Council hears of courthouse woes, landfill bond options
Darlington County Council chair Bobby Hudson (right) presented a plaque to Darlington County Parks and Recreation director Ken McRae honoring his 20 years of service with the county.
Photo by Samantha Lyles
By Samantha Lyles, Staff Writer, slyles@newsandpress.net
The May 2 meeting of Darlington County Council featured two recurring topics: the need to issue a bond for improvements and repairs at the landfill, and the dilapidated condition of the Darlington County Courthouse.
Although the county has formed a committee and contracted engineers to plan construction of a new courthouse and administrative facility, that project is still years away and the current courthouse must be shored up in the meantime. At this May 2 meeting, council heard from Karen Harmon and Sean Kelly of Honeywell Building Solutions, who conducted a needs assessment on the courthouse’s heating and air conditioning system.
Harmon cited numerous mechanical issues: oil and water in air lines throughout the building; oil leaks in the pneumatic air compressor; a non-functional air drier; poor piping, wiring and insulation of the cooling tower; leaks around the cooling tower creating excessive standing water and vegetation growth; and missing panels that allow birds and wildlife into the system.
Additionally, numerous thermostats throughout the building are not functional, and many fan coil units (the primary source of cooling in courthouse offices) are in various stages of decline.
Estimated costs to address these problems were as follows: $12,000 for a refrigerated air drier; $56,000 to replace the cooling tower; $133,500 to repair 89 fan coil units or $275,900 to replace them; also, Honeywell proposed a $4,500 monthly service plan to perform preventive maintenance and repairs.
Council took this presentation as information and took no action.
Also at this meeting, council heard from Tyler Traudt of First Tryon Advisors regarding the proposed $3.5 million general obligation bond to replace aged equipment and make improvements at the Darlington County Landfill and Environmental Services Department.
Traudt explained to council that without additional revenues, the Environmental Services Fund can afford to borrow only $1.29 million, and anything beyond this amount will require increasing millage and/or service fees.
For example, Traudt pointed out that increasing the $53 solid waste fee (paid on annual property tax bills) to $60 would cover 100-percent of the debt service for the $3.5 million bond, and would leave the county with excess revenues of $296,396 over the 20-year bond term.
Bumping the solid waste fee to $63 in 2017 would cover the debt service and yield excess revenues of $1.8 million over 20 years.
Council took this presentation as information. Third and final reading of Ordinance 15-32, pertaining to the $3.5 million Environmental Services Bond, remains on the pending list for council’s future consideration.
On the regular agenda, council carried over a proposal to change the name of the eastern private portion of Lide Springs Road to Generations Way. Julie Ritz of Darlington County Planning said residents had been consulted about the name change, which would clarify the road’s location and curtail confusion encountered in the past by emergency responders.
Council contracted with Maldin & Jenkins to conduct independent annual auditing services for a fee of $37,800 per year.
Also, council voted to sell about 3.8 acres of unused property located off Highway 151 to the Darlington County Water and Sewer Authority for $50,100.