Full meeting transcript - January 13, 2026

» Good evening, everyone. I'd like to welcome you out. I haven't seen y'all since last year. How about that? To our January 13, 2026, Kershaw County Council Meeting. We've been called to order. Welcome again, everyone. I hope you had a restful holiday and Christmas season and a great new year. To get us started out tonight, we've got the invocation by Vice Chairman Russell Brazel, who will also lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Mr. Brazel. Thank you. I bow to head, please. Heavenly Father, thank you for us being able to gather tonight and represent Kershaw County collectively. Thank you for keeping us safe. Thank you for our children, Lord. Thank you for our families. We just pray that you bless us in this new year and you keep us safe, you keep our family safe, strong and healthy.

» And we say all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Brazel. Mr. Jones, point of order? You may have a couple of minutes. Just some comments I want to make. In lieu of council briefing? Yeah, I would like to do it now. Instead of your council briefing later? Yeah, I don't want to do a council briefing because this meeting may be three or four hours. And I don't know if some of these folks may not be here and I just want to make sure that that they hear what you have to say? Yes, absolutely. Okay. All right. If there's no objection, go ahead. You guys are too good to me.

» I really hadn't discussed this with Mrs. Mara Horton-Jones. She and I have seen a lot of battles in this room together when she served on the school board as chairman of the finance committee and I was chairman of the finance committee for the county council. She was chairman of the finance committee for the school board. And she came in here one night and she was asking for quite a large sum of money in millage. And I told her I wasn't going to support it. She said she didn't think I would support it. And I go home and I say, hey, baby, how you doing? She said, don't baby me. And I said, what? She said, if you ever talk to me like that again, you're going to be sleeping with Uncle Chuck. I enjoyed my couch and I stood my ground. It was good. But after that, we were okay.

» No, I just want to start with something lighthearted because this has been my life, 47 years here at Kershaw County, 20 years on county council that ended this year. But I want to say that I have enjoyed serving the citizens of Kershaw County. I was elected to the county council in 2006 and I am now beginning my 20th year on council serving all the citizens of Kershaw County. I really have enjoyed serving the people and there is no reason I cannot continue to serve. There is no reason I cannot serve another term on county council. I am the only council member from my district to serve more than one term. I am in my fifth term this year.

» However, after 20 years on county council beginning in 26, folks, it is time for me to give up my seat or y'all's seat that I represent in the district forward to someone else and give them the opportunity to continue to serve the service that I have tried to serve you in the last 20 years. Therefore, I will not be seeking reelection at the end of my term, which means that filing is, I think, for this seat and everybody else's seat who is up is in March. So, this gives, I wanted to give the citizens of Kershaw County plenty of time to decide who wanted to stand up and run. I didn't want to sneak anything on them. Let me finish this, what I wrote down, so I don't get off on a sidetrack here.

» I make this announcement now so that other citizens in my district will know that I do not intend to run again and seek reelection. I will be here another year and I will continue to represent the citizens of Kershaw County and continue to protect the taxpayers as I feel that I have done in the past 20 years. I have been blessed and by the trust and confidence of the citizens of my district and the citizens of Kershaw County who have trusted me with what I call a precious gift and that is the gift of their trust in their vote. And when people give us that, and I can tell you this, I know there is not a person up here that takes that for granted. I think this county's got a good county council. I know I can't be right all the time, but bottom line is we've got a great county council.

» I know they're working hard to try to get things done with sometimes very little resources. But, gentlemen, I want to say thank you. I look forward to that. It's not over. I've got another year. And we may have a somber night tonight, but y'all will get mad at me 40 more times before this year is up. But I have enjoyed serving with y'all and I look forward to this last year. And to my wife, I'm surprisingly glad that you were here so you could hear that. But thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Jones. All right, gentlemen, that brings us on to adoption of the agenda. Are there any motions on the agenda? Make a motion. We approve the agenda as submitted. We have a motion. Is there a second? Second. We have a second. Any discussion on the agenda? Seeing none, we'll move it to a vote.

» Everybody's in person tonight, so if you're in favor, raise your hand. Ms. Hanna, it's unanimous in favor. The agenda is approved. I'm going to move up item number 11A, related to SCDNR and various recognitions on arrest solution, to right after the proclamation for the Kershaw Environmental Collaborative, placed on the agenda by Mr. Brazel. And so we'll have the agenda and proceed in that way, okay? Right. All right. That brings us to the next item in the agenda, which is item number 5A, Kershaw Environmental Collaborative, placed on the agenda by Vice Chairman Russell Brazel. Do we have a motion? I'd like to make the motion for a proclamation to protect the environmental integrity of Kershaw County's natural resources. Do we have a second? Second. We have a second. Mr.

» Brazel, you have a floor. Thank you, Chairman Connell. I will read this proclamation. Again, a proclamation to protect the environmental integrity of Kershaw County's natural resources. As many of you know, I have a passion for Lake Watery and the Watery River, as well as all the watersheds, which led to this partnership with DES. Whereas the Kershaw County Council affirms its commitment to responsible environmental stewardship and recognizes the importance of collaboration with the state of South Carolina through Department of Environmental Services.

» And whereas the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services seeks to foster positive, cooperative relationships with counties across the state to collaboratively address environmental challenges, including watershed protection and stormwater management. And whereas Kershaw County and the state of South Carolina share a mutual interest in protecting natural resources while supporting responsible economic activity and community growth. And whereas this partnership is intended to provide county staff with additional resources, technical support, and opportunities for collaboration in order to strengthen environmental protections.

» And whereas the protection of Kershaw County's natural resources, including Lake Watery, the Watery River, and all associated streams and bodies of water is vital to the health, economy, and quality of life of its residents. And whereas cooperative environmental stewardship can enhance relationships with industry, small business, and the community while promoting compliance, innovation, and sustainable practices. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that Kershaw County and the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services hereby establish a pilot partnership known as the Kershaw Environmental Collaborative, reflecting a shared commitment to cooperation, problem-solving, and the long-term protection of the county's natural resources. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Brazel.

» Any other comments, discussion, council members? I'd just like to say thank you to Mr. Brazel for putting this together. I think this could potentially save us some money down the road, and I appreciate his hard work, because I know he, like most of you up here, he puts a lot of hours into the county government and gets very little money for it. But thank you, Russ. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Any other comments or discussion? Well, I would just like to, again, thank the director, Myra Reese, for this opportunity. This is a pilot program, the first county in the state, and we're still defining what this is as a partnership, but we know it's going to be positive. We know that it's going to bring better communication, and we're going to seek problem-solving, not hard fines and enforcements.

» We're going to work together, and I think that's something that anybody who's seen the way government politicians act sometimes on television, they're probably glad to see a change in that regard. So, happy to present this tonight. Thank you, Mr. Brazel. Do we have anybody here from DEES that we need to recognize at all before we vote? Do you have anybody here tonight? No. Okay. In that case, we'll move it to a vote. All those in favor, raise your hand. It's unanimous. Proclamation passes Ms. Hannon for the record. Thank you very much. Good deal. That moves us to item new number 5B. It's the previous resolution we discussed briefly, former 11A resolution committing South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. Do we have a motion? I would make a motion that we adopt the resolution. Mr.

» Shoemake, is there a second? I'll second. I think Mr. Tucker got you on the second. Sorry about that. You want me anywhere? I'm not going to let y'all fight over it right here. All right. Mr. Shoemake? All right. I'll read the resolution. This is a resolution commending the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, Lance Corporal Tommy Buchanan, Global Echo Adventures, the South Carolina Office of Resilience, and J.A. Still and Robert Collins Construction Company for their dedicated and successful efforts to remove a four-year-old log jam on the Lynch's River here in Kershaw County. Whereas the Lynch's River is one of Kershaw County's important natural resources. Whereas the Lynch's River flows through the county, and the main river has tracks located within its watershed.

» Whereas a large and long-standing log jam in place for more than four years created significant navigational, environmental, and safety hazards along the vital stretch of the Lynch's River within Kershaw County. And whereas South Carolina DNR, led by Lance Corporal Tommy Buchanan, along with Global Echo Adventures, the South Carolina Office of Resilience, and J.A. Still and Robert Collins Construction Company, recognized the urgency of restoring the river's natural flow, ecological health, and safe accessibility for paddlers, anglers, wildlife, and future conservation initiatives. And whereas the coordinated efforts of DNR's Lance Corporal Buchanan, DNR Director Dr.

» Tom Mullican, and DNR Director of Training Eric Martin, together with the technical expertise, leadership, equipment, and field support provided by Global Echo Adventures, under the direction of its president, Thomas Mullican Jr., and retired Army First Sergeant Clark Gray, as well as the support of the South Carolina Office of Resilience and the operational capabilities of J.A. Still and Robert Collins Construction Company resulted in the safe, efficient, and environmentally responsible removal of the four-year-old obstruction.

» And whereas this successful operation demonstrates the effectiveness of collaboration among state agencies, county officials, private partners, and conservation organizations working together to safeguard and enhance South Carolina's natural resources for present and future generations. Now, therefore, be it resolved that Kershaw County Council hereby commends and expresses its sincere appreciation to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, Global Echo Adventures, the South Carolina Office of Resilience, and J.A. Still and Robert Collins Construction Company for their exceptional service, dedication, and achievement in removing the long-standing Glock Jam in the Lynch's River.

» Be it further resolved, the Kershaw County Council recognizes their work as a model of environmental stewardship, public service, and partnership, and extends its gratitude for their continued commitment to preserving and protecting the natural resources of Kershaw County. And we do have, before we go to a vote, we do have several members of DNR. I believe Lance Corporal Buchanan and Eric Martin are also here as long as Mr. Mulliken is here as well. Outstanding. Mr. Tucker, you have the second? Yes. I just want to say thank you for their services and what all they do here in Kershaw County. We always thank out of the 46 counties that we're very special and number one.

» So we appreciate all your efforts and you're willing to always partner and do great things here for the citizens of Kershaw County. Thank you, Mr. Tucker. Mr. Kato, you had the second second? I had the second second. And we have Mr. Kenneth Clark Gray in the audience as well. Okay, outstanding. I just want to thank everybody that was involved in this. I don't live too far from this site. And I tell you, the Lynch's River, if you've ever been down to Lynch's River, is a beautiful place, full of wildlife and beautiful scenes. There's some beautiful hardwoods and wetlands down through that area. And it's awesome. So I just thank you for helping us keep it up. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments? Questions? Mr. Chairman? Yes, sir. I'd just like to say thank you to the A-team back there.

» They did a wonderful job. I had the opportunity to go out one day. I didn't get to go the multiple days that were there and got to put on a pair of waders. But there were thousands of tons of trash, debris, logs pulled out of that. It wasn't a log jam. It was probably about a football field size stoppage in the Lynch's River. It was absolutely ginormous. They got in the water on a freezing cold day. I know a couple of them dipped their waders. I think 1st Sergeant Gray dipped his waders quite a few times climbing up and up and down the log jam. So it was a valiant effort and really appreciate it. But it ended up being navigable right away after the cleanup. So it was a great effort. Thank you all for all your hard work. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you, Mr. Tomlinson. Mr.

» Brazel? Yeah, just real quick. In the spirit of environmental greatness, I'd like to say thank you to everybody. And Eric, you know I can't let it go. I hadn't seen Eric since probably 1998, in which we were bass fishing when I was in school at Clemson, '98, '99. He's always been an excellent fisherman. I have not seen him until he walked in the back door and it hit me like a ton of bricks. It's so good to see him for the first time in 27 years or maybe 28 years. I was so excited to see it. I was so excited to see an old friend and just I think it's cool to get reunited with something positive for our community. So it's good to have all of you here tonight. And I couldn't go without sharing that. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Brazel.

» Any other comments or discussion? I'll just say I've seen you gentlemen make a difference all over the state including Kershaw County and neighboring counties. So thanks again. We'll move it to a vote. All in favor, raise your hand. Ms. Hanna, the resolution passes unanimously. Do we have anybody that we should recognize? Mr. Shoemaker, you had the motion. Anyone who would want to come up to the mic before a picture? Mr. Tomlinson, I know you know the crew very well. Yeah, yeah. Before y'all, y'all come up for a picture. We have a bunch of silent heroes. That's outstanding. Come on up to the front, please. I know Eric doesn't like to take pictures. Thank you. All right, Clark, take your mind. Thanks again, gentlemen.

» True public servants, it's rare that you find somebody who gets the opportunity to grab the mic and they turn it down. Keep a low profile. Thank you, gentlemen. All right, that takes us to public presentations. And before we do that, I just was remiss in mentioning Danny Templer. His mom passed away. We excuse him tonight, our fearless administrator. We have a capable Mr. Blanchard here tonight to fill in for Danny. They had funeral services today. Of course, there are a lot of tears shed and a lot of Pink Floyd was listened to. Yes. She was a great woman from all accounts. All right, that moves us to public presentations. Councilman Cato placed on the agenda an Alpha Center update. Is there a motion, Mr. Cato? Yes, sir.

» I'd like to make a motion that we allow Alpha Center, the Opioid Abatement Coalition, to come up forward and give us a presentation on these store-bought drugs and smoke shop drugs. Okay, we have a motion, is there a second? I'll make a second. I'd like to say thank you, Danny. All right, we've got a second. Any discussion before we vote? Seeing none, we'll move to a vote. Mr. Chair, would it be proper for me to stand on this? I think you can vote because we're not expending any public dollars on this and it's related litigation that's already been expended. Go for it. There's no objection. There's no objection. It'd be the first time in 20 years I ever voted for anything possible. Well, it's not related to budget items. So, all in favor, raise your hand. Yes, ma'am.

» Public presentation, please. Thank you, Ms. Maher. Welcome. So, appreciate being here, been here, been coming to see y'all for a long time. But, just wanted to give y'all, as we promised, a quarterly update. And, Mr. Cato also wanted to talk about, a little bit about the vape shops and I'm not targeting anyone specifically, but the substances that are out there, and we say vape shops, they're out there in all kinds of stores. So, we come to you tonight, just to provide a little bit of education, but also to just give you kind of a quick update on the Alpha Center. We are getting ready to break ground on an expansion, and those dollars are provided by the legislators over the past two years. The fortunate part about it is, we have the dollars to expand.

» The unfortunate part about it is, we have to expand because we're beyond capacity. Our wait time for getting appointments is extended beyond what people really need. And so, we will start that. So, all of y'all will see that coming. The other thing too is, I also want to talk to you a little bit about the work that's been done here in Kershaw County has been replicated in Chesterfield with the SCORF dollars, as well as Lee County picked up and was told, hey, we heard what Kershaw County and Chesterfield's doing, can you bring it to Lee County? And we now represent Lee County as well. Also, I have to also commend my staff, and you'll meet Leanna, who is my SCORF director here in Kershaw County, and Bethy Hardaway, who is the prevention specialist in Kershaw County.

» But they are also being recognized as the model grant written for the state that will be utilized for everyone else to model their grant writing for the SCORF awards throughout the state. And that will be coming down. So, I do have to give them kudos on that. But that also brings great recognition statewide to Kershaw County as we present that at the next what they call coffee chat throughout the state for the opioid response teams. So, in saying that, I'm not going to take up much time. I do want to introduce, Leanna Adams came as a prevention specialist and quickly showed her drive and love and passion for working in the prevention for ensuring that our citizens receive the best in Kershaw County as well as Lee County. She was working there and was promoted up to my SCORF director.

» But she has learned to utilize those dollars to integrate into helping look at what is it we can do to make Kershaw County healthier citizens and to grow and keep Kershaw County on a fast track for ensuring our citizens are thriving. And then she also is joined by Bethany. And I was fortunate to pick Bethany up and she is a crackerjack at quickly going in. And these ladies don't just learn it. They go into the stores and ask questions and take pictures. So, when they're giving you information tonight, it's because they have been and done an environmental scan and been out in the community and learned about it. And so, I'm appreciative that y'all are willing to listen to this.

» Because even though you may not be directly affected, it is information that is pertinent to saving people's lives and building healthier communities. So, I'd welcome Leanna and Bethany up. Yes, ma'am. Good evening. Good evening. Today, I want to thank Kershaw County Council and a special thanks to Danny Cato for having me tonight. As Mara mentioned, my name is Leanna Adams. I actually graduated from a Kershaw County School, North Central High School in 2008. And I do have my four-year degree from Coker College or University, if you're asking whoever. And I do have a degree here in psychology. I do serve, as mentioned, for Kershaw County and Lee County for that opioid abatement coalition director. And I'm employed by Alpha Behavioral Health Center. I started my Alpha career.

» Mara mentioned she took all my introduction about being a prevention specialist. That means that I'm working to stop substance use and misuse and other related harms through youth and community education. And since moving into this role as coalition director, I have now moved a little bit outside of that, but want to talk a little bit about or focus less on the business part of this, but the products that are within these gas stations and these vape stores and why this matters to zoning regulation and community protection. So my goal again tonight is to educate you on these products. You may not know about them or have walked past them while you're buying your snacks or gas without even realizing.

» Vapes shops and gas stations are not only selling high concentration nicotine vapes with marketing tactics like flavors, brightly colored packaging to attract our youth, but they're also selling these products and substances, and they vary widely and affect legality, safety, and carry many products or many significant health risks. These substances commonly termed as gas station drugs apply to all non FDA approved substances, and they're being sold casually in our gas stations online and elsewhere. Oftentimes they're labeled as dietary supplements, herbal remedies, and legal highs. Many products will use verbiage such as mood, focus, dietary, enhanced, and that's to downplay the psychoactive effects of these products. These terms can also minimize and obscure those actual effects.

» These products and their potency are also changing rapidly, and local zoning and regulation has not been able to keep up. This market is always and ever evolving. Also, with many of these products being synthetic, once there is a regulation, a simple chemical alteration can make it a completely new product, and now it falls back into a legal gray area. These substances fall into a few key categories, some are plant-based like kratom and proprietary mushroom blends, and I do use the term plant-based very loosely. Companies use these terms such as natural and plant-based as marketing tactics because they can be misleading. Others are synthetic, hemp-derived THC products, they come in many forms, gummies, vapes, oils, and are being sold as legal highs.

» We also see unregulated pharmaceuticals like Tia-Neptine, Fetibunt, which are especially risky because of their addictive potential. Inhalants like nitrous oxide are also being sold in small and large cartridges. And note that some of these actually kind of fall into multiple category, and we're still trying to figure out how to classify some of these. So I encourage each of you to review the flyer that I've put before you for some visual examples and the different substances that are out there. And I challenge each of you to walk in a vape shop or even your local gas station and take the time to really look at the products that are there, especially those that are close to the register, behind the counter, and you would be surprised what you did not see or notice before.

» If these products again mention anything like mood, enhancement, focus, dietary, we want you to beware and be aware. And when we talk about these products, we're really talking about emerging drugs, which means emerging risk. And the impact is already showing up in our schools, in our homes, in our emergency rooms. New substances, including product like 7-hydroxymetragynine and pseudoindoxyl, introduce unpredictable effects. Many are harder to track, and that creates a gap in our prevention and response efforts. These substances are also affecting overdose prevention efforts. When they're mixed with opioids and used unknowingly, they increase overdose risk and make it harder to interpret those trends. And, excuse me, interpret trends and data.

» That matters because that shapes our prevention messaging and our outreach. And from a policy and a strategy standpoint, understanding what's emerging can help guide decisions about funding, partnership, and enforcement. And identifying trends early allows coalitions and local government to be proactive instead of reactive. And ultimately, I just want awareness to help you better understand so that we can protect our residents by strengthening education, improving coordination among schools and providers and other stakeholders, and allowing us to respond quickly to these emerging threats. And when we talk about zoning, this issue isn't also about if these products exist. It's also about where they're being sold. Location matters because proximity matters.

» When products with psychoactive effects are being sold near schools, parks, churches, and other youth-centered spaces, exposure increases and the use becomes normalized. Visibility also matters. When these products are being placed right behind the counter, near the register, it becomes part of everyday purchasing. And that can increase impulsive buying, especially for young people and for people that are in recovery. We also want to look at the cumulative impact. One store may not be a concern on their own, but when several are located close together, this can have an effect on the neighborhood and it will change. That's why zoning exists. That's why location affects impact. And local government has the responsibility to consider that.

» In December, Council took an important first step by addressing where hemp-derived and synthetic cannabinoid products are sold and recognize that location and clustering does matter. At the same time, many of these products fall into legal gray areas. Unlike alcohol and tobacco, THC, Kratom, and other similar products do not have a clear statewide age restriction. Some companies actually volunteer and voluntarily label their products as 18 plus or 21 plus. Others do not. Many are packaged to look like energy drinks and alcoholic beverages and are easily placed near those items. Sometimes without staff realizing that the age restriction should even apply. Because federal regulation has not kept pace, local action becomes necessary.

» Community cannot wait for federal guidance and must use local tools to protect our youth and our residents. Conditional use is a familiar and effective zoning tool. We already use it for alcohol sales and other high-impact uses because it recognizes that location and context does matter. Conditional use allows for that case-by-case review, which makes decisions thoughtful, not automatic, and it creates a space for public input. So that residents can raise concern and be part of that process. This also allows the county to apply location-specific conditions without creating a blanket ban. Conditional use doesn't really shut doors, it sets guardrails. This approach provides predictability for businesses while protecting community standards and public health.

» So Kershaw County has made meaningful investments in prevention, treatment, and recovery, and we work hard to protect our youth, our families, and reduce substance-related harm. And both zoning and point-of-sale protections are part of a larger system. But we can invest in recovery and prevention on one hand and ignore environmental exposure and access on the other. These ordinance align with community standards, support responsible growth planning, and provide those safe guardrails that protect residents today while remaining adaptive as new substances emerge. This isn't about being anti-business, it's about being intentional, informed, and proactive. Taken together, they reflect today's realities and represent a practical step forward for Kershaw County.

» Again, this retail market is constantly changing, and these ordinance recognize that reality. They provide reasonable lawful guardrails that protect sensitive spaces while allowing the county to respond responsibly to emerging products. Their adoption and ordinance like it will ensure oversight, protect community health and safety, and give Kershaw County a clear and practical framework to move forward. I do thank you guys for your time. Hello, everyone. I'm Bethany Hardaway. I'm a prevention specialist here with Alpha. And I'm learning a lot just alongside you all about these substances and the harm that they're causing to our society, not only our community. So, like Leanna mentioned, there's a lot of youth access. As you guys can see on the flyer, there's a lot of colorful imagery.

» There's a lot of youth marketing targeting youth similar to how the tobacco industry targets youth in their vape products. And as Leanna mentioned, the legal consequences or the legal catching up of the law, obviously, the legal field is having a hard time keeping up with some of these new products that are coming out. Because the second one is legal. It just changes the chemical compound. And the age restrictions are also very hard to enforce. So, just to give a little bit of background, from the youth tobacco survey that is conducted every year in South Carolina, of the youth that reported using tobacco, almost 50% of those tobacco products were purchased from traditionally legal outfits. So, including 10% from gas stations, 26% from vape shops, and then 13% from another store type.

» With these considerations, especially the large percentage being from a vape shop, and these obviously being illegal for youth to buy, it's very important to put guardrails on these substances, especially because we're having a hard time preventing their actual sales. So, the least we could do is put guardrails on their access to youth and strengthen those restrictions. Thank you so much for having us. Thank you, Mara, Leanna, and Bethany. Mr. Cato, you had the motion. I felt that this presentation tonight was very important after the opioid. I have the pleasure of serving on the opioid abatement coalition council commission. And we had a meeting back on December the 16th. And this really opened my eyes for one solid hour. This was a very short presentation because of time restraints.

» But we had one solid hour of presentations during this meeting. And if you could have heard that, you would have really seen why I wanted what a little bit was shared here tonight to be said. We had testimony from people that were trying to help people overcome addiction that considered this to be a legal way to stay high. We had people that were accidentally overdosing on this type of stuff that was seeking medical attention that could have very easily cost them their life. So, you know, I was very, I have to say, even coming from a law enforcement background 27 years, that this actually shocked me a little bit. This was so readily available in our stores.

» We had a legislative breakfast at Alpha Center and Councilman Braswell actually went by the store and purchased some of this stuff just to show how easy it was and how easy you could mistaken this for just some type of energy drink or strawberry lemonade drink and you'd never know what was in it. So I thank the Alpha Center so much for coming out tonight and for giving us this presentation. I thought that it was very important based off the vote that we're going to take tonight. And one last thing that wasn't mentioned tonight, one of these substances is actually being produced and packaged in Fort Mill, South Carolina. less than an hour and what, 15 minutes from us.

» And when we know that we had a big roundup, our sheriff's office and SLED was involved and the sheriff's office has representation at these meetings in the city of Camden. And I think Dave Miller and a couple others were there, Chief Jack rushing. And they told us that SLED and these, these sheriff's offices from around the state collected 26 tractor trailer loads of this stuff. 26 tractor on one, one seizure. That, that, that amazes me and it frightens me to know that our young people have access to this without sometimes even knowing what they, what they're getting their hands on. what they're getting their hands on. I'm sorry for the, for the long speech, but I thank you again for coming out and, and doing this presentation. Thank you, Mr. Kato. Mr.

» Browse, we have the second, I believe. Yes. Thank you, chairman. Danny, thank you. And, um, thank you ladies. Thank you for the whirlwind of support and education that you have given us on these topics. Um, I know that this council and the Alpha Center together want nothing more than the health, wellness and safety of children, middle-aged folks, and all generations. Because frankly, a lot of the people consuming some of these drinks and gummies are mistaking them for CBDs. And that's not what this is. Um, this is not granddad's marijuana. This is not weed that was purchased in 1973. This is a different animal completely. These drugs have been mutated, manipulated, and appropriately marketed towards our youth. And frankly, it ticks me off.

» It ticks me off to know that I've had friends suffer from these issues and that somebody's making a lot of money off of the downfall of, of our society. By letting this crap be sold in an unregulated fashion. Um, if it were up to me, it wouldn't exist. We're going to take every step towards keeping this off the streets, keeping it out of stores, and making sure that everybody understands exactly what it is and how it can harm them. So, I just really want to say thank you for everybody's support. Danny Cato, I couldn't thank you more. Mar, thank you so much, ladies. This means so much to so many. Thank you very much. Any other comments or discussion? Any questions? I have a question. I will yield to Mr. Shoemaker. Mr. Shoemaker. Yeah, just briefly.

» Thanks again, Mar, and all you folks at the office center. Um, one thing I think is kind of interesting. Excuse me. A lot of folks ask, well, why can't we just make these things illegal? And something I think that a lot of people don't realize is like, for example, methamphetamine. We all know meth is illegal. But what methamphetamine is, is C10H15N. That's the chemical compound, right? Fifteen atoms of carbon, I think. See, it's carbon. I'm not great at chemistry. That's my sister-in-law. Are you making this? You get ahead of yourself. But before I get out of my skis on that, if you change one atomic element to that, it becomes a different chemical formula. So the law says this chemical formula is illegal.

» What happens is people who are savvy enough with the chemistry can change the atomic compound. And so that chemical formula, because you have to make these things illegal, unless it's a natural grown thing like hemp that we can point to and we know it exists in nature, it's created in a lab. And so that's why the law enforcement's always playing catch up with this. Because you can have synthetic marijuana, for example, which is a chemical formula that is different than the natural grown marijuana. You can have anything in there. And that's, you know, the common question is why can't we just make this illegal? Generally, law enforcement agencies go after the stuff once it's made illegal, but making it illegal is like a catch up game.

» And that's part of the big issue in these is that they're all chemical stuff made in the lab. And it's hard to say anything with carbon in it is illegal, right? Anything with these formulas, these atoms are illegal. You can't do that. It has to be the specific formula. That's why when we talk about schedule one drugs, schedule two drugs, these schedules are written out with these specific chemical formulas. So just kind of a little point of clarification, because I got that question a lot. Thank you, Mr. Schumann. Thank you. Mr. Tucker. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Great presentation. Thank you, ladies. Ms. Morrow. I only have one complaint. You were up here blowing Jimmy kisses, and you never blew any on this side.

» So we're definitely jealous and feel less than, but I'm happy to see you ladies out tonight. And I have a question, and then I have a comment. So on your emerging drugs presentation, how does the public get this information, and how often is this given? Because this is too good of information not to get it out to our citizens as best we can. So as Danny mentioned, at my coalition meeting, me and my constituent, Jessica Berry, she's the prevention director. We have a presentation that is really probably about an hour and a half long, and I probably shoved it into an hour. So trying to shove this into 10 or 15 minutes was a huge thing. That's why I made sure I got a flyer to kind of give you guys some visuals and some more information.

» But you can definitely reach out to me at the Alpha Center or Jessica Berry, and we are happy to come and talk about all the things and go in depth into each one of these substances. And as was mentioned, I actually, just since I am up here, so every picture that is on that flyer, I either took myself or I have seen in Kershaw, Lee, or Chesterfield County, since that is the counties that we serve. So it's here. Thank you. So what I would like to do, Ms. Jones, if possible, is to get with you and see, you know, a lot of this information can be carried out throughout our faith-based communities where we can set up in churches and teach folks and educate the community.

» And I would like to partner with you on that and making that happen because this stuff with all these energy drinks and it's like the internet. The internet's great, but it's got a lot of evil things that happens. And that guy or that gal that created the vape, I can choke them any day that I can put my hands on them. For the simple fact, I was at a Pittsburgh Steelers game two weeks ago when we won, and we looked like garbage last night and we're out of the playoffs. That's a whole other story. And they were smoking marijuana. I don't think there's nothing you can't smoke in a vape. And I didn't get high, but I got very nauseous because as Councilman Browser say, I don't know where they grow it or where they buy it, but it ain't what I'm used to. Not that I took it before. Yes, ma'am.

» Speak in the mic, please. Miss Mara, Jimmy says you're not loud enough and you need to speak into the mic. That's acceptable. For the people out there. Chairman Connell, I'll show you the respect. What I would say is it only one call to the Alpha Center. We, it fits everybody's budget for this presentation to be given because it is absolutely free. That is what we're here for. And we're very fortunate because it, like Elgin Town Council put it up on their website. The more places we can get it to, because what I will tell you, and some of you heard it, right now we're detoxing people. And the, and JD Chaplin or one of our senators was talking about it's middle-aged white women that are being detoxed off of these drugs. Middle-aged white women.

» It was the, how do you say it, the keratin or? Yeah, it's the Kratom. Kratom. Kratom. And right now they've released state funds and individuals are taking these feeling like, well, I've got this anxiety, Kratom will reduce my anxiety and it's being sold as that. It's in a store, so it must be safe. And he's exactly right. I've had two individuals who are, I don't, middle to upper income go through detox coming off. And if you've ever seen them, Kratom detox is pretty, it's not a pretty sight. It is very, very painful to come off of. And no one, again, y'all heard me say this, no one sits around in a kindergarten classroom and says, I hope to grow up to be addicted to drugs, disappoint my family and, you know, be homeless and have a destructive life. No one does that.

» But life happens whether right or wrong. And this is just a doorway for those individuals who had no idea they were becoming addicted to become addicted. And so that presentation is free to anyone who would call. We love being in the faith-based community because the faith-based community sometimes does not want to look at what's really going on. So thank you. Thank you, Ms. Jones. And my last comment is, Ms. Jones, I know what's in your heart. I mean, that's why you're back here doing what you're doing. But you two young ladies, keep the passion and the love and the desire. I know it's your job and you get paid. But when you have the others, it makes it that much more easy to get up in the morning and do it. And you're serving a great cause.

» So thank you and continue the rock stars that you are. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Tucker. Thank you. Is there any further discussion? If so, I'll need to seek a motion to suspend our time requirement on public presentations. Any other comments or discussion? Everybody good? Okay. Thank you so much. No votes required. Appreciate y'all coming out tonight. Thank you, Mr. Cato. Mr. DuBose, next up on the agenda is public comments item number seven. Mr. Chair, no one has signed up tonight. Very rare. Interesting way to start off 2026. Everyone must have partied a little too hard over Christmas and New Years. Everyone is happy with everything. For now. They heard I was stepping down. You spoke too soon. We haven't done anything wrong in 2026 yet. Okay. Moving on from public comments.

» This takes us to approval of minutes item number 8A. Is there a motion on the minutes? I'll make a motion to approve the minutes. Second. Mr. Thomason has a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move it to a vote. All in favor, raise your hand on the minutes. Ms. Hannah, for the record, it passes unanimously on the minutes. This takes us to discussion. Any particular update, Mr. Blanchard, before we move to a vote on discussion for 9A, Pecan Orchard? Yeah. No. Other than the fact that we have applied for all of the different permits and we have gotten comments back from DES, we're working through those comments. We will resubmit by the end of the month and then we can start the progression of getting with utilities and things like that for the actual boots on the ground. Okay.

» Thank you. Vice Chairman Russell put it on the agenda. We'll see what else the council wants to hear. Is there a motion? Yeah, I'll make a motion just for a brief discussion on that update. I'd just like to pencil in some dates. Is there a second? Mr. Tucker has a second. Mr. Brousley, you've got the floor. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you for being here tonight and Godspeed to Danny and his family and their loss. I appreciate you filling in and handling these situations. So I'd just like, especially for the residents of the Pecan Orchard, they would like to find out what the timeline looks like.

» I know we can reference an email from August of 2025 in which all of the residents received an update from the administration stating that everything had been approved for the first portion of the work. Can you just help me briefly define what that portion looks like and when the start date should be? Again, we've applied for all of the permits for this project. We have broken the project down into multiple phases. Phase one is what we're focusing on right now. Permitting covers primarily the phase one aspect of things. Like I said, we did get some comments back. We're addressing those comments. The plan resubmittal to DES should be by the end of January.

» We are also planning on having a utility meeting to discuss the water and the fiber and things of that nature the first week of February. Anticipated DES approval after we finish these questions and get back with them is sometime mid-March. So, once we get to that point, we are in the background doing the bid documents and things like that to get them as soon as we get the permitting. We will get the bid documents out and then we should be able to move forward. So, we're thinking that we can get this bid by what, late March, 1st of April? Bid documents and plans for county advertisement end of March, hopefully. Bid opening would be end of April because you have to have the, you know, you have to have the package out for a while.

» Council approval for whatever they come back with would be the month of May, mid-May. And then you're talking about a pre-con and then a groundbreaking sometime in June. Okay. And that... Very rough estimates because weather comes into play. There's so many different aspects that could set this off. And that phase one includes which roads and... Primarily Blackberry, Blackberry Place, going Blackberry, going back into the Crabapple area. But we've got two outfalls on Blackberry. Put a mic up. Pull your mic up. I can't... Yeah. Sorry. We've got two outfalls that are going to be on Blackberry that we have to work through. Okay. So, to keep it brief, I just wanted to kind of highlight what we're doing, when we're doing it, to give the residents an idea.

» If we could, at our next meeting, could we get a diagram that we could share with the residents and the public of what this is going to look like for them? Absolutely. Yes, sir. Just maybe one of the engineering drawings or whatever we have available. Absolutely. All right. Thank you so much. Sure. Mr. Tucker, you have a second? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Gerald, can you also update us? I know there's some correspondence that went back out to those residents in December. And then after our finance meeting this month, y'all were supposed to do an update of updating those citizens out there. Again, I believe it was pretty much what was just contained in that. Very high level. Right. Because, again, we are trying to really nail down these dates. But that's gone out though, right? Correct.

» Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Tucker. Any other comments or discussion on this item? I think, Mr. Tucker, you and Mr. Brouser, the rest of you have done a good job to keep staying on it. Gerald, thank you. Yes, sir. And I have no comments. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Seeing none. Seeing none others. No votes required. So that will conclude this item. This moves us on to item number 9B. Any other high level update we need, Mr. Blanchard, before we move to a vote for discussion? Related to? 9B. 9B. Yeah. There was some question exactly what the discussion was going to be on with Vincent Road. So I just went ahead and just for everyone's background, Vincent Road is an approximately three-mile road with six homes on it.

» Those six homes are located on the paved portion, which is a SCDOT-maintained section of the road. The remainder of the road is primarily timber and some hunt properties. We did have eight work orders in 2025 on that road. Everything from undersized pipe was replaced. Some safety issues with ditching was taken care of. Approximate cost of the maintenance of that road was around $30,000 last year. Thanks for that overview. We'll move to a motion and second if there's any further discussion or questions. Is there a motion, Mr. Brasel, you placed on the agenda? Yeah, just again, just a brief synopsis. Just a couple of quick questions. All right, we got motions or a second? Absolutely. Second. Mr. Tucker has a second. Mr. Brasel. So I know this was a priority, and you are right.

» It is in an area where six homes and maybe some family farms exist. I think the sticking point for a few of the residents is that the road crosses into Lancaster County. So I'm not sure approximately how many miles are in Kershaw versus Lancaster. But is it paved in Lancaster or is it just maintained differently? I'm not 100% sure. I believe it's dirt all the way. The situation and concern that's been brought to my attention is that it's gotten narrow and it needs some brush cutting. It needs to be opened up. And of course, it sounds like some ditching work has been done. I have not seen it since it's been worked on, but I have talked to some local residents and they just maybe feel like they haven't had as much work done to it as they would like to.

» I know at the time there was an extraordinarily undersized pipe and it was a beaver dam on either side of the road that was causing an issue. But whether we like it or not, it's our responsibility to make it passable and safe. So I'd just like to mention the fact that we need to ensure the safety on that road. And I would expect that we could do a better job than Lancaster when it comes to a level of quality. We shouldn't be looked at as, you know, we're not doing as good a job as our neighboring county. And I think that was the point that the individual was trying to impress upon me. So, you know, I don't know if there's any kind of co-op that we could talk with some folks in Lancaster if they're up there working.

» And if we're doing some work, we can help one another further collaborate like we've done with DES. But, you know, anything works within legal limits. So I appreciate y'all's time. Thank you. Any other comments or discussion? I just want to clarify kind of what Gerald said. I know last year I had some complaints also from some of the people that lived up in that area. And mine and Russell's districts, and district doesn't matter. We serve Kershaw County, as Jimmy says, many times. But we did put in a new pipe because the water was overflowing. And we started the brush cutting and the cutter tore up. That was my understanding they were going to go back up there after the cutter was fixed and finished the cutting. I assume that did not happen at this point now.

» But, yeah, I mean, I know we've done some work up there, but I too would like to see us finish the job. Yes, sir. Absolutely. Thank you, Dan. Any other comments or discussion? Any questions? If not, no votes required. This moves us on from item number 9B for discussion only. And on to some ordinances that we have on the agenda. Any high-level summary that we need on 10A before we consider a motion? Mr. Blanchard? Absolutely. Members of council, what you have before you for first reading is a rezoning of 16.68 acres off Black River Road from RD1 to MRD1. Thank you, Mr. Blanchard. Do we have a motion on first reading on 10A? I'd like to make a motion to approve first reading on 10A, Mr. Chairman. Second. We have a motion. Is there a second? Mr. Thompson has a second. Mr.

» Tucker? This property happens to be down off of Black River Road. There has been some rezoning in that area in the past, Gerald, if I'm not mistaken. And this family is trying to set up where they can get their kids to be able to put some marginal homes in the area. And the land adjacent to and across from is zoned in that fashion. But the piece that they want to, which is their land, want to build on is not. And so this would just bring it into compliance as the rest of them. And it came out of planning and zoning with the approval of us rezoning it. And I'm going to ask for your support. And I'm very familiar with the land because across the street is my church. And we do not have any objections on rezoning. Thank you, Mr. Tucker. Mr. No comment. Okay.

» Any other comments, questions? I would just note, you know, one of my things on these rezonings is always whether or not we're going to impact density, make things more dense. And I would notice this particular zoning does not appear to do that. If you look at the uses as well allowed, it doesn't really have a massive expansion of the uses allowed beyond the mobile home addition. So, you know, for example, zoos and botanical gardens were in the existing one, they would still be allowed in the new one. So I think for that reason, I'm going to support it. But I just wanted to point that out that we're not making this. As we all know, when we rezone, we rezone forever. So even if this family moves, someone who moves there later could do whatever they wanted with the property.

» That's why I'm leery to rezone anything more dense, but this doesn't do that. Thank you, Mr. Shoemake. Any other questions or comments? Mr. Jones, please. Well, I look at this, I will say thank you to you guys bringing this before us, because I look at this as deregulation. So many rules and order, things that we have on the books. And you know where I stand when it comes to being somewhat lenient with the folks using their land for what they want it to. So thank you all for bringing that before us. And I would like to point out, Mr. Chairman, too, the families out there. I couldn't see because I'm short statute, but they're sitting out there waving their hands, the Wade family. We have Councilman John Wells sitting out there, too. Yes, sir, he is. I can see him. He's about nine foot.

» Thank you all for being here tonight. Any other comments or questions? Seeing none, we'll move to a vote. This is on first reading for 10A. All in favor, raise your hand. Ms. Hanna, it is unanimous in favor and passes on first reading. That's 10A. Chairman, I know I stepped out, but I was familiar with the request to vote, so I voted in favor of it as well. You didn't miss much. Mr. Chairman, can I make one comment just for the families, because they're not very familiar with going through this? Sure, before we get to 10B. Yeah, so you have two more of these before you could be granted the permission, so you can come back in two more weeks and then two more weeks after that. So just watch the agenda, and I'll keep you informed as well. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Tucker.

» And y'all are welcome to stay the rest of the meeting if you'd like to, but if you need to take off, we totally understand. People often wait for their agenda items and then have to leave and attend to other business or family matters. All right, gentlemen, that takes us to item number 10B. Mr. Blanchard, any high-level summary before we consider a motion? Yes, sir. What you have before you, first reading, is an ordinance to restate and amend regulations and restrictions for the use of boat ramps in Kershaw County and also to establish penalties for violations. Back last summer, Duke approached the county regarding some inappropriate uses of their boat ramps in surrounding counties and in our county, and they just wanted to see what we could do to help.

» This has been drafted to reflect penalties if convicted of a misdemeanor not to exceed $500 or imprisonment not to be greater than 30 days. Thank you, Mr. Blanchard. Do we have a motion? Second. Do we have a motion? Make a motion. Mr. Tucker has a motion. Sorry. I thought you said we had a motion. Sorry. Mr. Shoemaker has a second. I was reading. I do recall Duke coming and asking you about this and speaking about it in detail. Mr. Tucker, you have the motion? Yes, sir. Give me some clarification, Mr. Tucker. Mr. Tucker, you have the floor. Oh, go ahead. I have no further to discuss. I think Gerald's already said it. I'm sorry. Okay. Mr. Shoemaker, you have the second. Mr.

» Jones, you asked for- What exactly is going on? Actually, it's some of the concerns are like sleeping in vehicles, camping, public intoxication, disorderly conduct, things like that. Something that normal people wouldn't do. Some of the things, I'll just grab the floor real quick. Some of the things that you would see at the tailrace that disappoint us in trying to clean up that area. Whenever we're thinking about, you know, yak the river or other things that feature the watery river in a beautiful way. Sure. People behave in ways, maybe after they start drinking a little bit too much. I tell my wife we can't be doing that. Yeah, where they just trash it up. This is good stuff. Yeah. We don't want to.

» And we're trying to increase the enforcement mechanisms to make sure people don't do that. Gotcha. To these public assets. Any other comments or questions? All right. We're on 10B. First reading. Seeing no comments. Mr. Brazel. One minor question. Nothing in here makes it necessary for us to lock the park, does it? We're back open at Veterans Park as far as the boat ramp is concerned, 24/7? Correct. Yes, sir. Okay. I read over it. I just wanted to ask that question to be 100% sure. Good job, Gerald. Any other comments or questions? Seeing none, we'll move it to a vote on first reading. This is 10B. All in favor, raise your hand. Ms. Hanna, it's unanimous and passes on first reading. That's 10B. Item number 10C. Mr.

» Blanchard, do you have a high-level summary for us? Before we consider a motion. This will be a first reading of an ordinance to prohibit the sale and distribution of nitrous oxide and kratom to miners in Kershaw County. This also establishes retail display and labeling requirements with provisions for enforcement and penalties for violations. Thank you for the summary. Do we have a motion? I like a motion. We accept this ordinance. Okay. Mr. Cato has a motion. We have a second. I'd like to make the second. Mr. Brazel has a second. Mr. Cato. You have the floor. I think there's been plenty said tonight as to why we need to accept this ordinance. I don't think that I need to go into any further detail, but I ask my colleagues to also support this first reading. Thank you, Mr. Cato. Mr.

» Brazel, you have the second. I'd like to thank Councilman Cato for his work on the opioid council and addressing all of these products. This is a big deal. This is a major problem and 110% has my support and any assistance that I may give. I'm here to help. Amen. Thank you, Mr. Brazel. Any other comments or questions? Seeing none, I have one for the county attorney. You don't necessarily have to give us legal advice and I'm not seeking a legal executive session on this, but just projecting forward. We don't often have on our agenda regulations related to retail display and labeling requirements. And so I just want to make sure that as a progeny or baby of the state, here's a county recreation of the state.

» I want to make sure as written from what you understand from other counties and any litigation you've seen or that might be bubbling up right now, that we wouldn't be overstepping any of our bounds and requiring some of these restrictions and that they wouldn't conflict with what the state has jurisdiction over above us. Yeah, I won't opine on the fly, but I feel confident in the ordinance, but we'll certainly triple and quadruple check it. Okay. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Okay. We'll move it to a vote. All in favor of first reading on 10C, raise your hand. Ms. Hanna, it passes unanimously in favor on 10C. That moves us to item number 10D. It's a second reading. Mr. Blanchard, do you have a high level summary for us? Yes, sir.

» Second reading, rezoning of 4.18 acres on Boulware Road from GD to B2 to align with adjacent council. No changes since first reading. I remember this was a downzoning. We have Mr. Wells stepping up. We'll see whether or not we need you. But glad for your service in the past and how you serve Elgin now. Do we have a motion? I'll make a motion. Mr. Shoemake has a motion. Is there a second? We have a second. Mr. Shoemake. I think we discussed this last time. It's a downzone and I think Mr. Wells answered all our questions pretty adequately last time. And I also concur with the chairman. Thank you for your past service on this council and your current service to the county. Mr. Tucker, I think you have a second. Yes, sir. Okay. No other comment. Any other questions, comments? I'm good.

» Seeing none. On second reading then, we'll move it to a vote. All in favor on 10D, raise your hand. Just to stand up. Raise the publics. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you, Mr. Wells. Thank you, Mr. Wells. Passes on second reading unanimously, Ms. Hamer. Twelve years together. Twelve years together? And you both survived that somehow. He loved every year of it. All right. That moves us to the last ordinance that we have on the agenda. This is a second reading on 10E. Mr. Blanchard? Correct. Second reading before you tonight. Proposed ordinance to establish regulations for operating golf carts within Kershaw County pursuant to Section 52-2-90 of the South Carolina Code of Laws.

» 56-2-90 allows local jurisdictions to set hours and locations of golf cart operations on roadways where speed limits are 35 or less. If operated after dark, operating lights must be in place. Thank you. No changes since first vote. Sorry. Thank you, Mr. Blanchard. No other recent developments or anything. Do we have a motion here on second reading? Mr. Chairman, I make a motion. Mr. Thompson has a motion. Is there a second? I'll second. Mr. Cato has a second. Mr. Thompson, you got the floor. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I'll be brief, but there's nothing changed since last time. We had a decent discussion over this ordinance last time. But what it does is last year, the South Carolina legislature passed a law of golf cart operations at the state level. This is just expanding upon that.

» As all the safety measures are in place, this allows golf carts to be operated after dark, with all safety measures in place as long as the state law is met. So that's all it does, just expand operations after dark. Okay. Thank you very much, Mr. Thomason. Mr. Cato? No comment. Okay. Any other questions or comments? I have some, but I'll deal my with Mr. Thomason later. Because I had some concerns from last time, but I'll copy. Okay. Do that offline. All right. Sounds good. Any other questions or comments before we move it to a vote on second reading? Seeing none, we'll move it to a vote. All in favor on 10E. Ms. Hanna, it is unanimous, in favor, and passes on second reading. That's 10E. All right. The resolution was previously taken care of in the meeting.

» This moves us to item number 12A, new business, adoption of general pole barn engineering permit discussion, and I think possible vote. Placed on the agenda by Vice Chairman Russell Razzle. Is there a motion? I'll make a motion for the discussion. I don't know what the vote is, so my motion will be for the discussion. Okay. Do we have a motion for discussion? Is there a second? Well, I guess I'll make a second then. Okay. There's a second. Mr. Shoemake, you deferred Mr. Brazle? I'm not really sure. I just know Councilman Brazle wanted to discuss it, so I wanted to make that motion for his benefit and turn the floor over to him. Mr. Brazle. Thank you. Thank you very much.

» So, Chairman Connell and myself and others have had people contact us regarding trying to simply build a pole barn in Kershaw County and how that's become so difficult. We were frankly unsure, but I think Sam Gauze has a solution for us tonight. Sam, can you present that solution, sir? So, at your guys' instruction, I met with an engineer last part of November of last year, and we discussed what was needed to get a one-size-fits-most approach to residential pole barns. In order to do that, we're going to -- he's going to put together a drawing.

» We will make something that is presentable to the public in, like, say, a packet that's easy to understand, send it back to him for his final approval, and with your guys' approval and payment, it will be an annual renewal that will take -- So, as I understood it, I remember 20 years ago, you could walk in, and for 50 bucks, you could build a barn. Now, barn dominiums have become popular, and you didn't have the tools in your bag, essentially, to be able to issue it without an engineering oversight. Is that correct? The permit. You couldn't issue a pole barn permit without an engineer's stamp drawing or a letter? You used to know or today? Today. Today. Because pole barn is not covered in the books that we have. It has to be designed by an engineer.

» So, for example, when you build a house and a stick built, all of that's within our books, and we can judge it. I really don't need anything but maybe a floor plan for a simple house. And our guys can go in and go from the ground up and tell you everything needs to be done to it. But a pole barn is completely different. There's different types. Some have walls, which are called lateral bracing. Some are just on posts with no walls. It's up to an engineer to tell me how deep the hole needs to be, how far apart you can space your post, what size posts you need. There's a good bit that goes into it. So, because that information is in our books, we have no way of judging it other than an engineer's design.

» So, this would simplify the building process and, like you said, be a most size fits most approach to a simple pole barn. It would not include barn dominiums, which would be a home. Correct. It would not include agricultural buildings, which do not require the drawings to start with. They're exempt. And it'll be around, I think he said the building size would be like 30 by 40 would be the maximum size. Would you be able to extend the length? Could he, if it needed to be 30 by 60? Perhaps. It'll just depend on what his drawings say. I've also asked that if we do do this, he gives me the ability without fee to give him calls occasionally in regards to things like, let's say that your hole needs to be 48 inches deep. Well, at 38 or 30 inches, there's a big rock that we just can't get rid of.

» How do we work around that? And he'd come up with some type of plan that says, well, it's okay to put it at 30 for just that one pole or fill it in with concrete, whatever he recommends. So, we know somebody's going to end up needing one that's 40 or 50 or 60 foot. Could we do it and could he offer it in an expandable fashion? I'll have to ask and find out. Yeah. So, that's what I'd like to do. I'd like to try to cover all bases if we're going to do this. I think it's a good idea. I think it'll simplify things. Would you offer a pole barn permit with a fee structure that was, say, if you had a set of engineer drawings, the fee is one thing. And if you use the county's drawings, it's a little more because you're getting a prepaid engineered fee.

» How would you structure your fees? Fees are generally up to you guys, but I understand where you're getting. For example, there is one company that has an engineer on staff. So, you're saying we would not charge them an additional fee where if you use our plans, we charge more? Well, it seems to make sense. And it wouldn't have to be a lot more, but it would keep them from having to hire an engineer and spend anywhere from $300 to $3,000. Because an engineer charges whatever they like to. I know I had to do an extension on a dock and it cost me $2,500 for a very simple extension. And it took me about three and a half, four months to get the permit pulled, and that was not here for the record. But I thought, boy, this is a lot for a little.

» And I think that's probably the same thought process with these pole barns is how do we simplify it for builders, homeowners. And if you have to spend a little more money to get the pre-engineered fee, I think that's reasonable. We can work through that in the budget, but as far as you having a solution, do we have an annual cost associated with that? $8,500. So for $8,500, would it be relevant to say 75% to 80% of pole barns would likely be covered? For those that need engineering drawings, yes. Okay. Well, I think it's smart to get ahead of things, and I think we can recoup to a break-even point and be fair to everyone involved and just streamline the process.

» Because I do know that there's a church that's waiting and has wanted to have this done, but they're just trying to get everybody on the same page to get the engineering done. They could have built -- This would not help a church. Well, no, there was a church that wanted a pole barn. Okay. But this would not help a church. This would be residential structures only. It would only be residential structures. So because it was on a piece of property that was owned by a church, would that matter? That would be commercial property. Is there a way to generalize it for either or? We can. I would not be willing to. I wouldn't want to take on any liability with it. Well, the liability would be on the engineer, right? That's the reason for the engineer drawing.

» If the engineer would agree to allow it for commercial use, sure. But if it's up to me, I'm not going to accept anything that's not drawn up commercial-wise, that was not drawn up by an engineer. Okay. Well, let's see if we can get a religious exemption, and that would be up to us, I would think, as long as it's not beyond the scope. Same type structure, it's a pole barn. If somebody was a pole barn for a picnic shed in a church, it's not going to be built any different. It depends on the use. Right. So if it's an assembly, it's going to have to be drawn by a design professional on a construction level per state law. I get that. So there's no way around it. I'm sorry.

» If they're using it as an assembly, like you go outside for sunrise service on Easter Sunday, and they're using that building as an assembly, you're not going to get around it. It's state law that a design professional will have to design that building. Well, at least we would have someone to reach out to to say, hey, we can connect you to this person to modify this. Yes. We would have that. The design professional would have to draw. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. But at this point, you could refer them to our design professional. Sure. Okay. That works. I'm just looking for solutions and taking away roadblocks. That's it. All right. Perfect. I'm good with it. Thank you. You want your questions? I do. Mr. Kato. A couple of questions.

» One, would this include the metal sheds that you buy and have put up in your yard? Such as carports, what we call square two construction. The company that you purchase it from will provide you with an engineered set of plans when you purchase your building. So it's not like you have to go find an engineer. They already have those plans drawn up for you when you purchase the building. You said earlier something about $8,500. So what would it, so let's hypothetically say that we had this in place and I wanted to build a 24 by 30 pole building. Okay. What would my initial cost be to get started on my pole building through the county? It would just be your standard permit fees. Just the standard permit fees. Yeah. That would include the engineering. Well, Mr.

» Braslow, I believe, stated that he would like to add a certain fee if you use our plans. Is that correct? Well, it'd be up to this council. It's just a thought. Yes. I would. You know, people pay enough in taxes as it is. But if you're, it's just a whole nother discussion. I think that's something we can discuss once we get to budget. Moving forward from this particular item, I think it'd be useful for us to know for next time, Gerald, if you can get from staff and otherwise, how many pole barn applications came in last year? So we can look at the economics of it versus 8,500. How many, how many were last year? That information was included in an email sent you towards the end of the year. Just what is the number again? Because I didn't know about 8,500 then. Let's see.

» We had 26 total accessory pole buildings. All right. So hypothetically. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Of the 26, 12 of those were agriculturally exempt. So they didn't need anything. So 12 to 14 or so? 14. Okay. So we're looking at spreading $8,500 over. 10 of those were done by a specific whole building company that has an engineer on staff and that left us with what, I think it was 14 total. Okay. So, so really, I think what we're looking at gentlemen is if it, if it is that number that occurs regularly for applications that are non-exempt, non-agricultural, but, but non-business also non-commercial. So it's a primary use four to five to $600 that the county would assess as an additional fee to cover the 8,500 roughly. We'd have to look at the arithmetic based on applications.

» Does that make sense to make it easier for people to not to have to pay $2,500 or $3,500? The gentleman who draws, there is a gentleman in town who primary thing he builds is pole buildings. And he uses this engineer that I've spoken with. And the general cost is around $350 for the plans. But we can't steer everybody to him. That'd be interesting. No, we can't. Yeah. So that, I mean, like, that's the whole reason why we've had one, somebody that has asked repeatedly to do something. And I didn't, I didn't know that there was somebody that would do it for that amount of money. We need to make an amendment to this. I know. There's no, there's no vote required, Jimmy. I know. That's right. I've also talked to somebody that said they were $3,000 in, in design fees.

» So I'm thankful for that person, whoever that person is. And I want to keep that person's name out of it right this minute. If I don't, I don't know that a government agency can refer people to other people for a small, I think that's how illegal. Yeah, we can. So I think the best thing for us to do is, is maybe say it's $350 additional. Plus the, you know, the existing fee was the existing fee for the permit. Yep. It doesn't depend on the price of the permit. I'm sorry, how much it costs to build the structure. Okay. So, so if there's a $350 adder, I think that's good. I'm happy with the situation. I'd like to move forward. We can, we can noodle through it and figure everything out in the, in the coming months. And I appreciate the work. Sure. So this is my suggestion.

» Maybe let's get a draft form of an ordinance that we consider and see if we want to put it on the agenda, if we can shape it up. If you could update the email to us with the $8,500 and any other caveats that the engineer. Yes, sir. I forwarded the email to everyone this morning. Oh, I'm sorry. I haven't seen it yet for some reason. Sorry. Ms. Hanna was stacking me up with other emails. Would you rather send things to your law firm email or the one through the? No, no. The county email is fine. Okay. Well then I'll double check that. And then let's review and kind of reconvene. We can talk behind the scenes and see if this makes sense to go forward. We can, we can get an ordinance put together with a fee that's reasonable, that saves people time and money.

» Because I don't think everybody knows where a $350 engineer is. I certainly didn't when I just needed to build a small walkway. So I think this, that would have been heaven sent for me in my situation, which is similar but different. So thank you, Sam. Appreciate it. I'd like to ask John DeBose to let's move in that direction towards making life simpler here in Kershaw County. Any other comments or questions? Yes. I have a question. Mr. Jones. Sam, are you came to Julian Gause? No, sir. I'm not. I know who you're speaking of. I'm a longtime friend of mine years ago with the county. Well, thank you. All right. Thank you all. No votes required. That takes us to item number 12B, Finance Committee Update. Mr. Tucker, you have a motion. Yes, sir.

» I'd like to make a motion that I give you an update from the Finance Committee meeting for December 19th, 2025 and January 9th, 2025. Got a motion. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Tucker. Right. Some of this has been discussed already, so we won't go back over it like the Pecan Orchards. You've got that update. Okay. My colleagues, I want to thank Councilman Thomason and Councilman Shumate for making themselves available. And, of course, staff. I couldn't do this without you, so thank you very much. I wanted to put on your radar nothing we need to take a vote on or do, but there's going to be some sewer projects that's going to come up from staff as we continue to dive into some of the issues that we're having. And I'm not talking about with our second loop that we just put in.

» For the ones who's been here since Bethuza, like Jimmy and myself, we've got an aging sewer system. And we were briefed on that this month, last week, through staff. So there's going to be some opportunities for us to take care of some things that we need to take care of to make sure we don't have any liability risk in our sewer system. And I'm not talking about the plant. I'm talking about the line. So I just want to make you aware of that, and we will be bringing that back up before Council. We had a great presentation on the stormwater. Jonathan did an excellent job, and so did staff. And they have been working very hard. We would like to do a presentation for the full council during one of our workshops.

» And staff is going to recommend which one and see where that fits in, because we have a little bit of lead way or space in between those dates that the chairman's going to bring up to your attention later on. And then also -- Is this money budgeted already or -- Yes, sir. And that's what I was going to say. Also, all the monies that they're needing for the stormwater commission ad hoc and projects, they're fine. It's already in the budget. But the Finance Committee thought it would be great sometime before we get too far into this process is to make sure Council is brief on what they're doing. So with that being said, we'll try to put that together and bring it before you.

» The other thing that we're looking at, and I don't want to get too deep in the woods, but was brought to our attention, and we've got to do some amendments in our ordinance, is with our solid waste fees for RV parks. And that's all I can really give you at this point, because we're waiting for staff to bring us back some recommendations on the changes that needs to be so we won't be in a predicament where our citizens are being double -- Increase or decrease in regulation? This will be a decrease. Okay, good. Good. This will be to the good of the citizen. Colleagues from Finance Committee, anything you have or anything that I leave off? No. All good. All good. All good on my end. Thank you. Okay. Thank you again.

» Like I said, the chairman will go over some dates for you further down the agenda. And I want to just say thanks to my team and to my colleagues and staff. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Tucker. Any other comments or questions on Finance Committee update? Seeing none, no votes required. We'll move on. This will require a vote. This is 12C. I placed on the agenda the county council budget work session and budget retreat dates. I make a motion that we accept and approve these dates as proposed for meetings coming up. And we'll allow the attorney to say whether or not additional public notice is required. There's a motion. Is there a second? Second. We have a second. Dates have been included in the packet for Finance Committee workshops and budget retreat.

» Of course, the workshops, any of us are welcome to attend. We also have the budget retreat coming up. And we'll have some other budget work sessions, I anticipate. But the dates are self-explanatory. I know we all have life. We all have work in some way. And some of us won't be able to make some of these meetings coming up. But we'll do our best. Any comments or questions regarding these dates? Mr. Tucker. Yes, sir. If I can add, Mr. Chairman, and you're absolutely right on the budget workshops, but it is very, very important that you do make the retreat. The retreat is going to be done a little different and in-house this year, I want to put out. And it's very important to have your input because staff needs a plan, a map, our vision on where to go.

» And if you're not there, you're not able to give your input. So please, please, please mark this date on your calendar and try to attend. And I hope to see all of you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Tucker. Any other comments or questions on the motion? Seeing none, we'll move it to a vote. All in favor on 12C, raise your hand. Ms. Hanna, it's unanimous in favor on 12C, the dates pass. That takes us to 13A, Appointments Planning Commission. Councilman Tucker. Oh, man. Okay. Mr. Chairman, I would like to make a motion that we reappoint Mr. Robert Horton from District 2. That's my motion. We've got a motion. Is there a second? Second. We have a second, Mr. Shoemake. Mr. Tucker. I had the opportunity to speak to Mr. Horton today.

» And unfortunately, he had other obligations that he could not reschedule or cancel. But he is very helpful and thankful to be reappointed. And he has already served a term here. Mr. Horton does a good job on the Planning Commission of being open-minded, very reasonable and compromising. And I think he's a great representation for not only District 2, but for Kershaw County. Thank you, Mr. Tucker. Mr. Shoemake, I think you have a second. No. Robert's wonderful. He's also been helping out on the Smart Growth Committee. So, happy to have him aboard. Thank you. Any other comments or questions on 13A? Just, I think we're very fortunate to have him. And I appreciate him willing to serve again. Yes, sir. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Seeing none, we'll move it to a vote on 13A.

» All in favor, raise your hand. Ms. Hennett's unanimous and passes in favor. Mr. Horton is reappointed. Thank you, Robert. Item number 13B is by way of update. I placed it on the agenda. I'll make a motion that we get an update on the Board of Zoning Appeals. Is there a second? I've got a second from Mr. Cato. Ms. Hennett is most familiar with the timeline and vacancies, but I'll look to Mr. Blanchard first. Do we have any update or you want to defer to Ms. Hennett? Defer. Defer to Ms. Hennett. Ms. Hennett, this is really just to let council know since we've got it on the table. For future appointments, I think we had two or three vacancies on BZA. Is that right? Okay.

» And if you don't have it at your fingertips, if you'd just please email the council members so that they can be looking and know. But is it two or three that we have right now? It's two. Okay. So if you'd email the council members, I just want to make sure that they get a full body. I know a lot of stuff happens over the holidays, but we need to get that one filled back up. They do some important work. Any other comments or questions on the BZA update? Seeing none, no votes required. It's just for update only. I was informed by Mr. Brazel that we no longer need 14A, so there would be no motion. Is that correct, Mr. Brazel? Yes, no motion. We took care of that with the proclamation. Thank you. That moves us to item number 15, council member briefings. Mr. Cato.

» I'm going to be short and sweet. First, my condolences go out to Danny, our county administrator, Danny Templer, and his entire family on the loss of his mother. Our thoughts and prayers are with you, Danny, and your entire family. And we look forward to getting you back, but take time and grieve, and we will get back to work when you get back to work with you. On a lighter note, happy birthday, Ms. Hannah. Aw. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. Yeah. I would sing. Nope. Of course, some of you might want me to, because it would end this meeting real quick. But I'll pass on that due to time restraints. But lastly, Jimmy, thank you for your service. You ain't left yet, but, you know, to say that you've been here 20 years serving or will be 20 years the end of this year says a lot.

» I mean, because people don't realize, I'll tell you, I've been in community service since I was about 17 years old. Started with a fire department rescue squad. People do not realize what it takes to be part of community service and serving the public, because you can't make everybody happy. You can't do it. So I thank you for what you've done. We don't always see eye to eye. We butt heads sometimes, but that's part of it. We ain't supposed to always think alike. But thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Cato. Mr. Tomlinson. Mr. Chairman. And on that, Ms. Hannah birthday info is we look good and make us all look bad. Yeah. Happy birthday, Ms. Hannah. I'm repping College of Charleston. My daughter's new school starting in August, so go Cougars.

» Quick update on the Smart Growth Committee. We've had a number of meetings. We've got another one coming up, I think, on the 20th, but it'll be a Thursday coming up. We're working hard. Vice Chairman Braz was in our last meeting. At this point, we're just kind of figuring out how to triage everything. I think I saw Zach in earlier, but we have Zach Hoover helping us out and doing great stuff. We've got the consultants coming in next month, and we're making good progress. I'll have a more thorough update in a month or so, but I just wanted to give a heads up that that work is being done on a regular basis. And I want to thank every member of the Smart Growth Committee for showing up and having some really spirited debates that are very helpful for the county.

» Obviously, my prayers also go out to Danny. He lost his mother. I know he's been dealing with a lot of -- her health has been poor the last several weeks, and he's been dealing with a lot. So, you know, I hope he can come back when he feels ready. And, again, I just -- you know, my prayers go out to the whole family. At that funeral, many of the members of council came. Many other elected officials came. And, you know, I think what makes this county unique, and we've talked about this before, is, you know, we all sort of sat together. And, you know, we joked around. We didn't discuss business. But, you know, we joked around and stuff. And I think it says something that we get up here and we argue sometimes.

» I don't think there's any two of us that haven't had a spirited debate in public and certainly in private. But we respect one another. And when we go to an event like that, we talk to each other. You go to some county governments, and if they're not on the dais, those guys won't even spend, you know, within 10 feet of each other. And the fact that we go to each other's homes, we know each other's cell phone numbers, and we use them. And we speak regularly, not just about county business, but just about checking up on people. I think that says a lot. And so, Jimmy, I'm going to miss having you up here next year. I'm looking forward to the next year of very spirited debates. But I appreciate your service, man. Like Danny said, 20 years is absolutely nothing to sneeze at.

» I mean, that's an entire second career that you've done. And, you know, earned the right to hold your head high. And, you know, again, appreciate all that you've done for the county and the service. And, again, look forward to our next year of jousting and debating. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Shoemake. Mr. Tucker. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My prayers and thoughts and condolences goes out as well to the Templar family. And what an awesome home-going it was today to be able to share with the Templar family. And we wish them speedy healing as they grieve in the way that they want to and need to. Because all of you who have experience -- and I see some heads nodding out there in that aisle -- have lost some loved ones. And there's no book. There's no pattern.

» There's no time frame for you to grieve the way that you need to grieve. So we wish them nothing but speedy recovery from there. I also want to let you know that we had an opportunity last week, myself and the county attorney, to sit down and talk about it. And we will be having a meeting on the 208 Water Quality with staff on the 15th, which will be this Thursday. I believe around 3 p.m. So we'll be talking about that so we can get back with the delegation from the COG here that represents Kershaw County, and also to get with our partners. I want to say to Russell and anyone else sitting on his dais and staff, thanks for partnering with DES. I think this can be a great opportunity for us to be a beacon to the state for other counties to do the same.

» But let's also make sure we get it right. We don't want to always tell people you don't want to be the first and the worst. OK, so let's not let's not do that. But I'm looking forward to that. Gerald and Lauren. Thank you. It's been a ride. And I say that with nothing but respect and love and dignity for you. And sorry, but I'm getting choked up because I know I have leaned on you guys. I know this council has leaned on you and needed your help, your guidance and your support in keeping this county moving in the right direction as we all were going through the pain of watching loved ones move on and get their wings and giving people the quality time that they need.

» And and I just want to say from me, thank you, because I know it's been a lot of late nights, early mornings, because I've been a part of those conversations. And I know it's been times you like, what in the devil am I doing? You know, this is a lot. But you mustered and you pulled through and you've shined just as bright as you can shine. And we say, I say, thank you and keep up the good work. Miss Hannah, that was probably the best kept secret. And that joker next to me on the left over here gets no credit about keeping it from the rest of us because I've seen you two or three times a day. At least kind of hugged you and tell you happy birthday. So I kind of feel kind of sad that I didn't get a chance to hug you. But happy birthday. We're wishing you many more.

» May God continue to bless you and your family. And Mr. Jones, Mr. 47 years man of public service. I'm not going to give you all your kudos and goodbyes tonight, but I appreciate your statement you made early today in announcing and giving people the adequate time for the ones that wish to serve, to think about it, talk with their families, their supporters, and decide whether they want to do this or not. Councilman Cato said it best. It's kind of like, you know, everybody, Mike Tyson, I'm going to have to say, quote him. Everybody can fight till you get punched in the face. You sit up here and your life changes. And I'm not going to tell you it's all bad, but it changes. And you have to be equipped and ready to battle when it's time to battle.

» You have to be patient, kind, and compassionate and sympathetic when it's time to be. There's a lot of hats you have to wear up here. So this doesn't fit everybody in the world. And it shouldn't. But I hope that in the process, Mr. Jones, that someone in your district who's willing to come up here and be as passionate as you, maybe they don't have to be as wrong as you are always, but they can be as passionate as you and serve at least half of what you have given to this county. So thank you for your service. Thank you, Vice Chair. That concludes my report. Thank you, Mr. Tucker. Mr. Brazel. Sammy, you missed one. I'm going to speak for myself. I'm hard-headed. That's another thing that you have to be to sit up here. Yeah, you definitely missed one.

» I think it was really neat that we had DNR in here earlier. It was cool to see an old friend after so long unexpectedly. It's a fun thing about having a variety in life. And the one thing that I do love about serving this county and our state is that if you're born and raised here, odds are you're going to run into somebody that you've known in years gone by. Especially as you get a little bit of age and time moves on. So that was really neat to get to see Eric Martin here with DNR. Brant, thank you so much for having them here. And that was cool what y'all were able to do at the Lynch's River. I'd like to say thank you to the Alpha Center and Danny Cato. I think there are many of us that are pretty passionate about the health and welfare and safety of kids and, again, people of all ages.

» So that was really important to me. And I just appreciate the whirlwind of support. Councilman Jones, thank you for training me how to sit at this dais. The toughest man I've ever faced in my life. Sitting on that far end. And I'm going to tell you, we've become really good friends. And I want to say that for the record and for eternity. Jimmy Jones and I butted heads as hard as anybody I have ever fought with in my life. And that was pretty prevalent in the first two years that I sat on this council. But I can tell you right now, I can pick the phone up and call him. And at any time, he's going to answer and we're going to talk. And we're going to have meaningful conversation that's way beyond politics.

» And Jimmy, I'm better for having known you and I'm better for being tuned up just a little bit by you over the years. And I mean that in the most sincere regard. Jimmy doesn't play. At least you can throw that water bottle at me that night. Well, you still got a year, remember. But 20 years of giving up free time to work through county issues and serve constituents and answer phone calls, that's meaningful. And Councilman Tucker, I know you've done it as well. So it's hard to believe I'm going into year six and Ben, you as well. You've been in public service for what, eight years now? Ten. Ten. That's hard to believe. But very, very glad to be a part of making Kershaw County a better place to live.

» So, Jimmy, glad to share this last year with you as we go into 2026 and your last year on council. A lot of respect. So, attending Danny's mother's funeral was obviously touching. And Danny, I could tell, really appreciated everybody's prayers, support, texts, phone calls. He told me that we have all been amazing, I think, were his words. And I said, well, I don't know that I've been amazing, but hopefully he has felt the love from this council, which I think so long as we're human, I think that's a wonderful thing to support somebody in their time of need. We'll always have ups and downs in life. So, I know, Jimmy, there's also other people.

» I think probably due to the fact that you're giving it up this year, you'll probably see other people retire this year, saying, well, if Councilman Jones isn't there, I don't really need to do my job anymore. And I think there's some people that hung in just for this last year. And we'll see how that pans out. But I say that a little jokingly just because I know some people in the industry also may retire and we'll celebrate that together. But, Jimmy, could I do a roast for you whenever you retire? Do what? A roast. Participate. That's what y'all do every night I come to County County. Oh, no. It's such the opposite. So, it's the opposite. Anyhow, Smart Growth Committee. I was fortunate to be able to sit in. Thank you. That's a lot of meaningful work for this County.

» And I appreciate being a part of that the other night, the other afternoon, and our Finance Committee. I appreciate what y'all do. And our Chairman, Ben, he keeps us all straight. Thank you for letting us yak on and talk too long, Ben. I appreciate that. With that, I'll conclude my remarks. Thank you, Mr. Brazel. Mr. Jones, I'm not bypassing you, but I'm just honoring your word. You traded your time for earlier in the meeting, correct? You have anything else you want to share in the briefing? I didn't say I traded my time. I asked for additional time. No, no, no, no. Run the tape back. You wanted to whisper sweet nothings to Ms. Maher Jones. Oh, I did. Do you have anything else to share before? Yes, I do. Go ahead. If I could.

» Well, I want to thank you guys for the kind words tonight, because I know tonight I feel the love I may not feel at the next meeting, but I do tonight. But let me just say this. I've enjoyed working with you guys. Don't agree with a lot of what you do, but I have enjoyed working with you. You know, and I have to look at it. I see Bill Rogier and I see Martin Kahn. You know, they've been here as long longer than me. So I'm sorry. I know you guys are going to miss me. But you know what, guys, it's time to go. 20 years is long enough. And I just want for my district hope that there'll be some young folks out there. And I've already heard a couple of names. And I had four people call me and said, if you don't run, we're going to run. Well, that was the biggest compliment I could ever get.

» I said, well, you can go ahead and bank on this. You'll stand a better chance of winning the lottery, seeing my name on the ballot. I am not running. But thank you guys, too, for putting up with me as well. And I look forward to this next year. Now, there's two things I really am -- well, actually, it's three, but I won't talk about one -- that I want to see happen this year. And I want to thank you all for it. And you're on top of Pecan Orchard. You guys, I haven't had to say anything. I mean, y'all are men of your word. And I appreciate that. But the second one is I hope that some way, somehow, we can come out with a balanced budget this year. I know that y'all are interested in it because I've heard the conversation on it. And if I can do anything to help on that, let me know.

» I'd love to be able to vote for the budget this year. And so that's pretty much about it. But let me just say this, too. Danny Templer, you know, my heart -- my thoughts and prayers have been going out with them. And happy birthday, Ms. Hannah. And I was going to say it, but somebody beat me to it tonight. But anyway, Mr. Chair, you're a good man. You do a great job. I don't agree with you all the time, but you've been a good job. If I can ever get a straight-handed comment -- I appreciate that, Jimmy. You're welcome. Okay. That concludes your remarks. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jones. I have just a few things to share before we move on and work towards concluding the meeting. Update for council over the holidays.

» I replaced Weston Adams on the Smart Growth Committee with Steven Smoke, Weston's work schedule. He picked up a few new items, as I understand it, and his travel schedule just made it prohibitive for him to participate fully in the Smart Growth Committee. We're thankful for his participation thus far. Steven Smoke, I thought, was unique as having city, county, and legal experience. And so he is now serving on the Smart Growth Committee under the leadership of Mr. Shoemake. Ms. Hannah, so she's threatened me with physical violence if I mentioned anything about her age, because she never ages, Ms. Hannah. I'm just joking. I'm just joking. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. And I'll be proud to be 30. That's right. And then lastly, I wanted to say for Mr.

» Templeton and his family, a saying that has stuck with me in my work from time to time. I interact with folks who have lost loved ones in unexpected ways. And one of the grandmothers one time said, you know, grief is all the love that you never got to share. And that saying has just stuck with me. You've got to ride that wave of grief because the memories come back, but it reflects how much love you had for that person and never got to share. And then I would be remiss if I did not say that I have great hope in the resurrection for the Templar family and for all of us who have lost loved ones or even ourselves through the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I have faith in the fact that he was resurrected and broke the bands of death. And therefore, we all can experience that same benefit. Amen.

» And I just wanted to share that. Amen as well. All right. So that moves us on. That concludes my remarks. Mr. Blanchard, any briefing for us? Yes, sir. Thank you, council for your continued thoughts and prayers for the Templar family. Thank you for the support that you've shown to Lauren and I over the past couple of weeks. I just want to thank the staff. Our executive directors have really stepped in and helped Lauren and I through a lot of the trials and tribulations over the past few weeks as well. Looking forward to the new year. This is the first meeting of council this year. Looking forward to the challenges that 26 is going to bring our way.

» I am confident that if we work together, we focus on the things that we have in common, not that the things that we see differently or our differences. And if we're willing to put in the work, we will be successful together. Together is the key. So thanks again. Happy birthday, Hannah. Without you, I don't believe Lauren and I could talk about that. I believe Lauren and I could find our offices some days. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Blanchard. Anything outside of executive session we need as an update on legal briefing? No. Nothing for Mr. DuBose. With that, gentlemen, it takes us to item 18A. We have four items for executive session. I'll seek a motion in just a moment. The first two items are related to contractual arrangements. The first one is related to real property.

» And the last two, C and D, are regarding personnel matters all under FD. code 30-4-70 and relevant subparts. Do we have a motion to enter executive session? Make a motion we enter executive session. Mr. Casto has a motion. Second. Second. Mr. Tucker, any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move it to a vote on executive session. All in favor, raise your hand. Ms. Hanna, for the record, it's unanimous. We're in executive session. For the public's benefit, there are no votes anticipated after executive session. Second. We have a motion. We have a motion to adjourn. No votes required after executive session. Second. We have a motion. All right. We got four. Seek a motion to exit executive session. So moved. We have a motion. We have a second.

» Any discussion? Seeing none, move to a vote on exiting executive session. Ms. Hanna, for all those who are present and voting, raise your hand if you're in favor of exiting executive session. It is unanimous. Mr. Hanna, we are adjourned. All right. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you, staff. All right. We have all seven in the room. All right. Seek a motion to adjourn. No votes required after executive session. Second. We have a motion. We got a second. Any discussion on adjournment? Seeing none, we're going to leave Russell here to his druthers. All in favor of adjourning. Raise your hand. It's unanimous, Hanna. We are adjourned. All right. Thank you, gentlemen.