Other News Items From The Tuesday, March 5th Oconee County Council Meeting
(Seneca, SC)———————-In other news from last night’s County Council meeting, Council held a public hearing and third and final reading on two ordinances, one of those to extend the lease between the County and the United States Department of Agriculture for office space at 301 South Broad Street in Walhalla at a rental rate of $650.00 a month. The extension would run through December 31st, 2021. The second ordinance involved the modification and reorganization of the Community Development Department so as to establish the Building Codes Division and the Planning Division as separate departments. Both resolutions were approved unanimously.
Council also held the first reading on two resolutions related to economic development matters. The first involves a fee in lieu of tax agreement and other incentives regarding Project Plan 4, which would entail a company locating a manufacturing plant within the County. According to information provided by the County, the initial investment would be around $22 million dollars over a five year period. The second resolution involved the five year extension of the investment period between the County and Sandvik, Inc. of a fee in lieu of tax agreement that was originally entered into in November of 2013. The extension was requested to continue investment in the project with an additional investment of $22 million dollars during the period ending December 31st, 2023. Sandvik, according to documents provided by the County, invested in excess of $12 million dollars in the project prior to December 31st of last year.
Both resolutions were approved unanimously by Council and will move along to a second reading and a third reading with a public hearing.
Finally, District Five Councilman J. Glenn Hart requested that a Forensic Audit of County Finances and pay raises be extended back to a time period beginning from July 1st, 2017 to the present. The request by Hart was unanimously approved by Council. Part of the forensic audit will look at pay raises that were authorized when Rick Martin recently served as Interim County Administrator.