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Street Repair Priorities Change at Retreat

BLYTHEWOOD (March 10, 2016) – After having spent the better part of a year planning and prioritizing Blythewood’s Penny Tax road widening and improvements projects that would, in its second phase, turn Blythewood Road into five lanes all the way from I-77 to Main Street, Town Council made an about face at its annual retreat on Saturday, opting instead to put that five-lane section of Blythewood Road on the back burner and upgrade the McNulty Road area with a walkable streetscape. That would include a road with two lanes and a median or a center lane, and then do the same for Blythewood Road but with parallel parking on either side, one lane each way and a landscaped median.

The issue was raised by Town Administrator Gary Parker last week in notes in the agenda packet asking the town government to come to terms with whether they wanted the Town Center to be walkable as provided in the Town’s Master Plan or divided by a high-traffic, five-lane road.

“The Master Plan calls for a walkable Town Center,” Parker told The Voice, “but that plan got set aside for a few years and I think the Council and residents lost sight of it.”

“Businesses like a walkable downtown area,” Parker told Council. “People spend more time looking in store windows and spend more dollars. The difficulty, as I see it, for McNulty and Blythewood roads to be made walkable is their proximity to I-77. Traffic comes off those ramps and into the gas stations and fast food restaurants. That makes walkability difficult.”

The current Penny Tax plan for Blythewood is divided into two phases. The first phase calls for the widening of Blythewood Road from I-77 to Syrup Mill Road. All the other projects are lumped into phase two, and include the McNulty Road and Blythewood Road (from I-77 to Main Street) projects.

But Parker said the Penny Tax program just budgets the dollars for improvement, leaving it up to Council to prioritize the projects.

Councilman Malcolm Gordge said when he recently broached the subject with Bob Perry, Transportation Director of Richland County, Perry seemed amenable to switching the priorities if they are brought to the Penny Tax committee’s attention in a timely manner.

Councilman Tom Utroska said he “would like for us to come up with a plan first and have a public comment meeting before we go to the Penny Tax Committee. And we need to put our plan together and present it before SCDOT (S.C. Department of Transportation) gets started. We need to listen to the people on this. They may say we’re nuts,” Utroska said. “But do we want to be a sleepy, at-ease town? Or do we want to become a thoroughfare? That’s where we’re headed.”

“This would be a wonderful opportunity for McNulty Road,” Mayor J. Michael Ross said, again stressing the importance of having a town hall meeting. “I think that’s the one (McNulty) we could showcase first, as a prototype, to see if it works. People could ride their bicycles and there wouldn’t be the traffic there that would get them killed. McNulty might be the very thing that we would say, let’s do this first and show what it’s like to have parallel parking downtown and it would be manageable.”

“The intent is to brainstorm and not let it drop,” Parker said. “Staff and I need to set down and figure out a schedule on the streetscape. We need to see this through.”

WINNSBORO (March 4, 2016) – After two years, efforts by a group of citizens to save and restore the Mt. Zion Institute at 205 N. Walnut St. may have finally come to an end.

Town Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to begin the process of transferring the deed to the property from the Friends of Mt. Zion Institute (FOMZI) back to the Town of Winnsboro. The decision came after a brief executive session during Tuesday’s regularly scheduled Council meeting.

“We had an agreement with FOMZI and the building was to be stabilized and we had an independent person to look at it and it’s not stabilized,” Winnsboro Mayor Roger Gaddy said after the meeting. “The deadline on that was September, so we’re about six months past that deadline. With them not being able to do that (stabilize the old school building), the agreement says we will transfer the deed back to the Town. That’s what we’re going to do.”

Gaddy said transferring the deed back to the Town does not necessarily mean the wrecking ball is on its way. At least not right away.

Council still has before it a proposal from the Banyan Foundation, presented in part to Council last month, to develop the former school building into market-value senior-living apartments. That proposal met with vociferous opposition during Council’s Feb. 16 meeting, but Tuesday night Gaddy said no decision had yet been made on the project.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen with that,” Gaddy said. “The first thing we want to do is get the possession of it (Mt. Zion) so we can make a decision ourselves on what we’re going to do.”

A major concern about the Banyan Foundation’s proposal, which Gaddy noted during the Feb. 16 meeting and reiterated Tuesday night, is whether or not the project would involve taxpayer dollars in the form of federal grants or loans. Federal money, Gaddy said, could eventually open the property to low-income housing – something Gaddy and Mt. Zion neighbors do not want.

Vickie Dodds, FOMZI Chairwoman, said during the Feb. 16 meeting that she also opposed low-income housing on the site, but urged Council to give the developer, Rob Coats, time to do his due diligence.

Reached by phone after Tuesday’s decision, Dodds said she was not surprised to learn of Council’s move to take the property away from FOMZI.

The citizens group has had control of the property since purchasing it from the Town for $5 two years ago. The transfer of the property to FOMZI came with the stipulation that the buildings had to be stabilized within 18 months in order to meet Winnsboro’s Dangerous Building Code or else be demolished. Dodds said Tuesday night that FOMZI’s efforts failed for lack of general support.

“From the get-go this has been a project that needed the Town, the County and the community behind it,” Dodds said, “but we haven’t gotten it from any of them. It’s just been a handful of us.”

Following Tuesday’s meeting, Gaddy said there had been some suggestions from FOMZI supporters that the group may attempt legal action in order to prevent the Town from taking back the property. Dodds said later that while that may be true, it was a position she did not share.

“We took it (the property) under the conditions they offered us and we didn’t do what they wanted us to do,” Dodds said. “But that doesn’t mean they (FOMZI board members) won’t do it (sue the Town). But they won’t do it with me as chairman.”

John Fantry, Winnsboro’s legal counsel on utilities, said the transfer could be completed in as little as 10 days if FOMZI didn’t put up a fight. If FOMZI did contest the transfer, he said, it could take as long as 18 months.

“I’m not sure what they’re going to do with it,” Dodds said. “If they tear it down, they’re making a big mistake.”

BLYTHEWOOD (Feb. 25, 2016) – Enticed by free Chick-Fil-A sandwiches and super food salads at a Chamber meeting on Tuesday at The Manor, a large crowd of Blythewood Chamber members and guests lunched and learned what’s in the Richland County Transportation Penny Program for Blythewood 29016.

Bob Perry, Transportation Director of Richland County and Tyler Clark of the S.C. Department of Transportation explained that Blythewood transportation penny improvements, totaling $29 million, will include a myriad of projects – road widenings, bikeways, sidewalks, intersection improvements, paving of dirt roads and resurfacing.

The crown jewel of the Blythewood improvements is the widening of Blythewood Road from I-77 to Highway 321. The first phase of that project will widen Blythewood Road to five lanes from I-77 to Syrup Mill Road at a cost of $10,519,000, not to include preliminary engineering costing $300,000 slated to begin this year. Right of way acquisition is expected to begin in 2017 and construction in 2018.

The second phase of Blythewood improvements includes the following:

-Widen Blythewood Road to five lanes from I-77 to Main Street.

-Widen Blythewood Road to three lanes from Syrup Mill Road to Fulmer Road.

-Widen McNulty Road to three lanes from Blythewood Road to Main Street.

-Construct traffic circles at Blythewood Road and Creech Road and at Blythewood Road and Cobblestone.

-Extend Creech Road to Highway 21 with a three-lane road.

When asked where on Highway 21 Creech Road would exit, Town Councilman Malcolm Gordge told The Voice that consideration was being given to two exit areas: 1) the road would run behind the IGA and on out to Highway 21 or 2) Creech Road would extend down to run Firetower Road and then exit Firetower Road out to Highway 21.

While Perry said there is no prioritization for the phase two projects at this time, the preliminary engineering is anticipated to begin in 2019 at a total cost of $21,911,000 for right of way acquisition and construction costs and $2 million for preliminary engineering.

While paving has been completed on five dirt roads in the Blythewood 29016 zip code – Overlook Drive, Annie Entzminger Court, Dunes Point, Peafowl Road, Elton Walker Road and Entzminger Road – 13 more roads in Blythewood 29016 are in the design phase and another 11 are in the planning phase.

Roundtree Road has been resurfaced and 12 more roads are in the resurfacing construction phase.

Bikeways planned for Blythewood Road from Winnsboro to Main Street have not begun.

Perry told the audience that the most important of 14 prioritization factors for completion of the Blythewood projects are public safety, potential for economic development, right of way obtained, design work completed and dedicated funds.

For updated information on the road improvements in the Blythewood community, go to www.RichlandPenny.com, email info@richlandpenny.com or call 1-844-RCPENNY.

Developer May Come to the Rescue

WINNSBORO (Feb. 12, 2016) – Next week could be the end of the line for a local citizen’s group battling to save the Mt. Zion Institute from the demolition man, unless Town Council is willing to wait a little longer for a proposed developer to get into the game.

The 18-month deadline for the Friends of Mt. Zion Institute (FOMZI) to stabilize the buildings elapsed last Sept. 4. While faux windows were installed on the front of the school building last summer, FOMZI learned from Council during their Jan. 5 meeting that the building had failed to pass a Town inspection.

Vickie Dodds, FOMZI Chairwoman, said the inspection was skewed to fit Council’s agenda to demolish the buildings.

“They have stretched the inspection report to suit their purposes,” Dodds said. “They have stretched the wording of the ordinance to suit their purposes. And when I say ‘They,’ I mean Roger (Gaddy, mayor).”

Gaddy said he disagreed with Dodd’s assessment of the inspection and said the Town hired an outside inspector to perform the work specifically to avoid any perception of bias. But the Mayor has never concealed his feelings toward the former school site.

“When I became mayor, I said Mt. Zion would be torn down in 90 days,” Gaddy told The Voice after a Sept. 1 Council meeting, adding that he had made that pledge 10 years ago.

Dodds said Gaddy has also expressed to FOMZI the Town’s concern for liability, should anyone be injured by loose bricks falling from the school building. However, she said, the Town has no such liability.

“We own the building,” she said. “We carry the insurance on it. They are disseminating erroneous information.”

And although the building failed its inspection, she said there were no bricks loose enough to fall.

But Gaddy said the Town had been advised by legal counsel that should someone be injured because of an unstable building, the Town could be on the hook.

“The Town’s liability is knowing it’s an unstable building and not doing anything about it,” Gaddy said, “not requiring the owners to do anything. Our legal advice was that we were vulnerable.”

Council officially approved the transfer of the property, located at 205 N. Walnut St., on March 4, 2014. FOMZI purchased the site and its four buildings (the Mt. Zion School, the auditorium and gymnasium, the cafeteria and the Teacherage) for $5, with the caveat that the buildings had to be stabilized within 18 months to meet Winnsboro’s Dangerous Building Code or be torn down. The contract also gave FOMZI 30 months in which to hire a contractor or developer for the historic rehabilitation of the buildings.

But, Dodds said, this Tuesday’s Council meeting might be the end of the road.

“Tuesday would be the deadline to do everything they think we should already have done,” Dodds said. “And that’s not going to happen. I’m not sure what we can do to please them.”

A developer willing to stabilize the building, Gaddy said, would go a long way toward pleasing them.

Dodds said after the Jan. 5 meeting that FOMZI had received significant interest from a developer, who had made two visits to the site. That developer, Rob Coats, was introduced to Mt. Zion by Boyd Brown.

“I was approached by a developer independently of FOMZI,” Brown said. “I’m not getting a fee for it. He has developed several old school buildings, and he was looking for one around here. He made two visits to Mt. Zion and said it was a better fit than any project he has yet done.”

Brown said Coats is interested in converting the school building into market-rate apartments for seniors.

“We’ve got an aging population here, and we have to cater to them at some point,” Brown said. “It would be a good deal. And this is someone who actually has some experience in restoring school buildings in rural areas.”

Brown said he plans to have a letter of intent from Coats delivered to the Town late this week. But even then, he said, the project would be 180 days out from launch while Coats performed his due diligence. Hopefully, he said, that would not be a deal killer.

“Those buildings have sat there empty for 25 years,” Brown said. “It can wait another 180 days.”

While Gaddy said the Town would not be willing to wait another eight or nine months, whether or not they will sit tight for six months remains to be seen.

“That would be a Council decision,” Gaddy said.

BLYTHEWOOD (Jan. 28, 2016) – Before signing a contract for $7,500 to bring The Wall that Heals to Doko Park in Blythewood this Memorial Day, Town Council put out a call for a large number of volunteers from the community that will be required to make the mega event possible.

“It’s a big undertaking, but it’s a big deal for our town,” Councilman Eddie Baughman said.

The contract calls for the exhibit to be open 24 hours a day from May 26 – 30, with approximately 140 volunteers to work 4- or 6-hour shifts. The Town is required by the contract to also provide round-the-clock security and emergency medical service during the event.

Baughman, a Vietnam War veteran, suggested last fall that Council bring The Wall to Blythewood. The exhibit features a half-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. The chevron-shaped Wall is made up of 24 panels that will stretch across approximately 250 feet of lawn in the park next to Town Hall. The Wall is accompanied by a mobile Education Center that tells the story of the Vietnam War and the era surrounding the conflict and includes displays of photos of service members whose names are found on The Wall, along with letters and memorabilia left at The Wall in Washington, D.C. The Center also includes a map of Vietnam and a chronological overview of the conflict.

Hazel Kelly, a Town Hall employee, will receive training to serve as the Town’s representative to organize and oversee the event which will be paid for out of the Town’s Hospitality Tax fund. As many as 20,000 people could visit The Wall while it is in Blythewood, Baughman told Council last month.

Council voted unanimously to accept the contract. Those who would like to volunteer to help with the event should contact Kelly at 754-0501.

In other business, Council unanimously adopted amendments to the Landscape, Buffer Yard and Tree Preservation Ordinance that would ease previous requirements for tree studies and replanting. It also adopted the 2015 Comprehensive Plan and an Ordinance annexing property located at 355 Langford Road.

Council members also decided to discuss at a future meeting whether to continue to sponsor a New Year’s Eve fireworks event since the weather has not cooperated the last two years. They also postponed finalizing a policy regarding presentation of Keys to the Town.

Town Council will hold their annual retreat on Saturday, March 5 at the Langford Nord House at McNulty and Main streets in downtown Blythewood. The public is invited.