WINNSBORO – In a third attempt in three weeks to hire an
interim county administrator, Council Chairman Moses Bell has called a special
meeting of council Thursday, May 20, at 6 p.m. to put forth Gerald Seals’ name
for the position.
Seals
Seals served as county administrator for Richland County, making headlines when the county fired him in May, 2018 in a close 6-5 vote. He walked away with a $1 million settlement and resumed teaching at Newberry College where he had taught previously.
Seals served as county administrator in Greenville County
prior to coming to Richland.
Seals is also pastor at the Living Word Church and
Fellowship in Northeast Richland County.
He is the third candidate the majority four on county
council has considered for the interim job. Three weeks ago, Bell called an
executive session to discuss hiring a former City of Columbia official who, it
was learned, left the City after he was accused of sexual harassment. When that
information was revealed to council, the majority four declined to move forward
with a vote.
Earlier this week, the majority four voted 4-3 to offer the
job to former State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex. However, Rex turned
down the offer on Tuesday, saying the deeply divided vote as well as the current
turmoil in the county government made the job ‘not a good fit for me.’
Council is expected to vote on Seals tomorrow (Thursday) night, though his name was not mentioned in the executive session agenda item that was sent out Wednesday afternoon. Bell announced his choice of Seals in an email he sent to county officials about 4 p.m., Wednesday, May 19.
WINNSBORO – Fairfield County Council Chairman Moses Bell has
scheduled a special called meeting for 6 p.m., Monday evening to consider his
nominee to serve as interim county administrator.
Jim Rex
“[The] agenda will consist of a executive session item to include an interview and discussion with Dr. Jim Rex to potentially serve as interim county administrator for Fairfield County,” Bell wrote in an email to all council members a little after noon Friday.
“If approved by council to serve as interim county
administrator, he will bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to this
role,” Bell wrote in the email. “Dr. Rex has a prestigious professional career
and will be able to support any ongoing and new economic development efforts
the county has or may have in the future.”
Rex, 79, served as South Carolina Superintendent of Education, and lives on Lake Wateree. Both he and his wife, Sue, supported Fairfield County Councilwoman Shirley Greene in her campaign for council in November. The Rexes are also staunch backers of Superintendent Dr. J.R. Green’s proposed Teacher Village. Rex is founder of a new political party – the American Party of South Carolina.
Rex holds a bachelor’s degree in English, a master’s degree
in education administration, and a doctorate degree in curriculum and
instruction from the University of Toledo.
Prior to his position as SC Superintendent of Education, Rex was an English teacher and football coach in Ohio, the dean of education at Winthrop University, the dean of education at Coastal Carolina University, president of Columbia College, vice president for development and alumni relations and vice president of university advancement at the University of South Carolina.
WINNSBORO – Assistant County Administrator Laura Johnson has
submitted a letter of resignation to County administrator Jason Taylor,
effective June 4, 2021, the day before Taylor leaves his job and takes over as
Town Manager of Winnsboro.
Johnson is the third high level county employee to leave or be forced out in the last two months. The county attorney, county administrator, a department head and other employees have also resigned following a purge by the new majority leadership on county council.
Johnson, A CPA, will retire after 30 years in state and
local government. Her resignation letter included a note to Taylor who promoted
her from Comptroller to the Assistant Administrator position two years ago.
“When you selected me to be your Assistant County
Administrator, I was honored that you trusted me enough to give me this
opportunity to be your “right-hand woman.” I have learned a lot and have
enjoyed working with you. I will greatly miss our very blunt and honest
conversations. I think we make a great team, one that is built upon cooperation
and trust. So it is bittersweet for me to submit my letter of retirement from
Fairfield County. I have poured my heart into this job, and I have thoroughly
enjoyed working with you and all the department directors, elected officials
and staff.”
Johnson began her career in state government at the Office
of the State Auditor and the Department of Public Safety. She came to Fairfield
County as Comptroller in 2002. Her accomplishments, Taylor said, have been
many.
She implemented a new accounting system and time clock
system, developed written policies and procedures for Finance, developed an
account code structure, ensured GASB pronouncements were implemented,
implemented a fixed assets system and implemented, evaluated and modified
internal controls in several areas.
“Going back to 2013, Johnson said, with the exception of two
of those years, the county’s fund balance has increased (i.e., revenues
exceeding expenditures), despite what is currently being conveyed to the
citizens.
Taylor said Laura’s leaving will be a huge loss for the
county.
“It has been a pleasure working with Laura,” Taylor said.
“I’ve enjoyed working with her in her role as comptroller for the county, and
then I was delighted to be able to work with her as my assistant county
administrator. She had her heart in the job and was very much a professional in
how she approached everything. She’s going to be missed.”
A rendition of the planned restoration of Mt. Zion.
WINNSBORO – Cancelling plans for a new county building would trigger litigation that could cost Fairfield County upwards of $13 million, some council members say.
“If the ultimate goal is to tear down this project, we’re
probably looking at a $13 million lawsuit we can’t afford,” Councilman Neil
Robinson said during a special meeting Feb. 10. “We’re looking at our bond
rating going down and we’re looking at no other plan to house [county]
employees.”
Robinson’s grim warning came in response to Council Chairman
Moses Bell’s suggestion to create an ad hoc committee to “review the Mt. Zion
contract to determine the costs to the county from the beginning to the end.”
Council members voted 4-3, with Bell and council members
Mikel Trapp, Shirley Greene and Tim Roseborough supporting the committee. Bell
appointed Greene, Roseborough and Robinson to serve on the committee.
In October 2018, the council in a supermajority 5-2 decision
voted to repurpose the old Mt. Zion Institute into a new county building and
lease it at an estimated cost of $4.2 million.
The current council, however, has consistently voted 4-3
since they were seated on Jan. 11, 2020, and in the opposite direction as prior
councils recently have voted.
Bell stated an ad hoc committee was needed to determine the
true costs associated with the Mt. Zion plan.
“We continue to get this question—how much is it costing us?” Bell said, not specifying who is asking the question. “The purpose of this [committee] is just to see how much this is costing us from inception up until
now.
“We need to look at the cost end of the building,” Bell
continued. “We don’t know what that’s going to look like.”
“Is the true intention of Mt. Zion committee to lay the groundwork for canceling the contract?
– Councilman Neil Robinson
Gilbert, though, said spending time revisiting the Mt. Zion vote also risks hampering ongoing projects, such as infrastructure upgrades and recruiting industry.
“Shouldn’t we be looking forward instead of looking
backwards?” he said. “It just doesn’t make any sense. We as a council and the
administrator should be moving Fairfield County forward.”
Greene countered by saying it’s the council’s responsibility
to evaluate how taxpayer money is spent.
“We’re responsible for making sure our money is spent
judiciously. We can’t do that if the information isn’t in front of us,” Greene
said. “If we’re going to move Fairfield forward, we have to make sure we have
all the financial information that we need.”
Robinson said he worries the true intention of the Mt. Zion
committee is to lay the groundwork for canceling the contract.
“Before this new council came in, it was already said that
the first thing on the agenda was to tear down old projects,” Robinson said.
“It kind of seems like we’re following suit with that. If we spend two years
digging up all old stuff to make sure it’s correct, we won’t get anything
done,” Robinson added.
Bell responded that he’s heard conflicting figures about the
true cost and forming a committee will help pin down the exact figure.
“We want to settle all the questions,” Bell said.
Councilman Doug Pauley reminded Bell that the answers to
cost-related questions can be found in recordings of the various public
meetings and town halls the council held on the subject.
“I’ll tell you what’s amazing to me, except for Ms. Greene
and Mr. Roseborough, who have recently been elected, all five of us were here when
the Mt. Zion contract was done,” Pauley said. “Now we get to this point and you
don’t have a clue what was spent, what was discussed. The five of us already on
council should’ve already answered these questions.”
The Mt. Zion committee has been tasked with reporting back
to the council within 60 days.
Also during the Monday night special meeting, council
members voted 4-3 to create another ad hoc committee, this one to hire a new
county attorney.
Former county attorney Tommy Morgan is resigning effective
March 1, citing the shifting political landscape in Fairfield County following
the November election.
The Feb. 10 vote initially began as a motion for “the
council to hire the new attorney” without any additional details.
Pressed by Robinson, Gilbert and Pauley for details, Bell
said he’s looking to form a committee, which wasn’t stated in the original
motion.
Bell said he would be chairing the committee, which would
also include Councilman Trapp, and that County Administrator Jason Taylor would
serve in an advisory capacity.
The committee will interview the attorney candidates and
make a recommendation to the council.
There was no discussion of advertising the county attorney
vacancy. Rather, Bell said, “We’re thinking about reaching out to those persons
we know with the help of attorneys that we know today.”
The agenda for last week’s meeting also contained an item
regarding forming a third ad hoc committee to review census data, but action on
that item was postponed.
Bell, Greene, Roseborough vote in favor to make it happen
WINNSBORO – Following an executive session Monday night to discuss and receive
legal advice regarding the county administrator’s contract, council voted 4 – 3
to renew County Administrator Jason Taylor’s contract, but for only five
months.
Taylor
Councilman Mikel Trapp made the motion to renew the contract until June 30, 2021, end of the fiscal year. Councilwoman Shirley Greene seconded the motion.
“I think we need to give Mr. Taylor a longer time – a year,”
Councilman Douglas Pauley said. “Mr. Taylor has done a great job, and we’ve
been moving Fairfield County forward, so I would like to see it at least for a
year.”
“I have to agree Mr. Pauley,” Councilman Neil Robinson said.
“We should at least give him a year for evaluation if that’s what the new
council members want.”
“As a new council person, I think that basically, we’ve got
to have a chance to work with Mr. Taylor,” Greene said. “We’ve taken a look at
some of the legal ramifications and some of the legal points have been made,
and giving us the chance to work with Mr. Taylor and to be able to evaluate him
the way it should be done, and having some relationship with him and his work
is basically what I see as a new council person.”
Green, Council Chair Moses Bell, Trapp and new councilman Tim Roseborough voted ‘for’ the five-months of employment. Councilman Clarence Gilbert, Pauley and Robinson voted ‘against.’
A source told The Voice that the terms of the extension of
the contract were not discussed with Gilbert, Pauley and Robinson in executive
session, rather Bell asked the attorney to review Taylor’s previous evaluation,
but nothing was discussed or disclosed regarding extending his contract or
limiting his employment, the source said.
“It was a surprise to the three of us when Mr. Trapp made
the motion to renew the contract for only five months,” Robinson said.
Rumors had been circulating through the county for the last week that Taylor would be placed on administrative leave Monday night, but that rumor did not materialize.
When The Voice asked Bell for a comment following the vote,
he said, “No comoment,” several times before walking away.
“I’m totally disappointed in this,” Gilbert told The Voice
following the meeting. “Mr. Taylor has done so much for this county. He’s the
ultimate professional, easy to work with, honest. He has such vision for our
county. Why would we want to turn back our progress at this point? I would hate
to think it’s a personal vendetta. But it was planned. There was no substantive
discussion about it,” he said.
Taylor was hired in May, 2016, with a contract for $120,000
each year for a three-year term.
In July, 2018, council voted unanimously to extend Taylor’s
contract for another year and also voted to increase the period of compensation
for Taylor in the event of termination without cause to two years. Council
members also approved a 3.44 percent pay raise, increasing Taylor’s salary from
$123,997.60 to $129,297.52.
Billy Smith, council chair at that time, praised Taylor’s
performance, saying, “Jason, I think you’re doing a great job.”
Taylor came to Fairfield County from Jasper County, where he
was previously the town administrator for Ridgeland since 2002.
He also spent eight years with the S.C. Department of Social
Services and four years as Saluda County’s economic development director.
County Council Chairman Neil Robinson recently credited
Taylor for guiding the council’s directives to fruition over the last four
years.
“While much was accomplished in 2019 in Fairfield County,”
Robinson was quoted in an end of year story in The Voice, “despite the ensuing
pandemic and all the associated challenges, 2020 was a phenomenal year in
Fairfield County for economic development, jobs, infrastructure and a laundry
list of other accomplishments.
Praising Taylor for his work to turn the county around, Robinson
said, “His vision and knowledge of where we should be and how we get there
surprises me every day. In the last four years we’ve brought more than 1,000
jobs, six new industries and $70 million in investment. We’ve accomplished more
this year and last year than we have in the previous ten.”
This story which first appeared online on Tuesday, Jan. 26, has been updated.
Rene Green defeats 2-term school board incumbent Paula Hartman.
WINNSBORO – Fairfield County voters changed the balance of power of the county government Tuesday night, turning out two of three county council incumbents.
Voters also narrowly rejected the capital project sales tax referendum (Penny Tax) with a 4,758 to 4,438 vote. The tax had been placed on the ballot to raise additional funds to pay for a proposed $32 million wastewater treatment plant.
With a razor thin margin of 6 votes, challenger Shirley
Greene, with 956 votes, defeated District 2 County Councilman Jimmy Ray Douglas
with 950 votes. Director of Fairfield County Voter Registration Debby Stidham
said the less than one percent difference in the two vote totals will trigger
an automatic recount which will be conducted on Friday. There are also 30
provisional votes that will be looked at by the county’s election commission on
Friday as well.
In County Council District 4, former county employee Tim Roseborough
defeated District 4 Councilwoman Bertha Goins with 796 votes to Goins’ 539.
Cynthia Parnell-Rivers received 401 votes, and there were 19 write-in votes.
County Council Chairman Neil Robinson (District 6) easily retained his seat by defeating challenger Bob Prather in a landslide vote of 836 to 297. There were 89 write-in votes.
Senator Mike Fanning (D), with 7,550 votes defeated
challenger Erin Mosley (R) with 4,472 votes.
Annie McDaniel (D) retained her seat in House District 41
with 7,458 votes to challenger Jennifer Brecheisen (R) with 4,566. Eleven
write-in votes were cast.
School board trustee incumbent Joe Seibles fended off
challenger Carrie Suber-O’Neal in a 1,112 to 600 vote. There were five
write-ins votes.
Two-term school board trustee incumbent representing
District 2, Paula Hartman was defeated by challenger Rene Green 1,045 to 716.
There were 8 write-in votes.
In other local races, Fairfield County Sheriff Will
Montgomery (D), with 9,830 votes, defeated Ed Eddie Jenkins with 1,854. There
were 42 write-in votes.
Fairfield Clerk of Court Judy Bonds (D), unchallenged, took
10,905 votes over 114 write-in votes.
Fairfield County Coroner Chris Hill (D) was unchallenged and
received 10,891 votes. There were 101 write-in votes.
According to voter registrations officials, there was an
unprecedented 70+ percent turnout for all county races.
The results are preliminary and will be certified on Friday
at 10 a.m. in the Voter Registration office.
An updated story will appear in the Thursday issue of The
Voice.
WINNSBORO – An important local question is on the ballot this year in Fairfield County: a proposed penny sales tax, earmarked to fund a much-needed wastewater treatment plant.
If it’s not approved, county officials say, that will mean
other, typically less popular, sources of revenue will have to be used to fund
the plant – for example, a property tax increase, a sewer rate increase, and
potentially cuts in services like public safety.
The county has purchased the land and is moving forward with
the project. It’s up to the voters in Fairfield County to decide whether to
impose the new sales tax or use one or more of the other funding sources
instead.
County officials held an information meeting Tuesday evening to answer questions about the wastewater treatment plant project and the penny tax question on the Nov. 3 ballot. They answered questions from the public during the virtual town hall meeting, which was held via Zoom.
“The wastewater treatment plant is a need, not a want,” Fairfield County Economic Development Director Ty Daven port said, explaining that Fairfield County is nearly at capacity with its current wastewater treatment capabilities, making further development in the county a near impossibility without adding more capacity.
Part of understanding the current plan for adding sewer
capacity means recognizing how much has changed since the failed nuclear plant
project – once viewed as an economic savior for the revenue infusion it was
expected to provide – fell apart.
In some ways, it means a different future than was
anticipated five years ago, when the previous county council and administrator
put together a 50-year plan.
“When you do things, you have to do them in the context of
your times, and at that time I think they were confident that the nuclear plant
would be built, and that they would have enough money to essentially put in the
lines and hook to Richland County or Columbia,” Fairfield County Administrator
Jason Taylor said in response to a question about the county’s departure from
that plan.
“It was not going to be that we would have a [wastewater
treatment] system here in Fairfield County,” he said.
But in the current reality, Taylor said, not only would the
county lose autonomy by being dependent on Columbia’s wastewater systems, but
the fees and costs involved would be too high. Without a new infusion of
nuclear plant revenue to fund its infrastructure needs, the county has had to
come up with a new plan.
Finding a good site for a wastewater treatment plant was a challenge, county officials have said. But after an extensive site search and negotiations with the landowner, Fairfield officials settled on the site that they just purchased, which is located on Cedar Creek near Interstate 77’s Exit 32.
It had to be located on a stream large enough to discharge
the treated wastewater, and also close to industrial development areas.
Pumping it to the Broad River would cost more than double
the current plan, Davenport said, in response to a viewer’s question about the
options considered for the project. Also, neighboring Richland County took a
position against Fairfield’s proposed plant.
“The reasoning they gave was that Richland County currently
operates a wastewater treatment plant on the Broad River that has been
allocated a certain amount of discharge. And I guess pollutants in the
discharge… are at their max,” Davenport said.
“And if we’re allowed to discharge into the Broad River,
then they’ll have to spend more money, basically, to reduce the amount of
pollution that they’re putting into the Broad. So, it affects their budget.”
Bill Bingham, owner of American Consulting Engineers, the
engineering firm hired by the county, talked through some of the details of
Fairfield’s new plant.
“The current proposal, as it stands right now, is for a
membrane bioreactor wastewater treatment facility. What this means is basically
that it is a tertiary, which is the highest level of treatment we have in
wastewater. It basically meets a Class I reliability standard, which means you
have full redundancy so that if one component goes bad, there’s another
component to take its place,” Bingham said.
“MBR technology is basically a very fine filter… This is a
biological plant, which removes the waste using special bugs to eat the waste,
but then you’ve got to filter those out, and the membranes provide the filter,
and what results is a water that is near drinking water quality.”
He said the plant will also come with an odor control system
so that it does not emit an odor to surrounding areas.
In response to a question about the potential for
contamination of Cedar Creek, Bingham’s brother Bill, also with the company,
made a familiar comparison: “Much like you have a nuclear plant here in
Fairfield County and that nuclear plant has redundancy, that means there are
multiple systems. If one fails… there’s backups to backups.”
In response to a question about current infrastructure,
Taylor said the construction of this new plant will free up capacity in the
existing system, allowing for expansion in the town of Winnsboro using current
wastewater capacity – and touted the importance of local partnerships.
In addition to the town of Winnsboro, the county also has
partnerships with the town of Blythewood, which is considering purchasing 60
acres of the site to build a sports complex on land adjacent to the sewer plant
site, and the state, which has helped with the purchase of a mega-site for
future industrial development and is helping with the sewer plant project as
well.
County officials’ overall vision for the site goes beyond
adding sewer capacity for current needs and is focused on the big-picture
economic development of Fairfield County.
In addition to the mega-site, county officials also hope to
see commercial and industrial development take off around Exit 32 with the
addition of new wastewater capacity.
“We have ample natural gas, we have ample electricity, we
have great highway access off of I-77, we’re close to an international airport
and we’ve got a large labor pool to pull from,” Davenport said. “So, we are in
a good – a great position, really. We just do not have the sewer capacity to
maximize our potential.”
The county has done well with industrial announcements in
recent months, Davenport said, and a big announcement was made this week
Oldcastle APG is coming to Fairfield County and will make use of some of the
remaining capacity.
“If we do not add capacity and we have one medium-sized
industrial user come online, we will have no more capacity left and we will be
in a moratorium situation, will be shut down as far as our recruitment of new
industry, as well as our existing companies – they won’t be able to expand,” he
said. “It is a critical situation, a critical need we have. We really do have
to move forward.”
But his hope is that the project, which has a construction
timeline of 24 to 30 months, will do more for Fairfield County than just meet
immediate development needs; his hope is that it will facilitate the kind of
development that reverses a 50-year trend of population loss by providing opportunity
for the county’s young people.
“We purchased a 1,200-acre mega-site located on I-77,”
Davenport said. “We need to allocate between 500,000 and a million gallons per
day for that site so we can be successful in recruiting a larger employer. It
will possibly be a large facility that is going to be kind of a game-changer
for the county, and it’s critical that we keep moving forward.”
In the big picture, he said, while building wastewater
infrastructure comes with a price tag now, the private industrial and
commercial development that this investment makes possible will generate not
only enough revenue to cover the cost of infrastructure, but to potentially
reduce property taxes and increase services throughout the county.
The penny sales tax is a common means of funding capital
projects in South Carolina and is used by 43 of the 46 counties in the state,
including Richland, Davenport said. Some basic necessities, including food and
medicine, are exempt from the tax.
“The good thing about the Penny sales tax is that it does
not single out property owners, it is an alternative to property tax,” Taylor
said. “It has the added benefit [that] non-residents – not just residents – and
visitors would also pay.”
Also, the revenue from the tax is tied to a specific project
– in this case a sewer plant and its associated infrastructure – and cannot be
used for anything else. So, if voters decide to impose the tax Nov. 3, they
will be designating the money for this project only.
Asked about the impact of the tax on the average person,
Taylor summed it up this way: “Basically, if you spend $1,000, you’re going to
spend $1,010. It’ll impact you $10. And again, it will impact those outside of
the county who spend money here, and in that respect it’ll be transferred in.”
FAIRFIELD COUNTY – With a $1.8 million land deal being proposed by Fairfield County, a partnership between the county and the Town of Blythewood is on track to check two big items off of local wish lists: a much-needed wastewater treatment plant and a ballfield complex for youth sports teams.
Fairfield County Council Chair Neil Robinson said both
projects are part of a long-range vision that could turn Interstate-77’s Exit
32 in Fairfield County into a new hotspot for development.
Fairfield County Administrator Jason Taylor agreed, adding
that if all the pieces come together, it could be a great benefit to the
citizens of both Fairfield County and Blythewood.
“The way you grow a community is not just by shuffling money
around inside the county or town; you need to bring in outside dollars.” Taylor
said, touting both the tournament-hosting potential of a sports complex and the
potential draw of adjacent commercial development made possible by the
wastewater treatment plant.
“There’s a synergy here – one thing helps build upon the other, and all those things help the critical thing that we’re focused on here [with this project], the wastewater treatment plant,” he said.
The need for increased wastewater capacity has been high on
Fairfield’s priority list recently as most of its existing capacity is already
in use. The county has brought in considerable new industry and accompanying
new jobs during the last three years or so, leaving Fairfield with only about
30,000 gallons of wastewater capacity – a fact that limits current potential
for both industrial and other types of development all over the county, and is
now prompting some industrial prospects to look elsewhere, taking their jobs
with them.
“Adding more wastewater capacity is key to the future
development of commercial and residential in the county. Without the new
capacity, the creation of new jobs, shopping opportunities and residential
development will be severely limited,” Taylor said.
“We had to find a site for the plant that has direct access
to a stream that can handle the expected effluent and will not require a
long-distance pipeline to a discharge site,” he said. The county settled on
property on Peach Road at the intersection of Cook Road just west of Exit 32 in
Fairfield County, just one exit north of Blythewood.
As it turned out, the property for sale is about 385 acres,
much larger and more expensive than what’s needed for the plant.
Enter Blythewood, where the need for ballfields has become a high priority with the exponential growth of the community. Building a sports complex was something newly elected Mayor Bryan Franklin talked about a lot in his campaign last fall. Blythewood, home of the popular Blythewood Youth Baseball & Softball League (BYSBL), has the revenue potential from accommodation and hospitality tax to purchase property for a sports complex but has not so far found a suitable/affordable site.
The Plan
The proposal is for the county to develop the wastewater
treatment plant and an extensive recreation park on 225+/- acres it purchased
on the south side of the property, and Blythewood is considering purchasing
60+/- acres in the center of the property for the sports complex. The current
land owner, Joseph Richardson, would retain about 100+/- acres on the north
side of the property for private multi-use development, including commercial,
possibly with apartments above.
In addition, the county portion of the park – a site not
suited for industrial development – will include the wastewater treatment plant
concealed in a heavily wooded area and a 50-acre pond that, Taylor said, is a
potential showplace, ideally suited for fishing, kayaking, canoeing, and maybe
a water’s edge event venue as well as a network of recreational trails.
“Because the wastewater treatment plant is located on the
property, it could reduce development costs on the site as much as $2-$3
million since they won’t have to run pipes, acquire easements and install pump
stations,” Fairfield County Economic Development Director Ty Davenport added.
Taylor said a partnership between Fairfield and Blythewood
and the landowner just makes sense.
Blythewood on Board
Franklin agrees.
“It’s just too good of an opportunity for us to pass up,”
Franklin told The Voice. “While our council has not yet voted on this plan,
we’ve discussed it in executive session and I know that all of our council
members are excited about it. We’re looking forward to moving on it.”
That move, however, could take as much as six to eight
months, he said.
“Blythewood doesn’t have a big budget, but we could pay for
the land over a three-year period of time. We just need time to assess it, get
our funds together, and let Fairfield get the zoning on the property.”
Having grown up in Blythewood, Franklin said he has fond
memories of playing on the three BYSBL fields when he was young. Those fields,
today, can barely accommodate the number of kids who want to play. Franklin
said he would like to see the town have a state-of-the-art facility like this
to support the BYSBL while also bringing substantial revenue to the town.
“Located on I-77 in the center of the state, the sports complex is going to attract kids of all sports from all areas of the state,” Franklin said. “And the commercial area is what the residents of Blythewood want to see – more restaurants, more things to do and close to home – just five miles from our Blythewood exit.”
A Mutual Benefit
“Both Blythewood and Fairfield will benefit from what the
other has in the park,” Davenport said. “For instance, Fairfield would have
joint use of Blythewood’s sports complex and neither would have to pay fees. A
rendering of the complex features up to eight baseball fields and five
soccer/football fields among other amenities that might include a hotel with
balconies for viewing games.”
From a development standpoint, Taylor said, the wastewater
treatment plant and sports complex projects are just the beginning. In addition
to meeting current needs, pairing needed infrastructure with a tourism-drawing
amenity will promote good, sustainable development at Exit 32.
That could help the county land a large manufacturing facility, Taylor said, such as an auto plant, just down the road at the future Exit 32 megasite. Such a facility, he said, would be a stable provider of jobs for the county and could also help attract the kind of planned, commercial development on Richardson’s acreage that might be anchored by a major sporting goods store and include hotels, restaurants and retail, which would bring in revenue during sports tournaments as well as serving Interstate travelers.
Annexation
Because of the proximity of the property to the Town of
Blythewood along Boney Road, the option is on the table for Blythewood to annex
the entire 385 acres and reap considerable revenue from not only the sports
complex, but the accommodation and hospitality taxes generated by the hotels
and restaurants, as well as franchise fees, business license fees and building
permits from the commercial development.
The long term plan could be extremely beneficial for the
citizens of both Blythewood and Fairfield County and would certainly raise the
fortunes of all of the residents of Fairfield County on many levels, including
jobs and new residential neighborhoods, Taylor said.
“The county would collect property taxes on all three
parcels. The site generates about $4,000 annually in taxes now,” he said. “A
single business in the commercial section could bring in well over $100,000
annually in property taxes. The property tax potential for the county is in the
millions”.
County officials say the several hundred acres adjacent to
the 385 acres are prime for the kind of nature-based housing subdivisions that
have replaced golf courses as the preferred type of residential development
across the country.
Davenport said the Exit 32 interchange, itself, is a
valuable asset with I-77, a major travel artery between Columbia and Charlotte,
a continuous resource.
“An interstate exit like Exit 32 costs about $50-75 million,
a resource that we need to take advantage of,” he said.
Master Planned
“I would really like to see this development taken to the
next level,” Taylor said. “We hope to develop a master plan and development
agreement on top of everything else, including tax incentives and other
incentives that make it more desirable for someone to come in and develop the
site to its best and highest use.
“We’re not just dreaming here,” Taylor said. “I think all of
this can be reality. We want to create a traditional, attractive community in
the commercial section that may have upstairs apartments, and where people can
easily take advantage of the proposed parks and the easy access to Columbia on
the interstate. We want to be proactive and get ahead of this [growth at Exit
32] with a development that is well thought out and sustainable.
“All this is driven by the wastewater treatment plant,” he
said. “We have to have the plant to support the future megasite just six miles
up the road. And when that plant hits, this 385 acres is going to explode.
Commerce has told us we have to be ready because when it does hit, it will be
hard at that point to catch up. I think that if we do this public-private
partnership right, everything will work.”
“At this point, of course, it’s just a proposal, a
public-private partnership between the county and the landowner to spur
development at Exit 32 to support the wastewater treatment plant and the plant
supporting growth, hand in hand,” Taylor said. “The county is also trying to
work with Blythewood to accomplish some of the goals that their mayor has set,
such as annexation and recreation. We can all three win here because our interests
are aligned to have improved access for all of our citizens to quality of life
amenities such as new parks, shopping options and residential choices – all the
things we can potentially have on that 385 acres,” he said.
Though there are still a lot of details that remain to be worked out on the project, all parties are hopeful.
Timeline
The timeline, of course, will be measured in years. Robinson
said 3-4 years is realistic for the $32 million plant to go through permitting
and construction, after which its capacity will be available to serve new
development in the county, both commercial and residential.
In addition to potential state funding contributing to the
plant’s construction, Robinson expects to pull $5 million from county coffers,
cover $8-10 million with the passage of a new penny sales tax, and cover the
rest with revenue generated by end users.
While Robinson said the penny tax is the most effective way
to fund the plant, the tax is dependent on voter approval on Nov. 3.
“With the penny tax, council wouldn’t have to raise property
taxes,” Robinson said.
The wastewater treatment plant’s two-million-gallon
capacity, expandable to four million gallons, is expected to serve Fairfield
County’s needs for at least 20 years.
“The wastewater treatment
plant has to happen. Without it, Fairfield County will have very limited growth
potential in the future; but when it’s built, the county will be in a great
position to welcome new growth, and to more fully realize its potential,”
Taylor said.
Robinson agreed.
“While people don’t necessarily love a wastewater treatment facility, and paying for it with a penny tax doesn’t give people a warm fuzzy feeling, they love what it brings – jobs, retail, industrial and residential growth, recreation, all of that and, quite frankly, lower property taxes in the end,” Robinson said.
The county has scheduled a virtual town hall meeting for 6 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 6 to explain the plan and answer any questions from the public. To register for the webinar meeting, go to: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_sbFWi2blQxSOIVks-WpNdw.
WINNSBORO – Efforts to potentially relocate Winnsboro’s
Confederate monument is unlikely until at least 2021, according to Fairfield
County officials.
Fairfield County Council discussed, but took no action on a request from the Town of Winnsboro to relocate the town’s Confederate monument from its current location at the Mt. Zion Institute grounds to the Fairfield County museum.
A confederate monument stands on the edge of the Mt. Zion Institute property. | Barbara Ball
County leaders cited the S.C. Heritage Act, which prohibits
governmental agencies from removing Confederate and other war memorials from
public property. A two-thirds vote in the state House and Senate is required to
override this requirement.
“I don’t think there’s any action that can be taken by this
council at this time,” said county attorney Tommy Morgan. “The town has brought
this to the council’s attention, but there’s nothing that can be done.”
The Winnsboro monument depicts a Confederate soldier and his
rifle atop an obelisk near the corner of Hudson and Zion streets in Winnsboro.
It was relocated from Congress Street to the school campus
in the 1960s after a street widening project in town, according to the S.C.
Picture Project, a non-profit that maintains an online database of historically
significant landmarks.
County Administrator Jason Taylor said it was the town that
initiated the request to the county to relocate the monument. That request was
made following a guest editorial published on June 25, in The Voice by
Fairfield County NAACP President Jennifer Jenkins calling for the removal of
the monument from the grounds of the former Mount Zion School.
During the July town council meeting, Winnsboro Mayor Roger
Gaddy said the town is merely exploring options.
“We’re not moving it [right now],” Gaddy said. “We’re just
exploring our different options and how to legally apply those options. We’re
not going to do anything illegal.”
Fairfield County Councilman Moses Bell asked if the county’s
legislative delegation would be able to request to move the monument.
Morgan said the delegation lacks that authority. He said the
town’s request is contingent upon any potential revisions to the Heritage Act.
Bills to that effect have been filed in the General
Assembly. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a limited number of items are
likely to be taken up this year, meaning it will likely be at least 2021 before
bills addressing the Heritage Act are taken up, Morgan said.
Bell said that he’s “very appreciative that the Town of
Winnsboro looked at this and saw the harm that it’s doing to the community by
the confederate monument being directly in front of where we’re going to have
the new administration building.”
Councilman Douglas Pauley thought moving the monument should
be the town’s responsibility, not the county’s.
“This monument has always been in the Town of Winnsboro’s
jurisdiction and they’re responsible for it. I don’t see the need for them to
want to give it to us and for us to accept the monument and put it on a piece
of county property,” Pauley said. “If the heritage act is approved, they can
find a more suitable location that they own instead of it being on a piece of
county property.”
Adopted in 2000, the Heritage Act protects most monuments.
In part it reads:
“No Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Mexican War, War Between
the States, Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, Korean War,
Vietnam War, Persian Gulf War, Native American, or African-American History
monuments or memorials erected on public property of the State or any of its
political subdivisions may be relocated, removed, disturbed, or altered.”
FAIRFIELD COUNTY – With the announcement of $3.3 million in
approved grant funding, Fairfield County is a step closer to its plan to extend
broadband Internet service to rural residents.
The funding approval announced Aug. 26 by the South Carolina
Broadband Infrastructure Program will help local communications provider
TruVista extend access to households in the county that don’t currently have
broadband. And because the money comes from the Coronavirus Relief Fund, it
must be spent by the end of the year.
“They’re going to be connecting homes between now and
Christmas,” said Jim Stritzinger, whose Columbia-based consulting company has
been working with local leaders on their broadband efforts.
The $3.3 million for Fairfield is part of $26.7 million
approved for broadband expansion statewide. In TruVista’s service area, it also
includes $1.4 million for neighboring Chester County and is targeted for
communities impacted by COVID-19.
It’s a helpful step in the effort as officials await word on
a much larger grant that TruVista applied for (with the enthusiastic support of
Fairfield County leaders) earlier this year through the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, which if approved would put more than $20 million toward new
broadband infrastructure in the county over the next five years.
County officials began looking at the issue in earnest two
years ago and were awarded a small grant for training to help them access
broadband funding. But this year, during the pandemic, the disparity between
areas that have broadband access and areas that don’t has taken center stage.
In the time of social distancing, those who lack broadband
access – an estimated 193,000 people across the state – have faced difficulties
in three areas needed to carry on life and the economy: education (online
schooling), telehealth (online doctor visits), and telecommuting (online work).
“Households are becoming increasingly reliant on fast,
reliable, and always-on internet connection for learning, work or to seek
medical care and advice,” said Carla French, President and COO of TruVista, in
an emailed statement.
“Between our partnership with the state of South Carolina
and the potential of further USDA ReConnect grant money, we look forward to
bringing broadband services to underserved areas in Fairfield and Chester
counties.”
In addition to the planned expansion of infrastructure,
TruVista has also been working with school districts to provide broadband
connections to households with school-age children, according to the company.
The immediate concern with education is that, without a
reliable connection to participate in online classes, rural students could
quickly fall behind.
Broadband has become so essential in today’s world,
Stritzinger compares it to electricity. The effort to expand rural broadband
access he compares to the rural electrification effort of the 1930s, which
likewise subsidized infrastructure with public funds to connect less populated
areas.
The programs work, he said, by offsetting the higher cost of
rural infrastructure enough for the remaining private investment to make sense
within the broadband provider’s normal business calculations, making a
company’s return on investment similar to that of building infrastructure in
more densely populated places.
Beyond immediate needs, Fairfield County Economic
Development Director Ty Davenport said broadband infrastructure will have a
major impact on the county’s development future. And it’s critical for any
rural community that seeks to be competitive in today’s economy.
“Internet service is foundational, just like water and
sewer. If it’s not there, industry, business – whether it’s commercial or
manufacturing – probably isn’t going to come,” Davenport said.
“[In addition to that], more and more you’re going to see
people working away from the office or the plant or whatever their normal
workplace is, and they’ve got to be connected. And if they can’t be connected,
they’re not going to build or buy a home in a rural part of Fairfield County or
any county.”
Stritzinger said the two grants together – the $3.3 million
that was just approved and the larger grant applied for with USDA – will have a
major impact on extending broadband access to Fairfield County’s rural
communities in need.
“If the USDA grant comes through as well, the combination of
the two of them will help solve Fairfield County’s internet vacuum, or most of
it, which is extraordinary,” he said. “It’ll make a major impact – a
life-changing impact on Fairfield County. No doubt about it.”
