Full meeting transcript - July 14, 2020

» audio test check one two audio test check one it's a great day in kershaw county uh mr danny are we up on the net facebook is working great we were called to order we have a quorum of all members present and we have our staff here and it's an all-american county being tried like none of us have ever seen it tried before and today we're going to meet on further things that we need to do on our own behalf. We're in an email meeting format so those should be up on Facebook and we're enacting the mask ordinance that was passed by the city of Camden and we within the city of Camden being even though we're a county office are maintaining compliance with the mask ordinance in the town of Camden today as you see.

» We're also if those of you can't see we're six feet apart and maintaining social distance and providing liberally of washing of hands and other things to make it as sanitary as we can. So we are now called to order and I ask now Mr. Connell to lead us in invocation and a pledge of allegiance. Would you all please stand? Let's pray. Our dear Heavenly Father, we're thankful for many blessings. We pray that thou bless the family of Dave McIntosh and Anita Gardner and all others who struggle or need thy assistance as they mourn. We pray for humility and charity as we try to make decisions related to Kershaw County. We pray for each and every family in this area, that they might be strong and that the way may be prepared before them to find success according to thy will.

» We ask forgiveness of sin and the ability to forgive one another and forsake the things we've done wrong. And we also ask that we can have an extra measure of kindness in our daily activities. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Thank you very much indeed, Mr. Connell. those words were on my heart and i thank you you expressed it better than i could have done it any other situation where as i said we now move to our next item which is public comments under our e meeting format we allow for comments to come in in advance through mary did mary i have one here from miss deborah king is this the only one we have all right and then we'll go to those people that wish to speak in person and under our rules just to explain everything i'm I'm gonna summarize what is an otherwise long

» letter, but I will try to hit the key points from Deborah King. And then I'll ask Mr. Carpenter to put somebody to answer to her directly so that she gets her answers. And so reading from that and quoting, please answer these questions. Do you have a stockpile of protected equipment and other gear? And she lists a number of people that should have this stockpile and access to it.

» Item number two, do you have a test, 90% accurate, which gives results in minutes rather than days, and who does contact tracing while people wait for the test results? Item number three, do you want business, which has weathered this so far, to remain open, or do you want more businesses to close and have to move out of empty buildings and houses? Item number four, do you want schools to open or do you want a new generation of undereducation in South Carolina? And number five, do you want stability, security, and confidence in Kershaw County population before the next round of flu arrives? And that's a very good point. This is just Kershaw County's first round, and we need to plan for long-term solutions, please. And then I'll read in full her closing sentence or two here.

» requiring mask in public spaces with social conditioning protocols and ticketing for challengers is the easiest safest solution people will do it when you require them to do it think of the seven generations which will follow you uh from this day forward thanks and she signs it deborah king i'll get mr carpenter to handle it any others uh mary uh mr debose anybody sign up to talk tonight mr chairman one person signed up the person is paul watts mr watts yeah paul would you come forward and as you do i want to just stipulate our rules for this this is not a time time for council to answer you it's a time for council to hear from you uh please keep your comments in five minutes or less and also mr watts um kindly keep them in the decorum of this body and and polite and straightforward sir mr

» watts please go ahead for your time mr chairman i'll be brief uh i'm before council tonight to request a ban on certain loud can we put the microphone closer so everybody on facebook can hear you i'm here to request a ban on certain loud fireworks um i'm not requesting a ban on all fireworks i mean i'm all for sparklers roman candles that kind of thing i shot fireworks when i was a kid and i loved them but it seems to me that a few years ago a new kind of firework showed up and they are much louder than anything i've heard in the past and i'm sure most of you have probably heard them at least from a distance i don't know how many of you have heard them up close they are shockingly disturbingly loud they're louder than any gun that i've ever heard i live in a pretty well insulated house with

» double pane windows we run noisemakers and fans during uh you know fourth of july that kind of thing new year's eve and even with that i can hear these fireworks loud and clear two three four streets over and i've heard them at one o'clock a.m 4 a.m 6 a.m on sunday morning 6 p.m during dinner must be another time of day you can imagine and it's almost year round we know for a fact that every year thousands of pets run away because of fireworks never to return we know that they're very disturbing upsetting to many of our vets returning from wars and we know for a fact that they are upsetting to many of us who suffer anxiety. I personally know someone who suffers from severe sleep disorders and has sought professional help for it.

» This person confided to me just the other day he was literally concerned about having a nervous breakdown because of these things and we have dealt with these things for many years now and I think the time has come to ban these loudest ones. I don't know the name of them. I call them mortar shells. That's what they sound like. So we you know and I know friends in certain other areas of the state none of them have this issue.

» They don't have to deal with it and they can't fathom dealing with it now i along with my neighbors have put a great deal of work and time into our homes our yards money i don't have a quality of life here and i have many elderly neighbors too and i know they suffer too they won't say anything because they figure it's legal they will not complain they just suffer i'm speaking on their behalf as well so i cannot imagine living the rest of my days here in crush all county which i plan to do and dealing with this every year, every year. It's not just on July 4th. It's not just New Year's Eve. So I think it's time to do the right thing and get rid of these things. Nothing will be lost by getting rid of these loud obnoxious ones, these menace we've been dealing with.

» And we need to get back to where all of us look forward to the holidays without them being literally destroyed by having to worry about these things. And it's time to again think of our neighbors and do the the right thing and do unto others. And that's it. Thank you very much. Do we have your address and phone number? Yes, sir. And that's recorded as where? We have his address and phone number right here, Mr. Chairman. And where is it? Recorded here. Where in the town? He lives on Pine Ridge Road. Out in the Malvern Hill Church section there. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. Okay. With that, public comments. Any further, Mr.

» DuBose? That's it, chairman okay very good that concludes public comments we move to adoption of the agenda it's on the on the board thanks to mr templar and you should have a copy with you on your on your tablet can we have a motion to approve the agenda so move uh mr gardner a second second from mr bozard discussion seeing there is none we move to a vote all those in favor so signify by raising your hand and it's unanimous and approved mary unanimously we move to approval of minutes for a call meeting at tab a also on page three in your tablet uh can we motion to approve please make a motion that we approve mr chairman thank you mr tucker and second second mr gardner a discussion i will say that there was some discussion about uh the six versus three year term for health services district

» that's now been resolved and it was tabled and you'll see that it's a carryover item as tab f in our agenda for today uh we move on now uh to a vote all those in favor uh signify by raising your hand and it's unanimous and we move to a proclamation a proclamation in memory of david mcintosh a friend of everybody in this room and probably within the sound of my voice and i think we have wpub here today who is that i can't see with the face masks there they are yeah thank you for coming and i will tell you mary tells me that mary mcintosh and carrie mcintosh are listening at this moment and gentlemen if you would like after i read the proclamation and we get this thing on the table that uh you may want to say something and i'll read the proclamation in kershaw county council in remembrance of

» dave mcintosh whereas Dave earned a master's degree in journalism from the University of South Carolina and came to work at WPUB in 1986. And whereas he went after every story with everything he had, was not afraid to ask anyone anything and took great pride in reporting stories right down in the middle based on the love of Kershaw County. He always got the story straight and on time and with a conviction that endeared him to everyone. Whereas Dave was old school as a reporter, he always had a cup of coffee in his hand, and it did not matter if it was fresh. He would just nuke it if not. He loved the Air Museum, history, and the British history in particular. He loved covering local elections, even if he complained about it the next day.

» He also loved the workings of politics, but above all else he loved completely his wife Mary and their daughter Carrie. Whereas Dave mentioned mentored several high school and college students through internships at the radio station and worked to earn the respect of Kershaw County leaders and news makers.

» And whereas for all who knew Dave we are sure that he is now broadcasting the news of heaven and that brings comfort to us all indeed now therefore it is hereby resolved that kershaw county council recognizes and honors mr dave mcintosh for his many years of service to kershaw county and to its citizens which has brought great honor to him his family and this community and with that i take a motion to approve so move thank you mr jones a second second second for mr gardner uh discussion and remember the families listening mr jones thank you mr chairman members of county council i don't normally make motions for seconds i usually get into the discussion but on this one it was very important to me to i just wanted to make the motion and i'd like to share with this family who are listening and

» those who are here back in was it 1989 hugo came through dave and i spent the entire night at the courthouse and walking up the stairs or the through the back stairs of courthouse i'll I'll never forget, Dave said, Jimmy, come here real quick. And I ran over there, and water was coming through the walls. Well, right before that, prior to that, we had gotten in a car to go exploring, my car. And we go shooting across the river bridge, and it's like a firework show. We see all these big explosions. Well, come to find out, it was transformers that were blowing up. But I must say that throughout the years, Dave was a professional first. When it came to the news, he was a professional. And he hit it straight with me.

» didn't mind mixing words with me in a minute and uh but yet dave was also a man who was compassionate and a man who loved his family and i knew this because i've known dave all these years and dave also loved airplanes i never saw him smile i asked him one time i said david why are you smiling so much at this air show i mean he was like a kid in a candy shop and some of you who know him probably seen that side i said you never smile that way around me but uh he's going to be missed he is missed and they got another angel at the table tonight with dave mcintosh he was a good man thank you uh other comments uh mr bozard dave asked me to go to columbia with him one afternoon he knew i had an interest in b-25 hell yeah i worked on him for a number of years in the air force when i first went in

» he said they were rebuilding one over there and he wanted me to go look at it with him. So I went and looked at him. Well, he wasn't just one of the guys over there. He was one of the leaders. He went out and helped get a lot of the parts that they needed to rebuild that aircraft with. And the last time I talked with him, they had just about everything they needed to rebuild it. And it's sitting over at Owens Field in Columbia at one of the hangars they have over there. I went over there several times with him to meetings and so forth. And both of us shared an interest in that B-25. Him, because they were rebuilding it, and myself, because I spent quite a few years on it when I first came into the Air Force.

» But like has been said, whatever day he went at, I saw him dedicated to that B-25, and I've got to believe that everything he went at through life, he went at it wholeheartedly as he did that B-25. Thank you, sir. - Indeed. Other comments? The B25 was, oh yeah, please, Mr. Tucker, I'm sorry. - Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To Mary and Carrie, I just want to say that I think what's been said already about your husband and father is spot on, but I also want to leave you with how much he truly loves you. Carrie, me being your driving instructor many, many years ago, had an opportunity to spend time with you get to know your mom and many of years with your dad through many different events and things that we've done together.

» But one thing he would always do is when I see him before he gets into the politics and aviations and all those things is give me an update on your schooling and how you were doing overseas and things. And he talked about you as well, Miss Mary, and how much he loves you guys. So do know that every day that he woke up, he had a reason to wake up and it was for of two lovely beautiful ladies in his life y'all carry on god bless yeah uh mr connell i just wanted to speak to his mentorship i'm sure he mentored those that worked at the radio station very well whether they're in high school or college but there's a whole nother group of young people that dave was a mentor to including myself for about four years going through high school with athletics he didn't necessarily report on athletics al

» l the time but uh as you do at a any type of news or radio station you know what's going on generally and i can recall so many times where he would encourage those that were working hard in the community or at the local high schools to be better do better and say congratulations and that meant a lot when you're a kid so i'll always be grateful for that thank you ben others i will say in closing thank you gentlemen all of you respect this as a great loss for our county and for the family for mary and and carrie but yeah he he was hard on me he made me go out and see what he regarded as an air force b-25 and i reminded him that i would go and when we got there i think i ruined his day because i told him the b-25 was commissioned and built by the lake like murray or something right i don't rem

» ember lake greenwood And it was a part of that whole effort that won World War II. It's just a wonderful item, and I think it's at Owens Field now. And with that, I think we'll be here all night telling stories about that wonderful man. Suffice it to say, we have WPUB here tonight. Thank you for coming, and thank you, family, for allowing us this honor to truly miss Dave McIntosh. Amen. With that, let's go to a vote.

» all those in favor so signify and it's unanimous very good thank you gentlemen and mary we'll have to arrange maybe wpub can help us arrange for a presentation to the family at appropriate time it's awfully hard during these covert days and maybe certain members of the the council would want to be there as well maybe we can do it at the station or wherever you say with that i think we move on to the next item which is a public presentation thank you again for the radio station for coming. Thank you very much. And we turn to Mr. Carpenter for a COVID update, please. Mr. Chairman, members of council, I have in front of you and also up on the screen information related to kind of where we are with the COVID issue.

» I've decided to, because we're now into months, we're not into days and weeks, we're into months now. And so it's so much data that I'm starting to show you. Now you see the first four months of the situation and what's happened the month of June. Obviously a significant spike that we're all aware of has happened and that's very very visible to you right there. The number of cases that were confirmed in the county is triple in June what it was in May what it was in March as well. When you look at the 14 days generally DHEC has started giving us how many cases in the last 14 days and that's generally going to be the incubation period of the disease.

» So again you can see where we started then we we kind of went down things were closed people weren't in contact with each other and we kind of had that nice little little valley there then i won't say it's because we started opening up but it is coincidental that it coincides with opening up our our community and our our economy that the cases went up significantly and so you see where we are there at the end you know the last each one of those is is a day so the last two weeks have been been especially hard in the state and the county as well for the cases when you look at how that's affecting our hospital and the usage and the resources in the state right now right now our statewide hospitals are able to manage the icu beds for this but the prediction shows that at the rate that icu usage

» is going that at some point in october we will probably run out of beds in icu if nothing changes when you look at kershaw county and see how our icu is happening it's a little different picture than statewide we're not at the at the bottom but um we're currently able to manage what we have i think that shows we have five icu beds currently occupied not all of those are coveted patients that's important to realize that we talk about a hospital bed occupancy we're just talking beds period we're not talking how many of those are covered patients or not because the hospital bed doesn't care if you're sick and you're in a bed you're in a bed that's one less bed for the next person coming in the door so right now we're able to manage locally our icu beds but that's not to say that tomorrow you'r

» e not going to have all of them filled it's just i see you it is what it is but of the covid patients that are in there um i believe four of those then do you remember okay i don't remember um of that five a number of those are um are covered patients and then kind of in you know where does that that show us well again they'll be going up and down the hospitalized patients in Kershaw County and you see how it's it's about you know but you know the higher levels that we've been all season then I guess finally from there the number shows nine on the right-hand side here yes not in the hospital right but they're not in ICU that's right yes so if you want to see the the summary total by zip code by date so this shows you from the beginning how many of our Our confirmed cases in this county are

» broken down by the zip code itself. And, of course, our three main zip codes do show a significant percentage of them. Some zip codes are much, much lower. Obviously, they have a lot fewer people living in them. But our urbanized areas, which are the dark blue, are also the—or the dark blue ones, which are the heaviest, are also urbanized areas. And then just read off the major zip codes, say Elgin, Bethune, Camden, not to say the other ones are not important, but just give us a metropolitan area of zip codes and the numbers of 29020, 29045, 29078. Those are the three main zip codes that account for significant percentage of the cases in this county. And so read off the number of cases for those watching on Facebook for those three zip codes.

» I'd actually have to look at the map then I that's I don't have that actual in front of me so there we go okay you can there you go if you can move it just a little bit over Danny so I can see this there we go all right so Camden 29020 has had 338 cases that are confirmed DHEC estimates that there have been a total of 2,000 people that have been exposed to it from the beginning that's the estimated cases you get down to Lugov 29078 actually we'll do Elgin next 29045 300 cases confirmed possibility of 1,800 that are also been out there that were not captured or caught with the disease and then moving down to Elgin two nine zero seven eight is that a hundred and sixty nine cases look I'll leave off I'm sorry 169 cases with an estimated of a thousand thirty-five total thank you that's fine oka

» y go ahead just illustrating it then moving on it's kind of shows you in a summary for the state of South Carolina what's happened last four weeks. Gives you very kind of sobering of the increase in cases, increase in testing cases, the percentage of positive, how many went to the hospital, then how many deaths have occurred. Now moving back locally, Greshaw County maintains a, we have been building up a stockpile. It is not a stockpile that would ever be able to handle all the needs of the county.

» It's not a stockpile that can handle the needs of the hospital but it is first and foremost a stockpile that would handle the county's needs ems public safety firemen law enforcement um those those individuals that are are working on the county's behalf and then being able to to help outside organizations in a pinch if they got into crisis we could have some to help them as well so we are maintaining a stockpile such as that and then in closing wanted to just kind of give uh we were told that um we would come back to council in july with a update and a final report on the small business stabilization grant program that the chamber was contracted with and should there be any questions amy's here but hopefully i'll be able to give you all good good information and you have in front of you a l

» ot of the information um on it but you know essentially they distributed 810 000 to 256 kershaw county businesses the average check amount was three thousand one hundred and sixty four dollars and they began accepting applications on april 24th and went all the way through june 1st total of two million one hundred sixty five thousand dollars was requested from this committee again they were able to allocate eight hundred and ten thousand dollars toward those needs priority was given to applicants based on the following businesses who were still in operation businesses who were shut down by the governor businesses with revenue decreases by 20% or more. Businesses that were the most vulnerable is defined by those with a demonstrable lack of capital resulting from the impact of the COVID-19.

» Round one, applications were submitted between April 24th and May 4th. The committee distributed 93 checks totaling $257,465 in round one. Round two, the applications that were submitted were between May 4th, 2020 and May 18th, 2020. The committee planned to distribute $225,000 plus any funds left over from the previous round, which was $42,535. For round two, they distributed 76 checks, totaling $251,000. Round three of the applications were collected between May 18th and June 1st, and they were considered. They planned to distribute $225,000 plus any leftover funds from the previous rounds. They distributed 73 checks, totaling $232,235 in round three. County Council then met on June 4th and provided an additional $60,000 as added to the grant.

» These additional funds were used to support another 14 applicants, totaling $46,000. You have also in front of you a listing of all of the entities that were awarded grants. It is about six pages in length, and it's got each one named. It shows down the amount that they were awarded. obviously it's too many to read off to you but it is provided to you so you can go through and you can see um the feedback that i've received has been uniformly appreciative thankful and grateful the business owners that have reached out to me have indicated that just the knowledge that the county cared about them and that the county wanted to do what it could to support them in this time was hugely important to them the dollar amounts in the big picture may not have been huge the average gift or the largest gi

» ft i think was a grant was thirty five hundred dollars the thirty five hundred dollars was a lifeline to some that kept them going and it was a light in the dark that they needed desperately at that point in their businesses lives um i've got copies of those that i will put in council's boxes the letters i've received from them i think it's very heartwarming to to read and to know and understand what was said by those business people and the impact that the council had in making those decisions that mr chairman that's my report uh let's i'm sure there'll be a bunch of questions but first of all let me recognize amy kindred who along with uh the work group mr connell mr tucker mr snodgrass and with the support of mr jones mr bozart and mr gardner made that happen gentlemen ma'am thank you fo

» r your help and mr carpenter and your expert administration of this with that let's open to questions and comments please uh starting with mr bozart mr carpenter on page four there is that a typo down there trying to wonder how you bring the mic got up to highway 21 down here in our county is that supposed to be 521 yes sir oh okay thank you all right thank you uh other comments uh mr garner i'm sorry i just want to commend staff amy chamber committee this is no small undertaking let me tell you when you start looking at the list and you know you got to think about every one of these there's an application all the time and effort that went into putting this together and diluting those funds down to where you you try to do what you can for these people great job great job thank you yep other

» comments uh mr tucker um yes uh ditto to what has already been said thank you miss amy um you and that committee and i would just like to call their names one more time because they have been great people um and i hope i don't screw this up by staying uh reverend john lee um the um mr um help help me out. Greg Newman. Greg Newman. There we go. Lauren Birch. Lauren Birch. Pam Delk. Margaret Lawhorn. There you go. John Lee. Greg Newman. And then, of course, Amy Conard. Yeah. So, thank you to all of you and your time spent on this. Thank you, Mr. Bowes, for looking over this. I know I've been in your office a lot, aggravating you, but it was worth it.

» And I want to thank Ben and David AS WELL, MY COLLEAGUES, FOR BEING THE TYPE OF TEAMMATES THAT ALWAYS HAVE SOMETHING TO OFFER AND CONTRIBUTE BUT NEVER HOLD UP PROCESS BECAUSE OF NOT EXACTLY AGREEING 100%. AND SO I THANK YOU FOR THOSE TYPE OF TEAM SPIRIT ATTITUDES AND WORKING CONDITIONS. I ALSO WANT TO SAY THAT I GOT SENT TO ME AN AWESOME ARTICLE FROM THE SUMTA ITEMS. IF YOU HADN'T HAD A CHANCE, LAST WEEK I THINK IT CAME OUT, YOU DIDN'T SEE IT, WHERE THE SUMPTA ITEM DONE AN ARTICLE ON THE PROGRAM HERE IN KERSHALL COUNTY AND IT WAS QUOTED VERY WELL AND IT TALKED ABOUT, AND THEY GOT THIS INFORMATION FROM THE BUSINESS FOLKS THAT WE HELPED OUT.

» SO IF YOU HAVE A CHANCE, I'LL TRY TO FIND IT ON MY PHONE, PLEASE GO TO THE SUMPTA ITEM BECAUSE THEY DID A WRITE UP ON OUR PROGRAM THAT WE ADMINISTERED HERE IN KERSHALL COUNTY. THANK YOU. comments uh jimmy mr jones you know we we sit up here and we talk about what we did well we we weren't saying that i don't mean that ugly i mean i think i came up with an idea sammy grabbed and ran with it the chairman jumped on and formed a committee everybody worked together to make this happen and it was absolutely the right thing to do but i'm gonna tell you something that i'm a firm believer and we are we are very lucky very fortunate to have amy conard she puts up with me she puts up with this council i mean she puts up with her board and she went back and she was like a firecracker i mean she was wid

» e open and she hit it hard even despite jimmy jones amy thank you that's what we say too jimmy and i i appreciate you so much i just want you to know that this this is this is heartfelt because we you both you and i both talked to these businesses and some were nice some were not but i tell you one thing this came at the right time for the people of kershaw county this council did the right thing for people of kershaw county and amy conard you're a queen thank you so much thank you jimmy man other comments uh mr gardner and also let's not forget mr carpenter and dealing with our non-profits because we had money that went there as well so uh thank you mr carpenter good job yeah other comments uh sir uh i will throw out another matter of getting back to covid uh the school board's meeting ton

» ight uh north carolina today announced that their plan to open schools and everything that we do in here and the city of camden and bethune and elgin does has got to be taken in the context that a major movement is going to occur in either august or september when the school board decides and how they decide to bring back our children 10 000 children and the teachers and the staff and and likewise the families who are going to be impacted by this is well over half our county so whatever we do on covid is now impacted and vice versa by what the school board does tonight let's all pay attention and gives us cause for continuously evaluating the effectiveness of what we ask our people to do here from within the policy realm of the county council mr chairman yes sir Just like I did not intentio

» nally, I just forgot that Mr. Carpenter was involved. His mask is so big, it's like a pillow on his face. Also, Russell Brown's got a big old pillow on his face. But listen, you did a great job. Your staff did a great job. And it affected a lot of lives in Kershaw County. Thank you so much. Other comments? All right, very good. I think we move on to the next item. And Mr. Carpenter and Danny and EMS, thank you for that hard work.

» gives us a clear picture of where we are in the county we move now very appropriately to a resolution encouraging individuals to wear face mask coverings in certain circumstances and matters related there too i'm going to read this it's at tab c it's also on the screen and it's on page eight and nine on your tablet and i'll read portions of it in part and then i'll conclude with the last three paragraphs in full whereas on 13 march the governor issued an executive order extended and now in effect uh for the novel novel coronavirus and declared a state of emergency and whereas on 30 june kershaw county extended and declared a public state of emergency and whereas the number of coveted cases continues to grow in the state and as reported by dhek and causes them to warn of the risk of localize

» d person-to-person spread creating an extreme public health risk and whereas the number of cases is growing rapidly and if it continues to spread in this county the number of persons relying on medical pharmaceutical and general cleaning supplies will increase the private and public sector workforce will be negatively impacted by absenteeism and and the demand for medical facilities may exceed locally available resources. And whereas as of 8 July, there were 48,909 confirmed cases in the state with Kershaw County having 807 and 17 confirmed and unconfirmed deaths, a matter of discussion, but as high as 17. Whereas the County Council finds it vitally important that individuals work together to decrease the widespread proliferation of COVID-19 among the citizens.

» Whereas the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and DHEC advise and encourage the use of face coverings to slow the spread. And whereas Kershaw County School District will impose additional hygiene and sanitation measures in accordance with the Department of Health environmental control in the south carolina department of education requirements for the operation of schools buses and the regulation of student activities and whereas taking measures to control outbreaks minimize the risk to the public maintains the health and safety of the county residents and limits the spread of infection in our communities and within the health care delivery system and now reading in full whereas in order to protect preserve and promote the general health safety and welfare and the peace and order of

» the community the county is taking steps to try to prevent the citizens and employees from increased risk of exposure and whereas in light of the foregoing county council deems it proper and necessary to adopt this resolution in order to encourage a patrons of grocery stores and pharmacies to wear face coverings while inside the store in light of these the fact that these establishments sell essential goods and services such that individuals do not have a meaningful choice to decide not to shop there be all employees and patrons of county-owned facilities where social distancing is not possible to wear face coverings and see the citizens of kershaw county to follow the cdc and prevention and governor's guidance for face masks and social distancing now therefore be it resolved by the county

» council of the county of kershaw south carolina in a meeting duly assembled that due to the real and present concern for the spread of the virus and with full faith in the goodwill and public spirit of all kershaw county citizens that the council supports the guidance of the cdc and prevention and stands with the governor and public health officials to encourage face coverings for widespread use throughout kershaw county in keeping with state guidelines and particularly as follows large gatherings where social distancing cannot be maintained especially in places of periodic necessity such as medical pharmaceutical and food businesses by employees and help staff and retail and restaurant enterprises and by county patrons and employees where social distancing is not excuse me not possible mor

» eover the wearing of face mask is further encouraged universally in all and in all places in all times where common sense and good manners indicate preventative measures will reduce the risk of oneself are to fellow citizens this resolution shall become effectively and so on with that can we have a motion to approve the move uh mr gardner a second second second from mr uh tucker i think mr snodgrass thank you david and so with that we move to discussion uh beginning with uh mr gardner who has honors on this please sir well this is a standpoint of wearing a face mask obviously is a personal decision for people i think statistics as far as i'm concerned say that it helps.

» And I think you can see that the statistics from when we open things back up and the numbers start to rise the way they do. And people argue that there's more tests and more positives. And certainly that is one of the reasons. But I think the reason, big reason is that when we open things back up and people were ignoring the mask, I think you see what the results are. And we see that we've gone from a 14 day total of 27 up to 228 or something like that. So, you know, it's increased 100 times or 200 times what it was to me wearing one. Of course, you know, I've talked to a lot of people who come in my shop and before the ordinance with a mask, without a mask. And a lot of people say, you know, I'm not going to wear one. It doesn't do any good.

» And of course, with an immune efficient system like I have, you know, I just tell them that, you know, it's it's a matter of whether you you want to protect your family. because if you go out and get it and you take it back to your children your family your mother your grandmother do you want to be the one to take it back and i just think a mask uh really will prevent some of that i don't think it's i don't think it's wholeheartedly 100 that you won't get it but i think it certainly eliminates uh some of the percentage of getting it so i am very much in favor of this ordinance or in this resolution uh would be in favor of an ordinance if we get that far uh but i think that people should use some common sense and uh i think they should adhere uh to wearing a mask again that's personal opinio

» n which everybody has but that's mine thank you uh mrs nigeras mr chairman uh members of council um you know as i think about this i regret that we find ourselves as a country we find ourselves in a place where we're we're struggling to find common ground to to be able to rise above the current pandemic and so before us tonight is THE RESOLUTION THAT IDENTIFIES WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT COVID-19 AND THEN IT ALSO AGREES WITH OUR STATE HEALTH OFFICIALS THAT WEARING OF A MASK IS A WISE PERSONAL CHOICE PREVENTING THE SPREAD OF THE DISEASE. BUT ALSO AT THE HEART OF THE MATTER IS THE MATTER OF PERSONAL LIBERTY AND FREEDOM. YOU KNOW AT THE CORE OF THIS GREAT EXPERIMENT, THIS GREAT EXPERIMENTAL REPUBLIC THAT WE CALL THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AT THE CORE OF IT IS LIBERTY.

» IN FACT, ONE OF THE FIRST FLAGS of our great state bore that name, liberty. Many have sacrificed so much for our liberty and we shouldn't take it lightly. So here we are at the intersection of liberty and safety. And the truth is that these words don't always share the same coin. We have some in our country who are asking that for the safety and well-being of us all to please pass an ordinance. We have some who are asking for the sake of liberty to allow them to make their own choices in regards to keeping me and my family or them and their families safe. We know that a full ordinance may not be enforceable on a practical level. While other counties have passed such an ordinance, we know that municipalities are in a much better position to enact or to enact enforcement than a county is.

» And so for this reason, I couldn't support an ordinance, but I can support a resolution. A resolution that signals to our citizens that we do indeed have an issue, but that we can control it, and that we agree with our state officials that our best tool right now is to wear a mask or a face covering when going out in public. I urge my family, my fellow council members to join me in passing this resolution that encourages our citizens to use their individual liberty to wear a mask when going out in public, and also when social distancing isn't possible.

» And I recognize, I recognize there are questions concerning a face mask or face covering, being able to stop a a microscopic viral particles but we know that the virus the virus has to live within droplets and then transmit from one airway into another airway and and if this is the case then science is is clear that a type of a type of face covering then greatly reduces the droplets that leaves a person's mouth or airway and so when i encourage folks to wear a mask do i believe the sky is falling no the sky is not falling we will get through this and uh and i believe that despite our recent spike in new cases we're seeing some glimmers of hope mr carpenter shared with us some stats but there's also stats that we know that 88 of our cases in our state did not require hospitalization i i thin

» k that's that's worth sharing we know that the current recovery rate in our state is 92 so and i'll be honest i'll admit i was i was late to the game in the mass thing but as i begin to as i begin to look at it i begin to realize choosing to wear a mask isn't ABOUT THE SKY FALLING BUT IT IS ABOUT MY FELLOW MAN AND SO I'M MERGING US AS TO USE OUR INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY FOR SOMEONE ELSE AND THANK YOU MR. CHAIR THANK YOU SIR MR.

» BOZAR I SAW YOU HAD YOUR HAND UP SIR YES THANK YOU VERY MUCH I RECEIVED A CALL YESTERDAY AFTERNOON FROM A MAN WORKING IN COLUMBIA LIVED IN MY DISTRICT HE HAD GOTTEN AWARD THAT WE WERE PASSING AN ORDINANCE LIKE CAMDEN DID AND I ASSURED HIM THAT WAS NOT THE CASE WE ARE NOT PASSING AN ORDINANCE TO WEAR A FACE MASK THIS IS THE ONLY a recommendation by his board and i assured him again that if it came about to an artist i would not support it and that's where i stand but i do will support this tonight will not go any further than this thank you thanks sir uh other comments uh mr jones mr connell mr tucker uh all right go ahead now flip a coin let's go i don't mind going go ahead mr tucker i recognize you thank you mr chairman ah very um good points made up here this evening um i'm definitely in

» favor of this mass uh resolution tonight and let me take it a little step further the numbers remain the same or continue to go up i will be in favor for an ordinance let me just give you some parallels to what's going on in this world today compared to in our history, and it just makes common sense. In World War I, we lost less than 135,000. When I woke up this morning, that was the number for the United States. No one's saying anything about that. Boeing lost less than 400 people, and it grounded them for 18 months before they got it right, before they can put those planes back in the air. We're not telling you that you can't have your liberties and freedoms.

» what we're telling you let's live let's survive let's not infect the ones that may not be able to overcome this virus i have two 80 year old parents i deal with a lot of old people i deal with a lot of people with underlying conditions i work every day with young people they can carry the virus prime example keisha lane bottoms that's the mayor of atlanta for the ones that don't know her child brought it to her asymptomatic gave it to her husband she's asymptomatic i mean gave it it to her she's asymptomatic her husband had it and he is having a rough time right down trying to recover everybody can't be asymptomatic and everybody's not going to survive this so let's at least have the human decency to take care of one another until we can get better measurements on controlling this virus non

» e of us put it here none of us want it here but i'm telling you people it is killing people that's not a secret thank you mr chairman thank you um Mr. Jones, as you may know, Mr. Connell, go ahead, Ben. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A few questions and a couple of comments. Is the anticipated expiration of, really, this is an opinion as a resolution, would it end with the end of the state of emergency issued by the county? I don't really know who I'm asking. Usually we'd have a name on here that would say who put it on the agenda. I'm just kind of wondering what the intent is. I think it reads, all orders, resolutions, and parts, therefore, to the extent of the conflict, hereby repealed. Effective immediately, it doesn't have an end date.

» I'm just wondering, is it intended that it be concurrent? What do you think? Are we going to need an end date? It's a resolution. Mr. Chairman, you could put an end date on it, but all the findings relate to the CDC's requirements and the DHEC's requirements. So my opinion would be when DHEC no longer recommends social distancing when um the cdc communicable disease center no longer recommends social distancing then of course in the those are the findings that it's based on so when they no longer recommend it then it would not be effective and the governor and the governor that's right yeah we're not those three entities no longer recommend uh face coverings and social distancing which kind of go hand in hand it would no longer be effective because it anticipated that our state of emergency

» would run concurrent with those uh three time periods as well no this does not tie into to our state of emergency it ties into our state of emergency but it also ties into the dhec and cdc and the governor in all the whereases um whereas the center for the control convention and dhec advised and encouraged the use of face covering to slow the spread of covert 19 it goes on and expounds on that expands on that so the findings are based on the advisories of cdc dhek and the governor it also references our state of emergency as part of it but i think it would not be effective when those matters are not effective anymore because that's what it's predicated on that's the foundation for it okay thank you um overall i can support the resolution a few other items I'd just like to mention.

» One is data points but also really we obviously are not experts on anything related to mask efficiency or dropletized or aerosolized virus transmission. Google has been a friend to us all I think in trying to figure out what's going on and also your friends who are physicians as well to make heads or tails of you know usually I try to I try to vote based on data points and there's not much data out there or if you look real hard you can find studies that go either way. With that said, for dropletized transmission of a virus, it seems that masks are useful, and that makes some sense. If you sneeze or cough and it's going to be out there, it'll stop those droplets, at least the larger ones.

» For aerosolized, the mask that I have on my face ain't very effective at all, honestly, at least from what I've looked at, because of the transmission of air out the sides and out the top, and also if it gets wet in a muggy, hot south carolina 115 humidity environment it doesn't really serve as persons that well then you got n95 masks and then you got respirators i guess the point is not all masks are created equal but on some level it seems like they can be effective for dropletized virus transmission a couple of us up here have mentioned freedom and liberty and overall i think this resolution is trying to say we all are free be smart and protect yourselves if you feel like you're at risk make sure you're protected or if you're around someone that might be at risk try to protect them if at

» all possible um speaking to that the the data does seem to support the idea that there are at-risk groups i think there's only four or five in this room that might not satisfy the age requirement and would be less at risk because of age and then pre-existing medical conditions including heart disease kidney disease lung issues and others put you at higher risk and those are are the folks that need, I think, all protective measures. You know, I'm wearing a mask tonight because I care about my good friend, Tom Gardner, who has gone through some treatments that compromises immune system. It's just consideration. And then also, I reflected on it and thinking in the gospel, if your brother asks you to go a mile with him, you go with him twain.

» If he asks for his shirt, you give him your cloak off your back as well. And that just came to my mind also. I mentioned Anita Gardner in the prayer that I had the opportunity to give. She's one of my cousins that just died. She had a lot of issues going on in her life health-wise, but COVID-19 was one of them. And she just passed away, and they had to take her off the respirator. So this is quite real. It does impact a lot of people. It won't impact necessarily a lot of us, but it'll probably touch somebody that we love or care about. And for those reasons, I could support the resolution. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good work, sir. He has a question for Ben. Yeah, go ahead, Ms. Snodgrass. I just had a question or comment for Mr. Connell.

» And, of course, I do not at all, I'm not coming off argumentative as well because we're great colleagues and that's just not what I'm about. But I agree with you that we're not, none of us are virologists. We're not epidemiologists on this table, this council up here. And so I agree with you on that. we would do need to, you know, look at some of the data points and look at some of the exports. So that for me, I take comfort in knowing that someone like Dr. Linda Bell, our epidemiologist has, has, um, has recommended this and, uh, and, and some other things as well.

» But, you know, uh, I guess I'm, I guess I'm just dialoguing that I agree with you that we're, we don't need to just rely on our own opinions or, you know, what our cousins shared on Facebook about it, you know, but, uh, but I think we can take comfort in knowing that our state epidemiologist has has recommended this as well so yeah i would just and continue the dialogue in a non-argumentative way i was just going to respond i guess that even the experts in many ways don't have a clue you know i deal with expert witnesses a lot and whenever i'm working with a someone in a pharmaceutical drug case or a medical malpractice case or a nursing home case or anything like that a lot of the studies have to continue over a period of you know three to five years before they get peer reviewed and they

» have a large enough pool of participants to determine what the statistics say you can actually rely on of course covet has only been in our face since last november ish and moving forward so you know people are trying to run trials and studies and i can only come at it from the legal perspective but i don't know many expert witnesses right now that could get up and say with any level of confidence anything that could be admitted or used in court i know we're not in court today that's just the world i live in and kind of how i approach it so i think there's a lot more work that has to be done before people can really stand up with confidence as they have in the past based on data about what should or shouldn't be done i think many would agree it's a definite situation we're playing it by ear

» uh i mean an educated ear you know but definitely a lot of unknowns thank you okay uh mr jones thank you mr chairman and let me start by saying mr uh mr snodgrass thank you for calling me and talking to me about this this past week and and let me also begin in a non-argumentative way to say thank you to this county council for doing a resolution tonight and not doing an ordinance okay i had uh after speaking with mr snodgrass earlier you know i really been going through this i i pulled a copy of the city's ordinance because it's similar to what the resolution is and and it made me even more thankful that there's a resolution proposed and not an ordinance because i don't know how to where they're going to enforce this i was looking at where it had the rule it said the use of a face mask is r

» equired by every person within the boundaries the city is detailed below every person must wear a mask face covering at all times inside any building which is open to the public and then it said number two waiting to enter any building which is open to the public excuse me interacting with other persons enter outside public spaces including but not limited to curbside pickup delivery service calls engaging in business activities and public commercial industrial spaces utilizing public or commercial transportation services it kind of goes on and on that's uh that was just for the record that was the city ordinance that's not out no sir but i wanted to make a point here i don't want anybody out there right and now did i make you said that i thought i made that clear but thank you for clarifyi

» ng it then i go back on the back and i see c on a page four their ordinance says face coverings are not required when a person is traveling in a private vehicle alone in an enclosed space are able to maintain a minimum distance of six feet from other persons at all times three outdoors and able maintained to minimum distance of six feet from other persons at all times and for alone alone are only with other household members drinking and then drinking eating or smoking where smoking is permitted is an exception then another exception is inside a private residence including thereof complying with the request of law enforcement because i'm sure when law enforcement pulls somebody over they've got to ask and remove the message and see who they are and talk to them but anyway i i found it inter

» esting that their their rule was as broad as their exception in the ordinance and i think that makes it hard to enforce and i think too that the police it's a civil issue so the police aren't enforcing it code enforcement i guess is enforcing it but anyway that really just kind of grabbed my interest and you know when i was down at the beach it was it was amazing that they've got a mask ordinance i think four four counties out of 46 have am i correct have an ordinance there are more now but there's more now okay and i think about 50 cities am i correct on that mr carpenter i think somewhere around there they've added some more too yes sir okay but anyway i know this is done with good intention no question in my mind that each one of you believe in what you're doing and it's done with good i

» ntention that's why i'm going to have to do what i do in good intention i have i just talking about your liberty well i'm going to exercise my liberty night i i will wear a mask if it's the law i will wear a mask with mr tom garden who we don't agree on anything but bottom line is he he asked me to wear a mask for his safety and i'm wearing a mask he even stated i was very good looking with his mask on and you want me to clarify that you can oh you want to say i did say that he looked better with a mask but however you know we're in such a serious time mr members of county council i'm glad that we can all sit up here and find a little bit of humor out of such a tragedy that we're in right now and i and i appreciate that but as i said i know everybody's doing what they think is right here's

» where i'm at my liberty i sitting up here i just don't feel comfortable at all trying to advise a private citizen how to live their private life we have some smart people in kershaw canyon and they they're adults and they can make some decisions for themselves but because of that i just i just can't support this and uh but i am very thankful that y'all did not make this a rule of law you did make it a resolution and i think that that's showing this council is trying to work folks in this community but thank you so much other comments uh i'll close it out and move to a vote yeah mr garner go ahead i have a good friend who's vacationing in massachusetts massachusetts has a statewide ordinance on mask or face cover text me today and uh to wear that in public places grocery stores wherever you

» go fine for non-compliance is 300 which is pretty steep but that's massachusetts gate what they're doing but uh south carolina is also number three in the world in increased cases so i think that's something to think about okay very good i'll say uh another point mr snaggers if you don't mind just uh mr jones i i appreciate your comments and i appreciate your heart and all you know you're a man that always stands uh kind of where you believe i'm not kind of he absolutely stands where you believe and i appreciate that but i would ask just i just before we go to vote just if you would um if you would reconsider and and join us i would just i was asking that but again not argumentative i just thank you for your for your what you've said and and i i respect where you're coming from but i just f

» igured before we go to vote i would ask and i will consider reconsider as we're sitting here before the hands go up it's hard you know it's it's hard sometimes when you're up here by yourself and you're voting by yourself because you have a strong belief and then when your colleague also throws the gospel in there i feel like okay i'm going against the gospel as well but anyway i think we see it a couple of different ways but i thought ben made some very valid points there and And I really appreciate that. - You like prayer, right? - I absolutely do, sir. - Thank you, Mr. Jones, I appreciate you. I'm just telling you, I'm thinking. - Mr. Connell, one last point and then I'll close it out. - Just a holistic overall observation. Everything we do up here impacts people's private lives.

» I mean, that's one of them. The balance of poverty in government, I guess, is every time government does something a little bit more, the idea is, in some instances, you have a little bit less liberty. why this is just a resolution i think it's important to understand what we're voting on it's just a expression of opinion and even within the resolution we all express different ways of interpreting uh what it actually says but uh anyway as a basis for not voting on it you know i think everything that we do up here impacts people's private lives so thank you mr chair since we're in quoting the bible if a trumpet sounds and makes an uncertain sound that people will not follow.

» I want to make it clear that I am absolutely in support of the resolution and the fact that everyone out of a sense of courtesy and responsibility should do as the Bible calls for and common sense dictates is wear the mask whenever you can and to show your concern for your fellow man and your neighbor. I would also tell you it has a decisive effect in my business. As you know, I have businesses outside the county and inside the county. And 100% of the people I deal with in California, today in Alabama, in Washington, D.C., and in Detroit are requiring the use of the mask.

» And 100% of them are having trouble with people who don't exercise common sense and common decency, show up on the assembly line and shut down assembly lines for important stuff that's important for security of the United States for two weeks until they can figure out who did and did not get the virus and millions of dollars are lost.

» i'll tell you thirdly decisions are being made about this county and this state and this country on businesses coming here and i can i can attest because i know who they are because they're not sure we have a workforce that is disciplined and backed up by the community for the wearing of the mask and other precautions that might impact might impact for those of you that don't believe in the mask and i'll give you that i happen to believe in it and then a hundred percent of the military people that i deal with who are presently in thailand afghanistan korea and i'm being on the phone with them in the last two days for other reasons afghanistan people where they're shooting at you are wearing the mask so wear the mask i would ask everybody i do appreciate the difference of opinion but the bul

» k of people that i deal with worldwide wearing the mask and other considerations that impact uh what we're trying to do tonight i see mr jones you wanted to make one more comment i did mr chairman i don't think you meant it the way i took it but i'm going to challenge you on it anyway you said there please care about your fellow man and vote to wear the mask or wear the mask i care as much about my fellow man as anybody sitting on this county council i just may not agree WITH THE POSITION CERTAIN MEMBERS OF THIS COUNCIL TAKE SO IF THAT WAS THE INTENTION I I TAKE ISSUE WITH IT IF IT WASN'T YOU KNOW SO BE IT BUT THANK YOU JUST BECAUSE I MAY NOT VOTE THE WAY Y'ALL VOTE DOESN'T MEAN I DON'T CARE ABOUT PEOPLE I WOULDN'T HAVE THIS MASK ON RIGHT NOW IF I DIDN'T CARE ABOUT TOM GARDEN I WOULDN'T HAV

» E THIS MASK ON RIGHT NOW IF I DIDN'T CARE ABOUT THE RULE OF LAW I'M GOING TO FOLLOW THAT BUT I HAVE MY BELIEFS AND I TRULY WAS THROWING THINGS AROUND IN MY MIND TRYING TO to think how could i how could i not and and i will vote my conscience and i will vote my belief but i do care about people of kershaw county thank you mr jones uh with that i call for a vote all those in favor signify by raising your hand mrs snigrass mr tucker mr gardner mr burns mr bozard and mr connell those opposed and that would be mr jones and the resolution passes with that we move to the next item a series of ordinances the first item is on page 10 in your in your tablet item number one it's also at tab d at page 10 on your tablet with that mr carpenter can you open it up for uh for business mr chairman members co

» uncil you have tonight on first reading an ordinance to amend the code of official zoning map of kershaw county for approximately one acre of land from its current zoning of rd1 to rd2 this has previously been approved by the planning commission on a unanimous vote very good with that can we have a motion to approve so made uh mr bozard this is your district uh can we have a second second uh mr tucker uh with that uh just a little bit more information uh mr carpenter if you want to bring mike up that'd be fine but uh was it unanimous with the planning and so yes it was unanimous in the planning commission very good all right with that uh mr bozard yes mr woods came to me about two months back we had a long talk one sunday afternoon i told him to go see mr michael which he did and that's wha

» t this is about he's uh lives by himself his wife passed away a number of years back and he wants to tear the house down and move a mobile home in there a manufactured home in his neighbors has come in and sent a letter you got a letter in your file there from one neighbor that agrees with the rezoning, nobody disagrees with it. And I think this board needs to approve it. Thank you. Very good. Other comments? Mr. Tucker. Sir. I just want to say to the Wood and Hudson family that I'm sorry about all delays, but we don't control COVID-19 and appreciate your persistence and patience with the county working through this. And we'll work as fast as we can on council and hope that all comes out good for you. I will be supporting this tonight.

» other comments uh looks those are thank you very much i didn't realize that uh with that we move to a vote all those in favor on the first reading signify by raising your hand and mary is unanimous we move to the second ordinance item number two on page 27 in the tablet and it's also a tabby and on the board uh mr carpenter do your magic here please this chair members of council have before you tonight for first reading an amendment to um amend the kershaw county zoning and land development regulations the zldr that relate to solar power facilities large scale in nature currently our current zldr puts them in the same category as power generation facilities the current environment of this country is leading itself more and more to these kinds of facilities our code did not really support it

» so this is an amendment to our code to support these larger scale um solar facilities you see in the country it passed the planning commission unanimously and comes to council on first reading very good can we have a motion to approve uh second uh mr snoggrass kind of first mr tucker second do you want to lead off david or you know i prefer i would just echo what mr carpenter said i mean this is certainly where we're heading the technology for solar gets it gets better each year i mean 10 years ago it wasn't practical but this year it is i've got family members who have solar on their house and uh it's just it's just where we're heading and it may be it may be an opportunity for for kershaw county to i'd love to see is would i would love to see us lead the state in green energy and be in a

» place where uh where they want to come and be a part you know and obviously this this gives us some parameters in which they can operate in thank you uh mr tucker um i have no comments of it in a quick question no opposition opposing this, was it? No, sir. Thank you. Other, Mr. Band, please. Mr. Chairman, yes, thanks. Mr.

» Carpenter, just wondering what was the motivation for the amendment? Was there a individual or business that expressed an interest in this in Kershaw County, or unilaterally did staff just say, you know, we want to update this? No, I mean, we have been looked at as location for facilities, and as part of due diligence, they would look at our ordinances, and it's come to attention that our ordinances did not support or encourage such facilities to locate here so there is nothing currently that is predicated on this passing but upon passing this it'll make it more likely that something like that would be able to locate here thank you yeah uh yeah um yes sir this has already started in the county you're aware of that right there's already solar panels going up yes sir but this would be for a l

» arge you know many many acres of land not small ones but that's what i'm trying to get you to just tell me we're not gonna uh talk about residential when you got these four five six panels up right this is not cover residential our fairfield electric already has one up on highway five right but it would not be one that would have been covered by this ordinance okay where did we get the hundred foot set back from the sides and from the road i mean where'd that come from i'll defer that to mr connolly just on our due diligence um this is an ordinance that a lot of other jurisdictions in the state have used and um what mr carpenter was sort of referencing is um this is a when the companies are looking towards us this is actually a comfort for them for us to have these particular ordinances onl

» ine for them um the setbacks the distances um creating a buffer between properties surrounding properties not only for the properties that are abutting them but also for um the investment they're making on the property okay you're going down further i'm a little confused with it because in one place you're using 100 foot setback in another place you're using 20 years can't find it 20 foot then you want a 50 foot buffer i'm a little confused as well we got so many setbacks and stuff in here well they're different things so a setback is a distance you can build from a property line okay a buffer is you can put in that setback area but that is a defined um measurement for a buffer area for mostly landscaping did i not read no there was another you had a 20 foot in here also yeah it says 20 fee

» t is required for all other adjacent property lines including roads and right-of-ways what is that for that's an additional if it was outside of that so the 100 feet is required for all roads and right-of-ways and adjusting property lines the buffer is an additional outside of that 50 feet so the the 50 feet is a buffer it's not a setback so you got a setback in addition to that we got another 50 foot buffer so we got 150 foot no you can do the buffer inside of your setback okay your 50 foot's inside your hundred foot right buffer is like planting trees and that sort of thing yes sir yeah i'm well aware of what a buffer is i just want to make sure what we're saying in this just one second give me one second i'm trying to find one other here that i read in here i should have marked these and

» i didn't but i'm trying to make sure of that we're not handicapping somebody and have to come back in here and change this thing later suppose that i'd also suggest that we we can work with you in the next time before second reading as well yeah we have any questions or reading you have to go right we could bring that in all right i'll i'll look down and get it let me just say address one point before mr jones goes now there is a procedure for variances as well as a part of the application process is that correct if the variance would come into the planning and zoning or would it come into us or be approved no sir um i mean they can if they don't agree with the ordinance that we have at hand they can apply for a variance which would would go to the border zone and appeals to leave them from

» the standards in which we replace in our ordinance yeah and the second point is this one is a widespread uh ordinance from other counties in the state and it's already been kind of uh murder boarded by the electric companies in other counties so uh yeah again this is just really going back to uh mr carpenter's point this is really just to the large scale several hundred acre solar farms that are coming fairly popular around the united states um it doesn't at all address residentials those are still handed as accessory uses um mr bozard you mentioned the fairfield electric all those can still go into their their um substation areas that they're there's they're required federally mandated to put um green energy and so some of the some of the other um power companies are also putting in um sol

» ar panels as well and that doesn't address that as well they can still put those in their substations that they're allowed to do um this is just different just for those large um several hundred acre solar farms that are coming mr chairman uh right i think mr jones yes okay ben go ahead okay i was just going to say an analogy popped to mind that might be useful um land jam was that concert that was considering coming and occurring at the river park but in kershaw county we didn't have an application process or anything that was providing the code that would allow for event that large we just didn't even have an application that someone could submit so i hope our legal counsel and staff are still working on how we can accommodate that right large apartments that want to be encouraged that's

» why they had to look at another location primarily at the carolina cup um which is scheduled for we'll see how that goes next month but uh i think this is analogous in that there are some large opportunities in the world which kershaw county can't accommodate based on the laws that we have on the books and this seems like a uh an adjustment that allows us to accommodate large solar if it shows interest it wants to be in kershaw county is that right mr conley yes sir i mean most i mean we've spoken to um probably five to six over the past three or four years of um prospects that are coming into the county um this is really a comfort level for them this is nothing above and beyond anything that they don't encounter anywhere else and again if you're putting that much of an investment in there

» you want to make sure your investment is protected and this is this is part of that thank you okay ben uh jimmy thank you so much by the way councilman bozar i thought you had some good thoughts here i just may not have come out the way you wanted to but i thought you had some good concerns let me ask you a question we're doing this so we can accommodate a solar business coming to kershaw county a large-scale solar farm yes sir yeah we couldn't do that now without this regulation again yeah we could we would just put under solar generation um so what we have in our ordinances and it's in here you can put solar generation just in a number of our zoning districts uh the solar large cell solar ordinances is mostly pushed to the rural areas because of those are a large scale large parcels um an

» d an industrial area but most of those won't are not large enough to accommodate some of these large-scale um solar farms that are coming in so if we didn't pass the or if this amendment or this change did not go through we still could get a solar company here sure okay thank you very good uh with that i'm ready to go to the vote um all those in favor signify on the the first reading by raising your hand i see mr connell mr burns mr gardner mr tucker mr snodgrass those opposed uh mr two mr jones and mr bozard the motion passes and moves to a second reading uh with that we move to the next item on the agenda uh if you can help us out here mary make sure we're ready it's up on the board uh it's an item we tabled last time new business item number one item F on page 39.

» And with that, it's for the nomination of Mr. Gunter. If you recall, it was a discussion of three versus six. I'd like that to be discussed after we get it motioned onto the table. Give honors to Mr. Snodgrass to lead, please, 'cause you led last time. - Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would make a motion that we nominate Eric Gunter to sit on the Health Services District Board. - Okay, a second? - Second. - Okay, and between Mary and Ken, I ask you to explain the three versus six, and then we can move to a final discussion. Is it six or three? - It's six years, and I apologize to the clerk. There was a 1984 ordinance that was before my time as county attorney, and although I'm pretty sure I voted for it, but-- - It was before my time, too. - Yeah, but, no, it wasn't before my time.

» I was on county council in 1984, so I voted on that. I was five years in about on county council in 1984 but um believe it or not but um it the ordinance was void null and void and um later when we codified we did not include that but that was the point of confusion an old null and void ordinance that Ken DuBose did not draft but he probably voted for but um yeah out of ignorance but um so it's a six-year term by state statute And Mary, can I ask you to make sure the minutes reflect that Mr. Ken DuBose was wrong and apologized in the same sentence. Further discussion, gentlemen, Mr. Snodgrass, you opened anything to say there? Just what I said two weeks ago, Eric's a fine candidate and raise a family here in the community and has a lot of interest to do a lot of good. Okay.

» Other discussion? Looks pretty straightforward. gentlemen thank you very much for your patience with that let's move to a vote all those in favor signify by raising your hand and it's unanimous and mary is fabulous and we all agree on that item number two new business is a government center generator it's on page 42 in the tablet on tab g and it's also on the screen i leave vic carpenter to lead us through this mr chairman members council um the last several um weather events that we've had that have affected us with power we've come to the realization that the generator that serves the government center is a small one it only provides enough power to run a few of the rooms that are in this building so when power is out the generator kicks in and most of the building goes dark air condition

» er goes off we're able to provide limited power to to those that critically needed it but the building itself was not capable of running. As we've gotten into COVID, we've realized that some of our departments that we didn't consider critical really are. For example, finance. When we're shut down for a couple days, that means that we're not processing bills. We're not paying our bills. We're not paying our employees. That's a critical function, as we found out, as businesses look to this county to pay the bills we owe them. So finance became very critical.

» The ability for people to get in and still do their jobs and do do what they required required the services of this building so we were able to um to source a generator fema has committed to paying a grant for three quarters of the cost of it so you have before you tonight for your consideration awarding a bid to emergency man from the emergency management department for caterpillar c18 generator set for the amount of the bid the total amount would be um 231 227 of that 75 of that would be reimbursed by fema uh so the uh net cost of the county would be fifty seven thousand eight hundred and six dollars and seventy five cents that deal all right with that can we have a motion to approve make that motion mr chairman mr tucker a second second second for mr gardner uh discussion quickly mr jone

» s go right ahead mr carpenter you get some clarification and one thing we've used the uh national services quite a bit here lately i think they do us a lot better than locally statewide right yes sir well i commend you for that because i think that saves us dollars as well uh isn't it amazing that on this generator bid how much it will cost to install it with the platforms everything yes sir yes sir okay well mr uh uh uh uh mr connell go ahead just wondering is it propane or natural gas i believe it's natural gas so thank you okay uh mr tucker no i was just going to make a comment about um i know it seems expensive to install but blanchard machinist got a reputation that it's hard to beat not just in south carolina but in the southeast um they stand behind their work on calipo okay other di

» scussion yeah your point uh mr tucker i took a um diesel generator out of a submarine what you doing on a submarine and installed it took it out of the submarine and installed it in my headquarters and boy i'll tell you uh it it paid for itself in a number of crises um can i ask you uh it has a lag time before it kicks in and then it has a battery source at some point that'll gives you a few seconds of uninterrupted power is that how it's you have power sources at the computers themselves so they they provide you that uninterrupted bridge while the generator kicks in the generator kick in is very brief excellent perfect that's what i wanted to know sir mr bozer service on it sorry who's going to do the service on it blanchard take in blanchard blanchard blanchard they're going to come do al

» l changes and all that yes sir who's going to start it up and run it every seven days well county staff does that we already do that to all of our our generators and blanchard provides maintenance already for them i'm sorry okay okay it doesn't have it doesn't have a weekly service on it when they got to come by and check the oil and everything in it there's a uh service contract we had the same thing over at the sheriff's office they come by they do preventive maintenance okay that's why i just wanted to make sure we got that set up another thing right yes okay thank you thank you other comments it looks like we're ready to vote all those in favor signify by raising your hand and it's unanimous and we move into council briefings mr connell we do the honors please yes mr chairman i just wan

» ted to express appreciation for the staff and the maintenance department and also the administrative staff i've had several folks in the county reach out recently about their roads the county maintained roads and being unable to use them you have two-lane roads that are reduced down to maybe a one-lane road because of washout on each side and uh the county staff and maintenance department have just next day sometimes same day get out and get it done and people have been satisfied overall or it's in the process right now getting some of their issues fixed on county maintained roads so i'm very thankful for that and uh so are the citizens of kershaw county thank you mr chairman uh mr charles thank you mr chairman i'd like to say uh dealing with county roads danny thank you because i'll tell y

» ou what it seems like when it rains you and i both want to go hide because the calls start coming in but i call you on a regular basis daily every week about roads and i appreciate all you do and i know sometimes i feel like you're just stretched from here to there but you do a great job with it i appreciate especially communicating with the folks um just for information i've got in your packet for future council uh the appointment that i'm going to make and i'd like it on the agenda for the next kind of councilman i think that's the august the 11th yeah august the 11th yeah for the uh clean community commission i'm going to be uh i've asked jill wolf good it's only taken me three years to get her to accept that but she's willing to do it now she'll be a tremendous contribution to that so i

» plan to do that at the next meeting right and and uh also i was thinking when i came in here talking about it earlier looking at the way the council is set up you know we're here sometimes for two hours three hours or whatever and we're all wanting to follow the law and i am going to follow the law regardless of what anybody thinks of the law even myself which i don't like it at all however i'm going to follow it but i was thinking in here since we're in here and we're having to keep these masks on wouldn't it be mr carpet if you would unless there's objections from this council look at maybe moving danny and mary down and we could spread out maybe we could sit down take our mask off do our meeting then stand up for the mask back on and go about our business it may not work but could you ju

» st pull a measuring tape out and see yes sir all right mr chairman that concludes my remarks are you done jimmy i'm done yeah good mr snodgrass thank you george just very briefly want to echo what uh ben and jimmy have said about uh excellent work with staff on public uh public work standpoint i know there's a i'm gonna call the address out but i know there's an issue that jimmy and you and i both have received calls on that um i know danny and and staff worked really hard on on engineering a a solution and what we thought was kind of a no-win situation and we've had several several rains hard rains since since that and we haven't i haven't heard I JUST WANT TO GIVE -- ECHO BEN AND JIMMY, GIVE YOU GUYS A SHOUT OUT AND ALL THE PUPPET WORKS GUYS. THANKS, GUYS.

» THAT INCLUDES MY REPORTS AND MY REMARKS. THANK YOU, SIR. MR. TUCKER, SIR. THANK YOU, MR. CHAIRMAN. I JUST WANT TO SAY TO ALL OF YOU UP HERE, THANK YOU FOR THE RESOLUTION ON THE FACE COVERINGS, MASKS, WHATEVER YOU WANT TO CALL THEM. YOU TOO, MR. JONES. I RESPECT WHERE YOU'RE STANDING. issue where you voted but i do want to make a point that um we need to wear them because people are looking at us as leaders and with that being said you never know who's looking at you so um not only doing it because it's it's it's the law but also do it because you are a leader of this community and of this county and that you know you have eyes on you when you think you don't have eyes on you that concludes my report thank you thank you sir mr gardner simply wear your mask thank you done very good uh the nex

» t meeting is on the 11th of august hold up oh i'm sorry i always do it wrong mr bozard i got a short time and i realized it but you ain't doing it the ctc the uh county transportation commission had a meeting last tuesday and they proved the engineering for the road at the fire department up on the lake which means that they'll go through to engineering see what it's going to cost and hopefully next month they will vote to go ahead and pave that road so i'm trying to get that done before i get off council so that young man replacing me won't have to fight this battle and i hope between me and mr carpenter and some others we're gonna get it done uh mr carpenter can you give us an update on the splash pad and we started on it yet we've started uh grade work and everything on that way yes sir

» yes sir we work has begun the city's managing that contract so so the county's not overseeing the day-to-day part of it but i know that we've work has begun that they they put the pipes in the plumbing in but they've still got uh work to do with bringing in more more dirt or fill or something like that before they start laying out the pavement okay thank you mr jones the one that came off that commission clean commission was out of my area and i had a man a person lined up to come on that i know that one that lady that you asked to come on there is in my area but uh i can clear that up for you to show you how wrong you are if you will let me but uh that's no problem i will talk with the lady i had coming on and we'll we'll go ahead and say jill's i was already wanting to do it uh let me ask

» uh did uh that miss jackson call you yet he hasn't called you okay i'll talk with her then and we'll go with gill on that thank you thank you very much anything further mr bozarth i'm finished thank you i apologize again okay next meeting is the 11th of august mr chairman mr bozard with all due respect you were incorrect in what you said but it was sort that out okay thank you thank you so much yeah thank you jimmy thank you mr bozard uh 11th of august next meeting let's all watch to see how the school district behaves tonight and line up to support them in how they're going to go about putting our kids back in school. This in-person, in-school idea versus virtual is going to be an important part of their debate, and we will watch that with great interest. I thank you, Mr.

» Brazel, for coming again tonight. I appreciate it. And Amy, I always appreciate you being here. Thank you very much. Just as a signal of the time, football has already started. football practices started at all three high schools, and they're doing it with social distancing and appropriate masks and so on. You can be very proud of your coaching staff of how they're conducting themselves and their training, breaking down into small groups instead of big groups. All three high schools, I've visited them. I would like you all to take a time to go and thank your coaches for doing what they're doing.

» Those young men could be out on the watery lake doing something on the streets of this county and they are devoting themselves to producing winning football teams that kind of spirit we ought to reward with that mr carpenter mr chairman mr members counselors a few items for you today you may have recalled that dhek had a covet 19 testing site in camden today they located at the health department it was open to the public from 9 a.m to 1 o'clock p.m 128 people went through and had their tests done camden city pd was very helpful in in controlling traffic as you can imagine there's a lot of people coming through in a relatively short period of time would not surprise me if our numbers show an increase in about three to five days also update on the census that's one of the things we can't affo

» rd to lose track of in the midst of everything we're dealing with and the critical impact it will have on this county for the next 10 years currently kershaw county is a 62.5 percent still not where we need to be but it's well ahead of the state average um and it's still ahead of the national average so our job continues but please keep pushing it to your uh constituents and people you come in contact with and then just one final little thing you know as we deal with everything um on a daily basis um if you're up early tomorrow morning and you look in the sky there's a comment comment NEOWISE. YOU CAN SEE IT WITH YOUR EYES AND IT DOESN'T REQUIRE A TELESCOPE TO SEE THIS COMET.

» IT'S AN AMAZING THING AND IT'S JUST A REMINDER OF GOD'S GLORY AND HOW HE HAS IMPACT ON US THAT'S BEYOND OUR ABILITY AND IT'S JUST A BEAUTIFUL THING TO SEE AND KNOW THAT THAT'S OUT THERE AND IT'LL BE 6500 YEARS BEFORE IT COMES BACK. THAT'S MY REPORT. THANK YOU MR. DEBOSE. CAN I ASK HIM A QUESTION PLEASE? YEAH SURE. FOX NEWS THIS MORNING SAID THAT OUR HEALTH DEPARTMENT IS ONLY TODAY FROM NINE TO ONE IS THAT EVERY DAY YES SIR IT WAS JUST FOR TODAY THAT WAS JUST TODAY YES SIR THANK YOU GOOD QUESTION UH MR DEVOTE I HAVE NOTHING MR CHAIRMAN VERY GOOD CAN WE HAVE A WE NOW HAVE NO EXECUTIVE SESSION CAN WE HAVE A MOTION TO ADJOURN MR TUCKER SECOND FROM MR CONNELL ANY DISCUSSION I JUST SAY THANK GOD WE DON'T LIVE IN ARIZONA UH OKAY TESTING WOULD BE NOT THAT EASY YEAH THAT'S RIGHT I SAY WITH THAT MOVE TO A VOTE ALL THOSE IN FAVOR SIGNIFY AND WE ARE UNANIMOUS And we are adjourned.