Full meeting transcript - August 11, 2026

» good evening everyone let's be called to order here on this kershaw county council meeting tuesday august 11th 2026 school is back in session and everybody's been getting back in the swing of things glad to have you here tonight to start off we have an invocation which will be led by councilman danny cato let us pray heavenly father i just thank you so much for this night for this time that we have to fellowship together here do the work of your county dear heavenly father we just thank you for your love your grace your mercies that you bestow upon us each and every day dear heavenly father for the love that you give us for the love that you have bestowed upon us in this county for giving us such a great place to live and to raise families dear heavenly father i ask that you'd be with us to

» night as we conduct the business in this county lord that you'd help our hearts and minds to be clear in doing what we need to do that we think would be the best way to go for this county heavenly father we just ask that you'd be with the men and women in our arms forces that you'd be with our emergency personnel and our law enforcement throughout this state lead god direct them and bring them home safe lord forgive us of our sins and our shortcomings for us in your precious name we pray amen amen 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.

» the agenda make a motion we adopt the agenda as submitted mr tucker has emotions they're second on the agenda second we have a second any discussion on the agenda any discussion remotely mr shoemake none we'll move it to a vote how do you vote mr shoemake on the agenda yes that's a yes remotely for mr shoemake all those uh in person raise your hand if you're in favor on the agenda ms hannett's unanimous the agenda is approved that moves us on to proclamations item number five a placed on the agenda by councilman danny cato honoring former sheriff steve mccaskill who we see here today along with family and friends and supporters do we have a motion i'll make a motion sure do we have a second approving this proclamation we have a second any discussion at all before we move to a vote and can h

» ear more from mr kato since i've got the floor now we'll move it to a vote for those who are present all in favor raise your hand it's unanimous in favor of those who are present and voting mr shoemake how do you vote on the proclamation 5a absolutely yes that is a yes from mr shoemaker remotely ms hannah it's unanimous for the record mr kato you have the floor this is an honor for me to present this tonight and i want to read the proclamation and i'll have a lot more to say after that but tonight's proclamation is honoring steve mccaskill and it says whereas former sheriff steve mccaskill has dedicated 36 years of extraordinary and exemplary public service to the citizens of kershaw county and whereas during his tenure as sheriff from january 95 to january of 2011.

» he just demonstrated exceptional leadership integrity and an unwavering commitment to public safety and whereas former sheriff steve mccaskill successfully implemented vital community initiatives and significantly improved the quality of life for our residents and whereas his career was defined by a profound sense of duty earning the deep respect of fellow law enforcement officers community leaders and public alike. And whereas former Sheriff Steve McCaskill started his career in law enforcement in 1975 under the late Sheriff Hector DeBruyne and worked his way through the ranks as deputy, shift supervisor, narcotics supervisor, and chief deputy.

» And whereas during the 16 years as sheriff, he had many accomplishments to include the FBI Academy in '96 and received a bachelor's degree in 2006, he also overseen the handling of many big cases and growing, changing culture in Kershaw County. He also oversaw the construction and design of the present-day Kershaw County Sheriff's Office in Lugo. Whereas the retirement of former Sheriff Steve McCaskill took place in 2011 with 36 years total service and dedication to the citizens of Kershaw County, which marked the conclusion of a distinguished chapter in law enforcement history within Kershaw County.

» And now, therefore, be it resolved that Kershaw County Council do hereby Officially proclaim in Kershaw County and call upon all citizens to join in expressing heartfelt gratitude for the dedicated service, leadership, and lasting legacy of protection and community care in honor of Steve McCaskill. Thank you so much, Mr. Cato. You still have the floor. You know, I really don't know how to start. I've got so much to say. I worked for this man for 15 and a half years. We've remained close ever since the last day. He was part of a changing time in Kershaw County and in law enforcement, probably like none other. We've seen the computers come into play in the 90s. We saw cell phones come into play. We saw e-mails come into play and the Internet come into play, social media come into play.

» He was the first sheriff to ever have the bloodhound unit, a narcotics canine, a bomb canine, a boat patrol. He established the Resident Deputy Program, which at one time I was a part of. He brought in the very first polygraph examiner to the Kershaw County Sheriff's Office, which was David Tomley. He was also his captain over investigations. He established the first CERT team, which was the Sheriff's Emergency Response Team. That included a building entry team, well-trained building entry team, a police sniper team, which I also was a part of.

» were well trained and also hostage negotiating he had several hostage negotiators that were well trained and sent off to learn how to negotiate he brought in an uh equine search and rescue team and mind you this was done by volunteers it would really was very little cost to the kershaw county sheriff's office he had two fine men that he brought into this county as his chief deputies roger latham who passed away unexpectedly and jim tommy who was his second chief deputy after chief latham left us i can't say enough sheriff about what you've done for me and for this county and i appreciate it and i i wouldn't be i wouldn't have made the career out of it that i did if it hadn't been for you and that's the truth um i couldn't say any more without saying lastly thank you to miss becky um you kno

» w my wife's here tonight and she'll tell you that it's not easy being the wife of somebody in law enforcement when that phone rings at night it don't just wake us up it wakes them up when we come home in an ill mood it don't affect just us it affects them and there's a lot of sacrifice in your family and i think his children so maybe his grandchildren and miss becky are all here tonight and i know others has got some things to say and i got the everything i want to present to y'all tonight but again my heartfelt thank you he was the second longest serving sheriff in kershaw county history so far and what you did for us and the changing of those times will never be forgotten so i thank you thank you mr cato well said any other comments or discussion from council members who are present i do

» mr jones you know Sheriff McCaskill and I go way back. I can remember when he first walked into Hector Brule's sheriff's department, which was right over here at the courthouse. He was standing there. I said, what are you doing here? He said, well, I just got a job as a deputy sheriff. I said, well, I was hired last week. And then I'll tell you something about him, too. We were in Boy Scouts together. He may not realize this. He made Eagle Scout. I made Tenderfoot. I think they kicked me out. I was running my mouth so much. Steve at McCaskill, I have much respect for.

» he has he's got deputies now that still tremble when he walks by you knew who was the sheriff you knew who was in charge he gave my son a start and uh and jamie today if steve mccaskill walks by he trembles because he he was a sheriff if you didn't want to be locked up don't break the law and that's the way he stood he was a man of the law he stood by the law and sheriff steve mccaskill i have much respect for you and your family and miss becky you have stood by him if you see one you see both and it's a beautiful family here tonight and danny thank you for bringing this and doing this thank you thank you mr jones mr kato yeah one more thing for anybody else goes forward i know that we've got several deputies here tonight it was brought to my attention earlier tonight and and sheriff bone w

» anted me to uh tell y'all that he couldn't be here tonight he is in north carolina in a class and he really hated that he couldn't be here tonight but i think there's only six deputies in the sheriff's office right now that worked under sheriff mccaskill now i mean it's been a while but we're getting old six of them i'm getting old too but if there's only six left and i just wanted to share that before anybody else thank you mr cato and mr jones mr tucker excuse me thank you mr chair sheriff steve mccaskill mr walking tall that's that's the way he carried himself that's the way he ran his department and um i want to tell you thank you for uh the many years of just excellent service and being willing to always put yourself on the line and expect the same out of your deputies to deliver first

» -class service not everybody can do it and not everybody should do it but you you had your way of handling that sheriff's department and your law enforcement team um that uh no other will probably ever be able to repeat and with all respect um i i often tease the new sheriff and the sheriff before him that came after you how can sheriff mccaskill run this department on a string shoestring budget and now y'all asking for 10 million dollars so i might need to send them around there to get some budget uh lessons from you but um i want to tell you thank you and what an awesome job i want to thank miss becky and the rest of the family matt and all them as well because it does take a team and miss becky was serving in the public side too because she was working in our medical system which is dema

» nding as well so you guys have really given all you had to this county and to these citizens and um i can't say thank you enough and this is well well deserved and should have happened some time ago in my opinion but thanks again and i still continue to wish you well and let you keep making birthdays thank you sir thank you very much mr tucker other council members who are present yes sir thank you mr chairman if i might might add something to it uh sheriff mccaskill it's good to see you tonight and and your wife it's good to have you uh with us you were the sheriff of my generation and I think for me as I sit here and listen to everything that Danny had to say all the good things I'll say this Danny talks about you a lot there's a tremendous amount of respect with with Danny's referencing

» you in a lot of conversations where you're not around and I'll say that in a very positive way um he's looked up to you because you led and um being the sheriff of of my generation i say that as i was looking at your tenure you became sheriff when i was a junior in high school i didn't want to find out who the sheriff was when i was a junior in high school you don't find out who steve mccaskill was right but i knew who steve mccaskill was i'm glad we never met any further back in those years but um a family a fine reputation in our community um friends of ours and always pleasant anytime we've ever ran into you i'm just so so happy tonight to be a part of this and and to be able to um help present this danny thank you for for putting this together this is top-notch fantastic um you deserve

» every kind word and more so we we're so proud that you were such an integral part of kershaw county thank you amen thank you mr brazel and the statute of limitations i believe has run on anything else you may have been involved in back in those days any other council members who are present have any other comments or discussion um mr shoemake remotely any comments or discussion just very briefly when i was uh a young teenager sheriff mccaskill uh allowed me to ride in his patrol vehicle to take senator dole back to the airport during a british campaign and for a flooding political nerd like myself that was enormous and those small acts say a lot about somebody because he didn't have to do that that's something i remember every time the election cycle comes around that was something especial

» ly good for me i'm one of thousands of stories like that but thank you sheriff it's a great honor and thank you captain in case of putting this on the agenda well he's definitely a legend thank you mr shoemake um i'll just conclude before we have you come up and i believe we've got the resolution here uh and a picture with any family you want to bring up as well that i was a young man if i ever was i was a young man whenever you were serving as sheriff and always remember you being an example in the community everybody looked up to you and more importantly everybody uh respected you and feared you a little bit which you might need if you have that occupation everybody looked up to you and you're a good example and I appreciate that very much any other comments or discussion mr.

» Cato do you have the resolution mr. McCaskill would you like to come up and bring any family members you'd like to come up here with you mr. McCaskill I was just going to mention that you can feel free to share any remarks if you like we can do it after this or before at your leisure. Come on up. Let's take a picture. It's just a plan. I want y'all to look at the sun. I'll just recognize you. We need the front line to stand in this right now. Can you all on the front move two steps to the left? Don't be so bossy, Martin. Not you guys. Thank you. Congratulations. Yes, ma'am. Oh, I think Rock, chief deputy with the sheriff's office, has something also that he wants to share with the sheriff. Yes, sir. You're recognized. Thank you, Jim.

» This is a token of our appreciation from the Sheriff's Office. This is the actual badge of the letter that's currently at the Sheriff's Office that we can share. So we put it on for a plot for you. That's cool. Well, wishes to you. And it says, honoring Sheriff Steve, Sheriff Steve and Steve McCaskill, 1995 to 2011. Thank you for your honorable and dedicated service to the citizens of Churchill County. Your commitment and service truly made a difference. Amen. that's all thank you thank you rock sheriff mccaskill i'd just like to say thank you you know everybody Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Cato. Mr. McCaskill, Sheriff McCaskill, we'll give you a moment to clear out. You don't have to stay. You can if you want to.

» Any family members or friends that want to depart are able to do that as well. And then we'll get back on the agenda. That's part of what makes Kershaw County special. Yes. Thank you again, Mr. Cato. Gentlemen, back on the agenda, right on time with item number six, public comments. Mr. DuBose, do we have anyone signed up for public comment tonight? yes there are nine speakers signed up for comment first speaker is julie strickland revolutionary is the subject miss strickland i'll just say as you're coming up this is a time for council to hear from the public it's not a question and answer uh the time that's been allotted by the council will show up on the screen and yes ma'am look forward to hearing from you well some of you know me most of you probably don't but i just want to tell you a

» little bit about what happened on June 18th in Baltimore Maryland. As you all know in the Battle of Camden. Take your time June. Excuse me. The Battle of Camden there were many people who died. 14 of them were found. One of them was my fifth great uncle. His name is Thomas Pumphrey. He was 13 years old when he joined. He was probably about 18 when he died. Well, he was 13 to 15. We are coming up on the well-known celebration anniversary of the Battle of Camden, and the ceremony will be held Saturday at 10 o'clock at the battlefield, and it will move from there to at 1130 to the cemetery, where there will be wreaths laid on the graves of the soldiers. My uncle was the first to be made known, but y'all, there are 11 more that don't have a name.

» I'm asking that during this time you still remember all of them. It touches my heart too much, and I'm a softie. Yes, ma'am, you're doing fine. I'm asking that anything that you can do, you know, keep in your prayers. We still have 10 more that need to be funded. We have one more that's almost funded. His name should be announced very soon. I don't know how soon. But I know that they're close. Just keep the others in your prayers so they are also fully funded. They deserve their name back too. Amen. And let's just all pull together as much as we can to make this happen. It's very costly, very costly. And I'm here to remind everybody tonight that nothing good comes free. And I just think about that young boy on the battlefield. I have grandsons his age.

» And he fought for our freedom and our independence. that we have and enjoy today he didn't get to see that happen his family did and be owned on behalf of the whole humphrey family i want to say thank you very much i want to say thank you for letting me stand up here and speak and cry in front of you i want to thank the people who spoke that day in baltimore and also the ones who took such precious care of those phones as they were taken to the coroner's office and carefully preserved to be for burial later i want to thank everybody involved in identifying the dna and making matches they're making good matches right now on 11a my uncle was number 9b and now he has a name but allison peacock cindy despaul and valerie kemp did all the dna work and it's very tedious and it's very lengthy and i

» t's very in-depth and you don't get it done quickly the forensics that i heard speak the man with the forensics was rick wise here from south carolina and stacy ferguson is with the battlefield preservation trust right here in south carolina and i want to thank all of them let's just keep the faith that they're all named i got mine i want other families to have theirs thank you mr but except for this if you'll accept this miss temple you can hand the documents to mr templar and you can keep one y'all can keep one i made enough um at the bottom of the page is the full history on john pomfrey it's a website so that you can look him up and the battles he was in he actually was in valley forge with george washington and he fought many battles before he re-upped for his second time and he died a

» year and a half after that thank you very much mr strickland thank you thank you thanks for coming out tonight mr devos who do we have next on public comment next speaker is andrew whitaker project transparency mr whitaker say uh mrs strickland uh we certainly remember good evening crucial county council it's been a while uh i'll be brief uh just questions for your consideration not answer but for your consideration some of which you've no doubt asked yourselves but i'm sort of worth publicly uh mentioning these we all know that growth is coming is here for kershaw county it's all in the how how is it best for kershaw county to grow do we all want kershaw county to end up looking like richland county a county today that is one of cleared land and concrete we have all thanks to you all a ker

» shaw county comprehensive plan are we still being guided by following that plan and if not why not up to now kershaw county council has been working sharing very transparently which is great to see with kershaw county citizenry citizenry on all upcoming business why has this transparency changed where the power in next door bishopville lee county right down the road is concerned have you also noticed this change yes it's not in our county but it is so close it might as well be especially over 900 acres what is the actual full scope intended use of the proposed and approved 900 acre gas power plant so close to kershaw county is it only to underpin both kershaw county and lee county power needs for our growing populations or is it a plant to prepare power as a yet to be shared but planned ai

» data center in kershaw county lee county borders have any of you been asked to sign ndas where this project or any other county adjacent project is concerned is kershaw county lancaster's proposed industrial park project acreage purely speculative or do we already have tenant company contracts fully executed and lastly how do we want kershaw county lee county skyline to end up looking like do we all want toll timbers or toll stacks for kershaw county and lee county skyline and our air quality thank you thanks for coming out mr whitaker yep mr dubose who do we have next on the public comment section next speaker is brian mccarty problems in my neighborhood is the subject ryan mccarty mr mccarty yes sir yes um i've made inquiries online and stuff and it's just been a big problem in my neighbo

» rhood and i mean i'm sure y'all are aware of because of all the waterly stuff let me just ask mr dubose do we already have his address um i don't have an address but there's certainly a contact uh okay all right yes sir um this past year i was i got up one morning and i went left out and i went down to georgia and i had no idea it was the moderator came through this is fine they do that periodically not near as much as what we needed which is another subject that i'll address but when i got back home i already had any water but i don't know it's to me the motor grader literally went off the road crushed my water main broke it didn't do anything about it this might sound ironic i mean it's a lot of them laughed at me about it but they they bill me for five thousand dollars you can imagine a

» five thousand dollar water bill i don't even have a swimming pool but motor grader actually went across my water meter crushed it down a foot and a half said i still had water i had no way to turn it off so it's been a thing back for between the county that's a water company they're bickering over their lines aren't deep enough in but what's that got to do with me i didn't put it in i just ran to my house um since then man it's been what since last year of november until now i've actually got phone pictures on my phone i took them this evening it's still that amount of dirt the prong that was another problem there's no drainage out there all the pipes are closed clogged off with all the the gravel and dirt his thing of correcting the problem he took his plow and carved the whole side of the

» ditch you know where for the road he carved out a big swatch and just piled it up there now you know what happens all the water up in the neighborhood comes down the road and floods my yard over my ankles deep now partial my yard looks like a river has run down through there with all of gravel i've made the comments complaints they have not yet fixed this not as of yet i've talked to the county they blame them like i said it's a bigger back and forth i actually had to threaten to get an attorney to get my money back i don't know if they did anything to the motivator operator i mean i don't know what kind of coffee drove that he drank that morning but wasn't good coffee obviously but there's another issue out there which I sent up to one of the uh uh administrators I recently back in Februar

» y had an unfortunate accident I broke my back in two places and the disc was blown between I had my dog out in the yard he's always on a leash always I don't I just I've got a k-block I won't leave him here's the reason I don't put him on on the tether there's dogs everywhere in my neighborhood that particular morning here come a dog a third bigger than him now he's over 100 pounds mine he's not a joke especially if you go after daddy he is time to k-i-l-l he's not gonna play with nobody but he never gets away from me i'm there with a broke bag i had to pull my firearm out to make that dog back off after that another guy's walking his little pup pit bull the dog attacks his pit bull he has to literally bend down and throw sand in that dog's face to get his dog and leave now if that had been

» a toddler or kid wouldn't have been a good news wouldn't have been a good outcome don't you don't you think so that would not have been good mr mccarty i meant to do it on the first speaker but i always try to give people just a little bit of extra time beyond what the council has allotted so i'd either ask that you conclude your remarks or we can seek a motion from the council if they want to extend the time in any way are your remarks about done or do you need i'm just i'm fixing to wrap it up yes sir the thing is what i mean what is it going to take i mean i went straight to the top with emails and the county's not doing anything about the the road or anything and the drains are still stocked up apparently they're right because we got another water main this past weekend but i mean and i

» appreciate y'all's time and i hate to complain but i'm not being comfortable sitting here waiting in line and i appreciate everybody else that's just done and if you would please help me get something done thank you for coming out mr mccartney 33 persimmon drive okay thank you oh and uh somebody's terrorizing the neighborhood out there tearing the road up and if you look on persimmon drive on the corner you'll find the truck it's a gold dodge yes sir thank you thanks for coming out tonight mr dubose who do we have next on public comment next speaker is william holland uh data center issues mr holland good evening yes sir touch base on just a few hundreds of issues with data centers that are going up everywhere in this country and actually everywhere in the world you can google them yourself

» but these are just a few that could happen here various news outlets reported that in february 2026 the cheyenne wyoming board of public utilities found cupreovitis galardi in the water the city cleans and recycles this bacteria is metal resistant that happens to be one of the primary ways of killing bacteria according to the journal of clinical microbiology this bacteria can be and has been fatal the bacteria was traced back to 800 000 square foot meta data center which had not opened yet it is a closed loop facility and it had to go through what they call a flush and fill procedure before opening where the pipes were drained and refilled with clean water the drain water the drained water was then sent to the local wastewater treatment facility via sewer system to be cleaned and recycled i

» t's either that or they dump it on the ground if there's no regulations so they sent it to be cleaned okay a couple months later routine testing found the bacteria after the water was already in the plant so the cheyenne wyoming had to close down that part of the plant for two months to disinfect it's a it's a metal resistant bacteria okay i had other comments or more information on that but we don't have time so june 15th kpbs out of san diego reported on a lawsuit filed against the imperial valley irrigation district this was filed by imperial imperial valley computer manufacturing which applied to build a mega data center that would use 750 000 gallons of water per day they pledged that they would not use drinking water but they would use wastewater from nearby towns okay the negotiation

» with these towns fell through okay this is a private corporation going to these towns to use their wastewater now that it fell through where these towns wouldn't acquiesce to the private corporation's demands they are suing an imperial valley superior court to draw 260 million gallons of water per year from the colorado river the colorado river is in drought right now it is some of the lowest levels in for a longer period than has been seen in decades according to salt lake tribune experts say that the river is heading towards a system crash i assume they mean out of water according to the bureau of reclamation 40 million people across seven u.s states and northern mexico get all or some of their water from the colorado river so you can imagine what will happen when they put these online an

» d my third thing is this guy named doug sievey he is the ceo of inceva llc a data center company he lives in payload iowa i'm going I'm gonna read what he said to council parts of it. City council. He said, "I've called the mayor and suggested I get put on some kind of a committee because I am payload's resident expert. I build data centers. I own data centers. I built the first private data center in the state of Iowa and everything that Google is telling you is BS.

» I have a data center right now that's running in Hiawatha for 14 years that's never used one gallon of water mr holland yeah i'll just mention that your time has expired as a lot of by council if you're able to conclude please yes okay google is telling you what they want you to know the developers don't want you to know that they have technology they can use that doesn't require water but it costs too much for them they want to make a profit okay in conclusion there are too many variables and too much at stake to allow data centers to be hastily approved and built in this county without any regulation research must be done to assess the best design for the least impact on the community without regard to the cost of the developers they'll go home to the different states we have to live with

» it i suggest an independent committee of stakeholders be assembled consisting of environmental experts engineers members of the community who will be impacted by data centers to do necessary due diligence before any data center is given the county's blessing. Thank you. Okay, thank you for coming out tonight. Mr. DuBose, who's up next? Linda Franklin Moore, topic is moratorium. Miss Linda, yes ma'am.

» I want to recognize my house member, Robert Reese, for coming out tonight and listening to our concerns um i don't i know he didn't sign up for public comment but maybe if there's a council member that during their council report will give representative reese a few moments i want to thank councilman jones for initially putting this moratorium question on the agenda i would also like to thank councilman kato brazel and tomlinson for signing on as well we should follow the example of sumter county and establish separate moratoriums for data centers solar farms and battery storage facilities south carolina does not have a single comprehensive statewide regulatory law for data centers though lawmakers are considering multiple bills to establish legislation that should be scary to us that there

» is no regulation whatsoever we're right for the picking um that being said there should be no industry that should locate in south carolina that has zero regulations i don't care if you're talking about data centers toy makers whatever it is that every industry should have some type of regulations um councilman uh the chairman stated in a previous meeting that the power plant that project ballast the property it was a permitted use and the only thing that council had to vote on was the fee in lieu agreement i paid attention and so therein we should make sure that we have regulations because although a lot of these data centers are coming into industrial parks multi-county industrial parks we need to make sure that there are regulations and not just some zoning law saying that you could be t

» here and you know come what may i understand council is on a deadline of october 31st of this year to place real property into the multi-county industrial park and maintain it for the life of the fianlu agreement which i read in its entirety thus item 10b on our agenda tonight again i would like to urge council to have a moratorium to allow the state to be able to enact a statewide moratorium as well as to come up with some state regulations thank you thank you miss franklin moore appreciate you coming out tonight mr dubose who do we have next next speaker is lynn kanto moratorium miss kanto yes ma'am good evening my theme is going to be let's get it right not let's get not get her done meaning let's take our time and get this right i'm going to recommend a two-year moratorium on data cente

» rs in kershaw county for multiple reasons kershaw county serves all residents and property owners living within the county boundaries it's apparent the residents of kershaw county have very serious concerns about the potential of a data center coming here for very good reason once the fee in lieu of tax was approved for the gas power plant kershaw county became a national target i mean national target for potential data centers. It is like we are waving the white flag saying we surrender, we have plenty of space for a data center, and not only that, we have no guidelines or regulations for a data center. You don't think they're looking really hard at us? A two-year moratorium would allow for the county to plan appropriately for potential risks for a data center.

» I'm going to give you a risk. My father passed away several years ago, but I got a letter for him. It says, Dear James Cheely, this is a notice of data breach. Unlimited technology systems had a security incident at their data center. This occurred back in October of 2025. The letter was sent out on July 20th, 2026. It affected 3,800,000 people. That meant that a lot of information was given about the people. Let me tell you what information. Their names, date of birth, social security, home address, emails, phone numbers, medical records, diagnosis, dates of service, health insurance policy, claim details, government ID information, and driver's license information. So data centers carry a lot of information that could be hacked.

» And I'm letting you know because I'm very concerned if we place the data centers in Kershaw County. I'm requesting a two-year moratorium for data centers in Kershaw County so you have a clear definition of what is considered a data center, determine the appropriate regulations for data centers with strict security guidelines, a strict application process for data centers, experts on data centers to give you feedback on what data centers involve, and know exactly how data centers affect the environment. Most importantly, the state needs time to create expert guidance for counties and communities in regards to data centers. What does this mean? The House and the Senate both have bills they're looking at to come up with guidelines for data centers.

» Now how can we have a data center without the state coming up with guidelines for data centers? Nine other counties in the state have either enacted or in the process of enacting moratoriums on data centers. Kershaw County I considered progressive especially when it comes to development. Let's continue to shape smart growth by getting it right not just getting it done please respect the wishes of the kershaw county residents by putting a moratorium in place for at least two years to get it right your motto should be get it right not get it done thank you thank you ms canto for coming out tonight mr devos who do we have next on the public comment section next speaker jim corley uh data center moratorium mr corley yes sir good evening uh last time i was here i said that i didn't object to pow

» er plants in general just where they're placed especially my backyard i don't have the same kind of feeling about um data centers necessarily though um you know generally data centers historically been this is this is where our photos are stored this is where data is stored but there's been a recent frenzy of need more and more data centers because of AI, okay? And I am concerned about that. If you limit data centers or delay them, we can get more of a handle on what AI is, what it does, if it's good or if it's bad. We all know, well, I don't know, maybe we don't all know, but we have a history as a people, I don't know, just in this country or worldwide, of if we can do something, let's do it. If we develop new technology, let's use it.

» let's worry about consequences later you know the uh just in the past couple weeks there's been a lot of news about vaccines that were approved quickly right um and some of the disastrous results uh in the 70s cvc's uh chlorofluorocarbon it's a miracle refrigerant right and now we're uh paying cost because turns out they eat ozone um so uh another example that close sort of close to my calculators simple calculator very good tool use it all the time but if it's implemented incorrectly we have a problem I teach science in college and I have students that if you say what's 3 times 15 I mean 3 times 5 they pull out a calculator they don't have basic math skills anymore in math calculators have made the students dumb not because of what they are but because how they've been used and this is my

» concern about AI also will it make us dumb you know will make us dumb because depending on how it's used and things like that so a moratorium on a data center also gives us time to look and maybe this isn't just a county issue there must be a maybe a global issue but we're part of the globe right that we should take a look at a moratorium gives us time not only about data centers which have their own problems if you have too many of them I read recently in Ohio rate personal electricity rates are going up because they can't produce maybe this against my argument against my power plant but they can't produce enough power to power all the data centers so it's raising residential rates okay so there's environmental issues vibration issues all kinds of things and that's something to consider to

» o what are the consequences what are the consequences of ai a moratorium on data centers can at least pause the frenzy so we can figure out how we want to implement the technology so it helps us and doesn't make us dumb my dad and probably your dad or mom said when you go to cross the street stop look both ways before you cross or as davy crockett's famous motto was make sure you're right then go ahead and i think that's sort of just a moratorium will help us think about these things before we go ahead and um and do this hey thank you very much thank you mr poorly for coming out tonight appreciate you coming out mr dubose i think the eighth speaker who's who signed up next for public comment amy mccaskill project ballast ms mccaskill yes ma'am uh yes um my subject um specifically about it i

» s is with the smokestacks um in the planning and zoning commission meeting on july 13th um ms dykes requested information on project ballast and attorney sydney douglas recommended moving that discussion to executive session miss dykes made a motion to enter executive session second seconded by ms montgomery by show of hands all were in favor the commission entered executive session at 6 17.

» mr proctor made a motion to exit the executive session seconded by mr wolf by show of hands all members were in favor the commission exited the exit the executive session at 6 25 mr proctor stated that no decisions were made and no votes were taken so the question the next day in the camden chronicle uh was a notice of public hearing that uh notice the kershaw county board of zoning appeals would hold a public hearing on tuesday august 4th for the person for the purpose of hearing and deciding the following request applicant dylan casey on behalf of property owner russell horton pr for the state of linwood h horton is requesting a variance to the maximum building height limitation as outlined in table 3-4 and or table 3-6 of the kershaw county unified code of zoning and land development reg

» ulations specifically the applicant is petitioning the board of zoning appeals for maximum height limitation of 220 feet above finish grade for the exhaust stacks serving the large scale dual fuel power engine dual fuel power generating facility in any required pertinent structures the property located at 3197 b young's bridge road that came out in the chronicle before the third uh reading of the ordinance i know that you have to turn these in months ahead so i don't know how much leeway there is with that but uh i i see that tonight there's the first reading about um amending the code section 3 colon 2.6 exceptions to height limitations to list additional structures so in the meeting that uh beaufort rosemary had in bethune at that restaurant the friday night after the one that mr tucker c

» ame to on thursday the people were told that the stacks would be 100 or at the most 125 feet and um an article in the lancaster paper that was just on wednesday wednesday august 5th says the plant would use air for cooling and the stack for the plant would not exceed 100 to 150 feet and and so this variance was dropped but now it's appearing tonight for first reading so the the variance a maximum height limitation of 220 feet above finish grade for the exhaust stacks and the the code the code gives unlimited the height limitations of this ordinance shall not apply to these things the code name is exceptions to height limitations so that that sounds like it's not 100 it's not 125 it's not 150 and it's not even miss McCaskill I just have to note that the times expired at the council's allotte

» d are you able to conclude your remarks or I just it seems like we we don't know you know the specifics are just being kept very quiet about everything to do with that company and it's just still really disappointing you know thank you for coming out tonight ma'am appreciate you mr. DuBose final speakers Tom Webb gas plant mr. Webb yes sir mr. Webb I'm gonna shame County Council shame on you shame on you shame on some of the members who did what they did to poor little Bethune. Bethune just wanted to be left alone to attend to their own business, their own rural conservative sort of way. There needs to be a place for people like that. And Bethune was it. But some of y'all have taken that away from them.

» You might call it modernization, but that's a polite word for what you've done to Bethune. You're dealing with Rosemary, a company that is secretive and bribes people. They seem to have an awful lot of money to throw around to get what they want whatever that is whatever that is the people of the soon see a data center coming or a solar farm or a big housing development something changed that they don't need it's only the beginning it's once you get once they get the foot in the door with a big power plant no telling what's next what's next and what's next so American government is unusual in it supposed to protect the people from government government protecting the people from government this is our government but y'all have failed that y'all failed County Council has failed some of y'all

» have failed some of y'all are really on the ball and doing good but some of y'all have failed by the way data centers should never be near people data centers are spy centers thank you for coming out mr. Webb mr. DuBose does that could conclude the public comment section sir okay gentlemen that concludes public comments thank you everyone for coming out tonight. That moves us on to item number 7a, public hearings. Do we have anyone signed up for the public hearing, Mr. Bowes? No, Mr. Chair. Okay, we'll open and close the hearing as no one has signed up. This is a public hearing on an ordinance to amend the Kershaw County ZLDR zoning and land development regulations section to create a zoning overlay district entitled Master Plan Development District. First reading was what on May 26th.

» Planning commission meeting was july 13th seeing as no one has signed up to speak on this public hearing we'll go ahead and close the hearing correct mr dubose and that concludes the public hearing i'll just note there may be some motion or commentary on this matter which would be 10d later in the agenda to push it to the next meeting but we'll get to that when we get to it that gets us to approval of the minutes do we have a motion on the motion we approved the minutes as submitted by miss hannah mr tucker has the motion on the minutes is there a second on the minutes i'll second mr cato has a second any discussion on the minutes thank you miss hannah seeing no discussion we'll move it to a vote on the minutes all in favor or present voting raise your hand mr jones how do you vote on the m

» inutes it's unanimous in favor for those who are present and voting mr shoemake remotely how do you vote yeah that's a yes remotely it's unanimous for the record miss hannah this moves us to item number nine a placed on the agenda by mr brazel inmate work crews road crews for discussion only do we have a motion yeah i'd like to make a motion uh to continue the discussion we we started it and uh i was not here in person is there a second second we have a second mr brazel thank you chairman um i'll just direct this question at our administrator we discussed the potential of having our inmates whether it be voluntary or involuntary help keep kershaw county beautiful and clean by getting back to that pre-covered work crew and litter pickup and i had hoped that maybe someone the director of the

» jail could come and speak to us is that something that we could that we could hear from him in the future in the next meeting or two i can arrange that i mean any questions you may have that i can handle i would certainly be happy to with uh our jail is primarily filled with pre-sentenced detainees not they have yet to be tried in the cases adjudicated so it makes it a little difficult for us to force them into any kind of labor or outside matter of fact the last probably and efforts for us to clean up trash from the jail came from employees themselves just because we had detainees that were not fit to be outside they were their bonds were denied they were violent offenders and that makes up a vast majority of our jail population every now and again we get some sentenced individuals from th

» e state and they number maybe one or two maybe three i'm not sure the number we have over there now but any any information you would like for me to curate i'd be happy to do so um so i'd just like to hear from the jail administrator and let him give him time to repair maybe in two meetings he could he could give us options um if we did it in the past we can do it in the future so um i know it's just a matter of whether or not we had the appetite for it so i'd like to hear from him on that and i don't have any more questions or inquiries today thank you mr brazel any other comments or discussion well mr tucker mr jones you have a second i would like to hear from him first mr jones defers mr correct him after he's done i just have a question to to my colleagues on have you had an opportunity

» to review the executive white paper report that was sent by the um director of our detention center which he outlined it in a 60-something page document on the reasons why his recommendation is not to allow that to happen from constitutional law, state law, federal law, and staffing and many other things. There was a list of reasons that he had researched not to enter into this arena. And I know we've done it in the past, Mr.

» Brazel, but laws change every year over that General assembly and to the uh congress that represents us so things that we probably used to do are probably not legal today to do so just want to put that out but happy to hear from him mr templer if you bring him up here thank you mr tucker any other comments discussion mr jones if i can and i you know having basically been the project manager building the jail they're in now and running the other jail prior to that i know things change in 20 years but um i think a lot of your local jails still do litter pickup and our ministry is right you know you cannot put a free sentence person out there but you know we used to have a lot of family court um detainees and they are sentence and that's mainly who we use to go out on litter pick up details i

» haven't seen a jail roster i don't know how many would be sentenced or not but you cannot put a free sentence out there but i tell you this we had a program picking up trash even if it was one inmate or two inmates you know to help you know at certain times but uh i would be interested in seeing the jail roster i don't know the jail count and how many they got since how many they got pre-sentence but do you know mr templar if they if you have a uh and it comes in spurts with the family court but do you know how many they have family court detainees at this point in time i get the jail listing every morning and i look over and scrutinize it just to see what's going on um a lot of i knew you did that yeah yes sir it's in and out i hadn't seen family court in a while um but that's not to say w

» e don't have anyone in there for child support and of course to your point you're right um those are low risk low flight risk uh you know they don't want to run no they want to they don't get five years for three months i can certainly get that if you'd look in there that'd be great and you know when i was jail administrator it was difficult to do the the pickup but we did it and we did utilize what sentence people we had in there and and i'd rather see them out working than than to just be sitting there three hots in a cot all day long but uh if you could just look at that number and get back with us as well i appreciate that yes sir absolutely i'll just note um before we recognize anyone else i didn't see any hands pop up that i think it was around covid that there were a series of cases

» or statutes and regulations that were passed in relation to having inmate crews clean up on the road that made it much more problematic and expensive based on the ratios that required to monitor those folks. And it almost would be more cost effective to hire somebody to go out and clean up the particular area based on how many paid or overtime related staff members you'd have to have out there fully armed providing specific transportation for the inmates.

» In addition to all the insurance and everything else that's required to having inmates outside of the facility so that's something i remember from covid times that has carried forward to today that hasn't reset it was a bunch of stupid laws too well you know everybody has their opinion on that for sure but i thought it was good uh prior to that time when the regulations were different i think they've changed and maybe we can get some more information and if it can be done we can look at it um any other comments or questions discussions i just have to say i do think it's just reasonable what mr browser asked for it's very reasonable and of course mr jefferson said he'll supply that to us and just look over the list you i mean you can tell me you know i trust you on that just what what how ma

» ny sentence you do have at this time yes sir yeah i appreciate that and then okay so that's everyone who's in person mr shoemake any commentary questions or concerns remotely on this particular item discussion number nine a no i mean just other than i i explored this issue for a long time when i came on and i just i do not see an economically viable way to do it which is pretty much what the children said but happy to hear from him thank you mr schumacher again it might be more uh effective to hire individual folks from the community to clean up a particular area on a contract basis if we wanted to do that and there's an area that needed it as opposed to having inmates go out and do it based on the additional costs that are related okay no votes required are not in number nine a so that con

» cludes item number nine a we've got a series of first readings and then again I think we might move a second reading item number 10 a as a first reading a title only relating to an ordinance approving a private hangar contract at the Kershaw County Airport establishing the contract rate in terms and authorizing execution of the same with related items to the private hangar contract do we have a motion on first reading mr. chair I'd like to make a motion that we approve mr.

» Tucker has the motion is there a second on uh 10a second we have a second mr thompson it's entitled only but do we have any discussion no sir no discussion no second reading okay no discussion from those who are present any discussion remotely from mr you mr she make well i've got your attention how do you vote on 10a remotely that is a yes from mr schumacher remotely miss hannah and for those who are present and voting raise your hand if you're in favor that is mr tucker brazel connell kato and Tomlinson in favor and any opposed raise your hand Mr. Jones votes against so it passes 6-1 Ms.

» Hanna first reading passes on 10-A item number 10-B is another first reading entitled only it's related to a multi-county park or MCIP between Kershaw County and Lancaster County South Carolina to create a and develop a joint county industrial park the geographical bounties would initially be within Kershaw County and provide for other matters related there too do we have a motion on 10b make a motion mr chair to approve mr tucker has the motion on 10b do we have a second on 10b second mr thompson has a second on 10b we're still in first um first reading title only is there any discussion i have a question is this specifically involving project ballast is the question from mr dubose or mr mr dubose be fine right now the um ordinance is not populated um any property would be eligible to go i

» n there um i believe that the philo for balance required they'd be put in a park by the 31st and i think the idea is that this would contain balance any other questions i'm mr thomas here the second i'm sorry yes sir um and just to confirm so any future fellows are able to go into this this mkip correct correct okay mr brazel yes sir uh just out of curiosity i've i've been sitting here almost six years and it's typically been lee county in which um the fianlua tax agreements the partnership has happened with lee county not that i'm opposed to it but any particular reason why now it's lancaster instead of lee some of those matters are probably subject to attorney-client privilege well that stinks i I mean, factually, I believe some of that basis is.

» But the other MCIPs, one exists with Fairfield County. There are a few iterations with it, a few iterations with Lee County. Projects are typically placed with a non-sponsored county here and there. It's almost on a rotating basis. But another MCIP would allow the county to theoretically look at distributions. And again, y'all would have the ability to look at distributions and adjust those for specific projects that have specific. Well, the Fee and Lue agreements typically are 99 percent Kershaw County, 1 percent, whichever other county we partner with.

» i i guess would it be a fair statement to say that their laws would have to parallel with our laws for said agreement to be valid and maybe some counties wouldn't have a parallel law or or is it just happenstance that we're in a rotation mr boz i can respond to this yeah i'm not sure i understand the 99 and 1 is statutory what each county does with its distributions is up to the county yeah that's per county so there's 46 counties that would determine how mkip funds are distributed as they come in but in short i thought that would be a good idea to connect with other counties that we didn't have mkips with we got them with some of the smaller counties nothing against them at all but i think there's a market out there for one percent money to come in kershaw county we put a lot of projects a

» s we're able to into other mkips and we're sending these funds to other counties and lancaster with all of its growth um you know i'm interested in having potential arrangements with large growth counties that can send funds to kershaw county and so that's one of the reasons it makes sense i was just curious as to why the change um we hadn't really had conversation about it but um that's a perfectly legitimate explanation i still don't support it thank you mr jones any other uh mr tucker yes sir um mr debose just want to make is clear so on second reading we'll get a majority if not 100 of these answers that that folks are looking to hear tonight uh when we go to second reading am i correct by stating that correct thank you okay thank you mr tucker any other comments or questions concerns o

» kay um mr should make anything remotely if i could oh hold on please please pause mr she'll make mr jones thank you mr chairman mr tucker i look forward to that getting some of those questions answered as well too thank you but at this time i cannot support it okay thank you mr jones uh mr shoemake any questions comments on 10b remotely that was a yes vote for mr shoemake remotely and seeing no further discussion we'll move it to a vote for all those who are present on 10b all in favor raise your hand that is tucker connell tomlinson and shoemake in favor and all opposed raise your hand that is brazel cato and jones opposed 10b passes on first reading ms hannah all right this moves us on to item number 10c another first reading title only it's related to an ordinance to amend the kershaw co

» unty unified code of zoning and land development the zldr related to section 3 2.6 regarding exceptions to height limitations and related additional structures do we have a motion on first reading make a motion on first reading title only mr mr tucker has a motion is there a second second we have a second okay mr shoemake uh yields mr thompson has a second mr tucker any discussion no sir still in first reading any other discussion mr thompson you have the second um just would like to get some clarification from staff if they could so um there's an exception from height limit section in the zldr it contains numerous kind of industrial telecom type uses as well as other unoccupied by human improvements and structures like church spires etc etc this text amendment will ultimately include clari

» fying language for energy project related uses but other industrial uses as well that are very close and similar to the existing exemptions for example an existing exemption is already chimneys which is inclusive of some industrial infrastructure but again perhaps not all aspects of all potential I guess tall structures that might come into the county and again it'll go to Planning commission and come back to y'all with recommendations and vigorous debate perfect thank you mr. the best thank you mr. Thomas no more questions any other discussion those who are present yes mr. Jones well mr.

» bows let me just ask you or maybe somebody don't can guess why now I mean I can respond to that well I asked him well I don't think he knows but you guys the county attorney go ahead and try he said if I'm not mistaken he also attends the planning zone Commission meetings right correct yeah and of course we got the chairman commission out here what can we hear from him or what he thinks about these smokestacks and my question is why now because you know who this is about we all know who it's about we all know what it's about but we're just not we're just not talking about the the exact element and perhaps i'm being a little exact and precise on first readings and title only typically don't have debate because there's nothing for debate but um yeah i mean it's for like i said energy infrastr

» ucture projects ballast is an energy project there are other energy projects um that could come into the county again i'm not aware of any pending ones at all but um again this would apply to structures typically associated with energy infrastructure and other matters um oh lord thank you thank you so much for those kind words you know um guys we need to be more transparent on this i really believe we need to be and let me say this too let me you all know i've only got four and a half more months so i'm not doing this to get reelected i'm doing this because it just it just absolutely is not the right way we were rushing it we i felt like we rushed through project ballast and we're rushing now all of a sudden gonna give this exemption to this height um it just let's just say which i don't th

» ink we are right i think we're wrong but let's just say we are right the public's perception is reality but i happen to agree with the public on this wholeheartedly and um if i could say 75 years of and i don't look it but if i can say anything to you guys up here put people before money put people first that's your community and uh i said enough thank you thank you mr jones mr cato you know i agree with mr jones i don't always agree with mr jones but i agree with him or not but i have an issue with both of these these first readings and and because it's all directed to one particular item on the agenda and it's all all of that one thing and and you know this company was going to do a variance and then they pull the variance and now we've got this so i don't understand how this comes up aft

» er the company pulls the variance so far that's the way it's been if it goes beyond the the standard that we have set forth now you file for a variance so why is this changing all of a sudden i can't support this tonight i couldn't support that um the other one with the agreement not that i don't believe in those agreements and not that i don't think in a way it would be really beneficial to kershaw county but but it all goes back to this one project and i can't support it thank you mr cato i'm i'm happy to respond to some of these questions um not that i'm the poster child for this particular project but uh again project ballast i think has been one of the most open um open economic development processes ever never has the council ever taken a site visit which i i arranged so that everyone

» could see what a potential project like this might look like everyone who attended and was able to see the project and take it in or ask questions since december of last year was able to ask for any information they were interested in and at the time of the tour almost every portion of the facility was over 35 feet which is the height restriction that would be in place and so it would be totally inconsistent for the council to a majority of the council to vote in favor of afila which that's the will of the council that was recently voted on and then not acknowledge um the the building that would go along with that which is in excess of 35 feet now a variance as opposed to a conditional use that's a very good question that's an interesting question variance is a one-off conditional use in my

» view allows for greater teeth and regulation from the county on a particular use in a particular area and so you can add all types of teeth on penalties and different terms like that which we'll see come up i hope in second reading and for amendment on second reading as opposed to a one-off variance and so i hope that answers some of those questions but i think the process has been as open as possible and the folks who toured this facility since december of last year had every opportunity to get any questions they wanted answered and poke and prod in any way they wanted to and i tried to make sure that that could happen i certainly did a bunch of my own research and asked many many questions of experts and otherwise in making my decisions any other discussion for those who are present befor

» e we go remote i think just to kind of defend that for myself i'll be the first to tell you i toured toward the facility facility was nice it was clean i didn't see anything wrong with it but to be honest i didn't know what questions to ask because i knew nothing about it exactly so you know i'm i'm kind of in a in a learning process and i ain't i ain't ashamed to admit when i don't know what i'm talking about and i'll be the first to tell you that i toured it and i thought it at first it was nice and it was clean and they've done an outstanding job before we went but uh there's some questions you didn't even think about i've never thought about a stack height or any of that kind of status or a possibility of that and and and i understand and i won't say this in front of everybody there are

» so many rumors that are just absolutely not true i'm telling you people's talking about data centers i ain't never been brought up up here and i can assure you of that you don't have to believe me but there's just so many rumors and that's the part that's really destroying people is is the rumors and the the misinformation that's being put out there so i just wanted to say that you know i'll still have a bunch of questions because i i don't know what i need to know about this and i'll just um share as well um economic development traditionally in in Kershaw County, and I guess it's like this in every other county, this is the only one I've served in, is usually a much shorter runway.

» And I personally didn't like that as much because I thought that council members did not have as much time to ask questions and investigate things as much as they wanted to. Typically, it would be maybe a first reading in title only, and then you'd have two readings. And so over one month period, you could land on a third reading on a and so you're looking at roughly 30 days to get your questions answered as opposed to the extended number of months i've tried to arrange here on this particular one so um any other comments or discussion for those who are present before we go to mr shoemake remote who we have not heard from yet mr shoemake any comments um or discussion on item number 10c mr shoemake do we still have you he's asleep he's asleep he's not we lost him he just texted I call for th

» e question that you do well we have to move on we can't sit here forever I'm getting a message that the system booted him off okay well we need to move on and vote I call for the question mr. Mr. Shoemake okay I want to make sure have you opportunity had the opportunity to hear the discussion you just got booted off? Yeah, right when you called for me, I went to hit unmute, and I accidentally... Oh, you booted yourself off. All right. Well, no comments from Mr. Shoemake. That's a yes vote remotely. Seeing no further discussion, we'll move it. And we've had the question called by Mr. Jones, which I'll honor. All in favor who are present, raise your hand. It is Mr. Tucker, Mr. Connell, Mr. Tomlinson in favor. All opposed? Mr. Broussel, Mr. Cato, Mr. Jones opposed.

» It passes on first reading a title only that is 10 c item number 10 d do we have a motion to defer or otherwise i'll make a motion to defer to which meeting would you like to defer so we can get a second uh to a later date two meetings one meeting i would need um let's say two all right to the second meeting after this one miss hannah and do we have a second second mr thompson has a second any discussion or you just want to vote well no needed okay no discussion from the movement I got a question mr. Jones has some discussion talking too fast now look why would well why is it so necessary to put a timeline on for it to come back he said at a later date you know I mean it could be next year if he prefers but do you want to bring it up in two meetings I'll I'll bring it up to mr.

» Dubose to make sure that it's handled correctly I'll put it back on agenda just some for future day yeah likely two meetings but sure all right so no vote on the matter so it doesn't feel it can be brought up again um let's move it to a vote for those who are present all in favor of deferring what did you just say let's move it to a vote for all those who are present all those in favor of deferring per mr brazel's motion it's unanimous for those who are present and voting mr shoemake how do you vote and forgive me i didn't recognize you for any discussion on it as a yes it's unanimous on deferral miss hannah all right we've got um item number 11a which is resolution this is put on by um the administrator related to a memorandum approving uh allowing the kershaw county probate judge to serve

» as a special probate judge for emergency and voluntary commitment cases arising in other counties do we have a motion any background needed miss mr templar just other than that this will be a mechanism to allow judge brandon to serve as a regional judge for these emergency center committed voluntary commitment cases okay thank you very much uh mr jones you have the motion do we have a second second okay we got three seconds mr cato i heard first i think okay mr cato has a second mr jones any discussion before we move it to a vote i think our probate's here i probably judge is here yes ma'am yep judge brandon's in the back thank you for being here listen thank you for being willing to take all this on judge i know it's extra work and everything um mr tucker have a question yes yes sir go ahe

» ad so uh mr dubose if you and mr templer could go to page two i just want to make sure we're on the same understanding on the language and um the first paragraph to the top talks about um cases from these fees by outside agencies as long as she holds these hearings payment of salary shall commence upon receipt of adequate revenue so that's reimbursable is what you're saying so or adequate revenue in the general fund that's kind of vague to me as for the chair of finance so i need to get it clear yeah i think the intention there is um that the salary will commence when the collected funds for the hearings meet or exceed that salary amount for mental health, et cetera. And again, the expectation is that those receipts will certainly cover that additional. Right. Yeah. I got it.

» I just want, I want to know wherever we're paying as the work is done, or is it being reimbursed as the funds come in? I believe it is a set salary. So it's going to be again, added to each pay period, but yes, it will be essentially reimbursed from receipts i think i'm answering the question kind of sort of but i got it that was the original agreement was that it would be uh almost in arrears if you will work would be completed and then it would be reimbursed so it'd be running like the federal government you do the work pay out and then they reimburse you correct that's how the cogs ran thank you mr tucker i got one more mr oh go ahead yes sir go to page three so if you go down where it says this agreement shall automatically renew for the success of one year periods beginning july 1 of e

» ach year ending in june 30th for the following year is that going to be read into the budget each year or automatically just renewed without approval y'all just like county council put a spot for this in this year's budget yes the same mechanism would have to exist okay yeah that answer my questions thank you very much thank you mr tucker we're still on 11a related to the resolution any other uh discussion from those who are present mr shoemake any discussion remotely no just thank you there was some questions and for an example of how we could all work together and i really appreciate just random's work on this and everything else that discussion's over i vote yes i heard a yes vote from you mr shoemake on 11a and thank you judge branham for those who are present and voting raise your hand

» if you're in favor on the resolution 11a it is unanimous for those who are present voting ms hannah it passes that brings us to uh new business item number 12a convenience center hours placed on the agenda by mr jones is there a motion i still move we have a motion is there a second second we have a second mr jones well i'm going to go back to what i said in the last meeting and uh i'm concerned about the lake i'm concerned about the convenience center hours um when it comes to sunday sunday afternoon especially when you got the lugo side of the lake you got the camden side of your lake i don't know y'all probably haven't gotten any calls i don't know but i have and i've got there's not a person up there that i've talked to the lake that isn't concerned about this and uh i just wish we coul

» d get a reconsideration and uh i know that mr timbers was gracious enough to say that once they tried it he had come back and follow up with us on how it is i just weren't done now i just i would just like to give the citizens back there the people get to me we don't give citizens a whole lot we take a lot because of property taxes and things like that but we we we give them very little back sometimes and uh when they're speaking out and saying look this is something we need um i understand it i don't have any property to lake but i definitely understand it so um i don't know if there's an appetite to to override administration on this or is there an appetite for administration just to stop it but i just don't like it i don't think it's right and uh that all i can say i would like to have s

» ome feedback from some of you guys though and so y'all just looking at me like i'm so pretty go ahead mr well i was just going to ask is is there is this a new business item for discussion only or is there a motion no no no i'm not going to make a motion tonight okay uh any other discussion mr tucker yes sir mr chair um mr i'll share some data with you um that i received from staff um and it's the savings of 166 000 on what they have in place right now um by excuse me just having to um transport and store the um solid waste containers is fifteen thousand dollar savings closing on the reset dates of sunday and monday is fifty thousand dollars um and along with that stores they're double handling those containers um the um legal staff and enforcement that they have to put out there to uh to c

» heck is eighteen thousand dollars a year another sixteen thousand is from uh you know contractors and people with the large trailers and stuff dumping in the recycle centers and then you have um you know current ten sites with six different hours of operation that's a 67 000 savings over the year which the grant told of the 166 but this is what's more important to me that i received um while we were down at conference the first week we went live with this is that elgin had 55 vehicles from richland county springdale had 125 vehicles from mixture of counties, Chesterfield, Lancaster, Lee, and Richland. Parkland Road, which is where I use mine, Black River Road, had 155 total vehicles, 93 from Sumter, 62 from Lee County, and then Lugov had five vehicles from Richland County.

» So it's not just that Elgin site over there that people are dumping at. They're hitting us from all ends of the county where the county lines cross. you have a lot of people come through or come to Kershaw County for work and it's convenient to bring that trash and dump it in the recycle center because it's it's convenience and we have not been doing a good job of policing that and I've got some phone calls uh as you have and some of those friends and and members are uh mutual friends between you and I um I don't think it's ran its course and I would like to ask the administrator to continue to you know proceed and give us feedback and uh let's see what we need to make the adjustments i have total faith in mr templer and the staff and his director over solid waste that they'll make the prop

» er adjustments and and fine-tune this but um we haven't given the chance it hasn't been 30 days yet i need to follow up on that first of all i'm not talking about the elegance site i'm talking about two sites on lake watery and that and that those numbers you can make numbers i mean we make the numbers we want to see and it's all legal but bottom line is i just can't buy that that opened up for three to four hours on sunday afternoon like we you know years ago whenever we first brought these recyclings here i was actually on the committee that uh when austin sheehan was here and some others and uh i went with a hammy moke to look at recycling centers before they existed here and the intention because i've heard a lot about well let the folks have time i wouldn't that's not what this is abou

» t but we started these recycling centers 30 years ago whatever it was we hired retired people to work part-time so they could work on the holidays so they could work on those days that a working person couldn't so that we would be able to uh give the service to the citizens times have changed mr jones but not they still retirees they still still retired if they come to work i mean will you fill out an application when you leave in december i have no desire to do that i'm not going to work for nobody when i leave here in four and a half months and uh but but but everything you said meant nothing to me because it's not what i'm talking about i'm talking about the lake road and the lakeshore area of the lake have access to take their trash off on the weekends and when they leave mr chairman so

» rry i'm sorry i've lost mr brasil he had the second can the gentleman who represents the lake speak go ahead thank you i wanted i wanted councilman jones and councilman tucker to get all that out now that they're done i'm not finished if i if i may i've had several uh many phone calls uh one of which is is we were basically policing the station and a gentleman who owns a home and several thousand acres was told that he would not be allowed to use the recycle center the gentleman resides i think maybe in charlotte north carolina but owns a large timber farm and a home on either on the lake or on the farm i'm not sure maybe maybe both pays a large tax bill especially because of the home being a six percent rate and the gentleman was not happy let's just say he was not happy so knowing that a

» large part of our tax revenue is six percent rate and or i.e second homes whether you live in or outside of the county we can't continue to paint a scenario all with the same brush i agree with parts of what um councilman tucker said certainly elgin's an issue certainly i think maybe you see black river roads an issue but i dare to compare the statistics of a rural lake recycle center in which people use their homes for the weekend in which now when they go home if you leave work on a thursday afternoon come to enjoy your lake home no matter which side of the lake it's on and you go to clean up on Sunday you go home you don't have anywhere to take your trash and there's not necessarily service to some of these rural areas at the lake Kershaw County no longer helps with tipping fees for priv

» ate businesses and I understand the reasons why I'm not challenging but I am pointing out the changes that we've made we saved four hundred thousand dollars in this year's budget by not paying tipping fees to a company that existed in this county for 30 years now that was a tremendous savings with absolutely zero loss to any residents and/or visitors who own homes in Kershaw County we may be saving another hundred and sixty thousand by not serving all areas of the community because what it's doing is it's essentially forcing people to find somewhere else to dump or dump their trash during the work week in which lots of people are employed and maybe some of the traffic through I'm sure they're using it sure they are no argument there but to take away something from a rural area in which we a

» re charging a fee for on the most inconvenient day for the citizen I think needs to be reconsidered and I'd certainly love to see a plan from our administration they can see that Danny you can see that Gerald can see it and I think people with this dice can see it I don't think it needs to go to a vote but what I would like is I would like a response from our administrator because i'm doing my job in representing the citizens and the people that live on lake watery and or have houses in the area now if you say we think we should open these two or four for a sunday afternoon for a period of four hours say from two to six i think that would be phenomenal i'm not asking for everything to be my way because it's certainly um it's certainly not a need that i have i do have roll-offs at my home in

» which i use but for many many many people that i represent this is a problem and also for for visitors that i don't represent it's still a problem and it's only fair to service our community is geographically large as kershaw county is is divided as it is by water features such as the lake and the river it's unique it's unique in all regards and i'm not here to challenge anyone over the subject i'm here to look for a solution that better fits our communities and and their unique differences so danny i ask you politely i'd like to see something that would service our community and i am not a guy that will ever put a plan in place and never deviate from it i'm just not that guy i just like y'all i get calls i live in east camden i go to iga and i get hit up um i've been in administration for

» 10 years i've been the administrator for three so i'm well known as the guy that makes some of these operational decisions and trust me this one i am known for and i'm fine with that because i understand that this has not been a solvent function of our budget solid waste if this was a company it would have shuttered 15 years ago it just it is propped up by the general fund it's a enterprise fund it should make its own money it should generate money to buy its own trucks i could ask for i could double the rate of solid waste i would never do that because it doesn't do anything these are problems that i can't buy my way out of my responsibility is to make this department solvent and by making tough changes and but re-evaluating these changes i said that i would look at the data every quarter

» i'm not going to do that i'm going to look at it every month to see and if there is any site that doesn't add to the cost savings the operational efficiencies we will make adjustments to make it more convenient after all they are convenient the amount of out-of-town dumping I mean that's kind of been beat to death we all know that I do have concerns for like both sides I am concerned that this you know it causes a inconvenience up there I know that some people just live up there all year round and I know Sunday is the day to go but I also know that Sunday is the day to go for a lot of other counties to come to us and deposit their trash here. And I also know that Sunday is the day when a lot of contractors empty their trailers out to start the work week fresh with an empty trailer.

» Just in the first week, we've had 28 less open top loads going to the Kershaw County landfill, which is huge. Compactors to Republic, we've cut down five of those loads just with wet trash, household trash. We hauled almost 120 less tons in the first week of this initiative. You know, we talked about the $166,000 of potential savings. When I saw that number, I knew that was very, very conservative, way too low. We've saved just this first week's $6,300, and we're on track to save $331,000 if that number trends forward on top of the $400,000. But that doesn't mean that we won't make adjustments in operational efficiencies and conveniences. We want to make this a service. Everybody pays the same price. We are checking IDs or proof of residencies. That's not a perfect system right now.

» I feel like we may be excluding people that have a right to dump there. So we're going to come up with something that we're trying to look at driver's licenses. It doesn't just, you could go to Richland County and get your driver's license issued to you, and then you're going to have a 29 or a 40 code instead of the 28 for Kershaw County. So that's not a true tried way to tell. Mr. Templer, if I might. Yes. And this is to Mr. Brazel's point I've experienced in other counties where they will require you to show proof of a utility bill that you can have a utility company, even if you own it as a second home or in a business, they can put you as care of your actual name. And I've seen that work well in other facilities I've been familiar with.

» You just pull it up or you get an email, you opt into email service or notice of your bill. You can pull up the email, show the worker, and then you're able to dump your trash. It seems like a pretty easy fix instead of, you know, a draconian driver's license requirement if you live out of state or otherwise. Right. And, you know, this is a learning curve. We have some instances where we've not made the right decision to allow someone to dump. I want to err on the side of the citizen. We're trying to, this week, push out. It's not how you bring it in. It's what you're bringing it in. So, we had a guy come in, and he had a landscaping company. Obviously, he was not going to throw away all of his lawnmowers. He just had two household bags of trash.

» So, we just have to have discretion and common sense. So, I believe in this. I think we're going in the right direction. I want this to be a solvent department. I want it to stand on its own and not be propped up by capital funds and the general fund as a whole. We have a lot, we have new convenience centers to build. We have to rearrange. So we have a lot of work going on. We have the impact or the impact fees going to help support this fund as well as recreation. But ultimately we are gonna continue to analyze and make sure that we are moving in the right direction and not be the one size fits all. But right now, that's what we have to start out with and see where those two sites end up and if there is an opportunity to make them more convenient.

» Because they are pretty well insulated inside the county. We don't have to worry about out-of-town dumpers. And I think you make valid points. Mr. Jones makes valid points. And the folks I've spoke to up in that area make valid points. So I can't ignore that. uh just quick question how many sites do we have all together yeah so we're talking about 20 of the sites which probably account for five percent of the waste so your savings is still going to probably be a 95 to 97 savings even if you just open that small window for household trash on sunday afternoon in those locations those remote locations um and i will say i think ben's idea is is valid and fair um the only thing i would say is i know um internet service is spotty so somebody may have to have like a paper copy so let's just be sof

» t on screenshot yeah but i you know initially let's be soft on how we implement those and not so rigid until people get accustomed to how we handle this for the general public we had an all-hands meeting with all the attendants Monday morning just to make these adjustments and to make sure people are getting to use the facilities they pay for so it's it's a work in progress but I believe in it it's going to save a lot of money and I actually with the ID portion we've had a lot of positive feedback on site where people are thankful that we're keeping the cost of dumping down and keeping the other folks out our county and their trash so i can't disagree with that it's it's just finding a balance right absolutely and we'll continue to look for that balance thank you mr brazel any other comment

» s discussion for those who are present mr shoemake anything remotely nope per mr jones no votes required no motion's been made that will conclude item number 12 a on convenience center hours next up i placed on the agenda 12b council meeting schedule vote b will be required i'll make a motion um that regarding the council meeting schedule for the rest of the year we've been previously provided and voted on it earlier in the year um i make a motion that we cancel the november 24 and december 22 meetings for the thanksgiving and uh christmas holiday weeks is there a second i'll second that motion i'm eating turkey and celebrating the good lord's birth well likewise um some there's been some years where the second half after the budget or you know second three quarters of the year almost um we

» 've only had one meeting per month that's not this year we've got so much scheduled and so much going on uh and talking with the administrator and with legal counsel those are the only two meetings that make sense to do without for the rest of the year i recommend that we have um every other scheduled meeting for august september october uh november december except for the two that we just mentioned that we'll bring up for a vote do we have any discussion i would just like to say that's normal trend for us to cancel those two anyway so we're just doing it early exactly yep everybody gets to plan their uh holiday travel a little bit better too staff and i appreciate mr chairman in fact and believe me i'd love to go to one meeting a month but uh you know i appreciate you realizing we do have

» a lot going on we need to keep our two meetings a month at least for the other months prior to the november december yes sir any other discussion from those who are present mr shoemake any discussion and if not how do you vote no discussion i vote yes i say yes remotely for mr shoemake all in favor who are present raise your hand it is unanimous and uh the amendment will take place thank you miss hannah that brings us to item number 12c we've got a whole slew of council members uh put their names on this one moratorium related to data centers um initially placed i think by mr jones but we have mr brazel tomlinson and kato on i'm not sure to what extent someone's going to make a motion first or amendments or well i told mr brazel that uh i would yield to him if he had a motion he wanted to m

» ake is there a motion yes 12c yes i'd like to make a motion to place a moratorium on data centers and anything that resembles one for a period of five years so that kershaw county as well as the state of south carolina can put guard rails and clearly defined how we want to move forward as a state and as a county we have motions or a second i'll second mr jones has a second mr brownsville you have the floor so is there's been a lot of discussion and into danny cato's point speculation on is there going to be a a data center in bethune in conjunction with the power plant i can tell you i don't i have not heard that no one has told me that there will be i can tell you without a shadow of a doubt no one has said russell there's going to be a data center follow the power plant as a matter of fac

» t i've been told the exact opposite with that being said i i think while we're talking about the future of kershaw county we need to clarify the situation we need to find out if we are um if we are asked in the future and john if if you don't mind i'm just going to ask you a few questions so that we can can find out where we're at as a county where we're at as a state and um and what the future looks like and how we shape the future real simple questions just to to put it on record and clear there are data centers allowed in kershaw county currently under our zoning regulations there is no specific regulation on data center i will say that under zoning codes if there's not a specific fit for a particular use if there's another fit that is like legitimately close enough to be utilized i beli

» eve there is some computing infrastructure but i don't know that it is a um again precise match but um there so to answer your question there's no specific data center regulations all right let me rephrase the question would there be a gateway for a data center via a known or existing zoning regulation i do not think so based on zldr so at this point in time a data center could not be adopted and built in kershaw county without a change in zoning regulations in which that would have to be deferred to planning commission there would be a public hearing it would be a very open transparent process is that okay so that that answers a question that i think begged to be answered by many people in the public and including myself um now that now that we have that question answered and on the record

» um i think if we could install a moratorium of five years that gives us ample runway to see what the future holds to find out what the state's going to do they're working on we've got gentlemen thank you for being here tonight sir house member thank you mr reese representative reese thank you for being here tonight sir we need to learn more about what the house and senate feels about these data centers and and where they see south carolina in a global in a global race for story data from flock cameras to iphones to who knows what our data is being being sold i'm not saying i agree with it our data is being stored for large corporations for federal government military data is being stored somewhere and some people would say well would we rather the united states store our data or are we afra

» id that it could be in the hands of someone else in the globe russia china those are all questions that are way above our pay grade here in kershaw county but as congress as state officials work through these problems they will then come home to roost and and that is that is the the that is the need that is the the reason why um i think a moratorium of five years is more than i don't okay um first of all let me just say this i agree with everything the citizens said here tonight when they got up and spoke about their concerns about project bios the the gas plant and also a data center i i i've got to be realistic to myself i know for a fact when i put this on the agenda of course councilman browse and i have been talking but i was pleased to see that a couple of my colleagues put their name

» on the agenda with me i was glad to see that but i'm going to be realistic i support the five years but i know it's not going to pass not going to pass so i'm going to make it i want to make an amendment that um because i know what's going to pass i want to make an amendment to uh oppose motion that uh we do a moratorium for 12 months and and it has to be regulations as well and we can also extend that 12 months i know somebody like two years it's not going to pass okay but i think i think we might have to have to vote here for 12 months i don't know but that but i would i would move for that amendment based on that reason but just remember this more term for 12 months and uh we could also extend that and then 12 months so y'all could i won't be here are you and and also that uh mr jones ca

» n i just ask for a point of clarification have any regulations yes sir you're making a motion to amend to 12 months yes yes all right motion motion to a man um takes priority over they need further discussion is there a second i'll second there's a second any further discussion yes you don't have to be a weatherman to tell which way the wind's blowing i don't know why a five-year moratorium wouldn't pass unless there was something on the radar yeah um i've got mr chairman yeah mr you you asked for commentary yes sir thank you um appreciate your comments this is the first you know haven't heard anything about data centers but what i am for is about regulations um i think we need a pause to put regulations in place none of us know anything about data centers looking at the state right there r

» epresentative reese you've had two years to look into it you still don't know anything about data centers do you um it's something that is coming down the line that's growing in our state very fast and we have to take a pause to be able to get things in place um mr holland said in his comments um i believe it was iowa that was referenced where data center uses no water been there for 13 years I believe was exact comment she said doesn't use any water we don't know anything about this technology is new to me half people up here or everybody appears older me and I'm still techno techno technologically challenged it's a hard word to even get out I do think that we need to look at until the legislative sessions over with you know representative Reese you got big big things when your shoulders i

» s coming session. There's a lot of South Carolinians who look for this regulation for the state, for guidance at the local level, because we're struggling. You can see us here. And I think it's the job of our state leaders to put those in place so we can act. And I appreciate all you do. I really do. And thank you for coming out tonight.

» It's a great honor to see people sitting in the audience of greater bodies of government than you serve and and knowing the challenges that you face um here in and here out so but i really appreciate you coming out tonight um but i do think we're in a we're in a wave and i i'd like to see us even making this to to right after session maybe even july 1st but i'm i'm fine with 12 months i have a question for clarification just so i understand legally what we're looking at and i do support a moratorium um for a period of time five years i think would actually not be constitutional I've been looking at this for about six months and there's a case called Sierra Club which I don't want to get in the weeds on but that that was a little over two years for a complete comprehensive plan rewrite that

» was found to be okay that's not what we're doing here whatever we do for moratorium has to be rationally tied think about the building moratorium that we had on residences for major subdivisions we don't have to do this here but just as an example the moratorium was legitimate because we set up a smart growth committee that committed to having regulations ready or there was some other legal issue that would implicate um the county's ability to act or not act at that time so i think five years is is too long just because it wouldn't pass constitutional muster i think tying it to the end of legislative session would make sense um there are preemption issues there if we go through a bunch of effort to uh come up with regulations and then the state preempts us and we are home rule, but in some

» ways the county is the baby of the state. And so we'll get preempted on those fronts. So end of legislative session makes sense to me. But if the state doesn't act, I think there's some point at which we have to, where some of the regulations I've considered would be limitation on water usage, if it's even right in Kershaw County, limitation on power usage or self-generation, bonding if it fails, minimum amount of land size, additional requirements for setbacks uh pre-treatment issues and bonds related to that and so there's all kinds of stuff that you would have to figure out if it ever worked somewhere in kershaw county this is the point of clarification mr devose i i thought i had heard from um economic development staff previously there was some type of data center that was interested n

» ear um near the landfill and you know we didn't ever we never researched it didn't really come up for council um but that fizzled and went away i thought that there was an industrial zoning uh in the county where a data center would be allowed so is that not true i just remember hearing that from it i would have to verify with um our zoning administrator again as i said some there's no explicit line data center correct um there might be a again some computing services something that again is an arguable fit and again zoning codes if you are not if you don't have the magic language it doesn't necessarily mean that it doesn't qualify under an existing use um so again i'd have to get in the weeds with the planning director on that but um we don't have any like specific granular regulations tha

» t would be specific to data centers um it would be underlying subdivisions underlying zoning district regulations if there is a box that is inclusive of a data center it would just have to meet again those zoning district standards we don't have any specific well i think i think for this council that's an essential question because either there is an industrial zoning out there that allows for it and so a moratorium would directly impact somebody's private property rights or it doesn't and it won't and so that brings up a question of of mootness for us on on what we do um of course tonight and actually in order to have an actual moratorium it'd have to be in the form of a ordinance and so it'd have to be a first reading second reading third reading and a public hearing that would occur and

» so whatever vote we have tonight will be a recommendation um for staff to put it on the agenda for next time if it if it passes tonight to have an actual ordinance but between now and then if we do something i'd really like to know is the regulation a moot issue for us right now because none of the zoning allows for it um or is the threshold question is it allowed and thus we have even greater need for regulation mr jones i don't care i don't care if it if it if it is allowed i don't like it and and this body has the right to change that and uh and i would tell i'd vote for 10 years but i just know it's not going to pass i want to make sure when we walk out of here we've got a moratorium 12 months that's something and and to make sure we have regulations those two things were the key words

» in my emotion well mr jones that's the question is if it's not allowed anywhere then the moratorium could be moot because you can't do it at all well listen you're saying could be could we don't know what i know tonight is that i i will i think this council should enact a moratorium for 12 months and make sure there's regulations in place if and when these sound good. We haven't heard from Mr. Cato yet. So I agree with you, Mr. Jones. One of the issues that I have with five years, I wish we could just band it all together, but that's not possible. We've got to be reasonable. I mean, you know, we can sit up here and we can make things sound good and try and get applause and all that kind of stuff, and that's fine, well, good.

» But we've got to reasonably think about what we're doing with this. If we did it for five years, I'd be off council. I wanna see it to the end. I wanna make sure that things would, I don't have but a four-year term. So I could be off council. And I wouldn't be able to see what regulations are put into place. It'd be kicking the can down the road. So my point is that I would like to see something where we gonna put some reasonable and really good restrictions on these data centers. And to be perfectly honest, to maybe deter them from even wanting to come to Starkling. We had some really good conversation at the conference. And every class that we went to dealt with data centers.

» There was a lady from Washington, okay? This lady from Washington was over the national committee for the counties in Washington. She said presently there are 75 bills between the Senate and between the House and Washington that are presently being presented to them to take a look at. I wrote it down 'cause I couldn't believe it. There's a lot of legislation fixing to come down and we need to know where we stand and what we can do and how far we can go. And I agree, and I wanna clarify this point with you, Mr. Jones, that this 12 months would start, if it goes through the third reading, it would start at the end of the third reading with a chance or with opportunity to extend it if needed.

» correct and think about this we just approved no height limit on this on stacks okay i mean come on mr chairman if i may if mr bradley yes sir uh councilman cato i um agree with the very first part of what you said and most of what you said um but just especially the part that says we need to know what can and can't be allowed in kershaw county the way i see it if if a data center is currently allowed in a certain zoning code it's likely that it's maybe a light industrial or a heavy industrial zone which we only have a few parks that qualify here in kershaw county a data center is not interested in building in a park they're interested in on building in a very remote farm maybe a thousand acres or more that's going to be zoned rd1 rd2 and it's likely because this is something new that that

» they have to have a moratorium in place in order to get all of the zoning passed to make it feasible to exist in a certain area so while i wanted to say frankly i wanted to ask for a 99-year moratorium, but my wife wouldn't let me. If a five-year moratorium is too long, then it's too long for what? Maybe it's unconstitutional. That's, I guess, for a court to figure out, not me. But let's not put ourselves in a position to accept them in rural areas if that's not the goal. So we can say there's a moratorium for data centers, but are we really even doing anything other than giving ourselves a year to figure out how to have data centers. And I don't want to get confused in this conversation. I want to know what's going on.

» I want to be clear with my colleagues that my goal will be to limit sites in Kershaw County. I want to be clear to the public that I want to preserve the natural resources and beauty of Kershaw County. That was a focus six years ago when I ran. One of the things that I said is that I wanted to help protect Kershaw County's natural resources, and I find myself dealing with something that could be a huge hurdle for our natural resources, and I don't want to mistake tonight's conversation or moratorium for it to turn out to be something other than we intend it to be, because I can assure you the system's intelligent. When I say the system, I mean the lobbyists that lobby the federal government. I mean the lobbyists that lobby at the state house.

» Now, we don't see them here, but when that legislation is passed, you better darn well believe that somebody's for it. You better darn well believe that somebody is courting somebody to get what they want, but you better darn well believe that I'm standing here today uninfluenced in fighting for the citizens of Kershaw County to make sure that Kershaw County stays what it needs to be so i agree with danny i don't know if if we need a moratorium or if we need a clarification before we move forward and i think that's what our chairman was asking for from john the bows in which we got maybe a little conflicting answers mr brazel i have a suggestion i need you if you're russell if you're are you done i have a suggestion let's hear i i think i mean any one of us under our rules could place this

» on an agenda item for next meeting and so right now i'll update the clerk that i think we should place it on an agenda item for next meeting i don't know that a vote is needed tonight but i think we've got to get clarification on whether or not it's actually allowed or whether or not my motion stands for a vote tonight that's fine but uh or whether it's a mood issue based on zoning because i think i've heard something different economic development like mr brazel i'd like to know the answer to that Because either there's a private property right that could be infringed or not. If not, then there's less restrictions on a potential moratorium that is moot. I think we've infringed on a lot of properties up in Bethune, to be honest. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Mr.

» DuBose, do you have a response? So there is a, for the NAICS codes in our ZLDR, there's one broader code section on professional, scientific, and technical services. but it is the broad section. Some data center uses are under that code. Some are under 518. Some are under 519, which I don't know that we have. It doesn't look like we have it. So it truly is an attorney answer of I think it would depend precisely on the ownership structure and exactly what kind of data might be getting managed at a hypothetical data center, whether, again, arguably fits in that box.

» i think um given that it would have to fit under that broader umbrella currently in the code um if there's a desire to specifically regulate data centers um we'd have to be specific so so my suggestion is that's what i said mr devos my suggestion is regardless of the vote tonight i've already going to have it on the agenda for next time so we can vote or not but but I'm gonna have it on the agenda for next time. Whether or not we need to pull it will be the question and how long it will be after it's first in first title only will be the question. But I think Mr. Brazel is right. We got to get to the bottom of what is actually allowed in Kershaw County versus not. And this is new. This is a question of first impression as they would say in the legal world.

» There's no precedent that we can look to. Am I correct, Mr. Templer, Mr. DuBose to try to divide it? And so you're gonna have to take some time and figure it out and let us know. we're gonna have to do some more independent research because i think i've gotten conflicting answers um from staff in the past yes sir just just a legal question so if we go what mr debose if we went forward with the vote tonight and we still got our answers at the next meeting you know if we find out that the vote's null and void i guess it has to be dropped but at least if vote on it tonight we're one step closer so um maybe circling back to the chair's point um in order for any moratorium to be valid it has to be passed by ordinance yeah the vote tonight does nothing yeah there's nothing as far as imposing more

» would it would it not would it not start a pending ordinance doctrine no public hearing hadn't been advertised um it uh now if a public hearing is advertised um again the local government has to resolve to embark upon a regulatory scheme um i think it's arguable yeah that that it could be invoked in this scenario well then let's vote on it and have have a leg rather than no leg and directed to the ministry and to ben's point and to jimmy's point i think i think we do both things and just know that that during this process it's it's going to be it's it's going to be of my opinion to to look for ways to protect kershaw county and um i think we can move forward thank you mr president that's what we're trying to do with the moratorium i appreciate that i call the question well you can but i'm g

» oing to check on any other discussion from those who are present and we haven't also heard from a particular council member who's remote mr shoemake any discussion do we still have you yeah you still have me i mean look i think that just to be very short about it there's been a lot of discussion already I think that there is a certain hysteria around data centers that's sort of misplaced um that said I would support a short moratorium but I'll tell you like I'm not going to vote for an extended one and when the moratorium is over I'll support regulations to make sure data centers are I agree they should be limited they should have reclaimed order they should have power sources I think we should regulate them and not have not turned and crystal county in the data center alley but um i'm not

» terrified of data centers and one of the speakers mentioned that you know data hacks the worst thing in the world we can do as a country is start sending our data overseas so i'll support a short moratorium but uh that's kind of all i have thank you mr shoemaker can i say something mr jones i don't want my data center to uh overseas either but i'll tell you what if it's uh if it's something that uh needs to protect our country let let ford jackson have the data centers they got a lot of land over there but i don't want one i don't want one in my neighbor's backyard and uh so anyway you listen mr tucker yes sir mr i'm making too much sense up here obviously thank you mr jones mr tucker um i just have a question about process um so we do this moratorium for 12 months um i know that there's al

» ready because it was in my council briefing to talk about a little bit there is um there's already ordinance out there from other counties i know for a fact chester has one um i think buford once one down in that area yeah so um why are we not handling this moratorium like we did with the growth why can't we work unilateral in other words if the moratorium is in place we start processing the information for regulations regardless what the house does and no offense to representative reese who i love like a brother and been knowing forever um heck they can't even get the budget right i'm not gonna rely on them i'm sorry to say it i i'm mad enough to sit up here and say that i won't say behind their back um i think they just passed the budget today and what's that 40 something days representat

» ive reese uh everybody else has passed one other than the state all 46 counties so what they pass we can definitely make adjustments but why can't out the gate as we're going through this moratorium we work on those ordinance because there's stuff out there already we don't have to reinvent the wheel we just need to get the information and tweak it to our liking any other discussion all right seeing none and with the acknowledgement that the vote may or may not be moot tonight we'll we can move forward with the vote um the motion uh we're on the motion to amend first before we get back to the original motion told me not to get mad tonight so i'm not no the motion of a force is essentially a motion to um direct staff to place on the next agenda my motion was a 12-month moratorium with with u

» s to also look at having making sure there are regulations in place during that time i understand that mr jones what i'm saying to you is that can't happen tonight it has to have three readings in the public hearing so it could be placed on the agenda for first reading but i'm making that motion for tonight you understand though that a moratorium is not passing tonight because the law requires three readings in a public hearing yes i understand okay but why are you asking me that stupid question i mean i know that i i understand it takes three weeks that's why i want to make sure we get the 12 months in tonight and the regulations because it takes three readings and if you know we've got a couple of months it's not going to be one meeting a month it's going to take forever to get this thing

» passed yes sir i didn't think the question was stupid based on the context i'm not saying you you're much smarter than me sir i'm just saying that to me that's just i mean what this does is puts it on the agenda for second reading meeting for first reading i'm making i'm making the motion tonight for first reading it's not on first reading sir you essentially this puts it on the agenda for first reading next time i'm just trying trying to clarify that for you i got you okay i got you okay mr chair you know we still got to vote on the amendment this is the amendment we're talking about the amendment all right so all in favor on the jones amendment raise your hand present voting it's unanimous in person for those who are present and voting mr shumake how do you vote on the jones amendment yes

» that's a yes it passes unanimously now we're on to the original motion um as amendment any other motions any other discussion on the original as amended i think we got it all out all right seeing none we'll move it to a vote for those who are present and voting all in favor raise your hand it's unanimous miss hannah for those who are present and voting mr shoemake how do you vote yes that's a yes remotely for mr shoemake and so we do have a vote on 12c but essentially it places on for first reading for the next agenda thank you miss hannah just just for clarification did mr brasil withdraw the motion for the five years no my motion was amended it was okay we just voted on my motion that was amended by councilman jones that's what happens all this long discussion going on correct all right t

» hat moves us on to that moves us on to council briefings we've got uh first up mr cato caught me off guard i don't know why uh i'm still thinking it got deep didn't it it got deep i want to thank everyone that had a part in tonight and the proclamation for steve mccaskill and well deserved and i want to thank the sheriff's office for what they did for him tonight very deserving for everything that he done for this county and for that sheriff's office and i i truly appreciate appreciate them having a part in it i want to say thank you to the alpha center we had a opioid meeting today i'm on the opioid coalition and um advisory council and i tell you i go to these meetings and i'm more and more impressed with them each and every time i go to these meetings they do some excellent work found ou

» t today that the alpha center and our detention center had been working along together for a program which was called medicine assisted treatment and this program was started back in 2023 it's been in the process of trying to get started my understanding is it got started up this past monday and so i'm really proud of the alpha center of our county government and the detention center they had some setbacks and they had some some times that they kind of got put behind eight ball but it's up and running and and i'm thankful for that um i want to say that uh we've got the jamboree coming up to kick off the football season this year on the 14th that'll be next friday so if you'd like to attend and watch lu golf elgin camden and north central play some play some football to kick off the season t

» hey'll be doing that next week that is my report that's this thank you mr cato that's that's this 14th yeah the the jamborees this friday that's yeah that's this friday yeah camden thank you thank you mr cato mr thomas in any report uh mr chairman no report tonight thank you mr jones any report no report thank you um i think we just lost mr shoemake see it's still on yeah okay yeah he's mr tucker yes just just very briefly i was going to recognize a house member uh reese but he's gone already um i want to say that the conference um that we attended a couple weeks ago was phenomenal a lot of great information staff attended class as well as the council members and learned a lot and absolutely right data centers was the topic that no one wanted to speak about that everybody talked about um so

» learned a lot and then i just had a class last week up in grier on economic development and we had um we had that topic too uh on the data centers and a lot of good information is out there for us to learn from and um if we're ever going to do one we can we can shape one like we want or we don't want any then we can block what we don't want so um i appreciate this council taking the step in the right direction and if we all work for it we'll come up with a good product other than that i want to make you aware of an announcement that i received yesterday on um i-20 um the bridge watery river bridge so i want to make this publicly known just in case you didn't get the email this is from scdot uh conducted traffic shift operation on i-20 westbound over the watery river bridge in kershaw and th

» ey sent this out yesterday august 10th the south kline department of transportation will conduct the traffic shift operation on i-20 westbound over the watery river bridge in kershaw county beginning the night of tuesday august the 11th a single lane closure between mile markers 97 and 95 will be conducted to shift traffic from the existing i-20 westbound bridge to the newly constructed bridge traffic shift operations are expected to be completed by the morning of thursday august the 13th last part i want to read to you drivers should expect delays and seek alternate routes if possible scdot encourage drivers to use the 511 sc app or visit 511sc.org to plan route ahead and get real-time traffic updates okay thank you that concludes my report thank you mr tucker mr bradley thank you chairman

» um it was really nice to see the mccaskill's here tonight what a great family and what a great legacy um danny thank you i think that was phenomenal thank you for doing that um i'd like to kind of give a shout out to a particular member of our recreation commission and and and a large crew of people whom i can't name all but uh rick j brought it to my attention um his good friend clay hannah is the manager of a low store and um danny correct me or or help me i think there were eight low stores that donated 25 picnic tables side mulch to our recreation facilities and actually helped um put it out put set set set the the tables up put out trash cans i mean this was a tremendous donation um is is that do i have this right the numbers are it's it's wild how much they donated wheelbarrows rakes

» all kind of stuff that we'll use from now on mulch i mean it's just like hundreds of bags of mulch things like that just to help beautify woodward and i i really think it's cool that you know of the eight low stores uh one of them was in kershaw county the rest of them it was it was a friend of a friend and a phone call and um rick said we were talking about it over around the golf and all of a sudden that happened so isn't that wonderful so um not to discount um every other member of the recreation commission but i just wanted to give clay and rick a shout out and um all the all of the managers and team members that came out and gave to kershaw county a tremendous amount of money tremendous amount of time i thought it was really cool when he was telling me that today so i just wanted to hi

» ghlight that um also something that's really neat um you all remember dale watson from charleston that that painted the the battle of rugley's mill for us dale has um if you if you want to see it in the camden archives a display of all his work for the 250th and um to include a smaller version of what we have rugley's mill but gosh it must be 20 paintings um some of them are owned by the the 250th commission some of them are still belong to him but if if you're in town and martin if you'd like to to highlight what's at the camden archives it's it's all if you walk all the way to the back and hang a left it's it's in a room by itself it's it's really neat to see all that artwork and um it just kind of coincidental that that we connected and did what we did here and now he's doing other thing

» s in kershaw county so i thought that was cool had a neat conversation with him and was able to stop it and check that out before the meeting tonight so i just wanted to highlight uh dale and his artwork and what it's doing here in kershaw county um and if we could afterwards if we could maybe circle up and find out the gentleman at persimmon drive that was having multiple issues uh i'd like to lend a hand if i could uh we can talk afterwards regarding that i've got his info perfect perfect thank you that concludes my report thank you mr brazel i have no report for tonight uh mr administrator any report other than i've been selected for a federal grand jury that's my report any dates that conflict with anything we need to be concerned with i have yet to see all the dates because a lot of th

» ose trials run at least a week so i'll keep y'all apprised okay they won't keep you thank you tell them you got a job all right um briefing anything non-privileged we do have one item for executive session i'd seek a motion to enter executive sessions regarding uh discussions let me get through real quick discussions and negotiations incident to a contractual matter under sc code 30-4-70a2 is there a motion yes i moved and we got a second all in favor of any executive session raise your hand it's unanimous and we've lost mr shumake we are an executive session no votes anticipated after executive SESSION ANY DISCUSSION ON EXITING EXECUTIVE SESSION NONE SEEING NONE ALL IN FAVOR OF EXITING EXECUTIVE SESSION RAISE YOUR HAND IT IS THE FOUR WHO PRESENT ROOM IS IN A FAVOR WE'RE OUT OF EXECUTIVE SE

» SSION MOTION TO ADJOURN MR. SECOND ANY DISCUSSION ON ADJOURNING NONE SEEING NO DISCUSSION ALL IN FAVOR OF ADJOURNING RAISE YOUR HAND ARE YOU CRAZY IT IS UNANIMOUS WE ARE ADJOURNED