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  • Fairfield Electric board candidates want reform

    Board’s Per Diem is $500/Meeting; With Free Health, Dental, & Life Insurance & More

    WINNSBORO – After extending a nearly $1.8 million golden parachute to its former CEO, the Fairfield Electric Cooperative applied for and received coronavirus relief for a similar amount through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), according to federal records.

    While the cooperative says it sought the PPP loan to offset anticipated non-payments from customers due to the COVID-19 pandemic, posh pensions and cozy compensation packages have become core issues for two candidates seeking election to the co-op’s board.

    “I’m running because of what I see as extravagant spending for the (former) CEO,” said Derial Ogburn, who’s challenging long-time board member Peggy Jeffcoat in one of the two contested races for the board.

    Fairfield County’s Peggy Swearingen is challenging Trustee Allen Beer. Swearingen, too, says she wants to see the co-op board accountable to its members.

    The races are for two of four seats members will decide at five different voting venues on five different dates from Aug. 24 – Aug. 28. (See dates and locations below) Kenny Miles and Robert Entzminger are running unopposed. Election results will be announced during the co-op’s annual meeting on Aug. 28. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the meeting will be livestreamed online starting at 6 p.m. at http://fairfield.coop.

    PPP loan

    It was nearly two years ago when the cooperative board voted to pay $1,798,889.90 in pension funds to William Hart, the co-op’s former CEO, meeting minutes show.

    According to federal tax records, Hart was making over $500,000 a year when he retired June 30, 2018, in the wake of a general public outcry and media reports calling attention to high pay for executives and board members at electric co-ops statewide

    Hart’s retirement package was the result of a complex series of deferred compensation plans that had accumulated for the past seven years.

    While the lump sum payment closely matches the $1.6 million the co-op recently requested through the PPP program, the transactions are completely unrelated, said Mitch Rabon, chairman of the Fairfield co-op board.

    “Those two transactions are not related at all,” Rabon said.

    The PPP program was one of many initiatives of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, a $2 trillion coronavirus aid bill aimed at helping taxpayers and businesses weather the coronavirus pandemic when an economic downturn triggered mass layoffs nationwide.

    President Donald J. Trump signed the CARES Act into law on March 27. Nearly a month later, at its April 20 meeting, the Fairfield co-op board adopted a resolution authorizing the co-op to seek up to $1,609,800 in PPP loans, according to meeting minutes.

    The U.S. Department of Treasury approved that request a week later, stating in federal records that the co-op retained 71 jobs.

    Rabon said while the PPP program and Hart’s pension are unrelated, he is dismayed by Hart’s retirement payout, saying the money would’ve been better spent issuing refunds to customers.

    “The thing that’s somewhat unnerving about the $1.8 million deferred compensation plan is that it exceeded the entire membership’s excess revenues over expenses,” Rabon said. “We only refunded about $1 million to approximately 30,000 consumers. That is a valid comparison.”

    Rabon said the board applied for the PPP loan because there was uncertainty over the potential impact of nonpayment of delinquent accounts.

    Though the economy has seen some improvement, nonpayment remains a concern since that impacts the cooperative’s revenue stream.

    “We were concerned at the time of that loan that co-ops would be under stress from people not being able to pay their electric bills,” Rabon said. “This was designed to make sure any financial repercussions would’ve been minimal.”

    Co-op fined for excessive pay

    In 2017, Hart’s final full year with the co-op, he received $520,353 in total compensation, up from $511,393 in 2016, according to the agency’s federal tax return.

    The co-op’s 2018 tax return pegged Hart’s total compensation at $2,123,633.

    The former CEO’s compensation has already caused fiscal repercussions. Ogburn and Rabon said the IRS recently fined the co-op $200,000 for excessive compensation.

    The IRS requires nonprofits to pay its executives “reasonable compensation,” which IRS documents define as “the value that would ordinarily be paid for like services by like enterprises under like circumstances.”

    While Hart’s pay follows a similar trend among other CEOs who lead South Carolina cooperatives, at least two South Carolina co-ops of comparable size—Black River Electric in Sumpter County and Pee Dee Electric in Darlington—pay their executives more than $100,000 less than Fairfield’s former CEO.

    Charles Allen, CEO of Black River, earned $319,669 in 2018. Yet, that year, the Sumter co-op reported annual revenues of $82,587,386, which is about $2.1 million more than Fairfield’s revenues of $80,466,579 in the same period.

    Pee Dee Electric reported even greater revenues at $86,663,514 and paid its CEO $411,721.

    Ogburn fears the cumulative effect of excessive pay and the failed V.C. Summer project could mean rate increases for co-op customers.

    “The whole thing is just rotten,” Ogburn said. “It’s just out of control. It’s totally out of control.”

    Double Duty

    Also in 2016, in addition to Fairfield co-op pay, Hart received $21,979 for serving on the Central Electric Cooperative board. Since 2010, he’s received $79,491 in additional compensation serving on the board of the Columbia based co-op.

    Bruce Bacon, Hart’s successor as CEO, serves on additional co-op boards as well.

    In July 2018, when the board appointed Bacon as the interim CEO, it also appointed him to serve on the boards of Central Electric, the Electric Cooperative of South Carolina and the Cooperative Electric Energy Utility Supply/Line Equipment Sales Company.

    Other South Carolina co-ops routinely appoint their CEOs to serve on other co-op boards where they receive additional compensation.

    Co-op trustees are typically compensated by receiving a per diem to attend meetings.

    The Fairfield co-op’s per diem is $500 per meeting – usually held at Fairfield Electric’s Blythewood office – and they receive free health, dental and life insurance.

    Recent reforms

    Changes in state law have brought some reform to how cooperatives like Fairfield co-op are governed.

    Rep. Russell Ott, D-Calhoun was the lead sponsor of a bill that became law in June 2019. Act 56 includes a number of new provisions pertaining to cooperatives, namely requiring the disclosure of board member compensation, posting meeting minutes online and other governance-related measures.

    Act 56 also places cooperatives under the oversight of the state’s Office of Regulatory Staff, or ORS, which can launch investigations, conduct audits and mediate disputes.

    Rabon, the cooperative’s chairman, said these changes have helped improve transparency and fiscal accountability.

    “That’s a huge change for co-ops all across South Carolina,” he said. ““Electric cooperatives all across the state have had problems, mostly related to governance issues, compensation to executive directors and also compensation to key employees.”

    Rabon said the cooperative has instituted additional measures to increase the public’s trust in the nonprofit.

    Rabon was among the trustees voting in the minority against Hart’s retirement package. In April 2018, the board voted 7-4 to approve the $1.8 million payout, according to meeting minutes.

    In July 2018, the board approved a new transparency policy that mandated posting on the co-op’s website copies of federal tax records for the past three years, time, place and date of monthly meetings, and meeting minutes within 30 days of the board adopting them.

    The policy also required publishing salaries of the CEO and individual board members.

    Lastly, the policy calls for crediting additional compensation the CEO receives for serving on other co-op boards against his or her compensation, “and considered in establishing the compensation for the CEO unless otherwise authorized by the Board of Trustees.”

    A year later, in September 2019, the board also raised the vested retirement age from 60 to 65 and eliminated a 50 percent cost of living benefit through the co-op’s national retirement plan. The latter provision took effect Jan. 1, 2020, minutes state.

    Also, in January 2020, the board adopted a conflict of interest policy for board trustees. Among other things, it established a nepotism policy to prevent board members from securing jobs for family or appointing family to committees of the cooperative.

    “We’re all about disclosure and transparency,” Rabon said. “It’s made the board of directors far more accountable. It also makes the CEO far more accountable to the membership.”

    For more information on the Fairfield Co-op’s Board of Directors, click here.

  • PC begins process to rezone Red Gate

    BLYTHEWOOD – The Blythewood Planning Commission has begun the process to rezone a 143-acre undeveloped site across the interstate from downtown after developers failed to initiate construction of a planned mixed-use development.

    The large wooded site, which is known as Red Gate Farms, sits on Blythewood Road between Syrup Mill and Muller Roads. It lies across Syrup Mill Road from Cobblestone; across Muller Road from Muller Road Middle School and across Blythewood Road from Fairfield Electric Cooperative.

    The property is currently zoned PD (Planned Development), the town’s site-specific zoning designation for planned or mixed-use development.

    It was given that classification years ago, explained Town Administrator Brian Cook, after a developer presented a plan for a mixed-use development that was to include 233 single-family homes, 300 apartments, and 36 acres of commercial development.

    The zoning for this property has been on the books since the town annexed it in the mid-2000s, Cook said, but the project – and other, subsequent proposed variations – never occurred. According to county records, the bulk of the land is now owned by Arthur State Bank.

    In its Monday night meeting, the Blythewood Planning Commission discussed rezoning the property based on a provision in the town’s zoning ordinance that mandates rezoning when a project with the PD classification fails to progress within two years.

    After some discussion, the commission voted unanimously to direct town staff to craft a proposal to rezone the property to D-1, a development district designed for large tracts of land on the fringe of the town’s developed core.

    “It puts the power back in our hands, especially since we don’t know what the uses are going to be for this particular parcel of land,” said Planning Commission Member Dereck Pugh, speaking in favor of classifying the property as D-1. “It will give us the opportunity to review it again once the [future] developer puts in the application.”

    Cook said the commission discussed the issue of this property in 2018 and again in early 2019, when a new proposal for a zoning amendment and lower-density development was made but never moved forward.

    “The applicant withdrew the application before town council could take a vote on the proposed project,” Cook said, “and it stands today with nothing happening on the property from a permitting or development standpoint.”

    The D-1 zoning classification, Cook said, is a kind of holding pattern for land that’s likely to be developed in the future, allowing for uses like single-family residential, parks and recreation, and religious or government buildings, but requiring zoning approval for more intense types of development.

    “The district is intended to provide for large tracts of land located primarily on the fringe of urban growth where the predominant character of urban development has not yet been fully established, but where the current characteristics of use are predominately residential or agricultural with scattered related uses,” according to the town’s zoning ordinance.

    “It is further recognized that future demand for development will generate requests for amendments in zoning designations to remove land from the D-1 classification and place it into other more intensely developed classifications as a natural consequence of urban expansion,” the ordinance states.

    Planning Commission Chairman Rich McKenrick said intentions are to hold next month’s meeting in person with social distancing measures in place with the option to participate via Zoom for commissioners and members of the public who are uncomfortable attending in person, with social distancing measures in place with the option to participate via Zoom for commissioners and members of the public who are uncomfortable attending in person. The current property owners will be informed of the meeting and invited to speak.

    Cook said the town is currently undergoing a technology upgrade that should make it possible to facilitate this plan from a technical standpoint.

    “We should’ve done something about this long ago,” said McKenrick of the need to address the zoning at Red Gate, referring to the property as a “golden nugget” on the edge of town. “The PD has sat out there for way too long and is probably more dense than we would even want to approve at this point.”

    Cook said there is no rush to complete the rezoning, and the town will follow the process required.

    “I think that D-1 probably brings it back to the intent of the master plan and comprehensive plan,” said commissioner Malcolm Gordge.

    “Let’s hear what the immediate property owners have to say about that,” Gordge said, “as well as the residents of the town.”

  • COVID-19 numbers by zip code

    SCDHEC’s latest update for coronavirus case numbers in the following Blythewood and Fairfield County zip codes.

    BLYTHEWOOD – 304 reported cases

    FAIRFIELD COUNTY – 533 reported cases, 23 deaths

    Fairfield ranks sixth highest county in the state for COVID-19 cases at 2,385.11 per 100,000 residents

    Because DHEC does not report specific case numbers for several of the ZIP codes in Fairfield County any more, we are not able to give an accurate breakdown of cases by ZIP code, only totals for the county.

    Latest update: Monday, August 3 at 5:32 p.m.

  • Sheriff seeks suspects in Blair murder

    BLAIR – The Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a murder that occurred in the Blair area of Fairfield County during the early morning hours of Sunday, Aug. 2.

    Andrew Trapp, 34, has been identified as the murder victim in a shooting incident. Two other unidentified persons were injured.

    Deputies responded to a shooting incident on Cole Trestle Road where there had been a large gathering of several hundred people. Upon arrival, deputies found three gunshot victims. Fairfield County EMS transported all three victims to the hospital where Trapp was pronounced dead.

    Investigators are currently following up on investigative leads to identify the shooter(s) involved in the incident.

    “This was a senseless act and we grieve with Mr. Trapp’s family at this time,” Sheriff Will Montgomery said in a statement released Monday. “We are asking for anyone who may have witnessed this incident to contact the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office or Crimestoppers. We have been told that there were several hundred people at this gathering and know that someone must have seen something or have some information regarding the identity of the individual, or individuals, responsible for these crimes,” Montgomery stated.

    Anyone who may have information about this incident is asked to contact the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office (803-635-4141) or Crime Stoppers at 1-888-CRIMESC (888-274-6372) or visit www.midlandscrimestoppers.com to email a tip. Your identity will be kept anonymous and, if your tip leads to an arrest, you could be eligible for a cash reward of up to $1,000.00.

  • AG charges Fairfield man with sexual exploitation of minor

    COLUMBIA – A Winnsboro man has been arrested for several sex crimes.

    South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Mark Gregory Koch, 55, of Winnsboro, on three charges connected to the sexual exploitation of minors. Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Attorney General’s Office made the arrest. Investigators with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office, both also members of the state’s ICAC Task Force, assisted with the investigation and arrest.

    Investigators received a Cyber Tipline report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) which led them to Koch. Investigators state Koch possessed multiple files of child sexual abuse material. 

    Koch was arrested on July 16, 2020. He is charged with three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, third degree (§16-15-410), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment on each count.

    This case will be prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office.

  • Shootout at Cuz’s Corner

    (An earlier report in The Voice erroneously named Alexander Rhoring as a suspect who was arrested and charged with Assault and Battery with Intent to Kill. That information is not correct and The Voice regrets that error.)

    WINNSBORO – Winnsboro Public Safety officers were called to Cuz’s Corner service station on S. Congress Street on Tuesday, July 28 about 7 p.m. to investigate shots fired.

    At this time, according to WDPS Chief John Seibles, no arrests have been made.

    A witness told officers that two cars – a black one and a white one – drove past the station, shooting at each other.

    A review of the store’s video showed two vehicles traveling on Calhoun Street from Vanderhorst Street. The first vehicle, which was a dark color, pulled into the parking lot near the trash dumpsters. The second (light colored) vehicle continued on Calhoun Street to Congress. As the vehicles passed each other, gunshots were exchanged, according to the report.

    After officers found no victim at the station, central dispatch advised them that EMS had been dispatched to an address on Westgate Drive in reference to a gun hot victim.

    According to officers, that victim was located at a Columbia Hospital where he told medical personnel that he suffered from an accidental self-inflicted gunshot.

    After officers met the gunshot victim at the home on Westgate Drive, he led them to a black handgun with an extended magazine under a doghouse in the back yard, according to authorities. He was then taken to the Winnsboro Police Department for questioning.

    The investigation is on going.

    This story was updated on July 31, 2020 at 1:11 p.m.

  • Charges expunged for accused pig abuser

    WINNSBORO – Another high-profile animal cruelty case in Fairfield County has resulted in either a reduced sentence or outright dismissal. The public will never know which, since it was shut out of the judicial process of the case entirely.

    Randy Newman, solicitor for the sixth judicial circuit case, declined to comment.

    “This matter is no longer of public record,” Newman said via email, “and we are unable to comment further on this case.

    In March 2017, the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office charged Lirhonda Butler, 42, with ‘Ill Treatment of Animals’ in the starvation death of a pig in her care.

    According to the initial incident report, the veterinarian called to the scene stated the pig’s extremely poor condition was the result of neglect and cruelty.

    Instead of being charged under the felony section of the ‘Ill Treatment’ statute, however, Butler was charged under the misdemeanor section.

    Records No Longer Available

    The Voice learned about the case more than two months after Butler’s arrest. The newspaper initially hit several road blocks as it sought access to the incident report and Butler’s mug shot through normal county channels. That information was eventually released in June, 2017, in response to a Freedom of Information request by The Voice. However, the records made public at that time, no longer appear in law enforcement and court records. The Voice learned last month that the online court records no longer state whether or not Butler’s case is still active.

    Butler

    The case was last known to be active as of Sept. 12, 2019. At the time, Newman told The Voice he expected the case to reach a resolution by the end of 2019, almost three years after Butler was charged.

    Case is Expunged

    Official sources not authorized to talk about the case, confirmed to The Voice earlier this month that Butler’s case was expunged in December, 2019.

    Records may be removed from public view by an order of expungement issued by a judge.

    Only certain cases qualify for expungement, such as misdemeanors, youthful offenders and other minor cases. Defendants seeking expungement must apply to the solicitor’s office.

    Applicants must pay a $250 administrative fee to the Solicitor’s office, $25 to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (“SLED”), and a $35 filing fee to the Clerk of Court, according to the S.C. Judicial Department.

    Butler hired a high profile Columbia defense attorney to represent her, and It doesn’t appear the case ever came before a judge.

    If convicted for a first offense under the misdemeanor section of the ‘Ill Treatment of Animals’ statute, section 47-1-40 (A), Butler faced imprisonment not exceeding 90 days or a fine of not less than $100 nor more than $1,000, or both. If she had been charged with a felony and convicted under section (B) of the statute, she would have faced punishment by imprisonment of not less than 180 days and not to exceed 5 years and a fine of $5,000.

    “Deplorable Conditions”

    On March 24, 2017 a Fairfield County sheriff’s deputy, acting on a telephone tip, found a pig underweight and essentially motionless in the mud floor of a storeroom on a sprawling property on Richtex Road in Fairfield County.

    The only access to the storeroom was a window. The door to the storeroom was boarded over and secured with screws from the inside of the room, according to the incident report. Looking through the window, the deputy reported the condition of the pig as laying in deep mud and feces with no food or potable water in the room.

    “The pig was laying in the far right corner [of the room] and could not get up,” the report said. “A metal drum cut in half contained rusty water with algae present – “very polluted,” the deputy’s report stated.

    “The pig was not moving, but making noises,” said Fairfield County Animal Control Director Bob Innes who was called to the scene by the deputy. “He [the pig] looked to be suffering and dying, Innes stated on the report.”

    When Butler arrived a few moments later, she reportedly told officers on the scene that she had owned the pig since he was nine weeks old. She said the pig had been in that condition for two days, the deputy reported.

    Innes asked if she had called a veterinarian.

    “What for?” Butler asked, according to the report.

    Innes and a second deputy who had also arrived at the storeroom explained to Butler that the pig needed to be taken away to receive treatment. The report said the woman initially refused to let anyone enter the storeroom until she spoke to an attorney, but allowed officers to enter a few minutes later.

    Since the doorway to the area where the pig was located was boarded up, deputies entered by crawling through a window. Once inside, they described the pig’s condition as “deplorable,” the report said.

    “There were pieces of boards with protruding nails lay[ing] in the mud,” the report stated.

    An old paint bucket, pieces of cement blocks and a metal pipe lay in the mud as well, according to the report.

    A veterinarian who arrived at the scene to evaluate the animal said it appeared to be a case of ‘pure neglect’ and that it would cost at least $3,000 to treat the pig.

    At that point, Butler decided to allow the pig to be euthanized.

    Her grandfather reportedly shot the pig twice but did not kill it. The veterinarian then euthanized the pig with a single shot to the head.

    In a subsequent written report, the veterinarian wrote that the body score of the severely malnourished pig was a ‘1’ on a scale of 1-5.

    “This indicates severe starvation,” the veterinarian wrote. “The hog was unable to rise, had severe white dysentery, subnormal body temperature and dehydration. This indicates prolonged starvation [from] at least three to four weeks to two months,”

    The one-year-old pig weighed approximately 120 pounds and should have weighed about 300 pounds, the veterinarian wrote.

    Asked why the charge was a misdemeanor and not a felony, Fairfield County Sheriff Will Montgomery said he consulted with Newman about the charge and that Newman made the decision that it was a misdemeanor.

    Montgomery has lingering questions about the charge.

    “I was going to go back and look at it again,” he said, pausing. “But now it’s too late,” he told The Voice.

    Expert Opinion

    Joe Berry, a former Richland County prosecutor, said he tried at least 39 animal abuse cases while he served as a solicitor and obtained convictions in 17 of them.

    Berry declined to comment on the Butler case, noting that he’s not involved in that case or other Fairfield County cases.

    He did say that, typically, animal abuse cases resulting in death—either directly or through euthanasia—meet the threshold of the felony offense section of the ‘Ill Treatment of Animals’ statute.

    “As a general rule, if the animal dies, then it’s going to be a felony,” Berry said. ”The statute says it’s a felony if you “torture, kill, or maim’ and when it ‘causes excessive pain and suffering.’ If it’s a misdemeanor, it just says ‘causes pain and suffering.’ When the animal dies, that’s excessive pain in my book,” he said.

    Butler did not have any prior criminal convictions, but in July 2017 a judgment for $20,437.41 was entered against her in civil court, according to the Fairfield County Public Index.

    Light sentences for animal abusers

    If past Fairfield County animal abuse cases prosecuted by Newman are a predictor, chances are good that animal abuse-related offenders will be allowed to plea for reduced punishment and receive probation. Even felony animal abuse charges are typically plea-bargained to misdemeanors. Many times, charges are dropped altogether by Newman, according to court documents.

    Expungement of the Butler case is the latest in a series of severe animal abuse cases in Fairfield County resulting in light sentences or no sentence at all.

    In 2018, an investigation by The Voice found that at least 15 animal abuse cases that came to Newman for prosecution between 2015-2018 resulted in lighter sentences or were dismissed outright. Many of those cases resulted in the animal’s death. Generally, the investigation showed, perpetrators of animal abuse in Fairfield County don’t go to jail. Or, as in Butler’s case, are expunged.

    Jay Bender, an attorney with the S.C. Press Association, of which The Voice is a member, said expungement typically occurs in one of two circumstances. The first happens when the prosecuting attorney [solicitor] chooses not to prosecute; the other occurs if the defendant successfully completes a pre-trial intervention or diversion program.

    “In those circumstances the record can be expunged,” Bender said. “But that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.”

    Barbara Ball contributed to this story.

  • Council rejects commercial rezoning request on Wilson Blvd.

    BLYTHEWOOD – The applicant for a rezoning request to change a Rural (R) zoned parcel on Wilson Boulevard to commercial zoning was denied Monday night for a second time in as many months by town council.

    Terika Taylor, who owns the parcel located at 10715 Wilson Boulevard, was not present for the proceedings that took on a heated tone as council continued to be divided on the issue.

    “This parcel sits between two parcels that were rezoned commercial in the past,” Mayor Bryan Franklin explained. “The property owner is asking to be accommodated in like regard to the two near parcels. However, there is somewhat of an outcry about commercializing that area near Rimer Pond Road. That’s what we have before us tonight,”

    Both the Town’s planning staff and the planning commission, recommended against the rezoning based on the town’s future land use map and in an effort to discourage urban sprawl down the corridors that enter the Town of Blythewood, according to Town Administrator Brian Cook.

    “There’s too much potential that the same commercial zoning would piggyback down the road,” Cook said when the request initially came before the planning commission last month.

    Taylor’s initial request for Multi-Office Commercial (MO) zoning was recommended by the planning commission in June, then denied by the Town Council and sent back to the planning commission with the suggestion from a council member that a less intensive commercial zoning might be considered. At its July meeting, however the planning commission subsequently denied a new request for the less intensive Neighborhood Commercial (NO) zoning. The NO zoning request ended up before council for the second tine Monday night.

    Councilman Donald Brock, who sided with the opinions of Cook and the planning commission, said he reached out to the neighbors who live behind the property and had received both letters and phone calls from neighbors in the vicinity of the property urging him to vote against the rezoning.

    “I know that when a parcel on the corner of Rimer Pond across from the Middle School requested commercial zoning from Richland County, the residents came out in droves to oppose it,” Brock said. “So I think before we go and rezone another piece of property commercial that we really need to think about what it is our constituents want.”

    Councilman Larry Griffin, who favored the rezoning, said he had trouble understanding how the planning commission changed its vote to oppose the rezoning when it initially voted to approve a less restrictive zoning.

    Planning commission chairman Rich McKenrick explained that by the commission’s second vote, the public had spoken out against the rezoning which possibly influenced the commission’s decision.

    “If I saw the Town of Blythewood council rezone a parcel to commercial [along Wilson Boulevard], I’d think I had some pretty good ammo to go to Richland County and get other parcels rezoned commercial that are outside the town but close to it,” Brock said, referring to Rimer Pond Road.

    “It establishes a precedent that if the town council feels comfortable establishing commercial zones outside the town center then maybe individuals can go before Richland County. It’s the same thing,” Brock said.

    “If council members feel that Richland County can come in and rezone, this should be ammo for those folks in that area to be annexed in,” Sloan Griffin said. “Those folks should be willing to come into town right now.”

    “Right, assuming we say no to the rezoning, then they would be supportive because we would be putting our foot down, saying there would be no commercialization of that area.”

    Brock made a motion to deny the rezoning request. Baughman seconded it.

    The vote was 3-2 against the rezoning with Brock, Baughman and Franklin voting against and the two Councilmen Griffin voting against.

  • BAR approves COA for The Park complex

    The Park senior apartment complex proposed to be located next to the IGA received final approval Monday evening from the Board of Architectural Review for a Certificate of Appropriateness.

    BLYTHEWOOD – The Board of Architectural Review spent much of Monday evening’s meeting negotiating with a representative of the Prestwick Company on lighting, landscaping, fencing, business connectivity and more associated with the apartment complex proposed next to the IGA.

    After much discussion and several adjustments to the planned facility, the board voted 4-0 to approve a Certificate of Appropriateness for The Park apartment complex.

    It was the BAR’s second meeting with Prestwick representatives who initially proposed a long three-story building that BAR members felt looked plain and institutional.

    While the board approved the color scheme and materials of the building, they were concerned about its placement and design. They also asked for a fence and berm along the northern boundary behind both Zaxby’s and the proposed Starbucks coffee shop that face Blythewood Road. And they asked that paths be provided for the apartment tenants to be able to walk to the IGA stores and perhaps to the Blythewood Road businesses.

    Prestwick came back Monday evening with an L-shaped building and a 20-foot landscape buffer along the northern boundary instead of the 10-foot required buffer.

    “We bought an additional 10 feet of land from the landowners that will allow us to keep a 20-foot buffer of natural trees that you see from Blythewood Road,” Devin Blankenship, senior development manager for Prestwick, told the board.

    Blankenship suggested that with the 20-foot buffer, a fence and berm would no longer be needed. And he said he could not create a path to promote connective foot traffic to an area not designed for traffic.

    “If I create a path onto an existing road [the IGA parking lot] without a sidewalk connection, I’m encouraging our tenants to use that path onto a traffic area we don’t have access to,” Blankenship said. “It’s all legal jargon, but it’s a liability for us unless we have a proper access easement and crosswalk on to an existing sidewalk.”

    “That was part of the reason for the fence as well,” the board’s architectural advisor Ralph Walden added. “It would discourage people from walking through those sites.”

    Blankenship argued that the 20-foot buffer would act as a deterrent to walking through.

    “People will create a path,” McLean said. “It would be an advantage to the apartment complex and to the businesses as well [to have a path]. It’s an issue that at some point in time is going to have to be addressed.” McLean went on to point out, “If you’re not going to have access, then you need to stop access. That’s where the fence comes in, maybe a coated chain link fence that’s a nice neutral color that you won’t see in that wooded buffer.”

    “I think that’s how you solve that issue,” board member Alan George said.

    McLean suggested a coated four-foot chain link fence, but he said he would also like to see the town do something to encourage connectivity.

    Addressing the lighting on the property, the board’s architectural advisor, Ralph Walden, suggested the developer pull the lighting back from the edge of the property into the interior parking area.

    McLean made a motion to approve the site plan as presented in the new and final L-shaped rendering with a 20-foot buffer.

    “I’m also going to include a four-foot chain link fence along the northern border and require the lighting be brought back to the center of the parking lot,” McLean said. “I would also like to see the town do something to encourage connectivity with this, and I guess it can’t be part of the motion, but I think that burden lies with the town to some degree to give connectivity for these folks [tenants] to the businesses and the town, specifically, the IGA and back to Blythewood Road.”

    The board voted unanimously for the motion.

  • County proceeds with referendum

    WINNSBORO – With minimal discussion, the Fairfield County Council moved forward at this month’s meeting with plans to put a wastewater treatment plant referendum on November’s ballot.

    If given final approval next month, the ballot question will ask voters to authorize a one percent sales tax in the county, and the county would issue bonds, if needed, which would be paid back with revenue generated by the tax. The money would be earmarked for capital projects, specifically the wastewater treatment plant and other needed wastewater infrastructure.

    “Once you get to a certain point as far as capacity with sewer, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) does step in. They put you in a moratorium situation, which means basically you can issue no more building permits; you can’t issue anymore connections to the sewer plant,” explained County Administrator Jason Taylor.

    “You do get in a position where you can’t accept any additional growth, and DHEC will shut you down,” he said.

    “The county is not in that position yet, but it only has 32,000 gallons of available wastewater capacity remaining for industrial development,” Taylor said. “Due to small sized lines, that is all that is available for the commerce park or mega site, which is not nearly enough. One company could take all of that.”

    While Winnsboro does have roughly 100,000 gpd of capacity available in town, adding more capacity for the county has come to the forefront as a priority.

    The anticipated revenue from the tax, which will expire after eight years, is $11.5 million – a bit more than the $9.35 million that would be authorized for a bond issue.

    The meeting, which was held in person but with several participants calling in by phone or video, began with a public hearing, in which the one comment that had been received was read by Clerk to Council Patti Davis. The comment, from District 1 resident Randy Bright, was in favor of the proposal.

    “Building water and wastewater infrastructure in rural and urban communities creates jobs, stimulates the private sector, and increases a community’s tax base,” Bright wrote, citing a Duke University study. “For each dollar spent building water or wastewater infrastructure, about $15 is created in private investment and $14 added to the local property tax base.”

    Most of the county council’s discussion was centered around questions clarifying the details of the proposal, including some hypothetical what-if scenarios and the reasoning behind why the proposal is structured the way it is.

    Attorney C.D. Rhodes, who is assisting Fairfield county with the referendum, said in response to council members’ questions that if something were to change, enabling the project to be funded by other means, the revenue from the one percent sales tax would still be earmarked for capital projects.

    Council would then have to initiate another referendum for voters to approve its use for specific projects. To designate projects without a referendum would require waiting until the end of the tax’s eight-year term.

    Rhodes also explained the likely need for a bond issue: Unlike counties that use a tax of this type to fund a list of projects, which can be done on a pay-as-you-go basis, Fairfield County doesn’t have the luxury of waiting eight years to build the wastewater treatment plant; the urgency of the project means that ideally it should be built in two or three years.

    “You would have, at the very least, a year’s worth of tax collections to prove to yourself and the public and everyone else – and banks, honestly – to prove that those collections were going to come in as expected,” Rhodes said of the situation prior to any bond issue.

    “If we get a year into this thing, and for instance the Covid situation hasn’t improved, then it may make lots of sense for you to wait until you’re two years out and you have two years of tax collections and you increase your level of certainty,” he said.

    “The good news is that, as you wait, those taxes keep coming in and they keep getting deposited into your bank, and so the amount of the bonds that you have to borrow keeps going down and down and down, and you have cash on hand that you can use for the plant whenever the time is right to build it.”

    While a couple of the council members expressed distaste for the idea of borrowing money, the majority supported the project as a whole, and the council voted 5-2 to approve offering the referendum, which would allow the voters to decide.

    Chairman Neil Robinson, Vice Chair Bertha Goins, and council Members Clarence Gilbert, Jimmy Ray Douglas, and Doug Pauley voted in favor.  Council Members Moses Bell and Mikel Trapp were opposed.

    Vice Chairman Bertha Goins said it’s important to get information about the project and the referendum out to the voters, and she urged her fellow council members to share information in their districts.

    “We need to… get an understanding to the citizens of the value of this one percent sales tax and what they’re going to reap long-term,” Goins said.

    “If we do this and we do it right and we’re successful with it, by the grace of God, once the wastewater treatment plant is in place, the lines are in place, [and] we begin to get an influx of businesses and people, we won’t have to worry about bonds, we won’t have to worry about levying taxes or any of that, we’ll just be growing what we’ve already invested in.”