to do that. We always have our guest recommendations. Rocky, you've been on many times before. We've gotten some of your entertainment and food recommendations, but of course, they always need updating as you visit other places and read or watch things or listen to things. So, uh, what do you have for us? Uh, entertainment wise that we should check out um, obviously, milltown players I have missed the money and Clyde show, but I've heard it was fantastic. I heard great things.
Speaker 3:For local entertainment. That's where to go, yeah.
Speaker 1:And they just finished what their 10th season already.
Speaker 2:I think so.
Speaker 1:So getting ready for a new one, we'll have to have Will on to talk about that.
Speaker 3:You don't want Will on. He's boring.
Speaker 1:He's anything but boring. And what about food? Any food recommendations?
Speaker 2:Besides Panda Cafe and the four egg rolls. Let me tell you what those egg rolls are. On point now.
Speaker 3:They hit just right. It's hard to beat Rain's.
Speaker 1:Their pot roast.
Speaker 5:Pot roast sandwich. No, just the pot roast, just the pot roast. Yeah, I love their sandwich.
Speaker 3:With those green beans that are. They're not like grandma's green beans that are mushy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're kind of snappy Al dente, I think they call it.
Speaker 3:Have you tried the broccoli? I have the broccolini.
Speaker 2:They have the best broccoli around.
Speaker 3:Yep and their chicken wings are good on Tuesdays. Buy one, get one. Oh, okay, no it's Tuesday too, I have to remember that.
Speaker 2:Oh, it is.
Speaker 1:Tuesday yeah, yeah, business. So are you coming, holly? I can't. I gotta be mom tonight. Take puggles with you. Yeah, take puggles. Robotics, it's always busy, always busy, but found time for the show tonight, so we appreciate you coming by puggles. Of course, you're welcome anytime. Now we're only doing these like twice a month now, so but we are doing one next week with, uh, angie stringer because it's time for the hot air fair, and all that with the cancer association and you know they're coming out here friday morning are they?
Speaker 2:uh-huh, they'll be out here with a couple of balloons friday morning, um, bright and early. I mean they're here usually like at 6 30. You know we started this when williamston had it and they've been coming over, and so they. They make a point to always come over. Um, I've been on standby to fly in one of these balloons. Yeah, for years it just hasn't happened, so I'm hoping this time it will happen.
Speaker 3:I got to do that. Did you get to do it? It was fantastic, and I'm scared to death. Me too, I am scared to death.
Speaker 1:I was supposed to be on one with Robbie Binniker.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you had your mom out there, your mom out there.
Speaker 1:But it was too windy.
Speaker 2:It was too windy, so we'll check it out.
Speaker 1:It's all psyched up. Let's see what happens. It's loads of fun, that's right, it sounds like it and that's always a very cool weekend and of course, it's a big show now down in Anderson Sure is You've got the concerts going on and all that. Did you go both nights or just one? I went both nights.
Speaker 3:And a good thing I was in the VIP area.
Speaker 5:Thank you, anderson County. And so I got to be in the air-conditioned tent. I got to go out on stage, that's right.
Speaker 3:Nothing like looking at 40,000 people looking at you.
Speaker 2:Looking all goofy. Sometimes you get perks as politicians, just sometimes. Yeah, hey, there's got to hear all the other stuff Got to go backstage during Kid Rock and stuff.
Speaker 3:That was pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Oh, you got to meet him. I did not get to meet him. I would have loved to see him picture you in Kid Rock.
Speaker 3:I would have loved to. That would have been awesome.
Speaker 1:Did you watch the Republican Convention when he was playing? I did oh my gosh, I did not. That was cringeworthy.
Speaker 3:We need to have a political show one night. Yeah, we'll have somebody on both sides of the aisle. Maybe we'll do it late night or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that would be fun, Holly it would be. Holly would be like cringing the whole time. I would, Because we're on the school radio station Just talking about it now, it's all good.
Speaker 3:Listen. Here's the thing. Here's what we're missing in politics in America these days. You can agree, to disagree and still get along.
Speaker 2:There's no reason to act a dang fool. Agreed and it's like we can have a middle person. Yep, you know what I mean. You can have middle thoughts. It doesn't have to be one way or the other, it can be. Just talk, I know, just talk. That's the thing.
Speaker 3:Just talk and realize too, you're not the smartest guy in the room most all the time.
Speaker 1:Rocky, thanks for coming on and kicking off our season number five.
Speaker 2:As usual.
Speaker 1:So we always like keeping in touch with you and you're always into some interesting stuff, that's right.
Speaker 3:Keep it spicy, and we're fortunate to have you in Williamston. We really are.
Speaker 2:We're fortunate to be included in Williamston's town now.
Speaker 3:So know that we're on it. Y'all are officially in the city limits, we are, we are.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:All right, rocky Burgess, everybody the mayor of Williamston and if you're listening right now, you can get this on the podcast and we'll be promoting that as well. It'll be up on Spotify and Google and Apple and all that in the next couple of days to hear everything. So tell all your friends to tune in and hear what's going on at Williamston. We'll see most of you at the Spring Water Festival this weekend and again Angie Stringer next week on the Boone Show on MyPulse Radio.