Blythewood Online 691

Category: Government

  • Grant Request Dies in Committee

    WINNSBORO (Sept. 22, 2016) – The Administration and Finance Committee, on a 0-3 vote on Sept. 12, let die in committee a request from the Town of Ridgeway for $20,000 – $8,683.28 for matching funds for a Parks and Recreational Development (PARD) grant for a kiddie park and an additional $11,616.62 for fencing for the park.

    In order to receive PARD grant money of $64,200 for the park, the Town had to come up with matching funds of $16,050 for a total of $80,250. After the Pulpwood Festival Committee kicked in $7,366 toward the matching fund amount, $8,683.28 was still needed. Tacking on an additional $11,616.62 for fencing, Ridgeway’s total request of the County came to $20,000, just shy of the total needed for the project.

    While County Administrator Jason Taylor suggested the funds could come out of Council’s contingency fund, Councilman Marion Robinson (District 5) was the first of the three Committee members to balk at the request.

    “I think they (Ridgeway Town Council) would have had to know they were going to apply for a PARD grant back before our budgeting process began. They should have come then to talk with us so we could have considered putting it in our budget,” Robinson said.

    Councilwoman Mary Lynn Kinley (District 6) asked if it was a requirement that the Town should have come to the County before applying for the grant if they planned to ask for money.

    “It’s not a requirement,” Taylor said, “but it would have been nice if they had.”

    “We as a Council do not give money to Towns,” Chairwoman Carolyn Robinson (District 2) added. “You start that process and everyone will be coming with their hands out. We’re looking at (renovating) a courthouse. It ($20,000) would go a long way to help us not have to use other moneys. Also, two years ago, they (Ridgeway) had the opportunity to have recreation in the Town and turned it down. For something that was a top priority, they should have come to talk to us. I’m not in favor of this since they knew about all this before the budget process.”

    “Since they’ve waited this long, maybe they can wait till next year’s budget time,” Kinley said. “It’s not that we don’t want to support them, but it’s after budget.”

    “PARD grants are applied for by the end of April or May,” Carolyn Robinson said.

    “If they had applied then, it’s something that could have been considered in the budget. If we do anything now, we have to amend the budget, go through three readings and a public hearing,” Robinson added.

    With that, the Committee voted against sending the item forward for Council’s consideration.

     

  • No quorum? No problem.

    WINNSBORO – When a quorum of members didn’t show up for a special called County Council meeting Monday evening, that didn’t deter the three members (out of seven) present from meeting and then voting to go into executive session to discuss what Chairman Carolyn Robinson (District 2) said was “a legal matter relating to the Fairfield Memorial Hospital.” However, no attorney was present to advise members regarding that legal matter.

    And there were other problems as well, according to Jay Bender, First Amendment attorney with the S.C. Press Association.

    “There was no meeting because there was no quorum,” Bender told The Voice in an email on Tuesday. “There should not have been an executive session because an executive session can only be entered into from a publicly convened meeting following an affirmative vote on a motion.”

    When Robinson called the 6 p.m. meeting to order with only Council members Kamau Marcharia (District 4) and Mary Lynn Kinley (District 6) present, she immediately called for a motion to go into executive session. With a vote of 3-0, they did so even while County Administrator Jason Taylor could be heard advising Robinson that they did not have a quorum.

    “We don’t have a quorum, but we’re still going to discuss,” Robinson could be heard saying even though the Council members’ microphones had been turned off.

    Marcharia also questioned the advisability of meeting without a quorum as the group left the Council chambers for a private meeting room for what turned out to be a 20-minute session.

    Reached this week by phone, Robinson defended her use of the executive session without a quorum.

    “We had an unofficial meeting without a quorum,” Robinson said. “So we called it to order and made a motion to go into executive session, came out and reported nothing out of executive session. It’s just a discussion. It’s nothing you can report out.”

    When confronted with the irregularity, if not possible illegality, of conducting a meeting without a quorum, Robinson was irritated.

    “I’m so sick of you trying to usurp and understand the rules when you don’t understand the rules,” Robinson said. “I’m not going to go into it. Everything I try to do is by the rules. Basically what people don’t like is that I know the rules.”

    But Robinson may not be as up on the “rules” as she claims.

    In his email on the subject, Bender further wrote, “‘discussion of a legal matter’ is not an allowed topic for an executive session.”

    The meeting was called on Sept. 16 and both Councilman Dan Ruff (District 1) and Billy Smith (District 7) told The Voice that they had not expected the Monday meeting and had plans that could not be changed on short notice. They said they received no other communication about the meeting or why it was urgent. Councilman Marion Robinson (District 5) was also not present at the meeting. One seat on Council, District 3, is currently vacant.

    The issue under discussion on Monday evening came up at an Administrative and Finance Committee meeting on Sept. 7, when Taylor called members’ attention to an item on the agenda requesting action to engage the services of Parker Poe Consulting, LLC for assistance with legal matters relating to the hospital.

    Because Parker Poe’s legal and consultation services are expected to be more than $25,000, above what is allowed to be approved by the Administrator, some members of Council questioned whether the services should be subject to sealed bid.

    When the item came up for discussion on Council’s Sept. 12 agenda, Taylor told Council that new information had come to light and suggested they discuss the issue further in executive session before voting. Following that session, Councilman Billy Smith (District 7) told The Voice he thought the discussion had been beneficial and felt Council should go through proper procurement procedures in procuring legal services.

  • Neighbor Provides Pointe Fence

    BLYTHEWOOD (Sept. 22, 2016) – The Board of Architectural Review (BAR) finally got its fence, though not exactly the one it wanted. After negotiating for months last year with the developers of The Pointe apartment complex to install a decorative fence (instead of the developer’s proposed chain link fence) on three sides of the Main Street apartment project, the developer, Prestwick Developers, backed out at the last minute, pointing out that the zoning ordinance did not require a fence.

    On Monday evening, Harold Boney, who owns the property on the west side of The Pointe, came before the BAR offering to build a fence between the two properties if the Board would approve a 6-foot tall, black vinyl-coated chain link fence that, he said, would be hidden in the landscaping. The 450 linear feet of fencing would stretch from a previously determined setback point near Main Street straight back to the back property line of the adjoining properties.

    “It’s a liability issue for me,” Boney said. “There will be lots of children over there and if they are playing on my property and get hurt, I’ll be liable.”

    Boney said the fence is part of an agreement he has with Prestwick.

    “They needed a place to bore under Highway 21 for sewer connections,” Boney said. “So I let them bore on my property in exchange for them paying for the fence.”

    Boney said Prestwick has already paid him for the cost of the fence, which is estimated at $7,980.

    As a condition of their approval, BAR members asked Boney to add a decorative column on the end of the fence nearest Main Street, and that the brick on the column match the brick on the apartment buildings. Boney agreed.

    “We appreciate very much what you’ve done for us. (The fence) is something we’ve wanted,” Jim McLean told Boney. “My disappointment to some degree is that Prestwick has had us again, because they knew a chain link fence was not going to be approved for them. So they went into this agreement (with Boney) deceitfully.” Though McLean was quick to say the Board did not blame Boney.

    The Board voted unanimously to approve the fence on the conditions that the setback from Main Street that was previously approved would be used, and that specifications for the decorative column could be hammered out.

     

  • Council Rethinks Poe Hire

    Hospital Negotiations Land in County’s Lap

    WINNSBORO (Sept. 15, 2016) – During Monday’s County Council meeting, County Administrator Jason Taylor called members’ attention to a request for action to engage the services of Parker Poe Consulting, LLC for assistance with legal matters relating to Fairfield Memorial Hospital. The issue had been sent forward to Council by the Administration and Finance Committee on Sept. 7.

    At that meeting, attended by Parker Poe attorney Ray Jones and Milton Pope who is on retainer to the County, Taylor reviewed with Committee members Marion Robinson and Carolyn Robinson (Mary Lynn Kinley was not present) the situation – that the hospital is looking to partner with someone who would come in and take over Fairfield Memorial’s services.

    “It appears that the hospital is leaning on us to work up and develop a contract with this third party partner,” Taylor said. “Initially, we had the concept that they were going to take the lead on this, but they asked us where we were in the process. In order for us to move forward, and even if we continue to work with the hospital, which obviously we have to do, I think we need to know what we expect for the millions of dollars the County may contribute toward this new plan.”

    Taylor said that since Council members are not health care experts, they might need to make sure they get this right, legally. He suggested that Council probably does need to hire someone to assist in the legal process.

    “There are things we think we know, but there are probably a lot of questions that we aren’t going to know to ask because, again, we are not experts in health care,” Taylor said.

    Turning to the County Association for guidance, Taylor said they advised looking at how this same kind of thing has unfolded in other areas – Barnwell being an example.

    “I talked to Pickens Williams in Barnwell about their situation,” Taylor said, “and I talked to several legal firms besides Parker Poe.”

    Marion Robinson (District 5) had questions.

    “I guess I’m a little confused. Why, all of a sudden, is this a County contract deal instead of a hospital contract deal,” Robinson asked.

    “I don’t know,” Carolyn Robinson (District 2) said. “It is just the perception of what came down and the information that was passed to us last week when we met. Regardless of what they’re (hospital) doing, we still have to be totally responsible for protecting the interest of the citizens and protecting their funds and going forward and doing the best we can.”

    The committee voted 2-0 to send the issue forward to Council for discussion.

    But a sticking point with some Council members is the fact that Parker Poe’s legal and consultation services will come to more than $25,000, above what is allowed to be approved by the Administrator. According to the County’s Procurement Code, any amount above $25,000 must be subject to sealed bid.

    When the item came up for discussion on Council’s agenda Monday evening, Taylor said new information had come to light. He suggested that before taking action to engage the services of Parker Poe, that Council discuss it further in executive session.

    While Council did not take a vote on the issue following executive session, Councilman Billy Smith (District 7) said after the meeting he was glad Council held off and discussed the issue further.

    “I do think we need to procure legal services in regard to the hospital and continuing to provide health care in Fairfield County,” Smith said. “And we need to go through proper procurement procedures in doing that.”

     

  • Questions Raised Over County-Pope Contract

    WINNSBORO (Sept. 15, 2016) – A contract signed by the County last June to retain former interim County Administrator J. Milton Pope as a consultant may have skipped a step on its way to execution, according to some members of County Council.

    According to the minutes from the May 23 meeting, Council came out of executive session and voted unanimously “to extend an agreement of retainer to Parker Poe Consulting, LLC for six months, pending approval of terms.”

    The motion was put forward by Mary Lynn Kinley (District 6) and seconded by Dan Ruff (District 1).

    While Ruff said this week that he did not recall the exact details of the motion, Kinley initially told The Voice that it was her impression that once the terms had been hammered out, the contract would come back to Council for a final vote.

    But that did not happen.

    On June 3, Chairwoman Carolyn Robinson (District 2) signed the deal on behalf of the County.

    “Who was supposed to ‘approve the terms’ is my question,” Kinley said.

    Noting that more than three months have passed since the vote and that her memory was not entirely clear, Kinley later added that it was possible that the terms had in fact been approved by Council by the time the deal was signed.

    The memory of Councilman Billy Smith (District 7), meanwhile, is crystal clear.

    “The phrase ‘pending terms’ is not confusing,” Smith said this week. “It means we would be bringing those back to look at them and approve them. That’s why it was put in the minutes that way – we would send it (the contract) out to them (Pope and Parker Poe), we would look at the terms and see if they were amenable. My understanding was Council would look at those terms and approve them, revise them, negotiate them, send them back – whatever. We never did that.”

    Smith said it was approximately three weeks after the May 23 vote that he learned that the contract had been signed, sealed and delivered – without Council approving any ‘terms’.

    Councilman Kamau Marcharia also said he was under the impression that Council would have a final review of the terms before the County officially entered into the deal.

    “I think it should have been brought back,” Marcharia (District 4) said. “Somebody’s got to make a decision on something like that. ‘Approval of terms’ – by who?”

    The minutes do not answer that question, but Smith said Council has a track record of delegating responsibility when it should not be doing so.

    And while Kinley said Council should possibly revisit the matter, Smith said such a thing was not likely.

    “Maybe I’m just resigned to the point that Council has in the past had a Chair who was allowed to do whatever they wanted, unrestricted, without any oversight,” Smith said. “It’s not something I support, but at the end of the day, a Chair can only do as much as Council will allow them to do. This is just one of many different things where the Chair has gone beyond the scope of our bylaws.”

    Phone calls to Robinson were not returned at press time.

    The agreement between the County and Pope (doing business as Parker Poe Consulting, LLC) keeps the former interim Administrator on retainer for six months, terminating on Dec. 31. The County agrees to pay Pope $3,500 a month for, among other things, Pope to “monitor” legislation that may impact the County’s fee-in-lieu of taxes deal with the SCANA Corp., as well as to assist in the “transition process” of new County Administrator Jason Taylor.

    Pope will also, according to the contract, serve as “a resource to County Council regarding past County projects, policies and/or operational questions.”

    The addendum to the contract comprises a list of 38 County projects for which Pope will make his services available, including an Animal Control ordinance, economic development plan/implementation, recreation and public safety projects, the budget process and phase two of Commerce Park. The list also includes Courthouse relocation, the hospital, the County’s proposed commerce mega-site in Ridgeway and water and sewer issues.

    The deal went into effect on July 1.

     

  • Confusion Reigns Over Rezoning

    Council Tables Request, Seeks Legal Advice

    RIDGEWAY (Sept. 15, 2016) – Confusion over Ridgeway’s zoning ordinance continued to plague Town Council last week as a motion on second reading to amend that ordinance to rezone .82 acres at the fork of highways 21 and 34 failed to carry. Instead, Council opted to table the amendment and consult an attorney.

    “Our citizens feel like we don’t know what we’re doing up here,” Councilman Donald Prioleau said after the vote on second reading fell 1-3. Councilman Heath Cookendorfer was the only affirmative vote at the Sept. 8 meeting.

    Prioleau was one of three Council members to vote in favor of first reading of the zoning ordinance amendment during Council’s Aug. 11 meeting. That vote stirred controversy in the face of a petition in opposition to the zoning change, presented to Council prior to the Aug. 11 meeting.

    That petition, according to Councilwoman Angela Harrison, represents an official protest, in light of which a three-fourths vote of Council is required to pass a zoning change. While the S.C. Municipal Association last month told The Voice that three-fourths of a five-member council is four, during the Aug. 11 meeting Council was unclear on the mathematics.

    Ridgeway business owner Russ Brown, a former Ridgeway resident and former member of Town Council, owns the lot in question and is seeking a zoning change from residential to commercial. Brown, who has plans to construct a small office building on the lot, told Council last month that any protest of his request should have come before the Planning and Zoning Commission at their July 12 public hearing on the matter. The Commission voted to recommend Brown’s request on a 5-2 vote.

    And while Sara Robertson, a nearby resident, presented Council with the petition – which she said included the signatures of 50 people opposed to the zoning change – before the Aug. 11 meeting, an official letter of protest was not submitted to the Town until Aug. 12, a day after first reading passed on a 3-2 vote.

    As Council began discussion last week prior to second reading, Harrison again cited the protest rule requiring a three-fourths vote.

    “The protest rule is for the Planning and Zoning Committee to hear,” Cookendorfer said. “It’s not for the Council. The Council does not have a hearing. At this point and time, if there’s still any question of legality or illegality, anyone who opposes it and is on the letter of protest, can at this point and time seek legal advisement and file a case with the civil court.”

    Harrison disagreed and said that the protest was of a decision that Council was making.

    In a memo to Council reviewing the process, Zoning Administrator Patty Cronin-Cookendorfer wrote that the Planning and Zoning Commission had correctly followed the Town’s ordinance. Furthermore, she wrote, any protest can only be made by owners of lots “contiguous to the area in question,” according to the Town’s ordinance. Brown’s property, she noted, has only one contiguous lot “according to the legal definition.”

    That lot is owned by Robert Johnson, a signatory of the protest.

    Cronin-Cookendorfer also wrote in her memo that, after discussing the matter with the County Zoning Administrator, a three-fourths vote on a five-member council is three.

    “You’re telling me three-fourths of five is three and the Municipal Association says it’s four,” Harrison said during the Sept. 8 discussion. “And we’re not listening to our citizens at all. I don’t want to debate this issue. I think it’s fair to our constituency that we at least get legal advice and table it until we get advice.”

    After second reading failed, Council agreed to authorize Mayor Charlene Herring to consult Danny Crowe, an attorney she said was recommended to her by the Municipal Association.

    “I’m for that (seeking legal advice),” Prioleau said. “Before, I voted for it. The decision I made, I don’t think was wrong. I’m for rezoning, but I don’t want our citizens to feel like we’re not doing our job.”

    Herring said she was not sure how much an attorney would cost the Town to review and interpret its own laws.

    “Our citizens will pay for it,” Prioleau said.

     

  • Council OK’s Utilities Bond

    WINNSBORO (Sept. 8, 2016) – Town Council gave final reading Tuesday night on an ordinance that will allow the Town to borrow up to $6 million to make improvements to their utility system.

    According to the ordinance, the funds will provide for the rehabilitation of Winnsboro’s wastewater treatment plant and related sewer improvements; construction, replacement and rehabilitation of electric distribution lines and substation breakers; and construction and extension of natural gas lines and “cathodic improvements.”

    “Cathodic improvements,” Town Manager Don Wood explained after a meeting last month, essentially means the grounding of natural gas lines to prevent electrical discharges into the lines. The replacement of some of the Town’s power lines, Wood said, was necessary because some of those lines are undersized by modern standards.

    “They were OK when we put them (the lines) in,” Wood said last month, “but we have more people on the system now and people use more electricity now.”

    “Most small towns our size, their infrastructure – water, sewer – most of the stuff under the ground has been there for quite some time, for years we’ve been doing a lot of patchwork,” Gaddy told colleagues at last June’s intergovernmental meeting. “Hopefully (with the bond) we can do larger stretches of infrastructure and get it to where it’s up to snuff and we don’t have as much problems with it – not that we’re always putting out fires, but as everything else, including me, its aging and wearing out.”

    The infrastructure improvements come ahead of the Town’s other major project – running a raw water line from the Broad River to the reservoir. That project, which is estimated to cost approximately $13 million, is expected to bring between 8 and 10 million gallons of water a day into Winnsboro’s system.

    Margaret Pope, of the Pope Zeigler Law Firm, said one of the objectives of taking on the $6 million debt before tackling the Broad River line project was to get a better rating from the State Revolving Fund (SRF) when it came time to borrow the $13 million.

    “If we get a good rating, then it will help us demonstrably on how much money the SRF requires,” Pope said.

    Typically, Pope said, the Fund requires a borrower to deposit one year’s worth of debt service into a reserve fund.

    “It has to sit there. It’s a rainy day fund in case you can’t pay,” Pope said. “We have convinced (the SRF) that if we get a good enough rating to waive that. That’s a huge savings. This (the Broad River project) is the big issue, so we kind of strategized that.”

    Capital Expenditures

    Council also gave the OK Tuesday to a total of $5,600 in capital expenditures for the Water Department. That total will cover a nitrate/TDS field monitor ($3,800), which Wood said would monitor the breakdown monochloramine in the water system; a computer for the wastewater lab ($1,400); and a leaf blower ($400) for cleaning grounds along pump stations.

     

  • Shell Building Becoming Reality

    After reworking the original concept and a project re-bid, ground was finally broken last week on Blythewood’s shell building. Digging in at Doko Meadows last Wednesday are: Larry Griffin, Town Councilman; Ed Parler, Economic Development Consultant; Bill Hart, CEO Fairfield Electric Cooperative; Blythewood Mayor J. Michael Ross; Town Councilmen Eddie Baughman and Malcolm Gordge and Kevin Key, Lyn/Rich Contracting Co., Inc. (Photo/Barbara Ball)
    After reworking the original concept and a project re-bid, ground was finally broken last week on Blythewood’s shell building. Digging in at Doko Meadows last Wednesday are: Larry Griffin, Town Councilman; Ed Parler, Economic Development Consultant; Bill Hart, CEO Fairfield Electric Cooperative; Blythewood Mayor J. Michael Ross; Town Councilmen Eddie Baughman and Malcolm Gordge and Kevin Key, Lyn/Rich Contracting Co., Inc. (Photo/Barbara Ball)

    BLYTHEWOOD (Sept. 8, 2016) – After several stops and starts and adjustments to the overall plan, Blythewood’s spec building on the grounds of Doko Meadows Park is at last on its way to becoming a reality.

    “It’s for real this time,” Ed Parler, the Town’s Economic Development consultant, told The Voice last week, just days after a ground-breaking ceremony at the site. “We’ve awarded the contract, and construction should begin in the next seven to 10 days.”

    The Town announced the winning bid on the project last month after Lyn-Rich Contracting Co., Inc. of West Columbia submitted a base bid of $379,850. With options, which Town Council voted to accept, the Lyn-Rich bid came to $388,100. Those options include walkways and special fire protection equipment.

    The August bids were the second round of bids on the project. Council put the construction out for bid a second time after bids opened last June came in ranging from $524,000 to $761,455 – all well over the $410,000 budget for the project.

    The June bids forced Council and architect Ralph Walden to rethink the scope of the spec building.

    “We had the specs beyond a shell,” Walden said in July, “and that proved to be the wrong direction. We had wiring, 800 amps for a kitchen, HVAC and a slab. The plan was to give the end-user a little more for his money.”

    Specifications for the second round of bids included only rough plumbing and eliminated the HVAC unit. Also eliminated were interior doors and ceiling tiles, connection to water and sewer and all walkways. Finished siding was substituted for primed siding and paint. Specifications were changed for deck and rail materials, windows, doors and shingles.

    The spec – or “shell” – building is itself a scaled-down version of a plan three years ago for the Town to build a restaurant in the park, utilizing grant money from the Fairfield Electric Co-Op and a $1 million loan from Santee Cooper. That plan called for the Town to construct a restaurant and lease the facility out. But a newly elected Town Council balked at that idea.

    “The new Council had questions about the Town being in the restaurant business and carrying all that debt,” Parler said. “So we scaled down the project. Rather than doing a fully fitted out building, we would construct a shell. Hopefully, by the first of the year we will be able to sell it and have the owner finish it out.”

    And while there are certain restrictions on what kind of business could set up shop in a building located in a publicly owned park, Parler said the likelihood is high that it would be a restaurant after all. The building could also serve as an office building, Parler said.

    Fairfield Electric Co-Op has been instrumental in making the shell building a reality, Parler said. A 2013 economic development grant from the Co-Op netted the Town $240,714, and a year later the Co-Op pitched in another $216,167, for a total of $456,881, Parler said.

    Last month, Town Administrator Gary Parker told Council that the Town still holds $325,916 of the original $456,881 utility grant from Fairfield Electric Co-Op. The balance of the costs of the shell building, Parker said, can probably be taken from Hospitality Tax revenue.

    Parler said the Town’s intent is to recover those funds with the sale of the shell building.

    Construction is slated to begin any day now, Parler said, and should be wrapped up in approximately 150 days. The Town will begin marketing the building for sale in November.

     

  • Fighting for Green Space

    Cobblestone Residents Look to P.C. for Help

    BLYTHEWOOD (Sept. 8, 2016) – After discovering in July that Cobblestone Park developer D.R. Horton is planning to build six new roads and 74 more homes in what residents thought would remain green space around their homes in the Primrose section of Cobblestone, Lenora Zedosky and about 30 of her Primrose neighbors appeared before the Town’s Planning Commission to protest the development, saying, “We were told (by the developer) that the green space would always be there.”

    Zedosky and her neighbors appeared again at Tuesday evening’s Planning Commission meeting to report that four days after their July protest, D.R. Horton upped the ante, displaying in the Cobblestone Clubhouse an entirely different road/housing plan for the Primrose section that included two more roads and 10 more new homes.

    “In this new plan, the backs of homes would face Primrose, which is the primary entrance into our neighborhood,” Zedosky said. “To our knowledge, the new plan has not been presented to Council, but is already being marketed. That’s a great concern to us. It’s an entirely different plan than was approved by you in October 2014.

    “We are not trying to stop all development,” Zedosky continued. “We just want a buffer and no clear cutting, which has been the habit we’ve seen so far.”

    Commission Chairman Buddy Price asked Town Administrator Gary Parker to confirm that the developer cannot move forward with the proposed construction until it comes before the Planning Commission for approval.

    Parker agreed.

    “We had a meeting with the developer about a week ago and saw the new proposal, but there’s a ways to go,” Parker reassured Zedosky.

    Following the meeting, Michael Criss, the Town’s Planning Consultant, reviewed for The Voice the steps the developer will need to complete in order to progress to the construction and sales stages of the project.

    “After the developer brings a sketch plan to the Town Administrator, he will then send it to the Planning Commission for a preliminary plat approval,” Criss said.

    “That’s a full civil engineering plan – roads, street drainage, water, sewer, as well as other infrastructure,” Criss said. “At that point, if the plan is approved by the Commission, work can begin on the infrastructure (grading, pipes in the ground, sidewalks, paving, etc.) When this work is finished, the developer will bring a final plat to the Commission for approval. When that’s approved, they can start selling.”

    Asked if the Commission had the authority to outright turn down the plan because of the residents’ objections, Criss said any approval or disapproval must follow zoning regulations spelled out in Chapter 153 of the Town’s zoning ordinances.

    “The developer has already been given the authority to build so many homes, so the Commission can make some suggestions for the plan, but there is just so much land available to build on. We have to be fair with how the houses and streets are arranged to accommodate what has been approved,” Parker said.

    Franklin Elected Chairman

    In other business, the Commission members unanimously elected Commissioner Bryan Franklin as Chairman. Buddy Price said he was stepping down from the Planning Commission after six years to give someone else an opportunity to serve.

     

  • District Surveys Teachers on Patio Homes Plan

    WINNSBORO (Sept. 1, 2016) – Following an update by Dr. J.R. Green, Superintendent, at the beginning of the Aug. 16 School Board meeting concerning his proposal last month that the School District construct and rent out patio homes to teachers, School Board member William Frick (District 6) suggested the District first survey teachers who have left the District to determine whether, if those teachers had had viable housing options, it would have kept them from leaving the District. Frick said a survey might determine if there’s a demonstrated need for teacher housing and if it would be helpful for teacher retention.

    “That’s an interesting point,” Green said. And last week he followed up with a survey, but to current teachers, not to teachers who have left the District as Frick suggested. The surveys were email generated to individual teachers from the District office.

    Green said in the July meeting that he had spoken with the County’s strategic planners who thought providing housing for teachers was a great idea.

    David Gjertson, a planner with Landscape Architecture/Urban Design, told The Voice that while he liked Green’s idea of using housing as an incentive, he would like to see it broadened to include other Fairfield County public employees as well – fire fighters and EMS employees, for instance.

    He also questioned how the project would be funded. Gjertson told The Voice that he would like to see a combination of public and private funding including federally subsidized funding rather than the traditional funding that Green initially suggested.

    Gjertson also said he would rather see the program based on home ownership instead of patio home rentals to avoid the appearance of public housing. Gjertson also said, most importantly, that the project be developer driven.

    “We are not advocating public housing,” Gjertson said. “We are advocating home ownership, and for a broader group of County employees.”

    Green further clarified the project, saying, “We are in the research phase (of the proposal). We don’t have all the details worked out yet. A lot of issues I will be working on. I had a conversation with (State Education Superintendent) Molly Spearman last week about some assistance from the state to make this vision become a reality.”

    Green included some documentation in the Board’s packet of similar projects in North Carolina. He said he is looking at how some of those are being funded.

    “There are more options that we are exploring to make this a reality,” Green said. “When I have all the details I will present it to the Board as an action item to be approved.”

    Board member Paula Hartman (District 2) asked Green if the school could legally finance the project with school funds. Green said he did not know.

    Bus Driver Pay Increase

    “Some have asked what it will cost the School District for the 3.2 percent pay raise the state has mandated for the District’s bus drivers (discussed at the July Board meeting),” Green said at the Aug. 16 meeting.

    Green said that while most of the raise for the bus drivers will be covered by the state, he wants to also provide a 3.2 percent increase for the bus monitors, which is not covered by the state. That will bring the cost to the District to about $36,000.

    “We determined we have adequate funding in the budget for that,” Green said.

    Renovations of Kelly Miller

    Green told the Board that renovations to Kelly Miller Elementary School would allow the portables to be removed from the campus and that a six classroom addition would alleviate overcrowding. He gave as an example that the school band now has to use the stage as a ‘practice room’ while at the same time physical education classes are being conducted in the gym.