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WINNSBORO – In their final regular meeting of 2013, Fairfield County Council voted unanimously on Dec. 23 to pony up $50,000 to help bolster efforts by the Eau Claire Cooperative Health Center to bring a new facility to Western Fairfield County.

Interim administrator Milton Pope told Council that the facility had encountered overrun costs at the new site off Highway 215 in Jenkinsville and said that, according to Dr. Stuart Hamilton, the Cooperative’s Director, the $50,000 contribution “would be a major component in stabilizing outstanding construction overrun debt on the facility.”

Councilman Kamau Marcharia (District 4) moved that Council allocate $25,000 for the facility in February 2014 with the other half of the funds to be allocated in February 2015. Councilman Mikel Trapp (District 3) offered the second. Chairman David Ferguson (District 5) later told The Voice that the $50,000 was to cover the cost and preparation of the land on which the new facility would sit.

Council rezoned the property, located at 8991 Highway 215, from RD-1 (Rural Residential) to B-1 (Limited Business) at a special called meeting on Feb. 25, 2013. Hamilton’s group had purchased the 3.76 acres from the Trustees for the Praise and Deliverance Temple. The rezoning process and relocation of the clinic from an existing site on Meadowlake Road sparked some controversy and debate at the time as citizens from the Blair and Dawkins communities spoke against the move.

“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 during Council’s second reading of the rezoning ordinance, back on Feb. 18. “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, also of Dawkins, said during the same meeting that Jenkinsville was indeed too small to warrant such a facility.

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

Ferguson said last week that Eau Claire is funded by a $400,000 federal grant, which covers the cost of the facility. Equipping the facility will be funded by a second grant, Hamilton said on Feb. 18. The original plan, Ferguson said, when Eau Claire won the federal contract, was to put a new facility on the site of the previous clinic. However, he said, after Eau Claire took over they discovered the previous operation had left behind a trail of debt, including a $100,000 lien against the property itself. That left Eau Claire without a home in Western Fairfield.

With the grant money only targeted for an actual physical building, and not for property, Ferguson said Council knew last spring something would have to be done to help Eau Claire acquire and prep the new site.

“We knew up front, once the federal government said they weren’t going to pay for that same land twice,” Ferguson said.

Hamilton told Council back on Feb. 18 that Eau Claire Cooperative Health Center “is a federally qualified health center dealing with primary health care for all incomes. We have a sliding fee scale for people who can’t afford services, and no one is turned away because of inability to pay for services.”

“This is a completely amazing gift to the community in Western Fairfield County, to have no mortgage and no payments of any kind and will be run as a not-for-profit for all the residents in the service area,” Hamilton said during the Feb. 18 meeting. “I think it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. You may or may not agree, but it will help many people who now have some difficulty accessing the facility on Meadowlake.”

WINNSBORO – County Council voted unanimously during their Dec. 23 meeting to immediately advance to Fairfield Memorial Hospital their second quarterly contribution for 2014. The $245,000 contribution had already been appropriated in the 2013-2014 budget, Councilman Kamau Marcharia (District 4) noted as he and his six colleagues supported the motion by Carolyn Robinson (District 2) and the second by Vice Chairman Dwayne Perry (District 1).

Council Chairman David Ferguson (District 5) said the payment brings the County’s commitment to the hospital current until June. The County’s annual contribution of $980,000, Ferguson said, goes entirely to keep the hospital’s emergency room open and operating. The six months’ advance of payments, however, gave him some concern, he said.

“It does (concern me), but having been on that (hospital) Board for 10 years and keeping up with the Fairfield Memorial trends as I have, it’s certainly not a surprise,” Ferguson said. “Unless they join up with a larger hospital with larger finances – you just can’t do it. And you can’t get industry into your county if you don’t have a hospital.”

During the Dec. 23 meeting, interim Administrator Milton Pope told Council that the hospital was indeed in negotiations with a larger facility – Palmetto Richland – for a long-term partnership. Pope said that in order to establish such an agreement, Palmetto Richland would “require various data,” from Fairfield Memorial and acquiring that data would require the services of a consultant. There was no word during the Dec. 23 meeting on costs associated with such a potential consultant.

Councilman David Brown (District 7) said the new Eau Claire Cooperative Health Center, to be located at 8991 Highway 215 in Jenkinsville and for which Council had earlier in the evening appropriated $50,000 for land and site preparation, would go a long way toward alleviating some of the pressures felt by the Fairfield Memorial emergency room.

Council also voted 7-0 to approve the purchase of a 2014 Ford F-250 crew cab truck for the County’s Emergency Management Department. While the sticker price for the truck, Pope said, was $28,791, the entire cost was being funded by grant funds. Davis Anderson, Deputy Administrator, said the truck would be used to tow the County’s decontamination trailer in the event of an emergency at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station in Jenkinsville.

Council voted 7-0 to OK the temporary closure of a portion of Debutary Road near Lake Wateree. Pope said that since the washout of the Crooked Creek Bridge earlier this year, illegal dumping has increased along a portion of the road accessible by Wateree Road. Jack James, the County’s attorney, said the County approved a similar closure on Cook Road many years ago. The County will not be maintaining the road, James said, and the property owners on that stretch of the road would be responsible for putting up the barriers.

Finally, following executive session, Council voted to extend Pope’s interim Administrator agreement for an additional six months, Ferguson said. Pope was voted into his interim position during a special called meeting on July 17, with a contract period of up to 180 days. Ferguson said the extension maintains Pope’s original pay rate of $10,833.33 per month and includes “no fringes,” Ferguson said, such as a County car or health benefits.

BLYTHEWOOD – After considerable controversy during the last two years including a phantom ‘ad’ brought up at the Nov. 25 Town Council meeting regarding how applicants are recruited for the Town’s boards and commissions, the Town Hall has placed another ad in the classified section of the Dec. 19 issue of another media outlet to notify town residents of openings on both the Board of Architectural Review and the Board of Zoning Appeals. However, the new ad still does not specify a time frame for applications to be submitted or when the appointments will be voted on.

Placement of this ad follows a contentious meeting on Nov. 25 in which former Town Administrator John Perry and Mayor J. Michael Ross placed an item on Council’s agenda calling for the appointment of three residents – Jim McLean, Raymond Fantone and Joseph Richardson – to Town boards and commissions without giving a 30-day notice to the public that these seats were open for appointment as required by Town law. It was the fourth time during the Ross administration that Council has ignored the town law that stipulates how vacancies on the Town’s boards and commissions are to be advertised to the public and filled.

When newly elected councilmen Bob Massa, Bob Mangone and Tom Utroska objected to the unlawful appointment procedures at the Nov. 25 meeting, Perry argued for the appointments of the three individuals, saying the Town Hall advertises on an annual basis to get a build-up of potential appointees.

“We did that,” Perry said, “and we will do that again.”

Perry said the Town had run an ad in a newspaper last April or May (2013) calling for applicants for Town board and commission vacancies, even though there were no vacancies at the time. Perry said the three proposed appointees on the Nov. 25 agenda were the people who responded to that ad and had been patiently waiting to serve. Later in the meeting, however, Ross contradicted Perry, stating that no one had answered the ad which he said was published in April or May 2013.

A search of all issues of both The Voice and The Country Chronicle published during April and May of 2013 failed to turn up any such ad placed by the Town Hall announcing vacancies or calling for applicants for the Town boards and commissions. When asked by The Voice whether the ad had actually been published, a spokesperson for Town Hall said it was published in the classified section of the June 27 issue of The Country Chronicle, not in April or May. That ad turned out to be a ‘Message from the Mayor.’ There was no headline heralding the purpose of the ad, though in small font below, it called for applicants for “seats 3 and 4 of the Planning Commission, Board of Architectural Review and Board of Zoning Appeals … to expire on September 30, 2011.” However, there were no agenda items listed for Council meetings in September for appointments to boards and commissions and no appointments were made to the seats in September. The ad made no mention of a time frame for applying for the seats or that it was the annual call for appointees for the Town’s boards and commissions.

The Town’s statutes 155.465 (G) and 155.495 (E), state that, “If a vacancy occurs, the Town will advertise for candidates to fill the vacant seat in the manner in division (D) of this section. Town Council may make an appointment to a vacant seat at any Council meeting held not sooner than 30 days after the advertisement appears in the local newspaper.”

Massa noted at the Nov. 25 meeting that the Town’s statutes governing such appointments was predicated on an existing vacancy, of which, he said, there were none in April or May of 2013.

While the item was tabled at the Nov. 25 meeting, all members of Council have since decided to go along with something similar to the Mayor and Perry’s suggestion for an arbitrary call for applications for seats on the boards and commissions, and not give notice of vacancies. Council passed first reading on Dec. 16 to replace the current statue (that calls for a 30-day notice for applicants) with a new ordinance that would allow for the Town to advertise for applicants semi-annually, sometime in July and sometime in January, even though that would not necessarily be when vacancies would occur. The new ordinance, which does not specify any particular time during those two months for the ad to run, must pass a second reading to become law. That vote is expected to be held at the Jan. 6 special called meeting, although the agenda for that meeting will not be posted until Friday, Jan. 3.

Adding further to the confusion of the Town’s appointment law/policy, the Town’s attorney Jim Meggs said at the Dec. 16 meeting that he had failed to include the Planning Commission appointments in the new ordinance and would bring a new ordinance before Council dealing with how appointments would be handled for the Planning Commission at the next meeting.

A special called Town Council meeting is scheduled for Monday, Jan. 6, at Doko Manor at 7 p.m.

BLYTHEWOOD – During a special called meeting on Monday, Jan. 6, at 7 p.m. at the Doko Manor, Town Council is expected to name an interim administrator to fill the position of former Administrator John Perry who resigned effective Wednesday, Dec. 29. In an interview last month with The Voice, Mayor J. Michael Ross confirmed that the Town Attorney Jim Meggs is, indeed, a candidate for the position.

Meggs, who has a Master’s Degree in Public Administration, is reported to have expressed an interest in working in public administration for the Town. Meggs is a member of the Callison, Tighe and Robinson law firm in Columbia. He was hired by the Town in September 2010 during the administration of Mayor Keith Bailey. As the Town Attorney, Meggs receives a retainer of about $5,000 per month to attend to the Town’s government meetings and associated work. Perry earned approximately $115,000 per year as Town Administrator.

Ross said a seven- to eight-member search committee will be appointed at the Jan. 27 Council meeting to find a permanent replacement for Perry. Asked if Meggs might later be considered as a permanent replacement for Perry, Ross, who is said to work well with Meggs, said that would be up to the search committee as to whether Meggs is a candidate for that position. He said the permanent position might not be filled until about June.

No official reason has been given by the Town government as to why Perry left or was asked to leave the Town’s employment, and his separation agreement with the Town binds Perry not to make any comments whatsoever about his separation from the Town. Perry’s separation agreement was prepared by an attorney in Meggs’ law firm who specializes in labor and employment matters. That attorney was also present in the executive sessions in which Perry’s separation from the Town was finalized.

WINNSBORO – The Town of Winnsboro made public last week the official agreement between the Town and the Friends of Mt. Zion Institute (FOMZI), an agreement that places the long-debated property at Mt. Zion and the future of the buildings there squarely in the hands of the citizens’ group. The agreement puts some time constraints on FOMZI, with several benchmarks to be met to stave off the wrecking ball.

“We felt (the Town) was generous with their time frame,” Vicki Dodds, FOMZI Chairwoman, said. “We’re good with the agreement.”

According to the agreement, which was signed on Nov. 27, Town Council still has to pass an ordinance authorizing the sale of the property (for a sum of $5). Within 30 days of the transfer of the property, FOMZI’s first benchmark – insuring the property – comes due.

“We’re on top of that,” Dodds said. “It is expensive, but not as expensive as I had feared.”

FOMZI will have 18 months from the time of the transfer to stabilize the buildings on the property in order to meet the Town’s Dangerous Building Code (Section 151.01). Dodds said the task was “doable,” as the Code pertains mainly to safety and appearance. It will mean, however, choosing which of the four buildings on the property – the Mt. Zion School, the auditorium and gymnasium, the cafeteria and the Teacherage – to focus their effort on.

“We’re just focusing on the Mt. Zion School – the classroom building – and the auditorium and gymnasium,” Dodds said. “We will talk to others about the Teacherage down the road.”

The cafeteria, Dodds said, presents the biggest challenge because of the amount of asbestos inside.

“That’s where most of the asbestos (out of all the buildings) is,” she said. “It’s in the floor tiles, the ceiling tiles. It’s the disposal that’s costly. If we could clean it up and use it, that’s up in the air.”

FOMZI’s final benchmark is 30 months off from the date of purchase, when they must hire a contractor for historic rehabilitation or begin demolishing buildings.

“Just because we’ve got it does not mean it’s a done deal,” Dodds said. “There’s still a lot of work ahead, but we’ll keep chipping away at it over the 30-month period.”

WINNSBORO – When County Council enacted amendments to their bylaws last month, their failure to install any meaningful attendance policy sent ripples of anger through the audience at the Nov. 18 special called meeting and again cast the spotlight on the recent attendance record of Councilman Mikel Trapp (District 3). All summer, citizens have questioned Trapp’s attendance record during Council’s public comments segment of regular meetings, and on Nov. 18 as Council was poised to vote on the amended bylaws, one member of the public, Beth Jenkins, vehemently expressed her disapproval of the weak attendance policy. So enthusiastic was her expression, Jenkins was, in fact, asked to withdraw from chambers, but not before she suggested that Council could enact a pay-by-attendance policy.

After Jenkins had vacated Council chambers on Nov. 18, interim County Administrator Milton Pope addressed her suggestion, telling those who remained that such a policy was “not enforceable by law.” However, Scott Slaton, Legislative and Public Policy Advocate with the S.C. Municipal Association, later told The Voice that Council could, in fact, enact a ‘paid for attendance’ ordinance if they so wished.

“There’s nothing in state law that prohibits a city council from using a pay for attendance system,” Slaton said.

At least two S.C. towns – Heath Springs (in Lancaster County) and Furman (in Hampton County) – have done just that. While The Voice has been unable to reach the Town of Furman for details of how their policy was enacted and whether or not it has been challenged, a spokesperson with Heath Springs said their policy has been in place for nearly a year, has been well received by the public and has met with no legal challenges. Heath Springs Council members were, prior to the revised policy, paid an annual sum of $1,300, whether they attended meetings or not. Under the current policy, that $1,300 was divided by their 12 yearly meetings and Council members are paid $108.33 per meeting only if they attend.

While Fairfield County Council’s new bylaws only encourage attendance and ask that members unable to attend a meeting notify the clerk to council in advance, the criticism of Trapp’s attendance only continues.

At press time, County Council had convened for 48 total meetings, including regular meetings, work sessions, special called meetings and budget sessions. Of those, Trapp has missed a total of 24 meetings. He has missed nine regular meetings, eight special meetings, four work sessions and all three of Council’s budget sessions. Ten of Trapp’s absences came between Jan. 14 and July 24. The rest have accumulated since Aug. 14, when Trapp said he began taking an evening course as part of his business classes at Columbia College. On Dec. 13, that class ended, Trapp said this week, and he expects to be back on a regular schedule with Monday night’s meeting. In 2012, Trapp missed only 12 of Council’s 35 meetings.

A 49th meeting was scheduled for Monday night, after The Voice went to press. Trapp said he would be attending that meeting.

Trapp also said criticism of his attendance is coming largely from outside his district and that he has received “overwhelming support” from those living within District 3.

“The People who are complaining are not from District 3,” Trapp said, “except for one person, so I don’t pay any attention to it. I am employed by District 3 residents, so what District 2 or District 4 residents say about me doesn’t matter.”

Winnsboro Town Council, meanwhile, has often met in 2013 without its full complement of members. Council has held 24 regular meetings this year, as well as 11 finance meetings and three work sessions, for a total of 38 meetings. Of those, Councilman Danny Miller (District 1) has missed 24. Miller, who has served on Council for 18 years and has two years left on his current term, said that over his entire tenure his attendance has been quite good. In recent years, however, his job as Director of Transportation for the Fairfield County School District has impeded his ability to attend every meeting, he said.

“If you look at all 18 years, you’ll see I probably have about a 90 percent attendance rate,” Miller said. “One year I had perfect attendance. My first priority is my primary job, getting kids to school safely and getting them home safely. I have an obligation to the District that requires me to work late at night sometimes. I’m not just playing hooky.”

Miller said that when he does miss meetings, he is still kept in the loop on Town business by Town Manager Don Wood. And, Miller said, Winnsboro is in good hands.

“We have a good mayor and a good council,” Miller said. “I know if we have a problem and if I’m not there, I’m confident business is being run properly.”