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WINNSBORO – A little more than a year after rolling out their $3.5 million countywide recreation plan, and two months after opening bids on the project that came in at more than twice that amount, County Council is expected to discuss the plan once again during their Monday night meeting.

“I hope to report to Council on Monday on a significant portion of that information,” Interim County Administrator Milton Pope said last week, “where Council can hopefully vote on proceeding with the plan.”

But that plan may be a much leaner plan than the one Council debuted shortly before the November 2014 elections overturned four of the seven districts.

Council Chairwoman Carolyn Robinson (District 2) said at last week’s intergovernmental meeting in Winnsboro that the County was working to get a better price than the $7,453,044 low bid opened on July 14 from Loveless Commercial Contracting of Cayce. Both the prospective new fire station in Ridgeway and the EMS/fire station in Jenkinsville, which were included in the initial bid for the recreation projects, have been carved out to be bid as separate projects, Robinson said, and Council members have been reviewing plans for their individual districts.

“Each district has submitted some ideas, and based on that some of us are working together to put a facility in quadrants of the county,” Robinson said at the Sept. 17 intergovernmental meeting. “Hopefully once we get all of this worked out, it will be ready to roll out … it will be exactly what we want.”

Pope told The Voice this week that negotiations were ongoing with Loveless and probably would continue right up to Monday’s meeting. By Monday, Pope said, he hopes to be able to bring revised numbers back to Council, who will then decide how to proceed.

“It may necessitate some additional trimming,” Pope said, “but then again, it may not.”

Pope said the final savings of removing the fire stations from the project had not yet been determined, and trimming down projects in each individual district has always been a prospect.

“We want some ability for the marketplace to play a role,” David Brandes, of Genesis Consulting, told Council during his original presentation of the plan last September. “If prices come in better than we anticipated, we wanted to take advantage of that.”

But with the price coming in at more than twice the budget, changes may become a reality.

Billy Smith (District 7), one of the new Council members elected in last November’s sweep, has long been a proponent of reviewing the overall plan. Smith said Tuesday he was prepared to take a serious look at his district’s component.

The initial plan for District 7, when it was represented by David Brown, came in at $644,440 – well over its $500,000 budget – and included an outdoor basketball court, a baseball/softball field and improvements to the Genealogy building. The ball field, Smith said, was slated for the land surrounding the HON building; but with that facility being refitted for the temporary location of the County Courthouse while renovations are under way there, that land is now destined to become a parking lot.

“So that’s out,” Smith said. “And I’m sure the (Genealogy) part will be taken out as well.”

Smith said there had also been discussions about Robinson’s District 2 combining with District 3 to construct a recreation facility somewhere near district lines.

District 3, now represented by Walter Larry Stewart, was the only district to come in under budget, at $499,337, when the plan was unveiled. Then represented by Mikel Trapp, District 3 called for four playgrounds, a basketball court and equipment. District 2, meanwhile, was looking for a community center and a combination EMS/recycling facility.

“No one has expressed (these changes) to me,” District 4 Councilman Kamau Marcharia said this week. “Some (districts) were over budget and had to make changes, but we have not had that kind of conversation.”

District 4 has had a consistent plan for recreation for many years. When that plan, which includes a community center, was officially presented last year it came in at $641,660. But, Marcharia said, then-Councilman Trapp had pledged any unused money from his district to District 4. Before the plan was made public, District 6 Councilwoman Mary Lynn Kinley made a similar pledge.

But with the initial estimates in which six of the seven districts exceeded their $500,000 budgets, there may be little, if any, money left over to share. How money is shared, if there is any to be shared, is another matter for discussion Monday, Smith said.

“Any changes would have to be voted on and approved by the full Council,” Smith said. “District 7 will change as long as Council gives its approval.”

 

BLYTHEWOOD – Town Council discussed last week at its monthly workshop the possibility of converting portions of the porches at The Manor into two offices to relieve what Town Administrator Gary Parker termed inadequate office space in Town Hall. Parker said the need for more space is immediate and arises from the Human Resources/Finance Assistant and Town Clerk having to share offices with other employees.

“This is not conducive to providing privacy to staff who often must have it for concentrating on their work and occasionally for meeting with other staff members or the public,” Parker said.

Parker suggested that two new offices, proposed to be constructed on each of The Manor’s two front covered porches, would be occupied by the Town’s Event and Conference Center Director and the Parks and Recreation Director.

“Having an office on site will allow the Conference Center Director to more easily meet with and show the building to clients,” Parker explained.

Parker said the cost to construct the 11×11-foot offices would be about $35,000, and to increase the size of one of the offices (for the Conference Center Director) to 11×14-feet would bring the total cost to about $65,000. Parker said that cost could be appropriated from the fund balance or current year accommodations and hospitality tax revenues.

“Cost-wise,” Parker said, “the funds are there.”

While Councilman Tom Utroska said he disagreed that the need for more office space was immediate, saying, “It feels like government run amok,” he agreed with the other Council members and Parker, saying, “But we will one day need it.”

It is expected Council will make a decision at their next Council meeting as to whether to go ahead with the project. That meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m., Monday, Sept. 28, at The Manor.

 

WINNSBORO – Although County Council’s Administration and Finance (A&F) Committee voted for the second time on Sept. 14 to recommend to full Council the selection of I.C.E. (Infrastructure Consulting & Engineering) as the engineering consultant for County Transportation Committee (CTC) dirt road projects, the man who caused the County to re-do the selection process claims it may have to been done yet again.

In a Sept. 17 letter to Interim County Administrator Milton Pope, Dan Dennis of the Dennis Corp., claims that one of the members of the selection committee, which ultimately made the recommendation to the A&F Committee, made a motion to award engineering work to I.C.E. at a Sept. 10 CTC meeting. That work, according to minutes from the meeting included with Dennis’s letter, was openly solicited by an I.C.E. engineer, was not advertised and included in the solicitation discussion of price – all of which violate state procurement codes, Dennis claims.

The Dennis Corp. was one of three finalists for the consulting contract recommended to the A&F Committee on Sept. 14.

The work solicited by the I.C.E. engineer, according to the minutes, was for projects to be paid for with more than $3 million in one-time, nonrecurring state funds, and is not related to the County’s dirt road paving projects.

While phone calls to S.C. Department of Transportation (DOT) officials were not returned to The Voice at press time, a DOT spokesperson said Tuesday that the process for solicitations for the one-time state money should be handled the same as any other solicitation – a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) should be advertised, a firm should be selected based on qualifications and a price should only be discussed after the firm has been selected.

According to the minutes included in Dennis’s letter, the I.C.E. engineer proposed that his company would “do the engineering and inspection on this project for the 7 percent fee that SCDOT would charge to do the work.”

“I don’t know if there are any red flags here,” the DOT spokesperson told The Voice Monday, “but we are looking into it.”

County Council Chairwoman Carolyn Robinson and District 6 Councilwoman Mary Lynn Kinley, both members of the A&F Committee, were in the audience at the Sept. 19 CTC meeting, and Dennis in his letter said they should have recused themselves from the Sept. 14 vote to recommend I.C.E. to the full Council.

“The vote from the Administration and Finance Committee was based on numbers given to us (by the selection committee),” Robinson said. “They had already met and put that together. They had already worked through that before the Sept. 10 CTC meeting. I did nothing wrong. The CTC’s decisions are not my responsibility.”

Efforts to reach David Williams, Chairman of the CTC, were also unsuccessful at press time.

County Council is expected to take up the recommendation from the A&F Committee Monday. If they vote to accept that recommendation, Dennis states in his letter that he “will have no choice but to file a formal protest with Fairfield County, SCDOT and the South Carolina Office of Inspector General.”

“We do not have a responsibility to Dan Dennis,” Pope said Tuesday. “We do not have a responsibility to I.C.E. But we do have a responsibility to accept a recommendation made in good faith. The only thing I care about is everyone having an equitable opportunity to solicit for work in the county.”

 

WINNSBORO – Board members from the Friends of Mt. Zion Institute (FOMZI) spent more than an hour in executive session at Tuesday night’s Town Council meeting, trying to stave off the wrecking ball that lurks behind their contractual deadline.

That deadline – to stabilize the buildings on the property to meet Winnsboro’s Dangerous Building Code – expired on Sept. 4, and until Tuesday night Council had not heard from FOMZI all summer long. Indeed, Winnsboro Mayor Roger Gaddy said after Council’s Sept. 1 meeting that the Town had seen little activity at the site since faux windows were installed on the front of the school building and auditorium last May.

The backs of the buildings, however, have received much less TLC, and Gaddy said last week that might keep them from meeting code.

And yet, FOMZI board members did not appear dejected as they exited Town Hall Tuesday night.

“They encouraged us to save it,” FOMZI board member Don Laird said. “They want us to move forward.”

Vicki Dodds, FOMZI Chairwoman, said after the meeting that while the backs of the buildings had not had the same faux windows installed as on the fronts, it was not without reason. Rear windows were left open, she said, to allow the interiors to properly dry in, she said. Additional faux windows were planned, she said, in future stages.

Dodds also retained her optimism for the project after the hour-plus session with Council.

“They didn’t tell us to stop all work,” Dodds said. “The buildings still have to be inspected.”

Council took no action on the matter Tuesday night. Gaddy said after the meeting that the Town will inspect the buildings in the coming weeks, after which Council will meet with FOMZI again to determine the future of the old Mt. Zion Institute school.

The Town transferred the property, located at 205 N. Walnut St., to FOMZI in March 2014. According to the agreement, FOMZI purchased the property and its four buildings (the Mt. Zion School, the auditorium and gymnasium, the cafeteria and the Teacherage) for $5, but with the caveat that the buildings had to be stabilized within 18 months to meet Winnsboro’s Dangerous Building Code or be torn down.

FOMZI’s 30-month benchmark, which comes around one year from now, calls for the group to hire a contractor or developer for the historic rehabilitation of the buildings.

 

BLYTHEWOOD – A debate for candidates vying for Blythewood Town Council seats is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 20 from 6 – 8 p.m. at The Manor.

Six candidates are running for three Council seats, two of which are currently held by Eddie Baughman and Bob Mangone. Baughman is seeking a second term. Mangone is not seeking re-election. Both seats are for four-year terms.

A third seat with two years left on a four-year term was vacated by Bob Massa who resigned in June. Seeking four-year terms are Baughman, Bryan Franklin, Malcolm Gordge and Robert Rue Sr. Larry D. ‘Griff’ Griffin and Michelle Kiedrowski are seeking the vacant two-year term.

Mayor J. Michael Ross is running unopposed.

The debate is being sponsored by The Blythewood Chamber of Commerce and Blythewood High School. At press time the format had not been announced. The Manor is located at 100 Alvina Hagood Circle.