Full meeting transcript - September 22, 2026

» like to welcome everyone out tonight for this kershaw county council meeting september 22nd 2026. thank you for coming out tonight we've been called to order um we have councilman tucker listed for the invocation but he's calling in remotely due to work i'll go ahead and offer the invocation and the pledge of allegiance tonight and we'll proceed to that point let us pray dear heavenly father we're thankful for our many blessings we're grateful for our lives this day for the breath that we have for our families for our responsibilities that help us grow the challenges and trials in life and the joys we're thankful for all that was given us please help us do right by the please help our fellowship and meeting tonight be pleasing unto thee please guide us with thy spirit and direct our discuss

» ions help us be wise and doing good things for kershaw county to the best of our abilities we pray for the mckenzie family tonight and pray that thy comfort may be upon them please guide us in all that we do and we say that's the name name of Jesus Christ amen thank you everyone next up gentlemen is item number four adoption of the agenda do we have a motion on the agenda I'll make a motion we got the agenda we have a motion from mr. Shoemaker is there a second on the agenda we have a second any discussion on the agenda seeing no discussion from those who are present mr. Tucker any discussion and how do you vote no discussion about yes who second that that's a yes vote on discussion remotely from mr.

» Tucker all those who are present and voting raise your hand if you're in favor is unanimous for the record miss Hannah the agenda is approved next up we have a series of proclamations and resolutions the first one is related to honoring the headquarters the 117th engineer brigade task force castle and accepting an american flag flown in honor of kershaw county i would make a motion i'd like to second the motion okay um miss parlor do we have anyone here tonight okay the mr titus is here where's mr titus oh i'm sorry i i couldn't see it do you happen to have the flag with you tonight or is it being presented at a different time okay already has it wonderful well we'd like to um to recognize you tonight um and approve this proclamation um we're very thankful for the thought that went into thi

» s and after the council votes you'll have an opportunity to speak if you'd like to any other discussion from council members if there's a flag in the building that mr. Thomas is brought can we have it and bring it up front for the photo I'll be happy to go get it if I knew where it's at perfect sergeant major we'd like to hear a few words to you when we get there yes sir thank you for all you do your service so ultimately what came from that flag being flown was the thankfulness that we had for kershaw county the unit is actually based out of newberry county uh out of newberry itself but myself multiple soldiers appreciate what how kershaw county goes ahead and all the people envelop our families so we can't do what we do overseas without y'all supporting our families and of course our serv

» ice people so it was the extreme honor initially the flag was going to be flown in kuwait but things happened and we moved to jordan so we flew it in jordan for you um for all of kershaw county the funnier piece about it was is that your ministry one of your administrative officers went ahead and called said hey um scott titus what do i do with this flag um i'm like well i'm pretty sure county council will know what to do with it they'll figure out something with it but i'm over here and she actually called me while i was in transient from uh saudi arabia to jordan at the time so it was somewhat comical of like i'm still getting my phone call and go ahead and say hey this is for y'all so again for all of county and again the representatives for county council thank you so much for wrapping

» around our families while we're deployed and it's more than just kershaw county obviously we have a unit here in camden itself the one of the 151 uh signal unit different from ours but we definitely appreciate everything that you do for us that we're willing to do that you all want to wrap arms around it and for y'all to be able to do what you do now and for all of the people behind me that are getting ready to speak for and against different things to go ahead and have that right to do it thank you all very much thank you sir thank you - Thank you Sergeant Major and welcome home. - Any other discussion or questions from those who are present? - Thank you, Mr. Cunningham for putting that on the agenda. - Mr. Jones, yes sir.

» Any other discussion? I'll share just a set of facts I learned last night from one of our Medal of Honor recipients from Kershaw County. So South Carolina, speaking to what we just heard, South Carolina I think is still one of the highest per capita participants in the armed services. Over 40 million Americans have served in the armed services and there's roughly 3,500 Medal of Honor recipients, and there's only 65 or so living at a given time, like today. And four of those have come from Kershaw County, which is the highest per capita tied in the state with, I think, Spartanburg. And so there's this really deep military spirit and love here that gets reflected in how people serve and how gallant they are. Mr. Templer, do we have the flag almost here? Chairman, if I may.

» Yes, sir, go ahead. Sergeant Major Titus, I'd like to thank you for what you and your unit has done to protect the United States. We're grateful to have you protecting the United States. And it really is hard to put into words how much we appreciate you, because I feel like at times we take for granted the safety and security that we have in the United States. I've been many places, not as many as you, but I've been many places in which safety and security aren't even close to what we have here in America. And I just, I know that my grandfather served, my father served, and I've got a lot of respect for you and others. And we just wanted to thank you so much for coming and flying the flag and being here tonight with us. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Brazel.

» Any other comments or discussion from those who are present? Mr. Tucker, anything remotely on this proclamation? No, all I just wanted to say is thank you to the 117 unit for their service and commitment. We appreciate you. Thank you very much, Mr. Tucker. Well, let's move it to a vote. All in favor, raise your hand who are present and voting. It's unanimous for those who are present and voting. Mr. Tucker, how do you vote? Vote yes. Sorry about that. I could have gave you that earlier. That's a yes. And we'll save the photo op for whenever the flag gets in the room being retrieved from somewhere on the premises of the county right now. Thank you very much for being here tonight. If you can hang out just a moment longer, we'll do a picture whenever the flag arrives. With that one.

» So as we're waiting, as we're waiting to receive the flag, we've got a few minutes offered to read the proclamation. It's a proclamation honoring the headquarters of the 117th Engineer Brigade Task Force Castle and accepting an American flag flown in honor of Kershaw County. Whereas the brave men and women of Headquarters 117th Engineer Brigade Task Force Castle were serving with distinction during the 2025-2026 deployment. They have demonstrated unwavering dedication, profound sacrifice, and exceptional valor in the face of adversity. And whereas on July 21st, 2026, amidst the trials and tribulations and strife of active combat during Operation Epic Fury, the members of Task Force Castle proudly raised and flew the American flag over their deployed headquarters.

» And whereas this sacred act was executed in distinct honor of Kershaw County, South Carolina, forging an unbreakable bond between the citizens at home and the warriors fighting on the front lines, And the American flag flown on that day has been presented to Kershaw County by Scott S. Titus, Command Sergeant Major, United States Army, 2nd CSM of the Brigade, and whereas the flying of Old Glory under hostile conditions stands as a powerful testament to the unyielding will and resolve of the American people to protect those who cannot protect themselves, to remain ever vigilant against oppression and to bring swift justice to anyone who would bring a bring harm to to anyone now therefore be it proclaimed that the sacrifices patriotism of the headquarters of the 117th engineer brigade task for

» ce castle are hereby recognized and profoundly honored kershaw county graciously accepts the american flag presented by this brave men and william women of headquarters 117th engineer brigade task force their courage under fire serves as an enduring inspiration to kershaw county the state of south carolina and the united states of america thank you thank you very much all right so we go for the picture if you'd be able to come up up please. Thank you very much gentlemen that moves us to the next proclamation placed on the agenda by councilman Tomlinson reverting FFA do we have a motion yes mr. chairman I'd like to make a motion is there a second second we have a second on proclamation mr. Tomlinson you have the floor Thank You mr.

» chairman this is my honor to recognize the Wooler Technology Center Kershaw County Future Farmers of America chapter and all your accolades and awards that y'all got at the at the state convention and and headed towards national summer read a little bit of the proclamation and then name out some of individual awards and then afterwards we'll have the group come up for a picture whereas the Willard Technology Center Kershaw County Futures Farmers of America chapter provides students throughout Kershaw County with opportunities to develop leadership personal growth career readiness and agricultural skills through hands-on learning and participation in agricultural education whereas the Kershaw County FFA chapter works in partnership with families educators community organizations agricultural

» professionals youth organizations including 4-H to provide young people with opportunities to develop practical skills, leadership abilities, citizenship, and an appreciation for agriculture and natural resources. Whereas in 2026, members of the Woollard Technology Center Kershaw County FFA Chapter achieved the distinction of becoming state champions in horse judging, demonstrating exceptional knowledge, preparation, teamwork, and skills in one of South Carolina's agricultural career development events. The FFA Chapter was also recognized in 2026 with the National Chapter Award, Gold Emblem, one of the highest level awards and recognitions available for the National FFA Chapter Program.

» Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that Kershaw County Council hereby recognizes and congratulates the Woollard Technology Center FFA Chapter of Kershaw County and its student members for the outstanding accomplishments in 2026, including being named South Carolina State Champions and horse judging and receiving the national chapter gold emblem award so i would like to individually recognize a few of the students here and i know that one wasn't able to make it i can't can't remember what's the name but i'm gonna read off all the awards here um and first i'd like to give a round of applause to the ffa advisor and teacher um audrey cathcart so thank you for for all you do it takes a it takes a great leader to build future generations and you're doing a wonderful job really appreciate all your l

» eadership and i know these students really appreciate appreciate your your hard work uh so students and if i mispronounce anybody's name i'm really really sorry i'm gonna do my best so karen ran first place south carolina ffa horse evaluation team first high individual in south carolina ffa horse evaluation eric lopez first place sc ffa horse evaluation team talon hunt first in south carolina ffa upper creed speaking lde brennan dinkins kershaw county ffa chapter officer president accepting three-star chapter for the national 2026 award also you have kayla kern vice president haley kern treasurer janiya hollis baskins is the secretary kimmy mitchell the reporter mason klein sentinel so congratulations to all of you job well done appreciate y'all leading the charge um across the state agricu

» lture is is our our main economy that's that's the highest grossing economy here in the state so we appreciate all all y'all doing to keep our our state rural protect our farms and protect our future lands so thank you all so much for all you do and you make kershaw county proud thank you mr thompson mr cato you have the second i just want to thank y'all for coming out tonight i want to thank councilman thomason for putting this on the agenda i'm extremely proud to see y'all here because the ffa was a big part of my high school days and that was a long time ago but we had things such as soil judging swine judging cattle judging we we did it all and we we actually ran um won our district multiple years in a row when we were very proud of that but it's nice to see the young people taking part

» in in the agriculture and the conservation of this land and so it means a lot tonight to see young people interested in that kind of stuff today because a lot of young people are only interested in what they can get on their phones or or what's coming up next on the on some type of sports field or something of that nature so i'm glad to see that y'all taking an initiative for agriculture and conservation so thank you so much and congratulations thank you mr cato any other discussion from those who are present mr tucker mr tucker any uh discussion remotely yes uh congratulations and i vote yes that's a yes vote for mr tucker remotely i'll just mention that out of the 3 300 uh counties that the department of agriculture monitors in our country kershaw county most recently was number one for p

» rofits per capita for farms and you really don't think about that but we really swing way above our weight in kershaw county so i look forward to you all having a bright future and thanks for what you're doing for those who are present voting raise your hand if you're in favor miss hannett's unanimous for the record everyone has voted in favor and it is adopted and approved and uh do we want to hear from anyone mr tomlinson he already voted yes yeah uh do you want to hear from anyone or do you want to take pictures yeah Audrey, would you like to come up and say a few words, and we'll get the picture? Ms. Audrey, yes, ma'am. I wanted to thank you all so much for letting us be here tonight for this opportunity.

» Obviously, I believe that agriculture education is so important, not in this generation, but every generation, including the future generations. So I'm just super thankful for this opportunity to showcase the kids. You know, a lot of what we do is after school, late at night, in the afternoons, and it's kind of behind the scenes.

» and so it's very rare for us to kind of get the opportunity to give these kids just a round of applause you know that's something that we don't see every day when they're practicing for these competitions or when we're on the bus for hours traveling across the state and so it really does mean a lot to just be recognized and it's even more special like coming from our hometown from our home county and we're proud to represent Kershaw County when we go up on that stage at nationals this October and I want you guys to pay special attention if you're not familiar with FFA but we have our chapter name on the back and it's really cool that in our chapter Kershaw County is in our name and so we always will keep Kershaw County with us and as we as we go to nationals in Indianapolis just know that K

» ershaw County will be on that national stage for everyone to see and we're very proud of that so thank you for having us thank you for believing in the future of agriculture and this emerging virtual world it's so important to have kids working on those skills and learning those things outside of technology you know the things that we can't erase like farming um and so we just really appreciate you guys keeping us a priority and and letting us be here tonight thank you so much absolutely we're looking forward to welcoming national champions when y'all get home at the end of october important reminder that my granddad who grew up in an agrarian family would always tell us he said you you can't eat your furniture you can't eat your car uh for us here up on the dice you can't eat your your woo

» d trim you can't eat your legal documents you can't eat your money we need farmers thanks again let's give a hand you want to bring your group up yeah everybody else bring it up thanks for coming up tip the top of that towards me a little bit more that's it thank you there you go one two three congratulations y'all take care for those who are here for the last proclamation you can feel welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting if you like if not we'll give you a moment to clear out if you want to move on to whatever you might have going on tonight thank you gentlemen that moves us to the next item on the agenda which is item number 6a with common consent without objection i would request that we move this to the next agenda for the first meeting in october i just got a message from some o

» f the family the mckenzie family that they were not able to make it tonight due to some unforeseen circumstances and they would like to move it to the first meeting in october any objection none okay ms hannah if you'd note that and put it on the uh first meeting in october mr bows next up we have public no objection from mr tucker thank you mr devos first speaker is florence lamb arnold let me get how many do we have signed up oh sorry my apologies um six speakers for public comments six speakers and the first one was who again florence lamb arnold the subject is animal shelter and animal services miss arnold yes ma'am i'll just let you know before you start this is the time for council to hear from the public uh they will they'll put up a time indicator right there in front of you and it'

» s not a question and answer we look forward to hearing from you thank you good evening i'm here about the status and the lack of animal services in kershaw county it does deserve serious attention and it requires the county to take a little more active role in protecting both animals and the people that live here we are approximately about 75 000 citizens and growing the south carolina animal welfare alliance myself and others request two things immediately an improvement of adequate shelter and care requirements for pets and a clear definition of humane tethering rabies is 100 lethal the prevention of rabies is managed with the reduction of pet overpopulation as well as vaccination programs and enforcement the best method for reducing pet overpopulation is spay and neuter it's simple math

» dogs and cats reproduce at a 5 to 15 rate just in the past few years five south carolinians have been killed by dogs regulations on breeding and spaying and neuter programs can likely reduce the sort of horrific outcome kershaw county currently does not have a county operated animal shelter you have a contract relationship with a 501c3 the kershaw county humane society that takes in your animal control animals the shelter does an amazing job every day for the animals it receives considering it operates at over triple capacity it's built to house 80 dogs it receives over 250 a month and 100 cats i travel doing a volunteer work to many different shelters around the state and i do love visiting all these brand new state-of-the-art facilities that many of our neighboring counties have darlingto

» n lee lancaster spartanburg and chester just to name a few most of these facilities have spay neuter vaccine microchip and more programs for their citizens and pets unfortunately kershaw county essentially has nothing i drove an hour last week to get my rabies from chester because it cost me ten dollars i've gotten several cats tn art in lancaster because i get them for free i drive to columbia or monroe for my spay and neuters our animal control officers have no authority to enforce rabies vaccines or animal abuse violations they should not be placed in difficult situations without the resources and authority to do their jobs they and the shelter workers can come in contact with rabid animals and they are not offered the preventative vaccinations they need for their protection so they can

» protect the public so i'm asking the council to consider a comprehensive plan for the animal services in kershaw county because by comparison to other counties we are seriously failing we need meaningful support for the existing shelter with consideration of expanding the current shelters facilities and capabilities we need a long-term commitment we are a fast-growing county as you know and with that the animal populations dramatically increase as they have been consider not what we need now today but what we need five 10 and 20 years from now so please take the the opportunity to build and support an animal services system that can benefit kershaw county with of course public safety at the forefront thank you thank you for coming out tonight miss arnold mr dubose who do we have signed up n

» ext next speaker is thomas curly height variance slash sony mr curly yes sir bartonburg county approved a data center and just after that approval went went through residents discovered that the data center was estimated to use more than twice the amount of water originally estimated right now bethune energy is not known to eventually transition to powering a data center but that does not mean that spartanburg county's story is not our own the story is of telling we the people all the good stuff in either fudging or outright lying about the bad stuff we know however if only by freudian slips and foias furthermore despite the zoning committee's non-recommendation concerning the hype variants you all are still considering it what is going on if this is amended then it's a classic flaw of gove

» rnment getting what they want at the costs of the lands and people living on rd2 if you change a zoning requirement in order to fit what you want in what is the point of zoning i thank those council members who have voted in line with their constituency thus far it is seen and greatly appreciated if you are not one of those council members we see you as well if the spartanburg county debacle does not trouble you and you continue to say yes to a developer from virginia and refuse to ask him the tough questions and require answers and transparency well we the people see that too the fact of the matter is that we the people want to trust our representatives especially when challenged by the ambition of private industry spartanburg lost i respectfully ask you to remember who you're supposed to

» represent thank you thank you for coming out tonight mr curly mr dubose who do we have signed up next tina robinson looks like problem on race street miss robinson yes ma'am if you would pull the mic down just a little bit i have pictures if y'all want to see them of our road and i have the original pictures from the 70s i have a picture where a fence was put up the drain coming across the road was closed off and all the water ran to one side they dug the ditches the ditches deeper so they could somewhat fix it and i live it in the road and i have pictures and i have videos showing anybody and everybody turns around in our yard. We just had a new driveway put in today so it kind of helped a little bit but it's not going to stop the scraper that only scrapes one area.

» He don't come all the way down he comes down but he runs over to humps to back up. We have a truck I think I talked to him he come out and I showed him the video. We have a manhole that is walk-sided grass and we pay taxes for our property and the scraper the the big trucks that come out and get people's trash cans they're just running all over our yard we had one truck a regular size truck that was pulling a trailer with trash cans he pulls all the way into our yard to turn around and it's a mess and i there's a picture on there that you can see when my grandmother lived there you can see the ditch that went beside her house where the train come through well there's a new one on there where the fence was put up but it shows the property is on the inside of that fence so the fence took away

» the circle it used to be a circle that people could actually drive through i have videos of it where people would drive around the circle well you can't do that no more my aunt passed away christmas would be three years christmas night it was raining the ambulance had to come and do a three-point turn and i'm not complaining about the damage they did to my yard because it's an emergency vehicle so but they have no way to turn around and the people that do come down for whatever reason is just pulling in our yard destroyed it and as us being taxpayers we shouldn't have to put up with that and the man that was allowed to put the fence up and get rid of the easement he has a relative with this community and he has a friend and they allowed him to do so that took away the circle and they dug th

» e other side of the road up to make the ditches I bought the house from my daddy. It was the last thing he wanted me to do before he passed away. The house I was living at, he couldn't even get under it. So we bought the house from my daddy. Back in the day, the road had a very bad name. They said there was crackheads, but there was never crackheads. A couple of my uncles were alcoholics. I'll admit that. But they were good people, down-to-earth people. They would do anything for anybody. But they always had a bad rap. So nobody cared about this road. But when I moved here and I'm looking at it and I see the way it is now, the way it's supposed to be, it makes me angry. And this is a whole new generation living down here now. This is not the generation back in the 70s, 80s, and 90s.

» My daddy bought this land from Mr. Ray. He bought it in 1970, Mr. Ray did. My daddy bought it from Mr. Ray in 1990 because my mama had passed away shortly before that. And he bought it to build a house there to take care of his mama that lived on the property where the ditch ran by, where the fence is now closed at all. But you can see the pictures I have on the side-by-side, one where you can see my grandma's house with the ditch right here, and one that shows the property line cut like that where that fence is closed at all. So now there's no circle. I have a video on my phone also where a few months ago, an ambulance had to come down to the road to the other lady that was towards the entrance, the beginning of the road. The ambulance literally backed out onto McRae Road to get out.

» The night my aunt passed away and the ambulance come, it was raining, they didn't know the road, they pull in, and then they backed in the eye for a while. I'm not complaining about them backing in the eye for a while because that was the emergency exit. But it's a law that emergency vehicles have to have a safe way to turn around. But with the fence there, it took that part of the circle away. Ms. Robinson, I'll just let you know your time has expired. Would you be able to conclude your remarks, please? That's it. Is that it? Okay. I have videos and the pictures, and I have videos. And they'll make sure that these get returned to you.

» And I will show you the videos of the tracers that come and say, why didn't you run over the pump in my yard to get out? i'm sure some council members might want to see that but it's not appropriate for right now yeah i would love to see it thank you for coming out tonight mr dubose do we have a contact number miss robinson we do thanks for coming out tonight mr dubose who do we have signed up next emmy mccaskill project mouse miss mccaskill this is about uh the noise aspect decibel or db is the unit used to measure sound intensity or absolute sound pressure level the a weighting in the acronym dba is an adjustment filter applied to the decibel measurement that mimics how the human ear actually perceives loudness in a freedom of information act request kershaw county submitted this month a

» document called noise contours a color-coded graphic from beaufort rosemary featuring the proposed power plant site the bull's eye in the graphic was the power plant the sound level if you were at the plant would register 60 dba the sound if you were at the outermost colored ring would be 30 dba the graphic covered a mile and a quarter radius from the site the graphic misrepresents the current location of the proposed power plant according to testimony about the latest location of the structure by beaufort rosemary at the kershaw county planning commission meeting on september 24th 2026 beaufort rosemary must update the noise contours graphic and make public that information and provide it when the developer presents other critical missing data that kershaw county has requested when questio

» ned about the lacking responses submitted thus far the beaufort rosemary representative referred to a report that he had received the day before too late for the presentation and another he received en route to camden last week he said the data would be reflected on their web page the only new information on their web page is titled visual impact analysis finds limited visibility from nearby homes and roads once corrected the noise graphic will show that timrod road as it comes out of the town of of Bethune and Timrod Road, north of the Boise Cascade and Timrod Road intersection and its environs, will also suffer from noise pollution in addition to that experienced by the properties adjacent to the plant.

» According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, in a 500 megawatt power plant, the typical noise range of the main turbine room and generator hall is 85 to 102 dba the beaufort rosemary diagram has that number at 60 dba kershaw county should demand this data for bethune and in the freedom of information act response from kershaw county regarding this project in an august 29th email from the kershaw county economic development director to the planning and zoning department introducing the project he said quote as a side note i wonder if the data center group would be interested in this as well unquote so the question is who's the data center group and is anyone in here a member of the data center group or any uh council employee county employee there hasn't been any report from a data c

» enter group in light of everything that's happening with data centers thank you thanks for coming out tonight miss mccaskill mr dubose who who do we have signed up as number five lance lee flock cameras yes sir mr lee i'm here to address a silent but aggressive expansion of government power taking place on our public streets the widespread deployment of flock safety automated license plate readers 40 in kershaw county alone under the banner of public safety our local government has handed a private company the keys to track log and analyze the daily movements of every single citizen in this community which data a normal citizen cannot attain i stand here to say clearly this is not targeted crime fighting this is dragnet mass surveillance it is a direct violation of our constitutional rights

» let's be precise about what these cameras actually do they do not just photograph license plates. They use artificial intelligence to scan and log the make, model, color, and unique features of your vehicle down to your roof racks and bumper stickers. Every time you drive your children to school, go to a medical appointment, attend a political rally, or visit a house of worship, a permanent digital breadcrumb is left behind. LOCA operates more than 120,000 of these cameras nationwide, forming an interlocking database that captures around 70% of the population. There is no opt-out bill, no opt-out button like your telephone. Can't just cut it off.

» You drive a car in the city, your life patterns are being mapped, stored, and made searchable to thousands of law enforcement agencies and even private homeowners associations without your consent. Hence the reason that they want to put data centers in. This brings us to the core of the issue, the United States Constitution. The Fourth Amendment is explicitly designed to protect us from unreasonable searches and seizures. It demands a warrant based on probable cause. It requires the government to specify the exact time and place they need to investigate. By installing a system that monitors everyone all the time, the government has essentially issued a permanent de facto general warrant against its own people. The U.S.

» Supreme Court has already ruled in landmark cases like United States v. Jones and Carpenter v. United States that the government cannot track a citizen's movements over time using GPS or cell phone data without a warrant. The aggregation of thousands of flock images creates that exact same invasive long-term map of our private lives. Just because we are on a public road does not mean we forfeit our right to be free from continuous automated tracking. We are told to trust the system, but history and recent events prove that we cannot. Across the country, we have seen alarming instances of police officers misusing this data to stalk ex-partners, romantic interests, and private citizens.

» To make matters worse, tech companies have streamlined these systems to replace written search justifications with meaningless one-click-down menus, meaning they can put in, I don't know and find out about somebody, research it. Furthermore, these systems are deeply flawed. Independent analysis have shown error rates where license plates are misread a staggering amount of the time, leading to high risk, mistaken police stops of completely innocent drivers. We are sacrificing our fundamental privacy for an unaccountable algorithm. As a rural Missouri sheriff recently stated when his department pulled the plug on these cameras, no piece of technology is more important than the trust of the people that we serve.

» Communities from Arizona to North Carolina, most recently Oconee County, are actively fighting back and canceling these contracts because they recognize that a free society cannot exist under a dome of constant surveillance. Safety achieved through the total elimination of privacy is not safety, it is control.

» I urge this body to uphold its oath to the Constitution, protect the privacy of your citizens who elected you and terminate our contract with flock safety thanks for coming out tonight mr lee mr dubose who is speaker number six linda franklin moore height exemption yes ma'am miss franklin moore good evening again from the record my name is linda franklin moore and i reside in camden i attended the last planning and zoning commission meeting and i would like to provide counsel with a report on this meeting in case you were not able to attend which you weren't or view the meeting online buford rosemary first approached council regarding these height exemptions trying to sidestep planning and zoning the agenda for the planning and zoning meeting most recent one stated that dylan casey was repr

» esenting various property owners while we appreciate mr casey had business accomplishments in high school and managed restaurants until going into the family business in 2018 i did not see where mr casey is an attorney thus not being able to represent anyone one of the property owners is deceased and the probate case is still open during his presentation mr casey told planning and zoning that in some of the studies that they have conducted at other data centers that the property values of the nearby residents did not go down yeah i had a hard time believing that one. The Planning and Zoning Commission went into executive session and upon returning into open session they announced that the presentation slides were not what the Commission received in their packets.

» That was disturbing and there was never a satisfactory explanation regarding the two different scenarios. There is also a battery storage facility on site which was not disclosed to the public. Do we have battery storage regulations? Not sure. There was also talk of a retention pond for water waste. It was revealed that the power plant would consume 150,000 gallons of water per day. There was no discussion of environmental safeguards for this retention pond. I think the gold mine in Ridgeway has some experience in these retention ponds and might be able to shed some light on that. I'm sure council is aware of the ping-pong ball match between the Public Service Commission and the Office of Regulatory Staff regarding who has jurisdiction over private energy projects.

» Last month, the Public Service Commission ruled these energy projects are exempt from the Utility Citing Act. They also declared that they do not have jurisdiction over these power plants because they are private entities. And the Office of Regulatory Staff said, well, it's the Public Service Commission. And so back and forth it went. This means just passing some zoning regulations do not go far enough for the citizens of Kershaw County. While we appreciate you having some type of regulations on these energy projects, it needs to go beyond that. Studies should be conducted by the county and paid for by Beaufort Rosemary. So we can be assured the studies are accurate and not slanted by the people that Beaufort-Rosemary hires.

» So the traffic studies, the noise studies, the environmental studies, these should be as unbiased as possible. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Franklin-Moore. Mr. DeBose, does that conclude public comment? That does. That concludes public comment. No votes required. That moves us on to public hearings. This is item number 8A. No votes required.

» do we have anybody signed up for item number 8a this is a public hearing regarding moratorium on data centers data processing facilities cryptocurrency mining operations data processing facilities and the like is listed in the agenda yes one speaker linda can answer temper obviously speaking on this temporary moratorium we have one speaker signed up we'll open up the public hearing miss can answer yes ma'am the time is yours i think some people might be writing your name down or making notes otherwise but we'd love to hear from you okay we're going to chairman connell council members this is not ai generated whatever happened to common sense the knowledge obtained from reliable sources that enable us to use sound judgment in making good decisions i think through time many people have allowe

» d ai technology to do their thinking for them does that not make us wonder how our founding fathers ever wrote the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, Bill of Rights, or how Abraham Lincoln composed the Gettysburg Address without AI. It is human intelligence and ingenuity that bring us great achievements. AI technology cannot. There are many advantages that AI technology can provide as long as we can safely develop it and not let it become a monster that we create and then cannot control.

» Please use your common sense to put in place the temporary moratorium on data centers and other technology until we can regulate and control them thank you miss can answer mr dubose is that am i correct we have no one else signed up correct that will conclude public comment or excuse me public hearing for item number eight a and that moves us to item number nine a approval of the minutes do we have a motion on the minutes mr chair i'll make a mention we approve mr thompson has emotions there's a second on the minutes i'll second we have a second on the minutes any discussion on the minutes seeing no discussion from those who are present mr tucker any discussion remotely no sir and i vote yes that's a yes vote on the minutes remotely for mr tucker all those who are present and voting raise y

» our hand if you're in favor on the minutes it is unanimous ms hannah all have voted in favor the minutes are approved gentlemen we next have a series of ordinances that we'll get into and that will be the bulk of the business for tonight no um executive sessions or other business to handle let's get to the first one item number 10a is a first reading related to an ordinance to amend the kershaw county zldr section 3 3.18 to impose performance standards for energy infrastructure projects is there a motion on first reading i make a motion we adopt this ordinance on first reading mr schumacher has emotions or a second mr chairman i second mr thompson has the second mr schumacher you have the floor yeah so basically what this is if you look at the actual revisions it's a very small revision to

» what is already our noise ordinance and fire and various things for manufacturing facilities and what this does is it expands that ordinance to energy infrastructure projects so obviously there's been a lot of talk about the rosemary plant if it were to exist or any plant like it in the future right now our ordinances are silent on the noise and vibration and fire issues so this basically takes what we already required for manufacturing facilities and it applies it to those energy projects i know not everyone on the dice is necessarily in favor of the beef rosemary project but what this does even for those of you who are not in favor is holds them to the same standards manufacturing facility vis-a-vis noise and some other that's the short of it thank you mr shoemake mr thomas and you have t

» he second yeah thank you mr chairman um i'll be brief on it i think this is a this is a good good ordinance um to include and appreciate um staff and mr shoemake um helping with this uh draft and any any industry um coming in needs to be regulated and that way it can be um beneficial for both the industry and adjacent property owners going forward so thank you mr shoemake any anyone else have anything to say before we hear from mr shoemake again mr kato i i agree mr shoemake on the fact that these help enhance this ordinance that puts the energy plan although i'm not in favor of buford rosemary um i do think that we need to take a look and put them under the same standard as any other industry in kershaw county um hopefully something may happen to where it gets even stricter than this but i

» 'll uh i'm in favor of it on first reading until i hear something different or see something different i believe this is a i guess we could call it a positive step forward um thank you mr kato mr jones thank you mr chairman members of county council just a couple of questions one i wish we weren't even having to address this but but we are and here we are um can you tell me how we how how are we going to manage the noise how are we going to enforce it what are the standards what are the regulations well i think if i can answer that question mr chairman please um you know it's how we i mean we have noise enforcement through code enforcement now it would be enforced in the same way manufacturing uh affordances are enforced and the standards are the same i can't recite them to you off the top

» of my head but they are in the packet but basically they would be the exact same standards we impose on all our other manufacturing and the compliance mechanism would be the same through code enforcement the way it's done now i assume code enforcement i guess law enforcement um does anyone want to go before i tell you what i think code enforcement is going to i've never known code enforcement to enforce noise or something like that at manufacturing companies and of course obviously we don't have anything here for this but um i would think there need to be a there would need to be a little bit more advanced way of enforcing this and i and you know i know this is nobody's intention but it's so easy to sit here and put an ordinance on the books but then i think we need to have a we need to sho

» w how we're going to enforce it and i'm not sure that uh saying that we're just going to put our code enforcement out there you know i just don't know how well that would work i'm concerned about that i see we got this on the books and i like what it says but i'm just afraid that it just really doesn't have any teeth in it or if somebody can correct me on how it does i would certainly appreciate it and this is i say this with all due respect to each of my members mr chairman if i may mr jones you concluded yes thank you for now mr bradley yes sir uh councilman jones uh to to help further address it and to add to what councilman shoemate said i think my industry is probably one of the loudest in the county i don't know manufacturing wood products or running a sawmill which i don't but we do

» manufacture wood products and wood moldings the decibel rates extraordinarily high 120 130 maybe we all have to wear ear protection i think the decibel rates are lower but the difference is my equipment is inside of a building and the equipment is inside of a sound enclosure at times um i would certainly want to you're also inside of an industrial park exactly this place is not exactly um so i think to this was brought up by a few members of planning and zoning um one i know of which is deeply rooted in the community of bethune and that he wanted to make sure that that all necessary steps were taken to if this was indeed coming to help protect the community standards and i would think not to disagree with councilman shoemake to maybe to add to some of what he had forementioned that it would

» be particularly important that zoning buffers and different things to obstruct the noise would be in place i would like to defer to our legal counsel and find out if that is in fact one of the zoning rules and regulations that's in our zldr or could be for manufacturing operations that would it which this would be equally a standard measure yeah there are existing setbacks within the zoning ordinance for various zoning districts some projects have conditional buffers and setbacks that are required um the project ballast you propose rosemary projects um gone through and set forth their buffers and setbacks on their plans that were before planning commission but um this would go back to planning commission this particular text amendment if passed by all first reading will go back to planning

» commission for their review study and um even possible further tinkering to address concerns that might exist with manufacturing facilities but also overlap with energy infrastructure projects so it's a long answer to say that this would this is council's oyster and playing commission's oyster as far as how they might want to address some of these concerns so whether you like the project or dislike the project i think this gives planning and zoning an opportunity to better um protect the community and and for those reasons I'm for this ordinance you know I would like Mr chairman I would like to see it go back to planning and zoning and for them to not only put this and this is written I like the way this is written I really do like this but I just would like to see some teeth into it as of

» what we do whether it be like what the interstate does putting those those noise barriers up I'd like to see some kind of direction because if we don't do on this council it's not going to happen mr jones um certainly if it does pass first reading there will be an opportunity to amend or otherwise edit on second and third reading so to the extent you want to bring something in the form of a motion i'm sure the council will be glad to entertain it but before we hear from anyone else present let's check with mr tucker remotely he hasn't had an opportunity to speak yet mr tucker do you have any commentary questions concerns on item number 10 a first reading i just want to say uh thanks staff and derek justin she made for um for looking into this and bringing this up and that um i do agree that

» any changes or any um further i guess enforcement can be looked at on second and third reading let's not hold up the process as possible please thank you are you prepared to state your vote at this time uh you vote yes i'm so sorry that's okay that's uh so item on 10a we have a yes remote vote from mr tucker any other discussion or comments from those who are present before we vote does anybody the staff or anybody have any recommendations on enforcement tonight or if you're taking the question to the staff mr templer sure um you know i think code enforcement isn't interchangeably used where some might think we would send animal control out to an industry for a complaint it's not the case code in this case would be through planning and zoning and if a complaint was lodged and we get this of

» ten the very nuanced very delicate issues they range from everything from storm water issues to you know chemicals being dumped into our treatment facility for sewer but they're handled there's they include meetings with the the industry in question and the appropriate staff so should this come in in in pass you know i feel confident in staff's ability to go out with the appropriate talent to go and approach these industries or whichever offending industry may be in question better understand and work on a solution so it's been done many times in the past on a vast array of of issues um so that would be the approach if this came across my desk that i would use any other questions mr jones if i could yes sir you know i'm willing to support this on first reading if the administrator staff can

» bring back some kind of written enforcement something that would give us some direction on how it's going to be enforced i i think that would i can come up with a very boilerplate piece and you know um there's just a lot of variables in what would be the issue it's almost like predicting the future but a boilerplate would be pretty possible um come up and say just a base approach and how we would go um you know standard operating procedure to how we initially yeah and i guess we probably need to know exactly what kind of noise it would be making we don't know yet and i understand that but um if we could maybe just do some research and see if anybody else maybe has done something before us that we maybe can pick up on and have i won't look folks okay i want regulations on this this plant noi

» se regulations i just want to make sure that uh we there's some direction and that i feel comfortable something's going to be done and not that we would do this but that it would just sit on a shelf somewhere and never go anywhere else yes sir but i would i appreciate if you would take the opportunity to just do some research and see what you can come up with and and sir i'd be glad to talk with you before the meeting or during the meeting whatever i would like to see something pass but i just like a little bit more depth into what we have here thank you mr jones yeah mr tucker yeah i hate to jump back in but i just want to make this statement uh thank you mr jones for being understanding and and i totally agree with you on the uh more enforceable um part there so i appreciate your um your

» support and um your request is supported by me as well thank you thank you mr tucker i think we're ready to move it to a vote um we already have a yes remote vote from mr tucker all who are present and voting raise your hand if you're in favor on item number 10b excuse me 10 a 10 a and it is unanimous all who are present and voting ms hannah are in favor 10 a passes that takes us to item number 10b this is a second reading efforts come back um this is an ordinance to amend the kershaw county zldr regarding section three 2.6 exceptions to height limitations and listing additional related structures first readings already been occurred as indicated in the packet do we have a motion i make a motion we adopt it mr shoemake has a motion is there a second i'll second mr thompson has a second mr s

» hoemake you have the floor i mean we talked a a lot about this a lot of first readings i think i've i've said what i need to say thank you mr shoemake mr thomas and you have the second um yeah i just have have one question i was looking uh at the amendment is the the one foot setback for each one foot in height uh the standard that we use with with all industries here for setbacks so the existing one-to-one foot setback in the code is for communication towers and antenna and water tanks um specifically within the laundry list of items listed as exceptions other exceptions are monuments chimneys conveyors flag poles they don't have that one-to-one given the fact that structures associated with energy projects are tall very often staff and legal believe and again it's a policy call for county

» council that on the foot one fall zone would be appropriate on a potentially tall structure yeah um they're very similar to the concerns one would have with a water tower and antenna so if we had a 100 foot tower we're looking at 30 yards from somebody's property line that's going to be 100 foot yeah we're look yes correct it's it's a it's a one-to-one from the nearest property line um i I don't know if council has the appetite, but I wouldn't mind looking at two foot for every one foot in height. I mean, that doesn't kind of change a whole lot, but at least instead of having a 30-yard setback from 100 foot, I mean, or 200 foot, you could have, you know, at least a little bit more than half a football field back. Mr. Thompson. Oh, sorry. Were you good? Yeah. Okay.

» I was just going to say, we've got a couple of different ideas for amendments and additional regulations and restrictions. Um, I personally am not ready to support an amendment tonight because I've got more questions based on some conversations with planning commission folks and staff. Um, but I think we'll see one come up for third ring. That's just me personally. I've got some questions I need answered before I can support an amendment tonight, but it might actually be more restrictive than some of the ideas that have been put before us. Absolutely.

» I'd like to, um, kind of look at that, um, step back and maybe look at some other, other industry for power plants um across the state and kind of get an idea about what what they're doing so that'd be good for third reading thank you mr thompson uh mr cato of course everybody knows my feelings on the on the power plant in general so there's no need to go there but there is some issues here that that i want to bring out first um it's my understanding that this is not a recommendation a positive recommendation for planning and zoning my understanding that planning and zoning is has an unfavorable um vote coming to the council you know as i look over this tonight the general zoning provisions and the height limitations it talks about in the addition to this it says or structures and apparatus

» es associated with energy infrastructure projects and it talks about um different kinds of stuff so it's it's not let's not get this wrong it's not just about stack height it could be anything associated with this plan or any other plant in Kershaw County I don't like the fact that in the past these companies have come to planning and zoning and the council with variants applications meaning that is forced they come with a specific request on their specific plant this is broadening out to where any company can come to Kershaw county and they will have these these regulations set forth so it bothers me that it's across the board and it you know this this plant has ultimately the philo and stuff has been approved and i get that but i i'm not in favor of this and i wish that it would go back t

» o the to the variance way of doing things per project and not across the board thank you mr kato any other discussion from those who are present seeing none mr tucker any discussion on item number 10b second reading on an ordinance uh no discussion i vote yes yes vote remotely for mr tucker seeing no further discussion from those who are present on item number 10b we'll move it to a vote for those who are present and voting all in favor raise your hand that is shoemake connell and tomlinson in favor all opposed on item number 10b brazel kato and jones opposed 10b passes on second reading and that moves us on to item number 10c this is a second reading related to an ordinance to amend the zldr creating a zoning overlay district for a rmpd or residential master planned district we've had firs

» t reading as indicated in the packet do we have a motion on second reading for 10c mr chair i'd like to make a motion it's not specifically to adopt but um i basically would move to amend that we remove this item from the agenda um and basically uh it i moved it we removed from the agenda and did not appear before us until it's reviewed and considered as part of the holistic vldr rewrite that would be my motion second all right we've got a motion and a second um mr brazel this was originally one of yours any any heartburn about that or no i don't i don't think there's um as this is written i think this um changes some of the density that uh councilman shoemake and i had um worked on a few years ago and and i think we don't as as a as a couple of council members have have any particular prob

» lem with the the residential master plan district but we'd like to shape it a little further and i think that's what um what he would like to do tonight and i have no no issue with that at all thank you okay um the motion was in the form of amending the agenda amending the agenda to add something to require supermajority amending to remove something uh does not require that additional restriction and the motion is a little bit different uh mr de bose in the form of we're essentially deferring until it gets reviewed and a council member would just have to proactively place it back on the agenda at some point in the future if they so desired correct correct um as i understand the the motion i think you're correct um the spirit of the motion is really an indefinite deferral until the zldr rewr

» ite comes back to you of course nothing would bar any council member from um resurrecting a matter and placing it on the agenda in compliance with y'all's rules okay that's how i'm receiving the motion uh any other discussion from those who are present seeing none mr tucker any discussion remotely and how do you vote uh no discussion i vote yes yes vote remotely for mr tucker seeing no further discussion from those who are present we'll move item number uh 10c to a vote and this is for uh indefinite deferral all in favor raise your hand it's unanimous miss hannah and uh is so deferred that's item number 10c that takes us to item number um 10d this is an ordinance approving a private hangar contract at the kershaw county airport establishing the contract rate and related terms and authorizin

» g execution of the contract and all actions necessary to effectuate it we've had first and second reading this is third reading do we have a motion on 10d mr chair i make a motion we approve mr thompson has a motion is there a second attendee second we have us we have two seconds um i heard mr shoemake first okay mr shoemake has um second uh mr thompson you have the floor uh thank you mr chairman um with this being third reading um uh we've had a lot of discussion regarding regarding the this ordinance so um unless staff has anything to to input i say ready call the vote okay uh any other discussion from those who are present i agree with councilman thompson okay seeing no other discussion mr tucker any discussion remotely and how do you vote um no discussion all as well uh vote yes that's

» a yes vote remotely for mr tucker let's move it to those who are present and voting all in favor raise your hand and it's unanimous miss hannah it is approved on third reading that is 10d private hanger contract thank you gentlemen that moves us to item number 10e this is another third reading of an ordinance establishing a moratorium for which we had the public hearing tonight uh moratorium related to data centers data processing facilities cryptocurrency mining operations um and matters related there too data processing facilities we've had first and second reading we've had public hearing do we have a motion on third reading for 10e i make a motion we move forward we have a motion and we have a second any further discussion third unfortunately we don't entertain thirds um any discussion

» from those who have first or second who was second um mr thompson was second mr cato was first i think this is a much needed ordinance we've had a lot of discussion discussion and we've heard a lot of comments from the public and uh i believe this is something that's desperately needed for right now and um that'll give us a year to look into things and see where we need to go from there thank Thank you, Mr. Cato. Mr. Tomlinson? No discussion, Mr. Chairman. Ready to debate. For those who are present, any other discussion? Just a comment. I would like to thank Ms. Linda Franklin-Moore. I know she contacted me. I'm sure she probably contacted some of you as well, too. But bottom line is, get this thing kicked off when we did a few weeks back. I think this is good.

» I think it's great to have this oversight, and I appreciate council's support on this. thank you thank you mr jones any further discussion for those who are present seeing none mr tucker any discussion remotely and how do you vote no discussion about yes that's a yes vote remotely from mr tucker for those who are present and voting raise your hand if you're in favor on third reading it is unanimous mishanda for the record and the ordinance uh 10e has passed on third reading that brings us to item number 10f another third reading that we have this one's related to an amendment on the zldr to add section 3 4.2-19 related to directional signs for hospitals and medical facilities and to amend section 3 4.5-1 prohibiting certain signs and sign characters and section 3 4.11-2 related to off-premi

» se advertising for exempt directional signs for hospitals medical facilities do we have a motion on third reading for 10f i'll make that motion mr shoemake has the motion is there a second second mr brazel has the second mr shoemake any discussion on third reading no we've went through this a few times i think we've explained it pretty well mr brazel agreed any other discussion for those who are present seeing none mr tucker any discussion on line number 10 f third reading no discussion mr chair i vote yes yes vote remotely from mr tucker we'll move it uh to those who are present and voting all in favor on 10f third reading raise your hand and it is unanimous as hannah and 10f passes on third reading we have just a couple more third readings uh to handle item number 10 g is next up on the t

» he agenda. This is related to an ordinance to amend the ZLDR section 342.2-19 and to amend section 5.2.2 to clarify subdivisions of land under exempt subdivision conditions. It's related to larger common plans and matters as defined by the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services and general permits for stormwater discharges from construction activities.

» Do we a motion on third reading i'll make the motion mr brazel has the motion is there a second second mr thompson has the second mr brazel hey so this ordinance um it's particularly interesting to me because i see the good in it um i wanted to discuss a few things that um a member of the department of environmental services myself john de bose and our administrator mr templar discussed i wanted just to be able to discuss it in open form and so that everybody kind of understands um what the take is on this and i'd like to relinquish some of my time to danny so that he could speak to the meeting that's upcoming um we had at one point actually said hey this plat is referring you to des and call this number and upon review with mr bowes and mr vaughn from des we thought it better to have a man

» ual with some examples if you will just something really lightweight and i think do we have it yet the the one that greenville county had adopted they had faced similar issues with the larger common planned we want to make sure that how we do this and and in the way that we do this people are able to subdivide land with their families or if they wanted to subdivide property to sell property for a home we want to make sure that that's treated differently than if someone is basically stripping 100 acres to build up a development that would have to fall within our zoning regulations obviously but we all see the ones that are very destructive and change the landscape tremendously so i would like to yield my time to our administrator for a further report on the upcoming meeting and how we're goi

» ng to work together with des and our partnership to have a guideline and a goal for how we're going to present this to the public just so that it is no confusion and surveyors and real estate agents and people that own property can can do the things that they need to and want to with their property whether it be agricultural timberland or smaller parcels that are residential thank you sir so the results of that meeting with des last week resulted in um two prong approach so with this ordinance here we have for third reading um this will just be the plat note itself um and we will make adjustments to uh you know with des's input as a result of that meeting phone numbers and the things that are most likely going to change over time will be eliminated um but the second prong will be as you sta

» ted the manual if you will uh using lexington and greenville as as a kind of a guide ours would be very unique because the the two counties referenced took all uh oversight and took it on themselves and they won't reference or send anything to des anymore they assumed all responsibility for storm water i wouldn't recommend we do that so ours will it may be a hybrid but still capturing the spirit of what you had suggested and and the outcome of that meeting so um we did receive an email from david today with uh a lot of good information on it so we'll continue to drive down that road and see what we come up with something realistic and uh so um the essence of in the kind of what prompted the phone call was we're going to put we were going to put a message on the survey that was recorded and

» it was going to say hey before you can build a house on this piece of property you got to call des and and make sure that it wasn't part of a larger common plan and you have to have any engineering work done and it had a a phone number and through our partnership I was able to speak with David Vaughn and David and I met and we all had a good conversation very positive with Danny and John DeBose and David said well the first thing I think that I would suggest is to point to some of the state law and some of the state policy and procedure and as the conversation evolved we decided that some sort of maybe a sample, if you will, of how to subdivide five acres into four lots or 10 acres into two parcels or maybe 500 acres into a 200 and 300 acre track.

» We don't need those things being bogged down with the same red tape in which you would put 100 houses on 125 acres or something of that nature those are apples and oranges and of course we don't need the same law to apply I think that uniquely agricultural property and timber property in the way it's timbers harvested crops are harvested fields are plowed next to a river that's legal but tilt fence is required when you're when you move in dirt for construction so I want to make sure that through this process we don't come up with a blurred line via the county's rules and regulations and i'd just like that to be really clear and i'm happy to help sit in give you my two cents whether you wanted or not and try to be helpful in that process and i'd love to see our engineering team work with es

» des and and come up with a really nice pamphlet to give someone so they have that clear picture so that everybody's phone doesn't ring when something doesn't go as planned or as hoped. With that, I'm all done. Thank you so much. Mr. Tomlinson, you have the second? I'm going to yield to Mr. Shoemake for an amendment. We actually have an amendment, so a lot of what Mr. Broussard said, well, part of what Mr. Broussard said was incorporated. Let me just make the motion first.

» I move that we amend and propose the LDR text to match the document labeled suggest amendments from staff on third reading that was included in the close to the agenda materials, and basically this has some of that, like for example, the phone number stuff, it changes, so basically it sort of cleans it up so we don't have to come back and amend it again, at least with some of the stuff you guys have already discussed. I did not write the amendment, it was written by John after that discussion. So that's the amendment. Good. All right, we have a motion to amend before us. Is there a second? Second. We have a second? No discussion, I think, Mr. Brazilevich, at all. Okay.

» For a motion to amend, any other discussion from those who are present? mr tucker any discussion remotely on the motion to amend before we get back to the original brazil motion almost to a man i vote yes on the shoemake motion to amend we've got a yes vote remotely all in favor on the motion to amend raise your hand it is shoemake brazil connell kato and tomlinson in favor all opposed to the motion to amend mr jones is opposed the motion to amend passes that puts us back on the original um brazil motion now as amended to pass on third reading any further discussion on third reading excuse me i have a couple of questions mr jones thank you mr chairman i appreciate y'all always kind of giving me the time and sometimes i don't think as fast as you guys do listen um they're already state law w

» e're pretty much just marrying state law am i correct very it's actual it's federal law through the epa that's passed down through state law and and regulation that comes to the county. And it wasn't an issue because development was almost non-existent in Kershaw County for a long time. It was small. And as in this like post COVID environment, lots of folks move in South Carolina, no different than us adjusting zoning regulations, lot sizes and that sort of thing. We wanna keep Kershaw County wholesome. And I think a lot of the enforcement that had not been taking place, Councilman Jones, is now taking place. And that's either the county through the state.

» And what we're doing is trying to give a clear roadmap that doesn't entangle anyone with a piece of property that they now have a surprise expense of engineering, which would be a complete, I think, failure on our part if we allowed that. And so what this does is it cleans that up then everything that i discussed and proposed and thankfully supported by my colleagues in the form of an amendment um as well as administer thank you it it's gonna it's gonna help industry in a positive manner thank you so much let me just say here's where i have a concern you know just more regulation more regulation hear me out enough for you judge me more regulations um if state law is already there we have the ability and the power to enforce state law i don't know why we would necessarily need to with every

» state law have a county ordinance um and i realize that this they're entering some different times here i realize that um that's where my concern is is that too often too quick i think government just thinks more regulation more regulations way to fix the problem i don't happen to think that way i'm concerned about everything we're talking about here but i i think there's probably a simpler way of getting some things done without necessarily just creating uh new ordinances you know time and time again um you and i won't disagree on that point i i don't disagree with you at all but what this is is is a pretty simple it's it's basically saying here's your your survey plat when after uh whomever surveys the property and it it points to that existing state law and it helps clarify it it's actua

» lly it's and they have to and i'm glad we can have a conversation and they uh when someone comes in now without this they have to still get that correct they would be left with confusion and and that's been some of the issue that that we've had um maybe as to how it's applied and this this is a clarification ordinance if you will is the way i interpret it gotcha i'm confused somewhat somewhat confused a little bit with it uh but i appreciate all the hard work y'all put on it and i respect that i'm probably not going to be able to support it mr chairman thank you for the time yes sir mr jones gentlemen we are back after amended on the original browser motion as amended any further discussion from those who are present seeing none mr tucker any discussion remotely and how do you vote on the o

» riginal as amended no discussion about yes that's a yes vote remotely from mr tucker on the amended uh version so back on the original vote all in favor who are present voting raise your hand it is shoemake brazel connell kato and thomas and in favor all opposed mr jones opposed it passes on third reading as amended that's 10g and last ordinance for the night item number 10h this is a third reading it's related to an ordinance to amend the kershaw county zldr section excuse me to amend section 5 1.4-5 systems to include fire hydrants and to clarify fire hydrant requirements and major and minor subdivision submissions is there a motion on third reading i'll make a motion mr cato has the motion is there a second i'll second mr shoemake has the second mr cato uh we've been through two of those

» re two of these readings uh this is simply something that i asked administration to look into um because of the rural area this is what it affects the most in reference to the fire hydrants and they did so they've got it corrected and i asked asked my colleagues to support third reading tonight thank you mr cato mr schumacher you had the second nope i'm good thank you any other discussion from those who are present seeing none mr tucker any discussion remotely and how do you vote uh no discussion and i vote yes that's a yes vote remotely from mr tucker miss hannah for those who are present and voting on item number 10 h third reading raise your hand if you're in favor it is unanimous in favor and passes third reading that is 10 h miss hannah that concludes the voting portion of the meeting

» we don't have any executive sessions tonight can i go first yes sir just in case we lose you mr tucker please do you have any report for us uh just briefly mr chairman sorry to interrupt you but i really wanted to go first just in case you get disconnected um just want to say that we have a finance meeting tomorrow at three and um we will update you at our next council meeting if not before and all are welcome um to attend that concludes my report mr chair thank you mr tucker mr cato i have no report tonight thank you mr cato mr tomlinson i concur with mr kate no report tonight mr jones we're going for a record no report oh wow okay dangerous mr she may i mean i can't look at no report mr i'm sorry i didn't hear okay mr brazel any report absolutely y'all not getting off that lucky i'll keep

» it brief um i hear you laughing councilman tucker in this world that we live in the only thing constant is change you know i hear i hear a lot of concerns from the podium and you know what i'd like to say and express is that we we do hear you um sometimes it looks like we're looking down or we're checking a note or something um the world around us is changing it's evolving i can't say that i like all of it i can't say that that i would be a driving factor of a lot of these things but it's it's up to us and it's up to state lawmakers to put guard rails up against data centers it's it's up to us to have real discussions with our sheriff about the flock cameras and i think our sheriff did a great job when he when he came and spoke um it doesn't mean that i support fly cameras uh it means that

» i respect our sheriff and and i think i can say that for everyone here um i think he does a great job and appreciate the education um the gentleman that was here earlier speaking on flight cameras i can't say that i disagree with the thought process um you know sometimes constitutional protection that we have here in this wonderful nation is eroded and and i think that's that's some of the fear with the flock cameras and i i can't say that that i disagree at all um those are things that we hope that you can trust us to evaluate we hope that you can trust us to to make a change if if needed and i think we heard that from um from him from our sheriff in his speech that he gave us these data centers guys i'll tell you i'm on the payroll at roy's wood products i work for a living i run a busine

» ss have not heard uh from from any of these data center corporations i think that nice lady had mentioned i don't i don't know if one's coming i don't know if one's not coming i but i can tell you one thing i was actually golfing down at edisto and i got paired with three guys and one of them built data centers and i said man are they as bad as as everybody says he says they're pretty bad he says and i build them and it's on fire he said it's it's it's unreal the amount of money that's coming for the construction of these data centers so we'll learn together i can tell you this i i've got a lot of trust and confidence in my colleagues to to work through these situations even if if we vote similar or different there's a tremendous amount of trust in this group and i can say that we're here f

» or those questions and we do hear you so if anybody has those particular concerns uh your home and your residence i know the appropriate people will be happy to speak afterwards thank you for your time thank you mr brazel um i just want to say one of the sacrifices of serving up here is sometimes you miss your kids sporting events it's very difficult but i want to wish my daughters annabelle and alexis the twin towers of power at the volleyball nets success tonight in their game i have no further report um mr you don't want to talk about templar you're singing oh no no no we're doing a great job i will not be volunteered to sing he did a great job man he can sing that's the story for another time thank you very much mr jones mr templar any report for us uh yes sir just one quick note early

» voting starts october 19th and runs through october 31st early voting is available at the camden city Arena and Elgin Community Center. That is all. Thank you, Mr. Templer. Mr. Riveaux, is anything non-privileged? No, sir. No legal briefing? We have no executive sessions or any other items for business. Seek a motion to adjourn. I make a motion. We have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, Mr. Tucker, do we still have you? He had to drop off. He dropped off. Okay. For those who are present and voting in favor of adjournment, raise your hand. We are adjourned in