*These minutes are currently unapproved by Kiawah Island Town Council. For approved minutes, please attend the Kiawah Island Town Council meeting on June 5 or you can request a copy of the minutes from Town Hall following the June 5 meeting.
Kiawah parkway construction
Following a conference call with the building consultants on the status of the parkway building permit, it was found that the comment period has expired, but the project had not yet received comment. “Until the comments are in, we will not know what actions need to be taken to bring the project to fruition,” said Tumiko Rucker, town administrator for Kiawah Island. Still, the project is slated to start in the fall of 2007.
Landscaping improvements
Mayor Wert suggested that surplus money from the landscaping contingency fund be used to upgrade the entranceway and front door to Kiawah‘s Town Hall. “The world will be visiting in 3 weeks,” he noted at the meeting. The Mayor suggested that the town use the money to buy taller flagpoles, to get rid of or move the overgrown confederate roses by the entrance, to remove or move the palms that are covering the flagpoles and to light up and modify the town hall sign. “Just a general sprucing up,” the Mayor commented, adding that the area around Town Hall is overdue for an upgrade and beautification.
Appointment of town treasurer
H. Kenneth Gunnells has been appointed the new town treasurer. With many qualifications, Mr. Gunnells has already shown his dedication to the town by participating in the recent Palmetto Pride clean up day.
Kiawah Island Habitat Conservancy funding request
The Kiawah Conservancy has asked Town Hall for an increase in grant from $100,000 to $200,000 and also requested that the Town commit to a $1 million grant to be paid over the next five years ($200,000 each year for the next five years). The Town chose not to discuss the request, so it did not come up for consideration. “I don’t think it’s appropriate to put future council members in the position of coming up with $200,000 grant money for the Conservancy every year for the next five years,” stated Mayor Wert. Council decided to discuss in the spring whether or not they would give the Conservancy the extra $100,000 grant money for the year.
2007/2008 Budget discussion
Councilman Don McIver read through the changes to the new 2007/2008 budget, which is currently available at Town Hall. After running through a few minor changes, he pointed out the two major items that were introduced in this year’s budget:
1) The council has created a new fund - capital improvement for parkway improvements. The council will have the proceeds of a loan to fund a good portion of the parkway. The construction is projected to cost roughly $4 million. The $3 million loan was borrowed because the money Town council has set aside for the project are in several CDs that earn 8% interest. The CDs come up next April, but an early withdrawal would cancel one year’s worth of interest. Therefore, the Town borrowed against the CDs to complete the parkway and will then use the mature CDs to pay the loan back in full.
2) Kiawah Island plans to fund 100% of the cost of curbside service of trash, yard debris and recycling this year. This comes to a $235 subsidy per household, which comes to a $554,000 subsidy transfer from the general fund. Also, 882 properties on the island are undeveloped and the owners are billed $45 annually for yard debris. This fee will be taken away, which will almost be a savings in the end, because the people won’t have to be billed and it saves time paying an employee to argue with owners claiming that they shouldn’t have to pay the bill. Other services, however, will still get a bill, but it will cost less. These services include:
Back door service $185 to $155
Saturday service: $185 to $155
Regime: $185 to $25
Back door patio service: $185 to $25
Back door patio Saturday service: $330 to $185
The 2007/2008 Budget passed first reading unanimously.
The announcement of the May 14 public meeting at 3:00pm was given. The topic of the meeting was to receive public input on the new development at Kiawah Island Golf Resort.
Environmental report
During the evening of April 18 and 19, high winds in excess of 50 miles per hour and a high tide that was one foot over the average caused a breach in the Ocean Course, filling a lagoon with salt water. On April 24, sand and salt water were pushed back to where it belonged, a process which took a bulldozer about 5 hours to complete.
The April 28 Palmetto Pride road clean up brought in 16 volunteers who collected 28 bags of trash, the weight of which totaled 568 pounds.
Administration update
The new telephone system should be up and running at Town Hall. The review of the service provider Black Box went well and services, which were projected to be up by the middle of May, were estimated to be finished by May 4.
The Town Clerk for Kiawah is continuing training with the State archives, storing the last ten years of Kiawah Island’s documents in the past nine months on microfiche.
Mayor’s notes
The feasibility of a study in the possibility of a new performing arts center was brought up and the mayor stated that a study would have to be completed before council approached the idea of a new performing arts center. It is currently quite far from the probability or possibility of a new center and a lot has to occur between now and the fall for the idea to be considered. The biggest challenges begin faced on the issue include funding and what clients would be interested in performing at the center.
Turtles on the Town
The new Turtle on the Town from the South Carolina Aquarium will be placed at Freshfields. The purpose of placing the turtle there instead of at the front gate or Town Hall is that visitors will see it better at Freshfields instead of trying to catch it while they whizzed by at 25 miles per hour at the gate.
General note: Residents of Kiawah Island, check your backflow! Everyone needs to check and make sure their systems are working properly. |
John’s Island plans for commercial future
Maps were scattered all over the cafeteria tables of the Berkeley Electric Co-op on May 3 during the monthly John’s Island council meeting. Representatives of the Charleston County planning department had brought several colorful zoning maps to show council members exactly how John’s Island’s zoning is set up along Main Road, as well as a map of the same area pulled from Charleston County Zoning and Land Development Regulations, the legal enforcement mechanism of the Comprehensive Plan which was designed to be an overall vision of Charleston County’s future land use.
As it stands, the commercial districts (the red colored blocks on the map) are centered around the intersections of Main and Belvedere and Main and Chisolm, with businesses extending down Main toward Humbert Rd. with the last business just before Patton Ave. The discussion began with an overview of the color designations and how Charleston County Planning had set up the future land use map, why they suggested what they did, and how it was impacted by current and future construction.
Although discussion seemed to center around whether to cut off any new commerical zoning at Humbert Rd. or Patton Ave., no conclusions were reached and council emphasized that the overview had been exactly that; an overview. Council will hold further discussions on the zoning of Main Rd. at their next council meeting on June 7, but no date has been set for an official vote.
Council was also up for re-election as of the meeting date and the process was handled magnanimously by chairman Chris Cannon. Julia and Kenneth Grant were re-elected for a new term; even though they had not been able to attend recent meetings, the council agreed with chairman Cannon, noting that the Grants “are good people and those are hard enough to find”.
Council members who were re-elected included chairman Chris Cannon, vice chairman Wayne Koeckeritz, treasurer Sam Brownlee and secretary John Kozma.
The next John’s Island council meeting will be held at the Berkeley Electric Co-op on Maybank Highway on June 7 at 7:00pm. For further information, please contact chairman Chris Cannon at 343-5113.
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