Category: Government

BLYTHEWOOD/WINNSBORO – The biggest news to emerge from Winnsboro Town Council’s brief, business-like meeting on Nov. 5 wasn’t the $26,500 Council OK’d for a new chipper truck for the Electric Department, or the Town’s recent evaluation that it had no fewer than 14 unsafe trees within town limits that required removal and 13 more that need trim work. The major revelation instead came after the meeting when Winnsboro Mayor Roger Gaddy, while fielding questions regarding the state of negotiations with the Town of Blythewood over a disputed water franchise agreement, said with absolute finality that Winnsboro had no interest whatsoever in selling off its water infrastructure in and around Blythewood to the City of Columbia.

“And you can go ahead and print that if you want,” Gaddy told The Voice.

That the Capital City was interested in buying the miles of water infrastructure and the approximately 750 taps came to light last summer. In an Aug. 5 letter from Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin to Mayor Gaddy and Council members, referencing a meeting between Winnsboro and Columbia, Benjamin said Columbia was ready to begin discussions concerning the acquisition of the Blythewood water infrastructure, as well as the water customers who come along with it. But the Town of Winnsboro said then that any discussions regarding such a sale were contingent upon the arbitration of the water franchise agreement between the towns of Winnsboro and Blythewood.

Last April, Blythewood passed a resolution to terminate the agreement that transferred annually approximately $13,000 from Winnsboro to Blythewood for use of Blythewood right-of-ways necessary for Winnsboro to access, service and maintain water infrastructure. While Blythewood reads the contract as effective until 2016, Winnsboro maintains that the agreement is binding until 2020.

In July, Winnsboro voted to hire Robert Bachman to arbitrate the dispute on their behalf. Blythewood, meanwhile, has avoided arbitration like the plague.

“We don’t like to go to arbitration,” Blythewood Mayor J. Michael Ross told The Voice last summer. “It costs us money.”

Indeed, Ross reiterated that sentiment in a letter to Gaddy in September, and Blythewood has not, to date, hired anyone to represent them in arbitration.

While both sides appeared to have come to a let bygones be bygones agreement last month, Gaddy said after last week’s Council meeting that the matter had not been formally reconciled. Both sides, meanwhile, agree that the existing franchise agreement may need some tweaking moving forward.

“The existing Franchise Agreement is flawed in a number of respects and in no event would we wish to renew on the same terms and conditions,” Ross wrote in his September letter to Gaddy, and last week Gaddy agreed that some adjustments would be necessary.

The news that Winnsboro had no desire to sell off its Blythewood infrastructure regardless of the outcome of the franchise agreement dispute came as a surprise to Ross this week.

“Everything has a price,” Ross said. “It would be hard for me or any of my Council members to say that at no price would we sell something.”

In early September, Winnsboro unveiled plans to draw as much as 10 million gallons of water a day from the Broad River. The plan, which would cost as much as $13 million and would require Winnsboro to lay approximately 9 miles of lines from the river to the reservoir, and which would not be completed before 2017, would, Gaddy said, solve everyone’s problems. But to get it done, Winnsboro is going to have to issue a revenue bond. And to get the bond, Gaddy said last week, Winnsboro needs the customers – present and future – serviced by the Blythewood taps.

While Winnsboro has shared its plans with Ross and Blythewood Town Council, Ross said the entire issue was still up in the air.

“We understand perfectly that getting water from the Broad River will solve everyone’s problems,” Ross said, “but it would have been nice if they could have started on this two years ago.”

Ross said the time table on the project was a concern, and said there were a lot of variables that had to fall directly into place just to get the water flowing by 2017.

“There are a number of things that could put it off anywhere from 90 days to six months,” Ross said.

Meanwhile, Ross said, Blythewood was still holding out for an offer that could not be refused.

“The last talks we had – two, two and a half weeks ago – with Mayor Benjamin, everything was still open,” Ross said. “I believe Columbia is still going to make an offer and that’s what we’ve asked for. (Winnsboro) has asked us to keep an open mind, and I hope that they will, too.”

WINNSBORO – Before the train completely left the rails of the Oct. 27 meeting, County Council did conduct some actual business. Council held first reading of an ordinance to purchase and develop 3.36 acres of property at the intersection of Shoemaker and Center Creek roads for a County mini park. Council also passed second reading of an ordinance to rezone from B-2 (General Business District) to RD-1 (Rural Residential District) .46 acres at 2183 Dave Cole Road in Blair.

The COG

Council gave approval to an agreement with the Central Midlands Council of Governments (COG) to develop a county wide strategic plan for the use of future revenues from the two new reactors under construction at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station in Jenkinsville. Milton Pope, interim County Administrator, told Council that the COG had developed a “conceptual framework for the plan,” which includes a community master plan, an economic development plan and a financial plan.

“One of the COG’s primary responsibilities as project manager will be to develop requests for proposals (RFP) to procure consultant services to assist with the development of the plan,” Pope said.

Pope said the COG will work with the County to establish a Project Advisory Committee “to help guide the planning process.” The committee will include a “wide cross-section of stakeholders,” Pope said, “who can provide guidance on specific community needs, issues and opportunities.”

Once the consultant contract is in place, Pope said, the COG will work with the County to develop a community outreach program to engage the community in the planning process. The plan will provide a comprehensive, prioritized project list and implementation time line, Pope said, that will be analyzed in the context of existing and future revenue streams.

WINNSBORO – County Council’s Administration and Finance Committee approved a slate of items Oct. 27 to send to the full Council for their final approval. Chaired by Council’s Vice Chairman Dwayne Perry (District 1), the Committee also includes Councilwoman Carolyn Robinson (District 2) and Councilman Mikel Trapp (District 3).

The Committee forwarded to Council an $184,000 fee to Meade & Hunt to outfit the HON Building for temporary use as the County Courthouse while the Courthouse undergoes a massive makeover. While Mead & Hunt is ready to begin work as soon as Council gives the final OK, the work is expected to take as long as a year to complete, according to Milton Pope, interim County Administrator. Funds for the project will come from last year’s $24.06 million bond issue, Pope said.

Additional repairs to the Administration Building, specifically the Sheriff’s Office’s evidence room located in the basement, also got approval by the Committee. The $87,844 for the work will also come from the 2013 bond.

Up to $40,000 for aerial photography of Fairfield County properties in order to update the Assessor’s Office’s database received unanimous approval as well, as did the purchase of 2.3 acres of property on Overlook Drive in Blackstock for $7,000. The property, valued by the Assessor’s Office at just $5,000, will be developed for one of the County’s new mini parks as part of the overall recreation plan.

Runway safety improvements at the County’s airport was also forwarded to Council for final approval. Total cost for the project, Pope said, is $1,792,754.50, much of which is covered by federal grants. The County’s portion, Pope said, is $89,637.73, with the S.C. Aeronautics Commission contributing the same amount.

An amendment to the contract with Ken Simmons & Associates, the County’s recreation consultants, to include the construction of a fire station in Ridgeway and a fire/EMS station in Jenkinsville, was moved out of Committee, but not sent to the full Council, as Pope said staff still had some questions about the design costs of the projects. Perry asked Pope to bring the final document back to the Committee before Council put it to a vote. The other items will be taken up by Council during their Nov. 10 meeting.

BLYTHEWOOD – The Planning Commission quickly dispensed with the only two items on its agenda Monday evening with unanimous votes to approve both matters.

The first, an issue brought by the family of the Jennie G. Martin estate, was in regard to the court-ordered subdivision of about 60 acres of land on Pine View Church Road that Martin had willed to her surviving family members. Because the subdivision of the land into four parcels had been court-ordered, the family, represented by Ridgeway attorney Robert Hartman III, assumed the subdivision would be exempt from the Town’s subdivision requirements. After looking into the matter, Hartman wanted to be sure that the Town would agree to an exemption since the division of the property did not appear to meet any of the exemptions under the Town’s code.

“So we looked at other provisions in the code,” Town Administrator Gary Parker said, “that stated a subdivision fronting on existing main roads where no utilities, drainage or other improvements are required, shall be accepted in final plat form and therefore sketch plans and preliminary plats are not required.”

This allowed the family to bypass the Town’s usual processes of subdivision approval. The Commission approved the final plat, conditionally, until the family brings a surveyed, stamped plat to the Town for approval, at which time the condition will be removed.

In other business, the Commission unanimously approved the bonded plat for the Holly Bluff’s subdivision near the intersection of Fulmer and Blythewood roads.

The next Planning Commission meeting is scheduled for Monday, Dec. 1.

BLYTHEWOOD – All business owners, property owners and organizations within the town limits, and especially those with non-conforming signs, are encouraged to attend a public meeting about the Town government’s sign ordinance at 6 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 18 at The Manor.

The purpose of the meeting is to talk about those signs in the Town that are out of conformance with the current sign ordinance and what will be required for them to conform to the ordinance by 2016, the deadline set in 2009 for compliance. Taller signs along the interstate for McDonald’s, the Sharpe Shoppes BP, Comfort Inn and Holiday Inn Express have until 2020 to conform.

According to a recent survey conducted by the Town Planner Michael Criss, there are 27 ground-mounted signs in the town that do not conform to the sign ordinance. At last month’s Planning Commission meeting, a surprise announcement was made by Chairman Malcolm Gordge that, “The Town Council is anxious to explore every avenue in addressing those non-conformities rather than continue with the drop-dead date for compliance.”

Gordge said Council is rethinking the sign ordinance and that it is “obviously going to cause some difficulties for local businesses, especially those with the larger signs.”

The meeting will be led by a panel of representatives from the town’s Planning Commission, Board of Architectural Review and Greater Blythewood Chamber of Commerce. Town Administrator Gary Parker said at the October Planning Commission meeting that he wants to get notices out to businesses with non-conforming signs at least a year before the ordinance deadline.

“What’s being proposed,” Gordge said, is “to get some feedback to determine how the businesses perceive this requirement to comply with the ordinance, what the impact on their businesses might be and what the costs and difficulties might be so that we have plenty of time to come to a compromise.”

For more information, contact Kirk Wilson, building inspection and code enforcement assistant for the Town at 754-0501 or Michael Criss, the Town’s planning consultant, at 608-9163.

BLYTHEWOOD – Sloan Construction will be paving the roadways and parking areas throughout Doko Meadows and around Blythewood Town Hall on Nov. 5-7, pending weather conditions. Citizens using the park and The Manor at Doko Meadows and those visiting Town Hall should be aware that some portions of the roadways and parking areas will be unavailable for use during daylight hours.

If you have questions or concerns, please contact Blythewood Town Hall at 803-754-0501.