County Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. Welcome to this Tuesday, May 26, 2026, county council meeting for Kershaw County. Glad to have everyone back. Summer has officially started. Kids are out of school, and a lot of families are already having fun. We've got a couple other council members who are about to enter or are in transit and who will be here soon. We've been called to order. Glad to have everyone here tonight. We're going to start off with an invocation and Pledge of Allegiance, which will be led by Vice Chairman Russell Brazel.

Vice Chairman Brazel. Heavenly Father, we just come to you tonight thankful for everything that we get to celebrate and enjoy here in Kershaw County and in South Carolina. Lord, we thank you for our families. We pray that you keep us safe as we travel. We pray that you keep our family safe as they're in their day-to-day life. Lord, just keep us in your will. Keep Kershaw County focused on the citizens and the betterment of our community. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Councilman Brazel. Next up on the agenda, we have adoption of the agenda. Are there any motions related to the agenda?

Make a motion to adopt the agenda, Mr. Chairman.

We have a motion. Is there a second?

I'll second.

We have a second. Any discussion on the agenda?

Mr. Chair, would it be possible for us to move the, there's a resolution involving a historical marker that got toward the end. If we could move that up so these ladies could not stay here through everything.

Yeah, it doesn't require a motion. I can do that unilaterally. Okay. All right, any other discussion on the agenda? Seeing none, we'll move to a vote. All in favor of the agenda, raise your hand. Ms. Hanna is unanimous in favor of the agenda. It passes. That moves us on, Mr. DuBose, to public comments. Do we have anyone signed up?

There's no one signed up on public comments, but there is a person signed to public hearing on the Clemson lease, but the subject of that listed leads me to believe it might be a public comment instead of a public hearing. What's the name? It's Ted Brunson, I believe, impact fees. Mr. Brunson, was your intent to sign up for public comments?

Yeah, one speaker for public comments. Okay, you've got five minutes. I believe you know the drill. It's a time to hear from the public. It's not a question and answer. We look forward to hearing from you, Mr. Brunson.

Okay.

Basically, what I wanted to talk about is something I talked about two years ago, and again, I think it's at the forefront, and I believe with quite a few members of the school district.

Mr. Brunson, if you could grab the mic so people who might be listening remotely can hear you.

Okay.

Yes, sir.

Basically, it's going to be directed towards the school system, and this is something I have personal knowledge of. When I was living up in Fort Mill, Fort Mill enacted on July 1 of 2016 a $28,000 impact fee. Mr. Tomlinson corrected me on how the impact fee has arrived, and throughout the state there's a specific formula to it. Right now, I think we're at $5,074. But what Fort Mill did, there's a provision in there that allows almost as much as reasonably expected to add to the school district. So what Fort Mill did on the impact fees was that they initiated a $28,000 per permit impact fee for every home that was built. So basically, if you took the $3,000 and I'll just use that as a round number, the permit fees that are existing now, that puts us at about $18 million. Well, if you took what Fort Mill did, that was a $28 million, excuse me, an $83 million impact. So you had over a $60 million difference that basically the county missed out on. Now, what had happened was, and you can look this up in any way you want to, but right now, Kershaw County is at a 37 out of 75 districts throughout the state. Fort Mill, would anybody like to guess, is number one. So what they did is they took the money for the new houses that were being built And they invested, and it's completely legal, they invested in their school system. Well, that also brought in a higher, let's say, income of people. And what they saw happen was that instead of putting four houses per acre with the mass builders that we see throughout the state, they couldn't make any money. That $28,000 impact fee cut deeply into their profit margin and it wasn't geared towards that type of clientele. So what happened was is the larger homes, the million dollar homes and plus started coming in and they would buy a whole acre Still pay that $28,000. I like to joke, my wife put that much in her bathroom. I still didn't get to use it. But, you know, so what happened was we saw less of an impact, okay, but because of a million-dollar home has the same tax revenue as four $250,000 or $300,000 homes. So they benefited not only in the $28,000, but they benefited by... having less impact but still maintaining just as high of a tax burden. So I think when we start looking at bringing in these larger, I call them 30 day wonders, they go up in 30 days and you wonder how they stand. And they also are not built by the custom home builders that are here in the Kershaw County area. And I did some research prior to that, that in going down and talking to Camden Build and Supply, the Sherwin-Williams, several of the local contractors, the D.R. Hortons, the Lenores, the Great Southern Homes, they don't use products from here. They don't invest back into the communities. They take their money and they go elsewhere, going down the road. You know, the Mo's didn't, and, you know, the Box. Their money stays here. And so we're missing twice, almost three times. And I think the school system should get behind the larger homes with a higher impact fee and see how it benefits. I mean, go look it up, 75 school districts, and we're at 37. Fort Mill's at number one. And if you want numbers, that's all you need to know. And I think investing in our kids and investing in our futures and bringing the best schools and the best teachers here in Kershaw County is going to benefit what y'all are up here supposed to do, the future of Kershaw County. So that's all I got to say.

Thank you for coming out tonight. All right, we already mentioned a little bit earlier about one item in the agenda that was a little bit later. I know we have some folks here under item number 10A. This is a resolution. Assuming it passes, I'll move it up to this point in the meeting. This is resolution related to 10A, a resolution authorizing the National Society of Colonial Dames to place a historical marker at Veterans Park on the Watery River. Placed on the agenda by Councilman Schumacher. Do we have a motion?

I'd make a motion that we adopt the resolution.

Is there a second?

Second.

Any discussion? Should I read it? You, sir. So, and I'll explain what it is. So, this is a resolution authorizing the National Society of Colonial Beams to place a historical marker at Veterans Park. And briefly, whereas the colonial dames through its watery chapter has submitted a formal request to place a historical marker at veterans park on the watery river commemorating the site of Camden ferry number one. And whereas Camden ferry number one served as a vital river crossing as early as 1791 and president George Washington crossed the water river aboard the Camden ferry on may 25th, 1791 at a location, approximately one mile down river from the proposed marker site. Whereas the Camden Ferry and surrounding crossings are documented in various historical maps, and ferry service continued this location until an iron bridge was built in 1883, with service reviving after floods destroying the bridge in 1908 and 1916. And whereas the proposed mark will be approximately 13 by 19 inch bronze plaque with the Colonial Dames insignia mounted on a freestanding pole, the proposed installation of October 17th, 2026, whereas the Colonial Dames require formal resolution from the governing body to authorize placement, now therefore be it resolved by the Kershaw County Council, which authorizes the Colonial Dames to place, install, and maintain a historical marker commemorating Camden Ferry No. 1 at a location within Veterans Park on the Watery River to be designated by county staff in coordination with the Colonial Dames. That is the resolution, and gentlemen, this resolution was brought to me. I think we may have some of the Colonial Dames here potentially. Okay, oh, Ms. Simon, so if you have questions, Liz Simon and some other folks are here from the Colonial Dames. But basically, this is something that will cost the county nothing and sort of in keeping with what Mr. Brazel's got going on tonight as well, sort of commemorating some of our unique history here in Kershaw County. So would you ladies come to the podium just in case folks have questions or just to be recognized for your hard work in commemorating our county history?

Thank you, Mr. Shoemake. Any questions for the Colonial Dames or anything you'd like to share, ladies?

I would just like to thank them for taking the initiative to do things such as this in our community. Really appreciate it, and appreciate y'all being here tonight. Please, if you want to, just pull that mic down.

Thank you very much, and I think you covered everything, Mr. Tucker, in the resolution.

I'll take credit as Mr. Shoemake.

People mix us up all the time. All the time. Your name, you didn't move it since last time.

You did that to yourself, Derek.

And we hope all of you will be able to attend when we place the marker on a Sunday afternoon.

Yes, ma'am. Just please let staff know. Do we have the dates yet?

So they're shooting for October?

Please let us know.

And we will need a written statement or the resolution signed by all the council.

See, I thought I was done with homework from Ms. Simon whenever I graduated. Any other comments or discussion, council members?

Welcome. We're glad to see you ladies here. And good job. And I think you probably have taught half these people up here, haven't you, Liz?

She may have made an attempt to teach me, but she never had that opportunity, and she's thankful.

We never give up in Bishopville. That's right.

And ladies, once we vote on this, assuming it passes, we will have a signed formal resolution that will be delivered. We'll get it to Ms. Simon so you'll have something in writing for this.

That's what we need. Thank you so much.

Yes, ma'am. Thank you all. Thank you, ladies. Thank you.

Seeing no further discussion or comments. One thing. The clap already knows where the vote's going.

Tell Billy I said hello.

The clap already knows where the vote's going. So, gentlemen, let's move it to a vote. All in favor of passing the resolution? Yes. Ms. Hanna, for the record, it is unanimous. Mr. Shoemake, was there any picture or anything you want to take, or are you going to wait for a future date after the frame time?

Let's do a future date with the marker, because we needed this sign first.

Sounds good. Thank you so much for being here tonight, ladies. We appreciate it.

Thank you, ladies.

All right, gentlemen, that brings us to a series of public hearings that we have. Next up is item 6A. Just so I'm clear, Mr. DuBose, was there anybody signed up for either public hearing?

No, sir.

Okay, so we took care of the one signee with the public comment. All right, item number 6A, this is an ordinance to amend the agreement for the development of a joint industrial park. It's related to a third ring for tonight between Kershaw County and Fairfield County, and it's a reduction in the related boundaries. I'm going to go ahead and open up the public hearing. Anyone present wishing to speak on the content or subject matter of item number 6A on the agenda? Seeing no one, we'll go ahead and move to closing the public hearing. No votes required. That moves us to item number 6B. We have no one signed up, but for public announcement and the hearing, this is an ordinance to approve a lease of Kershaw County-owned real property located at 632 West DeKalb Street. It relates to a lease with Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service and related matters set forth therein. We'll go ahead and open up the public hearing. Anyone present wishing to speak on item number 6B on the agenda? Seeing none, we'll move it to closing the public hearing. No votes required. And that takes us to the next item on the agenda, which is 7A, public presentations. A is a dedication of Rugby's Mill painting presented to Kershaw County and placed on by Vice Chairman Russell Brazel. Do we have a motion?

I'd like to make a motion to dedicate from all the businessmen and women that donated to having this painting commissioned. I'd like to make a motion to donate it to Kershaw County. And tonight with us, we have my lovely wife, Casey, and we have the artist Dale Watson from Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, who specializes in these Revolutionary War paintings to do the dedication. So we'll do the motion first, sir.

Thanks so much, and just to be clear, the motion's for the public presentation, and I think the administrator's able to accept the artwork based on the donations and prior info we had. We got a motion from Mr. Brazel. Is there a second? Second. We have a second from Mr. Jones. Any further discussion? Or ready for the presentation? Is the artist going to come up and share?

Ready for the vote and then the presentation?

Can I just say something? Of course, yeah. If he's going to yield to me. I'd like to thank Mr. Brazler for all his hard work on this. He spent a lot of time on it, and what a great idea. And I really have enjoyed watching you bring this together. Kind of reminds me of when we had these pictures over here of Austin and Steve Kelly. It's a good thing, brings the community together.

Thank you, sir. I'll let Casey and Dale do most of the talking, so thank you so much.

All right, let's move to a vote so we can bring them up. All in favor of the public presentation? It's unanimous. In favor? Mr. Brazel, you have the floor.

All right, Casey, would you like to come up and introduce Dale and the painting, and then we can thank all of the folks who contributed. This painting was commissioned. It was $10,000 all paid for from the community, no tax dollars. Chairman Connell, Administrator Templar, thank y'all for y'all's donations, made significant donations. But I'll let Casey go through the list. I'll yield to her. Thank you.

Good evening and I'm glad to be here on such a positive note and we would like to thank the community for all of your support on this painting that I just find fascinating and it has taught me a new story that I did not know and our artist Dale Watson is here and he's going to tell you more about the painting but first I want to thank all the businesses and sponsors that helped fund this beautiful painting. And I would like to start with our platinum sponsor that donated a lot of money towards this, and we really appreciate it, and that is Dr. Will Owen. I don't know if he's here, but thank you, Will. Our diamond sponsors was Carolina Motorsports, Prestige Farms, Lugoff Toyota, Laser Form and Machine, and Roy's Wood Products. Our gold sponsors was F.J. Rabin Construction, Mark A. Quigley CPA, Smith Robinson Law, an anonymous donor, Connell Law, and Danny Templar. So thank you. I know a lot of you are here tonight. Thank you so much. Our silver sponsors was Wolf Mechanical, Towel Farms, Patterson Insurance, Shaheen Hancock and Godwin LLP. And personal donations were, unfortunately, they could not be here tonight, but Cook and Kathy Young, And then that's it. Russell wanted me to skip over us. Anyway, I'm going to let Dale take the stage.

Thank you. Mr. Watson.

It's an honor to be here. Back in the early part of the year, my phone rang.

If you would pull the mic up just a little bit. Thank you, sir.

My phone rang, and it was Russell. And he was saying, I was laying in bed, and I saw a news program that had you in it. And it was a reporter had come down to Mount Pleasant to interview me about my work. And he saw it, gave me a call, and said, we need some artwork up here. And so he goes, have you got anything we could use? And we started back and forth, and I was going like, I think I have the perfect thing for Kershaw County. So back in 2021, I did a illustration for the American Battlefield Trust and the Liberty Trail that had to do with Rousley's Mill. And at the time, I did that digitally, and I've always wanted to do that as a big, more epic oil painting just because the story's so good. So Russell and I started back and forth, and then actually Russell kind of disappeared for a few weeks. And I thought, well, I thought that was going to go, but it didn't. And then the phone rang again. He goes, you ready to go? And we took off, and he started fundraising and got me very excited about it. And so I don't know. I can tell the story of Rugeley's if everybody wants to hear it. Please. Should we? You want to unveil it so we can actually see what we're talking about? So it makes more sense? Yeah.

Wouldn't somebody want to help me? Yeah. You can do it.

His name is too short. Why you wore a tie tonight, huh?

Put it right in front of me, it's fine.

You fine?

Put it right in front of me. All right. Let's get this over. If y'all know me, I'll knock it over. On the count of three, one. I want Dale to tell the story, and then we'll all get a photo. Great. If we could do that.

So very quickly, in 1780, Rugeley's Mill was a loyalist hot spot. And it was, I don't think you can even get to it now. But there was a huge barn there, big house. They had a sawmill there and what would have been like a country store. So they had a lot going on there. And Rugeley was a loyalist. And there were probably about 120, 140 loyalists holed up there. And William Washington showed up with $80,000 Dragoons or Calvary is that Dragoons were Calvary in the 1700s. So they did not have any way to take this building with only 80 guys, and there were 120 or so there. So they came up with the idea of what's called a Quaker cannon.

They cut down a pine tree. Now make sure you get into the mic.

OK. They cut down the pine tree and put it on a wagon carriage and rolled it out so it looked like a cannon. Rugeley and all of the guys in there surrendered without a shot. So these 80 guys got the 120 or 140 to surrender without any bloodshed. And my understanding is this is still taught at, like, West Point and places just to take what you have and to improvise with it. So great story. And, you know, it's... I didn't know about it when the Battlefield Trust got me to do it. I just think it's just a wonderful thing for Kershaw County.

So just real quick, I want to highlight where this is at. This is on Flat Rock Road, about where Flat Rock Road crosses Granny's Quarter Creek. And so this is in Kershaw County, and it's kind of an untold story. I started finding some stories about it once we started talking about the painting, but it was something that I hadn't heard of. So I think it's real interesting, and we can all grab a photo now. Thanks so much.

if the artist or anyone involved would like to come up.

Good, Jimmy.

Casey Russell, good job. Great job, appreciate it.

Thanks everyone for coming out tonight. And thanks and congratulations to the artists on such a nice piece of work.

Yes.

I assume you have websites and people can look at your other work online? Yes. Great, thank you. Thanks everyone on item number 7A, great piece of art, great piece of history in Kershaw County, little known. But more well known now. Item number 7B is the next item on the agenda. regarding Alliance Engineering update on the boat landing placed on by Mr. Brazel. Is there a motion?

I'd like to make a motion to hear from Alliance Engineering regarding a solution for low water problems with the new boat landing at Veterans Park.

Is there a second on this for public presentation? Second. We have a second. Any further discussion before we have a motion? Bring them up.

Nope, just looking for a solution to the launching. So what's been happening, just real quick, is at extreme low water, like 4.5, 4.3 feet, people's rear wheels are coming off the back of the boat ramp. So we just need an easy way to extend it. And I think Alliance has got that for us tonight.

All right, all in favor of the public presentation, raise your hand. Is unanimous in favor? Ms. Hanna? Yes, sir.

Good evening, members of the council. This is Kyle Clampett with Alliance Consulting Engineers. Appreciate the time this evening. As Councilman Brazel mentioned, he and I have been in constant discussions on this boat ramp from the start of the project all the way through. He wanted to make sure that this project was completed to his and the county council's expectations throughout the process. So it... He has been very closely tied to us throughout this project. As the boat ramp has been in use, we've had a drought condition recently in the area. As of last week, we had levels in the low four feet range, which is below the normal average. We had flows about 25% of the normal rate this time of year. Obviously, the rain this weekend solved that problem, but we want to have a solution in place for when we do have other periods of drought throughout the year. So right now, next up, this is kind of a map showing the Watery River in its lower conditions for each month. What we've got here is there's a red band that you see around the line at the bottom is just under 118 feet. That's the elevation at the bottom of the ramp. You need about three to four feet depth of water for that boat to launch. Right now we've used the top of that red line being the four foot elevation range. So anything that was in that red band we say is an area where you could have some difficulty backing the boat ramp down. So most of the time that's going to be in the summer times of the year when we are having drought conditions. And just so you know, in the period of the last week, we were running between 4.4 to 4.8 feet in depth of the river. But then just yesterday, it jumped all the way up to over 9 feet. And then again today is over 11 feet using monitoring that's being done on the river itself. So one thing that we've looked at is The ramp already extends pretty far into the water today. So what solution we want to come up with is, do we pour more concrete or, and that's going to involve getting the whether we have to pump concrete into the river or not. But a solution we're recommending is using something called articulated concrete blocks. Using a product called ArmorFlex, which is made by Contek, which is a manufacturer of concrete products. If we can use these articulated mats, they essentially come in sections of up to 33 feet in length. What we're recommending is 10 foot long length sections. That way you don't have to use a crane to put them in place. You could use a JLG or a front end loader. So no specialized equipment or operators to have to place these in. Um, they would come on a truck with the already manufactured. Someone would just place them in place. We don't have to put any search stone underneath them. Uh, they essentially sit there and they'll extend another 16 feet into the river itself. If we were to put two rows of those, those can get ordered about a month lead time to get those in. Um, once we go through the approval process, that can be happening in parallel while those orders are coming in place. Uh, cost estimate that we're anticipating for that material. This is straight from contact the manufacturer. just over $13,000 would be to do two rows. One row is just over $11,000. So the advantage you have with going to two rows isn't an extreme increase in cost. And that big difference is because you're already paying for the trucking cost both here and there. So really it's just the material that's extra. So that's why it's a slight increase to go to two rows. Again, that's why we're recommending option two. It gets you 16 feet further out into the river. That should allow it to handle, no matter how low the river is, people won't have a problem to get out there. We do have low water signage right now for any time you get below seven feet on the river level to warn folks, but Sometimes those signs aren't adhered to, as we know. So next up is some of the things, we just have some more information here, just talking about flood elevations. Again, the bottom of the ramp is just under 118 feet. The normal high water mark is around 131 feet in that river. So we are about 14 feet below. But when we do have these drought conditions, it does become problematic for people backing into the river itself. So the next steps we want to talk through is our recommendation is to place these Armor Flex articulated mats, go through the regulatory approvals, go through a procurement process for the labor material and equipment. We do still anticipate the whole project to be under $20,000. Even with labor, we're anticipating that's a day's worth of labor. It should be around the $5,000 range. So total cost would be under $20,000 to have these two rows of mats put in. And I'll pause for any questions.

Any questions, council members? Mr. Browse, you still have the floor.

We can take questions. I just wanted to make a quick point. I think if we were to have any sort of accident or somebody get stuck on the ramp, it would certainly exceed the potential damages, would certainly exceed the cost of doing this. This seems like a pretty easy solution, so I appreciate you bringing it to us and so quickly. I think we first spoke just maybe three weeks ago, four weeks ago, whatever it's been, and here you are with the solution. I appreciate it.

Yes, sir. Is there any Army Corps or other approvals required to do something like this that's below the mean water line?

We do need to go through that process. We do anticipate that can be happening in parallel while the product will be shipped this way. So it would look at about another 480 square feet of impact below the ordinary high water mark, so it does require coordination with the Corps and SCDES, which is South Carolina Department of Environmental Services.

You think it would be like a 30- or 45-day turnaround on response time for them for such a minor event? Right. Any other questions or comments?

Can you kind of give us an explanation on how... So if you put those at the end of the ramp, how are you butting up? Is there going to be a gap where your trailer then... hits and going up, how do you ensure that it's there and a smooth transition?

Great question. So when these are placed, they come with a spreader bar to allow you to lower in place before you set them. So it will be having to be somebody in the water to make sure it's there and abutting up to the existing concrete. If we do have them placed and there are some gaps, we can go ahead and put some grout in between there. But these are set up to where as we place them, we should be able to seal up all the gaps through the placement. But we'd have to have someone in the water observing to make sure that's there. And we wouldn't release that spreader bar until it was in its proper location. Because once you set them in the riverbed, you're not moving them again.

So do you determine whether, I mean, the soil there is going to get give and you play all that in there? Yes, sir. Because it seems like a tough process to really butt it up. You're either going to have a drop or an increase. from the current ramp.

Right. So these blocks are eight and a half inches thick. Um, that's the ones we're recommending is the armor flex 70. Um, that's what we anticipate is about the drop off today because once those set in, they're going to settle in a couple inches, um, into the way because the riverbed is obviously it's going to be very heavy, uh, for the riverbed itself. But once they settle in, we feel like it should be a smooth transition off the ramp. You should, I mean, there'll be about an inch difference. It's not going to be perfectly smooth. Um, but it won't be so much that you couldn't pull your trailer back off of that difference in elevation. Thank you, I appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Thompson.

I see two people in the room tonight that I know can handle a job.

Mr. Jim.

Mr. Tucker, yes, sir.

Mr. Kyle, where are these at right now that you have installed or know that they're installed?

Most of the time you use them on the coastlines, so all throughout South Carolina, all along the coastlines they've been placed. A lot of times in the Beaufort area, they're actually getting ready to do a couple of boat ramps down in that area, and they actually use this for their entire ramp. They don't even use any concrete. So they'll actually use these for the entire ramp itself.

Thank you.

And these are done all the way from South Carolina all the way down to the Florida coastline. The rep for contact is in Florida. That's who we were talking with throughout this process.

Would you anticipate any additional costs for the regulatory part of it with the Army Corps? No, sir.

No, no mitigation credits have to be purchased or anything like that. It's just going through the process of a nationwide permit. They don't charge for that application.

Any other questions or comments? Like Mr. Tomlinson, I'd be interested to make sure they butt up, whether it be like a U-piece or something that... Y'all know better than I do, but I've been down there, and it's slick as snot at the bottom. And so something that's super heavy, I imagine it's going to creep down even further, and we might be looking at the same problem at some point in the future unless it gets affixed. All right, any other comments or questions? No votes required?

Chairman, I'd like to make one more comment. We'd just like to refer this situation to our finance committee to make sure that there are funds to cover it. That's all. Thank you.

That would be the next step. Thank you so much. Mr. Chair. Mr. Jones.

Here's the position I'm in. I've never supported that part from day one. I thought it was a mistake, but bottom line is I know some of you have worked very hard since you've been on county council. We put a lot of money in it, so I will have to support to finish the project out because you've done a decent job. It just wasn't one of my priorities.

Thank you, Mr. Jones.

That's a compliment, not backhanded. That is a compliment.

Thank you. Mr. Tucker.

We're going to vote for a pitcher to be put down there, Councilman Jones, when he leaves here.

Very well. Okay, no votes required. Thank you so much, gentlemen. Thank you, sir, for coming out tonight.

Thank you.

All right, that concludes public presentations. Next item on the agenda is approval of the minutes, item number 8A. Is there a motion on the minutes? I'll make a motion. We have a motion, Mr. Schumacher. Is there a second? Mr. Tomlinson has a second. Mr. Tomlinson's got a second, Mr. Tucker. Any discussion on the minutes? Seeing none, we'll move it to a vote. All in favor of the minutes, raise your hand. It is unanimous in favor. The minutes pass.

Ms. Hanna? Let's check.

And approved. Next up, we have a series of ordinances. We'll start with item number 9A. This is a first reading and title only. This is an ordinance to amend the Kershaw County Unified Code of Zoning and Land Development, the ZLDR, to create a zoning overlay district entitled Master Plan Development District. Placed on the agenda by Mr. Brazel. Is there a motion?

Yeah, I'd like to make a motion just for first reading only to look at an ordinance to amend the Kershaw County, South Carolina Unified Code of Zoning and Land Development Regulations to create a zoning overlay district entitled Master Plan Development District.

Is there a second? I'll second. We have a second. You have the four.

So this is entitled only, so it's just so that we can get an approval to refer it to... Oh, gosh, I'm sorry. I lost my thought. To refer it to our planning commission. Yes, sorry. It's been a long day. Refer it to planning commission for further consideration and bring us back a proposal.

Okay. Mr. Shoemaker, you have a second. Any further discussion?

Can you give us some clarification on it?

So if I can councilman, yeah, go ahead. So basically what this does councilman Jones is it gives us another tool in the toolbox right now, the primary tool we have in our zoning code for these development type districts are a PDD, which have a commercial component. This would allow us to do similar things, uh, without the commercial component. So basically what this does is it would allow us another potential avenue to allow for development. that makes sense. Like a PDD, this type of zoning would require direct negotiation with council. So this isn't something that could just be sort of done without our approval. So we would be able to negotiate fees and road sizes and various things in a direct way. So it captures the intent with what we had already with the idea of trying to push some of this major development into these development agreements. And so in that development agreement umbrella are the MPDs as well as the PDD. We just didn't have that tool drafted out in our ordinance.

Well, you guys have done a great job explaining it to me. Thank you. Yep.

Any other discussion, questions, or comments? Seeing none, we'll move 9A to a vote on first reading and title only. All in favor, raise your hand on 9A. Ms. Hanna, it's unanimous in favor and passes on 9A.

That's not unanimous. I didn't raise my hand.

Huh? I thought you raised your hand.

No, you didn't look.

Okay. All opposed? Mr. Jones has made note that he is opposed to item number 9A, first reading of title only. But it still passes, Ms. Hanna. All right. Item number 9B is the next up on the agenda. This is an ordinance by Kershaw County Council to authorize the issuance of general obligation bonds in a series... for an amount not to exceed $2 million, purpose of acquiring construction equipment, rehabilitating and improving the county's wastewater infrastructure and other capital projects. Do we have a motion on 9B, first reading?

I'll make a motion.

Thank you. Mr. Shoemake has a motion. Mr. Tucker has a second. Mr. Shoemake, you have the floor.

Yeah, I think I can, I'll yield to finance chairman or the administrator if they want to talk about it, or I can.

Go right ahead. I don't have any I think the administrator can add to it.

Yeah, so the short of it is our sewer system has some areas that need some pretty substantial repairs, and this enables us to do those repairs. I would like to point out just for some historical edification, much of the sewer system in need of repairs were – effectively given to us by a different entity. So these are not the sewer lines by and large that we have installed under our watch, but an organization effectively just gave those to us. We sort of had to take them as is, um, for various reasons that predate all of us here. But the, these are the lines that we're talking about. And there's some, and so we had, uh, some studies done some lines and some pretty serious need of repair. This is a pretty cornerstone public safety issue. This would allow us to address these in a way that doesn't as required a, raised millage and still addresses these repairs, which are exigent to say the least. That's the short version.

Yeah, we got some old sewer lines out there.

Yes.

And I'll yield to you, Mr. Administrator.

Sure. Yes, sir. So this would be a four-year general obligation bond, which still keeps us under our 8% limit that we are allowed to do per state law. So the reason we're not... in a position to have to raise any kind of debt millage or anything like that. This will take up the capacity, our existing capacity in our debt mills that is not currently being expended. So this just finds a home for the extra revenue we have in our cabinet, if you will. This is a very, very dire situation here where we need to start maintaining and improving and repairing these legacy lines, if you will. They've been there since Maybe the 70s, I'm not sure. But this has been an ongoing project along the Highway 1 corridor. We historically have had odor complaints throughout there near KC West. This would start to work on that main line heading up towards the treatment facility. So this is potentially looking at a $12 million repair project over the stretch of six years. So this is a really opportunistic way to get started without any hits to the pocketbooks of the taxpayers beyond what is already existing. So for that, I would just highly encourage council to consider this. Thank you, Mr. Templer. Yes, sir, Mr. Jones.

You know, we were talking about the old lines, but we actually, Sammy, put those lines down. I mean, you and I were here when those lines went in.

Don't tell on yourself, brother.

No, no, no, I voted against it. Those lines were maintained by another entity before you and I came on council. Oh, I got you. For a long period of time. And I do remember that. With very little maintenance. Thank you, Samuel. I've been here a long time. Yeah, we both have. And it's about time for both of us to get up out of here.

Any other comments or discussion?

Yes, I would just like to add. That was ugly. That was not. I'm talking about you and I. What Mr. Templer says, I'm going to put a little more emphasis on it. This is a six-year process. So it was a lot easier this year, but moving forward in the next five years, it's going to get tougher and tougher to find the finance. So we're going to need creative thinking and innovative ways to get this done because starting it and then stopping in the middle of it or two-thirds of it is not the answer. We need to continue the process to fix the problem. And I'm so proud and thankful of our contractors who's working with the county. They have saved us hundreds of millions of dollars in their creativity of helping us with our sewer system, not just the plant, but our system.

Can I say something?

Yes, sir.

I hope y'all will follow that. I mean, I won't be here, but I hope y'all will follow through with that because we really never have. I'm not speaking about this council particularly, but you know what I'm talking about, Sammy. Mm-hmm.

And that's why I put emphasis on it, Councilman Jones.

Mr. Chairman, if I may just ask our minister. question. Danny, so to borrow $2 million to push in our sewer system, is there not a way that we could pay for with cash reserves out of our sewer fund and take the millage that's allocated to the bond and allocate it towards paying off a different bond at a higher rate? Because I know that the millage has to be specific to the bond. I understand that.

Correct. And It's a very good question. We just stand now in the age and relatively infancy of our current bonds that they are not outside of the window for early payments. This, I didn't look into anything for this bond because it's just a four-year bond. There's opportunities for balloon payments and things like that, but no other bond currently because of their newness, if you will. have any capacity to take early payoff or large payments. So they just want it structured as is for 10 years.

So the push that you and I started six years ago to pay off, I think it was 2008A and 2008B general obligation bonds, are those paid in full?

Those are paid in four, and looking forward, Sandra Brown and I are finance directors. We have the potential to pay off one more bond at the end of the, in 27 through the next budget cycle. So our debt load is relatively low. I would say very low. because we've just managed to do what we need as best we could with cash on hand, if you will. So this would be the first bond we've gone out for in a little while.

I think it's been the first bond since I've been here. I'm not in support of borrowing money or raising taxes. I'd like to see us take the millage that's now free and apply it. I'd like to see an option B, I guess is what I'm saying. And I see Tyler in the room, and he's a bright young man, and so is Sandra Brown. Very, very intelligent group that we have here at Kershaw County. Would it be possible to give us an option to look at how to pay for the needs in cash over the next 24 to 36 months and take this millage that I'm assuming there's millage available that is on the books that you don't want to lose that millage. If I were in your situation and in your shoes, that's the way I would think. I would think, well, I hate to see that go away because it could be used. But if we could use it to help further pay down debt or be shifted to help you in a different department to minimize taxes, that's what I'd rather see than to borrow this $2 million.

So with debt millage, it's locked into just debt, and we would have to move it over. And the actual what we would get is really not worth the squeeze, but to be able to capitalize on it in terms of borrowing against that. is where it's just opportunistic to get the money we need relatively quick, probably around August 26, if I'm not mistaken, and get $2 million going towards a $12 million project where I don't know how we're going to fund next year. It may be capital. Our capital expenditures may take $2 million hits every year. I see this as a strategy of potentially in year four if we paid off renewing it at just $2 million just to keep going and keep below our debt ceiling. The issue is if we were to use any cash on hand right now in a very challenging budget, as we will talk about a little later, I just wouldn't feel comfortable taking $2 million out of what I've built so far and putting it towards something that I can borrow without any kind of real impact to the taxpayers. There is an impact now, but it's not an escalation of taxes as it relates to debt or adding debt millage. It is we have room there. We absorb that room and get what we can. I didn't ask to go any bit beyond what that debt ceiling, or not our debt ceiling, but the- What the millage would allow the bond to be. Right, because I didn't want to ask for anything else.

Yeah, the millage existed, therefore you wanted to borrow the maximum amount in accordance to the millage.

Right, so it just happened to be this amount, which is, it's not what we need, but it's enough to get us going in the right direction. So that would be my position on that, but I'm happy to look at,

Well, I would like to see a different option or another option, but I appreciate your explanation.

Yes, sir. On second reading, are you asking for another option?

On this particular ordinance, this is first reading.

I mean on second reading, are you asking for a second option?

I was asking for one now. But I'd be happy to listen to it at second reading.

Mr. Browse, I was just going to say, we've got two more readings where we can make amendments and we should note for council and the public that this is a concurrent effort. Um, there will be. RIA applications. We've already had conversations with them for rural infrastructure authority. If y'all were to recall the last major sewer upgrade received $10 million from RIA and that went a long way. And I think I hopefully. They see that we used the money wisely with the expansion that we had to do to take care of Kershaw County, and so this is a project that will require this funding now based on recommendations from staff, but we are applying for other grants and other opportunities to get it funded in the future. Mr. Tucker.

Thank you. Mr. Brazzo, you're absolutely right. I'm sorry we don't have those scenarios in front of you, but finance went through these. The same questions you asked on option B on What does it look like to get monies from paying off other bonds and things early? And the answer was what our administrator just gave us. Also, there's no money left in the sewer reserve. We used that money to finish off the expansion of the waste plant. So with that, there's nothing there to get from. So we've already used that to match our grant money plus our opera money. to take care of the sewer plant and increasing its capacity by one megagallons. So that's where we're at now with that, and this is the most fruitful, efficient way of doing business that we need to get done so we don't have any issues out of other government agencies not saying that we're not running our system correctly. That's the best I can put that.

Thank you, Mr. Tucker. Mr. Jones has a question.

Yes, for the chairman of finance. Sir? Is there a fund there that is the interest ARPA? I'm sorry. The ARPA money that we got, is there a fund that we have sitting there with interest money building?

Yes, so the remaining operating money did generate some interest money. I think that's already been dedicated into the budget, and if I'm incorrect, administration or finance can speak, but that has already been incorporated in the second meeting of the budget. So it's being used? Yes, sir.

Okay. It also disappears this year. I get it. Yeah, because we have to spend it. Right. Yeah.

Any other comments? What's the peak of that amount? What would it probably end up as?

We've been spending it as we've been wrapping into the budget, so I don't remember the exact number.

Yeah, I'm going to say, Mr. Administrator, do you have an idea?

Not a current snapshot, but to your point, everything's been committed. It had to be committed, so we're not allowed to change what the expenditures are for with the core ARPA funds at this point.

You will unwrap this budget if you start taking money. That was a three-year-ago conversation. Okay.

Appreciate the explanation. Thank you, Mr. Jones.

Any further comments or discussion on first reading 9B? Seeing none, we'll move it to a vote on first reading. All in favor, raise your hand. That is Shoemake, Tucker, Connell, Cato, Tomlinson, and Jones. In favor, any opposed? Mr. Broussel is opposed. It passes on first reading 9B. That moves us to item number 9C, a first reading. This is an ordinance to amend the Code of Ordinances for Kershaw County, Chapter 6 Building and Building Regulations. It's related to the administrative appeal procedures. And Mr. Templer, before we seek a motion, or Mr. DuBose, do you have any background for us on this one?

Yeah, not a problem. State law requires that a state entity uh, is stood up the building codes council. It looks at the standard building codes that are published every several years and recommends and mandates to local governments. Um, the standard codes that should be adopted as amended by this South Carolina building codes council. Um, Therefore, all local jurisdictions have adopted the International Building Code. The International Building Code requires a board of building code appeals be set up. The existing board has very exacting requirements under county code for who can serve. It's been very difficult to keep that board and panel through the years. This ordinance cleans up the existing county code provisions, brings them into greater conformity with the international building code. When the local code was adopted, it was several iterations of the IBC ago. This gets it current. Also takes the very, very granular qualifications that prior councils had established for these board seats and allows them to be more general qualifications, but they directly mirror what the International Building Code says. In short, I'm rambling here, the county had adopted more precise qualifications for some of these board seats that made it very hard to fill the board seats. This makes the qualifications a little less onerous. Civil engineer was one of them. It's not to say a civil engineer can't be on there, but we don't have to have a civil engineer.

Thank you for the explanation very much. Gentlemen, do we have a motion? I'll make the motion. Mr. Shoemake has a motion. Is there a second?

Second.

We have a second. Mr. Shoemake, any discussion?

No, I think Mr. DeVos said it well. Mr. Chairman?

Yes, sir.

So looking at Section 689 records, the board should appoint a secretary who keeps all the records for it instead of it being a county staff member. With us having volunteers that are appointed, are we going to give that responsibility to somebody who is appointed to the board, right?

Yeah, so the secretaries are charged with preparing the minutes of the meetings. Typically, the county has had a member of Planning and Zoning staff serve as the secretary, just because those minutes, again, have to be produced by someone. A board member might go on vacation, might not be as exacting in reporting the minutes as they maybe would be desired. So traditionally, the BZA, the Planning Commission, similar boards have had that secretary position be outside of the board and be a member of professional staff. Very fair question, and typically boards would have an officer or member serve as a secretary, but given the heavy lifting of the secretary duties, Traditionally, Kershaw County's had to be a staff member.

But there's no worries in the future with that not being noted in the ordinance? Because looking at it right now, it looks like the board can appoint whoever as secretary going forward, not just a big burden on somebody who is given their time for free.

Yeah, and that could certainly be amended. If it's not mandated by the IBC, you'd have to go back and double-check. It can certainly be amended to meet with... Yeah, current practices of the county. Not a problem at all.

Mr. Chairman. Mr. Thomas and Mr. Tucker. If it is mandated, can we put some type of amendment in where staff can assist to make sure that it gets done? Because I'm with Councilman Thomas, and that's heavy burden on a citizen who's volunteering their time already to keep up with minutes.

Yeah, and again, right now it states the board shall appoint a secretary. Well, that would be the amendment. The building inspector themselves, since they are rendering the decisions, which is the current code provision, probably would not be the ideal person for a secretary. Again, I think this mirrors the IVC. As I read this, it doesn't prescribe that it has to be a member. We can certainly clarify that and make it very explicit or just simply mirror planning commission and BZA language. This might be their language, and again, I think it leaves the door open for it to be staff, and if that were the desire of council, I'm fairly certain the administrator and I would make sure that the staff member handles those duties.

I think the easiest thing to do is mirror the planning commission. It's staff supported, and they carry out a lot of the work that would need to be completed from meeting to meeting, so that would be my suggestion.

What I would like to see is if a staff member is there, they're there for that reason, that reason only, they're not getting involved in the planning commission's discussions.

I don't think they have a vote or anything, Mr. Jones.

It doesn't matter. You know what I'm saying. You do understand what I'm saying. You're just acting like you don't. Can I have just a little clarification on the beginning of it again, Mr. DeVos? I wasn't listening.

So this board is required by the International Building Code. The county's required to adopt the International Building Code. The existing provisions in the Code of Ordinances for Kershaw County have very exacting requirements for who can serve on the board. They're more specific than what the International Building Code requires, and they're so specific it's been hard to keep this board going. This amendment, among other cleanups, primarily would adopt the International Billing Code language word for word on qualifications of members, would allow the county more flexibility to get this board impaneled and keep it impaneled once impaneled.

Any further discussion or questions? Mr. Jones, no? Council members, okay. On 9C, we'll move it to a vote then on first reading. All in favor on 9C, raise your hand. We have voting in favor, Mr. Shoemake, Mr. Tucker, Mr. Brazel, Connell, Cato, and Tomlinson. All opposed? Mr. Jones opposed, it passes. First reading on 9C, Ms. Hanna. That brings us to item 9D, a second reading. Mr. Administrator, any summary or any background before we seek a motion on this one?

Just to let you all know that we had a few Scribner's errors that were in the provisos. There was some language that was transposed from last year's proposed Provisos that were erroneously included in this year, so those numbers were adjusted. Some were too high, so they went back down to the appropriate numbers. So I apologize for that, but just wanted to let you all know that.

Thank you for that background. We'll seek a motion on second reading, 9D.

Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a motion that we approve the physical year 26-27's budget for Kershaw County on second reading.

Is there a second? I second. All right, we got a second. Mr. Tucker, you have the floor. Are there any discussion or amendments?

I'd like to make a couple of amendments, if I may, Mr. Chairman.

Okay.

Before you, you should have a revised handout that was in your box with some numbers on them. I would like to make this amendment as a whole, if I can, Mr. Chair, and I'll go over it by page number and line item.

Yes, sir.

All right, so if you turn to your ordinance and go to page three,

This is your motion you're saying now?

This is my motion, yeah. This is my motion. Underneath county operating and personnel budget, that should be 55.1, under 25 and 26. 55.1. It should be the one that's paper-plated, Mr. President. Okay, if you go to the middle of the page where it talks about Lugo Fire, that should be 33.42, 33.42. On line item number four on page three, change 25 to 26. 2026 should be the year. Go to page 19, the top of the page where it says non-county sponsored event standby. Just below that says millage. That should be 14, not 13.7. Go down to the middle of the page where it says fire service proviso. That should be $97, not 125. $97, not 125. And also it should be in the improved parcel. Those are my changes, Mr. Chairman. I would second that amendment.

I mean that motion. Yeah, reduced to 97. And you have a second on the second amendment, Mr. Shoemake. All right, we have a motion and a second on the Tucker Amendment. Any further discussion, Mr. Tucker?

No, sir. All I want to say, that's all on my amendment. I'll say more later.

Mr. Shoemaker, you have the second? No comments. Any discussion, council members, on the Tucker Amendment?

I have a very easy question. Yes, sir, Mr. Chairman. There's a lot of changes.

Well, it's scribblings errors where the numbers were transformed incorrectly over the weekend. Okay. And this was already done by Thursday deadline. You see where the problem comes in at.

And you called it.

Well, I didn't. Staff did.

Good. Thank you, staff.

They've been working on this all weekend.

That's why we pay them the big bucks.

Any further comments or discussion?

On the amendment. We're on the amendment.

None? No, okay. Yeah, we're still on the amendment. Any further comments or discussions on the Tucker Amendment? Seeing none, we'll move the Tucker Amendment to a vote. All in favor, raise your hand on the Tucker Amendment. That is Shoemake, Tucker, Connell, Cato, Tomlinson, and Jones voting in favor. Any opposed? Mr. Brazel, opposed. The Tucker Amendment passes. That puts us back on the original motion for second reading. Any other discussion or motions?

I would just like to point out that the millage numbers for last year and this year are the same.

Thank you, Mr. Schumach. Mr. Tucker, yes, sir.

If I may, Mr. Chairman, I can't say enough thank yous to staff, to... The Finance Committee, this has been one of these budgets where you work hard on trying to get it to the best of your abilities in the places where you can see progress, but yet not bankrupt the bank. It's been a lot of hard work and time put in. Mr. Templer, I can't thank you and your staff enough. Ms. Brown for her leadership and hiring the right people and putting them in the right places to power. This is not everything in the budget that we need to be successful in the county, but it is gonna make us in a better spot to continue the progress we have gained and made over the years. So with that being said, I wanna say thank you to my two colleagues. Councilman Thomason and Councilman Shoemake, and that I hope that if you guys think different or feel different, let it be known, and we're happy to see what else we can do, but I'm going to be asking for your support tonight on second reading of this ordinance. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Tucker. Any other comments or discussion? Again, the Tucker amendment has passed. We're back on the original motion for second reading passing. Mr. Jones. Clarification.

You said no mill increase on this vote.

That's the most important part, and I left it out, Councilman Jones. Thank you. Absolutely not. We did not increase any millage. Asking for the public, we bounced with what we had and what the growth was into the budget. And so we took advantage of that to try to make sure that we made best choices. So with that being said, we did not increase the millage. So someone tells you different. It's not on this reading.

Thank you, Mr. Jones. I've got one question that's been on my mind. Being that we're in the budget, a lot of things change in a budget, right? So it's more than just millage. We have fee changes. In your opinion, have we had any significant eyebrow-lifting fee changes, Mr. Administrator?

No, sir.

Is everything status quo from last year to this year?

That's been the goal is just stay where we were. Now, there were a few fees added that we didn't have last year, just like nominal, like an airport tie-down fee for $15 if you stay overnight, just some things of that nature. But beyond that, and that was part of the discussion mid-year, was to look at capturing revenue at the airport that was otherwise going wayside. So these are typically... out-of-town folks that are, if they're going to tie down, come in overnight. A lot of people just don't need to get fuel sometimes, so we lose out on that revenue. So just trying to capture a little more.

I know we have a wonderful airport, and I'm glad you brought that up. Moving into this next year, I know there was conversations around airport management. Do we have any sort of solution on that that you can...

Discuss with us tonight As far as anything in particular, I mean Rob Kiesler is our airport manager. So is that?

Is Ralph Kiesler is gonna be the airport? Yeah, Rob. I'm sorry. Yeah, Rob Kiesler. These ears are getting old.

He heads up our maintenance, doesn't he?

Yes, sir. Rob Kiesler. So I know Mr. Prestidge has been involved for years and years and years. What's his role gonna be, sir?

A liaison, and so he won't have, he's busy running a $300 million poultry factory, if you will, processing, and so I need accountability on the ground day in, day out. I need to know information immediately, but Ron's, Information that comes in, what he brings to the table to me is invaluable. He can tell me what the airport looks like from 15,000 feet from on the ground and just heading into it. So Ron and I have a great relationship. I've spoken with him about this some time back. And he and Rob have been introduced. They work well together. But Rob is my guy out there for a day-to-day operation.

Okay, understood. So is that something that we can enunciate tonight, that he is the official liaison between you and the airport? Is that what I'm hearing? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

No, that would be official because we've talked about it, and he has invaluable input, like I say. It's just kind of from a customer's perspective, from an end user perspective. And from a much higher level than what you would have in just somebody in a Cessna, if you will. Nothing against it.

Mr. DeBose, is there anything we need to do to... make that official, or is our administrator statement tonight's official?

If I could, I'll just, I have to recognize a point of order, because I don't like to jeopardize potential votes on our matters, and so to the extent someone would have an issue with a non-budgetary item being discussed or voted on or taking potential legal action on recognizing an administrative or managerial position, We can set it for a future council agenda item, but unless there is a motion or discussion related to the budget in particular, we've got to find that topic again.

No, that's understood. It's just there's so many things that are inside of a budget, so many moving parts. So that's why I wanted to... make that point, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Brazel.

I'll say this, I'll say this, if we lose Ron Prestidge, we've lost a huge, huge, big part of knowledge out of that airport. He's done a fantastic job.

Thank you, Mr. Jones. You're welcome. Any further discussion on 9D, second reading of the budget? Again, we're back. After the Tucker amendment, which is passed, we're back on the original motion passing second reading on the budget. Any other discussion or amendments? Any questions? Seeing none, and no other summary from Mr. Templer, we'll move it to a vote on second reading of the budget 9D. All in favor, raise your hand. That is Mr. Shoemake, Mr. Tucker, Mr. Connell, Mr. Cato, Mr. Thomas, and Mr. Jones voting in favor. Any opposed? Mr. Basil votes against. Ms. Hannah, 9D passes on second reading for the budget. That brings us to item number 9E. We had a public hearing related to this one a little bit earlier. This is an ordinance approving lease of real property located at 632 West DeKalb Street in Camden. It's related to a lease with the Clemson University Cooperative Extension. Any other summary we need, Mr. Templer, before we seek a motion on this one? No, sir. Mr. DuBose, anything?

No.

Seek a motion on 9E.

Make a motion that we approve second reading, Mr. Chairman.

We have a motion. Mr. Tucker, is there a second? Second. We have a second from Mr. Cato. Mr. Tucker?

I think all has been said. Oh, on Clemson University Extension Bill. This is just clearing up some of these, uh, rentals and properties that the county has. Um, and, um, we, um, had Mr. DuBose look back into some of these things on these lease agreements, and this is some of the cleanup work and to make sure that we're within, um, our ordinance and, um, doing what is right. But, um, and also making sure that we don't give Clemson extension a lot of money to be over there as active as they are in the county. This is part of their agreement to operate here in this county. So I wanted to make sure that all of my colleagues knew that this is part of the agreement on our services that they rendered to us.

Thank you, Mr. Tucker. Any further discussion, comments? Mr. Cato, you have the second.

Nothing here.

Okay. Seeing no other discussion or comments, staff and legal have had the opportunity to chime in. Seeing nothing further, we'll move it to a vote on 9E. All in favor, raise your hand. And Ms. Hanna, it is unanimous in favor on 9E. Passes second reading. I'd like to say thank you to John DuBose for cleaning that up.

Mm-hmm.

Thank you very much. All right, this takes us to item number 9F, third reading. We've already talked about this one twice before council. This is an ordinance to amend the agreement for the development of a joint industrial park, a reduction of boundaries related to the Kershaw County and Fairfield Park. Do we have a motion on third reading?

Make a motion that we approve the industrial park for and between Fairfield County and Kershaw.

Second. We have a second. A motion and a second. Mr. Tucker?

I have no further on this. This is the third reading. Nothing's changed, right, Mr. DuBose? Correct. Nothing's changed.

It accounts for recent economic development and changes therein. Mr. Tomlinson, you have the second?

I have no comment.

All right. Council members, any further discussion? Mr. Administrator, anything? Seeing none, we'll move it to a vote on 9F. All in favor, raise your hand. Ms. Hanna, it is unanimous in favor, and 9F passes. Next item is 9G. This is an ordinance to amend the Kershaw County ZLDR section 36 related to all street parking regulations and other matters related thereto. Do we have a motion?

I'd like to make the motion.

We have a motion. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Shoemake has a second. You have the floor, Mr. Brazel.

May I make an amendment before we get into discussion?

As long as you let me say thank you for your amendment before you make the amendment. Sure.

All right, we had a motion and a second. We have a motion to amend by Mr. Shoemake. We'll see if we get a second. What's your motion?

I will second the motion to amend.

So the motion to amend would be to remove the section 3.613. and only keep in 36.1-34, which limits on-street parking, and I can explain it once I get the second.

You've already gotten the second. We've got a second. Mr. Shoemaker, you have the floor.

So in our last meeting, Councilman Braz and some other folks expressed some concern about, well, there was some Scrivener problems, but also with the limitation or with the requirement of off-street parking areas. And so what we've done to sort of compromise is the ordinance that goes forward will remove that section, but still limit, uh, major subdivisions could not have parking on both sides of the street. They have to put it in there, uh, covenants and restrictions. And so it would prohibit neighborhoods from allowing parking on both sides of the street, but would eliminate the requirement for off street parking. And the sort of thinking behind that was, you know, we'll see what the expanded lot sizes do for that. I mean, one problem is when you have houses very close together, don't have a lot of room for parking, but with half acre minimum lot sizes all the way up to an acre, that may resolve. And as I mentioned to Councilman Brazel, we may come back and revisit if we start seeing this problem as new neighborhoods come up. But I think we can wait, as Councilman Brazel suggested, wait to see what these new neighborhoods look like with these new ordinances. Plus, if we continue to get more people going the PDD and MPD route, we'd be able to directly negotiate whether there is or is not off-street parking, depending on the unique subdivision.

Yeah, my thought process, Councilman, would be that anything less than a half acre, you would require anything a half acre and above, you wouldn't need to because you have plenty of space to have parking on the property itself. And it... it really facilitates a healthier, nicer community by not having this, you know, four parking places every 500 feet because you start kind of messing up everyone's lot. So thank you for being open-minded and striking that one particular part of this.

Yeah, no, thanks for your support for the other piece, which I think is the more problematic. I know we have the school district here, and there's Mr. Smith. One of the things Mr. Smith mentioned in Smart Growth, which Councilman Brazel completely understood, and that's why we kept it alive like we did. You know, school buses going down the roads, any places to turn. So this would give us some ability to keep those streets clear, which is really the goal. It's a public safety thing. So I think this does what Mr. Smith hopes for while also addressing the issues.

I think we solved the problem. Yep.

I have a question. Thank you, Mr. Shoemake. Mr. Brazel. Mr. Jones.

I have a question. Has this been a problem?

For the school bus, it's a huge problem.

And fire trucks. Right, fire trucks, emergency vehicles.

Okay, then I do appreciate your amendment.

Thank you, Mr. Jones. Congressman Jones, I think it largely solves the problem that we had prior discussed.

Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, if I may. Mr. Tucker, yes, sir. So I asked this question earlier, and I got my answer, but I know there's other folks that may feel the same as I do out there. How do we know, as a homeowner, on which side of the road, whether it's going to be the right or the left? Because if this is not distinguished at build time, you're going to have people still parking on both sides of the roads, and it defeats the ordinance that we're doing. And then also... Who's going to enforce it? That's my next question. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Appreciate that.

So if I can, so obviously this is an ordinance for new development. So, um, let me pull it. So I'm reading it. Yes. You know, that kind of point out to you. So, um, so on street has to be, yeah, on street is limited to one side of the road. And what they have to do is put it in their restrictive covenants. So it would be enforced by putting it in the restrictive covenants. And now who would enforce it? Well, it would build me up to the neighborhood. So if they, if the school district or EMS is noticing problems and issues, then they would need to go to the HOA. Almost every single new subdivision has an HOA. You know, how, how do we, if we still see it being a problem, we can come in and address it with an actual code enforcement ordinance. But as we all know, our It's not that our code enforcement is sitting around doing nothing. They're plenty busy. So the idea is this would be sort of enforced by the people in the neighborhood. And if anybody has school-age children, as I used to have until this weekend, you know that when school-age children are impacted, parents will speak up. So I have no doubt that parents in neighborhoods with school buses having issues are going to speak up to the HOA. So it's sort of putting the enforcement with the neighborhoods that are being impacted.

And as you stated, if it's not controlled by the HOAs, because some of those get started and get like dissolved, go away, disappear, Casper the ghost, however you want to look at it. It's going to be probably brought back up to this body for enforcement.

That's right. And that's a discussion we'll have to have based on the need. You know, I think this starts small and we can work into something more restrictive if needed rather than start most restrictive and have to work down.

And I understand that. I just want to make sure the citizens understand the avenue that they have before them that they can progress to if they need to.

Thank you, Mr. Tucker. Any further discussions, comments, questions? Thank you.

Yeah, of course.

Seeing none, we'll move it to a vote. This is item number 9G. And actually, we're on the amendment, excuse me, the Shoemake amendment. So no further discussion on that one.

Majors of divisions only.

Correct. Correct. On the Shoemake Amendment, let's move it to a vote. All in favor, raise your hand. We're unanimous in passing the Shoemake Amendment, so that brings us back to the original motion. Any further comments or discussions on 9G on the original motion to pass on third reading? Seeing none, we'll move it to a vote. All in favor? It's unanimous on 9G, Ms. Hanna, and it passes as amended. Thank you, gentlemen. All right, we already took care of item number 10A earlier in the program with the colonial dames and related historical marker. This brings us to item number 10B on the agenda. Resolution related to artwork in Kershaw County placed on the agenda by Mr. Brazel. Is there a motion?

Yeah, I'd like to make a motion. This resolution basically for my sake was to protect this piece of fine artwork that has been procured and is a gift to Kershaw County. Throughout discussions with council, John DeBose, he made it a little broader, so I'll just make the motion. A resolution that Kershaw County is directing the Kershaw County administrator to implement policies, procedures, and safeguards related to artworks owned by Kershaw County.

That is the motion. We have a motion. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Thompson has a second. Mr. Brazel.

So I'll read it. quickly, whereas Kershaw County owns artworks acquired through purchase and through private donation, many of which are vital pieces of Kershaw County's local heritage, culture, and visual history, and whereas artworks are vulnerable to environmental degradation, physical damage, theft, and neglect, and whereas it is the intent of Kershaw County to preserve the community's cultural assets for future generations, Kershaw County Council wishes to implement policies, procedures, and safeguards to ensure that the artwork owned by Kershaw County are appropriately preserved and protected from environmental degradation, physical damage, theft, and neglect. Now, therefore, be it resolved that Kershaw County Council that Section 1, custody, assessment, and insurance. The county administrator shall conduct... an inventory of artworks owned by Kershaw County and take immediate steps to secure those artworks that are vulnerable to environmental degradation in climate-controlled environment. The Kershaw County Administrator may commission assessments by an art conservator to determine appropriate storage and display conditions for the county-owned works. Regarding environmental and security controls, any facility, housing, or displaying artworks owned by Kershaw County Shall maintain strict museum grade standards in Q including UV filtering glass Automated climate logging temperature and humidity 24-7 security Emergency evacuation protocol County owned artwork shall be listed on the organization's disaster and emergency response plan designating personnel to remove them in the event of a fire or natural disaster, and a high resolution archaeal grade digital replica of visual media such as paintings shall be created and stored. I think maybe this is more than my intent, but John helped me craft it, and he covered all his bases. I just don't want the painting sold. That's all. It was almost $11,000. Well, it was an $11,000 gift after taxes in the frame, so I just won't want that piece of artwork protected and not sold or given away to anybody. I want to protect it for the future. I want it to stay part of Kershaw County here in our government center. It may be lent, but but never given away. We didn't actually address that, John, the lending of it.

Mr. Brownsville, if I might, if the intent is, as stated, to address one very special piece of artwork, I think a lot of the art in the county is already insured, if I'm right, under general property damage coverage that we already have in place. And then I see there's a request for some type of dollar amount that would go in here. I would think, like the 7B item for funding related to Alliance Engineering's recommendations, this would have to be referred to the Finance Committee if we're gonna expend any dollars.

Well, let's strike that because I just, frankly, I just wanted to do something very simple. So strike what you don't like and I just wanna pass something very simple to protect that piece of art.

That was all my intention was. How about, what about a motion, Council Member Brazile, what about a motion to amend the resolution to sort of reform it back to your original intent, a motion to amend the resolution to say that this donated piece of artwork should not be loaned or sold without a vote of a, you know, without a council vote, and that the administrator is directed to preserve and protect it.

Yeah, that sounds good. Why don't we push this off to the next meeting so we can get it right? Okay, all right.

All right, Ms. Hanna, if you would please put it on for the next meeting. No votes required on this one. Okay. We'll address it at the next council meeting.

Thank you. I didn't understand a thing about the first one. Thank you.

John, it was a little much fine art connoisseur. Thank you, Mr.

I thought we were getting the Mona Lisa up in here. All right.

So UV thing is no votes required on 10 B. Uh, we'll look at it next agenda. I have a number 10 C resolution related to a council encouraging the general assembly. to enact legislation increasing homestead exemption, placed on the agenda by Mr. Brazel. Is there a motion?

So yes, I'd like to make a motion that Kershaw County Council, and we discussed this, is encouraging the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina to enact legislation increasing the homestead exemption. I don't know if you guys got the email. I'll second. There's a second. Mr. Jones, Mr. Brazel.

Mr. Jones did.

Mr. Browse, you have the floor. Thank you, sir. So I was doing some research, and we've had some of these discussions in the past. South Carolina's homestead exemption first went into effect in 1972. The exemption amount was $5,000 of the fair market value of the home. We've had increases over time. So in 1972, that $5,000 was a lot more money than it is now in 2026. Immediately the next year, it doubled to $10,000. In 1978, it had inched up to $12,000. I may add that was the year I was born. In 1979, it again went up $3,000 to $15,000. Just five years later, 1984, it went to $20,000. And then it kind of went stale. And from 1984 to the year 2000, a lot changed. And in the year 2000... it was changed to $50,000. Now, we saw over a 28-year period an increase of tenfold. It went from five to $50,000. So here we are in 2026. and it has not budged. So how could it go from five to 50,000? Uh, and we've certainly had exponential change in, in the last seven years, pro post COVID, uh, home values have, have increased dramatically. So in my opinion, we should all own our homes at some point, our primary residence, and that's what this is targeting. So that's how this is drafted. It was a much more detailed draft the first time. Councilman Tomlinson and I talked about it and decided to push it off until tonight. How this reads is that we would like to see legislation increase that to help our seniors. We would like to see it to help veterans and legally blind. They all qualify for the Homestead Exemption Act. I just think we're long overdue a massive increase. So with that, I'm done and love to hear everyone's thoughts.

We have a motion and a second. Any other discussion, comments, questions? Mr. Jones, you have the second. Any discussion?

Nothing.

Mr. Tucker, sorry.

Here we go. So, as I read this, Councilman Brazel, I understand your intent and I'm not ashamed to say that your intentions are are good and fair, however, I think there's other avenues that we can take to get the attention of the General Assembly. And let me start off by saying I have the privilege to sit on the Association of Counties Board of Directors, where anything that we want to do goes through committees, it gets studied, it gets voted on amongst the people throughout the state, and then it is taken over to that General Assembly for support. And that system has worked for years on, and I believe in that system. The other problem I have with this resolution tonight, and I'm just being quite frank with you, if anybody sitting up here believes that there's hope and prayers and that the General Assembly, the Senate got it right today, I am one. I am one with the redistricting. I say that because I know that there's good people over there that's very smart, have a lot of common sense, and can get it right. I don't want to be the one to tell them how to police or take care of their house. There's some issues that we do have to advise on and suggest on, but there's a process for that. And so tonight, I cannot support that because this is not the process that I'm accustomed to going through. Thank you.

So I'm curious as to what the process is because I thought that this was a process.

It is a process. I'm not saying it's not a process, but it's not the process that I'm accustomed to going through when we want to – to guide or to assist the General Assembly into making changes in their laws.

Well, you know, frankly, this is something that I would do here, but we're prohibited, as I've learned. Yes. You told me that, and you and I had that discussion after a meeting one night. You said, well, I think we have to do the minimum, but we may be able to do more. And then we found out that we couldn't. So this is my plea for help to be able to do that at a local level Yeah, you can do more.

We're not restricted by not doing more. It's finance that we can't do more. It will bankrupt us. That's where we're at on that.

Mr. DeBose, clarify that, please.

Let me clear this up for them, please. One second, Mr. Jones. Mr. Tucker still has a floor.

I believe the guidance from DOR that we saw states that locals could not increase the homestead exemption since it's set by statute.

So we cannot?

That's what I was told. Is that correct?

Well, I'm told by DOR.

So that's the first assignment. Because the last assignment I got from you was what would it cost to do the ages of 60, 65, 70, 75? We didn't get past 60, and we were $1.4 million in the hole.

Well, we can make that up, surely. We could make that up. I know we could. But that's not the point tonight. The point tonight is during that process, we were told that that had to be something that state legislators took up, that we could not do more than $50,000. Now, I'm assuming, John, that was the case. That was the conversation that I had. If y'all would like to take some time to clarify that, that's certainly what I was told.

Can I say something?

Mr., you gentlemen yield? Well, we yield. I have a comment.

Okay, sure, Mr. Jones. I think that we're doing a whole lot of fussing over nothing. First off, Mr. President, thank you. You're trying to show the folks that we support something that will save them money or generate them more money. And you're a much smarter guy now. You realize that we don't have the authority to do it. But what does this resolution do in ensuring that we support the people in getting an increase? And we certainly cannot tell the legislators what to do. We all know that. But I'll tell you one thing. They sure tell us what to do with unfunded mandates. I have no problem at all supporting this resolution. I think it's a good thing. I think it's forward thinking. I think it shows that this body... Hopefully the General Assembly isn't threatened by this body or this resolution. I think they're man enough to handle it if we send them a resolution. They'll probably read it, throw it in the trash anyway. But bottom line is, we did it. It's on the record that we did it. And, Sam, you know where I'm coming from on that. And, Mr. President, I thank you for that. I will be supporting this tonight because...

Well, so here's the thing. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Mr. Chairman, if I may.

I was just going to say, under Robert's rules, any other council members wishing to speak the first time who haven't had a chance to speak yet? Seeing none, go ahead, Mr. Brazel.

So every five years we have to have a reassessment. Was that this year?

Yes, sir, it was.

So we saw general increase in funds. That's a large reason why I voted against the budget, because I knew that we had increased taxes, and we had to because that was state law, right?

We value, yes.

Yeah, yeah, an assessment. So all the while, for the last 26 years, we've had five assessments, right? Right.

Yeah, maybe five years. We skipped one year, so it was six years at one point prior to that.

Okay. So over that course of time, our seniors never got any further relief. And so that's the point that I'm trying to make is that there's good in doing this, and I think we can solve the mathematical equation without ruffling too many feathers. That's what this is.

Well, I hear you loud and clear. Plus, the General Assembly right now has it in their budget to give some type of relief. We will know next week, which is next month, what that looks like when the committee goes back. They have to go back. And then, of course, the governor has to approve the budget. So the process hasn't even taken place on what they're proposing to do.

Well, Pat, there was some talk in the Senate, but the House never took this up.

Well, I don't know exactly where everybody's at because I hadn't followed this as close as you, so I'll take your word for that. But I'm just saying the process has not been completed with them on trying to give our homestead owners some relief. And I'm about to enter that category. If it goes at 60 today, I qualify because I'm 60.

Is today your birthday?

No, no, it came early. I'm just getting older. But I would be affected by it. So I'm not fighting against the relief. I'm just wanting to follow a different process than you, Congressman Brown.

Well, I just don't know what that process is.

Well, I just laid it out to you through the General Assembly doing what they need to do and then also any issues that I have, I normally try to take with support through the Association of Counties and the committees that they go through.

Oh, the Association of Counties likely wouldn't support this.

Why not?

They don't do a darn thing. They do nothing.

Well, here's where I'm at. I'm willing to vote on it and I'd like to show my support. Yes, sir. And, you know, if you don't want to support it, I understand that. It's no ill will.

Right.

It's just a difference of opinion.

Correct.

Any further discussion, comments, questions? Seeing none, I will chime in. I lived over at the State House for two years and actually called up some of the delegation members and just our chairman in particular and just said, hey, what are y'all doing? I've heard that You are working on homestead exemption increases. Where is that at? Is it going to be pre-filed next year? And that would, for Mr. Browse, on anyone who is interested in the process, my opinion is the best way to work on something like this is you contact the delegation members or representatives that you have the best relationships with. Get a bill that's ready. They have an entire arm over there that drafts these up. and then ask them if they're willing to pre-file something and secure as many sponsors as possible when they pre-file before the next session so you can have it early and in the starting gate. For totally different reasons, I think, than would have been stated tonight, I wouldn't support this, though I like it. I would support a homestead increase, but if y'all know me, I have to know the numbers and see where you pull a string over here and how it impacts this. As stated, it requests that the homestead exemption amount be increased effectively to account for appreciation or inflation, and then says, hey, for public safety and education, make sure we don't lose any money. That, to me, having lived over at the statehouse for a while, is where we might regret what we asked for because there's some other local government fund gets hit or some way in which the statehouse will push down on us the funding increases that we have to address. And then separate from that, personally, if I were gonna do something like this, which I kind of like the delegation staying in their lane and us staying in ours, Act 388 needs to be fixed. I've been saying that for years. I hope that it does get fixed someday, but if I were ever gonna do something like this, which I think it'd be the first time in Kershaw's County history, I'd be saying Act 388 and small businesses need to be addressed immediately. You can have small businesses and I'm trying to stay within the gambit and content that we have here, but you can have small businesses that get impacted heavily in really negative ways, and they can be owned by people of all ages, and they may not have any students that are associated with their business at all, yet they pay for all school operation costs, or at least the significant majority of school operation costs, and so to me, that's a much bigger problem in the state of South Carolina right now. Any other comments or discussion before we move to the vote? Mr. Jones.

I just said I'd call for the question.

Oh, you called for the question. All right. Just want to hear everybody out. Any other comments or discussion? All in favor of the resolution, let me get my number again. This is number 10C. All in favor of the resolution, raise your hand. We have Mr. Brazel, Mr. Tomlinson, and Mr. Jones voting in favor. All opposed, raise your hand. You have Shoemake, Tucker, Connell, and Cato opposed. The resolution does not pass. That's on 10C, Ms. Hanna. All right, this brings us to the next item on the agenda, and thank you, gentlemen, for your discussion and participation.

I'd like to say thank you for those who supported it, and I understand, well, maybe I don't understand why it wouldn't have been supported, but anyhow, I appreciate the discussion.

All right, thank you, Mr. Brazel. This brings us to the next item. The school district, gentlemen, we wanted to get through our own. Second reading on the budget before we brought you up. Otherwise, I probably would have bumped you up a little bit earlier in the program. But we have survived that tonight. And so next up on the agenda is 11A, new business, Kershaw County School District presentation placed on by the administrator. Do we have a motion on this new business item?

I so move. Second.

And beyond it being just a presentation, I think we'll have a second motion later on Mr. DeBose, assuming the council approves that motion at some point after the presentation, any questions, answers would be to adopt and accept the proposed budget from the first off County school district and their staff and incorporate into the third reading. But we'll get there at some point after Mr. Goodwin and Brad come up. Yes, gentlemen. I'll just recognize that we have some other school board members here. Thank you for coming tonight. If you'd raise your hand, we've got three or four people here. Who else is here?

Chairman's back there.

Chairman's in the back. Oh, Seaman's back, and then there's multiple staff members here as well.

There's old Charles King.

Hey, Coach. Mr. Chairman. Thank you all for being here tonight.

Let them know the rules on a motion. If a motion is made, what is the rule of this county council?

Say again?

If a motion is made, what is the rule on this county council?

You have to have a second.

No, John DuBose. You know what I'm talking about?

What are you talking about?

It's a mandatory vote.

Well, Mr. Jones, on our agenda, we have several motions that are made for other items that don't require a vote. What's your question?

No, when it requires a vote, if a motion is made, it's mandated. That motion is a vote.

So what's your question?

I just want to make sure that everybody understood that.

Okay.

I don't understand it.

Can we take the vote? Because I don't believe we've taken the vote.

Yeah, we haven't taken the vote. That's what I'm trying to get to. It's under new business tonight. By me making the motion this Monday that I do support y'all is what I'm trying to say. Yeah, okay.

And that's been a rule for us.

I don't understand why y'all didn't understand what I was saying.

If you make the motion, you can't vote no. That's what he's saying. Oh, oh. That's what he's saying. Yeah, yeah, okay. And that's a true statement. You can second one and vote no. Oh, you have to vote in the affirmative. If you make the motion, you do have to vote yes.

So he's locked in. I understand. Sorry, Jimmy. I just got cute. I get you now.

I mean, we're getting in the weeds of hypertechnical.

I understand what I'm saying.

I think the one exception, Mr. DuBose, would be, say, for example, you came up and had a motion in second, and all of a sudden you learn that you have a conflict of interest in a particular vote. You would not have to vote in favor. You would actually be required ethically to abstain or excuse yourself.

I think people can move stuff for the floor to the bait without indicating a motion to approve. And I believe it's procedurally proper, but I've seen people move matters. for an affirmative vote because that helps vote-taking, but state that their intention isn't necessarily to support it, but they're moving it for a vote and stating their vote in the affirmative. Yeah. I think it's a wrong proposition. Mr. Jones is correct. I am correct.

Okay. Noted. Thank you. Mr. Goodwin, yes, sir.

Vote.

Vote.

Oh.

Yeah, we want to take that.

Well, we will vote on the presentation occurring, but we actually, I think for fairness, the council would have to hear the information and presentation from the staff before we can actually say we adopt and accept it and want to incorporate it into third reading. Did I miss something there? Is everybody clear on that? Okay.

I am now.

Yes, sir, Mr. Goodwin.

Yes, good evening, Mr. Chair, members of council, and the county administrator. We're happy to be here tonight to present to you some information regarding the Kershaw County School District budget. I bring good back up because I have Dr. Smith, our board chair, with me. I also have other board members, Gene Cameron, Dr. Charles King, and Coach Ron Blackman, as well as senior staff members, Tim Hopkins, Billy Smith, and Rebecca Bean. She's not here tonight to cancel school, as most people look to her to do on a regular basis. We've come here tonight to discuss and ask for your approval of the district operating millage for FY27. I want to start by speaking about a few things about the school district and mainly about our most valuable future asset, which is our students. We hear a lot about the growth in the school district, and we do have growth, but our growth is in pockets. And you'll notice that this gives you a 12-year history of the enrollment of Kershaw County School District. And you'll see that we have ebbs and flows in that enrollment each year. But significantly, there has not been a change over the time of these years in the last 12 years. Now, our demographic service predicts that we're going to see a pretty steady increase now in enrollment for the foreseeable future. That'll go up some years, and it'll go back down a little bit. But we're going to be in a climbing growth. Billy Smith and I like to call it the bicycle and basketball goal measure. When you ride around new subdivisions, if you see a lot of basketball goals and you see a lot of bicycles in the yard, you know that you're going to see kids. And so we are seeing a lot more basketball goals and bicycles in yards. So we do anticipate that that's going to happen. What this does for us, since it goes up and down is we have to reevaluate our staffing every year. One year, we have a large kindergarten and a school the next year, that one goes down enrollment, but across the county, another one goes up. So it's constantly a up and down battle for us. The next slide that we share is the district operating millage from 2015, FY 2015, all the way through FY 26. The slide shows this historical operational millage, and you'll see that as with enrollment millage, it has stayed virtually the same over that same period of time. In Kershaw County, we've been very fortunate to have what we refer to as natural growth. And because of that, the school district has not had to come back. This is actually over a period of three superintendents now that none of us have come to ask for a millage increase on behalf of the school district. And that won't always be the case, but you can see for quite a while back that has been the case. The other thing that we have to acknowledge that is in the school district, approximately 85% of our budget His salaries infringe. So it's very difficult for us to make cuts mid-year in a budget because that would involve sending people home. So we have to plan well to do that. We're proud of our teaching staff. We're proud of what we have. And we want to make sure that we provide the best teachers for the students in the school district that we can. Over the past five years, you'll probably have heard through other news outlets that there's been a significant increase in starting teacher pay, but then that converts to teacher pay overall. In fact, the minimum starting teacher pay has gone up over 40% in those years. From $36,000 to upcoming in this coming year, the minimum salary will be $50,500. You can see that that's quite a challenge for us to meet. Not only that, but we've also worked in the school district to make sure that we also properly compensate all of our other classifications of employees, including bus drivers. We've seen a significant increase in bus driver pay in the school district. We've also done that for teacher assistants, our clerical staff, as well as all other categories of staff members within the school district. So you can see that our challenge is just like yours, that with the increasing cost, which ours is mainly personnel cost, we have to continue to look. We've tried to be good stewards of the money that we get from the taxpayers, and we've tried to live within our means. And we're not here tonight asking that we do anything different than that. What we're here to ask you is to take a look at what this, you've mentioned a reassessment this year, as to how that impacts us and how we would propose that we address that tonight. Now, I will tell you that I didn't list him earlier in my list, but Chief Financial Officer Brad Willard is the one who makes it all happen. He makes the music happen. Y'all will recall that when I came here the first time in June of 2022, I told you that I was bringing the best of the best when it came to finance with me, but I had to be patient and wait for him. Boy, was that ever a good wait to wait for October that year. And so when he tells me this is the way we need to take a look at this, I stand up and take notice. We've got 14 years' experience working with one another, and I've trusted him through thick and thin. So once we get to the real numbers right now, I'm going to sit down and take my place because I know who knows it better than I am. So I would ask if I could yield the podium to Chief Financial Officer Brad Willard at this point.

Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Willard.

Magic man.

This is the guy that can be dangerous.

Don't say that now. Appreciate you teeing that up, Dr. Goodwin. Thanks. Put the pressure on. But good evening, everyone. It's great to be here with you. And I'm going to jump into a couple. slides that are a little different from the numbers that he provided. He mentioned back in 2022, early on in that 22-23 fiscal year, for those of you that were here, recall that he and I came before you and we talked about a new formula that was coming into the funding for state public education. So Just gonna give you a little bit of background on that again. So when this formula came into place, we expected some positive things and we've seen some positive things. But we are experiencing some challenges with that, as we expected. And some things, unfortunately, that we feared happened have come to play. So what's critical to note in the formula, and I'm not going to read through it, although the base formula, the calculation says that we get a base rate of 1.0 or 100% per student, you can see that the model formula issues only 75% from the state on average. the school districts, whereas the school districts then have to make up the other 25% locally. So Dr. Goodwin illustrated the increase in the minimum starting pay for teachers just over the past five years. What's important to note is that those requirements, those mandates, and I think that was mentioned earlier about partially funded mandates, those are just not funded under the 75% state threshold through the formula. So what we're having to do is be more reliant upon our local revenue, even more so to ensure that we have classrooms properly staffed. We found a way to make it happen. We've done well and we've been good stewards, we believe, with both state and local dollars. And we're very thankful. And as you can see, the bottom illustration shows you that we, in current year's projections, this number could change a little bit. We are right at 25% when we look at what our estimated general fund expenditures are going to be by year end. That's a good spot for now. The danger is if we fall below that 25% expectation, then we become more susceptible to those state funding shortfalls. So that brings us to really why we're here this evening. We've talked about the reassessment, and this final slide just talks about how we are currently still at that 162.9 mills that have been in place since 2015. And you can see on an estimated basis what that produces for us in local revenue for the school district. It's important to note that that number does not include any revenue from owner-occupied primary residences due to Act 388. Those are disallowed as far as tax revenues for the school district. So what this represents in light of reassessment is the only thing that we are requesting this evening for consideration is that we maintain our millage at the same amount that it has been since that 2015 timeframe at 162.9 mils. So with that, we certainly thank you for the opportunity to present this information to you. We appreciate your consideration and we will be happy to try answering any questions you may have.

We appreciate you and the superintendent being here tonight. Any questions, comments, discussion?

Mr. Chairman would now be an appropriate time to make that motion and then we can discuss it or how do you want to do that?

Well, we're in discussion with a second, and so we can continue discussion. We have a motion and a second.

The motion was just to have the presentation, right?

Yeah, you can restate the second.

We're complicating this, guys.

No, not necessarily. I told you at a later portion of the meeting you would have to acknowledge that the motion is to accept and receive the budget as proposed by the Kershaw County School District and their board, and then incorporate it into the third reading. Is that correct, Mr. DeVos?

Correct. We've got a motion and a second.

We're in the discussion phase. We're still getting information on whether or not council members want to vote in favor.

I got a little confused earlier, and I hadn't been right since. I got you now. Sorry again, Councilor Jones.

Still, we're in discussion. Any other comments, questions, or discussion?

I'm good. I have one comment, if I may. Yes, sir. I just want to thank you guys for all you do. As many of you know, my youngest just graduated with Gulf Elgin this last week at a great ceremony. I'm happy you guys are able to get everybody through and avoid the weather with only one slight little delay in North Central. But you've educated two of my children. You're educating both my nephews. You employ my wife, and you employ my son. you employ my sister-in-law. So again, I appreciate all that you all do.

Thank you, Mr. Shoemake. Mr. Jones.

Well, let me just start off by saying this. My son is a proud product of Kershaw County Schools. He had two degrees at Winthrop and had a master's degree at Carnegie Mellon. He got his brains from his mom, his looks from me. I've been here for many years, Sammy, you have too, and we've seen a lot of battles going in this room. I don't think I've ever voted for one single budget increase except one.

That's why you spent many nights on the couch.

I did spend many nights on the couch because my wife was on the school board at the time. And we didn't argue. I slept on my couch. But I'm going to tell you where I'm at now. And that was Mr. Tim Hopkins, Billy Smith, and others. I don't mean to look over anybody, but I dealt with those folks for many, many years. And I have much respect for both of y'all. And thank you all for being here tonight as well, too, as well as the school district and the chairman. Thank you so much. And a former principal who's done such a great job, Gene. Thank you so much for everything. But I feel like we're right now in the best relationship that the county and the school district has ever had since Billy Smith and a bunch of us have been on county council around here since 2004. And the district has not asked for any millage increase in 13 to 14 years.

I don't think they're asking for one now, are they? I think they're just asking to keep it the same.

Correct, but I'm just, let me finish. And Mr. Brothers, I have so much respect for you.

Mr. Jones does have the floor. Go ahead.

I do, and Mr. Brothers knows I love him in a manly way. But since 2004, this district, I think, has done close to half a billion dollars in school construction under budget and on time and actually saved enough money in phase one of the build of Jackson School plus other projects and saved enough money in phase two to build the North Central School, elementary school, and transferred the use of a box truck with a lift gate to help The county moved materials and equipment around, and the school board today, I think he might have been there the other day, approved the use of space by the county's emergency preparedness department at ATEC until space is available in the new property on Battleship Road. And we have always, and the school district has always been in a great relationship with the recreation department. You know, guys, I say this because I think this is important to say, you've been good partners with us. And I have not always supported y'all financially, but I have supported y'all. Well, I support you financially tonight. And as you said, you're not asking for an increase. We all understand that. I don't need to be corrected on that. But I thank you very much for being here.

Thank you, Mr. Jones. Other comments, questions?

Yeah, just a point of clarification. I'm okay with leaving your millage the same. Thank you.

Mr. Tucker? Yes, I do. Yes, sir, go ahead.

I appreciate it. I just want to say, starting from the chairman of the school board, to the staff, school board trustees, some of you all have known a long, long, long time, and it's been great relationships. Dr. Goodwin, you have a great staff behind you. a great board, trustee board that supports you. I don't know all the members anymore because I'm getting older now and I don't pay quite as attention as probably as I need to to everything, but that's because the old computer only can hold so much information. So with that being said, it has been a a great relationship, and I am proud to say that we've been good partners. I have always been pro-education, and you've come up here and asked and justified. I have been one of the ones that raised my hand to make sure that you have for our future, which is our kids. And you've been great stewards over what you've had in the past 15 years because at one time I thought y'all were just flowing in money because we didn't see or hear from you, which was a good thing. I wasn't begging you to come to ask for anything, but with all that being said, I feel that you deserve exactly what we've done to ourselves. And the millage remaining the same and capturing the CPI is what you're asking for tonight, and I fully support that.

Thank you, Mr. Tucker. Mr. Shoemake, let me see. Any other council members who haven't spoken yet wish to be heard? Mr. Shoemake. There you go. Mr. Cato, go ahead.

I'm going to speak a little bit. Listen, I appreciate everything y'all do, the administration, the school board. Y'all are a pleasure to work with at any time that we need anything or any time that we come to you. You've worked real well with the community, even outside of just our students and our staff. You know, we've got two prime examples in the rural area, the old Barron DeKalb School and the old Mount Pisgah School. Y'all work with the county. We've turned that into two very fine community centers that reach a lot of people. And I know Bethune feels the same way with the old Bethune High School. So I just want to say thank you for being, as Sammy said, great partners with us. So I just want to say thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Cato. Mr. Shoemake.

Mr. Tucker.

Yes, I just want to make one point of clarity. Nothing to do with the school district. Everything to do on this dais. And I don't blame him. I just had a niece to graduate at Duke with two majors and going off to get her medical degree here sometime soon. Yeah, she's awesome. And she's a Cameron High graduate. She's from Kershaw County Schools. I'm very proud of her. The two kids that I have remain living both have degrees, and they're Cameron High graduates as well from Kershaw County Schools. So they all do a phenomenal job. And when we have relatives and loved ones that work for the school district, we just want to boast and be proud about where our family works. And I just want to make it clear that there is no conflict from Councilman Shoemade up here by having his relatives work for the school district. Not a bit more than me voting on the county budget, because I have relatives that work for the county. I do not give them a pay rise or a pay decrease or a promotion or anything else. And this is coming from a legal opinion, which I already knew, but I wanted to stress it to the ones who are viewing this so they know there's not a conflict. Is that well said, Mr. DuBose? Well said, Mr. Tucker.

Was there someone who questioned that? No, but I want to make sure.

It came up as we were talking because I mentioned my wife working there. I don't want anyone to think that I wasn't aware of the fact that my wife works for the school district. But obviously, we vetted that to make sure that there wasn't any issue. It's a matter of general importance.

I, too, have the same issue. Yeah. Yeah. You control nothing.

Yeah, the large class exception would apply. All right. Any other comments or discussion?

Good.

Seeing none, I'll just say thank you so much for coming out tonight. I mean, your board, as you can see, sometimes it's thankless work, but it's very important work. As council members, we feel that sometimes, but you got to dig in and you're doing what's right, what you believe is right for the kids. To your staff, thank you so much. We've had multiple meetings prior to this. We've had small meetings and big meetings trying to figure out what's best for Kershaw County and what's best for Kershaw County School District and the kids and citizens. And so we appreciate your work you put into this And gentlemen, you can be excused from the podium.

Can I say one last thing?

Mr. Jones, sure.

I do. You know, the school board works so well together, and I can tell you why. Because their chairman looks like a baby gorilla. Charles, he got muscles. Anyway.

I would have a different compliment for Dr. Smith. Well, you do too, Mr. Chairman. I might be as well, but thank you so much, Dr. Smith, for being here tonight. I wouldn't jump in between the two of you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Gentlemen, thank you so much for coming tonight.

Thank you all.

If there's no further discussion, comments, or questions, we'll move it to a vote.

Thank you all so much for everything.

And again, for clarification, the motion and second is on accepting and receiving the budget proposed by the Kershaw County School District and their board and incorporating it into the third reading of the Kershaw County Council budget. Is that correct, Mr. DuBose?

Correct.

Okay. We'll move it to a vote. All in favor, raise your hand. It is unanimous and passes.

Mr. Chairman, may I ask a quick question on this? Yes, sir. Just so we can be clear. Can we make sure that those numbers, 162.9 is in that third reading budget with the CPI?

Yes, it'll be incorporated by staff. I assume that was just our vote. And for those school board members, you can feel free and staff to hang out with us the rest of the night, but you don't have to. You can go home to your families and enjoy the evening. Thanks so much for being here and for the work y'all do.

Thank you. That's most of the room.

I tell you that, Ron, you should have seen him back in 1970.

Hey, I'll just mention, as Mr. Smith's walking out, I was big, but I wasn't quite as big as I am now. But in seventh grade, he had to threaten me with a paddle at one point in my education. And it made a difference. And that was legal. And they had the paddles. And the paddle had holes drilled in it. And you'd ask him, why did they have holes in it? He said, so that the air can pass through and it can move faster. Yeah. That's real. I mean, kids are getting beat back. The days have made a difference. All right, that moves us on to the next agenda item. This is number 12A. I placed it on the agenda. It is a reappointment of sorts, but we have it on the agenda as an appointment. I make a motion that we appoint Chris Anderson to the Airport Advisory Commission. Do we have a second? Second. We've got a second. Thank you very much. Mr. Anderson served previously for the full code-allowed amount of time before rolling off for a year, and he's been off for that required period of time. Ms. Hanna has secured his application, and I understand it's been in the packet for the required amount of time. I spoke with Mr. Anderson. He's interested in serving again, very passionate and engaged in and educated on all things airport. And so I would suggest that we appoint him again anew to the airport commission. Any other discussion or questions?

Yes.

Mr. Jones.

Well, we'll finish with yours. Then I have a motion to make.

Yes, sir. Yeah. We're going to get through my, any other discussion or comments? Seeing none, we'll move to a vote. All in favor, raise your hand. And it's unanimous, Ms. Hanna. He is appointed, Mr. Anderson. Next item on the agenda is 12B, Airport Advisory Commission reappointment placed on by Mr. Jones. Is there a motion?

I so move.

Mr. Jones has a motion. Is there a second? Who's the person?

The person is Mike Borowski.

Okay. Second. We have a second. I'll yield. Mr. Tucker? I yield. Mr. Jones, you have the floor.

Well, let me just say this. I've known his brother a whole lot longer than I've known him. But I'll tell you this. He has done a fantastic job at the airport. These guys, they work together as a unit. And they're excited about that product they have out there. And I tell you, I think he's done such a good job, along with the rest of you, that I would even vote to bring back giving you all more authority than just in an advisory committee. I think we have such a good group of folks. I think y'all could be a tremendous asset to the county in that way. And that may be something we'll talk about in future council meetings. But Mike, I'm honored. I'm privileged to make this motion for you tonight. Guys, let me tell you something. We're not going to agree on everything. I know we don't. I know where y'all stand on certain things. You know where I stand. But I'll never mislead you. I'll never sidebar. I won't ride the fence. And I'm telling you, you guys have done a fantastic job. And, Mike, I'm privileged and honored to support you tonight in this. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Jones. Any further comments or discussion? Thank you, Mr. Brownsky, for your service. I look forward to having you back on. Any other comments or discussion? Seeing none, we'll move to a vote. All in favor of the reappointment.

Thank you for willing to punish yourself again.

All in favor of the reappointment, raise your hand. Ms. Hanna, it's unanimous in favor. Great job. You are reappointed. Thank you, sir. All of you. That takes care of 12B. Next up is Councilmember Briefings. Mr. Cato.

Real quick, just a couple of things. I was able to present the North Central Weightlifting Team with their proclamation that we approved. The last meeting, I was able to go up there on the 14th, that Thursday, and present that to them, and they were very appreciative of Congratulations to that great group of young men and coaches. Also, congratulations to all of our graduates from all of our schools. And we have some that graduate from outside the county also. But we just look forward to what the future holds for y'all. One day you may be sitting up here. God bless you. God help you and God bless you. That's right. but congratulations to all the graduates and uh to the staff and the finance committee thank you all so much for putting this budget together it's a great budget where uh we don't see any any increases or millage and i tell you that yes i know there's a lot of work goes into that a lot of meetings and and i just thank you for everything you do and i just i don't know who these people were but i want to give a shout out like they're probably not even watching But I came down a road the other day that I recently had a complaint on about some excess litter beside the road. And there was three individuals walking outside the road just picking up trash. And so I want to give them a shout out and say thank you for what you've done for the community. That ends my report.

Thank you, Mr. Cato. Mr. Tomlinson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I wanted to highlight my thoughts and prayers are with the Wilson family. One of my best friends, Josh, his father passed away yesterday morning. So please keep Rhonda, Josh, and Ashley and their family in your prayers. Absolutely. Yeah, Jeff was a staple of the community, owned the Magnolia restaurant for years, and then that closed down, and just a mentor to me. So please keep their family in your prayers. Russell, I appreciate you doing that painting thing. It looks awesome. I think it's going to look really, really good. So I appreciate all your hard work on that. For sure. And then lastly, thank you all to staff. I know how hard you work, especially putting together budget. You have a lot on you all the time, and you always meet the standards. So thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Thomas. And Mr. Jones, any report?

Yes, I have two things. You know, I need to clarify something. I know we had some conversation on the... Sewer system, the old sewer system not being maintained or dilapidated, and I hope we were not talking about Lugolf Village and Water Authority who handled it, because when they had the sewer system, they did a fantastic job, a fantastic job. If anything, it's just, oh, outdated, and just from time, it's deteriorated, and I'm certainly sure that's what we meant. Am I right or wrong? Thank you. I mean, this is important to me because counselors in the past have tried to pass the buck saying they didn't do this, but they did a fantastic job with it when they had it. And anyway, too, let me say something else, too. I want to thank you, Mr. Shoemake, your wife, being a schoolteacher, teaching our children. Danny Cato, yours, and is there any other teachers? That's it? Let me tell you, how dare anybody complain? Because you give up, I don't agree with y'all a lot of times, but one thing I want to do is take up for you tonight. How dare y'all sit, how dare anyone, you guys sit up here, you've ran, you put your money up, you put your mouth up where your money's at, and you won your elections, you're here, and your wife is out there teaching school. I am honored. to know that your wife is a school teacher, and I appreciate it to each and every one of you here. And how dare anybody make a comment about that? That's just the lowest of lows to me. And I truly mean it. And I don't give a rat's nest who gets upset about me saying this. It's the facts. And you can call me if you don't like what I said, and I'll clarify it with you real clear. But thank y'all. Thank your spouses for doing that, okay? All right, Mr. Chairman, and that's it.

Thank you, Mr. Jones. Mr. Shoemake.

Yeah, thanks for the response. I do love my wife, and she is a phenomenal teacher. One of our very first dates, I went to visit her in her classroom, and she was yelling at the kids. Her name was Lena Nelson back then. She was yelling at the kids, and I sat down with all the kids, and a little boy looked back at me and started talking. I'm like, you were going to get us in trouble. And he looked back at me, and he said, Ms. Nelson, don't play. And that has been the case for the next 22 years of our life.

Ms. Nelson, don't play.

Yeah. On the subject of schools, we had someone talk about school impact fees. I think a lot of us up here support them, and I know I've talked to Dr. Goodwin, and I know the school is looking at that. They've got to do a separate study statutorily than the county had to do, so they're doing those studies, and I think they'll be reporting back to us hopefully in the next several months, but that is something they are working on. They've got to go through their studies and put together a proposal before we can really talk about it. So I just don't want someone to think it was something that was waiting on us. And it's not really waiting on them. They're working on it. But that's something their body has to do first and present something to us. Also, thanks for the painting, Russell. I think it looks amazing, man. I can't wait to see where it's put and all the UV glass in front of it. Yeah, layers. But I thank you so much for that. That was awesome. Um, obviously for those of you who've been on Facebook and seen the stickers, uh, early voting is today. Obviously we're not here to talk about who to vote for, but whoever you are in this County, you should be voting. Um, so please go to the polls and vote. Um, and then lastly, I just wanted to say, uh, went to visitation today for Miss Jeannie Potter. Um, if those of you who don't know, Miss Potter is an absolute institution, lives in Elgin, was the secretary for, um, the current speaker, but multiple speakers and house members before that. And personally, she was probably my third phone call when I decided to run for office, because I understood there about a handful of people in Elgin that you have to talk to if you're gonna get involved in anything governmental. Ms. Jeannie Potter was one of them. So I got the Jeannie Potter seal of approval because her daughter, Her granddaughter and my daughter were friends. So yet again, my family pulling me out of a mess. So thanks, Abby, for that.

Beautiful lady.

Yeah, absolutely. And so I just, again, to Ms. Potter's family, I just, again, wish you guys well as you're navigating this difficult time. We all love Ms. Jeannie. That's all I have.

Thank you, Mr. Shoemake. Mr. Tucker.

Yes, sir, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much. I've got a couple few things. First and foremost, thanks, Russell, for your hard work. Before the artist came up and told me the story, I thought you was a history buff prior to that when you showed me the picture and tried to educate me. You did a good job, and thank you for your hard work. Capable of learning. I can't say thank you enough to this body, to staff, and to all who was involved in second reading of this budget. There is a few items that we need to probably address in third reading. Just remember, if you're looking to bring up anything in third budget's reading, it must be what we call define on what the motion is, where the revenue comes from, and where the expense is expended. That has to be in the packet. So keep that in mind if you have anything that you want to add to the budget for third reading. I want to say thank you and congratulations to all the graduates throughout the county on their achievements. I want to also say thank you to the 12 senators who I have no clue who all they are. I will look them up that decided to not pursue redistricting in the 12th hour of this election. When I came here, got here a little bit after 5 today, we had record numbers of over 37,000 had voted throughout the state. I think that sent a clear signal to our senators and to our general assembly that, you know, we want to be left alone when the race starts. Let the people choose, do what they need to do, cast their votes. As Councilman Shumate said, I haven't voted yet, but I'm going to vote tomorrow. GOTV, get out to vote. Get out to vote and exercise your right. Take others with you. Take those who cannot make it or see that they be able to vote an absentee ballot. I want to say that my prayers are with the Wilson family, which I had no idea, Councilman Thomason, but I also want to extend my prayers to the Green Stucky family. Jackie was a staple of this community. If you did not have an opportunity to know Jackie Green Stucky, you missed out. It was an unfortunate... She went down to MUSC for a procedure. Procedure went well. She was preparing to check out for the next day, and an aneurysm came about. Killed her instant.

Ran in the hospital.

I also want to send my thanks, because I'm a huge NASCAR fan, to the Bush family. I don't know if you paid attention, but after I got through my own trials and tribulations for the weekend for my in-laws, I watched quite a bit of TV, and there was a lot on for NASCAR for Kyle Busch, who also was suddenly died from pneumonia, basically, and it was very unexpected. So life is short and life is long. very, very unpredictable at times, and we ought to treasure it and appreciate it. And you ought to always reach out to try to help someone, love someone, and always try to do right. There's two ladies in the audience tonight that I want to thank, and there may be others, and I'll put you in this thank, but Lynn and Ms. Linda Franklin Moore.

Amen.

Nobody paid you, recruited you, asked you, to come up and stand up when we were going through this smart growth. But you did. And I wasn't the only one noticing. I might be the only one talking about it. But I wasn't the only one noticing. You stood on your morals, your principles, and your values that this needed to be done. It may not be the best answer, but it is a start. And I appreciate that, sitting behind this dais, knowing that you knew something needed to be done and we needed to start somewhere. And I think overall, For the time and the efforts that we put in, we have a product that we can work with, and we can retool it, we can add to it, take away whatever it needs to be done, and make it better, but we do have something in place moving forward. And my last but not least, I want to thank... These two gentlemen sitting to my right and my left were compromising on the parking in the third reading of the parking space for the Smart Growth Ordinance. It's a great compromise. We're only going to know what we know after we pass it and see how things work out. So for those efforts and compromises, I say thank you. That concludes my report, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Mr. Brazel. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Tucker, you just astonished at how well Councilman Shumate and I have worked together over the years. It's been pragmatic and fantastic. We've got a lot of work done together. Even when we haven't agreed, we've come to a solution, and I've always appreciated that about Councilman. Councilman Shoemake. One thing that I'd like to mention to you as chair of finance and Councilman Tomlinson and Councilman Shoemake as well, as well as all of us, we heard the message from Liberty Hill regarding the EMS response times and Councilman Tucker and I have had some conversations preliminary about how to address that. I hope to find some solutions there. in our next meeting. So with that being said, I am thrilled to have the painting here. Our administrator and I will look over that, and this afternoon we'll have to find a place to put it tonight, and it's here. So it's yours, so now we must take care of it. Otherwise, I'm real thankful that my wife was here to help present that with the artist Dale Watson. I appreciated him coming and taking time out of his day to hand deliver that. He didn't have to do that. So that was really neat. And as well as many of us, my wife was a teacher for many years, and we have all those same funny stories, Councilman Shoemate, that you have. And God bless all of them. So with that being said, thank you and have a good night.

If I may, and I know we're not supposed to do this, but she did text me and tell me to clarify. She was not yelling. She was speaking sternly because she doesn't yell at kids. Because Ms. Nelson doesn't play.

No, you're not supposed to do that. Anyway.

Can I clarify something?

Oh, my goodness.

I was not saying amen to Linda Franklin supporting the smart growth. I was saying amen because she and I have been looking at each other for 30 years. And I was thinking about that tonight, Linda, as I was sitting up here. It's been a long time. Thank you.

Credit Councilman Shoemake with report gate 2026. All right. I have a few things to share. My daughter Annabelle just had her 16th birthday. I just want to state for the record, if she gets to see this video one day, I love her dearly. She is the gem and prize of my life like my other children. And I just love her so much. I'm proud of her and everything she's doing and how hard she works and the good person that she is. I want to express gratitude again for all the prayers that went up for my dad, Joe Connell. He's back home and doing well. And... It's truly miraculous. If you are interested in knowing more about that and the miracles we've witnessed through the power of prayer, I would love to take you out to lunch and share with you how Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father has been active in our lives and His life. Mr. Tucker said it, and it rings true whenever you have life and death experiences and serious things like that happen, but life is fleeting. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, and we still give honor and glory to the Lord. And so I'm just thankful for the breath that I had this morning and even in this moment, and for all of us. And speaking of which, a life very well lived. Miss Jeannie Potter, she has her funeral services tomorrow. For those who are interested, and I'm not sure if they're gonna have a remote feed or not, I know it's gonna be a huge turnout, but at Howie Pentecostal Church in Elgin starting at 2 p.m., they'll have the church services, and then the burial service will follow immediately thereafter at Hillcrest Baptist Church. This is a person from Kershaw County who has done something that historically has never been done by anyone else in the state of South Carolina. If I have my numbers right, she worked as the executive assistant for, I think it was six speakers of the House from different political parties. She is a woman. She was a woman who had such a constitution that people trusted her. She could get things done for the state of South Carolina. And I even heard stories about her calling down speakers of the House on multiple occasions from right off Highway Church Road in Elgin. uh speaker shaheen speaker harrell speaker david wilkins speaker jay lucas speaker carter and speaker merle smith who currently serves just an amazing life and contribution to the state of south carolina we've already had resolutions related to her after she retired recently and if we could i hope the council will support in doing a resolution now to to memorize her in her passing memorialize her in her passing I wanted to put it on for the next meeting so that the family would have the opportunity to mourn now and hopefully attend at the next meeting with Ms. Hannah. So if you would please put that on.

Mr. Chairman, we thank you as well, too. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Jones. You're performing, I think. You're speaking and singing, I think, aren't you?

I'm going to try to not cry tomorrow like a big baby.

You'll do a great job. And if I could, sir, out of due respect, she was also the administrative assistant for Hector DeBrule.

Yes, yes. So she served at all avenues and facets of government in South Carolina and just a huge loss. However, if you know the history of that family, she lost her husband many, many years ago in the line of duty. And if it wasn't her love for her family who was here and the love for her job and the things she was passionate about, It was her undying love for Chris Potter and the comments she would make about one day she's going to get to see him again. That day is here. And I'm just so grateful to have known her for a little while. I know some of you have known her much longer, but we have great hope in the resurrection. We certainly do. That concludes my report. Thank you. Mr. Administrator, any report?

Just real quick, I just wanted to say that we'll be having some ribbon cuttings coming up for Casey West. We've closed out that with paperwork signed. Boyd Young Copeland Fields, we'll have those completed and should be available for you to use on June 1st. get some ribbon cutting information out to you all sooner rather than later. Woodward, we've got a punch list phase in the park. Of course, with all this rain setting in, that again, probably some more delays. And lastly, we have spoken to Fairfield Electric and they're adding two flood lights at Veterans Park near the lower parking lot, closest to the boat. Their engineers have already been out and flagged a location to the lights and hope to have this completed in the coming weeks. That's all I have. Thank you for that. Thank you, Mr. Templer. I appreciate that. That was my team, my staff. I think Lauren, I can't remember. Thank you. I apologize.

No, it's okay.

And one more thing, thank you all for your support on the budget. You might be welcome.

Wait until after third reading and then thank us. Thank you, Mr. Templer. Mr. DeBose, anything non-privileged?

Yes, actually. Oh, first. Yeah.

Okay, go ahead.

And really, this doesn't even need to be here, but I figured I'd do a little change. The housekeeping lease for Clemson, just as an FYI, there'll be other housekeeping leases like it for the other entities, either June 9th or the very next meeting. But I figured I'd turn over a new leaf and give you all a short briefing.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. DuBose. It's different. Thank you. All right. That concludes legal briefing. Next up, we have two executive session items. These would both be under SC code 30-4-70A5 and A2, respectively, related to a potential economic development matter for item A and potential contractual matter related to real property under item B. This is both under Section 16. Do we have a motion to enter executive session for those reasons?

Make a motion. We enter executive session.

Mr. Cato has a motion. Is there a second? Second. We have a second. Is there any discussion on executive session? Seeing none, we'll move to a vote. All in favor of entering executive session?

20-31.

It's unanimous, Hannah. We are in executive session.

Test, test. We got three. Yeah, one more. Danny's talking. Jimmy's going to cut out.

Seek a motion to exit executive session.

Make a motion we exit executive session. Is there a second? Second.

We have a second. Any discussion on leaving executive session? Seeing none, we'll move to a vote on exiting executive session. All in favor of exiting? We are out of executive session. No votes required post-executive second.

I'll make a motion we adjourn. Motion to adjourn.

Second?

Second.

There is a second. Thank you very much. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move to a vote on adjournment. Raise your hand if you're in favor. We still have a quorum. They've been falling off like flies. But we are now adjourned.

Thank you, Ms. Anna.