Full meeting transcript - December 8, 2020

» Check one two. Check one. It's a great day in Kershaw County. It's a great day in this all-American county and we have a wonderful opportunity tonight to recognize some of the extraordinary people from all walks of life. We have about four resolutions to do and a moment of celebration but before we get started I think we should have a moment of silence for those that we've lost in this crisis in the COVID.

» Would you bow your heads in prayer with me please for the families and the souls of the departed amen amen for that we are called to order we have a quorum mr jones is on the way shortly but i'll now ask uh they will depart from the agenda and seeing how this is our final meeting with mr bozart after four years of distinguished service here we'll defer to him to lead us in the invocation and the pledge of allegiance mr bozart please and would you please all stand good and gracious heavenly father we thank you for these opportunities we have being a free nation where we can worship you where we can serve you and for this body of county council father i just pray that you will lead them and guide them in the coming years that they will always do best they can for the people of south carolina

» and the kershaw county heavenly father i pray that you will lay your hand on us we make the decisions that have to be made for the people of this county always looking to you for our guidance always giving you the blessings for everything. All we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Amen. Remind everybody we are under emergency conditions. Everyone's at six foot distance and wearing the mask, but we also allow for an e-meeting format for those that call in or had prior comments pre-positioned with Mary Siegler, our clerk. Mary, did we get any pre-positioned comments? Yes, sir. I've seen that we had none. Now we go to Mr. DuBose for the regular format. Any sign-ups for public comments? Mr. Chairman, no one signed up for public comments. Very good.

» We'll move with the next item, which is the adoption of the agenda. Can we have a motion to approve the agenda? You see it on the board there in front of you. No, ma'am. Second. Bozard. A second from Mr. Gardner. Any comments? I will only say by way of discussion, the sheriff has agreed to come in. Thank you for coming again, Sheriff Lee Bowling. Good to see you again, sir. And we'll go into an executive session as requested by Mr. Tucker when we get to that point in the agenda. So without any further discussion, let's move to a vote. All those in favor signify. And it's unanimous with Mr. Jones still on the way.

» So Mary, the agenda is approved now the good part hot diggity dog resolutions uh the first item is the camden high school football team placed on the agenda by the councilman david snodgrass and we've got a lot of wonderful uniforms in the room tonight and and coaches so the way we'll do this is i'll read the resolution and then we'll place it into a motion resolution honoring the 2020 camden high school football team go dogs sorry about that i just couldn't i couldn't help myself whereas kershaw county recognizes the camden high school football team on their outstanding 2020 season whereas the bulldogs went nine and one on their way to claim the aaa lower state uh championship and ultimately the runner-up state champions what a game whereas the bulldogs went 4-0 in the region play and And

» whereas the Bulldogs' offense averaged 475 yards a game with a rushing attack amassing over 2,600 total yards for the season and averaged just under 48 points a game. And some of those points were scored by a couple of young men or two or three here in the room tonight. What a bunch of folks. Whereas senior running back Willis Lane Jr. was named Mr. Football Finalist. whereas a Bulldog defense known as the Black Swarm combined for 37 sacks and 75 tackles for loss, whereas multiple players posted personal best statistics this season.

» Now, therefore, Kershaw County Council hereby congratulates the Camden High School football team Bulldogs on their AAA Lower State Championship and outstanding season, resulting in being runner-up into the class triple a state title we wish them success in the seasons to come as they build upon this standout year for their program done this eighth day of december can we have a motion mr snodgrass so move mr chair a second second don't be shy now mr gardner we have a second uh any discussion please mr snodgrass lead us off sure yes sir just want to uh congratulates uh the bulldogs and coach rimp and your squad uh thank you so much uh for an outstanding season uh we have we have two football teams here tonight and so it just recognizes the great tradition that we have here in kershaw county u

» h but to the bulldogs thank you so much for a great season a year in which you guys had to overcome so many obstacles but yet you still are able to win and just really you gave the community uh really a shining a shining spot that we all could look forward to on a friday and to go to historic zimp stadium and to experience all the community that is there so guys thank you so much uh please the leadership lessons that you learned from your coaches on the gridiron i would encourage you to take that into life uh and use those life lessons as you guys move forward i know each and every one of you guys who are here tonight as well as your teammates which you represent are going to go and to do to do great things so coach thank you so much to you and your staff congratulations guys other comments

» mr tucker uh thank you mr um once again uh i know you've heard it a lot and you know no one likes to um say great season and you're um one game away from the championship but do look at all the accomplishments and great things that y'all put together i've gone through this as a parent uh with my children and um you know so next year just puts a little bit more pressure on that team coach to go get to championship. I think that's about 2000, 2001 when that happened, runner up and then championship. But I am very proud of all of you. I have some personal connections to some of you on the team, wherever you've been my student for driving or wherever you related to me or wherever I know your parents and grandparents, but I'm very proud of all of you.

» One thing I can say about sports and especially the tradition of athletics period in Kershaw County, we do more than just wins and losses in this county. It is life lessons that's taught out there. Take those that you've gotten from your coaches trump and all the others and apply them moving forward especially for the seniors that's going to the next level or just going to college or going into the military or going to work use those grit and granny days that you just want to punch somebody out but you dug in a little deeper and you found your way and you found success congratulations and thank you yeah um you know it's a great season uh i and and the community camden kershaw county uh is such a great place to have such a great team because they follow you i just wish you would have had the

» opportunity to experience uh the kind of fan base you would have seen there if it hadn't been for covid because that stadium wouldn't have held it i promise you because i've been to some of the other state championships but let me just tell you they weren't there but they were with you in spirit so uh you know you it's a great accomplishment what you did in getting there you think about the other 3a teams there were 40 plus sitting at home wishing they were there so take great pride in the fact you know we're all disappointed that we lost the game obviously uh but take great pride in the fact of your accomplishments of this year you overcame a lot of obstacles covid being one of them that's where you overcame coaching from coach ramp and uh now coach rams break i hear compliments on him i h

» ear compliments on him every day in my shop everybody talks about him and uh you know you guys are guided by not only coach ramp but a lot of coaches on that staff that uh you know have led you down the the right path and uh just continue to do that work hard and uh next year congratulations uh mr bozard sir yes i want to say congratulations to all of you been a good season and if y'all got any spare time i wish you'd go over to south carolina and give them some pointers i'm a south carolina fan now but we've got to have some help over there ben mr connell sir thank you mr chairman uh to the camden football players and coaches you know i uh i've been beaten by camden football when i played football in high school and i've i've I've beaten Campbell in football when I played football in high

» school, and I used to not like you guys that much. But as they say in Scripture, whenever you grow up, you tend to put off childish things. I've come to love y'all, and I appreciate very much how you've distinguished yourselves and been good examples. I hope that you'll continue to distinguish yourself throughout the rest of your lives through hard work, love of community, love of God, love of country, and respect for people who sometimes might teach you stuff that you don't understand is going to be tough, but you work through it. A lot of respect for Coach Rimp and his staff, and obviously they have helped you magnify your abilities. Congratulations. Amen.

» And I'll close it out by saying I challenged you a summer ago while we were out in the weight rooms and out there in July of 2019, and I said, 1931, my dad's team won the first state championship in Camden. I challenged you guys to rise to the challenge, and look what you did. last year and this year was amazing and i know my dad is happy you saw billy hammonds my classmate from high school billy's said it all to you in the locker room before you all played and you know what that means in terms of leadership and tradition here in kershaw county we build winners and i want to congratulate the coach and the staff the entire school district and that includes north Central, who we'll hear from in a moment, who all rose to the occasion in a COVID year and produced excellence.

» And that challenges the rest of the county, the old and the young, to take pride in our high school teams and the young men and the women, too, on the tennis teams and the volleyball teams and so on, to show what a great county we are, all America. And the sense of pride is a force multiplier and like Vince Lombardi says when you score a touchdown act like you've been in the end zone before right right right and that's the sense of being a winner acting like a winner in all things in your life look what you did for us so with that I think we can get to a vote all those in favor signify by raising your hand it's unanimous coach would you Bring the team up, and let's get a quick picture.

» Coach, you want to say something real quick? I'd like to introduce one of all these games in spite of me, like Tom said. We've got a quarterback right here, number one, Zafari Pearson. Now, the sad news is all these guys are seniors, so they're going to move on to the next level next year. But quarterback Zafari Pearson, number one. Number five is our safety, James Krim. 22, you all heard a lot about, Willis Lane, the running back. Also number four, Leroy Bracey, running back and receiver. Bob Jackson-Henry actually led the state in sacks this year in the opposite. Thank you all. All right, Coach. This is the first time I've seen these guys standing still. Thank you. James, Jamil. Thank you. Well done, David. All right. Mr.

» Gardner, we got everybody here from the North Central? Yep, I think we do. Is the coach from North Central here? Yeah, he's right there. There you are. oh great well we now move to the next item uh which is a resolution for north central high school football team i'm gonna take my camden hat off placed on the agenda by mr gardner uh and it's uh it tab tab um it's not at the tab i have it here in front of me i'm going to read it as we did before and mr gardner will introduce it as a resolution a resolution honoring honoring the north central high school football team whereas kershaw county recognizes the north central high school football team the knights on their outstanding 2020 season and whereas the knights went five and one on their way to class double a region four semi-finals and wher

» eas the knights outscored their opponents uh 281 during the 2020 season whereas kershaw county council is a loyal supporter of excellence in the school district in education and devoted fans of athletic prowess in all our teams on every occasion and in every sport now therefore kershaw county council hereby congratulates the north central high school football team on their region 4 outstanding season that took them to class double a semifinals and to coach tyrone drakeford for being named the 2020 region 4 2a coach of the year amen we wish them success in the seasons to come as they build upon this standout year for this program done this day mr gardner will you enter a motion please yes sir i move to adopt the resolution thank you and uh mr bozar the second second thank you definitely your

» district as well so it's on the table mr gardner do you want to lead please uh yes uh it's an outstanding season uh north central the as i understand it the first region championship in almost 30 years wow uh since 1992 i think was the last one uh i think out the the other thing that is so outstanding is that uh north central had a few other obstacles to overcome that most schools didn't started with a tornado in uh back in january i think that uh you know they were They were the nomads, I think, as they were coined to be called, and uprooted entire school, weight room. Everything about their season that started, obviously, in the weight room back in January, everything was kind of changed all in one stroke, and then obviously COVID and everything else.

» So, you know, to persevere and get through that and get to where you were here in the football season, we know we got the stadium restored. got to play in your home stadium which was a great thing but great leadership up there but the principal David Branham and his faculty and staff and Kershaw County School District and getting that everything done so that you could that first of all that you could even play your system so our season but you know some people I want to obviously heard coach Tyrone Drakeford was the coach of year in the region. They had seven kids named to the region team, Shaheem Shropshire, Caleb Haven, D'Artagnan Drakeford, Dylan Sims, Tim Staggers, Chandler Shropshire, and Tyler Slayton. Just congratulate to you guys. A true team effort.

» You know, sometimes some people get recognized, but those guys sit on the bench and they're in practice every day. They're just as important as everybody else, but an outstanding season. We look for bigger and better things next year. congratulations mr bozhardt yes coach jakeford it's always a pleasure to see when some of our people in the county represents us outstanding like y'all did and like camden did and i want to say congratulations to you hope you have another winning season next year and as i told camden if you got any spare time can you drive up to columbia other comments uh mr connell sir i'll defer to mr snoggrass uh mr snoggrass please hey guys congratulations to knights uh and your great season coach draper congratulations um i know when you came in a few years ago everyone i

» n the community was very optimistic uh about uh this type of system and the type of culture that you would create there at north central and uh you have not disappointed. And so thank you so much for what you're doing. I know that North Central has a great fan base. A pastor friend of mine, Craig in Blanketship, I know he does a lot of the barbecue and the tailgating for you guys. And I know there's just a great community that happens up there on Friday nights in Boontown.

» And so thank y'all so much for what you do in the community thank you so much for again just like camden in a year in which we had so much to complain about you guys were a part of giving the community something to look forward to giving the community something to talk about besides masks besides social distancing and all the other mess that we've had to talk about so thank you so much and just continue to work hard and go knights mr connell mr chairman to the coaches and students at north central You know, I've won some games and lost some games, but I never had to win any of them in the face of a natural disaster and a pandemic. One of the things I love about athletics is outstanding achievement. That gets me inspired. And then overcoming adversity gets me inspired too.

» And somehow you fellows were able to wrap that all into one season and do what you did. Also have a lot of respect for Coach Drakeford. I just remembered as I was sitting here that whenever these new coaches came to town we got everybody together and had a dinner here in camden and and gave all the encouragement we could about our love for the community and uh encouraged them to go out and perform well and coach and teach you all well and help you become men and my gosh how they've run with that and outperformed any of our expectations so thank you to you all and congratulations thank you sir mr talker uh thank you mr chairman well central congratulations um coach draper as we were reading this uh resolution um i was trying to play back in my head when you played for the 49ers which side of

» this ball you was on because this 281 is pretty impressive it says a lot of uh where you played when you were in professional sports and also at the collegiate and high school level i i'm very proud of you guys i often talk about you on how before the f3 tornado came through how you are a hidden jewel in this county. You have all the amenities and things that the other two high schools have in this county. And you're out there kind of like on an island where you don't have all the confusion and mess that goes on in life. And I often share to other parents that if I had smaller children again, I would like them to go out to North Central because of all of the things that they do have that are different from Lugoff and Camden. And I want to say to you that keep digging.

» I know, you know, as everyone said, this has been an unusual year in many, many facets, especially for you, what has taken place out there. But keep digging and accomplishing your goals and your dreams. Don't let anyone tell you no, unless you're doing something wrong, then you listen to them. But if it's not something wrong, you keep digging and you keep pressing head, you know, your head up and shoulders back. Ben, I just want to say to you And Lugov, you know, they've got that nice big screen out there that the Panthers brought them. And that's a beautiful thing. I was out there for graduation when it first went up. That's not the way y'all going to get one. So don't pray for any tornadoes or any disasters to come over to Lugov, okay? Congratulations, Knights. Thank you.

» And I'll close it out very quickly. When, to both teams, but in particular North Central, when everybody, when your friends were out having a good time, And with the fumes, by which I mean perfumes and car fumes and other things, in the summer or out on the lake or out fishing, you are in the weight room sweating it away or out on the field sprinting with the coaches yelling at you and forming your manhood, your sense of courage and commitment. And it just shows that all the heroes don't wear capes and appear on the TV screens. Some heroes are wearing football helmets, and other heroes are out there coaching those young men. Those are the heroes I think about because they show devotion and commitment and heart.

» Those are the real heroes of America, the ones that get it done like you all did. And I wish you luck in your future lives or if you play ball, playing ball as well. But thank you for the example because we, Kershaw County, in the last 10 months, have had a great need of each of you. We needed some heroes. And I will tell you, it was wonderful. You provided an example. You gave us hope that we didn't know we could get out of our county. And for the coaches and players, thank you for being heroes because you are. Thank you very much. So with that, we move to a vote. All those in favor, so signify. And it's unanimous. Thank you very much. Coach, would you bring your team up? And I'd like to present this to you. Come on up here, fellas. Hey, Coach Drakeford, here you are.

» Come on here in the center. I think I got enough. Drakeford, can you name the players after we get the pick? Offensive line here, he's probably the biggest one we've got, I guess. Dylan Sims, he's a sophomore as well. Chandler Shopshire, who's our inside linebacker, he's a junior. Timothy Daggers, who's a junior. Casey Shopshire, freshman, D.J. Gregory, who is a senior. He's the only senior here. And Coach McDonald, my defense coordinator, linebacker coach. Let me just say that we've got a football out in the parking lot. We're going to put this team against that team. Let's have a round of applause. I was going to ask if the football players would just go ahead and leave so we can reduce exposure to COVID. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you very much indeed.

» Thank you, everybody, for doing that. appreciate it i know they do too all right thank you gentlemen we move now to the next uh item on the agenda item number three and resolutions it's at tab a and i have it here i'm going to read it and then after and then i'll ask mr tucker to place it into into a motion it's a resolution by kershaw county council honoring senator vincent shaheen whereas vincent shaheen a native son of Kershaw County, well and faithfully served the people of the county and indeed of the entire state and public life for two decades, rendering enduring and unmatched improvements to life and education and business statewide.

» And whereas he was a member of the South Carolina Senate since 2004, which comprises Chesterfield, Kershaw, and Lancaster counties, he was a member of the south carolina house of representatives from 2001 to 4 and a member of the south carolina senate for 16 years through 2020 and a lifelong resident of camden and kershaw county he received a bs and from uh from uh degree from clemson university where he met his wife amy attended law school at usc with three sons anthony twins austin and joseph he served as a city prosecutor before being elected to public office and was named legislator of the year by the south carolina solicitors association whereas while serving in the house of representatives he worked to create a conservation land bank that has preserved thousands of acres in south caro

» lina after republican governor mark sanford announced he would reject stimulus money for south carolina mr shaheen helped lead an effort in the south carolina senate to bypass the governor and to claim about 700 million dollars in stimulus funds and he is the author of the book the right way getting the palmetto state back on track a fervent advocate for education and whereas senator shaheen wrote the bill to remove the confederate flag from the state house grounds his most famous words retire the flag it's the right thing to do end quote and the senate voted overwhelmingly to remove the flag now therefore be it resolved that kershaw county honor senator vincent shaheen for his many years of dedicated service to the citizens of kershaw county and his many contributions to the state of south

» carolina and be it further resolved to recognize mrs amy shaheen for unsending support to her husband and for unmatched community activities for the county to include historic camden of lasting benefit to generations to come DONE AND RATIFIED THIS DAY MR. TUCKER CAN YOU MAKE THE MOTION YES SIR I WILL DO IT WITH HONORS MAKE A MOTION THAT WE APPROVE THE RESOLUTION THAT'S BEFORE YOU THANK YOU IT'S VERY FINE RESOLUTION BY THE WAY WE HAVE A SECOND SECOND SECOND FOR MR. GARDNER MR. TUCKER WILL YOU LEAD US IN DISCUSSION YES SIR I WOULD LIKE TO FIRST SAY THAT THE CHIHINES ARE DEEPLY SORRY THAT THEY'RE NOT ABLE TO MAKE IT TONIGHT. I GOT A PHONE CALL EARLIER THIS MORNING AND HAD COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE SENATOR AND ACTUALLY SPOKE TO HIS WIFE.

» THEY ARE, AND THEY WANTED ME TO SHARE THIS, THEY ARE ALL GONE TO GET TESTED TODAY, WAS NOT FEELING WELL AND DID NOT WANT TO BE A SUPER SPREADER OF THIS NASTY VIRUS THAT WE'RE ALL DEALING WITH. SO, AND I WAS ASKED THAT WE GO THROUGH WITH THE RESOLUTION AND THEN WE CAN PRESENT IT AT ANOTHER DAY. BUT THEY ARE VERY humbled and they are very thankful and grateful for this resolution of course you know both of our our former delegation folks are they don't like spotlight shine on them they're very low-keyed and you know they just go about getting doing the job and getting it done and I want to say we're going to talk about our House of Representatives in just a minute but a lot of these things that you see on this resolution would not be possible if it wasn't for the teamwork that he and Ms.

» Lori Slate-Vandiver worked on. No one lives on an island in this world, and especially in America, and it takes teamwork, a lot of different facets and a lot of different parts and pieces. And that's always been very humbling to me and encouraging to me that you can get two people to work so well together to accomplish so much.

» So the Sheehanes say thank you, and if you have an opportunity later on uh you can pick up the phone or email or text but um i'm just telling you the words that was given to me thank you so very much kershaw county the citizens council staff and all who's had a part of this magnificent run that senator sheehan has uh has done thank you mr thank you mr tucker mr gardner yeah the the um the things that uh senators gene did for for kershaw county he he he carried the uh the flag for kershaw county but he did for the entire state he did so many things and uh i just thank him for his service uh that he was willing to put himself out there and uh you know in that position you get a lot of criticism and that sort of thing but he put himself out there as as did lori but we'll talk about her later b

» ut uh uh you know you just you just uh appreciate all the things that he did uh for the entire state but uh you know he he was uh he was a hometown boy he was a camden boy he's a kershaw county boy and he really really fought hard for us and we appreciate all that he did thank you thanks sir other comments mrs snodgrass sure uh i just want to thank uh senator shaheen for his uh for his service and uh this is it's really a first for our county if you think about it i'm kind of historian, but I believe this would be, Mr. DuBose can correct me, but probably the first time since 1960s, late 60s, that we've had to be a chance to honor the outgoing sitting senator as Senator Holland passed away in office. And then before that, it was John Carl West who became governor.

» So this is kind of a first time for us to be able to recognize our sitting senator. But what we'll say that when I was first elected to county council and was kind of an obscure candidate that that chose to run and knocked on enough doors to get myself here um senator shaheen reached out to me and and was one really one of the first people that i spoke with after after being elected and really began to understand that while the letter behind his name was different than mine we both had a passion for kershaw county and we both had a passion to see things get done and there were a lot of things that were not about the letter behind your name but it was about the people in this county uh and the citizens and and doing what is what is best for them and so i just want to want to thank the senato

» r heen and his family for for their service and for always being available to to to me as a council member when we need to get things done someone mentioned that you can't be an island unto yourself that's so true and that's definitely true in the south carolina general assembly uh if you know anything about it it's it does it does need to take teamwork so thank you so much thank you uh yeah mr bozard sir thank you for your service over the years he's helped me in county council with several projects and for that i'm deeply grateful to him and again i want to say thank you for all your time you spent thank you thank you sir mr kyle senator sheehan has been helpful to myself as well in the district i represent for that i'm very grateful but primarily i want to recognize him tonight for a lev

» el of sacrifice i don't currently understand just because i haven't been in office uh too long and that's the family time that you miss i was reflecting on his kids one of them recently got married they've been at college another one whatever reasons decided to go to law school i'm sure he was discouraged on some level um my dad actually discouraged me but there's a lot of time that you miss with family and that'll be true for uh for representative funderberg as well and that to me shows the real commitment to public office you miss time with family you miss time with friends but you focus on other people's problems and try to get them solved so for that i'm very grateful thank you mr chairman very good and much has already been said about party and about the fact that we all work for kersh

» aw county and the people here and all that teamwork that makes it go that's what it is it's not the r the d or the i behind your name it's are you kershaw county or not are you for the citizens and and uh the second thing i would tell you is whenever i met with our delegation no matter when or how what time of day or night the question was always the same how can we help you and we were never failed in that but now it's all been said about senator sheen let me just pick up where mr connell left off you missed the family time but the family misses you and as i say in the military the family serves as surely as does the soldier sailor airman marina coast guardsman and i know amy and the boys uh miss their dad a bunch and i want to thank amy and the family for what they have done on on our beh

» alf very often anonymously and unseen so thank you there and with that i think we move to a vote all those in favor signify by raising your hand and it's unanimous and we'll ask mr tucker to convey uh to the family in in due time please sir thank you thank you with that we move to the next item item number four uh regarding uh a resolution for representative laurie vandenberg placed on the agenda by mr tucker it's at tab b and i will read that but first recognize that we have mrs funderberg's mother here and it must be and she who must be obeyed so nice to have you here tonight ma'am appreciate your coming a resolution by kershaw county council honoring representative laurie funderberg whereas mrs laurie slade funderberg and native of kershaw county as well and faithfully served the people

» of kershaw county for some two decades and distinguish the county and herself and far-sighted contributions to the community and for the state at large and whereas mrs funderberg served as a democratic member of the south carolina house of representatives serving since 2005. mrs funderberg has also served as a clerk for the south carolina senate judiciary committee and whereas representative funderberg assumed office november 30 2004 being preceded by mr shaheen she's a lifelong resident of kershaw county she received a bachelor's degree from usc as well as her law degree and she and her husband bill have two sons slade and burke now therefore be it resolved that kershaw county honors representative laurie funderberg for her many years of dedicated service to the citizens of kershaw county

» and our many contributions to the state of south carolina done ratified and adopted this state um mr tucker can you enter the motion please yes sir mr chairman with honors once again i'd like to make a motion that we accept this resolution as presented before us all right very good can we have a second second second for mr snodgrass mr tucker will you introduce it thank you welcome representative vandenberg you're always going to be representatives on vandenberg to me until i die so uh no no no no harm or intent. I just, you know, it's kind of started this career. You're a few months ahead of me because you came in 2004, but I was there in 2005. And this journey has been long and hard.

» And let me say from a personal experience, this is a young lady or a person that when you look at her, she doesn't say a lot. She's kind of like E.F. Hutton. She sits on a lot of boards and commissions with me and organizations and she just does a lot of work that's not seen and she asked for no gratification for it she asked for no prizes no pay she just head down straight forward just goes to work and I've always admired that about you Representative Funderburg because a lot of people and even some of us up here when we do something we don't only want to be recognize we raise our hand um because we want to we want to be glorified um you never had that spirit or that intent or that will and i'll appreciate the things and as i said earlier there's a lot of things on the senator's list would

» n't happen because you know as most of us in this room has to go through both bodies of the of the assembly and uh you are a phenomenal person to work through and across those aisles. And what people don't know about you is those internal things that you do. But I thank you. I thank your husband and your two boys who you have graciously raised up to be young scholars and gentlemen. And I want to say to your mom, because I see her everywhere, even when it's not campaign time, Miss Betty, you off the chain, baby. Everybody needs a Miss Betty in their life, okay? I've never seen a parent that stood behind their child to work so hard and diligently to make sure that she does the things she needs to do, get the things she needs to have to do at work. And so I say congratulations.

» God bless you on your next endeavors. I know you've got some things already in the work because you're just smart like that. And I wish you well. And if there's anything that I can do, don't hesitate to contact me. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Mr. Stodgrass. Sure. Representative Funderburg, thank you so much for being here and giving us this opportunity to honor your service in the South Carolina House. And a lot of my comments will echo that to what I said concerning Senator Shaheen, that as I moved here and began to be a part of this community, I first met you through the bookstore that you and Bill run. And by the way, thanks for having a really good coffee.

» But met you through that and really began to realize again that this was somebody who wasn't necessarily identified by the letter behind their name politically, but somebody who cared deeply for Kershaw County and for the citizens. And you continue to serve, whether it's through Live Well Kershaw or other coalitions that seek the betterment of the citizens. SO THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR WORK, AND AGAIN, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR TAKING TIME TO MEET WITH A YOUNG -- A NEW -- NOT SO MUCH YOUNG ANYMORE, BUT A NEW COUNTY COUNCIL MEMBER, AND TO HELP ME NAVIGATE HOW TO BEST GET THINGS DONE FOR THE CONSTITUENTS. AND ALSO JUST A QUICK CORRECTION, YOUNGEST SON, HIS NAME IS BURCH, SO I WANT TO MAKE SURE WE CORRECT THAT. And I know that's Birch's, Avery's buddy at school.

» So along those lines, thank you so much to your family, Bill, your boys, Slade and Birch, because I know it's a sacrifice for them as well. So, again, thank you so much for serving the citizens of Kershaw County. We appreciate it. Very good. Mr. Bozart. Yes, Laura, I want to thank you for your time spent. I know sometimes it might have got difficult for you, but you stood in there, and that's what counts. You're fighting for the people of Kershaw County. And, again, wish you luck in the future. Thank you. Mr. Gardner. I'm sorry, Ben. Laurie, we thank you, and I'm going to call you Laurie because I know you never held your position up there that you felt like you were above anybody, so I'm going to call you Laurie.

» But again, the same thing that, you know, you always had Kershaw County's best interests at heart, and we appreciate your hard work. You were so pro-business, and, you know, you really did a great job for us, and we appreciate your time, and good luck in the future. Thank you very much. I'm sorry, Mr. Kyle. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Laurie, thanks for all your help in the past. I highly value and respect the time that you spent away from family and sacrifices they made also and I hope you're able to catch up many times over on special experiences with your kids and your husband. What's great I think is you got two Lugolf Elgin High graduates here who are trying to help the community and one of the biggest problems we have locally is brain drain.

» We don't have opportunities in some ways for kids, and we're working on that to come back and work. After they get educated and raised up with a very good, hopefully, moral compass, they pursue opportunities elsewhere. So it's great to see folks come back and realize that a rural community like Kershaw County can still be cool. It can still be a great place to work. It can be a great place, particularly to raise your family. That's why I came back.

» It's so good to see you stayed here and done so much for the community and your family thank you mr chairman yeah great much has already been said laurie representative funderberg thank you for coming tonight and allowing us to give a small token of our appreciation you're a citizen you're an entrepreneur you're pro-business you're an attorney you're a legislator you're a mom you're a volunteer don't know how you did it all but everywhere i went there she was or she's already left and already done it and again as in with Senator Shaheen. It was completely nonpartisan. The elections are hard fought. The work, once you are in the office, you roll up your sleeves and you work with the systems that exist.

» And very often in this state, there are so many convoluted and complex ways of getting things done that are common sense, you would think, but have to be worked through compromise and discussions with your fellow legislators, municipalities, and even this council. Thank you for spending the time showing your wisdom and your courage to stand up for what's right for the county. Things that are happening or did happen and that are hard, concrete examples, memorials to the work you've done are all over the place.

» And I just ask the citizens of the county to recognize what it takes for elected officials at every level especially at the state level to achieve what laurie vandenberg has done for us so with that oh you have something else yes mr if you don't mind there's two things i know we got to do a correction uh on your um resolution um representative but if you can leave it and um i wanted to read this one announcement i was going to wait to my council briefing it says citizens of kershaw county thank you parade vincent and laurie slate vandenberg we're having a parade sunday DECEMBER 20, 2020 AT 3:00 P.M. TO SAY THANK YOU FOR THEIR SERVICE. ALL ARE INVITED TO PARTICIPATE. WE WILL MEET AND LINE UP AT THE CANNON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AT 2:30 P.M.

» TO TRAVEL TO THE CITY ARENA TO DRIVE THROUGH TO SHOW OUR APPRECIATION. IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, PLEASE CONTACT ALPHAMAY DRAFIT OR SAMMY TUCKER JR. PLEASE SHARE. THIS WILL BE GOING OUT PROBABLY TONIGHT OR TOMORROW. IF IT'S OKAY, WE CAN GET IT CORRECTED AND I CAN BRING IT DOWN THERE TO YOU, THE CORRECT VERSION.

» but i do apologize thank you mr chair thank you very much and with that we move to a vote all those in favor signify and it's unanimous laurie can i ask you to come up and and bring members of your family yes ma'am please betty come on up maybe i want you to get a quick picture if you'd like to say a few words certainly you'd like to say a few words mr chair members of council um as you know we have been just briefing council each month on the status of the county Over our 14-day totals, we begin to rise again. We're now over 200 over our last 14 days in Kershaw County. That would be bringing us closer to where we were in the summer. You see part of a graph right there that reflects the spike coming up for the 14-day span that we just are finishing right now.

» Moving on to the next one would be the average positive test for the months we finished November. Third highest for the year so far, with an average of almost 13 a day in the county coming up. Our monthly cases, as you see, 357 in the month of November was how many we had. We still, and God willing, we won't get to where we were in July with closer to 600. But again, the spike does seem to be starting from our Thanksgiving opportunities. And unfortunately, the mortality rate continues to rise in the county as we have reached 60 cases right now. And that is a total that we never wanted to see or hoped we'd see, but we have. Also, I would say that the good news on the horizon is that vaccines are apparently going to start trickling out.

» The first round of vaccines in Kershaw County will go to health care workers, the frontline health care workers, and nursing homes. The second line will be first responders and senior citizens, and then the third wave will be everybody else. That is contingent on the vaccines being received in the state and DHEC working with the county to arrange for the distribution of them. That's my report on COVID. Any comments? I had, okay, Mr. Snodgrass, go ahead, please. I would just say, Mr. Carpenter, thanks so much for the update. And do we have any word from the hospital, kind of how they're, or do you have a sense how they're hanging in there despite the increase? One of the methods we use to determine how the hospital is, is the utilization rate of the beds.

» And we've been fortunate that our utilization rate, generally they show when you hit to about 85% utilization in the hospital, you have reached crisis mode. we have crossed 80 percent we've really never gotten to 85 yet so we're in the low 80s so we're not at a crisis yet that's not just covid cases that's all cases total generally covid cases have been amounting to about 25 percent of the hospital's beds and also is it so and i understand to the hospital our hospital is one of a few hospitals that has a treatment a new therapy available is that correct the monumental to my understanding yes that's correct okay i think that's that's significant you know for those who don't understand that's the same treatment that president trump and others uh received is that correct because then it was ex

» perimental but now it's yes sir okay i i think that is significant for our community to to be aware of um so kudos to uh the hospital team and others who were a part of a part of that thank you uh let the record reflect that mr jones has now arrived we now have seven persons on the board other comments I'll say that the mortality rate is alarming. It remains with elderly people, basically those with pre-existing conditions. I'd ask Mr. Coffin to defer the comment on what we've heard. Again, we're talking hearsay a lot because we're denied a lot of the information that DHEC has, but the Thanksgiving bump and the Christmas bump, can you just address that? Yes, sir. The concern was that as families got together, that there would be a rise in the three weeks after Thanksgiving.

» And that appears to be what's happening now is the numbers of average cases have gone up significantly the month of December. What we're seeing from the CDC is that the Christmas bump, they fear will be worse than the Thanksgiving bump. And so that January could be a very tough month unless people really make an effort to keep their distance wear their masks and do everything they can to avoid exposure absolutely uh mr bozar please sir what prompted the courthouse to shut down um the decision to close the courthouse was made by the clerk of court on in her decision over some cases of covid that was within the courthouse and their ability to run the courthouse in a safe fashion so she determined with several cases present within the staff there that they needed to close it down clean it and

» it was several I'm not a made aware of every case yeah yeah I mean it could be more by now if more people have tested of people could have gotten better so it's always a floating number yeah mr. Jones please thank you mr. chairman and glad to be here since we is brought about a courthouse closing I just have some thoughts that I'd like to share and maybe somebody can help me understand you know government can shut down and live off the taxpayers money and get a check and then they can legislate the small businesses need to close and they don't get a check big companies lowes walmart they're open they're packed elbow to elbow and yet you don't hear nothing about that i just feel like there's conflicting issues out there that i don't understand you know um the heroes to me and i do take the p

» andemic serious by the way because you know two of my grandchildren had it my daughter had it my son-in-law had it of course they're all fine they healed they got through it quite well but it it just the true heroes to me are the cashiers at food land at walmart the people who stock the shelves so that us in government can go home and be safe and i'm not trying to be ugly i'm just being factual i'm just i'm saying what is happening and and i don't understand it and mr carbon i appreciate you keeping us up to date you've done a great job on that keeping us up to date but i still don't understand it when we're able to just go to our homes and be safe yet the local businesses don't have that luxury to do that the government does and and i welcome any conversation for many of my colleagues if t

» hey can help me understand that a little bit better but thank you mr chairman thank you uh to mr bozard i believe also uh the state justice has to say can you review that protocol for us, Mr. Carpenter, because it's not all the call of the state, of the county clerk, it's also state level. Can you go to that, please? Yes, Mr. Chairman. Chief Justice Beatty has suspended all jury trials through the end of this year, and so they have put that in suspension. That's a decision that's certainly not made in Kershaw County or any county. It's made in Columbia, but they must follow his decision when it's ruled on that. So that's also happened. Thank you.

» I would say that I've talked to a couple of the authorities at state to include the VA, the director of the VA, an old buddy of mine from the Army, and he says we will expect around 300 doses of the shots in the state before, 300,000 before the end of the year, and then see some escalation into January, February, March. But 300,000, as Mr. Carpenter said, will go to frontline protection of the nurses, the ambulance workers, the doctors. 300,000 is not enough to cover all those people. And so we'll look, in terms of expectation management, it won't be until the start of the new year that it begins to get into the general population. And I just asked Vic and Mr. Carpenter to continue to work on trying to get some definition on that.

» But these are driven by federal and state programs that we have no control over. But we as a county should try to speak with one voice. Social media will be what it will be. And as Mr. Jones says, I don't understand it either. So let's try to get our people as well informed as we can. Any further comments, please? I'd only say wear the mask, socially distance, practice discretion in family gatherings and in church gatherings, and when the shots are available, take them. I'll be right up there to get them taken when I can. I know people are having certain symptoms of not wanting to take it. That's certainly their right, but I would encourage it if you can.

» with that uh mr carpenter i think we move on to the next item on the agenda which is fire services plan update item number two over to you mr members council you have in front of you also the slides that i'll be going over so you can look at them and and we started back where we were about two years ago when the county approved county council approved the fire plan you see in front of you on on the first few pages just what that plan was.

» Starting in August, posting jobs for our new firefighters and battalion chiefs, starting construction on our new EMS station to allow the Blaney station to be turned back into a fire station, hiring chiefs, starting Blaney station, then looking to start 24-hour shifts at Blaney, moving to the Cassett station, adding more firefighters, and ultimately ending with 24-hour shifts in Cassett in 2024.

» Also, part of the plan was to put effort into recruitment and the one percent money the one percent money or funds that are received from the state on insurance premiums roughly one percent of premiums are returned back to local fire districts you see accomplishments of that council had wanted to see effort in recruitment and in compensation for the volunteers they put an effort into a supplemental retirement plan using those funds for our volunteers as well as putting more effort you may have seen some of signs around the county for recruitment and also getting supplies to make it better and safer for these guys as they're going out and fighting the fires and training yes sir supplementary retirement plan that wouldn't work in with the county that's a different retirement plan yes sir it's

» different it's through the state firefighters association these are volunteers so they're not county employees so they're not covered by the state plan so they weren't covered by any retirement plan because they're not considered employees these are only volunteers uh can you first i apologize recognize our fire service representatives who are here tonight please keith keith ray if you would introduce and we have scott yeah and we want to thank you for your service and also keith we're delighted the good lord has blessed us with you recovering thank you go ahead i'm sorry i should have introduced them at the start yes go ahead thank you um so that's an update of where we are with with our efforts that are one percent and our volunteers also council wanted to see us put more effort into gran

» ts and trying to secure grants for the programs you see it currently underway for grants that we're working on in order to replace in some places some significant expenses for us like radios and our self-contained breathing units and apparatus as well as grants for fire aeds extrication tools and things like that so those are grants we're working on now as well moving on let's go back to where we were in 2018.

» as you look at the chart in front of you or up on the screen in 2018 these are the total numbers now when we show the number of incidents that's the number that we responded to so in 2018 we responded to 1 395 incidents with our volunteers and those part-time employees that we had on the payroll at that time you see the way it breaks down to the right of the different kinds as well on the next you see with the heat map you recall that heat map and it showed where those calls were spread in the county so there's obviously we don't show camden because camden is not covered by kershaw county nor is lugo so you see a few dots there where we provided mutual aid to those departments but all those other dots are in the unincorporated part of the county where we provide the service to now let's jum

» p to 2020. this is after we started putting on full-time firemen you see we're now up to almost 2 000 calls we responded to this year alone that's not again total calls that's the calls we responded to compared to the total calls we responded to we've responded to over 600 calls more this year because we actually had the bodies in place that we were able to respond to them if you want to see the heat map for this year you see the difference now that we have men on on staff 12 hours a day at this point still where we can get in a vehicle move it out there and then the volunteers meet us as soon as they can we're able to respond to a significantly greater number of calls so how does our dispatch versus responses look on 2018 the total dispatch calls you see were 3196 of those only 1300 were r

» esponded to 1800 we were not able to respond to jump into 2020 now you notice that the total dispatch calls dropped that's because during six months of covid we stopped responding to medical calls with our firemen so we had a significant decrease in the calls that were dispatched to us but notice how many we responded to almost 2 000 responded to and only 437 not responded to i think that graphic right there shows the difference in having paid firemen on on our staff versus having to respond with part-timers and volunteers only response times is critical so as you see as we started in 2018 what our average response times were in our four districts moving forward to 2020 you see the average response times in every case dropped and they decreased now this is still only with a 12-hour shift so

» even with 12-hour shifts we were able to decrease significantly from there you see what the average response time was the next slide that's how much they've decreased tell me how to interpret this slide just the blue versus the yellow please okay um from the 7 a.m to 7 p.m it takes an average of 11.87 minutes now to get to the call that's when our full-time men are on duty from 7 p.m to 7 a.m which is when the volunteers for manning it takes almost double the amount of time to get to it the standard time is 14 minutes so when we have our firefighters on duty we're significantly under the standard when we're forced to rely on volunteers only we're significantly over it so you see that by having paid firemen we decrease by 10 minutes the average response time so you would i'm sorry i'm sorry

» if you're going to burn your house down burn it down during the daytime well and and moving on to the next slide so let me talk to you later sammy just to show you there's an exact example of that where we had two house fires in very close proximity to each other uh in one of them it was after hours and over 75 of the home was destroyed the very next day in the same neighborhood during the day when the guys were on duty only 30 of the home was damaged and destroyed it's five and a half minute difference in arrival time from pavement to the volunteers and that made a difference in saving a life or people saving their possessions and belongings so the conclusion of where we are right now is very simple we started the plan we purchased land for the CASA station we've hired our battalion chiefs

» and our firefighters renovations started at Blaney the EMS has moved out we have however with the budget that was approved in July of this year June of this year we were forced to slow down and delay for a couple reasons as you know we were not able to address the funding mechanism this year we kept the same mechanism as last year and so the funding was not adequate to continue at full speed ahead so we slowed down about a year in the program itself but you see already what's happened with what we've been able to do mr.

» chairman that's my report we have staff here as well to answer any questions well I'm going to turn it over to the staff to them in here to ask the questions but I will tell you that it seems to me we're more than justified in and a courageous step that the men at the table here took to try to upgrade the fire in the rural areas of our county that are not covered by special districts as is camden and lugo fire department where and the simple issue is resources and this body of men provided those resources not in full but that has made a decisive and very credible difference and i thank the members of the fire study who pulled that often the men here who voted for it with that open for questions please mr connell first first thing i want to say is a big shout of gratitude to the volunteers i

» think the discrepancy in time between reporting for volunteers and full-time is a reflection of volunteers just being in different locations i mean it's amazing that they're able to come from work or wherever they're doing something recreationally or their homes if they're sleeping just wherever they are they're able to report and still get there and still make a difference. So it's crucial we rely on them and we're so grateful for their service. I felt like this was the right direction to go in a few years ago whenever we looked at it and it took years before that to compile the data and put technology in place that let us interpret the right way. But I think it's making a difference. I just ran a brief calculation.

» I think it's a 40 percent increase in calls overall from 2018 to 2020 as the population continues to grow in kershaw county and we try to make the place more attractive people are going to move in we'll need to be able to respond to public safety issues so i appreciate this report thank you thank you other comments uh mrs bozard thank you yes i want to make several comments number one is we're hiring new people they're going on the payroll but i don't never want to forget that those volunteers out there are important every fire department i know OF IN THE COUNTY OR ANY OTHER COUNTIES AROUND HERE DEPEND ON THOSE VOLUNTEERS AND WE'RE STILL GOING TO BE ABLE TO DEPEND ON THE HOPEFULLY WE CAN DEPEND ON THOSE VOLUNTEERS AND THANK YOU AGAIN OTHER COMMENT MR.

» TUCKER HAND UP PLEASE YES SO THANK YOU MR. CHAIR MR. CARPENTER I'M A LITTLE SLOW I THINK I'VE BEEN SINCE COVET BEEN ON THE SHORT BUS THEY'LL WORK WITH ME ALL RIGHT KERSHAW COUNTY FIRE PLAN I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS BECAUSE I'M GOING BACK AND FORTH WITHOUT MY GLASSES GOT me looking googly-eyed um so august 2019 post jobs okay you did that um we've uh started the construction of the new ems station we've done that correct yes sir all right no wait i'm sorry we've not started the construction of the casa station we bought the land for cass that were in the design and the redesign stage of it okay that's that i'm gonna make some notes okay all All right, and then we've hired the two battalion chiefs and eight firefighters.

» We just finished that up just this month, right? No, they've been on for a while now. Okay, all right, but it said eight firefighters in December of 2019. Yes, sir. All right, and then starting renovations at Blaney Station. Yes, sir. Okay, and then the 24-hour shifts we have not done yet, right? Okay, I'm just trying to go down my checklist.

» Yeah, that's where we had to delay because the budget did not, it was the old budget, and so when we kept the old budget, OLD BUDGET DIDN'T HAVE THE ABILITY TO HIRE A 24-HOUR SHIFT SO SO HOPEFULLY WITH THE NEW BUDGET COMING IN WE'LL BE ABLE TO PICK IT UP AGAIN AND START MOVING FORWARD AGAIN AND YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO ANSWER THIS QUESTION BUT THIS IS GOING TO BE REAL IMPORTANT FOR BUDGET TIME UM WITH THE SHORTFALLS OF EVERYTHING'S GOING ON WE'RE GOING TO NEED THAT NUMBER WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE IN DOLLARS UM BECAUSE THERE'S GOING TO BE SOME TOUGH DECISIONS TO MAKE SO WE CAN CONTINUE TO STAY ON PLAN AND I KNOW YOU probably got it in your head but i won't ask you for tonight i'll just forewarn you thank you sir uh mr uh snodgrass please sir uh just a few questions um i'll start with ones i think ma

» ybe are easy so are we back with running medical calls with our fire service cool good deal um just what is a service call what is it what constitutes a service call yes the service calls are non-emergency calls okay um somebody calls in for a smoke detector check uh their smoke alarm's going off or um they just need us to come by and check they thought they smelled smoke there was it was just not an emergency call that's what i thought about it when i said cat in the tree okay i understand i understand i won't tell you what camden used to tell me about a cat and tree we'll leave that for another subject off camera and out of the microphone that's very important so as far as the funding so we understand that the budget kept us from moving forward with 24 hour because we should have we shoul

» d have gone 24 hour shifts in blaney correct and if i'm reading if i'm looking at the stats correctly we are a better fire service when we have 24 when we have 24 hour shift is that right i mean based on the number based on the data from the 12 hour shift if we're due 24 that that's optimal we would have to the county you would assume but obviously we don't have the actual data in front of us to prove it but but just that i mean and what are the chances of having a case study on the same street one day and the next day was that really happened like that that just so happened that's why i just the this you think about the probability of that happening it's anyway yeah no one else cares but i think it's crazy um but i think so i think that's a case i think i think that helps us understand the

» importance of running 24-hour shifts so mr carpenter was was the budget the reason the budget fell short of being able to do that was that a covet thing or were we going to face that with or without covet that well yes and no no and yes okay yes it was covet because the budget for 2020 was a carryover of the previous year's budget right and that previous year budget was not built to incorporate 24-hour shifts it's only built to handle the 12-hour shifts. So we just took those numbers and cut and paste them this year and then added whatever we were forced to add. So it was a COVID because without COVID, then we most likely would have addressed the budget itself and funding would have been at council's discretion included in it to continue the plan or not.

» So yes, it's safe to say that it is COVID. The funding mechanism, the fire fee that was put into effect was not enough to cover the full plan, but it was enough to start the plan until council could determine how they wanted to fund it for the long term okay so it is a funding issue but it was mostly a coveted issue because council was never able to address the first issue first issue okay which we were uh well i won't get into that um but all right so i've talked about 24-hour shift um so how much how much is in the fire reserve fund currently rough estimates okay i don't have um million dollars maybe i don't have them for anybody yeah but ballpark that's fine so i guess have we have we asked ourselves the question what's more important um 24-hour shifts or new station and that may be a ch

» icken or the egg type of question well two things um on that first of all first of all is that'll always be a council decision in the terms of policy right and what direction we're going to go so until directed otherwise staff's going to continue down the road the council's pointed us in which is getting to this five-year plan or now a six-year plan and getting it incorporated um it's also important to remember in looking at the fire fund that the fire fund is an enterprise fund that is independent of the county's general fund right so they have to maintain enough cash in there to pay their bills they only get paid twice a year in in december and january is when all their money comes in just like the county right so they've got to maintain 10 months of reserves to pay those firemen and to p

» ay those repair bills and things like that so it looks like it may be a lot of money but the reality is that that their burn rate is is going to be you know 100 plus thousand dollars a month going through it that they have to maintain in there so so they're forced to to maintain a reserve balance as well and and that's another reason why we we didn't build a building because we couldn't take the money out of that reserve to build a building and then not have have the money to pay the guys we just put on. Right. So I guess it's a council decision as far as a policy wise. If we, if we look at, if we want to kind of punt on this thing and say, all right, well, according to the numbers, what I'm seeing is a 24 hour is vital for me personally, as I'm one of, I'm one of seven guys.

» So, um, for me personally, I feel like a 24 hour shift getting up and going as quick as possible is probably is very important. So that would be a policy decision for us to talk about yes sir i mean it's how we obviously staff was was was very strongly in support of going that direction and we still are so so staff firmly recommends going the direction of 24 hours yes sir right and then sorry guys i just i feel like i'm going to ask a question that what we know the answer to but a lot of people are watching this and i think fire funding is is one of the more complicated things that citizens don't it's hard to to grasp so just bear with me as i ask questions that we all know the answer to but just for public record and for for those who are watching so is it it's true that you just can't you

» just can't cut one of your other county departments to fund fire correct that's correct why is that because the fire fund is an independent fund it is a standalone fund it has to be self-sufficient on its own so money that goes to pay other services cannot be used to subsidize that and there's really two reasons why one of the main reasons is the county general fund is collected from every single taxpayer in the county right however the city of camden and the lugo fire district are are paying into the general fund but they do not pay into the fire fund because they already pay their own taxes into their own fire funds so we cannot take their money and use it to subsidize a county fire service that they don't get the day-to-day benefit of so we're not able to use general fund money to prop u

» p that fund it has to be self-sufficient from within its own boundaries which exclude camden and louisville so it would not be constitutional or moral to use money from someone on hilton street to use their money to fund a county fire service that they'll never utilize i i would agree yes yeah and so again we all know the answer to this i know i'm belaboring this but as we get into this this gets complicated i just want to go on the record and make sure we all understand that this is this is going to be more than just a well let's just take it from here and that and it's going to be more comprehensive than that uh just real quick thank the volunteers um and and what they do staff thank you guys for for what you guys do um i know that all you guys are dedicated to um to the fire service and

» to the to the profession and do it at a great job and a lot of people don't know a lot of our volunteers they're full-time firemen at other services and so on their day off they're here in kershaw county on call uh ready ready to go so i don't think a lot of people will realize that so again i say that just for public record that that we people recognize um those sacrifices so thank you guys appreciate it other comments uh mr gardner oh i'm sorry how are you thank you all right go ahead jimmy just a couple of comments and uh you know we talked about fire fee it wouldn't be fair to probably impose that on someone who wasn't in the district correct mr carpenter it wouldn't be legal yes sir illegal okay because i do know that we have a sewage fee that people pay a sewage tax and they'll never

» see sewage in their lifetime their children's lifetime or their grandchildren's lifetime and once again if i'm wrong on that so i can speak up but anyway we have a 29 fee right now the council enacted while back okay what the county really knows really needs excuse me is millage that would be the be the most dependable source about 24 mils that's what that's roughly the figure we came up with last year yes okay now we're obviously in the same budget we had last year due to the pandemic which is understandable we carried that over because one we didn't know what kind of revenues we were going to get coming in and i thought i thought that was a very smart thing for us to do um when we talk about the fireman fee the million dollars not wanting to put staff or anybody on the spot but how do our

» firefighters feel about us talking about using their million dollars in their fund and can we really legally do that well those funds are now the one percent money is different from this money so so one percent money we don't have any control over you don't i don't that that money has got to be determined how to be spent by the firemen and that total is hundred and uh this next one going around is right at eighty thousand i do believe the one's coming up that's their money and and we can't touch that the money that's in the reserve is the money that has been collected through the years from the taxpayers the county that the county council determines how to spend so it's not their money the way the one percent money is their money that's the council's determination how to spend that money wh

» en do you foresee being comfortable enough to bring something before this county council during the budget process okay so and that'll be you know starting you know of course our beginning phase for next year's yes sir yes sir not revisiting next eight weeks you know we'll be starting the next budget process okay that's all the questions i had thank you very good other comments uh mr gardner i think the the fact that you know we've mannered asked questions all that and ultimately we have one issue and it's funding i mean you know the the numbers bear out that full-time firefighters our numbers are down they they work so ultimately the one question is how do we fund it so you know i think that's where we are i think that's uh if we can do it with the millage if we can do it from whatever sta

» ndpoint we need to we we all know that we will never have uh 100 paid firefighters throughout the county we can't afford it so we are going to depend on volunteers but the more paid firefighters and full-time firefighters we have you know obviously if you look at back at the example of the two houses certainly we're in the second house that paid firefighters called you'd certainly be in support of whatever means that that we have to to pay them so i think that's ultimately our our problem is we we just have to figure out a way to funded i think that's just the bottom line i think we said that at the very first ad hoc committee that we had that we can come up with answers but ultimately we got to have dollars and cents to pay for no matter what level that we want to present it's going to cos

» t money so i think that's where we are we're at a point where we've got to determine how much funding we can get and how much we can and do for it so that's the bottom line like some of the other things that we do i think i can summarize by saying as each of you seem to indicate we need to take this up in our retreat and budget process in the new year because we're slightly off plan not from a lack of excellent execution sir thank you thank you very much this is a good plan it's being executed well and now it gets back to the issues of fee versus millage and we have some resource work to do as each of you have indicated so i think mr carpenter let me ask you to bring this up and retreat and you and i've already talked about that uh with that i think we're ready to move on unless there's ano

» ther comment i would just like to close out mr chairman um as we have i think all of y'all pointed out that the volunteers are are so critical to this and this plan was developed with the volunteers um the volunteer captains are part of this plan part of what we do their commitment is unequaled um the the lack of numbers is not based on commitment it's based on reality um and we're trying to recruit more and i'd like to show you a recruiting video as we close this out okay that we just came up with all right right hit on facebook already yes sir great i'm gonna look for it thank you well done well done well done that's good leadership uh with that uh let's move on now to a series of business items the first one is the ordinance of first reading of an ordinance of the County Council on a zon

» ing issue it's at tab D and for you on the electronic book it's on page 9 I turn to mr. carpenter to introduce the topic mr. chair members accounts we have tonight for first reading in Odin an ordinance for rezoning approximately 70 acres plus or minus of land located off bulware street and the western part of the county um the current the request is to go from rd1 to r15 it has been approved unanimously by the zoning commission and comes to council for consideration and approval can we have a motion to put it on table please make a motion that we uh mr tucker a second that's you mr bozard second for mr bozard uh discussion yeah mr jones yeah go ahead mr mr bozard that's the only way the committee proved this thing, but is there any opposition to this? No, sir, there's no opposition.

» There were several citizens that had questions, but none of them spoke out against it. Some of the neighbors, such as the apartment complex that are neighbors to them and Lugoff Water that are neighbors, spoke in support. Okay, thank you. Okay, very good. Mr. Jones, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the council.

» The RD-1 will allow one house per acre, correct? yes sir and then the RD or the r15 15 yes yes that goes to 2.9 this because sewer and water available they can go up to 2.9 per acre yes what do they do with the nine well 2.9 houses per acre I suppose over 70 acres that would be 140 50 so about it almost 200 houses they can put on it just it just conversation interested thank you uh mr snodgrass i saw that we had uh one citizen uh miss decent had emailed with some concerns and it seems like joey emailed her back with a very thorough response did do we know if she seemed to be um those were amenable responses i'm not aware there's any opposition after that so to my knowledge she was satisfied it sounds like there may have been some confusion like maybe her concern was it was going to be it co

» uld be apartments but if i understand r15 correctly this this isn't about apartment this is uh like what you just said single family homes yes for single family homes um townhouses but it cannot be multi-family of any kind okay thank you mr chairman uh yeah mr connell would it ever be appropriate to hear from a councilman elect mr brazel was flashing some fingers one way or the other i don't uh we normally don't do that no sir we don't he gets his turn next time okay uh other comments uh thank you for that suggestion but that's not how we do business thank you other comments all right uh seeing there are none i think we can move to a vote all those in favor signify by raising your hand uh and it's unanimous and we'll move on to second reading and and russell you get a chance at it then all

» right very good uh with that we move to a series of new businesses we have two items into that category item number one is on page 31 and it's a schedule for county council meetings placed on the agenda by mr gardner it's also at tabby and on the screen mr gardner you have a motion yes sir i'd like to move that uh we adopt a calendar of one meeting per month on the second tuesday of each of those months for 2021.

» all right do we have a second second for mr bozard uh mr we'll go to discussion mr gardner please yeah i think that we we proved this year with covid that one meeting is all that we really need and uh i went back and looked at like the last 20 25 meetings and there were only a few cases where we actually had more than three items on an agenda uh you know other than maybe a resolution or a play or vacation and i think that along with covid and the way things are i think one meeting would be more than enough to serve our needs we always have the ability to have a called meeting if such a time presents itself so i'll present this uh schedule to be voted on uh mr bozard yes i agree with tom and the chairman always has the prerogative to call a meeting any time necessary so with that i'm going t

» o leave it alone all right uh mr jones okay i'm going to make an amendment when we get to the time to that motion but i think it's i wouldn't say a point of order i just think it's a little inappropriate that we're scheduling next year's schedule we're going to have a new council coming on board i think it's appropriate that what we do this can be in my amendment that we amend the motion to that we will have one meeting at the second tuesday of january then at that time we can when the new council is on board then at that time we can handle the business of the county for the scheduling but for this council to to to make that determination now i just think is is just not appropriate um because we're setting the schedule for the new council people coming on but whether they care about it or n

» ot whether they mind or not the new ones come it doesn't matter it's just to me not appropriate to do this at this time so i will make an amendment that to the motion that we go one meeting for the year coming up in January and that we also allow we also bring up the idea or excuse me the conversation about and allowed that on New Year's Day will be a holiday I think we need to do that too so those two things New Year's Day needs to be a holiday and also that we will vote tonight to schedule one meeting in JANUARY SO THEN AT THAT TIME WHEN WE MEET WE CAN GO AHEAD AND SET THE SCHEDULE WITH THE NEW COUNCIL ON BOARD THAT'S MY AMENDMENT AND I HOPE I GET A SECOND WELL THE UM SO WE HAVE A MOTION HERE I WILL SAY THAT FOR THE LAST 15 YEARS WE'VE ALWAYS DONE IT IN DECEMBER SO WE'RE UH BUT UH WITH TH

» AT DO WE HAVE A SECOND FOR THAT MOTION I'M GOING TO SECOND HIS MOTION MR. CHAIR GO AHEAD MR. TUCKER SECONDS IT SO NOW IT'S OPEN FOR DISCUSSION CAN I HAVE IT RESTATED AGAIN YEAH GIVE ME A RESTATED motion the motion is is that tonight we schedule one meeting for next year which is the second tuesday of january and then at that time we could take up the scheduling for the uh the next year when we had the new council on board and also that we also uh passed that new year's day will be a that will have a holiday because that's not in this year's uh business it'll leave anything out mr carpenter mr no sir that would be adequate okay um so we have it on the table mr jones do you have any further discussion mr tucker may have some we have a second mr tucker you asked me if i had any comments any di

» scussion here no sir no discussion from mr tucker another discussion uh just uh i have a point of order and i think i'm going to be you guys are sharper than i am so i just want a clarification so what was in the agenda packet is there mr mr gardner made a motion based on something that's not in the agenda packet so what do we not need he's essentially amending what is in the agenda packet is that is that right we we do that quite often mr snodgrass that's okay not a point of order it's it's a procedure parliamentary but uh do you have again i knew i'd be wrong but you guys are starting to say you're wrong he didn't he didn't motion what was in my packet he motioned something else Mr. Chair. Go ahead, Mr. Jones. Mr. Snodgrass, I think you were right, actually. And Mr.

» Chair, with all due respect, I've been here for the last 15 years, and I can remember many times, and Ms. Tucker can correct me if I'm wrong, that we mostly took this up in January when it came to the scheduling of our meetings. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. We took up the position of the vice chair, but we've always done our holidays in December.

» Not when a new council member was coming on board yes 10 years i've been here it's always been in yeah it's been in december and i'll just say as a chairman when i came in as a new chair it had already been established for me as well uh and that was 2014-15 uh mr bozard you had your hand thing here we all established it when i came in four years ago it didn't december yeah well i want to thank everybody my emotion still stands essentially changing our procedures to do it in january instead of december um mr chairman but on the substance of the matter i'll be right with you um we have right now mr the item on the table right now is mr jones's amendment to the amendment go ahead sir mr connell mr chairman i like the idea actually of having the sitting council decide their own schedule um what

» happens with meetings throughout the rest of the year um i guess i'll go ahead and comment now depending on whether his motion passes or fails you know even if it's rezoning is the main issue i think we should look at you know three readings on the code doesn't directly impact people immediately like a rezoning petition would and it seems like we need to have some more meetings than once a month unless we're going to have an unstated policy or something of whenever we've got a rezoning application in we need to call some of those meetings to get people to move through because this impacts people and businesses on how they're going to fund property and projects and if you draw that out over three months versus a month and a half it makes a difference in people's lives i've seen it with my cl

» ients and other people in the community who are trying to figure out how they're going to fund things and sometimes three months is too long of a lead time to hang on to financing to lock a rate with a bank they may not extend extend you out that long um so i feel like we should give some consideration to rezoning applications they seem the most sensitive uh no head mr gardner please and and i i would agree with you that uh the only circumstance that i can think of is something that would require a zoning vote but with one meeting a month so we have it on tuesday january we have a zoning issue that is and i can't think of one in 10 years i've been here where we've had to have a called meeting for but we could call a meeting two weeks later and then for the second reading and then the next m

» onth so you've got it done within one month so i understand what you're saying i just don't think THAT'S A SIGNIFICANT PROBLEM MR. CHAIR MR. CHAIR WE'VE JUST HAD NINE AND A HALF MONTHS OF MEETING ONCE A MONTH AND UH AND NOT ONE INSTANCE OF A CALL MEETING ON FOR THAT REASON WE'VE HAD CALL MEETINGS FOR OTHER REASONS AND WE'VE ALWAYS OFFERED TO ANYBODY THE NEED TO CALL A MEETING IF THERE WAS ONE UH MR.

» JONES GO RIGHT AHEAD WELL LET ME JUST SAY THAT I'M NOT GOING TO SAY IT'S A POINT OF ORDER BUT MY MOTION ON TABLE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THAT TWO MEETINGS A MONTH MY MOTION ON THE TABLE has to do with us having one meeting next month and that we designate new year's day a holiday so this is a discussion we should be having if mine fails but i mean just thought i'd bring that up well i think that's probably stated and you stated that while i go and you were correct but actually i do agree with ben cannell's comments on what he said but i think we need to get to that at the appropriate time which will be after we see if my motion is up or down next next point any other comments okay before we go to a vote i would also point out to you that we're in a state of emergency and the intent is to con

» tinue with one meeting a month so it's a moot point in any event because of the the covet situation can i just say one other point and then we'll get to that in a moment which is we need to continue to improve our electronic signature here so e-meetings can be reliable uh such as tonight so that people don't have to attend during this covet uh mr jones is uh ready to call the question is that correct mr jones i will yeah all right with that all those in favor i'll restate the motion again it's to add the new york the new new york new year uh holiday and uh and vote on this in january uh for for the schedule going forward uh with that all those in favor mr jones amendment signify by raising your hand three that's mr jones mr connell and mr tucker all those opposed to mr jones's uh motion rai

» se their hand that's mr bozard mr burns mr gardner and mr snodgrass so the motion fails but a very good discussion thank you mr jones mr connell well with that we move back to the original motion and the discussion of the original motion mr gardner anything further to add on your motion i have nothing further mr bozard you were second uh any further discussion uh thank you david go ahead uh just would um would add that i um i mean i would entertain and i may make the amendment but i mean i would entertain doing a similar schedule to what we did this past year where we from january to june uh the you know the intention was that we we did two meetings a month because as we move into the budget that's one of the uh one of the busier busier times and the summer begins to get a little bit of a l

» ull um i i realize that the work of a council member uh is largely done outside of these chambers i understand that i live that reality but i also understand there's a there's a perception here and i'm not trying to grandstand or anything like that i just i just know that there's a perception here that when we're here twice a month uh it it helps create synergy among the team as we're not every 30 days uh getting things uh done and getting things moving forward that the public has the ability to come and to express themselves through public comment and again i realize that they can call me and or call any of you any time and express that so i think there's a perception i know governor carol campbell once said you don't only do what is right but you do what looks right and and so i i think t

» hat is certainly something to consider uh so that's uh that's that's why i would um i would shy away from doing a full year of of once a month and as to mr jones's amendment i hated hate to vote against you mr jones because i like you you're you're a great guy um but i just i felt like precedent precedent was we handle this business so that when the new council comes on we hit the ground running and also want to point out it's official we are meeting about a meeting just want to throw that out there so um i would i would I would offer the amendment that we meet twice a month, January through June, and then once a month beginning in July to finish out the year. That's my amendment to the motion. Second. Okay, we have a first.

» We meet twice a month, January through June, and this is irrespective of the COVID situation. Right. And then meet once a month, July through December. I'd ask you all to look on page 31 in your electronic books. We're all talking about an ordinance that went back to 2013 signed by a guy named Tucker. Okay, so that's essentially what we're changing. You look on page 32. All right, so the motion is before us, and we'll enter the discussion here in a moment. TO GO TO TWICE A MONTH THROUGH JUNE AND ONCE A MONTH THEREAFTER. OKAY. DISCUSSION. MR. SNYDERGRASS.

» I WOULD JUST POINT OUT FURTHER, IT WAS MY EXPERIENCE THAT EVEN WITH GOING TO ONCE A MEETING IN THE LAST PART OF THE YEAR, IT WAS MY EXPERIENCE THAT WE HAD LONGER MEETINGS BECAUSE ESPECIALLY AUGUST, SEPTEMBER, THE THINGS JUST GOT BACKED UP AND WE HAD TO CRAM A LOT OF THINGS, WHETHER IT BE RESOLUTIONS, PROCLAMATIONS, THINGS OF THAT NATURE, WE HAD they cram it all into one meeting and and so i guess it's kind of hey do you want to be here longer or you just want to just come more in the month so um this is just my this is just kind of my uh my piece to maybe find some sort of middle ground i actually enjoy that i mean i'm not saying that you guys don't enjoy this so i'm not inflecting this upon you guys at all i'm just saying for me i uh when i ran for office i i look forward to being here and

» doing not for any sort OF ATTENTION OR GRANDSTANDING BUT I MEAN THIS IS JUST SOMETHING THAT THAT I DO I LIKE TO BE A PART OF BUT I DO RECOGNIZE THAT THERE ARE TIMES WHERE ONCE A MONTH IS CERTAINLY SUFFICIENT MR. CHUCK AND TUCKER I HAD THE SECOND YOU WANT TO GO AHEAD MR. TUCKER THANK YOU MR. CHAIRMAN I SECOND THIS BECAUSE IF YOU LOOK BACK AS WELL I DID NOT VOTE ON I WAS NOT HERE IN DECEMBER'S MEETING LAST YEAR SO I DID NOT VOTE ON THE THE LAST MEETING SCHEDULE THAT WE'RE IN NOW, I SAY THAT BECAUSE I THINK JUST THE OPPOSITE, THAT IT IS EASIER TO CANCEL A MEETING THAN TO CALL A MEETING FOR THESE FACTS. KNOWING MY SCHEDULE AS A SELF-EMPLOYED ENTREPRENEUR, I CAN SET MY SCHEDULE. CALL MEETINGS DON'T ALWAYS WORK OUT TO WHERE IT'S AT THE BEST TIME FOR ALL SEVEN COUNCIL MEMBERS.

» AND I KNOW WE'RE UNDERNEATH THIS EMERGENCY ORDINANCE, THESE NEXT SIX MONTHS could just be one meeting a month depending on how quick this virus disappear i got that and i'm okay with that because we're doing it because of health reasons and safety reasons if it happens to work out that way i don't think that we'll be as worried about the virus in june and july if all things come for fruition that i'm hearing about with the vaccine and people doing the proper things so but um i um i think it's easy to tell the public and for council members and maybe i'm the only one that feel this way that we're not having this meeting two weeks in advance than it is to call a meeting and only give them 24-hour notice mr gardner i think that uh you know this year especially this year has shown that one meet

» ing you know i think about the number of meetings that we had when there was one item on the agenda so we have lots of those just as well and going to mr snodgrass point of uh to the constituents and stuff uh you know being being there for them and everything well you know tonight not one emailed in and not one got up for public the public part of the meeting not one zero zilch so i i think if you know it was that important we'd have a line of people lining up at the podium every night and so i i don't think that argument holds any water so okay other discussion uh yes sir and i look at i love this guy like my brother i'm gonna just say yeah that was not a fair assessment you know colbert and the numbers go in the wrong direction what knuckleheads are going to come here and stand up before

» us my point is if all the important issues that we were dealing with it was important to them they'd show up or they'd email something in that they had that option too and they didn't do that either that's my point yes okay uh jimmy mr jones please thank you mr snoggers i appreciate you trying to i don't want to say band-aid fix this or meet some of us halfway or whatever you you know i support two meetings a month i think 30 days between the meetings is just too long we have two meetings a month we've always well just because you always have done something doesn't make it always right but to me 30 days you get disconnected it's just too long of a space between the meetings and uh i i think that we you know when i ran i mean bottom line i knew there's two meetings a month and i've never sup

» ported taking one of those meetings away unless it was of course the christmas uh december i did because of christmas because of where the second meeting the fourth uh tuesday always fell on but but i'm not going to support the amendment and i'm not going to support the motion on the floor whether the amendment on to the motion i'm not going to support mr garden's motion either because i am going to make an amendment to that when we get there that we go to two meetings a month and do business as usual thank you all right uh further discussion i i believe less government is better government i believe that if we give thoughtful consideration to the policy decisions that are made up here the administrator and his team are freed to do what they're supposed to do and that all meetings would wor

» k i i want to reiterate what i said before we are not in the 21st century on our e-meeting formats here it's going to take some resources and we need to continue to improve that that may be the wave of the future i just think we can do better on one call meetings and how we do those and secondly how we can do on e-meetings not being critical here this is just a resource issue um so to restate the motion and let's go to a vote okay which is uh mr snodgrass's motion which was seconded by mr tucker to go to two meetings a month january through june okay and secondly one meeting a month july through the end of the year uh all those in favor signify uh by raising your hands mr tucker mr snodgrass and mr connell and mr jones all those opposed signify by raising your hand and that's mr gardner mr

» burns and mr bozard the motion passes so we're at two and one on that particular thing so that's the amendment to the amendment so now we have to emotion let's say again it was his amendment to his motion that's correct it failed it didn't pass his was an amendment we haven't voted on his but we have overcome it so mr yeah mr devos i think we now have to well i think you voted on mr dog grass's amendment correct that's correct yeah and i believe four people voted for it that's right now you have to vote on the motion as amended that's that's correct right so if you guys will say now we have to vote on the motion as amended which is uh kind of duplicitous but that's what we must do which is that we vote on the amendment which is two in uh january through JUNE AND ONE IN THE SECOND HALF WE VO

» TE ON THE MOTION AS AMENDED YES THAT'S CORRECT WE JUST VERY MUCH MOTION AS AMENDED AS AMENDED SO WE'RE GOING BACK TO MR. GARDEN'S MOTION NO NO AS AMENDED OH I GOT IT OKAY I'M WITH YOU I'M WITH YOU SO ALL THOSE IN FAVOR OF THE VOTE AS AMENDED SIGNIFY BY RAISING YOUR HAND MRS. SNYDRESS MR. TUCKER MR. JONES MR.

» CONNELL and in this case mr burns all those opposed mr bozard and mr gardner and the motion passes as amended so we're at two and one um mr chairman yeah go ahead i just wanted to say for the record out of respect i disagree with you as far as less meetings is less government you know that's another discussion no no i just wanted to say that politely thank you thank you very much i didn't agree with that comment thank you um with that we move now to item number two under business uh bid for lighting kc west ball fields and annex f it said page 33 in your book shane we have you here tonight thank you for coming uh and vic can you introduce the bid please mr members of council um the um kc west ball fields you recall um several years ago when the school district uh decided to build a new scho

» ol on top of our existing ball fields we were forced to build a new new fields the four fields were built at that time with the plan to put lighting up later we slowed this process down with covid but we need to go ahead and get those lights up we present to you tonight for your consideration approval the cost of lighting two fields out of casey west for a total of two hundred eighty nine thousand seven hundred twenty two dollars very good can we have a motion to approve someone mr good mr tucker a second second second from mr BOZARD UH LET'S HAVE SOME DISCUSSION IS THIS COMPLETE I HAVE A FIRST QUESTION WHICH IS DOES THIS COMPLETE ALL THE BALL FIELDS OR WHAT DOES THIS LEAVE THIS FINISHES THE PLAN THERE WILL STILL BE TWO FIELDS OUT THERE THAT ARE NOT LIT BUT BUT THAT WAS NOT YOU KNOW THAT WA

» S ALWAYS GOING TO BE MAYBE SOMEDAY WE WOULD HAVE THEM ALL LIT BUT WE ALWAYS TALK ABOUT HAVING THESE TWO FIELDS LIT AND THE SECOND QUESTION IS THE REC COMMITTEE HAS BEEN CONSULTED IN THIS YES SIR THANK YOU VERY MUCH uh discussion uh mr bozard contractor on this is the factory itself yes sir musco okay all right uh other discussion i'd just like to make a comment jones please shane's doing a great job keep it up appreciate you keeping us moving forward on as few dollars as possible thank you other comments yeah this is great casey west is turning out to be a real jewel out there it began years ago before i came here the play foundation has been helpful it's a real community asset we have other work to do i guess um and making put it up before the council um in uh the new retreat about new uh

» recreation improvements so no further comments let's move to a vote all those in favor signify by raising your hand and mary is unanimous and passes thank you vic thank you shane thank you very much now that concludes new business we move now to council briefings mr bozard with a sad hat heart it's your turn and and for the last time i did not pass you by thank you mr bozard you have the chair go ahead the past four years i've enjoyed these meetings i've enjoyed working for the county i got some of my projects that i wanted completed some of them i didn't water for dolby mill fire department i didn't get water for the people up on chavez green road i didn't get and i'm hoping my replacement would maybe take that fight up i went through uh representative climbing norman united state represen

» tative uh sheehan and i couldn't get them to help me with this but maybe here going forward we can get water up there because i have talked with some of those folks up on chalice green road and their water the only thing they can do with the water up there is wash clothes that bad so we need water up there but again i want to say thank you for everybody that's helped me over this last four years i feel like i've been here a long lot longer than that but um do appreciate everything thank you very much uh thank you sir uh mr kyle thank you mr chairman al thanks for your service been a pleasure sitting next to you um it's hard to believe i'm going to have somebody better looking than you sitting next to me yeah right but i hope that you travel safe with your wife and have a great time seeing d

» ifferent parts of the country um i'm a little bit envious and you deserve it thanks for your service mr chairman i was also going to mention seeing um the camden bulldogs and north central knights here tonight with all their coaches made me recognize and want to acknowledge one of my former coaches who just left the room these coaches have such an impact on kids when they're coming up they teach them lessons and spend more time than with them throughout the day often than their parents but coach tomley was here and many times i know he was yelling at me and chasing me and my teammates all over the field to learn how to work hard and get stuff done so i wanted to thank him the catfish stomp was a great parade a great sense of community and i appreciate the town of elgin mayor emmons and all

» the council folks there and putting that together and helping people find some normalcy during these uh odd times and i just wanted to say merry christmas thank you mr chairman thank you mr jones yes just a couple things i want to bring to light one delights the lugov christmas parade is this coming saturday saturday yeah so uh invite everybody to come out it's gonna be a great time for folks it's a really really good parade i've been on that committee for about i think 13 years this is our 13th year and it's sponsored by the lugov optimus club which does a lot of good as well too and uh david i just want you to know the reason i voted with you is because i knew if i didn't we may be at one meeting for 12 months and i certainly didn't want that and i knew my two meetings a month was not goi

» ng to pass so i took next best thing thank you i'm glad the next best thing next best thing yeah thank you and also to mr bozar i can't say i always enjoy sitting up up here with you because i haven't however you're my friend i love you i like a brother we you know we've had a personal relationship but uh i wish you the very best and uh you and your bride and i hope you'll have a wonderful time and i'm sure we're gonna be seeing a lot of each other and i have much respect for you i just want you to know that thank you so much okay uh mr steingrass sure mr chairman members of council uh a few things i want to i want to make you aware of uh one being And back at the beginning of the whole COVID season, obviously, we did our grants that went to small businesses as well as nonprofits.

» But also, there was the United Way of Kershaw County also applied for an additional grant through what was called the South Carolina One Fund. And they were awarded $65,000 that went into our nonprofit sector here in Kershaw County. And AND I HIGHLIGHT THAT BECAUSE SOME OF THESE ARE PARTNER AGENCIES OF OURS AND WE RECOGNIZE THAT GOVERNMENT ISN'T THE ANSWER FOR EVERYTHING, THAT THERE ARE A LOT OF, THERE ARE NEEDS FOR SAFETY NETS AND THERE ARE NEEDS TO CARE FOR THE MARGINALIZED AND THE GOVERNMENT 100% IS NOT THE ANSWER FOR THAT, BUT WHAT IS AND WHAT WE'VE SEEN HERE IN KERSHAW COUNTY IS A PARTNERSHIP And as we partnered with, whether it be Food for the Soul or United Way or other agencies.

» And so they went out on their own and secured a private grant in which places like Mental Health of America received $4,000. Christian Community Ministries received $8,000. Mount Moriah Outreach received $8,400. New Day on Meal Transitional received $10,000. And Food for the Soul received $12,000. COUNCIL ON AGING RECEIVED $4,000 AND OF COURSE THE MOBILE NUTRITION CENTER FOR UNITED WAYS THEY THEY RECEIVED ABOUT $18,000 OF THAT AND SO ALL OF THOSE AGENCIES JUST BY THEIR NAME YOU PROBABLY UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY DO BUT THEY WERE ABLE TO TAKE THAT MONEY AT A TIME WHERE THE NEED WAS GREATER THAN USUAL THEY WERE ABLE TO TAKE THAT THAT PRIVATE FUNDING AND AND CARE FOR THOSE IN OUR COMMUNITY WHO WHO NEEDED IT MOST SO I ONLY SAY THAT BECAUSE WE PARTNER WITH SOME OF THOSE THOSE ARE SOME OF OUR AGENCIES

» AND SO JUST THE I MEAN WHEN YOU COMPARE IT TO THE OVERALL COUNTY BUDGET I MEAN WE'RE WE INVESTED JUST A LITTLE BIT INTO THAT BUT YOU SEE A GREAT RETURN ON THAT AS FAR AS THE BENEFIT OF THE CITIZEN SO JUST A THANK YOU FOR THAT A COUPLE COUPLE CONSTITUENT CONCERNS THAT WERE ABLE TO BE HANDLED IN THE LAST 30 DAYS WE HAVE A LIGHT AT THE CORNER OF DYCY CREEK AND and Highway 1. So appreciate the city of Camden. That's their, those are their lines. Appreciate them doing that. And as well as a constituent that lives on Scott Street. And if you know anything about Scott Street and around the area over there near one of the training facilities off of near Gordon Street, it's kind of a donut hole.

» They're surrounded by the city of Camden, but yet they're right there in the middle and they're within the county. And there was a concern there about safety and the concern there about needing a street light and so between a partnership between me and the sheriff's office and the city of camden we were able to team up and and get some get some things done on that street in which those citizens feel uh they feel safe and uh and they feel they feel secure so i really really appreciate all those who helped me on that uh also mr carpenter would uh would invite you to encourage you as we talk about e-meetings um mr mr chairman's right we I THINK WE CAN -- THERE'S A LOT OF OPPORTUNITY TO -- WITH OUR E-MEETINGS, AND I KNOW THE STAFF OF OUR COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OR I.T., WHATEVER WE'RE CALLING

» THEM THESE DAYS, I DON'T MEAN TO GIVE THEM MORE WORK, BUT I KNOW THEY ARE SUPER, SUPER TALENTED IN OTHER AVENUES. I'VE SEEN -- I'VE SEEN THEM DO SOME REALLY NEAT THINGS. SO I WOULD INVITE YOU TO JUST GO IN AND ASK THEM, HEY, THIS IS WHAT WE WANT TO DO. HOW MUCH IS IT GOING TO TAKE AND COME BACK AND LET US KNOW IN ORDER TO DO E-MEETINGS AND NOT JUST E-MEETINGS BUT TO IMPROVE THE ACCESS THAT PEOPLE HAVE TO WATCH. SO RIGHT NOW WE HAVE ONE CAMERA VIEW AND SO HOW DO YOU GET DIFFERENT VIEWS IN WHICH PEOPLE HAVE A BETTER EXPERIENCE TO BE ABLE TO BE A PART OF THEIR GOVERNMENT WHILE THEY'RE WATCHING REMOTELY. MR. BOZARD, BEEN A PLEASURE WORKING WITH YOU, SIR. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE.

» I know that you are a veteran of the Air Force and so you're just a man of a life of service through that and then as well as now in public service. So thank you. Always could count on you to ask detailed questions and to make sure that we knew what we were getting into as we move forward. So just Godspeed and God bless on your endeavors as you RV around the world, around the country or you may RV around the world. I don't know. And also just a blessed Advent season to our citizens and a blessed Christmas season as we move into that time as well. And that concludes my remarks. Thank you, sir. Very good. Mr. Tucker. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Al, I thought they were roasting you up here for a minute over on that other side. I had to shake my head and figure out what they were doing, man.

» I want to say to you, well wishes, Godspeed, continue to be humble and the Christian man that you are enjoy your wife and family and uh do what all you can while health allows you to do it and do it with a smile man enjoy it enjoy it because one day i hope to get where you are you know a long life of goodwill longevity um where you can where you can travel a lot of people your age can't get out and go and do things so you're very blessed and i have enjoyed working with you um i hope some of those things that you rattled off that this council with the new council member coming on mr brazel that we can continue to look into those things and make some of those things happen because you're right those folks up there on highway five and closer to the lake up there on watery do need clean water w

» here they can drink it and cook with it other than just wash clothes because it's red so i say to you goodbye but not forever and godspeed with that being said i want I WANT TO THANK THE GENTLEMEN THAT ARE OUT HERE IN THIS AUDIENCE. I SEE MR. CATO FROM THE DIRECTED DETENTION CENTER, MY MAIN MAN, MR. KEITH RAY, SCOTT, THANK YOU AS WELL. THERE WERE SOME OTHERS OUT THERE. AND OF COURSE THE SHERIFF OVER HERE, I DON'T KNOW WHY HE'S SITTING OVER THERE BY HIMSELF, THAT PRETTY LADY IS TRYING TO KEEP HIM COMPANY, BUT IT'S HARD. THANK ALL OF YOU FOR YOUR SERVICES, AND I WANT TO SAY MERRY CHRISTMAS. CONTINUE TO BE SAFE.

» going through a wave um but we are smart people we know what to do and what not to do and continue to encourage your employees and your staff to follow the guidelines and i look forward to a new year merry christmas to my colleagues up here and to your families ms mary thank you i will be aggravating you and seeing you and um mr carpenter i would say to you that i think look like we're we're going to have more meetings than we probably want because of the budget that we're going to be facing. And I'm looking for a very detailed and heavy discuss fire budget because that's probably going to be number one on all of our lists moving forward. Mr. Bose, thank you always for your wisdom and happy Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you and your family. That concludes my report. Mr. Gardner.

» Mr. Bozard, thank you for your service. I'm sure the people in your district appreciate everything that you did for them as well as everybody in the county appreciate your service it's been a pleasure working with you these four years and uh i don't know how many retirements this is but i'm sure it's not your first one so uh but congratulations thank you just happy holidays and merry christmas thank you and i'll conclude i'm supposed i can't hardly add to what's already been said you have a servant's heart and you're almost like a soldier you understand what it means to move on but and you know what it means to serve and name in the air force uh you're a little bit too hard on yourself and i could go on about the things that you did achieve uh to begin with a clean community act that you an

» d mr jones brought before us and the airport and and and so i won't go on to belabor this but you're a hell of a soldier for an air force man it's been a great year uh we're closing it out as we go into christmas who would have thought we'd have coma covid we would have thought we'd had a tornado who thought we'd be in the medical business up here who'd have thought that we would have had to work to save as with the men here did 300 businesses uh with a donation that we've made with a grant uh it's been a heck of a year new and better fire uh tax tax notices went out with no increase for fees or taxes i don't know how Mr. Carpenter did it, but it was a work of art, and I want to give you thanks, Vic, for that. State of emergency continues in this COVID world. Shots will begin to show up.

» I encourage you all to mask and distance, and when opportunity presents itself, get the flu and the COVID shot. And lastly, for Mr. Templer, we're going to beat Navy on Saturday. Over to you, Vic, for your briefs go ahead this chair members council um there's two items with the christmas holidays upon us as you know the county will be shut on christmas day the day before and the day after when that falls on a weekend then it would be on the next day after that weekend um so uh please be aware of that also we have two events coming up this month one on december 19th at the uh veterans park of the river the movies that are sponsored by the parks and recreation department those are family movies it's elf it's a free to the community they just need to make reservations to come out this year we

» are having lighted displays along the walking trail so it'll add an element of fun and festivity for the families as well the next night our sheriff's office and parks and records sponsoring another movie night as well so we have two nights of free movies for families out of the veterans river park uh december 19th and december 20th mr bozard it's been a pleasure and i look forward to continue serving you as the years go on because i'm sure you have my phone number and you'll be calling me as you need to and mr chairman that's my report uh mr dubose i have nothing mr chairman and mr mr tucker has asked that we have an executive session uh thank you sheriff for the your long patience mr tucker do you want to make the motion yes sir uh i'd like to make a motion mr chair that we have an execut

» ive session uh to address a legal matter um and i would like to invite the county attorney the administrator and the sheriff please and will there be a vote afterwards no sir okay so we'll return after that um can we have a second second second for mr gardner uh any discussion all right and to repeat we'll not uh we will not have a vote when we return so those of you watching or waiting you could probably leave uh and we'll do it in the upper room to keep distance uh from the second floor uh with that let's have a motion to go to an executive session let's have a vote all those in favor and we're waiting uh mr bozard and that's unanimous mary thank you i was out of here no more executive session all right