Daniel Prince
Local match for grant approved; ordinance reshaping boards and commissions passes first reading
At Tuesday’s Union County Council meeting, council quickly took care of its business items, voting unanimously to approve the resolution and ordinances in front of it.
The resolution was to provide local matching funds for an Appalachian Regional Commission grant the county is applying for to develop a Regional Tourism Plan for the county. ARC grants require a 30% local match. The county is applying for a $50,000 grant, and the local match would be $21,500.
Council passed third reading of the tower lease agreement for Verizon Wireless. The five-year lease brings in nearly $29,000 a year from Verizon. Verizon has options to extend the agreement four times, which would run through 2048 if exercised. Rent would increase by 10% each time the agreement is extended. Verizon will also make $60,000 worth of improvements to the tower to increase its capacity and structural integrity.
Council passed first reading in title only of an amendment to the ordinance pertaining to appointments of boards and commissions. As we told you in yesterday’s newscast, the stated purpose of the ordinance is to propose an ability that would allow duly elected council members to make appointments to boards and commissions upon their taking office, rather than having to wait six months to do so; to propose an ability that would allow council to appoint a person to a vacant board or commission seat should a member of council not be able to do so for an extended period of time; to propose a change to the stadium commission, reducing its members from 7 to 3, which would be the Union County Schools Superintendent, mayor or administrator from the City of Union, and the Union County Supervisor, with the Stadium Director serving as chair and ex-officio member; and to propose updating the ordinance to remove boards and commissions that are no longer applicable to Union County or are appointed by state government officials.
Council also passed first reading of an ordinance authorizing the sale and conveyance of the City Park property to the Union-Laurens Commission on Higher Education. Supervisor Phillip Russell said the university plans to upgrade the facility and build it up to college standards, which will require capital funds. However, the state will not put money into a facility they don’t own. The basketball court currently on the property would be dismantled and moved to another facility. Russell said the Union County Recreation Department is already working on a plan for that. Helicopters from Spartanburg Regional would land at a helipad at the back of the property, where the tennis courts used to be. Council member Annie Smith abstained from the vote, as she is employed by USC Union. It’s not clear what makes this ordinance different from the one council passed last year.