Town Council - Regular Meeting

It is now 7 PM and I call the April 7th, 2026 meeting of the Pendleton Town Council to order. And our fun historical fact is on April 8th, 1790, Pendleton was founded with land acquired from Isaac Lynch for five shillings to establish a village and a courthouse. It's a simple beginning, but one that laid the foundation for the town we continue to build today. History continues to shape who we are. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. We will now move to council's comments and reports. Um, I want to start by recognizing a few people and moments that reflect what makes Pendleton so special. First, I want to thank Lindseay Wattley, our community engagement manager, for her leadership and dedication to Leadership Pendleton, along with all the participants, many of whom I see in this room today. This program continues to grow leaders right here in our community. and that work matters. I also want to thank Jordan McCall and Lake Hartwell Country for their incredible work on the 49th annual Jubilee. It was such a beautiful event and true celebration of art, community, and everything that makes Pendleton feel like home. Also, I thought this was so cool. We are incredibly proud of Pendleton student all over Morland for his outstanding performance at Carnegie Hall in New York City as the principal tubo player for the Carolina Youth Symphony Symphony. It was really an incred incredible accomplishment and we are so proud of you Oliver. There's so much good happening in Pendleton and

it's because of the people like this who continue to show up and invest in our community. We'll turn to council report. Council reports. A councilwoman Barbara Hamburg, liaison to the Pendleton Volunteer Fire Department. Barbara, will you please present your report? Yes.

During the month of March, the Pendleton Fire Department responded to 42 calls for service. 18 calls were within the town minutes, 22 calls inside the Pon Fire District outside of town minutes, and two calls assisted outside of the Pilton Fire District. On March 16th, 14 personnel attended CDR and bloodborne pathogens training at the station. On March, yes, that man on March 26, Engine 2 and Squad 2 attended a barbecue competition fundraiser at Clemson Grove or RV Park. The Pon Fire Department was awarded $472 for the barbecue sold at this event. Two South Carolina Fire Academy classes were taken by members in the department. The board of directors will meet on Monday, April 13th, 2026 at 6:00 p.m. at the fire station. Unusual call. On March 10th, Pendleton 2, Sandy Springs 26, and Walker McLemore 16 were dispatched to a residential structure fired in the Le France community. Upon arrival, heavy smoke was coming out of the front of the residence. An attack line was deployed from engine 214 and units made entry into the structure. The fire was under control within 5 minutes of arrival. There were no injuries reported from the fire. Approximately 20 personnel were on the scene. On March 23rd, 2026, Pendon fire was requested by Pendon Police Department to 310 Greenle Street in reference to a horse accident. Upon arrival, two horses were found injured inside a stock trailer. Crews then extricated the horses and a vet service called Greenville Street was

shut down for several hours. On March 31st, pun fire was dispatched by excuse me to two separate incidents that started as motor vehicle accidents and ended in vehicle fire. The first incident was in the area of highway 76 and the old Anderson road and the second was in the area of Twin Lakes Road and Fance Grove Road. Units quickly extinguished both fires. There were no injuries to either res incidents. Um, I would like to on a personal note express that we really need to be careful. Um, here it is now when people are going to be outside with the smoke pits. They're going to be outside grilling. Please, please, please, please pay attention. Um, it doesn't take but a little spark and a whole neighborhood can go up. It is so dry now. um pay attention to what's being said and what's being put online as to how dry we are. So that's just a note because um you know you don't want to lose your property or be responsible for somebody else's losing theirs and or um you know you got kids out now um out and about as the weather gets warm people tend to be outside more. So, please, please, please be cognizant of when you're, you know, trying to be He-Man and grill that meat. Thank you.

Thank you, Barbara. And thank you to Chief Brock and all of our volunteer fire department. We're very grateful to you. Uh, Councilwoman Jeff Andry, liazison to the Pendleton Recreation Association. Jeff, please present your report.

Thank you. Um, the Penalt Recreation Association continues to make steady progress across several key areas since the last update. Field improvements at Veterans Park are nearing completion with the majority of grading and side insulation now finished. Remaining work is expected to be completed soon positioning the fields well for upcoming seasons. The P recently completed installation of a lightning detection system at Veterans Park to improve player safety. We are currently working with the town to establish clear operational guidelines for its use. Planning for our spring super Saturday event on May 2nd is underway with strong participation expected. Additionally, P will host the first round of allstar softball games for eight and under and 12 and under divisions June 5th through 7th, bringing visiting teams and families into the community. And I'm just going to comment on that that our fields have been uh in very poor condition for for a while. And uh thanks to the hard work of the P and the the town uh they're now up to a standard where we can host tournaments, tournament games, which in turn brings in people from out of town that go downtown and spend money. Um, from an operations standpoint, we have continued improving financial processes, including onboarding new payment systems and standardizing purchasing through Amazon business to streamline operations and improve oversight. Um, we have also taken steps to improve facility access by imple implementing a more reliable system for restroom availability at Veterans Park for coaches and teams. Uh we appreciate the town's continued partnership and support particularly with ongoing capital improvements and shared initiatives.

Thank you, Jeff. So, April, it's a special month. It's my favorite month. And um it's actually National Volunteer Month. And if I know anything about this community or one thing I've learned is that we are a community that loves our town and is full of volunteers. And I will never forget or you know I sit next to Nancy von Meyer in all of our meetings and Nancy always says we have volunteers. We have volunteers and it's so true. We do. We have so many volunteers that show up and tonight we are proud to recognize our volunteers and we are going to recognize Pendleton Pride in Motion. The mission of Pendleton Pride in Motion is to support a healthy community by enhancing access to trails and recreational opportunities, increasing volunteer opportunities, and encouraging um development. that is compatible with Pendleton's historic roots. Um, that mission reflects exactly who we are as a town. And this kind of work does not happen by accident. It happens because people care deeply about this community and are willing to give their time and energy to make it better and to give up their Saturday mornings and their Sundays with their families to show up and pick up countless bags of trash. Um, Pendleton Pride in Motion does just that. uh you are helping to create a healthier, more connected and more intentional Pendleton. And on behalf of town council and the town of Pendleton, I want to thank you Pendleton Pride in Motion for your service, your leadership, and your impact. If I could have all of the um everyone that is on the board of Pendleton Pride in Motion, I would love for you to come up front and have a picture. Come on, you guys. Don't be shy. I'm sorry.

You don't miss a Thank you again to Pendleton Pride and Motion. We are so grateful for all of the work that you do. Next, we will move to approve the minutes. Item 4A is the consideration of minutes from the following meetings. March 3rd, 2026, town council meeting. March 4th, 2026 called meeting. March 25th, 2026 called meeting. Is there a motion to approve the minutes as presented?

Miss Barbara, there's second, Nancy. Any discussion? All in favor? Motion carries. Uh, five, public comments. At this time, we will open the floor to 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 an opportunity to provide comments. Just a reminder, this is not a question and answer session. The floor is now open. Good evening, mayor and members of the town council and those in our community. In 1990,

I'm sorry. My name is Carol Berdett. I have a business at 157 Old Compton Street. In 1990, while the town of Pendleton was celebrating our bsentennial, we held our first Freedom Fest. It was an opportunity for us to celebrate our country's independence. It was an all-day event of games, face painting, lunch, ice cream, community awards, and it ended with a evening of music and fireworks. The music and fireworks continued for several years. In fact, these are some of the beautiful fireworks from 1997. For several years, it did continue even after 97, but it went by the wayside. And a couple of years ago, Presley Bellinger and with the help of our town promoter Nancy Helms started fireworks for firefighters. Tonight, I hope that you will approve the use of Veterans Park for July the 1st for a fireworks extravaganza with some music. This is an opportunity for us to celebrate celebrate our country's 250th anniversary. It's also an opportunity for us to celebrate community right here in Pendleton. We have commitments for almost all of the expenses. And over and above that, I've personally made it my pledge to try to raise an additional $10,000 for our fire department, an entity that is so important, as you heard earlier from Councilwoman Hamburg about all that they do. I would also like to challenge each of you personally to join me in being a USA anniversary donor by contributing $250. This celebration will be about freedom, service, and community. Again, I hope

that you will approve the use of Veterans Park for July 1st for fireworks, music, and a celebration of our country and community. Thank you. Uh, Logan Kipling, 165 Spy Glass Lane. Good evening, Miss Mayor and members of town council. I come to this meeting tonight to express my deepest frustrations with recent spending decisions by council. I was extremely disappointed to learn that council voted to defund the Fourth of July fireworks show that was scheduled for this upcoming summer in favor of buying new Christmas decorations. As someone who loves this country dearly, I was particularly dismayed that council decided to pull support from an event that would coincide with the celebration of our nation's 250th birthday. Notwithstanding the misinformation that council is presented as justifications for pulling support, falsely stating that Anderson County or the city of Anderson would be doing shows instead or that no firework vendor was available. The decision also reflects poorly when you consider that for the past two summers, the fireworks show has been an outstanding success that has made our town into a four seasons town. Spring Jubilee, Fall Festival, and Chris Kindle Mart are all signature events. But now, because of decisions made by council, there's a chance that will be there will be no rockets, red glare, or bumps bursting in air in Pendleton this summer. Now, I understand that when funds are tight, tough decisions must be made. However, imagine my shock when I found out that though we don't have enough money for both fireworks and Christmas decorations, council has

dubbed through the taxpayers couch cushions to scrape together loose change for a culture and identity study to be conducted by out ofstate consultants in search of a new logo and social media brand for our town. As I thumb through the contract the town signed for this study, I stumbled upon the cost of this study. $38,000. Twice the amount of money the city of Clemson paid to have a similar project completed a few years ago. $38,000 spent on an outofstate consultant instead of working with Tri County Tech or Anderson Ford to have a competition for students to design a new logo. $38,000 so that our logo and our water bills and our trucks is new and fancy. $38,000 so that our social media post can look like Fortune 500 companies are designing them. $38,000 for a logo that will lead to additional cost to upgrade the logos on our town vehicle signage and more. $38,000 to give our town leadership mood boards to decide on what logo and branding package the town wants. $38,000 to improve the brand of a municipality that still lacks full-time police coverage or a sufficiently staffed public works department. For a town that prides itself on history, hospitality, and happenings, it is shameful for town council to prioritize a grossly expensive and unnecessary culture and identity study over a fireworks event that combines all of our town's core principles into one explosive evening of familyfriendly fun.

Thank you. Thank you. Any other public comments? Seeing no further speakers, public comments are Oh, sorry. I'm sorry.

I'm so thankful for this opportunity, mayor. Thank you so much. My name's Eddie Berdett. Hi.

Yes, I am Candy Carol and Patricia. And uh I live with my wife at 227 South Street. And um the Berdette family has lived in Pendleton for over a hundred years. And the reason that I'm here tonight is to voice my concern about the No Kings protest that is being allowed to be held in Pendleton. Why Pendleton? I understand that the No Kings protest is sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union. I have zero respect for the ACLU. Uh this organization promotes disrespect, vulgarity, ungodliness, dis deception and lies. Also promoting socialism and communism as an answer for the United States to pursue. Have any of you ever been to a socialist communist country? You have. Yes, sir. I I have been on 116 international mission trips in the last almost 36 years. And I've been to Russia and Ukraine and all these other countries and they the people want to come here to have their freedom here in America and they pursue to get out of those countries. Why would any organization would we allow any organization as as no kings to come in here and promote their agenda? And that's the one thing that has burdened my heart. You know, I'm a born again Christian and I'm a pastor. I've been a pastor for 40 years and I've been halfway around the world many times. And um so in November of 1992 was my first trip to Moscow, Russia. People needing food, clothes, and Bibles. Never forget this. There was a man who run across the a street and it's not like our street out here. It was eight lanes and he run across. who were giving out Bibles that day. And he came to our our um truck and he grabbed a Bible and he kissed it

and he started weeping. And I never had seen that in my life, but it's because they couldn't have them or if they had them and the communists found them, then they were put in jail or in prison. Then my next trip, one of my next trips was I went in 1995 to Jatoma, Ukraine. And uh I stayed in a home with a pastor and his family. We began to talk that night and this pastor's wife said she said my my dad was a pastor and my dad pastored a church in um an area around Jaomer and which they call it a Oelis of course. And he said, and he was told that he could not preach the gospel of Christ or else he would be jailed. And he was. Then they told him, said, "If you keep preaching the gospel of Christ, then you're going to go to prison." They sent him to Siberia. She was 14 years old. She never saw her father again. So, see, why would we allow organizations to come in here and and to promote their agenda? And I went to Guatemala in 2004.

Thank you. I'm out. All right. Thank you so much. Yes, ma'am. Thank y'all. Any other public comments?

You know, I had a little bit more prepared. Presley Bellinger Kipling 165 spy glass. But I think that you guys have gotten a little bit tonight. So, I'm going to keep this a little bit more casual and a little bit shorter. Um, I have I mean the many of you in here know me and everyone on council is at least familiar with me. Um, I have poured literal blood, sweat, and tears into this town. I've served this community in ways that a lot of you don't get to see and there's a lot of background work that happens too. And the only thing that I feel like I've really ever asked for from this group was support for fireworks or firefighters. And I, you know, I I get it that there are priorities that change. I wish that it had happened differently and I wish that it had happened for the correct reasons. U this council tried to effectively stall the only event in Pendleton that everybody felt welcome to attend. And everybody did attend. Everybody. Doesn't matter who you are, where you come from, how much money you had in your pocket. You could walk up to Veterans Park with your family and you could watch these fireworks. So, I think that that's a testament to how important this event is to the community. You're stewards of the taxpayer dollars and the taxpayers telling you exactly what they want to see. Um, I'm asking you to approve this event application to benefit our community at large. Um, that's really what it comes down to it. I'm grateful for, you know, the support of the community members that have reached out to me and said, "Please don't give up on this event quite yet." Because I was close to doing it. And I also really appreciate uh if Pyro shows for some reason is watching this live stream, thank you for keeping your thumb on our original date in case we could pull it together grassroots style because that's exactly what we're doing. Um there is no Anderson fireworks show. There's no city of Anderson, no county of Anderson there. That has never it's never even been discussed. It's just this these are the smaller towns that are doing them for the community. So, um, I ask and

hope that you will approve this event application and I hope to see you all there on July 1st. Thank you. Thank you. Any other public comments? Seeing no further speakers, public comments are closed. We will now move to staff reports. Chief Pollson, please present the March Police Department report. Yes, sir. Mrs. Mayor, council, good evening. It's good to see everybody here tonight. Um, as you can see from our report, we had a pretty busy month in March. The penalty police department answered over 581 calls for service. In March, we did 18 reports taken, seven of which were cleared by an arrest or a warrant. Additionally, 45 warning tickets were issued and 16 state citations were issued. Um, some of the things that we did during the month of March, it was really fun. We went to the Pendleton First Baptist Church community Easter egg hunt. Myself, Corporal Bishop, and Officer Wallace. It was so much fun to watch those kids come out there and just go and search for those eggs and try and find everything there. You think they're full of money, but it's just a little bit of candy. The kids love it. So, we really enjoyed doing that. Uh, Pastor Riggs was very nice to us and really extended a hospitality to us, and we we did have a good time with that. Now, if you really want to have fun with these Easter egg hunts, you go back about two weeks later when they cut the grass the first time and the guy with the lawnmower finds all the eggs the kids didn't find. So, it's really neat to watch them shoot them all across there. So, uh so we did have good time with that. Um we also attended the preserve at Pendleton HOA meeting. Um I I did say that one of our goals this year was to attend these HOA meetings. I think it's a great opportunity for the police department to really be in the middle of of a bunch of citizens all in one place. So, we really enjoyed that. some really good conversations that we plan on continuing doing that with the rest of the HOAs that we can identify in the town. On March 28th, we did assist

with the No Kings protest and the Clemson RV park barbecue fundraiser. I had a really good turnout for both events. We'd had any we did not have any issues or any incidences to report from either of the two. Uh the next thing that I want to point out is I'm really excited about this. We're the uh on May the 26th of this year, the Pendleton Police Department is hosting in conjunction with the South Carolina Department of of Consumer Affairs. We are going to host a community fraud and scam um awareness outreach uh project. So, it's just going to come in. They're going to come from Colombia. We're going to put on about an hour presentation and we just want to identify and and try to educate the community on what are the current scams that are currently out there, what fraud is going out there, and more importantly, how not to be a victim of fraud or scams. We see it all the time. You hear it on the news all the time. And I know that we've seen three reports on our desk since January of somebody getting scammed out of all their money. And it's not just $100 or $200 here and there. So, we're really excited about this. We're we think we're going to have a really good turnout. We haven't decided where we're going to hold it yet. We're still working on that, but it will be on the 26th of May from 6:00 to 7. And again, we really want to just just get that information out. Let people know what's current out there. What are the scams going out there? I promise you there is not a prince in Arabia that wants to send you a million dollars. So, we just want to get those things out and really I'm really excited about that event. And then, uh, Officer Thumb is our newest graduate from the academy. he started his field training. Um, and he is really doing good. He's excited about being on the force and if you see him out there, please say hi to him. Last two things I have real quick is I really feel that it's important to recognize our officers when they go above and beyond in their service to our community. Um, I just want to read a quick letter that I received from one of our visitors to the town. It was written to Dear Chief Pulse and I'm writing to express my sincere gratitude to the men and women of the Pendleton Police Department for their

valor and service. In particular, I would like to commend Officer Corporal Jay Murray. His impeccable law enforcement skills were on full display on the morning of February 27th, 2026. I deeply appreciate the daily contributions made by your officers to protect our freedoms, and I hope their significance is fully recognized. Thank you for all you do. Best regards, Mr. Andrews. I think it's really important that we do that. Also, the last thing I have is that on March the 31st, Officer Wallace, um, Officer Andrews and Corporal Bishop were dispatched to a cardiac arrest callum in town limits. When they arrived on scene, they found a unresponsive patient on the floor, did not have a pulse, did not was not breathing, was effectively was dead when they got there. Um, Officer Wallace started CPR doing the training that he was he's received, and they they were able to bring this gentleman back from basically dead. When the Bennix got there, they he had a pulse and he was breathing and he was up and sitting and talking. So, that was a great thing from these officers. I think they even they they did uh administer some Narcan. So, Officer Wallace, the CPR, Officer Andrews and Corporal Bishops, the job that they did for these our citizens are really important and I'm very proud of the officers that we have in town. And that's about all I have. Mrs. Mayor, I'll be glad to answer any questions if you have any. Miss Barbara.

Um I was contacted um about the no kings. Yes, ma'am. And it wasn't, you know, they weren't concerned about there necessarily being people there. It was the manner in which um they were there and they wanted to know when these events take place. Are there rules and regulations? Um I drove through so I and my windows were up so I don't know if there was all this car you know bone of horns and there was complaints about noise and also people where they were standing um so close to the road. So

so I can tell you that when when anybody submits an application to hold an event in town and you guys as council and the mayor authorize us to to contribute to that as as far as being present there. the police department is going to do that. Um, so we were present during that event. Uh, they had probably four to five 600 people show up and from what I could tell, uh, they were all on the sidewalks, which is all public areas. There was no incidences or no concerns that I noted. Um, yes, there was a lot of horns blown and people yelling and screaming, but that's, you know, it was anything that was, you know, out of the way or seemed to be illegal. Yes, ma'am. That's all. Good. That's it. Thank you.

Thank you, Chief. We will now hear from Steve Miller. Steve, will you please present the planning department report as well as the administrator's report? Thank you, mayor and council. Happy birthday. So, we're all here just to celebrate it with you. This is exactly what you want to do on the day your birthday.

So, um for the month of February, we had 25 permits. Uh that was one new home, one interior renovation, uh one building addition, three signs, and the rest were really in inconsequential permits, people doing electrical upgrades and stuff. Biggest thing I think for council is there is going to be a resoling request for 610 Cherry Street to go from R1 to R2 in May. I do not have all the details behind it yet, but it will be going on the agenda for May. Uh planning commission met on March 12th. Uh the falls of Mihan have requested to remove the trees from the rightways cuz they're required to maintain them under the contract with them. Uh I do not know how how they have uh completely come to that but it has been an issue in the past. Uh those trees have started breaking up sidewalls and some other stuff. Um code enforcement had five complaints. Uh they also caught one contractor working without a business license. Uh the DRB met last week to take up a design review on a lot of different things. Uh most of them passed that dealt with the addition to some homes and other changes and one was denied that dealt with some window coverings. Uh the planning commission meets this week. Um they did meet uh last month and they have elected new chair and vice chair. The new chair is Ski Hollands. Uh the vice chair escapes my mind right now.

Thank you. Um, so they do have that in place. Uh, for our report moving forward, our bill date of 319, we build $82,675. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm going back to the planning uh me. Before we move on, just a question about the Porter Road development that was mentioned in there. U, whereabouts is that on Porter Road and what how much acreage? Um,

how's that? It is when you turn on Porter. Uh it will be on your left. I'm sorry. If you turn on Spake, it is on your left. It is between Spake and Porter. And then it goes over into Pickkins County behind Nettles Park. There 100 plus acres in there. I think 130 30 of them being attached to Nettles Park.

Okay. Um, but it is uh um it's not contiguous to the town. It's in our sewer territory district that we're supposed to serve. Uh we had some some conversations with with the developer. Uh we gave them the options on what they can do. They can either upgrade our pump station to service their facility or they can take on a um impact study for the 18 mile creek line which would uh give a transportation charge to the city of Clemson and it's up to them on what they want to do and so they I don't know what they're going to do with the board. So,

does that connect back to the pres the preserve back behind there? What is it? The Graange. That's what it is. No, I don't think it does. It's it it would connect um it would have actually been part of Patrick Square at one time, I think. So, it it's So, it's a bit out there from us. I mean, from our I mean, it's it's one lot away from our existence. Yeah. It's maybe a lot and a half. So it might be 600 feet to 1600 feet as the crow flies. So it's just literally right in between the two cities. And what are they planning to build there?

Uh I don't know what they're going to plan to build until they figure out their utilities. That's going to be the driving factor on that. So student housing more than likely. No, it it was not. I do know that it would have been it would have been residential some something probably similar to Patrick Square at this point, but they've got they can't get any density on it. They don't have utilities or they don't want to pay for the utilities. So, second. And can you give me that cherry address again where it's going from R1 to R2? Um 610 I believe. 610. Yep. 610 Cherry Road. Yeah. Cherry Street.

Cherry Street. Um, is it appropriate at this point to ask if it's would be possible to have a I guess a volunteer work session to look at all the subdivisions planned, the way the ones that are currently in progress and those that are proposed or potentially proposed. and then look at what are within our sewer district and where we might be looking at potential annexation and what that annexation benefit may or may not be or kind of some long-term planning in terms of the boundary growth if that's an appropriate term

Hamilton is that is this a time when we could be thinking about that because I don't want to get I I'd like to be thinking about this and be ahead of it and not have one of these things come in and be going what the hell back. Mhm. So, um the your competition on utilities, which is what drives your annexation, is only on 187 now because we've got control 76. We got control out 76. We got control out 88 and we've got the interlocal agreement with city of Clemson. And so, e 88,

we have that with central as well. We're we're going we're working on that with Central and they they're receptive to it because they have issues on Pickkins County side too and and you're and the sooner that everybody gets on the same page, the less toes you'll step on. Um but also where where 88 and uh 18 mile road is is really kind of the extent on what we can service out of our existing system right now. That's a long ways away. It is. It is a long ways and so I mean that would give us a fuel. It would give us the second phase of the graange. It would give us wouldn't give us an

but that would be central. All that's going to be serviced through central and pickings county unless we can get an agreement.

Well they so they there is uh when you cross county lines so all 46 counties have some different rules that they operate under especially when it comes to water services. And so there is a appeals board in 88 highway 88 actually has the water out there. So central has the sewer on Pickkins County through an interlocal agreement with the county and uh so they have much like the voters here in the Anderson adopted a a fee to have sewer. And so therefore all the unincorporated areas without getting an agreement with the county is automatically considered county territory. And then you have to get that agreement back because it affects their their um referendum to have the voters.

Okay. So, so but yes, you can you know seam in whitesides which will start giving you the fiveyear capital plan next because your village hills will be the last thing and the pump station is the last thing on our current one and then you'll have your next five years. you probably need to concentrate that way on it less that way because that that'll be your next growth corridor. So the other thing with the porter so I can't request a work session. You can I mean it's it's u I just that the utilities is what's really going to drive it

and then the other thing is on that Porter road is that I want to keep in mind the green crescent trail plans to potentially come up central instead of the Pendleton grade. And so we want to be sure that if they come in there, we're looking at right away what we need to do to get get to our pump station because then we can come on up central. Yep. Yep. Thank you.

Um I'll just since we had that u sorry um our uh business license for the month was 54,000. they they are they will come in the bulk of them by the end of this month. Um which is a pretty substantial revenue to the town. Motor vehicle tax is 33,000 property tax 13,000. You're on the back side of your property tax collection. Now uh they we process 186 in-house transactions. That's 1,533,000. For all y'all new here, that includes the waste treatment plant expansion. So, uh, that's Clemson and Anderson's share. Um, we had 1,223 online transactions for $109,000. Open forms was $9,476 of that. In March, uh, we're leveling out there, too. In March of last year, we had $1,288 online transactions and set off set off debt recovered $963 on utility bills. Just some general updates for the month. Uh, feel free to read those since we're running a little bit behind. Um, the biggest thing is AT&T came and got off the pole at the Buddy Durham lot, so we'll be able to take down the front part of that this week without jeopardizing uh possibly any more damage. Uh, we did submit a grant for the Village Hills pump station RA and SRF and the fire department RFP is out. uh the capital projects which most of them are winding down Winston Street. We had our closeout meeting with the state. I've got to rebalance that ordinance. We have some savings in there. Bruise parking lot will remobilize now that Spring Jubilee is gone. Um though we've had a request from Main Exchange to move the meters again. I think Jay's working with them and HDH to figure out what to do. Uh the

Seymour committee met. They had picked four uh the first four finalists to interview and they are interviewing them April 15th. If y'all didn't know that you're interviewing them April 15th. So um and the village bid approval is on your your thing tonight in Central Road. Again, we're waiting on our generator to get get wired, but we're pretty much done with that project on that

generator. So, we thought we were getting one earlier and um apparently it's earlier is only going to be about two months earlier. Um so, it's got to get in. We had Duke come down and uh Duke is ready to pull into the new service into it and we got our cabinets mounted. We just got to get generator wire everything in and and get it all tested and load tested. All right. Thank you, Steve. Moving on to number seven on our agenda, action items. 7A, proclamations. Item 7A is the consideration of a proclamation recognizing April as Scottish American Heritage Month and Child Abuse Prevention Month. I will open the floor for discussion. Well, with my mother's name, Moren Marcel McCafferty, I'm all for it. All right. All right.

Do I have a motion? Do I have a second? Second. All in favor? Motion carries. Item 7B is the consideration of requests to wave fees and liability requirements for special event applications, including Super Saturday fireworks for firefighters, Christmas Eve service, and Christians worshiping God in song and prayer. These are community- based events utilizing town resources, and approval would be consistent with past practices. I will open up the floor for discussion. All right, I'm moving. Do I have a motion, Nancy? Do I have a second?

Second.

All in favor? Motion carries. Item 7C is the consideration of fencing material and style for the mechanic street property across from the village green. Council's actions would provide directions on materials and design. I will open up the floor for discussion. I would like to say that looking at what um they're having what they have put up for us to look at that whatever we put over there that there's visibility and not something that you can't see what's going on. I mean the main thing of having that parking lot is to make sure it's safe. I don't think anybody is going to feel safe um going in a parking lot that's behind the woody fence so to say because that's one of the things and there's another one I'm here that's kind of louvered. So, I'm just suggesting that um we look at whatever we can that is going to allow visibility and not so much visibility of okay, we're going to see who's parking in the parking lot for people to spy and see who's doing what, but for there to be visibility for police when they're driving and patrolling.

Chief Bman, do you have any thoughts? No, I Mr. Mayor, I haven't seen the suggested things. Obviously, anything you can see through is better for us.

Somewhat of a concern of where that exactly be placed. Um, I know that wall back there uh is ancient uh and uh at some point I can imagine that we'll try to upgrade it that whole parking lot area. So, if we're going to how much money we going to put into a fence that's going to be we might have to remove if we're going to upgrade the wall. So, if is it going to be there's probably about 4 feet to the sidewalk there? It it's kind of on a angle, isn't it? Is it going to be near the sidewalk or is it going to be on top of the wall?

More toward the sidewalk, sir. what we're looking at to keep it away from the wall because we do have alliance engineering looking at the wall for some options for replacement or repair or suggestion. Yeah, I agree with Barbara then. I like uh the the the two I mean the row iron obviously is there saying that might be problematic in getting someone to build it but the other one that's aluminum number four uh the alum vertical aluminum I like those two options. So, I just want to be clear. So, the fence will go along the sidewalk and then the grass area will be behind that.

It'll kind of split. It won't be right at the sidewalk. It'll still be behind the the benches that are there, but not right on top of that wall because there are some concerns with the wall till we hear back from a lot. And I reached out to them again this week. I'm just waiting for an update. But is a fence already there? There is. And basically what we want to do now is replace that fence. Yes, ma'am. And and that fence only and then we'll go from there once we get the engineers thing for the lawn. Yes, ma'am. But or the fence can wait until we get everything together. Whichever you prefer.

It doesn't matter to me which way we do it. It's, you know, um and I know people gonna say, "Oh, it doesn't matter." Katie, I do care. But it doesn't matter from the standpoint of it needs to be done. Now, if it's going to be more cost effective to do it all at one time, then let's do it all at one time and just maintain because people are it's a eyesore. That's what people keep saying. It's a eyesore. Well, you know, it's a lot of things that are eyesore. You got to crawl before you walk. So, let's let's crawl and see what we can do and maintain it until that's what I feel. I just feel we need to, you know, do what's best and most cost effective.

So, how far away are we from having a complete wall design? I would say months. I mean, that's got to be a budget. And I mean, think about Buddy Durham. While you're in there, you might as well go ahead and redo all the paving. I mean, you go with concrete like we did, that's probably $100,000 on that. All right. And the grass bank area going down to that parking lot is belongs to town or belongs to the other property owner. Belongs to other property. So that's not available for us to use as a walkway to that to access that park.

I wouldn't say no. I would say you got to have some conversations and know what we need to ask for first. Um, and it's quite likely a possibility. Let me just make sure I understand too that this fence is going to go in front of where the chain link fence is, but the chain link fence will be removed. Yes, ma'am. But will there be a space for kids to get behind? I don't want anybody falling off the wall. No. No. One of the things we were actually looking at was capping the in to where you can access the back of it.

My thought was um when I saw the the potential I guess types of fences was how can we use this to promote like you know art and so I thought maybe with the the wood someone you know would paint a mural or we could do some type of initiative like that versus just having it be a plain a plain fence. and we talk about, you know, cost effectiveness and being good stewards and um obviously the the rod iron is significantly more expensive. But um yeah, those were just some thoughts that I had when I

But you can still do some art installations on the aluminum. I mean, it won't be painted, but you can still do some some art installations besides just having it painted. Um that's just a thought. Well, not Go ahead. Go ahead. N um the I mean I'm concerned about the sequencing as well, right? So if we're months away from doing the wall, are we going to we're not going to spend twice, right? So if we put in the vertical aluminum for 6,000, then we wouldn't we're not going to spend that twice, right? I mean, we're not that when we redo the wall, we're going to salvage whatever we spend on the fence.

The fence will still be there. Well, we don't know. Can't guarantee that. That's what I meant. We need That's what I said.

And then the other thing is that um we were looking at some steps to go down there the other day. And you know, if we're going to have to if we're not going to be able to use that ramp coming up out of the parking lot, we're probably going to have to put some steps down. I don't know we can use the steps against the antique store. So, I want to make sure that whatever we have to do to get to the parking lot blends architecturally with the fence. Just thinking out loud. I mean, how is that going to work? And I I just I agree it looks ugly, but on the other hand, if we're within months of doing the wall, so do you have a do you have a motion, Nancy, in regard to that?

I'm just still thinking. Sorry. What do you think, Jeff? I I would wait till the they do the engineering study before we put the fence up. Yeah. So, make a motion to postpone this until another date.

Second. All in favor? Okay. Motion carries until we have like a study about the wall. Feel like I'm in Game of Thrones. I know. Okay, thank you. Moving on. Um,

sorry, mama. Item 7D is the consideration of awarding the bid for Village Hills infrastructure improvements and authorizing the town administrator to execute the contract. This action would move the project forward. I will open up the floor for discussion. All in favor? Motion carries. Item 7E is the consideration of authorizing Scout Troop 161 to replace the Little Free Library on the Village Green. I will open up the floor for discussion. Do I have a motion?

Library. Do I have a second? Second. All in favor? Motion carries. Item 7F is the consideration of authorizing live streaming and recording of upcoming called meetings on the town's YouTube channel. This supports transparency and accountability, but I wanted to have a discussion with council. I think it's important. Um, so I will open it up for discussion.

What what what the governance of this prior to so what what does it say about this already? To my knowledge, the municipal association doesn't have any stated this is what you have to do. It's to the discretion of council. Um, so I didn't know if we wanted to live stream council meetings only, if we wanted to start live streaming other meetings like the planning commission like other municipalities do. just kind of having open dialogue about what council feels would be, you know, would be best to ensure transparency and accessibility.

Feel free. I would like to um ask if we could include live streaming board and commission meetings as well as part of that motion. I know the boards and commissions may have to meet and change their bylaws to accommodate that, but if we could encourage them to consider that as part of their bylaws, I agree with you. It's more accessible. Any other discussion? I mean, if we're if we want to do just council meetings, I'm I'm fine with that. If there's, you know, other meetings that you feel should be live streamed, I'm totally

Are we going to talk to the other groups about whether they want it or we just going to say you're going to do it? And if that's if we're just going to say Well, they have they have their own bylaws, Barbara. So, they have to adopt what we do. It's my understanding reading the our bylaws is that each board and commission has their own bylaws. And by us doing this, we would enable each board and commission to then add to their bylaws that they were going to live stream that we would be the umbrella that would enable that. That's my understanding, Steve. Is that correct? Well, you know, council could actually dictate that all the meetings is it's totally even if a board doesn't want to stream it, it's still up to council because they're a body of council. Okay.

So, we need to amend it. Nancy, is that what we looking at now? since he said that we can say blanketly all boards do this and if that's something we want to do instead of bring this back then we just be amended that it applies to all boards. What do you want to say?

I'm I'm really going to rely on all of you here. Um in my personal opinion I I really think there's something to encouraging people to to show up and be present. I mean, I'm a I'm a teacher and I feel like a postcoid world and it's really hard to get people, you know, together to show up and um but uh I don't know. I I feel like council meetings are really important to live stream. I don't necessarily I wonder if you know other meetings like you know our um our called meetings that we've been having I wonder how important those are when feel like half of the meeting is us moving around and writing things on postits and I don't know. So, I'm really gonna gonna whatever you all think. I'm I'm in favor of it.

Okay. Can we say all the monthly meetings or you're saying all call meetings are all I think that's where the motion Sorry. Yeah. So, you we want to go with the monthly meetings. Yeah. All monthly meetings. I think that's good for all boards and commissions. I think we're all going to commission. Just to clarify, when you say monthly, you mean just the regular session meetings, not the fall meetings. Yes. As posted in January on schedule that regular schedule meetings,

but the main thing is this is also looking at council called meetings. Am I right? No, what I'm saying is not look at called meetings. So, if we're having a workshop meeting with the budget, we don't have to do those. every the meetings that are scheduled at the first of the year, the regularly scheduled Tuesday meeting and all the regularly scheduled meetings of those other commissions would be recorded. I'll second them up. Can you make the motion again? So all monthly scheduled committee or um board meetings would be livereamed. Yes.

Okay. So the motion is for all monthly scheduled board meetings to be live streamed. So that's an amended. Correct. I think that's I thought that's one of the amendment you were asking about earlier.

No, I'm just saying that it has to be amended from, you know, to include everybody like you say. And if you're just going to do the if you're just going to do the board the the monthly meetings then that doesn't have anything to do with us really other than saying they need to do it. But in here it was upcoming call meetings. So does that include the call? What I want to know are we going to live stream call meetings of the council? Not according to my motion. Do I have a second to Lynn's motion? Second. All in favor?

Okay. Barbara's opposed. Okay. Four to one. Um motion carries. Sorry. Okay. All right. Um item 7G is the consideration of approving a request from the decoration committee for funding reallocation and um downtown decorating expansion. Um, Miss Gloria, who's the chair of that committee, um, I would like you to say a few words if you would.

Good evening. Good evening. Good evening, Mayor. Happy birthday.

Um, I'm Gloria Bonet. I live off Mikasa Drive and um dear mayor and council members, the decoration committee respectfully submits the proposal requesting approval to allocate $10,000 currently designated to the committee towards the purchase of a sound system for for the events and ceremonies as well as expansion of seasonal decorations and signage along Mechanic Street and West Queen Street. If you look at the map and you can see I have very poor sense of direction even as since I was a Girl Scout. So um approval of the allocating of the existing $10,000 is as follows. Procure a sound system for town events and ceremonies. We worked on it with a excellent young man um named Mr. Mike Schuler and he worked to work around keeping it under the $5,000 bracket that we gave him. And then initial expansion of decorations along Mechanic Street and West Queen Street. If you can look at the map over there, including lights for the light pulled hardware, scarecrow banners, and joy banners. That is approximately $4,500. Additional request is for the decoration committee's requesting the council to direct this committee to begin coordination with downtown property owners to obtain the necessary authorizations for a proposed lighting initiative impacting buildings exteriors. And then to also direct the committee to begin drafting the request for proposals for a comprehensive downtown lighting project that will be released once the final budget reading is concluded and the council moves forward with the funding to include the tree up lighting along Mechanic Street and Green and the Village Green and then trim lighting for the guard house and the farmer's hall

overhead lighting enhancements along Exchange Street. Thank you. Sorry. I just said that would be neat.

Oh, well, good. I got supporter here. To ensure timely implementation aligned with the Christmas tree lighting event that we all look forward to, the decoration committee's request for proposal must be released by July of 2026. Now, there is the need and the purpose. The town continues to expand its community programming and public events. The need for a reliable highquality sound system has become increasingly evident. The dedicated system will enhance communications during events, improve overall event quality, and reduce the ongoing cost of logistic challenges that we have when we have to borrow one or rent one, and God knows that that happens with everything. In addition to the event infrastructure, the committee remains committed to enhancing the visual appeal and seasonal identity of a downtown corridors. Expansion expanding decorations and signage along Mechanic Street and West Queen Street will strengthen the placemaking efforts, support local businesses, and create a more welcoming and vibrant environment for residents and visitors alike. the scope of the decoration expansion. The initial $10,000 allocation supports the purchase of the fall and the Christmas banners. However, to achieve a more cohesive year-round decorating decorative program, additional materials outlined in the proposed for the fiscal year 2026 2027 budget will be necessary. And that would include spring and summer and transitional seasonal banners, wreaths and garlands, seasonal and hangers and mounting hardware, and tree ornament replacements. In conclusion, investing in both the event infrastructure and expanding the seasonal decorations will significantly enhance the town's ability to host high quality events while fostering a vibrant

and visual visually appealing downtown throughout the year. These improvements will directly support community engagement, tourism, and local economic vitality. Thank you for your consideration. I would be happy to provide additional details in supporting documentations and any questions that you might have. Now, first of all, appreciate you stepping up and helping out with this. It's very nice and it's a it's it could be an ongoing project for a few years. I hope so.

Yeah. Um the the sound system is has not been up to par for years and to get I mean $5,000 is is a start on that and uh but that's that's a good start to get get something that will work better than what we have now which is uh subpar subpar good word if I may if I may say give an example of this um last activity of the jubilee the children that were singing they sung so beautifully but uh as you can know many of us could not hear, right? And uh it was it was they couldn't project better. And that's that was one of the details.

Um it'd be nice in the future to possibly extend these decorations over to the other side of 76, maybe on Dalton Road, which is kind of like one of the main streets. That's we're looking into into the future for that. Yes, that would be a great idea. Another thing would be just uh it mentioned they're coordinating with uh PABA and I think that's a great idea is to they're the ones that have their businesses make their livelihood downtown and having their input would be vital.

Okay. In addition to what Jess said I second as soon as we can get Dalton Road into the picture so that Dalton Road is a main street a second main street for us. I'd really like to see us do as much as we can there. And then can can we get an idea what it would cost to get further down Queen? I'd like to get I'd like to get down to Thompson Road if we can on Queen. Um because there's only three there. They're having the Keys Festival there next weekend. If there's something we can do to get further down Queen and possibly even on to Winston, it would be awesome. I mean, just consider for the future. I' Yes. Yes. I'd really like to

Well, we're hoping for the fiscal year 2026, 2027, it will be um it would be worked on that. Yes. But I think we all need to um because then we're just kind of throwing streaks at you, but I think it would be a good idea if if each of us turned in streets that we felt needed more attention decoration wise and then that's an excellent option idea. I think that would be the better. would welcome that very much. You can just do my whole work. That'll be good.

And I and just kind of as a as a um um council a couple months ago voted unanimously to reallocate funds, $10,000, which I think the committee has learned $10,000 doesn't um go very go very far. Um, and so what the committee is asking for today is basically this is their plan to spend that $10,000 and then um with council's approval they will come back for future meetings and hopefully um I would like them to I'm not speaking for council, just myself. Um we can um expand what you all are doing um and really make it beneficial to everyone in our town year round. That is that is the goal. So it could actually be part of our budget next year.

Yes. Okay. Yes, that is that is the goal. So, this what Miss Gloria is here to talk about tonight is just how the committee would like to spend the $10,000 right now. Yes. Right now. And then they have other ideas um that are maybe a little more than $10,000 for for the next budget cycle. System and the banners and hardware. Absolutely. That's great. Do I have a second? All in favor? Motion carries. Thank you so much to your committee. You all are here like weekly and I really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Gloria.

Sorry. Item 7H is the consideration of a resolution authorizing the disposal of surplus personal um personnel sorry property a lot of lot of P's in the sentence surplus personnel property to Pendleton Pride and Motion I will open up the floor for discussion

I want to know how is it decided that this property would go to Pin Pride and Motion was there a call sent out to other groups of organizations so what's the process when we have this type of property that we don't want to demolish but have adopted out for lack of better terms I I can give you a little background on that. At least my understanding is that um Pendleton Pride Motion has a lot of volunteers and 550 and a group of those volunteers are interested in doing woodworking and refinishing and the benches have fallen in disrepair and we have now ordered a different kind of bench that's a little sturdier. Yet the bench at between us and Anderson District 4 and the one down at the community center are of the older style. And there were some older style benches that Jay had put on the loading dock and I just didn't and they're they're really old and they are really heavy and uh for and I asked some of the volunteers is there somewhere we could take the brackets from that old bench and replace it with some newer wood and have some benches we could put either at Tanglewood Park, the new park that John and Suzanne Morris are donating, or perhaps along the trails or perhaps replace the if depends on how how Jay works out with the benches that you've got the new ones. If you don't have enough, then we could use them for the community center and the Anderson District 4 bench. So, that's and that that was my original intent is that we would just take them in and help the town by not having them have have to spend money, but to give them a refinished refurbished bench. So, I was surprised as my cohort's going to attest. We were all surprised about the surplus, but if that's the way the town wants to do it, that's fine. They're not leaving town. You know, we're not taking them to Texas.

No, but my point is that I mean, if somebody else wants to do it, I think I'll have to ask my board about I just want to know is there a process that we have in place for properties like this? Yeah. Okay, that's fine. That's fine. You got it. That's all we need to know. Thank you. Go ahead. I would like to hear the process. So all staff can do is either dispose of it in landfill or sell it for revenue for the panel. If it goes out to any other thing other than that, it has to have approval from council. We and this penalty Brad motion is a 501c3. But I mean if you want to give it to one of the churches that's fine.

Do I have further discussion? Do I have a motion? Motion to accept. Do I have a second? Second. All in favor? Do we need to recuse? Oh no. Motion carries. I think you're fine. Um um sorry I'm losing my spot. Okay. Um, item 7 I is the consideration of a resolution directing staff to begin working with Mostly AR architects to evaluate the town's public works facility and prepare for future improvements. This is an important step in planning for infrastructure that supports our staff and the services they provide every day. I will open up the floor for discussion.

Seeing no further discussion. Okay, second. Perfect. Oh, sorry. One quick one. I I would like to be present when they do some of their first inspections if that's possible. I mean, if I can't make it, obviously they're going to go, but but if it's possible, I would like to be present. All right, that's it. Barbara has a motion. Um, do I have a second? Second.

Jeff, all in favor? Motion carries. 7J is the consideration of a resolution appointing a municipal attorney and approving legal services to pro be provided by David Aroot and Kolaric root with of Kolaric root with assistance from attorneys um of the firm as needed. This action ensures the town continues to have legal counsel in place to support council and staff. I will open up the floor for discussion and will we adopt? Um, so are they on a retainer then or is that a case by case?

Retainer for everything with litigation and then litigation is a agreed upon cost and is it uh was there's a previous firm that was on a retainer?

No. So you're so before they were acting as really as staff's attorney, your other attorney officially the county attorney was doing and did did it for he did it for 25 years. His practice has grown and you know he he's doesn't specialize in what we need. He's very aware of it. we met with talk with he's very glad to see us growing and wishes us the best and understands probably need a little more attention than what we used to be. So all the different cases that we come across this particular firm would be able to cover the vast majority of them or

they are the yes they currently are the council for five other municipalities in a county. Um, and then they do other litigation and pretty much they specialize in in bonds, local government, you know, utilities. That's what they do. Okay. Thank you. I I really enjoyed working with David. I think that he's really wonderful. So, I will Do we have a motion? Um, second.

Second. All in favor? Motion carries. Item 7K is the consideration of a resolution to appoint council member Nancy von Meyer as ex official liaison to the friends of the green crescent. This role helps strengthen co strengthen coordination and communication between council and community partners. I will open up the floor for discussion. Motion to approve. I don't think we need to discuss too much on that. Hey, that's that's not me. So, Councilwoman Von Meyer has educated me on Robert's rules, so I apologize, but I'm not going to apologize because if I don't, then Councilwoman Von Meyer will correct me. And so, we're going to go by Robert's rules. Okay. So, seeing no discussion, I have a motion. Barbara have a motion. Do I have a second?

Second.

Second. All in favor? Motion carries. This next one, I hope we will have some discussion. Um, item seven, what is J? J K L. This is an L. Item 7L is the consideration of a resolution approving an intergovernmental agreement with the city of Clemson for Clemson area transit bus services for the financial year 2627. The proposed contract amount would increase from $75,000 to more than $169,000, 123.2% 2% increase over the last fiscal year. Additional fees apply for express and holiday services. This also authorizes the town administrator to execute the agreement and allows for budgeting and um appropriations of necessary funds. I will open up the floor for discussion.

I point of clarification. Um, so I look back and just correct me if I'm wrong, but it I thought it said in the 2025 we we had $91,800 budgeted, not $75,873 for the CAT bus. That's correct. So that's 75 base contract and then everything over 75 additional services. Okay. I personally would like to um see kind of a writership report. Um I just think this is a lot of money and I would like some more information before before voting. Um this is a you know 123% increases is a lot. Um

does the cap still won in Anderson? Anderson has its own thing. So the territory um so the territory broke up by the federal government and we're in cap buses territory and there has to be some things way above us to flip territories. So we we couldn't we're in Anderson County so we couldn't do whatever transit system is with Anderson County. So does a cat bus go to Anderson? So it used to but it does not anymore. And see that's that's the problem. doesn't but the Anderson city bus comes to us. That's the reason.

Yeah. Okay. So, we do have we have service to Anderson but see and that's the reason I'm a little confused because the cat bus you have to go to Anderson to the Walmart and the city wanted to be able to come up here and somehow that territory was changed. or maybe pump some and see it on there on Anderson's territory.

Well, what the history behind that is um Anderson County had to pay for the connection route between CAT bus and Le City. And so that bus that ran out of Pendleton to the Walmart and Anderson was the connection route along with something else they did. I don't know what else they did, but um back in about 2014, that one leg was costing about $17,000. And the the leg of that transit can be ran by CAT bus or be ran by Lester City because it's just swapping. And so Leer Cities came in and was much cheaper. Uh and so the county and it was it was a big issue because the county was offsetting some of our costs in CAT bus and when they pulled that 107,000 out our contract went from 25 at the time I think like 50 or 52,000 and um I haven't answer your last set of questions but this this actually goes into your last set of questions you were asking. So at the time Tri County Tech paid into it and Clinton University paid into it. Since then Tri County Tech has stopped paying into it. Uh and Clemson University to my knowledge has stopped paying into it. They still pay into a route and still pay into a offset to try Tech. But the route that I sent you that's the Pendleton route is purely supported by us. And it used to be supported by fund balance out of CAP bus and that I I do not know why the

increase is so high. I suspect that fund balance has run out and now you're seeing the full impact of the total route is somewhere like $700,000 that route. Okay. And at what time some of the apartments where people where the bus was stopping was al they were also contributing. Is that not correct? Yeah, they still but most of the apartments have their own trans transportation. I don't know that any in some

not not in Pound I'm saying and and what what is in in Clemson which is the bulk of the cat bus and so that would be another thing that would be them losing revenue when those when the um when the apartment complex is not smart it's cheaper and better for us to have our own bus to me I think it's better for him to come up with something that's going to serve our people because right now we're looking at the cat bus we could do our own thing

yeah I mean you know we're looking at the cat bus And and but what about the people especially people who use it their doctors are in their doctors are not in Clemson you know where they're not going to shop at Publix you know our people are going to shop at food line so what do we have is going to be the short distance long distance that's really serving us for this kind of money I mean should we be better off just putting you on retainer what is uh what is what is Senica doing now that they shut down their uh service.

Um, so they were going to shut it down and they kept it and I followed it. Um, but they're they're not to get in a whole bunch of terms. However, they're what's called a rural planning organization, RPO. We're in the MO, which is a metropolitan planning. And so they are the rural transportation provider for that area because they're big enough not to be inside of Appalachic Council of Governments which is what Belton and Honey have to be in. Uh and then CAT bus and actually runs their system. Um so it's not even ran by them. It's ran through CAT bus or interlocal treatment. And there's all these I do not know them off the top of my head, but there's all these triggering moments that you have to have to even get out of funding a a bus, which is what caught Synica. They didn't provide I think it's 90 days and and this is typical what happens like we were begging. We got this number last week and we've been begging for it for over a month, you know, trying and we're trying to get justification on why the number is so high, but it doesn't give y'all a lot of time to act and it doesn't give y'all a lot of time to give us direction on what to do.

What do we have to prove it by? You have to have it approved by you got to budget for it contract in May or June, but if you opt out of it, you have to provide a notice of opt out and I I want to say it's 90 days.

Steve, can you tell me does I see the city of Clemson? So, the city of Clemson paying into it and does the count does Pickkins County pay into it? Um, I do not believe Pickkins County pays into it. Uh, the the people that pay into it right now that I know for sure is Central Clemson us. And and what we get is we get a federal grant and the federal grant offsets I think it's 90% of the cost to run it. So, what you're getting charged is the leftover amount should be the leftover amount of that 90% plus any makeup money.

I'm like Sarah. I'd like to see the wrership because I really don't see the buses running through town that much. We get the ridership. We get the ridership. The problem is we don't get where they p being picked up and where to ride. I think we will find most of the people riding it are getting on the bus and going to the university. We haven't got it in a while. The pier goes to the pier where most of the students are.

That's my what's out of my issue for people not and I've had somebody come up to me. They said, "Well, I I'd like to go to the good lion, but by the time I go and pick up if I get frozen food, I I can't bring it home because it takes me so long to get back on the thing." And it just seems like we need to look at a better system.

Well, I and I agree with you and I think with the traffic that we've got coming in in Clemson, if we had a bus that ran from Food Lion to uh someplace convenient, I know they can't cat bus you told me cannot no longer go on campus, but if they could get me close, it's a lot easier than fighting for a parking space at Clemson. And then if they ran a regular schedule, but like Sarah said, it's like what's the route possibilities and what are the ridership? I think they would they still go through Tri County?

I can't I I can tell you when it the last big kind of we'll just say discussion we had about it. Um it was no if we get rid of it they're not coming to Tri County which triggered something from the university at the time and I think that's why the university now has some of their bus The university I think may be completely out of cat. My understanding is the cat bus does not run on campus. The tiger transit handles everything. So the cat bus gets you to the campus and then

and see they used to have a route just for Greenville. People who work on just like we got people here who use the bus because it's very park. They had a designated bus. That's their that's the only thing we did was go to Greenville and bring the people back and forth. So maybe we need to look at a designated bus for people who are basically looking to go to and from Clemson. That doesn't eliminate people just everyday folks that don't work at the university or go to school at the university. It's just that we they know that they're going to have transportation. And with gas going up like it is, you're going to have a lot of people want transportation still. Do you know who runs the Tiger Transit system?

Oh yeah. And that that's a contracted system or Oh, I'm sorry. I don't know who the contractor is. I know people. So, but it's a contracted service. It's not a university. It's not realistically. Do we have time to get some additional information? I don't feel ready to make a vote. I I need some I just need direction on what y'all want to do. Can we postpone this a little bit because we have a meeting on the 14? We got a work session coming up. That's fine. It's more of what you want from the city.

Yeah, I I agree. I mean, if if I'm just reading what was provided, I'm not voting for this. So, I think we need more information. So, can we ask them to provide us with some alternate routes before we make this decision? Can we also look at the cost of just getting a bunch of Uber cards and handing them out? Yeah. And and also looking at you mentioned you mentioned grants like how much is this really costing the town because if it's only costing us 10% that's going to be a very different conversation than if we're paying the the whole tamalei. Yep. It does. And if our wrership is people that have no other means to get to their jobs or no other means to get food, I don't want to cut them off from their ability. So

and I'd like to know where people are going too. Like if it's not really serving our 3,700 residents, then what are we doing? Possibly a conversation with the apartment complexes about whether they can be able to contribute or willing to contribute and whether that wrership with me, you know, what percentage of their people they think are utilizing the system. I would like to have a lot of these questions. Actually, I don't know who's in charge of cat bus anymore. I don't think they know either.

Yeah. So, they they have not had steady um in a while. So, the only people I know administrator administrators over there at the city. I move we table this discussion until our next call meeting. are going to be ready by the 14th. Okay. So then we'll table can do is is is waiting until May acceptable. Well, it says we have to decide by then according to the perimeter information we have. We have to decide by did I see April 30th? We also have a meeting on the 20. We do

14. Do we have another one on the 20? I mean that cat still owes answer question. Well, it says it says to get this last week. It says penalty will evaluate no loaded later than April 30th, 2027. So, it looks like we got tons of time.

Okay. Yeah. Do I have a second? Second. All in favor? Motion carries. We're doing this. Item 7M is the first reading of an ordinance amending the capital project for the wastewater treatment plant expansion. Tonight's action is limited to the first reading. I will open up the floor for discussion. I move we adopt it. Second.

All in favor? All right. It carries. 7N is the first reading of an ordinance establishing the V Village village hills design overlay district. Um we had an open meeting about this a few months ago and I will open up the floor for discussion. I want to know how does this affect existing residences? It mentions major improvements but nothing specific designate and such. So what constitutes a major renovation if someone is wanting to do that?

Um so to answer to your first question is the existing residents will probably all become nonforming and there's a chapter in your board regulates nonforming. Um, but a major change, you know, if they're going to add an addition, that's going to be a major change. But their house currently doesn't fit into the setbacks. They're going to be, you know, that's going to again kick them over to the non-conforming. So, what if they're non-conforming?

There's so non-conforming can go anywhere from they can do stuff that's non-conforming to they can't expand non-conforming. So, an example of nonexpanding and nonforming is we have a house that has an artist studio added, big artist studio, and then they built another artist studio in the back that the BCA gave them permission to do. So, now they got three structures on the property that's about the size of a house for each structure. They want to subdivide that and sell off all three. Now you're expanding this nonformity outside of it. So you can't do that. But say you want to come back and put a porch on the back. That probably is acceptable, right? So you can always maintain your non-performing, you know, forever in a day. Um, but what you can't do is ma is is make it where it keeps getting more and more and more non-performing to it and and that unfortunately that can be subjective to some degree

and how will the UDO impact all of this? Uh, the UDO will from a broad standpoint the UDO will create a lot of unemployment. Um because non deformities are much easier to create uh anytime you change an order because things are built to an ordinance from 20 years ago they get modernized and it just happens. Um but this overlay will stay the same. I mean it will just be incorporated into the UDO. So

that's correct. So yeah, so this over if you're talking about this overlay in particular with uh this will just get incorporated and so whatever's a non-performing today will be a nonform whatever under this today will most like I say most likely but will most likely not but this doesn't allow any funding for upgrades to existing properties. This is just zoning. Okay. So, so that's totally different. This is just your design.

Okay. So just to clarify if you if an existing resident wanted to expand is they can expand 25% or 50% before they are most likely to be considered extended not um I haven't read this as long as they don't increase the footprint Is that what it is or is it property? Um,

it's it's whatever the it's whatever the whatever they're doing. So, if if they are going to re remodel the outside of the house, if they change more than 50% of the outside existing, the doc's coming and if they're putting on an addition, it's 50% of the footprint. So additions get a little little wanky but yeah. So if it if if that number I believe it's 50%. But if they if they increase that number then they'll have to come into conformity. Where it really comes into play is is if you own a house there and then you live in it for 20 years and then you sell it. Whoever buys it wants to build a new house there then they have to conform to those standards. And and then you get like like a if they want to do an addition and and their house is already inside whatever setbacks there are, then you can't let them do that addition because then that's that's making it even worse because now now you're getting closer to the side of the property or something like that. You got to be cognizant of people next to it. But if they had 50 ft, this spot can be subjective. was bad 50 ft on either side on all four sides of that not even being close to setbacks. All of a sudden they can be treated a little bit different under the ordinance because they're not creating additional impact.

So are the people who currently reside do they know the ins and out of what fors and why and what happens if I do this and what happens if I if I do that. Do they know how this is going to affect them? So the honest answer to your question, Barbara, is most people do not know how to

do we not have a responsibility to at least give the residents who are currently there some information. I feel that if we don't, we're not doing the community justice because you're going to have people mo more than likely the people who are going to buy these homes, these new homes are not going to be, you know, the lady next door to me is not going to buy over in that neighborhood, you know. Um, and the lady across the street is not going to they're probably going to Lyn's not going to buy over there. Neither is Nance. It's going to be people who moving in here more than likely. So my question is I I feel if we approve this, we're shoving it down people's throat who have no idea. And to me, we should be able to produce something that we could just say here's what's happening and here's what will h what will happen. We've had we've had a couple of public hearings and and meetings and um and we've also gone through there and uh issued some violations for people that were not in compliance. I mean I think even if we went door to door and sat down for an hour with each person, that's I mean I mean I What do you want us to do? I mean we've we've invited them to the town hall. We've had public meetings. We've had posters. We've had input discussion sessions. The planning commission has met four times on this design.

Met and they've been open public meetings. And so I feel we've done our due diligence. I'm satisfied that as a town, we've done our due diligence.

But here's the thing. You're not looking at Nancy. You're talking about people who don't come to town hall meetings. They don't feel a part of Pendleton. They're not they're not going to come and speak out because they are they feel their voices have never been heard because of the their the economic level at which which they are. And as far as what I think we could do, fine. You can send them all a water bill. Fine. You can send them all something that says this is what is going on. That's all I'm saying. You know, sometimes we got to break it down to the dummy level. And that's not to say that people are dumb. It's to say that they're not used to all the jargon that goes on in council. Shoot. Half of us are used to have all the charging goes on with these meetings. But you know, I know you feel that we've done due diligence, but you know, some kind of due diligence, you've got to dig deeper than the surface that than the people, you know, it's going the people who it's going to affect. And that's what I'm looking at. The people who it's going to affect. Do they know? And these people are not coming to the meeting. When we first started, and I remember this, when we first started talking about the tiff district and we had the boards up and everything, I knew several people who lived over in Village Hills and they came to the meeting. They never came back because you know why? They didn't know what was going on. Nobody really paid attention to them. Nobody talked to them. You know, for all of Pendleton saying we're all together, we're one big happy family. We are very snobbish and elitist. Nancy,

how many reser I feel comfortable saying it's less than 100. Way less than 100. Do you Is there a motion? I move we adopt the first reading of the ordinance. Do I have a second? All in favor? opposed. Motion carries. Barbara and I opposed it. Amber.

All right. Item 70 is the first reading of an ordinance related to special tax assessments on rehabilitated historic property. Uh the item is commonly referred to as the Bailey bill which allows for the town to offer property uh tax abatements for qualifying historic properties located in a defined area. Specifically, this ordinance focuses on our central business zoning district which is around the village green. I will open the floor for discussion. So that is basically, you know, I read this and it says houses that are 50 years or or above. So there are houses on Belmont that are 50 years or above. There are houses over on Winston um and over in that area that are 50 years or above. So we're just going to say only these houses that are around the business area

can receive this funding. So is that what happens in every town that the funding for the Bailey is only around your central business?

No. So this so uh the reason why it's for commercial property is highlighted. Y'all do have an option. Um you can claim it into a district. You can claim it into a unit type such as commercial properties such as residential properties or industrial properties. Uh or you can let it through the whole tank and you know the the you don't have this predation overlay district to to house it inside of. So you do have to put some kind of range on what it can be because you're exactly right Barbara. If a house is over 50 years old it qualify this orders if you get tax break. Well, when I look at when you're when you're eliminating some neighborhoods, then you are putting those people at a disadvantage. If if somebody is in the, you know, is is in this so-called central business district that has a house the same age as mine and we're equal on everything else, they can get a tax break, but I can't. So, I'm looking I'm looking at what's going to make this equ. This isn't DEI. So, you know,

I also when I when I read the the first reading, when I saw that it was very limited to the where, I found that concerning as well. I I believe that it should be the the whole town. Um, and if you're in town limits, you should be able to qualify. Anyone that wants to, you know, preserve a historic house should be able to to qualify. Uh I my comment on the bailing bill is that we're it's only the town of Pendleton that's doing it. This is real bill is really only effective if the county adopts it. The percentage of the tax credit that we as a town can provide is very very slight and I I appreciate that it's lip service to historic preservation but there are other things that we can do for historic properties. I think that would be more significant and would be deeper reaching.

Um, but I mean I if people feel we need to send a message that we're in historic town and this is how we choose to do it, that's one thing. I'm uncomfortable with having something as vague as the central business district in here. I'd rather have the planning commission define an historic district if that's what we want to do or as Sarah has mentioned make it the whole town. But um I I just don't I that when you dig into this you're going to find that this big advantage you think you're getting is not an advantage at all. It's not an advantage at all. It's $18.

Well, we don't spend $18 discussing this. So Well, do we I mean we have that exactly those figures and do we have exactly what a central business district is? I don't what is a central business district? So the central business district is a designated zoning district and it's only around the village. You have to be touching the village green

which is which is why it's highlighted. This ordinance specifically reason why it's highlighted is we wrote specifically only for commercial properties. So, you do have some hurdles um that that have to be in there. Like you just can't come in because you own an old building and ask for a property tax break. You have to do work to other words, you have to be increasing the value. Um and that's what that's what qualifies you for a tax break. Now, you can do um you can set the value that they have to achieve in order to get it, you know. So there's places that say they have to have a million dollars. There's places that let them do it for as low as a $100,000. What it does, it freezes it at the value prior to renovation. So the building was valued at a million prior to renovation and they do $500,000 work. You still get that million dollar in valuation with tax, but what you don't get is the next $550,000. You can do it here is 20,

but there's places that only do it for five. It's only the increment. So, can you tell me where did this ordinance come from? This ordinance came the bulk of this ordinance came from city of Columbia. Um, so we we pulled every ordinance that every city had abated the ordinance and we looked at Columbia probably had the most complete for one that didn't target histo preservation overlay which is where we strugg um and that's why we go ahead that's why we chose theirs. We were having to define something other than the HO.

Okay. Um I see I mean this one has 20 years but I think the one that the city of Anderson just passed is only five years. Is that correct? That's correct. And I understand that I think Belton is looking at one as well or another res another municipality in Anderson County. So um I'd like to just I guess postpone this decision as well. Look at let's get a few more details. I'm not sure that 20 years I'm not sure I like just commercial. Um I think there's some things in here that we need to look at before we make those decisions will be my I agree.

I agree. I make that we post. All in favor? Motion carries. Item 7P is the second and final reading of an ordinance amending the fiscal year 2526 budget. This budget amendment allows us to move funds into two very needed projects upgrades to Veterans Park and renovations to town hall. Do we have any discussion? All right. Motion by Barbara. Do I have a second?

Second. All in favor? Motion carries. As we look ahead, there are several great opportunities to connect in our community. April 11th, this Saturday, is the first annual Keith Barn Festival sponsored by the Pendleton Foundation for Black History and Culture. I really hope everyone to see everyone there. April 18th, is the Unity and the Community and Pendleton Recreation Association 5K. April 28th at 5:30 is the Taste of Pendleton at Tri County. Please come. It is so fun. Um I will I promise I'm not gonna talk for that long. Hopefully just 10 minutes. And um come

April 28th at 5:30 Taste of Pendleton. Um if you would love to partic if you want to participate, please reach out. We'd love to have you. Um there's so much happening in Pendleton and I encourage you to stay involved and continue showing up for our community. Um if there is no further business to come before council is there one other opportunity culture and identity survey is it still available up so if anybody who has not completed that survey can go to the account website and complete that survey that's another very important way for you to connect connect thank you L if there is no further business to come before council is there a motion to adjurnn motion to adjourn

do I have a second all in favor this meeting is adjourned. Thank you everyone.