City Council - Regular Meeting

City Council meeting. This is a regularly scheduled called and convened council meeting held this evening, September the 8th, 2026. Having called the meeting to order, I'd like to ask Councilman Lander, if he would, to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance and then an invocation for council. If you'd like to participate, please join us.

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the opportunity to serve our community and for the trust placed in each one of us. Grant us wisdom in the decisions before us tonight, patience to listen to one another, and humility to always remember the people we're here to serve. Guide our words and actions so that they reflect integrity, fairness, and genuine desire to do what's best for our city. Please watch over our residents, our city employees, our first responders, and all of those who call Greer home. In your name we pray. Amen.

Ms. Duncan, anyone to appear in public forum this evening? Council with that, then we'll move to the minutes of our last two minutes of meetings. We had a workshop in regards to the smoke and vape shops on August 25th. I'll entertain a motion that that be received. So moved.

Second.

And a second. Any items of note for the clerk? Hearing none, Ms. Duncan. Yes.

Mr. Booker? Yes. Mr. Hopper? Yes. Mr. Lander? Yes. Mr. Bettis? Yes. Mr. Lamb? Yes. Mayor Downs?

Yes. Council, following that workshop, we held our regularly scheduled meeting on August the 25th, 2026. Any items of note for the clerk? Hearing none, I need a motion.

So moved. Second. And a second.

We have a motion and a second. Any items for the clerk? Hearing none, Ms. Duncan? Second.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Council. We've got some special recognitions to, uh, to make this evening as we do from time to time. We are going to recognize Fire Prevention Week 2026 and also Constitution Week 2026. We certainly appreciate all the work that our fire department does and certainly fire prevention is one of the main focuses of the department. It's amazing in addition to fire prevention all the other training that they do both internally and externally and for those programs that they do to help with fire prevention. I remember when my children were small, we had the stop, drop, and roll trailer that we would go around with. I remember that. And it's typically part of what they do, along with a lot of other things. I live in about two blocks of the station, and those sirens go off a lot. So it is definitely picking up. But anyway, we want to recognize Fire Prevention Week. And this is a proclamation that reads as, whereas the city of Greer Fire Department is committed to ensuring the safety and security of all those living in and visiting the city of Greer, whereas fire remains a serious public safety concerned both locally and nationally in the presence of lithium ion batteries in many household devices introduces fire risks. And whereas most of the rechargeable electronics in home daily use, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, power tools, e-bikes, e-scooters, and toys, are powered by lithium ion batteries which, if misused, damaged, or improperly charged, can overheat, start a fire, or explode. Whereas the National Fire Protection Association reports an increase in battery-related fires, underscoring the need for public education on the safe use of lithium ion batteries and devices. Whereas the way lithium ion battery devices are charged can make a difference in helping prevent home fires. Safe charging includes using the cord and charger that came with the device or one approved by the manufacturer, charging on a hard, flat surface, watching for warning signs like devices that get suddenly hot or start to swell, unplugging them when charging, and charging larger devices like e-bikes outside and away from exits. Whereas the City of Greer first responders remain dedicated to reducing the occurrence of fires through prevention, safety education, and community outreach, The 2026 Fire Prevention Week theme charge into fire safety. Safe charging is a superpower served to remind all residents that safe charging can help reduce the risks of fire in homes and in the communities. So now, therefore, Rick Danner and the Greer City Council do hereby proclaim October the 4th through the 10th, 2026, as Fire Prevention Week through the City of Greer and urge all residents to learn about and practice safe charging habits. With that, I'd like for us to give you all a hand for all that you do to help in Fire Prevention Week.

And for those that don't know, this is Brianna Crow. She's our community risk reduction coordinator, and she is handling all our fire prevention education this year. She's got a big plan for that week, and we're excited about that, but we're excited to continue to serve. So thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.

And I know that these folks have got some special events coming up, and one of them is Constitution Week. And Charlotte Colbert and Alicia Taylor are with us this evening, and y'all would come up. We've got a presentation to make to you in regards to Constitution Week in the city of Freer. So this proclamation reads as such, whereas the Constitution of the United States of America, the guardian of our liberties, embodies the principles of limited government in a republic dedicated to rule by law, and whereas September the 17th through the 23rd, 2026, marks the 239th anniversary of the drafting of the Constitution of the United States of America by the Constitutional Convention. whereas it is fitting and proper to accord official recognition to this magnificent document and its memorable anniversary and to the patriotic celebrations which will commemorate the occasion, whereas public law 915 guarantees the issuing of a proclamation each year by the President of the United States of America designating September the 17th through 23rd as Constitution Week. Now therefore, Mayor Rick Danner and the Greer City Council proclaim September the 17th through the 23rd as Constitution Week in the city of Greer. Please give these ladies a round of applause. And I believe you have some events coming up, if I'm not mistaken. So do you want to share some of those with?

And we do want to get a picture.

This September 17th is Constitution Day. And we're encouraging, if you have bells, if you're in a school, city hall, church, Everyone ring your bells at 4 p.m. to celebrate and commemorate the 239th anniversary of the signing of our Constitution. We will be at the Greer Heritage Museum, stopping traffic as usual.

We're trying to figure out what to do. P.D. 's not here.

And Greenville's out front to commemorate this on the 17th. So stop by, and as always, stop by the River Heritage Museum for a great time. And we're just really happy that we've been partners for two decades now? At least two decades now, but we've got this week through the Greer City Council. So thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you for all you do in the community. Appreciate it. Thank you. Oh, picture. Oh, picture.

Thank you.

Council, with that, let's proceed to the administrator's report. Mr. Merriman.

Mr. Mayor, Council, just tonight's real easy. It's just some community updates. Parks, Recreation, Tourism will be continuing on with a Stories and Adventures series September 15th at 10 a.m. at the Center for the Arts. As you are all well aware, we are a monarch, butterfly-loving city, so join Justin Miller engaging introduction to monarch butterfly conservation and discover why butterflies are so important to our environment tunes in the park continues september 19th from six to nine emissions free but bring your own camping chairs and a picnic blanket food beverages dessert vendors will be on site so come on out september 19th for tunes in the park Our sesquicentennial continues as the Greer Heritage Museum will celebrate Museum Week on September 14th through the 19th. There's fundraisers, ghost tours, a gala, and the museum's 30th birthday on September 19th from 3 to 4. And finally, Rail Fest, a family-friendly celebration of trains and rail safety, will be on Saturday, September 26th from 10 to 2. This event features model trains, train museums, and trackless train rides, along with face painting, balloons, inflatables, and live music. Here inside City Hall, children can enjoy train-themed crafts, while attendees of all ages have the chance to win prizes with food trucks on site and plenty of activities. Railfest provides an engaging experience for train enthusiasts and the entire community. Again, there's no shortage of fun and adventure. September in Greer, so if you can't find something to do in the city, it's your own fault. Mr. Mayor, with that, that concludes my report. Thank you, sir.

Council, with that, let's go ahead and move to items of old business. The second and final reading of ordinance number 30-2026, which is an ordinance approving a major change to a design review district DRD of a certain real property in the city of Greer related to the Blaze Ridge development. Mr. Bowles joins us for that discussion. Any new or additional information, sir?

No, sir, but I'm happy to stand for questions.

With that, then, I'll entertain a motion to receive.

So moved.

Second. Floor is open for discussion.

Questions? Last meeting when we went over this, we had brought up possibly looking at having developers bond community amenities. It looks like in this particular development, the whatever finances didn't work out and what the residents were sold. They're not going to be getting, um, I've talked to a few people here on council and it's something I would, uh, love for staff to look at if that's feasible, maybe look at other communities that might do that. And, um, yeah.

Yes, sir. Okay. It'd be a great idea. Yes, sir, and I believe Ms. Cottey, I met with the city attorney last week or two weeks ago, and that is something we're going to start doing moving forward is looking for those active uses or amenities which are required by the UDO to be bonded or installed at the time of planning.

Was there any feedback from the attorney?

I'm not sure. No, sir. I'm afraid I wasn't in that meeting, but I can, I'm happy to follow up with Ms. Cottey and, uh, get that information for you if you would like.

Please. Questions, comments, discussion. Hearing none, Ms. Duncan?

Mr. Arrowood? Yes. Mr. Booker? Yes. Mr. Humper? Yes. Mr. Lander? Yes. Mr. Bettis? Yes. Mr. Lamb? Yes. Mayor Danner?

Yes. Council, let's move to the second item of the old business before us this evening. That is ordinance number 31-2026. This is an ordinance to change the zoning classification of a certain property owned by the city of Greer located on Gross Meadow Road from PD, Plan Development Office Professional, OP. Any new or additional information in that regard, Mr. Bowles?

No, sir.

With that, then, I'll entertain a motion to receive. So moved. Second. And a second. Floor is open for discussion.

Questions that, uh, let me get to it really quick. The, there's been a lot of discussion regarding that intersection, um, at rich between gross metal and rich crossing and with the fire department being right, going to be located right next to that intersection. Um, I guess you guys will have, well, they're gone now, but we'll have an emergency light there, right?

Well, not necessarily, no, sir. I mean, Mike may be able to speak to that, but I don't know that there's a plan. Yeah, we don't know if that will be approved by it.

Okay, all right. I just eventually, as... Blurge plantation gets further built out. I would assume that intersection is going to be a hotspot since it's, there's no turn lanes. There's no nothing. It's just a two lane road going into a community with eventually seven, 1700 homes. So, um, just as we go through the development and planning of that lot, maybe just think about the future of the size of that community. Thank you.

Others. Mr. Mayor, how close are we to go into construction with that project? Mike, we are probably the first of the year.

No, we'll be bringing early release for Civil War II Council in October. So that will start the site for building and construction for the actual building and sidewalks for the first year.

Yeah. Do we have a rendering of the exterior yet?

When we bring the early release package, we will bring the elevations. We should be halfway between the 60% and finished drawings at that point. So we will bring the elevations laid out to council as part of the presentation for that release package.

Thank you. Do we already have a full developed budget for the project or no? Is there already a budget established for the project?

Uh, well, when we, uh, I can say that, uh, when we advertised for the, uh, construction services, we said that the intended cost of the project was $10 million. Okay. Uh, but we have not got a G and B that, that'll come probably, uh, in October. That'll be done right before we start.

How do we structure those kinds of, are they kind of like GC at risks?

Yeah, we're doing construction manager. Okay. Excellent.

Others? Questions? Comments? Further discussion? Hearing none, Ms. Duncan?

Mr. Arrowood? Yes. Mr. Booker? Yes. Mr. Hopper? Yes. Mr. Lander? Yes. Mr. Bettis? Yes. Mr. Lamb? Yes. Mayor Danner? Yes.

Yes, thank you, Mr Bowles. In items of new business, the first one is an award recommendation. This is Project 2704. This is for banking services. The City of Greer Financial Department solicited sealed proposals from qualified offerors for banking services. The proposal opening was held on August 20, 2026 at 11 a.m. Four proposals were received and reviewed. Based on review, it is recommended that the services be awarded immediately. to county bank.

Mr. Klein, the floor is yours, sir. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and Council. As Mayor mentioned, this is an award recommendation for banking services. A total of four proposals were received and reviewed. Based on review, it is recommended that the services be awarded to county bank. Staff requests approval from Council to proceed with the award. With that, I'm happy to stand for any questions.

Comes with a recommendation from staff. I'll entertain a motion to receive.

So moved.

Second. And a second. Floor is open for discussion.

Is this a change in current banking services?

No, sir, this is the banking that we currently bank with. Yes, sir.

Comments?

Where are they based out of?

Greenwood.

Greenwood?

Yes, sir. Local to the upstate. Great.

I like that.

Questions of Mr. Klein? Comments? Further discussion.

I don't know, Mr. Merriman or Mr. Klein, if there, if you'd be willing to share just a brief overview of kind of how the evaluation was made and to, to come at the recommendation.

Absolutely. Yes, sir. So we did, uh, we did receive, um, proposals for, you know, for the, from the four prospective banks. And we did, uh, have a criteria. uh... that we looked at so we looked at overall services we looked at uh... required services proposed services banking fees and then uh... if it pertained uh... you know what the implementation process would be for the prospective bank so we did look at all those factors each bank did submit great proposals and between the uh... committee we had a discussion and chose to go with county bank based off that based off the proposal it's a very objective

kind of looking at all factors, kind of a composite. Yes, sir.

There wasn't just one single factor that we looked at during the process. We did consider everything that they had to offer. Yeah, great. Thank you. Absolutely. You're welcome.

How long have we been banking with County Bank?

So our last award to them was back in 2019. Prior to that, I don't know.

We awarded 2019. Prior to that, we were with what is now United. Before that, it was Crestcom.

Okay.

They provide our banking services. And council, if you'll recall, gosh, beginning of the summer, you amended our financial policies, which required every five years that we put the banking services out to bid. RFP.

Just to stay competitive. Of course.

Others. I like hearing how objectively, you know, we went about the process. I would ask, you know, just from a subjective standpoint, do we feel good about the relationship, the accessibility as things pop up when our staff and their and their team as well?

Absolutely. I actually was going to point out, I think the relationship that we have built with County Bank has, you know, has been a big point to this. And over the past few years, I know I can only speak to the last two myself, but the relationship's been great. They provide great customer service. They have a great platform that we're all used to. They actually have some other ideas and suggestions that we are going to discuss with them so that way we can continue to our, improve our process. And so looking forward to those conversations as well, but that relationship piece was important.

That's good to hear. Thank you. You're welcome.

I think the mayor was telling me, don't they have a highly regarded economist that's on their staff?

They do.

We should make that part of the contract that he comes back and give us a little advice on a yearly basis.

I will say he does make himself available to a number of community events. I know he's spoken at chamber events, et cetera. He's actually presented here before. I don't know that it would be part of the contract, but I will say that part of that relationship is the accessibility to the quality staff that they have.

We can look into that.

Absolutely.

Others? Questions? Comments? Further discussion? Hearing none, Ms. Duncan?

Mr. Erwood? Yes. Mr. Booker?

Yes.

Mr. Hopper? Yes. Mr. Lander? Yes. Mr. Bettis? Yes. Mr. Lamb? Yes. Mayor Danner?

Yes. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Council, let's go to the second item before us this evening, which is ordinance number 32-2026. Mr. Bowles joins us for that conversation. This is an ordinance to provide for the annexation of a certain property owned by David Watts Gates, located at 5224 West Wade Hampton Boulevard, by 100% petitioning to establish a zoning classification of commercial corridor for said property. Floor is yours, sir.

Thank you, Mayor. Ordinance 32-2026 is one parcel comprising of about 0.5 acres located at the corner of West Wade Hampton Boulevard and Rutherford Hill Road. It is currently unincorporated Greenville County. The requested zoning is Commercial Corridor. Here you can see an aerial of the subject parcel. The blue hue around it is city limits, so it is surrounded on two sides by city limits currently. Here is the zoning map. In pink, you will see commercial corridor. Across Wadehampton, in red, you'll see commercial general. And then down the roadways, you'll see traditional neighborhood. The future land use map calls for suburban commercial. Here is a photo of existing conditions. Based on the surrounding land uses and zonings, the consistency with the comprehensive plan staff recommends approval.

By show of hand, is the owner of the property or representative of the owner of the property with us this evening? No one indicated so. We'll entertain a motion to receive.

So moved. Second.

Floor is open for discussion.

Is this property adjoined the new Prisma Center that's being built?

It's Bon Secours.

Or Bon Secours, isn't it? Bon Secours, yes, sir. Okay.

So that's the purpose of it coming in, going to be part of that development?

The intent has not been communicated to us. However, the applicant who is working with the owner to annex this end seems to be affiliated with Bon Secours. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Questions? Comments? Further discussion?

I'm going to have some driving through there. There's some serious grade change right at that property, I believe.

Yes, sir. I guess. It's a hill.

Yeah, it's a big hill. So I mean, I'm guessing they're going to be pushing a lot of dirt into that area. Just need to be careful that it's well retained. Cause it'll wash out into that old Rutherford.

Others further discussion hearing none. Ms. Duncan.

Mr. Aaron Wood. Yes. Mr. Booker. Yes. Mr. Hopper.

Yes.

Mr. Lander.

Uh, yes.

Mr. Best?

Yes.

Mr. Lamb?

Yes. Mayor Lamb?

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Bowles. Let's move to item number three, which is the first reading of ordinance number 33-2026. This is an ordinance approving the financing of the improvement, extension, and enlargement of the combined utility system of the city of Greer, South Carolina, through the borrowing by the city of not exceeding $1.9 million plus capitalized interest, if any, from the drinking water revolving loan fund by agreement with the South Carolina Water Quality Revolving Fund Authority pursuant to Title 48, Chapter 5, Code of Laws. of South Carolina 1976 is amended providing for a loan application to and acceptance of a loan from the authority, the execution and delivery of a promissory note from the city to South Carolina Water Quality Revolving Fund Authority. and other matters related thereto. Mark Regier is the general manager of the Greer Commission of Public Works. He is here with us this evening in regards to the first reading of ordinance number 33-2026. Floor is yours, sir.

I think you've pretty much summed the whole thing up. Yeah, this is the first. Essentially, there are two actions that we're asking the council to take tonight. One is they're basically the same thing, but two separate pots of money. One's for drinking water, one's for what they call clean water, which is wastewater. The first one and the one we're talking about now, the 1.9 million is basically an expansion of the lines running out to the end of East Poinsett Street. Of course there's industry that's coming down there and we've got some models that show some challenges when their fire flow is needed and so what we're looking at doing here is extending and basically we're adding an eight inch line that taps off of a 12 inch that comes off of 29 and ties into the tail end of East Point set across this railroad and provide some additional pressure for that area where models show that there potentially could be some challenges when fire flow is used. So it's about 6,600 feet of that line. And like I said, it'll come off of Mason Farm and then kind of run Uh, through the back there and then down into, uh, again, kind of the tail end of our, our water system at the, uh, end of East point set, um, about where the Duncan city limit starts.

Mr. Where you stay with us for a moment there. Then as, uh, we move into this in case there are questions that you may answer with that, then I'll entertain a motion to receive.

So moved. Second.

And the second floor is open for discussion or questions.

So this amount of money, is it part of the previous bond we issued, or is this new money?

Good question. So, no, this is... The way the SRF works is you apply, you get put on an intended use, and then it gets scored. And then based on the state's look at all the applicants that are there, you get scored. And if you get high enough, scores are high enough in their ratings, then they'll offer the funding. We specifically pulled out these two projects because we knew that they potentially had the ability to qualify just based on kind of what they're solving. Again, both of these, and I'm jumping between the two, but essentially we pulled these out knowing that there's an opportunity to potentially save a percent or more on the interest rate than what we would get to the market.

Others?

Well, I'll ask a follow-up then. So knowing that these two were pulled out from the previous bond issuance, I know we approved it up to, I think it was $33 million. Is that correct or accurate? Somewhere in that range?

Yeah, I think the NT was.

How does this $1.9 that you're pulling out of that $33, are you going to reduce that bond amount by that amount? Or how does this all work in the grand scheme of things?

Yeah, so the total, these are all projects that we were intending to do even when we were doing the initial revenue bonds. So this is not like a substitute for something that was existing in that bond. This is independent of that. Instead of us coming and saying, hey, we'll add the two million and the seven million to that one, we wanted to try to get it at a lower interest rate for these two projects that we thought would score pretty high and be able to qualify. So technically it's in addition to that initial revenue bond.

I know at the time when you came last time, I don't believe the rate study was complete for where you all were in the process. Have you all completed that rate study now and do we know how these bond issuances and the debt services are being paid for? Can you speak to any of that?

The rate study. So, yeah, I mean, obviously the idea here is we're not using cash to fund this. So these are projects that, you know, enable us to keep rates stable by not using the cash. Just to give an example, I mean, we typically are spending about somewhere between $30 and $40 million in capital annually. So in the grand scheme of things, it's just another project. It's a big number, but for what we're doing, you know, it's the last 10 years, it's a quarter of a billion dollars we've reinvested into the system. Acutely, I don't think it's affecting rates. Obviously, the idea is if I can get the interest rate lower than even the market, that only enables us to try to stabilize rates even more.

I guess more specifically, typically, there has to be a way to pay down that bond issuance. How have you all projected financially, those debt services are covered. If you're not using cash internally, how does this actually, how does it pay for itself? Am I making sense?

No, I'm missing. I mean, how are we paying for the debt service?

Yeah, so you've got cash that comes into the company. Then you've issued a bond for a certain amount. Well, there's a debt service amount that has to be covered. How is that debt service covered?

By the same revenues. Yeah, I mean, it's the same cash coming in, yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, I mean, I'm sorry, is there?

Well, you know.

Yeah, I mean, are you wondering what our debt service coverage is? Is that what you're?

Yeah, for me, you know, last time I was against this issuance because of the ambiguity and the information we were given. I know there was a lot of flippancy and us actually approving didn't matter. And so maybe you all coming to us didn't see a presentation of how the financials are flowing through this issue. For me, I'm personally still against this issue only because of I would like to see that there's some accountability, at least from a rate payer standpoint, to know financially this is not gonna reflect on the rate payers in five or 10 years. There's some stability here and that we're just not doing a shell game moving moving cards around.

I certainly understand that which is why the citizens elected three people to make sure that we are stabilizing those rates. I hear you. I think that's our goal every day is to not just be competitive but to continue saving all of the citizens money and this is just another tool that we have. and funded by the state through low interest loans for specific type projects. So just another mechanism to allow us to try to keep those rates low.

Mr. Booker could correct me if I'm incorrect but am I hearing what you're concerned just understanding where increased debt service you know where the revenue is comes from for increased debt service you all are is it just a matter of modeling increased usage you know by Mr. No, I think it's less cash spend.

Got it. Mr. Yeah. I mean, I'm not what I would spend, you know, $2 million on that is, you know, a percentage in terms of the cash spend rather than going and spending the $2 million in cash today. Got it.

What kind of rate savings are we going to get through the state?

Mr. Depends on what, you know, we end up with. But I would say probably at least 100 basis points.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, I mean, it's significant even if it's not massive, massive dollars. And this project, I think, was scored 20th around the state out of all the projects that were funded.

What about the other one?

The other one is sixth.

Oh, OK. Good.

Very high.

And how do they grade it? Is it just by necessity?

Yeah, it's a combination of a bunch of different things, including economic impact and a bunch of other stuff as well. You know, we have to submit a PER along with these. So there's a whole bunch of stuff. Tim, do you want to talk about the mechanics of the scoring of it?

They just have multiple criteria. Like Mark said, one thing is economic development. The other one specifically mentions some industrial customers, which is why the score is higher. Okay.

Further questions?

Just to be clear, after this goes through tonight, I know last year there was a small increase of rates on the sewer side. I don't think water had any increase. Do y'all see that being a trend this coming year, or are you saying doing this is gonna allow rates to continue to stay stable, or?

I think the combination of all the borrowings enable us to, yeah, try to stabilize those rates. I mean, it's the same headwinds that y'all face. I mean, everything costs more money, and a very capital-intensive business You know, it's 10% is, you know, if you think about the grand scheme of things, it's pretty, pretty major. Um, and so, uh, you know, I mean the goal we're, we're still developing our budget for this next year. Um, but obviously the goal is always is to try to minimize those, those increases. Um, you know, I think, uh, water is, is one that water and wastewater are both areas where we've been very low. And, you know, we've had some challenges around staffing and things like that, you know. We're, you know, fishing from the same pond as some of the other providers around here that have significantly higher rates in a lot of cases. And so, you know, there are challenges around that as well. So, I mean, those are just, there are economic headwinds that at some point just say, hey, Something's, the revenue's gotta change, right? But I think, you know, again, our goal is always is to try to make those, make any changes, if any, as small as possible and remain, you know, competitive. I mean, across all of our services, if you were with the incumbent IOU or a local provider, the average customer saves close to $1,000 a year by being with CPW versus the others. So, I mean, that's... We don't want to move any dollars up at any point, but we're still providing, I think, a pretty good service at a very, very reasonable cost. Yeah, I mean, I think doing a fine job. We're talking about increasing water if we don't do it. If we don't say yes, I don't know why we wouldn't say yes, we've got a problem with water. I mean, well, that's kind of like a basic thing in this world. I mean, I don't really understand

Any issue with our partnership with CPW, without it, we might well not be sitting in this room.

The partnership is what made Greer what it is today. So I'm fully in favor.

You had mentioned this. This is not about financing, but this is about, you said your modeling showed that there may be I guess a pressure issue, which then that would be gallons flowing if there was a demand for the fire suppression. What alerted you to

the fact that could be an issue we have we have really been spending a lot of time obviously we model anything new that comes in we're always modeling that but we've had some additional requests for more demand in those areas and we've taken a deeper dive in there but we spent a good bit on kind of updating our our mapping and getting our data very, very accurate where we can do some more modeling and so we've got somebody on staff now that's running that model and is kind of keeping up with it on a more regular basis. So this is something that we identified probably 18 months ago and we've been working through kind of the mechanics of it.

I assume this is going to be, this came from one of your customers, correct?

No, uh-uh. We get, I mean. Well, I mean, I guess the question is. Is there a specific customer that is benefiting?

Well, I guess so. I mean, I'm just, I guess it's just a curiosity thing for me. If there was a call for that fire flow, I'm sure you're not modeling several large buildings on fire at one time. You're probably just think there's probably a customer that needs additional fire flow or whatever. Is that, is that, that what kind of triggered it?

Um, yeah, I don't know that I would say that that necessarily triggered it, but yeah, I mean, certainly we model there's, there's a lot of, uh, large industry down there. There's a, you know, asphalt concrete facility down there as well. And then, of course, there are residents down that way. This also, you know, in doing this is going to solve some of those potential challenges as well as provide a back feed to a single line run that comes out there on the East Point set.

Thank you. Others?

Is this setting us up well for future or?

Yeah, I mean, I like to think that everything we do tries to plan for the future, but you never know what's going to show up. I was going to point to Reno back there, but, you know, I mean, we get regular requests for fairly large users in some of those buildings down there. And, you know, that could potentially change. Now, of course, our stance has always been that growth pays for growth. So if something comes in above and beyond what we're already planning and modeling for, that will land on the developer to protect the ratepayers from any sort of impact. Mr.

Final discussion. Hearing none, Ms. Duncan?

Mr. Irwin? Yes. Mr. Booker?

No.

Mr. Hopper?

Yes.

Mr. Lander? Mr. Bettis? Yes. Mr. Lamb? Yes. Mayor Dannemann?

Yes. Council has moved to the fourth item of new business, which is the first reading of ordinance number 34-2026. This is an ordinance approving the financing of the improvement, extension, and enlargement of the combined utility system of the City of Greer, South Carolina through borrowing by the City of not exceeding $4.18 million plus capitalized interest, if any, from the Water Pollution Control Revolving Fund by agreement with South Carolina Water Quality. Revolving Fund Authority, pursuant to Title 48, Chapter 5, Code of Laws of South Carolina, 1976, is amended providing for a loan application to and acceptance of a loan from the Revolving Fund Authority, the execution and delivery of a promissory note from the City to the South Carolina Water Quality Revolving Fund Authority and other matters related thereto. With that, you want to give us an overview of ordinance number 34-2026? Yes.

So this one is a couple of phases. We've kind of broken it up into a couple of phases. This total amount, again, as I mentioned a minute ago, this one scored sixth across the entire state in terms of scoring on the funding chart. This is a replacement of a force main that runs from what we call the BMW pump station that exists on their property and and runs around basically to the airport and then gets into another section of the force main that runs into the into the wastewater plant. This one also, as we were talking about in the last meeting, this one is also fed by, that pump station is also fed by just about everything down the 101 corridor. So some of the stuff that's been recently annexed, those stations all feed into a pump station that ultimately feeds into this one. So it's about, I think we have about 1,500 services, about 4,000 residents that are affected by that, that flow through this line. This line is original to when that plant was built. obviously there were very few if any services on the other side of 85 or even the city limits at that point and as we've expanded that down we're carrying that up and bringing that into that pump station that line is we're replacing ductile with pvc because of some h2s problems related to some of the industrial flow that's there and it's it's a straight We're going to parallel that line, put a new pipe in the ground, and then ultimately the hope would be that we would go back at some point and probably align the existing line to have some redundancy there because there is quite a bit that flows through there.

For the purpose of discussion, I'll entertain a motion. So moved.

Second.

And a second. The floor is open for discussion.

Just out of curiosity, how do we – manage H2S production, I guess. Do we flare it or what do we do with it?

Try to keep it from getting in out of the jump and then we use air relief valves.

Okay.

Is that hydrogen sulfide?

Swamp gas. It smells great.

Questions? Comments?

What size is this line?

16. It'll be a 16C900. OK. It's up from a 14 ductile.

Is this adding any more capacity? Just a little bit?

A little bit, yeah. Okay. The line has plenty of capacity. It's quite long. This section of it that we're replacing is 12,500 feet.

Okay.

Just this one piece of it. We, a couple years ago, I think in 19, we added some additional sections of this that we've already kind of upgraded. And then, of course, we just finished rehabbing that entire pump station over the last couple of years. spent about four or five million dollars on that pump station so this is basically just the line that leaves that pump station and gets into that replaced line so was this line originally installed by cpw or the con or the development Uh, this one, I mean, obviously it was, I was part of the project, uh, when the plant came in. Um, I, I can't remember who originally installed it. What I don't, I think it was funded. Um, some portion of it was funded with outside dollars. I think a lot of that plant, you know, whether it was ports authority or whoever, um, provided some funding for that.

out of, out of curiosity, do you, the CPW kind of do the same thing that the city does to take over, you know, private streets in the public. Do you guys want a construction projects done? If they meet your specifications, you take ownership of that.

Uh, yeah, I, I guess you're kind of asking about like residential.

Yeah.

Yeah. So, so, um, exactly. Uh, what we do is we carry a bond, uh, we make them put it in. We were there for all the testing and everything else. We get permits from DHEC for them to operate it. And then, um, we get a, get a bond on it and then we require them to carry warranty for a period of time before we take it over. So, and we typically have an inspector out. periodically watching the construction of it so that when time comes to take it over, we've got photos and everything that we need to have. And, of course, we stop if there are challenges that we see, stop the work. Try to catch it before we get dirt and asphalt and anything else on top of it.

We promise it's good.

Further discussion?

So is this item same as the last you're pulling it out of the, or is this different?

Yeah. Again, these were never, never part of that originally. I mean, it's part of an overall kind of structure, but it was never, it's not like it's lessening the other load. Uh, but yeah, this is another project. Again, it's got a large impact on citizens, industry, transportation hubs, airport feeds into this as well. So, um, it, made its way up the ladder pretty high. And we were thankful for that. And as always, we're looking for avenues to, even though there's just a little bit of capacity, any new businesses that come in that pay impact or capacity fees, we can use some of those dollars even for some of the debt service on this. And then, of course, we're always going after grants when those are available.

Final discussion. Questions? Comments? Hearing none, Ms. Duncan.

Mr. Erwood? Yes. Mr. Booker? No. Mr. Hopper? Yes. Mr. Lander? Yes. Mr. Bettis? Yes. Mr. Lamb? Yes. Mayor Danner?

Yes. Council, we have no items in executive session this evening. Thank you, Mr. Regier. We stand adjourned.