Full meeting transcript - March 11, 2025

» Danny Danny good evening everyone thank you so much for coming out to this Tuesday March 11th 2025 Kershaw County Council meeting. We've been called to order. We have an invocation and Pledge of Allegiance coming up next. Unfortunately Councilman Tomlinson can't be with us tonight in person. He's gonna be calling in at some point I believe he's got a family emergency he's attending to and we'll have the invocation by Councilman Cato. Let us pray. The most kind and gracious have my father we just come to you and tonight we just thank you for the privilege to be here and to conduct the business of this county.

» Dear Father I just thank you for each and every one that come out tonight Lord we just lift them up to you Lord I lift the ones that are sick bereaved up to you today Lord I just pray that you'd put your caring and loving hand and wrap your arms around them and be with their caretakers Lord just be with them love on them and give them peace and comfort. Lord I ask for the for the blessings of men and women that serve in our armed forces dear Heavenly Father wherever they may be I just ask that you'd be with them and their families for the ones in law enforcement fire and EMS here in our county and throughout our great nation Lord I just ask your blessings of protection on them.

» Father we just thank you for each and every one that takes the time for public service and dear Heavenly Father I just ask that you'd be with them and their families because it's a family thing dear Heavenly Father. Just lead God and direct us now as we go forward tonight in this meeting help us to conduct ourselves in a way that would be pleasing unto you. Of course in Christ's name we pray. Amen thank you 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. Alright gentlemen that takes us to adoption of the agenda we have multiple changes to the agenda tonight we'll go first through removals or deferrals seek a motion to remove yes sir.

» I'd like to make a motion that we approve the agenda as submitted and then we can go through the amendments if you'd like. Yes sir sure is there such a motion. I got a second. Okay any discussion on that. Yes y'all need to respect the chair and let him finish. I was gonna get there but I'm happy to I always defer to two decades of experience roughly. Okay alright so no further discussion on the agenda as it is I'd seek a motion to remove item number 12 B based on the administrator's request. Is there a second and a motion. I make the motion that we remove that from the administrators request. I'll second. Okay we got a second any discussion. Yeah Mr. Chair did you say 12 B.

» That's 12 B and I'm gonna take these I'd like to take these as a group if we can all at once and so the removal would be 12 B there would be a deferral of 11 B to the next meeting for March 28 2025 and then we'll have two additions to the agenda. There'll be two executive sessions one's based on personnel matter exigent circumstances one's based on a contractual matter exigent circumstances and that would be the overall group motion. Where would the executive session the two new ones go. Those would go as new items under 17 E and F. Yep 17 E and F executive sessions the one executive session 6A would remain in its current location. Is it one contractual and two personnel. One contractual one personnel. Yep so I make the motion to amend to cover all that. So I like to Mr.

» Chairman if I can amend my motion that we defer item 11 B Bravo until the next meeting. I would like that we take off the agenda item number 12 Bravo as requested by the administrator and to approve two executive sessions one being a contractual matter and the other one being a personal matter. I would like to add one to that group also. Sir okay you I have one I'd like to add to that group. We'll see if he'll yield. There's one other I think there's one other item to add the word resolution under 8A. Resolution of respect. Resolution of respect for the Sly Robinson matter. Yes so I include that in my motion. Okay is there a second? Second. We've got a second. Any further discussion on the agenda? Seeing none all in favor? Ms.

» Hannes unanimous by those who are present I still don't think we may have Mr. Thomason yet. Mr. Chairman I'm on. Okay how do you vote? I vote yes. All right it's unanimous Ms. Hanna. Thank you very much. All right we've got the agenda motions taken care of now we have to approve it as amended okay. Seeing no further discussion all in favor? It's unanimous by those who are present. Mr. Thomason how do you vote? I vote in favor. Okay it's unanimous Ms. Hanna. Thank you very much. All right we've got the agenda ready to move forward. Thank you. Mr. DeBose that takes us to item number five public comments. We have three speakers. First speaker's Lynn Konto equine task force. Okay Ms. Konto. Lynn Konto 1265 Sanders Creek Road. I want to thank you for looking at an equine task force.

» This joint group will focus on the success of our equestrian community is very much needed and appreciated and I hope you include their input when working on the comprehensive plan. Again thank you for looking in a joint task force with the city. It's very much appreciated by the community. Thank you. Thank you Ms. Konto. Mr. DeBose. Next speaker is I believe it Lawrence Gray Internet at Home. Mr. Gray. Greetings everybody my name is Lawrence Gray. Thank you all for giving me the opportunity to speak. I don't know if this is the right place to bring this to but I've been here for a couple years. I'm a 12 year military vet. I've been here I'm sorry I've been here in the air about two years.

» I've been working home from home for the last one and I'm the only house on the block that doesn't have a line of internet. I've been paying a lot out of pocket for the last year or some change just to get active within that service. I've talked to the phone companies and the cable company out here. They don't know why it's not a line there and they're telling me it's like five to fifteen thousand dollars out of my pocket to have to run a line there. So I was just wondering if there can be something done to help with that issue. Thank you for coming out and sharing that tonight. Do we have his contact information? Yes phone numbers are listed. What about address? No address is listed. If you could give your address that'll be easier for someone to contact you try to help with the issue.

» Mr. DeBose who do we have next? Tom Webb the third, Litter. Mr. Webb. Vigate es inen mein freunden heute ist Dienstag noch einmal. It's a German greeting and I ended it by saying today is Tuesday once more. I used to be quite fluent in German 60 years ago but they say if you don't use it you lose it and I lost it. But I bring up Germany when speaking about our litter ordinance because it seemed like it's something that could have come from Germany and the poor people there they don't have a Bill of Rights. They can get into awful trouble just by saying something, putting something online. So maybe our Bill of Rights came to us, our litter ordinance came to us roundabout way could have come across to maybe Maryland and then to Charleston and back up here.

» But the people in Germany didn't take care of their freedom and they lost that apparently. JD Vance went over and fussed at him a little bit. One of them even cried. Well it was Irish, it's Irish appreciation month, March and I went out to the Irish Fest two Saturdays ago and it was incredible the amount of people that were there. But just before closing time the wind picked up and it nearly blew us back to Ireland. It was good all together and I have ancestry from Drumbo County down. So I'm acquainted with the wee little people, the leprechauns. They're hard to see except in March and some of them came to me about our litter ordinance. They were rather upset about it. You don't want to get a leprechaun too mad. They seem to be magical to a certain extent.

» They think that someone is trying to trick them some way with a litter ordinance. So they're fiercely independent, don't you know, and they say no one in government can grant them rights. Because our rights are inalienable. They come with your born or from God. But our little people think that the ordinance is granting us something that's phony, rights to have lawn furniture on private property. Don't we all have a right to have lawn furniture on our private property? And yet County Council has said that they're going to give us the right to have lawn furniture on private property. So if someone can give us rights and we take that and again we take another right and another right, I would ask what about the rights that we don't get? They're not mentioned. So we could be in trouble.

» We could lose our rights. And if somebody's given us rights, they can take them. So the little people, the leprechauns, came to me and they wanted me to do something for them. They wanted me to hand in some leprechaun lawn furniture because they wanted to make a point for all the people of Kershaw County out in the boondocks. One of them even said, give me lawn furniture or give me liberty, but for me, I'll take liberty. So I'm going to hand in a leprechaun lawn chair just as they asked me to do. Thank you. Somebody on council can take it home and put it someplace where it won't be much in the way. And when the moon is just right, the leprechauns will come out to play. Leprechauns will be leprechauns. I want it, Chairman. So that's that. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Webb. Mr.

» DeBose, anyone else? That concludes public comment. Alright, gentlemen, that concludes public comment. We have one participant in the scheduled executive session still en route. And so under Chairman's prerogative, I'm going to move item 6A to after item 8B so that we can still conduct that executive session. People get called up in traffic sometimes. That happens. Alright, gentlemen, that takes us to item number 7A. We have a series of two public hearings. The first one is regarding an ordinance by Kershaw County approving form contracts related to the private hanger licenses. We've been talking much about and tied into the AOD and other topics. And I'll go ahead and open that up for public hearing. Do we have anybody signed up, by the way, Mr. DeBose? No, Mr. Chair.

» Okay, I'll go ahead and open it up. Anyone here wishing to speak on the private hanger licenses related to the airport? Seeing none, I'll close the public hearing for item 7A. The next public hearing is on item 7B. We've been talking about this one for a few meetings as well. The Joint County Multi-County Business Park with Lee County related to economic development. I'll go ahead and open up that public hearing. Do we have anyone signed up, by the way? No, Mr. Chair. Okay, open up the public hearing. Anyone present wishing to speak on item 7B? Seeing none, we'll close the public hearing. And that takes us to the next agenda item, public presentations. We have some wonderful folks in the audience tonight.

» This item's been placed on the agenda by multiple council members, and I'm not sure which one of you would actually like to make the motion, but we've got it placed on here by Councilman Cato, Jones, and Councilman Tucker, those who are involved in law enforcement. And I'll leave it to you all. I yield to Mr. Cato. Mr. Cato? I'd like to make the motion that we go forward with the resolution of respect and a memorial honoring officer, Sylvester Slye Robinson. Thank you very much. Do we have a second? I yield, Mr. Jones. Second. Mr. Jones has a second. Mr. Cato, you have the floor. As I had and many of us had said before, Slye was a very special, special individual to a lot of us in here. Some of us worked directly with Slye over the years.

» I actually was privileged to work with Slye at a couple different locations or agencies to include the Kershaw County Sheriff's Office and the Inspector General's Office for the State of South Carolina. And so this is is equally, I can say equally dear to our hearts to all of us up here. But I appreciate them giving me the opportunity to read this resolution to his family. And we're going to present it to them here shortly. And I think Sheriff Leibon and some of his staffs here and they have something they want to do also. So bear with me and I'm going to read this resolution from the Kershaw County Council. Mr. Chair, we'll get to say some words after you read resolution. Certainly. Yes.

» Resolution of respect and loving memory of Sylvester Sly Robinson, January 12 1965 to February the 5th of 2025. Whereas the Kershaw County Council would like to extend prayers and pay respect to a dedicated man and his family, friends and community Sylvester Sly Robinson. Whereas Sylvester Robinson, affectionately known to many as Sly, shared a heart of gold and a smile that would light up wherever he went. Whereas Sly dedicated his life and services to careers in United States Coast Guard for four years. And in South Carolina, he began with the Kershaw County Animal Control and later started a profession in law enforcement with the following agencies.

» Kershaw County Sheriff's Office, the Camden Police Department, the Elgin Police, South Carolina Department of Corrections Inspector General's Office of Investigations and Internal Affairs, the Fifth Judicial Circuit Solicitor's Office, the Kershaw County Detention Center. He worked undercover narcotics, internal affairs, criminal investigations as also as a Camden High School Resource Officer and a DARE Instructor. Whereas after retiring from law enforcement, Sly stayed involved in the Camden community by serving on the board at the Price House, Food for the Soul and the Jackson Teen Center. He recently joined the staff of the Medical University of South Carolina MUSC Kershaw Hospital while driving ambulatory vehicles for Lifeline.

» Be it further resolved that the Kershaw County Council acknowledges and humble submission to keep the memory of Sly within our hearts and to keep his personality and love for his family and friends and community alive. And I want to highlight something before I turn this over to whoever else wants to speak. That last sentence, Sly had a smile every time you saw him. Sly had a personality like none you have ever seen before. He was Sly every time you met him. And for that, I was very honored to be his friend and to call him my friend. Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Cato. Mr. Jones. Thank you. Well, reached back in my memory. I was at a get together back in, gosh, what was the date on that? 1980 something. And I was hanging around this guy walked up to me. He's pretty sharp looking guy.

» And I think his first name was Gary. He said, I hear you're in law enforcement. I said, well, yeah, I am. He said, I got a friend of mine who wants to move to Kershaw County. And he's looking for a job. And I said, well, tell him to contact me. He did. And then I met that smiling face. He came in and it was just automatic. I mean, I knew I wanted him to be a part of our department and part of Kershaw County. And but you know, the funny thing, but he just stay long, because everybody was snatching him up. And he had a lot of opportunity because people loved him. He had a loving attitude. And like I said, I just never knew him to not have a positive remark to make when we would talk. I love sly.

» And I tell you what, he was a tremendous, tremendous influence to a lot of folks in this community. And is that his grand sweetheart? Oh, my goodness. What are you calling papa granddaddy? What? Your papa was a very special, special man. People in this community love your papa. I want to speak directly to you, your grandchildren. He's an example for all of us. I thought I'd like to thank Sheriff Lee Bone for making sure we all were know what was going on, keeping us informed. Sheriff, thank you so much. And you reached out above and beyond on that. And I appreciate it. And I thank this county council and indicate to all of you, like I say, we all have our sly stories. And they're all from the heart. Remember, your papa was a very special, special man who meant a lot to a lot of folks.

» Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of council. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Mr. Tucker, you yielded. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So I say to the family, because most of you have not had a chance to speak with some of you have my condolences and prayers are still with you. There is no set time for healing and grieving. You do that according to your spirits and your way of handling things. This was not only a shock to y'all, but a shock to this community, to this county, to this state, because sly just knew people everywhere from the tip of Maine down to Florida. And you go back across the west coast over there to California. It was real deepening when I heard this, because my father was in the hospital a week or so before that. And sly was up there working and had to roll him down to x ray.

» And my dad, who has dementia, COPD, I think he's got everything he can get underneath the sun, but he's still trying to live. I told sly, he was the Uber driver. He's gonna Uber him right on down the x ray and that not bump that old bad toe on his foot, or he was gonna kick him. And that week, dad was back in the hospital for pneumonia. And we got the news that sly was in the hospital. And my father was really looking forward to him healing and sly healing at the same time. And when I had to deliver that news, it was taken real hard by our family as well. Gone too soon. But let me tell you something about Sylvester sly Robinson. Most of us meet friends, enemies, frenemies. sly always met friends. I don't care who you are, where you are in life.

» Sly is that type of person when he meets you. Just the blossom of love and care and sincere wanting to be your friend comes off of him and you can feel it. I say this all the time about kids. And I say it about animals. If you've got little babies that don't want to go to grown folks and animals that don't go to grown folks, they probably got a little devil in them. And both of those kids, grown folks, animals, everybody loves sly. It was just the way he was built, the way God made him. And I truly miss him. Probably can tell many stories up here, but I'm not the only one that want to speak. But I'm gonna say to the family, y'all hang in there. Remember the good times. They should not be a bad memory in your head of your loved one.

» You should always be able to smile, laugh and cry because it's okay to cry. And I say this because I've not lost a sibling, but I've lost a child and a parent. And it's never been easy. But what you do, you stick together, pray together, stay together, and you will get through this and allow the ones in the communities to support you. Thank you. Well said. Thank you so much, Mr. Tucker. Councilmembers present, any other comments? Discussion? Excuse me. I'd like to offer condolences. I did not know Mr. Robinson, but I can read a room pretty well. You're the first one. Well, I wasn't in law enforcement. I've been working in a sawdust pile for the last 25 years. But I would like to offer my condolences to the family. And it's never easy.

» And may God be with you in your grieving and healing process. And I'd like to echo some of Sammy's words, Christian faith keeps us whole. And sometimes it's one day, one moment at a time that we do make it through these tough times. But may God be with you and your family. Thank you very much, Councilman Brazel. Mr. Shumake, any No, I mean, I think everyone else has said it. So again, you know, thank you guys for coming and I look forward to recognizing I am tonight. Mr. Tomlinson, anything? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, I will be brief. I would like to apologize to the family that I'm not able to be present. My thoughts and prayers are with you. While I was a wonderful, wonderful person, a Crestall County hero is what he was. February 5th may have changed flies lives.

» However, it didn't change his presence to every single person here in Crestall County. I had the pleasure of knowing fly one of the best human beings and public servants I've ever seen in my life. We need more people like him. And each second your heart is beating flies beating through your heart. Thank you all for being here. I'm honored to be a part of this resolution and proclamation. And I apologize for not being there tonight. Thank you for sharing that Councilman Thompson. I'll share a few remarks before we have the sheriff share what he was going to share. Obviously, we love you and we love sly. We support you as a family as best as we can.

» For my personal experience, whether it's been interactions with law enforcement and seeing their service in the community or wrestling in the community or public service and seeing you all serve in the community or politics and trying to advocate for good policies in the community. Once you know who the family is, you see that sly really got it honest and everybody else too, because they're all good people. I'm trying not to get choked up, but I immediately trusted sly and I met him when I was young, like the young lady sitting here up front. I met him when I was very young and I immediately trusted him because my daddy did. He introduced me to sly when I was a little kid. And from that moment, I just was like, Oh, this is my guy.

» You know, he introduced me and my dad really loves sly too. So our hearts go out to you. And this is one of the smallest gestures that we can make and showing that we really value his life, what he did and the legacy that he leaves behind. There's no further discussion from council members. Did you have anything to share? Sheriff start out by recognizing the picture we're looking at sly Robinson was, you know, we got our badge in sheriff's office and it has it on there. Blessed are the peacemakers. We take pride in that. That's a huge part of our job is to keep the peace sly Robinson. You see that smile there? That was, that was his, his biggest weapon sly. He had the muscles. He can take care of himself. No doubt about that.

» So I was much of a man that could take care of his self, but he chose to use that smile majority of time. And I've seen him calm a lot of situations with that smile. I hope a lot of our younger guys, I know I did learned a lot from the wastelands. That's why I kept the peace. That's our ultimate goal. One of the things we want to share with you is the picture you're looking at. This is the first one we've had made like this. And for council, this is exactly what you look at on the board up here. We always remember how we remember sly with that big smile. Next thing we want to give the family is there's a lot of flags that go out to people whenever, you know, when they're having their services and all. And this is a very special flag. This flag was the one flying for the sheriff's office.

» You can treasure. That means a lot to us. Don't get me crying for sharing him with us. We'll never know what that is. Thank you, Sheriff, so much. Now to the family, we would typically take a picture. So we're going to invite you up here. I know I'm crying. Few of us are crying emotional, but it's about the legacy. And so we want to create this memory for you and presenting the resolution. If you would like to come up here and join us. Oh, excuse me. Let's let's take a vote. I'm just all beside myself. Let's take a vote. All in favor. Those who present is unanimous. Mr Thompson, how do you vote? I am honored to vote. Yeah, yes, sir. Mr Tucker, keep me on track. I tell you what, I'm all over the place. I'm all over. I'm all over place with this one.

» If the Robinson family and the sheriff and any of your staff would come up please, Johnny deal, you have to make a really funny face to get us to smile. Okay. We're going first. Congratulations. Thank you. Man, council members, sheriff and staff. Thank you so much. Sly Robinson. God rest his soul. Amen. We appreciate y'all being here tonight. We'll give them the family a moment to exit. Yes. Again, thank you for everyone who participated in that. That brings back a lot of memories. As Mr Jones said, we've got to regroup. All right. That takes us to item number eight B gentlemen. This is placed on the agenda by vice chairman Russell Brazel. Is there a motion? Yeah, I'd like to make a motion. Do we have a Mr Fort and Mr Kelly in the house tonight? All right.

» Um, so I'd like to make a motion to, uh, to let them present, um, regarding an algae treatment for late watery. He's had some issues with, um, with algae, as you can see on your screen in front of you, and they've got a, uh, potential way to treat it and help it help keep it knocked back a little bit. So y'all come on up to the, we'll get your second podium. All right. We got a second. And you got the floor. Gentlemen, come on up. Anything further, Mr Brazel? No, we just looked here from them. Good evening counsel. Thank you for taking some time to hear us tonight. We appreciate that. Uh, my name is Thomas Fort. I'm the chairman of Lake Watery Association.

» Uh, if for those that aren't familiar with Lake Watery Association, it is a five Oh one C three, uh, public benefit organization that is focused on, uh, on our beloved Lake Watery. Uh, I've also brought with me our water watch committee chairman. That's our Randy Kelly, uh, our water watch committee, uh, for lack of a better term as a group of, uh, wonderful civic minded, uh, soft with the earth type gentlemen that, uh, uh, volunteer their time to do randomly and, uh, throughout the year, take water samples and in conjunction with, uh, funding from Lake Watery Association with USC, um, USC performs the lab analysis on our samples throughout the, throughout the year from the lake.

» Um, as part of that, and as many of, you know, water's been a very popular topic this year with the Charlotte Interbasin Transfer. Well, uh, when DS formally DHEC needs, uh, data for their water quality modeling, they come to our water watch committee for the data. It's, uh, collected in such a method that it provides much more high resolution information on the water quality and allows them to do much better water modeling. In addition to that, um, they are also working on, uh, the algae program with us. And before, uh, I handed over to Randy for a minute. Just want to let you know what we're here to propose today is a, uh, is a really a wonderful community effort to try to address the algae on the lake.

» I'm going to hand it over to Randy to give you some context and background on the algae problem. And then I'll follow up with our actual proposal, Randy. Good evening. Good evening. Welcome. Appreciate it. Council having the chance to speak for a few minutes tonight to, to share some of our misery with you. Uh, I would start by introducing you to the villain in our story, which is this, uh, scum algae match that you see floating on the surface in this picture, commonly known as a lingvia. It goes by a lot of other names that I have listed there, but, uh, uh, we con, we generally refer to it just simply as lingvia or algae, but, uh, it's bad stuff. The simplest way I can say it. It's, uh, it's ugly. It's nasty. Uh, it's potentially toxic, especially to pets.

» If they swim in it and ingest it, uh, it's impossible to completely eradicate. It's never been done. It occurs everywhere all over the country and all kinds of different bodies of water, but primarily lakes. And the best we can hope to do is to bring it under control. And that's what we want to talk to you, uh, about tonight. Where it came from is almost impossible to say, but if you look at the body of water that Lake Watery sits on, it starts up at, uh, Lake James up in the mountains of North Carolina, flows through cities like Charlotte, uh, Rock Hill, big population centers. Uh, the water is used by close to two million people as it travels down to Lake Watery, which is in that tiny little red circle down at the bottom.

» Um, there's a saying that, you know, what flows downhill and unfortunately we're at the bottom of the hill in this case. So we, uh, we get, uh, everything that that water is exposed to on its way to Lake Watery. And one of the main things that comes down from upstream is nutrients, phosphorus and nitrogen, which pretty much equals fertilizer. It makes things grow in a big way. And, um, it's not, it's certainly the only source of, uh, nutrients I mean upstream. We have our own runoff within the lake. Fertilizer, people fertilize their lawns and it washes into the lake. Uh, pet waste, other animal waste, birds. There's all sorts of sources of nutrients. Um, but the fact for us is that the nutrients are increasing in the lake every year, especially in the sediment.

» So you can measure what comes in. And these are DES measurements and measure what goes out. And there's a big difference between those two numbers. And so we know that the difference is what's settling out, uh, in, in the water column. So this situation is not getting better. You see more and more development upstream, uh, more, uh, open ground that used to filter the nutrients out is now being, uh, asphalted under or roofed. And so there's more and more runoff that washes this stuff directly into, uh, the water, the water system and a lot of it ends up right down here at Lake Water Reef. We did a, uh, a survey, or actually we've been doing surveys for probably 10 or 12 years. The most recent one was done in 2021.

» We haven't done one since then because of the drawdown to do the modification on the dam to put the bladder in. In 2021, what you see here is each one of those blue dots is a site that was identified that has the lingvia at that site. And so there were 119 sites that were identified at that time and we estimate that that's approximately 60 acres of, uh, of lingvia. Um, I wanted to highlight the red circle because, uh, we had intended to update our survey back in late September and our timing was perfect. We, we, we were scheduled to go out. Uh, I think it was on the very day that Helene came through. And so we had to cancel that survey. We're planning to do another one in, uh, a couple of weeks. So we'll have very updated data to share with you.

» But just looking at, we had a, we had one group that got out a couple of days ahead of schedule and they were able to survey that part of the lake that's circled in red. And, uh, as you can see, there are no blue dots in that area. So we didn't identify any algae present at that time. Uh, this was back in 2021. So if you forward to what we did last September with the group that got out ahead, this is what we saw. This is that circled area on the previous slide that's expanded. And what we saw where we had zero sites back in 2021, now we have 37 just in that one area. That's about a mile and a half linear from, um, I forget the name of the road on the far left side. Won't come to me.

» I'm sorry, but it goes, it goes down the lake to the general area of where the Kershaw fire station, I think it's number 24 is. So it's about a mile and a half as the crow flies. It doesn't count all those coves and everything in there. But we went from zero sited in 2021 to the 37 sites that I mentioned back in September when that survey was done. So another way to look at it is if you look at the circled area again, that's what was surveyed. We're looking at the 2021 survey, but the red circle was surveyed more recently in 2024. And that area expanded looked something like this. This this goes from roughly Colonel Creek area all the way down to the dam. And there were at the time in 2021 there were only 15 sites identified, whereas now looking at this map, there are 58 sites.

» So there's no doubt that it is spreading and becoming a growing concern. Quick comparison of Lake Watery to a couple of other lakes, Lake Gaston, which is not a Catawba River Lake, and it's not a Duke Energy Lake, it's Dominion Lake. But it's a good lake to compare to because they're fighting a very serious algae problem that went unaddressed for a number of years. And now you'd almost have to say it's difficult to control. And compared to Lake Norman, which is a bigger lake, but they discovered the Lingbia in that lake just a couple of years ago. So if you look at the surveys, one of the key indicators is the number of points with Lingbia compared to the total number of samples. And real quickly, Watery we estimate, as I said earlier, 60 acres as of 2021.

» Gaston in their 2022 survey estimated 1,285 acres, which is almost overwhelming. And then Norman, because they just discovered it within the last couple of years, they only estimate 10 sites there. The thing to really focus in on is the budget that it's taking to control this. We don't have a budget at this point, even though we've got an issue that's somewhere in between these two lakes. Lake Gaston, with its 1,285 acres for this year, 2022, they spent $718,000 in chemical treatment controlling to try to get this program under control. And again, like I say, you don't eradicate this stuff. All you can do is hope to control it. They've had good success in some areas.

» Some areas in four and five feet of water, you can now see a sandy bottom, whereas before it was completely choked off like that picture I showed a few minutes ago. But looking at Norman and the small expenditure, while it's still small, gives a good indication of what can be accomplished if you tackle this early. Like I say, we're somewhere in between on this. So our cost is going to be estimated to be somewhere in between those two numbers, not anywhere near what Gaston is spending, but still pretty substantial. This is an eye chart. I apologize. It goes back several years. But the thing to focus on here is the far right column for Lake Gaston's treatment program. That budget now has continued to grow every year. It's now approaching $1.5 million a year.

» You can look on the left and see some of the sources of funding. I'll delve into that just a little bit more. But the point is that the longer we wait to address this, the more it's going to cost without question. And it can get outrageously expensive, as you can see. So there's many participants assisting with this on Lake Gaston. You can see the surrounding counties. I think there are five or contributing now about $116,000. This is yearly. This is an ongoing program. And then others like the city of Virginia Beach. Lake Gaston is the source of drinking water for Virginia Beach, about 40 miles away. So they're contributing a lot. But it adds up to about $1.2 million. And most of that money goes to purchasing the chemicals and applying the chemicals.

» And I'll talk a little bit more about that in just a second. If you look at Lake Norman, similarly, they've got help from the surrounding counties, but also Charlotte Water and the city of Charlotte and Duke, mainly contributions in kind, like offering technical assistance and surveying tools and that sort of thing. So again, there's a broad spectrum. But the earlier we address our problem, the less money that we'll have to commit to it. The Catawba Water Re-Water Management Group is providing for us, like they do in the North Carolina lakes, the financial administration. In other words, any contributions that go towards this project will be managed and dispersed by the Catawba Water Re-Water Management Group. That was formed in one of the more recent relicensing efforts.

» Duke is an anchor sponsor for that, and the members are all of the drinking water processors that are in the basin. And that includes, of course, the city of Camden and Lugolf Elgin Water. So it's a really good group, very influential group focused on much more than water quantity, which you would think would be their main interest. But they're also now spending a lot of time on water quality as well. So we're fortunate to have that group to manage the financial administration for us. And finally, just a word on the treatment program itself. There are models for this. Lake Gaston is one. Norman, Wiley, Mountain Island up in the Charlotte area are models that we're learning from, and we're using a lot of the same people that they use as resources.

» But we will be treating in the warm weather months, typically six treatments in a year, monthly, April through September. There is a, I guess, a global expert in Lingvia in Clemson, Dr. John Rogers is a retired professor up there. He's agreed to come on board and be our treatment program administrator. We're very fortunate to have him. He will make prioritization for the treatment sites based on some of the criteria you see there. It's done very objectively without regard to who the biggest contributors are or property lines and that sort of thing. It's going to be based on the most urgent needs for treatment. So we're glad that we can be objective and get that done fairly. The applicator itself is a company called Aqua Services out of Alabama.

» They're also the treater for the North Carolina lakes I mentioned. And they use air boats. And they use a submersed, advanced application technique where they can treat the algae on the bottom where it lives. You don't treat the mats. You go down to where it lives. And they have expert or highly automated surveying equipment. Very detailed. And they're really, really good and experienced at what they do. They are probably the best in the industry. And we're fortunate to have them as well. The chemicals are safe. Everything is easy. Let me pause you right there and just see if we have a motion to extend the restriction on public presentations for 15 minutes. Is there a motion? Yeah, make a motion. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? Sorry, it's just a time constraint.

» I didn't have a timer going either. You're fine. 30 seconds, I just wanted to say. No, take your time. You're OK. Chemicals are safe, all EPA approved. Safe for irrigation, fishing, swimming. No health risks at all in the chemicals. Plus, they're colored, so they're very visible. You can see when they're applied. And they dissipate very quickly as well. I wanted you to finish that thought. We got a motion in a second. So let's go ahead and take a vote. All in favor? Once I get started. It's unanimous by those who are present. Mr. Thompson, how do you vote? I vote yes. Yes, all right. And we might have some questions, too, from council. The last comment I was going to make is that we have to keep in mind that it's a multi-year program. It's not just one year, but it'll be ongoing.

» Hopefully four years. Thank you, sir. Any questions or discussion from council? Mr. Brazel? Yeah, well, I'll add that we all know that Lake Watery is a very important part of Kershaw County, if not the most important natural resource is our river and our lake, obviously. We want to help take care of it, keep our waters clean. And I think the shot that you had for us, the aerial photo, was a ski alley. So everybody likes to fish and ski and enjoy a lake. We want to keep it clean. I appreciate you bringing the information forward so all of council could see it. We talked on the phone. Everybody needs to be educated and kind of on the same page. We look forward to working with you all and keeping this problem at bay. Yeah, of course. Yes, sir.

» Just real quick, I wanted to point out a couple quick things if I have a few seconds left there. In the fall, when the community starts complaining about the smell and taste of the water, sometimes the media blast us for that. And also, when these algae blooms are left unchecked, they can often progress into a harmful algae bloom that produces toxins that are poisonous to our pets, to our people, if they come in direct contact with it. And can, at times, if it gets really bad, severely impact humans if they're directly impacted by it. And this is often posted in the media for all the counties surrounding Fairfield, Kershaw, Lancaster. So it's really not good as far as water quality safety for our pets.

» It's also bad for economic growth and welfare to have our county blasted over the media for this negative publicity. So I would encourage everyone to consider taking steps to address this currently. One thing I wanted to point out is we've put together this proposal. Ms. Hannah passed out. I believe you should have one at your seat. Where we've already had informal conversations, well, actually, this proposal has been formally adopted by the Catawba Watery Water Management Group, specifically Brad Busey is who we're working with. I believe he's the vice chair at large for, and he's also one of the Lancaster County water directors over there. He's worked closely with us.

» He's taken this proposal to the Catawba Watery Water Management Group, and they have formally approved to adopt our proposal to perform financial administration and procurement for the plan. In addition to that, we've had informal conversations, or he has, with Camden Water, Lugoff Water, Lancaster County, and Chester Water. And those conversations have been positive, and they are very receptive to the proposed amount or the proposed plan. I think most of the others, I've kind of looked at Kershaw and Fairfield and the two water utilities as our primary sources here, as we have the biggest benefit to the lake, as most, I think, would agree. I believe from my understanding, Lancaster is going to seriously consider a significant contribution, not quite up to where we are, but significant.

» The others are very receptive. DNR allocates $30,000 a year annually. They have just added that to their algae, to that funding source, so they're now, for 20 years we've been telling our residents there's nothing we can do. DNR won't do anything. Or we've relegated them to research. And quite frankly, our community and all the counties are kind of sick of hearing the deniability of what we can do, or it's being relegated to research. There's clearly approved safe methods to deal with it now. It's not cheap, but it is out there, and if we all band together in a community effort, hopefully we can at least start to make some meaningful impact on it. DNR, of course, has added that algae treatment to their allowable list of invasive species that money can go to.

» We do hope to work with DNR to improve that amount, and ease the burden on the counties in the future, but that will take time. Duke has told us they're pretty much doing the same thing for all the lakes. Lake Wiley also has a treatment plan. They've just got started, so we're not the only one in South Carolina with a proposed treatment plan, and Lake Wiley has actually started theirs. So it is being done in South Carolina as well. But Duke generally has donated $5,000 to each plan, while theirs were significantly less, I think, with Lake Norman having five acres, I think Lake Wiley having 11. Ours is six and a half point more, but they are willing to contribute the $5,000 to each.

» Let me pause you right there, because what you're going into is gonna require the county to interact with each of these potential partners for funding, and so it would be a future item that we could vote on. We can't vote on this particular matter. Yep. It sounds like we need some homework that we're gonna have to do and some research. I just wanted to check, are there any other questions or comments from council members at all? No, I think, and I think we're about to hit our time limit again. So I want to thank you for being here. I think we get the gist of things you and I've talked. Certainly want to help. No question there. Just ask all of my fellow council members to consider that Lake Watery is a very important natural resource, and we'll consider that in this budget cycle.

» Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Brazel. If I could. Mr. Cato? I want to thank y'all for coming out. I do have one question. I've seen some of this stuff in local small lakes and local ponds, and I know that that's probably a concern that it could get scattered from these ponds to our public lakes. Is there something that the public can purchase that would help treat their ponds or their smaller lakes from this algae? I see that it's a copper-based algaecide. Is there something that we could buy maybe at Tractor Supply or somewhere like that that we could treat ponds and stuff with locally? There definitely is, and this can actually be purchased by them for their ponds. I think it's approximately about $4,500 an acre to treat, but there may be some there.

» I'm not sure what the regulations and oversight from the government bodies are. I do know that if it's under 200 acres, it does not require a federal permit if you're treating under 200 acres worth of the algae. Thank you, Mr. Cato. Mr. Jones. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the County Council. You know, I consider, I'm really a pretty smart guy, and, but I had no idea it was this bad. And I mean, that's really alarming. You know, I think we all have family and friends who live up in Lake Watery, and Mr. Prezel, thank you for putting that on the agenda, but as I said, as smart as I am, I just didn't realize it was that bad. And I would certainly support us talking, trying to do something to help you folks. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Mr. Tomlinson, anything remote? Not for right now.

» I would like to see, in the future, kind of some of the data with the way Lake Gaston reacted. I know, I think Lake Gaston is the point of that Dominion Energy hydroelectric line, and then goes into the Chesapeake, if I'm off the top of my head, correct. So the data downstream of that, with the treatment that's currently going on with Lake Gaston, and then also, I know that we had the data for Lake Norman, but with us being the last on the line, it's gonna have to be a cohesive, and I know the Catawba River Basin, you said as a whole, is coming together and doing it, but what would be the effects of, you know, the Lake Watery, and how much that would help specifically if the other lakes do not come together for treatment of it, and I didn't, if I missed the Lake Walley conversation, I apolo

» gize, but those are the only things I have. When we have them back, I'd love to kind of get that data on it. Okay, Mr. Tomlinson, we'll make sure that staff requests that particular data, and then we'll ask staff to also circulate the slides that were shared tonight, okay? Yeah, any final thought? One thing, Brant Busey with Catawba Watery Water Management Group would love to set up a funding workshop for all the parties. We tentatively have a place picked out at Cedar Falls on Highway 200, just between Fishing Creek and Lake Watery. We just need the parties to be interested and be willing to attend, and we will set that up for you.

» Well, we are getting into the budget season, and so I'm sure it's something that council members I've heard would like to learn about, so if you can coordinate with our staff in setting up potential dates and letting us know what might work for the stakeholders, that would be interesting. Absolutely. Thank you all so much. And you can just reach out to Ms. Hanna and to get on an agenda, we'll work that out. You can give me a call. All right, gentlemen, thank you very much. That takes us to item number 6A that was moved. It's an executive session. I'd seek a motion regarding an executive session on legal advice for a pending legal matter under SC Code 30-40-70. Do we have a motion? I'll make that motion.

» Is there a second? Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of any executive session? Raise your hand, it's unanimous in person. Mr. Thomson, how do you vote? I vote yes. Okay, it passes unanimously, Ms. Hanna. We'll need the administrator, the county attorney, and Mr. Lay. And there's no vote anticipated for public benefit after this executive session. Mr. Chair. Is there a second? Second. We've got a second. Any discussion? Seeing none. All in favor of leaving executive session? It's unanimous by those who are present. Mr. Thomson, are you with us yet? I am, I vote yes. How do you vote on exiting executive session? All right, we are out of executive session. No vote required following executive session. That takes care of item 6A. Gentlemen, we're on item 9A, the minutes.

» Do we have a motion? I'll make a motion to approve the minutes. Mr. Brazils, is there a second? I'll second. Mr. Cato. Any discussion needed, gentlemen? Yes, sir, Mr. Chair. I will be abstaining due to my absence. Mr. Tucker's abstaining. Any further discussion? None, sir. Seeing none, let's take it to a vote. Those who are present, in favor of Ms. Hanna, except for Mr. Tucker who is abstaining due to absence. It's unanimous in person. Mr. Thomson, how do you vote remotely? I vote yes. It's unanimous by those who are voting, Ms. Hanna. That takes us to item number 10A on the agenda. Whiting Way Zoning and Engineering, placed on by Vice Chairman Brazile. Is there a motion? I'd like to make a motion.

» This is just for discussion and information from my colleagues to discuss an issue that we've dealt with on Whiting Way. All right, is there a second? Second. There's a second. You got the floor. Thank you. I'm gonna pass these out. This is an email that I received from John Poole from DES. Sammy and I are gonna share one. I can share with you. And if you look on the screen in front of you, I know it's a little blurry. Essentially what this is is 2.38 acre lot that a gentleman's trying to construct a 3,200 square foot building on. And due to watershed issues and that sort of thing, his engineer made a proposal showing a ditch across the back of it to alleviate the water issues. That was denied initially.

» He's worked on this, I think, with our county engineer, Jonathan Hogue, right? Jonathan's done a great job. We had a great meeting. Everybody was really enthusiastic about solving the problem. Essentially what's happened here is he's bought a lot and split it into two lots. I thought that would be relevant. Turns out, according to our engineer, it's really not relevant to the watershed issue. And his engineer's second proposal was a pond, a detention pond. So only 3,200 square foot, pretty small commercial building. Typically you can drive up and down Whiting Way. There's lots of commercial buildings that did not require a detention pond. So I dove into this email from John Poole. Mr. Poole was quick to point out to me that there was in this, let me back up just a minute.

» This is a 115 page document that contains stormwater policy and regulations. And let me tell you, if you wanna get a good night's rest, start reading it. A lot of information, I know it's necessary, but I'm not an engineer. So inside that document, there was an opportunity for a detention waiver specifically for instances like this for properties one to five acres in size. He talks about that in this email. So in our meeting, make sure there's nothing on the back. We discussed the potential for a waiver and it was cited by Ms. Vandelay that Kershaw County was a stakeholder because we have a dirt road that runs behind this property. So of course we don't wanna mess up the dirt road. This property is well drained. I think it was, and Mr.

» Administrator correct me if I'm wrong, I think it was drained at 17 inches per hour is what the soil would handle. Does that sound right to you? And I'm going off of memory. We need to confirm that. This is for informational purposes only, no vote. So it's basically a sand hill. Parts of Lugoff are certainly a sand hill. All the other properties seem to be okay. And I would just like, in the event that he obtains a waiver, in the event that his engineer proves that he does not need a detention pond, it's gonna save him, well, it won't save him the entire amount, but it's gonna save him a significant amount of $177,000 I think was what he told me the project would cost to build out, including this pond, which was probably the lion's share of that cost.

» So he's just trying to move forward with his building project and we were looking for a solution. And I will say everybody was pleasant and kind and willing to accept the waiver if approved by his engineer. So I don't know that a vote is necessary from council. It may be if something's brought up about the road being next to the property, the dirt road, but that's really all I have on the topic. Thank you. Mr. Vice Chair, if I may. Yes, sir. Go ahead. So none of this with the waiver, any decisions come from us that's gonna be DES, correct? That's actually grants this. Well, they would grant the waiver and we would have to accept it.

» So our engineering department in the meeting, our engineer, Jonathan, did say, verbally, we didn't have minutes, he did say that he would be happy to accept it if his engineer proved that this was a viable situation. And I don't wanna put words in anybody's mouth, but Danny was in the meeting, Mr. Jones, Councilman Jones was in the meeting. Gerald was in the meeting, so. That's my question, more so is, if you don't mind, is there any, since this is a ruling coming from a state agency, does council need to accept that so our staff can accept it or will it be acceptable, Mr. DeBose, through conversation between the two bodies? I think this is a pure permitting issue under our regulations and their interplay with DES, yeah, this is outside of the MS4, I believe, so. It is.

» It's a primary DES permitting area. The county does double check them, but yeah, it's primarily a DES permit. But council can't override a permit. The bigger reason for me bringing this to everybody's attention is the fact that there's a dirt road behind it and that was brought up in the meeting. So I don't wanna, maybe I'm being overly cautious, but I actually probably put about 10 hours work into finding all of these things and setting up a meeting and so I wanted to see it succeed. Well, thank you for your work. Well, good people trying to do good things in our county, so. Quickly. We wanna help support them if we can. Mr. Tucker, you have the floor, are you done? Yes, sir. Mr. John. Well, thank you, I was in the meeting and I really appreciate all parties working together.

» I absolutely, Mr. Raso? Yes, sir. I absolutely support your thoughts on this and I appreciate all the hard work you put into it. I think this is the right thing to do. Life is not black and white, they're gray areas and we can't go around just, even our own engineer said this was too much bureaucracy, but he has to enforce the bureaucracy. I happen to disagree, you don't have to do anything but die and pay your taxes. The bottom line is we've chosen that path to go out there and follow these laws to the T. I disagree with that. However, I really, really hope that we can work this out. Of course, it looks like it's in the hands of his engineer, right, Russell? I think at this point, yes, sir. Mr. Temple, am I right on that? Pretty much in the hands of his engineer.

» Correct, they have the burden of reduction to go and get this waiver improved. Any elements of what that waiver involves? Thank you, Mr. Jones. Any further discussion? Mr. Thomson, anything remotely? No, sir, I do not have anything. All right, thank you, gentlemen. That takes care of item 10A, no votes required. Thank you, Mr. Brazel. The speed in your voice, that's good. What's that? All right, that takes us to item number 11A. This is the third reading on the joint multi-county business park. We've already had two readings on it. Let's seek a motion. I'll make the motion. Mr. Brazel, is there a second? Mr. Tucker has a second. Anything, Mr. Brazel? No, this is formalities that we have to do to work with development issues and helping businesses be here in Creshall County.

» So let's just knock it out and keep promoting Creshall County to manufacturing and whoever else wants to come here and put a workforce together. We're open and ready to do business. So thanks so much. Thank you, Mr. Brazel. Any further discussion? Comments or questions? Hearing none on third reading. We'll put it to a vote. All in favor, raise your hand for those who are present. Ms. Hanna, it's unanimous for those who are present. Mr. Thomson, how do you vote on item 11A? I vote yes. Ms. Hanna, it's unanimous and it passes third reading. Thank you. 11B was removed from the agenda. That takes us to 11C. This is a second reading related to code of ordinance and utilities. This is kind of a cleanup as we discussed last time, but let's get a motion. Do we have a motion? I'll make the motion.

» Mr. Brazel, is there a second? Second. Was that Mr. Tucker? Yes, sir. Mr. Tucker has a second. Mr. Brazel, anything? No, we've kind of been through this and discussed this as well. Our sewer is very important, obviously, to many things here in Creshall County, including economic development. And if we needed to make a few amendments to make a few provisions clear, I don't have any problem with that. So thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Brazel. Any further discussion? Can I get some clarification? Mr. Jones? I just want some clarification. Yes, sir. Go ahead. I said I want some clarification. From who? We'll let the attorney clarify. The attorney or the county administrator? Do you have a question or what's the? No, no, I want some clarification.

» On what particular point? What is it that you don't understand about clarification? Well. I mean, I'm being nice. I didn't mean that ugly in no way. Yes, well, the ordinance has... Yarns get bigger every time you come in here. The ordinance has multiple revisions. Mr. DeBose, if you feel like you can answer the question on... You understand what I want. Just give him the clarification he needs. Yeah, and the county does pre-treatment of industrial waste. Under that delegated pre-treatment authority from EPA and DHEC, you have to make sure that your ordinance complies with the Code of Federal Regulations.

» During the last review of the pre-treatment program, DHEC at the time, now DES, recommended just some reorganization of the ordinance to make it clearer and make it track with the Code of Federal Regulations more closely. A specific example of that is an existing section 32-4A within that existing code section, the body paragraph, sets forth a bunch of compounds and limits. Those limits, DES at the time said, are those your local limits? They look like your local limits. Again, this reorganizes kind of the existing language to make it clear, make it track Code of Federal Regulations more precisely. So again, capsule summary is it is primarily a clean-up ordinance to make sure that the pre-treatment program satisfies DHEC and the requirements of Code of Federal Regulations. Thank you.

» Thank you, Mr. Chair. And just one last point of clarification since we talked about it last time. Between the transition from DHEC to DES and personnel turnover and different assignments and responsibilities within that organization, it looks like some of what was supposed to be followed up on fell through the cracks, either on the county side with staff turnover or at the state level with staff turnover. And so this is now addressing those things that need to be aligned. Okay. All right, any further discussion? Thank you for the clarification. Yeah, you're welcome. Any further comments or discussion? Mr. Tomlinson, anything remotely? I do not have anything. All right, on second reading, let's bring it to a vote. For those who are present, all in favor raise your hand. Ms.

» Hanna, it's unanimous for those who are present in voting. Mr. Tomlinson, how do you vote? I vote yes. Ms. Hanna, it's unanimous. It passes second reading. All right, gentlemen, this takes us to item number 12A on the agenda, approval of grant match funding for Pecan Orchard. And I believe staff put this on. Any brief summary needed before we... Yeah, just really quick. This just authorizes me to send correspondence to rural infrastructure authority to engage in a grant application for the Pecan Orchard drainage improvements out there. Our local match is 25%. Before we get a motion, that amount would be roughly... $235,135,136. So this would be a contingent commitment to spend the money based on grant approval. Correct. All right, with that understanding, do we have a motion? I so move.

» Mr. Jones makes the motion. Is there a second? Yeah, I'll make the second. Mr. Brazel. Mr. Jones. Well, listen, I just pray everything works out that we get the money because those folks really, really need some help. And I'm not gonna go on and on, but they are probably in the worst situation of anybody, any other subdivision in our area right now. And I'm not gonna echo everything I've said before, but I appreciate staff staying on this and moving forward with it quickly. I'll appreciate it more if it passes. Okay, thank you. Okay, thank you, Mr. Jones. Mr. Brazel, you have the second? Yeah, so the way I understood it is we'll get... That's all the county will have to pay. We'll get a 75% match, is that correct? Correct. So what we have on the application is $940,000.

» And so the amount we're looking at getting is that 705 remainder. Okay, well, I commend you for reaching out for the grant. And I do hope it works out. That would absolutely be the best solution to fix the drainage issues. And I appreciate the work that you put in to do this. Thank you. I appreciate Mr. Jones, too. Mr. Jones has been on this since the beginning. So thank you as well. You're welcome. Thank you, gentlemen. Any further comments or discussion? Mr. Tucker. Yes, sir. Mr. Templer, can you give me those numbers again, and then I'll explain why I don't have any of this information? Well, you know what? What'd you just say? Can you give me the numbers again, please? Sure, so just starting from top to bottom, total project funding for the sake of this grant is 940,542. Yes, sir.

» The local funds matched that I am asked, that I asked to be authorized to commit is 235,000. 136. Yes, sir. Which creates a request for 705,407. And there's an expiration period, too, isn't it, sir? For the grant? Yes, we are on the clock for the 17th. Of March. To get this in. So these are not any kind of skip monies or anything like that that expire. Funding-wise, these are state funds where we only have two opportunities throughout the year. So this is timely. The 17th is a deadline. Okay, so today's the 11th, so we wouldn't be able to have another meeting prior to the vote. So this is definitely the cheapest way for us to fund fixing that problem. I've seen that problem with my own two eyes.

» I've got many friends that live in the neighborhood, and it is a concern, a tremendous concern. So I do encourage, this will be the cheapest way to tackle it. So back to my questioning is, whereas first and foremost, I know this was referred back to the Finance Committee last meeting. Unfortunately, due to my schedule, I have not been able to meet with the Finance Committee, and I'm just getting in these numbers. Are you talking in your mic? Yes, I am. All right. And with that being said, where has these funds been identified from, Mr. Templer? We would look at our capital reserves. It's a one-time capital project, correct? Emergency reserves, Mr. Templer? No, just our capital reserves. Yeah, hold on please, Mr. Tucker still has four.

» And what's our balance on that roughly now? I don't have the specific numbers, but they are sufficient to cover this. My only concern right now is, I know we haven't started our budget committee meetings, and we've got some proposed dates coming up, and I know this is time-sensitive. I'm just really concerned about the capital request that I know is coming up. It's already exceeding what we have in there, and we've got to do some creative budgeting for 25, 26. And I'm not telling you this is not a worthy project, but at this particular time, for me, I can only speak for me, I can't speak for the committee, I need to study this a little bit more and see if that's gonna be a wise decision in spending $235,000 with the demands that we also have in obligations back to the departments. Mr.

» Chairman. Mr. Tucker, you're done. At this time, I am, not you. He'll be coming back, he'll be coming back. Hold on, I've gotta hear from anybody else who wants to hear, I haven't spoke yet. Any other comments? Well, I'd like to continue to advocate for it because- Hold on, Mr. Jones has got the floor. If no one else wants to speak, that hadn't been heard from yet. Sammy, I can't believe you believed the words just came out of your mouth. You know, you'll find $10 million to build ball fields, but we're talking about a neighborhood that is being destroyed. I mean, that's insulting. It is, I mean, I just cannot believe. You know, you'll spend money like a drunken sailor, but then you'll turn this down. I just absolutely do not understand it. And listen, how much did he say, Ms.

» Templer, we barely had $200-something thousand dollars in the, how much do you have in the reserves, capital reserves? I don't have that exact number, so I don't want to- Okay, do you have a general idea? But it's sufficient enough to cover this. What is sufficient? I'm not trying to be ugly with you, I just want some- It's enough to cover. What is sufficient? I have enough money. But it's just enough to cover maybe. What about our emergency funds that we had whenever this first happened and you went out and looked at it and you were so alarmed, you were ready to create a disaster and pull it out of our emergency reserve funds, which we had $2.6 million sitting in. $2.3. Well, $2.3 because we had to pay $300,000 off our study. You're right. Mr. Jones.

» But wait, you want me to what? If I may. All right, go ahead. I yield the floor for just a moment. Mr. Brazel. I'd like to continue a very positive- I'm trying to keep it positive. Advocation for this community. I know that this is a very sensitive subject and very passionate topic for Councilman Jones as it should be. He spent countless hours looking at this issue. I support and understand 100% the reasons why this does need to be done. If we don't do this, our administrator can attest, in a private meeting, I asked him if we could do this ourselves internally for $200,000, $250,000 and save money. He said, we do not have the resources to do it.

» This is not, probably not the way I would have approached it, but I think the way he approached it through his connections at the state level, I think this is very smart. I think he's done a good job. And I want to continue a very positive Advocation for this project for my colleagues. This is the cheapest way it's going to happen. Mr. Chairman. Mr. Schumacher, yes sir. Yeah, so just briefly, I don't think comparing some of the other expenditures that were mentioned to this is a little bit different. I think that, I don't think it's productive to attack anybody for what they're going to do. I do want some clarification because I think there's been some statements and I just want to make sure that we go into this eyes wide open. Mr.

» Templer, am I correct that even if we do everything that the engineer recommended to us, it will only provide relief for half the neighborhood? Is that correct? Correct. So half the pecan orchard will not ever be fixed by any of this stuff? Correct. Well, I understand, and I'm not saying I'm going to vote against it. I just want to make sure because I don't want people to see this vote as like, oh wow, pecan orchards flooding issues will be fixed. This is a neighborhood that was built not with county approval and county took it over later admittedly, but it was built on basically a floodplain. So half the property owners that are having issues will see no relief with this. And if I'm also correct, of the half remaining, only half of that 25% is really guaranteed some fix.

» The other 25%, it's possible they'll get relief. Is that also correct? Correct. And just for the record, the spirit of this project is just to handle the stormwater that comes from county roads within there. Right. So I just, again, I just want to make that clear because I don't want it, you know, I just want to be clear on that. If I may. Sure. I'm 20 plus years familiar with this property. I'm not an engineer, but I'm a redneck engineer. I do have a license in redneck engineering. And I can promise you it'll alleviate more than 25% of the watershed. It's got to. There are no ditches. Every pipe is jammed up with dirt. Every junction box is jammed up with sand and silt. It's a mess. It's literally a mess. People's ditches are flush with the road.

» We didn't cause the problem, but we were handed the problem 20 years ago. And at the end of the day, if we don't do this, I'm going to make a formal request from our department to start crowning the roads and cutting the ditches out because it is a county road at the end of the day. And they're going to have to figure out how to do it regardless. So I think this is like the best approach. I think Danny's done a good job. We've feathered the pedal on this thing for a long time. We didn't try to ram it through. I think Councilman Jones has been patient. The citizens have been patient. The citizens have been patient. I mean, I think Ben, this is maybe before you came back, we started this. Is that right? Yes, but not surprising.

» What's the pushback? Well, I don't know that there is any pushback, but it's been a six month project. Gerald Blanchard, Danny Templar, myself, again, Councilman Jones, we were all there. And there were, how many people on site? 60 plus. Pushing a hundred? A good many, I can't remember. I mean, it- It was a good many. I wouldn't advocate for it if I thought it was frivolous. I think this is our best opportunity to make a real impact. And I think the real impact is a heck of a lot more than 25%. It's just, I know the lay of the land well enough to know that it's gonna help everybody some. It might not, it'll help others more than, some more than others. I get that, but it's worthy. That's anywhere you go. It's worthy.

» And I certainly, you know, Councilman Bras, I certainly hope you're right. Again, I can only go off the, what I read in the engineer study. And again, you may be right. I'm not here to tell you that I'm saying the engineer's perfect. You may be completely right. I just wanna make it clear if that engineer ends up being right. I just wanted everyone to know if we get the grant, well, it'll be 235 of our own money, but we'll spend roughly a million dollars to, there's a chance we could spend a million dollars and bring relief to less than 25% of the homes. I hope you're right. Well, hopefully the county won't have to bear a million dollars. If we can- Oh, I agree. I mean, this is not a million dollar expenditure. This is 235,000. I think this may be the best of a lot of bad options.

» And I'm not suggesting that right now but it isn't. I just, I understand where Councilman Tucker's reservations are coming from, but I also understand where you're coming from. I have no qualms with his reservations. Nor do I have any issues with what you're saying. I think, I mean, I think this is a true fair debate. And I think those are all fair points. Mr. Chairman. Mr. Tucker, yes. Thank you. First and foremost, Councilman Jones, I'm a sailor, but I'm never drunken. I don't drink, number one. Number two, for you to sit up here and make apples and oranges comparisons is disgraceful and distasteful out of your mouth. The ball fields have nothing to do with what we're in the act of voting on.

» And because I'm not willing to always spend reserve money like you are to fix everything on a one-time basis or a revolving basis, does it make my decisions bad or wrong? So for the information that I've gathered tonight, with the possibility of only half or 25% of the neighborhoods, I'm not saying that this project is not worthy, but I also know what's up and coming with our capital reserves, because I've had conversations with the committee, the finance committee and the administrator. And I can't just consciously sit here knowing what we have for 25, 26 and just cut off a $235,000 check without having further discussion with my colleagues and being sole on it. So that's where I'm at tonight. Wherever we agree or disagree does not make my decision any more wrong than yours. My opinion.

» Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As vice chairman, I'd like to call the vote. No, I guess I'm sorry. Mr. Jones. Yes, sir. Of course, I hadn't heard anything from Danny over here, but let me just say this. It could be in Bethune, Danny, and I would support it. And I'm gonna always put people before money. Rarely are you gonna, and Sam, you've been up here a long time. I've been up here a while. Let me tell you something. Rarely are you gonna go in and be able to do 100% for any neighborhood, but we have a responsibility and an obligation to help these folks. And I'm not upset with you, Mr. Tucker, because you've been wrong a lot, and I've been right a lot. And I'm not upset about that. That doesn't bother me. And I respect your opinion.

» This is not the first rodeo you and I've dealt with with each other. Won't be the last. No, and it won't be the last. But bottom line is, I just wanna tell my colleagues up here, I'm just sorta, God, I'm almost at a loss of words. I just can't understand why we would not support to help these folks. And maybe it's something personal with some of us. I mean, I don't know. Absolutely not. I hope not. Absolutely not. I'm surprised you brought that up. Excuse me? I'm surprised you made that mention. I can make some comments about how personal it can get. All right, Mr. Jones. Mr. Cato, go ahead. Haven't heard from you yet. Yeah, I was waiting on everybody else to get through bickering back and forth. First of all, Mr.

» Jones, this shouldn't even be about if it was Bethune, if it was Cassette or wherever. This is about Kershaw County. Amen. And I agree with you. I think something needs to be done. I think what we've done tonight is we've totally got off of what we came here to do. And we've got into the weeds, so to speak. I think we need to allow our administrator to do his job and let him go forward and help us find the money so that we can finish this project or do the project that needs to be done. I'm in favor of it tonight. But we need to stop throwing stones. I don't care. I'm for the good of Kershaw County and for every community in this county. And if that means building a ballpark to help our citizens and our young people have something to do and somewhere to go, I'm for that.

» If it's for helping somebody that's got a drainage issue, if it's for helping people raise horses, I'm for that. But we need to look at the greater good of Kershaw County and we need to make sure that it's taken one step at a time and trust our administration to bring it to us the best possible scenario. And then we can kind of get into the weeds. Can I say something, Mr. Chairman, real quickly? Let me see if Mr. Thomson has any comments. Mr. Thomson, you got anything remotely? I do not have anything I would like to add. I really appreciate Mr. Jones' hard work, staff's hard work and Mr. Brazel's hard work on all of this. And I agree with Mr. Cato with we all, we're all here for Kershaw County. We're all here for the best and appreciate everybody's hard work on this.

» And I look forward to voting. Mr. Jones, please. Now, if I can, let me tell you something. You're a true diplomat, Danny Cato. I think you're the most unutilized individual on this county council. You got a lot to offer this county council and too often too many you're overlooked by some of these members of county council, but you're very sharp and you come across very articulate and I agree with you. I hope Ms. Tucker heard what you said tonight. I do agree with you on that. And so anyway, gentlemen, that's all I got. All right, I just have a few comments before we call for the vote. And so I'll be able to support this tonight in part because I can't look a gift horse in the mouth if it's possible to get the grant related funding for this project.

» I'm not saying I would support it at a full 940. I've got my own questions. I think anytime we're spending a lot of the taxpayers money for a particular issue, especially at the tune of could be 50 to 60 to 70 or $80,000 per house for those who are directly benefited. We got to look at it real close and I don't fault anybody for having questions, but I do think something needs to be done. I think there is water in the area even though I got on after this started. I've been on council, I think there's water in the area that comes from a road related responsibility.

» But one of the questions that I haven't had answered yet and it gives me some pause, though I am encouraged by the potential of the significant grant is how long would it last? If we do everything that is suggested by the engineers at the full tune and the full bill, how long would it last? How significant would the impact be from the significant watershed from other people's yards? Because it is built in essentially kind of a bowl, low lying area. And so I just want to make sure we spend good money and that it holds.

» And at some point, if folks have water from their yards that starts to impact the county's work on the road, which again, I think something needs to be done, how do you handle it? Are we looking at another significant capital expenditure in a year or two years or six months if there's a real heavy rain? And I haven't gotten some of those questions answered directly yet, but I do think we need to do something. So with that, we'll call it. Can I say something? I want to say something about this. Yeah, sure, if you need it. You know, guys, come on. You're not going to be able to sit here and eat that entire elephant in one sitting. You got to take it one bite at a time. And I'm gonna tell you something, we have an obligation to protect these folks.

» We have an obligation to make sure their foundations are corroding, that their septet tanks aren't overrunning. We have an obligation to do the floods that we looked at aren't going through their yard. It could be one individual and I'd be for it. And I'm not upset about the way some of us are thinking here tonight. You have a right to be wrong. But bottom line is, folks, I'm telling you straight up, this is what we got elected for, to help the people, to look out for the folks. This is an emergency. This is a disaster area. So anyway, I'm done. Mr. Jones, just one final thought is I'm... I may want to come back on that too, go ahead. I'm right to be wrong, I guess. That's okay.

» If 75% of the water issue in the area is taken care of from counties shedding off the road, that still lives over 50%, 60, 70% plus of the water that comes from other people's yards or just pools because it's such a low-lying area. So I would not be surprised if we continue to hear about a septic tank issue or some other problem related to a foundation. Those problems are gonna keep coming so I don't think it's appropriate to lord that over anybody and suggest that those problems will be completely rectified and fixed. You said you don't mind being wrong. It will not be corrected if I could just finish my thought. No, you can. Some of those issues will not be resolved by the county doing 100% of their responsibility and that's the main issue. I think that's the main issue.

» Primarily, if the subdivision was built up to standards today, it would have had hundreds and hundreds of loads of dirt and field dirt brought in to raise the level up to where drainage could occur appropriately in the yards as well. But it was a beautiful setting. They built it with a bunch of pecan trees back in the day and it looks really nice, but it doesn't drain real well. That doesn't negate the county's responsibility. And so I've already said I'm gonna support it. First, for one reading. This is not one reading. If you look at the agenda, it's a new... You said you would support this but you didn't know if you would support it. It's not one reading. First, if you look at the agenda, this is actual commitment to spend the dollars, commit the percentage for the grant.

» So whoever votes in favor tonight, unless I'm mistaken, Mr. Attorney, maybe you can correct me, is committing to spend $235,000 contingent on grant approval. And so that's what we're voting on. It's very serious. It's not just one reading. No, no, no, it is very serious. Okay, so with that, let's call it for a vote. Oh, Mr. Tucker, go ahead. I just have one question for the administrator. With this grant that you're applying for, what do you think our chances are of receiving it? Have you done one before with this? This is not a skip grant or anything like that with the state. No, this is different. These are the standard funds in the RIA and I don't know how to really gauge our ability to land this grant.

» Aren't we dealing with the same great office that helped us with the sewer system? Who is that? We are, it's the Rural Infrastructure Authority. Great people. But I think it's reasonable to point out that they don't approve every grant, so it's just. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. All right, we'll call it for a vote. All those in favor of item 12A, approval for the grant match funding for Pecan Orchard as described and discussed tonight, raise your hand for those in person. We've got Mr. Shoemake, Mr. Brazel, Connell, Cato, and Jones in favor. And then we'll go remote before we get those against. How do you vote, Mr. Tomlinson? I vote yes. All right, that's a yes. And then all opposed. We got Mr. Tucker opposed. It passes on one vote. We look forward to an update on that.

» And please send all good vibes you can to Ms. Bonney as you work with them at RIA. We do appreciate them and we appreciate you in this setting, okay? We really do. All right, who's gonna do your grant writing, Danny? It's already done. Okay, who did it? All right, gentlemen, that takes us. Oh, go ahead. Wrap it up. Good? Okay. All right, that takes us to item number 12C, Equine Tax Force. I place this on the agenda. Seek a motion. I'll make a motion that we discuss what the motion you need. Are we gonna impose the task force? I'd make a motion that we put together in that equine task force. It's an ad hoc committee, so it's just a unilateral appointment that I do. Is there a second? Second. All right, no votes required.

» Been talking with some folks in the community that are very interested in horse-related matters and we've got a couple of requests out that we're waiting to hear back on. One in particular, I spoke with the folks at the city of Camden. I spoke with Mayor Shaheen previously. I see that we have a city council member here tonight. Thanks for attending as well. And it's gonna be a joint task force. And for us, we call it an ad hoc committee that will go until June 1, 2025 to start work as soon as possible on reporting back issues and opportunities related to the equine industry in Kershaw County and in the city of Camden. They're going to appoint three individuals, one council member. Mr.

» Thomason, thank you for agreeing to serve on this ad hoc committee related to equine and horse issues in Kershaw County. I've spoken with Ms. Linda Moore, who is in attendance tonight. She's agreed to serve on the committee as well. And Mr. Jonathan Bazanay has agreed to serve as well. And we're waiting to hear back from one other person that's always already been reached out to and requested. And so that will be the composition of that ad hoc committee. I'll report back as soon as I get a final response on the other. And they'll be, again, working directly with city of Camden appointees on these issues. No votes required. That takes us to item 13A. Seek a motion to discuss and have some further appointments on the ad hoc stormwater advisory committee. We have a motion.

» I'll make that motion. Mr. Cato, do we have a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Tucker. We have a second. All right. Rounding this out so staff can get to work on, this plays into various levels of what we're doing at the county in preparing for the future. We've got two other appointees. His chair, I can appoint these folks unilaterally. And representing the agricultural interest in Kershaw County, we've got Brian Cox. He works at Prestige Farms. And in particular, deals with their EPA regulations, deals with a lot of their interactions with DES, has a long, decades-long history of dealing with some of these issues. And so he'll be a great addition. And then regarding a local builder, we've got Mr. George Delk, who is going to be serving on that committee as well.

» We're waiting to hear back from one or two other people, but this is a critical mass where staff can go ahead and get to work. Okay, Mr. Templer. And so if you direct staff to coordinate with these folks, we'll provide any other contact information that's required. And whatever number of meetings and information that you need for us to make further decisions on stormwater, excuse me, studies or reports or funding, let us know and we'll make sure that we make that happen. Any comments, discussion, thoughts on that? All right, thank you, gentlemen. That takes us to, no, no vote. Again, as a reminder, Mr. Cato was just asking, it's an ad hoc committee, and so the chair just able to appoint those folks. That takes care of item 13A under old business. That takes us to council member briefings.

» I'll go ahead and start to my left here with Mr. Cato. You have any report? I have just a couple of brief things I wanna bring out. First and foremost, tonight I sent something out via social media. There will be a bridge closing on highway 341. This bridge goes across Little Inches River right at the county line below Abney. It'll on 341 between Abney and Kershaw or Lockhart Road in Kershaw. So that bridge will close approximately around March the 24th, and they hope to have it reopened on April the 4th pending weather or any other problems that they may run across. Other than that, I would just like to send my condolences to the Elaine Haney Hardis family. Most of you know that this is the former chief magistrate Jean Hardis' mother.

» She was 99 years old, and she would have been 100 years old in June. Miss Elaine grew up in the Timrod, Timrod, Bethune area, Mount Pisgah area, all three combined over the years. She was a great asset to that area in Timrod Church. And something I learned about her, I knew her all my life, and something I learned about her during this time was that she actually worked in an ammo manufacturing plant for World War II up in Charlotte back in the 40s. And she also worked for the Kendall plant in Bethune, but she was known, she was a resident of Pinedale for the last several years, but she will be greatly missed, and she was a sweet, sweet lady. And my condolences go out to them. That ends my report, thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Cato. Mr.

» Jones, any report? Yeah, well, one, I'd just like to thank everybody for celebrating Sly tonight. That was very important, and I'm glad we got through that. Gene Hardis, you know, has been a dear friend of mine. Bless you. Thank you, thank you. And Gene Hardis has been a dear friend of mine for many, many years. We worked together in the courthouse back in the early 80s, and my heart goes out to him and his mom. And, you know, I don't know how to say this, but his mother was, I met her once or twice. Didn't know her well, Danny, probably not as good as you. She always liked me as a county council member. I might have been her favorite. But bottom line is, and that's me talking to Gene, but bottom line is, my heart goes out to that family. Wonderful people.

» And, you know, when something like this happens, it kind of puts everything in perspective. I know it does with me, that this life isn't forever. And that's why I'm a much gentler kind of person up here. Because we got to realize, guys, that this is not forever. So I'll throw that out there at you. And Gene Hardis, we love you. We're sorry about your loss. And, Mr. Chairman, thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Mr. Schumacher, any report? Just want to send condolences also to the family who lost members there by the river. I know the sheriff has spoken at length about that, but I appreciate recognizing those that we lost.

» You know, I also want to announce, and it's been on Facebook several times, but on March 20th at 6 p.m., I will be joining the sheriff and the mayor of Elgin and many others hosting a town hall event at Blaney Baptist Church. We've done one last year or so, and it was pretty successful. We're going to have representatives. It's a place for community members to come and have questions answered. We're going to have representatives from local government, Elgin Town Council, obviously myself. I believe Mr. Templar is going to try to make it as well as our zoning folks. The sheriff's going to be there, school district's going to be there, DOT's going to be there, and the Elgin police are going to be there.

» So there really shouldn't be a governmental question that relates to the West Watery, Elgin area, specifically, that can't be answered in that room, even if not to your satisfaction. So March 20th, starting at 6 o'clock, and again, it's on Facebook. If you have any questions, you can just hit me up there on Facebook, but appreciate the sheriff and Mayor Emmons for helping me put this together. That's all that I have. Thank you, Mr. Shoemake. Mr. Tucker. I thank you, Mr. Chairman. Once again, I know everyone said it, but my condolences and prayers with the Hardist family and their loss with their mom. And I just want to, Sheriff Lee Bone said it best with the two men and two family that died up on the lake. That is very rare that people would do for strangers. It doesn't happen that often.

» Not gonna say it never happens, but it doesn't happen that often. But Lonnie Hancock, I believe, was one of the gentlemen who's happened to be a veteran as well. Navy, that is, Mr. Jones, jumped in in his heroic efforts to try to save the little 13-year-old boy and end up giving his life on his birthday with his family and wife watching this happen. What a tragic event. So I'm just gonna say as much as I do like to stand my ground and make my point. I have no ill feelings when I leave from up here. I just fight for what I believe in. And I'm gonna die on the sword until I leave here defending this seat, this position in this district. And if you don't like it or you have problems with it, I'm sorry, but it is who I am and I have not cast a vote that I regret. So thank you. Thank you, Mr.

» Tucker. Mr. Brazel. Regarding the drownings, absolute tragedy. I think the only good that I can find in all of it is that the 13-year-old escaped safely. My condolences and thoughts and prayers go out to the families affected and the two men that passed. I will state that the administrator and I have communicated regarding having a briefing with Duke Energy. That's Duke's boat ramp. In all the property along the river there, is typically maintained by Duke. Mr. Administrator, correct me if I'm wrong in any of these points. But we will try to find a way to improve. It's a natural river, so I don't think there's anything we can do to completely make it safe. I was born and raised about five miles away from the tail race and I still live in that area. It's dangerous.

» When those sirens go off and those horns go off, that means the river's coming up and it's gonna come up quick. I'm not sure that that's what happened in this instance, but this is the second time this has happened within a year. I think that makes three lives lost, if not more. Again, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it's three now within the last year. So we will be taking steps and measures to improve on this. To all the families with loss in the community, those spoke about earlier in the Robinson family that we had here tonight. Again, condolences to you and your family. God's peace. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Brazel. I share all those condolences that went out tonight, whether it's Sly Robinson or Mark Moore or those who passed away this weekend.

» Just so much loss recently in the community and we've got to band together. We've got to focus on our faith. Personally, for me, I look forward to the resurrection and in that, I find great joy. For those I've lost personally in my life and for my friends who have lost loved ones, again, deep condolences go out to all. And on a lighter note, it's my son's birthday today. I just wanted to wish Bennett a very happy birthday. He is a big and burly seven years old and full of life and- Burly? He is, if you can imagine. And we just love him dearly. He is full of life and has every bit of promise and opportunity in his life. And so I'm thankful for him. Just wanted to say that. Maybe he'll watch this and hear that his dad loves him very much. That concludes my report. Mr. Administrator.

» Just a few things. Real quick update on some park projects. Mount Pisgah Community Center playground installation is, we hope to be completed by this Friday. So talking with Danny Cato, that's his district up there. He's been instrumental in getting that equipment put in up there. So we'll look at cutting a ribbon up there on that. That's a really nice amenity got going in up there. The boat ramp continues to, that work continues to go on. We are having an issue with citizens going down in there and getting into the construction zone. They're not really willing to listen to any of our staff. So this continues to be something that we have to contend with. It's dangerous and just something that doesn't need to be happening.

» We'll just go ahead and close the park until the completion of the construction. We do have a walking area out there. We wanna have that area remaining open, but we don't want anyone getting hurt at the end of the day. So with that, I didn't get a chance to talk about Sly when his family was here, but Sly was super important to me. He got me into law enforcement, him and Mac McCloud way back in the day. And so I'm a firm believer that you can always look at five people to help you get where you were. And it's just five people. And Sly is one of those individuals. I am where I am. I'm the county administrator today because of Sly Robinson. And he was just an amazing guy. You saw his smile before you saw anything else.

» And then the second thing you saw was that big hand coming out to shake your hand. And it was like a vice grip. And he'd always say, what's up, Dan? When I saw that picture, I could just hear. I could hear Sly. So an amazing individual. And somebody said it, we need more Sly Robinson's in this world, not less. So just an amazing individual. And that's my report. Thank you, Mr. Administrator. Mr. DeBose, anything that's aside from executive session? No. Okay, thank you. Gentleman, that takes us to item number 17. We have, as amended, six items for executive session. I'll take them as a group. These are all gonna be under 30-4-70 of the SC code. We've got, in order, an executive session matter regarding a potential legal claim.

» An executive session matter regarding another potential legal claim. An executive session matter regarding a contractual matter, a potential property purchase. We've got another executive session matter regarding a contractual matter related to leases. We've got another executive session matter related to a contractual matter. And then lastly, we've got a executive session matter for a personnel issue. And for those six items, I'd seek a motion for executive session. Make motion to go on executive session for the following reasons stated. Do we have a second? I'll second. Mr. Shoemake, we've got a second. All in favor? Mr. unanimous from those who are in person. Mr. Tomlinson? You expect any action? I vote yes. Vote yes.

» And I was gonna mention, we do have one anticipated vote on a potential legal claim when we exit executive session. We're in executive session. Mr. Chairman? Mr. Cato, thank you. All in favor? Ms. Hanna is unanimous by those who are present, which is Shoemake, Brasel, Tucker, Connell, and Cato. Five of us, yep. All right. Motion. Motion to adjourn, Mr. Chairman. Do we have a second? Second. All right, we got a second. Seeing no discussion. All in favor? Ms. Hanna, for the record, it's the same five voting. And Mr. Tomlinson is offline now. We are adjourned. Thank you. No vote needed.