By Margaret Brackett

Contributing Columnist

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Wayne Adams, Newberry Administrator, is taking time out from his busy schedule to provide comments on issues occurring during the summer quarter in the Newberry County government.

Capital Project Sales Tax Renewal

On August 19, County Council approved a resolution creating a Capital Project Sales Tax Commission (CPST) to select projects for the 2016 ballot. Statutory formula requires that County Council appoint three of the six members; that Newberry City Council appoint two members; and that the two City of Newberry appointees select the sixth member, who must reside in a municipality other than Newberry.

By statute, the projects on the ballot must be under the ownership of the County, a municipality, or the Newberry County Water and Sewer Authority (the only special purpose district located within the boundaries of Newberry County). Any of these entities may include the School District in a jointly sponsored project; however, the statute does not allow school districts to propose projects on their own. Entities that may submit projects under the statute are termed “qualified entities.” While qualified entities submit projects to the CPST Commission, the Commission, not the qualified entities, selects the projects for inclusion in the ballot question.

In addition to submissions being limited to qualified entities, statute also limits the types of projects that may be funded with CPST revenues. These project types are listed in Code Section 4-10-330 (A)(1) of the South Carolina Code of Laws.

Preliminary estimates indicate the penny sales tax will generate about $17.5 million for all projects included in the 2016 ballot question.

The “penny” sales tax has been in effect in Newberry County since first being approved by the voters in 1998. Subsequent renewals of the tax were approved by referendum in 2004 and 2010.

Single-Stream Recycling

Beginning with Little Mountain, the County’s recycling centers begin changing over to single-stream recycling. Single-stream allows users of the recycling centers to put the most-commonly recycled items into a single bin, together. These items include aluminum and metal cans, cardboard, mixed paper (except for shredded paper), and plastic containers. (Glass must be recycled separately.) These items will be placed together into a lime green compactor. When the compactor is full, it will be hauled to the Sonoco material recovery center in Columbia. From there, the commodities will be sorted and bailed for sale to manufacturers that will re-use the materials to make new products.

Single-stream is more efficient for the citizens and the County. For citizens, a lot less time is required for sorting into the various bins we currently use to collect recyclables. This translates into less time spent at the recycling center – and thus a lowered barrier for doing what is right for the environment and the economy. For the County, single-stream puts an end to servicing the many commodity-specific containers located at 12 sites throughout Newberry County. This is not just a waste of staff time, when compared to the single-stream alternative; it also burns much more fossil fuel.

The immediate schedule is for Little Mountain to go on line September 15, and for Bachman Chapel Road and Seibert Road to follow on September 22 and September 29, respectively. Preliminary work will also begin in the next few weeks on converting the sites in Whitmire and Pomaria, and on Beaver Dam Creek Road and St. Luke’s Church Road. Citizens can stay up to date on when their area recycling centers will be converting to single-stream by monitoring the County’s web site, www.newberrycounty.net.

Construction of Fire Substations

Council has awarded a contract for the construction of three new fire substations:

• Belfast Road – near Brehmer Road, about three miles from Hwy. 56

• Leitzsey Road – between Hughey Ferry Road and New Hope Road

• Indian Creek – Hwy. 176 near Hwy. 121

These substations were part of the 2010 capital project sales tax ballot. Construction will begin in about 30 days, with completion occurring early in 2016.

The main objective of these stations is to lower fire protection ratings issued by the Insurance Services Office (“ISO”). Insurance companies use these ratings to compute property insurance premiums. For insurance premium purposes, the stations benefit properties located within a five-mile driving distance.

The total cost of the three stations is $1,159,746. The Leitzsey Road and Belfast Road stations are smaller (1,700 to 1,800 sq. ft.). The Indian Creek substation will be about 4,300 sq. ft. It is believed that Indian Creek has strategic importance for the future of emergency services in Newberry County. It is located about 7 miles from Whitmire, nine miles from Newberry, and 13 miles from Pomaria. This location will at least be considered for the placement of full-time ambulance service over the next year to 18 months.

Property Tax Levy

On September 2, the County Auditor set the property tax levy. The three levies under the direction of County Council increased a total of one mill (a seven-tenths of one percent rise), from 141.2 mills to 142.2 mills. This equates to $4 on an owner-occupied home with an appraised value of $100,000. The increase is attributable to lease-purchase commitments pertaining to emergency services equipment, and to interest costs related to advance funding of the three fire substations against future capital project sales tax revenues.

Margaret Brackett is from Newberry. Her columns appear weekly in The Newberry Observer.