County Offers Purchase of Building to Nonprofit Center

Ridgeville Community Center has a place to stay, provided it can raise $20,000 to purchase the building and land it has operated in for 12 years.

Dorchester County Council unanimously agreed after its executive session Monday to sell the property to the center, after some worry that the council would sell to a third party. The center leases the property at 108 Dorchester St, Ridgeville, for $1 per day from the county, but the lease ran out in 2008.

Angie Crum, the center's founder and executive director, addressed council earlier in the meeting on the importance of the center, which serves Summerville, Ridgeville, Dorchester and St. George residents, according to Crum. 

"In short, we serve everybody," Crum said, adding that includes the elderly, veterans, children, the hungry, the unemployed and the disabled. 

She argued that the center had become a community cornerstone, in a community that only boasts three privately owned businesses.

"This center is the only icon that the community can identify with," Crum said. 

Toward the end of her presentation on why the center must continue to operate at its location, Crum asked the council to do one of the following: continue the $1 per day lease with the center for the next 90 years, donate the building to the center or give the center the first option to buy.