Daniel Prince
Upgrades to recycling centers, additional money for South State Bank renovation among items in funding plan
At Monday’s special meeting of Union County Council, council approved the funding plan for several county projects. Yesterday, we talked about the jail expansion. Other projects include building a new spec building for industrial recruitment. The cost opinion on building that came in at around $6.5 million. The county wants to build it on the Midway Green property near Tiger Companies and Mycoworks. They also want to get a pad-ready site at the Cudd property, which Supervisor Frank Hart stated was an ideal rail site if an industry needed rail service. Hart said the county hopes to work out another 50/50 split with Lockhart Power to build the spec building, with the remaining $3.2 million or so funded by proceeds from the sale of the current spec building to Mycoworks, which would be $1.8 million, and the other $1.45 million, which would come from the infrastructure fund. Council approved that plan unanimously.
Council also unanimously approved up to $500,000 for improvements to recycling center sites. One site, the John Hart facility, would be moved from its current location to a larger site further down the road. The equipment would be moved from the current location to the new one, and Public Works Director Rusty Snider said he felt the site could be completed at a price of $350,000 or less, but he wouldn’t know for sure until the bids come in. New attendant’s buildings are needed at the Santuc and Kelly Kelton sites. The Jonesville site needs to regrade and repave the entrance drive and demolish a building that is on site. They need additional concrete pads at a couple of sites, and they need to address fence repairs and different landscaping at the Airport site to deter thieves from cutting into the fence and entering the property. Snider said once he gets the cost for the John Hart recycling center site, he would then prioritize the other repairs and do what he could with the $500,000.
More money is needed for the South State Bank renovation. Originally, the county had hoped to use the existing HVAC system, ductwork, and sheetrock, but problems found at the building has forced them to tear all that out. The original contract was for $789,000, but the supervisor asked for an additional $600,000 to keep from having to come back and ask for more as problems arise. The final price tag would come in at around $1.389 million, which he said was still cheap vs. building a new building. Council approved the additional money unanimously.
They also voted to buy a generator for the courthouse for $26,500 out of bond proceeds. They voted to purchase universal power supply systems for the new sheriff’s office building and the South State Bank building, as well. The cost would be $50,000.
Finally, council approved spending $20,000 on equipment that would monitor the remote sites and repeater sites that the fire service uses to communicate with dispatch. Currently, if a person is not on site, they cannot monitor whether the equipment is working or not. A new system that Emergency Services Director Dennis Merrifield wants to put into place will do the monitoring and will alert dispatch with a pop-up notification if one of the remote sites goes down. The equipment can be purchased and installed within a month.