Full meeting transcript - November 18, 2025

» All right, it is the witching hour, time to start for our loan meeting in November. We are called to order for our Kershaw County Council meeting Tuesday, November 18th, 2025. Thanks, everyone, for being here tonight. We're going to have an invocation for the agenda by Councilman Danny Cato and a Pledge of Allegiance. Mr. Cato. Let us pray. Your most kind and gracious Heavenly Father, we just thank you so much for all your many blessings. Lord, for your graces and mercies that you pour upon us. Dear Heavenly Father, we just can't thank you enough. Dear Heavenly Father, for the place that you've given us to live for this great county that we live in and we have the opportunity to serve, Lord, we give you thanks.

» Dear Heavenly Father, we also want to lift up the ones, Lord, that are less fortunate. Lord, the ones that are sick or hurting. Lord, the ones that have lost loved ones. Lord, we just pray for them. We just ask that you'd provide peace, comfort, and understanding during their difficult times. Dear Heavenly Father, I just ask that you'd be with us tonight, Lord, that you'd just give us the wisdom, that you'd have us to have, Lord, to make the decisions that would be pleasing to you, and that you'd have us to act accordingly and in a way that would be pleasing to you. Lord, just lead God and direct us throughout this day. Protect us as we go home. For it's in your name we pray. Amen.

» Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much, Mr. Cato. Tonight we will excuse Mr. Shoemake as he is out of town for a conference, and Mr. Tucker will also be excused. He's feeling ill today. And Mr. Tomlinson, I think, is trying to call in. Do we have him yet? Okay, staff has continued to work on that. I know he's been out of town, but want to call in, participate, and so we'll work on getting him online as soon as we can. If I need to, just let me know. I'll call him on my cell phone, and we can hold him up to the speaker if we have to go old school. All right, gentlemen, next item we have is adoption of the agenda.

» Is there a motion? Make a motion we adopt the agenda. Mr. Cato, is there a second? Make a second. Mr. Brazel, Mr. Cato, any discussion? None here. Mr. Brazel? None here, sir. Any further, Mr. Jones? Moves. Seeing none, we'll move it to a vote. All in favor, raise your hand. It's unanimous for those who are present and voting. Ms. Parler, for the record, the agenda is approved. Mr. DuBose, we have public comments up next. Do you have anyone signed up? Yes, Mr. Chair, one person signed up, Isaac McCaskill. The subject is property tax. Mr. McCaskill, you've got five minutes. It's time for council to hear from the public. It's not a question and answer. We look forward to hearing from you tonight. All right, sir.

» My question is, I've been a resident here for about 30 years, and I pay my taxes every time. About a month and a half ago, the county, and I use the county as a whole because of the treasurer, posted my property as being seized that I had not paid my taxes. Well, I came up here with proof that I had paid my taxes. I've never been laid on my taxes. I asked for the same thing that y'all had done to me by putting up a sign on my property telling all my neighbors that I had not paid my taxes. I asked that y'all put a sign up saying that y'all were wrong and that I had paid my taxes. For that, I was thrown out of the building here. I asked that the county council put up a sign saying that I did pay my taxes so the people who live by me know that I was not wrong.

» It was the county that was wrong. Thank you for your message, sir. Did you leave your contact information with the county attorney? Yes, sir. Okay. If you'll leave a phone number and address, one of us would be happy to call you, sir. Aye, sir. Well, that's what I meant by contact information. Thank you for coming up here, too. Thank you. Anyone else signed up? Just one? No other speakers. Okay. Thank you. We do have next up public presentation. This is regarding the sheriff's office and the recent award they've received. Do we have a motion? Make a motion. Mr. Cato for hearing on the public presentation. Is there a second? I'll make a second. All right. We've got a second. All in favor of hearing this public presentation. Raise your hand. It's unanimous, Ms. Hanna, for the record.

» Sheriff Bone or whoever you would like to present, please. You're at a long agenda tonight, so I'm going to try to be real brief. But this is a proud moment that we're here for tonight. And we actually achieved a milestone we've been trying to go after for a while now, and that's our accreditation through CALEA. This is an international accreditation. If you know, a couple years back, we got our state accreditation. This is an international. This is the highest level we can go in law enforcement accreditation. So we just kind of wanted to give you a little brief show of what took place. We were standing at a conference in Jacksonville, Florida this past week. You'll see our accreditation manager in the middle here, Misty Burrows. She's done a lot of work getting up to this level.

» We didn't just show up there in Florida last week. This was probably a good year's worth of work that she put together to get everything ready. There was a lot of on-site stuff and everything getting ready for this conference. By the time we made it there, we went before a board, and it basically just gave me the opportunity to brag on our agency because we wasn't short on anything. A lot of people ask, why CALEA? So I kind of like got a little something here to summarize it. You'll see public trust, accountability, and transparency. That's something huge to any law enforcement organization these days, or it should be huge to them. This is offering to bring somebody from the outside in who has their best practices and has been around other agencies, knows what works and what don't work.

» They're not coming in telling us what to do. They're coming in looking at what we've got, and this is our way of holding ourselves accountable for what we're doing. Professional standards, best practices, that's something else they bring to the table. Reduce liability and better legal defense. Just creating good, sound policies that have been tested, and we have to show proofs that we are going by our own policy. A lot of the stuff we have here we were already doing, we just didn't have it documented correctly. Continuous improvement. One of the things that accreditation does is it moves you forward. It's not staying in one place. Competitive advantage and grant funding.

» Because we're now accredited, that's going to give us a little advantage on some of the grants that we may be putting in for in the future. One of the things I wanted to point out also is that CALEA is 100% voluntary. Nobody forces us to do it. There's no requirement to do state or CALEA. We chose, as Kershaw County Sheriff's Office, to do both. To have both entities come to our office, look over what we've got, and not hide anything from anybody. There may be things that we're not doing well that we want to do better at, and we hope by being accredited through both entities that that's going to get us to the future. This is a few shots from our board interview at CALEA conference in Florida last week.

» There's a panel of the commissioners that will sit us all down, and they're asking us questions about our agency. Again, our accreditation manager, Misty Burrows. Matter of fact, where's Misty at? You need to come on up here. Yes, come on up here. Other agencies are scrambling, trying to get their stuff together, and some agencies got some kind of, what was it? It was like a pending accreditation, pending them completing certain tasks that they were close to, but didn't quite get there. We didn't have any of that. We sat through that, and we got our turn to get up there and speak, and all the questions they asked us just gave me an opportunity to brag on our agency and the work that Misty's done for this accreditation process.

» Now, while everybody else was thinking about what they were going to do during the interview board, we were thinking right after the interview board, because once we went in, and as expected, they voted unanimously to give us our accreditation. What Misty didn't know is that we'd already planned and had our sergeant stripes ready for her, so as we walked down the hallway, as we walked out of our interview room, you had to go straight to get your official photograph taken for your accreditation, and we're walking down the hallway, and we tell Misty, you know, we need to stop and get the uniform straight, get your rank straight on your uniform, and as you can see from the picture, she had no idea that getting her rank straight was going to be adding another stripe to her.

» That's the one you're seeing to the far, the top left there, is by far my favorite picture from the whole conference. That kind of summarizes it here that this is not the end of a long journey, it's the beginning of a new journey. Getting this accreditation was a long process, but it doesn't stop here. This is not like an award you can put on the wall and kind of boast about it. This is something to show in our commitment to continue to do better for our citizens going forward. That's all we have. Can I go first? Mr. Jones, please thank you, Sheriff. I want to go first. Well, we have another retired law enforcement officer up here, and as a retired law enforcement officer, I cannot tell you how proud I am, Sheriff, of what you've accomplished, what your folks have accomplished.

» When I see William sitting out there, when I see Misty up here, I mean, it's just, you know, there are no words to say to gratitude. You've done a great job, and I appreciate it. Now, we haven't agreed on everything, especially budget time. But bottom line is, you know, I support you, you know I support your staff, and thank you for taking this extra mile. I went for a national accreditation with the jail, and I didn't get it because I retired before I finished, but I think they did get it after I left. And it's a big deal. This is a big, big deal. It's something you took out of your busy, busy schedule to make sure that you did for this community. And also for your staff as well. And I was going to say young lady. Sergeant, congratulations. Good job.

» I was wondering why you didn't get a lieutenant rank out of that, but if I'd been sure you got a lieutenant rank. Sheriff, thank you so much. And to all your men, thank you very much. We appreciate y'all. Even Rock. This is something that, if I didn't mention, there's only, there's less than 5% of law enforcement agencies in the United States that holds this accreditation level. I think you got David Tomlin here because of this. He's got so old, he's got so old, I didn't recognize him. Still in his prime. He is, I'm not tackling him. But thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Thank you, Sheriff. Mr. Kato. Congratulations on your promotion and to the Sheriff's Office. Lee, I was wanting to hit on that. This is a very small percentage throughout the country that has this accreditation.

» That's awesome. Y'all have done a great job. And I appreciate the job y'all do in this county. I really do. I appreciate the job you've done. And well deserved on your promotion. And I look forward to what the future holds for you there at the Sheriff's Office. But, you know, you couldn't be any prouder. As I said earlier, we're very blessed to live in a county that we live in. When you look at some of the other things going on around us, we're very blessed. And a lot of that has to do with y'all. And coming from the retired part of law enforcement, I know a lot of the struggles y'all face. A lot of the struggles has changed even since I retired five years ago. And law enforcement's changed a lot, the pressure you have.

» And I tell you, I just, my heart goes out to each and every one of you. My son's in it. So I'm still part of it. And I still consider myself part of it. But thank you each and every one for what y'all do. Thank you, Mr. Kato. I'll note that we have Mr. Tomlinson on the line now as well. Mr. Brazel, any comment? Yeah, absolutely, of course. Wouldn't dare leave me out, would you? Good looking as you are, huh? Oh, there it comes. Watch out. Sheriff, congratulations. Ma'am, congratulations. Everybody involved, congratulations. We already knew you guys were the best. I don't know what took them so long to realize that. But I'm thankful for it now. If this accreditation has anything to do with locking up criminals, drug dealers, thieves, I support it 100%.

» I'm the least familiar with law enforcement as I've never served in that capacity. But I appreciate the job you do and I appreciate all the communication that I have with each and every one of you whenever it comes to making Kershaw County a safer, better place to live. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Brazel. Mr. Tomlinson, I think we have you online. Do you have any comment? Hey, Mr. Chairman. Yes, sir. Thank you. And I would like to really thank our Sheriff's Department and Deputy Burroughs. This is a huge win for Kershaw County one and we are happy here on council to always be supportive of our Sheriff's Department. Thank you so much. This is a great win. Great path forward and great day in Kershaw County. Thank you, Mr. Tomlinson. Sheriff, I'll just share the congratulations.

» It's great to see so many law enforcement personnel here tonight and I appreciate the hard work y'all put in in working on gaining the trust and the visibility you provide for Kershaw County citizens. Really appreciate it. Do you have any other remarks or comments from anyone? Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. Mr. Templer. It's hard for me. I don't normally comment on these, but it's hard to not pipe up in this case. The Sheriff's done an amazing job and just way back I was able to look through the keyhole at this process and just the state. I can't imagine the work that went into CALEA. You know, SLED is one of the agencies that is CALEA certified. So, I mean, this is the amount of work that goes into this is just jaw-dropping for me. And so, and it's through the ranks.

» It's Sergeant Burroughs and it's a team effort, but it's one thing to get there. You got to stay there and abide by the policies that you put in place. But this is, I'm incredibly proud of the Sheriff's Office for getting this. This is just no small task. And I don't think words can really do any justice to what this is and what this means and the sheer amount of work, the Herculean task that went into this. Early Christmas present for the Sheriff's Office. Yes. Great. Sheriff, do you have a plaque or something you'd like to take a picture? We can have everyone gather. Well, please direct those members that you'd like to have come up and we'll take a picture. Do you mind? I would like to say something also. Oh, yeah, please. Sure. I asked him twice.

» Well, I haven't had an opportunity and I didn't want to go over a step, but I just want to publicly let the Sheriff and the Deputy Chief know that I'm so grateful to be working with them and for having their support in this journey, as well as the command staff and every deputy. Without every deputy's buy-in, this wouldn't have been possible. So I'm very grateful to be that liaison and I'm thankful for all the recognition, but it really is like us as a department, too, and I'm very proud to be a part of it. Thanks for sharing that. Thank you. Well, let's have all law enforcement personnel who are participating come up for a picture to memorialize this event and award. Thank you. Thank you. That's good stuff there, guys. Congratulations. Congratulations.

» And I'm so proud David Tomlin made it tonight, too. Excuse me. Captain David Tomlin. Especially not Russell on it. Oh, yeah. No. You saved my neck in here one night. Thank you to all law enforcement personnel in the sheriff's office. And thank you, council members, for your support in that and your comments as well. Gentlemen, a little bit unorthodox, but I think we had an MUSC annual presentation that was going to occur during public comment, just didn't get signed up. So I'll make a motion to amend. Mr. Attorney, hold my hand for a second, just to have another public presentation under appendix two. Absolutely. And then we'll approve the amendment. Assuming that it's approved, we'll adopt the agenda again.

» But I'll make a motion to amend the agenda to add one more public presentation on the MSC annual report. Mr. David Adams is here with us tonight. Is there a second? Second. We have a second. Any discussion? Seeing none. All those who are present, raise your hand if you vote in favor. It's unanimous for those who are voting in person. In favor. Mr. Tomlinson, how do you vote? We still have Mr. Tomlinson? Okay. Well, we can't hear you at the moment, Brant. We've got a quorum, so we're going to move forward. That is the amendment. Hold on. Oh, yes, sir. How do you vote? Can you hear me now? Sorry, you just came back through. I vote yes. Oh, that's a yes. Okay. And now I make a motion to adopt the agenda as amended. Is there a second? Second. We have a second.

» Seeing any discussion, there's none. For those who are in person, raise your hand if you vote in favor. It's unanimous. Ms. Hanna, for those who are present and voting, Mr. Tomlinson, how do you vote? I vote yes. That's a yes. And so the agenda is amended. Now we'll move to the new public presentation item, the MUSC annual report. I make a motion that we have that public presentation. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Jones has a second. Any discussion? One. Move it to a vote. All those who are present, raise your hand if you support it. All right. That passes unanimously for those who are present and voting. Mr. Tomlinson, how do you vote? I vote yes. That's a yes. It's unanimous, Ms. Hanna. Mr. Adams. I'm on down. David, yes, please. And I see these folders have been passed out already.

» If you see the blue folder. I'm glad to hear from him tonight. Good evening. Come on up. Amid my own confusion and getting on the agenda, I apologize. No worries. I appreciate it very much. Welcome. I wanted to, well, first of all, I don't know how many of you know that in my previous life I was a treasurer and a tax collector. And so my job was explaining bad news most of the time. But now I hope I'm here to give you some good news and some things where you have some information where we go forward and we can have a dialogue about questions and other things that you have as we move into the future together. Um, two years ago when I started, we began to have an annual report that we put together for the health services district, um, who leases the hospital and the facilities to us.

» Um, it was a part of the agreement when we were going to work in about the investments that the hospital was being made. I also found out at that time and in conversations with many of you about, um, some of the, the worry in the community about what was going to happen with the hospitals and the, and the facilities in the future. Um, some services were changing, um, there were, there were things that had closed. Um, we had a communications part of the way and one of the wings of the hospital where we had a number of beds closed and it started some speculation around the community that things were changing, that this was going to go away. And I wanted to be here tonight to give you kind of our most recent update summary.

» Um, we can go deeper at any time you wish, but, um, that, that hopefully shows that nothing's further from the truth. And so with that, um, these past two years and three, three years really have seen an enormous growth. When MUSC began with the whole Midlands, which included the two hospitals, when I say Midlands, it includes the two hospitals in Columbia. Um, three years ago, they were losing almost $13 million a month in, in all of the facilities. We have gone from a position of that to now stable and now investments in growth. And I'm extremely excited to share that with you. Uh, so as you'll see, um, on these, and I apologize for making them so small, but we have actually added 46 healthcare providers in Kershaw County. Over 126, I believe in the Midlands over the last year.

» These are, these do, it's not just physicians, it's nurse practitioners and others who can, who can administer healthcare. But even more importantly in Kershaw County last year, we added not, not just replaced. We added 73 new positions in Kershaw County. That's 172 new positions in the last three years alone. And so we are growing. This is not something where MUSC is drawing back. We are growing. We are, Dr. Holmstrom says it's the first time that they've added new physicians to the hospitals and the community in, in a dozen or more years. And so, um, it has been, it has been fantastic on the third slide. It talks about some of the new services that are in, in Kershaw County. And some of those are also, um, Midlands wide.

» So the goal is to be able to do about 80 to 85% of what you need in your local community so that your family and friends can support you when you're going through your time of need in the healthcare system. There are times when you will have to go to Columbia or Charleston, but that's not the plan. The plan is to take care of you here at home. And so these services are being expanded, um, annually, and they will continue to be. As you can see in that fourth slide, um, that means almost $15 million in investment now in the last year. Kershaw County, not system-wide, not, not, not Midlands wide. That is Kershaw County facilities, including the new facility. Um, there are battleship road, um, and, and a lot of others that are highlighted in some of the slides.

» Um, I really just wanted to be here so that I could put it in the record for you that we're not drawing back. We're going to be growing with you. This is not something where we're looking for this to transfer to that. This is, this is a community hospital that is going to be poised to grow with the community into the future. Um, I'm going to skip the slides. You can clearly ask me questions if you have them beyond that. The Hollings Cancer Center will be here. It'll be the first place. It'll be the first hospital in the Midlands that will have the Hollings Cancer Center center here at the Kershaw Hospital. Um, it was the first. We have three 3D mammography machines in Kershaw County. They were the first to get them in the Midlands. And now we have three.

» We have one at the hospital, one at the new building, and then one in the Elgin facility as well. And so, you know a lot about what we've done with the community engagement. One you may not be as familiar with was that our hospital supplied free lunches to kids this summer and gave over 900 lunches out to children from the community. You care for the hospital. It was a really neat program and they're already planning on doing it again next summer. Um, and finally, I'm going to touch on this. I know, I know the chairman wants to really talk about this in the future as we go forward.

» Um, but, um, we will be seeing medical residents here in Kershaw County in I think 2028, which means that people will come to train, come support the staff that's here and learn how to become family medicine doctors right here in Kershaw County. And that means that that is a greater opportunity for them to settle here. And, you know, for, for us to be able to, um, to really roll out the red carpet, work with them, work with their families and have them understand this is a great place to be for their entire career. And there will be the, and they will be working throughout the community during their time here. There'll be six a year. There are, um, it takes three years.

» So there will be up to and continuing 18 different residents here in Kershaw County working, uh, toward their, toward their full, um, medical. Um, medical license. So, and that's where we are. I hope that's great news. Cause I, I'm, I'm excited to present it to you. Thank you, David. Any questions or comments? Council members. Appreciate what you're doing. Thank you. Well, I'm not the smart person. I just call the smart people when you need me to, but. Thank you, Mr. Kato. Mr. Jones, Mr. Brazell. I'll defer to Councilman Jones first. Okay. First off, congratulations. And I just want to thank you because I tell you, I've been on this council 20 years going into January and, uh, the hospital we were very concerned about. Dr.

» Holston was very committed along with myself and some others, uh, to help you get to where it is. And not, not, I didn't have anything to do with that other than I had a mouth. But bottom line is those folks got in there and worked and we got you folks in here now. And I will tell you something. I am so excited to hear about the positive things at our local hospital. And, and, and, and here's Mr. Adams, here's where I'm at. That's what I'm hearing on the street. What you said tonight is what I'm hearing. And that's good stuff. And I'll tell you something else too. I'm also excited about, uh, your brother or sister facilities or partners in Columbia that you have. And I will give you a little, uh, heads up and don't tell anybody, but you got a best well kept secret in Dr.

» Gunter over in Columbia. You better hold on to him. He is wonderful. And, uh, thank you so much for being here tonight. Thank you. Good to have you. It was our honor. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Mr. Jones. Mr. Brownsley, you've heard any comment? Yeah, of course. David, good to see you tonight. And you, sir. Hadn't seen you in six weeks or so. It's been a minute. Um, glad to see you in here and not in the hospital. So thankful for that. Um, quick question on slide. I think it's slide six. Um, at the Camden medical pavilion. So there is an OBGYN practice there. There is. Yes, sir. You have briefed us. Gosh, it's been pushing two years ago now that there have been changes made at the hospital.

» Are we going to see, are we going to see that come back to Kershaw County eventually? That is not in the cards. That will depend a lot on community demand and growth. Um, but the, the change that has happened has sparked, I think we're going to have up towards of 700 births. I'm trying to get zip code information now at the Northeast hospital. A significant number of the folks who, who have their physician here with OB in, in, um, in Kershaw County are scheduled at that particular facility. And that facility is growing so fast that they are actually getting ready to add another wing at that hospital for labor and delivery. So, um, it, I do not know of plans to move it back here. Um, that will, that, that, that does, that depends on population growth, um, for us to be able to sustain that.

» So I, I at least want to communicate this to you. That was a, a big topic at our last town hall, um, amongst many citizens. And then that was a concern. Yes. So, um, I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't mention it. If, if MUSC sees fit to bring it back to Kershaw Health or to MUSC here in Kershaw County, um, we, we'd certainly welcome that. I'll certainly let them know there's been input to that effect continuing. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for what you're doing with everything else. Appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Brazel. Mr. Tomlinson, any comment or questions? No, sir, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. I'll just mention on the, uh, the residency piece. That's really important.

» That's a, a huge sign of confidence from the hospital system, which is also an educational arm to do that in the community. Um, I've got a brother who's finishing up his residency in the upstate right now. And, you know, I wish we'd had this program already. Right, right. Um, but those residents tend to stay in the area, uh, if they like the area and believe in it. And, and I don't know that we'll ever give them back. And so it's, it's going to have the same result here. I think we'll get some new blood in Kershaw County with some of these new residents. And, um, again, it's just a great sign of confidence that the, the patient and support network and patient type is of such that you can do education here as well. We will have more to report on that next year.

» We, we await, you, you have to, um, appoint a director of the GME program. Um, and that should happen sometime next year. So we will have something to more to report that. Thank you very much, Mr. Adams. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. That takes us to item number seven on the agenda. Seven, a approval of the minutes. Is there a motion? Like a motion. We'll approve the minutes. Mr. Cato has the motion. Is there a second? I'll second. Mr. Brazel has a second. Mr. Cato, any comment? None. Seeing none. Mr. Brazel. Seeing none. We'll move it to, um, and Mr. Thomason, any comment? No comment. Seeing none. Present. We'll vote. All in favor, raise your hand. It's unanimous for those who are in person, uh, in favor. And Mr. Thomason, how do you vote? I vote yes.

» That's a yes for Mr. Thomason. Ms. Hanna, it's unanimous and passes. Um, minutes are approved. Item 8A, um, regulation of picnic shelters. So I put this on, I'll make a motion that we just discuss regulation of picnic shelters, pole barns, and other similar structures. Do we have a second? I second it. Mr. Jones has a second. Um, at some point in the future, I anticipate this will come up for a vote, but this is something we've talked about with staff, um, and the administrator in the past on trying to make the regulations less onerous on building these types of structures, particularly on a residential piece of property.

» We've had some complaints in the past about folks building these and, you know, sometimes engineering might be required based on the size and it seems like a simple structure. If you can build your own house, uh, somewhat simply, you should be able to do so with a pole barn or a picnic shelter. And so I just request, if there's no other discussion from counselor questions, I just request that staff put this on if not for December, because I know, uh, we've got a lot of things to cram into December meetings. It's, it's our only one at the first of the year. Let's make sure we address this and, and see what recommendations we can get. Any other questions or comments from council? If I may, and Mr.

» Chairman, I'd like to thank you for putting this on the agenda cause there is some things that I think we could do better on making it easier for our folks to do this. You know, and, and I know our administrator agrees too, and he's been very open and willing to work with me anytime I contact him, but, but something has to be done because it shouldn't take two years to do a 12 by 12 picnic shed, you know, for some folks. But anyway, enough of that. Thank you for that. And I look forward to it. Yes, Mr. Jones. And the tension seems to be some folks just do them. And, you know, essentially if you don't have the proper footings and certain safety precautions in place, these structures can become large kites that can land on somebody else's property or injure someone.

» And so you got to have some regulation or restrictions on it to make sure it's safe. Um, but maybe not as many as we have now. Any other comments or questions? Yeah, I would, um, like to ask if there's an expert in the room that could speak to this. I think I see him. We, we've had conversations in the past and there was always some sort of a technical sticking point. I would get a refresher on what that was. Yeah. I recognize that face sitting out there. Yeah. Mr. Chair. Also, if I may, um, having talked with staff, there are, there's a lot of different buckets that these fit into these structures, depending on size and use.

» And, um, so what we originally thought would be a, perhaps a, uh, I don't want to say one size fits all, but a, a basic engineering design that we could use as an inspection tool, um, that didn't turn out to be such the golden BB that we thought it would be. So, with that, we do have Sam here to answer some basic questions, but what I will do this week in my brief is provide some FAQs and some, uh, just other bits of information for y'all to kind of digest a little bit as, as, as this thing is coming up in an agenda as a, an item. So there's just, just some nuances and things like that. Some background information. I'm, I'm, I'm very interested to hear, uh, Councilman Brazel's questions. I'll just mention for, for my purposes, I'm, I really want to know about residential.

» So non-commercial, non-agricultural business use residential. Cause I know some other counties I've communicated with have had issues of doing the one size fits all and they regret doing it. Now they're trying to walk it back. And that's been very challenging, but please, uh, Councilman Brazel. So actually, uh, Sam and I spoke, gosh, 18 months ago about trying to find an engineer who would, who would give us kind of a, uh, a one size fits all or within certain boundaries. And, um, I think you and I both spoke to an engineering friend of mine and he essentially wasn't comfortable doing it, um, because of the liability issues with somebody doing a variation off of his plan and his stamp for just a one time fee.

» Uh, but the other side of that is I remember walking in here and for $50, getting a permit for a pole barn. Those days too. So tell us, tell us what's changed and tell us how we navigate something to a better place. So it's mostly about liability. The problem is you, we obviously have code books and the code books can't cover every specific type of building that can be built. For example, you can build a house out of shipping containers. That's not covered in our books. Anything that's not covered within the books has to be prescribed by an engineer. Whole buildings are not within our books. So that's why I have to request that an engineer design these buildings.

» It's not something that I necessarily want to do, but it's something that legally, to eliminate liability for the county, have to require. So whenever I walk in here and say, I want to build a 2,500 square foot, four bedroom house, exterior is going to be brick, going to be crawl space. Stick built. Elevation, stick built, no truss. All that's in the book. Do you require a engineer? No, sir, because that's covered in the International Residential Code. So who writes the International Residential Code? The International Code Council. And it's made up of people like myself, some lobbyists, some other folks that get in and say, these are the things that need to be done to make homes safe. So is there no appendix? Is there no addition? Is there no... I found one, doing research, I found...

» I believe that Tennessee has an appendix that they've adopted for pole building. Okay. I don't know if it's still there or not, and I haven't checked since you and I spoke. That type of adoption would have to be done at the state level. Okay. Not impossible. Correct. If you could, give us a copy of the one that you saw that Tennessee adopted. Sure. Or if you could reach out to whoever your contact is with the code book for homes and ask the question, what do we do for pole barns? Maybe they have something or they could point us in the right direction. It's... I can tell you that the ICC is not going to have anything. I've discussed the topic with members of the Building Officials Association of South Carolina. I'm a member.

» But what you do is you can direct a question to the president and the president will send it out to everyone who's affiliated with the Building Officials Association. And it gives everybody the opportunity to respond. And every response that I got unfortunately said they're doing what we're doing and that's requiring engineering for pole buildings. We're going to have to find a solution. Okay. Yeah, I agree. Our chairman has brought this up and he brings up a valid point. You can build a half million dollar, a million dollar structure, yet you can't build a $5,000 structure without a set of engineer drawings. So you're at risk of spending as much on the engineering as you would the structure. Necessarily.

» I'm not going to talk figures tonight, but I do know of an individual who builds pole buildings regularly in the county. And I know the engineer that he gets his designs from and it's not quite as expensive as you think. Well, in the short term, I hope we're providing that to folks who need that service. Sure. Is that something that we could have under a frequently asked question, maybe in the lobby? Sorry, I don't understand the question. State it again, please. Could we have a one sheet form regarding pole buildings and kind of the reasons why it's required? Sure. And then maybe a summary of several people who specialize in that just to help one's process be easier. Absolutely. Well, just legally, I think we can, I saw the attorney lean up. I think we can provide information.

» I don't know that we can recommend professionals, but you know, there are only a few people who build pole barns in the county. To Mr. Brazel's point, it's either a matter of education and we let people know like, unless the state, if that is the requirement, unless the state approves something to allow us and gives us the authority, because we're a baby of the state to do something with the ZLDR or the code. Otherwise, our hands are tied and engineers will continue to be involved, but we're making efforts and trying to lobby and push ourselves for those changes. Or let's figure out a way, if we can, to make it less onerous so that people can build and exercise personal property rights. Mr. Brazel, you good? Mr. Jones. Go ahead.

» I think if we don't find a solution to this, I think what you're going to find is you're going to find people just building them. They're just going to build them. Absolutely. And I don't blame them. I mean, I don't blame them at all. It's ridiculous that I couldn't go out there and build a 12 by 24 shed to park my boat under. I mean, that's just, it doesn't make any sense without having some engineer cost me another $1,500, $2,000, whatever it cost me, to draw up some kind of plan for me to have that build or build it myself. I just don't agree with that. I'm all for whatever we got to do to get that changed. Well, can I say this? Mr. Jones, please. I can say this to you, Ms. Cato. We are the policymakers. Right. Not them. We are.

» We put forth, we created the department, the county council, and if there's something we don't want to enforce, it doesn't get enforced. We can, we set the laws. You can say state law, international law, whatever. We are not, well, we can be mandated, but what are they going to do, lock us up? Well, yeah. I mean, no, what I'm saying is that, and Sam, I had a couple of compliments on you last week, and I want to thank you for that, too. And I appreciate you being here. I really do. And I'm not getting on anybody. Oh, I understand. Okay, but seriously, if you've got four members of council, they rule the roost when it comes to setting the laws and setting the guidelines. I agree, Mr. Jones. If you guys told me to stop enforcing it and you wanted to put it on paper. Correct. To cover me.

» Oh, we would. And I'd have no problem. Leave me from liability. I'd have no problem with that. And I have no problem with that. Well, I would have some problem with that. And we understand you're just doing your job. I mean, we understand you're doing what's on the books. Absolutely. Sam, absolutely. We understand that. I don't take it. Yeah, I'm not taking any of this personal. I work for you guys if that's what you guys would like to do. Absolutely. Discuss it with John. Find out the best way to handle that. Sure, we can move forward. Well, I think we need to do that. Yeah. Well, technically, yes, you could get four votes and maybe do anything. But for areas in which the state has reserved jurisdiction on building authority and regulation, you know, I'm not willing to go that far.

» Because if somebody just builds whatever and it does turn into that kite that lands on someone else's house and the county, you know, put the stamp on it and said, you're good to go. That's a safe structure. Or, heaven forbid, it hurts somebody. But you're asking for a balance. We do need to find a balance. Yeah. And whether it's public education until we can get a legislative change or if there's something we actually can do as a minimum standard that's satisfactory for, again, personal residential use, not non-commercial use. Is there an ag exemption? I know. Yes. So if it flew off somebody's farm and hit my house, it wouldn't matter. I think it still requires footings and... It could answer that question better than that. Yeah, I think there still might be personal liability in that.

» There's liability to me looking at you. I just don't, because it's an exempt structure, the county wouldn't be involved. So an ag building can be built with, you have to have a permit, and the permit is basically to make sure you get put on the tax room. There's no inspections, except for if you're going to have power, we're going to inspect your point of connection. So that'd be at the meter. That's it. There's no other inspections. Now, the reasoning behind that... That's five acres or more. If you have agricultural property, yes. Timber or ag. I consider timber ag. Timber as ag. Yeah, legally it is. The reason for that is, let's say you have 50 acres and a sawmill, and you want to go cut your own trees and build your own barn.

» By code, you can't do that, because any timber or lumber has to be stamped by an approved organization, such as the American Pine Association. SPIB. Yes. So, to go cut your own timber, obviously it's not stamped, unless you want to pay someone to stamp it. Which you can. You can get it stamped. It's fine. Alan Wooten did it. He built his own house with it. I watched him do it. I know. I've had several people in the past. I don't know anyone to recommend. I would love that gentleman's information. I know I'm not supposed to recommend any folks, but they're so hard to find. Well, I know the SPIB rep. I can get you in touch. But anyway, because you've cut your own timber and you're going agricultural exempt, you can use that. And that's kind of the reasoning behind it.

» And what difference does it really make that you make your chicken shed out of small things? But anyone who meets the agricultural exemption, I stand behind it 100%. I've had folks come in the office and say, "I want to build this whole building." And I start looking at the property and looking at things and say, "Well, Mr. Smith, you've got a tractor, right? And we're putting this tractor in your shed and you've got 150 acres here. Let's go agricultural exempt." No matter if there's a home on the same parcel. If you have agricultural property, we can make it agricultural exempt. Okay. Makes sense. Thank you. I try to work with people. No, I know you do. And I appreciate that. And I heard that too, Sam. I have heard you try to work with people. Thank you.

» And I realize too that you have your credentials to do and make sure that you're doing everything right. But I tell you what, if these guys are subject to losing their jobs because they don't listen to the people, and that's who we work for, the people. And I think we've all, all of us have gotten complaints up here, but I have heard good things about you as well. And I just want you to know that. Y'all let me check with Mr. Thomason remote, see if he has any comments before we wrap it up. Mr. Thomason, anything to add? No, sir. Mr. Chairman, I have nothing to add. Okay. Thank you. Council members, anything else? Mr. Administrator? Thank you. Good? Yes, sir. We'll get it on early in the year in 2026, see what we can do with it. Thank you, Ben. Thank you very much. All right.

» No votes required. You're welcome. One of those issues just been sticking around. I think we've got to come to some resolution or a final education point on it. Item number nine. This is third reading on a rezoning. Do we have a motion? I'll make a motion. Do we go forward with this? Mr. Cato has a motion to approve. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Jones has a second. Mr. Cato. We've been through this on the first two readings. My opinion of this has not changed. And I think we need to move forward with the approval on the third reading. This church has done some amazing things and continue to do amazing things. The pastor's back here right now. And he spoke the first couple of readings and he's had a lot of good things to say and has explained what his intent is. So I'm all for it.

» I'm all for the third reading. Thank you, Mr. Cato. Mr. Jones, you have the second. Well, I think he said it all. And thank you, Pastor. What y'all do. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Mr. Thomason, I know you had some special concern with this particular agenda item. Any comment? Yes, Mr. Chairman. Pastor Jones, I really appreciate you being there again tonight. And I appreciate my colleagues supporting this. This is something that's going to be very good for the community. Not only do they provide a place of worship, they also provide many things for the community, whether it being United Way, Boy Scout troops, Food for the Soul, among other things. So I appreciate all you do and I really appreciate my colleagues voting yes on this. Thank you, Mr. Thomason. Mr.

» Brazel, any comment? Looking forward to supporting this. What a wonderful church. It's so good to see people helping one another in this world instead of the exact opposite. Love is a wonderful thing. Thanks for being here, y'all. Thank you, Mr. Brazel. I'll also be supporting it tonight. I've already said my piece before. Let's go ahead and move it to a vote, seeing no further discussion. All those who are present, how do you vote? Raise your hand in favor. It's unanimous in favor in person. Mr. Thomason, how do you vote? I vote yes. That is a yes, Ms. Hannah. It passes on third reading unanimously. Congratulations, Pastor, and thank you both for being here tonight. Yes, sir. That takes care of number nine. Ten, a place on the agenda by the administrator.

» This is yard waste grinding service at the landfill. Is this going to require any vote for us, Mr. Templer, or is it just information? Typically, a vote to authorize me to go forward with this. Okay. Any background before we move to a motion? Yes, sir, Mr. Chair, members of council. This is what we do annually to maintain our DHEC or DES now standards for our Class B landfill. As it relates to yard debris, this allows us to grind up the debris that accumulates out there, turn it into chips, and create more capacity out there. We do this every year, and the State Tree Service out of Sumter was the low bidder at $140,000. Staff recommends State Tree Service. Thank you, Mr. Templer. For the background, do we have a motion on this bid? Got questions. Mr. Chairman, I make a motion. All right.

» We've got a motion in favor. Do we have a second? I'll second. We've got a second. Mr. Thomason, we'll get to you, Mr. Brazos. Mr. Thomason, you had the motion. Any comments or questions before we get to Mr. Brazos? I will yield to Mr. Brazos. Mr. Cato, anything? I'll see you. Mr. Brazos. Thank you, Brant. How you doing up there, bud? Missing you, my friend. Go ahead. Missing you, too. Mr. Administrator, do we know what the calculation is for 30,000 cubic yards of debris as far as tons? Any clue? I'm sorry to ask. I know I'm asking you that stone cold. No. There is a formula to allow us to, instead of just a sum of, hey, look at this pile. What do you think it would take to grind it up? There is a formula.

» I don't recall it off the top of my head, but it reminds me of probably the formula for rocket fuel. Well, let's see. I think you're going to, according to my iPhone, it's between 7,500 and 12,000 tons. I'd like the opportunity to find someone who would buy these wood chips and use them for either boiler fuel, or I'm connected with several plants that buy wood chips that are ground. So, it may put us in a position to maybe break even on it, not cost us anything, or, I don't know. What do we do with the chips now after it's ground? Do we just leave it and let it rot, or? We create windrows out of a fair amount of them, and then some of it is used sometimes for cover on the hill. But most of it is just spread out, and then it just composts, if you will.

» Would you be willing to maybe table this until the next meeting, or is this a dire need? I'd like to share some information with you. We still have to grind it because of DES standards, and so that is part of our maintenance. It would be ground still yet, yes. Yes, and I don't know if these are timely, and with one meeting a month, I'm reluctant to table this, because. Well, I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll move forward with the old way, but I'd certainly like to talk to you about options for next time. Is that agreeable to my colleagues? I wouldn't have any objection to that, as long as we follow procurement, of course. I mean, that should be an issue. One question for, you know, and I've purchased your products before. They're very fine quality. We don't do this. No, I know you don't.

» I just know people that do it. I know the folks you work with, too. So this 30,000 cubic yards, is it contaminated anyway? I mean, like, is trash mixed in, and people, does it blow out of one bin and end up in some of this tree waste or yard waste? It's a good question. I wonder how pure it is. One of my questions would be, like, quality, because it's not, like, we wouldn't offer it for residential use because of potential termites and things like that. And it's, it's a mixture of, it's everything. And so there can be plastic bags and things like that. So it just, I would be very interested in that because that's a model I would love to move to, turning costs into commodities as it relates to things we take in and selling rubber tires.

» Yeah, Councilman Brazel, if there's a market out there we're not aware of, and maybe somebody doesn't care if it's got a little bit of trash in it. Well, first off, the county wouldn't be liable. We would have a contractor come in, grind it, and they would, it would be like a logging site. They would line trucks up, they would blow the wood chips into the back of vans, and they would haul it to a location. It could be used as boiler fuel, which would be the lowest value. And we probably wouldn't break even at that point. But there's a product, it's referred to as wood flour. So they take it and they grind it, and they continue to grind it into a flour. And that flour is used as a percentage in plastic decking.

» So if you were to buy like a name brand will be Trex decking, it's not all plastic. And that's actually recycled plastics mixed with recycled wood waste. And there's a location in North Carolina that buys quite a bit, and they pay pretty fair for it. And I've got some of those contacts I'd like to, between that, well I'd like to, like to work on it now. Because what we could do is set up a model, maybe that's continuous. And we would never build up to the point of having to spend this much money. We could do that. But we can work on that in the next couple of weeks together. How long is this contract? Is it just for the tonnage, or is it? Just for this, it's a one-time deal.

» And then in the past, depending on weather events, which I feel like we're kind of past there, we can come in and have a tub grinder come in for any debris. But Mr. Brazel, to your point, I would love to hear about that. Because we could have some abilities to segregate different, something is old and dead and not worthy. But we can determine that something has value to it. We can... We'll make a field trip out of it. Sure. Yep, absolutely. I'd love to. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Any questions on the table for approval? Any other discussion? Yeah, quickly. Mr. Jones. I see that the tree service in Sumter was 140,000, and then you got MW Collings at 275,000. What's a big, big difference then? Yes, sir.

» And I was looking at that, and the only hazardous guest I could throw out there is mobilization. Just the distance they're coming to this. Tub grinders are pretty tough, and then for safety, we require, through the bid, there to be a larger bulldozer to push, and so there's equipment. Yes, sir. One quick question, too, and it's probably staring me straight in the face. Where staff recommends state tree service for 140 and budget line item for yard waste disposal is 180. Yes, sir. And the explanation on that is? Just saving... This cost has gone up. I remember the days it was $60,000 back in the good old days, but it's escalated, so it's difficult to... You know, this isn't something we know exactly how much we'll get in each year. Storms can add to that. So, it's just like tires.

» We don't... It's really difficult to project what we're actually going to take in, but I'm happy that we're coming in under budget. A lot of people buying artificial Christmas trees, too. It makes it hard on trying to... Okay, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Any further comments or questions? Seeing none, we'll move it to a vote. All those in favor who are present, raise your hand. It's unanimous in favor at present. Mr. Thomason, how do you vote? I vote yes. That's a yes from Mr. Thomason. Remote Ms. Hennett passes unanimously on 10A. Item number 10B. I'll make a motion that we name the Veteran Park Boat Ramp the Medal of Honor Boat Ramp, and I'll provide further explanation if we get a second and move it forward. Do we have a second? Yeah, I'll make a second. I'll make a second. Mr.

» Brazel? I heard Mr. Brazel with a second. All right. Kershaw County is very unique in the sense that we are tied for first for Medal of Honor recipients in the state of South Carolina. We punch way above our weight in that respect throughout the country. Pickens and Spartanburg also have four Medal of Honor recipients, and I'll share their names now. We've got Sergeant Richard H. Hilton, Corporal John C. Villepague, Corporal Donald L. Truesdell, and one of the most recent recipients, Sergeant Major Thomas Patrick Payne. And we've got the Veterans Park. It's had historic military-related events occur there. Tomorrow at 11 a.m., as I'm sure you'll hear, we've got the boat ramp ribbon cutting that's going on.

» And I just thought it'd be fitting so that each time, you know, a young man or woman goes and uses the boat ramp and they ask questions about who these people might be, I anticipate we put a plaque up there that has names and a little bit of space for any future recipients. And I just think it'll be a great tribute to those who have served and exhibited such bravery and selflessness. Mr. Brazzley, you have a second. Yes, thank you. Thank you, Chairman. Just so that we have it correct, the name again? So the name would be just Medal of Honor Boat Ramp, and that would be at Veterans Park.

» And as we've discussed previously, as the park continues to grow and be utilized, I think it's one of the most utilized recreational assets in the county right now, there will be other opportunities for either naming or providing tributes to groups of veterans or folks who have served in particular ways. And, you know, I welcome those in the future so we can build the park out and really recognize the service, armed services in Kershaw County. No, I think that's good. I was just thinking about maybe finessing the name, but I didn't want to make it too long. But the Medal of Honor Boat Ramp will be good, and we've got four here in the county. We could name those four on a placard or something. And I think we've got so many veterans that's given so much, and they stand for our freedoms.

» They fought for our freedoms. We all have a grandfather, a father, a loved one who served, and many of you in this room served. And for that, we all say thanks. I would definitely like to see an opportunity for someone who lives here in Kershaw County to be able to recognize that loved one and that family member, whether we do it with a wall, a small donation, whatever it might take to help fund that, I would be in full support of. And I just think it's a good idea. I've seen it done in different places, small tributes to those that we love and want to remember. So I think that's fantastic. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Brazel. Any other comments? Mr. Jones. Quickly. I'm very proud of our military.

» I never have really supported the Veterans Park because I didn't agree with it when it first got started. And I haven't voted on a whole lot in there. But I'm going to vote for this because when you talk about a Medal of Honor recipient, I mean, guys, that's huge. And all our other -- and as Mr. Brazel said, so many others have fought and paid a price for our freedom. But if we're going to call it the Medal of Honor boat ramp -- and Mr. Templer knows where I'm going because he's former military as well -- it better stay clean. It better stay fixed. We don't need it to be -- you know, do we have an employee out there? We had a ranger, but that we will -- we're going to take that position and make it a ranger/maintenance if those would be more active. But -- and, of course, Mr.

» Templer knows what I'm talking about because he and I both got blindsided about a year ago with the condition of a boat ramp that we didn't know about because nobody reported it. You know, and it wasn't his fault. It wasn't my fault. What citizens caught up. It was upside down for about 30 days. So what I'm saying is that we need to make sure -- because if we name it -- and I'm going to vote for Medal of Honor boat ramp, guys, that's representing our Medal of Honor recipients. It needs to be worthy of that name. I agree. And we need to -- and we need to make sure that it's spotless. And that's all I got to say. I know Mr. Templer will. No question about that. But I just want to bring that out in the open. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Mr. Kato, any comment? No comment.

» I'm full supporter of it. Mr. Thompson, any comment remotely? No comment at all. Thank you. And lastly, I'll share that the Veterans Park, in some ways, it's kind of hallowed ground. I'll share this in remarks tomorrow. And a lot of people don't know this, but the Army had the largest ever mass parachute drop occur at that site. Literally, the Veterans Park. I saw them. You saw them? I sure did. You were a kid? Yes. We pulled over the side of the road and watched them jump out. You're kidding. Yeah. So, well, I did not know that. I want to ask you, because my uncle, my great uncle, Ivy, was in that -- we'll talk after. So, 120 C-47 aircraft flew over the Watery River Bridge to go through a drill at the time, because they were about to go overseas into battle.

» And that was one of the most effective and actually the largest first mass parachute drop by the 505th and 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. And so, it's a very special place to me. That's why I've supported it all along. I think it's a special thing that is able to come into public hands at some point and be accessible to the public. And I think it's important now that we built on it and now have these other recognitions that we can pull out to show Kershaw County's dedication to love of country, love of defense, and all those things. Mr. Jones, anything else? Yeah, a quick thing I want to say, make sure I clarify myself. I was eight years old, and my mom and dad, that's what they told me, because my father was 82nd Airborne in the war.

» And one of the few times that I saw him and talked with him was that day. And I know they were -- it was maneuvers. It was soldiers. They were jumping out the plane. I can't tell you if it was the 500 or whatever, but I can tell you there was a lot of soldiers in parachutes jumping out at that site, which was pretty impressive, much less for an adult. But a small child. And I have that visual, never forgot. But I can't say it's the exact group you're talking about, because I don't know. Well, after that, they used the site as well. But we'll talk about dates afterwards. That's very interesting, though. Thanks for sharing.

» Any other comments or questions? Well, yeah, to make the announcement that we are having the ribbon cutting at 11 o'clock tomorrow, it's something that has been years in the making. As a matter of fact, our chairman was at the State House during that step. That was on County Council the first time we talked about it. For the first time. Yeah. Then he went to the State House for two years, and now he's back. And it's taken that long for it to come to fruition. And I can remember, Chairman, when I first came on Council five years ago, you talking about a project that you had worked hard on over in Elgin. I think maybe it was a community center or a park or something of that nature, and you were saying that it had taken a lot longer than you had hoped.

» But working through the difficulties of engineering and then government restrictions that we have to deal with as well, you were so happy for it to be done. And now today, I have that same feeling. I am extraordinarily proud and thrilled to have championed this project. Ben, I appreciate your support. And Danny and Jimmy and Brant and Sammy and Derek, everybody supported it. And I'm just so thankful that we've got a council that sees value in the citizens of Kershaw County because that's what this is about. This is about citizens having safe access to the watery river, which is one of our biggest assets. And if you don't recognize that now, maybe you'll have the opportunity in the future because this is going to be such a wonderful thing tomorrow. And I hope that we have a great crowd.

» Can I say one more thing, Mr. Chairman? Mr. Jones. I will say this, because I've been here the whole time, even before all of y'all were here. I can tell you something right now. Ben, if you hadn't got that money for us, I don't know that this would have happened. But I can tell you what, when you got that money for us, if he had kept his mouth shut, it wouldn't have happened either. Because, Russell, you beat us all to death, making sure that thing gets to where it is now. I beat Ben to death, too, when he was in the state office. Exactly. But I am proud of what both of y'all have done on that. And this is one of the first positive votes that I've given to that part. And I'm glad you've accomplished that, where I'm concerned. Not that it's any big deal.

» But y'all have made it where I feel it's worthy of the support. Well, it is a big deal. And we appreciate it. We'll take it. And thank you, Danny, for staying on it. All right. Let's move it to a vote. Those present and voting in favor, raise your hand. It's unanimous for those present and voting. Ms. Hanna. Mr. Tomlinson, remote, how do you vote? Mr. Chairman, I vote yes. That is yes remotely for Mr. Tomlinson, Ms. Hanna, and it passes unanimously on 10B. Now onto 11. We have a series of reappointments for various boards and commissions. 11A is reappointment of Casey Brazel, placed on the agenda by Councilman Tomlinson. Do you have a motion, sir? Yes, sir. I would like to make a motion that we appoint Ms. Brazel to the library board. All right. Is there a second? Second. Mr.

» Jones has a second. Did I beat anybody out on that? Yes, me. That's okay. You had a couple seconds. We just need one. Mr. Tomlinson, any comment? Yes, Mr. Chairman, I would ask all my colleagues to continue to support Ms. Brazel. She has done a wonderful job in her term on the library board, and I'm honored that she is willing and able to continue to serve. I appreciate you all supporting Ms. Brazel. She's done a great job. Thank you. Mr. Jones, you have a second. There are no words. She's a wonderful, spectacular individual. I have all the respect in the world for her, and I'm so glad she's willing to do it. Thank you, sir. Mr. Kato. You had the second second. I had the second second, but there's nothing left to say. They're exactly right.

» She's a wonderful, wonderful lady, and she's done a great job, and she'll continue to do a great job. I'll echo the same sentiment. I'm sure she's going to continue to do a good job if her husband doesn't get in her way, and Mr. Brazel has informed me that he's upstanding and not participating in the commentary or the vote. With no further comments or questions, let's move it to a vote for those who are present. We still have a quorum participating. For those who are present and voting, raise your hand if you're in favor. It's unanimous in favor for those who are present. Mr. Tomlinson voting remotely. How do you vote? Mr. Chairman, I vote yes. That is a yes from Mr. Tomlinson, so it's unanimous and passes, Ms. Hanna. Thank you.

» That takes us to 11b, reappointment of Jack Carrington, Recreation Advisory Commission, placed on by Councilman Tomlinson. Do we have a motion? Yes, sir, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to make a motion that we reappoint Mr. Carrington to the Recreation Commission. All right. We've got a motion. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Jones has a second. Mr. Tomlinson. Mr. Chairman, the same thing. Jack has done a wonderful job in his time on the Recreation Commission. He has helped really spearhead a movement to where we've had money come back into our recreation department. Not only that, he is passionate. I've seen him out on weekends, out of his spare time, cutting the grass himself at our soccer fields at Larry Doby. I've seen him and Casey West doing the same thing.

» He's passionate about the community, and he's willing to serve, and I appreciate all he does. Thank you, Mr. Tomlinson. Mr. Jones, you have a second. I agree with everything he said. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Any other comments or questions? Lucky to have him. Mr. Brazel. Jack Carrington's a great guy. He's worked hard on all these recreation projects, and he has a passion for kids in the community. I'm in full support of Jack in his reappointment. Thank you, Mr. Brazel. Any other comments or questions? I support it as well. We'll go ahead and move to a vote. For those who are present and voting, raise your hand if you're in favor. It's unanimous for those who are present and voting. Mr. Tomlinson, how do you vote? Mr. Chairman, I vote yes. Ms. Hanna, it passes unanimously on 11B.

» 11C, reappointment of Kevin Colt, Recreation Advisory Commission, at large seat. I place this on, and I'll go ahead and make a motion that we reappoint Kevin Colt. Is there a second? I'll second. Mr. Cato has a second. I'll just note that, like Jack and others, Kevin has served dutifully. He has paid special attention to some of the projects we have going on right now. I know he's tried to work as well as he could with staff and put any additional time in that was required to make sure some of these projects are going in the right direction. And he's had a particular focus on trying to make sure we maintain what we have. And he's advocated with me and others I know for funding to make sure we maintain what we have and keep it nice for the kids as well. That's what I had to share. Mr.

» Cato. And I'll say this about every one of them, not just Kevin, but this Rec Commission has really had a tough job over the last couple years. With these new Rec projects we've got going through, and I appreciate what each and every one of them has done and continues to do. And Kevin and Jack both and Alan, all of them, they do a great job and I know they'll continue to do a great job. Thank you, Mr. Cato. Any other comments or questions from council members? Seeing none, we'll move it to a vote. Actually, I'm sorry. Mr. Bressel. I just had a moment of not paying enough attention. I've known Kevin since we were probably in the sixth grade. He's a fantastic guy. He's always had a great heart. He's got a big passion for what he's doing.

» And I wanted to just tell Kevin thank you for what he's done. He stood up for us in these circumstances in which we were being given down the road for doing something. good for our community. And we did it all with cash. If our Congress can send $200 billion to Ukraine, how in the heck can't we build a park for our kids to play ball in? I don't get it. I just don't get it. I do not understand it. So if we can't do good for our own people, why are we sitting here? Thank you, Kevin, for being a voice. Sometimes when we were silent, I thank you for that and I want to say that publicly. Thank you, Mr. Brazel. Seeing no further discussion or comments, we'll move it to a vote. Those who are present and voting, raise your hand if you're in favor.

» It's unanimous for those who are present and voting. Mr. Tomlinson, how do you vote? I vote yes, Mr. Chairman. That's a yes remotely for Mr. Tomlinson. And Ms. Hanna, it's unanimous and passes on 11C. 11D, next reappointment of Alan Judy, placed on by Councilman Jimmy Jones regarding the Recreation Advisory Commission. Is there a motion? I so make it. Mr. Jones has a motion. Is there a second? I'll second. Mr. Cato has a second. Mr. Jones, you have the floor. Thank you. Just as all these gentlemen, Alan Judy has spent his life, the majority of his life, working with children in recreational ball and other ways, he has a lot of compassion when it comes to that. He makes his meetings. He stays informed like the rest of them.

» I think we've got a, we're very fortunate to have a hard working recreation board. And how am I going to say this? They've done a good job on Woodward Field. I did not vote for it. Did not like it. I hope the money could be best used somewhere else, but they've done a good job on Woodward Field. And I want to congratulate each and every one of them. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Any other comments, questions? I'd like to make one, but I'm in shock right now. I'll brace you. Again, I mean, it's the same comment I had with Kevin for Jack. I mean, Alan, Alan's done a great job. They've all done a great job. And, and, and Jimmy said it all. I mean, this has been a tough road for a lot of people. And, and these guys have stuck it out and they, they've really done a great job also.

» So I thank them. Thank you, Mr. Kato. Any other comments, questions, Mr. Thomason remotely? I'd like to. No, there are no comments. Okay. Mr. Brazel. I'd, I'd like to say something that, that speaks volumes. Mr. Judy is a, is a very conservative individual and he saw the value in what we were doing. And his support speaks volumes to me anyway. And I just want to recognize that he, he is a conservative through and through when it comes to finances and fiscal spending and transparency. And he has done a great job and really advocated for this, this project. And for me, that that's important. For me, that means we're doing the right thing. And I'd like to thank him for that. Thank you very much, Mr. Brazel. All right. Any other comments or questions? Seeing none, we'll move to a vote.

» Regarding 11D and the reappointment, all those who are present in favor of voting, raise your hand. It's unanimous for those who are present in voting. Remotely, Mr. Thomason, how do you vote? Mr. Chairman, I vote yes. That's a yes remotely from Mr. Thomason. Ms. Hannah is unanimous and passes in favor on 11D. This takes us to our briefings. We're a smaller group tonight, but Mr. Jones, we'll start with you on the left. I'm going to give no, no brief tonight. Thank you. Okay. Mr. Cato, you didn't get along. You shocked me. See there, I'm ready to go first and you can change it up on me. I do have just a couple of things. First of all, I want to start out on a, on a very positive note. And, and I always like to congratulate these teams.

» And since the last meeting, North Central High School, the volleyball team won the, um, region championship in volleyball. Again, you know, we recognize them last year for winning the state. This year, they didn't quite make it to the state, but they did continue to reign as region champs for this, like the 14th, 15th year, I think straight. Um, but also some, some, um, recognition, uh, to a couple of the players. Uh, North Central had two players that made all state in region 2A, which was, uh, Katie Bentner and Gabby Anderson. So congratulations to them. But, uh, Katie Bentner and her dad also serves on the rec commission, uh, Jason, but she also was, uh, chosen to be region four double A player of the year.

» So congratulations to Katie on, on her accomplishments there with volleyball team. Um, secondly, on a different note, um, I received information, uh, yesterday about the passing of a dear lady, Ms. Jessie May Cawth and Isaiah. If you remember back, uh, January of this year on January the 4th, we did a, a birthday celebration, um, declaration for, uh, Ms. Isaiah when she turned a hundred years old. Um, she was from the Westville area. She passed away Sunday the 16th at her home in Westville. Um, she was a dear lady. I had the opportunity to present this to her, um, uh, back in January and attend her birthday. Me and her shared a little bit of a special bond and what little time I knew her as we both shared the same birthday. Uh, January the 6th and, and, uh, she was just a sweet person.

» And, and I remember talking about seeing the family members at her birthday party. And this was like five generations and, and, and the great people that she had in her family and supporting her. And it all, you know, it all started with her and her parents and on down through the generations. But to live a hundred years, almost 101 years, um, you can't imagine the change. Um, the change she saw, um, the change she saw in Kershaw County and, uh, the things she contributed to Kershaw County. And I, I, my heart goes out to this family. My prayers go out to this family. And I just wanted to mention her, uh, tonight and the funeral arrangements. Uh, there'll be a viewing Sunday the 23rd of November at, uh, 3 to 6 PM at Brown's Funeral Home.

» And the service will be at 2 PM on November the 24th at Ebenezer AME Zion Church on Ebenezer Church Road in Camden. Um, and then the family will have a repass at the Bethany Westville Baptist Church where we had our birthday party at after the service. Uh, again, my heart and, uh, my thoughts and my prayers go out in this family. But she lived a great life and she was an amazing lady. Lastly, I just wish everybody a happy Thanksgiving holiday. I hope you have a safe one. I hope you have safe travels and a great meal and time with family and friends. Um, enjoy it. You never know when it might be your last. Y'all have a great holiday. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Cato. And thank you for reminding us of such a wonderful woman. Thank you. Um, before we get to our vice chairman, Mr.

» Brazel, we'll go remote. Mr. Tomlinson, any report? Mr. Chairman, I have no report this evening. Thank you, Mr. Tomlinson. Mr. Brazel. Um, Councilman Jones, you didn't have anything to say. Oh, I got something now. I was, um, I was, I was gonna wait until the, until the end to go, but, um. If you'll let me. No, I, I, well, I'll, I'll go, I'll go ahead and get out of your way real quick. Um, talking about, um, loved ones and families losing, um, parents and loved ones. I know that the Kirkland family, as well as the Branham family have, have had a tough week. Um, here in, in Kershaw County. Um, Chad and Jeff's father passed. Mr. Branham passed at 88 years old and was laid to rest. Uh, what a, what a good man and a great family.

» And, um, as of late, uh, a good friend of mine, Timmy Kirkland, lost his brother, Ernie Kirkland. And we just want to tell them that we, we love them and care about them and praying for them during a difficult time. Um, Danny, God bless you. You see it every day working at a funeral home. I would, I would have a difficult time with that. I think it takes a special person to be able to do that. Um, making notes throughout the meeting tonight and having David Adams here, who is a, a tremendous asset to MUSC. He's, um, he's been a great help in many times of need here in Kershaw County. People don't realize how hard he works for MUSC. It, it made me think of someone, made me think of Dr.

» Gill and his son, who, who are both surgeons and have been great surgeons in Kershaw County for many years. Matter of fact, I think our administrators, good friends with Dr. Gill and, um, what, what a great person, what a great guy that we've had here in Kershaw County all these years. He's been dedicated to, uh, to serving the citizens. And now we've got the pleasure of his son also being with MUSC here in Kershaw County. I just wanted to highlight him and that, that just popped out in my mind and wanted to make note of that. Um, moving forward into 2026, it seems like we've done a lot over the last few years. We've had a lot of projects. Um, I bet our administrator will be happy to hear me say this.

» We, we've moved from a time where there were, were some COVID puns that, that we, we were allocated by the federal government. And we spent them on projects that benefit the community and children. Uh, we spent them on safety for fire departments. And it seemed like a lot of money being spent on different things. And I'll agree that that was the case. Um, moving forward into 2026, you know, fiscal responsibility is always important. Now we've got these new fantastic facilities that'll be coming on board. No COVID funds, no new projects. It's going to be really interesting to see how fiscally responsible we can be and how well we can maintain these new facilities. I think that's going to speak volumes about our team members and our management. And I know we can do it well.

» Um, any economic development opportunity here in Kershaw County, um, typically is a win. We look forward to hearing about those, but we really, I know that I'm going to hone in and, and do my homework and work towards consolidation and how to really tighten budgets and make things better. Because sometimes more gets overwhelming and sometimes we can just focus and do better in certain areas. And Danny, you've done a good job of that. Um, I'd like to explore things like the homestead exemption. I know that's a $50,000 cap. I'll ask our attorney tonight to prepare state. I know it's going to be a state related question.

» How can we in an economy in which a senior's not receiving more money in social security? How can they keep afford, affording an increase in, in their, their tax bill on their homes? I know they get the $50,000 exemption, but at what time can we make that a percentage of, or can we do something in addition to at a county level? John Dubose, I pose that question for you to think about and, and help me answer in the year ahead. Um, I know that we have a lot of contracts with leasees and leesors in the county in which we use different buildings and different people use our buildings. I think our administrators made really tactical, intelligent moves to consolidate people in the buildings that we own versus leasing. I think that's smart.

» I think that's something that I would like to see this entire council, uh, review together. Um, not just the finance committee. I'd like to see it done here in council chambers. I think it's very important. I'm going to dig into some of that myself. I enjoy, uh, leases. I enjoy, uh, contract negotiation and I enjoy saving money in finances. I'd also like to touch on in 2026. What's the, the percentage for an airplane versus an RV versus a boat? Last year there was a big push and it passed at a state level for a huge reduction in boat taxes. Boats are, we're the, one of the highest, I think maybe the fourth in the nation, highest taxes on boats in the nation. Um, I think that's a, uh, a 10 and a half percent rate.

» So everyone at Lake Watery, if they go buy a new expensive boat, they're trying to get it in a different state. They're trying to, to find some kind of loophole, find some kind of LLC they can set up in Montana or somewhere. We're not getting any of that tax revenue. I'd like to see how we could make that more streamlined for folks that own RVs, people that own boats. Um, I think airplanes may be at 4%. I'm not sure, but I think, I think they're at 4%. I'd like to see RVs and boats at 6%. It wouldn't be a detriment to the county because the numbers aren't that huge on the revenue side. So with all that being said, I look forward to a new budget cycle in 2026. I look forward to working with everybody on this council.

» And most of all, tomorrow, I look forward to cutting the ribbon at Veterans Park. And I thank everybody for their support in that effort. Thank you, Mr. Brazel. Mr. Chairman. Mr. Jones. May I have, uh, two minutes? Sure. Okay. Thank you very much. Russell, thank you for reminding me about Timmy. Cause he knew, Russell knew Timmy and I were very close. My wife was very close to his family. Timmy Kirkland. He, uh, his brother, Ernie. Ernie was also a, uh, a counselor. He worked with Mara or Mara worked for him at one point in time. And he always cared about people. He cared. He helped people. He cared about people. He has such a kind and generous personality. And, uh, I just want to say thank you for helping me remember that. And I'm going to surprise you on something.

» Um, and I think the service is going to be Saturday on that, by the way. Uh, Russell, I hope you don't get upset with what I'm fixing to say, but, uh, I know that, uh. It wouldn't be anything new. But anyway, I'm going to say it. Okay. Anyway, I, I know that, uh, Casey Browser, who's a wonderful, wonderful individual who works hard. She's got such a big heart, applied for a job at the, uh, chamber. So I wish her the best on that. And I pray, I, I pray that our county, our community can be so fortunate and lucky to have her serve on that. So I just want to say that tonight, that, uh, she's, she's remarkable. And, uh, Russell, I know you didn't want to talk. You can't talk. I didn't want to talk about, but I had to say that.

» And, uh, if the chamber misses that opportunity, her, they've lost a golden opportunity. Simple as that. Just simple in fact. So I'll be looking into that a little bit more tomorrow as well. Thank you. Well, that, that's very kind of you to say. I, I, I don't really know where any of that stands, but I, I, I do, I do thank you for the kind words. Well, I meant every word of it. And I hope you didn't get upset with me. No, no, it took it. It's okay. No, no worries. All right. I have just a few remarks to share, um, before we move to the administrator's briefing. Um, Russell mentioned it, boat ramp ribbon cutting tomorrow, 11:00 AM. Um, should be a great event. Please make it out if you can. We have the colonial cup on November 23rd. That's coming up this weekend.

» One of the great, uh, rights of winter, I guess, if the Carolina cup is the right of spring, it's a more of a family event and just wonderful time to get together. Uh, Ms. Hannah, hold my hand for a second. The December meeting, if my schedule is right, is the ninth. Is that correct? So we have one meeting in December. We've already voted on this. We'll have it on December 9th. So if you want to attend, please place that on your calendars. And then just a word about Thanksgiving, which occurs next week. I am so excited to get together with family. Uh, it just, it's filling me up to know that I'm going to see so much family next week. And it's not about the food though. The food is great.

» It's not about, well, maybe it is for you and I'll be smoking my fair share of, uh, turkeys and other meat, but it's not about the food. It's not. It's about getting together with family and people that you love people that, uh, you've got to hug their neck. Cause you never know if any of us are given tomorrow or the next moment. Um, in my line of work and, and also miss, Mr. Kato's. Um, we so see so many families struggle with loss and share regrets of, you know, I should have said that kind word or I should have buried the hatchet on a certain issue where I should have, uh, given a little bit more grace because I intend to receive it myself in life. Next week is a great opportunity.

» If you're getting together with family to do that, bury the hatchet, show a little bit more love and compassion to those people who are related to you by blood or otherwise. And, uh, friends who are like family and from personal experience, I can promise you, you'll have a little bit lighter lift, a little bit lighter step in your life. And my personal belief is that the Lord will, uh, increase your capabilities to love and serve others if you do that. And that's my report, Mr. Administrator. Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of council, um, I wanted to give a few updates on, uh, some of these, these rec projects that are, seems like they're all going to mature at close to the same time. Boyd Young's sod is currently being installed.

» Chain link fences, uh, still field grading going on, fine grading, hydro seeding. Um, they estimate that to be completed at the end of this month. Copeland Park, same timeline, end of the month. Um, lighting, wiring, just everything you would anticipate or imagine out at a, a nice new complex. Dugouts, um, I'm especially excited because when we, when I see sod on these fields, that means we also have irrigation that is going to allow that sod to take hold and look nice and look like, uh, what we would expect a very nice baseball field and park to look like. So, Casey West, we are cutting it close with our paving season, uh, season. We're paving has begun this week. As you know, the paving has a season. It typically runs out at around Thanksgiving. So, I'm hoping to get that in and done.

» Uh, then we'll be looking at some hydro seeding, striping signage and everything that would go along with some new parking areas out there. That is, uh, anticipated to be complete at the end of this month or early December. Um, there was some commentary on, you know, this, uh, Mr. Jones brought up accurately that when we have the boat ramp and I think everything else that we have with these very fine facilities, the gauntlet has been thrown down to maintain these and have them look in a way that looks like, uh, there's pride they are being taken care of, taken care of. Um, and so, you know, over the last couple of budget cycles, we have added slowly but surely staff in anticipation of this increased obligations to these new facilities.

» In the past, we had the excuse, you know, if you had a bathroom that was cinder block and painted black, it's kind of hard to make it look clean. But it won't be the case anymore. So, the, uh, the obligation for us to perform at a much higher level and maintain these, these facilities in tip top shape is, is certainly elevated. But, you know, we're up for the challenge and we'll make sure that happens. It's not rocket science. Mr. Jones, you'll be happy to know that when I was in the military, the first thing they gave me was a toilet brush and a broom. So, I kind of have experience with cleaning and things like that. So, I'm, I'm your guy. Um, talking about some amendments, Mr. Braswell, I think you had mentioned fire trucks and just first responders.

» We did take delivery of our two fire trucks that we were able to save money on significant savings due to, uh, unfortunately there was a municipality up in North Carolina that had ordered a several pieces of apparatus. So, after financing fell through, we were able to take advantage of this with vehicles onsite. Uh, we didn't have to deal with lead time, which can at this point, but the economy and tariffs and things like that can be pushing two years. We were able to take immediate delivery of these two items, um, at a significant cost reduction and immediately put them into service. So, uh, they will be stationed out at Villaney and Cassette. So, excited about that as we incrementally increase or improve our, our first responder services. Um, one more thing of note.

» We have a, uh, I don't know if you have a slide for the smoke testing. Okay. I, I put it out, but some, some members of the public will see as we go and test our sewer lines. Uh, they, it's, it's a common practice to induce smoke into these lines and look for the leaks, if you will. Um, excited about that because I, we've had some odor complaints over the years. And I think this is gonna tell that, uh, some of these leaks are not necessarily where we thought they were in terms of lift stations and things like that. But we do have a campaign out there to notify the public, uh, if they, with door hangers and things of that nature, if they see this, some smoke in areas, never assume it's one thing or the other.

» Um, but it is, we will be doing some testing out there, uh, highway one, uh, towards, uh, in, in Lugov towards Elgin. So, just wanted to make sure that that was put out, but that, that's, it's gonna be a good thing and tell us where we're, our flaws are in our system. So, um, but that's all I have. Thank you. Before we move on, anything for the administrator? All right. Thank you, gentlemen. Uh, that moves us on to legal briefing. Anything non-privileged you want to talk about, Mr. DuBose? All right. We're past legal briefing, uh, a, a rarely used, but we've got it on tonight. Future agenda items.

» Um, Councilman Tomlinson, do you have anything that in the form of a motion we need to talk about for the planning commission appointment? Or you just want it on for, uh, noted for staff to have it on for next meeting? Uh, yes, Mr. Chairman, just noted for staff, um, that next meeting I will be making my planning commission member appointment. Yeah, I think, uh, I'm sorry. I think we've got that, uh, that person's application or packet in the agenda this time to comply with the rule. So it'd be good for the December nine meeting. Yes. That is correct. Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman. And I think I may also have an appointment on the night. I think we've got that packet in. Is that correct? Ms. Hanna. So I should also have an appointment to the plan, uh, clean commission on December tonight.

» All right. Ms. Hanna will work with you on that. Thank you. No vote required. And then, uh, 15b will bypass because councilman Shoemake is not available. But Ms. Hanna, if you would please work with him as well and see if something needs to be placed on the agenda for a vote for next meeting. Thank you. All right. We do have four executive session items. Two votes are anticipated from these executive sessions. I'll take them, uh, as a batch. Um, 16A is regarding, uh, attorney client privilege legal briefing regarding pending or threatened legal claim. B is regarding a pending legal matter. C is regarding another pending legal matter. D is regarding, uh, pending or threatened legal claim.

» And again, we do anticipate, uh, two votes, no more than two votes, uh, coming out of executive session. This is all under South Carolina code 30-4-70 and related subsections. Do we have a motion to enter executive session? I also make a motion to enter executive session. Mr. Cato has a motion. Is there a second? Second, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Thomason has a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor, uh, who are present for entering executive session, raise your hand. It's unanimous in favor for those who are present. Mr. Tomlinson, how do you vote? I bet yes. That's a yes remotely. It's unanimous, Ms. Hannah, for the record. And we are in executive session. Brent, can you hear us? Mr. Thomason. Yes, sir, I can hear you. Okay, we've got a quorum.

» I seek a motion to exit executive session. We have a motion. I'll make a motion. Mr. Cato has the, uh, motion. Is there a second? Second. We got a second for Mr. Thomason. Any discussion? Seeing none. For those who are present, raise your hand if you vote in favor. It is unanimous for those who are present and voting. Mr. Thomason, how do you vote on exiting executive session? Mr. Chairman, I vote yes. That's a yes. It's unanimous. We are out of executive session, Ms. Parler. Okay. Uh, as disclosed and mentioned prior to entering executive session, we anticipated two votes. Uh, the first matter coming up for a vote would be item number 16B. 16B. Um, do we have a motion regarding item number 16B? Ordinance, uh, potential ordinance regarding, uh, ZLDR amendment and, uh, amending a table.

» Do we need our screens changed? No, sir. I mean, it doesn't have any legal impact. They can change the screens if they want. Yes, sir, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a motion that Kershaw County refer to the Planning Commission a ZLDR text amendment ordinance that will impose zoning regulations for businesses selling hemp derived and synthetic cannabinoid products so that the Planning Commission may make a recommendation to County Council on the matter.

» The ordinance is titled as follows, "An ordinance to amend the Kershaw County, South Carolina, Unified Code of Zoning and Land Development Regulations to add section 3.3.29 and amend table 3-3 to establish retail establishments selling hemp derived or synthetic cannabinoid products as a conditional use in certain zoning districts subject to location, separation and operational restrictions." And that is the motion. Is there a second? I'll second. Mr. Kato has a second. Mr. Russell, uh, Mr. Browns, any discussion? Thank you. Um, basically, I don't know if anybody's been following this, but this ordinance will regulate the business of selling hemp derived or synthetic THC products.

» What's happened is in our latest farm bill, there was a loophole that allowed a certain amount of THC to be derived from hemp and sold in products such as CBD gummies. And it's been exploited in its liquid form. It's much more potent. So, when the government, when the federal government reopened, they made a massive change as part of their negotiation that's really going to help regulating these products. Basically, right now, a child can walk into a gas station and buy a beverage that could contain as much, uh, the equivalent of maybe 10 or 12 marijuana joints in a single serving beverage. No age limits at this point and no zoning regulations. So, this is really gonna put some regulations on these products. It's gonna save families. It's gonna protect children.

» And it's gonna protect people who think they're buying a CBD drink or maybe even something that looks like a seltzer alcoholic beverage. So, this is a very concerning situation. And I'm glad to put this motion forward and work for the betterment of our community and our county. We'll see wind in the sails for this in counties, in states, and already we have seen it from the federal government. So, I'm happy to make this motion tonight. Thank you, Mr. Brazel. Mr. Cato, you have a second? No comment. Any commentary? Any other discussion comments? Seeing none, um, we'll move the vote for a reference to the Planning Commission as stated. And those who are in favor or in person, raise your hand. It's unanimous, in favor, in person. Mr. Tomlinson, remotely, how do you vote? Mr.

» Chairman, I vote yes. That's a yes remotely for Mr. Tomlinson. Ms. Hanna, it passes unanimously on 16B. The other vote we have, post-executive session, is item number 16D, regarding a DES consent order. Do we have a motion? I do, Mr. Chair. Mr. Cato. I take a motion that we move that the Kershaw County Council authorize the administrator or his designee to execute and enter a consent order with the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services regarding the Kershaw County Wastewater Treatment Plant upon the terms and conditions discussed in the executive session. Thank you, Mr. Cato. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Jones has the second. Any discussion at all? No, I think this is something that's being taken care of by our administrator, and I think this will put us on the right path.

» We need to make sure that everything's going smoothly, and I believe he'll do that. Thank you, Mr. Cato. Seeing no further discussion, we'll move it to a vote for those who are in person. All in favor, raise your hand if it's unanimous in favor for those voting in person. Ms. Hanna, Mr. Tomlinson, how do you vote remotely on 16D? Mr. Chairman, I vote yes on 16B. That's a yes from Mr. Tomlinson. Ms. Hanna, it's unanimous and passes on the consent order. All right, that concludes our business for the evening. I'd seek a motion to adjourn. I'll make a motion. We adjourn. Mr. Cato has the motion. Is there a second? I'll make a second. Mr. Brazel has a second. Seeing no discussion, let's move it to a vote for those in person. Raise your hand on adjournment. It's unanimous in favor. Mr. Tomlinson, how do you vote on adjournment? Mr. Chairman, I vote yes. That's a yes vote, Ms. Hanna.