Despite its growth, Bluffton is still that idyllic small town we all fell in love with. Helping to keep it that way are the men and women of the Town of Bluffton, your neighbors and friends.
There may have never been a more exciting time to live in Bluffton than now. We’ve had to do a lot of growing up in a very short time, exploding over the last 15 or so years from a one-square-mile town to a thriving community of thousands. And yet, despite it all, this is still a small-town, with small-town charm. It’s still the kind of town where every trip to the market or stroll down the street comes with a chance to catch up with an old friend.
Because of this, it almost seems redundant to frame these profiles as a way to “meet” your town. Odds are, you already know your town. You’ll probably spot a friend or a neighbor in the following pages. So, just like that trip to the market, consider this a chance to catch up with the town staff who are keeping the biggest little town in South Carolina running.
Sunny Rogers
If you ignore the titular shark in Sunny Rogers’ favorite movie, you’ll notice that Jaws takes place in a paradisical town called Amity. (“Jaws to me is one of those movies that you can’t turn off,” she said.) Before the great white showed up, it was a town that people were proud to call their home.
It’s a little like Bluffton, in a way (although our sharks are much smaller). And if you’re one of the lucky people who get Rogers’ expert advice on it, you’ll wind up loving Bluffton as much as she does.
“I interact with the public every day. I check on the local businesses daily and talk to many visitors,” she said. “I answer their questions, tell them some history about Bluffton, I give out maps, I talk about upcoming events and if it’s a hot day outside I always offer a cold water.”
As the Community Service Assistant with the Bluffton Police Department for the last three and a half years, Rogers has more on her plate than just welcoming visitors. Hers is the friendly face of the boys in blue, here to keep residents up to date on all the happenings in Old Town and keep people up to date on new developments and special events. She knows the special events in Old Town well, helping officers with traffic and parking control.
And while she wears many hats, her favorite part of the job is simply helping other people discover what makes Bluffton special.
“I keep my locals informed and I get to tell visitors about this wonderful town we live in,” she said. “When a visitor returns home, I want them to tell their friends or neighbors just how beautiful and wonderful Bluffton is.”
Of course, no job is without its challenges, but when asked what hers is, she listed a great challenge to have. “I think it’s when a visitor asks me where to get the best lunch or dinner. We have so many good restaurants around here, it’s hard to say.”
When she’s not out meeting and greeting the public, you’ll find this Savannah native and 14-year Old Town resident soaking it up with friends and family around the pool, cooking on the grill or hitting the water on her boat. Just keep an eye out for great whites.
Oscar Frazier, Jr.
If the name Oscar Frazier, Jr., Bluffton High School’s resident SRO, sounds familiar, it’s probably because you’ve driven by the park bearing his father’s name. Or you’ve seen his sister Bridgette at Town Council meetings. Or maybe you’re one of the kids he coaches and mentors at the Bluffton Boys & Girls Club.
The fact is, his name is almost certainly familiar to you, not just for the legacy that his family has established and the enormous impact they’ve had on our town, but because of the towering presence he’s built as a member of the community.
“It’s a little surreal sometimes,” he said. “I grew up in Bluffton when it was very small, and I left home for a long time, really with no intention at the time of moving back.”
After living in Bluffton through high school, Frazier enlisted in the U.S. Army, which took him far afield from the sleepy town he’d called home. After 15 years that included a tenure in law enforcement in Kansas, it was his father’s passing that brought him home.
“It felt like fate, coming back,” he said.
And while he didn’t originally come back to return to law enforcement, after a year working in the community, he felt called to do more. “That’s when I applied to the Bluffton Police Department. From that point on, it’s always felt natural. This is what I was supposed to be doing.”
Nine years on, this proud father of five serves the community through his work as a school resource officer and as a coach and mentor.
“There are times when a kid at school who I’ve either mentored or coached is having an issue, and since that relationship has been established, I don’t need to break down the barriers,” he said. “There’s a sense of trust just from me being in community, so I can listen to what they have to say.”
In a town that owes a great debt to anyone with the last name Frazier, he’s carrying on the family legacy. As far as what he hopes to accomplish, he said, “I hope to continue being a positive influence and an individual who is a part of making Bluffton a peaceful, happy place for its citizens and visitors.”
Glen Umberger
Bluffton is a town that is fiercely proud of its history. From the antebellum glory of The Church of the Cross to the tranquil remains of the mansion in Palmetto Bluff, our story is told by the care we take in preserving that history. As the Town of Bluffton’s resident historic preservationist, Glen Umberger’s mission is to ensure that story continues long after we’re gone.
So, what does a historic preservationist do? “Short answer, I look at old buildings all day; longer answer, I am responsible for ensuring that the 84 contributing structures in the Old Town Bluffton Historic District are properly preserved for future generations of Blufftonians to enjoy.”
The Philadelphia native was first introduced to the Lowcountry while studying at SCAD, where he earned an M.F.A. in Architectural History. While his career would take him to New York City, he “always thought this would be a nice part of the country to retire to one day,” he said. “When this position became available, it seemed like a good opportunity for me to relocate here and work for a few years before retirement.”
He started two years ago, hitting the ground running by creating a Historic Preservation Grant Program which provides financial assistance to owners of contributing structures in the Old Town Bluffton Historic District to rehabilitate, restore, or preserve their structures. This program helped homeowners in Old Town, plus gave significant funds to historic buildings like the Heyward House. He was also able to place two new buildings on the list of contributing structures.
And his work has taken him far afield as well. “In November 2022, I presented a paper at the Fortieth Annual Meeting of the Southeast Chapter, Society of Architectural Historians (SESAH) held in Memphis, Tenn. on the significance of the old Bluffton Post Office (41 Bridge Street) which was one of the two new contributing structures added to the list,” he said.
Bluffton may not be the sleepy town it once was, but as time marches on, we can be glad people like Glen Umberger are here to protect the history we all share.
Beth Lewis
Strip away everything about Bluffton—the arts scene, the history, the off-beat sense of humor, the loving hospitality of its people—and you’d be left with one thing: the river. Not just the majestic May, but all the waterways from the Okatie and Colleton to the New, define Bluffton today just as they have for millennia.
But as Bluffton has grown, those waterways have become threatened by the march of progress. Whether it’s stormwater runoff of just plain pollution, the waters that nurtured Bluffton before it could even be considered a town are in jeopardy. Thankfully, we as a town recognized the need to protect these waterways, calling in people like Beth Lewis to serve as their guardian.
As Water Quality Program Administrator, Lewis manages the town’s three water quality monitoring programs and coordinates both litter cleanups each year. That’s a worthy task in itself, but when you ask Lewis about her biggest victories, she points to her work around the Lowcountry as an ambassador. She helped organize Lowcountry Stormwater Partners, worked with students and educators to develop their May River Cleanup Participation Challenge, now in its eighth year.
And she helped with the establishment of a regional Microbial Source Tracking (MST) Laboratory at the University of South Carolina Beaufort (USCB). “These types of water quality results help town staff improve the capacity for detecting and tracking land-based sources of fecal pollution in the May River Watershed,” she said.
She’s already done so much to protect our waterways in 10 years with the town, and she’s just getting started.
“The town is collecting tidal elevation data in the May River, and recently adopted its Comprehensive Plan, which includes a section on resiliency,” she said. “I think over the next 20 years, planning for and implementing resiliency practices will become more critical for coastal communities like ours.”
Living by the motto, “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted,” she looks forward to a future where better site design practices and use of green infrastructure ensure these waterways stay safe.
Pat Rooney
As Bluffton has grown exponentially over the last few years, you can’t help but admire how beautifully it has blossomed. Our streetscapes aren’t just there to hustle you through town; they are thoughtfully enhanced to make every corner blissfully welcoming. Our parks take full advantage of Bluffton’s Lowcountry beauty, giving families a perfect spot for getting out in the sunshine.
If you’ve enjoyed this evolution, you can thank people like Pat Rooney. As manager of the capital improvements program, he’s used his extensive background in land planning and landscape architecture to create something beautiful in Old Town. It’s a calling he’s pursued for the last nine years since transitioning to the public sector from private practice where he’d worked for the last 25 years.
“All projects are important, but completion of parks, pathways and streetscapes is the most rewarding,” he said. “These projects are heavily used by the public the moment they are completed. They create opportunities for people to gather as a community and provide access and connectivity to important open spaces and recreational amenities.
He and his staff work diligently to transform Bluffton into something beautiful, working on somewhere between 35-40 projects a year. These range from mammoth multi-million dollar undertakings to simple improvements to existing streetscapes, but each one of them adds to a town we can all be proud to call home.
This comes with its own sets of challenges, particularly in today’s climate of limited contractor availability and supply chain issues. “In the past, most projects could have been designed and permitted in 6 to 8 months and now these projects are taking 1.5 to 2 years to complete this phase,” he said. But it’s a challenge he proudly takes on as he looks to transform Bluffton one project at a time.
“My goal is to manage the Capital Improvement Program as efficiently as possible and to complete strategic goals provided by Town Council and the citizens of the Town of Bluffton,” he said. “I am so fortunate to manage an outstanding group of experienced project managers and administrator that are all working together to help us meet these goals and objectives.”
Victoria Smalls
When you have an issue as incredibly complex as workforce housing, one that both the private and the public sector have historically struggled to solve, you need to face it with a disciplined, experienced approach. You need someone with deep ties to the community they are serving, someone who cares about the people they are working for, and someone with an almost unquenchable desire to help their neighbors.
In short, you need someone like Victoria Smalls. A native Blufftonian whose family goes back 60 years here in town, she is immersed in the community not only through her work with the town, but as an active member of her church. Serving as a steward board member, youth class leader and Christian education director, she has worked one-on-one with people of all walks of life in Bluffton.
And when she joined the town in 2018 as workforce & affordable housing manager, it was an example of the right person in the right place at just the right time.
“Working with the Affordable Housing Committee and running the Neighborhood Assistance Program has been rewarding, being that I am able to keep other lifelong residents here in their homes,” Smalls said. “Knowing that the town has this program and that I can help connect so many residents with the help most of them didn’t know was available is rewarding.”
Whether through building homes to make them available for rent or own, or working with apartment complexes to set aside a certain number of more affordable units, Smalls is working hard to create more opportunities for people to live where they work. But that’s only part of it.
Beyond creating housing, another aspect of Smalls’ role is keeping people here who already call it home. Smalls manages the Housing Assistance Program which has helped 48 residents this fiscal year with “safe and dry” repairs to help keep Bluffton residents in their homes and reduce the housing crisis.
“If you see my black truck in the driveway, you can stop by for an application for the Housing Assistance Program,” she said. “Being able to help those who have built their life here means a lot to me, and I feel blessed to be in this position with an open-door mindset.”
David Mack
When Bluffton Township Fire District (BTFD) got together in 2019 to honor the retirement of one of their own, little did they realize that David Mack’s retirement was just the start of a new chapter for the born-and-raised Blufftonian.
Speaking at the retirement ceremony, Captain Pete Reid said, “David is the guy that everyone loves. You can see by the turnout here that everyone is a friend of David.”
“I love Bluffton. This is my hometown, and I really enjoyed supporting my community,” Mack added.
Mack, who grew up on Wharf Street, retired after 27 years with BTFD, working his way up from a volunteer. This long stretch in service to our town earned him the love and respect of his neighbors and his colleagues, love that has continued as he began his second act with the Town of Bluffton.
Now, as part of the town’s public service team, he’s a tireless force for making Bluffton a more beautiful place. When bright and vibrant new landscaping lends charm and beauty to our streets, Mack is the one in the soil getting his hands dirty. When our ditches and culverts strain to handle the often-excessive rains of the spring and summer, he’s right there ensuring clear drains prevent flooded streets. Essentially, he’s the hard-working glue that makes all of this possible.
As he said during his “retirement” ceremony with the BTFD, “That’s what I’m all about is helping someone.”
Lyndee Simoneaux
No one ever accused Bluffton of not knowing how to have a good time. With a calendar stuffed full of events and an ever-growing roster of parks and waterfronts in which to enjoy them, the social calendar of your average Blufftonian is packed. Not only is there something to do every day, but it seems like every year the banner events get better. The Fourth of July fireworks get bigger and brighter. The summer movie series offers more blockbuster hits. And the Christmas parade gets quirkier and even more unforgettable.
For that, you can thank special events manager Lyndee Simoneaux. “The Christmas parade, we start planning in January. We started planning for the Fourth of July fireworks six months ago, and that’s going to be much bigger this year,” she said.
Details are under wraps, but Simoneaux did offer that this year’s fireworks will stretch to nearly a 20-minute show, with surprise guests filling Martin Family Park during the pre-show. To Simoneaux, being able to throw Bluffton’s wildest parties is a dream come true. “This is the perfect job. I’ll probably have to be wheeled out of here,” she said with a laugh.
But it’s not just about the events she puts on. It’s about the opportunities those events create for true family bonding and community connection. “We’re really gearing these events to be family-oriented because so many of them are more aimed at adults,” she said. “My main goal was to create something that parents and grandparents could bring their kids to.”
That focus has played a massive role in the work Simoneaux has done in expanding town events and helping Blufftonians throw their own special events. It has also helped her in being named Employee of the Year by the town in 2022.
You can call her Bluffton’s executive party planner, and in a town like ours, that’s a serious responsibility. As you’d imagine, it’s a responsibility that makes it easy to bring her work home with her.
“Once a year, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, my husband and I will hold a huge party with a band and everything,” she said. “Throwing a party at my house, that’s easy.”
