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MR. FOXWORTH:     Ask yourself, now.  To start a business of any magnitude here – and George and a couple other people can verify – you gone put a half million dollars of your money.  Do you really think somebody’s gone put up a half million dollars of their money to start in to a place where, number 1, they’re being — They’re not having a benefit, they’re not having a draw to put their business in?
George, would you locate your business now here if you weren’t here already?
MAYOR WHITE:     I don’t know if I would or not.  That’s a good question but I’ll tell you what, when I started my business I started it out of my garage and I was able to build it up to what I have today.  I’m pretty centrally located —
MR. FOXWORTH:     And that’s basically what they’re gone have to do with these because you don’t have water and sewer, so it’s gone have to start off small and grow.  You follow my train of thought?
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     And what’s the problem with that?
MR. FOXWORTH:     So we need to be encouraging them.
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     I completely agree we need to encourage small businesses.  That’s why I fought so hard with regards to certain changes on the zoning.
I am — I have a small business, run it out of my house, have a little tiny shed where I —
MR. FOXWORTH:     And that’s what most of your businesses are, is they’re running out of houses as opposed to —
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     And that would — And that’s, that’s where we have — That may be where we start but there is opportunity that can exist here in Cottageville.  We’re a main drag.
People — I think the chief, I forgot the numbers and if I’m wrong please forgive me but I believe he said 8,000 cars go through here every day.
MR. FOXWORTH:     Oh, yeah, we’re a thoroughfare.
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     So 8,000 cars or 8,000 potential customers.
MR. FOXWORTH:     Yeah.
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     So we have the opportunity.
MR. FOXWORTH:     But I’m asking you to look at the incentive.
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     I think we should.  I think that’s a great idea.
MR. FOXWORTH:     Because otherwise, yeah, you could talk growth till you blue in the face but it isn’t gone happen because nobody —
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     I think — I think encouraging growth is a very good thing.  And part of the — Part of the things that they’ve gone through is like revitalization of the downtown but it’s gonna require an investment of the people that own those buildings to pony up the matching funds.
So there are things that the revitalization committee has done, that town council has investigated but without the basic infrastructure, which is what I, I personally hope Cottageville gets, it’s gonna be more difficult and it is gonna be limited to small businesses in people’s houses but I’ll take that.  I’ll take it.
MR. FOXWORTH:     That was just my comment.
MAYOR WHITE:     Thank you.
MS. BOREN:     Mayor?
MAYOR WHITE:     Yes.
MS. BOREN:     I can tell you, me and Terri, we were sitting in the office one day and some people came in; they wanted to open up a Chinese restaurant right here in town.
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     Can you use the mic, Dawn?  I’m sorry.
MS. BOREN:     Me and Terri were in the office one day and some people came in; they wanted to open up a Chinese restaurant in town.  They started asking questions.  Once they found out that we had no sewer, no water they walked out and never came back. That is true.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER:     I’ve been approved for a restaurant on my property.
MS. BOREN:     It might not have been the same Chinese restaurant that I’m talking about.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER:     We have been approved on our property for a restaurant.
MS. BOREN:     These people that I’m talking about, I know they never came back.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER:     I understand but, you know, . . . (inaudible) . . . I mean I’ve been approved for a septic tank system and a well system on my property for a restaurant.  So I mean that’s not a final thing . . . (inaudible) . . . because it’s like $1200 a house to hook up to it.
MS. BOREN:     But it’s gonna get passed, though.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER:     Eventually it will, yes.
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     It’s already been approved, though, by the county.
MS. BOREN:     By the county, right.
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     And the county’s already taken a referendum, county-wide water and sewer and they can do it.  Now, how long it takes to get here, that’s — You know, who knows?  But it’s already been voted, already been done.
MR. RAMSEY:    My name’s Jimmy Ramsey.  I live in Cottageville.
That’s very good point.  But we had a referendum.  The people of Cottageville voted.  They turned down the water and sewer.
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     Yes, they did.
MR. RAMSEY:     So let’s quit beating that drum and let’s do like Mr. Foxworth said and like Danny suggested.  Let’s look at alternative method.
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     Oh, I agree with you.
MR. RAMSEY:     Just like — Just like he’s got the chance, send them Chinese people to him but come up with something or other.  Give, give them —
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     It’s certainly not —
MR. RAMSEY:     Give them a break.  Give them a break for starting a new business.
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     It’s certainly not the end all.
MR. RAMSEY:     You know, work out something, work it out.  Water and sewer’s not the end.  You can get approval through DHEC for public wells and these other things, appropriate sewer if you’ve got enough property but let’s look at the whole thing in a nutshell.
Cottageville is one mile.  We can’t grow no farther than that one mile.  And you’re not gone grow no farther than that one mile because the only thing you have to offer in that one mile is a little bit of police protection.  And I’m not knocking the police force but that’s the only thing Cottageville has to offer anybody.
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     Let me ask you a question.
MR. RAMSEY:     Thereby being you can’t annex anybody because nobody wants to come in.
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     Well, let me ask you a question.
MR. RAMSEY:     Because you have nothing to give.
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     You talked about making incentives for small businesses.  Offer what?
MR. RAMSEY:     Yeah, that’s what I’m saying.
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     And I understand, I understand that, that water and sewer’s not the end all.  It does make things a whole lot easier.
MR. RAMSEY:     I agree with you.
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     That’s my only point.  It makes things a whole lot easier.
MR. RAMSEY:     . . . (inaudible)
. . .
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     Well, I understand but that doesn’t mean we can’t bring it to another vote.
MR. RAMSEY:     Fine.
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     Okay?
The point is that I agree with you.  Incentives for small business, I’m on board.  I want it.  I think the more small businesses we can have the stronger we will be as a community, so I’m all for it.                  And if you have ideas to contribute to help, if you have incentive ideas that you can contribute, let’s talk because I’m all for it.
MR. RAMSEY:     Well, I mean, you know, look at a break on the business license.
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     Let me — Let me just — Let me just say that, let me just say that.  For a new business, I don’t know what I made —
MR. RAMSEY:     I mean I don’t know if it’s legal but what I’m saying is look at some
avenue —
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     I think we need to —
MR. RAMSEY:     — of that effect.
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     I think we need to go — Jimmy, my view is I think we need to go far bigger than that because I know I pay property tax or business tax less than 400 bucks a year.  A $400 help incentive to me is not gonna encourage me to come to Cottageville, not gonna do it.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER:     . . . (inaudible) . . .
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     Well, I know I’m back there but I do okay.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER:     Ain’t they trying to eliminate that?  Ain’t they trying to eliminate the back —
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     Fortunately, no, they’re not, fortunately.  Okay?  And that’s what I worked so hard against.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER:     I thought that budget thing that y’all put out all that . . . (inaudible) . . .
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     No, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER:     . . . (inaudible) . . . people on the back roads and stuff.
MAYOR WHITE:     If you would, please, you know, please allow Jimmy to speak and Rick to speak so that, you know, as far as — Danny, if you’d like to come to the podium please state your name when you come up there because she needs to go ahead and write the minutes off of the tape.
MR. DUPREE:     My name is Michael.  I live on 240 Durant Avenue.
Couple of questions there.  First, I want to know who’s the mayor in Cottageville.  But you got George be the mayor and the next guy next to him is answering all the questions for him.  What we — What we got?
MAYOR WHITE:     What do you — What do you want me to answer?
MR. DUPREE:     I mean, okay.
The man came up here, he start to answer then he start to talk.
MAYOR WHITE:     He wanted to speak.  I don’t think that’s a problem.
MR. DUPREE:     Well, I thought he was coming to talk to you.
MAYOR WHITE:     He’s part of council.
MR. DUPREE:     Yeah, I know he’s part of the council but . . .
MAYOR WHITE:     You know, if there’s something that you want answered I’ll be glad to answer.
MR. DUPREE:     Well, that’s done with that.
And then another question, like you say, gone build the town and everybody be together.  Remember me and Miss Campbell (phon.) come and ask you for a light and then the light and everything went around.  Then after you got the light you left a note on my door.  It said, Charles, I want to see you.  Then you call me and tell me, said the light would cost $750.  I wonder why is that?
MAYOR WHITE:     Wait a minute.
When did — Did I —
MR. DUPREE:     Yeah, you did.
MAYOR WHITE:     I don’t think that’s true.
MR. DUPREE:     Well, hey, mayor, if I lie —
MAYOR WHITE:     If I’m lying, I take an oath right now.  I never told you $750 for that light.
MR. DUPREE:     Yes, you did.  You told me that in the other building.  Over there.  Seven hundred and fifty dollars.  You tell me the light costs $750.
MAYOR WHITE:     Our light bill for the town is only — Our light bill for the town is less than $2,000.
MR. DUPREE:     Well, you told me the light costs $750.
MAYOR WHITE:     I don’t believe that.
MR. DUPREE:     Then that’s just like everybody calling for the Lord.  But you know one thing they told me?  You have a good church, put the devil in it.  And then, you know, the church will roll.  But everybody call on the Lord when they come up and get in to a little problem and stuff like that.
The other mayor before, some of them talk about it, talk about it.  Now they talking about you and stuff getting out, so everybody pleased.  What’s the difference?  It’s the same thing.  They please telling them to quit and some didn’t.
What the Town of Cottageville been fighting for a trailer not to come in here every since in the ‘50’s and the ‘60’s and, well, they still coming and you can do what you can do but it’s coming.  Cottageville’s been fighting against each other for the last, what you say?  Fifty years of my life.
MAYOR WHITE:     Do you think that’s a good thing?
MR. DUPREE:     I don’t think it’s a good thing but you still fighting.  How you gone stop it?
If you leave, the next one come, then somebody gone get back and start fighting again.  So if you ain’t got nothing what’s to fight?  You can’t fight against each other then.
But that’s all I got to say for right now.  Thank you.
MS. SMITH:     My name’s Kim Smith and I’m originally from Cottageville; my family’s from Cottageville and now I live in Ridgeville but I do have the diner here.
And I want to say about those small business issues, I’m really not even gonna talk about the water issue.  I’m more concerned about the incentive that we’re talking about.  I’d like to get support from the people in the town.  Most of my business is coming from the outskirts of Cottageville. And the whole reason I came back here was to give the town people something to have.
And the one thing I did get for awhile was the police protection for my girls . . . (inaudible) . . . I can’t get an officer to come by.  Now all of a sudden I can’t get an officer to come by.  Yes, it’s 9:00 at night, 10:00 at night.
That was an incentive for businesses.                  Trash pickup, we would go out and ask for bids as far as Suburban Waste Management, something like that, operate through the town and then bill the citizens but at least the citizens would have an opportunity to take part on how the trash pickup.
Is it necessary that we have a four-lane highway?  Why can’t we have a wider two-lane highway with parking . . . (inaudible) . . . because a lot
of . . . (inaudible) . . . due to the fact that there is no parking.
There’s just so many different issues that you would never — I mean infrastructure, I guess way of coming at it, instead of just worrying about planting flowers and everything else, I mean why can’t we worry about, first of all, accommodating what we have here instead of worrying about going out?  And why can’t we support our businesses that are in town instead of everybody fighting amongst, amongst each other and causing such a big riff?  That just bothers me.
My restaurant is a meeting place.  It is not to be referred to as a gossip center.  It’s no worse than somebody going to their family’s house and talking about anybody.  So for you to stay away from my business and to say that my business is a Peyton Place is unfair.  And I don’t appreciate it.
And those of you that are on council that have made the comment and that work for council that’s made that comment, I really wish it would stop because I’m just trying to make a living and supply something for y’all and you’re all very ungrateful and I’m ashamed of my town.
MAYOR WHITE:     Thank you.
MR. HAYNES (PHON.):        How you doing?
My name is Richard Haynes.  I live on 327 Faith (phon.) Road and the reason I’m up here is not . . . (inaudible) . . . but I got family live on Rhodes (phon.) Avenue over there and all over Brocktown (phon.) and they want — I’m not picking on the cops and if I wasn’t there with me and seen this then I wouldn’t — I wouldn’t be up here but if I’m not mistaken – and I hope I’m not – I think he was this officer on Rhodes Road one morning.  He went down, then he turned left on . . . (inaudible) . . . then he came back on Rhodes and I mean he had — at a high rate of speed, now.  I saw this myself.  No blue lights on.
And then the first thing they tell me, say you need to get the town people to show them where the town sign is coming from Brocktown towards Cottageville and eventually they gone come to the meeting.  They want to know where the toward limit sign stops at.
You know, I say, well, since I live in the town I would address the matter but I did see him at a high speed and I’m not sitting here, I don’t know whether he was on a call or maybe he had to go silent but he did not have no blue lights on and like the gentleman before say, if he had of hit somebody, then the town would have to pay for it.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER:     Sir, do you have date and time of that event?
MR. HAYNES:    I think it was last week, Wednesday.  The time is in the morning.  Last week, Wednesday, sometime in there, Wednesday, either Wednesday or Tuesday.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER:     Officers do not have the right to break the law.
MR. HAYNES:     No.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER:     And what I’m saying is that if you see — If you see that kind of behavior give us the time and date so that we can address it.
MR. HAYNES:     Now, I was saying what the residents say there and, matter of fact, I was standing there and I was thinking he was in a high — somebody, something happened.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER:     Often times that is the case but what — In order for us to verify it and to actually investigate to see what the problem is we need the time and date and we’re very, very happy to do so.
MR. HAYNES:     Well, I’m not — I’m just only telling you that that’s what happened, you know, and they — First thing they did was turned me because I live in the town, you know?  Yeah, they get down on me, say, well, there go your cop, boy, you need to do something, he can’t come through here like this.  That’s all I’m telling you.
I don’t know, he could’ve been in a silent alarm but I’m just saying usually when you in a silent your blue lights be on, right?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER:     May I address that?
MAYOR WHITE:     Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER:     No, sir, they’re not.
I think I do know where he was talking about in reference because I was in that area during the morning time.
Actually, what happened on Depot Road, I had notice there were actually a burglary in progress.
Here we go again, let’s talk about
. . . (inaudible) . . . Two nights ago, same pickup truck I stopped.  I’m out here working. . . . (inaudible) . . . okay?  Didn’t arrest the guys, let them go.  They were from . . . (inaudible) . . . Same warning.
Eight o’clock in the morning they’re down here in this house on Depot Road where the lady is in the nursing home.  They’re dragging stuff out of the backdoor residence.  Some kind of pump.
Mr. Brabham (phon.), who lives on Ammons (phon.) Road, pulls up; they take off running.  There’s a big refrigerator in the back of this guy’s truck.
They take off, dump the refrigerator in to Nosy (phon.) Brook and goes their way.
Was I near Brocktown Road?  Yes.  Was I at a high rate of speed?  Yes.  Did I have my blue lights on?  No.  Do I need my blue lights on?  No, I think I do not.
Reason why I was doing that is I was trying to find me that vehicle and I went all the way down . . . (inaudible) . . . and that’s where their — They live off of Turner Lake (phon.).  That’s where I was going.
MR. HAYNES:     Well, I understand what you’re saying —
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER:     It was — It was — You know, it just happened.  They left; they left the residence with stuff.  They then go towards Cottageville Highway.
Like I said, when I got the description of the vehicle it registered in my mind, okay, I just stopped that vehicle two days ago . . . (inaudible) . . . So I took a shortcut, cut through, tried to find the vehicle.  No, came back, checked on
. . . (inaudible) . . . with other residents where the other suspect lived, to no avail. That’s what I was doing.
MR. HAYNES:     Now, I understand what you’re saying but, like I tell them, you could’ve been in the jail but . . . (inaudible) . . . Now, I’m just saying that was their complaint to me, that’s all.
MAYOR WHITE:     Mr. Haynes —
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER:     Like everybody’s complaining.  Everybody’s complaining.  It’s like you go fast through town to stop a speeder, okay? Okay.  Well, if we don’t go through — fast through town, we go slow, we end up stopping them in Roundo and we’re down here patrolling . . . (inaudible) . . . It’s a no-win situation.  I mean we get — We get accused of everything that we do and I mean all we’re trying to do is, like I said, we’re trying to — I’m trying — We’re trying to make sure everything’s safe.
Well, you know, if we — If we go through — too fast through town somebody’s complaining.  If we go too slow and creep through town and try to keep, keep up with somebody who’s running 60 or 70 miles per hour through town and then end up stopping them down here in Roundo we get complained on.
And I can tell you, honestly, I’ve clocked two vehicles coming into — in the town limits of Cottageville at a hundred and thirty-five miles an hour, okay?  I’ve got them at 80 miles an hour.  You want me to just sit here and just wave bye, I mean that’s fine but when one of those hit y’all, then we’re not doing our job.
But I can tell you, every year I train on vehicles and so do all the other police officers.  We train constantly.  I know how to drive.  I know due regard, you know.  Luckily we haven’t had any, any issues but we can’t win against y’all so we’re just beating ourselves to death.
MAYOR WHITE:     Mr. Haynes, one thing.
MR. HAYNES:     No, no, no, let me get him straight, now.
I’m not complaining about him pulling people on 17.  All I’m saying is what the residents who live on the outside of town limits say to me because I live in the town limits.  I’m not complaining about him on 17 because I see the state troopers do it, you know.
If he got to run 80, 90 miles to catch someone, that’s fine with me, as long as it ain’t me.  You know what I mean?
Because as of now they passing a law whenever we see the blue lights you either gone have to slow down or pull over but all I’m saying to him is they complain to me.  I don’t care what he do up and down 17 and that’s it but they complain to me about he coming through there and, like he say, he can come out, no blue light, you know what I mean?  A blue light.
Now I can go back and tell them, say, well, hey, he was investigating a case so that’s why he drive through there.
Now, you have to let them know where the town sign stops coming from that side.
(Several people started talking at the same time.)