County Council - Regular Meeting

We'll go ahead and call this meeting of the Greenwood County Council to order. In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act, the date, time, and location of this meeting has been posted here at the Greenwood County Library on the front front door of the Greenwood County Courthouse, has been made available to our local media and social media outlets, and the agenda is posted on the county website. Um we we have we have not held an executive session today. So there's certainly nothing to come out of that since we didn't since we didn't have one. Um our our invocation tonight will be offered by Councilman Robbie Templeton. And after that we will honor our nation with the pledge of allegiance. Councilman Templeton.

Yes sir, Mr. Chairman. Um, I'm going to have my sister who is pastor at Greenwood Global Methodist do our invocation tonight, Tracy Burke. Thank you, sir. And by way of introduction again, his favorite sister, older sister on the record.

On the record, that is incorrect. But before we go to our prayer tonight, I want to share with you just one short scripture from Isaiah 9:2. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. On those living in the land of deep darkness, a light has dawned. And I think that in light of our Advent season upcoming, I think that this is very appropriate for this evening. And so would you please pray with me now? Dear heavenly father, we are so grateful to be here together gathered as Greenwood County Council and as friends and colleagues. Lord, I pray that you will just rain down your blessings on this meeting this evening. And father, as we enter into this Advent season, help us to be mindful, of God's love, of his peace, of his joy, and Lord, of this great expectation of not only the coming of a baby to a manger in Bethlehem, but also the coming of Christ the King to redeem us as his own. Father, tonight we thank you for the many blessings but also the many challenges that this year has brought. And we ask Lord now for one more provision this evening. We ask for you to give us wisdom and in that Lord we ask for clarity of decisions when Lord things may be very complex. We ask for unity across party lines and within this community, Lord, that you would help us to be very mindful of what is best for each member of this county. And Lord, that the decisions made here would help us to flourish. And as we end this year, Lord, we pray that you will remind us of the

hope and the light that you give to all of us. and Lord that there is light in the darkness. Lord that it is always a good thing for us to be discerning and for us to be able to make good decisions and work hard for those and Lord also that you will just help us to be mindful that we have a job to do and you have given us the ability to do it. So, Father, rain down blessings on this council this evening, on everybody within the sound of my voice. And Lord, may you draw each person and their families close to you. Let all things that we do be to your glory. It is in your holy and blessed name that we pray. Amen.

Amen. I pledge algiance 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.

Council, I trust that you've had an opportunity to review our meeting uh minutes from last meeting and I'll ask for a motion that those uh minutes be approved. Motion to approve. Motion by the vice chairman. Second. Second by Miss Miller. All in favor? That is so ordered. And thank you. We uh we have do have one presentation tonight uh in regard to Greenwood County uh branding and the and our potential new logo. Miss Abby Banks, our public information officer. Thank you, Abby.

Right. Good evening, council. I am excited to finally kind of be bringing this to you. I think that um Toby and I actually talked about branding in my interview more than um three years ago and sort of a need for that. Um and that's what we're going to do tonight, kind of where we're at and what we've been doing and where we're going. So today we're going to review the seal history. I don't know if you know all the history about our seal, but I did some looking into it. People would often ask me what it was. I didn't know all the answers. We're going to talk about that. Why we need a new seal. I'm going to share a little bit of research that we did that I did on other counties around us, what they're doing. We're going to look at some new Lego options. We had a um had some concepts that we have shared with our staff, their feedback and some results and really a transition plan and next steps um involving our branding and logo. So, first of all, just simple, what is a government seal? And it's really a formal symbol of legal authority. Um the best way to look at it is to think about it is the seal represents you. The seal is the government, not necessarily the people, but it is the government um used for ordinances and contracts, resolutions and proclamations. And traditionally, they're all very detailed and illustrative. And you see that on our seal that it's very detailed and illustrative um and clearly not created for marketing or digital environments or to really represent the workforce. Um that is behind especially like local government. Um you think about the seal and when they were created marketing wasn't something we were thinking about and certainly not a digital environment was something that we weren't thinking about.

So where did our seal come from? So, I really thought that our seal was probably older than it was, but it was part of a festival of flowers contest in 1973. Pulled this from some index journal archives to kind of find out where our seal came from, but it was a festival of flowers contest to make the county seal for Greenwood. was sponsored by the Greenwood JC's and County Bank. Um, or kind of who put that on and artist Mark Baltger won that contest. Um, and County Bank,

I'm sorry, Mac. I see Mac. But, um, and you he was with Connie Maxwell, I believe, did some art for them as well. But County Bank purchased the rights to the artwork. Um, and then it was modified prior to council's approval. So, if you actually look at that picture, you can see the seal is not what we have there. Um, what was originally drawn had a large train in the middle of it. Um, so they changed that around and made some changes to it um before it was actually finalized by council. And one of the things that I'm going to go back and show you, but the design features railroad tracks on the outside. Um, we'll talk about this. So, we've got railroad tracks around the outside. You see that? That's the railroad tracks. We have to the left we have Lander. Um Star Fort, you have Greenwood Mill in the back. Um the center is the original clock tower for the courthouse that um was torn down I believe in the 60s. Um but one of the things that I found interesting, you've got the lake obviously. Um but I think somewhere along the lines the seal was colored wrong. Um if we see here, there was no coloring obviously in that. It was a black and white image. Um, and the index journal article says that there was a tractor and a dairy barn and a train. Um, so I actually believe see where this blue water is and there's that little piece between the blue. It goes blue, green, blue. That little piece I think is actually supposed to be a tractor plowing a field. Um, and then the dairy barn is above it. So it's not supposed to be water, grass, water. I think it's supposed to be grass, grass, water. Um, but that should be a tractor plowing a field. Um, but that's where our seal came from. Um,

you don't see it. There's the tractor, right? Yeah, that's the tractor. I had it. Where's Waldo? Come on. I only

a lot a lot of Greenwood and a lot of history represented um in our seal, right? But what what is the problem with using a seal as our logo? Um, you know, a seal isn't a brand and it's not built for today's needs. And you see this, I mean, even as we scroll back and forth, and this is large, the seal does not work well at small sizes. It is very hard to see what that image is. And I'll tell you that I don't know that I could have told you four years ago what the seal of Greenwood County looked like. Like I I I didn't know what what our like logo was. I don't think I could have told you what it is. Um, it loses a lot of legibility online and on mobile devices, difficult for social media icons and it's difficult and expensive to embroider on apparel. I mean, if you see any of our our staff that has it importer embroidered, I mean, it's it's massive because it's not designed for that. But one of the problems that we currently have is that we don't have a cohesive visual identity by departments. Um, parks and recck has their own logo. Planning uses their own logo and then there's different variations that happen from one to another. There's not any consistency. And again, we don't have a clear color palette. Um, I mean, you can see from the logo that the the logo doesn't have the most beautiful color palette that we want to use for everything. Um, and the color palette changes according to to what what logo you have. There's no consistency in those colors. We don't have a standard brand guide for what those colors should be. And then the font is also difficult to read. I mean, especially think about that on your phone. If you saw that, you would have no idea that that says Greenwood. And that's where like when we're recruiting um staff when like looking things when they're going to our page and they're seeing our logo, they can't see Greenwood. They don't know what county that is when they look at

that. But why do we need to do it now? um is what I really want to answer. And we think about Park Plaza that we are building across the street. Um and we want to make sure that we have the most current signage and wayfinding in Park Plaza and we want to make sure that we use our money wisely. So what we don't want to do is put up signs with a logo that we are planning to change. Um so that's why we want to do this now. Um we definitely need some consistency across departments. We need it for recruiting employees. Um, for us for economic development, we want a perception of kind of where we're going. Um, and what our county is about now. Um, and just really a clearer identity for residents and visitors that when they see a logo, they know what it is regardless of what department it is. We have standardized um, logos on letters that go out, you know, all of those things. Making sure that we have standardized logo across um, across all of our departments. All right. So, what are other counties doing? So, what a lot of counties are doing, and you actually see this more in the city, honestly, than you do with county, is that you're going to have a seal and a logo, right? So, I've put up here counties surrounding us that have a seal and a logo and are using both. You can see up top Greenville County, we have Anderson County, Saluda County, Pickins, Laurens, um, Chester County, and then in the middle I have a quote from um, McCormack County. And I just wanted to include this so you could kind of see that there's definitely a lot of thought going into this around us and maybe we're a little bit behind on what we what we should have done when we look at this is McCormack County and this is from an um a news story where McCormack County had invested $1 million in rebranding and revitalization project in 2017. So a million dollars in 2017. They did get some grant funding in that and they matched it, I believe. But $1

million rebranding and revitalization project for McCormack County. And I found it interesting that in the article the economic development director was talking about why they needed a rebrand and what they hope to be. And she said, "We understand that when people look at us individually, it may not look like we have a sustainable workforce, but we want to try to put forth is that we are able to pull from Greenwood." So like one of the things is when they were rebranding is they were like we want people to see that we're a forward county and we're able to pull from these counties around us. So in 2017 McCormack was thinking we need to rebrand so we can show people that we can pull from surrounding counties and we look modern and up to date. So just sort of an idea of what's happening around us. All right. So what are our goals for our new logo? as we talked about it um you know a modern and clean design that's easily recognizable. We want something that sets us apart um that makes a clear distinction between us and especially the city so there's less confusion. I know that's one thing that especially as I see as social media is people don't know who's the city and who's the county and what what the difference is. We want to make sure that we have something that sets us apart. We want something that works well on our social media and all our uh mobile devices. Really what you want is a scalable logo that looks good small and looks good large. We want it to integrate into our remodel of Park Plaza. We want it to represent um the character of Greenwood County, works for all departments and signage. And then again, coste effective and easy to reproduce, not um a consistent color palette, and then something that's going to become the public facing identity for Greenwood County. So, we have worked with Blue Avenue, which is a company out of Columbia, South Carolina, who has done they did the logo for Lexington County Economic Development. They did Chester County's logo, which is at the bottom here. They did Chester County and

also Chester County Parks and Recreation is who we worked with for some logo options. And we have three final options that we have sent out to staff for a vote. So, we'll kind of go through those logo options. This is one. You've seen these. Um, this one had a little update from what you originally saw. Um, we had some feedback from staff as we were getting that. Um, and had some color added to this that wasn't there originally. If you see that at the bottom. Um, but we have this logo which we're calling our sun and lake design. I'll say this obviously we want to make sure that we highlight that we have a lake. So, we've got the lake here. We wanted to say that we were a forwardthinking um and innovative place that is a happy and bright resilient. Um I think it's important. I do like that we added the green to it. I believe that um adding that to it definitely gave it a new look that very happy with. Again, we can see what we have in black and white what it would look like on apparel. Again, that's an option of what the color palette could look like. And these color palettes would be like secondary colors when we use on marketing material um and on websites. This is the second option. We kind of call this our town design. And you'll see on this um to the left, it is the the little waves are representative of the lake. We have our industries. We have our quaint downtowns and our homes. So live here, work here, play here. You build a life in Greenwood. Again, what it would look like in black and white on apparel. Again, an option for color palettes that you could use along with it. And then our third design is a more simplistic design. We think about um

maybe what district 50 has and it's just kind of a smaller simplistic logo. That's what this gives us an option to do as well. Again, black and white, color palette options. All right. And then we had an employee survey. We sent this out on November 19th. We had that open until the 27th for employees to view and vote on what they liked. the sun design um one there were only we had 59 votes cast and I will say the numbers don't add up to 59 if you go down the list because some people didn't vote for their second and third place. It was set up where you were going to vote one two three but some people only selected their first choice. So that's why some of the totals don't all add up because not everybody put their second and third place. We also did make this available to employees who didn't have email and we got um tabulated those votes as well. However, so our sun and lake design one here again that was first. Our um green the GWD was second and our town was third place for those votes. So where does that leave us? All right. So what what I am asking for is just some guidance on your preferred logo design um or formal approval on one option. Um, what would happen next is I would once once we select it, I'm going to finalize a brand guide that'll outline our logo usage, our color standards, our fonts that really it'll be they'll def at there will be like a Google drive where all of our staff will be able to go and get letterhead and logos and one central place for all of that so that

everything will match. Uh we'll have an internal and external um roll out with the updated brand guide for our departments, partner agencies, and we'll make a public announcement. We'll see a digital transition first where we'll update our digital um platforms and then the physical inventory transition. Again, we're going to make this as cost-effective as possible. So, um we're going to continue using any item that has the seal until the end of its life or natural replacement cycle. So like when when something needs to be replaced after we have picked a new logo, then it will get the new seal. We are not going to replace things that are still functioning and working well, but but it will allow us to as we make decisions at Park Plaza to have all those new designs and logos and color palettes in our new building. So questions and thoughts. I'm personally glad to see that the employees voted just the way I did.

Well, and I will tell you like one, two, and three. My initial is I really like the town. I do think that may be hard sometimes. Too busy

to Well, I think it may be hard to reproduce on some things, but I'll tell you that I once especially the green has been added to the other. Um, it is my favorite. I like as as the public information in marketing, I like the I like what that gives us. I like the option of having a tagline that um where life shines or find your bright spot. I like shine. I like bright spot. I like the options that get that gives us. I also like that the um hexagon shape is a little different and gives us a lot of opportunities in marketing to continue to use that shape through any kind of material that we do. So like I do like that best, but it's up to you guys to let us know where you want to go and and how you want to move forward with this. Here comes the hard part.

Well, and here and I will say in full transparency, listen, in full transparency, I did get four emails from employees who said, "I don't like any of them. I like our current seal and I'm not voting." And that's fine. And that is going to be and I will say across the board that's going to be any logo design that people have. Like there's no way that we can make everybody happy and I understand that. And I have very thick skin. Um, that was my first reply. Okay, I got you. I was just My first choice was the one that was selected of the three. Might as well, Mr. Chairman. Yes, sir.

I might as well go get my part out of the way and be done with it. I don't like none of them really people. And hey, let let me just let and let me say first of all, if we go with one of these, I think South Car SC or South really South Carolina needs to be on it. And I will say that we are working on there were some options as to how we're going to add South Carolina back in

because you know there's a Greenville, North Carolina or Greenville, South Carolina. There's several of the Greenwoods and people searching. Sometimes I know sometimes in my searching looking for certain businesses that's in a certain county. Sometimes I'll get the phone number and it'll be a different state, but it'll be the same

name of the county. So, first of all, I think you you've got to put South Carolina on there somewhere. Number two, if you'll go back to the the other ones the people designed that for the other counties, I looked at the Chesterfield one uh that this same blue avenue that looks like a seal for a county to me. The Chesterfield one, I think these same people uh designed it. I think you said

I mean that looks like an official seal for an account to me personally. The rest of these look like some kind of business or or something. I totally agree that the one we have now, Greenwood's hard to read. It's a very busy and and I totally agree, but that one that Chesterfield has is pretty simple. It says the date it was established.

Chesterfield County, South Carolina is clear. And they've got a few images on there that kind of these other renderings you've had out of the three, the lake and the industry and the town. But this just my opinion, of course, I'll go along with the majority and and uh but I just think all three of those just don't look like an official seal for a government entity. we are a government entity and and they just don't have that I would confuse it with being something other than other than a government entity at first glance. That's just my opinion. Mr. Chairman, I yield my time.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Alison. Any any further comments? U Mr. Chairman, I I didn't care for them either, honestly. I'm I'm just being honest.

No. And you're fine. And I I will tell you that I don't know if you pay attention to anything, but the city of Austin did a massive rebrand this year and they spent $1.1 million on a rebrand and did surveys um throughout their town and they got it and everybody hated it. Um, so I I will tell you that it it is difficult to do a rebrand and and there are um agencies and I reached out to other counties and other places who did RFPs who did massive rebrands and had very expensive companies spend 70 to $100,000 to do surveys with their employees to come up with with logos and and it made no difference in the approval of council and the community. It's like it's it's hard anytime you do it.

Yeah, it is. Um I I didn't care for them. Um and is there a way for us to even to preserve our old seal? I mean

we will the seal will still will will still be like you have both. And this is what I was saying is they use both in different places. One's marketing. Um, like think of it as the seal is the government, the logo is the people. Does this make sense? Like Pickkins County, they use their seal on all of their I mean all their logo on all of their marketing material. The seal is anything that comes out of county council. Does this make sense? And I think the Lawrence County is doing kind of the same way. But that seal is the representation of the government. The logo is the people. Okay. Yes. we're not taking the lo the the seal off of

and I wasn't too excited about the numbers when when it came down to the employees. I mean it it's almost it's almost like everybody had one one that they like the most. So, well, I'm going to tell you that it's department like as as I talk to departments obviously. Okay. And and let's just

So, if we come back over to them and I will say like parks and wreck, they're going to they like the GWD because that makes sense for parks and wreck. A lot of public works, they like the GWD. Okay. The women in other offices, they're going to like the Sun and Lake. So that that's some of it's gender based and some of it's department based um as well. Any other comments? Yeah, I'll chime in too, Mr. Brew

and caveat by saying appreciate the hard work and I I hate to say it that I I kind of looked at them and just shook my head as well, but I'm appreciative that you went to that much trouble and I agree. we probably need to make something a little more marketing and transferable, but um after listening to Miss Bishop and Mr. Allison, I I I kind of like that if you'll scroll back to the Chester thing. So, my problem this is I'm going to I understand the Chester. I think one of the things with Go ahead. I'm sorry, Dane.

Let me finish then you can finish, please. I was just going to say I like the fact that you've got an official seal there and then you've got more of a I don't want to say cartoon but more of a animated version of it on the right. Um less busy. That's a good way to put it. Yes.

Do you have a building in mind? Like I don't know that we have a building that we go I think that's the courthouse. Do you have a building that you go this building is a symbol of Greenwood County? Like I think about um like Charleston County theirs is is they have a building that they have drawn that out. I mean without discriminating going around the whole county I mean you pretty much would almost do the courthouse our current if you asking Dane that's Dne's opinion I mean just right now on the spot but

or our new building our new once our park plaza is completed with the you know the new entrance and all that's going to be an attract very attractive building. That's not That's correct. But the way that rendering is that of the backside. Yeah, the new entrance. Yeah, that's a good idea. That would be kind of something new anyway. So, I can I mean I can I can get ask her them to draw something up like that as a different option. We had a depiction of it or a drawing. They have it. Yeah. Let's look at it. Um, do you have preferences for a color palette? Do you want to make sure it has green in it? Yes, I think so.

Okay. So, what what I will do if if I'm understanding right is get something closer to what Chester County has and your suggest like our suggestion currently is to um build to draw the new building or would you like her I'm trying to see what we could do. If there's a way to simplify, isn't it funny how most people are using green and blue here? Take a look. Saluda green.

Well, so if you look at if you look at colors, um like green um like color theory is blue is trust is a color that people associate with trust and green is a color that people associate with prosperity um both health and finance. So that's why that hospitals a lot of times used to all be blue and green and mortgage companies used to be blue and green because of that very reason and both are in are associated with environmental health. You could look at something that's made them popular. Sorry. Recently. No, go ahead. I was going to say you could almost look at that and misconrue that as a lake or something.

Um yeah, I'm not trying to be Mr. Marketing guy. I just you asked for our opinion and so No, I mean I ultimately the decision is going to be yours. So, but I don't think we need to spend 1.1 million. No, we don't want to for sure. I'm not voting for that. Um, so that's what I'll do is I'll go back and um get her to get an option. Do you want to keep the circle shape? Is that what you're as well? You're proposing that we keep two images. So, is that correct? The seal will stay for like really just official use. Okay.

Does that make sense? Well, because the Chester County uh seal, if you're going to stitch or embroidery or anything, you got the same problem, right? No, you would not use It would only be You would only So, you would only use number one item number one of ours for that kind of stuff. Yes. Right. Yes. It would only caps whatever. Right. The logo would be what we use for any kind of marketing or anything we print. The seal would only be like if you had a resolution and we're stamping the seal on it or um an ordinance or something like that and needed an image.

So, council, the question that I would ask if if we if we stayed um as Mr. Allison suggested was something and Miss Bishop was something that has the seal effect even if we modified it because ours currently is very busy. Are we okay with option one as a marketing tool? No, I think what I heard I think what I heard I think I'm asking. No, I I think what I heard him say is they want to see something similar to they want something that to they want to see something similar to that with our new building in it and then they may decide they like item one first, but they want to at least see another option. That's what I heard. Told y'all this is going to be the hard part. D.

No. And that that's what I got is I will bring that back to her and let them know that you really liked the Chester County logo and that could she gives us some options with that um with possibly and I can get her to draw up what our courthouse looks like now and um what Park Plaza would look like and see if we can get an option um on either of those. That was a good suggestion. That new rendering that looked really nice. Yeah, the the old courthouse that's on that one, nobody even knows what it is because it's not even in existence. So, I didn't like when I when I would ask people what that was on on the Yeah. They didn't know what it was.

Um because it almost looks like it has eyes on it. Um and I couldn't answer why it um why it looked that way.

Yeah. So, I that's what I'll do is I I will get with them and um and once I get those back is we'll bring those um bring them back to us back to you and then um once we bring those back to you, you can go from there or decide to do another staff vote either way. Does that make sense? Any other questions for me? what kind of timeline since we're looking at incorporating it into the new building. So, I'll ask to when you think

I would hope that she it may take her a couple weeks, but I can I will like it's I'll send her a message tonight. I will email her tonight and she'll let me know by um I'm certain by the end of day tomorrow how long it would take her to come up with those um renderings. Thank so that we can kind of move quickly on it. Thank you, Abby. Thank you, Gabby. Put a lot of work into that. She did.

We'll we have no further presentations. We'll move now into old business. Chip, I know you're here and you're signed up to speak. I'm going to have you speak after item H when you've heard the discussion on that, if you will, please. So, under old business item A, ordinance 202531 to amend the Greenwood County zoning map as and if amended, so that one parcel of land totaling approximately 3.2 at 27 acres at 122 Old Mount Mariah Road, Greenwood County, South Carolina. Changes from C2 General Commercial to R3 single family residential. Miss Coleman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is third reading for this. This is on Mount Mariah Road. This was the winery. Um they decided not to continue with the business because of the cost of liability insurance and ultimately they originally applied for both parcels that they own. So it was 6.66 acres. at um planning commission level, they decided to only reszone the house uh to go from commercial to residential so that they could take it back over as a house. They're leaving a commercial building that's on the other parcel as commercial because it made more sense. If you have any specific questions, I'll be glad to address them.

This comes with recommended recommendation of staff, I believe. Yes, Mr. Chairman, I'll offer you a motion to approve. Second. Have a motion approve balance and second by Miss Bishop. Any comments or discussion?

If not, all in favor? That's unanimous and so ordered. Thank you. Item B, ordinance 202532 to amend it to amend ordinance 202508 from for approximately 12 acres of land located on 1510 Monagu Avenue extension um regarding sideyard setbacks in the residential portions of the PDD. And Miss Carol, talk about that for just a moment, please. Yes, Mr. Chairman, if you remember this, this was a um formerly a residential property that the uh Seaglers owned. Um once the house was torn down, it went on the market and uh companies bought it. The intention is to build a commercial office on the front portion for a construction company. The idea was to have commercial in the front and residential in the rear because that is a true mixeduse concept. We suggested staff as a planning as a plan development district, a PDD. Uh so when it came in um the request was to do residential under our um here we are our R5 scheme. Um what they've asked for is a reduction in the sideyard setbacks and the rear setbacks. I'm going to go back to their plan for just a moment. Um but they wanted to go from 10t on the sides to 5t on the sides and then from 40 on the rear to 25 on the rear. Now this looks different along the table but this is straight out of our zoning ordinance for R5. what we used originally. They also reduced the number in the request to 37 total units. So if we look here, you can see on the front portion that the larger bu business building will be the business site. The second building will be a spec building for maybe a restaurant, maybe retail. But again, this is a construction company. They won't have the construction equipment here. This is where they do the design and the business side of it. Um, you can see they have a loop road that goes back through the property. If you look on the northern side, there is a there's a a 25

foot buffer around the entire perimeter of the property from the sides and the rear, which I was very glad to get. Um, there's also a 10-ft buffer that's actually a sewer easement for Greenwood Metro above the northern side. So, between this property and Edgemeir subdivision, there will be at least 35 ft from the LA from the backyard property line in Edgemeir before you get to a backyard in this development. So we got a lot of the things we asked for. U you can see the future land use map that I put over here um is medium density residential. If you take the 37 dwelling units and divide it by the net density um it's 9.5 acres. The gross density is even lower than that. So 3.89 dwelling units per acre is well within medium density. It's actually approaching low density. Um, if you add the frontage onto it as well, it even drops further. Okay.

Um, they did take it back. Um, they did bring it back to us so that we could they were could request us because they have a home builder that's interested in the project, but he wants the flexibility to be able to design the homes on these lots so that they can kind of tweak them for each parcel. But I recall I think on during a public hearing, Mr. Alson I think asked a question about those setbacks and we did place inside the ordinance the maximum units 37. Correct.

I did. Yes. Okay. So what's what's been um forwarded to you has this table in there a little bit changed but for for the setbacks and then this statement in the ordinance that says they're limited to 37 for density. Okay. Council, what's your pleasure? Off your motion to approve, Mr. Chair. Have a motion by Mr. Templeton. I'll second that myself. Have a motion and a second. Any comment or discussion?

Yes, sir. I have a question, please. A comment question. Um, Miss Coleman, can you clarify? We've seen this before. Didn't we already reduce the um the sides from like 20 to 10 and the the rear from 40 to 25? Wasn't that already approved on the No, it it's that's why it's in front of you now. But I thought one of them was not being changed this time. One we had already approved from 20 to 10 and 40 to 25 right on the the first time. No. Haven't we seen this before? You have seen it before. What was approved before?

So originally it was based on the um R5 zoning district straight from this. So underneath the five that you see there, there is a 10 and underneath the 25 there's a 40. So they they came in and asked for R they said we're going to do it just like it is in your zoning ordinance for R5. What happened when they took it back was that they they had somebody they were speculating when they did that they had somebody that came in and said we're interested in taking on the project but we need a little bit more flexibility. Is there any way you can give us that? Okay. So please clarify for me. We have already seen this and we have already approved something originally correct. Yeah there is a PDD in place. You're amending the PDD right? But

it was originally 20 and went to 10 and it was 40 and went to 25. No, no. I think what we what was going on was it's in a commercial area and adding the residential piece in here. Wasn't that the biggest part of what we were approving?

Well, they brought it in as a planned development district. By under state law, planned development districts are supposed to be mixed use. So, there was always a commercial element on the front. Originally they came in and they did they they didn't really have a concept for the rear. At one point we were looking at the possibility of having of having um town homes. That was a big thing that the neighbors in Edgemeir were worried about when they came back and said we'll do single family homes. We will do them under the R5 single family scheme right and we'll be happy with that. And so it was literally based on R5 and it's only getting approved or getting amended. That's what's coming back to us is dropping from 10 to five. And

there's no other property that allows a five foot minimum on the side. This is going to be clearly an exception. Everything else I'm looking at in the chart that that was in our in that in that zoning district there's eight, but and right there's an eight, but there's not any fives. I the zoning itself says most of these on the side setbacks talk for about 20 feet, 10 feet, 8 feet, 10 feet. Okay. But that's that's five R5 all over the county. A PDD is a specific zoning district unto that property. So, and I'll make sure because I'm a newbie for this. So, my home and literally five feet from me would be another home. No. No. What's the size?

10 feet at at least 10 feet. I thought we were asking for five. Five feet from the property line. From the property line. So, each one will have at least five feet. And what they stated was it wouldn't be the entirety of the home. It would probably be an architectural feature. The rear setback is not as worrisome because they have the buffers around the perimeter of the property for the e exteriors. Interiors will be a little bit closer, but if you look at some of the other setbacks, you you can see in some of the other districts, we actually have lesser setbacks in other districts. 10 feet you can shoot a free throw. Yeah. So, it's from the property line. Mhm. But that's within the actual PDD zoning because the 25 ft was what we worked on for the folks that lived in Edge Mir. Correct.

Oh, the buffer. Yeah, the buffer. I I requested the buffer because I think if you're I want to make sure we're not confusing the buffer and the property lines inside the PD. Right. So So like I said, from from the from the backyard setback or the backyard line from an edgemir property, there's going to be 35 ft before you get to the first backyard in this development. And then from that backyard, there's going to be 25 ft minimum to get to the house. Gotcha. And to piggyback off what you said, I know you want to finish.

I'm kind of maybe thinking what you are too. I I do have concerns. I hate setting a precedent and changing something that's already there like that. That's even though you know it's Mr. Templeton's district, I believe, and he's he's um said he's in favor. I just I'm not real big on changing these things. They're pretty tight as they are.

Well, I think if if anyone else were not and not to be argumentative, but if anyone else were to come in and want something like this, they would have to go to a PDD where we'd have a little bit more back and forth on it. And in this case, they did give us a lot of the things we asked them to do. They just wanted more flexibility. And they may not go to five feet. They just want the flexibility of having that as an option. Yeah, I know. And I knew that. I mean, each PDD stands alone. I'm just again once you do that, then it's referenceable as a U approved PDD and say you did you've approved it once. Yeah, they could look at this body and say, "Yes, you've approved it once. Why won't you do it for us?"

Do you know what the concerns were from the three that opposed it from the planning commission? Um, they were worried about the houses being too close to them and the numbers. They weren't as concerned about the commercial for obvious reasons because most of the corridor is commercial. Um, but most of it was they were worried about the type of homes that would be built, how many there would be. Um, like I said, this does reduce it to 37, which is pretty low for the size of the property when you're talking about some of the developments we're seeing these days. And we negotiate within every PDD that we create.

Absolutely. So, and I think I do agree with the vice chairman that that anybody could say, well, you approved in that one, but that doesn't really have any significant bearing on the next one. In my opinion, as a planner, no. I think you can tell me that, but I'm going to look at each one on a case- by case basis. And excuse me, Mr. Chairman. Yes, ma'am. And this is recommended by staff, right? Staff and planning commission.

Thank you. Any other comments or questions before we vote? Have a motion and a second to approve as presented. All in favor? All opposed. That passes 42. Thank you. Thank you.

All right, we'll move now into session of new business. And uh we're going to hear from Miss Dorne and I guess David as well. Is that correct? Or just David? Just David. And David, before as you come up, I apologize to you. Uh, I thought that I responded to your letter and found out today that my response was in a draft that that never got to you. It did go to the county to the to the uh county manager, but I I have no uh concerns that there's any fraud, malfeasants, or we need to put anybody in jail. So, there you you heard it from me here.

Well, that's good to hear. Uh, Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the opportunity to be here tonight. Uh, as you all know, usually I'm I told Stephanie this earlier, I'm usually an observer at this uh presentation, but uh so tonight I'm I'm your man uh for a few minutes. Um again, I'll try to be as mindful of your time uh as I can uh but I want to be as informative uh to you all as well. Uh I know you all had a draft of the financials, but what you have before you tonight is the final uh version of the fiscal year 2025 acter um that is prepared by Miss Dorne. Uh I would like to start off by saying I really appreciate uh all her hard work um of her and her staff. Uh they they do a good job for us. Uh and this is no small undertaking. Uh, as you can see, it's 167 pages uh of printed work. Uh, and it's it's a lot of back and forth between um Miss Dorne and I. Uh, so I'm going to jump right into it. Uh, I'm going just hit some of the highlights. Uh, and then if if we need to go in any detail, please uh just let me know. So, in the bound report uh that you have in front of you, you actually have three separate items that we're going to go over tonight. You have a bound report, you have a stapled report, and then you have a one-page uh document uh that I put together for you uh related to the general fund. So, starting off in the audit in the audit report for fiscal year 2025, um I will I am pleased to pronounce or announce that we are issuing an unmodified or clean opinion on the financial statements as you see before you. Uh what does that mean? that that is basically the highest level of assurance that you can get from your

external auditor as to the fairness of the financial statements that you see before you. We always like to joke as auditors that basically out of 167 pages only three of them belong to us. The other 164 roughly is all county information. Um I won't be labor going into detail on each section of the audit report. I will let you know as part of um submitting to the GFOA uh for the certificate of excellence in financial reporting um as you I seen in the article in the newspaper a while back uh where they were recognized um for the 34th year I believe um which is a testament to getting this thing done on time and submitted without errors. Uh there's always some comments or questions. I will say I don't know if Stephanie went into this or not, but we had two comments, two suggestions this year for improvement, which is probably the fewest I've ever seen on any acter that I've ever worked on. Uh so that was uh and I think they just had to find something because one of them was they wanted us to indent some words. So I you know, hey, what makes them happy makes us happy. So we address that moving in. So the first part of the of the act for as you all have sat on this council before uh and heard these presentations is the uh what we call the management's discussion and analysis. Uh this is basically a broad overview of the financial statements that that follow them. Uh it's a good highlevel just kind of synopsis of what happened for the year and the changes between 2024 2025. Um, and then you get into the basic financial statements themselves. And I made some notes here just to kind of hit

some of the highlights. Um, so net position, which is uh governmentwide. This is all of your assets, all of your liabilities, debt, any kind of debt, any anything that does with the county. Uh, as you can see on page, sorry, I didn't have it flagged. on page 21, excuse me, 22. 21. That's right, 21. I don't have my glasses with me. I left them on my desk at at the office. On page 21, as you can see, at the end of the year, your net position for the uh county as a whole was around $167 million. Um, of that about 60 right at 69 million was your net investment in capital assets. Um, then you have several restricted um, pieces of net position. They're detailed out there as far as the different categories. And then your unrestricted um, net position for the county as a whole is about 1.9 million at the end of the year. Uh, for governmental activities, that number is about 3.8. And then in the business type activities, we actually have a deficit net position which is mostly generated from the net pension liability and oped liability along with the uh some of the postclosure u cost as well or liability for that matter. Um moving on to page starting on page 23 and 20 23. Yeah, this is so fund balance. That's what everybody's used to hearing. Uh so you all have several major funds. They're disclosed here. Um and then there's a group of other funds that all get combined in together. Um on this page

here, I will say that for the county as a whole, um less the land not taken in the landfill um into account for fund balance right yet. increase in fund balance for the year across all funds about $13.6 million. Of that, the general fund had a small increase of around 12,000. Then you have other funds uh capital project sales tax 2007 2016 uh both with pretty sizable increases. um American Recovery Plan Act. This is the ARPA money uh that's sitting there. This, you know, there's no more funding coming in. So, it's it's steadily going to decrease as you all um spend that down. Uh you have capital asset fund. There's a decrease in the fund balance there. But I won't go into each one of them. I'll just mention that across the across the governmental funds positive fund balance change from 2014 2015 13.6 million for the year. Any questions uh related to fund balance? Moving on to the notes. Uh once you get back into the notes, uh the the notes to the financial statements kind of they're they're more detailed uh as to what some of the numbers how we arrived at some of the numbers um you know as far as capital asset cash. Um not not a whole lot um to go into there. Um, it's got all talks about your long-term liabilities, uh, things of that nature. Um, and then I like to

spend a few minutes, um, going back to page 66. This is your budget to actual report. Um, just to kind of see how you did from a budgeting standpoint, uh, for the year. As you look on page 66, if you look at the very bottom, the very bottom line on a budget of about 27.6 $6 million for the year. You were within $173,000 of your budgeted number. That has to be like minute. That is a minute difference. Um, so outstanding job from a budgeting standpoint. Uh, I'm not sure who puts that together. Let the record show that Toby pointed to himself. Uh so good job, Toby. Might need to get you over to Manly Garvin. She had a little bit of input, I'm sure. Uh but kudos to her.

You'll pay for that one.

And then if you turn on page 67, uh you're not you wasn't you were not as close on your expenditures. However, uh you did come in under budget uh on expenditures by about 2.4 million uh for the year. So, um all in all, very positive uh as far as that is concerned. Any any questions? I don't I don't really want to go into a lot of detail just because we could be here for a couple days. I mean, us accountants, this is this is all we get to do right here. So, uh, we we love talk about numbers. So, um, but I'll entertain any questions you all have as far as the fund balance and net position changes and things of that nature.

Council, any questions? David, thank you for all that. And Stephanie, once again, tremendous work. Un uh, as you said, unmodified report. So, so what I'm going to ask council is that if if we can, I'd like to vote to approve this as presented. And if if any of you have any specific questions in regard to the budget that uh over the next several weeks, I would suggest that you just set up a meeting with Stephanie and she can get those answers for you if that meets with everyone's approval. You meant budget or audit? You meant audit. I'm sorry. Audit. Okay. Thank you. Off you a motion to approve as presented, Mr. Chairman. Motion by Mr. Templeton.

A second. second by Miss Bishop. All in favor of approval as presented and that's unanimous and so ordered. Thank you. Couple couple other things I need to go over uh before I step back.

Uh you also have a stapled copy of the this is what we call our SAS 114 year in uh board report in this in this case council report. Uh this is basically just plain English uh language between uh our our responsibilities, your responsibilities. Uh there's a management rep letter in the back. I would encourage you all to read through that just to know what Toby and Stephanie are um a test, you know, are saying that they did for us uh related to the audit. Uh I will bring your attention. I'm surprised no one uh meant to ask why there was a restatement uh from the prior year. Uh there was a new accounting standard that came out uh for fiscal year 25. Uh and that was something that we had to implement. Uh there was no no restatement due to error. Uh this came out from the U Gazsby. Uh so that was just something that we had to implement along with couple other standards. Stephanie uh did a great job getting all that uh presentation of the audit uh into the format that um that is required. And finally, I have this one-page document for you. Uh we I know we provide this every year. This is a five-year running average uh of your general fund and the fund balance. As you can see at the very bottom, uh you're holding you you're holding about six months worth of um excuse me, unassigned fund balance. Uh which is about six months worth of operating expenditures and the GFOA uh they recommend at least two months. Uh so you all have consistently maintained that over the last five, probably even longer than that. I just hide one of the columns. So, I just wanted to provide that to council uh for your just for knowledge.

Thank you, David. Appreciate you. Thank y'all. Thank you. Are we good? Do we need to revote since he added stuff at the end or can we just is that going to be cover us? Madam Attorney, I think we're okay. Fine. That's all I need to know. Okay. Still in new business. We'll move to items B. And what what I would like to do what I would like to do with these um is items B through G. We'll hear recommendations by our treasurer, Miss Dorne, and then we'll vote these uh collectively if that's okay. We don't vote. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Their first reading. We don't have to vote. Thank you.

Right. I'll just summarize all of them first and then you can read them all into the record if that suits council. Yes, ma'am. Thank you.

Uh, so I came to council a couple months ago and talked about uh we have about 12 special tax districts that have um not had any activity for several years now. Uh we we're not collecting any taxes. We're not expending anything. They don't have active commissioners. and under your policy, uh, when they're not, uh, doing their reporting and and submitting budgets and things of that nature, uh, they are in violation of the policy. I don't think this is necessarily something they intentionally doing. It's just that these, uh, districts are probably no longer needed. And so, um, we, uh, are asking that you dissolve these districts so that we can clean up our records and stop, uh, having to do reporting on these, uh, districts. If you the the financial report you have in front of you, part of what makes it so long is that we have a column uh two columns on every uh one of these tax districts that have any funds in them. And then we also have this in our millillage report um because we still have these as tax districts. And so this would just clean up a lot of things administratively as well. So we have a total of six in front of you tonight. And then u once we get through the three readings, we'll do the next six. Um, I know six is a lot, but I was just trying to make it compact. Uh, we have sent um letters out today to all of the residents in these districts. It was about a thousand letters that went out uh notifying them of what we are doing and also notifying them that there will be a public hearing on the third reading uh which would be scheduled for January 6th um of the coming year. Of these, three of the districts do not have any funds on hand. That is Puckets Ferry, which is item B, and then E and F, Summit Place, and Curl Creek. Uh, Pinehurst has $40.13. And honestly, the majority of that is

just where money has been sitting and earning minuscule amounts of interest. Uh, the same for Stony Point, which has $2043. And then finally, the only district with a a significant amount of funds is Kimbrook, which is $2,47466 at this time. And what we instructed in our letters that went out to the residents is that if they want to try and use these funds, they will need to put forth um to our office uh a recommendation. So, if the letter reads, if you are interested in being a commissioner, please let us know so that we can put those names forth um to council and we could get three commissioners appointed so that they can properly spend any of the funds that they would like to. If we don't have any names put forth, I would report that back to you all. You all can choose to appoint commissioners. Um but if you don't hear from the community, you can choose to leave it as is. what happens after it dissolves. If the funds aren't used within 365 days, then I would come back to you all and notify you of that and you would have to make a decision of nonprofits to um assign that money to. This has happened before. Um and what happened previously is the seven council members selected um a nonprofit of their choice and we split the money up among the seven uses. But that's a decision that won't have to be made for over a year uh from this time. So, um I'll be happy to answer any questions you have. Otherwise, I'll let the chairman read these into the record. Any questions? C comments. Okay. Item B, ordinance 2025 30 202533 dissolving the Puckets Fairy Special Purpose Tax District. First reading title only. Item C, ordinance

202534, dissolving the Pinehurst Special Tax District, uh, first reading entitle only. Ordinance 202535, dissolving the Stony Point Special Purpose Tax District, first reading entitle only. Ordinance 202536, dissolving the Summit Place special purpose Tax District, first reading and title only. Ordinance 202537, dissolving the Curl Creek Special Purpose Tax District, first reading and title only. And item G and last, ordinance 202538, dissolving the Kimbrook special purpose tax district, first reading and title only. Thank you. We'll move to item H, ordinance 202539 to amend the Greenwood County zoning map as and if amended so that one parcel of land totaling approximately 21.96 acres at 425 Cobb Road, Greenwood County, South Carolina, changes from R1 single family residential to R3 single family to R3 single family residential. Miss Coleman,

Mr. Chairman, you will recognize this one also. I believe this is at 425 Cobb Road. Originally it came through as TW um R25-07- 0004 I believe it's been revised from the original request which was itself revised more than once. So you see the property there it abuts um Cobb Road. It's adjacent to the Aldi and the Goodwill store. So that kind of gives you your where you're located. Currently it's own straight single family residential but it abuts general commercial in the city and C2 which is the county for general commercial. So RC2 allows residential development under the R5 scheme. Okay. So you can see State Road. This flood zone that's down that follows the Rocky Creek run at the bottom of the property. They have all of the amenities there. Utilities are available. Um you can see that the property has been cleared. Uh looking towards Monagu Avenue Extension and then looking across Cobb Road. Um and then looking back towards Cooxberry Road. So originally currently it's R1. Minimum lot size in the county is 15,000 square feet or about a third of an acre. Um the proposed is for R3 and they want to do patio or atrium homes which is why I started. So the minimum lot size for the patio and atrium homes under R3 is 4,000 square ft. Um this would be straight from the zoning ordinance. Nothing to change it at all. Um the adjacent property is C1 as I pointed out or C2 and that reverts back to the R5 district that we looked at earlier. So the land use here for future land use is uh medium density residential. Uh the revised plan shows 65 total single family lots on 22.65 total acres. We have 21.96 listed on the assessor's file. Um it's 2.87 87 dwelling units per

acre gross density. If we look at the buildable area, 65 lots on 17.5 acres is 3.71 dwelling units per acre. We're still in the R3 zone for medium density residential, which is what the future land use was indicated for this property. Um, here's our future land use map. Just to point it out, this was the original plan that came in and originally they proposed town homes. that was not wellreceived. So, they came back with a single family plan. This is the revised R3 plan that I just discussed. You can see this one, they actually have somewhat of a buffer around the property as as well. And there's a lot of the property that's not even um shown as part of the developable area. So, you can see if you look at the property lines, I think this is it. Is this That's it. If you see I can do it over here, I guess. No, it doesn't do it. Does it? Nope. It disappears. So if you look behind you, you can see all of this is the property line down here and then the creek follows it there and then there it is up here. So these are the yards as they've got them mapped out, but you can see a good natural buffer here along the edge of the property between that the development here and the adjacent property owners. U planning commission did support this staff supported this version of it. Um, it did go back to planning commission because like I said, there was a lot of concern about it from the neighbors, but this is greatly reduced. I know they've worked with DOT to come up with a plan for their access, and I would defer your questions if you have any technical questions to the engineer of record.

Carol, real quick, what was the original number? The original number, let me get to this. I'm sorry. It was a previous slide. I just Well, the original number for town homes was 128 units. That's what I thought. Thank you. So, they've they've cut it down quite a bit. I think there was there are fewer single family homes, but not fewer than this. This is the the lowest number we've seen yet. Okay. Thank you. Is there a secondary egress on this one? I know. No. No.

And for rule of thumb is if you're going to have more than um if you have 99 or fewer homes, you can get away with one point of ingress and egress. This is 65. So, it's even lower. Um, again, we felt like it was a a good mix for what they originally asked from what they originally asked for. Council, having heard Well, excuse me, Chip, I believe you you had signed up to speak on this, do you still care to speak? It's a first reading, right? Just first reading. So, what is the next public hearing? The next reading. Public hearing next time. It will actually be Okay.

I mean, is there any benefit from me speaking tonight? Not necessarily, unless you will allow you to if you care to since you're here. I'll just wait until public hearing. Okay. Very well. Thank you. Can I ask you a question? Certainly. Chip, if you don't mind um because it's not shown on here. I don't at least I can't read it on here. Um and Carol didn't address it. She said to ask you. So, where are you looking at putting the entrance to this property? because as I'm obviously familiar with that area because it's in my district and um there's a there's obviously a blind curve on Cobb Road right there before you get to Aldi. So I'm just curious. So where it's shown is where um where we're proposing

I see the circle but I'm trying to figure out exactly where that is. Well, it's north you go northeast of that and that's the the entrance is planned top towards the top of the plan. So, it's further. It's further away from uh further away from the curb is what you're telling. Yes. And we've actually been out there and shot sight distances and so it it meets the sight distance. That's actually the best location for the uh access to the property. I guess I will speak since I'm up here. Sorry. I was just that's been the biggest concern of most people is where that we we've had some preliminary conversations with the DOT and we've actually discussed the you know second emergency access. It wouldn't be an ingress egress. would just be for emergency vehicles in in need.

Um just to add to Carol what she said, we're leaving about 40% of the site open natural space. So we're going to preserve as much of that as we can. You know, when we around the edges and where we do have to do some clearing, some more clearing than was already done, we'll supplement with landscaping to uh try to create a perimeter buffer. Um there is sewer down along Rocky Creek. There's water nearby. The other utilities are available to the site. Um in doing the layouts there are um we did consider an unnatural uh or a natural buffer around Rocky Creek. There's about it doesn't show in this plan but we have respected a 45 ft natural buffer there just due to it being sensitive water. So we've considered dehack or dees regulations county talked to metro into in the CPW. So, we've reached out to um different utility providers and um I guess government agencies that'll have some input onto this. And just to add, you know, we've got four lane um highways. Two south southwest being Monu and then northeast to Coosberry. So, there should be plenty of um traffic relief. Um and there's schools nearby, the commercial districts real by like Carol said. Um you know, it aligns with the future land use plan. Uh there would be a plan for HOA. The roads will be private. Um

Chip, you said something about possible public access. I mean public safety access where that would be we would make some kind of provision in that site. So we would tie in well we'll have to work that out with DOT but the you initial conversations have led to being just an emergency access come in. So, we would have to come up with some kind of way to barricade it off and provide, you know, depending on how the grades and all that stuff. So, we'd work that out. Okay. Thank you,

Mr. Chairman. While we're discussing that uh emergency exit, uh my question to Carol would be uh I have been through some of these with the city and the fire marshall with the city will actually review these to see if there needs to be an emergency entrance and where it needs to be located. So it does Steve Holmes on the county side see this and giving he he will before approval will he give his recommendation I guess

and we do at the development phase we've been um taking all of them to them as well we have a new phase coming in on a existing project in off of deadall road and I did get an emergency access out on the dead fall it has frontage to Montu Avenue extension um they weren't required to put it in, but they agreed with us. Um, everywhere I can get a secondary point of ingress and degress, I'm going to get Yeah, I I could see to where if some catastrophic event occurred there, you would be trapped in there. So, I would like to see as one member, I don't necessarily

think there needs to be another entrance, but some type of way that you could get out of there or emergency vehicles could get in. Yeah. And what we typically use is a gate and emergency access vehicle emergency vehicles have access or something along those lines or they have a code that can get in. Yeah. But the general public cannot. Yeah. Thank you, Jip. Since we roped you into speaking and you didn't want to state your name and address for the record, please. Thunderberg, 601 Lodge Drive. And certainly when we hold a public hearing, you'll be free to speak again if you need to or if council has questions.

All right, council. That's first reading and title only. We That concludes our new business. Uh we have nothing else. I don't believe we have any pending items. Miss McIntyre, anything from clerk? No. Mr. Manager. Madame Attorney. If not, we will stand adjourned. Thank you. District report. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Yeah. Y'all Yeah. You thought you were leaving. Yeah. District two. District two. District two. Mr. Allison. All is well in district two. Mr. chairman. I was really I was really overdoing trying to get us on out of here. Miss Bishop, District 3.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just say thank everybody for coming and thank you Stephanie and your office for the hard work that you did making sure that the audit went the way that it did. We appreciate you and um thank you, Mr. Chairman. That ends my report. Thank you, ma'am. Miss Miller. Uh thank you, Mr. Chairman. I did spend some time um with the strategic plan consultant selection committee. That process is moving right along. Um the parade is Sunday, this Sunday at 2:30 and immediately following the parade will be a uh Christmas tree lighting uh for the veteran center. That ends my report. Thank you, Miss Miller. District five.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I know you stuck around for this, Renee. Um hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and spent time with family. Um we all have a lot to be thankful for. Um attended the uh sustainability um event conference today also with the chairman. Um huge congratulations to the 9610U all-star volleyball team for bringing home state championship which is part of our Greenwood County Parks and Recreation program. Very proud of that. We'll be honoring them at the next meeting. Um, I won't go into too much detail, but Miss Coleman is here and um, I'd like council to think about something before they leave. Uh, the manager and I talked about the Bailey bill today. Um, I think this is a little used. Would you use that term?

Yes.

Um, opportunity for investors that could help smaller communities like 96 shows and Hajes. Um, and I'll just briefly mention Dr. Adam Michaelberger invested a huge amount in 96 in the two older buildings downtown. It's already turned into three businesses now. He's got one upstairs and he's trying to lease out the fourth which will be upstairs of the veterinarian office. Um, the thing about that is it takes someone special, someone part of that community to want to do that, to spend that type of money. And I think at the very least we as county can reward them for wanting to do that, especially in these older structures. Um, and another 96 residents in the process of upgrading the building right next to the two I just mentioned. just really proud of folks that give back to the communities that they grow up in. Um, as always, I'm gonna end on a Bible verse. First Peter 3:8 says, "Finally, all of you be likeminded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble." That ends my report, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Puit. District 6, Mr. Temple. Um, Mr. Mr. Chairman, no report other than um just please continue to keep me and my family in your prayers. Thank you.

Very happy to have you back. Very happy. Um vice chairman mentioned that he and I attended the the sustainability um and resiliency meeting today. It was very well attended. I was um I was happy to be asked to speak in regard to the energy sectors piece of that. As I said, very well attended. Um, in the interest of time, uh, I will I will forego any report. All is well in district 7. Thank you all for being here tonight. We appreciate you. We will be adjourned. Thank you. Thank you.