Daniel Prince
Ordinance for fee agreement with Volvo postponed
While the land use ordinance’s postponed second reading was the big news coming out of Tuesday’s special called meeting of Union County Council, there was other business on the agenda, as well. Council unanimously passed second reading of an ordinance pertaining to the expansion of the boundaries of a joint industrial and business park in Spartanburg County pertaining to the State Ports Authority’s BMW railyard.
Closer to home, council unanimously passed second reading of an ordinance to amend the Union County Budget Ordinance for fiscal year 2022-2023. The reason for the amendment is that repairs to the roof of the old Chrysler building were not put into the budget. The repairs are estimated to be around $600,000.
Council also unanimously voted to pass first reading of the Verizon Tower Lease ordinance. According to interim Supervisor Bob Love, the lease is due for renewal. The rent the county receives from Verizon will remain the same. Verizon has pledged between $50,000-$60,000 to upgrade the structure to allow them to implement 5G, and they will reduce their usage percentage on the tower so the county can make additions as they need space.
Council was supposed to vote on a resolution for a first amendment to the fee-in-lieu-of-tax agreement for Volvo, but Love said the company’s attorneys had not gotten the necessary documents back to the county, so the matter was moved to the December regular meeting. After that, the meeting adjourned.