Council votes to approve sale of city administration building
By Melissa Rollins, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
Darlington City Council voted Tuesday night to sell the administration building at 410 Pearl Street.
After a lengthy and heated executive session, councilwoman Elaine Reed made the motion.
“I make a motion that we allow Genesis (Healthcare) to purchase the property at 410 Pearl Street at $100,000 and have the first option on the Council on Aging building when that comes up,” Reed said.
Darlington City Manager Howard Garland added that the option for the Council on Aging building would only become available if and when the council had moved out.
Several of the city administration offices moved from the building at 410 Pearl after a storm caused a chimney to collapse and damage the roof. Since it was already on a list of repairs to be done, the roof will be fixed by the city even though Genesis is purchasing it.
Old Business
City Building Inspector and Codes Enforcement Officer Alex Gainey appeared before council again regarding the proposed Demolition Assistance Program. The program seeks to rid the city of blighted buildings while helping people to maintain ownership of their property. Under the proposal, people that met eligibility requirements would pay a minimum of $500, to be determined by their income, for the city to remove the house. Any upkeep of the property would be the sole responsibility of the owner. Mayor Hines expressed come concern and voted against the program. Ultimately, a vote was taken and program adoption was approved.
In other business, final reading was given to an ordinance relating to a tax levy. The ordinance is for the “purpose of raising revenue to pay principal and interest on outstanding bonded and other indebtedness of the City of Darlington and for the purpose of defraying the corporate expenses of said City of Darlington for the current year 2017, there shall be and hereby is, levied and imposed on all taxable property in the City of Darlington a levy of 125 mills.”
New Business
In the new business portion of the meeting, the city council gave first reading to Ordinance 2017-26 to purchase the property at 909 Pearl Street, previously the location of Ray’s Tires.
Garland explained that the property was a necessary purchase in order for the city to complete their stormwater project.
“The stormwater drain runs directly under the building,” Garland said. “The building was built there in 1950 and I don’t know why someone would build right over a stormwater drain but they did. We need that as a part of that stormwater project … this is in the budget for that project.”
After getting final approval at the next council meeting, the property will be purchased from Donald and Dewayne Weatherford for $25,000.
A bid was presented to council for the replacement of the HVAC system for the Darlington Fire Department. The accepted bid was from Quality Service Company out of Florence. For $10,350, the company will replace the existing rooftop unit with a new Trane model with an electric heater and manual fresh air damper. A second bid came in at $1,400 more than the one from Quality Service.