Category: Government

No Explanation for President’s $800+ Bill

JENKINSVILLE (April 8, 2016) – A major water leak, an unannounced special called meeting and an unauthorized trip costing more than $500 by the Board President set the stage for the regular monthly meeting of the Jenkinsville Water Board on Monday night.

Opening the meeting, vice-president Joseph McBride, acting as president, announced a major water leak was in progress on Buckhead Road and that President Gregory Ginyard was at the site assessing the situation. During a later water production report, a leak was also reported on Candy Lane.

The Board approved the minutes of a special called meeting that was held on March 16, for which no notification had been provided to the public or the media. During Board Member comments at the end of the meeting, Board Member Tangy Jacobs said the purpose of the March 16 special called meeting had been for the Board’s CPA (Yvette Jones) to discuss the February 2016 financial statement with the Board Members and that the meeting had lasted two hours.

When asked by The Voice after the meeting why the March 16 meeting had not been open to the public, Ginyard, who had arrived back from checking on the Buckhead Road water leak, said it was all held in executive session. When asked by The Voice how the state’s Freedom of Information Act provided for the financial statement to be discussed in closed session, Ginyard answered, “We had some stuff with the CPA.”

The Board’s secretary, Amanda Metz, said, “She (Jones) was teaching us how to read the financial report.”

During a review of the company’s February 2016 profit and loss statement Monday night, Board Member Leon Thomas questioned two expenditures for Ginyard– $634.88 for a hotel conference and $200 for meals.

“The check is dated March 17,” Thompson said, asking for additional information about the trip. “Was it a one day or two day (conference)?”

McBride said he didn’t know anything about the charges. A former Board member told The Voice that the Board previously voted that all travel expenditures over $500 had to be approved by the Board.

“Actually,” McBride told Thomas, “I couldn’t tell you what this is for. I don’t know.”

The Board unanimously approved the financial statement.

Following the Monday evening meeting, The Voice asked McBride for a copy of the financial statement.

“I’ll have to see if you can have one,” McBride said, holding several copies of the statement in his hand, but not offering one to The Voice. McBride did agree to write down the contact information for The Voice.

In other business, McBride read the water production report, stating that of the 4,902,690 gallons of water sold by the water company in March, 1,205,000 gallons were purchased from Mid County Water Company, with no further explanation of what necessitated that purchase.

During public comment period, water customer Dee Melton asked, for what he said was the third time, why the Board continued to not give him an answer about a request he made months earlier for a water leak adjustment on his water bill. Melton said an adjustment is customary for members who have not had an adjustment in the previous 12 months, which Melton said he had not had. McBride said the Board would get back to him (Melton).

Melton also asked why the Board’s water leak reports no longer included estimates of how much water is lost during leaks.

“We’ve never done that,” McBride answered.

“According to your past minutes, you used to do that,” Melton said.

“We’ve never done that,” McBride insisted. “We can’t tell how much leaked.”

“By telling us, ‘We billed this amount of money for water, we produced this much water,’ then you can estimate your storage and your losses,” Melton said. “Then you’ll know where the water is going.”

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the water board is Monday, May 2.

 

County ‘Confused’ Over Notice

BLYTHEWOOD (April 7, 2016) – Residents in the rural Abney Hills neighborhood of Blythewood called The Voice this week asking for help in obtaining meeting packets and other information from Richland County Planning and Zoning regarding a hearing set for Wednesday, April 6 at the Richland County Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) for a special exception to the neighborhood’s current Rural zoning classification.

After placing a call on Monday morning to the County Planning Department to inquire about how the information regarding the meeting was being distributed to Abney Hills residents who might oppose the special exception, The Voice was told the information packets were not ready but could be picked up at the hearing on Wednesday. After explaining that would be too late for those who might want to prepare arguments against the special exception request, The Voice was transferred to Thomas Delage, the County’s Assistant Zoning Administrator who did not return the call until Tuesday afternoon.

“There has clearly been a misunderstanding about the information going out,” Delage said, apologizing.

He said he would send the agenda and packet out immediately. He also told The Voice that the County had decided to postpone the meeting until further notice and that notices of the postponement would be posted on the property Tuesday afternoon.

At issue is a request by Amy Gerberry, a licensed counselor and Director of Selah House of the Carolinas, to establish a day treatment program on a 6+ acre parcel in the middle of several large-acre rural home sites in Abney Hills off Blythewood Road. The program would include lodging options for women and girls suffering from eating disorders. The property is currently zoned Rural (RU). The County’s BZA packet lists the special exception as a continued care retirement community.

The facility would provide partial hospitalization for up to 12 women and girls ages 12 and older, according to Gerberry’s application.

Gerberry was previously associated with Hearth Center for Eating Disorders that opened in Columbia in 2013 and closed less than three years later. She recently became associated with Selah.

The Richland County Planning staff recommends approval of Gerberry’s request.

 

Election Comes Down to the Wire

RIDGEWAY (April 6, 2016) – The race to fill out the remaining two years on former Town Councilman Russ Brown’s seat turned into a genuine nail-biter Tuesday night, with only three votes separating the victor from the vanquished. The three-way race for the two four-year seats, meanwhile, were split between an incumbent and a newcomer.

Doug Porter edged out Rufus Jones for the two-year term, 47 votes to 44. Jones is a former mayor and town councilman. Porter had just finished a four-year term on Council, and his move to seek the remaining two years on Brown’s seat opened the door on a race for a pair of four-year terms.

“I’m glad to continue to serve on Council for another two years,” Porter said after Tuesday’s narrow win. “We’re going to move forward with what Council needs to do. We’re looking to find money to do what we need to do with our water department and at the Century House, and we’re looking into historical signs on the interstate.”

Incumbent Donald Prioleau earned the most votes Tuesday night with 59, sending him back to Council for another four years. Prioleau brought in the votes without even putting up the first yard sign. Instead, he said, he knocked on every door in Ridgeway, making personal contact with voters.

“I want to thank everyone for the support for these last 16-plus years, and I look forward to working with the citizens of Ridgeway for the next four years,” Prioleau said Tuesday. “We need to settle some things with the railroad and our police department. The arch at the old school needs to be stabilized and we need to work on our goals for that. Of course, I will continue to support the Arts on the Ridge and the Pig on the Ridge, and I ask for and am willing to accept any suggestions and input from the citizens of Ridgeway.”

Angela Harrison, Chairwoman of the Ridgeway Planning Commission, took the second four-year seat, beating out Tina Johnson, owner of Over The Top Emporium, 54 votes to 42.

Although Harrison could not be reached for comment Tuesday night, in her response to The Voice’s questionnaire last week, she noted Ridgeway’s biggest challenge as “growth.”

“As the town grows and buildings such as the fire department become available for rent, we need to make sure we preserve the look and feel of our town,” Harrison wrote last week. “That’s what attracts people to Ridgeway and keeps them here for generations. We need to unite Ridgeway with projects such as a community garden and beautification of the old school, along with the great festivals and events we already have. The more residents we can get charged up about our town, the more successful we’ll be at balancing progress and preservation.”

Tuesday night’s results included all absentee ballots, according to Debbie Stidham, Director of Fairfield County Voter Registration and Elections. Tuesday’s results will be officially certified by the Board of Voter Registration and Election Commission at 10 a.m. Friday at the Registration and Elections office at 315 S. Congress St., Winnsboro.

 

RIDGEWAY (April 1, 2016) – Town Councilman Heath Cookendorfer during Council’s March 22 meeting pushed for a delay to Ridgeway’s laundry list of capital improvement expenditures until after the April 5 election, after which time Council would have its full complement of members. Council has been one member shy of a full load since Russ Brown surrendered his seat last year after moving from the town limits.

“This stuff needs to be done,” Councilman Doug Porter said. “I don’t know what the purpose is of waiting a week. We’re the Council.”

On the list of improvements were, at the Century House, replacing rotting wood, purchasing a new refrigerator, replacing the awning over the back door, installing heating and air upstairs, pouring new gravel into the driveway and planting trees between the Century House property and Ridgeway Tire.

“That wood didn’t start rotting yesterday,” Cookendorfer said. “We have the bids to consider. What I was wanting to do is just table it until after the election.”

Council is also considering replacing the heating and air conditioning at the police station, adding police-parking signage to spots on Palmer Street and making repairs to the Welcome Center, including replacing rotted wood on the door frame, replacing the flooring and the display card rack and either painting or power-washing the eaves.

With bids on the table for a number of projects, Councilman Donald Prioleau said his concern was if the numbers in the bids would hold up until after the election.

“Everybody is so busy doing other flood work,” Mayor Charlene Herring said, “that I’m scared that they will not be here.”

Herring said the rotten wood presented a structural issue, and Cookendorfer agreed; but other items, he said, could wait.

Council gave the OK to replace the rotted wood at the Century House at a cost of $5,115, which will come out of one of the Town’s CDs. Other items were put on hold.

Cookendorfer also wanted to wait on repairing the sidewalk near the Post Office until after the election, a project Dwight Robertson originally offered to complete for $4,720. But Herring said the initial price had gone up by $1,800 after the Town had received specs on the project from the S.C. Department of Transportation (DOT). The DOT specs mandate that in addition to pouring 208 feet of sidewalk, additional concrete will have to be poured a short distance into two driveways along the route.

The additional cost drives the price up to $5,900, which Cookendorfer noted put it above the $5,000 bid threshold. Expenditures over $5,000 require at least one additional quote, he said.

Herring said she would seek a second bidder and bring the project back to Council.

 

WINNSBORO (April 1, 2016) – County Council’s plans, announced during their Feb. 15 meeting, to relocate a recreation center originally destined for the Dawkins community to Jenkinsville continues to raise hackles, and Monday night Council received a dose of negative feedback from citizens still upset by the move.

During his Feb. 15 report to Council, Interim County Administrator Milton Pope said the rec facility planned for a site on Ladds Road near Lake Monticello had run into permitting problems with the Federal Emergency Regulatory Commission (FERC). The County leases the Ladds Road property from the SCANA Corp. for recreation; however, the land, because of its proximity to the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station, is ultimately managed by FERC. Any improvements built on the site would have to get the Commission’s OK, which Pope said on Feb. 15 would have pushed construction back there by as much as six months.

Instead, Pope said last month, the County would be constructing the facility at Monticello Park, also known as Overlook Drive Park.

The good news: the move will cost the County less, Pope said, as a walking trail and outdoor basketball courts – part of the Ladds Road plan – already exist at Monticello Park. The bad news: the Dawkins community will not be getting their long-promised recreation facility.

“For some reason I knew we wouldn’t get the rec in the Dawkins area. I knew it from day one,” Bruce Wadsworth, a Dawkins resident and recreation advocate, told Council during Monday night’s second public comment session. “You made your decision and you’re going to move it. It’s going to hurt that community a great deal still. Still we have to travel (to reach recreation facilities).”

Wadsworth suggested Council could, if Ladds Road was out of the question, locate the facility at Willie Lee Robinson Park, which he said would serve Dawkins and Blair.

Deviating from Council policy, Chairwoman Carolyn Robinson (District 2) responded to the public’s complaints. There was no room at Willie Lee Robinson Park, she said, for the facility, and efforts to secure additional space had been unsuccessful.

“Four or five years ago we tried to buy additional property at that area so that we could have that location to do something,” Robinson said, “but nobody would sell us any land.”

Working through the permitting with FERC, Robinson said, would have added “another year to two years” to the project; and, she said, “the money would be gone by that point.”

But last month, Pope told Council the permitting issue would have added only six months to the project, a time frame District 7 Councilman Billy Smith said Tuesday that he recalled being accurate.

“Two years is not a figure I had been given,” Smith said. “(Last night was) the first time I’d heard a figure such as that.”

Phone calls to Robinson for clarification were not returned at press time Tuesday. Pope, however, told The Voice Tuesday that the County was told by SCANA that it would be at least “several months before we even got an answer” on permitting, he said. “Then after that, there was no guarantee when it could move forward.”

“No one’s ever said two years,” Pope said, “but it was an indefinite amount of time, and we had a finite amount of time – by year’s end – to get the projects completed.”

The Monticello Park location, Pope said, is only 5.7 miles from the Ladds Road site, and once completed will be “a very nice, urbanized park.”

“All this other stuff is just crap,” Pope said of the outcry against the move. “It’s all politics to try to get Kamau Marcharia out of office.”

Jeff Schaffer, also speaking during the second public comment portion of Monday’s meeting, placed the blame for the permitting oversight at the feet of County Council, specifically District 4 representative Kamau Marcharia.

“You’ve been derelict in your duty. You don’t represent the Dawkins community or District 4 or its desires for recreation as promised,” Schaffer said. “You and the engineering firm should have made sure permits were in place before you put the sign up.”

Furthermore, Schaffer said, the County hired a consulting firm (Genesis Consulting Group) to oversee the project, and between the three entities – the County, the engineers and the consultants – someone should have done their homework years ago.

Smith, who noted that he was not on Council when the recreation plan was unveiled or when the consultants were hired, said that from a public standpoint he thought the consultants “were supposed to help the County spend that $3.5 million in recreation money. Instead,” Smith said, “they just wrote down whatever Council wanted them to write down.”

Administration, Smith said, should have discovered the permitting problem and brought it back to Council long ago.

“I think it’s the County’s fault that it didn’t do due diligence on its own property,” Smith said. “Now that we’ve found this out, although it’s not going to work this time, for the future we should go ahead and do the due diligence on that property in case we want to locate something there in the future.”

What Council did not want, according to Smith, was another delay to recreation in Western Fairfield.

“We already had contracted with a construction company,” Smith said. “I was told we had already purchased the materials. We already have one building in storage in a warehouse somewhere. I didn’t want another one.”

Robinson also said Monday night that the current recreation plan will not be the last for Fairfield County, but moving on the District 4 plan, wherever it went, was an imperative.

The permitting situation, she said, put Council in the position of “You either get it (at Monticello Park) or you get nothing, and this was the only location that was ready to go.”

“It’s a start,” Robinson said. “It’s a beginning. It doesn’t say recreation is going to be ended. It’s going to be ongoing. This is the best that Council could do with the monies that are available at this point.”

And to the public still angry over Council’s decision, Robinson threw down the gauntlet with echoes of former District 3 Councilman Mikel Trapp.

“I’m just going to issue every one of you a challenge tonight,” Robinson said. “If you think you can do better, put your name on the ballot in November.”

 

JENKINSVILLE (March 25, 2016) – Filing for the Town of Jenkinsville’s 2016 municipal election closed at noon last Friday with only the three incumbents throwing their names into the ring for the three spots up for grabs on Town Council. Filing officially opened on March 7.

Gregrey Ginyard filed for another term as Jenkinsville’s mayor, while Gayle Pauling and James Trapp filed for another term each on Town Council.

The election is slated for May 3; however, according to Debbie Stidham, Director of Voter Registration and Elections, unless write-in candidates declare at her office at 315 S. Congress St., Winnsboro, by April 1, no voting will be held.

Voting, should it take place, will be held at the Jenkinsville Volunteer Fire Department, 12922 Highway 213, Jenkinsville, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The County Election Commission will begin their examination of absentee ballot return envelopes at 9 a.m. on Election Day in the Voter Registration office. A hearing to determine the validity of any challenged ballots will be held in the Voter Registration office at 10 a.m. on May 6, after which the Commission will certify the results.

Only citizens residing in the Jenkinsville town limits and who are properly registered will be eligible to vote in the May 3 election. To be eligible to vote in the election one must be registered by April 4. Perspective voters may register at the County Voter Registration and Elections Office or call 803-635-6255 for additional information. Voters may also check their registration information at www.SCVotes.org.

 

RIDGEWAY (March 25, 2016) – Town Council’s Feb. 27 target date for relocating the police station to a front office in the Century House at 170 S. Dogwood Ave. came and went with the police station still in its traditional spot at 160 S. Palmer St. and the front office of the Century House still being used, as of Tuesday night, as Council chambers.

During Tuesday night’s meeting, rescheduled from March 10 when Council was unable to muster a quorum, Council avoided answering questions about the delay with a reluctance that bordered on downright recalcitrance.

“For one thing, we need to put out bids on a contractor to move this glass-top table out of here (Council chambers),” Councilman Heath Cookendorfer quipped Tuesday.

Cookendorfer said Council needed to discuss the police station move in executive session; however, when pressed, he could not provide The Voice with a specific exemption in the state’s open meetings laws that allowed for such a discussion behind closed doors.

Councilman Doug Porter said Council had run up against some “logistical” challenges with the move that had to be worked through, although like Cookendorfer he would not specify what those challenges were.

When Council at their Feb. 11 meeting set the Feb. 27 date for the move, certain challenges remained even then. Securing the room, as well as evidence were key issues last month, and Cookendorfer then suggested installing cipher locks on the doors, while officer Christopher Culp suggested the purchase of a new evidence locker for $130.

Tuesday night, however, it was clear that the installation of the locks had failed. And, Cookendorfer noted, the Town was on the hook for the cost.

“The locks didn’t work. I get that,” Cookendorfer said. “But we had to eat the cost of the locks. I’m trying to find out why we had to eat the cost of those locks.”

Herring said the packaging on the locks had been opened and were therefore not returnable, costing the Town $140. The locks were ordered, she said, through Ruff Hardware. Cookendorfer asked Council to find out from whom the locks were actually purchased and explore contacting them directly to determine if they could be returned and what the actual costs were.

Porter said the move was still going to happen, although when appears to be a mystery.

Council hopes to rent out the S. Palmer Street location for $600 a month once it is available. Ridgeway will have to obtain permission from Norfolk-Southern Railway, which owns the property on which the police station still sits, to lease the building. Half of the rent would also have to be paid to the railway, as well as a one-time fee of $750.

 

McLean: I Felt Like We Were ‘Had’

BLYTHEWOOD (March 24, 2016) – After unanimously approving a Certificate of Appropriateness (COA) on Jan. 19 for The Pointe, a controversial 56-unit, government-subsidized apartment complex proposed for construction by Prestwick Development LLC on Main Street in downtown Blythewood, members of the Board of Architectural Review (BAR) sorely lamented that approval during Monday evening’s regular monthly meeting.

“I felt we were ‘had’,” board member Jim McLean told his fellow BAR members. Others on the board agreed.

The object of the BAR’s lamentation was their regret after the fact that they had failed to make the developer carry through on an agreement it made with the BAR in December 2015 to install a decorative wrought iron fence on three sides of the apartment site.

“We’d had a discussion up until that time about Prestwick’s proposal to build a chain link fence, which is not permitted,” McLean said. “We asked them (Prestwick) to change the fence material to a wrought iron material and they agreed. But when they came for the COA in January, it (the fence) was not mentioned at all in the discussion until just prior to the vote on the COA.”

When Prestwick agreed to the change in fence materials at the December meeting, the prospects for moving the project forward hinged on the BAR’s approval of 13 variances. After those variances were granted at the January meeting, McLean asked the developer’s representatives about the wrought iron fence. The project’s architect, Robert Byington, said Prestwick Development, because of costs, had decided not to build any fence at all around the property. He also pointed out to the Board that there was no requirement in the ordinance for a fence of any kind to be built.

Without addressing Prestwick’s about-face on the fence, the BAR went ahead and unanimously approved the COA.

“I went home (after the Jan. 19 meeting) and kind of kicked myself from the standpoint of not digging in,” board member Jim McLean told his fellow board members Tuesday evening. “It got away from us. They were wrong and that particular group (of residents) has a need for fencing more than any area in town. Maybe this is just a lesson for us.”

“They took us off guard,” Chairman Michael Langston said in defense. “When they said they weren’t going to do the fence, we were getting ready to vote (on the COA) and I just didn’t press the issue. I feel we missed an opportunity, but I didn’t feel like challenging them at that point.”

“I worry about reports of considerable amounts of liter around these types of buildings and I just feel like we need to go back to the scene of the crime,” board member Gale Coston said.

“We can’t now,” Langston noted. “We’ve already voted (for approval of the COA) which is legally binding. I can almost guarantee you that if we go back with anything else it would be challenged and brought in to legal proceedings.”
Residents in the vicinity of the proposed apartment project had been vocal early on against the apartments, saying the proposed project would increase traffic and could lower property values of surrounding homes. Opponents of the project were publicly chastised by members of the Town Council for speaking out against the project.

Councilman Bob Mangone, a Cobblestone Park resident who, during the previous year, had voiced the same concerns about a developer building less expensive homes in his gated Cobblestone Park neighborhood, accused those speaking out against the apartments of veiled bigotry, bias and racism, even though those speaking out included both African-Americans and whites.

After the Planning Commission sided with residents in October and recommended that the project be denied based on the “will of the people,” Prestwick filed a lawsuit against the Town that resulted in the Commission’s decision being overturned.

In a move to further stem citizen dissent over The Pointe, at the December BAR meeting Langston announced to those residents who had come to the meeting to address the BAR that citizen testimony at that meeting would not be allowed on agenda items slated for discussion which included The Pointe. While Langston said he was adhering to the BAR’s rules of procedure, it was a departure from how the BAR had conducted meetings in the past when no specific limitations were placed on citizens who wished to address issues before the Board.

Thereafter, citizens no longer attended any of the town’s government meetings dealing with the issue and none were present at Tuesday evening’s BAR meeting.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the Board decided to ask Mayor J. Michael Ross to join with Langston in writing a letter to the Prestwick Development in an effort to persuade them to reconsider installing the decorative wrought iron fencing as they had agreed to do in December.