Mattress storein Florence, SC

FLORENCE — Ross Shotts rarely has time to stop and watch the people who visit his Christmas display.

But when he does, he soaks it all in.

He sees a child sitting on her father’s shoulders, head tilted back and mouth agape.

He sees a couple holding hands and friends leaning close.

He sees a young girl twirling beneath the snow machines, flakes catching in her pigtails.

“That was so fun,” she said, stamping her feet in the damp dirt. “Snow everywhere.”

That’s what it’s all about, Ross said with a laugh.

The Shotts family — Ross, his wife, Darlene, and her sister, Denise Pate — are behind one of Florence’s best-known holiday light displays: a 5-acre, 300,000-light walking trail.

This year, it takes on a little extra cache as the family competes on ABC’s reality TV show "The Great Christmas Light Fight."

For the Shotts, it’s evidence that what they’ve built is worth sharing with the rest of the world.

But Florence families have long known the display is something special.

Since 2016, the family has operated the display as Lights 4 Paws, the Florence Area Humane Society’s second-largest fundraiser of the year. Thousands of families visit each holiday season, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“You can’t help but just kind of stand back and admire what they do,” said Liz Parrish, a Humane Society board member who helps organize the event. “We’re lucky to have them in Florence.”

The display is the product of six months of work. On average, the family will spend six hours each day putting things together, Ross said. They do it on their own. It’s a labor of love.

Come Christmastime, the Shotts begin a cycle of almost nonstop work. From Thanksgiving weekend through the end of December, every night is a work night.

You can find Darlene and Pate, wearing fluorescent vests, taking turns with other volunteers to direct traffic. Ross Shotts splits his time between the parking lot and the trail — a quarter-mile path that winds through the woods around the Shotts’ home.

As he patrols the trail, looking for anything amiss, he watches visitors as they take in the light show.

His favorite part is the way the kids' eyes widen, the small gasps of delight that escape their lips.

Even from the parking lot, Ross can hear the kids laughing and screaming.

“I want them to come in and just have fun, and they do,” he said.

Lights 4 Paws is the culmination of years of decorating.

The Shotts started small, like a normal family: just a few white decorations. After a while, they decided to add some color. Then some more.

Slowly, the display grew — a snowflake here, a Santa there — until the decorations threatened to jump the borders of their one-acre home outside of Charlotte.

Christmas decorating, Ross said, became the family hobby.

By the time the Shotts moved to Darlington a decade ago, they were excited to spread out on two acres. That dream quickly ran aground when the local homeowners association shut down the display.

The Shotts replaced the lights with a "for sale" sign.

In 2014, the family found its 5-acre plot of land in Florence. They built fresh, with Christmas in mind. They traced an imaginary trail through the woods. They had the electrician construct an entire panel for the outdoors.

Now, the Shotts spend half the year setting up and tearing down the display.

The work begins in September, when Ross, Darlene and Pate begin lugging out decorations from the 1,200-square-foot storage barn. On average, they spend six hours each day on the project. They talk, debate where to put different decorations and listen to music (no, not Christmas music).

It’s a grand improvisation. There’s no plan. They put decorations where they look good. Every year it’s a little different.

Ross said the family looks for unique decorations. They want people to see things they've never seen before.

Forget Santa in his sleigh. There’s Santa in construction equipment, a rocket, a camper, an outhouse.

There are Christmas cactuses, porcupines and cowboys.

An entire section is devoted to outer space: Little green men stand next to spaceships and a host of Star Wars decorations.

There are Japanese hanging lanterns and yellow lights that dangle, fairy like, from tree limbs.

Walking through the dark wood can feel a bit like walking through another world.

Ross estimated they’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars on decorations. Some years they put $20,000 to $45,000 on a credit card. The December electricity bill alone is about $400 more than usual, which Ross shrugs off as not too bad.

But it's worth it, both for the Humane Society — a cause the Shotts have devoted countless hours to — and the delight the lights bring to families in Florence.

“It’s a project of pride and love for them, and they do a fantastic job,” Parrish said.

For the families who visit Lights 4 Paws, Christmas wouldn’t be the same without it.

“It’s kind of how I start the season. It’s not Christmas until you see some lights,” Doug Gray said on his second visit of the year to the Shotts’ display.

He took photos beneath the Japanese hanging lanterns as he waited for his son and his friends to arrive. It’s a family tradition to go see the lights at Christmastime, he said.

Mary Schwier has come every year since she was 10 or 11. She’s 18 now. This year, she brought her older sister, Katherine, who recently moved back to Florence.

“I’m still a kid at heart,” Schwier said.

The two women hope to make this a tradition.

Yet the Shotts don’t know how many years they have left in them. Ross is 64. The constant work required of the display is draining. By the end of the year, they’re ready to pack it in and take a break.

“By the end of December we’re whooped,” he said.

Maybe next year will be the last one? But no, not next year, Ross said.

Maybe they’ll just do a little less next year. Or maybe they’ll wait a little longer.

“Four years down the road, three years down the road, five years down the road — whenever we decide that we're going to quit doing this, that's gonna be kind of a burden on us,” he said, reflecting on all of the families who’ve come to rely on the display, or the kids who’ve grown up expecting to come see the lights every year.

“It's gonna be a big effect, I guess if we — when we — do decide to close.”

It might be nice to have their lives back, Ross said. Then again, what would they do with all their spare time?

Well, he said, it might be nice to go see some Christmas lights.

FLORENCE — Florence has quite a few chicken and fish restaurants — but none quite like this.

Angry Chicken O' Fish, located in a small storefront on West Evans Street, officially opened Dec. 7.

And it is very, very angry.

The takeout-style restaurant is decorated with posters depicting roosters in various states of fury. One, muscled and scowling, crosses his arms. Another wields a baseball bat. Another is positively seething, feathers popping from its body.

The sign out front features a chicken wearing a chef's hat and hoisting a trident. A fish flops from the point.

Feeling Zhu, the restaurant's owner, said the branding is a product of her love for chicken and the game Angry Birds. Why not combine the two?

“Some people think I have attitude,” Zhu joked, saying it's simply her no-nonsense personality. The store's tagline is "Chicken with attitude."

Zhu, who is originally from Shanghai has lived in Florence for six years. She and her restaurant partners also operate the food truck PokeTown, which is on temporary hiatus while they get Angry Chicken up and running.

Angry Chicken O' Fish focuses exclusively on fried chicken and seafood. Zhu said she wants to offer the city something new.

The food, while classically Southern, also incorporates elements of Korean cuisine in the seasoning and sauces, Zhu said.

“It’s a little bit Korean and a little bit American and a little bit Abu Dhabi. It’s kind of a little like a mixed blood,” she said.

Offerings include fried chicken, a wide array of fried seafood — perch, trout, scallops, whiting, oysters, flounder, among others — and various sides.

The meal comes in a compact cardboard box with a glowering chicken on the side.

The ambience is reminiscent of a revitalized warehouse district in the heart of an up-and-coming urban area: stone floors, concrete benches, metal tables and chairs, fluorescent lights, some of which are made to look like bottle caps.

And everywhere you look, there are angry chickens.

Dora Motley, one of the first customers after the ribbon cutting, ordered three chicken wings and two perch filets. The meal came with coleslaw and a can of soda.

Motley said she noticed signs for the new restaurant and headed over after an appointment at the nail salon. She eats out often and likes to try new restaurants when they open.

With the smell of fresh fried chicken wafting through the restaurant, she said she plans to be back.

Angry Chicken O' Fish is located at 2047 West Evans St. It's open Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Friday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Follow Taylor on Twitter @seth_p_t

FLORENCE, S.C. (WMBF) - Buying beer and wine 7 days a week in the city of Florence has been a boom for businesses since Florence residents voted for the Sunday alcohol law changes a year ago.

Both businesses and residents across the city weighed in on the fairly new law. Some businesses said it’s a work in progress while the Florence community said they’ve seen a difference.

“It’s been a great convenience, and I think it’s benefited the retailers a lot more than they initially thought that it may,” said President of the Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce, Mike Miller.

A year ago, 71% of Florence voters said “yes” to beer and wine sales on Sundays.

It’s something Miller said previously sent residents to surrounding cities, hurting the bottom line for some businesses.

“It wasn’t just the beer and wine sales, the city was losing,” he said. “It was additional merchandise and that’s benefited the local retailers.”

Sunday alcohol sales are now pushing businesses to consider opening on Sundays.

Micky Finn’s Wine and Spirits One Stop Party Shop Owner, Rick Havekost said he waited about six months to open seven days a week, and it’s now a work in progress for sales one more day than before.

“It’s been adventurous, but it’s doing pretty well,” said Havekost. “We look forward to the Sunday sales going into the county where our new Buc-ee’s store will be. That’s when I’ll see the big impact of people coming off the interstate.”

Customers like Aubrey Foe said he’s already seen the benefits of the fairly new law.

“I love that they passed the law that you’re able to do that on Sunday,” he said. “For Florence county, for the people that visit and travel that come from all over the world, and they know that they’re able to shop no matter what day it is of the week.”

Now that Havekost is open every day of the week, he said he’s ready for more changes in the future.

“Right now no liquor stores can be open on Sunday, but I see that changing over the next 5 to 10 years,” he said. “So, we might as well start with the beer and wine side and if the state legislator ever decides to change the liquor laws, then we’ll have the staff in place and will be ready to be open on Sundays for everything.”

Havekost told WMBF News he plans to open his new location next to Buc-ees on January 15.

Copyright 2023 WMBF. All rights reserved.

FLORENCE — Deputy City Manager Scotty Davis will take the helm as Florence’s interim city manager for the foreseeable future.

Florence City Council announced the decision at its Dec. 11 meeting. Davis will replace Randy Osterman, who has been the city manager since 2020 and plans to retire in February.

While Davis will officially be the interim city manager, Osterman said the appointment is long-term and will run through at least the next year.

Davis said he's excited to assume the position and that things will continue largely as normal to begin with.

"The beauty of it for me is I've worked with Randy. I'm the deputy city manager and work closely with him. So all of our projects and things that we're working on will continue as normal," he said.

Davis has worked for the city for decades.

He oversees Florence's neighborhood revitalization and community development programs, such as building housing in blighted areas, helping families repair and weatherize homes and creating Florence NeighborWorks to invest in communities.

Those programs have been points of emphasis in recent years for City Council members who have said they want to expand the success of downtown redevelopment to surrounding neighborhoods that still struggle with poverty.

Now, Davis will oversee the city’s day-to-day operations, administer policies passed by Council and communicate the needs of the city to elected officials.

With the selection, City Council passed over Economic Development and Utility Planning Director Michael Hemingway, who had previously been promised the job.

That's why Mayor Teresa Myers Ervin voted against Davis' appointment, the only one to do so.

When Osterman was hired in 2020, the Council preemptively named Hemingway as his successor.

But current council members — many of whom were elected after Osterman and Hemingway were named — wanted to have a say in that decision. The city’s legal counsel said officials were not bound by previous commitments.

Ervin said she still believed Hemingway deserved the opportunity to be city manager, but she said Davis was an excellent candidate as well.

"I have confidence that Scotty will fulfill the role," she said.

Davis said he will continue to work closely with Osterman in the final weeks of his tenure before officially assuming his responsibilities in February.

Pending contract negotiations, Davis will take over for the next year. At that point, City Council will announce a permanent city manager, Ervin said.

Follow Taylor on Twitter @seth_p_t