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Concerned that the "public has a misunderstanding," one Orangeburg County Council member is weighing in on the Ness Boat Landing controversy that has the county at odds with a landowner.
Councilman Clyde Livingston says that, after a review of historical documents, he has come to the conclusion the Edisto River landing has been public property for more than 150 years.
"I think the public has a misunderstanding, and the misunderstanding is that Orangeburg County is trying to take a piece of property from an individual and his wife. There are two sides to every story, and the truth usually lies somewhere in between," Livingston said.
"This is just a matter of protecting the public interest in a piece of public property that has been in the public domain for over 150 years," he said.
That's not the case, says landowner John Williamson III, citing recorded leases in the county deed book.
"There's never been a question, that's what's so odd about it. The two previous owners signed a lease, and (the county) assumed liability. So, why not with me?" he said. "Both are recorded in the deed book."
The boat landing was open to the public under a series of owners through the years. In 2006, Williamson and his wife closed it because of concerns over liability, the lack of law enforcement and trash in the river.
After Orangeburg County filed a condemnation notice in September to take ownership of the landing and reopen it to the public, Williamson and his wife responded a month later with a lawsuit of their own against the county. The long-brewing controversy is headed for court.
Despite the legal wrangling, Livingston argues the issue is really not about condemnation.
"This is more a question of maintaining the public right to access to the river that has been there for over 150 years than a matter of condemnation and taking someone's property," he said. "I'm not a supporter of condemnation, (unless) there's no other way. I wouldn't be in favor of the condemnation of somebody's property to take a boat landing."
It absolutely is condemnation, Williamson maintains. If it were not, he asks, why did the county sign a lease in the first place?
"I hate to tell you, but it is," he said. "They're jawboning this thing and jawboning it."
According to Livingston, the boat landing has been used by the public for at least 150 years, maybe even 200 years, "sometimes as a boat landing, sometimes a ferry landing and sometimes as a bridge."
"The history goes back to 1827 or '28, and that's the written history," he said. "It probably goes back further than that."
Livingston checked out the minutes from Marchant Culler's "History of the Old Orangeburg District."
"Originally, this was ide.jpgied as Johnson Bridge, and in the minutes it talks about when they transferred the right to operate a toll bridge to the Binnickers. It was awarded by the Orangeburg District Highway Commission," he said. "It was a public road running to where the old bridge was. The road to the old bridge was on a slightly different layout than the current one. This road bed, after they put in the cement bridge, the people used the same road bed to go to the river to put in their boats and fish. This is a road authorized by the colonial government. The farthest back we have aerial photographs, you can see the old road bed that went down to what is now the boat landing."
State statutes dictate, Livingston says, that, "when the state quits using a road, it reverts to the county."
"Based on the research I've done, I can't find that the county ever transferred ownership of this roadbed to anybody," he said. "The thing is, this is one of those roads that evolved through a prescriptive right-of-way.
"That's a pretty common term for a right-of-way that got to be public because it's always public. It was probably a Native American trail and then a trail used by traders and trappers and folks."
In addition, Livingston says that navigable water is considered a public right-of-way "and, it came up to the trail and the people would get off the river. It just happened to evolve into a boat landing."
Once the property was sold to Georgia Pacific in 1975, Livingston says, "the lawyers became aware there was a public road and public boat landing, where the Binnicker Bridge Road crossed the South Edisto River, and they drew up a lease that, although it was signed by a county official, I can find no (documentation) that it was ever authorized for the county to lease a piece of property that was already in the public domain. There's no mention in the minutes about there being any vote about leasing the property. ... Orangeburg County government has never voted to transfer the landing out of the public domain."
Arguing that the property was "nothing then but swamps," Williamson says his documentation is all in order and will be presented at trial.
"The facts are the facts," he said.
T&D Government Writer Tucker Lyon can be reached at tlyon@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5545. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.