Note: Based on the Latta Town Council minutes.
Special Council Meeting of
the Latta Town Council
July 19, 2016, 7:20 p.m.
The Latta Town Council held a special meeting on July 19, 2016 at 7:20 p.m. The following were present: Councilman Jarrett Taylor, Andy Herring, Brian Mason, James Reaves, Mayor Earl Bullard, and Edward Bethea. Councilman Mason called the meeting to order, led by the pledge of Allegiance and offered the prayer. Councilman Trudy Drawhorn arrived at 8:20 pm.
Policy Manual
Councilman Mason said we are going to switch things up and talk about the policy manual first. He said, as several of you may know, you have a copy and this is to be the policy manual. For those who weren’t here at the time when Mayor Bullard first became mayor we sat down with Clerk Joe Powell and talked on the phone with Kevin Sturm, an employment lawyer, and went over the manual. We made a lot of corrections to it and generally we should adopt this versus dealing with the municipal association. We can make tweaks to it as we feel we need to, but for now this is the general guide line that we should think about putting into place because the town’s is way out of date.
Derrick Cartwright explained that when Rebecca Page and he met with the municipal association the big issue with our regular policy manual is when you open it the first page should be the disclaimer. It should be a disclaimer with a signature spot for the town employee to sign.
Meredith, with the municipal association, said that a lot of the book contains a lot of information for the years to come; however, some of it is outdated. If you look at the new policy manual or the one we are looking at, it is 37 pages front and back, has a lot of wording that would have to come out; however, there is a lot of wording that you would have to add in also.
Councilman Mason said he is looking at one that is 143 pages, and Derrick stated that the town’s policy manual now would be 70 some pages front and back. Derrick referred to page 3, on general policies; it gives you what the federal and state regulations are. I think that would need to come out and put whatever it is saying in there and basically you would paraphrase that. There are several different policy manuals that the employees have, and we are trying to get the policy manuals the same for all employees.
They discussed different ideas, and Councilman Bethea came up with the idea that the Town should come up with a committee, maybe composed of department heads and come up with what needs to be added or taken out. Derrick thinks it was a great idea, and he would start working on it to present council with a new policy manual at next council meeting.
Motion for supervisors to work together on modifying policy manual by next council meeting was made by Councilman Bethea and seconded by Councilman Taylor. It was unanimously approved by roll call vote of council.
Budget 2016-2017
The accommodations and hospitality was done today by Councilman Mason, and it’s not perfect by any means. The accommodations and hospitality can only be used for tourism. He said it’s hard to budget for accommodation and hospitality. We have where we are expecting to take in $29,300 for accommodations, and we are only expecting $10,000 in hospitality taxes, so that leaves the town with a remainder of $19,300.
Councilman Mason says that we had been approached by Rotary because they had money they wanted to spend for the community, and they came up with redoing the town’s sign out on Main Street. They want it to be a LED sign like they have at the new elementary school. The town was just about to agree on it and then the school approached rotary about putting a sign up in front of the High school and rotary voted, and they are going in with the school. The town has the quotes for the LED sign, and it will run between $23,000-$26,000. It depends on how many colors you want and the size of signs. We can get the sign using half accommodation and half hospitality to make it balance out. We can’t use the money for anything else, but we can use it for tourism. The next council meeting I will bring the three quotes for the sign and we can look at them and decide which sign we want to go with.
Mason said he was going to change the $5,000 that we have under accommodations I am going to make that $14,650, in both line 58500, which will total to $29,300.
The revenue is looking at a gross income of $741,200 and the gross expense is also $741,200, so it balances to 0. Councilman Taylor did the town retirement, town salary, and town health care.
We know, give or take a couple of thousands of dollars, what we take in for revenue every month for sanitation, sewer, and water. It runs about $83,000 and we take $13,000 out for sanitation. If you split it up water and sewer is basically equal to each other. Mayor Bullard ask about line number 72300- sales water, we have $379,263. He asked if we are projecting out everything, and Councilman Taylor replied yes. Mayor Bullard asked about line number 82223-contingency funding and 82224-depreciation, and Councilman Taylor said he put in the numbers he had to see what happens.
Councilman Taylor talked with Mike Hanna and we have the lowest rates around. We haven’t raised taxes in years and never went up on prices. He said he thinks that is the reason we are in this financial situation. The council is going to have to go up on some rates. He is looking at the sewer rate and to get things done we are going to have to go up on sewer rates. The town has 555 residential in town sewer, 91 commercial sewer, 137 residents out of town, 6 commercial, and a contract sewer with Grand Strand. The town charges Grand Strand per thousand gallon and $1.75 to treat it and that’s not a bad price. The only way to go up on Grand Strand is to go up on in town residents. Mike Hanna says that the town has one of the biggest in town and out of town highest difference he has ever worked with. If we went up 20% it would be $7,000-$8,000 more a month.
The General fund on page 3, Councilman Taylor did ask for sanitation fees to be increased by $37,000 which would be $4-$5 per household. We will be making a decision at next council meeting. We are working on the numbers for the sewer.
Mayor Bullard ask about police salary line item 53100 and Councilman Taylor says as of right now we are paying $192,516. I have spoken with Councilman Mason and Bethea and we have two officers who have applied for other jobs, and we have a part-time officer looking for full time employment and he is certified. We went ahead and hired him full time, but if any other officer leaves their position will be on freeze. If you add that salary, it will come up to $218,000.
Motion to accept tonight as the first reading of the budget was made by Councilman Bethea and seconded by Councilman Herring. It was unanimously approved by roll call vote of council. We will have the next meeting on July 26, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. for the second reading of the budget.
Willie Hooks asked if he could get a limit on getting a used backhoe and or a dump truck. The money will be coming from the depreciation account. They have talk to the USDA and they said it would be ok to spend on improvements for the water or sewer.
Motion on giving Willie Hooks the authority to go to the sales with $70,000 cap on his budget was made by Councilman Bethea and seconded by Councilman Drawhorn. It was unanimously approved by roll call vote of council.
Adjourned.
Note: Based on the aprroved Latta Town Council Minutes
Regular Council Meeting of the Latta Town Council
July 14, 2016, 7:00 p.m.
The Latta Town Council held a regular meeting at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, July 14, 2016.
The following were present: Councilman Andy Herring, Trudy Drawhorn, Brian Mason, James Reaves, Mayor Earl Bullard, and Edward Bethea.
Councilman Mason called the meeting to order, led by the Pledge of Allegiance, and offered the prayer.
Councilman Jarrett Taylor came in at 8:00 p.m.
Minutes from Regular Council Meeting June 9, 2016, motion was made my councilman Drawhorn and seconded by councilman Bethea to accept the minutes as presented. It was unanimously approved by roll call vote of council.
A 16-year-old Latta resident has drawn a flag that he wants council to look over and possibly make the flag for the Town of Latta. He explained the colors and shapes of the flag and what each stands for. Councilmen Mason and Drawhorn told the juvenile that they would get with council and discuss it at the next meeting and let him know what they decide.
Department Reports
Police Report: Assistant Chief, Derrick Cartwright read the police report. In the month of June there were 61 offenses reported. A breakdown of how many tickets each officer wrote for the month was given. He thanked the town for the prayer breakfast and showing support. Councilman Mason stated that Pastor Walker spoke and that it was very unifying and the highlight of the breakfast.
Water/Street Department: 25 loads of debris were picked up for the month of June; there were 45 water service calls, seven (7) sewer calls, one (1) call for a ditch, seven (7) water leaks, and one (1) major water leak on Henry Street extension. The town passed toxicity tests for the past five months in a row. The Town has hired Cindy Lane she will be doing the lab work and helping with paperwork.
The bridge at the wastewater pond is in bad need of repair. The department has the beams to do the bridge with, but needs decking. The department has received quotes for the decking, the quotes are as follows: the metal decking would be $1560.63, for regular wood it would be around $938, and for the plastic decking with a lifetime warranty it is $1120. Councilman Reaves asked the department which one it recommended as the best one to go with; Mr. Hooks said he would go with the plastic decking. The quote for the plastic decking came from Dillon Woodworks. The plastic decking comes with clips, the bolts, and it is necessary to drill so many inches apart from each bolt. Motion was made to replace the bridge at the wastewater pond with plastic decking by Councilman Bethea and seconded by Mayor Bullard. It was unanimously approved by roll call vote of Council. Mr. Hooks explained that The Town is in need of another backhoe. The backhoe is 11 years old, the transmission is slipping and it keeps blowing cylinders. Quotes for a new backhoe were as follows: Blancher would be $113,290 with all attachments; from New Holland, with only two attachments, would cost $85,963.12; and New Holland for $79,000 with no attachment.
If the town went with the $85,963 bid it would be credited $15,000 for the old backhoe as a down payment. The Town would need to fix the leaks on the cylinders; the transmission wasn’t a concern. After the old backhoe as the down payment, the payments would be $1393.41 a month for 60 months. Councilman Mason explained that there is a USDA grant that may be useful in this case. Councilman Mason stated that the Town has a Depreciation account to keep up the water and sewer system while it has the loan on the wells on 917, this account can be used for repairs for water, etc. However, Mayor Bullard says it cannot be used for the backhoe. Councilman Mason said he will look into this because he feels the backhoe is part of fixing the water and sewer. Mason said all we can do is ask if they say yes, we have it squared away, and if they say no, then we are back to halfway on this. Councilman Mason told Mr. Hooks we are having another meeting next week to try and get these quotes like apples vs. apples and they will look at the quotes again then. Councilman Bethea asked Mr. Hooks if he had looked into any used backhoes. Mr. Hooks said that was his first choice and that we would get some quotes on some used backhoes.
The department has cut down three trees and has about 13 more to cut. The bucket truck is messed up right now -the pump went out, but the pump is ordered and it should be in soon.
Each councilman was given a quote to look at it; the town has 108 hydrants, the quote was for about $3700 a year. The ISO ratings for the community would go up. The Town has to provide the parts; the company will fix the hydrants and do hydrant testing once a year. Mayor Bullard said he would like to see a quote from another company before they voted on anything.
The Department wants to know what council wants to do about Bamberg Street. Mayor Bullard said that this problem has been going on since 2010 and the town has had the tiling for the past four years and still nothing has been done. Councilman Mason said he thought he discussed this at the last meeting. It was stated that council asked to get three quotes for the rock, so they could rock in the ditch. Mr. Hooks said it will take 15-16 tons to rock the whole ditch. Mayor Bullard said he knows what FEMA said about the ditch and it needing rocks, but the town has the tiling, so why can’t it use it? Council Mason asked if the town put in rock it is going to cost around $21,000? What will it cost us to put the tile in that the town already has? Mr. Hooks says rent a track hoe for $5000 a month. Mayor Bullard asked if we had a dump truck. Mr. Hooks said they are both at the shop not working at this time.
Mayor Bullard made a motion to put the tile that the town has already bought and paid for in the ditch and be done with the ditch on Bamberg and no one seconded.
Council and Mr. Hooks talked about all kinds of ideas that they could do with the ditch they could put tile, rock, Burlap and they decided to discuss it at next meeting.
Judge’s Report: Judge Janette Dupree read her report for the month of June, it included seven (7) courtesy notices, eight (8) suspensions sent in to the DMV, 43 citations transmitted, four (4) seatbelts, five (5) municipal ordinances, three (3) warrants transmitted to clerk of court, six (6) courtesy summons for municipal court, 10 trips to the jail. Jury drawing is to be scheduled in August. Judge Dupree has applied for the scholarship for the annual seminar for the judge’s conference in September. They will pay for the fees and cost.
Councilman Drawhorn: Thanked the Town employees and the citizens for coming out to the prayer breakfast.
Councilman Reaves: Apologized for not being at the prayer breakfast, saying it interfered with work schedule.
Mayor Bullard: Already discussed the ditch on Bamberg.
Councilman Bethea: Thinks the prayer breakfast was put together very well and the speaker was excellent.
Some people in town have inquired about the empty buildings on Main Street. There are some people interested in the buildings, but the Jones discount has a very high opinion on what the properties are worth. Councilman Bethea suggested asking Tonny McNeil, the Dillon County economic developer on ways to get the properties rented. Councilman Mason explained that they could look into it, but it being private real estate, the town can’t force a land owner to devalue their property.
Councilman Taylor: The state was giving DOT the money to pave 301, but DOT doesn’t want to pave until they know the town will not have to dig up 301 for any water leaks. Mr. Hooks explained that there were a lot of old service lines going across 301. Harold Snipes replaced six, and he has replaced six, and they tied into the 6-inch line. The line is two-foot of the curving in the right lane under 18 inches of concrete.
Councilman Taylor thanked everyone for the prayer breakfast, saying it was nice. The town audit is under way and no issues have been brought to his attention, so he hopes the town will be getting it in the near future.
Some citizens paid for bricks at the Veteran’s Park and they still haven’t received their brick. Mr. Richard Kopituk is over the Veteran’s Park. Mr. David Earl Shelley said he will talk with Mr. Kopituk and if he isn’t able to do it anymore, they would take it over.
Councilman Taylor asked if the town put in an ordinance for anything about tractor trucks coming through town; he said he has had several calls about trucks coming through town. Earl Watts said that he watched tractor trailers go down Marion Street and watched the pavement buckle. Councilman Drawhorn says that we can put signs up anywhere in town, but 301 and 917 because the streets are the towns. We are liable for them even if we didn’t sign for them all. Councilman Reaves asked if that would affect people that live in town that drive trucks. Councilman Mason suggested that the town come up with an ordinance to put signs up and get with Derrick Cartwright to see how other towns have their signs.
Willie Hooks asked what the town is going to do with the Latimer School? Councilman Taylor says that if something major happened that the town wouldn’t be able to keep it up. Councilman Bethea said at first he thought it was a good idea, but the more he learns about the town’s finances, he thinks it’s over the town’s head. Councilman Taylor asked about the ditch on Bamberg and what did they decide.
Mr. Willie Hooks said he would put tile in it, and Councilman Taylor said he didn’t want to do that. Mayor Bullard said the tiling started caving in and a town employee put dirt and concrete in the ditch and closed half the ditch up. Councilman Mason says he has the pipe. We have already paid for it, we can put it in and maybe put a little rock around it to keep it from washing away, is a whole lot cheaper than a lot of the other things we have looked.
Back to the school issue, Willie Hooks thinks there is money to be made. Councilman Reaves said it’s not all about making money; you are going to have to spend money because it is an old building. Councilman Drawhorn feels that the school is a win-win because CareSouth and the daycare, and the town needs storage space. There is room for the town out there for storage. Councilman Mason says that the school board had said something about helping with the maintenance school for two years and the council says we need to get that in writing.
Budget Meeting next Tuesday at 7:00 p.m.
Councilman Mason: No eport.
Who-so-ever-will: Derrick Cartwright stated that they met with the safety people from the municipal association and we are losing points for not having an up-to-date handbook. There is a 200 page to an 18 page handbook on the municipal website. Councilman Mason said put look at policy manual at next meeting.
Councilman Taylor said Harbor Freight wanted to know if the town was nonprofit and ask about naming rights and the upkeep of the parks. He also ask would the town like to do a re-dedication ceremony and councilman Taylor said if that’s what Harbor Freight wants to do it was fine.
Motion to adjourn was made by Councilman Taylor and seconded by Councilman Bethea. It was unanimously approved by roll call vote of council.
Special Council Meeting of the Latta Town Council
July 26, 2016, 7:00 p.m.
1. Call to order
2. Pledge of Allegiance
3. Prayer
4. 2nd reading of Budget
5. Adjourned
