Personal Injury Attorneyin Mount Pleasant, SC.

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCSC)- A new medical building is coming to the Lowcountry that will be located directly across from the East Cooper Medical Center in Mount Pleasant.

The chief strategy officer for the East Cooper Medical Center, Thomas Hayden, said that the 2-story, 40,000-square-foot medical facility will be called the Center for Women’s Health

“It will be a centralized place where women from our community can find the best doctors all under one roof to continue the legacy of East Cooper,” Hayden said. “At its foundation women’s health has always been important to the community and we’re excited to see that into this next phase.”

Novant Health owns the East Cooper Medical Center and Hayden said that they will also own this new women’s medical center.

He said that the new facility will provide a variety of women’s health services.

“Once the building is complete, we will be co-locating a number of services so that the women in our community can expect to see obstetrics and gynecology, maternal fetal medicine for high-risk pregnancies, neonatology, breast surgery, pelvic medicine and of course a mammography will be in the building,” Hayden said.

He said they are expecting preparation of the construction site to begin in the first quarter of next year. Once that starts Hayden said he predicts the facility will open in 18 months.

He said that the opening of this new facility is important, saying that since the beginning East Cooper Medical Center has always strived to take care of the women in the community.

“We affirm our commitment to women’s health which started East Cooper,” Hayden said. “You’d be hard to find a neighbor or a friend or family member whose child wasn’t born either at our old hospital or at our new hospital and we’re continuing that legacy to take care of all of the women at different stages of their life.”

Hayden said for those interested in following along on the process of this new medical building to check out their LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and website for any future announcements.

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It’s kind of scary watching the left, Mount Pleasant and all those Exchange Club guys join forces.

They're battling elected officials, West Ashley residents and the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce over the proposed half-cent transportation sales tax.

Who do you root for there?

Well, depends on how much you enjoy gridlock.

These disparate factions have their reasons to oppose the county's third sales tax on the Nov. 5 ballot, few of which have anything to do with our actual problems.

The Exchange Club wants to hurt CARTA because the public transportation agency wouldn’t let it renege on a land deal. Don’t ask; it’s complicated.

Mount Pleasant doesn't see enough in this for the town … probably because the county already tackled its biggest traffic problems.

Remember the nine-figure improvements to Johnnie Dodds? Or the Ravenel Bridge, which the county’s still paying for? Or Highway 41, funded by the previous sales tax but unbuilt because locals can't agree on its route?

The left (actually, an assortment of environmentalists and non-commuting Johns Islanders) wants to save the island from developers.

Since the last time they derailed 526 — when it would've cost a quarter as much — Johns Island’s population and number of homes has gone up 150%.

Turns out, developers don’t really care about adequate infrastructure. They’ll build anyway. Because, demand.

By decade's end, Johns Island's population will have doubled in 20 years ... with the same two ways on and off the island.

So, great job guys.

Now, we're all entitled to our own opinion … and these days too many think that includes their own facts. And these anti-tax campaigns are rife with facts that sound damning — when extenuating circumstances and pertinent details are omitted.

Let’s look at those.

The county hasn’t finished most projects from the last transportation sales tax.

True — it just broke ground on that Main Road flyover promised in 2016. But that argument only works if voters don't understand how the tax works, or how long road construction takes.

The county has completed two-thirds of the projects from its first two transportation sales taxes. The rest are underway.

Know why they aren’t done? Because the county finances projects as the money's collected. It’s called pay-as-you-go, and the county started this with the second round of sales tax projects to avoid overloading its bonding capacity ... and paying more interest with our money. So far, it's saved taxpayers about $200 million.

And, frankly, you can only do so much at once. One reason the flyover's behind is the county had trouble attracting bidders. Too much work out there.

The transportation sales tax will cost a family $1,200 per year.

Absolutely true … if your family spends $240,000 annually on local taxable items. The average family, however, will pay just shy of $10 a month.

Which they're already paying, since this referendum extends an existing tax.

Greenbelt projects will be shortchanged.

Also true, if nearly a half-billion dollars is shortchanging anyone. That's just funning with statistics.

This referendum dedicates $432 million to greenbelt projects, slightly more than the first two referendums combined. But it's a smaller percentage because this referendum is twice the size of the last one.

And it's only that big because 526 delays drove up the road's cost so much. Which brings us to …

This is all about extending 526 to Johns Island.

Actually, it's one-third about 526. A few points about that.

• Not building the road when it would've cost $500 million to $700 million absolutely did not stop growth on Johns Island (see above statistics). It has simply driven 20% of West Ashley roads over-capacity, because all the new Johns Island residents drive through it to get to their jobs downtown or in North Charleston.

• Despite misleading studies, 526 would save up to 40 minutes on a commute between Johns Island and downtown, and nearly an hour between the island and North Charleston. That 20-second malarkey includes trips between Citadel Mall and, say, Outback.

• No bike lane or public transportation is going to make a meaningful difference to congestion. Sorry, it just isn’t — even the S.C. Department of Transportation says so. You try commuting from Maybank and River Road to MUSC on a 10-speed in this climate.

• The populations of West Ashley, James Island and Johns Island are projected to grow by 63% in the next 25 years, highway or no. That's your reality check.

Remember, a lot of these same folks opposed the James Island connector. How would life around here be without that now?

So, vote against the sales tax if you want. Just understand you'll continue to sit in traffic that's gonna get worse.

Because, as we’ve established, lack of supporting infrastructure got us into this mess, yet it doesn’t stop development in South Carolina.

But half-truths can stop road improvements dead in their tracks.

Get a weekly recap of South Carolina opinion and analysis from The Post and Courier in your inbox on Monday evenings.

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