CPST rakes in record revenue with latest check
Greenwood County received another record quarterly haul of revenue from the 2016 Capital Project Sales Tax.
“It’s the highest amount we have received to date,” CPST coordinator Josh Skinner said at Tuesday’s County Council meeting.
April’s check from the state Department of Revenue totaled $2,748,986.51.The revenue is based on sales tax collected between December and February. This revenue beat the previous record set in October 2020 — $2,745,695.30 — by just under $3,300.
“This quarter’s revenue continues to show the strength of the economy in Greenwood County,” Greenwood County Manager Toby Chappell said in an email. “The CPST overall continues to move closer to the initial projection with each of these with each of these quarterly revenue installments.”
In 2016, Greenwood County voters approved the penny sales tax to raise $87,938,185 to fund 27 unique capital projects.
“The County Treasurer is projecting that we will reach $83,734,000,” Chappell said. “Which would mean that only one project would not be fully funded.”
Chappell said the Highway 25 South waterline — a $4,895,548 project — would not be accomplished based on the projection. However, Chappell stressed this is only a projection and is subject to fluctuations in the economy, consumer spending habits and other events affecting the Greenwood area.
The outlook for the projects continues to look better. In August, Chappell announced the anticipated shortfall was not as bad as it seemed at only $10 million rather than $20 million. With increased growth in revenue over the past couple of months, the potential shortfall is down to just over $4 million.
Skinner said in an email that close to $2 million of revenue will go to the Highway 246 widening project for pre-construction costs concerning design and engineering. Last month, Greenwood County Council approved the signing of an intergovernmental agreement with SCDOT to administer the project. Skinner said he is waiting on SCDOT to sign the agreement. The project should take about three weeks to complete.
The remaining $827,500.51 in funds from this month’s payment will go to the Ninety Six Mill Village Storm Water Drainage repair. Skinner said a request for qualifications for engineering services was put out earlier this week.
Greenwood County Council approved a contract with The Gordon Group to construct the volunteer fire station on Miller Road in Hodges. Greenwood County Fire Chief Steve Holmes said the station will be a one-bay station and will help extend fire coverage in the area.
Council also approved the purchase of 0.5 acres on Morgan Road in Hodges for $5,000 to construct another volunteer fire station which would add 103 structures to the fire protection map. This is the final station in the fire master plan to have service for 99.6% of the structures in the county, Skinner said.
The design for the J.C. Boozer Athletic Complex might have hit a snag in the bidding process. Skinner said there was only one bidder for the project and the bid price was more than $500,000 over budget. The project manager, Fred Guthier from ADC Engineering, and Brad Cuttill, director of parks and recreation, met with the winning bidder, Palmetto Group Construction, to get the bid lowered to about $345,000 over budget.
“We appreciate Palmetto Group working with us on that because being the only bid they really didn’t have to,” Skinner said.
Skinner said removing the central concessions and restroom facility from the project is an option to get the project under budget. This would result in the bid being $5,000 under budget.
“It would be sad if we spent the money on everything else and then left the old facilities there,” Chairman Steve Brown said.
Skinner said Cuttill has looked at renovating the current concessions building at a reduced cost but would still result in the project being over budget by the cost of renovation.
“We did plan on having that central restroom, concession,” Skinner said.
Councilman Mark Allison said changing the design of the fields by placing the spectator stands in the center will cut down on the distance of the walk to the old concession building.
“That building as you have said is in terrible condition,” Allison said. “But, I do think it is salvageable.”
Allison said using the old concession building can save money. He said $30,000 was dedicated to extending plumbing to the central concession stand while $50,000 would be used to construct a fire lane to the building, both of which would be saved if the county focuses on renovating the old structure.
Originally Published by Index-Journal on:Apr 26, 2021
By JAMES HICKS jhicks@indexjournal.com
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