Roof Repair in Bluffton, SC

There’s a vote next week and if early ballot casting is a barometer of next Tuesday’s turnout, it looks like the percentage of voters who show up may struggle to get near double digits.

Early voting began Oct. 20 and ended Friday. Beaufort County has 140,000 registered voters but 31,085 are eligible to vote in the three upcoming municipal elections. Through the 9 days of early voting, said Jean Felix of the county board of voter registration and elections, 197 voters had cast ballots.

That equals 0.6% of the eligible registered voters.

“It’s really, really bad,” said Felix.

Voting in-person

In-person voters will go to the polls in Bluffton, Port Royal and Yemassee on Tuesday, where 13 candidates are fighting for seven town council seats.

So far, the three local elections, which feature two contested races for town council seats and a three-way battle for mayor, have not drawn much interest from local voters, based on early voting returns.

Turnout at municipal elections in off-year elections is typically low, Felix said. Off-year elections fall in odd years when there is no presidential or midterm election.

With polls from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, there’s still time to improve the dismal turnout percentage.

All the information on candidates and polling locations can be found at the website for the South Carolina Elections Commission at scvotes.gov or the county elections office.

If precinct locations have changed, signs with directions also will be posted at old polling places, she said.

Contested races are on the ballot in Port Royal and Yemassee.

Three candidates -- Darryl Owens, Mary Beth Gray Heyward and Angie Tillman -- are running for two seats on the Port Royal Town Council. The two candidates with the most votes will win four-year terms.

Voters in Yemassee will cast ballots for two Town Council seats and the mayor. Yemassee straddles both northern Beaufort County and Hampton County.

The candidates for Yemassee mayor are Ben BT Fennell, Libby Holloway and Colin Moore, the incumbent.

The town council candidates are Jay Cook, Stephen Henson, Lori Goodwin Poston, Jerry Thompson and Alfred Washington. Incumbents David Paul Murray and Stacy Pinckney are not running.

In Bluffton, Emily Vaux Burden and Fred Hamilton are unopposed for two seats.

Early voting, which began Oct. 20, ended on Friday.

This story was originally published October 31, 2025 at 12:34 PM.

The raid followed a new 287(g) agreement, which allows SLED officers to be trained and authorized to help enforce federal immigration law.

BLUFFTON, S.C. —

A Bluffton landscaper says federal agents detained and beat him during an ICE raid last month — even though he’s a U.S. citizen.

The man, who was born in Beaufort, says he was working at the Southern Marsh Nursery on May River Road when agents surrounded the area. The raid was part of a joint operation between Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED).

"We were just sitting in our trucks when they came with sirens and megaphones shouting, 'Don’t move!'" he said. "Everyone started to run."

The raid followed a new 287(g) agreement, which allows SLED officers to be trained and authorized to help enforce federal immigration law.

SLED confirms five foreign nationals were arrested for identity fraud. But the landscaper — who asked to remain anonymous for safety reasons — claims agents detained closer to 15 people and forced some to sign deportation papers.

"They brought enough vehicles to fill the road," he said. "It wasn’t just for five people."

He also accuses agents of physically assaulting him during the raid.

"He kicked my legs, grabbed my head, and dropped me," he said. "That’s when they started hitting me."

The landscaper says he plans to sue ICE and SLED, alleging his rights were violated. He also says the raids have left many Hispanic families in Bluffton living in fear.

"People are scared — especially women," he said. "They’re only targeting us because of our color. The ones who looked American — they didn’t even ask them if they were legal or not."

WJCL 22 News reached out to ICE multiple times for comment but has not heard back.SLED confirms the five people arrested are being held in the Beaufort County Jail.The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office says it assisted in the operation but played only a small role.

BLUFFTON, S.C. (WTOC) - [UPDATE 3:18 p.m. 09/26/2025] SLED has released a press release and warrants for the five people arrested yesterday in Beaufort County.

According to SLED, all five are foreign nationals who were arrested for using fraudulent Social Security Numbers in order to obtain employment at O’Hara Outdoors in Bluffton, South Carolina.

All five men - Francisco Ramirez Santiago (43), Pablo Ramirez Santiago (46), Arelio Saul Galicia De Leon (53), Erick Alfons Clauel Gonzalez (28), and Jose Moreno Romero (56) - were booked into the Beaufort County Detention Center.

SLED states the case will be prosecuted by the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office.

There is no mention of ICE in the warrants or the attached press release, despite earlier reports.

All five of these people - Jose Moreno Romero, Erick Alfons Clavel Gonzalez, Francisco Ramirez Santiago, Pablo Ramirez Santiago, and Arelio Saul Galicia De Leon - are charged with the same offense.

That offense is “identity fraud to obtain employment or avoid detection by law enforcement,” according to booking records.

WTOC is still working to confirm officially whether or not these arrests are connected to the ICE operation in Beaufort County earlier today.

[ORIGINAL STORY] An operation was carried out this morning by ICE and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) in Bluffton, SC, WTOC has learned.

After being alerted by a viewer tip about ICE activity in the area, WTOC reached out to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, who confirmed an operation occurred.

The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office said that it was a joint SLED/ICE operation and that the Sheriff’s Office only provided assistance, such as managing traffic around the area.

WTOC is reaching out to additional law enforcement divisions (including SLED) and is working to learn more about today’s ICE operation in Bluffton.

Copyright 2025 WTOC. All rights reserved.

When Chris Sullivan found out Michelin-starred Chef Curtis Duffy was opening a new restaurant in Chicago, Sullivan showed up with his resume, determined to work in the kitchen.

“I insisted on getting a job,” he said. That insistence paid off, and Sullivan ended up helping to launch Ever restaurant. The Chicago eatery opened in the thick of COVID in 2020 and has since been awarded two Michelin stars.

The Michelin Guide serves as the holy grail of excellence in dining. Earlier this year they announced expansion into South Carolina and other southeastern states.

Now Sullivan, of Bluffton, is hoping his hometown is ready for a world-renowned dining experience.

The chef, whose family has operated Mulberry Street Trattoria in Bluffton for 21 years, owns and operates his own catering company, Edible Memories. He is working towards bringing a dining experience to Bluffton that the town has never seen before.

He and his mother, Elissa, are currently developing a new counter-service Old Town eatery that he hopes will be the first step towards bringing Michelin-level food and service to the town for the first time.

“I used to chase the Michelin scene,” he said. “And now I can apply my travels and times here in Bluffton.”

What is this building to?

Sullivan and his family moved to Bluffton when he was eight years old. His mother Elissa said her parents were already here, and she wanted to be close to them – plus, the cost of living was lower here than in their native New York.

Elissa said her son had a clear vision from the start – he knew he wanted to be a chef and that he wanted to have his own restaurant.

“I’m not sure of anyone that has, at eight years old, such a vision of ‘I want to be a chef,’” she said.

At 19, Sullivan enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. He got a job at Eleven Madison Park in Manhattan, taking the train in from Poughkeepsie every day. On a family trip to California, he encountered Chef Thomas Keller’s French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley and decided to stay and work there. He moved to Chicago after securing the job at Chef Curtis Duffy’s Ever.

Sullivan returned to Bluffton in 2023, when he and his wife Destiny – who he met at Mulberry Street – learned they were expecting a daughter. He’s been back at the restaurant since, helping run things and bartending, and this summer, he started Edible Memories, which caters events, provides private chef and meal preparation services to local families and hosts dining events at Mulberry Street when it’s closed on Sundays and Mondays.

It’s a family affair

Getting help with his events is never too difficult, Sullivan said, because he’s related to four out of 12 people that work at Mulberry Street.

“It’s easy to get people to say yes when you’re family,” Elissa Sullivan said.

All of what Sullivan is doing now is intended to lay the groundwork for what Sullivan said he really wants to do. He and his mother are working on a new Bluffton restaurant that will bring Michelin star-level food to the area for the first time.

Sullivan and his mom didn’t want to go into detail about what exactly they’re planning, besides saying it will be a counter service eatery that will open in Old Town in 2027. But this is step one, Sullivan said: He eventually wants to build his own 30-seat restaurant, the kind of place where he or one of his chefs can talk to each and every guest. It will be a place where people will come because they know they’re getting something they can’t get anywhere else.

He just hopes Bluffton is ready for it. After all, many Blufftonians moved to the area from larger metropolitan areas known for their rich dining scenes.

“I do think Bluffton and Hilton Head need something like that,” he said.

Getting a taste

On a Monday night at Mulberry Street Trattoria, Sullivan was working his way through a crowd of about 30 people, wearing his chef’s whites and holding a glass of red wine.

The atmosphere was casual and light inside the dining room. Tables were arranged in a square shape around a central wooden beam. Patrons, who paid $50 each to attend, grazed on small bites like smoked salmon cheesecake with pumpernickel bread, ahi tuna wontons and crab lettuce wraps while sipping Italian wines. Standing in front of the kitchen was musician Campfire Tyler, who sang and strummed an acoustic guitar.

This was the first social event Sullivan hosted through Edible Memories; normally, he follows a traditional dinner service model. He got the word out the old fashioned way – word of mouth – but he also used social media. Mulberry Street has never really done a lot of advertising, his mother said.

Through Edible Memories, Sullivan has four more events planned for 2025, including a three-course, build-your-own brunch event on Sept. 28 with beignets, peach foster French toast and smoked salmon gravlax for $45 per person. A five-course Italian white truffle dinner for $210 per person will follow on Oct. 6, a Sicilian food and wine experience is scheduled for Oct. 26 for $90, and on Nov. 3, the menu for Sullivan’s winter wine dinner will include confit wagyu beef cheek, wild mushroom soup and a caramelized peach tart for $125 a head.

Elissa Sullivan said her son is non-stop, always thinking about the next thing he can make or do.

“He will text me ideas at 3 a.m., when it’s all coming to him,” she said. “He’s thinking about food all the time.”

Sullivan said he knows his eventual restaurants will be built out of the same principle that he has for his catering – that making food is, for him, a true labor of love.

“My food is very much an expression of me,” he said.