Blythewood Online 691

Category: Government

  • Planning Commission Tweaks Proposed Zoning for Some Blythewood Businesses

    The Blythewood Planning Commission met on Tuesday night to address concerns expressed by some business owners over town hall’s proposed zoning restrictions on commercial properties located in downtown Blythewood – an area that Council has designated to become a Town Center District.

    At a recent public hearing for the proposed zoning changes, several business owners said the new ordinance would negatively affect their businesses in the long term.

    Under the proposed ordinance some current businesses, like the town’s new Palmetto Gold and Pawn would become non-conforming businesses. That means, should the pawn shop decide to move to a different location in the district, expand or rebuild, it would not be allowed to do so.

    At the Nov. 19 public hearing, a co-owner of the Blythewood Gold and Pawn, Victor Kocher, said his business was in the same category as businesses like antique stores and consignment shops which are allowed under the proposed zoning ordinance. He said he felt his business should somehow be exempted from the ordinance just as antique stores and consignment shops are exempted.

    The Planning Commission agreed with Kocher on Tuesday night and voted to recommend that pawn shops be included in the same classification as consignment and antique shops which are allowed outright.

    Another business owner who told Town Council that he would be negatively impacted by the ordinance, Dwayne Bohannon, owner of the Storage Express on Community Road, also objected to the zoning changes. At the Planning Commission meeting, Town Administrator John Perry told the Commissioners that Bohannon was in the middle of an expansion plan that would eliminate his current outdoor storage. Under the proposed zoning, Bohannon would be prohibited from continuing this expansion.

    The Commission voted to re-route the zoning boundary around the storage business’s property to exclude it from the Town Center District.

    No other changes to the proposed zoning ordinance were recommended by the Commission. The Commission’s recommendations now go to Town Council for a second and final vote, possibly at the December Town Council meeting. The public will again have the opportunity to address Council before that vote.

    In other business, the Commission recommended that Council pass a reworked and combined Tree and Landscape ordinance.

    In his staff report, Perry said he was looking into pursuing charging a fee in lieu of a court appearance for violations of some of the Town’s ordinances. In the past, all violations of Town ordinances had to be resolved in court.

    Perry said he was also looking at proposing a noise ordinance and a mobile sign ordinance for the town. He also said he would propose that residents seeking approval for certain types of home businesses be approved at town hall rather than go before the Board of Zoning Appeal for an exception. Under such a proposal, Perry said the resident business owner would come to Town Hall, pay a fee and obtain a business license.

    The next Town Council meeting will be held on Dec. 17 at 7:30 p.m. at the Blythewood Community Center on Blythewood Road across from the Food Lion shopping area.

  • Ordinance Would Change Downtown Blythewood

    An ordinance to greatly change the official zoning map of the downtown commercial area in Blythewood passed the first of two required votes by Town Council almost unnoticed on Sept. 24 of this year. But as the little white zoning signs began popping up on all downtown commercial properties (and 19 outside the downtown) a month or so later, heralding a public hearing and the second and final vote to make the ordinance the law of the Town, some business and commercial property owners have taken note and started asking questions.

    And those questions could be warranted, considering that the Town’s Planning Commission Chairman, Mike Switzer, publicly aired his opinion that “the new zoning classification ordinance is one of, if not the most important and urgent of the Master Plan’s recommendations.”

    In a speech to his fellow Commissioners as well as to those in the audience who might speak to the issue, Switzer explained that it is understandable to fear change. So, Switzer said, the town’s “government and businesses reached out to the community to address these fears and the need for change.”

    What resulted, Switzer said, was the town “hiring a respected consulting firm with expertise in planning for smart growth.” He said the town then “held many public meetings, known as charettes, which were widely participated in.”

    Switzer said the “Master Plan was then vetted again throughout the community, in the newspaper, online and in public hearings and finally passed by the Town Council over two years ago.”

    Switzer said that a consensus of support was built from businesses and citizens for the Master Plan.

    As Switzer pointed out, the biggest changes occur in the Town Center District which, he said, “previously had only a zoning designation of General Commercial.”

    However, a review of the town’s color-coded zoning map shows two other more restrictive commercial zoning designations in that area of Neighborhood Commercial and Office Commercial.

    Under the Town’s current zoning regulations, there are only those three commercial designations. Under the proposed zoning ordinance, there will be six commercial zoning designations: (from most to least restrictive) Neighborhood Office, Neighborhood Commercial, Multi-Neighborhood Office, Multi-Neighborhood Commercial, Town Center District  and Community Commercial.

    According to Switzer, “these zoning changes were recommended by the Master Plan so as to allow for a gradual scaling of commercial development in Blythewood and to provide the design guidelines that will allow the town to achieve the goals envisioned in the Master Plan.

  • Winnsboro Gets Clean Audit

    During last week’s Town Council meeting in Winnsboro, town Finance Director Kathy Belton confirmed Winnsboro is in a good spot financially.

    “We are right where we should be,” Belton said.

    Admittedly, compared to 2011 the town does have more expenditures but also has more revenue. In comparison to last year at this time the town has generated $66,064 more revenue. Town Council members approved the motion to grant all town employees with a Christmas bonus to be paid for out of the savings of the workman’s compensation fund. Last year town employees were given a bonus of $600.

    Council also voted yes for one capital expense request and postponed another. The request approved was for a new HVAC system at the town ofWinnsboro’s maintenance shop. The existing system was installed in 1975 and certain replacement parts are no longer available. The low bid was won by John C. Stewart & Co. at $14,050 and councilman Clyde Sanders was in full support.

    “We need to be able to provide a comfortable environment for the town’s employees,” Sanders said.

    The capital expense request postponed was made by Jesse Douglas for a sewer line replacement. Town manager Don Wood said he would like to a little more time to review all the facts.

    “We had some last minute information come up,” Wood explained. “We decided to table that request until the next meeting.”

    As a part of new business, the council approved the proclamation for the Town of Winnsboro to adopt the S.C. Municipal Association’s legislative priorities for 2013. The proclamation confirmed that as of Nov. 20 the Town of Winnsboro will support the Municipal Association’s legislative priorities to encourage local decision making by the local elected officials that govern the state’s 270 cities and towns.

    To close out the meeting, council members decided to donate to both Walk One’s and the Good Samaritan House’s Thanksgiving meals for the under-privileged.

  • Fairfield County Council Approves Board Members

    In a meeting that approached a new record for its brevity, Fairfield County Council Monday night gave the OK to two new members for a pair of local boards before retiring into executive session. Council unanimously approved Frank E. McKinney for service on the Council on Aging, while Catherine H. Fantry was approved to serve on the Hospital Board with one abstention from Council member Mary Lynn Kinley (District 6). Kinley works for Fairfield Memorial Hospital.

    With the end of the year approaching, Shryll Brown, Clerk to Council, told Council she was preparing a list of upcoming vacancies on County boards for the County to consider for nominations.

    Council’s next scheduled meeting is Dec. 10 at 6 p.m.

  • Board Elects New Officers, Hears from Bond Attorney

    With the swearing in of new member during their Nov. 20 meeting, the Fairfield County School Board also elected new officers for their 2012-2013 session. Newly elected members William Frick (District 6) and Paula Hartman (District 2), as well as re-elected member Annie McDaniel (District 4) took their oaths of office as the meeting got under way. Frick then declined a nomination by McDaniel for Board Chairman, a position that then went to Beth Reid (District 7). Frick was later elected Vice Chairman on a 4-3 vote over outgoing Chairwoman Andrea Harrison (District 1). Harrison was then unanimously elected Board Secretary.

    The Board then received a report from Brent Jeffcoat, a bond attorney with the Pope Zeigler law firm in Columbia, and Mike Gallager, of Southwest Securities, on options for the District to raise money for a new career center.

    Gallager said the District could issue three separate bonds over the next three years to raise the approximately $15 million estimated to be necessary to fund the new facility. Jeffcoat said issuing three bonds would allow the District to raise the fund without the need for a referendum and without millage rates going up to more than 22 mils.

    Bonds issued in 2013 and 2014, Gallager said, would generate $1.5 million each, and a bond issued in 2015 would tack on an additional $12 million. From the 9.9 millage rate at which the District is currently taxing, the initial bonds would take that rate to 13 mils. By 2016 through 2025, the rate would be back down to 11 mils, Gallager said.

    “This does get you very tight on your bond-debt capacity for a couple of years out,” Jeffcoat said.

    “We don’t want to push you right up to the absolute edge,” Gallager added. “The last thing we want to do is build a new building and not be able to have it adequately equipped.”

    McDaniel noted that the District was issuing operating bonds each year, and Gallager said that was not included in his calculation of proposed millage rates. The annual bonds would add about 9 mils to the original figures, he said.

    Jeffcoat said future tax revenues from the new reactors at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station were also not included in this plan, as they were not expected to begin impacting the County until, at earliest, 2016.

    The Board also voted to move their December meeting to Dec. 11. The meeting will be held at Fairfield Central High School at 6 p.m.

  • Findings Don’t Mar District Audit

    Nearly $1 Million Siphoned from General Fund

    The Fairfield County School District received an “unqualified” report on its annual audit, a Spartanburg CPA told the Board during its Nov. 20 meeting, in spite of two minor findings and questions about a transfer of nearly $1 million from the general fund into the food services fund last summer for the purchase of new cafeteria equipment.

    Chuck Talbert, a CPA with the McAbee, Talbert and Halliday firm, told the Board that the pupil activity fund had been operating in a decentralized manner, creating issues with internal controls over financial reporting. According to the audit, “There is a lack of segregation of duties at all schools related to pupil activity cash receipts and disbursements. This lack of segregation of duties is both in receipts and disbursements as the bookkeeper was responsible for collecting receipts, making the deposits, preparing disbursements and reconciling the bank statements.”

    At Geiger Elementary School, auditors found “instances of missing support for bank deposits and instances of missing supporting documentation for checks.” Also at Geiger, auditors found “instances of bank reconciliations not being completed on a timely basis.”

    At Fairfield Central High School, auditors found “a lack of segregation of duties involving bank reconciliation and documentation for checks drawn on the account; no approval of checks over $500 by the Office of Finance; lack of approval on invoices for payment of goods and services from the checking account; unable to locate canceled checks.”

    These issues, the audit stated, “may be indicative of other internal control deficiencies for pupil activities at the schools.” But, Talbert told the Board, improvements have already been made.

    “We have worked with administration and we concur with procedures they have taken going forward,” Talbert said. “Previously, much of the activity of the pupil activity funds was on a decentralized basis. That is now centralized. I really feel like that is a better control component, to have that centralized.”

    Auditors also found minor issues with the District’s federal financial assistance, including Title I grants. Districts are required to check the Excluded Parties List System for vendors who have been suspended or debarred before expending money from federal programs, the audit states. The Fairfield County School District did not do so. As a result, the audit states, “The District could be subject to claims or future funding could be limited or suspended by the funding agency for failure to comply with the requirements.” Nevertheless, Talbert said, the District received a clean opinion on that matter as well.

    The audit noted that the fund balance for the District at the end of the 2011-2012 fiscal year was $4,611,728 – down $179,584 from the 2010-2011 fiscal year, in spite of the District taking in $600,000 in additional tax revenue this year. This finding sparked questions from Board members about a transfer of $910,460 from the general fund into the food services fund last summer for the purchase of kitchen equipment for District cafeterias.

    “That fund balance transferred over into the food service program was supposed to be approved by the Board,” Annie McDaniel said. She later confirmed that it was not.

    Bobby Cunningham asked if the food service fund was supposed to be a self-supporting entity, and McDaniel said it was designed to be such. But Talbert said the District had changed the food services fund to a special revenue fund.

    “If that occurred, the Board never took action on it,” McDaniel said.

  • Park Closing Leaves Landowner Baffled

    County: No Consensus on New Lease

    A park that has served the Blair community since 1985 is no more, prompting apologies from Fairfield County and leaving the property owner confused.

    Fairfield County officially announced the closing of the Blair Community Park at 544 99 Road Nov. 6, citing in a press release an inability of the County to come to terms with the property owner on a new lease. But Felicia Trower, who has power of attorney for her mother, Nancy T. Young, the property owner, said the County never made a legitimate effort to reach a new agreement.

    According to Davis Anderson, Deputy County Administrator, the County’s most recent seven-year lease expired in August. The County had been paying $1,200 a year for the property, which contained a basketball court, walking trail and playground equipment. County documents state that Anderson and Lori Schaeffer, Director of the County’s Recreation Department, met with Trower as early as July 20, 2009 to discuss a potential purchase of the property by the County. According to the documents, Trower requested between $200,000 and $300,000 for the plot, which Anderson said was no larger than 3 acres. The price tag was too rich for the County’s blood, and in September of this year, Sheila Pickett, Director of Procurement, spoke with Trower by phone to begin negotiations on a new lease, the documents state. According to the documents, Trower wanted $6,000 a year for a new lease and would not consider the previous price of $1,200 per year.

    With no consensus in sight, the County opted to close the park. In late September, crews from the Public Works and Recreation departments removed all the equipment, the basketball goals, the concrete basketball court and the concrete walking trail. After 27 years of service, the park was gone.

    But Trower said the County mishandled the entire process. She admitted that she never intended to sell the property and threw out a figure of $100,000 – not $200,000 or $300,000 – “in jest” because she knew it was unacceptable. The $6,000 figure for a new lease, she said, was only a starting point for negotiations; negotiations she said the County never followed up on.

    Furthermore, Trower said, she doesn’t even know who Lori Schaeffer is.

    “I’ve never heard of Lori Schaeffer,” Trower said. “I’ve never had a word with her.”

    Trower said the County never even notified her that the lease was about to expire, but that it was she, Trower herself, who discovered that the lease was up and initiated contact with the County. Even then, she said, it took several phone calls to Pickett to get any kind of response.

    “She (Pickett) asked me what I wanted for it,” Trower said. “I said $6,000. In the past, we had always negotiated it. When I told her (Pickett) $6,000, she never got back to me. I called her back again, and she told me the County was not going to renew the lease. I threw the figure out there thinking they would negotiate. But they didn’t. No one ever got back to me.”

    A letter from Pickett on County letterhead, dated Sept. 10, 2012 and addressed to Trower, officially notified Trower of the County’s decision. Anderson said the County had been trying to work out a deal with Trower since July 2009. When the County ran two months over on the lease during the negotiation process, Anderson said, Trower was paid $200 by the County. A request by Trower for fencing around the property was denied, according to County documents. After the equipment was removed, the property was re-seeded for grass, the County said.

    “Lori Schaeffer, Director of the Recreation Department, had the pleasure of speaking with the landowner on several occasions,” the Nov. 6 press release from the County states. “Lori said, ‘It is unfortunate that we could not reach an agreement for leasing the property to help the community’.”

  • Businesses Speak Out About New Zoning

    The owners of several downtown Blythewood businesses spoke out during a public hearing Monday night during a special called Town Council meeting. Their businesses are located in the proposed Town Center District. The six speakers expressed concern about how and whether their current businesses would be impacted by the new District’s zoning requirements.

    Victor Kocher, owner of the new Palmetto Gold and Pawn shop in McNulty Plaza, expressed concern that his business was actually not allowed in the district. His landlord, Darlene Clawson, asked whether Council might make a zoning exception of Kocher’s business or classify it as a thrift store.

    Vanessa English, owner of the Wendy’s on Blythewood Road, said she was not sure why the town government was once again adding new restrictions to the town’s commercial zoning.

    Also expressing concern that their businesses did not seem to meet the requirements for the district were Dwayne Bohanan of Storage Express and Ray Bryson of Pope Davis Tire.

    Final vote by Council on the zoning could come in early December.

  • Ridgeway Gets Ringing Endorsement from CPA; Council Offers Lease on Old Town Hall

    The economy may be on hard times, but the town of Ridgeway appears to be in great shape, having received an “unqualified” opinion on a recent audit, conducted by Howard Nichols, CPA.

    “That’s what you want, an ‘unqualified’ opinion,” Nichols told town council Thursday night. “That’s the best you can get.”

    Nichols said the town had a total of $721,509 in cash investments, compared to $482,192 in expenses.

    “Cash-wise, you’re in really good shape,” he said. “You could go a year and a half without receiving any money.”

    After receiving an overview of the preliminary report, Mayor Charlene Herring wanted one final confirmation from their CPA.

    “My question always to Howard Nichols is, ‘Are we fiscally sound?’” Herring asked.

    “Yes,” Nichols answered. “Ya’ll are in good shape.”

    Council also gave first reading to an ordinance amending the tax rate paid by insurance companies to 6 percent on premiums sold inside the town limits. A similar ordinance was passed last week by the Winnsboro Town Council, and is required to keep municipalities in line with recently passed state legislation.

    Following an executive session, council voted unanimously to offer a lease on the Old Town Hall building to restaurateurs Elisseos Mergianos and James Miller.

  • Congressman Addresses Fairfield County Council

    Earmarks are a thing of the past, but that doesn’t mean counties and municipalities are being completely hung out to dry by Washington, D.C. That was the word from U.S. Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-5th District) to Fairfield County Council Monday night as he presented a brief review of the state of affairs in the nation’s capital and encouraged Council members and the public to reach out to him for assistance.

    “I wish that I could come and tell you that I had my finger on the pulse of Washington, D.C., and I could tell you where I thought things were going to go in the next couple of weeks,” Mulvaney told Council. “I don’t have that feel, yet. I hear what everyone’s been saying on T.V. about more willingness to compromise and discuss things and possibly moving forward. I don’t know yet if that’s empty rhetoric or if it’s actually going to happen.”

    Mulvaney, who was re-elected to a second term to Congress Nov. 6, met with Council in a work session prior to Monday’s regular meeting where the discussion centered largely around the state of federal aid to the local level. Mulvaney rehashed the highlights at the podium during Council’s regular session.

    “I cannot foresee a circumstance where federal grants and aid to political subdivisions like counties and towns will go up dramatically,” Mulvaney said. “I can foresee a circumstance or two where they might drop dramatically. But really, I think what you should be planning for for the next couple of years, at least the next two years, is pretty much the status quo. Unless there is some outside shock to the economic system, pretty much you should see a generally similar approach over the course of the next two years.

    “Earmarks are gone,” Mulvaney continued, “grants are not. Earmarks and grants are not the same thing. Competitive grants, where we actually try to apply for them without political influence but with some political support, are very much alive and well, and something we participate in a lot with my office on a regular basis.”

    Mulvaney said Council, or the public, should feel free to call his Rock Hill office at 803-327-1114, his cell phone at 803-246-1001, or his Washington office at 202-225-5501 if they needed assistance.

    “The office we run in Rock Hill is not a political operation,” Mulvaney assured Council. “The office in D.C. is not a political operation. We do not ask if you are a Democrat or a Republican. We do not even ask you if you have voted. We are in the constituent service business.”

    Addressing another looming political concern, Terry Vickers, President of the Fairfield County Chamber of Commerce, asked Council for a letter of support to be sent to Washington encouraging President Barack Obama and budget axe wielders to spare Midlands area military bases from potential cuts.

    Fort Jackson in Columbia is the largest Army training facility in the nation, Vickers said, and Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter is home to the Third Army. These bases represent an economic impact of some $7.1 billion in the Midlands, Vickers said, including revenue from local businesses generated by the troops and their families, as well as the associated supporting civilian jobs.

    “The President is looking at cuts to our defense spending,” Vickers said. “What I am asking from County Council tonight is your consideration of a resolution and also letters to our delegation to let them know how strongly we feel that we do not need to have the impact of sequestration (withdrawal/retirement), the defense cuts, at our Midlands’ bases.”

    Vice Chairman Dwayne Perry said he was skeptical of any suggestion that Washington might shut down its largest Army training facility.

    “I clearly don’t see how our president would make that kind of decision,” Perry said, “and I don’t think our congress or anyone else would let him do that.”

    “I feel the same way,” Vickers said, “but I would really feel more comfortable having that cushion of support there letting whomever has the red pen know that we stand united with our military bases and what they can do for us and what we can do for them.”

    David Ferguson, Council Chairman, instructed County Administrator Phil Hinely to look over the draft letter Vickers had provided and make it available to Council for their signatures at the next regular meeting.