The Reedy River Duck Derby is back in downtown Greenville at Falls Park this year. The Rotary Club of the Reedy River Greenville hosts the event. Thousands of cool little rubber duckies float down the Reedy River and over the falls in a race to the finish. Should be fun to have this event once again in Greenville.
One of the things I’ve noticed here in the Upstate is just how many different organizations there are when it comes to economic development and growth. Of course with economic growth comes more businesses locating here with the additional housing to accommodate the growth in employees. It’s a terrific place for business – particularly those in manufacturing, distribution and logistics. It seems a bit light when it comes to IT tech and med tech but there are movements afoot to try to bring more of those companies and or divisions to the Upstate. The Upstate Business Journal has an excellent summary of Upstate Economic Development organizations.
Companies continue to press ahead with the vaccine mandates. There are three big medical systems here in the Upstate…Prisma, Bon Secours and Spartanburg Regional. I’ve been hearing different things about what each is requiring of their employees when it comes to vaccine mandates. From what I’ve heard Spartanburg Regional has been giving exemptions. I believe Prisma’s mandate is temporarily on hold for now. However, “Catholic” Bon Secours is pressing on despite the judicial injunctions temporarily halting Biden’s vaccine mandate. How liberal they will be with exemptions is still to be seen. As I talk with people who work at big companies in general, they are not stopping despite recent court injuctions.
This e-mail that was purportedly sent to Bon Secours employees today. Note the elusive and mysterious “ministry” leadership. It seems to be a nice way to deflect from any one particular person being held responsible for this decision. Maybe all the employees know who the “ministry” leadership is but that would be great to know and see a public link to remind them who made this judgement call on the vaccine mandate. Does Bon Secours consider their multi-billion business a ministry? 🙂 I suppose. Seems like a stretch to me. But whatever…they are pushing ahead with the vaccine…maybe it’s what Jesus would want them to do. I don’t know.
People are not happy about this. I realize some of you reading this might be cheering this news on that health care companies are forcing all their employees to get vaccinated. This is not going over well here in South Carolina where there still runs a spirit of freedom and independence. My hope is that the stories about vaccine injuries and deaths are exaggerated and don’t continue to happen. If problems continue, apparently Pfizer, JNJ and Moderna cannot be held liable, but what about these companies pushing their employees to be vaccinated? Might they be held liable? The executives? The boards of directors? Only time will tell.
Here’s a helpful link to the Masterplan for the Verdae development in Greenville, SC. This has been an ongoing development for years. They plan to have more than 10,000 residents and more than 550 businesses in this development when it’s completed. It’s the largest development in the history of Greenville. It is continuing to be developed today.
It’s exciting to see the continued growth in Greenville both in terms of housing, businesses and large employers. Here’s the main link to the Verdae Community and Development.
For the third Sunday in-a-row there has been a medical freedom rally in downtown Greenville. Three weeks ago about 150 people gathered in Falls Park to express their concerns and raise questions about the vaccine mandates and possible Covid passports. The group grew to about 300-400 people the following Sunday as an event was sponsored by the Greenville County GOP. That same group gather yesterday albeit was a smaller crowd of maybe 200 people or so. These rally’s will continue for the next two Sundays. I’d encourage all to show up. We need more people!
My wife and I have attended these with our two teenage sons. It’s been great to meet new people who are willing to express and demonstrate their concern about some of the increasingly tyrranical moves made by government. So far in South Carolina we have not had to deal with the heavy hand of the Governor or the legislature in demanding vaccine mandates or Covid passports. I have not heard much yet as far as businesses requiring the vaccine for their employees. We have seen that both Prisma and Bon Secours will be requiring their employees to get vaxxed after President Biden announced his mandates last week.
As I have talked with others who work at big companies, the consensus right now seems to be that the employers are highly encouraging their employees to get vaxxed but they are not yet requiring it. Many seem to be waiting until they see the regulation come down from OSHA which it has not yet. It would be nice to see if at least one of these big companies would take on these mandates but pushing back against the Biden Administration and OSHA and sue to get these mandates withdrawn. I have not seen anything yet that would confirm any big company has done this. Now that said, floating around the internet the other day was information that perhaps General Dynamics may have withdrawn their vaccine requirement for their employees. Whether that is a permanent or temporary withdrawal, I do not know but will watch for more information. If this is true, this is in directly conflict with the orders from President Biden especially as they are a defense contractor with more than 100,000 employees. This would be a BIG DEAL.
Join us for our next Medical Freedom Rallies on Sunday, September 26th and October 3rd from 3-5pm at the Peace Center in downtown Greenville, SC.
The City of Greenville has been working on plans for a number of years to revitalize a 60+ acre park on the west side of town that has been allowed to deteriorate. The revitalization project is just part of a number of efforts by the City of Greenville to continue to make this city such a great place to live.
The Greenville City Council just approved the Unity Park contract with Harper General Contractors to build the 262 unit apartment building. The contract is for just over $38,000,000.
Check out a Google Image Search for Unity Park Greenville, SC. There are many terrific renderings of what the city envisions the park and surrounding area will become in the near future.
For more information on this amazing redevelopment effort, the City of Greenville has a dedicated site for Unity Park Greenville.