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On the flip side of that is I’ve got complaints coming in about officers stopping individuals outside of town so I had to address that and find out what officers are addressing — stopping people outside of town and particularly in the Roundo area.
Let me first say that not at any time are officers clocking people or seeing traffic violations outside of our town limits and then stopping those people outside of the town limits.  All violations occurring inside of the town and, therefore, they’re going after them.
When I first came in one of the things that I noticed in video tapes and I may have mentioned this to you before but officers were stopping people just after Bird Hill (phon.) area going towards Roundo and, if everybody knows that area, you know that the shoulders are very deep.  It’s hardly any shoulder there.
Officers were stopping them because that’s about where they could catch up to them with, getting them pulled over and sometimes at night they were having to — the officer was standing outside the vehicle in the roadway.  Officers can’t make a passenger side approach because there’s no shoulder there so they have to make a driver’s side.
In a couple cases where there’s been a victim in the car we get the victim out; now the victim’s in the roadway.  So here I am with two dilemmas.  Do I tell my officers to go fast through town to get them before we hit that point and then get complaints of their speeding or do I tell them to wait till they get to the Roundo area and therefore then I get another complaint that they’re out in Roundo?  I chose the latter.  I think it’s the safest part of town; I think it’s the best solution for the town.
Number 1, many women in here have heard that if on a dark night you get pulled by the cops try to get to a well-lit area; break your speed, put your flashers on, get yourself to a well-lit area because of some of the devious things that’s taken place in the past.  And if that is done, Roundo will be that gray area.  It’s an excellent area to be pulled over.  It’s well lit; it’s visible there.  It’s out of the way to pull either on the side of the road, around the road or they could pull into.
So, again, I instruct my officers to do that.  I just give you the understanding and the comfort to know that we’re not out there clocking people outside of the town limit; it’s not occurring on my watch.  It’s not legal and it’s not for us to do.
We do assist the sheriff’s office under a mutual aid agreement that allows us to go out there when called for but that would be the only case, okay?
Couple of other things I want to discuss is a community crime watch.  I’m big on this.  I had a business crime watch meeting not too long ago.  Officer Price (phon.) set it up but Dawn Cook, Councilman Cook’s wife expressed concern to me that she would like to see residential crime watch throughout the town.  They live over on Depot, would like to have something over there.
I’m pretty sure people in Griffith Acres would like to have something so I’m gonna ask you as the town to come to me and decide how we gonna do it; get a representative from each area and see if we can’t put something together to put signs up for crime watch areas as well and then have a leader from those individuals’ areas.
Pierce Road needs, needs representation, including Adams (phon.) Road as well.  So does Jacksonboro Road as well.
So get with me, my phone, just give me a call; come by the office so we can organize that.  I’m having to leave that in the town’s court because, you know, I can’t — I can’t make you form a crime watch meeting.  I can continue to go around and send my officers to patrol your area but if something more proactive is done I need your assistance on that, which brings me to two things I’d like to do in being proactive.
I’d like a community event in Cottageville.  The mayor, I pretty much have talked his ears off on a community day.  It’s something that I feel like Cottageville needs.  It’s something that, just like the community center that we’re talking about for after school, it’s positive and this is a way that we can do a Cottageville appreciation, where people can rub elbows and get to know each other.
We have a fine playground area out there, park area out there that we can — We can roast some hotdogs; we can have jumping castles.  We can do whatever it takes in order to bring the town together and we can do it periodically but we’ve got to get started on the first one.  So I’m asking you on this, somebody come forward and tell me, hey, chief, I would like to be able to organize this year and from their we could get the ball rolling.
Or say I’d like to see something in August before school starts back but if it has to be a little later I’d like to — I know that might be soon but, you know, I, I think we can do it. I think we can do it.
And the last thing I would like to see, of course we do our Halloween event at the end of October, of course, but in November me and the mayor were talking about, because I went to the Eat Smart and Move More Campaign which Colleton County just got awarded a half-a-million-dollar grant off of and speaking there and they made some valid points about Colleton County, our high blood pressure’s up, our sugar’s up and so forth.  We’ve got issues here in Colleton County and it has to do with not exercising enough and not eating right.
So what I was talking to the mayor about was, basically, in November having maybe a 5K event, 5K run and walk.  Call it the Turkey Trot or something like that.  And therefore would like to end up when I get some sponsors on that, some people.
I have spoken to two businesses; they’re willing to participate.  I just got to let them know.
Maybe we could continue it as a health fair as well but what a great event and I can tell you that in other areas would love to come to it. Summerville, Charleston, Walterboro would probably have a strong showing on it.
I calculate to where we can do it; it’s just a matter of where we’re gonna get a call from somebody and say, okay, I want to help you on this.
I will say that Councilman Cook’s wife Dawn was showing interest in that and she was gonna get with me on it but we do need more people on that and I think it would be outstanding.
It’s not a run; it’s also a walk.  I’d probably end up walking with everybody else unless we’re gonna pledge some money for me to run and I don’t mind sweating on that, to go forth.
Maybe the center back there or something would be good to go but I’ll leave that.
The last thing I do — would like to talk about is the petition, mayor.  I know I’ve been long-winded and went over five minutes but the petition does concern me and instead of speaking just impromptu on it I did write a little something here.  It’ll probably be easer and quicker for me to read versus getting long-winded on a tangent.
And I said as in closing I’d like to speak about the petition going around town.  I must say that it troubles me to hear that a few folks are so upset at the town and a petition is being sent around to persuade a majority to dissolve this town.  It troubles me because the murmurs of the petition sends a message of uncertainties to the employees and to the citizens of this town.
The citizens of this town and the employees of this town are people who are trying to provide for their families.  They’re trying to provide basic needs like shelter, food, clothing and, of course, the pursuit of their American dream and isn’t that what everybody wants?
The town has been my home since childhood and I’ve seen some low points since its inception and many of you can recall some things as well.                  Charlie and I, Councilman Charlie and I, personally, we lost a grandfather here to a violent crime back during the ‘50’s and, as many of you know, Charlie and I lost our father to a violent car accident as well.  Now, our father Tony Roberts was coming home from Cottageville to a home that he made for my mom and us, chose to live here, chose to settle here and raise us but then he had to take a job in North Carolina and left for a few years but the opportunity came for him to come back home and where did he chose to come back home to?  Not Walterboro.  Cottageville.
And so when he returns back home, chose a place to live, of course he was killed by a drunk driver.  That drunk driver came through the town of Cottageville on the highway.
Now, understand this here.  Those acts of violence that I’ve seen personally related to my family are driving force for me to be vigilant as chief law enforcement officer.  I know that crime and lawlessness threatens the town of any town and makes people live in fear instead of living life to the fullest.
My department works hard to make sure that these criminals are identified and apprehended and the streets are safe for everyone to travel down whether you’re walking, you’re on your bicycle or in your car.
What disturbs me is that now I hear that our unity as an organized community is being challenged.
Not too long ago, guys, we were the butt of Jay Leno jokes.  We were featured on 60 Minutes and the internet for being a speed trap.  I was watching a PBS show just after being hired here that’s called The Garden Show, of all things, that called us a speed trap as well.  And I’ve got to tell you as I watched it; it hurt and it hurt deeply.
The comment that saying that we were a speed trap hurt because I know the majority of the people in this town.  In this town of Cottageville reside some of the best citizens of the county, of the state and The United States of America.  And because of that these great citizens, this county has seen or this city has started to see a positive change over the past year.
This positive change was a result of the progress for the town.  This change is inevitable and it will come.  Now, how much we change and how fast we change depends on how united we are.
I’m familiar, some of you know Joe Willistine (phon.).  He’s on TV a lot and he made the statement that stuck with me that said today is the tomorrow that we worried about yesterday but I’d like to add to that and saw that we are what we are today because of what we believed yesterday; we are gonna be what we are tomorrow because of what we do and believe today.
Now, as the chief of police of this great city of Cottageville I cannot apologize – and repeat – I cannot apologize for going out and doing my job.  The choices I make for this town is based on the best interest of the town and the law I swore to uphold.  I lead this department by being fair and professional and to treat each case on its merits and I cannot be partial and show partiality.  I cannot be part of that good ole boy system used to take place.
I can say if someone feels, though, that I’ve slighted them personally, I apologize.  Understand my apology is sincere and wholehearted.
If you’d like to talk to me personally give me a call.  If you want to talk to me face to face stop by my office.  I have an open-door policy; I’ll see you at any time.
In closing, it is my goal to see Cottageville adapt to the change that is coming and it is coming and how we adapt to it will make the change positive or negative.  I want to work to make Cottageville a safe and secure town, not just where you and your children chose to live but a place where your children will come back to raise their children.
I can’t do it alone.  The mayor can’t do it along and the council can’t do it alone.  We need you the town, a town that will set aside a difference in order to reach its goal.
Guys, thank you for your time.  God bless you.
Thank you, mayor.
MAYOR WHITE:     Thank you.
Dawn Boren, judicial report.
MS. BOREN:     We had the average amount of phone calls and walk-ins.
The judge and I met with Mrs. Pamela White (phon.) on organizing jury trials for the town.  The meeting was very successful and we will be scheduling those trials in the near future.
Chief Shane Roberts, the judge and myself also met about courtroom security and the efficiency of courtroom security.
Terri and myself have started organizing our files for the audit.
MAYOR WHITE:     Thank you.
Council committee reports.  Peggy Thomas, revitalization committee.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     We’ll probably meet sometime in August and start planning our Christmas parade but I was gone tell the chief, talking about a committee today, I’m sure that the revitalization committee would be glad to help on that but, anyway, we would be glad to work and assist him on it so we’ll be getting in touch with him to see what we can work out about that.
MAYOR WHITE:     Carlie Strickland, emergency preparedness.
COUNCIL MEMBER STRICKLAND:     I spoke with Miss Suzanne Gant today, who is the emergency preparedness director, said everything was quiet and next several days looks like everything’s gone stay quite.  We’ve been lucky so far.
MAYOR WHITE:     Thank you.
Charlie Cook, public works.  Charlie’s, he is in training right now but I will go ahead and say that we did have one light up at the car lot that had been a day-burner, they call it.  We went ahead and got that repaired.
Also we tried to get the — Or I put in a work request that our lights be positioned in front of the school for the basketball goals so they’ll be able to go ahead and play out at night a little bit later in the evening.
And also I asked for SCE&G to come down.  They’re gonna do an evaluation of the lighting in the school complex and try to come up with something that’s more economical because right now we have just a hodgepodge of lights out there.  We’ll try to get something that will help reduce the energy bill.
Rick Eustler, technology.
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     I did some regular maintenance on the website.  (Inaudible.) I talked to the gentleman this afternoon.  I’ll have a quote to you by tomorrow but what he did give me a price . . . (inaudible). . . and I’ll bring that over to you tomorrow, Terri.
MAYOR WHITE:     Thank you.
Sandra Addison, planning commission.
MS. ADDISON:     Planning commission hasn’t met since the last meeting so we have no report.
MAYOR WHITE:     Thank you.
Unfinished business.  Ditch update.  I’ve already given that and I’ll have more information as that comes available to me.
The second reading on Ordinance 2009 dash 3, Budget 2009-2010.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     I make a motion that we have a second reading of the Ordinance 2009 dash 3, Budget 2009-2010.
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     Second it.
MAYOR WHITE:     All in favor?
(All council members indicated yes.)
MAYOR WHITE:     Any opposed?
(No response.)
MAYOR WHITE:     Hearing none.  Stands approved. I’ll go ahead and pass that over.
Okay.
Appoint a municipal election commission, commissioner to serve in Billy Berry’s position till 2013.  Only one person asked to serve which was Mary Ann Sahlmann.
Are you interested in serving, Mary Ann?
MS. SAHLMANN:    Yes.
MAYOR WHITE:     Thank you.
And the other unfinished business item I had was Terry Seabrook for the 2010 census and she’s already given her report.
Under new business, the first reading on Ordinance Number 14.098, Drug Paraphernalia.  Chief, would you go ahead and explain that?  I’d appreciate it.
CHIEF OF POLICE ROBERTS:     Mayor, under the new ordinance that I’m asking council to read this, our old ordinance . . . END OF TAPE . . . and so I thought that was gone be some issues as we go into court so upon looking at it, I noticed how it was written.  I kind of felt like that it was just a, a weak statute and we really didn’t — It was vague; it was very vague.  It wasn’t no use to have a law on the books that’s vague so I presented a similar ordinance that comes from a lot of municipalities that are currently using that and it clarifies exactly what drug paraphernalia is.
MAYOR WHITE:     Okay.  Thank you.
Yeah, a lot of it in there, I
guess — Has council had a chance to review the list?
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     I make a motion we have the first reading on Ordinance 14.098 Drug Paraphanelia.
COUNCIL MEMBER STRICKLAND:    Second.
MAYOR WHITE:     All in favor?
(All council members indicated yes.)
MAYOR WHITE:     Any opposed?
(No response.)
MAYOR WHITE:     Let’s move on.
Okay.
At this time we’ll have public participation.  Mr. Dupree.
MR. DUPREE:     Hey.
I was gone say about the town meeting, I thought y’all had mentioned one time the town meeting don’t change no more.  We had one at 6:00 this month then now you’ve got one at 7. Are they gone stay the same then or just keep going up and down?  Because everybody don’t — When I pass the sign I just see what date the meeting is but, you know, don’t mention — pay attention to the time.
MAYOR WHITE:     Dupree, the — If we have a special meeting, that’s when we have them at 6:00 but our regular meeting, our regular monthly meeting is always at 7:00 and we won’t change that.
MR. DUPREE:     And it was mentioned about the police.  On Durant Avenue, I think that street is not in Cottageville . . . (inaudible).
And the drainage system, you talking about the drainage system in town and if we don’t get the outlet the inlet will never come in.  I mean never get drained straight.
MAYOR WHITE:     Yeah, well, we’re working on that.  We’re trying to get approval from the citizens to go ahead and get it taken care of.
MR. DUPREE:     All right.  Thank you.
MAYOR WHITE:     Thank you.
Deborah Hardwick.
MS. HARDWICK:     I put my name down twice because I felt like we were gonna be limited in our time and I wanted to make sure I got everything taken care of.
I want to speak first as a member of the planning commission.  I’m not speaking for the planning commission.  There’s a difference there.  I’m speaking for me from the planning commission.
I want to remind everyone that we volunteered for that position, that we submitted our name and the town council approved us.  So this has something that we wanted to do or wouldn’t have volunteered and we wanted to benefit, benefit the town and I held it an honor and I still do hold it an honor to be on the planning commission and before beginning this zoning ordinance we were told that we would probably not be liked by the time it was over with.  I had no idea how true those words were.  I see it now.
The planning commission has held open meetings for anyone in town to come in and put their input in to what we were trying to institute for the town.  We had on average one person per meeting.  In a town of 850 people we had 1 person pre meeting.  We never had a town council member come; we never have had the mayor come.
We submitted our changes in a very timely fashion.  It was a very long process that we went through in order to bring up this zoning.  It took a lot of our time which we gave freely.
We were demonized beyond belief.  We, we had a letter and a flier go out before one of the public meetings in which it was short of a riot.  We were all very upset by the time we left because of that letter and because of that flier that went out to the citizens of Cottageville.
After that we sat down and we went very carefully word by word through that zoning ordinance.  We received input from our one townsperson that attended.  We discussed all the points and we submitted the revisions in a very timely manner.
Again, no town council member ever attended.
Each month in the Press we were further demonized from a person who never, never attended one meeting and we were ridiculed by a fellow friend.
The commission input was minimized after the joint reading affect the first 30 pages to a nonexistent end, the last of the zoning.
We were completely left out of the loop for the removal of the downtown commercial district.                  It now appears that we were against home businesses; we talked in a language that needed to be simplified; we were mean-spirited and out of touch with the residents by imposing very restrictive ordinances that did not allow – as I quote – people the space to live, work and worship and enjoy life in Cottageville all by having a different opinion – unquote.
We, the planning commission are your neighbors.  We’re not some foreign agency that came in here trying to impose radical ideas on this town.  We’re the people that live down the street from each and every one of you.
We were told at the beginning that the mayor would have a very minimal effect but the downtown — the downtown commercial district was hatched by him.  That is the heart of our town.  Without it we’re gonna look like Jacksonboro which is a wide place in the road and that’s it.
While I said not — While I did not think we would sit by around a fire and sing Kum-bi-y’all, I did not think it would be such mudslinging that went on as did from the, the comments in the Press. The demonization of the letters and fliers to me were all very unbecoming of a council member and that’s what I have to say as a member of the commission.
Now, as a member of the town I would like to say something about the deletion of the downtown commercial district.
The downtown commercial district as stated in the zoning identifies the center of our community which is one of the objectives in the comprehensive plan.  We were hoping to provide a pedestrian-oriented center of a community.  Many of our buildings in the downtown commercial district are historical and it does give, if upgraded, character to the town.  Without it I see no reason for people to stop because what would they stop for?  It’s all commercial; it’s all the same.  It has no character.