Full meeting transcript - January 28, 2020

» a great day in kershaw county we have a quorum of all members present i welcome you here to the all american county kershaw county and we celebrate uh today an important event later on in the event with a resolution in honor of one of our fallen soldiers so to speak i thank you all for coming we should also keep in our prayers chief spitzer who is i'm told recovering another one of our great first responders for whom we have the highest esteem and with that we are called to order I would like now for you all to stand for the invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance let us pray Heavenly Father we remember the words of the good book it says blessed as that nation whose God is the Lord and we hope we and respond in that spirit and in the word in fact to worship you by our service here for the p

» eople of Kershaw County all to your honor and glory all All this we ask in the name of our Lord and Savior. Amen. Join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice. Mr. DuBose, we now move to public comments. Sir, do we have anyone signed up? Yes, we have Larry Graham signed up, and I believe he has some other individuals with him.

» some very good people indeed mr graham would you come up and introduce the party with you greetings we're coming on behalf of the departmental health and i'm here to introduce kimberly gaines who is a new director of our local clinic and she has 25 years into the mic please sir she has 25 years experience with departmental health and she'll do a great job we're also rolling out a program called roads of independence and the departmental health is opening up a new office here in Camden and they're here to tell you about that. Great thank you very much. First of all I want to say thank you to the council for allowing us this opportunity to speak on this afternoon and giving us the opportunity to to relate to you the things that we're currently doing and the visions that we have for 2020.

» In our adult clinic we have restructured crisis and triage to be better equipped to handle the crisis the volume that's coming through our doors. We have a vision of greater collaboration with our community partners as well as we this hopefully this year will be working with the detention center and chief Cato as we will be sending out a designated staff person to do assessments with the inmates we are working with churches in the area to promote suicide prevention as well as to help them in any areas of mental health For the first time ever at our adult clinic, we will be providing LGBTQ safe place groups for adults. We are currently on Fridays providing DBT groups for adults, and we are hopefully looking forward this year to mental health court in collaboration with Judge Branham.

» On our children's side, we are bursting out at the seams with referrals as we have 10 staff that are designated to the school-based services, as well as we're providing dbt substance abuse groups for high school middle school students anxiety groups anger management groups life skills and classes for parents we are very excited as he has mentioned the non-traditional services for our roads of independence program this program will be for our vulnerable group of 16 to 25 year olds in a non-threatening non-stigmatizing location the drop-in centers will be designed excuse me designed to provide resources for education employment physical health as well as mental health they have already mentioned that we have dedicated a site for this program at 620 west of cal street here in camden we are als

» o proud to note that at kershaw county mental health we also have Project Home, which maintains supported housing units for five individuals, and at this time, all of those units are filled. We also have rolled out, as of April 15th, the CCRI, the Community Crisis Response Intervention. This program was designed where crisis counselors go with patients, go out to patients in crisis with law enforcement to divert safely them to hospitalization we also in 2020 hope to continue to increase our education and training in the way of suicide prevention and mental health matters and awareness we thank you for this opportunity as we go forth in excellence and determination to provide our our client services and the children in this community we thank you so much thank you mr chair i just want to say

» thank you and and for your all support. When I came before this council a couple of years ago as a new executive director, I made the statement that I like to dance and I would look for partners. Well, we found a few, and I'm glad to add you all to my dancing card. So I appreciate your all support, and I look forward to your continued support for the center and the job that these great folks do at the Mental Health Center. So thank you all for the opportunity to speak with you, and thank you again for your great support. Appreciate you. - Thank you. You came all the way from Sumter. It's an important message, and we'll arrange for a visit to your center. As you know, under our protocol during this period, there's no question and answer. It's not for a lack of interest.

» It's for us to move on with our business, and you can be assured we'll come see you. Thank you very much. Mr. DuBose. - That concludes the sign-up list. - Very good. We move now on to public presentations. On the screen before you is our order of business. The first item is Workforce Development and Existing Industry with Mr. Stuart Kidd. Sir, if you'd come up and limit your remarks within a 15-minute period, we'll leave some time for questions and answers. Please, Mr. Kidd. Thank you. It's indeed both a pleasure and a privilege to share with you some updates on the lesser-known aspects of economic development known as existing industries and workforce development.

» And my face may be new to some of you, but I've called Kershaw County my home for over 30 years, and I've raised my children here. Therefore, this isn't just a job to me, it's a passion because I get the opportunity to help my neighbors. And that's what we do, hopefully, at Economic Development. If you'll notice on the screen, at the highest level, we have three operating principles that I try to adhere to, provide value, build relationships, and make an impact. And we do this as we listen, connect, and assist our local industries.

» One of the several vehicles we use to listen, connect, assist is the Kershaw County Industry Association and this association allows us to uncover in issues and challenges everything ranging from workforce and tariffs to basically whatever keeps them up at night and this is an important venue for us because if all we do is our annual visits we're wasting our time we need to dig deeper to provide value the Kershaw County Industry Association is based on something known as next-gen sector partnerships and one of the important aspects of this is that the industries drive the agenda. We don't drive the agenda. When they come to our sharing meetings, our luncheons, we don't have pat presentations for them. We want to hear from them what's keeping them up at night.

» So when we go around the table, we let them tell us what their needs are, what's happening in the businesses. And only then do we actually talk to our other partners from SC Works and other organizations, as you can see listed on the screen, Central Carolina, Willard Technology Center, then they can respond in relevant terms to what our industries need. So it's the industries that drive the agenda and not our other partners. We've had topics ranging from waste removal to workforce readiness, business to business connections, sometimes right across the table. Some of our industries are not really aware of partners that they can actually reach out to within our county to provide solutions that they're looking for.

» There's a small membership fee and that really just covers their lunch and makes sure that everybody goes away happy. Some of the benefits of our industry association include a platform for influencing existing workforce programs and offerings. So they get to voice what they think is important. We can pass it along to Central Carolina. We can pass it along to other entities, the Kershaw County School District. It's also a forum for sourcing timely workforce development solutions, and also benchmarking to see what else is going on up there. Fortunately, it's also a one-stop source for state, regional, and county economic development updates.

» Instead of an industry being hit seven, eight times a month by all these different entities that you see on the screen, they can come here and get the information that they need from us. So we like to think of ourselves as a hub. It's a single point of contact for all these fragmented services. So even though on a given meeting we may only have a dozen or so government entities represented around the table, they know that I have actually a larger relationship network that I can reach out to, and almost all of these entities, I touch upon them through the course of a month or so. Let's take a moment to consider what our local industries tell us are our current workforce challenges and opportunities. I won't read all of these but I'll just mention some of the threats that we're hearing.

» We have young people and people entering the workforce that believe that there's only one path to success but this gives us an opportunity. Students now have a variety of opportunities to prepare for real world jobs. Another threat they tell us about is training for jobs that don't exist. So we have to make sure that what's being provided through our schools and our Central Carolina is relevant to them. Assuming manufacturing jobs haven't changed, listen, it's not our grandfather's factory anymore. It's very different indeed, and so we have to help with that awareness campaign as well. Understanding the burden of debt, right, student debt is a big challenge, and communicating that there are other options for them.

» And finally, the last threat that they're telling us is addressing future gaps resulting from an aging workforce when coupled with our low unemployment rate we have some industries in our county that in the next five years will actually have 50% of their workforce retire and so our job is to make sure that we have a continuous pipeline feeding those companies so that they can continue to thrive in fact one of the other things we try to do with next-gen partnerships approach is not doing professional visitors, but actually to help local industries by directly impacting core business processes. And I came from a corporate job for about 27 years working in HR with workforce development. And next week, we actually have an offering and we have approximately nine industry participants coming.

» It's a workshop on succession planning and talent mapping. And it was something that they asked for, not something that I pushed upon them. And we have additionally people from the county and also the Chamber of Commerce that will be attending that workshop. So we think that's going to be a very valuable tool for their HR directors and their plant managers to use as they move forward. Future offerings through the next quarter are pretty straightforward. The natural follow-up to succession planning is, of course, apprenticeships. That's the other way we feed the pipeline. Second quarter, we'll be working on performance management. That's evaluation and assessment. And then professional development, which is, in fact, training. Third quarter, we do our annual wage and benefit survey.

» And that's very important because our local industries need to know what their competition is and what other companies are offering. It's a rather extensive survey. We collect a lot of data on benefits, on vacation time, health coverage, you name it and it's a very important tool and they ask for that fourth quarter we do what we call our manufacturing awareness campaign and we believe that there needs to be three prongs to this campaign in the past we were only really firing on one piston but starting this past year we've now expanded it so in addition to our annual eighth grade manufacturing uh and trade expo we start out in september with a counselor awareness seminar and that's where we bring in the school counselors so that they can understand what the key issues are and how our young

» people can find employment in our local businesses right in their own backyard. Then parents night comes in October. If you don't have the parents on their side, you can talk to the counselors, you can talk to the students, but when the students go home at night, who do they hear from? The parents. So we have to have an awareness campaign for parents as well to tell them about all the opportunities that are available to them from our local industries and in a manufacturing environment. And then last but not least, we have the eighth grade manufacturing and trade expo, which means we not only have manufacturers, but we have carpentry, we have heating and cooling, we have plumbing, we have utilities all represented there. And it's a round robin.

» We have 50 students from all four middle schools, 200 people, and we have our industry partners coming and they have hands-on interactive displays, so it's a wonderful way for industries to spotlight themselves and also for our young people to learn about what it will take for them to enter the workforce successfully. You can see here the awareness campaign as it moves from the counselor briefings through parent awareness night, and at this time I just want to give you a snippet, just a two-minute snippet of what our students experience in that manufacturing expo.

» that's all right we'll move forward in fact I'll send all of you a link to that so that you can view that we'll move ahead one of the other things we tried to do is we reached out to industries we said you tell us what you're looking for in your new hires and what you're looking at here these components in this workforce readiness program are things that they said were important to them and these are things that I try to communicate with Kershaw County School District and also the Wollard Technology Center so that as they put programs together, they are aware of what the industry wants. So they're not building things in isolation or a vacuum. They're giving industries what they actually need. The good news is many of these components are already in place at many of our schools.

» So it actually validates what we're already providing. In addition, we do some other things as far as providing solutions for our folks. And what you're looking at here is just a snapshot of some of the just-in-time solutions we provided. We had the industry association respond with a thermoid job fair, which some of you may recall. We support mock interviews at Camden High School. I did a career presentation for North Central High School student body in its entirety. I've been a guest presenter at Central Carolina's Discovery Day. We connect local businesses with solutions for, believe it or not, recycling. We also have local businesses using our economic development facilities to plan and train their own people so they feel at home using our facilities.

» So we like to get that utilization up so that we're making sure that we use what we have been given. We've hosted two job fairs in the last year with another scheduled for the week after next. But we have other what I believe are innovative solutions as well. For example, GE offers each employee $6,000 annually for tuition reimbursement, even those whose current employment has been suspended. So why not connect them and allow them to use some of that money right here at home? So Kershaw County Act of Development and our industry association partners, known as Central Carolina and SC Works, responded with a first-ever GE education fair. where instead of coming to the job fair, they came to our facility.

» We had representatives of all their core programs and curricula there, and they helped people sign up and even understand better what financial assistance is available to them to be retrained and retooled for when GE gears up once again. Ongoing support is also provided 24-7 through our website, and the solutions there include virtual tours, online manufacturing tutorials, and we even do job postings for our local industries. So any one of these companies listed here plus others, you can go to our website, you can click on their name, and you can actually view a virtual tour. So our students can go to these places without interrupting them. We've broken down the barriers for our local industries as far as, well, we don't want to have a lot of students walking around.

» We don't have time to support that. Well, you know what? We now have virtual tours available for them. There's online manufacturing tutorials where they can get their feet wet by going on and learning about what manufacturing is. And then when companies contact us and they have a need in regard to a specific job opening, we post those there as well. So in conclusion, I hope that the impression that I've left you with is that we're a busy hive of workforce development, and it all happens at consolidated campus which we believe allows us to maximize human potential. Are there any questions? Thank you. Gentlemen? Comments? I'll go ahead.

» What are you talking about? So we had several companies that had large piles of lumber and wood that had built up over time, Conner Industries, and they said what can we do with this? It just so happened at that particular meeting we had a representative from SC Commerce and he reached out to, they actually have full-time people that deal with recycling and they provided a list of people that can help them reduce that come and take that away we also worked with Hanks Hanks Ted was paying a large amount of money to remove some things that that they were producing there and when we contacted Department Commerce what they found was they could not only provide a less costly solution to removing those things, but in some cases would actually pay our local companies for what they were taking away

» . And I think that's a win-win. Thank you. Other comments? Mr. Jones. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the County Council. Mr. Stewart Kidd, I'm very quick to voice my concerns if I don't think things are going right, but I'm also just as quick to voice my position if I think things are going right. You are absolutely doing a fantastic job. I'm very impressed with what you've done. I wish we could have gotten the Manufacturing Expo up because that really impressed me when I watched it and I see what you guys are doing with the youth in our community and the partnerships. I tip my hat to you. I commend you. Keep working very hard. You and is Lauren Reeder here? She's another one.

» You two are absolutely what's right for economic development and i appreciate what you guys are doing and as i said to mr carpet i certainly hope that the new economic development director will listen to take your input as well in moving this county forward so i want to thank you thank both of you for what y'all have done y'all are absolutely the right thing for economic development it's a privilege thank you thank you other comments uh i've always said job one is helping current business uh be profitable and sustain them and grow them and this is what you're doing that's excellent and that's what I've been looking for for some time can you send me copies of these slides I've got a couple meetings tomorrow in Washington Columbia and then one on Thursday on this topic and a trained and ready

» workforce is the second part of that and as you know last night we had the Carolina scholars who get our money from the city and the county and they get a free two-year education at cctc and one young man was graduating and said you know i'm debt free and i'm making money uh that's what it's all about is helping our youth have a great future here in this county and helping industry have a great and sustainable profitable experience thank you stewart other comments if i may mr jones go right here i want to thank you too i i'm the one who asked this to be put on the agenda tonight i'm the one who wanted you to come and present this and i know some of them have already seen it but I just can't tell you how much I appreciate especially I hope if any of you have not seen the eighth grade Expo I

» wish you would look at it because it's just really it just turns your heart when you see those kids so excited about the things you're looking at talking to them about anyway I said enough thank you so it's quite all right to sending each of you a link which I will do once again everyone else here can go ahead and view it by going to our website because it's available online for for anybody to click on uh under that so thank you very much for your time thank you sir well done thank you uh second item on the agenda is sheriff lee bone uh concerning crime statistics sheriff good afternoon thank you for coming good afternoon just me or something it's you it's a hearing aid i'll pass one of these out to everybody on the council and kind of follow along with it we had a good year uh first year i

» n office 2019 i think we've had a really good year and i think we've got a we've got a bright future ahead of us I think we're gonna be getting more more good news as we go along usually when you look at statistics it's always good to have at least a five-year numbers that you have out there to kind of give you something to compare to to look at where trends are going that's what I tried to get unfortunately we just went to our computer system and I think the end of 2016 2017 was basically a trial and error year. 2018, 2019, we still had a lot of errors that we had to get to. I didn't want to present any numbers that wasn't accurate, so I'm really only going to have 18, 19 stats for you tonight. I'm going to try to go back five years on the ones I can get through the state and FBI.

» See our first slide here. I'm saying 2019, Kershaw County, we had the lowest murder rate in five years. We had the lowest violent crime rate in five years and lowest traffic fatalities in five years. Our drug overdose deaths were reduced by about 67% from 2018. We brought back our funeral escorts. We increased visibility by, I would say, about 50% out on the road with the addition of our cruise lights. I'm pleased with all of this here. I think this is something that the department should be proud of. We're moving forward, and we've still got a long ways to go. Going into the first one, murder and non-negligent homicide rate. I'd like to put up at the first one here, you'll see the United States rate. This is murders by per capita for 100,000 population. That's what you got.

» So what you're seeing here is the last stat that FBI had for nation was 2017, 5.3 murders for every 100,000 people, citizens living in the United States. So that's your rate is 5.3. South Carolina, this is what we got from SLED. Their most current one was 2018, which was eight. So you see South Carolina's got a higher murder rate than the nation does. However, Kershaw County, over the last five years, you'll see our rate is pretty low. 15 was at five, it was six, eight, five, and 2019 we're at three. So we're actually below the national average on murder rate. Kershaw County is not a bad place to live. We do have an occasional bad incident. We do have a murder every now and then, and when we do, it tends to get a lot of attention because it's so rare here.

» That's how good of a county we do live in. We get to the bottom of them. The ones we have, the three you see on the board here, they're solved. I mean, they were solved very fast, and we got the guys who needed to be in jail in jail as quick as we could, actually all of which are still in jail. Violent crime rate, again, we're looking back at the last numbers FBI put out for the United States was 382. That's 382 people out of 100,000 that were victims of violent crimes. That includes murder, robbery, aggravated assault, and sex offense. I think those were the four they went by. You're seeing 382 was for the United States. Again, South Carolina was a little higher than the United States average at 494.

» But you can see Kershaw County from 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19, we're constantly going down in that number. And so we are, as far as violent crime rate in Kershaw County, we're lower than the United States average. Again, great day to be in Kershaw County. Traffic enforcement. As all of you know, I done away with the traffic unit when I first took office. We formed a core team with the guys from a traffic unit. However, we did tell all of our deputies it's their job to work traffic. All of our deputies are out there. With this, we had a 20% increase in DUI arrests in 2018. We took 20% more drunks off the road in 2019 than we had in 2018 without a dedicated traffic unit. Every deputy works traffic.

» Our traffic fatalities, you'll see over the years from the last five years, 18, 18, 19, 17, and 15 this past year. We did go down with our fatalities. As you can see, this is not a high number, just like our murder race is not a high number. Anything can set it off. I'm going to set this out so next year, if we happen to have a bad wreck where multiple people are, it's easy to turn these numbers around. Drug enforcement, our cocaine cases went up 63%. Our controlled substance went up 34%. Our meth cases went up 25%. These are proactive numbers. These are not numbers saying that the cocaine usage is going up 63%. This is enforcement.

» we enforcing these things more heroin was up 12 ecstasy and marijuana both went down in enforcement this past year drug overdose deaths like i mentioned earlier 2018 we had a that was a record 37 i think prior to that record was maybe six or seven overdose deaths in a year's time and they went up to 37 it was just it blew up on us but in 2019 we're at 12 plus and when i say plus, we got three pending toxicology. So at the most we would have is 15. But for right now, we've got 12 confirmed overdose deaths for 2019. Some of the problems we're having in Kershaw County that I noticed in 2019, drug usage is still a problem here. We're definitely not saying we've beat the drug. I've always been of the belief that we need a better, we need better rehab programs here. Drugs is a, it's a business.

» It's a business. And the best way to take a business out is to destroy the market. If we're not doing something to help out with getting users off the stuff, getting addicts clean, that's the best way to destroy the market. We'll never out arrest everybody because somebody's always going to take their place. Unsecured vehicles, it's getting to be a real big issue here. This is a preventable crime, locking our car doors. People are just, 99% of the car break-ins we're getting are really not car break-ins. They're just somebody going and opening their doors. Yes, they're still a criminal for going in somebody's car, whether it's unlocked or not. When there's down, it doesn't matter. They're still criminals.

» However, we can do something to try to prevent some of these crimes just by locking our doors and not leaving anything valuable inside your cars. Our theft from a motor vehicle rate went down slightly, 3.5%, but we still had 189 cars that were gone into. Motor vehicle thefts went up 15% to 92. 92 vehicles in Kershaw County was stolen or 92 was reported to the sheriff's office. I'm not sure about the municipalities in the county, but 92 is a pretty high number. And I said the vast majority of those were keys left inside of their vehicles. This one right here really strikes a nerve is our firearms stolen from the vehicles. We had 27 firearms stolen from vehicles, unsecured vehicles. We got to do better with that. We got to do better with that. I talked to Chief Floyd in Camden.

» They had 18 in Camden. That's 45 between us and Camden. I'm not sure about Elgin or Bethune, what they may have had, but those numbers are climbing. I think as we get more people armed, more people carrying firearms, we start getting that responsibility level. We need to keep check on and make sure people are doing the right thing and keeping them secure. It's our right to keep and bear arms. We don't need to forget that first word, keep.

» We need to keep them we don't need to be giving them up our next one here suicides I think this is gonna be a record here last year we had 21 I know our probate judge Debbie Branham is not here and so I'm gonna talk about her behind her back but she's been doing a really good job of getting ahead of this and and doing everything possible to try to try to help out with this this is a province not just Kershaw County it's a lot of other places are having the same issue don't know why we're having the increase but uh you know it's people like like judge brian i'm just getting ahead of it and doing what needs to be done to do everything we can to prevent them here in kershaw county but in talking about the you know traffic fatalities overdose deaths and suicides when i was going over these numb

» ers here i couldn't help but to think about our coroner so i want to invite our coroner here tonight uh and he wanted to give some stats from the coroner's office that's going to relate to some of the stuff i just talked about well it's like the sheriff said but on the overall deaths is way up this year way up we had 635 for 2019 already for january we're at 65 so it shows that you know deaths are up naturals 570 like i said overdose is 12 plus it's going to be 15 because i'm sure the three i'm holding behind my desk are definitely overdosed. Accidental deaths is 10. Out of that, it's a wheelchair, house fire, and electrocution. The rest of them falls from elderly people. And of course, they told you homicides is up. Drownings, we didn't have but two this year.

» One was due to a car running into a pond, and one was a young girl jumped off a pontoon boat. And it's 635 deaths a year. That's 53 deaths average a month that's 1.7 deaths a day in kershaw county um and i'm glad to see the traffic come down that's the first time ever which you know like lee gives 19 i have i mean lee gives his uh he had his up there we have 19 ever since i've been in office from 15 to now to 2019 and it was 15 and we really count 17 because one was a four-wheeler and one was a train uh pedestrian got struck by a train and we figure those is uh traffic fatalities which highway patrol don't do a four-wheeler and we've had a we've averaged one and two four-wheeler deaths a year on in the traffic fatality end of it and i guess that's that's about all i got to say here but anyb

» ody wants to come over to the morgue and visit it come on over and see us we welcome everybody over now that that concludes it if y'all have any questions questions mr bozart suicides how many of them was youth they used below 20 years old what was that again 21 truth i mean uh suicide i'm not sure on the ages i think the average age was like 56 or 70. wow other comments uh mr jones jimmy go ahead mr chairman members county council coroner mr west and sheriff bone i i think both of you are doing a remarkable job and i will not be visiting your morgue i hope anytime soon uh no no i have no desire but i i do want to i do want to say to uh the sheriff you know you You said your DUIs are up, correct? DUI arrest, yes. DUI arrest are up.

» And you did away with the traffic unit, correct? You reorganized, you restructured. We've done it right with a dedicated traffic unit who does nothing but traffic. All of our deputies work traffic with their regular patrols. Gotcha. And also you lead funerals now too, don't you? Yes, sir. Which takes up manpower. And how much extra money do we give you to accomplish all the great numbers we saw tonight? Zero.

» you did a good job my point that's my point in case you know you're doing a great job you're a good steward taxpayers dollars you don't come in here and the first thing you think is okay i got to have more money to put in this issue any more money i'm not going to offer any more either but but up but seriously on a serious note i i really am impressed with the way you've done that i mean you just totally restructured and and reorganized and took the same funds and and and got great results great results so and i've always been a fan of yours so thank you so much appreciate you being here tonight both of you on the opioid issue uh and in here you made a comment about more and better rehab what are you talking about there so we can address that in the coming budget year i think we're getting

» there i know the uh i know the alpha center is expanding um we got a we got again on our probe we got a good probate judge just pushing a lot of mental health issues we're willing to uh with our new solicitor we're willing to do whatever diversionary programs we can to treat addicts instead of just throwing them into jail we'd much rather them get treatment and uh you know get over their sickness than to you know just keep stacking them into jail which i'm sure if kato was here he would agree with that too but we you know when you're committing crimes you're creating victims that we gotta we gotta account to we gotta we gotta give them justice So if we can take care of the addiction, that's going to clear up our crime rate.

» We've always known that, but I just think we can enforce it, enforce it, and lock people up. But the example I always give is one of these super stores. If you go in and close it down, there's still a market there. Somebody's going to come in behind there, replace it, and go right back to work. So we've got to work on that addiction just as much as we're working on enforcement. The county voted to pursue a claim in the opioid litigation.

» and i just wanted with with that have you seen any progress receiving subpoenas or any requests for narcan administration data or anything i guess that would apply to you as well i haven't seen anything no movement yet nothing nothing i've seen at the office asking for any of that information okay i know the courts have been generally slow and that they're consolidating a lot of the cases so it may come in time thank you what i was going to say is being mentioned narcan narcan is the big saver for us this year. That's why we don't have 40 or 50 up there because there's any given time you hear EMS paged out to a call. CPR is in progress. They shoot Narcan. They leave the patient at home breathing. I'm in good shape. Narcan is a blessing. You got drug dealers that are toting Narcan now.

» Narcan multiple times over just a couple weeks. And EMS could probably tell you, Gerald, they've got some in by the fire service that's been hit four or five times this year already because they know they can go to extra age call 9-1-1 but guess what 9 10 12 plus didn't get the call to treatment and i see what you mean i see other comments this has been a very illuminating uh we've had two very fine briefings uh this has been an excellent uh understanding of the health of our county and in so many ways thank you sheriff thank you coroner i really appreciate it thank you very much well done uh ladies and gentlemen we now move to the adoption of the agenda the agenda is on the the board i believe we have an amendment mr uh mr connell yes mr chairman would move that we take off the discussion

» of land jam under the new business heading and move it to the next council meeting in two weeks we just need some more data there and some more logistics sorted out very good can we have a second second second from mr snodgrass um do we want to have any discussion there please just a general background uh you have a promoter that's interested in the community that's done other large concerts namely drift jam if you've heard of that out at lake murray at spence island that owns a business near the lake watery property and is interested in bringing a country western bluegrass type music festival to that property and that was going to be some of the discussion but again i feel like we need to move it for a couple weeks and get some more things sorted out thank you um and i believe we have anot

» her Why don't we take them in order and we'll just go through them. Mr. Tucker. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to add something to the agenda. I would like to make a motion in accordance with South Carolina Code of Law Section 3-4-80A to add the following item to the agenda under new business action by Kershaw County Council pursuant to South Carolina Code Section 4-9-3016.2 authorizing the kershaw county attorney to seek injunction relief in the name of the kershaw county council against a nuisance business this motion is made because of the instant circumstance exists at this i at this item is not an added to the current meaning a meeting agenda for the kershaw county council considering due to concerns for the safety of the public that is my motion very good can we have a second s

» econd second for mr gardner uh discussion uh mr jones go right ahead taking off the agenda is one thing adding to it is another i have just a couple of questions so i can get some clarification you said this is dealing with uh an emergency dealing with safety is that correct yes sir how long we known about this i just getting a word on this um as of yesterday um well but i mean how long we known about this situation for weeks i believe the sheriff's been aware of it for several weeks yes sir i guess my question is why do we call a special called meeting if it was such an emergency instead of changing the agenda at the last moment tonight. Excuse me. Excuse me. Well, let me make a ruling here as a chairman.

» It's been proposed as an exigent issue and that there is a proposal here that I've entertained with seven men here that we go into executive session because of the sensitive nature of this, and then we can come out of the executive session. we get to that point once we get to that point in the agenda under new business Mr. Jones back to you thank you Mr. Chairman thank you and I was glad to let you speak while I had the floor I'm not saying I'm against it I'm just saying I need some clarification we were not requested to put in front of council until yesterday but we all who requested the sheriff request we put it on the agenda Mr. Jones okay Mr. Tucker go ahead Mr.

» and I am too that's in my district and when When I got briefed on this yesterday, this was something that we needed to handle as council. The circumstance has changed since the sheriff originally got involved, and we need to take it up as the governing body of this county, so I'm asking for it to be on the agenda. Yes, sir, and I understand that. I want you all to understand something. I'm not saying I'm against what you're trying to do. I just have some questions, and I just wanted some clarification. That's it.

» let me just say this too your district is my district yeah and and wait a minute but anyway so we just decided yesterday we needed to have an emergency change in the agenda tonight it was requested of us yesterday yes all right very good thank you very good mr snodgrass i was just going to add mr jones i understand your concerns but it's my understanding that when the agenda was created they i think we understood that this issue was resolved another way and then now we have learn that it's not going to be resolved so I just I know that helps you or not yeah it wasn't no it doesn't at the time the agenda was created it was if I understand it correctly and let me so now the circuit has have changed and so we do now we do have to intervene let me just once again say that we're gonna go into ex

» ecutive session and clarification here when we get to that item in new business fellas we'll go through a full disclosure of what we know and all these questions don't want to prematurely reveal that in the given the nature of how this came to us mr. Jones did you want to get can't pick it up mr. chairman thank you for your time mr. members of council thank you for your time and actually I never thought mr.

» Snodgrass that anything was resolved at any point time during this so what you're saying to me is first time I've heard about it and now now we find this unresolved but I will have some questions in executive session it may have some questions when we come out of executive session depending on what this county council tries to do because i think this is a very serious serious issue on a couple of fronts that we're dealing with tonight thank you excellent point uh with that i think we can move to a vote uh all in favor of mr tucker's amendment to add the request of the sheriff for injunction on a business matter for a relief of a nuisance issue signify by raising your hand and it's unanimous and i'm getting to that thank you and we now so that one's added we move now to mr connell's amendmen

» t to delete and move to the next meeting discussion of land jam signify by raising your hand and it's unanimous and we now move to a vote on the agenda as amended with the addition of one item on the nuisance relief and the deletion of the land jam all those in favor signify by raising your hand and the agenda is duly amended now we move to resolutions the first of which is probably the most important thing i'll do all week which is a resolution in memory of our friend mr gene falconberry the resolution is at tab a and a gentleman if you'll permit me the honor of reading this and then we'll move to a vote The resolution in loving memory of Mr.

» Gene Falkenberry, whereas Samuel Eugene Falkenberry served the people of Kershaw County as its premier first responder for 21 years and set a record of performance and of innovation in leading all aspects of county emergency services that made us safe in our homes and businesses, and whereas Gene Falkenberry was born and raised in Kershaw County. He graduated from Barron DeKalb in 1975, a devoted member of Oak Ridge and Springvale Baptist churches and husband of another great public servant, Daisy Branham Falkenberry. With three daughters, Amber, Stacy, and Stephanie, along with three grandchildren, Ansley, Madison, and Owen. And whereas Gene Falkenberry began his career at DuPont in 1975 and serving in many different departments and overseeing over 100 employees.

» During which time, Gene volunteered at Westfield Fire Department from 1986 through 1996, working his way through the ranks to become the fire chief for Westfield Fire Department. And whereas in 1996, he became the deputy fire marshal for Kershaw County and later the fire marshal and emergency management director in the year 2000. As fire marshal and deputy fire marshal, he established five substations, as well as the move of Laney Fire Station to a county-owned station. With his leadership, Kershaw County Fire Department's apparatus and equipment were updated, which contributed to lowering the ISO ratings to benefit the citizens of Kershaw County.

» And whereas Gene was promoted to director of the Department of Safety and Emergency Services in 2015, accepting further responsibility of code enforcement, central communications, detention center, and emergency management services. Throughout, he managed county responses to a range of emergencies and the EOC during hurricanes, floods, snowstorms, ice storms, and tornadoes. And whereas in 2018, he guided the review and the renewal of our county volunteer services, providing staff support to the county's decision to reorganize county fire services with new leadership, organization, training, personnel, equipment, and fire stations in the hub and spoke system now being implemented.

» and whereas in 2019 he restructured code enforcement with new emphasis on litter control and pride in this community. Therefore, be it resolved that Kershaw County Council recognizes and honors the manifold achievements and unsteady services of Gene Falkenberry for two decades of selfless service and sacrifice on behalf of his personnel and to the ultimate safety and security of the people of the county in their places of residence work recreation and worship be it also resolved in token of which that a plaque in his memory and in celebration of his service be installed in the new cassid fire station at an appropriate time gentlemen may i have a motion to approve this resolution and mr bozar gives the first the second second from mr gardner a discussion mr johnson please go right ahead we l

» oved you dad he and i go back to 1996. i'm not not going to reiterate everything I said the last meeting, but I'll never forget the time he walked in for the very first time and introduced himself to me. And they will never, ever, ever, even including you, Chief Ray, will have that personality that he had. He had a wonderful smile on his face. You know, people get mad at me. He never got mad at me. He just laughed at me. Remarkable man. What a public servant. And I think it speaks volumes to see the folks that are here tonight on his behalf. And Ms. Daisy, we're there for you. We're your family. We're there for the entire family, the daughters, son-in-laws, sister-in-laws, all of you. God bless y'all. And you're in our prayers. And if you ever need anything, we're here. Thank you.

» Other comments? Mr. Connell, please, sir. Gene had such an impact on me in just a short few years. So I can't fathom how much he impacted and meant to all of your lives. Attending his funeral service is one of the more powerful things i've experienced in my life see how how he had touched people so much we love him and we miss him and uh we're here for you now the comments mr bozard thank you sat in church whatever sunday would go uh with daisy and gene and uh except the times when he was out watching a gospel singing someplace he wouldn't be in church but anyway he would call me on sunday and tell me at church everything on your farm looks good so daisy you're gonna check my farm when you go by and tell me everything's okay but anyway i appreciate it gene as a friend and i appreciate you d

» aisy it's good to see you back in church sunday thank you other comments uh yes mr stargrass sure i'll just reiterate reiterate what i said last meeting of all the seven men i knew gene the least amount of time but gene was one of the first county employees that i met when i came on council. And I said to myself, if every county employee knows their job just as half as much as this man knows his job, then this county is in really, really good hands. And so Gene always, just from the get-go, really, really impressed me. And I'm honored to be up here on this desk to honor Gene's life. Mr. Tucker. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To the Falkenberry family, I still have you in my prayers. And of course, I do love you, Ms. Daisy and the crew.

» And And I just ask that you guys continue to band together, family at some time, all that you have, and the strongest thing that you have. And for the younger folks of the family, you guys pick up the torch over there, Chief, and continue to press on and do the things that you know will make him proud and that he will want you to do. We love you. And if I can do anything personally or professionally, don't hesitate to call me. Thank you. You may have replaced him. He won't ever be replaced. Very good. I'll conclude before we vote, and this is how we do things here. This is not a funeral. This is a celebration, Ms. Daisy, and to the parents of Gene Falkenberry. You raised him right.

» And up on that tornado hill about three weeks ago, all of his people that he trained, Christy and all the rest of them, Keith, everybody was up on that hill, volunteer firemen, the whole team was up there doing their job. Sheriff was up there, everybody, getting it done. EMS was there. It was just amazing who was up on that hill carrying out and carrying on in the name and in the spirit of our great friend Gene. So there's no need for crying today. You can do that if you want, but I'm celebrating a wonderful life, and I hope this is the best we can do.

» This is how we do it here, but you know how we feel about you, Daisy, and we all sense the same loss in the same way so with that we move to a vote all those in favor so signify and it is unanimous daisy if you would bring the family up we'd like to present this to you thank you wait for the family to depart and then we'll start again all right with that we move to the next item on the agenda which is item number two another resolution by kershaw county council to remove to approve the removal and relocation of an abandoned cemetery it's at tab b i would like first some explanation from the attorney and then i'll read it for and then for a motion mr chairman this is a required by the statute on what you have to do if you want to relocate an abandoned cemetery so this fairly quotes the statu

» te but the council will note that two two attachments of note are one an affidavit by william cox that the notice of the abandonment and moving the cemetery was published in papers required by law and per his affidavit they have received no responses furthermore the um landowner upon which the cemetery is located um the persons that are buried in the abandoned um cemetery are related to the present owner okay very good all right over that i'll read the resolution take a motion and I'm sure you'll get a question or two. Thank you for that opener.

» A resolution by Kershaw County Council to approve the removal and relocation of an abandoned cemetery, whereas Luckstone Corporation has informed Kershaw County that it has an agreement for the purchase of property on which is located an abandoned cemetery, sometimes known as Gaskin Cemetery, and whereas the abandoned cemetery is located on an old flat rock Road, Kershaw, South Carolina, which is immediately south of the existing Luckstone Corporation quarry, and whereas the abandoned cemetery is located within the boundary of the proposed expansion of the corporation's current quarry operation, and whereas it is likely that the expanded Luckstone quarry facility will disturb the abandoned cemetery, and for this reason the corporation has requested that the abandoned cemetery be relocated p

» ursuant to and following the requirements of the code of laws of south carolina that sets forth the process for removal of abandoned cemeteries and whereas the property is currently owned by karen l gaskin who pursuant to the contractual agreement with the corporation will convey the property to the corporation with one of the conditions of said conveyance being that the corporation will work with all necessary entities including Kershaw County to relocate any graves in the abandoned cemetery to a nearby location that will not be impacted by any expansion of the quarry and whereas the conveyance of the property will take place shortly upon approval of this resolution by Kershaw County Council with the ultimate removal and relocation of the abandoned cemetery to take place within two years o

» f the conveyance and whereas the bodies interred at the abandoned cemetery are biologically related to the Gaskin family the current owners of that property with the possibility of other unknown individuals interred in the abandoned cemetery as well and whereas the corporation has presented to Kershaw County Council a copy of the third amendment to the agreement for the sale and purchase for the property of the abandoned cemetery for the purpose of establishing that under the act of the cemetery is abandoned because the conveyance will be without reservation of the cemetery or burying ground and a copy of the agreement is attached whereas the corporation has provided 30 days of consecutive published notice in the chronicle required by the act and evidence of that publication is provided by

» a certificate of publication, and whereas the corporation has certified through its legal counsel that no heirs of anyone buried in the abandoned cemetery have been identified through the notice process, neither the corporation nor the county has received objections to the removal and relocation, whereas the corporation has assured Kershaw County that due care will be taken to protect any tombstones that will be replaced at the relocation cemetery and that replacement will be done properly so as to leave graves in good condition as before removal and that the corporation at its sole cost and expense will erect an appropriate monument identifying that those formerly buried at the abandoned cemetery are now buried at the relocation cemetery and whereas the removal and relocation of the abando

» ned cemetery will be supervised by a South Carolina licensed funeral director and an archaeological and engineering firm will oversee the relocation of the remains with all expenses incurred in the removal and relocation shall be borne by the corporation. And whereas the area to which the graves will be removed and relocated at the relocation cemetery is agreeable to the corporation and Kershaw County and no relatives of the deceased persons buried at the abandoned cemetery have made any comment or objection whereas it is necessary and expedient to remove the graves and any monuments from the abandoned cemetery and relocate them to the relocation cemetery now therefore be it resolved by kershaw county council that the council approves the removal of the abandoned cemetery and relocation to

» the relocation cemetery be it further resolved that the Kershaw County Administrator and any other appropriate county official is authorized to take such actions and to execute documents as may be necessary to effectuate the purposes of this resolution to the extent this resolution contains provisions that conflict with provisions contained elsewhere in county resolutions, policies, procedures, and actions. The provisions contained in this resolution supersede all other provisions and this resolution is controlling and the resolution is effective upon adoption. Can we have a motion so to approve? Mr. Tucker, a second. Second from Mr. Snodgrass. Discussion.

» I would tell you that it has a certain third ring to it that is due to the handling of the remains of our lost citizens and whoever else may be there and i think the thoroughness of this bespeaks a very good coordination in accordance with the laws we've given other discussion uh seeing there is none we move to a vote all those in favor so signify and it's unanimously approved thank you very much we move now to approval of minutes dated 14 january uh 2020 uh they're at tab c can we have a motion to approve the minutes so move second mr gardner first a second for mr tucker uh any discussion uh they're they're being done we'll move on to a vote all those in full favor signify and the minutes are approved thank you and thank you again miss mary as mr tucker said you can uh we move to ordinance

» s number item number one is the third reading of an ordinance uh to amend the official zoning act for which we ask Mr. Carpenter, take us through it one more time. Very good. And this is the third reading. Can we have a motion to approve? Mr. Chair, I make that motion. Mrs. Snodgrass, second? Second. From Mr. Gardner. Any discussion? You're good for that? No questions, no discussion. We move to a vote. All those in favor, signify by raising your hand. Very good. And it's approved on the third reading unanimously. Thank you very much, Mrs. Snodgrass, for bringing that in. Thank you, Johnny.

» With that, we move to item number two, third reading of an amended and restated ordinance determining rules and order of business it's at tab e as introduced by mr tucker can we have a motion i'll make a motion to approve third reading uh mr tucker first a second second second for mr bozar discussion mr chairman i just want to say there's no changes from second reading okay very good others mr tucker i just want to say thank you for working on this you've always been a good steward when it came to the rules and policies of county council and i appreciate that and i think this is a good move thank you mr jones well mr jones you made an understatement saying mr tucker is a good steward of the rules and he always gets me after council and tells me what i did wrong so as i said a good story tha

» nk you mr tucker seeing any further discussion all those in favor let's move to a vote all those in favor raise your hand and it's unanimous and adopted and mary i think you'll have to post it up here in the next meeting very good we now move to the next new business as introduced by mr tucker uh what i propose is we go into an executive session uh i will need the sheriff there i'll need the administrator and i'll need legal advice from tommy morgan and ken dubose uh i expect this will be a lengthy discussion we will come out and we will likely have a vote if depending on the outcome of the executive session so with that can we have a motion to retire to executive session with those named persons to return for a possible vote oh made uh mr bozart a second second second for mr tucker uh disc

» ussion i imagine there will be some when we come back all those in favor of going to an executive session so signify and it's unanimous and it approved and we'll move into executive session i'm about to get his jacket oh okay what's happening there mr administrator can we have a motion to return from executive session we have first mr gardner second from mr tucker any discussion uh i will start out by saying we departed on a motion from mr tucker and we have a discussion right now thank you oh i'm sorry and mr tucker and we came back when we departed we said we might vote on a subsequent motion so with that any further discussion on return from executive session it seems there is none let's move a vote all those in favor signify by raising your hand and we are returned from executive sessio

» n with that we RETURN TO THE MOTION MADE AND SECONDED BY MR. TUCKER AND MR. TUCKER UH YOU HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO LEAD US IN DISCUSSION SIR UM MR. UH CHAIRMAN COUNSEL AND GUESTS UM PAPERWORK UM YEAH I WOULD LIKE TO UH MAKE A MOTION THAT WE UM YOU KNOW READ IT AGAIN UM THAT WE THE KERSHAW COUNTY PURSUANT TO SOUTH CLINIC CODE 4-9-30 AUTHORIZE THE KERSHAW COUNTY ATTORNEY TO SEEK INJUNCTION relief in the name of kershaw county against a nuisance business this motion is made because of the urgent circumstances exist in this this item that's the reason why we're needing to act tonight that is my motion very good that motion has already been voted on second and we're now into a discussion phase um we uh i think we can now expose that the sheriff asked us to take this action uh based on a um the prin

» ciples inside the motion and i think we ought to further explore that in a discussion phase your motion wasn't right why wasn't my motion right what discussion we're not taking any action tonight we're sending a letter we have to vote on that um uh let me i need the attorney to help us here i propose we have an instrument of action uh which would be a letter to be sent now that i would like to get that before council formally since we have changed it a couple times uh what's the best way to do that can you guys give me some advice here and then i'll move forward on the judgment well morgan i believe the action is under section 4-9 30 16.2 which was in the motion to add the item to the agenda that's the agenda item and i believe the council action is to um to send a uh cease and desist lette

» r to um a business operator who is um in the judgment of the sheriff and in kershaw county operating a nuisance business fluent to that ordinance is that not correct mr morgan yes mr chairman members of council that is correct i have passed out before you a proposed cease and desist letter to be issued on behalf of kershaw county council upon the recommendation of the sheriff as it relates to the abatement of a nuisance business located here in kershaw county um and i know the sheriff can speak a little bit as to any of the further investigation if need be but a business in kershaw county primarily engaged in the operation of a firing range weapons range um there's issues and complaints that rounds from that range are falling onto an adjacent property yeah just stop right there for a minute

» what i want to do is introduce the letter formally in a motion that's what i think we ought to do right ken yes so what i'd like to do is take a motion to accept the letter to in some fashion and then approve it so sammy over to you okay all right and then i would like the letter read in this entirety i make a motion that we approve the cease and desist letter that is recommended from our uh county attorneys have a second second and and in accordance with that introduction i should read the entire letter is that good for you guys let me make sure i've got the current one i've got the one where you've added two sentences on the next to last and second from last questions okay here we go reference uh cease and desist letter please allow this letter to serve notice the kershaw county council i

» s requiring i guess i can mention the name yes sandhill shooting sports to cease and desist from operations at its location at 25 mesa lane lugoff south carolina pursuant to south carolina code Specifically, Sandhills Shooting Sports is instructed to cease and desist from allowing individuals to fire weapons at its target ranges until remedial and corrective steps are taken to prevent fired ammunition from leaving the shooting range area in order to protect the public at large. On January 10, 2020, the sheriff's office was dispatched to 22 Corporate Drive due to the discovery of bullets and damage to business operations located at the property.

» Upon arrival, the business manager notified the sheriff's deputies that during the previous week, roofers made repairs to more than 50 bullet holes to the roof of the building. In the process, several bullets and bullet fragments were recovered. During the investigation, it was noted that the Sandhills Shooting Sports Weapon Range is located approximately 2,000 feet from the building and that the top of the berm, which forms the backstop for the range, is visible from the roof. As part of the investigation, the Sheriff's Office flew a drone from the outskirts of the range to determine the likely path of bullets fired from the range that could have impacted the building at 22 Corporate Drive.

» Sheriff's office concluded that rounds from the range were likely failing to be contained by the berm and impacting the building at 22 Corporate Drive. Paragraph three, it is the county's understanding Mrs. Scott met with representatives of the business at the corporate drive on the 14th of January in an attempt to come together as good neighbors to resolve this public safety issue. However, the sheriff's office received a second complaint on the 20th of January. At that time, investigators went to 22 corporate drive and noted additional bullet holes in the roof of the building that were not present when repairs were performed on the 10th of January complaint. Investigators were able to collect additional bullets from both the roof and the parking lot.

» Additionally, dowel rods were used to determine the trajectory and path of the bullets. The path and trajectory angles were consistent with rounds being fired from the Sandhills shooting sport range. Second page, paragraph four. Given the circumstances, Kershaw County is concerned for the welfare and safety of its citizens due to the danger presented by uncontained rounds fired at the range that enter onto property and possibly striking an innocent bystander. As such, this notice to Sandhills Shooting Sports has been authorized by county council pursuant to the authority granted in South Carolina code.

» This statute allows Kershaw County, quote, to obtain injunctive relief in the court of common pleas to abate nuisances created by the operation of business establishments in an excessively noisy or disorderly manner which disturbs the peace in the community in which such establishments are located. End quote. Such injunctive relief will be initiated by a subsequent vote of Kershaw County, quote, not sooner than 10 days following non-compliance with a written notice to the owner of the offending establishment or his agent to cease and desist in the conduct or practice which disturbs the peace and good order of the area, end quote.

» Kershaw County Council hereby issues this cease and desist letter and directs Sand Hill Shooting Sports to desist in the practice of allowing ammunition fired at its range from leaving the property and traveling on to other property, such as to create a safety hazard to the public and which, quote, disturbs the peace and good order of the area, end quote. Kershaw County Council requires Sandhills Shooting Sports to present evidence that it has corrected the problem, worked with a neighboring property owner at 22 Corporate Drive to ensure no further rounds land on the building, and put in place protocols to prevent fired ammunition from leaving the shooting range area in order to protect the public at large.

» Should such steps not be taken, Sandhills Shooting Sports, upon recommendation of the Kershaw County Sheriff, Kershaw County Council will consider a subsequent vote to authorize seeking injunctive relief in the court of common pleas and an order from the court abating the nuisance described herein. Final paragraph, Kershaw County Council is hopeful such actions are not necessary and encourages Sandhills Shooting Sports to work with the adjoining property owners to rectify this situation.

» However, Kershaw County stands ready to take necessary legal action to protect the public at large from the safety issue created by spent rounds leaving the range operated by sandhill shooting sports at 25 mesa lane and landing upon nearby property and it closes with a greeting uh discussion mr tucker um thank you mr chairman i just want to say that i'm i appreciate my colleagues uh input and their views upon this and um you know i don't know how long this has been going on but you know i'm just getting wind, as I said, here recently. First and foremost, I want to say by thanking the sheriff for looking into this and seeing what could possibly be done as a mediator between the two businesses, because that did take place.

» And I appreciate your efforts there, Sheriff Bone, on trying to do that. That didn't come to a conclusion, so we're here today. And doing Doing nothing as we were discussing back there, for me, is not an answer. You cannot be a responsible gun owner. You cannot be a responsible target shooter, irresponsible target shooter. Bullets kill, hurt, and injure and damage property. That's a known fact. I appreciate any support that my colleagues give us up here on this, and this is to get the process rolling. Hopefully these two parties will sit down again and see if they can work out some type of safe compromise that does not jeopardize the public safety or causes any injuries or property damage, Mr. Chairman. Who had our second? Mr. Gardner? Any comments? business to thrive and prosper.

» This is the first step to move this forward. No action will be taken until at least 10 days, and we hope that that 10-day or two-week period will allow these parties to come together and solve this problem. It's fortunate, but at the same time, it's a very serious issue where flying bullets are a serious issue, and I think we, from a public safety standpoint have to take a stand on it uh other comments yes uh mr jones please go right ahead all right no secret i was against this you know long starting executive session however i do appreciate to my colleagues sending a letter out of notice i appreciate that instead of taking action tonight i appreciate y'all doing that and to my understanding no action will be taken we hope these parties can work this out and if it isn't worked out then of c

» ourse this council will come back and take a vote on action okay uh disappointed that target has not gone and if they think there's there's a danger there why haven't they gone and taken action you know that that that concerns me but it comes to county council and the sheriff he has come and he's asked for this i'm supporting this letter on good faith our sheriff requesting it and i want to i tell you folks i'm gonna tell you right now i thank ben cannell for helping uh put this letter together and i just hope that this comes to uh i really hope that these two businesses can resolve this and i'm going to talk with the property owner tomorrow as well and see if between he and the business that they can maybe get something worked out where this cannot won't have to go any further but um again

» this is a letter just a letter putting them on notice this is not taking any action put somebody out of business yet okay thank you uh thank you mr jones i was just going to to comment that this is just a letter and it requires further deliberation by this council on another vote before any action regarding actual business operations would take place. And of course, all parties involved will be afforded due process rights to put their case up as it were. I hope it gets worked out too. I patronize this business. I go there and shoot from time to time and enjoy learning about and practicing safe gun practices. But there's no doubt the sheriff has brought to us a safety concern from what we've seen. They did a thorough investigation and can't be ignored.

» So I appreciate the work of everybody and also bring this to our attention. Again, bullet damage. And so that just, for me, just kind of helped me realize, okay, then this is certainly a possibility. So really hoping that these two parties work it out. You know, got two parties that are just trying to do the American dream.

» And I certainly want to support both of them in in in doing that so uh but but tonight i'm i'm i'm uh i'm thinking about the public safety of our citizens thank you well thanks sheriff for bringing this to our attention but at the same time i gotta see i feel like this is two businesses out there and this is a civil matter and the target is asking us to do their work for them in handling this but um i don't think we should be doing that this is target's business as a civil matter let them lawyers take care of each other and let them take it to court. But anyway, I do appreciate all the effort that's been put into this. Thank you. My vote on this letter tonight absolutely does not mean I'm going to vote in 10 days to shut a business down. I want to make that clear.

» I'm hoping that, as I said, they'll get together and they'll work this out and we'll see where it goes from there. Thank you. Our vision document everywhere else that people are first and it's common sense here when the sheriff comes in with his professional advice, and which I fully respect, that lives are at risk and jobs are at risk, and we're not taking sides of small versus big or big versus small. This is a simple matter of the security of our people, and we are compelled to act by the Homeland, the Home Defense Act, under which this council is put together, and this letter, it seems to be a good start. Thank you all for your time. I want everybody to know it was in there for several minutes to go over this.

» This was not easily arrived at as a course of action, but I'm absolutely convinced it is. And I thank Mr. Carpenter publicly, our sheriff publicly, and Tommy Morgan, and also Ken for working this hard with all parties to include the landowner, range owner and the business owner up on the hill in a way that tried to reach an accommodation it's been we thought we had a solution but now we are having to do this course of action i thank council for sitting through all this there are pictures that are compelling that this action is not only necessary but immediately necessary and with that i think we move to a vote all those in favor signify by raising your hand and mary please record the vote as unanimous and we can move forward with a letter uh let's see where we are in our agenda now i think

» that's our last item and i think we can move to council briefs with that mr jones you are lead mr chairman again i just want to take a minute to say uh i appreciate the letters being sent out and no action being taken tonight and again i just hope this can be resolved civilly and peacefully and again i want to thank mr carnell for his outstanding contribution in the executive session because i would have come out here and voted no but uh we've got a chance now to hopefully let the parties get this resolved without us taking any action or voting on any action against any businesses thank you thank you Mr. Snodgrass for this evening. Mr. Tucker. Just very briefly, I want to thank all who was in attendance and made it out and pressed away for the MLK Day celebration last week.

» Great, great attendance and an awesome program. So thank you, the ones who weren't able to make it. I hope you try to make it next year. You're always welcome and invited, so don't feel like a stranger. Mr. Chairman, if you give me just one moment, I have a letter here, and I think I couldn't have opened it at a better time than tonight. I think all of y'all received one, January 24th, from Ms. Kinnard? Yes. Yes, we all did. I need to read this into the record because I think that it just really kind of hits home what we just did on being the responsible body when it comes down to gun safety. It says, Dear Councilman Tucker, having just read the Kershaw County's decision to pass the resolution Disregarding any litigation limiting gun control, I am very distressed and disappointed.

» I'm expressing my concerns in a personal letter to each council member. I think of our laws for highway safety and guns use as a similar safeguards. When Model T Fords were the only cars on the highway, fuel rules were needed. As vehicles increase in power and abundance, laws governing how we were allowed to drive them became necessary to change and protect the citizens. As guns become more powerful and abundant, guidelines for the use must be established to keep our communities safe. Do not see this as a slippery slope. Within the laws governing the highway safeties and qualifying drivers, it's free to enjoy traveling on public highways. Transportation has changed and traffic regulations have met new challenges.

» As available weapons change and regulations need to change to meet new safety challenges, within these regulations, a qualified gun owner will remain free to bear arms. Gun violence is already a major problem. No legislation action as recommended in this resolution will certainly allow the problem to escalate. And what she's saying there makes plenty of sense.

» she's not against the second amendment but we do have to hold each other accountable we do have to be responsible gun owners and we do have to do right by one another because people hold you responsible as a citizen doesn't make them an anti-citizen or anti-anything they just want to live in a safe environment so i thank all my colleagues for voting to help push this situation with our businesses in the right direction and hopefully we can come once again to a resolution, an agreement, that both businesses can continue to thrive and operate in Kershaw County. That concludes my report. Thank you, sir. Mr. Gardner. Mr. Bozar. Mr. Connell. Chairman, I would just again mention Chris Spitzer.

» There are not many who contribute as much as he does to the community, and for those who know him personally, they get to see how behind the scenes he helps those who are distraught, mourning, who've experienced hardship. He helps them personally just counseling them, but also spiritually and guiding them in that way. And he's experienced a major, major injury. And I think he needs and deserves our prayers of healing and that his family can support him in this very challenging time. That's all I have to report. All right. And I'll close it out before turning it over to the administrator. First again, again, Chris Spitzer, keep him in your prayers. What a great man and a family of amazing, amazing devotion.

» thanks to my fellow councilmen and all of you for honoring gene and his wife daisy and and his family that was very special and very important uh mr carpenter i'm gonna look to you to take care of this retreat stuff so that's some housekeeping some further housekeeping i thank um mr kidd stuart kidd and danny you will see on your emails uh the video that mr jones was talking about it's It's a great video, and we apologize for the technical failure, but if you'd like to see it, it is worth seeing, and it's also worth going to if you ever get a chance. I've been to just about every one of them, and last thing is we've been through a lot of material that wasn't announced to media in advance for which we don't need to apologize.

» It was driven by excellent circumstances, but I'll look to Vic and the lawyers to provide the media, all of them, what package you can tonight and then the closeout for tomorrow. And of course, that's just our cost of doing business, but thank you for that. So with that, we turn it over to you, Vic. Please take it away. Mr. Chairman, members of council, one item to remind you that this is our planning weekend and goal setting. We will start Friday night with a meal as we have every year.

» And then Saturday morning, we'll be meeting downstairs where we did last year in the emergency preparedness conference room uh we will start uh breakfast will be ready little after seven we'll officially start at 7 30 with welcome and we'll run until approximately three o'clock in the afternoon i think everyone's aware good everybody's aware ah mr count mr attorney nothing mr chairman uh with that i'm ready to entertain a vote that we dismiss please mr bozar a second hello sammy uh mr gardner second any discussion uh thank you did a good job i even though you didn't get the video up there he did a great job tonight yeah he did thank you it was a good job by all the staff with that let's take a vote all those in favor so signify and it's unanimous and we are excused