Hartsville to raise residential solid waste fee
By Samantha Lyles, Staff Writer, slyles@newsandpress.net
Hartsville City Council held their regular meeting a week early to avoid Election Day conflicts, and the November 1 session brought the good news that the city’s annual financial audit had no issues or problems.
The audit, prepared by Certified Public Accounting firm Sheheen, Hancock and Godwin of Camden, arrived a month ahead of schedule and presented a good report with no findings.
Council held a public hearing and passed final reading for Ordinance 4271, which proposed an increase in the residential sanitation fee necessary to fund continued operations and capital needs for the city’s trash and yard waste pickup. The increase will raise the monthly residential solid waste fee from $19.50 to $21.19. The increase will show on the December 2016 bills that are due in January of 2017.
No citizen spoke during the public hearing, and council member Teresa Mack was the lone “no” vote on this ordinance.
A public hearing and final reading was also held for Ordinance 4272, approving the expenditure of $94,000 from Water-Sewer Department reserves to pay for necessary repairs and painting of the city’s water tanks. Mack also voted against this ordinance.
Without dissent, council approved Resolution 11-16-02, permitting application for a reimbursement grant from GameTime playground equipment company to recoup some of the $50,000 the city will spend on new playground sets for Pride Park. If the grant is successful, the city would be reimbursed for 35-percent of the equipment cost.
In response to inquires from council member Mack, finance director Shannon Morrison said the current Pride Park play equipment would be taken down and likely sold on a government surplus auction website like govdeals.com.
Also receiving unanimous approval was Resolution 11-16-03, awarding the bid contract to renovate the Hartsville Museum Annex property located on North Fifth Street to Camden Construction Co., which bid $516,794 for the project. Two other bids were received from All Quality Construction ($560,000) and Gilbert & Fields Construction ($573,094). Mack inquired if any Darlington County firms bid on the contract and Morrison replied that no local firms submitted bids for this project.