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Edgefield
County Council meeting April 5, 2005 Edgefielddaily.com web posted April 5, 2005 Staff reporting The Edgefield County Council held their regular monthly meeting Tuesday, April 5, 2005 with the invocation by Councilman Joel Hudson. First on the agenda was the first reading of the ordinance for the Fiscal year 2005-2006 budget which passed with a unanimous vote as did the next item, continuing the commitment to the county recreation. However, item three, an ordinance to re-institute a fee on all registered vehicles in the county, did not get read before Councilman Norman Dorn objected. After Chairman Kneece finished reading the title Dorn said, “just for the record, when I go out campaigning I want to be able to tell people I didn’t support this". Dorn added, “My concern here was the increase. We had ten dollars, last year, year before- now it’s up to fifteen,” also complaining that a full “one third of the people in this county won’t have to pay the tax but use the roads.” Councilman Dorn said that rather than create this new tax he, “would rather take $100,000 out of miscellaneous, I don’t even know what that word means anyway, and use that to supplement, or use the surplus.” Mr. Dorn ended his input stating, “I want it on the record I’m against it.” Councilman Joel Hudson took issue with the application of the tax as well saying, “I figure the Road Maintenance Fee is paid by those that use it.” However he noted he knows, “there’s a lot of people in the county that have out-of-state tags,” and said they would not be paying either. Councilman Everett Kitchens also complained saying, “I know a lot of people who have a North Augusta address and get thier cars registered in Aiken County.” Council directed a question of what could be done by the Sheriff’s Department to Sheriff Adell Dobey who was in attendance. Sheriff Dobey stated he would, “like to take some time to look at it and get back to you.” Before the matter could be moved forward as a first reading Councilman Dorn reiterated, “I’m against one third of the people using the roads and not paying taxes.” The motion was made to vote by Councilman Willie Bright, a second Councilman Hudson, and finished with a 4-0 vote with Mr. Dorn sitting quiet. The Council then moved on to the next issue of changing the charges for issuance of building permits, “based on square footage considerations.” Building Department head Howard Gibson explained the way the current charges are figured they are based on a “consideration” of the cost of building being $45 per square foot. Gibson continued by also saying, “State law says we can only recover what it costs us to enforce the codes,” and related the change due to the rise in the cost of building saying “most home building costs are $95 to $100 per square foot, some even higher.” The cost of the consideration he suggested as a “modest” $55 per square foot. This would bring in, “an additional eight to ten thousand dollars per year,” for the department in revenues. The council moved on to a resolution to reimburse the county for the cost of, “limited road maintenance services” for private roads. At issue was Fox Terrace, just off Highway 25. “I’ve got several calls on this road,” Chairman Kneece stated, to which Councilman Bright stated he’s, “gotten call for several years about (Fox Terrace).” Howard Gibson stated a school district supervisor following a bus down the road saw, “a child get thrown out of his seat”, because, “there is no way possible for the bus to miss the pot holes.” Gibson also stated the school board has suggested they may discontinue bus routes due to the cost of repairs and maintenance of the busses. Council discussed how the plan would work, the property owner(s) would pay full reimbursement for all costs the county expended for the basic work and materials required to bring the road to “passable” conditions. Generally government improving private property is forbidden unless there is a “public benefit” beyond the benefit of a few private land owners. Administrator Adams stated, “how public use is defined is left up to the local governments,” noting there are several pending rulings on the matter. Council voted unanimously to approve the resolution. From there council moved on to pass a resolution to reimburse “certain emergency medical services” to volunteers of the Emergency Services such as firemen, First Responders, and Reserve Deputies. Administrator Adams stated this would, “require them to file insurance first, if they have it,” and was limited to $1500 per person. Adams stated the figure was, “based on our most expensive cost of an ambulance ride.” Next item covered was the “three way office move” cost that Edgefield Daily.com has reported on the refusal of Clerk to Council, Barbara Stark to allow us to view original records. Administrator Adams stated that “due to certain media attention” he has placed the totals on the county webpage (PDF file). Howard Gibson stated the moves were completed for four offices (his included), “under budget by $943.” Councilman Dorn asked, “Why didn’t you spend all the money?” Gibson stated that all work was completed and the few minor “trim items” that remained were still budgeted. Gibson stated, “I can find something to spend it on, but it won’t be this project.” Dorn replied, “Spend it on the road maintenance.” Edgefield Daily.com will cover this issue more in depth in coming days. Moving on to the next item on the agenda was the cost overruns on the Detention Facility. Most of the overruns were due to state inspectors and SLED who came back after the original approval of the plans were accepted and added more items, such as larger roll up doors, doubling the cost of that particular item, so that fire trucks could gain access to the back of the facility in the case of a fire. Also pointed out was an amended bill for labor provided by Edgefield Construction for more than $17,000 over budget under the contract and bid. This was objected to as too high and Howard Gibson deferred to Sheriff Dobey on the reason. Sheriff Dobey stated he thought the cost overruns were not the fault of his department or the county and that there were “management and superintendent problems” on the job that led to the bloated costs and that he didn’t feel Edgefield Construction should be placing that blame on his department or the county. Gibson agreed and said that is why he had counter-offered $12,000 to Edgefield Construction. We will have more on this in other articles. The final item was to accept Long Leaf Drive into the county road system. It was approved Return to
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