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The Allendale County Courthouse is shown decorated for Christmas.
At its December 20 regular meeting, the Allendale County Council spent most of the meeting in executive session, discussing several “contractual matters” and “personnel matters.” The council also discussed business licenses and finances.
Old and new business
Since the firing of then-county administrator Bert O’Rear in June, Chanel Lewis, the county’s chief financial officer, has been serving as interim administrator.
The county is currently in a financial crunch, as acknowledged by council members at previous meetings. As a result, it has taken out a tax anticipation note, which allows local municipalities to borrow against future tax revenues. Lewis shared what she called a “preliminary mockup” of monthly financial reports that she plans to make that includes budgets and expenditures.
“This would be provided every month to council and departments so that there would be a record that we can track of what is actually spent so we won’t be riding blind,” Lewis told the council.
The only new business on the council’s agenda was an ordinance regarding business licenses.
“The business license ordinance if passed will provide additional revenue for the county by requiring all businesses located in the county of Allendale except in the municipalities of Fairfax and Allendale to obtain a business license to do business in the county,” said Chairman Matthew Connelly.
Executive Session
The council spent over 50 minutes in executive session. One of the items discussed in executive session was “Contractual Matters Relating to Lily Solar.” Lily Solar is a 640-acre solar farm that was constructed in 2015 and has been generating electricity since 2019. As previously reported by The People-Sentinel, the nationwide solar boom is coming to rural South Carolina in the form of solar manufacturing in addition to installation.
After executive session, Walter Sanders, the county attorney, said the property that the Lily Solar field sits on is being sold. The council voted to approve a fee in lieu of taxes for the sale.
“The property that Lily Solar sits on is owned by a private land company and they’re actually selling the property that it sits on,” Sanders said. A fee in lieu of taxes is an agreement between a municipality and a business to charge the company a set dollar amount rather than pay local taxes.
Additionally, the council made a decision regarding a fire substation being constructed on St. Marks Road. At a previous council meeting, it approved the purchase of four acres of land for the project as part of its penny sales tax project list. However, at the December 20 meeting, this decision was rolled back after a discussion in executive session. When the council came out of executive session, it voted to reduce the acreage of the St. Mark station from four acres to one acre.
“After some consideration, council thought it was best to only buy one acre which falls in line with the last substation we built in Appleton,” wrote Chairman Connelly in an email to The People-Sentinel.
Other items discussed in executive session included personnel matters regarding Joe Mole, the county’s zoning administrator and recycling commissioner, as well as the compensation of elected officials. Connelly declined on behalf of the council to comment further on items discussed in executive session. No action was taken on these items.
