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Tag: ridgeway town council

  • Ridgeway Council to look at land snafu

    RIDGEWAY – The Ridgeway Town Council hopes to conduct interviews with a potential new attorney next month who may represent the town in ongoing legal battles over an ill-handled land acquirement contract last year.

    In November, the council learned that it was required to continue paying $320 annually for the right-of-way use attached to cotton yard property it purchased earlier in the year from Norfolk Southern Railroad for $80,000.

    The lease requirement was not communicated to the council by attorney Kathleen McDaniels at any time during the purchase process, according to Mayor Heath Cookendorfer.

    Last week, Cookendorfer told The Voice that the he had been speaking with multiple attorneys throughout the surrounding areas in an attempt to find representation for council. He said the town is at a disadvantage when it comes to finding adequate representation because it cannot afford to maintain an attorney by retainer, and instead must seek spot representation when needed.

    “We are just too small to justify spending that kind of money on an attorney, but my hope is to narrow down our search by next month’s meeting,” Cookendorfer stated.

    As he and other council members narrow their field of choices down to one, Cookendorfer said he hopes to have the prospect present at the Feb. 14 town council meeting for questioning from the full council and ultimately a vote on whether to proceed with an agreement for representation.

    Cookendorfer said that meeting would include an executive session for the panel to question the attorney.

    During public comments Thursday night, Ridgeway resident Randy Bright suggested the council consider posting budget reports online through the town’s website so that they are available to be viewed by the public.

    “I think it would be helpful to everyone and would add an additional layer of transparency,” Randy stated.

    Cookendorfer agreed with the suggestion and said the town could look into the process of posting financial and budget reports online in the near future.

    Thursday’s council meeting also included a brief discussion on the construction of public restrooms downtown. A special called meeting is set for Thursday to review the architect’s rendering of the proposed project.

    Cookendorfer said the council would hold further discussion before bids are let.

    In other business, Cookendorfer requested the town contact SCE&G over what he called ‘concerning’ energy bills from the former police station building.

    Despite having allegedly disconnected all services, financial reports reviewed Thursday night showed that the town was still being billed $440 in November for utilities at the unused building. Cookendorfer said it was council’s understanding that only security cameras were still being operated at the building, and that everything else had been turned off.

    “Let’s reach out to them and make sure that everything has been disconnected as we were told,” Cookendorfer advised.

  • RW book funding voted down

    RIDGEWAY – The Ridgeway Town Council denied a request last week to approve $1,000 from the general fund to publish a book about the heritage and history of the town.

    Former mayor Charlene Herring appeared before Council Dec. 13 to request they follow through on a 2017 vote to fund the book’s publishing costs.

    Herring said the costs to publish the book had originally been estimated at $2,271, the lowest bid submitted by ByFarr out of Columbia. That amount, Herring told council, would publish 125 copies of a 100-page book that details the town’s history. The bid specified $1,200 for printing, $975 for designing pages and scanning photos and $95 tax. The bid price also included 24 color photos and an unknown number of posters at a cost of $3 each.

    A note on the bid document stated that, “color pages may reduce the cost as we may not need (them).” Nothing was said by Herring or council about a reduction in pricing or the inclusion of the 24 color pages or the $3 posters.

    Herring said if the Town sells all the books at $20 per copy, the total profit would be $229.

    The book had originally been planned for publication in early 2017. Council voted unanimously at that time to pay for the project with the town’s hospitality tax (H-tax) revenue and then funnel the profits from the sale of the book into the general fund.

    After being informed by the state’s Municipal Association that, according to state statute, any profits from a book funded with H-tax revenue would have to be returned to the H-tax fund and not to the general fund, Council rescinded its vote.

    Council then narrowly passed, by a 3-2 vote, a new motion to withdraw money for the book’s publication from the town’s general fund and return any profits from the book’s sales back to the general fund as prescribed by state statute.

    Council members Angela Harrison and Heath Cookendorfer voted against the new measure.

    In October, Herring appeared before council to revisit the book’s funding, and at the December council meeting, Herring told she had secured over half the amount needed to cover the cost of publishing the book and asked council for a new amount of just $1,000 to make the book a reality. She said the profits from the sale of the book would be returned to the town.

    “I believe the book is a great, unique story about Ridgeway and I hope to begin finalizing as soon as possible if approved,” Herring stated. She said the book would include interviews with citizens and historical photographs of the area, businesses and local events. However, she did not have any of the documents with her to show to council.

    Herring faced strong opposition for her project from the Heritage/Culture Committee whose chairwoman, Jon P. Ward told council at the Dec. 13 meeting that the committee had pulled its support for the project at the end of 2017, and had provided a letter to the town’s administration stating that it no longer endorsed the project.

    In the letter, Ward said she had initially helped Herring negotiate for the book a large collection of early photographs pertaining to the people and places in Ridgeway, but that many of the photographs were returned to the owner last March, eliminating their use in the book as initially planned.

    “It is for this reason that I cannot support the publication of the book as originally planned,” Ward wrote.

    Ward went on to tell council at the meeting that Herring had withheld half of the photos lent to her for the project – an allegation that Herring denied during the meeting.

    “That’s like accusing me of theft; I don’t do that. People should know my reputation and what I stand for,” Herring told the council.

    During council’s discussion, Angela Harrison and Donald Prioleau expressed their support for the project.

    “I don’t like going back on something I already approved before,” Prioleau stated.

    Mayor Heath Cookendorfer said he questioned the book’s merits considering the current lack of support from the Heritage/Culture Committee. Cookendorfer said he had initially given his support to Herring and the book, but that the change of heart by the committee had made him hesitant to move forward on the project.

    “Yes it’s a thousand dollars, but this letter (of disapproval) is a little bit alarming to me. I want to know what the underlying issue is,” Cookendorfer stated.

    Councilman Dan Martin said he believed the town would not stand to make much profit from the book’s sales based on current information provided to the town.

    “It’s not about profit, it’s about the town,” Harrison countered.

    Council member Rufus Jones requested an excerpt from the book for the council to review before proceeding.

    Herring said she only had hand-written copies of transcribed interviews from local families, along with photos, and excerpts from other books that she would be using in the Ridgeway book. With nothing to show council, Herring asked them to accept her word about what the book would offer.

    “I ask this question: when have I not ever delivered on anything I have promised for this town,” Herring answered to Cookendorfer’s request.

    “I think it’s a great book and would be great PR for the town,” she stated.

    In the end, the council chose not to proceed on the project, with only Harrison and Prioleau casting votes in favor of funding $1,000 to the project.

  • Ridgeway council deals with losses

    Sidewalks reduced from 1.7 miles to 3,375 feet

    RIDGEWAY – Ridgeway Town Council gave the official green light Thursday night to a $500,000 sidewalk construction project that started out as 1.7 miles (8069 linear feet) of sidewalk throughout the town and ended up as only 3,375 linear feet of sidewalk along the north side of S.C. 34 – for the same $500,000 price.

    As proposed by Councilwoman Angela Harrison two years ago, the sidewalks were designed to connect the town’s historic downtown with the new town park and playground, improve sidewalk access to 600 town residents and improve pedestrian safety along S.C 34.

    Harrison initially said the new sidewalks would create a network of five miles of sidewalks along major thoroughfares and Ridgeway’s historic walking tour to promote transportation alternative tourism visits and economic growth for Ridgeway.

    But she told Council members last week that the $500,000 will now cover only 3,375 linear feet of ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant sidewalk beginning at South Means Street and continuing to Long Road.

    The project was paid for with $11,400 from the Town as part of a $57,000 matching grant from Fairfield County, $43,000 from the Fairfield County Transportation Committee (CTC) and $400,000 from the South Carolina Department of Transportation’s (SCDOT) Transportation alternative Program (TAP).

    The unanimous vote from council came after a lengthy discussion about the 65 percent increase in price over the two-year course of the project’s approval.

    “The price has increased from $100 a square foot to $250 a square foot over the past two years because that is how long it has taken me to work the system to get this to happen,” Harrison stated.

    Councilman Dan Martin questioned the validity of Harrison’s figures, saying that council received a proposal from her as recently as August that showed the town was getting 1.7 linear miles of sidewalk for $55 per linear foot.

    Harrison responded that the change in the figures was because of information provided by SCDOT, but had no other explanation as to why the project was not finalized earlier at the lower cost. Harrison missed four council meetings in 2018, between May and November.

    “DOT is the one who filled out the application. When those figures changed, I can’t do anything about that and when I looked at the project and looked at what the management fees are at this point those figures have changed,” Harrison said.

    She said further discussion on the prices would need to be directed to SCDOT.

    Other discussions focused on the responsibility for future maintenance of the sidewalks upon their completion. According to town documents, the Town of Ridgeway must assume all responsibility for maintenance for the life of the sidewalks.  More than half the sidewalks being constructed are outside the town limits, making the city legally responsible for a county sidewalk.

    Councilman Donald Prioleau likened the council’s discussion over the project’s details to “beating a dead horse” and urged the council towards its ultimate approval.

    “A person was killed on 34. Now, the city will take care of what is within town limits. All we have to do is go back to the county and let them adjust it (the contract). I’m for this 300 percent,” Prioleau stated.

    Prioleau made his motion immediately after his statements, and the vote was taken without further debate.

    The council also picked up discussions on a water line upgrade for the south end of Highway 34 where residents do not have access to fire hydrants. Harrison volunteered to spearhead research on the project with the town’s public works department and is expected to bring more information to council at a future meeting.

  • Ridgeway must now pay for access to Cotton Yard

    RIDGEWAY – The town council of Ridgeway learned last week that it must pay a lease fee to access the town’s own Cotton Yard it purchased earlier this year, essentially making its purchase and control over the property a hollow accomplishment.

    According to information presented during the town council meeting on Nov. 8, the town received an invoice from Norfolk Southern Railroad in the amount of $320. Mayor Heath Cookendorfer told council that upon his request for further explanation of the invoice, he was told that the town is being required to enter into a leasing agreement with the railroad every year from now on to gain access to the Cotton Yard which the town purchased in May at the price of $80,000.

    Whether attorney Kathleen McDaniels, who handled the closing on the property for the Town, knew at the time of the purchase that the easement was not included in the property purchase is now a hot subject of inquiry for the town.

    “This is a situation where we kind of all inherited this issue, so at this point in time I am going to go to the next level to find out why this information was not a part of the (purchase) discussion,” Cookendorfer stated Thursday night.

    The purchase of the .6 acre cotton yard property was a process begun in 2014 by former mayor Charlene Herring. For decades, the town was allowed unrestricted use of the cotton yard, but in 2014, Herring began corresponding with Norfolk Southern about the limitations of its use – without the approval of town council.

    Through the course of 2014 through 2016, Herring contacted the railroad directly regarding a sod truck and several ‘for sale’ vehicles that parked on the property. All contact made by Herring was done against the advice of council, actions that were repeatedly condemned by the panel.

    Because one such user of the property was Rufus Jones, a former political opponent of Herring’s, some openly questioned the motives of Herring’s contact with the railroad. Herring, however, said at the time that she had received questions from members of the community about the vehicles parking on the lot.

    Despite warnings from then-council member Cookendorfer and others on council that Herring was “poking a sleeping giant” by making repeated contact with the railroad about the property, Herring continued.

    In 2016, railroad officials responded to the town with an ultimatum; purchase or get off the property. Norfolk Southern threatened to install a fence to ensure the town could not utilize the property without purchasing it.

    With only three votes from the five-member council in favor of the motion, Herring pushed forward with the purchase just weeks before the election for a new mayor.

    The total cost of the property included approximately $20,000 in survey costs and legal fees which were paid by the town to McDaniels to close the deal. Cookendorfer told the Voice that his office will be drafting a letter to send to McDaniels for clarification on the purchase details.

    In addition, the town has yet to receive the deed to the property, something that McDaniels had said the council would have further information on within 30 days after closing in June. Cookendorfer said his letter to McDaniels would request information on both issues.

  • Harrison’s criticism of council mailings backfires

    RIDGEWAY – During last week’s town council meeting, which amounted to little more than ‘he-said she-said,’ Councilwoman Angela Harrison, who had not attended the last three town council meetings, complained that someone had made public a letter of complaint written to town hall by Dr. Roberta Howard, Assistant Principal of Geiger Elementary School. Harrison said she was sure it was a council member who had made the letter public and that a citizen had then forwarded Howard’s letter to Fairfield County School Superintendent J. R. Green, complaining that Howard had written the letter.

    While Harrison offered no proof that any of the council members had made the letter public, correspondence to the town government from citizens is generally public information and can be obtained by any citizen or the media with either a verbal re quest or a Freedom of Information request (Sec. 30-4-30 of the Freedom of Information Act).

    Harrison charged that council members send out emails or other correspondence without first sharing a copy with her.

    “So you’re saying you’ve never shared any of these complaints with the public? Councilman Dan Martin asked.

    “Huh?” Harrison asked Martin.

    “You’re saying you never shared any of these emails with the public? Martin repeated.

    “I was just saying that…” Harrison began.

    “I’m asking you,” Martin interrupted, “did you share any of these emails with anyone in the public?

    “Yes” Harrison said. “But did I try to ruin someone’s life by calling Dr. Green to complain about freedom of speech? This is America. This is freedom of speech. We all have a right and none of us should be retaliated against because we’re speaking it. I feel retaliated against because I’m not being afforded the information that’s coming out of this council or from the mayor or anybody else. And people are getting accosted,” Harrison continued.

    “No one should be standing on the porch and be accosted by anybody because they asked a simple question. If you’re telling people to go attack other people, things need to come to a stop. This is America, not Russia,” Harrison said. “You are messing with people’s lives.”

    Harrison claimed she had been accosted, but did not give any details of the incident.

    “So if I’m understanding this, you said you sent out a correspondence without letting council see it first?” Mayor Heath Cookendorfer asked Harrison.

    “Yes, I did,” Harrison said.

    “Who did you share it with,” Cookendorfer asked.

    “The NAACP,” Harrison answered.

    “That is the only one you shared information with?” Cookendorfer asked.

    “Yes, that I’m aware of,” Harrison said.

    Martin picked up a paper from his desk.

    “I was given this the other day,” Martin said. “You posted on social media that you had forwarded an email to WLTX,” Martin said, and read from what he said was a copy of Harrison’s Facebook post: ’This is a sad day for Ridgeway. There definitely needs to be an investigation [in]to all the ‘mistakes’ in our system and all the complaints against employees that are ignored. The emails keep coming…’”

    “Yep,” Harrison interjected.

    Martin continued reading from Harrison’s post.

    “‘This particular one [email] proves collusion. I stand against conspiracy,’” Martin read.

    “Then you got a response from a citizen that said, ‘So did I. I sent it to all three [TV] stations, SLED and the FBI and more,’” Martin continued as Harrison talked over him.

    “So you shared it [email] with WLTX-TV, the NAACP and our citizens,” Martin said.

    “We can share anything we want.” Harrison said. “So, yeah.”

    “So what I’m hearing is that you want us to provide all the information with you that we send out,” Cookendorfer said to Harrison. “But you say you sent an email to WLTX-TV, the NAACP and a citizen. Did anyone else on council see that document?”

    Harrison pointed out that they now have the information she posted.

    “You want us to provide you with our information,” Cookendorfer repeated, “but you don’t want to provide us with your information.”

    In the end, Harrison agreed that she, too, would provide the town with any correspondence she sent out, saying it would be a joint effort.

    In other business, council disclosed that the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints had scheduled a workday in Ridgeway for April 2019 and wanted suggestions as to where in the town their clean-up services might be best used.

  • Martin: email complaints, praises mostly bogus

    RIDGEWAY – A rancorous Ridgeway Town Council meeting last week was marked by repeated interruptions from Councilwoman Angela Harrison who spent the better part of the meeting chastising other council members for perceived slights, including not sending her every communication that emanated from each council member while she was on an extended summer vacation [July and August], during which she missed three council meetings.

    Mayor Heath Cookendorfer informed Harrison that she could have copies of council’s communications upon request and that the town clerk would provide them to her as time permitted.

    But Harrison wanted more.

    “I want a copy every month of every bank statement for every bank account, including the investment fund,” Harrison fired back. “Under the Freedom of Information Act, I have a right to that.”

    Among her string of criticisms, Harrison questioned whether complaints that council received over the last couple of years against former Ridgeway Police Chief Christopher Culp might have been ‘bogus.’ She asked if council had investigated those complaints.

    The Voice obtained copies of those complaints from town hall through a Freedom of Information request in June and published many of them last summer. Most could be traced to individuals in the community. Some had brought their complaints before before the public at council meetings.

    Councilman Dan Martin said he had looked into an additional group of 41 emails submitted over a very short time, beginning June 19, five days after the June meeting when a motion was made (but not voted on) to terminate Culp, and ending July 26.

    Martin said of those 41 emails, 27 praised Culp and 14 criticized two town employees who, he said, had not had a single complaint in their employee files over the more than 10 years that each had been employed by the town government.

    “Something smelled fishy,” Martin said.

    He said that since the 41 emails contained no phone numbers or addresses for verification he contacted all the writers by return email and invited them to bring their complaints to town hall, Martin said.

    ‘If you do not respond in seven days,’ the email from town hall stated, ‘your email will be considered null and void.’

    “We got one response that stated the writer was too busy to respond,” Martin said.

    Martin said he tried to verify the authenticity of the 41 emails.

    To find the source of each email, Martin said he went to the server for each email received and requested that the password for that email address be texted to the phone number associated with the email. He said he received the last two digits of each phone number associated with the emails.

    ”I received the last two digits of the phone numbers associated with 35 of the emails. Nothing came up for the other six,” Martin said.

    According to Martin, the results of his investigation, based on the last two digits of the phone numbers pointed to only nine phone numbers being associated with the 35 emails.

    He gave the following breakdown of the two digit numbers – 16 phone numbers ended with 35, five ended with 50, four ended with 77, three ended with 29, two ended with 53, two ended with 81, one ended with 90, one ended with 91, and one ended with 96.

    Martin said the coincidence of so many phone numbers ending with the same two digits in such a small sample is mathematically unlikely.

    “It doesn’t make any sense,” Martin said. “As far as I’m concerned, those emails are pretty much all bogus.

    “Going forward,” Martin said after the meeting, “we need to ask that when anyone communicates their complaints, compliments or suggestions to the town hall, that they include their names, addresses and phone numbers so that we can get back to them and properly address the issue,” Martin said.

  • Martin: Sheriff’s contract saves Ridgeway $70K a year

    RIDGEWAY – After voting on Aug. 9 to contract with the Fairfield County Sheriff’s office for law enforcement services for the Town of Ridgeway and on Aug. 11 to defund the Ridgeway Police Department, Town Councilman Dan Martin reported that the change would save the Town approximately $70,000 annually.

    “The fact is, we spent $108K on our police department last year. That’s what it cost after deducting the revenue the town took in for traffic tickets,” Martin said. “What we are proposing will be the same or better coverage and will cost us about 39,000 a year.”

    Martin said the town would be getting more police coverage by contracting with the Sheriff’s Department than it had funding its own police department.

    “According to our chief’s own records, he patrolled the town six hours and fifteen minutes per day, on an average of five days a week,” Martin said. Because Culp scheduled longer hours for himself on some of the days, he was on duty only four days during some weeks, Martin explained.

    Martin said that on days/weeks when Culp was away on vacation or training sessions, the town had coverage only from the Sheriff’s department but had no officer on duty within the town.

    “We won’t have this with a contract officer,” Martin said. He said the town would have an off-duty Fairfield County Sheriff’s deputy on duty in the town six hours a day, five days a week every week. He said the Sheriff’s department would continue to provide round-the-clock law enforcement for the town the other 18 hours just as it does now. The on-duty officer would be paid $25 per hour.

    “What we’re doing is equal or better than we have right now,” Martin said. “These off-duty police officers are highly trained, professional men and women who are more than adequately prepared to protect us. No one on this council would allow this town to go unprotected,” Martin said.

    Jones added that small towns are more and more abandoning their police departments for contracted security from county sheriff departments.

    “Blythewood contracts with Richland County, Lugoff with Kershaw County, Jenkinsville with Fairfield County,” Jones said.

    Martin provided The Voice with a list of the some of the biggest expenses the Town had last year in funding its own police department.

    Culp’s total salary expenses – $49K+; office expenses, supplies, equipment, legal and professional – $4,073; utilities – $7,248; fuel and maintenance for two patrol cars – $6,081 and insurance – $10,778. The town recently purchased a new Tahoe for Culp at a cost of approximately $34,000 and there were other miscellaneous expenses.

    There was also the cost of $4,000 for the town to provide court and a judge that are required when the town has a police department.

    “We could use this money in better ways, to provide more and better services to our citizens,” Martin said.

    But Councilman Donald Prioleau disagreed.

    “We aren’t putting the safety of our citizens first,” Prioleau countered. “Chief Culp is a top police officer that raised policing to a professional level and his criminal justice experience is helping to hold down crime. We make three to four times what our foreparents made and they had a police department and we’re getting rid of our police department with the salaries we make today. Let the citizens advise council what they want for safety,” Prioleau insisted. “We’re on the wrong track.”

    “You say we have a great officer. That’s okay,” Martin said. “But what you’re saying is that our officer is better than the Fairfield County Sheriff’s officers. That they cannot do as good a job as our officer.

    “That’s not true.”

    Martin said the contract off-duty officer(s) who serve the town will patrol a mixture of daytime and nighttime hours.

  • Council defunds RWPD and Culp

    RIDGEWAY – After failing on Aug. 9, to finalize a vote to defund its Police Department, the Ridgeway Town Council held a special meeting Saturday, Aug. 11, at 10 am to pass the vote.

    Following executive session at the Aug. 9 meeting, Councilman Dan Martin moved to ‘implement a reduction in force by eliminating funding for the town’s police department personnel, non-personnel and capital expenditures effective Friday, Aug. 10, at 9:01 a.m.”

    Mayor Heath Cookendorfer seconded the motion.

    Before council could vote, however, Councilman Don Prioleau made what he called a substitute motion to call a town hall meeting before defunding the police department. Council, in its confusion, then stumbled into increasingly familiar territory – another parliamentary faux pas.

    “I would call for a town hall meeting where the citizens of the town would be able to help and guide council which way we might proceed,” Prioleau said. “So I offer a substitute motion that would have a town hall meeting for deciding on the police department.”

    A lengthy discussion then ensued on which motion to vote on first and whether or not to vote on the first (Martin’s) motion at all after the second motion failed 3-1.

    At one point, a woman from the audience walked up to the council table, interrupted proceedings and addressed the mayor and council without identifying herself or asking permission to speak.

    “I’m very concerned about something that happened while you all were in executive session,” the woman said as she laid a paper on the council table and pushed it toward the mayor and Prioleau. She then walked back to her seat to the bewilderment of council and the audience.

    Then, without comment, Cookendorfer and Prioleau, returned to bantering over whether to vote on the first motion.

    Finally, Cookendorfer warily accepted Prioleau’s parliamentary tact that the first motion actually won without a vote since the second motion failed.

    Councilman Dan Martin objected to that reasoning, insisting that the first motion still needed a vote. Prioleau prevailed, however, and Cookendorfer announced that the first motion, to defund the police department, passed, 3-1 without a vote.

    Martin then made a second motion to authorize the mayor to sign an agreement of understanding with the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Department to provide law enforcement for Ridgeway.

    “What we’re doing,” Martin said, “is hiring off-duty Fairfield County Sheriff’s deputies to come and patrol our town for however many hours we contract an officer to be here. We will have that officer here to protect the town, and he will not leave during the time he’s on duty,” Martin said.

    “When the contracted officer is not on duty, we will still have the same round-the-clock service from the Sheriff’s department we’ve always had, just like when Chief Culp was not on duty. We still had 24-hour protection provided by the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Department. Plus we’ll have a contracted officer five days a week here in town.

    Councilman Rufus Jones added that Culp would receive three weeks’ pay plus pay for three weeks of vacation upon separation from the Town.

    “It’s a bad day in Ridgeway!” former mayor Charlene Herring, a Culp supporter, shouted out immediately after council voted to adjourn the meeting. She continued to talk loudly as the audience dispersed, but what she said was not clear.

    Armed with advice from the S.C. Municipal Association that the non-vote for the first motion, to defund the police department, was just that – a non-vote, Cookendorfer, on Friday, called a special meeting for Saturday, at which time council voted 3-1 to pass the motion to defund the police department, effectively immediately.

    NOTE: Following the Aug. 9 meeting, The Voice obtained the handwritten note the unidentified woman left on the dias. Titled ‘Evidence of Collusion,’ it stated that Councilman Rufus Jones winked his eye at a person the woman said is well known to be obsessed with causing harm to the chief of police.

    Asked about the wink, Jones said it was a common practice for him to smile and wink at people he knows.

    “Everyone who knows me knows I do that,” Jones said.

  • RW lifts ban on overnight parking

    RIDGEWAY – Overnight parking is legal once again in Ridgeway, but only for brief durations and under certain circumstances.

    By a 3-0 vote at its July meeting, the Ridgeway Town Council amended its overnight parking ordinance to allow for overnight parking for up to 48 hours. Town permission is needed for longer periods.

    In October 2017, the council under different leadership enacted the ban, largely due to a sod truck that sometimes parked overnight in the Cotton Yard.

    The town, however, backed up on the ban, opting instead to allow a 48-hour grace period.

    “Additional parking needs to be approved by the police department or town council,” Prioleau said. “In the past we’ve had people go on cruises or family reunions, so sometimes we park a few cars longer than 48 hours, and this [ordinance] would restrict that.”

    Mayor Heath Cookendorfer, who in the past has supported limited overnight parking, said the process Prioleau requested was being built into the amended ordinance. He said anyone wishing to park longer than 48 hours should fill out a form.

    “If after that time frame is up and your car is still there, we’d notify you and say we need you to move your vehicle,” Cookendorfer said.

    In addition, parking longer than 48 hours would be allowed with permission for special events.

    Cookendorfer did say he wanted to restrict how long cars for sale can be parked overnight.

    “In the past, we’ve had cars set up out there [with ‘for sale’ signs] for months on end,” he said.

    Priolieau wanted to allow cars for sale for up to 10 days, which the council approved.

    The July parking debate was substantially more civil than previous parking talks.

    At the October 2017 meeting, discussion grew heated over trailers parked at the Cotton Yard, near where Ridgeway’s former mayor lived.

    And at the June 2018 council meeting, tempers flared between Councilwoman Angela Harrison and Rufus Jones.

    Harrison insisted that Jones abstain from voting on first reading of the ordinance because she said Jones sometimes parks vehicles overnight.

    “I have a picture of it if you would like to see it,” Harrison said.

    Jones declined to recuse himself.

    Other council members expressed concern that residents of Winnsboro and other communities might take advantage of overnight parking in Ridgeway.

    At the June meeting, Cookendorfer said while overnight parking does invite abuse, disallowing it altogether was too restrictive.

    “You do get some people up there putting their car up for sale and abusing it,” Corkendorfer said.

    In other business at the July meeting, the council approved final reading to an ordinance that increases water and sewer rates by 2 percent.

    Originally the town considered 4 percent, but dropped it to 2 percent at the June meeting.

    “Ridgeway has one of the highest rates in the state,” Jones said at the June meeting. “I think we should give that to the community.”

    There was no discussion at the July meeting. The vote passed unanimously.

    In June, the vote passed 4-1, with Harrison opposing because she supported 4 percent. Harrison was absent from the July meeting, as was Jones.

    The Ridgeway ordinance increases resident water rates to $16.58 for the first 1,000 gallons and $5.68 for each additional 1,000 gallons. Residents pay $16.25 for the first 1,000 gallons and $5.57 for each additional 1,000 gallons, according to the town.

    Sewer rates will rise from $13.25 to $13.52 for the first 1,000 gallons and from $5.04 to $5.14 for each additional 1,000 gallons.

    Non-residents will pay $21.93 for the first 1,000 gallons of water and $7.03 for each additional 1,000 gallons.

    Non-resident sewer rates rise to $14.79 for the first 1,000 gallons and $6.22 for each 1,000 gallons, council documents state.

    Commercial water customers will pay higher rates as well.

  • County leases facility for RW library

    The old Ridgeway Post Office is being renovated for the temporary library.

    RIDGEWAY – During a special meeting last week, county council voted unanimously to execute a two-year lease on the old Ridgeway post office property at Palmer and Jones streets for a temporary library site in the town.

    The deal includes an option to renew for another two years and possibly purchase the property. Rent would cost $850 a month the first year and $892 a month in year two.

    Fairfield County Administrator Jason Taylor said at its previous location, the library had already been paying $600 a month out of its millage for operations. The county would pick up the difference, he said.

    “[The property owner] wanted to go up in the other two years, and we pushed back on that,” Taylor said. “We looked at a number of locations and did determine this was the best. Others would need a lot more upfitting, or had no parking or would be much more expensive.”

    When the time comes to build a permanent site, the county will consider pursuing a Community Development Block Grant, or CDBG, to help pay for it.

    Eric Robinson, director of the Fairfield County Library has told Council that the library board wants the permanent site to be in the town.

    Ridgeway resident Moses Bell, who has announced he is running for the Ridgeway District 1 seat on county council, voiced concerns at the June 25 council meeting that the proposed temporary site is near what Bell said is a liquor store.

    Bell told council members he was contacted by a woman who called him, hysterical about the temporary site at Palmer and Jones street.

    “She had stated that in many municipalities, they have ordinances stating that liquor stores and bars cannot be located next to a public building,” he said. Bell did not identify those municipalities or the ordinances.

    Bell said he wants a library built outside the town next to the county waste and recycle center.

    Councilman Dan Ruff, who represents District 1 on county council, said the Palmer and Jones site is only temporary, noting the long-term plan is to build a permanent library elsewhere.

    “We’ve looked and looked. I’ve been looking for months for a good location,” Ruff said. “This one became available.”

    “We’ve been without a library for a year now,” Ruff continued. “We don’t want to wait two to four years until we can get another permanent site.”

    As for the library’s surroundings, Ruff didn’t see any issues.

    “Actually there’s a road and a cyclone fence before you get to the convenience store (City Gas) which has a liquor store attached,” Ruff said. “There’s also a church behind the liquor store, directly behind it. We have not had any issues with the store and I just don’t think that would be an issue.”

    County administrator Jason Taylor said the county will take over the leased property on July 1, and that renovations should be completed before the start of the school year in August.

    The Ridgeway branch of the Fairfield County Library closed in September 2017. It shut down after the building experienced leaks and mold issues.

    On June 15, the Ridgeway Town Council considered five proposed sites for the permanent library location.

    “[The county] asked us as a council to review some options that have been floating around for a while,” Ridgeway Mayor Heath Cookendorfer said.

    Those sites included:

    • Old Fire Department, Palmer Street
    • Teacherage, Means Street
    • First Citizens Bank property, Palmer and East Church streets
    • Charm Parking Lot, Means and Church streets
    • Fork of U.S. 21 and S.C. 34.

    Ridgeway Council members identified the Teacherage location as the preferred site, with the Charm Parking lot location as the runner-up.

    The Town of Ridgeway owns the Teacherage site. Fairfield County would have to purchase the Charm Parking lot site, though Cookendorfer said that when the county leaves a location, the property typically reverts back to the town.