Full meeting transcript - November 18, 2025

» all right it is the witching hour time to start for our loan meeting in november we're called to order for our kershaw county council meeting uh 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 just give us the wisdom that you'd have us to have lord to do to make the decisions that would be pleasing to you and that you'd have us to act accordingly and as 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 us in your name we pray amen amen amen pledge allegiance to the flag 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 u

» m 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 uh today and mr thomason i think is trying to call in do we have him yet okay staff has continued work on that i know he's been out of town but want to call and 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 on my cell phone and we can hold them 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 let's make a second mr brazel mr cato any discussion mr brazel none here sir any further mr jones seeing 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 counsel 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 paid 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 late 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 mission, sir.

» Did 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 all right sir well that's what i meant by contact information thank you for coming up here thank you any uh anyone else signed up just one no other speakers okay thank you we do have uh next up public presentation this is uh regarding the sheriff's office and recent award they've received do we have a motion make a motion mr cato for hearing on public presentation is there a second i'll make a second all right we've got a second all in favor here in this public presentation raise your hand it's unanimous miss hannah 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 tr

» y 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 kalia this is a international accreditation if you know a couple years back we got our state accreditation this is a international this is the 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 uh what took place we were standing the conference jacksonville florida this past week you'll see our accreditation manager in the middle here misty burroughs 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 years worth of work that she put together to get e

» verything ready and there was a lot of on-site stuff and everything getting ready for this conference about a time we made it there we went before board and it basically just gave me the opportunity to brag on our agency because we wouldn't we wouldn't short on anything a lot of people ask why kalia 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 uh this is our way of holding oursel

» ves accountable for what we're doing professional standards best practices that's that's something else they bring to the table reduce liability and better legal defense just creating good sound policies been tested and uh 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 to 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 into putting in for in the future one of the things i want to point out also is the clea is 100 voluntary nobody forces us to do it

» there's no requirement to do state or kalia 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 little uh few shots from our our board interview at a conference in Florida last week. There's a panel of the commissioners that'll sit us all down, and they're asking us questions about our agency. Again, our accreditation manager, Misty Burroughs, 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, uh what was it uh um they didn't it was like a pending or a 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 it 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 you know they voted unanimously to give us our accreditation what misty didn't know is that we'd

» already planned and had our short 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 straight on uniform and as you can see from the picture she had no idea that getting her rank straight was gonna be adding another strike to her that's the one you're seeing to the far that 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 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 showing 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 Missy 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.

» we haven't agreed on everything especially a budget time we don't but bottom line is you know I support you you know I support your staff and thank you for taking this extra I went for a national accreditation with the general 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 uh something you took out of your busy busy schedule to make sure that you did for this community and also for your your staff as well and i was gonna say young lady sergeant congratulations good job i was wondering why you didn't get a lieutenant rank out of that but if i've been sure you got a lieutenant right sheriff thank you so much and to all your men thank you very much we appreciate y'all even rock this is something that uh

» if i didn't mention there's only there's less than five percent of law enforcement agencies in the united states that holds this accreditation level i think you got david tommy here because of this he's got so old i didn't recognize him still in his prime he is i'm not tackling him thank you thank you mr jones thank you sheriff mr cato congratulations on your promotion and to the sheriff's office um lee you 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 and i appreciate the job y'all do in this county i really do um i appreciate the job you've done and and well deserved on your promotion and i look forward to what the future holds for you there at the sheriff's office but um you k

» now you couldn't be any prouder as i 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've retired five years ago and uh law enforcement's changed a lot the pressure you have and 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 can still consider myself part of it but thank you each and every one for what y'all do thank you mr cato i'll note that we have mr tomlinson on the line now as well mr brazel any comment yeah absolutely of course wouldn't dar

» e leave me out would you good looking as you are oh there it comes watch out sheriff congratulations ma'am congratulations everybody involved congratulations um we already knew you guys were the best i don't i don't know what took them so long to 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.

» Thomason, I think we have you online do you have any comment hey mr chairman yes sir thank you and and i would like to really thank our sheriff's department and deputy burrows um 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 so thank you so much this is a great win great path forward and great day in kershaw county thank you mr thompson sheriff i'll just share the congratulations um 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. 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. - If you mind, I would like to say something also. - Oh, yeah, yeah, please. - Sure, I asked him twice. - I haven't had an opportunity, and I didn't want to overstep, 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. Well, let's have all law enforcement personnel who are participating come up for a picture to memorialize this event and award. - I'll say this is a very proud moment. - Rob, Rob, don't stand in front of me. He said you were a junior counselor. Just the top toward me. It's going to be an invisible one. Watch your toes. Good. Keep looking. No talking. Smiling. Thank you, and congratulations. I'm so happy to go stand by Ben Knapp. Thank you for the little work. Thanks, brother. That's good stuff there, guys. Congratulations again.

» Oh, you're doing good. Congratulations. And I'm so proud David Tomlin made it tonight, too. - Excuse me, Captain David Thompson. - Especially not Russell on it. - Oh yeah, no, I'm making a lot of sense. - 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 gonna 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 make a motion to amend the agenda to add one more public presentation on the MASC 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.

» got a quorum so we're going to move forward that is the amendment 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 so we have the amendment and now um 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 miss hannah for those who are present and voting mr thompson 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? Seeing none, 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. Thompson, how do you vote? I vote yes. That's a yes. It's unanimous, Ms. Hanna. Mr. Adams. I'm on that. David, yes, please. And I see these folders have been passed out already if you see the blue here for him tonight 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 uh but now i 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 dial

» ogue about questions and other things that you have as we move into the future together. Two years ago when I started, we began to have an annual report that we put together for the Health Services District who leases the hospital and the facilities to us. It was a part of the agreement when we were gonna work in about the investments that the hospital was being made. I also found out at that time and then conversations with many of you about some of the worry in the community about what was going to happen with the hospitals and the facilities in the future. Some services were changing. There were things that had closed.

» We had a communications part in 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. We can go deeper at any time you wish. But that hopefully shows that nothing's further from the truth. And so with that, these past two years and three years, really, have seen an enormous growth. When MUSC began with the whole Midlands, which included the two-- when I say Midlands, it includes the two hospitals in Columbia. Three years ago, they were losing almost $13 million a month 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. So as you'll see on these, and I apologize for making them so small, but we have actually added 46 health care providers in Kershaw County. over 126, I believe, in the Midlands over the last year. It's not just physicians. It's nurse practitioners and others who can administer health care. But even more importantly, in Kershaw County last year, we added, 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. Dr. Holmstrom says it's the first time that they've added new physicians to the hospitals and the community in a dozen or more years. And so it has been fantastic.

» On the third slide, it talks about some of the new services that are in Kershaw County, and some of those are also 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 annually and they will continue to be.

» As you can see in that fourth slide, means almost 15 million dollars 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 there battleship road and and a lot of others that are highlighted in some of the slides that follow 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 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'l

» l be the first hospital in the midlands that will have the hollings cancer 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 the new building and then one in the elgin facility as well and so you 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 uh children from the community who came to the hospital it was a really neat program and they're already planning on doing it again next summer and finally i'm going to touch on this i know i know the chairman wants to really talk abo

» ut this in the future as we go forward but 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 to

» ward their full medical license so and that's where we are i hope that's great news because i 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 bye thank you mr kato mr jones mr brazel before 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 a hospital we were very concerned about dr holston was very committed along with myself and some others uh to helping 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 folk

» s 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 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 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 glad to have you it was our honor thank you sir thank you mr uh mr jones mr brazel you've heard any comment yeah of course david good to see you tonight and you sir i hadn't seen you

» in six weeks or so 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 ob gyn practice there there is yes sir i know you would brief this 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 upwards 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 um in kershaw county are scheduled at th

» at 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 does that depends on population growth um for us to be able to sustain that so 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 that was a concern 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 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 apprecia

» te you thank you thank you mr brasil mr thompson 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 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 but those residents tend to stay in the area uh if they like the area and believe in it and i don't know that we'll ever give them back and so 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 again it's just a great sign of confidence that the the patient and support network and patient type is suc

» h 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 appoint a director of the gme program and that should happen sometime next year so we will have something more to report that thank you very much mr adams thank you thank you appreciate it thank you thanks thank you gentlemen that takes us to item number seven on the agenda 7a 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 no seeing none mr brazel seeing none we'll move it to um and mr thompson any comment no comment seeing none those who are present will vote all in favor raise your hand it's unanimous for those who are in person in favor and mr th

» ompson how do you vote i vote yes that's a yes for mr thompson ms hannett's unanimous and passes minutes are approved item 8a regulation of picnic shelters so i put this on i make a motion that we just discussed 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 and the administrator in the past on trying to make the regulations less onerous on building these type 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 i

» f you can build your own house 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 council or questions i just request that staff put this on if not for december because i know 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 because there is some things that i think we could do better on making it easier for our folks to do this you know 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 sir 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 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 we we've had conversations in the past and there was always some sort of a techni

» cal sticking point i'd like to get a refresher on what that was i knew i recognized that face sitting out there yes 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 so what we originally thought would be a perhaps a i don't 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 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 very interested to hear 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 because 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 it's been very challenging but please councilman bradley 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 a one-size-fits-all or within certain boundaries and i think you and i both spoke to an engineering friend of mine and he essentially wasn't comfortable doing it because of liability issues with so

» mebody doing a variation off of his plan and his stamp for just a one-time fee but the other side of that is i remember walking in here and for fifty dollars getting a permit for 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 so

» mething that legally to eliminate liability for the county have to require so whenever i walk in here and say i want to build a 2500 square foot four bedroom house exterior is going to be brick going to be crawl space stick built elevation stick built no truss do you 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 um 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 still there

» or not and i haven't checked since you and i spoke um that type of adoption would have to be done at the state level okay not impossible correct um if you could get 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 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 what you do is uh 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 oppo

» rtunity 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 gonna we're gonna have to find a solution yeah our chair our chairman has brought this up and he brings up a valid point um you can build a half million dollar million dollar structure yet you can't build a five thousand dollar structure without a set of engineer drawings so you you're at risk of spending as much on the engineering as you would the structure necessarily um 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 um maybe um in the lobby i'm 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 and then maybe absolutely make one a summary of 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 um but you know there are only few people who build uh 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 th

» e 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. Brownson, 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. You'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 1500 2000 whatever it costs 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 change well can i say this said mr jones please say this to you mr we are the policy makers right not them we are we 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 the laws you can say state law international law whatever we are not meant well we can be mandated but what are they going to lock us up well yeah i mean no one says that is that and sam i had a couple of compliments on you last week and i want to thank you for

» that too and uh and i appreciate you being here i really do and i'm not getting on anybody oh i understand okay but but but seriously if you 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. - You'd cover me? - Oh, we would. And I'd have no problem with that. - You'd relieve me from liability. - I'd have no problem with that. And I'd 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. - There's nothing against you. 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 with 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, 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 put the stamp on it and said, "You're good to go, that's a safe structure," or heaven forbid it hurt somebody. - But you're asking for a balance. - We do need to find a balance.

» 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 uh 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 yeah i think there still might be personal liability in that there's liability me looking to the next I just don't because it's less 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 gonna have power we're gonna 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 and present 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 farm 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 SP IB yes so to go cut your on timber, obviously it's not stamped unless you want to pay someone to stamp it. Which you can. You can get it stamped. 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. 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. That's kind of the reasoning behind it. 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. 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, and you 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 all of us have gotten complaints.

» here but uh 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 thompson remote see if he has any comments before we wrap it up mr thompson any uh 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 okay thank you sam very much and so we'll get it on early in the year in uh 2026.

» see what we can do with it thank you ben thank you very much all right no votes required uh you're welcome one of those issues just been sticking around i think we got to come to some resolution or a final education point on it item number nine this is third reading on a rezoning we have a motion i 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 uh we've been through this on the first two readings my opinion of this has not changed and uh i think we need to move forward with the approval on the third reading uh this His church has done some amazing things and continue to do amazing things. The pastor's back here right now.

» 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. Thompson. 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 thompson how do you vote i vote yes that is yes miss 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 um 10 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 templar is just information uh typically a vote to uh authorize me to go forward with this okay any background before we move to a motion yes sir mr chair members council this is what we do annu

» ally 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 to do 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 temple for the background do we have a motion on this bid got questions mr chairman i'll make a motion all right we've got a motion in favor do we have a second i'll second we got a second um mr thomas we'll get you mr brazel mr thompson you had the motion any comments or questions before we get mr brazel i'll yeah i will yield to mr brazel mr cato anything i'll see you mr brazel thank you brant how you doing up there bud missing

» you my friend go ahead miss seeing you too um mr administrator what um do we know what the calculation is for 30 000 cubic yards of debris as far as uh tons any any clue and i'm asking i'm sorry to ask i know i'm asking you that stone cold no i there is a a formula to allow us to instead of just a a sum of hey look at this pile what do you think it would take to grind it up there it um there is a formula i don't recall it off the top of my head but it's it reminds me of probably the formula for rocket fuel well let's see um i think you're going to according to uh according to my iphone it's between 7,500 and 12,000 tons i'd like the opportunity to um to find someone who would who would buy these wood chips and use them for either boiler fuel or i'm connected with several plants that buy woo

» d chips that are ground so you may put us in a positioned to maybe break even on it not cost us anything or i don't know what what do we do with the chips now after it's ground do we just leave it and let it rot or yeah we create wind rows out of a fair amount of them and then some of it is used sometimes for cover on the hill and but most of it is just spread out and then it just composts if you will would you be willing to um so 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 uh standards and um so that is part of our maintenance it would be ground still yet yes yes um and i don't know if these are timely and with one meeting a month i'm i'm reluctant to table this um because well i'll 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 shouldn't be an issue. One question for, you know, and I've purchased your products before. They're very fine quality. No, I do. We don't do this. No, I know you don't. But I know the folks you work with, too.

» So this 30,000 cubic yards, is it contaminated in any way? mean like a trash mixed in and people does it blow out of one bin and end up in some of this uh this tree waste or yard waste it's it's a good question 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 it's a mixture of it's everything and uh so there 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 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 o

» f 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 it 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 they continue to grind it into a flower and that flower 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 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 we can work on that in the next couple of weeks together how long is this contract is it just for the 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 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 we can determine t

» hat something it has value to it we can we'll make a field trip out of it absolutely i'd love to thank you yeah absolutely thank you thank you mr brazel we still have the motion on the table for approval any other discussion yeah quickly mr jones it's i see that the uh tree service in sumter was 140 000 and then you got mw colleagues at 275 000 what's big big difference then yes sir and i was looking at that the only hazardous guest i could throw out there is mobilization just the distance they're coming because this tub grinders are pretty pretty tough and uh and then for safety we require through the bid there to be a um a larger bulldozer to push and so there's equipment yes sir one quick question too and it's probably steering straight in the face where staff recommends the state tree s

» ervice for 140 and budget line item for yard waste disposal is 180. yes and the explanation on that is? Just saving. And 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 were coming in under budget a lot of people buying artificial crystal trees too makes it hard on trying 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 thompson how do you vote i bet yeah that's a yes from mr thompson remote ms hannah passes unanimously on 10 a item number 10 b i'll make a motion that we name the 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. 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. And actually, 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. Villapigu, 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 would be fitting so that each time 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 will be a great tribute to those who have served and exhibited such bravery and selflessness. Mr. Brasley, you have the second. Yes, 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 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 or 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 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 a military I never had really supported the veterans part 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 gonna vote for this because when you talk about a Medal of of honor recipient i mean guys that's that's that's huge and all our other and as mr president said so many others have had fought and paid a price for uh our freedom but uh if we're gonna call it the medal of honor boat ramp and mr templer knows where i'm going because he's formed military as well it better stay clean it better stay fixed we don't need it to be you know do we have a do we have an employee out there we had a uh a ranger but that we will we're gonna take that position and make it a ranger slash maintenance those be more a

» ctive but uh and of course mr timber 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 um you know and it wasn't his fault it wasn't my fault what citizens caught up it was upside down about 30 days so what i'm saying is that we need to make sure because if we name it and i'm gonna vote for medal of honor boat ramp guys that's that's representing our medal of honor recipients it needs to be worthy of that name i agree we need we need to and we need to make sure that it's spotless and that 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 cato any comment no comment i'm full su

» pporter mr thompson any uh comment remotely no comment at all thank you and lastly i'll share that the the veterans part 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 the veterans um park i saw one a hundred you saw him i sure did you're a kid yes we pulled over the side of the road and watched him jump out and 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 pa

» rachute 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 all along i think it's a special thing that is able to come into public hands um 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 um love of defense and all those things mr jones anything else 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 he my father was 82nd airborne in the war and and one of the few times that i saw him and talked with him was was that day and i know they were just it was it was maneuvers it was soldiers t

» hey 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 and which was pretty impressive much less for an adult with a small child and i have that visual never forgot it but i can't say it's the exact group you're talking about because i don't know well they after that they use 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 it's been years in the making um as a matter of fact our chairman was at the state house during that stamp and uh county council the first time we talked about it

» for the first time then he went to the state house for two years and and now he's now he's back and it's taken that long to for it to to come to fruition and i can remember i can remember chairman when i first came on council five years ago you talking about a project that you have worked hard on over in elgin i think maybe it was a community center or 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 the difficulties and of engineering and then government restrictions that we have to deal with as well you were so happy for to be done and now today i have that same feeling i am extraordinarily proud and thrilled to 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 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 mr jones i will say this and because i've been here the whole time even before all of y'all were here i can tell you something right now if ben if you hadn't got that money for us i don't know that this would have happened i can tell you what when you got the money for us if he hadn't kept his if he had kept his mouth shut

» it wouldn't have happened either because russell you you beat us all to death make sure that thing gets to where it is now i've been to death too when he was in the state but i tell you exactly but but but i am i'm 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 and you you've accomplished that where i'm concerned not that it's any big deal but uh y'all made it where i I feel it's worthy of the support. Well, it is a big deal, and we appreciate it. And thank you, Danny, for staying on it. All right. Let's move it to a vote. Those present 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 on to 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. 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? Yeah, 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.

» 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 so i appreciate you all supporting ms brazel she's done a great job thank you um mr jones you have the second there are no words she's she's a wonderful spectacular individual she uh i have all the respect in the world for her and and i'm so glad she's willing to do it thank you sir mr cato you had the second second right the second second but there's nothing left to say they uh they're exactly right she's a wonderful wonderful lady and um 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 brazzles informed me that he's upstanding and no

» t 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 favor for those who are present mr thomason voting remotely how do you vote mr chairman i vote yes that is a yes from mr thomason so it's unanimous and passes miss hannah thank you that takes us to 11b reappointment of jack carrington recreation advisory commission placed on by councilman thomason do we have a motion uh 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 emotions is there a second second mr jones has a second mr tomlinson thank you mr chairman um

» the same thing jack has done a wonderful job in his time on the recreation commission um he he has helped really spearhead a movement to where we've had money come back into our recreation department um 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 leary dovey i've seen him and casey west doing the same thing um he's passionate about the community and he's willing to serve and i appreciate all he does thank you mr john linson mr john do you have the second i agree with everything he said thank you mr jones any other comments or questions lucky to have him jack carrington's a great guy he's um he's worked hard on all these recreation projects and And he has a passion for kids in the community.

» I'm in full support of Jack and his reappointment. Thank you, Mr. Brazel. Any other comments or questions? I support it as well. We'll go ahead and move it 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. Thompson, 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 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 and i'll say this about every one of them not just kevin but this this rec commission has really had a tough job over the last couple years um with these new rec projects we got going through and and i appreciate what each and every one of them has done and continues to do and and kevin and and and jack both and and and alan all of them they do a great job and i kno

» w 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 brazel just had a moment of uh not paying enough attention um i've known kevin since we were probably in the sixth grade he's a fantastic guy he's always had a great heart and he's got a big passion for for what he's doing um and i wanted to just tell kevin thank you for for what he's done he's he stood up 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 we did it all with cash if um if if our congress can send 200 billion dollars to ukraine how in the heck can't we build a a park for our kids to play ball in i don't get it i just d

» on't get it i do not understand it so if we can't do good for for our own people why are we sitting here um thank you kevin for for being a voice uh sometimes when we were silent i thank you for that in order to say that publicly thank you mr brazel see 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 we're present voting mr thompson how do you vote i vote yes mr chairman that's a yes remotely for mr thompson and miss hannah it's unanimous and passes on 11 c 11 d 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 y

» ou have the floor thank you uh just as all these gentlemen uh alan judy has spent his life majority his life working with children in recreational ball and other other ways he's he has a compa 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 thought 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 yeah i'll brace you uh 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 jimmy said it all um i mean this has been a tough road for a lot of people and and these guys have stuck it out and they've really done a great job also so i thank them thank you mr cato any other comments questions mr thomason remotely that i'd like to no no comment okay mr brazel 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 um to me anyway and i just want to recognize that he um 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 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 and voting remotely mr thomason how do you vote mr chairman about yes that's a yes remotely from mr thomason miss hannah is unanimous and passes in favor on 11 d this takes us to our briefings we're a smaller group tonight but uh mr jones will start with you on the left i'm going to give no no brief tonight thank you okay mr cato you get along you shocked me see that i'm ready to go first and you change it up on me uh i do have just a couple of th

» ings um 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 recognized them last year for winning the state this year they didn't quite make it to the state but they did continue their reign as region champs for this is like the 14th 15th year i think straight but also some some recognition to a couple of the players. North Central had two players that made All-State in Region 2A, which was Katie Bentner and Gabby Anderson, so congratulations to them.

» But Katie Bentner and her dad also serves on the Rec Commission, Jason, but she also was chosen to be Region 4 AA Player of the year so congratulations to katie on on her accomplishments there with volleyball team secondly on a different note i received information uh yesterday about the passing of a dear lady miss jessie maycoth and isaiah if you remember back january of this year on january 4th we did a a birthday celebration um declaration for miss isaiah when she turned 100 years old she was from the westville area she passed away sunday the 16th at her home in westville she was a dear lady i had the opportunity to present this to her um 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 we both shared the same birthd

» ay January 6 and and she was just a sweet person 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 you can't imagine the change that she saw the change she saw in Kershaw County and the things she contributed to Kershaw County and I my heart goes out to this family my prayers go out to this family and I just wanted to mention her tonight and the funeral arrangements they'll be a viewing Sunday to 23rd of November at 3:00 to 6:00 p.m.

» at Brown's funeral home and the service will be at 2 p.m on november the 24th at ebenezer am e zion church on ebenezer church road in camden and then the family will have a repass at the bethany westfield baptist church where we had our birthday party at after the service again my heart and 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 g

» o remote mr thompson any report mr chairman i have no report this evening thank you mr thompson mr brazel um councilman jones you didn't have anything to say i'm oh i got something now i was um i was i was gonna wait until the for the end to go but um if you'll let me no i i well 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 had a tough week here in in kershaw county um chad and jeff's father passed mr branham passed at 88 years old and was laid to rest what a good man and a great family and as of late a good friend of mine timmy kirkland lost his brother ernie kirkland and we just want to tell them that we love them and care about them a

» nd 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 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 made me think of someone made me think of Dr. Gill and his son who were 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 what a great person what a great guy that we've had here in Kershaw County all these years he's been dedicated to 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 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 funds that that we we were allocated by the federal government and we spent them on projects that benefit the community and children we spent them on safety for fire departments and it seemed like a lot of money being spent on differen

» t things and i'll agree that that was the case 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 covet 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 any economic development opportunity here in kershaw county typically is a win we look forward to hearing about those but we really i know that i'm gonna hone in 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 fo

» cus and do better in certain areas and danny you've done a good job of that i'd like to explore things like the homestead exemption i know that's a fifty thousand dollar 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 fifty thousand dollar 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 i know that we have a lot of contracts with leases and leases in the county in which we use differ

» ent 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 review together 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 leases i enjoy contract negotiation and i enjoy saving money and 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 and boat taxes boats are we're the one of the highest i think maybe the fourth in the natio

» n highest taxes on boats in the nation at like 10 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 i think airplanes may be at four percent i'm not sure but i think i think they're at four percent i'd like to see rvs and boats at six percent 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 th

» is 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 a two minutes sure okay thank you very much russell thank you for reminding me about timmy because he knew russell knew timmy and i were very close my wife was very close to his family timmy kirkland he 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 too uh russell i hope you don't get upset with what i'm fixing to say but uh i know that uh wouldn't be anything new but anyway i'm gonna say it okay anyway 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 pray that our county our community be so fortunate and lucky to have her serve on that so i just wanted 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 about didn't want to talk about but i had to say that and uh if the chamber misses that opportunity they've lost a golden opportunity simple as that just simple in fact so i'll be looking into that a little bit more tomorr

» ow 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 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 that bow rent ribbon coming tomorrow 11 a.m 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 miss hannah hold my hand for a second the december meeting if my schedule is right is the 9th is th

» at 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 maybe it is for you and i'll be smoking my fair share of 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 you've got to hug their neck because 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 I should have buried the hatchet on a certain issue where I should have 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 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 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 sod is currently being installed chain link fences uh still field grading going on, fine grading, hydro seeding. They estimate that to be completed at the end of this month. Copeland Park, same timeline, end of the month. Lighting, wiring, just everything you would anticipate or imagine out at a nice new complex.

» Dugouts, I'm especially excited because 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 what we would expect a very nice baseball field park to look like. So KC West, we are cutting it close with our paving season. Paving has begun this week. As you know, paving has a season. It typically runs out at around Thanksgiving. So I'm hoping to get that in and done. Then we'll be looking at some hydro seating, striping, signage, and everything that would go along with some new parking areas out there. That is anticipated to be complete at the end of this month or early December. There was some commentary on this 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 there's pride they are being taken care of taken care of and so you know over the last couple 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 cinderblock and painted black, it's kind of hard to make it look clean, but it won't be the case anymore.

» So the obligation for us to perform at a much higher level and maintain these facilities in tip-top shape 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 your guy um talking about some amenities mr bradso i think you had mentioned fire trucks and just first responders we did take delivery of our two firetrucks that we were able to save money on significant savings due to unfortunately there was a municipality up in north carolina that had ordered a several pieces of apparatus their financing fell through we were able to take

» advantage of this with vehicles on site 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're able to take immediate delivery of these two items at a significant cost reduction and immediately put them into service so they will be stationed out at villani and cassett so excited about that as we incrementally increa 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 put it out but some some members of the public will see as we go and test our sewer lines they it's a common practice to induce smoke into these lines and look for the leaks if you will i'm excited about that because i we've had some odor complaints o

» ver the years and i think this is going to tell that 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 but it is we will be doing some testing out there off highway one uh towards uh in in lugo towards elgin so just wanted to make sure that that that was put out but that that's it's going to be a good thing and tell us where 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 t

» alk about mr devose all right we're past legal briefing uh a a rarely used but we've got it on tonight future agenda items uh councilman tomlinson do you have anything that in the form a motion we need to talk about for the planning commission appointment or you just want it on for 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 would be good for the december 9 meeting yes that is correct mr chairman mr chairman and i think i may also have an appointment on the night i think we got that packet in is that correct miss hannah so i shoul

» d also have an appointment to the plan uh clean commission on december tonight all right miss hannah 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 hannah if you would please work with him as well and see if something needs to be placed on the agenda for 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 as a batch. 16A is regarding 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 pending or threatened legal claim.

» 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 also make a motion to enter executive session mr cato has emotions or second second mr chairman mr thompson 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 thompson how do you vote i bet yes that's a yes remotely it's unanimous miss hannah for the record and we are in executive session brant can you hear us mr thompson 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 we exact mr cato has the uh

» motions are second second we got a second for mr thompson 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 thompson 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 miss parlor 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 16 b 16 b um do we have a motion regarding item number 16 b ordinance uh potential ordinance regarding ZLDR amendment and 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.

» 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 in the men 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 cato has a second mr russell mr brown's on any discussion thank you um basically i don't know if anybody's been following this but this ordinance will regulate the 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, 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 going to put some regulations on these products it's going to save families it's going to protect children and it's going to protect people who think they're buying a CBD drink or maybe even something that looks like a seltzer alcoholic beverage 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. Broussel. Mr. Cato, you have the second. No comment.

» Any other discussion, comments? Seeing none, we'll move the vote for a reference to the planning commission as stated. And those who in favor 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.

» I make 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 to a vote those in person raise your hand on adjournment it's unanimous in favor mr thompson how do you vote on adjournment mr chairman i vote yes that's a yes vote