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Edgefield County Council and School Board
hold joint meeting Edgefielddaily.com web posted May 19, 2005  The Edgefield County Council and School Board had their joint meeting 6:00 pm tonight at the School district meeting room. Dinner was catered by the Strom Thurmond cafeteria workers. After the meal Superintendent Sharon Keesley thanked everyone for coming and stated she would prefer to keep the meeting casual. She asked County Administrator Wayne Adams to brief the school board on issues concerning the county. Mr. Adams stated, “The big news we have of course is Urban Outfitters coming to the county,” and said they would be taking over the former building that once housed VF Playwear. At present the company would employ about 200 workers and would use the same equipment that is already in the building. Adams also stated Urban Outfitters is looking into brining its call center to Trenton as well which would also employ roughly 200 workers as well. Another “big item,” Adams said was the county budget for fiscal year 2005-2006 which would have its third reading at the June 7 council meeting. He also said the value of a mill went up from $47,000 to $48,000, or a 2% increase, and that over all levies would decrease about 2.6%. The administrator said the council had approved dropping the amount of the hotly contested road maintenance fee from $15 to $10 in a work session held last night by council. None of the reporters present was aware such a meeting had taken place not were they notified. Councilman Everette Kitchens said after the meeting that the fee would expire in "two or three years," as the last fee did. Mr. Adams also said the county was budgeting in a 5% increase in pay levels, “But the increases will not be across the board,” he said. He said the pay structures were going into an incentive based scale and raises would depend on merit evaluations. Adams did not state who would oversee or be the one doing the evaluations, which some question as subjective and open to political influences in the workplace. Mr. Adams said the, “recreation program has grown very well,” in spite of “numbers being down in baseball and football,” he said. There is also, “$350,000 set aside for building two baseball fields and providing lighting and improvements, “to existing fields he said noting that the recreation department will not be using the facilities of the school system any longer. Councilman Willie Bright stated Fox Creek had used the facility located in Bettis Academy for football though he was under the understanding they would use a different field at the complex and, “I had to call my buddy Danny (Bishop) and straighten him out on a few things. School Board Chairwomen Sallie Cooks asked if there was time to do the necessary repairs to the field and Mr. Bright said he felt there would be sufficient time before the fields are ready to be used again. Courthouse safety was next on the county’s list of concerns and for security measures Mr. Adams said, “the county has budgeted $150,000 for improvements.” On the list of concerns Adams noted the number of doors people are allowed to enter the building saying it made it difficult to, ”monitor who was coming in or out of the building,” he said. They may lock some doors or install buzzers in order to “buzz” people in as well as ways to immediately be able to reach the 911 center. Some of the money would also be spent on metal detectors. Mr. Adams also gave a brief outline of a new way to purchase heavy equipment such as dump trucks and road graders which includes taking advantage of tax breaks allowed to municipalities and government which allow for a lease option to be “back loaded so you could basically have new equipment every year and not really have to pay for it,” he said. Adams stated councilmen Kneece and Dorn went to Columbia to look into the plan and were encouraged. Dr. Keesley inquired if that was available for school busses purchased by the county like activity busses and Chairman Kneece stated they were included in the plan. After Adams concluded his updates Dr. Keesley said she wanted to thank Mr. Adams and the county for the quick action that the school system receives when there is a problem with bad roads that school busses have to travel, “the county always gets the roads scraped quickly so our busses can travel safely,” she said. The school board was also about to conclude its budget process and could hold a second reading on the budget at the May 24 meeting. Dr. Keesley said the board was also working to round out the staff for the next school year. Board member Brad Covar asked Mr. Adams how the deal bringing in Urban Outfitters was worked as far as fees rather than taxes, the deal, Mr. Adams said wasn’t final but, “not that we will gain a lot in taxes, but we won’t lose any either,” he said. The meeting ended just as informally as it started and members began to leave and some taking in conversations for a short while. Return to Main Page
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