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 Chairman Kneece attacks reporter for asking questions on funding of Calliham purchase web posted December 2, 2009 EDGEFIELD – At the end of the December County Council meeting Tuesday night County Council Chairman Monroe Kneece exploded in a verbal attack of EdgefieldDaily.com’s Editor Roy Blackwell for asking a simple question regarding funding sources contained in the ordinance to purchase the Calliham Property. The ordinance provides for $625,745.51 in funding, however; the estimates provided by the 2KM firm state the initial costs pertaining to the 4,000 square foot portion of the building to be $892,810.63. The exchange erupted when Mr. Blackwell stated, “I have a question regarding ordinance No. 09-10-614, which is the purchase of the Calliham building. The total price on this ordinance shows $625,745.51. The numbers from 2KM provided that the initial cost, I don’t have that figure with me, but it’s somewhere around $868,000, I believe, where is the difference in those figures coming from?” Chairman Kneece stated, “I can tell you that the $315,000 is to pay for the building. And we’re going to get a $15,000 rebate back from that (alluding to a vote by the Edgefield Town Council to give the county the money for purchasing the property). And then we got $310,745.51 to redo the building to bringing the building up in fair and everything” Mr. Blackwell continued his original question, “So can you tell me where the other $260,000 or so is going to come from?” “This is all we want,” Chairman Kneece said. “This is going to take the job. And you can go all along that we were going to have all these tax increases and all that which is no tax increases in dollars in this. This is going to be buying the building and redoing the whole downstairs, the 4,000 square feet we’re doing.” With Mr. Kneece refusing to answer the initial question Mr. Blackwell then turned to the entire project stating the remaining 9,000 square feet of the building would also have to be done at a later date raising the costs to between $1.7 and $1.9 million according to the estimates provided to the county by 2KM. “Well, that’s not, we’re not getting into the 9,000 we’re getting into the 4,000 square foot,” Kneece said. “That’s what we’re doing”. Chairman Kneece then pointed his finger and stated, “You’ve been kinda blowing your stack with all these people on about how much it’s going to cost the taxpayers and everything.” Blackwell responded, “I’m just going by the official numbers provided by 2KM.” Kneece shot back, “No, a lot of that stuff is your own numbers.” Blackwell responded, “The numbers are by 2KM.” Chairman Kneece then stated, “You don’t have a vote. These five people right here are the ones that’s going to vote on it.” Mr. Blackwell responded, “You have already voted on it. I’m just asking where the money is coming from.” “Well it’s, nobody’s got a budget for this but you,” Kneece said. “You’re the one that’s got the high budget.” Mr. Blackwell stated, “2KM provided the numbers that I’m looking at.” “No,” Chairman Kneece said adding that he refused to release the first figures because there were mistakes and they requested another set of numbers. “And they came back at a different price.” Blackwell said, “And they were higher”. “No, no, no, they were not cheaper”, Kneece said. “That’s what I said", Blackwell responded, "they were even higher.” “What do you call higher?” Kneece said. “Well, if you got one price and the next one comes in higher, that means higher,” Blackwell said. “The next one was lower,” Kneece said, even thought the second set of numbers provided increased the cost by $77,250. At that time Vice-chairman Willie Bright moved to have the meeting adjourned. “No,” Chairman Kneece said. “He’s been chewing my (inaudible) and I’m getting damn tired of it. I’ve been hearing your trash for so long and you’ve got some of these people agreeing with you and hopefully they will see where you are.” Chairman Kneece then commented that he took acceptation to an opinion column that stated Chairman Kneece “lied”. The column referred to noted Mr. Kneece’s private meeting with a county council member and Mr. Blackwell when he stated he thought the rezoning of property in Merriwether was “wrong” and that he was not going to vote for it and then led the vote to approve the change as well as claiming the Calliham purchase was "as dead as it gets" and that it "won't come back". “If you tell me one thing and then do another, that’s a lie in my book,” Blackwell said at the meeting. Mr. Kneece then allowed the meeting to be adjourned without answering the questions. “Numbers can’t lie Mr. Kneece, only people can.” Mr. Blackwell stated. The information on the estimates can be found here including pdf files of the official estimates presented to the county by the 2KM architectural firm supporting the questions raised which Chairman Kneece refused to answer. The estimates do not include the cost of architectural plans being drafted, specifications, documentation, or bid prices. All of which will raise the costs above and beyond the initial estimates provided. © Copyright 2009
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