Go Take a Hike

Pickens, S.C.

The six members of Pickens County Council gathered for an unusual meeting on a cold Saturday morning in January 2021. No votes were scheduled, and only one item appeared on the agenda for in-depth discussion: Council Goals and Objectives. A small collection of staff was also in attendance to quietly witness council settle on five main goals for the year after several hours of reflection. Among them were goals aimed at essential and emergency service, economic development and other important matters. County staff was confident in their ability to achieve these goals due to a solid track record of fulfilling such directives in the past.

But two goals – Creating a Public Servant Culture and Protecting and Enhancing Our Unique Nature – would prove to be interconnected in surprising and rewarding ways.

Pickens County is home to mountain vistas, rolling countryside, and clean waterways. Our unique nature includes Table Rock, the most photographed natural feature in the state; Sassafras Mountain, the home of the highest point in South Carolina; and Pinnacle Mountain, the tallest mountain located entirely within the boundaries of the state. The Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway arcs through our portion of the Appalachians, bringing visitors and locals together to enjoy our upcountry heritage and music. Lake Keowee claims some of the cleanest water in North America, and our Twelve Mile, Saluda and Oolenoy river basins provide a myriad of recreational activities. Keowee-Toxaway State Park and Table Rock State Park bookend our county with a plethora of other parks, nature preserves, and heritage areas generously distributed between those two state-managed anchors.

To further its goals and perhaps recognize our unique place in the South Carolina upcountry, Pickens County Council chose to create a new employee achievement award and christened it the Pinnacle Performer Award. The monthly award recognizes county employees who best typify a dedicated public servant by saving taxpayer money or excelling in the provision of service to the community. Among the rewards for this achievement is a free weekend stay for the Pinnacle Performer and their family in a lakefront cabin at Mile Creek County Park. It was here that a connection between the two seemingly disparate goals was first made – our unique natural environment can help reward and motivate our public servants toward greater service to our community.

But this reward was only the beginning. Many of our county employees now participate in group hikes led by Pickens County Collaboration Manager Jessica Varney at different locations within our community. These hikes serve to expose our public servants to the outdoors, which is known to have tangible benefits for office workers in productivity and perceptions of overall wellbeing. Jessica and the other participants report that these employee hikes are beneficial to their physical, mental and relational health. They choose trails with various levels of difficulty and length to accommodate all skill levels, including trails easy enough for young children to come along, giving coworkers opportunities to get to know each other’s families as well. Participants reap the benefits of physical activity and colleague interaction while simultaneously experiencing the remarkable scenic hiking opportunities throughout our county. These employees then become informed ambassadors, eager to share their experiences with other citizens and visitors, which in turn promotes the natural recreational opportunities we have to offer.

This growing team spirit and comradery led to another innovation, the Pickens County Public Employee Service Corps. This initiative allows local government employees to team up to mitigate local litter or code violations during off-hours and under the auspices of United Way of Pickens County. Once again, these volunteer opportunities provide an avenue for county employees from various county departments to serve together when they may not get that opportunity during work hours. Public servants from the Assessor’s Office, Sheriff’s Office, Emergency Management, Public Information, Code Enforcement, and the administrator’s office voluntarily working shoulder-to-shoulder to clean up piles of debris from a neglected property or to pack school supplies into backpacks to be distributed to local school-aged children by United Way are just a couple of examples of the teamwork facilitated through the PESC this past year. Strengthening the bonds between departments outside of the office environment serves the employees well when it comes to collaborations during work hours.

A newly-installed walking trail meandering through the grounds of the County Administrative offices at the Marion C. Owens Governmental Complex addresses a longstanding problem of employees from numerous state and local government offices using the parking lots for walking during lunch and other breaks. Named after the Cherokee word for “wellbeing,” the Tohi Trail now spans more than a mile in length before it connects via footbridge to another employee walking trail at the adjacent AnMed Cannon Hospital grounds. The business area of the City of Pickens is accessible from the existing AnMed trail by sidewalk. This includes the Rails to Trails project known as the Doodle Trail, which connects the downtowns of Pickens and Easley, South Carolina. County Employees, elected officials and public servants from DHEC, DSS and the Pickens County Soil and Water Conservation District all now have ready access to the Tohi Trail for a safe and convenient entry point to enjoy the outdoors and get some steps in to improve or maintain their health.

Getting out of the office for day hikes, volunteer service events or quick walks during lunch provides regular opportunities for employees to bond based on shared interests. These opportunities for employees to connect with each other outside of the confines of their duties on the clock provide excellent team building opportunities and occasions to get to know the people behind the titles and job descriptions. Employees come to see one another as real people. Employees that may never cross paths in the execution of their daily duties may form a relationship based on their desire to give back to the community or a shared love of the outdoors. These outings help build friendlier work environments and increase the likelihood of good collaboration among our public servants, thereby improving the quality of the service provided to the taxpayers.

This collaborative work environment paid direct benefits as county staff worked through one of County Council’s most important and urgent projects for 2022: preserving and protecting the viewshed and driving experience along the Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway 11. This initiative reflected Council’s stated goal of protecting and enhancing our unique nature in the most dramatic and direct sense and required collaborative staff work by public servants in numerous and diverse county departments such as our Planning, Code Enforcement, GIS/Mapping, Parks and Recreation, and Roads and Bridges offices. While it is difficult to measure the degree to which this important process was directly impacted by the staff’s newfound exposure to our natural wonders and the comradery nurtured by these shared outdoor experiences, it is clear that county employees gave county council the advice and options necessary to see the process through to its conclusion. For the first time in Pickens County history, we have an ordinance in place that protects our Scenic Highway and establishes conservation funds for further protections in the future.

From that early morning meeting of County Council in January, several goals emerged. The interplay and synergy of two seemingly disparate goals of Creating a Public Servant Culture and Protecting and Enhancing Our Unique Nature coalesced in a way that strengthened the implementation of both.