County begins budget planning

Preliminary budget planning began Friday for Aiken County in a day-long workshop with several department heads laying out their goals – completing round two of the one-cent sales tax capital projects, for example – and challenges, including the need for new ambulances and additional staff, among others.

Aiken County Council members Willar Hightower, Kathy Rawls, Charles Barton, Sandy Haskell, LaWana McKenzie and Council Chairman Ronnie Young were present for the workshop. Gary Bunker, Scott Singer and Chuck Smith did not attend.

Engineering Director Joe Berry said his office is ready to make the “last big push” to finish any outstanding one-cent sales tax projects before the revenue collections for round three begins sometime next year. Already, staff have been able to put a check mark beside a number of projects, including the Nancy Bonnette Library expansion and the new New Ellenton branch library, for which ribbon cuttings will be held Feb. 26, but are in limbo on others like five miles of dirt road paving.

Berry said staff members have been unable to obtain the necessary easements to pave Hoover Road, Shadow Lane Road, Bodie Road, Williams-Evans Road, Curry Drive and Rawls Mill Pond Road. He suggested exchanging them for road pavings on the “B List,” a list of back-up road pavings that Aiken County can choose from in such a case, to utilize the $2.7 million allocated.

“I’m bogged down here (in being unable to obtain easements),” Berry said. “I really need to be moving to finish up. I need to be in a position to move into sales tax three.”

Rawls agreed to deleting Rawls Mill Pond Road from consideration but was confident she can convince the affected property owners on the other dirt roads to sign over their easements.

“I’ll finish those up shortly,” she said.

Also outstanding are emergency services Substation 6 – which will be in the old Coca-Cola bottling plant – Substation 10 in the Monetta/Oak Grove area, Substation 3 in the Silver Bluff area and Substation 7 in the Oakwood-Windsor area. Available land is still being considered for substations 10, 3 and 7.

Emergency Services Acting Director Harvey Jay suggested that each year the County replaces two ambulances with more than 300,000 miles to refresh the aging fleet. The cost to replace two of the four oldest ambulances is $300,000. He requested a change in the salaries for all EMT-Intermediate because, due to a change in the National Registry Standards, all EMT-Is will become EMT-Advanced.

The new certification, which is mandatory, will allow the former EMT-Is to administer medication and provide an advanced level of care. The total cost increase will be $26,707 for 14 EMT-Is.

Jay also proposed adding software to the existing Marvlis System to reduce response times by helping dispatch decide which ambulance is closest to a call. The cost is $155,000.

Jay said it is not uncommon to hear dispatchers making several calls to ambulances in an area to determine which unit is closest to respond to an emergency. Each call takes time, which cuts into emergency response time, he noted, sometimes by as much as 6 to 8 minutes.

The new software, combined with the Marvlis System, will provide location intelligence by tracking each ambulance. Jay confirmed that ambulances with private providers would be required to have the same technology; it was a condition in the provider’s network contract.

“Otherwise, it would be a waste,” Jay said.

Parks, Recreation and Tourism Director Brad Barnes introduced the department’s new Organic Brush Abatement Program, otherwise known as a female goat and her two kids. The trio are being used to manage brush and weeds in the remote areas of Aiken County parks.

This type of pilot program is not unheard of, according to Barnes.

“A lot of public agencies have been using them,” he said.

The mother goat was collected by Animal Control several weeks ago, and now she and her kids are corralled in a few acres and allowed to “do their thing.”

“We’re not able to do much with three right now but with a herd of 10 ... there is a cost involved, and it’s something we want to investigate. They don’t leave anything behind but a little fertilizer,” Barnes said.

Tax collector Kim Halcomb urged the Council members present to pass a resolution to use the South Carolina Association of Counties for the collection of delinquent debts. The association acts as a clearinghouse between county governments and the S.C. Department of Revenue for processing debts and returning the money to the counties.

Currently, Halcomb said, there are 4,600 delinquent accounts, equaling roughly $472,000 that Aiken County can’t collect.

“There is no way of enforcing collection of money at this time. It is just sitting there. All it would take is a resolution from County Council,” Halcomb said.

Public Works Director John Dyches urged Council to continue funding Animal Control’s low-cost spay/neuter voucher program at $30,000.

He also provided insight into how the collection of electronic waste (e-waste) is going at six designated convenience centers.

“We’re getting swamped with it,” he said.

The former Norfolk Southern claims center in Graniteville, which was donated to Aiken County last year, is being used as a storing warehouse for e-waste until a recycling company can pick it up. Staff members had planned on using only about 2,500 square feet of the building to store e-waste. Approximately 9,000 square feet is currently being used.

As a result, Dyches said, the department’s litter pick-up has suffered because staff has been diverted to deal with the abundance of e-waste dropoffs. Before, crews typically cleared around 42 miles of litter per month. Now, it’s 15 miles. He hopes to hire someone to fill an operator II position so that person could devote half of their time to e-waste and the other half to litter control.

Assessor Rick Jantzen hopes to increase his staff by one chief appraiser and one residential appraiser. The additional staff would better distribute the department’s workload and workflow and increase accuracy. He also proposes increasing the salary range for appraisers to become more competitive with other agencies, especially since the requirements to obtain an appraiser’s license are more difficult than before.

The current minimum is $31,000. Jantzen proposes raising the minimum to $35,000.

“It is more and more difficult to get people to go into that field with that kind of pay. We need to start addressing this sooner or later, or we’re going to have problems getting people to come in and work,” Jantzen said.

Planning and Development Director Stephen Strohminger also had a personnel request for an additional zoning enforcement officer. The average annual salary would be $47,000. Currently, the department is working with one zoning enforcement officer who originally worked with commercial zonings. A new officer would allow for proactive enforcement, Strohminger said.

Members of County Council thanked each department head for their work at the conclusion of the workshop.

“You’ve done your work. Now, we go to work,” said Young.

Haley Hughes has spent five years as the Aiken County government reporter with the Aiken Standard. Hughes, a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University, hails from Knoxville, Tenn.