City Council - workshop

Excuse me, so that project is total $2.23 million, is that what we're saying?

So they're paying the debt service on that?

Pardon me, can you tell me when the last time we did that was?

That's fine. And was that price about $87,000? That's what I'm curious about, the increase in cost on that. I'm drawing from memory, so don't nail me to the wall on that, but I'm curious about the escalation in cost.

Let me ask you, is it possible or are you guys thinking that the stage would be a little more elevated than what we're showing here? And the reason I'm asking, because if you're having something on the stage and you're in the back towards the road, then it's gonna be kind of hard to.

Ken, we know it always takes longer and costs more many times. If this project is at $27,700, And again, I think year one, CPI was at 26 million. I don't know how we marry all the numbers exactly, but say it runs 31 million. Where do we get that extra $4 million, curiously for the audience, for cost overruns?

I would be interested in identification of grant funding. Have we been working on that? This seems like a really good project, especially if it includes the EOC, what we are looking for. to supplement that.

And we continue to look for state proviso money. Hopefully our long-serving state lawmakers can ring the bell for us.

Two questions. Going back to the solid waste, do we have a designated area for electronic and lithium battery type drop off areas? Maybe a Janet question.

That might be a fire department question also.

And another specific question. Maybe in 2023, I ask on the Stiers property, were there restrooms built between fields 9 and 10? Does anybody know?

Yes. That's a yes. Yes. Well, the grandparents would be very thankful. Thank you.

Could I ask one more question? I see bond counsel in the office, and this is with regard to the Convention Center, and one of y'all that were here might remind me. The $21 million, was that married into an $80 million issuance in my absence? Is that how that went? I don't remember the dollar value, but yeah.

Okay, and I appreciate council's indulgence. I just, trying to put it together in my absence. Yes, Virgo.

Mayor, is there a seating provision on the championship court surrounding it?

I think the championship court's in the middle.

One of the things I think, the National Tennis Association has certain guidelines for various level tournaments. And so Dustin and his group, along with others, have done their due diligence to see what do we need to actually make this a destination facility for sports tourism. And so one of the things to hold a higher level tournament is to have that championship for it.

they uh not only the new dune walkovers um but the ongoing maintenance of things that need to happen where you don't need to replace it you just need to fix something whether it's a board sticking up or a nail or whatever it might be and i'm getting a lot of good feedback lately from the people on the north end they really appreciate that so i just want to let everybody know that

And I think Coastal, in conversations on the day that we did the tour, also considering a parking service.

Ken, have we had any requests from Coach Wilson with regard to Doug Shaw? as the season starts and everything going well with the visitor's locker room we built last year.

could happen, and I don't pretend to understand lithium battery science, rare stuff, but we just need to be proactive. Whatever the cutting edge tech is, we need to be there.

Who's our rep at Solid Waste? I know we alternate in Conway.

Our appointed member that On the authority. On the authority.

Well, I'd just be curious who that is, no rush.

Janet, you said this is coming a week from today?

Janet, are you aware of any coastal state that employs its own infrastructure they do it themselves, in other words, their outfalls, their bee tree nourishment. Are there any North Carolina, Virginia, and along the Gulf, any state agencies within those individual states that handle that instead of having to depend on outside folks? And you have 24 coastal state senators in our legislature. It would seem that things might move along a little quicker I hate to say it if we did it ourselves.

Understood. There are 40 trillion reasons we hesitate to rely on the federal government.

Janet, let me ask you, how many pipes are we going to be able to get off the beach doing this outfall?

The other question I was going to ask you is about how many more do we have in our area of the beach? And then how are we looking to address some of those at some point?

All right. $1.4 million, I agree. Thank you, guys.

So Michelle, when I looked at this list, one thing that strikes me in conversations that Bill and Mark and I have been having with the chamber, as we look to an adjustment in TDF, I think that it's gonna be really important that the money that we reinvest in capital improvements be inspirational, be change-making projects, that aren't resurfacing roads, et cetera. So one of the things I think that is gonna be really important as we see an adjustment is, and I don't know a better time to bring this up, but an establishment of a commission, a committee, much like Ride 4 has a committee, that we

So I agree with Dr. Conner about transformative projects. But as Michelle pointed out, a lot of it is what we need to be doing on an ongoing basis. When you think about tourism, the look and feel of the city is very, very important. And while, yes, we have put millions of dollars into the Arts and Innovation District, we have to focus on, as Mark has said, forever now on a whole city approach. How we look, how tourists see us, that creates their image of who we are, and that's what brings them back. I mean, when you think about it, you know, based on just studies that have been done, including

Along those lines, I would only say I think the latest tranche was $300,000 the $300 million available for local projects in Columbia in the proviso budget, and although it does appear that mode of funding has fallen out of favor, I would be surprised it will ever go away unless you have an unusual year when the Senate Finance Chairman says no more. Those years do happen, but the point is we need to keep vigil in our effort to try to secure those state monies. I would just say, Thinking back, and most of you folks would remember this, back in 2009, Brad Dean stood in front of this council tryi

Did I leave anything out of that? You got it.

Can you encapsulate any alternative revenue stream sources akin to the TDF, a fee as opposed to a tax? What in the mechanics of South Carolina government now is available, if anything, that we can employ or explore

Stuart, if you would speak to where that journey begins with regard to Columbia. Does it begin in House Ways and Means? Does it begin in Senate Finance? Of course, it begins with our local.

I think we no doubt want to do it right as opposed to doing it quick. It just has to be right out of the gate. Yep.

Jimmy and I had an opportunity to meet with both our lobbyist, Scott Talley, and the lobbyist for Myrtle Beach Collaborative and had a really great conversation in regards to first coming to an agreement and then how we approach our delegation. And that's gonna be critical is the support of our delegation and... I think that we're trying to be on their agenda for September 15th, a delegation meeting, so we can provide an update and disinformation. But this conversation had to happen first. And I think that they're, Stuart, what you said, it's all in the details, and I think There have been som

Anybody else? I think at the end of the day, I mean, yeah, there are a lot of details and they're very, very important. But I know council recognize and I really feel the business community recognizes that We do need this extra money coming in specifically for tourism-related capital improvement projects, specifically for that, if we're gonna move forward. It's just not gonna come from any place else. The other part of it is that I hear about we're gonna approach Columbia and everything else, but when you think about it, just in a very level way. What we're talking about, and I think Mark has

I know these gentlemen know what a long bond is, but the 30 year bond is at the highest interest rate in two decades. And the reason for that is inflation, government debt, and also the build out, the crowding out of borrowing capacity by hyperscalers building these big centers to compute. So we need to look at the broad picture too to do whatever we can locally to mitigate what's going on up the line, not just in Columbia, but in Washington, too. So I think it's farsighted for this group to get together and render their opinion as the best way for us to survive in a small way. I mean, this is

Also, I see two folks that sit in the group with us, both Patrick Norton and Mayor Jerram. Thank you for your work on this as well.

Charlie's going to be quiet. Charlie's going to be smart today.

Thank you, Stuart. Oh, and Patrick, remember page two.

Yes. We had talked about earlier about putting out for the public. the concept of voting wards or districts. We have a lot of sentiment around the city that this is something that we should really take a look at. My vision on this is that we form just in a few months, before we get to the first of the year, a number of seminars to take it out to the city where people can come in. We would do the research, probably bring in the Municipal Association of South Carolina and talk about what it's going to take to basically change our form of government in this way. What are the pros and what are the

And so I would ask that staff take a look at scheduling now to where we can host these seminars. I don't know that I'd call it a seminar, but an informational session. Yeah, whatever we would like to call it, an informational session. And then there will also be, and we need to recognize, suspect most of this will be done in the evening hours and so then we have to look at staffing what the what the whole package is going to take do we need to do any printing do we need to have handouts that type of thing but I would ask staff to start to take a look at that I'd like to see it start before the

No, I know Bill said afternoon times, but I would mix it up somehow. One of the things we hear now, everything's done in the morning, not in the afternoon. I'm sure we'll hear the same thing if you... I just think we need to think about just make sure we have a mixture of times for the meeting.

I agree with that, absolutely. That's a good point. I guess what I wanted to say is not try to do it every time at 9 o'clock in the morning.

I got you. Heard you coming when you drove up.