County Council - Regular Meeting

How about that? Is everybody? Welcome to August 11th, 2026 County Council meeting. Today we'll start off, first of all, before we begin the meeting, I want to inform you we are broadcasting live on channel 1302 on Lexington County. spectrum channel and lexington county website and if you want to watch any of this later you can go to the web page pull it up and watch it and replay it and pull it up and watch it again yeah anyway thank you for coming vice chair would you introduce the pledge and invocation please welcome everyone tonight's uh invocation is going to be led by tanny thomas tedford

Assistant Chief EMS. Annie Thomas-Tedford has been with Lexington County EMS since 2007. For the past seven years, she had the tremendous honor of leading the Cape Bureau Community Advocacy Prevention Education. With God's grace and the right people, the Cape Bureau has launched a successful community paramedic program, which consists of three full-time community paramedics and a part-time EMT. The Cape Bureau has positively impacted the lives of hundreds of Lexington County citizens. driven by a deep compassion for those affected by substance use disorder. Taney is also a dedicated advocate for mental health awareness, both within her local community and across the public safety first responder profession. Taney is beyond blessed to be supported by her EMS leadership and is a proud member of the Lexington County EMS team. Welcome, Taney.

All right, let's pray. Dear Father God, thank you so much for the opportunity to come together as a community to speak to you openly without fear of retribution. Father, I want to ask that you be with my first responder family. Jesus, there is a lot of sadness in the first responder community as well as our community. And you are the great physician. Lord, I ask for healing. I ask that those that are in need will say help and that resources will be available to them. Father, I thank you for who you are and for how you love us. I am so grateful for the leadership that you've put above us, for those here, county council, and for Lexington, our administrative staff, all the departments. Lord, I pray a special prayer for discernment for our leadership and that, Holy Spirit, you will... that they'll have a softening and a sensitivity to you, Holy Spirit, that they will make decisions that will honor you and be best for this county. I thank you for how you love us and for who you are. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Thank you, Taney. Tonight's pledge will be led by Benji Banning. Benji began his military career in senior service High School enlisted a combat engineer with the 178th Engineers in Fort Mill, South Carolina. After completing his six-year enlistment, he was selected as Officer Candidate School and commissioned as a second lieutenant through the Palmetto Military Academy. He went on to serve as engineer officer in multiple key leadership roles, including company commander and operations officer with South Carolina's Engineer Battalions. 2005, he deployed as a platoon leader with the 122nd Engineers in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Over the course of his National Guard service, he was a company commander of the 124th Engineer Company, served as operation officer for the 710th Explosive Hazard Coordination Cell, worked as a state engineer officer in the Emergency Management Division, As a training officer with the pre-mobilization training assistant element, he oversaw the preparation of more than 4,000 soldiers deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan. Benji later transitioned to Army Reserve, serving as operations officer of the 763rd Engineer Facilities Detachment. He deployed again in 2022 in support of Operation Spartan Shield, providing base defense support across military installations throughout the Middle East. His awards and decorations include the Bronze Star Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, and two campaign stars, Overseas Service Medal, Combat Action Badge, and Air Assault Badge. Benji retired as a major in 2023 after 24 years in the South Carolina Army National Guard and four years with the Army Reserves. Welcome, Benji.

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, Benji.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Vice Chair Cockrell. And on a note, I'd like to take a, the council would, actually, a moment of silence for Master Deputy Julian Olsen of Lexington County Sheriff's Department, whose life was lost during a dive team training on July 30th, 2026. It's a tremendous loss for our county. I also personally want and we want to recognize all current and retired law enforcement who risk their lives every day to protect and serve the citizens of this county. We have a moment of silence. We appreciate it. Thank you. God bless. All right, let me get my faculties together here. Council's report. Any report from the council?

You're fine.

You can walk that way. Council report, I spoke this morning. Lynn was there. We spoke in the chamber this morning, and David Beatty came from the Capital Penny Sales Tax, and it was a wonderful crowd. And I hope we did some good, and we'll find out. Now, Charlie?

That was a charm.

We're going to have two resolutions, two presentations. The first presentation is a resolution recognizing Chapin High School girls soccer state championship. If you would come down in front of the dais and line up with your coaches and those you brought with you.

They got ready for Sunday.

Just line up right here, dear. Spread them out.

Okay, we are Chapin. The Council for the County of Lexington, South Carolina meeting in the general session of the 14th day of July, 2026, adopted the following resolution. Whereas on Saturday, May 23rd, the Chapin High School Eagle Girls soccer team secured the South Carolina 5A Division II state championship. And whereas the Chapin High School girls soccer team completed their state championship season with an empathetic 4-0 victory over Eastside, the match marked the Eagles' third consecutive appearance competing for the top honors in the state with this year's dominant performance earning the program's second state title. And whereas Chapin High School girls soccer team, led by head coach Chad Bridges, whose steadfast belief in his team's potential inspired the players and helped shape their season's motto, faith, Under Coach Bridges' leadership and with the strategic guidance from the support of assistant coaches Will Curry, Joe Crillo, and Mary Mack Richardson, the team continued to grow and excel. Whereas the 2026 Eagles Girls Soccer Championship Team members are Cora Harp, Mason Donahue, Zoe Vega, Maddie Lukens, Sydney Stoner, Avery Stoner, Mia Suarez, Emily Thank you. Lilla Bowers. Morgan Volker. Jennifer Kiowa. Branley Bennett. Lexi Kilman. Carolyn Newhouse. Bea Green. Ava Howard. Elizabeth Cohn. Elise Simmons, Lake and Lane, and Lilla Avelar. I apologize for all of those names that I've totally mispronounced. Team manager Zayden and company. The dedication, discipline, and exceptional teamwork demonstrated by these students' athletes are truly commendable. Now, therefore, be it resolved that we, members of Leicester County Council, do hereby recognize and congratulate the Chapin High School girls soccer team on their 2026 South Carolina High School League 5A Division II State Championship. Congratulations. Thank you, guys. And next up, to continue this spirit, we have the boys' high school Eagles baseball team. So you guys come on down with your coaches.

Okay. Thank you, Dale.

The Lexington County Council, South Carolina, in general succession of the 14th day of July, 2026, adopted the following. Whereas on Thursday, May 28, 2026, the Chapin High School Eagles baseball team captured the South Carolina's 5A Division II state championship. And whereas the Eagles opened the state championship series with a road victory in Anderson before completing their sweep at home with a hard-fought 4-3 win. This achievement marks the program's 12th state title. The Chapin High School baseball team is led by Coach Del Lever, Lever. God, I can't believe I did that, Mr. Lever, Coach Lever. In his inaugural season with the Eagles, Coach Lever's confidence in the team and their ability to compete at the highest level ensured that they were prepared to face top opponents. The team also benefited from leadership direction in support of assistant coaches Joey Smith, Brandon White, Travis Powell, Jay Metz, Jordan O'Kane, and Brent Yarborough. And whereas the 2026 Eagles Baseball Championship team members are Felix, I'm going to go for first names right now, Felix, Griff, Reese, Caden, Josh, Cullen, Caden, Mack, Drew, Charlie, Hampton, Colby, Kennedy, Cooper, Dalton, Weston, Roy, Luke, Robert, Avery, Mason, Cooper, Easton, Duncan, and Perry. Team managers are Brian Axton, William Avila, and Chance O'Kane. The determination, work, and unwavering commitment demonstrated by these student-athletes are highly commendable. Now, therefore, be it resolved that we, the members of Lexington County Council, do hereby recognize and congratulate the Chapin High School baseball team on their 2026 Chapin, sorry, 2026 South Carolina High School League 5A Division II State Championship. Thank you, guys.

Congratulations.

As I've always said, ladies and young men, they cannot take that away from you. Once you win it, you win it. Congratulations. And we have two scouts in the room, too, two baseball scouts for those. I saw one in the back. Next administrative report.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just wanted to, a couple of announcements tonight. First of all, excited to announce and hope you all can attend the West Region Service Center ribbon cutting this Thursday morning, 9 a.m. Great event. It's been a long time coming from preparation for this service center. So we're looking forward to the ribbon cutting there. Also, with us being in our summer... Meeting schedule, our next county council meeting will not be until September 8th. And with that being said, the county administrative offices will be closed on Monday, September 7th in observance of Labor Day. And that's it, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. I have three resolutions and we will approve those tonight. Approval of resolution honoring Nora Hansen, Grand Champion of the Battle of Atlanta World Karate Championship. I'm seeking a motion.

Move to approve, Mr. Chair.

I have a motion by Ms. Kerrig. Second. Second by Mr. Cockrell. Any questions? All in favor? Excuse me. Madam, call for the vote.

Councilman Cullum.

I'm still in the back. Yes.

Councilman Conwell.

Yes.

Councilwoman Kerrig.

Yes.

Councilwoman Wessinger. Yes. Councilman Fisher.

Yes.

Councilman Brigham.

Yes.

Councilman Bishop. Yes. Vice Chair Cockrell.

Yes.

Chairman Hudson.

Yes. Second, the approval of resolution in name County Fire Station 34 and honoring firefighter Jeffrey Chavis, excuse me, Jeffrey Vaden Chavis. Move to approve. We're going to read these resolutions on these, obviously in order next week, and at the stations themselves, because I want to make sure we don't have, you know, the fire people can't be here, right? So it's important that they hear the resolution. So with that said, who said move to approve? Mr. Brigham?

Second.

Ms. Kerrig was second. Madam Court?

Councilman Cullum.

Yes.

Councilman Conwell.

Yes.

Councilwoman Kerrig. Yes. Councilwoman Wessinger. Yes. Councilman Fisher.

Yes.

Councilman Brigham.

Yes.

Councilman Bishop.

Yes.

Vice Chair Cockrell.

Yes.

Chairman Hudson.

Yes. Approve a resolution to name Lexington County Fire Station 35 in honor of Engineer Paul Edwin Quaterbaum. Move to approve, Mr. Chair. I have a motion by Mr. Brigham. Second. Second by Ms. Kerrig. Any questions? Madam Clerk?

Councilman Cullum?

Yes.

Councilman Conwell?

Yes.

Councilwoman Kerrig? Yes. Councilwoman Wessinger? Yes. Councilman Fisher?

Yes.

Councilman Brigham?

Yes.

Councilman Bishop?

Yes.

Vice Chair Cockrell?

Yes.

Chairman Hudson?

Yes. Appointments, boards and commissions. You have a clerk on there. Take him off to the side. That's the one Mr. Bishop is going to interview.

Yeah, I currently had somebody on the Board of Zoning Appeals, and they wanted me on planning, but he serves one more meeting, so I'm going to wait and see what other applications come in. Very good. But he's a very strong applicant, but I feel like no rush.

Then I have one for Millions Workforce Development Board, Sarah Dinger. 325 Summer Creek Drive, West Columbia. These are very hard appointments to find, and she is going to do a fine job.

I'll second that.

We have a second by Ms. Wessinger. Any discussion? Madam Clerk.

Councilman Cullum.

Yes.

Councilman Conwell.

Yes.

Councilwoman Kerrig. Yes. Councilwoman Wessinger. Yes. Councilman Fisher.

Yes.

Councilman Brigham.

Yes.

Councilman Bishop.

Yes.

Vice Chair Cockrell.

Yes.

Chairman Hudson.

Yes. We have one approval of minutes for July 14th of 2026, and I'll make that my motion.

Second.

Second by Ms. Kerrig. Any discussion? Madam Clerk?

Councilman Cullum?

Yes.

Councilman Conwell?

Yes.

Councilwoman Kerrig? Yes. Councilwoman Wessinger?

Yes.

Councilman Fisher?

Yes.

Councilman Brigham?

Yes.

Councilman Bishop?

Yes.

Vice Chair Cockrell?

Yes.

Chairman Hudson?

Yes. Ordinances approval of Ordinance 2604, an ordinance approving the conveyance of real estate from the county of Lexington to Brighton Capital Park, LLC. Third and final reading. Any comments or questions?

I have a couple questions I'd like to pose. Could I ask Garrett DeGrano to come forward, please? Hey, Garrett.

Good afternoon.

How long have you been the Economic Development Director?

Right at around three years this month.

Okay, so you have been a part of this process that we are involved in right now for the entirety?

Yes, ma'am.

You were present when this council decided to sell Brighton Park to the highest bid?

Yes, ma'am.

You conveyed that information to those who were making bids to purchase this property?

Yes, ma'am.

They were clear. They understood. At any time did you receive in writing a proposal for any industry that would have created a living wage jobs?

Not a full proposal for the purchase in our typical project documentation, no, ma'am.

Any living wage jobs?

No, ma'am.

That would have been permanent jobs? No. Did we have a proposal for an assisted living facility?

There was a third proposal or another proposal that was a, not in the traditional sense of assisted living facility, but a permanent residential development that was developed to serve a retiring population.

Did it meet the requirements of an assisted living? Would it create jobs, paying jobs?

Not in the traditional sense of a commercial senior living facility. No, ma'am.

It was single family dwelling units. Yes, ma'am. And an HOA that would provide that the ownership would be 55 and over.

That was the understanding. Yes, ma'am.

So to date, we have had no industry jobs that would create permanent living wage jobs.

Not directly from a company. No, ma'am.

From Chapin.

Correct.

All right. Thank you, Garrett. I appreciate you.

The current contract that we have, does it spell out specifically industry or jobs that would be available?

You had ample opportunity to ask those questions behind closed doors less than an hour ago, and I'm not going to answer attorney private client privilege at the front dais. So I don't know.

In the contract, it's public knowledge with the ordinance. There is none of that.

I can't answer that question. I'm not the attorney. And that's not me incurred. I'm not the attorney. I don't know. Madam Clerk, call for the vote. Oh, we had a motion. I thought already. Do we have a motion?

Move to approve, Mr. Chairman.

We have a motion by Ms. Kerrig. Second. Mr. Fisher. Madam Clerk, call for the vote.

Councilman Cullum.

Yes.

Councilman Conwell.

I abstain.

Councilwoman Kerrig. Yes. Councilwoman Wessinger? No. Councilman Fisher?

Yes.

Councilman Brigham?

No.

Councilman Bishop?

No.

Vice Chair Cockrell?

Yes.

Chairman Hudson?

Yes. Second, the approval of Ordinance 2607, the ordinance approving the contract for swap of property and near the Lexington County Edmond Landfill with the Lucas Estates LLC And the granting of easements related thereto. We discussed this at the last meeting. Are there any other questions? I am seeking a motion. Move to approve Ordinance 2607. I have a motion by Mr. Bishop. Second. Second by Mr. Cockrell. Is there any discussion? With that said, Madam Clerk.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Approval of Ordinance 2610, an ordinance to provide for the insurance and sale of not exceeding $70 million aggregate principal amount of general obligation bonds of the Lexington County staff line to prescribe the purposes of which the proceeds shall be expended to provide for the payment thereof and provide for other matters related thereto. This is the third and final reading. I think we have beat this horse to death. Are there any questions? Move to approve. I have a motion by Mr. Brigham.

Second.

Second by Mr. Fisher. It's hard to hear up here, or my ears, but any questions? Madam Clerk?

Councilman Cullum?

Yes.

Councilman Conwell?

Yes.

Councilwoman Kerrig? Yes. Councilwoman Wessinger? Yes. Councilman Fisher?

Yes.

Councilman Brigham?

Yes.

Councilman Bishop?

Yes.

Vice Chair Cockrell?

Yes.

Chairman Hudson?

Yes. Approval of Ordinance 2613, an ordinance awarding a contract for residential curbside service to Capital Waste Services for Franchise Area 1. I might want to say that we mentioned this in the regular meeting, which you probably weren't watching. I can't recall exactly how many companies there were, but I think he said over 100. Is that correct? We sent out over 100 RFPs, requests for bids or purchases, on this trash pickup, and we received one in return. I think that Chapin's trash pickup will go up, I believe the number was 90 cent. 92 cent. Anything else I need to cover there? Got it. Okay. Any questions at all? I'm seeking a motion. Motion to approve. We have a motion by Mr. Cockrell. 26-13. Second. A second by Ms. Kerrig. Any other discussion? With that said, Madam Clerk.

Councilman Cullum.

Yes.

Councilman Conwell.

Yes.

Councilwoman Kehrig. Yes. Councilwoman Wessinger. Yes. Councilman Fisher.

Yes.

Councilman Brigham.

Yes.

Councilman Bishop.

Yes.

Vice Chair Cockrell.

Yes.

Chairman Hudson.

Yes. I believe we go to the committee reports. We have the Justice Department. Chairman Kehrig.

Yes, I would seek the approval to accept the fiscal year 25 Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistant Grant Award.

Second. I have a motion by Ms. Kerrig for the 25 Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant and a second by Mr. Cullum. Any discussion?

Did you want me to read this, Mr. Chair, really quickly?

Oh, you can, if you'd like.

The Justice Committee convened earlier today to hear a request for approval to accept the fiscal year 25 Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Award. The Bureau of Justice Assistance has awarded funding for the fiscal year 25 Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program. The County of Lexington has been awarded $58,170,000. That was a lot, wasn't it, $58 million? I was about to get excited. The grant will be split between Magistrate Court Services $6,980, the Sheriff's Department $44,791, and Sister Care at $6,399. Magistrate Court Services will use their portion to purchase audio-visual equipment for the summary court, five flat panel monitors, and one walk-through magnetometer. The Sheriff's Department will use their portion to purchase 50 detention-grade radios and one ruggedized laptop. Sister Care will get reimbursed for a portion of their service costs for providing counseling services to Lexington County. The committee moved to recommend a full council approval to accept the fiscal year 25 Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Award. Is that your motion?

It is. Second. We have a second by Mr. Cockrell.

Councilman Cullum.

Yes.

Councilman Conwell.

Yes.

Councilwoman Kehrig. Yes. Councilwoman Wessinger. Yes. Councilman Fisher.

Yes.

Councilman Brigham.

Yes.

Councilman Bishop.

Yes.

Vice Chair Cockrell.

Yes.

Chairman Hudson.

Yes. All right. We're going to recess out of the County Council meeting and convene the County Transportation Committee. I think we discussed this, we can go in it more in detail, but approval of the Thompson Street S862 resurfacing. Town of Lexington Municipal Request Council District 3, and we have gone, this has been going on for about, I don't know how long, but anyway. Four years. Yes, go ahead. Four years, I know. Any questions? If not... I would like a motion.

Motion to approve the resurfacing S-862 for the Town of Lexington Municipal Request.

We have a motion by Mr. Cockrell. Second. Second by two people, I think. Mr. Cullum. Any questions? Bantam Court.

Councilman Cullum.

Yes.

Councilman Conwell.

Yes.

Councilwoman Kerrig. Yes. Councilwoman Wessinger. Yes. Councilman Fisher?

Yes.

Councilman Brigham?

Yes.

Councilman Bishop?

Yes.

Vice Chair Cockrell?

Yes.

Chairman Hudson?

Yes. We'll recess the county transportation, and we will reconvene the county council meeting. Budget amendment resolutions, if you'll look through them, but don't forget we have two on the other page at the top. I miss you. Hope you don't have any.

I got two. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Tonight we have two of them. The first one is an additional fiscal year funding increase of $58,170. The county has received notification from the U.S. Department of Justice that we've been awarded the fiscal year 25 justice assistance grant, the JAG, in the amount of $58,170. This budget amendment is to establish the budget for that award. The second one is an additional fiscal year funding increase of $2,289,830. The South Carolina Opioid Recovery Act, approved by Governor Henry McMaster on May 23rd of 2022, establishes the South Carolina Opioid Recovery Fund for the administration, accountability, and operation of the fund. All funds must be used for one or more of the approved opioid remediation uses, which are categorized into core abatement strategies and approved uses. This is to establish the budget for the funds received for the South Carolina Opioid Recovery Fund. And just to recap those, it was for the coroner's office, the solicitor's office, and then also the city of Casey, the Courage Center, and LRADAC receipts home as well. But this is to establish those accounts. That's it, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

All right. Now, as we go forward, bids and purchases, don't forget.

Mr. Chair, if I might, I would move that we approve Tabs 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19.

Have them covered. Second. I have a second. Excuse me. A motion by Ms. Carrick, a second by Ms. Wessinger. To approve 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. Any questions? Hmm. With that said, Madam Clark.

Councilman Cullum.

Yes.

Councilman Conwell.

Yes.

Councilwoman Kehrig. Yes. Councilwoman Wessinger. Yes. Councilman Fisher.

Yes.

Councilman Brigham.

Yes.

Councilman Bishop.

Yes.

Vice Chair Cockrell.

Yes.

Chairman Hudson.

Yes. Okay, that concludes our business for today, County Council. We will go take a five-minute break. Do you need it, guys, or not?

Let's roll.

We're not taking a five. We got to adjourn, though. I'm going to adjourn. I'm going to beat the heck out of this thing. Parliamentarian. We got about nine of them. We are adjourned. All right.

I don't know. I thought he was here.

Sorry. I got so much credit.

All right, welcome to the public hearing.

We'll do it in three. You start, they'll leave.

Hey, guys, y'all can socialize out in the hallway. Our public hearing has started. Please. Thank you. We've got some signature mix-ups. Hold on one second. While she is looking, they print this in a nice form for me. The purpose of the public here is to obtain comments for proponents and upon opponents and regarding opponents and people against it regarding specific subject matters. All citizens who wish to be on record as attending must sign in. The floor will be opened by the chairman, who will call the names of those who have checked the box, yes, and would like to speak. They will be asked to come to the podium, provide their name, mailing address, street name, where they live, zip code. Each speaker is limited to three minutes. There will be a clock. The officer who's working the clock tonight Again, are you working the clock tonight? He'll be positioned on the left-hand side. When the beep goes off, that means you have one minute. There shall be no standing, no screaming, no hollering. This is a courtroom. Everyone has to abide by these guidelines. If you don't, then I'll have to ask you to leave. I'm not a jerk. This is the way it works. We're going to stay on the subject. Whatever the subject is, we're going to stay on that subject. So I hope you understand that. That's my job, and that's what I'm going to do. Anyway, we're going to start off first. We're going to flip it because of some people that are here. We're going to do the Sportscom 2611 first. 2611, authorized in Lexington County Rural Recreation and Aging. Yeah, I saw him, I thought, yeah. Recreation and Aging Commission on behalf of Lexington County Rural Recreation District to issue general obligation bonds in the amount of not exceeding $74 million and others matter related thereto is Randy here. We're going to have a presentation for you. Introduce yourself, random, tell who you are and who you got with you.

Okay. I'm Randy Gibson, Executive Director of Lexington County Recreation Aging Commission. I have with me my Chairman of the Commission, Mr. Larry Mack. We're here to ask for authorization to issue general obligation bonds not to exceed $74 million. Here you see a drawing CONCEPTIONAL DRAWING OF THE SITE PLAN OF WHAT WE'RE PROPOSING, OF WHAT CAN BE CONSTRUCTED AT THE SITE AND ALSO THE POSSIBLE OF WHAT MAY BE CONSTRUCTED. PROJECT INCLUDES INDOOR MULTI-SPORTS FACILITY WITH 12 BASKETBALL SLASH 24 VOLLEYBALL COURTS.

THAT'S, YOU CAN SEE IT RIGHT THERE.

IT'S NUMBER ONE. BUILDING IN THE CENTER. IT WILL BE 150,000 PLUS SQUARE FOOT INDOOR FACILITY. ALSO, AS YOU CAN SEE, THE FOUR OF THE TWO FOUR FIELD PODS OF EIGHT HIGH SCHOOL COLLEGE REGULATION ASTROTURF BASEBALL FIELDS THAT ARE ALSO GOING TO BE CONFIGURED WHERE YOU CAN PLAY LACROSSE AND SOCCER IN THE OUTFIELDS. OVER 300 ACRES ARE BEING DONATED FOR THIS PROJECT THAT ARE ACCESSIBLE BY THREE MAJOR INTERSTATES, I-77, I-26, AND I-20. LOCATION, LOCATION. The complex will be an economic driver for Lexington County and the Midlands through sports tourism. The facility will be the first in the Midlands. The complex will serve various sports year-round, including baseball, basketball, volleyball, soccer, lacrosse, gymnastics, and cheer. Impossible. Rathalm. THE INDOOR FACILITY WILL SERVE FEMALE SPORTS THAT FACILITY-WISE HAVE BEEN UNDERSERVED IN THE MIDLANDS. PROJECT IS MODELED AFTER LAKE POINT SPORTS COMPLEX IN CARTERSVILLE, GEORGIA WHICH GENERATES 2.4 MILLION VISITORS A YEAR. OF THE TWO SIMILAR INDOOR FACILITIES IN THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA THAT ARE CURRENTLY OPERATIONAL, ONE HAS REPORTED AN ESTIMATED ECONOMIC IMPACT OF $84 MILLION A YEAR. THEY ALSO REPORTED GENERATING HOTEL ROOM NIGHTS OF 133,275. THE OTHER SECOND FACILITY REPORTED IN A 2021 NEWSPAPER ARTICLE an estimated economic impact somewhere between $55 million to $100 million. The state has already contributed $3 million to go towards this project. And I got a couple of emails I'd like to share with y'all. But with over 300 acres being donated at this location, the opportunity doesn't come around often. Y'all have any questions?

Mr. Chair, may I ask Mr. Gibson a couple questions? Okay. I understand that the Millage will only be charged to folks or residents that live south of Lake Murray, because north of Lake Murray is the Irmo Chapin Recreation Commission, which already has a millage. So this would only apply to below Lake Murray. That is correct.

Basically encompasses school districts one through four, except Horses Neck.

I also understand the cost is $14.88 per $100,000 residential home. Yes, sir.

I have a question. Randy, somebody brought up to me the other day, we don't have a pool in this county. Yes, sir. Is there a hard reason why we don't, or would this not be a good place to consider a pool?

Um... The commission has really never considered a pool. Number one, they are operational-wise, they lose money.

Yeah.

Unless you have a water park to go with them. Right. And also the location here, the utilization of a pool in this county is going to be utilized mostly by or a lot by the school districts. So where would you put it in the county where all the school districts would say it's a great location? Yeah.

Well, I just thought this was going to be a world-class venue, a good place to have another sport there. It was just a thought. Somebody asked me and it hit me. I was like, I don't think we have a pool.

That's something the commission might consider at a later date.

We were just joking on the side. We've got a river really close by.

And Lake Murray, right? I'd like to share this email that I received. It's from Corey Rich, Director of Player Personnel and Relations with USC Men's Basketball. I'm just going to summarize it, just read some of it. I'm writing to express my enthusiastic support for the proposed project in Lexington County. The current timing for this proposal is exceptional. Recently, I attended three major basketball events organized by Nike, Adidas, and the NBA within South Carolina. While these events brought significant attention and top tier talent to Rock Hill and North Augusta, my attendance underscored a clear missed opportunity for the Lexington slash Columbia area. Unlike those cities, our region boasts the University of South Carolina, an established institution and a significant attraction in its own right, offering a unique competitive advantage. While the appeal of hosting prominent sporting events is undeniable, the primary draw of this project lies in the substantial economic impact it would generate for Lexington County. I am confident that this facility represents a monumental opportunity for Lexington County. I urge your favorable consideration of this transformative project. In the language of my sport, we often speak of game changers. An event center in Lexington County would indeed be a truly game-changing development for our region. And that's from Kerry Ridge. I also have an email from one of the largest volleyball clubs in the state, Rogue Volleyball. As the director of one of the most prominent volleyball clubs in the state, I am pleased to learn about your efforts to build a sports and events facility here in Lexington County. To further support the project, I will commit to hosting 10 tournaments in the facility annually. Events and tournaments are key to fulfilling the county's goal for the complex, and I will promise our resources and experience to host events there each year. The one thing we have not been able to do is host a tournament here in Lexington County or the entire Columbia area. I am thrilled to see the county is trying to build this facility and happy to offer my assistance to help meet the needs of the county and this entire market. We are proud of the work we have done to elevate and grow female sports in this market and I am excited to help the county do the same. Adam Spaeth. Director of Road Volleyball. All right. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you all for your support in the past. Thank you. Yes, sir.

And I am going to...

I didn't write to speak, but just one quick thing. I want to thank you on behalf of the commission for all the support y'all have given us over the years. If I live till next year, I'll have been served on the Recreation Commission for 50 years. And I have seen a lot happen over the years. It's so much accomplished. And by all y'all's help, and by the taxpayers of Lexington County, we thank them, too, for helping us have what we have in our county. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Let's do the electronic first. Let's find out what we have electronically. buddy electronically we had two in favor and 23 in opposition aye in favor we've got quite a few we'll start off let me see if i can read this right ac councilman byron thomas make sure you speak you may give your name address so we will have that information

Casey Councilman Byron Thomas, City of Casey, address 1314 Oakland Avenue. You know it's my house when you see the big American flag and 29033. So my name is Byron Thomas. I'm a City of Casey Councilman. And I do want to make sure people know my comments do not represent Congressman Joe Wilson in any capacity. But first, I do want to thank our council for the support you've given our city, as well as District 2 in the city of Casey, which I proudly represent. So thank you so much for all the hard work you've done in our city and in my district. I'm actually from North Augusta. So I love that North Augusta got brought up. I grew up going to Riverview Park. which last month, I'm not sure if everyone knows, one of the most popular basketball tournaments in the southeast, the Peach Jam, the Nike Peach Jam, takes place in North Augusta, where the best basketball players from all across the world come to North Augusta, as well as the college coaches. I've gotten to see the greatest basketball player on earth, LeBron James, come to North Augusta, South Carolina, as well as other athletes, Coach K, who used to coach at Duke, come and be in North Augusta. I got to volunteer on Work the Peak Jam, where our high school basketball team was able to get some free stuff from Nike. So, you know, Riverview Park provided so much to the kids that grew up in North Augusta, as well as bringing in so much tourism dollars to North Augusta and the CSRA. So with this sports complex, I've supported this the moment I heard about it, because I'm a true believer that not only do sports get our kids active, but it keeps kids out of doing crime. And it keeps kids involved in the community. Growing up in North Augusta, most of my athletic coaches were police officers. They were pastors, great men and women that were leaders in the community. And that's what's kept me out of trouble. And as well as traveling to other cities, we ate at all the restaurants and we got to do some much amazing things. And now as a parent, I have a 17-month-old daughter. I want to keep her here in Lexington County where Time is up. You got a minute. Oh, I got a minute. I got a minute. I got a minute on the clock. So with that being said, with that being said, I truly support this measure, and I really do hope council will be 100% in support of it. You know, everyone's going to talk about how this is going to possibly affect small business. It definitely will. But we have to think about we want the best and brightest to come to Lexington County and make impacts in our county. because we want the money to stay here, but we also want our kids to stay here as well that can play here and feel that Lexington County has truly invested in their athletic careers. Thank you, and may God bless you.

Thank you, Barry. All right, next we have Tony Tam. I think it says CWC Chamberlain. Is that correct?

Yes, sir.

All right. Where you live and your zip code, please, sir. You got it, sir.

My name is Tony Tam. I'm president and CEO of the Greater KC West Columbia Chamber of Commerce. Before coming to the chamber, well, 110 Landstone Circle 29063. Before coming to the Chamber, I spent 30 years in the hospitality industry, and I had the opportunity to see firsthand what tourism can do for a community. When I look at this particular project, I don't just see a sports complex. I see an opportunity to bring people into our community who may not have had a reason to visit us before. Travel sports has become big business. As we all know, when families come here for a tournament, they're staying in our hotels, they're having breakfast before games, they're grabbing lunch between games, going out to dinner afterwards, buying gas, shopping, and hopefully spending some extra time discovering the Midlands. Take one family, multiply that times hundreds of families over a tournament weekend, and then multiply those weekends throughout the year, and that's a huge economic impact for our area. And for our small businesses, those are the real winners if this thing happens. It's our restaurants, our coffee shops, our boutiques, our hotels, and our attractions. They're all the ones who will welcome these visitors, take care of them, and hopefully leave a lasting impression. One thing that's incredibly important is tourism isn't about one city. And I see a guy that reminded me of that here, Tim Miles. He says, visitors don't know where KC ends and West Columbia begins. They don't necessarily know when they've crossed into another part of Lexington County. They simply know that they've had a great weekend in the Midlands. So when one community succeeds, we all have an opportunity to benefit. And that's what this sports complex is to do. I've been fortunate enough to spend my... almost my entire adult career taking care of people, being in hotels and restaurants. Whether someone is here for one night, one weekend, or a lifetime, our goal is always the same, make them feel welcome and give them a great experience. So I've always believed that if we give people a great experience, they'll come back. And that's what hospitality has taught me over the past 30 years. And this project isn't just bringing people here for a game. It's about introducing them to our community, supporting our local businesses, and giving them every reason to come back again. If this project helps us welcome more visitors, support more local businesses, and showcases everything that's great about our community, I believe that that's an investment worth having. Thank you. Thank you.

I'm going to probably misspell, I'm going to say some of these blast names, and it's not my fault. I'll do my best. Marilyn Forseca. Or Fornseca? That was close. See, I blew the first one. And your address, please, and zip code.

GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. MY NAME IS MARILYN FONSECA. MY NAME IS MARILYN FONSECA. MY NAME IS MARILYN FONSECA. I RESIDE AT 555 BRONZE DRIVE Thank you for the opportunity to comment. I would start out by saying that the Lexington County Aging and Recreation Commissioners are not chosen by the residents of Lexington County. They are chosen by the legislature. The Recreation Commission does not, to my knowledge, survey residents to ask what type of facilities they would like. They do not conduct any public town halls about any proposed facilities. In fact, for many residents, The notification of a hearing like this is the first time that they have heard about this proposal. Information on the Recreation Commission's website is very limited in all aspects, and specifically, I could find no information about this proposed project. The Recreation Commission fails to properly maintain its existing facilities. For example, at the Red Bank Arena, there is a playground. The playground is not ADA accessible, and frankly, in 2026, that is inexcusable. The playground also has broken playground equipment, which is not safe for children. The Recreation Commission's mission is to improve the quality of life for all citizens through creative and meaningful life-enriching experiences. This is stated right on the Commission's own website. And yet repeatedly, including the gentleman who spoke before me, they keep touting the economic benefit of the proposed project. But that is not the Commission's mission. The tax increase, which is a significant tax increase for a very significantly expensive project, facility while residents are struggling to pay for gas for transportation food bills and cooling for their residences and eventually heating for their residents frankly i think is irresponsible so for all of these reasons i request that the council vote no on this request thank you maya's assumption she's not for it that's just my assumption but she signed in favor of so

Well, you have a great day. I appreciate you coming, but the top of it says in favor, so thank you. I'm not mad. Corey Wears, I assume you're in favor. You signed up to speak. Warner. Warner. He forgot to fill out. Keep writing. I ain't making him mad. No, don't make him mad.

Corey, would you state your address, please? I live in 197 Baskin Hills Road, Lexington, South Carolina, 29072. Thank you. And I run P27 Academy, Bioship Athletics, Palmetto Blacksmiths. I also run Academy Baseball Association. Those are four organizations that are inside Lexington County. And I've done baseball for all of my adult life, really all my life. And have lived probably half of my adult life at Lake Point sports because I'm there so so much So when this project kind of came about I wanted to speak out on what it can really do in the community One from just bringing people in from an economic profile. I mean my business alone in the hotels around Lakes Point we spent over $300,000 last year in just one fall and summer and going back and forth to Atlanta. And by the way, I hate going to Atlanta. The traffic is atrocious. There's no good way to get into Lake Point. There is like, you got to go straight through Atlanta. There's nothing in that area at all. It's an hour and a half from the airport. So anytime I'm flying in my guys, I got to get an Uber to get them. It's $400 for the Uber. It's just a pain. And this is something that would be a lot more advantageous for a lot of teams. There's not a great place to play large sporting events in the southeast except for Lake Point Sports. We host a large conference tournament each year with over 150 teams throughout Florida. 40 states, and we do it at Lake Point Sports. The reason for that is it's the only place that can host us. We've tried it at East Cobb in Atlanta. We've tried it at a lot of other places, and Lake Point is the only one that can occupy that amount of teams and has places to stay. And you're talking about, I mean, tons and tons of families. Just in my organization alone, we have over 600 families that come and go throughout the Lake Point Sports Complex. And this would all be an opportunity here with a lot more accessibility. Also, just right down the road, I've been going to Lake Point forever. So there's this little place called Doug's Place. I went there five years ago. Doug and his kid is working it. It's a meat and three vegetable place. The kid's doing, he's probably 11 years old. Like he's busting the tables. He's doing that type of deal. And it's a whole family deal. And I always have conversations with people because I ran small business from the time I was 22 of like how difficult it is. And this dude was struggling. And he is in the middle of nowhere in Cartersville, Georgia, just trying to make it for his family. Well, I went in there last year, and Doug's place is brand new. It's like triple the size. His boy is managing the place now. He's like 22. His kids are working it, and they're uber successful. And they're only uber successful because they happen to plant this giant complex directly beside his business. And it's changed their entire life. He can send his kids to school. They can go to college. It's a completely different financial setting for his entire family purely because everybody that's a coach that recruits at Lake Point Sports goes to Doug's place. So, yeah, thank you. Thank you for the time. This project would change everything about how we do sports here.

Thank you. Bill Shanahan. I know how to say that last name. Thank you all.

129 Murray Vista Circle, Lexington 29072. On behalf of my wife, Vicki, and I that own the Lexington County Blowfish Baseball Club, I just want to just show my support for this incredible project. One, just think about it for a second, one million new visitors a year to Lexington County. Think about, as it was mentioned, about the hotels and the restaurants and the stores and what it will do for our community and communities around us. The Blowfish Baseball Club has just finished our 12th season, 21st overall. And the addition of the new AstroTurf surface at Lexington County Baseball Stadium is a game changer. not only for Blowfish Baseball, but for all of these other teams that are coming in. I'll just give you an example of just the last two weekends. And just in a small way, you'll realize what this new complex could do for our community. We had Prep Baseball have their showcase of high school players two weekends ago, Saturday and Sunday. We had high school players from nine different states come in. They stayed at our hotels. They ate at our restaurants. This past weekend, we hosted our new USC Gamecock baseball head coach, Kevin Schnall's baseball camp. We had high school players all the way from the state of Maine down to North Carolina coming, staying in our hotels, eating at our restaurants, and getting to enjoy a great time here in Lexington County and at the baseball stadium. Coach Schnall talked to me after the event and said, this is amazing that we have an Astor turf field within 20 minutes of Carolina's baseball stadium. We end up having to go play other schools that have AstroTurf. Is it possible that we might be able to come out of here and let our pitchers use the mound? And then I talked with the associate head coach, Bill Sorrento. And Bill said, when I shared with him about the new complex coming with the eight turf baseball fields, he said, what do we need to do to help sell this? We think this is great. We'll get totally behind this as well. So I just wanted to say I've been doing this for 40 years in sports and entertainment, and I just can't think of anything other than That was an interchange in Georgia. 283 was the exit 12 years ago. That was it. And now 2.4 million visitors a year. We're talking a million for us, and who knows where we go from there. So I just want to say, as you can tell, I'm going to close this out. It's a game changer. And as they say in baseball, this is a home run. I'm going to go with a grand slam. God bless you all. Thank you all. Let's play ball.

Thank you.

Crystal Boltonite.

Good afternoon. I am Crystal Baltnight. I live at 143 Heartwood Drive in Lexington, 29073. But I also have the privilege of serving as the town administrator for the town of South Congaree. I'm here today to express support for the proposed sports complex. and to encourage you guys to consider this sports complex. A project of this magnitude is about much more than a ball field and a sporting event. It's about what those events bring with them, the families, the visitors, the hotel stays, the restaurants, the shopping, and the new opportunities for businesses throughout our area. Those visitors generate hospitality and accommodations tax revenue that can be reinvested back into our communities. In South Congaree, we have seen firsthand how an event can have an economic impact far beyond the boundaries of the town hosting it. What some may think of as a simple small-town rodeo has grown into an event with an economic footprint approaching $1 million for our county today. supporting area businesses, restaurants, and hotels. Imagine the impact that you multiply with a sports complex that's capable of attracting tournaments, teams, and families to Lexington County throughout the whole year. For smaller municipalities like South Congaree, I believe this project also creates opportunities that may not be immediately visible. Increased tourism and economic activity strengthens our position as we pursue county, state, and federal partnerships and funding for infrastructure improvements that can support future growth. When one area in Lexington County succeeds, that success does not have to stop at the municipal boundaries. With good planning and collaboration, it creates a ripple effect that benefits the communities in all of the county. This is an opportunity to invest not only where Lexington County is today, but where we want the county and all of the communities to go in the future. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up on deck, I should say, Phil Carter, you're up. And on deck is Tim Jane.

Phil Carter, 105 Mosswood Court, Casey, 29033. Mr. Chairman, Council, Mr. Sturkey, again, my name's Phil Carter. I'm the mayor pro tem for the city of Casey, and I have with me, y'all already met my colleague Byron Thomas, my other colleague here, Alice Rose. THREE OF THE FIVE. WE HAVE FOUR DISTRICTS PLUS THE MAYOR AND THE CITY OF CASEY. THANK YOU FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO SPEAK TONIGHT ON BEHALF OF THE CITY OF CASEY IN STRONG SUPPORT OF THIS TRANSFORMATIONAL INVESTMENT IN LEXINGTON COUNTY. A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO LEXINGTON COUNTY RECREATION AND AGING COMMISSION FOR BRINGING THE PROJECT TO OUR COMMUNITY AND TO FORMER SENATOR NICKY SETZLER FOR HIS WORK ON MAKING THIS A REALITY. THIS PROJECT REPRESENTS FAR MORE THAN A SPORTS COMPLEX. It's an economic development opportunity that will benefit every community in our region. Tournament tourism is one of the fastest growing segments of the visitor economy, bringing thousands of athletes, families, and spectators who stay in our hotels, dine in our restaurants, shop at our businesses, and explore everything our region has to offer. As one of the county's gateway communities, Casey is excited to play an important role in welcoming these visitors. Our restaurants, coffee shops, breweries, retail businesses, and entertainment venues are well-positioned to benefit from the increased visitation this complex will generate. Visitors will also have easy access to some of the area's most unique attractions, including the Casey Riverwalk, our parks and greenway system, the upcoming Thomas Dambo troll installation, local festivals and events, and many outdoor recreational opportunities that make our community such a special destination. Our local hotels will help accommodate the influx of tournament participants and visitors, creating additional economic activity that extends well beyond a single weekend event. Lexington County is also uniquely positioned as a destination for sports and recreation. We're proud to be home of one of the best tennis centers in the region, located just minutes from the proposed complex, as well as the county's largest pickleball facility only a couple of miles away. Together, these amenities reinforce the county's reputation as a premier destination for athletic competition and recreation. When people think about sports in South Carolina, we want Lexington County to be top of mind. This project helps strengthen the identity while benefiting the entire county. Most importantly, this is a regional investment. Success for this sports complex means success for restaurants throughout the area, increased occupancy in our hotels across communities, greater exposure for local businesses, and new opportunities to showcase everything Lexington County has to offer. The city of Casey is proud to stand alongside our county partners in support of this vision. Our city council is united in its enthusiasm for this project, and we're excited to work collaboratively to ensure the success for generations to come. Mr. Chairman, thank you.

Thank you, sir. And Hunter socks his own debt.

Good evening, members of council and my friends. My name is Tim James, 1200 Sland Drive, God's country of Casey, South Carolina, 29033. Most of you know that I've been in a community-oriented career just about my entire life. And over the last couple of years has given me and provided me an opportunity to work alongside some of the finest community-oriented men and women who have worked for this particular project. All of them deserve to be recognized, but one, importantly tonight, I would like to recognize is Senator Nikki Setzler, who worked tirelessly at the State House to bring over $3 million to this project. Now, you might say $3 million and State House, and is that significant? When's the last time you've seen the State House agree on anything? And for them to agree that Lexington County is the place for something like this and put the seed money of $3 million here, I believe that it says something without a doubt. And I appreciate Senator Sets for working that. The many positive points and comments regarding the future of the sports complex that I would make here tonight, you're going to hear from others that we have asked to be with us tonight. You're going to hear from all the chambers. Throughout our county, you're going to hear from council members and mayors. You're going to hear from planning commissioners throughout the city of Casey who recognize that this is the right spot for it. You're going to hear from Lexington Development. You're going to hear from town leaders, which are all citizens of Lexington County, and recognize this is the right thing to do. Additionally, my comments, so that I'm not belaboring anything tonight, has been written in an op-ed, and that op-ed was published this morning in two of our local newspapers. It is totally and unequivocally supportive of this project. So my time here tonight before I sit down is to say this. Thank you Lexington County Council for voting 9-0 to begin with on this because you are visionary leaders. When is the last time that we can think about something of this significant to do with tourism in Lexington County where visionary leaders came together? I would say it was 1974 when folks that were sitting in chairs like you decided to give $3 million to something called Riverbank Zoo. Now, that $3 million today would be $22 million. But look what Riverbank Zoo has now become for the Midlands of South Carolina and how it draws people here. I ask you to stand strong, look forward, and continue to work. and know that bringing this force complex to Lexington County is, in fact, the right thing to do. And again, I humbly thank each and every one of you for supporting this. Thank you. Thank you, Tim.

Hunter Sox is next, and on deck is going to be Larry Mack.

Good evening, Council. My name is Hunter Sox. I live at 1813 Cupstead Street, 29033 in Casey. And I appreciate the opportunity to speak tonight. I want to start by reading a letter of support on behalf of Congaree Rapid General Manager Kevin Heisey. I'll paraphrase through some of it. Dear members of Lexington County Recreation and Aging Commission and Lexington County Council, I'm writing on behalf of Congaree Rapid FC to express our enthusiastic and unequivocal support for the proposed sports complex in Casey. Since 1993, Congaree Rapid FC has proudly served the youth soccer community of Casey, West Columbia, and the greater Midlands region. During that time, our club has impacted the lives of more than 15,000 players and coaches through competitive and recreational soccer programs. As someone who's been involved with the club since its inception and as a lifelong resident of the KC West Columbia community. I've seen firsthand both the tremendous growth of youth sports and increasing need for a modern dedicated athletic facility. Today, our region faces a critical shortage of quality athletic fields. Youth programs throughout our county routinely contend with overcrowded practice spaces, scheduling conflicts, and weather-related cancellations caused by poor drainage and aging infrastructure. These challenges limit participation opportunities and directly affect the safety and experience of our young athletes. The proposed sports complex will be transformational in our community, providing, and I'll start to paraphrase here, enhanced safety and quality, expanded capacity, economic development, and greater accessibility. Getting back to... Not paraphrasing, investing in sports infrastructure as an investment in the physical, mental, and social well-being of our children, or is, excuse me, the lessons learned through youth sports, teamwork, discipline, leadership, perseverance, and community extend far beyond the playing field and shape the next generation of citizens and leaders. Congregate Rapid FC stands ready to partner with Lexington County, the City of Casey, and other community stakeholders to ensure this complex reaches its full potential and serves families throughout our region for decades to come. I respectfully urge the Lexington County Recreation and Aging Commission and the County Council to approve and move forward with this important project. Thank you for your leadership, your service, and your commitment to investing in the future of our community. On a personal note, I had the opportunity to play for Coach Heisey and Congaree Rapid growing up. So I know firsthand how exciting it would be for the young athletes across our county and region to have a facility like this proposed one so close to home. I also grew up racing BMX for years, and my family operated the track in Red Bank for years as well, where we saw firsthand the impact travel sports can have when national and regional events brought competitors and families and friends from across the country to compete right here in our home community. I appreciate... The county recognizing that investments in travel sports can create opportunities for athletes in Lexington County while bringing those visitors, families, and economic activity that we need to our communities throughout our county. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have Jerry Dornicker. And on deck is Ted Stamboulinas.

Hello, my name is Jerry Dorniker. My address is 116 Golden Lane in Lexington, 29072. I run a volleyball club here in Lexington and have for the last 15 years. I have the opportunity and the pleasure to be able to host tournaments, and all of the tournaments that I host are either in Rock Hill or we have to rent local high schools from the Northeast all the way over to Batesburg, Leesville. It is a constant struggle for us to find facilities to be able to host tournaments. I've been operating my club here in Lexington off of Augusta Highway for the last 15 years, like I said. The economic impact will be tremendous for the Lexington area, and it is definitely something that not only Lexington needs, but the state of South Carolina needs. On a personal but also professional note, my club specifically, I lost my daughter to suicide in 2020. So we do a tremendous amount of awareness for suicide awareness. We do that through our volleyball club. So much with these coaches, I mean, after listening to these baseball coaches, I'm wanting to sign up for a baseball team. So all these people, what they have in common is they've been positively impacted by coaches. To allow a sports facility like this in Lexington County opens up for more avenues to bring not only people from outside, but the area here to grow. The importance of youth sports is tremendous. I think that the positive impact financially will be tremendous here, but the impact that it will have on the youth will be immeasurable, but it will be far greater than anything that the financial impact could be. So my volleyball club and I fully support this, and we do urge you guys to approve it. Thank you very much.

Eric. Ted. On deck is Sue Dillon.

Good evening, Chairman and members of council and citizens of Lexington County. Thank you for allowing me to speak. My name is Ted Stamboulidis. I live at 545 Peninsula Drive, Gilbert, South Carolina. And I'm here today regarding the proposed $74 million sports complex bond. I believe the proposal raises a very simple question. Should Lexington County taxpayers be committed to tens of millions of dollars in long-term debt on a sports complex without first having the opportunity to vote on it? I believe the answer is no. A project of this size deserves direct public input whether or not state law ultimately requires a referendum for this particular financing structure. Council has the ability to recognize the magnitude of this decision and allow the taxpayers to have a voice before committing them to this debt. There's another issue we cannot ignore, roads and traffic. Lexington County residents deal with congestion every day. We have hundreds of millions of dollars in identified transportation needs. Families are sitting in traffic, existing roads are struggling with continued growth, and many residents are asking when the infrastructure they already use every day is going to catch up. Before borrowing $74 million for a sports complex, we should be asking whether our borrowing capacity and our financial resources should instead be directed towards essential infrastructure. We also need to ask who benefits most from this project. A regional sports complex may generate economic activity and benefit hotels, restaurants, developers, tournament operators, and communities surrounding the complex. Those benefits should be fully identified and quantified. by the people assuming the financial obligation of the taxpayers of Lexington County. If this project is economically beneficial as its supporters believe, then put all the numbers before the public, the total debt, the interest costs, operating expenses, projected revenues, infrastructure costs, and the assumptions behind the economic impact projections. Then let the taxpayers decide. I'm not opposed to recreation. I'm not opposed to economic development. I am opposed to making a commitment of this magnitude without sufficient public involvement and without first addressing the infrastructure problems our citizens are facing every day. Fix the roads, manage growth, protect the taxpayers. And on a $74 million commitment, give the voters of Lexington County a voice. Thank you.

Sue Dillon, this is in favor sheet. Is that correct?

Good evening, everyone. My name is Sue Dillon. My address is 1021 Gardendale Drive. That's Columbia 29210. I'm here as the director of Lake Murray Volleyball Club. You've already heard from another director in our area, Jerry, in the letter from Rogue. We have a total, I think, of nine volleyball clubs in the area, and I represent Lake Murray Volleyball Club. We all compete for court space and practice space, and we also compete with basketball, and it is like the wild, wild west out there. There's just not enough courts. I'm also here as the board chair for the PVA, the Palmetto Volleyball Association, which is a region under USAV, which is the largest volleyball organization. And you're going to hear from the commissioner. I believe he's right after me. But I'm here. I just want to read a couple of things. We've been in existence for 21 years, and we've steadily grown at a competitive level, but we have not been able to increase in size because of lack of courts available to us to add teams to our club. We cut well over 100 kids every season. It breaks our hearts not to be able to have them join us for the sole reason that we don't have enough gym space. Having a facility of this size will give us a home for our club and other clubs and ample space for growth. Volleyball is the number one participatory sport in high school and college for girls, and boys' high school volleyball numbers have exploded since 2020, and it's currently the fastest-growing participation sport in the U.S. I have a couple of my boys right here that are playing for us at Lakemore. I've got the young ones sleeping and the older ones. And for some background information and purpose, I wanted to expand on what travel volleyball looks like currently. Volleyball has grown so much that almost all tournaments are largely large convention centers or multi-court facilities. Gone are the days of using separate gyms with one or two court facilities scattered across town. Families now want destination facilities. They want to have all their teams in one venue and then be able to go out and see the town, eat at the restaurants, visit their shops, and shop at their stores. It has become a getaway for families and has continued to get more and more popular. The need for a facility like this project is immense, and we've been felt for years. We have all been traveling around the state using state-of-the-art facilities in Rock Hill, Myrtle Beach, Spartanburg, and Charleston. It seems crazy to me that we do not already have one in Columbia, our capital. This is such a great opportunity to seize on what could be a huge economic boost for this area. For comparison, the Rock Hill Sports and Events Center that we've all been talking about opened in 2020, and it generates an estimated annual direct economic impact between $55 and $62 million a year. It is from a substantial year-round tourism, fueled local hotels, restaurants, and retail venues. Lastly, I wanted to close by saying Lake Murray Volleyball Club held a tournament a while back here in town that had 48 teams. On the same weekend, another volleyball club had a separate tournament which had 73 teams. This is 121 teams that were in Columbia competing at different venues all over the area. Each team has between 10 and 12 players and 1 to 3 coaches. Using the average numbers here, this comes to over 1,500 players. Each of these players has a family that travels with them and stays overnight at least one night except for our local athletes. These 1,500 families were in town, but scattered across Columbia. Wouldn't have been a great if they could have been here right here in Casey on Lexington. Thank you.

I think this is the last name is Hayden. Okay. Welcome. Your address, please, sir.

I want to give a cheer. I might be the final speech you have to hear. I'm sorry, sir. You are in favor, right? Yes, sir. You're on the right page.

Thank you.

Jimmy Payton. I'm at 205 Botany Road in the old town of Greenville. 29615. Drove down to see you guys, and thank you, council. I'm the CEO for USA Volleyball, Palmetto Region. We are basically South Carolina, but USA Volleyball is the national governing body for the United States under volleyball, with some 400,000 members, 40,000 teams spread out across the United States. The Palmetto region is one of those 40 regions. We have about 9,000 members, over 100 teams, or excuse me, 100 clubs, some of those you've heard from, and some 400-plus teams that attend tournaments almost on a weekend basis, every weekend. PVA, Palmetto Volleyball, is the largest organization in South Carolina that has membership under volleyball. About 92% of all junior players participating in what you think of as club and travel volleyball are members of ours, or USA Volleyball. We've averaged about a 12% growth for the last five years. It's the number one sport in indoor sports in the United States, volleyball. In 2026, we hosted events every weekend from January through June, plus special camps and clinics. And these were in various facilities around South Carolina. We tracked the numbers with registration and attendance programs. So ours is hard numbers if you want to know in the future what the growth is and what real numbers look like. In 2026, we had 3,546 teams registered to play in these events, and we could only accept 2,811 due to capacity limits. So that tells you the need is there. The teams come from about five different states traveling. We had 86,725 adults come in as spectators in those events. These are the numbers from Rock Hill Sports Center. We are their number one economic intact driver in the sport at Rock Hill. Have a very good relationship with them. And we only run seven events there a year. So that tells you. We wish we could get more, but that sport of basketball, where are you guys at? has a few more in it also, and they have a couple of volleyball events that come out of North Carolina. But out of there, they have an 18-court facility. They built a new eight-court facility last year. Unfortunately, the people sitting behind their desks didn't do good planning, and we can only use six of those eight because they didn't put the space in that's needed for volleyball. Hopefully, if this goes forward, we can assist in that. We average in their facility $1,318,000 per weekend for impact, economic impact. These figures are coming from them. We average 2,731 room nights per weekend, and we average 5,665 adults and spectators per weekend. For South Carolina, there's only two large facilities, what we say is over 10 courts. That's Rock Hill and Myrtle Beach currently. The middle of the state is drastically needed, drastically. Sir, your time is up. Okay. Thank you.

Yep. Good job, though. Good job. The gong hit. All right. We have, I've got so much paper up here, but it looks, appears that we have three people left. Let's see, Anna Marie Green. And I've got Corey signed down on every sheet we have. So, Corey, are you still here? Sign all three sheets. I don't think you want to speak three times, I don't think. Yes, ma'am.

Good evening. I'm Ann Marie Green. I live at 126 Lupine Court in Lexington, 29072. And thank you, honorable men and women of the council for giving us a chance to speak. And you've heard a lot about the economic development. And I grew up in Lexington. And when I was a student at Lexington High School, if you wanted to play baseball, you went to Ballpark Road. That was basically the place to play baseball. And I have been shocked as I've watched my children grow up that my friends, their family's hobby was travel sports. I mean, every weekend I have friends whose children do baseball or soccer, and they were not just traveling regionally, but nationally, flying to Phoenix or Indianapolis or all these places all around the country to watch their kids play sports. And Fortunately, only my youngest child had a brief period of time where he thought he was going to be a professional athlete. We invested in travel basketball. Fortunately, he was on a travel team that just traveled in South Carolina and some to Georgia. Most of the places that we went in South Carolina, I would not have considered them safe or state-of-the-art. But those were the facilities where they could hold these small and middle-level tournaments. And to me, I'm like, why not us? Why not here in Lexington County? And I don't know if you have an idea of the reach of these kinds of tournaments. I got a little glimpse of it a few years ago when the Chick-fil-A Classic was here in Lexington at River Bluff High School. That tournament was nationally acknowledged, and my son, who loves basketball, attended all of the games for the two or three years that it was at River Bluff. And now, when we watch the NCAA March Madness, or we watch... an NBA game is on, my son will say, oh, well, you know, he played at River Bluff. He was in the Chick-fil-A Classic. Or, oh, you know, he was at the Chick-fil-A Classic. And so the exposure that these tournaments bring to our community, I think is significant. And so we're not just talking about those economic dollars that are the hotels and the restaurants. And I think that's going to be significant. because just the few tournaments that I attended as a parent, you know, we stayed in North Charleston or Rock Hill or Atlanta. But the exposure that it'll give to Lexington County and our community through those, because, I mean, there are YouTube channels and TikTok channels that follow these tournaments and expose wider audiences to these players. And so I think you'll be amazed at the amount of exposure that our community will get that will bring tourism dollars to us, not directly related to the sports, but because we're getting exposure on a national stage. So I thank you, and I hope you'll support the complex.

Thank you, Angel.

Good afternoon, members of council. Angela Board, 540 South Lake Drive, Lexington, South Carolina, 29072. As the president of the chamber, I moved here six years ago and started learning about the amenities that this county has to offer. And although we've got wonderful amenities like the tennis and other things, this is an area of opportunity that I think we should definitely take advantage of. For all the reasons that my colleague Tony Tam mentioned earlier from the Casey West Columbia Chamber, This is good for business. It's good for developing small businesses. You heard the story about the gentleman in the small business in Georgia. That is what can happen here. We need to bring this sports complex to Lexington County. One other thing I do want to add is that this is a smart... This is a smart investment, not only for the county, but for the Midlands. Because when those hotels fill up closer to Columbia, guess where they're coming? They're coming this way. They're going to take up all the hotels. But it's also going to be bringing in hospitality dollars, but it's also accommodation tax dollars. Oops, excuse me. And that's going to help to fund local infrastructure, tourism, and other community amenities that local taxpayers will not have to fund, those new dollars that will come into our community. For those reasons, I urge you to support this initiative. Thank you.

And last but not least in favor is Tim Miles.

I'm Tim Miles, mayor of West Columbia. I live at 816 Charleston Highway in the city of West Columbia. Friends, it's good to be here with y'all tonight. I've been here many times. I've lived in Lexington County for 20 years, and every year I come over a couple times and drop checks off to pay property taxes down on the first floor. This is the first time I've ever made it beyond there, and it's nice to be up here tonight lending a voice to how that money gets spent, hopefully. I'm here as a voice for the city council from West Columbia. Every year my council sits down and we collectively work to arrive at what our goals and priorities will be so we can direct our staff how they should go through and work throughout the year. And we've identified this project, even though it's not in the city of West Columbia, as one of our goals and priorities. Unanimously, my city supports this. Because we recognize how important it is for our end of the county. I started my day out today. It was my first meeting on Lexington County development. Garrett Dragano, I think he was here earlier. He may be gone, but he came and spoke and did a wonderful job. Y'all got a great guy. Does a wonderful job. He talked about the importance when you're looking at economic development matters, not to just look quantitatively and say, how many jobs can we bring in? How many dollars can we bring in? But to look quantitatively as to what those things do to the quality of life around them. And I think this just hits the sweet spot. I mean, it's a wonderful, wonderful economic development deal, and that's mainly why I support it, because it's going to bring a lot of folks into my city to spend a bunch of money and to stay in a bunch of hotels. But you've also got to look at the quantitative issues, the quality of life issues, those things. You know, every hotel that goes up, there are local folks who work inside of those hotels. Every restaurant that goes up, there are local folks who work inside of those restaurants. I've been involved in litigation with some local towns over the last couple years on the quality of some hotels. We've talked collectively through our business leadership groups about revamping and improving Airport Boulevard, making it look better and be a key gateway into our community and our region. I think this would be a huge, huge impact on doing all those things. it would be a great shot in the arm for so many of us. My city absolutely fully supports it. My girls would be too old to take part in it and enjoy the things that are over there. But hopefully my grandkids can. I can tell you that since COVID, And this isn't just lip service. I cannot count to you the number of times that I've had folks call who are looking to buy property to set up facilities to run sports tournament events, volleyball, baseball, the same things that are going here. And we have looked in earnest to try to find those spots because we recognize how important it is from the economic development side, but also to have a local place for kids to go out and participate in those things. We can't find it for the private money side. The level of land that it takes to do these things, the commitment in land, the expense in land that it takes in our end of the county that has been built out is cost prohibitive. So we need your support to make it happen. We hope you all do the legacy long-term thing and support our community. Thank you all.

Thank you, sir. All right, that is in favor. Mr. Chairman? Yes.

There may have been some folks that came in late, and we historically have allowed if there's anybody that would like to speak. Could we ask if there's anybody that would like to speak in favor of that may have come in late? I know that we started kind of early.

I was headed that direction.

Where have I heard that before?

I was headed that. Have we missed anybody that would like to speak?

Okay. I think you set that in place.

Hey, good evening. I'm Patty Foy, 1109 Blake Drive, KC, South Carolina, obviously. And I was late. I'm sorry. So that's why I wasn't on there. I just wanted to introduce myself to you guys. I'm a resident of KC. I am on the planning commission for city of KC. And I'm also a lifelong Lexington County resident. Just wanted to speak in favor for the sports complex. As Casey and the surrounding area grows, I believe that the project is an example of how we can make growth work for our community. I feel like this complex will bring something to the area that will benefit the residents, attract visitors, support local business, and contribute to the continued growth of Casey and Lexington County. Additionally, the property at I-77 and 12th Street seems particularly well-suited for this project. It really feels like that area has been waiting for something just like this since its inception. It has direct interstate access. The infrastructure is already in place there, and I think it's the perfect development. It really makes sense for that area. This project also complements what we already have in the area with the Lexington County Tennis Complex, which, as you guys know, sits right there at the intersection. It's been incredibly successful and well-utilized, and this new complex will allow us to build on that success and continue developing the area as a destination for sports in the area. I think what excites me the most about this is that it benefits the entire community. It brings people to Casey and Lexington County. It gives families and athletes another reason to spend time here. It creates opportunities for local businesses, and it makes productive use of a property in a highly visible and accessible location. And I think all of these are wins for both the city of Casey and Lexington County. Because I believe that the sports complex is a wonderful opportunity for Casey and Lexington County and for the people who call this community home. I would be thrilled to see it move forward. Again, as a Casey resident and a planning commissioner, I appreciate the support of council on this project. And I'm proud to be in favor of it. Thank you.

Thank you. I think you know the drill. Name and address.

I do. Roger Sipe, 440 River Club Road, Lexington, South Carolina, 29072. And Mr. Chairman, council members, I just want to thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of the Lexington County Development Corporation. Our President Debbie Summers is traveling and could not be here this evening, so I'm honored to speak on her behalf. I am a seated board member and also the current vice chair of that board. Our board is made up of CEOs and senior leaders from many of Lexington County's largest employers. We're committed to supporting initiatives and strengthen both of our economy and our quality of life. Lexington County has long been a desirable place to live and work. because of its strong healthcare, education, housing, and economic opportunities. This proposed sports complex is another investment in our community's future. Beyond creating recreational opportunities for our residents, this facility will attract visitors from across the region, generating economic activity for hotels, restaurants, retailers, and local businesses. From an economic development perspective, amenities like this matter. They help attract new investments, support business growth, and enhance Lexington County's competitiveness as a destination for both employers and families. We commend Lexington County Council for its vision and its leadership in considering this project. By supporting this sports complex, you're making an investment in Lexington County's quality of life and long-term economic success. So we are absolutely in support. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you, sir. I don't recognize this guy. You probably know the drill.

Yeah, all too well. Joe Mergo, 112 Pinehurst Court, West Columbia, 43-year resident of Lexington County. I just wanted to add a few things. One is we've been fighting for years about how to continue to expand our airport and how to get direct flights out of Columbia. And it's always the chicken or the egg and what's got to come first. You have to have more people that want to get on flights or fly in. We've seen firsthand what these facilities do. I don't know how many flight airplane tickets I bought to go to these facilities around the country. I started off coaching in youth league sports. I've taken travel teams from Cooperstown, New York, all the way to the end of Florida. We just had some of our kids drafted in the MLB draft who are from right here. But we've never been able to play right here. I've watched Lake Point from the time it started, when it was worried about whether it was going to make it or not, to now go to 2.5 million people that have been there. I've watched it with no businesses around it. I, too, have been to the same hamburger joint that Cory Warner talked about when it was small, and I have been there since it has grown. So I know what that does. I also know that what we love more about anything about visitors and growth is they come here, they spend their money, and then they leave. And those are the best kind of people that we can ask to be here. And that's critically important. I also know that from having sit where Mr. Sturkey sits and been a part of this county for over 28 years, there are very few agenda items that come before you that you have cities, counties, state, The business community, the chambers of commerce, and all in between speak in favor of an agenda item. I think it's absolutely incredible that you finally have to have an agenda item in front of you that is not met with a tremendous amount of controversy that speaks volumes to every single entity here who's in favor of it. And so I think that's incredible in and of itself because those things don't happen here. And when you look at it, I love what Ronald Reagan says when it doesn't matter Who gets the credit? That's when great things are accomplished. I can tell you there have been so many people that have been involved in this project over eight years to get us to this point. It's been absolutely amazing. And in the words of my favorite movie, Field of Dreams, if you build it, I guarantee you they'll come. Thank you.

Who else we have?

Jason Gross, 235 Secret Cove Drive, Lexington, South Carolina, 29072. I'm the area director for Perfect Game Baseball. I've been running baseball tournaments going on 25 years here. I remember years ago I was really excited because I got to have two or three dates at Oak Grove Park. And obviously we've seen how much it's grown since. I think back then we might have ran 100 teams that year. Now we're up to close to 3,000 teams that we run through Lexington County, one of the biggest tournament businesses ever. or baseball tournament businesses in the country. So I just, again, I've known Joe for years. We started coaching together 15 years ago. We started our Shockwave organization that was... first organization, I guess, in this state to play, have multiple teams play on a national level. So we've been traveling all over the country, always wishing, could we have something like what we're talking about now to come play in? And yeah, the baseball market, we could always use more fields, but I'm listening and I'm hearing about basketball and volleyball. I know how big our business is and how many people we bring in. I can't imagine what's going to happen in the other sports. This is going to be huge. It's great for these young people. We talk about our kids. We have kids that have been drafted in the major leagues. We must have 30 kids playing college baseball. And I know that's not about every kid, but just giving them the opportunity to have a facility like this and the parents not having to travel all over the country. It's huge. It's definitely going to be a game changer in all sports. I mean, I wasn't coming in here. I was thinking about baseball. But then when I heard about the opportunity for girls in basketball and volleyball, this is huge. And again, it's there's nothing like this. And I know everybody travels all over the country to come to this. facilities like this. I'm just really excited. Been doing this for 25 years. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that this is coming to Lexington County. So very, very exciting for everybody here, especially the young kids coming up to be able to have this. It's huge. Thank you very much.

address sir jason harman uh 333 old chapin road here in lexington i'm a lifelong lexington resident my family's from here grandparents from here so i don't want to hold people up because everybody's about ready for this uh to come to conclusion but just want to take back i was um in august i just looked it up to make sure i had it right august 16th 1994 i was playing in the old gym right before the tornado hit. And that was a place where I grew up. I mean, I grew up playing in that old gym. The floors, dead spots. The floors where you had to wait sometimes an hour to get in a pickup game because there was nowhere else to play. And just waited. It felt like in Lexington, once that tornado took that roof off, You know, of course, then shortly thereafter, we had the Ballpark Road facility on Ballpark Road that was built. But you always felt like we were missing court space, missing court space. Finally, in 2013, we get Barrow Sports Complex. It comes on board. That place is packed all the time. I'm the Nike basketball camp director for the state of South Carolina. I run camps all over. This is a need. I think we all know it. I also have four kids here locally in Lexington One Schools, ages 9, 11, 13, and 15. And I'm tired. I'm tired of traveling. So I would love for there to be a facility right here in Lexington that my kids can personally take part in because I see the need in it firsthand. And from the moment that tornado happened in 1994, I feel like we've been on the constant look for just additional gym space, court space. And we've gradually gotten bits and pieces along the way, but this is a game changer, as everybody else has said. And so I'm looking forward to it. Thank you all so much for your time this evening. I just can't wait to see what the future holds for sports here in the Lexington, Columbia area. Thank you all.

Okay. I'm going to close the favor section. Now with the opposition section, we have some people who like to speak. Matt Toole.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate it very much. I'm not completely opposed to it. I put my name on that side because I thought you'd call me first, but it's going to be last, it looks like. So that didn't work out for me. We've still got another hearing to go. I want to state a few things here, and I want us to get off of money, money, money, okay? Okay? And I'm going to give a recommendation at the end of this. County taxes are currently too high for the vast majority of the taxpayers. I'm going to tell you why in a minute. I'm going to go through some statistics, and I got to do it quick. Taxpayers are looking for less, not more taxes. A lot of citizens have expressed their opinion of this proposal to me, A to Z occupations, and not one of them, which I couldn't understand, not one wanted additional taxes for this effort. Now, they didn't all say that we didn't need this and this would be great. I got four grand boys and most of them play sports. You know, the county has needs project and it has won't projects. This is a won't project. And if any government entity gets into too many won't projects, then you can easily get taxes way above where they should be. Won't projects really should be implemented by private developers and not government so that we won't burden taxpayers? You know, there's a risk factor in everything, and we don't want to talk about these, but I'm bringing up some things that I need to talk to you about. There's always a risk factor in everything you do. I want to look at some facts. 50% of Lexington County citizens live from paycheck to paycheck. 50%, I'm more of a people person. 50% from paycheck to paycheck. 60%, if they have some type of unexpected bill, they can't meet it. They got to go borrow the money, put it on the credit card, or borrow it from a friend. Average home price in Lexington County is $309,000. That would be additional basically $45. And this doesn't include, you know, if the $74 million would be enough money to meet the project, we will probably, if it's like most projects, we will have to come back to the kitty.

Give me just... Mr. Two, if I give it to you, I've got to give it to everybody else. You've been here, done that, and bought the T-shirt, so you understand how it works.

Foreclosures are up 26% from 25 to 26. Lexington County is fourth in bankruptcies. I could show you all of that. Thank you. The policeman's taking me off. I'm leaving. He's going to jail over this.

All right. Reed. Meeman. Is that right? Is Reid here? Is Reid here? Is he left? Going once, going twice. Vernon Reinhart, is he here? Going once, going twice. James Lamb, are you here? Going once, going twice. There he is. Very good.

My name is James Lamb, live at 335 Gator Road, 29053. I'm not against sports. I'm not against this complex. What I'm against Is it being put on the burden of taxpayers? Period. It's not our job. It's not your job to provide it. 250 years ago, our founders started a war due to less taxation and what's forced on us now. Some say taxation is theft. I say it's government-sponsored extortion. Pay up or else. Pay up or you're going to take my house. Pay up, you know, you're going to take this, throw me in jail. That's extortion. Period. Y'all want us to pay for something now that this, quite frankly, this is not our responsibility. It's not government's responsibility to provide entertainment. And that's what this is, entertainment. I see the... The reason for having the economic drivers, it'll work. Who's it going to benefit? Casey? Is it going to benefit the fringes outside the edges of the county? I doubt it. It's not going to do a thing for me. I have no kids that play sports. All my kids are grown and gone. nothing everybody i've talked to is against it i know you got a bunch of people in favor here um they're all in favor but they're from the municipalities they're going to be getting tax money tax money tax money i got a question in all this all this money come in is it going to lessen my tax burden in the long run i've never seen government cut taxes never um It's ironic that a member of the town of South Congaree came and spoke in favor of it but didn't mention the failure of the Recreation Department to provide a park for the children that has been in the works for several years now. There's still nothing there. But that doesn't bring, you know, pats on the back and attaboys and won't bring any tax money. So... The other thing I wanted to mention is our state legislators just came to an agreement on a budget. In that budget, they, I think for citizens over 65, they gave them all a tax, property tax reduction. But what you guys want to do, you just want to take that away. You just want to put more taxes on those, you know, 65 and older. They're looking forward to that reduction. I mean, think, you know, civics. This is not government responsibility. If the market will hold it, let the market pay for it. Not us, not taxpayers. We don't want this. Thanks for your time.

Okie dokie, Smokey. That is everybody, I think, unless there's somebody I missed. Yes, ma'am. Knock yourself. Get up and say if you're in favor or against, and rock and roll.

Thank you. I love rock and roll. Okay, my name is Louise Gettings. I live at 801 Lauren Lane, Lexington, South Carolina, 29072. I'm going to be a devil's advocate tonight. I want you to ask yourself, what if? This sounds wonderful, but your job is to be physically, physically, is it physically responsible? That's your job. Taxpayers could be left holding the bag for $74 million, the way I look at it. I might be wrong. What guarantee do we have that this is going to be successful? How many signed contracts do you have with these teams saying they will definitely come here or they will pay for this complex? I want you to think of a few bond, how do you say it? Bondugles? Bondogles? What is it? It's stuff that fails, okay? In South Carolina, Scott Motors deal, y'all remember that? Mock's facility at Savannah River Plant. Carolina Panthers headquarters. Boy, everybody was so excited about that. But what happened? Who paid for that stuff? Was it the taxpayers of South Carolina? I really don't know. I'm just a taxpayer, okay? But... We already pay taxes for schools, football fields, lacrosse, soccer fields, baseball fields. I have grandchildren. They play sports. We don't need this. We don't want this. What if once you start building this, you realize it's going to take more money than you expected? Where's that money coming from? Are you just going to leave it unfinished like these things? in South Carolina, Bondougals or whatever you call them. What happens at that time? More taxes for citizens. What if it doesn't bring in any revenue? Well, I'm sure it will bring in some, but what if it flops? I'd rather take my money to Vegas and take my chances there than on this. If it does work, we're going to have hundreds more cars on the roads, on our pothole roads every weekend. We're going to have traffic. That's why I was late getting here tonight. It was bumping a bumper everywhere. As far as Nikki Stetzler goes, I... fought the GSX toxic waste landfill on Lake Marion, Santee. They left town. We were left holding tons of millions, millions of tons of toxic waste that we've got to deal with now down there forever. Our children, our grandchildren, Nicky Setzler voted for that. He was in favor of that. And one thing we need to look is at the money, follow the money on this, too. Because if you follow the money on GSX.

Thank you. Mm-hmm. All right. Got one more. Yep.

Good evening. I'm Nikki Rogers, 139 3 Pond Lane in Lexington, 29073. I've had multiple people call me, and it's not that we are against recreational sports. Everyone I've talked to loves the sports and the idea of bringing sports to Lexington. However, not on the taxpayer dollar, not on the backs of the taxpayers that are already struggling. Lexington County has about 300 plus thousand people. This is less than 100 people. Put it to the vote. Put it on the ballot and let the people of Lexington County pick and vote whether they want this extra tax burden put on them. Yes, it may bring in money, but it's also going to bring in those extra people that's going to be on the roads that are already traffic ridden and lots of potholes. So I'm here in opposition of it being a project that is put on the taxpayer's back. It's got to be another way to fund it. Thank you.

Okay, I think we have covered the gamut, and we appreciate everybody's opinion. No, I'm not waiting. Where? Oh, okay. All right. Excuse me. I thought he was waving to Nikki. I didn't... My name is Jake Knotts.

I live at 500 West Dunbar Road, West Columbia, South Carolina, 29170. I think I know everybody up here. Y'all have a job here to do, and I appreciate y'all doing your job. But... I talk to people every day, and in fact, if you remember when I first got elected, the taxpayers, the tax dollar, the treasurer was taking old folks' homes. I went to the bank because they didn't have the money to save their house, and I borrowed $25,000, and I paid the taxes for those people. and gave them their deeds back, I still talk to some of them. I go around to the poor people in South Congaree and all around that don't have food, don't have air-conditioned. Sitting there in the heat, I make sure that they can get air-conditioned. I've called people to put in air-conditioned for people. People out there are struggling to survive. I'm not against progress. I rented a bus and took them all the way down to Alabama from Pine Ridge one year. You know, we just got to look and look at things the way it is. And this is a good project, I'm sure it is. But we need to look after the people and put it to the vote of the people. We can't even raise a penny sales tax to fix our roads. And we got garbage trucks, and I was talking to Clifford at Lizard Thicket. Garbage trucks getting tax dollars from the county council here for helping get the garbage to the dump, but they got tags in Florida not paying taxes. You know, but they're getting our money from here and charging, going up higher and higher and higher, but riding down the street with Florida tags on the trucks. That's not right, and we need to start looking after the taxpayers, and that's why you probably have some people here who is against it, and a lot of people have called me. And I talked with Todd, and Todd, I appreciate you explaining it to me. It's not that anybody is against sports or against a project like this. As much as it is that reassessment, every time the House comes back up for reassessment until that bond is paid off, it's going to be reassessed every, what, five years? Every five years. So we're not just talking about the little tax dollars that we're going to get to start it. But every five years, that same house or business or whatever is going to be taxed, and it's going to be included in that bond. But this is a good project, but it's just that we need to do it the right way. Like today, people were going to be coming here, and that's the reason I came, because they said that we have to work at 4 o'clock. We can't be there. And, you know, and I appreciate you having a public hearing, and I'm glad that people came here and talked. Thank you, Senator. Just think about it, y'all.

Thank you. The 26-11 public hearing is closed, and we will open up the public hearing. 2611 is... Well, people are going to leave. 2609 is ordinance authorizing pursuant to Chapter 44 of Title 12 of Chapter 1 of Title 4 of South Dakota Code of Laws 1976 as amended. the execution and delivery of fee agreement, number two, a special source revenue credit between Lexington County, South Carolina, and Project Ribbon, number three, the continued benefits of multi-county industrial business park to be made available to this project and to four other matters related thereto. Garrett's going to give us an explanation.

Good afternoon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ordinance 2609 is an ordinance, as you just mentioned, authorizing pursuant to Chapter 44 for a fee and limit tax agreement, special source revenue credit agreement between Lexington County and Project Ribbon, or formerly known as Project Ribbon, as identified in the agreement with Prismian Cables and Systems. This project, sorry, bear with me one second. represents a projected investment of $80 million with a projected job creation of 136 new jobs for Lexington County, which represents, over the next 15 years by our cost-benefit analysis, a total economic impact to Lexington County of $154,471,352 over the course of the next 15 years. That's all I have, sir.

It is. Thank you, Gary. We had on electronic, we had zero in favor and four opposition. I have no one signed up in opposition to this 2609. We have one, I think, signed up by mistake. Roger, maybe you did sign up to speak, but I think Roger's already gone on Roger's side, so... We have 0, 0, 0 in favor and 4 in opposition. So with that said, 2609, hearing is closed. We have one moment to finish business. We have ordinance, the second reading, approval of 2609 and ordinance authorizing pursuant to chapter...

Chairman, are you asking for a motion? Looking for a motion.

If you're going to make it, I'm going to make it.

I would move, if I may, to approve Ordinance 2609, Ordinance to Authorize and Assert in Chapter 44 and Title 12. Chapter 1 of Title 4 of South Carolina Code of Laws of 1976 is amended. the execution and delivery of a fee agreement, a special source revenue credit between Lexington County, South Carolina, and Project Ribbon, the continued benefits of a multi-county industrial and business part to be made available to the project, and other matters related hereto is my motion.

Second. I am so glad you made that motion because I was too tired to make it. Second by Ms. Carrick. Am I missing anything?

Oh, yeah, one other thing we have to add to that.

We've got... ADDED TODAY. I WANT TO MOVE THAT WITH THE SECOND READING IN ORDERS 2609 IS SUBJECT TO THE APPROVAL OF REVISIONS TO THE FEE AGREEMENT BY THE COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR AND COUNTY ATTORNEY.

YOU'RE CORRECT, AND I WOULD ASK THAT THAT BE ADDED TO MY MOTION.

THANK YOU, SIR. WE HAVE A MOTION AND A SECOND, A PROPER SECOND. MADAM CLERK, CALL FOR THE VOTE.

Councilman Cullum.

Yes.

Councilman Conwell.

Yes.

Councilwoman Kehrig. Yes. Councilwoman Wessinger. Yes. Councilman Fisher. Councilman Brigham.

Yes.

Councilman Bishop.

Yes.

Vice Chair Cockrell. Yes. Chairman Hudson.

Yes. Great to see everybody. Mr. Chair. Yes, yes, yes. Second. All in favor. Third. Great to see everybody. All in favor? All opposed? We're gone. The word is boondoggle.