Daniel Prince
Council votes to sell retired fire truck to Santuc Fire Department for $4000
Union City Council met for their regular meeting Tuesday night at City Hall. They unanimously approved the final reading of an ordinance rezoning the Merchants Walk Shopping Center property at 410 North Duncan Bypass from A-5 Shopping Center to A-2 Highway Commercial. The new zoning will allow for a broader list of permitted uses, including a future tattoo parlor, though that will have to go before the Board of Zoning Appeals to be granted a special exception.
The Santuc Fire Department requested a 1995 Ford 550 service truck that was recently retired from the Union Fire Department’s fleet. The vehicle will help provide fire service in the Santuc response area and other districts. The truck only has 11,000 miles, but it does have a lot of idling hours on it. City Administrator Joe Nichols said that Maintenance Shop Director Leroy Edwards looked at what the truck could bring if sold on govdeals, and he estimated it could go for between $7500 and $10,000. Council discussed whether to donate the truck or to sell it to the fire department, ultimately deciding to sell it to the fire department for $4000. The vote was unanimous, with Ricky Todd Harris abstaining.
Council unanimously voted to sponsor the Downtown Open House event in November, giving $5000 to the Downtown Merchants Association for the event. We’ll have more details on this year’s annual event in a future newscast.
Council awarded the bid for the demolition and disposal of four structures in the city to the low bidder, 4 Seasons Demolition, for $59,575. The structures to be demolished are at 103 Hillside Drive, 116 Scott Street, 410 Old Buffalo Road, and 527 Thompson Boulevard. City Administrator Joe Nichols noted that the city puts $100,000 in the budget each year for the removal of structures, and the money for these will come from that. He said they ran into an issue with the contractor in charge of the demolition of houses under the CDBG grant the city received, and currently the remaining demolition projects are back out to bid.
Council awarded the contract for the Carlisle-Union Regional Sewer Extension to a single company. The project was bid out in three divisions, with one division covering the line from the new pump station up to around Santuc. The second division covers the line from Santuc to the treatment facility on the Beltline. The third division was for the pump station construction. The same company was the low bidder in all three divisions, so a single contract was awarded to Double R Utilities for $4,821,431.33, pending approval by the SC Department of Commerce for the CDBG, SC RIA, and SRF funding. The company is based in Cherokee County and has done work for the city and other municipalities in the county in the past.