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MINUTES
TOWN COUNCIL MEETING

COTTAGEVILLE TOWN HALL
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2008
7:00 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 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 the approval of the town meeting, or the town minutes from the last regular meeting.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS: I make a motion they be approved.
COUNCIL MEMBER STRICKLAND: I second.
MAYOR WHITE: Any discussion?
(No response.)
MAYOR WHITE: All in favor?
(All council members indicated yes.)
MAYOR WHITE: Any against? Any opposed?
(No response.)
MAYOR WHITE: Ayes have it.
Okay.
Mayor’s report.
Good evening.
I would like to address council and the town on several matters this evening. Before I start I would like to state the following. I’ve been labeled as scaremonger in the paper — in the paper, not by the paper but by a citizen in the editorial section of the paper.
This is a free country and you can say what you want but I want to set the record straight. I have never tried to scare the people in Cottageville on anything. I’ve always tried to give, give you the financials and tell you what is going on. I’ll give you the facts tonight on several issues.
You can talk outside tonight and talk about me and my employees behind their backs but when it’s all said and done it won’t change a thing. Cottageville will still be Cottageville and Cottageville problems will still be here in our faces. So here are the problems, not scare tactics, problems. You detract us and criticize us with all the answers. Here’s something that you can sink your teeth into. I’m sure you’ll be able to solve them tonight out in front of town hall when the meeting’s over. I’m tired of worrying about them.
Revenue. The state continues to cut aid to subdivision money. Three percent this year, another 11 percent next year. The state takes more money on ticket assessments each year.
We still owe the state a hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars in old ticket assessments and they want their money. Why don’t the detractors ask the people responsible where the money is? This will not go away and we will have to pay.
Tickets. The state controls the amount we charge on a ticket. Approximately 58 percent goes to the state, of each ticket other than seatbelt violations. The amount gets larger each year. The state does not want us to use tickets to generate the majority of our revenue but that’s exactly what they do.
Along with this, people continue to complain about the police department. We had a business crime watch meeting set up by Chief Roberts. One business owner came – me.
Well, maybe the answer is turn the police department over to the county. The sheriff’s department is undermanned for what they have to handle.
Last week alone there were 21 arrests in the town of Cottageville. These men and women put their lives on the line every time they stop a car or go to a domestic violence call.
This is what one officer said to me. “I thought I wasn’t working in North Charleston any longer”.
The problem is crime is moving this way. Our officers do an outstanding job and to top everything else off I get petty complaints about them. Boy, what would happen if we — if we ever thanked one of these guys or we ever listened or cared to listen what they have to put up with on a shift? Let’s not forget they provide the revenue for the town and for the state. When a citizen of the town gets caught here for breaking the law they feel like the department should look the other way. The law’s enforced fairly to all citizens whether you live here or not.
Zoning. Our current zoning ordinance is not worth the paper it’s written on. It was enacted in 1986 and then an ex-mayor went through with a pen and lined out the stuff he didn’t like. An attorney fighting against this ordinance would have a field day with it.
A new ordinance was presented to council and I quote, “It’s too restrictive”. So, basically, at this time we have nothing.
The public hearing for the new zoning ordinance was nothing but a grilling of the chairperson who serves without compensation.
There’s a development right now that owns almost 40 acres in the center of town. He had so much resistence here — resistence here it’s unbelievable, because he wanted to do something different in town.
Yes, I support him but not for the reasons the detractors think. It’s because business provides revenue in two ways: business license and local option sales tax. Never considered that one.
This is what he is trying to accomplish: a grocery store and a town center. He is fighting water and sewer issues. Well, the town can hang up the revenue that — on that one. We fought the battle and lost.
He said to me the other day, maybe I should turn it into a mobile home park. Yeah, let’s keep Cottageville Cottageville. Scare tactic on his part? Maybe. Reality? Probably more so a mobile home park than a grocery store.
This is one of the things that was outlined in the original ordinance; mobile home parks can go anywhere in Cottageville but remember, we don’t need zoning.
Here’s another interesting fact. Drive down Bama Road. Here sits the old planing mill, nine acres of land. What can it be used for? The answer? Anything.
The old school. The old school board — The school — I’m sorry.
The school board wants the town to lease it. It will cost the town $30,000 a year just to cut the grass, insure it and to test the water. This includes no electricity. The town doesn’t lease it, it will go to auction.
I will make a recommendation to council tonight for me to sign the lease but here’s some homework for the detractors. Go out and look at some of the old schools that were auctioned off; find out what they’re being used for.
Some of you went to this school. Maybe it doesn’t mean anything for you. Where is the town supposed to come up with the money? We can lease it for awhile but it will be the first thing to go if revenues cannot support it but wouldn’t it be wonderful to have — to have this become a community center? A place that children could go and play, a place for seniors, a place that a grandparent could take his or her grandchild? Oh, I forgot, let’s keep Cottageville Cottageville.
We don’t want to pay for anything so even though we can lease this building we probably can’t afford to do anything with it but to cut the grass.
Ground water sampling. I’ve gotten proposals from several firms but why? DHEC is in charge of it. The contractor they use doesn’t even clean up his own mess. I’ve had to call to get the drums removed from the side of the road. I’ve been accused of using this as a lever for water and sewer even though I never brought it up during the referendum.
I could tell you what some of the engineers told me but I would just get accused of more scare tactics. Maybe you think benzine and diesel compounds in your ground — It’s in your ground water. Maybe you like — I’m sorry.
Maybe you like benzine and diesel compounds in your ground water but I think it stinks. You don’t think it’s there, think again. What do you think a test well is for? Can the detractors against municipal water guarantee you that this crap will not get into your drinking water?
DHEC has the reports under The Freedom of Information Act. They cost $95.00 apiece.
So back to revenues. We have several options. Try to attract business. How? Limit commercial use in town with no services.
Annexation. We have nothing to offer anyone outside of town.
Town taxes. Probably the only answer. We are one of the only municipalities in the state without it. Things must be paid. Remember bills from 2003 and 2004. I am fighting a lawsuit right now with an ex chief of police for comp time from 2006. 2006.
I’m tired of fighting things like $40,000 in drug fund money used improperly, lawsuits with companies and people out of Chicago when state purchasing was available, missing town records, old bills not paid. You know one of the things that is looked at when you apply for a grant is the town debt. Maybe this is why, why it’s so hard to get us one. Why would they give us a grant when we already owe them money?
It was said that I wanted a blank check to pay for water and sewer. I just want one to pay for old bills.
So when we leave here tonight remember I gave you the truth. You can run me down and my employees, too, but the state will still want their money.
My charge to you is that you turn this energy in to something good. Turn a complaint in to a compliment. Volunteer for something. We have positions that come open on every committee but it’s hard to find people who will fill these spots.
Have you ever noticed that the only thing a complainer can do is complain? What a sorry existence.
The town has the best staff it’s ever had. The people that work here are concerned about every dollar that comes in and the best way to spend it. Remember you live here and I do, too. Everything I do to the town I do to myself.
Cottageville will change and grow but it’s up to us to steer its course. Our employees don’t live here but they’re very concerned and work like hell to make this a better place. So I ask you what do you do to help support the town today and to make it a better place?
And to the people who call me a scaremonger, boo. Hope you can handle a dose of reality. At the January meeting I will be presenting a list of goals to council for the coming year. This will be a great time to step up for your town and get involved and like town meetings, anyone can come and get involved.
Thank you.
At this time I’ll have the police report. Shane Roberts is in training in – Where is he at? Myrtle Beach.
“Due to training I am unable to attend tonight’s meeting; however, I still feel that I needed to address council and the town of the progress with the police department. Most everyone has now seen there are visible changes in the department. We now have two unmarked — or we have two new marked Impala patrol vehicles that can be seen patrolling the roads. The cars have been marked with the new design. The seal on the quarter panels of the vehicle is a replica of our new patch design and slogan, Serve and Protect, Service is Our Motto.
“The cars will, without a doubt, proved beneficial to the department as it continues to pursue what’s mentioned, to serve and protect.
“The police department has also increased its manpower to six officers. Three officers have been added to the force. These officers were selected because of their experience, integrity and their professionalism. Combined they have close to 30 years of experience among them.
“The first of three new hires is Stephanie Lyons (phon.). Stephanie served with the South Carolina Highway Patrol for over 10 years. Her professionalism and hard, hard work as a — with the highway patrol makes her a great asset to the department.”
And tonight we have her father with us, Mr. Tim Lyons (phon.) and he has recently been promoted to the head of the animal control department with Colleton County. Is that correct?
MR. LYONS: Yes, sir, that is correct.
MAYOR WHITE: “The second of three is Officer John Craddock (phon.). John worked with the department and served the town well. John is an outstanding officer and understands how to effectively police a small town such as Cottageville. John has an extensive amount of law enforcement training and is also a certified instructor.
“Of the last of three new officers is Officer Steve Smith. Steve worked for over 10 years with the South Carolina Transport Police. Steve is currently at active duty status in the US Air Force Reserves. He serves as a law enforcement officer and training officer. His core values as a member of the US military will be an asset to the department.
“I ask the council and the town to welcome these officers and work with them as they serve the town.
“Other changes in the department include new uniforms. They have arrived but we are currently waiting on the new patches to arrive. All officers will be in new uniforms by the end of the month.
“These changes are a positive step in making the department what it should be – professional.
“Activity for the month of October was an average of 21 incident reports filed with the officers conducting over 400 business and resident checks.
“The Halloween event went extremely well. I would like to thank SCDOT for their assistance on providing the cones that allowed the outside lanes to be shut down.
“I received numerous positive comments over the past month. I had over — I had eight officers on patrol that night and we handled a crowd capacity of estimated over 3,000 people. I look forward to providing assistance for future events.
“In closing I would like to thank everyone for the support they are giving the department as, as we go through this transition. If I can help anyone please feel free to call or stop by my office.
“Thank you and God bless. Chief Shane Roberts.”
And I do want to add that he has been a great asset to me since he’s been here, since the beginning of September and he, he is one of the most positive people I have — I have met in a long time.
Okay.
I’m sorry, that was — At this time we’ll have the town clerk’s report given by Terri Crosby.
MS. CROSBY: I attended a GFOASC – government finance conference. I learned many things when it came to budget and finance.
Also found out the state would be cutting more of our funds which is aid to subdivisions. In August of this year they cut 3 percent and in January of ‘09 they’re going to cut more which would be 10 to 11 percent of our fines. This would be lower than we made last year from aid to subdivisions.
I’ve sent out letters, setoff debt letters. These are letters that were from previous years on unpaid traffic tickets.
Prepared forms for the Christmas parade and mailed out around 30 forms for the parade.
If anyone needs a form they may come by the office and pick one up or go on the web page.
SCE&G will be here on December 2 to put up the Christmas lights.
I helped our building inspector, which is England Enterprises, with our ISO inspection. Should hear something back within a month or so on how the inspection went.
And that’s it.
MAYOR WHITE: Thank you.
Dawn is out tonight with sick children, as far as for the judicial report.
Do you have her report?
Well, Dawn has had a good bit of sickness in her family lately and we’ll go ahead and have her report next month.
Committees report. Carly Strickland, Emergency preparedness.
COUNCIL MEMBER STRICKLAND: I spoke with Miss Suzanne Gant today, who’s in charge of the emergency preparedness. She said there wasn’t anything going on as of right now, just to remind everyone about the freeze that’s coming in tomorrow night, to be prepared for it.
And that’s all I have but on another matter, I would like to add to what the mayor was saying about our police department. I have something that I’m not gone just make up because it is my job every day to do what I’m gone report to you about.
I’m the assistant administrator at the Colleton County jail. Every morning I go in and I have to check the agencies to see how many people has been brought in and what the charges have been brought in for.
For the size of the department that Cottageville has they do twice the work the Town of Walterboro do when Walterboro has three times as many people then we do. Just want y’all to know that. They do their jobs and they do good.
That’s all.
MAYOR WHITE: Thank you.
Charlie Cook, public works.
COUNCIL MEMBER COOK: I don’t have anything.
MAYOR WHITE: And Rick Eustler, he is in Myrtle Beach this week on a — on business.
And Peggy Thomas, revitalization.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS: We met in October and had seven minutes — seven members president.
We met in October and had seven members present and at that meeting Sissy, because she had come up with the idea of having something in the vacant lot down by the car — the used car lot and some of the churches, you know, wanted to get involved in it so we contacted some churches and Cottageville Baptist.
We set up some booths down there and we had games for the children and we’re talking about a large crowd. I think Shane said 3,000 people but we gave out 500 tracts right where we were, right in that little vacant lot.
And then they had the girl that does the car seats. What is her name? I can’t ever . . .
Chumpy (phon.). She was sent down and to tell the people, trying to show them how to put car seats right in the car and, you know, any information that she could get and then we had two ladies from Mothers Against Drunk, Drunk Driving.
But anyway, so it was really a
good — a good night and it was a good time to reach not only children but adults, too, and, and it was handled very orderly. Anybody that was there can tell you, it went really smooth, wasn’t any problems and we plan on continuing to do that on Halloween and we’ll plan for it next year and probably will have more people involved in booth and such as that.
And somebody suggested about having something — This was, like, from 6 to 8 and somebody suggested about having something like from 8 till 9 or 9:30 for the older children in town, for the youth. So that’s something we’re kicking around.
And, of course, the next thing we have coming up is our Christmas parade.
Our taste was a flop. We decorated. We were all around there all Friday and half a day Saturday decorating and getting everything ready and we had the judges come down and we didn’t — We didn’t have 10 dishes, I doubt, to judge. If some people hadn’t brought more than one thing we wouldn’t have hardly had any food and all. So we took that as a sign that the town is not interested in The Taste of Cottageville so the committee is not gonna go to all that trouble again and it takes a lot of time to prepare for that and we’re not gonna do that again. It’s no need to do it if nobody’s gonna come and participate. That’s why we do it, to have the people come.
So, you know, that was not a good crowd for that but I do want to thank the people that did help with it and people that did bring the food and help with it in any way that they — that they could and — because we had to get tables from up at the national guard armory and I mean like, we got them, like, 6:00 in the morning that morning.
So it’s a lot to something like that and I, I was really disappointed because I thought maybe this year the — you know, it would pick up some but it certainly didn’t.
But anyway, the Christmas parade is on the thirteenth of December. Like Terri said, she sent out to vendors, to units for the parade and we will have vendors. We will not have any kind of hookup for cooking or anything like that but if somebody’s just selling jewelry or selling pottery or something like that and they can just set their own little stand up, we don’t have a problem with that.
The parade is gonna start at 3:00 right on that same vacant lot. If you would like to come and set up any, any your trades people you can come in, like, 1:00 if you want to because people will be kind of gathering and mingling. So you could come in at 1 or 2:00 and get set up down there and then when the big crowd comes you’ll be already there and set up.
So we’re looking forward to that and we’re gone try and — I think we’ve invited that same band. I don’t know whether — We haven’t heard yet.
They’re gone be coming, yeah. So that was a good addition last year.
We hope — Every year we ask The Band of Walterboro and so we are asking them again. Even if they wouldn’t have the full band, it would just have part of it where we could have some — because we have a lot of children from Cottageville in that band and I would think that that would have a little bit to do with them trying to — you know, trying to be in our parade.