WINNSBORO (Jan. 1, 2016) – County Council, during their Dec. 15 meeting, gave the OK to nearly $175,500 in expenditures, forwarded by the Administration & Finance Committee from their meeting earlier that afternoon.
The expenditures, Interim County Administrator Milton Pope told Council, were all built into the County’s 2015-2016 budget, and all but one came in at or under budget.
Council approved $69,644 to replace computer servers and workstations in the County’s 9-1-1 Department. During budgeting negotiations last spring, Council planned to spend up to $75,000 on the replacements.
New extraction equipment (Jaws of Life) for Emergency Services came in just under its $30,000 budget at $29,771. The Sheriff’s Office will be replacing 13 laptops for patrol deputies, at the budgeted cost of $34,630.
A new patrol boat for the Sheriff’s Office, meanwhile, came in slightly higher than expected. Council had budgeted $40,970 for a new Sea Hunt boat to replace the department’s aging 1994 Key West boat, but the Sea Hunt was not available on a state contract, Pope said. Instead, the County will shell out an additional $467 for a 2000 Honda boat with a 130 HP engine, Pope said.
“It’s a little bit more than what we budgeted in the Sheriff’s (Office) budget,” Pope told Council, “but I reminded the Committee members that the last several purchases of vehicles we had for the Sheriff’s (Office) we under budget, so we can take that $467 from residual capital funding left over from the savings from the vehicles we purchased on the last two purchases, so the Committee recommended unanimously that we move forward with the purchase of the boat.”
Molly Creek Bridge
Pope also told Council that the County had received notice from the S.C. Department of Transportation (DOT) that Molly Creek bridge near Lake Wateree was found during a recent DOT inspection to be in need of repair. The DOT, Pope said, had asked Council for a letter of support for the repairs, which the DOT would use to push the bridge up on the state’s priority list.
“This is the second bridge that will now (be) closed at Lake Wateree,” Council Chairwoman Carolyn Robinson (District 2) said. “There’s already Martin Road, and by closing Molly Creek, which I believe is the next bridge down, it creates … some problems with EMS response, with fire protection response, so the sooner we can get this worked and repaired will be greatly appreciated by all those citizens and people who visit the lake.”
Robinson asked that a copy of the letter of support be sent to the county’s state legislative delegation.
