Trapp: Race Behind S2 Review

WINNSBORO – More than a month after the collapse of a portion of retaining wall at the recently completed Drawdy Park football field sparked criticism of the project’s manager, S2 Engineering, and spurred County Council to call for a review of all S2 projects, one Council member created a stir Monday night when he said the real issue was about race.

“For those in the audience who are not familiar with a lot of stuff, S2 Engineering firm is a black firm,” Councilman Mikel Trapp (District 3) said during Monday night’s Council meeting. “So, some of the blacks can probably relate. You’ll get the picture. (It’s) a black firm, the only black firm in the county. Who’s all complaining about them? They happen to be all white Fairfield County citizens.”

The mixed-race audience immediately issued forth a series of uncomfortable groans, with one unidentified member of the crowd loudly grumbling, “The Race Card.”

“The issue’s been made by race,” Trapp replied, and as the din began to grow, Chairman David Ferguson (District 5) brought down the gavel.

“No comments,” Ferguson said, hammering the gavel.

“Mr. Chair, is that not out of line?” another unidentified member of the audience asked. “You could throw him out. That is out of line.”

When Ferguson instead asked this particular audience member to leave, Mr. William Turner asked from the back row, “When are you going to leave, Mr. Ferguson?”

After identifying Turner, Ferguson ejected him as well.

“You all come on with me, though,” Turner said on his way out. “If I leave, you should go.”

Trapp’s comments, which were left lingering in the atmosphere like fumes from a ruptured sewer main, came on the heels of a clarification by interim County Administrator Milton Pope, at the request of Councilwoman Mary Lynn Kinley (District 6), on how S2 was selected for the Drawdy Park project. The park lies within the boundaries of Kinley’s district. Pope said that since his arrival in July, the County has been following standard procurement guidelines as outlined in the County’s policies. How things were handled before that, he said, he could only discern from reviewing “prior information.”

“There was a contract for S2 Engineering,” Pope said. “There was a list of engineers that were chosen to do certain work. S2 Engineering was one of those. I cannot tell you specifically, not from documents at least in writing, of how those things worked, but it appeared as though that there were engineers that were chosen to do certain works, certain projects. All of them were not necessarily procured in the traditional way, but selected from a list of contractors to do various work for the County.”

After the meeting, Trapp reiterated his feelings that race, not competency, was at the heart of criticism of S2, an engineering firm actually located in Irmo, which lies mostly in Lexington County with parts of its borders reaching into Richland County.

“I believe it,” Trapp said. “Yes, I do.”

Trapp also alluded to the possibility that the retaining wall may have been brought down by someone intentionally.

“I do not think the wall fell down on its own,” Trapp said.

Comments

  1. Norm_Nav says

    The issue is governance. County Council, to include Mr. Trapp were asleep at the switch. The notion that someone intentionally brought that wall down is laughable. That wall was destined to fall it was poorly designed poorly constructed and doomed from the beginning, and there were people trying to tell Fairfield County Council to get their eyes on the problem. They failed! It strikes me as strange that the citizens of District 3 aren’t asking their councilman why he is more concerned about a contractor in Irmo than he is about the safety of their children, and the stewardship of their tax dollars.

  2. Linda Dye says

    Is this the same person whose college tuition was charged to the citizens? Is this a diversion on his part? Who even knew the race of the contractors except the people who hired them? THEY are the ones who played the original race card if the only reason they hired them was their color and rules were broken for some sort of cronyism. This is very disturbing indeed. I stay away from those meetings because I don’t want to get an arrest record at my age, which could happen if I asked them what is on my mind. Kudos to the courageous citizens who are fighting this fight.

  3. Fairfield Native says

    Trapp doesn’t know how, and really can’t, defend his actions so he drops the race card. Disgusting! I guess it’s also because of racism that he’s paid his County property taxes on average seven months late the last 12 years.

  4. Mark Polk says

    The ones who are complaining are Fairfield County Citizens, white or black, because it is their children who will be using the field. I believe criticism of S2 is valid because the wall did in fact collapse and, whether black or white owned firms, the engineers made a mistake. Also, Mr. Trapp, if you believe someone brought the wall down intentionally, please pass this on the the proper authorities. Of course you have no proof, you are just trying to blame anyone else but the firm responsible.

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