Category: News

FAIRFIELD – What began as a local dispute between Horry County and a Marion County solid waste disposal company has made its way to Assembly Street, drawing opposition from counties across the state – including Fairfield – and inciting the ire of the S.C. Association of Counties.

The bill (H.3290) was mentioned by Council member Mary Lynn Kinley (District 6) at Fairfield County’s Feb. 11 Council meeting, and the County has since signed on to a resolution opposing the amendment to the state’s Solid Waste Management Plan that would change the way counties direct the flow of their garbage.

“We’re now hauling our own waste, which is saving us about $375,000 a year,” Council Chairman David Ferguson said. “Lobbyists for the waste industries have persuaded our representatives to get behind this, and if we don’t stop it, these companies are going to be able to come in here and put their trash dumps wherever they want to put them.”

“Right now, counties have the responsibility to decide where waste sites go,” said Wes Covington, a lawyer with the Association of Counties. “This is the biggest determent to mega-dumps. The new bill says an ordinance that impedes the development of a waste disposal program, regardless of location, is invalidated.”

But Sen. Creighton Coleman (D-17), who co-sponsored the Senate version of the bill (S.203), said that argument is incorrect. It was never the intent of the bill to supersede county zoning ordinances, he said, and no bill can be made to retroactively strike down existing ordinances. Furthermore, he said, the language Covington is referring to was removed from the House bill last month, before the bill went into the Senate Medical Affairs Committee.

“The intent is to keep counties from forming a monopoly and running private industry out of business, like Horry County did,” Coleman said. “The marketplace will determine where waste goes. It was never the intent of any of the sponsors of this bill to prohibit zoning laws.”

More directly, the bill prohibits counties from mandating where solid waste must be disposed.

“To the extent that a county ordinance requires disposal of waste at one or more designated solid waste management facilities or requires recovered materials to be processed or recycled at one or more designated facilities, the ordinance is void,” the most recent version of the bill states. Language from the previous Senate version of the bill, which stated, “To the extent that a county ordinance restricts or prohibits disposal of waste at a permitted solid waste management facility regardless of location or impedes the development or implementation of a public or private recycling program regardless of location, the ordinance is void,” is not included in the version currently in committee.

Still, opponents of the bill warn of unintended consequences and argue that the act is too broad.

“This bill goes way beyond the Horry County dispute,” Covington said.

In 2009, Horry County passed an ordinance mandating that all Horry County waste be disposed of at its facility in Conway, essentially blocking Marion County businessman William Clyburn from picking up Horry County waste and dumping it in his construction and demolition disposal site across the county line. That, Coleman said, created a de facto monopoly on the waste disposal business for Horry County.

“The government got involved in private industry, manipulated it and created a monopoly,” Coleman said. “This bill prevents that from happening again.

“This bill does not legislate counties out of the solid waste business,” Coleman added, “but it puts private industry on a level playing field.”

FAIRFIELD – The army of Western Fairfield County residents opposed to the rezoning of land on Highway 215 in Jenkinsville for a new healthcare clinic, while visible and vocal at County Council’s special called meeting Feb. 18, did not turn out Monday night to make one final stand against the ordinance, which County Council passed without dissent, 7-0.

Councilman Kamau Marcharia (District 4) did, prior to the vote, attempt to shed light on why Dr. Stuart Hamilton, who applied for the rezoning and who will be directing the Eau Claire Health Clinic, was not made aware of other properties, properties opponents of the rezoning said last week he could have had for free.

“There appears to be a lot of confusion around that zoning,” Marcharia said. “Some of the folks in my community want to know why I didn’t inform Dr. Hamilton about other land. It was a failure of communication between the Council of letting the doctor know and other community members know there was other land available. I came up with three people, and one particular person was willing to donate the land, but after the fact.”

Marcharia said Council had initially been in talks with Richland Health Center, but when they went into bankruptcy they left behind a $100,000 lien on their property.

“That certainly eliminated us from that,” Marcharia said. “Within the last two months it became obvious the County was under no circumstance going to buy that land due to bankruptcy. At that time, we received notice from Dr. Hamilton that he was applying for the ordinance to put the health center on 3.7 acres of land, and he presented it to council. Let it be clear, it was a government grant and that grant could only be placed on property that was not leased but purchased.”

Council Chairman David Ferguson (District 5) said Council made every effort to purchase the original piece of property.

“We had been after it for about nine months, but weren’t able to pull the trigger on it,” Ferguson said. “Every time I inquired about it, it was kind of a moving target. Come to find out that moving target was because they were in bankruptcy, and I was not being told the entire truth the whole time I was dealing with that property. At that time, Council backed off of it because that was not a reasonable and plausible way to spend taxpayers’ money.”

A month after that deal fell through, Ferguson said, Dr. Hamilton appeared on the scene touting a federal grant that would build and equip the facility. All Hamilton required from Council was a rezoning ordinance, from RD-1 (Rural Residential) to B-1 (Limited Business), on property he had located just south of 8991 Highway 215, owned by the Trustees for the Praise and Deliverance Temple.

“I hate there’s a controversy over the way this thing’s going,” Ferguson said, “but I’m not sad we’re getting out of a portable building and getting into a healthcare facility that looks like a healthcare facility.”

Last week, residents of the Dawkins and Blair communities spoke before Council, urging them to reject the rezoning.

Marshal Windham, one such resident, said last week, “I don’t understand the motivation for moving a health facility from a more densely populated area to a more sparsely populated area. There are more people in the Blair area than in Jenkinsville.”

“We were granted 8.12 acres on Meadowlake Drive to have a doctor’s office put there,” Bruce Wadsworth of the Dawkins Community Association said last week. “The land is already cleaned off, it’s already paid for. Jenkinsville is a very small area. The Blair community is very large, and that facility is greatly needed there (in Blair).”

Jeff Schaffer, another Dawkins resident, said last week, “Thirty-eight people in Jenkinsville – 30 adults, eight children – don’t require a healthcare facility. There’s no need for this to be moved and built there.”

Although Schaffer publicly urged more of the community to come and speak out before Monday’s third and final reading, the ordinance passed with no further public input.

Council also passed final reading on an ordinance to update the County’s solid waste management plan, as well as an ordinance to rezone 1 acre at 177 and 179 Meadow Lake Road in Blair from B-2 (General Business) to RD-1, and an ordinance to rezone 1 acre at 394 Hungry Hollow Road in Winnsboro from B-2 to RD-1.

Finally, Council ratified the appointment of Brian B. Bonds (at-large) and the reappointment of Steve Vickers (District 7) to the Behavioral Health Board, as well as the reappointment of Pam Smith (District 3) to the Council on Aging.

BLYTHEWOOD – Town Council moved its regularly scheduled Monday night meeting to Wednesday night just hours after The Voice went to press, so voting results from the meeting were not available at press time.

Council’s first action item was to be a vote on a resolution to fund “Project Booster,” the Town’s code name for what sources have told The Voice is a closely guarded plan to build a restaurant in the Town Hall park – a restaurant that will have an exclusive contract with the Town to cater events held at the Town Council’s soon to be finished Doko Manor, also located in the park. Sources close to the project who are not authorized to talk about the plans have told The Voice that the Town has applied for a $1 million grant that it hopes to use to build the restaurant building. According to sources, the Town plans to lease the building to a restaurateur out of Camden. While the restaurateur would not speak on the record about specifics of the project, he did tell The Voice last fall that he was excited about the opportunity.

Wednesday night’s resolution for funding, however, makes no mention of a restaurant, but refers to the construction of a depot building that will promote the economic development and general welfare of the Town.

The resolution, which was expected to be passed by Council, is vague, stating that the Town “desires to develop, construct and own certain infrastructure projects, including site preparation for and construction of a depot building (‘Projects’), for the exclusive purpose of aiding and promoting the economic development and general welfare of the Town.”

It also stated that the Town would like to use funds provided to Fairfield Electric Cooperative by the USDA under the Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant (REDLG) program for the “Projects,” providing the “Projects” qualify as eligible under the REDLG program.

Town Administrator John Perry told The Voice last fall that the Town planned to use the RELDG funds, provided through Fairfield Electric Cooperative, to landscape the grounds around the “Projects.”

A resolution passed by Council last August regarding the depot “Projects” in the Town Hall park, referred to the park as a Business Park (“Park”) and said the Town would like to expand the boundaries of that Business Park to include the Doko Depot “Projects.”

The idea of building a replica of the Town’s former depot came in the late 1990s when Roland Ballow was mayor and his brother-in-law, Jim McLean, was on Town Council. McLean said many times at public meetings that he would like to see the Town’s former train depot replicated in honor of his father who was the Town’s last train master. While the train depot was initially included in the plan for the proposed $10+ million Town Hall park, the depot was later scrubbed from the plan when the park ran over budget.

After Council voted to pass a resolution last August to construct a depot building in the park as part of an economic development plan for the Town, The Voice asked Mayor J. Michael Ross if Council still plans to build the depot and he replied that it does not.

The resolution to be voted on Wednesday night authorized the Town Administrator “to work in concert with Fairfield Electric Cooperative, legal counsel and such other professionals as the Town Administrator shall deem appropriate to secure funding under the REDLG program.”

Other business that was to be taken up at the meeting included second and final reading on an easement for sewer utilities for a small strip of Town Hall property having to do with a utility easement.

Council was also expected to pass second reading to rezone a 2-acre parcel on Farrow Road near Highway 21 from Limited Industrial (LI) to Community Commercial (CC) District. The property is owned by J. B. and M. L. Bishop and was previously used as a flea market. Bishop told The Voice that he plans to sell the property for recreational use.