Machine transcript of the county's live stream. Each » marks a change of speaker; the captions don't say who is talking, and names are often misspelled. For the readable version see the recap; the official record is the county's minutes.
» [Part 1 of 2] All right. It's six o'clock. Everybody got quiet and was ready for me to get started, I guess. Let's get the meeting going. Thank you, everyone, for coming out tonight to this Tuesday, February 11th, 2025, Kershaw County Council meeting. We've got the agenda before us. We've been called to order. We're going to have an invocation and pledge of allegiance tonight led by Councilman Derek Shoemake. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, please watch over this body as we conduct the people's business here in Kershaw County. Lord, specifically, steady our hearts and steady our minds as we work through these complicated issues to do what's best for the people of this county.
» Lord, we understand that we come to you tonight with great responsibility and not just the people sitting up here, your honor, but everyone in this room, every person in this county that stands up enough and cares enough to come and participate in government. And please watch over all of us so that we can reach the right decision. In your name we pray. Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Mr. Shoemake. The next item on the agenda is adoption of the agenda. Item four, is there a motion? I'll make a motion we adopt the agenda. Is there a second? Second. We've got a second.
» Any discussion? Seeing no discussion, we'll call it for a vote. All in favor, raise your hand. Ms. Hanna, it's unanimous for those who are present. And I understand Mr. Tucker's going to be calling in at a later time. Okay. Thank you, Ms. Hanna. It's approved. Item number 5A is our next item. This is National Black History Month, which is placed on the agenda by Mr. Tucker. Is there a motion? I'll make the motion. All right. Is there a second? I'll second. All right. We've got a motion in a second. Mr. Tucker had asked me if he was not here to share this. It's on your screen. And so I'll go through it. And then we'll see if we have any discussion. Black History Month proclamation, Kershaw County, South Carolina.
» Whereas Black History Month is a time to honor the significant contributions and achievements of African Americans throughout history, recognizing their resilience, excellence, and influence in shaping our nation's past, present, and future. And, whereas the origins of Black History Month date back to 1926 when Dr. Carter G. Woodson established Negro History Week, which has since evolved into the month-long celebration observed of February across the United States. And, whereas the African American community has played a vital role in the history of Kershaw County, South Carolina, contributing to the fields of education, business, art, culture, government, and civil rights while enriching the fabric of our community.
» And, whereas this year's national theme for Black History Month, African Americans and the labor, Black Resistance Celebrating Black Innovation, calls on us to reflect on the ongoing struggle for justice and equality and to celebrate the triumphs and resilience of African Americans throughout history. And, whereas Kershaw County acknowledges the significance of promoting equity, inclusion, and understanding among all citizens, continuing to strive toward a community where all people are valued and celebrated. And, whereas it is imperative to educate current and future generations about the accomplishments and contributions of African Americans and to honor their central role in the advancement of our society.
» Now, therefore, Kershaw County Council does hereby proclaim February 2025 as Black History Month in Kershaw County, South Carolina. We encourage all citizens to join in this observance by participating at local levels and as further stated in the proclamation. That is the proclamation from Mr. Tucker. Is there any discussion? Yes. Mr. Jones, you recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the county council. I support this and I do it in recognition of my my brother and friend George Gibson and Evelyn Gibson and also Robert Sumpter and his wife Denise Sumpter. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jones.
» Any further discussion? I'll just mention that this is a precursor to another proclamation or resolution that will come up that is acknowledging and detailing the history of the three-room schools that they had in Kershaw County during segregated periods. Many of these buildings have actually gone away, been torn down in lieu of other development. Some of them are still standing, some of them still have good bones, but it's a history in Kershaw County that folks need to be aware of and Mr. Tucker is working on this along with a few other folks in the community and they're still doing research to identify and create maps that are detailed enough that it could be useful to the public as well. Any further discussion? Seeing none, we'll call for a vote. All in favor? Ms.
» Hanna, it's unanimous and we still don't have Mr. Tucker yet on the phone. Thank you, gentlemen. That's 5A. Next item is item 5B on the agenda. Dr. Hank Holtine placed on the agenda by Councilman Jones. Yes, thank you so much. At this point in time, I was asked by Vice Chairman Russell Browser would I mind letting him present this. I'll have a few words about my friend when he finishes. Mr. I yield to you. Would you like to make the motion, sir? Oh, I'm sorry, I do make the motion, absolutely. And I'll second the motion. Russell on the table, go ahead. All right, at this point in time, I thought I was reading a proclamation for about a dozen people. This gentleman has done quite a lot in his life.
» It's quite impressive, so if you'll bear with me, I'm going to read through the proclamation. Not in its entirety, but I'm going to hit some highlights. This is the honored Dr. H. W. Holtine with over 52 years of physician practicing in Camden, Kershaw County, South Carolina. How do you even begin to honor such an outstanding servant to the people? Whereas H. W. Holtine is the longest serving practicing physician in Camden, Kershaw County, surpassing Dr. Francis McCorkle, which was my grandmother's doctor for years.
» And in 1967, high school graduate from Wilbur Cross High School in New Haven, Connecticut, began his journey in 1974 until present at Camden Associated Physicians, PA, excuse me, in Camden, South Carolina, as clinic director slash managing partner for Columbia, Columbia, West Columbia, Manning, Florence, Lexington, and Chapin, South Carolina. He was a member of the JC's and volunteered at the Camden Kershaw County Rec Department. He umpired baseball and softball games. He umpired high school girls softball games and officiated basketball, sponsored multiple youth teams including Dixie Dixie League Baseball and Camden Kershaw County Training League, consisting of 10 to 12 teams, provided necessary uniforms and equipment for the entire training league. Whereas H. W.
» Holtine has served, contributed, and accomplished so many goals in his career. It is hard to determine which are more important than the other, so it's an honor to share them all. Now, I won't be reading them all, but they will all be on the record. His education, undergraduate training at South Central Connecticut State University and Northwest Missouri State University, graduate school at Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa, postgraduate training and studied at Palmer College of Chiropractic in 1974, the National College of Chiropractic's Advanced Physical Therapy and Pain Control Methods, that was in 1978, the National College of Chiropractic for Chiropractic Orthopedics, 1981, the Mayo Clinic Physical Therapy Department, the Physical Examination of the Extremities, 1981, M
» ayo Clinic Conservation, I'm sorry, Conservative Management of the Intervertible Disc Lesion in 1982, University of Michigan School of Medicine Disability and Impairment Rating and Ergonomics, 1983, Harvard School of Medicine, made it all the way to Harvard, that's pretty impressive sir, Orthopedic Radiology in 1983, American Medical Association, Impairment and Disability, 1984, Harvard School of Medicine, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in 1984, Cleveland College of Chiropractic's Thermography Principles and Application, 1985, and then again, Harvard School of Medicine, Primary Care Orthopedics, 1988, he had a variety of staff positions, including consulting for insurance companies, concerning regular and customary fees and procedures, equipment, I'm sorry, establishment of protocols
» and evaluation and management techniques, protocol and parameters to assess and determine patient's need for care for care and its type. Moving on to appointments, he was a member of the Board of Chiropractic Orthopedics, member of American Council of Radiology, member of the Council of Physiotherapy, he was a chairman of the South Carolina Board of Chiropractic Examiners for seven terms, chairman of Capital Health Health Care Clinic at the State House in Columbia, he was responsible for establishing protocols and standards of care that are presented at the clinic that are now available to the members of the South Carolina House of Representatives, members of the South Carolina Senate and all employees of the State House.
» Moving on to articles published, clinical diagnosis and grading of the intervertebral disc syndrome, South Carolina Chiropractic Association in 1981, a standard of care for analysis and treatment of scoliosis patients, that was also in 1981, clinical and physical diagnosis of strain injuries, that was in 1981, whereas H. W. Hultin has received the following awards throughout his career, South Carolina Chiropractic Association, Most Improved State Journal Award 1980, 1991 and 1992, Order of the Palmetto Chiropractor 1994, recipient of the Patriot, the Palmetto Patriot Award in 2010, this is a recognition of service to the state and to the public through boards and commissions. It is the highest award given by the Lieutenant Governor in his office in the state.
» Awards for recognition for service as attending chiropractic physician at the at the State House, again in the General Assembly in 2012, and awarded a recognition of service for attending chiropractic physician at the State House in 2018, rendering necessary treatment to members of the General Assembly and all state employees. There's a litany of things that this gentleman has done and achieved. I'll say this, to say he's a hard working man would be an incredible understatement. I will conclude with this, now therefore be it known that Kershaw County Council presents this Honorary Lifetime Achievement Proclamation and declare it this day, H.W. Hultine, D.C. in Kershaw County, South Carolina, Tuesday, February 11th, 2025. Thank you, Mr. Browse.
» Any further discussion? No, I will say it's just quite an impressive resume and I'm sorry we couldn't read it all, but we'd be here for quite some time and it's a real pleasure to get to presenting this to you and your family, sir. Mr. Chairman, if I may, thank you. You know, I have to tell you, it's a big honor for me to be able to have a part in bragging on my friend, and he is a friend, and he's been a good partner to Kershaw County for many, many years. I want you folks to think back to a little history here. How many people in here remember Palmetto Arms apartment? Back in the early, maybe '74, '75, Dr. Hultine can tell me, but I'm sure his mind is clearer than mine, but bottom line is we, it was Hank Hultine, Art Graham, and Jimmy Jones.
» We were all young folks starting our lives out and that's when I really got to know Dr. Hultine. He's been a good friend of mine throughout the years and as I said, what a wonderful partner for Kershaw County and his accomplishments are second to none. And I'm very proud and honored to be a part of this night. And Vice Chairman Brazel, thank you for asking me if you could participate and present that. I really appreciate it. And I'm glad you allowed me to do this when I approached you saying I wanted to do something to honor you, Dr. Hultine. Thank you so much. Councilman Jones, if I may. Go ahead. Chairman. You said you guys met in 1974? I believe that was it, yeah. The only other person at this dais that was born then was Mr. Cato. Thank you for pointing that out.
» You didn't have to go there. Any further discussion, Councilman? No, thanks for the opportunity. I'll just say congratulations. Thanks very much. All right. Let's take it to a vote. All in favor, raise your hand. Ms. Hent, it's unanimous by those who are present and we still don't have Mr. Tucker. Thank you, gentlemen. Do you want to have Mr. Hultine come up? Yeah, sure, of course. Dr. Hultine. Thank you very much. I'm exceedingly honored. I've had the opportunity to represent the state, I guess Camden because I'm from here, on the national stage on many occasions. I always start every presentation by saying I bring you greetings from the center of the universe, Camden, South Carolina, the best small town anywhere. Yes. I believe that in my mind, my heart, my body. I love this town.
» I stumbled into this town recommended by a chiropractic physician from Orangeburg that I might fit in here. Being a Yankee, been married a long time, my wife still tells me I'm a you know what kind of Yankee. Okay. And I'll never be a southerner. That's kind of sad. I hope I get to be a southerner before it's over. But it was a great place. I just lived here. I didn't know a soul in town. I met Mr. Jones. I met Art Graham. I met Johnny Fellers. I bought my furniture. I rented a building from Jim Bishop. I built it out and started practicing and the rest has been downhill. It's been I've been accepted way beyond my expectations. I was able to build a clinic downtown Camden on Church Street in 1982 after only seven years of practice. A 4,000 square foot building.
» And not to slap the landlord, but aside from the taxes, it's a good place. I wish we could lower the taxes. Can we do that anyway? We're working on it. Anyway, and I've been in that building since 82, expanded my practice to six other locations, eventually hired medical personnel to work with our chiropractic physicians so that the patient would best be served. That's what it's about. Served on the state board 20 years, serving the public. We're there to protect the public. The state boards in this state do not protect the participants, the doctors, the lawyers, the Indian chiefs. They protect the public. Public protection has been my passion. I was chairman of the FCLB board, which is the 50 state boards together to protect the public. I accept this honor, obviously willingly and humbly.
» I was lucky, lucky to come here, and I was even lucky enough to treat Chairman Connell. When he was a national wrestler and his picture is in my examination room, right on the wall next to Tim Wash. Don't tell him that. I'm not a coach. So thank you for allowing me to be here. Thank you for accepting me. Thank you for allowing me to marry, raise four children, and I'm going to say it's become a success. Thank you. Dr. Holstein. Thank you, Mr. Jones, Mr. Brazel, and the rest of the council. Dr. Holstein, if you could join us, we have the plaque right here. Right here. If you could come up for a picture, that'd be great. Oh, bring your wife up, too, please. Your wife is shaking her head no, but. Thank you very much. Dr., congratulations. Resolution is big as you are.
» If you can't lift it, we'll get one of these young folks that weren't around in 1974. Thank you, gentlemen. That takes us to our next item on the agenda, which is public comments. As a reminder, this is not a Q&A for council. It's a time for council to hear from the public, subject to the rules and guidelines that are already printed on the agenda packet. Mr. DuBose. Seven speakers are signed up. We have seven folks signed up for public comments tonight. Who's the first one? Keith Gunter. Subject is P and Z. Mr. Gunter. Yes, sir. Welcome, my friend. Thank you, Jimmy. I'd like to thank Jimmy for over the years. When I needed help, he would go to bat for me, and I appreciate it. And I know some of you guys. I know Ben from wrestling. I'm up here today.
» I wrote all this, and I know I haven't got time, so I'm not even going to probably go through much. I'm up here today for a simple reason. I have rental property throughout this county, and with my own hands, I put in all the septic tanks with God's grace and mercy and health. Every septic tank, every water line. Everything that's been done, I've crawled under mobile homes with insulation stuck to the sweat and laying in raw sewage. I have done it all. There ain't nothing I ain't done on them. I'll build a hundred or more electrical meter poles. I wrote all this. First time I wrote it, I was so mad. I had to take all that out. But I'm here because I do not understand. If I go to county now, I need an electrical permit. I was an electrician at DuPont for 35 years.
» In fact, I handled all of their waste treatment and the water supply. 2,300 gallons. I was in charge of those meters. I'll try to go and get a permit to put up an electrical meter pole at one of my rental properties, and I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't get a permit to do that. I don't mind being inspected. If it says to put four clamps, I'm going to put six. Whatever it says, it's going to be better than what the county has. I've never failed inspection on a septic tank or anything in my life, but now I can't go on my own property. I paid for that property. I pay taxes on it every year, an enormous amount of taxes to Kershaw County. And you don't allow me to work on my property. I got grandsons. I took three of them with me.
» I was denied a permit two times in the last couple of months. At one time, they denied a permit. They went ahead and issued one after so much rigmarole. You would not believe if I told you I'm not going to go through it. I had it wrote down. And while all that was going on, somebody stole a $7,800 air conditioner. $6,800 a brand new unit out of Lennox Road property because it was empty. I had a farm employee. That's on a farm, that home. I had a farm employee ready to move in it right away if I could have got power. They wouldn't turn the power on. First, they said that they didn't know how long the power had been off. It had only been off a month. Then the next, they said they found underpinning broken and they wasn't going to issue it because of the underpinning.
» All this back and forth. Oh, yeah, I had that thing where it had been off a month. I had to go get a letter from Black River and carry to them, you know, and prove I'm a grown man. I'm a grown man here and you deny me the right to work on my property. That's the ordinance there. I can't pull a permit. I'm too dumb to pull a permit. Smart enough to acquire property. I got a work truck, dump truck, backhoe. I've done everything myself always. My hands tore all the pieces from working. I'm still working. And y'all won't allow me to pull a permit to work on my own property. I hope the good Lord, I don't know what's happening in this country. I don't know who's been advising you on the zoning and the laws and how you should do it.
» But now there seems to be a time for reasoning and common sense. I have all the tools. I have all the skills I've used in my whole life. Now I want to work on my property. So here's what I recommend. I do not mind me being inspected just like a contractor or whatever. But if I've had rental property and it ought to be grandfathered in. I want to be able to go to my property and make repairs. And I do not mind paying for the inspections. I don't mind that. Y'all need to give me some help on this. I mean it. Y'all need to look this over and give me some help now. Amen. Thank you. Thank you, Keith. Thank you, Mr. Gunter. Appreciate you coming out tonight. Thank you, Mr. Gunter, very much. Well said. Mr. DuBose, who's next on the list? Next speaker is, I believe it's Phil Sherda, AOD.
» Phil Sherda. A fortunate name for the South. I'd like to echo some of the comments I've heard about this being such a great town to live in. I've lived here for about 20 years. Sir, if you could please speak in the mic. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, so we can speak. There we can hear you. Yeah. I'd like to echo the comments I heard earlier that this is a really great town to live in. I've lived here for the last 20 years and I've lived all over the East Coast. And this is probably the most welcoming and efficient place that I've ever lived in. So I would like to just, I'll be brief here, just regarding the AOD initiative here. And we have a property that we're looking to develop for industrial reasons. It's trisected by three of the zones, the A Zone, B1, and the C1 as a C Zone.
» I trust you guys have received my synopsis and diagram of what we're planning to do there. And I'd just like to highlight a couple of concerns I have regarding that as we're planning on manufacturing aircraft there right next to the airport and in the A Zone. And I'd like to just underline it. As an aeronautical business, we really need to be in the A Zone to effectively do that. And looking to get the zone classified pursuant to the C3 classification for that. For general office and research activities we'll be doing. And one of our products is going to be a solar thermodynamic electric generator. And we'd also like to have that extended to the A Zone for C1 and C2 classification there.
» And further on down the whole package here, there's a whole bunch of definitions and whatnot, but I don't see any real definition between the status of manufacturing facilities, heavy industrial, and light industrial. And there's no guidelines for that. Some of our activities that we're planning on doing is just cutting into the corner by maybe 30, 40 feet of Zone A, and we'd like to have the C. For the manufacturing, we'd like the C1, C2, C3, and C2, C3. And for the heavy industrial also, we'd like the C1, 2, and 3 formations there. And for the light industrial, C1, C2, and 4, which is extended to the B1 and C divisions of the AOD. Also, hopefully, as we get established over the next several years, we'll be increasing the employment out there.
» And we may need to -- just a heads up that we may need to extend the personnel intensity, as you have it stated in the AOD, to a higher level, because we may have more people in there employed. And another item that's just come up recently was the current buildings that are out there are left over from the Skyline Tic Tac facility that was there before. And during that demolition, we're going to have to take all that out of there. There may be excessive dust there for a period of time while those structures are raised. So that's all I have to say on that. Thanks for your attention. Thank you, Mr. Sheridan. Appreciate you coming out tonight. Mr. Connell. Yes, sir. Mr.
» Plates, could you just state what the rules are for public speaking so people understand why we don't respond back and forth? Oh, we don't read the rules. I'm sorry. Say again? What was your question? The rules of order for public speaking where we don't engage. Okay. Well, it's a public comment section just for Mr. Jones' benefit and those who are listening. It's a public comment portion. It's a free speech, essentially, moment where you're able to come out and speak and share thoughts and concerns with local government. We've had topics wide-ranging as prior Justice Scalia, which we heard about frequently, on to AOD matters, to things that are actually on the agenda or things that may be on the agenda in the future. But it's not a Q&A portion.
» We do have those for relevant county business whenever we have public hearings for a particular agenda item. Thank you, Mr. Connell. Sure. I believe they're spelled out in the back of the agenda. Yes, sir. There's the rules for that. Yeah. I refer to them at the beginning of each time, but thank you very much. You did fine. Yes, sir. Mr. DuBose. Linda Knatzer, comp plan. Ms. Knatzer, comp plan. Did I get that right? Comp plan. Oh, comp plan. Sorry. Ms. Knatzer, yes. Go ahead. Chairman Connell, council members, thank you for attending the comprehensive plan forum last week. I realize you all have a lot on your to-do list. However, the deadline to have this plan in place is a year sooner than the airport overlay district, so it needs to take priority.
» We were told that the second reading is scheduled for April the 8th and the third reading for April the 22nd. That's coming up pretty quick. I am aware that our comprehensive plan must be updated and made compliant with current government requirements. It does not mean that we completely do away with a very good current plan and replace it with one that is not going to serve the people of Kershaw County well. Our current 421-page plan in many ways replicates the comprehensive plan of the city of Camden. While it may not be perfect and could be updated and revised, it is much closer to what we need. It speaks to Kershaw County's past, present, and future. Now, what is wrong with the plan we saw last week? It's 101 short pages, some blank pages.
» Nothing, I guess, if you like pretty pictures and graphics. Six to eight pictures of housing that we are trying to avoid. And do we really need five pictures of Camden's railroad station and railroad tracks? No mention of the airport. One small picture of a church and another church in the background of a picture of this building. As for substance, when I reviewed the equine information, immediately I noticed that it was incorrect. I was probably 30 to 40 years old. At the forum, Nihair said his source was the Kershaw County Chamber of Commerce website. The director of the Chamber of Commerce told me that it has not been updated recently. And when I talked to Amy Kiner, we went over some things and kind of updated a little bit of it. And that they should have really called her.
» What other information and from what sources are we to accept? In the less than half of the plan we looked at last week, it speaks about diversity 14 times and the need for affordable housing 11 times. While still pointing out that Kershaw County's housing prices as of 2021 were significantly less than the Columbia area and the state. This new plan does have some good things, but I'm not so sure they're not already in the current plan or could be added in. Before you're persuaded to accept the window dressing and questionable text of the new plan, let's be certain of what we would have to live with. Right now, I say keep the current one and rework it. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Gennett. We appreciate you coming out tonight. Mr. DuBose. Lynn Canto, Equine Overlay. Ms. Canto.
» Lynn Canto, 1265 Sanders Cooperate. Yes, ma'am. I'm not a fan of reading, but I've been having to do a lot of that lately. And the first thing I want to address is the AOD. I want to thank you for making amendments and listening to the people who live in that community and to their concerns. I still think there are a couple more things that need to be addressed. I do think those people individually affected you need to talk to personally. Protect the farms, the kennels, the hunt club clubhouse, the commercial equine properties, and maintain people's property rights. I would also suggest considering equine overlay to protect, educate, and guide growth in the future for the equine community and housing developments nearby.
» This would prevent future conflicts with an airport expansion, equine activity, and any of the developments in the future. Now, most recently, I want to thank you for showing up, showing up for the comprehensive plan, draft reading, and giving wonderful suggestions that I do agree with. Some of those suggestions included looking at housing developments and the approaches you want to take with that in the future and promoting the equine community in this plan. I do think we can go a step further, and I'll explain that in a minute, but let's start on page eight of the comprehensive plan. One of the most concerning things I saw was on ethnicity. The data reads whites and others versus Hispanic and nothing else.
» Now, I do a lot of grant writing, and I've never seen data presented that way, and that concerned me. The other issue that concerned me is on page number nine, lacking bachelor's in education degrees in this town, and that's because every community around us has a four-year program but us, and we need to look at including that in our community. Page 14, the use of images of houses that really don't represent Kershaw County needs to be reconsidered. Page 19, protects sensitive natural areas that weren't even listed on the map and highlighting rural areas. Hunt Country, which is 9,000 to 14,000 acres, which are in land trust and preservations. That information has been provided to the government office in our county. The Clemson educational trails should be included and marked in that map.
» And most importantly is our water system needs to be protected. That needs to be emphasized in our comprehensive plan to prevent Charlotte water from reducing the amount of water that we receive in this area. Hunt Country is rural area. It's not urban. It's not suburban. And that is a misprint in the comprehensive plan and needs to be effectively immediately resolved. Finally, solar. You have four to five contracts approved to put in solar, according to the meeting yesterday, but none of them have been activated. We have no way of knowing what is successful and what's not successful. Do you have a county consultant that's an expert that tells you what works and what doesn't work? I'm concerned for the wildlife, the runoff, and the people being notified appropriately surrounding that area.
» If my property was adjacent to any solar farm, I would want to be notified, certified to guarantee I know about that information. And most importantly, no solar in the AOD region. None in A Zone, none in B Zone, none in C Zone, and none in D Zone. This is for the protection of pilots flying in that area. And I do care about the AOD. I've told people when I come up here, I think it's important, but so is the equine community. Thank you for your time and have a good evening. Thank you, Ms. Conto. Appreciate you coming out. Mr. DuBose. Next speaker is Joseph Chancellor on Creed Solar. Mr. Chancellor, please. You guys should still be able to hear me though, right? You need to speak in the mic, sir. So the people that can hear you on YouTube. Yeah, you'll be silent to those who are online.
» I need the extension, you're so tall. You are tall. Yeah, I don't want to break it. Gentlemen, council members, I appreciate the time to come up here and discuss this matter. I was here last night at the commission meeting and spoke with them about some things that were concerning about solar generation stations that I have. One would be just in the construction phase, there's a significant impact to the environment through the dust that generated, through stormwater runoff, through compaction of soils, as well as the removal of all native species and trees that are in the area. There's purposes for those. We all know what those are. The one of the concerns that I have is that I believe that solar generation should not take place in agricultural zones.
» Those are important to every way of life in a community such as Camden and Kershaw County. In so much as there's outdoor activities that take place. I know I have been an outdoorsman most of my life and I have spent a lot of time in the woods. When the woods go away, there's no more woods. When you put up fences, there's no more woods. And that limits the access that people and individuals have to those outdoor activities. The thing I think that we forget about with the solar generation is that at the end of its useful life cycle, something has to happen with all of the product that's there. And last night the representatives did a great job of discussing recycling based on tin costs currently.
» But what they didn't discuss and was most concerning to me was the fact that they have no plan that I heard for returning the land to its original condition. Once these things come to an end, and they will come to an end because we will find better means of power generation because solar is known for being somewhat inefficient versus the expanse that it takes to generate it, there has to be a plan. And what some communities have seen where decommissioning has taken place is the plan only allowed for the removal of the solar generation equipment, not the return to original state. That's an important thing to think on for our community and the people so that the taxpayers don't end up with a scorched earth field that nothing can grow in.
» I would ask you to take into consideration also the fact that there is an ad valorium on the agenda tonight that they're asking for a reduction in the taxes for the locale so that they can be more profitable or it makes more sense to them or whatever. It's a business, I understand that. But keep in mind what I just mentioned. At the end of this, what happens? What taxpayer burden will there be postscript? I would also mention that during the construction there is a 200, approximately 200 jobs that will be available. That's very short term. There will be a number of people that hopefully will be hired locally, but what does that do for them? You've given them a piece of bread, you haven't given them the ability to continue to earn.
» There is no continued representation, full-time employment positions, once the construction phase has concluded. As an individual who works for the largest real estate and facilities management company in the world, I understand that what will happen during the construction phase, this process will go to open bid. This will be across probably the southeast, the entire southeast. Contractors will have the ability to bid on the earth moving, the removal of the trees, the installation, and it will go to the lowest bidder. Hopefully that would be local, but the probability that's not. The maintenance work for this will also be under a preventative maintenance contract or contract with individuals who are licensed and available to service the equipment.
» Unless we have those individuals that are considered experts or have done that in this locale, that's not going to go here. That's going to go to a national vendor or a regional vendor to maintain that. That's not going to be held within the community. I am not 100% opposed to solar, but I do believe that we have a responsibility to due diligence, not now, but to the future generations in 30, 40 years when the life cycle of the equipment has come to conclusion and we have to think about what happens afterwards. Thank you for the time. Good evening, everyone. My name is Ashley Huff. I'm here to speak about solar panels. Last night, if you did not get a debrief or did not attend the planning commission meeting, definitely missed out.
» Last night, Grenergy spoke and presented about Creed Solar, which you will read tonight, about the Philo agreement. In the project overview of the presentation and a brief description on their website, it listed this project would be a $60 million local investment and there would be approximately 200 construction jobs. I think there seems to be some confusion. I talked after the meeting and the way it was worded. Grenergy is proposing to invest $60 million into racking and panels and battery storage and substations, et cetera, for this project, and it will create 200 temporary jobs. It's not full-time. Otherwise, this facility is standalone. It doesn't have a full-time staff of even one person.
» The website also mentions that the power will be delivered to the local grid, but the line is Duke power, so I'm not really sure what local entity receives power from that because it will be, that area is powered by Black River. The website mentions that it will offer a new source of economic development, including long-term tax revenue for schools, government services, and public infrastructure. I'm just wondering, will this be presented at some point through county council? I mean, we pass, or we'll see the second reading tonight. So what information will be given, especially since the first reading was so limited. Last night, there was a little bit of an off-the-cuff comment about how there weren't very many people who lived in this area.
» Well, maybe compared to a bigger city such as Charleston or even Birmingham, there might not be that many people, but it's enough people for us to be concerned about, including a constituent who sits on the planning commission. Last night, he lives within the one-mile radius of the solar, what they call the solar plant on the website, but he didn't receive a letter and neither did some of his neighbors. When do we get so caught up in the economic development and financial gain and tiptoeing around everyone that has a checkbook to avoid a lawsuit that we forgot about caring for our neighbors? Let's talk about FULO agreements. So this project right now, possibly, I think it's like $3,800 per megawatt. There's 48 megawatts in this project.
» If you divide that by 377 acres, which is also what's proposed, it's approximately $484 that they're paying per acre. All right, let's talk about Wacom. Y'all know that I love to harp on that. So Wacom is paid approximately $122,000 in taxes this year for just real estate, and that was approximately 61 acres. So they're paying approximately $2,000 per acre. There's also other real estate taxes listed for that address that total up to $129,000. But we'll just use the $122,000 for this example. So this company comes in here and makes this investment. They don't have to pay salaries. They don't have to pay anything. And all they have to pay is $500 per acre to take up, you know, this 377 acres in our county.
» Like I said, I think we need some more information about what they're providing other than this power generation that's going to go to the grid or this philo agreement for the county. Thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. DeBose. Last speaker is Linda Franklin Moore. The subject is race ipsa loquitur. Subject was what? Race ipsa loquitur. Ms. Franklin Moore. The leaders in the room will understand what that means. Thank you members of council for this opportunity to come before you tonight. And for the record, I'm Linda Franklin Moore and I reside in Camden. Recently, I have been very vocal about the airport overlay district and the comprehensive land use plan.
» I felt it would be appropriate to properly introduce myself to new council members and the public since many do not know my history with Kershaw County. When I moved to Kershaw County from Richland County in 1995, I was working in the banking industry, but resigned and went to work for a small newspaper and ran for public office after seeing the good old boy system strangling the county. I was the first woman to run for county council chairman and received 48% of the vote. Council meetings were held in the basement of the courthouse at 9 a.m. There was no public comment. The procurement code was either not followed or non-existent. Economic development was at a standstill and the list went on and on. Change was not created in a vacuum. There was help.
» I was told that public comment was illegal. So I called the then Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court, Jean Toll, and she assured me that it was not illegal and asked if she could get the then County Council Chairman Steve Kelly's contact information. I gave it to her, for sure. Public comment was born. Citizens were no longer afraid to speak up for themselves and speak out on policies and issues facing the county. I am also the author of the unholy alliance chart. Not bad for a couple of abrasive and aggressive ladies. At the public drop in last week regarding the comprehensive use plan, I was alarmed the poster board outlining urban, rural and suburban areas was missing the legend that corresponds to this map.
» Each of you have received a handout where I provided the map and the legend that goes with that map. This is a critical component for full disclosure to the public about how their property and property values are affected. So when it's missing from that public display, they're missing a lot of information. What is disturbing about this legend is the designation for urban states that equine slash agricultural use is not allowed by right but on a case-by-case basis. My question is, who makes that determination? The area in question is the Pine Road and Sanders Creek Road area, which is already home to many horse farms and it is adjacent to hunt country. The consultant you are paying $300,000 for is relying on the public to provide or correct his information.
» I also find that a little bit alarming. A junior staffer has recently told members of the horse community they are being too sensitive regarding the airport overlay. Horse community property rights and values are affected by the AOD and the comprehensive land use plan. My husband, Mark, had cancer and recently passed away. He and I purchased this home specifically for me to be able to remain on our property after his passing and that I would be able to have my horses. They are what get me out of bed every day. I did not know it, but my husband knew it, that that was going to be his last day on earth. He was so driven that he literally used his last breath as he repaired our irrigation system so my beloved horses would be able to have grass. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Franklin Moore.
» Again, we share our condolences for you. Mr. DuBose, that concludes public comment. Thank you very much, Mr. DuBose, and thank you everyone for participating. Gentlemen, that takes us to item number seven, public presentations. Mr. Templer, if you could give us just a little bit of background and then we'll have a motion in a second. Yes, sir, Mr. Chairman, members of council. I just, we have a, it's kind of a meet and greet for Mako, who is now our new head of the voter registration department. She is, she's been on board prior to some of the elections we have, some of the special elections. So she's had her work cut out for her, she's doing an amazing job.
» So I just wanted to get her over here and introduce her to y'all, let her talk to y'all a little bit about what she has going on over there and some of the good things she has done. Thank you for that background. Do we have a motion for this public presentation? I'll make that motion. I'll second. We've got a motion and a second. Any discussion before she comes up? All in favor? Raise your hand. Raise your hand. It's unanimous. And then I got word that we do have Mr. Sammy Tucker on the phone. Mr. Tucker, how do you vote? I'll vote yes. It's unanimous Ms. Hannah. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Good evening. Good evening. My name is Miko Jarena-Reddick and it is a pleasure to be invited to introduce myself and give an overview of the voter registration office as well as share where I see it going.
» I was born and raised right here in Kershaw County. Go L.E. As a proud member of this community, I am passionate about doing what is right and what is best for it. Last year, we lost a pillar of our community and our office, Mr. John Kaufman. Mr. Kaufman ran the voter registration office with integrity, transparency, and most importantly, in accordance to the law. After his passing, our current deputy director, Mr. Isaac Hodge, led us through numerous elections without complaint. My team dedicated countless hours of overtime ensuring that every, ensuring that every controllable aspect that went into each election was expertly managed. For everything beyond our control, they approached each challenge with the utmost precision and expertise.
» It is a testament to John's training and foresight that we were able to carry on the elections throughout the year with no major issues. I assumed the role of director on October 14, 2024, just two weeks before the presidential election. I intend to continue leading this office with the same integrity and transparency that my predecessor did. Currently, Kershaw County has approximately 69,905 residents and that number continues to grow. Of that population, 44,162 are registered voters.
» The mission of this office of the Kershaw County voter registration is to promote and facilitate voter registration, maintain official voter registration records, educate voters, conduct fair and impartial elections in compliance with state and federal election laws, protect the integrity of the election process for all and provide quality customer service to all citizens. To address the population growth, I am working on securing a second early voting location in the Lukoff-Elgin area during statewide elections. Additionally, we are reviewing all the current voting locations to ensure that they meet the growing needs of the county.
» Another priority is improving communication about elections and changes to polling locations and ensuring that every voter has access to the information they need. I also want to make sure that our dedicated poll workers are properly compensated for the important role that they play in ensuring smooth elections. There is currently a bill, HB 3551, in the South Carolina legislature proposing increased pay to poll workers. I am hopeful that this will pass. As the child of an educator, education and voter outreach are near and dear to my heart. We are working on several programs aimed at getting both the next generation and current voters excited about exercising their constitutional right to vote and becoming informed voters.
» Again, thank you for allowing me the time to introduce myself and to give a little overview. Thank you very much. Councilman? Mr. Chair? Yes, sir. Mr. Shemek. So I just want to thank you for coming. It's nice to kind of meet you and I appreciate what you're doing. Particularly, you mentioned something that I really appreciate, which is looking at a second early voting location. You know, one of the, during the last couple of elections, one of the chief complaints I've gotten over in my neck of the woods is folks having to drive out to Camden when, you know, as you know, the population is really blowing up on that side of the river. So it would be really great to see an early voting location. That's probably the number one election related question I've gotten on my end.
» So thank you for working on it. Mr. Cato. I reiterate what my colleague said. I thank you for being here tonight and I thank you for your enthusiasm. Also, coming from the upper part of the county, that's one of the main complaints is having to drive so far for early voting. And so I appreciate you looking into that and hopefully we'll see some results from that soon. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Cato. Any other comments, questions? Mr. Chairman? Please. I agree with what you said. Mr. Coffin's shoes, those are going to be big shoes to fill. Thank you for doing this. The role of the voter registration office is critically important to ensure our citizens have a right to voice during our election cycle.
» And I know there's been a lot of pressure put on with the expansion of early voting by the state, but I really appreciate all y'all do. You do work flawlessly and you get things done. So thank you so much and I appreciate you stepping up to the new role. Congratulations. Thank you. Gentlemen, I'll just mention- If I may. Mr. Jones? Thank you. Go ahead. Just would like to say that having been involved in 10 campaigns over the last 19 years, I look forward to working with you in 26. So I'll be here. Thank you.
» Gentlemen, I'll mention that as a precursor to another item under new business regarding, excuse me, under discussion for election commission compensation, it's very important that you bring up that particular bill because there is a baseline that's required to be paid by the state and this bill would address that. Any supplement comes from the county and so that's one of the recommendations we talked about prior meeting that we would hear about tonight. And I truly do believe that you'll make all those efforts that you described tonight, regardless of party or no party. And everybody has the right to vote. Kershaw County has had a varied history sometimes with Democratic or Republican and varied leadership at different times.
» But we tend to all come together and work hard on various issues that are important to us. So thank you so much for coming tonight. And thank you, Mr. Templer for organizing this. Mr. Chairman, if I may briefly. Oh, go ahead. So I wanted to say thank you for your comments regarding transparency. And it is critical that people get out and vote and it is critical that their voice be heard. And I really appreciate the professional manner that you presented to us. It speaks volumes for the job that you're going to do as the new director. And congratulations on your role in that office. I look forward to working with you in the future. Any further, gentlemen? No votes required. Thank you. Mr. Chair. Oh, Mr. Tucker. Hello. Out of sight, out of mind, Mr. Tucker. I'm sorry. Yeah, I know. Oh, no.
» You're going to have to talk closer to your mic, Sammy. We cannot hear you. I said I'm going to have to spank you. Can you hear me now? We can't hear you. Barely. How about now? Hello? It's Meek. Come up. Come up for air. Yeah, I'm trying. How about now? Yes, sir. That's a little bit better. Go ahead. Okay. Mr. Reddick, I want to say as well, thank you. Thank you for wanting to step in to Mr. Kaufman's shoes, because right now, positions of you and your staff are not always popular in different areas of the country, and people are being targeted and picked upon and pressured, and we here at Kershaw County has experienced little to any issues as we go through our different elections throughout our county, and that comes from having good staff.
» Now, I heard folks saying, you know, their number one thing was wanting more precincts during early voting, you know, to the west, to the north, and that's great. I have no issue with that, but I don't think it's my number one. My number one is for your poll workers to get paid to be compensated correctly, and what we're voting on tonight is the commissioners, and they need to be adjusted too. So my question to you is, with the special elections going on and the next special election for House 50, are we in good shape, and this is for Mr. Templer as well, for our poll workers, not the commissioners, our poll workers to be compensated at a fair rate for their time and efforts? Yes, they are. That's what I want to know. So thank them for us. I appreciate it.
» If you have any questions or concerns or something that I can help you or counsel, please reach out to us. Thank you, Mr. Tucker. Counsel, anything further? Thank you so much. All right, gentlemen, that takes us to item number eight, approval of the minutes. Do we have a motion? I'll make a motion when we approve the minutes. Mr. Tomlinson, is there a second? I'll second. Mr. Cato, thank you. Any discussion on the minutes? Seeing none, we'll vote for those in person. All in favor, raise your hand on approval. It's unanimous in person. Mr. Tucker, how do you vote on the minutes? Yes. It's unanimous, Ms. Hannah. Thank you. Yes. We've got you, Mr. Tucker. Thank you. That takes us to the next item on the agenda, item number nine.
» For discussion only, we're going to get an update and background from Mr. Templer, but if we could get a motion to discuss the Election Commission compensation recommendations. I'll make that motion. Mr. Shoemake, is there a second? Second. Mr. Tomlinson has a second. All right, Mr. Templer. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So this matter before you is something that Mr. Tucker and I have discussed, and I've also, when Ms. Reddick came on board, once her kind of battle rhythm slowed down with all these elections, we were able to sit and just discuss her needs and the obvious support she has over here, with her being across the street with the Election Commission and voter registration as a whole. But one of the things we have talked about, Mr.
» Tucker, Miku, and myself, has been looking at the wages for our poll workers. In the past, we have not been able to pull many poll workers in, especially in the summer election or primaries in the summertime. Some of the money we were offering was just not enough to pull people away from their summertime chores or fun or just whatever. So we found ourselves having to move some numbers around well within the budget to get people to come out to work these polls in these incredibly important elections. So this is something we will be taking up in the budget process, which internally for us, for staff, has started. We've started meeting with, Tyler's started meeting with department heads, looking at their budget. We have a due date of by the end of the week to have all that documentation in.
» So we look to have some numbers kind of projecting, reading the tea leaves of what may be coming up for elections in these coming years and what's going to be a reasonable rate to get people out to our polling stations to make sure we have them. And I will say at one point, I think it was under John, we were running so critically low on poll workers and it was one of those June primaries. We were going to have to allow county staffs, key county staff volunteers to kind of clock out from their daily duties and volunteer to make sure that these elections went on. So this is a real issue. I think it's solvable. I don't think it takes earth-shattering money, but I think we have to be deliberate and strategic with it. So I look forward to discussing this further throughout the budget process.
» Thank you, Mr. Templer. Councilman. Yes. Mr. Jones, go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of council. Mr. Templer, what does a poll worker make now? What are we paying at this time? I maybe would lean on Ms. Reddick for that. I can't remember. It was, there was a daily rate. Ms. Reddick, okay. Could you come to the mic, please? Thank you. During a 75 a day for early voting. When it comes to actually on election day, it's 160, 180 for training and for working today. And that is the baseline. Thank you. And some of those are 10 to 12 hour days? Yes. It's 12 plus. 12 plus. Seven to seven. You got to be in there like at six to set the equipment. And they take a lot of abuse at times too. Let me ask you this, Mr. Templer.
» What is your recommendation? Well, I certainly say we have to move the needle on that. If you look at 12 hours a day for $75, that's some of these numbers start to really trend well below minimum wage on a very important function. And so, um, what was the $180 that was mentioned? That was for a general election. Gotcha. And so we'll look at some numbers and again, what's reasonable. I'll have a, uh, a recommendation coming forward as, as we look at what is there. Um, of course, everything's going to be based on revenue, what we have coming in and, and the other needs, but we certainly, we have to move. Yeah. Let me make myself clear. I support it. You know, we, we gotta make sure she can get the folks there to sign up and get out there and work the polls. All right. So thank you. Yes.
» Thank you too. Thank you. Mr. Chairman. Go ahead, Mr. Tucker. Okay. First of all, Mr. Templer, I want to say thank you, um, for bringing this to, uh, to the light. And this is the problem I have, gentlemen. Y'all, Doug heard me say this more and more and more. Um, at the council meeting, you take 12 hours. Ms. Reddick just said 12 plus you take 12 hours divided by $75 and that's six, um, at $6 and 25 cents. That is below minimum wage. As I stated before, none of y'all will work for that. Okay. If you take the 12 hours, once again, plus we'll work with the 12 hours, that's $15 an hour. Tell me what is different about early voting and the day of voting. Can anyone on that diet tell me the difference for a poll worker? You don't have to sell us on the same answer. There is none.
» There is none. You're selling hard, but you got some buyers already. I ain't lying. Yeah. I like selling. Why, why are you not paying them $180 for the early elections that is mandated by state law for, for our poll workers and for our county to do? Mr. Tucker. Can I ask him a question? One second. Mr. Tucker, the only counterpoint I've heard to that is that special elections tend to have a much lower turnout. So there's lower volume to deal with. But in my view, that's a distinction without a difference because the, the election is just as important. It's going to be the same representation, whether it's the house or otherwise, it's still going to be 40 plus thousand people that an individual represent. If it's in the house more, if it's the Senate.
» And so I think the work is as valuable when you're taking people's time. Mr. Jones. Absolutely. And if I could add to that, do we, if I could ask you, absolutely correct, chairman. But if I can add to that, we don't pay them no extra when, when the turnout's great in a general election. Let me say something. It balances. Agree. Mr. Jones has a question. Mr. Tucker. Hey, this is Jimmy. Listen, listen. I hear what you're saying when you're asking us, why didn't we do this? Why didn't we do that? Well, why didn't you do it? You're sitting here too. Let me, let me just say this. We support it. Let me finish, please. We support it. You don't have to badger us to death about it. Mr. Jones, he's, he, I think you misheard him. He's, he's not badgering us. I think we're all on the same page.
» Councilman, any further comment or discussion? I'm good. Okay. No votes needed. We'll look for further recommendations as we move through the budget process. Mr. Templer. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Templer. All right. That takes us to item 10A under ordinances. This is second reading of the AOD. Mr. Tomlinson, do we have a motion? Yes. I'd make a motion. We approve second reading of the AOD. Okay. Is there a second? I'll second. All right. We've got a motion and a second. Any discussion? Yes. At the request of Mr. Jones' last meeting, which is a great request, to ensure transparency for council staff, all of our citizens, um, as we continue to, to update, um, this ordinance and second reading, um, I moved that we amend and please bear with me. There's a few pages of amendments.
» I'm going to go line by line on these amendments, um, instead of giving a brief, um, kind of overview of the wholesome amendments that we did in the first reading. Uh, so it may take a minute. Um, so please bear with me. I move that we amend the airport overlay district ordinance as follows. Use amendment chart, use chart amendments. Amend the density limit for heavy industrial and manufacturing in zone C to 25 people per acre. Amend communication towers and antennas in C1, C2 use in zone D so that there is a safety review of that use in zone D. Amend the use chart to make home occupations a conditional land use in zone A and permitted in all other land use zones. Amend the, the use chart to make accessory uses to residential uses at C1 conditional in zone A.
» Amend the use chart to make commercial equestrian facilities exotic animals, exotic animals, a C1, C2, C3 conditional use in the land use zone A. Separating kennel, animal boarding, and animal grooming from animal hospital and veterinary clinic and making kennel, animal boarding, animal grooming a conditional use in zone A, B1, B2, and C. Amend the land use chart to make light industrial C1, C2, and C3 conditional use in land use zone A. Amend the use chart to make warehousing wholesale and distribution conditional use one two and three in zone A. Amend the land use chart to make aeronautical business conditional use one two and three in zone A. Amend the land use chart to make modular self-storage conditional use one two and three in land use zone A.
» Some of these amendments protect life safety and airport operations while addressing some high intensity use occupancy limits for safety in zone D. The amendment provides some of the low intensity uses on commercially zoned properties within zone A where the uses are not discouraged by FAA and SCAC guidance on land use and compatibility. Perhaps mostly these amendments are addressed the historic commercial and non-commercial equestrian uses along Red Fox Road to make sure that we are protected and that any new equestrian uses are conditionally allowed provided there is no FAA and SCAC objection to the new equestrian use. That was just page one guys bear with me.
» One aspect to zone A that remains unchanged by these amendments is the prohibition of new residential structures upon undeveloped land in zone A due to incompatibility with the quality of life, life safety, and airport operations and concerns. Amendments to clarify the use chart notes. Addition addition addition addition to the following language to the use chart notes at the end of the explanation of conditional use pursuant to section three set three chapter seven subsection one through four conditional use requirements of the ZLDR remain applicable to any land use that is conditional use in the properties-based zoning district R6 RD1 and general development etc. These conditions are in addition to any existing conditional use requirements applicable to a property.
» The amendment clarifies that the AOD chart is not to be read as more permissive than the existing base zoning. If a land use is already not permitted in the existing base zoning district it's not going to be permitted within the AOD. In the note section of the use table a note number three I propose an amend to clarify to review the process by planning director for land uses not in the table. The amendment would insert the following language in review of in review of a use not not contemplated or provided by this table the planning and zoning director will first determine that the use of comparable if the use is comparable to a use from this table.
» If it is not a use that is comparable to use in the table the planning and zoning director will make a determination of the compatibility of the use by review and analysis analysis of the regulatory process in section three chapter seven subsections one through four. The amendment provides guidance on transparency to the public and how land uses that are not in the table will be reviewed In the note section a note number four amendment to read as follows to the extent of the table conflicts with any provisions of table three or four the provisions of the table are supplemental to the provisions of table three dash four and more and the more restrictive table is controlling.
» The amendment clarifies that the AOD chart is not to be read as more permissive than the existing base zoning and that the existing base zoning and that the land use is already not permitted and the existing base zoning is not going to be permitted within the AOD. Ordinance findings amendment. I move that we add the following findings at F for enacting ordinance for AOD text amendments. Equestrian and agricultural land use are historic land uses and are prevalent land use type in the vicinity of the airport along Red Fox and the protection and the accommodation and accommodation of existing in future low density low intensity equestrian agricultural land uses in the vicinity of the airport is an important policy prior priority in Kershaw County. That is the amendments that I have to it.
» I know we'll probably have some discussion going forward. I'd like to provide a little bit more commentary. Let's let's get a we've got your motion. That's the motion for the amendment as stated and also emailed to council earlier. We've got a second for Mr. Shoemake and now you can you've got the floor you can provide further clarification. Thank you Mr. Shoemake. This this is really a community ordinance here. There's been so much input involvement from the community and residents from concerns and issues. Our staff has worked tirelessly as listened to all the concerns. This is we have tried to include and make sure that is a wholesome approach to address each one of those concerns and our amendments. We appreciate all the community support.
» This you know that started out an imperfect ordinance and at their second reading is still probably not going to be a perfect ordinance. I look forward to working with each one of you to address additional concerns. But I think we are on the right track. Having the community to be able to protect our heritage here in Kershaw County, especially our historic equine industry, our natural resources. And one of our main resources, the front Portrait Kershaw County, our airport, where we're filled. This has been a learning experience and I greatly appreciate all of staff's hard work. They have been working tirelessly hosting community meetings to ensure that there's been addressed the public concern and input to provide it. Coordinating with other council members.
» Scheduling multiple calls and sit downs just to ensure that we're listening and addressing those concerns in these amendments. I look forward to third reading and I look forward to getting more community input that we that we can address in our third reading for this and this ordinance. Thank you all so much. Love you, Kershaw County. Thank you, Mr. Thomas. Mr. Shoemake, you have a second. Yeah, not much. I mean, I agree with pretty much everything Councilman Tomlinson, I think everything Councilman Tomlinson said, but just in case he's squeezed in something I disagree with.
» You know, in a moment like this, when you're dealing with these very complex regulations, I think you have a fundamental threshold question, and that is, do we do something or do we do nothing? For those out there that believe we should do nothing, we just respectfully disagree. I think we have to do something. So then the question, if you believe we do something, is this the right something? Given the countless man hours that staff has put into this, that this council has put into this, I think this is the right something. We have the ability, as we always do, to make adjustments after third reading. We have a couple of years until this is likely going to be a state requirement anyway that we have this.
» So we have time to make adjustments as needed once we see the impact, if it in fact impacts in a way we did not intend. So we have a chance to thwart the doctrine of unintended consequences if it rears its ugly head. So again, I believe we have to do something, and I think this is the right something. And I appreciate the work, particularly that Councilman Tomlinson has put into this. I know he's spent an exhaustive amount of time researching these issues and really taking a leadership issue on these amendments. So that's all I have, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Shoemake. Any further discussion from those who are present? Yes. Is that Mr. Jones? Go ahead. If I could, please. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the County Council. Mr. Brandt, let me ask you a question.
» You had mentioned, I didn't get to write quick enough the section, but it was in the AOD where if someone has sold their property and it was equine that it could come back equine, but it had to be the approval of the planning's only director. Are you talking about the nonconforming use clause that we extended first reading from nonconforming from one year to three year time period? Well, what I'm asking is that under the AOD approval, if someone had an equine farm and they were going to sell it under your amendments, would they be able to bring or keep it equine? Absolutely. If it's a current, a current, um, would they have to have any, but yeah, Mr. DuBose, would you, um, provide maybe some input on that? Yeah. Let me, let me repeat it. So I'll make sure we're on the same page.
» I'm sorry, Mr. DuBose, because I know you're a whole lot smarter than me and I just want to make sure I get the right question out. Um, if I own a farm, equine farm, and I'm going to sell my property, will I be able to sell it as an equine farm and equine stay there? Yes. Under all portions of this overlay? Yes. The only, the only specter of someone not being able to continue a use, uh, if it is made a nonconformity. I mean, some, uh, farms will be completely, you know, permitted. They would not be a nonconformity under these regulations. But in the rare instance, someone is a, uh, nonconforming existing use. Um, there is a three year discontinuance period. So provided someone does not quit using their property for three years altogether, abandon it. Um, that use can continue.
» In your hypothetical, someone is selling a, a farm that is in use, occupied. Um, as long as the new purchaser uses the property, occupies it, uses it as it's being used now within three years. And they are a hundred percent fine. Would they have to have approval by the county to do that? No. So no approval by planning zoning director? No. Okay. So if they have their farm, I'm sure you're clear. Like Ms. Franklin, for example, she's got her horses out there and then you've got some that are closer, you know, that, that have their horses and they decide to sell their property to John Q. Public. They do not have to get permission from the county to keep it as a. Correct. The, the verbiage I believe you're, you were asking about that Mr.
» Tomlinson proposed an amendment for is for, um, a use type that's not already in that table. Um, would they be able to have an equine there if it wasn't in use as equine, but it was within that area? Well, I mean, there's all of these equestrian uses are provided for in the table right now. Um, so, you know, that verbiage only contemplates, um, some bizarre use. Like, so let's say a code was written 10 years ago before data centers existed, right? I'm just making up something. Um, if a data center came to a zoning administrator and it was not in their chart, this would have plotted as general zoning. What does it look most like in the chart? Again, all of these equestrian uses though, to your point are, um, provided for in here.
» And the base zoning of many of those properties is, um, already one, which again, I believe allows all manner of kind of hobbyist farming in the base district. So, uh, I don't think there are any issues with continuance of equestrian activity though. Here's my issue. Um, and I probably have an amendment at third reading, but what I'd like to see is, uh, usually when government gets involved, it messes things up, you know, uh, we think sometimes to fix things, we got to have more government, more government. Um, I would like to see us deregulate, leave the equine alone. Don't even mention them and just do your overlay district. And, uh, there's been, there's not been any problems there. And actually they brought so much to our community.
» I think it's a burden to even have them mentioned in this. And that's, that's kind of just the way I feel. And, and I thank you, Mr. Thompson for bringing all of this to us. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Any further discussion on the Tomlinson amendment from those in person? Mr. Mr. Tucker online. Any discussion? No, sir. I have, I have no questions or discussion. Okay. We'll move it to a vote. All those in favor on the Tomlinson amendment? Raise your hand. We've got Shoemake, Connell, Mr. Tomlinson, Mr. Cato in favor. Mr. We'll go online. Mr. Tucker, how do you vote? I vote yes. We've got a yes from Mr. Tucker and then all those opposed. We've got Mr. Brazel and Mr. Jones opposed. It passes on second reading. All right, gentlemen, that takes us to.
» Do we need to vote as amended? Oh, excuse me. Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion that we approve as amended second reading of the ordinance for AOD. Okay. Do we have a second? Second. We've got a second for Mr. Shoemake as well. Any further discussion? Seeing no further discussion, we'll move it to a vote as amended on second reading. All in favor, raise your hand. Shoemake, Connell, Cato, Tomlinson in favor. Mr. Tucker, how do you vote? I vote yes. That's a yes, Ms. Hanna. And all those opposed, Mr. Brazel and Mr. Jones. So it passes on second reading as amended. Thank you, gentlemen. Mr. Chair. Yes, sir.
» If I may just make a real quick announcement, we've been doing our public engagements in this room the Thursday after these meetings as each amendment or each section of this ordinance has passed. You're going to have another one? Those, and most of them are in attendance out here, but we will meet this Thursday at 6:30 in this room to discuss everything that, any questions they may have and any questions that may come from this process. Okay. Again, for the public present and online, there'll be another meeting here 6:30 Thursday in this room to have additional information before third reading on this particular AOD. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Templer. Thank you. All right, gentlemen. That takes us to item 10B. Mr.
» Templer, can you give us just a little bit of background before we get a motion? Yes, sir. Mr. Chair, members of council, you have before you second reading of a process we've been involved with to get the rent numbers and to kind of wrangle in the hangar contract issue out at the airport to go ahead and create some revenue out there and just get this kind of codified and bring it before council for approval. Okay. Thank you for that reminder. Do we have a motion? I'll make the motion. Mr. Shoemake makes the motion. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Tomlinson has the second. Mr. Shoemake, you've got the floor. Yeah, I think we hit most of this in our last meeting. I'm supportive of this. I think it makes clear a path forward unless there are questions. I don't have anything else to add.
» Thank you, Mr. Shoemake. Mr. Tomlinson? I have nothing to add. Okay. I'll just mention that for the next meeting on third reading, I do anticipate some amendments that I'll work on. There's one hangar out there that is primarily wood construction and it's just of a different quality and so it would merit a lower price per square foot and so we're working on that exact calculation. And then we're also formulating a policy in compliance with FAA and otherwise for having hangars be built out there to spec for particular folks. It could be economic development, it could be particular size or value planes as well or job creation. And so those will be forthcoming. Any other discussion for many council members? Mr. Tucker? No, sir. I am good. Thank you. All right. No further discussion.
» We'll take it to a vote. All in favor of passing on second reading as is. We've got Mr. Shoemake, Mr. Brazel, Connell, Cato, Tomlinson, and Mr. Tucker. How do you vote? Yes. It's a yes from Mr. Tucker online. All those opposed? Mr. Jones is opposed. It passes on second reading as is. Gentlemen, that takes us to item number 10C. This is second reading. Can we get some background please, Mr. Simpler? Yes, sir. Mr. Chair, members of council. You have before you a second reading of an ad valorem tax agreement between Kershaw County and the company identified for the time being as Project Creed for consideration of a ad valorem tax incentive and special source revenue credit for the benefit of the project at this in the county and to get them to locate in Kershaw County. Okay.
» Thank you for that background. Do we have a motion? I'll make a motion. We approve. Mr. Tomlinson has a motion. Is there a second? I'll make a second. Mr. Shoemake has a second. It's on the floor. Mr. Tomlinson. Sounds like a wonderful thing for Kershaw County. I appreciate all the staff's work in this. I look forward to supporting it. Mr. Shoemake. I agree. Any further discussion from those present? Mr. Chair. Mr. Kato, go ahead. I have been an opponent of solar ever since we had the, I don't even know how to explain it, the mess that we had with the other three solar projects. I want to say that this particular group, this particular company, I will say that I was impressed with and I appreciate their work. They have reached out. I know Ms.
» Huff brought up in her comments, that there may have been a few people that were not contacted. For the most part, I've not had anybody reach out to me that was in this particular project that was not notified, so I had not heard that. They had a meeting. I attended the meeting. I will say that a lot of people are very skeptical about what's going on in this area and what the future holds for Kershaw County with these solar projects because it is the unknown. I don't know that this is the best avenue for Kershaw County to go down. And I'm sorry. I feel that way. I can't help it. That's my personal feeling. I said when I came on council, I would do two things. I would listen to my constituents as much as possible and I would vote with my heart and my clear conscience.
» I do believe in the property rights of people. But I do think that as a body up here, we also have to look out for Kershaw County and the future. I mean, that's what we're doing with the AOD and that's what we're doing with everything else. We're trying to look out for the future of Kershaw County. Again, I think this is a little bit of the unknown. I don't think that Kershaw County may be getting the proper amount of the taxes that we should get for something like this, especially if it's not providing any jobs. So I share some of the same concerns that my constituents that spoke tonight, I share some of those same concerns. With that being said, I really want to thank this company for doing what they've done. They have went above and beyond and they've done everything we've asked them.
» We, you know, we set up this thing several months ago, laying out the guidelines that they had to abide by, to have the public meeting, to notify people. And as far as I know, that that was done and they were very open with us and we had chances to talk with them and I appreciate that, but I cannot support this. I just don't think it may be the best thing for Kershaw County at this time. Thank you. Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Kato. Mr. Razzle. Hey, could we have Mr. Burgess come up to the mic? I'm so sorry. I know, I know you're dreading it. I'd like to welcome Jeff Burgess, our economic development director. How are you, sir? All right, sir. Good morning. Or good morning. Tells you where I'm at. Good evening. Long day? Short day? Long day. But that's not a bad thing.
» Are we at the point where you can give us some more details about this project? I can give you some basics and we'll go from there and you can ask me questions and I'll see what I can respond to. Typically, after first reading, we start getting more information. Is that right? Correct. Well, this is a $67 million investment. It is basically a solar farm that will be going on 240 acres. The agreement is for $3,800 per megawatt. It's a 48 megawatt facility that's proposed. That equates to $182,400 a year in annual revenue. Let me ask you a quick question, sir, not to cut you off. No, you're fine. Is the property owned by an American citizen with certain rights, unalienable rights? Yes, sir, the property is owned by Mr. Creed by which the property is Project Creed. Okay.
» So it's a private property. It's not county owned. So a couple of questions just to clarify things. Is there a bond that this company has to put up in order to deconstruct after a certain amount of time? I can say yes, there is. If you would like the company to actually speak to the bond issue, we have a representative here tonight. I would like that in a minute. Okay. You know, everyone noticed that I voted against the airport overlay district, and I have to apologize to Councilman Thomason. Everything that you worked on, my vote against was merely my position for the airport overlay district in general. Everything you worked on, I want to tell you, I appreciate your work. Thank you.
» For me, I'm big on personal property rights and not telling people to do certain things with their property. within reason, obviously, we have zoning regulations that we abide by, but the zoning regulation that the gentleman owns the property, Mr. Creed, does it allow zoning? Does that zoning allow solar farms? Yeah, for conditional use is my understanding, and I think Joey could verify that for me. In a minute. So, are there buffers? They're required to have buffers on that, and I believe it's a hundred foot buffer and possibly more. Okay. So, I don't love solar. I don't love solar energy. There is no such thing as clean energy. It's all made with fossil fuels at the end of the day. Everything that's built and put on this property is built with fossil fuels.
» There's really no such thing as clean energy, but I think a man ought to be able to do what he wants to within certain limitations on his property, and it's not the government's job to say yes and no and pick and choose either. If the representative is able to speak to the bond and how it will be deconstructed, I think the body should hear that, and if you have any other thoughts or comments that you'd like to make before you step down, please go ahead. I think this council is doing what it's here to do, and that is to put the direction of this county in it. Mr. Cato's arguments are very valid. This is new territory for everybody. You're correct. It is. When I hear clean energy, I also say no, it's alternative because everything is basically just a different source of power.
» On the other hand, it does have advantages for the people that own that property. It produces $420 of taxes. They have a right to do something with their property, so it's in accordance with what the county has set forward. So there are two sides to the argument, but we have to vote our conscience on that. Thank you, Jeff. We appreciate you. We appreciate the job you do for Kershaw County. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, can I ask one quick question? Mr. Burgess. Let me just make sure you're done as well. Yes. Okay. Go ahead, Ms. Thomason. For clarification with solar as a whole, the other three philos that were approved, I'd heard something potentially about some of them pulling out already.
» Could you provide some knowledge on that just so we can kind of see where we are as far as the number of solar farms? Give me about two seconds. Absolutely. Thank you. I can tell you from what one has been postponed. I won't say it's been postponed. I believe it has been moved to 2029. It had a start date of 2027. They had to go back through, but Santee Cooper decided to move that one further down the track. So they're, they're struggling to get their, their PPA. You're looking at a hard time on the PPA. Which is the hardest, hardest part to get. So potentially that was wrong. The other two have had no change in status at this point, and we have not heard any updates on where they're at as far as moving forward with their PPA. So my understanding is they're still having to negotiate that.
» And in honesty, some of them are doing their interconnectivity study, and if it comes back as too problematic or too costly, they could fade away as well. So again, when we first started doing these, it's just, we're one part of that cog. And I won't say we're the least important because without all three working together, it's not going to happen. Being the solar developer, the power company that takes, or the utility that takes it on and the council. So any one of those three parts fails, it's just not going to happen. So with this current project that we have in front of us here, so green, so what you're saying is the other projects went a different route that it was Philo first. Now they're trying to go through and struggle. So they've done about 8% of the entire process.
» What we're voting on for second reading right here, they have their power purchase agreement with Due Progress currently, correct? Correct. To my knowledge, yes, sir. So they've went a different way. I think this company has expressed and showed to Kershaw County that they're willing to be a a good player here in Kershaw County just by their actions. That's completely different than anything I've ever seen regarding a solar ordinance. To go ahead and get a PPA in place prior to even realizing if you can get a local ordinance, because that's 90% of your process there. Our local solar ordinance does have a decommissioning clause currently in it to kind of address some of the concerns.
» And it states that the company has to propose a decommissioning plan, and that plan has to be updated every five years of the entire life cycle. And it kind of goes through some other things, but there is a decommissioning plan on this company's website underneath this specific project. I've just looked it up. Yes, sir. It says, "What happens after the end of the solar facility's lifetime?" The land is returned to its previous and improved condition back to former timberland. All infrastructure associated with the project is removed, and the process is called decommissioned. So they're going to put it back to us existing prior to building the solar. And they were at planning and zoning last night.
» Was that in their plan that they presented for their first reading, their decommissioning? Well, I reached out to the representative, and basically the decommissioning plan was presented last night, and that the one that will be presented to at the building permit addresses the site being restored to a meadow-like condition or another agreed-upon condition, including decompaction of the topsoil and regeneration. The costs for such activities are included in the cost estimate. And that cost can update every five years based upon market need and everything else. So it's based upon the current landowner, what they want and they agree with in their contract. Okay? I'm fine with that, and I'm glad that our decommissioning clause and our ordinance is so strict.
» Another thing I'd like to highlight specifically about this, and I don't want Kershaw County to be a huge solar forum at all, but I'd agree with Mr. Brazel. We do have private property rights, and this is in a location that is sand and pine trees next to the railroad. And I did get a call last night that they're from one person specifically who lives within a mile radius who wasn't aware, didn't receive the letter. And I would love to get that feedback back to the company just so for their knowledge and potentially they can reach out before second reading, going and planning and zoning. But this project has a dual use implementation to it. Not only are they doing solar, they're also looking at having a honeybee farm on the property.
» Dual use for solar specifically is something that is in the Midwest, which solar was big out there prior to it ever coming to the East Coast. Now in the Midwest, a lot of local government agencies have enacted dual use approaches to their ordinances to require that the land has to have not only with solar, but you can farm it or do agriculture, livestock, some sort of other measure to make the land more valuable. I would like to include that in our ordinance going forward. We don't even have it in our ordinance. And I'm not aware of anybody in South Carolina that does. And this company came with a proposal for the dual use already. I think they're going to be a good player and I look forward to having them in Kershaw County. Thank you, Mr. Tomlinson. Mr. Jones. Thank you.
» Just a couple of short comments. I really appreciate my colleagues' concern for citizens' property rights. Then I say, leave me alone if I don't want to put a shed in my yard. In seven acres of land, don't tell me where I can put a shed in my yard. How about, don't tell me I can't have a horse on my farm. How about, don't come out and tell me that I can't sell my house because I had put a swimming pool in and I didn't get a permit from planting and zoning. I mean, I can go on and on. I understand that if we are truly for people having their property rights, why in the heck are we regulating so many property rights? But anyway, as I said, I'm a little bit older than you guys. I'm not quite as quick and as sharp as you guys.
» You guys are really smart, but you don't make any sense to me, I'll be honest with you, when you talk about stuff like this. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Mr. Cato. I have one question. I don't know if maybe this is a legal question or maybe you could answer. Is there, on these other projects that Mr. Thomason spoke about, is there a statue of limitations, so to speak, on this contract as far as how long they have before they act, before it has to come back to council? I would have to go back and look at each one. And I'm not sure, John. I don't believe there is. Typically, a philo will have an investment period and a commencement date. Certainly something I can review with Mr.
» Burgess, if y'all are interested in when those other projects have deadlines that are applied to them. Absolutely, I would like to know that. Is it, just for me to chime in real quick, is it not five years, typically? Usually we have an investment period of five years. Larger projects, not these in some cases. Manufacturing generally get eight years of their mega projects. Yeah, I think. The rule, it's a five year investment window. Sometimes that investment window is set to begin maybe 18 months, two years, some distance from the actual approval of the philo agreement. But yeah, once the investment. So is this one set at five? This one's at five. This one's at five. Okay. And generally, just as John was saying, if you started it on day one, you signed a philo.
» It takes 18 months for a facility to be built. So that's when they usually have the start date. Thank you. Could we hear from the company regarding the bonding at this point? Sure. Thank you so much, Jeff. Hold on. Before Mr. Burgess steps away, let's see if Mr. Tucker has anything online. Mr. Tucker, do you have any questions or comments? No. Just want to tell Mr. Burgess, thank you. Okay. Thank you, Sammy. Any representative come up? Good evening. Evening. Excuse me. I'm Taylor Robinson with Greenergy. We're developing the Creege Solar Project. Well -- I'm Catherine Ross. I work with the company. We were -- before the Planning Commission last night. Certainly let Mr. Robinson speak. But I did want to say we -- the planning -- decommissioning plan, as you talked about, is in there.
» It does address all of the costs as well as the salvage value. And then, of course, there is the ordinance requirement for a $50,000 bond. So in terms of the decommissioning plan, I think Mr. Robinson is available to answer any questions that may be about it. We've got the document. Happy to send it to you all. But it was provided to the Planning Commission, and I believe it was part of the basis upon which they made their decision to approve the zoning last night. Thank you for that. Any comments or questions? Council members? Yeah, I've got one question regarding the amount of the bond. So $50,000 is the amount of the bond. That's our minimum, I think. We all know that $50,000 won't decommission the property. This may be a John DeBose question.
» In 40 years, when the property has to be decommissioned, who's responsible for making sure that it gets cleaned up properly if all we has $50,000 to hold over someone's head? So I believe that, as referenced earlier, that decommissioning plan is updated every five years, but the current ZLDR specifies that its decommission value is a lesser of two values. It's either $50,000 or the cost of the decommissioning minus the salvage value of the materials. At its inception, of course, all the materials for salvage value, and these are pulled from, I believe they said last night, you know, trade sources for what the metals are worth, et cetera, et cetera.
» The salvage value right now, and recycling value, for lack of a better term, exceeds the cost of decommissioning, so it would be profitable right now for that to occur. There's money there to decommission the $50,000 essentially is a kind of fail-safe mechanism. But again, the decommissioning plan is updated every five years. If that number ever got upside down, as far as the recycling profits that would be generated offset by the decommissioning costs, in that instance, it would trigger amounts in excess of $50,000. So the general idea is currently the salvage value of a 40-year-old solar panel in the frame that it sits on is worth more than it costs to take it out of the ground. Is that right? Correct.
» I believe that's the theory right now, and again, it's a living document that's continually updated. So I think -- I still feel like $50,000 is low. I don't know that if we change the value, if it can be retroactive to any approved projects, would that be retroactive or would it be a grandfather clause? I think that's a good topic for executive session discussions. Okay. Well, I'd like to dive more into that. I'd like to thank both of you for being here and appreciate you and your interest in Kershaw County. Thank you. Thank you. At one point, I do think, as you talk about it, the -- I believe the ordinance, Mr. DeBose, is 125% over the value. So at such point, if it went upside down, which is not anticipated, it would not just be 100% of the cost estimate.
» It's actually 125%, which is super protective of you all, right, because estimates can be different and not wholly based. So that 125% really does, I think, provide protection over the estimate being 100,000. I also would say that the $50,000 -- Bond. Bond, required bond, regardless of the net return that comes up in the cost estimate, is also really protective in that it gives you the ability to -- if the company were to walk away -- to draw on that and use that money to find the -- to hire the company that will go decommission and pull it out and see the benefits of the salvage value being in excess. That's what it's intended -- that's what it's intended for in my conversations with county.
» Could you provide us with a list of decommissioning agencies? I mean, it would be engineer companies. That's -- that's who it would be. So this is -- you know, this is -- Kim Lee Horn has prepared this decommissioning plan there in engineering. It's a sealed engineering document that says here's the steps that would be to decommission the withdrawal of things in addition to the restoration that we talked about, the reseeding, and that type of information. So we could -- I believe we could provide you engineer companies that have bid on decommissioning and provided reports like this. But they're going to be engineering companies. That's who's going to construct these, and that's who's going to deconstruct them. Okay, perfect. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Thank you, Mr. Brousel.
» Any further comments or questions? Seeing none, I'll just mention that I can support this on second reading tonight. You're looking at probably in 2028, based on timeline staying in place, over $182,000 of FILO revenue coming into the county. A significant portion of that goes to school operations and school bonding. And for my purposes, I like to try to steer FILO funds back to the area from which they come. And this is an area in which there's not a lot of other general business tax revenue that comes. And so I think it could be useful to the area. I echo the comments about individual property rights. And you've got a property owner here who has determined the highest and best use for the property. It complies with existing zoning.
» The only question is, are we going to reduce the tax burden on the property to what we've done for other FILO agreements when somebody has a significant investment in Kershaw County. And between -- I'm informed from staff that between the FILO agreement and then the special revenue -- special source revenue credits that generally come across, we're right in the same ballpark for what we've done for other companies in Kershaw County that invest in the area. The property owner, I was just thinking, would have the rights to clear cut the property under a timber management plan and just cut everything down if they wanted to. It's their property. They could do that. But here we're looking at an investment.
» And in some ways, I think we've heard prior to my time on council, a few folks may have put the cart in front of the horse. Here we've got the horse in front of the cart -- no pun intended with all the equine issues we've been talking about -- where we've got the interconnection agreement in place. And so, you know, that's already a big step that's been taken care of. And so, on second reading, I'll be able to support this tonight. Before we call it for a vote, do we have any other comments or questions? Okay. All those in favor? On second reading, as is. Yes, Chair. Oh, Mr. Tucker? Go ahead. Yes, I'm in total support of this on second reading as well. But I do want to make a comment with Vice Chair Mr. Brazel. Mr. Tucker, you're going to have to get closer to the mic.
» We just can't hear you. How about now? That's better. I just don't want to hear me. Yes, sir, go ahead. Okay. I just want to make a comment in concern to what Vice Chairman Mr. Brazel was saying about the bond. If I could get some more information on that, it would be great for me to look at and ask questions and also have the executive session maybe put on the agenda for next meeting. What I don't want to happen when things go to be disassembled or no longer in business, that the landowner ends up with 240 acres of unusable property. And I'm going right up the road from us, out of Jason County, the gold mine, Ridgeway gold mine. That's a hot mess. The state owns it now.
» And there's no gold mine, not even the one I work for, that will purchase that to go after any existing gold that's there. So having issues, especially environmental issues, on property is not a good thing in the later dates after a company has used its resources. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Tucker, for those comments. We'll call it for a vote. All those in favor of passing on second reading as is, raise your hand. We've got Mr. Shoemake, Brazel, Connell, and Tomlinson in favor. Mr. Tucker, how do you vote? I vote yes. Ms. Hanna, it's a yes from Mr. Tucker remotely. All those opposed? Mr. Cato and Mr. Jones. It passes on second reading as is. Thank you, gentlemen. That takes us to item D, first reading on a joint multi-use park for the MCIP. Mr.
» Templer, can we get a summary on this one? Yes, sir, Mr. Chair, members of council. Yeah, before you, a first reading on a multi-county business industrial park that will allow another local industry to essentially be added to this for your review tonight. Okay, let's get a motion before we talk about it. We have a motion? I'll make a motion. Mr. Brazel makes the motion. Is there a second? I'll second. Mr. Shoemake, seconds. Mr. Brazel? This is just tied to more economic development, legal language, isn't it? Yeah, I'll ask the question. Mr. Templer, so for background, is this one of the existing companies we've recently voted on and approved, or is this one that's coming down the pipe? So this would be adding laser form into it.
» Okay, so we just approved a fee low, also approved the state credit related to abandonment, and this is another part that you have to have for these multi-county incentive parks. Okay, any other further comments or questions? Mr. Tucker, any comments or questions remotely? No, sir, I appreciate it. We do quite a few of these. Yes, sir. On first reading, then, let's call for a vote. All those in person, how do you vote? All in favor, raise your hand. Okay, we've got Mr. Shoemake, Brazel, Connell, Cato, and Tomlinson in favor. Mr. Tucker, how do you vote? Yes. Mr. Tucker votes yes, Ms. Hanna. All those opposed? Mr. Jones is opposed. It passes on first reading, as is. That takes us to item E, another first reading. Mr. Templer, can we get a brief summary? Yes, sir, Mr.
» Chair, members, council, you have before you under item E. This is first reading of a provisions for the Kershaw County sewer operation to codify best practices as it relates to the requirements for the state, what used to be DHEC, but is now DES. Okay, thank you. Do we have a motion? I'll make a motion. Mr. Shoemake makes the motion. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Tomlinson has a second. Mr. Shoemake. I'm good. I mean, we have the explanation, so I don't already have anything. Okay, any other comments or questions? Yeah, does this have anything to do with pricing or would it affect the customers, the current customers of the sewer system? No, sir. That will, that would take place during our budget process and any provisos.
» So, so just to be clear, all this does is, the last sentence is what catches me, the administrator, to establish how surcharge rates may be set and how surcharges shall be calculated. I just didn't understand. So, there are pre-treatment of certain waste or the pre-treatment program where people are providing certain waste. DES suggested in the last certification of the pre-treatment program in 2020 that certain clarifying amendments be made. I believe those surcharges have existed in here. Originally, the ordinance says shall be determined later, surcharge rates to be determined later. This says shall be set by county council. Where they are set, there are calculated pursuant provisions in here.
» But again, these rates, minimum limits, some of the cleanup in here were all suggestions of DES, prior DHEC, in the 2020 recertification process. I understand through some changeover personnel, administration, council, et cetera, et cetera. Some of those clarifying amendments weren't made then. The recertifications occurred again recently for the pre-treatment program. And DES has asked to clarify things. For example, there were local limits of certain pollutants already in there. It just wasn't very explicit or 100% clear that those were intended to be the local limits. Some of those clarifying amendments are in here. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Browsell. Any other comments or questions? Mr. Tucker, any comments or questions? I'm good. Thank you. Mr. Jones, I saw your hand.
» Yeah, this is first reading. I'm going to support on first reading, but I do have some questions as we move forward in second reading. Thank you. Okay. With no other comments or questions, we'll call it for a vote. All those in person, raise your hand if you're in favor. Ms. Hanna, it's unanimous, in favor, in person. Mr. Tucker, how do you vote? Yes. Mr. Tucker votes yes remotely, Ms. Hanna. It passes on first reading. Thank you. All right. Under new business, item A, Kershaw County's goals and objectives. I've placed this on the agenda. I'll make the motion. Do we have a second? I'll second. Mr. Browsell has a second.
» Gentlemen, something I experienced that I thought was quite useful when I was on county council for about six years, and I saw some of the after effects of it, you know, just residual guidance that it provided. When I was over at the State House was a goal document that we had. And I thought there were some tweaks that needed to be made to it. And I think that if we use it the right way, and by the way, I don't anticipate a vote necessarily on this tonight. I do intend to bring a motion, but I wanted to discuss it publicly and see if you had any thoughts or insights or spark further conversation about transparency in the goal-making process and goal-writing process.
» But I think we should go back to having a Kershaw County goals and objectives document that is a living document that is mentioned specifically in the comprehensive plan as we're working on that. One, this allows us to identify very low-hanging fruit. These community meetings that we used to have with a essentially board or volunteer commission. George Gibson's name was mentioned tonight. There were several others who used to serve on this. Would have community meetings and essentially say, "What is it that we want to see in Kershaw County or don't want to see?" And we would typically get a presentation once or twice a year based on how they were able to meet.
» If we have that incorporated by reference into the comp plan, we've got this living document where we can say, you know, our goals for the short time in particular have been adjusted and try to figure out what we're able to achieve. Let me just mention how this might be relevant. If you have a group of community members come together and they talk to their local legislative delegation, there is the water fund, there's the DNR fund, there's the PRT fund. Just annually that gets replenished from state tax dollars that can be used to benefit Kershaw County. There might be community goals that could be brought up, emphasized and honed, and then brought to this council so that we can make requests from the delegation, we can provide matching funds, we can find private partners.
» The ADA compliant playground in Camden, that was one of those things that happened because of this prior goal document that we had. And you had people coming up saying, you know, I want to donate because I need some of the tax deductions. I want to donate $100,000 or more to this ADA compliant playground. And there's so many examples that happened like that because we had greater community involvement. And the community was telling us, hey, this is what we want your goals and objectives to be. And so that's kind of my initial pitch on having something that we kind of get to update the comp plan annually and don't have to wait these really long thrusts of time and let things get lost in the mix.
» Any thoughts or comments on that, any questions? Yeah, I think the opportunity to be very transparent and in a mission, and no matter if it's a private business or a government entities, always a positive thing. I think, Ben, as chairman, you'll lead us in a positive direction. We'll take public input and wade through things that are important to Kershaw County. And I'll agree there's things we don't want and there's things we do want. It's the list of yeses and nos. So I appreciate you putting this on tonight and fully support it. Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Brazel. Mr. Jones. You know, Mr. Chairman, you and I worked six years together prior to you coming back. And, you know, one thing that we always did was we had a retreat. We set our goals and objectives.
» And, you know, I just had a hard time with the Disneyland vision plan from the past administration. I had a hard time with a lot of the parks. You know, I came to council one day and I sat down and we were sitting here and opened up my packet. And the number one priority, we've got a jail that needs addressing. We've got infrastructure needs that needs addressing, you know, roads, et cetera, whatever, was a splash pad. And I really, you know, you know, I don't mean to be ugly and I hope I don't sound ugly because I'm not upset about it. But that's just the facts. That's what happened. But I do look forward to your new leadership that will know what the top ten priorities are that, you know, one member of council won't come in here and sit down and see where.
» And by the way, the splash pad after I said that was put down to number eight. But anyway, you know, I look forward to working with you through it with a fresh new start. Okay. Because I really didn't like the way it was handled before. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Jones. You're welcome. Mr. Chairman. Mr. Shoemate, go ahead. Yeah, I mean, I agree it's critical to have a policy document. That's something that in talking to staff and our county administrator, I think I can share that that's something that he has expressed would be helpful. It's our job to make policy, not, you know, very specific rules, sometimes very specific rules. By and large, it's our job to make policy. We're the board, you know, Danny is our CEO, but the policy has to be enacted by us, the long-term vision.
» And we don't have a really great document for that. The other thing that you touched on that I want people to really understand is this comprehensive plan is updated every five years, but obviously a much more extensive process. And some folks today talked about some changes that should be made in the comprehensive plan, and I don't necessarily disagree with some of those. Having this document, to the chairman's point, our comprehensive plan says we'll do things in line with our community vision document, whatever that's ultimately called. Then we can change that, you know, every month if need be. And what that allows us to do is we make ordinance changes that are ever legally challenged. They go back and look at our comprehensive plan, which then refers to this living community document.
» That way you're not living. I mean, right now the comprehensive plan that we're under now doesn't really talk about problems with growth, because when that thing was written, people wanted a bunch of people to come to Kershaw County. And so as things change, it gives us the ability to make those adjustments. I think that tool in and of itself warrants us having this document. But add that to the fact that it gives staff a policy to follow. I think it's a no brainer. I'm glad that we're talking about this finally. Mr. Shumak, I'll just mention that the prior goal document was adopted on occasion by county council, but it was an incorporated comp plan. And so my proposal would ultimately result in three readings and potentially a public hearing.
» And so talk about transparency before we adopt goals and decide this is going to be the policy where we want to send dollars to make something happen in Kershaw County or we want to stop something. You're going to have ultimate public comment at each of the readings and then a public hearing on this for that. And just as an example, we had the election commission director speak tonight. We could set policy that said we want to have early voting in West Water area and that gives staff the directive to actually make it happen. I know we gave it lip service tonight, but we could actually put it on paper and incorporate it by reference into the comprehensive plan so that it happens that we show that it's a budgetary priority. Any other comments or questions? Mr. Tomlinson? Yeah, Mr.
» Chairman, I think this is a wonderful idea, especially having the active and constructive engagement and input from the community to be able to guide our decision making and policy. Decision making and policy decisions so we can not only look at the short term of Kershaw County, but the long term in 25 years. Every decision that we make has effects that could be generational changing and that public engagement to really fine line and put pen to paper to help guide us is wonderful. I think it was Denzel Washington who said, you know, there's three things you should do in life, right? You got to know where you've been, where you're at, and where you're going, short term and long term. So, in full support of it. Strong with the Denzel quote. All right.
» Any other comments or questions in person? Seeing none, Mr. Tucker, any comments or questions? I just have one short one here is that, of course, you know, with this committee or document or whatever you want to call it, it's going to have to have, and we can talk about all the logistics, a lot of staff support to be driven because the public is going to be limited on time and resources. So, just keep that in mind that, and then I want to make sure that we're all inclusive when it comes down to representation as far as what our county looks like. Yes, sir. We've ridden that bike as recently as two and a half or three years ago, and so I think we'll be able to get back on and be productive. Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Tucker. Mr. Chair. Yeah, Mr. Templer.
» If I may just, you know, I think this is a great idea because from what I kind of understand, this would be more of what the community sees. Going forward wanting, I think there's many layers to what we use as staff for navigational items as we go throughout our budget year, our budget process. One of the things I would like to add is a capital improvement plan that would outline equipment needs going through the years. I think that offers another layer of transparency so you could, the public could see what we intend to buy as these items wear out. And, again, any navigational aid Council can provide staff is very welcomed.
» Vic and I used to go and build our budgets based on the goals and objectives from Council Retreat, the needs from staff, and it's just an aggregate of information going forward, and make strategic efforts to go through the budget and clock off items, as many as we could, in the spirit of these guiding documents. So I would look forward to hearing more about this, look forward to working on it and assisting any way I could. Thank you, Mr. Templer. If I may. Mr. Jones. Just very quickly. As I said, I'm going to support this tonight and may support it through the three readings. But, you know, we quote folks all the time and read Bible verses sometimes. But I like the one from William F.
» Buckley who said, I can't believe the words that just came out of your, that you believe, I can't believe that you believe the words just came out of your mouth. Sometimes, you know, we just pass and create more and more and more. You know, I will say this, and you're right, our county administrator is our CEO, but he's also the ambassador for the county, for the county council, because we're elected by the people. We set the policy. He enforces our policy. He makes recommendations. We either accept it or we don't. And so, but bottom line is the ultimate responsibility lies with us sitting up here. And, you know, he's our enforcer. But we make the laws. We make the policies. We make the rules. And that, anyway, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jones.
» Hearing no further comments, it doesn't require a vote. Appreciate it, gentlemen. That takes us to item 11B, Ad Hoc Stormwater Advisory Committee. I place this on the agenda. I'll make the motion. Is there a second? I'll second it. Mr. Shoemake, seconds. All right. Under our rules, the chair has the ability to appoint ad hoc committees. And this is part of the fulfillment of what we've talked about previously. We have many concurrent things going on right now with stormwater. There's a current study going on, correct, Mr. Templer, related to stormwater. Correct. And various areas of the county that need assistance or need some type of improvements.
» And in an effort to figure out exactly what that should look like or get input from the public from various sectors, So far, I've got the following people that I'm going to appoint to an ad hoc committee. The terms of the committee and responsibilities and scope would be finding sources or options for funding. The scope of the stormwater would be whether it's departmental or sub-departmental. It would conclude in nine months from its creation, so nine months from now. And also give input on regulations and preferred infrastructure goals and improvements. And the current committee members who have indicated a willingness to serve would be Jay Johnson, Jess Coulter, Melita Rabin, Billy Smith, Mayor Melissa Emmons, Bob Gianjorgi.
» And then non-voting members of the committee would be Danny Templer and then various staff members, Gerald, Lauren, Stephen, Jonathan, Dan, and Joey in a support role. Again, non-voting. I've got a few other slots that I'm waiting on responses back to fill. But I think this will be a great group that will be part of that transparency and give us input as we have concurrent studies going on from the public on what stormwater improvement and protection should look like, how we manage it going forward, how we catch up in the areas that we need to, and, most importantly, how the public would view various funding options and what they would want to see. And so it doesn't require a vote. The committee has just created and will terminate within nine months.
» And we'll have a few additional committee members appointed, I anticipate, at the next meeting. Any comments or questions? Mr. Chair. Mr. Tucker. Yes, sir. How many members do you find I'm putting on the data hall committee? Ultimately, 13 for an odd number. Okay. All right. All right. I've got a question, Mr. Chair, if I may. Mr. Administrator, through this ad hoc committee and advice and input and so on and so forth, I know that in recent years we have had to work with an outside agency for our stormwater. Is one of your goals or could one of your goals be that we handle all that in-house and do not rely on having to spend money with an outside agency? Yes, sir. That is one of my overarching goals. And we're on our way to that.
» But it's just there's understanding a funding mechanism to make us self-sustaining to bring that enforcement activity in-house and within Kershaw County. Obviously, you don't have to have this to do that as administrator, you have the ability to bring that in-house and it sounds like you're already working on that. But I'd love to -- this is a nine-month program, so it's going to be a year before that takes place. Looking forward to input. Love the community engagement piece. But with as many projects as we've had and even some of Kershaw County's own projects, being already in shovel mode, moving dirt, I would like to see members of Kershaw County, people that live and work here, in charge of making sure projects are going well.
» And I'd like to see people that are friendly with businesses and builders alike. We talk about being business friendly and, you know, welcoming everyone to Kershaw County. You don't have to have a fee-in-lieu agreement to get that same love, right? So I'd love to see the agencies that we contract with and/or our in-house staff, which I prefer, become a very friendly face for Kershaw County when they're on the job sites, when they're at the home. You know, sometimes you have to deliver bad news, but the old saying, it's not what you say, it's how you say it. I've had many phone calls in which people were discouraged to be here and build here, and it just so happens that one of them has done a major fee-lo agreement at this point.
» At one point, they were very frustrated, and I need that to change. I need for everyone here to be part of a team, Team Kershaw County, and know that we welcome business, and we understand if things aren't perfect. But we're not going to drop a gavel on somebody just because they made a slight error or didn't get up a little bit of a silt fence at the exact moment. I've been in construction since I was a child. It's a tough job. You're running your own business, cash flow's tough, the work's hard, and when government steps in and makes it harder, it's really easy to get frustrated. And we definitely don't need outside agencies jumping the gun, upsetting people, and telling people what they can and can't do, and making threats like, hey, I'm going to call DHEC. That's not friendly.
» That's not business friendly. So my point in saying this is not to try to upset anybody, but it's to make the point that if we are indeed business friendly, that should be for the guy plumbing a house, the guy framing a house, to the guy laying a two-inch water main, the gentleman that spoke about working on his own projects in the state of South Carolina, you can build your own home. Now, I don't know what the regulations are specifically for working on rental properties and that sort of thing, but sometimes we've got to take a step back and realize that hardworking Americans are just, in fact, that hardworking Americans, and we don't need to make things ultimately harder than they need to be.
» We need to put ourselves in their shoes and understand what they're going through on a daily basis and find ways to say yes and ways to have solutions versus ways to say, no, heck no, you can't do that. We're not going to allow you to do that. We're going to shut you down. We're going to call every state agency there is. We're going to drop the hammer on you. It's just as many times as I've heard it from different folks. I really want to express that, especially when it comes to stormwater because that's typically when it gets dicey is the stormwater. So with that being said, I know we don't have to take a vote. Thank you, Chairman, for putting this together. I think there will be a lot of good input that we receive, and I guess that was some of my own. Thank you. Mr. Chairman. Mr. Jones.
» Mr. Brazel, I'm proud of you. I agree with everything you just said. I do want to say this, too, though. I have to give Mr. Templer and what's his name? Mr. Blanchard. You know, if I call General Blanchard, you answer your phone. You're so prompt, and I just can't tell how much I appreciate that because he deals with a lot of citizens that we get, you know, complaints from, and I appreciate that. But, Mr. Templer, I appreciate you being there when we've had to sit down and talk. We're not going to agree on a lot of stuff because I'm big on deregulation. I'm big on, you know, just kind of helping people as much as I can in my way. But anyway, I just want to say, Russell, thank you so much for those comments. I think they're well needed. Appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Jones.
» Any other comments, questions? Anything else, Mr. Tucker, before we move on? Mr. Tucker? Yes, sir. So this ad hoc committee, how will it affect the stormwater advisory committee that we're looking at, that finance committee talked about if we decide to do one with the stormwater study that's coming up? Because that would have to be part of that, that you have to establish. This is essentially a follow on recommendation from staff based on y'all's direction to set up a stormwater advisory committee. And so this would be a non-permanent committee that would come together, work for nine months on the issues, come back with recommendations from the community after working with staff.
» And at that point, you'd be able to figure out, do we want to set up a permanent stormwater commission in Kershaw County with various dedicated appointments per district? Or how do we want to fund it? And through the various purposes and scope that I just described for the ad hoc committee. So this is, this is trying to fulfill. I just want to make sure that I'm clear. Yeah. Okay. Got it. Okay. Thank you. I want to thank you for the votes needed gentlemen. That takes us to a council member briefings, Mr. Cato, please. I'll try and be brief. I want to start tonight with, I want to thank each and every citizen that came out and spoke tonight. I appreciate the speakers. Each and every one of you were on point with very serious issues that we have going on in Kershaw County tonight.
» And I want to thank you for that. And Mr. Gunner, I, if you're still here, I don't know if he's gone. I sympathize with him and I'm going to leave it there. I hope there's something that we can do to help this gentleman out because I really feel for the issues that he has going on. So, but I do appreciate each and every speaker that came out tonight and being on topic. Happy Valentine's day to the ladies out there coming up Friday. Yeah. I want some brownie points. I hope my wife's listening. And Jimmy Jones, happy birthday. Happy birthday. I appreciate it. Since you being the elder oldest member of this council, I would say you're still looking good, but I ain't going that far. I heard the second eldest has to give the spankings. Is that you? I'll take my belt off. Thank you.
» Thank you, Mr. Kato. But happy birthday to you, Jimmy. But on a very serious note, I want to send out my condolences to the Sylvester Sly Robinson family. Sly was a dear friend. I worked with Sly at the Kershaw County Sheriff's Office for many years. I worked with him at the state level and Sly was a gentleman, always smiling. If you couldn't get along with Sly, you weren't going to get along with many people. Sly was awesome. He was a man that if you had to go to battle, I'd want him beside me. And I appreciate the service he had for this county. And my condolences to his family and his friends and brothers in blue. Thank you, Sly. Mr. Tomlinson, you're up next. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think everybody's heard my voice enough tonight, so I'm going to be very brief.
» I appreciate everybody's patience getting through and really working with us as the community and Kershaw County together, especially on this AOD and other things that we've done. This is a valiant effort and I appreciate everybody's input and look forward to the continued work going forward. I really like to appreciate staff. I've put a lot on them and they have responded and above and beyond my expectations, not only dealing with running a county of almost 500 employees, having to deal with other issues, getting a comprehensive plan done, anything that I have asked, anything that the community has asked, in response to this AOD staff legal has bent over backwards to make sure that those voices are heard and those issues and concerns are addressed. So thank you so much.
» And I can't let Mr. Jimmy Jones outdo me, so I'm going to end in a quote. In honor of Black History Month, a childhood hero of mine and Kershaw County native, in the words of Larry Debbie, "Success is not measured by the accolades and achievements, but by the impact we have on others." Thank you, Mr. Tomlinson. Mr. Jones, any report? I do. Well, not much. Just a little bit. First off, I'd like to echo Mr. Kato and thank you for those words about Sly. He was both our friend. I think you know that. And I knew that as well with you. Many years ago, I met a gentleman over in Columbia.
» And he said, "I got somebody who wants to move to Kershaw County." And he said, "But he doesn't have a job." I said, "Who is it?" He said, "His name is Sly Robinson." I think he was, I don't know where Sly was at, somewhere up north? I have no idea. But anyway, he came, I met him, gave him a job, and boy, it just changed me. I think he went to work for every agency in Kershaw County, and it was a solicitor's office. Why did he move so much? Because everybody loved him. He always had a smile on his face. He was my friend. He would stop me, and we would talk, and he'd just be laughing when he got out of the vehicle. But Mr. Tucker, I hope you don't mind. I had talked with the Sheriff and Mr. Kato, and we want to do a proclamation for Sly at the 25th meeting.
» And I'd like that proclamation to be from Mr. Tucker, Mr. Kato, and myself as former law enforcement officers, who worked and knew Sly. He was a good man, kind man, and I truly loved him to death and condolences to his family, absolutely. But I want to also say kudos to our Sheriff. He called me, kept me informed, and I found out he wasn't just calling me, he was calling about 50 other people. Keeping him informed on Sly's progress, what was going on the day that he left us. But anyway, Sly, we love you. Job well done. Thank you, Mr. Kato. Okay, I'm not through. Okay, go ahead, Mr. Jones. I've got to get a little bit more. Well, no, let me say this. It's Mr. Gunner here. He's gone. Hey, guys, this is what I'm talking about when I talk about property rights.
» We talk about, oh, we want people to handle their property rights. We only let the man work on a darn light pole. And it's not staff's fault. It's our fault. Because we set the law, we make the laws, we make the regulations, and they're going to enforce them. Well, so anyway, enough on that. But you know, when we talk about the comprehensive plan and things like that, it was brought to my attention that there'll be no more public input regarding the comprehensive plan. I think the planning director made that comment.
» It's on audio video pertaining to the fact that the committee or either the planning, excuse me, the council would give that change, those amendments, and bottom line is that it led the folks to believe that there's really no more change in that this council may have, how do you say it, a hunger to do. But anyway, you know, it bothers me that the overlay plan wasn't in the comprehensive plan. We invited the folks to come to that drop in. It wasn't, it should have been there. It's one of the hottest topics. The height restriction map dealing with overlay at the airport, I was told wasn't in there. And then I had a complaint. I don't know who threw this, who was responsible for it. But I was about, everybody talked in there, said we were misled.
» I said, well, and I'm just quoting some citizens talking to me. They said, I said, what were you misled about? They said, well, we were told this was a public input. But actually, it's a, it's just a drop in and a little greeting me. And we're told to put our questions in a box. Well, I talked to somebody today. They had said, well, you know, we were told that we were given, that he was on planning zone commission. He said, we were given those suggestions that was dropped in a box. I said, you were? He said, yes. Well, let me ask you a question. I pulled one up. I had one on my phone. I said, did you see this one? No, we hadn't seen that one. Gentlemen, this is just a fact. It may be ugly, what I'm saying, but it's the ugly truth. You got a suggestion box. You go behind closed doors.
» You can pick and choose. I'm not saying that's what staff did, but I'll tell you this right now. It upset me when I talked to this lady and her suggestion. The commissioners didn't see it, but they saw some others. So we need true transparency. And I think to start transparency, we need to have a, I would like to see us have a meeting scheduled with the planning commission there, the public there. And we have a face-to-face, a face-to-face session with the public planning commission and county council to see how they really feel about the comprehensive plan and what we've got going on. And you know, something that really bothers me too, and I have been, it's come to my attention directly that this council has a lot of interest in the planning commission.
» And that if the planning commission has disagreed with them, they've been asked to maybe resign or they've been asked maybe to step down. I'm not going to stand for that. That is absolutely wrong. We're mandated by law to appoint these folks and I will never vote somebody else because they don't agree with me or ask them to resign from the planning commission. I think that's inappropriate and I don't like it at all. And with everything I got going on, I'll fight that to the very end. So when you talk about transparency, let's, let's leave the planning commission alone, let them do their job and not try to intimidate. Or hey, by the way, this was not agreeing with exactly what we want to do. Maybe he'll step down. We get somebody else in there. That's just not the way it works.
» And gentlemen, don't tell me it didn't happen because it did. And, but all three of the planning commissioners are going to stay on. They're not going to step down. They're going to participate. And I watched the video of the planning commission last night. Boy, they, the planning commissioners look lost. I mean, they, they, they weren't getting, they felt like they weren't getting the questions answered. You can see the frustration on them. And they're young. They're a young group. I ask everybody in here to go watch the planning and zoning meeting last night. Take a few minutes out of your time and watch it and judge for yourself. Okay. And this comp plan, then I'm told also, I heard it on the video, that we're going to have first reading in April. Well, nobody told me that.
» Who decided that? It's nowhere near ready to have to start your first, second or third reading. It tells me that we're, you know, when you got opposition and you're doing a lot of fighting, you fast track things. I'm not saying this council did that. I'm just saying I heard what I heard on the, the planning commission meeting last night that was videoed. And that's just not right. If we're going to set the dates, this council needs to take charge of this issue. We need to set a meeting. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to ask you tonight, if you would set a meeting that would involve the public directly and the planning commission to, and you can state when you go to your, your, your chairman briefing, that we'll do a county council planning and zoning sit down with the public.
» It will have a true session with the public. I think that'd be really good. And I feel like you're for the same thing, but this is where I'm at. And I hope that we'll have that meeting. If not, if, if you don't have that meeting, gentlemen, I'm going to have the meeting with the planning commission and the public. So I, I ask you to please let's do the right thing and get them involved. And let's whoever said that we're going to vote first reading of the comprehensive plan when it was so loosely put together the other night. And I'm not going to embarrass, try to embarrass anybody by calling names, but when you got somebody, you're paying a lot of money that they didn't have basic answers.
» Or one of our colleagues here on county council, they didn't, they, they couldn't even answer the, it's almost like they took this plan for somebody else, took a picture of it and put Kershaw County. And yet there were no T's crossed, no I's dotted. It was very, very poorly done. I think the meeting was very poorly ran. I think the public was totally disappointed. And I read all the accolades that, that, that, that our department will put out there. Well, I haven't talked to any, I hadn't talked to three or four people that they talked to that gave kudos to it. I mean, I had them coming up to me from all areas of the county there. Exactly. And they were, their displeasure. We feel like they were duped. Now we can sit up here and pout. You can get mad at me.
» I don't give a damn if you do or not, but I'm going to tell you something. What I do care. What? I can't say that. Okay. But let me just tell you this right now. I'm irritated. I'm fed up. I'm disgusted. And I want to see some positive change. I want the citizens to be treated with respect. When we're shutting them down on a job, if, you know, if, if, listen, be kind. If, if someone is arguing with you, just walk away. Just walk away. Don't, don't get into a verbal fight with them, calling names back. We're better than that, guys. So anyway, and I, I'll, I'll have some other things coming up at the next meeting. And, and it was great meeting our new, um, uh, director with the, uh, elections commission. I look forward to working with her in 26. Gosh, I might stay or do something else.
» Because I'm feeling real good now. My back's fixed. My health is back. I'm ready to rock and roll. But I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna fight for the citizens. Till the very end of my breath. As long as I'm sitting up here. And, uh, and have you said that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Counselor for your time. Mr. Jones, Mr. Shue, uh, Mr. Tucker, actually. Mr. Tucker, do you have any report? Mr. Tucker. Do you have any report? Still with us? Mr. Tucker, can you hear us? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Go ahead, Mr. Tucker. All right. Well, I want to say, um, Mr. Jones, I have no problem with your, um, proclamation or whatever, uh, you have set. I'm happy to join you. Mr. Tucker, a little closer to your microphone, if you could, please. We can barely hear you. All right. All right.
» I said, I have no problem with, uh, Mr. Jones proclamation or whatever he's trying to do for the, uh, Robinson family. But I do say, uh, my condolences as well, uh, for all who want to attend, um, the, they're going to have memorial service, March 1st at one o'clock to approximately 1415, which is 215, um, at Camden first United Methodist church. So, uh, you can Google that on Collins, um, funeral home website, if you want additional information on it. So very tragic, um, times here in Creshaw County. And, um, uh, we love the Robinson family. And for the ones that don't know, Mr. Bill Robinson, who comes to the meetings, who's chair of the democratic party, that is his brother. So just to put relations on that. Um, the other thing is, uh, I want to say that, um, by no means.
» You guys know that I would, um, badger, badger any of you. So since y'all are reading out quotes tonight, I don't have much to say, but I'm going to say this right here. Um, this is a Maya Angelou one. It says when someone show you who they are the first time, believe them. Okay. And if you find it, uh, if you, uh, don't like something, change it. If you can't change it and change your attitude. Just saying. Have a good night. Thank you, Mr. Tucker. Mr. Shoemaker, any report? Yeah. A couple of things. Um, I just want to address briefly the, uh, comprehensive plan. I mean, obviously the document needs adjustments, no doubt, but I can tell you that for the last, whenever I was elected two years ago, I'm the, I think I'm still the junior guy here.
» But since I got elected, there have been meetings that I got notified about through email and they were on the website. Uh, there were several meetings. I was the only council member in attendance, but I can tell you that there have been multiple meetings with direct facing public input specifically about what should or shouldn't be in the comprehensive plan. So as we go forward on that, I just want to point that out because you know, whether, whether the last meeting was what people wanted it to be. I've attended a number of these meetings and there's, there's been multiple, multiple opportunities for public input. I also want to talk a little bit about, you know, Mr. Gunter's issue, which I think speaks to a larger point.
» The, it's easy sometimes to, to, we are arguably the most accessible level of government for people in Crishaw County. But oftentimes we are the level of government that has oftentimes the least amount of authority. Um, I'm a little bit familiar with his issue. And I think it's worth noting for everyone that there is a state law, state law that we can't control. It says, if you are a landlord, you are not allowed to pull a commercial permit. If you do not live in the residence, a lot of landlords don't pull permits and just do the work. But if you come to the county and ask for a permit to do commercial work, which by definition means if you're a landlord and don't live in the home, the county is probably going to deny you.
» Not because they're evil or because they're trying to put up red tape, but because they have to follow state law. That's from LLR that says you have to be a commercial contractor. That's a great state law that I think should be amended and changed. Absolutely agree. I just want to say that in my personal experience, by and large, of course, there are exceptions to this rule like every rule. But in my experience these last two years, I have found in the vast majority of occasions our staff to be helpful, flexible and easy to work with. Not perfect. I haven't been perfect. I have seen far fewer staff members get irate than I have seen members of the public get irate at staff. And that's okay, too. People are allowed to express their opinions. We have the First Amendment.
» But I just want to say that I fully support our staff that works really hard. Every year they get to hear about a budget that nobody wants to increase because no one wants their taxes raised. And then for the other 10 months, they get to hear about why there's no they get to they get to ask, why don't I have this service? Why don't I have this service? Or why aren't you doing more? And we're the ones who set those policies. But staff has to bear the brunt of that. And I just want to thank our staff for their excellent and hard work because without them, you know, we none of us could be here and the county would still work along just fine. Yeah, we set policy. But if for some reason we all went away, the government could appoint seven more people that would do just the finest job.
» Our staff, however, is irreplaceable by and large. And I just I thank them for everything they do. That's all I have. Mr. Schumach. Thank you. Mr. Brazel. I'm feeling meek and humble tonight. I have no comments. All right. Thank you, Mr. Brazel. I'll just mention to council, if you would, please. I heard a couple of comments throughout the night during a lot of this heavy lifting on various ordinances or issues where you said, yeah, I might like to have an executive session on that. Please make sure you get that information to Ms. Hanna, myself, Mr. DuBose, Mr. Templer, so that we can make sure we accommodate that and have it on the agenda for next time.
» If that was more than just a mere request and you actually want it on the agenda next time, we want to make sure that your issues are addressed in the appropriate way as required by law if you're seeking executive session. I want to mention one other thing Mr. Jones mentioned tonight, and we've been talking about it quite heavily. The jail is an issue. How do you fund a jail that requires a significant increase in the percentage of beds that would require, you know, I've seen numbers in the 60 millions to say you build a new one, even renovation of it and then rehab to bring it up to modern building codes would put you in the high 50s, perhaps. How do you do that? How do you do that? And so I've been trying to formulate and I just want to share with my council members.
» I'm trying to put together some type of ad hoc committee that can be expert in this area that can come to us and bring recommendations on what's the best way to do it. How do you fund it? Kershaw County doesn't have the money and it would take a ridiculous and astronomical tax increase to pay for the bonds that would be required to do it. Do you do it through a penny sales tax? Do you send it for a referendum and let the public make a decision that way? But we do need to build a new jail at some point there at some point, I guess, was a capital plan and I don't know what happened to it. But it hadn't been followed entirely, perhaps. But this is what we're dealing with. We have to figure out.
» And so I'm looking at the possibility of a public safety and service ad hoc committee that would come back with those recommendations to council for us to take action on. It would involve the jail. It would involve other critical needs related to public safety and service. And that concludes my report. All right. We've got any administrators briefing, Mr. Templer. Just real brief. I know we have some executive session stuff, but obviously the boat landing is well underway. We look at that hopefully to be completed by May, build in some weather delays and things like that. So what we're parks construction has been done. The we have a December 2025 completion date there expected.
» We will open bids this Thursday, February 13th for Copeland Park and Boyd Young Park bid for the renovations up there. And we have the Mount Pisgah playground equipment that is still scheduled to be here early to mid-March. That's going to be a great addition up there. So bid announcements for the KC West parking and driveway connection to Whitehead Road that is desperately needed. It is on the streets, if you will. And we intend to open those bids Thursday, March 6th. So we've got a little bit of time left on that one. But projects are rolling along. We're very busy. There's a lot going on in Kershaw County. Mr.
» Jones and I were speaking about this today that I can't remember a time in Kershaw County that we had this much going on, either through policy revamp, amenity improvements, or just general pains and pinches going on, as you spoke about the jail. So a lot going on. But, you know, we'll see better days. So that's my report. Thank you, Mr. Templer. Mr. Bowes, anything before executive session? No. All right, gentlemen, that takes us to items 15A through C. I'll take them as a joint motion. We've got two items under SC code 3470A2 related to legal advice regarding pending threatened or potential legal claims and other matters related to the attorney-client privilege.
» And then item C, receipt of legal advice for a matter covered by the attorney-client privilege pursuant to the same code section. Do I have a motion to enter executive session? So moved. Second. All right. We've got Mr. Tomlinson and Mr. Cato. Any other discussion? All those in favor of entering executive session on the stated items? All right. We're moving into executive session. Mr. Tucker, I forgot to get you to vote again. How do you vote, Mr. Tucker? I vote yes. I vote yes. Okay. Mr. Brazel stepped out. I'm not sure if he had to leave the meeting. It's a yes, Ms. Hanna for Mr. Tucker. We're in executive session. For the record, Mr. Brazel said he'd be with us in executive session. He should have to step out. Okay. All right. Mr. Brazel's still here, not voting.
» For the public's benefit, no vote is anticipated after executive session. Second. Just need one more. On the phone. Sam, you on the phone? All right. We've got four. I seek a motion to exit executive session. Motion granted. Mr. Tomlinson, a second. Second. Second. All right. We've got a second from Mr. Cato. Seeing no discussion. Vote to exit executive session. All in favor, raise your hand. Mr. Tucker, how do you vote? Yes. That's a yes, Ms. Hanna. It's unanimous. We're out of executive session. No discussion. Motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn from Mr. Tucker. Second. We've got a second from Mr. Cato. Third. Seeing no discussion. Thank you. All in favor, raise your hand. Mr. Tucker, is it a yes? Yes. Ms. Hanna, for the record. Thank you so much. We are adjourned.
» Be safe in the mind, Sammy. Good night, fellas. Thank you. Thank you. [Part 2 of 2] All right, it's six o'clock. Everybody got quiet and was ready for me to get started, I guess. Let's get the meeting going. Thank you, everyone, for coming out tonight to this Tuesday, February 11th, 2025, Kershaw County Council meeting. We've got the agenda before us. We've been called to order. We're going to have an invocation and Pledge of Allegiance tonight led by Councilman Derek Shoemake. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, please watch over this body as we conduct the people's business here in Kershaw County. Lord, specifically, steady our hearts and steady our minds as we work through these complicated issues to do what's best for the people of this county.
» Lord, we understand that we come to you tonight with great responsibility, and not just the people sitting up here, Your Honor, but everyone in this room, every person in this county that stands up enough and cares enough to come and participate in government. And please watch over all of us so that we can reach the right decision. In your name we pray, amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Mr. Shoemake. The next item on the agenda is adoption of the agenda. Item four, is there a motion? I'll make a motion we adopt the agenda. Is there a second? Second. We've got a second.
» Any discussion? Seeing no discussion, we'll call it for a vote. All in favor, raise your hand. Ms. Hanna, it's unanimous for those who are present. And I understand Mr. Tucker's going to be calling in at a later time. Okay. Thank you, Ms. Hanna. It's approved. Item number 5A is our next item. This is National Black History Month, which is placed on the agenda by Mr. Tucker. Is there a motion? I'll make the motion. All right, is there a second? I'll second. All right, we've got a motion and a second. Mr. Tucker had asked me if he was not here to share this. It's on your screen, and so I'll go through it, and then we'll see if we have any discussion. Black History Month Proclamation, Kershaw County, South Carolina.
» Whereas, Black History Month is a time to honor the significant contributions and achievements of African Americans throughout history, recognizing their resilience, excellence, and influence in shaping our nation's past, present, and future. And whereas, the origins of Black History Month date back to 1926, when Dr. Carter G. Woodson established Negro History Week, which has since evolved into the month-long celebration observed of February across the United States. And whereas, the African American community has played a vital role in the history of Kershaw County, South Carolina, contributing to the fields of education, business, art, culture, government, and civil rights, while enriching the fabric of our community.
» And, whereas, this year's national theme for Black History Month, African Americans and the Labor, Black Resistance Celebrating Black Innovation, calls on us to reflect on the ongoing struggle for justice and equality and to celebrate the triumphs and resilience of African Americans throughout history. And whereas, Kershaw County acknowledges the significance of promoting equity, inclusion, and understanding among all citizens, continuing to strive toward a community where all people are valued and celebrated. And whereas, it is imperative to educate current and future generations about the accomplishments and contributions of African Americans and to honor their central role in the advancement of our society.
» Now, therefore, Kershaw County Council does hereby proclaim February 2025 as Black History Month in Kershaw County, South Carolina. We encourage all citizens to join in this observance by participating at local levels, and as further stated in the proclamation. That is the proclamation from Mr. Tucker. Is there any discussion? Yes. Mr. Jones, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the county council. I support this, and I do it in recognition of my brother and friend, George Gibson and Evelyn Gibson, and also Robert Sumpter, and his wife, Denise Sumpter. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jones.
» Any further discussion? I'll just mention that this is a precursor to another proclamation or resolution that will come up that is acknowledging and detailing the history of the three-room schools that they had in Kershaw County during segregated periods. Many of these buildings have actually gone away, been torn down in lieu of other development. Some of them are still standing. Some of them still have good bones, but it's a history in Kershaw County that folks need to be aware of, and Mr. Tucker is working on this along with a few other folks in the community, and they're still doing research to identify and create maps that are detailed enough that it could be useful to the public as well. Any further discussion? Seeing none, we'll call it for a vote. All in favor? Ms.
» Hanna, it's unanimous, and we still don't have Mr. Tucker yet on the phone. Thank you, gentlemen. That's 5A. Next item is item 5B on the agenda. Dr. Hank Holtine, placed on the agenda by Councilman Jones. Yes, thank you so much. At this point in time, I was asked by Vice Chairman Russell Browser-Wood if I mind letting him present this. I'll have a few words about my friend when he finishes. Mr., I yield to you. Would you like to make the motion, sir? Oh, I'm sorry. I do make the motion. Absolutely. And I'll second the motion. Russ, on the table. Go ahead. All right. At this point in time, I thought I was reading a proclamation for about a dozen people. This gentleman has done quite a lot in his life. It's quite impressive.
» So if you'll bear with me, I'm going to read through the proclamation, not in its entirety, but I'm going to hit some highlights. This is to honor Dr. H.W. Holtine with over 52 years of physician practicing in Camden, Kershaw County, South Carolina. How do you even begin to honor such an outstanding servant to the people? Whereas H.W. Holtine is the longest serving practicing physician in Camden, Kershaw County, surpassing Dr. Francis McCorkle, which was my grandmother's doctor for years.
» And in 1967, high school graduate from Wilbur Cross High School in New Haven, Connecticut, began his journey in 1974 until present at Camden Associated Physicians PA in Camden, South Carolina as clinic director slash managing partner for Columbia, West Columbia, Manning, Florence, Lexington, and Chapin, South Carolina. He was a member of the Jaycees and volunteered at the Camden, Kershaw County Rec Department. He umpired baseball and softball games. He umpired high school girls' softball games and officiated basketball, sponsored multiple youth teams, including Dixie League Baseball and Camden, Kershaw County Training League, consisting of 10 to 12 teams, provided necessary uniforms and equipment for the entire training league. Whereas H.W.
» Holtine has served, contributed, and accomplished so many goals in his career, it is hard to determine which are more important than the other. So it's an honor to share them all. Now, I won't be reading them all, but they will all be on the record. His education, undergraduate training at South Central Connecticut State University and Northwest Missouri State University. Graduate school at Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa. Post-graduate training and studied at Palmer College of Chiropractic in 1974. The National College of Chiropractic's Advanced Physical Therapy and Pain Control Methods. That was in 1978. The National College of Chiropractic for Chiropractic Orthopedics, 1981.
» The Mayo Clinic, Physical Therapy Department, the Physical Examination of the Extremities, 1981. Mayo Clinic, conservative management of the Intervertible Disc Lesion in 1982. University of Michigan School of Medicine, Disability and Impairment Rating and Ergonomics, 1983. Harvard School of Medicine. Made it all the way to Harvard. That's pretty impressive, sir. Orthopedic Radiology in 1983. American Medical Association, Impairment and Disability, 1984. Harvard School of Medicine, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in 1984. Cleveland College of Chiropractic's Thermography Principles and Application, 1985. And then again, Harvard School of Medicine, Primary Care Orthopedics, 1988.
» He had a variety of staff positions, including consulting for insurance companies, concerning regular and customary fees and procedures. Equipment, I'm sorry, establishment of protocols and evaluation and management techniques, protocol and parameters to assess and determine patient's need for care and its type. Moving on to appointments, he was a member of the Board of Chiropractic Orthopedics, member of American Council of Radiology, member of the Council of Physiotherapy. He was a chairman of the South Carolina Board of Chiropractic Examiners for seven terms, chairman of Capital Healthcare Clinic at the Statehouse in Columbia.
» He was responsible for establishing protocols and standards of care that are presented at the clinic that are now available to the members of the South Carolina House of Representatives, members of the South Carolina Senate, and all employees of the Statehouse. Moving on to articles published, clinical diagnosis and grading of the intervertebral disc syndrome, South Carolina Chiropractic Association in 1981, a standard of care for analysis and treatment of scoliosis patients. That was also in 1981, clinical and physical diagnosis of sprain injuries, that was in 1981, clinical and physical diagnosis of sprain injuries in 1981. Whereas H.W.
» Hultene has received the following awards throughout his career, South Carolina Chiropractic Association, Most Improved State Journal Award, 1980, 1991, and 1992. Order of the Palmetto Chiropractor, 1994, recipient of the Palmetto Patriot Award in 2010, this is a recognition of service to the state and to the public through boards and commissions. It is the highest award given by the lieutenant governor in his office in the state. Awards for recognition for service as attending chiropractic physician at the Statehouse, again in the General Assembly, in 2012. And awarded a recognition of service for attending chiropractic physician at the Statehouse in 2018, rendering necessary treatment to members of the General Assembly and all state employees.
» There's a litany of things that this gentleman has done and achieved. I'll say this, to say he's a hardworking man would be an incredible understatement. I will conclude with this, now therefore be it known that Kershaw County Council presents this Honorary Lifetime Achievement Proclamation and declare it this day, H.W. Hultene, D.C. in Kershaw County, South Carolina, Tuesday, February 11, 2025. Thank you, Mr. Browse, any further discussion? No, I will say it's just quite an impressive resume, and I'm sorry we couldn't read it all, but we'd be here for quite some time, and it's a real pleasure to get to presenting this to you and your family, sir. Mr. Chairman. Mr. Jones, please. If I may, thank you.
» You know, I have to tell you, it's a big honor for me to be able to have a part in bragging on my friend, and he is a friend, and he's been a good partner to Kershaw County for many, many years. I want you folks to think back to a little history here. How many people in here remember Palmetto Arms Apartment? Back in the early, maybe 74, 75, Dr. Hultene can tell me, but I'm sure his mind is clearer than mine. But bottom line is, we, it was Hank Hultene, Art Graham, and Jimmy Jones. We were all young folks starting our lives out, and that's when I really got to know Dr. Hultene.
» He's been a good friend of mine throughout the years, and as I said, what a wonderful partner for Kershaw County, and his accomplishments are second to none, and I'm very proud and honored to be a part of this tonight. And Vice Chairman Brasel, thank you for asking me if you could participate and present that. I really appreciate it. And I'm glad you allowed me to do this when I approached you, saying I wanted to do something to honor you, Dr. Hultene. Thank you so much. Councilman Jones, if I may. Go ahead. Chairman. You said you guys met in 1974? I believe that was it, yeah. The only other person at this dais that was, who was born then was Mr. Kato. Thank you for pointing that out. You didn't have to go there. Any further discussion, Councilman? No, thanks for the opportunity.
» I'll just say congratulations. Thanks very much. All right. Let's take it to a vote. All in favor, raise your hand. Ms. Hennett, it's unanimous by those who are present, and we still don't have Mr. Tucker. Thank you, gentlemen. Do you want to have Mr. Hultene come up? Yeah, sure, of course. Dr. Hultene. Speak first. Thank you very much. I'm exceedingly honored. I've had the opportunity to represent the state. I guess Camden because I'm from here on the national stage on many occasions. I always start every presentation by saying I bring you greetings from the center of the universe, Camden, South Carolina. The best small town anywhere. Yes. I believe that in my mind, my heart, my body. I love this town.
» I stumbled into this town, recommended by a chiropractic physician from Orangeburg, that I might fit in here. Being a Yankee, I've been married a long time. My wife still tells me I'm a you-know-what kind of Yankee, okay? And I'll never be a Southerner. That's kind of sad. I hope I get to be a Southerner before it's over. But it was a great place. I just lived here. I didn't know a soul in town. I met Mr. Jones. I met Art Graham. I met Johnny Fellers. I bought my furniture. I rented a building from Jim Bishop. I built it out and started practicing, and the rest has been downhill. It's been, I've been accepted way beyond my expectations. I was able to build a clinic downtown Camden on Church Street in 1982 after only seven years of practice. A 4,000 square foot building.
» And not to slap the landlord, but aside from the taxes, it's a good place. Wish we could lower the taxes. Can we do that? Anyway. We're working on it. Anyway, and I've been in that building since 82. Expanded my practice to six other locations. Eventually hired medical personnel to work with our chiropractic physicians so that the patient would best be served. That's what it's about. Served on the state board 20 years, serving the public. We're there to protect the public. The state boards in this state do not protect the participants, the doctors, the lawyers, the Indian chiefs. They protect the public. Public protection has been my passion. I was chairman of the FCLB board, which is the 50 state boards together, to protect the public.
» I accept this honor, obviously, willingly and humbly. I was lucky, lucky to come here, and I was even lucky enough to treat Chairman Connell. When he was a national wrestler and his picture is in my examination room, right on the wall, next to Tim Walsh. Don't tell him that. So thank you for allowing me to be here. Thank you for accepting me. Thank you for allowing me to marry, raise four children, and I'm going to say become a success. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jones, Mr. Brassel, and the rest of the council. Dr. Holton, if you could join us, we have the plaque right here. If you could come up for a picture, that would be great. Bring your wife up, too, please. Your wife is shaking her head no, but. Good to see you. Thank you very much. Dr., congratulations.
» Resolution's as big as you are. Thank you for Browns. If you can't lift it, we'll get one of these young folks that weren't around in 1974. Thank you, gentlemen. That takes us to our next item on the agenda, which is public comments. As a reminder, this is not a Q&A for council. It's a time for council to hear from the public, subject to the rules and guidelines that are already printed on the agenda packet. Mr. DuBose. Seven speakers are signed up. We have seven folks signed up for public comments tonight. Who's the first one? Keith Gunter. Subject is P and Z. Mr. Gunter. Yes, sir. Welcome, my friend. Thank you, Jimmy. I'd like to thank Jimmy for over the years. When I needed help, he would go to bat for me, and I appreciate it. And I know some of you guys. I know Ben from Riesling.
» I'm up here today. I wrote all this, and I know I haven't got time, so I'm not even going to probably go through much. I'm up here today for a simple reason. I have rental property throughout this county, and with my own hands, I put in all the septic tanks, with God's grace and mercy and health. Every septic tank, every water line. Everything that's been done, I've crawled under mobile homes, with insulation stuck to the sweat and laying in raw sewage. I have done it all. There ain't nothing I ain't done on them. Build ever, I'll build a hundred or more electrical meter poles. I wrote all this. First time I wrote it, I was so mad. I had to take all that out. But I'm here because I do not understand. If I go to county now, I need an electrical permit.
» I was an electrician at DuPont for 35 years. In fact, I handled all of their waste treatment and the water supply, 2,300 gallons. I was in charge of those meters. I tried to go and get a permit to put up an electrical meter pole at one of my rental properties, and I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't get a permit to do that. I don't mind being inspected. If it says to put four clamps, I'm going to put six. Whatever it says, it's going to be better than what the county has. I've never failed an inspection on a septic tank or anything in my life. But now I can't go on my own property. I paid for that property. I pay taxes on it every year, an enormous amount of taxes to Cershaw County. And you don't allow me to work on my property. I got grandsons. I took three of them with me.
» I was denied a permit two times in the last couple of months. At one time, they denied a permit. They went ahead and issued one after so much rigmarole. You would not believe if I told you I'm not going to go through it. I had it wrote down. And while all that was going on, somebody stole a $7,800 air conditioner. $6,800, a brand new unit out of Lennox Road property because it was empty. I had a farm employee. It's on a farm, that home. I had a farm employee ready to move in it right away if I could have got power. They wouldn't turn the power on. First, they said that they didn't know how long the power had been off. It had only been off a month. Then the next, they said they found underpinning broken, and they weren't going to issue it because the underpinning. All this back and forth.
» So, yeah, I had that thing where it had been off a month. I had to go get a letter from Black River and carry it to them, you know, and prove I'm a grown man. I'm a grown man here, and you deny me the right to work on my property? That's the ordinance there. I can't pull a permit. I'm too dumb to pull a permit, smart enough to acquire property, got a work truck, dump truck, backhoe. I've done everything myself always. My hands tore all the pieces from working. I'm still working, and y'all won't allow me to pull a permit to work on my own property. I hope, good Lord, I don't know what's happening in this country. I don't know who's been advising you on the zoning and the laws and how you should do it. But now, there seems to be a time for reasoning and common sense. I have all the tools.
» I have all the skills I've used in my whole life. Now I want to work on my property. So here's what I recommend. I do not mind me being inspected, just like a contractor or whatever. But if I've had rental property, and it ought to be grandfathered in, I ought to be able to go to my property and make repairs, and I do not mind paying for the inspections, I don't mind that. Y'all need to give me some help on this. I mean it. Y'all need to look this over and give me some help now. Amen. Thank you. Thank you, Keith. Thank you, Mr. Gunter. Appreciate you coming out tonight. Thank you, Mr. Gunter, very much. Well said. Mr. DeBose, who's next on the list? Next speaker is, I believe it's Phil Sherda, AOD. Phil Sherda. Fortunate name for the South.
» I'd like to echo some of the comments I've heard about this being such a great town to live in. I've lived here for about 20 years. Sir, if you could please speak in the mic. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, so we can speak. There we can hear you. Yeah. I'd like to echo the comments I heard earlier that this is a really great town to live in. I've lived here for the last 20 years, and I've lived all over the East Coast, and this is probably the most welcoming and efficient place that I've ever lived in. So I would like to just, I'll be brief here, just regarding the AOD initiative here. And we have a property that we're looking to develop for industrial reasons. It's trisected by three of the zones, the A zone, B1, and the C1 zone as a C zone.
» I trust you guys have received my synopsis and diagram of what we're planning to do there. And I'd just like to highlight a couple of concerns I have regarding that as we're planning on manufacturing aircraft there right next to the airport in the A zone. And I'd like to just underline it, as an aeronautical business, we really need to be in the A zone to effectively do that. And looking to get the zone classified pursuant to the C3 classification for that, for general office and research activities we'll be doing. And one of our products is going to be a solar thermodynamic electric generator. And we'd also like to have that extended to the A zone for C1 and C2 classification there.
» And further on down the whole package here, there's a whole bunch of definitions and whatnot, but I don't see any real definition between the status of manufacturing facilities, heavy industrial, and light industrial. And there's no guidelines for that. But some of our activities that we're planning on doing is just cutting into the corner by maybe 30, 40 feet of zone A. And we'd like to have the C for the manufacturing. We'd like the C1, C2, C3, and C2, C3. And for the heavy industrial also, we'd like the C1, 2, and 3 formations there. And for the light industrial, C1s, 2, and 4, which is extended to the B1 and C divisions of the AOD. Also, hopefully, as we get established over the next several years, we'll be increasing the employment out there.
» And we may need to just heads up that we may need to extend the personnel intensity, as you have it stated in the AOD, to a higher level because we may have more people in there employed. And another item that's just come up recently was the current buildings that are out there are left over from the Skyline Tic Tac facility that was there before. And during that demolition, we're going to have to take all that out of there. There may be excessive dust there for a period of time while those structures are raised. So that's all I have to say on that. Thanks for your attention. Thank you, Mr. Sheridan. Appreciate you coming out. Mr. Connell. Yes, sir. Mr.
» Plates, could you just state what the rules are for public speaking so people understand why we don't respond back and forth? Oh, we didn't read the rules. I'm sorry, say again? What was your question? The rules of order for public speaking where we don't engage? Okay. Well, there's a public comment section just for Mr. Jones' benefit and those who are listening. It's a public comment portion. It's a free speech, essentially, moment where you're able to come out and speak and share thoughts and concerns with local government. We've had topics wide-ranging as prior Justice Scalia, which we heard about frequently, onto AOD matters, to things that are actually on the agenda or things that may be on the agenda in the future. But it's not a Q&A portion.
» We do have those for relevant county business whenever we have public hearings for a particular agenda item. Thank you, Mr. Connell. Sure. I believe they're spelled out in the back of the agenda. Yes, sir. There's the rules for that. Yeah. I refer to them at the beginning of each time. But thank you very much. You did fine. Yes, sir. Mr. DuBose. Linda Knatzer, comp plan. Ms. Knatzer-Copham. Did I get that right? Comp plan. Oh, comp plan. Sorry. Ms. Knatzer, yes. Go ahead. Chairman Connell, council members, thank you for attending the Comprehensive Plan Forum last week. I realize you all have a lot on your to-do list. However, the deadline to have this plan in place is a year sooner than the airport overlay district. So it needs to take priority.
» We were told that the second reading is scheduled for April the 8th and the third reading for April the 22nd. That's coming up pretty quick. I am aware that our Comprehensive Plan must be updated and made compliant with current government requirements. It does not mean that we completely do away with a very good current plan and replace it with one that is not going to serve to serve the people of Kershaw County well. Our current 421-page plan in many ways replicates the comprehensive plan of the city of Camden. While it may not be perfect and could be updated and revised, it is much closer to what we need. It speaks to Kershaw County's past, present, and future.
» Now, what is wrong with the plan we saw last week? The 101 short pages, some blank pages, nothing I guess, if you like pretty pictures and graphics. Six to eight pictures of housing that we are trying to avoid. And do we really need five pictures of Camden's railroad station and railroad tracks? No mention of the airport. One small picture of a church and another church in the background of a picture of this building. As for substance, when I reviewed the equine information, immediately I noticed that it was incorrect, probably 30 to 40 years old. At the forum, Nihair said his source was the Kershaw County Chamber of Commerce website. The director of the Chamber of Commerce told me that it has not been updated recently.
» And when I talked to Amy Kynard, we went over some things and kind of updated a little bit of it. And that they should have really called her. What other information and from what sources are we to accept? In the less than half of the plan we looked at last week, it speaks about diversity 14 times and the need for affordable housing 11 times. While still pointing out that Kershaw County's housing prices as of 2021 were significantly less than the Columbia area and the state. This new plan does have some good things, but I'm not so sure they're not already in the current plan or could be added in. Before you're persuaded to accept the window dressing and questionable text of the new plan, let's be certain of what we would have to live with.
» Right now, I say keep the current one and rework it. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Gennett. We appreciate you coming out tonight. Mr. DuBose. Lynn Canto, Equine Overlay. Ms. Canto. Lynn Canto, 1265 Sanders Cooperate. Yes, ma'am. I'm not a fan of reading, but I've been having to do a lot of that lately. And the first thing I want to address is the AOD. I want to thank you for making amendments and listening to the people who live in that community and to their concerns. I still think there are a couple more things that need to be addressed. I do think those people individually affected you need to talk to personally. Protect the farms, the kennels, the hunt club clubhouse, the commercial equine properties, and maintain people's property rights.
» I would also suggest considering equine overlay to protect, educate, and guide growth in the future for the equine community and housing developments nearby. This would prevent future conflicts with an airport expansion, equine activity, and any of its developments in the future. Now, most recently, I want to thank you for showing up, showing up for the comprehensive plan, draft reading, and giving wonderful suggestions that I do agree with. Some of those suggestions included looking at housing developments and the approaches you want to take with that in the future, and promoting the equine community in this plan. I do think we can go a step further, and I'll explain that in a minute, but let's start on page 8 of the comprehensive plan.
» One of the most concerning things I saw was on ethnicity. It's biased. The data reads whites and others versus Hispanic, and nothing else. Now, I do a lot of grant writing, and I've never seen data presented that way, and that concerned me. The other issue that concerned me is on page number 9, lacking bachelor's in education degrees in this town, and that's because every community around us has a four-year program but us, and we need to look at including that in our community. Page 14, the use of images of houses that really don't represent Kershaw County needs to be reconsidered. Page 19, protects sensitive natural areas that weren't even listed on the map, and highlighting rural areas. Hunt country, which is 9,000 to 14,000 acres, which are in land trust and preservations.
» That information has been provided to the government office in our county. The Clemson educational trails should be included and marked in that map. And most importantly, is our water system needs to be protected. That needs to be emphasized in our comprehensive plan to prevent Charlotte water from reducing the amount of water that we receive in this area. Hunt country is rural area. It's not urban, it's not suburban, and that is a misprint in the comprehensive plan and needs to be effectively, immediately resolved. Finally, solar. You have four to five contracts approved to put in solar, according to the meeting yesterday, but none of them have been activated. We have no way of knowing what is successful and what's not successful.
» Do you have a county consultant that's an expert that tells you what works and what doesn't work? I'm concerned for the wildlife, the runoff, and the people being notified appropriately surrounding that area. If my property was adjacent to any solar farm, I would want to be notified, certified, to guarantee I know about that information. And most importantly, no solar in the AOD region. None in A zone, none in B zone, none in C zone, and none in D zone. This is for the protection of pilots flying in that area. And I do care about the AOD. I've told people when I come up here, I think it's important, but so is the equine community. Thank you for your time, and have a good evening. Thank you, Ms. Conto. Appreciate you coming out. Mr. DuBose. Next speaker is Joseph Chancellor on Creed Solar.
» Mr. Chancellor, please. You guys should still be able to hear me, though, right? You need to speak in the mic, sir, so the people that can hear you on YouTube. Yeah, you'll be silent to those who are online. You might need the extension. You're so tall. You are tall. Yeah, I don't want to break it. Gentlemen, Council members, I appreciate the time to come up here and discuss this matter. I was here last night at the commission meeting and spoke with them about some things that were concerning about solar generation stations that I have. One would be just in the construction phase. There's a significant impact to the environment through the dust that generated, through stormwater runoff, through compaction of soils, as well as the removal of all native species.
» One of the concerns that I have is that I believe that solar generation should not take place in agricultural zones. Those are important to every way of life in a community such as Camden and Kershaw County. In so much as there's outdoor activities that take place. I know I have been an outdoorsman most of my life, and I have spent a lot of time in the woods. When the woods go away, there's no more woods. When you put up fences, there's no more woods. And that limits the access that people and individuals have to those outdoor activities. The thing I think that we forget about with the solar generation is that at the end of its useful life cycle, something has to happen with all of the product that's there.
» And last night, the representatives did a great job of discussing recycling based on tin costs currently. But what they didn't discuss and was most concerning to me was the fact that they have no plan that I heard for returning the land to its original condition. Once these things come to an end, and they will come to an end because we will find better means of power generation because solar is known for being somewhat inefficient versus the expanse that it takes to generate it, there has to be a plan. And what some communities have seen where decommissioning has taken place is the plan only allowed for the removal of the solar generation equipment, not the return to original state.
» That's an important thing to think on for our community and the people so that the taxpayers don't end up with a scorched earth field that nothing can grow in. I would ask you to take into consideration also the fact that there is an ad valorem on the agenda tonight, that they're asking for a reduction in the taxes for the locale so that they can be more profitable or it makes more sense to them or whatever. It's a business. I understand that. But keep in mind what I just mentioned. At the end of this, what happens? What taxpayer burden will there be post-script? I would also mention that during the construction, there is approximately 200 jobs that will be available. That's very short term.
» There will be a number of people that hopefully will be hired locally, but what does that do for them? You've given them a piece of bread. You haven't given them the ability to continue to earn. There is no continued representation, full-time employment positions once the construction phase has concluded. As an individual who works for the largest real estate and facilities management company in the world, I understand that what will happen during the construction phase, this process will go to open bid. This will be across probably the southeast, the entire southeast. Contractors will have the ability to bid on the earth moving, the removal of the trees, the installation, and it will go to the lowest bidder. Hopefully that would be local, but the probability, that's not.
» The maintenance work for this will also be under a preventative maintenance contract or contract with individuals who are licensed and available to service the equipment. Unless we have those individuals that are considered experts or have done that in this locale, that's not going to go here. That's going to go to a national vendor or a regional vendor to maintain that. That's not going to be held within the community. I am not 100% opposed to solar, but I do believe that we have a responsibility to due diligence, not now, but to the future generations in 30, 40 years when the life cycle of the equipment has come to conclusion, and we have to think about what happens afterwards. Thank you for the time. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chancellor. Thank you. Mr. DuBose. Ashley Huff. Solar. Ms.
» Huff. Good evening, everyone. My name is Ashley Huff. I'm here to speak about solar panels. Last night, if you did not get a debrief or did not attend the Planning Commission meeting, definitely missed out. So last night, Greenergy spoke and presented about Creed Solar, which you will read tonight, about the FELO agreement. In the project overview of the presentation and a brief description on their website, it listed this project would be a $60 million local investment, and there would be approximately 200 construction jobs. I think there seems to be some confusion. I talked after the meeting and the way it was worded.
» Greenergy is proposing to invest $60 million into racking and panels and battery storage and substations, et cetera, for this project, and it will create 200 temporary jobs. It's not full-time. Otherwise, this facility is standalone. It doesn't have a full-time staff of even one person. The website also mentions that the power will be delivered to the local grid, but the line is Duke Power, so I'm not really sure what local entity receives power from that, because it will be that area is powered by Black River. The website mentions that it will offer a new source of economic development, including long-term tax revenue for schools, government services, and public infrastructure.
» I'm just wondering, will this be presented at some point through county council? I mean, we'll see the second reading tonight, so what information will be given, especially since the first reading was so limited. Last night, there was a little bit of an off-the-cuff comment about how there weren't very many people who lived in this area. Well, maybe compared to a bigger city, such as Charleston or even Birmingham, there might not be that many people, but it's enough people for us to be concerned about, including a constituent who sits on the Planning Commission. Last night, he lives within the one-mile radius of the solar, what they call the solar plant, on the website, but he didn't receive a letter, and neither did some of his neighbors.
» When do we get so caught up in the economic development and financial gain and tiptoeing around everyone that has a checkbook to avoid a lawsuit that we forgot about caring for our neighbors? Let's talk about FULO agreements. So this project right now, possibly, I think it's like $3,800 per megawatt. There's 48 megawatts in this project. If you divide that by 377 acres, which is also what's proposed, it's approximately $484 that they're paying per acre. All right, let's talk about Wacom. You all know that I love to harp on that. So Wacom is paid approximately $122,000 in taxes this year for just real estate, and that was approximately 61 acres. So they're paying approximately $2,000 per acre.
» There's also other real estate taxes listed for that address that total up to $129,000, but we'll just use the $122,000 for this example. So this company comes in here and makes this investment. They don't have to pay salaries. They don't have to pay anything, and all they have to pay is $500 per acre to take up, you know, this 377 acres in our county. Like I said, I think we need some more information about what they're providing other than this power generation that's going to go to the grid or this philo agreement for the county. Thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. DeBose. Last speaker is Linda Franklin Moore. The subject is race ipsa loquitur. Subject is what? Race ipsa loquitur. Ms. Franklin Moore. The members in the room will understand what that means.
» Thank you, members of council, for this opportunity to come before you tonight. And for the record, I'm Linda Franklin Moore, and I reside in Camden. Recently, I have been very vocal about the airport overlay district and the comprehensive land use plan. I felt it would be appropriate to properly introduce myself to new council members and the public, since many do not know my history with Kershaw County. When I moved to Kershaw County from Richland County in 1995, I was working in the banking industry, but resigned and went to work for a small newspaper and ran for public office after seeing the good old boy system strangling the county. I was the first woman to run for county council chairman and received 48% of the vote.
» Council meetings were held in the basement of the courthouse at 9 a.m. There was no public comment. The procurement code was either not followed or nonexistent. Economic development was at a standstill, and the list went on and on. Change was not created in a vacuum. There was help. I was told that public comment was illegal. So I called the then chief justice of the state Supreme Court, Jean Toll, and she assured me that it was not illegal, and asked if she could get the then county council chairman Steve Kelly's contact information. I gave it to her, for sure. Public comment was born. Citizens were no longer afraid to speak up for themselves and speak out on policies and issues facing the county. I am also the author of the unholy alliance chart.
» Not bad for a couple of abrasive and aggressive ladies. At the public drop-in last week regarding the comprehensive use plan, I was alarmed the poster board outlining urban, rural, and suburban areas was missing the legend that corresponds to this map. Each of you have received a handout where I provided the map and the legend that goes with that map. This is a critical component for full disclosure to the public about how their property and property values are affected. So when it's missing from that public display, they're missing a lot of information. What is disturbing about this legend is the designation for urban states that equine slash agricultural use is not allowed by right, but on a case-by-case basis.
» My question is, who makes that determination? The area in question is the Pine Road and Sanders Creek Road area, which is already home to many horse farms, and it is adjacent to hunt country. The consultant you are paying $300,000 for is relying on the public to provide or correct his information. I also find that a little bit alarming. A junior staffer has recently told members of the horse community they are being too sensitive regarding the airport overlay. Horse community property rights and values are affected by the AOD and the comprehensive land use plan. My husband, Mark, had cancer and recently passed away. He and I purchased this home specifically for me to be able to remain on our property after his passing and that I would be able to have my horses.
» They are what get me out of bed every day. I did not know it, but my husband knew it, that that was going to be his last day on earth. He was so driven that he literally used his last breath as he repaired our irrigation system so my beloved horses would be able to have grass. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Frank-Lemore. Again, we share our condolences for you. Mr. DuBose, that concludes public comment. Thank you very much, Mr. DuBose, and thank you, everyone, for participating. Gentlemen, that takes us to item number seven, public presentations. Mr. Templer, if you could give us just a little bit of background, and then we'll have a motion in a second. Yes, sir, Mr. Chairman, members of council.
» I just, we have a, it's kind of a meet and greet for MAKO, who is now our new head of the voter registration department. She is, she's been on board prior to some of the elections we have, some of the special elections. And so she's had her work cut out for her. She's doing an amazing job. So I just wanted to get her over here and introduce her to y'all, let her talk to y'all a little bit about what she has going on over there and some of the good things she has done. Thank you for that background. Do we have a motion for this public presentation? I'll make that motion. I'll second. We've got a motion and a second. Any discussion before she comes up? All in favor, raise your hand. It's unanimous, and then I got word that we do have Mr. Sammy Tucker on the phone. Mr.
» Tucker, how do you vote? I'll vote yes. It's unanimous, Ms. Hannah. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Good evening. Evening. My name is Miko Jarena-Reddick, and it is a pleasure to be invited to introduce myself and give an overview of the voter registration office, as well as share where I see it going. I was born and raised right here in Kershaw County. Go, Ellie. As a proud member of this community, I am passionate about doing what is right and what is best for it. Last year, we lost a pillar of our community and our office, Mr. John Kaufman. Mr. Kaufman ran the voter registration office with integrity, transparency, and, most importantly, in accordance to the law. After his passing, our current deputy director, Mr. Isaac Hodge, led us through numerous elections without complaint.
» My team dedicated countless hours of overtime, ensuring that every controllable aspect that went into each election was expertly managed. For everything beyond our control, they approached each challenge with the utmost precision and expertise. It is a testament to John's training and foresight that we were able to carry on the elections throughout the year with no major issues. I assumed the role of director on October 14, 2024, just two weeks before the presidential election. I intend to continue leading this office with the same integrity and transparency that my predecessor did. Currently, Kershaw County has approximately 69,905 residents, and that number continues to grow. Of that population, 44,162 are registered voters.
» The mission of this office of the Kershaw County Voter Registration is to promote and facilitate voter registration, maintain official voter registration records, educate voters, conduct fair and impartial elections in compliance with state and federal election laws, protect the integrity of the election process for all, and provide quality customer service to all citizens. To address the population growth, I am working on securing a second early voting location in the Lugov-Elgin area during statewide elections. Additionally, we are reviewing all the current voting locations to ensure that they meet the growing needs of the county.
» Another priority is improving communication about elections and changes to polling locations and ensuring that every voter has access to the information they need. I also want to make sure that our dedicated poll workers are properly compensated for the important role that they play in ensuring smooth elections. There is currently a bill, HB 3551, in the South Carolina legislature proposing increased pay to poll workers. I am hopeful that this will pass. As the child of an educator, education and voter outreach are near and dear to my heart. We are working on several programs aimed at getting both the next generation and current voters excited about exercising their constitutional right to vote and becoming informed voters.
» Again, thank you for allowing me the time to introduce myself and to give a little overview. Thank you very much. Councilman? Mr. Chair? Yes, sir. Mr. Shumek. So I just want to thank you for coming. It's nice to kind of meet you and appreciate what you're doing. Particularly, you mentioned something that I really appreciate, which is looking at a second early voting location. You know, during the last couple of elections, one of the chief complaints I've gotten over in my neck of the woods is folks having to drive out to Camden when, you know, as you know, the population is really blowing up on that side of the river. So it would be really great to see an early voting location. That's probably the number one election-related question I've gotten on my end.
» So thank you for working on that. Mr. Cato. I reiterate what my colleague said. I thank you for being here tonight. And I thank you for your enthusiasm. Also, coming from the upper part of the county, that's one of the main complaints is having to drive so far for early voting. And so I appreciate you looking into that. And hopefully we'll see some results from that soon. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Cato. Any other comments or questions? Mr. Chairman? Please. I agree with what you said. Mr. Cato's shoes, those are going to be big shoes to fill. Thank you for doing this. The role of the voter registration office is critically important to ensure our citizens have a right to voice during our election cycle.
» And I know there's been a lot of pressure put on with the expansion of early voting by the state. But I really appreciate all y'all do. You do work flawlessly and you get things done. So thank you so much. And I appreciate you stepping up to the new role. Congratulations. Well, thank you. Thank you. Gentlemen, I'll just mention this. If I may. Mr. Jones? Thank you. Go ahead. Just would like to say that having been involved in 10 campaigns over the last 19 years, I look forward to working with you in 26. I'll be here. Thank you.
» Gentlemen, I'll mention that as a precursor to another item under new business regarding, excuse me, under discussion for election commission compensation, it's very important that you bring up that particular bill because there is a baseline that's required to be paid by the state. And this bill would address that. Any supplement comes from the county. And so that's one of the recommendations we talked about prior meeting that we would hear about tonight. And I truly do believe that you'll make all those efforts that you described tonight, regardless of party or no party. And everybody has the right to vote. Kershaw County has had a varied history sometimes with Democratic or Republican and varied leadership at different times.
» But we tend to all come together and work hard on various issues that are important to us. So thank you so much for coming tonight. And thank you, Mr. Templer, for organizing this. Mr. Chairman, if I may briefly. Oh, go ahead. So I wanted to say thank you for your comments regarding transparency. And it is critical that people get out and vote. And it is critical that their voice be heard. And I really appreciate the professional manner that you presented to us. It speaks volumes for the job that you're going to do as the new director. And congratulations on your role in that office. Look forward to working with you in the future. Any further, gentlemen? No votes required. Thank you. Mr. Chair. Yes, ma'am. Oh, Mr. Tucker. Out of sight, out of mind, Mr. Tucker. I'm sorry. Yeah, I know.
» Oh, no. Hey, you're going to have to talk closer to your mic, Sammy. We cannot hear you. I said I'm going to have to spank you. Can you hear me now? We can't hear you. Barely. How about now? Hello? It's Meek. Come up. Come up for air. Yeah. I'm trying. How about now? Yes, sir. Can you hear me now? That's a little bit better. Go ahead. Okay. Ms. Reddick, I want to say as well, thank you. Thank you for wanting to step in to Mr. Kaufman's shoes. Because right now, positions of you and your staff are not always popular in different areas of the country. And people are being targeted and picked upon and pressured. And we here at Kershaw County has experienced little to any issue as we go through our different elections throughout our county. And that comes from having good staff.
» Now, I heard folks saying, you know, their number one thing was wanting more precincts during early voting, you know, to the west, to the north. And that's great. I have no issue with that. But I don't think it's my number one. My number one is for your poll workers to get paid and be compensated correctly. And what we're voting on tonight is the commissioners. And they need to be adjusted, too. So my question to you is, with the special election is going on and the next special election for House 50, are we in good shape? And this is for Mr. Templer as well. For our poll workers, not the commissioners, our poll workers to be compensated at a fair rate for their time and efforts? Yes, they are. That's what I want to know. So thank them for us. I appreciate it.
» If you have any questions or concerns or something that I can help you or counsel, please reach out to us. Thank you, Mr. Tucker. Counsel, anything further? Thank you so much. All right, gentlemen, that takes us to item number eight, approval of the minutes. Do we have a motion? I'll make a motion when we approve the minutes. Mr. Tomlinson, is there a second? I'll second. Mr. Cato, thank you. Any discussion on the minutes? Seeing none, we'll vote for those in person. All in favor, raise your hand on approval. It's unanimous in person. Mr. Tucker, how do you vote? On the minutes? Yes. It's unanimous, Ms. Hannah. Thank you. Yes. We've got you, Mr. Tucker. Thank you. That takes us to the next item on the agenda, item number nine, for discussion only.
» We're going to get an update and background from Mr. Templer, but if we could get a motion to discuss the Election Commission compensation recommendations. I'll make that motion. Mr. Shoemake, is there a second? Second. Mr. Tomlinson has a second. All right, Mr. Templer. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So this matter before you is something that Mr. Tucker and I have discussed, and I've also when Ms. Reddick came on board, once her kind of battle rhythm slowed down with all these elections, we were able to sit and just discuss her needs and the obvious support she has over here with her being across the street with the Election Commission and voter registration as a whole. But one of the things we have talked about, Mr.
» Tucker, Miku, and myself, has been looking at the wages for our poll workers. In the past, we have not been able to pull many poll workers in, especially in the summer election or primaries in the summertime. Some of the money we were offering was just not enough to pull people away from their summertime chores or fun or just whatever. So we've found ourselves having to move some numbers around well within the budget to get people to come out to work these polls in these incredibly important elections. So this is something we will be taking up in the budget process, which internally for us, for staff, has started. We've started meeting with, Tyler has started meeting with department heads, looking at their budget.
» We have a due date of by the end of the week to have all that documentation in. So we look to have some numbers kind of projecting, reading the tea leaves of what may be coming up for elections in these coming years and what's going to be a reasonable rate to get people out to our polling stations to make sure we have them. And I will say, at one point, I think it was under John, we were running so critically low on poll workers, and it was one of those June primaries, we were going to have to allow county staff, key county staff volunteers to kind of clock out from their daily duties and volunteer to make sure that these elections went on. So this is a real issue. I think it's solvable.
» I don't think it takes earth-shattering money, but I think we have to be deliberate and strategic with it. So I look forward to discussing this further throughout the budget process. Thank you, Mr. Templer. Councilman. Yes. Mr. Jones, go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of Council. Mr. Templer, what does a poll worker make now? What are we paying at this time? I maybe would lean on Ms. Reddick for that. I can't remember. There was a daily rate. Ms. Reddick, could you come up to the mic? Please. Thank you. During a 75-day for early voting, when it comes to actually on election day, it's 160, 180 for training and for working today, and that is the baseline. Thank you. And some of those are 10 to 12-hour days? Yes. It is 12-plus. 12-plus.
» Because you're at 7 to 7, you've got to be in there like at 6 to set the equipment up. And they take a lot of abuse at times, too. Let me ask you this, Mr. Templer. What is your recommendation? Well, I certainly say we have to move the needle on that. If you look at 12 hours a day for $75, some of these numbers start to really trend well below minimum wage on a very important function. And so… What was the $180 that was mentioned? That was for a general election. Gotcha. Yeah. And so we'll look at some numbers. And again, what's reasonable, I'll have a recommendation coming forward as we look at what is there. Of course, everything is going to be based on revenue, what we have coming in and the other needs. But we certainly… Well, let me… Yeah, let me make myself clear. I support it.
» You know, we've got to make sure she can get the folks there to sign up and get out there and work the polls. All right? So thank you. Yes. Thank you, too. Thank you. Mr. Chairman. Go ahead, Mr. Tucker. Okay. First of all, Mr. Templer, I want to say thank you for bringing this to the light. And this is the problem I have, gentlemen. Y'all have heard me say this more and more and more at the council meetings. You take 12 hours. Ms. Reddick just said 12 plus. You take 12 hours divided by $75, and that's $6.25. That is below minimum wage. As I stated before, none of y'all will work for that. Okay? If you take the 12 hours, once again, plus, we'll work with the 12 hours. That's $15 an hour. Tell me what is different about early voting and the day of voting.
» Can anyone on that dais tell me the difference? For a poll worker. You don't have to sell this on the same. Okay, I'll hear your answer. There is none. There is none. You're selling hard, but you got some buyers already. I ain't lying. Yeah. I like selling. Why are you not paying them $180 for the early elections that is mandated by state law for our poll workers and for our county to do? Mr. Tucker? Can I ask you a question? Can I ask you a question? One second. Mr. Tucker, the only counterpoint I've heard to that is that special elections tend to have a much lower turnout, so there's lower volume to deal with. But in my view, that's a distinction without a difference because the election is just as important. It's going to be the same representation, whether it's the House or otherwise.
» It's still going to be 40-plus thousand people that an individual will represent if it's in the House, more if it's the Senate. And so I think the work is as valuable when you're taking people's time. Mr. Jones. Absolutely, and if I could add to that, do we, if I could add, you're absolutely correct, Chairman, but if I could add to that, we don't pay them no extra when the turnout's great in a general election. Let me say something, Mr. Tucker. So it balances. Agree. Mr. Jones has a question. Mr. Tucker, hey, this is Jimmy. Hey, buddy. Listen, listen, I hear what you're saying when you're asking us why didn't we do this, why didn't we do that. Well, why didn't you do it? You're sitting here, too. Let me just say this. We support it. Let me finish, please. We support it.
» You don't have to badger us to death about it. Mr. Jones, I think you misheard him. He's not badgering us. I think we're all on the same page. Councilman, any further comment or discussion? Nope. I'm good. Okay, no votes needed. We'll look for further recommendations as we move through the budget process. Mr. Templer, thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Templer. All right, that takes us to item 10A, under ordinances. This is second reading of the AOD. Mr. Tomlinson, do we have a motion? Yes, I'd make a motion. We approve second reading of the AOD. Okay, is there a second? I'll second. All right, we've got a motion and a second. Any discussion? Yes. At the request of Mr.
» Jones' last meeting, which is a great request, to ensure transparency for council, staff, all of our citizens, as we continue to update this ordinance in second reading, I move that we amend, and please bear with me, there's a few pages of amendments. I'm going to go line by line on these amendments, instead of giving a brief kind of overview of the wholesome amendments that we did in the first reading. So it may take a minute, so please bear with me. I move that we amend the airport overlay district ordinance as follows. Use amendment chart, use chart amendments. Amend the density limit for heavy industrial and manufacturing in zone C to 25 people per acre. Amend communication towers and antennas in C1, C2, use in zone D, so that there is a safety review of that use in zone D.
» Amend the use chart to make home occupations a conditional land use in zone A, and permitted in all other land use zones, amend the use chart to make accessory uses to residential uses at C1 conditional in zone A. Amend the use chart to make commercial equestrian facilities, exotic animals, a C1, C2, C3 conditional use in the land use zone A. Separating kennel, animal boarding, and animal grooming from animal hospital and veterinary clinic, and making kennel, animal boarding, animal grooming a conditional use in zone A, B1, B2, and C. Amend the land use chart to make light industrial C1, C2, and C3 conditional use and land use zone A. Amend the use chart to make warehousing, wholesale, and distribution conditional use one, two, and three in zone A.
» Amend the land use chart make modular self-storage, conditional use one, two, and three in zone A. Amend the land use chart to make modular self-storage, conditional use one, two, and three in land use zone A. Some of these amendments protect life, safety, and airport operations while addressing some high intensity use occupancy limits for safety in zone D. The amendment provides some of the low intensity uses on commercially zoned properties within zone A where the uses are not discouraged by FAA and SCAC guidance on land use and compatibility.
» Perhaps mostly these amendments are addressed the historic commercial and non-commercial equestrian uses along Red Fox Road to make sure that we are protected and that any new equestrian uses are conditionally allowed provided there is no FAA and SCAC objection to the new equestrian use. That was just page one guys, bear with me. One aspect of zone A that remains unchanged by these amendments as the prohibition of new residential structures upon undeveloped land in zone A due to incompatibility with the quality of life, life safety, and airport operations and concerns. Amendments to clarify the use chart notes. Addition to the following language to the use chart notes at the end of the the explanation of conditional use.
» Pursuant to section three, chapter seven, subsection one through four, conditional use requirements of the ZLDR remain applicable to any land use that is conditional use in the properties-based zoning district, R6, RD1, and general development, et cetera. These conditions are in addition to any existing conditional use requirements applicable to a property. The amendment clarifies that the AOD chart is not to be read as more permissive than the existing base zoning. If a land use is already not permitted in the existing base zoning district, it's not going to be permitted within the AOD. In the note section of the use table, a note number three, I propose an amend to clarify to review the process by planning director for land uses not in the table.
» The amendment would insert the the following language. In review of a use not contemplated or provided by this table, the planning and zoning director will first determine if the use of comparable, if the use is comparable to a use from this table. If it is not a use that is comparable to use in the table, the planning and zoning director will make a determination of the compatibility of the use by review and analysis analysis of the regulatory process in section three, chapter seven, subsections one through four. The amendment provides guidance on transparency to the public and how land uses that are not in the table will be reviewed by the planning its only director. In the note section, a note number four amendment to read as follows.
» To the extent of the table conflicts with any provisions of table three or four, the provisions of the table are supplemental to the provisions of table three dash four and more and the more restrictive table is controlling. The amendment clarifies that the AOD chart is not to be read as more permissive than the existing base zoning and if the land use is already not permitted and the existing base zoning is not going to be permitted within the AOD. Ordinance findings amendment. I move that we add the following findings at F for enacting ordinance for AOD text amendments.
» Equestrian and agricultural land use are historic land uses and are prevalent land use type in the vicinity of the airport along Red Fox and the protection and accommodation of existing and future low-density, low-intensity, equestrian, agricultural land uses in the vicinity of the airport is an important policy prior priority in Kershaw County. That is the amendments that I have to it. I know we'll probably have some discussion going forward I'd like to provide a little bit more commentary. Well let's let's get a we've got your motion that's the the motion for the amendment as as stated and also emailed to council earlier we've got a second for Mr. Shoemake and now you can you've got the floor you can provide further clarification. Thank you Mr. Shoemake.
» This this is really a community ordinance here there's been so much input involvement from the community and residents from concerns and issues our staff has worked tirelessly as listened to all the concerns. This is we have tried to include and make sure that is a wholesome approach to address each one of those concerns in our amendments. I really appreciate all the community's support this you know that started out an imperfect ordinance and at their second reading is still probably not going to be a perfect ordinance.
» I look forward to working with each one of you to address additional concerns but I I think we are on the right track having the community to be able to protect our heritage here in Kershaw County especially our historic equine industry our natural resources and one of our main resources the front porch of Kershaw County our airport Woodward Field. This has been a learning experience and I greatly appreciate all of staff's hard work. They have been working tirelessly hosting community meetings to ensure that there's been addressed the public concern and input provided coordinating with other council members scheduling multiple calls and sit-downs just to ensure that we're listening and addressing those concerns in these amendments.
» I look forward to third reading and I look forward to getting more community input that we that we can address in our third reading for this this ordinance. Thank you all so much. I love you Kershaw County. Thank you Mr. Thomas. Mr. Sheemake you have a second. Yeah not much. I mean I agree with pretty much everything Councilman Tomlinson, I think everything Councilman Tomlinson said but just in case he's squeezed in something I disagree with. You know in a moment like this when you're dealing with these very complex regulations I think you have a fundamental threshold question and that is do we do something or do we do nothing? For those out there that believe we should do nothing we just respectfully disagree. I think we have to do something.
» So then the question if you believe we do something is this the right something? Given the countless man hours that staff has put into this that this council has put into this, I think this is the right something. We have the ability as we always do to make adjustments after third reading. We have a couple of years until this is likely going to be a state requirement anyway that we have this so we have time to make adjustments as needed once we see the impact if it in fact impacts in a way we did not intend. So we have a chance to thwart the doctrine of unintended consequences if it rears its ugly head. So again I believe we have to do something and I think this is the right something and I appreciate the work particularly that Councilman Tomlinson has put into this.
» I know he's spent an exhaustive amount of time researching these issues and really taking a leadership issue on these amendments so that's all I have Mr. Chairman. Thank you Mr. Shoemake. Any further discussion from those who are present? Yes. Is that Mr. Jones? Go ahead. If I could please thank you Mr. Chairman, members of the county council. Mr. Brandt, let me ask you a question. You had mentioned I I didn't get to write quick enough the section but it was in the AOD where if someone had sold their property with and it was equine that it could come back equine but it had to be the approval of the planning's only director.
» Are you talking about the non-conforming use clause that we extended first reading from non-conforming from one year to three year time period? Well what I'm asking is that under the the approval if someone had a equine farm and they were going to sell it under your amendments would they be able to bring or keep it equine? Absolutely if it's a current a current um would they have to have any but yeah Mr. DuBose would you um provide maybe some input on that? You know let me let me repeat it so I'll make sure we're on the same page. I'm sorry Mr.
» DuBose because I know you're a whole lot smarter than me and I just want to make sure I get the right question out um if I own a farm equine farm and I'm going to sell my property will I be able to sell it as an equine farm and equine stay there? Yes. Under all portions of this overlay? Yes the only the only specter of someone not being able to continue a use uh if it is made a non-conformity I mean some uh farms will be completely you know permitted they would not be a non-conformity under these regulations but in the rare instance someone is a non-conforming existing use um there is a three-year discontinuance period so provided someone does not quit using their property for three years altogether abandon it um that use can continue in your hypothetical someone is selling a a farm that is
» in use occupied um as long as the new purchaser uses the property occupies it uses it as it's being used now within three years and they are a hundred percent fine. Would they have to have approval by the county to do that? No. So no approval by a planning zoning director? No. Okay so if they have their farm I'm sure we're clear like Miss Franklin for example she's got her horses out there and then you've got some that are closer you know that have their horses and they decide to sell their property to John Q public they do not have to get permission from the county to keep it as a correct the the verbiage I believe you're you were asking about that Mr.
» Tomlinson proposed an amendment for is for um a use type that's not already in that table um would they be able to have an equine there if it wasn't in use as equine but it was within that area well I mean there's all these equestrian uses are provided for in the table right now um so you know that verbiage only contemplates um some bizarre use like so let's say a code was written 10 years ago before data centers existed right I'm just making up something um if a data center came to a zoning administrator and it was not in their chart this would apply to just general zoning what does it look most like in the chart again all these equestrian uses though to your point are um provided for in here and the base zoning of many of those properties is um rd1 which again I believe allows all manner
» of kind of hobbyist farming in the base district so I don't think there are any issues with continuance of equestrian activities out there here's my issue um and I probably have an amendment at third reading but what I'd like to see is uh usually when government gets involved it messes things up you know uh we think sometimes to fix things we got to have more government more government um I would like to see us deregulate leave the equine alone don't even mention them and just do your overlay district and uh there's been there's not been any problems there and actually they brought so much to our community I think it's a burden to even have them mentioned in this and this that's kind of just the way I feel and I thank you Mr. Thompson for bringing all this to us thank you Mr.
» Chairman thank you Mr. Jones any further discussion on the Tomlinson amendment from those in person Mr. Mr. Tucker online any discussion no sir I have I have no questions or discussion okay we'll move it to a vote all those in favor on the Tomlinson amendment raise your hand we've got shoemake Connell Mr. Tomlinson Mr. Cato in favor Mr. we'll go online Mr. Tucker how do you vote our vote yes we've got a yes from Mr. Tucker and then all those opposed we've got Mr. Brazel and Mr. Jones opposed it passes on second reading all right gentlemen that takes us to do we need to vote as excuse me Mr. Chairman I'll make a motion that we approve um as amended second reading of the ordinance for AOD okay we have a second we've got a second for Mr.
» Shoemake as well any further discussion seeing no further discussion we'll move it to a vote as amended on second reading all in favor raise your hand Shoemake Connell Cato Tomlinson in favor Mr. Tucker how do you vote I vote yes that's a yes Ms. Hanna and all those opposed Mr. Brazel and Mr. Jones so it passes on second reading as amended thank you gentlemen Mr.
» Chair yes sir if I may just make a real quick announcement we've been doing our public engagements in this room the Thursday after these meetings as each amendment or each uh section of this uh ordinance has passed so I just want to remind those and most of them are in attendance out here but we will meet this Thursday at 6 30 in this room to discuss everything that uh any questions they may have and any questions that may become a okay again for the the uh public present and online there'll be another meeting here 6 30 Thursday yes in this room to have additional information before third reading on this particular AOD thank you Mr. Templer thank you all right gentlemen that takes us to item 10b Mr.
» Templer can you give us just a little bit of background but before we get a motion yes sir Mr. Chair members of council you have before you second reading of a process we've been involved with to um get the uh rent numbers and to kind of wrangle in the uh hanger uh contract issue out at the uh airport to go ahead and um create some revenue out there and and and just get this kind of codified and bring before council for approval okay thank you for that reminder do we have a motion i'll make the motion mr shoemake makes the motion is there a second second mr thompson has the second mr shoemake you've got the floor yeah i think we hit most of this in our last meeting i'm supportive of this i think it makes clear a path forward uh unless there are questions i don't have anything else to add th
» ank you mr shoemake mr tomlinson i have nothing to add okay i'll just mention that for the next meeting on third reading i do anticipate some amendments i'll work on there's one um hanger out there that is primarily wood construction and it's just of a different quality and so it would merit a lower price per square foot and so we're working on that exact calculation and then we're also formulating a policy in compliance with faa and otherwise for having hangers be built out there to spec for particular folks could be economic economic development it could be a particular size or value planes as well or job creation and so those will be forthcoming any other uh discussion for many council members mr tucker no sir i am good thank you all right no further discussion we'll take it to a vote al
» l in favor of passing on second reading as is we've got mr shoemake mr brazel connell kato tomlinson and mr tucker how do you vote yes it's a yes from mr tucker online all those opposed mr jones is opposed it passes on second reading as is gentlemen that takes us to item number 10c this is second reading can we get some background please mr simpler uh yes sir mr chair members of council you have before you a second reading of an ad valorem tax agreement between kershaw county and a company identified for the time being as project creed um for consideration of a ad valorem tax incentive and special source revenue credit for the benefit of the project of this in the county and to get them to locate in kershaw county okay thank you for that background do we have a motion i will make a mission
» we approve mr tomlinson has a motion is there a second i'll make a second mr shoemake has a second it's on the floor mr tomlinson um that sounds like a wonderful thing for kershaw county i appreciate all the staff's work in this i look forward to supporting it mr shoemake any further discussion any further discussion from those present mr chair mr kato go ahead i have uh been an opponent of solar ever since we had the i don't even know how to explain it the mess that we had with the other three solar projects um i want to say that this particular group this particular company i will say that i was impressed with and i appreciate their work um they have reached out i know miss huff brought up in her comments um that there may have been a few people that were not contacted for the most part i
» i've not had anybody reach out to me that was in in this particular project that was uh not notified so i'd not heard that uh they had a meeting i attended the meeting i will say that a lot of people very skeptical about what's going on in this area and what the future holds for kershaw county with these solar projects because it is the unknown i don't know that this is the best avenue for kershaw county to go down i and i'm i'm sorry i feel that way i can't help it that's that's my personal feeling i said when i came on council i was do two things i would listen to my constituents as as much as possible and i would vote with my heart and my clear conscience um i do believe in the property rights of people but i do think that as the body up here we also have to look out for kershaw county a
» nd the future i mean that's what we're doing with the aod and that's what we're doing with everything else we're trying to look out for the future of kershaw county again i think this is a little bit of the unknown i don't think that kershaw county may be getting the proper amount of the the taxes that we should get for something like this especially if it's not providing any jobs so i share some of the same concerns that that my constituents that spoke tonight i share some of those same concerns with that being said i i don't think i thought i really want to thank this company for doing what they've done they have went above and beyond and they've done everything we've asked them we you know we set up this thing um several months ago they had to abide by to to have the public meeting to no
» tify people and as far as i know that that was done and they were very open open with us and we had chances to talk with them and i appreciate that but i cannot support this um i uh i just don't think it may be the best thing for kershaw county at this time thank you mr chair thank you mr kato mr brazil hey could we have mr burgess come up to the mic i'm so sorry i know i know you're dreading it i'd like to welcome jeff burgess our economic development director how are you sir all right sir good morning or good morning tells you where i'm at good evening long day short day long day but that's not a bad thing can you busy are we at the point where you can give us some more details about this project i can give you some basics and we'll go from there and you can ask me questions and i'll see
» what i can typically after first reading we we start getting more information is that right correct this is about a 60 well this is a 67 million dollar investment um it is basically a solar farm that will be going on 240 acres um the agreement is for thirty eight hundred dollars per megawatt it's a 48 megawatt facility that's proposed that equates to 182 400 a year in annual revenue let me ask you a quick question sir not to cut you off no you're fine is is the property owned um by an american citizen with certain rights unalienable rights yes sir the uh property is owned by mr creed by which the property is project creed okay it's a private property it's not county owned so a couple of questions just to clarify things is there a bond that this company has to put up in order to deconstruct
» after a certain amount of time i can say yes there is if you would like the company to actually speak to the bond issue we have a representative here tonight i would like that in a minute okay um you know everyone noticed i voted against the airport overlay district and i had to apologize to councilman thomason everything that you worked on my my vote against um was merely my position for the airport overlay district in general everything you worked on i want to tell you i appreciate your work thank you on improving the situation i just for me i'm big on personal property rights and not telling people to do certain things with their property um within reason obviously we we have zoning regulations that we abide by but um the zoning regulation that the gentleman owns the property mr creed do
» es it allow zoning does that zoning allow uh solar farms for conditional use is my understanding and i think joey could verify that for me in a minute so are there buffers they're required to have buffers on that and i believe it's a hundred foot buffer and possibly more okay so um i don't love solar i don't love solar energy there isn't there is no such thing as clean energy um it's all made with uh fossil fuels at the end of the day everything that's built and put on this property is is built with fossil fuels there's there's really no such thing as clean energy but i think a man ought to be able to do what he wants to with this within certain limitations on this property um and it's not the government's job to to say yes and no and pick and choose either um if the representative is able
» to speak to the bond and how it will be deconstructed i think the body should hear that and if you have any other uh thoughts or comments that you'd like to make before you step down please go ahead i think this council is doing what it's here to do and that is to put the direction of this county in it mr cato's arguments are very valid this is new territory for everybody you're correct it is that when i hear clean energy i also say no it's alternative because everything is basically just a different source of power on the other hand it does have advantages for the people that own that property it produces 420 taxes they have a right to do something with their products in accordance with what the county has set forward so there are two sides to the argument but we have to vote our conscienc
» e thank you jeff we appreciate you we appreciate the job you do for kershaw county thank you mr chairman can i ask one quick question mr burgess let me just make sure you're done as well yes okay go ahead ms thompson um just for some clarification kind of with solar as a whole the the other three uh philo's that were approved um i'd heard something potentially about some of them pulling out already could you provide some knowledge on that just so we can kind of see where we are as far as number of solar farms give me about two seconds absolutely thank you um i can tell you from what one has been postponed i won't say it's been postponed i believe it has been moved to 2029 it had a start date of 2027 uh they had to go back through but santee cooper decided to move that one further down the t
» rack um so they're they're struggling going to get their their ppa you're looking at a hard time which is the hardest hardest part to get so potentially the other two have had no change in status at this point and we have not heard any updates on where they're at as far as moving forward with their ppa so my understanding is they're still having to negotiate that and in honesty some of them are doing their interconnectivity study and if it comes back as too problematic or too costly they could fade away as well so again when we first started doing these it's just we're one part of that cog um and i won't say we're the least important because without all three working together it's not going to happen being the solar developer the power company that takes or the utility that takes it on and
» the council so any one of those three parts fails it's just not going to happen um so with this current project that we have in front of us here so green so what you're saying is the other projects went a different route that it was philo first now they're trying to go through and struggle so they've done about eight percent of the entire process this um what we're voting on for second reading right here they had their power purchase agreement with due progress currently correct correct to my knowledge yes sir um so they've went a different way i think this company is as expressed and and showed uh to kershaw county that they're willing to be a a good player um here in kershaw county just by their actions this completely different anything i've ever seen regarding a solar ordinance to go ah
» ead and get a ppa in place prior to even realizing if you can get a local ordinance because that's 90 of your process there um our local solar ordinance does have a decommissioning clause currently in it to kind of address some of the concerns um and it states that the company has to propose a decommissioning plan and that plan has to be updated every five years of the entire life cycle um and it kind of it goes through some other things but there is a decommissioning plan on these companies website underneath this specific project just loaded up it says what happens after the end of the solar facilities lifetime um the land is returned to its previous and improved condition back to form or timberland all infrastructure associated with the project is removed and the process is called decomm
» issioned so they're going to put it back to its existing prior to building the solar and they were at planning and zoning last night um was that in their plan that they presented for their first reading their decommissioning i reached out uh to the representative and basically the decommissioning plan was presented last night and that the one that will be presented to at the building permit addresses the site being restored to a metal like condition or another agreed upon condition including decompaction of the topsoil and regeneration the cost for such activities are included in the cost estimate and that that cost can update every five years based upon market need and everything else so it's based upon the current landowner what they want and they agree with in their contract okay that i'
» m fine with that and i'm glad that our decommissioning clause and our ordinance is so strict um another thing i'd like to highlight specifically about this and i don't want kershaw county to be a huge solar forum at all um but i agree with mr brazil we do have private property rights and this is in a location that is sand and pine trees next to the railroad um and i i did get a call last night that they're from one person specifically who lives within a mile radius who wasn't aware didn't um aware didn't receive the letter um and i would love to get that feedback back to the uh company just so for their knowledge and potentially they can reach out uh before second reading going and planning and zoning um but this project has a dual use um implementation to it so not only are they doing sola
» r they're also looking at having a honeybee farm on the property um dual use for for solar specifically is something that is in the midwest uh which solar was was big out there prior to it ever coming to the east coast um now in the midwest a lot of local um government agencies have um enacted dual use approaches to their ordinances to to require that the land has to have not not only with solar but you can you know farm it or do agriculture livestock some sort of um other measure to make the land more valuable um i would like to include that in our ordinance going forward we don't even have it in our ordinance and no i'm not aware of anybody in south carolina that does and this company came with a proposal for the dual use already um i think they're going to be a good player and i look for
» ward to having them in kershaw county thank you mr tomlinson mr jones thank you just a couple of short comments i really appreciate my colleagues uh concern for citizens property rights then i say leave me alone when i want to put a shed in my yard in eight seven acres land don't tell me where i can put a shed in my yard how about don't tell me i can't have a horse on my farm how about don't come out and tell me that i can't sell my house because i had put a swimming pool in and i didn't get a permit from planning and zoning i mean i can go on and on i understand that we're for if we are truly for people's for people having their property rights why in the heck are we regulating so many property rights but anyway as i'm i'm i'm just i'm a little bit older than you guys i'm not quite as quic
» k and as sharp as you guys you guys are really smart but you don't make any sense to me i'll be honest with you when you talk about stuff like this thank you so much thank you mr jones mr kato i have one question i don't know if maybe this is a legal question or maybe maybe you could answer is there on these other projects that mr thomason spoke about is there a statue of limitation so to speak on this contract as far as how long they have before they act before it has to come back to council i would have to go back and look at each one and i i'm not sure john i don't believe there is typically a philo will have an investment period and a commencement date um certainly something i can review with mr burgess if y'all are interested in when those other projects have deadlines that are applied
» to them absolutely is it just for me to chime in real quick is it not five years typically have an investment period of five years larger projects not these in some cases manufacturing generally get eight years of their mega projects yeah i think rule it's a five-year investment window sometimes that investment window is set to begin maybe 18 months two years some distance from the actual approval of the philo agreement but yeah once the investment so is this one set at five this one's at five okay and generally just as john was saying if you started it on day one you sign it takes 18 months for a facility to be built so that's when they usually have the start date thank you could we um hear from the company regarding the bonding at this point sure thank you so much chef oh before mr burges
» s steps away let's see if mr tucker has anything online mr tucker do you have any questions or comments no just want to tell mr burgess thank you okay thank you sammy we could have the company representative come up good evening excuse me i'm taylor robinson with greenergy uh we're developing the um the creed solar project well um i'm catherine ross i work with the company we were um before the planning commission last night certainly let mr robinson speak but i did want to say we the planning decommissioning plan um as you talked about is in there uh it does address all of the um costs as well as the salvage value and then of course there is the ordinance requirement for a fifty thousand dollar bond so in terms of the decommissioning plan i think mr robinson's available to answer any quest
» ions that may be about it we've got the document happy to send it to you all um but it was provided to the planning commission and i believe was part of the basis on which they made their decision to approve the zoning last night thank you for that any comments or questions council members yeah i've got one question regarding the amount of the bond um so fifty thousand dollars is the amount of the bond is that's our minimum i think um we all know that fifty thousand dollars won't decommission the property this may be a john debose question in in 40 years when when the property has to be decommissioned uh who's responsible for making sure that it gets cleaned up properly if all we has fifty thousand dollars to hold over someone's head so i believe that uh as referenced earlier that decommiss
» ioning plan is updated every five years but the current zldr uh specifies that it's the decommissioned value is the lesser of two values it's either fifty thousand or um the cost of the decommissioning um minus the salvage value of the materials um at its inception of course all the materials um for salvage value and these are pulled from i believe they said last night um you know trade sources for what the metals are worth et cetera et cetera the salvage value right now um and recycling value for lack of better term exceeds the cost of decommissioning so it would be profitable right now for that to occur um there's money there to decommission the fifty thousand essentially is a kind of fail-safe mechanism but again the decommissioning plans updated every five years if that number ever got
» upside down as far as the recycling profits that would be generated offset by the decommissioning cost in that instance it would trigger amounts in excess of fifty thousand dollars so the general idea is currently the salvage value of a 40 year old solar panel in in the frame that it sits on is worth more than it costs to take it out the ground is that right correct i believe that's the theory right now and again it's a living document that's continually updated so i think i still feel like 50 000 is low i don't know that if we change the value if it can be retroactive to any approved projects um would would that be retroactive or would it be um a grandfather clause i think that's a good topic for executive session okay well i'd like to dive more into that um i'd like to thank both of you f
» or being here and um appreciate you and your interest in kershaw county thank you thank you if i can make one point i do think as you talk about it the um believe the ordinance mr does is 125 percent over the value so at such point if it went upside down which is not anticipated it would not just be a hundred percent of the cost estimate it's actually 125 which is super protective of you all right because estimates can be different um and not wholly based so that 125 really does i think provide protection over the estimate being 100 000 i also would say that the 50 000 um bond bond required bond regardless of the net return that comes up in the cost estimate is also really protective in that it gives you the ability to if the company were to walk away to draw on that and use that money to f
» ind the to hire the company that will go decommission and pull it out and see the benefits of the salvage value being in excess that's what it's intended that's what it's intended for in my conversations could you provide us with a list of decommissioning agencies i mean it would be engineer companies that's that's who it would be so this is you know this is kim lee horn has prepared this decommissioning plan they're in engineering it's a sealed engineering document that says here's the steps that would be to decommission the the withdrawal of things in addition to the restoration that we talked about the reseeding and that that type of information so it we could believe we could provide you engineer companies that have bid on decommissioning and provided reports like this but they're going
» to be engineering companies that's who's going to construct these and that's who's going to deconstruct them okay perfect thank you so much you're welcome thank you mr brazil any further comments or questions seeing none i'll just mention that i can support this on second reading tonight you're looking at probably in 2028 based on timeline staying in place uh over 182 000 of filo revenue coming into the county a significant portion of that goes to school operations and school bonding and for my purposes i like to try to steer philo funds back to the area from which they come and this is an area in which there's not a lot of other general business tax revenue that comes and so i think it could be useful to the area i echo the comments about individual property rights and you've got a propert
» y owner here who has determined the highest and best use for the property it complies with existing zoning the only question is are we going to reduce the tax burden on the property to what we've done for other philo agreements when somebody has a significant investment in kershaw county and between i'm informed from staff that between the philo agreement and then the um special revenue special source revenue credits that generally come across we're right in the same ballpark for what we've done for other companies in kershaw county that invest in the area uh the property owner i was just thinking would would have the rights to clear cut the property under a timber management plan and just cut everything down if they wanted to it's their property they could do that but here we're looking at
» an investment and in some ways i think we've heard prior to my time on council a few folks may have put the cart in front of the horse here we've got the horse in front of the cart uh no pun intended with all the equine issues we've been talking about where we've got the interconnection agreement in place and so you know that that's already a big step that's been taken care of and so on second reading i'll be able to support this tonight before we call it for a vote do we have any other comments questions okay all those in favor on second reading as is again oh mr tucker go ahead yes i um i'm in total support of this on second reading as well but but i do want to make a comment with uh vice chair mr brazil mr tucker you're going to have to get closer to the mic we we just can't hear you how
» about how about now that's better i just don't want to hear me yes sir go ahead um i just like a comment and concern to what uh vice chairman mr brazil was saying about the bond if i could get some more information um on that it would be great for me to look at and ask questions and also um have the executive session maybe put on the agenda for next meeting um what i don't want to happen um when things go to be disassembled or no longer in business that um the landowner lay um ends up with 240 acres of um unused unusable property and i'm going um right up the road from us out jason county the gold mine ridgeway gold mine that's a hot mess the state owns it now and there's no gold mine not even the one i work for that will purchase that to go after any existing goal is there so having issues
» especially environmental issues on property is not a good thing in the later dates after a company has used its um resources okay thank you mr tucker for those comments we'll call it for a vote all those in favor of passing on second reading as is raise your hand we've got mr shoemake brazil connell and tomlinson in favor mr tucker how do you vote vote yes miss hannah that's a yes from mr tucker remotely all those opposed mr cato and mr jones it passes on second reading as is thank you gentlemen that takes us to item d first reading on a joint multi-use park for the m-kip mr templar can we get a summary on this one yes sir mr chair members of council yeah before you a uh first reading on a multi-county business and industrial park um that will allow another local industry to essentially be
» added to this uh for your review tonight okay let's get a motion before we talk about it we have a motion i'll make a motion mr brazil makes the motion is there a second i'll say mr she makes seconds mr brazil uh this is just tied to more economic development um legal language isn't it oh yeah i'll ask the question mr templar so for background is this one of the existing companies we've recently voted on and approved or is this one that's coming down the pipe so this would be adding laser form into it okay so we just approved the philo uh also approved the state credit related to abandonment and this is another part um that you have to have for these multi-county um incentive parks okay any other further comments or questions mr tucker any comments or questions remotely no sir i appreciate
» it uh we do quite a few of these yes sir on on first reading then let's call for a vote all those in person how do you vote i want to favor raise your hand okay we've got mr shoemake brazil connell cato and tomlinson in favor mr tucker how do you vote yes mr tucker votes yes miss hannah all those opposed mr jones is opposed it passes on first reading as is that takes us to item e another first reading mr templar can we get a brief summary yes sir mr chair members council you have before you under item e this is first reading of a provisions for the kershaw county sewer operation to codify best practices as it relates to the requirements for the state what used to be dhec but is now des okay thank you do we have a motion i'll make a motion mr shoemake makes the motion is there a second secon
» d mr tomlinson has a second mr shoemake i'm good we have the explanation so i don't really have anything okay any other comments or questions yeah does this have anything to do with pricing or would it affect the customers current customers of the sewer system no sir that will um that would take place during our budget process and any provisos so so just to be clear all this does is um the the last sentence is what catches me um administrator to establish how surcharge rates may be set and how surcharges shall be calculated i just didn't understand so there are um pre-treatment of uh certain waste or the pre-treatment program where people are providing certain ways um ds suggested in the last certification of the pre-treatment program in 2020 that certain clarifying amendments be made i bel
» ieve those surcharges have existed in here um originally the ordinance says shall be determined later surcharge rates to be determined later this says shall be set by county council um where they are set their calculated pursuant provisions in here but again um these uh rates minimum limits some of the cleanup in here were all suggestions of des prior dhec in the 2020 recertification process i understand through some changeover personnel administration council etc etc some of those clarifying amendments weren't made then the recertifications occurred again recently for the pre-treatment program and um des is asked to clarify things for example there were local limits of certain pollutants already in there it just wasn't very explicit or 100 clear that those were intended to be the local lim
» its some of those clarifying amendments are are in here thank you sir thank you mr browse any other comments or questions mr tucker any comments or questions i'm good thank you mr jones i saw your hand yeah this first reading i'm going to support on first reading but i do have some questions as we move forward in second reading thank you okay well no other comments or questions we'll call it for a vote all those in person uh raise your hand if you're in favor miss hannah it's unanimous in favor in person mr tucker how do you vote yeah mr tucker votes yes remotely miss hannah it passes on first reading thank you all right under new business item a kershaw county's goals and objectives i've placed this on the agenda i'll make the motion do we have a second no second mr brazel has a second uh
» gentlemen something i experienced that i thought was quite useful when i was on county council for about six years and i saw some of the after effects of it you know just residual um guidance that it provided when i was over at the state house was a goal document that we had and i thought there were some tweaks that needed to be made to it and i think that if we use it the right way and i by the way i don't anticipate a vote necessarily on this tonight um i do intend to bring a motion but i want to discuss it publicly and see if you had any thoughts or insights or spark further conversation about transparency in the goal making process and goal writing process but i i think we should go back to having a kershaw county goals and objectives document that is a living document that is mentioned
» specifically in the comprehensive plan as we're working on that one this allows us to identify very low-hanging fruit these community meetings that we used to have with a essentially border or volunteer commission george gibson's name was mentioned tonight there were several others who used to serve on this would have community meetings and essentially say what is it that we want to see in kershaw county or don't want to see and we would typically get a presentation once or twice a year based on how they were able to meet if we have that incorporated by reference into the comp plan we've got this living document where we can say you know our goals for the short time in particular have been adjusted and try to figure out what we're able to achieve let me just mention how this might be releva
» nt if you have a group of community members come together and they talk to their local legislative delegation there is the water fund there's the dnr fund there's the prt fund just annually that gets replenished from from state tax dollars that can be used to benefit kershaw county there might be community goals that could be brought up emphasized and honed and then brought to this council so that we can make requests from the delegation we can provide matching funds we can find private partners um the the ada compliant playground in camden that was one of those things that happened because of this prior goal document that we had and you had people coming up saying you know i want to donate because i need some of the tax deductions i want to donate 100 000 or more to this ada compliant play
» ground and there's so many examples that happen like that because we had greater community involvement and the community was telling us hey these this is what we want your goals and objectives to be and so that's kind of my initial pitch on having something that we kind of get to update the comp plan annually and don't have to wait these really long thrusts of time and let things get lost in the mix any thoughts or comments on that any questions yeah i think the uh the opportunity to be very transparent and in a mission and no matter if it's it's if it's a private business or a government entities always a positive thing um i think ben is chairman you'll lead us in a positive direction we'll take public input and um wade through things that that are important to kershaw county and i'll agre
» e there's things we don't want and there's things we do almost the list of of yeses and and no's so um i appreciate you putting this on tonight and fully support it mr chairman mr brazil mr jones you know mr chairman you and i worked six years together prior to you coming back and you know one thing that we always did was we we had a retreat we set our goals and objectives and you know i just had a hard time with the disneyland vision plan from the past administration i had a hard time with a lot of the parks you know i i came to council one day and i sat down and we were sitting here and i opened up my packet and the number one priority we've got a jail that needs addressing we've got infrastructure needs that needs addressing you know roads etc whatever was a splash pad and i i really you
» know you know i don't mean to be ugly and i hope i don't sound ugly because i'm not upset about it but that's just the facts that's what happened but but i do look forward to your new leadership that that that will will know what the top 10 priorities are that you know one member of council won't come in here and sit down and see where and by the way the splash pad after i said that was put down to number eight but anyway you know i look forward to working with you through it with a fresh new start okay because i really didn't like the way it was handled before okay thank you mr jones mr chairman mr shumate go ahead yeah i mean i i agree it's critical to have a policy document that's something that in talking to staff uh and our county administrator i think i can share that that's something
» that he has expressed that would be helpful it's our job to make policy not you know very specific rules sometimes very specific rules by and large it's our job to make policy we're the board you know danny's our ceo but the policy has to be enacted by us the long-term vision and we don't have a really great document for that the other thing that you touched on that i want people to really understand is this comprehensive plan is updated every five years but obviously a much more extensive process and some folks today talked about some changes that should be made in the comprehensive plan and i don't necessarily disagree with some of those having this document to the chairman's point our comprehensive plan says we'll do things in line with our community vision document whatever that's ultim
» ately called then we can change that you know every month if need be and what that allows us to do is we make ordinance changes that are ever legally challenged they go back and look at our comprehensive plan which then refers to this living community document that way you're not living i mean right now the comprehensive plan that we're under now doesn't really talk about problems with growth because when that thing was written people wanted a bunch of people to come to kershaw county and so as things change it gives us the ability to make those adjustments i think that tool in and of itself warrants us having this document but add that to the fact that it gives staff a policy to follow i think it's a no-brainer i'm glad that we're talking about this finally mr schumack i'll just mention th
» at the prior uh goal document was adopted on occasion by county council but it was an incorporated comp plan and so my proposal would ultimately result in three readings and potentially a public hearing and so talk about transparency before we adopt goals and decide this is going to be the policy where we want to send dollars to make something happen in kershaw county or we want to stop something you're going to have ultimate public comment at each of the readings and then a public hearing on this um for that and just as an example we had the election commission director speak tonight we could set policy that said we want to have early voting in west watery area and that gives staff the directive to actually make it happen i know we gave it lip service tonight but we could actually put it o
» n paper and incorporate it by reference into the comprehensive plan so that it happens that we show that it's a budgetary priority any other comments or questions mr tomlinson yeah mr chairman i think this is a wonderful idea especially um having the active and constructive engagement um and input from the community to be able to guide our our decision making and policy decisions so we can not only look at the short term of kershaw county but the long term in 25 years every decision that we make has effects that could be generational changing um and that public engagement to really fine line and put pen to paper to help guide us is wonderful i think it was um denzel washington who said you know there's three things you should do in life right you got to know where you've been where you're a
» t and where you're going short term and long term so i'm in full support of it wrong with the denzel quote all right any other comments or questions in person seeing none mr tucker any comments or questions i just have one short one here is that um of course you know with um this uh committee or um document or whatever you want to call it um it's going to have to have um and we can talk about all the logistics a lot of staff support to be driven because um the public is going to be limited on time and resources um so just keep that in mind that um and then i want to make sure that we're all inclusive when it comes down to representation as far as what our county looks like yes sir we've ridden that bike as recently as two and a half or three years ago and so i think we'll be able to get bac
» k on and and be productive yes sir okay thank you mr tucker mr chair yeah mr temple yeah if i may just um you know i think this is a great idea because from what i kind of understand this would be more of what the community sees uh going forward wanting i think there's many layers to what we use as staff for navigational items as we go throughout our budget year our budget process one of the things i would like to add as a capital improvement plan that would outline equipment needs going through the years i think that offers another layer of transparency so you could the public could see what we intend to buy as these items wear out and again any navigational aid council can provide staff is is very welcomed vic and i used to go and build our budgets based on the goals and objectives from c
» ouncil retreat the needs from staff and it's just an aggregate of information going forward and make uh strategic efforts to go through the budget and clock off items as many as we could in the spirit of these these guiding documents so i would look forward to hearing more about this uh look forward to working on it and assisting any way i could thank you mr templar if i may mr jones just very quickly uh as i said i'm gonna support this tonight and may support it through us the three readings but um you know we we cook we quote folks all the time and uh read bible verses sometimes but uh i like the one from uh william f buckley who said i can't believe the words that just came out of you that you believe that i can't believe that you believe the words just came out of your mouth sometimes y
» ou know we just we just pass and create more and more and more you know um i will say this and you're right a county administrator is our ceo but he's also the ambassador for the county for the county council because we're elected by the people we set the policy he enforces our policy he makes recommendations we either accept it or we don't and uh so but bottom line is the ultimate responsibility lies with with us sitting up here and uh you know it's he's our he's our enforcer but we make the laws we make the policies we make the rules and uh that anyway thank you thank you mr jones here are no further comments uh it doesn't require a vote appreciate it gentlemen that takes us to item 11b ad hoc stormwater advisory committee i place this on the agenda i'll make the motion is there a second
» i'll second mr shumake seconds all right um under our rules the chair has the ability to appoint ad hoc committees and this is part of the fulfillment of what we've talked about previously we have many concurrent things going on right now with stormwater there's a current study going on correct mr templar related to stormwater correct and various areas of the county that that need assistance or need some type of improvements and in an effort to figure out exactly what that should look like or get input from the public from various sectors um so far i've got the following people that i'm going to point to an ad hoc committee the terms of the committee and responsibilities and scope would be finding sources or options for funding um the scope of the stormwater would be whether it's department
» al or sub-departmental it would conclude in nine months from its creation so nine months from now and also give input on regulations and preferred infrastructure goals and improvements and the current committee members who have indicated a willingness to serve would be jay johnson jess coulter melita rabin billy smith mayor melissa emmons bob gian georgi and then non-voting members of the committee would be uh danny templar and then various staff members gerald lauren steven jonathan dan and joey in a support role again non-voting i've got a few other slots um that i'm waiting on responses back to phil but i think this will be a great group that will be part of that transparency and give us input as we have concurrent studies going on from the public on what stormwater improvement and prote
» ction should look like how we manage it going forward how we catch up in the areas that we need to and most importantly how the funded how the public would view various funding options and what they would want to see and so it doesn't require a vote the committee has just created and will terminate within nine months and we'll have a few additional committee members appointed i anticipate at the next meeting any comments or questions mr tucker yes sir how many members you plan on putting on the ad hoc committee ultimately uh 13 for an odd number okay all right all right that's gonna be fine i've got a question mr chair if i may um mr administrator through this uh ad hoc committee and and advice and input and so on and so forth i know that in recent years we have had to um work with an outsi
» de agency for our stormwater is is one of your goals or could one of your goals be that we handle all that in-house and do not rely on having to spend money with an outside agency yes sir that is the one of my overarching goals is to and i we're on our way to that but it's just there's um understanding a funding mechanism to make us self-sustaining to bring that uh enforcement activity in in-house and um within kershaw county obviously you don't need you don't have to have this to to do that as administrator you have the ability to to bring that in-house and it sounds like you're already working on that um i'd love to this is a nine-month program so it's it's you know going to be a year before that takes place looking forward to input um love the community engagement piece but um with as ma
» ny projects as we've had and even some of kershaw county's own projects um being already in in shovel shovel mode moving dirt i would like to see um members of kershaw county people that live and work here in charge of making sure um projects are going well and i'd like to see people that are friendly with um businesses and builders alike we talk about being business friendly and you know welcoming everyone to kershaw county you don't have to have a fee-in-lieu agreement to get that same love right so i'd love to see the agencies that we contract with and or our in-house staff which i prefer um become a a very friendly uh face for kershaw county when they're on the job sites when they're at the home you know sometimes you have to deliver bad news but the old saying it's not what you say it'
» s how you say it um i've had many phone calls in which people were discouraged to to be here and build here and um it just so happens that one of them has done a major philo agreement at this point they at one point they were very frustrated and i need that to change i need for everyone here to be part of a team team kershaw county and know that we welcome business and we understand if things aren't perfect but we're not going to drop a gavel on somebody just because they made a slight error or didn't get up a little bit of a silt fence at the exact moment um i've been in construction since i was a child it's a tough job you're running your own business cash flow is tough the work's hard and when government steps in and makes it harder it's really easy to get frustrated and we definitely do
» n't need outside agencies jumping the gun upsetting people and telling people what they can and can't do and making threats like hey i'm going to call dheg that's not friendly that's not business friendly so my point in saying this is not to um try to upset him what anybody but it but it's to make the point that if we are indeed business friendly that should be for the guy plumbing a house the guy framing a house to the guy laying you know a two-inch water main the gentleman that spoke about working on his his own projects in the state of south carolina you can build your own home now i don't know what the regulations are specifically for working on rental properties and that sort of thing but um sometimes we've got to take a step back and realize that hard-working americans are just in fac
» t that hard-working americans and we don't need to make things ultimately harder than they need to be we need to put put ourselves in their shoes and understand what they're going through on a daily basis and find ways to say yes and ways to have solutions versus ways to say no heck no you can't do that we're not going to allow you to do that we're going to shut you down we're going to call every state agency there is we're going to drop the hammer on you it's just as many times as i've as i've heard it from different folks i really want to express that especially when it comes to storm water because that's typically that's typically when it gets dicey is is the storm water so um with that being said i know we don't have to take a vote thank you uh chairman for putting this together i think
» there'll be a lot of good input that we receive and um i guess that was some of my own thank you mr chairman mr jones mr brazil i'm proud of you i agree with everything you just said i do want to say this too though i have to give mr templar and uh what's his name mr blanchard you know if i if i called general blanchard you answer your phone you're so prompt and i just can't tell you how much i appreciate that because he deals with a lot of citizens that we get you know complaints from and and i appreciate that but uh and mr temple i appreciate you being there when we've had sit down and talk we're not going to agree on a lot of stuff because i'm d i'm big on deregulation i'm i'm big on you know just kind of helping people as much as i can in my way but anyway i just want to say russell tha
» nk you so much for those comments they were i think they're well needed appreciate it thank you mr jones any other comments questions anything else mr tucker before we move on mr tucker yes sir so this um this ad hoc committee how will it affect the stonewater advisory committee that we're looking at that finance committee talked about um if we decide um to do one with the um stormwater study that's coming up because that would have to be part of that this is that you have to establish this is essentially a follow-on recommendation from staff based on y'all's direction to set up a stormwater advisory committee and so this would be a non-permanent um committee that would come together work for nine months on the issues come back with recommendations from the community after working with staf
» f and at that point you'd be able to figure out do we want to set up a permanent stormwater commission in kershaw county with uh various dedicated appointments per district or how do we want to fund it and through the various purposes and scope that i just described for the ad hoc committee so this is this is trying to fulfill that i'm clear yeah okay got it okay thank you all right no votes needed gentlemen that takes us to uh council member briefings mr cato please i'll try and be brief uh i want to start tonight with i want to thank each and every citizen that came out and spoke tonight i appreciate the speakers each and every one of you were on point with very serious issues that we have going on in kershaw county tonight and i want to thank you for that and uh mr gunner i if you're sti
» ll here i don't know if he's gone i sympathize with him and i'm gonna leave it there i hope there's something that we can do to help this gentleman out because uh i really feel for the issues that he has going on so uh but i do appreciate each and every speaker that came out tonight and being on topic happy valentine's day to the ladies out there coming up friday yeah i want some brownie points i hope my wife's listening um and jimmy jones happy birthday i appreciate it since you being the elder oldest member of this council i would say you're still looking good but i ain't going that far i heard the second eldest has to give the spankings i'll take my belt off thank you thank you mr cato but happy birthday to you jimmy but on a very serious note uh i want to send out my condolences to the
» sylvester sly robinson family sly was a dear friend i worked with sly at the kershaw county sheriff's office for many years i worked with him at the state level and sly was a gentleman always smiling um if you couldn't get along with sly you weren't gonna get along with many people sly was awesome um he was a man that if you had to go to battle i'd want him beside me and i appreciate the service he had for this county and my condolences to his family and his friends and brothers in blue thank you sly mr tomlinson you're up next thank you mr chairman um i think everybody's heard my voice enough tonight so i'm going to be very brief i appreciate everybody's um patience getting through and um really working with us as the community and and kershaw county together especially on this aod and oth
» er things that we've done um this is a valiant effort and i appreciate everybody's input and look forward to the continued work going forward i really like to appreciate staff with i've put a lot on them and they have responded and above and beyond my expectations not only dealing with running a county of almost 500 employees um having to deal with other other issues getting a comprehensive plan done um anything that i have asked anything that the community has asked in response to this aod staff legal has been over backwards to make sure that those voices are heard and those issues and concerns are addressed so thank you so much um and i can't let mr jimmy jones outdo me so i'm gonna end in a quote in honor of black history month um a childhood hero of mine and kershaw county native in the
» words of larry debbie success is not measured by the accolades and achievements but by the impact we have on others thank you mr tomlinson mr jones any report i do well not much just just a little bit but first off i'd like to echo um mr kato and thank you for those words about sly he was both our friend i think you know that and i knew that as well with you um many years ago i had met a gentleman over in columbia and uh he said i got somebody wants to move to kershaw county and he said but he doesn't have a job i said who is he's his name sly robinson i think he was i don't know where sly was at somewhere up north i don't know i have no idea but anyway he came i met him gave him a job and boy it just changed i think he went to work for every agency in kershaw county and it was a solicitor'
» s office why did he move so much because everybody loved him he always had a smile on his face he was my friend he would stop me and we're talking he'd just be laughing when he got out of vehicle but mr tucker i hope you don't mind um i had talked with the sheriff and mr kato and we want to do a proclamation for uh sly at the 25th meeting and and i'd like that proclamation to be from mr tucker mr kato and myself his former law enforcement officers who who worked and and knew sly he was a good man kind man and uh i truly loved him death and to condolences to his family absolutely but i want to also say i want kudos to our sheriff he called me kept me informed and i found out he wasn't just calling me he's calling about 50 other people keeping him informed on sly's progress what was going on
» the the the day that uh he left us but uh anyway sly we love you job well done thank you okay i'm not through okay now i got to get um a little bit more well no let me say is mr gunner here he's gone hey guys this is what i'm talking about when i talk about property rights we talk about oh we want people to handle their property rights we only let demand work on a darn light pole and it's not staff's fault it's our fault because we set the law we make the laws we make the regulations and they're going to enforce them well i'm so anyway enough on that but you know when we talk about the uh comprehensive plan and things like that um it was brought to my attention that there'll be no more public input regarding the comprehensive plan uh i think the planning zoning director made that comment it
» 's it's on audio video pertaining to the fact that the committee or either the uh planning excuse the council would will give that that change those amendments and bottom line is that that that led led the folks to believe that there's really no more changing that this council may have uh how do you say it a hunger to do but anyway uh you know it bothers me that the overlay plan wasn't in the comprehensive plan we invited the folks to come to that drop in it wasn't it should have been there it's one of the hottest topics the height restriction map uh dealing with olea therefore i was told wasn't in there um and then i i had a complaint i don't know who who threw this who was responsible for it but i was about everybody talked in there said we were misled i said well and i'm just quoting som
» e citizens talking to me they said i said what were you misled about they said well we were told this was a public input but actually it's a it's a just a drop in and a little greeting me and we're told to put our questions in a box well i i talked to somebody today uh they had said well you know we were told that uh we would give that he was on planning zoning commission he said we were given those um suggestions that was dropped in a box i said you were he said yes well let me ask you a question i pulled one up i had one on my phone i said you see this one no we hadn't seen that one gentlemen this is just a fact it may be ugly what i'm saying but it's the ugly truth you got a suggestion box you go behind closed doors you can pick and choose i'm not saying that's what staff did but i'll te
» ll you this right now it upset me when i talked to this lady and she's in her suggestion the the commissioners didn't see it but they saw some others so we need true transparency and um i think to start transparency we need to have a i would like to see us have a meeting scheduled with the planning commission there the public there and we have a face-to-face a face-to-face uh session with the public planning commission and county council to see how they really feel about the comprehensive plan and and and what we we're we've got going on and you know something that really bothers me too and i have been it's come to my attention directly that this council has a lot of interest in the planning commission and that if the planning commission has disagreed with them they've been asked to maybe r
» esign or they've been asked maybe to step down i'm not going to stand for that that is absolutely wrong we're mandated by law to appoint these folks and i will never vote somebody else because they don't agree with me or ask them to resign from the planning commission i think that's inappropriate and i don't like it at all and um with everything i got going on i'll fight that to the very end so when you talk about transparency let's let's leave the planning commission alone let them do their job and not try to intimidate or hey by the way this was not agreeing with exactly what we want to do maybe he'll step down we get somebody else in there that's just not the way it works and um gentlemen don't tell me it didn't happen because it did and uh but all three of the planning commissioners are
» going to stay on they're not going to step down they're going to participate and i watched the video of the planning commission last night boy they the planning commissioners look lost i mean they they weren't getting they felt like they weren't getting their questions answered you can see the frustration on them and they're young they're a young group i i ask everybody in here to go watch the planning and zoning meeting last night take a few minutes out of your time and watch it and judge for yourself okay and this comp plan then i'm told also i heard it on the uh the video that we're going to have first reading in april well nobody told me that who decided that it's nowhere near ready to have to start your first second or third reading it tells me that we're you know when you got oppositi
» on and you're doing a lot of fighting you fast track things i'm not saying this council did that i'm just saying i heard what i heard on the the uh planning commission meeting last night that was videoed and that's just not right uh if we're going to set the dates this council needs to take charge of this issue we need to set a meeting mr chairman i'd like to ask you tonight if you would set a meeting that would involve the public directly and the planning commission just and you can state when you go to your your chairman reading that we'll do a county council planning and zoning sit down with the public it will have a true uh session with the public i think that'd be really good and and i feel like you're for the same thing um but this is where i'm at and uh i hope that we'll have that me
» eting if not if if you don't have that meeting gentlemen i'm going to have the meeting with the planning commission and the public so i i ask you to please let's do the right thing get them involved and let's whoever said that we're going to vote first reading of the comprehensive plan when it was so loosely put together the other night and i'm not going to embarrass try to embarrass anybody by calling names but when you got somebody you're paying a lot of money that they didn't have basic answers for one of our colleagues here on county council they didn't they couldn't even answer the it's almost like they took this plan for somebody else took a picture of it and put kershaw county and yet there were no t's crossed no i's dotted it was very very poorly done i think the meeting was very po
» orly ran i think the public was totally disappointed and i read all the accolades that that that our department will put out there well i haven't talked to any i hadn't talked to three or four people that they talked to that gave kudos to it i mean i i had them coming up to me from all areas of the county there exactly and they were their displeasure we feel like they were duped now we can sit up here and pout you can get mad at me i don't give a damn what if you do or not but i'm going to tell you something what i do care what i can't say that okay but let me just tell you this right now i'm irritated i'm fed up i'm disgusted and i'll see some positive change i want the citizens to be treated with respect when we're shutting them down on a job if you know if if listen be kind if if someone
» is arguing with you just walk away just walk away don't don't get into a verbal fight with them calling names back we're better than that guys so anyway and i i'll have some other things coming up at the next meeting and and it was great meeting our new uh uh director with the elections commission i look forward to working here in 26.
» gosh i might stay or do something else because i'm feeling real good now my back's fixed my health is back i'm ready to rock and roll but i'm gonna tell you i'm gonna fight for the citizens till the very end of my breath as long as i'm sitting up here and uh and having said that thank you mr chairman thank you members of council for your time mr jones mr shu uh mr tucker actually mr tucker do you have any report still with us mr tucker can you hear us yes sir go ahead mr tucker all right well i want to say um mr jones i have no problem with your um proclamation or whatever uh you have set i'm happy to join you mr tucker a little closer to your microphone if you could please we can barely hear you all right i said i have no problem with um mr jones proclamation or whatever he's trying to do
» for the robertson family but i do say uh my condolences as well uh for all who want to attend um the they're going to have memorial service march first at one o'clock to approximately 14 15 which is 2 15 um at camden first united methodist church so uh you can google that on colin's um funeral home website if you want additional information on it so very tragic um times here in crushaw county and um we love the robertson family and for the ones that don't know mr bill robertson who comes to the meetings who's chair of the democratic party that is his brother so just to put uh relations on that um the other thing is uh i want to say that um by no means you guys know that i would um badger badger any of you so since y'all reading out quotes tonight i don't have much to say but i'm gonna say t
» his right here um this is a my angelo one it says when someone show you who they are the first time believe them okay and if you find it and uh if you uh don't like something change it if you can't change it then change your attitude just saying have a good night thank you mr tucker mr shoemaker any report yeah a couple things um i just want to address briefly the uh comprehensive plan i mean obviously the document needs adjustments no doubt but i can tell you that for the last whenever i was elected two years ago i'm the i think i'm still the junior guy here but since i got elected there have been meetings that i got notified about through email and they were on the website uh there were several meetings i was the only council member in attendance but i can tell you that there have been mu
» ltiple meetings with direct facing public input specifically about what should or shouldn't be in the comprehensive plan so as we go forward on that i just want to point that out because you know whether whether the last meeting was what people wanted it to be i've attended a number of these meetings and there's there's been multiple multiple opportunities for public input i also want to talk a little bit about you know mr gunter's issue which i think speaks to a larger point the it's easy sometimes to to we are arguably the most accessible level of government for people in crucial county but oftentimes we are the level of government that has oftentimes the least amount of authority i'm a little bit familiar with his issue and i think it's worth noting for everyone that there is a state law
» state law that we can't control it says if you are a landlord you are not allowed to pull a commercial permit if you do not live in the residence a lot of landlords don't pull permits and just do the work but if you come to the county and ask for a permit to do commercial work which by definition means if you're a landlord and don't live in the home county's probably going to deny you not because they're evil or because they're trying to put up red tape but because they have to follow state law that's from llr that says you have to be a commercial contractor that's a great state law that i think should be amended and changed absolutely agree i just want to say that in my personal experience by and large of course there are exceptions to this rule like every rule but in my experience these l
» ast two years i have found in the vast majority of occasions our staff to be helpful flexible and easy to work with not perfect i haven't been perfect i have seen far fewer staff members get irate than i have seen members of the public get irate at staff and that's okay too people are allowed to express their opinions we have the first amendment but i just want to say that i fully support our staff that works really hard every year they get to hear about a budget that nobody wants to increase because no one wants their taxes raised and then for the other 10 months they get to hear about why there's no they get to they get to ask why don't i have this service why don't have this service or why aren't you doing more and we're the ones who set those policies but staff has to bear the brunt of
» that and i just want to thank our staff for their excellent and hard work because without them you know we none of us could be here and the county would still work along just fine yeah we set policy but if for some reason we all went away the governor could appoint seven more people that would do just to find his job our staff however is irreplaceable by and large and i just i thank them for everything they do that's all i have mr shumake thank you mr brazel i'm feeling meek and humble tonight i have no comments all right thank you mr brazel um i'll just mention to council if you would please i heard a couple of comments throughout the night during a lot of this heavy lifting uh on various ordinances or issues where you said yeah i might like to have an executive session on that please make
» sure you get that information to miss hannah myself uh mr dubose mr templar so that we can make sure we accommodate that and have it on the agenda for next time if that was more than just a mere request and you actually want it on the agenda next time we want to make sure that your issues are addressed um in the appropriate way as required by law if you're seeking executive session um i want to mention one other thing mr jones mentioned tonight and we've been talking about it quite heavily the jail is an issue how do you fund a jail that requires a significant increase in the percentage of beds that would require you know i've seen numbers in the 60 millions to say you build a new one even renovation of it and then rehab to bring it up to modern building codes would put you in the high 50s
» perhaps how do you do that and so i've been trying to formulate and i just want to share with my council members i'm trying to put together some type of ad hoc committee that can be expert in this area that can come to us and bring recommendations on what's the best way to do it how do you fund it kershaw county doesn't have the money and it would take a ridiculous and astronomical tax increase to pay for the bonds that would be required to do it do you do it through a penny sales tax do you send it to for a referendum and let the public make a decision that way but we do need to build a new jail at some point there at some point i guess was a capital plan and i don't know what happened to it but it it hadn't been followed entirely uh perhaps and but this is what we're dealing with we have
» to figure out and so i'm looking at the possibility of a public safety and service ad hoc committee that would come back with those recommendations to council for us to take action on it would involve the jail it would involve other critical needs related to public safety and service and that concludes my report all right we've got any administrators briefing mr templar uh just real brief i know we have some executive session stuff but um obviously the uh the boat landing is is well underway we look at that hopefully to be completed by may build in some weather delays and things like that so wilbur park construction has been done the the we have a december 2025 completion date there expected we will open bids uh this thursday february 13th for copeland park and boyd young park bid uh for th
» e renovations up there and um we have the mount pisgah playground equipment that is still scheduled to be here early to mid-march um for the it's going to be a great addition up there so uh bid announcements for the casey west parking and driveway connection to whitehead road that is desperately needed will it is on the streets if you will and we intend to open those bids thursday march 6th so we've got a little bit of time left on that one but um projects are rolling along we're very busy there's a lot going on in kershaw county mr jones and i were speaking about this today that um i i can't remember a time in kershaw county that we had this much going on either through policy revamp um amenity improvements or or just general pains and and pinches going on as you mr cano as you spoke about
» the jail so a lot going on but um you know we'll see better days so it's my report thank you mr templar mr dubose anything before executive session no all right gentlemen that takes us to items 15 a through c i'll take them as a joint motion we've got two items under sc code 34 70 a2 related to legal advice regarding pending threatened or potential legal claims and other matters related to the attorney client privilege and then item c receipt of legal advice for a matter covered by the attorney client privilege pursuant to the same code section do i have a motion to enter executive session so moved back all right we've got mr tomlinson and mr cato any other discussion all those in favor of entering executive session on the stated items all right we're moving into executive session mr tucker
» i forgot to get you to vote again how do you vote mr tucker i'll vote yes okay mr mr brazil stepped out i'm not sure if he had to leave the meeting it's a yes miss hannah for mr tucker we're in executive search for the first of the record mr brazil said he'd be with us in executive session okay all right mr brazil still here not voting for the public's benefit no vote is anticipated after executive session just need one more sammy on the phone all right we've got four i seek a motion to exit executive session motion granted mr tomlinson a second for a second second all right we've got a second from mr cato seeing no discussion vote to exit executive session all in favor raise your hand mr tucker how do you vote yes that's a yes miss hannah it's unanimous we're out of executive session no di
» scussion motion to adjourn from mr tucker we've got a second mr cato seeing no discussion all in favor raise your hand mr tucker is it a yes yes miss hannah for the record thank you so much we are safe at the mind sammy good night fellas thank you thank you
