Business Growth Strategy

Typically, the creeks branching off Broadway Lake in Anderson County are quiet. But since duck and geese hunting season started Nov. 23, neighbors say they’ve been in for a rude and early awakening from dawn until dusk. They tell WYFF it could be the death of them, literally. “No one’s been shot yet, but I’m worried that someone will,” said Cheryl Ivey, who has lived here for five years. “We have a lot of people fishing and kayaking now.” “I could get shot paddling over here and not over there. So, it’s a safety issue. If you were out here, you’d be running for that hills if they were firing,” said Roy Ivey, a neighbor of no relation to Cheryl Ivey.The body of water along Getsinger Drive is considered a creek and is connected to Broadway Lake just around the bend. “You can’t hunt within 200 yards of people’s homes to the left of that line,” said Cheryl Ivey about the bend. “But to the right on other line? Game on.”Here, there’s no regulation. Someone could shoot at geese or ducks no matter how close to a home, as long as they are still in the water or on the county-owned portions of the banks.It has made living in this area complicated. Cheryl Ivey says dead or injured geese regularly fall onto private property. “No, it happens often,” she said. “We had one in our yard last year that obviously had got a shot wing, and we tried to help it, try to put it down, and it escaped.”Roy Ivey uses his canoe to pick up litter on the banks. He says he’s accidentally wandered into the line of fire. “The DNR came out, accused me of disrupting a legal hunt, and was basically going to put the cuffs on me,” Roy Ivey said.Neighbors tell us they would be happy if a regulation passed and required hunters to stay 300 yards from houses. “And if they would enforce it, we’d be in better shape,” Roy Ivey said.In the meantime, they showed our crew that they have been to several local and state officials for help. According to Roy Ivey, “Nothing has happened.”We reached out to those officials with Anderson County, the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, and the Army Corps of Engineers. Rusty Burns with Anderson County tells us they don’t want any residents to be or feel unsafe, so they are once again taking a deep dive into what can be done on their end legally.SCDNR and the sheriff’s office tell us their hands are tied unless someone breaks the law. As of now, they haven’t heard of any hunters in the area doing so. The best way forward, they say, may be through a state law.