County Council - Regular Meeting

Your Greenwood County Council has been in executive session since 4 p.m. We had four matters that needed to be discussed in the interest of transparency. I'll ask Manager Chappell to tell you why we had that need. Mr. Manager, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of County Council. We needed to enter into executive session for the following four reasons. Two matters relating to obtaining legal advice pertaining to a potential defamation lawsuit and an alleged criminal investigation. One relating to an economic development pertaining to a project currently known as Project Apollo, and one contractual matter pertaining to Red Tail Renewables.

Thank you, sir. Appreciate that. Council, there's no action to take coming out of executive session. I'll entertain a motion. Will you please exit?

Motion to exit.

Motion by Ms. Miller, second by Mr. Templeton. All in favor? and we have exited executive session. Thank you. Our invocation tonight, I believe, will be administered by Councilwoman Griffin, and after such, we will honor our nation with a Pledge of Allegiance. If you're able, please stand.

Good evening. Let us pray. Our kind, gracious Father, we come saying thank you. Thanking you, Lord, for life, health, and strength, We thank you for our lying down last night and our uprising this morning. Lord, we thank you for everything that you have had accomplished for us today. And now, Lord, we come thanking you for each and every one that's here tonight, praying, Lord, that everything that we say and do will be pleasing in our sight. These and all of the blessings we do ask in our son Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Thank you all. Council, I trust you've had an opportunity to review your minutes from our July 21st meeting. Is there any discussion? If not, I'll take a motion that those meetings, those minutes be approved as recorded.

I'll make a motion to approve. Second.

Motion by Ms. Miller, second by Vice Chairman. All in favor? That's so ordered. Thank you. We have one person tonight signed up for public comment. Tracy Richey, 522 Pascal. Pascal wants to speak on new business item G, I believe. Please come forward. Thank you.

Hello. So, I just have a couple questions about that. I took a drive around that area on 221. And like Marshall, I cannot believe the amount of homes that are going into those areas. It's kind of crazy. And it's one lane roads. And they built like the Ryan homes. And when they built those homes, they didn't expand the road, make it like two lanes. I don't understand how we can have all these homes being built and not have roads to accommodate all these people that are going to be coming here if they build all these houses that apparently the lots are already being prepared and there's quite a bit. So my question is if we're going to rezone this and we want to put residential What are we gonna do about our roads? Is there any talk of expanding them to at least two lanes on each side or something? Because it is gonna be, it's already a mess. I take that way to go to church all the time, take 221. And there's a lot of traffic and people trying to get in and out. And so I'm just curious as if something is in the works if they're building these homes while they're building and they're doing all this construction, if they can, the roads can be expanded at the same time instead of doing it after the fact when now you're going to inconvenience all these residents and have to expand the roads because it's going to have to happen. So, you know, can it happen before they build, like get these roads, especially 221, expand it? so that, you know, we can keep traffic moving. Right-hand turn lanes, you know, so, you know, we can keep everything moving. Left-hand turn lanes so you're not stopping traffic. That's all I wanted to say.

let me comment let me comment on that tracy because it's a legitimate question in the in the approval process of the rezoning we rely very heavily on the dot traffic studies before before those in that approval process and as you can imagine um turn lanes road recreation in that process that's going to take a year a year and a half so that's not a quick process so it's a legitimate question that you ask but we as i said we we the county rely on the traffic studies that dot presents to us based on numbers of homes being built so thank you for the comment appreciate you being here tonight thank you yes ma'am We'll move now to presentations. We have four presentations tonight. I'll ask first that Mr. Neal Chapman and Jared Davis come forward, please. We're going to take an update on our investments with First Citizens Bank. Is Neal here tonight, Jay?

Don't have Neal today. Don't have your shotgun, pardon me. I'll try to be as brief as I can. There's only one of me now.

Thank you much.

Well, thank you for having us, as usual. In your booklets ahead, I'll run our screen. In your booklets ahead, we can go to page five. We'll start as we typically do, with a little bit of market econ, a little bit about what we see out there in the economy and how it relates. to the yield there for the county. So as we start off, we'll draw on this a little bit as we discuss the economy. But Q2 earnings, corporate earnings at 24% as we seek to close Q2, obviously a very good number. A number that was expected to be good as we started the year has been even better. As we look further out into 2026, there still looks to be a lot of run for corporate earnings. I believe that when we think through the things that affect the county as it relates to yield, this can play a part for sure. On your next page, on page six, a little bit about inflation, where we've been here in the past six to eight months. So at the bottom, you'll see your Fed target, the straight line at 2%. You have three lines that start in your blue shaded area on the right. These are three different time frames that we're looking at here. The dark blue, the one that you're going to see right there in the middle, that's our latest forecast. The pink would have been the last time we were here, closer to June. Of course, as we started the year, inflation looked to be under control. Things were trending in the direction that I think the Fed would prefer to see to have continued on their path of reducing rates without question. Naturally, with the Iran conflict and the Strait of Hormuz, that has changed things a little bit. So the dotted blue line at the bottom, that's what we had hoped would start up in February of this year. The dark blue is what we see today. The good news is that the pink, when we spoke last time, inflation is coming down a little bit. So we've seen some progress there, but certainly more elevated than was expected at the beginning of the year. Most strategists and economists would agree that it will take some time to get back to that number. And that certainly draws into what we think about the Fed. The last time we were here was the first time we had that bifurcated line between hikes and cuts. Until that March timeframe, expectation would be that cuts were coming, hikes were really not in the conversation with Iran, that conversation started to potentially be able to go either way. I think as we continue to move forward, The likelihood of rates going up would increase if we're not going to see, we're gonna see a slower inflation come down if the Fed is continuing to see earnings look as good as they have, but inflation continue to not come down as much as the likelier that we could see them go the top line and look towards the hike. So time will tell. Of course, negotiations still going on today. Reports are that there's the possibility of some face-to-face negotiation. We'll see where that goes. You can imagine which way things go depending on where the straight gets opened and when. So more to come on that. Specifically for you guys, when we think about yield, when we think about where are we going, On page eight, if you're in your booklet up on the screen, this is the U.S. Treasury curve. The yellow would represent today. So getting close to a normalized yield curve, closer than we've been for some time. The two lines on the bottom, the more blue and dark blue, the middle would have been the close of last year. The bottom dotted would have been at the beginning of this. So I've seen rates go up a little bit. But in that same breath, we've seen some normalization, which I think the Fed enjoys and frankly could could lean them towards a hike. But again, I think there's still a lot to shake out before we have a clear picture of where they where they go next. So pause there. Any questions when we think about econ, we can do a quick review on yield as it relates to the county. All right. So in your booklets, if you want to flip to page 14, So starting with electric capital, yields right around 4.20%. That's the yield to maturity for the account. I think that that's obviously a very strong number. That particular, the duration there is a four-year ladder. So you're able to gather rates as they were good a little ways back whenever we chose to push that out. That's continuing to pay off. For the operating funds, if you will go to page 21, A little less than that, you're looking at 4.11. That's of course a shorter ladder and roughly a two and a half year ladder for that one. Knowing it's operating, we certainly want to keep it a little shorter, but still a very attractive yield for the account. So those are the big picture items. Any questions as it relates to performance, econ, anything along those lines?

council thank y'all always a pleasure council next on a presentation agenda next on a presentation agenda will be recognition of our 2026 star employees so if council if you would join me down front and let's recognize those folks for the great work that they've done Is that working? We always really enjoy doing these recognitions. As I said, a lot of great work gets done for our citizens and for the county on a daily basis. So first we'll start with what we call our rising star nominees. Our rising star nominees in this recognition are Ryan Bland from planning. Ryan here. There he is. I don't have the two hands. Why don't you take care of the handing and shaking? Thank you, Ryan. Appreciate your work. Ryan's relatively new with us, so for him to be getting awards already is pretty spectacular. Lexi Gowen from the Coroner's Office. Congratulations, let's see. Thank you. Kimberly Irving from Probate. Kimberly and I do. Matt Jones from Solid Waste Management. My boy Matthew. He's got his new branded apparel on there. Good job, Matt.

Thank you.

Good to see you. Tara Murray from the clerk of court's office. Yes, Tara.

Thank you for everything there, appreciate you.

Our star nominees, Abby Banks from Economic Development.

As always. We'll take pictures afterwards.

Yeah, Abby just reminded me, we'll take photographs afterwards. Mary Bright from Public Works Administration. Everybody's got their new duds on I like that Thank You Mary Jeff Caldwell from engineering William Culberson from our roads department

Thank you for everything. We appreciate you.

Julie Davis from Lake Management.

Yeah, you're changed.

Thanks, Rhett.

Lee Davis from Facilities Management.

Appreciate your link. Thank you.

Michael Ely from Solid Waste Disposal.

Thank you, Michael.

Dana Jennings from Probate Court. Dana not with us tonight. Peyton Lark from the coroner's office.

Thank you.

Amber Napier, Litter Prevention. Good job, as always. Thank you. Amber O'Shield from Clerk of Courts Office.

Thank you, Amber. Appreciate you.

And Laura Wood from Human Resources. The lady who always gets me in Rhonda's office.

Thank you.

So our winners of the Rising Star nominees from Solid Waste Disposal, Matthew Jones. That boy's on the move. From Facilities Management, Lee Davis. Very nice. And the department head award goes to Shane Sprouse, ITGIS. Great work, buddy.

Thank you.

We're going to recognize now our retirees. and several of them couldn't be here unfortunately tonight, but Ray Pettit as a paramedic, 13 years, six months, and one day. How'd you get that one day on there, Ray?

Thank you for everything, appreciate you.

Master Deputy Matthew Murphy, 25 years and eight days. Appreciate that service, Matthew. Thank you. From the Sheriff's Department also, is Mitch Mathis here tonight?

Mitch couldn't be with us, I don't think.

From Civil Process Clerk's Office, Cynthia Owens, 30 years, eight months, and four days. I thought she was here. From the Sheriff's Office, Captain Two, Eddie Smith, 32 years, 11 months, and 10 days. And for me, Eddie, God, it seems like longer. that is it folks thank you all for all your service to our county very well deserved photographs outside see abby We'll give just one second for them to clear. Josh Skinner will give us our capital project sales tax report update for this quarter, please. We got a malfunction, Susan. Hold on a minute, Josh. Go ahead, Josh.

There we go. Okay. You all ready? All right. Thank you.

Thank you.

Quarterly update from capital project sales tax. Start with 16. We have 14 projects in progress. Bike and pedestrian trails, we have $110,000 left. We have the second round of the Safe Streets for All grant, which is $80,000 that we have the paperwork in, and we're working on getting that approved now. Meeting with Billy Nicholson and the Parks and Trails Foundation. They would like to focus that money on a bike lane and a sidewalk from Laurel to the new entrance of Gray Street Park. Currently, there's nothing there, so that's a major need for them. And that is part of our our comprehensive safety plan so that that would be eligible for funding there. So we'll be looking at that over the next couple of months. Public Safety Training Center, last time I was here in April, we talked about the site on Deadfall Road, the annex and the shooting range site, possibly the landfill, we have started planning the the training center at the annex site. This is from our architect, Stuart Cooper Newell. You see the driving pad here, a a drill tower here just to get you oriented. This is the gym of the current where EMS is currently at the annex. you have a drill we'll have a uh drill tower here a two-story burn building here and then uh different burn pads throughout the site for things like uh this is a christmas tree prop um extrication pad to practice getting people out of vehicles and possibly a rehab building so this is the plan for the training center the annex we have 3.8 million right now the plan is to At first, just grade, grade the site, hopefully build the training pad and maybe put in some infrastructure and a couple of roads and then focus the rest of the of the funds on the shooting range. We did send the shooting range at the landfill to our architect and his shooting range expert. One of the reasons we hired them He really liked the sight at the shooting range. They pointed out the two shooting lines for possible range orientation. Usually they point north or northeast. You see here you have about, you know, over 10,000 feet for stray bullets in this direction and over 12,000 feet for stray bullets to the northeast where there's no, residences in that area so they really like that site they also mentioned that you know the sound reverberation would come down across the existing landfill site which is ideal because you aren't disturbing as many people there are some zoning issues there so we have been looking at different sites that work with our zoning ordinance Of course, our zoning ordinance requires a mile, the shooting range being further than a mile from any residence, so that kind of limits us to the south part of the county, RDD and FA, forest agriculture. have found a site in this area it's about 300 acres 1.5 million so uh pricey large tracks and of course when you're buying those large tracks you have to build uh longer roads and longer utilities to get there so put that pointer up again please josh where is that uh it's right off here it's kind of right off whitehall road okay But if anybody else knows of any sites, rural sites that might be further than a mile from any of your residents, please let me know. We'll look into it because we really need to get started on a shooting range. Sewer Line and Ware Shoals, they've poured the footers. They're kind of, they put this project on hold while they look for additional funding. to complete the whole project at one time. So it's kind of been at a standstill for about six weeks, I believe is what John Lake said. Watershed study, we're moving forward. Weather stations, nobody really wants to maintain the weather stations, so that project's kind of on hold in Gatewood and Chinquapin. Davidson-Floyd has designed the emergency access roads, and we are waiting to get word from DOT on permitting. So this is Chinquapin connecting to Tall Pines Trail. And this is Tranquil Road connecting to, I think that's Glen Ridge Circle. So those are two emergency access roads that are being designed. And we also have some preliminary designs for two options at Dry Branch Court connecting to MIGS. Only about 300,000 remaining for that project. The buyout grants back in January, council approved us applying for these four different grants through the South Carolina Offensive Resilience. Last week, we got a letter from them saying that our Fox Hollow buyout grant was approved. That's a $3.8 million grant, which we agreed to put up $306,000 as a match. Of course, and we'll talk about that a little bit later in the action items of the agenda. but I know the residents of Fox Hall are real excited about that, as is the people at SCORE, so it should be a good project. Carolina Avenue Connector, the city's having some issues with purchasing land along the proposed route, so they are working with South Main to buy a little over an acre through their parking lot to run the Carolina Avenue Connector through there and then sort of redo some of the park in the South Main. So the city's working on that. They have 2.3 million remaining for that project. The train museum or the railroad historical center is moving along. They have the roof on. The doors and windows should be here soon. And the expected opening date is January, probably some grand opening early next spring. So it's moving along pretty well there at the training museum. And the Harris Landing water lines, eight inch lines have been laid along Old Lawrence Road all the way to Lake Drive. And then right now, CPW is putting in the six inch lines along Sanford Drive. And I believe they're going to, I believe the end date for this project is fall, early winter for all these lines to be laid at Harris Landing. Totals for the 2016 capital project sales tax, we've collected 87 million, 87.5 million. We spent 57 million, so we have $30 million left to finish up these 12, 14 projects. and 2024 government project sales tax we've collected 15 and a half million so far uh we've collected all the money for the pmont tech career center and we started collecting money for uh the fire master plan phase one which will be new fire trucks tankers and um We have a bid opening in two weeks for a new fire station, Lower Lake Fire Station, south of 96. And of course, all these are, you can find all this information on the website, on the California Project Sales Tax Web page. And we did submit these to DOR just today. So they have all our updated information. Any questions on the update?

Council, any questions, comments? Josh, thank you. I don't know how you keep up with all of it, but good job. Thank you very much.

Thanks, Josh.

Our last presentation, an update on our airport capital improvement projects, the county engineer, Mr. Rhett Templeton.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. All right, usually I come to see you all around December to talk about our airport capital improvement plan. This first slide is kind of showing the graphic I provided you all in December. We looked at two projects and submitted grants on two projects this year. One of those is the Taxiway Delta and Taxi Lanes project as shown in green on the slide. Then the other one was a hanger development and access road project that's shown in purple. So we came to you all I think in April to talk about the Taxiway D project and submit an application to the FAA in June for the access roads. When we did these applications, the way this process works is we have so much entitlement funds that the FAA gives us. It's FAA funding that's already designated to our airport. Then we have sort of a local share, a state share, and anything over that we are eligible to go after discretionary funds. So when we came forward with that grant application, we knew that they were going to need discretionary funds to complete that project. So we did a pre-application, I guess a year prior, But those estimates at 30% design, so the cost was a little bit more than what we said on the pre-application. Ultimately with the taxiway delta project, we were hoping the FAA would be able to cover the complete delta that we had on that project. It was about 1.2 million. and through that process they were not able to do so without additional funding what they proposed to us and we feel we've decided was the best process for our airport was to take the aig funds which are already federal funds that different pot and aig funds that we're going to use to do a partial part of the access road project and be able to completely finish that so we put the 500 000 of the aig funds which is federal funding already and then they're going to match with additional discretionary funds of additional $700,000 sent to basically make that project whole. So that being said that project that we're moving forward with is the taxiway delta project just kind of show you what we're we're getting out of this the area that's kind of in those dashed lines that's our taxiway delta it's kind of a u-shaped taxiway goes from the ramp all the way around the hangars back over to our main runway and then you see the hangars the taxi lanes i want to go next slide those are also being rehabbed and replaced um and improved upon so Like I said, we were going to have to either reduce scope or get this project completed was to basically postpone doing the access road project and use those AIG funds to basically, I guess, leverage the federal government to give us the additional seven. this allows us to get a complete project here the access road project was only going to be a partial start so we'll continue to keep it as a priority we're identifying other funding sources or grant funding sources for it but wanted to kind of let you know what direction we were heading with these grant projects you have any questions for me so do and you probably don't but do do we have an do we have any kind of timeline in which we think we could move forward the access roads That's going to depend upon funding locally. Typically, revenue-generated projects come in a different match, and we're going to have to contribute significantly locally, so that's going to depend upon what kind of funding sources we have available to us.

Okay, thank you. Council, any questions or comments? Thank you, Rhett. Thank you. Appreciate you. Unusually, we have no old business to take up tonight, and we have no public hearings scheduled for tonight, so we'll move directly into items of new business. We have seven items of new business. First item A is a consideration of amending the Landfill Gas Rights Agreement and the Greenwood County Landfill Gas Collection Systems Operations and Maintenance Agreement, between Greenwood County and VRNG Greenwood in response to requests from Red Tail Renewables. Our assistant county manager for operation, Mr. Rob Rushing.

Thank you all for letting me speak before you tonight. We've been selling gas, our methane gas, out in landfills for the better part of 20 years. The first 10, 15 years of that to Uh, Fuji, when Fuji scaled back their operations in the county, we went out and found another partner in vision RNG to partner with for, uh, for that gas. And they've been involved in, uh, uh, due diligence or evaluation period for about 18 months or so since we signed those original contracts with them. Uh, the part of the vision RNG that held those contracts was recently sold to red tail renewables, a very similar company to RNG. But as part of that sale, they have come to us and asking us to amend those two original agreements a bit, uh, one to recognize that they are now the holders of those agreements. Um, but also to, uh, the biggest change in the amendment, uh, to those two contracts is the timeframe, uh, which would allow them to do some additional, uh, evaluation, uh, that timeframe. Um, it gives them till, uh, the end of March of 2027 for their determination phase, uh, started construction before the end of 27 and complete construction before the end of 28. So, um, that was the biggest change that they're asking for, uh, in these two, uh, in this amendment to those two original contracts. And again, that's stemming from the sale of that part of vision RNG to red tail renewables. We have met with Red Tail Renewables on numerous occasions. I believe we have one representative here tonight from Red Tail and Alex Barrow, correct? He's not, totally wasn't prepared to speak tonight, but we did want to come and acknowledge their partnership here with Greenwood County kind of going forward. We've been, again, involved with them, you know, taking a look at our facilities and all that, and we're excited about our relationship with them going forward. If you have any questions, we're asking for approval tonight for the county manager and county attorney to finish the negotiations on those documents and approve, give them approval to execute all those documents for this amendment.

Sir, do you have anything you want to add to Mr. Russians comments? Well, thank you for being with us and thank you for your partnership with Greenwood County Council. We've had discussion about this, and I believe, as Mr. Rush just said, there are no remarkable changes in the preexisting contract. I think our county attorney advises well on that. with the exception of the construction that's gonna take place. So, having heard Rob's presentation. Offer your motion to approve, Mr. Chair. We have a motion by Mr. Templeton, a second by Ms. Bishop. Any comments or discussion before we vote? If not, all in favor is presented. That's unanimous and so ordered. Thank you, Rob. Thank you. Item B, consideration of reappointment and appointments to the vacant seats on the Accommodations Tax Committee. Ms. Doran, our County Treasurer,

County assistant county manager for finance excuse me miss door just remind you that South Carolina Code of Law section 6 for 25 requires that because we receive more than $50,000 in accommodations tax revenue that we must appoint an advisory committee to make recommendations on the expenditures of those revenues the advisory committee must be made up of seven members of with at least two from lodging, two from hospitality, one from cultural organizations, and two at-large members. Last year, council appointed Stephen Harrington with Sports Break as a hospitality member. Ned Baldwin with Comfort Inn and Quality Inn has been serving and wishes to continue to serve. And Howard Corley has been serving as a hospitality representative and wishes to continue to serve. Staff have been trying to find additional members to find the slots. that were either vacant or previous members no longer wanted to serve. We do have a recommendation for you of Mary Catherine McArthur. She is on the Board of Directors for the Arts Center, and she is willing to fill in as the arts and cultural role as required. We also have Mr. Richard Crow, who is wanting to be involved. He is a former county council member, and he would serve in an at-large position. we have been unsuccessful in finding anybody else to serve in the lodging role the deputy treasurer even went over actually went over to the end on the square to try and talk to somebody about participating and we also need someone to fill in for the other at-large role unless council has any recommendations tonight for those two vacancies we would ask that you go ahead and appoint the members that we have recommended and potentially bring back two recommendations for our next meeting in two weeks. So we're trying to get our expiration dates to make sure that we are keeping up with those and rotating them around. So we have, we would recommend Ned Baldwin and Howard Corley set to expire in July of 2028, Stephen Harrington in July of 2030, and Mary Catherine McArthur and Richard Crow to expire in 2032.

I'll offer you a motion to approve the recommendations. Second.

I have a motion by Mr. Pruitt and second by Mr. Templin. Any comments or questions before we vote?

I had a comment, Mr. Chairman. Ms. Miller. Thank you, Ms. Norman. You asked for suggestions. I don't know if you guys have reached out to the chamber because they would have a list of everybody that's a member in these different fields. It might be a resource to find out somebody.

We went through Kelly McWhorter, and she has all the contacts for the lodging. also looked at who was serving for the city so we did try that route okay any other comments questions all in favor is presented and that's unanimous and so ordered Thank You Stephanie and I would just ask if council does come up with any names please just reach out to me or deputy treasurer little slide and we will contact them to see if they are interested

Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Item C, consideration of the approval of the South Carolina Opioid Recovery Fund application. Ms. Doran.

I think you probably all know this is kind of a pet project of mine that I truly enjoy being a part of, although my part is pretty small. But before I get into the current application request, I just kind of wanted to update you on the funds that we have expended. We've been in this for about two years now that we've been spending the funds that were allocated to us through the opioid settlement. And as you know, we have the community action plan that was determined through Carolina Health Centers or CHC. And part of that was that we set up a stakeholders committee made up of different members and organizations in the community that work with different components of the opioid crisis. In the October through, the most recent October 25 through March of 26, we had 10 adults that completed some form of detox. We had 100 connected to peer support. 25 connected to housing, 8 connected to education or job training, 66 people in the community educated on how to respond to an overdose and given Narcan, 40 fentanyl test strips distributed to at-risk individuals. You've recently heard me talk about the Good Life Program and some of the impacts there. We had in our pilot program 170 middle and high school students that participated in that program in the last school year. And if you recall, we were awarded funding for expanding that program to all of our middle and high schools in District 50, and we continue to work with 51 and 52. to try and also include those schools in the program. Our peer support specialist, which was an added position that we had funded, aided two pregnant or postpartum women with detox, MOUD, and support services, 11 incarcerated individuals with detox and peer support, and four incarcerated individuals made substance abuse disorder release plans, which means they committed to doing something once they were released from prison. The number of patients who are receiving prescriptive aids almost doubled from the year ending in 9-30-24 to 9-30-25, so people are using using the programs that we have. ODMAP is a national mapping application that is tied to a database containing overdose incident information. From January to July of 25, there were 55 recorded overdoses. And this isn't all overdoses that occur because a lot are not recorded. But during the same period, those that are recording them, during the same period this year, there were only 21 recorded overdoses. One of our most recent applications was the creation of a partnership between Family Court, the Solicitor's Office, Carolina Health Centers, the Boys and Girls Club, Greenwood Police Department. Hopefully I'm not leaving anybody out that's part of this. But a few weeks ago we had our first juvenile to start the program. Jamie Stiefel with the Solicitor's Office is currently spearheading these efforts. She also works with the drug court system. So it's perfect that she's tackled this program in addition to all of her other responsibilities. She told me she was talking with an individual in the regular drug court, so not a juvenile. And she was telling them why this program had been created. It was to help young people before they make choices that are hard to come back from. And this young man teared up and said, had I dealt with issues at 14, my life would be so different. This is why we are doing these things. Kids like him are, while we're doing this, proving that we are on the right track. It came from someone who said, if you had been there when I was 14, I might be in a different place. And so we're trying to find those kids and put them on a different trajectory for their life. I went over today and met the young man who is in the juvenile program. He was very quiet, very polite. He shook my hand, and I'm sure he thought, I don't know why you're here asking questions, but I'm going to answer them because I'm supposed to. His mother has reported that she has already seen a difference in him in just a few short weeks. All of this data tells the optimist in me that we are making a difference in many ways. Our goal is always going to be to eradicate this problem completely, but I think we all know that that's not likely to occur. But every one of these facts that I have provided to you tells me and should tell you that lives are being changed. And while not everyone is successful in their recovery journey, we continue to work with those in active addiction to try and make their journey successful. And we continue to work to try and stop those who have suffered trauma learn how to cope without drugs. Your CAP stakeholders group met on July 14th and we agreed to apply for our third year of funding for an opioid recovery coordinator. And I'll remind you that that person takes all of these phone calls. When you see the posters, when you see the billboards, that phone number is going to our coordinator. We also have standing MAT and MOUD appointments, which are to provide medication assistance in recovery. It also includes training for our CHC staff and the stakeholder group and then funds to assist those that are in active addiction with entry into a recovery program including transportation or transportation to be connected with family or other appropriate support. The application totals for $220,361.33 of which we're asking to reallocate previously awarded funds of $51,513 Right now we have about 205,000 that must be applied for before the end of the year. If this application is approved, we'll have just over $36,000 that we will need to apply for. And that next round of applications will be due in late September or early October. So I'll be back in front of you again with that recommendation. that our CAP stakeholders group will make. And also just a point that I'd like to mention is our stakeholders group is also working on an event to be held on September 12th in honor of National Recovery Month. This is planned to be a fun community event to celebrate all of those who are recovered or recovering. The event's a collaboration of all of those that are involved with the stakeholders group. On behalf of the CAP stakeholders group, I respectfully request that you approve the application submittal. Happy to answer any questions you may have.

Stephanie.

Chairman, I offer you a motion to approve.

Hold one second, please. Stephanie, every time you speak on this, I always hear the passion in your words. I appreciate your leadership on this, not just your words but your actions. You've been so involved and engaged in this since we started it. Ms. Bishop jumped the gun. I was going to motion for approval myself, but I have a motion to my right for approval. I have a second by Mr. Templeton. Any comments, further discussion, council?

As always, thank you, Stephanie. I really do appreciate it, and I appreciate all the work that everybody's doing because it's so important to make a difference. It really is. So thank you.

Susan, that was Dane. No, I wanted to comment too. I agree with the chairman about the passion. busy as miss Dorn is with her day job to take on something like this I know I offered up some people for board or stakeholder and it's amazing my question would be is there anything else that we can do I mean seeing that there's been an impact

from a county level is there anything else we can do individually or as a body to help because i know it's working continuing to support obviously the efforts of the stakeholders group showing up for events like our september 12th meeting i was looking earlier and i couldn't find the date but we have there is a The Greenwood Abbeville Coalition always has a candlelight vigil in August to recognize the lives lost. Hopefully this year there will be fewer chairs at the fountain than last year. There were fewer last year than the year before. I went last year for the first time and it's an emotional meeting. It's an important meeting. For those that are there who either have lost a loved one, have been in the journey of recovery, for them to see community support is so important. There's so much stigma around addiction issues, and it's easy to look at people that are homeless and have our opinions about that, but we don't know their story. And so many of them, their story began with some kind of trauma that led to some kind of addiction that then led to them losing everything. And when they see that people that are not in addiction, that are not in recovery or recovered, people that just want to show compassion, want to show that we care about these, that they are people, that people just like you and I, They are somebody's child. They're somebody's spouse. They're somebody's mother or father. And for us to show up and show that we care about them is probably the biggest thing that you can do.

Well, please let Ms. Susan know when those events are and put them on our calendar so we'll be aware, please.

I will. Thank you.

Yeah, I mean, the opioid crisis, I don't think there was community. I mean, so many lives lost, so many families destroyed. as a result so again thank you thank you for everything you're doing um so we have we have we have a motion we have a second by mr pruitt any other comments or questions before we vote all in favor is presented that's unanimous and so ordered thank you stephanie Resolution 2026-21, amending the fiscal year 2027 budget to allocate hospitality tax funds for three signs at the Greenwood County Recreational Complex, road department funds for Kensington Road repairs, and capital assets funds for the purpose of furniture in Park Plaza. Ms. Doran.

Thank you. This amendment is mostly in part a reallocation of funds that were budgeted but unspent in fiscal year 26. Um, in 2020, uh, we had revs resolutions, 2025, 20 and 20, 26, 11 that were related to the installation of three signs at the Greenwood County recreational complex. Um, those funds were not able to be obligated before the close of the fiscal year. And so, uh, we need to reallocate those in the FY 27 year. Those funds are still in the hospitality fund balance and available to be reallocated. During your May 19th, 2026 meeting, a contract for repairs to Kensington Rd was approved and that repair was related to Hurricane Helene damage. But at that time we believe that FEMA and SEM EMD would reimburse 100% of the cost. However, there was prior damage to the road that had been documented prior to the hurricane, and so FEMA would not cover that port. That part of the repair. So we need an amendment to the FY27 budget for $75,168.96 from the road department fund to cover the part that FEMA and EMD will not cover. So we will receive a reimbursement of $43,331.04 of the total $118,500 repair cost. And then finally in our fiscal year 26 budget we had $123,761 designated for furniture replacements that were needed after the renovation of Park Plaza. We have delayed those purchases to coincide with the completion of the renovations and therefore we need those funds also reallocated in this year's budget. They would come out of the fund balance that will be carried forward from FY26 since they were not spent.

happy to answer any questions you might have council questions or comments if not i'll make a motion to reallocate the funds to 2027 budget i have a motion by ms bishop second second by ms griffin all in favor is presented that's unanimous and so ordered thank you Item F, Resolution 202623, accepting a grant award of $3,843,641.50 from the South Carolina Office of Resilience. You skipped one. I'm sorry, I skipped the, I'm sorry, I skipped item E. That's what I get for not checking them off as I go. Excuse me. Let's move back to item E. Resolution 202622 to transfer funds from the 2007 capital project sales tax to the hydro project fund for the auxiliary spillway project, Mr. Templeton, our county engineer.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Stephanie's going to help me out with this being, although most of this is financial. But the way I understand, when we put the CPST funds apart, we have to transfer those in to be usable, to make them budgetable. We've come to you all previous, a few months ago, we've selected Kiewit as our partner in the CMAR process of the fuse plug project. We are in need to move funds over to be able allocate their efforts. And it is a recommendation, I believe, of Stephanie to take the funds that are currently in the CPST project from 2007 and basically allocate these specifically to this project. So we've gone through this process. The county manager has to authorize any contracts or anything. We move forward on that. And we'll certainly be coming back to you all when we get to that guaranteed maximum price. But just to keep us from every time we have, you know, $15,000 change here or there, go ahead and allocate those funds to this project.

For the benefit of public, I believe that was 2010 CPST, was it not? No. It was 2007. It was seven? My mistake.

It was voted on in 2006 and collections started in 2007. We currently have just over $25 million in that fund, which is both taxes received and interest earned. And if I think where you were going was as far as the where it came from initially, it was both the dam project and building, constructing the library. And so the project scope was worked on with the county and worked on with FERC to reduce the scope of the project. We're finally getting kind of close. And as Brett said, we want to just go ahead and say we know that we're going to spend all 25.4 on our contract with Kiewit. So there's no reason for us to continue to come back to you every time we have some development with our contract. Part of this resolution also acknowledges that we have a $5 million grant from the US Department of Energy. that will also be allocated toward this project. And so I'm not sure why it was set up this way, but there's two separate funds, the fund capital project sales tax was collected in and then the fund that we actually reflect all of the activity related to the hydro project and so we just want to go ahead and say this this is going over here to the hydro project the funds will still be held in an investment account with the state our local government investment pool until we actually start writing checks but again this just keeps us from having to come back every time we have some minor change or related to the project because This is the only thing these funds can be spent on and we know we're gonna need all of them for this project. If for some reason, some crazy reason that we ended up coming in under this amount, then we would obviously come back to council because under the CPST code of laws, relevant sections, you all would have to make an appropriate allocation to an appropriate project.

And Ms. Doran says if something crazy happens, so again, for the benefit of the public and a lot of people know, we've been negotiating with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission now for 20 years, almost 20 years, almost 20 years, and a lot of great work done because initially, some of their demands were going to make the cost of this. I mean, $30 million is a lot of money, but it was going to be significantly more than that at one time. So great work by the county staff. Okay, any other comments or questions? Council? What's your pleasure?

Mr. Chairman, I'll offer you a motion to approve the resolution to transfer the funds.

Motion by Ms. Miller, second by Ms. Bishop. All in favor as presented. And that is unanimous and so ordered. That's been a long time coming. Thank you. Thank you all. Appreciate it. Now I'll go back to where I was trying to jump to. Item F, Resolution 202623, accepting a grant award of $3,843,641.50 from the South Carolina Office of Resilience for the Purpose and Demolition of the Fox Hollow Town Homes, our Capital Project Sales Tax Director, Mr. Josh Skinner.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Council. As I mentioned earlier, SCORE awarded Greenwood County $3.8 million for the purchase and demolition of Fox Hall townhomes. We applied for this back in January. This was from funding through HUD that was set aside because of Hurricane Helene for the most impacted counties in South Carolina. We did agree to pay a match for this fund of $306,000. That will come from your 2016 capital project sales tax from the watershed study project. You can see the budgeted projects in the watershed study, $306,000 for the Fox All About grant, which was approved. So the money would come from there. Some details of the award. 3.8 million from SCORE. We actually applied for 300 right at 3 million, and they gave us a little extra. 306,000 was the 10% match that we originally put in. So a total project cost of 4,150,000, and this is to purchase and demo all 19 townhomes. It is contingent on all 19 townhome owners agreeing to their purchase price. SCORE will appoint a project manager to handle all this, the appraisals, environmental review, pretty much everything going forward once the grant agreement, if the grant agreement is signed. The grant agreement will actually be signed by the city of Greenwood because it is in the city and they will be accepting the property and they have to agree to restrict the land to open space in perpetuity. So, Um, uh, the city plans to vote on this on August 17th. Uh, they wanted a council to approve it first because, uh, we are providing the, the, uh, match funding. So, and scored it's in a resolution, uh, sort of their standard resolution, which is in your packet. So, um, we are recommending approval of the, the grant award resolution.

with the appropriate designation from the county manager county attorney so this is resolution 2026 uh 23 council what is your pleasure off your motion to approve mr chairman i have a motion by mr templin a second by ms bishop any comments or questions before we vote i do have one question yes ma'am so josh being that we got more than we um than we requested will we have to increase the match

no no no so the grant award specifies that 306 000 okay and i guess they thought we didn't have enough in to get the project done but if if the project doesn't take 4.15 you know we won't get the full full amount so okay any other comments or questions i just wanted to

Thank you, Mr. Skinner, because I know this has been a long project as well. I've sat in some meetings with the homeowners through this process. It's been at least a year, a year and a half in the makings, I think. Yes, yes. Thank you for your efforts to drive this to conclusion.

Yeah, I know Amy Alley's here. Yes. Any other homeowners here from Fox Holloway? It's been a while, yes.

Yes.

So this is a group that's very excited to see this project move forward.

Very excited. All in favor is presented. And that's unanimous in so order. Thank you very much. Item G, Ordinance 202626 to amend the Greenwood County zoning map as and if amended so that one portion of land parcel totaling approximately 100.45 acres in Greenwood County at 2307 bypass 25 southeast changes from C2 general commercial to R4 two-family residential. This is first reading and title only. Mr. Bland, our planning director, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So we are looking at a rezoning request. This is on the south side of the city of Greenwood, just in an incorporated Greenwood County. This application comes with a Planning Commission recommendation of approval, as well as a staff recommendation of approval. The subject property is a bit odd. It's 100 acres and a single parcel that is split by Bypass 25 Southeast. This is just east of Highway 25 South. So it's split on both sides of the bypass. You can see the nature of the property here as you go. This is heading northeast on the bypass, heading southwest, that is the backside of Food Lion that you see there and the intersection there at the end terminus of this most of the property had been wooded over time and clear over time and sits in in the say you see it here in the photos with some maturing vegetation right now Subject property is served by all utilities, at least in the vicinity. There's a sewer line you see there crossing the bisecting the southern portion of the property. That's a lowland through there and a creek as well. The northern portion of the property is bisected. You kind of see a line of trees there. That's a power line easement. The current zoning of the subject property is also a bit odd. It's split. The southern approximately 66 acres is zoned C2, general commercial. That northwest corner piece is zoned R4, so it's a split zoned parcel that is split by a bypass. The long range land use map designates the property as MDR, that's medium density residential. The applicant is requesting to zone the entire property to R4 to be consistent with that portion in the northwest corner. So the C2 portion of about 66 acres would be rezoned to R4, which is a two family residential zoning. the applicant provided a what I would call a test fit lot layout for those properties and the go back one Oh So again summarize the rezoning request would be to Zone the entire parcel or for to accommodate single-family residential development that it concludes staffs comments Thank you Ryan this first reading in town lawless requires no action, but any discussion you would like to have yeah Thank You mr. Chairman mr. Allison Under c2 is there any potential for residential as it's owned?

I

C2 allows for duplexes, townhomes, and multifamily currently, and it is allowed at the R5 density levels.

Okay. technically the owner could put more doors there under the way it's zoned now than if it was changed correct uh essentially the only reason you would make this uh move in rezoning would be accommodate single-family residential okay so thank you thank you ryan if no other comments we have no pending items tonight to come before council so we'll move now to district reports miss griffin district one

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to say again good evening to each and every one of you. Happy new month to each and every one of you. I have a little coin. It says, welcome, August. May God turn your cannots into cans, your confusion into clarity, your burdens into blessings, and your stress into peace. May he bless you with joy, love, happiness, and prosperity. And may he provide a shield of protection over you and your family. during the month of August and always. So ends my report.

Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Griffin. Mr. Allison, District 2.

Mr. Chairman, all is well in District 2 tonight. All is well in District 2.

Ms. Bishop, District 3.

Thank everybody for coming and thank all of the employees. Congratulations to everyone who received an award and we thank you so much for all of your dedication to us. Like I said, everybody have a great evening. That ends my report.

Thank you, Miss Bishop. Miss Miller, District four.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I was honored to serve as a greeter for the first day of school for Northside Middle School, and I realized how old I am now to see these children coming in and that styles have changed greatly since I was in school as well. I do want to remind everybody, and Ms. Doran spoke earlier about the ATACs, that the applications are due August the 29th, I believe, and these funds are to be used for tourism-related purposes. Just a reminder for those who may be listening about that, August the 29th. And a reminder that early voting starts tomorrow for the special call primary to fill U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham's office and that location typically is held here at the library, but now it's going to be hold at the, um, I think it's called the Noah event center next to eggs up grill, grill, grill. All right. So that concludes my report. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Miller.

Mr. Pruitt district five.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I was going to say, I was honored to attend the SCAC South Carolina association of counties conference last week and, um, got a lot of good information. And I think probably the most important thing is spend time with peers of ours in other counties and to see what's going on in their areas and things they're dealing with. Thank you to the county manager for meeting me with me last night with some residents in Harborside and Puckett's Ferry to discuss some things in their area. i would like to congratulate to all the retirees and you know thank you for your service to greenwood county um it it's it is to be recognized that people want to stay at a certain place for a period of time and i think that's to be uh commended and applauded um as always i want to end my district report with a bible verse james 119 says my dear brothers and sisters take note of this everyone should be quick to listen slow to speak and slow to become angry that ends my report mr chairman thank you mr mr templin district six thank you mr chairman i just want to point out as miss miller did that school has started back and two times a day on

greenwood high school traffic is awful it will get better but the first two weeks of school is always bad so just be careful out there drive slow be aware of what's going on got a lot of kids walking and again it's a lot of traffic and that's right in the heart of district 6. also want to congratulate all those who were recognized tonight and are and just thank all of our employees for all they do and the retirees for staying with us. And like I said, for our law enforcement, for watching over us in each one of our meets and having to sit here, we appreciate y'all as well. That is my report. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Templin. All is well in District 7. I had the opportunity last night to be up in Hodges, where the town of Hodges presented a $10,000 donation to Hodges-Cokesbury Fire Department, who does a phenomenally wonderful job to protect us and my district. The vice chairman mentioned that we were at the statewide county government training conference for a portion of last week, and it was rewarding to me because I have been touting the good work that our staff did as we moved through data center ordinance in those considerations and the voting of the approval of the one-year moratorium Greenwood County was cited by the state as having put together the what they considered the model data center ordinance for the state of South Carolina and I've already had three counties that have reached out to me asking if they could look at the work that we had done. And so, Susan, you may be getting some calls if you haven't already. On that topic, Phyllis, I'm glad you stayed tonight. Phyllis Nolan is sitting in the back and Phyllis is my dear friend who never is hesitant to send me recommendations of things she thinks I should do and I appreciate those Phyllis by the way so I'm glad you stayed because council I'm not asking you to act on this tonight or respond to this tonight but what I think we should do after thinking back over the past several months and what we have gone through as a council on this topic, I think we should form an ad hoc committee that brings at least one member from every district of the county to work with us in regard to anything forthcoming in regard to data center considerations. And I think in that regard that we shouldn't look for people who are necessarily pro or necessarily con, but people who would be objective in their evaluations. And I think we should enter into a much more robust, what I'll call educational campaign. So again, I'm not asking you to comment on that. You can if you want to. I'm not asking you for any kind of action, certainly tonight. But I think that that would be prudent, and I just would like for you to think about that between now and maybe our next meeting. So having said that, that ends my report for District 7. Madam Attorney, anything for the good of the order? Mr. Manager? Ms. McIntyre? If not, we will adjourn. Thank you all for being here.