Full meeting transcript - January 11, 2022

» test you there are you there hey how about now okay can you hear me now yeah i got you okay perfect is that in the first what's that is that in the chamber yeah that's um calling through the uh the software not the um okay okay cool beans i'll give you a buzz in a bit when we get going all right thanks sir all right thank you dave all right bye i mean you got anything pointing right at me better go better leave the room all i can tell you never know glad i shaved this morning I decided to take it off no no I'm still hunting he wants every three months whether I need to or not end of the month on the day I decided to dress down on the day I decided to dress down got on his suit how you doing sir yesterday and Aaron decided to go kaput in case he's building downtown right right that's just li

» fe right well it is showing everything else yeah I'm gonna dial him in though I got the mute these are unmuted Danny hey David I'm gonna go ahead and connect right now but mute you and i'll unmute you when we get going thank you thank you snodgrass he's online right now and so you're going to mute and not unmute or how are you going to do that he's just going to be able to speak freely all right well that's a scary thought all right david you're up i'm here yes sir okay great all right we have a quorum mr snodgrass is calling in remotely because he's got a little bug and I wish you all a great new year. It's a great day in Kershaw County and this all-America county. We've got a pandemic going into an endemic. Two years ago tonight we had a tornado.

» It looks like we're going to have a briefing today on some range of tremors and earthquakes and on Sunday we've got snow. This is Kershaw County. We take the tough times in stride and continue to provide a great life for our people with that we have a quorum we are called to order and i ask councilman ben connell to lead us in the invocation and a pledge would y'all please stand let's pray our dear heavenly father we're grateful for this season beginning in this year we pray for wisdom to find the balance between justice and mercy as we enact policies and carry on the business of kershaw county please help us be worthy of thy blessing help us find humility and be humble in our lives. Please help us have the capability to listen and learn and also speak up at the right time.

» We pray that thou comfort those that struggle and need thy comfort. Please help us reflect on the example and life of Jesus Christ and find happiness with our families and friends. And we say this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Thank you very much indeed, Ben. And with that, we move on to items that we have on the agenda upstairs. And And you see there we have a proclamation of the North Central Volleyball team, which we're extremely proud of. They're not able to make it tonight for various reasons. And if Mary Seigler can't make it happen, it's impossible. So thank you, Mary. But we expect to see him next time. So that's great. We move now to a public presentation. We're delighted to welcome the Arts Center of Kershaw County, Dolly, Dolly Patton, come on up, please, ma'am.

» Good evening. How are you? Very well. I have a little packet for each of you. if you'd give it to mary and she handles those sorts of things councilman burns members of the council and clerk thank you so much for having me this evening um i am dolly patton for those of you that have not met i am the director of the art center still relatively new i think um six months still qualifies as new um but i have wanted to come and share some things with you about the art center so first of all you'll excuse the pun i have to set the stage so i'm gonna ask you to think. I'm going to ask you a question, and I'm going to give you some hints. So here are the hints. So the art center, the fine arts center, was formed in a year when these things were happening.

» So I'm going to let you guess what year it was. Inflation was 11.3 percent. The average income was $13,900. A gallon of gas was 42 cents, and the speed limit was 55 miles per hour. There was a gas crisis. Some of us remember that. Richard Nixon was the president. We all know how that turned out. The best movie was The Sting and Barbara Streisand sang The Way We Were. We watched The Waltons and Happy Days and MASH. The Miami Dolphins won the Super Bowl. Clemson had a seven and four season, yay, and the Gamecocks had a four and seven season. Uh-oh. It was a much simpler time.

» so does anybody know what year that was 1970 I hear I nobody's hit it it was 1974 and in 1974 a group of folks sitting around somebody's dining room table came up with a brilliant idea they represented the visual arts society the music association and the camden theater guild and they said let's form an organization that will bring the arts to kershaw county and will make us outstanding and so here we are 48 years later and the art center has serves as the artistic hub for our county and we provide high quality educational life-changing cultural experiences for everyone children and adults along the way our facility grew from a one historic home that we still have to a building with two theaters, an art gallery, and an education building that includes a music, dance, and visual arts studio.

» It is unique in our state. Additionally, numerous programs and events and celebrations were held. And so in my time here, as I've talked with folks, I've asked them, what's your favorite memory? What's your favorite thing that you did? What's the favorite show you attended. So some of the things that I've heard about are the MAD Festival, the Follies. I'm not sure if any of you ever dressed up for the Follies and performed on stage, but there are some YouTube videos out there.

» The Camden Polo Cup, the Gospel Fest, finally Fridays, which we still do today, chamber music, children's theater productions every summer, and two coming up this spring and big stage musicals like oklahoma the sound of music a raisin in the sun two of our biggest most identifiable activities are the carolina down home blues festival which happens every fall and the arts arising summer program i ask you to hold for a second um i think david has dropped off can you help on go ahead please ma'am okay um the arts arising program which um as i talk to folks that anytime i met a young man last week that was working on project for us and he said, I didn't do Arts Rising, but my sister did, and a gentleman who was doing a food truck at the Blues Festival, hey, I came to your summer arts program.

» So, each summer, 140 kids come through that program. It's been going on for nearly 30 years. So, definitely a signature program, and the Arts Center is a cultural leader in our state. So, you're probably wondering, why is Dolly here? Well, first of all, I wanted to meet you, and I also wanted to give you an update on how the center's doing and what our plans are. So we're looking tonight, I'm here to share with you the opportunity to get your input. We wanna be a good partner and a good partner in the county. So I am here to ask you to share with me and talk to me about what you think the county needs and what your constituents want us to do. We're gonna start in the next few weeks planning the season for next year, 22-23.

» even more importantly our 50th anniversary is coming up in the 23-24 year and we want to do something momentous throughout the county something that connects us all so i'm looking to meet with you and talk to you and learn what your ideas and thoughts are just like i've done with folks since i got here as you know it's been an unusual four years at the center we've had some transition and then we've all experienced two years of uh unprecedented the word we all keep using with kovid um it's definitely uh changed things for the way we operate but the one constant that i've learned is that the art center is universally loved i hear such wonderful everybody has a story my mother performed in a show my first show that i was in my daughter was in a show and larry henry pulled me up stage i took a

» n art class i took a piano class i played the cello in new york but i learned to play it here everybody has a beautiful story about our place we are especially pleased to be able to offer an economic importance to the county when folks move to my experience has been when they look different places to move one of the things they look for are access to arts and culture and we offer such a great variety of that i've heard that there are businesses that chose to locate here and i've talked to individuals who said i really wanted to be somewhere in a small great community that would offer me artistic opportunities so i'm here to say thank you because you have been a strong continuing supporter of the art center every year with your support of the accommodations tax for blues festival and then an

» annual fund in our operating budget it helps us maintain the center and continue to provide programming so let me tell you what's happening now what we've been doing since since covid we were closed from march to september of last year and then we started with some online virtual programming like everybody else did but in may of 2021 we opened back up very small very cautiously socially distanced and so since then we've had summer camp the blues festival three theatrical productions a book signing three art gallery openings two chamber music concerts countless classes and the nutcracker and we've welcomed more than 5 000 people in this unusual time to these various classes programs and shows what's next this week we have a gallery opening two artists visual artists are opening up on thursda

» y and next week we're turning our black box into a jazz nightclub and we have a jazz musician bistro tables candles it's really going to be great fun so all the other things that are coming up are more openings uh youth theater productions we had auditions last night we had 17 teenagers come and audition for our uh teen production of the puffs which is a knockoff of harry potter hope you'll come see that in march finally friday concerts a gala and lots more chamber music so lots more coming up this spring in your packet you'll see a card it gives that schedule and i hope that you will join us so moving forward i hope that we'll be able to strengthen our partnership and I want to share with you what I just shared with our board in December what the critical needs are at the center so you wil

» l know what we're addressing first of all I don't know if you've ridden by to see the work being done on the historic Douglas Reed house our Douglas Reed house was built in 1812 and it needed a lot of work we were blessed with a grant from the state through archives and history and we've been replacing siding we did have to replace some windows but we chose historic windows the building is looking great it feels better and we will have a little celebration once that's all done we also unfortunately have some repairs that need to be done to the basset building where our theaters are and our daniels building those buildings date back to 1983 and 1995 and uh you know as buildings age they have have to be worked on so we're working on the repairs to buildings and we're also working on additiona

» l lighting our trees and shrubs have grown and when our little ballerinas are running through the parking lot at night it's a little nerve-wracking so trying to get some more lighting on campus secondly and I know nobody likes the word operating but we in order to operate we have to have funding and those funds sometimes you think of the boring stuff with operating funds but we get to spend the money on great things like bringing in musicians and bringing in guest artists to summer camp um yes microphones so you can hear the theater production uh any equipment that we need and those things help us keep operating um those expenses are significant but they are essential and the support that you've been giving us helps us address that to bring in musicians and artists and gives our local folks

» a place to perform all that said we are proud to be in kershaw county and we are so grateful to to be part of what you're doing and appreciate your help and i just want to again extend the offer come see me or call me i'll meet you somewhere come take a walk around campus with me i'll show you what we're doing because i really do want to get your ideas of what the arts center can do to support the county and i thank you for your time and and take any questions that you have thank you so much dolly i think you have a distinguished guest with you could you introduce that person i do she she arranges for me to talk to people dr mary jones right here dr jones welcome and always great to see you ma'am uh any questions or comments by uh mr tucker please thank you mr chairman um welcome miss dolly

» and welcome dr mama jones um and that probably shows a little bit of partiality but i don't care because i love you um thank you for all your support and willingness to get out here AND MAKE SURE THAT MS. DOLLY KNOWS THE PEOPLE TO TOUCH AND TO PARTNER WITH AND YOUR LOVE FOR THE ARTS AND KERSHALL COUNTY RUNS DEEP INTO YOUR FAMILY AND INTO YOUR CIRCLES AND WE THANK YOU AND MS. DOLLY WE THANK YOU FOR WHAT ALL YOU ARE DOING AND CONTINUING THE ENRICHMENT AND ALL THE RICH CULTURE THAT THE FINE ARTS CENTER HAS HERE IN KERSHALL COUNTY I'VE HAD THE TOUR AND I THANK YOU FOR IT YOU AND DR.

» JONES AND I LOOK FORWARD TO THE MANY MANY THINGS THAT YOU HAVE A VISION FOR AND supporting um what you want to do here and continue to uplift this so i say in advance thank you and i'm here to support and encourage in any way that i possibly can thank you thank you appreciate it before i take any other questions uh mr snodgrass do you have anything miss dolly just want to say thank you for coming and presenting as we i think we met at the coffee shop a few months back yes we did and enjoyed talking to you then and just want you to know how important firstly i think the arts to our community uh everybody knows that a vital community is one that has a robust arts community so thank you for your work thank you other comments please uh mr connell thank you miss dolly for coming tonight um i jus

» t saw that one of your events on the schedule is dancing with the stars i hope that you have raised your standards since i did this i think i did this like five or so years ago you want to come back uh no actually what i was going to do in kind was volunteer any one of my fellow council members to step up and uh well actually i i will let them off the hook uh these are the folks who were ready to perform in 2020 and covet shut it down so 2023 they can look forward we can look for another year yes it was unique to get up on the stage and do the worm and all that kind of stuff a lot of fun and i hope it hope it again raises a bunch of money for the community thank you i still have frozen in my mind the image of ben donnell doing the worm it was uh something out of a maniacal movie somewhere o

» ther comments anybody oh thank you so much dolly and especially good to see you dr jones again happy new year you both thank you very much thank you that concludes public presentations we move now to public comments uh mr dubose do we have people signed up mr chairman no one has signed up very good we'll wait a respectful moment uh seeing no one has come forward we'll move on to an administrative update uh mr carpenter was going to be with us tonight but he came down with a touch of some bug and he's asked that mr templar take it from there danny are you ready to go with an update on the earthquakes yes mr chairman members council um since the initial earthquake of december 27th which was a 3.3 magnitude we've experienced 11 more for a total of 12 to date I think we had two more today.

» So since then, our team continues to work closely with the EMD to provide accurate and factual information to our public. We created an earthquake resource and information page within the county's website where you can find the EMD's earthquake guide as well as various links to resources, including a link to report an earthquake with the United States geological service. The website is kershaw.sc.gov/earthquake. We'll work to continue to provide updates through our County's Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. The map here shows just a population of dots of where these incidents have occurred. This guy right here was the original 3.3 and everything else is just kind of radiating out from there along this corridor, essentially the I-20 corridor.

» A few of the commonly asked questions that we were able to sit down with South Carolina EOT and have essentially an answer to were four shocks can only be determined by if the four shocks are followed by a larger earthquake. So fracking was another popular cause or concern, but there are no natural gas reserves in South Carolina, so fracking can be ruled out asides the seismographs can distinguish between mining activity and earthquake activity and this is clearly earthquake activity fault lines run throughout the entire state and what we're experiencing is either a swarm of micro earthquakes or aftershocks from that original 3.3 magnitude earthquake back on December 27 the more earthquakes are possible throughout the next several months and possibly up to years in the area and their freque

» ncy cannot be predicted we do live in the most seismically active state in the east coast okay very good comments let me just first go to mr. Snodgrass first David please not at this time a band please go ahead sort of order I just got a couple messages saying that we may not be streaming live on Facebook are we is it active or not showing live I can okay yeah thank you other comments I'll just say reporting as I did again before. First of all, congratulations to the staff for immediately standing up an information page. Secondly, the 911 team and the emergency services have shown themselves very adaptable and understanding too, because some of the calls coming in are a bit frantic.

» Others are informational and factual in nature, but we're Kershaw County and we're Kershaw strong and we take care of everybody I would ask I think there was a request and not use 9-1-1 can you be specific about that what's the best information flow for those who want to hear a human voice you we would still encourage them to just watch the social media and we're going to be very active in if anything comes out we have a team monitoring these incidents that will push everything out onto these platforms as soon as possible but yes we would ask you not to call 9-1-1 and use that for emergency purposes only obviously unless there is an emergency yeah Vic has asked me to pass along that the schools and the police and the sheriff and our emergency services are all up to the task within what we h

» ave designed specifications to do I mean it's hard to know what actions to take but I've also seen on your webpage actions to take in terms of if there is a major quake so all of us as a population and I saw that also in the Chronicle too and also in WPUB is educate yourselves as to what to do. The last piece is I've talked to the state geologist, quite a sharp fellow, and he is moving a seismic device, which takes months, of the first order to move it to a federal installation where it can be secured, which would probably be this side of Fort Jackson closest to Elchin. But that won't happen in the next few weeks.

» What I have found in talking to him, though, is they have not fully mapped the fault line that runs through our county they have mapped it to the west of us towards Augusta and they infer that the east Piedmont fault line runs along our county but they don't know about it so I think that what they've and I would hope and I would argue for them to continue to map it and have more specificity about the nature of this quake line that we believe we're sitting on uh it's not a major one but it is major to us because it's it's the one that's causing our difficulty but i i assure you that we're doing everything we can and so is the state uh now with that mr jones you have a comment if i may i want to go back to councilman fidel's point of order i'm getting text messages that we are not up danny ye

» s it's dropped on facebook but they're working on it now okay okay thank you fellas thank you jimmy thank you ben it does appear active on youtube just fyi yeah it is active okay thank you uh other comments for uh for danny thank you yeah you just do it all don't you danny all right all right well thank you for that we'll move on to the adoption of the agenda uh can you put the agenda up on the screen and each of you have a copy in your electronic books i will start out by saying i want to ask to take a motion and uh in a second to alter the agenda and by which uh mr carpenter has asked that item number two under new business and that the executive session under the executive session page be dropped off this agenda and brought back next time and that is specifically a discussion of the land

» acquisition and an executive session on the same matter and we have such a motion to amend the agenda so moved uh was that you russell yes yeah thank you russell the second second second for mr gardner uh discussion if i may yeah go right ahead just a couple of questions i i know that um at the last meeting we did a resolution approving us to purchase or to allow the county administrator to bring back an offer on part of that property but i think probably a week or so after we did our resolution the property was sold to belgium farms and somebody else and i was just wondering do we know anything about that no more than what you just said do we know how much they paid for it i don't know right now i think we can look on gis but the idea here is to vote on removing it from the agenda but if y

» ou'd like to continue that go ahead please well i was just WANTED SOME CLARIFICATION DO WE DOES ANYTHING MR DEVOSE DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT BELGIER FARMS PAID FOR IT NO BUT I MEAN WE'RE A TRUE CONSIDERATION STATE SO YOU COULD LOOK AT THE DEED AND FIND OUT YEAH I JUST HEARD ABOUT IT TO TODAY AND IT JUST SORT OF CONCERNS ME YOU KNOW THAT THAT WE PASS A RESOLUTION TO BUY IT FROM PERSON X THEN THEY SELL IT TO PERSON Z AND UH LET ME ASK MARY ON THAT I mean can I just ask Jimmy um the the resolution was to authorize him to negotiate correct not not to buy it so negotiation is what's going on I regret that Vic's not here can we arrange for him to debrief you later yeah can I just say this oh yeah we did you're correct on the negotiation but it was with the parties that sold it to somebody else af

» ter we had you know given the county minister that permission I was just trying to get some clarification okay yeah any other comments okay mr. chairman mr. Jones I was just gonna say I think those are legitimate questions that we all have and I think we lack the information right now to get the clarity needed to even have an executive discussion executive session discussion on it so a lot of questions to be answered to learn more about the property what I would like to say if I may publicly I just don't see us backed into a corner thank you thank you other comments okay I with that I think I'm ready to call for a vote all those in favor of the amended agendas signify by raising your hand and uh you david aye uh with that uh it passes and we now move to uh vote on the agenda as amended can

» we have a motion to approve the agenda as amended mr gardner a second second second any discussion uh seeing there is none uh first of all let's hear from you david can you vote aye and all others signify by raising your hand and mary record that as unanimous and we move on uh to the approval of minutes at tab b dated 14 december it's up on the board can we have a motion to approve make a motion to approve mr chair yeah mr tucker a second second second for mr gardner any discussion mr chair yeah i will be refraining or abstaining from the vote on the minutes all right very good with that we'll move to a vote all those in favor signify by raising your hand and with mr snodgrass abstaining was unanimous mary uh in the minutes point of order could i ask why he was abstaining he's absent he was

» absent okay i was absent yeah thank you uh now we move to a series of items the first one is an ordinance the first reading of an ordinance uh mike we may need you here without vic here okay uh first reading of an ordinance of the county council of kershaw county to amend the county's official zoning map designation for approximately 86 acres of land uh excluding one acre of future utility park parcel for an existing cell tower the designated agent is hank mabry of mabry commercial products properties uh it's a tab c and it's up on the board uh mike doesn't need any further introduction are you know I don't I tell you what I'll do is you come up I'll get it on the table can we have a motion to approve on first reading it's to make a motion to approve on first reading mr.

» Tucker commercial property can we have a second second second for mr. Connell Mike would you come up and just explain it in the absence of mr. carpenter tonight sure it's just in a rezoning to rezone the property that existing as an rd2 today to an r15 for single-family residents very good any comments starting with Dave's non grass so mr. Connolly is there's a cell tower on there currently yes there's an existing cell tower on the property today any and that they want to add one no they were excluding the cell tower from the rezoning application but the cell tower I got existing and be removed from the larger parcel. Thank you sir. Other comments? Mr. Jones. I have a question. How many houses are they looking to put? We haven't got into the site plan reviews.

» How many could they with the R-15? This property is probably not that many because you had the buffer around the lake and some water. I probably couldn't reason to guess how many that they proposed to put on there, but it's not going to an exorbitant amount it won't be as large as the neighborhood um just to the west of this so there's no idea about how many houses i do not know sir it wouldn't be three per acre would it or could it be well i mean they can go up to um about 15 000 square feet which is roughly about three per acre is it on sewer or is it septic no this will be a septic there's not sewer this far out they said it'd be half acre minimum well they can pay and get to get the sewer ran yeah i mean if they run sewer up there i mean nothing's out of range i mean it's you know in th

» e elgin area it's just not this far out so they would resume the cost of running the sewer out there yes mr garner what's the difference number of homes on an rd2 versus an r2 or less r15 r15 is more dense yes sir so you can again as mr jones pointed out you can have three per acre where the rd1 you can only have one per acre for density rd2 yes sir okay mr chanel so i'm going to support this on first reading i haven't heard any um public or community objections yet and looking through your report mr conley it didn't seem like anybody showed up having any objections um the only issue looked like an ownership question which appears to have been resolved okay and then the one thing that was hanging out there seemed to be there's going to be a survey that would identify the exact acre that wou

» ld not be rezoned in relation to the cell phone tower is that right yes sir there's still some we know when that's going to come across is it going to be before second reading or before third reading or uh not that i'm aware of i mean i think that was something that was designated to happen before the development okay they should be able to get it done pretty quick it was the same surveyor that surveyed out um the initial initial work i was just wondering how that was going to be memorialized okay thank you mr chairman that's all the questions i had other comments uh mr tucker that brings up an interesting point so the existing cell tower that's out there there's enough acreage there that's being cut out to do an additional tower or um we're just trying to we're just trying to signal our pa

» rcel out the existing tower right this moment okay we have new it's not a we do not have in the book well it's an exemption for subdivisions for the utilities or a cell tower so they can go just as small as they would like just to pull a parcel out there that utility so it would probably just be sir the circumference around the tower itself okay so that so they won't be any type of violation or anything and it won't be any more added on the parcel thank you mr.

» chairman yeah go ahead one thing I just thought that was interesting for council is I've never had a rezoning impacted by the redistricting because we haven't done redistricting before and so this is one of the first ones I've experience where it jumps from one district to another uh as i understand it i think the maps are are currently as we voted last time is that right mr debose yeah for the next 10 years so so these voters are now voting uh in a different district um based on that just kind of a curious little thing all right other comments okay i think we can move to a book oh mr jones go right here one last quick question um there will be a requirement for a traffic study correct yes sir thank you other comments let me just say uh mr gardner i support this on first reading i am not ne

» cessarily in favor of rezoning to allow higher density especially out here so i'm not in favor that i'll support it on first reading but i'm not sure i can support it okay thank you other comments okay um i think we have some questions maybe you can get a little more detail mike about about the housing and the traffic study and and the survey of if that's if that's available in our next reading if you could please sir an impact on school go ahead and say again an impact on school district and that's and the school district impact okay all right thank you all right very good uh with that we'll move to a vote starting with uh dave snodgrass mr snodgrass uh i uh and all others signify by raising your hand and if an agreement um it's uh mr tucker mr gardner mr burns uh mr brazel and mr connell

» mr jones uh i think you're opposing is that correct when you call for the vote yeah and those opposed uh mr jones it passes on first reading and moves forward to a second reading with that we move to item of new business which is a brief discussion by me on boards and commissions i asked y'all to look at your backups and you'll see we've got some work to do on the following uh different boards and committees it's that time of year and it's time to refresh some of these lists uh the assessment and appeals board the clean community board planning board rec commission and the zoning board of appeals all of them need a little attention and i ask you all to come forward and i think mary you put some names in there can you be specific about that you have a name in there for the zoning board is th

» at correct i see the name um mr branham and mr young and i ask you all to consider those uh because we may bring those forward for a vote and i appreciate mr brazel's attention to this uh in bringing forward qualified uh young citizens to help out in this area is that correct mary those two okay good all right any further discussion needed there uh i do appreciate your attention it's always a difficult work to find volunteers but we appreciate when they step up and that's very essential to the smooth running of this county at so many levels but especially on boards and commissions with that i'm here yeah mr snodgrass go ahead uh mr debose's question somebody uh submitted a form for board of elections and registrations which is our first remind me that's a delegation appointment correct that

» 's correct delegation i don't think we do the election commission do we we do no we do not no we do not appoint that board i didn't i didn't all right thank you yeah excellent point david thanks for bringing that up and with that we move to council briefing so mr carnell well this is the uh time of year mr chairman where i like to foreshadow the real march madness which is uh high school wrestling as we just went through the christmas season and everybody was enjoying large meals there's a whole population out there that was cutting weight and you had parents toting them back and forth between practice that happens for all winter sports um i remember leading up to uh my birthday in february we'd always have the state tournament coming up and we have very formidable teams at north central ca

» mden and luke golf elgin high school so uh please keep those teams and coaches and parents in your prayers that they can be free from injury during real serious competition as they head towards qualifiers and states and uh let's cheer kershaw county on to victory thank you mr chairman thank you sir mr jones jimmy thank you mr chairman julian and members of county council um i have a couple of things i want to talk about just to mention very briefly uh one is the road maintenance fee i haven't heard an update on that i do know that the south california supreme court has ruled ringville county and uh as being not being legal to uh impose that fee and i was just wondering why are we still collecting the fee and we know the fee is an illegal fee so that's a question that i do have that i would

» like to have some feedback on um i do know that we are collecting the fee and i do know that we are putting the fee we're setting it aside and again my question is if if we're setting it aside why are we collecting it i looked into that so i would like to ask that and i and i voted against the road maintenance fee increase so i may not be eligible to bring it back up i don't know that'd be a legal opinion from mr dubose if i could do that or not but i would like to see it brought back up if i can't do it by some members of our next meeting let's go ahead and repeal it all right and go ahead mr john i'm not done yet but thank you mr chairman um so i i guess i'll just leave that at that because mr carpenter's not here and mr carpenter has been very uh helpful when i ask him questions on this

» trying to get to the bottom of it uh one other thing that i want to talk about and this one sticks really hard with me i've talked about it a few times in the past you know and it's about county council members guys we're elected officials we're politicians we're elected for a four-year term and we're part-time but yet we are labeled as a full-time employee and we get county benefits you know i had to work 30 years to get my county benefits and it bothers me that it bothered me when i ran the first time that a councilman could run two times and take our benefits with him i had to work almost 30 years to get mine and to the chairman's credit i know he doesn't get it i don't get it uh because i i got mine through the county before i was ever on county council but i i don't think there's anyth

» ing that mandates us to say that we are full-time employees because i don't think we are i may be but i don't THINK THAT WE ARE A COUNCIL MEMBER NECESSARILY OR COUNCIL PERSON AS A FULL-TIME EMPLOYEE SO I'D LIKE TO SEE THAT THAT LOOKED AT AND AND LET'S ADDRESS THAT I KNOW THAT IT HAS GONE TO THREE TERMS NOW AND I HAD THAT CHANGED BY HAVING IT PUT INTO THE BUDGET UH BEFORE MANY OF YOU SAMMY WAS STILL HERE COUNCILMAN TOTE WAS STILL HERE BUT THE REST OF YOU WEREN'T HERE I HAD IT CHANGED FROM TWO TERMS TO THREE TERMS AND IT WAS IN THE BUDGET I GOT ACCUSED OF SLIPPING SOMETHING INTO BUDGET AND I TOLD MY COLLEAGUE WELL YOU SHOULD HAVE READ THE BUDGET BEFORE YOU UH VOTED FOR IT BUT THOSE ARE some concerns that i have and i just want to make sure that um we're on top of look at it and let me say som

» ething about the benefits what really bothers me is it will collect benefits ourself and yet we'll we'll commit what i call broken promises and what is a broken promise it's a promise that when an employee was hired 25 years ago they were given one set of benefits and then when they retire they have to they're currently had to go out on the current benefits which i i think the city of camden changed theirs 10 times in the last 30 years but they always grandfathered in the other employees you know we talked about we care about the employees if we care about the employees we would let them have the benefits that they were told they would have when they were first hired and not punish them because of whatever situation we're in or are trying to accomplish but anyway that concludes my report mr

» chairman members of county council i appreciate your time and consideration thank you so much thank you sir mrs nongrass yes mr chair members of council sorry if i talk with a different cadence every time i speak i i hear myself echo back so but i have a brief report i just want to commend the uh the men and women of the kershaw county fire service um as well as other members of the public safety community uh our sheriff's department ems i remember on christmas day uh most recently uh you know we were we were all going to our family gathering and i saw several uh public service vehicles uh make making their way uh to to run calls and i just may be grateful for those folks um and i know particularly on christmas it was very windy that day i know our fire service probably had over 25 calls 13

» or 14 of those were wildfire uh calls that could have that could have got out of hand some did cause some real real damage to some of our farmers and uh it was just made me grateful uh for our council and for those of you on the council that are committed to making sure that our our public safety community uh is is well resourced so i'm sorry i'm not there tonight wish i could be there and uh we'll see you guys soon thank you thank you um mr tucker yeah that guy thank you mr chairman members of council and the citizens of kershaw county just want to uh say again um well the uh fine arts center um of kershaw county and uh miss dolly and dr jones uh y'all please take your visits when you your time is uh you know available i think that you will really really uh appreciate all the work that the

» y're putting in and the things that they're trying to do and um it would help you come budget time on um your decisions on what you would like to see accomplished for this year and moving forward that concludes my report mr chairman uh mr gardner no report and uh mr russell please go ahead last but not least but not least the uh the only thing i really have to comment on tonight is uh the the importance of these uh boards and commissions that we have the need to appoint some folks to uh we've had a couple of boards that haven't been able to meet because they haven't been full and that's something that i want to ensure the folks that we are asking to serve they're taking time out of their day out of their life to serve the citizens of kershaw county sometimes if these boards don't meet becau

» se of lack of attendance it causes people real problems um and and that that was what i've recently experienced um and and i want to take it serious and i want to get it fixed um if someone's building a house in the community and they they need uh they need a variance or they they need to to have their opportunity and um i just ask that if there are people that are serving currently and you don't have time to meet um you know feel free to step aside and let somebody else have a chance to represent the people um we're all here for the same reason for the community um we think we thank everybody that it takes time to serve on these boards but this is a serious matter and um i intend to make sure the folks that we appoint do the jobs that we ask of them thank you thank you and i'll close it ou

» t uh the next meeting is the 25th of january um some of you have asked about the retreat to start off the budget process i show it as friday the 4th and saturday the 5th if y'all would mark your calendars that was previously announced by vic but i don't think it made it around to everybody and mary if you can just validate that and make sure everybody has it okay and then work sessions follow after that and that's often one or two a week and off we go i i thank the fine arts center from coming dolly and dr jones always good to see you uh and i'd also like to point out that each of you now are going to receive a copy of a little summary of vision 2030 and if you look on there there's a qrs code here where you can scan in that and for those of you that don't want to carry around the the full

» document vision 2030 that was approved unanimously in this body and by all three municipalities in the county and also the school district there is a little code here you can scan in and you can get the vision document virtually on your device and don't have to carry around this 35-page document so with that we move to close out with the acting administrator danny any comments uh just that uh it was able to get that dropped facebook feed back up yeah thank you i got a number of notes uh from a number of people thank you they resolved that and i was going to wish my mom a happy birthday all right happy birthday congratulations mr dubose over to you nothing mr chairman and with that with no executive session do we take a motion to adjourn most adjourn mr chairman mr tucker a second second tha

» nk you very much any discussion Mr. Snodgrass, any discussion? No, sir. I vote aye. He votes aye. And all others, kindly show your appreciation. Indicate by raising your hand if you agree. And that's unanimous, Mary, and we are dismissed. Happy New Year, everybody.