By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Richmond Hill Council approves petition by proposed sporting-goods, gun store
IMAG0148 2
Richmond Hill Fire Department Lt. Jordan Johnson has his gold badge pinned on his uniform by his wife, Sarah, during the City Council meeting Tuesday at City Hall. - photo by Brent Zell

The Richmond Hill City Council signed off Tuesday on a request by a proposed sporting-goods store that would also have gun sales and safety training.

The council voted to approve a text amendment to a zoning ordinance to add “sporting goods store with gun sales” as a conditional use in an interchange commercial district. The proposed store’s address is 3766 Highway 17, suite 103, near Food Lion.

The petition was filed by Mike Pinault of Pinault Defensive Solutions. In addition to sporting goods and guns being sold, the store would provide gun-safety courses for first-time gun handlers as well as self-defense courses.

A Facebook page linked to the Pinault Defensive Solution website had a post Tuesday stating that the store will be open in March.

In the minutes from the Jan. 29 meeting of the city’s Planning Commission, Pinault said the proposed store would have classroom training with plastic BB guns used at times and no live fire.

During discussion at the commission meeting, Planning Commissioner Brad Brookshire asked if there is any similar business in Richmond Hill. Pinault said Richmond Hill Marine sells a few similar items, while Richmond Hill Planning and Zoning Assistant Director Randy Dykes said there are some home-based guns-sales businesses in the area.

The company’s website, PinaultDefensiveSolutions.com, says that Pinault — whose career includes working with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Richmond Hill and Savannah police departments — is a National Rifle Association-certified instructor in pistol, rifle, shotgun and home-firearm safety.

Pinault teaches classes at his range in Savannah and does one-on-one training in clients’ homes. His website also advertises a small inventory of immediately available guns and related items.

Also Tuesday, two members of the Richmond Hill Fire Department received new badges signifying promotions.

Jordan Johnson and Sean Curry received their gold badges as they were promoted from sergeant to lieutenant. Each firefighter traded in his silver badge for a gold badge during a pinning ceremony.

“This is a milestone in any firefighter’s career, and well-deserved,” RHFD Chief Ralph Catlett said.

Council also approved capital-improvement requests for the Richmond Hill City Center for the first two quarters of 2016, with expenditures not to exceed $85,000. The requests included exterior painting and upgrades to the center’s audiovisual system during the first quarter.

Sign up for our E-Newsletters
Later yall, its been fun
Placeholder Image

This is among the last pieces I’ll ever write for the Bryan County News.

Friday is my last day with the paper, and come June 1 I’m headed back to my native Michigan.

I moved here in 2015 from the Great Lake State due to my wife’s job. It’s amicable, but she has since moved on to a different life in a different state, and it’s time for me to do the same.

My son Thomas, an RHHS grad as of Saturday, also is headed back to Michigan to play basketball for a small school near Ann Arbor called Concordia University. My daughter, Erin, is in law school at University of Toledo. She had already begun her college volleyball career at Lourdes University in Ohio when we moved down here and had no desire to leave the Midwest.

With both of them and the rest of my family up north, there’s no reason for me to stay here. I haven’t missed winter one bit, but I’m sure I won’t miss the sand gnats, either.

Shortly after we arrived here in 2015, I got a job in communications with a certain art school in Savannah for a few short months. It was both personally and professionally toxic and I’ll leave it at that.

In March 2016 I signed on with the Bryan County News as assistant editor and I’ve loved every minute of it. My “first” newspaper career, in the late 80s and early 90s, was great. But when I left it to work in politics and later with a free-market think tank, I never pictured myself as an ink-stained wretch again.

Like they say, never say never.

During my time here at the News, I’ve covered everything that came along. That’s one big difference between working for a weekly as opposed to a daily paper. Reporters at a daily paper have a “beat” to cover. At a weekly paper like this, you cover … life. Sports, features, government meetings, crime, fundraisers, parades, festivals, successes, failures and everything in between. Oh, and hurricanes. Two of them. I’ll take a winter blizzard over that any day.

Along the way I’ve met a lot of great people. Volunteers, business owners, pastors, students, athletes, teachers, coaches, co-workers, first responders, veterans, soldiers and yes, even some politicians.

And I learned that the same adrenalin rush from covering “breaking news” that I experienced right out of college is still just as exciting nearly 30 years later.

With as much as I’ve written about the population increase and traffic problems, at least for a few short minutes my departure means there will be one less vehicle clogging up local roads. At least until I pass three or four moving vans headed this way as I get on northbound I-95.

The hub-bub over growth here can be humorous, unintentional and ironic all at once. We often get comments on our Facebook page that go something like this: “I’ve lived here for (usually less than five years) and the growth is out of control! We need a moratorium on new construction.”

It’s like people who move into phase I of “Walden Woods” subdivision after all the trees are cleared out and then complain about trees being cut down for phase II.

Bryan County will always hold a special place in my heart and I definitely plan on visiting again someday. My hope is that my boss, Jeff Whitten (one of the best I’ve ever had), will let me continue to be part of the Pembroke Mafia Football League from afar. If the Corleone family could expand to Vegas, there’s no reason the PMFL can’t expand to Michigan.

But the main reason I want to return someday is about that traffic issue. After all, I’ll need to see it with my own eyes before I’ll believe that Highway 144 actually got widened.

Latest Obituaries