‘Deserving of any award’: How a York County business pro helped change her community

Imagine a local area posting a community relations job. Then add an economic development exec position, a part-time utilities and roads planner, an event organizer, spokesperson, a business incubator consultant and a half dozen other seemingly unrelated roles.

Now, imagine all those jobs posted for just one person. And imagine there’s no town.

For three decades Susan Bromfield has been the person filling all those jobs. The Lake Wylie Chamber of Commerce president runs an office that doubles as both an area visitor center and small business center. Bromfield’s work spans from a two-lane-road community with a quarter or so of the people it has today, to a thriving business community in one of the fastest growing, unincorporated parts of the region.

“I’ve been a big fan of Susan’s for years,” said U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman. “She’s been a driving force of economic development around Lake Wylie and River Hills, and a strong advocate for the community.”

Like many political figures to serve Lake Wylie, Norman knows Bromfield well. The pair worked together on issues like water and sewer service dating back to his time as a state representative.

“When Susan sets her focus on something, you can bet it’s going to be incredible,” Norman said.

State Senate president Harvey Peeler has a similar experience.

“She is the go to person for information in this area,” Peeler said.

Peeler helped get state money for the visitor and business center on Latitude Lane near S.C. 49 and 274, which moved Bromfield’s office from its prior location at the Wilkerson building near the River Hills front gate. Peeler and Bromfield worked together on traffic issues dating back to the widening of S.C. 49 from Buster Boyd Bridge and Mecklenburg County.

“She is my ears and eyes in the community,” Peeler said. “She makes my job easier.”

Chamber Executive of the Year

The bi-state Carolinas Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives recently named Bromfield as its 2021 South Carolina Chamber Executive of the Year. The association covers chambers large and small, from big budgets and extensive staffs to Bromfield’s setup of otherwise volunteer help.

York County Regional Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Dean Faile, along with Chamber of Catawba County president and CEO Lindsay Keisler, presented Bromfield with the award Tuesday. The breadth of issues Bromfield takes on, Faile said, is impressive.

“Part of our job is to know about everything going on in our community,” he said.

Bromfield said when she began, she didn’t fit into the chamber leader mold. Contemporaries were mainly men. She recalls lots of “golf and schmoozing” at larger, regional events. Times changed. Keisler thanked Bromfield on Tuesday not just for her work in Lake Wylie, but for being “a trailblazer to show other young women they can lead chambers of commerce.”

Bromfield said she never took the chamber job in 1991 to work her way up a ladder. She’d moved to the area a few years prior, and thought it a way to help.

“I felt, and still feel, that I need to give back to my community,” Bromfield said.

Lake Wylie change

Projects Bromfield and the chamber either organized or assisted with make a long list. Anyone who ever watched the July 4 fireworks or Christmas boat parade on Lake Wylie could thank Bromfield. Same for years of Riversweep trash pickups, Splash Dash runs and other gatherings.

Even the fact people call the area Lake Wylie owes, in some part, to Bromfield and the chamber. Three decades ago the area was — and for many people still is — known as Bethel. There were a couple of known restaurants. Many outsiders knew the area as the River Hills subdivision and little else.

“Lake Wylie didn’t have an identity then,” Bromfield said. “So the chamber was a part of that, getting permission from the post office and the telephone company, to call the 831 telephone exchange Lake Wylie.”

The chamber created citizen and business of the year awards to honor community members. There have been fashion shows and many ribbon cuttings for new business. The chamber board often helps with public information on everything from water rate hike hearings and school bond proposals to land development and conservation projects.

Because Lake Wylie isn’t a town, there isn’t the voice of mayor or planning director on major issues that impact the area. Lake Wylie and Clover share one of seven seats on York County Council. Without a town, there also aren’t the same revenue streams.

“She didn’t have some of the funding tools that some of the other chambers have had,” said Tom Smith, who served that Dist. 2 seat on York County Council.

Smith calls Bromfield a friend and said she approaches her role with elegance and class. She is consistent and helpful, even when issues are complicated.

“She’s well-deserving of any award,” Smith said. “Hopefully people don’t take her for granted because she’s been around so long and been so consistent. She’s just one of a kind.”

A drive along S.C. 49 from Buster Boyd Bridge barely resembles what it did 30 years ago. It isn’t just the wider road. Large stretches of trees then are new restaurants, shopping centers, apartments and storage sites. Decades ago Lake Wylie, or Bethel, was for many a getaway to the river. Now the county has a residential building moratorium in place to slow the pace of growth. Many months a home or two in the area sells for more than $1 million.

Some parts of Lake Wylie haven’t changed. As an unincorporated place, it’s still hard to pin down population and socioeconomic details for the area. The U.S. Census Bureau draws a line around the two main peninsulas on either side of Crowders Creek, but doesn’t venture west of S.C. 274.

That Lake Wylie still has more than 13,600 residents, up 54% in a decade from the slightly different area the bureau considered Lake Wylie in 2010. Even at 13,000 people Lake Wylie would still be the third largest municipality in York County, if it were one, behind only Rock Hill and Fort Mill.

Information, business destination

While a state-funded welcome center greets I-77 drivers into York County, there wasn’t anything on the busy but lesser known S.C. 49 and 274 routes from Mecklenburg and Gaston counties in North Carolina. Bromfield repeatedly had people come in with questions ahead of potential relocation, both residential and business. Hence plans for the visitor and small business center that opened in 2008.

Bromfield since answered countless questions from businesses that came, and others that didn’t. She and volunteers answered questions from new residents. They’ve worked to bridge communication gaps between business and community.

The Mill Creek Commons project, where Walmart and Lowe’s Home Improvement were built, once was controversial since county zoning allowed it without public hearing. The yellow walls and green roof on a new title loan office sparked months of public discussion. So have many new subdivisions in an area that already faces traffic and infrastructure issues.

Lake Wylie doesn’t have its own rules for development. It relies on county standards. Sometimes, as with the Mill Creek project, Bromfield’s role has been to meet with developers and ask for quality projects without any mechanism to require it. Sometimes the role is to meet with the county on improved standards.

As certainly as Lake Wylie looks different today than it did a year or decade ago, the area is poised to grow more. It’s a vibrance that comes with challenges, but one Bromfield can appreciate.

“The community developed and changed,” she said, “and the chamber has been an instrumental part of that.”