|
Featured Sections Headlines Opinion Obituaries Sports Crime Blotter Happenings Country Cooking Wandering Minds Classifieds Birthdays Off The Wall On The Record Archives Church Listings Live WebCam
Edgefield
Square  Featured Columns Pastor Williams Tech Tips Carl Langley Editor's Column Dr. Skip Myers Registered Sex Offenders for Edgefield County 2005 Crime Stats Video & Audio Updates Audio Archive (Testing) Video Archive 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 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 Edgefield Advertiser 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 |
 Calliham's, Administrator top discussion at Town Hall Meeting web posted August 13, 2009  MERRIWETHER – County
Councilman Rodney
Ashcraft held the first of his town hall meetings Wednesday night to a
capacity crowd at the Mt. Vintage Community Center. After welcoming
everyone to the meeting he then began taking questions from the fifty
or sixty citizens in attendance. Some topics brought up, such as the
purchase of the Calliham property, got contentious. “What’s being done to make the council realize they can’t ram this Calliham’s fiasco down our throats?, one man asked, adding that the county would be saddling the taxpayer with an end cost of over $1 million. Councilman Ashcraft began to answer when Salina Calliham stood and asked if she could speak to the question. Mrs. Calliham gave the history of the business which began in 1958 and made additions in 1960 and again in 1971. Mrs. Calliham stated that she and her husband, J. P. Calliham were approached by the county, “we didn’t go to them”. Since that time they have felt as though they were in the middle and disagreed with recent reports on the condition of the building. Mrs. Calliham said the building was “solid” and had been appraised at $450,000, “and we’ve come down and come down from that.” Addressing the “no rent” offer, she stated that they never asked for there to be no rent applied. Another person spoke up saying, “with all due respect, she doesn’t own the building anymore,” to which Mrs. Calliham stated she, her husband, and her cousin were partners in the ownership. Edgefield Mayor Ken Durham, who was also in attendance, stated he would like to address the numbers being discussed and thrown around at meetings and in reports. Durham stated that the purchase of the property and the remodeling of the lower 4,000 square feet of area (excluding the cost for the adjoining 9,000 foot area) could be done for $623,515, “and still you haven’t spent one cent of county money.” That comment drew the ire of another citizen who answered that the money being used is county money, whether it was insurance money or tax dollars. Mr. Durham corrected and said he meant to say that it was insurance money. Mr. Durham did discuss the “$1 million” number that is being used during the discussion, “but that’s for the other 9,000 square feet,” and that it should not be considered in the calculation of the cost of the purchase and initial project. Councilman Ashcraft responded that he has used the figures because he wanted to compare things “apples to apples” and trying to use future numbers to calculate the total investment the county was committing to would be “apples to oranges because we don’t know what the costs will be.” Given those estimates Ashcraft stated he stood by his statements as to the total costs. Mr. Durham then stated that the future expansion into the remaining 9,000 feet of building would be cheaper than building a new building. “That’s the point Ken,” County Councilwoman Genia Blackwell said, “I don’t see that we need that space and I don’t know that we will in the future.” Another citizen asked if there was something that the citizens could do to stop the purchase. “Is there something we can do? Can we sign a petition or something to that effect?” Mr. Ashcraft answered that a petition of 15% of the voters in the last election could be obtained within sixty days of the final reading that could possibly force the repeal of the ordinance. “From what date?” a woman asked, “From the council meeting last week (August 4),” Ashcraft replied. “Oh, then we’re a week behind already,” she said. The subject changed and went towards the problems of money being collected at Bettis Park and not being deposited with the county. “Is the county going to start getting the proceeds from that, as it should get?” one man asked, adding if the county could go back and recover the proceeds that were collected that were not turned in to the county. “Well, I don’t know how you’d go back and get what hasn’t been kept track of, “Mr. Ashcraft said. The man followed up by saying there was a county ordinance saying the money was to go to the county. “Yes sir, there is,” Ashcraft said. “I’ll go ahead and say this publicly, if the money is deposited elsewhere I’d consider it fraud”. Ashcraft stated that the matter was being pursued. Another man asked who was supposed to enforce county ordinances, “Is that the Sheriff or some county official?” Ashcraft said there was supposed to be a single person in control and then announced that County Administrator John Pettigrew had submitted his resignation, which drew an extended applause. “Are we going to hire another used car salesman or are we going to actually hire a qualified administrator,” one man asked which drew a large laugh of those attending. Councilwoman Blackwell spoke up saying that the Upper Savannah Council on Government would be conducting the initial screening from an expected 50 or so applicants and they would submit a list of five of the most qualified to the county council to interview. “A lot of good that did the last time,” someone interjected. “Let’s make sure they don’t know anyone in Edgefield County,” another said. As the discussion continued some began asking if it was wise to allow Administrator Pettigrew to stay in his position until another administrator could be found and one man asked Councilwoman Blackwell directly for her opinion. “Actually, no, I don’t think that’s wise,” she said with Councilman Ashcraft agreeing. “Well, then, can you do something about it?” he asked. “We could hold a special called meeting and take a vote,” she said. “I think it was a very kind offer from him, but I don’t think it is in the best interest of the council or the county to keep him.” An interim administrator could be provided from the Association of Counties or the Upper Savannah Council on Government until a new administrator could be hired. Assorted other topics were also discussed including the reassessment of properties, the foreclosure of a large portion of property at Mt. Vintage, and water for the Westside area which is under a current feasibility study, before the meeting ended. Councilman Ashcraft also thanked EdgefieldDaily.com for being the only county media outlet that attended the meeting. © Copyright 2009
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. |
