Full meeting transcript - September 10, 2019

» okay he's still no one remembers it's a great day in kershaw county we got a wonderful crowd here in this all-america county we've got a pretty darn good baseball team here too the ponytails thank you all for coming and we've made it through a hurricane we've got a great deal to be thankful for and so i'll ask you all to allow mr sammy tucker our vice chairman to lead us in the the invocation and in pledge of allegiance. Mr. Tucker. Let us all bow our heads and open our hearts, please. Godfather Almighty, we say thank you for this day. We thank you for the coverage and protection that you gave us through the hurricanes and the winds and the storms.

» Lord Father, we thank you for the young people that are here today representing our county at the highest level and showing us that we are not only smart, but we're good at many things. Now, Lord Father, bless the minds and hearts that's up here that's liberating the people's business. Let us make good, sound decisions. And I ask a special prayer for our men and women that are protecting our freedoms and liberties that's here in the USA and abroad. Go with them, protect them, cover them, and watch over them. We ask these things in your son Jesus' name. Amen? Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it is one nation, indivisible. Thank you very much indeed, Mr. Tucker.

» With that, we move to the next item on the agenda, which is public comments. Mr. DuBose. Three people have signed up. The first person that signed up is Jim Steele. As Mr. Steele comes up, I just remind the audience that these are intended for one-way communications that we, the county, would hear from citizens where we'd otherwise not hear from you in our daily lives. The comments should fit the decorum and the gravity of this body, and we look forward to hearing from you, Mr. Steele, sir.

» before I get into what I wanted to talk about tonight which is economic development I just like to make one observation the new layout of the room here if that was meant to make the public feel even more removed from county government than they felt before I congratulate you on your success on now going on in the economic development I ran the paper today that we're looking for a new economic development director a lot of people believe that economic development is just bringing in jobs for the people the county that's just the surface of it okay when you get on the internet you start delving into what is economic development it gets a little a little scary starts looking a whole lot like George Orwell's 1984 when you look at it says economic development not only only goes into GNP per capi

» ta, population growth, occupational structure of the labor force, consumption per capita, infrastructure, but also goes into social things such as the social condition, literacy rates, life expectancy, health care, and even goes into caloric intake. In other words, they want to develop a workforce that is very healthy so they can produce more for a longer period of time. One of the most referenced economists is Joseph Schumpeter. Joseph Schumpeter lived in the 1800s. He believed in Keynesian theory, and he once called Karl Marx the greatest social scientist of the 19th century. So I just caution you, when we're looking for a new director of economic development. Let's pick someone who is focused on bringing in jobs and not controlling our lives. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Steele. Mr.

» DuBose? The next person signed up is Wesley Crowley. Hello, y'all have to excuse me. I just got off work. I have to agree with the gentleman. I agree with what he says. I think there's a lot that can be done in this county in a better way, and when say a better way is the internet anybody can put anything on it they need to be people in this council that knows what to do they spend money lost that we've paid our taxes millions of dollars where's the people that's supposed to check these things out and who takes their qualifications you know there's a park underwater over there what good is it to us the community none at all you You know, if you want to waste money, I don't want mine, and I'm sure the constituents of this county don't want their money wasted either.

» So my suggestion is this time next year, there will be a new council. And on this back page here, I have to agree with some of this on this back page because this council hasn't shown me anything, and I've been here 20 years, and I'm just now realizing how much money y'all have wasted in just this last two, three years, and it shouldn't be done. So if you can't screen your people and you don't know how to hire them, I suggest you find someone who can. I'm a millwright engineer by trade. I went to Floral Daniels up there in Spartanburg, Greenville. I've been overseas. I know what it takes to make something for a community and not waste their money. And there was one other thing I'd like to say.

» i have never threatened this office or nobody in it i speak my mind and as far as anything else goes that'll be between me and mr bone and this council y'all have a nice evening thank you mr crowley i'm mr debose the third and last person that signed up is david for uh mr fuller chairman burns and council members i appreciate you uh giving me this uh loudness you need to come and speak tonight uh i'm david fuller i'm commander of american legion post 17 here in camden the reason I have a request to speak tonight is to remind Kershaw County Council members of a request that our Legion had made back in July 2018. We submitted a letter to the County Council, a copy of that same letter has been handed to each of you tonight.

» I as well as our Legion Executive Board hope that you had read the letter that you had in your possession and if not we sure hope you will read the copy you have in your possession now. We had requested that the property that was purchased just out northwest of u.s highway one and the bobby jones bridge intended to tentatively name watery river park could be named watery river veterans park and we still hope that you still honor that request we also ask the members from our post could we could we be included on the planning committees concerning the development of the riverfront park and at this time that has not taken place.

» If you travel around our state and nation I hope you have taken the time to notice the many veterans parks or memorial sites that our cities and small towns have honoring our veterans and soldiers that I have and those that are serving our great country. Kershaw County as of 2018 has 6,197 veterans all that that call Kershaw County home, and that number is growing every day. To Heavy Veterans Park, honoring our veterans and our soldiers serving now would be the right thing to do. I'm sure that some of you are familiar with the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment Monument located on the Vista property, once DuPont. On March 29, 1943, the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment from Fort Bragg conducted the first regimental mass parachute exercise in U.S.

» Army history, preparing to serve in World War II. Several thousand paratroopers landed in the fields, some in the river, and as the letter states, different sides of the highway. I'm sure very few landed on that very spot that the monument is located. There were several paratroopers that lost their lives during this mission. One of Kershaw County's own, 1st Lieutenant Ivy Connell, was one of those paratroopers. Later that year, October 6, 1943, Lieutenant Connell was killed in action in Italy in World War II. Each year on March 29th, the American Legion, Marine Corps League, and the VFW, along with the 505th and members of the 82nd Airborne conducted ceremony, 505th Monument, in memory of that historical event.

» Each year, some of those that attend ceremony comment saying that it would be nice if the monument was more accessible. Most of us who here have passed by that monument several times, I'm sure. Several of us have passed it by that monument, I'm sure, today, several times a day. And if I was to ask each of you, have you ever seen anyone there looking and observing the 505th monument? There would not be many that could say yes. I have commented before that I have had several opportunities to ask people if they have visited the monument. 99% of those would say no, and they did not know, and they also did not know what that monument represented. Several commented that they thought it was a monument for Invista and DuPont.

» What we would like to see done is to move the 505th Monument, along with other veterans' monuments in our county, down to the left-hand side of the park's entrance with a flag display of American flag, state flag, as well as flags representing each branch of the service, and a POW MIA flag. A very patriotic memorial that will honor all veterans, located in a place that is accessible to the public, and it would give better access to those with limited mobility to visit the monument. When people visit our county, as well as our residents, when they pass Watery River Veterans Park entrance and see the Veterans Memorial, you will see people stopping and visiting our monuments, I will guarantee.

» again the monuments will be accessible to all visitors and it will be a great contribution and asset to the park entrance and the park itself i understand from reading tonight's council agenda that you'll be deciding on phase one of the park again may i request that when you enter phase two of planning of the park period the park project that you seriously consider naming the park watery river veterans park and not watery river park it would mean a lot to our veterans and it would also mean a lot to all our residents. Thank you council for your time and again we ask you seriously to consider this request. Thank you. Thank you very much Mr. Fuller. Mr. DuBose. That concludes the sign up list. Very good and that concludes the public comments. We move now to an adoption of agenda.

» The agenda is on the board. Danny has it up. Can we have a motion to approve the agenda mr. Gardner a second second second for mr. Snodgrass any discussion I would say only one thing mr. the administrator mr. carpenter has asked for a brief executive session session before we go into ordinance number two which is a series of four votes on economic development projects and we'll go into executive session if we get a motion to that effect i'm not asking for a vote on that at this time uh all right let's move to a vote all those in favor signify by raising your hand and it's unanimous mary and we move on to the first item and the best item here tonight those young school girls there and their parents are here and i can't tell you how proud we are of them the item is a proclamation of kershaw c

» ounty ponytails softball team it's at tab a but it's up on the board and if i can get it up on my little gizmo here i will read it and then i'll ask for a vote proclamation honoring and recognizing the kershaw county pony ponytails softball team whereas the kershaw county ponytails closed their season as first in south carolina and with an appearance in the dixie league world series in Texas, finishing fourth. This is only the second time in our county's history that one of our teams has played in the Dixie League World Series.

» And whereas the Dixie League is comprised of 12-year-old and under girls, participation in and support of sports and athletic achievement is an important part of Kershaw County recreation programs, as well as developing leadership skills in creating a tradition of excellence, whereas the Kershaw County Council recognizes the outstanding achievement, excellence, tradition, leadership, and the positive role model for all our youth throughout this county that the Ponytails Girls softball team has provided for the community.

» Their victory as state champions was supported by local businesses, churches, and parents especially who joined with our great volunteer head coach lee stokes i hope he's here tonight yep there you are lee and assistant coaches stephen sheehorn and waylon watkins yay coach now therefore let it be known that the kershaw county council acknowledges the kershaw county ponytails softball team and applauds them for their outstanding athletic achievement and urges all citizens to be cognizant of the importance of organized sports and the development of our most valuable asset our youth adopted this day can we have a motion to approve to make that a motion uh mr bozart a second second yeah mrs snodgrass thank you very much uh discussion we all are very proud congratulations yes yes we are thank yo

» u mr jones other comments i especially you want to say uh to the parents that helped raise all the funds all those all those businesses lee i know you coach lee i know you'd say that too it's just wonderful we all watched with anticipation and we're so keen to have you here tonight well enough of all i think yeah this just backs up the fact that we are the all-american city all-american city and those girls prove it to us right there. Yes. Right there. Thank you, Shane, for guiding this as a rec department effort. Thank you very much. Other comments? Mr. Chairman. Yes, sir. Mr. Connell.

» To the girls directly, I'd like to say, whenever you go back to school, typically people ask you the question, what'd you do over the summer? Y'all probably have one of the best answers, don't you? Yes, you do. Congratulations on all your hard work. Keep it up. We're proud of you. Mr. Connell, I was afraid for a moment there you were going to tell them they didn't have to go to school tomorrow i mean i'd make the motion but i don't think we have that authority we can try it all right let's go to a vote and then we'll do some picture taking all those in favor signify by raising your hand and mary it's unanimous and it is adopted this 10th day of september uh let me have them all come forward through the little gates and i think the council members would like to get their pictures and the coa

» ches too that's right before we go on to the next item my business, Shane would like to say something. I would just like to say that this is something that didn't just happen in one year. These girls have been on the grind with softball for many years. Some of these girls have participated in other state championship opportunities and coaches pitch as well, so this is not something they've just done all of a sudden. They've been working on this for a long time. Our softball has been participating in Dixie softball for maybe about five or six years. So it just speaks volumes that we were able to turn around World Series team that quick. And these girls are the first girls to do that. And I just love seeing these girls in the community because they're so happy.

» And I just appreciate the bond that it has created with these girls and our county. So it's just, in my opinion, taught our county to be, you know, to trust each other and support each other and that's what these girls have done and taught us along with their coaches lee has been at this for a long time as well as steven and waylon waylon's been uh doing it for in baseball and softball for years and there's many other parents that are with these girls that have coached for us as well so not only do they uh they make their parents proud i feel they make our county proud amen our recreation department proud amen amen um talking with some of the girls all the girls are not here off that pony league team some of us multi-talented and they're on the soccer team also i asked where the catcher was

» and she's playing soccer so this is not all the girls thank you yeah thank you very much oh one last thing is we we can't run this county without volunteers and the volunteers coaches parents families and we we owe everything to you and as we go into the soccer season and the football season those volunteer coaches uh are just irreplaceable now yeah mr you're gonna say one quick word you know let's not forget the parents because guys i know as a parent of a child who did wrestling year round and it takes a lot of commitment from the family as a whole and i salute you i really do and let me say this too thank you for bringing a smile on all our faces this council doesn't have a whole lot of happy moments but you got us all smiling up here so that says something for you guys thank you any fur

» ther comments well i don't know coaches and parents if you want to stick around and watch boring business happen but we move now into the difficult part of this where we won't be smiling so much so yeah if you really you're certainly welcome to leave uh but it doesn't count as an excuse to miss your homework tonight. Thanks Coach Lee. We'll let the room clear and then we'll go. Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen. We move now to our agenda again. Public presentations one, two, and three. The first of which is a Friends of the Library check presentation from Mr. Bob Jan Georgie. Wherever you'd like.

» Probably right there so the public who are listening in can hear your presentation all right well first of all chairman burns county council thank you for allowing us to do this presentation here it i think brings a level of visibility to both the library as well as the friends of the library before i talk more about that just did a little look at research about libraries and recent survey 94 percent of americans FEEL THAT HAVING A PUBLIC LIBRARY IMPROVES THE QUALITY OF LIFE. ALSO, IN TERMS OF USAGE, VARIOUS RESEARCH PEGS IT BETWEEN 55 TO 65 PERCENT OF RESIDENTS USE THE LIBRARY. SO WE'RE TALKING ABOUT A COUNTY RESOURCE THAT IS VALUED AND USED. TO THE FRIENDS, WE'RE A PRIVATE CITIZENS group that really are just members that join to support the county library.

» That support comes in a number of ways. One, there's the membership fee, and that varies depending on the basic membership up to whatever you want to contribute. And then we do an annual book sale, which, by the way, we're in the midst of getting that off the ground, and it starts september 19th um we have a board of friends that meets monthly to uh talk over our our activities get guidance from amber as to the kinds of things that we should be doing i would just like our board members that are here to stand up uh we have two i believe i don't know anybody else I'll read then we have about seven typically what we do every year is fund a variety of activities at the library we sponsor to the summer reading program for example also usually we do a project that has to do with let's say library

» infrastructure and for the past usually we do one significant project a year for the past several years we've delayed that based on the guidance of amber with her idea of the friends supporting the renovation of the meeting and conference room at the Camden library so you know that's very briefly what we're all about the types of things that we do and amber i'll turn it over to you good evening chairman members of council thank you again for having us on the agenda tonight i'm amber conger for those of you all i haven't met yet and i've been proudly serving as your library director for the last almost four years wow and the number one in south carolina too as i remember thank you um i am honored and humbled beyond words for what our friends group continues to do for us they are the most ded

» icated group of people who absolutely love the library and love and support our mission and are happy to spread the word and put their own blood sweat and tears into working all year long into developing fundraiser for us this book sale is not something that only happens in september it goes on all year because the community is amazing about donating their books so they come to the library then they have to go get sorted all year long heavy heavy labor that these people are doing for us. And then they're sorting, which is what's going on right now. By the way, I'm going to plug, if anybody's looking for an awesome volunteer opportunity right now, go on our Facebook page and we can sign you up to volunteer to work with the book sale, which starts next Thursday. It's the Friends Night.

» Thank you for allowing me to put the ad in again. I hope everybody comes. If y'all have not been to the book sale, it's over at the Old Armory and it is amazing. The first time I ever walked in my first year as director, I was so humbled. It made me emotional. I could not believe all the books that people have brought and that so many hands worked so hard just to support the library and to support what we do. You know, everybody, what do you think of when you think of the library? Books, right? Everybody's default, but we're about so much more than that. It's not just books. We're about education. We're about workforce development. We're about community partnerships and bringing people together from different views, different walks of life.

» They can all come into the library and find their home. But I think beyond that, what we're about is hope. We're about giving people hope in our community, whether it's that two-year-old whose mama brings her to the library for story time. That mom is there because she has hope for her child, because she knows that children who read grow up to be adults who think. And adults who think live happy, healthy, productive lives. We bring hope to the 85-year-old woman who's at home alone, by herself, can't get out and drive, and Miss Hannah, Miss Hannah, Miss Hannah takes her books, takes her a stack of books, large print that she devours.

» This lady has hope because she knows she still has things to learn and things to contribute to this world, and we could tell you story after story about that, and the people who support the library, we're here not just because we're readers, it's because we believe in supporting the hopes and dreams of other people and that is how you build a strong community and a great community and i see it everywhere but i'm so proud of the people that support the library and there's a few people i'd like to have stand tonight if you're here as a staff member friend support member i'm not sure you all snip in come on you know you're going to call i'd like to point out a few of our staff ladies work so hard um we have hannah gustafson she's our bookmobile and outreach lady debbie hemming from the camden

» branch lauren decker and donna goff and they are very dedicated and very committed but i definitely want to say um i have just i'm blown away by the work of our friends board and all the volunteers but especially to our president bob jean georgie al reed was our past president anthony hawksworth has been our book sale chair. I call them the three amigos. They, every year, pull off this amazing sale. And because of that, the friends are giving us $50,000 to support our library renovation. And on behalf of the library, the board, staff, and the county, and the citizens of this community, we thank you so much for your generosity. Awesome. It is really our honor to be able to do this.

» Everybody on the board and and our membership in general just understands the contribution the library you want to come up here and do the presentation just yes please please do come on up and of course I would I don't want to leave you guys out you all have been so supportive of the library as well and we appreciate you so much you all have been incredibly encouraging and just thank you also mr.

» chairman may I just had a follow-up comment to our library director so it's not just the depressed or the old or those who might you're getting tired parents out of bed too over the weekend both of my daughters grabbed me and said I have to drop off three books each so they can pick up three more books each which I'm sure they're devouring this week and it will replay this weekend again there's something about being a device society that's not good electronic devices are useful and they're helpful but I think there's something important about having an organic document in your hand I actually enjoyed a little bit more as a professional but I see it paying off dividends with my kids too when they read so thank you mr.

» Tucker please miss miss amber and I'm gonna call you the crew all of you who participate I want to say a special thanks because I do visit the library periodically yes some of us still do read and I want to say that I appreciate that not only is the workforce part of this piece that you guys do but it allows folks in this rural county as we continue to grow to have internet access because we still have a lot of people that don't have that in a place to go and I'm looking forward again did it ten years ago but partnering up with the library the county and volunteers to get this census done which is going to be on electronic version this year thank you so long I'm I'm very excited, and I may not volunteer for the book sale, but I'll be doing a lot of volunteering with you. Thank you.

» Thank you, Mr. Tucker. Mr. Snodgrass. Yeah, I just wanted to add, just a point of personal privilege, that thank you so much for the library that we have and the staff. Not unusual for taking my kids there when it's my day to pick them up from school when we go there, and they enjoy going around, doing their homework, and enjoying the selection there, as well as I prepared many a sermon there in the main library and in your collection is a much they have a much sought-after commentary series a new interpreters commentary series is in their collection and when I first moved here and discovered that I said wow it's because it saved me a lot of money because this is a very expensive commentary so thank you so much thank you for all that you do mr.

» Mozart sir I just have one question with all the modern technology we got in And several years back, the post office says they was losing money due to Internet and everything Google. And some just read recently where some quick delivery companies, speed delivery and quick delivery and so forth, are losing money because the Internet's taking up a lot of their business now. Are you seeing a decline in the clients coming in, the visitors coming into the library? Our circulation statistics last year actually went up. That's what I figured.

» very happy thank you we do understand that sometimes people do consume comment content different ways and so while print is never going away and i firmly agree with you and it's absolutely different when you're reading it on in a print book um however we have also increased our digital collections to accommodate both and so print's never going away but our numbers were up last year we're very proud of that people are reading don't let anybody tell you people don't reading more. They're reading. Thank you. And even Tucker will start reading again. Thank you. Mr. Jones, you raised your hand there. I was waving at somebody. Ms. Ambrose, the sad part about that, I do have my library card. I bet he doesn't. I do have one friend out there.

» I'm not going there, but I will say that if anybody does not have a card, we'd be more than happy to hook you up, and we will not tell. All right? Make sure you have books and pictures for Mr. Tucker. yeah other comments what did you say oh well you're being insulted there mr tucker that's right that's uh mr tucker said he visits the library periodically or is it periodicals okay well very good for that and amber i just delighted y'all come but i would like to reiterate the point earlier made by many of us that our volunteers uh what make us a great all-america county as in the ponytails and as you demonstrate and in our next agenda item too uh further comments i just want to let you know bob you're 1.25 they were number one you 1.25 okay thank you very much everyone we move to the next ite

» m thank you thank you uh the next item is a on a public presentation there's a clean community commission miss wanda swan ma'am can you come forward and we'd love to hear who's here from your team too good evening mr chairman and councilman thank you for having us and i would like to recognize our team if you would stand please oh wow they're all here yeah oh that's terrific mr chairman i hope we bring a smile to your face tonight you do to mine thank you stop flirting yeah that's gonna be a real big laugh you follow my name is Wanda Swan and I'm chairman of the Kershaw County Clean Community Commission I'm here tonight to give you an update on our committee's progress as we have had a very productive year and are very excited about the year ahead a few highlights from last year is that we

» applied for a five thousand dollar grant and won that grant from Palmetto Pride yeah good here. We purchased three anti-litter billboards and placed them around our county. And that handsome young man in that picture is my grandson. I just thought I'd mention that. We brought litter education into some of our schools, and we work with law enforcement and court systems to help enforce litter laws. We organized a spring litter pickup, and we utilized 105 volunteers, slide number five, 440 bags of trash, and we were able to have 29.5 miles of roadside pickup. Fantastic. Thank you. We received 500 tarps and placed them at our recycle centers to be given out to truck owners who have had an unsecured load. This will eliminate extra trash on our highways.

» We place six signs at boat ramps on Lake Watery to reduce litter being sucked out from boats and scattered onto our highways. The year ahead, we are participating in the chicken strut this coming Friday and Saturday. We will have a tent and we will be handing out litter literature, books, coloring books, tarps, and litter pickup materials.

» This is to help educate our community our fall litter pickup is scheduled for november 2nd from from 10 a.m to 12 noon our goal is to have at least 200 volunteers by the way i am personally inviting each one of you to join us that day we need all the volunteers we can get and i think we have about 10 here so please please sign up where's your assembly point we will have it in different areas of the county and if you'll contact us and let us know we try to put you in your area or your district so that you can work with a local local citizens that you know some of your neighbors we hope to be planting trees and restoring several unattractive intersections in our county amen we um we want to recognize and award businesses with conglut congratulatory plaques for maintaining and beautifying stor

» efronts parking lots and entrances we need to give folks a pat on the back when they do a good job we want to work with council to help identify and clean dilapidated buildings in our county you ask why are we doing all of this in 2014 south carolina was named the dirtiest state in the united states in 2018 we're still in the top 10. 55 percent of all realtors think that litter reduces property values for up to nine percent. Industries looking for a new home are turned off by communities that do not care about litter and the cleanliness of their community. Eighty-five percent of littering is the result of individuals' attitudes. We need to change attitudes of our citizens concerning litter by creating a new mindset that littering is not acceptable. We need to report litter bugs.

» We need to let our citizens know that it's not okay to litter. We need to educate, educate, educate through schools, the workplace, public events, billboards, and litter pickups. I can't tell you how many people have stopped me and said, wow, I was so impressed with how many people were picking up trash in our county. I want to help next time. It really does matter. We also want enforcement of our state and local litter laws. What would the results be? Pride in our community, bring industry and keep jobs right here in our county, increase property values, and increase local revenue, which I think that's music to your ears.

» The question now is how can how can you help our commission in this fight against litter? Palmetto Pride is offering a grant to each county in the state called the Litter Task Force Grant. The purchase of this grant, which is in your handouts, is a grant that provides funding for up to $20,000 to pay for a part-time litter control officer dedicated to enforcing state and local litter laws. This grant is a pilot program coordinated by Palmetto Pride for the sole purpose of providing assistance to county governments and to help enforce state and local litter laws. Grant recipients will have to option to receive funds for two years provided that they fulfill the obligations of the grant. This grant also can be extended after the two years.

» It's a pilot program and they are hoping to be able to extend it for even two more years. your handouts you have the eligible applicants the purpose how surrounding counties have already applied for this grant and received it how they're using it and it also is a litter officer job description I must say that if this is not it's a rough draft it's suggestions and approval working with County will be happy to make adjustments. It's just a suggestion. We will not win the public nuisance litter battle by being passive. We kindly ask for your support with our efforts to get our arms around the litter problem. Our committee's objective is not just to have a roadside litter pickup twice a year or just to call state DOT and ask them to pick up trash.

» We're here to raise public awareness and to bring on board every citizen in our great county to help make Kershaw County the cleanest County in the state possibly the nation but we can't do it alone we need your help it begins with your support we respectfully request or support to allow our Commission to apply for the Palmetto pride litter task force grant in order to staff a litter officer to help us on this journey to become not just an all-american County but also the cleanest County thank you excellent presentation and clarification for council item number three under new business place there by a councilman Jones addresses this issue of the litter agent man which if you wouldn't mind standing up there may be some comments and questions mr.

» Jones I give you place of honor on this do you have any comments sir well I would just like to say thank you so much to each and every one of you it's working you're doing the right thing and I appreciate your efforts I'm going to support you tonight when we get to the grant and I look forward to the years coming and congratulations on what y'all done and I'll give it down to mr. Bozard who created the Commission without his motion some time ago mr.

» Bozard thank you I want to thank everyone I was only this committee and I do thank you forever all the efforts I've traveled a county quite a bit and i was going down clear water road the other day which is off of 95 back i mean i was 521 back to the right and up highway 5 also and i see a lot of handmade don't litter signs and i appreciate whoever's doing that i appreciate y'all doing that because them roads was clean the last time i went up them and i thank you for your efforts thank you well i can't take credit for that i don't know who did it but i'm grateful too uh mr tucker vice thank you sir um chairman i just want to say thanks as well and um i'm always close to my appointee uh the judge who keeps me informed he'll call me and tell me what all great things you guys are doing and um

» i just had two comments um one being um and i discussed this and i think you uh I ACTUALLY TOUCHED ON IT AND WE CAN GET INTO IT MORE WHEN WE GET TO THE ACTUAL APPROVING OF THE GRANT. BUT IT WAS GOOD TO HEAR TO SAY EDUCATE. I DO NOT WANT SOMEONE JUST TO ENFORCE LITTER PICKUP BECAUSE IF YOU DON'T EDUCATE, YOU'RE GOING TO KEEP DOING THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER, AND TICKETS DON'T ALWAYS FIX PEOPLE. EDUCATION DOES. SO IT WAS GOOD TO HEAR YOU SAY THAT IN YOUR PRESENTATION, AND WE'LL DIVE INTO THAT A LITTLE BIT MORE. BUT I SEE YOU GAVE US THIS BAG, ADOPT A HIGHWAY. people against plastic, but I'm not one of those. You know, I'd rather have this plastic bag full of trash than all the trash on the roadway. Amen. Yeah, I just have to weigh what's best.

» But that beautiful logo you have needs to be on this bag somewhere. And these need to be issued out to all of our citizens because they're great for your turn signal and you can put trash in and then the trash won't fall out your car for those who don't vacuum their car. You know, just saying. Chairman Tucker, we need money so we can get that logo. Can you fix that, please, sir? I can do anything. Mr. Chairman, I just want to echo what others have said. I want to thank you for your work and team that's on the commission. Thank you so much. I think it's ironic that on the same night that we're honoring the library And we're also having an economic development, some updates there that we're also talking about litter because they all connect.

» I'm convinced that a company that wants to move here is not going to move here if we don't have an A-class library, which we do, and if our town is dirty. And so thank you so much for taking the mantle and for being volunteer and community-driven the way it is. And I'm also looking forward to working with you on some of those intersections. because we've got a few in East Camden that I believe will change the morale of things as we begin to move away from the highway grass. I mean, you know, highway grass isn't that attractive, so we're going to replace the highway grass with something else. So thank you so much. Ben, please, Mr. Carmel. This really comes down to a tragedy of the commons where someone always thinks that someone else will take care of it as you're driving down the road.

» And what I'm grateful for is this is a commission that's in its baby stages, but you've already accomplished so much, which is really encouraging next year for hopefully increasing your budget some. But also, you're organizing people in a way that they don't just think someone else will take care of it. You know, they're actually getting up and doing something about it and beautifying the community. Also, I just want to report to council that Pam Delk, who is with us tonight, she has decided to put in an application and accept the opportunity to serve, if appointed, on representing the Elgin area. So, she'll have her application in, Mary, for the next meeting. So, thank you for that, too. Other comments? Vic, I'd love to see the 2 November event somewhere on one of the county websites.

» That would be great. And if we could put it up on the three cities websites, that would be great, to Mr. Connell's point. And I wonder if the three municipalities are as aware as we are tonight of this good work that you all brought forward. I would like to encourage you to find a way for the representatives from each of the three municipalities to give some sort of update to each of the town mayors in some fashion. Okay, and I'd be happy to help you with that, Wanda. Thank you.

» Any other comments? just thanks alright Wanda if you want to hang around for the vote it'll be item on an item under new business thank you very much that was very persuasive one point five yeah one point five but everybody's a one yeah keeping up with the theme of volunteers item number three under public presentations is an update on vision 2030 from the core team who are private citizens about the survey Paula Scarborough please ma'am Paula bring that mic over closer thank you I'd hope to add my congratulations to the ponytails their accomplishments isn't it wonderful yes absolutely my name is Paula Scarborough and as chairman Byrne said I am representing the vision core team tonight our members are as chairman Byrne said we're all volunteers and we've been together since the beginning o

» f vision 2030 we appreciate the opportunity to address council this evening about vision Kershaw 20 in our annual survey as you can see on the screen is our 2030 vision statement it's fairly comprehensive but it's supported by goals and objectives and strategies within the vision plan itself I've seen that before but before we get into some items on the vision itself and the survey I'd like to step back a minute talk about where we started and why in 2015 February of 2015 County Council approved the concept of a county vision complement the federally mandated 10-year comprehensive plan that was upcoming in 2016 with the help of the planning department and many others vision organizers conducted three detailed workshops and more than 32 community engagement events hundreds and hundreds of pe

» ople of all ages and occupations from high school seniors on up all around the county all these people participated in these seminars and workshops and community involvement Scores and scores of hours later, Vision Kershaw 2030 became a reality, published and adopted by County Council, Camden, Elgin, and Bethune Councils, and other groups in 2016. So why is a vision important for our county? Well, first of all, it does help to prioritize council decisions on the goals and policies and operations and budgets. It inspires those individuals who wish to participate in and help direct the activities of their communities.

» Thirdly, and finally, it inspires participation in partnerships and collaboration among businesses, organizations, groups, and government who want to improve and grow our communities. Because we know that when we work together, we are better together. This is the vision circle that you may have seen along the way. Each fall in 2000, since 2016, in collaboration with others in our community, we prepare a survey on the eight components of our vision for Shaw and ask county citizens to go online to complete, not so brief, but not so, it doesn't take that long to fill it out either, 50 or 60 questions or so.

» And those areas, the eight areas in that outer ring, each year the number of respondents has more than doubled to over 900 respondents for 2018, many of whom took the time to write comments on one subject or another. We have incorporated some of the comments and suggestions into making this year's survey easier to comprehend and to navigate, eliminated some redundancies and questions, and we've refreshed others.

» had some people who were particularly sensitive to grammar some of the grammar in our questions last year we had a lot of teachers that links to more community information to finding more community information still there if someone wants to peruse a particular topic most importantly we have left the comment sections intact to encourage residents to speak their mind give us their feedback on anything that they want to talk so back to our timeline along the way in 2017 and 18 the as we were doubling our respondents each year the vision Kershaw 2030 became one of the cornerstones for the all-america city application and that was a very impressive presentation that you all made out in but we won that designation and we ready to win more but this year on October the 1st we will release our 2019

» survey and promote it through various ways local media outlets social media public service announcements websites and events the survey will be online through about December the 10th a little bit longer then after we collect all of those results and compile them we'll present them to County Council in their winter planning retreat in early 2000 as they prioritize the goals so what can you do like for everybody to go out and as you are out in the community please tell your friends and neighbors to go to vision Kershaw 2030 org take the survey click on the survey button as a 19 survey please help us spread the word thank you for your time and support for vision Kershaw 2030 for making Kershaw County great 2030 for all of us thank you Paula comments from staff mr.

» Tucker thank you - Thank you, Ms. Scarborough. Appreciate all that you do, you and the team. Quick question, are we gonna have some hard copies available of the survey or will it strictly just be online? - We will have some copies. I don't know exactly where we'll, maybe at some libraries, we did that one year, maybe here at the planning department. - Okay. - But yes, there will be some. - Because I know there'll be some folks that ask that question, can I just get a hard copy, and there's certain groups that I know that I'm with or dealing in that we probably can be a little bit more participative if we're able to lock them down and get them to fill them out right on the spot versus waiting for them to go online. Other comments? We can get those.

» Yeah, other comments? This is great stuff. It keeps the survey alive, and it shows that private citizens are driving this feedback. Of course, council has other ways to get comments back. So when we get the comments from the surveys from the core group, Council also have had chances in the districts to try out ideas going forward on their own. This is not to preclude that. This is to provide a little bit of focus that's generated by the vision itself. That's terrific stuff. Thank you very much, Paula. Thank you. Gentlemen, that's been a very full first hour of this. Keep charging on. We move now to approval of minutes dated 13 August. They're at tab B. Can we have a motion to approve? Mr. Chair, I make a motion.

» approve the minutes that has been written by miss mary and thank you miss mary mr tucker thank you a second second second from mr gardner uh discussion i do have a point to make um the point is is i left during the last meeting right after right during the uh administrator's briefing and miss mary has made a slight addendum that may require a vote i think technically it could uh there is a single page of piece of paper on your desk uh that shows where the administrator's briefing begins as a note in parenthesis that chairman burns departed on business and gave it the gavel to the able hands of mr tucker i extemporize a little bit but uh i'm i'm willing to go technical on this and take an amendment to the minutes if you wish do we have such a motion this is what you want in yep yes sir i'll

» make the um amendment to the emotion okay mr tucker a second second that second for mr connell thank you uh any further discussion all right uh let's uh vote on the amendment then we'll vote on the minutes as amended all those in favor signify by raising your hand and it's amended and now we vote on the edge on the minutes as amended this is really hard for me mary uh all those and uh i think uh all those in favor let's signify by raising your hand and we it's unanimous and those minutes are amended and approved as amended and with that now we move into a series of ordinances uh the first of which is a second reading of an ordinance by kershaw county council uh regarding a conveyance to bethune rural water over to you mr carpenter bring us through this mr chairman members council you have i

» n front of you tonight for second reading and ordinance uh the gist of the ordinance is that many years ago um the county in support of a grant um acquired a small piece of land that the platoon rural water used as a pump station they are requesting that we transfer that title over to them so they can secure additional grants for work on the property council previously approved this unanimously on first reading i'll be happy to take a motion to approve so move mr snodgrass a second second that from mr connell any discussion discuss this last time it's pretty straightforward uh let's move to a vote all those in favor so signify and it's unanimous everybody uh we move now to four different votes now i'm going to summarize this very quickly on two economic development projects uh which remain

» unnamed unnamed uh by a corporation or company but have a code name and it's been asked by the uh administrator that we move briefly into an executive session to provide an update before we vote so i'd like to right now to have a motion to to move into executive session and come back out and address these four items so can i have a motion to move an executive session with our economic development officer legal and administrator anybody else uh nope okay i got a first uh from mr bozard a second second with clarity uh mr chairman this is for um a um contractual matter that we're going there's a contractual matter on economic development project okay thank you for clarification uh i have a second from you mr yes sir that's correct okay any discussion uh and excuse me yeah i don't think it's co

» ntractual it's an economic development economic development yeah if you restate no it is okay yeah if we approve this it'll go into a signature for me yes as a senior official but thank you mr jones for clearing that up and i think we will have further discussions um but i think we're clear we'll come back out and we'll begin to vote on each of these four items okay yeah well just just so the folks know i mean we're going to executive session but what will be discussed will eventually be disclosed just at this moment it just has to be behind closed doors just everyone understands that you know we're fully transparent very good uh david that's excellent other points all right let's move to a vote and we'll go into executive session if it's approved all those in favor signify and it's unanimo

» us and we are moving into executive session briefly thank you oh we have a first from mr uh tucker we have a second second from mr snodgrass thank you any discussion mr bozard you're about the same age uh mr bozard unless they want to fight about it okay we any further discussion all those in favor signify by raising your hand and we are out of executive session uh we move now uh with the agenda with a series of ordinances uh the second of which is a first reading and title only of an ordinance authorizing uh let's see where am i an ad valorem taxes agreement for project sweeper mr carpenter would you like to take the lead on this please mr chairman members of council you have in front of you tonight first reading and title only as you've already said an ordinance um authorizing the executi

» on delivery of the Fianloo Agreement between Kershaw County and a project that is currently known as Project Sweeper. Can we have a first to place this into action, please? Mr. Chair, I'd like to mention that we have first reading and title only on Project Sweeper. Okay, very good. A second? Second. Second from Mr. Gardner. Discussion? Mr. Carpenter, just a little bit for the community, please. Go ahead. Yes, sir.

» The Fianloo Agreement is an agreement between the county and an industry wherein the terms are negotiated with the industry that result in generally the changing of an assessment ratio the state of South Carolina sets its assessment for industry at ten and a half percent state law allows you to lower it different percentage points based on the amount of the investment and also allows you to negotiate with them their property tax rate as well that's what uh this ordinance would do very good uh questions comments i'm saying this is in uh title only correct yeah and it's an ordinance on project sweeper but i think we can go to a vote all those in favor signify by raising your hand and uh it's mr snodgrass mr tucker mr gardner mr burns uh mr bozard and mr connell all those opposed mr chairman i

» 'm going to abstain due to the fact that after our discussion executive session i just don't think enough information has been provided to the public or myself thank you okay we have one abstention and with that it passes six to one with that we go to a first reading now and item number three uh entitled only of an ordinance authorizing uh ad valorem tax agreement on project wildcat But first, I ask Mr. Carpenter to explain. Mr. Chairman, similar or the same as the previous ordinance, this is a title-only ordinance for a fee and lieu between Corsi County and an entity referred to in this case as Project Wildcat. Very good. Thank you. Can we have a motion to approve? So moved. Mr. Gardner, a second? Second that. From Mr. Connell, discussion? Mr. Chairman. Yeah, Mr. Snodgrass, go ahead.

» I do want to add, and I should have said this on the first one, that the hope everyone understands that we're dealing with corporations who are at this point don't want to reveal some of their plans. And so since this is broadcast on YouTube and other areas, it puts their product in jeopardy. So no one is trying to, and I'm not insinuating that Mr. Jones thinks that, but by no means. This is just me wanting to be clear that as we go through second and even in third reading, that there will be more information that gets released as the company, corporation, gives us the permission to release that. It's one of those things that if we release it, the company will say, see you later, don't worry about it. So I just want everyone to understand that there's nothing up here to hide.

» It's just we are, our hands are tied as far as how much we can, how much we can disclose. But I can assure you that before it gets a third reading and final vote, that everything that needs to be disclosed will be disclosed on both of these issues. Mr. Chairman, if I may. Thank you, Mr. Snodgrass. Mr. Jones. Absolutely. My abstention was not a vote for or against. I am for economic development. I am for pushing this county forward. My vote was Jimmy Jones did not feel like there was enough information provided to the public and himself, the questions that I had. That's why I abstained on this. It was not a vote against or a vote for. I abstained. So, anyway, thank you so much. Other comments? Mr. Chairman. Yeah, Mr. Connell. Not to mention the phrase, entitled only was used.

» That means there's literally no content or text for us to actually vote on. It's just a title. So, as Mr. Snodgrass said and others, we'll get more information that we can actually vote on. The word's on the page. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Very good. If we, and I'll just close it out and move to a vote, is if we didn't move it this way, and title only, we would not make the timings that are driven by state, federal, and corporate industry processes, which we merely stand here to facilitate and we only stand to gain by doing it this way to allow their processes to have a signal of support of our direction on where this is going with respect to jobs and economic development for our county and it sends a signal when the county here agrees hopefully unanimously to do that so we we are we are sen

» ding a signal tonight and a little later on we'll as mr snodgrass said we'll get into the details this is what it's been done for years and years for the lifetime of every councilman here and it's sensical legal ethical and expeditious and shows our support for business with that we move to a vote all those in favor signify by raising your hand and i see that it's unanimous let's move to a series of resolutions the first of which is identifying a project to satisfy the requirements of project sweeper it's now into the resolution mode mr carpenter can you lead us through that mr chairman members of council um the way the laws in south carolina are written these resolutions are required to um to fill a legal need and no details are different for this project or the next one then will be cover

» ed under their ordinance itself but state law does require a reimbursement a resolution um to be passed for this so we have in front of you tonight for your approval resolution to identify the projects in order to satisfy the requirements of state code and i would note before i ask for a motion that we've already passed uh an ordinance entitled only on this very same project sweeper i ask for a motion now to approve the resolution on project sweeper mr chairman i make the motion to approve the resolution on project sweeper uh mr tucker a second second second for mr bozar discussion again just want to reiterate just for the record excuse me do you have to be recognized oh i'm sorry go ahead mr snodgrass chairman all right just again just want to reiterate uh the it's kind of nature of the bu

» siness that we're doing here and that there's nothing that we're hiding here but at this point then what i've been told um i feel comfortable moving this forward uh through through first reading but as we uh as this rolls out public press you'll you'll understand what's what's happening before we get to the final vote uh other discussion yes uh yes sir please thank you mr chairman thank you members of the county council let me just say this i will abstain once again on this due to the same reasons that i stated earlier and it sounds like to me that a couple of comments that were made that if we're not unanimous and i'll go along to get along that we're sending a bad message no i think that if you don't you know i had a person just send me a text a while ago and said jimmy good luck tonight

» no jimmy not good luck you always vote with your heart and what you think is right regardless of the pressure from the majority and i honestly feel the way i felt when i abstained i'm not voting against but i'm not voting for tonight i abstained for those reasons and no one on this county council will intimidate me to cause me or pressure me by indicating any kind of message we're sending by the way i present myself or what i represent on this county council i work for the people of kershaw county not politicians and bureaucrats and i and i will never ever forget that but anyway thank you mr chairman thank you members of county council all right any other comments thank you with that we move to a vote all those in favor so signify by raising your hand Mrs. Snodgrass, Mr. Tucker, Mr.

» Gardner, Mr. Burns, Mr. Bozard, and Mr. Connell. Thank you. All those opposed? Mr. Chairman, I abstain for the same reasons as the first. Mr. Jones abstains. With that, we move to the—it passes, Mary, 6-1. And now, item number two, a resolution identifying a project to satisfy the requirements of Project Wildcat. Do you want to go to the ordinance—I mean, to the resolution itself on the screen there? Is that it? While you're bringing that up, I'll have Mr. Carpenter explain. Sir? Mr. Chairman, members of council, you have in front of you the ordinance, the resolution itself for Project Wildcat. As you can see on the screen, this is the information that was provided to the county by the company itself. And so you can see there that, again, they provided this information to us.

» Thank you very much. It's tab B for those who are following along. Can we have a motion to approve? Move. Second. Mr. Tucker, seconding discussion. Seeing there is none, let's move to a vote. All those in favor, signify by raising your hand. And, Mary, it's unanimous. We move now to new business. Item number one is the bid for Watery River Park Phase 1. It's at tab F. Can you move forward to that, please? And there it is on the screen to you, Mr. Carpenter. Mr. Chairman, members of council, as you recall, with the master plan of the River Park Phase 1, which was approved by council in the current budget, calls for the creation of a concrete walk-in trail, a floating canoe and kayak launch, entranceway to a US-1, and landscaping. Bids were submitted, nine were received.

» The low bidder contractor services of Kershaw, out of Kershaw, South Carolina, were $383,185, which is less than the amount that council has allocated. Very good. So can we have a motion to approve the recommendation of the staff? So moved, Mr. Chair. Can we have a second? Second. Second from Mr. Gardner. Discussion? I just, if I may, Mr. Chairman. Yes, sir. Please, Mr. Chairman. I just want to say big thanks. It's always good to see these bids come in when you've got local folks that's bidding in on the bottom and getting awarded our great tax dollars. So I appreciate what you and staff does, but I really appreciate the contract that's right here being aggressive bidders. Absolutely.

» comments yeah mr bozard and all by the way on the screen there's a diagram of what they're doing mr carpenter yes sir can you outline a little bit please what we're paying for in these walking trails how much concrete how long and so forth and also on that floating kayak launch yes sir um the um the walking trail will be two thousand one hundred and twelve linear feet uh it'll be eight feet wide and a four inches thick. The canoe and kayak launch will be a floating launch to allow people it'll be a dock system so they can put in and put out from the river right there. Obviously because it's floating like over the boat landing it will move up and down and it'll also include the removal of the current destroyed boat launch that is there.

» Is this going in where the present boat dock is now this is going in where the old boat dock is what i mean yes sir that's going on the brown property that's correct yes sir uh in place where it is now you're going to take that concrete out and put this in yes sir i don't like that idea how are we going to launch boats we're still going to the other side of the road if they want to launch boats there we'd have to do something different boats will still be across the road at the boat launch yes sir how about this entrance sign what are we talking about on an entrance sign we're talking about a sign that will let the public know it's there. It's a sign that when council makes a decision on a name for it, it would have the name of the park on it as well.

» But most of that work is really going to be working with DOT to get the entranceway safety with DOT US-1 so you have a safe entrance and egress for the citizens. Actually, right now, this entrance sign is not in this package. No, sir. An entrance sign is part of what is going to be built but how can you build something you don't know what it is once a name is assigned to it then the name will be put on the on that part you can add the name to the sign or to the entrance way i should say the entrance way is not just the sign the entrance way is the the access and the egress the turn lanes uh the safety mechanisms is the bulk of what that is landscaping you're telling me something different thank you other comments mr chairman mr connell uh two things Mr. Carpenter.

» First, I got a call from a contractor who had questions about the bid process. It was not one that obviously received this bid, but he was just curious and wanted to make sure that all the particulars were followed in the bid process. Have we reviewed that and made sure that they were? Absolutely, sir. Every bid was consistent with the county policies. Every bid that was considered was one bid was not considered because it was not consistent with the bid policies. Okay. Maybe that was one they referenced.

» And then also on the launch, we've heard issues in the past about the the flow of the river hitting the bridge underneath or hitting the boat launch underneath the bridge so people sometimes feel like it's dangerous how their boat is oriented underneath the bridge because the flow is pushing you into the dock i want to make sure on this orientation it looks like you can launch from the front side or on the opposite side of the flow down river and maybe it's a little bit better situation for people is that yeah okay oh no you got a laser there yeah well just this uh if i can be like jimmy yeah so point down so the pylons will be on the front side in the back side and that floats and then you'll have a floating walkway that yes rotates up and down okay all right i think that accounts for for

» that issue that people raised in the past about the bridges uh the uh boat launches right underneath the bridge mr chairman oh yeah it's mr snoggrass if i remember right and i think uh i think ben probably just described that but this this doc is designed to to avoid what we're talking about right it's i mean if i remember right previous discussions it was a special design doc that right it helps voters or kayakers getting easier easier without issuing getting to the bridge is that correct yes that's correct um and then and then also i i don't know where we are in the process of this i do want to make sure that we do take um commander fuller from the american legion i i want to make sure that we at least take his consideration seriously as we as we get into that so i just want to go ahead a

» nd vocalize um my support for ex exploring that other comments uh yeah mr jones go right here would you would you take my laser please would you we're talking about putting concrete where not exactly where's the concrete going concrete will be on the walking rail roughly in that area throughout the there'll be roughly in this area of the park and that is the flood plain parks that are yes sir yes so we'll go put concrete in the flood plain yes sir okay thank you uh let me just ask another question procedurally during the duck season i see uh one of the best duck hunters in the world here tonight you want to self-identify there paul um but you know we've had complaints about closing it on the patriot landing side which is a dnr responsibility i see here the indication that the road may join

» the two parks the patriot landing and our own watery park is that the case here not in phase one at some point in the future is possible okay but that's would merely be something down the road that's possible to be right has not ruled it out but we've done no actual planning for that yeah to emphasize uh as david was suggesting dnr controls the keys to that and now we'll have some harmony will have to be worked out in the future of course you know that already the second was during the hurricane we shut the park down and and that was for good reason and we have a good system I think of notifying the public through our Facebook in other ways to do that so when the hours are clear what about during the construction phase what impact will that have on when this thing is open please Jane actual

» ly we feel that it'll be have little impact because we are actually hosting an event on october the 5th that's saturday october 5th which is a touch a truck event and we'll be plenty capable of working around any construction that's going on there without you know anything happening or going wrong there so we feel that it'd be very limited um i guess you could say interruption roger thank you any further questions yeah al yes um Mr.

» Carpenter, Shane, on that dock that launches the kayaks, have we got a height on that thing? Is it up there on a 100-year plane or something that this thing's not going to float off when the water comes up and floods the property over there or something? Have we taken that into consideration? Well, I don't have the plans right in front of me, but I can definitely get that information for you. I do know that this particular dock is designed similar to the one adjacent to the property at the boat landing. So they're using the same type technology that they used on that same time. I was mainly concerned about the height of it. Right. Well, I can't get that information for you. I just don't have that in front of me. I don't really need that information.

» I just want to make sure we make those poles high enough that it won't float off there in high. Absolutely. Okay. Thank you. Very good. I think we can move to a vote. All those in favor? Mr. Chairman, I'm sorry. Go ahead. One question. Thank you very much. i just want to make sure does the estimate include thinning out of the brush shrubbery and those uh the vines that kind of stuff along the walkway on the river's front um a little bit yes sir i'm not talking about just a halo of i mean we cut through and just have a walkway and you can see the river we're trying to maintain still the the trees the feel of that property so that you're not looking at a wholesale cutting of trees or anything like that there will be thinning out ultimately there will be a boardwalk as well alongside in future

» phases if council chooses to pursue it um and so part of the thought is to maintain as many trees um but invasive vines things like that yes sir yeah i'm just i'm not talking about trees the treats are absolutely beautiful but shrubs vines that kind of stuff i would hope our contractor to understand that part of the idea is to increase visibility of the river when you're walking and not just in the middle of of a jungle as it were right and i guess you're referring to the undergrowth yeah i mean there's there's probably some kudzu and other right and that same holds true to the uh the entrance you know with the landscaping there to clean it up give us some uh some really good landscaping so that it increases the visibility as well okay thank you mr chair thank you mr bozard i'm sorry one la

» st question the walking trail it's not a loop well sir well what you see right now is is the in this first phase is the first part of that walking trail we also have diagrams that shows that what we intend to do in the second phase which would be to connect on the upper part of that property as well to move that trail all the way around take the walking trail now how they gonna get back sorry turn around come back same trail is that what you're planning it's gonna yeah it's gonna be a complete loop is basically what you're asking because up and up into the other property in the top right it'll it'll loop all the way around and come back but it's in time to the road mr.

» buzzard so the upper part of that is the end of the first loop so the concrete trail that Danny's showing and then the drive at the top the road itself is close to that loop I'm sorry I understand what you're asking now the road will serve as part of the trail right now in this first part of the fact that you thank you mr. Jones you had your hand up mr.

» Jones yes thank you so once again we go pour concrete and a flood plain yes sir okay thank you uh other comments mr snodgrass uh mr carpenter mr shane will this be accessible to bicyclists or is this kind of a walking thing only no sir not a bicycle okay are there any plans in these future phases to make this a place where people might would mountain or bike not that i'm aware of sir it'd be just size the park it doesn't have enough gotcha and people coming in and out bicycles generally don't work well when tandem with thank you or walker yeah mr tucker mr governor when it rains when it stops is concrete dry yes sir thank you thank you very much uh chairman yeah go ahead mr jones it's in a floodplain mr tucker and it floods thank you uh mr garner sir i think if you ask most places like san

» antonio and columbia and savannah and gusta that have river parks they'll all tell you they all flood because they're by a river. I don't think this is unique to that. As much rain as we've had this past year, I don't remember seeing that park flooded one time. Oh, it has been. So not out to the extent out in the middle of the park. What I've seen out there is the water that's actually fallen from the sky. I've seen the river up to the sign and that, but I haven't seen it flooded. And if it didn't flood this year, I don't know that it ever will. I know it has, and it probably will. But I think if you ask anybody who has a river park that's by a river, they'll tell you it floods. That's why we'll use steel and concrete and things that won't wash away, and that's the whole idea behind it.

» So when it does flood, you spray it off and you keep on keeping on. I think that's part of the design. So I don't have a problem with it. One quick last comment. Thank you, Mr. Gardner, for that. Appreciate it. You know, I'll tell you one thing that we, you mentioned some other counties with their river parks, how successful, and you're probably correct on that. But I'll tell you what, we've got them because we've got two. Camden's got one right across the river within a mile. Thank you. Very good. Anything else? Very good. I call for the vote. All those in favor, signify by raising your hand for this project. Mr. Snodgrass, Mr. Tucker, Mr. Gardner, Mr. Burns, Mr. Bozard, Mr. Connell, and those opposed. Mr. Jones, it passes six to one. We move to the next item.

» which is item number two, an all-American city logo on water towers on the agenda by Mr. Bozard. There's no attachment here, but let's hear from you, Mr. Bozard. I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Do you wish to make a motion or open for discussion? I was getting ready to do that. All right. Go right ahead. I make a motion that we open this up for discussion and a possible vote. All right. Do we have a second? Second for discussion. Mr. Connell, seconds for discussion.

» ahead mr bozard thank you very much i've been in contact with all the four water towers and all of them has agreed to let us use their tower for put our america all-american city on their towers mr dubose is getting a letter up that we're going to send to them that they can back it up in letter and camden has already agreed to do this their council has approved the money and they were going to pay for it themselves i was traveling to uh florence one day and i looked up and saw the tower over at darlington and there was a paid commercial on their tower but they were advertising the race so i got to wondering i talked with several of you about getting donations to put these up there we need forty thousand dollars according to camden mel pearson and according to Mike Hancock over at Lugoff Wat

» er takes about $10,000 to get that decal on the water towers. And it's been suggested that we put them on the most obvious water towers. Already made contact with several different businesses throughout, and they have already said that, yes, that sounds like a pretty good idea, and they would probably donate to it. Now, my question to y'all is, do we want to push this anymore? we want to go ahead and do this and get advertisements for donations from these businesses or what do we want to do comments yeah mr. Tucker mr.

» bozar I got a couple questions because I think I missed this discussion last month a month before last in July $40,000 was needed so 30,000 actually because you said cam is gonna pay for their own yes okay so who's driving this fundraiser is Is that going to be something that you're going to head up? Is staff going to be charged with this, or is there going to be a committee? I have talked with plans. I mean, play committee, play foundation. Okay, okay. I've talked with them about it. We have not sat down. I've talked to them on the phone. From what they tell me, they're willing to help out, yes.

» And the reason I'm asking that, because if you've got everybody in agreeance, I don't think it's fair that you fundraise and only come up with half the money you only do half or one-third or two-thirds and not all four and that would be some stipulations that i would like to see for my support on this project that we make sure that we fundraise for all four all four that's what my plan was in fact i told mess mr pearson wall three well before camden lou golf you just told me they were paying for that and bethune you just told me they were paying for their own yeah but why am i fundraising to pay camden back in fairness to them i figured that if we could get the money for three we could get it for four mail said either way whether we got it and paid them back or not they were still going on

» with their project i'd like to see us do forty thousand dollars and give the city of camden back their ten take all hours uh other comments uh i'd like to ask you al to a further explanation of what the bethune water tower is doing they uh have to build a structure sandblast it and redo it because it's having a lot of difficulty in bethune and in talking to the mayor and to uh mr don with them two very fine gentlemen they say it's going to cost over a quarter of a million dollars so they don't have the money to do that so why should we apportion money for a project that may take some years for them to get money for mr tucker's right maybe it is only three then yeah okay all right and then the other piece is i i'm certainly welcoming the pride that everybody has and what's been achieved here

» and to advertise it and camden's willing to self fund which is proper for them as a county seat to provide some sort of sign of you know pride for our county i'm wondering about elgin and lug off elgin water if they don't share in that pride with us or not and they should self-fund why not well they say they told me and i think you wasn't there you don't have the money i see okay thank you that's what they told me okay thank you for that uh questions yeah mr connell just a few comments um in order to make a decision on this i'd have to first know the actual return and the value that might be provided which would include a quote um and who's doing the work if city i mean who actually put signs on is it the municipality camden itself or there's a company out of georgia that does this okay wel

» l i would want to see a quote from them to figure it out how long does that sign last up there like if you look at uh if you look at billboards they have a material that'll last three months and they have a material that'll last six months or longer and then after that to get greater duration you have to go to digital do you have any idea how long that would last up there no idea bro okay that one on that water tower over at darlington has been there over 15 years so it's just painted on yeah these are actual decals not paint unless it's painted on and it's a certain type of paint they may actually be replacing it from time to time in the exact same location um and also in order to understand value you can look at a traffic count figure out i mean this is really a marketing effort if anythi

» ng to try and figure out you know how many eyes would see this and and it would appeal to uh folks in kershaw county or those that pass through and say oh that's an all-america place you know i want to be part of that um you'd be surprised at uh how you can actually grab eyes in various ways i see our economic development uh assistant back there who's nodding because it's all about grabbing eyes and how many people are driving by this particular area the money might be better spent even if the county was going to apportion it in an area where you have more eyes driving by so i'd be interested to know that too and overall it's just a marketing effort but at this point i couldn't support it I just don't have enough information yet. Yeah, Mr. Gardner.

» If we're the ones driving this, I don't know why that if we couldn't partner with the Play Foundation or whoever and have them raise $15,000 and us pay $15,000, take $15,000 out of reserves, if we're going to drive this, I think we should come up with part of the cost. You know, it's celebrating Kershaw County, and we represent Kershaw County, so I would say that let's raise half the money and let's find, which i think we can find fifteen thousand dollars out of our budget or out of reserves or whatever anything do that so that's take it out of y'all's travel fund okay very good what i'm going to try to sum up and then see if i got it right is there's a sense of gratitude to the city of camden and their expression of community pride for the county and the city and that's great there's some

» questions about bethune there's some questions about the nature of the cost and the durability of the product and i'd like to see it formulated in some way that we bring it back before council with a with a firm proposal al is that am i reading that correctly from each of you yes sir mr chairman just more information so we can have more um to go off of on who's committed who's not and what's the plan yeah i get y'all's approval on this tonight i will contact the play foundation and say hey let's go work on this and get it done until we formulate something we don't have a plan and that's what i'm asking well let's see we have the bethune question it was really large which uh so we need to get some more detail there i just suggest we bring that back in uh yeah ben one other comment um for mr

» debose perhaps to confirm or clarify to the extent we needed to vote on something and somebody wanted to do a private fundraiser to make this happen, I think the only thing we can really do at this point is give them permission to use our intellectual property and say, you know, this is a trademark that we received authority from the All-America City Convention or Association to use, and, you know, if you can raise the funds and put it on a water tower and get the consents, you have our permission to use our intellectual property, but really, I think that's all we can do at this point. Yeah, I think that's correct. Someone's going to have to be responsible for raising the money to have a plan, but all you can do is give them permission.

» The entities that are going to use it, it's their towers. Yeah. Mr. Snodgrass, sir. Well, I think it's all been said, but I'm having trouble. I mean, I'm all about, I'm a marketing guy, and I'm all about putting the message out there, but I don't know, I don't have any concrete. I'd love to see paperwork on, you know, what are we getting? What's our investment? I mean, I know you said $40,000, but, you know, if we can get sponsorships, then that kind of changes the whole conversation, you know, and do these sponsors, Do they want their logo on the tower along with the All-American County logo? I mean, that changes a lot of things. So are we ‑‑ so, Mr.

» Booth, are you asking us to release $40,000 for this tonight? Are you asking us to just support exploring it further and support the Play Foundation looking at sponsorships? That's exactly what I'm doing. I'm asking to go forward with it, get the Play Foundation to work with us in raising the money. Mr. Jones, sir. I didn't raise my hand.

» all right so you don't want to talk okay well uh actually i will say something since you recognize me thank you mr chairman as a county council i know you didn't want to leave me out and i appreciate that uh you know i think the all-american city is a great thing to have i i guess my question is and i go back to something that mr cornell said at one of the last meetings we had i think it might have been the last movement that he really supported the fact of private donations doing that you know um because it is a lot of money and and then again too i i guess how long how long are we awarded the all-american city is it one year two years forever forever forever okay so therefore the sign would be up there forever but i think private donations is the way to go i would be opposed to putting ad

» vertising yeah no advertising okay you get a recognition letter from us and that's it mr chairman because this is just my thought my opinion and of course you know i know you guys have yours too and i appreciate it and respect it when we talk about economic development listen with my experience i think what drives economic development is the bottom dollar fee and loo i think they could really care less about a lot of other things but the bottom line is i think having this all-american city award is really really a good thing when it comes to us trying to get grants and things like that and but that's just my opinion thank you jimmy other comments well i'm not sure if we've formulated a vote yet i'd raise It's a suggestion that we bring it in and hard copy the next meeting, Al, or do you wan

» t to try to formulate a vote and a motion? I'd like to. We could do that. But I'd like to see us say, yeah, we need to want to go ahead and do it, or no, we don't want to go ahead. Mr. Chair. Yeah, very good. Sam? Mr. Bozart, with all due respect, I think you've got a consensus around this table that everybody's interested in what you're trying to do. Don't force us to vote tonight versus doing a little bit more homework and bringing it back. So we could all be on the same team. That's just my intake from what I've heard up here. It's your motion, and you do what you want to do with it. I can do that. I just need some guidance. What else information do you want? For me, it's Bethune. That's a quarter of a million dollars. That's a big deal. Mr. Stoddard.

» I just think personally, I think we're at a point where you need to get with staff and the foundation. because i can't vote on anything until i have a design and i know what the design looks like that's going on on the logo uh or going on the water tower who's putting it up and and all those things so i feel like you're still in a i mean i like where you're trying to go but i feel like you're you're in a phase where it's not i don't think it needs to come before council yet okay and so i mean for that if it does come to a vote i will be voting no but that's not not because i'm against water towers or or logos uh but i just i don't have a whole lot of information mr chairman yeah yes sir mr tucker just to clarify when you said all of us are interested the only interest i would have in it is

» if it was privately funded i i do not support any public dollars going into the war towers by any match or anything else and by all means i didn't state where we all stood but i i did hear there was interest up here amongst the seven of us okay i think you've got a pretty boatload of information there now i will bring it back up okay for a vote As far as the decal itself, in talking with Mel Pearson at Citi and talking with Mike Hancock, they both have already investigated into who can do it and the price. The price I gave you came from them. It's $10,000 a logo, a tower. There's a company out of Georgia that puts them up. They do this all over the world. They put signs on water towers. That's what the business they're in. So I will get you some more information. I'm with you.

» I just need it on. Yep. Thank you very much. I think you've got it, and I'd like to move on to the next item. Thank you very much. That was a very good discussion, and item number three is in the same vein of community pride, the Clean Community Commission Officer Grant. Mr. Jones, this is your motion, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of county council. I did put this on the agenda, and of course, let me make the motion first. Yes, please. I'm sorry. I apologize. Thank you. Mr.

» Chairman, I move that Kershaw County support the goal of our Clean Community Commission in obtaining $20,000, a two-year litter grant from Palmetto Pride, and that the administrator work with our Clean Community Commission to utilize existing county resources and manpower in an effort to maximize the potential impact of that grant if it is awarded. Second. Second from Mr. Snodgrass. Discussion.

» Jimmy, do you want to lead? i think it's all i think it's self-explanatory mister good question let me just do some housekeeping uh jimmy and and for mr uh mr snoggress would you be willing that we take the paper we have from wanda and also provide that to the media as well and enter that into the record is that okay everything should be entered into okay good all right and mary if you can provide that to the media that would be great i guess my question is why would it not why would you even ask me that question they haven't been provided it yeah okay go ahead mr.

» Gardner first question is this grant renewable two-year grant or is it renewable can we renew this grant at the moment it is a two-year program however Palmetto pride has explained to me that it's possible it will be extended they can't promise it at this point but their goal is to have this extended for maybe beef in two more years. Second question, is this something that we would have to take if it is not renewed? Is this something that we would pick up $20,000 as a council and renew or put it into our budget if this was not renewed? That would be for Mr. Carpenter to answer. Mr.

» Gardner, what we have done in discussing this with the Clean Community Commission is we have proposed rather than hiring a new person to fill a position and creating one for a new person that we repurpose an existing county employee to fill this position therefore that would not incur any additional manpower expenses to the county and this these funds would then be used to support that officer and that office in better educating and better communicating of the goals of this program so that's what we have proposed and and they've been very supportive of that idea Jimmy I think that was essentially what your motion was - it was yeah mr.

» Tucker go ahead okay so I want to make sure I'm clear because $20,000 is a part-time position so the county's gonna pick up the other half and this may this is gonna be a full-time position or they're gonna do part of their duties for the Clean Community Commission underneath this grant, and then the other part for the county. I just want clarity. Thank you. I wasn't there. The grant, though it says it's for a part-time position, we've clarified that the funds can be used to support a litter program. Therefore, the position we have is a full-time position already on the county's payroll, but it's something we can repurpose that position to get a significant, if not full amount of effort on litter. Therefore, no additional cost to the county.

» Therefore, these funds would be used to support that office. Okay, follow up. And I know this is not going to happen with you, but I want to say it just for the record. We don't want to get in any violations on the grant side of not providing what they need for that grant or the monies that we're receiving. And we want to make sure that they're getting what they need to fulfill and be proficient and efficient at doing their job. So I'm just putting that out. Not that you can't handle that. You handle a lot of things. And that's fully understood. And thankfully, we've got a very good working relationship with county staff and the Clean Community Commission. So the communication is very strong back and forth. Very good. Thank you, Mr. Emerald. I think we have Mr. Bozart, sir.

» One quick question, please, ma'am, Mr. Carpenter. This is for a part-time. What about a vehicle or something like this? Firm position already has a vehicle. We already have a vehicle for this. Already got it? Yes, sir. Let's go with the granted. Yeah. go ahead mr. chairman Thank You miss Juan for doing the labor to get this together I did hear the term or the word obligations mentioned a couple time on what the grant requires what are those try to explain as best I can yes ma'am we have an obligation to report to Palmetto pride our progress how we're using this particular grant so it's just basically paperwork that would need to go to Palmetto pride showing our progress how many how many schools he's involved with an education how many tickets are are cited or warnings are cited that type o

» f thing they want to see progress that's basically what they want to see it's basically paperwork well typically grants have a bunch of strings attached to them that's those are some of the few strings I've heard attached to a grant so thank you thank you for finding that one don't complain it's a wonderful grant mr chairman yeah jimmy go ahead thank you and then i'll get mr snoggrass go ahead thank you let me just say this that uh mr carpenter really worked hard along with uh miss wanda they looked at all the details they looked at all the requirements they looked at every angle that you had to go at and you know mr carpenter is very comfortable with the way he's got this set up and i think this is the best bang for our buck it's gonna get us a lot for the twenty thousand dollars with mini

» mal strings attached uh david uh clarification is will this will this be an officer under code enforcement or would this be a sheriff's deputy code enforcement okay yeah and uh i'll just say for my behalf that that wanda and the team uh many of them are here tonight others are not but met and with uh miss sarah lyle from the state level palmetto pride and she drove all the way out here just to see us from right wanda and the sheriff was there and the team was there from code enforcement and i'll just tell you we're getting great support at the state level for this thing so there you have it uh any further questions i think yeah sammy sorry thank you mr chairman once again uh miss wanda and the crew uh thank you for this because reading through this gave us several examples on who was doing

» it through the county who was doing it through the sheriff's office um so it it came with some references that were good for me and i feel for the others and uh vick i would just say for whatever my two cents were if uh if anybody who um this gets to pick it up and we're doing good because i think that's going to be real critical on whether it gets renewed or not um let let our county side fall short and let's be all in with them yeah i think i'm ready to move it to a vote gentlemen thank you jimmy and everyone for bringing this in wanda particularly you and the team wow good work uh with that we move to a vote all those in favor signify by raising your hand and it's unanimous and wanda you put a smile on everybody's face thank you and with that we move to item number 400 new business and h

» vac equipment and controls contract for the library and sheriff's offices at tab g and up on the screen vic take us through this mr chairman members council um council has approved previously in the budget, the purchasing of two new HVAC systems, one for the library and one for the sheriff's office. Staff is presenting to you tonight two units, both trains, that are being recommended that we acquire them through a national purchasing agreement with train. The main library system would be $154,979, and the sheriff's office would be $137,785. I'm sure there'll be some questions, but let's have a motion to approve. Can we have one? I make a motion we approve the bid that's before us for the train HVACs. Mr. Tucker, second? Second. Second from Mr. Snodgrass.

» You want to lead off, Sammy? Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My question, Vic, Mr. Carpenter, is who's installing? The train of Columbia will be installing it. Okay. The train will be installing it. Yeah, I was just trying to make sure it was clear. And were they the only ones that we bid it with, or they were the only ones on this contract? This is like a state contract. Okay. Okay. So there we go. Thank you. And does that, Sammy, also address the issue of competition? I think it does. That's where I was going, Mr. Chairman. Right. Other comments? Because we're a competition kind of council here. Tell us about the warranty and so forth, Mr. Carpenter, and what's going to happen after the warranty runs out. Yes, sir. It's covered by a one-year full partisan labor warranty.

» um the train would cover after um after that year is out um then we would have a purchase uh or a maintenance agreement either with train or with someone but the first year is covered by train question mr bozar you can't stop a train the reason i asked this question was i talked with one of the bigger heating and air unit people in kershaw county they're not authorized to run this to work on this machines that's why i'm asking who's going what's going to happen when it runs out well train of columbia is authorized so certainly it could result in them working on theirs but we would certainly look at all all all companies that are authorized and and try to get the best agreement we can so anybody who's authorized to work on it then yes sir we issue a service contract to these people for check

» them yearly any of our units or what do we do on these rob we do my question was we do have someone coming in yearly checking our units yes sir okay thank you yeah thank you very much uh other questions hey thanks what you do young man uh with that let's uh move to a vote all those in favor signify by raising your hand and it's unanimous and vic you got your train uh with that we move to the next item on the agenda which is i think council briefs uh starting with mr tucker thank you mr chair i'll be very brief um i have i just want to reiterate what um councilman snodgrass said in reference to commander folder and post 17 um let's i know we may be a little ahead of the game mr carpenter and my colleagues on what we want to do with the park but let's stay in communications um as we get close

» r to that segment of this uh watery park that we have because i think they've made a couple great recommendations that I'm very interested in so when we get to those phases and the reason you haven't heard back from a man we're not ignoring you we're just not there yet but staying stay in communications with us the other one I would ask if you have a sincere good Christian heart is to pray for my baby boy who will be leaving next month to go to Kuwait this is my first time as a parent both my boys have served one is currently still serving now very proud of them but um it's different um mr chairman you've been there and there's probably others out in the audience um i've gone and left my family three and a half four months at a time being on a nuclear power submarine it's different when you

» leave home and leave mom with them as a parent than your child going out and serving this country so i ask that you keep he and his family because he has two young boys which are two and four and um so they'll and a wife so they will will need your prayers as well. That concludes my report. Thank you. Very good. Mr. Gardner. No report. Mr. Bozong. Thank you. I have several things here. I had the opportunity to visit with some of our local businesses over in Lugoff and they're highly upset with taking these turning lanes out. I talked with the engineers two weeks ago and asked them what was going on with it and they told me that it was done in the safety reasons.

» It was having accidents and everything else and they were doing them for safety reasons and I asked him one of the engineers yesterday after talking with a store owner for about 30 minutes he lost a turn lane in front of his business and he figured that the people going to go on down to the next one which is quite a ways down and they won't turn around and come back to him and I said I called the engineers back again and asked them what's the chances of putting and this was the store owner's recommendation by putting a stoplight between 34 and down at Boulware Road at the next stoplight. And they're looking into that right now. And Mr. Carpenter, I'd like to see, or Mr.

» Chairman, I'd like to see from this board, maybe we could write a letter to Vincent Sheehan and get some action out of him on these. Have we already done that, Mr. Carpenter? On a stoplight? No, a letter to him expressing our dissatisfaction with what's happening over there and so forth and we've not sent a letter to him but we can send one yes sir we'll send a letter thank you very much next item i have is um on that trip i made to washington i got to talk to mr malvaney about several things the traffic study we had at black river and the traffic study we had at elgin and also the water problems that we had here and his recommendation was to go to our local and state and federal officials right now i have sent a letter to ralph norman and vincent sheehan to try to get water out of dovey mi

» lls i've sent a letter to uh send i mean representative cliburn try to get some water at warren's crossroads which is highway 5 up to chavis green road and turn right or left on chavis green road there's no water They're running off of wells, and some of the people invited me up about two months back to look at their water. I don't think I'd even want to wash my clothes in some of it. It's not good to drink and so forth, and that's where I'm standing right now. So I'm going to go back up and tell the people that I am trying to work on it and trying to get them some water, but it's going to take some time. And if any of y'all got any help with Senator Sheehan, Ralph Norman, Clive, and either one, you might help me out there because they do have the package that Mr.

» Carpenter fixed up for me and Mary sent out after putting the COVID letter on it for me. We are trying to do something. My last item, Mr. Chairman, is this. In all fairness to Mr. Burns, from last month's council meeting, he took a lot of hit on calling for the motion and then opened it back up. That wasn't his fault. I had my hand up to speak, and he called for the motion. He didn't see my hand. Mr. Jones told him that I had my hand up to talk after Mr. Burns had already called for the motion. So he turned to me and gave me permission to speak. At that time, he opened it back up because of the way it was handled. Mr. Burns, I mean, Mr. Jones told him that I had my hand up and he didn't see me.

» I think we had a lot of confusion on that issue when we didn't hear everything that was going on. Apparently, that's what happened. And I think we owe Mr. Burns an apology the way some of us talked to him because it was not his fault. He overlooked my hand. It brought his attention that my hand was up.

» then he opened it back up and that's where it got opened back up thank you mr chairman uh mr connell yes sir mr chairman i had a hearing today in florence county and uh about a year ago they had a significant renovation or actually just rebuilt a courthouse and as i entered there and conducted the hearing and represented my client i realized one the technology the security and then the experience of public access to justice was outstanding on all fronts their facility is huge it'd be much larger than something like that that we would need in kershaw county but i'd ask staff and also this council to consider as we move into the future public access to justice the experience that the public has with the courts which is very important and then also the security issues which any one of our depu

» ties that work over there will tell you if you're if you're down in family court or various other areas is not an ideal experience on a building that was built well but designed many many years ago also i wanted to say next meeting look forward to council the an update on the codification project which is again in some ways access to justice i guess it allows the public to better understand and access online the codes ordinances and basically everything that we have in the county that we vote on a lot of times people don't get access to that they don't know necessarily what's going on we've taken steps through streaming and otherwise for people to have access and better information and it used to be where you had to come up here and pay a fair amount of money to run off a copy of the entire

» code this project and hopefully the update that we'll receive and i think we've identified the third party contractor who will be able to do the work i think it's just a great step forward for kershaw county allow people uh including builders people who want to rezone a property people people who want to do something with the property line to understand what's going on with your property a lot of people just don't know exactly what they own they buy sometimes sight unseen that's all i have to report thank you thank you sir ben uh mr jones sir thank you mr chairman members of county council i've got a few things here very quickly one excuse me the most important mr tucker thank you i want to thank you thank your family thank your son for service for our country uh you're a veteran as well i'

» m a veteran uh mr bozard the general we're all veterans you know i probably had the least and more the least important position in military you could ever have i was a nobody but i'm going to tell you what i served and i'm glad i served and i'm glad i was able to be a part of that yes sir being drafted at 18.

» um amazing but but your family will be as well as others will be in my prayers and thank you all so much now uh something was said about the herbs over in west water you i too have received a lot of complaints about it and i think i sent a message out to everybody on council leading even though i did a couple of pictures but what i would like to do before we send any letters is um let me just say that danny and vick have been working very hard on it they've got a good contact with d.o.t i would rather not send a letter and i think that i think danny and vick are getting some things worked out as far as communication clarification let me say this too we can't change it we had this council had nothing to do with that they came in they left now the local d.o.t is going to have to clean it up t

» he i think there were more outsiders here that were doing the actual work but that would be my suggestion is that we let Vic and his staff Danny kind of continue on that they've got it on the right track and we don't send a letter unless they so feel we need to send a letter I think they're getting some progress done with getting our local the local crews out there as quick as possible to do whatever they can do to clean up and complete those projects now mr. Bozar made some comments about making an apology well I I do not make an apology. We had discussed the issue about the employee's insurance. I was very disappointed that it did not pass. Appreciate it, Mr. Tucker. I appreciate you and Mr. Gardner, your support and your work on that effort to try to get it passed. But, Mr.

» Bozen, for you to sit there and insinuate that myself or Mr. Tucker owes an apology to anyone on this county council is absolutely absurd. And let me just go on and say something else, too. you called me you reached out to me two weeks prior to the meeting you told me you I didn't reach out to you I didn't call you you called me said you were gonna support the employees benefits well you know sir you retracted that in that opening the chairman kept talking to you talking to you until he got your mind changed and got your vote and then he called for a vote so I make no apologies but anyway thank you for your comments now one last item following the resignation of our economic development director I have some thoughts on how to proceed and acquiring new leadership for our economic development

» department the majority of Kershaw County Council and I want to make this the fact I want to make this known the majority of Kershaw County Council will not allow the director of economic position to remain unfilled whether or not you think the directions this council has taken while seeking economic development were a huge waste of money which I do now we have an opportunity to change course and go in a positive direction I want to make sure that the search for the new director is done right I want to make absolutely certain Kershaw County gets the best possible person for the job and it's not just a job it involves the future of our County Kershaw County spends a million dollars a year on economic development when you factor in the debt service of our economic development bonds the mainte

» nance and upkeep of our shell buildings and salaries for personnel if we're devoting this much money for economic development every year then And it only makes sense that we have the best possible professional directing those efforts. Now, if all we do is just post ads, then all we'll get is the same results we've gotten in the past. We need to have the greatest possible exposure to the talented pool of economic development professionals. I believe to ensure the best results, we need to enlist the services of a search firm. Since the director left, when they leave, we can easily pay the search's firm expenses with the remaining funds that we earmarked for the director's salary. So no additional or unbudgeted funds will be needed.

» Kershaw County has a premier workforce development complex, several available buildings, and the Central Midlands Megasite. If we don't get the right person in here, then all we've done and all we're spending is just wasted. let's get this election and appointment right i believe in my heart that the future of kershaw county is riding on it now debbie said that i got a bombshell i'm gonna drop that ends my comments thank you very much uh mr stonegrass thank you mr chairman members of council uh just a few things i want to make us aware of i want to thank staff uh this in the past month working with me on some some constituent issues uh that range from anything from animal control uh zoning planning and recreation so thank you guys for um for uh answering my text at 10 o'clock at night and u

» h even one that sent danny and i on a field trip so i appreciate and cam he was there um also want to uh thank the um clean community commission for their work and also ask vick if is there a possible way that we could maybe put signage up at the at the recycle centers advertising for the litter pickup day um as well as if we if we go forward with these bags i mean it might be worth having these bags available at the recycle centers you know as people dropping the trash off making them available that might just would be a to me seems like a logical pickup point for that so maybe something we can think about what do you thank you appreciate it um also want to um to recognize miss miss peggy mclean and for her work with with kershaw county um i miss peggy i don't think your work um was uh was

» a wasted investment um i think it was a was a good investment and the fact that you're leaving us to go to the department of commerce tells us the kind of quality of individual and employee that you are and your skill in your workforce so thank you so much for your for your work and uh for what you've done for kershaw county we all understand that economic development is not it's not a an exact science there's a there's an art to it and so it's not always uh a b and c black and white so thank you so much uh they're not here anymore but want to just again recognize the ponytail girls uh wow what a way to make kershaw county proud uh i noticed that on the back of their uniforms is uh first corinthians 10 30 or 31 which reminds us that all everything that we do do it to the glory of god and i

» know those girls did that through playing softball and remind us of that as well and along the sports lines how about them Camden Bulldogs okay now I'm used to getting a man at least from the those of you who represent if you're in the South River I get it wait till wrestling season okay just want to congratulate the Camden Bulldogs for knocking down some pretty big walls as they went over to Hartsville went over darling County and really decidedly won that won that game so I want to talk about who fed them before before that game but that concludes my remarks thank you okay you know I'll close it out I just came back from California where I saw the trail party of the 30th National Guard deployed at Southwest Asia some of our children are in that group and they're going off to be about a hu

» ndred miles away from the the country of iran that's our national guard and they helped us during the recent hurricane we should be enormously proud but as uh as all of us have said uh sammy uh prayers go with your family thank you and my family when we have people deployed which has been more than 90 of the last 10 years we read psalm 91 king david wrote that when he was in a bit of a ruckus with a guy named Saul and he was on the run. And Psalm 91 goes as follows. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty. And it goes on with some very comforting words, Sammy. Thank you. And we read it every night. I got a couple of people in line of fire tonight. Stoplights. Good gosh.

» That's the one thing I didn't know i couldn't fix and uh thank you for bringing it up al jimmy i agree with you uh vincent was there when we got half the citizens of the lugoff um business district beating me up and jimmy too for that issue and i assure you it's very much uh well within the staff to handle but mr mr sheen and and laurie funderberg are both very much aware of that Thank you. It was really amazing to see that happen and unfortunate. Veterans Park, you know where we need to go with that. Thank you, Commander Fuller, for being here tonight. I think you know where your support is. Now it's up to us to structure it. We need to owe you an answer, and the staff needs to hear from the policy side first. It is not the staff's fault. It's up to us.

» Thank you, Ben, for raising the courthouse issue. gosh it's it's a mess down there and we need to do something about it jannie hasty will tell you and the judges and magistrates and the lawyers who work in that courthouse from time to time in our great sheriff's office will tell you we need to do something there it's in our goals and objectives and we need to empower and encourage uh mr carpenter to get on with it i think there's money in the budget and I look forward to seeing that solution soon and that is an exclamation point that I like that is really important and your mother too by the way Lauren talks to me about it all the time as to the conduct of this office look the chairman's got a tough job and nobody I'm not asking for sympathy but I do need you to understand that I respect ea

» ch of the men up here and if I've offended I apologize but I don't go back on my principles and it is important for me that you know that I trust you and I want to be courteous with you in the conduct of my role up here and I thank you for the criticism I don't need to be any sympathy I just need to have your corrections that you to be straightforward with me when you think I'm out of line and I appreciate that and none of you are shy about that so thank you uh gentlemen it's a privilege to be your chairman and i hope i can live up to your requirements lastly let's be gracious as the chinese say uh the man that's saying it can't be done should not get in the way of the man or woman that's getting it done peggy thank you gave you a tough job uh nobody gives you any sympathy you're not suppos

» ed to get it but to win one is takes as much work as it does to lose one it takes staff it takes a lot of work it takes teamwork it takes the state it takes the federal government it takes the members of this board backing up our economic development we have put a lot of money against it to turn around what had been neglected for years and years that includes the school system that includes the infrastructure and it's time for us to support those and say thank you for those who work very hard for you i congratulate you on your new position and i assure you mr carpenter is going to get somebody that can meet the standards that we have established this is important for our county and our cities and our people that jobs are provided and an economic future provided in accordance with what we've

» laid out for ourselves in Vision 2030. And by gosh, at least this chairman means to get it done, and I know Vic does too. So with that, Mr. Administrator. Mr. Chairman, members of council, a number of items to cover with you. First, I wish to update council on the airport. In fact, 1st of September, the county The FBO that had had a contractual relationship had notified us back in the summer that they would be leaving the airport. The county assumed responsibility September 1st. I'm showing you the map there of the airport just to illustrate that previously the county had been responsible for blue buildings. They were responsible for yellow. Now the county is responsible for all the buildings. The switchover has been smooth, as they always are when we do a switchover in this county.

» Nobody noticed one day that the FBO was gone. Personnel were there. Personnel were happy. Airport pilots were happy. The county continues to run. We have assumed responsibility for all fuelings, for all maintenance of hangars, and responsibility. So that has transpired very nicely and smoothly. Other projects going on out there. We're currently in the process of finishing up the drainage project. You may recall Council approved the awarding of that bid. It was an FAA-sponsored project, $1.7 million. It began in the middle of May. We look to be finished right around Thanksgiving with the total project as well.

» And the county is beginning the process of putting out for bid for a study on the condition of the buildings the hangars especially, so that we can determine what repair work and maintenance needs to be done to those buildings as well. Also, Mr. Chairman, Members Council would like to introduce to you, you may have noticed Officer Scott, Kermit Scott, standing in Deputy Scott, is our new security for this council building. As you have noticed, part of the commitment that was made last year and then this year in the budget was to create a more secure environment for our citizens and our employees in this building. And one of those was to have a full-time deputy here Monday through Friday. Deputy Scott has 25 years of law enforcement experience.

» He is a seasoned veteran and we are excited he's here and look forward to working with you on a daily basis. And he's big. That was not an inconsideration, I'm sure, as well. We thought about Mr. Tucker, but it just wasn't big enough. But he's a veteran also. He don't know I've already checked on his resume credentials. That's right. Yes, sir. And also, Mr. Chair, Members of Council, I would like to tell you that we're losing someone amazing with Ms. McClain moving on.

» And the role, the position she is taking in commerce is a testimony to not just her skill set and her abilities, but the reputation she has and the view and the belief of the highest levels in state government that she can take on a program that will be focusing on some of the poorest counties in the state and working with them to achieve great things for them. In losing Peggy, and it is a loss, we lose a team member, we lose a dedicated employee, we lose someone who always gave and will always continue to give her best for this county. She never gave me a bad day's work. She treated this county with respect and love. Cannot replace an employee like that. Her eight years of service to this community have been valuable.

» as she moves on and as mr jones has pointed out this is critical we will hire the best person that is out there and that is available for this county and that person will assume as mr jones has also very correctly pointed out a county with buildings a county that has infrastructure that is is there we didn't have that luxury eight years ago and so peggy um you've been a great value to this County and an asset and you definitely are missed and that's my report thank you have nothing mr. chairman Roger can we have a motion to adjourn so move mr. chair we have a second second second for mr. Gardner any discussion all right we'll see you in about a month all those in favor signify by raising your hand and we are adjourned unanimous