9/13/07
Peaceful Gathering
County Council holds reasonably peaceful session
By Cathy Gilbert

FRED TUCKER/Manning Times

Forest Director Harvey Belser of the Manchester State Forest, presents Clarendon County Chairman Dwight Stewart with a check for over $15,000, as part of the Forestry Commission’s annual revenue sharing program with the counties in which state forests are located. Clarendon County Council has agreed, as in years past, to equally distribute the funds to the three school districts.

What had been threatened to be a “screaming and yelling match” and was met by multiple law enforcement officers in the room, turned out to be calm and quiet.

Members of the Princess Pond/Dingle Road community were present, but not in nearly the number of the prior month and they remained silent after Chairman Dwight Stewart reminded the audience that controlling the meeting and keeping it orderly was a duty he took very seriously.

Before the meeting began in earnest, Harvey Belser, Forest Director of the Manchester State Forest presented the council with a check for $15,564. The Forest Commission returns a portion of its proceeds to the counties in which they reside. Clarendon County Council has pledged to divide the money equally among the three school districts for their unrestricted use.

There were three public hearings in which no one stood to speak either for or against the ordinances.

The first ordinance was to ratify the “fee in lieu of taxes” (FILOT) agreement between the county and Grant Forest Products, scheduled to open at the end of this year.

“This is the legal document that backs up the inducement agreement,” Clarendon County Economic Development Director John Truluck explained. “They have agreed to pay $875,000 a year for 20 years.”

“We’ve all looked forward to this for a long time,” said Stewart. “We are excited about the 120 jobs they are bringing to our area and the effect it will have on foresters for a 100-mile radius.”

The second public hearing was for an ordinance to reduce property taxes from 10.5 percent to four percent as approved by the state legislature. The measure would affect only one plane in the county, as all others are registered as agricultural use and that rate is already four percent.

The third and final hearing was for an ordinance to grant an extension of the City of Manning’s water/sewer franchise to 3000 feet beyond Oak Grove Church Road, just south of the Country Club Estates subdivision. The extension would include the area between Bloomville Road to Hwy. 260. A new housing development is in the works and some houses fall within the city’s current franchise area, but some would not.

The water franchise was a special request from the City of Manning and would be approved later in the meeting.

The airplane tax reduction was approved at third reading and becomes law and the FILOT agreement was passed at second reading and will come up for a third and final reading at the October 8 County Council meeting.

The ordinance to rezone 10.69 acreas bordering on Dingle Pond Road in the Princess Pond came before council at second reading. The ordinance, hotly debated at the August meeting, was addressed without emotion from either the audience or the council.

Administrator Houser reported that he had received information that their might be a cemetery on the property, owned by David Wielicki. Houser said he was given an early 1900s plat that did show a “Kings Cemetery” but it was annotated as “abandoned.

After researching state law, Houser said that if Wielicki intended to move any headstones he might encounter, there were proscribed steps to be taken in doing so and that the county would see that they were enforced.

Councilman Richardson said he doubted if any stones still existed, but appreciated his constituents’ concerns.

The ordinance passed unanimously at second reading. It too will come before council again at the October meeting.

Following an executive session, council voted unanimously to rescind a motion they had made in August regarding the county’s allocation to its legislative delegation.

Senator John Land had asked for an increase, but in that the budget had already been set, council opted to change the allocation amonts.

Prior to Land’s request, the $14,000 budgeted for the legislative delegation was divided with $5,000 going to Land, $4,500 to Rep. Cathy Harvin and $4,500 to Rep. Murrell Smith, even though he only represents 5.4 percent of the county’s population.

In August, the council decided to change the split to $7,000 for Land, as he is the only senator, $6,615 for Harvin, who represents 94.6 percent of the population, leaving Smith with $385, based on his 5.4 percent coverage in Clarendon County.

When council came back from executive session, the motion was to rescind the August motion and to return the distribution to the prior split for this fiscal year. This was done at the request of Land and the issue will be revisited before the 2008-2009 budget is formulated.