Full meeting transcript - March 26, 2019

» All right, we're down to our public comments. Mr. DeBose, has anyone signed up? Mr. Chairman, five people have signed up. The first person that signed up is Ben Tobin. Mr. Tobin, will you come forward and welcome? Remember, we have five minutes. I think that still says five of them, so that will be 30 minutes. We will not have any dialogue or conversation back. If there's anything of importance, we will take your name and number and be back in touch with you. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Everyone is here. I have something that was mentioned last year, but I have a solution rather than a problem. Town Hall Conversation. I come with an idea to establish a website which will list the concerns, source of concerns, answer solutions.

» Viewed every third Tuesday by council members, community at large, and perhaps state officials. The fourth Tuesday, council members have the will to address it, and individuals come forth to speak. Website operation to utilize talents from university and high school students, because that's the generation coming up as far as leadership, get them involved. Set up a panel to cover all or most of the purpose and goals set forth for a positive format. This age group has the ability to focus on the matters at hand and can filter out negative and political perspectives and agenda. Operational costs should be minimal. All terrorism is in the community as far as high school, colleges. It's part of their program, so it won't cost anything. Community service would be their format.

» These young folks, allow them to get involved in community problems or situations. They'll be taking your seats eventually. Dwell with it. The Bible says, show the child the way to go, not how to go. The younger generation is much wiser. My age, I ain't going to tell you, but you know my age. I got one more year for three scores and ten. One more year. The idea to have this town hall conversation, I noticed that basically it's apprehension or whatever it might be, far as fear. But human endeavor, we cannot fear. Temptuous, positive, we have to embrace it. We cannot shy away from human endeavor. One hamlet to another hamlet, it might be a problem. This hamlet or town might know a solution. We don't know what can be accomplished if we don't know the information.

» So establish a website so everybody can see, everybody can have an answer to their concern. That way nobody feels forgotten or left behind. So when you get here, the emotions basically quell. Because now they can have a format to express what's going on, positively, hopefully, then we can work on it. Thank you. I have this in case somebody wants it. Second person signed up is Sidney Butler. Mr. Butler, welcome. Good evening. I want to speak on, do you have education, NASA, what programs are out there at the present time? The NASA-based program has scholarships for electrical engineering. Once I had a nephew, graduated from Camden High School, decided to go to Clemson University.

» won a NASA scholarship he was on the dean list at Clemson he been all the way to China working for IBM last week I called Miss Funderburg asking there's any way NASA program could come to Kershaw County took it in for consideration he said I always come up with bright ideas for Kershaw County. And I just decided to come forward, let y'all know. Since we are hurting for economic development in this county, I suggested to her why I would school in Kershaw County, get involved in the NASA space program, science and technology. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Butler. Thank you. Next person signed up is Franklin Alexander. Welcome, Mr. Alexander. My name is Franklin Alexander.

» I'm a board member with the Kirkwood community by Dusty Ben, and just wanted to enlighten you all and let you know what's going on and some plans that we have and potentially some help we could use from you all. I have some paperwork to pass out, if you don't mind. I'll pass it to the clerk there to your left, and she'll send it around for us. Thank you, Mr. Gray. If everyone can look at the papers in front of them, you will see an activities report and an activities agenda. Activities report reflects 2018, the things that happened in Kirkwood Park. You'll see up there our annual June Fest, which you'll also see first annual for a lot of things, such as we held two first annual jazz concerts last year. We did a youth football camp.

» We did a NBA 2K video game tournament with the support of Aaron Reynolds and also the local Camden GameStop. We also did a summer basketball league that ran for almost a month at night. Kirkwood has the luxury of having lights over the basketball court, so we tried to use those to our advantage and keep kids out of trouble and bring them to the park instead of them being out there doing something that they shouldn't be doing. There's also plans to bring Pop Warner football this year. You look at the activities agenda for 2019, you'll see we engineered a pillow talk event, and that is a girls' mentoring program where young ladies in middle school or high school can get together with other ladies.

» It's strictly ran by women at our Kirkwood Community Center, and we're trying to host those every other month. So, like I said, so that young people or young women that may be going through something, They can have a place to go and have something to look forward to. You'll also see we plan to have our second annual jazz concert, two of those, one on June 16th. The other one is July 21st. I want to say this, all are welcome. We would like everyone to come and join us. There have been certain outlooks of Kirkwood that may not have been positive. I'm here to say that those things are incorrect. They are not true. Please come join us. Every event is a family-friendly environment, and we would like you guys all to come out.

» We're proud to be a part of an all-American city, and we want to reflect that there are all-American things going on in the Kirkwood community, such as unity, such as fellowship, such as friendship. These are things that we all reflect, and we want you to know that we're a part of that. So that is the activities report and the agenda for 2019. Excuse me, this is my first time.

» i sound a little nervous but we'll get through it um the next thing i want you guys to look at is of importance it is the memorandum of understanding and all we'll see you'll see that memorandum took place in 2013 and it says where is kershaw county and the city of camden wish to enter into a memorandum of understanding and agreement connecting i'm sorry commencing with the execution of this document and extend for a period of five years and what this was was just a memorandum of understanding between the city, the county, and Kirkwood Park. And the part that I want to highlight as far as the county is the part where it says, part one, that the Kershaw County agrees to maintain a softball field, dirt area only, in parentheses.

» I'm here to say today that unfortunately that has not happened. And the question here is why? And there's no need to play a blame game or anything like that. It's just why? Why did it happen? How did it happen? And how do we fix that moving forward? Because there's no way in the world that you can have a memorandum of understanding that's signed off by the county and signed off by the city. And our baseball field looks the way it does, where there's more grass than dirt. That's unacceptable for the taxpaying citizens of the Kirkwood community. So let's just figure out how we can get past this problem and figure out how we can work together to move forward.

» Kirkwood is in a unique position where we're not only asking the county to help us out, But we also are in a position where we can say, hey, we can come 50-50 on some things. So we're not looking for total help, just some help. We have community members that, and also I want to highlight that there are progressive meetings going on as we speak with Shane, who's the head of the County and Recs Department. Also Mr. Ray Peterson, who does DPW with the city. So we are having progressive talks. But just wanted to highlight these things to you all if you if you were not aware of them. So we would like to get our softball field back up and running, get it scraped, get it back in the way that it's supposed to be so we can host games, so we can have a team, so we can have a softball team.

» And there's other things. We have a couple of fraternities and community members and churches that want to do kickball games and stuff like that. So it can be put to use, but as it is now, it is not able to be put to use because it's not up to the standard. So that needs to happen first and foremost. There's also plans we would like to have a football field out there in Kirkwood. So that's more kids in the community. Kirkwood is essentially your main park if you're coming up from 521. I'm a kid that grew up on Colonial Lake Road. So Kirkwood would be your main park if you're coming in from that way, if you're coming from the Lockhart Road or if you're coming from the North Central area.

» So please help us do what you can to help make this park even better because it is a benefit to all involved. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your efforts. Thank you for your energy. Thank you. Next person is John Rice. Mr. Rice, welcome. First off, I want to thank each member of council for last meeting's unanimous vote on the ordinance and working that out. It was greatly appreciated by myself and many other voters in the county. I'm going to be reading a little bit. I'm taking on economic development. And the article that I got is in today's Chronicle, which they're doing a superb job. and they're writing and investigating on issues here lately. The Chronicle Independent has asked Mr.

» Carpenter what would happen if the county decided not to exercise its options after the most recent five-year extension when it expires in March of 2024, and further decided not to extend the option again, simply dropping its plan to develop the property for industry. The Chronicle also asked that the documents generated through the $1.3 million of work alliance consulting engineers will perform would be retained by the county or the private landowners. $800,000 of that money will come from the county. Another $330,000 will come from funds contributed by the state of South Carolina, Duke Energy, and Fairfield Electric Cooperative.

» Meanwhile, the option extends costs for the price per acre during its first two years to $21,000, moving up to $22,000 during the final three years of the extension, and states that the The option is for the entirety of the more than $1,400 acres per property. Whoever pays for this mega site would be close to $30 million if the county exercises that option. First of all, I want to know who does the appraisals for the county, because if they think that property is worth $21,000, $22,000 an acre, I've got some land I'd like to sell. In his initial response, Carpenter said the option would be exercised by the state of South Carolina, not Kershaw County, in securing the property for an industry that has determined Kershaw County to be the best locations for its facilities.

» In the event that after five years such an event has not occurred, the option would be renewed as the state of South Carolina has determined that the Central South Carolina Megasite is the most ready site for large industry in South Carolina. Studies and permits would be of no value for any purpose other than large industry. Carpenter's statements that the state, not the county, would exercise the option prompted the CI to point out that the land option agreement only lists the county as an optionee and is signed only by private landowners, their representatives, Carpenter and Clerk of Court Mary Siegler as witnesses, and Kershaw County Councilman Julian Burns.

» The state of South Carolina is not listed nor referred to in this agreement, nor does any state official signature appear on the document. Carpenter apologized for not being clear as he intended. Though the option is listed in Kershaw County's name, when an industry lands here, we will exercise the option. However, the actual purchase will be made using the state of South Carolina funds, not Kershaw County funds, Carpenter said. Well, why would the county invest money in something, then turn it over to the state to purchase it to make more money? It seems like the county's getting pimped out by the state. The price tag for this land in 2010, when Lindsay Nelson was the economic developer, economic director, I'm sorry, it was about $20 million.

» Now it's over $30 million, or close to $30 million. And Lindsay made a point to say that the county wouldn't purchase the land if there wasn't a company agreeing to locate here now the state's going to purchase it state was never mentioned back in 2010 when um when it was uh when it was mentioned back then and is it in writing that the state is going to purchase it or just hearsay or from from previous uh happenings um um and i'm gonna skip a few parts and it says the deal at least would appear to support carpenter statement that the state has assisted counties in recruiting industries for purchasing or helping to um to purchase sites to then sell to companies who choose to come to the palmetto state so the way that's read unless i'm reading the chronicle wrong that's not 100 because it say

» s helping it doesn't say purchasing it says helping county councilman sammy tucker made a motion on february 26 february 26 to extend the mega site option in exchange for permission to have alliance perform work relating to engineering studies and obtaining permits he did so referring to 100 acre slab and you can read in what what did the slab means and all that don't go into that uh it was voted on a six to one um vote by council and uh looks like we're spending another hundred thousand dollars and how's how's the uh county going to be getting their money back on all these things if it's sold how's the county going to get reimbursement and i hear the buzzer uh mr dubose i'll skip a few and i just like to end it with two things i got two things? Very quickly, go ahead. All right.

» Again, like I started off talking about the counter ordinance, I want to thank Councilman Snodgrass for jumping in head first and feet like he did and coming up with a compromise on that. It was good of you, sir. Appreciate you and working for East Camden area where I'm from. And I'm going to end in this. Economic development has been really questioned by certain members over the last eight months or so.

» We've had economic development in kershaw county for a while now and it seems to me that economic development is in a desperate is desperate thing and desperate actions are being taken council has had their head buried in the sand when it comes to economic development it should have been done a long time ago and not just started recently thank you last person who signed up is jeff maddox welcome mr maddox good evening i must apologize to council for my comments of the last meeting i have many people tell me that while they understood the gist of my comments, many did not understand exactly what I was saying. Therefore, I decided to rewrite my comments in a manner so that they might comprehend more of the important points.

» The main reason this council robs us of our hard-earned money is we are too stupid to spend our money in the right places, and it is this council's duty to rob us of our labor and invest the loot in appropriate places, decided, of course, by the experts of the state. We, the people, spend our money on things that benefit us. Groceries, electricity, insurance, housing, education, and thousands of other things that make life more comfortable for each of us. Some of us invest our resources in businesses or retirement funds in order to increase our wealth and plan for retirement. All this is done in a voluntary manner in which each of us individually making decisions in our own best interest.

» This is the essence of the free market where voluntary trade happens to the benefit of all the parties in the exchanges. Throughout history, there has been only two ways to accumulate wealth. One is by voluntary transactions benefiting both parties. the other is by confiscation of wealth through the use of force in this case the force of taxation for example if i build a house using dozens of contractors and suppliers in the hope of a family will buy this house thus providing everyone in the process benefit or profit to support their own wants and needs what have i risked my money and my time along with my reputation for future references. I must satisfy my customers or I'll fail.

» On the other hand, government economic development is not voluntary and those who do the planning have no skin in the game, nor do they risk losing their shirts if the boondoggle fails. In fact, if their utopian plans do fail, it will be followed by council taxing and spending more as a solution for every failure. Ladies and gentlemen, the emperor has no clothes. I ask those watching tonight that if you are fed up as I am with these thieves robbing you blind, call them and politely give them a piece of your mind. If you are fed up as I with this communist agenda, come out here and voice your disgust with the central planners who rob us with no remorse or accountability.

» The question we should all ask is what is the proper role of government, and does that include robbing us to plan our economy and build water parks? Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Maddox. That concludes the sign-up list. Thank you, Mr. DuBose. I would like to take just a moment before we approve the agenda and just to state to the public and for the record, Mr. Burns is on a business trip. That's why he's not here tonight out of town and Mr. Connell has a death in his family so he's not able to make it. Prayers to go with both of them and their lost one and in traveling mercy getting back home. With that is there a motion to approve the agenda? So moved. Motion is made by Mr. Snodgrass. Is there a second? Second. Second by Mr. Bozart. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor raise your hand.

» It is unanimous Ms. Mary. Next item on the agenda is approval of minutes from March 12, 2019. I want to thank our clerk to court, Ms. Mary, for these minutes. Is there a motion to approve the minutes? So moved. Motion is made by Mr. Gardner. Is there a second? Second. Second by Mr. Snodgrass. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor, raise your hand. It is unanimous, Ms. Mary. Thank you. Okay. We're just percolating right on down. I likes this. Next on our agenda is a proclamation honoring the Ms. Beverly Brevard. And what I'm going to ask is to get a motion and a second for this proclamation and then I will read it and then we will have Ms. Brevard, her family, and the sheriff come forward if that's okay with everyone. Is there a motion to approve this proclamation? I so make it.

» All right. Motion is made by Mr. Jones. Is there a second? Second. All right. Seconded by Mr. Al Bozart. I'm going to read it and then we'll go into discussion. Proclamation honoring Ms. Beverly Brevard. Ms. Beverly Brevard started work for Kershaw County on the 20th of 1989 as a dispatcher for E911, which at the time was part of the sheriff's office. She worked in dispatch from 1989 to 1995. I might be telling some personal stuff here now, so be careful. And whereas in 1995, she began her tenure in the sheriff's office under Sheriff Hector DeBrew. Through the years of the sheriff's office, she has worked as the clerk in the front office, kept records for sex offenders, and also have been the TAC coordinator for the NCIC computer and records.

» And whereas her current job title is records clerk, Ms. Bavard has worked for five different sheriffs. That's pretty amazing within itself. Sheriff Hector DeBrew, Sheriff Jerry Horton, Sheriff Steve McCaskill, Sheriff Jim Matthews, and our current and most famous Sheriff Lee Bone. Now, therefore, let it be resolved that Kershaw County Council recognize and honors Ms. Beverly Brevard and wishes her a well-deserved retirement, adopted this 26th day of March by the Kershaw County Council. Mr. Sheriff, will you come up, and Ms. Brevard, you and your family, will you come forward, and we're going to let you say some words if you like, and then we will present her. If you want to go to the mic, Sheriff, feel free.

» As you can see, we're here today for Beverly Brevard, who has spent over 30 years of dedicated service to the citizens of Kershaw County, Kershaw County Sheriff's Office, and five different sheriffs. Anybody who's worked with a sheriff's office knows that working for just one can be hard. Working for five different, and notice the word different, that means in these five different sheriffs, she's went through four transitions, none of which was a sheriff who picked their next sheriff. So these were entirely different administrations she changed up. And I can tell you the reason she was successful and made it through these 30 plus years is because she never lost sight of that order. The citizens first, then the sheriff's office, then the sheriff.

» One thing I can tell you, all sheriffs agree on, we work for the citizens. Beverly never lost sight of that. She's always served the citizens of Kershaw County. You want to say something, Ms. Pavard? The only thing I'd like to say is, just looking at that, at the time E911 was under the sheriff's department and then it got separated so I never really moved per se I've always been at the sheriff's office but I would like to leave with this Jeremiah 29 and 11 talks about our plans we know nothing about God has a plan for us he knew what my plan was going to be even though I didn't know he said that you know your plan is not what you think it's going to be I know what it is he wanted us to prosper he wanted us to have a future but i didn't know that so by staying here for 30 years i know that

» now amen and i want to leave with this quote stephen gartlett which i tried to live by it says i will pass through the world but once any good therefore that i can do any kindness i can show to any human being let me now do it let me not defer it or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again so with that being said if you see me on the street anything I can help you with anything I can do for you just let me know with this all said believe it or not I had my first job under Jimmy Jones when the old YMCA used to be over here on Green Street that's why the Lord has blessed you now let's do the most important part don't sit down yet because we want to take some photos let's take the vote on this proclamation all in favor raise your hand please and it is unanimous, Ms. Mary.

» Congratulations. And can we come around and have a photo with you? And Captain Coleman, will you join us with the sheriff there, please? Counsel, just as an aside, Ms. Beverly will be receiving the last rocking chair that we give to retiring employees as we're transitioning to a new program for recognizing. Is there anyone more deserving for a rocking chair than someone who served with five sheriffs and Jimmy Jones? Hey, also, before we move on down the agenda, just remind others who may have forgotten and ones that don't know, on this Friday, May the 29th, Sheriff Lee Bone and the Kershaw County Sheriff's Office will be hosting her retirement gathering from 2 to 4 p.m. Please feel free to drop in and just tell her thanks for her years of service.

» And we're going to miss you, but it's time for you to go home so you can go enjoy life and um we'll be seeing you in the streets yes that's that's what mothers do but thank you again we appreciate your service with that being said let's move down to new business um on any new business item number one is the bid for the kershaw county uh point uh sewer line and at this time i would ask mr carpenter to bring us up to speed that should be on the tab c mr chairman members of council as you recall the last meeting We ask that this be removed from the agenda, the reason being that the low bidder had determined that they had used some incorrect information in compiling their bid and that they could not meet the bid that they had presented to us.

» So they requested it be pulled and that they be taken out of consideration. Staff then needed to check to make sure that other bidders did not also use incorrect information that they had used. No other bidders used the incorrect information. So staff is recommending that the low bidder currently now is Stutson Williams, LLC, for $286,953. This is still within the amount that was originally budgeted for this project. Okay, thank you, Mr. Carpenter. Is there a motion to approve? So made. All right, motion is made by Mr. Bozart. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Mr. Stargrass. Any discussion? Yes, sir, Mr. Bozart. Mr. Carpenter. Yes, sir. This sewer line is going to serve as what? It's going to serve the Heritage Point spec building. Thank you. Yes, sir.

» And what else? It's for the Disrespect Building. It's not EMS? Okay. Yes, sir. Thank you. I just wanted to clarify that. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Bozar. Any other questions? Okay. Hearing none, all in favor, raise your hand. It is unanimous, Ms. Mary. Thank you. Also, just for the public, if you can't read that bottom notation down there, it just says due to an error, which Mr.

» Carver has already said, there's due to the error in the engineering drawing for materials um site concepts requested that their bid be removed from the award consideration so just wanted to make that clear to you all right we're on item number two tab d health services district appointment you would flip to that we have a vacancy for the health board district which is commonly known as the kershaw county health board we have one applicant in your package that has been in and has been submitted to you on a timely matter, Mr. Walter Long. Is there a motion? Sir? Okay. Is there a motion, Mr. Gardner? Mr. Chairman, I would move that we appoint Walter Long to that position on the Health Services Board. All right. Motion's been made for Mr. Walter Long by Councilman Gardner.

» Is there a second? Second. Second by Mr. David Snodgrass. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor, raise your hand. It is unanimous. Thank you. All right, we have a appointment for the airport, a commission appointment, tab item E. I think we have a couple of members coming off of there, but we've got one appointment. This appointment is for clarifications for the clerk, Ms. Mary, for Mr. Tim Hopkins. No, no, he's coming off. To replace Mr. Tim Hopkins, and there's one candidate for consideration tonight, and that's Mr. Robert Park, Jr. I'm going to defer over to Mr. Bozart. Thank you. I make the nomination of Robert A. Make a motion. Not a nomination. Make a motion. Motion. Thank you. And better known as Bob. Everybody knows him because of him, Bob. All right.

» Motion has been made by Mr. Bozart. Is there a second? Second. Second by Mr. Gardner. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor, raise your hand. It is unanimous, Ms. Mayer. Thank you. All right. We're on item number four, tab F. is the bid is to install new asphalt at the Bethune Recycle Center. You turn to tab F, you will see in your package where you have the folks who were given bid packages, and what I'm going to do is turn this over to Mr. Carpenter to bring us up to speed, and then we'll go from there. Mr. Carpenter? Mr. Chairman, members of the council, the council approved renovations of the Bethune Convenience Center in the current budget. The most important part of the renovation will be resurfacing the facility, expanding it slightly as well.

» uh bids were put out uh three bids were received but two of them were determined to be non-responsive uh the low bidder campbell pavement specialties is within the range the council had set staff recommends their approval okay you've heard from our administrator on uh the bid that's before you is there a motion to approve the response of bitter okay motions made by mr gardner's a second second second by mr snargrass any discussion i'm sorry mr bozart thank you miss mary sound like my mother over there it's okay all right uh yes sir mr jones very quickly mr chairman vice chairman uh mr carpenter just for the record where's the money coming from uh the money's coming from the approved budget for 1819 thank you thank you so we're going that far back any other questions or discussion one yes si

» r that's at the current location there's been no other talk about that's correct it's not moving it's just expanding slightly all right hearing for any no further discussion all in favor raise your hand and then it's unanimous miss mary thank you all right we're down to item number five which is the proof of the settlement of employment dispute and negotiation of final settlement documents and terms by labor attorney is there a motion to bring this before council tonight so move motion is made by mr gardner is there a second second second by mr bozart at this time before we go into any discussion i want to defer to our attorney yeah mr chairman i would like to have an executive session before any action is taken and the reason for executive session will be to receive legal advice as to lega

» l claims and employment dispute involving a former employee and we have with us tonight vance bettis who is a labor law attorney who represents kershaw county so i would ask for executive session for this purpose and i would ask that mr bettis um attend the executive session okay you've heard from our county attorney is there a motion to go on executive some discussion sir i have something i want to say in reference to going yeah yes in reference to the executive city if i may be recognized yes sir mr chair if we could could we hold off on this executive session do we finish the rest of the agenda items well we're at the bottom only thing we got left is county uh council briefings okay yeah that's that's all we got left we're done this is the last item is there a motion to go in executive s

» ession for the reason stated by a county attorney so moved motion is made by mr gardner is there a second second second by mr bozard all right ladies and gentlemen we're going to go into executive session with our county attorneys yes sir um and um when we come out we will anticipate a vote and um we will go into discussion so um all in favor raise your hand all right it is unanimous and we should not be any more than five minutes i just wanted to state that so um you know like okay let's head upstairs real quick and we'll be back excuse us please motion to come out executive session so move move second hold on time out yield okay mr snarkgrass make the motion second by mr bozart any discussion hearing none all in favor raise your hand it is unanimous miss mayor we are now out of executive

» session we've got a motion on the table and a second in reference to the approval of this at this time i would like to turn it back over to our county attorney and then we'll uh finish discussing mr chairman yes i would like to ask for a motion from council um to approve the um threatened litigation yes yes sir yes sir mr jones if you're ready i was waiting on you yes i'm sorry i'll make a motion i move to approve and authorize the settlement of an employment dispute and authorize the negotiation of a final settlement and approval of a complete and final release for all legal claims and threatened litigation for a sum not to exceed $95,000 subject to execution of final documents as approved by the attorney for Kershaw County. Okay, there was a motion made by Councilman Jones.

» Is there a second? Second. Second by Mr. Bozart. Any further discussion? Mr. Chair, if I may. Mr. This is, as the motion says, a settlement of an employment dispute, threatened litigation. The settlement has been facilitated by the Kershaw County Labor Attorney, Vance Bettis, here tonight. He's over there. Excuse me, Mr. Bettis. Yes, thank you. He moved. It was done over a period of time through Mr. Bettis and through me with the involvement and input of Kershaw County Council. This is the third time that Kershaw County Council has been briefed and has received legal advice on the employment dispute and threatened litigation.

» And the motion tonight authorizes the documents to be entered into, which have not been entered into, but does authorize them in the terms, which is a complete release. And the motion also delineates the amount of money involved in settlement of the dispute. Thank you, Mr. Vose. Any further questions or concerns or discussion? All right, hearing none, let's take the vote. All in favor, raise your hand. And it is unanimous, Ms. Mary. Thank you, gentlemen. We're down to our council briefings, and I'm going to start Mr. Gardner, because I think he was supposed to go second anyway. Yes, sir. Mr. Gardner? I have no report. No report. Mr. Bozart? Yes, thank you, sir. I have just a little quick. Mr.

» Carpenter, that Woodward Park that I talked with you sometime back, crossing over the bridge and right down the right of that corner, stays underwater most of the time is anything our people can do with that and try to alleviate some of that water out of there we have checked with scdot one of the primary issues is their drainage system from the road system okay and so we've reached out to them to ask them to do some work on their drainage system first of all to to ensure that it operates as it is supposed to and then we'll see once that's taken care of what's left for us to do okay sometime back we talked about signs for the county uh have we addressed anything on that yet we have we've had several meetings with d.o.t identified the kind of signs that they'll allow us to we've got several

» workups now that we're looking the locations are identified so we're essentially getting through this wet season and all when nick can have the guys have the time to go out and put them up. Okay. And the All-American City signs that we talked with the water companies about putting up, have we made any headway on them? I've spoken with Cassette Water, Kershaw Lee, and they are putting it on their billings and their letterheads. They did not indicate they would put it on their water towers because it costs money. So at this point, it appears that they're interested in supporting it, but none of them are interested in putting it on their water towers as I can discern. Okay, thank you. All right. Thank you there, Mr. Bozart. Mr. Jones? Mr. Chair, thank you.

» I just have a couple of comments I want to make. Yes, sir. And one is directly at you. I just want to first say thank you, Mr. Vice Chair, for running a great meeting tonight. Thank you. You did an outstanding job. And I also want to say thank you for letting these folks get up and speak. And even though they may have said some things that made some of us feel uncomfortable. They had the right to speak, and you allowed that. Well, this council allowed that with no interruption, and I appreciate that very much. You're welcome. That concludes my... You're kidding me. No, no, one other thing. Okay, I thought so. If you had gotten out of hand, Mr. Tucker, if you had gotten out of hand, somebody left this on my desk. Did you leave it? Okay, well, it was...

» I declare it was yours bigger than mine. I noticed that. That concludes my report. Thank you. Thank Mr. Snodgrass. Mr. Chairman, thank you. Just a couple things of note. I do want to make a thank our economic development marketing person and also a public relations officer, Lauren Reeder, for making this graphic, as well as some other graphics that I requested that are used on the county social media handles, just to things that we can utilize, as well as the county and council members that I've been using them. And it's just an effort to continue the effort of transparency and making people aware of when the meetings are and really encouraging folks to get out and to be here. A lot of activity happens on social media.

» And so this is just kind of part of, I don't know, some of the plans that I have to make us a little more social media friendly and getting the word out. I have some other ideas too, as far as optimizing our website and making sure that people are aware that they can watch these meetings online so thank you Lauren and for for doing that also I want to thank the our staff members in the zoning department last week I exchanged a couple emails with them as well as county administrator on helping getting a small business up and running and so I appreciate you guys in that department helping us help them helping me out there also I don't have a district 5 pride award tonight but there are several that They're in the hopper that are coming our way.

» So I got a couple of projects out there that some private investment is happening out there. And so I look forward to being able to highlight that as well. And just one kind of personal privilege. We are having Lenten services in the community for those of you who would recognize a season of Lent. Every Wednesday at noon, our series of community services that are held at various churches. tomorrow it'll be at Mount Olivet Baptist Church, Black River Road, and about a 30-minute service, and then when there's a soup, each host church will then offer us a soup luncheon. So it's, Mr. Chairman, it's beautiful because you've got black, white, such a diversity, different denominations coming together, and it is just a beautiful, beautiful time.

» Last week we were at Camden First and I met this church, and so it's just a beautiful thing to see our community just come together like that so and that concludes my report thank you thank you all that social stuff is coming from my own one of our members that's under 40 um who's that i would just like to say before we go down to the administrative briefings you got a couple things um i'm gonna be a little prejudiced here and call out um my appointee judge hardest on this clean community commission and all who participate i wasn't in town last week i was gone to a conference but um I got the word on the trash y'all picked up on US 1 Highway 97, but let's catch our road on Black River Road where we live.

» Please do, because I don't know them by face, so I want to thank all the commissioners on the Clean Community Commission. Yes, thank you, Judge. Thank y'all, and I'm going to tell you, you guys are going places that this commission hadn't gone before, and you're not just being recognized here in Kershaw County, but you're talked about throughout different conferences and different places i go in the state on your efforts and your accomplishments so just want to say thank you kudos and keep up the good work yes sir we're not going to abandon you with that being said i want to um just remind everyone i think mr croft will probably cover this uh please attend the cup and support the cup this weekend but be on your best behavior um we do not want you to be in any type of trouble where you can't

» make work monday morning um or church on sunday that's right or church on Sunday they might need church Friday night too but it's okay but uh please come out support have fun you know that both uh these events the colonial cup and carolina cup is joined together so um we look forward to the ones that are able to go and want to go to go out and be responsible and have fun and I would like to ask that everyone have a special prayer for the Connell family tonight with the loss of Ben's grandmother that's his last grandmother and um I think she was kind of like a matriarch of the family. Beautiful lady. Yes. So please give a call, send a card. Let's make sure we keep in touch and give them support. That concludes my report. Mr. Carpenter. Mr.

» Chairman, members of council, several items I want to cover. First, I think the initial David Starlings will be ready to announce them upon his being ready for them. Also, the Clean Community Commission, give you some more information and details on just what they did this past Saturday. 105 volunteers across the county, 440 bags of garbage, 29.5 miles of roadside was what cleaned up in a single day. Our community, as it says, did that. The individuals that stood up a second ago that are on the commission, I'd ask them to stand up again for recognition. Bill Nettles, Alana Schumach, Judge Jean Hardis, Wanda Swan, Tom Webb, and is Doug Fielding here? Doug couldn't make it. Thank you.

» I know several council members were out there helping with them as well, and I appreciate all the support from members of the community. You see pictures up there of individuals out there picking up, go out. You see our own representative in there. You may see at some point a county councilman or two even in there as well. Happy smiling faces. Stuck on Ben? That's it. Stuck on Ben. And Mr. Connell also wanted me to share with the council, the community, some good news. The elementary level for the South Carolina Archery Tournament, Dobie's Mill Elementary placed first, Blaney Elementary placed second in the state. So kudos to those outstanding programs for us as well.

» Again, reminder of the cup, the Sheriff's Department is participating completely this year, first time in a number of years. So good relations being built and developed there as well. Please watch your speed through town. Be safe, have fun, and that's my report. Thank you, Mr. Carpenter. Mr. DuBose. I have nothing, Mr. Chairman. All right. No legal report. We're down now to adjournment. Let's see if we're going to take this motion. So moved. The motion is made by Mr. Gardner. Is there a second? Seconded by Mr. Snodgrass. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor raise your hand. And it is unanimous. Thank you, Ms. Mary. Yes, sir. Good night.