WEST ASHLEY BRIEFS

Mayor Riley reads to visiting children

Charleston Mayor Joe Riley stopped by the Children's Museum of the Lowcountry July 1 to read "Duck Soup" by Jackie Urbanovic to the visiting children. The mayor's story time is part of Charleston County Public Library's Catch the Reading Bug summer program.

More than 11,000 children participate in Catch the Reading Bug every summer. In the program, kids 11 and under keep up with the hours they read, or are read to, and are awarded prizes such as medals, T-shirts and tickets to local attractions.

The Catch the Reading Bug Program will run through Aug. 31 and will include plenty of free opportunities for children to log reading minutes.

Design Center sets City Challenge

On July 18, the Charleston Civic Design Center will hold the City Challenge, an educational summer activity for students. City Challenge is free of charge and open to students in the sixth through ninth grades, or ages 12 through 15. The program will take place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Charleston Civic Design Center at 85 Calhoun St.

City Challenge will introduce young people to the basic concepts of urban design: how a city gets made and what makes a city successful. The program will give the students the opportunity to develop a sensitivity and appreciation for their own community. During the program, students will form teams that compete against each other to create the best urban design on the Charleston peninsula using Legos.

Space is limited. To reserve a spot, contact the Charleston Design Center at 958-6416 or ccdc@ci.charleston.sc.us.

County update starts Monday

The year-long Charleston County Comprehensive Plan Update process will continue with a third and final series of public workshops on Monday and Tuesday.

Charleston County Government launched the scheduled 10-year update with the first series of public workshops in the fall of 2007; the second series of public workshops was held in February of 2008. The county's theme for the update is "Guiding the future for a lasting Lowcountry."

There will be four locations during the third round of workshops to allow citizens from all areas to share their ideas about land use characteristics as well as strategies for all nine planning elements in the Comprehensive Plan Update — population, economy, natural resources, cultural resources, housing, community facilities, land use, transportation and priority investment.

The workshops will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. The two on Monday are:

--East Cooper Area, Wando High School, 1000 Warrior Way, Mount Pleasant.

--Central/Urban Area (including North Charleston, Charleston, West Ashley and James Island), Rutledge Memorial Baptist Church, 2014 Bees Ferry Road, Charleston.

The two on Tuesday are:

--Johns Island and Wadmalaw Island (including Kiawah Island and Seabrook Island), St. John's High School, 1518 Main Road, Johns Island.

--West County/Edisto Island, Baptist Hill High School, 5117 Baptist Hill Road, Hollywood.

After the third round of workshops is held, a public hearing draft of the Comprehensive Plan Update will be prepared.

Visit the Charleston County Web site at www.charlestoncounty.org and click on the link to the Comprehensive Plan Update located at the bottom of the page for more information.

Hazard Mitigation Plan update slated

Charleston County Government will hold a public meeting to obtain citizens' input on the updated Charleston Regional Hazard Mitigation Plan. The plan provides the blueprint for actions undertaken by all local governments throughout Charleston County to reduce losses associated with all types of hazardous events.

The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. on July 17 in Conference Room A-106 on the first floor of the Lonnie Hamilton III Public Services Building, 4045 Bridge View Drive, North Charleston.

The Charleston Regional Hazard Mitigation Plan is posted on the Charleston County Web site at www.charelstoncounty.org under the "What's New" tab for the public to review and offer comments. Anyone with questions or comments regarding the plan can call Carl Simmons, Charleston County's building services director, at 202-6940.

Brownlee benefit set for Folly Beach

The Jimmy Brownlee Memorial Folly Beach Anglers Beer Bottle Toss will be held July 19 on the beach in front of the Holiday Inn from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. to raise money for local residents in need.