Full meeting transcript - December 14, 2021

» Merry Christmas it's a great day in Kershaw County and I thank you for the slight delay we had to let up people to sign in on the sign roster did everybody get a chance to sign in those that wish to speak okay that's terrific we have a quorum mr. Snodgrass is on travel and we're in the height of the end of football and volleyball and other seasons baseball and I'm excuse me basketball and wrestling has started all council members should have a copy of of vision 2030 in front of you and with that i think we're ready to go we're called to order and uh could you all please stand for the invocation and pledge given by russell brazel please russell you know i i'm gonna do something a little different if y'all will bear with me i'm gonna read uh out of this book jesus is calling i'm gonna i'm gon

» na do that first and i'm gonna pray and then we can stand and say the pledge of allegiance well if that suits everyone rest in me my child forgetting about the worries of the world focus on me emmanuel and let my living presence envelop you in peace tune in to my eternal security for i am the same yesterday today and forever if you live on the surface of life by focusing on ever-changing phenomenon you will find yourself echoing the words of solomon meaningless meaningless meaningless everything is meaningless living in collaboration with me is the only way to instill meaning in your days. Begin each day alone with me so that you can experience the reality of my presence. As you spend time with me, the way before you opens up step by step.

» Arise from the stillness of our communion and gradually begin your journey with me through the day. Hold my hand in deliverance dependence on me and I will smooth out a path before you. May we pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for another opportunity to meet and discuss our community's needs and address them in a positive manner. I pray that we can all work together looking only for solutions to issues that we face in our world today. As so many people want to divide our great nation, my prayer is that we do our part to work together and to remember that our greatest threat is not from within our own community, but from the evil that lies in the hearts of men that want to see us destroy ourselves.

» Lord, let us look to you for our solutions, not to other men and women, not to the media, not to the government, but to you, O Lord, because we know that the only constant in this world is Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. One nation, one God. Thank you very much, sir. And with that, we have begun. We'll begin with a public presentation. We're delighted to welcome Sheriff Lee Bone and the Carolina Motorsport Park. Hello, Mr. Cummins. So you've already introduced Mr. Michael Cummins over the park here. I just wanted to get a little brief of what the park does for us here in Kershaw County. You know, with our training these days, we have to do a lot of extra training in law enforcement.

» Believe it or not, there are certain attorneys out there that when they're not chasing ambulances, they're chasing us. So we gotta make sure we do it right, and we gotta have the best training possible to do it right. The track does a lot for us. It's an outstanding location, very good track, plenty of room out there for training. We have a whole lot less damage to our vehicles, a lot better drivers because of the track. Not only us, but Camden Police Department also trains there. I trained there when I was with Camden Police Department. They host the North Central Prom this past year. They've done a lot for the community, and we just wanted to let you know how much we appreciate them, and we appreciate what all they do for Kershaw County. We've got a video attached.

» I think Danny's got it for us that will kind of show a little bit about what we do out there. If you can just tell the people in the audience, they already heard, other people watching didn't hear what you had to say please okay the face that we have about 800 people watching on facebook yeah yeah well the part you see here is uh everybody doing all the maneuvers successfully there was a lot that's not on the video where the guys did run off the road and what we tell them out there is this is where you find your limitation of your vehicles not out on the street with the citizens this is where you find it out at so this is this is a huge resource to us and i don't know what we would do without this type of train in this facility most counties don't have this available to them i said here at

» kershaw county as well as camden and you know elgin they've been out there too you know they they offer training you've seen one of our jail vehicles there so this this driver's training people come from other counties to try to get a part of it mr chair yeah mr jones thank you so much sheriff thank you for bringing this to us to see it tonight i really enjoyed it it brings back old memories for me because i've done that before you know in the early we didn't have any horses on there this was just thank you and mr cummings thank you so much uh i know my cousin mike is a big fan to yours and he's been hounding me to come up there and i will get up there eventually i really enjoy that i really think you're in the wrong spot you should have been under public presentation so that we could have

» some dialogue with you but but i am glad you came it is a public presentation oh okay we moved it to the beginning yes so we can uh have that move those public comments okay okay very good well i stand corrected but thank you so much sheriff for being here tonight and i'm going to tell you something let me a quick question since we're in public presentation what about the top heavy cars do you have to really be a little bit more careful when you do the turns it would surprise you how well they handle yeah the suvs because they're they're made for these are all pursuit rated suvs and they're they're they're pretty bad that impressed me because knowing that they're high up and they're top heavy you know i kept going oh yeah the ford explorer that's the current crown vic in law enforcement and

» it has been for probably the past probably close to 10 years now that that explorer that's what's replaced the uh crown vic well thank you and thank you mr coach what you do for our community appreciate it so much anybody else uh i do want to brag on mr cummins he has come here and upgraded that cmp if you haven't been up there see the go-karts see the i guess lemans are the quality racetrack uh it's just amazing uh it's a great economic investment in the northern part of our county sir i appreciate your your willingness to help our county with your investments and you bringing your family and everyone here and i would really appreciate the way you've also attracted other investments in that part of our county near westville it's very helpful and if you haven't been up there he's got he's i

» nvested uh 24 and 7 capability and he's also invested uh much in the new track and if you want to speak any more about that sir please if you would are did i pretty well covered you did a good good job julian and first i want to say how much my family and i uh enjoy being in kershaw county and our relationship that we have with with the county it's uh it's real asset i i think for the truck uh you know last year uh we bought the track even with the shutdown epidemic we were able to find a way to resurface the entire track had been worn out business was pretty much gone because tires were just being worn out and uh it was never tucked there for a while with with the shutdown and whatnot but we did get it repaved uh last year in 2020 21 we started upgrading other things like the pa system res

» trooms and those types of things we'll probably spend another year upgrading what we purchased uh and then beyond that we're gonna look at some we got some exciting expansion ideas that we'll talk about at a later date um we're honored to have uh your people both uh city camden and kershaw county law enforcement there um anything that we can do to make their job safer um we want to be part of um and we know it has one way we know it has values we have other departments outside the county who actually pay to do the the same thing. So they see enough value that they'll actually write a check. So again, thank you for letting us have the presentation, and we look forward to doing this for as long as I own the racetrack. And the track is now operating, what, 214 days a year now.

» That's a dramatic increase in its utilization and the input of tourism dollars into Kershaw County, sir. And I would like to say one last thing. We'll see you on the Lemons block party. Okay. Thank you very much. thank you sheriff and merry christmas the next item is public comments and also and it's also public comments in regards to an ordinance adapting adopting a redistricting plan for kershaw county redefining the six single member county council districts reapportioned as to population the maps are up on the wall and they're also have been available to the public for several weeks um with that i'll open up public comments mr chairman six people signed up for public comments yeah the first person signed up is tom webb the third mr webb please sir i suppose the sheriff's department's go

» ing to get an awful lot of young fellows wanting to join after watching that video pearl harbor 80 years ago um an obvious war declared war people knew they were at war uh had some other wars since then that were never declared but there was still really wars now i think we're in a sneaky war where our enemies are hoping we don't know we're at war easier to fight somebody when they don't know they're at war there's uh something that um soldiers out on the uh out in the field don't want to hear anybody at a fire base or any small encampment they don't want to hear they're inside the perimeter i think they're inside the perimeter here um we're being overrun gone way beyond politics it's it's it's kind of war really a sneaky war been going on for a while education medicine communications finan

» ces they're picking away at us all kind of ways uh i got in trouble with um some of my veterans friends it's odd how the american spirit is um i wouldn't say it has gone away but it's different from what it used to be back during pearl harbor when people knew they were at war i had this little sign it's war not politics uh some of my veteran friends took issue with me for for this kind of surprised me it's war not politics it's gone way beyond politics what's going on to us what's happening to us pearl harbor made it clear to those people back then something else um today is december the 14th it's a day to remember and the history of uh human heroic kindness uh we had an angel of mercy right right here from in this county from up about westville area a long time ago he put his life at risk

» to minister to injured and dying enemies people that just before had wanted to kill him so there were young men far from home like himself and in this case both sides were americans miss frederick berg virginia 1862 december the 14th and northern forces were attacking the southern forces up on a high ground at Mary's height, the southern forces behind a stone wall and a sunken road, and the temperature was going to go below freezing, and there were all these young fellows, Americans, like I say both sides, but these northern Americans were out in this field injured and dying, and our fellow Richard Kirkland from just up the road finally begged permission to cross the line, and the northern forces shot at him a little bit until they realized what he was doing then i guess you could say it pu

» t an end to the battle and i wish that something like this could end all the wars but i've got a poem that i've written some years ago that is good for this day december the 14th when richard kirkland went across the uh the wall put himself at risk trying to help his enemies called december memories richard strode by the sunken road to the field of Yankees dying. American boys all misled when they heard their leaders lying. To the right or to the wrong, when life leaks out through bullet holes, thirst is mighty strong and death may give no quarter. The battle was bad for the northern lads, and the young men cried to the other side for just a little water. Our fellow heard their pleads and sought to fill their needs.

» Canteens and blessings is all I have to give and hope that some of y'all will slip away and live. If victory leads to arrogance i wonder what is one if losing makes us always lost then humankind is done he crossed the stones among the moans and crawled away a fool but he returned his angels yearned to sing the golden rule now each december we'll recall how richard kirkland at the wall gave us christmas we'll remember his christmas present to us all uh thank you very much mr webb uh Mr. DuBose the second person that signed up is Bob Giorgi Giorgi Giorgi Giorgi Giorgi Mr.

» Giorgi please Bob Giorgi thank you appreciate the opportunity to be here tonight and what I wanted to do was just make some comments about KC Trails and some of the progress and our purpose kc trails came about a little over two years ago really as an outgrowth of the uh the vision kershaw 2030 the section in there dealing with recreation where the goal was to expand and promote opportunities for recreation so we have a group that has been quite active over the last couple of years and i've given you a handout that lists a lot of the things that we've done so i'm not going to go through all of this but you want to highlight some things um we believe casey trails believes that you know an extensive robust and diverse trail system within the county adds value in many ways you know first the a

» dditional recreation opportunities contribute to improved well-being uh the more outdoor engagement uh improves the participants health and trail systems enhance overall quality of life and the the community attractiveness which is important to the private citizens of the county also very attractive to businesses that are looking to make an investment in the county um you know we've been very active in numerous areas and i just want to highlight several in a partnership with the kershaw kershaw county walkers runners and cyclists whole spire which is the previous eat smart move more and live well kershaw we implemented a county-wide road safety awareness program this was something that many many residents in the county have identified as a concern for them as they become more active in the

» county we've also had a very active engagement with the clemson lloyd project to and and there we're trying to promote community access to their trail system consistent with their mission and timing we've been working with goodall state park to add a second multi-use trail to the park and also encouraging them to make improvements to the canoe kayak put in area we're also working with goodall on a first day hike event this is for the january 122 and that's open to the community it'll be a ranger led trail walk and the main reason to do this is to get the community get the county to know goodall park it's a real asset for us and we want casey trails wants to do as much as we can to promote that and that leads me to really a new partnership for casey trails and that's with the the Goodall Fri

» ends in the effort to revitalize Goodall State Park. Tommy Swan, who will follow me, will go into that in more detail. Just in sum, while we've made a lot of progress both in the county and the cities over the last couple of years, you know, it's my recommendation, you know, that a countywide committee to establish, to evaluate, prioritize, and initiate new trail initiatives is very important. I think such a collaborative approach will move more quickly and effectively move Kershaw County forward in attaining the recreation goal and vision, Kershaw 23rd. Thank you. - Thank you very much, Mr. DeVos. Appreciate it. Thanks, sir. Mr. DeVos. that signed up is Tommy Swan. Mr. Swan, thank you, sir.

» Thank you, gentlemen, board members, and I want to say it's been a privilege working closely with Bobby G, as I call him, because I can't pronounce his name half the time. That will suffice. What I want to talk about tonight is Vision 2030, and specifically as it relates to the Good state park let me say first of all that vision 2030 I looked at it a few years ago and it's a great plan for Kershaw County I fully support that but tonight I want to talk about in our Goodale State Park a little bit of background I was born raised in Camden East Camden not too far from the park so it was Kershaw County Park then and I spent most of my childhood days from the time the park was open until it closed uh getting waterlogged and enjoying swimming out there learn to swim out there as a lot of people d

» o and i'm sure there are a lot of people in this audience who likewise spent their childhood days out there um it was originally called the adams mill pond as far as we could tell there is some evidence that it goes back even further than that three civil war days it was originally a mill pond and a plantation and it was built by major samuel adams who was a Union soldier under General Sherman. He liked the area so much, he was impressed with that particular tract of land that he made the mill pond out of it, according to what I'm reading in the archives. It was originally purchased for $44,600, $450,000 in today's money, from W.R. and George's little family. It became the Kershaw County Park in 1955 and then turned over to the state in 1973.

» 764 acres were carved out for the state park as you see it today which includes the track of land on east each side of the stagecoach highway 1198 acres was retained by the county and part of that was used for the landfill that's a little bit of brief history now it was named as a state park after nr goodell and i'm really impressed when i went back to read the history of it the rich history of it because roland as his name was was a florist in camden and put a lot of energy into and had a great vision for the park and he and a few other people were on the Commission and they pushed and lobbied very hard to get this property seeing what the kind of vision it could be for the citizens of Kershaw County now if you go to the archives there's a good history of Good Elk State Park it's available

» encourage everyone to read that vision 2030 what it's created in 2016 is a great plan for Kershaw County and if you look at the plan it talks about in our good out Lisa mentioned specifically in our good out in two key areas economic growth and recreation and it's part of the objective number two to develop a comprehensive network of recreation trails greenways and paths and it simply states this as one of the strategies work with public and private sector entities to identify and develop they use access points of lake water including facilities camping fishing and picnic another it says engage South Carolina State Parks to identify a strategic plan for expanded use of Goodell State Park so Goodell State Park is as part of this plan for the recreation if you go back and look at also at econ

» omic growth it's also mentioned as an integral part of economic growth or for Kershaw County so it is critical for Kershaw County so why is NR Goodell important for Vision 2030? Number one, East Camden needs it. Let them know that this is their vision as well. They've got a gym that's out there in this 764-acre park, and it's something they should be proud of. In fact, the entire county should be very proud of it. The park could boost economic development. I mean, if you look at the land use in that part of the county, some of the cheapest acres you could find, so you would expect some would-be suitor would be looking at that area. It'd be nice to have more amenities like you have the airport located in that area to offer them as a place that they can locate their business.

» Now, without Vision 2030, what we could see is the park and the vision. The park could decay over time, and that would be a tragedy. The history of the park, like many parks across America, when we fall upon hard times, those are the first places where states and federal governments, they choose to do their cuts. And you have to really stay on top of those and replenish the pool at some point. So what can we do? Keep good old State Park at the top of your vision and realize the integral part that it has in making this community better. And I think you've given me the time on that. Please wrap it up, sir. Okay. Well, I'll wrap it up now. No, if you have more to say, please. I do, but Judge is coming up next. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Swan.

» right mr hardest bob and tommy have pretty well covered my speech and tommy likes a little more on his i likely yield my time to him to finish up if that's all right with y'all yes sir that certainly is go ahead please i regret that rules say five minutes per person or less and i appreciate that judge hardest thank you go ahead tommy car does have the park does have excellent kayaking and canoeing facilities that are some of the best in the state and it is a true gem unfortunately run and maintain budget it's it's difficult to survive and to keep things up to quality and that's really the way things have been and it's not really anyone to blame on that there's a lot of things that need to be done so i encourage keep in our good alice part of your plan but also help be a part of the strategy

» to revive the parking and get the usage up as the plan suggests i'd like to see a few amenities out there or more amenities and i think it could offer more than what it has now i'd love to see it as a garden park plant more flowers azaleas you know like hepton park is heaven park is a beautiful park in the spring that's the national everybody recognizes as they is to have out there and of course swan lake and sumpter kind of like that name and uh we also have uh 230 acres across the road the old pickett thomas property just waiting for someone to have a vision for that um so one thing i have to offer is uh we've created a friends of goodow facebook group page i encourage everyone to go there and look at the pictures of the park in yesteryear and also some recent photos that have been posted

» on the website and feel free to comment and talk about what you like about Goodall State Park it is a great park like I say and at some point there will be a 501 c3 we'll have the opportunity to roll our sleeves up get involved with local businesses community action and make the park something very attractive for the ones local in the county and also those throughout the state thank you for your time thank you very much judge hardest and mr swan thank you very much indeed sir uh mr devose well the next person is judge hardest but i believe he yielded his time all right i believe that's correct and so the next person is william tetherton mr tetherton please thank you mr chairman and members of the county council reason i'm here is i think y'all have it as new business on last page for a rene

» wed and reimagined approach to the boat landing. When I got the agenda a few minutes ago, I read that, and I read a renewed and reimagined approach to the boat landing, and what that tells me is that y'all have probably heard this problem before, and immediately it came to my mind that whatever I taught y'all before fell on deaf ears. The reason I'm here is because I'm a lifelong citizen of Kershaw County. That river is one of my favorite places to go. My wife and I use it a lot of times to go camping on it.

» and i've been using that ramp for quite a while now gentlemen that's a dangerous situation reason this danger is very simple if you go down to the sumpter county highway 76 the dock is below excuse me the dock is above the current so you have a nice little flat pool of water there you can launch your boat and get back in retrail your boat and get out of there without damaging your property or potential loss of life what's happening out there at lugo is whoever designed that thing that's a design defect very simple when you launch your boat you launch your boat with the dock downstream the current is coming upstream what what does the current do it sweeps you into the dock and from personal experience i can tell you this now i'm a boater somebody tweeted on uh on facebook why would they lear

» n to run a boat well let me tell you my wife and i bowed up my wife and i both are licensed coast guard boat captains we ran dive charter boats off the coast for five years till we got tired of doing it and but we know how to run a boat so the problem is when you come into the boat ramp grab into the landing and for those who fly airplanes know what grabbing into a soft crosswind is you have to crab into the landing and hope the current doesn't come over and swamp your boat and sink your boat that happened to me now what I did was I came in I crabbed my boat in tried to land it on the trailer the current came down nothing to block the current water came over the back of my boat i immediately backed out for the drain went up and drained my water out and tried it again well it didn't work aga

» in because the current was too strong nothing blocked the current so what happened i capsized lucky for me i was a little younger than i am now i got underneath my boat walked on the bottom of the river walk my boat up to the bank portions people there helped me pull my boat out and reload my boat again and before the plugs and drain it that's not the way that ramp should be designed now can you bring the microphone over people i'm having trouble hearing you that's not the way that boat ramp should be designed it's a very simple matter to correct it put the ramp above and put the boat dock above the ramp to block the water or get something to block that current so you don't have that problem with the current coming in banging your boat up against the dock now i understand this was go approa

» ches would you bring the microphone center i'm still about that yeah there you go people can hear you now thanks now i wasn't going to get too much involved in this because what i started doing was i started going down river and launching my boat at private ramps i didn't want to bang my boat up anymore and i don't want to jeopardize me drowning sad part about me capsizing my boat is i lost two of my favorite henry niles custom-made rod and reels henry niles died several years ago and i valued those rod and reels anyway i lost it i ran into jimmy jones jimmy said we have anything we need to do for you on county council sure just approach this thing so what i'm bringing to your attention today is y'all have a not y'all the county has a very simple dangerous situation out there that needs to

» be corrected well i talked to senator a senator about it her comment was we've been working on it i've been working on it for a long time i talked to vic dabney about it i've been working over 14 months so again when y'all renew and reimagine something y'all have already entertained again is falling on deaf ears now comment i get from my representatives is very simply this county doesn't own the ramp dnr doesn't own the ramp nobody knows who owns the ramp so i'm sure our county attorney can do some research and find out who owns that ramp and whoever owns that ramp should be responsible for it so chairman burns you assured me when i talked to you about it that you were going to get something done about it and i i said well when and my comment was y'all gonna point a committee and the commit

» tee's gonna look at it and again it's gonna fall on deaf ears gentlemen i'm a lawyer i'm a trial lawyer and i don't chase ambulances i usually get there before the ambulance gets there thank you thank you sir anyway so what i'd like for y'all to do now i have some photographs here which i'd like to pass around can you uh wrap it up we're at five minutes now sure as long as it's just i would like him to have a little extra time this serious nature this mystery we have five minutes um if you want to pass those out they make two more comments yeah go ahead number one i'm gonna pass these photographs around for people who've had their doc both banged up against the ramps and suffered property damage thank you very much if you don't mind i'm going to ask the people in the audience who's had thes

» e same problems to raise their hand if they would please let's see yes just for the record one two three four five six seven eight it's over ten people and plus two members up here and myself as well thank you all right so the county council now been put on notice that thank you william y'all have a serious problem a dangerous problem and kevin i appreciate you commenting me that you're going to get something done about it that's correct thank you uh mr dubose the last person signed up yeah the last person signed up is richard hunter say again the last name hunter h-u-n mr hunter thank you richard hunter good evening fellas thank you sir hey richard thank you um first thing i want to say is i appreciate y'all putting on that trash pickup that y'all had in the river a month or so ago that pl

» ace really needs it i mean it could probably get it every once a month and be good okay but we're We're here to talk about the boat ramp, and I'm not no engineer. What Mr. Tetherton said, it is a dangerous situation. I don't know how to fix it, or maybe the least expensive way would be to fix what we got instead of putting in a new one. I've talked to some people, and if you could maybe some way put something, riprap or metal or something out there to make an eddy over there where the water is steady, where you can put the boat on the ramp, take your boat off, would maybe be the best economical way to do that. I don't know. It is dangerous. I've repaired a few trailers and stiffened up their guidons and stuff like that because of that reason.

» And it all comes back to the water flow coming out of the dam. Can't nobody control that. You know, that's going to happen no matter what. I don't know what's the best way to do it, but it is a concern. I'm concerned about it. I don't want to see nobody get hurt down there whatsoever we got enough problems down there without somebody getting hurt um if we can make that a better place that would be great i mean that's that's really all i got to say fellas you know and i appreciate y'all's time thank you sir and we'll get to that later in the agenda thank you very much uh mr dubose that concludes the sign up list thank you very much everybody for coming in and signing up and more of that later in our agenda we move now to public comments regarding an ordinance adopting a redistricting plan fo

» r Kershaw County Council redefining the six single-member county council districts reapportioned as to population in accordance with the 2020 federal decennial consensus and applicable laws and requirements uh Mr. DeVos anybody sign up for that nobody signed up for that Mr. Chair okay I'll open the hearing and I'll also tell you uh the redistricting plan is on the wall above us i certainly can thank you very much mr tetherton yeah thank you uh thank you mr tetherton uh seeing there is no comments we'll close the public hearing and we move now into the agenda which is on the board and the adoption of the agenda no you have no public here can we have a motion to approve the agenda most to approve the agenda mr chairman uh mr tucker a second second second from mr gardner any discussion on this

» chairman uh yeah i believe we have a public hearing on the agenda we have two we have one more public hearing mr chairman i don't see it in my written thing here hang on a minute uh the printout i was given it's uh in field yes sir you read the uh you read the public comments about oh my goodness yep it's my mistake public hearing regarding an ordinance uh authorizing the execution and delivery of an amendment in a fee and lieu ad valorem taxes agreement to and between kershaw county uh and whale kim formally identified by the county as project bobcat including any current or future affiliates or related entities as sponsor provide for an extension of the investment period therein and other related matters so we'll open that public hearing and seeing there's no one coming forward we'll clos

» e that and let me go back to make sure i'm reading the proper one here so with that we move to the adoption of the agenda and we have a motion from mr tucker and a second from mr gardner any discussion on the agenda uh seeing there is none i have a little bit what i was asked to do is to bring forward uh as a prerogative of the chairman the briefing on vision kershaw 2030 and we'll do that uh immediately after the approval of the minutes the minutes being at tab a page three any further discussion with that we move to a vote all those in favor signify by raising your hand and it's unanimous and we move on to bringing up a vision 2030 discussion minutes yeah the minutes and then minutes okay we'll do the minutes yes uh we have now next to your minutes which is uh at tab a page three and uh c

» an we have a motion to approve the minutes most of the minutes mr thank you the second second mr gardner any discussion uh seeing there is none we move to a vote all those in favor of the minutes signify by raising your hand and it's unanimous and we now bring up the vision document thank you uh please uh come on up forward the item is a vision 2030 approval and you have a hard copy we'll first ask for a motion and then we'll have the briefing uh can we have a motion to approve the vision document mr chair i'd make a motion that we approve the vision 30 document mr connell a second second from mr tucker and with that we move into discussion paula would you kindly take us through it thank you on behalf of our core team thank you mr chairman and members of kershaw county council for the oppor

» tunity to present vision kershaw 2030 as reimagined in 2021. the second slide please now bring that microphone dead center yes there you go see um this uh this particular slide represents some of the key concepts behind the successes that we have had in the first five years concepts like collaboration and teamwork creating a culture of winning a sense of community pride and how they have led to more recent successes since the visioning effort was first approved by Kershaw County Council in 2015 we've made annual presentations to County council where we have noted survey results of over 1800 people outlined many successes and accomplishments and some of those born of competition others out of need but always with a great sense of community at the center of them tonight we hope to highlight s

» ome of our most recent success stories slide three we've all had to learn to navigate a changing landscape with changes occurring in all of our institutions such as our local hospital being acquired by the medical university of south carolina system as well as leadership changes on many boards and municipalities council and other local and stated state elected positions and of course in rebuilding in record time i might add after an ef2 tornado hit north central high school followed almost immediately by COVID losses in our county and an ever changing economy as a result by four.

» So in February of this year, we committed to you members of County Council to look again at Vision Kershaw 2030 to ensure that it remains as robust and relevant and viable in the next ten years and beyond as it has been in its first five years. With the help of a facilitator, all of these goals that you see were achieved. So what you have here on your table in front of you is the virtual Kershaw County draft of reimagined 2021 and the areas covered in the refresh of that document. Next slide. Those areas are economic growth, land use, county services, excellence, infrastructure and transportation, and a lifetime of health, education, recreation and culture.

» and what we've done and you'll see as we go along that these are all connected there's not a single area that we have in vision kershaw county version vision kershaw 2030 that's not connected in some way to at least one other area that's shown by six please so in your document in the handbook you'll see a number of bullet points those most important to our discussion tonight as are the achievements and successes that we've had in the first five years that's new to in addition to showing you the goals and the strategies for each section we've added achievements and successes first by section the second item is that of case studies and we'll get into that in just a minute so the next slide please wanted to show you that some of these slides that you see here are the logos on this slide before

» you are familiar to you and some may not be but they represent either years months to years of work to bring an idea or a goal to fruition while others represent our values as a community. I'd like to thank Mr. Cummings with Carolina Motorsports for being here tonight and for the services they provide to our law enforcement group and I'd like to also recognize Herschel County Trails as a good partner that we see doing great things.

» A couple of the others that you may not recognize are the sheriff's logo is up there a deputy sheriff the only one we could lay our hands on at the time that represents a program called project lifesaver and you'll see that as an accomplishment or a success story under the county service excellence and law enforcement that program protects the vulnerable people in our population the elderly and those with cognitive conditions and it helps as like a chip that you would carry on your arm or in a watch and if you have a loved one who begins to wander or gets lost or whatever that program will significantly enhance the time that it takes to find those people. And that saves lives. Another, the heart shape that you see is Blanketing Families. And that's a charity, a nonprofit out of Elgin.

» They were recently awarded Elgin Citizens of the Year for the work that they're doing. And their mission is to cover families in need with everything from blankets to love. We think that's pretty special. Mr. Swan, his wife, he's gone now, but his wife has spearheaded the Kershaw County Clean Communities Commission, and that has been a great, great program that the county council reestablished and got set up several years ago. They can put you in touch with all kinds of resources if you want to conduct your own cleanup of a particular neighborhood. And the puzzle pieces represent the Play Foundation, which is improving the lifestyles of Kershaw County residents and promoting programs that enhance the development of our youth.

» And you'll see the Play Foundation is behind a number of big projects in our county. They were the force behind All-America City, 2018 that we received for the entire county and most recently to bark parks and flash pads and things like that and the the final one is the the star the purple star which represents the purple star designation of the county of the Kershaw County School District the purple star designation is one that's given to schools that are best equipped and designated to help the children of military families when they're in our district. You won't see much about the people behind those logos because they're always behind the scenes making a difference. It's where they've seen a need or they've sought change.

» They always look to the vision to partner on projects to make something happen and as an aside to this we we conducted four community public meetings this summer and there was always somebody from one of those areas involved in a meeting they go to where it's they need to be they always showed up next in on the new items on the in the vision are three case studies and they highlight themes of the vision again collaboration between public and private sectors nonprofits teamwork communication persistence inclusion diversity change relationships resiliency and again above all a strong sense of community please keep the microphone centered people can't hear you as I said it's all about community in everything that we have done for the last six years that that same thing keeps coming back as peo

» ple value their neighborhoods and their communities and they want to engage next is the revised partnership matrix in the vision and that goes to some of the many of the partners that the vision 2030 is partnering with to make a difference in our community most of these in the back have a social media presence and/or a website for getting more information it's a great way to get involved and to make a difference in your neighborhood and community next slide vision Kershaw 2030 as reimagined and continues to put people first and provide the impetus for how we can work together to guide policy, operational and budget decisions, and to achieve great things as a county, to be the great place.

» There will always be challenges, but with a vision, we think that that makes it easier to overcome those challenges. So with that, to members of council, thank you for your continued support of this vision effort and a nod to the Kershaw County Recreation Department for putting on the tinsel trail out at the watery Veterans Park if you haven't been there you need to go it's 50 trees plus some other light installations that people organizations and individuals have partnered with the county to put up a tree that represents their interest and it it really is a good effort and being enjoyed by a lot of folks locally as well as being in the news as a place to come to to look at the great lights and that's it well thank you very much one point though is that WL TX announced it as in Camden but i

» t's in Lugov and I was out in Lugolf this morning and they made sure, I made sure of that point. Thank you very much. Can you tell us who's here from the core team that wrote this document? - Susan Wieckowski is here. - Yeah, Susan. - Steve Van Horn. - Terrific. - Kevin was supposed to, Kevin Rhodes was gonna be running late. He had another engagement, as did Michael Wright, but I'll recognize the other members of the committee. - Go ahead, please.

» - Mike Connolly, Paul Curtis, george gibson kevin rhodes dennis stuber steve van horn lewis wilson susan wachowski and michael wright and those were all volunteers and they operated without any pay and gave several hours of their time over the last nine months with that i want to open up for a discussion starting with mr connell ben thank you mr chairman um this vision has changed a lot since we started working on it four or five years ago some things are very similar but as it's grown and interest has grown particularly this last cycle i'd have to say there were maybe 60 or 70 folks community leaders that showed up at whether it was blaney or stover i forget exactly but i just know we were packed into one of the small libraries there and there's a lot of people who are really interested ev

» erybody from from different economic backgrounds different religions different races commenting on what they thought about kershaw county and how it could improve in that sense it's kind of a living document uh it changes as we have additional needs and it's also um open to interpretation mr chairman one thing that i looked at tonight that that just hit me with the comments that we've had i remember mr holland and others getting up in the past and then we had mr tetterton and others get up tonight talking about um boat ramp safety in in part of it being open to interpretation you've got a section uh on page 34 for example part c talks about acquiring green space along the watery river that leaves us open to try to figure out how we can determine what the state needs to do to say we either o

» wn it or they do uh there has been a lot of buck passing it sounds like back and forth um and i know we have this on the agenda a little bit later but the point is even this issue fits into vision 2030 and how do we fix it uh i do think it's time for action on that issue and i would interpret it that way so that we can take action as well thank you mr chairman thank you sir who had the second there is that mr mr tucker please Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to say thank you to all of you, the committee and all the hard work that you guys have put in, as well as Mr. Swan was talking about Thomas Pickett Park.

» I do not want to lose focus on that 200 and something acres over there into all that we're doing, because that's a very important part as well, and especially to the African-American community, because at one time that was the only place that they could go and play golf. And I have been TALKING WITH MY COLLEAGUE, COUNCILMAN SNOTGRASS, WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING VERY EXCITING WITH THAT THAT COULD LET EVERYBODY KNOW WHAT THE HISTORY, HOW RICH IT WAS THERE, EVEN IF IT'S NOT A GOLF COURSE COMPLETE, MAYBE A NINE HOLE PAR THREE, SOMETHING WHERE WE CAN COLLABORATE WITH OTHER SOURCES LIKE, YOU KNOW, GOLF ONE OR PRO GOLF THAT WOULD BE ABLE TO SPONSOR US and level resources i think there's some some things out there that we can do and it can be a a great source for our young kids coming up to be able to

» have somewhere to go and and it's not where it costs them an arm or a leg or their parents where they can have decent activities as forest golfers can yeah thank you thank you mr tucker uh other comments please uh mr jones uh mr gardner yeah just go ahead thank you for your time thank you for all the the work that you do it's a tremendous amount of work i know that goes into this to to make it what it is that uh and research to revamp what we started and uh re-engage and change direction in some cases or what have you so uh it's an important document i think for us to uh for a roadmap for what we're trying to do here in the county and to keep those things in front of us that we don't forget on those things that we need to do so thank you again for your time thank you other comments was that

» you Russell yeah excuse me now I'd like to thank the entire committee for working on this I know it's a lot of work the one section in particular that that catches my eye is the land use section and the different objectives I really appreciate you guys including the agriculture and forestry and ecology in this section we don't know how important it is and or maybe some of us do some of us don't how important it is for people to be able to get out and enjoy Lake watery to be able to get out and enjoy the watery River we've got a heritage in Kershaw County we've got a heritage like no other from the time I was a child I spent time with my dad and he's sitting in the back of room in the back of his bass boats we've got some of the fondest memories together growing up in the back of a boat and

» my son's sitting right over here we spend time in the woods and we want to continue to see kershaw county wooded we've had a lot of development we understand development's coming but i stand behind our local builders that that build the people that live in our communities and i like that initiative that's development developed smart and wisely you know and support these local people so that we do have green space in our communities so that we don't become like we've seen other communities overrun with very dense housing developments that'll clog our roads and make it tough to travel through kershaw county so i think what i see in here i feel that and i and i hope i'm not missing that but but thank you for all of y'all's hard work and including all of the agriculture and forestry sections th

» at i see in here thank you very much other comments if i may uh mr jones a couple of questions mainly this is going to be to mr carpenter and ken bose in the 2030 vision does it state in your mind any positions of encouragement for government to invest into commercial private businesses yeah mr jones i think you can interpret sections in there how individual council members may choose there's no part of the plan that obligates the county to do anything or any city or government to do anything it's merely a vision of what citizens in our community we're seeing i think if you uh you might be able to interpret aspects of that but there's not a specific area where we sit there and say um the kershaw county is is you know the vision is that we would invest in in that and and the reason i say bec

» ause there's so much good in here i mean it's there's a lot of things that i really like where i have a little bit of concern is you know what it says expand inventory shovel ready sites that incorporate partnerships with the you know second department of commerce utilities and private businesses organizations and then there's another statement. You share a focus on small businesses as well as large employers. What worries me and scares me about this, and even when it says develop incentives to encourage entrepreneurship while also attracting expanding local, you know, and different forms of economic development, lodging, restaurants, and conference facilities. You know, when you talk about restaurants, you talk about hotels, those are private.

» And we just went through a situation where we did some incentives for a private business. From everything I understand, if it does happen, it will have probably a hotel, it'll be a boutique hotel, it'll also be a restaurant in it, and it will be a bar in it, which will be in direct competition, you know, with other mom-and-pop organizations. And then with the policy that we just passed, I think that policy even says something about a policy in this vision, creating policies for private, public, you know, partnerships or whatever.

» I feel that with the ordinance we just passed, I'm not saying this, that puts us in a position where we decide who gets the freebies and who doesn't, and there won't be any more mom-and-pop businesses, whether it's restaurants, lumber companies, whatever, because all the big box stores will get, that have the millions of dollars, they're going to come here, and we will pick and choose who gets a free ride for a few years. But, you know, that's where I have a concern. I mean, this is a great piece of work. Otherwise, and I understand it's just a vision. I understand there's no budget for any of this. It's an outlook for us in the future.

» But because of my position on the boutique hotel, this is, you know, incentivize additional lodging, restaurants, providers, you know, and also it goes over here. I saw, excuse me one second, you know, promote policies that preserve and promote the unique nature of downtown key building streets and public spaces that makes me think we're talking about what we just did a situation like with the boutique hotel which i did not support so i asked mr carpenter and mr devose help me understand where i'm missing to vote on that mr jones i guess if i am you know as i said i think each one of you is going to interpret some of these in developing incentives for example to encourage entrepreneurs etc etc i think a big part of the discussions that i've heard people say is there a lot of incentives that

» the county can do that we have done in the past for example to encourage um subdivision some years ago we we allowed sewer impact fees to be waived until they actually took out building permits versus requiring them to pay up front that's an incentive that's that's so an incentive is is what you decide it is it doesn't have to be tax incentives it could be policy decisions It can be incentives of trying to encourage people to, you know, to take advantage of grant programs that are already out there through other entities. So I don't think incentives you're reading at is meeting tax incentives, but I think the intention is incentives can be a lot of different things that y'all will make the decision on each case by case.

» And so as we look to work with development, are there ways that we can, with our policies or even our ordinances, structure them in ways that encourage things? doesn't necessarily require us to pass tax policies and incentive yeah you know and then i see on page 31 under this item it says promote policies that preserve and promote the unique nature of downtown key buildings streets and public spaces you know then when i hear that that the city has bought a building and they're going to tear it down make some parking space out of it may be true may not be true but that's what i've heard for a private business that they just gave an 85 tax abatement too i see look out in this room here i see a lot of private business owners are a few of them out HERE AND YOU KNOW I'M SURE THAT THAT NOBODY WAN

» TS GOVERNMENT GETTING INVOLVED INTO THE PRIVATE SECTOR THAT MR DEVOTE'S LEGAL LEGAL POINT ON MY POSITION MR JONES I THINK THE ADMINISTRATOR HAS CORRECTLY ARTICULATED THAT IT'S ONLY A VISION AND IT'S NO THE SENTENCE IF ANY WOULD HAVE TO BE VOTED ON BY COUNTY COUNCIL SO I THINK NOTHING IN THIS DOCUMENT IS LEGISLATIVE IT'S NOT A LEGISLATIVE DOCUMENT AND I'M TRYING TO UNDERSTAND BETTER SO YOU'RE TELLING ME THAT IF I VOTE FOR THIS my vote is in no way supporting competition from with government and private business that is correct this is not a legislative document it's a policy a legislative document but we also have a policy that says if somebody comes in here this private business x amount of millions of dollars you know they will they they will be eligible for incentives just as the uh bouti

» que hotel was which which is on a six-month delay. Well, the policy also says that you view it on a case-by-case basis. The policy does. So the policy is not self-effectuating. You would have to actually enact any incentives. County Council would. So you're telling me that a vote for this will not say that I support government getting involved in private business? It will not say that, no. Or giving incentives to private business so that they're in direct competition with other private businesses? Mr. Jones, it does not say that. I agree. I think y'all have done a great job. And I hope you don't take my questions as being negative. If I don't understand, I've got to ask the questions to understand. Now, I'm going to hold Mr. DuBose and I'm going to hold Mr.

» Carpenter 150% responsible for what they just told me because I came in here based on what I read and I was very uncomfortable because I voted against the horrible investment that we were going to give to that boutique hotel that was coming here and of course you know i didn't know anything about it or there wasn't but one little quick meeting on it you know executive session then i didn't hear anything else about it we're ready to vote and things like that just bother me but uh i think this is an open book it's a plan it's a direction it's got a lot of great stuff in it you folks have done a good job you folks are the reason i'm going to vote for it as well as um mr deposes and mr carpenters insurance that i'm not supporting government giving tax abatements to private businesses okay thank

» you other comments oh yeah mr chairman oh man right go ahead yeah um you know there are tax abatements or fee lows that occur with any private business whether you call it private business industry commercial or otherwise but i think the document's holistic it's non-binding in any way it gives uh feedback from the community on what they would like to see happen overall there's a lot of differing opinions in it and one policy mr jones i think has been helpful and that we all kind of work together on with other folks in the community might be central carolina and working with the school district and the county so that doesn't happen unless everybody kind of came together on that particular policy where if your grade point average is a particular number in crucial county you can go to central

» carolina and get some education and training you can partner up with local businesses so that's that's the private sector who you can work on their widget maker whatever their piece of machinery is at some of the incubator bays you can work on it and learn while you're still in high school and by the time you graduate you can be seasoned and experienced getting certificates in welding or some other specialty and have a job when you come out if that's the right track for you so to me that would be a policy and incentive that has come out of this document with various government entities and private sector folks working together to try to improve it particularly for young people i don't talk okay other comments yes sir i have much respect for my colleague but i don't totally agree with everyt

» hing you just said you know we had welding nurses of studies long before vision 2030 was here i've just said i'm going to support it so i don't want to write the vote anymore by saying too much and change my mind again all right thank you all for um adopting it and um i'd like to think that everybody will give it a um another read-through to talk about all the things that have occurred despite very difficult times that that our county has been through i didn't mean to shortchange the three case studies but those truly show how our community the different partners in our community come together to do great things yeah thank you paula if i could all right go ahead mr jones respect for mr bob and mr van horn sitting out there and i appreciate you guys really jumping into it and uh being here y

» ou folks being here has helped me change my no vote that was going to be tonight to a yes vote so thank you very much thank you very much uh with that i'm ready to close it out it is not a plan uh i will tell you the subject to the approval uh tonight it'll be posted on the webpage on thursday by our wonderful IT department, and it will be provided universally across the county in hard copy so that you all may see it and use it in preparation for the retreat, much as the dialogue we just had on incentives. Thirdly, I will tell you that in talking to some of the younger groups on the core group, like Michael Wright, he said he doesn't read things in paper. He reads it on the internet, so it will be on the internet in about 48 hours if we approve it.

» I would also remind you that we have been using the old document for five years, and it's been very useful to us. We use it at every single retreat at the start of the budget process, and Susan Redkowski and others of the core group said, for God's sake, don't publish a document that goes on the shelf it is read for each retreat and we measure our progress against the vision every time we meet in january and february and it leads us to a vote on the budget by the end of june lastly as others have said thanks again to the core group thanks to the stakeholders who showed up for all the various sensing sessions that were done over the last nine months and i assure the that we take this very seriously with that let's move to a vote all those in favor signify by raising your hand and it's unanim

» ous thank you to core group well done and with that we move to the other items on our agenda the first in a series of resolutions item number one is on page seven in your electronic book tab B for those with hardcopy and up on the screen a resolution authorizing under certain conditions project orion a fee in lieu mr carpenter can you take us through this please sir mr chairman we have tonight resolution and later on first reading of an ordinance that will authorize a fee in lieu for the company still known as project orion we have previously dealt with this company discussions related to our spec building okay with that can we have a motion to approve make a motion to approve mr tucker a second second for mr gardner a discussion do you want to go a little bit further on that mr carpenter j

» ust to give us a little more background uh mr chairman yes uh this is a company that'll be making it if you move the microphone closer this is a company that'll be making sorry about making an investment in this county um of some millions of dollars um hiring our citizens and uh this is uh this has been previously discussed just the uh fee and lieu agreement that we've reached with them and we have mr burgess here i know he's hard working at that uh gentlemen do you have questions or discussion mr tucker no further uh mr gardner no question others all right well very good with that what i've seen there is no discussion all right mr jones going to carpenter again just how many jobs how much money um mr burgess uh mr burgess is coming up and he'll help us through you might as well get in the

» job seat tonight uh jeff go ahead thank you chairman members council uh councilman jones it's uh 10.4 million uh 54 jobs um average wage is going to be 25.93 an hour uh which breaks out about 51 860 a year average salary thank you thank you very good questions any other discussion again uh you continue on your winning streak jeff uh with that i think we moved to uh yeah go ahead and sit down we'll get you back one more quick question from mr yeah russell go ahead what what's the fee in lieu agreed to is it six percent yes there's six percent twenty years no ssrcs and it it locks the millage for twenty years yes sir okay that's typical yes sir some of us won't be here in twenty years thank you yep uh with that uh we move to vote all those in favor signify by raising your hand and it's unanim

» ous thank you mr tucker for that motion number two is a resolution authorizing under certain conditions uh fee and lou for project panel it's on page 11 in your electronic books it's on the screen and it's at tab c uh can we have a motion uh mr carpenter first of all explain a little bit of that please mr chairman council we have in front of you tonight on a resolution as well as a first reading of an ordinance authorizing the issuance of the fee in lieu with the project that is currently known as project panel panel and mr burgess be ready to answer those questions because they'll be asked again come on up and have a seat closer to the mic can we have a motion to approve please thank you mr gardner a second from mr tucker uh and with that um go ahead and go ahead and jeff just come up and

» give us that detail please percentage net investment jobs yes thank you again chairman and members uh the proposed investment 7.93 million um which is roughly 3.4 in machinery and equipment 4.4 in building improvements it's going to be roughly 80 new jobs with an average salary of 20 or excuse me an average hourly wage of 20 dollars an hour 20 dollars uh and the fee in lieu is uh six percent for 20 years uh no ssrcs okay I have a comment yeah but first let me have the lead here Mr. Gardner Mr.

» Tucker no okay Jimmy go ahead yes sir just just a comment uh we were dead in the water till you got here and you have absolutely created a tidal wave and you're doing a great job and don't try to correct me on what I just said because what I just said is the truth and thank you so much thank you sir job well done other comments yeah I'll go ahead Russell reiterate the fact that jeff you've done a great job um something that that i'd like to continue to point out to my fellow council members um this fee and loo money we've got a little more flexibility with with how we budget with it and i want to continue to think about the the county fire service it seems like we've got i don't know how many projects since you've been here jeff punch it'll be five this one or six with the next public heari

» ng or the expansion of one so the interesting thing about us being able to structure fee in lieu of tax agreement is we can use that money for county fire service and am i correct in saying that mr carpenter council can determine how those expenses are are spent yes sir and i think this is a great way to fund um county fire where we're handcuffed in other ways i know not everybody agrees with that but i just see so many opportunities with all of these uh these investments in our community so glad to see it and thankful for it and we can take that up in the budget process if i'm uh mr jones go ahead i'm directing this to russell brasil councilman russell brasil job well done i agree with everything you just said you know maybe we could even get rid of the fire fee depending on the amount of

» money exactly we don't know but it comes in and jeff burgess keeps working as hard as he working and we start getting fee in lieu increases as i'm sure we will that would be a what a great gift to give the citizens is to do away with a fee and pay for it with the fee in lieu thank you good job councilman other comments thank you thank you very much um i would say one thing and that is uh jeff is a is a great hire and i think he would tell you both these projects started before he got here but we So I thank you very much for what's your hard level of work, Jeff. But we all stand on the shoulders of those that came before us. And I think Jeff would agree that Peggy McLean did a lot of this. And I appreciate your being humble about that and that discussion you and I had earlier about it.

» So with that, we move to a vote. All those in favor, signify by raising your hand. And it's unanimous. we go to item number three which is to improve the use uh approve the use of arpa funds to purchase property it's at tab d and page 13 in your electronic book and with that mr carpenter can you explain what we have in front of us sure members of council i have in front of you tonight a resolution that would authorize and allow myself as the administrator to negotiate and deal with the property owners around the wastewater treatment plant to allow us to purchase land for the purpose of expanding and buffering that facility we discussed this at length in the spring the council approved expenditures from the arpa funds for this purpose and further passed a policy that would guide us in how we

» would spend this money in relation to our wastewater treatment plant very good with a very interesting discussion can we have a motion to approve so moves uh mr russell brazel and a second second uh from mr connell thank you very much uh anything further on this issue before we begin uh discussion um merely that again i asked council's uh approval to allow me to do the necessary negotiations any determined conclusion we brought back to this council for their actual approval of any deal that would be made to be clear we're not talking a monetary amount here at this point i'm talking acreage uh so this gives you authority to negotiate and to be clear to be brought back into council that's great vote uh with that mr brasil go right ahead so this is a step in the right direction um we all know

» that our sewer capacity is is kind of brimming right it's it's close to full um to buy the correct amount of acreage um that's what a 550 acre track surrounding yes sir what are we on now 35 acres roughly yes or the less well i certainly encourage you to to look into doing exactly what we need to do to secure the necessary land to expand our sewer and be able to serve all of our citizens is there anything further to discuss any details at this point or is this just early stages early sir okay thank you for for taking care of that that's something that needs to be done uh mr connell you had a second mr chairman i just look forward to learning more about the negotiation posture very good i have a comment uh mr jones go ahead and i want to make some clarification too as far as where i stand on

» this you know once again i presented a a solid great great great plan better than any of this have been up here yet that we could pay for our sewer have some money left over pay off for 6.5 million dollar debt pay off 7.2 million dollar in um expansion we're doing on the southern loop you know uh they'll say pay off our 6.5 million dollar debt also with our increased expansion from two to four mgd it would have also provided money to do that where we wouldn't have to go out and get 10 to 15 maybe 20 million dollars on the expansion now this land is going to cost us some money but you but my plan my great great plan was voted down and it was solid and i mean it was backed by engineers and attorneys whenever i did this a couple of times within my last 15 years but i'm going to vote for this b

» ecause one i think you're a good negotiator and and i and i know we have to do something but i just personally i just i feel very sad up here today that i have to vote you know to well to go out and try to purchase land when there was a better way not my opinion in fact i'm very rarely wrong when i come up here and say something uh in my opinion anyway thank you mr governor uh other comments i'd like to clarify mr razzle go ahead one or two things and that's every you know we all do have different options um i think and respectfully i'll say this um our sewer system being in the hands of the citizens of kershaw county i feel like is important i'd hate for for something to be set back in our feet at a later date that that could have been problematic for whomever purchased it if it didn't go

» swell they could they could walk away and the problem would still land at our feet and that that's just the way i feel about it certainly um not to disagree with mr jones he had a great plan um but i think at this point in time we've got a large sum of money that the federal government's bestowed upon us to spend in a in a fashion that would improve the citizens of kershaw county's abilities to build homes have sewer more readily available to them and we probably won't see this again in the the next 10 or 15 years this is probably the opportunity to expand our sewer system and still gain and keep the control that we have to navigate it the way we see fit in a point in which I think mr.

» Jones and I would agree we'd like to see it stand on its or I won't speak for him I'll say I would like to see it stand on its own two feet and eliminate the sewer tax that exists it's a it's a small tax but it's a portion of the millage and that would make me feel better about us keeping it we agree on that yes sir that one point but um hey it's all about working together and having different opinions and trying to come up with the right solution so I just wanted to clarify that there was money for this that hopefully will cover a very large portion of it and we can accomplish this without any sort of increase at all in millage so we'll look forward to seeing how that unfolds other comments with that i call the question quick comment yeah go ahead mr jones i just i didn't agree with the fi

» rst part of what he said but i'll tell you what i have much respect for russell brazel's concept of trying to do away and eliminate a unfair sewer tax trying to do away and eliminate uh a fee which fees are taxes in disguise so so i do appreciate your commitment and your fight that you put forth just about every meeting we come here on those issues thank you yes sir thank you thank you for that all the question and all those in favor signify by raising your hand and it's unanimous and we moved in a series of ordinances item number one is the third reading and ordinance authorizing uh in uh in fee and lou uh between kershaw county and whale camp formerly known as bobcat it's on page 16.

» it's a tab e and it's on the screen mr carpenter introduce the topic please sir chairman members counsel you have in front of you tonight for third reading an ordinance that authorizes a fee in lieu with the entity that we originally identified as project bobcat we previously had the public hearing on this issue welcome is the company name as we know mr burgess is available if you have any questions very good uh can we have a motion to approve make the motion then a second second second from mr tucker and with that i'm going to ask mr burgess to come forward and ask the usual five or six answers before we ask a question thank you sir um as uh vic noted this is welcome they have uh already fulfilled they invested in 2019 they've already invested 2.69 million of that commitment of their 3.5 a

» s part of this they have come back for another fee in lieu because they are building a lab a four million dollar investment um to add on to that this investment will create jobs though they have tied no jobs to this at this point in time uh the percentage of philo is six percent for 20 years uh which is just the net of their current agreement this four million is a an extension of 10 years to that existing philo very good it's uh your district ben you had the first question please sir uh yes sir mr chairman i support this i think one point worthy of noting is that uh the former ceo i believe his name was philippe a guy from france came over and got to meet everybody you talked about growth at the area in spite of the change in leadership that that company has had and even i think it was a c

» ompany ownership change they still see it as an area of growth and so that's been encouraging and for that reason in addition to the capacity and capabilities will increase at the that particular site i support it now very good uh second mr tucker thank you quick question mr burgess um what was the initial investment i know you said 2.69 has been met what what was that initial investment 3.5 million okay thank you thank you and for the record it goes there were incremental improvements way back into gene wise's day and before that all right other questions okay very good well kim has been a very very good citizen uh there was some issues on uh odor five or six years ago even now and they stepped up right up to it and fixed it it hasn't gone away sir i i haven't heard a complaint on well kim

» i've heard it on uh the sewer plant a little further up um with that uh i think we're ready to vote all those in favor raise your hands and it's unanimous jeff give the good news to the bobcat team which please sir we've moved to the item number two which is on page 38 tab f a third reading of an ordinance on the redistricting plan mr carpenter help us out here the chair members council as you're fully where the u.s constitution requires after every census that all elected bodies redistrict themselves in order to ensure that the principle of one man one vote is upheld and that districts are roughly uniform in size we have been through this process we've had several public hearings meetings uh this is the final and third reading of an ordinance that would adopt that plan for county council v

» ery good uh with that can we have a motion mr tucker yes sir mr chair i'd like to make a motion that we adopt the ordinance which reflects uh plan 2b maps for redistricting two bravo can we have a second second mr gardner the maps are on the board mr tucker do you want to lead the discussion thank you mr chairman council members i just want to point out some things that we said last meeting this map right here is our best map out of all the maps we've drawn around the board it makes sure that we stay in compliance with um with our one man one vote representation it gives us the best um percentages and retaining a minority district it also makes sure that most OF THE DISTRICTS ONE THREE FOUR AND SIX UH DOESN'T HAVE HEAVILY CHANGED TO IT UM THE 2B TOOK OUT A PORTION OF MY DISTRICT WHICH IS TW

» O AND PUT IT IN DISTRICT FIVE UM AND WHEN WE SAT DOWN AND STARTED LOOKING AT IT WE REALIZED THAT THAT PORTION NEEDED TO COME BACK SO THE BVAP SCORES WOULD BE A LITTLE HIGHER AND YET WE WOULD STILL REMAIN WITHIN THE ONE MAN ONE VOTE WHICH IS TEN PERCENT OF YOUR UH population and with that 2b that puts us at 7.9 thank you sir uh mr garner you had a second yeah essentially the 2b is one voting block different than two-way it just moved that that little part back into councilman tucker's district i think this represents uh after the census and the best case scenario for redrawing the district maps a little bit of shift in some areas but not a great deal of change from where they were but i think this represents uh best case for kershaw county okay other comments uh ben mr chairman i've struggle

» d over these maps because uh the denser your population is the smaller area so people who are friends that you represented or businesses that you would try to stay in touch with the area just shrinks and you you don't get to represent them anymore it's kind of a sad thing but the line shift based on population you know what can you do um i tend to agree that 2b has less the smallest chance i guess for a constitutional challenge based on how the numbers come down um so that's all i had to say mr chairman thank you jimmy you had your hand i did i have to give some clarification i don't represent a district i represent the whole county and i've always hated to be minimized by saying well you represent this area certainly that's the area that votes me either out or in but bottom line is you kno

» w i represent this entire and i know they do too but i didn't mean they don't but i just want to make it clear there are no districts in my mind okay that's why i haven't even looked at the map and but since they did the last redoing votes are votes no matter where they live thank you all right very good uh russell we're moving through and do you have any comments on the redistricting okay no comments there and mr snodgrass of course fully participated in the process uh i would say a couple of things first of all i think every man up here and mr snodgrass would agree that mr oberman did a magnificent job yes and went out of his way to be available for public comments when people asked to see him and out of his way to see us on the county council and taking it i think to four different optio

» ns is kind of unprecedented around here as the members of the people here tonight understand this county council did something we hadn't done before which is we voted in advance on guiding principles so that we could be clear about what we wanted to achieve with this redistricting and unfortunately but by the law we are driven by policy passed by the supreme court and the state and the national capital that requires us to do certain things and to mr connell's frustration in mind and everybody else's precincts businesses continuity identity is all compromised in the name of following the federal law which is good and sufficient reason but it does cause us sometimes to feel like we're being carved up like a christmas turkey i want to assure you that we followed our own policy as best we could

» maintaining precincting integrity and other things of that nature but this was uh quite an education for me and uh and civics and i should have paid attention in high school i didn't to this issue but we have done it as best we can for the interests of the county uh what's happening at the state capital is quite outside our domain uh i've been asked to enter to enter into that discussion but what's happened with our state representatives and senators is well outside of our authority our ability to influence we did the best we can with running the county and that's what we're going to vote on with that i move yeah mr tucker go right ahead mr chairman i just want to bring up one point of clarity for uh all who's listening and who's here tonight um not just what we're doing HERE FOR THE COUNTY

» BUT AS THE CHAIRMAN SPOKE ABOUT YOUR STATE SENATORS YOUR U.S SENATORS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT ALL THESE LINES HAVE POTENTIALS OF CHANGING SO PLEASE WHEN ALL THIS IS FINAL IN THE FIRST OF THE YEAR DON'T HESITATE TO CHECK YOUR VOTING PRECINCTS BECAUSE THEY MAY CHANGE AND THE COUNTY IS GOING TO DO THE BEST THEY CAN TO GET THIS INFORMATION OUT BUT WHAT I'M TELLING YOU I DON'T WANT JUNE TO CATCH YOU WITH YOUR PANTS DOWN AND you at the wrong precinct then you get frustrated and then you go home i don't want that to happen to any of you because i think the most precious and dearest thing that you can do in america is vote so keep that in mind and double check where your precincts and things are do your homework before june gets here because we're going to vote in june the onl

» y way you don't vote we're not living and i pray to god we all live in so thank you very good with that thank you mr tucker we move to a vote all those in favor signify by raising your hand and it's unanimous and we move on to item number three which is a first reading and title only of an ordinance for the execution and delivery of a fee in lieu tax uh for project orion it's on page 68 and uh with that mr carpenter please help the chair members of council we uh previously um discussed project orion um this is first reading and therefore it's entitled only uh the details you're you're fairly aware with uh but the actual legal documents will follow at second reading okay very good uh can we have a motion to approve let's to approve mr uh mr tucker and a second mr gardner thank you very much

» uh any discussion mr tucker mr garner title only all right with that uh we move to a vote all those in favor signify by raising your hand and it moves on to a second reading we move to item number four first reading and title only an ordinance for project panel uh with that mr carpenter can you open that up mr chairman as with the previous uh we have already done the resolution for a project panel this is the first reading and title only uh with that can we have a motion to approve the move uh mr gardner a second second uh for mr tucker um any further thing from you jeff you can sit back there and grin uh mr gardner any comments mr tucker others and title only all right very good let's move to a vote and then we'll pass it on to second reading all those in favor signify by raising your hand

» and it's unanimous and we go to now to a series of new business uh the the first of which was the vision and we've already voted on that and i thank you for your forbearance and allowing us to to get that done and move the uh core team on on home after a hard nine months of work we're on item number two a renewed and reimagined approach to the boat landing uh it's a tab h and page one in the second packet in in your reader heads tonight uh there is a letter in there from me and it was very similar to the one written uh several years before that by mr jones as we've noted we've had a long history here first of all can we have a motion from mr brazel please sir yes sir mr chairman i'd like to make a motion to uh to allocate up to and i hope it doesn't take this much money to allocate up to 60

» 000 from our arpa account for the purpose of engaging in a study on the future of patriots landing the boat ramp located on the watery river at us-1 now i want to i want to break this down into uh a few sections and then we can have come back and and do that in the discussion that will be fine all right so the motion is to allocate sixty thousand dollars restate that again to a study up to up to go ahead and uh russell read that again so i'll reread it mr chairman i move that we allocate up to sixty thousand dollars in funds from our arpa account for the purpose of engaging in a study on the future of patriots landing the boat ramp located on the watery river at us-1 the one that's had so much discussion excellent can we have a second a second jimmy good got a second that doesn't mean i'm g

» onna vote for it with that uh mr bryce will go ahead and if you want to outline the components of that study go ahead sir okay so here's the outline the study will focus on the feasibility of possible actions determine if rebuilding the facility in the current available right-of-way to accentuate safety maximize parking by adding an additional parking lot currently a lot of you know they're just parking under the under the bridge and it is pretty tough and locating a floating dock upstream of the rebuilt boat landing we want to find out if that's feasible or not if not what must we do to the acquire the land to accomplish this goal section two determine the cost necessary to accomplish goal one and add a second boat landing I've been there on Sunday afternoons and the weight to get in is it

» can be pretty bad if everybody's taken out at the same time you got about forty thirty five or forty trucks and trailers and absolutely if you don't speak in the mic mr. people can't hear the thousands of people that are listening to us can hear you you're welcome my style may be a little different than others but I kind of like to explain things and I as I go so including any additional necessary land acquisition that would be portion two thirdly analyze the potential of building an event venue that would support fishing tournaments with necessary infrastructure such as bathrooms a location to have a fish away in parking and seating. I think there's a lot that could be done on our river for the sportsmen and for the fishermen.

» Fourthly, determine if Kershaw County will be able to make future improvements on this property by clarifying ownership. That's been a lot of that back and forth as to who's responsible. I'm ready to take responsibility for this ramp so that moving forward it doesn't take six years to accomplish something i would also like to direct staff to as soon as possible secure someone to remove the current floating dock that's located in this facility we can retain it for future use if we're able to reinstall it upstream i'll make this in form of a motion thank you thank you very much any further discussion here russell i just did it when i when i was reading it let me just see if i record what you said item number one was basically you don't remember determine if rebuilding the facility and the cur

» rent available right away to accentuate safety maximize parking by adding an additional parking lot and locating a floating dock upstream of the rebuilt boat landing can be feasibly accomplished item two was determine the cost necessary to accomplish goal one and then item three was analyze the potential of building an event venue item four was what determine if kershaw county can take ownership of this to make future improvements without so much ownership and item five was what well the last item was to direct staff to as soon as possible get that boat ramp out so that we don't see uh more trailers and boats torn up and the potential of someone getting hurt perfect that's great uh mary's not here so when this is over with give us a hard copy so that mary can record that any further discuss

» ion here next yeah mr jones you had the second go ahead just follow up i don't mind you going for me but normally he lets the person who gives the yeah go ahead jimmy thank you julian um all i want to see is the pole ramp fixed you know take it out uh does it take sixty thousand dollars vic to to do this i mean we've got an engineer you just hired to take the boat ramp out we don't have a cost yet we are um shane is reaching out with various vendors as we speak he told me he should have answers back within our procurement policies within the next several weeks and how much it will cost but the sixty thousand dollars i understand towards the cost of removing the boat ramp that's a separate cost that the county would incur the 60 000 up to 60 000 would only be for the purpose of studying the

» future of that so it's two separate issues one is study to determine the future second staff go ahead and take out that ramp as soon as possible out of our current budget listen i've had to help people get out from up under the ramp it's an accident waiting to happen or it has happened um and of course i brought this up years ago had no support well there was no interest at that time russell brasil came on board thank you russell for bringing this to the forefront i stand with you all the way i just have problems spending so much money to do something i just don't think it would take that much money to do that i mean to remove it probably wouldn't take near sixty thousand to remove it i don't that's not a cost if you do and and even the study would unlikely to cost near sixty but that just

» allows us to get it done and i don't need to hear the five items again that RUSSELL QUOTED HOWEVER I KNOW HE'LL GIVE A COPY TO EVERYBODY BUT MY MAIN INTEREST RIGHT NOW IS TO GET THAT BOAT RAMP OUT GET ONE IN THAT IS PUT IN THE RIGHT WAY AND I DON'T I JUST DON'T THINK IT'S GOING TO TAKE $60,000 TO DO THAT THEN WE CAN CERTAINLY WORK TOWARDS HE'S GOT SOME GREAT IDEAS THERE BUT I MEAN YOU KNOW YOU EAT THE ELEPHANT ONE BITE AT A TIME WHEN MR.

» BROWS WILL ASK ME WHAT IT COSTS I DON'T THINK IT'LL COST ANYWHERE NEAR 60 BUT THE ONLY REASON WHY I GAVE THAT FIGURE WAS IN THE the current environment we don't know what cost you're gonna be I would hate to delay and come back weeks later because it came in more than y'all I don't want to so I've asked you to give me an upper limit that I don't believe we would reach then I don't have to come back to you in the event that it was a lower limit and the bids came in higher so this that just gives me the flexibility I'm not gonna spend it if we don't need to spend I think you know that I do know that it's just giving the freedom to go to $60,000 I'd like to make an amendment all right ask a question I don't care go ahead and I want the boat ramp fixed - I know you do but I thought we had alloc

» ated all of our opera money to the sewer do we have more opera money available that I'm not aware of yes sir well no I mean we have what we have but when council passed its policy we have funds it within that policy you've approved that would allow okay that's what i wanted not all the money was allocated to sewer let me thank you very mr gardner uh you had an amendment mr jones yeah i'd like to make an amendment that come to sixty thousand dollars on the motion that it go to five thousand five thousand dollars it's an amendment do we have a second to mr jones amendment to go to five thousand dollars um we don't have a point of clarification go ahead is that for the study only yes i'll second that second uh discussion on a five thousand dollar study just saved us fifty five thousand dollars

» so let me i'm sorry was it fifty or five no mine was five thousand five thousand you saw discussion on it i said that will save the taxpayers fifty five thousand dollars can i have a few minutes yes sir you sure can so i completely and totally agree with you i think i think robin and i can go out there and maybe read and rob a few buddies we can probably knock that thing out davis says he can help big enough i don't see the need to spend 60 and vic and i discuss this he doesn't think it's going to cost anywhere near that i don't suppose it will either but i think it's going to cost more than five and and hear me loud and hear me clear when i say this we used 1.2 million dollars to bonus pay our very important and very loved firemen police officers let's not shortchange the sporting communit

» y they're worth more than five thousand dollars oh that's a cheap shot that you know i respect our sporting community no i don't mean that disrespectfully but all things all things equal i want this done and i want it done right the watery river means so much to our community i hope we can get it done for two thousand dollars but in today's world unfortunately everything's extraordinarily expensive i've engaged in conversations with uh representative dabney i've engaged with conversations with thomas mcleveen senator mcleveen i've engaged conversations with senator gustafson and me it it yeah as well as everybody here including and mr jones was jumped on board immediately as well chairman burns did again we're at a point in which we can do this and do it right i don't want to have to do thi

» s again in two years or three years or ten years we've got an opportunity to do something for this community that means a lot to a lot of people and and please mr jones i didn't i didn't mean that i know you did matter that's just how passionately i feel about it and i am too we all want to save money this isn't going to increase um any kind of taxes in any way shape or form and at the end of the day it'll be spent on something else so i just want to i want to look after that that part of our community and i want to get this done and get it done right other discussion on that matter we mr chairman have a second you got your second please go ahead thank you mr chairman um two threshold questions arpa funds under which section is it appropriate to to spend for this kind of purpose we have two

» sections that that would be authorized one is section that is for outdoor recreation and the second would be under lost revenue and the lost revenue fund is the most permissive aspect of it it would allow us to spend it on this okay second question is do we actually own the boat ramp you asking me yes sir mr.

» Connell the boat ramp is actually on DOT right-of-way and it was actually paid for using funds through the state kershaw county was a sponsor of the funds which were channeled through us so um i don't really know who actually owns boat ramp we didn't pay for it we didn't initiate it it's not on our right of way so i think we did get the permit to put it well we applied for the permit put it in the river we in the yeah we applied for the permit in the past when the issues come up the instruction i've been given is we didn't own it we had agreed to a maintenance responsibility for the parking lot only and so if if it's now the situation where the state's willing to put in writing that hey you know you get a new asset the way i read it is dnr or whoever was making decisions over there now that

» there's a price tag associated with this boat ramp and floating dock they're saying oh we don't own it we don't have it um and if it's if the case that we can pick up an asset and use it improve the community that sounds great but i think we need to get something in writing before we start uh before we start messing with it yeah i'm not aware that an encroachment permit was ever granted to kershaw county to put that boat ramp in so it's on dot right away so usually you have to get an encroachment permit to do something on a public right away and i'm not aware that kershaw county ever got one so in your view in your view mr dubose i like uh mr brazel's ideas i think they're great it might be a matter of allocation you know i think maybe it takes five thousand dollars for somebody to tell us

» what the options are it can only be remove the floating dock in the pilings um move them to the upstream side as option two or put in jetties to try to stop the flow somewhat i mean those are only three that i see but you could have an engineer look at that and it shouldn't be that expensive i'd be okay with allocating more of say it's sixty thousand dollars to an actual capital cost or labor that's required to fix it but before any of that can be done what's your opinion on what kershaw county needs to obtain to have the right to do something well you're gonna have to get a permit um from the corps of engineers to the river belong to the united states of america so for you to go into the river you're gonna have to get a permit we applied for the permit before but we didn't fund it we didn'

» t design it and i don't think we ever got an encroachment permit has it aged out or is there a way for us just to amend our prior application and ask for some type of variance i i don't know that i do know this putting a jetty in is totally different than putting in a dock i do know that totally different proposition well fellow council members i see that as a threshold question um i mean we can allocate funds and figure out what we're going to do but But I think we've got to own it, either get the permit or have some permission on the front end before we say how much we're going to spend and what we're going to do. Well, I'm willing to do that. Line item four. That's exactly what that's designed to do. I get that.

» And I think that's instead of, I mean, maybe this is in no particular order, but that question I think needs to be answered first, right? I don't care how they do it as long as they get it done. Because if they say we're not going to issue a permit or know we're going to retain ownership, then we can't. We could put $200,000 towards it and we wouldn't have permission to do anything. Is that correct, Mr.

» Bowe? i think you have to apply for a permit yes yeah yes you're going to have to get a permit to construct anything in in the watery river which is an inevitable river that belongs to the united states of america but we should have no trouble my god we built buildings on swampland true or false mr jones i don't know the parameters getting a permit i think there are different types of permits yes all right we have a motion before us uh any further discussion on the motion to go to five thousand dollars to do the five items enumerated any further discussion uh mr jones it was yeah it was for the study on you know for the boat ramp okay not to replace and i know you didn't say that but it's made that clear not to replace but it is to do the study so that the motion is five thousand dollars to

» do those five items and the original motion carried by mr brazel all those in favor of a five thousand dollars if i may make a point of order point of clarification My motion was $5,000 to do a study on what it would take to make it safe, not necessarily going to all four or five positions that this resolves. So I think we're going to be able to take that ramp out for $5,000 or $10,000. I mean, take the floating dock out for that small amount of money. I'm just trying to make clarification on my motion. Okay, Van. Thank you. I got it. I'm going to call the question. All those in favor of the motion, yeah. I'm sorry.

» have to clarify based on mr jones clarification i know this sounds redundant but um i do think you have to determine as a threshold issue ownership and whether or not you even have a right to apply for permanent those sorts of things you made that clear sir yeah but that's not your motion so i can't vote in favor of it okay so all those in favor of mr jones motion signify by raising your hand uh all those opposed so signify and we return to the original it fails so we return to the original motion is any further discussion on the original motion mr tucker thank you mr chairman this is to you mr carpenter um mr gardner asked a question about the opera funds and i recall and please correct me if i'm wrong when we did during the budget cycle there um we spent all the opera monies for the sewer

» and various things fire and we kind of line item it out so is this part of that two million that you have was in the budget with a 60 i'm just trying to clarify where these funds are coming from because let me explain for you answer that question i don't want people coming up to me as they have in the past uh look off water authority caset water authority lynch's river who's trying to do internet out in our rural area and and say well y'all tell us there's no more money but money keeps showing up every time you come up with a new project i don't want to be caught in that in that rat trap okay so i'm asking for clarity so i'll be able to answer correctly to the other constituents and citizens of kershaw county i don't have a problem with the 60 000 because i'll take it out of reserves it's w

» ell deserved to be spent on what we need to do to get the boat ramp straight so i want everybody to understand that i just want to be consistent on this opera money i think that's a question and that's for you mr carpenter mr tucker um when we approved the funding in the budget part of it was a total of four million dollars from arpa funds and part of that was for the purpose of studies to be conducted so we have allocated funds in the budget from arpa funds for studies and we allowed ourselves we did not enumerate every study because we knew there would be studies that we needed to do this year and we funded them in advance yeah that's how i remember previously funded can we uh ask you to uh pull that resolution back out and pass it around to councilmen uh before the next meeting if you wo

» uldn't mind sammy back to you sir and that's that i want to make sure that we're not depleting something that we already approved and exactly where the funds are coming from i'm not telling you that they're not worthy to be used i just want to make sure that you know we're consistent about what we we tell the citizens in in the public okay uh let's have some closure on the discussions uh gentlemen uh mr connell mr chairman i was also i was going to say atex would also be a potentially eligible uh fund for this based on the use of it um of course this is the first time we're hearing this or seeing it from mr brazel so based on some of the clarifications and it being in no particular order i think i can support the sixty thousand dollars with the understanding that we have that the study is n

» ot going to cost that much we might be able to do the study in-house with our own engineer to say option one two or three is good um and then any remaining uh money that's being allocated under this motion can go towards capital or labor to take care of the issue again with figuring out first do we own it do we have a right can the permit be issued thank you mr chairman yeah and uh apropos that mr carpenter a little later on is going to introduce our new engineer uh mr garner kind of to add on to ben's comments there that you know we're going to approve sixty thousand dollars on a project that we don't even know that we can do essentially i mean i think we need like been said I think we need to determine whether we can even do the project first and I believe that is if I may that's kind of

» what mr. Brazel direction to do that's item number four so I had him re-enumerate thank you the 60,000 goes away if we don't determine do that if we get that out of it if we can't do this we won't spend an atrocious amount of money I can assure you i'm i'm against wasting money what you're saying but that's what it says then i'll yeah let me let me reread item four and and maybe this should be item one you'll have to accept my apology determine if kershaw county will be able to make future improvements on this property by clarifying ownership well said mr president can you make that number one it just became item number one all right that's easy with that i'm ready to call the question let's get this thing i'd like to make one quick yeah jimmy go right ahead just want to say mr brazel thank

» you for this so much i've been waiting for this for two years and uh with no hope of it happening because of the item one because it was not clear about ownership but i support you in this i'm going to support this tonight thank you sir and uh but i just tried to get as a little bit of money spent as possible and i and i agree with that wholeheartedly um the sixty thousand dollars is uh i think way more than than it should cost and i'll add to this uh i met with the engineer from the department of natural resources who designed it initially and i cannot recall the gentleman's name and i wouldn't call his name he was a fine fine young man um in in in that meeting I was told he told me that we were having operator air issues and I could fill this room up 17 times with people who've had issues

» It's not an operator air issue I'd love to work with the DNR and their engineering department to fix this correctly and I'd like to call on Senator Thomas McElveen for his help because he and I've had some pretty in-depth discussions with folks at DNR about fixing this and he has indicated that he could help um there could be some potential help from the state as well so all the cards are on the table we're we're doing whatever it takes to uh to be the the driving force behind fixing this for the citizens in our community okay mr jones you get the last comment please sir yeah i'm gonna finish but thank you mr browser but i did want to say ben thank you for bringing up and clarifying the issues that you brought up about the ownership as well too i think that is just equally as important what

» mr brazel did but i think with the past of this motion this uh proposal that mr carpenter falls in your glove yes sir let's get it done all right very good all those in favor of the motion signify by raising your hand and it's unanimous and uh if we can have a copy of that uh that would be very helpful russell we move the the last item on the agenda item number three it said page two annex i page two of the second chart and with that it's a schedule for county council meetings i call on mr gardner please sir yes sir i would move that uh we for 2022 uh have uh meetings twice a month for the first six months and once a month for the last six months uh same schedule that we're on currently okay can we have second second mr tucker uh discussion mr garner uh i think this works very well for us i

» t seems that after we get the budget done and we'll have many more meetings than the two per month in the first six months because of budget issues uh the the uh because the we don't have as much many items the last six months the one meeting works very well and uh i think that uh the time constraints that uh i think miss mary has studied those and uh you know it's not uh the meetings aren't any longer with one meeting than they are for two so i think this works very well for us and uh i think it helps uh staff uh not have to have to be out uh um as well so i would propose that we adopt this uh meeting schedule uh mr tucker you had a second yes sir ditto uh other comments yeah i want to i want to make an amendment uh mr jones i want to make an amendment that we go to two meetings a month th

» e second and the fourth tuesdays every month as this county council has done since the beginning of time okay and we have uh can we have a second on that okay but anyway that's my motion thank you sir uh a second on two meetings a month okay uh mr jones we don't have a second with that we return to the original motion any further discussion yeah mr jones the reason i made my amendment I don't know why I failed but folks once a month you get disconnected as 30 days between meetings we get disconnected and I just don't think we can keep up that way I think it's a bad policy for this County Council I think when we signed up and we ran for these offices we were always meeting twice a month and you know last year I did compromise because I want to go to meetings back to two meetings a month y'al

» l had made the offer to go to one meeting for 12 months well when i agreed to go to you know do half the months y'all did that but i can't do it this time i have to vote against it because i tell you folks we get disconnected we cannot as a county council sit here every once every 30 days and keep up with what's going on we just can't do so i look at this and you know we talk about well we can call special call meetings you know it took how long for us to do the vote on the millage ordinance three readings at once a month three months and then you know people got their bills late in december we didn't call we should have called a special call meeting then but we didn't do it you know and i'm not trying to be ugly i'm just stating the facts it just doesn't work and uh i can't support anythin

» g with with one meeting a month i just don't think that's fair to the citizens of kershaw county who elected us to be up here thank you other comments please um seeing they are now we move to a vote all those in favor of mr gardner's motion you know signify by raising your hand mr tucker mr gardner mr burns mr brasil and mr connell those opposed mr jones and it passes uh in accordance with the schedule on the screen with that we move now to council briefings uh mr brasil would you do the honors i'd be happy to um is it okay if i have something personal to say about one of my family members would that be appropriate absolutely say whatever you want to say sure he can't yeah you can say what you want to say mr brown this will be the only time i get to publicly uh tell my son merrick brazel ho

» w very proud i am of him getting accepted to the university of virginia he's crunching down in his seat no that's his little brother it's not his turn yet yeah that's why i said he's crunching down in his seat but i just wanted to say in public and using this privilege i thank you for letting me use this privilege um very proud of you merit you worked hard and uh look forward to seeing you blossom in college and we we love you and your mother and i love you and we care about you and we're so very proud of you and uh i don't usually make this about me or my family but i i just wanted to to be able to say that publicly and i'm i'm thankful to be able to do that thank you very much mr connell thank you mr chairman um the elgin catfish stomp parade was just awesome it was the largest attended o

» ne that we've had um so thanks to elgin town council the mayor um all those that participated and the crew that made the uh awesome catfish stew now on a more somber and serious note one of my good friends who i've sung with many times in the community and perhaps individually he has performed more patriotic and gospel songs in kershaw county than anybody else sammy dennis recently lost his wife angela yep and they're just outstanding members of the community. So with Sammy, we mourn while we think about Angela. She was a delight. She was just wonderful to know, and I think she in many ways inspired Sammy Dennis' music. If it wasn't already inspired by God, it was inspired by Angela. Absolutely. So I share my condolences with the Dennis family. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

» Thank you very much. Sir, Mr. Jones. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the County Council. Ben Connell, well said. Well said. Fine people, and my heart and prayers go out to Sammy his family as well and russell brazel i echo everything you said i love your family i'm proud of your son you have a right to be proud and uh as i said we wish him all the best we sure do a subject that i don't like talking about sometimes but i'm going to talk about it i'll talk about me for a moment um i think it's everybody's favorite subject up here on county council you know the lights of lugo christmas parade was that was really a joke anyway the the lights of the little golf christmas parade had to go to the rain date and i think we had about 75 to 80 percent of the crowd that we normally had it was a hug

» e huge crowd what a great great success and i just want to thank uh jill wolf sherry barrett uh ashley rabin i mean the list goes on and on and on the folks that that was our 14th year with the lights of the little golf christmas parade and that parade started by me calling henry powers and saying henry you've always wanted a parade let's go ahead and do one henry said well let's let the optimist club sponsor it and let's pull a committee together well we did and five of us are still on that committee that was there 14 years ago even though i don't do nothing you know except you know run in the parade run the entire parade uh as far as i mean physically and uh because i'm gonna do when i run from a re-election um but no those folks have worked so hard what a success the the lights lugo chri

» stmas parade and and again mr chairman members of council i thank you all for allowing me the opportunity to speak my mind thank you so much uh mr tucker thank you mr chairman council members um councilman brazel don't ever ever be i would say conservative when it comes down to your family um i'm going to give you a tidbit of what i told my children when they were going off to school and away from home always always be proud to brag on your children and as children always give your parents something to brag on you know when you're in these meetings with up with you with your colleagues and your fellow man talking it's good as a parent that I can say what my child's doing or my children's doing so always when you're making your decisions and you're going off long distance and things and even

» if you're still here local in school make your parents proud because they are proud of you but give them something to brag on every chance you get and they love you and go UAV congratulations I say to all of you up here and in the audience and that's on the internet Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year because we will not be seeing you again before January's meeting and I wish that all stay safe I thank Vic and staff and mrs dubose and all miss mary danny all their hard work michael jeff just everybody who's made 2021 a success for kershaw county and i know it hasn't been easy i know that it hasn't been all downhill you know we've had some uphill clams uh along this journey and that's what it is it's a journey um but the main thing is that we stay positive and we stay continuing to love and

» support one another as i get older and look around the world i think that's the number one thing that we miss most you know i told a fellow just the other day on my job um why do you wake up like you eat bottle glass every morning is there any happy moments in your life you know don't let anybody steal your joy wake up happy be friendly really encouraged be supportive because the world can't have too much of that thank you mr chairman uh mr garner thank you yeah just a couple things Because Pershaw County had a really good year this year. Since this is the last one, I think we've done very well. And I'd like to thank our staff, employees, council, constituents, everybody that's involved.

» We've had some base hits and some home runs in economic development and a lot of other things that we're doing here. We're really on a really good fast track right now going into 2022. And I just think, you know, we've kept taxes low, millage rate dropped. A lot of good things have been going on in the county, so I think it's, you know, and we have a lot of people to thank for that, but I think we're on the right track. We're doing a lot of great things, and one other thing, Clemson won the national championship in soccer the other day. I just want to make sure that Vic knew that, especially, so thanks, Vic. That's for you. Very good. Thank you, gentlemen. Great year, a banner year, and again, thanks to the staff, everybody. Just wonderful work, 500 new jobs, and so on and so forth.

» But it's a short distance from the penthouse to the outhouse, and progress is measured on the stairs. And when there's a problem, it's often down by the elevator, so it goes quicker. So let's be on the alert for good things in the county, but also recognize we're influenced by events outside the county. Inflation, political issues, the threats of war in the Ukraine, things that I know a little bit about, all stand out there. But if we do it together, we can get through this. I would like to share with you the fact that one thing didn't get done. It wasn't a banner year in Rhodes and West Watery. I've given to each of the council members a letter I wrote to the Council of Governments for Central Midlands.

» uh it's no stranger to mr connell he and i have fought this battle for five years ben and uh we're not making any progress i think it's time to throw down on this issue and that letter is in your hands uh we have got to do something about the roads in west watery and not to mention also 521 out by cctc and also i got a note from springdale uh springdale road and also up on 521 north there's everybody's got their own story about what the state needs to do and the federal government needs to do to help us on roads as to to visit meetings a month versus one it has to do with a philosophy of government that I ascribed to which is less government is better not more government is better less is better less is more and once we do our hard work between now and June and get the budget passed, we nee

» d to get out of the way of the staff and let them do their jobs. And that's why I supported one meeting a month after we have given policy and resource guidance to our wonderful staff. I remind you all on the 18th, Wreaths Across America, for those that support veterans, it is a fantastic privately funded event that we, this council, resolved to support. It's on the 18th. It's going to be warm and it's going to be wet and show up and help our veterans hang wreaths on the tombs and grave markers of hundreds of our veterans buried across this county. I ask you to your help. I'm going to be there and looking for you. Thanks again to the core group and our next meeting is the 11th of January. I wish you all a very happy Christmas and a merry new year or vice versa. Over to you, Vic.

» chair members counselors a few items for tonight first as you briefly alluded to earlier i'd like to introduce you to two of our newest staff members as you know we uh uh with the retirement of nick anderson some months back uh we pieced together support until we could replace nick with a very worthy replacement mr dan cante is in the room tonight is our new uh roads and bridges supervisor manager for the county probably most of you know mr candy he's local really that's what we heard um dan brings a world of knowledge and experience in construction and and the practices related to it equipment management people management and we are fortunate and blessed that dan is now part of this this amazing team also um we have with us not on his second day on the job our new county engineer mr dan la

» mbert uh mr lambert has spent a career as an engineer and private sector in the government sector he comes to us most recently from the city of chapin where he oversaw a sewer department with over 6,000 customers. He'll be stepping in immediately to take our department. As you know, Russ Van Patten before him had kept a good eye on it for us, and Dan will be stepping in. He's definitely in the deep end of the pool at the moment. We have so much going on. So I introduce those two gentlemen to you and encourage you to get to know them. I think you'll be just as impressed with them as everybody else has been. And then finally, just kind of some visual images for you to see as we end the night out at our Parks and Rec Department.

» Danny, if you just want to cycle through those pictures for the council to see. And remember, this has been an amazing year and a great year. Movies, movie nights, trick-or-treat trails, tinsel trails, Christmas trees, happy faces. If you've been out there, I hope you all have made it out there at least once in this holiday season. And it's only going to get better.

» staff we have in parks and records so engaged and energized right now and they're doing amazing things and you see the benefit of what they're doing and again if you've been out there to see the kids that makes it all worthwhile um sports and athletics are just as important as always but they're taking very seriously to heart uh providing other resources to our citizens and neighbors who may not play ball and that mr chairman that's my report perfect uh attorney ken you know merry christmas to you that's the first time i've heard you say something cheerful with that uh we have no executive session can we have a motion mr chairman one more thing yeah you ready danny go navy beat army oh gosh i can't stand it uh out of order mr make a motion mr connell who's got a second mr jones any discussi

» on we'll see you again on the 11th of january all those in favor raise your hands and it's unanimous we are adjourned and Merry Christmas.