From The Blog

Keeping the Island Running: General Maintenance Manages Kiawah’s Assets

The community association is responsible for maintaining our community infrastructure and facilities. Two departments, overseen by KICA’s director of Operations, are primarily responsible for this work. Our in-house engineer manages major repairs to infrastructure and facilities, which are typically executed with outside specialist contractors. Minor repairs, like road or trail patching and boardwalk repairs as well as fixing odds and ends at our facilities are executed by our handy General Maintenance team. 

The General Maintenance department is led by supervisor Ernest Brown. Ernest has served the association for 13 years and was promoted in September 2023 to supervisor. His team of four includes another longtime employee of 17 years.

General Maintenance routinely inspects boardwalks, docks, walk bridges, decks, and trail observation towers, and makes the necessary safety repairs. They maintain all of the mailboxes on the island, painting them on a schedule and repairing them as needed. All traffic and pedestrian signs are ordered and installed by General Maintenance. They support the Sandcastle’s operations team with maintenance projects at the Sandcastle, Rhett’s Bluff, Cinder Creek and Eagle Point. They help maintain the association’s Beachwalker Center offices and security gate buildings. 

Over the last year, the department built eleven new showers at KICA-owned boardwalks. Now almost every association boardwalk is equipped with a rinse station.

The team balances annual and ongoing responsibilities with a stream of reported issues. Most maintenance issues are reported by staff and members through the KICA Member Portal. The “Report an Issue” navigation heading contains a form that creates a work order upon submission. These are addressed as rapidly as possible and the majority are resolved within several days. 

The work of this team is crucial to maintaining Kiawah’s elevated maintenance standards. The countless minor maintenance projects make a major difference to the overall look and feel of the island. Kiawah prides itself on its commitment to maintaining a beautiful community, nestled into a lively natural environment – harmony which is made possible by the efforts of our General Maintenance team.