By BRANDON HONIG - BEAUFORT GAZETTE, SOUTH CAROLINA - May 28, 2007
There's a new gang in town, Peter White says, and its members are out for
revenge.
Lurking behind trees and hiding in doorways, they await signals from lookouts
that the target has been spotted: a horse towing a carriage full of tourists.
"They kind of did it in a sting operation," said White, who owns SouthurnRose
Buggy Tours. "They would use their cell phones and have some of the other gang
(members) in cars or on foot in other parts of The Point and notify them when a
carriage is coming in to keep an eye on them ... with video cameras and flash
photos."
Carriage owners have feuded for years with residents of Beaufort's affluent
Point neighborhood, who object to the noise, smell and traffic created by tours
through the Historic District.
To reduce the problems, "All carriages for hire must keep moving at all times
and may not stop except as required by traffic regulations," according to a city
ordinance.
But now four homeowners with what White described as a "vendetta" against
buggy operators are harassing the drivers, setting up stakeouts and "trying to
make their own law in The Point."
"I don't think (the ordinance) was written to be that you can't stop (a
carriage) for 30 seconds for the horse to go to the bathroom," said Walter Gay,
owner of Sea Island Carriage Co., the only other buggy tour operator in
Beaufort. "It was meant to stop you from stopping in front of a house for three
or four minutes to talk."
City Councilwoman Donnie Beer agreed with Gay and said, "There is a
difference between stopping and staying." But Gay and White say the people
hiding in the bushes in The Point aren't interested in a correct interpretation
of the ordinance -- they're trying to run the carriages out of town.
"I don't understand why this small group of people is interfering with our
livelihood and trying to put us out of business," White said. "It's really
bothering us quite a bit, especially with all the effort and time we put into
trying to be in harmony with everybody on The Point."
White has operated buggy tours in The Point since 2001, he said, and despite
his efforts toward harmony, the "ongoing war" goes back just as far.
PLAYING BY THE RULES
"SouthurnRose has been coming through our neighborhood for years, and it's
just gotten to the point where we don't mind them being here as long as they
play by the rules," said Carl Wedler, who reported SouthurnRose to the city this
month. "If they clean up their spillages like they're supposed to, we won't have
a problem."
Wedler was on his bicycle when he spotted a SouthurnRose buggy and decided to
follow the tour through The Point, watching for violations.
"There were numerous stops -- nine, to be exact," he said. "They were
stopping to complete a story, in my opinion, or to give a longer view of a home.
And when horses stop, they have a tendency to want to relieve themselves."
Or, as neighborhood association President Dewitt Helm said, "When the
carriage stops, the horse starts."
Wedler noted the times and places where the carriage stopped and then filed a
complaint with the police department's tour coordinator.
White's wife, Rose White, who was driving the buggy, was summoned to Municipal
Court, where Judge Ned Tupper issued a $250 fine.
The next time, her fine could be as high as $500. And Peter White said his
drivers are scared.
"We have drivers who are seriously considering quitting because if they have
to stop for a good reason, they're afraid they might get a ticket, and they
can't afford a ticket," he said. "The company won't pay for the ticket because
we have informed (our drivers) that they cannot stop illegally."
White said there are at least 50 legitimate reasons a buggy operator would
need to stop a carriage -- to let a car go by, to calm a frightened horse, to
pick up a tourist's dropped wallet, etc. -- but he said a few Point residents
just don't understand.
"These people have never driven a carriage before, so they don't know,"
he said.
But they do drive cars, and they say White's carriages are getting in the
way.
"They stop in the middle of the street," said Bill Kennedy, former president
of the neighborhood association. "How would you like to be riding home and
somebody stops in front of you? The tour is supposed to be a riding tour, not a
stopping tour."
No one in The Point admitted to taking part in any stakeout of White's
buggies, which operate on state-owned roads.
"They are here for a commercial purpose, and we consider them guests in our
neighborhood and it's getting to be a real nuisance," Wedler said.
"But people have got better things to do than to follow the horse-drawn
carriages around all day long."
Copyright 2007 The Beaufort Gazette • May not be republished in any form
without the express written permission of the publisher.
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