july2017

110 111 Originally called “Butler’s Crossing,” the area was renamed “Mauldin” in honor of the Pres- ident of the Greenville and Laurens Railroad, W.L. Mauldin, who helped bring the railroad through the community, and later became the state’s Lt. Governor. The Town of Mauldin was incorporated on Christmas Eve, 1890, and in 1969, Town Council voted to change the name to City of Mauldin. Today, it’s one of the fastest growing cities in South Carolina. To garner insight into Mauldin’s ongoing success, we went directly to the people in the know: Trey Eubanks, City Administrator; Van Broad, Community Development Director; and Taft Matney, City Councillor and Chair of Maul- din Recreation, Planning and Economic Devel- opment Committee. Here’s what they shared: EUBANKS: “We continue to focus on funda- mentals, maintaining a high quality of life by maintaining a high quality of municipal ser- vices. That’s the basis upon which we build and recruit industry and development. Regarding infrastructure, we are 75 to 80 percent finished with a $3.4 million sewer system rehabilitation project. That project has come in under budget and ahead of schedule, and it’s going to ensure we have a viable sewer infrastructure well into the future. Our sewer management system is one of the best in the region, so, businesses MAULDIN, SOUTH CAROLINA and industry looking to locate here have no issues when it comes to those services. “The other thing is our roads. Over the past five years, we have taken advantage of matching grants for road resurfacing, and have collectively invested over $4 million in resurfacing programs.Transportation-wise, last year,we completed a council-authorized study on one of our major corridors that goes from our main intersection, up to the high school towards interstate I-385.This year, it is in the State Dept. of Transportation’s program for pre- liminary engineering.With a lot of public input, we’re going to have the best solution to the investment we need to make in this import- ant commercial corridor. “The Greenville Health System Swamp Rabbit Trail is another infrastructure ele- ment. It’s a 19.9-mile, multi-use rail trail that follows the bed of a former railroad, and was nicknamed after the indigenous swamp rab- bit. If you’re familiar with Greenville County, you’re familiar with the Swamp Rabbit Trail. It starts at the northern end of our county, and Council has received plans to include it as part of the City of Mauldin–not only as a recre- ational component, it is also a true economic development driver.The County of Greenville, particularly the small town of Travelers Rest, has been extremely successful at recruiting businesses due to the presence of the Swamp Rabbit Trail through that area.” BROAD: “Another example of work being done involves a valuable 40-acre site that needed remediation. The city partnered with the landowner, the county and the state to certify the site as SC Certified for putting a business entity there. That means we did all