Town Council - Regular Meeting

It's live.

All right, guys. We're live, just so you're aware. Four, three, two, one.

Welcome. It is May 5th, 2026, and I now call the Pendleton Town Council meeting to order. Before we begin, I want to share a piece of Pendleton history presented in partnership with the Bart Garrison Agricultural Museum of South Carolina. With Summer on the Square coming up, I've been thinking a lot about one of my favorite features right here in the heart of our town, our sundial. And I don't know if you all know anything about this, but it's actually a really interesting story. The sundial is a gift connected to Maris de Lafayette who played a critical role in the revolutionary war. Lafayette gave the sundial to Colonel Francis Huey whose grandfather served among him during the revolution. And in 1970, the same year Pendle was pounded. Hu founded Huie's grandfather actually helped Lafayette escaped from prison in Austria. Colonel Huey later moved to Pendleton in 1826 and in 1850 he gifted the sundial to our town where it still stands today. How cool is that? Stop by and see that sund dial and take a picture. There's nothing out there. You would not know what it is, but it's really cool. Anyway, now let's please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Tonight we have several special recognitions. First, the Pendleton Foundation for Black History and Culture. Thank you for hosting the first annual Keys Barn Festival. It was meaningful. It brought people together and it created a space to honor history in a meaningful way. Next, this is super cool. The Pendleton Rhythm Company from Pendleton High School. They placed third in world at the WGI World Championship. It was an incredible accomplishment and we are really proud of you for repres representing Pendleton on a world stage. Um, that was one of my favorite emails I got in the last two weeks from a parent. And I also want to thank everyone who supported the Taste of Pendleton. Thank you to the chamber for your leadership. Thank you, Lindsay. Thank you um to so many of you in here. And I want to give a huge congratulations to Magnolia Hill and Greenville Street Market for being recognized. Our small businesses are truly the heartbeat of our town and you all showed up in a big way. Next, and I'm really excited about this. Um, I'm going to ask um Colonel Nayth to to come up here and I'm going to speak a few words about you, sir. Um, it is my absolute honor to present a proclamation to Colonel Eric Nayth in appreciation and recognition of your dedication to our community. Through your efforts, you represent the American Legion. And it's through your leadership that we have a Memorial Day observance. Colonel, you have helped ensure that we come together in a meaningful way that honors brave men and women that have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation. Your commitment to this town, I'm start crying. Your commitment to our town. Um, and I'm hoping and I wanted to give you some time to talk because you

do so much and I feel like people need to know all you do for our community and how many thousands of tons of food you give to people um, who don't have any. And um, your commitment, your patriotism, your um, attention to this important tradition reflects the highest ideals of service and remembrance. On behalf of town council and the town of Pendleton, we are so grateful for you. We are so proud to call you a Pendletonian and we want to thank you for your service, Colonel. Thank you.

And take your time and I want you to tell us all you do cuz you're amazing.

Well, thank you, Mayor. I'm honored to be here. um borrowing from a famous president many decades ago, don't ask what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. In this case, it's not what your town can do for you, but what you can do for your town. And I was privileged upon graduating from college to serve in the United States Army active when we reserve retiring active duty uh as a soldier as military intelligence officer as a federal counter intelligence special agent for army counter intelligence. I know what it's like for our law enforcement community be out there every day in uniform not knowing what type of call they will have to answer to. And I know that the men and women of our PD exemplify service that the military services exemplify in the defense of the nation. And for me, Memorial Day has taken on new meaning. I've been a me American Legion for over 35 years. And I retired from active service with almost 30 years commission service at various roles and duty stations going from San Francisco to Italy to Germany to Honolulu back to port Pentagon for seven years and but by the grace of God 911 survivor because my duty station was at the Pentagon on 911 but I wasn't there that day and I want to remember a coworker an army G3 operations major Major Cole Hogan who gave the ultimate sacrifice. Major Hogan was a special force green beret and he died in the attack in the evening of the Pentagon. And I also want to reflect on dear friend that until you are the escort officer injured blues escorting a widow behind the horseless or the driverless case on to bury someone you

knew and worked with in section 60 at Hamilton Arlington National Cemetery. You cannot understand the sacrifices our men and women in uniform have given from the time of the Continental Army and the militias that formed the Continental Army to the present day. And we've lost 13 brave service men and women in this current conflict. Regardless of your political stance on it, they've answered the call. They follow the orders given to them. Uh and there's not a soldier or sailor or marine, Coast Guard, uh Space Force member that doesn't want peace. We train for war, but we pray for peace. And we hope this conflict that our country is engaged in u sooner rather than later.

Thank you. And this represents not just me represents every member of our community that's ever been in the armed forces. We're still are in the reserve national guard and for all my members that's post 113. And uh I know the council is going to vote on approval for Memorial Day observance at 1000 hours on May 25th of this month uh in the 250th anniversary for our country as a nation. So take a few moments even if you're not out there uh doesn't get cancelled because of thunderstorms and take a few minutes and think about the sacrifices our service men and women have made over the decades and centuries. And a lot of them are buried in churchyards around this town. There's one about 150 yards from here over at St. Paul's, Colonel Bengard and also general officers of the Confederate Army that are buried over there. So, it covers the whole spectrum of our nation's history and the state and this community.

Thank you, Colonel. And I'm honored to spend my rest of my days living out my life here in Pendleton. That's the fourth quarter, but I'm not done carrying the football. Thank you. At this time, we will move to council's comments and reports. And you all have changed spaces on me. So, so um I'm going to start with Ward One. Um Lynn, will you talk about the Pendleton story initiative, please?

Um the Pendleton story initiative and we're still looking for your feedback. me. There's some paper ball paper surveys here and also the QR codes. Um, but we are trying to to work on what the Pendleton culture is to help us de develop our our vision and the directions that we're going in the future. And we really really really really want your input. So, if you will please take those, share them with your friends, take some to church, do whatever we can do. We we've got 200 and we're looking for 400. So, we really need your input on the on those surveys so that the town reflects what your what you want, not just what these five people want. So, thank you. Thank you, Barbara. Update on the fire department.

Yes. During the month of April, the Pilton Fire Department responded to 43 calls for service. 20 calls were within the town limits. 12 calls inside the Pendon Fire District outside the town limits and three calls assisting outside the Pendon Fire District. On April 20th, 13 personnel attended a walk through the new Pendon High School personnel became familiar with the floor plan, alarm systems, and fire protection systems throughout the building. Four South Carolina Fire Academy classes were taken by members of the department. Major incidents on April 21st. Pendleton Fire Truck 2, Sandy Springs 26, and Walker Mackeo 16 was were dispatched to a structure fire on Refuge Road. Upon arrival, heavy smoke and fire was present. Two attack lines were developed from engine two and a defensive operation began. Defense tact tactics are attacking the fire from outside due to the structure being fully engulfed. Engine 214 arrived on scene and began supplying engine 2 with water. A large diameter truck, excuse me, a large diameter attack line was then deployed due to the amount of fire. Upon stations 26 and 16 arrival, a tanker shuttle was set up to supply water to engine two due to the hydrants being over 2,000 ft away. Stations 20 and 14 were then called to assist with tanker trucks for water supply. Anderson County Public Works were then called to the scene with a tractor to remove debris that had collapsed into the onto the fire. Approximately 40,000 gallons of water was used to extinguish the fire. This is equivalent to three to four swimming

pools. Once the fire was extinguished, an investigation began. The contents of the fire consisted of a demolished single wide mobile home, an out building, and rubbish. The owner stated that she was burning a small fire when the fire spread and she could no longer contain the fire. This was also during a burn ban placed by the South Carolina Forestry Commission. Let me repeat that. This was during a burn ban, and we still have that ban. Um, please make sure to follow the forestry commission's guidelines when burning outside, especially throughout our dry months. April 22nd, Pillen Fire along with stations 1626 and ladder 109 were dispatched to 401 Gringle Street in reference to a commercial structure fire. Upon arrival, approximately an acre behind, the apartment complex was on fire. The actual structure was not. Units then deployed a booster line from engine 2 to start a fire attack. Command then concealed ladder 109 and advised station 16 to respond with an engine and station 26 to respond with a grass truck. Upon engine 16, one arrival water supply was established to engine two. Upon grass 26, arrival, a secondary booster line was then deployed to help extinguish the fire. Once the fire was extinguished, an investigator from Anderson County Fire Department headquarters was called. There was minor damage to the siding of the apartment but no structural damage. The next day um on 423rd pendal fire was called again to 401 Greenville Street in reference to a grass fire. Upon arrival the units found a separate area of fire of the of the woods on fire. This fire was quickly extinguished. There is still an ongoing investigation. We'd like to thank the Pilton Fire Department for their assistance in on many of our calls. ALS

uh police department. I'm sorry. Um I went to the meeting last night with our fire department. All these men are volunteers. What they do when they meet each month before they start their business meeting is they clean the engines, restock everything, and then they have their meeting. I spoke with them and as you know we have a a certain way in not only in South Carolina, it's throughout the country of the way we do our fire trucks and our fire departments. Our department is completely volunteer. We don't have a 100 people volunteering. These people work full-time jobs or they're retired, but they still work and get out here and keep our community safe. I suggested to them and I'm throw it out here and I suggested that we as members of the Pilton community, we need to volunteer for the volunteers. There is no reason our fire trucks have to sit for a month before they're clean. We need to get a group, you know, 52 groups of people to go out there. They will train us what to do and then we can take over that. They also responsible for keeping the firehouse clean here. Again, that is something volunteers can do. And the number one thing that I feel that needs to be done uh as far as volunteers, please somebody buy them a new flag.

I'll take that on.

Thank you. I appreciate it. has to be like a new flag. Um I appreciate that. I really do because um this is something I think that if we're going to be in partnership, which we have to be by law, the way things are set up with a volunteer crew that's doing so much for the community, these are things that we can do to help them. Now, that doesn't mean I don't want nobody to volunteer. I still need you to volunteer to be a fireman. Um you know, and sometimes you have to go to them and say, "What can I do? I can't ride the tri truck. I can't put out a fire. What can I do? Well, you may be able to put uh do not entertape around something. You may be able to turn on the hybrid. There are things that we can do to assist our groups of volunteers because with everything else, they're out here trying to keep everything in working order to protect us. And I just think that if we're going to boast on how we we're a community that loves each other and helps each other, then we need to be a community that loves each other and helps each other. That's my report. Thank you.

Thank you, Barbara. Nancy, updates on trails or public works. Um the Green Crescent Trail is um working with the surrounding communities to look at connectivity and there's been some positive action in terms of looking at some options of connecting down Central Road um with um Clemson and Central. Um we're also talking with Cats to figure out what we can get or AATS which is the transportation group to see what we can do in terms of funding and grants. and we're working on another small grant to um help with the trails inside of Pendleton. In terms of public works, we got the I didn't get a chance to get with Jay, so I didn't get anything detailed except we did get the benches um Pendleton Pride motion picked up the benches and they've been as they've started working on those.

Thank you, Nancy Jeff P.

Right. the the Pendleton Recreation Association continues to join great numbers and participation with over 400 participants this uh spring in softball, baseball, and flag football. Um, in the last year, uh, the town of Pendleton and the P partnered to put scoreboards up, foul poles, fence pads, and more extensive grading on the diamonds, which has led to the facilities being looked at for uh, a variety of age level tournament games, which is has not happened around here for years. Last Saturday, Super Saturday event was a hit uh, with three food trucks, bouncy castles, and games filling the fields all day. I went out there, all the fields were lined with people in chairs. It was a it was a nice family uh event. Um and uh this summer there will be a variety of camps for various sports and so follow them on Instagram, Pendleton Recreation Association, um and on Facebook and uh you'll see opportunities there. Or else contact the president of the Pendleton Recreation Association, uh Matthew Carter at Matthew.carter Carter at pendletonrecreation.org

and they have a meeting tomorrow every Yes. the usually the first Wednesday of the month. First Wednesday of the month right here at 6 o'clock. 6:30.

6:30. All right. Thank you. Next, we will move on to the public hearing for the proposed fiscal year 2026 2027 budget. um have we're going to be very honest about the budget. Um this budget reflects a 11.7% total increase in the general fund. And while that may seem like a lot, um that's actually less than $200,000. Um we're seeing a 32% increase in water and sewer account for the bulk of the percentage increase. Um costs for our general funds are rising significantly, way more than that 32%. We manage these increases by making sure expenses are correctly charged and providing add additional capital for Veterans Park from our fund fund balance. It may surprise um you to know that we don't receive a lot of outside funding um from the state, from the county, which means we have to manage a lot of these increases locally. We are also aware that our residents are feeling a lot of financial pressures um which is why this budget does not rely on any major tax increases. Instead, it focuses on our priorities. Investing in public works infrastructure that impacts the daily lives of citizens in our town. Preparing for 24-hour police coverage in the next budget cycle. Continuing investment in recreation and maintaining our core services. This is a conservative looking forward approach. At this time, I will open the public hearing.

No one wants to talk about money because nobody's Yeah. All right. Okay. If I see no one wants to talk about money, then I will close the comments. Moving on. Approval of the minutes. Um, next we will approve the meeting minutes. And um I have to say that I've talked to a lot of different mayors and councils and um general or what am I trying to say? Um attorneys and we meet this council meets more than any other council that I know. So I just want you all to know that we are working hard for you to represent you and to be good stewards of your money. And no, I'm I'm serious. I mean I'm about to read how often we've met just since April. Okay. So, approval of the meeting minutes, April 7th, 2026. April 14th, 2026. April 16th, 2026, April 16th, 2026. April 22nd, 2026. April 29th, 2026. Do I have a motion?

I move we adopt the minutes for those meetings. Do I have a second? Second. All in favor? Motion carries. Hey, thanks to Amber for taking those minutes for us. Oh, yes. Thanks, Amber. A lot of meetings.

A lot of meetings. Um, but I have I think they've been really good and productive and so I just thank council for for showing up because some of these meetings have been called 48 hours in advance and every, you know, showed up and was here and I'm just very grateful. So, thank you all. Um, and every time I talk to our town attorney, it's like a running joke of, oh, are you am I, you know, when are you meeting again? Are you meeting again in two days? Uh, At this time, we will open the floor for public comments. Just a reminder that remarks are limited to three minutes per speaker and may may be made by Pendleton residents, business owners, or town property owners. Please state your name and your address for the record. Public comments is an opportunity to provide comments. Just a reminder that this is not a question and answer session. The floor is now open. Seeing sorry, I'm in shock right now. I better close it quick. Um, seeing seeing no further speakers, uh, public comments are closed. Next up, we have staff reports. Uh, we will begin with our police department, Chief Pollson.

Mr. Mayor, Council, good evening. It's good to see everybody out tonight. Uh during the month of April, we uh answered 824 calls for service. Uh 39 reports were taken, 14 of those are cleared by arrest or warrant. Additionally, 98 warning tickets were issued and 20 state tations were issued. Just a quick PSA for everybody, we are monitoring the stop signs on Broad Street, the four-way stops and the four-way stop at PF Meet. So, help us help you by not running that and making us pull you over. So just keep an eye on those because we are watching those. Officers executed a shoplifting arrest warrant which led to a seizure of 10.1 grams of methamphetamines and other various narcotics inside a resident in town limits. Um during the month, Officer Andrews also completed part 107 certification for drone operations. So the police department now has two drone pilots. We continue to work on the uh community fraud and scam outreach program that we're working on. Uh we're really putting a lot of work into this trying to get the word out. please help us press it out that we we're still seeing reports of people getting scammed and and and becoming a victim of this and it's just our way of trying to get information out of what scams are out there, how not to be, and how to identify those. We have partnered with Iron Oak Barn, which is at 120 History Lane, which is across from Tri County. That's where we're doing this this little seminar. It is going to be on May the 26, 2026 from 6:00 to 7:00 pm. Um, if you'll also keep an eye out for this, you may see this coming to a billboard near you. So, it is uh we're just really trying to get the word out. So, if you know anybody that could could benefit from it, please tell them to come out and visit with us and, uh, spend a little time with us. Uh, during the month of April, I was really honored to be a part of this. We were chosen by the Pton Elementary School and Miss uh V Vigilleti and her multicategoral special education class who presented us with

and partnered with us with some buddy bags. Now, this is a buddy bag that was a great tool that they gave us. This is a a portable sensory kit and it it is used that we can use it to help kids um be calm in in stressful situations or help them communicate with us if they if they're, you know, having a hard time communicating or something like that. Every officer in Pendleton's got one of these. Now, the cool thing of this was these kids in this class saved up their own money to buy these.

So, this is not just extra stuff they had in their, you know, drawers at home. These kids bought this stuff and gave us 10. And so every officer in Pendleton's got one of these. We are partnering with them next year. The goal is to get one in every law enforcement vehicle in Anderson County. Um it's just a great tool. Um as you can tell, we have a lot of tools that we use. This is a tool that we hope we never have to use, but if we do, it's invaluable. So we we greatly appreciate the the opportunity to partner with them and we really enjoyed that. Um, also during the month of April, we assisted with the spring jubilee, the Kis barn festival, the 5k run, and you communities were really great um, community outreaching. We attended the falls of Mihan HOA meeting. As I told you in the beginning, one of our things is we were going to boost our community outreach and uh, we are starting to attend some of the HOA meetings. Had about 60 people there at their meeting. So, it was a really good time to really get a lot of citizens in one place and just kind of have a conversation with them. So, we really enjoyed doing that. And then unfortunately during the month we did uh investigate a a fatal traffic accident on Highway 76. So that's all I have for tonight. I'll be glad to answer any questions that you may have of me.

Yes, ma'am. I was the at one was it last month that an officer was involved with an animal um biting or situation. Is everything okay with that? That was two months ago and yes. Yeah. No, and then everything is has worked out with that. So, he did have to go through the rabies vaccines, but everything's good to go. Good. Thank y'all. Steve planner and administrators report only two left. I can't believe it.

The uh y'all have the uh planning report. The highlights on there is uh they had three new homes issued uh one in each of those subdivisions which was Lton Ridge, Morton Form, and Sunrise. Uh they also had eight code enforcement complaints down there. Uh and probably one of the biggest news is both the town of Pendleton who was cited and uh two blue stallions have been down jointly cleaning up Village Hills uh this week. So they have been down there doing that. In fact, Terry was down there uh today and yesterday cutting the rideaways. Um the uh first off, you know, public works, police, thanks for everything y'all do. I know it's police them public works week. I hate that y'all have to share the police cuz you know, y'all should have your own and they should have your own, but it's also municipal clerk's week. So, we just threw everything together. So, you know, it's one big happy party this week. Um, for the month of April, uh, we build 9.1 million gallons of water. That's $95,000 in revenue. And $9.3 million gallons of sewer, $121,000 in revenue, and $36,000 in flat rate billing on the sewer. Uh, they rented depot building twice and Barracks Place shelter five times. Uh, they collected $117,143 in business license. Uh I circled that on my sheet because we have I think about another 60 or 70 that's not recorded yet that'll be coming in but that's a major fund to the town and and that is also under trending right now and we do not get to see the full amount until May in the May basically which cuts it very close to when y'all have to finalize the budget. Um, so it we have it in the budget as a placeholder, but I wouldn't be surprised if we had to

adjust that. Uh, motor vehicles was 33,57 and property tax was a whopping $160,000895. Uh, they process 872 transactions for $1,256,000. Again, we have full crowd. We are building the waste treatment plant. That's a lot of reimbursement from the other two partners. Uh, we do not do a 1.2 two million of business a month. Um the uh uh you can see the open forms transaction and Clemson Community Care assisted pre-utility customers. Uh the biggest thing is uh the mayor and I sat down again this week and y'all have some updated budget sheets that I want to bring to your attention. Um the updated budget sheet is a balanced budget that's in there right now. We did have to cut another $143,635 out of the general fund budget due to the auditor removing a taxable property from us and that was the impact of that taxable property. Um, so we removed that from the Seymour so that we didn't mess anything else up. Um, we also you have the fund balance tracking sheet. I went over the mayor how you handle that. Uh, I will call your attention to the end of it, the very bottom, the number in red. That is how much you will be under your policy of what you have to have in fund balance. And y'all will need to adjust that next year to not have an audit violation. Um, and that's okay. They have 18 months. They really need to shed some some money and do some projects. So, but they have to adjust the policy to do it. Uh the um I even made this too small for me to read, so sorry about that. Uh you have two memos in there. One's what's

happened to the updated budget. It's this one right here, and this one was uh given to the mayor to help her be able to run the budget next year. She's doing a fine job this year, but it's some budget managerial stuff that she actually has to do on the back end of it. Um, you also have, just so that you understand what happened, we we track the tax levy, the tax roll every month. We've included that in there and the April tax levy sheet that you can see what we got from the auditor so that you can try to understand um what actually happened to that tax. So, we had a big tax come in in November, and that's what we should normally see. Now, you may see some more tax in November, but you actually do not know going into your budget for everybody in here. There are three significant revenues that we have no idea what they are because we actually collect them after the budget closes for the year we're in. And that's insurance premium fees, which is probably 25% of our general fund budget. Um, that is energy franchise tax, which is probably 25% of the budget. And we don't see those till August, which is a month and a half after the budget closes. So they have to have this fund balance to in till they get that. And then we don't get to see our true tax role until October. So we're working off estimated tax roles that we get from the auditor's office. Um the uh so you have those tax roles just for y'all to review. Um, and then you have uh uh the April levy, but the budget right now, if y'all were to adopt it right now, would be balanced and you would be in compliance. And then the mayor would have the authority in the budget ordinance to move things around if y'all still want to talk about how you going to distribute the grants or everything else that you have. Um, the

uh you also have on your agenda tonight the final reading of C. I know it's it's a budget hearing, you know, it's kind of what we do. Um, you have the final reading of the capital project ordinance and I was asked just to kind of speak a little bit about that. That is you have another sheet there that's totally your water and sewer. It runs a little bit different. There's not as much information, but you have 16 million somewhere around in there and restricted. That's from this bond that y'all reading the second reading on there tonight. Uh, you're spinning that out of there because remember that's almost 12 months in the rears of what you're looking at. uh because we just we're not big enough to do treasury management every month. We do it one time a year. Um but that's that bond. And the reason why you're rereading the ordinance is because you got an additional grant from the state revolving loan fund for Central Road. We will only have about $100,000 in Central Road when it's said and done. We're moving that money to Village Hills, which frees up money in another bond municipal facilities, let you do something else. and you will be able to use that whole water and sewer bond to pay for Village Hills. And that's what we're correcting or I wouldn't say correcting. It's a good thing

adjusting

where it's what we're adjusting with this capital project ordinance. Uh and then in June, you will have both the fire department's RFP and the Seymour back for council for consideration. Uh the waste treatment plant, we started the generators last month. Wiring's about 85% done. Uh they're claiming in June we'll be starting the basins up which will be two months ahead of schedule. Um keep your fingers crossed. That's a that's a very uh ambitious startup time. Um we have the new digtor up running the old digtor down and we're repairing it right now. And we have spent all the ARPA money, all the RAIA money. We had spent all that. You're in compliance. Unless they do something. I filed your last AR report April 15th. Um, Village Hills Water and Sewer again, they were down there cutting the rightways. Garan's been cleaning the rightways on the sewer side. We've done the bore under Cherry Street and they've got all the pipe laying out there right now. And then Central Road, uh, we will be testing the generator on Thursday or Friday of this week. Uh, and then we'll test the gravity line and we'll apply for the partial permit to operate and then we should have all that up and running or that that project should be up and running by the end of June. So, I think that's all your major projects right now.

Can I ask you a question about the village hill and clean up and it's probably ask Jay. So, but I'll try to field whatever. So, are are all of the town's properties now clear of debris? No, they're not. there. There are some a lot of them's cleaned up, but we have a lot of property down there. So, we still have uh I do know cuz I went down there today. Um they demolished the mobile home down there, but they haven't hauled it off. So, I do know that one's still down there. They were cutting rightways today and there's still a lot of trash down there on our propert. All right. So, once they clean all that up, does it need to be mowed as well? I mean, these lots need to be cut or

uh they flatten some of them pretty good. So, you'll probably have to cut them fairly regularly now, I would think. Yeah, we're actually going to when we clear them, we're actually grating it out to where it'll be flat. It'll be a while before we're in time mode. All right. And you mentioned to the stallions, have they replied? And are they working as well? Yep, they sure are. And so a month it'll all be clean. Um I think you'll be a lot closer. I don't want to actually troop two blue stallions is actually further along than we are right now. Um but I would have to talk to Owen

more than we do. Yeah, they also have more time. Um but I'd have to talk to Owen to see where they're at as far as he goes. I I did I drove through it today just because they were all out there working just as a cursor area, but I didn't stop to look at all everything. So, does that mean all the property owners have now address the issues or starting to address the issues? I would I feel comfortable saying the bulk of the majority of them have. I don't know if they've all started addressing. I know he's still, you know, he's still having to go out there weekly. Okay. So, but I feel like Yeah.

Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, Steve.

Item 8A is the discussion of possible amendments to council rules regarding virtual attendance. This is a discussion only. I'm going to open it up to council. Um I know we did some of this um virtual meeting during COVID um and when various council people had to be on travel and I know that our I don't think our policy exactly allows for uh virtual attendance. I think we just made some exceptions on a case by case. Um, I don't know what the council's feeling is, but I think it would be useful to um, just have an action item to look into what our policy could be and then bring a potential policy back. I know the planning commission is working on something for their meetings and I would like to see kind of what comes out of their plan and see if we could mirror what they're doing. I don't think it would be a a very frequently occurring thing though. Well, traditionally since I've been on um um council, as far as virtual meetings for council, that was like when Lyn was out of town, um Vince was out of town. So, it's usually just used when people are out of town as far as council's concerned. Um there other commissions and things. I don't know how they do, but I'm imagining that when people are out of town that they can get in, they do. Um I don't feel that this needs to be something we eliminate entirely because um it is a tool that can come in handy um if it's not abused. So I think what we need to do is to look at um what

rules and regulations that we do around that because how do we do it? Um you're doing it on your home computer or your laptop. We have to have some parameters because of foyer. Let me tell you right now. Foyer come from my home computer. Y'all gonna see me in jail. So we need I guess I should have said that out loud. Um no, it's not congressional scandals. It's it's matched. It's a good thing we're recognizing the police tonight.

Yeah. So I think that we um we need to make sure that we have like Nancy says see what um other departments are doing even though we don't do and each department is independent. Each part has their own makeup and everything, but at least we need to all be in line in some particular point of way so that everybody knows this is what happens. Um, and you know who's responsible for what. My personal opinion on it is that there's a reason why we have a certain number for quorum and um we also we have you know certain rules for commissions on how many you know meetings you can miss before you get dismissed. We have a mayor prom for a reason. I think we're all understanding that things come up. I personally feel that we should be here sitting in these seats. I think it's really important. Um, that's just my take on it. I'm also I'm also a teacher and attendance matters. So,

right. Well, having you utilize the the ability to to call in because I was traveling. Um, I don't have a necessarily an opposition to it, but I do not think it should be the standard operating procedure. I don't think you should not.

You're right. I mean I think our obligation is to be here and here um and actively participating having communication and physical contact with each other. So I don't know how to make that possible that you shouldn't or I think Vince had co one time rather than not participating that you should have the pos possibility of doing that. So I would hate to prohibit it completely but I would not like for it to be the standard operating person. Perhaps we could just take an action item and look what other places are doing and come back with a specific proposal at a later date. And looking at this, it says a quorum of the council from the city of Clemson. A quorum of the council members are physically present at the meeting place. Yeah.

So even though you're there and you can't participate, you're not part of the quorum. So I mean I think that would help kind of keep the numbers the uh agree times that that happened to limit the policy right now is that you can't miss right no you can't have virtual participation but we have allowed there not under this mayor

but right it would be find out exactly what our policy is and then then adjust accordingly. Um I think only under extreme example should you not be here physically we're elected to represent our people and be here. Well, and that's like I said, we've since I've been on council, it's only been used twice, right? And it's really my concern is um we need to have something in place to use in emergency.

And usually, yes. And usually when when um usually we all know how to schedule around whatever the schedule is. We're not kids, so we always know how to do that, but things come up. So we need to have that um that option to use. We just need to figure out when and how and to what. I also feel that that the same should be said for our various commissions and things. Now if a committee a pull out committee from the commission a board is is working on something I feel that's fine you know at a certain level it's fine you know maybe the investigative but when it comes to voting on stuff and presenting stuff they all

well plus there's you have schedule meetings which is our you know our monthly meeting but then the last month we've had how many five work sessions and those can pop up. What's Amber? What is the exact days that we have 48 hours to post a meeting? 24

24 hours. So if someone I mean if someone's going on vacation tomorrow for instance uh and then all a sudden something's scheduled in two weeks you know that's you know because of something that emergency then but when we're doing that we also need to take into account and um because we do have this weather now that act like it's schizophrenic Um, we also need to take into account what if there is a reason we can't meet here. What if there is a reason that we all need to be in the room to decide something but we are not able? So, we need to look a little bit deeper, you know, because something like that. If this if if the we should give the mayor the power to say, okay, look, this is why we're all going to meet virtually and she should have that power. We should say, okay, we're going to do that. because I think that you just can't really plan out for every single contingency. So, we need to have some leeway in there where if it becomes necessary for us all to meet or maybe two of them to meet or three of them to meet online, then we do have that that capacity. I don't think it's something we need to just mix completely. I would like to propose that we direct staff to look at what other municipalities policies are and come back to us with a draft. Do I need to have a second or are we good? Do I need a second?

Second. All in favor? All right. Thank you. Action items. Um we'll now move on to action items. I will read each item, explain what it means in plain terms, and then open it up for discussion, followed by a motion and a vote per Robert's rules. Okay. Item 9A is the approval of proclamations. And I have a lot more to say, but uh if council was to approve it, then I will go on. Item 9A is the approval of proclamations recognizing National Police Week and National Public Works Week. Do I have a motion? Motion to approve. Second. Second.

All in favor. All right. At this time, I would like to recognize National Police Week. And I tried to to dress in my Clemson or my um Pendleton Police swag. Um but David won't let me have a taser. So all I all I have is my sweatshirt. Um so what?

So So to our Pendleton Police Department, I want to take a moment and say thank you. And I want to be clear about what that means. Um, policing in a small town is different. We talk about it all the time. We talk about community policing. We talk about showing up when there's dogs that have run away. Um, and um it's it's not just about responding to calls. It's about knowing the people who live here. It's about being present. It's about building trust day in and day out. Our officers are a part of our community. You all are at every event. Um, we know your families and you know ours. And you show up not just in moments of crisis, but in moments to build relationships. You serve us with professionalism, with integrity, and with a level of care that reflects the values of this town. And that work is not always easy, but it matters. You keep our community safe. You support our residents. And you represent Pendleton with pride. On behalf of this council and this town, I want to thank you for your service and thank you for how you serve. And I saw several of our officers run to a call. Hope everything is okay. Um, but anyway, we're going to I have a proclamation for you and just thank you and Chief Pollson, I can't commend you on the job that you have done. You literally stepped in at a moment's notice and what you have done to this department. Um, I get so many emails and calls and it is about how wonderful the police are and um, so thank you. Thank you.

Sorry.

Can you add a tanger? I also want to recognize National Public Works Week. That's that's a mouthful. May 17th to 23rd. And I mean this. If you want to understand how a town truly functions, look at public works. They are the ones who make sure your trash is picked up, your streets are maintained, your infrastructure works, and if something breaks, they're the ones who fix it. They do it early in the morning. They do it late at night. They do it in the heat, in the cold, and often without recognition. And also this year in foot, feet, foots, foot, mud, whatever, of mud. Yeah. Um, it's it's crazy, but the truth is the quality of life in this town is directly tied to the work that our public works team does every single day. You don't ask for attention. You just show up, you do the work, and you take pride in it. Our public works teams, we see you. We value you. We are so grateful for everything you do to keep this town running. Um, at Taste of Pendleton last week, I I was approached by several people and I always kind of get nervous when people come up to me and start with, "Are you the mayor?" And I'm just preparing myself, right? Like, okay, okay, okay. And it was, "Are you the mayor? Let me tell you about how wonderful public works are. Are you the mayor? Let me tell you about when public works showed up at my house when a pipe burst and it wasn't even the town's responsibility and they helped me. Thank you. Let me tell you about uh I had a neighbor that Facebook messaged me about her recycling bin that was replaced um 5

minutes after she called. So Jay and Terry and our public works team um I I like I all all of you I want you to be recognized. You're just so amazing. So thank you so much. And I have a proclamation for you and um my words are nothing compared to all you do for this community. Thank you. All right. Beautiful. Mor.

Sure.

Based on the last two proclamations, I just want to publicly thank both police department and our public works. police department. I had two officers respond to a 911 call at the end of March at my residence for a potential life-threatening situation that two police officers were first responders and first responders there and they were there in three minutes while I was still in the line with 911 operator Francis. When I moved here 10 years ago, public works, even though my street didn't really exist, they came out like a pickup truck my trash up by a pickup truck. Every week we pick up at that time. And now that whole neighborhood over there, the falls is a lot larger. And uh you do great work. When I lived all over the country, all over the world, and by far a small town, even a large city, you guys rock.

Oh, thank you, Colonel. And and I just have to say this because Amber's giving me the eye. In the future, public comments can only be made during the public comment section unless you have a proclamation. All right. All I see you, Amber. Okay. I see you in my dreams. I I do. I see the look in my dreams. All right. Moving on. I'm not I'm not kidding. Ask Jamie. Um, he even has an amber voice when I'm doing things bad. Okay. All right. And I started with Meyer. All right. Meer. Um, item nine. Item 9B. Moving on. Item 9B is the approval of a special a special events applications for the Memorial Day observance May 25th at Veterans Park 10:00 a.m. Be there if council approves this. and Pendleton Family Fest um July 25th 9 to 4:30 presented by PABA. This allows these events to use town property, receive support from police and public works, and wave the associated fees so they can operate safe safely and successfully. Opening up the floor for discussion.

How much is the amount of fees we're waving? What are you What's the total cost? Memorial Day is 190. It's in the just people if they wanted to look at the breakdown the people that's in there and then the other one's 520. So we have what are we having to provide? Um after hours restroom for the family fest police overtime for the pet parade. The memorial day is application fee special event fee and after hours restroom. So what's the cost for the police? What are we paying? What are we having to eat?

Uh the the police overtime is 330. You know, at some point in time, we're going to have to look at what fees we do wave and what we do what what because this can add up and if we're going to tighten our belts, um nonprofits or people want to have things, they're going to have to, you know, pony up some money. And and I feel that most of your residents would probably agree with that because the flip side is um we're gonna start increasing fees on stuff. And this is something I've said it before and I say it again. When groups try to have something, it it looks good on paper and then when you put it in action and you see how hard it is, then you want to dump it on the town and put it under special events. had um sorry that ain't going to happen under my watch either because I feel when we're looking at the budget that we're looking at that there's some things that people need to realize and it's not against anything that's going on anything in the town. We just have to start tightening our butt. Sorry, tightening our belt. Tightening our belts. do not foyer Barbara's home computer so

start tightening their belt because otherwise and and I think people need to realize and I think everybody will agree when it comes to what we have to fund our core public works police you know the town hall administration whatever we need to do there's certain things that we have to do and there's some things that we don't now maybe we'll get this big boom in money coming in and then we can we can look at it again. But I just feel that when it comes to things like the police that that's $390 then these organizations need to be told they need to find out when they come and say we want to have this. How much is this going to cost? I mean I've done events. I always know what every little thing is going to cost.

And that's what they need to do. and they need to step up and say, "Okay, we're we're we're going to pay for the police." And if they need to put out donation boxes or whatever for a free event, let them put out donation boxes for a free event. I think people would put money in.

I'm I'm just going to kind of echo Barbara's sentiments. Um the LA we we had a 5K for the P. Um, and the the town it it like all in all uh fee waiverss is around $9,000. And so I think there is so I mean I'm with you. I I love community. No one I think no one loves community more than this council. Um but also you just heard the numbers. You heard that we just had to cut $149,000 because of an auditor error. you heard that our general fund is only going up $200,000 and we cannot continue to keep just waving fee after fee after fee. Um, and also that doesn't even count the time that Lindsay spends on these applications. Um, and so I am with you. I just want to say publicly, it's not that we don't support it, but I think we need to start asking some some serious um questions and uh and and it's just just the way things are right now. Um anyway, and I'll make sure to start separating these um events too on future agendas so that way we can talk about them instead of grouping them together. Um is there uh do I have any do I have a motion? Go ahead.

Go ahead. I'll second your motion. Motion to approve. I'll second the motion. All in favor? Barbara, are you nay? Nay.

Motion carries. 4 to one. Um, okay. Item 9C is the town's participation in the Anderson County's bsentennial and statewide SC250 celebration. The first part of the celebration is June 28th. It's at Ren Park. Um, it is a bell ringing at 2:50. If you have a bell, we'd love to have you ring it with us at Rens Park. As well as Sunday, October 4th, there is a parade. It's a um there is a parade um and that's going to demon they're asking each town to demonstrate their community identity via a float. Hoping that Paba and Leadership Pendleton and a lot of other people will will help us build that float. Um just putting that out there. Um, the other thing that I think is interesting is the floats will be lined up in order of the town's founding. My guess would mean that that means that we are probably at the beginning and first. So, just want to put that out there. Um, Jamie also offered to hook up a trailer to his truck and we could all just ride in it and wave. So, um, anyway, so we have options, but, uh, this allows Pendleton to be included in larger regional and statewide events recognizing the 250th year of American history. Um, do I have any discussions?

Is the uh, do we know Pendleton High School band? I know it's marching season in the fall, but do they do we know if they're participating? Oh, that's a good idea. I would imagine that all the schools have been invited to participate but whether or not they will because that's also football season. Am I right? Right. But yeah, the pen and marsh bands probably goes off the contest on a regular basis on Saturdays.

That's a Sunday, but they're pretty busy. I would like to see this be put towards the town to form to get community input. Let them plan the float and build the you know and we can all help build the float. It shouldn't fall on us to you know that's just my opinion on the square Barbara. Yeah. Yeah. Really? Um I think that would be um something that we should do as a community project.

One of the things that um I have discussed with Lindsay is um if council later in the agenda is leadership pendleton um but one of the things that we had talked about is at on the I think it's the June 24th um event asking for community input on what the float should look like and um I'm with you. Maybe we just have everyone come and put it together and see what happens. All right. Any other discussions? All right. So, do I have um a motion to participate? I make a motion participate. Okay. Do I have a second?

Second. All in favor? Motion carries. Item 9D is present is posting, excuse me, the Pendleton Heritage Walking app on the town's website. This gives residents and visitors access to a self-guided walking tour on historic of historic sites in Pendleton, making our history more accessible and interactive. Any discussion?

Yes. I don't feel we need to start putting other organizations when when do you draw the line and where do you draw the line? For me, it's it's a matter of here comes this organization. So, what if the library fund, the library group? What if um um I don't know what's you know, are we going to put the black history group on there? Are we going to put um the women's quilting be on there? I think that even though this may be something that benefits the town and that argument can be made for for anything, um then it it needs to not be on there to clutter it up. These this town website should be just for town functions. And I know that you may think that's a town function, but I think you're showing preferential treatment as well.

Thank you. Any additional discussion? Well, what is uh can you have a link to community organizations? I mean, I think we do have one and it had lists every single community organization in town on it. I guess the question is and and it it lists every organization in town and their website.

Yes. And also you have to think about the town like in the fly like the flyer it you know put out it was you know the the um what the P excuse me the P um sorry grades were due today um the P uh like 5K was on there and the Key Spawn Festival was on there and so the town does advertise for our different nonprofits. So I think although I understand what what you're saying, that's that's a big precedence to set, you know, which would mean like we would do nothing outside of just town stuff.

So can I ask the question? Is this going to be a separate landing page for the for for trails or is this going under the Pendleton Pride motion?

With the I could probably speak to that. Um the Green Crescent Trail has made a permanent link for us for this uh map. It's a map and it describes the history of Pendleton in the story map. And then those yellow and the African-American heritage trail and the village walk are two historic walks that are in Pendleton. And I know this weekend there were a lot of people from out of town in town and many of them according to my neighbor who works at the guard house were asking about what kind of historic walks could they take and if we could direct them to the town website then they could they could do it here. If we don't want to send them to town of Pendleton we just send them someplace else. I just thought it'd be nice to have the town of Pendleton be acknowledged as you know a part of it. if we don't. So, there's other things on our town website that I'm pretty proud of, but if we don't want to send people there, whatever you want, I mean, that's a it's a lovely app and there's a lot of people that want it and a lot of people like the map and they like to be able to walk around and go, "Oh, look, there's a Magnolia Hill or there's the Keys Barn or there's the Faith Cabin." And this describes a little bit about what each one of those things is. And when you have visitors to town, if we're going to have a if we're going to be an historic town and have tourism, then uh walking tour is pretty basic. Pretty basic.

I I agree with you. In my opinion, I'm all about those four H's, history, home, hospitality, and happenings. And if they are related to that, then I'm for it. Well, and a lot of the information that's on the app is information that used to be provided through hard copy.

Yes. with tours that are no longer available since Hunter since they've moved to um out to the Garrison Museum. Um so I think this will be a great opportunity. I think it's great for tourism. So if I want to go out here and let's say um I do a history of all the black churches, somebody else go out here and do a history of all the white churches, somebody else does a history of the five houses in my neighborhood that are old. We going to put everything on there. This is a matter of of inequality for me. You've got to start treating all your nonprofits the same. We cannot be given special treatment to Green Crescent because there's a segment of the population who likes to walk these trails. I still and I I look every day. I drive around. I don't see anybody walking these trails. And when people come to town, they know when I go to Charleston, I don't have to go to the Charleston towns website. I know where to go. And I think people who are interested and if you're gonna put stuff online, well, do a Google search. I'm a Google fool. That's how I find out stuff if I really want to know. But to me, I feel that the town website should be for town business. We are opening ourselves up to putting every Tom, Dick, and Harry on there. And I don't think it's right. Well, I think there's a legal question here is if if you if you let one group on, anyone else that ask can be on unless and I'm I'm not I'm not quite sure, but I know that

is correct. I know that experience in that. So, I would tell you that if you let one do it, then you have to let them all do it. And you need a policy on why staff would exclude somebody being able to do it. Right. It's it's is a former high school principal. You let one in, everyone comes in. I said, so you have to have a very tight policy on that sort of thing. So, are we removing all nonprofits from our website then? So, I expect to see a big change on the website tomorrow. We're going to remove all of we're going to move PAB, but we're going to remove all those the law.

Want to remove them all? Great. Excellent. Excellent. That's fine. Well, if you already have them anyway in a list because baby list all of them on there. So, okay. No, we can eliminate them. We can eliminate they're on there. Pab was here and does PABA have a link like a big old PA thing on Yeah, they do. If you should have been on there anyway. Yep. If you want to list links somewhere at the bottom and list everybody's website, that's one thing. But to promote one group over another to me is just not fair. So the community life page is all gonna

the community life page there. Everyone is listed and all of their websites are linked. So there is a logical place on the website. When you click on Pendleton Pride Motion, it takes you currently to their Facebook page. And what is Green Grass and Trail on? Not not yet. I don't believe I can look at the list. I got it right here. Are they a pill nonprofit? I don't think they're they are they are I don't think they're in I mean I think they serve Pendleton but I don't think in Pendleton the South Carolina Agriculture Museum is here tri county college trianglewood mansion Pendleton branch library the school district impressive trail

no they are currently not listed align they're not going to be listed humane society foundation for black history and culture I don't need all those I'm just asking one simple question. The Green Crescent Trail is Green Crescent a Pendleton nonprofit Pendleton or just operates a nonprofit that operates in Pound and Clemson everywhere in the upstate.

I'm not sure. I'm not affiliated with that organization deep enough to understand their founding documents or their bylaws. I think they serve our area, but I'm not sure. So, can I make can I make a motion that we ask town or either form ad hoc committee to look at this and obviously we need a policy um and look at the website to because I don't think I understand what Barbara's saying the services need to be out there but they're also we are a town that relies on visitors and I think we've got to make it user friendly and invite tourism and and be market or help market our businesses and those kind of things. So, I think we just need to look at a policy so that we have something in writing so that when we need to say no that we have the ability to say no.

Well, and I think if you're want if you're worried about tourism then you know then to me um I think y'all hunt and choose as far as historic things and tourism. Not that's here nor there but I feel if that's what you're going to do then you need to have a separate town website just for your nonprofits and it doesn't need to be with town stuff. Y'all keep talking about where we're based in tourism. We're based in tourism. But yet still I'm a tourist that comes to Poundland on a Sunday and I ain't got nothing to do because everything's closed. You know, you're always talking about and you have to start looking at when you're looking at your business. We need to say to businesses, what are you going to offer us as far as tourism? And if they're not offering anything, it's on them. I just feel that we need to be the town of Pendon and not the cheerleader for the town of Pton. Do I have a motion? I

I if if that's a motion from Lyn, I I second. So, a motion to direct staff to staff to develop an ad hoc committee to Yeah. or develop an ad hoc committee to look at a policy in regard to how the town promotes nonprofits. Well, I think there have a policy of how who is who is permitted to be on the website like um and how the town is going to promote and utilize what the website is for community website needs to

I think we have to extend it past websites because how can then we you know we we like Lindsay does a really good job of promoting all of our nonprofits on flyers and all of these other things and anytime council approves anything it goes into the community calendar. So, well, yeah, for the community. Yeah, I was going to suggest we also look at how we're handling Facebook, Instagram, Instagram, and Twitter as well because that's related to what we're talking about as well as what we're putting on the community calendar. That's that social media policy that we have.

Yeah. So, we have a social media policy. We So this would be a policy on what specifically would go on the website. It should include all of that though. All right. So Lyn, will you make that motion again? If you remember it,

I make a motion um research how to um what what the policy to to determine what needs to be on the website and what needs not. Um, since you haven't called the question yet, I just want to know this. We are paying for branding and if we're going to pay this branding company, then we need to let them tell us how to brand pill. That's what we're paying them for. So, that's my suggestion. If you're paying for this this consulting group to tell us how to brand, all this will fall under that. So I think that what we need to do is table this until we get the report from the branding and then go from the branding. If we need to do a ad hoc committee group then we do that.

I I'd like to go ahead and get that ready so and have a policy. I think we'll need a policy map regardless of what the branding is. So um I'd like for us to go ahead and do that study if that's possible. Okay. So you want to direct staff to look at a policy for the website. All right, Jeff, do you second? I second it. All in favor? Nancy.

Okay, so four in favor, one opposed. Okay. Um, item 9E is the approval of the Leadership Pendleton class of 2026 project, the 2if uh 250th on June 24th concert series, making it patriotic. Um, Leadership Pendleton is a program that develops community leaders and this allows their class to complete their project that directly benefits the town. I do see that we have some people from Leadership Pendleton here. Amber, am I allowed to ask them to say something about this? All right, making sure I'm following the rules. Marian's our spokesperson. All right, Marian.

Thank you.

Fisher Vista place. Uh glad to be here. There's 21 of us uh in this class of Pendleton. We're excited. We have a lot of good ideas. We put together some uh some uh items that we would like for you all to consider supporting us on. Um we we have identified an opportunity to enhance the event with patriotic themes that celebrate community pride, honors our nation, and creates a memorable experience for residents and visitors. Uh this effort aligns with the shared goals uh that the council has of community engagement and strengthening penalties identity through meaningful pro meaningful programs. We have identified four things for business coordination between the uh businesses downtown and the US on the ones that are on US 76. encourage storefront participation through coordinated patriotic displays. Um, a dedicated youth activities, military presentation during the 700 p.m. This is for June 24th um, summer's music series. We're going to do a um, military presentation during the break. We'll have a final during that also of hopefully we'll get the community to sing patriotic songs and then we're going to coordinate the marketing um featuring all of the Fourth of July themed events going on in Pendleton and distribute the materials. So, we're talking about June 24th, summer music series, July 1st, the fireworks for firefighters, and the July 25th, a family fest with PADA.

Um, so we believe this initiative will elevate the summer music series, music series experience, and provide the community with an opportunity to come together in celebration. We appreciate your consideration and look forward to collaborating to make this event a success. Thank you. Does council have any questions? Well, I just have a comment. Just appreciate the dedication you guys have shown to this uh our community. I mean, I don't know how many how many actual days was it that they met? It'll be four full days. Four full four full days. And they were on weekdays. appreciate taking time off work and uh so it's very much appreciated that you care that much about our community. Yes. Thank you.

And I know several members of council have had opportunities to to stop in and Barbara and I went to the one a couple weeks ago. So it was awesome and we're we're looking forward to graduation. Um do I have a motion? My motion to approve. All in favor? Motion carries. Item 9F allows previously approved funding for the town's branding initiative to carry over to the next fiscal year. Um, and if I read it correctly, I think it was about $50,000.

Maybe I didn't. Okay. Um, this ensures the project can be completed without losing funding or starting over, helping define how Pendleton presents itself to residents, visitors, and businesses. Any discussion? Do I have a motion? Motion to approve. Do I have a second? A second.

All in favor? Motion carries. Item 9G is the is um committing matching funds for new bleachers at Veterans Park using PARD funding. These bleachers were actually damaged during Hurricane Helen. So, it repairs those. Um this is a part of our continued investment in recreation, improving facilities for youth sports families, and community events. Do I have any discussion? Uh these are very much needed. Uh Jay and I were out there the other day looking at a couple of them that were just in awful shape. They're they're an embarrassment. So, it's I'm glad that we're replacing as many as we possibly can. Would you like to make a motion, Jeff? I motion to approve this. Do I have a second?

Second.

All in favor? Motion carries. Item 9H authorizes the transfer of surplus town property, specifically trash recepticles to the Pend I sound so fancy. Um to the Pendleton Garden Club. Um, instead of discarding them, they will be reused to support beautifification efforts throughout the town. Do I have any discussion? I had just a brief question. Um, in the picture that was provided, there was um, seven receptacles, but the garden club's only asking for five. I'm just confirming they wanted five. Where's Jay? Jay's over here. We had we had that many whole ones and then we had parts, right? So, we thought we could use the parts from the others to fix the five

total maybe complete. Okay. Use all we're going to need to use bits and pieces. All right. Perfect. That this is the garden club which is a pendleton organization which is on our website. So, what about collections? Are are they how do they get put on the route? How do we house them? They're not going to be put on the route. We're um the goal is to uh according to the garden club, they're going to work with the historic commission and put um plastic trash cans in there and they will be responsible for getting those either into a roller cart or disposing them at Jolly

Man's Jolly. But good. You got them all in there. All right. Do I have a motion? Nancy motion. Uh, I move we elect uh surplus the all the remaining trash recepticles to the garden club. Do I have a second?

All in favor? Motion carries. Item 9 I is the approval of an agreement with the city of Clemson for CAT bus services for the fiscal year 2026 2027. It provides transportation access connecting Pendleton to surrounding areas for residents, student students and workers. And I also do want to commend this council. Um we had been talking about CAT bus um in several of our budget meetings. Um as you know or maybe you don't uh but if you don't read our packets um all 200 pages of them but um CAT bus went up 140% this year. Um our assumption is they've lost a grant. And so uh before we made any decisions I asked each member of council to ride cap bus and we did it. And I have to say it very much changed um the way I was going to vote riding that bus. And so um I obviously I I we haven't called for a vote, but I just want to thank you all for for um for riding CAT bus. It was noticed by our citizens. I had people come up to me actually at yoga this morning saying, "Oh my gosh, you all rode CAT bus." And talking to me about it and just the chatter that occurred. So thank you council for for riding cat bus. and um I will open it up for discussion.

Let me be clear. I have not ridden the CAT bus. I have ridden the CAT bus before, but I haven't written this week or anytime that I'm council. Um the question on this in the um memorandum or whatever this was the it says CAB bus stated that it will conduct a study of the town's route and ridership makeup to better understand usage patterns and so on. Uh the study is expected to take approximately one month to complete. I I hope they don't I hope they do it in the school year. To my understanding it's already started in the summer.

Oh, so to my understanding that has already started. So, I have um had conversations with Mayor Halfacaker um about because Clemson has similar concerns to what we have. And so, they um commissioned a study and literally they're having their staff ride around and take tallies on these buses to my understanding. Okay. So, that's for Clemson, but not for penalties.

No, for all of us. For all of us because they Yeah, they they have the resources to do so. So, I'm very grateful for them for riding all of these routes and taking tallies. Um, I also want to publicly say that the information we've been given from Catbus is is very limited. Um, they don't have wrership data. They don't have um uh we c we can't really it's it's just very interesting. Um, so I think in future meetings we're going to have conversations on transportation and what that looks like and how to best serve our citizens. But um our contractually we h we we we have to provide CAP bus I believe with 120 days notice of cancellation. And I in my opinion as as of me personally I cannot I cannot leave our most vulnerable populations without transportation um and just yank it out from under them. So I just want to make sure that all of you know that my feeling on this is that it is very expensive. It's about $90 an hour. Um I don't the the ROI is is very low but like I said it does serve our most vulnerable populations and right now in this time we don't have um we cannot get another solution in the time that we would need to serve our population. So I just want to make sure that um I know that I publicly say that and that people know that this has been I think weighing on all of us um on council. Um anyway, do I have any

There are a couple questions. I can't get the document to come up. I've had some questions because it's um the I don't know who sets the price, but we have to make that approval by April the 1st, but then the committee doesn't meet till April the 1st. So, when do we get an idea of what we're going to be paying? And and that's still in the new contract. That's what I'm should we al can we alter that contract that they have to provide us the information by February the 1st or March the 1st so that we can make yeah an informed decision and not have like a cancellation that's what then you know before our budgeting they didn't give us much warning no we had no warning

request I mean this probably negotiation point has always been a problem um since some prior staff has left cap bus of us getting information you know in a timely manner probably last seven years

and um you know it's it's the uh the cost per hour you know we moved from GPAS to AAS we moved into a different funding too and we we we were getting funding out of GPAS and we had the higher ridership, believe it or not, then the green bus route did, but we had more more people per mile. Now we're splitting it with um electric city and we're in a smaller NO. So that's probably some of your I'm guessing that's some of your impact. I do not know for sure, but I can speculate

the hopefully they're going to put times and dates. I mean, going around 11:00 a.m. versus 7:30 or whatever is totally different. And also, again, if school's out, it's it's not relevant. So hopefully in the study, they're putting down times and dates that they did this study analysis. Yeah. So are they collecting like where people are getting on the bus and the number of people that are getting on the bus? So if it shows up that a lot of them are getting on apartment complexes that we can then address because village hills villages town does contribute something correct. Yes. And they have agreed to do that again next year.

This coming fiscal year they've agreed to contribute 5,000 with a one-year contract. Yes, they have. And I know that was in my um conversations with leaders in the city of Clemson that was something that they said is that if these students are getting on and off at you know student housing or at the university then you know we we all need to have conversations with Clemson University and I have talked to Tri County about um about contributing but as we've mentioned it's so late in the budget cycle I mean a lot of us are kind of thrown so um I can you explain to me what the Pendleton Saturday Express route is

Yeah, it's um so the RV park pays for that route and it is in their football package. We just we just manage it and um I think we actually get a management fee out of there that they pay us to manage manage it and but anybody can ride it. That's the thing. So you can go to the RV park and park and you can go to the football game because it is public transportation. They just pay for so they have it as an amenity there too. Do we advertise that service? I guess they can't put it on our web page. Can they stop on their way?

Uh we used to. It's it's a very fine route. I will tell you last year if you tried to use it at the university made it much harder because they made you stop at Cica Creek instead of they used to bring you to the baseball st. It was a very good route when they let us do that. So that is a little bit of a issue that on that route right now.

May I interject? I'm getting tired of getting barbs thrown at me for something by by my council person over here. I think it's rude. I think it's unprofessional. Now, if she wants to get down and dirty, trust me, I wore my boots. I will do what she wants to do. But I think it is very low class for her because I disagree with something that she's going to throw this up every time a c a statement is made. No, I apologize. Do we have further discussion on the capus? If not, can I get a motion, please?

So, I guess I guess I do just have this question. Can we can we address can we check question this and then or does this have to be signed by before June? Uh you so I'm with Lyn. I would like that data and those dates to be to be changed. Um I think you can negotiate on some of those terms. However, I think under the federal guidelines you're going to be roped in for at least 120 days. So if you had a set and asserns that you could give us

I would just like for them to provide us with what the next year for them to provide us with a number before that before April. I think that's an easy thing to provide in there. And then my other question is if we do find something between now and we've got this 120 days. I think it says that that payment's due by January 1st. Is that something like that? Yeah. Um, so if we have already paid is that can it be prrated and we get any of our money back? We've had to ask that. Okay. So those would be my two specific questions. So Lyn, will you make a motion with those amendments? Um, I got one more question. Yes, Nancy.

This is a service. So if we dis if we change the route or discontinue the service, we have to have a public hearing. Is that correct?

Yes. And you also need to take take into you know consideration like I said in a previous meeting when CAT bus was first done and started they had a huge wrership from you know from students living off campus but within the last five to seven years most of your apartment complexes have their own buses that that run the routes. So you don't have the student writership that you once had um with with the CAT bus system which and like you said they're they were able to get federal funding based on their writership and how it's served and it's not serving you know as many people now.

Um Amber I also have a policy question. I would also like to make a motion to instruct staff to look at other transportation options. Do I can I do that now? Can we have two motions out of this? Okay. All right. Um, I never make motions. I'm going to make one. I would like to make a I never I would like to make a motion to instruct staff to look at other transportation options. Um, and I guess to include CAT bus. Do I have a second? Second. All in favor? Motion carries. Sorry. Can I be clear? Yes. Lyn had a motion.

Oh, yeah. So, I just need to know if that includes what she wanted included, which was to ask to negotiate the April date, move it to February or March. Jeff's wanting to make sure we have times and dates for the analysis um included.

And then if we find something new, can we get it prrated if we've already paid our yearly invoice along with look at other transportation options? I'm I don't need to change the April approval date, but I want to make sure we have the total within with at least ideally a 60-day if definitely a 30-day notice so that we can have some conversation before we ever make this decision. Yes, that would be correct. That's a correct motion. What do what do I do to get that up for a vote? Lyn, do you amend your motion to include what the mayor would like to add? Yes. You have a second on that.

Second. All in favor. Thank you. All right. That was a mouthful. Um, thank you to our staff. Okay. Um, moving on. Item 9J is the approval of a of a mutual aid agreement with the Clemson University Police Department. This allows officers to assist across jurisdictions when needed improving coverage for emergencies, events, and staffing support. I would also um like to ask Chief Pollson to just maybe speak a little bit on this. Um I I was specifically kind of just concerned about what does this look like for our officers, for overtime, for coverage in our town, all of those things.

Yes, ma'am. So essentially it's an agreement between municipals that have law enforcement services to allow the chief of police or their design to call the other agency if they have emergency or natural disaster or sporting events to allow other a other officers from other agencies come over and have full law enforcement authority on their property. Um essentially it allows um the the reason why we're having this because Princeton University had a change of uh the guard and the police department. They have a new police chief. Anytime they have a new chief, you have to resign the agreements. We have agreements with every agency in Anderson County, a lot of them in Pickkins. The way the pay works is is that they essentially the the town will still pay that officer while they're over there, but then we we collect times and how much hours they were over there and we would actually build that municipality the time our offices were over there. So, it's basically just an agreement that allows the biggest example is allowing other agencies to work for volumes. That's really what it but if there's a natural disaster or something like that's what it's

all right. Thank you chief but it also is reciprocal. So if we have something major correct yes additional discussion. Do I have a motion? Motion to approve. Second. All in favor or sorry who second it second. Thank all right we're almost we're almost there. Um um okay. Item 9K is the second and final reading of an ordinance related to the wastewater treatment plant expansion. This is critical infrastructure ensuring the town has the capacity to support current residents and future growth. And uh Steve addressed that in his administr administrator um updates. Any discussion? Do I have a motion?

Motion to approve.

Thank you. Do I have a second? No. Lynn. All in favor? Motion carries. Item 9 L is the second and final reading of the Village Hills Design Overlay District. This establishes development standards for the area to ensure growth aligns with the character um and expectations of the community. Um, I also just want to say that, um, at our last meeting, Barbara, you indicated, you know, you you really fought for for those who currently live in that district and I feel that, um, you were heard and Nancy, to your credit, um, you worked with Lindsay on getting all of those residents notified and going doortodoor and making sure that they know. So, um, anyway, just so thank you both. Do I have any further discussion? Do I have a motion?

Motion. Motion to accept. Second by Lynn. All in favor? Motion carries. All right. Upcoming opportunities to what? Oh, I need opposed. Okay, I'll start adding that. Sorry, we're getting we're getting to the M's on our agenda now. Okay. Um, no. Barbara voted in favor. Yeah. So, typically if someone has opposed, I'll tell you, but I mean I I'll do that better. But yeah, I'll I'll Barbara, you was unanimous.

Yes. Village Hills was unanimous. Yeah. If there's a post, typically I'll say one opposed or I'll do but do I need to ask for every mo if there's an opposal for everything? No. It didn't look like Okay. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Perfect. Um Yay. Okay. on to keep we're moving forward. Um I feel like that horse in the Kentucky Derby just coming up from the end, winning the race. Um okay, upcoming opportunities to connect. Um on May 14th at 6 PM, we have our quarterly conversations at Greenville Street Market. Barbara and I come have a good time. Support Greenville Street B Market, new business of the year. Um well, we always have a good time, Barbara.

And we we will be serving hot dogs. The fire department will be there. Um, they're gonna have the firehouse truck for the kids. Bring your appetite and bring the chair. Dang, Barbie, you turned it into a party. Way to throw that in there. All right. On uh May 26th at 6 PM, um, as Chief Pollson mentioned, we have our fraud and scam awareness at I at um, Iron Oak Barn. Um, Chief, is there going to be tasers or food there? Food. We'll see about tasers. Okay. I will I will work on that. All right. And um at least get us some glow sticks. How about that? Glow sticks.

And um and then as we voted on today, there will be a service um at Veterans Park on Memorial Day at 1000 a.m. I hope to see everyone there. Um do I have a motion to adjurnn? Motion to adjurnn. Do I have a second? Second. All in favor? I need hands up. It is unanimous. Motion to adjourn. Have a great night.