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Edgefield Council Monthly Meeting Edgefielddaily.com web posted May 3, 2005 The Edgefield County Council held their regular monthly meeting tonight, May 3, 2005. After the calling to order and invocation the council approved the minutes for the April 5 meeting and went directly into reports including the monthly financial reports by departments and approval of the minutes for the Edgefield County Planning Commission and the Edgefield County Hospital Board of Trustees. That is where the meeting became confusing to all. The council took the matter of a zoning change request by developer Jay Lacy which was passed on to council by the Edgefield County Planning Commission. Without any discussion councilman Joel Hudson made a motion that was inaudible to most attending the meeting, it received a second by councilman Everett Kitchens and passed unanimously. The meeting moved forward phasing into public hearings without noting and even having council members try to vote. It was then when Chairman Kneece made it clear they were now holding public hearings. The Public Hearings listed were Ordinance No. 04-05-560 which proves the General Operating Budget for 2005-06. An ordinance for joint affirmation of the county recreation program along with other municipalities in the county received no comments. The hot button issue of the ordinance to create a $15 car tax was next and received no public comment; neither did the ordinance to establish new charges for the issuing of building permits based on square footage. As the public hearings were over council moved on to vote on the above mentioned ordinances for second readings and all were receiving unanimous votes until the ordinance for the $15 car tax came up. At that time councilman Norman Dorn stated he was against the tax and wanted to speak his mind. Chairman Kneece said that was what the public hearing was for to which councilman Dorn shot back, “I’m not a member of the public,” saying, “I don’t speak from down there, I speak from up here,” referring to the podium the public is asked to stand in front of to address council. Chairman Kneece gave Dorn the floor and Dorn proceeded to berate the county council as a whole about the tax saying, “It’s not going to pass. I am only one vote, but we all go to the polls,” prefaced with his remarks not being a “threat”. Dorn grilled County Administrator Wayne Adams on over budgeting for items and then using the surplus for other uses. Adams stated that surplus funds were transferred to uses within the operating budgets of the department the purchases were for. Councilman Dorn used the budget for a dump truck which set a price at $100,000 when the actual cost would be no higher than $85,000 which according to Dorn was, “still too much”. Dorn was reiterating his opposition when Administrator Adams told councilman Dorn he already voted for it once. Dorn took offense to this charge and stated if the record showed a vote in favor from last moth he wanted it “scratched out”. Councilman Dorn also took issue with the amount of surplus funds that were brought forward from last year’s budget which was $860,776. He also questioned, “having $185,000 in miscellaneous funds,” asking,”what do we use that for?” Dorn also took the entire council to task over the tax even saying if the ordinance passed, “we may need to go to a referendum to throw the whole thing out.” Dorn said the council needed to take note of whose money they are spending, “This is not our money we are spending, it belongs to the taxpayer. We can’t spend money up here like it belongs to us,” he said. Councilman Joel Hudson spoke on the issue saying he supported the tax because, “that way the people that use the roads are paying their fair share.” Hudson motioned for a vote and after the second it was passed for a second reading with Dorn making it very clear he was voting no against all others who voted yes. The council moved on to the second reading of the ordinance establishing new charges, based on square footage, for building permits which was passed 5-0. The third and final reading of the ordinance providing for a lease and agreement between Edgefield County and Plane Fun, Inc. which allows Plane Fun to be the, “fixed base operator and Airport Manager”, of the Trenton Airport passed 5-0. Council also passed a first reading of an ordinance for the conveyance of a land parcel of Edgefield County to Pleasant Grove Baptist Church to expand their cemetery. Under New Business John Rikard gave an update concerning the Veterans Affairs office. Mr. Rikard said they had received an additional one million dollars this year for the county bringing the total to about 13 million dollars. The funds go to deliver benefits to veterans and Mr. Rikard said, “We have 54 new claims already this year,” and next year would be more as would the funds received. Council also took in considerations of funding requests from the Edgefield County Veterans Day Celebration and the Ridge Peach Festival. They also voted to re-appoint Mrs. Jane Herlong to the Piedmont Technical College Board; her term would have expired in June. The last item was to move the August 2, 2005 regular meeting to Augusta 9 so not to interfere with a South Carolina Association of Counties Conference. Under Old Business Mrs. Saundra Curry addressed council on the matter of a traffic light at the intersection of Highway 25 and Bettis Academy Road. “I hate to be such a pest about this light,” Mrs. Curry said but stated she was not getting the help or information she needed and “we are losing people there.” Curry also stated Phillip Brooks, who had issued a report on the matter saying the only accidents at the location are rear end accidents. “That’s not true,” she said, “I was there when Mary Ann Young was killed, it was not a read end accident.” Curry went on to name several recent fatal accidents saying none were “rear end accidents”. Mrs. Curry requested help from the council who stated that was something the state had full control over but said they would see if they could find out who was next up from Phillip Brooks. Curry stated, “I don’t know who this Phillip Brooks is, be he ain’t been there watching the traffic. He needs to come sit with me and see what I see.” Council then took comments from the public. Lenny Birt of Merriwether stood and stated as a resident of Merriwether he and his wife were “adamantly against the change in zoning to allow commercial” properties from being added in Merriwether. He said they moved to Merriwether because it was unique in that it was close to commercial development but retained it’s rural beauty. Mr. Birt said that allowing Mr. Lacy to get a zoning change would allow a flood of commercial development in Merriwether and would ruin what makes it so popular. “I strongly urge this council not to allow this zoning change,” Mr. Birt said. Chairman Kneece stated the council had already voted against Mr. Lacy with the mumbled vote earlier. Mr. Jay Lacy was present and, putting his blueprints and reports aside, stood to ask if what the chairman had just said about being turned down was correct. Chairman Kneece said simply, “yes”. Lacy told council they were going against the planning commission and that as he listens he hears the county saying they need money and that is what his project would bring. Lacy stated regardless of what people say he really did have the support of Merriwether. Mr. Lacy also said Merriwether will get what it wants and that just as the council did not want a high school in Merriwether, they now had Fox Creek High School. Editor’s note: The County Council has no control over school issues; that is the function of the Edgefield County School Board. The council has not expressed any opinion against Merriwether having a high school. Return to Main Page
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