WINNSBORO – The owner of a campground near the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station in Jenkinsville, already embroiled in a legal battle with the Jenkinsville Water Company in his efforts to add campsites, has asked County Council to rezone a portion of his property there to accommodate a restaurant.
Monday night, Council held first reading and public hearing on an ordinance to rezone 3 acres at 16482 Highway 215 S. from RD-1 (Rural Residential) to RC (Rural Community), which would allow the restaurant. The property is owned by Anne F. Melton. The applicant for the rezoning is D. Melton, who operates the Broad River Campground at the same address.
While no one representing Melton spoke at the public hearing, one neighbor of the campground took to the podium in opposition.
“We’d like the community to stay as it is, and not have so much going on across the road,” Carol Keever told Council. “We’ve got enough traffic problems with the V.C. Summer plant up there and we don’t need anything adding to the traffic problems. He (Melton) knew when he put that campground over there, there wasn’t anything close by for the people to go to. No store, no laundry mat, no restaurant; and now he wants to rezone 3 acres to put in a restaurant for the campers.”
Speaking with The Voice Tuesday, Melton would not go into detail about his plans for the restaurant or what kind of feedback he has received from the community. Getting water for the enterprise from a company that has steadfastly denied the additional water necessary to expand the campground, however, would seem a bigger challenge than winning over the hearts and minds of neighboring residents. Melton said he plans to meet that challenge by drilling a well on the property.
Melton’s lawsuit against the water company, filed last September, is still pending.
First reading of the ordinance, as well as first reading of a similar ordinance to rezone 3 acres at 631 Longtown Road in Ridgeway, passed without dissent. The Longtown Road property, owned by Tom Brice Hall, is seeking rezoning to accommodate a special needs school, Councilman Dan Ruff (District 1) said Monday.
Expenditures
Council gave the unanimous OK for the purchase of three training mannequins for the County’s EMS service at a cost of $107,728.68. The purchase had been recommended to Council by the Administration and Finance (A&F) Committee from their Aug. 24 meeting.
“We have no such simulation equipment now,” Interim County Administrator Milton Pope told Council, “and the cost to send our people, a group of 15, to Palmetto Richland, which is the closest location for training on their simulation mannequins, would be approximately $5,000 for just one class. We provide six different training classes of 16 hours each, minimally each year for our people.”
The purchase of replacement radios for the Sheriff’s Office came to Council without an official recommendation from the A&F Committee, which had trouble deciphering paperwork associated with the request on Aug. 24.
“This was forwarded on to the full Council without a recommendation until we took some corrective action with the Sheriff’s Office to more clearly identify how many radios we were purchasing,” Pope said. “At this time, we are purchasing 27 radios for the approved budget amount of $117,831.”
Council approved the purchase, as well as an upgrade to the County’s 9-1-1 system, also recommended by the A&F Committee, at a cost of $528,231. Pope said 80 percent of that cost would be reimbursed to the County by the state.
