Bellinger Island and boat landing renovations ‘a vast improvement’

KATIE ESTABROOK
katie@thedanielislandnews.com
Bellinger Island and the Beresford Creek Boat Landing on Daniel Island recently underwent long-awaited and needed renovations to make the area more accessible and safer for residents to enjoy.
Chris Hamil, field operations manager for the Daniel Island Property Owners Association (POA), and Greg Turner, a member of the Daniel Island Community Association Board, unveiled the upgrades at a small gathering on Thursday, Sept. 28 to thank residents and those who had a hand in the improvement project.
“The reason we really wanted to come out tonight is to basically say thank you to all of the residents at this end of the island,” said Turner. “If you remember two years ago, in your home owners’ dues, there was a special assessment of $64 that was going to pay to do all of this work. Basically, it was restoration, it was reclamation and enhancement to kind of a hidden jewel we have on Daniel Island.”
Hamil added that without the community’s support, the project would not have been possible.
“There’s no art that’s more precious than this area here,” said Hamil. “And because of your feedback and wanting to save Bellinger Island and for us to enhance the beauty as well as increase the safety of the island and the boat ramp, we’re here today.”
With help from Thomas and Hutton Engineering as well as contractor Horry Parker, over the course of several months they were able to “reclaim the bank,” explained Hamil. 
Renovations to the area included reinforcing the shoreline; resurfacing the floating dock and boardwalk; adding new bulkheads at the creek bridge; adding a plantation mix pathway to Bellinger Island; adding a fence along the shoreline; reinforcing and repainting the lookout deck; the removal of several hazardous trees; reinstalling a section of the boat ramp that had come detached; installing new landscaping; and reinstalling benches and picnic tables, according to the Daniel Island POA website.
“There’s a massive hydrology that is constantly moving with the current,” said Hamil. “We needed to build a wall—a good wall that could secure our precious treasures here…We also wanted to add a better walking space. As you know, this has kind of been neglected over the past several years. We wanted to create a new pathway that starts from the asphalted path and goes all the way to the very end of the corner of Bellinger Island.”
The newly reinforced bulkheads, although unplanned, performed well through the recent tropical storm, added Hamil.
“The old bulkheads were flaring out so we redid and reengineered them,” he said. “They lasted through one tropical storm and did exceedingly well, although it was not planned.”
Residents who attended the event seemed pleased with the upgrades.
One resident, Sherry Mohr, exclaimed that the renovations on Bellinger Island and the nearby boat landing are a “vast improvement” from the area’s previous state.  
“I know it took a long time, but to see the boats out again and people socializing, the bridges, the signs up where kids are not to swim—which is very good because they were jumping off the trees and there are alligators in the water—it was worth the wait,” said Mohr. “It’s really very impressive and will draw a lot more people as time goes on.”