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MINUTES
TOWN COUNCIL MEETING

COTTAGEVILLE MUNICIPAL COMPLEX
MONDAY, JULY 13, 2009
7:00 P.M.

Mayor White called the meeting to order, and led the Pledge of Allegiance.

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

The following takes place in open session.
ATTESTATION

Page        Line        Change/Correction        Reason

Minutes approved: ______________

_________________________
Terri Crosby, Town Clerk

(Census presentation by Terry Seabrook.)
MAYOR WHITE:     At this time I’ll entertain a motion for approval of the June, 2009, minutes.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     I make a motion the minutes be approved for June, 2009.
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     Second.
MAYOR WHITE:     That’s Peggy for a first and Rick for a second.
All in favor?
(All council members indicated yes.)
MAYOR WHITE:     Ayes have it.
Any opposed?
(No response.)
MAYOR WHITE:     Okay.
And then also the approval of the minutes for the zoning work session.  Do I have a motion for approval?
COUNCIL MEMBER STRICKLAND:     I make a motion.
MAYOR WHITE:     Carlie makes a motion.  Do I have a second?
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     Second.
MAYOR WHITE:     Rick seconds.
All in favor?
(All council members indicated yes.)
MAYOR WHITE:     Ayes have it.
Any opposed?
(No response.)
MAYOR WHITE:     At this time I’ll go ahead and give my report.
Thank you for all coming this evening.  We were hoping to have the first reading of the new zoning ordinance but LCOG is still making changes to this document.  I would rather have the document reviewed carefully than to present it to council and have something that is incomplete.
We’ve had a busy month this month.  I have an update for the ditches.  We have three people that have not signed to have their ditches cleaned out one way or the other.  I’ve met with an attorney representing two of the landowners.  He is trying to come up with an alternate suggestion for the ditch problem.  I gave him the opportunity to try to come up with a plan.
I did meet with the SCDOT resident engineer to show him the problem and he will be sending a response to attorney.  The attorney did write a letter to one of the highway commissioners concerning the problem.                  The highway department cleaned out the piping along 17A.  This is not a permanent fix and doesn’t address the main problem, which are the ditches themselves.
On Wednesday of last week I received correspondence from the attorney stating that the problem is out of the scope of the Walterboro office and referred the situation back to the highway commission.  This is the last time that guy had but I’m sure the attorney will respond soon.
I met with Reverend Cook (phon.) of the St. John’s AME church.  They were interested in classrooms for an after-school tutoring program in the fall.  They want to use the classroom two days a week to start with.  They will be using a volunteer staff and I think we should try to support them in their efforts.  I did receive a letter and I would like to read it at this time.
This is to the — to the mayor and the town council members from St. John’s African Methodist Episcopal Church Leadership, Catherine Shider (phon.).
Thank you, Mayor White and council members for allowing us to become an integral part of the Cottageville community as leaders at force in public service through our summer reading program, summer reading and math camp.  As a faith-based organization it is now concerned with citizens joining your efforts as you serve the Town of Cottageville.  It is our hope that you will allow us to utilize two classrooms in the town’s newly acquired complex on the kindergarten wing.  This is a hall we used last summer for our reading and math camp which will serve 55 young people from grades K through 10. The space will be used to provide the town with an after-school program that will be open to all citizens of Cottageville and surrounding areas.  We have written a small grant that will assist us in providing needed school supplies to assist the students throughout the year and to give a small step in to volunteers.  Since we have an elementary school in Cottageville, so as to not duplicate services the program will serve grades 6 through 12.  We will also offer parenting classes as we keep our parents up to date with the changing trends in education.  As part of our mission statement at St. John’s it is our duty to offer education as well as human services and spiritual guidance to mankind and we are making an effort to serve you and our community as we serve ourselves.  As you know, our summer reading program and math camp has been supported by the town for the last six years but this year we found that there is a greater need and we believe that an after-school program will help keep our children in school and it will keep parents involved with their educational needs.  As you consider our request we pray that you will agree that such a program could only help the citizens of Cottageville and that we are ready to join the team to provide public service to our citizens.  We thank you for your time and consideration.  Signed Catherine Shider.
At this time we have Glen (phon.)  Shider in our audience, who’s Catherine’s husband.
Oh, and Cathy’s actually here.  I’m sorry.
Cathy, would you like to say a few words?
MS. SHIDER:    Thank you, mayor.
Good evening, everybody and Mayor White and the council.
At St. John’s we have had the summer camp for the last six years, as stated in that letter.  What we would like to do, we’d like to solicit the support of the town, is to have an after-school program for grades 6 through 12 so as to not duplicate services with the elementary school for K through 5.  We would like to serve that other part of the population for grades 6 to 12 and we are hoping that we would not have to do this in the church because we want it to be open to the community for anybody to feel comfortable in coming and participating and allowing their children to come for the after-school assistance with their homework, research papers, whatever.  Whatever they need is what we’d like to do.
And we would like to partner with the town and do that right here if it’s possible.
Thank you.
MAYOR WHITE:     Thank you, Cathy.
Cathy, what we’ll do is I’ll meet with council and we’ll figure out the logistics involved and if I could entertain a motion from council as far as the support of this program.  I’ll go ahead and meet with Cathy and get all the details worked out as far as what we could provide rooms in the facility.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     I make a motion that we — I make a motion that we partner with the St. John AME in regard to after-school program and that if you held — I guess you’ll hold it in the afternoons, right?  Be an afternoon after school, that we partner with them and see what needs to be done to get the facility that we’ll be able to use for that. And I think with all the space that the town’s got now that we can certainly find something that would be adequate enough to put that in.
COUNCIL MEMBER STRICKLAND:     I second.
MAYOR WHITE:     All in favor?
(All council members indicated yes.)
MAYOR WHITE:     Any opposed?
(No response.)
MAYOR WHITE:     Hearing none, thank you very much, Cathy, for coming tonight, and Glen.
We have started work on the cafeteria, for the office area in the cafeteria. I eventually want to move the office staff over to this building.  This will give us record storage and a safe and comfortable work area.
We have submitted a request to apply for an energy efficiency community block development grant to help with our heating and cooling.  I hope this grant makes it to our town.  Most of what I see still doesn’t make it at the municipal level as was promised by a person involved with the stimulus money.
We got shot down on our sidewalk grant that we applied for the first of the year with SCDOT.  This upsets me because I feel like our roads leading to our school are not adequate, let alone no sidewalks.  We need to be concerned for the safety of our children.
Some of you may notice the dumpster near the old gym.  We are slowly trying to clean up the trash and debris out of the old buildings.  An auction — The auction is over and there’s a lot of debris that we have to dispose of and we’re trying to get rid of them so even the building is not being used, it’s still clean.
Anyone that would like to assist with this project may do so.  Just contact me and I’ll show you what needs to be done.
I want to say one thing about this site.  This old school means little to me since I didn’t grow up here, never took a class here.  My children didn’t go here but I will say this, I was lucky enough to know some of the people that did, the ones who were teachers, students and lunchroom workers.  I think that it would mean something to keep this facility clean and also in good repair.
I want to say that we had a member of the school retire, Mr. Nagle (phon.).  Mr. Nagle was the principal and a supporter of the town and a friend.
He — I think he had a great impact on the children and will be remembered for a long time.
Our new principal, I don’t know if you realize this or not, but there is a new principal starting in the fall and it’s Tracy McDonald (phon.).  Tracy couldn’t be here tonight but she plans on being here at the next meeting.
She’s lived in the Cottageville area for a long time and I think it’s great to have someone close by to hold this position.  I taught her daughter in Sunday School.  I spoke to one of her colleagues the other day about her commitment and concern for the school and for all our community. I think we should be happy to have some — to have a hometown person here at our school.
If you’ve never visited the new school please do so.  It’s a beautiful building.
I congratulated Tracy and please, and I do want her to know that if there’s anything that we can do for her we sure would be willing to help.
Moving on, Terri has applied for and received permission for the town to receive surplus state material.  So far on one trip Terri found used radios that can be used for the police department.  Carter (phon.) was able to program these radios for our use.  The total outlay to the town and the radios and program was — programming was about $300.  The approximate value of the radios was $22,000.
We’re going to track this site and see what other equipment’s available.
We also bought a few used laptops and some printers.  Palmetto Rural has been able to reprogram this equipment for our use.  We bought two laptops, total cost to the town, $200.
Thank you, Terri, for these savings.
In the past few days Terri and Shane went back to Columbia and bought five laptops for our patrol cars.
And I’ll go ahead and make Shane address that in his report but, anyway, this has been a great savings to the town and we’ll be continuing to see what we can get through this site.
I spoke to Bob Carlock (phon.) with PRTC.  He’s their engineer.  He’ll be planning our fiber network to this building.  This will greatly improve our date entry for our ticketing.  The fiber exist in the old building in the kindergarten building so when we get to the point of using it, it will be ready.
I’d normally tell you the financial picture is looking so bad.  Our employees are always looking for ways to reduce cost and we should appreciate that.
At this time I’d like to go ahead and mention something else.  It’s on another note that I’m really not happy with.  I’ve been told of a petition that’s been going around town to remove our municipal certificate.  This is a short-sighted plan for our community, another negative idea from negative people.  If we turn everything over to the county we are back to ground 0.  We have no representation and no voice in government.  I would’ve loved to see the people say they were gonna do something to help the town other than destroy it.
If you don’t like me, that’s one thing but to destroy a town and take away its name is something that your forefathers, not mine, set in to motion is another.  Sure, it would be cheaper for me, a business owner, not to be in town but I’m willing to pay my license to operate in the town to be part of something even though I’m not from here.
As I said before, instead of complaining, put that effort in to something for the town.  It’s your home.  I’ve tried to be positive.  No matter what I’ve heard about things in the town I can’t believe that people would want a town with no police presence other than the county.
Drive through Jacksonboro at 55 miles an hour.  You won’t be judged.  Maybe this is what you want.
I’ll tell you what some people want or this is what I believe they want.  They want the good ole boy system back.  That’s where the law in Cottageville means nothing.
We can break the rules and someone will come to our aid.  Open container, okay.  Disrespect the police officers, fine.  Avoid business fees, okay.  Speeding, great.  No seatbelt, who cares? Instead of following the rules let’s do away with our government.  It’s a smart idea from small thinkers.
I’ve got a story to tell you about Brian Bradshaw (phon.).  He was a young man who said – I quote – service is the foundation of life.  The whole meaning of life is to pass over to others which we value most in a value of service.
You ask who’s Brian, I never heard of him, I don’t know who he is.  Let me tell you who Brian is.  Brian was a lieutenant who died in Afghanistan last month so you could have a town, a county and a country without terrorists.
I bet he would love to be here right now.  He would probably be — He would probably thank God to be alive, even if he was living here but he gave his life for us but you won’t even give five minutes to your own town.
So you want the town to go away.  Maybe it’s just against me for not fixing tickets or you want me to look the other way when somebody’s avoiding a permit or business license or maybe you want the clerk to go for doing her job or the police for pulling your children and the mayor won’t fix a ticket.
Yes, my kids and family, what I told them, they know what I told them. I will stand for what I’ve tried to do which is pay bills, get our records in place and protect your property.  I didn’t say I was running for mayor to be popular, to fix tickets or to look the other way.  Sorry, we’ve already had that.
So vote to do away with the town and when something criminal goes on and you and your family’s in danger or your business gets rob just remember that’s what you wanted because I wouldn’t play the game.
To let you know about zoning, I did away with the downtown commercial area, not because of my business but because of how it looks.  It’s an embarrassment, building with broken windows and
missing — and with broken and missing windows, buildings in disrepair.  My business will be grandfathered in, as each of your businesses will under this new zoning.
My home is located in the heart of it.  How do you think I feel?  I could do something about it, I would.
Look at Mr. Hubert’s (phon.) old store.  You will never remember it as a thriving business.  Maybe you would if it had glass in the front.  It has been out for over three years.
If you want the downtown commercial area make it look like one and then I’ll fight for it.  Tell me I’m wrong.  I’ll bring you a picture if you don’t believe me.
The big complaint was that the downtown area was too restrictive.  Well, come up with a better idea.  We have another month before the first reading of the new zoning ordinance but don’t wait till then.  Let us know now so your council can make some changes.
This job isn’t easy but I thank God for a council, for our employees and our citizens that volunteer.  I used to serve on the original Cottageville volunteer fire department.  Do you know how many people volunteered?  Not many and not one of those people are pushing — that are pushing this petition around are the — I never saw them on the end of a hose.
Well, that’s all I’ve got to say and I’m sorry I got a little over zealous but when I have people that come here and they want to do something for the town, it excites me and when I have people that come here that want to tear it apart, it’s another and I’m sorry I get upset about it.
Like I said, this is your town, not mine.  You can do away with me but please don’t do away with the town.
At this time we’ll have the town clerk’s report given by Terri Crosby.
MS. CROSBY:     Election filing dates for two council seats are August 7 starting at 12 noon and ending August 28 at 12 noon.
I’ve been in touch with Stephanie Yarborough (phon.).  She’s been meeting with the state treasure concerning the past administration assessments that are due.  She’s setting up with a payment plan and will be getting back in touch with me.
Renee comes in on the twenty-seventh of this month and starts the audit for the 2008-2009.
MAYOR WHITE:     Police report given by Shane Roberts.
CHIEF OF POLICE ROBERTS:     Real quickly, month of June was a pretty good month for the department.  We took in 39 incident reports over the month of June.  A lot of them were drug related, crack related incidents, of course, because we have a major thoroughfare coming through Cottageville.
Out of the 39 reports that we took, they include an LEN checkpoint we had here in the month of June and if you’re not familiar with LEN is, it’s a law enforcement network and it’s comprised of the fourteenth judicial circuit and so what we have is we have officers coming from different agencies across the judicial circuit to assist Cottageville Police Department.  It’s a very great way for us to network.
And I have to say we had a high turnout.  We’re proud to bring it here.  We’re able to assemble in this room to be able to organize the event and we went out.
We rode over just shy of three hours.  We wrote over 30 tickets.  Out of those 30 tickets we took 14 people to jail.  The neat part about it, it was drug-related and, of course, DUI-related offenses that we were able to get, so we were very pleased with that and without a doubt we saved people’s lives that night.
One particular arrest was a gentleman who’d been wanted out of three counties and been alluding for over a year and it’s very good to say we got him here in Cottageville.  I’ve very proud of the officers.
The mayor spoke about the equipment that he and Terri came account at state surplus.  Guys, I can’t tell you how valuable that is for us.  We could actually — On the radio side, that’s $22,000 worth of radio equipment that we got just for a few hundred bucks.  Invaluable for us.  My officers’ radio go down, we’ve got a backup for them.  Very exciting.
Officers come in, like on the LEN checkpoint.  During that time we didn’t have radios to give to them; the county didn’t have radios to give so they just were working with us.  Now we can actually loan it out and receive it back at the end of the shift.  So officer safety, it is a compromise.
Computers that they obtained.  These computers that Terri came across and the mayor ended up giving permission to obtain are — These are the computers that I used while I was at the state and I will tell you these are high-end computers.  The neat part about it is they’re durable; they’re in a titanium case so it makes very durable in the car, vibration and so forth.
And what we’re looking at doing is going to the E-ticket system, electronic tickets and what this is gonna do, instead of the officer having the old citation book where he gets out and writes the ticket, he can actually take the license, go back to his car; he can swipe the license and all the information comes in on the screen.  If he’s been through our system before, say he’s coming through, maybe six month ago when Officer Valentine (phon.) or somebody else has stopped him and gave him a warning, we can actually see that; he’s already been stopped here, he’s already been given a warning before on stuff.  So it makes us be able to hold people a little bit more accountable instead of people slipping through the cracks because I have heard I’ve got stopped before; I’ve got warning, warning, warning.  Well, when you look at it, these are some of the people that are dangerous on the highway; they’re driving because they feel like they’ll never get caught.  So that’s gonna ensure that.
Also what that does is that makes Cottageville a leader in law enforcement technology.  That’s something I’m pretty proud to say because there’re  not very many agencies around South Carolina has the E-ticket system.  I would venture to say less than 10 percent, probably less than 5 percent of all agencies in South Carolina are doing E-tickets at this time.  So for Cottageville to be among some of the biggest departments who is participating — gone be participating in this E-ticket system is very, very outstanding for us for the size of our department.
It will be probably about a month before we first get the first computers in the cars as far as online stuff but we’re excited about it.
Three things that I want to finish up with and is it’s — I’m sorry.  There’s a couple — There’s one other thing I want to talk about before I get to that.
I have got a couple of complaints, reference the department and I take the complaints very seriously if they come through and I go through, I do everything possible to, to either validate the complaint or find out whether, you know, the complaint was valid or not.
Number 1, it’s officers speeding.  The complaints come in that some officers have been speeding aggressively and so forth.  So in turn I go to the department; I try to look at video tapes and I try to talk to the officers to find out what’s going on.  And some of the cases, what I’ve found out is officers trying to pursue somebody and they’re just trying to do it in a way so they — so they, you know, get them, you know, as quickly as possible.  So what I can say to you is this here, is that our officers are trained, all are responsible officers and they’re held accountable for their actions and, therefore, if accidents do occur, then, of course, they’ve got to speak for their actions but we do have a job to do.  We do have to sometimes go at excessive speeds but the officers are instructed to watch themselves, you know, watch out for the public; make sure, if they are going to be breaking the speed limit that they do in such a safe way that’s to ensure endangerment to the public.