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Town Council - July 2, 2007 |
Minutes McClellanville Town Council July 2, 2007 - 7:00 PM McClellanville Town Council met for a regularly-scheduled meeting on the above-noted date. Notice of the meeting had been published in both the Charleston Post and Courier and the Town newsletter. Mayor Rutledge Leland was present to preside at the meeting, along with Council Members Bob Gannon, Aaron Baldwin, and Gussie Humes. Councilman Jim Scott was absent. Others at the meeting included Town Clerk Mary Duke and guests George Marlowe, Bud Hill, Bernadette Humphrey, Steve Wright and another representative from SCE&G. Mayor Leland first asked the Council Members to review the minutes from the June 4, 2007 meeting. Bob Gannon made a motion to approve the minutes as written. Gussie Humes seconded the motion, and the motion was carried by unanimous vote of the Council Members present. Mayor Leland then recognized Steve Wright, Community/Economic Development and Local Government Representative for SCE&G, and asked if he would like to speak to Council. Mr. Wright said that Mary had contacted him and requested that he come to the meeting to respond to some recent complaints regarding outages and difficulties with contacting the company for information during power interruptions, etc. Mr. Wright said that power "blinks" were not uncommon, due to the amount of exposure of the long distribution line connecting McClellanville with the substation in Mt. Pleasant. He said that many occurrences could cause these brief interruptions, such as limbs, birds, or squirrels coming in contact with the lines. He said that the only real way to eliminate the power blinks was to replace the current distribution lines with transmission lines. He said that the outages lasting several hours that occurred in June and April had been the result of storms and high winds. Aaron said that Kathy Livingston had made some complaints at the previous Council meeting about the problems she had experienced trying to contact someone at SCE&G for information as to when she might expect power to be restored. Aaron said that local residents and businesses that were very dependent on power, such as the Livingstons with their mariculture business and three-phase power equipment, had a real need to have an idea how long they would be without power and to be able to monitor equipment when power was restored. Steve Wright provided Council with information on the SCE&G website. He said that it was possible to access information on the website as to the area of outages and the estimated time when power would be restored. He noted that telephone numbers for power outage reporting were also included on the website. Steve said that Mary should have a priority power outage reporting number that was provided for all municipalities. Mary asked if that number would work on weekends, as she said she had experienced some difficulties contacting a company representative on the weekends. Steve said that he was not sure about that, but that he would check on it and get the information for Mary. Council then held a public hearing on the ordinance to designate Historic-Residential zoning for the two newly annexed properties on Drayton St., TMS Nos. 764-15-00-021 and 764-15-00-043. Rutledge asked those present if they had any thoughts or concerns regarding the ordinance or the proposed zoning, but no discussion was offered. Gussie then made a motion to hold second and third readings on the proposed ordinance, which is entitled "An Ordinance to Amend the Zoning Map of the Town of McClellanville by Adding Thereto Property Identified by the Charleston County Assessor's Office as TMS Nos. 764-15-00-021 and 764-15-00-043 to and by Designating as the Zoning for Said Property the Historic (H) and Residential (R) Classifications." Aaron made a second to the motion, and the motion was carried by unanimous vote. Council then held a first reading on the proposed "Ordinance to Amend Chapter 4, Section 4.202 of the Code of the Town of McClellanville Pertaining to Fees Relating to Reviews, Inspections, and Construction within the Town." Mary said that adoption of this ordinance would allow Council to revise building permit and inspection fees, as needed, by resolution. Bob made a motion to hold first reading on the ordinance. The motion was seconded by Gussie, and carried unanimously by the Councilmen present and voting. Council instructed Mary to advertise a public hearing for the ordinance at the August meeting. Council next considered the revised draft of a proposed pet or animal control ordinance entitled "An Ordinance to Amend Chapter 3 of McClellanville Code by Adding Thereto a New Article II Pertaining to Vicious Animals and by Amending Section 3.107 of Article I of Chapter 3 as to Circumstances when Vicious Animals May Be Declared a Nuisance." Mayor Leland and Bob Gannon told those present that the ordinance had been drafted by Councilman Jim Scott and Town Attorney Frances Cantwell with input from a committee that had been formed to study and recommend regarding animal problems in Town. Bob Gannon suggested that another meeting of the committee be scheduled in order to allow them an opportunity to review the latest revisions to the proposed ordinance. He requested that Mary contact the committee members and ask that they meet on Wednesday, July 18th, 7PM at the Town Office. Bob then made a motion for first reading on the proposed ordinance. Gussie made a second to the motion, and the motion was carried by unanimous vote. Mayor Leland suggested scheduling a separate public hearing date for the ordinance rather that holding the hearing at the next regular Council meeting, as he felt discussion regarding the ordinance might be lengthy. Council agreed that Mary should advertise a public hearing on the ordinance for Tuesday, August 14th. Aaron said that he had some concerns regarding Section 3.201.d(1), which states that the Town would not investigate a matter regarding a vicious animal without the injured or aggrieved party submitting a signed, written complaint to the Town Administrator. Aaron said that he could anticipate some emergency situation with vicious animals where immediate action would be needed and production of a written report would not be practical, and he felt that this should be taken into consideration. Council next reconsidered the request from Kathie Livingston, owner of Nature Adventures, for a special boat landing fee for kayaks and canoes. Aaron said that he did not feel that the present fees were unreasonable for this use, and that he felt inclined to leave the fee structure as it is for the present. Council agreed by unanimous consent that they would not change the fees at this time. Mary next reviewed with Council the information she had provided on NIMS, the National Incident Management System. She said that she had attended a meeting at the County Services Building where the system for hazard incident management was discussed. She said that adoption of NIMS at the community level was "strongly recommended," as was NIMS training for local elected and appointed officials. Jurisdictions will be required to meet the FY 2006 NIMS implementation requirements as a condition of receiving federal preparedness funding assistance in FY 2007. Mary said that two courses were recommended for elected officials and that the courses were available online at the FEMA website. She said that she would probably be required to take those courses and some additional training that would be offered by the County. Council agreed that Mary could be the NIMS-trained representative for the Town. Mary then asked whether the Personnel Committee was ready to schedule a date to meet and review the draft personnel policy for the Town. Bob said that he would speak with Councilman Jim Scott and try to set up a meeting some time after the 18th of July. Mary noted with Council that a second round of funding would be available through the Charleston County Greenbelt Program, and that proposed projects would have to be submitted by August 1st. She said that the Planning Commission was open to suggestions from Council or members of the public for projects to submit for funding. Mayor Leland then recognized George Marlowe. Mr. Marlowe said that he had expected that second reading on the ordinance to annex his property on Highway 17 might be held at this meeting. Mary said that Council had not yet received the recommendation from the Planning Commission as to zoning for the property, but that she expected Council would be ready to move forward with second and third readings at the August 6th meeting. Bob Gannon told Council that he had talked to Charleston County Public Works Dept. about paving the driveway into the Town Office and the boat landing. He said that the County had offered to provide the labor and equipment for the job if the Town would pay for the asphalt. Council agreed that Bob could get an estimate from the County on the cost of the asphalt for paving the driveway and possibly the parking areas at the Town Office and museum as well. Bob asked those present to remember him with a donation to the Muscular Dystrophy Association to help keep him out of "jail" during the fundraiser. There being no further business, a motion was then made, seconded and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting. Mary S. Duke Town Clerk |