Full meeting transcript - April 8, 2025

» talking to myself let's get started welcome out tonight everyone for this tuesday april 8th 2025 kershaw county council meeting we've been called to order and i will uh do the invocation dear heavenly father we're thankful for our many blessings we're grateful for the opportunities that we have in our lives we're thankful for our family members thankful for thy grace and the gift of thy son we pray for the mulligan family and all those who've experienced loss and mourn may we always remember that we're supposed to mourn with those that mourn and stand in comfort those that need comfort please bless us as we try to do the business of kershaw county tonight we pray for thy guidance and direction that we can have wisdom and make good decisions we pray for uh councilman tucker as he's not with

» us and all those who might be traveling and those who are sick and afflicted need that assistance please prepare the way before us we say it's the name of jesus christ 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 very much, and for all those who are here tonight. Gentlemen, that brings us to adoption of the agenda. I'd seek a motion to adopt the agenda and also suspend Rule 2.5F regarding proclamations so that we can have three, if Mr. Tucker is able to get on the line.

» we have a motion make a motion to amend second all right any discussion and just for clarification that's a motion to adopt the agenda and suspend rule 2.5 f and we have a second any discussion seeing none all in favor raise your hand miss hannah it's unanimous in person and do we have mr tucker on the line we do not all right mr tucker is not on the line that takes us to item number 5a uh and since mr tucker's not here i'll make a motion that we defer this to the next meeting is there a second second okay all right any discussion seeing none all in favor this hand is unanimous by those who are voting in person deferred to the next meeting second meeting in april that takes us to item number 5b national child abuse uh prevention month yes sir i do have a copy thank you though all right i'll

» make a motion that we uh adopt and approve this proclamation is there a second i'll second okay thank uh thank you mr kato for the second and if I could have those individuals who are here tonight and involved with it, if you would just stand up briefly. We've got various board members present tonight. I think there's only two board members present for one entity, but I'll go ahead and share this. This is a proclamation proclaiming April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month, where sexual violence and child abuse affect... Tess, Tess, you good? Hello. Can you hear me? All right.

» Where sexual violence Violence and child abuse affect every person in Kershaw County as a victim, survivor, and as a family member, partner, neighbor, or co-worker of a victim or survivor, and whereas the Family Resource Center, DSS, and the Foster Care Review Board of Kershaw County staff and volunteers, some of whom we have present tonight, are working to provide quality services and assistance to sexual violence and child abuse survivors, staffing 24-hour crisis lines, offering holistic services in a trauma-informed and victim-centered environment, providing advocacy during medical exams and criminal proceedings, providing therapy and other support services throughout the healing process, whereas the Family Resource Center staff and volunteers of sexual violence and child advocacy progra

» ms are promoting and prevention by offering quality educational programs to schools, faith-based and civic organizations, as well as medical, mental health, law enforcement, and criminal justice personnel regarding sexual violence and child abuse issues, and whereas it is critical to increase community awareness of sexual violence and child abuse to educate community members about the need for engagement and support in these efforts to eradicate child abuse and sexual violence and and some of these statistics are the ones that particularly surprised me whereas one of four girls and one in six boys are a victim of sexual violence only one in ten disclose or confirm any abuse Kershaw County foster care review board completed 176 child reviews in 2024 the average age of 9.4 years old and the a

» verage length in foster care was 24.1 months and whereas the Family Resource Center requests community support and engagement as it continues to work toward a society where all individuals women and men girls and boys live in safe spaces of trust choice collaboration empowerment and that are culturally competent so that we may all live in peace free from violence and exploitation now therefore Kershaw County Council does hereby proclaim the month of April as national child abuse abuse prevention month that is the proclamation we have a motion in a second is there any further discussion before we vote yeah I'd like to say something I'd like to say that I appreciate those of you that are standing in support of this I know that we we can all agree that this is egregious and horrific and all we

» have in our life is our own experience and for those that have experienced something horrific like that and grown up in a tough situation we need to do more we need to do more you're doing more thank you for being here thank you councilman broussel any further discussion mr schumacher go ahead again thank you for your work and as many of you know in a prior life i did uh prosecuted human trafficking cases and uh organizations like yours allow victims of not just you know child abuse like we think about but also those are victims of these crimes use organizations like yours to rebound and i've seen the power of organizations like yours there was a young girl a young victim that we handled a case i handled and had it not been for an organization very similar to yours she would have been a ver

» y different way she's about to graduate coastal carolina now and came out of this horrible horrible experience and got on the right foot without organizations like yours stories like that would never happen so thank you all i appreciate it thank you mr shumig thank you mr chairman yes sir um i just wanted to say echo kind of what they said thank you so much for all you do and this is a huge issue and we need continued support and growth in our state uh for the help of it and my mother-in-law who's in the audience right now um was the attorney for dss for years spent majority of her career um i think at one point she represented 13 counties um and so we've heard horrific stories um but thank y'all for all y'all do it's much needed and that's absolutely and she she is a rock and and even Tom

» will tell you he Tom's pretty smart but he says Virginia is as smart as attorney whoever he's ever met in his life well I'm glad that overlap tonight mr. Cato please I wanted to say thank you because seeing firsthand what y'all go through what y'all see it's very difficult now I really appreciate the job y'all do. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Cato. Any further discussion? I'll just mention that the statistics are staggering. These surprised me, but I heard another one that by the age of nine or ten, just about 90 percent of children are exposed to something extremely graphic and terrible, just heinous. And it's not necessarily that you can't control what's happening in your own household.

» It's when they get to school around their friends, you've got to protect your babies at every turn. And so I think this is important. Thank you very much for bringing this up, Ms. parks and let's move it to a vote and then we'll have the group come up no further discussion all in favor raise your hand miss hannah it's unanimous for those who are present and voting miss parks if your group would come up please yes sir thank you very much gentlemen that brings us to the next agenda item very close and near and dear to all of our hearts item 5c honoring the life of mary elizabeth mulligan a proclamation tonight councilman tomlinson do you have a motion i make a motion i'll go ahead and second and so we've got it on the floor i'll share the proclamation we have numerous family members here toni

» ght loved ones and our hearts are tender as we think about the family and friends who have been impacted by the loss of mary elizabeth mulligan she was a friend to all and so i'll go ahead and share this this is a proclamation honoring the life of mary elizabeth Mulligan. Our lives are full of special moments and wonderful memories when a loved one is lost. Sharing those moments and memories through a tribute that beautifully memorializes a life lived provides family and friends with the opportunity to reflect and remember. Whereas the Kershaw County Council humbly honors a life well lived, a life that has left an impact on the lives of family, work, and community involvement that has ended too soon.

» Whereas we pause to celebrate and reflect on the beautiful memories the charming smile and unforgettable personality of mary elizabeth mulligan whereas we offer our deepest condolences to the mulligan family for a special gift in the life of their beloved daughter sister friend co-worker and special loved ones and whereas no words could ever change the way your heart feels right now but know that kershaw county was honored to have such representation from camden south carolina is the palmetto state's top lobbyist and healthcare attorney whereas mary elizabeth mulligan we know that smile is shining bright like a diamond in the sky above us now we therefore proclaim that in camden south carolina this eighth day of april 2025 be it named in honor of mary elizabeth mulligan any discussion counc

» il members yes mr chairman mr thompson please um on behalf of the family we would we're over overjoyed the outpouring support that has been shown from our community it's a blessing just seeing what a community does coming together every single day there's hundreds of calls to family text messages and it we live in a wonderful place it is a true blessing Mary Elizabeth was a quite a go-getter she was this type a as they come she was hard-headed he was sweet she was loving she was a fighter if I can and I'm gonna be very very brief but I don't want to if I get emotional I will I will stop but I think I think I can get through it um so speaking of her being a fighter gee if you know sir Alex my wife Thomas and Mary Elizabeth their black belts and they used to fight growing up Tom would take hi

» m to tournaments across across the country across the southeast and he would always for some reason i'm not really sure why but would put them in age groups two two ages above what the age they were at and mayor liz was fighting at the city arena fighting two age groups below what she was so she was fighting a girl three times her size and the girl was huge and tom looks at her and said you can't you can't lose so she walks on on the mat and starts barking at her beat the crap out of the girl girl had no idea what to do she was terrified and that and that's who she was she was a fighter and she fought to the very end but she was also a loving and caring person she cared about her family very much she cared about she was a sister a daughter she was an aunt she was a professional that I am a

» mentor to me in her professional career she as we look at 38 years and it seems so short 38 years and it is it's a very short time but in 38 years she accomplished more and changed more lives than people do in 95 years and I am blessed personally to have had her as a sister for 27 years and thank y'all my colleagues for doing this thank you very much Brent councilmembers any further discussion yeah if I may go ahead please I never had the privilege of meeting her but I know the family I've gotten to know Brant very well over the last couple of years but you know we walk in this room with something else on our mind typically we walk into this room with some kind of issue that we think is the biggest issue at hand in that moment we walk in here typically to solve problems but seeing Kershaw C

» ounty come together and and just the different people showing support it does say how special she was it also says how special the entire family is in the extended family um i don't know how to put this into words but people have ached for you that you don't even know and this is not because you're the director of dnr or politically connected or anything like that it's just you're a good family of good people from cassett the pine grove to you know all over you have friends um tom you and your wife and i want you to know that casey and i have have ached for you we have three kids and i just don't know how these last days and weeks have been it's it's horrific and we will continue to pray for you and your family and i wish i could put more of my feelings and emotion properly in the words but

» god bless you lean on christ in these moments and for those of you who don't believe who jesus christ is and was and continues to be if it weren't for faith i wouldn't be here and if anybody ever wants to hear more about my experience in life and how god changed my heart i'd be available for for those conversations and god bless all of you okay thank you councilman brasil any further discussion mr cato i'll be brief i i wanted to say a few things uh i wanted to share the first time i ever met mary elizabeth and brand introduced me to her and the time she was introduced to me she treated me as if she had known me my whole life she was that kind of person and every time i saw her after that she treated me like she had known me for more than just a couple of years this family has done the exac

» t same thing to me, and I thank them for that friendship, and I have grown really close to this family over the last couple years. If you look at her achievements as someone, and I tell you, it was our pastor. We had prayer for her and the Mulligan family this Sunday at church, and he said he read the obituary, and he told the congregation, he said, just look at the achievements that she had made in 38 years the contribution she had made to society that's something to be proud of i could not imagine going off of what russell said i have lost some dear friends and some very close loved ones and include my father but i can tell you i hope i never have to experience the loss of a child or a grandchild i could not imagine what that's like my heart deeply goes out to you tom and virginia and i p

» ray for you daily and i hope this in some way helps heal your help helps heal your broken heart jim thank you councilman kiddo mr schumacher please so i've known the mulligan family for gosh since i was 16 30 years i think mary elizabeth was would have been about six or seven you know i can remember every time i saw tom or virginian at their house and she was there she She was always, you know, I don't know if it's possible to be a more welcoming mulligan than Tom or Virginia Ann, but I think she achieved it. Something that whole family is good. You go into the mulligan household and you have to check your wallet to make sure that you're not a mulligan yourself because they make you feel like you're one of their kids. And that's how I grew up.

» At 16, Tom and his family have been mentors to me. Mary Elizabeth became a friend as I got older. And, you know, my heart breaks as well. Everyone up here is a father. you know the social the sort of human condition you know bearing a child is just not something that people are supposed to do and again my heart breaks for this family and you know i was fortunate to come from a good family but if i didn't you guys would have been the first door i went to and i know mary elizabeth would have been there to you know make a bed for me and i just um sorry for your loss and i love your family more than you will ever ever know thank you thank you Mr. Shoemake. Mr. Jones please. I was just waiting for everybody to get through.

» My introduction to the family I think came when my son was a little boy going to Grace Episcopal and all the moms including my wife Marla were fighting over Mary Pat. They had to have her to take care of our son Taylor who you know now is 25 years old that's how long it's been Mary Pat. This is there's been a fist in my gut this entire week um i got to know tom through some mutual black belt friends of ours and and you know you only know if you just like with wrestling mr chairman you build a camaraderie there even if you don't know each other you get to know each other because you have something in common that that you shared and of course i didn't realize that the whole mulligan family were black belts but uh but tom from the very first time i met him and his beautiful wife He welcomed me

» into their home, and I didn't really know Mary Elizabeth well. I had met her, but I cannot imagine. My wife and I have been talking about this every night. We just cannot imagine the pain, the loss of a child. And our heart goes out to you from the Jones family. We love you guys. You know, we can have political differences, and we can sit up here, and we can battle each other and fight with each other. But I tell you what, when something like this happens, it kind of brings reality to you.

» what's really important in life it's not the titles it's not the elections it's not the politics it's family it's friends and mary pat tom virginia you guys should be so so proud at the turnout the outpour of of concern and love for your family through the last week or so but um i've been praying for you we'll continue to keep you on our prayers daily and uh the jones family is always there if there's anything we can do thank you so much thank you mr chairman thank you mr jones if i can get through this i'll share just a few remarks um in talking with councilman tomlinson about putting something like this on the agenda it was certainly not to encourage any sad feelings or any overbearing mourning or anything like that but to celebrate what an amazing life mary elizabeth had and to recognize

» the impact that a a person like her continues to have it's just amazing to really think about and so as hard as it is to be joyful or grateful and reflective and thankful that's the purpose of this is is looking at this moment and recognizing that you've got love and support and i hope that the family and friends who represent the full spectrum of life here. I mean, we've got parents and children and grandchildren, fiance, friends who are like family, co-workers. And in that cross section, there are a few themes that stick out in my mind. In particular, Mary Elizabeth had such a huge impact on me at the state house. I don't know how many of you have been up there, but I went up there and served for about two years. And there's a lot of sausage that gets made at the state house.

» And some of that's not a real savory experience. There's a lot of great things that happen up there too. But in particular, Mary Elizabeth and Maria were lights in my life. Every day I'd get to go out in the lobby or at the halls at Blott or otherwise, I would get reminded about the great people in Kershaw County and why we serve and why we go through some of this process, try to fight for the people that you represent locally. And for that, I'll be ever grateful. She made the experience so much more enjoyable and so much more effective as a consistent reminder of why you serve. And then she would talk about things going on back home or otherwise and get you fired up again. The one thing in my work, I tend to interact with families who have experienced loss quite regularly.

» And the one thing that, other than the gospel, that seems to help is recognizing that all the grief and pain that you feel, that grief is a representation, a direct reflection, of all the love that you never got to share. So in some ways, the more that it hurts, that just means you loved him that much more. And you've got to embrace that in my experience so that you can have the good memories with the tough ones, too. And so that grief, when it comes and it'll come in waves, sometimes it'll be very tough. That represents all the love that you have in my experience. And the saying goes, if you show me a great child, I'll show you some great parents. I've certainly known that to be true as I've looked up to Mr. Tom and Miss V.A.

» my whole life and been very honored to know their children and sons and daughters-in-law. And I'm just extremely thankful and blessed. I hope I'm not stepping too far, but what a perspective that these parents have. In particular, Tom mentioned to me how grateful he was to have 38 years with such a wonderful daughter. I hope that I will adopt that same perspective with my own children, that I will embrace the gratitude and love and gift that they are and always remember that. And so I just wanted to share those remarks. Any further discussion? Council members, thank you so much for your comments tonight, gentlemen. It means a lot. Appreciate you doing this, Mr. Chairman. All those in favor? Ms. Hanna, of course, it's unanimous for those who are voting.

» We do have a plaque to present to the family. You certainly do not have to come up or take pictures or anything like that. We can just hand it off to you. You're welcome to say something if you'd like to in the honor of Mary Elizabeth's memory if you want to. If not, we completely understand. While we get family and friends here, if you want, please come up. Mr. Mulligan, please. I'll do my best. As you know me the best, I'm a bit of a crybaby. I just want to say on behalf of the family, thank you. Thank you for recognizing Mary Elizabeth, and thank you for the tremendous job you do for our community. The last several days have been very difficult. Outpouring from this community, state, world, has been beyond anything we can imagine.

» i won't use the words mary elizabeth would use because you'd have to censor me but i suspect she would have something to say that it's a shame we have to have a death to bring people together what we're reminded of is just exactly how lucky we are to have each other and at the end of the day that's all we have we were blessed for 38 years i'm fine i held i held her for her first breath and i held her for her last breath and that was a blessing and for 38 years in between we watched her grow and give to us and everybody jimmy sometimes that was a woman but she gave all the time and it's a parent we we quote a lot and thank you for russell for invoking the name of god because that's really all you have and if you come into our house you'd see that charlie painted something from psalm 39 show

» me oh lord the number of my days that we might see how fleeting our life truly is our life has been a mere hand breath in front of you we're not here long i hope if anything her death would bring us all together let us move beyond politics and race and gender to heal as a community and to set an example for our state and our nation the apostle paul said in the mamertine prison which was converted from a sewage tank where he sat that we live by three things faith hope and love and love is the greatest of all and so i can tell you on behalf of our family one we thank you our faith is strong continue to hope for a better day and we'd love each of you thank you god bless thank you tom thank you sure mr brazel i don't know what's on the rest of the agenda because i was running late and i haven't

» given it thorough view but there's old billy graham video that talks about the devil's toolbox and the simplest device in that toolbox is a wedge if anybody's got one in their pocket tonight i want you to leave with it i don't want to hear anything negative tonight we got business to do tonight if you got a wedge to drive between me or anybody else in this room take it out the back door we can talk later tonight we're going to get this business done we're going to go home to our families thank you mr brazel i um i just hope that's a great example for for anyone anywhere in the world to have a father pour his heart out like that regarding such a beloved child and how to deal with mourning and loss with grace and faith and love and charity and kindness that's an example which I'm extremely gr

» ateful for I just hope we'll all remember the spirit we felt tonight and I pray for the peace which passes all understanding to be upon the Mulligan family and all those who are impacted with that gentleman I will try to get us back on the agenda I will try to get us back on the agenda next up gentlemen we have item number six public comments it's not a time for question and answers it's time for council to hear from the public in general mr. DuBose do we have anyone signed up yes four speakers first speaker is William Robinson, Knights Hill May Day Festival. Mr. Robinson, please. Good evening, Mr. Chairman, Council Members, and Ms. Hanna.

» Next month, May 10th, we are having the 102nd celebration of the first meeting of African Americans in the Knights Hill community, and we call that day May Day Festival. And I have a poster for each of you to hang wherever you desire but that will remind you of this date to come out to Knights Hill Park and participate in the activities we're going to have the Corvette Club of Columbia's coming back this year horseback riding we have a kids zone there'll be plenty of fried fish and and fries and also other food vendors and information booths as well. So I just wanted to invite you all and to help lighten this load. Thank you, Mr. Robinson. All right. Appreciate it. Appreciate that. Mr. DuBose. Next speaker is Lawrence Gray, Home Internet Line. Mr. Gray. Counsel and Chamber for having me.

» My name is Lawrence Gray. I live on 1549 Sherrard Road. I came up here a couple weeks ago with a personal issue with the internet. I want to thank you first of all for your quick response to it. I believe it was Mr. Tomlinson that got back to me pretty fast about it. I reached out to both of the sources that was given to me. It was AT&T and T-Mobile that were offered to me. I also reached out to the True Vista and everywhere in the city as well, and they said they cannot also put a line to where I'm at.

» I've been there for about five years and for the five years I've been using hotspot and like every time it goes to a storm or anything it goes out and I lose all communication I don't even think I have a home phone line hooked to the area where I'm at and I'm not so far out in the rural area I'm just the only one on my street that has that doesn't have the hookup and they tell me it's gonna be five to fifteen thousand out of my pocket to hook it up myself so I appreciate the response once again, so if you could continue to please try to help and work on that issue for me, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you for coming out tonight. I appreciate that. Mr. DuBose. Next speaker is Tom Webb, 3rd, Letter of Ordinance. Mr. Webb.

» Well, it's time to celebrate 250 years since the American Revolution, since the Revolutionary Era. Many of us have forebearers who fought in the war and fought the bloody British who still don't have a Bill of rights anything like ours, and Germans too. No Bill of Rights. I bring up Germany because George III, King of England during the Revolution, was a German, and our patriots had to fight German troops too, the Hessians. So now both England and Germany seem to have gone off the deep end of socialism, and most of Europe as well. I have heard, and I don't know if it's really true, but I've heard it more than once, if you have acreage in some of the European anybody can just walk around on it any old time with no permission.

» And if in hunting season, if they have what it takes to hunt, they can hunt on your property without permission. I would say it's no real private property at all then. Certainly not private property the way the Americans think of it. So whatever is wrong with them mentally, I hope it's not contagious, and I hope our governments don't get it. How could any of this apply to us? Well, our litter ordinance is a clue. It disrespects our Bill of Rights, Amendment 8, no excessive fines. I could fine you $250 for a little styrofoam cup. It's not graduated. We have a state litter law with a graduated rate of fines, $25 to $1,000. A little bit of litter gets you a $25 fine, and a lot gets you a $1,000 fine. And it doesn't pit the people against the government.

» It's reasonable, and it recognizes private property. So much better than our local litter ordinance. So this cup could get you a $250 fine if you're out in the boondocks with a pickup truck and you don't tie your load down well. Some people are good at tying a load and some are not. This could leak out, and I don't think anybody's going to fine you $250 for it, but it's in the law. They can do it. It's bad to make a law, whether you enforce it or not. It's a bad law. So some people are better at tying things down and some are not.

» i don't have a pickup truck so this is not a 250 threat to me so i'm not going to turn it in tonight thank you thank you mr webb mr dubose last speaker is christine dennis funding for lake watery algae treatment miss dennis thank you for thank you for allowing me to speak tonight my name is christine dennis my husband and i call lake watery our home since may of 2021. we are members of the the Lake Watery Association, and I also serve on the Kershaw County Clean Commission. Protecting the environment and keeping our communities clean are very important to me. Lake Watery is not just for those who live on the lake. Thousands come to the lake every year for the recreational activities it offers, such as boating, fishing, and wildlife viewing.

» 14,000 people who live in Camden, Lugoff, and Elgin area also get their drinking water from our lake. We have a serious threat to the health and the water quality of the lake. Lymbia, also known as microcera walleye, is a cyanobacteria that produces a toxin that's harmful to the fish, humans, and pets. Left untreated, it spreads rapidly, has been seen by what's happened to lake watery since this was first detected 10 years ago. In the last few weeks, Lake Watery Association had over 60 volunteers and 30 boats.

» husband and i included complete a survey to determine the presence of this toxic algae on the lake the last time a survey was done was back in 2021 before and that was done by duke before they actually lowered the water levels to do the dam modifications since that last survey the areas of imp the amount of areas impacted has grown exponentially this algae kills fish obstructs navigation will harm or kill dogs who drink the affected waters in humans it will cause a skin irritation and or skin rashes and in certain certain strains of this can actually produce neurotoxins that can affect other body systems in a human it affects the quality and the taste of the drinking water even if it's treated and for those um i'm sorry in one of the areas that we found Lymbia it was close to the water inta

» ke valves for the city of Camden's water supply. For those homeowners who live in areas with this algae it is unsightly and it smells horrible. In the heat of the summer the algae beds from the lake floor actually grow up to the top of the water surface. In those areas people can't swim, you cannot put your pets in the water, and if you have a boat and you're trying to navigate back to a dock it is virtually impossible.

» when fish try to lay eggs in this they cannot they can't get oxygen to them in the fish and their eggs will die the type of limbia that we have in our lake is very similar to the limbia that's found in crystal springs river in florida and it's actually killing the um the manatee there um this algae will also negatively um affects the property the values of people's property that live on that or live on the lake and have this we live near the dam on the camden side but in the the end of the summer months we actually see mats of this algae float by in the deepest parts of the lake so it can get separated from an area that has it and travel someplace else and most of the places that we've seen have been in four feet four to four and a half feet and below like in the lower um things that we hav

» en't where we've thrown the rake we haven't seen it in places at 10 or 12 feet but we need to act now and start to control and treat treatment and control and treatment measures the longer that we wait the more algae is going to develop and then the cost to treat this will be much higher we are asking for funding from kershaw county to do this lake watery association has actually secured the help of a renowned professor from Clemson University who is an allergy expert for over 30 years of experience and has agreed to be our treatment administrator for free and we need to start our treatment as soon as we possibly can because once this stuff starts to bloom, it gets harder and harder to treat and it usually takes six courses of treatment in a year to basically reduce the amount or control th

» e amount of algae that spread. help us with funding without this this beautiful lake that i live at and that people can enjoy and the why um the abundant wildlife that we have here will will suffer thank you thank you for coming out tonight ma'am mr booze bows does that conclude public comments no further speakers thank you sir thank you for those who came tonight participated this takes us to item number 7a we've got a public presentation uh placed on the agenda by the administrator do we have a motion i make a motion mr thomas can we have a second second got a second uh mr templer any introduction or comment before the presentation uh just real quick you can expect an update uh mr chairman members of council on uh current and future uh trail activities and plans um throughout kershaw coun

» ty as well as some uh planned activities on those trails tom sliker and bob g and george are here to make that presentation gentlemen please first of all thank you for allowing us to come we've been here in the past several times and have just trying to give an update to what we've been doing with kc trails across the county and just as a reminder you know we are a citizen advocacy group so we come together primarily to advocate for more trails throughout the county our main message tied in with that increase in the trails is the benefits that go to the citizens of the county activity out in nature helps your physical activity and excuse me physical health improve as well as mental health so in in addition we want to put emphasis on the youth this year we're trying to do more programs that

» our youths involved example tomorrow we're working with first steps nature is teacher to have a program there for the young youth to get them introduced to nature as teacher and the trails we participate in many community-wide events we're involved in many of the back to school programs we've participated in the kershaw county wellness fair for a number of years we sponsor the first day hike out at goodall state park we're involved in numerous events at nature as teacher and as i mentioned first steps so we continue to remain very active and out in front of the community and like tonight we periodically get out meet with the towns county councils city councils to talk about the importance of nature trails and i want to emphasize too we're always putting safety first in in terms of those ide

» as and we are also encouraging ongoing trail planning Many of the things that we started talking about four, five, six years ago are just starting to come to fruition now. Trail ideas don't happen overnight and it does take time and good planning. The other thing that we do, we put a lot of emphasis on the communications informing the community about trail activity. I've left you copies of Trifold on Casey Trails. The other is the map of the trails in the county, and when we pass these out at events, people love 'em. They just really have not seen anything like it that summarizes the trail availabilities that's here in the county. So we put a lot of effort into the communications.

» As far as current projects, involved with North Central Middle School the idea there is to put a trail around the middle school in the elementary school and connect it to the trail that goes around the high school so that'll give you approximately a 2.5 mile trail in an area where you really don't have anything like that at all so we're hoping to get that one moving along we're waiting on some grant funding but it's a it's a neat neat project down at nature is teacher and many thanks to Duke energy KC trails received a grant for interpretive signage on the nature is teacher Riverview trail this will add to their educational footprint and capability and it's a it's a great trail and it does offer really a good opportunity to for children to understand the different ecosystems that are out th

» ere and we're going to be using Woodard Technical Center for the graphic design on the signage so we're trying to make this really a win-win across the county with the city of Camden we have early discussions on adding two new walking paths in existing parks and we'll be starting to lay out the first of those soon again that's going to depend on grants that should happen in the future I want to mention too at nature is teacher we were involved with them in putting together what was called a rec camp rec camp and that was directed at building resiliency skill sets in in youth and that was a week-long program last year this year we're going to do it uh with uh two two-day camps uh try to hit more children with this uh and divide it out by age groups but it's a very successful program last yea

» r and we got to thank the health services district for the grant that allowed us to do that we are now a 501c3 which enhances our fundraising potential and i'll say we're out looking to partner wherever we can with cities counties or the towns to see where we can just link various grants together over the past couple of years we become much more integrated into the community we work closely with livewell kershaw nature as teacher goodall state park first steps the towns of bethune and elgin city of camden and kershaw county to find ways to improve the well-being of our citizens through a more robust trail environment and trail related activities and i want to mention too it is worth noting that the naturist teacher rec camp that was established last year that came out of the involvement of

» the live well kershaw resilient children and families work group so we're really able to bring a lot of organizations together around the idea of nature and increasing physical activity in nature just in closing from my part we've talked about the last couple of years the potential of expanding the number of days the nature is teachers open to the public i know the county has been moving in that direction we're encouraging to keep on moving we we hear that question all the time people say they're out there on a saturday and they'll say why are we only out here one day a month you know they're looking to be out there more days so anything the county can do to make that happen greatly appreciated by the community i'll turn it over to tom part of what we do is put a lot of trail ideas together

» doesn't mean that every one of them is possible but uh he's going to be talking about the 25 uh in 25. thank you thank you mr chairman mr slacker go ahead you taking taking time with us i want to bring your attention to this uh document here it's called 25 for 25 and these are trail ideas uh projects that are going on uh some of them are just a an idea some are things that are already underway but i'd like to kind of go through real quickly some of the highlights that might affect you all if you go to number one this is a project that we're called open community use in the schools and that's the ability to use school properties for exercise and off hours and for the public and that's been approved for elementary schools and we're proposing that we get that same thing done with the high scho

» ols in the middle schools we're just looking for ways for people to get out and get exercise those properties belong to the county and be great to see them more used for outdoor exercise also I just want to mention if you notice the cover of this anybody know where that is that's Dobie's Mill School they have a nature trail it's it's part of their curriculum they take kids outdoors they teach them to walk they enjoy nature and so we are advocating use of places like that and other opportunities to use school properties number two is what John what Bob just mentioned about nature's teacher trying to help them be open more this is about 800 acres of really prime real estate right on the river that is underutilized it'd be great to see more use of that property Bob also mentioned the trails ou

» t at North Central number five there is watery River Veterans Park the new pier and the boat ramp that that's a something that we just mentioned as a project that is going to get more people outdoors number six the Black River Road project most of y'all are probably aware of this but you know that's that's on schedule that's going include a 10 foot wide multi-use trail for about two i believe it's about two and a half miles along black river road of course you all know about woodward park expansion that'll include some additional trails and another connector over to scott park bolton branch trail now this is just a concept but the bolton branch is goes from uh aaron cloud off all the way out to the camden environmental park there along bramblewood so there's an opportunity to connect from a

» aron cloud all the way to the river there's a few challenges there it's uh there's some private property where they're putting in condos townhouses or whatever and then there's some county property and city property uh and one or two private properties but it's not a lot and um that has a lot of potential to give increased access to the river for citizens veterans part number 10 we're just asking the continued attention to the nature trail you know the tree there's getting to be less and less trees out there and that nature trail takes takes a beating uh 25 mile creek erosion and things like that and so it's just tough to keep up and so we're asking for the resources to to keep that trail in use if y'all haven't noticed good all state park first day hike we had over 200 people out there at

» goodall and the ranger showed us a whole new trail system that they've added about a mile and a half or so of trails 2.4 miles of trails that they've added so getting people out to the parks generates you know the ability to then fund new things so it's a very good positive spiral there a couple more i'll just mention the camden battlefield there's trails under development out there continued signage continued opportunities for people to go out there and walk and learn as well i'll just mention at the top number 15 and 16 these two i've been hearing about from the first day i ever came to camden kind of just dreams but one is the camden rail trail we've got a railroad that goes you know from the other side of italy all the way north on 521 that potentially could be an amazing resource and t

» hen the other is the watery river trail which is on the other side of the river going from veterans park all the way up to the dam there's a real possibility that that could be done so these are dreams and ideas but something to just continue to bring up and keep you guys thinking about um number 20 is an interesting one buck creek this is just i'm throwing this out there but buck creek in lugoff there's a ymca uh property down there uh i don't I don't know if any of y'all have been to Sumter, but they've got that, I think it's called the Shotgun Pouch or something trail, and it goes right by their YMCA, you know, and it's just a little creek.

» But there's some green space over there that I don't know what the plans are, but there's potential there, I think, to use some of those green spaces for more trails to connect people. And that's about all I got. Well, I'll just mention number 23, walking trails at some of the parks. there are still a few places I think Mount Pisgah is one of them that there's interest in having a park out there or some kind of walking trails and some of these other places so and then last number 25 is the 2013 bicycle pedestrian and greenways plan if you haven't seen it if you haven't read it there's plenty copies around I can try to help you get some I know you can get them from Sean Putnam at the city but you know there there were some great ideas laid out in that document and some real good ways to pote

» ntially connect uh you know making it safe to drive to ride a bike you know from one side of camden to the other those kind of things so there's a lot of possibilities a lot of ideas out there we just ask you all to continue to consider that plan and uh look for opportunities to implement more trails throughout the county thank you very much for the presentation and comments uh mr slacker mr g and georgie council members any comments or questions just just very quickly bob and tom thank you so much for all you do you put a lot into your hearts into it and i really appreciate it you know the first the first couple of folks that really started pushing trails since i've been on council almost 20 years was gene wise dear friend my dear friend former chairman gene wise and vic carpenter they wer

» e very big on it that's when i first started hearing about it and of course it takes me a little while things to sink in as to how good certain things can be but uh i appreciate the work y'all do i i think this is a great great thing for kershaw county and just want to say thank you both of you thank you mr jones any other comments or questions council members well i'll tell you i've been here it's my fifth year and um mr bob has been here promoting trails i think every year how long have you been doing this now it would what six years five six years yeah so we've been here i think at least three times yeah oh well is that all you've done a great job you just see him at every other community event right right no really um what you're doing in promoting what we have is one thing because i kn

» ow a lot of people were walking through um between scott park and woodward now woodburn's under construction and a lot of people say hey gosh we you know with all that going on can we still can we still get in our trails so having all these options available is fantastic and i think you got a lot of good ideas in here um to add to it so thanks for what you're doing and tom thanks thanks for what you guys are doing together we appreciate y'all well we appreciate it too and uh russell to your point uh i've heard from a lot of people the last few weeks about the shutdowns at the uh at sky park and and then at woodward but at the same time you know while it's a problem it does bring home the importance of the trails and how much people depend on them and there's no question that you know the mo

» re we do of this the healthier the community is going to be no question we've got many friends that enjoy the trails and talk to casey and i about it um frequently so um definitely part of the community and part of part of what's needed so we appreciate you guys okay and anything more we can do just in terms of ideas or planning uh just don't hesitate thank you thank you councilman brazel hold on let me see if there any other comments or questions from council members any other comments or questions everybody good everybody good thank you so much gentlemen have a great evening all right gentlemen that takes us to item number 8a approval of minutes do we have a motion like a a motion we approve the minutes mr kato is there a second second mr tomlinson any discussion seeing none all in favor

» show by raise a hand miss hannah it's unanimous by those who are in person the minutes are approved that takes us to item number 9a on the agenda first reading a title only can we get some explanation either uh from mr bowes or mr templer yeah this um this ordinance was initiated by fire chief bullard and title only but it seeks to require installation of fire hydrants for minor subdivision developments where there is sufficient water flow the particular legislative findings are not in the shell ordinance that's in the package but the substance of the requested text amendment and the reports to planning commission on the matter are in there for informational purposes uh full ordinance uh with legislative findings uh would be presented at second reading okay with that explanation do we have

» a motion i'll move that we adopt the ordinance mr shoemake has a second there's a second for mr thompson any discussion um mr shoemake has four sorry okay thank you thanks for keeping us straight sir go ahead um i know you said it's it's not complete so a minor subdivision could be uh it could be two lots or it could be nine nine or ten lots um is 10 lots considered minors that the most you can have is that right correct okay so um is it is it a footage what do we how are we going to define the quantity of fire hydrants that are needed so i believe the code right now requires them every 500 feet on frontage so if you had a thousand feet of frontage you might be required to put in two fire hydrants again if you were developing a thousand feet of frontage importantly though this would apply t

» o the non-exempt minor subdivisions and non-exempt subdivisions so for what it is worth there are carve-outs for conveyances to family by gift already in the zldr which states that those are not subdivisions for the definition of something so if somebody were we're dividing a parcel say into thirds and by minimums what a hundred feet on the road frontage is that right i believe so i mean say everybody got 150 foot just kind of ballparking so it'd be 450 foot so they would be required to put one in if one was not within a certain area yeah i believe that would be the end and they would have to work with kershaw county or Lugolf-Elgin Water or the City of Camden or Cassett Water, how would that work? Depending on who the water provider is, they would, of course, have to make sure that there's

» sufficient pressure and fire flow in those locations. Again, this probably will not have impact on many areas of the county, given the fact there might not be fire flow in those areas, but it will capture, importantly, some of the development products that uh development services and fire department have seen crop up which is more of these six and seven unit subdivisions by developers that um as the zldr is written right now are escaping any requirement to put in these critical life life safety so more like an apartment complex that was divided in in a minor subdivision definition well apartment townhomes you could you could yes theoretically you could create seven or eight lots put townhomes on them and you'd still be a minor subdivision right so if if someone in cassett were to split thos

» e those three parcels off of one and there was just residential water line available they'd still be able to split them because this wouldn't be um something that would prevent them from dividing their property well again we're speaking in hypotheticals but if sufficient flow doesn't exist for fire and pressures that development would not require it and again depending on the nature of the subdivision there's state law exemptions from the definition of subdivision and as well as some kershaw county particular exemptions so exemptions may apply in some cases they might not apply in others but if it is a arm's length transaction someone's splitting a parcel into two three separate parcels selling them at arm's length it's no kind of familial gift um yes that would in theory trigger this again

» there's a bunch of caveats it would trigger there but yes in theory it would trigger that so in the hypothetical situation that you and i just talked about it would or it would not prevent them from developing and splitting the property i don't know that it would necessarily prevent anyone from splitting the property it would just require that if a minor subdivision has fire flow it's you know not an exempt subdivision that if that fire flow exists a at least a fire hydrant would be required okay and if cast at water or whomever says that there's not enough pressure on the line that would not be a trigger that stopped the the division no this does not contemplate i think i see where you're going this does not contemplate a scenario where developer wants to split off say three four or five l

» ots and there's not flow and the response from County Development Review and the fire chief is well you've got to upside that line and get water to your site this that that is not what this is addressing it's where the infrastructure already exists and has sufficient pressure and flow that they would be required at that point correct yeah so the under the scenario that we described I'd like to see it in writing I'll support it at first reading but I would like to see the specifics and the details because I don't want it just to be another reason to stop someone from doing what they would like to with a small parcel of property I'm a big fan of mom-and-pops and small business and there are a lot of builders who'd like to buy 10 acres of 15 acres and split it into two or three acre lots and b

» uild nice homes for people in the community um that's not akin to major subdivisions that cause tragic impact um when they build four or five hundred homes in 18 months those are two separate things and so i just want to make sure that we're able to support our small businesses and and our builders that that do like to do those small developments and uh feed their families because that's exactly what they're doing thank you thank you mr brazel mr schumacher you yielded i'm good i support it um i think i've seen a lot of these minor subdivisions popping up throughout the county there's one i'm thinking of specifically in blue golf it's like four little town homes crammed together and an ordinance like this assuming flow is there would require fire hydrant and obviously you know that deal wit

» h insurance premiums um i'm very supportive of it but that's all i have mr thompson you had the second yeah the questions i had mr brazel kind of already taken care of and i also support this i think it's a wonderful thing um public safety is very very important so uh mr jones mr cato any comments or questions just quickly i'd like to thank mr brazel for clarification because you know public safety is one thing bureaucracy is another thing just got to make sure that there's a balance and uh you know like say we if we're going to pass something the questions that mr Rousell asked should be answered should we should have an answer to them so I appreciate you bringing that up thank you Mr.

» Jones we'll get more clarification I guess as we go through second reading I will support on first reading thank you Mr. Jones I'll also support this on first reading I'm in favor of it in part because I remember back early on when we started the fire study and digging into iso ratings first we've got professional staff saying this is something we need but I remember going through the data at that time and some of the main knocks against Kershaw county as we were moving to a full-time professional fire service was access to water flow a number of hydrants and we still had some and i guess we still do in remote areas of the county where perhaps there's now water flow as utilities are expanding water lines in various areas we still had pond agreements with uh folks where you know you're worki

» ng on i guess it's like a sump pump where you have a pond agreement you can drain someone's pond to try to fill back up then rush over to fight a fire somewhere and so either uh the county all of us will end up subsidizing fire hydrants going in particular areas to to improve coverage and access to fire safety or to me it really makes sense that if you've got a new fire protection need in a particular area and i think the cost was relatively minimal it was quoted to me at one point but i i forget for one fire hydrant being built into the front of a subdivision but i think it makes sense and i look forward to getting more information data and looking uh at the actual language and second reading any further comments or discussion seeing none we'll move it to a vote all in favor raise your han

» d miss hannah is unanimous for those who are in person voting all right item 9b can we get some explanation either mr templer and mr dubose before we uh seek a motion yeah this um this proposed ordinance deals with the conveyance of a water main that goes down black river road to mount all that it services the governor's hill industrial park there was a in 2015 county got ria grants eda to build this line of course the county is not in the water business county entered a bulk water purchase agreement with city of camden to get the water to what was in cassette water now kershaw and lee regional water authority then cassit would get it into the actual park at this point with cassit's conversion to the special purpose district they are able to serve the park with their water use this line add

» itionally i believe the cost to the county was 43 000 again many years back the total cost was 780k the county does not have a whole lot in this infrastructure no direct use for it city of camden because there was a bulk water purchase agreement was consulted made aware of the intent today they claim no right title or interest in the lines or use for them the lines are wholly within cassett's territory ria and epa confirmed that the county can transfer it to herschel lead regional water and there were no customers on this until prestige food uh entered the industrial park in 2021.

» all right well with that explanation let's go ahead and seek a motion in second and we'll discuss further is there a motion i'll make a motion to adopt mr shoemake makes motion is there a second second mr thompson has a second all right it's on the floor any further comments or discussion i'm good i understand um the one i have two questions currently this line doesn't generate any revenue for the county no and essentially we would be relieving ourselves of any maintenance responsibility for the line if someone else takes it over correct and that was go ahead i believe there's been a recurring very minimal kind of infrastructure service cost from the city of camden each year i just understand historically it's popped up every now and then with finance and they're like what is this fee well

» it's this fee for a line that isn't really being used um could be used by cassis um and again city has no need for it so to your point there's it's a de minimis fee but in fact the county is paying a or was paying a very small fee to city of camden just to have the right to get their water and this was originally contemplated in the in the original grants that helped fund the project yeah more yes more or less the lease agreement with cassette water at the time provided for a lease of the line but also contemplated an ultimate conveyance of the line to them if and when that was a reality and then final question is this would ultimately allow caset water to better serve you mentioned prestige is the primary customer with the flow that they now consume but allow them to better serve one of th

» e folks that we have a relationship with anyway on the phila basis in kershaw county okay this this provides some ability to serve the park but it would also in theory allow them to perhaps provide heightened services to other customers they have in that service area okay thank you those are all the questions i have any other discussion who initiated this i think the administrator and staff place it on i'm not sure was it a request from cassid or we recognized the contract maturing kershaw only regional water reached out roughly a year ago i know that jeff burgess had been contacted by them or there had been discussions back in even 2023 december of 2023 about that's good i just wanted to have some some knowledge of maybe where it all started thank you okay any other questions or discussion

» seeing none we'll move it to a vote all in favor raise your hand miss hannah it is unanimous thank you you very much that takes us to new business we've got two items from the administrator mr. Templer regarding parks and so let's go with 10 a mr. administrator you want any explanation before we make a motion just that mr. chairman members counsel this is the Casey West Park driveway and parking lot that's been a much-needed item and so we finally have those bids in for y'all's consideration with an identified low bidder. Okay, do we have a motion to approve? I will make a motion to approve. Mr. Shoemake, is there a second? I'll second. Mr. Brazel, seconds. Mr. Shoemake. Yeah, so excited to see this. This was obviously part of something we started a long time ago.

» It's nice to see what we're being worked on. We've got the parks in North Kershaw, so super, super happy to see this. And am I reading this right? Is our Kershaw Builders the low bid? Yes, sir. So the low bid also happens to be a trusted local company, correct? correct i like it i'm supportive of it thank you mr shoemake mr brazel you had the second uh this was well within budget is that correct yes good um well how much did we have allocated i'm sorry it's been spend some time what was the allocation amount so this one has been there were some carryover funds i think to the tune of 900 000 from previous budgets for a parking lot but originally started with a concession stand parking lot but those costs outpaced that funding so this was an aggregate of uh some of the arpa funds that we desi

» gnated for um all of the break or projects rather well i know we came in under bid on the on the recreation project we did so yes some of the camden correct some of the bids were we came in under and some came over just a little bit from the cost projections and so we're just kind of equaling out as we go have we heard from the recreation commission um regarding concession sands and bathrooms at this same facility uh no not to my knowledge i can get an update for you but see where we're at okay i know there was talk about finishing west waterbury councilman jones i think it talked about that and then derek's championed it um this is certainly the top item but i think if i'm not mistaken there were extra there were some extra funds left um in the allocations that that we have from arpa and f

» rom the health resources district that might would enable us to um have a small concessions with bathroom in this as well and i think all of lugoff and elgin would like to see that it would keep kids from crossing the roads back and forth in the parking lot just it'd be a safer environment so if we could also touch on that if you could touch base with recreation commission i'd love to hear about that as well all right thank you mr brazel any other comments or discussion okay if not we'll move to a vote all in favor raise your hand miss hannah it is unanimous for those who are voting in person all right that takes us to item 10b mr administrator once again mr chairman members of council you have another bid to continue our recreation projects this is for the rehab of the baseball facilities

» up at boyd young and copeland parks we had one one bid there so and this is a bid that or a contractor that has worked with us on other wreck projects okay thank you mr templer is there a motion i'll make a motion we'll move forward with this recommendation mr cato has emotions a second mr thompson has a second mr cato this is something that is dearly needed in both westville and bethune these ball fields are extremely old have really need some need some work to them this is something that we've been talking about ever since we started the projects all over the county and i look forward look forward to doing something to these two facilities that's desperately in need of it so i asked my colleagues to support this tonight thank you very much comments questions and mr thompson mr mr chairman

» i just kind of wanted to look at the numbers um this fits within our budget uh that we have now correct it's not going to put any any strain on any other projects and and just to be clear the um you know the allotted funds from the health services and uh musc arpa um these costs because of these projects have gone on for a while costs have escalated as you would imagine but we have identified funding within and it's a nominal amount to get these projects across the finish line through our capital reserves in this coming budget year obviously the goal is to start immediately spending down the money that has a shelf life on it so yep that sounds wonderful i have three little girls on my softball team my 10u softball team currently right now who live in the northern part of the county and uh t

» he other day their mother was uh talking to me about the access to fields and everything i'm very happy to support this and i'm proud of danny cato for all his hard work um making sure that the northern part of the county was taken care of thank you mr thompson any other comments questions just briefly um is it kid pitch by the way yourself yes kids pitches um y'all to come out well i think we got a game um tomorrow if y'all would like to it's uh 5 45 at Casey West, actually, and I've been out there, and there's a concession stand, and the bathrooms are decent on one side, but I agree the other side needs it. It's a long ways. Yeah, there's a lot going on, and I appreciate my colleagues putting a lot of effort into recreation because children are very important to our community.

» I think this is a really good example. You know, we see sometimes, you know, I did a town hall recently that Mr. Templar attended, and I know Chairman Connell is going to be going to a different town hall coming up, hear these questions about these you know services and parks and you know this is a really good example of just how long sometimes the government does take and why it's important that we have a vision that we commit to it if i'm not mistaken you know the vision for a lot of this rec stuff really started before many of us came on it started when uh chairman connell was on i think one of your first years councilman brazman now here we are all these years later two and a half years probably yeah so you know so it's it's this is a really good example of how with a committed vision a

» nd dedication even with the slow wheels of government you know we now have major bids in on all of these projects and making headwind all these projects that's that's really good to see uh i'm very happy in general so it's just a great reminder that we can get stuff done it just it takes time and dedication i'd like to say one one thing mr brazel was was on the phone the last meeting i called danny off guard with a compliment and this is what i'm talking about though he when when we were negotiating um the situation with one another and with the health resources district and we we were talking about matching monies and that sort of thing he he absolutely dug his heels in for his community and congratulations thank you yep any other discussion yes mr jones thank you um actually the first mas

» ter plan for recreation bobby mickle spearheaded it back in 1998 i believe shane you may remember okay maybe i've been here too long but he did he did he did he pushed it the recreation commission was founded and of course everything's piggyback off that and i know councilman catcher you knew him very well fine man but uh that was a that was a big vision of his was recreation he was from the lugoff area um i guess what i was would like to see i see the one million one hundred sixty two thousand whatever dollars but is there is there a plan or is there a um a picture or some kind of guidelines you gotta have a conceptual from alliance wouldn't we yes there are renderings and and um essentially moves some of the fencing replaces the fencing so a lot of aesthetic uh upgrades um but i think one

» of the the nicer amenities is going to be the lighting the led lighting up there um will be replaced so and there is a list of what would we say rehabilitation because quite a lump sum there's a list of what that money's gonna be spent for yes it's it's identified um there's there's um a project outline so i can certainly get that to you if you'd like to look it over well yeah i'd like to see it i mean i'm going to support this for mr cato but i would like to see what i'm voting on when you say rehabilitation if i if i yeah absolutely if i remember correctly it included some fencing it included the new lighting it included um uh turf and redoing of the infields on these because some of these fields are some of this 1980s clay that was dug up out of a clay pit somewhere and it's tough and ha

» rd so it's completely remodifying the ball fields and and i may have and it may be my fault i may have missed it but i just haven't seen anything that It shows me what we're doing, and I'd like to see, I'm going to support it, but I'd like to see what are we doing, you know, instead of just rehabilitation. And as I said, it may have been shown to us earlier, but I just don't remember it. So anyway, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jones. I can certainly support this tonight. I think recreation is one of the more important silos of spending in Kershaw County. I'll just share why real quick, holistically, as I continue to represent the county.

» Whenever businesses are interested in coming to Kershaw County and looking at economic development, one of the questions I get from leaders of those companies is, okay, you say you believe in us. What is Kershaw County going to do to make me say I need to move my people from a different state or different area and have them experience the quality of life for their family members individually, but also their kids in particular with recreation, access to trails, which we heard about tonight access to to water sports access to sports themselves low taxes well that that's the philo arrangement yeah so that's one of the things we definitely address yeah but uh in order to show quality of life that's one of the things people are really interested in is where are my engineers or my c-suite people

» or my workers going to spend their time and enjoy this community and uh youth recreation i think is one of those one of those great things and now that i have a ninth grader, a sixth grader, and a first grader, and they all practice and play at different locations like every night, it seems. God bless Kristen for toting them all around when I'm not able to. I get to see families together more and more in the community engaging this, and I think it's just an important part. And so this all ties together. To me, yes, this is recreation, but it's also part of economic development in Kershaw County because it makes us more attractive. So I can heartily support this tonight. Any other discussion? Seeing none, let's move it to a vote.

» All in favor, raise your hand miss hannah it's unanimous for those who are voting in person all right council member briefings mr cato would you start us off please i will and i'll be short and sweet uh first of all i just want to uh remind everyone of april the 26th um mr robinson talked about the may day in may well mount pisgah community resource center is having a family day car show and a ride event if you want any information numbers or anything to contact they're looking for vendors to set up food trucks whatever the case may be for this april the 26th and you can go on their facebook page mount pisgah community resource center facebook page and get all the information you need in reference to this event we also may have a special event that day possibly a ribbon cutting on the new p

» layground so i'll i'll look forward to that also uh just remind everybody spring breaks next week and schools will be out and if you're traveling or whatever you may be doing just stay safe and be careful because there'll be a lot of people on the road so just have a happy spring break and a good easter and we'll see you see you after that thank you mr cato mr tomlinson thank you mr chairman um i'd really like to thank everybody um again in the community for all the support that our family has received i really appreciate all of my colleagues and their their kind words for my family um it's it's truly a blessing to be loved um and just see love all throughout our community we live in a wonderful place um thank you to staff for all their their hard work we put a lot on staff and they continu

» e to to exceed expectations uh they work tirelessly thank you for all you do each each one of you it means the world to me we're in a good place love kershaw county thank you mr thomas mr jones we love your family i'm glad to be a part of that tonight and and having said that i have no further comments thank you thank you mr jones mr shoemake again i appreciate everything happening tonight as you guys can probably tell i'm a tune's been under the weather so i'll be much more proposed that's why that's why councilman brazel's been sliding away from me and um bathing and hand sanitizer so um but i did move one seat over from sammy just so i could be close to her uh that's all i have thank you mr shoemake mr mr brazel i do enjoy when i get the opportunity to sit next to councilman shoemake um

» we we have fun as do sammy and i um hearing councilman cato say april 26 reminded me that my middle child davis's birthday is next wednesday we spent the day together today and don't get to do that often enough and um you know reflecting on on the situation tonight with with your family brant and life is fleeting it seems like i was 24 25 years old just just a few weeks ago and here i am 46 with a 21-year-old, an 18-year-old next week, and my youngest child is 14, and I am slowly becoming an older man. And we continue to, it happens, continue to praise God for every day and be thankful for those that we love. So with that, that concludes my remarks. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Chairman. I have a few remarks.

» You know, there's a lot of bravado that occurs in these meetings sometimes, and in its simplest form, I think we're reduced down to just saying sometimes, and we don't say it enough, Brant, I just love you, man. I love your family. I'm so grateful for them, and there's no filter applied to that. For any of these gentlemen up here, there's no filter applied to that. I try to love you all unconditionally. If you ever need anything, you let me know. The Mulligan family is amazing. I really do hope people will take that to heart as an example of how to deal with difficulty and mourning with grace and faith in Heavenly Father. I'm going to take that as an inspiration that I'll remember the rest of my life. I want to congratulate the Lady Gamecocks.

» We have Joyce and so many other basketball influences from this area, but Joyce Edwards played the national championship game. They didn't get the result they wanted, but you better believe they're going to be working hard next year, I'm sure. And so I want to congratulate that team on reaching the national championship yet again. For the council members and administrator, I just wanted to let you know or remind you, And I've already told staff this, April 22nd is the deadline for submission for house-related funding requests for the state government.

» And so if there's a particular funding request, and please keep in mind our budget is extremely tight this year, we would do well to direct it to the state delegation and state government because we get taxed and so many of our funds flow out of this area and go up there and then they get repatriated to areas all over the state. We need to justify and show why funds should come back to this area.

» how the process works and so if there's a particular issue like i'm thinking of the lake watery algae issue or i've had fire service reach out to me any other requests that you would want to put together please get the information and we can shape it into a format that will be easily understood by the ways and means committee and the delegation so they can submit applications but please put those together otherwise i'm not going to feel too bad if i if i hear we needed some funds for something and after this meeting you didn't tell me hey this is what we needed some dollars for um all right that concludes my remarks that yes sir can i say one thing because i was about to forget and i don't want to get in trouble yeah what you got i just want to i needed to take the time to wish my mama a ha

» ppy birthday oh my beautiful christian mother she did yeah gave me life and happy birthday with all of my shenanigans we want you to make it to the next meeting so i better tell you i know she's i know she's watching so happy birthday happy birthday i think you should sing it indeed no no no i don't like i said we want them to make it to the next next meeting all right thank you so much uh administrator briefing anything mr templar yes sir just one real quick thing um the virtual county public safety public safety agencies have asked me to share with y'all that this year they will be putting on the special olympics out at the camden military academy it will be the champions in action that will be on april 25th at the camden military academy starting at 9 00 a.m the spirit in that was to jus

» t kind of give cletus ray and his team a little bit of a break so they're going to help them through the process this year so that would be kershaw county fire service kershaw county ems kershaw county sheriff's office as well as kershaw county dispatch so i just wanted to what was the location again uh camden military military okay april 25th at nine o'clock thank you any other report that's it sir thank you um mr attorney mr bows anything other than executive session items no sir all right gentlemen that takes us item number 14.

» i'll take this as a group motion um we have a b and c these are all matters that will be covered by sc code 30-4-70 one of them is regarding a matter covered by attorney client privilege another item b is regarding contractual negotiations and item c is also a legal briefing and advice regarding a potential claim covered by attorney client privilege do i have a motion to enter executive session we'll make a motion we enter executive session second there's a second any discussion seeing none all in favor ms hannett's unanimous in favor we We are in executive session. I was going to ask if we anticipated a vote. Yeah, and I'll state for the public, I think we do anticipate one vote on a contractually related matter after executive session. Gentlemen, quiet one moment, please.

» I was just going to state for the record, we do anticipate one vote for the public's benefit after executive session. That would be regarding a contractual matter. Do we have a motion to exit executive session? I'll make a motion. Second. We've got a first and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none. All in favor of leaving executive session? It is unanimous, Ms. Hanna. We are out of executive session. We have one matter to vote on, a contractual matter related to the jail post-executive session. It relates to item 14B on the agenda.

» I make a motion that we authorize the administrator to engage in emergency procurement pursuant to section 2-37 of the Kershaw County Code of Ordinances to retain the services of advanced correctional health or health care make sure i have the name of the company correct ach is how they're known and doing business as i move that we authorize the administrator to retain their services to provide inmate health care services for the kershaw county detention center until the county completes a procurement process for a longer term contract for inmate health care services in the next fiscal year that's my motion I'll second. Mr. Schumacher has a second. Any discussion? Would you give some numbers? Mr.

» Administrator, can you update us on any potential numbers related to retention of services for ACH? I don't have that document. Gerald's coming up. I'll get it for you. If I could, Mr. Administrator, can I make a point or two to help you in this matter? Mr. Brazel. We were put in a circumstance that would have cost us dearly had we not moved quickly. Is that correct sir? Yes. We made some quick moves over the last two to three weeks to retain someone else who could provide health care services for us and that company is ACH is that correct sir? Yes.

» And within 12 months we will have a request for proposal for a longer term contract in which we'll be open bidding to everyone but in this moment we will have a emergency funding to keep the funding source as close as possible to where it was, and it would save us quite a large amount of money, over a million dollars, is that correct, sir? - It saves a significant amount, but it prevents us from having to go with a plan that we are not currently funded for, so it puts us back in a line with what we had previously, but there are savings, significant savings.

» swift fast movement by our administrator um we're gonna move forward and uh we're gonna make a deal with these people moving forward we're gonna put it out for bid and maybe we can save even more money next year thank you sir thank you thank you mr brazel any other discussion comments questions do you do you have a response to mr jones question uh so the mr jones we will start out with this uh service these this initial for the the first 90 days the price per month is 104 000 412 41 that's because they are coming in and deploying in a in a rapid manner to get their services stood up from there on out it goes up to 69 000 a month which is 9 000 more than what we're spending now which is a tremendous amount less than what we were being faced with. Correct. Very good. Thank you, Mr.

» Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Templer. Thank you, Mr. Brazel. Yeah, Mr. Administrator, is that good, Mr. Jones? Okay, Mr. Administrator, I believe that is roughly a savings of $400,000 to $500,000, $450,000, somewhere in that range. We were looking at 1.2 plus to continue on the current path on a renewal that no one likes, essentially, or we lock in with the company for a year plus and then go through uh procurement okay and let the record show that we all agree this is not the way we should be doing business but bottom line is it's the best solution we got right now and i fully support this makes sense and i just wanted the numbers out there for the for the public record thank you sure thank you any other comments discussion questions seeing none we'll move it to a vote all in favor raise your

» hand miss hannah it's uh unanimous in favor on uh the vote following executive session for 14b thank you very much seek a motion to adjourn so moved second we got a second no discussion all in favor it's unanimous miss hannah we are adjourned thank you