Tag: Fairfield County Council

WINNSBORO—Fairfield County’s plans to replace a wood chipper with an incinerator is leaving some area residents feeling burned.

On Monday night, the Fairfield County Council voted unanimously to postpone final reading of an ordinance to rezone 11 acres of county-owned property off Old Airport Road that would allow for the installation of an incinerator.

County Administrator Jason Taylor said the incinerator option comes with less cost than the current wood chipping facility.

“Some time back we had examined what we were doing out at the chipper site and determined it would be more cost effective to put an incinerator in as opposed to the chipping,” Taylor said.

The rezoning vote is now tentatively scheduled for July 8.

Councilman Moses Bell requested the postponement so council members could tour a Richland County facility that utilizes a much larger, but otherwise similar incinerator.

Bell said he also wanted residents to have an opportunity to tour the facility. A date for the tour hasn’t been set.

“Could we get a delegation of council to go look at the one in Richland County so we can make sure that we understand all the implications of this piece of equipment so as we vote, we’ll be inclined to know what we are voting for?” Bell asked.

The council’s vote came following spirited comments from nearby residents, all of whom opposed the incinerator.

Several residents complained that smoke from burning debris posed a health hazard. They also thought the machinery added blight that would drag down property values.

“I am so afraid for our community. I feel that our health is at risk,” said Winnsboro resident Shirley Seibles. “Burning releases ashes and hot cinders into the atmosphere. Ash settles and it settles where it may, on porches, vents, shingles, flowers, cars and trucks, children’s toys and lungs. There is a small playground next to where you want to put this incinerator.”

Seibles said the debris pile has become an eyesore.

There will be “a mountain of wooden debris across from our homes,” she said. “How long is it going to take to put a dent into this mountain? How are we allowing Fairfield County to be a dumping ground for every surrounding county?”

Others thought the incinerator posed a public safety threat.

“I’m in the business of fighting fires and we haven’t been able to control smoke yet,” said John Seibles, police chief for the Winnsboro public safety department and a resident who lives near the chipper site. “How are you going to control that smoke with an open heater? I don’t want to wake up every morning smelling fire, smelling smoke.”

Brad Caulder, the county’s public works director, sought to assure residents that the incinerator was actually safer, more strictly regulated and less costly than wood chipping.

“If I wasn’t confident of the results of the machine, it certainly wouldn’t be something I’d be pushing myself. It is a far cleaner process than the chipping now,” Caulder said. “You have carcinogens released every time that you chip. We have more pollutants in the air with the grinding. You have far fewer DHEC restrictions with the grinding than you do with the incinerator.”

The rezoning request proposed changing the zoning from RD-Rural Resource District, to I-1, Industrial District.

The wood chipper site sits on 11.32 acres the county purchased off Old Airport Road. The final sale price was unavailable, though the land has a fair market value of $780,000, according to Fairfield County property records.

Taylor said the county acquired additional property to further increase the buffer zone between residents and the incinerator.

“The machine is small, no larger than a tractor trailer,” he said.

WINNSBORO – It took a little longer than expected, but Fairfield County managed to pass its 2019-2020 operating budget Monday night.

Separately, council members also approved a series of new taxes and fees largely aimed at boosting tourism related revenue.

The council voted 5-0 to approve final reading of the $45.2 million budget. Council members Douglas Pauley and Mikel Trapp were absent.

Pauley and Trapp voted against final reading at the May 28 meeting, but for vastly different reasons. The May 28 vote failed 3-3.

Pauley thought overall spending skyrocketed to unacceptable levels while Trapp wanted more spending, specifically $100,000 for mini-parks in his district.

Councilman Moses Bell, who previously sought $900,000 in additional spending for a recreation center in his district, also voted against the budget on May 28.

Bell changed his vote Monday night so Fairfield County could move forward with an operating budget.

“I felt that the recreation center in Ridgeway should’ve been part of the budget process. I felt very strongly about that,” Bell said. “But again, we need to pass this budget. We really do for the betterment of this county.

“But as I said earlier, I am very disappointed that we couldn’t move forward with the recreation center,” Bell continued.

Monday night’s budget vote was set up by a motion to reconsider the council’s 3-3 vote on May 28, allowing the council to avoid restarting the budget voting process from scratch, said county attorney Tommy Morgan.

“A motion to reconsider is an opportunity for the body, such as county council, to bring back an item for reconsideration no later than the very next meeting,” Morgan said. “What happens is the prevailing party, the party that voted against the budget, is the person that could move to reconsider.”

Later in the meeting, Council Chairman Neil Robinson said the budget represents a start in helping Fairfield County address infrastructure needs, some of which he said are 15-20 years behind.

“We are on a good track. Sometimes we argue and fuss, but we get things done,” Robinson said. “No, it’s not what we wanted, but it [the budget] is OK with me. Things are going to happen.”

In related fiscal matters, the council approved final reading on ordinances to establish a 3 percent tourism development fee and 2 percent hospitality tax.

The council had previously considered the measures in March, but backed off after several residents voiced concerns about the tax, how it would be implemented and whether it would drive away tourism instead of enhancing it.

Council members revisited the new fees after soliciting feedback from county residents.

“We did take a lot of comments from the public and these changes are in response to comments from the public,” County Administrator Jason Taylor said.

Most of those changes involved spelling out exactly how the taxes and fees would be collected and spent.

The tourism development fee would be collected on the “rental of hotels, motels, and other lodging establishments” in the county. Money can be spent on tourism-related buildings (such as civic centers, coliseums and aquariums); tourism-related cultural, recreational, or historic facilities; beach access, renourishment, or other tourism-related lands and water access; highways, roads, streets, and bridges providing access to tourist destinations; advertisements and promotions related to tourism development, or water and sewer infrastructure to serve tourism related demand.

The hospitality tax would be collected on prepared meals and beverages, and could be spent on various tourism-related capital projects, according to council documents.

Morgan, the county attorney, said an exception would exist for the Town of Ridgeway, which has its own tourism and hospitality taxes. Those taxes would be divided evenly between the town and county.

WINNSBORO – Fairfield County doesn’t have a budget.

In a 3-3 vote Tuesday night, the proposed $45.2 million budget failed to garner enough support to pass third reading, with one council member claiming the budget was racially biased against African-Americans.

Council members supporting the budget were Bertha Goins, Clarence Gilbert and Chairman Neil Robinson.

Douglas Pauley, Moses Bell and Mikel Trapp opposed. Councilman Jimmy Ray Douglas was absent, setting up the tie vote.

That vote followed a motion to amend the budget to include $900,000 in additional recreation spending – $800,000 for a recreation center in Bell’s district and $100,000 for two mini-parks in Trapp’s district.

That motion failed 4-2, with Bell and Trapp the only council members supporting it.

Moments later, Trapp walked out while the meeting was still in progress. He didn’t return.

Council members took a 15-minute recess before voting, but ultimately weren’t able to muster enough votes to pass the budget.

County Administrator Jason Taylor said another budget workshop would be scheduled to hash out differences before a re-vote is taken. The county has until June 30 to adopt the budget.

Judging by comments from council members, reaching a consensus won’t be easy.

Pauley opposed the budget over concerns about ballooning budget costs.

“I cannot vote for this budget because it’s up 12 percent,” Pauley said. “There has been an average of 5.5 percent in annual increases for the past four years.

“Another reason I oppose the budget is because it brings us back to across the board salary increases as opposed to the merit-based system that the last council worked for three years to have put in place,” Pauley continued.

Bell and Trapp opposed the budget because they wanted to spend more.

Bell offered to drop his request to $400,000, but the idea never gained traction.

“I support recreation in local communities,” he said. “Those who write and want to make me a villain, I will proudly wear that as a badge of honor.”

Trapp claimed the county budget was racially driven. He said it excludes African-Americans while subsidizing a fire station and farmer’s market that he claimed benefit white people primarily.

“In this budget we don’t have anything for the black community in the county,” Trapp said. “Every time someone asks for something for the black community, it’s always said that taxes are going up.”

Goins pushed back on claims of racism.

She said she plans to return a recent award because it recognizes her for being the first African-American elected to Fairfield County Council. She’s returning it because she said she doesn’t believe in labels.

“When I hear the comments that are made and all the negativity, I have to do what my heart says and what my spirit says, and what I know is true,” Goins said.

“We all came into this world with our breath, we all will leave this world with our breath,” Goins continued. “We talk about racism all the time, but many times those who talk about it are the racists. Those who talk about it are the dividers.”

In trying to fund recreation centers, Bell suggested dipping into the fund balance. Although there’s technically about $24 million in reserve, roughly half is already dedicated to the old hospital, the airport and other projects, leaving about $12.7 million in unencumbered funds.

The county also plans to spend about $8 million over the next several years repurposing the old Mt. Zion building into a new county administration building.

Bell also proposed spending money left over from the 2013 $24M bond, which he said could help subsidze Ridgeway recreation. Of the $4M left from the bond, about $400,000 to $450,000 in funds are not encumbered, Taylor said.

Pauley noted that the county budget has benefited Bell’s district greatly. In recent years, Ridgeway has received $150,000 for a park, $100,000 for an EMS station and a $1 million fire station, he said. He said the county has also helped with the water tower and sidewalks.

“For it to be said that nothing was spent in Ridgeway is absolutely not true,” Pauley said. “A lot of things in Ridgeway might not have been done when Councilman Bell was on council, but a previous councilman got things done in his area.”

LAKE WATEREE – During Fairfield County Council’s first retreat in more than four years, County Administrator Jason Taylor led the meeting with a staff review of 39 or so projects the county initiated or mostly wrapped up over the last couple of years – Mt. Zion, Fairfield Memorial Hospital, Providence ER facility, the mega site, the animal ordinance, SCE&G lawsuit and website redesign, to name a few.

Next, Taylor and his staff – Community Planner Chris Clausen, Economic Development Director Ty Davenport and Deputy Administrator Davis Anderson – guided council through what Taylor called “thoughts, ideas and discussion of where we want to take the county and how we want to work to improve it.”

The focus leaned heavily on projects to change the county’s image.

The following is a summary of the four hour meeting.

Make a greater use of grants

“We have a list of grants we want to throw out to you all, and we need projects to apply for those grants,” Taylor told council members. “We have not pursued grants in the past like we should have. We should always have a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) going, whether it’s for a library or an infrastructure project. We’re going to restructure how we pursue grants now. There are $500,000 CDBG’s for community enrichment and $750,000 CDBG’s for infrastructure. We can also do blight removal with CDBG grants. The money’s out there but we have to have a project to qualify. We need you all to tell us what you want to see done, because we’re going to aggressively go after grants,” Taylor said.

Build and improve on a grander scale

“When we build new stuff, it can be a calling card. We don’t necessarily want the lowest cost and least impressive option,” Taylor said. “We might need to spend a little more money. When we build a permanent library in Ridgeway, we need to build something that makes a statement. Libraries are not just about books anymore. They are also about programs.”

Water and Sewer Authority

“The Water and sewer authority is one of the biggest projects on the list,” Taylor said. “For a long time, the county and town realized that neither of us could do it alone – to provide infrastructure throughout this county, maintain it or put it at the level it needs to be as far as distribution lines and capacity to support future growth. One of the first things we’re doing, now, is going out there and just finding out what’s in the ground. Once we know what’s out there we can strategically figure out where we need to fill in the gaps. I think we’ll first have to focus on the I-77 corridor since that’s where we’ll get the most return, initially, on our money. That area [especially the I-77 exits] is a gold mine for the county, and it’s never been developed because we have almost no lines out there. A developer is a lot more likely to come if we have a piece of property with infrastructure permitted and ready to go,” Taylor said.

Community Development Director Chris Clausen added that there are some CDBG grants available for low-income rural residents who cannot afford to have water lines brought to their homes.

Project Money from COG

Taylor said the administration is bringing pressure on the COG to bring projects to Fairfield County.

“The [COG’s] project grants all flow to Richland and Lexington counties,” Taylor said, “and none to the Fairfield community. The larger metropolitan communities get the money assigned to them for projects. We have to compete for it and put together a competitive grant package which is more difficult.”

Taylor said he has broached the issue with COG leadership and the Council Chair now sits on the executive board which he thinks will help move money toward the county’s projects.

“But to [get the grants], we also always need to have projects that fit the grant requirements,” Taylor said.

Getting rid of blight

“The biggest owner of blight in Fairfield County is Fairfield County,” Taylor said. “We have 120 – 150 properties in forfeited land trust – properties that land owners haven’t paid taxes on in years, so they come into the county’s ownership. We own about 25 houses in Winnsboro that are falling in.

“The easiest way for us to start to clean up blight is to start with those properties,” Taylor said. “As we get the titles cleared up, we want to start knocking these houses down. And once they’re knocked down, the lots still have water, sewer and are ready to go for prospective home owners to build on. We might have a chance to bundle all the lots and sell them to a developer for basically nothing with the stipulation that they build x, y and z on the lots…and then we would have tax dollars coming in on those lots and have new housing stock in the middle of town which helps the town.”

“CDBG does have a grant to help us with blight, but we have to have a neighborhood revitalization plan to pursue that grant,” Clausen said. “We’re looking at that for an area reaching from the former FMH hospital site to the library up to Fortune springs and over to First Baptist Church on Hwy 321. We’re going to have that whole area master planned to look at what can be done to help it be revitalized – everything from a demo plan to what businesses need to be enhanced and what buildings to be repurposed such as some of the school district properties in that area. Once that’s in place, we can pursue the funding through CDBG for blight removal.” Clausen said he has received a quote from the COG for the master plan, but has not had a chance to discuss it with administration.

New Animal Control Facility

“Our intake and adoption facilities are separate and we need to combine them,” Taylor said, “maybe where the existing intake facility is. We have more property there.”
Anderson said it might be patterned after Aiken’s facility where there are inside and outside runs, a ventilation system and water is controlled by the animals.

“Without asking County to budget it, we are going to try to work with Hoof and Paw and other animal associations within the county and raise money to build these,” Anderson said. “It’s going to be a community effort. Hoof and Paw has done a tremendous job helping us financially with spay and neuters, so we’re going to go to them to help us raise this money.”

The current adoption center next to Midlands Tech could be turned in to a veterinary clinic for spay and neuter. To that end, Taylor said the county is floating the idea of working with Midlands to offer a vet tech program where students could gain experience at the clinic next door.

DNR Trails

Taylor also talked about ways to help the western side of the county grow.

“We have a great asset along the Broad River – a rail trestle that runs over by Peak. It’s a hidden gem in the state. But it’s a small area. With a DNR grant, we could put something there where you could actually access the Broad River and put a canoe or kayak in, and it fits in with what DNR over all is trying to do. They have greenway paths and trails all the way to Richland. It would help us tie in to that. It will help the western side of the county grow to have an attraction over there. We could put $45,000 – $60,000 in to it and pull another $150,000 into it with a DNR grant and that will generate traffic out there,” Taylor said.

“That’s for recreation,” Clausen said, “but if we could include fishing in the project as well, we might could pull in up to a $200,000 grant.”

The remainder of the projects discussed at the retreat will appear in next week’s edition of The Voice.