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Appoint Wendell Butterfield for judge on a two- or four-year term and Mr. Butterfield’s come onboard.  He’s completed his certification for judge.  He’s done a great — I mean he’s done a very good job for us.  He handles the court very professionally.
Mr. Strickland, if you don’t mind telling council and also the public about Mr. Butterfield.  You see him on a daily basis where I don’t and you know how he handles himself in court.
COUNCIL MEMBER STRICKLAND:     Well, I work with him.  He comes up where I work at every day to hold court and I’ve been around a lot of magistrates in my time at the sheriff’s office.  Wendell Butterfield is one of the most highly professional magistrates that I’ve ever dealt with since I’ve been dealing with prisoners up at the jail.  He’s a good — He’s a fair man.  He’s easygoing man.  He doesn’t lose his temper with everyone.  He tells it just like it’s gone be and that’s the way it is.  He doesn’t take advantage.  He levels just what he thinks is necessary.  And he is a very, very upstanding individual.
MAYOR WHITE:     Well, thank you.
Is there a motion on appointment of Wendell Butterfield for judge either for a two- or a four-year term?
COUNCIL MEMBER STRICKLAND:     I make a motion we appoint him for a four-year term.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     I second.
MAYOR WHITE:     All in favor?
COUNCIL MEMBER COOK:     I think it ought to be two.
MAYOR WHITE:    So we have one for a two and then three for a four.  I’ll go along with the four-year term.
Thank you.
Appoint a municipal election commission person to serve in Billy Berry’s position which expired in 2013.  Billy no longer lives in town.
Is there anyone that would like to serve as a municipal election commission member?  It is good to know the people in town and it’s open to anyone that would like to serve.
(No response.)
MAYOR WHITE:     If anyone knows of anyone that would like to serve in this position please contact Terri Crosby at town hall, 835-8655.
It is not a bad position but it helps if you know who the people in town are.
And that is all I have.
Before I open it up to public participation, please come forward to the podium and keep your — You know, please keep it to a minimum but go ahead and state your name for the minutes and Carl Null.
MR. NULL:     Which one are we talking about?
MAYOR WHITE:     Yeah, one is for — I’m sorry, for the town meeting under police.
MR. NULL:     Yeah.  I had some comments I was privileged to, I guess you call I privileged, when an incident happened and I wanted to stand up and the police department is to be commended.  What I saw happen, the individual had chief’s number, called that, didn’t work; told, okay, call 9-1-1.  When they called 9-1-1 then the county dispatcher kind of hem-hawed around a little bit and the silent alarm didn’t work.  So there’s been some calls where our department didn’t get there till later.  I’m trying to say has not been our police department’s fault.
As Officer — The chief has said, call 9-1-1; don’t try to call him.  It’s got to be logged in anyhow and then the dispatcher up there at the county will determine whether, okay, this is really life- threatening right now or the other and just from what I actually saw it was not the police department’s fault That was that.
Now on the zoning, I forget what I put down there but —
MAYOR WHITE:     How many to —
MR. NULL:     Oh, that’s, that’s what I meant.
How many things do we actually need to have in place for us to be legal right now to go ahead?
And I do want to comment.  Yeah, the planning commission has done a heck of a good job.  They might not have known — And this is only my opinion, you know.
Pamphlet that was given to them by LCOG was only a suggestion, not to take it all in its entirety and just blueprint it and I was only at a couple meetings so I can’t say what they did the other ones.  But I still want to commend them.
You know, it’s a thankless job and it’s not gonna be easy but my main question is how many things we actually have to have in place for us to be legal and then the planning commission can go at their own leisure and put certain things in place as we need it instead of trying to shove 74 pages down our throat which the town ain’t gonna fly for.
Thank you.
MAYOR WHITE:     Thank you.
Dr. John Barton.
MR. BARTON:     Hi, mayor.
I wanted to say first it’s been noticed what a good job you guys have done in setting this up here.  I know a lot of hard work’s gone into it and I hear from other folks that it’s, it’s well received and it’s a good job done.
Second thing I wanted to address is attendance and cooperation with this planning commission.  I’ve read, I’m sure it’s true, but in the paper that Mr. Eustler sent out that he had sent some information to the chairman committee and had requested that it would be distributed to the committee and that information did not go anywhere.  And I’m curious about why it didn’t go anywhere.  That’s number 1.
Second off, for our own participation in this committee, we had a problem in Cottageville before with the church bells.  The town was advised by the attorney to stay out of it.  And after a lot of pleading with the church and lot of letters written they consented to reduce the number of bell ringings from 23 times a day to five times a day.  And, and they refused to reduce the volume.
So, now, this person came into this workroom and told you people that there were two roads coming in and out of this town and two I could leave one and I could get the hell out this town and so you think I’m gonna go visit with this lady and try to get something cooperative done when she’s got that kind of Christian attitude towards me?
That’s all I have to say because I’m so damn mad I can hardly stand it.
Much less, she wants to — Our totally residential home, it’s been a resident, it’s surrounded by residents.  It’s — She wants to zone it commercial.
MR. NULL:     Point of order.
MR. BARTON:     Anyway, I better leave now.  Thank you very much for your time but that’s — Know why — Know why Rick Eustler’s had the same problem.  Apparently you’ve had a little bit of problem and you —
MR. NULL:     Point of order.
MAYOR WHITE:     Thank you.
Sandra Addison, sidewalks.
MS. ADDISON:     I’ve heard it said, I don’t know this to be true but I’ve heard it said that one of the Colleton County transportation commission members said that Cottageville didn’t need sidewalks because they weren’t used.  Well, like I say, I don’t know that to be true.  Probably —
MAYOR WHITE:     That’s true.
MS. ADDISON:     Probably gossip but —
MAYOR WHITE:     No, it’s not; it’s true.
MS. ADDISON:     Well, at any rate, if you look at the sidewalks from the bridge on 17A to Bama Road you would have to believe that that was absolutely the truth because unless you’re three feet tall and two inches wide there’s this long expanse of sidewalk that you cannot walk on because the trees are growing over it and because the bushes are coming out.  You truly cannot walk on sidewalks.  That needs to be addressed by someone.
Now, most of the problem is on vacant, vacant property but there’re also some problems with homeowners’ bushes growing over, too, and I, I don’t mean that you would have to walk single file; I’m just saying that the sidewalks are not — They’re just not passable and I’m wondering what we can do about it until we get some ordinances in place.
MAYOR WHITE:     Well, there’s, there’s several routes that we can take with that.  One, I think the best thing to do is for me to go ahead and contact SCDOT to see what — how they handle that because I know that they do some mowing.
One other thing that, and I’m arrears on this, is because I was trying to figure out what we were gonna do as far as when we get ready to hire ditch workers and now that something that we can address these areas with, you know, the sidewalk areas because there is some areas, like you said, that I know that when I walk on them they’re impassable and I do use the sidewalks and that is — And it’s not — That’s what I was told by CPC, is that, you know, we put sidewalks in but nobody uses them and these are used in Cottageville.
MS. ADDISON:     But they don’t look like it right now.
MAYOR WHITE:     Right.
MS. ADDISON:     They really don’t and you’d have to walk off of the sidewalk around in several places in that area.
That’s the worse place.  There’s some other places that are not totally wonderful but, like I say, from the bridge on 17A until you get to Bama Road there’s some really bad places that you totally can’t walk on the sidewalk.
MAYOR WHITE:     I’ll go ahead and contact DOT and find out what they can do.  They can’t do anything, I’ll get somebody to take care of it because it is on the right of way.
MS. ADDISON:     Thank you.
MAYOR WHITE:     Thank you.
Okay.
Bill Erickson, zoning.
MR. ERICKSON:        Evening.  My name is Bill Erickson.  For y’all that don’t know me, I’ve been here about 30 years. I live up by the Methodist Church parsonage on the right.
The mayor said he and I and a number of other people from the community when the initial zoning ordinance and, yeah, it’s a lot of challengers when you don’t know to an ordinance if you think you’re taking their freedom away and in some cases you are.
And we tried to do the best at that time, use it just as a guide.  We tried to use a guide to make sure that the people could use their property as much as possible without infringing on the rights of their neighbors, producing some kind of eyesore or infringing on the community or breaking the law.  That’s kind of a guide that, you know, had.
So now 20 years have passed and there’s probably new regulations, like septic tanks, some kind of other stuff that probably needs to be in their.                  What I’d like to ask the council as they review this document is to look at it and see if it is too restrictive.  Are there ordinances in there that are just in there? Provide no advantage to the community and are more of an harassment to the citizens.
And if I might, I read Rick’s letter in the press there and the other gentleman that also commented on it and the last time I read the original ordinances was last fall when they first came out and first introduced on the web, web page and I said, you know, I don’t remember a lot of it being in there but, then, maybe I just didn’t read it correctly.  I pursued through it real quick, can’t read line for line all the time.
I said, well, gee, you know, he’s a councilman, if they’re saying they’ve got concerns about it in the paper, you know, I need to be here at this meeting tonight so I can voice my concern if they’re, in fact — you know, they have a legal argument in that paper and that’s kind of why I’m here.
I haven’t seen the new revised ordinance.  I’m not sure if that’s on the web page.  I tried to pull it up today at my job.  I work in Aiken so I don’t — I stay up there during the week, come home on the weekend but I did make a trip back here because I was concerned at what may be in, you know, this ordinance may not be what Cottageville needs.  It may be too dictatorial to the community.
So what I’m asking the council as they review it and I’d like to find a copy of it, if it is on the web page so I can kind of look at it myself.  It’s always good to have your own to look at so you can get your own understanding what it is and then voice your concern at the next meeting, the twenty-fifth of this month?
MAYOR WHITE:     Yeah, the twenty-fifth is the hearing but the council’s gonna actually meet on the fifteenth.
MR. ERICKSON:         So when y’all review it look at it.  Is there stuff in there needs to be in there or is it just stuff that no value added, more harassments of the people’s use of their property, you know, the freedom to use their property.
And the only other comment I wanted to say is the last time I looked at the map, the zoning map, it had myself, Barton (phon.) property and the parsonage zoned as commercial.  Those properties’ never been commercial and I don’t — I know I don’t want my zoned commercial and I know Mr. Barton wouldn’t want his own commercial.  So if it’s still on the map I request that be removed because I see no value added in my property be zoned commercial, or his.  I don’t want it zoned.  If I decide ever to zone it commercial I’ll come before the board, request that, which is arbitrary zoning that way.  I’m opposed to that.
But I thank y’all for your time and hope to just keep me in minds, you know, when you review this, what is the benefit to the town and, and the community at large.  Just having an ordinance to have an ordinance doesn’t serve anybody.
Thank you.
MAYOR WHITE:     Thank you.
One thing before I close.  You know it’s always good to have — I’d really rather have people at the meeting than not have them at the meeting and I applaud everybody for coming out here this evening.  I know that there’s — You know, just because you disagree with somebody doesn’t mean that, you know, your idea’s wrong or their idea is wrong.
This order is — As far as zoning is concerned it is something that is — It’s not an easy task.  It’s a hard job for everyone that’s involved.  You know, but when you say, well, why do I need zoning, well, the town needs — It needs good zoning because you would hate to have a house that’s worth a quarter of a million dollars and somebody come and set up a business next to you in their front yard that you would have to look at and I know that that’s not — That’s probably not the best example but you have to be protected as well as — I mean I feel like in the town we all have to live together and we all need — We need to treat each other with respect, just like at these meetings.
I really, I really appreciate you coming out tonight and I hope that you’ll be here for the next meeting that we have on the fifteenth.  We look forward to your input and, you know, please let — If it’s — If you can’t be here, let your council . . . (end of tape . . . do try to give a good bit of time to the town.
And that’s my job and that’s what I was directed to do but I hope that, you know, after we all get through this that we have a document that we can all be glad that we have and that it’s something that, it protects each one of us and doesn’t, doesn’t really take away our individual freedoms.
And that’s all I have and thank you very much for coming.
At this time I’ll call for a motion to adjourn.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     I make a motion to adjourn.
COUNCIL MEMBER STRICKLAND:     I second.
MAYOR WHITE:     All in favor?
(ALL COUNCIL MEMBERS INDICATED YES.)
MAYOR WHITE:     Ayes have it.  Thank you.

– Meeting adjourned -–

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, February 2, 2009.
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 first day of June, 2009.

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