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County Council November meeting Edgefielddaily.com web posted November 2, 2005 EDGEFIELD – The Edgefield County Council held its regular monthly meeting Tuesday night and had an extensive agenda which took nearly two hours to cover. After the regular invocation and pledge Chairman Kneece opened up a Public Hearing period for three ordinances dealing with the acquisition of road maintenance equipment, the creation of a industrial/business park for Trenton Plastics, and authorizing a Fee in Lieu of Tax arrangement on behalf of Trenton Plastics. With no comments on any of the ordinances the Public Hearings period was closed and the meeting continued. Council voted 5-0 to pass seven ordinances, most of which pertained to the Trenton Plastics or Urban Outfitters or associated agreements. One ordinance amended the Edgefield County Code of Ordinances to provide for the composition, terms, and procedures of the County Board of Assessment Appeals. Under New Business was the appointment of members to the board of tax assessments and appeals. Chairman Kneece stated all present members terms were up and the council needed to appoint seven new members. Each councilman is to appoint a member from his respective district and the chairman and vice chairman make recommendations for the two “at large” members. Mr. Kneece stated he would prefer to hold off on the appointments until all members were prepared to make their choice, “so we can deal with this all at once,” he said. Tricia Gordon, Voter Registration Director, made a request for a full time position to be created in her office. Presently she has two part time workers and one was going to be leaving at the end of the year. Her suggestion to council was to make the second part-time employee full time and do away with part time positions all together. The council agreed and voted to change the employment situation. Council voted to add two more vehicles to the surplus list of equipment that was being put up for auction as well as giving their consent to add any additional equipment that was “found” in the meantime with a 5-0 vote. The surplus vehicles are being auctioned under a contract with JM Wood Auction Company. The vehicles may be seen at this link. Council also approved $12,431 to purchase forks and a root rake for heavy equipment needed by the road maintenance division. The next item was the reclassification of the finance director’s position. Under the plan suggested by Administrator Wayne Adams the position would be downgraded to a finance manager rather than a director’s position. Presently the job lists a salary of $42,500 to $59,000 and under the new position it would range between $33,500 and $46,900. The reason for the suggestion was not being able to find anyone qualified for the position Mr. Adams said. “We had 38 applicants,” for the position, “we tested five and interviewed three and could not find anyone qualified,” he said. The council voted to reclassify the job and gave Mr. Adams the authority to hire for the new position at a starting salary not to exceed $40,000 a year. The issue of a request to pay interest to a delinquent tax bidder who had bought property sold at the courthouse for nonpayment of taxes. Due to an employee in the tax collector’s office voiding the sale after one of the original property owners claiming he was not notified of the sale and subsequently paying the past due taxes. The bidder on the property put up $45,000 to purchase the property and the county held that money for almost a year and then voided the sale. Due to that the bidder is requesting to be paid interest n the money during the time the county held it. Councilman Joel Hudson said, “I don’t see how we can not pay him,” adding that the county should have had the money in an interest bearing account anyway. “If we don’t pay him I’m sure he could sue us,” he said. Mr. Hudson also pointed out this was all due to a voiding of a sale that should not have been voided and hoped the employee had been talked to about the matter. The employee was not named. The council voted to approve paying the man interest which would amount to about $5,400. Council was given an update on expenditures on Bettis Park as requested by council at last months meeting. Administrator Adams told council that $43, 248 had been spent so far and $308,251 remained budgeted for improvements. A request for $1,500 for a traveling baseball team was rejected by the council. Nick Wates, Recreation Director, requested to purchase a paint machine to stripe the athletic fields at county parks. The best price for the machine would be $1,219.24. Council asked if the same machine would be capable of painting stripes in parking lots and the like which Mr. Wates said was possible. With that council directed Mr. Wates and Building and Planning Director Howard Gibson to find one that would withstand the duel use and purchase the machine as long as it did not exceed $2,000. The last item under new business was consideration of Christmas bonuses for employees. Last year county employees received $75 as full time and $50 if part time. Councilman Everett Kitchens said he disagreed with the wording, “it’s not a bonus, it is a gift. A bonus is given for extra work.” With that council voted to give each employee the same “gift” as last year. Under old business Phillip Brooks from the South Carolina Department of Transportation discussed two matters with council. The first being State Road 453 which being suggested to be passed on to Mt. Pleasant Church which is located off Steeple Road. Mr. Brooks stated SCDOT could only give the property to another government entity and that in turn the county could pass the property on to the church. The second matter was a proposal by SCDOT to turn over the SCDOT section shed located on Stephens Road to the county in exchange for the county taking in eleven roads currently under the state maintenance system. The roads total 19.25 miles of road and six bridges. Mr. Brooks stated the property of the shed was purchased for $21,000 and a total of $387,000 went into building the section shed which was never used. Councilman Willie Bright reminded everyone that just because the state put $400,000 into the building and property that is not necessarily what it is worth. Councilman Hudson wanted to wait until the council could be told what the cost per year of upkeep on the roads would be before making a decision. Councilman Dorn asked if the SCDOT had made any further decisions concerning the intersection of Bettis Academy Road and Highway 25. Mr. Brooks stated that under the current reports he has on the intersection it was not up to the standards needing a traffic light. Councilman Bright told Mr. Brooks that the reports show a majority of the accidents were listed as “rear end accidents,” and that he could name at least five people killed at the intersection and none were rear-end collisions. The last matter addressed was the mobile concession stand for Bettis Park. After a short discussion the council voted to allow the purchase of the trailer as long as it did not exceed $45,000. With no further business or comments the council adjourned.
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