City Council begins budget talks
By Bobby Bryant, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
Darlington City Council held its first work session last week to plan next year’s budget.
As council members met with city staffers Thursday evening to begin discussing the broad points of the budget work to come, here are some of the points that came up:
— The Fire Department says it needs an additional pickup truck.
— Public Safety Director Kelvin Washington noted that, because of “a lot of different factors,” the city Police Department has been writing fewer traffic tickets and the city has been earning far less money from tickets that officers do write.
Washington said this was largely because of a change in state law that meant S.C. cities are allowed to keep less of the revenue from tickets.
— A council member asked about “rumors” that a police substation was being planned for South Main Street and Avenue D, the site of a park and memorial for slain police officers.
Washington said there were no such plans.
— The cost of the city’s mayoral election this year was estimated at $10,000.
— Building inspector Alex Gainey said the city expects to earn $160,000 or more in permitting fees as a result of “Project Peach,” an economic-development project involving the city’s sale of land to Georgia Pacific. Details of the project have been kept secret because of non-disclosure agreements.
