|
Featured Sections Headlines Opinion Obituaries Sports Crime Blotter Happenings Country Cooking Wandering Minds Classifieds Birthdays Off The Wall On The Record Church Listings Archives Featured Columns Pastor Howle Wise Tech Tips Editor's Column Carl Langley Dr. Skip Myers Edgefield Square Registered Sex Offenders for Edgefield County Contact us Contact Info or E-mail the Editor Phone: 803-634-0964 day 803-279-5041 eve 803-279-8943 fax Mail to EdgefieldDaily.com PO Box 972 Edgefield SC 29824 Video & Audio Updates Audio Archive Video Archive School System EC District Office School Board Strom Thurmond Charter Schools Fox Creek Private Schools Wardlaw Academy Public Offices Edgefield County Edgefield Johnston Trenton Political State and Federal Legislative Contacts Local Political Parties Republican Party Democrat Party Chamber of Commerce Edgefield County Chamber Historical Edgefield Genealogical Society News links The Citizen News Aiken Standard North Augusta Star The State Augusta Chronicle Atlanta Journal United Press Associated Press FOX News Reuters CNS News WorldNet Daily Newsmax Drudge Report GoogleNews Yahoo!News New York Times New York Post Los Angeles Times Washington Times Washington Post |
  Johnston Mayor gives grim outlook on state revenues web posted March 9, 2010 JOHNSTON – The Johnston Town Council held their March meeting Monday night with Mayor Willie Campbell providing a dreary outlook on revenues from the state for the coming fiscal year. “In (fiscal year) ’08 we received $78,162” in the Aid to Subdivisions (also known ad the Local Government Fund or LGF), Mayor Campbell said. In the current fiscal year the town was budgeted $79,374 only to see that amount cut twice during the year to $63,503. “Based upon what they are looking at for us in the current year, it is $55,883.” Mayor Campbell went on to say that the funds from the Special Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) has seen revenues fall and the town is expecting a cut of 20% over last year’s funds, though no dollar amount was provided. Campbell said that in discussion with local legislators it appeared that education and municipalities were going to the two main areas “that are going to be hit the worse” with cuts to make up an over $550 million budget shortfall at the state level. The mayor said he hoped the town council would use this information during the upcoming budget process to make the best use of the funds available to provide for services. “With the economy - we are facing some tough times - and 2010 is going to be no different.” The first budget workshop was scheduled for Tuesday, March 23, at 5 pm at the Town Hall. Two guest speakers gave presentations at the meeting, the first being Angela Pride of the US Census. She stated that South Carolina placed 49th in the nation for having Census mailed questionnaires returned in the 200 census. “We can do better,” she said. The ten question form, which will be arriving in mailboxes on March 15, should take about ten minutes to fill out and residents are urged to complete the forms and mail them back. Ms. Pride stated that $4 billion is distributed from the federal government based on the information provided by the census. Henry Cary, of Northland Cable, also spoke to the town council concerning questions about High Definition cable availability. Mr. Cary said that Northland currently has the upgrades, expected to cost $202,000 for the Johnston area, in the current budget but he did not see the upgrades coming until the next year. Cary said that including Edgefield and Saluda the cost of the upgrades would reach well over a half million dollars. The availability of “capital funds” are very limited due to the economy, so upgrades would most likely fall into the next fiscal year but would be completed. “The longer ya’ll wait the more people will go to satellite,” Town Councilman Morris Holmes said. Mr. Cary explained he understood, but felt Northland Cable provided a far better service to its subscribers. Town Councilman Tommy Burton questioned Mr. Cary on some of the service side delivery of cable TV saying that people in Johnston and Edgefield were getting screen that “freeze” at different times. Mr. Cary said that was something they could look into and placed some of the blame on squirrels chewing into cable lines. Some of the public attending brought up a problem with channel 6 on the cable provider saying it would go in and out of service. Cary said that was partially the fault of the programmers of the channel on not Northland Cable. Mr. Cary stated before closing that he was on the “service end” of Northland Cable and that he could have “sugar coated” his presentation “a little better”. “I’ve told you everything I know about the cable business,” Mr. Cary said, “in fact, I probably made some of it up.” Johnston resident Elijah Harris spoke during the public comment period to complain about a letter he received from the town about limbs, wood debris, and leaves mixed together at his property and why it was not picked up. Mr. Harris stated he placed the debris in the proper locations on his property but they were not picked up for 20 weeks. Harris explained that if the town does not pick up the waste he cannot continue to go out in his yard and continue to keep the growing piles from blending together. Mayor Campbell apologized on behalf of the town and said problems with wet weather and malfunctioning equipment caused the town to fall behind in the removal of the leaves, limbs and other yard waste. Under Committee Reports, Councilman Morris Holmes wanted to thank the Johnston Fire Department for their response to a recent fire in the downtown area. Mayor Willie Campbell said he too would like to thank not only the Johnston Fire Department but those of Edgefield, Trenton, and Merriwether, for their participation in combating the blaze that he claimed could have been much worse. With no other business the meeting was adjourned. © Copyright 2010
EdgefieldDaily.com All
original material is property of
EdgefieldDaily.com and cannot be reproduced, rewritten or redistributed
without the expressed written permission of Edgefield Daily.com
|
NOTICE:
We still need recipes for Cooking Section WEBNEWS – Send in your favorite or favorites. There is no limit to the number of recipes you can send in. With the Editor’s wife being the driving force behind her own personal section, help her create an exchange of local favorites, home cooking, grilling, sauces, and deserts! Send in your submissions here. |
