Full meeting transcript - October 12, 2021

» best sammy's not coming are you going to turn it up it's a great day in kershaw county thanks everybody for coming we've got a full house and it's a great day in this all-america county a beautiful fall day i thank you for giving up your time outside where it could have been even nicer than in here but the county is moving out with football season and all that sort of thing and 007 is playing at the local theater how about that huh and then this past weekend we had a lot to celebrate. We'll hear about a little bit about that from our administrator in due time to include an expansion of the DeKalb Monument with a statue to that great German soldier who came here and gave his life from a country where he was raised 6,000 miles away, and we all had an opportunity to celebrate that.

» Unfortunately, we've had some losses. We've lost the great Bob Vaughn from our library, and a year ago, through COVID, we lost Bill Cato, and of course, and then one of our councilman lost his son. And then we've had a few other losses from COVID. Can I ask you to join me in a moment of silence? And all God's people say amen. Thank you, everybody. The past two months, we were under COVID in this room. August and September, we had the six-foot spacing.

» And today, we're back in the normal situation with the hopeful news that we'll hear a little bit later about from Vic Carpenter as the COVID numbers start to decline and the number of deaths taper off but i wanted to review just a minute from what some of the misunderstandings of a of a month ago there are those who believe that the sign-up was not handled in accordance with our normal procedures the normal procedure is at three o'clock the sign-ups are placed right here and i'm saying this for those of you who have public comments today or in the future we're going to have a public hearing on the 9th of november when we next meet here on what's on your on the wall over here on your left which is the redistricting so the public sign up begins at three o'clock and precisely at 5 30 on the cl

» ock as we did today we closed the sign up and at that time last time we met we believe we had it all right and we closed the door it says we normally do and if you look behind you you see the doors are closed they're closed because of fire code and also noise control from the hallway it's always been that way secondly in the last time we missed very clearly and it was identified by at least one council member that we missed signups so we stopped proceedings after having already called the order for six and a half minutes we went quiet in this room while mr dubose went out in the hallway and all around and made sure we had it straight it was a confusing meeting meeting because we had three hearings and one public comment period and so people signed the wrong sheet and so on so forth we caugh

» t up and i thank Mr. DeBose, Mr. Jones, and others that helped us get that straight, and when we realized that we had a great number of people signed up, we kept the doors open for the first time since I've been here that I can remember, so that the people in the hallway could hear. There are those that would say we seek to suppress, but rather, I would emphatically say we seek public comment, and not just in this forum, by any other means, by cell phone, by person, by email, and whatever the case may be and every member of this council all seven of us take a great deal of pride and the fact that we respond and we do every time at least at least that's my report so with that we move forward and we're called to order can i give a report not now we are called to order uh mr tucker regrets his

» absence we'll hear more about that later i'm sure you those of you know will join me in prayer for him every night going forward, and he will not join us today. And with that, we move to the invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance. Would you all please stand for the invocation by Mr. Gardner? Thank you. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this day, many blessings and opportunities you afford us. We also come tonight with heavy hearts as we mourn the loss of Councilman Tucker's son, Travis.

» We ask that you would extend your comforting arms around the Tucker and McLeod family bless them in the days to come father as we do our county's business we ask for your wisdom permanent as we work to move our county forward we ask these in holy name amen amen pledge allegiance thank you very much indeed mr gardner and thank you for the comfort you've given sammy and his family in direct contact with them mr dubose we move to the first item in which is a public comments how many are signed up mr chairman and members of council 10 individuals have signed up for public comments and the maximum time is 30 minutes so if you take 30 and divide by 10 you get three minutes each very good we received an email right about five o'clock 5 30 uh from miss gwen and then she's certainly welcome to come

» here for the next meeting a hard copy of that email is in your uh packets gentlemen for you to read all right mr dubose lead us through this the first person that signed up is dustin cato mr cato please sir my name is dustin cato um chairman councilman thank you for having me here today i'm coming to uh bring up the proposal from lynch's river electric cooperative uh in our fiber project that we have going on um we we wanted to do a proposal of um a million dollars of the arpa money um what this million dollars would be are you representing lynch's uh i'm sorry it sounds like i am but i'm doing it on on personal all right thank you very much very helpful so the proposal by lynch's river electric cooperative um it would provide 150 miles of fiber in the northern part of kershaw county uh the

» the proposal that they proposed would be from 521 there in Westville and would cover their whole territory for Lynch's River from there east all the way back over to Testerfield County this is an area this and in desperate need of fiber and what this would do it would allow us to speed up the process to be able to get this construction underway and provide these individuals with fiber as um at that time um you know one of the things that we pride ourself on is being able to turn around you're speaking as a i'm sorry private citizen he said that point of order he has said that to you thank you mr twice now mr chairman and the word we is a plural word go ahead i'm sorry i overruled and we'll move ahead let the man talk go ahead please sir so lynch's river um what what they pride themselves on

» is being able to construct this project at a very high rate. That project would probably be finished in about a six-month period time. So that's one of the things that they pride themselves on. Relentless River hears a lot of, you know, there's going to be money coming down the pike. But in the majority of the funding that's already come down the pike, you know, very little amount has made it back to that community and also we have heard from state level that there was going to be more funding coming and sit this past September which it was not and now they're saying January and the last word that we heard was nothing's been passed at all on that so we do ask that you take under consideration we being your family go ahead please uh yeah we being my family ask that you take under considerati

» on the proposal by lynch's river electric cooperation thank you very much sir mr devose the second person that signed up is tim webb mr webb sir and thank you for this time to be able to speak you know i first attended a council meeting after retiring from the military and then retiring from teaching at camden high school you know i was just curious about the decision making process in my community I made the naive assumption that the council would welcome feedback from me, a concerned citizen. Since attending meetings and expressing my views, along with many other like-minded taxpayers, I have found an oppressive and hostile reception.

» It's completely inappropriate for access to the council to be restricted and removal to be threatened to be removed from this chamber simply for expressing our displeasure with decisions, many decisions that were made in secret, which is our constitutional right to do that. During the vote on Project Siegel, the vast majority of citizens who spoke publicly on the matter expressed grave concerns and displeasure about council's willingness to engage in commerce by choosing winners and losers. Instead of listening respectfully, we the citizens were prevented from entering the room and threatened several times during that time with removal. Project Seagull was discussed privately and information to the taxpaying public came out after the real decision had already been made.

» It involved no interactive discourse with interested taxpayers. Businesses struggling during COVID shutdown with numerous mandates imposed on them by this council now must compete against an outside private entity receiving a tremendous tax advantage not provided for our struggling small business owners. I have yet for any council member to explain to me why, except they don't want the B.C. Moore building left unoccupied. This council should safeguard and be stewards of taxpayer monies. Citizens attending these meetings have many responsibilities and attend out of concern and knowledge that providing unequal benefits is not the role of this council and exceptional overreach. You are elected to represent the citizens, not your own self-interest.

» Removing chairs, locking doors, reducing your meeting frequency, and not providing every citizen the right to express themselves is not unfettered access and participation in the process. This behavior should change. The lack of answering to and interacting with voters' comments, except by using the Chronicle as your mouthpiece, is just not appropriate. answer your constituents questions in person engage in the democratic process before we become another australia we'll see you in june thank you mr webb uh mr debose the third person signed up is k vincent miss vincent please ma'am my name again is k vincent i live in the you can bring that mic closer so we can they can hear thank you ma'am my name is k vincent i live in northern part of the county, mainly the Buffalo community.

» I'm here to speak on behalf of myself, my family, and several friends and neighbors. I'm speaking about RiverNet from Lynch's River. We need part of that money that has come to the county. It's my understanding that we are not in the northern part. Buffalo and Mount Pisgah will not be receiving any money for internet.

» we need that money i understand that you've already maybe decided it's going to go for sewage and water here in camden and lugoff we in the northern part already pay taxes for your sewage not ours not any it will never come to us but we're paying for your sewage so why cannot you give us a part of that money that is coming we have children and grandchildren that need the internet parents or grandparents have to go during the school year to sites where there is the internet sit in their cars even after dark when parents have to get off work so they can have that internet to get their lessons to study we don't ask for all of that money that came down we don't ask for half of it we ask for a part of it a slice of it if it was the other way around we in the northern part we wouldn't be thinking

» about well we don't care about your children we don't care we got the money what it looks like to us in that part of the county is the way a lot of democrats in washington just about me just about mine just about my little group well we represent we pay our taxes we come and shop we come and eat we come and be entertained we pay our taxes that bolster this Camden this city and Lugov and why aren't we allowed to have part of that money to come to us to our children we're not being selfish we're not being greedy we want it to be a democracy we want our fair share we pay our taxes we support y'all so why don't y'all support us and care about us up there I know a lot of you think down in this area that Buffalo and Mount Pisgah that we're on far side of the dark moon but we're not we are smart w

» e are intelligent our children are learning but because of y'all not willing to give us our share our children do not get the basics that are were needed now you might say well look at there you've got the new school now everything's going to be good no it's not we're proud of our north central area schools it's going to be a beautiful campus but we want our internet up there lynch's river is working hard to give it to us oh and it's my understanding that chesterfield county lancaster county gave lynch's river some money but it has to stay in those counties kershaw county this group said no it's my understanding that one of you i don't know which one came up and talked with our ceo of lynch's river had a meal with him and pretty much said oh yeah that's great what y'all doing is great that'

» s a good idea we gonna help you and then when it came down to say well where's our money oh no we decided not to give that to you ma'am could you please finish up take a moment to finish up we want our fair share make us up there think different from y'all that y'all care about the whole county thank you ma'am mr devose the next person signed up is Ben Tobin. Last name was Tobin. T-O-B-I-N. Mr. Tobin, please, sir. Bring the microphone up, Mr. Tobin. Thank you. Thank you. My concern is the dump site on Springdale Road. I'm on 97. There's two subdivisions. One is about complete and the second one is coming up. The pressure is too much for what's going on at the dump site.

» I suggest clearance of the dump SITE ON SUNDAY AND WEDNESDAY, MAXIMUM CLARANCE, SO WHEN PEOPLE COME IN, THEY HAVE ROOM FOR THEIR GARBAGE. WHEN WE GET IN THERE, JUST HORRENDOUS. IT'S UNFAIR TO THE WORKER. I MEAN, THIS GUY, HE MUST BE ABOUT 110 YEARS OLD, AND HE'S TRYING HIS BEST TO KEEP UP, AND IT'S NOT WORKING. SO I HOPE YOU ALL CONSIDER THAT EXTENDED SERVICE SUNDAY AND WEDNESDAY FOR MAXIMUM REMOVAL SO WE HAVE SOME CLARANCE. THANK YOU. Thank you, Mr. Tobin. Mr. DeVos. The next person that signed up is Phil Truesdale. Mr. Truesdale, please, sir. I'd like to take a minute to address an interesting experience I had after I chose to speak at the last council meeting. First, let me give you a little background.

» I run a booth for my wife's small business every Saturday at the Kershaw County Farmer's Market. This is her sixth year at the market as a vendor. In that six years, the individual I'll be speaking about tonight is at the market almost every Saturday. He's never stopped at our booth, never showed any interest in what she makes and sells, never spoken to either of us other than a passing hello. After I spoke at last month's council meeting, this individual made it a point to seek me out while I was tenting our booth under the guise of wanting to buy something. It became obvious almost immediately that was not his interest at all. Before I was able to finish speaking and finish the sale, he began asking what it was that I didn't like about the hotel deal.

» My statement at last month's meeting, I thought I made it clear what I didn't like about this proposal. I think most that were here that heard me speak understood exactly what my issues were. I told him that and also gave him my opinion on the government in general. At that point, the conversation or argument turned to the government's handle on COVID-19 and how it almost killed my wife's business, at which point he asked me if she had applied for any of the million dollars that he and the council gave away to small business in Kershaw County. It's hard to get it if you don't apply, he said. Well, it's also hard to apply for something you don't even know exists. Also, I think it's lost on many in government that it's not the council's money and it's not the government's money.

» It's our money. We're the ones that paid taxes into this. It's the taxpayers' money that counties collects and spends, oftentimes recklessly. After further investigation I learned since then that Jimmy Jones is the individual that proposed this and the gentleman I'm speaking of tonight didn't even support giving any money to small business until he saw that other members approved of this and felt he was outnumbered. I'm still gathering information concerning how this was implemented and may speak more concerning this at a later their time. For today, I'd like to focus on the poor decision that it was to approach someone while they're working in an attempt to create a conflict in a scene, a scene which everybody at the market around me that day saw and heard.

» Several commented after the fact and how inappropriate it was for this individual to show up and do what he did that morning. This was an obvious attempt either intimidate or to elicit a reaction intimidator or instigator either of which is uncouth and unacceptable for a member of this council especially the chairman thank you very much thank you sir mr devos the next person signed up is alan cobb it's good to be back again uh first off let me say i enjoyed listening to mr webb mr webb made a good point and the young lady talking about lynches or whatever i lived out in the country for a long time out in the casket community out on tippletown road 20 something years and it's almost like you're forgotten and they're in the buffalo community further up they need especially children children n

» eed all the help they can get i'd really like to see the camden chronicle published or the chronicle independent publish some of the statements that are made at these meetings maybe it would let the entire community know but that's not why i came here tonight i did want to tell everybody how much i enjoyed listening to them and i agree with every one of them what i came here for tonight was uh perhaps i had an altercation at a park with a dog and the young man had the dog on the leash and waited until the last minute to pull the dog away i liked the guy to eat up but the boy laughed at the last minute and pulled the dog back that didn't go well and a few days later i had to dodge while walking on the walking track i had to dodge dog waste maybe we need a law just for inhibiting dogs in the

» in the park or maybe not a law but something saying hey no more dogs because they're too risky can you imagine some of the lawsuits we would have if a child had been walking and that same young teenager hadn't grabbed that dog and pulled him back in time uh need to do something about this it's just crazy but once again i would like to see the chronicle independent covering these council meetings a little better a little more detail and i do think you need to listen to the people that are voting for you you heard this young lady i broke my heart to hear about little kids have to go to a place to uh use the internet come on fellas we can do better than that for our children children in kershaw county that's all i got thank you sir uh mr devose the next person that signed up is ruth white uh m

» iss white please good evening i know your job's not easy and i know you're not going to satisfy everybody maybe not even 50 of the time but i have to say i agree with the people that have spoke tonight and i'm here to tell you how i feel about the county council not listening to the county taxpayers you are not transparent in your decisions a prime example of that is the seagull project you had in two meetings nearly 30 times someone came up here asking you do not grant exemptions of self-sourced revenue credits to big business, but you didn't listen. The taxpayers did not want you to slide down that slippery slope into big business and into government. Six out of seven of you already made your mind up and did not listen to us.

» You were trusted with stewardship of our taxpayer dollars, not ownership, and you're just not listening. You also don't have my trust anymore. So I will once again be here as often as I possibly can to kind of keep maybe records so that I can help make some of the public know who's voting for what and how it's affecting our tax dollars. Another thing I want to know about is the road maintenance fee. I've paid it twice this year.

» I don't understand if the South Carolina state law says it's unconstitutional why have we not been refunded that money why are you waiting until you find a way to make it legal to charge us that and not give it back it should be removed from the tax notices and it should be refunded now and I have to agree with the lady about the the tax fee on sewer you don't even offer me that service but yet you charge me for it on every single item that you send to me for a tax notice it's not right I don't think I will ever vote for another person that says they are conservative and have a quote or behind their name so that they get in because I feel like that's what you've done you've kind of misinterpreted or rerouted that trust this isn't Washington thank you thank you miss white mr.

» DeVos the next person is tom webb the third mr webb sir just wanted to catch somebody up on the news a little bit you're not getting it on the evening news or in the local paper something dreadful going on in australia i was there when i was in vietnam for a couple of weeks got to look around a little bit and sort of waltz matilda i think that's what they say when you're just out wandering around you're waltzing matilda i did a little bit of that it's a beautiful country wonderful people but they're in a heap of trouble now and uh somebody's taking advantage of the uh the covid problem it's sort of like bad magic while you're watching what this hand is doing the other hand is the one that's really doing something so they're shutting things down and claiming that you know it's for medical pu

» rposes but it appears to be for other purposes just to deprive australians of their rights their citizenship uh they're taking some people away occasionally for speaking out, locking them up. I heard a story about a man who was tackled because he was out beyond the limit, three miles beyond his house with his daughter, and his daughter hadn't had the shot yet. So they tackled the guy, held him down while they gave the daughter the shot against her will. So it's going kind of crazy down there, and I wonder what's behind it. The World Economic Forum has said that their Agenda 2030 that they want to follow will put an end to private property. I guess worldwide by the year 2030. This is their agenda in connection with the United Nations.

» I don't know if they can do it, but a lot of things have happened that we didn't think could be done this quick and this time. Maybe they are actually trying to deny people a sense of self-ownership in Australia as sort of a test leading up to what they're going to do to us. We are the real fruit that they would like to pick. So I've written a little something that I'd like to read.

» it's called too late to be too nice australians are in trouble there and will share their great disdain for rules that seem like treason in a country gone insane their travel is restricted and they can't just buy and sell without that phony covid mask and the vaccine card to hell well you can place your bets china has a hand in it with secret bribes and threats for aussies lands a domino on the way to world dominion and aussies now are held in camps for airing an opinion. Liberty's lost and gone because they gave their guns away, and they seem to lose their spirit as we watch in sadness may. Australia's been our country's kin, a favorite cousin and a friend, now suffering way down under with what we'll see up here again.

» There's not a lot that we can do as we betray their trust, but try our best to save ourselves and fight this like we must. So don't be just a bleeding lamb for the Asian New World Order to silence all your hopes and prayers to save your son and daughter we're in a war of lies and stealth of saboteurs and spies and if we wait till it's too late our fate is done and freedom dies then who among your neighbors then is willing to resist and stand with you as patriots unless you just insist while Aussies pay the price it's time to spurn the bondage and learn from their advice to shake awake your countrymen no time to be too nice thank you mr. Webb mr.

» DuBose the next person signed up is robbie lackey mr lackey please sir yes thank you i'm robbie lackey i'm representing king street of camden llc just wanted to update last month we were requesting a rezoning on hermitage bond road from rd1 to r15 and there were two neighbors that spoke address council on mr pishu and mr canada and their one of their concerns was was people coming from the property over to to their side they're located east of us so i spoke to them and told them that we one of their suggestions was putting up a six foot wooden privacy fence so when i met with them told them we do that um we'll we'll certainly run the fence from uh the front of the property to the rear on that eastern property line and uh they they seem to like that and i told them our plan is certainly to b

» e a good neighbor and uh anything we can do to to make that happen we're certainly intending to do it but but that did uh kind of accommodate their concerns uh from the last meeting thank you mr lucky we if you wish to stay around we'll be voting on that and maybe questions will come your way. Mr. DeVos. The next person, the last person that signed up, next person and the last person signed up is Devin Lee. Mr. Lee, correct? Lee, L-E-E, yes. Okay, Mr. Lee. Very good. I'm here to speak upon, I'm a part of SC Takeover Basketball. We are non-profit. Move that microphone right in front of you there, young man. Thank you, sir. We're a non-profit 501c3 program here in the city.

» We're just reaching out because it's a big need for a new sports facility here um last year we had 11 kids we grew to 50 plus this year there's no way to take them for the after school studies or act or practice their sports we we use the uh teen boys and girls club but it's just not enough we have 50 plus kids it's just there's no way for them to go practice no way for them to go get tutoring and everything right now in the city that we can find so we just want to let y'all know that we're here and that is a concern going on right now with us growing but the children is just just not enough resources for them academically and athletically right now volleyball basketball we all suffering right now for it so we just wanted to put that out to the city thank you thank you mr lee and thank you

» for your dedication to our children uh mr debose yes that concludes the sign up list thank you very much everybody here through very quickly and appreciate your inputs i'll move now to the next item on the agenda which is the adoption of the agenda can we have such a motion please uh second after mr gardner second uh mr snodgrass second any discussion you guys got something uh sorry any discussion no but i will just tell you that uh miss delt pam delt can't come but uh she works of course with our clean community commission which has been so successful i see mr webb is here uh the idea would be that we'll put up the announcement that they have for the community cleanup on the 6th of November and and that will be the only item there so I hope you guys are okay with that so with that let's mo

» ve to a vote all those in favor of the agenda so signify and it's unanimous Mary and thank you for your help with uh and Danny too on the clean community commission all right with that we move to a series of proclamations and Mary I will lead off here and read them and as usual I'll read and then we'll ask for a first second in discussion vote and then of course we'll move right into a presentation if the people are here. The first is a proclamation in memory of the dear Robert Bob Vaughn. It's at page four in your enclosures and it's up on the screen and it was submitted by the library board who are present here today and I'm going to ask they be identified at the end here.

» Whereas Robert Vaughn relocated to Camden with his wife, Ponza, in the mid-2000s after retiring from an accomplished career as a CPA, Bob immediately became involved with his new community, mainly devoting his energy to support and improve the Kershaw County Library. He was a continual source of guidance in all matters related to financial management and investment, and his passing on the 6th of September was deeply felt by many in the community and the cause for to acknowledge his long service in the service of this county whereas in his role with the friends of the Kershaw County Library from 2010 to 12 and president in 2012 itself Bob oversaw private fundraising including individual donations and the annual book sales under his stewardship funding was allocated for additional children's

» programs and expansion of the collection and improvements to library spaces, and whereas Bob deepened his involvement by joining the Library Board of Trustees in 2013, he served as treasurer from August of 16 through the end of his tenure in 21. During this long tenure, he offered wise counsel through eight annual budget cycles, multiple grant projects, and the investment of private donations. Whereas with Bob's financial guidance, the library was able to expand programs and services while spending judiciously. His calm, unassuming demeanor did not encourage attention. Indeed, he never mentioned his diploma from Yale University nor his accomplished career as an accountant.

» The service he offered was supportive in the best of ways, expert, steady, and focused on the good of the institution and the county. therefore be it resolved in kershaw county council to recognize and acclaim a lifetime of selfless service by mr robert vaughn and extend to his family and attend and friends the gratitude of its citizens for exemplary and rich life in community service can we have a motion to approve so move mr chair mr snodgrass is second second mr gardner any discussion i just just want to make sure that we understand just the commitment that Mr. Vaughn gave to our community. And I know that the library board chairman and I, we even exchanged messages recently when Mr.

» Vaughn stepped down of, "Hey, how do we recognize him and his service?" And I regret that it has to come in this way, but we do have the opportunity to take time to recognize somebody who's been vital to our community. And just wanna thank the members of the library board and the friends, I know some members the Friends of the Library is here as well as our director. So thank y'all so much for being here as well as the family. And again, just an example of why Kershaw County is just a great place. And Mr. Vaughn was a part of that. Thank you. Thank you. Other comments? I'll have to say, Jimmy, do you have something? Anybody? We appreciate your service, Mr. Chairman. Yeah. We're very sorry for the family. Yeah. I would also like to say- Russell, please. Yeah.

» I would also like to say that I never meeting the gentleman, I would like to extend condolences to the family. It looks like he was certainly a wonderful person. I'll say as Bob, having watched him in action, he is indeed a calm demeanor, but he is steady and he goes the long distance. It was a marathon, not a sprint, and everything he did was better because he was there.

» And I have to say that Ponza and Bob together were a formidable team of hospitality and energy and ideas in this county anybody that knows that couple is together knows that ponza will continue to serve it's in her blood it's in her dna and ponza you have the regards of all of us and especially the burns family we're so honored by you being here tonight with that we'll move to a vote and i will ask amy to bring is johnny cornegay here as the chairman yeah johnny's just too tall um i'll ask johnny to come up and introduce the members of the library board and we'll have a photograph up here i move now to a vote all those in favor so signify and it's unanimous and that was no surprise i would ask uh johnny if you could uh bring all the library board up if you'll just have a moment here at the

» microphone and introduce them and then bring them forward if you can come up johnny Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Would you like me to say their name and have them come up as I say? If you wouldn't mind, if you've got them. Okay, all right. Thank you all again for doing this for us. All right, Lois Stuber, he is our new treasurer. Come on up here. Come up here, Lois. Yeah, thank you. Y'all aren't biting tonight, are y'all? No. Okay. We've got our secretary, Mr. Johnny Miller, in the back. I think that's Johnny.

» Anybody else back there? Anybody else back there that's a member of the board? Does anybody want to be a substitute member of the board? looking for volunteers we have bob here from the friends of the library we've got bob g who's the president of the friends bob g and bob v they were sometimes getting mixed up a little bit of course we have our esteemed director amy schofield can we get ponzo up there as well okay ponzo we saved the best for last okay i'd like to say that oh okay all right i'll try to i'd just like to say that we were blessed to have bob um on the library board he was a very humble man a very gentle and very kind and i think about bob think about what a citizen country should be somebody who is not all about themselves somebody who's about service bob would not want me to

» go on and on and on and on tonight about him because his life he spoke through his actions he didn't have to say thank you all for being here honza thank you for sharing bob with us throughout the years ponza ponza actually attended a couple of our board meetings virtually when we went to virtual meetings and she always had a couple words that she was whispering to bob so ponza is indirectly a member of our board as well and thank you all again chairman and council thank y'all thanks everybody and while they're retiring back to the rear um no we had programs like the bookmobile uh the on wheels uh the provision of a social program and a social counselor the provision of elgin library all of that is county-wide effort to reach every part of the county and i thank you especially to amy for th

» e taking our money and getting that book meal up bookmobile up to the top of the county thank you very much with that we move to the next item in proclamations and it's a second of two proclamations three proclamations let me get to it here on this gizmo i can make it work there you go the proclamation honoring reese across america it's at page five it's tab b it's on your screen above you i'll read it and we'll follow the original protocol whereas kershaw county honors and supports the armed forces and first responders are the very best of our national character and as reflective of the boundless patriotic spirit of selfless service to the nation to the state and to the wonderful people of kershaw county whereas kershaw county has been on the front lines of liberty from the earliest days i

» n the french and indian war of 1740 to the present and has given honor and support to our veterans those who serve those who will serve and those who have served and to their loved ones and whereas kershaw county prides itself as the great place for veterans and their families and has maintained parks and monuments and cemeteries throughout the county to manifest our respect and gratitude for our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen, and cared with meticulous devotion to their final resting places; and whereas Wreaths Across America annually remembers the fallen, honors those who serve, and teaches our children the value of freedom and its costs; and whereas Wreaths Across America will lay Remembrance Wreaths on the 18th of december at midday and noon in keeping with the

» aim that the sacrifices and the names of our veterans remain lively and present with us always and whereas some 800 veterans are buried in quaker cemetery alone in other places in our county the pride legacy of our fighting elan and our commitment to our native land from the earliest days even to the day in afghanistan and every conflict in between therefore be it resolved the kershaw county council commenced wreath across america and further resolve that the citizens of kershaw county the american legion the vfw businesses and schools and churches support this annual activity and their person and in their donations now with that i'll take a motion to approve so move mr chair this is not grass a second second uh mr gardner any discussion i believe we have president here today first sergeant

» keith johnson where you at keith thank you very much with that i think there's no discussion i will tell you gary thank you for coming uh i think you raised uh an ungodly amount of money last year and so on and we're hoping you're going to do it again all right i appreciate it and you uh with what organization gary you're with the wreaths across america as well thank you if both gentlemen will sit down we'll do a quick photograph but i appreciate your support but here we go with a vote all those in favor signify by raising your hands and it's unanimous and mary it's approved and so gentlemen if you would come forward now do a quick presentation thank you very much indeed first sergeant appreciate it we move to the next item on the agenda number three a proclamation for national fire prevent

» ion month which is this month to tab c and page six uh on your document and danny will have it up shortly there it is let me read that and follow follow the same protocol whereas kershaw county is committed to ensuring the safety and security of all those living in and visiting kershaw county and whereas fire is a serious public safety concern both locally and nationally and homes are the locations where people are at general risk from fire home fires kill more than 8 1650 people in the united states in 2020 according to the national fire protection association and fire departments in the united states responded to over 358 000 home fires and And whereas smoke alarms sense smoke well before humans can, alerting you to the danger in the event of fire in which you may have as little as two mi

» nutes to escape safely because of smoke and other dangers, working smoke alarms cut the risk of dying and reported home fires in half. Kershaw County residents should be sure everyone in the home understands the sounds of the smoke alarm and knows how to respond. Kershaw County residents who have planned and practiced home fire escape plans are more prepared and will, therefore, be more likely to survive a fire. Residents will make sure their smoke and CO2 alarms, carbon monoxide alarms meet the needs of all their family members, including those with sensory or physical disabilities, whereas Kershaw County first responders are dedicated to reducing the occurrence of home fires and home fire injuries.

» Through the prevention and protection education, Kershaw County residents who are responsive in public education measures are better able to take personal steps on their own to increase their safety from fire, especially in their homes. Whereas the 2021 Fire Prevention Month theme, Learn the Sound of Fire Safety, effectively serves to remind us it is important to learn the different sounds of smoke and carbon monoxide alarms there for kershaw county council does hereby proclaim on this month as fire prevention month throughout the county and urges all the members of kershaw county to learn the sounds of safety for fire prevention month 2021 and support the many public safety activities and efforts of kershaw county fire and emergency services so with that can we have a motion to approve his

» red so move mr chair thank you mr snodgrass second from mr brasil thank you sir a discussion i see we have our fire services here gary you got your team with you yeah we'll bring you up in a moment please mr snodgrass go ahead just want to say this is a reminder that a prosperous county has a robust public safety network that includes not only police and ems but includes our fire and is vital to our county moving forward i think i just saw you just yesterday uh we had a lot of crews up on old georgetown road uh they were in action yesterday in that part of the county and also saw that brand new website join kcfs.com uh tells you all about our fire service as well as how you can join uh while we have moved towards a career firefighting system the volunteers are still a vital a vital piece of

» what we do so join kcfs.com and join gary and his crew today you can make it happen thanks uh russell please um ben i'm sorry my fault sir oh well i gave the second um if mary if you'll collect that please i thought you'd said as well as russell neither here nor there um our support for fire service i hope is evident as we continue to grow throughout the county the data supports the expansions that we've had and otherwise we'd be looking at numbers without volunteers and some of these programs and enlisting people to get in we'd be looking at numbers that we just couldn't handle particularly in the growing parts of the county so thank you mr chairman thank you sir other comments uh i would just say that we have got a a vastly improved fire system now with a with a fire station soon to go in

» with full-time manning up and around Cassett for the northern part of the county, and along with that EMS up there should vastly improve our capability to respond up there. In addition to that, you can't get these improvements without having to resource them, and it's been a long, long time since the fire services have had this kind of attention.

» I thank members of council to my left and right for their leadership and thinking of innovative ways but at the same time i remind us all that we had made a resolution the last time we met in september to ask our state government to help us do what we cannot otherwise do for ourselves which is to change the laws at the state level so that we can meet our requirements to provide first class fire service and this is a good month to remember that we need help from our elected representatives at the state house can't do it here by ourselves so on with the progress made by mr carpenter and his leadership with a study done by the men and to my left and right and now we'll see uh continued improvement so with that we move to a vote all those in favor signify by raising your hand and it's unanimous

» gary parnell can you come up on behalf of our service and if you've got any of your team here have them up to please thank you very much gentlemen we move now to what as i had advertised as a public private presentation uh it doesn't require a vote or anything but uh we were going to be presented a presentation on what you see on the screen here from the clean community commission that this group founded along with the three municipalities representatives from all over the county and we picked up tons with thousands of bags back in our last time back in the spring cleanup and then uh some of you led some of that mr jones did one out of his way mr snodgrass did one i participated uh russell did one out in uh on the watery river and got an amazing amount of stuff out of there it seems like we

» as a county are speaking with one voice against litter and in favor of a cleaner county i would point out to you the date is 6 november and if you would kindly call those numbers i can't let's see if i can read them from here. I'll put it on the county website, and I know it'll be on Facebook. There you go. KCCCleanCommunity at gmail.com. If you email that, the committee, all volunteers, by the way, will gladly arrange for bags and material, right, Mr.

» Snodgrass? And they will also arrange for a sheriff's deputy to come out and provide safety for you if you decide to pick up along some of these dangerous roadsides and particularly those fast turns on highway 97 up on west watery some of us got some fairly narrow roads and i think if we all turn out again we'll have another very successful clean community with that any other comments and we can move off that topic thank you very much and thanks again to the clean community commission they do a great job with that we move to the next item on the agenda which is the uh approval of minutes dated 14 september it's at page seven in your electronic book tab d and mary thank you for compiling that and it's on the screen can we have a motion to approve so move mr gardner maybe mr connell will seco

» nd that too mr connell got second all right any discussion on the minutes uh seeing there is is none we'll move to a vote all those in favor so signify and it's approved mary thanks again you really do magic with this thing that was a long meeting too uh with that we go to the next item on the agenda which is administrative update on covid and we really want to hear some good news if you've got it mr carpenter please chairman members of council uh hopefully this will be the last time that i need to just update you the uh the covid numbers that had spiked through the summer has started coming down August by September they had started noticeably decreasing we're now down to about an average of about 20 new cases a day at one point we were getting closer 80 to 100 new cases a day that's right

» the unfortunately the deaths are still happening but we had about four deaths last week in the county which is still significantly above where we were 18 months ago on an average. But, uh, see sugar to the hospital, uh, occurs me that they are in a downward mode as well, that the pressure on the hospital is significantly less than it was. So the average number of cases is dropping significantly. The deaths are still too high. They are falling as well. The vaccination rate in the county is a little above the state average. Approximately 53% of our citizens are fully vaccinated, about 61% have at least one shot that's my report thank you comments and with that we are now back to normal seating in here and that makes things a lot easier for public comments mr.

» Jones please go ahead if I could mr. carpenter thank you for your report thank you for keeping us up to date but at our last meeting when we went to the six-foot distance which called I know all these council members off guard because they didn't know they didn't know that that had been done yet numbers were much lower at the last meeting they were during summer but we didn't six foot distance and my point about that is i know you didn't make the decision and to ask the people to leave the room but i'm going to tell you this i disagree with everything the chairman said in his report pertaining to that last meeting i think it was incorrect information he gave and i think he was doing that was responsible for doing that thank you and i appreciate your service mr carper well if if i may and i'

» ll never um disagree with the council member but uh i did uh it was my decision to um and i was under ordered staff to set up the way they did so i have to uh you know publicly state that it was my decision to do so i get it i'm not going to debate that with you publicly okay very good uh just to reiterate any other comments reiterate uh mary that i believe the sign up roster was put there at three o'clock was that correct right mr bowes is it clear that you were out of the room for six and a half minutes getting people to sign up mr chairman i did and as you pointed out some people signed up for the wrong one so we straightened it out too so that's just among the few things that that we would find disagreement between me and the other councilman uh and now we're back in here we can move fo

» rward mr chairman if i may yeah please one thing i will say uh if i hadn't got up and gone out there and spoke to the people they would have been ignored and uh as i said i appreciate the fact that when i came back in the doors world where they could hear and they were allowed to come in and sign up but that should have never happened when we had a night that we knew we would have a big crowd here we knew there was going to be a huge crowd that was going to resist some of the decisions made here and and i and i hold nobody in this council responsible but the chairman thank you thank you mr jones and no we did not know there would be a big crowd because you didn't tell me and i did give you due credit and i give it to you tonight for telling us when people were excluded and we took immediate

» action. - And thank you for that, and thank you for that. - Thanks, golly dang, so he agrees with me. So with that, we can move to a further action here and I would like to close that discussion. With that, we move to a resolution outlying criteria to be used by Kershaw County Council for the adoption of a redistricting plan for Kershaw County, South Carolina and clients with the 2020 United States census and we very helpfully have had a lot of great help from mr oprahman who is here thank you joel and behind him are his products and the idea is that he has provided is a resolution to guide our discussion and again resolutions can be changed by us as a guideline but it is proposed that i read this to you and then we will vote on it it's on page 12 in your electronic books and tab a and it's

» up on the screen and i'll read it a resolution outlining criteria to be used by kershaw county council for the adoption of a redistricting plan for kershaw county in compliance with the united states census and there's a lot of behind that whereas the census results have now been released whereas county governmental bodies including county governments must adjust district lines as necessary to comply with relevant laws and whereas kershaw county must comply with federal one person one vote requirements and the voting rights act and drafting new districts and whereas this process should be completed by december 21 at the latest to provide adequate and appropriate notice to the public as to new district lines before candidate filing begins in march of 22 and whereas transparency and one perso

» n one vote are fundamental to the workings of our constitutional republic therefore kershaw county council resolves to make public and follow these guidelines during the redistricting process for county council lines item number one kershaw county will comply with all federal and state laws and the voting rights act and equality implementation by district any other guidelines shall be subordinate to compliance with the law item number two two options at minimum will be provided council you have two and a half options everybody you have a total of three will be provided by council for amendment and discussion on a single one as amended voted and it says november kershaw county council if we can get to it but it may go to december number three each option will present a different view of achi

» eving the following objectives a an attempt to maintain integrity of the municipalities with a preference for no splitting of smaller municipalities and goal of minimizing splits of the county seat consistent with the primary goal of complying with relevant federal and state law. Item B, attempt to maintain precinct integrity where possible. Item C, provide six district and one seat at large for a total of seven on council.

» Item D, attempt where possible to maintain coherency and compactness of political and geographic boundaries so with that we can have a motion and we will see if there are any amendments can we have a motion to approve so moved uh mr gardner a second second second for mr snodgrass i noticed that november and i'll start the discussion and turn it over to the council uh mr debose has recommended that we do in november a public hearing and second reading and then in december we do a third reading and final vote um so we i could entertain a motion to to amend that or continue on mr mr gardner i'd turn it to you sir well we're pretty much bound by the voting rights act and uh obviously we have legal representative that's helping us draw these lines so we're we're going to get it right uh i think

» it's uh you know there obviously there's there's some places that we could tweak here and there But ultimately, our goal is to get it right, and I think that we'll work to do that. Mr. Snodgrass, second. Thank you. Is this the opportunity to have Mr. Offerman come in and ask questions, or is that later when we actually do the ordinance? I thought we would do, just to answer that. Pardon me, but we have him as the last item on the agenda. Is that when you would like to do it, Joel? Yeah, that's good.

» I just want to make sure that the public who is here, as well as those who are watching, because you want to you want to hear him explain this i mean we can kind of give you tidbits but i'll be honest with you as someone who's new to council i've always looked at our maps i'm like what in the world why are we drawing zoo animals as maps and uh no that's no offense to you sir uh because there is there is a reason behind that and so i just want him the opportunity to come explain so everybody in the room everybody in the county knows what goes into this process and the answer there is if if you all know agreement that would be a part of the item we have later on okay perfect perfect yeah all right other comments now we got first and second done others let me throw out again the process issue

» and you can talk i would i would like to hear from him about this process we're looking at yeah it was i'll just summarize what i got from mr the bows give me i do too joel can you come up while i just explain again what mr bose said was the best way to do this is a public hearing would be necessary and i think appropriate to hear from the public and And these charts will be available to the public hereforth going forward tonight all the way until we finally vote. Second point is, Mr. DuBose and I have agreed, and if you all will agree, that we would do three readings. This one would be the first one. The second reading would be in November, which would also include a public hearing. And that would be a vote, hopefully narrowing the number down from three to a one.

» And then lastly, a final vote in December. So, Joel, do you want to speak to that? Go right ahead and do Mr. Jones' question, please. As to process, I would certainly defer. Get the microphone up to that great altitude, Joel. Just to be sure that I speak directly to your question, Councilman, could you repeat the question? Well, basically, I know you're not going to get involved with our process of doing it. You and I have done this before, and I think you've done a fantastic job, by the way. Thank you, Councilman. And we can sit here and tweak, tweak, tweak, but bottom line is we're mandated to do this.

» We've got to do it, and you can only do it so many ways, i think we've got the right person to do it in you and as as as i came up with two options in mind i think it's been narrowed down to one and i'm taking your advice on that to where it will work better for the you know overall system thank you councilman so i appreciate that because out of the two options i had i'd probably take another one but you made sense when you said would jimmy this would help especially with the uh sammy's district if we did i think the one you've got up there now and and i really don't care one way or the other thank you council so i'm going to go with you on that yes sir so i'm easy on this one yeah thank you councilman and joel i answer the questions as we move through but we're going to do the big gun stuf

» f a little later on but uh as mr mr jones alluded i would like to ask for a motion since as a chair i normally don't make a motion on uh on pay on item number three uh which is a tab let's see a vote by when i where's that one it says november um no here it is item number two where it says two options at a minimum provided which he's done he's given us three as amended and voted in november uh i'd like to ask for an amendment from one of you gentlemen that says not later than january and that gives us a a little rattle room we can move into january right joel uh yes yeah i'd just like to give us the rattle room in case i mean many of us have already pretty well decided but i want to make sure you have the rattle room once we get public feedback in november so if someone can make that amendm

» ent i'll make the amendment you've already got a motion in a second over there and i think statutorily we have to have it resolved by march uh what was the filing date filing date march 26th yeah so january is fine i make the motion that we admit it to january on item number uh two under the current exhibit thank you a second please second second mr gardner any discussion okay let's vote then to amend all those in favor signify by raising your hand it's amended and now i think we can move on to uh vote on this resolution as amended unless there's any further discussion uh okay let's move to a vote on the resolution has amended all those in favor so signify and it's amended and mary we can move forward with that all right and again it's a guideline with that we move to the next item on the a

» genda is an ordinance second reading on a rezoning on this it's at page 13 in your electronic book there's a map associated it's up on the board now and it's tab f for those who you're going in that method mr carpenter would you introduce the topic mr chair members of council you have in front of you tonight on second reading an ordinance that would rezone the kersau county zoning map approximately 86 acres of land uh it is uh you have previously voted on it at the last meeting uh the rezoning would take it from rd1 to r15 right can we have a motion to approve so move mr chair mr snagrass a second second mr gardner a discussion you want to lead off david sure i spoke with uh several who are involved in this in this project as well as i wrote out there a couple a couple weeks ago and just to

» try to remind myself i'm out there frequently but just wanted to refresh the delay the land and uh i also heard from a neighbor via email who had some concerns i replied to that email as well as spoke on the phone with with others and from my view this is consistent with what is already out there there is a the king hegel subdivision is just up from uh up from this proposed location so it is consistent with what is already out there i spoke with those who are wanting to develop and you know we're looking at a half acre lots uh because they're they'll be on uh they'll be on septic my concern was what i told them was i didn't i do not want what you see when you're going to columbia and you're at clemson road and you look to the right and they're all in there they're all in there with about tw

» o yards in between the houses it's probably more than that but from my view it looks it looks about two yards apart and uh they showed me this is not this is not what their this is not their vision and uh so i was i was happy that um our vision seemed to be seen the lineup so this is consistent with out there the the zoning report uh it lets us know that it doesn't adversely affect the infrastructure out there as far as traffic counts and traffic flow uh that that's all good so i'm supporting this and would encourage encourage my counterparts to do so a lot of folks want to see east camden developed or want to see it grow and wanted to have the amenities that other densely populated areas of our county has and in order to get that we have to get our traffic count up and this people living o

» ut there uh that'll that'll do this so this is all part of of kershaw county growing and producing jobs so uh i'd move to i'm gonna do we move forward on this other comments we've got mike conley here and we've also got mr lackey here from the developing side and if there are any questions i certainly open that up to any other comments none all right with that um i think we move to a vote all those in favor so signify and it's unanimous thank you mr lackey thank you mike it's a very thorough staff work item number two on the agenda is a second reading of an ordinance for a multi-county business park it is at page 27 tab g and it's up on the screen uh vick can you introduce this topic again for a second reading chair members of council uh this is again for second reading um the amendment of

» an existing multi-county park that would add property in kershaw county to this multi-county park again a multi-county park is a creation of the general assembly that allows a fee in lieu to be given to a property the property in question was the project seagull uh the hotel downtown so this is adding that property to the industrial park allowing the fee in lieu to be granted very good uh with that can i have a motion to approve so i move second second second for mr snodgrass that's mr gardner and mrs snodgrass point of that with that mr gardner go ahead um this is just moving this project further along yep davis point of order the seagull park was with sumter correct i thought this was just harmonizing that's a question or a point of order because i have to rule on i'm sorry so it's a ques

» tion yeah it's not a point of order it's a question you're far away my friend is this is this with seagull or is this with the prestige because i thought the seagull was with was with sumter county oh okay i'm sorry yes sir um it is this is with prestige okay so this is just harmonizing what we what we already know yes but what we've already done is not seagull not saying no you're good i just i just you know it helped explain for those who are here yeah it's a lot of words it's a lot of like lingo but it's simply harmonizing the philo agreement that we already have in place with the prestige um deal okay thank you thank you david that's well done other comments yeah every time one of these uh multi-county parks comes up i just like to reiterate for the public that it's a it's a mechanism r

» equired by the state in order to do this um i don't know why they do it that way but the statute the words written in the statute and code require it so that's why we comply we don't make the rules we just play the game right we just play the game yep thank you very much yeah and uh it's it's tough road to understand these systems but that's why it's done out in the public thank you very much with no further discussion okay let's move to a vote all those in favor so signify and again it's unanimous and thanks for the clarification from ben and from david thank you very much indeed uh with that we move to item number three it's at page 37 electronically tab h and it's on the screen it's the second reading of an ordinance setting the millage rate for kershaw county for the fiscal year beginni

» ng one july 2021 uh with that uh vic uh do you need any further introduction or can we move to a vote over to you uh mr chairman this is uh uh after a budget is approved by the county council the auditor must set the millage that the council must then approve by state law part of this includes a rollback as a result of the reassessment that was done the auditor has provided these figures the result of it is that the millage is rolling back from 100.6 to 100.2 mills on the tax rolls and you see broken down how it is broken out it's a decrease in taxes yes sir decreases millage in millage yes not in taxes um and the auditor is he's here it's way in the back row but we have dennis here if we need further questions for him can we have a motion to approve so uh mr gardner and on first mr snodgra

» ss on second speed of sound sir miss with that uh it's uh it's on the table mr gardner you want to open it up yeah i think the bottom line is that millage went down i think that's the big thing even though we lost a hundred lost a million dollars in philo and some of the other things we did we raised some money for fire service and some other things that the millage still went down i think that's a credit to the work of this council and uh our staff uh and and the folks of this county very good mr snaggers sure just echo what mr gardener said it's good being able to see that able to take and millage off the books and especially in a year in which we lost you mentioned the philo that's the sale of the hospital when the hospital went went non-profit uh we lost that and so we were able to keep

» our ems service uh at the optimal level that is always enjoyed without any sort of raise there and so i've always said that that should be the headline coming out of our our budget workshop these last few months is is ems service uh remaining top notch without any sort of increase. So good work y'all. Very good. Other comments? I think it's been amazing work by Mr. Carpenter and by our CFO and by all of you gentlemen here who participated in restructuring the bond debt and decreasing it. That's an amazing accomplishment. Mr. Jones, go right ahead. Just for the record, I am going to support this because the millage is a little bit lower.

» However, even though the defeasement of the bonds, I still call that generational debt because it's passed on down the road and that this has nothing to do with any of the fees that the council has created this past year as well. But I am going to support this. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Other comments? Gentlemen, I give you congratulations. That's an amazing achievement and also to our CFO. And it's going to be welcome news across the county. Well done. With that, we move to a vote. All those in favor, so signify. And it's unanimous and we move on to a third reading and Mr. Tucker will be here next time. Item number four is the first reading in title only of an ordinance authorizing execution and delivery of a philo, it's on page four. Excuse me, no, it's in title only, my mistake.

» And with that, Mr. Carpenter, you're gonna have to explain what we have here. - Mr. Chair, members of council, what we have tonight is an amendment of an existing philo. It's not a new philo. This is a philo that was previously granted an existing industry in this community uh they have since indicated their intention to invest even more money into the project so they've asked that we amend the philo uh to reflect the additional dollars that they'll be putting into it i will be able to announce the company name and the details of the next meeting but it is a local industry an existing philo but they're putting more money into the project than originally anticipated excellent can we have a motion to approve so move uh mr jones a second second second from mr connell he beat you to it david wi

» th that discussion mr jones would you lead please i have no comments i think mr carpenter said it all and this is title only first reading yeah mr connell sir some of the public comments earlier um are motivating me to say this so first reading we don't really have any information regarding fee lows or contractual arrangements with companies whether they're commercial or industrial second reading we might get some information and the reason is companies that are investing in our county want to protect their business interests so if too much is disclosed initially prior to final negotiations or legal arrangements being made and something being locked in a contract competitors can take advantage of particular companies and and that's why we do it it that way.

» Sometimes it feels secretive or appears secretive, but it's negotiations that businesses are engaged in so that they don't harm their business interests. And the county council, I believe, tries to balance a company's interest that's going to make a huge investment each time with the public's right to know what's going on. But a lot of it's contractual, and we defer to Mr. DuBose most times in telling us what we can and can't talk about.

» But that's one of the reasons why in first uh first reading here we don't know much there'll be some disclosed in second reading and we won't have the full details necessarily until third reading thank you mr chairman other comments uh mr snodgrass sir mr dubose so is it is it very common for us in first reading just to have a in title only and for the process to roll out the way that mr connell explained is that common that's typical common and typical thank you sir other comments yes yeah mr mr jones this i first i gave my approval on first reading of this title because i know a little bit more about this i knew nothing about project seagull when it came up for first reading and project seagull i guess that's what we're all referring to we've never done nothing like that before in our lif

» e here on this county council that was a private commercial business this is industrial and this is what we've been doing on county council but we've never done like we did on project seagull before and i know more about this than i ever knew about project seagull so it's got my motion to pass um that's interesting uh mr dubose have we ever is that correct have we in previous industrial investments and commercial investments waited until the third reading to show data typically the name of the entity is not disclosed until third reading yes mr chairman and okay so that's i understand that to be correct but i would emphatically agree with the councilman when he said we've never done a commercial item before.

» So what you cannot agree with, if you don't agree with Siegel, that's fine, but you cannot tell us that we have not been completely transparent on all we do up here. It's against the law to be otherwise. And secondly, it's against the democratic principles that I entertain and spent my life defending. So we'll move on on that issue. I would like to make one quick point with respect to this. You believe we will have the data next time around, Vic? - Yes, sir.

» very helpful are you obliged to have it or you think you'll have it um yeah i'm pretty sure he has it good so we're not obliged to have it but we may go to the third reading on that okay very good so with that i think we can uh move to a vote all those in favor so signify and title only thank you and it's unanimous mary and we'll move on on that but now we get to some stuff where joel you can do your thing all right so we now move to item number five first reading and title only of an ordinance adopting a redistricting plan for kershaw county recognizing mr tucker is not here the idea would be we go through a first reading with the amendment that ben connell helpfully made on our resolution that the second reading will be in november with a public hearing at the front and these charts will

» be available to the public at any time and to also the council meetings you can see the three different solutions and the vote today would be and i would ask for a motion that says to move on to a second reading without choosing among options so when mr tucker is here all seven of us can entertain and whether we wish to narrow down at the second reading or finally at the third reading so can i have a motion to approve this on the first reading to move it to the second reading please anybody so move mr chair thank you mr snodgrass second for mr um gardner uh if there needs to be discussion i think we all want to hear from joel is that okay everybody all right go ahead joel let's hear what you got to say we're looking forward to this thank you mr chairman um i'll just give a brief outline of

» the principles guiding our process and i'm happy to answer any questions from members of council and thank you thank you for the time um what you see on the walls today are two proposals of the three uh i believe in area one i think i did not generate an appropriate map for the first one and i'll certainly be available to the county um next time around i know the members have had an opportunity to do that but i would offer my apologies about that um although i'm sure that'll be available at a later stage the the overall principles and i'll have to comply with what's called one person one vote now you need to talk into the microphone joel you're talking to us that's all you need to know okay okay thank you uh in 2010 the census data had kershaw county about 61 697 people and so when we drew

» districts in 2010 it was on that basis and so each district had to have a mean district size at that time of about 10 283 people well population has grown in kershaw county based on the new census so your mean district size instead of being 10 283 is now about 10 901 because population went up from 61 697 to 65 uh 403.

» that that's the first and most important thing that we have to change because if kershaw county were to hold an election with its current district lines now that we have census data uh next year with the primaries in june and the general election in november with its current district lines kershaw county would be non-compliant with one person one vote and those election results could be vacated by a federal court that would not be in the interest of the people of kershaw county or the taxpayers of kershaw county because they'd have to pay for it and you wouldn't have districts that had roughly equal population so what do we mean when we say that um while there's not a precise formula that you can see in the case law from uh court cases that have interpreted this principle generally speaking

» uh federal courts and the supreme court have been comfortable uh with for congressional districts you have to be about exactly equal but for any other single member districts like say state house or state senate or city council or county council that kind of thing as long as there's only a small difference between the largest district and the smallest district so for instance as long as you don't go above 10 what they call 10 overall deviation you're okay and here's what that means um if you've got x number of districts for an area you divide the population by that number of districts for kershaw that would be overall population 65 403 divide that by six because there's six single member council districts and you get a mean district size of 10 901 so 10 of 10 901 is 1090 so if the differenc

» e between your largest district population wise and smallest district population wise is greater than that 1090 you're liable to run into trouble with the federal court under a one person one vote claim and it would be non-compliant and you'd have a substantial inequality among districts so that one district perhaps had more voting power than the other and that's not fair that's not right it's not consistent with democratic principles in our country so that's the first thing we we have to do in this process make sure that those districts are equaled out population wise and i'll speak to that briefly um under the the current plan from 2010 which did meet one person one vote under the 2010 census when it was adopted because of population changes throughout kershaw county um the the districts

» um are not all in that range anymore two districts um are substantially below even what the mean district size was in 2010 four districts are substantially above that if we look at 2020 census data current conditions really you get the same result you have three districts that are substantially above where they need to be one that's about well one that's about right on the mark and two that are a little bit too small so we got to equalize that population Long story short. And these scenarios do then do that within the confines of what we've seen from case law, from court and other federal courts have interpreted this one person, one vote principle under the Constitution. The second thing you got to do is comply with the Voting Rights Act.

» Now, Voting Rights Act compliance is a little different for redistricting in this cycle. In previous cycles, going back to really the early 70s, the Voting Rights Act was adopted in 1964. It had a piece to it called Section 5, and that meant if you were in a covered jurisdiction, you had to submit any election law changes to the Justice Department or the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals for approval before those changes could go into effect. And the entire state of South Carolina was defined as a covered jurisdiction under the Voting Rights Act of 1965. And indeed, Section 5 is still part of the Voting Rights Act. but the piece that says South Carolina is a covered jurisdiction, section four, was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2013.

» So what does that mean? It means Kershaw County does not have to submit its plan for preclearance to the Justice Department or the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals this year, but much of the Voting Rights Act still applies. Section two, for instance, applies to Kershaw County, applies to the whole country. It didn't single out any particular parts of the country applies to the whole country. How does Section 2 affect redistricting? Well, without getting too much into the nitty-gritty, it requires that when making election law changes, we don't diminish the voting position or power of a protected minority group of voters under the Voting Rights Act.

» In South Carolina, the way that's defined, the group of voters that meets that threshold in south carolina at this time are black voters it is possible that latino voters might meet that threshold in some parts of south carolina but population wise are not a significant significantly large enough population group within the county to be relevant to our analysis for kershaw county council districts however black voters are under the voting rights act specifically section two what does that mean for redistricting broadly speaking it means that you have to do a series of steps to analyze what it means. One, can you draw a county council district where the protected minority group makes up a majority in a relatively compact council district size? Compact's misleading.

» If you look at some of the districts the Supreme Court has approved as compact under the Voting Rights Act, they're real funky looking. They look like shoestrings and snakes and geckos and lizards so you may know look at the map and say well some of those districts don't look super compact relative to some of those that have been approved and many of those have been approved by federal court fourth circuit court of appeals and the supreme court these these districts are quite compact the answer to that first question can you draw a relatively compact majority minority district uh in kershaw county answers yes you can draw one can't draw more than one but you can draw one so second question is is broadly speaking are voting patterns sufficiently polarized within the county such that in the a

» bsence of such a district it's unlikely that the protected community would be able to have his voice heard in the political process the answer to that question is probably yes we have not completed our analysis on that and we will have a report if not in november certainly december but i think november um the third factor has to do with historical communities of interest and certainly met by district two i go through that i know it's very dry and very boring because those are the principles that underline uh how we go forward you got to do those things in order to comply with federal law and we've done those with the scenarios that we've generated beyond that the guidelines that the council has asked for try to um not split municipalities so long as it's consistent with federal law and keep

» smaller municipalities whole we've done that in these scenarios you don't see scenario one today but uh in that scenario in 2a and in two the small municipalities elgin and bethune are entirely within one district in all scenarios elgin is completely contained within district three, and Bethune is completely contained within district six. In all three scenarios, the city of Camden is substantially in two districts with a small portion of it in a third district.

» We wanted to minimize the splitting of Camden if possible, but there are still three districts where population in the city of Camden would likely have a substantial impact on the outcome of the election um happy to provide the council with an analysis of precinct splits i don't have that available today but happy to provide that uh in person uh and paper and electronic documents uh guys y'all been real patient to listen to this real real boring stuff um thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak if you have any specific questions thank you for much hard work and i'll turn it over to council thank you to summarize how many of the complete options are here one two and two a are they all three here uh yes okay so they're on the wall yes for discussion and can you wait until after this i

» s over and maybe people will want to walk it with you i'd be happy to good uh secondly uh the program we've laid out for ourselves is to have this discussion now and move forward into a second reading at which we first have a public hearing inviting the public to look at this and these charts would be up mary this room would be open uh every day or just that particular day on the 9th of november so so this will be here for anyone and of course our our deputy on the front door would certainly make sure this room was you know well cared for and there they are are they clearly marked one two and two a mr chairman i don't see one up i think that's on me because the okay so you can but you can get it in here but i can get that uh yeah probably tomorrow um yeah let's let's get it up and uh and be

» sure they're clearly marked uh and then what would be vic what would be the best way if people had a question you know say we had a person from you know elgin came in here and wanted to look at it if they had a question would there be a sign saying call this number or what's the way you want to move it forward i'm never talking process here mr chairman anybody who comes by this building during work hours is always welcome go upstairs and ask questions so we'll always be there they can also email questions to any any of y'all as well as any of us and you can interface with mr.

» Opperman and absolutely excellent excellent okay I forget who had the first motion who is that that you David is it Tom Tom go ahead you want to have anything to say go ahead sir just think that you know it's a process and I think we're at the very beginning of the process and we go go forward there uh mr opperman has done a great job as he did last time we did this 10 years ago uh in providing us with different uh scenarios of where we're going to go and uh where the lines are moving to and uh i think it's just a matter of narrowing down uh probably the best three uh scenarios that we came down to and uh move forward from there other comments uh mr snodgrass questions joey thanks for your work thank you i know you thought your presentation was dry but i really enjoyed it and that's probabl

» y the political science major coming out in me uh i really really kind of dug into this process and uh it's an honor to to have been elected in a cycle where we are doing this because i find it i find it very fascinating i know for me some of the things that i wanted with my district was one to keep it to keep the community uh to keep them all together as much as we can uh i know for me we all can't do this but for me you know keeping school attendance lines like so in my district the majority of of folks in five they attend the same at least the same high schools uh there are some up in the midway area that they obviously go to north central uh so thank you for for doing that i'll also point out that while option one is not on the wall it is a part of our agenda packet and so if if folks g

» o to the council website of on the county page and just click on today's meeting date and go download that agenda packet uh i've i believe option one should be in there um and then mr carpenter could we have it just put a link uh so people have to dig into our agenda they can just put a link so hey here's your redistricting information that's not grass that was the intention once council has moved this on that we would make these maps available online great excellent excellent so and then back to section two of the of the law so i know you you answered this but just to just to kind of give some some more clarity that a lot of that section two has a lot to do with these the way the funny shapes are because we have to there are certain things that we kind of have to pivot around is that is th

» at correct that's correct councilman um and i think in our discussion and i said this to a couple folks before the before the meeting and guys this is this is kind of a neat thing so we can't the reason that the shape is funny is because we we all live together in kershaw county or at least that was my analysis from the census that there it's hard to find like oh this is where these folks live or these folks i think i think we we do we share the community yes councilman that that's a very interesting trend that it is it's not specific to kershaw county but kershaw county demonstrates it as well or better than just about any other part of the state that i'm familiar with um it's it's harder to draw a district that complies with section two uh simply because well housing segregation is not as

» profound as it once was right there are more neighborhoods communities and streets where white folks and black folks are living in the same neighborhoods together and that's a very positive trend uh that's a good thing yeah um uh so that that is part of why you see a little bit unusually safe district is in order to uh comply with section two um it's not as though xyz precinct you know all next to each other gets you that outcome because folks do uh live more together in the same neighborhoods than once they did um it's not quite as easy as drawing a circle or a box or a triangle as one might have been able to say 20 30 40 years ago thank you for your work appreciate it thank you other comments uh seeing there are none i would want us to just make a closing comment here this effort here at

» county level has nothing to do with state delegations such as mr dabney mr Gustafson, I mean Senator Gustafson, Mr. Johnson, all the other representatives and senators who represent us. There's seven of them and that includes the Speaker of the House. So that's another issue. So with that move we close and make a vote. All those in favor signify by raising your hand. I will abstain from this. Okay it's unanimous with Mr. Jones abstaining. I'm sorry you had to leave Mr. Jones. So with that we move now to the next item which is council briefings and that We'll see this again in second reading. Thank you very much. Mr. Gardner, if you would lead off. Yeah, just a couple things. Since everybody seemed to be so still talking about Seagull, the hotel, that project was brought to us.

» We didn't go after that project. And, yes, it was something different being commercial property, and we did come up with some policies for that. City of Camden owned that building down there, and do you know how much taxes we collected on that? Zero. None. City of Camden owned it. It's a government entity. They didn't pay any taxes, so we collected none.

» how much money county invested in this project zero none uh so at the end of the day even though they they came and asked for an abatement they asked for a hundred percent we didn't give them a hundred percent but we did come up with a policy we did give them an abatement but at the end of the day we have a cash positive cash flow from taxes on that building we're also going to have accommodations tax hospitality tax sales tax that come in from that that come into the county so going to have multiple cash flows coming off of that building uh and that project they're going to employ people that they pay salaries that spend money that are going to spend money here and they're also going to employ people hopefully they can find people to employ that's the bad thing about it uh and we came up w

» ith uh with a number of 10 million dollars and people keep saying well why do you do that why don't you give it to the small business because you know for industry you know what the minimum investment is for a filo or an abatement is two and a half million dollars isn't that right mr carpenter two and a half million i don't know uh that's industry that's not commercial but we set our ceiling for commercial at 10 million i don't know how many small businesses there are that can invest 10 million or even two and a half million so they don't qualify you know i keep hearing people say why don't you give it a small business they don't qualify you know educate yourself and learn some of this stuff that that we can't do because the state sets that but I keep hearing what a bad this deal this this

» is for me I'm speaking for me I'm not speaking for everybody up here I'm speaking for me this is a good deal for Kershaw County because we're going at the end of the day and at the end of this eight-year where we've abated some of those taxes we're gonna get all that tax money so end of the day this is going to be a good deal for Kershaw County not only in the fact that we're going to get a nice hotel and possibly a nice restaurant or nice shops or whatever but we're going to get a positive cash flow that's going to come in that's going to allow us to do some other things in the county so for me uh all the positives you know certainly there probably are some negatives i i don't know what they are i see a lot more positives for that so just to clear that up is we go from zero money from that

» to a positive cash flow from taxes so i think that's good secondly is to please remember uh councilman tucker uh you're supposed to outlive your children and such a tragedy for him to lose his son to this so keep him and his family in your prayers over the next week two weeks months ahead because it's uh that is i can't imagine losing a child thank you yeah uh mr razzle please i don't have a whole lot to say tonight uh i do want to offer my sincere condolences to councilman tucker and loss of his child, and we're all thinking about you and praying for you. Thank you. Thank you, Russell. Ben? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd share my condolences as well for Mr. Tucker and his family.

» Every time I've seen them together, it was a family rich with love and care for each other that was steeped in the gospel, and they always cared for one another, you could tell. So my heart goes out to them. My prayers go out to them as well. One comment I want to make, Mr. Chairman, was i heard folks talk a lot about youth and the kids tonight and uh that they essentially they need things to do there's after school programs that that could be of interest athletic facilities as well i hope that folks will pay attention in the community as the ymca's interest in kershaw county continues to increase of course uh there was a donation of over 12 acres that was made in lugoff to the ymca that board unanimously accepted it you've already had over a couple of million dollars in funds committed to

» that project and they continue to work there's a bit of a pause and hiatus on it while the pandemic stopped basically everybody and everything from what they're doing but it's getting moving again and it's exciting on multiple fronts when you got the land donated community health is a big push by the ymca athletics is a big push by the ymca after school activities are big as well geriatric rehab is big as well with pool activities and then also a year-round swim team is something i've been interested in for a while right now me and several other people we towed our kids to various places so they can swim year-round because you don't have that opportunity in kershaw county unless you're going to join the pole bear club and we convince vick and shane to open up the pool during winter time not

» real conducive to competitive swim team year-round and swim practice though i have been really pleased with the progress we've made recently with the swim team and how it's kind of come together with uh i believe it's COACH BOYCE AND OTHERS THAT ASSIST HIM AND THAT TEAM THANK YOU MR. CHAIRMAN GOOD COMMENT SO MR. JONES SIR FIRE AWAY THANK YOU MR. CHAIR MEMBERS OF THE COUNTY COUNCIL MY CONDOLENCES GO OUT TO COUNCILMAN VICE CHAIRMAN TUCKER AS WELL I CAN'T IMAGINE THE LOSS THE LOSS OF A CHILD BUT ANYWAY HE'S IN OUR PRAYERS ONE QUICK THING I WASN'T GOING TO SAY ANYTHING I HATE TO KEEP HARPING HARPING BUT I DO APPRECIATE AND RESPECT MY COLLEAGUE MR. GARDEN FOR HIS COMMENTS ON THE PROJECT SEGA BUT I JUST Let's say tax abatement, the definition of tax abatement, Mr. DeBose.

» Well, you basically give a credit towards the taxes. Correct, yeah. And, you know, we gave an 85% for the first year tax abatement. We gave 75% second year, maybe 65%, third, I think 55% for their own going up to eight years. And then we talk about all the money that's going to flow in after eight years. I think they'll be out of business in eight years. Hotels and restaurants are tough businesses, and this is a commercial private business. that any way you look at it is we're giving incentives, we're giving governmental incentives to a private business that's going to be competing against other private businesses. And we just have a difference in opinions of how we feel about that. I'm very strong about that.

» I don't care, I mean, what business is going to be next? We do have a policy, we sure did, and he's correct on that as well. I voted against that policy, and it is a $10 million versus what two and a half million I think for industrial but industrial don't compete against each other in this county and we've always done industrial to get them here they create a lot more jobs in 36 or 35 and anyway that's where I'm at I have no regrets in voting against that and also I heard there was a meeting I think they're reaching out to folks trying to get a $250,000 investment I think I mean I wasn't invited but I think it was held at steeplechase and uh they're looking for donations from some private folks as well i think to get this up and running i don't know but anyway i wasn't involved in much of

» it but thank you so much and i for time mr chairman mr council and folks stay tuned just stay stay involved stay involved come to your county council meetings do your homework oh by the way my last comment you need to educate yourselves it was said up here no you are educated and we learn from you thank you mr. Snodgrass Thank You mr.

» chair members of council just a few few few things and I obviously want to just send a message out to my friend Sammy I sucker and let him know that I am praying for you sir and may praying for God's grace and presence to just to wrap your whole family in in these times want to also think our Public Works Department as they they can they're always on it just in the last few months we've had some issue just some issues that up one cups path we're trying to get some things corrected and they just Danny and the crew they did a jam-up job getting a tough tough situation with a dirt road figured out so Danny thank you so much for for handling that and then also just want to remind folks thank you all so much for for coming to the meetings and being involved and and also want to remind us that th

» e public comment piece is just one piece of the puzzle for public input and you know for me I pay attention to to those who come to public comment but I also pay attention to those who take time to call me and to email me and to say hey can we meet can we have conversation about about these issues and so I think it's sometimes we think you you see one piece of of counsel getting input and you think well that must be the will of of a group but sometimes we don't see the emails and the conversations uh that we've had uh one-on-one or with groups in fact one of the one the gentleman tonight that that commented he he requested hey can i have a meeting can me and some others have a meeting with you and i said absolutely invited them they came out to my office out of the church and we had about a

» n hour conversation about three three or four or five of us and um you know i can't say that we walked away agreeing but with everything but i took time i heard their i heard their comments and i heard their input and so i want to i want to go on record as i have before i'm always available i'm always to hear your input that goes just beyond public comment but input that allows us to have a two-way conversation and and so i just want i want to remind us that whatever issue comes across this desk that the public comment is a very important piece but it's just a piece of the feedback loop if you will the feedback that we are receiving about how folks are feeling and and the things that are important to people in this county so thank you guys for a great meeting again uh prayers are going out

» to the tucker family and uh during this time thank you mr chair all right i'll close it out and then we'll hear from mr carpenter on some very useful things that were performed at the county level i joined with all of you and remorse at so many losses and mr gardner has just given me another one of a wife of a high level official just passed away so love people as ben said uh in the name of christ while you have them okay let's just keep it moving folks we got work to do and but be kind to one another this is really terrible news tom thank you for that information darn it um okay business of being the chairman uh it uh gene wise said it's like driving a bus and you're at the steering wheel and you got no brakes and everybody behind you the other six gentlemen on the on the bus all have the

» accelerator and there's no bus i just got to kind of steer it and that's kind of been what the way it's been it's an interesting position but to move the business of the county that's what i do and uh with a lot of help from these six gentlemen and if i'm flawed uh it's because i'm human and not because i'm badly motivated and if you'd like to take on my motivations and come and speak to me like a grown-up and not on facebook let me go through some housekeeping keeping uh vision 2030 is a superb document uh it's available uh it's now being uh vetted by the core team which is a volunteer bunch of people from our county from all over the county uh is being briefed to camden city council tonight and then it'll come formally to county council once it's ready and vic will bring it forward to us

» for a vote hopefully in november but probably december so we can begin our budget cycle based on a revised updated reimagined vision document which is not a plan it's a vision secondly uh i'm may not be here on the 9th of november it'll be the first meeting i miss in my time as chairman mr tucker will certainly be here but i'll call in if i if i cannot be here i will call in mr tucker will run the meeting in accordance with some rules that mr dubose has set up where i can open the meeting and close it but mr tucker as acting the vice chairman will run it and it's an important meeting because we're going to be doing redistricting um masks uh wear them if you want don't wear them if you don't want don't criticize somebody if they want to wear them that's all i got to say i'm mad enough if you

» want to say i'm stupid to wear a mask but i'm wearing it because i go to a conference in washington tonight i'll take the all-nighter to get up there and i was there this morning and i'm going back uh and every single person in the conference to include every general in the army was there. I briefed the chief of staff of the army this morning and he had a mask on and he was not afraid to say it's a good idea. I recommend it if you feel unsafe. I recommend you don't wear it if you don't, if you have other opinions. But don't call somebody weak. There's not a man in that, a woman in that conference I'm at that's a scaredy cat, okay? These are all combat veterans.

» get the shots if you wish it works i've got mine but i'm an old fella there's only one person in the room older than me and if you want to get the shot get it but have respect for the people as we've made it through together as a county because we've been kind and excellent to one another over these past 19 months with that over to you mr carpenter chair members council i'll wrap up with some happier notes from some of the previous comments made uh i'm going to ask mr duncan to come up to kind of tell you some of the events that have happened in the county in the last few weeks and a few more that are going to be happening coming up and i think he's the best uh person to talk about it uh thank you vick for uh allowing me to come and just speak on a few events uh we've had somewhat of a busy

» month already in october on the parks and rec side um october the saturday october the second was a was a huge day um we had our touch a truck event down at the Watery River Veterans Park. We were there from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. You see Danny's showing some of the pics on the screen. I'm going to tell you, this is such a great thing to see these kids out here. I mean, look at that face right there in that fire truck. This shows why we do what we do in Parks and Rec. We partnered with the Camden Junior Welfare League and the Lugo Fire Department to host this event. Parking, Lord, look at the cars.

» We had 21 vendors with a total of 52 vehicles, and once we left at 1 o'clock after checking the clickers, we had 1,450 people to come in, and we had approximately about 150 vendors and volunteers there. So we had right around 1,600 people there between 10 and 1 o'clock. Could have had more, and this will come on, you know, we're addressing this as a scheduling issue. We actually had our fall sports jamborees the same day. So on the same day at the Larry Doby Complex in Camden, we had 25 soccer teams taking pictures and playing games. KC West over in Lugolf, we had 22 soccer teams taking pictures and playing games. For football, over in Camden at the Camden High spring complex, we had six flag football teams and five tackle teams taking pictures and playing games.

» And then the same thing over at the Lugov Elgin High football stadium, four flag football teams and five tackle teams. So scheduling, we could have done better. And if we would have done better there, I'm pretty sure our touch the truck event would have been even bigger. But we did see some of those soccer kids coming in with their uniforms on.

» to to this event as well the other big event that happened that morning or that day was at our Aquatic Center now this event was not a wreck or recreation event but the school district hosted a swim meet with their their County swim team there was a total of six schools there with a total of 140 swimmers if you do the math you probably have two fat to two parents with them you can double the 140 and then double it again with the siblings and uh grandmothers and grandparents that were there. So we kind of estimated about 400 to 500 people out there at the swim meet. And I don't know if you guys have been to that aquatic center.

» It's not big enough for that, which is a good showing to show what we need in the future to make that program even better, even considering something long-term there. Last Friday, October the 8th, we had our senior golf tournament which is also a great event we had 61 participants and that equals so that basically equates to 16 for men and women teams so 16 teams floating around the the golf course here in Camden Pine Creek golf course Bo jangles of Camden sponsors the lunch so Bo jangles fed every one of those participants along with the volunteers and staff and workers at the golf course a two-piece dinner that's pretty significant donation and they don't ask for a dime for it so great sponsorship there so while I'm very proud of what we've done this month we have a lot to lot coming up i

» n the next couple of months as well and we're not finished with October yet on October the 30th Again, at the Watery River Veterans Park, we're going to have our Jack O' Lantern Jamboree. We just renamed our Trick or Treat Trail is what we did. So we're going to have a trail going around the walking path between 5:00 and 6:30 where the kids can come to a safe environment, get some candy, and have a good time. And then at 7:00, we're doing the animated version of The Addams Family, a movie on the big screen. So from about five to probably nine o'clock, we'll be down there having a good old time. And then we're starting a new event this holiday season. We're calling it the Tensile Trail.

» Last year, we started with a few light displays down at the Watery River Veterans Park, Christmas light displays. This year, it's growing tremendously. We've already started purchasing more light displays. And the draw to the tinsel trail is we've purchased 50 live Christmas trees. Sponsors can come in for $150, sponsor a tree, decorate it. We're going to provide them a sign with their business name or organization, whatever it be. And they can decorate their own tree. We hope to have this done by November 30th. So because once we get it all decorated by November 30th, everything stays up until January 3rd. And this is probably one of the first walk-through trails kind of around in the state. Charleston has a drive-through. Columbia has a drive-through.

» But we're priding ourselves to make this an interesting event. And those lights will be, of course, we'll change our winter month hours for those months. The lights will be lit at 530 to 8 o'clock every day until January 3rd, okay? a couple of small events that's going to fall in there. On Saturday, December the 4th, we're going to do Paws with Claws. Families can bring their pets down for about two hours from one to three and have the pictures made with Santa Claus. We're doing a movie night on December the 10th. We'll have hot chocolate s'mores and food trucks. And actually, every Friday and Saturday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday during the month of December, we're doing the s'mores and hot chocolate will be available at that part between 5.30 and 8 o'clock.

» So this is going to be a huge new event for us. And I like that we're staying busy. And I definitely want to say thank you to my support staff, our programs and athletics. They are working hard these months. Give me a chance to come in and give you this good report. I can't take credit for all that because they're the ones coming up with all these these new ideas and creating some some things for people to do I love it but that we're busy because a couple of you know a year ago we were not so busy we were canceling everything so this is a this is great for our County and a chance to you know give our people something to do young and old anybody has any questions you know busy enough just not busy enough uh uh this is not grass and mr connell please of the the tinsel trail the the business w

» ho can decorate christmas trees is there electricity available for lights if they put the lights on the tree i appreciate you asking that we're actually we have an electrician who's going to be putting in uh seven poles six or seven poles for the electricity so that there will be electricity there for them okay and also i'm pretty sure i saw that swim team all those parents at chick-fil-a that morning getting breakfast lower and at the process at the same time lowering our property taxes while they were doing that ben over to you mr connell shane thanks for sharing uh all of your hard work and your staff's hard work just wanted to ask you how has the veterans park worked out as a venue and is there anything else that we need to consider out there that would improve the experience for all th

» ese activities you're having well i believe it's great it's really working out great for for all the you know we're very strategic on the type events we do to maximize the space so you know just when we get ready to continue forward with these other phases that's going to just help even more but right now we are doing everything we can to maximize that space and I think it's starting to turn into a real hit because everybody you know somebody everybody and somebody wants to have an event down there so we're we're actually working to come up with some rental agreements as well for those bigger events so parking is somewhat of an issue sometimes on some of these events but I think we've done a great job so just just keep keeping everything moving forward um in the original plan would thanks f

» or that update I used to live in Charleston in the James Island Cali Park yeah referring to you'd have hundreds of businesses that would promote themselves in the community and it was a highlight of the holiday season every time so I think a walking trail is a nice idea and I'm glad you're pursuing good and one piece of information i'm sorry mr jones and i'll answer your question uh we we ordered 50 trees we already have 25 committed so wow we're we're halfway done and we just we've only we've only been doing this for about a week and a half terrific terrific uh mr jones jimmy yes shane thank you so much for all you do you've done a great job you've been ready you know i was um i know the humane society had their function out there they sold over a thousand tickets in camden the fire fest t

» hey're the biggest crowd they ever had touch a truck no question 1400 people i think people have been dying to get out they've been locked up for a year i think the opportunity is great now and you've been ready you've been ready for that and uh like i say i'm very proud of what you've done and hope we can hopefully we keep the good work up as we move forward thank you other comment never know i may want to uh rent it to do a solo concert myself yeah i forgot to mention i forgot to mention um maybe you'll get to play at this next year jimmy with your band but there is land jam coming up in uh november not directly affiliated with parks and rec but it's going to be a blue golf based concert country bluegrass rock uh they had it last year as its first year with uh lone star they came out and

» played and i think they have jared nieman and several other popular country artists and rock artists that will be out there uh in mid-november so look for that online and get some tickets if y'all want to should be fun other comments excellent uh you're just not busy enough man that's right well guy and just one other thing on the tensile trail if you're not interested in decorating a tree please what you can do is you can come in and pay the sponsorship and let somebody else decorate it for you we have a lot of them just buying the tree and donating to an organization so you mentioned winter sports sign up you haven't uh we will start winter sports uh signups in november that's when we start that yeah you know i was going to ask that question yes sir all right well shane well done back to

» you yes sir um again shane thank you and uh i think you understand why i wanted him to come up and share all that oh my goodness we got some amazing stories going on and as you see from the report uh parks and rec doesn't just serve baseball teams anymore it's our seniors it's our young kids it's our entire community in our entire county there is one piece of information that mr tucker has asked me to share with the council and the community, and those are the details related to Travis's homecoming.

» He's asked that I share with you and everyone that visitation will be Friday at Collins Funeral Home, this coming Friday from three o'clock to six o'clock, and then the homecoming service will be at High Hill Baptist Church in Lugoff on Watts Hill Road, Saturday, October 16th at 11 o'clock in the morning. He wanted that shared with everybody. Mr. Chairman, that's my report. Thank you for that reverential treatment of this tragedy in our county. Thank you, sir. Over to you, Mr. DuBose. Mr. Chairman, I have no report. All right. If Mr. Tucker was here, he'd beat me to it, but is there now a motion that we adjourn? So moved. Mr. Gardner, a second from Mr. Connell. Any discussion? Seeing there is none, I want to say one thing. Our next meeting is, I think, the 9th of November.

» I'd like to see the Lynch's River. Gary, if you got a minute, I just want to chat with you on the way out. With that, we move to a vote. All those in favor, signify. You all be safe. Thank you very much. We are adjourned.