[0:06] Good afternoon. I'm about to call this meeting to together.

[0:11] At this time, Carman County Council special call meeting here at beautiful

[0:16] Savannah Lakes Rec complex. At this time, I'm ask

[0:23] Mr. Cook to hand off.

[0:31] Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the gathering here today. You already know

[0:35] the purpose. Ask that I will touch hearts, minds, souls, and spirits so

[0:38] that we can come together and do what's best for our county and hear our

[0:42] residents and the issues that they bring before us and that we as council can do

[0:45] what we can do about those issues. We thank you for the gathering. We thank

[0:49] you for everyone that's here. Bless and touch all those across this county, this

[0:53] state, and this nation. Your son's name we pray. Amen.

[0:56] » Amen.

[1:01] To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it

[1:07] stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all

[1:22] Present >> Charles

[1:25] » present

[1:28] » David >> pres

[1:33] we do have a quum at this time. We will enter our decision item which is

[1:38] ordinance 256 and ordinance amending ordinance 1307 to increase the solid

[1:44] waste fee to be paid to the co to the cost of the management and disposal of

[1:49] solid waste generated within the car county from $80 to $100 per year. This

[1:56] is council second. What do I hear? >> Second and second is excuse me. Any

[2:02] further discussion? I would just mention this fee has not

[2:08] been increased in many many years and majority of you folks have used the

[2:13] recycling center. So that waste goes from there to a transfer station in

[2:19] Edill County and then from there it's loaded on tractor trailer trucks and

[2:25] transferred to south of the Savannah River site in Aken County where

[2:30] processing made sales. So, uh, there's been a huge

[2:36] increase in the cost to hauling this waste those distances, but that's kind

[2:41] of why we're asking for a $20 increase to cover some of that cost. So, all in

[2:47] favor of the increase right hand, please carries.

[2:54] At this time, we will be entered into our town hall meeting. Uh, Mr. Coop want

[3:00] to speak. you know, he never shy words, but we'll get to give you the mic in

[3:06] just a second. But I will personally ask I want to introduce everyone, have

[3:11] everyone introduce themselves to you folks. We don't have our name tags

[3:16] tonight. Miss Barnes, I apologize for that, but we we pull this together kind

[3:22] of short notice, but uh I think it's important everyone, we'll start with Mr.

[3:28] uh James. He's our new administrator and he's not aware, but I'd like for him to

[3:33] take about three minutes to introduce himself since he's the new guy.

[3:39] I want to, you know, just been recently hired as administrator and I'm sure he

[3:44] might have a couple words to share with you folks about how excited he is to be

[3:48] here representing county. >> Mr.

[3:55] Board of Mr. We need to formally adjourn the special

[4:01] call meeting before we go into the town. >> I so move that second.

[4:10] » We got a first second. Any no further discussion?

[4:13] All in favor?

[4:18] Now we can do the introduction.

[4:23] We going to get this thing over here short.

[4:26] Go ahead.

[4:30] » I think I have about 60 seconds left now, so I'll make this quick. I'm James

[4:36] Up Church. I'm excited to be your new county administrator here in McCormic

[4:39] County. Um, the last two weeks, this is day 12. The last two weeks, I've had the

[4:45] opportunity to meet with all of our department heads. This past week, met

[4:49] individually with our council members. And then next week, we'll be at the

[4:54] state conference and after that and meeting individually with our local

[4:58] community groups. So, I'm excited to be here as part of this town hall. I know

[5:02] we have several more scheduled throughout the county over the next

[5:05] couple weeks. And I'll be working with Crystal to make sure that we're

[5:10] communicating as effectively as possible, sharing this video on social

[5:14] media and online platforms to make sure those who can't attend tonight will

[5:18] still have access to the meeting. I will have cards to hand out at a later time

[5:24] and I forward to hearing your comments tonight, learning more about county uh

[5:29] and working with you forward.

[5:38] » Good evening. I am Charles representing district 4 chair. I'd like to say thank

[5:45] you for for inviting us out into the town hall meeting. is great for showing

[5:52] how how he cares about the government and the government is no stronger than

[5:56] the people that repres

[6:07] the chairman of karma county and I too as Mr. says, "Want to particularly thank

[6:13] the staff and administration and the residents of this great community for

[6:19] allowing us to come before y'all." And typically in the past, we used to take

[6:24] county council meetings on the road, but because of the technology and we're on

[6:29] YouTube and those type of things, we felt it'd be best to start doing town

[6:34] hall meetings uh throughout the entire county to give y'all the opportunity to

[6:40] share with us your issues and concerns. And this meeting is not about county

[6:45] council. You know, it's not official now that we're out of our official care of

[6:51] our official business. This meeting is for y'all to ask those questions. We

[6:56] might not have all the answers, but we definitely recorded it and working

[7:02] together, we will resolve some of the main issues that this county faces. So,

[7:07] thank each and everyone for coming out on such a hot day and just having a very

[7:11] good meeting. Uh I'm looking forward to it being here with you and for you.

[7:20] » Mr. Chairman, I'm very proud and happy and fortunate to be the district 3

[7:28] county councilman. We may be the smallest district in terms

[7:34] of total area, but based on the latest population counts, we are certainly the

[7:40] most numerous. So, I'm very proud to be here. I'm very proud to represent you

[7:46] and look forward to answering your questions to the best of our ability.

[7:52] Thank you. >> Jackie Brown County District 5. Echo all

[7:58] the comments have been said before. Glad to be here.

[8:05] » Definitely want to thank Mr. barns by setting this up and the technology staff

[8:12] that help set the the electronics that up and don't want to forget them. So,

[8:17] she does a great job for us and she I don't think she's probably got enough to

[8:23] hand out tonight, but she took the time to uh give McConn County government

[8:29] things to know list us administration. uh she's saying on this and please if

[8:36] you're interested if you haven't signed up to get all our announcements and

[8:41] alerts, please get this uh from her. Uh and it tells you step by step how to

[8:48] sign up to get every one of the notices that she sends out for us. uh regular

[8:54] meetings, official call meetings, some of our board meetings, CTC and planning

[9:01] and a couple others that she sends out the notices to the public. And speaking

[9:07] of public notices has started is working very well the public part of our county

[9:12] council meeting which is on the third Tuesday of each night uh not each night

[9:18] but each month uh we give you the opportunity as

[9:23] you come in to sign up to speak for three minutes and that's working out

[9:27] real well. Uh we are just we felt the need to be a lot more transparent. We

[9:33] need we need the public's involvement more. We're very excited about James

[9:38] wanting to be seen more out in the public. And so uh his door is open. I

[9:45] have a lot of SLB uh talent, not only SLB talent and

[9:51] expertise calling me wanting to get involved in the county as an advisory

[9:56] positions and those things which we'll be working on in the near future. Uh can

[10:01] make things better. This is a great We're very proud to uh the process uh

[10:07] the process I think we going to like I said we we did one at uh Mr. W at the

[10:12] Delow went real well. So tonight we're going to try doing I think uh you guys

[10:19] can line up at the mic that want to ask us questions. I ask that you sort of

[10:26] keep the questions brief as possible depending on how many you know how many

[10:29] folks you want to ask us. We we well aware that the number one question that

[10:35] people asked over and over again is the water situation we find ourselves in. We

[10:40] don't have a lot of answers. We have some, but uh there's after we after the

[10:46] meeting and the closing part, I've got a couple ideas I think that we're going to

[10:50] try to balance out and see if we can make a get some better answers than what

[10:56] we have here tonight. So, at this time, we'll start taking questions. This is

[11:02] y'all's meeting. Yes, sir. I'd like for you to just

[11:06] please say your name and give us your question.

[11:22] Hello, my name is Ferrer. I'm with Clemson University.

[11:30] » I went to the Thank you for taking me again.

[11:33] » I bring to you guys a very important issue which is our farmers market

[11:38] pavilion. Uh I built two farmers markets pavilion, one in Donald and one in K

[11:43] Falls. I needed very little government money. It was mainly donations from

[11:48] organizations and uh a few from individuals. Uh we have a need for a

[11:54] pavilion in McCord County. We started at door mill 2016. There was my first

[11:59] farmers market that I opened before I started this program. I had four more

[12:03] years. I retired. This is my last infrastructure project in my resume. So

[12:10] we have a potential to have 80 by 40 and next to the town center exactly

[12:17] where the farmers market is right now. Uh we have a chance to apply for a

[12:23] $25,000 grant with the mass which is associated to get that $25,000.

[12:29] The city promised us something and I'll go after other big donors and McCormic

[12:36] Greenwood Greenville Greenville Columbia. So I'll be chasing all those

[12:41] individuals who believe in local food. McCormic has driven our farmers market

[12:47] region. So we usually have 16 vendors in McCormic and all these vendors used to

[12:52] go to Abbyville to Donalds to Donald's even to Greenwood.

[12:59] McCorm became kind of like the hub of all these members because and most of

[13:04] because of you guys at 7 that has been supporting us so greatly. Thank you so

[13:10] very much for all your support from our farmers market. So with the chance we

[13:14] have now to build a 80 by40 pavilion, we have a chance to double the amount of

[13:20] vendors that we have. Just think about this. You're a vendor produce farmer and

[13:26] that's hot 95 degrees F and has cultivate. You have to water plants. You

[13:32] have to do weed. So, it's just not easy. And then you bring all the stuff to your

[13:35] truck and then put a canopy. >> So, what's your question?

[13:40] » You're supposed to be asking a question. >> This is a telephone. Do you do you have

[13:44] a presentation that you can pass out?

[13:49] » The question is, >> do I keep your support?

[13:55] » Yes, sir. I think that's an honor. We have very excited presentation that you

[14:00] presented to council and you go back to YouTube get all his details of what he's

[14:07] trying to do. He takes a lot of pride in his work.

[14:14] Next person.

[14:27] » I have a few short questions. >> Yes, sir.

[14:30] » My first question is I know you rented the place on 28 and I'd like to know

[14:35] what kind of progress is being made to get that open and what they're going to

[14:39] be producing. You're talking about Micro Tech the

[14:45] building that's laid shallow for five years.

[14:48] » Yes, sir. If you pass I pass by there just about daily. Uh they poured the

[14:53] concrete. There's probably five trucks out there presently. They're doing the

[14:57] electrical, the plumbing, uh that's those food added a German company who

[15:04] signed a contract with. And so it I'm not sure

[15:11] Have you heard any updates? >> They're supposed to be opening in

[15:14] October. >> All right. And what are they going to be

[15:17] producing? >> They're going to be producing additives

[15:20] mainly for animal food. >> Okay. The other question I have is I

[15:23] know you sold a piece of property down in Branch to a company that's going to

[15:28] be creating a solar field. >> That's correct.

[15:31] » Have they cleared the land and when do they expect to plant the solar field?

[15:36] » From Mark and Tom. last update that we got is going to be probably a 3 to 5

[15:42] year project to get that in place and it's all it's out way outside of parks

[15:49] for prices road is paper company land that they own previously and it's a

[15:56] great location for it's not like one that you see on our highway

[16:03] two secondary road

[16:07] some of the land that you know where they are. We really just entered into

[16:12] agreement. >> Okay. My third question is we get our

[16:15] power from Little River Electric Company,

[16:18] » right? >> It gets its power for Santi Cooper who

[16:21] got together with Stana to build a nuclear power plant down south somewhere

[16:27] that never opened and now has an 8.2 billion dollar debt which is going to be

[16:33] paid by the rateayers. Is there any way we can get out of getting electric from

[16:39] Santi Koopa or Little River Little River Electric so we don't have to pay that

[16:43] bill? Um, South Carolina has a system in which

[16:50] areas of responsibility and service are assigned by the public service

[16:57] commission and the area in which we reside as been assigned to the Little

[17:03] River Electric Cooperative. If we were to

[17:09] request being taken out from that service area of Little River, their area

[17:15] of responsibility would be so substantially reduced that their

[17:19] viability with continued viability would probably be in question. So I don't I

[17:25] don't think there's um there's much of a chance at all of getting a different

[17:30] provider. Now having said that, there are other things that are going on

[17:36] in the legislature and in the state house that may revise

[17:41] that assignment system, particularly with respect to the need to

[17:45] generate a lot more electric power for data centers.

[17:50] Um that may change in the next couple of years, but we'll have to wait and see

[17:56] what happens and see what what legislation the legislature passes.

[18:00] Thank you. >> I do know from a personal friend of mine

[18:06] who's actually they have reopened that project and it started by putting that

[18:11] reactor back together. They're going to complete that project. Now don't ask me

[18:15] how they pay for it. I hope it's not another several billions. But I do know

[18:20] because of the needs for power as Mr. Cook mentioned uh that project has

[18:25] started back. It was abandoned but uh they they are working

[18:31] Yes, ma'am. >> Good evening. My name is Katherine

[18:33] Cross. I'm SL resident. I have two questions. One, um, at some point in the

[18:40] past, we've heard that there would be an engineering um, personnel in the county

[18:44] to handle water runoff, grading issues for new builds. Um, here in SLV, we have

[18:50] an architectural committee that used to review, but they didn't have an

[18:54] engineer, so it was back to the county. Has that position been filled?

[18:59] We don't have we're not trying to fill a position that I'll pass this to Mr. Up

[19:06] Church if he's got a data on. We get our consulting engineering firm to do that

[19:12] drainage study for us. >> But what about every new house that goes

[19:17] in that has to have drainage evaluation, water runoff so it doesn't go on

[19:22] neighboring lots? My understanding was someone had to evaluate them for each

[19:27] case.

[19:33] The problem the problem that we have here in the village

[19:37] » is that the builders didn't like the architectural

[19:43] um review the ACC reviewing drained systems

[19:49] in the building. So they went to court and got an injunction to stop us from

[19:54] doing that. Now, the only the only thing that remains

[19:59] with respect to a review of drainage for individual homes

[20:05] is the issuance of a certificate of

[20:09] occupancy by the county's building department,

[20:14] which means that those plans have to go to the building uh department for

[20:18] approval, and they can only disapprove those on an

[20:23] extremely limited basis. Now, as most of you are aware, we have a

[20:28] new development that Capital wants to build on Garden Drive. Uh that is a um I

[20:35] think a 20 unit townhouse development that is large enough and impacts enough

[20:42] land that that approval must go to the state. Um used to be called DK. I'm not

[20:49] sure the appropriate acronym for the new organization, but has that has to be

[20:55] reviewed by uh by DA. Now, if you look at some of the other legal requirements,

[21:02] normally the um the review of that would be done by the planning commission

[21:09] because that normally involves a reszoning of the land. In this

[21:14] particular case, since all the land in the village is planned development and

[21:20] since plan development already includes um townhouse development because we have

[21:26] town houses in the in the village, the planning commission is uh is probably

[21:32] not going to make a decision and doesn't need to make a decision on on that issue

[21:37] because it doesn't involve in

[21:43] Having said all of that, if the planning commission is not going to make a

[21:47] decision, then county council is not going to make a decision. And that that

[21:52] really means that council is neither council nor the the building department

[22:00] are going to have an opportunity to turn this thing down based on the drainage

[22:05] situation. And um the same applies to individual

[22:11] housing units. It doesn't go to the planning commission. It doesn't go to

[22:15] council. If a certificate of occupancy is issued

[22:19] by the building department, then that is sufficient and there's very little that

[22:24] we can do to intervene. >> So there's nothing we can change in the

[22:28] county council guidelines because there's people that are being not

[22:32] myself, but there's people being impacted with new housing and water

[22:37] significantly onto their property. There is a significant problem with that

[22:42] throughout the county, but particularly in SLB with the amount of development

[22:46] that we have going on. The amount of P properties that are being cleared,

[22:53] we've exacerbated the drainage problem that we've never had until the last

[22:58] three, four, five years. >> So, would that be something to do?

[23:02] » We have discussed with the building department

[23:06] opportunities that we have to to amend the existing county ordinances. If you

[23:12] look at the existing county ordinances, there is a requirement in the existing

[23:16] ordinances for the review of any changes that are made in the drainage of any

[23:24] property in the county that exceeds three.

[23:30] And that and that review that review is done by the by the

[23:36] um the soil and water conservation district. Now, solar water

[23:43] conservation district has insufficient staff to do that on on a a countywide

[23:47] basis. If we were to change that and reassign that responsibility, for

[23:52] example, to the building department and assign that and and reduce the number of

[23:58] acres that we're requiring down to virtually any property, then we would

[24:03] create a problem with respective enforcement because the building

[24:06] department does not have the staff in order to do that. So even though we can

[24:12] change the ordinance, we also have to be aware of the impact that's going to have

[24:16] on our ability to enforce it. It's not that we're going to ignore the problem,

[24:22] but it's something that's going to have to be taken care of on a longer term

[24:25] basis rather than simply amendment or thanks for your answer. Um my second

[24:32] question was having to do with the men center wondering if it's become a

[24:37] sustaining um venue. Does the incoming rental cover the monthly operational

[24:45] funds and personnel or are we running a monthly deficit? And if so, what's the

[24:51] average deficit? And is there a plan to do something about it if there is a

[24:56] deficit? Um, I checked other nearby venues and they charge more per rental

[25:04] for three hours or four hours or per day and also have extra charges for setup

[25:10] tear down or if alcohol is brought in. There's a fee for that. My daughter

[25:16] works at a similar facility and um their rates are double or higher of what's

[25:22] being charged. There is a plan that's being currently

[25:26] reviewed. Staff is working on reviewing the prices

[25:29] for that. We recognize that that's very low um for this area. Um as far as the

[25:35] staffing, the recession was already over there. So those staff salaries were

[25:40] already included in the budget. Um the rest of it, you know, we're just taking

[25:45] it as we come until we can come to a plan to do that. The facility just

[25:49] opened. It's not been done a year. So, we're working on trying to get those

[25:52] things resolved. >> Does anybody know off the top of your

[25:55] head what the monthly deficit is and who is the county paying for that?

[26:00] » Yeah, county is paying for it. It's the county building.

[26:03] » Was there plans before it got built to cover the operation?

[26:10] » There were some plans in place for that when Columbus was here. But as he's

[26:13] gone, we're now having to revamp what we were doing previously.

[26:17] » Who was Columbus? >> He was the county administrator.

[26:21] Thank you. >> Thank you.

[26:26] » Just a brief comment now. Um you mentioned the drainage. I'd like to

[26:31] comment on it. Are you headed to your seat? Um many folks don't know but Mr.

[26:39] Curt Smith, Mr. Cook, myself and Mr. Tomorrow we are meeting almost monthly

[26:47] uh to discuss those issues with uh with council to representatives of council

[26:54] and there we are well aware of the problem that drainage is creating

[27:00] amongst the the homeowners and so it is high on our part as you heard M cookie

[27:08] the solution is not simple uh but we are discussing We're waiting on this study.

[27:14] Hopefully, it's going to help us some. Uh, like I said, we've got our new

[27:19] administrator. We're going to task him on, uh, trying to resolve some of the

[27:25] issues. Like I say, um, there's a lot of lot sold that you, you know, it's going

[27:30] to be a problem in the future and we don't have those answers yet, but I want

[27:35] to assure y'all that we are aware of it. We are discussing it frequently

[27:40] and u actually going to probably I know Mr. Smith we last time we met we

[27:47] discussed a meeting with our building department and all people being impacted

[27:51] calling a special meeting just to start brainstorm some solutions for that

[27:57] problem drain. So know it's not glance you wanted here but we are aware of it

[28:02] and we want to fix it in any way possible or make it less impact on the

[28:08] Mr. Mark, >> uh Mark, before you make your comment, I

[28:14] just want to uh say that one of the things this council is trying

[28:19] to do is to change openness and transparency to make things more evident

[28:26] and to involve our stakeholders. One of the problems that we had with the

[28:30] drainage study, that was a a grant request that we made to the rural

[28:36] infrastructure authority. They provided us funds to do that study.

[28:43] There were strong recommendations at that time to the county administrator to

[28:48] open that process up so that stakeholders could make substantial

[28:52] input into that process to identify the specific problems that arose. One of the

[28:58] reasons that we did that grant was because we knew we had significant

[29:02] drainage problems in the village and we wanted to have the opportunity to make

[29:06] input to that study. Unfortunately, uh the decision was made to award that

[29:13] study to our contract engineers. There was no input by stakeholders and as a

[29:20] result uh we have we have not seen the final product although I understand that

[29:26] it's going to be discussed at the next council meeting and I'm looking forward

[29:29] to doing that. But what we're trying to do is to change all of the processes

[29:34] that are involved so that we make sure we have the opportunity to do something

[29:40] and we get full input from our stakeholders so the problems can be

[29:44] identified as well as potential solutions.

[29:49] » Okay, Mark, change gears on a little bit. Um, we went through reassessment.

[29:56] What I would say is probably the highest point.

[30:05] » So, we we just went through reassessment I understand this probably isn't

[30:08] something

[30:12] but I I contend that we reassess at a point

[30:17] in time real estate was at its highest and it's already come down sales

[30:24] even in the village construction slowed down

[30:28] our labor just sold at considerably less than what the house was worth

[30:37] ass.

[30:55] » Yes. >> One of the things about reassessment is

[30:59] determined by state. The county has no control over when that happens. And

[31:03] every resident has the right to go to the assessor and make their case for why

[31:08] they believe that whatever their assessment is is not correct. And

[31:12] there's a board that meets um to review those things. So don't say that there's

[31:17] not you don't have any hope of it not happening. It could happen but you have

[31:21] to go through the process to do that. >> And I will comment to the one thing that

[31:27] most people if if you live in McCormack County and you're a resident of SO is

[31:32] your primary residence your assessment cannot increase over 15% over a 5year

[31:39] period. It goes up by about 3 years. So 388 protects us. So the person buying

[31:46] the new house next to you at the the higher rates can his taxes could

[31:52] possibly be double what yours is because you're locked in whatever you purchase

[31:57] your house from. you know, every five years where we do reassessment, there is

[32:02] that cap that you cannot go over. And if you feel that's like Miss Brown said, if

[32:08] that's still unfair, it's too high from when you initially, you know, bought

[32:13] your house, whatever, appeal it. Uh he's he works very good. Uh he doesn't like

[32:20] for it to go to the appeals board. He'd rather resolve it amongst uh you know,

[32:24] amongst the residents. He's been working with us quite some

[32:28] times and does a good job. We only have just a very few, not even a handful that

[32:33] go all the way to the to the board. So, please remember to take that into

[32:39] consideration. Yes, sir. >> Let me just let me just add to that that

[32:44] although act 388 2006, which uh mandates the five-year

[32:50] review and puts a cap on the amount that uh a house

[32:55] can be reassessed upwards 15%. There is no limitation with respect to a change

[33:03] in the assessment of a property at the point of sale. So that when that that

[33:10] property is when that property is sold, if it is sold for considerably less than

[33:15] the assessment, that sale price will go into the calculations in determining the

[33:21] next five-year assessment. So as those If if the values of those properties

[33:26] drop over that period of time, that'll take that that will eventually not

[33:32] immediately but eventually uh impact the market. The other thing I might add is

[33:38] that with the uh re with the reassessments being higher,

[33:43] there is a roll back that is involved in that under law, which means that total

[33:50] property tax collections in the county may not increase as a

[33:57] result of the reassessments. So when when you take that into

[34:02] consideration, that means that for most individual taxpayers who are not

[34:07] impacted by point of sale, their taxes are probably not going to increase

[34:12] substantially if at all. In succeeding years, even though that those property

[34:18] reassessments are higher, county is limited by act 388 to the

[34:26] amount of increases in tax levies that it can implement based on increases in

[34:34] the cost of living uh the u the CPI and in the growth of the population. So even

[34:41] though your assessments may be um um inaccurate or high. It's It's really not

[34:49] going to affect your property tax, is it?

[34:54] » Next question.

[35:04] » Hi, my name is Paula Golden. I want to thank you for coming here. I really

[35:07] appreciate you taking your time and effort to

[35:11] they heard me say that. Um, I uh want to know if there's possibility of getting

[35:16] glass recycling. We do such wonderful recycling here,

[35:21] but I have to take my glass to Georgia to get recycled and I would like to see

[35:26] us have recycling.

[35:33] So that's a great question. That is a tough tough because there's no market

[35:42] for recycling. You can't find anyone can be buying

[35:59] ahead.

[36:06] » Okay. recycling at Tri County is looking into all aspect

[36:13] trying to find a market to be able to take on recycling

[36:20] if it was tough. At one time no problem we had

[36:27] trying to protect anything

[36:32] but now trying to take a lot of our

[36:38] So that's why I never

[37:00] my comment serving on the board at Tri County. Uh the cost to to deal with the

[37:08] glass and know where to put it. It presents a major cost to us. I know my

[37:15] environmental friends and many of you are that here it's still where does it

[37:20] end up? You know, hopefully not in the lake. I'm constantly picking up balls

[37:26] around my shoreline. Sometimes it really just disturbs me what people might be

[37:31] doing with this glass if we don't do something with it. But, uh, Mr.

[37:35] I can continue to address that issue at our tri county board meetings.

[37:43] » Trad get more expensive every day.

[37:50] » You're going to pay more because a sale that going to be built down the tree

[37:56] road. You talking about 28 million for mankind.

[38:03] as well

[38:07] to be make sure don't get back

[38:12] to the ladies to drink water. So that taking care all that made so expensive

[38:20] because

[38:23] to then it had to be transferred over to Johnson

[38:29] from Johnson another 49

[38:34] That's just how it is. When we get down there, that's when they have to be

[38:39] putting these very very

[38:48] cause

[38:53] to go up to come down here not the kind

[39:10] of moment we want to do what the law

[39:21] Next person.

[39:31] » We're old friends. >> Regular. You regular. That's fine. Thank

[39:35] you. >> Hi, my name is Randy Fos.

[39:39] I live at 305 Green View Court. Over a year ago, I started attending

[39:45] county council meetings and since that time, I've met with individual council

[39:49] members first minute, CBW, and CWS to better understand the water quality

[39:56] and pressure issues in SLB. Not to mention the information on the web

[40:01] concerning Calvin Falls. After gathering information and then

[40:07] submitting a list of questions to CWS, the county council over the last two

[40:11] weeks, they were responded to this morning.

[40:16] It has become apparent the infrastructure in SLV has been taken for

[40:20] granted over the years. Council has known of the water pressure

[40:25] problem since the discussion of where a water tower has been placed for six

[40:31] years. The recent engineering study by Thomas

[40:35] and Hutton identifies approximately 20 million in

[40:39] projects which include the water tower for sob

[40:43] and the surrounding area. A resident of SOV did a recent water

[40:48] pressure monitoring study

[40:53] over 20 hours on his property and showed that the water pressure was

[40:59] in half with at 7:00 in the morning and another time during the day. I wonder

[41:04] why. You've been watching what section is

[41:12] » Magnolia. >> Right down the road from Chuck, by the

[41:17] way. >> And what's interesting, I went out

[41:22] yesterday morning. I turned my sprinklers on at 7:00 and I live a mile

[41:28] away. My sprinklers wouldn't work either.

[41:33] » We got a problem.

[41:40] If we can't water our lawn, there probably isn't enough water at 7:00 in

[41:44] the morning to put out a fire. Okay.

[41:50] So, are we going to schedule when we're going to have fires?

[41:53] Can't do that. I won't spend time going through all the

[41:58] responses to the questions asked except one which was it's too soon to put

[42:04] together a plan.

[42:08] » It's been six years. Council's had six years and a plan

[42:13] begins when a goal is identified and is a living document.

[42:19] Right? We have a goal clean water and water pressure.

[42:26] There should be a plan with milestones assigned tasks to individuals including

[42:30] completion dates which all residents of a county can see so we can monitor the

[42:35] progress and I think that's where our new

[42:39] administrator

[42:43] some of the task may include residents of SLB

[42:47] but we got to go lobby the federal government the state

[42:52] government and go raise Well, we got lots of people

[42:57] with a lot of experience and I'm an sales guy. I love talking.

[43:06] The council needs to become transparent and overcommunicate.

[43:12] There's that transparency word, Chuck. Transparent

[43:18] to the residents of sob. There have been 600 homes added to the water system

[43:23] since the discussions on the water tower began and we can't wait another six

[43:28] years. So what's the plan? Which is what I

[43:32] asked you guys about a year ago in presentation.

[43:36] » Five times. >> Thank you. Waiting on the answer.

[43:42] That is that is the question I've been expecting basically all night and

[43:48] particularly with the situation that we have in C Falls and I know uh and I

[43:53] think talking with our new administrator and with our my colleagues

[43:59] uh you mentioned plan to me my number one concern or our number one concern is

[44:04] a contingency plan on what happens if we have immediate failure of Catherine fall

[44:11] water supply. That's critical. I know the pressures, all this stuff part of

[44:17] that study that's been do another one of those times conducting studies that

[44:21] we're paying for that I'm anxiously waiting on the results. Uh but I feel

[44:28] that we need to call a immediate board meeting uh with CPW and find out exactly

[44:36] what they can and can't do to support us in the future.

[44:40] some of their representatives here. They'll be involved. Council will be

[44:44] involved. Uh we need to get in a room and come up with that plan. If if things

[44:50] really go a lot worse in K Falls and they could well, you know, I only update

[44:56] I get is on YouTube or TV and it sounds like most everyone's quit out there and

[45:04] so I think I'm going ask Mr. Up Church. He hadn't asked him yet, but We need to

[45:11] also include Avenue because we have signed on know we started making our

[45:16] almost $40,000 a month payments directly to them because the money was

[45:22] disappeared in Cal Falls. So they they are a key player. Uh we need a plan for

[45:28] them what they plan to do with whatever our legislators. We're meeting with them

[45:33] real soon. Uh we continue to ask them what's going to everybody's just kind of

[45:38] running around circles and we're not coming up with that plan. I think that

[45:42] to me right now is the most critical thing that we need to put together. It's

[45:47] what happens. uh if for some reason everyone walks off

[45:53] the job and the line blows out and we have no water coming you know from

[45:58] because the way we're set up now we depend on both CPW and C

[46:05] was really distribution falls and a lot of you folks don't know but we do have

[46:12] we do buy some water from Columbia County on the south end of plantation so

[46:18] you Is that an option to get water? We we need to look at options finding

[46:23] emergency water supplies from other places and not depend on

[46:29] fall between those and to disray. So that's kind of my answer. It's not a

[46:33] very good answer, but we going to work. James, you want to comment on it?

[46:41] » I think since I've been here, the biggest thing that we need is a plan,

[46:44] not just for water, but for many other services that we provide. So, we're

[46:48] going to get together with those who provide us water and also those who pay

[46:51] also to provide us water that aren't currently. Um, but then we also need to

[46:55] plan out how we're going to pay for it. It's great if we have a $20 million plan

[46:58] for water, but we have to all get together and and find the funding. And

[47:02] so, my commitment is we're going to put together a plan. I feel like every day I

[47:06] have a council member walk in my office and talk about what we're going to do

[47:09] with water. Um, some of the water issues right now are out of our control. So, we

[47:14] need to take control of our situation, figure out how to That's my favorite.

[47:19] » Thank you.

[47:25] » The issue, this is a this is a very complex issue

[47:29] and I'm I'm not going to try to simplify. Obviously, this is one of the

[47:34] the most serious problems that we have in the county and particularly in SLE.

[47:39] If we're going to continue to be able to market properties here effectively,

[47:44] we need to have good quality water and we need to have adequate pressure in

[47:49] order to use that water for the purposes for which it's intended. We know

[47:55] based on anecdotal evidence, people bring their

[48:00] their water filters to county council that we have water quality issues,

[48:06] particularly Senate. But

[48:10] it's not that we're not doing anything. It's not that we're not talking to

[48:14] anybody. We are

[48:17] uh we're talking to a lot of people there. and that there's

[48:22] » there are the voters if you have if you haven't seen them.

[48:26] » Um but there are there are legal issues that are when we asked the question with

[48:32] respect to some of the legal issues um as to whether or not we can cancel

[48:38] our contract with Abbyville and Calvin Falls.

[48:44] Um we probably can based on the uh the clauses that are in the current contract

[48:52] based solely on water quality. But there are other legal issues that are

[48:57] involved. Uh if you didn't know, we have money in the bank

[49:03] that we have to we have to maintain in order to to assure the loans that

[49:11] were taken out by Calhoun Falls to build their water treatment plant.

[49:17] and we are the assurityity for those loans.

[49:21] So if we cancel our contract with Khoon Falls and they are unable to make their

[49:26] loan payments to USDA for that, how how how is that going to impact us

[49:34] from a financial standpoint? Are we going to have to make an outlay? Do we

[49:38] have to buy our way out of that contract? Uh in terms of sharing there

[49:43] are technical issues, serious technical issues that are involved in terms of

[49:49] finding an alternate source for the water

[49:54] um capacity, water pressure, we talk about an SLV water tower and

[50:00] where it's going to be located. Um if we do all of the things that are

[50:06] required, and I've had conversations with Cheryl Daniels and other staff at

[50:11] CPW, they are perfectly capable of supplying water to the entire county.

[50:17] » Now, to do that, they have to put on an additional they

[50:22] have to put on add an additional shift, which means they have to go out and

[50:26] recruit uh some very scarce technicians uh which would create a problem. They

[50:32] would they they the their information is we would have to build a 1 milliongalon

[50:40] capacity water tower at a place in the village

[50:46] that would be able to supply water pressure to the entire northwest

[50:50] quadrant of the county. It's not just SLV.

[50:54] » You've got to you got to supply all the way to Mount Carmel

[50:57] » in the Abbyville County line. That's going to take a lot of pressure not just

[51:03] for ISA SLB but for for everybody else. Um we need to have

[51:12] um engineering studies done with respect to the size and location of the water.

[51:17] If CPW is going to supply that water and fill that water tower

[51:23] um are those mains sufficient in order for them to do that and we need an

[51:28] engineering study. We don't know and we don't know the cost if we have to make

[51:34] infrastructure improvements to do that. There are obvious financial issues. I've

[51:39] had discussions with a number of people um our legislative delegation and uh and

[51:46] Billy Garrett who's been very instrumental in getting even though he's

[51:50] no longer on the legislative delegation he's been very instrumental in getting

[51:54] money for us through the legislature. Billy's recommendation

[51:59] in terms of funding is that we do a special tax district.

[52:05] Now, my response to Billy was, well, if you

[52:08] do a special tax district, that's probably going to require referendum.

[52:12] Now, what do you think the the the chances are that SLB is going to pass

[52:18] another special tax district to be taxed for that? And even if they do,

[52:24] there's no guarantee that we could get this for within the 8% constitutional

[52:28] limit. So we might have to do another referendum in order to get the the money

[52:33] through a special tax district. So we're looking at a variety of sources. For

[52:40] example, RAIA, we could get a $ 1.5 million grant, which would probably fund

[52:45] about 20% or less of what we need for that project.

[52:51] Um, we could get a loan through USDA, but uh, right now the rural development

[52:59] loan program through USDA is in the process of being zeroed out. So, we

[53:04] don't know whether those funds would go to that. We could go to the legislature

[53:08] and try to get money through a proviso. Uh but during the last budget cycle uh

[53:16] the uh the legislature zeroed out essentially all the provisor.

[53:22] So when we look at financing to do an alternate plan, we're not sure how how

[53:28] that's how that's going to happen. Um there are organizational issues. If we

[53:35] ban with CPW >> in order to provide water for the entire

[53:40] county, that would mean that uh the vast

[53:45] majority of their customers are not going to have representation on the CPW

[53:50] board of directors. Now, there have been bills introduced in the legislature in

[53:55] the past that would enable municipal CPWs to have repres

[54:01] from all of their customers, including customers who are not within the

[54:05] municipality. I have asked the legislative delegation

[54:09] to look into that and to make some progress in terms of getting a bill

[54:15] reintroduced that would provide some representation to the county. And that's

[54:21] easier said than done. Even if we provide the opportunity to do that, we

[54:25] still need uh approval from the town of Corman in order to expand that uh that

[54:31] representation. So, we've got organizational issues.

[54:35] We've also got project planning and management issues. If we're going to go

[54:38] into partnership with CPW and the town of McCormick, then we need

[54:45] to work out a protocol with respect to who's going to do what and where.

[54:50] Um, so there are a number of issues. We have raised these questions and we are

[54:55] working on trying to get answers to them. But before we can develop a firm

[55:00] plan in terms of alternative sources of water, what we need to do, what how we

[55:07] need to reorganize, how we need to obtain funding, how we need to obtain

[55:12] the engineering expertise that is required to do all of that. It's going

[55:16] to take a little bit of time. Miss Cook and just as a comment, he

[55:23] keeps mentioning CPW and he's been the one meeting with CPW. If you heard me

[55:28] mention earlier, we have all got to get in a room together. Uh cuz to hear from

[55:34] them what they can or can't do. Uh and putting all our eggs in one basket uh

[55:42] could also create a problem for the future far as water supplies. So, I'm

[55:47] going to lean more toward alternate supplies. Uh, it's been brought to one

[55:53] person that's very familiar with our water system. He mentioned Greenwood.

[55:58] Uh, we'd be glad to service us. It's all downhill. Our pressures would be great.

[56:03] So, those type things is what we have got to come together as a group and come

[56:08] up with a plan. Individually, we can't answer all these questions and I this is

[56:14] not the place to try to But that's why I think it's so important

[56:20] uh as the leadership of this county that we come together with these groups

[56:24] Aville included. Uh we probably won't get anyone from C Falls and that's fine.

[56:29] We met with them before and basically not anything. So those are our

[56:35] suppliers. the option was probably me Lincoln

[56:41] County would be quicker, cheaper, uh far as doing,

[56:48] you know, depending solely on city. That's just my comment. We're not going

[56:52] to get into that discussion tonight, but we are definitely seriously

[56:57] going to address it shortly as we talk. Mr. church up church knows that that's

[57:03] probably his largest sale starting out shoot and we're excited about what he's

[57:08] going to bring and we're going to get you some lot better answers so you can

[57:14] bring us a clean filter every month versus

[57:16] » I'd love to s

[57:21] » this Hutton study

[57:26] » how much we pay for it >> the is that which study is it

[57:31] That's the one that um McCorman County water capacity update December 16th,

[57:37] 2024. >> How much do we pay for this?

[57:41] » We can get the amount. Yeah, I can't recall. I know

[57:46] I know our water director's here. Can you answer that question right off the

[57:51] bat without

[57:58] » Right. You did that presentation.

[58:06] and he's asking, "Do we know the amount that we could I as I asked Mr. Up Church

[58:12] just yesterday that I wanted some numbers on how much money we pay these

[58:17] folks for these days." >> Yeah.

[58:20] » And so we're going to get you some answers because I think it's very

[58:23] important accountability and transparency that we haven't been

[58:27] perceived, >> right?

[58:30] We're on the right track. This continue trust. I don't like being a politician

[58:36] saying trust me. That's not a good word. >> But uh

[58:40] » that's what people in Washington >> I know say it all the time. So that's

[58:43] why I hesitated, but we want to resolve this. We want you folks to know what's

[58:48] going as much as we want to know what's going on

[58:52] » cuz we y'all hold us accountable. So that's why we here today. We going to

[58:57] continue to do this. Please continue to come before council. If you want to come

[59:02] every month and sign up, please do because squeaky wheel gets

[59:07] » pretty. I know you do. And we and you're making you you're getting attention and

[59:13] we here we're recording and we're going to we're going to work through this.

[59:19] » Yeah. Because the frustration >> that we're all having here. I'm saying,

[59:24] but it could be a lot worse and that's what need

[59:27] » it's going to get worse. We have people that came from Colorado that live in s

[59:32] and said this is how we started in Colorado.

[59:35] » I understand but my concern is that we do have drinking water uh is is highest

[59:41] on the list to work out this issue if we have a failure of the cow falls water

[59:48] system. And so that's >> has been a problem for over six years.

[59:53] » I'm safe. >> And maybe we should stop building new

[59:56] homes. >> We don't want to do that.

[1:00:02] » Stop building. >> All right. Thank you.

[1:00:08] » Uh hold one sec. Just one thing. When we talk about water

[1:00:13] pressure, of course, some of that is predicated too on how much is used, how

[1:00:17] many homes are on on the sle what's on the cold the sack all of those things

[1:00:22] contribute to low water pressure as well so council is well aware of that and as

[1:00:26] Mr. H state that we are looking at how we can resolve those issues. As far as

[1:00:31] the studies for Thomas and Hutton, part of those studies were paid for with the

[1:00:35] grant. I know they didn't come out extra county money, but uh we'll get the

[1:00:39] information for you and get closer.

[1:00:44] » Yes, sir. >> We're good to go. All right. My name's

[1:00:47] my name's Wes Nim and I'm in Shannidoa. So, you know, I got the water issues

[1:00:53] every day as well. At the last county council meeting, it was mentioned that

[1:00:59] there might be restrictors put in our water lines. Has that been investigated?

[1:01:08] » And survey says

[1:01:11] » yes. So we're going to get Rico to answer that. The question the answer is

[1:01:15] we have investigated that three of those I believe have been removed at this

[1:01:19] point. Um I believe there's possibly one left but it's not in the area in

[1:01:25] But can you confirm or deny?

[1:01:31] » Can you speak up? This is water.

[1:01:38] » Hey there, I'm Drew Langston. I work with um so we did some field

[1:01:43] investigation on those four pressure reducing valves. And just for everyone's

[1:01:49] information, pressure reducing pressure reducing valves are put in lines to

[1:01:54] protect against excessive pressure that may cause blowouts in the distribution

[1:01:59] system. So at one point the engineer designed the system and said hey there

[1:02:03] needs to be pressure reducing valves here. Um we went and looked back at some

[1:02:08] of the maps that the the county maintains and three of those four have

[1:02:14] been removed. There is one still in service and it is in the Martin Drive

[1:02:20] area. Um, so we can if someone is experiencing low pressure on Martin

[1:02:26] Drive, we're happy to continue to investigate that. But we we did confirm

[1:02:30] on the maps as well as we did some field investigation back up that those

[1:02:35] pressure reducing guys are no longer in the system.

[1:02:42] » All right. So, I got a question for Jackie. At the first town hall meeting

[1:02:46] we had, >> I talked about you. You know, you have

[1:02:49] to go in for There's a lot of people talking about

[1:02:54] me, >> but you spearheaded putting together a

[1:02:58] correspondence. >> I spearheaded putting together addresses

[1:03:02] and information, not a letter. >> We did not say we would do a letter. We

[1:03:06] said you guys to write about what your issues were to those guys.

[1:03:10] » Interesting. But that's not what we >> That's not what you understood.

[1:03:13] » Well, not the two other people involved in this

[1:03:17] conversation. So, what can we get done? Here's the deal. We're trying to get

[1:03:22] together some type of a letter to send to our state officials,

[1:03:28] governors, uh, state reps, whatever. Tell them what's going on down here with

[1:03:34] the infrastructure issues and invite them to come down here and

[1:03:41] look at it because I spent 10 minutes on the web looking at grants.

[1:03:46] There is insane amount of still out there. Billions of dollars available for

[1:03:52] streets, roads, water, infrastructure, cell phones, schools, fire departments,

[1:03:59] EMS, plus a ton more. When I asked at one of the county council meetings if

[1:04:04] anyone was actively researching us, I was told no. Okay, so one of the deals

[1:04:11] here is maybe we can get somebody to help us write a letter and then talking

[1:04:18] to Kirk. It's going to go out on the link and we're just going to start a

[1:04:22] campaign and emailing all of our elected officials and tell them here's what's

[1:04:28] going on. Come down here for yourselves. We got midterm elections coming up in

[1:04:34] about 15 months, >> you know, and it's like, hey, take care

[1:04:39] of us. Help us out. At least give us some ideas. Do something for us. So, we

[1:04:44] need someone to write that letter. I But maybe somebody out here has a

[1:04:51] background in writing something like that to a politician or a group of

[1:04:56] politicians and asking them, "Hey, here's what's

[1:05:00] going on. What can you do for us?" All right. So, Jackie, that explains why

[1:05:06] you've never replied so much in emails. >> All right, Bernie, your turn.

[1:05:13] I did want to add to that comment that Mr. Brown submitted. Uh Daniels Daniels

[1:05:21] says Dixon is our house rep not far down the road toward Greenwood has done an

[1:05:27] excellent excellent job being our voice for this little county which he

[1:05:32] represents. He's brought what three or four years ago sheriff I noticed our

[1:05:37] sheriff who showed up. Appreciate you coming tonight. Uh he brought us about

[1:05:42] $500,000 for new vehicles. Uh so uh great guy. Give him a call. He didn't

[1:05:48] have to have a letter. It works. You blow his phone up. That's And then our

[1:05:54] other representative that's uh highly senior is Senator Massie uh in

[1:06:00] Edgeville. Call when they're out of session, blow the phones up. You know,

[1:06:06] that's what we do. Every time we see them, we hit them up. But if it's just

[1:06:09] us, you know, we just kind of like a little squeaky wheel that we need some

[1:06:14] louder squeaks. So I I just recommend each and every person not only do the

[1:06:19] letter, that's a great idea, but a personal call goes a long way with

[1:06:24] someone particularly that might be coming up for reelection. But uh he's

[1:06:29] very sincere. He's not your typical everyday politician.

[1:06:33] » Okay, that's great. I still think no I still think we need to get as many

[1:06:37] people involved as we can >> and the letter

[1:06:41] email call call. >> Okay. We've got a lot of people living

[1:06:45] here and if we even get a third of the folks at the village to contact them

[1:06:50] once I think they will take notice. >> Yes sir. That's how it works.

[1:06:55] » So can we work with you guys and maybe a couple folks here at SLB to put this

[1:07:00] thing together? >> Yes sir.

[1:07:01] » Is that possible? >> Yes sir. Okay,

[1:07:04] » one of your representatives. He needs some assignments.

[1:07:09] » Oh, there's

[1:07:12] » I'm getting on on the new another new guy. I got the new guys down on this

[1:07:17] season. So, yeah. >> Okay. So, kind of along the same lines,

[1:07:21] you and I have had a discussion or two about focus groups.

[1:07:26] » Yes, sir. >> We've got a wealth of information with

[1:07:29] people that live here. fantastic backgrounds, infrastructure,

[1:07:35] grants, road repair, small business development,

[1:07:40] tourism. We've got one of the best areas to bring

[1:07:44] people in as tourists to spend their money here. Fishing, honey, whatever. We

[1:07:50] got a dor fishing complex sitting there empty most of the time. We should be

[1:07:54] beating that thing up with competitions all the time. Amen.

[1:07:59] when the airport gets built, you know, fly and fish. It may not take off the

[1:08:05] first year or two, >> but the word's going to get out.

[1:08:09] » Okay. So, we need to get these focus groups going. So, I've asked you, I sent

[1:08:15] you an email. I've never heard back. Have you done anything along these lines

[1:08:21] to get this? >> Mr. Church, could you take that for me,

[1:08:24] please? What was our discussion yesterday?

[1:08:26] » Why does the new guy get over? because I've been waiting on him because I

[1:08:30] couldn't deal with our former governor until I got a good administrator and

[1:08:34] that's why we >> So, you've

[1:08:38] talked about this several times since I've got here. There are some committees

[1:08:42] that were talking about creating some formal, some informal. Um, my before I

[1:08:46] came here, I worked some in tourism. My background is in economic development

[1:08:51] and so some of those things that you mentioned are items I already have on my

[1:08:55] list. I work with Mr. and the rest of the council that put those groups

[1:08:59] together. Um, you all have lived here and been involved longer than I have and

[1:09:03] so I'm going to rely on you and the information you provide. I've already

[1:09:06] been told that you all have a wealth of knowledge and we want to make sure we

[1:09:09] put all of you together in one room and figure out a way forward. So, Mr. Hamby

[1:09:13] has been talking about that extensively. We need to figure out exactly what that

[1:09:17] role would be, who those people were going to be, and then how to assign

[1:09:21] them. So, that Mr. Hy has been talking about that and we will get together.

[1:09:24] » Do you have a time frame? I don't want to give you a time frame

[1:09:28] because here two weeks

[1:09:33] before we think about that and I won't go into too much detail in it tonight

[1:09:38] but um there will be a tourism committee that will be put together. We have some

[1:09:42] funds that have been coming in to create a tourism committee and money that can

[1:09:46] be spent that has to be spent for advertising, marketing, other things.

[1:09:50] So, your representatives will be appointing someone to serve on that

[1:09:53] committee and we can expand that informal matter.

[1:09:59] » I don't know Jack about it, but if you need another pair of hands, I'm there.

[1:10:04] Okay. All right. So, finally, everybody that's here, this

[1:10:09] was an a turnout. I was expecting a lot more.

[1:10:14] A lot more. But do you know we have a county council meeting

[1:10:20] the third >> Tuesday of every month.

[1:10:25] » You need to come to us because this is where these guys here from YouTube. It's

[1:10:30] a different format completely, but it's nice to stand up and heard. I

[1:10:36] mean, we are elected paid off sitting here and bring stuff to their attention.

[1:10:43] let them know what the heck is going on because I tell you, griping to your

[1:10:48] neighbor ain't going to get it. Okay? And man, people know I'm on one of the

[1:10:54] committees here. They stop me on the street when I'm walking my dogs and

[1:10:58] start bending my ear. Great. Go to the council meeting. Bend their ears. Okay.

[1:11:06] All righty. So, again, I invite you all to go there. So, really, I mean, the

[1:11:11] goal, my goal, and all your goals. Make this a much I mean it's a great place to

[1:11:17] live now. We can make it even better. And maybe if we can bring a little more

[1:11:22] business to downtown McCormick, pull McCormic out of that where they are

[1:11:28] basically listed as being depressed. You know, there's a 25%

[1:11:34] poverty level right down the street in the sun. Wouldn't it be nice to pull

[1:11:40] that out? So, anything you can do to help, get

[1:11:44] involved. That's all I can say is get involved. Thank you so much.

[1:11:49] » I do have a comment for you also about the talent that's performing tonight and

[1:11:54] particularly in this community. Uh it's just no words to describe what is

[1:12:01] available. People I get calls all the time. I'm sure my colleagues do want you

[1:12:06] folks wanting to get involved, wanting to make Carmen County a better place in

[1:12:11] which to live. And so that's why we are going to focus uh on these groups. So we

[1:12:18] haven't decided. I really personally don't want to set nominate a bunch of

[1:12:23] boards where we have to vote and do that. But this advisory kind of thing

[1:12:27] where you would a group of people that are chosen would meet with whoever the

[1:12:32] different groups that we put together. Uh they're very excited about using the

[1:12:38] potential that exists here. And I want to go a step further and mention it's

[1:12:44] not only SLB uh Modoc Shores where I live. You never

[1:12:49] hear me mention it, but there is some brilliant, brilliant uh business folks

[1:12:55] down there. If you've never been through our own little community, you'll be

[1:12:59] amazed. and his plantation and other other things with him. There's

[1:13:05] a lot of lot of talent even throughout the county there's a lot of experience

[1:13:13] particularly sewer I there's some people that know have had a lot of experience

[1:13:19] with and so those are the people we've got to reach out to get involved

[1:13:24] uh the comments you mentioned about coming to our meeting is very important

[1:13:31] enough enough. We want to hear from y'all. We want to work together because

[1:13:36] I totally agree. Dropped in around the village a couple days ago. They were

[1:13:42] talking about the priority should be of the business and I agree. I said this

[1:13:48] economic one of our most important economic ven

[1:13:57] county everywhere I go someone ask where you from I don't say I'm from shores I

[1:14:03] say I'm from county and y'all are from county we we proud to have those folks

[1:14:11] here what y'all brought in the father that's what I want mentioned, you

[1:14:17] mentioned the dorm boat at the city. The most impressive thing that I witnessed

[1:14:21] this summer, I've got the flyer here. Two volunteers, I want to recognize them

[1:14:27] tonight, is Karen Love and Dan Hil put together on

[1:14:33] their own to cast for kids. And I showed up just by accident to that fishing

[1:14:40] event. And I was getting calls every time I mention what I saw as people as

[1:14:47] little kids, handicapped kids, some of them severely handicapped, getting so

[1:14:52] excited about getting a little fishing rod in the tackle box and going fishing.

[1:14:56] And then I know I think the power squadron. I don't even know who all

[1:15:01] think. There's a ton of volunteers. We had about 20 kids, but I want to have 40

[1:15:06] or 50 kids like that fishing next year at that event. Uh you mentioned at Nor

[1:15:12] facilities we just requested uh uh new lighting uh LED lighting. Uh we do we

[1:15:21] got a lot of plans to improve that place has been neglected for quite some time.

[1:15:25] That is a gold mine and the potential is there. But there's where just us as a

[1:15:32] decision making group. We can't do all this. We've got to have you folks. And

[1:15:36] I'm clean with you. Uh George is sitting there. he's put together. He wants to be

[1:15:42] on out of protecting tourism. You know, he's one of the biggest u well it's the

[1:15:48] largest probably on the lake and he's very proud of it for those that attended

[1:15:55] the patriotic celebration. We just an awesome awesome crowd there. Five or 600

[1:16:01] people by land probably several hundred boats showed up and all 30 minute

[1:16:06] firework show. Uh, so he has the vision. We need you folks with the vision to

[1:16:13] partner with us and help us make it the place that we know it can be. I love it

[1:16:18] to death. I mean, I've already I know this is going a bit too far, but I've

[1:16:24] already made my will out. I'm going to be cremated. I have a beach on my

[1:16:27] pocket. Put me there. I'm never leaving. >> Anyway, thank you.

[1:16:35] » Oh, one second. Before we go on, I just want to make one

[1:16:40] comment about the the talent that we have in the county and particularly SLB.

[1:16:45] When we were interviewing candidates for the new uh county administrator

[1:16:50] position, uh one of the questions that I asked Mr.

[1:16:54] Upurch and a number of the other candidates was

[1:16:59] under the circumstances when you have far more things to do than you have

[1:17:04] staff, what experience have you had with respect to the use of volunteers

[1:17:12] and unpaid experts with respect to uh doing the staff work that is required of

[1:17:20] which we cannot get done with our existing staff and one of the things

[1:17:26] that um that I admired about Mr. Pep Church was the experience that he has in

[1:17:32] doing so um I know that Mr. We met with with M Mr. H up church for his one on

[1:17:38] oneonone at what 4:00 in the afternoon. I met with him at um 10:11

[1:17:47] and one of the things that I presented to him was a proposal that I had put

[1:17:53] together last March um while we were still in the the

[1:17:58] interview processes that laid out a plan as to how we can identify that

[1:18:05] professional talent, how we can quantify the abilities that we have and how we

[1:18:12] can put all of that together to use it to the best advantage to do that staff

[1:18:17] work uh for which the county does not have internal staff. So I think we've

[1:18:24] made some progress on that. I think it's something that we absolutely need to do.

[1:18:29] We're going to get make some progress and I think there's a way to do it.

[1:18:34] » Yes, >> Kathy Ross again. Um after hearing some

[1:18:38] of the discussion I just have a few more questions comments first to Mr. church

[1:18:43] and to the lawyer, whoever it is, I would highly encourage you to try to

[1:18:50] break that car contract so we're not under their

[1:18:56] problems. Um, second, I don't know if everybody here knows the water issues

[1:19:03] besides their own problem with, you know, poor quality or poor pressure. you

[1:19:09] might take a moment um question um defining the difference between clear

[1:19:17] water the the city system and what's going on with everybody might not know

[1:19:24] so just like a brief over the issues um and lastly my antennas went up when it

[1:19:32] was mentioned to give us a second special tax district a couple moment

[1:19:39] after saying that this was not just an so issue. It's a county issue for like

[1:19:44] the whole upper part. This shouldn't be a special tax just for

[1:19:49] » this county.

[1:19:54] » We just at night we represent our county.

[1:19:58] » Mr. Cook mentioned the special tax for >> my opinion it should be.

[1:20:06] » Thank you. Before

[1:20:13] we do anything, we got to do

[1:20:19] » we have to look to see what best the we have because we don't know a

[1:20:27] study which said CP can do the job because

[1:20:32] we we have to provide water for the entire not just one egg.

[1:20:39] to be able to provide water

[1:20:44] and work from the surrounding area. We need

[1:20:50] we have to sign a contract.

[1:20:55] We had borrowed money to do that to be paid.

[1:21:01] We may find a way to get out. We may still have

[1:21:05] to pay pay that pay that bill as well because

[1:21:12] » we talking about a lot of cost but that would stand with you can't make no

[1:21:18] decision right now it's up church we be talking to peoples of

[1:21:26] you we be talking to people at the same time in the future be

[1:21:31] looking at what's green what county at What can they do? And I said this like

[1:21:39] to have everyone get involved with the kind of government not like running the

[1:21:45] business. I work in the business. Government is

[1:21:50] totally different. So you still have to follow the rules. You just can't come in

[1:21:57] and run as you did when you were on private jobs. It just don't work that

[1:22:02] way. But we still need all expertise throughout this country.

[1:22:08] We here in great county

[1:22:13] that's a water problem. The county is working on

[1:22:19] it. We're not here to scare nobody tonight. So I hope nobody get upset. But

[1:22:25] then we have to be careful when we use the water.

[1:22:29] We fill it up above our keep this time

[1:22:36] our grass. We still want to keep green. So excess

[1:22:43] and that's why we doing that.

[1:22:50] Thank you. The attorney and I are looking into the contract and what can

[1:22:53] be done to possibly get out of it. I know that there's a contract that is

[1:22:59] very long and length. You know, I know we still have quite some years left in

[1:23:02] that contract. It's obvious that Falls is having some issues and so we're

[1:23:06] investigating and seeing if there's a way out. Um at this time this is my 12th

[1:23:11] day and I'm still still learning but um I'm working with the attorney on that

[1:23:15] and that is being investigated and we're bringing in other partners to make sure

[1:23:19] that that's being taken care of. On the other side you talked about

[1:23:23] communication. That's another thing as I'm learning the difference between all

[1:23:27] the different water systems and who provides what service and the contract

[1:23:30] links to those. I'm working on putting my own notes and once I get a firm

[1:23:35] understanding of the current situation, I'll make sure to share that information

[1:23:38] whether it's on Facebook, on YouTube, Instagram, um whether that's with the

[1:23:42] newspaper. I know the newspaper here today um to make sure that we're being

[1:23:46] more transparent. But I encourage you all come to the council meetings to

[1:23:50] share share your input, bring your questions. It was very informative in

[1:23:53] the first meeting I went to when people brought forward questions and I went

[1:23:57] straight to the water department to investigate. So I don't hear your

[1:24:00] questions. Sometimes it may for me to know what issues are in the community.

[1:24:04] So, I appreciate your question. Would be more to be transparent and that's the

[1:24:08] thing that I >> and I'll turn it back to my husband.

[1:24:14] » Let me help you out. >> Let me help you out. CPW does 600,000

[1:24:19] gallons a day. >> When they turn the valve on to SLV, it's

[1:24:25] 1.2 million. Their capacity is 2.5 million a day.

[1:24:32] » Yes, they have to add >> 3.5 and put on an additional shift.

[1:24:37] » That's not what he told me. So 2.5. >> They have enough capacity.

[1:24:42] » Okay, let me um let me make one thing very clear. When I when I mentioned a

[1:24:48] special tax district for SLB, um that was a recommendation made by

[1:24:55] Billy Garrett, not me. And I told Kelly that uh the chance of

[1:25:01] passing another special tax district in the village um would have about as much

[1:25:06] chance as an

[1:25:11] » Yes, sir. >> So I have a question would ask

[1:25:16] anybody that's here. I have a question and would ask the

[1:25:21] wholebody that's here to have the county council have a meeting here at town hall

[1:25:29] every third month so that we know and we see the results of what we're looking to

[1:25:35] have done and what we would like to see done. So I would like to find out in the

[1:25:42] audience every third month that they were here and reporting back to us about

[1:25:48] the water and the pressure and all that. >> We will record that. I'm not sure we

[1:25:56] that's a decision that we'll have to make if we want to do something that

[1:26:00] quarterly. As I mentioned, we do meet with Kurt uh almost monthly particularly

[1:26:07] with issues going on. We need to meet monthly. Uh we give him updates. He

[1:26:12] documents it. I don't know how he disseminates that information, but

[1:26:16] that's a a good way to get it on y'all's neighbor link. Uh but yeah, more public

[1:26:24] uh public needs, but I don't see it having to be full counsel. Maybe your

[1:26:28] representatives, which is three of us.

[1:26:34] » Yeah. I think it's a great idea, but I don't

[1:26:38] want this is a question, you know, I don't want to answer that question for

[1:26:42] us tonight. That's not We need to discuss how we want to, you know, make

[1:26:47] be more transparent because you I hope y'all here

[1:26:51] that we are serious about getting more involved, being staying uh our new

[1:26:57] administrator will keep me reaching in. He'll tell you right quick, his door is

[1:27:02] open, his phone line, I had a couple people. I said, "Go ahead and call and

[1:27:07] set up an appointment. He's ready to meet y'all and listen to y'all." That's

[1:27:11] we pay him big bucks with you. And I'll say I'll add to that.

[1:27:18] I pretty much have a lunch or a dinner meeting scheduled with the resident

[1:27:22] almost every day for the next three weeks. And so if you have questions or

[1:27:25] you want to meet with me, my doors open. I'll have lunch with you. You can come

[1:27:28] to my office. We go to dinner. Whatever you need so we can address your

[1:27:32] concerns. I'm willing to do it. So weekday, weekend, I'm here to help you

[1:27:36] out. >> Right. It was just a suggestion so that

[1:27:39] we as a village see the progress that's being made. There's a lot of people here

[1:27:45] versus a few going to the council meetings and then as long as that

[1:27:51] information is brought back to the residents. But I think that that would

[1:27:56] be just something we see the progress being made.

[1:28:00] » Is Mr. Smith here tonight? He's he's hiding on the back row. We're not going

[1:28:05] to let you get by. But you hear that, you know, we discuss it quite frequently

[1:28:11] uh in our meetings. Let's address that and come up with a very good something

[1:28:16] that U will help inform particularly with the water. We all know the water

[1:28:22] and you keep mentioning the village but the issue if the water fails here guess

[1:28:27] what it's going to fail the rest of the county too. So this is not an isolated

[1:28:33] situation that the county finds itself in. So that's I lose sleep over that

[1:28:39] because the lady mentioned and I'm not cuz only my information comes off

[1:28:45] YouTube and we know how YouTube is. But we sent them almost what $400 to

[1:28:51] $600,000 a lot of money to pay for our water and they have no clue where the

[1:28:56] money went. They haven't done an audit in three years. Uh why some people up

[1:29:02] there not incarcerated yet? I don't know. Again, I'm I'm not a speaker

[1:29:07] because I don't have facts, but that's go on YouTube. I know Greenwood Index

[1:29:12] Journal is carried some good articles about the situation, clinical situation

[1:29:18] up there. Research it because it it's not pretty scary. And that's why I

[1:29:24] mentioned y'all don't hear a lot of things I'm trying to say, but we have

[1:29:28] got if we don't have a contract with Evanville. We did a little ordinance to

[1:29:33] pay our payments directly to them so that money would continue to disappear

[1:29:39] because they threatened what uh two months ago on a Friday they want to turn

[1:29:44] our water off. Uh that that's scary and so we are paying our money straight in

[1:29:51] but we need to get involved with them on this contingency plan on what happens if

[1:29:56] they whole little town collapses. So that's all mentioning water and sewer

[1:30:05] and particularly I know Rico miss upset with me but I do that at all. I probably

[1:30:12] he knows what I'm fixing to do. I'm fixing to say please

[1:30:17] call in all your issues with your water because he I went and asked him one time

[1:30:24] about the issues and it was just a very few. They document every complaint and

[1:30:31] that's how they get they can pull trends and see areas that maybe are being

[1:30:36] overlooked that they need to focus more on. So ring their phones, ringers before

[1:30:42] ours just being a little facicious there, but

[1:30:47] uh it's very important they document where these locations are. So if there

[1:30:52] is something that water department can do in the interim uh they got they know

[1:30:58] where to go. It's not asking much just call that number and they'll take your

[1:31:02] information.

[1:31:06] For those of you who um are not familiar or don't attend the public affairs

[1:31:13] committee meetings, uh I would highly recommend that you go

[1:31:19] on the SLB website for those SLB citizens and residents.

[1:31:26] Scott Warham who's the new chair of the public affairs committee has brought up

[1:31:32] a website in which the information from various

[1:31:37] public meetings including the council meeting and those discussions and

[1:31:42] decisions are are timely posted on that website. So, if you're looking for

[1:31:49] immediate feedback uh on a lot of things that are happening in the county, maybe

[1:31:54] you don't find them on the county's website,

[1:31:58] uh Scott and the the members of the public affairs committee, uh including

[1:32:04] West Wes Newman and others are going to these meetings. They're collecting that

[1:32:09] information. They're coming back and it's going on to the public affairs

[1:32:14] website. So, if you're looking for some timely information, check that website.

[1:32:21] Yes, sir.

[1:32:27] Um, just show up. How many before this meeting

[1:32:34] had

[1:32:41] the poor sucker from Colorado been through this before?

[1:32:45] I'm the guy from Colorado that's been through this once before.

[1:32:49] So, I can't stress enough to all of you.

[1:32:54] Communication is huge here. Chuck, thank you for all the responses to the

[1:32:59] questions that we

[1:33:05] just emphasizes more serious problem.

[1:33:12] It's not right now. just I see it. I've been through this

[1:33:16] before and all I can ask and pray that you all do for us here at SLB is

[1:33:23] communicate and have some great ideas how to do that so that these folks can

[1:33:29] stay more informed and understand because we are here to do this one. You

[1:33:36] need us to talk to state level. We'll do it and we'll do it for you.

[1:33:44] Will get you tell us what you need.

[1:33:50] Please open communication and transparency.

[1:33:55] These folks need that help.

[1:34:02] But if we don't do anything

[1:34:14] you guys have to make some tough decisions as this thing gets worse and

[1:34:18] worse

[1:34:26] artificial in the golf course but those things I've seen

[1:34:32] and I've seen the board go through that process of telling citizens

[1:34:38] we're stuck. So thank you for being aware for the

[1:34:43] last six years there is a potential problem. I think it's got to point where

[1:34:48] we would love to come and help you with whomever it is however it is you need

[1:34:55] done so we can get something and Dr. I know it's complex. You explain

[1:35:01] a lot of different things that have to happen and he's correct. Again, I've

[1:35:06] seen this before, but please keep us in the loop in terms of, you know, you have

[1:35:12] a plan. You have these items that you have to get accomplished. Show us those.

[1:35:17] Let us know how those are going. So, if you do need help, maybe we can. But

[1:35:22] please don't sit back and do nothing.

[1:35:28] So, And I'm not here to scare people. I'm not. Trust me. These guys

[1:35:35] know what they're doing. It's just we need to get together and

[1:35:39] help you too so that we can get that money.

[1:35:54] We got to do something and do it quickly.

[1:35:59] whatever it is you can do.

[1:36:05] » Thank you very much. Yes, sir. >> Hey, Ron Beach, 306 Andrews Lane. So,

[1:36:12] I'm going to talk about water, but a whole different

[1:36:16] responsible for repairing leaks related to water.

[1:36:21] » Where's the leak? Is it between? >> Well, if it's on the if it's on the

[1:36:25] main, you know, if it's out on the road. Oh,

[1:36:27] » yeah. I'm saying like on the side of the road.

[1:36:29] » That's one of those >> That's one of those situations you have

[1:36:33] to report because we do not we've got hundreds of miles of lines.

[1:36:37] » Different question. >> Okay.

[1:36:40] » Who is responsible for repairing those? What entity in the county?

[1:36:46] » If it's in if it's in the village, it's county roads, then it's going to be

[1:36:51] county Well, any water line is going to be a

[1:36:54] challenge. Yeah. >> Okay. All right. So, I got to tell you

[1:36:58] about something and I and I I guess I'm not sure who pays for this because

[1:37:03] uh River Drive is near my house in St. Andrews, near St. Andrews Lane. And I've

[1:37:09] watched this twice on that road where it was like different spots broke and it

[1:37:15] was repaired three times. I'm from Ohio and I don't know, maybe things are

[1:37:19] different up there. situation. But when we repair holes or repair water,

[1:37:26] typically I don't see anybody out there for a few years. Here, you guys,

[1:37:31] somebody is repairing it, not repairing it, right? Then it leaks some more, then

[1:37:36] it might go on for a couple more weeks and then someone else comes out and

[1:37:38] repairs. I've literally seen it on that road three times.

[1:37:43] And I'm then I'm wondering like, well, we're losing water. See, nobody's going

[1:37:46] to charge for that. two, who's paying for that? Am I Am I Are we paying the

[1:37:55] whoever? Is it an employee of the county to do that three times or is it the

[1:37:59] contractor that does the water system? I don't know.

[1:38:02] » But basically, when we lose water, people really get upset about losing

[1:38:08] water. They think the price >> only you guys don't or someone. Well, we

[1:38:11] do get upset, but what most people don't realize with these long-term contracts,

[1:38:17] there's minimums, and we don't get charged extra. We pay a flat rate

[1:38:24] uh for say a million gallons. And if if we use if there's like a gigantic leak

[1:38:31] and you run way over a million, then that's when ching the county, the water

[1:38:37] department gets start charging a higher fee for lost water. So lost water is a

[1:38:42] problem, but if it's a small leak and we're not pumping the immediately, it

[1:38:48] sounds like to me we're responding, but we just got a poor line that's breaking.

[1:38:52] » Yeah. Yeah. So this is my real concern. What I saw there on that one street for

[1:38:56] example, is that whoever is going out there, it sounds like an accounting

[1:39:00] employee. >> Yeah, it's got to be the only ones

[1:39:03] authorized. >> It's not the contractor, right? It's not

[1:39:06] that. >> Well, we contract our water service.

[1:39:09] Well, look at it. But as far as repairs go, it's a county employee.

[1:39:13] » Is is the county issues, CSW is managing the water for the county. So they're

[1:39:20] employee of CW. >> That's what I was trying. That's a very

[1:39:23] simple answer to what I was trying to get answer. So CSW is doing. Okay.

[1:39:28] » So is CSW charging you three times when they don't prepare it right the first

[1:39:32] time? >> All part of the same thing.

[1:39:35] » Okay. And part of the issue might be one of the things that we have not talked

[1:39:38] about is how old all of these lines are throughout the county.

[1:39:43] » No question. >> And sometimes the repair doesn't take

[1:39:47] » and they have to do something different. >> Do we have standards that we are there

[1:39:52] procedures that are set up for how that is supposed to be done?

[1:39:54] » Is that in writing that someone could send to me

[1:39:57] » because I'd love to see them >> because uh because I can tell you that

[1:40:01] there's something called the nsf.org that has a six standard 61 that talks

[1:40:06] about the materials. >> And the only reason I'm getting into

[1:40:09] that is that actually they one of those uh repairs happen in front of a guy who

[1:40:14] was a pipe header for 40 years and moved down here and he couldn't be here.

[1:40:19] But he actually watched the guy do the work. He said it was like watching a a

[1:40:23] child play with a child. So I mean they they obviously did not know what they

[1:40:27] were doing. They didn't do it right, which is why they haven't come back

[1:40:30] again because he he didn't do it right the first time. So I think I' I've got a

[1:40:34] question of I'd like to see the standards for doing this and and what

[1:40:38] materials you have to use, what processes they're supposed to follow

[1:40:41] because I don't think they exist. But I could be wrong. I'd like to be I'd like

[1:40:45] to be right. >> So I'd like to see that in writing and

[1:40:49] then I'd like to know that there's some confirmation from somebody CSW or

[1:40:53] somebody that they're following the standards that are supposed to be used

[1:40:57] because I have a funny feeling they're not.

[1:41:00] Um, and I'm worried about that only because I'm paying for it. You're paying

[1:41:04] for it. >> We're all paying for it. And if it's not

[1:41:07] done right, then maybe it doesn't happen again for 5

[1:41:11] years, but maybe in 10 years it it happens again. And maybe if it was done

[1:41:15] with the right process and standards, it would happen in 25 years that you have a

[1:41:20] link there. I realize you got other issues, but I'd really like for someone

[1:41:23] to somehow provide that to me. And then also, I'd like for someone to provide

[1:41:27] me, and I think you guys ought to get it as a dashboard. CSW every month. How

[1:41:32] many times have they had to go back and re-repair something in the last two

[1:41:35] years by address? I'd like to get it in the next month or so. I'd like for you

[1:41:42] guys to get it and I think they ought to provide it to you every month as part of

[1:41:45] the dashboard of what they're doing out there because they are making at least

[1:41:50] that's any example of it. I have a funny feeling we're all just wasting a lot of

[1:41:54] time and not doing things right. And I do know that we do get a monthly

[1:42:00] report on that report just says the numbers of repairs and the number of

[1:42:06] tabs and different things. >> So not the number of times it might say

[1:42:10] 25. >> Yeah. Your street or your it doesn't say

[1:42:13] but we went there many times. It just gives me a total a monthly total of the

[1:42:18] number of repairs that the water department.

[1:42:20] » I think >> James is recording. We hear you.

[1:42:24] Yeah, >> I don't know how I get this information

[1:42:26] from you, but I'd like to see it. >> Do I give you my name and number or

[1:42:30] what? >> Because I I'm very adamant about this

[1:42:35] being changed because I don't think people are doing their jobs.

[1:42:38] » Yeah. Hey, there's many ways you can do this and give me your information. I can

[1:42:42] provide an update and I will provide an update, I guess, at the next council

[1:42:45] meeting, but also reach out to the water department. Reach out to them. They have

[1:42:49] all that. We also get one of their representatives to comment on this. Um,

[1:42:54] » that would be great. But I would love I think what you guys know is you need

[1:42:57] that so you can say >> they're screwing it up if they are if

[1:43:01] they are. But I can just That's just one street

[1:43:04] » in the county. >> Yeah. Um, happy to address that. So, you

[1:43:09] know, first of all, what we do is dirty work. So,

[1:43:12] » what is dirty work? So, >> who are you?

[1:43:15] » Who are you? >> My name is Drew Langston. I'm the

[1:43:18] regional director for CWS and I I support this project. I've been

[1:43:23] in and out of this project for three years and helping support the

[1:43:26] distribution system from a technical perspective. So, we do follow NSF61

[1:43:32] standards. We have standard operating procedures that the county has

[1:43:36] maintained for a long time to to fix the leak. Um, and anyone who's ever fixed a

[1:43:42] water leak knows that it is is very dirty business and as uh

[1:43:47] Brown said there are old degraded infrastructure in the ground and so

[1:43:52] sometimes you get into a situation where you fix a leak and the the pipe is

[1:43:58] deteriorating. You may chase that leak and it may crop up at the same spot.

[1:44:03] There are times where you have a hard time getting the water to stop flowing

[1:44:07] when you're fixing the leak because it's hard to isolate that amount of flow and

[1:44:11] it it becomes a very dirty job. We've had guys fixed very difficult

[1:44:18] situations where it's 40 degrees outside and you got to keep the water. We have

[1:44:23] to we have to fix it. So, you know, >> but when I saw it twice on the same

[1:44:28] street and it happened three times to get fixed, there's something else going

[1:44:32] on. >> Sure. Humble opinion

[1:44:35] » and and I think you bring up a great opinion or a great uh point there that

[1:44:39] it's great to know how many breaks are you having in a certain area.

[1:44:45] Yes, because then you can start to cut it from a budgetary standpoint to say,

[1:44:50] "Hey, this section of line, maybe it's old, maybe it's thin wall PVC, maybe we

[1:44:56] can replace it with something with that can hold greater pressures and sometimes

[1:45:02] there's defects in the pipes when it's original. Sometimes it depends on the

[1:45:07] ground. There's a number of issues. So, >> so is that being recorded somehow in the

[1:45:12] system or something?" That's really what you would want to do. Great, great

[1:45:15] question. So, we do maintain a record of every work order when we go out to fix

[1:45:21] the leak, when we are responding to a meter, when we have to pull a water

[1:45:26] quality sample, a pressure complaint, that is all recorded within the county's

[1:45:31] database. So we we can now when you say GIS there is not a geospatial component

[1:45:40] of of those that database but if you say okay there was a leap of say

[1:45:50] » little we we could we can query that to see what uh workers were

[1:45:57] » I'd like to see a report the last two years to show how many times my

[1:46:02] multiple times. >> Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. We we uh we'll

[1:46:09] get into that and query the database for as much information as you like to see.

[1:46:13] » Okay. How do I contact you? >> You can call the water department

[1:46:22] and you'll you'll get in touch with our personal and they'll get you.

[1:46:28] » Okay. I got one com

[1:46:38] and then the next day or the next time follow

[1:46:47] the next

[1:46:55] spot the same spot to come back and then the other

[1:47:00] I think it's like five months in the same road.

[1:47:02] » Yeah. And and sadly that's that's not uncommon. Um you know maybe like I help

[1:47:08] support another system that uh we saw maybe in a three mile stretch and just a

[1:47:13] three or four year period over 20 weeks and it it came down to they used a bad

[1:47:19] batch of PDC and they had to do to replace it. So it's it's not it is it is

[1:47:26] a complex system. But it's a lot it's a lot more common in the village than you

[1:47:31] would think. >> I think it is.

[1:47:33] » Kirk Smith and I have have experienced a number of these in which there have been

[1:47:39] multiple leaks over a very short period of time essentially for the same pipe

[1:47:44] and in the same area. One of the one of the problems that we have in the village

[1:47:50] is that all of our utilities are underground.

[1:47:54] » That's a good thing. So, so we've got water, sewer, electricity,

[1:48:00] telecommunications, and when those were initially laid to be

[1:48:08] tapped into by new homes coming in, when there is new construction in the

[1:48:13] village and you need to tie into

[1:48:18] um whether it's a a water tap or whatever,

[1:48:23] a line may have to be run under a roadway.

[1:48:28] » Now, if you look at the uh the kind of thing that happened on St. Andrew's

[1:48:33] » um where that was had to be repaired multiple times.

[1:48:36] » Oh, yeah. >> Look at look across the street.

[1:48:40] » No, there was nothing going on. >> There were new

[1:48:43] » there were there were new homes built there. I'm just talk I'm talking about

[1:48:46] the length of little river that had to be

[1:48:49] » there was no new homes built. You're talking about

[1:48:52] » uh but I'm I'm I'm talking about the lake that was at St. Andrews because it

[1:48:57] was the same problem. >> Oh, you're talking the one out the main

[1:48:59] road. >> It had turned on.

[1:49:01] » It had to be repaired multiple times. Got it. Got Some of some of the times

[1:49:05] when that when that occurs, you've got equipment going in and

[1:49:11] particularly if you have to bring in a backhoe or or heavy piece of equipment

[1:49:17] in repairing one leak, the weight of the back, particularly if you've got a

[1:49:22] deteriorating pipe, >> it it causes a problem elsewhere. And

[1:49:26] then you and then you have to go back in and fix that. And every time you fix

[1:49:30] something, you may have to follow it up because the equipment that you've used

[1:49:35] is damaging. Right? >> So just just be aware that in the

[1:49:39] village we have a problem with multiple lines. Um and sometimes when uh the

[1:49:46] people come in to fix it, no matter how good a job they do, no matter how

[1:49:50] careful they are, they create multiple problems. So it's not unusual

[1:49:56] » to have to go back to the same location multiple times. These were just regular

[1:50:00] houses that have been there for 20 years and so it wasn't that specific issue.

[1:50:04] But u I would just like to say that I hope you as an administrator will start

[1:50:08] and you guys as a board will start requesting CSW to give you that because

[1:50:12] I think there is something going on there. I'm not saying there's something

[1:50:16] going on. So I would hope that you guys could add that to our information and

[1:50:22] then I'm going to go see him and then I'll I guess I'll call you.

[1:50:26] » All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. We got about 10 minutes left. Been

[1:50:31] a great meeting. Take another.

[1:50:34] » My name is Brad Peterson. I am not going to talk about water.

[1:50:39] Um I brought this up at the um DA town hall. We did not have our county

[1:50:45] administrator, Mr. Upurch at that point in time.

[1:50:48] » I live in Monell and I have gray water pressure. Sorry guys, but I do. It's

[1:50:53] still dirty, so I still have those dirty filters like Randy has. Um, but not

[1:50:57] talking about water. What my issue is, um, I have no cell service at my home.

[1:51:02] So, when when the power goes out, which may go out tonight with this storm, the

[1:51:07] Wi-Fi goes down, I have a battery backup on, I get a couple hours out of it. But

[1:51:11] once that power goes out, my Wi-Fi is down. I have no communications with the

[1:51:15] outside world through my cell phone, which is my only phone. So, if I have an

[1:51:19] emergency situation, I got to call 911, I can't get to her. Okay? So, I'm

[1:51:25] advocating for cell phone towers in the area to improve our communications.

[1:51:30] Um, it's an issue when we lose power. And a couple weeks ago, right before the

[1:51:34] town hall in Ohio, we lost power three times in one week. Each time is for more

[1:51:39] than three or four hours, right? And so, I was without, you know, without power.

[1:51:44] So, I was without cell phone service. And so, you need cell phone power from

[1:51:48] an emergency perspective. So, I just wanted to make sure

[1:51:52] was aware of it. aware of it. And as one person said, quit building homes in

[1:51:57] order to get more sales coverage, we've got to convince Verizon to invest in

[1:52:02] another tower. >> Exactly.

[1:52:03] » Because of the number of people living there and I think we're at a couple

[1:52:08] thousand, 1800 to a,000 2,000 people >> uh for them to I don't know what it cost

[1:52:14] to build a several hundred foot tower. And it's not only there, it's

[1:52:21] throughout. It's it's east, west, south. We've got a horizon tower mod. So I'm

[1:52:28] blessed. I got signals down there. >> I've been trying to raise that as an

[1:52:31] issue. >> No, keep keep raising and we need that.

[1:52:34] Yeah. Thank you. >> Just uh just one comment. Um and I have

[1:52:42] to go back to the water issue. One of the things that uh we discussed in

[1:52:47] looking at locations of a water tower at SLB is putting it on high ground and

[1:52:54] building a tower on top of it. uh which would be a very inexpensive way to do

[1:53:00] that because we're aware that most of our telecommunications problems or cell

[1:53:06] phone problems are in the northern part of the village up in the Monello

[1:53:12] and Savannah Point areas. So, uh if we can if we can properly locate a water

[1:53:18] tower and and put an antenna on on top for a cell phone tower, I think that'll

[1:53:24] go a long way to fixing that problem. Speaking of towers, I'm looking at Miss

[1:53:30] T White here. I think when I talk to her cell phone, she's got a spot out in her

[1:53:35] cow pasture. She says, "Wait a minute. I don't have a signal. Let me run out into

[1:53:41] the cow pasture." And she is out 378, not too far out of town. So,

[1:53:59] Oh, they told you how to get around. >> Yeah.

[1:54:05] » That's because of your Wi-Fi. >> Yeah. Yeah. But it's still riding down

[1:54:10] the road.

[1:54:17] » See if they can help you improve that. One last question.

[1:54:23] Yes, sir. >> I've been going to county council

[1:54:27] meetings for about the last three years that I've lived out here and

[1:54:32] » can't hear you. >> The discussion that we had tonight about

[1:54:34] concerns about the contract that exists with the water company has not been the

[1:54:39] first question that I've had with this same issue on contract after contract

[1:54:45] after contract. It's my understanding that our county attorney's been here

[1:54:49] about 30 years and he clearly has not done his job of protecting the county in

[1:54:54] these contracts. What are we going to do about getting a county attorney that's

[1:54:58] going to put provisions in our contracts that protects the county from these

[1:55:03] kinds of issues? That's a critical issue for this county

[1:55:07] going forward. going to cost us tons and tons of money trying to deal with

[1:55:11] litigation, being out of contracts when we have a county attorney who is not

[1:55:15] doing his job properly. The other thing I'd like to just point

[1:55:19] out as a as a quick comment for the folks here in SLB, Chuck's done a great

[1:55:24] job passing me out on neighbor giving information, but most people may not

[1:55:28] know that Bernie Hammy and David Mora all are representatives of SLV and we're

[1:55:35] lucky to have three members on the county council that are representatives

[1:55:39] of SLV in in the county council. We need to stay in touch with them and make sure

[1:55:45] that they're aware of all of our issues and hopefully we get all three of them

[1:55:49] communicating with us the way the truck does. Thank you.

[1:55:53] » Well, okay. This is it. >> This is not a commercial, but I will let

[1:55:58] you know for those that have Verizon, we switched back to T-Mobile. They have

[1:56:04] 5G. The service is phenomenal. T-Mobile, I'm

[1:56:09] just know

[1:56:15] No, I >> This is Verizon country.

[1:56:18] » Well, I know it is. And we had to switch to Verizon when we came here. We were

[1:56:22] previously T-Mobile. So, we went to Verizon for two years and then it

[1:56:29] happened to go to T-Mobile and Costco. They said yes, we ultra and we had no

[1:56:35] issues at all. >> Thanks for that information. And in

[1:56:39] closing, Miss Barnes is here. I'm going put her

[1:56:43] on the spot just briefly. I was going to catch our EMS director, but she's left.

[1:56:49] Another important uh tool that the county offers is code red. U I get

[1:56:56] emails, I get texts and voice and voicemail

[1:57:02] all when situations occur in the county. So if you're not on code red, Crystal,

[1:57:07] could you just briefly say what they need to do to get signed up for code

[1:57:11] red? >> You can go from the county website off

[1:57:14] of the number one web page and there is a link to the code red sign up. You can

[1:57:20] receive your text messages, phone calls, and emails. If you have any problems,

[1:57:25] you can call myself or India who is our 911

[1:57:31] director.

[1:57:34] Um, and even I think Stacy does a lot of water.

[1:57:43] So any of us would be glad to help you get on that. But do remember that with

[1:57:48] water sewer they send out a certain area probably not if you're not in that area

[1:57:53] will will get that phone call issue is the question. So you're not in

[1:57:58] a certain area.

[1:58:02] » Thank you, Miss Farms. At this time, uh I personally once again want to thank

[1:58:06] everyone that has come out. We again thank Mr. Smith and the staff and

[1:58:13] residents for showing up a very good meeting. I was we thought that it would

[1:58:19] probably be twice as many folks, but the heat's probably got a lot of folks

[1:58:24] staying under the air conditioning and so on was joking. Is it going to get

[1:58:27] hotter inside inside there than it is on the outside? But it didn't. So, y'all

[1:58:33] did a great job. Thank you. And uh you know, all our contact information is on

[1:58:39] our website, the county's website. Uh please text or call us. Uh, I'm probably

[1:58:45] worse to call, but text me. I get I read I never I never

[1:59:11] How are you? Nice to meet you.

[1:59:31] No, I'm just going to grab my phone. Yes, sir.

[1:59:35] Thanks for the

McCormick County Council Town Hall Meeting 7/29/25

Transcript