Darlington holds special water rate public hearing
By Jana E. Pye, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
Prior to the August montly meeting, Darlington City Council members met for a special water rate public hearing.
Mayor Gloria Hines addressed the citizens in attendance: “The water bill could go up, I understand that. But we are at the point now if you look at the television and ride down our streets we got a whole lot of sink holes all over Darlington. And they are steady coming.”
Speaking in support was resident Linwood Epps: “I am in support of your rate increase. I probably one of few but I am. Now if I read it correct, you all are going up $1 dollar on each the water and the sewer this year, and then .3% each year thereafter for a total of five years, is that correct? So in the total of five years, if I did my math correct, you are going to go up a total of $4.10 in those five years. Two dollars and five cents on the water, and two dollars and five cents on the sewer for five years. I have seen the sinkholes. I do know that we have a problem, not you, we. We have a problem in the city with old pipes and old sewer lines and we might as well go ahead and start addressing the problem and I think this is our first step so lets go ahead and start fixing the problem of getting ready for the problem its coming we already know that and seen that so lets get ready for it. I’d rather pay my two dollars now then to wait four years and then you hit me up for fifty dollars on my taxes so lets go ahead and address the problem now.”
Recently elected county council woman Joyce Thomas was not in favor.
“I am not in favor of the increase. I’m just one of the lucky ones who can actually- if need be- afford it. I’m talking about folks that cannot afford it. We have people that are unemployed, and I am meaning not only south Darlington but all over the city. You know if you work with children who say, ‘My Mom didn’t have any water, so we had to spend the night with Grandma’ things of that nature. You know, it’s just I can’t understand why is that the only means that we have is raising the fee to pay for these. I’ve lived here for years and years and we’ve talked about the old pipes and things that needed to be done what has happened in recent past?”
Mayor Hines explained that the issue is dire. “The pipes all over the city are all about 75 years old the other taken a whole lot I’d rather do $2 now then pay later I don’t want my house to fall in a sink hole. Around city hall here we had about nine sink holes it might be threatening another one. It’s happened all over the city. Nobody wants to go up on water bill, but we are the lowest rates in the area.”
“We feel that this part has been neglected,” echoed councilwoman Elaine Reed. “It was not done in the past. It just seems like it falls on us, but that is me being new. We are identifying the problem. I empathize, but we truly need to support it so that it can get better because there are no other solutions seemingly.”
Mayor Pro Tem Coleman Cannon: “I know the concerns of the other constituents. Do you have a solution or some other way? We are open for solutions that would help if there is one that is not raising the water rate if there is another solution, we would like to hear.”
Another resident, Charlie Gaskins, also raised concerns. See his Letter to the Editor in the opinion section.
“You can’t keep putting so many patches on an old tire before you are riding around on patches; every time you put a patch on one spot, it’s still an old tire that going to add stress to the other part and it’s going to blow out and it’s going to be patch, patch, patch. Isn’t there some other alternative to where we can go in and just go ahead and replace certain sections through the city, work it toward replacing this whole antiquated system we’ve got? I mean we are looking at sewer problems.”