Daniel Prince
It might take $285,000 or more to fully resurface the field
At Tuesday’s Union County Council meeting, Deborah O’Daniel was honored for 10 years with the Voter Registration office, and Pete Diamaduros was honored for 20 years as the assistant county attorney.
Amy Austin appeared on behalf of the Union County Miracle League. She gave an overview of the last nine years of the organization, which has served players from ages 3-83 in Union and Spartanburg. The league has grown from 64 to 80 players, and through the years, 156 individuals have played in the league at one time or another. 13 players have gone to three different national All-Star Games for the Miracle League. Austin said the field surface has exceeded the warranty and is now in need of replacement. She said they will need to get quotes on removing the existing surface, but to resurface the field will take upwards of $285,000. The group is looking to get some grants and do some fundraisers to help with the expenses, and she asked council to agree to assist them financially, which she said will help with acquiring the grants they are looking to get. Supervisor Phillip Russell referred the matter to the finance committee, as the budget process is coming up for the next fiscal year. He said no action would be taken at the meeting, but that the county council has been and likely will continue to be supportive of the work that the Miracle League is doing.
Council voted to stay with the current schedule for its regular monthly meetings, meeting the second Tuesday of each month at 5:30 p.m. in the Grand Jury Room at the Union County Courthouse.
David Sinclair was nominated as vice-chair for council, and new council member Danny Bright was nominated as chaplain. Both were approved by acclamation.
Supervisor Russell stated that instead of taking the time to make committee assignments for council at the meeting, he suggested that the council members take the next month to look at the committees and to volunteer for the ones they would like to be part of, and then come together next month to finalize the list and set the chairs for each committee. Council agreed to that plan.
There were no vacant budgeted positions or requests for capital funds at the meeting. A special called meeting was approved to take place in two weeks, on Tuesday, January 24, at 6:30 p.m. Council will be considering a couple of ordinances at that meeting, likely to be the second readings on the ordinances council considered Tuesday—one being to amend the ordinance pertaining to appointments to boards and commissions, and the other to sell the City Park property to the Union-Laurens Commission on Higher Education.
There were no reports from elected officials presented at the meeting. Supervisor Phillip Russell gave his report, which we will cover in future newscasts. An executive session was held on a personnel matter, and coming out of that, council unanimously voted, with some expressed reservations by council member Carolyn Rutherford, to appoint Kindra Horne as the clerk to council to help relieve Linda Jolly of some of her duties. Horne said she will be taking on the role on a temporary basis in addition to her duties as personnel director until they can get someone else hired and trained for the clerk position.