Committee Approves Park Infrastructure

WINNSBORO (July 21, 2016) – While County Council appears to be one vote away from purchasing, in conjunction with the state, hundreds of acres of land along I-77 for economic development, the County’s Administrative and Finance Committee voted last week to move forward with a planned road extension and an expansion of water and sewer infrastructure for Phase II of the Commerce Center on Peach Road.

A plat map distributed during the July 11 meeting to Committee members by County Economic Development Director Ty Davenport showed that, currently, the entrance road into the Center ends at the BOMAG plant. Plans are to extend it through the park to connect with Cook Road, Davenport said. Cost of the road expansion is estimated to be more than $4 million.

Davenport also shared the engineering designs for expanding water and sewer capacity within the park. County Administrator Jason Taylor said all the engineering has been done, and he asked the Committee to bring a recommendation to the full Council that Phase II of the project be put out to bid. Taylor also said that he is hoping that once the County bids this project, the cost will come in lower than the total estimated cost of $5,970,000, which is more than the $5,494,000 dedicated for this project from the $24 million bond issued by the Fairfield Facilities Corporation in 2013. If not, Taylor said he would bring it back to the committee.

More Office Space

The Committee also voted to forward Taylor’s request to put out for bid the engineering and design work necessary to add two more offices to a County owned building in the Commerce Center.

EMS Substation Replacement

The Committee also voted to request that Council replace a 1980 single-wide EMS substation at Rufus Belton Park in Longtown with a new modular home. Taylor noted that the County had difficulty getting bids on the substation replacement and only received one bid for a cost of $54,997. However, this was well within the amount of $100,000 that had been previously budgeted for the new EMS substation. The remaining funds, said Davis Anderson, Deputy County Administrator, can be used to create a cover for the parked ambulances.

More Sheriff’s Cars

The Committee recommended the purchase of three fully equipped Chevrolet Caprice cars for the Sheriff’s Office at a cost of $111,099. This purchase is likewise within the budgeted amount of $115,000 and will be made under an existing contract with a State provider.

Manpower Study

After explaining that the 2016-17 budget included funding of $36,000 for a manpower study, Taylor recommended putting this out to get qualifications from the businesses that perform this type of service, and then he would bring a recommendation back to Council.

According to Anderson, these five items should be on the agenda for the full County Council to take up at its July 26 meeting.

 

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