Last Updated on 12/1/2008

Published on 10/14/2008

By Scott Harper

sharper@gtowntimes.com

Georgetown County Administrator Sel Hemingway was given his marching orders Tuesday night.

Simply put, he was told to come up with a Capital Improvements Plan for County Council to consider.

The $330 million CIP approved earlier by Council is in the formative stages and it was believed Council would hold a series of workshops to prioritize the plan and to put it together piece by piece.

On Tuesday night, Councilman Jerry Oakley presented another idea which he put in the form of a motion.

"This entire plan is huge. It's a big puzzle with a lot of pieces," Oakley said. "Rather than us holding workshops and floundering around, we need to let our administrator put the pieces together in a fair and equitable way."

Every other member of Council agreed with Oakley.

Councilman Glen O'Connell said it's not unusual for committees to be unequipped to deal with complicated problems.

"It's better for staff to bring us suggestions and then we can say what we like and dislike," he said.

Councilman Austin Beard said by going along with Oakley's recommendation, it will keep Council from "harassing the staff with questions" which received a comment of approval from Hemingway later in the discussion.

Councilman Thomas Earl Drayton said Hemingway and his staff will also need to keep a close eye on the purse strings when putting the CIP together.

"If we don't have the money, we can't build it," he said.

At a meeting last week, Hemingway said because of the economic downturn, projected revenues to help pay for the CIP will be less for the next couple of years than projected when the project was approved.

Hemingway was told the first thing that needs to take place is identifying tracts of land where new parks will be built in the county.

"We need to tie the prices down, even if we are not going to build a park on the site for several years," said Councilman Ron Charlton. "Land in the county is getting harder and harder to come by."

Because of the new direction for putting the plan together, a workshop that had been scheduled for Oct. 28 has been canceled. There was no timetable given for Hemingway to issue his first report to Council.

Who stays?

Before the new Judicial Center is complete, decisions must be made about the future use of the current courthouse.

Hemingway said staff needs a professional opinion to determine whether all the departments intended to be housed in the historic courthouse will fit in the building.

Council agreed to spend $3,000 for Tych and Walker to determine the extent of renovations that will be required in the current courthouse to hold as many county services as possible.

Kyle Prufer, the county's purchasing officer, said because many of the walls inside the building are supporting walls, they cannot be moved which limits the amount of renovations that can take place.

Hemingway said the Tych and Walker report will show ways space can be utilized and ways to "gain access by addressing the nuances of split levels and things like that."