www.cottageville.net

COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     I have a question with ditches.  I was approached by a resident and we were mentioning something about the ditches.  I wanted to understand something.
If there’s a ditch on someone’s property, if they give permission to the town will the town cover the cost of cleaning that ditch or is it that the owner of that property’s responsibility to clear it?
MAYOR WHITE:     Well, what we hope to do is to be able to cover the cost of cleaning the ditch because the ditches have been in disrepair for so long.
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     They were under the impression that it was solely up to them to do it and I didn’t think that that was correct and I — From what I remember in the meetings is that they provide permission, the town but the town is gonna go take care of those ditches.  Is that the case?
MAYOR WHITE:     That’s correct.
And, also, we have some residents that have actually asked to not allow us to go on to their property and they would go ahead and maintain the ditches which, you know, that’s all the better for us.
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     Okay.
But I can call that person and let them know that the town, our intention is to help them take care of that problem?
MAYOR WHITE:     Right.
Once we get this main ditch taken care of and we start branching off into other areas we’ll request permission from those areas before we — We’re just not gonna go on to their property.  We want to have — actually have permission before we go on there.
People, you know, I think that they deserve the respect either to go ahead and say that we can come on their property or not.
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     Well, I call that — I’ll call that citizen, let them know.
MAYOR WHITE:     Okay.  Thank you.
At this time we’ll have the second reading on Ordinance 2009.5 amending town code section 2.105 to reduce the compensation for mayor and council members.
Whereas the town council wished to reduce the town expenditures by decreasing compensation currently paid to the mayor and council members now therefore let it be redeemed by the town council of the Town of Cottageville, South Carolina that Section 2.105, Compensation Increases, Actual Expenses of the Town Council is hereby amended and is subsequent to read the following:  The mayor shall be paid $220 per annum.  The council shall be paid $120 per annum.
This ordinance is adopted as of the day of the second and final favorable reading and as provided in South Carolina Code Section 5-7-170 shall take effect for the mayor and all the members of council on the commencement date of the terms of the council members elected at the next general election following the adoption of this ordinance.  Done in meeting assembled this second day of November, 2009.
Do I hear a motion concerning this ordinance?
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     I make a motion we accept this ordinance.
COUNCIL MEMBER STRICKLAND:     I second.
MAYOR WHITE:     All in favor?
(Council members Thomas, Eustler and Strickland indicated yes.)
MAYOR WHITE:     Ayes have it.
All opposed?
COUNCIL MEMBER COOK:      Me.
MAYOR WHITE:     I would like to change the agenda, if I could, to go ahead and hold new business concerning the election to public participation.                 I’ll go ahead and start public participation with Miss Sandra Addison, Christmas bar-b-que.
Thank you.
MS. ADDISON:     Good evening.
Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
Just as a point of information, the Cottageville United Methodist Church prepared between 400 and 500 bags of candy for Halloween and we ran out and had to purchase some more for the last little group that came and we had children from as far away as Beaufort to whatever direction that is, and as far north as Moncks Corner, which I thought was very, very interesting and it’s kind of nice to have a reputation for a fun place to be at Halloween instead of a speed trap.
But that’s not really what I wanted to talk to you about.
Last year we made approximately $1100 on the bar-b-que.  That was the profit that we made on it and all of that money is gone.  It went to Coastal Electric.  It went to SCE&G.  It went to Bi-Lo Pharmacy.  It went to other pharmacies.  It went to wherever there was a need that we could meet with that money.
This was all raised from the bar-b-que.  Last Christmas parade.
We have another coming up on December 5 and I just happen to have a few tickets if anybody’s interested.
They only cost $6 and, again, we will use all the money and it’s for the whole county.  We don’t just say you have to live in the town limits of Cottageville.  We help all of those in the county that we are able to help.
We have some pretty stringent rules about how we can spend the money but we’ve done a lot of good and it’s thanks to the town supporting the bar-b-que; so I hope that you will be able to do so again this year.
Our economic situation is improving.  They tell me that every day; however, I get calls every week from people who need help.  We no longer have any money to help them with.  It’s gone and I won’t have any until the next bar-b-que is done, other than the few very small donations that come in from church members.
The need is out there and I’d also like to remind everyone that we still have our Loaves and Fishes Food Bank which has doubled in size, surprisingly.  The only thing you have to do to participate in that is either to bring food to the church and I’ll put it away for you or, if you need it, just let me know and I’ll fill the bags up and help you take them to the car.  You don’t have to produce any proof of anything.  All you have to do is say we’re hungry and we need to feed — I feed this many people.
We have been most fortunate in all the churches in the area have participated in that and have donated and, consequently, we’ve been able to help.
We don’t keep track of that.  We don’t have to because it’s a donation from the community members and church members so we are very happy to share that food with you, too.
So I probably have already talked more than my three minutes and I apologize for that but I do want y’all, everybody to know that the food is available and please buy the tickets from any member of the church or just come on up and pay your money right there at the parade.
The food is always wonderful.  Richard Free (phon.) is a fantastic cook.
Thank you.
MAYOR WHITE:     Thank you.  Thank you for this most needed benefit to the town.  I think that it’s great that the Methodist church does this.
I know that I spoke to Miss Betty out at the community mission.  She was telling me about the amount of food that goes out from her area and she was also telling me that this year will be the first year that she’s actually not doing a Christmas program.  She said that, you know, Miss Betty is getting up in age.  Pete, her husband, they just can’t do it.
So I mean that that will — You know, more requirements will befall on the Methodist church and it’s great to have an organization and I’ll be more than happy to support you any way I can.  Thank you.
I owe you one for the spaghetti supper, so anyway.
Dupree Michael, cut in pay.
MR. MICHAEL:     How y’all doing?  Good evening.  How y’all doing?
. . . (inaudible) . . . I’m gone be a write-in tomorrow and, you know, look for everybody’s support so, but, you know, I mean, you know, tomorrow.
Thank you.
MAYOR WHITE:     Okay.  Thank you.
Dr. J. C. Barton, town finance question.
MR. BARTON:    Howdy, folks.
I had a question about the information on the town finances.  Is that public information and information that we can see, as far as like the expenses of the year and so forth?
MAYOR WHITE:     Yes, it is.  It all depends on what you want.  You know, we can provide that information for you.
In fact, and I’ve been lax in the past few months because I used to go ahead and put it up on the board and I feel like, like I said, I’m lax in doing that.  I’m gone start doing it again.  I’ve been trying to — Once we got over here and going through everything that we did I’d like to go ahead and give it in a PowerPoint presentation and I’ll also make that available in a hard copy so if you want to pick it up at the end of the meeting you can.
And, you know, I mean it’s basically the town’s money so I’ll be glad to show you what our expenditures are.
MR. BARTON:     There’s a lot of confusion in the community about what information’s available and what isn’t so I thought I’d ask.
And things like our business permits, all the businesses in the town like the Dollar General and the BP pay to . . .
MAYOR WHITE:     Well, no, we have to be careful with that because that gets in to, as far as business licenses and all, as far as who pays what, that is really privacy information and there’s only two people in town that actually have access to that information.  That’s Miss Terri Crosby and myself.
And, really, as far as, you know, we can tell you that, you know, all business pay but, you know, that’s pretty much where we’re at.
MR. BARTON:     All right.  Well, thank you.
MAYOR WHITE:     If you have any other questions concerning that, if you want to call me any time, you know, I’ll be able to tell you what you need either to get it or what I can provide to you.
MR. BARTON:     Thank you.
MAYOR WHITE:     Mr. Carl Null, police.
MR. NULL:     Good evening.
I wanted to make a little comment on the — something that happened on Halloween evening and I wanted to praise our police department.  We get down on them a lot but there was a visiting family who had two young children, special needs, who got separated and there were comments that they will walk into somebody’s house and think they live there so I made a phone call.                  Within a minute and a half the officers were up there and prepared which could’ve been . . . (inaudible) . . .
Give them a pat on the back where they deserve and it was a fantastic evening that night.
I, too, ran out about 10 minutes to 8 so I think you all almost made it but it was a good evening.
I also wanted to commend, after it was all over some ladies at the Methodist church went above and beyond helping a family try to find the keys to a vehicle they lost.  I mean it really impressed me because they were out there after everybody else was gone.  It was dark and they need to commended for that, too.
Thank you.
MAYOR WHITE:     Thank you.
I do want to say that, just like Mr. Null said, how good the program went.  Everybody that was involved, it seemed like they had a great time.  You know, I heard about a lot of people coming from out of town to attend and it is a fun time.
We actually had some friends that came over and they live on one of the side roads.  They asked if they could come to the house and we did have a great time.
So it’s just a good time for all and I’m glad that it’s grown to the size that it is today.
Okay.
Under new business, I have one thing.  We had — We were gonna give a presentation to the winner of the poster contest, David Harper, but will be doing that at the December meeting.
He did the poster for the Turkey Trot and, number 2, the election update by Miss Terri Crosby.
MS. CROSBY:     Polls will open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m..  Machines will be set up right here in the council chambers.  All results will be unofficial until Thursday at 10 a.m.  That’s when the election commission will certify the results.
MAYOR WHITE:     That’s correct and one other thing that I wanted to say. There’ll be three machines here.  They’ll actually be set up in here.  You’ll come in the front door.  We’ll have the security system removed out of the way but there will be a table set up for y’all to come in and register and then the machines will be set up.  They’ll actually be set up here up front.
So, and, in fact, they’re actually coming tonight to go ahead, about 8:00 to set everything up, so we’ll be here for them.
And it should be, we’re trying to get everything in place so there will be no problems for anyone.
I’m gonna go ahead and take this opportunity; I’m not trying to put anybody on the spot.  I said that I’d like to introduce the candidates.  If they would like to make a comment they can come to the podium and do so.
If anybody would like to ask them a question, I guess they’d be willing to entertain a question.
If not, I understand if you don’t want to do it, if you just want to rise and say who you are, that’s fine.
I’ll just go through and introduce each candidate so everybody knows who’s — everybody here tonight knows who’s running.
Miss Debbie McMillian (phon.).
Mr. Jimmy Ramsey.
Miss Peggy Thomas.
COUNCIL MEMBER THOMAS:     I’d just like to say a few words.
I know many of you and positions that I take on the town, I just think it’s deplorable to even think about . . . (inaudible) . . . the town and there’s so much that we have here that we can improve on and keep going forward and using what we have established over the years and just, we know change is coming and we know growth is coming and just with Boeing Aircraft coming into Charleston, 6,000 jobs.
They’re gonna be rolling right over into Cottageville.  They’ll come to Summerville and we’ll get the overflow and if you go to any of the meetings that they’ve presented the county out of the county administrator’s office and they show Colleton County, they show the map and they show you where the growth is going to be and everybody will tell you Cottageville is right in the middle of it and we need to be prepared for it.
We can keep what we have.  That’s why we want that zoning ordinance in, where we can control the growth and it’s something that has to be done and change is inevitable and good — Change is good if it’s good and that’s what we’re trying to do here in Cottageville, is have good change.
We’re not trying to hurt anybody.  We just want to develop in a way that will encourage people to come.
So I’m in favor of keeping the town and I’m in favor of the town growing and getting that zoning ordinance in so we can be prepared for the growth that comes because it may be 10 years coming but they’re going to four-lane Highway 17A and that’s gonna be a big problem for us if we’re not prepared for it.  So that’s what we have to look forward to in the future and I think we all have a vision and we can keep that vision.  We just have to be careful how we grow and just watch what we’re doing.
MAYOR WHITE:     Thank you.
Write-in candidate Mr. Carl Null.
And Mr. Dupree Michael, write-in candidate.
Okay.
And if there is nothing else for the good of the town I’ll call for a motion to adjourn.
COUNCIL MEMBER EUSTLER:     I make a motion we 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 AT 7:40 P.M. –

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 Municipal Complex on Monday, October 5, 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 eighteenth day of October, 2009.

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