Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Repair in North Charleston, SC

Dal'mont Gourdine playing at UConn, celebrating after making a play.

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — Dal'mont Gourdine is the standard bearer in more ways than one. His family, neighborhood, and high school all should be proud.

By the sounds of it, North Charleston-born and raised Gourdine could be the mayor of Storrs, Connecticut, after five years of playing football for the UConn Huskies.

"The people are very welcoming," he said. "They want to get to know you. Coach Hurley [is] over there across the street. Real cool dude - got to know him. Chopped it up plenty of times. The whole university. I know the president."

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He's made UConn his home. When others "portal'ed" to the next spot, the only chasing he did was opposing quarterbacks.

"My game plan going forward is NFL," he said. "Main goal on top of the main goal since I was a youngin'."

That very well could happen. But with what he's already accomplished – it doesn't much matter.

"Where we come from in North Charleston, not many take that next step and next level to go where the family wants them to go," he said. "We probably had eight graduation tickets, but I had to go back to people and say I have like 20 graduation tickets. I have people coming from North Charleston up here. The university helped me get those tickets for the people, who spent the weekend up here."

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His college career is now over. A foot injury at practice late in the season forced surgery. He won't play in the upcoming Fenway Bowl against UNC. He's every bit a part of getting them there. You bet he'll be in Boston for it.

"Waking up at 4:30 a.m. to go to workouts and train," he said. "I'm happy for this team. The guys, the coaches, the families around this team. When things went left, we got them right during the season."

He's also the last of his kind. The final Garrett Tech Falcon to fly. The final athlete from the now-shuttered high school off of Dorchester Road.

"I think about it all the time," he said. "We always talk about high school, what is your HS doing this Friday? I never join in the conversation because I don't have a high school anymore. Garrett is gone. Last athlete, something I can hold my head on. I'm the last to ever do it at the school. Before they built CCSD, I tried to contact the people to get my name on there that I was the last one to do it."

He may not have to ask for that in Storrs, Connecticut.

There's no question that the Charleston region's longstanding relationship with the cruise ship industry is evolving in significant ways, as the State Ports Authority marks the end of its 14-year lease with Carnival at the end of this year and as redevelopment looms for Union Pier, home to the authority's passenger terminal.

While the Ports Authority has said it plans to continue hosting visiting cruise ships for brief stays at that terminal, which it is expected to keep, change there seems likely in the years to come. After all, Charleston businessman Ben Navarro, who has a contract to buy Union Pier from the state of South Carolina, has said a basic tenet of his redevelopment plans would be seeking to eliminate cruise ships there.

If cruise ships are moved away from Charleston's historic peninsula — which many neighborhood and preservation leaders have been pushing to accomplish for more than a decade — where might they go? Patriots Point in Mount Pleasant might seem like a solid option, but town leaders took symbolic action earlier this year to make it very clear they don't want it. After a commercial boat tour tenant at Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum ferried passengers from an anchored cruise ship to the state-owned site, Town Council members noted that state law prohibits Patriots Point from such business. Even if the town wanted this business, it could be a formidable task to dredge this part of the harbor and construct the facilities needed to dock the large ships.

All this leaves an intriguing and promising opportunity for North Charleston. Moving the cruise ship terminal north on the Cooper River would be a welcome change, and we understand some preliminary conversations along that line have begun. A Ports Authority spokeswoman would tell us only "We are always open to business opportunities that make sense for the port and community" and that she had no details to share.

The cruise industry brings important commerce to the region and state, but docking ever-larger ships next to Charleston's delicate historic district gave us pause. A nonbinding agreement with the city has limited the size of those ships (none that carry more than 3,500 passengers) and capped the number that may call each year to 104, but a protracted legal fight was waging over a new cruise terminal downtown until the Ports Authority agreed to pull the plug.

Moving the ships to the former Navy base in North Charleston would ease those concerns, and the city and state could minimize most complaints with a reasonable plan for the extra car and truck traffic. It also could elevate the city's profile, particularly since one of its most scenic and historic neighborhoods — the former officers' quarters — sits just to the north, as does a largely vacant Cooper riverfront site where the city plans a major urban development.

Given the base's location farther away from the nearest residential neighborhoods, a passenger cruise terminal in North Charleston should create far less friction with its neighbors. In fact, it might cause more consternation in downtown Charleston, seeing as how cruise passengers might board buses for quick visits, but fortunately the city already regulates the streets where such buses are allowed.

North Charleston Mayor Reggie Burgess and City Council members should explore the idea of finding a home for a new waterfront business that could create a win-win for the city and our local maritime community.

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After a turbulent several years, Party City is reportedly planning to shutter all stores.

According to reports from CNN, Party City's CEO Barry Litwin told corporate employees in a Friday meeting that the company is "winding down" operations immediately, and that today would be their last day of employment.

This left staff without severance pay, and with benefits ending as soon as the company goes out of business. Here's what to know about the company's bankruptcy, plus closures in North and South Carolina.

Why is Party City closing?

After initially filing in January 2023, the company exited bankruptcy a month after new CEO Barry Litwin's arrival, now about four months ago, CNN reported. The company was able to cancel nearly $1 billion in debt by declaring bankruptcy. It also managed to keep most of its over 800 stores open, though over 80 locations were closed between the end of 2022 and August 2024, according to recent financial documents.

Even with that debt canceled, the chain still faced $800 million in debt, straining earnings for the year. Combined with competition from online retailers such as Amazon, and seasonal pop-ups like Spirit Halloween, the company was unable to overcome their financial problems, CNN reported.

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Party City locations in North Carolina

There are 21 Party City locations set to close in 16 NC cities:

Party City locations in South Carolina

Additionally, our neighbors in S.C. have 10 Party City stores in nine cities closing:

Iris Seaton is the trending news reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at [email protected].

The project includes adding a Dreamlifter servicing and testing facility, approximately 8.2 acres of structural concrete and a new employee parking lot, according to Boeing’s environmental permit application on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’s Charleston District website. The Dreamlifter is a 747 plane modified into a cargo freight aircraft that transports parts from suppliers for the 787 Dreamliner assembly, according to Boeing’s website.

The proposed project will be located close to the site’s loading and unloading area, which is designated for components to be unloaded from Dreamlifters for transport into the assembly building, according to the permit.

Boeing still has a ways to go to reach its production targets. The company has delivered 42 of the 787 plane models and nabbed 33 orders so far this year, according to the company’s website.

In Q3, the company was only able to deliver 14 787 planes, a 26.3% decrease compared to Q3 2023. However, it could be due to some snags in the company’s 787 supply chain for heat exchangers, The Wall Street Journal reported in May. Heat exchangers bring in air from the outside to cool down parts of the plane to make it more efficient, according to a Facebook post by consultant firm Aviation Review Materials.

As of Oct. 23, the company was working through production recovery plans on heat exchangers and delivery delays associated with seat certifications, CFO and EVP Brian West said in a Q3 earnings call. “The program is currently producing at four per month and still plans to return to five per month by year-end,” West said in the Q3 earnings call.

Boeing expanded its footprint in South Carolina in June by acquiring another facility in Orangeburg from GKN Aerospace. The Orangeburg facility focuses on metallic engine lip skins for Boeing’s 737 Max and 777X, according to GKN’s press release. However, the company’s latest expansion and upgrade plans will not include the Orangeburg facility, according to the state’s Commerce Department press release.

Dec 12 (Reuters) - Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab said on Thursday it plans to spend $1 billion to support increased production of its 787 Dreamliner widebody jets, as the U.S. planemaker works to meet an earlier output target of 10 a month by 2026.

Boeing plans to expand operations at its Charleston County, South Carolina, facility with the $1 billion investment in infrastructure upgrades and the creation of 500 new jobs over five years, the planemaker said in a joint announcement with the South Carolina Department of Commerce.

The investment and expansion lay the groundwork for "potential future rate increases driven by market demand," Boeing said. The U.S. planemaker faces pressure from European rival Airbus (AIR.PA), opens new tab which has announced plans to raise output of its competing A350 to 12 a month by 2028.

After a prolonged lull, demand for widebody planes is accelerating sharply as airlines renew capacity as demand grows for international travel.

Boeing is trying to ramp up plane output to generate needed cash, after a crippling strike this autumn halted production of all but its Dreamliner jets.

Boeing's announcement reaffirms an earlier target of 10 Dreamliner jets a month announced during a company investor day in 2022. Hitting that rate would be a steep climb for the planemaker, given existing production levels and challenges as Boeing wrestles with manufacturing quality problems.

Boeing has been trying to bring 787 production back to a rate of five a month by the end of 2024, after scaling back output earlier this year due to supply-chain delays in getting seats and heat exchangers. Boeing has said its 787 production rate was five per month during the last quarter of 2023.

Reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal and Shivansh Tiwary in Bengaluru. Additional reporting by Tim Hepher in Paris and Dan Catchpole in Seattle Editing by Pooja Desai and Matthew Lewis