Full meeting transcript - August 27, 2024

» I want to call this meeting to order. Pastor Clark, would you come up, please, and give the invocation? Yeah, right there, sir. Or by the microphone. Now, also, if you would, lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Let's pray together. Dear Lord, we thank you for this day, for this marvelous occasion now, together as a community to discern and decide upon issues affecting our community. Bless these who lead us. Bless these citizens who have come. with their interests. Let your spirit abide in this place, O God, and when it is all done, receive the glory. We ask it in prayer in your name. Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

» Thank you so much, Pastor. Okay, if we could now we'll go we'll go ahead and uh move to adopt the agenda i'd make a motion to adopt the agenda is there a second i'll second any discussion do we have mr templar there was a piece of the agenda did we want to talk about that now or uh if you would like some clarification yeah i think there's uh mr templar i think wanted to clarify the item 10 new business um and i'll kind of turn it over to him if i could chant mystery when did y'all have this conversation i talked to him i was going to make a motion that we move the new business item to discussion only but i think mr temple wants to clarify what it is he's asking on that agenda item go ahead mr templer thank you so my original decision was to put this under new business for in anticipation fo

» r a potential vote but after some meetings that uh staff and i have had uh between yesterday and today with our engineers as it relates to pecan orchard i would feel more comfortable with leaving this item here but understanding there's no vote and i would take this these funding questions to the finance committee to better have a conversation with those individuals to discuss the the funding mechanism for this and and if there are any potential other options they may have or any questions they may have about the the mechanics and the workings of pulling money from our emergency um reserves okay so basically what you're asking uh in your did you make an amendment assuming i didn't make an amendment i'm fine keeping the way it is i just for purposes of public comments i wanted folks to know

» that we probably wouldn't be taking a vote we probably wouldn't be taking yeah well in other words we would not be taking a vote it's listed under new business which allows us to take a vote i was going to move to put it under discussion basically what you're saying is that you weren't ready to take a vote correct i think that because you said we weren't going to take a vote right the council i my motion was going to be to put it under new business because no vote was going to be but my understanding is but understand what you said to me you said that we were not going to take a vote tonight right so you must have told everybody and decided this before we came in here no councilman jones i've talked to different folks like we always do and i explained to them my understanding is this didn't

» need a vote tonight and i just wanted to make it clear that the item on the agenda didn't need a vote tonight so we're going to do it under discussion is that what you say that that is correct that this would be a discussion item that's correct okay and that's not an amendment mr jones uh he's just saying that that's what what's going to happen but he didn't make an amendment i just want to make that clear do you want to amend the agenda to put it under discussion we can just make it clear sure i'm making a motion to amend uh to put item 10 pecan orchard funding and add it as a discussion item as opposed to new business is there a second on the amendment i'll make a second is that where you wanted to land sir i'm okay with that okay thank you russell yes sir so uh all in favor of the amendm

» ent raise your hand the director showed that uh brazel tucker she made kato and jones vote in favor so it is the agenda is amended and that has put under discussion pecan orchard discussion now to adopt the agenda all in favor of adoption of the agenda as uh amended unanimous okay mr dubose mr dubose have a quick question under the order now the agenda has been adopted under the order of business the adoption of the agenda it says under the order of business of the agenda the agenda may be varied if required by the chairperson correct correct okay so the agenda has been adopted correct correct then i'm going to make a order of the chair that we take the pecan orchard funding and discuss it before we move any further so if you if you would gentlemen but go from discussion to before right bef

» ore public comments so to be clear we're moving uh pecan orchard funding from new business to uh like a 4b yes 4b that'd be good all right now having said that i got one other thing first off let me say welcome chairman-elect connell see you back there glad to have you with us tonight look forward to serving with you again now as the uh vice chair acting as chair for this meeting unless anyone objects well first let me just say this i have been through uh i'm getting surgery next week back surgery and i've been through a bundle of tests today and i am going to unless anyone objects i'm going to ask councilman brazil tech to chair this meeting tonight unless anyone objects i think we need to take a vote in order to do that yes mr jones mr devose we need to take a vote on that or just if anyo

» ne objects um as i understand y'all are calling for a point of order but referring to me um on that point of order yeah i think the uh most proper method would be to take a vote to appoint an acting chair for this meeting um now that the point of order has been raised yeah i believe that would be the appropriate mechanism very good so we'll do it by vote yes sir all right i make a motion that uh councilman vice excuse me councilman russell brazel act as chair presiding over this meeting tonight in my places is uh vice chair is there a second i'll second is there any discussion i'm i'm happy to do it that's what you like sir if no one objects we'll go take a vote no discussion all in favor wonderful come here on the way sir mr acting chair may i say something yes sir go ahead the reason i di

» d that is because we have people from the pecan orchard here and i do not want to keep them here for the whole meeting to wait for us to get through our other business and that was the sole purpose of what i did okay thank you yep we so we can go and have the discussion uh welcome everyone from kershaw county it's a pleasure to have you here tonight um prior to public comments we will have a discussion regarding the pecan orchard uh and and the the road works and the the water issues that they've had in their neighborhood. This has been placed on the agenda by County Administrator Danny Templar. So do we need to take a motion to put this on the floor? No, sir. The agenda's already been adopted. I'll turn it over to you, sir. Thank you, sir, members of council.

» As you know, this is just kind of the tip of the iceberg as it relates to stormwater and the issues we have throughout the county. But I think this is the most, if I had to prioritize all of our issues, I would certainly put Pecan Orchard at the top. Initially, my approach to this was to use a small portion of our emergency reserves as I tie this latest issue with Pecan Orchard to the recent weather issues we've had.

» I think there's a corollary there between this latest surge of stormwater over there and the recent weather therefore the uh it would be an appropriate use of our emergency reserves as it relates to a disaster or something of that nature i also wanted to as we look at pecan orchard my goal was to initially tap a portion of this the anticipated project cost to do the groundwork that would be surveying and topography and hydrology and just understanding the where water would flow over there where it needs to flow the survey is is crucial because there's a 66 foot right-of-way over there these are dirt roads and as we maintain dirt roads everywhere in the county they tend to drift a little bit in terms of they move left to right so it we have utilities over there it's just a very busy right-of

» -way wanted to make sure that we were working in the county right away not on private property understanding the kind of the palette if you will of what we have to work with over there so um i was prepared to ask council to move forward with allowing me to do that but as i stated earlier um i'm no longer going to ask for that i want this to go before the the finance committee to better understand um my reasoning for using those particular funds and um it just discuss and the approach to this that this project here um this is not going to be a cheap project this is this is going to require a lot of expertise and and professional services and and quite frankly the county doesn't have the ability to go in with our current staff and and do a project of of this size so the meetings we staff had

» yesterday the meetings we had today has has allowed me to understand just how large of a scope of project this is as it relates to getting these ditches re-established as everyone knows this is a dirt road subdivision with no retention pond so so that presents its own unique challenges. So we had a community meeting out there last week at the request of Mr. Brazel. I thought that went well. So that initial rush to action has been tempered with a lot of information that has come to my attention from engineers, from the residents out there, and my goal is to make sure we get this done correctly. I want to do our part in solving any kind of insufficient ditching or insufficient pathways for stormwater to their points of termination out there.

» So all that to say is it's going to be better for this to go before the Finance Committee and then also look at in the coming months to understand that we have a larger stormwater issue in the county as a whole and i think this needs to be looked at in in in a much broader scope because this is again we have 300 miles of dirt road and almost every one of those have some sort of drainage issue and that's not even counting the uh probably 80 or 90 miles of paver we have in subdivisions that can be problematic as well so what i will be doing in the coming weeks is setting up a workshop for stormwater for council to attend i will have staff there i'll have our experts there from contracted services that work with us in stormwater to help you all better understand the scope of this issue that we

» 're dealing with this is a long term or seeking a long-term solution and approach to stormwater in kershaw county a holistic approach from our what we have now in terms of ordinances and rules and regulations through planning and zoning for new subdivisions and developments coming in as well as funding potentially funding some of these storm water issues that we have inherited from i would say they're kind of legacy problems from times were pre Kershaw County regulation and ordinance so the pecan orchard is a fine example of that and so it presents unique challenges and I just I know there's from my experience here in administration there are other pecan orchard like problems out there not quite to that scale or scope but they vary in complexity and in size so that is unless anyone has any

» questions that is where I'm at on Pekin Orchard. I wanted this to stay on the agenda. I wanted to have this on the agenda rather to make sure that we are taking up action in a timely manner for those folks out there. This is something I want to see through as quick as possible but I want to deliver it as quality of a project uh and solution out there as i can so administrator templar could you um could you brief the public on on the meeting that we had today at two o'clock or would you like me to do that i'll be glad to if you if you want or if you want to is this pertain to the pecan orchard yes sir do you have this document if you don't i haven't i'd be happy to do it i'll go ahead okay so on tuesday august 27 2024 at 2 15 p.m the following met at the government center administration in t

» he conference room to discuss suggestions and plans on how to improve drainage problems in the pecan orchard subdivision individuals present were danny templar county administrator gerald blanchard deputy county administrator dane canney from public works he's the director of public works jonathan hughes associate engineer of roads and stormwater myself russell brazel danny cato and hannah parlor and she was kind enough to take these minutes for us during this meeting myself councilman russell brazel suggested a phase one having the property surveyed by a local surveyor so that we can find the the stakes in the front yards and locate property lines versus roadways that would give us a clear view of where the road could or should be as well as ditches locate lines through the 8-1-1 any phone

» or internet lines water and have all of those identified so that you know nothing was torn up with a with a traco while we were in there digging ditches out i had suggested the use of employees of public works to maintain the project and restore the ditches and fixing the roads so basically public works had a large concern of pulling the entire staff of seven to maintain this project for six weeks and it would leave everything else in kershaw county undone according to dan canney so we we talked about things and kicked around different ideas and trying to hire different people and whether not to send it to bid to find a contractor that could help or if we could hire extra people and do it in-house and all of that is still up in the air for discussion the county administrator recommended the

» following to first hire an engineer to come with the plan of restructure complete the survey of the subdivision as we had previously discussed and talk more about the plan with the finance committee before moving forward for bids or moving forward as an in-house project there may be a hybrid solution but at the end of the day we look for a solution we don't want to kick this thing down the road and keep kicking it down the road but we want to gain support of our entire council I'm not going to be bashful and say that I don't want everyone's support and in finding the solution for the the drainage issues in pecan orchard I spent my Sunday morning driving through the subdivision and taking a personal assessment about 25 or 30 minutes and we are committed to a solution.

» Ladies and gentlemen, you also find a survey. We have the original survey attached here. I think it's 49 or 50 lots and we have one with a topographical overlay with GIS. So there are things that we can fix. We can fix the drainage from the roads. We can't fix the topography of your lot. So with that being said, we're looking forward to solutions that move the water through the ditches as best as possible. We understand there are aquifers on the property. It was a working pecan orchard at one point in time. Those problems we probably can't fix, but we probably can move the water through the ditches and make sure pipes are sized correctly and that sort of thing. So this this is definitely a hot topic.

» It's gotten everyone's attention and at this point I would like to send it formally to the Finance Committee for a financial review and with a abundance of gratitude for their service to Kershaw County they meet a lot more than we do they they come in actually on Friday afternoons and crunch numbers so I'd like to formally do that now and we can take a vote to forward this to the Finance Committee pending more discussion I just have a couple of questions yes sir clarification but good yes sir one i really appreciate you taking your sunday morning i think it was yes and riding through every single road with i think you had a friend yours from dh with you no no it was my buddy reed okay him and his kids him and his girls we just took a ride i think russell rode every single road over there yo

» u know where i had some concern mr templer is that the hundred fifty thousand dollars is there was there was no documentation supporting that it was just 150 000 and then there was just there was it was nothing there. I could not have voted on $150,000 without some kind of supporting documentation. I think it's to the, my question is to what does it involve? You did a very good job and explained that just now. However, there was nothing in the agenda packet for me to support voting for the $150,000. And if I could, um, as the previous request that was sent to the finance committee for $832,000, excuse me, $823,000.

» And of course I would like to hear the finance chair if he wants to comment on it but uh that was brought to the finance community the day before our meeting would you like me to comment on it sure uh it wasn't the day before your meeting it was actually at monday uh we met the finance committee myself and mr thomason and mr shu make on the pecan altar orchard and also some other matters uh staff threw some numbers out at us that uh we thought needed to go back and be revised and as uh the administrator stated uh there was a lot of things due diligence that we didn't do that the finance committee asked the administration to do and so um none of that was accepted it was uh discussed and asked for more information on meeting with people who have more experience with stormwater the experts on

» engineering and survey and that's where it's at so we didn't take any action or do anything we listened had conversation gave back our feedback and then we asked them to fulfill our requests so that's how that meeting went mr jones and i'd also like to say i never went into that meeting with any intent of requesting and that document with 800 000 was an internal working document for me just by my staff to allow me to understand kind of the the scope of what we could potentially have out there so it I don't want to say it was a rough estimate but I think it with our engineers it was a close estimate it could go north of that or south of that it just depends on the approach but But I never intended to ask for any funds or release. And as it relates to the documentation for tonight, Mr.

» Jones, I was just intending at either point where I get to that point to ask for that initial money for due diligence. It's just a request to proceed and allow me to engage and get quotes. And the survey is going to be expensive, and so is the engineering. So there was $150,000, $175,000 range of just because that's what I had anticipated it being. So no paperwork or anything because we had not engaged any services at that point. Well, yeah, and I feel sure that the Finance Committee, if they didn't have the documentation, you wouldn't consider it correct? No, it was never brought up for consideration, and nor was it requested by administration.

» It was part of a discussion, but these numbers were not hard numbers as far as what we all needed from the Finance Committee, which was more professional assistance, help, guidance, whatever you want to call it. And so that's what we charged the administration back with. What I'd like to see is that I think we do have easements out there. Yes, sir. And we also have ditches. Some of the easements have no ditches, which we have to control the flow of the water the best we can. And I realize DHEC has a – have you been in touch with DHEC at all? No, sir, not DHEC. DOT. DOT, yes, sir. I apologize. Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. Does everybody – I'm sorry. I was actually – As I said, it is – I was looking at the pictures from the rain. As I said, I was conflicted.

» I was conflicted with the numbers, with 832 and the 150. And what I'll say to everybody in here and the Finance Committee as well, we need to make sure we've got transparency. Yes, sir. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. Any further discussion? I just want to say, Mr. Brazzo, is that when the Finance Committee makes decisions and have something to bring forward, we will make sure that everybody is included. And, of course, all of our meetings are open to all of us in here and the public. There are, you know, advertising the paper in the proper places. They are posted on the website in a timely manner to meet the guidelines that we have to by state law.

» and so therefore you're welcome to come up and sit and hear anything we're talking about there's there's no secrets here it's just about trying to do the right thing and figure out how to do that and i've said it over and over up here uh i'm seriously in and and and the team is looking and trying to come up with a fix with a plan as hard as we can and i know others are up here too but I can't wave a magic wand. - Mr. Tucker, may I ask you a question? - Yes, sir. - Would you support taking minutes to the finance committee? - No, sir, 'cause we don't take a vote. You can come up if you like and listen. We don't vote. You have not seen a vote come out of the finance committee. - I just think it'd be good if we had minutes. - Come sit, come sit and join us and then you can take minutes.

» - My opinion, sir, don't get upset. - Oh, by no means. - I can tell, but anyway. - Man, I'm too tired to get upset. You don't know how tired I am. listen let me say this i think it'd be a good thing if we took minutes thank you you're welcome any further discussion gentlemen all right so at this time because this is a discussion item only we we do not need to take a vote but i would like to refer uh the request for a hundred and was it 150 000 for the initial survey and engineering for the pecan orchard to the finance committee and i would like to to have it back sir for a vote mr chair we will get on that and we will let you know if the dates in the public when we're going to meet i know it won't be until after labor day because we're coming up on labor day weekend so it won't happen this

» week as soon as we can dial in our schedules with staff we'll let you know what that date and time is and location that sounds good look forward to it thank you sir yes sir thank you for your leadership russell yes sir thank you sir councilman braz before we move forward i i this is a bitter matter of housekeeping i just wanted to announce for those that might be wondering uh the councilman tomlinson is not with this today because he's having some not feeling very well but obviously he would be here if he could but that's why he's not here and dialing i just want to make sure folks knew he didn't just miss the meeting i just thought he'd probably want people to know that he is under the weather he's hope he gets better soon um moving on to public comments um how many how many do we have sig

» ned up tonight sir we have six signed up to speak so by my math that's five minutes apiece five minutes apiece perfect um councilman shoemake would you mind reading the public comment guidelines happy two public comment guidelines are as follows this is an opportunity for members of the public to share information with council by speaking at the council meeting it is not however a time for debate or questions and answers from council it is a time for council to receive input in short public comments during public comments council will listen to the public but not comment on the public comments individuals requesting to speak must sign up with their name topic and phone number which has been done offensive and inappropriate comments will not be tolerated if a group would like to speak we ask

» that one uh spokesman is selected from the group it's five minutes per person uh with a max of 30 minutes as mr dubose just mentioned we're going to have five minutes apiece given the number and public comments at to council as an agenda item shall continue uninterrupted to be live streamed by audio and video until the public comment agenda item is finished and concluded and these rules may be altered by a single vote of council thank you sir moving into public comments could we have our first speaker please first speaker is rose jackson subject is pecan orchard thank you miss jackson welcome hi thank you i am rose jackson i'm currently the owner of 419 blackberry place which has been the discussion of many meetings and social media posts of late and i wanted to clarify some information rel

» ated to that lot and also clarify some history related to the dirt roads being taken into maintenance by kershaw county i originally approached kershaw county council back in the late 90s and asked them to take our roads into maintenance and it had nothing to do with drainage at that time we were having some drainage issues but the issue was we had one neighbor that had scraped those roads but had had discontinued that and my husband's grandmother lived down the road and 9-1-1 had told us due to the condition of the roads she was no longer going to be able to be transported by ambulance so that was really what drove me to try to get the roads in to county maintenance also at that time i went before the ctc and obtained the forms necessary to get the roads paved in pekin orchard but we had t

» o get over 50 percent of the residents to agree to the paving and i could not achieve that because a number of our neighbors didn't want the roads paved so subsequent to that my husband and i at the time divorced i'm sorry i acquired that lot 419 blackberry place which was adjacent to my home 417 blackberry place when the d.o.t decided to update the rest area we didn't realize how close that rest area was to us until we had built our house so i acquired that property as a buffer between my house and that rest area because we had a number of small kids in our family and we just wanted that protection zone if you will well subsequent to that point we sold that house to the burings as part of our divorce settlement and we offer both corlin and michael buring and miss avon grooms on the other s

» ide of that lot we told them if we ever sold the lot we would give them right of first refusal so i did that miss grooms had told me previously she had no interest in the lot she had more than she could take care of so i sent a text message over to corlin buring approximately a week to 10 days before we were going to list that lot for sale because i'm buying a new home so i said we're going to list this lot for sale are you interested we agreed to give you right of first refusal she said what is the price i told her the price the list price and she said i'm not sure we can afford that and i have the text messages that i will provide to y'all from that point in time when we told her we were going to list it in about a week she questioned the comps related to the price that we had and she sai

» d we can't afford that coincidental to the time when we posted that lot for sale she renewed this fight with kershaw county and as a result of the posting she has made on social media in that pecan orchard group and some of the erroneous things she has said such as the low point is on 419 blackberry place that is not true the low point exists between those two lots on 417 and 419.

» those ditches were never designed to have a retainage pond on 419 blackberry place the county has never approached me to buy that lot nor have i given approval for y'all to use it as a retention pond so what has happened as a result of all of this miscommunication and she has repeatedly stated corlin buring has stated on social media that kershaw county has represented to her that the runoff is going to go through my lot so subsequent to that meeting that was held in the pecan orchard at 417 blackberry place i had an executed contract to sell that lot and the the buyers backed out of that contract so i have personal damages now due to erroneous information that continues to be posted on social media sites it continues to be talked about and i'm very upset because if it weren't for my effort

» s the county would have never have maintained those lots so because they can't afford the lot they have waged this social media war to somehow discount that lot and if they can't have it they don't want anyone else to so i'm very upset and i want the county to deal with that thank you thank you ma'am these copies if you would like them well we we don't try to wedge ourselves between any personal matters and we like to keep uh the content of of our discussion general so um well the county's being blamed for this so i think y'all are involved because she keeps saying and she's named mr templar she's named others as saying we were told that that lot could never be built on we were told that that lot would never perk and the county has not said any of that to us and it doesn't exist in any docu

» mentation okay i think our time is up we we will be happy to work with you in any form or fashion to resolve those issues thank you thank you if you could leave your contact information with okay thank you very much next speaker please diane robinson the subject is watery subject is what mr debose watery as in the river okay gotcha sorry mrs mrs robinson welcome thank you for being here tonight i've been here could you pull the microphone a little bit it's a little hard to hear if you just pull it down just a little bit i've been here since i was born and um i won't tell you how long that's been 16 years um i was glad to see that y'all had the ibt thing on on the agenda so i thought well i'd bring up the the fact of the quality of the water i had emailed a couple of y'all last year and noth

» ing has been done it's the algae that is in our cove we're in a very shallow cove uh we're in the shaw area if y'all know where that is on the lake but anyway um i had approached or emailed duke energy back in 2011 about this stuff that was growing they actually sent somebody there and they verified that it was lingvia the very it's it's very um it stinks and it looks bad and that's why made pictures and put them in on your desk but anyway I'm hoping that with with your going to North Carolina water and and pursuing this thing of lowering the water that comes through Water Reef because with the IBT and they're diverting our water we water we river to Yadkin River I think it is that means we get less and that means you'll have more shallow areas and with that shallow area you're going to get

» the algae and and nobody seems to know what to do with it but you know I'd like for y'all just get a barge and just scrape it and put it on a barge and try to find some place to put it thank you my district is the lake the entire lake in Kershaw County I'd be happy to talk to you about that and I'd be happy to work with you and do duke power to help solve these issues if you could just leave your your contact i'll be happy to reach out to you thank you all right next speaker please next speaker is niecy miles pecan orchard okay miss miles welcome can you hear me yes ma'am um my name is niecy miles and i know that the pecan orchard was brought up two weeks ago i was not able to come because my daughter had her first dance class but i want to start off by saying that i have seen more county e

» mployees in the pecan orchard this last month than i have in the five years that we have lived in the neighborhood even when i have emailed for months asking the county to come out and dig my overflowing ditch in the rain this is the most i've ever seen so i really do appreciate the response i wish it would have been sooner but i do appreciate the response we are getting now i hope it continues until we have the issue in the pecan orchard completely fixed in 2019 my husband who was 26 and i 24 purchased what we thought was our dream home we were ready to start a family and when we saw the pecan orchard property we thought it was the perfect place to raise a child in 2020 we found out we were expecting and we knew we would do whatever we could to provide a life for our daughter our over the

» years the dream property has not been the dream we thought it would be because of the county's unmaintained ditches it it has actually caused many issues for my family. For example, do you guys know what three-year-olds love to do? They love to play outside. And when it rains, my kid loves to put on her rain boots and stomp in her muddy puddles. But in the pecan orchard, this is not an option. My daughter cannot go out and play in the rain and stomp in puddles because the rain has already run through our neighbor's yards, over unmaintained county ditches, and into our yard. The water draining into our yard hides sewage in it, and if my daughter plays in it, she will get sick.

» Because the county hasn't maintained these ditches, my daughter can't do one of her favorite things, which is play in the rain. Another example, in April, my husband and I set up a play area for our daughter. We, along with our neighborhood friends, spent the day moving her playground equipment, laying down landscape paper, building a border around the playground, and covering the area with bags and bags of mulch. Little did we know that in a few short months, our hard work would quite literally be washed away because of these unmaintained ditches.

» If the water is doing this to my child's playground, what do you think it's gonna do to my home? I understand the county is trying to come up with a solution for the drainage issues, and I understand that you have all come and talked to us with your ideas for these plans, but nothing has been set in stone, and nothing has been approved. When you vote to approve the budget to repair the pecan orchard, please think about the people who have invested thousands and thousands of dollars into these homes. Think about the money we, the property owners, have poured into the repairs because of the drainage issues. Please think about my sweet girl that doesn't deserve to play in septic water that flows through her yard, nor does anyone else.

» Please think about the thousands of dollars we pour into taxes each year. The county is responsible for this drainage issue and the county needs to handle it before it causes unrepairable damage. To the county members, may seem like this is not a big deal but you please remember these are our homes we live here we raise our families here and we pay taxes here we deserve to have a safe and maintained environment for our families and ourselves the last thing i'd like to say is that i hope you don't get tired of hearing about the pecan orchard the people that live here are very stubborn and i promise you we will not stop advocating for our homes until something is done to fix it thank you thank you ma'am appreciate that very much and uh the words are not falling on deaf ears um our our fourth

» speaker please michael burring pecan orchard welcome michael hey i'm uh michael burring um resident in pecan orchard um obviously it's a hot topic we're all talking about this so i'm not going to take up a lot of time um it's as simple as this for me is i know it's been a discussion for a long time with council with administration and i appreciate everything that everyone's contributed so far russell i know you've been out there jimmy you've been out there we've all looked at this together and had a lot of discussions about us thank you guys for that uh thank you admin for for getting folks out there to do some preliminary work getting things cleaned up um i just basically want to read this to you as responsible stewards of county resources kershaw county will deliver efficient effective an

» d safe public services while remaining accountable to our residents that's pretty clear cut and dry guys um i don't feel like anything's being done efficiently at all it's not being done effectively or at least hasn't been in the past half a decade and i understand these are inherited issues you still own them i'm sorry for that but you do you have a responsibility to fix them thank you michael well noted and um you and i had a very positive conversation today and i appreciated that we will continue to work together until we find the solution um our fifth speaker please corlin burring welcome corlin pecan orchard would you like like to pass those out ma'am what are we passing out um just documents that i was going to reference so that way you'd have them in front of you as we have had done

» many times before as we have had done many times before mr tucker well you didn't take miss jackson on that's why i'm asking so if you're going to take people's stuff we'll take it all and be and be consistent about what you do mr jones that's why i'm asking take a deep breath no i'm gonna breathe on you in a minute get miss jackson's as well please we'd be more than happy to have anything pass out the lord have mercy we'll take them all all right walk us through this please um before i start i just wanted to address two people directly mr brazel um i know that last week's meeting didn't quite go the way that either of us would have liked at one point but the way that you've handled the situation shows your true character and i i know you've been told that i was bad mouthing you um i made o

» ne post which was deleted immediately after he reached out and i questioned the intentions of those who said otherwise um and mr blanchard i don't know if you're still here but i just wanted you to know that we do see your hard work and we appreciate he wasn't here i don't know if he is now um everything we look forward to finding a resolution resolution now to why i'm here at the last council meeting mr razzle called for a meeting to be held on site with the neighbors of pecan orchard this meeting was held in my front yard on the 21st and while i didn't take a head count i was told there was somewhere between 50 and 60 residents in attendance during this meeting we were informed by county administration that no plan had been put to paper and that there was no budgetary number for any porti

» on of this but that wasn't entirely true i received a small portion of my foyer request and one document shows that there is at very least some semblance of a plan this document was edited by a kershaw county administrative employee who works in the register of deeds on august 6th and 7th of this year it shows where you plan to remove established trees and bushes and build up the intersection in one area it also appears to show the direction of water flow and last but not least it notes that there is no easement for the outfall of a huge drainage pipe that was installed down my property line in 2020 it notes it as owner maintained and well this is news to us because we were told that there was an easement how has this happened the water from this pipe flows out with tremendous force and its

» path isn't straight as you can see from the pictures that i've shared with all of you it takes a sharp turn to the left which forces water into my fence and down a portion of and a portion of it flows directly into my backyard damage to the fence in the back side of our property is bad enough but we also must consider the septic water that flows into these ditches the water flows directly down blackberry place goes under the road and down the pipe straight into my backyard my backyard is where my three boys who are all here tonight play where we spend times with friends and family and our dogs i know most of you if not all of you have children we used to live next to a couple of your children you can't tell me that you would be okay with this this is a public health issue an issue that i've

» been trying to get resolved since 2019. i know that many of my neighbors have been going at this for much longer at what point do we start to hold people accountable as you can see in the emails i provided you with i never received a response from county administration when i asked what qualified them to determine water flow as there was no hydro engineer on site furthermore on august 10 2021 i was advised to get an attorney instead of being worked with to find a real solution to the issue this last email on the thread is from the same day where i asked how to get in contact with the administrator at the time and how to get in contact with them because we were clearly not getting anywhere never received a response at the time i'm not sure if the administrative office is trying to call our b

» luff or if they think this will fizzle out and be a thing of the past let me assure you that we are not going anywhere and we will continue to show up and be loud until something is done council members i took the time over the weekend to collect the tax records for all the properties in pecan orchard since 2019 the county has collected 518 000 plus dollars your mission statement calls for you to be responsible stewards of county resources and you will deliver efficient effective and safe public services while remaining accountable to your residents we are not living in a safe environment and that has to change now thank you ma'am i appreciate your time and i appreciate your uh cordial delivery um looking at the uh pictures that you've provided i definitely see some shortcomings in some of

» the outflow pipe and it's pretty clear that the pipe's too short and probably too small so those are all things that engineers will tell us how to fix appropriately and we will move forward with the plan we have one more speaker correct mr tom webb subject is litter mr webb welcome i have one question before you start did you bring me a can oh shucks got you some cardboard sir okay i'm still going to contend with you over your litter ordinance i don't like it the little ordinance makes definable offense to own cardboard why broken down cardboard where is the litter problem with cardboard it's nowhere Government overreach, certainly not Republican small government who makes people out in the boondocks own no cardboard.

» Your cardboard ordinance comes to bear against my First Amendment rights. The First Amendment doesn't give us rights. They're God-given and unalienable, and government is supposed to protect them. Unalienable. You have them whether you want them or not, and government can't destroy these rights. But government can suppress unalienable rights, and that's what the litter ordinance is doing. The way the little ordinance harms my First Amendment comes against my free expression, free speech, freedom of the press, and the right to redress my government. I do these things with cardboard. I use cardboard for my signs. You take away my cardboard and you make it difficult for me to communicate. Is that what you want? So I'm turning in one piece of cardboard. It's going to be a $250 fine.

» But I've got some more cardboard that I'll make a statement about. I think you should go back to McMaster's litter ordinances. It's more sensible. So an example of my redressing the government with cardboard would be this sign. So I was on the street today with this for a little bit. It's been three years ago, yesterday, that we lost about a dozen men at the gate to the airfield in Afghanistan when the withdrawal was occurring, the suicide bomb. And Kamala. Kamala had a lot to do with it, and Biden. I don't know exactly where it all went, but it's our government backed away from billions of dollars worth of equipment. They left it there in Afghanistan. Billions of dollars. It's in the hands of the Taliban and China.

» So was it a mistake? Did somebody just goof up and make a mistake? Poor old Biden. No, he's just a puppet. somebody's pulling the strings so somebody didn't just make a mistake this is very purposeful don't you think billions of dollars worth of equipment in the hands of the taliban and china i think so it smells so i'm turning in one piece of cardboard to avoid the 250 dollar fine and i'll turn in this one another time thank you very much good to see you mr webb thank you for coming all right if that ends public comments is that everyone sir correct we will move on to public presentations we have a plus one award recipients here placed on our agenda by County Administrator Danny Templar mr. Brazel before we get started can we get mrs.

» Jackson's information passed out absolutely miss Jackson would you like to give that to our administrator ma'am and thank you all thank you all for being here this is certainly our duty and our privilege to to sit before you and listen to these issues and work through them together thank you sir all right moving along public presentations uh take it away administrator templar thank you sir members of council i'm happy to make this presentation tonight this is something i wanted to do for a long time this this entire initiative here to really challenge county employees to come in do the best of their job and find one thing extra to do every day that would be some an initiative to kind of change the culture here but what I quickly found out is that culture has been instilled and been a part o

» f this organization for a long time and this is merely a mechanism to highlight a lot of the good things that go on we have our detractors out there we always will but what I'm gonna do is make sure that I celebrate what our employees do the good things sometimes you know we we are fallible we make mistakes we don't get everything right every time but every plus one recipient every plus one nominee has gotten it right they have gone above and beyond so I am beyond happy to talk about this at a County Council meeting you have no idea what plus one is is a again it's a it's an initiative to encourage every county employee to perform their duties in the most professional and helpful manner plus do one thing in the course of their day extra our goal is to improve the public's experience with ke

» rshaw county government challenge county employees to perform at a higher level every day and improve the county government relationship with the public our objective is to deliver a higher emphasis on customer service and departments servicing the public as well as those departments that service the county employees internally such as IT and HR so the way this works is this is pure nominate a nomination platform that you're nominated by your peers so it's not a supervisor it's just where if somebody sees someone doing something and goes above and beyond in their daily course of duties they take this little card here and they just write a little handwritten note describing what they saw that exemplary behavior and I'm also happy to say that we're getting a lot of these from the public as we

» ll so that that lets me know that we're on track so in this particular instance as well as we go along they are submitted our employee relations committee looks at these these cards they nominate the best one each month that monthly winner if you will or that monthly notable employee gets put in a pool for the biannual award, and then they are selected. These winners were selected out of that biannual pool. So we have two EMTs and two firefighters that were selected for this award, the biannual award. We presented this at the employee luncheon the other week. So I'm just going to read you what these individuals did and how they went above and beyond.

» On March 12th, Kershaw County Fire Service and Kershaw County EMS were dispatched to respond to an address on Beaver Dam Road for a medical call regarding a fall. While on scene, Lieutenant T. Raven and Firefighter C. Baxley, along with Paramedic D. Alvarez and EMT Jay Holland, assisted the patient and were able to provide him with some food. While on scene, they noted that the patient had minimal furnishings and no refrigerator. So the patient had limited mobility due to a prior medical history, and our Kershaw County Fire Service personnel, in conjunction with EMS, took it upon themselves to put together some money to pay for a hot meal as well as purchasing some non-perishable food items.

» Highway 1 Cafe in Cassett, upon hearing about the situation, donated lunch to the patient, allowing for all the money to be collected to be used on non-perishable items. This afternoon, or that particular afternoon, they were able to deliver a meal to him as well as the items that they had taken up the collection for. They also completed a home fire safety visit and installed smoke alarms for this resident. So they were out there for just one issue, but they went above and beyond and showed that human element that you will see a lot in our first responders. They didn't have to do that. Came out of their own pocket and just showed this incredible amount of humanity for this individual that had limited circumstances, limited abilities.

» And so if I could get those individuals to come up here. Could you say their names again? Yes. He did when he read the thing. Lieutenant T. Raven, Firefighter C. Baxley, Paramedic D. Alvarez, and EMT J. Holland. Are they here? I don't think they want to know their names. Sir, could we invite them in? You guys want to walk down? Yeah, let's do that. Ben, Ben Connell. Connell, come on up here. Come on, Ben. You already pushed me out one time. All right, pop those zooms on, guys. Zoom out. Hey, thank you, guys. Congratulations. That's really awesome. And ladies. Yes, thank you. And if I can, too, I think all of us know that. Councilman Jones. Thank you. Danny Templer was a public servant as well in law enforcement. Absolutely. As well as Mr. Tucker. And Mr. Jones. I was the best.

» I'd like to say this. Leaders lead in the fashion that Administrator Templer just exhibited by shining the light on the employees that went above and beyond and not on themselves. And that's how a leader builds a team and encourages a team. So thank you for being that leader, sir. thank you and I would just close out with this is the awards that these individuals will get so it's something they can display proudly on their desk and kind of memorialize what they did and kind of and have all the other employees kind of come by and say well that's a plus one winner yeah it encourages others to do to do the same and to give that extra thank you so much one up here sir can we vote on each other us six seven you probably don't you probably don't want to take that vote no but thank you all for all

» owing me to showcase these individuals absolutely absolutely why wouldn't we thank you all right approval of minutes do i have a motion i will move that we approve the minutes second second all right we've got a first from councilman shoemake the second from mr tucker councilman tucker any discussion thank you miss anna as always the gentleman and uh we can take a vote all those in favor unanimous councilman jones councilman cato myself councilman schumann councilman tucker all right moving on to ordinances the second reading and ordinance authorizing the amendment and reinstatement of restrictive covenants affecting designated wetlands tributaries and related buffer areas located upon the property within the industrial park in kershaw county formerly known as governor's hill west business

» park pursuant to the requirements of the department of the army permit number sac 2006-03871 do i have a motion to put this on the floor i'll make that motion councilman shoemake we have a second second councilman tucker do we have any discussion any discussion councilman shoemake nope all right i think i think we've been through this um kind of of a minute um nuance just delineating wetlands in uh in in the old governor's hill so all those in favor councilman jones councilman cato councilman shoemake councilman tucker and myself unanimous all right uh item b county ordinance review placed on the agenda by councilman sammy tucker jr so i have a motion to put this on the floor make a motion that we uh put this ordinance on the floor so we can have a review and a discussion and whatever else

» you all deem necessary all right we'll hear a second i'll second all right second by councilman shoemake discussion mr tucker sir thank you mr brazel uh very much so i'm gonna lean on mr debose as well um and uh this is making sure that we're following our own ordinance and um making sure that we understand um our pathway moving forward and um mr dubose uh was the um motion and second and vote taken today to place mr brazel as uh chair of uh meeting tonight in accordance with our ordinance yes and i think it was uh exacting to what robert's rules was yes sir and so um with that i would just ask that um we make sure that um we're always going by what we wrote or what we adopted as as a council um moving forward so um we won't get any uh run into any block blockage or road blocks or obstacles

» is what i'm trying to say and mr jones you brought up an interesting point um early in this discussion so i don't i'm not sure how my colleagues feel but um you said you're getting ready to have surgery and um i personally would not would not like to take this vote every time we meet on who's chairing the meeting so my question to you before i put a motion on the table is um are you okay staying in the vice chair position or do we need to appoint a new one at this time i would like to excuse me i would like to appoint a new one at this time okay excuse my voice well if it's in order i would like to make a motion that we appoint russell brazzo as our vice chair moving forward throughout the year i second that it means a lot sammy thank you sir we should take a vote yes discussion right well

» any any discussion i was trying to fast track listen i think it's it's well deserved and i think that obviously um you know we have a new chair coming in and mr jones i want to say um you know the work you've done running the meetings both sometimes temporarily and then after the resignation of a chairwoman uh always kept us on time i mean did exactly what i think the chairman does so my hat's off to you sir i think you did an excellent job running these meetings i want you to know that and had you wanted to stay i would fully support that i know that so i i have no doubt in my mind with all of you up here appreciate it i'd like to say thank thank you uh each and every one of you for believing in me uh it's an opportunity for me to grow within this council um i care dearly about my hometown

» and home county and um i know over the past four years i've grown a lot in the ability to to show leadership and i do appreciate everyone's uh support in this thank you so much you're quite welcome russell i just want to say i'm very proud of you and i appreciate you taking this on and i know that you'll work well with chairman connell i will thank you sir he's bigger than you he is bigger than me he's giving me a look too mr brazel yes sir this is your time this is your trial run now you got four months four months i'm gonna do my best no promises thank you you're welcome i just want to say thank you jimmy um i appreciate your time that you spent as vice chair you run the meetings efficiently um we didn't ever have any five-hour meetings when you was running the meeting so i really appreci

» ate that russell congratulations well reserved thank you sir forward working with you as well um don't take it lightly i don't know you'll do a great job yeah thank you sir may i say one last thing um appreciate y'all giving me the opportunity i really didn't want the vice chair when i took the vice chair but we did i did and i'm going to say this too even though i worked with him six years on county council i'm not surprised at what he does he comes here i'm looking forward to chairman cornell sitting up here too so we got all our seats full we're ready to move forward and uh what you plan on being here when chairman 9 16.

» you mean september yes well there's there's no doubt in my mind that it takes a a gracious man to to say those words uh political rivalries and battles are tough there's no doubt put your name on that paper and and you run for a position you you're really sticking your name out there for anything to be said or done and you know talked ugly about and so everybody up here has been through that and um i'm very proud of councilman jones and i dearly look forward to chairman connell coming on board and steering the ship so let's move forward thank you all all in favor oh i'm so sorry continue sir i want to tell councilman jones thank you as well um i thought you did an amazing job I'm gonna use your words back on you we didn't always agree but I thought she ran a good meeting and that she tried

» to keep us all inclusive and that meant a lot to me so thank you for your hard work and thank you for stepping up when the time was needed congratulations mr. Brown thank you miss Tucker means a lot yes now we take a vote yes if everyone is done all those in favor thank you all very kind of you thank you all right councilman Tucker decided to surprise me tonight I did not see that coming moving to item number nine resolutions a resolution by Kershaw County Council opposing Charlotte's water proposal inter basin transfer modification request and I'm in full support of this well we'll take a motion and get on the floor and then we'll discuss it do i have a motion to put this on the floor i'll make a motion we'll put this on the floor councilman kato second second councilman shoemake discussio

» n councilman kato would you like to go first or no i can just turn this over uh danny temper put this on the agenda um i think he can probably explain this a lot better than than i can but i'm i'm wholeheartedly behind you 100 on this yeah i am too i'll turn it up our administrator please thank you um so this this came across from a neighboring municipality and and this is not just merely following the leader or following the crowd of being you know opposing this move here this is to what i consider just these communities downstream of this basin being impacted negatively by this move of diverting water up in in charlotte um and reducing our water lake watery you heard uh earlier in the um public comments that the low water there has created some some issues with algae and things of that na

» ture but and that and this is look this would reduce our lake level by at least three feet so um this is just doing what is what is important and supporting our our natural resource here and being lockstep with doing the right thing with the neighboring counties and municipalities by opposing this move here so i i wanted to get this in front of y'all to get your support so we can send this to the appropriate place to let them know that we are opposed to this move also the city of camden has has done something similar i wholeheartedly agree um would anybody else like to i just have a question before so mr templar and i know mr tucker you this is the cog has had some role in this as well but what where just for the public certification and bluntly my own what ultimately who will be the ultima

» te decider of this who ultimately because obviously we're this is a resolution we're telling them we oppose it but there's going to be some entity corps of engineers who's ultimately going to make this decision and grant or deny their request so there is um entities from my understanding multiple that that this is currently open in it's the public comment period if you will as as most things are most things are to to understand the um the impacts and and from neighboring counties or or municipalities downstream so i think it's an aggregate of of entities um so to to point at one particular one i i don't know if if there is one councilman tokyo you got some knowledge on this don't you yes i'm not quite sure who's going to pull the strings but if it's going to be like it was last time uh it'l

» l be pulled in court yeah that's kind of what that's kind of what i was ultimately we're going to end up at um because we're going to have to defend our share of the watershed from charlotte who's growing leaps and bounds and want to control and take and the young lady miss diane robinson that stood up here, she's absolutely right. The less that flow is, and then the more chances you're going to have algae and things growing into those COVIDs. So, and then, you know, something's below us and Claritin is below them. It affects all of them. And I'm happy to know that the city of Camden has done their letter. I just signed the letter for the COG. Absolutely not agreeing to this. We're wholeheartedly in. Our director of the COG is on top of this with some of our experts with the COG.

» Just keep an eye on how this is going. But I can't tell you who I actually pull the lever and say, yay or nay. But I can tell you we're prepared to fight legally to make sure that we don't decrease in our gallons per day up there because we've already given back more than our fair share. Sammy, help me. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Oh, I just, one, one, one, what I was going to say, Councilman Jones is, you know, in this, uh, I guess just to you, Mr. DuBose and Mr. Templar, obviously, you know, we may not be the entity that gets to decide whether or not Charlotte gets more water, but where I was going was where, um, Councilman Tucker went to is we would be an affected party. I would suspect withstanding in a litigation.

» So should that moment come, I'd like that for this County to keep abreast of that because it would be my recommendation that we join that lawsuit as a party because we would be aggrieved. And I would think, Mr. DeBose, I mean, I think you and I would have the same analysis, right? I mean, we have to show that we're injury in fact, and I think we could absolutely show that in this case. And also the town of Elgin, I don't know where they stand on their letter. I think they've already did theirs, but they're in that displacement as well. It affects everybody downstream.

» And the sad part about it, another state is deciding what we're going to look like for the future because without water you don't grow sammy what is the minimum that i know they can't drain the lake but what is the minimum they have to leave in our lake uh i don't know that right off hand because i don't have that paperwork and stuff with me but i can tell you what shawla is asking for is not doable for survival for us it's not i agree i agree cannot happen period so in my campaign promise with the lake being in in my district is district one representative i always said that i would support clean water and our resources so if it takes a trip with the delegation the state delegation and a group of us from the county to charlotte to meet with folks to to solve this issue i'm all in happy to

» happy to put wheels in motion and meet with folks and resolve this because we we will not be abused i can promise you there's nobody in charlotte that's going to abused anybody in kershaw county from a watershed perspective it seems like it seems like being at the bottom of the funnel we always get too much water or too little and if it becomes too little it will become a major problem and we will address it so with that being said any other comments discussion we vote to support the resolution unanimous councilman jones councilman cato councilman brazel councilman shoemake and councilman tucker thank you mr browser i appreciate the support from all our colleagues absolutely thank you sir um we've taken care of item 10 new business we've had some appointments it looks like councilman brazil

» if i just want to be if i'm clear here it looks like they're just we're just reading names into the record um yes because i i miss hannah can i i don't know if miss hannah you're the right person to ask us to but i saw the it looks like we have one member that is requesting not to be reappointed in the the October term. Has Mr. Emmons have made any communication to your knowledge about reappointment? Okay, I sent him a message. So just for purposes of public transparency, Mr. Emmons was an appointee to the Planning Commission this year, and he was finishing someone's expired term. So he's only very recently been appointed. Less than a year. Yeah, Colonel Eichenberger left the commission. So technically his term expires in October.

» So I've reached out to him, members of council, and ask if he's interested in being reappointed. If he is, it would be my intention to nominate him for reappointment, given that he has only served a year. Obviously, if he doesn't, then we'll certainly need to look at that. And this is obviously, with everything we have going on, a very important commission. It'll be your call on that. Yeah, but I just wanted to make clear. So the purpose of this agenda item is just to put in the record who has applied, not to call for a vote on. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Aaron. We do have an application.

» jitta douglas um we have an application here very very impressive resume has anybody been in contact with i have not i just saw this today that's where i've seen this okay so i would suggest we uh table this until we we can make contact and um make a pro an appropriate motion to a point to uh to set a board there's two vacancies after we read these names into the records right miss hannah that's if mr emmons wants to that includes mr emmons okay that's what i want to make clear okay so if things are unclear do we do we want a table we want to read no no i have no problem tabling and finding out from mr emmons what his intent and then let's find a replacement for the chairwoman miss fiona and see can we get that this board filled back up this board does a lot of good work it's very important

» and it needs to be filled as quickly with good people so now to be clear the chair position will be elected by that body that's correct yeah we don't elect the chair for that so the planning commission will table this for for the time being until we can have further conversation forward yeah and then we will we'll bring this back up after we uh we've had the appropriate time and we all will search for another uh person to serve okay okay good good let's try to have it done by the second no late in our second meeting next month we need to vote the table that table just push it forward move it forward i think you have the powers chair just to because there's no vote all right no vote taken i wouldn't take a vote yeah okay okay we're okay uh moving to uh item 12 council member briefings almost

» as always start to my left if that's okay councilman jones sometimes i like to go last but i want to go first this time okay yes sir okay first again congratulations mr bradley vice chair i think you're doing a great job and again congratulations to our chairman out there ben connell i look forward to serving with him for the next two years and three or four months whatever and uh guys i appreciate mr templer the pecan orchard being something of importance to you guys i really do and uh actually i do want to say this i am going to be uh i know i don't have to talk about my medical but i am i've got a back issue that i'm gonna be getting a surgery on next week so i'm if I'm not at the following meeting, because I'm going to be walking that same day after three hours of being on the operating

» table. Mr. Templer, I'd like to make sure I at least got a phone call in. Yes, sir, whatever you need. I appreciate it. I don't want my face on if I'm laying down there. But anyway, I just wanted to make that clear. But did y'all see, what's that auditor's name? Dennis? Arlitch. You see him in the hospital bed when he's getting sworn in? I'm not going to be in the hospital bed getting sworn in. Anyway, thank you guys very much.

» appreciate looking forward to moving forward thank you councilman jones if that's all councilman kato i got just a few things um first i want to talk about something took place up at the mount pisgah resource center there's a blessing box that's been placed up there and i wanted to announce that out during the public forum here tonight if any of you has ever seen a blessing box it's a box that has a clear front door to it it has non-perishable food items inside of it and different stuff for people that are in hard times or homeless or whatever the case may be so there was a blessing box placed up at mount pisgah and i wanted to thank the people of the mount pisgah resource center those folks um there have really put a lot of hard work into that center and into this project i also want to th

» ank roy's wood products they they helped us out with the building of this box and the box really looks nice so i really want to thank them for that too but uh if you're in need um or if you know someone in need there's some there's some stuff in that box um that'll maybe bless you throughout that day or whenever you need it um remember our sports teams we kicked off the sports season with the high school season uh this past week keep them in your prayers for their safety and uh try and get out and support one of our local high school or middle school or even our rec teams get out and see these young young people play and support them it really means a lot to them and uh it gives them something to do rather than get in trouble so reach out and and try and support these teams.

» I'd also like to say a little something about the plus one. You know, I appreciate Mr. Tempera, what you've done with that. That is outstanding. It gives us a chance, you know, we never get very much credit for any of the good you do. It's always the negative that you hear. And it's always how we should have done something different or done something better or, you know, how we could improve ourselves, but we never really get credit for the good things we do. And I applaud you for doing that for the employees of Kershaw County. There's a lot of employees in this county that do excellent jobs. And I applaud you for that. Mr. Jones, again, thank you for your leadership as vice chair. And just to know our prayers are with you during this surgery.

» I know you've had a hard time and I know you're going through a hard time right now, but our prayers are with you, okay? That's all I got tonight. - Thank you, sir. Councilman Shumate. - Yeah, just a couple of brief things. Again, congratulations, Vice Chairman. - Thank you. - Well deserved, and as I said before, Councilman Jones, I was hearing our prayers, and thank you for running some great meetings. Again, congratulations to Firefighter Baxley, Lieutenant Rabin, Paramedic Alvarez, and EMT Holland. That's really, really awesome, and just my hat's off to you. That's exactly what represents this county, what makes this county great. So I know they had to step out, but congratulations to that.

» obviously school's all the way full back in session so if you're wondering if school's in session go on highway 12 about 7 30 in the morning three o'clock in the afternoon you will be quickly reminded um you know again safety to all the teachers one of whom is my wife um and you know all the kids going to school the drivers that's having two teenage drivers in the house i know that stresses every parent out as they stare on life 360 and the kids are blasting i'm feeling 22 or whatever kids are listening to these days probably not the accent song's 10 years old moving on to sports as mr cato mentioned uh lugoff elgin had a 35 34 squeaker victory over lower richland uh pretty amazing and congrats to the football team a special shout out to camden cheerleader unrelated emma cotton who is a won

» derful young lady and my son is lucky enough to be her boyfriend and congratulations to her senior year of cheer um we made it at the time that's right we have a great charity in elgin for those who have not done any work with it called blanketing families and they've done a lot with the county they set up a community park they have a uh giveaway tomorrow a uh where they give meals and things like that at the elgin town hall tomorrow at noon they do it almost every month sometimes more and i just again a shout out to those ladies with blanketing families because they do a tremendous amount of charity work there in elgin and through kershaw county so if you know a family in need or if you are a family in need tomorrow noon elgin town hall uh they will be doing the food giveaway and uh that i

» s all that i have thank you thank you councilman shoemake councilman tucker yes sir mr braz thank you so very much once again congratulations uh vice chair um mr jones i'm gonna say to you uh because i know um only the good lord moves and does things for us in a miraculous way uh i know you'll have good hands on you because you'll have his hands through mankind but i really wish you a successful and speedy recovery and um i know your head's hard as a rock but please try to do what the doctors asked you to do um so you can walk through that day okay yeah i i'm i'm just saying the older we get the more stubborn we get i ain't far behind me but um but we we wish you well we really do um also want to uh say mr cato you're only bragging on those um lunches or nights because y'all beat the tar ou

» t of somebody friday i don't know who it was but 56 the Oh, Gray Falls, yeah. I heard y'all look real good, and that's good to hear for all the schools as we're getting into football season. So I'm with you. Let's try to get out and support the schools and the communities and things and have a little fun and get to see some of your neighboring folks or folks you may not live near, but are Kershaw County citizens, and you can fellowship some. The other thing I want to say is happy Labor Day. We've got Labor Day coming up this weekend. Please be safe. It's another dangerous travel time for us. Enjoy the long weekend that's coming up to the county employees and to all that jobs may do the same for you. And we hope to see you here in about another two weeks, and we'll be back at it.

» And the Finance Committee will get together. We will get a time with staff. We will announce it. And I just can't say enough for the Pecan Orchards folks. you are invited if you want to come that's probably not going to be the only topic on the agenda but um we don't stay 11 12 hours either so um you're welcome that's all i can say thank you mr vice chair thank you councilman tucker um thank you for the kind words thank you for the surprise that was very kind of you um welcome i want to thank all my colleagues for the opportunity um you know in year four things changed between year one and year four and if you came in here oh i'd say about three years ago you would have seen councilman jones and i probably edit over something he and i he and i both uh a bit hard-headed and aggressive at tim

» es but i want to say jimmy jones has become a good friend of mine i appreciate everything that that you did in the interim and getting us to this point and i appreciate you uh letting me assist chairman connell looking forward to having big ben back sat next to him for two years until he left us for the state house and now he's going to come back with a lot of positive relationships and a lot of good for the county so i look forward to everybody working together and thank you all for for this opportunity um i'm sure i'm forgetting something but without further ado administrator templar you're breathing sir thank you sir um i want to read something really quick because it was mentioned tonight um herschel county mission as a responsible stewards of county resources kershaw county will delive

» r efficient effective and safe public services while remaining accountable to our residents these are not buzzwords this is something i lead by this is something that holds me accountable this is something i try to have this organization live up to every day every project with every customer that comes in every interaction um every phone call or email are we perfect no do we strive to do better absolutely we always will we have an amazing group of men and women that work here for this organization and i just can't speak enough about them things don't happen overnight projects are sometimes larger than life there's questions of funding there's questions of approach there's questions of what makes this problem go away um those aren't always easy questions to answer so pecan orchard is a prior

» ity of mine um i told those people i delivered a not a promise but i let them know that we have some responsibility out there and we're going to live up to that just as this mission statement says so we will live by that and we that that will be our guide so just want to throw that out there real quick one more quick item planning and zoning really proud of this because i feel like planning and zoning has been making some changes down there to really going back to our mission statement to really embody that and embrace that so today they had a lunch and learn with the south carolina manufactured housing institute They probably had 30 or 40 people down there at Economic Development. They were able to have some really solid discussion, some education on both sides of the table.

» They were very well received, very well attended. I think every chair was full. And so there will be some more updates from that because the individual that is over that Manufactured Housing Institute for South Carolina was just absolutely pleased with the outcome that this was the only county kershaw county was the only county that is doing anything like this with this type of thing for the manufactured housing industry they were able to have a communication that was very positive as to where they our staff our planning and zoning staff and the manufactured housing authority were able to get on the same sheet of music that could potentially cut up to eight thousand dollars off of the setup of a manufactured home well up to though and you know if it not every that could be impactful for som

» ebody that is choosing to live in that particular type of setting maybe they have a lot of land maybe that's just choice but that could be the difference in maybe the type of home they get a couple more acres who knows so I'm extremely pleased with that report there's a little more to some of some of this feedback that will come back from these individuals but again they were just very pleased um and and we've been doing this this is something we've been wanting to do to increase communication and foster relationships with our local builders and developers so they understand what what the expectations of kershaw county planning and zoning department is we've made strides down there to really in foster these these opportunities to work with our local builders and and you know our national bu

» ilders we we can't pick and choose our customers but whoever comes in that door whether you're building a deck for yourself or you're developing 30 acres we want to provide the same amount of service we want it to be consistent and again living up to these principles of our kershaw county mission so just wanted to share those two items with you that's all i have and again thank you so much for allowing me to brag on our plus one people thank you if i may just briefly when it comes to department heads and leadership attitude is everything and these sort of lunch and learns and get-togethers gives us an opportunity to break down barriers and and talk as friends and humans and i appreciate these things and i'm glad that they're happening we need to be business friendly here in kershaw county u

» h we need to be responsible as as to how we move forward in development we we all have have had these conversations but thank you for doing this and i i credit joey down there and sam they just they do an amazing job and um they are hungry for these opportunities to get better that's wonderful thank you so much thank you joey thank you sam all right attorneys briefings got nothing other than what i promised to be a very short executive huh all right a very short executive session but have nothing for open session promises promises i'd like to invite the chair like to go in with us if that's it is legal he's shaking his head no so we're going to leave him out okay so you're welcome sir that's our first disagreement but noted noted as uh is a very gracious good kind humble gesture the kind of

» man i am absolutely and we appreciate that um all right all those in favor of going into the executive session motion first oh motion put it on make a motion that we're going to executive session for legal advice from our second i'll second all right all those in favor here we go all right all right coming back out of executive session um we receive legal advice let's come back out so we go forward okay make a motion to come out executive session second all right all those in favor councilman Kato Brazel, shoemake, Tucker. Yes, sir. We received legal advice pending a threatening claim covered by attorney client privilege. No votes will be taken. So we are out of executive session. Do I have a motion to adjourn? Motion to adjourn, Mr. Vice Chair. Second? Second. All right, adjourned. Have a good night.