Council to study list of projects

City Council members will meet with several groups next month to hear requests from several organizations looking to be included with the City's list of proposed Capital Improvement Sales Tax projects.

The meeting will be held in the Aiken Municipal Building, 214 Park Ave., on Feb. 15 at 5 p.m. Representatives with the YMCA, SPCA, the Aiken Railroad Depot and the Center for African American History, Art and Culture will each make a presentation to Council as to why their organization should be added to the list of projects.

A referendum on whether to renew the 1-cent sales tax in Aiken County could be held in November during the general election, depending on whether Aiken County officials decide to hold an election on the tax this year. Each department within the City contributed to the list, which is composed of more than 30 projects.

City Manager Roger LeDuc said Council members will narrow down the list and have the final proposal ready to be submitted to the tax committee in April. An estimated $38 million will be available to the City with the tax if supported by voters.

This will be the third round of the 1-cent sales tax, if approved. The first round of the tax was passed in 2000 and renewed in 2004.

City Council members also discussed renovations at the H. Odell Weeks Activities Center. The recreation center's camera system is being updated to better increase security at Odell Weeks, where a shooting occurred during a basketball game over the summer.

The front desk at Odell Weeks will also be moved so that a card-swipe system can be put into action to identify who is in the facility. The membership cards can be issued in several categories - non-residential family, nonresident individual, City resident, nonresident senior, nonresident student, daily entry passes and employee identification cards.

The cards are being issued to City residents at no cost, non-City residents, with the exception of seniors, will be required to pay for the memberships.

After the interior of the building is finished, the City plans to update security on the exterior of the building and Virginia Acres by placing more security camera outdoors as well as call boxes in areas such as the walking tracks, tennis center and Citizens Park.

Calls made at the call boxes would go directly to Aiken Public Safety.

Contact April Bailey at abailey@aikenstandard.com.