County Council - Regular Meeting

We apologize for delay. We had a couple of matters that came up kind of midstream this afternoon, so we were extended. Your Greenwood County Council has been in executive session since 4 p.m., and in the interest of full transparency, I would ask that the county manager tell the public why we had the need for that session.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Members of the County Council, we needed to enter to executive session seven items. Five legal matters pertaining to Richardson and Plowden, the city of Greenwood, an administrative law court ruling, South Main Baptist Church, and South Carolina Code of Law 12-37-251, and two economic development matters pertaining to projects Apex and Apollo.

Thank you. Having heard that, I would ask for a motion that we exit executive session, please. So moved. Second. Motion by Mr. Pruitt, second by, who was the second by? Ms. Griffin. Ms. Griffin, all in favor? And we're out of executive session. Thank you. Our invocation tonight will be offered by Councilwoman Kathy Miller, and afterwards we'll honor our nation with our pledge of allegiance. Ms. Miller, stand if you can.

Heavenly Father, we come together today to thank you for our country, our state, and our county, and for the people who live here. We ask for your wisdom and guidance during this meeting. Help us to listen, understand, and make the decisions that benefit our entire community. Grant us the strength to handle difficult decisions with grace and patience. Watch over our first responders, our staff, and our neighbors, and guide our discussions today so that our work honors you. In your name we pray, amen. Amen.

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

Thank you.

Council, I trust that you've had an opportunity to review your minutes from our previous meeting, and so I'll entertain a motion that we approve those, please.

Motion to approve.

A motion by Ms. Miller.

Second.

Second by Ms. Griffin. All in favor? And that's so ordered. Thank you. We have no one signed up for public comment tonight, so we will move directly into presentations. Ms. Candice Adams is here. Candice, come forward, please. And I believe you are going to be speaking about kratom substances.

yes sir thank you for being here thank you for having me introduce your guest if you will please ma'am okay i'm candace adams tammy lynn jarman and stephen goss um we all have different experiences with kratom and different substances um whether it be family members or personal use or what have you i first want to thank you all for having us um this is a super passionate um issue that I deeply care about, and I've spoken to different people at different times. I did pass out a binder with different information for everyone, and I do have other copies if anyone else needs any.

Candace, for the benefit of the public that's not present here tonight and might be watching online, please tell the public what Kratom is first.

So Kratom is considered and it's supposed to be an all-natural product that benefits people in different ways, whether it be a stimulant or a sedative. However, it is not closely monitored and most of the labels are lies. Okay. So there's a lot of information in this. So I do also want to say that I'm not very political, so I don't know how to be very politically correct and I am working on that. So I figured when I was putting this together, My AI program tried to keep me real politically correct, but I felt like it was important to share the politically incorrect because I believe that it will bring a pow to everything. Right now, you can legally get high in most of America, but I know our focus is here. And it's upsetting. It's upsetting to watch people that are trying to recover from chemical dependency, but it's sold at every gas station. and it's sold at the vape stores. It's so easily found, but it's also mislabeled. One thing I'm very passionate about is the fact that you can legally get high while you are on probation. I don't like talking about that publicly because I don't want to give anyone any ideas, but we do know people that continue, they get a drug charge, they get probation, they spend their entire probation high They're able to do the street drugs. A week before drug testing, they go to the store-bought substances. They're able to pee clean because probation does not drug test for these because they're legal. And they're able to pass. So as soon as their probation officer leaves, they go right back to using fentanyl, heroin, crack, meth, whatever it is they're using. Super disturbing to me that that's able to happen. So, and also you have everyday people that walk into these gas stations, they see something that says, oh, feel free, relax, all natural. And they're like, well, I'm going to try that instead of a glass of wine. And it's within five, seven days, they're struggling with chemical dependency because this all natural mislabeled, you know, free relaxation is, is a lie and they become chemically dependent. Chat GPT wants me to express that Kratom and 7-OH is very much different and it is. However, Kratom is still addictive. You still become chemically dependent. So, if you look at your binder, you know, your information packet, I did break down several of the products that are dangerous to the community. This is not all of them. These are the ones that we see the most of. None of these products are FDA approved. So, most of the time the FDA warns everyone to stay away from it, but most people don't listen because that's not advertised. We break down the 70H, which the federal government is trying, they're potentially trying to ban, but that 30-day period was extended. It just finalized September 10th, so we don't know what's going to happen there. They have changed a couple of them to Schedule 1 drugs, but nothing is stabilized in that area. Kratom, again, you have, there's no monitoring of this. It can say that it's natural. We do not know. Some of these things are being tested and unknown substances are coming up in it. I mean, they just don't know. I actually have a personal experience with a close loved one that was taking this product, bought at a local vape store, and they ended up overdosing, seizing, and spent 10 days in a coma. There is no known antidote for that overdose. They just had to play it out. I did include a letter from Dr. Amber Gaspar. that she works with the Detox Center at Self Regional. So I'd love for you to look that over. And also cited some current litigation that's going on across the country. This is just a brief one page of the information. What we would like to talk to you, and they're going to share their own, information or experience, but we don't know how to get help with this. We understand that right here, there's not much that you can do, but there's got to be resources that you all know or someone that you know, whether it's locally or at a state level, that can help us. One idea that we do have is proper labeling. They have signs that are two foot by six foot, one by 10 that light up advertising this stuff. We would like the county to perhaps enforce some sort of ordinance requiring a warning sign, be at least a third of that. I mean, people need to know the dangers. So I included one. that chat helped, and then I also included one that I like because it does stand out. And as Dr. Gaspard put in her letter, you know, a good number, a good contact for people would help. Some people don't try to get addicted to these substances, but when they do, they need a way out. They need help. Steven is very fluent in that area. included contact information and our one personal story. This last page on Sporin, this is a photocopy of a drug that was bought on Emerald Road in a gas station. And it is, I put the ingredients on here, but it is a botanical supplement, but it causes your trip. And it lasts for 46 hours. And ultimately, people can take this substance, drive down the road, operate heavy machinery, teach our students, perhaps be a physician, like whatever it is, they can experience this and not fail a drug test. We believe there should be a warning. And I will pass the mic.

Let me just quickly say before you move to Steven, I know you have great passion for this and we appreciate you being here. It's very informative, but it would seem to me that before the county could take any reasonable actions, what's the interest and have any actions been taken thus far at the state level?

So there is some information. The state, I will have to find that information, but I do know the state has put together like some sort of committee that does a little research on the kratom situation. I can get more of that information for you. Now, I have been told that any synthetic kratom has been banned or outlawed, but that's just not the case. I mean, I can take you to the store today and we can get some.

Okay. Let us hear from Stephen, please, if you will.

Thank you all for having us today. My name is Steven Goss, and I am the Greenwood County Peer Support Specialist for Carolina Health Centers. I started my peer support journey in 2022, and back then it was a new substance coming around, a new vape store drug, new gas station drug, and that was the TNF team. and I saw a number of people that were struggling with that substance. I haven't heard so much of that recently, but it seems like every time one kind of goes out, another one comes in. So about two years ago, it was the 70H. And so I'm paid under the SCORF grant, which is South Carolina Opioid Response Funds, and I have sent more people to detox for 70H than any other opioid. more than fentanyl, more than heroin, more than prescription pain pills. I have come to understand that probably about a month ago that there was a ban on the 7-0-H. However, some derivatives of it have been expanded. And also I talked to a lot of participants from the county that are still able to find this substance at certain stores. Do not know what stores as of right now, but certain vape shops and certain gas stations still holding this product behind counter that aren't supposed to have it. Also, with that ban coming in effect, the newest one that I'm hearing about is something called cat's claw. So whenever one substance goes out, it seems like a molecule has changed and something else comes in. As Candace stated, these are very dangerous. There have been reports of overdose off of the 7-OH and reports of death off of 7-OH within South Carolina. I know a couple in Anderson right off bat. that I've done some research on. And yeah, it's a huge thing. I've known about kratom since coming to Greenwood in 2018. And I heard of people that tried to start with productive kratom use and recovery. And most of the situation that I've heard did not turn out very good. And I've seen people move to their primary substance of choice, starting with kratom use. You know, I don't know what we can do as far as a ban on certain products, especially the new ones that's coming in. But some kind of warning on all of these products would definitely be beneficial to our county.

Thank you, Steven.

Yes, sir.

Ma'am, do you have comments you'd like to make briefly? Because we're going to have to move on in there.

I really don't have any knowledge to share this experience. You can't get drugs on the corner anymore. They've got a barcode on them. And addiction permeates through entire families, communities, workplaces, and it's destroying them. So the thought of being able to walk into a store and get a colorful packaging with a barcode on it that says, I'm going to help you, Relax. I'm going to help you deal with your problems. And I'm the alternative. It's a scary thought, not just for our adults that are in recovery, but for the children that are coming up. And they believe this is an alternative, and it is not. It is not safe. It's deadly. It's ruining lives. And I can attest to that personally. Thank you for your time.

thank you you know my thought Candace is you know this council has been very actively involved with the opioid recovery through efforts here across the county and across the state and I'm wondering if somehow there might be a way to tether those together I really appreciate you all being here tonight taking your time council any comments or questions before we move mr. chairman I'd like to make a comment

do believe it's a problem in Greenwood County I've read an article that was dated August 27th of this year Hart County commissioners have passed the first reading of an amendment to the county alcohol ordinance banning the sale of certain non-regulatory drug products so it is becoming a problem statewide nationally and I would like to see us get ahead of it I know I think maybe we need to look at some of our ordinances and see if there's some way to for Greenwood County to get ahead of this because it is a problem that is coming. I'm in construction and I work a lot of construction people and I can tell you it is a problem. So I don't know if there's a way to tie it into our opioid, or some ordinance to look at, but I do think it's a serious issue. I know Candace personally, and I know this, she has a lot of experience, works with a lot of people recovering. She puts a lot of time in. trying to help people, and it is a constant battle. So I appreciate you coming. Thank you for sharing this with us tonight. And I, as one member of this council, think we need to take it serious, and we need to see what we can do to head this problem off before it gets out of hand. Thank you, Mr.

Chair. Thank you, Mr. Allison. Any other comments? Candace, thank you all for being with us tonight. We really appreciate it. Thank you. We have no old business. We have no old business on our agenda tonight. We'll move directly into public hearings. We have two public hearings. So, uh, I will open the public hearing, um, and, um, ask for a motion, uh, item a ordinance 2020. Well, excuse me, let me ask for a motion.

Motion by Mr. Templeton second by Ms. Griffin.

Um, all in favor. We're in a public hearing out of May, Ordinance 2026-27, to consider the approval of the request by the tax commissioners to dissolve Rock Creek Special Tax District. Ms. Stephanie Doran, our Deputy County Manager for Finance, this is second reading.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Council. We received a request from the tax commissioners of the Rock Creek Special Tax District to dissolve. We have sent letters out to all of the residents in that neighborhood, and we made them aware of tonight's public hearing as well as it being advertised. I'm not aware of any calls to our office asking that it not be dissolved, but if anybody has called, we ask them to be here tonight.

Thank you, Stephanie. Hearing that explanation, I would ask, is there anyone here in the audience tonight that wants to come forward to speak in support of this, of this ordinance? Seeing none. Is there anyone that cares to speak in objection to this ordinance? We will then move to item B. Ordinance 2026-28 to amend the Greenwood County zoning map as and if amended so that approximately 39.11 acres compromising the Broward Wood Place subdivision addressed as 101-328 Burlwood Road and 609 Broward Wood Road in unincorporated Greenwood County including lots 1 to 71 and associated common areas and infrastructure changes from AG1 agricultural to NPR Master Planned Residential. Mr. Rushin, our Deputy County Manager of Operations, this is second reading.

This is second reading. We had first reading last meeting, but resuming request, this is the Briarwood Place subdivision located on Briarwood Road. The internal road for this subdivision is called Burlwood Road. Applicant is Metro Homesites and Keystone Homes. There is also one individual homeowner currently in this subdivision who also consents to the rezoning as well. This subdivision was developed under AG1 Agricultural, and they are looking to change it to Master Plan Residential MPR. I will start by saying that for all effective purpose, the change in zoning will only affect the front and side setbacks. Everything else in the Master Plan Residential will mimic AG1. So it's essentially changing setbacks. Planning Commission recommended approval. Staff also recommends approval. There is a look at the subdivision in its entirety. The lots are already planted out. Utilities are in. Roads are in. Four or five homes have already been constructed. And they plan to keep with this plan. The applicant is here tonight. If you'd like to hear them after I speak. There is a look at Burlwood Road. You can see some of the utilities there. Again, roads constructed. Gas and water throughout the subdivision already. A look at the entrance there on Briarwood Road with a nice Briarwood Place sign out front. Again, AG1 surrounding it to the south and west, R1 surrounding it to the north and east. So it would be keeping in compliance with that and that the MPR will essentially mimic the AG1. Future land use plan has this entire area as low density residential. The proposed MPR would be compliant with the low density residential. Again, rezoning requests, Burlwood Road, Briarwood Road, the applicant is here. Again, all they are asking for essentially with this rezoning change is to change the front setback, which would is currently 30 foot to 20 foot and the side setback which is currently 10 foot to seven and a half foot. So you're bringing a house closer to the road and you're cutting down on the side setback. Mr. Geddes is here with Keystone Homes if you'd like to hear from the applicant on their intention for that change.

thank you Rob appreciate it having heard the assistant county managers explanation I would ask is there anyone here who would like to speak in favor of 2026-28 Danny Geddes 924 Stevens Creek Road Augusta Georgia I'm representing the applicant and we developed this neighborhood have several homes under construction

the market drives our industry and this variance and this change for these, just simply the side setbacks and the front setbacks will give us a couple of opportunities to, vary the floor plans in there we're very limited with the floor plans due to those side setbacks and and also some restrictions based on the rear the front setbacks allow us to pull some of the floor plans forward give us more room to work with and and and actually provide more variety of course there's market will drive that as well but that's why we're looking for this um this relief and to give us more flexibility thank you mr gillis appreciate you being here is anyone else here to speak in favor

Seeing none, I'll ask if there's anyone here tonight to speak in opposition to this ordinance.

Seeing none, I'll ask for a motion that we close the public hearing. So moved, Mr. Chairman.

I have a motion by Mr. Templeton, a second by Mr. Allison. All in favor? The public hearing is closed. Having heard those, counsel, we will vote first. What is your pleasure on the first ordinance?

I'll make a motion to approve the request by the tax commissioners to dissolve Rock Creek Special Tax District. Second.

I have a motion by dissolution by Ms. Miller, second by Mr. Templeton. Any comments or questions before we vote? All in favor is presented. That's unanimous and so ordered. Thank you. A motion, please, on second ordinance.

Motion to approve, Mr. Chairman.

A motion to approve by Mr. Allison.

Second.

Second by Ms. Griffin. Any comments or questions before we vote? All in favor is presented. That's unanimous and so ordered. Thank you. We'll move now to new business. Item A under new business is discussion of the initial plans for the Carolina Avenue Connector from the 2016 CPST application. Ms. Rebecca Bowyer, Assistant County Manager, and Mr. Josh Skinner will present please.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Council. I have with me Rebecca Boyer, the Assistant City Manager in the City of Greenwood, and she's going to give you a lot of the details, but just a quick background. We're talking about project number 22 of the 2016 Capital Project Sales Tax, which allocated a little over $2.4 million for the construction of the Carolina Avenue Connector. You can see the conceptual plans there. This is to be a new road that connects South Main Street with the Greenwood Genetic Center on Liner Circle. Funding for this project became available in April of 2024, so a little over two years ago, at which point the city signed a contract with Davison Floyd to begin design development of the road. They ran into some issues with right-of-way access from some of the property owners on Circular Avenue and also some issues with the grading due to the raised railroad bed where the proposed road is going to go. So at some point, Davidson Floyd suggested the idea of an alternate route through the parking lot of South Main Baptist Church and discussions on that began. And I will let Rebecca fill you in with the details on those because she's been heavily involved since I think since you started working here. Yes. All right, there you go.

Good evening. As Mr. Tanner said, the purpose of this phase one is to go from Main Street to Edgefield. And it originally followed circular drive alignment for the most part. And we did run into a lot of obstacles there. Grading issues where the road ties in would require a retaining wall to be built in several locations One of the biggest factors was it would require at least one residential relocation If not some others depending on how we build the retaining wall So some big conflicts there It also required some acquisition from South Main Baptist Church. So we were already kind of talking to South Main to make that alignment where Carolina Avenue comes in at Edgefield. This is the original cross section here where you had a trail on one side, a sidewalk on another, and then two lane road there through the middle. It was just to the north of the Railroad Museum. South Main Baptist is just to the south of the Railroad Museum. And working with them, they were working on a master plan for their development of their entire campus. And so we started sitting down with them and talking and looked at putting the road basically right along the property line on the north side of their campus. We've been in discussion with South Main for quite some time now. We're looking at a 40-foot right-of-way We would put a sidewalk on one side of it because the trail system already has a trailhead kind of following circular drive and there's a parking lot there for the trailhead. But we would tie the sidewalk in and then eventually the entire trail system would extend down to the genetic center. But for this portion here that we're talking about here with phase one, It would just be a single sidewalk with a two-lane road. And then the church's campus, again, they have a master plan going for what they'd like to do there. We would tie in with that. So that was the first thing we wanted to discuss tonight was just this realignment from what you've seen originally. The second thing we'd like to talk to you about is the cost of care settlement. So when a property is acquired, we're required to pay for damages to that property, whether physical or economical. So in that, during the negotiations, we've come up with a list of things that both parties agree have been damaged by this taking. And then there's a cost associated with each of those. We took this to Davidson Floyd who was already on board as the engineer of design for the city on this project and had them vet it. They said that, you know, this was a reasonable request for cost to cure and the cost associated with those were reasonable. But just to make sure things were completely kosher, we took this to an outside agency, another consultant, KCI Technologies out of Rock Hill. They do a lot of SCDOT work and we had them independently look at it as well. And they too agreed that this was a reasonable request for cost to cure and that it was also a reasonable settlement amount for those items. So at this time, there's only been about $50,000 spent on the design work, and that was as far as they got originally. So still the majority of the budget is still there. If you take away this acquisition cost of $665,000, there's still 1.7 available for construction and design. We are working to get the construction the design contract underway. And then once we get that underway, we'll know better what construction costs are. Again, this was estimated back in 2015. So we'll expect some changes, but we're going to do our best to stay within that budget. With the new alignment, it's a shorter route. It's got less grade issues. So in general, it should cost less than what we were anticipating originally. But again, it'll be a bit before we find that out. So our next steps are to finish negotiating this agreement with the church, execute the settlement. And then we're going to have an ordinance for this for the city. So first reading is next Monday. Second reading will be in October. And we're also under the design contract now. So we are revising that for the new alignment. They'll have to go out and resurvey to get this going. But that's underway as well. So Davis and Floyd would continue that work. So at this time, I'll take any questions you have about what's going on in this project.

So, Mr. Chairman?

Yes, ma'am. Please.

So what is the amount due? What will be left after this payment?

$1.7 million. Okay.

Council, any other comments or questions? Again, this requires no action on part of County Council's 2016 CPST initiative, city's initiative. This was for public information only. Rebecca, we appreciate you being here with us tonight, and Josh, we appreciate it as well. Thank you very much.

You're very welcome.

Item B, presentation of members to the ad hoc committee for data centers. We've been working on this, as many of you know, for some period of time now, about six weeks. I would like to start by thanking my colleagues for taking the role of populating this ad hoc committee so seriously. It is vital that our community see that we have selected fair and engaged people to help work through this very important process and issue. From the looks of the people that are being proposed by each council member from each district, I firmly believe that we have selected a great group that will accomplish this important work. At this time, I would ask that each of us take a few minutes and that we introduce your nominee to the public. I will accept your nominations, and they will constitute the 2026 Data Center Regulations Ad Hoc Committee. So at this time, we'll start, I believe, with District 1. Ms. Griffin, if you would talk about your nominee, please, or your appointment.

Good evening to everyone. My nominee is Ms. Sandra Hall. She's a graduate of Greenwell High School and graduate of Benedict. She's formerly employed with Greenwood CPW for 36 years. She's now retired. She's, um, community and church, um, church and community active. Um, she volunteers at the Lakelands, um, food bank of Greenwood and her interests are family, friends, traveling and writing poetry.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. From District 2, our representative is Dr. Adam Eichelberger. Dr. Eichelberger earned his doctorate of veterinarian medicine degree from the University of Georgia after attending Clemson University. He completed advanced training from Arizona and Florida specializing in animals reproduction. He is currently, he returned to 96 in 2016. He is currently running 96 veterinarian care as of May of 2025 is a resident off of family land his family has been his father dr. Eichelberger have been in I think they bought their home in 96 in the early 70s and have been there ever since so he is a a Family that has been in our community for a long time, and I think the well-being of Greenwood is definitely a priority with Dr. Eichelberger, so I would like to present him to the council as a member of the committee.

Thank you, Mr. Alston. District three, Ms. Bishop.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My nominee is well, my member of the ad hoc committee is Miss Betty Bowles, and she is a former city councilwoman with 20 years of dedicated service and community advocacy. She served as a board chair of the Gleams Human Resources Commission and was an active board member for more than 15 years. She served on the United Way of Greenwood and the Piedmont Technical College Board of Visitors. She is committed to supporting children, families, and vulnerable communities through collaboration, leadership, and resource development. She is recognized for her dedication to public service, relationship building, and strengthening Greenwood and surrounding communities.

Thank you, Ms. Bishop. District 4, Ms. Miller.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ms. Shannon Hill, she comes to us with a BS, a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from NC State, North Carolina State University, and she has a Six Sigma Black Belt, which is a manufacturing term for operational excellence. she has professional experience she retired from Eaton as being a most recently as operating supervisor excuse me supervising operational excellence and lean manufacturing activities and she does hold an inactive real estate broker's license in North and South Carolina She is a member of the Greenwood County board of assessment appeals and a former leader of multiple real estate, civic and community organizations. And she is married and is the mother of a son who is ascending the South Carolina governor's school for science and mathematics.

Thank you, Ms. Miller, Mr. Pruitt district five.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, I want to present to you, Mr. Dave Schofield. Thank you for being here tonight, Dave. Um. interesting story in in all transparency I think people want to know how we arrived at these Dave first time I met him was at the June 16th meeting when he spoke up at public hearing had the unique experience of being from Loudoun County Virginia and those of you that don't know there's over 250 data center facilities in that 50 million square feet area Dave and his wife lived there for over 20 years Dave has professional experience, 33 years in information technology, advancing from programmer to senior security engineer manager, maintained a government top secret clearance through his career, and specialized in securing Department of Defense, DOJ networks and systems, government projects, supported networks and programs for the DEA, counterintelligence field activity, defense security service, and Army initiatives aimed at reducing IED, fatalities in Afghanistan. He developed comprehensive system documentation including operational concepts, data flow diagrams and vulnerability mitigation plans, ensuring systems met security requirements, and received CIO approval for continued operation on secure DOD networks. Dave, this job should be a piece of cake compared to that. Mr. Chairman, I present Mr. Dave Schofield.

Thank you, Mr. Pruitt. Mr. Templin, District 6.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As I said at our last meeting, there were some folks who were not interested in serving on this committee for various and sundry reasons. But I did have folks from outside my district express interest in wanting to be appointed. But as we talked about, we wanted to keep it within one from each district so we had representation. So it's my honor, Mr. Chairman, to present my and that is Mr. Steve Coleman. His professional role is director of community outreach at Piedmont Technical College, supporting educational access, student success, and community engagement. He's also the founder of Models Academy and director of a mentoring and personal development program for young men in grades four to 12, promoting academic achievement, leadership, career exploration, college readiness, and community service. He has expanded Models Academy from approximately 25 participants to over 500 young men across regional schools. He's been recognized multiple times for what he's done and how he is in the community. I've known Steve a long time. He is well-respected in the community. He is open-minded. He studies all the issues when they come before him. And we joke, he's my brother from another mother. So I'm very proud to offer him up. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Templin. And for District 7, for my district, I was very fortunate that I had about four people that contacted me and spoke with me about their interest in serving. But my appointee will be Ms. Reggie Terry for District 7. Reggie is her residency and education. She's a Greenwood County resident for 37 years, graduate of Southern Wesleyan University. in Converse College. Her professional experience includes background in both finance, human resources, and education. Her areas of public service, she has served as gubernatorial appointee to Greenwood County Election and Voter Registration Board and just recently served as past chairwoman of the Elections Board. She is very community committed, dedicated to addressing current needs of Greenwood County and supporting future generations. So very, very proud to have that. that cadre of people that will be in service to us. And I also want to mention that while that will make up the ad hoc committee There are other people that I have spoken with, Adam sitting right here in the front row, that I believe we need to also continue to engage and consult with in this process who have keen interest. So let me talk now a bit about how we will move forward for the benefit of the public. I will be pushing the ad hoc committee to meet before our next meeting, which will be no later than October 6th. The purpose of the ad hoc committee is to make a recommendation to the county council as to whether data centers should be allowed in Greenwood County. And if so, what are the appropriate regulations under which they would be allowed? At this organizing meeting, at our first meeting, I will be going over the purpose of the ad hoc committee, introducing them to our county staff, and we will be assisting them and helping them in selecting their committee leadership. After this meeting, the committee will select their meeting logistics and pace, and then I will step away from this process. If you all remember, it was kind of my idea that I thought we needed to put an ad hoc committee in place, but at that point in time, I'm gonna step away from this and allow that committee to do their work. My vision is that at each meeting, the committee will identify an area of concern, whether it be noise, impact of data centers, whatever those concerns might be, and our staff will locate experts in regard to those specific topics who we will bring here to present to our committee. At that same meeting, the committee will identify what their next area of concern might be, and the process will repeat until the committee has heard information on all areas that they believe are current issues in regard to data centers. Once this is completed, They will turn to deciding the appropriateness of data centers for Greenwood County, and if they are appropriate, what regulations they believe need to be in place, and they will bring those recommendations back to county government. At the conclusion of this work, the committee will be making a recommendation to this county council And they will then, who will then, county council, make a final decision on what we implement or do not implement. So, council, having heard that, I will ask you, what is your pleasure? I'll offer you a motion to accept all nominees for the ad hoc committee. second have a motion for acceptance by mr pruitt second by mr templeton i think i had another actually miss griffin beat me to it mr griffin beat you to it so we'll take miss griffin any comments or questions on any of this before we move forward mr chairman i do want to ask a question for i think the benefit of the audience um and the members um

Will this be open to the public to attend as a public meeting as far as being an observant member, similar to maybe what we with our capital project sales tax committees that we had is that the

the intent or the format that you're looking that we would would that be publicly uh noted as a public meeting where people could be and be posted and and posted on social media and whatnot we candidly we have not i have not engaged in conversation with staff yet but my belief is that it absolutely should be and i would like to see us do that with with the best notice front end notice that we can possibly provide and i think that would i I can't speak for council, I'm only speaking for myself, but that's my position.

Thank you. Mr. Chairman, can I weigh in here? Please. I agree that it should be, and I will tell you that it has to be. This is a committee appointed by the government. This is no different than the Planning Commission or Board of Zoning Appeals or any other committee that you have appointed. They are subject to follow all four-year laws just like you are. Agreed.

Any other comments? mr. chairman is it my understanding that the appointees we've made tonight they will be other members on that board also this is this all the people thank thank you for bringing that up there will there will be an assigned council member and I've already dead designated miss Miller as being the assigned council member to submit and County and the committee for this council also we will have a member from the planning and zoning board and the chairman of that board has agreed to serve in that capacity okay then the last thing and I'm going to make this recommendation and ask you I believe that we should also appoint and we haven't we haven't we haven't brought this forward but I believe that we should also appoint a member of of the citizens for good government group i agree and that would be our what tenth member that would be that would be the tenth member and i don't even know if i'm saying the group name correctly but but i think that would be um i think that would be a good addition any comments

I agree.

I agree that representation would be beneficial from those two groups.

Okay. So, council, again, we have a motion and a second. If no further comments or questions, I will ask you to approve this presenting. All in favor? And that's so ordered. Ms. Bishop, are you in opposition?

Yeah, I'm going to. I think what we should do is we just appointed who we wanted to appoint. And so I think because some situations get so polarized, I think the appointees, that's what I thought, the appointees that we had, I thought we were gonna place those there and allow them to go through that process. So for me, I mean, I was just, I thought that we were just doing the seven appointees that we had.

um and adding i don't even know who we were who we're adding so i don't i don't i don't agree with that would you would we care then to amend that motion mr chairman i think we were in the middle of a vote i guess we need to see if it's going to pass yes uh first before we decide well it's going to pass 6-1 yeah because we've already voted to recruit okay so We never done opposed, though. I don't think you. We just done who's in favor.

Just redo the vote, Mr. Chairman. All in favor, please signify by raising your hand. That's six. That's six. One opposed. So it passes 6-1. Thank you. Item C.

discussion regarding the status of the planning commission appointments and reappointments ms mcintyre gives that information please ma'am our county clerk okay um as you know we have implemented or in the process of implementing this new software program for our boards and commissions and um we will work since uh the planning commission has a vacant vacancy and some that will be coming up to expire in November. I chose to use that planning commission as our first push out for the software program. So we have you know, a few that need to be reappointed. We have a vacant seat for District three. The process will be that once we push this out for the benefit of the public, the Abbey will help us to put it on social media. There's going to be a process where the public can apply for the vacant seats or the upcoming you know seats and go through a like an application process each of the districts who have a seat that will be open will receive those applications within their districts and be able to vet them Planning Commission will also look at them and or the planning staff will also look at them you know just to basically bring those two nominations so the the timeline for that is going to be you know what once we make this you know make you aware of it the month of October will be our time where we're gonna have all those vetting and bring the nominations to us in the month of November for November to be the the i guess the the staggered um years but always be november for appointments or reappointments okay thank you for your work on that ms mcintyre council any questions of ms mcintyre so that's we do those from our district also don't we yes those are districts seven seven districts the city um also has appointments and

But all seven of us won't need to make an appointment.

Right, you won't have them. And I'll make you aware of the ones that we know for sure that is vacant as District 3, but then there are some that will be available. At this time, I think we have the town of 96 and also the city of Greenwood that will be coming up. So we'll work through that, and I'll work with the municipalities.

Thank you.

yeah district one uh she expired in 2025 so we need to get that one in um district six uh expires this um in this year uh district seven expired in 2025 so we need to update that the city of greenwood expires in this year november and town of 96 expires this year november okay

Thank you, Ms. McIntyre. Any other comments?

I was just going to say thank you, Ms. McIntyre, too, because we talked about the new software. Ms. Miller and I had the pleasure of visiting with them at the conference, and I failed to mention that all the other folks that, and I had a number of people reach out to me about the ad hoc committee and had an interest. I kept forwarding those names to Ms. McIntyre, and I think we should all do that, people that have interested interest in serving in any capacity dealing with greenwood county we should forward that information so that we'll have it for future use right right

Thank you much.

Yeah, if it's okay. And with that said, with Councilman Pruitt, if that is the case where the names that you did refer to me, what I will actually be doing is sending those people the link to this software program. So I won't be entering any information on behalf of them, you know, whatever. But, you know, if there's some that have been asking me questions, how do I get to do it at the same time that Abby's going to push it out that way? Sure.

comes to you I will just be emailing them the link thank you very much Susan appreciate that any other comments item D review of the Greenwood County strategic plan report submitted by Ralph tell us County Manager things chairman members of council this morning you received an email of a draft of the final strategic plan

You'll be asked to review this final draft over the next two weeks and give any comments or changes or concerns that you have by October 6th. Essentially what we're going to do right now is kind of walk through the timeline for everyone's benefit. October 7th through 19th, Raptilis will be making the final changes. And at your October 20th meeting, Raptilis will be joining you virtually to make the final presentation of your strategic plan. That's kind of the immediate things that are going to happen in short, medium term. I'm working on smart metrics to go with the strategies that are identified inside the strategic plan. As your October 20th meeting, you're going to be asked to select a manageable number, probably three to five of those strategies. that we believe we can get accomplished between now and the end of the budget year. This will be a short year and a first year, so I'd recommend that you pick strategies that we can attain so we can build momentum as we go into the first full year. Once the strategies are identified, and then at your November 3rd meeting, I'll bring you the actual goals for you to select, and then we can begin the process. So that's kind of the short and the medium calendar of our strategic plan. Long term in the spring of this coming spring of 27, we'll again identify more strategies because that's when we need to be doing them every year because that's when we're writing our budgets. So if we're identifying strategies, we need to identify funds if it becomes a strategy that has a financial component to it. So we're going to marry these two calendars starting in the spring, but to get there, we're going to have a short year essentially for this first year. Then that process will repeat itself where you're identifying strategies. Staff will be writing goals. you'll adopt the goals that we'll implement. That's gonna be year over year, our process going forward. So in the meantime, what I would ask is that you look at what I sent you today, start identifying the strategies that you believe we can get done. Again, three to five, somewhere in that range that we can get done by June so that we can have a fruitful discussion over the next few council meetings.

Very well. Thank you very much. Any comments before we move on, council? Item E. Approval of the 2027 Official County Holidays. County Manager.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And to answer Mr. Allison's question, yes. We have talked to the city before you even ask it. We've been together long enough to where I can do a little mind reading. So in front of you, you have the city's actual proposed and then our actual proposed 2027 county holidays. I don't believe there's any real substantial change from what you've done last year. Obviously this is early in the year getting to January, but Rob, produces calendars that he puts on carts. So there's some lead time that we need to get done. So if we could get this done sooner than later, that would be ideal. Again, I don't think there's anything in here that's particularly controversial or earth shattering. I think it's essentially marrying up what we did this year with next year's dates.

Thank you very much. Council, this does require action. I have a motion by Mr. Allison.

Second.

Second by Ms. Griffin. Before we vote, any comments or questions? If not, the motion is to approve. That's unanimous and so ordered. Thank you. Item F, consideration of the appointment of special tax district commissioners for the following subdivisions. Ms. Doran, this will be McKellar Farms, Grace Court, Quail Run, Druid Hills, Hillbrook, Wellington Green, and Creekside.

Mr. Chairman and Council, all of these are reappointments of members who are existing We have the proper signatures requesting that they be reappointed, and we would recommend that you approve this.

Motion to approve, Mr. Chairman. Second. Motion by Mr. Templin and second by Mr. Pruitt. Any comments or questions?

Mr. Chairman, I would like to say that I personally reached out to both of the appointments from my district, Nancy Bruce with Carol Quill Run and Scott Johnson with Grace Court, because I did not personally know them, but I did chat with them, and I certainly approved that as well.

thank you very much any other comments to approve as presented that's unanimous and so ordered thank you item G quarterly update from our County Treasurer's office miss Doran again Thank You mr. chairman before I start my report I would just like to point out mr. Goss that spoke here

He mentioned it, but I'm not sure he was connecting the two, but he is the peer support specialist, which is kind of like the second person that we use SCORF funds to have him hired. He is an employee of CHC, but his salary and benefits are being funded through that SCORF grant. That we apply for so just wanted to point that out in an addition to that. He is the person who? Put together our event this past Saturday To celebrate recovery he put a lot of work into that and even participated in the opening karaoke, so I Really hate he wasn't here.

He would have enjoyed that but Anywhere eight do you know karaoke Mr.. I did not can you would you do it right now? I?

no i will not okay i just thought of that although if you want to clear a room i guess i could i could my kids would kill me and they're adults robbie started singing that would clear the room so I guess we could do it again. Okay.

Back to business. Let's go.

All right. Well, we are two and a half months into our new fiscal year. My report is focused on the end of fiscal year 26. And the general fund currently has collected about 1% more than we budgeted in revenues. Alternatively, we have spent about 4.5% less than we budgeted. And so, overall, that is a positive ending. especially when we consider that we had planned a budgeted deficit of about $755,000, and right now it looks like we will finish to the positive of over a million, well over a million dollars. We do have about $258,000 of open encumbrances or purchases that are planned that weren't completed by the end of the fiscal year. Those will roll over into this next fiscal, current fiscal 27. the numbers wiggle a little bit as i nail down the draft of the annual financial statements but i do not expect our position to worsen if anything it will improve our primary focus over the last few weeks has been to calculate our rollback millage which we'll talk about in the next item i would point out that our reports indicate that our total assessed value throughout greenwood county increased by $14.3 million over the last five years. And note that that's our assessed value. The taxable value is actually higher, which means the value of the property is higher than that. It's assessed at four and six percent ratios, so that's why I don't have that number broken down. I have not had time to get that specific information together. Staff also convened the accommodations tax committee to review submissions and provide recommendations to County Council. At the back of my report you'll find a chart with the request from last year and this year along with committee's recommendations. We also included minutes from the committee's meeting so that you could see how they arrived at the numbers that they have in addition to folks that were there to represent both who was present from the committee and both who was present from the requesters so that you have all that information we do plan to have their recommendation in front of you at the October 6th meeting for you to vote on I would encourage you over the next three weeks if you have any questions once you start looking through all of that information to let me know. And of course, if you would like to see any detailed request, we can get those to you via email. The hospitality tax collections finish the fiscal year at 8% higher than the prior fiscal year. And then our local accommodations, we've talked about this before, kind of settling back down from Hurricane Helene. But when we look at fiscal 24, which is a more comparative year, they did finish almost 6% higher. I think Josh mentioned in his last report that our April through June payment came in at almost $3.8 million. That collection was almost 6% higher than originally estimated and about 5.8% higher than the same quarterly period in 2025. So that same April, June quarter in 2025, it was almost 6% higher. We have 100% funded the Career Center, which was our first project. and funded 23 percent of the fire master plan which was project number two that should be fully funded between june and september of 2027 so in a year our transportation program with matt the trips the number of trips increased a little bit during the month of june overall we are lower than the previous year we've talked about this with limited funding we did finalize our We don't actually have an agreement with SCDOT anymore, but we did finalize the funding that is going to Matt for our current fiscal year. And we are meeting with Matt administration this week to discuss how we keep the program within our budget of about $300,000, half from DOT and half from the county. And finally, on building permit data, our residential permits continue to be high, especially for new construction. The total value of all residential permits issued totaled just over $102 million, which is about 10.5% less than the total issued during fiscal 25. And then the value of commercial permits this fiscal year were actually 221% higher than those issued in fiscal 25. So we have a lot of things happening in the commercial sector this year. Happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Council? Mr. Chairman, I'm in. Mr. Allison.

On the commercial side, Is that due to like Fuji, all the new people coming into Fuji's facilities and?

I don't have exact details. I can ask for that information. But I would suspect that some of it even is you've got a lot of growth going on with the hospital. Right. So all of that. All of that would be considered. All of that's considered.

Yeah. OK. Just curious. Thank you.

Anything else? All right, if not, Ms. Doran, I believe you're also on tap for item H, our final item.

Yes, sir. I will try to be brief in this. I don't have anything illustrative, but if you recall, I don't remember the exact date, but about, I guess it was in June, Lynn Hammett, our county assessor, and I came before you and explained the reassessment process and talked about the fact that it requires under state law for us to roll back our millage once we get all of our numbers in from reassessment. We wait as close as we can to the October billing date for property taxes to give anyone an opportunity to appeal value so that we're working with the most current numbers. But in essence, what we have to do is take the property that we had available to us in the prior tax year and ensure that once new values are applied to it, it doesn't generate any additional funds for the county. And so that's a collective thing that we're looking at. It's not an individual. And so I'll give you an example. Under the state law, even if a property does increase in value on market value exponentially, we can only increase it by 15%. So if you have a property that's worth $100,000, but the market value of it is 200,000, we cannot increase it by more than 15%. So it would increase to a value of 115,000. Our Greenwood County operational millages decreased by 6% under rollback. But someone who realized a 15% growth in their property value will actually see an 8% increase in their property tax because it gets spread out among everybody. And so if somebody's property value didn't change, they will actually see a reduction in their property tax bill. So everybody's bills are gonna change up or down because we have to roll back that millage to ensure that the county does not benefit from the change in the property values. We have to roll back the millage for all operational costs, which includes metro and includes the school districts. The only millage that doesn't really roll back is any millage related to bonds. We are required to ensure that whatever the millage rate is set at for bonds is enough to cover the interest payments that are required to ensure that we have enough funds on hand to make the payments that are due in the upcoming year. And so we have been working on all of this. It's my understanding that there continue to be some questions from some of the entities associated with this and that we will postpone this in order to provide additional information to those entities.

thank you stephanie so um first of all i appreciate school superintendents all being with us here tonight um i know this is rather time sensitive you got to get your tax bills out however i think council needs to take this information digested and make sure that we get it right so what i'm going to ask tonight is that we not vote on this resolution as you were alluding to tonight and that we will convene a special meeting next week which will of course be posted and open to the public and we will make a decision on this resolution at that time yes sir and i do have a copy of the proposed resolution if you'd like it although i'm not sure it does you good at this point okay thank you and this of course requires no action on our part so if nothing i'll just go make a quick comment i i appreciate the superintendents being here too and

Uh, Ms. Bishop and I both share the fact that we served on school board. We know how important it is. It's a whole lot of work. Um, something that only happens five years and we have new people in, in most places now from a finance and superintendent role. So I think we want, we just want to take our time and let them get it right. Let them meet with their school boards, let them make some decisions and get back to us. Um, so that we can help. I mean, at the end of the day, it's all about what's best for Greenwood County and

as a former school board member for me it's all about what's best for those kids well stated vice chairman thank you any other comments so if not we'll we have no more pending items we'll move into district reports district one miss gripping thank you mr chairman i'd like to say good evening to everyone um and thank you all for coming out tonight um to our meeting i'd like to say congratulations to our ad hoc committee individuals and those

um, individuals that were, um, on that committee. And, um, just thank you for your due diligence and doing, um, doing the work for Greenwood County. Um, also would just like to state that the, um, premise land community, um, in district one will be having their, um, fun day community fun day on Saturday coming at 10 AM with the parade. um, softball games, food and fun. So you all are welcome, um, to come. And also there will be having a community meeting on September the 24th, um, at the fire department, um, in the promised land community. And we just pray that, um, each of you all have a great rest of your night. And as always say, continue to pray for one another because we never know what someone is going through. That so ends my report, Mr. Chairman.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to mention tonight that the presentation we got on this, we as a county need to really look into what our abilities as a county and what our authorities are in dealing with this. and putting maybe some stipulations or at least warnings. I would like for our attorney, if the attorney could give us some legal opinions on what is a good approach to move forward in looking at maybe curtailing some of the issues that we're experiencing in our county with these drugs that are being sold over

over the counter at a lot of locations here in greenwood so i would appreciate that thank you miss allison miss bishop mystery three thank everybody for coming and um i enjoyed in my heart you know it touched my heart that presentation Um, and I just, I really think we're going to have to, um, get help from the state. I think we're going to have to get help from the federal government. That's, that's something that really does need to be looked at. I mean, I'm happy that they brought that to our attention, but I know they, I mean, FDA, they, I mean, that needs to be regulated. That's scary. It is. Um,

so and and yeah so that that is my report i hope that everybody has a good evening thank you district four miss miller mr chairman i have uh two celebration comments and two more serious comments one is uh that i did attend eaton's ribbon cutting ceremony it was a very hot day i couldn't get a spot under the big white tent so i stood there at about 97 degree heat with 105 heat index Um, and they were celebrating their $30 million expansion. So that's a big plus for Greenwood as well to have that, uh, and to congratulate Piedmont tech for their 60 years of service to our students and our employers, uh, in Greenwood County and the surrounding counties. I know they were celebrating that. That's a big milestone for them as well. And congratulations to Dr. Hope rivers, uh, for that achievement as well as her past predecessors. Um, I think I would be. negligent if I didn't say that we should take a moment and I know it's past, but to remember and I didn't really understand the magnitude of what happened on 9 11 in 2001. I remember where I was. I'm sure we all remember where we were. There's a whole generation of folks that don't remember anything because they weren't even born yet. It's just 25 years ago. So with the school district superintendents here, I would say, please listen, let's always remember, help put something into the school systems to have some kind of program for they for them to to know what happened for them to never forget what has happened. There were nearly 3000 people who lost their lives on that day. and more than 9,000 people who have now died since then from 9-11 related illnesses. So please don't let that disappear in our school systems. And also, I was reading that another somber kind of reminder that this Friday, September 18th, is National POWMIA Recognition Day. It was started in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter, and it's to honor Americans who were prisoners of war who remain missing in action.

and there's a huge number of people with that as well so on this friday if you'll take a moment to pause or remember that as well thank you that concludes my report thank you ms miller district 5 mr pruitt thank you mr chairman i would invite and encourage everyone to come out for my district 5 cleanup this saturday it's going to be the the best and the funnest one yet if you want to get in a kayak you can kayak from the dam all the way to chapels and clean up Look forward to seeing you, Mr. Chapel, uh, in a kayak, in a kayak. Although I will probably be on the roadside. You don't have to get in a kayak. If you don't want to, you can walk the roadside and, uh, we'll clean up from the boat ramp to the dam. Um, appreciate everybody coming out and, uh, let's keep Greenwood County beautiful as Ms. Amber does an excellent job with that. Um, I did attend the, uh, PTC golf tournament and the 60 year celebration. It was great to see Dr. Ray Brooks. Um, the reminder there have only been three presidents of that school, Lex Walters, Dr. Ray Brooks, and now Dr. Hope river. So, um, it was, it was very nice celebration. Um, and I, I appreciate everybody who reached out to me, um, calls, texts, and, and the emails I got resumes. I got lots of information. people wanting to be on this ad hoc group, and I'm so appreciative. I hope everybody got a response back from me on that, and I'm just glad to see people are interested in being involved. Thank you. As always, I want to end on a Bible verse. Galatians 5.14 says, For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command, Love your neighbor as yourself. That ends my report, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Pruitt.

Mr. Templeton, District 6. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll be brief. Our Friday report this past week was on basically 9-11. The Hodges Fire Department did a tremendous job with their lights on main, and it was very well attended, and they hit on a lot of those things that Ms. Miller pointed out, so that's great. Just see a lot of familiar faces in the audience, but I do want to appreciate Shane Goodwin being here tonight. Thank you. And I had one more thing, but I can't remember what it was, so that is my report.

I thought forgetting things was my job. So, thank you, Mr. Tipton. Oh, I know what it was. Oh, go ahead.

I want to thank Officer Womack for being here and taking care of us. Appreciate it.

District seven, like the vice chairman, I also had the good fortune of being able to attend the Piedmont Tech six year celebration. I was very happy to see my old friend, Dr. Tim Hardy, who's now the state tech president, and to reconnect with him, we worked together in Sumter County years ago. There were a number of state elected officials there with us, with local elected officials. I thought it was a really good turnout. Mr. Templeton, I always say, my being last to speak, everybody steals all my thunder. So the Hodges 9-1-1 celebration has been mentioned, I think, twice already. But they do a fantastic, just a phenomenal job of that. And if you've never attended, it is quite touching, too. to Ms. Miller's point in regard to 911. But lastly, I want to thank everyone who's attended tonight. You know, I used to comment sometimes that we'd have three or four people from the public attending our council meetings. sometimes I know that things may motivate you to be here that might not stimulate the the most pleasant conversations between us but I love that you are here so thank you thank you so much I also want to thank council staff and our community members for all the work that went into assembling at this ad hoc committee process not only for those who will serve as committee members but for others who have given and will continue to give us advice and consultation in this very important process so thank you all for that and if there is nothing further we will adjourn uh miss ms mcintyre nothing else for the good of the order mr manager madam attorney and we are adjourned thank you very much