Serving Barnwell County and it's neighbors since 1852
At its June 11 meeting, the Allendale Town Council decided on a candidate for its empty town administrator position and did first reading of an ordinance that would raise town water rates.
Town administrator
Following a job search that began in September 2023, the Town of Allendale offered its open town administrator position to Kathryn Harrison, who mayor pro-tem Dawan Smith said accepted the position. Harrison holds a master of public administration in non-profit, public and organizational management from Georgia Southern University.
“She has HR experience and a finance background,” said Smith, noting that Harrison’s job contract has not been signed. “Those are the types of things that we really need. She’s the ideal candidate.”
Previously, the town had decided to offer the position of administrator to Lamaz Robinson, then-police chief of Barnwell, and had proposed hiring Allendale County Council member Bill Robinson as a part-time administrator. However, the council walked back the decision to hire Robinson in October.
Town administrators are responsible for day-to-day municipal operations, such as payroll, stewarding grant funding and working between departments. The position is of high importance to Allendale, as the organization of the town’s finances has been criticized by its own council members.
Water rates
The town voted against approving the first reading of an ordinance that would raise water rates in the Town of Allendale. The proposed rate increases would be a progressive rate increase, meaning that the more water one uses, the more the rate of increase.
The proposed water rate increase was not without critics. Allendale resident Lester Flowers voiced concerns for the effects that rising water rates will have on Allendale’s senior citizens.
“You got all these elderly people living on a fixed income and y’all gotta be mindful of how you’re raising bills,” Flowers said. “You’ve gotta take that into consideration.”
The Town of Allendale has received multiple sources of funding to repair local water systems, both from state and federal sources. One of which is a $4,991,625 grant from the South Carolina Infrastructure Investment Program, which uses money from the American Rescue Plan Act for water-related grants throughout the state.
“We’re gonna be doing some upgrades to our water system,” said council member Hattie Jackson, who serves on the town’s water committee. “We are in negotiations, we have an engineering firm, the plans and everything have been developed. That work has to be completed by the year 2026.”
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the Town Council had approved the first reading of an ordinance to raise water rates, when the council voted against the ordinance 4–3. The web publication of this story has been corrected, and a correction will appear in the Wednesday, June 26 print edition of The People-Sentinel.
Elijah de Castro is a Report for America corps member who writes about rural communities like Allendale and Barnwell counties for The People-Sentinel. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep Elijah writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today.
