COUNCIL MEETING

MEGGETT TOWN HALL

July 23, 2007

7:30PM

Mayor Grange Coffin called the meeting of the Meggett Town Council to order. Present were Mayor Pro-tem Josh Garvin, Councilmen Tom Hutto, Keith McCarty, and Buster Herrington.  Also present were Administrator Ellie Prentiss and Town Clerk Gail Seabrook.  Ellie Prentiss lead the prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance. 

Minutes from the Public hearing and the Council meeting held on June 25 were read and approved.

Meggett 1925

No report was given for the 1925 project.

Annexation of Wright Property

First order of business is the annexation of the Wright Property TMS# 096-00-00-071.  Mr. Wright in his request for annexation stated he liked dealing with issues on a local level rather than with Charleston County.  Councilman Buster Herrington indicated to Mr. Wright that Charleston County handles all issues for Meggett so why do you want to be annexed into Meggett.  Mr. Wright still felt he was able to obtain information better when dealing on a local level about what was going on in the community.  He also feared being annexed into the Town of Hollywood because of the many problems they seem to be having.  He also expressed concern that Mayor Riley may start annexing property in this area to become part of the City of Charleston and he did not want that to happen either.  Mr. Wright assured Council that he had no intent of developing the property. 

Mayor Coffin expressed concern that the ingress/egress was only 15’ in width.  Councilman Tom Hutto said he had researched the requirements and a 15’ bridge was permitted.  Councilman Keith McCarty suggested that we bring the annexation to the floor for a vote.  The motion was made and the vote denied the annexation of the property (TMS 096-00-00-071) into the Town of Meggett.

Old Business

            Buffer in Historical District

Councilman Tom Hutto inquired if the County had sent the letter about the replacement of the buffer in the Historical District.  Ellie Prentiss said that she had spoken with Charleston County and they indicated that a letter was sent to Mr. Dunn’s address but was addressed to Ralph Edwards instead of Mr. Dunn.  They would resend the letter with the correct name.  Tom Hutto inquired if it was sent certified.  Ms Prentiss said she did not know.

            Room for County Police

Councilman Josh Garvin asked if we had heard anything from the Charleston County Police about using the room in the SCPA Building.  Gail Seabrook said she had sent the letter last Thursday offering the use of the room and was waiting for a response.

            Septic Systems

Councilman Tom Hutto announced that Richard Threat with DHEC had agreed to come to the August meeting and present about a 30 minute program on septic systems and give an overview on the new engineered type systems.  Tom also indicated they had provided him with brochures on septic systems that we could have available as handouts.  They will be available in Town Hall for anyone interested in the information.

            High-speed Internet Service

Councilman Tom Hutto said he had spoke with Verizon and due to cost it was unlikely that high speed internet would be available in this area any time soon unless through a satellite.  The satellite approach would be expensive and also prone to thunderstorm interference.  However, he had contacted a resident of Meggett and he volunteered to put in a wireless connection to the Towns high-speed service so that those with a lap top could come and sit in front of Town Hall and tap into the high speed service used at Town Hall.  The cost for the equipment to provide this service would be about $93.  Councilman Keith McCarty asked if the building being solid brick walls would present a problem.  Tom replied that the connection would probably be placed by a window and the wire would enter the building that way.  However, he  would need to look at the building and the location of the cable in the building to see what would be the best way to run the connection and the best location for the placement of the transmitter.  Gail Seabrook asked if multiple people could use the system at the same time and with other individuals logged on would it slow the service down for Town Hall.  Tom replied that multiple people could log on at the same time and it should only have minor effects on the speed of the service.  Councilman Keith McCarty said he felt we should move forward with this since we do not have enough density for Comcast or Verizon to look at this area seriously for high speed internet service.  He said he thought the cost was reasonable and we should give it a shot to see how it works.  If it should present a problem we could them just discontinue the service but at present it seems like a solution with minimal cost. 

Council Tom Hutto asked if Mr. Watson with Comcast had ever gotten back with us to see if there were any possible plans to provide internet service for some of the areas.  It was explained that we needed a scaled map showing density in the area to give to Mr. Watson so he could calculate density to miles to see if there were any plans that may work in this area to provide the service and be cost efficient.  We are going to get the information and provide it to Mr. Watson.

New Business

            1925 Project

Councilman Tom Hutto asked if we needed to vote for a project manager for continuation of the 1925 project.  Administrator Ellie Prentiss said we would need to advertise the position in the paper.

            Repairs for existing buildings

Councilman Tom Hutto asked how the punch list was coming for SCPA Building and Town Hall.  Ellie Prentiss said the list was being worked on.  A patch had been repaired on the SCPA Building roof but it continued to leak so Roger Braham came over during the next rain storm and found that the gutter was stopped up and some of the flashing was bent.  He made the necessary repairs to those problem areas and it seems to have stopped the leaking.  We have not received an estimate back from Chris Wilson regarding the work for the HVAC.

            Rental of front room in SCPA Building

Tom Hutto suggested that we use an agency to promote the rental of the front room in the SCPA Building.  Gail Seabrook intervened and said before we moved forward with this idea we need to find out if Charleston County Police Department plans on using the room since it had been offered to them for their use.  Mayor Coffin agreed that we would first see if the police department plan to accept the offer to use the room.

            Franchise fees

Tom Hutto inquired if we received franchise fees from the satellite companies since so many homes used satellite dishes in this area.  Ellie Prentiss explained that the Municipal Association handles the franchise fees.

            Westvaco property

Tom Hutto said that Tommy Butler had brought up the issue at the last meeting inquiring if the Town should consider taking a position and provide suggestion for the Westvaco property.  Presently they have held several public meetings asking for suggestions from the public. He thought Tommy’s point was well taken and this would be the time to project any influence on the outcome.  Mayor Coffin said he thought any input could probably be handled through the Alliance with the other towns.  Mayor Coffin said he would speak with the Mayor of Ravenel and Hollywood and see if we wanted to address this as a unity.

            Water quality

Tom Hutto said the last thing he had on his list of question was the concern from residents about water quality.  A number of people had talked about problems and issues with the quality of water from wells.  He said he spoke with Andy Anderson and he has volunteered to do a presentation on ground water and ways to improve the quality.  Tom asked Council if they were interested in having Mr. Anderson come and speak to the community.  The Council felt this was a great idea and were in favor of setting a time for Andy to speak to the community.

Miscellaneous Reports

Administrator Ellie Prentiss told Council that in their folders she had placed information regarding the Grant and hopefully this information will answer all of the questions they had.  (A copy of that report is attached to the minutes.)  She said she spoke with George at AC Electric and he promised that this week he would get out and fix the last light.  The only other thing pending on the first street scaping grant is an invoice from SCE&G for the underground utility work.  The cost came in about $30,000 higher than originally indicated.  Tom Boozer has graciously offered to contact SCE&G and to handle the discrepancy with the invoice.  Schindler came out to check out a problem with the elevator.  They replaced the seals, and added new oil. 

Scheduled Meetings:

Public Comments

1)     Resident Bill Cox inquired about the park area to be located in Harmony Hall.  Mayor Coffin indicated that it was to go before Charleston County Council tomorrow (July 24) at 4:00 for final approval of the transaction.  He thought it would be a good idea for anyone that could, to attend the meeting.  He said they had met with the representatives from the Park and Recreation Committee last week and the proposal is that they will buy 420 acres of Mr. Stanley’s land in Harmony Hall for a park area.  Mr. Stanley will retain 150 acres.  If you want to input any public comments that will be heard at the meeting at 4:00 PM.  Once it goes before the Council in their meeting no public comment will be allowed.  Mayor Coffin did say that the Parks and Recreation Committee feel strongly that it will be approved.  Resident Margaret Blackmer asked to be recognized and she stated for the record that at 4:15 PM the financial committee meets for discussion of the proposed park and then at 7:00 PM the Charleston County Council will hold their formal meeting and that is where the vote will take place.  No public comments will be allowed at either meeting. 

2)     Ward Brown asked if Meggett was going to put in some of the funds with half cent sales tax.  Mayor Coffin indicated that Meggett doesn’t receive any of the half cent sales tax revenue.  Mr. Brown said he was just quoting what he had read in the news paper.  Mayor Coffin indicated that the article in the paper was a bit confusing and wasn’t exactly accurate.  Mr. Brown asked would the Town have any say so as to how the park area would be used.  Mayor Coffin explained that even though no funding would come from Meggett, a park is a special exception in an agricultural zoning district and therefore it would come before our BZA Board for approval.   Mayor Coffin indicated that he did not know what the park would be used for but suspected that walking trails, bike trails would be some of the uses considered.  He also emphasized that the Town did not have any money to contribute to the park project at all.  Mr. Brown asked if anyone knew what the remaining 150 acres would be used for.  Mayor Coffin said at this time nothing had been said as to what the remainder of the acreage would be used for.  Mr. Brown asked if we knew which area would be the park and which would be the part retained.  Mayor Coffin said we did have a map that showed the division of the property.  Dee Langley expressed concern that the park may cause a great increase in traffic on Ethel Post Office Road.  Mayor Coffin said he felt that the use of the land for a park area would allow green space rather than development and therefore should not create an increase in traffic as much as a development would.  Another resident spoke about how the development of the park in Mt. Pleasant seemed to promote growth in the area and was afraid the same thing would happen here.  Councilman Keith McCarty responded by saying this parcel is a valuable piece of property and the owner has the right to develop the land to 1 acre per resident according to Meggett’s zoning ordinance.  Therefore, to prevent this type of growth the park would be an asset to preserve this area.  Ward Brown asked if any permits had been applied for the remaining 150 acres.  Mayor Coffin responded that none had been applied for at this time. He continued by saying that Mr. Stanley has 50 sewer taps designated for that parcel should he decide to develop the property however, with the new engineer type systems it may be possible to develop the area with more than 50 lots.  Ms Seabrook spoke up and said that Mr. Stanley had called the office today and he was looking at different options to try and find a way to preserve that area of Harmony Hall as well.  However, nothing is confirmed at this time.  Tom Boozer spoke and said that basically the tax payers had bailed us out this time by purchasing the property and preventing a large development on the property.  He said for the future, to protect this area many options exist to large land owners to preserve green space such as conservation easements.  He encouraged other large land owners to look into some of the options that are available to save as much land as possible for green space.  Tom Hutto indicated that Mr. Stanley, prior to the contract with the Parks and Recreation Committee, had met with DHEC in Columbia to place a large development on the Harmony Hall property.  For some reason that proposal fell through.  Ward Brown asked could an ordinance be written stating that only DHEC approved septic systems or public sewer to be used in developments for the Town which would eliminate the use of engineered type systems.  Councilman Keith McCarty explained that it is true that a town has great  power with ordinances but it does come to the point that it can only run up to the point where they are taking the value of the property.  He is not sure if an ordinance prohibiting the use of engineered type systems would be crossing that boundary.  He would have to investigate further to see.  Councilman McCarty said he has a great fear of the developers type sewer systems for once the developers are gone and any problem occur with system, the homeowners association are left to deal with the issues.  It would be a nightmare to have a subdivision of 300 houses or more to have a non functioning sewer system.   Tom Hutto said this is why he had approached DHEC to come and give a presentation about septic systems to gain knowledge of all of the types of systems, how they work and the implications of the different types of systems.  Tom Hutto said, "I want to take all precaution to do what is necessary to protect the town from potential law suits whether it is an annexation or a development with a malfunctioning sewer system.a'  Councilman Josh Garvin stated that Jim Pedersen has installed the engineered type systems and they work really well.  Tom Hutto said one way to avoid the town from becoming involved with a malfunctioning engineered system is the homeowner’s regime fee could include a cost to hire a company to maintain the sewer system.

3)      Tom Hutto said another point of interest he would like to mention is that Trident Tech College will be opening a facility to offer welding and other work force development training by January 08.   Tom asked Mayor Coffin to share any information he had on this subject.  Mayor Coffin said this first came about when Metal Trades needed welders and approach Baptist Hill School with the idea of taking students that was interested in learning the skill and teaching a class at Metal Trades. They later talked with Trident Technical College and was able to get them involved.   

4)     Mrs. Virginia Watson asked why the Town was running an ad for the 1925 project.  It was explained that Tom Boozer had resigned from the project and a new project manager was needed.

5)     Bill Cox asked that the Town continue to pursue the quest to have high speed internet service.  Councilman Hutto and McCarty agreed and expressed they would continue to do what ever it takes to work toward getting the service in the rural areas. 

With no further comments, Mayor Coffin asked for a motion to adjournment.

Submitted by Town Clerk: Gail Seabrook