[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