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MINUTES FROM TOWN COUNCIL MEETING AT COTTAGEVILLE TOWN HALL

MONDAY, JULY 7, 2008 AT 7:15 P.M.

________________________________________

Mayor White called the meeting to order, explained the sign-in sheet, led the
Pledge of Allegiance and called the roll.

Members present were Mayor White, Council Member Cook, Council Member
Eutsler, Council Member Thomas and Council Member Strickland.

The following takes place in open session. ATTESTATION

Page Line Change/Correction Reason

Minutes approved: ______________

_________________________ Terri Crosby, Town Clerk

MAYOR WHITE: At this time I’ll entertain a motion for approval of the
minutes. Y’all, council has had a chance to review them.

COUNCIL MEMBER EUTSLER: I make a motion we approve the minutes.

COUNCIL MEMBER COOK: I second.

MAYOR WHITE: All in favor? (All council members indicated yes.)

MAYOR WHITE: Ayes have it. At this time I’ll give the mayor’s report. In an
effort to make this facility more up to date we’ve repaired a few items in the
town hall this month. When we do get the old school I’d like to keep this
building as police headquarters due to its visibility and assessability on
Cottageville Highway. The server room is complete and, thanks to Rick, his
server’s been relocated from Paul’s office into the server room. This was a nice
thing for Paul because it’s like a heater in there so the server room does have
its own air conditioner. The bathrooms in town hall have new fixtures; they’ve
been painted out and the area around town hall air conditioning unit has been
cleaned up and firehouse is in the process of being cleaned up and painted. I
attended the LCOG meeting this month and, as Michelle reported, we’ll be
applying for the Community Block Development Grant the end of this month for
school renovations. Terri and Frank are working on the floor plan for the
application and we’re starting to approach different organizations for locating
at the old school. The Lowcountry Community Action Agency requested an office
when available. I’ve been meeting this week we Kenney Blakney (phon.) and
Charles Gale concerning the signing of the lease. I actually received the lease
in just a few minutes ago, or a draft copy that’ll be presented to council and
that way you can go ahead and review it. If you have any questions before
Thursday I’ll be glad to clear them up. Let’s see. I made a presentation to the
Colleton County Transportation Commission. The board was more receptive to the
town’s concerns about Pierce Road. Allen Brown (phon.) met with us to come up
with possible solutions for Pierce Road. Allen met with — Allen called back on
Wednesday and said he met with SCDOT for possible solutions to that area. The
latest suggestion is have the main route used — to the school use Sally
Ackerman with a new turn lane off of 17A. This will concern some right of way
issues. The Pierce Road entrance poses numerous right of way issues, much more
than Sally Ackerman. We will know more in the month of August. SCDOT did
complete the turn lane remarking on 17A. I’ll be approaching SCDOT about the
truck, truck traffic on Griffith Acres Road. This road is taking a beating and
with limited funding I see no other choice than to get the eighteen-wheelers off
this road. This would affect Durant Avenue, also. Okay. Financials. As far as
the new cars, I’ve been in contact with Andy Smith (phon.) from — He’s from
BB&T and he came back with a very — some very good figures on the financing of
the cars with a lease- purchase agreement with the town. The rate will be less
than — We can go two — one or two ways but it will be less than 4 percent — 4
percent and I’ll be — Later on in the meeting I’ll be asking council for
permission to go ahead and move forward with that. At this, this time I’d like
to go ahead and present the financials. What I’ve put up here is for the last
three fiscal years, what we have going on. Our fiscal year finished up, for the
‘07-‘08 year finished up the end of June. Our revenues for the last three years
was 603,000, 727,000 and this year we finished up at $906,000.00. The expenses
were 617,000, 705,000 and 904,000. These numbers over here represent the — you
know, the differences between revenues and expenditures but the, the good news
about that is that at the end of this fiscal year we actually have cash assets
and that’s what’s located right here. The victim-advocates fund which was never
fully funded before, we went ahead and brought it up to date to 2004. The — My
main concern about that is not that we funded it, the $55,000.00 that, we, we
may be required by the state to actually go back to 1996 when during the fund’s
inception and fund it all the way back to that area. We were able at the end of
the year to set up a contingency fund. That’s in case of an emergency or a
hurricane or fire, natural disaster or also if we had some problem with payroll.
We actually have $54,000.00 in that fund. All of your organizations recommend
that we have at least 10 percent of our budget in that fund so that would — You
know, we’re about halfway there. We also have another account which is grant
matching funds. It’s about $5,000.00 that we have in there just in case we do
get approval on one of our grants we have a start towards our matching funds.
For fiscal year ‘07 and ‘08 the amount that we paid on our assessments was
$329,000.00. What that was able to do for us is we brought our current
assessments up within sixty days. We have nothing — no current bills that are
out past thirty days except for assessments and we have to be in with — in at
least sixty days for, for state as far as the state will contact us why we’re
not within sixty days but we still do have the eight assessments from ‘03 and
‘04 that are still out there that, that haunt us and we’ll slowly work on
getting those paid down. There was never any reason that these monies should not
have been paid to the state. I will be working on making an in-depth
presentation to council and the town to aid in your understanding of why I’m
concerned with these numbers and, you know, that hundred and sixty-five thousand
dollars back in the ‘03 and ‘04 period of time I just — That thing really
worries me and has me concerned. The state could make it hard on us as far as
paying them back and I just want to make sure that there — that y’all are aware
of this problem with those assessments. As far as some of our other long-term
debt, what I’m trying to do is consolidate that, those debts together. I’ll be
talking with Andy Smith from BB&T also when I talk to him about the car loans
and what we’ll be trying to do is to consolidate that long-term debt in to a
lower interest rate. And that’s all I have under the mayor’s report. At this
time Terri Crosby will give the town clerk’s report. MS. CROSBY: Assessments
went up first of July which means the tickets went up. Dawn will explain in her
report. Closed out the year 2007-2008. Auditors will be here on Thursday, July
10 to start work. I’ve already taken some reports to them. I updated the
employees handbook which council has under new business. Page 9 concerns hours
of business and payment wages. Page 10 was holidays, took out the Wednesday
before Thanksgiving. Page 11 was on the annual leave hours and sick leave that
was changed due to biweekly pay. Page 14 was on health insurance. It was changed
to eighty-twenty which means if someone is hired they pay 20 percent of health
insurance and the town pays 80 percent until their ninety days are up. Then the
town pays a hundred percent. Business license. Everyone has paid up. I met with
Michelle Knight from LCOG on grants. They’re coming up in August 25. Had public
hearing today at six on needs assessments. We’ll be meeting with her again on
July 30. Attended GFOA conference and also attended LCOG meeting. Paid two
assessments last month to bring assessments within sixty days. I’ve scheduled a
workshop for the planning commission, council and mayor on July 12 at four. This
is for the new zoning ordinance. T21 grant we’ve received back to make a few
changes. We’ll know back this week. T21 grant does look promising for us. This
will be for signage, lights and landscape. Met with Allen Brown on Wednesday
from the CTTC. He met with the traffic engineer that day. They’re going to send
their people back out to look at the possible turning lane at Sally Ackerman and
Highway 17. Mr. Brown said that the sidewalks down Pierce would require
additional right of way and that CCT wouldn’t pay for that. He would — It would
be the town’s responsibility for the right of way. The traffic engineer guy is
gone be getting back with Mr. Brown on the estimate for redoing Pierce Road and
Mr. Brown will let me know what happened. We received a grant from South
Carolina Municipal Insurance Risk and Fund – SCMIRF – to help pay for a
bullet-proof vest and that’s all I have. Okay. And the SCMIRF will pay for a
tazer, too.

MAYOR WHITE: Thank you. At this time we’ll have the police report give by
Chief Paul Haase.

CHIEF OF POLICE HAASE: Good evening, everybody. Reports taken this month were
seventy, seventeen arrests, 700 property checks, twenty-eight agency assists -
That’s where we assist the, the sheriff’s department, highway patrol, EMS but
most of them were the sheriff’s department this past month – a hundred and
fifteen complaints and we had one accident in the construction area on Pierce
Road. It was a busy month. I’m just gone briefly go through a couple of things
that took place. The flags went up on flag day, June 14, and also on July 4
weekend. I’d like to thank Mr. Null, who’s sitting in the audience tonight, for
assisting me with that project this month. Old warrants, we had a total of 221
old warrants dating back to 2004 that were entered into NCIC by the Colleton
County dispatchers totaling fines of almost $90,000.00 outstanding fines
statewide. They’ll be arrested and we’ll go pick them up and hopefully be able
to collect that debt or they’ll be spending about thirty days in jail. Spent a
day with Rick, the council member, about the web page. If you go to the police
department web page, which is Cottageville dot net and click on police corner,
we’ve added some things on there. There’s one thing I’ll discuss later on when
I’m called on but the main focus, what I got on the front was the SLED sex
offender registry. Rick’s got it set up where you can click on that, it’ll
automatically take you to the sex offender’s — take you to the sex offender’s
web page and y’all want to pass them around. We’re still working on — We’re
still working on the web page but as you can see on the web page — I’m sorry, I
didn’t have enough color but once you come up with the Cottageville Police
Department web page click on this SLED button right here, it’ll take you right
to the sex offenders list so you see who’s living in Colleton County or any
other county. Next thing I’m gone be working on with council and — is identity
theft. I want to get something on there about identity theft because there’s
some — a lot of that going on and I want to put something on the web page to –
If anybody has any questions, or whatever, there’s some stuff there that we can
do for you. I attended a Palmetto Pride workshop and I’ll talk about that later
on when I’m called, called on about another issue. I attended the task force
hurricane meeting at the end of the month. We were able to purchase the 800
radios in the cars. These are radios will be installed in the police cars so if
something did happen I’ll be able — we’ll be able to talk to highway patrol on
the same radio and the sheriff’s department and we also have the walkie-talkies
so we’re out of the car because we are to man 651 on both and if something did
take place, evacuation route. School program. I was able to get — We’re gone be
doing a program that’s actually free; it’s no cost to the town. It’s Eddie, The
Gun — Eddie Eagle gun safe materials. It’s a program for gun safety. All the
materials they’ll be giving us free. We’re getting a video, activities workbook,
posters, reward stickers, instructional guides for myself and the other officers
and the good thing about it is it’s gone be given to us in English and Spanish.
I do have an officer on staff that does speak Spanish so we do have some Spanish
– Hispanic kids there at the school. We’ll be able to put them aside and the
officer’ll be able to teach, you know, them in Spanish just a little bit but
it’s a free program that we’re gone work with. Right now it’s just slated
kindergarten through third. We’ll probably do another program for fourth and
fifth graders but this is what we’re gone work on when the kids get back to
school in August. Talking about the school, just to let y’all know, the teachers
are supposed to start moving in that school in August, first of August. We’re
gone cut the ribbon August 12. Public is invited. It’s at 5:00 on August 12 that
we’re gone cut the ribbon and the school will be open for a tour that day. I
think that’s it. There was one other thing but we’ll cover that later.

MAYOR WHITE: Okay. Thank you, Paul.

CHIEF OF POLICE HAASE: Thank you. Sorry it was quick.

MAYOR WHITE: At this time we’ll have the judicial report given by Dawn Boren.

MS. BOREN: We have had the average amount of phone calls and walk-ins this
month. Our new automated system has helped out a lot with directing phone calls
to the right department and I’m able to check my voice mail away from my desk.
The Colleton magistrate court will be combining their office effective as of
June 13, 2008. Miss Pamela White, Summary Court Administrator, used to supply
court packets for all courts but now that they’re combining the courts I am
responsible for supplying the municipal court packages for Cottageville at the
Colleton detention center. I’ve closed out my 2007-2008 financial year for
Cottageville Municipal Court on June 30, 2008, and I have configured our new
financial year for our court system and it took effect June 30, 2008, after the
town administrator made her last court deposit. I received a memo on June 30,
2008, from South Carolina Court Administrator — Administration stating that
they have added a $5.00 criminal justice academy surcharge to our traffic
offenses. Begin quote – The $5.00 surcharge will be added to all traffic and
non-traffic criminal convictions occurring on or after July 1, 2008. The only
criminal or traffic charges to which the $5.00 surcharge will not apply are
felony traffic which will occur only in The Court of General Sessions – end
quote. Chief Paul Haase and myself has discussed our new letter court. We will
inform you of the date of that as soon as it is scheduled.

MAYOR WHITE: Thank you. At this time I’d like to entertain a motion to go in
to executive session to discuss police department, department personnel.

COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS: I make — I make a motion we go in to executive
session to discuss police department personnel.

COUNCIL MEMBER STRICKLAND: I second it.

MAYOR WHITE: All in favor?(All council members indicated yes.) (Council went
in to executive session at 7:35 and returned to open session at 8:00. The
following takes place in open session.)

MAYOR WHITE: I’ll go ahead and call this meeting to order. At this time I’ll
entertain a motion to come out of executive session.

COUNCIL MEMBER EUTSLER: I make a motion we come out of executive session.

COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS: I second.

MAYOR WHITE: All in favor? (All council members indicated yes.)

MAYOR WHITE: Ayes have it. At this time I’ll go ahead and there’s no –
There’s no motions to be made in executive session, coming out of executive
session. It was just discussion on the police department. At this time we’ll
have the committee reports. Mr. Carlisle Strickland, emergency preparedness.

COUNCIL MEMBER STRICKLAND: I talked to Suzanne Gant this morning, head of EPD
up in Walterboro. The only information she had for me is concerning Hurricane
Bertha and she informed me at this time this is no threat to our location by the
hurricane and she said that that was all that she had to report on and as far as
she knew and the way things looked that we would be clear of it, of this one and
so that’s all I have.

MAYOR WHITE: Thank you. Charlie Cook, public works.

COUNCIL MEMBER COOK: We have no lights in need of repair. We didn’t have any
new lights installed.

MAYOR WHITE: Thank you. Rick Eutsler, technology.

COUNCIL MEMBER EUTSLER: Web site’s moving forward, getting more information
up there. As Paul mentioned, worked with him for a day to — basically creating
an entire section for the police department. If people are looking for notices
or press releases definitely check the website. Oh, and we’ve got Terri’s
computer replaced and we’re just about finished with Paul’s computer.

MAYOR WHITE: Okay. And I do want to thank you, too, for — Rick’s put out a
lot of effort for technology that he’s really been a big asset to the town.

COUNCIL MEMBER EUTSLER: You’re very welcome.

MAYOR WHITE: And I do appreciate. Rick made a contribution to the town by the
donation of the server rack which contained two UPS’s which we do have in the
server room now and that was — That was definitely a big savings to the town so
I, I definitely appreciate that. Thank you.

COUNCIL MEMBER EUTSLER: You are very welcome.

MAYOR WHITE: Peggy Thomas, revitalization.

COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS: Our revitalization committee will be meeting next
month, which is August, and we’ll be making plans for our Taste of Cottageville
on the eleventh of October and our Christmas parade the second Saturday in
December and I’ve been contacting some of the local magazines like Sandlapper
and the Charleston magazine and like that to maybe put some publicity in there
to, to build up some interest in maybe people coming out of town for these two
events. And we’re still open for people to come and meet the revitalization
committee and become a part of it and we’re open to suggestions from the
community for things that we want to start doing now that we’re gonna have
access to the school and have that big gym and the cafeteria, we can do all
kinds of things so we’re open to input for that.

MAYOR WHITE: Okay. Thank you. I’ll move on to unfinished business. Number 1,
ditch concerns. The individual that I really need to talk to about this is out
of town. I do have the, the letter from the — from the engineer concerning what
needs to be done with the ditches so after this individual gets back I’ll talk
to him and then I’ll be sending out the letters. Water update. I had a meeting
with the engineer about the sampling data in town and he’ll be contacting us the
month of August with some recommendations. At this time I’ll have the second
reading of Ordinance 2008.2, Town of Cottageville budget. All Court fines and
assessments shall be duly recorded and deposited in the town court checking
account by the administrative town court clerk or by the mayor. Each month the
fine revenue will be transferred to the town’s checking account by the town
clerk and the mayor or in the mayor’s absence by the town clerk and the mayor
pro tem. All general fund revenue shall be duly recorded and deposited in the
town’s checking account by the town clerk. All disbursements from the town’s
checking account shall be done by the mayor and by the town clerk or in the
mayor’s absence by the mayor pro-tem and by the town clerk or in the clerk’s
absence by the mayor and the mayor pro tem. Transfer from one budget item to
another not in excess of $5,000.00 may be authorized by the mayor. Transfers in
excess of $5,000.00 shall be approved by that council. The mayor has
authorization in the amount of up to $5,000.00 for purchasing for the town. Over
$5,000.00 needs authorization from council. This can be done by the town’s
credit card or by the town’s general fund. This ordinance is effective July 1,
2008, and expires June 30, 2009. All ordinances or parts of this ordinance
inconsistent with this ordinance is hereby repealed. This ordinance requires two
readings. This is the second ordinance. Let’s see. And that is it. At this time
I’ll entertain a motion for approval of the 2008-2009 budget second reading.

COUNCIL MEMBER COOK: I make a motion that we approve the budget 2008-2009.

COUNCIL MEMBER STRICKLAND: I second.

MAYOR WHITE: All in favor? (All council members indicated yes.)

MAYOR WHITE: Ayes have it. Okay. Second reading on Ordinance 2008 dash 3,
amending Section 13.207 and 208 of the town code. Let’s see. Now, therefore let
it be ordained by the town council of the Town of Cottageville Section 207,
suspension hearings, and Sections 208 Town of Cottageville town code is hereby
amended deleting the words and council. This was to give power back to the — to
the mayor concerning the police department. At this time I’ll entertain a motion
for approval or Ordinance 2008 dash 3.

COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS: I make a motion Ordinance 2008 dash 3 be approved in
the second reading.

COUNCIL MEMBER EUTSLER: Second.

MAYOR WHITE: All in favor? (All council members indicated yes.)

MAYOR WHITE: Ayes have it. Number 5, school lease signing. We just received
the school lease this evening. It came in when we were in the middle of the
first meeting and council will have a copy of it for them to review during the
week. I have a meeting with Charles Gayle and with Kenny Blakney to go over any
last minute concerns but probably on Thursday I’ll be signing the lease for the
new — for the use of the old school. That’s a twenty-five-year lease at a
dollar a year. Okay. And at this time I’ll turn item number 6 over to Paul
Haase, litter hotline.

CHIEF OF POLICE HAASE: Spoke last month. We do have a
twenty-four-hour-seven-day-week hotline installed. Number’s 835-3344. When you
call that number it’ll ring to my office but then it’ll be transferred to a cell
phone, either mine or one of the officers working. Encourage report any type of
littering. It’s currently littering is getting to be a problem. You know, Miss
Sandra mentioned we had a lot of litter down Main Street but what a lot of
people — When they’re traveling down Main Street going toward Summerville come
in here to see a blue light in our road, they think there’s a road check ahead
but it’s one of the officers got a car stopped for speeding and they’re dropping
their beer cans out the road. We’re trying put a stop on that. Adams Road is
real bad, is a real bad problem. I went to Palmetto Pride workshop couple days
– about ten days ago and there’s gone be a grant coming up that they’ll send
the information out. Hopefully we can get involved with the grant where we can
get some equipment. The Palmetto grant — Pride does have some equipment where
we can check it out but there’s a waiting list, where you can install cameras in
the ground, on trees, maybe get some of these people that are dumping stuff on
these back roads. We had a case right there on Mistletoe we’re gone prosecute. I
stopped a fellow; he was riding down the road, plastic comes right out of his
truck, kept on going. I stopped him, give him a ticket for it so . . . There’s
something I meant to discuss in the police report, is they talk about broken
windows. If a window is broken and left unrepaired people walking by will
conclude that no one cares and no one is in charge. I was looking through the
city ordinance books and I was talking with the code enforcement officer.
There’s really nothing addressing broken windows. I didn’t know if I have
permission from the mayor and council to sit down with the code enforcement
officer where we — for us to come up with some type of ordinance about broken
windows. The only thing close — The only thing close that comes to it is, is
unfit dwelling and I couldn’t really find nothing about broken windows and,
really, that’s really concern. I know we don’t have much crime right there on
Main Street but we can do something about the broken windows, you know, anywhere
on Main Street, you know, I’d like for us possibly to take a step forward. I
know one of the citizens mentioned a couple months ago and, you know, this is
what they mainly talked about, was about broken windows at this conference I
went to and I didn’t know if we can — You’re ready to start something or we can
start something on that. MAYOR WHITE: Well, we had that workshop Saturday on
zoning.

CHIEF OF POLICE HAASE: Yes, sir.

MAYOR WHITE: So I’m really, really interested to see what Jenny comes back
with as far as, you know, some of these issues that we have going on around here
right now.

CHIEF OF POLICE HAASE: Well, other than that, there’s nothing else to report.
On front of the web page, it does have the number there. Hopefully, after
tonight’s meeting, if Terri doesn’t have nothing going on the board I might put
it up there and have it up there for at least thirty days but you got any
questions after the meeting about anything or concerns about the police
department or littering just, just speak with me. I’ll be around after the
meeting. Thank you.

MAYOR WHITE: Thank you. At this time I’d like to move on to new business. I’d
like to take the opportunity to introduce Roni Abdella from — She’s from
England Enterprises. She is with the town as far as she handles our building
inspection and code enforcement.

MS. ABDELLA: Thank you, Mayor and Council. My names is Roni Abdella, to the
people of Cottageville. Have to remember where I’m at. Right now I have about
three jurisdictions that I am a building official for and I just wanted to meet
all the council and the town and let everybody know who I was so if you see me
come around town or see me coming into the neighborhood, one of the residents
here, you’ll at least know what I’m here doing and building inspections or maybe
doing some preventative enforcement of some sort and just let you know and
recognize my face and know that I am here working and trying to help the area
here try to get some things in the community straightened up a little bit. I am
currently also working as a third-party inspection company at the school over
here. Our, our company is doing the inspections at the school. They’re supposed
to be doing their final inspections around July 15, is their final inspection
date. I don’t know if that’s gonna happen. There’s a lot of issues that we’ve
been finding at the school so, again, we’re hoping to rush — to push them along
a little bit and it’s a very nice school and I know that all of the kids in the
community are gonna be really excited about going to it. But, anyway, the other
thing I did want to talk to the town and council about was as of July 1 the
state did adopt all of the 2006 ICC codes. They did not adopt the 2006 IRC,
which is the International Residential Code. The reason they did not adopt that
one is because the international code there is a discrepancy on the seismic and
the wind maps so they chose not to adopt the residential codes at this time
until FEMA and the national maps have changed as far as the seismic D and E
category groups. I know that probably doesn’t make a lot of sense to some of you
folks but if there is any residential builders that come in to get permits we
are not going to use the 2006 IRC, okay? But all of the other code books that
we’re currently using will fall under the 2006 codes. When it comes to the
mechanical, electrical, plumbing and building all your commercial contractors
will use the 2006 codes. And the Town of Cottageville, of course, runs under the
seismic D2 category groups. I just wanted to also let the community know that
I’m here to help to enforce some of those building codes. I know that there’s
been a lot of changes going on in the area. You’ve got a lot of people coming in
and starting to build some things and we’d like to start enforcing some of those
building codes but it’s only for the protection of the town. If you have storms
come through the area and you — I’m sure that some of you have been here
through some of the larger storms and you know that when we have large storms
you have contractors come in from out of state and from out of town and they
come in and they do repairs to your communities and you want to make sure that
you have building inspectors in town so that they can check the quality of the
work that has been done and they can make sure that they have permits so that we
can protect you in the event that you end up having to take that contractor to
court so that’s, in a nutshell, the small picture of it. That’s, that’s why
we’re here, is to protect the community and protect the people here so if
something like that does happen we can at least check behind these people and
help to make sure that your house is properly build and or properly repaired.
And if anybody has any questions I’d me more than happy to answer them. Terri
knows how to get a hold of me and she’d be more than happy to patch you through
to my phone or give me your number so I can call you back. Okay.

MAYOR WHITE: Thank you, Thank you, Roni. Next one, I asked council about a
resolution for financing for two new police cars and, as I mentioned in the
minutes, I had a — I was able to contact BB&T and they gave us a much lower
rate so I would like to re-entertain a motion for approval of financing terms
with BB&T bank. That will be resolution 2008.5 and at this time I’d like to
entertain a motion to approve that resolution.

COUNCIL MEMBER COOK: What is the rate they give us?

MAYOR WHITE: Three — It was 3.9 if we went over four and it’s 3.4 if we went
with three, three years.

COUNCIL MEMBER EUTSLER: Is this a lease or a purchase?

MAYOR WHITE: This is a lease-purchase agreement that will be — It’s actually
set up to where we’ll either make three or four payments, one payment a year and
it will actually come due at the end of the fiscal year. It will actually come
due in June and the, the payment — I can go ahead and make you a copy of this,
too, but the, the payment will either be $17,000.00 or $13,000.00. The — And
I’m sorry, Charlie, I was wrong on the rate. It’s 3.9 if we pay it off in four
annual payments and it’s 3.8 if we pay it off in three. But that was from — The
rate that I got from Enterprise and also from SCB&T, it was a lot lower. In
fact, Danny Crow (phon.) is the one that recommended this — Our town attorney
was the one that recommended this organization, had me contact them in
Charlotte, put me through to Andy Smith in the Columbia office and he was the
one that — He got back to me and this is actually the way that we’re supposed
to handle municipal financing instead of going through a conventional. Is there
any other questions concerning that? (No response.)

MAYOR WHITE: Hearing none, other questions, I’ll entertain a motion for
approval of Resolution 2008.5.

COUNCIL MEMBER EUTSLER: I make a motion we, we approve Resolution 2008.5.

COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS: I second.

MAYOR WHITE: All in favor? (All council members indicated yes.)

MAYOR WHITE: Ayes have it. Thank you. Town ordinance for traffic. Danny was
supposed to be getting back in touch with me. Danny Crow, the town attorney was
supposed to be getting back in touch with me and the other thing is changes to
the town handbook. This was, really, because we changed the hours of work to
8:30 to 4:30 and also the payment of wages are now, instead of weekly we’ve gone
to biweekly and it gives the time of payment Thursday at 12 p.m. One of the
holidays that we removed was the — We took away the day, the Wednesday before
Thanksgiving and it is Thanksgiving and the day after Thanksgiving. Annual
leave. This basically covers accrual of annual leave and it changes the
computation from weekly to biweekly and then sick leave, it addresses where the
employees will get two hours biweekly sick leave instead of as before, weekly.
Health insurance. Town of Cottageville pays all, all the employees health and
dental insurance. If there’s family coverage the employee is responsible for the
family coverage. During the probation period the town pays 80 percent of health
coverage and the employee pays 20.

COUNCIL MEMBER EUTSLER: Real quick question.

MAYOR WHITE: Yes?

COUNCIL MEMBER EUTSLER: Is this the whole handbook or just . . .

MAYOR WHITE: That’s just the change. Changes. And that is all I have under
new business. At this time we’ll have citizen’s agenda.

COUNCIL MEMBER EUTSLER: Did you do the ordinance?

COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS: What about the ordinance?

MAYOR WHITE: Oh, I’m sorry. Yeah, oh. The ordinance for — Well, first I need
to do the — make a motion to accept the changes to the town handbook.

COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS: I make a motion that we accept the changes to the
handbook.

COUNCIL MEMBER COOK: I second.

MAYOR WHITE: All in favor? (All council members indicated yes.)

MAYOR WHITE: And then there, again, I skipped out of order. Town ordinance
for traffic. That is something that Danny Crow’s still working on. He hasn’t
been back in touch with us. We’ll probably have that information next month. At
this time we’ll move on to citizen agenda. Doctor John C. Barton, church bells.

MR. BARTON: Hi. Thank you, Mayor, Council. My names is Doctor John Barton. I
have generated some information for you because the forum for this is very short
time wise. These are the letters that I sent the church that sort of detail what
our problem is. I used to work for a pharmaceutical company doing research for
– as part of MUSC till I was retired several years ago thanks to a hit-and-run
driver that left me with a head injury so I was forced to retire and I moved to
Cottageville because it was a nice quiet town and it has been so for several
years. Recently, several months ago the church start playing its bells at an
extremely loud volume. It started out it was twenty-one times a day till I wrote
those two letters. First letter’s in behalf of a group of neighbors, not just
ourselves, me and my wife, but other neighbors on — in the near vicinity. Then
I also wrote a letter detailing some of my own personal medical needs for this.
The third paper talks about traumatic head injury and I highlighted a section
there that talks about how noises is, is a problem. Matter of fact, I saw my
doctor this morning. She said she would write y’all a letter if it would help
you come to any decision. Church bells are not addressed properly in the
ordinances. Obviously y’all are still having troubles with the ordinances and
having to modify them and, and so forth. This is a big gap in our ordinance. I’m
not protected and all and I’m a good citizen here. I’ve done volunteer work at
the school. I support our local sheriff’s organization and I need the town to
help me with this because it is a very big, very real problem. Now, after
submitting these letters to the church about two weeks went by. They finally had
their meeting. Another week went back and they still have not done what they
said they would do, unless it happened today, which I’m not aware because I was
off at a doctor’s appointment so, but up until today they still have not done
what I was told that they were gonna do and, even then, that is still way above
and beyond. If I put loud speakers on top of my house and start playing bells
and chiming out the hours and playing songs for my neighbors the town is gonna
protect my neighbors from me causing that problem, okay? I need some protection.
I’m crying help to all you guys. Now, I wrote a letter. I imagine you have not
had time. I don’t know if you even received it. I left it on your — in your
work.

MAYOR WHITE: Was that today?

MR. BARTON: No, no, no, it’s been awhile. It was a thank-you-for-seeing-me
letter. Maybe you didn’t get it. I’ve got a copy here for you if you haven’t but
what I need is I’m asking you to come up with some sort of plan on discussing
this and coming up with something that is just and reasonable. I’m not asking
for any more and all, just something that is just and reasonable, not an
intrusion in my house, which I — we are currently suffering an intrusion in our
house and, and this is after I wrote a very courteous letter regarding it. Two
letters, actually. And it was basically just wiped away so I’m here to ask you
if you can help us with this. I’ve been told there’s also some liabilities
issues involved, you know, with the governments not enforcing proper rights and
so on but, at any rate, I guess that’s all I have. Y’all please read these
things and — so that you can see what I’m talking about and, and decide for
yourselves if it’s — what I’m asking is just and reasonable or not and I need
– I need something to happen; I can’t, like, come here every month and do a
two-minute talk and be done with it. We’ve got to have something happen and is
there any way we can establish communication on a regular basis with any one of
you that we can get this ball rolling, so to speak, so that we can address this
problem?

MAYOR WHITE: Well, I have — You know, I have discussed this with the town
attorney and he advised me not to get involved in it but I would — you know,
because the ordinance is such that the town ordinance allows the church to go
ahead, churches to ring their bells and, you know, it, it doesn’t, really,
address it other than, you know, pretty much gives them free reign as far as
ringing the bells. I have understood that they have changed their, their
schedule and also the volume. I think that that was . . .

MR. BARTON: They didn’t change the volume. This was the letter I wrote to you
thanking you for your time.

MAYOR WHITE: Thank you. But I will discuss it with the town attorney again
and, and I will go ahead and, and talk to you directly.

MR. BARTON: Okay. I’ll be appreciative of that and I’ll, I’ll leave you a
better number than the one that’s on the letter. My home phone I don’t hear a
lot of times so thank you, everybody.

MAYOR WHITE: Thank you. Let’s see. Kelli.

MS. BARTON: I guess he covered that pretty thoroughly and I suppose the only
thing that I would really like to add, I did happen to time it again today and
at 6:00 the church bells go on for an entire twelve minutes, which is no
different than it has been, you know, doing over the course of what? The last
several months that I have spoken to you about it and what I would really like
to see, I know the way the ordinance reads now there’s really nothing you can do
but I would like to see something amended in the ordinance to include everyone
in the town limits. I think that those ordinances should apply to us all, not
just to some of us and allow privilege to other entities or individuals in the
area because right now it is a nuisance noise. It’s not about the fact that it’s
a church generating this noise, has nothing to do with that. I wouldn’t feel any
differently if it were Paul and Cheryl playing their stereo really loud so it’s
creeping into my house every day but it is a nuisance noise and I feel that that
is violating my implied right to privacy because it is encroaching on my
solitude and my, my psychological separation and privacy in that matter so I
would also like to see something added to the noise ordinance.

MAYOR WHITE: Thank you.

MS. BARTON: Thank you.

MAYOR WHITE: Carl Null.

MR. NULL: Pass on this.

MAYOR WHITE: Okay. Well, thank you very much. Does anybody have anything else
for the good of the country? (No response.)

MAYOR WHITE: Hearing none I’ll adjourn the meeting. — Meeting adjourned at
8:35 p.m. –

I, the undersigned Donna Hartley, Official Court Reporter and Notary Public,
do hereby certify that the foregoing is a true, accurate and complete transcript
of record of all the proceedings had at the Town Council Meeting for The Town of
Cottageville, South Carolina at Cottageville Town Hall on Monday, July 7, 2008.
I further certify that I am neither of counsel nor kin to any person attending
this meeting nor am I interested in any manner of its outcome. IN WITNESS
WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and seal this twenty-third day of July,
2008

Notary Public for South Carolina My Commission Expires April 23, 2017