Category: Government

RIDGEWAY – During Winnsboro Town Council’s May 2 budget work session, Council voted to increase their electric, water and sewer rates for the upcoming fiscal year in order to help balance the Town’s 2013-2014 utilities fund budget at $15,081,890. Thursday night (May 9), Ridgeway Mayor Charlene Herring announced during the first reading of Ridgeway’s budget that those increases would have to be passed on to customers in Ridgeway.

“Winnsboro’s water rates are going up,” Herring said at Thursday’s Town Council meeting, “and we have to pass those along to our customers. We don’t want to, but we have to.”

The new rates, which will take effect July 1, are:

Water:

Residential (within town limits): $13.94 (minimum) for first 1,000 gallons; $4.29 for each addition 1,000 gallons.

Residential (outside town limits): $18.69 (m) for first 1,000; $5.54 for each additional 1,000.

Commercial (within town limits): $16.94 (m) for first 1,000; $4.29 for each additional 1,000.

Commercial (outside town limits): $21.94 (m) for first 1,000; $5.54 for each additional 1,000.

Sewer:

Residential (within town limits): $10.94 (minimum) for first 1,000 gallons; $3.64 for each additional 1,000 gallons.

Residential (outside town limits): $11.69 (m) for first 1,000; $4.79 for each additional 1,000.

Commercial (within town limits): $14.94 (m) for first 1,000; $3.79 for each additional 1,000.

Commercial (outside town limits): $17.69 (m) for first 1,000; $4.79 for each additional 1,000.

While rates are going up, Ridgeway’s sewer system is showing its age. Earlier in last week’s meeting, Judy Miller, owner of Just Around the Corner, suggested that Council consider installing a portable bathroom near the fire station between the months of April and December.

“All of us are centered in the proximity of Historic Ridgeway,” Miller said. “Our sewer system is also historic, which (makes it) a struggle to operate effectively on a daily basis.”

Miller said that tourists swell the population of Ridgeway during these months, putting a strain on the sewer system. Merchants are faced with the choice of either turning a tourist away, and losing that potential revenue, or risk dealing with overflowing toilets. Her rest room, she said, has backed up three times in the last six weeks.

Miller volunteered to oversee the upkeep and supervision of a portable rest room, should the town decide to invest in one. Herring said Council would take the suggestion under consideration.

RIDGEWAY – During the first reading of the 2013-2014 budget at last week’s Council meeting, Ridgeway Mayor Charlene Herring noted that revenues for the Town were projected to be lower than last year. A lot, she said, depended on whether or not Council could find a tenant for the vacant Old Town Hall restaurant building, which would bring the Town $800 a month in rental fees.

Only minutes later, following an executive session, Council voted unanimously to approve a new lease for the restaurant to Vesha Sanders of Columbia. Sanders owns and operates a catering company, Edie’s Event Planning, out of an office on Main Street in Blythewood and has owned restaurants in Arizona and Orangeburg. Sanders said she hopes to have the Old Town Hall Restaurant open in the next month, serving lunch Tuesday – Friday and lunch and dinner Friday and Saturday, featuring Southern cuisine.

With the lease of the restaurant, Ridgeway expects to operate with a balanced general fund budget of $198,550 in revenues and expenses and a balanced water and sewer fund of $337,632 in the coming year.

FAIRFIELD – With the ordinance governing the priority of paving roads in the county due for its three-year makeover, Bill Coleman, Chairman of the County Transportation Committee, presented County Council with a new formula for determining which roads will get the tar in years to come during Council’s April 6 work session.

“I, myself, have driven these roads and wondered how (priority) points were allotted,” Coleman said. “Our current formula has faults.”

Under the proposed formula, roads will be issued priority points based on the number of residences per road (2 points each), the number of churches per road (2 points each), whether or not a road is considered a thruway (5 points) and on density (residences per mile).

A residence is defined as a permanent dwelling-house or a fixed mobile home, Coleman said. Travel trailers and RV’s, which had been included in the current formula, are no longer considered residences. Houses used as vacation homes or part-time, seasonal residences would be considered, Coleman said.

Determining density is a little more complicated, but Coleman said it begins by converting miles into feet (1 mile = 5,280 feet). For example, Coleman said, if a road is 1,000-feet long and has five residences, first divide 1,000 (length of road) by 5,280 (feet in a mile) to get .189 (length of the road in miles – in other words, a road 1,000-feet long is .189 miles long). Then, divide the number of residences (5) by the length of the road in miles (.189) to get the points for density (24.46).

An actual example cited by Coleman is Palmetto Road, which is 620-feet long and has seven residences (14 points), no churches (0 points) and is not a thruway (0 points). Its density is 620 feet divided by 5,280 (feet in a mile) to get .117 miles. Seven residences divided by .117 = 59.82 points. Add that to the 14 points Palmetto Road gets for its total residences, and it is assigned 73.82 priority points.

Should Council adopt the formula, it will be used to determine the order in which all unpaved county roads will see work crews over the next three years. David Ferguson, Council Chairman, said Council would take up the revised ordinance at their next regular meeting, May 13.

BLYTHEWOOD – Although listed toward the bottom of the agenda, two discussion items were the most important items on the Planning Commission’s agenda Monday night. Those were: ‘Update on amending D-1 Zoning district’ and ‘Prioritization of pending code reform tasks.’

The first discussion item referred to a large tract of land between I-77 and the Ashley Oaks subdivision. About 900 acres of the parcel had been zoned Light Industrial Research Park (LIRP) by the Ballew administration in 2003 and was rezoned D-1 by the incoming Amoth administration in 2004. Town Administrator John Perry explained to the Commission that a subcommittee he serves on is working on a plan to modify about 1,200 acres of that particular D-1 to another zoning classification that would emulate D-1 but include both an Advanced Manufacturing district and a Light Industrial Research Park (LIRP) district.”

Perry said the tract in question includes primarily Barnett, McElveen and Swigert family land on the west side of I-77 and some on the east side. There are other D-1 zoned properties in the town, but Perry said he would not include all the town’s D-1 zoned property in this modified zoning district — only this particular tract. He did not say what the new zoning term would be for the proposed modified district.

The North Point Industrial Park, which is in the County, lies to the south of the D-1 property.

“We want to get more compatible with the County and sort of stay with LIRP and Advanced Manufacturing [zoning], moving north from the Industrial Park,” Perry said. “As we move closer to the town, the zoning will step down from Advanced Manufacturing in the southern portion of what is now the large D-1 parcel to LIRP zoning to the Town District commercial zoning.”

Perry said the subcommittee working to modify the D-1 zoned tract would meet again in late June or early July. Although both Perry and Planning Commissioner Mike Switzer repeatedly referred to the subcommittee that was working on the modifications, when asked by The Voice to identify the members of the subcommittee, Perry said the subcommittee was not an appointed subcommittee but was made up of several members of the County and Town staffs.

The creation of a zoning district that would include Advanced Manufacturing and LIRP zoning is one of seven proposals for code reform in the town that Perry said are being worked on by another subcommittee. Perry said he was bringing the seven proposed code reforms before the Planning Commission for prioritization.

Perry said much subcommittee work had already been done to reform three of the Town’s codes: Landscape and Tree Ordinance, D-1 zoning (to include Advanced Manufacturing and LIRP zoning) and Auto Repair businesses in the Town Center district.

The Planning Commission prioritized the seven proposals for code reform in the following order:

1. Landscape and Tree Ordinance.

2. Advanced Manufacturing.

3. Auto Repair Businesses. Perry explained that auto repair businesses located in the Town Center, such as Pope Tire Company, are currently designated as non-conforming. “If a calamity were to destroy a [specified] portion of Pope Tire,” Perry said, “under the current code, that business would not be allowed to continue to operate or build back.” He said that, with modifications to the code, these businesses could conform by making certain architectural changes to their buildings and continue operating in the Town Center.

4. Vehicular signs. Perry said he would propose that signs on vehicles, such as on the side of a tractor trailer, not be allowed to park in the Town. He said the sign on the truck is, in effect, a non-conforming sign.

5. Subdivision Construction Signs. Perry said he would like to see a provision for on-site signs to, among other things, have an effective date of removal. Off-site signs are currently not allowed under the Town’s billboard ordinance.

6. Outdoor lighting. Modification of this ordinance would provide for stricter enforcement. It could also allow residential neighborhoods a ‘dark sky’ option.

7. Home Occupations. Currently, under most of the Town’s residential zoning districts, home occupations must obtain a special exception from the Town’s Board of Zoning Appeals before the owners can obtain a business license from Town Hall. Perry would like to see most home business classifications be allowed to buy a business license without applying to the BZA for a special exception. This would have the effect of increasing the number of business license purchased from the Town and eliminate the $100 cost to apply for a special exception to the BZA, Perry said. Exceptions might apply to businesses with heavy traffic from outside employees or UPS trucks making and picking up deliveries. Those businesses might still have to apply to the BZA for special exceptions.

Rezoning annexed properties

In other business, the Commission voted to recommend final zoning for two parcels of land on Sandfield Road — a 1-acre parcel (TMS # 17900-04-31) owned by Doug and U-Yong Skroback and used as a Tae Kwon Do studio and an adjoining 6.4-acre parcel (TMS # 17900-04-06) owned by Richard Allen – that were annexed in 2009, but were never given final zoning by the Town.

“Shortly after the annexation of the two properties,” Perry explained, “the Town Clerk left the Town’s employment, and the zoning of the properties was overlooked by staff.” When the annexation came to the County for recording, the County colored it, identifying it with the County’s R-12 zoning color. Perry said it came to the Town’s attention that the property was never properly zoned when the Skrobacks recently had the property appraised. When annexed in 2009, the Skrobacks had asked for Neighborhood Commercial zoning and Allen had asked for Rural zoning. The Commission voted unanimously to recommend those respective zonings.

D. R. Horton lots in Cobblestone

The Commission voted unanimously to allow D. R. Horton builders to reduce by 2 feet the minimum side building set-backs for up to 115 lots in The Farm section of Cobblestone Park. The builder asked for the additional setback to allow a larger footprint to accommodate ranch style homes designed with senior accessibility.

The next Planning Commission meeting is scheduled for June 10 at 6 p.m., when it will hold a public hearing on the budget and review the Capital Improvements Plan (CIP) as well as all funds in the Town’s proposed budget.

WINNSBORO – The tone was set early at Monday night’s intergovernmental meeting, where representatives from the School District, County Council, the State Legislature and the towns of Winnsboro and Ridgeway* broke bread at the District Office, and the message was clear: Work together, or nothing will work at all.

It was the theme of the opening statement by the group’s newest member, District 41 Representative MaryGail Douglas, elected to the State House last November and now three months into her first term. In order for Fairfield County to move forward, she said, the county’s major political players had to shuck their reputation for contentiousness and find some common ground.

“Fairfield County in known in Columbia for a lack of collaboration,” Douglas said. “I’m not real proud of that. It’s not going to get us anywhere. There are people who are standing at the steps, waiting, because they know what a diamond we have in this county. It is up to us, individually and collectively, to make things right. To make relationships right among our people. To make organizations work together among our people. I just plead with everybody here to get past that, so that we can see some really good things come down the pike.”

Dwayne Perry, Vice Chairman of County Council, agreed.

“It all goes back to communication,” Perry said. “We had one of our best discussions with the Town of Winnsboro (April 17). The Town of Winnsboro is really trying to work with us to get water to that industrial park. That’s what teamwork is all about. The County can sit over here and do our thing, the School Board can do your thing, but if we don’t start working together as a team it’s going to be very difficult to move this county forward.”

David Ferguson, Chairman of Fairfield County Council, said collaborative efforts between the County and the Town of Winnsboro have been thus far unsuccessful in securing a deal with the City of Columbia to bring water to the County’s new industrial parks.

“We’ve kind of hit a roadblock on that, right now,” Ferguson said. “Between their (the Town of Winnsboro’s) efforts and our efforts, we’re trying to get around that so we can get the parks where they should be.”

Ferguson said several companies have looked at the new spec building at the park, and one major company has looked at property in the park.

“We’ve got to get some water and sewer down there,” he said. “We’re still in negotiations with Columbia on water that will take us four or five years until we can get the overall problem taken care of. That’s a moving target, but it’s one the County is going to have to deal with in order to put people to work in this county. We all have to work together to make that happen. Like MaryGail said, it’s not a one-man show by any means.”

Ferguson also warned the gathering that a bill to amend the state’s solid waste management plan, known as the “Business Freedom to Choose Act,” (S.203) would soon be coming up for a vote in the State Senate. Douglas, he said, had voted against the House version (H.3290), and encouraged everyone to contact District 17 Senator Creighton Coleman to push him for a similar vote. This bill, Ferguson said, would take away a county’s ability to determine where landfills are located and what kind of waste landfills can accept. Perry added that the bill would take home rule away from the County.

A reading of the current version of the bill, however (available at www.scstatehouse.gov), contains no such language. The bill does, on the other hand, prohibit counties from mandating which landfills private companies choose to dispose of waste.

The next intergovernmental meeting will be hosted by the County on June 17.

*Editor’s Note: The Town of Jenkinsville, although invited, was not represented at Monday night’s meeting.

FAIRFIELD – The former head of Animal Control, who lost his year-long lawsuit against the County and its administrators last month, had his motion for reconsideration tossed by Sixth Judicial Circuit Court Judge Brooks P. Goldsmith last week.

Goldsmith ruled that there was “no basis for granting the motion” brought by David Michael Hollis, former Director of Fairfield County Animal Control, following Goldsmith’s dismissal of the original case on March 18.

Hollis was terminated by the County in January 2012 after questions arose about how he had handled an incident earlier that month in which one dog attacked another in Fairfield County. The victim in the attack eventually had one hind leg amputated by a Fairfield County veterinarian, while the attacking dog was later euthanized. Hollis’s suit alleged defamation and civil conspiracy and sought $2 million in damages. Goldsmith tossed the suit after agreeing with the County that Hollis was barred from his defamation claim under the S.C. Tort Claims Act, and that his status as a public official and an at-will employee barred him from making a claim of civil conspiracy.

County administrators said this week that the County has shelled out approximately $24,000 in legal fees defending the case.

RICHLAND – Richland County’s newly appointed 15-member Penny Tax oversight committee held its first meeting April 24 in a conference room in the County building at Hampton and Harden streets. The meeting was facilitated by County Council Chairman Kelvin Washington and Councilman Paul Livingston who, among other things, heard committee members’ concerns about County Council’s recent announcement that it plans to seat two Council members as non-voting members of the committee.

According to The State newspaper, prior to the November 2012 vote on the tax, Council had promised voters that no members of County Council would sit on the committee. Voters were told that the committee would be a watchdog committee of citizens. Some members of the committee question whether it can remain apolitical and independent of County Council if Council members sit on it.

Blythewood’s representative on the committee, Bill Wiseman, said the meeting was primarily a get-acquainted meeting with a Power Point review of the background of the Penny Tax initiatives going back to 2008. He said members were given a list of the projects designated for Penny Tax funds. That list and other information can be found on the County’s website, Richlandonline.com.

“Right now we’re organizing,” Wiseman said. “Council is interviewing for a Transportation Director, and as soon as they put that person in place, they’ll hire a Program Management Firm to oversee the tax funded projects.” He said that process should be completed in about 60 to 90 days.

Wiseman said the committee will meet again either May 13 or 24 to elect officers and discuss their next steps. The committee’s task is to provide oversight to County Council as it carries out a $1.07 billion improvement program over 20 years to fund roads, bus routes, trails and bike paths in the county. Wiseman, who is serving a four-year term on the committee, will report back to Town Council and the community on the committee’s work.

The committee’s meetings are open to the public.

BLYTHEWOOD – Town Administrator John Perry announced at Monday night’s Town Council meeting that the Town has applied for a $900,000, 10-year, 2 percent loan through the Santee Cooper revolving loan fund to build a restaurant in the Town park.

“We passed a resolution to expand our search for funding for Project Booster (the restaurant building) from funding available through the USDA to revolving loan funds,” Perry told Council. He said he anticipates hearing back on that application shortly.

“I’m looking forward to an October completion date on the restaurant,” Perry said.

He did not announce who the restaurant would be leased to, but he said he would have more to report to Council on May 13.

BLYTHEWOOD – At Monday night’s Town Council meeting, Town Administrator John Perry suggested it was time for Council to raise the Town’s fees for both residential and commercial construction permits. He suggested raising the fees to be more in line with those charged by Columbia, Forest Acres and Richland County. The construction permit fee for a 2,500-square-foot home valued at $200,000 would go from the current $700 to $800. A permit fee for the construction of a 1,500-square-foot home valued at $100,000 would go from $175 to $400, an increase of $225. A permit for the construction of a 10,000-square-foot commercial building valued at $1 million would almost double from the current $2,366 to $4,655. Mayor J. Michael Ross agreed that it was time to adjust the fees.

“We need to do this now,” he said, “and move forward.”

Perry said the issue would come before Council in the next few months for a vote.

Park maintenance contract

In other business, Council voted to authorize the mayor to award a lawn care contract for the town park to Superior Lawn and Yard Maintenance out of Prosperity. Perry told Council that the Town received 12 bids for the three-year contact and that Superior’s bid of $20,162 per year for three years was the lowest and would include mowing, edging, fertilizing and maintaining the lawn in the park. Councilman Jeff Branham told The Voice that the contract will be re-evaluated at the end of each year

Budget review

In a discussion of the parameters of the 2014 budget, which must be approved by July 1, Perry presented an overview of the Town’s revenues in all funds. He said revenues overall are up 3 to 5 percent. While total ‘other’ revenues dropped from $153,000 to $95,000, Perry said that number reflects the end of several grants. He said the Town is also looking at more outsourcing instead of using full-time employees to be more effective and efficient. Four other meetings are scheduled (see below) for budget review and action during May and June.

I-77 landscaping

Perry reported that the S.C. Department of Transportation had extended the I-77 landscape contractor’s agreement to May 31. Perry reported that some of the trees had failed to thrive and needed to be replaced before the contractor, Pony Hill Nursery and Landscaping of Lexington, leaves the job. Perry said some weeding and mulching remain to be done as well.

Doko Manor rentals

Martha Jones, the Town’s Events and Conference Center Director, gave a report on the Doko Manor building rental. She passed out a chart that showed it will have been used at no charge by community groups 43 times through the end of May and will have been rented six times for graduation parties, wedding and baby showers, anniversaries and other private parties. She said she expects more rental activity in the coming months. Perry announced that the Town would initiate an enterprise fund to meet the future expenses of the Manor. Branham told The Voice that this fund would be necessary since the Manor was expected to be a significant revenue generator for the Town.

Farmers Market

Perry announced that the Town’s Farmers Market will open in the park on May 20, and will be open every Monday through October.

The following meetings are scheduled to review the Town’s 2014 Budget:

Planning Commission

• May 6 at 6 p.m. – Discuss the Town’s Capital Improvements Plan

Town Council

• May 13 at 6 p.m. – Review CIP, Personnel & Enterprise Fund for Manor

• May 28 at 7 p.m. – First Reading (vote) of FY ’14 Budget; Review Operating Budget & Other Sources and Uses

• June 10 at 6 p.m. – Public Hearing on Budget; Final Review of all funds

• June 24 at 7 p.m. – Second Reading (vote) of FY ’14 Budget

• June 30 – Start of audit of FY ‘13