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This is the Mayor’s Meeting Report for July 2008

In an effort to make this facility more up-to-date, we have repaired a few areas in town hall this month. When we do get access to the old school I would like to keep this building as the police office due to the visibility and accessibility on Cottageville Highway.

The server room is complete and thanks to Rick the server has been relocated from Paul’s office to the server room.

Bathrooms have new fixtures and have been painted.

Area around Town Hall the AC unit has been cleaned up. Firehouse is in the process of being cleaned up and painted.

I attended LCOG meeting – We will be applying for the CBDG the end of this month for School renovations. Terry and Frank are working on the floor plan for the application. We are starting to approach different organizations for location at the old school. The lowcountry community action agency requested an office when available. I have a meeting this week with Kenny Blackney and Charles Gale concerning the signing of the lease.

I made a presentation to the CCTC. The board was more receptive to the Towns concerns about Peirce Road. Alvin Brown met with us to come up with possible solutions to Peirce Road. Alvin called back on Wednesday and said he met with SCDOT for possible solutions to this area. The latest suggestion is to have the main route to the school using Salley Ackerman with a new turn lane off of Highway 17-A. This will concern some right-of-way issues. The Peirce Road entrance poses numerous right-of-way issues much more than Salley Ackerman. We will know more in the month of August.

SCDOT did complete the turn lane re-marking on Highway 17-A. I will be approaching SCDOT about the truck traffic on Griffith Acres Drive. This road is taking a beating and with limited funding I see no other choice than to get these 18-wheelers off this road. This would also affect Durant.

As long as I have been involved with the town I do not remember the town having any money for grants or emergencies. We now have that money available and our bills are paid including current assessments within 90 days. One thing that is always looked at when we apply for grants is the towns financial health and I am trying to get us the best financials that the town has ever had, even in this economy. We do still have long-term debt which I am trying to consolidate at a lower rate.

The big problem still facing the town at the end of the fiscal year is assessment from 2003 and 2004. We continue to work to remove this figure from our financials. This figure is $165K. There was never any reason that these monies should not have been paid to the state. I will be working to make an in-depth presentation to council and the town to aid in your understanding of why I am concerned with these numbers.

The other issue is the victims advocate fund. Even though I have funded this account with over $50,000, this figure only goes back to 2004. The town may be required, at some point, to fund this account from its inception back to 1996. Please remember when I took office this account was not funded.

George M. White Mayor