Town Council - Regular Meeting

We are unmuted. It is now 700 p.m. and I call the March 3rd, 2026 meeting of the Pendleton Town Council to order. And did you know in March of 1789, Pendleton County was officially created? It once included what is now Anderson and Pickkins counties and nearly all of present-day Okoni counties. The land along the Chattanoo Nuga River belonged to the Cherokee and the Creek people. History continues to shape who we are. Now, please stand for the pledge of

allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands one nation with all. We will now move to council's comments and reports. I have a few mayor's comments. I want to recognize several meaningful things that happened in Pendleton. And I have a lot of congratulations or celebrations. Um I want to congratulate uh the Pendleton Foundation for Black History and Culture for hosting a wonderful Black History Month celebration at the library. We had over 50 residents attend. Also, congratulations to the Pendleton Historic Foundation on the opening of the Jenkins House. It's absolutely beautiful. And if you haven't been, please stop by and see it. I also want to congratulate um uh Coach Warski and the Pendleton High School men's basketball team for a really special season. They went really far and it was really exciting. It was sad to see it end. Um and I want to thank the citizens who serve on our boards and committees. This takes a lot of time and effort and in particularly I want to thank the unified development ordinance steering committee who invested such a significant amount of time and effort. Um and that draft plan will soon appear before the planning commission and council. I also want to acknowledge that some residents remain disappointed that fireworks funding was reallocated to enhance the square in surrounding areas year round. I hear that concern and the goal was to invest in improvements that benefit the community throughout the year. Anderson County, they have told us this, is hosting an outstanding fireworks celebration and the residents

will still have access to a very large Fourth of July celebration nearby. And I really am excited to see where the committee that was formed from the reallocation of the fireworks money goes. Um, I've seen some of their plans and I'm really excited to see and I know you will be um when you see what they've come up with. And finally, Westinghouse Road is open. Thank you, Steve. Thank you, Duke. Two months ahead of expectations. They had told me April, so when it opened a couple weeks ago, I I just kept driving by it and and awe. It looks so good. So, that was just a real accomplishment. Um, I'm now going to open it up to, um, Councilman Jeff Vanre for updates on the Pendleton Recreation Association.

Yes. Good evening. Uh, Pendleton Recreation Association. Um, spring sports are now in full swing for the Pendleton community with practice having officially started several weeks ago. The parks are active with athletes preparing for a competitive, engaging season. Uh, the P is currently serving 261 total participants for the spring season. Combined with 162 registrations for the winter basketball season, the P has supported a total of 423 youth participants in 2026 to date. Um, the P uh held new elections, reelecting Matthew Carter as president, Mike Weingarten as secretary. The board officially adopted the uh fiscal year 2026 annual budget and the program operating budget to ensure fis fiscal transparency. Uh the financial aid policy and reference chart were reaffirmed ensuring that financial barriers do not prevent any local child from participating in our program. So they will uh they'll slide the the enrollment accordingly to to help anyone to get in. Um super spring super Saturday which is their big fundraiser. It takes place all day long. That's on May 2nd. So, put that in your calendar. See if you can go out there and support them. There's usually a a food truck or two and there's activities all day long. Um the for facilities, the progress being made on the inst installation of the lightning detection system at Veterans Park to enhance safety for players and spectators. Uh we've had three new directors for our cheerleading program. Sandy Griffith and Mackenzie Glenn are two of these leaders who are helping to expand our offerings to include all-star cheer alongside our traditional sideline cheer program. One thing they ask is uh they need umpires. The P is currently seeking qualified umpires for our baseball and softball programs. If you or anyone you know is interested in supporting our youth athletes in this capacity, please see me

or send an email to info@pendletonrecationreation.org. So, if any of you are referees, go go ahead and see what you can do. That's it. Thank you, Jeeoff. And will you remind us when the PA's meetings are that are open to uh it's it's tomorrow. It's always the first Wednesday of the month. First, 6:30 in here. Perfect. Thank you, Jeff. Um I'm now going to ask Councilwoman Barbara Hamburg, who serves as the liaison to the Pendleton Volunteer Fire Department, for an update. Barbara, please share your update. During the month of February, the Pendon Fire Department Can y'all not hear me?

No.

During the month of February, the Pendon Fire Department re responded to 45 calls to for service. 33 calls were within the town limits, 12 calls inside the Pendon Fire District outside of town limits, and no calls assisting outside of the Pilton Fire District. On February 9th, Engine 2, Squad 2, and Squad 2-1 responding to the Verizon grand opening at the 137 Kohworth Street. Six members attended this event on 216. 11 members participated in an in-house hose deployment training. Personnel worked on a new hose load for quicker deployment and repacking operations. Multiple evolutions were taken. One South Carolina Fire Academy class was taken by members in the department. Also, um there was an incident that happened out here on Greenville Street and the fire department um had responded and altercation broke out and the f volunteer firemen were actually volunteer police until the county sheriff could show up. So, um, this just goes to highlight that our volunteer firefighters do more than, you know, put out fires. So, we need to support them any way we can. Thank you.

And Barbara, will you remind us when the volunteer fire department board meets? They meet on the first and third Monday at 6:00 pm. Thank you. And I think it's at the firehouse probably. And um Councilwoman von Meyer always keeps me on my toes and so I thought I would keep her on her toes tonight and ask Nancy who has been closely involved with the unified development process to maybe share with us a little bit of an update on the UDO.

Thanks Sarah. Um the UDO the steering committee has completed their work and they have reviewed the unified development ordinances provided by the consultants that will then was passed by the town council and it will now go to the planning commission. the planning commission under with the assistance I believe of Rebecca Vance will go through the UDO and cherrypick or not cherrypick but highlight those portions that can go immediately into our zoning ordinance because there are portions of it that we'll want to adopt immediately and then look at the longer term things like possibly changing the um use requirements and permitted uses within specific zoning districts and then that will come back to us to be considered.

Thank you, Nancy. And I'm looking forward, we're going to have a lot of public hearings, too, about the UDO. So, we look forward to community involvement. Um, as we look ahead on March 12th, uh, is the Waterburger grand opening. On March 25th and 26, um, we're hosting cultural identity public meetings. More details to follow. On March 29th from um from at from two to 4 pm, excuse me, um Pendleton Pride in Motion, we'll be hosting a townwide community cleanup just in time for the Jubilee. And it's I can't believe it's already here um before our next meeting on April 4th and 5th. Um we will have this spring jubilee which um actually celebrates the founding of our town. So I hope that everyone will come out and celebrate. There's a lot happening in Pendleton and I encourage everyone to stay engaged. Um we will now move on to um item number three, consideration of prior meeting minutes. Um council has received the minutes from the February 3rd, 2026 meeting, the February 20 the February 11th, 2026 called meeting, the February 17th, 2026 called meeting, and the February 18th 2026 called meeting. Is there a motion to approve the minutes as presented? Motion to approve this proceeding.

Is there a second? Second. Second. Any discussion? All in favor?

Motion carries. At this time, we will open the floor for public comments. Remarks are limited to three minutes per speaker and may be made by Pendleton residents, business owners, or town property owners. Please state your name and address for the record. Public comments is structured as an opportunity to provide comments. This is not a question and answer session. This ensures fairness and allows staff to research any issue thoroughly before responding. The floor is now open. Carrie Fleming, 204 East Queen Street. I'm here to make my annual appeal. I think this might be the sixth year that the town start to enforce the noise ordinance. Um, in the past, we haven't enforced it because we didn't have a robust police presence. We now do. We didn't have the equipment to measure harmful noise levels. We now do. And we do have a noise ordinance. It does need to be updated. And I'm asking the town council to please update it. scientifically proven the level of noise in this town is not good for our health, especially our children's health. We now have people playing on the square with young children trying to eat out, have an ice cream cone, socialize with one another, walk the trail that the several trails in town to look at the historic elegance of our town. And you cannot have a conversation with someone on the sidewalk because there are so many illegally altered mufflers coming through our town. And anybody sitting in this room knows it because we've all been interrupted by him. If you can hear

somebody coming inside your house from three blocks away on a motorcycle or an al or a truck with an altered muffler where the back of the muffler is this big. There's something wrong with that. It's illegal and we should do something about it. It's a quality of life issue and I really hope that you guys will look at it and when you look at it and change and update it, please give the police department the ability to enforce it in some way. Even if it's an hour a week that they do it, people will stop riding up and down Mechanic Street because they think they're cool with a loud car. Thank you very much. Thank you. I am Cob 219 Winston Street. I am here to recommend the assistant chief at the job he did for people meeting the community being the policeman. for very exciting thing and we need to do that more more often. It's the first time I ever been here. I've been here all my life. This the first time ever happened like that. We do that more often.

Thank you. I love that comment. Thank you. Thank you. I said I loved that comment. Thank you.

Yeah. And I didn't I'm sorry I didn't I had that I was there. Um but Chief Pollson um hosted just the most it was so fun. Um a coffee with the cops at Wake and Bake and as you know I'm I love donuts and I just it was the I had the best time. We had so many members of the community that came and it was really awesome. So thank you for the work that you're doing. Um Chief Pollson, any other public comments? Linda Mchuan, 132 South Mechanic Street. And um I would like to encourage the town to look at the intersection of Mechanic Street and Main Street. Um we sit there and watch cars almost hit pedestrians. Um, I' I've asked before if we could have those little blue lights, but I found something better. Um, if you go down Queen Street to where Clemson is building the vet um, school, you will see two signs that are flashing solar powered for pedestrian crossing.

Oh, really? And that would be an excellent addition for that intersection there. So, thank you Thank you. Any other public comments? Thank you.

Thanks, sir. and I researchers. I guess my name is Mor Cherry Street Extension and uh I'm concerned about the CPG proposal for the property next to us. You look at the big house on the hill with the horse barn and the big fence. Don't think of us as the rich folks on the hill. My wife and I worked hard for what we earned. We've done without vacations, done without new cars. That's how we've got to where we are. My parents and her parents didn't leave us any money. What they left us was a way to go out and work and earn what we have. I want to let you know that all the other folks around that parcel are just like us. They're homeowners. They're county residents. They're proud of themselves. They have a hard time understanding why you won't come and speak to them. If you want some moral

acknowledgement and you want some purpose for that district sitting out there, you ain't going to find anybody who knows better than those folks. And I'm talking about the Web families on both sides of Cherry Street. And I'm talking about Jimmy and Betty Jackson and their son Jackie on down the road and some of the folks up at Chelton at subdivision. I want you to remember that. And as you go to mediation, please remember that you're speaking on their behalf as well as ours. Uh I hope you can take note were some some of the things I've prepared. Some of it's really novel, maybe you never heard before, and I hope it prompts some questions and maybe answers some things for you. We're available to show you what documents some of those statements. I I thank you for your time.

Thank you. him. Um, but yes, like he said, we will you just state your name and address for the record.

The Soroski 1200 Cherry Street Extension. Um, we both have done a lot of research. the bottom has some things down and um all that stuff there and this we've lived I wanted to address this uh plan development mixed juice thing that I understand has just recently um become um a lawsuit and um I don't know what that says, but I do know what what I have researched and um I have lived next to this property and gone through this um ups and downs and backs and forths and starts and stops for this development for 22 years and I wish that it would be something that was built that would uh mesh with people that live there. Um I have been researching this stuff, the town council or town minutes and and planning commission minutes done multiple foyer requests. I've kept Dander kind of busy with with it. Um and I thank you very much for all of your uh communications that you have given to me. I wanted to say that there about this program or this this development is there are two separate PDUs or plan development mixed use parcels that are

currently being adjudicated but it is being adjudicated as one single unit. It is not. Each parcel was annexed and zoned in different years and with separate approval uh approved site plans and descriptive statements. They are not the same. Since they are not one unit, a major change must be considered before any singular PDMU site or descriptive statement could be dis uh considered. All site plans presented to the Pendleton Planning Commission in 2022 and again in 2025 and 2026 were denied. However, the site plan presented in 2008 and 2010 were approved. Both of them plans are the basis for what you must work on. Shouldn't the 23 2023 Town Pendleton zoning ordinance section 8-5 limitations uh up be applied to this situation. We also concerned about sewer.

Thank you. I really appreciate it. Any other public comments? All right. Seeing no further speakers, public comments are closed. We will now move to staff reports. Chief Pollson, please present the February 2026 Police Department report.

This is Mayor Council. Good evening. Good to see everybody tonight. During the month of February, the Pton Police Department answered over 640 calls for service. In February, also took 16 reports taken, five of which were cleared by arrest or a warrant. Additionally, seven 70 warning tickets were issued and 31 state citations were issued. Um, during the month of February, I had the opportunity to attend a community soundoff listening session that Councilwoman Mers put together. We really enjoyed being able to go there and listening to the community. It was a simple but open dialect between us and the town and and the residents and it was really fun to be able to hear from them and get their concerns. And I really do believe that working together, we can truly make a difference. So, thank you for inviting us to that. Um, during the uh month of February, myself and Copa Murray also attended the breakfast with a loved one that comes to elementary school. We had the opportunity over the course of two weeks to serve donuts and juices to the kids of all the grade levels along with their parents and stuff that came to came with them that day. Uh during after breakfast, we were able to sit down with them and actually do a little, you know, kind of these math problems and things that really can't believe are really fifth grade math. Um but uh we made it through it, but it was a really good time and you can really tell that Miss Davis and her staff there really cared and truly love the kids at that school. So we really appreciate them allowing us to to be a part of that. As Miss Cobb said earlier, last Friday we we had our coffee cops and conversation event. This was a really fun event. I got to say thank you to Miss Barbie and the ladies down at the wake and bake. They did a really good job for us. They donated everything that we did for that hour. Um so if you haven't been there, goodbye and see them. They have some donuts. They're about that big. they put bacon on top of them. So, it's it's just amazing. So, but it was really fun to sit down and and actually see the officers engaging with the community, but what I really noticed, what I took away from is that the community was interacting with each other and it was community that didn't probably know who the other people were and they after that meeting they were together. So, that was the most fun out of all of it.

So, we really enjoyed that. I'm officers assistant with the leadership Pendleton. Uh Lindsay asked us to do a little presentation. We had we we we had some fun by showing them kind of where our tools are, explaining them what we do. We flew a drone in the middle of the room here, let them put on bulletproof vest and it was a blast. We had a lot of good times with that and I appreciate Lindsay inviting us to do that. Four of our officers also received state training on speed measuring devices. This is your radar certified as a radar operator. One thing that Chief Crosby has done in this time he's been here is he's really invested in his officers. We're able to do these in-house so the officers don't have to go anywhere. you can come here on a Saturday and actually have an instructor that comes in that is an in-house officer and teach these classes. So, that really helps us and not not have to send officers off to uh to training. And then officers with the Pinland Police Department executed a search warrant inside of town limits that recovered 10 grams of methamphetamines. This was actually started off as an animal control complaint. Um the officers actually investigated this was actually turned into a where they received a they went after a search warrant and was granted a search warrant and received some narcotics out of this house. So, it's just an example of, you know, you go to one thing and it ends into something else. So, really really commend the officers for for going above and beyond and looking and and seeing what options they have available. One thing I do want to remind is is that the South Carolina hands-free law is now in its full effect. The the waving period of of not issuing summones are over. Um, there are some exceptions as everybody's aware of. If you're legally stopped at a stop sign, stop light, or whatever, and you're parked, you can use your handheld device. Or if it's an emergency, that are the only exceptions. It's a $100 fine for the first event, $200 plus two points for every sub subsequent event. Now, I'm not going to say we're going to write everybody tickets. I just want everybody to be aware that that is in effect now. So, um, that's all I have, Mrs. Mayor. I'll be glad to try and answer any questions that you or council may have. Good. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

I also I want to again thank you. I I um I get a little nervous every time my email dings. And lately, I've been getting a lot of emails from our citizens about how wonderful our police officers are, especially in things that, you know, you might think are so small, like someone's dog running away and the officer responding to find its owner. But that means a lot to our citizens. So, thank you so much and your officers for all you do for our community. Um, we will now hear um from our interim planning director and our planning report um including building permits and code enforcements. Steve, I'm going to um have you do the planning report and then the administrator's report.

Um I'm just going to let council know that the uh the planning reports on your agenda. I think one of the things I want to highlight is Owen helped me present to leadership Pendleton. Uh he did a great job going over the uh comprehensive plan and the planning that's awning ordinance with I just want to commend him for that. Um you can you can look in there and see the rest. He had the planning commission meeting for February 12th from the UDO fleshy and the UDO steering committee. Um and you can see his code enforcement activities. Uh, you can see on my report, I went ahead and put it in there just a year-over-year comparison of permits issued and the amount of permits that were issued in February. In fiscal year 25, and this is fiscal year, and we track it by both fiscal year and calendar year. In fiscal year 25, we had 63 single family residents, zero multif family, one commercial. So far, in 26, we've had 70 single family, zero multif family, one commercial. And in February and in February of last month, um we had we issued seven of those 70 single family units. Um those were all in Morton Farm, I believe. Um for the uh billing for the month, probably the most exciting part of the agenda. I know everybody's ready to hear this. So Nancy did provide y'all some graphs I said on your table just if you want to look year over year.

Wait, are we all are we all planning on? Yeah, we're all planning. Can I ask a question on planning? You sure can. Oh, answer the best. Is the Morton farm thing like we don't have anything to do whe they sell or not, but are because it's in the tiff district. Do are we made aware of sales? Is plan department notified when there are sales or just when there are permits? So, um because we're interested in the sales, right?

Yeah. So, when it So, we are tracking the tip district as far as what revenue it's creating and I I will tell you we have been in touch with our bond attorney uh because the county is not counting us correctly for it. And we am a Amy and I have gone back uh through what the county sends us. We can track what houses have or what who has paid their taxes. That's probably a better way to say it. And we can see how much we get. It's a pretty tedious process because then we have to go back and recalculate back into what the whole thing should be and the county should be doing that for us, but but they are not. So, we're getting about 35% of what we should be getting,

I believe, of what we should be getting. So, then we've got to have a process in place. Yeah. We're we're we're going to have to go sit down with the treasur and the auditor um and probably take our attorney with us because they need to provide us with the for instance, when Morton Farm sold it 26 acres and it was subdivided. Well, they should take that whole price. That's that's the baseline. And they should divide the number of lots into that whole price. That's the baseline for the lot. Then when they build on it, that baseline should be subtracted out of the house, and we should be credited everything else, right? Because that's tell us that's that's the increment.

Yep. So, we're we're we're we've got it on our list. So, luckily, it's not too far out of control where there's a whole bunch of money. It's probably $30,000 is what they owe us. Just right now though. Just right now. It needs to stop before it gets any further though. Thank you, Stephen. You think that's something you're going to have to meet with them on or is that something the attorney can send a letter? And

we're definitely going to have to meet because we have we have taken Amy and I have taken our attorney and our financial advisors and actually uh we we paid our financial advisors to actually collect the data for the county and show them so that we could release the bond. We needed the correct thing. They actually helped the county collect that for us. I I will just tell you the county is just having a a difficult time and we want to help them as much as we can. Okay. Thank you for being helpful. It's just math. It's just math.

It is just math. So, um as far as the month for billing goes, we build 9.2 million gallons of water. That's $95,000 in revenue. And 9.8 million gallons of sewer. And that's $126,000 in revenue. Uh and 36,286 in our flat rate sewer. Uh we rented a depot building seven times in Barracks Place once. Uh we collected $5,000 and500 $5,517 in business license, $23,000 in motor vehicle, and $126,945 in property tax. Uh we had 671 transactions that totaled $1.38 million for the month. uh we had 1,219 online transactions which includes 47 open forms transactions that total 20,311. In February 2025 of last year, uh we had 1,084 online transactions, which is actually probably when we had started going more toward online. So you can it's still picking up. Um Clemson Community Care Assistant One. Uh the biggest thing for you guys up here, it is it is March. If you have not filed your statement of economic interest, this is your reminder. If not, your next reminder will be a $100 violation from the states. So the uh so I have done my part.

Thank you, sir. Thank you. If y'all need help, I'm at 310 Greenville Street. I can walk you through what to do. Um, in February, uh, we asked the police to ride through the town. They identified all the non- workinging street lights and they have submitted work tickets to Duke. Just remind everybody, if you see a non-working street light, you can go on our website or Duke's website. You can report it yourself. It creates a work ticket. And Duke has actually got immensely better at coming out and repairing those. It is down from about 9 months to 60 days. So that is uh that is a good thing. Did they get on to Hamburg Street?

Uh they they went down every street is what they reported back to you, right? Y can I ask about the oil mill property? I know some it's very confusing as to which ones are ours and which ones are theirs, but there aren't any burning in that stretch. Um, so there's the one on if you're going west, right? There's one right at Elm Street and then there's not another one until you're almost to PFM meets. There are three or four in there that come over the street, but none of those were operating. So, some of those are cycle, but if you'll get up with me and I'll be glad to sit down, we'll go on the website, we'll put them in right there. That's great. Thank you.

Yes, ma'am. Um, we told council that we thought we had a tear in the building over here. Actually, Guy Roofing came out and it was uh they put test strips on these things so they can test full adherence of it. That's what our people saw was the test strip hanging off. It's so they we don't actually have to repair the roof over there. Uh Veterans Park, um Headley Nurseries is coming out to clean up the uh where we put our brush debris. Uh especially during storm events when we get overloaded, so they're going to be hauling that off this week. Is a fantastic price, $6,500. Uh we wanted to make sure they knew that they weren't supposed to add a zero, so we got them out there as fast as possible. Um the uh

uh we do have the swings out. The swings were completely rotted. Um, we are trying to order the material to rebuild the swings and put them back out there. Uh, since they'll be out of wood and we've been talking to Yoders. I don't know if you finally got the material or not. We've got some of it. We're currently sand blasting and powder coating the plates that actually lock the swings together so they'll last longer.

Um, the uh we've got the quote for the new fence over at the Village Green. We're probably going to bring that back to council next month because there's two different fences. Um, and just let y'all pick whichever one you want. Street maintenance. We also did 19 street repairs. Uh, and this included the uh, Veterans Park, which was actually just done today. And North Mechanic Street will be done, too. So, you can see those. And we have Long and Blue Ridge Roads that are still on the list. We also did all the full depth patching that you'll see on Riverside that was on the Winston Street project. We got the new work order system installed this month. So far, it's actually been a smooth transition. Uh I think most of the guys got the work app loaded onto their phone last week and we're using the same system that Williamson and the county are using. Um planning department. Uh I've had Owen talking to the state preservation office about the Bailey bill about the um what it actually means to be a honorary district. Uh so they they have actually given us that information um that we'll we'll share at some point. And interesting enough, we actually only have three buildings on the register um that they came back with. So they they kind of told us what we need to do. Owen is getting some other ordinances from some other cities because it's quite likely we're going to have other ordinances that we have to adopt before we can even adopt an enabling act on the Bailey bill tax credit. Um, we also have the town planner position out and we will soon have a position for the uh billing supervisor uh position out for upfront next 30 days. Winston Street, everything's going good on that except we had to remove the speed table when we laid it out on the ground out there. Um, it looks great on paper. It does not function at all in intersection. You can drive around it basically. Uh so we're going to look at where we can make sidewalk repairs and do some other

sidewalk walkability stuff down there while we're down there with that 64,000 that was in that speed table. Um the uh again we did the full depth patching on Riverside Wastewater treatment plant. Just an update on where we are on the spending. We've got about $15 million left to spend. Uh we did get our generator last month. Uh we spent all of our skip money which was $10 million grant. We spent all of our $1.5 million earmark. Uh we've got 88 days of weather and we've credited the contractor 15 of those days so far. Uh Bruise parking lot is probably the biggest thing. We're in the parking lot right now doing sewer. Um I have and our contractor's been working with all the businesses. Uh Heath is very cognizant of leaving as much of the parking lot open until he has to get to the grading of the lot and he will have it gravel back. We kind of felt like there wasn't much difference between way it was and having gravel on it. So, people probably parked there for free. Uh the biggest thing is we're trying to get Dehack to give us a partial permit to operate so we can go ahead and put the sewer line in. If not, and and they will probably give us a partial permit to operate. If not, we'll actually have to close some businesses for a couple days while we set the fifth manhole and tie everybody into it. And we're trying to avoid that right now. Um the Seymar would y'all have a budget amendment on your thing. Uh we've had 14.

You skipped over the retaining wall.

Oh yes, sorry. Thank you. The retaining wall uh is um shot. So I'm meeting with the engineers on Monday. Uh the uh to try to figure out what we need to do, whether we need to move it into a Seymour project or whether we can issue a change order, how long it's going to take. Any retaining wall over five feet has to be engineered. Um, and there's, you know, whether you do it cast in place or whether you do segmented block wall, you know, all depends on what you do. But the wall did not survive when we dug down us digging down. We were about 7 8 feet, which we were right at the foundation of that wall and us digging just started pushing the wall back this way. So, I'd like us to consider when we look at that retaining wall, do we really how far down do we really need that wall? So, by the time you get all the way down to Maine, it's just a freestanding. I mean, it makes a lovely canvas for a mural,

but we probably don't need a retaining wall to do that. And it looks to me like I won't say that. I could we look at stepping it and getting it so we don't have that big high wall all the way down to the end of the lot? Yeah, I think in fact that was that was actually one of Keith's recommendations was the step it because when I looked at I was talking to him on site I said can we just bring it and then stop short of the um park then it'll just make it easier and it's going to depend on what kind of wall you want how you whether you want cast in place or a decorative segmented block or split face or you know whatever. So we can paint things you know

you can paint things. But, uh, Seymour had 14 companies interested in it. That's great for us. Um, we, uh, we did an addendum to it. You can see what we added into the dendum in March 12th will be when they have to submit. So, it's not but a couple more days. Then, uh, Lyn and Jez will be handing those out to y'all. We'll go do an interview process. Then, that will come back to council for final approval. whatever Seamar we pick. They will work with Mosley Architects and all these maintenance projects and Veterans Park, giving y'all what we call a guaranteed maximum price on the projects. So that I'm I'm sorry, I'll stop doing this. That crosswalk at Queen that goes up to the school, you you going to take it up to the top of the hill or you going to cross right there at the grade?

Uh we got them looking at take you talking about where the crosswalk location is. We got them looking at taking it to the top of the hill. Yeah. And actually going ahead and doing all the walkability in there. That's why it went from that price to 1.1 million is just to upfit. It's in the tiff so you've got the money there is just to upfit that whole segment. So we take that we take that all the way up on that one. So if we come up off of Queensville and go up to that grade then we just want to make sure we have separation. We're going to spend 1.4 million. Let's make sure we have separation between the walkway up and where they turn. Right.

Yeah. I haven't seen any design. uh the mayor the mayor and I sat down with them about three weeks ago and and went over some of those concerns that you had and they they were finishing up some projects and they got me this estimate last week. So they're they they've not got to where they've only got the estimate off the footage. So um Village Hill Sewer, we're just waiting on Commerce to approve it and Central Road are waiting on our generator to show up right now. So and then we're done with both of those. Central Road looks good. Check it out. Looks good. Sorry.

Steve, can you talk a little more about Veterans Park and maybe what we can expect in the process? Yeah. So, um, uh, Veterans Park has a couple of, uh, we'll just say a couple funding sources that will be available for it. One will be our IPB uh which if any of y'all really want to get political, the state's trying to take us from that using that tool right now and that will be a huge blow uh to a lot of municipalities. So the IPRB we collateralize Veterans Park so we have to spend money in there. Uh sorry, can you IPv Mike? Yeah, sorry. Although I although I feel like working at Clemson, it's an installment king of acronyms.

Yeah, it's an installment purchase revenue bond. So, uh, that's you might hear us talk about the Pendleton Facilities Corporation, Municipal Facilities Corporation. That's who actually controls, uh, that funding. Right now, it's an arm of the town. It's a nonprofit. Uh, we buy that facility back from them at 120th every year and they have to put the money in, which is the money out of the bond that they lend us to do work elsewhere in town. Um, so we have uh if council approves all the readings of this um we we will have uh about $560,000 going to Veterans Park, about 390 going here. And then with the Seymar as we go through the budget and across the years, it'll do two things. It will have the design team and the contractor on site to advise us on these projects, especially maintenance projects, and give us a price that's going to be firm and held. And so it'll cut off about eight months of bidding and spec writing and everything else. And then we will just be working just like anybody else, one-on-one with a contractor and an architect, like if you were going to build your personal house. But we'll be doing it all across the town on our buildings and some walkabilities and veterans park. And so we have set the town's finances up as council can move money into what we call a capital account and that capital account will be for projects they identify and we will hand to the design team and the Seymar and they they will be able to do it. So council will eventually will have all these projects that they can choose from and then they get to make the decision on how much current revenue to move in there, if they want to use fund balance, if they want to go out and, you know, take out another bond to pay for or if

it's tiff money, you know, or hospitality. There's all these different little pots of money that we'll be able to pull together and put into that capital fund. And then it will just it will speed up the whole process on the back end because you you will avoid that 8 months to 16 months of lag time because you're actively designing them and building them at the same time. And you're not building like a $10 million building this way. We're probably talking, I know this might sound large, but to us, we have a lot of million-dollar projects. We have a lot of $400,000 projects, and we have a lot of projects that Jay and I deal with. That's $60,000 that you'd be surprised how hard it is for us to even get a contract to come out. So, we can throw those at this Seymour as part of these other things. And then we can stop trying to chase all these other contractors down. And so you'll see stuff like irrigation at the veteran uh village green done or you know fencing or you know sidewalk repairs could be done that way. So that's what we do.

What's the I'm sorry. What's the um funding mechanism that they're considering was on stronger bonds. Can you just explain briefly explain what that was?

Yeah. So that's uh that they're considering uh getting rid of. So that's the IPB. So a a town or municipality or local government outside of the school system, school system cannot use this funding because the school system does not have different revenue pots. Um an IPB which is the installment purchase revenue bond is uh one of the ways that you can do your bonding. Uh you can do your bonding through a general obligation bond which is split up into two. Council has an 8% limit they can release which for the town is about $2.7 million. That's how we have to buy all of our police cars, fire trucks, everything else. And anything over that 2.7 has to go to the voters for approval and IPB functions off essentially our credit rating. And we are rated through Moody's and we are the highest rating. We're we're double A3 and that's the highest rate in town our size can get which means your interest rate is really low or as low as it can be. And so we can sell these bonds on open market through the Municipal Facilities Corporation and it lets us I don't want to say it lets us around the 8% but it lets us use other revenue pots that you cannot use in the 8%. So it allows us to maximize the revenue streams that we have

and combine them in a way that lets us do bigger projects than we would be able to do with just the 8%. That's correct. And if the legislature eliminates this mechanism for us, it's going to hurt us in particular because the way we trying to put these projects together. Yeah. It it will be extremely damaging to us. So, as the town grows, our our ability to borrow and and we're we're not in the same amount of borrowing, right?

You know, but our ability to borrow uh gets more and more. And so, as you pay down your existing debt and we we have municipal, they call them municipal advisors, but they're financial advisors and bond attorneys that advise all of us on how we stack these debts out. And as you pay it down, you can take on more. So, if you want to build a $1 million street skate, you can go take a bond out and manage it. And the kicker is that whatever you collateralize has to have work done to it. So, you get almost two for the price of one. But the state legislature is talking about and there there's a high possibility that it will be eliminated from us. Um, you know, will they do it something like anybody under 10,000 can't use it or will they take it out? I I don't know. But they do not like this revenue financing stream.

We like it. I need a little more detail. Is this just like an example of what we're going to have next time or I'll have to turn that over to I got that at like 15 minutes before I walked. I was really impressed that we're projecting or we can tell what we're going to use in 2027 and how many connections we're going to have. So, um, operator error on the typos there. So, we'll have more detail next time. Well, I just the red and I just wanted you to see the infographics. So, Steve has all these numbers and they I have the spreadsheet back for would that go back 15 years, Amber? 2014.

Yeah. So, I've got the I've got all the years and I thought it might be fun just being that kind of person. I thought it might be kind of fun to have infographics to see how the town grew and how much water consumption we had and then wouldn't it be awesome to throw the drought down on top of that and look I mean it's funny I think it's very interesting to give you a very quick look that August of last year was a a high a high water month um and I know that there was some discussion there's been some discussion about connections and and disconnections but are disconnections on this

No we don't have the disconnection numbers. So, there's two things on disconnections that are fascinating if you're that kind of person. It's a it's an interesting way to predict the status of real estate stability. So, in before 2008, that whole year, we saw an increase in in water disconnects. And so, it's a it's a pre a preforter of potential. I'm not saying that things are going to go bad, but it's a potential could go. And so I thought if we could get just keep because we've got this tiff district that we really want to have growth, I wanted to keep an eye on how the real estate was going. And so I thought getting a handle on disconnects might be useful for us to have a handle on just as a trend, not to

Well, and I would just appreciate if they all look this size. Ah, gotcha. Because my age keeps me from seeing this size. This size got That's good. That's good. Good feedback. This is kind of fun though, isn't it? It's very fun. Thank you. Thank you. Fun and informative. Okay.

All right. Moving on. Um 6.8, special event fee waivers. Item 6.8 is the consideration of waving fees and liability requirements for the Keys Barn Festival. um unity in the community and the uh March townwide cleanup. These are community- based events utilizing town property. Council's action would approve the applications and wave applicable fees and insurance requirements consistent with past practices. I will open up the floor for discussion. Do I need to recuse myself? I think we're voting on one together. So I I would think you'd be fine. But

um seeing no seeing seeing no further discussion, the action before council is the approval of item 6.8 as presented. Is there a motion? Motion to accept. A second. All in favor? Motion carries. Um 6B, garden club request. Item 6. B is the consideration of a request from the Pendleton Garden Club regarding proposed improvements to the depot building. Council's action would authorize the requested enhancements as outlined in the materials provided. I will open up the floor for discussion.

The garden club has request for a sign. So, does this fall under our sign thing that we're work that that one of the strategic groups is working on the culture and identity group. So, one of the, and I'm not saying they shouldn't have a sign. I'm just trying to make sure they don't put a sign, then they got to go by three weeks later and put another sign. So, should we wait, ask them to wait to erect the sign after the branding thing is done?

To my understanding, it's their branding, not the town. Correct. That is correct. Do they actually have an example of what they want in your packet, which is page 41 of your packet? Um, looks like a very minimal sign right now. That just basically shows that they are the ones that are putting the work into that facility. So, that doesn't fall under our ma'am. Well, you could have just said no. No, Miss Barbara. Thank you. All right. Further discussion. Is there a motion? I move.

Is there a second? Second. All in favor? Motion carries. 6 point 6. C. Item 6. C is the consideration of a resolution adapting a social media community calendar and digital sign policy to ensure consistency and fairness in town communications. I will open the floor for discussion. Are there any motions? Now we need to make the motion to accept. I move to accept it as presented. All right. Do I have a second? I'll second.

All in favor? Motion carries. Item 6.D D authorizes the mayor and councilwoman Nancy von Meyer working with the administrator and legal counsel to engage in mediation regarding an appeal involving the villages at Town Creek Development. Any proposed settlement would return to council for final approval. I will open the floor for discussion. I'm okay with that, but I would ask that um you and Nancy take in consideration what was presented by the Sorskis um and maybe confer with them before you go. Um and I know you you'll do other stuff here, but to get that perspective

now that's up to y'all because I can't tell you what to do. I'm just making a suggestion. No, I appreciate it. Nancy. Nancy. Yes. I mean, I I I'm I'm new to this and so I would work at the discretion of our attorney. I I don't know what I can and can't do, but I would whatever he would advise, I would I wouldn't want to step away. No, this would be before you met with the attorney. That's all I'm saying that maybe we should just got to be careful. You're

right. Councilwoman Vonmmyer has a master's in legal studies and I um I'm I'm excited and um and I also would like to say that every council person has a role. Um and I have not assigned Councilwoman Boner a role. So this would be NY's NY's role first of many. And um maybe she'll make us fun charts. You know, if y'all go to jail, she's not going to bail yet. I'm just letting That's your job, Barbara. Yeah, Barbara. Come on. All right. Do I have any further discussion? Any further discussion? Do I have a second or a motion? Sorry. Motion.

Second. All in favor? Motion carries. Um item 6.0 is the consideration of of accepting the planning commission's recommendations to adapt the village hills. Sorry, the village pills design overlay district guidelines. I will open the floor for discussion. We had a work session on this and I I just wanted to compliment the planning commission on I thought a very thorough job and I thought they were led the the person that led them through that process did an excellent job of we taking them through a very complicated process and it's good model for us. I I think it's very well done.

I would agree. Do I have any motions? I'll make a motion. I'll second. A second. All in favor? Motion carries. Item 6. F is the first reading of an ordinance amending the fiscal year 2025 2026 budget to recognize additional tax revenue. Establish a fund um establish and fund the Seymar capital project Fund and authorize transfers for Veterans Park and Town Hall projects. Tonight's action is limited to a first reading. I will open the SC this I will I'll open the store. I will open the floor for discussion.

I just have one quick question. Does the veterans park include the playground? I believe so. Veterans Park includes the playground. Correct. The playground for the whole park indication to the council that play. Yes, it is. And that's what the architect has already looked at and that will probably be what the first project see on the price will be.

Okay. Thank you. Steve and I have had several discussions um about the playground specifically and this is you know the only playground in Anderson County on our side of 85. So I think it's very important and apparently it's shaded. It's one of the few that are shaded. I hear that from my my friends all the time. Discussion further discussion. Well, I'm hoping Anderson County might come to the table and help us a little more. Um, but also I just wanted a clarification. The money for the fence was already budgeted for the fence. Is that is that I just want to make sure I was understanding that correctly.

It's it's already budgeted and some maintenance money budget. We're just going to have to move out and not just let SEO worry about it as a way for them to get their crews in here. Okay. And we also have to do um the fence came in higher to go around public works and we still have to replace all the landscaping around too. So instead of just trying to guess at it since we've already missed it once. Further discussion. All right. Move to adopt.

Move to second. All in favor? carries. Um, we will now consider entering Did I miss anything? I just want to make sure. I don't think I did. Okay. We will now consider entering executive session pursuant to SC code of laws section 30-4-7A1 to discuss appointments to the planning commission. Is there a motion? Motion. Second. All in favor? All right. That motion carries. We'll now enter executive session.

Back. All right, we're back. Perfect. Hold on one second. We're glitching. Now we're back. All right. Um, we are now back in open session. No decisions, no votes were taken while in executive session. Is are there any motions related to matters discussed in executive session? I'll make a motion that we um post opening with a deadline of 30 days for that position on the planning commission.

On the planning commission now do I need to include that we will vote in that call in that other meeting? I think I think you should because it's not and in order to expedite and make that board um fully staffed, I I make recommendation or include my motion that we vote for that at our April 22nd meeting. Do I have a second?

Second. All in favor? Motion carries. Thank you, sir. If there is no further business to come before council, is there a motion to adjurnn? Do I have a second? Second. All in favor? This meeting is adjourned. Thank you all. Thank you. Hold on. Good job.