County Council - Regular Meeting

invocation form meeting to order and miss seaman will you give us an invocation thank you mr chairman let us pray gracious and heavenly father we are so grateful for the opportunity to gather here this afternoon be with us as we hear from citizens and we thank you for this opportunity to serve our community in your son's name we pray amen amen all right and so we'll get on to the presentation section and our first presentation is the phoenix center and rebecca maddox is presenting

Hello. Thank you so much for having us here today.

Well, again, thank you very much. My name is Jimmy Batson. I live in the Marietta-Trevor's Rest Area, but today I'm here on behalf of the Board of Commissioners for the Phoenix Center, and I really enjoy serving on the board for the Phoenix Center. And as you know, we're one of those groups that are part state government, part county government, but we really seek to serve the needs of our community in areas of prevention, education, and treatment in all areas of substance abuse. So we're just grateful for the opportunity to share with you a little bit more. And Amanda's going to be, she's the expert on the subject matter. So she's going to be sharing with us here more. So again, thank you very much for the opportunity to be here.

Good evening. Today we wanted to share with you a new drug trend that we are seeing in our community, not only at a national and state level, but here in Greenville County. So we wanted to bring this to you guys just so you have more information about what is happening in our community and what the Phoenix Center is doing to address these issues. concerns. So Kratom and 7OH, if you have not heard of them yet, I'm sure you will at some point, but they are currently trending upwards in our community for many reasons. And so to bring that information to you, we're going to start first with Kratom, looking at the plant as a whole. So the kratom plant is native to Southeast Asia, and it's been used for centuries for its mild stimulant effects in plants. However, in high doses, kratom acts like an opioid, affecting some of the brain receptors as morphine and oxycodone does. So the availability of prescriptions has declined, which means that kratom has gone up in usage. It's been around for a long time. But even though it has not been a primary source of a substance being used in our area, due to people not being able to get prescriptions as much, they have turned to Kratom for many different reasons. So it is very accessible, which I will get to in another slide. It's also not FDA approved or prescribed by doctors and currently medical experts are warning that kratom can lead to addiction, overdose and other health risks. So what are some of the effects of Kratom that we are currently seeing? Addiction and withdrawal, liver damage, anxiety, hallucinations or psychosis, overdose, as well as sedation, euphoria, suicide attempts, aggression, and severe weight loss. You will see in the photo in this slide that this is a Kratom chocolate bar. So in the previous slide, I mentioned that it has been used as medicine. um for centuries however what we do know is that typically people are not taking medicine in a chocolate bar form. So this chocolate bar was found in a local Greenville County store. It is accessible to people who live here. And you can kind of take your guess as to who the population is that it's targeted to. Chocolate, typically, probably your younger crowd is going to be the ones reaching for that probably more often than adults. So Some of the other things that we look at are marketing of these products. And this is a concern for us in our county with Kratom being in candy, drinks. Here you can see chocolate. So then that leads us into 7-OH, which if you have heard, is definitely increasing usage in our area. And it also has many side effects and a lot more health risks associated with it. 7-OH is a derivative of the kratom plant. You're looking at 7-OH being 13 times more potent than morphine. It produces respiratory depression at three times a greater rate than morphine does. There is a much higher than kratom substance abuse liability. So typically we see people who become addicted to this more easily. Both are still addictive in their natural state. And again, there's no accepted medical use for 70H. We also know that Narcan for 70H does not work the same as it does for your typical opioids. You need much more Narcan to revive someone who overdoses from 70H. And we have seen overdoses of 70H in our county. The half-life of both Kratom and 7-OH can be three to nine hours. So if someone overdoses from Kratom or 7-OH and they are Narcan, there is a high chance that that half-life will then go back to the opioid receptor when the Narcan wears off and they can be at risk for another overdose. So what impact does this have on our community here in Greenville? In fiscal year 2026, we had 65 people come through our withdrawal management or detox program due to Kratom use. Just in July, so last month, 25% of the people who were in our detox program were there because of Kratom. as their primary substance. We are also seeing this often used in combination with other drugs, specifically alcohol. Those two we are seeing more and more. A reason for that will be the availability and the accessibility of both. So you can find both at local gas stations, vape shops, convenience stores. If you can buy one, you can likely buy the other together. And that is a large concern for our community. Of course, the concern of increased overdoses. Like I said, we have seen 708 overdoses in our county. We have seen Kratom and we are starting to see that across the state. The marketing of these is that it's safe and natural. We are seeing drinks that are marketing as like a alternative to energy drinks. So you can get a boost with Kratom because originally In very low doses, it was used as a stimulant. However, we are not sure what the dosage of the Kratom products are. They're not FDA regulated, so there is no control over what is in them. And these drinks do become addictive over time because it is usually a higher dose that we're seeing. And so people are having withdrawal symptoms from not being able to drink it or if they try to stop on their own. So what is the Phoenix Center doing? We're continuing to have education and resources provided to our Greenville County community members. We have accessibility of prevention and treatment services throughout the county. A lot of this is through our mobile unit, our community outreach band, community partnerships. We also have presentations for youth, parents, and general community members, trainings for community, They can be specific. For example, we have a specific parent training coming up on August 26th that is going to teach parents and help them understand the current drug trends that we are seeing with youth. So that way they are more aware, especially if they have middle and high school students of their own. We do monitor the DEA scheduling, so we are aware that 7-0-H has a temporary ban on it currently from the DEA. It is not Kratom as a whole, it is specific to 7-0-H. So we do monitor that to make sure that we are keeping up to date and we are providing the community with the most up-to-date information. We also do environmental scans. That's an example of that would be our chocolate bar photo just to see what is available to the community, how it is marketed, who it's marketing for. Is it to youth? Is it to adults? Where is the placement of these items? So can someone just go up on the shelf and grab this chocolate bar with some other chocolate bars right next to it? Is it next to a Snickers or is it behind a counter? We also raise community awareness, again, doing presentations like this through social media, billboards, flyers, anything that we can do to get the word out there. And if the scheduling does change permanently, we are ready to respond to retailers by providing resources, materials, updates, classes, anything that we can to help them be knowledgeable about what's happening and the changes in our community. So a little bit about the outreach that we've had in prevention for last fiscal year, 2026. You can see our pie chart here. The blue, the light blue is our general prevention outreach. So this is presentations to general community, parents, anything that is more community focused. One thing to note is that this is face-to-face contact for us. So this doesn't really include social media or billboards, things like that. So, our general prevention numbers, we were able to reach almost 21,000 people last year. Our high visibility enforcement, we reached almost 2,700. And in the school district, we have been able to reach almost 4,400 students last year. Then we get into some of the little smaller pie chart pieces where we have our more targeted um classes or resources uh we provide a why try which is a resilience education curriculum where we reached almost 400 students in the county our merchant education program we reached 56 and then in partnership with um the different law enforcement municipalities in the county as well as the sheriff's office. We had 610 compliance checks throughout the county. Those look at alcohol and tobacco compliance rates for us. That is all I have. I just wanted to thank you guys for your time allowing us to come and give you this information, especially as it is an emerging concern for our community. And I don't know if anyone has any questions.

Councilors, does anyone have any questions?

Could you go back to the pie chart? Yes. I see you have six items listed, but I only see five colors. Maybe I'm colorblind, but there's something missing.

The tiny little sliver next to the dark blue and purple is is going to be our prep numbers. Yeah. The dark blue that you see is why try. And because prep only has 56, it's a very tiny sliver right there in the middle.

Okay. I also want to say that I've been to some of your programs and visited your center. And I think that you guys are doing a wonderful job and keep up the good work.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, first of all, thank you for the presentation. And I've got, I've learned a lot from being able to serve alongside of you guys and hate that I haven't been able to be there in person as much, but, um, When it comes to the Kratom and the 708, I know you mentioned the current ban. Is that ban to where it can't be sold in stores as well or just that it can't be distributed? And is there any state or federal discussion like actually being had about it? Or was this just an attempt to kind of shut it off so they can figure out what's going on?

It was a temporary ban. I do not know the end date. And it is for stores. So the temporary ban is for 70H to kind of cease being sold how it is. So Kratom and 70H can be sold in any store right now. This is to take 70H off the market while they kind of evaluate what the next steps are.

Okay, perfect. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Anyone else? Is there an age restriction on purchasing Kratom or 70H or anything like that?

Yes. In South Carolina, the age restriction is supposed to be 21.

Got it. Okay, great. Well, thank you so much for coming.

Thank you.

All right. Next up, we have Jessica Owens, and she is with the Human Relations Board. Welcome.

Hi.

Thanks, you guys. I haven't seen you guys since I did my speech. You guys reappointed me. So thank you for allowing me to continue to serve. Really appreciate it. I want to thank I have several fellow commissioners here with me tonight. And we have our executive director, Dr. Yvonne Duckett here as well. So I'm happy to have them come here and join me if y'all have questions for them as well. And we really appreciate the invitation. It sounds like you guys want to hear more about what's going on specifically with boards and how you guys can help us when you guys are reporting folks. So I thought that was really great. All right. So a little bit about the Human Relations Commission. The mission for the organization itself is to improve the quality of life in the county of Greenville County by promoting positive community relations and equal opportunity. So the organization has several programs that they actually provide. And so I've listed a few here. So we have the Financial Empowerment Center. And a little bit about the Financial Empowerment Center. They do one-on-one financial counseling, and this is a free public service that they do. They help folks establish a credit score or help in increase their credit score. decrease their non-mortgage debt. And this is something they have done really great at. They have some really phenomenal numbers on their website. They actually have a website for the Financial Empowerment Center that you guys should definitely check out and help folks increase savings. They have the Eviction Protection Program. And within this program, they actually have an attorney. And so this attorney actually helps them give them legal advice and court representation. There's landlord and tenant mediation and eviction protection workshops and education. And then they have housing counseling and assistance. And there's a lot of different things that kind of fall in this category, but mortgage default, foreclosure prevention, relocation, housing placement, emergency housing, and disability and handicap access issues are also addressed here. And then education workshops and certifications. They work with fair housing, landlord tenants, mediation, conflict resolution, and they have a first-time homebuyer class. So a lot of different things that they are doing right here in our community. So I know you guys want to hear about the board. So I'm going to jump into that. And if we have more questions about what the organization does, Dr. Duck is here at the end to share that with you guys. Um, so we were very lucky currently all 12 seats are filled, you know, historically, I think you guys have heard that we have had some turnover on the board where people kind of dropped out or people weren't attending. We have had the best attendance, um, that we have had since I've been there. And, um, now going on four years. So we are very proud of that. We have a variety of talents that I will share a little bit more with you on the next slide. But things that we desire as a board that we've talked about as we look for representation is we would really love to have representation from all districts. So we have three districts that are currently not represented. So that's 17, 21, and 27. I know sometimes we're limited on that. We have to find folks who are willing to actually apply and serve on the board. And one thing that's important with us is lived experience. So it doesn't necessarily have to be someone who used HRC services, but folks who have lived that world and understand what it is like to have to use those services, their expertise and understanding we feel like is a really important part. of this board and commission. And then have representation from just the demographical overall makeup of the county. And then the other thing is making sure we are trying to find folks who prefer to serve on a governing board. So there are lots of folks who prefer to do fundraising or they prefer to be on a working board. And so that's something we've had to work really hard at is helping people understand what is a governing board and advisory board versus a working board and what those boundaries are. So I know this is a little bit small for you guys. I apologize. But this is just a little bit just showing you guys what our talents are. So we have things within public safety. So we have folks who have been in the military, licensed private investigation. They've been in part of disaster response and emergency management. And then we have folks that are part of the legal system in corporate and transactional law. Folks in executive leadership positions, nonprofit management, regulatory compliance, folks who have actually worked in the housing environments to include HUD. Folks who are working in their own nonprofits, working with food insecurities ministry and resource distribution networks. And then health and human services and behavioral health. So substance abuse facility right here in the county. Counselors, mental health coaching. And then we have folks who also work in our financial world and have worked in grant writing and stuff like that. So we really are blessed in our board that we have a variety of talents. So we just wanted to kind of lay that out for you guys so that as you get applications in, you may hear things that kind of spark your interest. Like, hey, that's something they don't currently have that might be a really big asset. So when are we meeting? We currently meet every other month on the first Tuesday from 1130 until around one. And we welcome visitors. We actually have some visitors who are consistently coming every meeting right now, which is really nice. So we're trying to maybe talk to them about actually applying to become a part. And we want to invite you guys. We would love if everyone else from county council wanted to come join us and hear about the good work that's going on within the organization. So we'd love to have you all. The other thing that we have worked really hard on is our committees. So we did this through our bylaws. We amended them and really wanted to focus on committees that were going to provide good structure and support to the organization. So these are the four that we currently have. executive governance, strategic planning, and finance. And so I'll tell you guys just a little bit more about each of these. So our executive, so of course we have our elected positions, our chair, vice chair, and secretary, and we meet alongside the executive director bimonthly and as needed if she needs us in between. We focus on providing her support and working on our board development. And then we also work on her evaluation once a year. Governance is one of our newer committees that we have. And so what we are really working on there is providing onboarding and training members of the Human Relations Commission Board, right? Because we have some folks that have never served on the board before, so they don't always know, like, what is this all about? So we want to give them a nice onboarding, kind of give them a checklist, give them a history of the organization so that they know exactly what they're getting into, give them the policies, the programs, make sure they have a copy of the bylaws. the strategic plan, everyone's contact information. And then we're now providing commissioners an exit interview so we can hear a little bit about their experience so that we can also enrich their experience as they serve as commissioners. They also review and consider other governance related documents such as the bylaws. So we are making sure that we review the bylaws once a year to keep those up to date. And then strategic planning. So this has been a big area of focus for us. So currently we just started redoing the strategic plan. The last one was for five years. So this one, we decided that we are only going to do for three years because Greenville is ever changing, right? So the current focus is developing a strategic plan with the objective of providing a clear shared roadmap to guide the organization's decisions, actions, and resource allocation over the next three years. So some things within this are overview and organizational foundation, community context and environmental analysis, strategic priorities. And the priorities that we are focusing on are housing, economic mobility and security, ongoing engagement to support and strengthen community, and the Human Relations Commission funding. Because you guys do provide some funds to them, but a lot of their funds come through grants. So we always have to plan to make sure the organization can keep functioning. And then we have goals and desired outcomes and strategies and key activities. And the other thing that in strategic planning we have looked at thoroughly is we did a SWOT analysis actually of the organization. So I will just hit a few highlights. So we have longevity. We have a strong staff skill set. And they have worked really good at being able to secure grants, grant funds. We do know some things that we have to look out for are the risk for funding. There's a lot of federal funding that they use. And we know that federal funding can kind of change at the drop of a hat. So we know that's an ongoing threat. Some opportunities is there's always opportunity for new services and increasing capacity. I suppose if Greenville's growing, you guys, these services are just gonna be more and more needed as we go on. And then we established a finance committee. So they are reviewing the annual budget with Dr. Duckett, reviewing the budget performance and expenditures to date. And then they discuss those fundraising opportunities or discuss how grants are going. And then what can you guys do? So we've talked a little bit about, you know, some of the wants and desires we have for our board. But again, just thank you for all that you do, you know, come attend our board meetings, you know, as you can, please continue to allocate funds for these positions so that our county's residents can continue to receive these crucial services because we all love and cherish Greenville and we want everybody to have a great experience. So I am open for questions along with my fellow commissioners and executive director.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to say, as somebody who does board governance for a living, I'm just so thrilled at the information you presented. You're really a model for how all of our boards and commissions should be operating. In particular, I appreciate the skills matrix and really understanding who's around the table, which will definitely help us think about how can we best support you. and just really good governance. I mean, the fact that how your committees are structured and your thoughtfulness around strategic planning, but also onboarding of commissioners. I mean, that makes such a big difference. So just really a word of congratulations and would love for you to train our other boards and commissions to do what you're doing.

Well, unfortunately, I can't take all the credit for this. I don't know if you guys recognize me. I know Mr. Blunt does. I actually work for the Phoenix Center as well. I was trained by Ms. Rebecca Maddox and that board. So congratulations. I have an unfair advantage. And then I'll also say Lawson, who is sitting here, she has really been the one to ramp up that governance committee. And I could not have done this without her and all my other commissioners that are here tonight.

Well, congratulations. Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll echo the great presentation. And I don't think I've ever seen Pre-preparation for boards happened this way. So it's a breath of fresh air. My only question is just, I know, especially in what you work with and deal with over the course of years and as Greenville grows, the dynamics change drastically. So are there any trends that seem to be more of concern that you're having to address now versus say five or 10 years ago that we should keep on our radar so now we can support you?

I know one thing that Dr. Douglas tells us a lot about is just the cost of living is increasing and wages is not increasing, which is definitely increasing the need for the services.

Would you like to yes, and I'd like to add currently, you know, South Carolina's number two in the nation for evictions. So we won the $1.2 million grant about two years ago, and we're working very diligently to make certain we implement that program. And just in case you don't know, Greenville County Human Relations has been a part of the county since 1969. We've always been a part of this building or not building, but in the community. So we do appreciate you having us. We work very hard. All of our counselors are HUD certified or financially certified. We just received a recognition from HUD. We are the only HUD certified agency in South Carolina. and we work very, very hard to achieve and maintain that role. Currently, we have about 15 employees. Greenville County provides about two, for about three and a half of our employees. All of the other grants, all of the other employees, as a matter of fact, we raise money through grants and through throughout foundations. So any other questions? Sure. We would love to come back at some point because we keep a track of all of your districts and the individuals that we serve in your districts and the outcomes and the types of services that we provide for this in your district. So at another time, we would love to, or let you come over, we invite you to come over so we can sit down and talk about the issues that we see in your individual communities or your districts.

We'll get together right after this meeting. I'll get your contact info because I'd like to have you back just to kind of give all the counselors that information. But then I have two questions. One being, do you get any private donations or is it strictly grants?

No private. I wish we could. If you know of any one private, please refer them to us.

Okay, okay, okay. So you can't accept them? Yes, we can. Okay, great. And then how are y'all getting the word out? What can we do to help you get the word out?

So I've asked her to let you see our website. Last year, we attended 42 outreach programs. And those outreach programs, we go out, we have a table, we disseminate the information to the public. But our biggest and largest marketing are the people. because they find that we are successful and we help them. So they tell their neighbors, their church members or whatever. So our biggest marketing piece would be the people that we serve. We spend very little money on marketing because we don't have to, because of what we do. Again, we've been around since 69. And I like to commend my board. As you can see, they are awesome. And they've been behind me every step of the way. And so again, did you find it? I just wanted to share with you our website so that if you know of anyone of any of you know of anyone who may need our services, you can refer them to our website and the website.

Yeah, there it is.

There it is. This is our website. And as you can see. We have a calendar event have a picture of all of our commissioners on mission. If a person needs assistance with rental assistance or whatever they can go if you scroll down just a little bit. We have the eviction protection program here so they need assistance they can go here first time home by education classes. If an individual is trying to buy a home as a matter of fact Greenville redevelopment I think you guys just gave them a million dollars. So we're going to assist them with education, a class. We teach classes the third Saturday of every month, first-time home value education classes. So we're pretty busy. Again, we have about 15 employees, and we're all located next door in the south building, fourth floor. Please come by and visit us and meet the staff.

Awesome. All right. Anyone else?

This is another one of our jewels in Greenville County. I'd like to say that I've worked with human relations commission. I've gone to their annual event and participated there. I've, gotten constituents who have called me to go to them for assistance, and they've received that assistance. And I just want to say that I thank all of you, the board, the executive director, the staff. You're all doing a wonderful job. And please keep up the good work. Don't get discouraged by anything. That we do or that we don't do. And just keep bringing it the way that you bring it. Because it's very much appreciated and definitely very much needed. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Yes, sir. All right. Last call. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right, and then for our final presentation, we will have Carlton Owen with the Greenville County Historic and Natural Resources Trust.

We're going to do a tag team approach, Mr. Chairman, and we're going to try something a little different. I'm going to sit down and get out of the way of the first speakers. I wish Jimmy Batson was still here. We want everybody to get high on nature instead of those drugs. So we're going to give you a presentation. I'd like to introduce Jim O'Connor, who is our current chairman.

Hello. Thank you, Chairman Farmer and Council. On behalf of the Greenville County Historic and Natural Resources Trust Board, for this opportunity to share what we've been working on for the last five years. I want to start a little bit with our history. The trust and its board were created by county council ordinance in December 2020. The board is comprised of one board member from each of your county council districts. The board is all volunteers and to date the staff is all volunteers too. And our initial board meeting was June 2021. I want to recognize the board members that are present. You'll hear from Tony McDade and Anita Gregg, and also President Joan Peters, Clark Gallivan, and Anne King. Okay, give you an overview of our process. We received funding applications from eligible entities, which are either conservation or historic preservation nonprofits or a government entity. And we have three funding cycles, April 1, August 1, and November 1 are the deadlines. So the next slide is a record of our funding to date. So we've had three biennium periods of funding. And you'll see it sums to $7 million in five years. In our first biennium, any project with over $200,000 of Greenville County funds went through the County Council for three readings. And only one application met that criterion, and that was a Shiloh Ridge addition of Parris Mountain State Park. So what the board does is goes through a rating process. You see our form here. We rate the applications, we visit the sites, we invite County Council to visit the sites with us, particularly the member whose district that site is in. And after we do this process and before final trust board approval, review and approval, we come to the County Council Finance Committee and present the applications so that you're aware of what's being applied, what we're considering, and Carlton calls it a brother-in-law test. That's a new phrase for me. We want to ensure that we're not funding any projects that's going to cause any kind of inadvertent distraction for anyone on County Council.

We're locked up for some reason. It's just, it's, I think it's just moving his, uh, I'm moving the zoom, uh, the camera. Oh,

I don't want to see the president.

We're doing all this for your entertainment at the end of a long day.

All right.

All right. Good deal. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Okay.

OK so as I said through fiscal year 2026 the county is funded that our trust board with 7 million dollars. That 7 million dollars has helped protect land and historic sites valued at 43.35 million dollars that's over a 5 times multiplier of County funds. Today we have completed or is scheduled to complete 34 projects. Those projects have preserved in this county 3,007 acres. That's about a half of 1% of total county land that's been preserved in the last five years. The next map will show you where those projects have occurred across the county. So we like to have a good distribution of projects across the county. We'd like to have a project in each of the election districts. To date, we're still lacking, I think, three. I think our bar chart says three, but we have a goal to try to get some projects in each of the election districts. Not surprisingly, most of the projects are in the north part of the county in District 17. And in that district, we've expanded two state parks, and we've protected the rivers and streams that give Greenville its high-quality water. Okay. So since we were created, we made transparency and communication a cornerstone of our practice, both with the County Council and the taxpayers. We do this communication at no cost to the taxpayers. So none of the funding, 100% of the funding that the County Council gives us goes to land preservation. Our board cost is borne by board trust member donations and friends donations. Examples of our communication include presentations such as this one to the county council committees. Annually, we make a report to the council that's shared publicly. That's a copy of our last one. We have a website that provides details of every project. And weekly, we've started this year mailing to all Greenville County residents. We have their emails. So thousands of residents were mailing information about our projects, as well as the environmental, economic, and human benefits of preservation. And you can go to our website and see archived versions of those emails. Currently, we're working in concert with one of our partners, the South Carolina Chapter of the Nature Conservancy. We're trying to develop an up-to-date map of all protected areas in the county. So that's my piece. I'm going to turn over the presentation to Tony McDade. He's going to highlight a few of our projects in particular.

Thank you, Jim. Friends, we really appreciate your service to the citizens of Greenville County. Your leadership and your vision is something that we emulate on this board and trying to make sure that the impact that we can provide investing these funds will have the most ROI. So it's my privilege to tell you that I want to emphasize three of the projects out of the 34 that have been developed. First is the expansion of Paris Mountain State Park, and then the establishment of a new county park at Oakland Plantation, and then the reimagining of the Mill Village in Piedmont. So one of the most important ways that we are involved in conservation, a key principle, is expanding the footprint of an existing public property. In just five years, we've added to each of the three state parks that are found in Greenville County. Now we know that Paris Mountain State Park is our jewel. It's the urban state park, very popular with all the citizens in our community. And turns out it is the second most visited state park and South Carolina. It's emblematic of the partnerships that we have developed to help maximize the impact of preserving land. This is done with a lot of partners, but especially with the Natural Land Trust. Over the past five years, we've been able to do five projects that have helped expand the Paris Mountain State Park footprint by 20%, that's more than 325 acres. You can see on the map before you that that includes Altamont Pass, Shiloh Ridge, and the Pip Sisawa Passage. This is preservation at its very best. And in some ways it's truly a remarkable and miraculous, sometimes we think, accomplishment. Our second project has to do with one of the historic properties that we have come across. It's the second of our three historic properties and features, the Oakland Plantation. It's now in the planning stages for public access. And when it is opened, it will be the first new regional county park in almost two decades, since 2009. Please note that this preservation effort has taken place while the population of our county has grown by more than 40%. You know that better than anybody. So our partners in this are the Upstate Preservation Trust. They're leading the fundraising and the restoration efforts, and you can see here the historic home. and the outbuildings that are there, and Greenville County PRT is developing the plans for the open areas, and they are in abundance, if you're familiar with this property near where I live, in the Simpsonville area. Let me say that this is preservation par excellence, and it does my heart good as an old history major at Furman to see us preserve places like that that are truly irreplaceable. So it's a terrific investment. Our last of the showcases here is our work with the Piedmont Public Service District to create a riverfront park right in the core of the Piedmont Mill Village, as you can see. This is a tiny project, but ironically, it's turned out to be one of our most complex to date. It includes lands that were acquired by the county with FEMA funds. There was the purchase of six acres of pristine riverfront forests. And then I want to emphasize this part. There is a public access conservation easement with a private developer. Let me just say that again. a public access on a conservation easement with a private developer. That almost never happens. It's quite rare, and it is truly a remarkable achievement. It goes toward the trust that landowners have in our board, in our work, and Carlton's leadership as well. So as you see these parks as they're being developed, it's going to create opportunity for the citizens of Piedmont and also visitors to this area to access the Saluda River. And it also complements a new park that has been developed across the river on the other side by Anderson County. So there's many things that we can do as a board and as a community and a county to help revitalize Piedmont and help it develop this, its central park. One of our partners that we're in discussion with about land in this area, that if this conversation goes well, it will double the size of the park. And you'll notice some of the other properties that are there that have been preserved. Take note especially of the Piedmont YWCA property that is vintage 1908. So we're doing our best to put Piedmont back on the map. So let me call on now our colleague Anita Greggs, who's going to talk about different alternatives and tools that we can use instead of fee purchases. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Tony. Good evening, everyone. All right. All right, so some examples of our work and investment of taxpayer funds would not be complete without showcasing a conservation easement. These are likely the most misunderstood of tools in the conservation toolbox. Rarely does a conservation easement allow public access. Why then would we invest public dollars to protect private lands that remain in private ownership? The answer to that has several compelling components. First, few of our eligible entities would have the expertise to be able to manage a working forest or farm that's really left best to the private owners. Second, we are not paying full price for all the rights to the land. what we are really doing is buying development rights to retain the property as open space for all of its many public benefits, water and air, view sheds, wildlife habitat, and importantly, to serve to limit development in certain areas. To date, the County Trust has invested about 10% of the total cost of acquisition for the lands that remain as open spaces with very limited development, thus limiting traffic and public service needs on vital open space. On average, we have only invested less than 10% of the total value of the land covered by a conservation easement. Cumulatively, about a third of the projects are conservation easements, helping to protect almost one half of the 3,000 acres at a cost of only 20% of local taxpayer dollars. So let me share an example with you all here on your screen. And it's a farm that's owned by one of our founding board members and is one of less than a dozen black owned and operated farms remaining in Greenville County. More than 98% of all African-American owned rural lands have been lost in the last 100 years. In Greenville County, we've already lost a third of our producing farmlands, lands that will not ever be replaced, meaning that our food needs will come from either other counties, states, or even other countries. The Harrison Farm provides a wide range of seasonal crops to local businesses like Feed and Seed right here in Greenville and the Swamp Rabbit Cafe and Grocery. To the result is more than 100 acres within District 26, and Mr. Bradley, I think you would be familiar with that area, that will forever retain its rural character because of the decision of the owners. And in this case, another conservation easement we helped make possible at another 100 acres. And by the way, I need to mention that the owners of Harrison Farm just happen to be my parents. I and my siblings couldn't be more happy that they made this decision to protect the land that my parents bought more than 50 years ago. But let me shift to more of a more broader work. We've done a near magical job of recruiting partners to our work. Yes, we have invested $7 million of county taxpayer funds, but we believe that that's in ways that have yielded great results. We've been blessed to have state matching funds for all but two of our projects from the South Carolina Conservation Bank. Private funding partners like the Community Foundation of Greenville and the New Leaf Fund established by Greenville native Leo Rohrbaugh had helped stretch taxpayer dollars. And several of the land owners themselves have helped further stretch our investment by donating significant funding by selling below appraised value. We've had help. from others as well, individuals with small donations, and Greenville Women Giving with a targeted $50,000 gift to help protect Harrison Farm. These are truly investments in infrastructure that will benefit our citizens and visitors for decades into the future, providing places for recreation, open space, for viewing pleasure. But now I think I need to ask one of our founding board members and long-serving chairman who continues to support the work of the trust as our unpaid staff, Mr. Carlton Owen, to close on our presentation. Thank you.

You'll see what our personnel evaluations are in our board. They have doubled my salary and tripled it in the last five years. What I want to talk to you about are some of the goals we're doing and public support for the work we're doing. Number one, we have not established specific roles because we can't go target and circle lands that other people own. We have to work only with willing landowners, and that's the only way we will ever do it. But if you look at some of the goals that are in place nationwide, being within 10 minute walk of a park, which is much more possible in the urban areas than it is in district 26 and 27, maybe there the goal should be within 10 minute drive of a public space. And then we're at currently about 15% of Greenville being protected. 40% of that though is a Greenville watershed, a wonderful legacy but it's not available for public use. It provides that water that is so critical to our economic and human health, but it is not recreation land. So maybe we could shoot for the international goal of 30% of our lands being protected as open space to provide ecological and environmental and human health needs. One of the things we've done over the last couple of years is look at how public support has grown for the type of work we do. And this is a statewide poll of likely Republican voters. 80% said they support conservation. 90% said when it's protecting wetlands or hunting and fishing areas, they're all for it. That's a statewide poll. We've done two polls within the county. One that we funded through private donations here in Greenville. 93% said they want to see their tax dollars used. They want to see more of their tax dollars go to protecting land across the county. And this is statistically sound across the voting public. And then finally, a poll that was done recently and asking about the priorities under the transportation sales tax, when asked if you could only do one, which thing would you want to do with those dollars? 51% said roads was their number one concern. 29% said green space. 10% said transit. I love this quote by Governor McMaster as a 36-year transplant into South Carolina. He said, protecting our land is a gift to our people, making South Carolina recognizable as the closest thing to heaven here on earth. And I would agree with that. Greenville County is a beautiful county from north to south. We're very blessed. Let me sum up again what you've already heard. Number one, We talk about our economic leverage, five to one resources brought in, but the South Carolina Office of Resilience says when you protect an open space, you get an 18 to one return on that investment, less damage from flooding and other storm events. We know that protecting those areas makes other demands less, less road, less sewer, less other services that are consumed. As a matter of fact, if you look at rural lands, Undeveloped lands, forest and ag lands pay back for every dollar they put into the tax return into tax collections because they do not put a heavy demand on public services. So you've heard we've just eclipsed our five year period. We've started on our sixth year. We have a million dollar appropriation, but we've invested seven million in projects to date. 43 plus million dollars worth of real estate, 34 projects, five to one return from other sources. That's what's critical about. We have to put up money if it's important to us. We can't expect others to pay for everything. We've added all three state parks, a new county regional park. We've added to one of our other county parks. We've we've done a project recently that Mr. Mitchell was out on the first one we've done with any of the six municipalities. But it's different. It's a resilience project. to avoid downstream flooding and allow nature to be nature. We're real proud of the work we've done. And like these other boards that have come before us, I'm extremely proud of the board members. Folks are giving up their time because they love Greenville County. They love seeing the happiness and the quality of life that our work does. So we'll end with that. And you can ask any of these folks over here questions and they'd be glad to answer.

Counselors. Don't really have questions. I have comment. I know you, daddy. I've had the honor of meeting your mom. We call those good folks. And the work y'all done in my district, I've seen it all. Carlton's took me to each farm, the Piedmont, with Ms. Payton at the YWCA. I lived in Piedmont, didn't realize that was a YWCA. It was a home as far as I know. So the investment that we put in these properties, the return is, uncountable. So I've been in my short term here. I've been proud to be part of some of the stuff y'all got to do. We appreciate you.

Thank you, Dad. I said, Hey, and one thing we always do when we're doing a project in any district, we asked the representative to go out with us and many of you have taken advantage of that and gone out and seen the projects that are under consideration. That's

Thank you. And again, like Mr. Bradley, not a question, but just to say, you know, a lot of times people ask, what's something that you're proud of in your work on county council? And this, for me, will always be a vote that I will never, ever regret. So thank you.

Thank you, Liz. All of our members feel the same way. This is a joy to work on every day, and we appreciate the support we get from the council for it. We want to make Greenville still in the future. I have two grandchildren here, three in another state. I want them to enjoy the same benefits I've been able to enjoy from this beautiful county. So thank you for your time.

I can't say enough about the trust. The last project and the first project that we did in District 23 was quite remarkable. That's the resilience project. And we could not have done it without the trust packaging things in the state.

We got state funds.

We got county. We got city. And we got private funds. So that's just a remarkable piece.

And I'm very proud of it.

When you look at the bar graph, I only have one. But it's one that I'm very proud of.

It's one more than me.

And when it goes to the Harrison farm, In my community, when COVID hit, we started a meals and mask program for people. And the Harrisons, along with other food distributions entities, stepped up. So whenever they had anything that was excess, they would bring it out. And they didn't just bring out the vegetables that they grew from the ground. They brought out meats and all kinds of stuff.

So it's just all of this goes to say that we as council people are doing the right things with these boards and commissions, putting the right people in place and making sure that the right things happen throughout the county, not just in one community.

throughout the county and so tell your mom and dad i'm real proud of them thank you once again but everything that you presented tonight is so much worthwhile and i wish everybody in the county every individual in the county could see it because it makes me proud and i think everybody in the county would be proud too absolutely thank you mr chairman i i

I tried to think of questions, honestly, while you were presenting, but I think one of the reasons I can't is because you showed up so much to keep us updated with what's going on, and that was a choice that you made to make sure that the public was aware of what's being done. It's funny how a little bit of information – goes a long way because I can tell you at least my district and others is there's been a transformation in support for conservation easements and protecting lanes. People simply didn't know what it was or how it operated. And through some of these meetings, and I think through your leadership, all of you, I think you've really turn the corner and people realizing what a benefit it is to, to Greenville. So thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Absolutely. And yeah, I'm just gonna also give them a glowing review. They've just been awesome. Um, Carlton's been super communicative, uh, with me. He's really gotten to show me behind the curtain about all the good work they've done. Um, kind of like what chairman or sorry, um, counselor seaman said uh i i absolutely do not regret ever voting in favor of anything that y'all need um it's always a net benefit um you know i know there's no project in my district and it's a bit of a snipe hunt but if you find it i will support you all the way Okay. Well, there's black bears in North Maine, so there's that. All right. Okay. So that concludes the rest of our meeting. May I get one final motion?

Motion to adjourn.

All in favor? Aye. We're adjourned.