In in 2015, Greenwood County adopted the Lake Greenwood Master Plan with the hopes of beginning the process of transforming Lake Greenwood into a center for business and recreation.

Implementing that plan is among 27 projects that could receive funding from a proposed additional 1-percent sales tax that will go before voters this November.

If the tax — which would generate $82 million for the county over eight years — is passed, $810,000 will go to funding the execution of the plan.

The plan includes the construction of a public access beach area, restrooms, biking and walking trails, trash collection facilities, landscaping and signage.

The plan will help transform Lake Greenwood into a commercial and recreational hub, said County Manager Toby Chappell.

“The best analogy is probably the Uptown and what it is to the city right now. Twenty or 25 years ago it was an underutilized resource. They put their efforts into it and now it is what it is. Now it’s a focal point for the city and I think that the lake has the potential to do the same thing for the county,” Chappell said.

The plan also includes objectives for protecting and improving the environmental health of the lake.

According to Phil Lindler, the Greenwood County planning director, these objectives are important as development of the lake continues

“We look at it (the lake) as a natural resource, our water intake, a recreational resource, as well as tourism and business. So there’s a lot of opportunities for us to do more things on the lake but we also want to make sure that the things that we do are enhancing it for the future and protecting it,” Lindler said.

Public access to the lake, in particular, has been a major concern in the community, Chappell said.

“During the master plan study, one of the key — if not the key — item that kept coming up was we need better access to the lake,” Chappell said. “So one of the opportunities we have with the Capital Projects Sales tax is to address that issue that came up in virtually ever Lake Greenwood Master Plan meeting we had.”

There is currently only one such public access area on the lake, which is in the Lake Greenwood State Park, Chappell said.

The plan, which was developed by the Orion Planning Group, was also adopted by Laurens County Council in March.

Contact Conor Hughes at 703-517-4171 or follow on Twitter @IJConorHughes.

Originally Published by Index-Journal on:Sep 10, 2016

By CONOR HUGHES chughes@indexjournal.com

Article Link: https://www.indexjournal.com/news/penny-sales-tax-could-mean-funding-for-lake-master-plan/article_4189ebcf-ca90-56fb-b7cc-8f9885a74156.html

Call it Greenwood County’s field of dreams.

One hundred and forty acres of grassland off S.C. Highway 25 purchased by the County Council in March 2015 for $645,000 as host site of a modern business park to satisfy the needs of prospective job creators.

All that’s missing is voter approval of an $8.4 million plan through a special sales tax to finance a project that county economic development leaders said is critical if Greenwood hopes to remain a viable landing spot for private investment.

That question will appear on November’s ballot as a part of a larger referendum item seeking $87.93 million in sales tax revenue across eight years to pay for capital improvement ventures across the county.

If approved, a 100,000-square-foot speculative building and site preparation on 31.7 acres — including the development of roads, extension of utility lines, signage, lighting and landscaping — would be the 10th of 27 projects slated for completion in the proposal.

“We are basically out of product in Greenwood County. We’re seeing a decline in our ability to respond to requests for information for industrial prospects,” said Theo Lane, a member of the Greenwood Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors who is running for a seat on County Council. “I just think it’s critically important because you can’t show what you don’t have to show.”

Similar to a model home in a subdivision that is open to prospective buyers, officials said they think the spec building would give investors a tangible structure they can use to determine whether Greenwood is a good fit for them.

“Labor availability and existing buildings or sites are always in the Top 10 criteria for site selectors,” said James Bateman, business development manager at the Greenwood Partnership Alliance, the county’s economic development arm.

According to the project’s application, Greenwood is at a “distinct disadvantage” when it comes to available prime industrial land.

“Presently, there are 22 speculative industrial buildings available in the state. Two counties adjoining Greenwood each offer a speculative building,” Greenwood Partnership Alliance CEO Heather Simmons Jones wrote in the application.

Jones and other backers of the business park see it as a companion to Piedmont Technical College’s $6 million proposal to construct a 47,000-square-foot center for advanced manufacturing. That project is listed first among projects to be covered by the proposed penny sales tax.

“The Piedmont Tech project is all about being able to assure to industrial prospects that we can fill the seat in their plants with educated and prepared workers, but my concern is right now, if we’re seeing a decline in visits from site selection officials, I don’t want to see a greater lag created,” Lane said.

Although County Manager Toby Chappell has said the ordering is not a ranking of importance, Jones and others worry that pushing the spec building’s construction back to 2019 or beyond could have a negative impact.

One option, she said, would be for the council to bond out the business park’s development now and use tax revenues to pay it down in future years.

“It’s a very widely used way of doing projects that get the nod through a referendum or another approval process, but may not get the funding immediately,” she said. “At some point, the reputation of the community as being visionary and having product and addressing the needs of economic development gets out there, and that perception becomes reality. Here we are working on the promise, they’re expecting us to have vision, they’re expecting us to be leading.”

Right now, Greenwood’s most attractive large-scale industrial site is the former Titan Wheel International Building at the county airport, which needs nearly $6 million worth of work to make it suitable for use. Between June 2014 and June 2016, at least 20 projects were lost for Greenwood because of a lack of product, and 19 requests for information were never submitted because of a dearth of building space.

Bateman said those 39 losses translates to $1.5 billion in unrealized capital and nearly 4,500 jobs lost to the county.

“There is none (inventory), and it’s shrinking to less than none if that’s possible,” he said.

Contact reporter Adam Benson at 864-943-5650 or on Twitter @ABensonIJ.

Originally Published by Index-Journal on:Aug 31, 2016

 By ADAM BENSON abenson@indexjournal.com

Date: Article Link: https://www.indexjournal.com/news/penny-sales-tax-approval-would-aid-in-genesis-of-greenwood-business-park/article_e6291f2c-744d-5156-9626-866090b4c540.html

Last month, Greenwood County Fire Coordinator Steve Holmes pulled a pumper truck stationed at the Hodges-Cokesbury fire station off the road because of safety concerns.

“It was a year younger than I am,” the 53-year-old Holmes said to an Index-Journal reporter. That was on the way back from a tour of the Lower Lake Volunteer Fire Department substation off Highway 702 in Ninety Six, where wooden rafters were cracked or broken, and sunlight punched through holes in the membrane roof.

As the countywide fire service nears its 40th birthday, signs of age are everywhere. Twenty vehicles in the fleet of 52 are at or nearing retirement status — or nearly 40 percent. Just a third of its 12 stations are code compliant. Rust eats away at nearly everything.

“I hate to use the word desperate, but desperate is getting to be a fair word,” Holmes said.

An April 2015 master plan laid out how dire the situation is.

“The remaining 8 stations are 30-year-old buildings in need of major repair, renovation or replacement. Building codes are updated every 3 years, so most of these stations were built using codes that have since gone through 10 revisions. This does not make them non-compliant, as the code in force at the time of construction was the standard,” the plan says. “However, through the years, volunteers have made repairs, renovations and additions to the stations. In most cases, the work performed was not by a licensed contractor, nor inspected by code officials. This was done with good intentions in an effort to save money; but in most cases this has caused situations that need to be corrected.”

In November, county fire officials hope an answer will finally come, in the form of a $14.2 million financing plan included as part of the capital projects sales tax initiative.

If approved, the proposal would add 1 percent to the local sales tax for up to eight years to cover capital improvement ventures in Greenwood, Hodges, Ninety Six, Troy and Ware Shoals.

Greenwood County would gain six substations that would allow up to 1,800 homes to be covered for fire protection through insurance policies, land to build a regional public safety training center and enough money to modernize existing buildings and purchase new vehicles.

Paul Bagnoli, a member of the Lower Lake Volunteer Fire Department and chairman of Capital Projects Sales Tax Commission’s public safety committee, said it’s the most comprehensive proposal in the fire service’s 35-year history. Public meetings will begin Aug. 2 and rotate among the county’s fire departments through Oct. 25.

“It touches the needs that really need to be addressed, and it touches them completely,” he said. “Every station is involved in this plan.”

The county’s fire district serves a population of 46,621, covers 463 square miles (including seven miles of lake) and contains 17,500 structures. In 2014, county fire crews responded to 2,044 calls, compared to 1,120 by the city’s paid department, according to the master plan.

With a such a wide swath, gaps exist. Officials plan to use $4 million to build six substations that would put almost 1,800 homes within five miles of a station — making them eligible for fire protection on their homeowner’s insurance.

Bagnoli said the move is expected to save about $350,000 annually for those property owners, and put $1.8 million back into the local economy while reducing response times.

Another $7.4 million is earmarked for the renovation of existing stations and upgrading apparatus between 2017 and 2023.

“We have buildings that are 30-plus years old that literally have had no renovations done to them,” Holmes said. “Roofs need to be replaced, outside metal skins need to replaced, HVAC systems across the board need to be replaced.”

It’s an ambitious concept: Between 2017 and 2023, the county would purchase a new tanker, five new engines, three mini pumpers, a new ladder track — known as aerials in the industry — two rescue boats and two administrative vehicles.

A second aerial and a tanker would be refurbished. Currently, Northwest has a 75-foot ladder truck since that station covers much of Bypass 72 and Greenwood’s commercial corridor, while Coronaca, which is in the county’s industrial hub, has a 112-foot truck that was built in 1989.

Holmes said the county plans to purchase a new aerial for Coronaca, and station its older one in Ware Shoals.

“You go down to Callison or Lower Lake or Epworth, they’ve never seen a fire hydrant, so their attack of a fire is done very differently, and so the equipment has to be tailored to meet that particular need,” Bagnoli said. “I believe the first responsibility of government is public safety, and the purchases that are being recommended here are not ‘nice to haves’ or ‘wants,’ these are needs.”

Then, between 2017 and 2020, 10 existing stations would be upgraded.

Finally, there’s training — something that can’t be done locally or collaboratively given existing circumstances.

So officials want to spend $3.6 million for the construction of a regional public safety training center somewhere within the county on between 8 and 20 acres.

Because fire, police and medical response personnel often respond to calls together, training as a group is vital, Bagnoli said. Right now, the closest facilities are in Anderson or Columbia.

“It’s very difficult to put in place a rigorous training protocol,” Bagnoli said.

Additionally, officials think extra revenue could be brought in through rental fees to agencies in surrounding counties.

At a breakfast meeting earlier this month, Greenwood Police Chief Gerald Brooks spoke of the need for such a facility, which would include a four-story training tower with attached burn room, driver training areas, shooting ranges and classrooms.

“The environment that we live in, there is often a multi-agency response,” Brooks said. “And we have no way of training together.”

Holmes thinks the plan will revolutionize the county’s fire services.

“This would be the single biggest improvement in the county fire system since it originated,” he said.

Contact reporter Adam Benson at 864-943-5640 or on Twitter @ABensonIJ.

Originally Published by Index-Journal on:Jul 31, 2016

By ADAM BENSON abenson@indexjournal.com

Article Link: https://www.indexjournal.com/news/greenwood-county-officials-say-countywide-fire-plan-would-revolutionize-services/article_edffa2f7-5435-5409-b990-614d4c4f3f25.html

“Have you hugged a cop today,” asked Police Chief Gerald Brooks at Thursday’s Greenwood Area Chamber of Commerce Morning Blend meeting. “I’ll admit,” he told the crowd, “some of you look very huggable — but some of you don’t.”

Laughter filled Inn on the Square’s ballroom as Brooks and others gave the crowd their explanation and pitch for why Greenwood should pass the Capital Projects Sales Tax referendum in November. Paul Bagnolli, chair of the public safety committee for the penny tax and one of the people who helped develop the county fire service’s eight-year master plan, was the first to take the microphone.

He highlighted some of the projects the committee selected to be funded by the penny tax if it passes in November. Among them were countywide improvements to the emergency radio systems, improvements to law enforcement record management and the fire services master plan.

The master plan would be broken down into three phases, he said. The first would include renovating existing fire stations at the cost of $6.4 million, then building six new stations for an additional $3 million. The new stations, he said, would put 99 percent of homes within five road miles of a fire station’s service, reducing response times. The final phase would build a training center for all emergency response agencies in the county.

“The environment that we live in, there is often a multi-agency response,” he said, “and we have no way of training together.”

When Brooks went up to speak, he stressed that many improvements have been made to law enforcement’s record keeping, but much still needs to be done. He said the system used to restrict access to records between the police department and sheriff’s office.

“The sheriff and I worked closely together to tear down those walls,” he said, “but that system is antiquated and out of date.”

He also highlighted a proposed project for the Greenwood Fire Department — replacing a 1973 ladder truck with a new platform truck.

“Under S.C. law, that truck would qualify for an antique vehicle tag,” he said. “It’s the kind of thing that belongs in a museum, not responding to a fire.”

The radio system improvements were the focus for John Long, officer in charge of professional standards with the sheriff’s office. He explained that except for Lander and Piedmont Technical College police, all law enforcement and other emergency response agencies are dispatched from a centralized location, but none of the agencies can talk directly to one another. For some agencies, such as the county fire services, signal strength can even be an issue.

“They get out into some rural places in the county and they have no service,” he said. “They’re relying entirely on cellphones.”

Long and the others urged those in attendance to vote for the capital project sales tax referendum. The two candidates for sheriff were in the crowd, and weighed in on the presentations and their views of the county’s needs. Dennis Kelly, the Republican nominee, said he thinks its important to provide for the needs of emergency responders.

“I think it would provide and improved service to the county,” he said.

The Democratic nominee, Arnie Fisher, said the sheriff’s office’s radio systems were out of date when he worked there in 2012 and 2013. Money spent getting the radios up to date countywide would be money well spent, he said.

“It can be a safety issue for a deputy or a police officer,” he said. “We have to be able to communicate and work together in the field.”

Contact Damian Dominguez at 864-634-7548 or follow on Twitter @IJDDOMINGUEZ.

Originally Published by Index-Journal on:Jul 14, 2016

 By DAMIAN DOMINGUEZddominguez@indexjournal.com

Article Link: https://www.indexjournal.com/news/law-enforcement-officials-stress-importance-of-penny-tax-vote-at-morning-blend/article_d2075e24-826c-50e4-9ba1-f02e489c363c.html