WARE SHOALS — Katherine Hall was unique among mill buildings.

It served as the heart of Ware Shoals for years, and was home to a theater that served as the town’s gathering place.

Although nearly $3.4 million in Capital Project Sales Tax funds are on their way to help the town renovate the 15,637-square-foot building, it might take more than that to bring the 109-year-old building to its former glory.

On Thursday, Ware Shoals Town Council met to hear preservation consultant Kyle Campbell’s plan to bring in extra funds that will supplement the CPST millions. Campbell helped the town prepare the 2015 conditions report on Katherine Hall, and is working to get the town registered as a national historic district.

“Since we did the conditions report, some of the things that were going to be addressed in the intervening seven years have not been,” Campbell said. “Specifically the porch leaks — those have gotten significantly worse, pushing water into the building.”

Because of the water damage over time and increased labor and material costs, he expects the cost of renovating Katherine Hall has outgrown the $3,397,273 coming in from the penny sales tax.

A solution? Tax credits.

Campbell proposed applying for state historic tax credits, a state textile credit and a federal historic tax credit, which together could cover 70% of qualifying rehabilitation expenses to fix the now-collapsed porch roof and the subsequent damage to the porch itself.

In total, those credits would amount to about $2.3 million — the town has little use for tax credits, however. The plan, instead, is to sell the tax credits using a tax credit syndicator — a business that helps people sell tax credits, often to corporations.

“What those syndication forms do is large corporations like Exxon, they will buy those credits to put against their tax liability,” he said. “They buy it at, say, 80 cents on the dollar. So they’re saving themselves 20% on their taxes by buying tax credits generated by a project like, say, Katherine Hall.”

Even if the credits are sold at 70 cents on the dollar, Campbell said it would generate more than $1.6 million to be applied to the project. He said he worked with Josh Skinner, the county’s CPST coordinator, to ensure that selling tax credits wasn’t in conflict with the legal apparatus of the penny sales tax, and said they appeared to be in the clear.

Because the town isn’t a nonprofit, council will have to set up a development corporation to own the building for a five-year period. In the meantime, Campbell said the town should move to nominate the building for the national historic register, develop renovation plans that meet the secretary of the interior’s standards and submit those plans to the relevant state agencies.

While CPST funds don’t come in until 2024, Campbell urged council to take action sooner rather than later when it comes to fixing the porch. Water is continuing to pour into the building, damaging flooring joists and damaging plaster and tile in the basement level. Funds spent to fix the porch now can be reimbursed from those CPST dollars later, he said.

“We’ve had seven years of letting it deteriorate, if we could cut out these last two years it would be really beneficial to this whole project,” Campbell said.

Council member Patty Walters said she was concerned the penny sales tax funds wouldn’t be a drop in the bucket to get the building fixed. Campbell disagreed, saying he’d worked on projects on similarly sized buildings; the total funds with the estimated tax credit earnings will give the town about $5 million to work with.

Digging up discussion from last year, council member George Leagans asked if the town didn’t have enough money to restore the building, where would they find money to tear it down? Other members of council were confused, and emphasized that removing the current building is not an option.

In 2021, Leagans suggested the town’s best path forward would be to tear Katherine Hall down, with fellow council member Kent Boles saying the building should have been torn down decades ago.

The town submitted its application in 2016 for the Capital Project Sales Tax seeking funds to restore the building, not demolish it. The $3.4 million coming from the penny tax is only applicable to the planned restoration.

Council was eager Thursday to move forward with Campbell’s plan, disagreeing only on when to do it. Council member and mayor-elect Bryan Ross said he wanted to hold off on a vote to move forward with this plan until the town has a project manager contracted for the restoration project. Council member Micheal Powell wanted to show that council was on board with this plan, though, and council voted 4-3 to proceed with the plan.

First steps will be to hire a project manager, then work with this person to form the development corporation that will eventually take ownership of Katherine Hall for five years.

Originally Published by Index-Journal on:Dec 3, 2022

 By DAMIAN DOMINGUEZ ddominguez@indexjournal.com

Article Link: https://www.indexjournal.com/news/katherine-hall-renovations-need-more-funds-town-eyes-tax-credits/article_e14970f0-42ef-56db-886d-08219017612d.html

 

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A $100,000-speed bump is delaying renovations at the Ninety Six Town Park.

The 2016 Capital Project Sales Tax referendum allocated $440,727.23 to renovate the Ninety Six Town Park, but once the project was put out to bid the lowest bidder’s offer was still over budget.

The project was put out to bid June 29, seeking contractors who could do necessary site work on the grounds, renovate the gazebo and build a new restroom facility to replace the existing one, along with an add-on alternative for electrical hookups along the park’s perimeter.

Only two companies bid on the project: Greenway Construction and Wiley Easton Construction. Greenway’s bid was nearly $200,000 cheaper than the competitor, at $483,000, but after the county used part of the allocated CPST funds for planning from Davis and Floyd, only about $380,000 remain to pay for the renovation.

“We did meet with Greenway Construction since they were the lowest bidder,” Ninety Six Mayor Mike Rowe said. “We knew we were going to have to trim some things.”

After about three weeks, Greenway came back with a plan to only rebuild the bathrooms, renovate the gazebo and work on a single walking trail for about $350,000.

“That didn’t include the playground equipment, and that’s the main part of the park. Children play there every day,” Rowe said.

Josh Skinner, Greenwood County’s CPST coordinator, has run into this issue with a few projects now. Sometimes when a multi-faceted project is bid out and comes back over budget, breaking the project down into separate bids can help reduce the cost and allow for more companies to competitively bid.

Rowe said Davis and Floyd will help the town split the bid — bidding out the playground, bathrooms and gazebo separately. On Monday, Ninety Six Town Council voted to reject the Greenway bid so they can move forward with re-bidding the project.

While he said he knows materials and construction costs have risen considerably in the past year, he still hopes they can afford to have electrical outlets put in throughout the park. That would help offer electricity to vendors who set up during the S.C. Festival of Stars.

“We need to try to get the most we possibly can out of the money we have,” Rowe said.

Originally Published by Index-Journal on:Oct 21, 2022

By DAMIAN DOMINGUEZ ddominguez@indexjournal.com

Article Link: https://www.indexjournal.com/news/ninety-six-to-re-bid-town-park-upgrades/article_98b76a7b-a26e-55b7-97a2-0cc1247651a9.html

Greenwood County might hit the $87.9 million revenue cap for the 2016 capital project sales tax early — a far cry from the multi-million dollar shortfall projected just two years ago.

When the penny sales tax passed in a 2016 referendum, voters went to the ballot and approved the tax with a maximum collections cap of $87,938,185 to fund 27 projects throughout the county. Confusion sparked in August 2019, when the late County Council Chairperson Steve Brown said officials expected their final collection rate to be up to $20 million below that projected total.

In fall 2020, County Manager Toby Chappell gave a breakdown of quarterly tax revenues and said that shortfall was down to a $10 million deficit. These projections were based on predicting no increase in collections for the following 20 quarters.

But that’s not what happened.

Some quarters saw the collection rate drop — especially in the summer of 2020 — but others have seen significant growth. Now County Treasurer Steffanie Dorn is predicting the tax will bring in more than originally projected — nearly $1.2 million over.

When initially estimating the tax’s collection, the treasurer at the time, Sharon Setzer, contacted the state Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office to predict annual tax income from a 1% increase. The office’s estimates in September 2015 are what were used to estimate the $87 million cap in the 2016 referendum voters approved.

Dorn was working for the City of Greenwood when the 2016 shortfall predictions were made. CPST Manager Josh Skinner was hired about six months into the tax’s lifespan to handle execution of the projects.

Skinner keeps a master spreadsheet, started before his hire, where county officials keep a record of each CPST check given to them from the department of revenue. They apply those funds to each project, rolling any leftover funds forward to the next set of projects.

“When we first started, the way we made our projections was we just took the average of our quarterly collections, and sort of add that to each project,” Skinner said. “Of course, that’s what got us in trouble in the beginning, because those averages were $1.9, $1.8 million — they were pretty low.”

These estimates didn’t project growth, and came up dramatically short.

“After COVID, the collections just blew up,” Skinner said, “and then Steffanie started adding projected growth.”

“I’m looking at what we’ve collected every quarter since its inception, and what the growth has been from quarter to quarter,” Dorn said. “I’m very conservative — which, you want your chief financial officers to be conservative, especially in the government sector — but I take where we’ve been and apply that to where we’re going to go.”

Even then, Dorn said she backs off a bit from raw projected growth, and typically presents a more cautious interpretation of these figures. Since 2016, the economy has experienced extremely volatile conditions, which make some quarters worse indicators of future performance than others.

“When I look at this thing, what’s so interesting to me is how in June of ‘20 we had this massive drop, COVID related. Then the next quarter we had this massive increase,” Dorn said. “No, obviously, I wouldn’t take that and apply it to future quarters.”

In her years crunching numbers for Greenwood County and city government, she’s been through several recessions. She knows Greenwood typically lags behind the rest of the country when it comes to economic impact, and takes that into consideration when making her predictions.

If the county hits the $87 million mark noted in the original referendum, Dorn said the state will notify retailers to stop collecting the tax. The county isn’t supposed to collect more than that cap, though Dorn acknowledged there’s usually a delay from when a tax starts or stops and when retailers make the needed adjustments.

But even if the county collects every intended cent, how do officials ensure it will be enough to afford the 27 approved projects?

“When we do the design and the planning, we’re always asking for cost estimates,” Skinner said. “A lot of times the bids will come in high, and we have to either value-engineer — find ways to cut the cost — or find additional money to pay for the overage before we sign the contract.”

Upgrading the J.C. Fox Boozer complex in Ninety Six had a $1 million budget, but the single bid to renovate the athletic facility came in at $1,278,000. That included building a central restroom and concession stand, but Skinner said the county decided to take that building out of the bid and bid it separately.

Officials were able to get the two bids down to $765,000 for the sports complex and $221,000 for the separate building; just less than $1 million. The county used money from its own budget and ARPA relief funds to help pay for additional side projects they requested from the contractors. They chose lower cost materials: Cut back on concrete, using asphalt instead on walkways.

The widening of S.C. Highway 246 was a big example of finding additional funding. The CPST’s budgeted $12 million was never intended to pay for the entire widening of a four-mile stretch of the highway. The county needed to leverage those millions to get additional state or federal funding, and earlier this month they were awarded a $38 million grant from the State Transportation Infrastructure Bank to help with the project.

The county’s boat ramp going in at the Highway 72/221 bridge received $600,000 from the state Department of Natural Resources, supplementing CPST funds to help the project come to fruition. But it also took $200,000 from a state water recreation fund, among other state dollars.

“And of course, we’re spending almost all of it,” Skinner said. “The low bid on that was $1.8 million, so without those extra funds there’s no way we could have built what we’re building now.”

County officials try to set aside a 5 to 10% contingency based on the project’s cost, so they can afford change orders if complications arise. Materials and construction costs are changing constantly, along with inflation, and it’s hard to account for how far today’s dollars might stretch in a year.

In 2016, the allocated $65,000 for Wisteria Park in Troy was budgeted to upgrade the whole park. Today, Skinner said that would probably pay just to renovate the parking lot.

Balancing income and spending is a tall task, rife with complications. But county officials are confident they have the right people for the job.

“We have the best staff there is; Steffanie Dorn is a genius,” County Council Chairperson Chuck Motes said. “She tracks the income of the capital sales tax and reports it to us, and she’s been accurate. Josh is a remarkable manager, too.”

Savings Skinner negotiates help cover costs on other projects, Moates said. While the economic climate is difficult to navigate, and getting more challenging daily, he said the county works to do as much as it can with the funds available.

The county is gearing up to ask its residents to approve another capital project sales tax when this one expires, and Moates said he’s confident it will be an easy sell.

“All I’m going to have to do is say to voters, ‘Look around you,’” he said. “There’s been so much enrichment of our lives and community, with these parks and the sports complex, the utilities work, all the projects.”

Originally Published by Index-Journal on: Sep 24, 2022

By DAMIAN DOMINGUEZ ddominguez@indexjournal.com

Article Link: https://www.indexjournal.com/news/from-shortfall-to-windfall-county-officials-balance-cpst-income-with-rising-costs/article_92ffb4e0-1a11-5335-85d2-cb395aaf467b.html

Greenwood County is getting $38 million from the state to fund the expansion of S.C. Highway 246 South, according to a news release.

On Thursday, members of the State Transportation Infrastructure Bank voted unanimously to award the $38 million grant for the county’s widening project. The planned widening is part of the 2016 Capital Project Sales Tax, which designated $12 million of CPST funds for the estimated $50 million expansion.

These state funds were always an essential part of getting this project done, said county Public Works Director Rob Russian. To date, the county has received and designated about $6 million for pre-construction costs, including design.

“Having this state funding come through from the state infrastructure bank was always essential to the project,” Russian said. “It’s a tremendous relief getting this money. This has been a project we’ve been working on since I started in this position.”

The project involves widening four miles of Highway 246 South from Highway 221 in Coronaca to Highway 702. This stretch of highway includes industries such as Teijin, Ascend Performance Materials, Lonza, Fujifilm and Velux. Russian said the current two-lane highway serves as bare minimum road infrastructure for these existing industries. If Greenwood wants to attract more business to this stretch of highway, he said expanding it is key.

“I can’t thank the voters of Greenwood County enough for the role they played in today’s announcement,” Josh Skinner, CPST coordinator said. “As a result of their foresight we were able to leverage the $12 million allotment from the CPST funds into $50 million to accomplish this important project.”

Skinner said these state dollars were a surprise. He expected it would be nearly two years before Greenwood could secure this grant funding. The county had applied for these funds in 2020, but state officials tabled the request until the county knew more about how it would fund the project.

Since then, Skinner said Greenwood got help from the Upper Savannah Council of Governments, which put the Highway 246 project on its list of transportation priorities. Getting DOT to agree to manage the project likely helped the grant applications’ prospects too, Skinner said.

“It all came together and yesterday the evaluation committee met and said we met all the criteria,” he said.

County Council Chairperson Chuck Moates praised Russian, Skinner and County Engineer Rett Templeton for their work securing these funds. The county has signed an agreement with the state transportation department to manage the project, and design is expected to be underway by the end of the year. Construction could begin in 2025, with a 2027 completion date.

The state infrastructure bank’s grants are competitive, and Greenwood was up against projects such as Interstate work in York County and projects in Charleston that also got funded. Russian said the state infrastructure bank has begun to shift its thinking in awarding funds to help promote development throughout the state.

“It’s a win for rural counties all over the state, to start getting these infrastructure funds,” he said.

The work’s not done yet, Skinner said. There’s no certainty construction and material costs won’t rise by the time the Highway 246 project gets bid, so county officials will continue working to secure additional funds.

Originally Published by Index-Journal on: Sep 9, 2022

 By DAMIAN DOMINGUEZ ddominguez@indexjournal.com

Article Link: https://www.indexjournal.com/news/breaking/38m-coming-from-state-for-greenwoods-highway-246-expansion/article_54741d78-c150-5717-abcc-5aff061199ba.html

Design work can soon start on multiple county facilities after Greenwood County Council approved advancing three ongoing projects: the county recreation complex, a picnic shelter at a county boating facility and a new county administration building.

At their Tuesday meeting, the council members unanimously approved selecting J.D. Goodrum General Contractors as the designer and builder for the Greenwood County Recreation Complex. More than $9 million in Capital Project Sales Tax funds are going toward building and improving the former civic center site into a recreation complex, and another nearly $1 million for an accessible playground.

CPST Coordinator Josh Skinner said he’s waiting on a contract from J.D. Goodrum for approval, but asked council to approve them as designers, along with spending $36,600 on an aerial survey of the site so Goodrum can begin the design process.

Council also approved a 6×6 timber-frame picnic shelter, to be built by MAR Construction, at the Greenwood County Boating Facility. MAR is already responsible for putting in a ramp and parking lot beside the Highway 72/221 bridge into Laurens County, which will be the county boating facility.

On the horizon, the county will be getting a new administration building and seeing renovations to Park Plaza. On Monday though, Council approved a proposal from design group DP3 to design that new building and the renovations, for $239,500.

Council had to weigh approving a new five-year fire master plan, drafted by firefighter Paul Bagnoli in conjunction with the county’s Chiefs Advisory Committee. The plan lays out a timeline for hiring additional paid staff to work the recently constructed fire stations, as well as replacing outdated equipment, restructuring the service’s organization and administration, revamping training and bolstering funding.

“Obviously our objective was to provide the best level of emergency response for the people of Greenwood,” Bagnoli said.

Bagnoli said that realistically, Greenwood has about 70 “active” volunteers protecting 28,000 structures and parcels from fire. The county has two full-time firefighters on duty, along with four part-time workers during the day and two at night.

“There’s a lot of staff in this plan, I get it, but we need the resources and we need the people,” he said.

Council member Mark Allison voiced his concern that the impending economic situation looks bleak, and if there’s further downturn he doesn’t want council committed to an expansion it cannot afford. For similar reasons, council member Edith Childs said she could not support the plan, though both praised the work fire staff put into planning for the future.

The remainder of council voiced their support, and said there’s a need for a plan to provide a framework for how to expand the county fire service. The plan was adopted by a vote of 5-2, with Childs and Allison voting against it.

Council received a batch of good news from Economic Development Director James Bateman and Treasurer Steffanie Dorn. Bateman gave his first planned quarterly update, showing that since the county hired him to run economic development at the start of fiscal year 2021 the county has seen 10 projects announced bringing in more than $362 million in capital spending from companies.

In that time, those 10 projects are slated to bring in a total of 624 new jobs. The work Bateman, Billy Ray Morgan and Jamie Dowtin are doing, Bateman said, is attracting industries to Greenwood. Morgan is responsible for handling these inquiries from curious companies.

“We’re building a pipeline,” Bateman said. “In the two years of county economic development, we’ve had 69 requests for information.”

Along with the 69 potential investors asking for information about the county, he said there have been 37 visits from prospective investors, though some were repeat visits. Bateman laid out how Dowtin’s role as public information officer has expanded the county’s social media footprint, and resulted in more media attention.

Dorn put a smile a council members’ faces when she said that this past quarter saw less of a dip in CPST income than expected. Usually coming off the fourth quarter’s holiday boon, the first quarter of the following year sees a big dip in funds, she said. This unexpectedly high income in the past quarter has made her confident the county will meet 100% of its expected CPST collections.

Council approved moving funds so the Greenwood County Sheriff’s Office can spend more than $23,000 from its budget to buy a new fingerprint machine. It also gave the county manager the authority to opt-in to a state program that Public Works Director Rob Russian said will likely cut the county’s E-waste processing costs.

In other business:

Council tabled a vote on a boundary line agreement for a lakeside property at 110 Dunn Lane in the hopes the owner can come up with a plan that will not cut off neighbors’ access to what is currently publicly owned land.

Childs read two proclamations, one recognizing Command Master Chief Anthony Sanders’ retirement from the U.S. Navy and another noting the 130-year celebration of Connie Maxwell Children’s Ministry’s service.

The county extended its contract with McCormick Area Transit to provide transportation services in Greenwood, with a clause that could cost the county more money if gas prices rise again.

Council recognized its employees of the past two quarters alongside recent retirees.

Originally Published by Index-Journal on:Jul 20, 2022

 By DAMIAN DOMINGUEZ ddominguez@indexjournal.com

Article Link: https://www.indexjournal.com/news/greenwood-county-oks-design-work-on-projects/article_0fcde5a6-296e-576b-8b88-5d75eaf6e8b0.html