Category: Government

BLYTHEWOOD – Town Council unanimously passed final reading of a budget that, at $1.533,360, is slightly less than last year’s $1,596,679 budget.

This budget comes with a 3 percent cost of living allowance for employees. However, Town Administrator Gary Parker said the actual COLA for the Town’s employees will weigh in at 1.7 percent this year.

Parker pointed out that Accommodations Tax and Hospitality Tax revenues to date continue to be good which, he said, allows the town to transfer some of those funds to the Enterprise Fund (Manor), which he said is justifiable due to the increased patronage of Blythewood restaurants resulting from Manor events.

“Even with this transfer of $82,244 of the Hospitality-Tax to the Manor, we still have funding for Town events like the S.C. Diamond Invitational baseball tournament, the Christmas Parade and other events,” Parker said.

“Funding for community events amounts to over $166,000. If all of that funding isn’t needed, the unused amounts can roll over to next year’s fund balances,” Parker said.

The budget also includes funding for a major Town and Midlands Council of Government (COG) project.

“We are including matching funds of $50,000 for the study of how to improve traffic at Blythewood Road, Langford Road and Main Street,” Parker said. “That study possibly will be completed the first half of 2018.”

The budget includes a Capital Project Budget for the construction of the amphitheater in the park which will be funded by donations that include a $125,000 contribution from Palmetto Citizens Federal Credit Union, a $75,000 grant from Central Midlands Community Foundation and Hospitality Tax funds. This construction project will go into FY 2018 and funds have been budgeted for that portion of the cost that hasn’t yet arisen Parker said.

 

WINNSBORO – Council came out of executive session Monday evening with good news for its two employees, County Administrator Jason Taylor and Clerk to Council Patti Locklair.

Council members voted to give Taylor a 4.16 percent raise in salary which amounts to $5,000 per year. They also extended Taylor’s contract three more years for a total of five years.

“Mr. Taylor has done a fantastic job in his one year with us,” Council Chairman Billy Smith told The Voice following the meeting. “With his wealth of knowledge and positive leadership, he’s helped us begin to get our County on the right track again, from implementing Council directives to helping us rebuild long-strained relationships and everything in between. The County and Town are now striving to work together and Mr. Taylor has played a huge role in that effort. Mr. Taylor has proven very valuable to Fairfield County, and I hope we can keep him long enough to accomplish the great things I know we can.”

Council also rewarded Locklair for what Smith said was an extraordinary capability to do the job.

“She really had no experience with this kind of job, and she’s just jumped in here and learned it very quickly. I think everyone

on Council has expressed their appreciation for the job she’s done since we hired her six months ago,” Smith said.’

For that, Locklair will receive a $1,000 salary increase effective in her next paycheck.

Several other Council members spoke up to praise both Taylor’s and Locklair’s work with Council and the county employees.

“I’m definitely pleased with the direction Council is going in right now,” Councilman Neal Robinson said. “Mr. Taylor was a great find and Ms. Locklair is 110 percent. I’m definitely enjoying this Council and our work. These two are a great help to us in making it all happen, and I want the community to know that.”

Water Lines to Phase II

In other business, Council approved a $610,753 bid from the LAD Corporation of West Columbia to continue with Phase II on-site water improvement to serve the Fairfield Commerce Center. The water portion of Phase II had to be bid separately from road and wastewater since the water portion was not funded by grants.

Phase II improvements will include 7,060 feet of 12-inch water main and 14 fire hydrants. Wiley Easton of Lexington bid $618,900 and Stutz and Williams of Lexington bid $631,100.

Radio Purchase

Council also approved a $486,117.80 bid from Carolina Fleet Talk-Rock Communications out of Fort Mill, to provide 46 mobile radios, 345 portables and 14 base stations, to improve Interoperability between departments that will provide the most complete coverage for Fairfield County. Radio Communications of Sumter bid $661,895.21 and Motorolla’s bid was $986,120. Fleet-Talk was on the only company who could provide coverage for 90 percent of the county.

“With the discrepancy in bids from $486,117 to $986,120, we did investigate fully to make sure that their bid was good , when you have a bid that much lower sometimes it raises red flags,” County Administrator Jason Taylor said. “We checked with a number of people, checked with the State, everything came back positive on Fleet Talk-Rock Communications.”

County To Grade Its Own

Upon recommendation of the Administration and Finance Committee, Council approved a plan to implement a site readiness program, in which the County would purchase land clearing equipment and use it to clear trees from its industrial sites in three harvests (2017, 2019 and 2022). According to Taylor, the three harvests will net the town $363,900.

“By grading our own sites, the County can reduce costs over time and offer more attractive product to market to prospective industries,” Taylor old Council.

“I’d just like to say, I don’t know who came up with this idea out of the administration and economic development departments, but I think it’s a fantastic way for us to save money and make use of resources we already have,” Council Chairman Billy Smith said.

Sediment Study Initiated

After a request from the Lake Wateree Homeowner’s Association, Council agreed to pay $3,000 of a $4,000 hydrology study to determine the inflow of sediment to the lake. The County will get a final report after the study is concluded.

 

RIDGEWAY – Ridgeway residents can expect to see increases in their water/sewage and millage rates, after Council agreed to raise both during the final budget reading on June 22.

The uptick in the rates comes on the heels of a series of recommendations made by Larry Finney of Green, Finney and Horton Certified Public Accountants and Consultant.

Council agreed, based on the Councilman Doug Porter’s recommendation, to raise water rates six percent, after the Town of Winnsboro levied a four percent rate increase for Ridgeway. In the past, the Town passed along the same rate Winnsboro charged without an increase for Ridgeway customers. This, Finney said, hindered Ridgeway’s ability to build reserves.

“I talked with the town of Bethune and they didn’t raise rates for six years and then had to jump up and that’s a hard adjustment,” Porter said. “Our major source of revenue is our water and sewer revenue, so that’s my recommendation to go up 6 percent on our rates.”

Council is allowed by law to retroactively raise the millage rate for the last three years. Councilwoman Angela Harrison was unsure of the overall effects raising the millage rate to that extent would have.

“I understand why we need to did this, but I’m just trying to figure out what its cause and effect is going to be,” Harrison said. “Because, if we can change our millage and it’s not going to do anything to our citizens and we’re still going to get that tax credit,then why not change it?”

Mayor Charlene Herring recommended Council raise the Millage the allotted 1.26 percent this year and see the effects before increasing it further.

“Would it be safer to just do the 1.26 until we know how that would affect us this one year, cause you can still catch up next year,” Herring said.

During the budget reading Council re-visited the distribution of the Victim’s Assistance Fund. The town had already agreed to earmark $50,000 of its $60,000 VAF fund, to SisterCare and The Fairfield County VAF, but had not decided how to split the funds up.

After much discussion, Cookendorfer recommended $30,000 to SisterCare, $5,000 to the Fairfield County VAF and keep $20,000 in the Ridgeway VAF, with $10,000 earmarked for victim’s assistance literature.

The recommendation passed 4-1 with Councilwoman Harrison voted against.

Council also voted to designate a series of capital improvements out of their unrestricted funds for the upcoming fiscal year.

“We want to put the Railroad property in there,” Mayor Herring said. “Because again the purchase of the property would be $35,000, surveying will be $2,000 and legals fees will be $3,000. That comes to a total of $40,000, so I’d like that to be under designated capital improvements.”

Next, Council designated $4,700 to paint town hall and $3,150 for six shutters in Town Hall, including upstairs in the Museum to protect the integrity of the artwork.

Councilman Donald Prioleau recommended $6,000 for new security cameras around town, and council approved the motion unanimously. Then, on the recommendation of Councilman Porter, Council allotted $15,000 each from the capital improvements budget and the utility budget to pay for a 30 foot x 36 foot maintenance building for the water company.

Another $7,000 was designated out of the town’s tourism and hospitality funds to purchase the following for the Welcome Center: a $3,600 ventless heat and air system, a $400 desk and a $1000 Photo Booth system. The last $2,000 will be geared towards lights and carriage rides for the Holidays on the Ridge.

 

RIDGEWAY – Town Council torched first reading of a proposed burn ordinance during its June 8 meeting. The ordinance, which was proposed by local attorney Robert Hartman at the May meeting, called for a prohibition of any burning in the downtown area of Ridgeway and would restrict burning anywhere in the town within 350 feet of homes unless permission to burn had been granted from the non-burning parties. An exception was made in the ordinance for cooking fires during the town’s annual Pig on the Ridge festival in November. The ordinance set punishment for illegal burns from $250-$500 per occurrence.

Hartman said he recently became concerned about the lack of a burning prohibition in the town when a neighbor proceeded with a rubbish burn within 20 feet of his office, despite winds that he said were over 20 miles per hour. Hartman said he is concerned about the age of the buildings in downtown Ridgeway, some of which date back to the 1800s, and particularly the heart pine material used in the construction of many of the buildings.

“It’s like kindling,” he pointed out.

Councilman Heath Cookendorfer quickly objected to the proposed ordinance.

“To say you can’t burn except for one week a year is kind of like arbitrary,” Cookendorfer said. “It doesn’t make sense to me. It says ‘yes,’ you can but ‘no,’ you can’t.”

The ordinance was met by other critics as well. During open citizens’ comment, resident Dan Martin stated that he could use his propane grill according to the ordinance, but could not take the same propane tank from his grill and use it in his fire pit.

“It (the ordinance) seems to micromanage the entire town with new laws or ordinances when a couple of people have issues or disagreements. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to say we, as an adult community, cannot control ourselves with our fire unless we pass a law to tell us how to do it or not do it. It’s ridiculous,” Martin said. He also agreed with Cookendorfer that excluding enforcement of the burn ordinance for Pig on the Ridge was at odds with the logic of necessitating a burn ordinance in the first place.

Another sticking point for Council was the proposed distance of 350 feet from any other structure.

“That’s far,” Councilman Don Porter said.

“That’s too much,” Council Don Prioleau said.

“By reading this ordinance, I can’t have my grandkids over in my backyard for a cookout because of how close my residence is to houses, you know, definitely within 350 feet,” Cookendorfer said. “It’s too restrictive.”

“Instead of adopting this ordinance, we could take our current ordinance and maybe tweak it for things like making sure people call (the fire station) and give their phone number and contact number before they burn,” Mayor Charlene Herring suggested. “Then if you want to consider a certain distance for burning, we can come back at the next meeting with that.”

The town’s current burn ordinance does not address setbacks for rubbish burning, but makes it unlawful for anyone to burn combustible materials and gives the Town the right to fine or jail anyone who does not remove fire hazards from their properties within 10 days.

Council voted to consider making changes to its current ordinance at a later time.

 

A controversial request by the Blythewood Chamber of Commerce for increased funding continues to be a topic of dissension as Council’s budget talks wind down toward final reading.

Mike Switzer, Executive Director of the Chamber, originally asked Council for more than $70,000 in April that included funds to renovate and update the offices the Chamber is renting in McNulty Plaza, $5,000 for a new website and $750 for a new computer. When Council rejected that amount, Switzer came back, asking for an increase in the Town’s annual economic grant from $12,500 to $15,000 and $18,500 to hire an employee for the Visitors’ Center.

Because Mayor J. Michael Ross and a partner own the offices the Chamber rents, he recused himself from voting on the $33,000 request, but has taken part in all other discussions concerning the matter

“What concerns me is that there’s no apparent accountability attached to this money. There are no measures of effectiveness. No measures of implementation,” Councilman Malcolm Gordge told fellow Council members during a budget workshop on June 13. “It’s just like throwing money into a pond and it disappears completely. That’s my impression. If we’re going to have this relationship with the Chamber, there ought to be some accountability where this money is going.” Gordge said.

“Certainly, one of the things that really peeves me is that they are setting up this additional website for the Visitors Center which seems to be a completely unnecessary expense, and wanting a new ($750) computer and other things, when they have a website and we have a new website. The two sites could be linked for effective coverage and save costs,” Gordge said. “That’s a discussion worth having, but if you give them the $15,000 now, then we’ve lost the opportunity to reduce it. I want to stick with $12,500 for now,” he said.

But Ross defended Switzer’s request.

“We don’t ask others what they do with money we give them,” Ross said. “We have to trust what they do with it.”

“I understand that,” Gordge said, “but there is at least some visible indication of a service provided.”

“I don’t want to sell the Chamber short,” Ross said. “We see their presence here and what they do. I do see that the mom and pop businesses in town are missing, but they (Chamber) have gone out of the Blythewood area and brought a lot of businesses in. Someone from Columbia joined today. I think we need to be careful. I see a tremendous amount of exposure from the Chamber about breakfasts and speakers they bring,” Ross said.

Ross said he felt the Chamber’s request is reasonable.

“I don’t want to be negative about the Chamber,” Ross said. “They have a new location now (in the McNulty Plaza offices).”

“We gave them a 33 percent raise last year and now they’re asking for 20 percent more,” Councilman Tom Utroska said. “To your point, Mayor, some of the biggest businesses in town are not members of the Chamber. I don’t know why the Chamber can’t convince them, but they can’t,” Utroska said.

Councilman Larry Griffin said he didn’t have any trouble with the $15,000 but wanted accountability from the Chamber.

“Let’s not just throw it out there. If we’re going to give them money, I think we should be able to say, ‘This is what we expect. This is what we’re looking for,’” Griffin said. “Let them understand that they have to be accountable. The Chair of the Chamber was not even aware of how this works. So how is she the Chair and representing these funds, but doesn’t even know the process,” Griffin asked.

Ross defended again, saying that it is the Executive Director (Switzer) who is in the stronger position, that the Chair has a full time job.

Finally, Ross called for a consensus of what Council wanted to put in the budget for the Chamber for third and final reading.

“Do we keep it at $12,500 or give them $15,000?” Ross asked. ”One of the disappointing things is that they said at the meeting they are down in membership. They did not even come up in membership this year.”

Griffin and Gordge went for the full $15,000 amount with conditions. Utroska and Councilman Eddie Baughman said they wanted to keep it at $12,500 for now.

Ross broke the tie on the side of the Chamber, giving them $15,000 this year. It is that amount that will be presented for vote Monday evening when Council takes its final vote on the FY 2017-18 budget.

WINNSBORO- Two weeks ago, the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office responded to a one-vehicle accident about 8:45 a.m. on Hwy 34 East near Mood Harrison Rd, just east of Ridgeway. According to the Fairfield County Sheriff’s department, this vehicle was stolen from another jurisdiction and the juvenile occupant fled the scene on foot. The Sheriff’s Bloodhound Tracking Team was deployed and the juvenile was apprehended in a wooded area near the incident location at about 12:15 p.m.

Many residents in the incident location were kept informed as the drama unfolded and even as the capture occurred, thanks to the County’s Emergency Alert Program, according to Major Brad Douglas of the Fairfield County Sheriff’s department.

“This is a very important tool can keep area residents informed of incidents that have occurred near them and keep them in the loop about what’s going on,” Douglas told The Voice. “It’ a tool similar to Reverse 911 that we use to give residents information about incidents that may have occurred near them and to keep them informed as these situations play out.

“The service is free, and all residents in the County can take advantage of it,” Douglas said. “It’s the most efficient mechanism we have for keeping citizens informed about evolving situations such as this one,” Douglas said. “But, it is only useful if residents have registered for it.”

For information about the service or to register, contact the Fairfield County Sheriff’s office at 635-4242.

 

Industrial site consultant Mark Williams, who has spent 20 years completing highly successful site location projects with major U. W. corporations and multinational corporations based in Europe, Asia and the United States, will share some of that expertise with those attending the Fairfield County Chamber of Commerce annual membership dinner Thursday, June. 22.

The community is invited to hear Williams speak.

“Mr. Williams is someone that I think will bring information to us that will be beneficial to the economic development of our county,” Chamber President Terry Vickers told The Voice. “He is one of a handful of people in the country who have this level of expertise. He is nationally recognized as an expert economic Development consultant and one of the top three industrial site consultants in South Carolina.”

The dinner will be held at Carolina Event Center, 1126 US Hwy 321 Bus S. in Winnsboro, with a Social (beer and wine) at 6:16 p.m. and dinner at 6:45 p.m. The old-fashioned summer dinner will be provided by Can’t Quit Smokin’. The public is invited to attend but must make reservations by June 20. Tickets are $25 per person. For more information, call 635-4242.

 

WINNSBORO – “I think we’re finally there! It’s taken quite a while,” Georgianna Graham, Vice President of HPG Engineering Consultants, announced at the Town Council meeting Monday evening.

She was referring to the construction of a water line that will bring an abundant supply of water to Winnsboro from the Broad River – a supply that will also serve to sustain Blythewood customers.

Winnsboro Town Manager Don Wood told The Voice after the Council meeting that the new lines are permitted to bring up to 10 million gallons of water a day to the County.

“We won’t use it all, though. The purpose is to bring that water in to help keep our reservoirs full so we can serve our customers,” Wood said

“This is great for us,” Blythewood Mayor J. Michael Ross told The Voice earlier this week. “From an economic development standpoint, this is what we were looking for. We need to know that we will have a good water supply for everyone who wants to come here.”

Ross said he also hopes to have a better seat at the table when it comes time to renegotiate the next water contract with the Town of Winnsboro.

“I think we would like to have more input this time. But we are really happy about the construction beginning. I know they had to jump through a lot of hoops to get that line approved.”

Final approvals for construction came in April and Graham told Council they have 90 days from approval to advertise for bids

“So we’re ready to advertise for bids in a couple of weeks,” Graham said. She said the Town could reasonably expect to have bids in by the end of July.

Construction on the $15 million project is expected to be completed about this time next year, Graham said.

“The project should have been approved sooner, but there were several unforeseeable delays. You had everything approved last July,” she said, then the Department of Archives and History required an archeological survey, and then the state changed the application form. Then for whatever reason, the permits were not issued until April,” Graham said.

The Town’s attorney, Creighton Coleman reported to Council that the issue of easements had been resolved and that a judge would be signing off on the last of them this week.

Asked about a ground breaking, Mayor Roger Gaddy said he expected to have one after the construction contract is signed.

“We will include both the old and new Council members as well as the construction personnel,” Gaddy said.

The Town’s Economic Development Consultant, Ed Parler, addressed Council during it’s workshop on Tuesday to move toward relaxing some of the building regulations in the Town Center District (TCD), an area that constitutes the center of town between Main Street and I-77.

Many of those regulations became standards several years ago when John Perry was Town Administrator. They primarily involved new builds and called for innovations such as settng commercial buildings closer to the street with parking lots in the rear of the buildings and requiring buildings in certain areas to build two stories that could either have living quarters in the upper floor or to have that appearance. The quest was for a more pedestrian/biker friendly town.

“But,” Parler told Council, “we have been exposed to several coorporations that could have brought economic development to the town that said those  regulatons increase the cost of construction. Reality is,” Parler said, “that Blythewood Road has 18,000 cars a day and we’re going to see more as the town grows.”

Parler said the pedestrian friendly side of the regulations is not an invitation to commercial development.

“The heart of the economy of Blythewoood is taking a right or a left off the Interstate, spending a little money and getting back on the road,” Parler told Council.

“Looking at the entities on Blythewood Road, almost nothing conforms to our standards. Consequently, of course, if there is any damage, they can’t replace. It makes sense,” Parler said, “to look at the TCD language and see if there’s a text amendment that would make what is here be in conformity, to allow other businesses similar to what we are. That’s probably the highest, best use from an economic standpoint.”

Mayor J. Michael Ross agreed.

“We’ve lowered our standards for regulating height of buildings. But we’re still up against businesses who want to come and put in a franchize or a strip mall with business that we would use and not have to travel outside of Blythewood,” Ross said. “Though, we don’t want to relax standards for lighting, landscapting and signage. We’re trying to stimulate economic growth.”

Ross said he has asked town attorney Jim Meggs to start pulling something together regarding text amendments.

Meggs said he thought he could have something by the end of the month.

“Economic development is our number one priority,” Councilman Malcolm Gordge said. “We need to seriously accommodate the businesses coming to the town.”

“But we don’t want Blythewood Road to become a Killian Road, a thoroughfare,” Councilman Tom Utroska said.”

Ross directed Meggs and Town Planning Consultant Michael Criss to move forward with a plan to relax the building regulations in the TCD.

RIDGEWAY – After helping Town Council assemble its FY 2017-18 budget, Larry Finney of Green, Finney & Horton Certified Public Accountants pointed out at last week’s Council meeting that the budget didn’t have a lot of wiggle room. To remedy that, Finney suggested Council raise water, sewer and millage rates.

“There’s not a lot of extra room in there by the time you just take what your expenses have been historically, and you increase them a little bit for some of the things we’ve talked about,” Finney told Council members.

Using what he called a reasonably conservative approach, Finney said he came up with this year’s proposed budget after examining the Town’s financial history over the last three years and the year-to-date projections for this fiscal year.

The slated projections as of now, Finney said, would leave Ridgeway with $185,000 left over in unrestricted funds. With $60,000 budgeted for Pig on the Ridge and the Arts Festival, that figure ($185,000) would be trimmed down to $125,000 along with $104,000 in the utility fund.

Finney’s first recommendation was to take the $400,000 that Ridgeway received from an insurance settlement and transfer $175,000 of it into the general fund and $200,000 into the utility fund.

“But taking away the ($400,000) settlement, you would be in a much tighter financial condition,” he said.

Finney suggested the Town build up its excess revenues each year by raising water and sewer rates to bolster the utility fund and increasing both business license fees and millage rates to improve the general fund.

Finney said that while the Town receives its water from Winnsboro, Ridgeway doesn’t charge its customers any more than Winnsboro charges.

“The only rate increases for the Town of Ridgeway come when the Town of Winnsboro increases their rates,” Finney said. “Historically, what y’all have done is simply pass along whatever Winnsboro passes along to you, but nothing more. That doesn’t allow you to build up any reserves. So one of my recommendations is that you need, on a fairly regular basis, to be looking at adding another couple percent or so to your water rates to help you have a little more room in the utility budget.”

Councilman Doug Porter recommended that Council adopt an approach similar to that of Lugoff-Elgin, which charges a $20 minimum for the first 1,000 gallons, and the standard per thousand rate for subsequent gallons.

In Ridgeway, Porter said, “the first per thousand gallon rate is $15. I’m saying we raise that minimum … then leave our rate per each additional thousand gallons at the current rate.”

Winnsboro’s current wholesale rate per thousand gallons is $4.06, but Council is waiting for information on a rate increase from Winnsboro. (who said this?????)

Porter also favored raising the current millage rate of 1.63 percent, which he said has not increased since 2008. According to Finney, Council could raise the millage rate to 1.826 percent this year and retroactively for the two previous years.

“We need to look at increasing [our millage rate] this year,” Porter said. “If we can possibly go back three years, how much that generates, I don’t know.”

Councilman Heath Cookendorfer, however, recommended waiting until Council receives additional information on water rates from the Town of Winnsboro. He said that at this time Council has only assumptions about what the increased costs might be from Winnsboro.

“We really need to contact Winnsboro,” Cookendorfer said, “before we just decide to arbitrarily add one percent, two percent to something we don’t even know what the fee is yet.”

Mayor Charlene Herring agreed that Council should wait, but said that “if we’re ever going to get out of this slump and do the things we need to do, we’re going to have to make some tough decisions.”