Pine Island park has an opening date. What the Lake Murray attraction offers
Park officials on Wednesday updated the Lake Murray community on plans for Pine Island, which will now have a 'soft opening' to the public on Oct. 1 after years of preparation.
Initially, the park will open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, said Tim Ritter, Pine Island's new on-site park manager. That will allow the new park to gauge how many visitors the new park might draw during the off season and work out any kinks before an expected busier season next summer.
Ritter and other park rangers hosted an open house on Wednesday so the public could take a look at the island that has been closed to visitors for years now, and get a sense of what the parks department hopes to do with it before it opens back up.
Pine Island was once maintained as a getaway spot for employees of South Carolina Electric & Gas, which owned the lake and its hydropower dam. It was closed in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the struggling utility — which was absorbed by Dominion Energy in 2019 — offered the island to the state as a potential future park to meet its tax liabilities after the failed V.C. Summer nuclear project.
The new 27-acre park was originally slated to be opened by the fall of 2024, but several snags delayed the planned opening. A fire destroyed the building meant to house the park manager in April of that year, and then the island suffered damage to both trees and structures from Hurricane Helene last fall.
Now the park is back on track, and the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism is eager to show it off. For the last three months, Ritter has been living in the rebuilt manager's house with his wife and 10-month-old son. The former manager of Croft State Park in Spartanburg has family in Chapin, while his wife's family is in Columbia, so 'we're so fortunate to be able to live on site,' he said.
The surrounding community has been very welcoming. One neighbor even called to tell them when a delivery person left their packages at the island's entry booth in the rain.
Neighbors had been concerned about traffic headed to the small island on the narrow residential streets leading from the interstate. Parks officials said the plan is to limit entry at the park gate based on how many parking spaces are available on the island, but that nearby residents can walk in or bicycle if they get a 'park passport', similar to how the park service manages its beach parks.
'We don't want you to be coming home from church and be waiting an hour to turn into your driveway,' said regional parks chief John Moon.
Entrance for the park will be $6 for adults, $3.75 for seniors, $3.50 for children between 6 and 15, and free for kids 5 and under.
The park still has some repairs to make to its docks and its picnic stations, which may be adjusted depending on how many visitors the park sees once it opens, Moon said.
The parks department plans to renovate the existing clubhouse into what will be called Sunset Hall, with large windows to take in the views of the lake and a stone patio with a fire pit, which the park will then rent out for events. But gone will be the old clubhouse pool. Instead the park service wants to offer spaces for swimming in the lake.
Spectacular sunsets over the lake are seen as a top attraction, and Moon said the park hopes to offer by-appointment, after-hour tours so guests will be able to see the sight.
'The sunsets are absolutely stunning,' Ritter said.
The park also plans to do offer boat owners slips at the marina for six-month to one-year leases. Residents who live within two square miles of the park will have the first opportunity to purchase them, Ritter said.
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