Full meeting transcript - May 13, 2025

» - Thank you everyone for coming out tonight. Let's have the meeting call to order. This is the May 13th, 2025 Kershaw County Council meeting. We are going to have, I think Mr. Jones is ill. He's not gonna be joining us tonight. He sends us his regrets and he won't be calling in as well. Let's go ahead and start with the invocation and pledge of allegiance. That would be led by Councilman Sammy Tucker Jr. - Can we all stand please? Let us bow our heads and open our hearts. Thank you, Lord Father. Thank you for this day. Thank you for this life that you've given us. We thank you for the lovely Mother's Day that you allow us to wake up to and to celebrate the wonderful women across this county, this state, and this world on a magnificent job that you've blessed them to do as being mothers.

» Lord Father, now we ask that you cover each heart and mind that's up here on the dais. That you let us be very deliberate and very cautious and kind to one another and to our decisions as we make them for the citizens of Kershaw County. Bless our men and women who are out fighting for our freedoms and liberties. Cover them in your blood, Lord Father, as only you know how to do. Give us travel and mercy back to our various destinations. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. - Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. - Thank you very much, Councilman Tucker. Gentlemen, next up we have item number four on the agenda.

» I would seek a motion to amend the agenda before approval. I'd seek a motion to remove item 15B. That was an item that was placed on by Councilman Jones and he will not be here tonight for executive session. Is there a motion? - I second. - I make the motion to remove 15B. - Motion by Councilman Dabble, second Mr. Tucker. Any discussion on the motion to amend? Are you gonna do, Mr. Chairman, these... Well, the other one won't need a motion. That'll be your prerogative, nevermind. - That's right, that's right. - Yes, so I can confer the second. - Okay, seeing no discussion, all in favor of the motion to amend? It's unanimous by those who are present voting, Ms. Hannah. All right, now do we have a motion to approve the agenda as amended? - I make a motion we approve the agenda. - Second.

» - Thank you very much, Mr. Cato, Mr. Tucker, any further discussion? Seeing none, move it to a vote. All in favor, raise your hand. Ms. Hannah, it's unanimous. The agenda is approved. Next up, we have public comments. Mr. DuBose. - We have one speaker signed up, Donnie Copley. The subject is thank you. - Mr. Copley, is this gonna be in lieu of your public presentation that was on the agenda, or? - Wishful thinking, but no, sir. I simply wanted to say thank y'all for all that you do, and I know that oftentimes public comment is filled with other things, so I just wanted to simply say thank you for your service. Appreciate you. - Thank you, Mr. Copley. Mr. DuBose, no one else signed up? - No, sir. - Thank you, Mr. DuBose. That concludes public comment.

» With the agenda being approved, chairman's prerogative, I'm gonna move item number 10 under resolutions. This is 10A regarding the three-room schools in Kershaw County. This is an item placed on the agenda by Councilman Tucker. We're gonna move that up right before public hearings, and so we'll conduct that now. Mr. Tucker. - Thank you, Mr. Chair. - I cannot even see that, so. - Got it. - It's way too small. - Yeah, it's way too small, and I don't have my glasses. So I would like to make a motion at this time that we recognize the resolution that has been prepared for our three-room schools here in Kershaw County by the Gentleman's Club, who has done extensive work on this resolution. That is in a motion. We have a motion. Is there a second? - Second. - We've got a second.

» Any discussion, Mr. Tucker? - No, sir. I'd just like to read it in its entirety, and if you don't mind, then we can call for the vote, Mr. Chairman. - Please. - That's how you do that, Russell? All right, I don't think that helped me much, but we're gonna try it. Yeah, let's try this. Thank you, though. All right, the resolution honoring the legacy of the colored schools in Kershaw County, South Carolina, whereas the history of education in Kershaw County reflects the resilience, determination, and perseverance of African-American students, teachers, communities who sought knowledge despite systematic challenges, whereas during the era of surrogation, African-American students in Kershaw County attended small three-room schools built by Julius Rosewall in partnership with Booker T.

» Washington, where multi-grade levels were taught together, often with limited resources and inadequate facilities, and where as many students walked up to five miles each way in all weather conditions to access an education, demonstrating their unwavering commitment to learn and self-improvement, and where as schools such as Jackson School, Red Hill School, Mount Joshua School, Wood School, Mikkel School, St.

» Matthews Schools, and over 41 other schools not mentioned throughout Kershaw County provided critical opportunities for African-American students with support from dedicated educators, parents, community leaders, and whereas these institutions played a vital role in shaping generations of students who went to contribute to the progress of Kershaw County and beyond, despite the challenges of segregation and discrimination, and whereas the legacy of these schools is an integral part of Kershaw County history and serves as a reminder of the improved importance of equal access to education for all people, and whereas it is fitting and proper that the contributions and sacrifices of African-American students, educators, and families to be recognized, honored, and preserved for future generations

» . Now, therefore, let it be resolved that the Kershaw County Council hereby acknowledges and honors the legacy of colored schools in Kershaw County, recognizing the students, teachers, community members who played a vital, a pivotal role in shaping the educational landscape of our county, and be it further resolved that Kershaw County commits to preserving this history through documentation, education, and recognition initiatives that ensure the stories of these schools remain and are expiring for generations to come, adopted this 13th day of May, 2025. All right. Thank you, Mr. Tucker. Mr. Tomlinson, you had the second. Any discussion before we vote? I'd say this is an honor to support this tonight. I had the opportunity a few years ago to do a resolution before the U.S.

» Supreme Court where we were honoring Briggs versus Elliott, which was the actual first Supreme Court case. Even though it's named Topeka, or was it Elliott versus Topeka, Board of Topeka, it really started here in South Carolina. We appreciate all you do and anything we can do for equality, we need to continue doing it. So thank you. Thank you, Councilman Tucker. Any further discussion? No, I'll wait and hold my comments if that's okay to afterwards. Okay, let's move it to a vote. All in favor? Ms. Hennett's unanimous by those who are present and voting. And before we have the gentleman come up, I know a lot of research has gone into this. I've been able to spend some time with the Gentleman's Club over the last couple years. Mr. Tucker, and I know Mr.

» Counts, among others, have been initiating or encouraging and doing themselves a bunch of research on this. And it initially started, if I'm not wrong, Mr. Tucker and Mr. Counts, because we were talking about locations and the generation that knows where everything is and what it was all about, some of them were passing away from time to time. And even one of them was referenced and said, "Oh, he knew all about that school. He passed away last year." Yeah. And so we just decided, and I know you all decided that you had to move forward in memorializing this. And to the extent we're able to, I hope we can include some of what's in your binder there, Mr. Tucker, or other research and maps and things, maybe with the archives. Yes, sir. And otherwise so it gets preserved.

» Thank you very much, gentlemen. Mr. Tucker, would you like to have the Gentleman's Club and those they invite to come up? Yes, sir. I want to say a couple of words before you come up. Yeah, go ahead. And then we'll get Mr. Joe Counts and company to come forward. So the gentlemen's that sitting out in the audience and the Gentleman's Club, they, like my parents, attended these schools, which I think is amazing. And I don't know how much I'll know about Julius Rosewall. That was a philanthropist movement throughout the United States. They built over 5,000 of these schools. And there was approximately about 41 built here in Kershaw County. Back in the 1920s, 30s, 40s, and 50s. I did not know any of this, so I'm going to have to give Bill Rogier his shout out.

» Until I came to council and he was doing some research on these when he ran his newspaper for the ones that remember Mr. Bill Rogier. And he said something about a Julius Wald school. And I'm like, what are you talking about? I did not know because that was not taught to me in public school for any type of history. But when I talked with him and he started digging in, I went back and did my own research and found out a lot about it and then realized that those were the schools that my parents also went to. My dad was Hickman and my mom was from St. Matthews. So that's where my roots go. But I want to commend this gentleman's club for reaching out doing this. This is vital history for the young people and all people to read and know about the United States and Kershaw, South Carolina.

» So with that being said, I'm going to ask Mr. Counts and a couple others if they would come up to the mic and introduce themselves and please share with us. Yes, sir, Mr. Counts, if you would speak into the mic. So the folks who might be remote can hear you as well. Thank you. Thank you. To the. You're okay. Take your time. There you go. To the. Council? Kershaw County Council. Thank you. You're welcome. To the Kershaw County Council. I say good evening. Good evening. And I would like to take just a moment and walk you through the three-room schoolhouse and what it can consist of. The three-room schoolhouse beginning in the morning at 5 a.m. You would rise to prepare yourself to do what? Walk to school. And from where I live was down on Raven Road.

» And when and the school was up there at Wood School and it was up at um on Springville Road. So that can can let you know of the distance that we had to walk one way each day going back and forth to school all types of inclement weather but nevertheless we made it. We made it through hope. We made it through through uh perseverance. We also we also had goals.

» And what was so amazing about this journey was that as we and as we we made this journey on a daily basis and I look around for there's one that went eight years younger fellas they they didn't go with the young ones but um we went and there was also what discipline in those schools now keep in mind now there was only three the reason they are named three room schools because that's what they consisted of first second and and and and uh third was in in one room third and first second i mean was in one room third fourth and fifth was in another room and then sixth seventh and eighth was in another room each room consisted of what one teacher and those teachers gave it all they gave it all in it and and and and those three room schools were the foundations of our upbringing the reason why we

» stand before you and and and and thank you so much for honoring us and and and and and adopting this resolution is because this means the world to me it means the world to the rest of these gentlemen sitting here it means the world to my grandchildren my great grand grandchildren it means the world to to the community that we were able to to uh uh build on this foundation that those three teachers taught us and and for me i would go on to to become uh working for the second largest construction firm in the world and go on to become a uh a former uh a former there's a general foreman then a general foreman then a superintendent then a general superintendent then an area manager having lived and worked in 10 different states that's what that three-room schoolhouse meant to me that's what that

» three-room schoolhouse meant to all of these gentlemen sitting here a lot of of those uh retired uh from um with retired speak back in the mic there mr counts some retired some retired from um uh maintenance um and then somewhat goes on to what these schools teachers precipice mechanics barbers all of those things came from that three-room schoolhouse so i stand before you and thanking you and thanking all of my colleagues here for for participating with us and helping us put together a long time coming and one of the one of the when we say we had we we look we tried to achieve goals and all one of the goals that was was achieved when they opened up watery elementary back in 1955 that was a goal that we thought we would never see but we were able to see it that was a goal that we were able

» to ride a bus those were goals that was accomplished so once again i want to thank each and every one of you i want to thank my committee the gentleman's club of kershaw county for doing such an excellent job in making this become fruition thank you for listening thank you mr count thank you thank you william robinson and i am the executive director of the knights hill historic preservation board board and i wanted to kind of bridge the gap from these gentlemen to myself and the impact that the rosenwald schools had on my family directly as a part of the knights hill neighborhood both branches of my family brevards on one side robinson's on the other side attended the knights hill rosenwall elementary school that building still stands today it's out in the woods and we've been trying to acq

» uire the building from the family that still owns it but it sits there trees are now beginning to grow uh through the building but we want to preserve that building turn it into a community center and i must say that that grandparents on both sides of my family attended that school and what was unique about the rosenwald schools is communities had to put monies into the schools along with the sears and roebuck foundation that rosenwald was president of in order to construct these schools around the country and my mother attended one of these schools ruth dorothy brevard at the time who married my father and became a robinson but she was kind of troubled because when she moved north to new york she found the same segregated environment as she had left here in camden south carolina but my mom

» based on what she had learned in these rosenwood schools about the importance of education she fought and won an integration lawsuit and i was able to attend integrated schools because of those efforts from at minhasset long island um schools which is was noted then and still today is one of the top-notch public school systems in the country so i wanted to i didn't know these gentlemen would be here tonight so i'm i just wanted to add my piece and kind of bridge the gap so again young people will understand the importance and the foundation that was laid by the rosenwald school all across this county thank you thank you mr robinson thank you mr robinson was anyone else don't be shy good evening ladies and gentlemen i'm jackie murphy and i'm associated with the gentleman's club of carshaw co

» unty and i feel compelled to stand before you as a witness of what all of you have seen over the last probably three to four months the heritage that belongs to african americans is being diminished and if you look me in the eye and tell me you haven't seen it i will ask you to open your eyes i don't believe that there is a future unless you know your past when your past ceases to exist there is no future that's why i as an individual was compelled to have an active role in this and hope hope that this is not something that that continues to pervasively tear away at the fabric of our country i thank brother counts and everybody else is here to support me but at the same time i look you in the eye and ask you to not let it happen in carshaw county thank you thank you sir thank you if i may a

» t this time mr chairman i want to say thank you to brian mays and the jackson teen center he's not able to be here tonight he is shorthanded with his staff they had some programs to attend at the middle school awards stuff because i didn't realize graduation was around the corner uh for our kershaw county schools so um if you would um mr chairman be okay to call them up so we can take a picture let's bring them up okay and i'll just mention while everybody's coming up um a lot of folks mr counts if you direct uh any of the kershaw county gentlemen's club or any folks you've invited to come up for a picture and presentation if you would come on up that would be great for folks who don't know the organization i became familiar with them a couple years ago and they focus on we're just going to

» line up right up here mr counts if you'd come up they focus on improving and dedicating their lives and service to the youth in kershaw county trying to make sure they have a bright future so we appreciate their work as well we'll say gentlemen let's get a few of you to come on this side let's bounce just balance it out everybody ready one two three and a half thank you so much congratulations thank you for your yes sir thank you yes sir mr tucker yes sir i have if you can get your vice chair back mr tucker any further discussion yes sir i just want to make this comment the gentleman came up and spoke last and um i'm compelled to say this because you have to speak the truth when you can um the mess that goes up in washington dc does not affect these gentlemen that sit next to me here and no

» r would ever will we don't drag that mess from dc down here in kershaw south carolina we come down to govern and do what's best for our citizens and and and and our children the l lee middle-aged working class white black blue green purple everybody who is um a citizen here in kershaw county no matter what your economic status is and i just want to say that because these guys um have been very very um diligent and always trying to do the right thing by everyone so i just want to say kudos and thanks to them but it is worth mentioning because we do have issues i'm not telling we don't have problems i'm telling you we don't have that issue here of dismantling african-american history um because i think it is definitely how you learn not to repeat bad history thank you thank you gentlemen that

» takes us to mr kindle could i oh go ahead i'm sorry you you know i i can't help i know you can't i can't help but but say one thing i was just talking to mr counts and um we're from the same area we're from the same part of kershaw county and he just called my great grandfather's name and said that he was my great grandfather was a preacher and i think he heard him preach so what you just said is very true and that goes back a long time that's right as my great grandfather that was his preacher or a preacher in a church he attended i'm not sure which one yeah we're talking a ways back so um what you speak is true yes sir so that was really neat and it's good seeing y'all like making that connection thank you all thank you thank you very much gentlemen you're obviously welcome to stay the en

» tire meeting but you're not going to hurt our feelings if uh if you need to file out it won't be disruptive you can go ahead and clear out if you need to you might have other things to do gentlemen that takes us to the next item on the agenda uh we're at 6a public hearings the first item is in relation to water structure and fire flow mr dubose uh mr chair there actually no no one signed to speak for either of the public hearings all right no one signed up but we're going to follow protocol and open it up and if anybody who's present wants to stand and speak on item 6a first we'll hear them again this is a public hearing related to section 5 1.4-5 requiring installation of fire hydrants we'll go ahead and open the public hearing anyone at all wishing to speak on it seeing none the public he

» aring is closed this takes us to item 6b on the agenda for public hearing regarding a conveyance of a certain right of way and do you have anybody signed up mr boz you said none at all we'll go ahead and open it up anybody present wishing to speak seeing none we will close the public hearing it's closed that takes us to the next item on the agenda approval of minutes a little bit unique we had a special call meeting in the form of a budget retreat do we have a motion on 7a by itself initially and then we'll get to make a motion on 7 alpha for the budget retreat uh october i mean april 22nd please and that's for approval is there a second i'll second we have a second any discussion on the minutes on 7a i think 7 7a is the regular meeting right yeah that's the regular meeting yeah i'll be abs

» taining i was not present at that meeting okay thank you miss hannah please note it all right seeing no further discussion all in favor miss hannah it's unanimous for those who are present except for mr thomason abstaining due to absence and then we have 7b is the next item on the agenda so that passed unanimously 7b i'd seek a motion for uh approval there was no votes taking at the budget retreat but just to memorialize that we had the meeting and then it occurred is there a motion i make a motion we approve the minutes from the special call meeting mr kate second mr thomason seconds any discussion i'll be abstaining due to absence yes okay um seeing no further discussion we'll move to a vote all in favor it's unanimous for those who are present and voting with mr brazil abstaining all rig

» ht that takes us to item number 8a placed on the agenda by the administrator any briefing at all before we uh call it mr suplee mr administrator no sir i'll just ask mr simply to step up all right let's uh let's go ahead and get a motion and second to have him come up is there a motion make a motion that we uh have mr simply present a presentation for us please all right is there a second i'll second mr shoemake no discussion all in favor this unanimous miss hannah mr suplee please come up do my best to be brief i know that you may have some questions but i will allow for time for that for sure my board chair matthews is here with me tonight i think it was a real blessing for us to both be able to hear donna if you could pull the mic up a little bit more yes sir i think it was a blessing fo

» r both of us to be present to hear the recognition of the gentleman's club and the work that they've done in our community i would like to start with the fact that uh just a week or so ago we recognized ann davis uh as our one of our highest honors a volunteer of the year award for her work 40 years in the education arena and of course she's still extremely active in our community and has certainly furthered the bridging the gap that is between uh folks that uh that need our help so uh so i thank her for that so tonight you have in front of you uh a packet that starts with stand in the gap it has no united way logo on it because i am truly here for those that we are standing in the gap for both you as council members and us as a united way and so i thank you again for your service to our co

» mmunity it is a thankless job and i just appreciate the the fact that y'all are so involved with our community i will say that i feel like our united way partners with you well and you partner with us well i think it's a mutual beneficial relationship that has made our county better i've been here for 33 years working in our county and one of the reasons that i work in our county is because of folks like you and folks like dan who give their lives to making a difference in the community first page you have is our vision and our mission truly we want to make a difference in the lives of people by changing them for good we have a board of directors made up of 20 people and i've given you a list of those because i think it's important for not only you but our community to know that there are l

» ocal folks that are making a difference in our community united way has both a good name and a bad name there are over a thousand throughout the united states and ours is local ours ours just as sami was saying earlier is is one that makes a difference in our community in ways that are beyond what many united ways do throughout the nation our role is to stand in the gap we speak on behalf of folks that don't speak for themselves or can't speak for themselves i've got three parts of what i do want to do in my presentation one of them has to do it with financial transparency so if you turn to that there's a cover sheet says financial transparency the next thing is the history of administrative overhead since i started in 1992 you can see two major columns that i want to point you to one is th

» e percent plus or minus you can see that lately we have grown tremendously in the size of our budget but you can also see that the total administrative percentage has decreased dramatically over those same that same time and it's because we've been able to secure so many grant funds i will tell you as was mentioned by these gentlemen the challenge for federal funding at this point is huge on april the 25th we were told no more americorps not only here but 33 000 folks throughout the nation were cancelled immediately and lost their jobs what that means for us is we lost 20 mentors in our community who primarily 75 percent of them were students in our schools who lost their job because of a brush of a pen 33 000 people 600 in south carolina no longer working we've been told to go ahead and ap

» ply for next year because congress may appropriate those monies again and in fact to me it is their duty to both appropriate funds and unappropriate funds but that's another topic for another day so as we move forward i want you to see that we as an organization are transparent every one of these numbers that are on here are from our audit first done by um canty tiller pierce and then secondly now the most recent years shaheen hancock and godwin our board contracts that out those folks report directly to our board of directors who then approve the audit and its findings we've had a clean audit almost every single year for for many years when we were smaller we had the exception of separation of duties but our board made sure for example that we have two signatures on our checks even though

» banks don't require that anymore so we did our own checks and balances we serve as a convener in our community oh by the way we have grown from my first year we were three hundred thousand dollar budget this past year our budget is three million dollars a whole lot of that is federal funds but a whole lot as i said is unstable and so we need your help as standing in the gap you'll recognize some of these things about what we do because it's really not about the money anymore it used to be united way was just a fundraising agency today it is not that way and especially in our community we're a social service agency we provide services to folks we bring folks together we ask ourselves who's not hungry because we fed them we ask ourselves who has shelter because they're no longer homeless anym

» ore because we've provided them shelter we ask ourselves who have we provided clothes to every friday we give away clothes in our parking lot we give away food to those who need who are hungry we are standing in the gap for those who need us we are not a handout we are a hand up and i'm not just saying words we have people that work for us we have a board of directors who feel i think just like you do which is people need to step up and care for themselves sure they might need a hand up but they don't need a handout we've got to help them and so we do we do so i think with compassion but we also do so with firmless i've got a homeless worker who is probably one of the most amazing folks i know uh angie shirley who goes out and helps folks where they need it she spent 14 years having trouble

» and so they can't get over on her because she knows what the tricks are of the trade so we're a convener as well recently we convened and that's the next part of number two uh under under convener a couple of ways that we convene folks one is we of course have a board of directors that tells us what our priorities should be in our community but we also have four care councils gary rivus who is a pastor and a member of our board is is the chair of those four care councils we have chairs of each of those as well that bring people together we had over 50 folks that have told us in our community within the last month the things that they see is important we also did a survey and you've got a summary of that that survey we we surveyed over 500 folks who gave us remarks and i've got some of the d

» emographics there i think they're pretty good sampling of our community in terms of race in terms of all kind of other factors age length of time in kershaw county most of them were 10 years or more i think 370 of the over 500 so as a convener we make a huge difference because we're able to listen to folks one of the cautions that we were given by one of the pastors in our community was that we really have to talk to those people who are being served and we know that and we do that and so angie when she goes out she asks what's needed to those who we give food to we ask them what does our community need to help you not need food anymore so we ask those questions and we're seeking answers for them as we do that we've come up with certain priorities and those priorities pretty well match some

» of the things that we already knew and probably are you already know as well so such things as housing food insecurity mental health transportation in fact they were themes in all four of our different care council meetings and you've got kind of a breakdown there i'm not going to go over all of them as we look at those things in our community one of the things we want to do as a united way is match our service with the things that you see as needed in our community we've got challenges now that that mean that we're going to have to make some tough decisions about what we fund and how we fund it it's looking like transportation is going to be a huge issue again come july 1st for those that need dialysis for those that need job uh transportation to work 30 percent of our transportation is ta

» king people to work so i know you all talk a lot about employment of folks and workforce readiness and all of those things well if you're ready but you don't have a way to get there it's a struggle and so we do those things the community needs assessment that we did helped us quite a bit gave us some direction gave us some some ideas and really confirmed a whole lot of what we already know and and i think that's the great thing about all the different groups that convene people live well has a great practice of doing community surveys they also do a needs assessment locally the health district we're looking at all of those things and so we're also listening to you and so as you see needs in our community we want to not only ask you to help us but also we want to help you in your different d

» istricts and the different things that you do we have seven uh pantries that we operate throughout kershaw county we help to bring food out to the rural areas and so those things are all important as we look to the future and as we look to you i've put the front page just to show you transparency that front page showed you that we're asking for a hundred thousand dollars i would be remiss if i didn't thank you all for the 175 000 that you appropriated last year 140 000 of which was from reserves you helped us do transportation in a major way and that transportation is in jeopardy but it is something that you can also help with and so as as we look at some of those things i want to tell you that in 2024 we provided 432 different people with transportation we provided 13 000 rides and a ride

» is just one stop so it's going or coming back it's not both so it's not a round trip total miles 157 000 miles you can see that we helped a whole bunch of folks in camden because the camden address is is a broad one it's not just the city of camden it's the 29020 you can see lugov casset elgin bethune we provide transportation everywhere there's a couple of folks in bethune that need dialysis that we take three days a week to dialysis they for some reason can't go to columbia excuse me can't go to camden and so they have to go to columbia so it's a it's a huge deal for them we were able to get them to go at the same time they both are on dialysis at one time when we first started they were doing it individually different days so we are definitely working on that you can see the top destinat

» ions are dialysis kershaw county adult ed again having to do with education and getting people ready for work employment springdale health is one of our major ones piggly wiggly is for employment river oaks center is for employment carish long-term care is for employment we're taking people to work we encourage in fact we have gone to where we limit some of those transportation rides to say you've got a month or two to get a car or get another way to get there so that we can serve our entire community it's very important that we do so it's looking like there's going to be a route in camden but that route in camden is only going to help people that are already in camden and so we have to be able to get them to where they need to go if you feel it in your heart to to do more than what i ask t

» hat'd be an amazing thing but i know that y'all are strapped and and uh to your county administrator i appreciate the fact that he has let me be up here today because i know that y'all have needs within the county and i know that that's his job is to provide for all of the different things from sheriffs all you know them all uh and he knows them all so i really appreciate that i see time is fleeting ready readers program like i said did some amazing things we served 300 kids this past year in all nine elementary schools we serve them well they all 100 percent increase their increase their reading skills it's k through third grade as i said 20 of those volunteers that we had or those americorps members that we had were high school students seniors many of them going into the teaching profess

» ion or at least deciding whether or not to do so because of their experience the experience on both of the ends was incredible and shanna redfern has done an incredible job with this thing um new day on mill as you know we have provided shelter in our community since 2005 we have nine shelters now the cantis have agreed even though they're moving i don't know if you knew that but uh makes us sad um but they are they are still committed to helping us in kershaw county and building new homes in kershaw county to help us 10 of them and they've already built two one of which is a duplex so they count that as one so that's pretty handy for us so we are in kershaw county we're making a difference we have housed folks that were in the hotels that needed to be housed a lot of them are in some apart

» ments that uh that are really some of the best things we found in kershaw county for 900 a month it's still a lot for those people that don't have much money but for kershaw county uh we're doing some great things in some of those uh some of those places the mobile nutrition center uh we do some incredible stuff mostly because of target distribution center the more things they damage the more food we get so last year that totaled 656 000 pounds of food we and and goods so we're able to help with diapers we're able to help with paper projects we're able to help people that otherwise maybe it's not food but they can replace it because it's good stuff that we're able to distribute throughout our county and like i said there's seven different stops that we do our community gardens are kind of a

» blessing uh in terms of there's eight different churches uh in our community one uh garden club council on aging do some great stuff in our community they are getting to the point where they're going to be self-sufficient and not need our funding which is good because it's about to run out as well so not real hopeful that that federal funding will be revived we're going to apply but we'll see our hud funding right now is on pause and so we are we are hopeful that with our housing work that we do we can do that my time is up and so i will stop i'm sure there might be some questions if there are is there a motion to amend the rules for this particular presentation to extend it by five minutes yes mr jim i'd like to make that motion please all right is there a second all right all in favor you

» got some more time okay briefly i would just say well i would just ask you let's yield to any questions we've heard your presentation absolutely we have the materials thank you so much absolutely any discussion or questions from council members i just want to make it clear thank you mr chairman that um the uh hundred thousand requests does not include any transportation in it it actually if you look at this sheet which i think was on your second one on your cover it is asking for forty thousand dollars and one of the things i want to say to y'all is that my you might want to push start on that uh five minutes i got it in my head go ahead okay it is very likely in fact um it's well it's unknown right now exactly where we're going to need the money to go if we're not able to do transportation

» i can tell you that if you give us money for transportation we'll do it we'll find a way we've even looked at ways for us to provide it ourselves we right now get a 50 percent match on the rural transportation so it would go from 50 to 100 y'all have helped us tremendously with that and we've we've allocated it 11 000 a month to to go through june 31 or june 30 and so we have some of that funding our last reimbursement was in february so our transportation provider is desperate to have reimbursements and that's a whole nother story but the fact is is that his request was for 40 000 for us to reimburse him we got 31 000 from the state from or excuse me from uh santee watery rta to pay that so we had to use your other funds to for that that means that we have absolutely no um costs of our adm

» inistration including our full-time worker the thousand dollars we pay for tracking uh devices and all of those things uh we're we're footing that so we're losing about 10 to 20 000 a month still um and our dedication has been to do that but our also our board is very frank in saying we just don't have it anymore to give so so our struggle is if you appropriate money two different categories i i again say that your priorities are are more important than mine uh as you fund things and i'm going to tell the same story to city council but local is where it's at at this point and that's why i'm asking for as much as i'm asking uh y'all have historically done about 35 000 and so it is a it is a big increase from that and again i thank you from the bottom of my heart for that 140 000 it has made

» a huge difference in the lives of folks who need it thank you donnie we appreciate you and your board and all your staff um there at united way we know that you have tremendous challenges um none of us are closed out up here when it comes down to what's going on nationally um and as much as i love you i don't want to be in your shoes so thank you for what all you do thank you mr matthew for leading this wild bunch uh that supports united way thank you mr tucker any further discussion i have a quick question mr tomlinson yes sir thank you mr donnie i appreciate your presentation um just had a quick question on the vehicle access network yes charts the line chart that says camden lugolf casson and numbers i guess cam is 245 lugolf 79 is that the number of people that went from those areas or

» is that the destination of their eyes that's that's where they're picked up from um and i was honored a few months ago to be able to um appoint whitney marsh to the to the santee watery rta and she's doing a wonderful job um so that 40 000 i know that they're in works right now about how to best serve kershaw county and i believe there's some talks about fixed routes and whitney was educating me on on all the specifics but in your opinion that that forty thousand dollars um with the suggestion from santee watery rta which they could definitely expand more in kershaw county would that forty thousand be helpful for that and at that point could we push for more flexible routes versus fixed routes just strictly in camden because we're we're a rural community and we got a lot of people in the ru

» ral area that need that need rides and i know that your your team has a lot of pressure um and whitney was on giving rise the other night at 7 30 at night when i talked to her so it's dedicated staff and i really appreciate it just kind of wanted to get your opinion on the flexible versus fixed routes the flexible versus fixed route i guess i'm is flexible door-to-door yes sir okay door-to-door in in my mind there has never been a solution in kershaw county that was that was a fixed route and not a door-to-door santee watery rta tried it on highway one and at the time that we were funded only by the health district for a hundred thousand dollars they were spending somewhere in the neighborhood of a couple hundred thousand dollars of cares act money and they were transporting three or four p

» eople a month just almost nobody there were there was no markings and so hopefully it will be better if there's one in the city but still the people that are on the outlying areas there's no other way than to do a door-to-door and the forty thousand dollars would help do door-to-door what's happening at this point and i'll know more on on may the 23rd from miss gibbons at santee watery rta because i've told her we have to have a decision to be able to tell our people that are both the transportation provider all-star transit is a for-profit entity and all of our riders who ride we have to give them notice that we're no longer going to be able to do that or not she said there's a possibility that santee watery rta will take it on i'll be shocked as can be if that happens but i've also said t

» hat would be an amazing answer because truly they are the transportation provider designated for kershaw county for all four counties they're supposed to be it yes sir we've been able to fill that gap we still would be approved for the lughof area and the elgin area that is considered urban but it is a very small portion of the county it's from the 10th out 2010 census and we would be left with in fact i think that money is appropriated only for the united way to provide but i don't see our board saying yes let's provide it there but not in the rest of the county so i think we've got to find a way to do that we're working on it diligently uh the folks that we have approached everything from musc to uh blue cross blue shield foundation have said that transportation is something that they are

» just not able to support as much as they did in the early days so it's gone from 142 000 to 100 000 to 50 000 50 000 and this year the health district is giving us 10. it's going to be really tough for us to do anything further than what we're doing but we would make it happen whitney for example has 20 youth that she's serving all of whom don't have transportation or at least yeah i think all of them don't have transportation those those kids from 18 to 24 they utilize our van we would as a agency because it's under our jurisdiction we would make it a priority to provide them with transportation for sure some way somehow we've had the grocery van for years and we will reinstitute it we've had vehicles donated to us and and we've made it happen but uh it's not this the scale that we've been

» able to do i think is a model for our state um and and nation i would say for rural transportation and i think it's got to be door to door it's expensive but uh it works thank you very much for the presentation just for context before we conclude yes sir this portion of the agenda it's a very tough budget year for us as well as your board sounds like they're experiencing just as an example we have 3.5 million dollars in new requests and only a little over 1.2 million dollars in new revenue to balance those requests against and most of those requests or many of those requests are statutorily required to be addressed and so it's in that context we consider uh your request but thank you so much for coming out tonight appreciate it mr chairman thank you thank you thank you mr chairman yes sir c

» an i do a quick point of order please what's your point of order uh point order is back on the approval of minutes for april 22nd can you resend your vote to abstain so it could be right for ms hannah so i won't have to correct the minutes because you were absent as well exactly right so sorry i rescind my vote thank you thank you thank you miss hannah all right uh that takes us to item number 9a third reading on an ordinance to approve uh particular requirements for installation of fire hydrants any further explanation needed from staff or council all right do we have a motion i would make a motion second i've got a motion to approve in a second mr shumake oh you're asking if i had comments yes sir yeah i got you i just i'm not sure if you're reiterating i made the motion uh yeah this is a

» motion this obviously we debated this pretty heavily in the last two uh meetings i don't really have much to say but other than this is uh a requirement that developers put in fire hydrants if they have proper water flow and they meet certain requirements and i'm supportive of it for the reasons i mentioned in our last two meetings thank you mr shumake mr tucker i just want to make sure with my colleagues did everybody get their questions asked i know there was some on first reading and then second reading and i just want to make sure that um all of you got your your answer to your questions that you were seeking from staff did you reach out or talked about it a lot during the meeting yes you did don't do that tonight do it okay thank you mr chairman okay any further discussion okay seeing

» no further discussion we'll move it to the vote all in favor of 9a passing on third reading yeah mr shoemake mr tucker mr connell mr cato mr thompson voting in favor any opposed mr brazil oppose miss hannah it passes that takes us to item 9b this is third reading regarding convance of certain water facilities and public rights of way any further summary from staff needed by council on this third reading seeing none is there a motion related to 9b i'll make the motion mr shoemake makes motion second there's a second mr tucker to approve it's on the floor mr shoemake no no commentary uh we've had plenty of discussion mr tucker no commentary any further discussion by council members seeing none all in favor miss hannah it's unanimous for all those who are present and voting we've already taken

» care of item number 10 on the agenda on item number 11a i'd seek a motion for discussion only for staff to update us on airport airport commission uh appointments that are on the horizon that need to be addressed do you want to do them as a group if it's just discussion i'm fine doing them as a and b if y'all want to all right i'll make a motion that we uh bring 11a and 11b to the floor for discussion there you go second okay mr thompson has a second mr shoemake the update was going to be provided by staff initially do you have anything nope okay staff uh mr chairman you have members of council you have before you just the uh some discussionary items on um some appointments uh for airport commission we have one individual rolling off the the chair of that commission uh due to the ordinance

» stating that they can only stay on for two uh successive firms so that individual will be rolling also you will have in your packet um a name that will be needing to be reappointed or at least considered for reappointment and then um pershaw health district also we have an individual that is looking to be reappointed or as the the chair for that i believe that would be um at least mr jones district he's not here tonight yeah correct i have some questions too um go ahead mr tucker if i can mr chair so mr uh templar i think we've got statutory uh time limits or terms on the health district as well and uh i know for a fact because i was part of the party that reappointed an individual this would be 10 years for them i think they've reached their capacity so i would really like to dig down in t

» hat before we put that on the agenda to vote on and you know i don't want to do that to an individual at all that's what i'm saying sure sure and um and was do you remember did i know we retooled the airport commission right and it reset and i was this i thought this was a similar it it is but he had already served yeah yeah okay he's already served two terms there and then we gave an additional because we retooled it and he was also told that this would be it and i and i don't want to violate our own ordinance or the state ordinance um on top of that um love to keep him but we can't live uh on boards and commissions when we got statutory term limits and you're sure you're pretty sure he's i'm 99.9 but that's why um i'm asking less research to make sure and um okay that'll be with mr dubose

» and miss hannah the administrator and myself just to because i don't want to be wrong but i'm feeling pretty strong and mr jones is aware of this as well i've had a conversation with him thank you mr tucker any further discussion questions for staff is the airport commission appointment what district does that end you know is it mom yeah i believe so uh well the names have to be on the say that there um there was some council members with two and three appointments because i think there was lack of willingness and other uh districts for anyone that really had interest in particular the airport though um mr connell i think we had looked at that a little bit and there was a little yeah i think i figured out i think overall for the council you're supposed to have at least one appointment if po

» ssible from each council member and some of them have two or three appointments from various council members not just the district but the council member actually made the appointment right and we got to figure out where the chair fits on some of them or not and the way i took it for the airport commission for that vacancy that would fall to you yeah i'm not sure we'll research with mr devose and try to figure out exactly who will be making the next appointment but the point is on the next couple of agendas at least we'll be looking at some making sure applications are in the packet to comply with the rules and then trying to get these committees filled out so that we can have these folks serve who want to yes all right any further discussion council members all right no votes needed we'll

» move on from item number 11. that brings us to council briefings i'll start with mr cato no report tonight no report thank you mr cato mr tomlinson i'm i'm gonna be brief i just wanted to give my condolences and prayers to the singletary family um their son passed away last week um johnny and naomi daniel's parents are good friends and i actually had the opportunity to train daniel and to scuba dive when he was in boy scout troop 777 um just please keep them in your prayers that's a devastating loss couldn't imagine what they're going through thank you thank you very much for that mr tomlinson mr shoemake yeah just a few small things i see in the crowd we have miss autumn dunlap and mississi baloo uh thank you guys for joining us they were recently elected as officers of our local uh republ

» ican party and in addition to that they are in about a couple hundred civil groups between them so appreciate all you guys do for this community and for coming out tonight um the next time we meet at least two of us will have high school graduates uh so obviously we'll talk a little more about that i'm sure next time but just want to send a shout out to uh a group of people that i think are uh particularly important we recognize some of them at our last meeting which is the high school athletes that are also going to graduate my son played baseball which is why i missed uh two of the recent meetings are phoned in so i was at a baseball field having to mute myself so that you guys didn't hear the bad things i might say when things didn't go our way but i just wanted to uh thank all the athle

» tics you know baseball in particular it's kind of interesting because it's so uniquely both team and individual every player on the team is going to have a moment where it's just them standing in front of either a pitcher or a batter but it's also a team sport you know you can have a great individual day and lose as a team and the lessons that teaches these young men and women who play softball and sports in general i mean you get kicked in the teeth and you have to come right back and compete the next day it's not over till it's over you can be in the bottom of the ninth inning losing by three runs it's not like football where if you're down by three or four touchdowns with a minute left you're cooked that game can change in a minute so it teaches these young men compete always uh you have

» to come back strong even when your teeth get kicked in and so as these young athletes graduate i just want to send a special shout out because they're learning the skills that some of us had to go into the marine corps to learn uh and it's going to be um it's going to carry them well in life so to all the college athletics and particularly the coaches in kershaw county that mold these young men and women just a special shout out and thanks and that's all i have oh one more thing i'm sorry uh our the chairman of our county council i wasn't here in person uh was recently inducted into the national wrestling hall of fame uh so congratulations to our chairman i got to go watch that and watch his remarks as you most probably everyone in kershaw county knows he was at one point the best wrestler

» in the united states and they given all his work over the last several decades they honored him as an inductee into the national wrestling hall of fame so congratulations mr chairman well deserved speaking of athletics thank you very much mr tucker any report yes sir thank you mr chairman um let me start off where um shoemake left off at he needs to stay away from his son's baseball game i showed up at the last home game they had and he's a total wreck uh farrell's out there doing his thing he's a total wreck on the sidelines so but i enjoyed being out there with you and my mom got to meet her favorite councilman so so it was a wonderful time uh with the shoemake family and i thank you again for the invite because i thoroughly enjoyed uh with that i want to say thank you to councilman shoem

» ate and um councilman um thomason and all the council members for the retreat i thank those two though especially for the finance committee meeting i'm telling you we're pounding heads and um pulling teeth i think i got two or three loose in my mouth now lord forgive me don't let them fall out that's not the truth um thank you for your work and your due diligence and your time i can't say that enough and i thought i don't know if the administrator or the chairman is going to speak on this so i won't stay on it long um i thought that went well it was very very informative had a lot of good information i thank several of you in the audience for attending um appreciate that very much following your government and um keeping up with what we do and that's important as well so kudos to everyone t

» he other thing i want to say is my condolences goes to the uh singletary family as well and also to the green family which happens to be my barber who passed uh sunday from a massive heart attack he's a camden high grad 61 years old um died at home so my condolences go out to the green family and um it's it's pretty sad actually that's the second classmate of camden high from the class of 81 in less than 30 days the wood family lost one last month as well so the death has been in the community unfortunately and also to the dixon family they lost a 33-year-old phone son they funeralized uh saturday um from a car accident so a lot of um things are going around a lot of people grieving um i want to say too as well um if you have an opportunity go on and read the uh 2026 proposal budget from th

» e federal government if you need something to cry about because it's awful uh you think cuts are this year you read that proposed budget for 2026 and um it's out it was released sometime today it will really really um ask you how are people going to live function and make it so i just want to put that out with that um mr chairman that concludes my report thank you mr tucker mr brazil thank you chairman um i'd like to dovetail off of what brant was talking about regarding uh daniel singletary um came to came to my attention that the young man that passed his grandfather johnny is a good friend of ours and in our family and um i wanted to extend condolences to the family absolute horrific situation and uh just know that we'll be praying for for you all and y'all's family in the days and weeks

» ahead um it is nice to see the republican party here um we've got a republican party here in kershaw county that understands the difference between local government state government and federal government and for that i am grateful and uh congratulations to autumn dunlap sissy baloo and amanda ooten on their recent election i'd like to say to all kershaw county schools in the class of 2025 and uh my son as well who attends school in columbia that you've got a bright future ahead um where you start it and where you finish so once once you get out of high school whether you decide to work in a trade or if you decide to go to a technical school or a university it's all about how you apply yourself and um never let somebody tell you that you can't because this world is full of opportunity and u

» m if you work hard you can accomplish a lot so we uh we do congratulate the class of 2025 and i would be remissed and in trouble if i didn't mention one other thing today's may 13th if i'm not mistaken 1998 i met my beautiful wife casey and uh we met at clemson university on this day so we we have been together since the day we met so 27 years today so well it's it's an anniversary that that we we don't often remember but i woke up this morning i said hey today's the day we met so yeah it's a long time to put up with a brazzle so and congratulations to ben i think i read a letter on your behalf for the national wrestling hall of fame because you tried to wrestle me once and you hurt me that concludes my report thank you thank you very much mr brazel i just have one item to go over for the b

» enefit of the public and council members we've just been discussing an item that's always of interest this time of year third reading of the budget and we often as tradition would have it amend or change the summer meeting schedule based on family vacations which are very important at this point we're looking at doing third reading of the budget potentially on june 17th and so i would just ask the administrator and miss hannah to place on for our next agenda next meeting so we can discuss the summer meeting schedule and firm that up and also looking at canceling the last meeting in june which would be june 23rd and having that replacement meeting on the 17th of june so the public and everyone else can put it on their calendars and that concludes my report all right uh mr templar any briefin

» g uh just very quick um you know in my uh capacity as administrator i get to meet a lot of neat people in 10 years in this office i uh or in this in administration not as the administrator i get to meet a lot of people and a lot of them i've become close friends with and it's kind of neat just going from complaints about dirt roads to um talking with them and then just becoming close friends but i don't always agree with everybody's opinions or anything like that but it's not about that and um so jeff maddox has uh he's been going through a little bit of a medical issue and he just sent me something saying that he was all cleared so i'm just um you know it's it's good again jeff and i we we kind of go round and round a little bit but it's just it's nice to know that uh he's healthy again so

» that's my report good thank you mr templar great great any legal briefing other than executive session no okay gentlemen that takes us to item number 15 uh a and c we'll take them as a group um i'd seek a motion regarding items a and c one deals with contractual arrangements and one deals with pending threatened or potential claims and legal matters both under sc code 30-4-70 do we have a motion to go into executive session i'll make a motion second second mr tucker has a second any discussion seeing none all in favor of going to executive session miss hannah it's unanimous uh we'll have mr nance join us the county attorney um the administrator and uh assistant administrators you deputy administrator and we're going up into the upper room is that right is that we have the technology set up

» the upper room upstairs all right we're in executive session all right and i was just going to mention for the benefit of the public before the mic got cut off uh we do anticipate one vote uh at least one vote coming out of executive session good seek a motion to come out of executive session motion to come out executive session mr tucker chairman second i've got a second no discussion all in favor coming out of executive session ms hannah it's unanimous all right no vote required on item 16c we do have a matter of business on item 15a is there a motion i'd like to make a motion mr chairman i move that we authorize the administrator to proceed with the acquisition of real property at 124 battleship road subject to final completion of due diligence items to the satisfaction of the administra

» tor and that we ratify and approve the purchase and sale agreement for the property that's the motion is there a second second we have a second any further discussion seeing none let's move it to a vote all in favor raise your hand tenants unanimous those who are voting we don't have any further business for the council tonight is a motion to adjourn mr chairman second we've got a first and a second seeing no discussion all in favor ms hannah