County Council - Regular Meeting

Lost the cell phone somewhere sitting in the back. Yeah. Well, it won't be on the back where the heck I could have.

Yeah. Walk back there by where I picked this drink up and see if you see it. Ladies and gentlemen, it's 5:30 or a little after and we will go ahead and call this meeting of December 16, Greenwood County Council to order. Um, since 400 pm today, your Greenwood County Council has been in an executive session. In the interest of total transparency, I'll ask that our county manager tell you the reasons why we had that need. Mr. Manager.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Members of county council, we entered an executive session for the following six matters. One personnel matter pertaining to the Greenwood County resolution 2025-30 in the EMS department. one legal matter pertaining to Tasian Carbon America and four economic development matters pertaining to projects Muscogee paper trail black sable and Apollo thank you Mr. manager. Appreciate that. Council you got this. That's mine. Oh, that

Yeah, forgot how to turn that. Oh, excuse me. Just one second. Motel. How'd you get it? I have no idea. I don't know. I have no idea. You got a phone thief up here. That's the sheriff something. Council here. Council, I'll entertain a motion that we ex that we exit executive session. So move second.

Have a first by vice chairman, second by Miss Teresa. All in favor? That's so ordered. Thank you. We do have need for one uh item action item coming out of executive session. Yeah, we are. But we're going to handle this matter now. We've already handled that matter. Correct. Don't you want to take action on the one matter that we're going to I thought you were going to wait until after the second executive session. I thought that's what you

Okay, we can do that. That's fine. It's fine. Okay. So, we will we will have we'll take no action then at this point in time. Um, as you all know, we always start our Greenway County Council meetings with prayer. So, if you are able, will you please stand with me? And then we'll honor our nation with the pledge of allegiance. Heavenly Father, we come before you with grateful hearts as we conclude this final meeting of 2025. We thank you for your guidance, wisdom, and grace throughout what has been a very productive year of service. We believe you have blessed the work of this council, our staff, and all who labor for good of Greenwood County, and we give you the honor and praise. As we draw near to the Christmas season, we are reminded of the greatest gift ever given, your son, Jesus Christ. We thank you for the hope, the peace, the salvation that came into the world through his birth. May the meaning of Christmas renew our spirits and shape our actions as we endeavor to serve others. Lord, we ask that you bless our community, our families, and all those who are in need during this season. Bring comfort to the weary, healing to the hurting, and peace to those facing uncertainty in life. Grant us rest during the days ahead, and prepare our hearts and minds for the work that lies before us in the coming year. Continue to grant this council wisdom. Maintain our unity and give us humility as we seek to lead with integrity and compassion. May all that we do certainly be pleasing in your sight. We offer this prayer in the holy and precious name of Jesus our Lord and Savior. Amen.

Amen. Amen. I pledge algiance 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, Miss McIntyre. I see it. We have we have two people here signed up for public comment and I believe um we will go we will go ahead and take that comment now. Okay.

So uh looking at my list uh Mr. Brewington uh 426 Cro Mr. and Mr. Brewing Mr. Brewington come forward please state your name address and tell us what you'd like to speak on.

Uh my name is Earl and I live 426 I'm here today to just ask that R1 or R2. We've already I sit on my porch and watch people down. I just ask you council. Any questions or comments for Mr. Burlington? If not, Mr. Brewington, thank you for being here tonight.

Yes, sir. We do. Thank you, Mr. Heath Davis. Mr. Chairman,

that'll be fine. Thank you, sir. We have two we have one presentation here tonight and council uh if you've not noted on our agenda. I had asked um the county manager that we remove um item the second item of presentation tonight which was to be provided by Miss Abby Banks because we knew that Mr. Templeton was going to have to be absent tonight. I think that the branding issue is important enough and there's it's not time sensitive. So, if it if you will agree with that and allow me, I'd like to remove that from the agenda and that will uh allow us just one presentation. That is that is that okay with everyone? Thank you very much. Um our first presentation proclamation recognizing the 2025 uh 10U 10U. Uh, I don't know what I'd do without Miss Bishop because Miss Bishop always leans over here and calmly and quietly and compassionately. Basically says, "Chairman, you forgot something." So, I apologize that I did forget. I trust that you have had the opportunity to review our minutes from our last scheduled meeting. And if so, I'll entertain a motion that we approve those minutes at this time.

Motion to approve. Motion by Miss Miller, second. Second by Mr. Allison. All in favor? That is so ordered. Thank you, Miss Bishop. You're welcome. Vice Chairman Puit and Mr. Brad Cuddle are will make this presentation. It's proclamation recognizing 2025 one IU 96 All-Star volleyball team. Mr. Puit. Yes, sir. Thank you. And Mr. Puit has asked that council go down with him at the time that he makes that presentation. So be ready to get up

just what I need a microphone. Um thank you guys for having me and um chairman's right. I want the all of council to come down. I just I think this is a big deal and um representing Greenwood County, this is where your county government and your taxpayers invest. It doesn't matter. I'm sure people can hear me. Um Brad Cuddle and Timberman specifically in 96 as well. Thank you for the job you do. Um but I think all of the parents and grandparents. Um what an investment that you made in in my opinion. Community builds championships. And you know, not just in 96. I know we celebrated the band not too long ago, but um for these young people and you are our leaders of tomorrow, it it's it's really an honor to have you guys here to have you guys show up and from a personal standpoint, I know um both of the coaches uh your Lyanna was a excellent athlete herself at 96 uh and u Mr. Hill is a small business owner, owns the U athletic club, and I'd invite anybody, I'm doing a little pitch for him here, but uh to join down there. I know I have joined and does an excellent job. So, these are the types of people in our community who invest and give back and make a difference in these kids' lives and and again, it's it's an honor for us to be able to recognize you guys. So, I'm going to ask council come down because this is

Greenwood County. This is all of us, all of you guys as well. And um ask the team to come up with the coaches while we read this proclamation. Team and coaches, I'm sorry. Move this. I'm gonna let you and Stephen hold this.

Y'all scared of me? Come on up here. And we uh thanks the parks and recreation department for providing these shirts as well. Um where's T and Brad? I think you guys should be up here as well. Come on. Yeah, I'm I'm gonna call every I'm calling out everybody. Again, I think this is a community effort. Very proud of the effort here. See, they were scared of you, too.

Yeah. So this proclamation whereas on Saturday, November the 22nd, 2025, the 2025 TNU 96 All-Star volleyball team won the state championship in Lancaster under the coaching leadership of head coach Lyanna Owens and assistant coaches Steven Hill and oh it's missing. Whereas the championship team members for the 2025 TNU team are Emily Akin, Adelaide Dove, Ally Hill, Emma Owens, Kaden Owens, Avery Pard, Sarah Qualss, Hollis Snipes, and whereas Greenwood County Parks and Recreation plays in the Western District of the South Carolina Rec Parks and Recreation Sports League. Whereas this year's All-Star volleyball team makes Greenwood County recreation three years in a row, three Pete, winning the 2023 12U, 2024 12U, and now the 2025 10U state championship. Now therefore, be it proclaim that Greenwood County Council does hereby extend their congratulatory accolades to the 2025 TNU 96 All-Star volleyball team. They wish the team members, coaches, and family members who committed their love and support along the way, continued success throughout their athletic and educational journeys presented on this the 16th day of December 2025. Thank you young ladies for your commitment and congratulations on this great achievement.

Thank you guys again. T. Thank you.

Oh, also I forgot to mention, not only did they win the state, but they also won best overall at the 96 Christmas parade and best adaptation of theme. I mean, how's that for an awesome year? Congratulations again. Thank you all for being here. We'll move now into old business. Uh we have let me see how many items about five or six items

in regard to our um special tax districts. Miss Dorne, would you talk to us about those please ma'am? And because we're in second reading, but we won't hold any public hearings because our calendar did not coordinate with the index journal and the timing for public notice. So, we'll we will hold those on third reading. Thank you.

Thank you, chairman and councel. Uh, as we mentioned at the last meeting, we have about 12 special tax districts that are inactive. Uh, we have not been taking any taxes uh taking any taxes in nor spending any funds. And some of these districts don't have any funds in their account at all. And so we're asking for you to start the process to dissolve these districts. We did send letters out to all of the property owners uh about two weeks ago. We have fielded um a fair amount of calls. We haven't gotten calls from all 10,000 property owners that that received letters. Uh the vast majority of the phone calls we received um have really been that people didn't know they were in a tax district. They didn't understand the tax district. So we of course have explained those. Um we had another I just want you all to be aware of that u from what we can can gather uh Curl Creek when it was originally developed um included a much larger area than what was actually developed initially back in the 80s. And then sometime in the 90s a secondary development was was done. Um and so that entire parcel or initial partial parcel uh was in the CL Creek Tax District. But when that second development was done, it was called Kensington. And so when people got a letter that said they were in the Corl Creek tax district, it was very confusing to them because they they knew themselves as being in the Kensington neighborhood. Uh so we did have a fair amount of calls uh trying to explain to them that they were in that tax district even though they were not in that neighborhood. Um which is again why tax districts and homeowners associations are completely different things because they can

represent different areas. Um, at any rate, I think we we've straightened that out. Um, the most recent phone calls that we have, uh, this week have been related to Kimbrook, uh, which is the only subdivision in this group that has any amount of money, about $2,400 in funds. Uh, they, uh, appear to want to try and spend those funds. Um, they do not appear to want to continue as a tax district. uh we have advised them that they need to uh determine three people that would be willing to serve as tax commissioners and to get that information to Britney Williams in my office so that we can bring that forward. uh explained to them that they had a year to spend the funds um and that they there's no no action required on their part other than to get us those commissioners names so that they can spend the funds uh accordingly you know according to our policies and state statute. So, uh, we are working, uh, to try and get them to to submit those names. And when once they do, we'll get those to you and ask you to approve those commissioners. Outside of that, um, again, I have not heard from anyone that appears to want to keep any of these tax districts in place. And, um, as Chairman Lane mentioned, we will have a public hearing has been advertised for the January 6th meeting. happy to answer any other questions you might have.

Council, I just have one comment for clarification because the curl creek you mentioned and K are both in my district. So, thank you all and your staff for handling some of those calls that I to you. Um, but the Creek one, the one that was the letter was Park, right? Not it's Kensington. Okay. We had a And I can have that offline with you about

Yeah. The only people we have heard from are are when they call an in there on Kensington, which from what we can see on the original deed, um, Curl Creek Drive was supposed to go and come up and and tie into Abbey Court and they just never developed that extension, which is now Kensington Road. I'll have a separate conversation with you about Park. Yeah, we have we haven't had anybody call and identify themselves as letters. Okay. And that may be another extension appropriate. Yeah.

It it just all backs up to it. And what we believe we we don't have a scan of the original documents. Um they're in in storage from our move, our temporary move. And so we can go and get them if we need to, but we didn't feel like it was it was entirely needed. Um, but we do have the initial uh deed where where the the neighborhood itself was outlined in the very beginning and we believe the developer uh set it up as a tax district at that time because then of course it's easier. They own all the property so they can get it established as a tax district easily rather than having to get the individual parcels. you know, once once a neighborhood's developed, you got to have 75% of property owners. So, if you own it all, it's real easy to to come before council and established as a tax district. So, I think there were maybe other plans at the time and and maybe that the roads were going to not be turned over to to the county. Um, and and it just turned out that they didn't need it as a district. Um, but they just did not develop it 100% as they originally planned.

Thank you, Miss Dora, for that explanation. Council, any other comments or questions? If and if not, we will move quickly through these six items, uh, A through F. Um, is there any other discussion before we do so? Okay. Uh item A, ordinance 202533, dissolving the Puckets Fairy Special Tax District. Um council, what is your pleasure? Motion to approve. Motion by Mr. Allison. Second. Second by Mr. Teresa and all in favor. That is so ordered. Item B, ordinance 202534, dissolving the Pinehurst Special Tax District Council, what is your pleasure? I make a motion to approve.

Motion by Miss Bishop. Second. Second by Mr. Allison. Any discussion? All in favor? That is so ordered. Thank you. Item C, ordinance 202535, dissolving the Stony Point Special Tax District. Council, what is your pleasure? Motion to approve. Motion by Mr. Puit. Second. Second by Miss Bishop. All in favor? That is so orders. Item D, 202536, dissolving the Summit Place special tax district council. Where's your pleasure? So move. Second. Motion by Mr. Alson, second by Mr. Puit. All in favor? That is so ordered. Uh item E, ordinance 202537, dissolving the Curl Creek Special Tax District. What is your pleasure? Motion to approve. Second.

Motion by Miss Miller, second by Miss Bishop. All in favor? That is so ordered. Thank you. Ordinance. I said there were six, but there's seven. Ordinance 202538 dissolving Kimbrook Special Tax District Council. What's your pleasure? I make a motion to approve. Motion by Miss Bishop. Second. Second by Miss Miller. And all in favor? That is so ordered. Thank you.

We'll move now to item G, ordinance 202539 to amend the Greenwood County zoning map as an if amended so that one parcel of land totaling approximately 21.96 acres at 425 Cobb Road in Greenwood County changes from R1 single family residential to R3 single family uh residential. our county planning director, Miss Coleman. Please.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This may look familiar because we looked at it before on the original request. They asked for R5. Um, they planned on doing town homes and they had 128 town homes, I believe, in the original plan. When it looked like it was not receiving the reception they wanted it to, um, they asked to go to back planning commission and they up they redid the plan for patio homes and they dropped the density down to 65 total units. Um, so we went from over five units per acre down to in the three unit per acre range. Um, currently zoned R R1, they're asking you to go to R3. Um, you can see the property adjacent to it. There's a lot of commercial in both the city and the county. This is one of those areas where it meanders back and forth, but the C2 in the county does allow by right everything in our zoning ordinance residentially from the R5 district. So the C2 does allow for town homes and apartments. um they removed that request in the in redoing this. They are on a state road. You can see that they do have a flood zone at the bottom of the property that's part of the Rocky Creek run. Um they have all of the utilities available to them. It is on a state road. You can see it's been cleared pretty much, but it was cleared before the current property owner bought it. Um that's a picture of the property itself. You can see the next picture is looking towards Montigue Avenue Extension. Um, this is looking across Cobb Road at um, Mr. Brewington's property. And then this is the one on the right is looking towards Cooxbury Road or 254. So again, it's currently R1. The proposed zoning is R3. They are specifically asking to do patio or atrium homes. Um, they are on their own lots. They do not touch each other. They're completely separate from each other, but they've concentrated the development in a smaller developable area. Um the C1 district, I just put this back up there. And as well, I wanted to remind

you again is the R5 district does allow you to go to that for C1 and C2. Um so this is the future land use in a comprehensive plan. The future land use is medium density residential. This is well within the medium density residential range. You can see I calculate it two different ways. I calculate gross density which is the total number of acres divided by the number of units or actually flip-flop total number of units divided by total number of acres. And then also we have the same thing where I remove the develop the area that they're not developing in. So just the concentrated area where it's going to be developed. So it's 3.71 dwelling units per acre. Um based on the buildable area um the overall gross density is 2.87 87 dwelling units per acre and those are both well within the medium density residential. Uh you can see this is the actual uh comprehensive plan map. The one that's here is based on that. This is on our GIS if you're ever interested in looking those up. Uh you can see comprehensive plan map. It is medium density residential is kind of a golden rod color. This is the original plan that came forward to you and this was 128 I think it was um town homes and then this is what they've done since then. Instead of having them stacked so closely together, it's basically the same developable area. You can see areas around the development that are going to still be open that can be considered for buffers. And there it is all in green, but you still see on the aerial photograph how much of it outside of the developable area to the property lines is still clear, but they're concentrating the development in one area. So, there's the plan for the minimum um lot size of 4,000 square feet for patio homes, which is what our zoning ordinance allows. And you see the 2.87 dwelling units per acre.

If you have any specific questions, I'll be glad to address them. that came to us with recommendation of staff and approval. It did um based on the future land use maps and when it went back to planning commission it was a vote six to zero to approve and remind me again what the number of initial unit request was and what it was reduced to. I think it was 125 in the original request. 128 in the original request and they dropped down to 65. So they almost split it almost in half. Okay. Thank you, Miss Coleman. Thank you,

council. What is your pleasure? Can some people talk about this or did you sign up to speak? Well, I I wasn't even aware any of this going on. I just has anyone done any studies about traffic? Miss Coleman, come back forward. Please answer that gentleman's question, please. Ma'am,

to my knowledge, they haven't done a traffic study yet. I don't know if there's a representative here. I know they've talked to D, they met with DOT. Um, I would tell you that um the engineer of record is Chip Thunderberg. He couldn't be here tonight. Um, this proposed access point was approved by DOT. They also included the possibility of an emergency access at the culde-sac. So they could have two points of ingress and eress. I recall that for emergency purposes. Thank you, ma'am. Council, what's your pleasure? Because I didn't get a notice. I can't speak, sir. No, you can't. I'm sorry you can't. Um, be a third reading, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Public hearing. Third reading. Yeah. P the public hearing will take place at third reading because you heard me speak earlier about the coordination of schedule with the index journal and time reporting for public notice. So if you care if you want to speak on this you can come back and speak at third reading at the next meeting. Okay. I'm not trying to be hard about it but I just want to maintain our protocol. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, well you have a shot to speak. Um, chairman, could you could you publicly say when that public hearing will be the day? Yeah, Mr. Chairman, I was going to say it's January 6, just so there's no no doubt. January 6 and 5:30 in this room.

5:30 in this room. 5:30. January 6 right here. That'll be our next meeting. Council, I ask again. What's your pleasure? Mr. Chairman, I'm going to offer you a motion to approve. I have a motion by Mr. Alson. and by Miss Miller. All in favor? Well, before that, any con any questions or conversation? If not, all in favor? And that is so ordered. Thank you. We'll move now to new business. Item A is the consideration of the approval to accept bids for timber cutting at the landfill property on Salom Church Road. And Mr. Jamie Smith from our public works assistant director.

Good afternoon, chairman, members of council. What we have before you tonight is, as you just stated, um the approval of a timber cutting bid uh at the Salon Church Road address, which is the current landfill site. Um it several years ago, we put it out to bid for our timber management consultant. It's done by a consultant. Our consultant says it is now time to harvest these trees. Um it entails about 181 acres. Um it's most of the site. There's a map included in your packet. Um the cross-hatched areas. Um it goes into what years the trees were planted, what year they would have normally been harvested. Kind of give you a map of an overhead. Um all of this is done on a unit based price. Um timber market's all over the place right now. Our consultant says it's only going down. So we need to get the timber and get as much revenue out of it as we can. Um, if approved tonight, the cutting will have to be done and completed by January 1st, 2027. They'll have essentially a year to finish the process. Um, the high bid when it was bid out was Charles K. Doolittle Incorporated. Um, $284,874. Again, that is an estimate based on what we think is on the property. It'll all be done by tonnage once it goes out. Um, bids are favorable. Y'all may remember Rhett brought a while back cutting at the airport. We've looked at the unit prices. All of those are equal, comparative, little up, little down across the board. Um all of the funds, if if we proceed, will go into the 502 fund, landfill fund. Um and we would intend to put reset or replant all 181 acres um in the 20 put budget in the 27 physical year budget to to replant those

trees. Uh that would coincide with obviously we're building sale for now, but um we're thinking that's going to last about 12 years. So we could get some additional revenue for a thinning at that point trying to look down the road. Um, again, our request is for you to approve the bid and to allow the county manager to sign and negotiate any documents as needed for the process. Take any questions that you might have. Council, any questions or discussions? Mr. Chairman, I offer you a motion to approve. I second. Have a motion by by Mr. Alson, second by Miss Bishop. Any question or discussion before we vote? Yes, sir.

So, we're we're approving for the county manager to authorize that contract. And all in favor that is so ordered. Thank you so much. Thank you Jamie. Item B will be our quarterly update from Miss Dorne, our treasurer. Hello again. Hello again.

As you recall, um we recently changed from monthly to quarterly. So this is the first quarterly report. And as I was sitting there, it occurred to me that um one of the first things I talked about was our our annual annual financial report, the audit that was presented at the last meeting. And it occurred to me that that was the fifth one because this is my fifth year as um I just completed my fifth year as your county treasurer, but more importantly, I'd recently completed 27 years of service in local government. So, um, appreciate the opportunity that you all gave me to to continue my my tenure in in local government here with Greenwood County. Um, very proud of the fact that this was our um this wasn't the county's fifth audit with an unmodified opinion, but the county certainly have has a long history um of of having unmodified opinions on their audit. Uh, one of the things that I think we were in a hurry um at our last meeting because we had we had a lot that was on going on and um I think Mr. Mallister didn't mention the fact that the report that you had did not include um our report that's commonly referred to as the single audit related to our federal grants. uh when the government shut down in October uh they were not able uh the OM was not able to issue the compliance supplement which the auditors need in order to issue the single audit. So it came out the week before the audit was complete and so they delayed the issuance of that single audit. Um it is available on the county's website on the treasurer's page. Uh it's a very short document. um has a report of all the federal awards that we expended uh during last fiscal year. But that report does indicate that the audit revealed no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies

in internal controls nor any findings related to our federal um awards. And so next up in the treasur's office is guest guess what the budget. So, about 30 days or so from now, we'll we'll ramp that process up. So, we'll soon be um having conversations about what our plans are for fiscal 27. Right now, the general fund uh has collected about 18% of our budgeted revenues. That doesn't sound like a lot when you think about five months, but primarily we are property tax driven in revenue and we've collected about 10% of that budget. Um pretty much we're we're where we expect to be. Our expenditures and issued purchase orders are at 42% of our budget, which is exactly where we expect for five months. Um there is a chart in your um report in front of you that has that year-to- date information. As you all know, we're continuing to work with our FEMA reimbursements. Um it's been over a year since we started this process. Uh but we are not finished. Uh we're doing um moving these things through as fast as we can, but uh we do have one project that's valued at just over $300,000 that has made it through both FEMA and uh South Carolina EMD approval and is pending the award of the funds. Um there's a couple of pieces of paper that Lewis was chasing down um today to get to them and then it'll move to obligation. So, um that project was phase one of our debris removal. If you recall, um what what happened is the federal government said they would pay 100% of debris removal for a 90-day period. And it was up to the state to decide when that 90-day period started. And they did not start it when the event

occurred. They started it um on October the 10th. So, we had to turn our debris removal in in three different parts because part of it 75% comes to feds, parts 100, parts 75. Um, so this is phase one for the work between uh the storm and October the 9th.

And so even though the feds only are reimbursing 75%, the state is picking up the other 25% of that. So, we're all um very excited. And when I say all, I'm talking about Lewis and um Rob in public works and everybody that's associated with that that had to collect that paperwork and get get those things submitted. Uh the property tax sale was held on October the 6. We had 98 real property parcels that were sold, seven that did not sell, 18 mobile homes that sold, and two that did not sell. And the any of the properties that do not sell are now under the purview of the forfeited land commission and we'll attempt uh continue to attempt to auction those properties. With our local uh tax data, our hospitality collections through November 2025 are very strong, almost 16% higher than the same five months in fiscal 24. Uh these collections are for your prepared food and beverage sales from June through October. they're always a month behind. Local accommodations tax collections uh for the first five months of the fiscal year are almost exactly the same as the prior year, which was a little surprising uh because if you remember once Helen came, we started an uptick in our um occupancy because uh we had a lot of people displaced. I did um I don't have this in your report because I didn't have the information uh when I finalized the report, but I did reach out to Kelly Mcuarter to see what information she might have. And what she reported to me is that in July they had the G little league state championship and the southeastern water ski championship and then in October the fishers of men bass fishing tournament. In addition to that, the information they get from the hotels states that there are a large number of construction contractors um in our hotels, which with

all the construction we have going on u makes absolute sense. So that's why we think those numbers are still very strong. and then um coming up. So even though this numbers through November, it's from for those October stays, but next month I would expect to see um positive numbers for because for the months of November, we had the South Carolina Economic Development Institute, the Regional Military Officers Association, and the South Carolina 250 quarterly meeting uh that brought visitors into our community as well. So those help both um accommodations and hospitality figures uh the work that we're doing to bring these kinds of events in. Uh finally, the uh first full quarterly payment for our um extension on the capital project sales tax was received for over $3.4 million. Uh that amount was about 3.3% higher than I had estimated. So, uh, when we went through the process, I estimated how much we expected to collect. Um, so we're a little bit ahead. Um, and that's 5% higher than our July through September quarter of 2024. So, we continue to see growth in our retail um, sales. And obviously some things are uh driven by changes in pricing but that has more stabilized than than it was in in previous times postcoid and things. Um so we we definitely see uh some growth occurring but at this point uh what we have collected to date because we had the first quarter and then we had one month as we as this process started. Uh but the total collections have are now funding 43% of our first project which is the career center on the Pedmont Technical College uh campus. So I know

they're excited to um to know that we're we're almost uh won't take us too much longer and we'll have their their funding in place. Uh next our transportation update. This is another area where I have now received information that I did not have when I produced this report. Uh but if you recall uh we have now transitioned to our our provider McCormack Area Transit is receiving the federal funds. And so um what they reported to me is that between um September and November they had 6,679 trips. that 7% growth over last year, which I was glad to see because we did have um some decrease in the first part of the July and August. And um they included information about the trips we're doing uh which I like to get occasionally just to see uh what the impact is. 59% of our trips are for employment. 25% are for medical and pharmacy related trips and 11% are education related. So that's a strong numbers for what we're doing in our community with that transportation program. Finally, our building permit data, our new residential construction growth continues to be strong. I don't think I have to tell y'all that. If you drive around Greenwood, you can see that for yourself. Uh but is 72% of the total value of our permits issued. uh 28% higher than the first five months of last fiscal year. And if you remember the last time I reported to you, it it was down. Um but now it's it's rebounded and grown. Um and our new construction commercial new con commercial construction permits are 17% of the total value and 18 times the value of new permits issued between

July and November of 2024. So, we've had a um pretty big influx of con commercial construction um in this this period to date. Uh again, I think if you look around, you see there's a lot going on on the bypass. Um I noticed myself driving Belux has um is working on their expansion. So, there is a lot of construction going on on a commercial basis as well in our community. That was a lot, but that was a whole quarter. So, Any questions that I can answer? I I do have a question, Steph. Yes, sir. And that's a great report. Thank you.

Since Since we initiated our public transportation mat transit system and you said 59% is is moving people to to employment opportunities. Have those percentages varied dramatically as the I know the numbers have grown just about every quarter over these years, but has that number grown? Because I didn't ever realize that being that high. Yeah, it it it's pretty much there. They stay in about the same allocation. Those those percentages pretty much stay the same. Okay. Well, but I think it's great that you know obviously meeting the needs that we designed it for. Absolutely.

Thank you, council. Any questions or comments before Miss Dorne leaves us? Thank you. Thank you. Staying in new business, um item C, resolution 202529 to amend the 2026 budget to appropriate funds for roof replacement at the federal building and to advance funds for for grant proceeds. Stephanie,

so you all might remember that in this current budget, you approved funding to um supplement the capital project sales tax that was needed to replace the slate roof at the federal building. And in the meantime, um the art center was working to uh secure some grant funding and was successful um in obtaining a grant for the flat roof uh on the federal building. And the funding for that was $200,000, which was not quite enough either. And so, just as a reminder, the city and the county jointly own that building. So that's why we're we're coming to you and talking to you about funding for that. Um there we already have bids for the flat roof. Um there's some questions that we have presented to um to the state. This this grant is coming from the department of archives and history um as to whether we can use the existing bids that we have and whether our contractors will honor the price because we're outside of that initial period. Um, we're still trying to get those issues resolved. Uh, but based on those original quotes, we believe that the maximum cost of that roof replacement would be $410,000. So, we have a $200,000 grant. Last night, city council agreed to fund half of the difference, so up to $105,000. And so we're asking you um to fund the other 105,000. Uh we may be able to get it for a reduced cost uh but we want to make sure that we already have enough funds in place. The other piece of of this um that we're that we're asking for is the grant works on a reimbursement process

and so um the art center just doesn't have the funds available to pay out the 200,000 for the grant piece and so they're asking to allow us uh to front that money and then we would be reimbursed for that $200,000. So all in all the and we would be using hospitality funds for this. So we would pay out three up to $35,000, but we would get the $200,000 back. So part of this resolution also includes for the county manager to be able to sign any agreements with the arts council of Greenwood County andor the South Carolina Department of Archives and History related to the flow of funds for the grant after of course review and approval by the county attorney. I know that was a lot in there, but I'll be glad to answer any questions. And we also have um representatives from the art center and Josh is back there too because this is a um just an extension of the capital project sales tax and he is going to manage this project uh for us as well. So they're here and can answer any questions that you might have

comment. Oh, go ahead, Mr. Go ahead, Mr. Alison. Uh thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh one quick question. Uh the city is offering to pay half correct on it together. Was the city presented with the uh the option of splitting the reimbursement or or the upfront money for the reimbursement for the $200,000? No, we we we offered to do that. Okay. We did not ask we did not ask for them to ask for that. Okay. Thank you. I have a question, please. Yes, ma'am. Miss Miller,

how long is the grant process, the reimbursement going to be for that 200,000? Is it six months, a year? What's the reimbursement time? I I think as soon as we submit the appropriate documents, then we would be reimbursed. They don't reimburse until the end of the pro until the project's complete. Is that so the roof has to be finished? And once the roof is finished, then we can be reimbursed. So once you front that money to pay for it, it would be maybe a couple months for it because it's not a long stretched out, right? No, ma'am. I wouldn't expect it long. No. Josh, do you have any idea of how long that project might take? Have a sense of that?

Okay. So, seven to nine months, something like that probably. Thank you. Just a couple of comments. Yes, sir.

I would say I was involved with the uh community theater back in 0203 with the Emerald Triangle project and when they first did renovations and I think it's easy to see the benefits that have come from that, all that's done at the uh federal building and all the wonderful productions that are produced at Greenwood Community Theater. Um I think it's a great thing. And in addition to that, I think the local newspaper ran an article about using a local vendor to do the slate roof and and the connection there. So to me, I think it's all a win-win project. Very proud of it. Josh, you were probably in grade school when I was working on that project, but and Renee probably wasn't born. So, um, anyway, just real proud of that project. Glad to help

council. I think Miss Dorne's do done a good job of covering this for us. So, just for clarity, resolution 202529 will amend the 26 budget to appropriate funds for the roof replacement at the federal building. Uh the recommendation is that we advance $35,000, I believe, Stephanie, is that correct? We'll we're advancing $200,000,000 and expanding the 105. Thank you. Motion to approve. Chairman motion by Mr. Puit, second by Miss Bishop. Any questions or conversation? Mr. Chairman. Yes, sir. One question. Are we talking about two different roofs? The slate roof and the flat roof? Yes. So, the slate roof has nothing to do with what we're doing now.

Correct. Is that correct? That's correct. This is just the flat roof. Yes. Okay. Thank you. And so Josh, I think you said spring for the slate roof, late summer for the uh flat roof. For the flat roof, and then we won't be build for it till after it's completed. They'll probably do progress building. They'll do I think we'll do draws, but I think what she was saying is we won't be able to seek reimbursement until we're done. Thank you, council. Anything else? So we're clear on that before we vote. So what is your pleasure? I have a motion and a second. Correct. Yes.

All in favor as presented. And that's so ordered. Thank you very much. Item D, resolution 202530 to approve the employee pay merit increase plan for fiscal year 2026. Miss Dorne.

Thank you. Uh just as again as a reminder, when we passed the um fiscal year 26 budget, it included a line item of uh $329,67 to pay for uh merit increases. We did not have a cost of living adjustment. Uh but we did have in a provision for merit increases up to 5% based on the review that was completed um by by department heads and supervisors in October of this year. When we estimated the cost out, we were a little bit short. Um the total cost based on the plan that we have uh was short of the allocated funding by $31,471. However, there are vacancies in multiple departments that can cover the additional funds uh in order to pay for the plan as we have presented uh to council. And those individual funds uh are EMS, the landfill and the road fe um the road department. They have enough funds to cover their increases and they would have to pay for those increases in future years anyway. So, the plan that we have um that we're asking for you to approve is that anyone who had an evaluation score of 4 and a half to five would receive 5%. Between 4 and 449 would receive 4 and a.5%. 3 and a half to 3.99 score would receive 4% and 3 to 3.49 would receive three and a half%. Happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Council, any comments or discussion? Motion to approve. Have a motion by Mr. Puit. A second.

A second by Mrs. Bishop. Any comments or discussion before we vote? If not, all in favor is presented. That's unanimous and so ordered. Thank you. Item E and our final order of new business, ordinance 202540 to amend the Greenwood County zoning map as and if amended so that one po portion of parcel of land totaling approximately 46.52 acres at 2611 highway 25 south in Greenwood changed from C2, excuse me, from C2 general commercial to R3 single family residential. Miss Coleman,

Mr. Mr. Chairman, thank you. This is a project that's going to planning commission tomorrow. It's on the south end of town on the corner of Highway 25 South and the 25 bypass. It's currently split zone. The front portion is zone commercial. Actually, it's all zone commercial. Um the front portion they want to keep as commercial. The rear portion they want to redevelop as single family. So, if we go through the you can see 61.15 acres total. They are asking for the rear portion to be reszoned and keep the commercial along the front. Okay.

So, this is looking at the property itself um from Highway 25 looking out across the bypass towards uh the Food Lion and Dollar Tree. This is looking back from the property on 25 bypass towards 7-Eleven. And that's looking south on the on Highway 25 south. So, I've got another number of pictures. does abut um Highland Forest Drive. They will not have any access from there. All of the access points will be on 25 South. Um they've been working with DOT for that. This is again from Highland Forest looking back towards the property. And this is looking at the property. You see the sign there for a future restaurant. The proposal is to have a number of commercial uses along the front with two access points between the commercial uses back to the residential and looking north on 25 and looking south on 25. So this is a proposal a picture of the proposal. You can see the two axis points. You see the commercial partial parcels along the frontage and all of the residential would be in the rear. These are single family homes. Um they are asking basically to cluster them in the R3. So each house would have its own lot own frontage and they have a number of different styles that they're bringing forward. So, the R3 um you can have a number of different uses in there as we talked about with the previous one. Single family on 7500 square feet. You can do zero lot lines on 5,000 square ft. Patio or atrium homes on 4,000 square ft. And then anything else um outside of that, I'm not quite sure that is is 10,000 square feet. So, future land use is what I was talking about the split zoning. The future land use shows the front portion left as commercial, but the rear portion is shown medium density residential. This is well within medium density residential. Calculating it based on just the acreage they're talking about developing. Um

residentially, we're at 3.89 dwelling units per acre, which is a medium density number. If we do it on a gross status, just just the entire of the property, um we're down to 3.5 dwelling units per acre. So, it's consistent with a comprehensive plan. If you have any other questions, I'll be glad to address them. The developer and his representative are here, but it will be going to planning commission tomorrow and come back to you in in January. Okay. Thank you, Carol. And council, again, um this is first reading and title only. Do you have any questions or comments uh we need to cover with Miss Coleman? Mr. Davis, since you sat here all evening, you don't care to speak.

Have any questions? We won't have to chair. Any questions, Mr. Davis? Development. Okay. If not, we have no further pending items, but we do have a need to retire into executive session. Um, so I will I will ask that the chairman state the need for that, please. District reports. I I was going to do those when we come back out.

Oh, okay. I got you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Uh we need to reenter executive session to cover two matters. Both are economic one is legal with involving Tasian Carver America and one is economic development matter pertaining to project Muscoi. Okay. Thank you for the need. I'll entertain a motion we retire into executive session. Have a motion by Miss Miller, second by Mr. Puit. All in favor and we're in executive session. Thank you.